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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02758	Klinike, or The diet of the diseased· Divided into three bookes. VVherein is set downe at length the whole matter and nature of diet for those in health, but especially for the sicke; the aire, and other elements; meat and drinke, with divers other things; various controversies concerning this subject are discussed: besides many pleasant practicall and historicall relations, both of the authours owne and other mens, &c. as by the argument of each booke, the contents of the chapters, and a large table, may easily appeare. Colellected [sic] as well out of the writings of ancient philosophers, Greeke, Latine, and Arabian, and other moderne writers; as out of divers other authours. Newly published by Iames Hart, Doctor in Physicke.	Hart, James, of Northampton.	1633 (1633)	STC 12888; ESTC S119800	647,313	474

of excrements Now naturall drinesse may be prevented by such things as moisten much The wasting of our triple substance may be prevented by good ayre meat and drinke of a good and laudable quality engendring but little excrementitious matter and if notwithstanding by reason of their condition or quality they shall chance to ingender any excrement they may either naturally or else by artificiall meanes be voided out And therefore conclude they by this dieteticall art may the naturall causes of fatall death be declined But this is an uncontrolled truth Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis It is appointed for all men to dye and then commeth in iudgement saith the Oracle that cannot lie True 't is and cannot be denied that by vertue of a laudable diet the life of man may be prolonged to an hundred or an hundred and twenty yeeres as hath beene published by some of our Authors but for ever to be perpetuated is impossible and that both by reason of the materiall and the efficient cause The matter is either first or second the first matter by reason it hath adjoyned privation a maligne principle therefore cannot alwaies continue the same The second matter is of the elements whereof the body of man is composed the which howsoever it conteineth in it the substance of the elements well united and compacted together yet can their disagreeing qualities never so well be composed but some discord and disagreement will arise which is the cause of dissolution of the whole frame The efficient cause is either remote or neerer the remote is God himselfe who hath placed severall and contrary motions in the heavens one from the East to the West and is once every day accomplished Another againe from the West to the East which are at great length to be found in the writings of our learned Astronomers Now if God would have made the world to continue for ever faith Plato he would never have placed these contrary motions in the heavens because identity and unity is the cause of continuance as contrariety the beginning of destruction The neerer efficient cause is our naturall heat which by little and little destroyes our naturall and radicall moisture the which once failing death undoubtedly followeth And howsoever by the use of aliments it be in some sort repaired yet this devouring heat getteth daily ground of it till at length it giveth it the foyle concerning which more may be seene in the workes of the worthy Plato It hath then sufficiently and plainely appeared that the life of man by meanes of a good and laudable diet may be prolonged and diseases prevented howsoever death is unavoidable But then here one may aske what is the ordinary period whereunto the life of man by meanes of art may be prolonged Our ordinary Authours as wee have said assigne 100 or 120 but wee have a certaine sort of people who in shew would seeme to transcend vulgar understanding and tell us strange things of the prolongation of mans life for many yeeres farre beyond this above-mentioned period and that by meanes of certaine medicines made of metalls of gold especially and these be Paracelsus and his followers And although this great miracle-monger as his foolish followers would make him died not without tormenting arthriticall paines many times notwithstanding all his secrets before ever hee atteined the 60th yeere of his age yet will not their folly depart from them if they were braied in a morter affirming him yet to live in his grave by vertue of aurum potabile writing great voluminous bookes and inditing many profitable precepts to his disciples I hope the Printers shall not want worke when they are ready But Paracelsus tells us yet stranger tales for I doubt the reader will account them for such of attracting not onely life I meane strength and vigor from a young man but relateh of one who drew learning and knowledge from another yea that from any learned man he met and kept company with hee could easily by vertue of his strong imagination attract and draw unto himselfe the others wit and learning The same Author and his expositor tell us strange things of the long life of some particular persons where is likewise to be observed the great confusion he useth as in all his writings so in this particular where sometimes hee