the making more dark opacous bodies why doth he not then make as many Elements as there are diversities of densitie and rareness Secondly I cannot conceive how there can be any motion in those particles out of which these Elements are made For first it is admitted that the great Expansum hath extension and so consequently is filled with some body or bodies which must then of necessity be contiguous one to the other and consequently no possibility of motion except what is common to all the parts together like a bladder filled with air For either you must say that the several faces of these particles meet together which must hinder the motion or abrasion of one another or else the angles of some must meet and touch the plains of others then they will not complere locum solidum so that there must be an empty space not filled with any thing since that thin subtil matter that should fill up all these vacuities is not in nature till it be first made by abrasion Thirdly I see not Mr. Des Cartes make any contrarietie in these Elements and so the same inconveniences will follow that did from the other opinions to wit that there should be no passion death or alteration of bodies For if these three Elements be made one out of the other they must needs be homogeneous without any contrarietie and so subject to no corruption To say that it may come from some disturbance in the motion of that very subtile etherial matter which fills up the void spaces or pores in all bodies is very hard to conceive For first admit that such a disturbance in the motion of that matter might cause an alteration or corruption what extraneous matter should cause that disturbance I see not nature of her self never tending to her own destruction Besides from hence it must follow that corruption and alteration of all bodies comes from a cause without them and not from any thing that enters into the texture of the body or any indisposition of the parts thereof Lastly to say that those little particles that go to the texture of any body do of themselves disunite doth not avoid the precedent inconvenience for it may be asked why they disunite or what made them come together to seperate Neither can that be supposed of which no cause can be given vid. Magnen p. 302. Lastly I see little difference between this opinion and that of Democritus since they both agree there was an infinitie of small parts from the conjunction of which all greater bodies were made in this they differ one saith they are solid compact and indivisible the other that they are indefinite though not infinite divisible though not divided One makes the little Atoms first made by nature and that by their concourse the great Machine of the world was made the other saith the great Expansion was by God first created that the ornaments and elements thereof were taken out of the great mass by division and separation of the parts of it I come now to examine the reasons of our late Chymists touching the beginning or elements of mixt bodies and I shall as shortly as I can not onely shew their opinion but withall shew what deviation they have made from those ancient Hermetick Philosophers from whom they at first deduced their notions These late Philosophers by fire as they style themselves finding that the ancient Hermetick Philosophers made often mention of Sulphure and Mercury in their writings to which others added Salt and farther finding them to make frequent mentions of Sublimation Calcination Ablution Circulation Digestion Reverberation Fixation and the like and also of the different Vessels and Furnaces to be used in their Philosophical works adhering to the Letter but deviating from the sense not considering the simple and easie waies of nature in the production of things though ever inculcated to them in the ancient Writers presently fell to the invention of several Furnaces proper for those several works as themselves not the true Philosophers understood them who do not stick sometime to tell you that by Sublimation Calcination Circulation Fixation and the like they understand things quite different from what our vulgar Chymists mean nay that these several Operations are performed in one and the same Furnace nay in one and the same Vessel Nature being the true Philosopher who of it self excites the central and natural Fire that lies hid in the prepared Matter by the help of an artificial one in its degrees administred by the hand of the Artist So that Sublimation Circulation Digestion Calcination and Fixation are but different steps in the same work But this either not suiting with the humour or pride of later Wits who thought nothing very good that was not attained by great labour fell to inventing of several Furnaces proper for these several works thence came your Furnus Sublimatorius Calcinatorius Reverberatorius Circulatorius Digestivus and as many more as every man according to his several fancy pleased to think of Next finding that out of several things both Mineral and Vegetable by divers preparations and different administrations of Fire they were able to produce different sorts of Substances some inspid some quick and piercing some acid and sharp some viscous Unctuous and inflamable some saline some fixed have attributed to these Substances several names viz. to the watery insipid part phlegm to the spiritual or piercing Mercury to the unctuous Sulphur the saline Salt the fixed Earth and make these to be the five Principles or Elements of natural bodies So Mr. Le Febvre whose words are quoted by our Author pag. 270. understanding Principles and