A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

In the first place therefore, Some do assign this inclination to sin, to the souls operations before the body was made; For they conceit, that the soul had a being before the body, and according to the evil, or good they had, they were adjudged to proportionable bodies, and thereby it cometh to pass that some have better tempered bodies then others, according to that Rule, gaudeant b••è nati, They are to rejoice that have good and kindly constitutions. This was the opinion of the Platonists, and Origen, who was justly called [Greek or Hebrew], […]; for the monstrous opinions he brought into the Church did pro••• absurd fancy. Yea it is thought that this opinion was amongst the Jews▪ as seemeth to be implied in that Question propounded by the Disciples to our Saviour concerning the man born blind, Did this man sin, or his parents? Joh. 9. 2. as also a passage in the Apocryphal Writer inclineth thereunto; Wi•• 8. 20. And being good I came into a body undefiled; which Grotius understands of the pre-existency of the soul, adding that Synesius, though made Bishop, yet did not retract this error. But this being so gross a figment, it […] not any confutation, and the rather, because it is a wonder that no such pre-existent souls should behave themselves well, for which they should have assigned to them undefiled and immaculate bodies: for we believe not the […] mentioned Author in that boast he there maketh.

In the first place therefore, Some do assign this inclination to sinne, to the souls operations before the body was made; For they conceit, that the soul had a being before the body, and according to the evil, or good they had, they were adjudged to proportionable bodies, and thereby it cometh to pass that some have better tempered bodies then others, according to that Rule, gaudeant b••è nati, They are to rejoyce that have good and kindly constitutions. This was the opinion of the Platonists, and Origen, who was justly called 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, 〈…〉; for the monstrous opinions he brought into the Church did pro••• absurd fancy. Yea it is thought that this opinion was amongst the Jewes as seemeth to be implyed in that Question propounded by the Disciples to our Saviour concerning the man born blind, Did this man sinne, or his parents?