are most certainely in the Infant being in the wombe For these beeing the proper actions of life and the Soule being the cause of it it cannot be but that the Soule should be in the Infant For that action is not so common as true Anima dat esse Hominem It is the Soule that giueth power to be a Man and not the Body for he is not a Man or Woman before the Soule be vnited vnto the Body And the Body cannot be called after either sex if it be once depriued of the Soule but rather a Body or Carcasse Plato might haue found in the Booke of Genesis that God first made the body of Adam of the Earth I had rather for the vnderstanding of the misterie sayd Instrumentalized the Body of Adam before he Created the Soule The which being perfected in the necessarie proportion of the members God immediatly createth the Soule of nothing and doth breath into his face the breath of life the which selfe same thing doth still continue saue that now it is Man that begets the Body and in the last disposing thereof God createth the Soule and in the creation infuseth it into the Infant whereby it is truly called a Man or Woman The Proofes of Phisitions SECTIO 7. NExt in order doth follow the Phisitions which cannot be truely called so without the knowledge of Philosophie They hauing occasion to treat of the procreation and generation of Man can not rightly speake thereof vnlesse they likewise treat of the Soule and the powers thereof And first to begin with Galen whom all his followers do reuerence as the perfecter of their broken Art Hee wondering to see so maruelous a frame as the Body of Man the number of his seuâ—rall partes the seating figure and vse of euery one 〈◊〉 to conclude that it was impossible that the vegitable Soule not the temperature could fashion a workemanship so singuler Yet for all this could he not perswade himselfe but that the reasonable Soule was corruptible and not immortall For he seeing often times by experience that it is altered so easily by heate by cold by moysture and by drougth and principally considering that the same departes from the Body by ouermuch heate or when a man giueth himselfe excessiuely to Lasciuiousnesse or drinketh Poyson and such other bodely alterations which bereaue the life For if it were bodilesse and spirituall as Plato taught him heate being a qualitie could not make the same to loose his powers nor set his operations in such a garboyle These reasons brought Galen into a confusion and though he had knowledge of the Euangelicall doctrine could not receaue it Yet for all that doubted not to say that it was in the body of an Infant for that it could not well worke without it vtterly depriuing the Soule vigitable or sensitiue of any power in so glorious a frame Hipocrates as Scaliger reports held that the Soule was sorged of Water and Ayer How he meanès I as yet vnderstand not by reason he breakes off in the rehearsall of his opinion yet I am inforced to thinke that Hipocrates indged the Soule to be an Ayerie substaunce For that Bartholomeus in his Booke of Naturall things sayth that the Soule taken as the auntient Phisitions did is a certaine Substaunce subtile and ayerie that by strength of heate multiplying in mans body and by the Arteries Veynes and Pulses giueth to Beastes breath life and working and voluntary moouing and strength By the meanes of Sinewes and Muscles in Bodyes that haue Soules it is ingendred by heate working in the blood and by turning vnto the Heart and by moouing and smyting the partes of the Heart the Spirite is made more pure and is turned into a more subtile kind and is called of the Phisitions Spiritus vitalis vitale or Liuely facultie And by the working in the Liuer it is called Spiritus naturalis Naturall facultie And working in the Head it is Spiritus animalis Animall facultie But we must not thinke this Spirite to be mans reasonable Soule but to be more truly the Chayre and vpholder of the same and proper instrument For by the nature of such a Spirit the Soule is ioyned to the Body and without the seruice of such a Spirite the Soule cannot exercise any acte perfectly in the Body And therefore if the Spirits be deminished or let in any worke the accord of the Soule and Body is resolued and the reasonable Soule hindered from her works in the Body As for example In Men that be amazed if the Spirit be comforted the Soule is comforted If one infeebled they be both touching the ruling of the Body But to add vnto these Men of more vnderstanding Fornelius no lesse praysed then prayse worthy In his 7. Booke and 13. Chapter De Procreatione sayth That the Soule created by the most excellent Creator of all things doth enter into inhabite and abide in the whole prepared and ordered body of the Infant euen in the moment of time and that is in the fourth Month in which time the Heart Brayne are finished From whence Iohn Rieslanus his Commentator dissenteth not yet more deuinely If in the fourtith day or in the fourth moneth or in the last formation it cannot nor may not be defined by a mortall creature for they are the hidden secrets of Gods wisedome the knowledge whereof the God of Gods hath not imparted to the inferior Gods Also Luodnicus Bonnaccolus in his Eneas muliebris 4. Cha. saith That the body is in 47. dayes fashioned or fully figured dayes notwithstanding be added substracted But then at that instant Anima rationalis a sublimi Deo creatur creataque