mentioneth mortall men as the Patriarches and others and againe confounds this narration with a discourse of immortall spirits who are neither to be confined with in his 1000. nor yet 1200 yeeres And is it not a thing ridiculous now in these later times to extend the life of man-kinde to 1000 900 or at the least to 600 yeeres And besides may it not easily to an indifferent understanding appeare how ridiculous this opinion is that Adam and the rest of the old Patriarches lived so long by vertue of the Philosophers stone And what then became of this so rare medicine when holy Iacob complained that few and evill were the daies of his pilgrimage And how came it to passe that Abraham and Sarah lived then so short a while That Isaacs eyes were dimme Did their forefathers envie them such a medicine all Arts and Sciences were transmitted from the antient Patriarches to posterity and were they so envious as to conceale from them so great a good If these prattlers could by their owne experience make this appeare there might be some colour for us to beleeve they had knowne this Art and concealed it from their successors But the contrary hath already appeared whatsoever they prate of one Artephius who by meanes of his wisdome as they say lived 1000 yeeres But now it may be some will here aske mee the question whether I am not of opinon that mens ages now daily decline the world waxing old and some holding that the Sunne now by that reason to wit of the age of the world draweth neere the earth as having more need now in this old age of a greater supply of warmth then heretofore But as concerning this subject because it hath beene of set purpose in a large volume handled at great length I shall neede to say the lesse yet something I must say concerning this subject now in hand I meane the life of man If this assertion were of an infallible truth that the age of mankinde had proportionably still declined then had the period of mans longest life beene by this time comprehended within a very small number of yeeres But the contrary of this we see by daily experience confirmed that in many places of the world yea and in most men live as long as in antient times I meane after the times of our first forefathers the old Patriarches This caution I would withall to be put in that in our comparison with antiquity we must alwaies put in this proviso caeteris paribus making the cases both alike As they lived a sober and

the purgations used in his time were farre more violent and of more maligne quality than most of our medicines now in ordinary use with us Purge women with child saith Hippocrates when we conjecture the child to be attained to the age of foure moneths or seaven but the last least for feare left by the violence of the medicine the ligaments tying the child to the womb be burst but if the child be either younger or elder we must not use these means Now in these our daies if a woman with child be ceized with any acute disease or the body abounding with bad humors and without purging there be apparent danger may we not administer some of our gentle medicines in antient times altogether unknowne If Hippocrates permitted the use of his helleborate medicines of so maligne qualities and so dangerous for the Diseased why should any be afraid of our gentle and mild medicines There is no such danger of bursting those ligaments by the use of so gentle meanes Is it not farre better to administer some gentle medicine which may prove profitable both to the mother and her fruit Againe if there be any reason in those women that oppose so useful meanes for this sex is as in other so in this action often most opposit to Physitians prescriptions let them answere me how many women they see not only for some daies and weekes but even for moneths together molested and tormented with excessive vomiting that one would wonder that ever they should bee able to hold out to their appointed period And yet through the helpe of the Almighty both mother and child doe very well wherof I need to instance in no examples they being obvious every where Now it cannot be unknowne that the succussion and straining of the body one day in so extreme a manner offereth more violence both to the mother and the child then three or foure dayes would doe with some gentle purges downewards It will be replied this violence is naturall and therefore not so dangerous I answere violence is alwaies violence howsoever procured and the action is alwayes the same whatsoever the instrument be a man may breake his necke as wel by a natural fall from the top of a tower without any violence offered as when he is pusht downe by the hand or otherwise Againe the mother many times for want of appetite and by reason she rejecteth that the taketh indangereth that she goeth with In widdowes and unmarried women we are willing to use meanes to free them from such evill and unpleasing accidents and why shall we let languish a woman in this case All the answere will be that in them we use to provoke their menstruous fluxe which here is no waies to be tolerated far lesse attempted I answere wee may freely with gentle medicines purge away these corrupt and evill humors so offensive both to