wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted, and

^8 Immortality of Souls ajferted Book I.death, muft needs determine them likewife to maintain 'M^T^oiirx^'ft;, or preexiftence,and confequently its iJ.iTiv(TuiJ.xTx(n^, or tranfmigration. For that,which did pre-exift before the generation of any animal, and was then fomewheree!fe, miift needs tranfmigrate into the body of that anima! where nowit is. But as for that other tranfmigration of human fouls into the bodies ofbrutes, though it cannot be denied but that many of thefe ancients admittedit alfo, yet liriueus Locrus \ and divers others of the Pythagoreans, rejectedit, any otherwife than as it might be taken for an allegorical defcription ofthat beaftly transformation, that is made of mens fouls by vice. Arijlothtells us again ^, agreeably to what was declared before, on iaxXxtx (poto-juvm^i£T£Ariir«v 01 Ttj(.XMo\ to £>c jUJij^sio? yii^vA ri ir^o^Tri^yjijloq- that the ancient pbilofopherswere afraid of nothing more, than this one thing, that any thing fhould bemade cut of nothing pre-exifient : and therefore they muft needs conclude, thatthe fouls of all animals prc-exiflcd before their generations. And indeed it is athing very well known, that, according to the fenfe of philofophers, thefe twothings were always included together in that one opinion of the foul'simmortality,namely its pre-exifbence as well as its poft-exiftence. Neither was.there ever any of the ancients before Chriilianity, that held the foul's futurepermanency after death, who did not likewife aflert its pre-exiftence •, theyclearly perceiving, that if it were once granted, that the foul was generated,it could never be proved but tliat it might be alfo corrupted. And thereforethe aflfertors of the foul's immortality commonly begun here ; firfl:, toprove its pre-exiftence, proceeding thence afterward to eflablifh its permanencyafter death. This is the method ufed in Plato ^, w 7r» -AtJM'j ?i ],.-yvi TTfiv h -uiiTX av3-fi)7rivu ei'Jei •yivc^oci, uTi >cj ra-JT-jj dfixvono-j ti soixsij i \/-j')n) iImou'Our fold was fomezvhere, before it came to exifi in this prefcnt human form, andfrom thence it appears to be immortal, and fiich as will ftibjijl after death. Andthe chief demonftration of the foul's pre-exiftence to the ancients before P/rt/owas this, becaufe it is an entity really diftind from body or matter and themodifications of it ; and no real fubftantial entity can either fpring of itfelf out,of nothing, or be made out of any other fubftance diftind from it, becaufenothing cm be made iy. uyji-jyg iv^T7i:-xo-noq 5 n^^vJ-rrxf/j-^lo;, from nothing eitherin-exifi:ng or pre-exijting ; all natural generations being but the various dilpofitionsand modifications oi what was before exiftent in the univerfe. But therewas nothing of foul and mind in-exifting and pre-exifting in body before,there being nothing of life and cx)gitation in magnitude, figure, fite, andmotion. Wherefore this muft needs be, not a thing made or generated, ascorporeal forms and qualities are, but fuch as hath a being in nature ingenerablyand incorruptibly. The meclianifm of human body was a thingmade and generated, it being only a different modification of what was beforeexiftent, and having no new entity in it diftinft from the llibftance : andthe totiim or compofitum of a man or animal may be faid to be generated andcorrupted, in regard of the union and difunion, conjun£tion and feparationof thofe two parts, the foul and body. But the foul itfelf, according xo thefeprinciples,» De Anima MundiScNatura, inter Scrip- * De Generatione & Corruption.-, Lib. I.tores Mydiologico$ a Tlio. Gale editos, p. cap. III. p. 704. Tom. I. Oper.566. *ln Phsedone, p. 58;.