Period of true Religion this Gentleman's intended Theam as I conceive I have no occasion to speak any thing since my Author doth but transiently mention it and that too in such a phrase as ordinary Catechisms speak of to vulgar Capacities Thus my Lord having run through the Book God knows how sleightly upon so great a sudden which your Lordship commanded me to give you an account of there remaineth yet a weightier task upon me to perform which is to excuse my self of Presumption for daring to consider any Moles in that Face which you had marked for a Beauty But who shall well consider my manner of proceeding in these Remarks will free me from that Censure I offer not at Judging the Prudence and Wisdom of this Discourse These are fit Inquiries for your Lordships Court of highest Appeal In my inferiour one I meddle onely with little knotty pieces of particular Sciences Matinae apis instar operosa parvus carmina fingit In which it were peradventure a fault for your Lordship to be too well versed your Imployments are of a higher and nobler Strain and that concerns the welfare of millions of men Tu regere Imperio Populos Sackville memento Hae tibi erunt Artes pacisque imponere morem Such little Studies as these belong onely to those Persons that are low in the Rank they hold in the Common-wealth low in their Conceptions and low in a languishing and rusting Leisure such an one as Virgil calleth Ignobile otium and such an one as I am now dulled withal If Alexander or Caesar should have commended a tract of Land as fit to fight a Battel in for the Empire of the World or to build a City upon to be the Magazine and Staple of all the adjacent Countries no body could justly condemn that Husbandman who according to his own narrow Art and Rules should censure the Plains of Arbela or Pharsalia for being in some places sterile or the Meadows about Alexandria for being sometimes subject to be overflown or could tax ought he should say in that kind for a contradiction unto the others commendations of those places which are built upon higher and larger Principles So my Lord I am confident I shall not be reproached of unmannerliness for putting in a Demurrer unto a few little particularities in that noble Discourse which your Lordship gave a general Applause unto and by doing so I have given your Lordship the best Account I can of my self as well as of your Commands You hereby see what my entertainments are and how I play away my time Dorset dum magnus ad altum Fulminat Oxonium bello victorque volentes Per populos dat jura viamque affectat Olympo May your Counsels there be happy and successful ones to bring about that Peace which if we be not quickly blessed withal a general ruine threatneth the whole Kingdom From Winchester-House the 22 I think I may say the 23 for I am sure it is Morning and I think it is Day of December 1642. Your Lordships must humble and obedient Servant Kenelm Digby The Postscript My Lord LOoking over these loose Papers to point them I perceive I have forgotten what I promised in the eighth sheet to touch in a word concerning Grace I do not conceive it to be a Quality infused by God Almighty into a Soul Such kind of discoursing satisfieth me no more in Divinity than in Philosophy I take it to be the whole Complex of such real motives as a solid account may be given of them that incline a man to Virtue and Piety and are set on foot by God's particular Grace and Favour to bring that work to pass As for Example To a man plunged in Sensuality some great misfortune happeneth that mouldeth his heart to a tenderness and inclineth him to much thoughtfulness In this temper he meeteth with a Book or Preacher that representeth lively to him the danger of his own condition and giveth him hopes of greater contentment in other Objects after he shall have taken leave of his former beloved Sins This begetteth further conversation with prudent and pious men and experienced Physitians in curing the Souls Maladies whereby he is at last perfectly converted and setled in a course of solid Vertue and Piety Now these accidents of his misfortune the gentleness and softness of his Nature his falling upon a good Book his encountring with a pathetick Preacher the impremeditated Chance that brought him to hear his Sermon his meeting with other worthy men and the whole Concatenation of all the intervening Accidents to work this good effect in him and that were ranged and disposed from all Eternity by Gods particular goodness and providence for his Salvation and without which he had inevitably beer damned This chain of Causes ordered by God to produce this effect I understand to be Grace FINIS * A Church Bell that tolls every day at six and twelve of the Clock at the hearing whereof every one in what place soever either of House or Street betakes himself to