the mother and the infant without feare of any danger whatsoever Now this is not my private opinion onely but generally of all our best and most famous Physitians wherewith I could stuffe up this my booke and make it swell to a too great voluminous bignesse I will instance but in one of whom I have now and then alreadie in this book upon occasion made mention to wit the learned Ioubert This famous French Physitian of late yeeres hath writ a whole Chapter of this same point only where hee proveth that many womens bodies are farre harder strained many times by blowes falls scolding and chafing than by any gentle medicine and yet never for any such violence miscarry Nay yet further the same Author affirmeth that many gallants dance the gaillards the valt and the like ride on trotting horses are carried in coaches being full to the throat plemees a lagorge these be the Authors owne words and yet for all this never are thereby indamaged Now besides the case they may from hence receive of all those evill accidents wherewith they are molested as casting feeblenesse and fainting shortnesse of breath and the like are all by this meanes quickly cured and why saith the same Author should wee thus suffer a woman to undergoe so much trouble when it is in our power to helpe her And upon this insueth yet another great inconvenience that the childe thus soaked as it were in such corrupt and filthy humours seldome proveth afterwards so sound and healthfull as when the body of the mother is kept cleane from such corruption and for want of this seasonable evacuation in stead of one medicine seasonably administred during the abode in the mothers Wombe the childe is after forced it may be to take a hundreth To confirme this truth I could produce a multitude of particular examples out of severall Authours where this course hath with prosperous successe beene used but to avoid prolixity I will passe them over and instance but in one or two of mine owne experiments A woman of this same towne some 8 or 9 yeeres agoe and great with childe was surprized with a Fever loathing in her stomack and a number of tedious and troublesome accidents her body both plethoricall and cacochymicall and withall much oppressed with melancholy who after she had for divers daies indured these noisome and troublesome accidents at length craved my counsell Her neighbours of the female sexe I meane they being especially in such physicall affaires more pragmaticall than men utterly disswaded her from any physicke whatsoever I confesse I was unwilling if it had beene possible to have meddled in so dangerous and intricate a businesse and where the event was so doubtfull and where if all things succeeded not according to expected desire I exposed my selfe to the censure and slander of so many venomous and virulent tongues yet being thereunto lawfully called I first acquainted both her selfe and husband with the danger both the mother and the childe were in without the meanes and that by the use of phlebotomie and purgation wee might through the blessing of God hope for some good successe howsoever the issue or event was not certaine Both her selfe and husband freely giving way to use such meanes as I in discretion thought fitting in this case to be used by Gods blessing upon the meanes of bleeding and purging both by vomit and direction downewards with cordialls and coolers she went forth her full period of time and brought forth a sound and living childe having in this by her owne confession both easier labour and more freedome from after accidents than in any other before or after Some two yeeres before that another woman of the same Towne being bigge with childe also for a fortnight and upwards was so tormented with excessive vomiting that she was able to reteine neither meate nor drinke in her stomacke whereupon insued great weaknesse and feeblenesse insomuch that shee was much afraid lest this young guest should have forsaken his lodging for want of fresh supply I being sent for and

in your other actions also And therefore it is no lesse true than triviall Vivimus exemplis non regulis men are commonly more moved by practice than by precept Neither herein hath your labour beene lost having now atteined to that number of yeeres with such a freedome from infirmities as very few of your age and eminency have attened unto Accept therefore Right Honourable this my rude labour and take these my paines in good part as a gratefull acknowledgement of that respect and dutifull observance I owe unto your honourable person and noble family and although conscious to my selfe both of the weaknesse of my parts and the hard censures I am like to undergoe from the which notwithstanding my betters have not beene freed yet I shall more willingly undergoe this burthen under the protection of so noble judicious wise and pious a Patron Protect therefore and still countenance the learned and honest Artist and discountenance ignorant Empiricall Physitians and such especially as erring out of their owne orbes without due consideration of the weightinesse of their owne calling too too pragmatically thrust their sickle into another mans harvest But because many things concerning