infanditur the reasonable Soule is created of the high God and is infused into the Body And adding further sayth Etfi cum corpore non desinint cum corpore saltem incipiunt Although they die not with the body yet haue they their beginning with the Body Ambrosius Pareus in his 10. Cha. De generatione Hominis denying the traducing of the soule from our Parents or of others froÌ„ Adam Saith Credendum est in ipso articulo conformati foetus adeo creari et in foetum in funai It is to be beleeued that the soule is created by God in the very article of time in which the Young one is framed and to be infused into the Child Creando infunditur et infundendo creatur In the Creating it is infused and in the infusion it is created So that it is Tota in toto et tota in qualibet parte not deuided into parts but that it is a perfect Soule in the whole Body and yet whole in euery part and yet doth it not shew foorth all her powers either our originall sinne in which we be borne or for our naturall weaknesse In his 11. Chapter he saith That it is a perfection which moueth it selfe in vs the first mouing of our naturall faculties the true forme of Man and that it is vnited vnto the Body
Interijsse et quae nunc est nunc esse creatam Wherefore it is necessarie to confesse that to haue perished which was before and that to be now created with the body that is the Soule which is at this time But Iuuenall in a better regard distinguisheth the worth of our estates when in his 15. Satyre from beastes he sayth Sensum a Celesti Demissum traximus arce Cuius egent prona et terram spectantia mundi Principio indulsit communis conditor illis Tantum animas nobis quoque animum Wee haue drawne Sence descending from a heauenly Tower of which Creatures whose faces be downeward and looking vpon the earth do stand in want The common Creator of the world in the beginning gaue vnto them onely a Soule by which they should liue But vnto vs a Soule to liue and by which we be reasonable and of vnderstanding Claudian De quarto consulatu Augusti vnder the fixion of Prometheus acckowlegeth the Author and the Immortalitie Illa cum corpore lapso Interijt haec sola manet bustoque superstes euolat That Soule by which we grow and increase and by which we with the Beastes haue sence dyeth with the body but that by which we vnderstand suruiuing the other doth ascend from the graue But Boetius in his 6. Meter 3. Booke like a Christian acknowledging God to be the Father of all thinges and sole Creator of euerie thing Sayth Hic clausit membris animos Cella sede petitos This Father hath included our Soules in our bodies being fetcht from a very high seate Meaning thereby Heauen For as the Body is from the Earth so is the Soule from Heauen The Inference SECTIO 4. THVS by the mouthes of these foure witnesses though the one an Epicure and like a Beast deceaued in the diminishing of the substaunce of the Soule and like a Dogge abandoning the immortalitie thereof being ignorant of the beginning of it for that in the first verse he imagineth it to be begotten and produced with the Seede in the last confesseth it to be Created yet with mee he subscribeth vnto a trueth though not in the same manner that the Soule is in the Infant in the Wombe of the mother The mortallitie whereof he prooueth two wayes First by the deminishing of the substaunce of the Soule Secondly by the increasing of the qualities But Tertullian though with him deceaued in the Conception of the Soule yet confuteth he the deminishing or increasing of the substaunces Saying that it is not to be thought Animam Substantia crescere aut Decrescere atque ita Defectura credatur That the Soule doth either increase or diminish in substaunce least thereby it shoule be thought to die But for the diminishing of the quallities or increase thereof it is of no more force to prooue the mortallitie then when we haue founde a Masse of Siluer or Gold and the same being fyned becomes lesse should by the deminishing of the quantitie deny the substaunce But Iuuenall being better instructed by Nature acknowledging God to be the infuser and creator of the Soule denieth the conception and affirmeth the same to be in our bodyes but being ignoraunt of this secret when infused by the comparison of the soules of Beastes and Men graunteth vs the principallitie Claudian he affirmeth that the body could not be a worke of moment nor halfe so honorable as it is vnlesse being made a man by vniting the soule nor the body be at all without this life and Boetius truely that God placed the Soule in the body By which I gather that as there being an instrument prepared to receaue any thing that instrument cannot be called Continens an instrument conteyning sine contento without the thing conteyned So God cannot be sayd to shut the Soule in the body before the body be perfected in his members and so inclosed indeed Now reason sheweth vs that it is a body in the wombe and the wombe the prison in which the Soule is imprisoned And that body is the receptacle of the Soule which is not begotten with Lucretius but giuen from aboue with Iuuenall and with Claudian vnited vnto the body not when it is brought out or deliuered from the wombe at which instant it draweth breath but long before which is manifest by the Collections which I haue from the Philosophers both prophane and Christian who though they differ in the first time yet they all agree in