dry The fift age is virile or manly and the constant media betweene flourishing young age and old age Yet doth it not so participate of either as that it is intemperate or infected thereby it beginneth at Thirty five and is extended-to Fourty nine The sixt and last is Old age which with the exhaustion of naturall heate becommeth cold and dry in temper but excrementitiously moist by reason of languishing heate This last age also as the first doth admit of division into these three parts The first is fresh old age beginning at Fifty and extendeth to Sixtie and all this time may doe the Republique good service and execute offices as other men The second age is a media or middle old age beginning at Sixtie and extending to Seventie and in this Classis by reason of naturall imbecillity they cannot deserve of the Common-wealth The last is decrepid age and this concludeth our life and being in this life it beginneth at Seventie and is extended ordinarily to Eightie And further according to the purity of naturall Principles These are the periods and differences exactly of mans age The first ingresse hot and moist the last egresse cold and dry the middle temperate sight and touch being sensible witnesses of this truth Holy Iob testifieth with mee that man springeth up like a flower and continueth not long in one state Thus having circled out mans life à puncto ad punctum it will appeare very probable that mans life may by art be preserved free from any disease arising out of the mixture of naturall principles from the infant age to decrepid old age except the Principles be cast impure from whence proceedeth weaker tempers and many distempers which wee call hereditary diseases And these also by art and the artificial use and application of Wine may be much altered and life beyond all expectation prolonged For the nature of Wine is so agreeable and familiar with the naturall principles of man as if by the Phisitian it be directly applyed it shall so strengthen the weakest temper as shall make it subsist against a forcible distemper conveyed in materia spermatica The best opportunity of performing or acting this duty is ab incunabulis to take the child from the mothers brest and from temper to temper to proceed otherwise the temper universally may be spoyled before or so injured by unskilfull application of medicaments as may cause to faile in the understanding Yet much time may be gained in any such case and that which is counted the shame of Phisitians and puts them so often to their wits ends viz. a Consumption hereditary or accidentall and universall of the whole body is no way to be cured better than by the right use of this plant All Phisitians in this case have hitherto flone to milke of Asses and the like But what is milke comparatively with this juyce which indeed is fit for Princes to receive and Phisitians duly to study upon that they may learnedly and rightly apply it For as Kings are the life and soule of the Republique and State so for this cause great care and judgement ought to be urged for their safety and the extension of their lives to extreame age healthfully which in many hath beene shortened by Outlandish devices and kickchawes But if the learnedest Phisitians shall throughly contemplate this subject they shall soone see where the extension of Kings lives is involved Experto crede Roberto I speake not phantastically or from any palate-pleasure For my owne sickly temper durst not within these few yeares so much as taste Wine til time and study enabled my judgement better and now I take it daily and by the concurring benediction of the Almighty and not thinne and extenuate as formerly I have beene but sound and strong as any of my yeares that hath had so many violent sicknesses I could also speake of strange effects I have wrought in others but lest I should be challenged for ostentation I will forbeare it being also a thing somewhat unjust to publish persons and their imperfections to the world which were privately committed to my care Nor is testimony in this case needfull since I have proved the probability of effecting these or such like by reason and argued the nature and mixture of this subject philosophically and upon this ground I defire rather to bee credited then upon any other And so I will returne from my digression and take up my subject againe and see if I can fit it now to all ages The Infant age is the first and most difficult as some thinke to reconcile because Galen saith vinum Infantibus sit nocivum by reason of their temper which is hot and moist And so they understand Galen to speake of the qualitie but hee was not so weake a Philosopher or Logician as not to understand that mixt bodies are maintained preserved and nourished by their Simile Nor did hee ever argue against ijs nutrimur quibus constamus which is to bee understood of mixt qualities rightly applyed that such are most apt and disposed in their owne nature to assimilate with their like as is this mixture in Wine to our materiall Principles of nature So that Galen cannot bee understood to speake of the quality but rather the quantitie exceeding just proportion with the manner of application as if by the excessive quantity you will adde so much oyle to the Lampe as shall extinguish it or at such times when it shall disturbe it by moving of some other heterogeneall with time of it selfe with the helpe or secret and insensible motion of Nature will consume But had the