this same particular point are handled in this subsequent discourse therefore to avoid tediousnesse with hearty wishes to Almighty God for your Honour the continuance of many happy daies for the good both of Church and Commonwealth and countrie wherein you live with the increase of choicest blessings upon your selfe and noble family I rest Your Honours in all dutifull observance JAMES HART The Licence from the Colledge HAving read some part of this Booke and in a generall view looked over more wee thinke it learnedly contrived and worthy the reading IOHN ARGENT WILLIAM CLEMENT THEODORE GVLSTON THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS OF THIS VVHOLE TRACTATE Of the First BOOKE CHAP. I. DIuers acceptations of this word Diet. What health is and whether Diet be a thing necessary for healthfull and sicke persons CHAP. IJ. Whether by means of Diet the life of man may before may yeeres prolonged CHAP. IIJ. Of Climactericall yeeres with their reasons assigned by antiquity numericall astrologicall and Physicall CHAP. IV. Of things called not naturall and first of the aire CHAP. V. Of severall sorts of wines and their various effects CHAP. VJ. Of the foure seasons of the yeere and how they affect the body of man CHAP. VIJ. Of water in generall of terrestriall water of water passing thorow or issuing out of the earth as springs rivers wells and ponds CHAP. VIIJ. Whether any pure Element bee able to nourish a mixt body and whether any such compound be able to live by the sole use of the same CHAP. IX Whether the life of man without food bee sustained for any long continuance of time CHAP. X. Of nourishment and what therein is to be considered CHAP. XJ. Of the times of repast and how often we ought to eat in a day and when to feed freeliest at dinner or at supper Something concerning breakefasts CHAP. XIJ. Of the matter of nourishment and first of corne and bread made thereof CHAP. XIIJ. Of roots usually eaten and in most account for food CHAP. XIV Of herbs in most ordinary use for diet and first of such as coole most CHAP. XV. Of Herbs hot in operation and in most ordinary use Of Artichocks Gourds Cucumbers and muske melons CHAP. XVJ. Of the fruits of trees especially of shrubs and lesser trees ordinarily used for food and often for physicke and first of Strawberries Raspes mulberries Gooseberries Currants by the vulgar so called red and blacke of Barberries and whorts or whortle-berries Of Cherries Plums Abricocks and peaches CHAP. XVIJ. Of Grapes Raisins Currants properly so called figs and dates and of Apples Peares Quinces Oranges Citrons Lemons Pomegranates Services Medlars and Corneillions Of wallnuts Haselnuts fitbirds almonds bitter and sweet Chestnut and Fisticke-nut CHAP. XVIIJ Of severall sorts of flesh especially of foure footed beasts with their appurtenances and parts CHAP. XIX Of fowle both tame and wild and their severall sorts as also of parts of fowles and of Egges CHAP. XX. Of strange and uncouth diet which some people have in ordinary use as of dogs cats horses mules asses rats locusts frogs snailes and mans flesh CHAP. XXJ. Of severall sorts of fishes both of the Sea and fresh-waters together with the various and divers nourishment they breed in the body CHAP. XXIJ. Of seasoning meate Of salt and of sauces of severall sorts Of spices used in diet both in sicknesse and in health CHAP. XXIIJ Of Gluttony and excesse in the use of food CHAP. XXIV Of Drinke and what things in the use thereof to be observed Of morning draughts drinking betwixt meales beginning or ending the meale with a draught and drinking to bedward CHAP. XXV Of water as it is used for drinke and of severall wayes of cooling the same and correcting bad waters CHAP. XXVJ Of Wine the severall sorts thereof with the right use and for whom most fitting CHAP. XXVIJ Of Beere Ale Perry and Cidar serving us in stead of wine CHAP. XXVIIJ Of drunkennesse and the mischiefes thence insuing to the soule body and goods Questions discussed and handled in this First BOOKE with relation to the Chapters wherein they are contained 1. WHether by meanes of Diet the life of man may be prolonged cap. 2. 2. Whether mans age doth not now decline and the world wax old Cap. 3. 3. Whether any compound or mixt body can live by the use of one Element onely Cap. 8. 4. Whether water conveied thorow pipes of lead be wholesome for ordinary use Cap. 7. 5. Whether man or woman may live many daies moneths or yeeres without the use of any sustenance whatsoever Cap. 9. 6. Whether it be best to feed freelist at dinner or at supper Cap. 11. 7. Whether breake-fasts are to be used Cap. 11. 8. Whether snailes be good against a Consumption Cap. 20. 9. Whether morning draughts fasting be allowable Cap. 24. 10. Whether good to drinke betwixt meales and to bedward Cap. 24. 11. Whether it be good to begin or yet to end our meale with a draught ib. 12. Whether old may be allowed the use of wine Cap. 26. 13. Whether it be fit sometimes to be drunke to make one cast in an ague or no Cap. 28. Contents of the Chapters of the Second BOOKE CHAP. I. OF the Diet of the Diseased in generall the utility and profit thereof Of the aire in particular and how to be corrected in time of need and what fewell for this purpose is best Something concerning the aire of Churches and Church-yards CHAP. IJ. Of the particular aire wherein sicke liveth to wit his habitation and the best situation thereof As also whether a country-aire or that of Townes or Cities bee better Where something concerning the situation of the ancient Towne of Northampton CHAP. IIJ. Of the clothing and covering of the sicke as also concerning their shifting and of the error of the