the beeing of the Soule of the Infant before such time as it is borne into the world The Proofes of the Philosophers SECTO 5. PLATO for his godly sayings surnamed the Deuine Philosopher with his followers affirme the Soule to be more auncient then the Bodie for that it made aboade in Heauen in the companie of God vntill such time as Nature indewed the same with these instrumentes of the Bodie But Aristotle flatly denying the aeternitie of the Soule whether of set purpose or no to crosse his Maister in all thinges sayth that it hath a beginning but can not tell where nor from whence yet flatly denyeth it to be produced from the Parents and saith that it is the first moouer of the Body By which it is euident that a Body is capable of the Soule in the wombe Vnto this I adde Pererius Magirus Hauenrenterus Scaliger and Cordane which in their seueral Bookes of Nature and misterics of Nature affirme and agree that there restes in the Body of man one Soule and that same they tearme Reasonable and affirme it to be the originall of whatsoeuer we do or effect Plat̄o may not be excused neither do I hold him blamelesse for the proposition of the Soules aeterniti◠the rather for that Santius Porta affirmeth him to haue read the fiue Bookes of Moses to haue heard the Prophet Esay and to haue conferred with him concerning the Creation of the World and Man Though he did force the same very often thereby to prooue the same immortall The which if he had not graunted could not as he thought haue prooued it to be but mortall for it is the ordinarie axiome both of Plato and Pliny that whatsoeuer had a beginning should haue an end vnto which Pliny did subscribe and therefore denyeth the immortalitie of the Soule because Mans beginning is his breath and end his death yet doth he by the words beeing without beginning approue the immortall continuance of the same The Inference SECTIO 6. FFom Platos aeternitie though it be false and from Aristotle his first acte and moouer or perfection I gather that the Soule reasonable is in the Infant being in the mothers wombe for nothing can liue without the thing from which it receiueth life Nothing can bee without that from which it receaueth his beeing nothing can mooue without a moouer nothing can be fully formed without forma But the Soule is the first moouer the first acte it is the life of the Body and it is forma hominis the forme of Man But all these
the tyrannie of Rome shal redound vnto his prayse and make vs more wise in our owne follies But to make some vse of Tertullians anima that with vs affirmeth both the resurrection of the Soule and Body and hath excellently confuted the Stoicks and Epicures in denying the immortallitie in his Booke De anima Chap. de conceptu animae reiecting the corporalitie of the Soule and traducement you shale finde matter of great moment sharpe wit and sufficient proofe both by the experience of the Mothers and reason of our selues That the Infants in their wombes haue life If life of necessitie Soules for it is the life it selfe Nay not any other strange or contrarie liuelinesse then their owne Mothers but the same life with them hi motus gaudia vestra speaking vnto their Mothers such as be Child-bearing women saith These motions be your ioyes and these be your manifest securitie that so thou mayst beleeue the Infant to liue and play The places of Scripture I referre vnto their proper places and desire the Reader that can with Aesops Cocke finde a Pearle or with Virgill make any golden vse of Aennius dounge to peruse that Chap. and Booke In which they shall find Thornes that will prick and sweete Flowers which haue a most fragrant sent Anselmus vpon the Corinthians saith That it is vnited vnto the body and giueth life vnto it in the Mothers wombe and that without it it cannot liue being brought foorth Chrisostome in his Booke De Recuperatione lapsi sayth Non anima pro corpore sed corpus pro anima nec corpus in anima sed anima in corpore sita est That the Soule was not made for the Body but the Body for the Soule neither is the Body placed in the Soule but the Soule is placed in the Body So that a man may say that the Body is a Circumference of the Soules substaunce which is infused sayth hee into the Body before the breath yet brought out of the wombe with the Body not dying with the Body but the Body being depriued thereof reuertens aut glorificabitur aut in perpeticum apud inferos cruciabitur returning vnto him that gaue it it shall be either glorified or else for euer and euer in Hell be tormented Sactius Porta the imitator of the Sarbonistes in his second Sermon Feria 2. Pentecostes parte 2. sayth That Anima in homine est forma dans totam or dinem esse perfecti Datenim viuere et moueri The Soule in man is the forme giuing the whole order of being perfect for it giueth power to mooue and to liue Zanchius in his most deuine worke of the Soule sayth That God in the beginning Created the Body of Man Now the Body is generated by the combination of Man and Woman But yet the creation of the Soule doth continue as in the first and is infused immediatly from God the Creator thereof without any helpe of the nature of Father or Mother into the Body whenas the members are fully finished while the Childe is in the Mothers belly Brentius with the rest affirme the reasonable Soule to be in Children in the Wombe For sayth hee else neither Ieremie nor Iohn