An exposition of the prophecy of Hosea begun in divers lectures upon the first…An exposition of the prophesie of Hosea begun in divers lectures vpon the first…

Therefore infants are washed, but thou wast not washed, thou wast let go in thy filth. I have read of the Lacedaemonians, that when their children were borne, they used to throw them into the river, to consolidate their members and parts of their bodies, as they say, to make them strong, that was the custom of that barbarous people.

Therefore infants are washed, but thou wast not washed, thou wast let goe in thy filth. I have read of the Lacedemonians, that when their children were borne, they used to throw them into the river, to consolidate their members and parts of their bodies, as they say, to make them strong, that was the custome of that barbarous people.

Thou wast cast out in the open field. What is the meaning of this? We cannot understand it fully without examining what the custom of the people was in those times. We find in Histories that the custom of divers of the Heathen was, when their children were borne, to observe by their countenance, by the making of their members, whether they were like to be useful to the Commonwealth or not; and if not like they threw them away, and if they were like to be useful they nourished them up. They nourished up no other children but those that they judged by their countenance or making, would do good to the Common-wealth: We find it in divers Histories. Strabo tells us that the Indians and Brachmanes had certain Judges appointed for that very end;¹ their Office was, that when any child was borne, to judge by the countenance and parts of the body of the child, whether it were like to do any good in the Common-wealth,² & so either to save it or cast it out. So likewise Aelian in his Various Histories telleth us of the Thebans, that there was an express Law made among them in these words, That none of them should cast out their children, noting thereby that it was wont to be the custom a••ngst them.³