of the body And Galen in many places of his workes doth not a little extoll and magnifie exercise as in these words following To mainetaine our bodies in good health we must beginne with labour and exercise And elsewhere To maineteine the body in good health the moderate exercise of the body is marvellous usefull and necessary but on the contrary rest ease and idlenesse are very hurtfull And in the same book hee affirmeth That both himselfe and a companion of his for the space of many yeeres lived in very good health hee attributed to the moderate and seasonable use of their exercise by meanes whereof crudities were avoided And of the same minde is the learned Celsus Sluggishnesse saith he dulleth the body exercise and labour maketh it firme and strong the one hasteneth on old age the other prolongeth the time of youth And the opinion of Plato is that exercise strengtheneth but ease and idlenesse corrupteth the body But fearing to trespasse too much upon the readers patience in the enumeration of more Authorities I come next to the time and then to the several sorts of exercises of us seriously to be considered The fittest and most opportune time for exercise is agreed upon among all our Physitians in the generall to be best before meales when concoction is accomplished to be seene in the urines And as for the particular time of the day the morning is both by Hippocrates and of others preferred before any other time of the day Howsoever let this alwaies carefully be observed that thy exercise be not undertaken before thy food be well concocted and that now the time of thy next repast approach And this a late Writer proveth both by reasons and the example of Alexander the great And Hippocrates mentioning the moderate use of divers things which concerne the life of man ranketh labour and exercise in the first place Let labour or exercise and meat and drinke carnall copulation and sleepe all be used with moderation And Celsus wisheth those who in the day time have been busied either with their owne private or else with the publike affaires of the Common-wealth to set apart sometime wherein they may take care of their owne body Now the principall care thereof consisteth in the use of exercise and ought alwaies to be used before meales and hee that hath taken lesse paines and his food be well concocted may use it more freely but he that hath beene toiled out with labour and hath not well concocted his food let him use exercise more sparingly And this was the sauce the noble Cyrus used in all his warlike expeditions for saith Xenophon he never supped before he had sweat or had performed some warlike exploit or some rusticall and country imploiment and by this meanes inioyed his health perpetually And besides being not only sollicitous of himselfe but also of all his souldiers servants health he had an especiall care that they were never admitted either to dinner or supper before they had laboured hard And the Egyptian youth by the command of Amasis did not eat before they had run about 20 miles and Tully relateth that Denis the Tyrant having supped with the Lacedemonians said hee cared not much for their blacke-broth which was notwithstanding the principall dish of the feast whereunto the Cooke replied that it was no marvell for saith hee the sauce was wanting What sauce saith the Tyrant Labour and exercise saith hee in hunting sweating running hunger and thirst for these be the sauces wee Lacedemonians use And Hippocrat●● hath one particular precept to this purpose to use exercise before our meales Labour and exercise saith he must goe before our meales But to use exercise especially if it be violent immediatly after meals is altogether unfit for the health of man And that by reason it filleth the body full of crudities from whence proceed strong and often invincible and incurable obstructions the orignall and as I may say the mother of most Fevers and a multitude of other diseases for the foode being before concoction violently expelled out of the stomacke must needes much annoy the body Let such therefore looke to themselves and be warned who immediatly after meales give themselves to any violent exercise as jumping dancing and the like violent motions and agitations of the body Having now sufficiently discoursed of the time wee come next to the place Now the place where exercise is used is not of small consequence as whether it be in a towne or in the country and in particular whether within doores or without in a warme aire or in a cold whether in a blustring windie or in a calme and quiet aire We are againe to consider the place wee tread on or whether it bee hard or soft grassie dusty sandy wet with water or snow or whether hard or dry And