Bapiist could haue been fanctified in the same for there is no sanctification or making holy but after sinne For that which is sanctified is holy vnto God and vs by imputation of righteousnesse vnto that which before was sinfull Now there can neither be sinne nor yet holynesse without a subiect And I say the Soule is the subiect of both and after a second meaning is the Body also Children say the Sorbonistes could not be conceaued and brought foorth in sinne vnlesse before the birth of the Child the Soule were in the Infant And therefore Iohn Chappius a well nurtured birde of that ill fauoured broode in his explanation of Raymundus summus sayth not denying the beeing of the Soule for why then should hee with the rest of that rowt that attribute so much to inwarde grace vnto the outwarde elelement affirme that if any part of the Childe appeareth out of the Wombe and some other part remayne in the same yet that it ought to be baptized yea if the part so appearing be but the hand or heele in case that the woman be in danger of death and by hers the child And with such asseueration doth he affirme it as that in no case to be any more Baptized adding his reason hee sayth That because Baptizme is for the Soule and not the Body and the Soule is Tota in toto et toto in qualibet parte Corporis And Raymundus himselfe sayth Si puer egreditur matris ventrem moriturus Et nequeat nasci totus pars quae patet extra Si caput est ter aqua perfundatur velut astruos Imagining with the grosse-heads their fellow brethren that without Baptisme they could not be saued So depriuing God whose hand is most plentious in giuing saluation of all grace and power and attributing so much grace vnto the dumbe ellement as that Delet omne peccatum it abollisheth all sinne Why then be Children depriued of the full fruition of God But this is my fayth and beleefe That Infants in the Wombe which die in the birth shall rise in the last day and be partakers either of life or death be either in Heauen or Hell I acknowledge not any third or fourth place but the blood of our Sauiour Iesus Christ to be the one and sole Purgation of the sinnes both of our Soule and Body SECTO 10. GRatian in his seconde part of the Decree Consta. 2. quest Capit. 5. consuluisti to proue him a Murtherer that slayeth a Child of one dayes age formeth an argument A minore ad maius Si ille qui conceptum in vtero per abortum deleuerit homicidia est quanto magis If he be a Homicyde that killeth a Child in the Wombe by abortion which he graunteth how much more hee that killeth such a Child The glosse vpon the same place acknowledgeth not onely him to be a Homicide but also Qui procurat venena sterilitatis But Stephanus in the latter end of Consuluisti allotting punishment vnto another kind of offence sayth Homocida dicatur qui conceptum in vtero deliuerit Hee must be called a Homicide that killeth a Child in the Mothers wombe whether it be by blow or potion for the foundation or ground of the Law is this That if the Soule be infused and an Abortiue caused then there is murther committed But if the Soule be not infused then the Law will not graunt such Abortions to appertaine vnto Homicide Nec deput auit tale quod geretur in viâ—ro hominem Neither hath it iudged such a thing as is borne in the belly to be a Man For Lexnoluit adhomicidium pertinere quod nondum dicipotest anima viua in eo corpore quod sensu caret For the Law will not haue that belong vnto Murther which cannot be sayd to be
THE Infancie of the Soule OR The Soule of an Infant A Subiect neuer yet treated of by any Which sheweth the infusion thereof whiles that the Infant resteth in the Wombe The time when with the manner how Gathered from the boosome of Trueth Begunne in Loue and finished in the desire to posit others The Contentes are in the next Page following Ciprian tractatu con Deme. Qui ad malum inotus est mendatio fallentes Multo magis ad bonum mouebitur veritate cogente WILLIAM HILL Imprinted at 〈…〉 W. W. for C. Knight and are to be 〈…〉 in Paules Church-yard at 〈…〉 the Holy Lambe 1605. The Contents of this Booke 1 The Excellencie of Mans Nature 2 The order how the Auntients confuted Heretiques 3 The Dogma of Poets touching the Soule 4 The inference by collection from them 5 The opinion of Philosophers 6 The inference by collection from them 7 The Consent of Phisitions 8 The Collection 9 The Doctrine of the Fathers 10 The ground of the Cannon Law 11 The inference from the Doctors and Law 12 The Doctrine of the Scriptures 13 The inference from it 14 Two Obiections drawne from Gods omnipotencie are answered 15 Sheweth that Children borne still ought to be buried in Christian buriall with the authoritie of Ceremonies TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL AND MY ESPECIALL FRIEND M. ROBERT BARKER Esquier Towneclarke of the auncient libertie of Coâ—lchester in Essex and Serieant at the Law prosperitie and peace MAECENAS fauouring Lerning was in high esteeme with Honorable personages then lyuing but remayneth aeternized by the memorable monumentes of men of vertuous qualities now dead So as this honor after so many hundreds of yeeres being proper then vnto him selfe remayneth now common vnto all those whose mindes are enclined vnto Learning or vnto the patronage of her professors Which honour least you should loose deseruing so well from mee and my impouerished Father I prostrate this my Infant