mmixture of blood being
wholly false, their opinion in this case must of necessity be likewise.
I shall therefore conclude this chapter by observing that although a
strong imagination of the mother may often determine the sex, yet the
main agent in this case is the plastic or formative principle, according
to those rules and laws given us by the great Creator, who makes and
fashions it, and therein determines the sex, according to the council of
his will.

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV

_That Man's Soul is not propagated by their parents, but is infused
by its Creator, and can neither die nor corrupt. At what time it is
infused. Of its immortality and certainty of its resurrection._

Man's soul is of so divine a nature and excellency that man himself
cannot comprehend it, being the infused breath of the Almighty, of an
immortal nature, and not to be comprehended but by Him that gave it. For
Moses, relating the history of man, tells us that "God breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul." Now, as for
all other creatures, at His word they were made and had life, but the
creature that God had set over His works was His peculiar workmanship,
formed by Him out of the dust of the earth, and He condescended to
breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, which seems to denote both
care and, if we may so term it, labour, used about man more than about
all other living creatures, he only partaking and participating of the
blessed divine nature, bearing God's image in innocence and purity,
whilst he stood firm; and when, by his fall, that lively image was
defaced, yet such was the love of the Creator towards him that he found
out a way to restore him, the only begotten son of the Eternal Father
coming into the world to destroy the works of the devil, and to raise up
man from that low condition to which sin and his fall had reduced him,
to a state above that of the angels.

If, therefore, man would understand the excellency of his soul, let him
turn his eyes inwardly and look unto himself and search diligently his
own mind, and there he shall see many admirable gifts and excellent
ornaments, that must needs fill him with wonder and amazement; as
reason, understanding, freedom of will, memory, etc., that clearly show
the soul to be descended from a heavenly original, and that therefore it
is of infinite duration and not subject to annihilation.