againe we are to consider the time of the yeere whether in Sommer or Winter which doe intend or remit the manner of exercise Violent exercise in Sommer in the heat of the Sunne heateth much dissolveth and melteth the humors and procureth distillations and where the braine aboundeth with humors the head weake and the stomacke stuffed with crudities it occasioneth sometimes death or at least very dangerous diseases And in Winter exercises in the Sun being violent cause wearinesse inward impostumes as pleuresies in hot countries I thinke especially such as is Spaine where this author lived In the shade it is safer yet ought it to be shorter in Sommer and lesse violent but in Winter it may bee more violent In the use of exercise againe we are to consider the persons to be exercised as whether men or women young or old weake or strong for according to these and other the like circumstances the manner of exercise must bee ordered and altered The strong may use stronger exercise than the weake and the man other exercise than the woman and againe the same patient is to alter his exercise according to the seasons of the yeere and other circumstances Children againe are not to use such exercise as able young men and old age must use such exercise as becommeth that age Cholericke persons also are not so much to exercise their bodies as the phlegmaticke and other constitutions and withall their exercise must be gentler and the like is to bee said of thinne extenuate dry bodies who by strong and violent exercise are much in damaged And exercise in the quality must also bee accommodated according to severall circumstances as hath beene touched already and shall more particularly hereafter appeare And in it we consider first the manner of exercise whether violent or no whether by lifting any great weight a lighter or of a middle size and whether it bee continued or interrupted whether the motion bee swift or slow Wee are againe in it to consider the site and posture of the bodie moved as whether it stand

and he himselfe willeth us in the first place ere ever we view the water in diseases of this naure to consider of that which is spit up which may often reveale unto us the causes of the disease and sometimes the indications thereof For that which is spit up reasonable thicke except some other worse matter be joined therewith doth most commonly argue concoction as againe on the contrary that which is very thinne and liquid argueth cruditie especially in the beginning of diseases Very tough and clammy matter spit up in a Pleurisie argueth the length and contumacie of the disease yet if it bee frothie it is a signe it proceedeth from putrefied phlegme That which is spit up of it selfe without any admixture of other matter is good and laudable and yet in a Pleurisie and Inflammation of the lungs argueth the crudity of the disease If it be thinne salt and in a small quantity according to Galen argueth alwaies cruditie and Avicenne addeth the long continuance of the disease and if joined either with matter caruncles or small cartilages or little stones there is no good presaged In Pthisickes or ulcerat lungs if all spitting up faile it is alwaies a dangerous if not a deadly signe If this excrement should too much abound we must looke into the cause and cure it accordingly by good and sparing Diet by light suppers and sometimes none at all corroboration of the braine by perfumes plasters and other things in such cases requisite By that which hath beene said then may evidently be understood how erroneous is the opinion of the vulgar esteeming that all diseases may by the bare inspection of the urine onley bee discerned as also of such ignorant erroneous and covetous Empiricall practitioners who being void of all true sufficiency in the profession of Physicke would by this or other indirect meanes magnifie themselves amongst the more rude and ignorant sort of people CHAP. XXIV Of carnall copulation the right use and abuse thereof what age and constitutions it best befitteth Something concerning the menstruous fluxe in women BEsides all these unprofitable excrements and to be expelled out of the body there is yet a profitable excrement ingendred in the body of man abounding not in quality but in quantity onely and that for a beneficiall and profitable end the propagation of mankind And this is that we call the food of generation which with man is common to unreasonable creatures This excrement then is nothing else save a remainder of some portion of blood after the whole body is served in the third concoction and which being altered and changed into a white colour in the spe●maticall vessells is in those places reserved untill it be expelled in the act of generation This is not found in the body untill it have atteined to yeeres of puberty and these persons atteined to some reasonable stature all the blood before being imploied to the growth and increase of the body The proper use of this so utile and profitable excrement is the multiplication of mankind and is found both in man and woman And therefore as other excrements so is this sometimes to bee expelled out of the body the which being too long deteined in some bodies especially