vnto your Patronage It is the onely recompence of poore Schollers to follow their friendes with honest Commendations the which your iust desert claymes from mee and which my duetie promiseth in humilitie to put in practize for you that after your death the tytle of Honored Maecenas may be ingrauen vpon Brasse or Marble ouer your Tombe Accept this fauorablie so shall your respectiue countenaunce both incourage and inable mee to some greater performaunce Your deuoted Orator William Hill TO THE ENVIOVS OR CVRTEOVS READER SVCH HEALTH as they desire vnto others PERSIVS the Pagan wrote Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire 〈…〉 Augustine the Christian wrote Quâ— se negat scire quod sit ingratus est And least I should incurre this last â—anger by beeing silent hauing had the knowledge of a new errour the which might like a Farcie infect the whole body I haue for the instruction of the simple and destruction of the simple arrogant put foorth this Treatise following rather the counsaile of wise Sirach who willeth vs not to keepe backe Counsaile when it may doe good which being neglected might happely cause the Author to publish into the eares of his brainsicke hearers more follies whose flatteries consenting thereunto might worke in his head an excellent maisterie to the confusion of Concord and the ouerthrow of Veritie which it may be his minde aymes at though his meane parts cannot purchase it It is a world to see the secret practises and subtile inuentions that the Ignoraunt follow to atchiue applause vnto their prating As first to please the appetite of the hearer not respecting the cause Secondly to inuent new errours rather then to admit of the simple truth Thirdly to runne ouer a thing negligently eschewing whatsoeuer is Philosophicall Their Custome inuerteth all things their Errour destroveth all thinges and Negligence curseth such mâ—n If the Discipline of Philosophers were vsed amongst vs hee should be crowned for a Foole expulsed from the Colledge of iudiciall mindes and suffer those corrections as best befit his inuented follies But to preuent such their further idle and witlesse inuentions though not with so great applause as Samson vnto the Israelites for burning the ' Philistines Corne yet with as great zeale in defence of Gods trueth and his Church haue I blowne this Fierbrand to burne and consume the Darnell and Cockle which the Enuious man hath sowne whiles the ouer-weeried Labourer tooke his rest The trueth of the cause shall defend mee from the different censures of the enuious and my louing affections vnto my natiue house procure in the mindes of the good such lyking as that beginning to read they will deferre their iudgement vutill they come to the end And then either subscribe vnto the trueth or else confute that with better reason which I haue with great probabilitie and consent of Iudgements concluded So I leaue this Treatise to the Readers and them to the direction and protection of the God of trueth William Hill THOMAS CHITHAMVS LONDINENSIS LVDIMAGISTER In Authoris Librique Laudem THe banckes of Hellicon where Muses dwell Afforde not stuffe with this to be compar'd Trueth in her Cullers heere doth farre excell Grosse errors Newcome-in So hath it far'd Continually For Trueth shall sit aloft When Ignorance shall with disgrace be scoft The Alpes and Pyrene Mountaines are but low In lie'w of this well seated flagrant HILL Hence nowrishment for Conscience fast doth flow Ne're thirsting liquor doth this Lymbecke still HILL for thy paynes if each man yeeld thy due They can not choose but say th' hast spoken true Philosophers Phisitions Poets eake With great Ichouah Reader thou shalt finde By way of Apologue hereof to speake All these in Truthes defence are strong combin'de Then yeeld to Truth for Truth applaud doth gaine At least-wise thanke the Author for his paine Thomas Chitham THE INFANCIE OF THE SOVLE OR THE SOVLE OF AN INFANT The Excellencie of Mans nature SECTIO PRIMA MAN the best of Gods creatures for whose sake the World was made vnder whose supreame gouernment all thinges in the same Created are subiected though through sinne committed by him the first day of his birth his dignitie was mightely impeached yet was he not vtterly thereof depriued but as with the Supersedias of mortalitie his worth was abreuiated Yet remayning entirely such a one vpon whom God would bestow many blessings and from whom he would detract no fauour that might either further his Dignitie exalt his Maiestie or continue his former Supremacie But as in the beginning all things were for Man yet not so fully as after his fall So still and vnto the end he doth and will bring such thinges to passe as that aboue all creatures Man shal be vnder him sole and supreame King and commaunder not onely to serue obey and sacrifice but bind let loose to reteyne and set at libertie to kill and eate and to doe all things that either the wit or will of man thinks meete conuenient or necessarie But this goodly fabricature of God as