his prayer which is commonly directed to the Virgin b A revolution of certain thousand years when all things should return unto theirformer estate and he be teaching again in his School as when he delivered this Opinion b Sphaera cujus centrum ubique circumferentianullibi * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nosce teipsum * Post Mortem nihil est ipsaque Mors nihil Mors individua est noxia corpori nec patiens animae Toti morimur nullaque pars manet nostri In Rabbelais * Pineda in his Monarchica Ecclesiastica quotes one thousand and forty Authors * In his Oracle to Augustus * Thereby is meant our good Angel appointed us from our Nativity * Who willed his friend not to bury him but hang him up with a staff in his hand to fright away the Crows In those days there shall come lyars and false prophets †Urbem Romam in principio Reges habuere * Pro Archia Poeta †In qua me non inficior mediocriter esse * In his Medicus Medicateus * That he was a German appears by his Notes Pag. 35. where he hath these words Duleissima nostra Germania c. * In Praefat Annotat * Excepting two or three Particulars in which reference is made to some Books that came over since that time Printing Guns * Tho. Aquin in com in Boet de Consolat prope â—inam This Story I have but upon relation yet of a very good hand
A true and full coppy of that which was most imperfectly and Surreptitiously printed baefore under the name of Religio Medici the 8 Edition Printed at London 1682. RELIGIO MEDICI The Eighth Edition Corrected and Amended WITH ANNOTATIONS Never before Published Upon all the obscure passages therein ALSO OBSERVATIONS By Sir KENELM DIGBY Now newly added LONDON Printed for R. Scot T. Basset J. Wright R. Chiswell 1682. A Letter sent upon the Information of Animadversions to come forth upon the imperfect and surreptitious Copy of Religio Medici whilst this true one was going to Press Honoured Sir GIve your Servant who hath ever honour'd you leave to take notice of a Book at present in the Press intituled as I am informed Animadversions upon a Treatise lately printed under the name of Religio Medici hereof I am advertised you have descended to be the Author Worthy Sir permit your Servant to affirm there is contain'd therein nothing that can deserve the Reason of your Contradictions much less the Candor of your Animadversions and to certifie the truth thereof That Book whereof I do acknowledge my self the Author was penn'd many years past and what cannot escape your apprehension with no intention for the Press or the least desire to oblige the Faith of any man to its assertions But what hath more especially emboldened my Pen unto you at present is That the same Piece contrived in my private study and as an Exercise unto my self rather than an Exercitation for any other having past from my hand under a broken and imperfect Copy by frequent transcription it still run forward into corruption and after the addition of some things omission of others transposition of many without my assent or privacy the liberty of these times committed it unto the Press whence it issued so disguised the Author without distinction could not acknowledge it Having thus miscarried within a few weeks I shall God willing deliver unto the Press the true and intended Original whereof in the mean time your worthy Self may command a view otherwise when ever that Copy shall be extant it will most clearly appear how far the Text hath been mistaken and all Observations Glosses or Exercitations thereon will in a great part impugn the Printer or Transcriber rather than the Author If after that you shall esteem it worth your vacant hours to discourse thereon you shall but take that liberty which I assume my self that is freely to abound in your sense as I have done in my own However you shall determine you shall sufficiently honour me in the Vouchsafe of your Refute and I oblige the whole World in the occasion of your Pen. Norwich March 3. 1642. Your Servant T. B. Worthy Sir SPeedily upon the Receipt of your Letter of the third Current I sent to find out the Printer that Mr. Crook who delivered me yours told me was printing something under my name concerning your Treatise of Religio Medici and to forbid him any further proceeding therein but my Servant could not meet with him whereupon I have left with Mr. Crook a Note to that purpose entreating him to deliver it to the Printer I verily believe there is some mistake in the information given you and that what is printing must be from some other Pen than mine for such reflections as I made upon your learn'd and ingenious discourse are so far from meriting the Press as they can tempt no body to a serious reading of them they were Notes hastily set down as I suddenly ran over your excellent Piece which is of so weighty subject and so strongly