mixture in it selfe beene hurtfull there would appeare but little reason in Hippocrates which dyeteth children which are hereditarily subject to the stone either of the bladder or reines with white Wine rather then with milke Now hee was not ignorant of diseases hereditarie that they are conveyed to the children in the Principles of Nature and that Wine in it selfe was most agreeable to maintaine their constitutions without any alteration of it to move affectedly my selfe also have advised it and not only in the same case but also in Consumptions and many other affects with singular successe And in truth if Wine hurt any temper the discretion of the Agent is to bee questioned not well observing or knowing the true specificall differences each way By these expressions I hope those that understand beleeve also that the first is set at libertie to make use of Wine now I must present a health to the next which wee called Pubertie this temper is more hot and lesse moist then the former So that by way of contemperation of the heate and humectation of the moist the same Wine is still usefull and most proper But when and how long and how much and how fitted is only knowne to the Phisitian and hee guided by his judications Adolescency which is the media or of a middle temper neither hot nor cold may not feare
yet such a quantity as is not ad vasa as if Satiation were the Usher of diseases corruption and mortality which I suppose differeth very much from the sence of Galen that is to prescribe a pondus or streight weight and measure of nutriment to all tempers and such a weight not to be exceeded upon any occasion But if hee be understood to speake only to men in religious Orders and such as impoverish their bodies to elevate their mindes to pious thoughts and exercises then his Twelve ounces will bee better understood and little blamed but in a physicall sence cannot stand with the principles of art For Hippocrates and Galen both will tell him diseases are cured by contrarieties Inanition by fasting must bee cured by repletion in feeding and this inanition may bee extreame or not extreame and then no constant Pondus ought to be observed But if I understand those Worthies then thus I explicate their doctrine in this point and so will leave the Iefuite to his owne order As for the quality of aliment that it be Homogeneall pleasant and familiar to humane constitutions and tempers not only in generall but also to every individuall is a point that the Ancients were strict observers of and not without much discretion For the judgement of a Phisitian is most seene in his election of aliment in quality answering the temper of the body For though a disease must be cured by his contrary yet the temper of the body must be preserved by its own Simile as heate by heate and moisture by moisture but the degree whether more or lesse intense is judicated by nature and to be ordered by the Phisitian But this is a paradox to vulgar practicers who argue falsely upon a true ground for when Hippocrates saith Contraria contrarijs curantur they like an ignorant Iury will runne altogether upon contraries both in curing and also in nourishing according to my Simile making no difference betweene honesty and dishonesty or contrary and contrary 'T is true contrary remedies must be and are most rationally administred in affects of the body because a crooked sticke must bee bent as farre the other way to make it streight according to Aristotle But if contraries shall bee adhibited to a harmonious temper 't is the cause of discord and conflict in Nature As for example In a hot and moist temper to use a cold and dry dyet Therefore it appeareth plainly that the quality of aliment ought to bee most observed But for Quantity that is left to the free choice of Nature because naturall choice is never ultra capacitatem recipientis But to speake more fully to Lessius who in a religious way disputeth principally for temperance yet so severely that I must tell him as a Phisitian the Fathers of our Art preferre excesse so it be not in the highest degree of excesse before such temperance and of two evils the least For they lay it downe Canonically that all affects of plenitude or fulnesse are safer for the body then diseases of emptinesse And I apprehend much reason and variety of reasons in this axiome First because universall evacuation is sooner effected then repletion Secondly because accidents of various formes cannot be avoided for they are infinite and the least affliction falling upon an extenuate or lessiate body for want of a sufficiencie of excrementitious humours to move in giveth not only a dangerous assault to the radicall spirits but without sudden resistance of art must tyrannise nature before enfeebled and kept under cannot of it selfe resist to expell it Which meere resistance of nature or labour to expell noxious humours doth beget a Feaver and that only ex conatu natura according to Christophorus à vega naturall heate is fired and not otherwise by the ascent of putrid fuliginous vapours to the heart or if medicine be adhibited yet such a body must suffer from both and life be shortned Contrarily where there is a sufficient quantity of excrementitious humours for diseases to involve themselves in there are they reteyned with lesse danger or oppression to the radicall spirits and removed by medicine with as little offence as I shall demonstrate more Philosophically in this manner Alberius amongst