v. 15. Which shewe the effect of the lawe written in their heart: It is the opinion of the best Philosophers, as of Plato in Philebo, that the soule of man by nature is like vnto a booke wherein nothing is written, or like vnto a bare naked table, Aristot. lib. 3. de anima. c. 4. how then doth the Apostle here say, that the lawe is written in their heart?
Answ. 1. Plato was of opinion, that all things were at the first written in the soule, but when it commeth into the bodie, is blotted out againe and forgotten: and vpon this ground that opinion is mentioned by the Platonists, that scire est reminisci, to know is nothing els but to remember. But this assertion presupposeth that the soule of man had a beeing with∣out the bodie: and that there is a certaine promptuarie or seminare of soules, from whence the soules are deriued into the bodies: But this opinion is contrarie to the Scripture: which affirmeth that God formeth the spirit of man within him, Zach. 12.1. the soule of man is created within him, in his bodie, infundendo creatur, & creando infunditur, it is crea∣ted by infusion into the bodie, and iufused by creation. 2. therefore a better answer is that whereas Aristole saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that nothing is written in the vnderstanding: it must be vnderstood actually: yet potentia, in possibilitie euerie thing is written there: because the vnderstanding is apt, and hath a capacitie to receiue and ap∣prehend euerie thing. 3. neither is that axiome of Philosophie generally to be vnderstood, but to be restrained to such principles, as are not engendred in the mind without instructi∣on, experience, and obseruation, as is the knowledge of arts, otherwise there are some principles, which are by nature imprinted in the soule, as first the naturall conclusions, which the soule apprehendeth of it selfe without any other demonstration: as that God is to be worshipped, parents are to be honoured, that good and honest things are to be desired: se∣condly there are certaine 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, generall notions, which are at the first apprehended onely by the sense: as that the fire burneth, that the whole is greater then the part, and such like, ex Perer.