penned as requireth much time and sharp attention but to comprehend it whereas what I writ was the imployment but of one sitting and there was not twenty four hours between my receiving my Lord of Dorset's Letter that occasioned what I said and the finishing my Answer to him and yet part of that time was taken up in procuring your Book which he desired me to read and give him an account of for till then I was so unhappy as never to have heard of that worthy discourse If that Letter ever come to your view you will see the high value I set upon your great parts and if it should be thought I have been something too bold in differing from your sense I hope I shall easily obtain pardon when it shall be considered That his Lordship assigned it me as an Exercitation to oppose in it for entertainment such passages as I might judge capable thereof wherein what liberty I took is to be attributed to the security of a private Letter and to my not knowing nor my Lord's the person whom it concerned But Sir now that I am so happy as to have that knowledge I dare assure you that nothing shall ever issue from me but savouring of all honour esteem and reverence both to your felf and that worthy production of yours If I had the vanity to give my self reputation by entring the Lists in publique with so eminent and learned a man as you are yet I know right well I am no ways able to do it it would be a very unequal progress I pretend not to learning those slender notions I have are but disjoynted pieces I have by chance gleaned up here and there To encounter such a sinewy Opposite or make Animadversions upon so smart a Piece as yours is requireth such a solid stock and excercise in School-learning My superficial besprinkling will serve onely for a private Letter or a familiar discourse with Lady-auditors With longing I expect the coming abroad of the true Copy of that Book whose false and stoln one hath already given me so much delight And so assuring you I shall deem it a great good fortune to deserve your favour and friendship I kiss your hand and rest Winchester House March 26. 1642. Your most humble Servant Kenelm Digby To the Reader CErtainly that man were greedy of Life who should desire to live when all the world were at an end and he must needs be very impatient who would repine at death in the society of all things that suffer under it Had not almost every man suffered by the Press or were not the tyranny thereof become universal I had not wanted reason for complaint but in times wherein I have lived to behold the highest perversion of that excellent invention the name of his Majesty defamed the Honour of Parliament depraved the Writings of both depravedly anticipatively counterfeitly imprinted complaints may seem ridiculous in private persons and men of my condition may be as incapable of affronts as hopeless of their reparations And truely had not the duty I owe unto the importunity of friends and the allegiance I must ever acknowledge unto truth prevailed with me the inactivity of my disposition might have made these sufferings continual and time that brings other things to light should have satisfied me in the remedy of its oblivion But because things evidently false are not onely
those Oracles were de rebus singularibus or individuis it is evident that these predictions were not perform'd by Devils How then why those predictions which the ignorant Heathen took to come from Heaven and some Christians not less ignorant from the Devil was nothing but the jugling and impostures of the Priests who from within the Statua's gave the answers which Princes connived at that they might upon occasion serve their turns upon the ignorance of the people and the learned men for fear of their Princes durst not speak against it Lucian hath noted it and so a more authentic Author Minut. Felix in Octav. Authoritatem quasi praesentis numinis consequuntur dum inspirantur interim vatibus But in process of time the people grew less credulous of their Priests and so the Oracles became to be silent Cum jam saith he Apollo versus facere desiisset cujus tunc cautum illud ambiguum defecit oraculum Cum politiores homines minùs creduli esse coeperunt Sir H. Blount in his Levantine voyage saith he saw the Statua of Memnon so famous of old he saith it was hollow at top and that he was told by the Egyptians and Jews there with him that they had seen some enter there and come out at the Pyramid two Bows shoot off then saith he I soon believ'd the Oracle and believe all the rest to have been such which indeed is much easier to imagine than that it was perform'd by any of the three ways before mentioned St. Aug. hath composed a Book where he handleth this point at large and concludeth that the Devils can no more foretel things to come than they are able to discern the