the other Yea the due considerations of these small Creatures haue brought the wisest Aegiptians of the earth into the deepest amazements of Gods power For the Philosopher was more confounded in considering the small body of the Fly with her partes then he was by the view of the body of the great Elephant with his members If this high and mightie Monarch of the earth Man had no better similitudes then this to be compared with the Heauens and Earth yet could not the aduersaries of his estate in the right respect so exclayme for that the thing it selfe is not so loathsome as the cause thereof which hath turned our glory into shame and hath caused our best estate to be our chifest reproch But when we ascend in due comparison of our inward part the Soule vnto God the Creator of all one that is not circumscribed that is the Centure of euery circumference and yet not limitted or bound vnto any place and finde in this principall part of Man a princely similitude and perfect image of the aeternall Trinitie euermore to be adored and worshipped in the Vnitie not of the person or trinitie of the God-head but in the vnitie of the Godhead and trinitie of the persons It being a created substaunce inuisible bodilesse and immortall most like vnto God hauing the image of his creator being a substaunce capable of reason apprehending all things created but not filled therewith for whatsoeuer is lesse then God cannot fill it because it is capable of God the originall of which is not to be sought for in the earth hauing in it selfe nothing that is either mixt or concrete or what may seeme to be made or fashioned of the earth nothing moyst nothing ayrie nor fierie for there is nothing in these natures which may haue the force of memorie vnderstanding or imagination which remembreth thinges past foreseeth things to come and apprehendeth thinges present Which thinges are onely diuine neither can it be found from whence it should proceed but from God So that then the being of the soule there is nothing more certaine then the beginning vnto those men which speake not by the suddaine motion as if they were begirt with the inspiration of the holy Ghost at all instants nothing in the hidden secrets of nature with more facilitie may be discouered Of the which we are bound to speake nothing but reuerently and of the which all but A thiests are perswaded to the immortalitie Of the being or substance of the soule in which poynt some haue grossely erred imagining it to be a body but as sincerely by the wise rejected nor yet of the immortalitie which not onely reason affirmeth but experience prooueth I doe not intend to discourse but onely of this part where the soule is infused into the bodie and this will I proue to be done before the infant commeth out of his mothers wombe Which one of reuerend place but of small partes and as light regard affirmed not long since not to be in the childe vntill it did draw breath from the ayre Vnto this will I limit the time when confuting his errour by the consent and iudgements of Poets Philosophers Phisitions and approue what I affirme not onely by them but also by the Fathers of the Church by the lawes Cannon by reason and Scripture Then concluding shew my further mind in performing the ceremoniall funerall of an infant which neuer drew breath SECTIO 2. THE order I vse herein condemne not for it is the prayse of Pliny not to haue read any thing but thereof to haue made some vse who was wont to say Nullum librum tam malum esse vt non aliqua ex parte prodesset that there was no Booke so bad but that he did from some part receiue profite Nor no opinion which he did not either reforme or bring out of frame But rather request you with S. Hierome Vt sobrie legantur vt eorum authoritas non preiudicet rationi That you read them with discretion least for want thereof some seemes contrarie vnto reason In the which you are to vse the same industrie that the Laborer doth who working amongst Thornes escheweth the Pricks Wee be like Bees and sucke our sweetest Honney from those Flowers from the which the Spider draweth her strongest poyson Wee be like the best Warriers wounding our Aduersaries with their owne weapons Prophana legimus Sacrisque intert eximus Wee read prophane workes but disrobing them of their hew we mixe them with holy thinges whereby they become with the holy things holy Origen the great confuted the Arch-heriticke Clesus and with his owne poyson which he sucked from the boosome of Philosophie did he giue him his bane In like sort did Iustine Martir and Ireneus choake Valentinian Martion like the first begotten sonne of the Deuill And the wicked Scholler of the wicked Schoole-maister Câ—rdo had his throate cut with the same knife with the which he had thought to haue slaughtered the Christians by that great obscure Clarke Tertullian And that which Libanius did thinke to make the ruine of Christianitie that honney-mouthed Chrisostom made the downefall of Libanius The good Orator Prudentius by Oratorie ouerthrew the great Orator Sunnachus And the Apostles themselues did reprooue the errours and lyes of the Gentiles by the authoritie of the Gentiles And by those meanes did they couple many to be embracers of the trueth which otherwise would not onely haue reiected it but also persecuted it and haue been as obstinate as the Papistes in their professions But to cut off the errour of the Ignoraunt which despiseth these thinges I say as the holy Father Hierome once sayd Ama Scientiam et carnis vitia non amabis Loue Knowledge and thou shalt hate the sinne of the flesh Not reiect the body nor despise thy soule for the sinne thereof but wilt seeke to correct the faults of the one and to amend the errours of the other and in the end subscribe vnto the trueth howsoeuer it be deliuered