In brief, we must not argue ab ignotiore; nor deny a plain and certain truth, (that man begets man), because we are uncertain of the manner of the propagation. As men do in the controversy about Grace and Free-will, so do they in this: they divide what are to be conjoined, for fear of giving too much to the other side. As one denieth special ascertaining Grace, and another denieth Free-will, when that Grace worketh by this Free-will; so some deny God's part in the causing of the soul, and some deny man's part, because they are unskilful in discerning the concourse. God doth as much in it, as if man did nothing: and is as fully the ⟨p. 107⟩cause as if it were by a mere creation, and man were no cause: and yet he causeth it by man, even in the way of natural procreation, which by a stablished Law he appointed in the beginning; and then gave man a living soul that might propagate living souls. And more than so, it is the soul that is the principal in procreating and being procreated: and that spark of immortal life that is in semine, doth by due cherishing of the further causes, fabricate its own body: and the soul (as Scaliger saith, ex Themistio), sui domicilii non inquilina tantum est, sed & architecta (under God). And we are most certain that our knowledge of the way or manner of God's influx into, and concourse with second causes, is so much above our reach, that we are unfit from presumptions about such a mystery, to argue against a revealed truth. Nay, when we have conjectured at the manner, it is our wisest course to confess we know it not. But as the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound of it, but know not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth, so is it in the outgoings of the spirit of God for the new birth, and in like manner of his causation of the natural birth. But of these things we are certain; 1. That the Parents beget the child: man begets man; by virtue of the ⟨p. 108⟩nature, first given them, with the law or blessing annexed, Increase and multiply; and God's continued influence. 2. That man's soul is not debilitated in its vegetative and sensitive operations, by being rational: 3. That go. man begetteth not less than brutes. He that saith the soul, as vegetative and sensitive, is not begotten, makes man to beget less than brutes. 4. Yea he makes him to beget nothing:
In brief, we must not argue ab ignotiore; nor deny a plain and certain truth, (that man begets man), because we are uncertain of the manner of the propagation. As men do in the controversy about Grace and Free-will, so do they in this: they divide what are to be conjoyned, for fear of giving too much to the other side. As one denieth special ascertaining Grace, and another denieth Free-will, when that Grace worketh by this Free-will; so some deny God's part in the causing of the soul, and some deny man's part, because they are unskilful in discerning the concourse. God doth as much in it, as if man did nothing: and is as fully the ⟨p. 107⟩cause as if it were by a meer creation, and man were no cause: and yet he causeth it by man, even in the way of natural procreation, which by a stablished Law he appointed in the beginning; and then gave man a living soul that might propagate living souls. And more than so, it is the soul that is the principal in procreating and being procreated: and that spark of immortal life that is in semine, doth by due cherishing of the further causes, fabricate its own body: and the soul (as Scaliger saith, ex Themistio), sui domicilii non inquilina tantum est, sed & architecta (under God). And we are most certain that our knowledge of the way or manner of God's influx into, and concourse with second causes, is so much above our reach, that we are unfit from presumptions about such a mystery, to argue against a revealed truth. Nay, when we have conjectured at the manner, it is our wisest course to confess we know it not. But as the wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear the sound of it, but know not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth, so is it in the outgoings of the spirit of God for the new birth, and in like manner of his causation of the natural birth. But of these things we are certain; 1. That the Parents beget the child: man begets man; by virtue of the ⟨p. 108⟩nature, first given them, with the law or blessing annexed, Increase and multiply; and God's continued influence. 2. That man's soul is not debilitated in its vegetative and sensitive operations, by being rational: 3. That go. man begetteth not less than bruits. He that saith the soul, as vegetative and sensitive, is not begotten, makes man to beget less than bruits. 4. Yea he makes him to beget nothing:
