from want and diminution of Blood and Spirits or from Infection of the Blood Diminution of the Blood and Spirits is from the Diminution of the Natural Moisture because the Root and as it were the Fountain of it is in the Blood principally in that of the Heart and secondarily in that which passeth through the Veins and Members The Blood being diminished the Spirits are diminished also which abide in the Blood as in their Subject And Blood is restored by those things which refresh the innate Moisture and the Blood being augmented the Spirits are made more lively Plenty of rotten Phlegm filthy Spitting and Bleareyedness are Accidents of Age which happen from an unnatural Moisture and especially Phlegmatick And that Moisture flowes sometimes from the Superfluity of the fourth Digestion and is cured by things purging consuming and drying up Phlegm as we shall hereafter teach Those things especially help Bleareyedness which swim in the Sea and which live in the Air. Those things are a Cure for filthy Spitting which purge and open the Breast as Diaïrews and Diaprassium Purging of Phlegm from the Head and Stomach conduces very much towards the cleansing of ropy Phlegm although in Young and growing persons these things happen sometimes from the superfluity of the Blood Insomneity if I may so speak Shortness of Breath Anger Disquiet of Mind are Accidents of Age among which Weakness of Breathing happens through the Straitness and Coarctation of the Passages of the Lungs which is caused either by too much Dryness or excessive Moisture But we must remedy this Evil or Accident by the help of those Medicines that the Wise have ordered to be taken in their Treatise of Diseases which befal the Instruments of Breathing For Avicenna in the same Treatise affirms that Saffron hath a Property to open and refresh the Instruments of Breathing Want of Sleep Disquiet of Mind and Anger befal Old Men and the Decrepit and sometimes Young Men from Melancholick Fumes ascending to the Brain as also hindring the Organs of the Senses And therefore in their Books of Regiment it is ordered by Physicians that Old Men avoid Phlegmatick and likewise Sowre Meats Horehound very well prepared helpeth this Diâ—poâ—ition and to eat Sallet of Lettuce strowed with Spice as Galen saith according to Avicenna in his Chapter Of Sleep But against Anger Want of Sleep and Talkativeness let the Operation and Action of the Soul Joy and Mirth and other delectable things be made use of CHAP. V. Of Weakness of Strength and Faculties of the Soul WEakness of Strength and Faculties is an Accident of Old Age. Infirmity of Strength proceeds from a strange and unnatural Moisture softening the Nerves or From over much Dryness whereby the Nerves are contracted and therefore weakned or From the Concussion of the Nerves as it often falls out in Souldiers exercising the sharp and dangerous Feats of War For I have seen many men vigorously striving in the Combate who being thereby weakned lost the Garland of the Contest When the Weakness hath its Original from Dryness that Medicine is useful whose Root is of the Indian Plant. When from Moisture Meat made of the Vegetable Medicine may be profitable for the hurt strength But the Weakness of the Faculties sometime arises from the Moisture superfluous Sometime from it deficient These Faculties although they may seem to be many as the Appetitive Digestive and Sensitive because they have got many Names yet the Faculty is truly one as Iohannes Damascenus affirms And because this one Faculty is wont to perform different Offices in different Members it is called by divers Names But by what Wayes these Faculties may be recreated and being weak may be strengthned I will shew hereafter in the Chapter Of Repairing the Faculties The Hurt of the Senses is an Accident of Sense which often falls out even in young men This sometime happens in the Occult Sometime in the Manifest Organs of the Senses When these Hurts are made in the Manifest Organs they may be cured in the same manner as the Wise have prescribed in the proper Chapters of those Hurts When this Hurt happens in the Occult Instruments it is made in three Parts of the Brain wherein the Animal Power doth operate namely in the fore middle and hind part which parts by Avicenna are called the Ventricles of the Brain In the hind part Oblivion and Remembrance is made by the Soul Of which things Royal Haly speaks in his first Discourse of his Theory saying That Old Age is as it were the House of Forgetfulness But Seneca affirms the contrary namely that when a man grows old if he have formerly well exercised the Instrument of Memory he will not be of a less Memory than when he was a Young Man Whence it happens that by long Exercise of one Instrument the Force and Property of another is abated as is daily experienced in Men of good Inventions and Men of good Memories But the Hurt which happens in the first and second Ventricles of the Brain wherein Imagination and the Distinction of things is made is a Harm which falls not out on the Score of the Rational Soul but on the Score of the Instruments wherein the Soul operates Now the Hurt of Imagination is said to be made two ways In the Instrument of the Brain wherein false things are feigned And in the Visory Nerve which brings Light from the Eye And therefore the Son of the Prince hath laid down two Chapters Of the Hurt of Imagination One among the Diseases of the Head Another in his Treatise Of the Eyes For this Hurt arises in these parts of the Brain and not in the Organs Sometimes from an Internal Sometimes from an External Cause From an Internal Cause two Ways Either by Nature when a Man is so hurt from his Mothers Womb as soon as he is born into the World and then the Hurt is incurable Or by Accident and so it is made two Ways By things coming from within and that sometime From evil Humours which do cause Infirmities of Body and Diseases and then the Hurt is said to come from the Humours which are in the Brain it self Sometime From some other Member ill affected by a blow or some other Cause But whatever Humour it be so it be a bad one it hurts and stops up the aforesaid parts of the Brain Which same Humour is bred of ill Food that is Melancholick and Phlegmatick as also of Indigestion and sowre things and such as are dryed in the Smoak and the like The Operation of the Soul is hindred also from an outward Cause and that many Ways Sometimes from stinking Vapours which infect the Body and stop up the Organs of the Senses Among which Vapours those are worse which come out of things diseased and labouring of Superfluity and out of dead Carkases themselves by reason of the Likeness they have with Humane Bodies As of old it happened after a bloody War in AEthiopia wherein
For though as Food it might make something towards prolonging of Life seeing it would nourish better than other things and would less alter the Body into a contrary Nature Yet it would not on this account avail to extend it much and less to prolong it to Eternity But as Physick it would especially and chiefly conduce to this end Now by what Qualities And by what way This is the most difficult to resolve § 4. It is to be observed thirdly That those Accidents which preserve our Body in perfect Health some of them are manifest some occult The manifest are three Temperament Composition and Vnity of Parts Which because they are perceived by the Senses are called manifest The occult according to the common Opinion that admits Powers are the Faculties of the Body which by Philosophers are called Powers that is the Faculty Vital Animal and Natural There are also occult Qualities belonging to the Alimentous which are introduced into the Aliment by the common Work-houses and by the Parts to be nourished although no Man hath yet found them out and therefore they may on that account also be called Alimentous There are besides Alexipharmack Qualities also newly found by us which in another Treatise we have proved to be connaturally in the Body of every living Creature that it may defend it self from Poyson § 5. Which things observed I say first Divers Qualities are communicated by the Tree of Life whereby all things which concern the Natural Constitution of the Body if they be destroyed may be restored if perfect may be preserved either to a certain and determinate Time or to Eternity according to the diversity of Opinions about this Matter This Conclusion is mâ—nifest because unless the Natural Constitution of the Body be preserved Health and Life cannot naturally continue Therefore it is necessary that so many and so great Vertues must be given from the Wood as were sufficient to repair and preserve all things concerning the Natural Constitution § 6. I say Secondly Supra-elementary Qualities must be contributed to the Body by the Tree of Life which might produce Elemental ones in that degree only which was agreeable to the Natural Temperament to wit that these Qualities of the Tree might concur as a kind of Cause efficient with the Form or with the Vertues of the Form according to the Opinion which grants Virtual Qualities productive of the Elemental towards the Production of Elemental Qualities just to such a convenient Degree This Conclusion is proved because it is necessary the Natural Temper should be preserved that the Body may continue in Health But such a Temper will be well preserved if there be a fixt and efficacious Cause which may help the intrinsick Agent in the Production of those degrees of each Quality which makes up the Temperament Therefore it is necessary that those Vertues be produced in the Body by the said Tree which may suffice to concur with the intrinsick Agent productive of such Qualities But these Vertues must needs be Qualities of a Superior Order Therefore such must be produced in the Body by the Tree of Life § 7. I say thirdly These Qualities must also be of such Efficacy that they may preserve that Degree fixt against all the Activity of an external Contrary even the most violent such as are Fire or Snow according to the Opinion which affirms the Wood to be an adaequate Cause of Immortality so that these Qualities of the Wood of Life being present Fire cannot act upon the Body nor produce further Degrees of Heat beyond those which are convenient for the Body For the contrary Degrees of Cold would be so preserved by the Quality of the Wood as a kind of Cause Efficient that they could not be diminished by the Fire And so it may be said of other Elemental Qualities It is manifestly proved Because unless the Qualities of the Wood had so great Efficacy they were not able to resist very violent external Agents But they might resist if they produced those fixt Degrees upon the Body connatural to it so that it might persist in Health § 8. But to what kind of Quality would these belong I answer They would be a kind of Habit For according to the Opinion which affirms that Elemental Qualities do not flow from the Soul but are produced of other occult Qualities superaded of a higher order which are called Virtual Qualities they would belong to Habit The Reason is because these Virtual Qualities are Powers seeing they are ordain'd only for Operation But the Qualities of the Wood do essentially suppose these Powers and do help them efficiently in the production of the Elemental ones Wherefore they are necessarily Habits as are the Habits of Sciences and some Supernatural Qualities as the Habit of Faith and Light of Glory which Divines commonly affirm do belong to Habit because they essentially suppose Power as Suarez a Vasquez b and others commonly hold But according to the Opinion that denies Powers to the Soul they are also to be accounted Habits and to concur with the Soul as Habits of Sciences and others And these Qualities will prove a kind of those which cure manifest Diseases of which we have spoken in another Book § 9. Both Conclusions are confirmed Because a living Body could no other way be made durable to Eternity nor for any Time but its Temperament would decline something from its Integrity unless it were preserved the foresaid way Therefore c. Nor doth it appear that the Qualities of the Wood would dispose the Body as a kind of Cause Formal whereby it would have been made free from all natural Causes of Death internal and external because a help by this kind of Cause would not have been sufficient that by its means an intrinsick Agent could resist the most violent Causes § 10. I say fourthly It is also convenient according to the same Opinion that the Tree of Life should make good other Qualities even Active ones which might concurr with the Faculties Animal Vital and Natural as a kind of Cause Efficient that they might perform very strong Actions when there should be a necessity It is proved as to the Animal Faculty because to avoid some Diseases of Composition and Solution of Unity as Dislocations and Wounds and to resist some external Causes which bring those Diseases an ordinary strength of Actions of the Animal Faculty is not sufficient even where there is the best Temperament Therefore it is necessary that this Faculty be helped by other Qualities which may concurr with it to render the Actions so strong that they may be sufficient to avoid all Natural Causes whatever especially those which might hurt by Local Motion § 11. And as to the Pulsatil Faculty there is the same Reason for it must perform a Motion against the Resistance of every external Cause whatever As to what concerns the Natural it is proved For it is necessary that the Attractive and Expulsive Faculty perform most
amply to explain them to the end the strength of those things which may be objected to the Contrary may more easily be broken and the Truth may be more open and clear § 2. External Causes therefore that bring Diseases and Death which must have been resisted by the Qualities of this Fruit are of two kinds For some are altering others are locally moving or impressing an Impulse It is proved for among Philosophers Accidental Mutation is only twofold that is one to Quality another to Place I pass by Mutation as to Quantity because since Quantity is never produced de novo as the more probable Opinion saith this is not a true Mutation § 3. And of the Altering Causes some move to the Manifest Elemental Qualities and others to the Occult. The first are all those things which can produce Elemental Qualities first or second and by this means vitiate and overthrow the Temper of the Body from whence various Diseases and Death do follow The second are especially all Poysons which introducing Occult Poysonous Qualities into the Body waste Mens Strength and take away Life § 4. And the Causes moving locally are also of a twofold Difference For either they move the Humors of the Body as Medicines Purging provoking Urine Sweat and Womens Courses which by reason of their unseasonable or superfluous or other preternatural Motions can also cause Diseases and Death Or they impress such an impulse upon the Members of the Body that they dissolve natural Continuity or change the Situation of the Parts whereon do follow Diseases in Conformation viz. in Magnitude Figure and Site and consequently Death it self which the Fruit of Life was obliged to avoid averting all these Causes § 5. But beside these Causes which produce positive Effects others also may be considered which produce other if I may so call them privative Effects and consequently bring Death For seeing the Body of a Living Creature that it may live doth stand in need of certain Matters whereby the lost Substance may be repaired such as are Meat Drink and Air what things soever can deprive it of these Matters without doubt will cause Death that is things causing Hunger Thirst Want of Air or Suffocation § 6. These Causes being declared which coming from without can bring Diseases and Death now it follows that we explain according to the Opinion that affirms the Wood of Life was an adequate Cause of Immortality what way it could hinder them Which thing indeed since it seems altogether difficult or rather impossible this Opinion is exploded by many who have recourse to the Supra-ordinary Providence of God But for its Defence § 7. It is to be observed first That the Virtues of the Tree of Life would not so keep off external offending Causes that most of them could not approach the Body nor that the Body should abide beyond the Sphere of their Activity for Example They would not hinder the Fire to approach Mans Body nor a Mad Dog to touch it nor any other Poyson to be swallowed down As neither would they hinder the Defect of Meat Drink or Air For it is manifest it was not in the Power of the Wood to do this Yet the Virtues of the Wood would hinder that the aforesaid Causes could not produce their positive Effects upon the Body to wit that the Sun or Fire should not heat the Body or the Sword or a Stone should not dissolve Continuity by their Blow or otherwise move the Parts of the Body contrary to their Nature and so of other things And in like manner the said Virtues would preserve a Man that he should not perish by Privation of Meat Drink or Air. I said that most of them should not approach the Body for we shall afterwards prove that it was possible for Virtue to be extended from the said Wood to a certain Space without the Body of Man in which it might hinder those things which moved to Hurt from moving farther or reaching to the Body § 8. It is to be observed secondly The Wood of Life would defend Man's Body from external Causes producing Elemental first or second Qualities by those occult Qualities which would produce other Elemental ones proportionate and natural to the Body in a certain Degree so fixt that they could be remitted by no other even the most violent external or internal Cause as we said before in the last Doubt And as by these the Body would have been preserved from the mutual immoderate Rëaction of the Parts among themselves and from the Rëaction of the Aliment so also the Body ought to be defended from the Action of external Causes It is effectually proved Because these would have sufficed to resist all Alterative Agents both internal and external § 9. But you will object Two Degrees of Cold for Example which are necessary and proportionate to the Health of the Body of Man cannot naturally resist eight Degrees of Heat of Fire applied next to it seeing the Action would necessarily follow the stronger Side Therefore it is impossible according to Nature that the Temper of the Body should endure in these two fixt Degrees after the application of the Fire but that it should be removed from them and part be burned And it is confirmed Because between equal contrary Agents nay between unequal ones there is mutual Repassion as Experience shews and it is the common Doctrine of Philosophers Therefore the inferior Agent ought to re-suffer from the stronger that which resists with only two Degrees of Cold from the Action of the Superior acting at the Rate of eight Degrees of Heat § 10. I answer By distinguishing the Antecedent Two Degrees of Cold considered in themselves according to their formal Resistence and Activity are not able to resist eight Degrees of Heat so I grant the Antecedent But considered according to the Activity of their Cause producing them I deny it For their Efficient Cause that is the Quality of the Wood produceth them with that Efficacy and hath such Influence on their Production that they cannot be remitted by any other the most violent Agent Which Answer is according to the Doctrine of Suarez a as afterwards we shall declare For this Resistence is not considered as Active on the part of the Activity of the Degrees of Cold themselves or as Passive on the part of their Formality so much as for the Efficacy and Activity wherewith they are produced by their Cause And for this Reason the Rest of the Qualities of the Temperament do resist being preserved by the Qualities of this Wood that they can never be remitted by their Contraries Which I prove effectually If God by himself alone that is by his actual Concurrence will produce these two Degrees of Cold and preserve them although eight Degrees of Fire were applied yet they could not be remitted if God did not desist from his Concurrence for the reason why they are corrupted when a hot Agent comes is because God in presence of
Sleep want of it 33 Snake 117 121 Soil 57 Sparrows 139 151 Spike Celtick 97 Spikenard 146 Spitting 32 Stagg's heart its bone 21 70 76 Strength its infirmity 34 Succinum 155 Sulphur 79 Sun 59 Sweat 61 116 145 T TAst â—7 Tavern-haunters 113 Terra Sigillata 28 Toil of Body and Mind 3 Touching of cold things 79 Treacle 122 Tree of knowledge 111 Trifera 79 85 V VApors 38 Veal 150 Vegetables 56 Venus 78 102 Viper 21 its preparation 114 1â—5 its property 115 116 when and how to be taken 117 118 its number of teeth description conception and birth 120 121 Virgin 99 100 101 109 110 111 Virtue may be separated from its body 17 18 Vnction 61 Vnderstanding when rational 40 Vsefulness of the Treatise 134 W WAshing 79 Water 78 Water-Melons 91 Wax 125 Wheat 78 Wine 54,57,103,104,105,106,107,112 Wiping 79 World its age 1 6 Worts 140 X XYloaloe 145 Y YOuth how preserved 95 how recovered ibid. THE CURE OF Old Age c. CHAP. I. Of the Causes of Old Age. AS the a World waxeth old b Men grow old with it not by reason of the Age of the World but because of the great Increase of living Creatures which infect the very Air that every way encompasseth us and Through our c Negligence in ordering our Lives and That great d Ignorance of the Properties which are in things conducing to Health which might help a disordered way of Living and might supply the defect of due Government From these three things namely Infection Negligence and Ignorance the Natural Heat after the time of Manhood is past begins to diminish and its Diminution and Intemperature doth more and more hasten on Whence the Heat by little and little decreasing the Accidents of Old Age come on which Accidents in the very Flower of Age may be taken away and after that time may be retarded as also may that â—wift Course which hurries a Man from Manhood to Age from Age to Old Age from Old Age to the broken strength of decrepit Age be restrained For the Circle of a Man's Age grows more in one day after Age to Old Age than in three days after Youth to Age and is sooner turned from Old Age to decrepit Age than from Age to Old Age. Which Weakness and Intemperature of Heat is caused two ways by the Decay of Natural Moisture and By the Increase of Extraneous Moisture For the Heat exists in the Native Moisture and is extinguished by external and strange moistness which flows from weakness of Digestion as Avicenna in his first Book in his Chapter Of Complexions affirms Now the Causes of the dissolution of the Internal Moisture and of the External's abounding whence the Innate Heat grows cool are many as I shall here show First of all the Dissolution of the Natural happens from two Causes One whereof is the circumambient Air which dries up the Matter And the Innate Heat which is inward very much helps towards the same For it is the Cause of extinguishing it self by reason it consumes the matter wherein it subsists as the Flame of a Lamp is extinguished when the Oyl exhausted by the Heat is spent The second Cause is the toil proceeding from the Motions of Body and Mind which otherwise are necessary in Life To these accrue Weakness and Defect of Nature which easily sinks under so great Evils as Avicenna witnesseth in his first Book Of Complexions of Ages not resisting those imperfections that invade it Now The Motions of the Mind are called Animal when the Soul especially is exercised The Motions of the Body are when our Bodies are tossed and stirred of necessary Causes ill proportioned External Moisture increaseth two ways either from The use of Meat and other things that breed an unnatural and strange Moisture especially Phlegmatick whereof I shall discourse hereafter or from Bad Concoction whence a feculent and putrid Humour differing from the nature of the Body is propagated For Digestion is the Root of the Generation of unnatural and natural Moisture which when it is good breeds good Moisture when bad a bad one as Avicenna saith in his fourth Canon of his Chapter Of things which hinder grey Hairs For from wholesome Food ill digested an evil Humour doth flow and of poysonous Meats and such as naturally breed a bad Humour iâ— well digested sometime comes a good one But it is to be observed that not only Phlegm is called an extraneous Humour but whatever other Humour is putrid Yet Phlegm is worse than the other external Humours in that it helps to extinguish the Innate Heat two ways either By choaking it or By Cold resisting its Power and Quality so Rasy in his Chapter Of the benefits of Purging Which Phlegm proceeds from faults in Meats negligence of Diet and intemperature of Body so that this sort of external Moisture increasing and the Native Moisture being either changed in Qualities or decayed in Quantity Man grows old either In the accustomed course of Nature by little and little and successively when after the time of Manhood that is after forty or at most fifty Years the Natural Heat begins to diminish Or Through evil Thoughts and anxious Care of Mind wherewith sometimes Men are hurt For Sickness and such like evil Accidents dissolve and dry up the Natural Moisture which is the Fewel of Heat and that being hurt the force and edge of the Heat is made dull The Heat being cooled the Digestive Vertue is weakned and this not performing its Office the crude and inconcocted Meat putrefies on the Stomach Whereupon the external and remote parts of the Body being deprived of their Nourishment do languish wither and dye because they are not nourished So Isaac in his Book Of Fevers in the Chapter Of the Consumption doth teach But it may be queried What this Moisture is and in what place it is seated whereby the Natural Heat is nourished and which is its Fewel Some say that it is in the Hollow of the e Heart and in the Veins and Arteries thereof as Isaac in his Book Of Fevers in the Chapter Of the Hectick But there are Moistures of divers kinds in the Members which are prepared for Nourishing and to moisten the Joints Of which Humours may be that is one which is in the Veins and that another which like Dew is reposed on the Members as Avicenna saith in his fourth Book in the Chapter Of the Hectick Whence perhaps the Wise do understand that all these Moistures are Fewel to the Native Heat But especially that which is in the Heart and its Veins and Arteries which is restored when from Meats and Drinks good Juices are supplyled and is made more excellent by outward Medicines such as Anointings and Bathings NOTES on CHAP. I. a This Year 1682. with the Astrologers is celebrated the Climacterick grand Conjunction of the highest Planets And Divines after St. Peter's Chronology do reckon that the Sabbatical Millenary is not far off nor without great reason
Holy Writ h Lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden Because if that Vertue as they say were only supernatural that namely they should live that were obedient there had been no need to have turned Adam out of Paradise but as soon as he had sinned God was not bound to keep his Covenant or to make good that Law of conferring Life and Immortality by eating of this Tree § 3. Nevertheless a Man can scarce conclude on this Ground because two ways the Fruit of that Tree might have a supernatural Vertue to prolong Life to Eternity and yet sin might be no impediment of it First If in the aforesaid Tree there were some Supernatural Quality inherent made good by God himself whereby it should prolong Life to Eternity In which Case Sin could not hinder the Activity and Efficacy of that Quality Secondly If God had made a Covenant to give Life Eternal to them that should eat of this Fruit although they should sin § 4. But upon another Ground it may sufficiently be proved that the Virtue of this Tree to give Eternal Life is Natural Namely Because it is not repugnant that in Nature such a Virtue should be found Because the Effect of this Tree of it self is of a natural Order and finite Perfection For it should have preserved Life to Eternity because it would have strengthened all the Faculties of Man's Body restored and preserved its natural Temperament and have kept off all Morbifick Causes as we shall hereafter shew But what may be done by a Power Natural that ought not to be referred to one Supernatural Therefore not this of the Tree of Life a D. Thom. 1 part qu. 97. art 4. b ibique Cajetanus c Gab. in 2 Dist. d Rup l. 3. in Gen. c. 3. e Hug. de Sanct. Vict. in Annot. Gen. cap. 7. Gen. c. 2. f Strab. in Gen. g Durand Scot. in 2 Dist. 19. h Gen. 3. 22 23. DOUBT III. Whether the Virtue of this Tree were such as to keep a Man alive Time without end § 1. THere are two extreme Opinions about this Question The first is theirs who say That by eating of such a Tree a Man would not have been eternal but would only have endured a very long time and he should therefore have been eternal in the State of Innocence because after one or more Eatings before the Virtue of the Tree were spent he should have been translated from the State of Grace to Glory and Immortality as Scotus a thinks § 2. They prove this Opinion First The Virtue of that Tree would have been finite in that it was created Therefore it could not produce an infinite Effect Secondly If that Tree had had a Virtue to preserve Men to Eternity that Virtue would have been useless because no Man in the State of Innocence should have lived for ever in this World but after an appointed Time all Men should have been translated when to wit the Number of the Predestinate was full as these Men hold For at that Time the just should be translated to Glory and the unjust to eternal Punishment Wherefore when this Time were finished the Virtue of the Tree that preserves Men to Eternity would have been superfluous § 3. Thirdly Because the Apple of that Tree taken for Nourishment would have rëacted upon the Body Therefore it could never restore the Radical Moisture and the wasted Substance entire and by consequence could not preserve Life to Eternity § 4. Fourthly Though the Tree of Life might for the most part take away inward Morbifick Causes by restoring intire the natural Heat and Moisture and the decayed Substance so that it should not wax old Yet it could not take away external Causes nor by consequence prevent a Man's being hurt by Wounds or perishing by Hunger or being choak'd for want of Breath Therefore from thence eternal Life could not of necessity follow § 5. Fifthly Because in the State of lapsed Nature at least Man would have been much more obnoxious to morbid Causes whereas in the State of Innocence he lived more temperately without any Trouble and in all Tranquillity all which things after Sin proved deficient But the Tree of Life could not avoid so many Causes of Diseases in the state of lapsed Nature Therefore it could not make Man immortal § 6. Augustine b seems of this Opinion Thomas c holds it Cajetan d Gabriel e Durandus f and others § 7. The other Opinion is That the said Tree had such a Virtue that being tasted by Man it would carry him to perfect Immortality Of this Opinion is Augustine g the Interlineary Gloss h Rupertus i Tostatus k the Author l of the Questions of the Old and New Testament which Author is thought to be Augustine and is quoted under his Name by Thomas m Bonaventure n And the Antient Fathers held it before who affirm that God therefore drove Adam out of Paradise lest he should eat of that Tree and for ever live miserable rather pitying than punishing him For it had been too great a punishment to endure an interminable Evil. § 8. So Irenaeus o Hilarius p Gregory Nazianzen q Hierome r Cyril s Chrysostom t Theodoret u Eucherius w Bede x Strabus y Damascene z Dionysius Carthusianus a◠§ 9. And all these Authors agree in this That the Tree of Life was able of it self to give eternal Life both in the State of Innocence and in the State of lapsed Nature if Men had eaten thereof The difference among them only is That some affirm it was necessary to eat often of it others that once to have eaten was sufficient And then some thought it an adaequate Cause of Immortality others thought it only kept out the internal Causes of Death Which Questions we shall discuss hereafter § 10. This said Opinion is sufficiently proved from these Words of Holy Writ Lest he put forth his Hand and take also of the Tree of Life and live for ever Therefore for that reason was Adam driven out of Paradise lest he should live for ever as he should have lived in the state of Innocence had he eaten of the Tree of Life Therefore the eating of that Tree must have preserved a Man for ever by reason of the Virtue it had to this end and not only for a long Time § 11. Some make answer to this Argument that God spake Ironically But they give not Satisfaction First because this Solution contradicts the Testimony of the aforesaid Fathers Secondly because Adam's ejection out of Paradise and the Angel with the flaming Sword placed to keep the way of the Tree of Life sufficiently declare that God spake not by way of Irony but properly and in good earnest § 12. Secondly others answer the foresaid Argument thus That the Words for ever ought not to be taken for true Eternity but for a very long Time Which Answer
have recourse to Supernatural Causes Secondly Because that Supernatural Quality would either have resisted all external offending Causes by a Formal Resistance or by an Active Not by a Formal Both because one and the same Quality in kind could not formally be opposed to almost infinite especially contrary Causes as to Heat and to Cold And because it would also resist the Elemental Qualities of the Body necessary to its natural Constitution seeing they are of the same kind with the Qualities produced of external Causes § 11. Not by an Active Because first even the Qualities of the Tree could have done this Secondly Because either this Activity would have produced other Supernatural Qualities and the same Doubt would have been concerning them or Natural to which either even Natural Causes would have sufficed or also they would have been overcome of external Causes as the Natural Qualities of the Body Therefore this Supernatural Quality of Father Molina is not to be admitted Thirdly Because Molina admits Men may be altered by Rain Wind Heat and other things but with Delight Therefore this Supernatural Quality would not have rendred Men incapable of receiving Elemental Qualities Therefore they might be burnt by the Fire and consequently dye § 12. Perhaps some Man may answer in Defence of Molina that by this Quality the Activity of Agents upon the Body would not have been hindred but only the Union of Soul and Body would have been maintained But on the contrary how can Heat in the highest Degree with Dryness in the Height be granted but the Form of Fire must be introduced in Man's Body and the Rational be separated without the greatest Miracle Which must not be admitted § 13. Let therefore the Conclusion be That the Fruit of the Tree of Life by its Qualities was an adaequate Cause of Immortality so that Man by taking of it would necessarily have lived for ever both in the State of Innocence and in the State of lapsed Nature the Case being granted that in this State he did eat of the Tree S t Augustine seems of this Opinion e where he saith But Men therefore tasted of the Tree of Life lest from any hand Death should creep upon them or being spent with Old Age when certain spaces of Time were run over they should dye as if other things were for Aliment this for a Sacrament So that the Tree of Life in the Corporal Paradise may be construed to be like the Wisdom of God in the Spiritual that is in the Intelligible whereof it is written in the third of Proverbs She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her § 14. Where we must accurately observe that from any hand and that or for Death might creep on from any hand unless the Fruit of Life had preserved the Body from it And the Particle or denotes a Disjunction lest to wit Man should perish by Old Age or by any other Occasion whatever Wherefore according to S t Augustine's Mind it would have been an adaequate Cause of Immortality Which he manifestly confirms by the Example of the Wisdom of God in the Spiritual Paradise And is gathered more manifestly from these Words f There was Meat that he should not hunger Drink that he should not thirst the Tree of Life lest Old Age should destroy him no Disease within no Blow without was feared Behold how according to S t Augustine this Tree would have defended a Man from all internal and external Causes of Death Therefore according to his Opinion it was an adaequate Cause of Immortality § 15. The Interlineal Gloss on these Words Lest he take also of the Tree of Life c. insinuates the same Opinion while it affirms that when the Number of the Elect was compleat they should have tasted of the Tree of Life and so have passed to the Blessed State That namely by it the Body should have been rendred immortal which Immortality would have been attained by rendring the Body free from all Harms which could be brought from any Causes internal or external And it is plainly gathered from Rupertus g inasmuch as he affirms that it had been sufficient once to have taken of the Tree for Man to have lived for ever and from Chrysostome h and Theodoret i whereas they affirm this Tree was created for a Reward of Obedience But this Reward was that a Man should be free from Death so that he could be killed by no Cause internal or external Therefore this Tree ought to defend a Man from all Cause of Death otherwise it did not make good the Reward of Obedience promised by God It is gathered also from other Fathers above-quoted Irenaeus Gregory Nazianzen Eucherius Cyrill Hierome and others in that they affirm this Tree could make Life to be Eternal for if Man remained subject to Hunger Sword Precipice Fire Water and other things he were not eternal And so thinks Bellarmine k. § 16. Now the same Conclusion is already sufficiently proved by Reason especially by this Argument Because such Natural Qualities are possible as might defend a Man from all Causes of Death both internal and external And we shall enumerate those Qualities in the following Section and declare the manner how they perform it § 17. It is further confirmed that the said Qualities are possible by divers Examples of admirable Virtues that are in things natural For if there be indeed any such Fish as that called Echenëis or Remora which is able to retard and hinder the most violent Motion of a Ship by a Natural Quality which it impresseth on the Ship Why might not the Fruit of Life have another Natural Quality whereby Mans Body might be defended from the like Impulse and Moon and might be rendred free from all Strokes If a Salamander cast into the Fire do by Natural Qualities resist the burning Fire for a great space of Time Why should another Natural Quality be impossible which might much more resist the Action of the Fire And so resist that its Resistance might overcome the Activity of the Fire for the Activity of the Fire is not intended to Infinity § 18. If Fire naturally have a most active Quality why shall not another Natural Quality equally or more resistent be possible Are there not other Natural Virtues equally admirable Doth not the Ostriche's Stomach digest Iron Aqua fortis dissolve Gold Iron and other Metals Vineger dissolve Stones and Steel Doth not the Fish called Torpedo render the Fishes that swim over it immoveable and stupefy the Fishers Arm with its Virtue diffused along his Spear Why therefore in like manner might there not be found other Natural Virtues in the Fruit of Life resisting the external causes of Death I pass by other admirable things which manifestly appear from our Tract and other Mens Observations § 19. Nor can it be said it is false and the Echenëis hath no such Virtue for Experience confirms it and very grave Authors attest it as S. Ambrose l S.
to the Rarity § 22. You will object secondly The Faculty Pulsatil and Generative of Spirits would have been idle Because we suppose the necessary Spirits once generated would have lasted for ever And in like manner the Natural Faculties would have been idle seeing we suppose Nutrition would be no further necessary when the Body had arrived at full Perfection Therefore those Qualities would not be necessary which might concur with such Faculties according to the Opinion which affirms it had been sufficient to have eaten the Fruit only once I say they were necessary for the Reduction of a Child's Body and an Old Man's or one any other way decayed or imperfect to the most perfect Constitution and therefore they were to be added But after the Perfection of the Body they were not necessary but would have continued as other things would which also were not further necessary as the common Workhouses of Aliment and Excrements and the Faculty expulsive of them and other things § 23. You will object thirdly To Duration of Life there is no need that the Animal Faculty be any stronger than what sufficeth to perform Respiration as Galen d holdeth Therefore to this at least there should no helping Quality be added which might concur with it It is answered If there were a preternatural Affection before the eating of the Wood which ought to be expelled by the Motion of the Animal Faculty as by Coughing or whereto the Animal Faculty ought to concur with the Natural as Pissing Strength must necessarily be added to the Faculty that by the said Qualities it might perform a stronger Motion And in like manner as before we have already said in the third Conclusion Strength of the Animal Faculty was necessary for the Motive that it might more readily resist external Causes But as for the Discerning Powers which belong to the Animal Faculty seeing they conduce little to Duration and would sufficiently operate with the best Temperament Composition and Unity of Parts it seems more probable that other Qualities are not necessary which should be produced by the Wood. § 24. You will object fourthly We said in the fourth Conclusion that by the Tree a Virtue was made good concurring with the Animal Faculty to the avoiding those Causes which by local Motion might divide Continuity Therefore the resistive Quality is superfluous The Consequence is denied because that Virtue concurring with the Faculties is necessary for their better being to the end namely that Man might more perfectly be defended from the most violent Causes § 25. In Summ therefore The Qualities of the Tree of Life might be distributed into four Classes for some produced Elemental Qualities others Alexipharmack Qualities others concurred actively with the Faculties of the Body to Connatural Actions and others were Resistive And these last if a Quality actively resisting be not admitted would belong to Patible Quality The first would belong to Habit for if they were Natural Powers they might produce their Effects where and when they were not necessary and not according to the Exigence of the Body And those which concur with the Faculties in their Actions belong to Habit the first Species of Quality Seeing they necessarily and essentially suppose Powers to their Operation and are Qualities of difficult Expulsion which two things are required to Habit according to common Opinion But of the Alexipharmack those which resist Poysons as a kind of Cause Formal belong rather to Patible Quality What as a Cause Efficient if they concur with the Motive Power or with another rather belong to Habit for the last said Reason And they will belong to the same Species whatever should concur with another Active Power But we must take notice of the Resistive Qualities if any there be actively resisting Division of Parts that these if they concur by themselves only are Powers if with the Natural Powers producing Union they are Habits § 26. But Whether were all the foresaid Qualities actively concurring with the Powers more noble than the Powers themselves It seems to be more probably affirmed that they were more noble as to the manner of Operation Because they elevate the Powers a Supra-ordinary Way although within the Bounds of Nature to more noble Actions and at least more intense stronger and quicker than is consistent with their Nature as it operates ordinarily So that the said Actions may especially be attributed to the Tree of Life as to what concerneth this Manner of Operation You will object The Habits also of Powers acquired by Acts do render the Actions more intense stronger and quicker And yet they are not more noble than the Powers Therefore c. The Consequence is denied and there is a disparity of Reason for the Actions of Habits are such that they are attributed especially to the Powers But the Actions of the Powers wherewith the Qualities of the Wood of Life concur are so strong intense and quick and are so efficaciously performed by the Qualities that they may rather be attributed to them than to the Powers and the Powers are more the Instruments of these Qualities in respect of their Actions than the principal Causes § 27. But some one may enquire Whether all Men would have been of the same Temperament I say according to our Opinion that affirms the Wood of Life would have been sufficient for eternal Life and that to this there would have been necessary Supra-elementary Qualities made good by the Wood which would have actively produced Elemental ones in a certain fixt Degree we must consequently say That all Men would have been of the same Temperament after Eating of the Wood. It is effectually proved for the Cause of the Elemental Qualities in all Men would have been of the same Reason and Proportion to wit the more noble Qualities productive of the Elemental in the same proportionate and fixt Degree Therefore the same Temperament in Specie would have been in all Men when they had come to Perfection and that most perfect From whence also it follows that all Men eating the Fruit would have had equal Strength equal Actions of the Senses as well internal as external an equal Strength of Understanding with dependency upon Phantasms For the disposition of the Phantasy would also have been equal When nevertheless it is agreed that some would have been wiser and iuster than others as Thomas e observes Because they would have acted by Free Will whence some would have more applyed their Mind to learn this or that Whereupon it would have followed that some would have been better Proficients in Knowledge others in Justice c. § 28. But you may deservedly enquire Why in Reduction of an Old Man to Youth or of a Sick Man to Health or of an intemperate Body to a temperate there would not have been Disease or Pain seeing sudden Mutations even terminated to a better State do cause this I answer first That a quick Mutation to a natural or better state brings not Pain
in kind which are reckoned necessary to fence preserve and keep the Body which things when they are observed and taken in Quantity and Quality as they ought and as the Rules of Physicians perswade do become the true Causes of Health and Strength But when they are made use of by any man without Regard had to Quality and Quantity they cause Sickness as may be gathered from Galen's Regiment with Haly's Exposition where he treats Of the Regiment of Health But exactly to find out the true Proportion of these Causes and the true Degree of that Proportion is very hardly or not at all to be done but that there will be some Defect or Excess therein Thus the Sages have prescribed more to be done than can be well put in practice For the Understanding is more subtle in Operation so that the true proportioning of these Causes seems impossible unless in Bodies of a better Nature such as now are rarely found But Medicines obscurely laid down by the Antients and as it were concealed whereof Dioscorides speaks do make up these Defects and Proportions For who can avoid the Air infected with putrid Vapours carried about with the force of the Winds Who will measure out Meat and Drink Who can weigh in a sure Scale or Degree Sleep and Watching Motion and Rest and things that vanish in a moment and the Accidents of the Mind so that they shall neither exceed nor fall short Therefore it was necessary that the Antients should make use of Medicines which might in some measure preserve the Body from Alteration and defend the Health of Man oft-times hurt and afflicted with these things and Causes lest the Body utterly eaten up of Diseases should fall to ruine Now for the benefit of your b Excellency I have gathered some things out of the Books of the Antients whose Vertue and Use may avert those Inconveniences this Defect and Weakness may defend the Temper of the Innate Moisture may hinder the Increase and Flux of Extraneous Moisture and may bring to pass which usually otherwise happeneth that the Heat of Man be not so soon debilitated But the Use of these things and Medicines is of no use nor any thing avails them that neglect the Doctrine of the Regiment of Life For how can it be that he who either is ignorant or negligent of Diet should ever be cured by any pains of the Physician or by any Virtue in Physick Wherefore the Physicians and Wise men of old time were of opinion That Diet without Physick sometimes did good but that Physick without due order of Diet never made a man one jot the better Thence it is reckoned more necessary that those rather should be treated of which cannot be known unless of the Wise and those too of a quick Understanding and such as study hard and take a great deal of pains than those things which are easily known even as a man reads them As for my own part being hindred partly by the Charge partly by Impatience and partly by the Rumours of the Vulgar I was not willing to make Experiment of all things which may easily be tryed by others but have resolved to express those things in obscure and difficult terms which I judge requisite to the Conservation of Health lest they should fall into the hands of the unfaithful One of which things lies hid in the c Bowels of the Earth Another in the d Sea The Third e creeps upon the Earth The Fourth lives in the f Air The Fifth is g likened to the Medicine which comes out of the Mine of the Noble Animal The Sixth comes out of the h long-liv'd Animal The Seventh is that whose Mine is the i Plant of India I have resolved to mention these things obscurely imitating the Precept of the Prince of Philosophers to Alexander who said that He is a Transgressor of the Divine Law who discovers the hidden Secrets of Nature and the Properties of things Because some men desire as much as in them lies to overthrow the Divine Law by those Properties that God has placed in Animals Plants and Stones But some of these things stand in need of Preparation Others of a careful Choice Of Preparation lest with the healthful part Poyson be swallowed down Of Choice lest among the best those things that are worse be given and those that are more hurtful be taken For in whatsoever thing the most High GOD hath put an admirable Vertue and Property therein he hath also placed an Hurt to be as it were the Guard of the thing it self For as he would not have his Secrets known of all lest Men should contemn them so he would not have all Men be Adepti lest they should abuse their Power As is manifest in the Serpent Hellebore and Gold From which no man can fetch any noble or sublime Operation unless he be wise skilful and have of a long time experienced them Besides wheresoever GOD hath placed such as unspeakable Vertue he hath added a certain Similitude that every Man who is of a clear and vivacious Wit and Understanding may conceive its Operation For most things act what they are said to act either by their Form or their Matter or their Essence or their Heat by their Durability and long Keeping or by Corâ—uption For that preserves another thing which is long preserved it self and that corrupts another thing which is quickly corrupted it self and it acts that thing according to whose Similitude it is denominated or like as it is formed And this is a Secret which our l First Parents wholly kept secret and to these our very times still remains secret But we must m observe that in some of the aforesaid things and Medicines the Virtue may be separated from its Body as in all Medicines made of Plants and Animals From some it cannot be separated as from all those things that are of a thick Substance as Metals and what things soever are of the kind of Stones as Coral Jacinths and the like And these are to be subtilly powdered in the last degree and this properly agrees with our Intent that iâ— may come to its proper end of Elongationâ— as Avicenna saith in his second Canon Oâ— the judgment of Medicines that are outâ—wardly applyed But this Powdering cannot be made in Metals except by Burning Which Avicenna affirms in his Chapter Of the Leprosâ— concerning the Preparation of Gold anâ— Silver and in his fifth Canon where Consectio Hyacinthi is shewn But certain other Men have given Ruleâ— how to dissolve Medicines of thick Substance as Aristotle saith according to Isaâ—â— in his Degrees in his Canon Of Perl speaking thus I have seen certain Men dissolvâ— Perl with the Juice and Liquor whereâ—â— Morphews being washed were fully oâ—red and made whole But in Medicines which are mixt to theâ— Plants and Animals a Separation of thâ— Virtue from the Body it self may be madeâ— And their Virtue and Matter will operaâ—â— stronger and better alone than
whom after they have recovered their Health the Hairs return to their former Disposition Here the cause is the Weakness of Natural Heat in concocting the Nourishment in the external parts and when Strength and Health return the Hair grows black But Avicenna saith in his fourth Canon Of the Disposition of those that are recovering their Health that therefore the Hairs wax white because they are deprived of their Nourishment by reason the Innate Moisture goes out and is dispers'd which whilst it abides within causeth the blackness of the Hair as is manifest in Corn which is dryed and grows white by ripening afterwards when it is wet with Dew its Greenness returns Besides there is in every Member a natural Power residing which according to its Complexion turns the Nutriment into the Likeness of that Member and differs from that Power which turns the Nutriment into the Likeness of another Member and from this Diversity a Weakness in the Skin proceeds as Avicenna saith in his first Canon Of Natural Powers But when the Vertue of the Member is weak it infects and corrupts the nature and wholesome Juice of the Aliment that flows thither Which being corrupted all things that penetrate into that Member are depravedâ— Like as a good Constitution doth alter even bad and unwholesome Food so that it becomes good apt and convenient for nourishing Nature Galen reports according to Avicenna in his first Canon Of the Morphew that there is a certain a Tree which at its first growth is deadly and poysonous yet it may be changed so as without any danger it may become wholesome Food And this is done by the planting of it As there is a Tree in Persia poysonous and whose Fruit is hurtful but being removed into Egypt and planted there its Fruit is safely eaten and being brought back again into Persia it obtains its former poysonous Quality For this Cause Medicines were invented that might be applyed to the outward Parts as Bathings and Anointings For such Medicaments are more useful to remove Diseases which arise from the Hurt of the fourth Digestion than inward ones Because the Vertue of Medicines taken inwardly is rendred so dull and weak of the first and second Digestion that when it arrives at the fourth degree of Digestion it is so broken that it cannot at all profit as Avicenna saith in his Canon Of Weariness and Old Age. And so Anointings do strengthen the Vertue of the fourth Digestion Which I think to be most true by reason outward Medicaments are nearer the Places affected especially if the Humour be purged or do not offend in the inner Parts But if the Humour aforesaid offend first of all the Body must be absolutely purged of it Then the Skin must be made cleaner by a long Effusion and Provocation of plentiful Sweat And Thirdly The Virtue in that Member which is ill affected must be refreshed Because if the Medicine avail not something toward the strengthning the Vertue of the Part the Humour will abound again and prevail the more And that especially when Melancholy Humours bring the Hurt But some have said that fully to drive away these Humours the Vertue of Laxatives without their Body is sufficient For the Power of Laxatives operates more when freed from the Lump of Body than joyned with it and this is that which Avicenna saith in his first Canon in the Chapter Of the Disposition of Purging Medicines Then we must apply such Medicines outwardly whose property it is to temper the Essence of the Member and its Constitution and to hinder that the scattered Reliques of the superfluous Humour be not received of that Member as Terra Sigillata Bole Armenick and such things use to do either through some Operation that is in them or for the Similitude and Equality of Complexion for that it cools what is too Hot and heats what is too Cold. Which Galen thinks very likely in the Oyl of Roses as Avicenna saith in his first Canon Of the Operation of particular Medicines This Accident I say of Greyness renders a Man more deformed and is more apparent than any other in the Body I have studiously searched its Cause and Original And wise Physicians have laid down the Cause and Remedy of these Accidents in their Treatise of Preserving Beauty For at the Approach of these b Deformity is caused and through their Delay in the time of Manhood is a Man's Comeliness For this Age by Avicenna is called the Age of Beauty NOTES on CHAP. III. a Of this Tree Dioscorides speaks in his first Book Chap. 147. in these words The Peach Tree is a Tree in Egypt bearing Fruit fit for Food good for the Stomach Wherein Spiders called Cranocolapta are found especially in Thebais The dry Leaves reduced to Powder and applyed stop Eruptions of Blood Some have declared that this Tree is destructive in Persia and being translated into Egypt it changes its Nature and is made use of for Food b Theophrastus in his Character of Flattery hath these Words What a Reverend Grey Beard you have got And yet You if any Man considering your Years have your Hair black And to be long in growing grey was ever accounted an Argument of a lusty and vivid Old Age. Therefore effeminate Men were as careful to hide their Grey Hairs as Women their Wrinkles as Plautus and Martial do testifie CHAP. IV. Of the Wrinkles of the Skin Paleness rotten Phlegm Bleareyedness Shortness of Breath and other things which especially have relation to the Body WE have already spoken of the Causes of one Accident namely Greyness now we must treat of the Wrinkles of the Skin Paleness and other things which especially have relation to the Body These Evils betide Men sometimes before the stated Time sometimes at their due season Wrinkles of the Skin are contracted either from the Flesh extenuated whence there remains a loosning of the Skin Or From the Want of Flesh and hence comes the shriveling of it And Aristotle saith in the end of his fifth Book Of Animals that this comes through the Putrefaction of the Humour For he saith that Wrinkling which befalls Bodies is unlike to Slickness because if the Vapour be concrete thence is caused Slickness and it putrefies not nor do Wrinkles arise This Accident often happens to them that are as it were burnt up in the Fire and do handle things belonging to the Forge as is evident in the Smiths Trade For the Use of these things dries exceedingly and makes the Face pale and full of Wrinkles Therefore those Dames that are over-careful of their Beauty use to turn away their Face from the Fire But those things which remove the Wrinkling of the Skin you shall find hereafter in that Chapter wherein the things are declared which use to render the Skin delicate for Youthful Beauty Cleanness and Redness Paleness also according to some is a Companion of Old Age which falls out in Young Men from superfluous and redounding Phlegm in old Men
three Ways as Avicenna saith in his third Canon in his Chapter Of the Hurt of the Senses They are known by three Ways that is by three kinds of Signs which are not Signs of Diseases that hinder Sense to wit of the Permutation of sense of the Alienation of it of Folly of Madness of a broken Memory and of a depraved Imagination But I mean those for Signs which are not truly Diseases but happen as Hurts in the Senses yet are reckoned among Diseases When we say In the Senses Understand by Senses the Instruments wherein the Soul operates Sense Whereas before we said that this Hurt was produced by two Causes One of them is that which happens on the Score of the Rational Soul when it is weakned For the Intellect being hurt and as it were roving upon all manner of Thoughts the Internal Sensations do deviate But while Health is preserved in Man no Hurt falls on the Intellect nor therefore on the Sense Another Cause is when in a sound Man some Hurts befal the Senses which are not made on the Score of the Rational Soul alone but on the Score of those Instruments which by Avicenna are called the Ventricles of the Brain without which the Soul is neither able to imagine nor discern nor remember And the Regiment contrived in this Epistle will easily instruct a Man to remove such Hurt to preserve the Faculty so as to discern more subtilly and to remember aright also how to defend that no hurtful thing do fall into these Cells or Ventricles of the Brain From these things it may appear to your Clemency by what means our Forefathers being soundly Wise obtained a clear Sharpness and Force of Intellect able to pierce into the Secrets of things because namely they observed the Health not only of their Body but the Regiment of the three Instruments of the Head and made use of the Properties of certain things which afterward they altogether kept secret lest they should come to the Hands of the Unfaithful And that this is possible easily appears The Prince of Philosophers in that Book which he published to gratifie the Request of Alexander saith plainly That nothing is difficult to the power of Understanding and that all things are b possible in a way of Reason And in the Secrets of Hermogenes according to Aristotle it is said That the chief true and perfect Good is a clear and full Light of Understanding And therefore Seneca said That Divine Seeds were disseminated in Humane Bodies namely Sense and Understanding Now if he that hath these Seeds be a good Husbandman things like their Original will grow up and if a bad one he produces no other thing than what a barren Field doth yield I have also found this That there is an admirable Virtue placed in Plants Animals and Stones Which is partly hidden from the Men of this Age from the Property of which things Philosophers have obtained a Clearness of Understanding As for what concerns the Memory the Signs which show the Dammages of a hurt Memory as the Son of Abohaly writes are When the Sense of Man is safe and the Imagination of Things and Forms in c Sleep and Waking is sound if Remembrance be not easie the Memory is hurt And then If what a man hath invented formerly he be not able when he hath Occasion for it to call it to Mind and the Imagination be safe it is very likely the Memory is hurt and that the fault lies in the hind part of the Head But the Signs of the Cogitation that is of the middle Part 's being hurt are these If there be no Impediment in the Memory and if a Man speak those things that ought not to be spoken and fear those things which he ought not to fear and think that to be good which is very hurtful and judge that may be hoped which it is not lawful to hope for and acts things not to be acted and enquires into things which ought not to be enquired into and if he can call to Mind whatsoever he pleases then the Hurt is in the Cogitation that is the middle part of the Brain Finally Signs of a hurt Imagination are these namely If a Mans Memory and Talk be as they ought to be if he contradict not the things which he did himself if he speak not those things which seem contrary to Reason if he imagine not things not sensible if he collect many things if while he sees Particulars he see falsly namely Water Fire and the like if he imagine weakly concerning the Forms of things in Sleep and Waking then the Hurt is in the Imagination and Forepart of the Brain If two or three of these things be complicated then the Hurt is in two or three Parts that is in the recesses of the Brain And when any of these things enclines to Diminution the Disease is from Cold if to Permutation it is from Heat But some have thought that the Defect and Diminution of these Operations arises from the Diminution of the Substance of the Brain I have diligently collected the Cure of these Hurts from the Tables of the Parts of the Head which the Son of the Prince Abohaly published in his Book Of the Support of the Art of Physick And besides I have laid down this way of Cure how it must be used in the End of this Epistle and there you shall find most fit Medicines for to cure this foresaid Accident For especially for this Accident and in the second place for others I composed this Epistle at the Perswasion of two Wise men in Paris For not only the Aged but even Young Men for want of Regiment and through Ignorance of certain things as is daily manifest being made in a manner blind are miserably hurt And now we have finished the first part of this Epistle concerning Speculative Knowledge We must next speak of Operative or Practical Knowledge NOTES on CHAP. VI. a Here Sense seems comprehensive of Reason And this old Hypothesis of various Faculties and their as various Seats bears a most harmonious Concent to Reason and the newest Anatomick Phaenomena For neither do I think Faculties unnecessarily multiplied in this place nor yet their Receptacles unduly assigned them If the Author's Imagination Cogitation and Memory that is the Moderns Common Sense Iudgment and Memory had been the same Faculty he had such skill in the several Phases of these Luminaries as Dr. Smith in his Portraicture of Old Age calls the Faculties of Mans Soul that he would never have parcelled an Individuum into many distinct Species by Apparency For we may remember that in the foregoing Chapter he likes not Distinguishing between the Appetitive and Digestive Faculty but thinks them one And since Reason as well as so great Authority countenanceth this Triplicity of Faculties I shall take leave to dissent from two Learned Men a Physical Divine and a Theological Physician i. e. Dr. Reynolds in his Treatise of the Passions
Throat out scrus'd His scarce warm Blood and her receipt infus'd His Mouth or Wound suckt in His Beard and Head Black Hairs forthwith adorn the hoary shed Pale Colour Morphew meagre Looks remove And under rising Flesh his Wrinkles smooth His Limbs wax strong and lusty AEson much Admires his Change himself remembers such Twice twenty Summers past withal indu'd A youthful Mind and both at once renew'd CHAP. VIII Of those things that defend the Natural Moisture when bred and restrain it from Dissolution and that render it more sincere when restored THings that defend the Natural Moisture from Dissolution and when restor'd that render it more sincere are three One whereof a swims in the Sea Another is b hid in the inmost Recesses of the Earth The third is usually c found in the Bowels of the Animal that lives long These three do not only defend the Radical Moisture from Dissolution but they preserve it and its Natural Heat in good Temper So that they depart not from their Temper and Harmony and while these two are not changed there need be no fear of Sickness in Man For in these two Health and length of Days do consist as Aristotle saith in his Epistle to Alexander Although these Kind of Things be known nevertheless they ought to be most accurately chosen and skilfully prepared for all the Secret is in their Preparation which the Wise have concealed because they are of a thick Substance and must be very finely ground For the Son of the Prince Abohaly saith in his second Canon in the Chapter Of the judgment of certain Medicines that all Medicines of a thick Substance must be ground as fine as can be and good reason since our Intention is that they should come to the utmost End of their Journey and that they should pass to the fourth Digestion and to the Heart and Members of Similar Parts But these forementioned things stand in need as I said before of Choice and of divers Preparations one of which may be better than another and the last or third the best But the Medicine which is found in the Bowels of the long-lived Animal is a Gristle which will weigh above one Scruple which in almost all other Creatures is Blood One of these Animals was found in our Time about whose neck there was a golden Collar put wherein was written Hoc Animal fuit positum in hoc Nemore tempore Julii Caesaris i. e. This Animal was put in this Wood in the time of Julius Caesar. This Medicine cold of it self if it be mixt with hot Cordials preserves the Moisture that it be not dissolved and the Natural Heat that it be not extinguished As to that which swims in the Sea some say it is cold some will have it temperate in Complexion And Isaac discoursing of it affirms that it clarifies the Blood especially that of the Heart it self and discusses and attenuates its gross Nature it dries up Defluxions and hurtful Humours in the Eyes it is very good for those that are troubled with the Palpitation of the Heart and for the fearful and suspicious who are troubled with Melancholy And others have thought that it is very good for those that are troubled with the falling Sickness and that it causes a Man to vomit congealed and clotted Blood whether from a Wound or from any other Cause if the Powder of it be taken in Drink and if it be mixt with any other Liquor it will cure the Ails that come of the fourth Digestion if the Skin be washed therewith such as are the white Morphew But that Medicine which by Nature is wisely enough laid up in the Bowels of the Earth hath this Property that it keeps the Natural Moisture from being so soon corrupted and it also retains it in its natural Temper and most commodiously fenceth the Native Heat that it contract no strange Quality and it recalls all things intemperate in the Body to a Temper And Isaac saith in his Book Of the support of the Art of Physick that it hath Power to help a weak Stomach the fearful and such as are troubled with the Passion of the Heart and is an excellent Cure for them that are polluted and infected with Baldness and the Leprosie And the Prince saith that this best of Medicines is very profitable for Headaches and the shaking Palsie and also for those that by night being mischievously fascinated in their Brain out of Madness talk to themselves Nor is it to be wondred that this Medicine can do such great things because the Son of Zacharias saith it is temperate in the tenth Degree and surpasses and exceeds all others in Temper For there is in it an equal and right Nature and it is not subject to the Corruption of any of the Elements Whoever therefore doth earnestly desire to preserve any Humane Body perfect in Health and unhurt and to hinder that the Internal Moisture be not easily diminished to renew the Moisture it self when renew'd to defend it from too quick and hasty Destruction and so to cherish the Powers of the Body as that they may not be hurt of these Six Causes that continually change the State of the Body let him most studiously seek out this thing For it will easily perform all these things as Aristotle saith in his Book Of the Secrets of Secrets nor will it suffer Mens Health to be endangered or overthrown by these Causes ill proportioned For these Causes do very much Harm to the Complexion and Composition of the Body as was said before in the Chapter Of the Causes of Old Age. Aristotle thinks it impossible that Medicines so fading and so soon perishing should be able to preserve Mens Bodies in Health that they be not dissolved before the Time or that they should repel and restrain all the Accidents of Old Age. But Physicians believe they are able to do this and that with Aromatick Medicines which also are subject to Corruption Therefore this to me seems possible For this Medicine doth admirable things when it is well prepared and very well drawn out And when it is made after the best preparation it produces sublime Operations And in this is the whole Secret of the Ancients Know you therefore most Gracious Prince that the Uses of the things aforesaid are great and understand that they can easily retain the Natural Moisture and Heat in Temper And may be that Water was of this kind which an aged d Husbandman in the Kingdom of Sicily being weary at Plow did drink He thought it was like yellowish Water and after he had greedily swallowed it up being warm with the Heat of his Labour he was so changed in Complexion and Strength that he became as it were of about thirty Years of Age and was endowed with better Judgment Memory and Understanding than he had before He lived after that at the Kings Court fourscore Years Some Wise Men have asserted that some e Cordial Medicine ought to be mixt with
the humour which is the cause of Greyness and the Original of the Accidents of Old Age. But Avicenna in his first Chapter Of the Complexions of Ages and Kinds affirms that not only Phlegm but that all strange and extraneous Humours are the Causes of these Accidents I judge this to be true but it is Phlegm especially that doth the thing Therefore a Vomit is useful especially afternoon as Avicenna saith in his fourth Tract Of Adorning Neither ought a Man to take a Vomit every day but once or twice a Month as Rasy teacheth in his Regiment in his Book to Almansor in the Canon Of Vomit And so all the Latin Physicians do agree in this Galen's Purge is Pilulae de Mastiche and Aloes For they purge Phlegm as Isaac saith in his Book Of Greyheadedness Also the Purge that Haly appoints and Avicenna likewise hath this Property namely to purge gently the hurtful Humours without any harm to the Native Moisture And therefore Purging is proper which we ought to use in extruding these kind of Humours and it must be understood of that Purgation wherein there is no Laxative but Aloes And such Aloes ought to be Hepatica as saith Royal Haly. It s Attraction is not from far and remote Parts but from those it meets in its way that is from the Stomach and Guts and the remoter Place of its Attraction is the Liver without the Veins as is manifest in the second Canon in the Tract of Hierae It seems also very likely that every b kind of Rue hath the Power of Purging these things For Aristotle in his Epistle to Alexander appoints that he should take Rue every Morning He saith that Rue drives away the Phlegm of the Stomach that it is the Life of the Liver that it stirs up the Natural Heat and dispels Windiness Haly also saith this in his Regiment Old Men ought to be purged not with sharp and violent Purgatives but with milder as with Broth of Pullets c. and other gentle things as with Myrobalans Chepuli and many of the same kind Besides c Citrull-Seed is useful in purging the Reins and cleansing of Humours Rue also purgeth the Head and Reins Stomach and Liver as we have said before A Clyster also that purgeth Phlegm well restrains the Accidents and Weaknesses of Old Age as Avicenna saith in his Canon Of things that keep back Grey Hairs In which Clyster these things ought properly to be Mercury Dwarf Elder and Elder so they be well mixt and strained in the Clyster Such a gentle Clyster is very profitable for Old Men whose Nature is weaker But it should seem that every Purgative rather brings on than restrains Grey Hairs and provokes the Accidents of Old Age so that they approach the sooner rather than it puts any stop to their coming because Hippocrates affirms as Avicenna testifies in the Chapter Of Exercise that Purging Physick draws from the Body the greater share of the Natural Moisture which is as it were the Substance of Life This is true if such Physick be administred as doth indifferently purge d every Humour or if it be given to such as are e well enough in Health and do not lack the vertue of a Medicament Black Hellebore also well prepared doth separate the Humour that is the Cause of these Accidents and Avicenna saith that its Nature is to change the evil Complexion of the Body and to bring on a better The Use also of Bathes is profitable for a fasting Stomach for it consumes the Phlegmatick Moisture especially in those that are of a cold Constitution In like manner Gargarisms as Aristotle saith in his Book Of the Secrets of Secrets Old Men also are to be bathed fasting especially they that are Phlegmatick For it is better that a Man should receive from the Moisture of the Bath than the Bath from the Moisture of a Mans Body But the Bath draws the Humours to the Superficies and Skin of the Body and therefore seems rather a Cause than Impediment of Greyness and rather to make Men grey than to preserve them from Grey Hairs Therefore we have added that Fasting must precede and Evacuation of Superfluities be before Bathing as Hippocrates saith Trifera of Black Emblick and Bellirick Myrobalans is one of those things which averts the Infirmities and Accidents of Old Age as Rasy affirms in his Tract Of Adorning the Hair also an Electuary of Indian Myrobalans with Sugar keeps back Grey Hairs as Rasy saith in his Book to Almansor Chewing of preserved Myrobalans is a Cause that the Hairs do not so early put on Greyness Avicenna also testifies this in his Canon Of Things hindring Grey Hairs And if chewing of Myrobalans and Chepuli preserved be daily used Youth is more easily preserved For this Trifera operates by drying up the Phlegm and that the more if the Pine-Nut be added which is hot and moist in the third according to some in the second Degree but a small Quantity is to be added For it hath the Property of drying up the corrupt Moisture of breeding a good one of making that fat and of strengthning a sick and debilitated Body It is good for the Cough and putrefyed Humors in the Lungs it cleanseth the Humors in the Reins and Bladder it prevents Ulcers of the Bladder and removes the Stone It is a Medicine most fit for Old Men and for them that have a cold Complexion It must be taken after Meat It hath more Vertue when fresh than old and which is a Wonder among the Secrets of Nature it may be both Meat and Medicine Meat in that it restores the Natural Moisture Medicine in that it dries up and cleanseth all strange and foreign Moisture Evacuation of the Preternatural Humidity is performed by any Medicine whatever wherein are put the f Skales of Iron but with more ease and better where there is Gold well prepared as Avicenna saith in his Tract Of Things which keep back Grey Hairs For Gold hath the Vertue to divide and separate the Phlegmatick Matter from the true and useful Humour of the Body That Medicine also whose g Mine is the Indian Plant casts out the redounding Plenty of Phlegm Of which the Prince speaks saying That it is of a hot and dry Complexion in the Second Degree of subtil Operation and Complexion it opens Obstructions drives away Wind and Vapors strengthens the Bowels bridles and restrains Anger removes strange and hurtful defluxions of the Humors refreshes the Nerves and bedews them with a thin and subtil Moisture it is very good for the Brain it sharpens the Senses chears the Heart it self and hath also a Vertue to stop immoderate Urine and the Melancholick Dysentery Isaac speaks thus of it It strengthens all the inner Parts expells the Superfluities of the Body opens the Obstruction of the Liver and helps the Superfluity and Defect of the Bladder That is to be made choice of which is of a blackish Inside and Outside which contains as it were
before their Substance be clear When the Wine shall be such let a Man drink as his Age and the nature of the Season will permit For then it will preserve the Stomach strengthen the Natural Heat help Digestion defend the Body from Corruption carry the Food to all the Parts and concoct the Food till it be turned into very Blood It also cheers the Heart tinges the Countenance with Red makes the Tongue voluble begets Assurance and promises much Good and Profit If it be over-much guzzled it will on the contrary do a great deal of Harm For it will darken the Understanding ill affect the Brain render the Natural Vigor languid bring Forgetfulness weaken the Joynts beget shaking of the Limbs and Bleareyedness it will darken and make black the Blood of the Heart Whence Fear Trembling Weakness of the Genitals and the Destruction and Ruine of the Seed do arise And which is worse it breeds the w Leprosie and so imitates the Nature of the Serpent which taken immoderately and not as Physicians advise is mortal of which well prepared Antidotes are made that cure Diseases NOTES on CHAP. XII a Some would have this to be Quintessence of Mans Blood But what the Author speaks of cannot be predicable of any Quintessence For his Arcanum is applied Plasterwise Quintessences are taken inwardly Neither does he mention any Preparation of it at all but gives only the Vertues of it in puris naturalibus Some might imagine it a Precious Stone that turns its Orient Splendor into a sordid pale Blush at the Venereal Pollutions of its Possessor But no one can imagine that the Sapphire in a Ring can contribute to the Guilt of the Incontinent otherwise than as sometimes it is the Price of their Iniquity which its fading doth betray Now our Author declaring he could meet but with little of it in Physick I guess we must have recourse to Divinity in which he was also conversant Where in 1 King 1. 1 2 3 4. we meet with that Medicine more plainly which is here more obscurely described 1. Now King David was old and stricken in years and they covered him with Cloths but he gat no Heat 2. Wherefore his Servants said unto him Let there be sought for my Lord the King a young Virgin and let her stand before the King and let her cherish him and let her lye in thy Bosome that my Lord the King may get Heat 3. So they sought for a fair Damsel thorowout all the Coasts of Israel and found Abishag a Shunamite and brought her to the King 4. And the Damsel was very fair and cherished the King and ministred to him but the King knew her not The Iews say that when Saul was easing himself David cut off the Skirt of his Robe for which David's Heart smote him and the Qualm came so cold over his Heart that he could never after recover it Others say He quaked so â—erribly at the sight of the Angels drawn Sword which destroy'd his People that the Cold Fit held him to his dying-day But King David was old and stricken in Years and they covered him with Cloths but he gat no Heat Wherefore his Servants advise him to this Remedy b Our Author has given Abishag the very fair Damsel's Adumbration most curiously c Here are this fair Shunamite's Rose of Sharon and Lily of Damascus d her Hair like Purple in curling Locks e her two young Roes that are Twins feeding among the Lilies f her Head filled with the Dew and her Locks with the Drops of the Night g her Countenance fair as the Moon clear as the Sun h her Fruit sweet to her Tast as She sits under the Shadow with great delight i her Spikenard and chief Spices k while the Southwind blows upon her Garden that the Spices thereof may flow l her Well of Living Waters and Streams of Lebanon m And here the fairest among Women is wounded by the Watchmen and then her Beloved departs n Here our Author allows a wholesome Contagion as well as a morbid and a Sympathy in Health as well as in Sickness between Creatures of the same Kind which argues that this Help meet for an Old Man must be somewhat Humane o And let her cherish him p And let her lye in thy Bosome that my Lord the King may get Heat q But the King knew her not r This danger of Incontinence is another convincing Argument that our Authors Cataplasm is a Virgin the greatest Temptation to that Fault Now if the Sin of eating the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil were the Scriptural Knowledge of a Woman as is some Learned Mens Opinion a spotless Virginity may very likely do some Good in protracting that evil Day of Man which Woman's corruption first brought upon him Or admit if our first Parents had not eat the Apple as most Divines allow they really did Man might have been conceived without Sin or brought forth without Sorrow this and all other Acts being naturally performed according to the Will of his Creator as the Sun goes round without Sin but that by the Fall Will and Pleasure is become Sinful and Lust exorbitant which before was as pure innocent natural Propensity as for the Stars to keep their Courses Even in Nature this way corrupted the Remedy is highly Rational For in this Case the Virgin Heat irritated and exalted by the Contact of Man thus Old exerts it self by its Incubation on her Bedfellow when she fails of Conception by him and so acts that Vigor outwardly in preserving her decaying Species which she would otherwise inwardly in Procreation of it anew And on the other side this Old Dust and Ashes may by his warm Concubine have some Sparks kindled in him so as to keep the Embers alive that for want of fewel are not able to break out into a Flame of Lust however willing though insufficient to take green Wood. But if the Old Mans Vital Flame thus trembling and lambent on himself should proceed to animate Posterity he must only expect his own speedy Extinction s This is Old Mens Milk for there is no fitter Vehicle to accelerate the heavy Circulation of their Blood than Generous Wines t But what shall we say of Rhenish White and Claret which have an innate watrish Crudity besides a worse mixture oftentimes at the Vintners u These Properties should be well considered in our Beer and Ale whose Cold Clime refuseth the Grape And since Fire is to them what the Sun is to the Grape we should take great care they be well boil'd and allow them time enough to ferment and ripen But here I must take notice of a modern ill Custome of drinking Brandy which may very well serve Medicinally upon extraordinary Occasion but the constant Vse of it must needs dry exceedingly the Blood and Inwards especially and so turn Mens Bodies to dry old Skeletons or by creating Obstructions in the Alimental Passages cause Dropsies and either hasten Old Age or
Take your Meat prepared as before put it in a glazed Pot in the middle whereof let there stand a wooden Grate or one of any other matter lay your Meat upon it so that the Bottom of the Pot may be empty close the Pot with its Cover well luted with Paste of Meal and Water well kneaded Set it in Balneo Mariae boyling for five Hours You will have a limpid Liquor at the Bottom Two or three Spoonfuls of such a Preparation taken twice or thrice a Day is reckoned a great Restorative c We read in Daniel how Pulse and Water made the four Children fairer in Countenance and fatter in Flesh than they that fared on the Royal Provision Now Daniel having so good skill in the Learning of the Chaldaeans as to be set over all the Wise Men of Babylon who were a sort of Men that by their Skill in natural things could do Wonders I no more question that by the same Skill he knew Pulse would nourish well and give a good Colour than that he understood by Books the number of the Years of the Captivity of his People My Reason is He that would not eat the Kings Meat nor drink of his Wine lest he should be defiled by offering part thereof on an Altar if by or by casting a little into the Fire where there was no Altar which was a Propitiatory Grace to some Heathen Deity this Man sure would never have allowed himself the Enquiry into the Wisdom and Learning of the Chaldees had such Learning been either sinful or useless And it could never be more serviceable than in this Case Neither do I think Pease-Pottage a contemptible Dish among the Iews since it made their Father Jacob an Elder Brother Besides had not Pulse been a Driver out that great Physician Avicenna would not have made so much Vse thereof in the Small Pox and Measles d By Galen Garlick is called Plow-man's Treacle e A merry Heart makes a chearful Countenance and the Circulation of the Blood is so Symmetrous to the Revolution of Man's Thoughts that Men skill'd in Prudentials have reckoned Vultum esse animi Indicem and ever took more notice of an accidental Glance in a Passion than of the most perswasive composed Eloquence Anger glows as a red and lowring Aurora Ioy bespreads the Scene with a serene Hesperial Crimson So Cataline for all his fair shews in Words to the Senate yet discovered that Treason in his very Face as Historians describe him which his Heart was then contriving f Choler is by some reckoned the Salt of the Microcosm which helps to keep the Flood of Humors from Putrefaction And this as well as the Macrocosmick Ocean unless sometimes it have its aestus will be liable to Putrefaction But this and all other Passions must be confin'd within their Banks lest Men be transported to their Ruine For though Grief once turn'd a Queen to Marble yet sudden and excessive Ioy hath often inscribed an Epitaph upon it Thus to some Men hath excess of Happiness prov'd as much of Misery CHAP. XVI Of the Vsefulness of this Epistle Of the Regiment of Old Men and of things that help the outward Senses as also the Imagination Reason and Memory and of the Composition of certain Medicines LET us see what the Regiment of this Epistle doth add to the Regiment of Old Men laid down by the Wise in escaping the Accidents of Old Age and how much it helps Men while it recounts the Meats and Things of good Juice which are of Use to Old Men and those that are stricken in Years Which thing indeed the Regiments of other Men do not fully perform This Epistle therefore shews by what a Meats the Natural Moisture may be restored Then how it may be made more b sincere when it is restored Thirdly by what Means the c Accidents of Old Age which come on apace may commodiously be hindered It also shows how a d foreign Humour and unnatural that is the Fountain and Cause of these Evils may be purged and wasted It likewise opens a Way whereby the e Senses of Man by being recreated with the Virtues of things may be repaired how the f Natural Heat being spent and shaken by some outward Causes may be restored and how g White Hairs shed and new ones come in their Room Sixthly it shows Medicines whereby the h Animal Vertue as it were dying and weary may be excited Motion deficient may be renewed the i Skin deformed with Wrinkles and other ways may be made fair Seventhly It shows how the three k Instruments of the Senses do operate and are governed in every man lest by reason of them any fault should fall upon the Soul and if it should fall how it may be removed And it teacheth many other things which have been treated of in their proper Chapters But the things which are laid down by us in this Epistle differ very much from the things laid down by the Antients First because the Antients Regiment of living defends Mens Bodies from hastening to their End besides the Course of Nature But our Regiment lays open by what Way Old Men and the well stricken in Years may easily be freed and defended from the Accidents of Old Age which are wont to happen not only to Old Men but even to those that are Young Again their Regiment shows how healthy Bodies may be kept so that they may not be disaffected But ours teacheth to take away those Accidents which do come before their Time and to retard these which use to come at their proper Season Thirdly their Regiment is as it were the Beginning Ours as the End For the things which they have taught are as it were the Means to know and use those things which are here expressed Therefore let us now discourse of the Regiment of the Old and Aged that we may see what is added by us to the Labors and Studies of the Antients The summ of the Universal Regiment is this as Avicenna saith namely that such Men use that which heats and moistens as also nourishing things and quick of Digestion and Bathes and much Sleep and long lying in bed and Provocation of Urine and Expulsion of Phlegm from the Stomach and Guts To the end that Kindliness of Nature may endure chafing with Oyl in a moderate Quantity and Quality is very good for Men of decrepit Age and for those that are growing Old But let them ride and walk moderately as their Strength will endure They ought daily to smell to sweet smelling Spices especially to the moderately hot After Sleep let them anoint themselves with Oyl as is said in the Chapter Of things that strengthen the Body But they must use the six kinds of non-natural things according to the equable and temperate way of Physicians as Aristotle saith that a Physician ought in the Regiment of Old Men to consider the Six kinds of Causes which are wont necessarily to alter the Body But above all he must
and expose to open View the most curious Workmanship of the greatest Artist which perhaps hath been before or since Himself g g Take of Rosemary four Drachms of Xyloaloes two Drachms a little Musk and Saffron h h By Amber here our Author intends Amber Gryse For he calls it Ambra and not Succinum which is solid Amber Besides Succinum was never reckoned a Spice as Amber is here And though both Ambra and Succinum be great Restorers of the Animal Spirits yet the former is more efficacious i i Amber Gryse a Bituminous Body found floating on the Sea k k See Chap. XIII l l Take of Gold artificially prepared so that it may easily be powdered four Drachms of Coral two Drachms of the Bone of Stag's Heart one Drachm m m Here is meant Gold calcined or Bezoardicum Solare many Processes whereof are in Chymical Authors n n See Chap. XII FINIS ARBOR VITAE OR A Physical Account OF THE TREE of LIFE In the Garden of Eden BY EDWARD MADEIRA ARRAIS M. D. Physician to IOHN the IV. King of Portugal Translated out of the Latine A Piece useful for Divines as well as Physicians LONDON Printed for Tho. Flesher at the Angel and Crown in S t Pauls Church-yard M DC LXXXIII TO THE READER READER THE Author of this following Treatise is Edward Madeira Arrais of Lisbon Doctor in Physick and Physician to John IV. King of Portugal that King who recovered his Crown out of the Hands of Spain and was Father to her present Majesty of Great Britain This his Physician wrote a Book of Occult Qualities wherein he has explained their Nature so fully that he hath almost altered it for they very far cease to be such and hath taken away from Philosophers the Reproach of Occult Qualities being their Subterfuge He writes in a Philosophical and Scholastick Style You will find in him more Sense than Words more Argument than Rhetorick Before this his Work he hath these Words Disputationem construo de Qualitatibus illius Ligni sive Arboris Vitae Paradisi Terreni ad Vitam aeternam aut saltem diuturnissimè prorogandam quarum Qualitatum nullus Authorum in particulari meminit aut verbum ullum protulit de quibus novam ac nunquam antea auditam Philosophiam proferimus I compose a Discourse concerning the Qualities of that Wood or Tree of Life in the Earthly Paradise which either prolonged Life to Eternity or at least a very long Time of which Qualities no Author hath made mention in particular or spoke one Word About which we produce a Philosophy new and never heard of before And he hath made good his Promise For in declaring the Nature of the Tree of Life beside many excellent things in Physick he also shews the Nature of that Spiritual Body wherewithall we shall be raised at the last Day and makes it appear what we shall be when we shall eat of the Tree of Life in the Midst of the Paradise of GOD by Reason as well as Scripture in the Course of Nature without a Miracle And it is such a Piece of Natural Theology or Scriptural Philosophy that you will be forced to acknowledge there is a Religio Medici without either Atheism or Heresie But to expatiate with me no further enter this Learned Paradise and taste the Tree of Life Richard Browne The Preface § 1. EXpositors of Holy Writ have made the Tree of Life very famous by which our first Parents and all their Posterity had been priviledged against Death and might have spun their Thread of Life to Eternity had they obeyed the Divine Precept Moses mentions this Gen. 2. and 3. And though Divines dispute many things about it yet since it is necessary in many things to have Recourse to the Principles of Physick and also to our Doctrine of Occult Qualities seeing such a Propagation of Life could never be obtain'd but by some Occult Virtues as shall be made evident in the process of this Treatise I cannot be thought to put my Sickle into another Man's Harvest if concerning the Qualities of this Wood or Tree I shall at this time discourse what is worthy a Philosophical Man and his Knowledge especially since never any Philosopher yet disputed of it in Particular nay nor spake one Word about it § 2. Eight Doubts therefore may be moved about this Tree or Wood. First Whether it was proper and true Wood or Metaphorical Secondly Whether the Vertue it had to perpetuate Life was Natural or Supernatural Thirdly Whether its Vertue were such as to preserve Life Time without end Fourthly Whether it sufficed to give Life eternal if it were but once taken Fifthly Whether this Wood of Life were a Cause adaequate to the escaping all Occasions of Death Sixthly By what Qualities in particular it performed this Seventhly After what manner the Resistence of those Qualities might defend that Man's Body who eat of the Tree of Life from all external Causes that could hurt it Eighthly Whether the Cause of the very long Life of the first Men were some other Trees of Paradise or the Tree of Life § 3. And although only the Sixth and Seventh which were never disputed upon or so much as hinted at by any one yet do truly fall under our Cognisance Nevertheless that they may the more clearly be decided it is necessary to resolve the other according to the probable Opinions of Divines most of which notwithstanding the Reader may find adorned and amplified from the Philosophy of Physicians especially from this of ours of Occult Qualities DOUBT I. Whether the Wood of Life were a proper and true Tree or only Metaphorical COncerning this first Doubt it is the common Opinion nay even Matter of Faith as Suarez a asserts that the Wood of Life was a corporeal and true Tree which in Paradise yielded Fruit fit for Food as other Trees that were made to grow there This is manifestly proved from Scripture b And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every Tree that is pleasant to the Sight and good for food the Tree of Life also in the midst of the Garden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Where the Word made to grow refers to this Wood as well as other Trees which were truly such And the contrary Opinion is ascribed to Origen's Error who makes the History of Paradise Metaphorical And because this Point is sufficiently cleared by Sacred Writers I need not stay longer upon it a Suar. l. 3. De Opere sex Dierum c. 15. b Gen. 2. 9. DOUBT II. Whether the Vertue of the Tree of Life to perpetuate Life were Natural or Supernatural § 1. AS to this second Doubt it is the more common Opinion that the Vertue of this Wood to perpetuate Life was not Supernatural but Natural So think Thomas a Cajetan b Gabriel c Rupertus d Hugo de Sancto Victore e Strabus f Durandus and Scotus g and many others § 2. Some would prove this Opinion from
yet doth not please First because that Word in its proper Signification denotes Eternity but the Words of Holy Writ unless some great Inconvenience hinder should ever be taken in their proper and genuine Signification otherwise we should have nothing certain Secondly because the Life which was owing to Man in the state of Innocence was Life Eternal not only a very long Life But the Tree of Life was made by God to make good that Life which was owing to Man in the State of Innocence Therefore not only very long Life but simply eternal Life was to be made good by eating of that Tree § 13. And this is confirmed First because God for that Reason cast Man out of Paradise lest he should enjoy that good which was due to him had he been obedient and persisted in the State of Innocence But that Good due to the State of Innocence whereof he was to be deprived if he were not obedient as God had declared in those words in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye was Life absolutely Eternal not only a very long one Therefore the same Life eternal must be made good by that Tree Secondly it is confirmed because the Punishment threatned Man was the loss of Life absolutely eternal But God executed this Punishment by the Loss of the Tree of Life Therefore this Tree must give Life absolutely eternal otherwise it had not been necessary to deprive Man of the eating of this Tree § 14. Secondly The said Opinion is demonstrated because if that Tree had not continually kept off Old Age at least in its Season repeated it would follow that in the state of Innocence something would have been lost of Nature's Vigour and Men would have fallen from the Flower of their Age to a worse condition which is contrary to the Sacred Text which saith in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye that is thou shalt begin to decline to Death or to decay from the Integrity of Nature as all Authors expound it until thou decayest altogether and dost dye Therefore the Tree of Life did so make good eternal Life that it would not suffer Nature to fall a whit from her Integrity Therefore it would not only have given a long Life but that Apple would not suffer the least Defect in Nature § 15. Bellarmine b b judges either of these Opinions probable and affirms they may be defended without Heresy Yet he is for the latter as I am to be the more eligible § 16. Therefore a Man may answer the first Argument for the opposite Opinion thus That its Cogency is as great in the Beatifick Vision for that it indures Time infinite when nevertheless the immediate Causes of this Duration are the Intellect and Light of Glory which are finite Beings Therefore as it is no Obstacle in the Production of an Effect which will endure Time infinite that these Causes are finite So also there can be no Repugnance that the Qualities of the Tree of Life might produce an Effect durable Time infinite § 17. But you will urge This takes not away the force of the Argument Because an infinite Duration is an infinite Effect therefore it cannot be effected by a finite Cause Yet I deny the Consequence Because it may immediately be effected by a finite Cause when in the mean time it depends on a Cause infinite For the Qualities of the Tree of Life were to be conserved by God immediately to all eternity therefore these very Qualities also would immediately conserve Life to Eternity Instances hereof are spiritual Substances which are conserved to Eternity by the First Cause immediately and they themselves conserve their Effects to Eternity § 18. To the Second I answer From this it would follow that all other Trees were superfluous seeing they would remain after Translation And yet the Fruits of other Trees were not supervacaneous in Paradise although no Man eat of them § 19. To the third it may be answered That this Apple was not only Meat but Medicine also by reason of the Qualities which shall hereafter be explained whereby it either hindred its own Rëaction or made up the Dammage of the Rëaction if there were any whereby all things respecting the Integrity of Nature might be restored and reduced to the most perfect State Whence it might correct by Medicinal Qualities that Dammage which it brought by Rëaction § 20. To the fourth I say That the Qualities of that Wood which shall hereafter be enumerated would have preserved from all Causes which might bring a Preternatural Disposition to the Body so that it could neither be offended by Wounds nor could be sick or dye of Hunger or want of Air which hereafter we shall shew was possible § 21. Others who are unwilling to attribute the perfect Cause of avoiding Death to the Tree of Life reply That those outward Causes must have been avoided by the extraordinary Providence of God But we shall dispute this hereafter Yet grant it were so this doth not hinder but that the Tree of Life might remove the inward Causes of Death for ever § 22. To the fifth the same Answer will serve to wit That Reparation would have been made for all offending Causes though never so violent and numerous by the said Qualities of the Tree as we shall hereafter shew a Scotus in 2 dist 19. q. unica b D. Aug. l. 6. in Genes c. 25. c D. Thom. 1. p. q. 97. a. 4. 2. 2. q. 164. a. 2. ad 6. d Cajet 1. p. q. 97. cit loc e Gabriel in 2 dist 19. f Durandus ibid. g Aug. l. 13. de Civit. Dei c. 20. l. 14. c. 26. l. 1. de Peccat mer. c. 3. l. 8. in Genes c. 5. h Glos. interl in illa verba Ne forte sumat de Ligno Vitae c. i. Rup l. 3. in Genes c. 30. k Tostat super 13. c. Genes q. 175. l Author quaest Vet. Nov. Testam quaest 19. m D. Th. 1. p. q. 97. a. 1. n Bonav 2 sent dist 17. De Ligno Vitae o Iraen l. 3. advers Haeres c. 37. p S. Hil. in comment Psalmi 68. in illa verba Quem tu percussisti c. q S. Greg. Naz. Orat. de Pascha r S. Hieron c. 65. Isaiae s S. Cyrill l. 3. advers Julian circa med t S. Joan. Chrysost. Hom. 18. in Gen. n quem imitatur Theodoretus q. 26. in Genes w Eucherius l. 1. in Genes x Beda supra eadem verba y Strabus ibid. z S. Johan Damascen l. 2. Orthodoxae Fidei c. 11. aa Dionys. Carthus in Genâ— c. 2. bb Bellarm. in Disp Controvers contra Haeret. l. 1. tom 4. cap. 8. DOUBT IV. Whether it were sufficient for Immortality to eat only once of the Fruit § 1. ABout this Doubt also there are two contrary Opinions one whereof is Negative the other Affirmative S t Augustine a is for the Negative part so Thomas b Suarez c Beâ—anus d
Inobedience and these two were shown by these two Trees the one of Life the other as I may so say of Death Whence Bellarmine gathers this was for the Punishment of Inobedience the other for the Reward of Obedience For although Life Eternal as I apprehend was owing to the State of Innocence yet for a Reward of Obedience Man was not to be deprived of that Life Eternal Wherefore as the forbidden Tree once tasted brought a necessity of Death so by parity of Justice the Tree of Life once tasted ought to give Eternity of Life For which Reasons this Opinion is more probable to me as it is more consonant to Sacred Writ and the Holy Fathers Wherefore § 13. It is answered to the Arguments of the contrary Opinion To the first granting the Major the Minor is denied Because the Qualities of the Tree seeing they did not depend of the Tree in their Conservation and were incorruptible and altogether eternal would have defended the Body it self that it should not fall again from that best Constitution Wherefore Man would never have further stood in need of a new Exhibition of the Tree And although Rëaction were granted whilst the Apple of this Tree or any other Food was concocted in the Stomach and the other Work-houses and in the whole Habit of the Body yet it would impart such Virtue to the Faculties or Powers of the Stomach and of the other Work-houses and of the whole Body that it would correct the Damages of Repassion As it happens to Fire which by its Efficacy fully compensates all Repassion brought from the Wood so that if Fewel never fail it is not diminished or extinguished nay rather as plenty of proportionate Fewel encreaseth it is augmented § 14. To the Second granting the Antecedent the Consequence is denied Because the Substance bred of the Tree would have been defended from Corruption by Qualities received from the Tree whereby besides the Temperament of the Body would have been rendred so firm that it could neither further be intended or remitted from within or from without but the Faculties of the Bodies would have performed Actions so perfect that they would overcome all morbisick Causes which hereafter we shall more explain § 15. To the first Confirmation I say All that is generated is corrupted except it be defended by the Qualities of the Tree or by something else But since in this State we want the Tree of Life that Proposition is true Yet it would not have been true in the Time of the State of Innocence nor also in the State of lapsed Nature had it been granted only once to have eaten of the Tree But when it is said If the said Qualities could not defend the Tree from Corruption how should they defend Mans Body I answer Easily Because the Tree had not these Qualities formally or actually but potentially or virtually and it would have produced them in the Body by a Transient Action as other Medicaments do as I think more probably with the most learned Philosophers such as are Patres Conimbricenses l after the manner of Pepper as Petrus Garcia m. But after these Qualities existed formally or in act in the Body they could make good to it the Effect of preserving it from Corruption Wherefore it is no Wonder if these Qualities were able to preserve our Body from Corruption yet not the Fruit. § 16. To the second Confirmation it is clear already what should be answered and shall further appear hereafter For in this State it is so but in the State of Innocence it would not have so been because by the Qualities of the Tree of Life a nutrible Body would have been rendred incorruptible § 17. But you will urge The Tree would have produced such Qualities in the Body either before it was turned into the thing nourished or after Not before because the Body rendred by them impassible could not turn Food into the Substance of the thing nourished Not after because the Form of the Wood would be then destroyed whereby they should be produced and in the same Matter of the Wood the Form of Man would be introduced of which they could not be produced Therefore they could no way be produced in a Humane Body § 18. Yet I answer The Wood would have produced such Qualities both before and after conversion into another Substance Before because to produce them it would have sufficed that it should be actuated in the Stomach as other Medicaments and the Wood being actuated presently the Qualities would have been diffused through the whole Body nor would the Impassibility of the Body have hindred the acquiring of Perfection whilst the Body wanted it yet it would have been sufficient that it did not fall from that Perfection which it had as hereafter we shall more explain After because the Virtue of the Wood would have remained in the Humors and the rest of the Juices of the Body which Virtue indeed being actuated although the Substantial Form were not then in the Wood might produce actual or formal Qualities as we have said of the supra-elementary Qualities of other Medicaments as of Purgers and Poysons which we have proved to remain in the Matter after the Substantial Forms are corrupted § 19. I said while the Body wanted it that is Perâ—ection Because if any one should have taken the Wood in that State wherein he had his Substance perfectly repaired he would not turn it into the Substance of the nourished seeing then such Matter would be Superfluous but the Medicamentous Qualities only being received from the Wood he would have expelled from his Body the Matter of it as Superfluous as now the Matter of other Medicines which are not also Aliments is expelled § 20. To the third I answer The Body would not have been rendred altogether impatible except after it had arrived to all the Perfection was due unto it For if it were below that by the accession of the Qualities of the Tree it could not fall from that it had although most violent Causes happened to destroy it and in this Sense at that very Time it had been impatible Yet this did not hinder that by Means of those Qualities impressed from the Wood it should not acquire farther Perfection due unto it And thence it is manifest that a Child should come to the Perfection of a Man an Old Man should be reduced to Youth even as a Sick Man to Health But when a Man were constituted in all perfection of Health he would remain for ever impatible in all Senses because he could neither decay nor could he proceed further § 21. Which that it may the better be understood it is to be observed from Thomas n that Passion is twofold First properly so called in which Sense one is said to suffer who is removed from his natural Disposition Secondly commonly according to any Mutation though it pertain to the perfection of Nature And in the first Sense by eating of the Fruit
of the Tree the Body would have been rendred impassible because it could never be removed from that Perfection it had But in the second sense it had not been impassible as long as it was not arrived at the top of Perfection for it would have been receptive of such a Change § 22. But you will question Whether then Generation and Propagation of Children could have been I answer in the Affirmative And prove it Because if such Qualities ought to be no hindrance to a Child that his Body should come to its Perfection nor to an Old Man that he should be restored to his why should it hinder Generation of Seed in the Vessels and Propagation of Children You will object Therefore to this end and to the growth of a Child's Body and reduction of an Old Man's it was necessary to take again of the Fruit of the Tree or at least of other Food I answer to this Work perhaps so it was necessary or may be the Faculties would have been so strong after the first taking of that Fruit that from the ambient Air Water or from any other Matter one might have repaired the Substance wanting to the growing of a Child or restoring an Old Man or to breeding Seed for Children For this would not then have been impossible to very strong Faculties Because perhaps the Fruit it self would have introduced alimentous Qualities into any Matter although of its own Nature such Matter had them not § 23. But whether Man stated in this Immortality acquired by the Fruit of the Tree should have had those Actions and the same Qualities in kind which we shall have after the Resurrection I dispute not this nor doth it belong to me but let Divines determine it Amongst whom the interlineary Gloss o and Bellarmine p seem to think so § 24. But Whether could Children newly born before they eat the Wood or also before their Birth in the Mothers Womb be subject to Death It seems to be denied Because the Qualities of the Fruit of the Tree of Life which was eaten by the Parents would have been in their Seed also and would have defended their Children from Death both before their Birth and after § 25. You will infer It had sufficed therefore that the Tree of Life had been once taken by Adam and Eve for all that should be born of them to have been made immortal And this Opinion seems to be confirmed first by an Argument taken from the necessary Efficient Cause for these Qualities would have been incorrupâ—ible and ever have remained so in the Matter and with the Seed and its Virtue would have been propagated into all the Individuals of Humane Kind and would have produced other like Qualities in a kind of Cause Univocal Therefore there was no necessity for Adam's Successors to taste the Tree of Life that they might live for ever § 26. Secondly By an Argument taken from the Final Cause For if by taking of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge which was but once eaten of our First Parents the Punishment of Death inevitable was inflicted upon them and their Descendents also that equality of Justice might be observed by once taking of the Fruit of the Tree of Life Life eternal for a Reward of Obedience ought not only to be given to our Parents themselves but to Universal Mankind But if this doth not please any Man one may say that some Qualities of the Tree derived to the Child would have preserved it from perishing till the Birth and after the Birth also for some Time would have been communicated in the Mothers Milk and afterwards had it been necessary he might also have eaten of the Fruit of Life it self § 27. But whether should they that had committed actual Sin according to the Opinion which admits that have been subject to Death afterwards although before they had eaten of the Tree It seems to be denied First Because even Adam after Sin should have been made free from Death had he eaten the Fruit of Life And seeing the Qualities of the Fruit would have been derived to his Children both Just and Unjust would by them have been defended from Death Secondly Because the Punishment of Death was only imposed if our first Parents violated that only Precept a D. Augustinus l. 3. de Civitat Dei c. 20. l. 11. Genes ad lit cap. 4. l. 1. de peccat mer. c. 3. b D. Thom. 1. part q. 97. art 4. colligitur ex 2. 2. quaest 164. art 2. ad 6. eámque habent communiter Scholastici sequuntur Suarius c L. 3. de opere sex dierum cap. 15. d Becanus tract de immortalitate cap. 4. e Benedictus Pereire lib. 3. in Genes disp de arbore Vitae quaest 3. f Aristoteles lib. 3. metaph cap. 4. text 15. g Rupertus lib. 3. in Genes cap. 30. h Theodoretus quaest 16. in Gen. i Thomas 1. part q. 100. art 2. k Chrysostomus hom 18. l Patres Conimbricenses 2. de generat cap. 3. quaest 2. articul 2. assert 2. lib. 7. phys cap. 1. quaest 1. art 2. m Petrus Garcia Fen. 1. 4. tract 1. cap. 4. disp 2. quaest 5. pagina 269. col 2. n Thom. 1. p. quaest 97. art 2. § Respondeo o Gloss. interl in illa verba Ne forte sumat p Bellarm. lib. 1. tom 4. contr 1. c. 18. DOUBT V. Whether the Tree of Life were a Cause adequate to the escaping all Occasions of Death § 1. NOW of those Authors who deny to the Tree of Life the Virtue of extending Life absolutely to Eternity though it should be eaten at repeated Turns when yet they are compelled to affirm that in the State of Innocence Men would have been free from Death Some do assert following Scotus a that this Tree by restoring the Native Heat and Radical Moisture he spake according to the Old and Nugatory Opinion that admits of a Radical Moisture diverse from the Living Parts either as Nourishment or Medicine or both ways would have preserved Life for a very long Time and they add that before the Virtue of the Tree were spent Men without the intervention of Death should have been translated to a State of Immortality Wherefore according to this Opinion the Tree of Life would not have been an adequate Cause of Immortality Which Opinion of Scotus notwithstanding stands refuted from what hath been already said § 2. But others with Cajetane b admit of a certain Supernatural and Spiritual Quality in the Soul whereby the Body could resist the Rëaction of the Tree of Life and of other Meats and that for this Cause Men in the State of Innocence would have been eternal which Quality since in the State of Lapsed Nature it was wanting although Man had eaten of the Tree of Life he would not have been altogether eternal but would only have lived for a longer Time But this Opinion is confuted first from the Words of Holy Writ c lest â—e put forth his hand
and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever Now therefore of it self it had a Power to render Man eternal without any other Supernatural Virtue Neither can that Interpretation of a very long time be allowed as we have shown § 3. Secondly Because it cannot be that a Spiritual Quality of the Soul can naturally defend the Body from contrary Rëactions For it should either do this by a formal Resistance as a kind of Cause formal or by an active Resistance as a kind of Cause efficient The first it could not be both because a Spiritual Quality could not inhereâ—in a Corporeal Subject especially since these Authors say it was inherent in the Soul nor by consequence could it inform the Body and resist formally And because the eating of the Tree of Life would have been superfluous for Reparation of what was lost for the natural Qualities of the Body would then have been sufficiently defended by the said Quality of the Soul that they could not be lost Not the second Because if that Supernatural Spiritual Quality performed such an Effect as a Cause Efficient it were able to produce other Qualities in the Body which might formally resist concerning which the same Doubt would return Or certainly they would be supervacaneous seeing they were sufficiently produced by the Tree of Life as we shall hereafter shew § 4. Others distinguish three Causes of our Destruction The first is the different nay and sometimes contrary Temperament of different Parts whereby they mutually act and suffer among themselves as the Brain moist and cold the Heart hot and dry the Flesh hot and moist the Veins Arteries and Bones cold and dry and so of the rest The second is the continual Action of the Native Heat upon the Moisture from which two Damages are considerable One is the Repassion from Food from which Food the Radical Moisture and Members of the Body to be restored do suffer by means whereof a Substance is not repaired which is equal in Perfection to what was wasted The other is the Remission of the Native Heat it self whereby at length it is extinguished The third Cause is from things extrinsick as well altering the Natural Temper as dividing Continuity and finally impeding the Matter whereby the Body should be refreshed as Meat Drink and Air. § 5. And they add that the first Cause must have been avoided in the State of Innocence by a Supernatural Quality of the Soul which we last confuted The second by the Qualities of the Tree of Life when eaten The third three ways First By Humane Providence which in that State would have been most perfect Secondly By Divine Providence which for that State would have been greater and extraordinary Whence it would by extraordinary Concurrence hinder natural Causes offending or would deny its general Concurrence lest they should offend Thirdly By the Protection of Angels § 6. Yet this Opinion also is false And I affirm that for the first Cause the Qualities of the Tree of Life had been sufficient as they were sufficient for the second Wherefore that Supernatural Quality was not only unnecessary but would have been hurtful also First Because as it resisted the Actions of different Parts so it would resist those very Qualities whereof the natural Temperament of the Body is constituted seeing they are of the same kind Secondly Because even from that mutual Action and Passion which is granted among the Parts of the Body the total Temperament doth result which is natural and necessary for the living Creature to perform its Actions wherefore it would be ill impeded by that Supernatural Quality and consequently would be hurtful § 7. And the Remedy which they bring for the third Cause is contradicted First Because the Fruit of Life was able to make good Qualities very sufficient to keep off all the Harms of external Causes therefore the extraordinary Providence of God and every other extrinsick Defence had been superfluous We shall effectually prove the Antecedent hereafter Secondly Because if the Supernatural Providence of God were necessary to what purpose must Man be cast out of Paradise or be deprived of eating the Tree of Life For as that Supernatural Providence had ceased although Man had abode in Paradise and eaten the Fruit of Life yet he had been forthwith subject to Death Which indeed is false For the Sacred Word affirms if he had eaten of the Tree that he should have lived for ever Therefore that Tree was an adequate Cause to secure a Man from Death § 8. Some may reply It is true from the Words of Holy Writ it doth follow that Man should have lived for ever But this eternal Life after Sin would have been contingent from eating the Tree of Life not necessary Wherefore lest Man eating of the Tree of Life should contingently live for ever he was for that Reason driven out by the Lord. But that it was possible that Man might thus contingently live they prove For the Wood would prevent the internal Principles of Death and Humane Providence and the ordinary Protection of God and Angels without the Intervention of another Tutelage might have sufficed to avoid the external Causes of Death as Hunger Suffocation Poyson Falling Beating Hitting against any thing and the Treachery and Mischief of unjust Men. By which means former Men lived near a Thousand Years and by the same means by eating of the Tree might have lived innumerable Thousands being preserved by Reason and Humane Providence from the external Causes of Death § 9. But this Solution is refuted Because if in the State of Innocence wherein Mens Prudence was most perfect their Dwelling in a most pleasant Place the number of wicked Men much less and all the said external offending Causes and Occasions much fewer the extraordinary Providence of God and a greater Guard of Angels was as these Men think necessary that Life might be extended to Eternity or at least to the Time of Translation How in the State of lapsed Nature with much less Humane Providence in so many and so great Concourses of offending Causes amongst so many worst Dispositions of Men could the Life of Man be extended even contingently to infinite Ages of Ages without the particular and Supernatural Providence of God unless by some means else to wit by the Qualities of the Wood Man were secured from Death § 10. Father Molina d supposeth that Mans Body would have been defended from the external Causes of Death by an habitual Supernatural Gift or an habitual Quality extended through the Body which would have defended it from all Corruption For he judgeth Natural Powers can no way be thought of which were able to do this But this Opinion is refuted almost by the same Reasons whereby the former was contradicted First Because in the said Fruit there would have been natural Powers sufficient to defend the Body from external offending Causes as we shall hereafter shew wherefore it is not necessary to
perfect Actions although there be an impeding Cause The Digestive also if it have a help will operate more perfectly And it is confirmed because these Qualities are not only possible but some such like there are indeed efficiently concurring with the Powers to the Curing and Preventing manifest Diseases Therefore it is necessary that the Wood of Life should have them most efficacious § 12. You will object Therefore the Qualities productive of Elemental ones would have been superfluous which we spoke of in the last Conclusion The Sequel is denied for they also would have been necessary to preserve the Natural and most perfect Temperament of Body And although by this means the Body of Man might resist all morbose Causes acting by Alteration it might better and more readily resist together with these Qualities actively helping the Powers § 13. But whether would one only Quality flowing from the Fruit suffice to concurr with all the Faculties I answer negatively but every lowest Species of Faculty ought to have its particular Quality distinct in Specie It is manifestly proved Because every Faculty hath its particular and determinate Effect Therefore it wants a particular and determinate Concause which hath Virtue for such an Effect Secondly Because Powers are distinguished in Specie by their Acts and Objects Therefore those Qualities which participate with the Powers are the same was distinguished Thirdly because the Habit of one Power or an Effect determinate to a certain Species cannot concurr with another Power nor to another Species of Act Nor therefore in like manner can these Qualities which are as Habits in respect of the Powers § 14. Therefore for the Animal Faculty there would have been given one Quality for Motion and divers other for the Senses and for every one as well internal as external if discerning Powers may seem necessary either to long or eternal Life its own Quality would have been allotted For the Vital Faculty there would have been given one for the Motion of the Heart and Arteries another for Generation of Spirits whilst there was any necessity for Motion or Generation of Spirits For according to this Opinion which affirms that eternal Life was given by the Wood when the Body was reduced to the best Constitution all things would have been kept in the same Tenor so that neither any reparation of Spirits nor of Substance would have been further necessary § 15. Wherefore by the Qualities of the Tree of Life the Health of the Body would have been defended from Hunger Thirst and want of Air lest namely Man should perish for want of Meat Drink or Air which will more appear hereafter In like manner there would have been given a particular Quality by the Fruit for every Species of Natural Faculty that is for Attraction Retention Coction and Expulsion that to wit they might operate most perfectly while their operation was necessary And after the same manner there would have been another for Generation § 16. You will object The Fruit of this Tree was of one Species only Therefore it could not produce so many Species of Qualities The Consequence is denied Because the same Rheubarb performs divers Actions by Qualities different in Specie for it evacuates Choler strengthens the Liver opens Obstructions binds lax Parts produceth Heat causeth Driness And so we experience divers Virtues in many other Medicines § 17. I say fifthly Besides the said Qualities according to the same Opinion there was another necessary which should have been made good by the Tree of Life And that is a Resistive Faculty which might preserve the Union and due Composition of Parts namely their Figure Cavity Number and also their Magnitude It is evidently proved Because in defect thereof Man would become obnoxious to Diseases and Death which would follow from Division of Continuity and from vitiated Composition This Quality indeed would not have been Active but relating to Patible Quality as Hardness in a Stone For informing the Parts of the Body it would have rendred them incapable of any Division or Compression which could have been made by an external Cause Wherefore by reason of this Quality Man could not dye by a Precipice or a Blow And it is confirmed for as the Author of the Questions of the Old and New Testament saith c The Wood of Life was so to Man as an inexpugnable Wall Therefore it must necessarily make good this Resistive Quality as a Wall § 18. You will object If such a Quality were granted the Limbs could not be bended It is denied Because it was not hardness but preserving of Union Or rather Whether was there not a Quality actively preserving the Union of Parts It might probably be affirmed And it would have been so strong in Preservation of the Union of Parts by a certain Action intrinsically terminated upon the very Union that the Union could be dissolved by no finite natural Cause Yet much more probably I think there was no such active Quality seeing the Resisting informing one was sufficient as we said in the last Conclusion § 19. I say sixthly According to this Opinion the Tree of Life would have made good all Alexipharmack Qualities of every kind whereby the Body would have been made free from all that are Poysonous This Conclusion also is manifest For in defect of these Qualities Man might have perished seeing those that are implanted in the Body cannot sufficiently resist strong Poysons Nor can it be doubted that this Quality was possible seeing it is found naturally in almost innumerable Medicines Therefore no Wonder if it were granted to this Fruit naturally with so great Efficacy that it overcame all Poysonous ones § 20. You will object against what we have said Heat would necessarily act upon Moisture seeing it is a Natural Cause acting necessarily Therefore it would necessarily rarefy it turn it into Vapors and consume it Therefore Reparation and Nutrition was necessary Therefore Man would necessarily be obnoxious to Death by Hunger and it was needful for Man to eat the Wood again and again I deny the Antecedent Because the Moisture would have been preserved two ways First by the Occult Quality of the Wood which we spoke of producing Moisture in a proportionate fixt Degree Secondly by another Occult Quality of the Wood producing certain fixt Degrees of Cold that the Heat could produce none further § 21. You will urge Therefore the Heat would produce those Qualities at least which are produced of it by Resultancy in the Substance wherein it subsists that is Rarity and Levity if it be a Second Quality from which follows Resolution or Evaporation and consequently the Consumption of such Substance The Sequel is denied Because that Resultance also of Second Qualities would have been hindred by their contrary Qualities which would have been produced by other First Contraries for Example The Resultance of further Rarity would have been hindred by the Degrees of Cold for by them its contrary Density would have been preserved proportional
nay but Pleasure as Galen testifieth f. Whereâ—ore if sometimes from such Reduction Pain do happen as when the Hands chilled with Snow are suddenly exposed to the Fire this is by Accident because to wit some Parts are preternaturally altered whilst the Heat in others is reduced to its natural Perfection or because from the Application of Heat the Cold in others is suddenly intended by Antiperistasis I answer secondly That Pain is a depraved Action of the Touch And seeing the Sense it self as other Powers would have been helped to perform perfect Actions there could never have been a Depravation of Touch which Pain is § 29. But whether according to the Opinion which denies the Fruit to be an adequate Cause of Immortality it had been necessary that Alexipharmack Qualities should be contributed by the Wood to Mans Body whereby it might be preserved from Poysons It seems to be affirmed because it cannot be believed these Vertues were wanting to the most perfect Medicament when many other ordinary Medicaments have efficacious Virtues against Poysons nay we must think all other Supra-elementary Virtues for curing Diseases must have been found in it which are found in other ordinary Medicines Those notwithstanding excepted which used without Art do hurt such as are Purgative Virtues which given unseasonably and to a Healthy Man bring no small Harm § 30. I say seventhly According to the same Opinion which affirms the Tree of Life was not an adequate Cause of Immortality but that the Supra-ordinary Providence of God was necessary to avoid the Harms of External Causes according to this Opinion I say it is not necessary to grant a Resistive Quality in the Tree nor it may be other Qualities which might preserve the Elemental ones of the Body in a necessary fixt Degree at least not so efficacious as wholly to resist all external altering Causes It is proved because the Supra-ordinary Providence of God had been sufficient § 31. But since from the Sacred Text it appears that Women in the State of Obedience should have been free from the Pains of Birth it seems worth our Enquiry Whether also the Qualities of the Tree of Life would have prevented the Pains of Birth in Women It seems to be more probably answered in the Affirmative First Because seeing the Wood would have averted all internal Causes of Death or also the external besides according to different Opinions and since it would have cured all preternatural Affections it must of necessity have been able to prevent and take away the Pains of Birth nor is there need of any greater Reason why it should take away these than others § 32. Secondly Because there are Medicines found naturally which by means of Supra-elementary occult Qualities do wonderfully allay the Pains of several Parts and preserve a Man from them as a Wolf's Liver against the Pain of the Liver as Galen g testifies and that famous Stone which may deservedly be called Nephritick brought from the West Indies vulgarly called de la hijada as Monardes h testifies which tied to the Arm both takes away Nephritick Pains and preserves a Man from them as also doth a certain Wood of the same Name which I have sometime seen described by the same Author Therefore it is credible that in this Wood which had admirable Virtues for all Preternatural Affections these also were not wanting which might preserve from Pains of Birth especially seeing it makes for the Conservation of Life as a Reward of Obedience to which purpose in the primary intention it was created § 33. But what way did it perform this Work It may be doubted For the Cause of the Pains of Birth is the breaking of those Bonds that tye the Child to the Womb which being a violent and sudden Solution of Continuity it necessarily causeth Pain Wherefore that the Tree of Life may prevent these Pains it is necessary that it either stupefy the Sense in those Parts as Narcotick Medicines do or so mollify and dispose the Ligaments whereby the Child is knit to the Womb as Anodyne Medicines do that without violence they might be separated from the Parts of the Womb or that it regulate the Faculties of the Womb after such a manner that they work that Separation by little and little without Trouble For only a violent Passion which is preternatural when it is done much together and speedily causeth Pain but what is done by little and little escapes Sense as Galen i expresseth it Another Way may also concur viz. Because in that State the Wood of Life would join with and assist the Powers that they might perform most perfect Actions Therefore it would concur with the Touch that it might feel most perfectly wherefore a depraved Sensation could not be in which Pain might formally consist although the Object or Cause of Pain were present § 34. But you will object Either this Wood would have taken away the Pains of Birth in the State of Innocence or in the State of Lapsed Nature Not in the first because it appears from the Sacred Text that in it Woman would have had no Pains in Birth Not in the Second because from the Sacred Text also it appears that they must necessarily suffer Pains for a Punishment of Sin Therefore it would take away Pains in no State I answer that both in the State of Innocence and in the State of Lapsed Nature this Wood would have been good against the Pains of Birth if it had been eaten In the State of Innocence because by it Women would have been preserved from Pains and by means of it would have obtained what was owing to that State And in the State of Lapsed Nature because therefore God cast Woman with Adam out of Paradise lest she should enjoy the Good due to Innocence and the Reward promised for Obedience and by consequence Eternal Life and lest she should obtain Immunity from the Pains of Birth by Eating of this Wood. a Suar. in Met. disp 42. sect 4. n. 8. b Vasq. tom 1 2. ad q. 21. disp 78. c. 3. n. 21. c Auth. quaest vet nov Testam q. 19. d Gal. 7. meth cap. 13. lit C. e D. Thom. 1. p. q. 96. art 3. f Gal. lib. 1. de causis sympt cap. 6. g 8. local cap. 8. F. h Monardes 1. p. c. propr i Gal. 1. de causis sympt cap. 6. DOUBT VII After what manner would the Resistance of Qualities defend that Mans Body who eat of the Tree of Life from all External Causes that could hurt it § 1. ALthough the present Doubt be already resolved together with the foregoing Yet since all these things are new which we have alledged for the Preservation of Man from Death by the Qualities of the Wood of Life and that those are more hard to be known which should naturally defend him from the extrinsick Causes of Death and seeing they are not sufficiently declared as the Difficulty of the thing requires I accounted it very necessary more
it desists from his conserving Concurrence Therefore in like manner they will not be remitted if they be conserved by the same Efficacy of any other second Cause not desisting from its Influence And for this Cause we said these Degrees were fixt § 11. Perhaps some will reply to this Argument That it implies a Contradiction if God will conserve these two Degrees of Cold by his alone Concurrence in the presence of eight Degrees of Heat unless He should produce more Degrees of Cold And therefore it would be necessary to produce some Supernatural Quality which might resist eight Degrees of Heat But on the contrary first it doth not appear wherein the Contradiction consists For an Agent with eight Degrees of Heat could never introduce into the Subject having these two Degrees of Cold but six Degrees of Heat whereby the whole Latitude of eight Degrees would be filled For those two of Cold would be conserved by God Which I prove for the Concurrence of God produceth any thing necessarily Therefore it would produce necessarily those two Degrees of Cold while God continued his Concurrence But Whether were it necessary that God should encrease his Concurrence I answer negatively For if he should encrease it its Term also would be encreased and more Degrees of Cold produced Secondly the foresaid Answer is refuted Because either that Supernatural Quality would resist as a kind of Cause Formal or Efficient Not the first Because Cold would resist more as being contrary wherefore a Supernatural Quality would be superfluous as less resisting Not the second because this would be by producing Cold which also the Concurrence of God would do Therefore such a Quality would no way resist or be necessary § 12. But you will urge against the foresaid Solution of the principal Argument No Cause hath continual Influence but upon an Effect depending on it in Conservation But Cold and also other Elementary Qualities do not depend in their Conservation upon their Efficient Causes Therefore the Qualities of the Wood of Life could not have continual Influence upon them Therefore they could not actively be preserved by them in a fixt Degree I answer first That although the same Degree in Number be not preserved yet the same in Specie is namque uno amisso non deficit alter For when one 's lost another doth not fail Which is sufficient for Incorruption of Temperament and to preserve Health I answer secondly That although some Quality of its own nature be not dependent in Conservation nor standeth in need of the continual Influx of its Cause for its Conservation yet there is no Inconvenience that sometime it receive continual Influx from its Agent as that which is dependent in its Conservation after which manner actual Heat existing in the very Fire seems to receive it Which Influx though it be not necessary to its Being yet it is necessary to its much better Being § 13. It is to be observed thirdly That by the same Qualities of the Wood of Life which would have kept the Natural Temper of the Body in a fixt Degree the Harm also which follows the Want of Meat Drink and Air would have been prevented Wherefore that Man who had tasted the Fruit of Life would never have perished by Hunger Thirst or prohibited Respiration It is proved Because in this Case the Heat would not act upon the Radical Moisture whether that Moisture be Something diverse from the Living Parts as the Old Opinion held or not as now we more commonly think nor would the Parts of the Body mutually act and suffer among themselves beyond the Degrees convenient for them since every of the Natural Elemental Qualities would have been conserved in its proportionate fixt Degree Wherefore there would not be the Dissolution of any Substance necessary for the Body nor therefore would any Reparation on by Meat Drink or Air have been necessary nor consequently would the Defect of these external Matters do Hurt § 14. But you will object first Therefore the Introduction of these Matters at least would do Hurt seeing the Actions are no less Hurt by Addition than by Defect The Sequel is denied For the most efficacious expulsive Virtue helped by other Qualities of the Wood concurring with it self acting most vehemently would either not admit what was Superfluous or would presently expel it This Harm might also be avoided by the Natural Providence of Man who would not take Meat Drink and Air Superfluous § 15. You will object secondly Men in the State of Innocence did eat and ought to have eaten if they had remained in the same State For the Lord said unto them that they might eat of every Tree of Paradise except the forbidden one Therefore the Tree of Life did not excuse Men from Meat therefore they might dye for want of it I answer with a Distinction That before Eating of the Wood of Life Men stood in need of Meat I grant After Eating of that Wood of Life I again distinguish If they were constituted in Perfection of Health and in the best Constitution of Body due to perfect Age I deny that they would have wanted Meat Drink or Air But if they were not constituted in the highest Perfection as Children Old Men and Sick Persons if they had eaten the Wood in the State of Lapsed Nature for in this State the Wood being denied they might grow sick and old and dye that they would have stood in need of Meat and Drink and Breath I grant § 16. You will infer Therefore at least Children Old Men and Sick Persons seeing they suffered a Defect of Substance might though they had eaten of the Tree of Life before notwithstanding perish by Hunger Thirst and Want of Air. The Sequel is denied For they would have only wanted Meat and Drink that they might come to the best Constitution of Body but not that they might be preserved in the same imperfect State Because since we have it proved that the Qualities of the Tree of Life kept the Temper in the same fixt Tenor and hindred the contrary Qualities of the Body from acting mutually among themselves beyond measure the pre-existing Substance could not be further wasted nor consequently Children or Old Men for Want of new Food be consumed § 17. You will urge The Qualities of the Wood were necessary Causes productive of Elemental Qualities Therefore they would necessarily introduce those Degrees which they were able both in a Child and an Old Man Therefore they would necessarily produce in them a Temper agreeable to perfect and flourishing Age Therefore they should be Children and Old Men for their Temper and they should not because they would want due Magnitude through Defect of Aliment if they were deprived of it I answer In such a Case some might have been Children other Old Men as to the Magnitude of Body yet not as to their Temper Which implies no Contradiction § 18. And perhaps it might be answered That the Vertues from the
Qualities of the Tree were so strong that they could dispose any Matter although it were not Alimentous and breed Blood of it and Substance for the thing nourished Wherefore of Earth Water and the Ambient Air or of any other circumadjacent thing whatever it were they were able to make Nourishment § 19. Which may be effectually proved by the Example of that Maid of twelve years old lying sick of a Diabetes who turned the Ambient Air drawn in by Respiration and by the Pores into Water or Serum as was the certain Opinion of the Physicians then present For she made thirty six pounds of Water every day but did not take above seven pounds in Meat and Drink and seeing this lasted threescore days it appears that in that Time she made one thousand seven hundred and forty Pounds of Water above the Weight of her Meat and Drink which was much more than the Weight of the Maid if she had even been all dissolved into Urine as Cardan b affirms For the Maid weighed not above one hundred and fifty Pounds Wherefore of necessity the inspired or circumfused Air must have been turned into Urine What wonder therefore if the strong Faculties of the Wood helping and elevating the Natural Powers of the Body were able sufficiently to dispose any indisposed Matter and to turn it into the Substance of the thing nourished § 20. And it is confirmed Because for any Matter to be fit to nourish it sufficeth that Alimental Qualities be found therein and that it want those which may hurt But the Vertues of the Wood which we suppose most efficacious and most agreeable to Nature were able to introduce these Qualities into any Matter that occurr'd Therefore the Body of Man arm'd with the Qualities of the Wood might be nourished by any occuring Matter whatever § 21. You will object thirdly If Men in Innocence or after the Fall had eaten the Fruit of Life yet they would have generated by Abscision of Seed But Matter is necessary for generation of the Seed to be abscinded and consequently Meat Drink and Air Therefore if they had used Venery and notwithstanding had eaten nothing without doubt they had dyed I grant the Major and the Minor I deny the Consequence Because for them who gave themselves to Generation and used Venery even for those that were of the best Constitution of Body the use of Food was necessary towards the Generation of Seed But though they used Venery they would not be sick for want of Food because the strong Retentive Faculty of the Body would not suffer the Seed necessary for the Body to be expelled nor therefore would Nature at that Time send Blood or other necessary Matter to the Seminary Vessels Wherefore through want of Food and consequently of Seed they might be rendred Barren but dye they could not § 22. You will object fourthly Therefore at least through defect or immoderate Use of the other non-natural things which are necessary for the preservation of Life Diseases would happen nor could Man be defended by the Qualities of the Wood of Life And these things are Sleep and Waking Motion and Rest and the Accidents of the Mind as Anger Sorrow Joy and the like I deny the Sequel Because these non-natural things do so far preserve or destroy Health as they preserve or change Natural things for it is by Accident that they alter the Temper of the Body or change its Composition But since we suppose the Qualities of the Wood of Life do keep the Temper of the Body in a fixt Proportion it cannot be preternaturally changed by these Causes Whereas also we suppose the Faculties of the Body would be helped by the Qualities of the Wood after such a manner as we have said they would most easily prevent the Harms of the Excesses or Defects of the said non-natural things as will easily appear to him that throughly considers the Use of each non-natural thing § 23. It is to be observed fourthly The Wood of Life defends the Body from Plague Malignant Fevers and contagious occult Diseases by those Alexipharmack Qualities whereof we have treated before For the Body is hurt by the Poysonous Qualities of these things Therefore it is well defended by other contrary Alexipharmack Qualities afforded by the Tree of Life § 24. It is to be observed fifthly A Natural Quality which we called Resistive was possible which was able to defend the Body that it could not be broken or divided by any Impulse or Blow even the most violent It is proved effectually first Because as the Hardness of a Stone resists Division so also there might be a Quality imparted by the Wood which was able to resist Division It is proved secondly For in things Natural there be Qualities which indispose a Moveable Body that it cannot be moved by a Cause able to produce Motion For it is evident from Experience that Iron is so indisposed by some Qualities that it cannot be moved by Virtue of the Magnet That Fishes swimming over the Torpedo enclosed in the Mud or Sand for the purpose when they come to the place whereto the Virtue of the Torpedo is extended can stir no farther by which Art She catches and eats them as Aristotle relates c. In like manner the Fishers Arm is deprived of Motion when the Quality of the Torpedo reaches it The Quality of Opium and other Stupefying Medicines doth so dispose the Humors that they cannot move further during the Quality of the Opium Wherefore Opium given stops violent Fluxes of Blood and other Humors The Quality of the Blood-Stone doth also stop the Motion of the Blood § 25. And what is more wonderful a Remora coming near stops the swiftest Motion of a Ship under full Sail as is the common Tradition of the fore-quoted Authors and of many others Which although it may happen because the Remora draws the Ship a contrary way as it fell out in that Fish whereof we made mention before because it had fixt its Horn most firmly in the Ship Yet the Remora may do it a more easie way namely by impressing such a Quality on the Ship that it being present the Force of the Wind bearing upon the Ship cannot produce Motion by reason there is an Indisposition which is as an Agent that it cannot act Wherefore a Power drawing the contrary way or otherwise resisting is not necessary for hindring the Ship to be moved but this Quality may most easily hinder its Motion § 26. It is proved from the like For if Amber be dulled by Moisture its Virtue cannot produce Motion in Straws If the Virtue of the Torpedo reach the Fishes swimming over her or the Fishers Arm their Motive Power cannot produce Motion If the Virtue of Opium come to the Humors they cannot be expelled or any way moved by the Faculties Therefore so it will happen in like manner in the Virtue of the Remora impressed on the Ship that it being present the force of the Wind
