John Trapp on Ecclesiastes 12:7

Verſ. 7. Then ſhall the duſt return to the earth, &c.] What is man, ſaith Nazianzen, but [non-Latin text not transcribed], Soul and Soil, Breath and Body, a puff of wind the one, a pile of duſt the other, no ſolidity in either. Zoroaſter, and ſome other antient Heathens imagined, that the ſoul had wings; that having broken theſe wings, ſhee fell headlong into the body; and that recovering her wings again, ſhee flies up to Heaven, her original habitation. That of Epicharmus is better to bee liked, and comes nearer to the truth here delivered by the Preacher, Concretum fuit, & diſcretum eſt, rediitque unde venerat; terra deorſum, ſpiritus ſurſum, It was together, but is now by death ſet aſunder, and returned to the place whence it came; the Earth downward, the Spirit upward. See Gen. 2.7. God made man of the duſt of the earth, to note our frailty, vility, and impurity. Lutum enim conſpurcat omnia, ſic & caro, ſaith one, Dirt defiles all things, ſo doth the fleſh: It ſhould ſeem ſo (truly) by mans ſoul, which coming pure out of Gods hands, ſoon becomes Mens oblita Dei, vitiorumque oblita coeno.

Bernard complains not without juſt cauſe, that our ſouls by commerce with the fleſh are become fleſhly: Sure it is, that by their mutual defilement, corruption is ſo far rooted in us now, that it is not cleanſed out of us by meer death (as is to bee ſeen in Lazarus, and others that died) but by cinerification, or turning of the body to duſt and aſhes.

The ſpirit returns to God that gave it] For it is divinae particula aurae, an immaterial, immortal ſubſtance, that after death returns to God the Fountain of life.D. Preſt. The ſoul moves and guides the body (ſaith a worthy Divine) as the Pilot doth the ſhip. Now the Pilot may bee ſafe, though the ſhip bee ſplit on the rock. And as in a chicken, it grows ſtill, and ſo the ſhell breaks and falls off: So it is with the ſoul; the body hangs on it but as a ſhell, and when the ſoul is grown to perfection, it falls away, and the ſoul returns to the Father of ſpirits. Auguſtine (after Origen) held a long while, that the ſoul was begotten by the Parents, as was the body. At length hee began to doubt of this point, and afterward altered his opinion; confeſſing inter caetera teſtimonia hoc eſſe praecipuum, that among other teſtimonies this to bee the chief, to prove the contrary to that which hee had formerly held.