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thcr. For before me Terms flow, conception cannot be made, becaufe the nourifhment is wanting, nor doth the feed flick fa ft 5 for ac that time the veflels being lhur, the matrix is lmooth, and the feed by reafon of fmoothnefle like glafie polifhed, runs away, and cannot ftick and unites for roughed things are fitter than fmooch things to fodder together.
Hence it is, chat whores by frequent lying with men do not con¬ ceive. To which appertains that lcntcnccof Hippocrates 5 Thofe that have moyft wombs do not conceive, for the feed is drown’d in thefe as corn is in wet grounds. Likewife they that have over- dry matrixes are unfit to bear children s for it is neceflary, that the parts fhould be wet with the dropping of the menftrua. I do not now difeufle the matter, what ftrong arguments they in- fift upon who think the terms not needfull to nourifh the Child. Let them hold their opinion s but I can never believe that this humour is unprofitable, and doth not ferve toward the Childs generation. For fince all women that are in perfect healch have their courfes at fet times, what can we think but chat this humour runs forth for fome end, and is not venomous, unlcfleit flay be¬ yond Natures time in the body, or it bereftrain’d by fome difeafe or accident. So in plethorick bodies, that is, fuch as are full of humours, pure blood if it be not ventilated corrupts, and caufes a putrid feaver, and other next to contagious difeafes, as the fmall Pox and Meafels j fo we fee houfes long (hut and not cleanfed by the wind, to grow mufty, and fmell filthily. Since therefore the terms are an excretion of fuperfiuous blood, which the weakneffe of that fex can neither concoct by heat, nor difeufle by exercife, it muft needs break forth by the Moons urging of it at a fet time ^ and by the running out thereof the body is cleanfed, and if it chance to be flopped longer^ iegrowes venomous by corrupting. But it is not fo in Nurfes, or women with child : for it is a ftrong argument., becaufe that humour is ufefull in its time, and fit to nourifh the Child 5 but that is not fo, that by long ftay corrupts in the body : But becaufe after conception it drops from the veins into the womb, and feeds the Child all the time the Woman is great with child, if the womb fhould lye open, or the terms any way run from it, the Child cannot live ^ or would grow very ' . - n hnn y*fl
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The Soul comes not from the Parents Seed, but is infufed by God , Book I.
How the mind raifetb it /elf tow tii’d God. j
MM it Gods image .
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God the reflo- itr of decayed Hature.
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The Gifts and Ornaments of the Soul.
The force and excellency of the Mind.
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Seat of the
CHAP. XI.
The Soul comes not from the Parents Seed 9 hut is infufed by God , and can neither dye nor corrupt , what day of Child-bearing it is infufed.
* ■*
THe Soul of Man is by no means more invited to love God, nor can know it felf better, than by fearching into it felf , and when it doth narrowly confidcr the excellency of its own mind. For fo it comes to pafle, that a man lifts up his mind towards ■ God, and comes to know him, and defpifing all filthy vice, be¬ thinks himfelf, that he hath fellowfhip with the Divine Nature. And truly it is not idly to be pafled over, that man hath the breath of life from God, and is made after Gods Image. The dignity and prerogative of which gift let no man think to confift in the outward form of the body, but in the internal part, that is, the rational Soul of man ; which fince it is an heavenly fpirit and in¬ corporeal fubftance* taken from the pattern of the divine mind* this is it that makes a man excell other creatures, becaufe he is like God, and partakes of the divine eflence. But becaufe God made the body of Earth, it is mortal, and endures but for a time; but the Soul that God breathed from, himfelf is immortal and in¬ corruptible. For fince Gods effence is eternal, and the Soul of Man proceeded from it, it muft needs be eternal and immortal, as its original is. And though the forces of the foul arc much weak- ned, and do not fo exa&ly reprefent the Makers Image, yet it is not quite loft, for the wound the Devil gave it is cured by our Saviours mercy, and his munificence and vertuc hath reftored that which was fouly defaced by the fall of our firft Parents. If any man would make tryall of this Divine gift,and fee the Excellency thereof, let him delcend into himfelf, and fearch diligently into his own mind,; he {hall be fure to find there admirable gifts, and excellent ornaments in abundance, with which every ones mind is richly endowed ; as Reafon, Underftanding, Judgment, true choice, agility of Wit, Memory, and many more, that abfb- lutely prove the Soul to be more admirable, than that we fhould think it to be corporeall or fubjcOf to corruption. This onely cn- liveneth and rules the body? and inftru&s it with various a&ions, exercifing it with many offices. Whence it is, that from the multiplicity of Effects it hath divefs appellations : For as Ju~ guftine faith, when it enliveneth the body it is called the Soul 5 when it gives it knowledge and Judgment,the Mind ; when it re¬ calls things paft, Memory; whileft it difeourfeth and difeernethj Reafon ; whileft it contemplates, the Spirit ; whileft it is in the fedfitive parts, the Senfes. All thefe are the offices of the Soul, whereby it declares its power, and performs its a&ions. This is placed in thehigheft part of the body, and next to Heaven, pour¬ ing forth effc&ually its forces on the parts of the body. It is not drown’d in the bloody it pmes not ex traduce from our parents, or
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I
Chap. 1 2. The Suul comes not from the Patents feed^ hue is infufed Lj Cod. 3 3
from chefemina] faculty, but i is free from all grofle matter, and all corporeal corruption, and beingnew treated by God, is inf u The Mhd and. fed into the body newly made, not bjr rowed and fetched from Souiarcincor- fome other place, as cue Pythagorean Pnilolopners maintain in ^orcal' their abfurd tranfmigration of Souls, holding, that when one man T/anfmgrat'm dyes his foul goes into another body, not onely of men, but fome- ,u«b- titnes of bcafts. Ovid in his ly.OKetam orphofl hath thus rendred it : 1 .h ' . ' .f ..