other Philosophers doth constitute a twofold moisture in mixt bodies One which he calleth Humidum continuans and from this continuating humidity proceedeth an unction of parts for otherwise they would bee altogether dry and consequently disunited But there is no naturall body void of this humidity though never so hard or dry but hath a sufficient moisture to conjoyne their parts together inter se and every Alchymist proveth this truth by practice and daily extracting oyle out of the hardest and dryest bodies Therefore this humidity is rightly nominated by some Phisitians Oleaginosum Humidum oylie humidity consisting of ayrie and aqueous moisture The other humidity is Humidum quasi nutriens as it were the nourishing moisture and this is a watrish humidity in the mixt body nothing advantagious to the continuation of parts and is easily resolved because of its tenuity so is not the oleaginous because of its crassitude So that where a proportion of excrementitious humours by reason of a severe dyet is wanting in the body of man both disease and medicine must needs bee more powerfull over the fixed moisture and heate which is the ligament of life Contrarily where there is a second moisture to entertaine either effect or medicine doth lesse harme But I intend no controversie with Lessius therefore I will returne to my proper subject and shew how every temper may be preserved void of all distempers or such as arise out of the materiall principles of nature by the true use of wine and also pove it to be an excellent remedy applyed according to proper judication and may prove specificall in diseases of every nature arising out of the aforesaid principles passing as dilucidly and briefly as may bee through all the parts of this discourse Curiositie hath newly conceived and will now suffer abortion if a taste of this promised juyce be not suddenly presented whose nature and excellency is encomiastick sufficient so transcending all other nutriment as that just Noah makes it the first act of his husbandry and planted a Vineyard before either corne or any other graine as is affirmed by sacred testimony The reason if I should presume to offer Ne Sutor ultra crepidam I must expect from divines and justly if I should adventure to explicate any text of holy writ without qualification yet will I not so inthrall my fancy or suffocate such motions as may bee advantagious to a rationall man without prying into the Arke as not only to take notice of this plantation to be the first act of husbandry but especially of his age which was Nine hundred and fifty His age extended Twenty yeares beyond Adam in whom the principles of Nature were most firme and pure And no reason can argue otherwise but that in course of
either White Claret or Rhenish in their order observing the seasons with the inclination of celestiall orbes and the measure Iuventus being more hot and dry must also apply himselfe to these forenamed Wines somewhat more dilute which is easily effected by water Virile age holds out a cup of more rich Claret from 35 to 49. and goeth out with a draught of the smallest Sacke Which Senectus makes stronger by addition of Aligants and the richest Sacks and Muscadine and continueth them unto the last period of life Thus have I now applied it generally to every age and briefly cleered my proposition As for the Sex male or female betweene these I shall make no difference of temper Nor doe I give eare to some that make foule stirre de Lana Caprina or to prove divers temperaments of Sexes and that the procreation of women is more in the left then in the right side Ergo they must bee more cold and more weake But whatsoever they fancy this is only to bee observed without any further dispute That temperaments are not conflate out of heate more obtuse or vehement but depend on the perfusion and consent of the foure Elements Therefore having distinctly discoursed of temperaments I have also included Sexes As for the manner of using this subject Thus it is as followeth Hitherto I have taught the nature and use of Wine both Philosophically and medically and how familiar a nutriment it is to man and still say it must bee so both in respect of its substance and forme else I understand not Aristotle his alimentum simile and dissimile For although all aliment of what substance soever must receive forme of heate before it bee converted into bloud by which it doth nourish both fluent and fixt heate in us Yet such nor so apt is any substance for forme to sanguifie or nourish as Wine and if it be possible it will augment innate heate and moisture For 't is oyle not water that augments the flame a proportion observed else it puts it out so that it is the true Nectar by the use whereof Principles of life are augmented naturall humours multiplied spirits refreshed strength restored care expelled and bodies in youthfulnesse conserved To conclude 't is all in all to a naturall body For although in generall aliment is said to bee liquid airie and solid yet 't is humidity that nourisheth For medicament also I have proved it proper The Arabian Phisicians are of opinion that to take this liquor once every moneth in such a quantitie as shall be approved by the learned Phisicians is wholsome Phisicke it doth much recreate the Animal faculties reconcile sleep provoke urine and sweat dissolve superfluities and they affirme it to cure the Quartane with other diseases circumstances conducing to the profitable