thoughts that are within us Aug. lib. de Scientia Daemon Till I laughed my self out of it with a piece of Justin where he delivers that the Children of Israel for being scabbed were banished out of Egypt These words of Justin are Sed cum scabiem Aegyptii pruriginem paterentur responso moniti eum sc Moysen cum aegris we pestis ad plures serperet terminis Aegypti pellunt l. 36. But he is not singular in this for Tacitus tells us Hist lib. 5. Plurimi authores consentiunt orta per Aegyptum tabe quae corpora foedaret Regem Ochirum he means Pharoah adito Hammonis oraculo remediam petentem purgare Regnum id genus hominum alias in terras avertere jussum Et paulo inferius Quod ipsos scabies quondam turpaverat Sect. 30 Pag. 65 I have ever believed and do now know that there are Witches What sort of Witches they were that the Author knew to be such I cannot tell for those which he mentions in the next Section which proceed upon the principles of Nature none have denyed that such there are against such it was that the Lex Julia de veneficiis was made that is those Qui noxio poculo ant impuris medicaminibus aliquem fuerint infectati Al. ab Alex. Gen. Dier l. 3. c. 1. But for the opinion that there are Witches which co-operate with the Devil there are Divines of great note and far from any suspition of being irreligious that do oppose it Certainly there is no ground to maintain their being from the story of Oracles as may be seen from what hath been said on the precedent Section Nor have they power to be so much as Witches Pliny saith so it fared with Nero who was so hot in pursuit of the Magick Arts that he did dedicate himself wholly to it and yet could never satisfie himself in that kind though he got all the cunning men he could from the East for that purpose Plin. l. 3. Nat. Hist c. 1. By conjunction with the Devil Though as the Author saith it be without a possibility of Generation yet there are great men that hold that such carnality is performed as August in Levit. Aquin. l 2. de qu. 73. art ad 2. and Justin Martyr Apol. 1. Sect. 33 Pag. 70 It is no new opinion of the Church of Rome but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato This appears by Apuleius a Platonist in his Book de Deo Socratis and elsewhere See Mede's Apostasie of the latter times where out of this and other Authors you shall see collected all the learning de Geniis I cannot with those in that great Father securely interpret the work of the first day Fiat lux to the creation of Angels This great Father is S. Chrysost Homil. in Genes but yet 't is his opinion as also of Athanasius and Theodoret that there is express mention of the creation of Angels so that they need not rest upon this place which they admit to be somewhat obscure The place which they take to be express is that of the 130 Psalm where David begins to speak of the Majesty of God in this manner Confessionem sive majestatem decorem induisti amictus lumine sicut vestimento Next he speaks of the Heavens saying Thou hast stretched them out over us like a Tent. Then he speaks of the Angels Qui facis Angelos tuos spiritus Now if it shall be objected that this expression is onely of the time present and without relation to the Creation Answer is given by Divines that the Hebrews have but three Tenses in their Verbs the Preterperfect Present and Future Tense and have not the use of the Preterimperfect and Preterpulperfect as the Greeks and Latines have whence it ariseth that the Present Tense with the Hebrews may as the sentence will bear it be translated by the Preterimperfect as also by the Preterperfect and Preterpluperfect Tense and this they say is practised in this very passage where the Phrase as it is in Hebrew may be rendred as well qui faciebas as qui facis Angelos c. Vid. Hieronym in Ep. ad Titum Thom. Aqu. 1. p. qu. 61. art 3. The Latine Annotator saith the Father meant by the Author is St. Aug. and quotes him l. 11. de Civ Dei cap. 9. which place I have perused and find the expression there used by St. Aug. is but hypothetical for these are his words Cum enim dixit Fiat lux facta est lux si rectè in hac luce creatio intelligitur Angelorum c. Where you see 't is but with a Si and therefore I conceive the Author intends not him but Chrysostom Where it subsists alone 't is a Spiritual Substance and may ne an Angel Epicurus was of this opinion and St. Aug. in Enchirid. ad Laurentium Moses decided that Question and all is salved with the new term of Creation That is it which Aristotle could not understand he had learned that ex nihilo nihil fit and therefore when he found those that disputed that the World had a beginning did maintain that it was generated and he could not understand any generation but out of matter prae-existent in infinitum therefore he took their opinion to be absurd and upon that