» Soules cannot dye-, nhenthey their bodies leave,
Then other Bodies do the famereceave ;
All things are chang'd, but nothing quite decayes > future is flitting , one ft ate never flays.
Souls wander here and there , from Beafts to CMen,
They come , and then to be aft S return again .
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Hence thefefuperftitious Philofophers forbad the eating of flefb, thinking it abominable to tafte the fiefh of any creature, left one might cnance to eat his Grandfather in a calf, as Tertullian very facctioufly derides them. Chriflians muft rejeft fuch opinions 5 for Orthodox Divines conclude for certain, that the Soul is given to every Infant, and infufed into it, when the Child is perfed in all parts of the body, which happens about the 45. day common¬ ly after conception, efpeeially for males that are like to come forth to fee the light in 9. moneths. But females that are of a weaker conftitution, receive not their Souls, till about the 50 day*
And though this day cannot be certainly fet down, yet Hippocrates hath exactly reckoned it, at what time the Child hath its perfed form, when it begins to move, and when it (hall be born. For in his Book of the Nature of the Infant , If a Male (faith he) be perfeB on the 30 day, he will move on the 60 day , and he will be born in the feventb moneth : But if he be perfeBly formed on the 3 5 day, he will move on the 70 day, and begin to come forth in the eighth moneth?
But if he be perfectly formed on the 45 day, he moves the 90 day, and is born in nine moneths. Out of which palling of dayes and moneths it appears clearly, that tfic day of forming being doubled, makes up the day of moving; and the day Of moving, 3. times reckoned, makes up the time of being born. For example, where 35 per¬ fects the form, if you double thar, it will make 70, the day of mo¬ tion; and thar, 3. times taken, makes 206 dayes or 7. moneths, giving every moneth 30 dayes, fo you muft confider of the reft.
But a Female is made perfeft in longer time than a Male, and the mother goes longer of a girle, fo that there is fome difference in theaccompr. For a female formed on the 30 day, moves not till the 70 day, and is born in the feventb moneth. When fhe is formed on the 40 day, the moves on the 80 day, and is born in the eighth moneth. But if fhe be perfectly formed on the 45 day, fhe moves on the 90 day, and is born in the ninth moneth. But fhe thatislormed on the 50 day, moves on the 100 day, and is born in the tenth moneth. I have fpoke the more largely hereof,
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3 4 Tfre Soul comes ml from the Parents Seedfut is infufed by G od , Book I.