Elements to be the same thing So Mr. de Clave cap. 7. pag. 40. tells you they find onely five simple bodies in their last resolution and thinks them ridiculous who make any difference between Principia and Elementa So that these five Principles must by them at least by our M. N. be held up exclusive to those four of Fire Air Water and Earth the notion of which must be look'd upon as frigid and vain and these five lookt upon as the most simple Substances In this Disceptation it will not be unworthy our observation that these persons having deduced their notions of Salt Sulphur and Mercury out of the Writings of the ancient Hermetick Philosophers ought not in reason to be believed farther then they agree with their ancient Masters not where they differ from and fight against them now 't is very clear out of all their Writings that by Sulphur and Mercury they understood very frequently something latent in the Materia magisterii which matter they all held to be compounded of the four Elements by the circulation whereof in the Rota Philosophica the Magisterium was composed when they then called Sulphur fixum Vniversale solvens nay sometime Mercurius Philosophorum not but that there was in it before it came to this heighth both Sulphur and Mercury the volatil part of
quotes a sentence out of Joseph Scaliger who being told that an obscure fellow had written malapertly against him expresseth himself thus Mihi relatum fuit Scarabeum quendam contra me scribere cui respondere neque dignitatis est nec otii I confess I dislike not Mr. Nedham's artifice to neglect a reply to what it may be is not so easily answered and that under pretence of giving the obscure Writers some name and reputation by this Champions appearing in the lists against them Did he not at the same time endeavour to raise to himself some glory and renown by provoking more learned Pens to write against him But I presume he will fail in this particular and go away with the reward of the poor Vicar who in the times of Rebellion got to preach at White-hal before Oliver Cromwel and there inveighed bitterly both against him and all the proceedings of those times insomuch that Oliver had it in debate to question him for his Sermon till a wiser man represented unto him that he was an obscure person who endeavoured by this means onely to get himself a name and better living from that party which was loyal to His Majesty after it may be a month or two of imprisonment whereas otherwise if he were let alone the Sermon would die and the man be forgotten which counsel was followed with a success according to that prognostick But lest our Authar should glory too much in the example of Joseph Scaliger and think himself equal to that great man in learning and therefore imitate him in his pride in reviling and scorning others as Mr. Nedham doth give me leave to tell the Reader the whole story of that passage and the occasion of it which if this Gentleman's intelligence had not failed him he might have applied to himself and eased me Thus it was One Thomas Lidiat Vicar of a poor Town called Alkerton in Oxfordshire or the edge of it a very learned man but especially in Chronological learning happened to put out a Book de emendatione temporum much about the same time yet before that large one of Scaligers of the same Title in which Lidiat falling upon many Notions that Scaliger had and differing from him in others particularly in the time of the Birth of our Saviour which Lidiat puts four years before Scaliger this incited the learned man whâ— could not well brook a contradiction to writâ— an Answer to Lidiat's Book in which he slights the poor man calls him in scorn Anglus homo nescio quis propheta with sucâ— like scoffs But soon after Lidiat replies against this Answer and justifies himself both solidly and modestly but whilst this Booâ— was in hand Scaliger thought fit to makâ— an Answer before it came out in the word quoted by Mr. Nedham Other it never had 〈◊〉 Many thought then and do still because hiâ— reasons were too strong to be refuted But nâ—â— long after the poor man lying in his bed haâ— his house broken and was himself soreâ—â— beaten and wounded by disguised persons who were never known nor took thence the value of one farthing insomuch that many suspected that usage to come from the forge of Scaliger who not being able to answer his reasons thought fit to be revenged upon him with clubs The relation of this last passage I had from the mouth of a person of great integrity who saw and spake with him when his face was swelled and ill with the said beating Let Mr. Nedham take heed that the first part of this Relation be not applicable to him and if he shall hereafter think fit to engage himself farther against Hippocrates Galen and all the Ancients I should advise him to write in some language that may carry his conceits beyond our English world that other Nations may both judge of the controversie and either submit to his determination or vindicate those Authors if none in England shall think fit to do it The rest of his Epistle is but a short abridgment of what lies scattered in his Book and is there spoken to There onely rests now that I should advertise the Reader that this Treatise such as it is had come out many months sooner had not the Visitation by the hand of God hindred the going on of the Press My absence upon other occasions and the Corrector's carelesness have caused some faults to have escaped the Press chiefly literal in the omission of a letter sometimes in the Greek quotations other times mis-accenting sometimes false