vnto thee and to embrace the same for the truthes sake The Proofes of the Poets SECTIO 3. LVcretius the Epicure who according vnto that sect placed Felicitie in Voluptuousnesse an enemie vnto the Author of the Soule with the Atheist And a confounder of the Immortalitie with the Saducie In his third Booke De natura rerum saith Praeterea gigni pariter cum Corpore et vna Crescere sentimus pariterque Senescere mentem Furthermore we perceiue the Soule to be begotten togither with the body in like sort with the body to grow old For as the body through age doth grow weake So Claudicat ingenium Doelirat linguaque Mensque Omnia Deficiunt atque vno tempore Desunt The witte doth waxe feeble both tongue and vnderstanding doate All things do fayle and in one time are not The which he explayneth according to his grosse meaning when a litle further he sayth Quapropter fateare necesse est quae fuit ante
Booke De Anima the Soules of Infantes are not onely prooued but also their conflictes So that we may not onely graunt vnto Children in the wombe reasonable Soules but likewise affections of gladnesse and sorrow peace and strife which is further declared in the birth of Pharez and Zarah For Zarah at first appeared and because the Midwife would know the one from the other tyed a redd Threed about his hand turneth backe his hand and Pharez is first borne But Paule explayneth all this when he sayth not the first man Adam was made a lyuing Tree Beast or Stone but a Mau that receiued life from the Soule The creation of whom is plainely declared Gen. 2. where Moses sayth That God made Man of the dust of the ground Yet marke Hee is not a Man before hee is made but is called Dust nor perfectly made before hee had a Soule And therefore is God sayd to breath into his face the breath of life and then he is made a lyuing Soule Iunius in his 20. Annot. sayth That by the power of the aeternall Spirit without any elementall matter hee did breath into the elementall Body that liuely Soule which is the simple forme of Man that shee might vse the same Body as an instrument In the first Creation God hauing finished the Body like a good Architect accomplisheth his worke in glorie in making it lyuing by breathing into it the lyuing Soule But now obserue this difference in the Generation of man now and the Creation of man then In the Generation now the Body doth increase in the wombe and groweth perfect by the power it receiueth from the life of the Parent and beeing perfected hath the Soule in the very article of time infused into the Body and then by the power thereof it increaseth dayly vntill it may shew foorth the brightnesse thereof But in the Creation the Body was onely perfected in members formed in shape or instrumentalized a Body of perfect stature before the infusion of the Soule and increased not after it had receiued it but was able immediatly to reason vnderstand and know the will of God which Infants that be borne cannot doe First by reason of the sinne of Adam then by reason of the naturall moystnesse which drowneth the vnderstanding part the which in time beeing by little and little dryed vp attayneth vnto the full measure of vnderstanding and knowledge Thirdly because we are not borne such able men as Adam was created but in time gathering our forces wee become strong and with our strength our vnderstanding increaseth As in the Creation Adam was not called Man vntill he was fully framed and had his Soule infused So likewise the Angell and Moses calleth not that which Elizaheth Rebecca and Thamar bare in their wombes a thing without forme or shape but a Sonne a Babe a Boy Children and Brother Now I giue you further to vnderstand that those three which are called Soules are indeed not truely so called but ought rather to be tearmed Vertues or Powers of life The first vertue is Vegitable and that giueth life and no feeling and this power is in Plants and Rootes The second is Sencible and that giueth life and feeling but not reason and that is in beastes The third is Rationall and that in my iudgement ought to be so tearmed onely for that it giueth life feeling vnderstanding and reason and that is in men onely The vertue Sensible that giueth feeling is a certaine ayerie substaunce more subtile and more noble then the vertue Vegitatiue that giueth life lesse noble then the Soule reasonable that giueth Reason The beginning and the working of the power Sensible is dependant of the Body that it is in and maketh it perfect and therefore when the Body dyeth the beeing or working thereof dyeth also with the vegitatiue But whiles they be in a Body they haue noble vertues and powers as in Plants to grow and increase in Beastes to grow increase and defende them selues from stormes But the Soule Rationall that neither beginneth with the Body nor dyeth with it which though it hath his beginning after yet not from the Body nor endes with it but suruiuing is immediatly possest either with pleasure or paine And in the last day returning vnto her owne Body they both togither for euer remaine inseperable either in the one or other Now it restes that I answere vnto his similie which came blustering from his weake braine like a Northerne winde and so I will with few words close vp this Treatise SECTIO 14. Obiection GOD is a Work-maister and may destroy the Body or cause it to returne to dust and like a Carpenter that buyldeth a house pull it