use of it after this manner which circumstances I obscure because I am desirous to entertaine time with substance only Custome is to be mentioned as somewhat substantiall for it over-ruleth the rest and the time generally most fit to receive Wine is with meate and then such Wine as best fitteth the temper of the Individuall But those that meane to use this subject rightly must not be without their Phisitian or out of their view for let their temper or distemper bee what it will so it be not some fatall stroke or wound by the wisdome of the Phisitian and his skill they may sinsibly perceive the prolongation of their life and by this meanes which is so pleasant to universall Nature The Chymist his best Rhetorick is exercised about the pleasantnesse of his extract smalnesse of quantitie But here I present a taste for pleasure beyond all mineralls forsafetie 't is incomparable either with them or Vegetals Excesse in this may be more easily repaired nor is the offence in nature of so great moment Now because there will be some difficultie in getting true naturall Wine without sophistication therefore I should thinke it fit were it so pleasing to Authority whereunto I humbly submit that as it hath beene heretofore with us and is still in other Countryes Apothecaries might have libertie to sell it and so by the direction of the Phisitian to make many medicate Wines fitted and in readinesse upon all occasions But that I may draw to a conclusion I will briefly lay downe or rather take up two maine objections one moved by Galen the other from the sacred Scripture apprehended erroniously both indeed at the first view or blast will seeme to shake both my foundation and edifice also Galen after all his ratiocination is raised out of his Urne and presents to me in his Commentary upon the Aphorismes these words Wine debilitateth as Venus and Frambesarius makes bold with his doctrine and delivereth it for a truth and in these words Vinum Venusque nocent eodem modo The objection I confesse is instar omnium and very materiall whether hee be taken to speake of the use or excesse of Wine In the first sence it doth oppose all that I have formerly taught and proved in the last a fit opposition to Avicenna Rhasis and Averrohes they advising wine once a moneth usque ad obrietatem Now if Galen bee not understood to speake of excesse then as I have said before neither Wine nor Venery can hurt debilitate and weaken the body for both rightly used are profitable the one to preserve the individual the other to propagate the species and venus as well as vinum both exhilarate the minde cheare the spirits refrigerate the body and cause sleepe So that at the first view Galen doth seeme to speake of excesse only or principally But that I may reconcile him with the Arabian Phisitians my part is now to explicate and render him in his owne proper sence and meaning This exception is not so much or principally against the quantity as the qualitie and misapplication both in respect of time and temper As when the quality of wine exceedeth in strength the temper of the body to which it is given and at a time unseasonable as upon a fasting stomacke and then to exercise the act of Venery intemperatly upon it and in this sence is Galen to bee conceived chiefly But I apprehend Plato and Ambrosius in another sence meerely distasting the nimium ebriety and intoxication in a voluptuous way and to speake truth after such manner abused 't is poyson both to mind and body inflameth the bloud debilitateth the nerves vexeth the head and to bee short is worse then any poyson For this cause Moses not only calleth it Venenum but the poyson of Dragons which admitteth of no cure Therefore Wine in this manner taken and according to this sence is more detestable for the strongest poyson of Animalls or minerals can but vulnerate the flesh but wine is powerfull to wound the soule Yet such is my candid censure of those Arabian Princes in Medicine that they never used it after this manner themselves or advised it in a voluptuous way to others
I meane to ebriety but as a medicament rightly and properly judicated Thus they made use of wine rather then any other medicament because of its familiarity with the Principles of humane Nature Well knowing that ebriety as it is simply into xication may be effected by other medicaments aswell as wine and if not wine then wee are inforced to use the other for soporificks and the like So that by this time I hope the doubt is cleere the ancient Phisitians reconciled and my selfe moving towards the next objection grounded upon Scripture There are a sect in the world and in this Region that stiffely defend the fatality of mans life and that no man can bee preserved prolonged or restored That diseases of every kind are or else to bee inflicted by an inexpugnable necessity determined of God and immutably fixed And these Ignaroes have base and meane thoughts of those which defend the contrary supposing it to bee a superfluous curiosity to avoid contagion to seeke remedies for diseases or to arme themselves against their enemies because God foreseeth death of this kind or the like And the Almighty foreseeing death of this nature and at this time and to this or that individuall Ergo it is not to bee avoided though the Lord shall say every mans perdition is of himselfe Dangerous and impious must this opinion needs bee for if it be granted what needs the Church or any private person put up any