proveth often the occasion of divers diseases and dangerous accidents But as in all other things so here especially I meane a moderation should bee observed and herein the Lawes of God and man be not infringed The moderate timely and orderly use thereof is in many respects usefull and profitable for besides that it serveth for the propagation of mankinde it inhibiteth also the repletion of the body reviveth the spirits exciteth naturall heat helpeth the agility of the body preventeth phlegmaticke diseases dilateth the pores of the body quickeneth the minde and qualifieth fury and melancholy The immoderate and unseasonable use thereof resolves the spirits cooleth the body hurteth the head eyes nerves and joints ingendreth crudities dulleth the minde and senses procureth a stinking breath pissing of blood consumption of the backe c. And this I say to such as will take warning and will not wittingly and willingly overthrow both soule and body I thinke it is to small purpose to speake to these sensuall Sardanaples of this our licentious and luxurious age our common haunters of whore-houses to brothel birds and the like who will sell their soules and part of Paradise for satisfying a short lasting lust But because such sensuall Epicures are seldome moved with divine threats and scarce ever firmely beleeve there is a hell untill they fall headlong into it therefore if the premisses will not serve the turne let such know that besides the loathsome poxe rottenesse of bones and a world of weaknesses doe often accompany their later yeers if divine punition permit them so long to live besides that as the Wise-man saith that by meanes of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsell of bread and if hee should yet escape all this yet is he but led like an oxe to the slaughter as witnesseth the same wise Solomon And all that which is in the same golden booke of Proverbes set downe concerning this subject I wish they would read and seriously consider I knew my selfe within these few yeeres a Knight of antient descent having left him by his father of antient inheritance 1200 pounds sterling of yeerely rent to spend who having in a short space wasted all this estate on whores and other excesse was at length brought to that passe that hee had not a morsell of bread to put in his belly but what hee begged or else sharked for and for his lodging hee had some shop doore in the City to lie at a penthis to shelter him from the raine and a hard bulke for his feather bed many that read this can no doubt out of their owne knowledge instance in a multitude of the like examples The age fittest for this act is manly age to the younger sort and old age it being rather hurtfull From hence may then evidently appeare the preposterous course of many who for some sinister respect either for covetousnesse to compasse some great match some great alliance or the like often cause children to marry before ever they know what marriage meanes although not alwaies consummate yet in effect and finished at parents or neere friends pleasure or how to make a free choice which ought to be voluntary and not forced and hence commeth it to passe that both their bodies are debilitated their growth often hindred that which should have turned to the nourishing and increasing of the body being too soone as we have already said turned another way divers diseases ingendred and their issue if they have any they being ordinarily not so fruitfull as others proving often crasie and valetudinary and by the just judgement of God upon such unlawfull matches there is seldome seen that firme love and true affection agreement and

concord betwixt such parties as ought to be in this sacred ordinance as I have often observed and by relation heard of a many more besides that many times they prove afterwards more incontinent for considering that they were not of judgement sufficient when they were first married disliking the party that before was as it were pinned upon them breake forth into unlawfull lust It is their sinne I confesse but parents and friends minister occasions which prove more dangerous when these parties have not first been trained up in the feare of God which alas the pitty is too much neglected Such therefore as have children marriageable it is the parents duty to provide for their children matches in due time observing the disposition of their children lest the neglect of this duty done in due time extort out of them aftewards a too late repentance Such as cannot so suddenly as need requireth be furnished to their liking let parents be more watchfull over them and all have a care of their pious education in their younger yeeres preventing all occasions of evill idlenesse especially reading of lewd lascivious love books frequenting lewd and lascivious company stage-plaies especially the very bane and break-necke of all modesty honesty and chastity and all other things that may worke prejudice in this kind And such as are of yeeres of discretion and sui iuris and now by death of parents freed from that triall of obedience I wish them to marry rather than burne and breake out in sinne and so live to dishonour God and scandalise their neighbour