cannot produce Motion on the Ship Therefore after the same manner may a Quality be afforded by the Wood of Life which being present no external Motive Cause is able to effect Motion on the said Body Nay perhaps that Quality might be diffused for some Space without the Body of Man who eat the Wood by virtue whereof Darts cast or Bullets shot from Guns coming to the Sphere of that Quality would presently lose Motion and not come at the Body Because the Motive Force impressed on the Dart or Bullet could not effect Motion because of the indisposing Quality diffused without the Body by the Virtue of the Wood. § 27. It is proved thirdly Because as before we have already said all Natural Agents although they have most violent Powers are yet of a finite Virtue Therefore there is no Inconvenience that a Resistence may be which surpasseth their Power Seeing therefore such a Resistence is possible whereby the Wood of Life might defend Man's Body from Death and that the Sacred Text doth clearly intimate that it was an adequate Cause of Immortality unless some Supernatural Help should intervene why shall we dare to deny it Why shall we seek other Interpretations for the Sacred Text Medium's therefore should rather be enquired whereby the Wood of Life mâ—ght be an adequate Cause of Immortality Which if they be found as now by us through God's Blessing they are found it will be superfluous to have recourse to Miracles § 28. You will object If such a Quality were which indisposed any thing to Motion if such a thing could not be moved by one Cause neither also could it be moved by another Cause of equal Strength since all Local Motion is of the same kind Therefore there can be no Quality indisposing to Local Motion I answer The said Qualities are not Indispositions on the part of the Patient to receive Motion for if it were so that thing which could not be moved by one Agent could be moved by none for its Incapacity of Motion But they are Indispositions only on the part of the Agent namely of the Motive Quality that it cannot produce Motion And for this Cause the Virtue of the Magnet can produce Motion in Iron not in other Bodies because it finds in it Dispositions necessary on the part of the Agent which being present it can operate not in other things And for the same Reason Amber moves Straws not Iron nor Stones Agarick purgeth Phlegm and not other Humors and so we may say of the rest § 29. It is to be observed sixthly to give better Satisfaction to the Point That Philosophers reckon of a double positive Resistence beside another Negative one Active another Formal Negative Resistence is the utter Incapacity of the Subject to receive any Form such as is in the Heavens supposing them incorruptible as to receiving Qualities altering to Corruption Active Resistence is the very Action of the Agent as by it a Term is produced which formally resisteth or by it the Force of another Agent is broken which is resisted and it is called by d Suarez Radical Resistence because by it another Agent is prevented that it doth not act and that its Virtue is diminished And seeing it is not immediately diminished but by the Form produced of such an Action therefore it is called Radical Resistence and as it proceeds from an Agent it is Active but as it produceth an Effect immmediately resisting it is Active Resistence § 30. Passive Resistence or actual is an Accidental Form whereby the Subject is rendred incapable of receiving another which is resisted or whereby the Subject is indisposed to another and this Resistence consists saith the same Author e in a certain formal Incompossibility or Repugnance from whence it comes that the Action of a contrary or any way repugnant Agent is either altogether hindred or retarded or remitted And Active Qualities as Heat and Cold may as well have this Resistence as the not Active as White and Black From whence it follows that one Quality can violently resist actively but not at all formally as Heat or on the contrary that another may violently resist formally not at all actively as Dryness § 31. But seeing Formal Resistence consists in a Formal Incompossibility or Repugnance and two contrary Qualities in the same intense Degree for example Heat and Cold in the eighth Degree are equally incompossible in the same Subject it is hard to assign a Cause whence it comes that one can more resist than another Yet Suarez f brings three Causes for which it may happen The first is a greater and firmer Union to the Subject as it happens in things artificial that some are more hardly parted asunder because other things cleave to them in form of a stronger Glew The second is a greater Inequality in some Condition requisite to do or suffer as Density in the Patient by Reason whereof more Parts are united to resist the Action of the Agent The third is a greater or the greatest Activity whereby the quality flows from or is otherwise produced of its Cause which way for example it may be said that the Moisture of Water resists more than that of Air because it is produced or flows more efficaciously from the Form of Water than from that of Air. Also two or three of these Causes may be conjoyned by reason whereof the Resistance may be greater and besides the Active and Formal Resistance may be joyned and therefore the Resistance may yet be more vehement § 32. From whence it is easily gathered that the Elemental Qualities produced in Mans Body by the Supra-elemental would both actively and formally resist other Contraries which are produced by ordinary intrinsick or extrinsick Agents Fire for example or Snow And it is evident that this Formal Resistance would have been much greater than the Formal Resistance of extrinsick active Qualities for the third Cause alleged by Suarez namely for the exceeding Efficacy whereby they are produced of the Qualities of the Wood of Life Which in the same manner may be said of the Alexipharmack Qualities which resist Poysonous ones § 33. Therefore the Supra-elemental Qualities as they most efficaciously produce the Elemental they resist actively radically and mediately But the Elemental now produced resist formally and immediately other their Elemental Contraries and can by no means be overcome of them Because they are either perpetually produced in Specie by the Qualities of the Wood which among all Natural Agents are the most efficacious in acting Or because by their continual and most efficacious Influx they persist in the same as we said before But whether their Union or their Inherence to their Subject be greater it doth not appear because it appears not whence it should proceed § 34. It is gathered from this Doctrine besides that the Quality which resists dividing things imparted to the Body by the Wood of Life doth sufficiently resist them passively or formally only First because as Hardness
diffused through the Air from the Tree of Life which did render not only Paradise but all the Neighbouring Country most wholesome And there is no need to have Recourse to the Virtues of other Fruits or Plants I answer That probably this might be said nor would it therefore follow that the Air was sufficient to impart eternity of Life because such Vertues diffused in the Air would either be of a different kind from those which rendred Life eternal or if they were of the same kind they had not Intenseness sufficient as those had which the Fruit eaten afforded § 12. Nevertheless I think it more probable they were the Fruits of other Trees First Because if the Tree of Life had those Virtues that were sufficient for Eternal Life it were superfluous to have others that made for the Prolongation of Life And then if we suppose they were the same that were able to render Life Eternal but more remiss it seems that in any Degree whatever they would have made it so For they were of such a Nature and Efficacy that in any Degree whatever they could easily overcome all other natural Agents even the most violent And thence it was we judged before that one Eating of our first Parents was sufficient that these Qualities might be diffused with the Seminal Virtue to their Children their Children's Children and at length to Universal Mankind But of these Opinions every Man may follow that which pleaseth him best a Conimb lib. 2. de Gen. cap. 10. quaest 1. art 3. ad fin b Johan de Barros Decad. 4. lib. 8. c. 9. ad initium c Didac de Couto lib. 1. Decade 5. c. 12. FINIS THE CONTENTS OF the Qualities of the Tree of Life pag. 1 Eight Doubts concerning the Qualities of this Tree ibid. That the Wood of Life was a true Tree and not Metaphorical 3 Whether the Vertue of the Tree of Life to perpetuate Life were Natural 4 The Affirmative part is approved 5 Whether the Vertue of this Tree were such as to keep a Man alive Time without end 6 The Affirmitive part is approved 8 Whether it were sufficient for Immortality to eat only once of the Fruit 16 The Qualities of the Fruit of Life would compensate all Repassion 23 When the Fruit would have produced Qualities to cause Eternity 26 The Fruit of Life would not always have been turned into the Substance of the Person nourished 27 When it would have rendred the Body altogether impatible 27 28 Whether after eating of the Wood there could have been Generation and Propagation of Children 28 Whether by eating of this Fruit a Man would have had the same Qualities in kind which we shall have afâ—er the Resurrection 29 What way the Qualities of the Fruit did defend the Child from Death before and after its Birth 30 It had been sufficient that Adam and Eve had once eaten to have made all their Posterity immortal 30. Even those that had committed actual Sin 31 Whether the Tree of Life were a Cause adequate to the escaping all occasions of Death 33 The Affirmative Part is approved 42 The Remora or Echeneïs stops a Ship 45 Echeneïdes are of divers kinds 46 50 A wonderful History of a Remora's shaking and stopping a Portugueze Ship 47 An easie way is shown how a Remora may without any trouble stop a Ship 94 What and how many were the Qualities of the Tree of Life whereby it caused length of Life and Immortality 51 The Tree of Life was Food and Physick 52 It might be called a Medicinal Aliment or an Alimental Medicine ibid. It would give to the Body so many and so efficacious Qualities as were sufficient to preserve and repair the Natural Constitution p. 53 This Fruit would give to the Body supra-elementary Qualities which were able to produce Elemental ones only in such a Degree as was agreeable to the Natural Temperament 54 These Qualities were of so great Efficacy that they would preserve that Dâ—grâ—e â—ixt against the Activity of any external Agent 55 These Qualities productive of the Elemental ones were a kind of Habit. 56 They are also a kind of those which cure manifest Diseases ibid. It was not sufficient that these Qualities should dispose as a kind of Cause Formal 57 The Tree of Life would also give Qualities which would concur with the Faculties as a kind of Cause Efficient to perform most perfect Actions ibid. Whether one only Quality flowing from the Fruit would suffice to concur with all the Faculties 59 There would have been a particular Quality for each Faculty ibid. The Fruit would defend the Body by these Qualities from Hunger Thirst and want of Air. 60 How this might be done p. 61 A Resistive Quality would have been given by this Fruit to prevent all Diseases in Vnion and Composition ibid. This Resistive Quality would not have been Active but relating to Patible Quality ibid. Whether this Quality belonged to Power or Habit. 67 This Fruit would have communicated Alexipharmack Qualities 62 It is probable that the Wood of Life communicated no Qualities to help the Discerning Powers 66 How the Moisture would have been defended by the Qualities of the Tree of Life that it could not be wasted by the Heat 63 The Qualities of the Tree are distributed into four Ranks 66 Whether the Qualities of this Tree concurring with the Powers were nobler than the Powers themselves 68 All Men that eat the Fruit would have had the same Temperament 69. Yet some would have been Wiser and Iuster than others 70 Why there should have been no Pain when in the Reduction there would a sudden change have been made by the Qualities of the Tree of Life ibid. Whether the Wood of Life had Alexipharmack Qualities 71 It had all Vertues which other Medicines have in healing except those which used without Art do Harm ibid. According to the Opinion which requires the Extraordinary Providence of God to the avoiding external Causes of Death the Tree had not given a Resistive Qualityâ— 72 Whether the Qualities of this Tree would have preserved Women from Pains in Travel ibid. What way they would have preserved Women from Pain 73 After what manner would the Resistance of Qualities defend that Man's Body who eat of the Tree of Life from all external Causes that could hurt it 76 External Causes of Death would not have been hindred by the Qualities of the Wood of Life from approaching the Body 79 Yet they would have been hindred from acting upon the Body ibid. How the Qualities of the Wood defended the Body from Agents producing Elemental Qualities 80 How these Degrees would be preserved fixt by the Qualities of the Wood 81 It is proved that they might be preserved naturally by the Qualities of the Wood p. 82 In what Staâ—e would Men have stood in need of Mâ—at Drink snd Respiration after eating of this Fruit 87 The Qualities of the Wood were able to convert any Matter into the Substance of the
take into his consideration Meat and Drink and the Evacuation of what is superfluous and of all the four Humours and secondarily the other kinds of Causes And this is what Aristotle saith in that Book published at the request of King Alexander the Great And the difference which Rasy puts between the Regiment of the Elderly and the Aged is this namely that the Bodies of the Elderly are to be considered more with evacuating Medicines and to be preserved that they come not to Evil and they must abate of their Labour and Thoughtfulness that the Strength of their Body may last a long time And that they who are arrived at Old Age avoid Labour and Thoughtfulness and Change unless on great and urgent Necessity They must be nourished with Food having a pleasant Tast and easie to be digested They should also often use Bathes and sleep much They should affect the Head and Face with odoriferous things and use Suffumigations Let them also exercise things which are full of Diversion and Delight Let them drink temperate and subtil Wine and clear and which hath a moderate mixture of Water How every one of these things may be done and brought into act will hereafter appear Royal Haly saith that Old Men ought to use an Air like the Humour of the Spring because their Nature is cold and dry Whence it is necessary that they use a Custome of heating and moistening and that they live in warm Places but avoid such as are cold and moist for that they hasten Old Age as I have said before where I treated of Meats which bring the Accidents of Old Age. Old Mens Meats ought to be of good Juice hot and moist that they may quickly and easily be digested and descend from the Stomach their Bread should be well l made and well leavened their Flesh should be that of m Pullets n Kids o sucking Calves p young Geese q Lambs r Partridge s Pheasants small Birds except t Sparrows Let them avoid all gross Meats difficulty yielding to Digestion as is u Beef w Goat and such like For if they accustome themselves to these Meats Dropsies will breed in them Stoppages in the Liver and in like manner Obstructions in the Spleen and Stones in the Kidneys and Bladder And if they should happen at any time to eat of these things let some Medicine be taken afterwards as Diacyminum well made up and things of like nature which help Digestion Also they must beware of those Birds which afford unwholesome Food and bad Juices Things that are sharp and breeding Choler are also to be avoided as Mustard Garlick and Onyons and all things that breed Phlegm as x Mushromes and all things that breed Melancholy as Pulse and Cheese and Worts and what are easily corrupted on the Stomach as y Mulberries z Melons a a Cucumbers But of Fruits let them take Figs Grapes and Raisins with Nuts and Almonds Physicians have not named all Meats and Drinks which bring these Accidents of Old Age. But Old Men must be fed twice a Day and the weaker by little and little For the Natural Heat being weak already cannot bear a great Heap of Meats and too greedy gormandizing Let their Dinner be at the third hour of the Day and let their Meat be of good Juice and producing good Humors as all Physicians agree Avicenna affirms that Old Men must eat dry Figs boiled with Honey and Water And Galen saith that Figs if they be dry are as it were the Fountains of ill Humours Which is true of Figs simply but if they be medically prepared it is false As to what concerns b b Baths Old Men are to be bathed in Sweet Water of a temperate Heat as Royal Haly saith in his fourth Canon He likewise saith that Old Men and the Decrepit are often to be washed in Baths that is once in a Week or in the space of Ten Days For their Strength will not bear more wherefore in some it is sufficient if this be done once in a Month. When they go out of the Bath let them rest quiet for one whole Hour Then let them take some Meat hot and moist easy to be digested and which quickly passeth out of the Stomach as is Bread well leavened and made c c Fish that live in stony Rivers Kids Flesh young Geese Lamb. Aristotle in his Book Of the Secrets of Secrets affirms that they must not tarry long in the Water for that they are much overcome by the Cold and Moisture lest the Body receive from the Moisture of the Bath The Anointing of Old Men ought to be sometime in the Morning when they rise And the Oyl ought to be Caerasinum mixt with the Oils of Chamaemel Violet and Dill. Then they ought to use moderate Exercise lest there be any Straitness or Obstruction of the Pores Let them avoid too violent Labour and Exercise They ought not to admit of Diminution of Blood unless they be in great and imminent Danger of Life Avicenna in his Phlebotomy shews in what Cases and for what Causes Old Men are to be let Blood saying In Old Age let every one as much as can be abstain from Blood-letting unless he be compact in Figure and Solidity of Muscles and have large Veins and be indisposed with Redness of Eyes This is to be considered in Old Men. But Iohannes Damascenns d d thinks otherwise in his Aphorisms speaking thus Let every Man in his Youth breathe a Vein four times a Year Thrice when his Age is forty When the fiftieth or sixtieth Year of his Age is come it ought to be done once And further it is altogether to be omitted He also saith that after the forty fifth Year the Cephalick Vein after sixty the Median after seventy five the Basilick is not to be cut Avicenna also saith That they who while they are in their youthful Days do often suffer Bloodletting after seventy Years their Heat is turned into Cold and Dryness and that especially if they were of a Cold Nature But now in the Name of the most High and Great GOD let us begin to treat about and more diligently and acutely to discourse of those Medicines which the e e Wise have kept secret and which are most profitable for the Old and Men of ripe Age. For whoever use these things they a long time restrain the Infirmities and Accidents of Old Age. The Use of these Medicines is convenient especially for f f the Rich. For the Charge hinders that the Poor cannot easily obtain them Now the Use of the first Medicine consumes all Moisture that is foreign not natural bred of ill Concoction and Indigestion and bad Meats wheresoever in the Body it be and especially in the Recesses of the Head and Stomach It consumes I say the Phlegmatick and Melancholick Moisture sharpens the Senses bridles Anger cherishes and strengthens the principal Members recovers the Infirmities and broken Strength of Old Men. Take g g of the Medicine which grows