prayer to the Almighty for the restauration of life and health and preservation out of danger and to what end or purpose was the gift of healing dispenced to the Phisician if death and dissolution of every kind bee predestinated so as by no meanes it can bee shunned or prevented Nay to what end should wee pray for our daily bread or health c That we may therfore expurge this pernicious and intolerable mistake concerning the divine providence of God some things about his celestiall administration of universalls are more highly to bee taken into consideration and repeated by which the dignity and eximious utilitie of medicine may bee fully shewed That therfore the vicissitudes of humane actions and things happen not by chance or fortune but by the ordination of the Almighty ought to bee embraced by all Christian pious people and that God is the omnipotent and eternall builder of the Universe and framed it of nothing as is proved by divine testimonie This building being thus powerfully framed is also by the same efficacie conserved who hath also constituted to every particular created thing by its selfe a beginning and an end of subsisting and moving and doth take notice not only of principall but also of subsequent causes of things as if the Lord did governe moderate dispose and order them according to his free will and yet all this government is void of fatall violence and most commonly commeth to passe mediatly and by deputed causes which the vulgar call second causes which the divine Majestie doth use as the instruments of his will while hee doth so manage all things which he hath created as also himselfe may suffer them to exercise their proper motions for the will of man by divine ordination is the beginning of humane actions freely choosing what seemeth best to its selfe especially in externalls And according to Aristotle the nature of motion is the cause of this or that thing in which it is primarily per se As for example in the Sunne perpetuall rotation in weights of their inclination to Center Yea the causes so answer the effects as if the effects bee necessarie the causes are also necessary and of contingents the causes are also contingents nor doth the presence of God which is certaine and cannot bee deceived take away the contingency of naturall events But the future effect is disposed as it were by a divine providence necessarily or contingently Nor is it so that the Creatour is bound to the necessitie but moderateth all things freely according to his free-will and pleasure As did plainely appeare when hee caused the Sunne to stand still a whole day And when hee caused the Sea to divide it selfe and stand like firme walls about the Israelites As also in the case of Daniel The three children in the fiery furnace And Duffus Milcolumbus King of Scots who being cruelly murthered Anno Dom. 961. neither Sunne or Moone was seene for the space of sixe moneths after And although hee can thus dispose of causes and life and death absolutely at his own pleasure yet it behoveth us rightly to take that constitution of tearme of life not absolutely for a fatall determination but for a divine ordination of servient causes by their naturall power of sustaining or corrupting life For since life as the Philosopher speaketh is nothing but a duration of heate conjunct with moisture and duration of vitall heate and extinction of the same are naturall effects depending in like manner upon naturall causes which without doubt for the various internall disposition of naturall heate and moisture as also externall causes not only the quality but also the quantity of life it selfe may bee varied For it doth attaine the internall condition of lively Principles so long as the heate and moisture are so united in Animals as one is not destroyed by the other and so long they live but either of these separated each from other perish And in whomsoever innate is more vegetious and strong and radicall moisture more pure in substance copious in quantitie and also temperate in them life is more long Thence it commeth to passe that our ancient Fathers by reason of puritie in the internall causes of life have exceeded the age of nine hundred yeares Succeeding ages departing from that puritie of Principles by little and little are come downe to shorter ages And in these our ages the Countesse of Desmond and Thomas Parre are extraordinary examples For ordinary old age is Threescore and tenne if more it must bee by the extraordinary power and purity of the radicall Principles For radicall heate is the principall Agent of generation in the liquid substance of seed and bloud in the first conception soone after renders it more dry and exhibits the rudiments of every member and by drying still more doth publish the exact species Then it doth augment after it is come into the world and bringeth it to perfection Hence by the continuate efficiency of the sameheate all the parts being exiccated above measure are lesse able to administrate their offices whence followeth a necessitie of decay and extinction at last of naturall heate and this is a naturall death according to Galen Which by decrepid old age by siccity and defect of nourishment without sense of paine according to nature is extinct And is unnaturall and violent when by any other internall or externall cause or injurie it is put out before decrepid age For so with care and skill it may bee prolonged For as I have plainly argued and yet not