spelling all which thâ— Reader will I hope candidly correct particularly to blot out the word smattering in thâ— third page which I assure him was not in thâ— Copy sent by me to the Press however it crepâ— in as did also the Titular Superscriptions iâ— some of the leavs of the first and second sheets which I desire Mr. Nedham as well as thâ— Reader to believe were not my own who neither affect lightness nor abuse toward one 〈◊〉 know not to have ever seen or spoken with Medicina Veterum Vindicata OR A JUSTIFICATION Of the Ancient Method OF PHYSICK IN this scribling Age wherin we live and in which all men take liberty to present the world with things unknown or pretended to be so to precedent Ages I have not observed any Professions more assaulted by these bold attempters than the three most noble Divinity Law and Physick The first directing us to a future happiness as we are men endued with Reason and an Immortal Soul The second as we are a Society of men to be kept and governed by such rules and directions as are fit to preserve the whole in Unity and Peace with one another The third as we are natural bodies made up of such a harmony and conjunction of parts which being fitly united together and so kept each of them subservient to the other in their proper Functions preserve the whole intire as a fit Instrument for the Soul to exercise her faculties by I shall let pass the two first as not proper to my Profession or undertaking but leave it to the sad consideration of those that are expert in those Professions if the very foundations and most received Maxims of them both have not been struck at by some late pretenders to a greater measure of knowledge or revelation than their Brethren In Physick what almost has not been attempted by confident and over-bold persons who though they would be thought Masters of much more knowledge than their neighbors will yet upon examination be found not to have peirced so deep as others have into the right knowledge and understanding of the first praecognita without which it is impossible to lay any solid foundation upon which either themselves or others may safely raise any permanent superstructure Amongst many I find none seems more assured of his cause than an Anonymous Writer yet well enough known under his veil and is it seems a person of some 〈…〉 understanding in Physick and other parts
their cure The great severity of these Diseases now a days more than heretofore is indeed most doubtily proved out of the weekly Bills of Mortality collected by Mr. Grant and his own Observations worthy proofs to overthrow an Art by as if he knew not that in the world there can be no so fallacious a way of proof Every one is enough acquainted with the Searchers and their way of dealing who regard nothing more than to give the general account of the Dead and the Born and to let the World know when the City is infected with the Plague with whom nothing is so usual as to put one Disease for another Consumptions and Fevers are general names comprehending all sicknesses whatsoever and the mistake is in them no way material the end being onely to inform the Magistrates what Malignant Sicknesses reign and though that way be tolerable in Mr. Grant whose design is onely to prove the Increase and Decrease of Mankind yet from hence to prove the Alteration and Severity of Diseases to the overthrow of all Rules of Physick savours too much of Ignorance Self-ends or both He comes after this in his third Chapter to inquire into the Causes of the alterations of diseases from their ancient state and condition But till he had proved an Alteration such as would be subservient to his purpose in Diseases I need not trouble my self to follow him in his Causes yet that I may not seem to pass by any thing he thinks material I shall trace him in those also 'T is observable that the subject of his second Chapter that there is an Alteration in Diseases the third Chapter pretends to shew the Causes of this Alteration to wit The Pox and the Scorbute by their invasions made upon the universality of Mankind have been the two main causes of this alteration What the meaning of these plain words is may perhaps be a little intricate for if he here understand that these Diseases are solitarily in most bodies then certainly their presence cannot be the cause of Alteration of other Diseases that are not there with them If he understand their Complication with other Diseases makes such an Alteration as he contends for so that a Fever or what else assailing the body already infected with the Pox or Scurvy makes such an alteration as must change the Precepts of Physick this is the whole subject of his fourth Chapter and carries something of reason in it but then the third Chapter is wholly useless or as to those Diseases coincident with the second and onely brought in to fill up room and to bring in one whom he calls Doctor John Winnels Preface and to call this a wanton painting patching Pag. 69. perfuming issuing age Certainly all these Epithetes have been much more ancient than this age let him look upon Jezabel in the Jewish Julia Messalina in the Roman Rhodope Crispa of whom Ausonius speaks Praeter legitimi genitalia foedera coetus Repperit obscaenas veneres vitiosa libido Crispa tamen cunctas exercet corpore in uno Deglubit fellat molitur per utramque cavernam Nequid inexpertum frustra haec moritura relinquat Where is Wantonness equal to that described by Petronius in a Woman Junonem meam iratam habeam si me unquam virginem meminerim nam infans cum paribus inquinata sum subinde prodeuntibus annis