downe when he hath built it againe yea when it is fully finished Answere This Simile holding the which if it did yet Similes prooue nothing in Logicke The reason because there is a greater dissimile then Simile in GOD and Man The one is impotent vnable to do any thing by him selfe God is omnipotent able to doe all thinges of himselfe without the helpe of any yea of nothing Man is sayd to be impotent because he is weake vnstedfast and as vnconstant as his buildinges which often times are ouerthrowne more vnwillingly then willingly Be the Buildinges neuer so strong one blast of winde will ouerthrow it and one stroke of Death prooueth Mans strength more vaine then vanitie it selfe But God is sayd to be Omnipotent not for that he buyldeth and pulleth downe but because he can doe all thinges and being once done cannot destroy them againe which in him would rather be noate of Impotencie then Omnipotencie Looke Tertullian contra Praxeam Ambroso lib. 6. Epistolarum Epi. 37. ad Chromatium Augustine De Ciuitate Dei lib. 5. Cap. 10. and you shall see what God can doe and how farre he differs from Man and what his Omnipotencie is he himselfe being vnable to doe any thing that imployeth contrarieties Answere 2. GOD cannot builde and pull downe as Man may Sibilla Eritherea as I haue seene it translated sayth That God can doe all thinges saue onely this To vndoe that that once done is The reason why hee cannot doe and vndoe is because he is not mutable in his actions who if he were then he should be subiect vnto passionate affections and so in the ende prooue Mortall and no better workmaister then miserable Man But to thinke this is idle abhominable blasphemous O GOD deliuer vs from such similies of Puritans SECTIO 15. NOw the Buriall of the Child that is borne still into the world The Papistes allot vnto them and also vnto Children that die vnbaptized a place to be buried and the buriall But this admyred man would hardly allow a place but not all the ordinarie Ceremonie because he doubts of the resurrection O rare inuention fit for innouation a wise man of a thousand In ordine Sapientum octanum Ignorant in the workes of nature yet a Controwler of natures gouernement not resolued of the generation of man yet an vnderminer of Gods Church The Resolution vpon the Buriall THe generall consent of a Common-wealth in the orderly burying of Infants borne dead ought rather to be followed then vpon a doubt in a peruerse ignorance to breake that vniuerse concord which is offensiue sufficiat authoritas Ecclesiae nec nouationem aliam aut hic aut alibi queramus quae desidia mater esse solet saith Beatus Rhenanus For the fashion of the world is wonderfully and naturally inclined to imbrace whatsoeuer is contrary vnto order decency or Religion It is better to bee praysed with Doctor Whittakers to be a follower of the old continued Doctrine then to be a founder and brother of new fancies Et melius est errare cum vniuerso quam haereticare cum vno It is better to erre with all then to bee an heritike with one saith Saint Augustine Errare possum haereticare nolo And I say with Erasmus in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 malo cum illis insanire quam cum lanii◠esse Sobrius I had rather be esteemed or in decde starke madde with these holy men then to be counted sober and wise with such slaughtor men which butcher the soules of more men with their false Doctrines then the greatest Kill-Cow that is may or can kill beastes Certe non obsunt populo ceremoniae Sed prosunt Siniodus in eis Seruetur et caueamus ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loco habeantur Surely sayeth Beatus Rhenanus Ceremonies are not hurtfull but profitable if there bee any measure obserued in them and if wee bee carefull not to place in them the chiefest godlinesse As Saint Ierome therefore wrote vnto Lucinius so write I vnto all such hayre-braynes that thinke nothing good but their owne inuentions Ego illud te breuiter admonendum puto traditiones Ecclesiasticos presertim quae fidei non officiant ita obseruandas vt a maioribus traditae sunt nec aliorum consurtudinem aliorum contrario more subuerti If I knewe or were assured sayeth Seneca Deos ignoscituros homines ignorituros adhuc propter peccati villitatem peccare dedignarem That GOD would pardon mee and men forget my disloyaltie yet would I not worke wickednesse for the lothsomenesse of wickednesse but doe well for the excellencie of goodnesse For to deny the execution of any Acte established before a simple multitude is priuately to vndermine an olde State and publikely to builde a new Then Innouation there is nothing more daungerous to a Common-Wealth Sed ad hanc insaniam venimus belligerantur hodie non modo prophani sed Ecclesiastici The wofull experience of our State in auncient times still witnesse the auncient ruines both of Townes and houses The remembrance of whose beautie in one and vertue in the other do oftentimes distill teares from the eyes of their inhabitants So concluding with my prayers for euery Christians peace and increase of knowledge I commit this to your censures comprehending the summe of the whole worke in these fewe Verses very auncient Tres in lacte Dies tres sunt in sanguine trini Bisseni carnem terseni membra figurant Post quadraginta dies vitam capit hic animamque And your censures with your selues to the God of peace FINIS Pli. His. na lib. 1. cap. 1.