And if they cannot accommodate themselves so suddenly let them in the meane-time avoid all provocations to lust use spare and thinne diet avoiding the pampering of the flesh using often for companion the Bible and other good bookes and other good meanes But in any case never abandon thy selfe to idlenesse but alwaies be imploied in some good and laudable vocation whereby thou maist prove profitable either to Church or Common-wealth But this belonging more properly to the Divines pulpit than the Physitians pen I leave to them But now because it concerneth every one both in sicknesse and in health to be acquainted with that which concerneth them so neere I therefore advertise all weake feeble and infirme persons that they be not too busie in this particular Of constitutions the hot and drie cholericke and next dry melancholicke persons are most thereby indamaged but hot and moist sanguine and phlegmaticke bodies are hereby most benefitted And I advise sicke persons especially in acute diseases and in their recovery untill they have atteined their full strength for feare of a relaps to absteine from this act As for chronicall or long continuing diseases by reason it is an enemy to the nerves and nervous parts it is therefore in many infirmities of the braine Epilepsie especially and all manner of gouts most hurtfull As for the age the particular yeeres cannot so well be determined some being more able at twenty than others at thirty or upwards and some old men of fourescore abler than others at fifty but yet as I touched before to marry children or young people while they are yet a growing it is both prejudiciall to the publike and their owne private persons For feeble old age it cannot but prove very pernicious as any one may easily understand As for the time of the yeere the most temperate keeping a meane and moderation betwixt heat and cold as in other evacuations so here likewise is alwaies most seasonable But in extreme hot or cold seasons be wary circumspect especially in time of great heat which is more hurtfull than the cold As for the particular time some have preferred the evening by reason of sleepe insuing after but most are for the morning as most seasonable Howsoever after a full stomacke any violent exercise or bodily labour that hath much debilitated the strength is not to be used And besides among men some are sometimes ignorant of that they ought to know and some more sensuall than becommeth so noble a creature therefore in time of a womans menstruous fluxe as likewise that time which is set apart for this evacuation after a womans delivery they must absteine the which as we see to have beene by Gods owne appointment practised among the people of the Iewes so for divers good respects the same is to remaine with us inviolable Now if this excrement be not in due time and order expelled it proveth often the cause of divers diseases both in man and woman as that we call gonorrhaea or involuntary effluxe of seed in either sexe proceeding also sometimes from the debility of the retentive faculty In women it occasioneth often histericall Passions or fits of the mother greene sicknesse obstructions palpitation of the heart c. But in both sexes I wish that moderation which becommeth Christians to be observed and withall to consider that a man may be drunke with his owne drinke if he take too much and besides that a man may as our Divines hold even commit adultery with his owne wise There is yet no small prejudice hereby procured to thine owne health and besides hath cost many a man his life Pliny maketh mention of two Roman Knights Quintilius Horatius and Cornelius Gallus who both died in this act I thinke few that read this treatise but can relate the tragicall stories of many who have by this meanes both shortned their lives wasted their meanes and purchased to themselves many loathsome and dangerous diseases the poxe especially a punishment sent from God to punish this odious sinne and we may see in every corner of the country the wofull effects of this excesse of luxury In all that I have already said my purpose is not to disswade any from the use of that sacred ordinance of wedlocke which God in the depth of his sacred wisedome hath ordeined as a fit remedy for preventing of sinne and for the great good and manifold comfort of mankinde but only to advise all people to a moderation and withall wishing every one to know themselves and who have more or lesse need and accordingly to accommodate themselves in the lawfull use of this ordinance And from hence may manifestly appeare the malapert sawcinesse of that man of sinne and his shavelings who in direct opposition to Gods command and approbation of this sacred ordinance will make it knowne to the whole world that he is that man of sinne foretold by the holy Apostle forbidding marriage and meats It hath by that which hath bin said plainly appeared that some persons and some constitutions may better and longer forbeare this ordinance than others but never was it by God absolutely forbidden any estate degree sexe or any sort of people to use this sacred ordinance Priest nor people in the old or new Testament nay is there not a punctuall place to the