whereby every man may underhand that tlie reafonable foul is then intufed, when the child hath its perfed form, and is exadly N difiinguifhed in his lineaments. For the foul is not prefent in the firft Moneth the child begins to be formed, butthe faculty of the Matrix, and the force of the feed perform that work very cunning- v’ ly, and by degrees diftinguifh the parts, and make the form per- the rudiments fed. For the firft fix dayes the feed lies like an Egg, and repre- k Man jotm. fencs Creme or Milk, and thin fibres woven like cobwebs arc pro¬ duced, the nine dayes following, the Navel veins and the Cups, do adminifter blood and fpirit, from whence are framed the orga- nicall parts, and fuch as ferve for nutrition, as the Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lungs, brain, which from the firif moment of Concep¬ tion are perfeded the eighteenth day: then till the fourtyfourch day the other parts are perfeded, and the child begins to live and feel, though it move not being weak, or it moves fo weakly that the Mother cannot perceive ic. At this time the rational foul is thought to enter, ^and to add force to the natural faculties, and to -y.i , perftd the whole work which Anguftine proves by the teftimony Exol'^y Mofes. If anyone (faith he) ftrike a woman great with child , and fhe mif carry , if the An Id were formed, he fhall pay life for life , but if the 'child were not alive, he fhall pay a fum of money jor it. Whereby he \ ’ v proves that the foul is not in the child, nor can it be called Man,
unlefleHall- the members be perfeded, that it have the perfed form - ofa-man. Since therefore it -is infilled into the body made, no man may think it eomes in with the feed. For if the rational im¬ mortal Soul w^re in the feed, or fhould fiie out with it, many fouls ( faith he) would vanifh with the daily running forth of the Seed/ 1 • .'dv :
Wherefore it is not fit to think that the Soul was propagated by Adam, or any of our progefiitours, but that God doth every mo¬ ment create and intuie them. Which I think may be confirmed
ftbnl* by this faying of our SavioUr; My Father work eth unto this tittup
and I do work. Whereby he implyes that the great and good God the Father 5 and',the-Son alfo that is equal to him, and ofthe fame t (Fence, are {fill working in creating and faving the fouls of men, and are bufied in- producing them, and of other Creatures fouls alfo, whereby they live and have their being. To which belongs that hf the Pfalihift. GodfaVeS both man and be aft, and feeds and fids them with his plenty. . Whobeing peculiarly affeded ^ toward man, he hath bellowed more rare -gifts on his foul. For man is in a more excellent condition by far than the beads -are. For God hath ' gi¬ ve iVf 6 man reafofi, and a mind which ocher creatures have-not* and hath taught him to know his maker, and hath breathed into him a divine foul ; which bounty Job confefleth, He teadheth w more than the heaps -God hath given man bencer parts ih abundance* But impeded births and Mbnftets want-thefe fingular gifts of God : -For though
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,Chap. 12. The Soul comes not from the Parents feed, hut is infufedby God . 3 5
from a rational foul, but from the forming faculty, and the gene¬ rative fpirit, that are in the feed and bloud ; forthefe for the firft ffAf’10 in fourty dayes nourifhthe conception, and enliven it, and form it de}Jn!esndti* like a man. Aifo the other creatures have a vitall fpirit, and Mans name, other powers of the foul, to live and perceive, which they have from the faculty of the foul, and the flowing of bloud, and by thefe they grow in the belly, and receive life. For which that of Levi - ticta may be alleadged F or the life of every Creature is in the blood LtvlU c* I7' i thereof: For the life and fpirit of every living creature is in the blood, and fed by it, as the Lamp is by the oyle. Which force of the foul, as Galen knew very well, fo he ingenuoufly confeffeth that he is ignorant what is the fubftance of Mans foul, and whence it comes. But had he been learned in better Philofophy, he would not have doubted to fay that the foul is a fpark of the di¬ vine mind, and a blaft of God that diftingUilheth man from beafts, and makes us immortal. But that every man hath a particular foul) as it is proved by many things, fo efpecially the vaft difference between the manners, wits, judgments, opini¬ ons, and affe&ions of men doth confirm this. So Horace writes.
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So many Men , fo many minds.
As JbapeS , fo thoughts are of all kinds; Each Mans will’s his own . -
L.i.Ser.Saijr: 1. Per/. Sat. s.
Which I think proceeds oncly from the divers conditions of their fouls. For God, faith David, hath in particular fafhioned the Ffaitn 33,1^ hearts and minds of all men, and hath given to every one its pro- g % per being, and a foul of its own nature. Hence Solomon rejoyceth that God had given him a happy foul, and a pure body agreeing with the manners of his foul. Many of the Ancients question in what part of the body the foul hath its feat. Philofophers fay, in the middleofthe heart, which the Wifeman feems to point at, ^ ,
Keep thy heart with all diligence* becaufe life proceeds therefrom. But *4* Phyfitians that have fearched the works of nature more narrowly. The houfaf place the foul in the Brain, from whence all the fenfes and facul- thefnk ties of the foul and the a&ions proceed. Yet the force of it is dif- fufed through all the parts of the body j it fofters and enlivens all the parts with heat, and gives them force. But it doth give pecu- Apoputtklt liar force to the heart, the fountain of life, by the Arteries caro- tides, or fleepy Arteries that pats upon the throat, which being cur, men grow barren, or if they be ftopt, they become apople- &ick 5 for there mud neccflarily be fome ways and paflages of the veins, and Arteries,throiigh which the humours and fpirics animal y and vital may pa(fe to and fro, & receive native heat from the foul.
For as a Parlour, though it be large, grows hot with a good fire,and j fimlUfrofftd a Dining room is warmed all over with a hot Stove,fo the body re- hot fir t, ceives effe&ually the forces of the foul fpread all over, and by the help thereof performs its operations. For though the foul is faid to refldein one place, yet the force of it paffeth far and near, and is
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The Soul is fubjeB to faff ions, &c.