majoribas me pueris applicui donec ad hanc aetatem perveni What wantonness in this age ever answered that of Messalina Ziphil quae efficiebat ut multae in palatio viris suis praesentibus ac videntibus cum adulteris coirent What Parysatis was author of his Sons incest with his own Sister in this age Plut. iâ— Aâ—tâ—xtâ—xâ— Where has Prostitution been encouraged or promoted by a Reward and Law If in this as in all ages something be amiss what has this man to do to upbraid the times being neither Divine nor Magistrate to whom the correction of Vices in any kind might belong for though the words are taken out of the Preface of another he that with applause transcribes them makes their Sordidness as much his own as they were before the Authors that first writ them And truly 't is no marvel that men of light Principles should be of loose Tongues He first tells us in this age we have lost Philosophy we understand not Physick and now we fail in Sobriety and Cood manners Pag 62. After this large Preface which hath given us the diversion of two leaves he falls upon a discourse by what means the Venereal and Scorbutick Miasms have gained ground in the world to wit by Carnal Contact ill Cures accidental Contagion hereditary Propagation and Lactation and is large upon every one of these heads To what purpose all this is and how it will serve his turn I see not except to usher in their complication with other Diseases which is the subject of his next Chapter as I touched before The Propagation of this Lues by Carnal Contact he passeth over to insist upon a truth of much importance to be laid open for the security of mankind viz. That after the committing that folly with an unwholesom person though there appear no sign nor symptom of a Disease for the present yet it may lie latent and lurking in the body many years before it make any discovery of it self either in its own noture or in the disguise of other diseases And in another place tells you Pag. 6â— that it may be in the Father lie quiet in the Son and at last discover it self in the Grandchild and whatever he saith of the Pox he would have you understand of the Scurvy also This he proves from prostituted Women who having long lived in that wicked course have infected many others without being privy to any ilness in themselves In which Assertion he begs two things which are impossible for him to prove first that those persons were not privy to the knowledge of any Infection in themselves notwithstanding they impudently enough might say they were not For truly 't is not hard to believe that those persons that will lie with their Bodies in those unjustifiable ways will also lie with their Tongues when 't is for their advantage either to make themselves appear more innocent or their Copesmates more confident Secondly that the Infection given to so many persons hath proceeded from a Disease long latent or perhaps one newly taken I much fear that Men and Women so given keep not themselves so constantly to the same person that they can tell either when they give or take Infection till by the succedaneous effects it discovers it self Something more reasonable might have been urged for him were he able or any other to prove that those hundreds infected as he saith by the same common Woman had never touched any other from whom they might possibly as well take it as from her that did not know her self infected From this he
if they be not ad rem and are urged by me to let him see how fallacious that way of Argumentation is which is drawn from the application of Reason from one thing to another contrary to Experience 'T were a strange way of arguing the Loadstone which is a black heavy stone of such a bigness and weight will take up a pound of Iron therefore every Loadstone of that bigness will have the same virtue contrary to Truth and Experience Just so 't is with him the Plague c. is infectious and the Contagion passeth from one body to another without any immediate contact therefore every Disease that is infections as the Pox and Scurvy are must do so too Nay he has the boldness to improve this Notion so high as to tell us Pag 130. no man never so innocent can be secure that he is sound A Doctrine every way pernicious and unsafe for the innocent it makes them upon every light occasion doubtful and suspicious of themselves the guilty bolder and more impudent being fitted with this lie in their mouth However I am now tainted 't is not by my own fault but the fault of my Parents Nurse or any other I have seen or conversed withall endeavouring by this cheat to vindicate their own Credits in the world And thus this miserable flagellum scortatorum is made an Arrow to wound the innocent and excuse the guilty who will be always ready to cast their disease upon that fine way of communication M. Pag. 97 N. hath taught them which suits not with the conceit of a brain that measures every thing by the gross Philosophy which Aristotle ties men to in the Schools who teach men that Infection may be by Incorporeal qualities insinuating themselves with the Air whereas in truth they are infected by invisible indivisible Atoms corporeal effluxes as he saith Dr. Flud in his Mosaick Philosophy and Sir Kenelm Digby in his Discourse at Montpellier have made manifest with some others How far these Examples will warrant the efflux of Corporeal Atoms or whether the same effects may not follow from the impacting incorporeal qualities and the dulness of Aristotles Philosophy I shall have fitter opportunity to discourse of hereafter and I doubt not to shew that this anciently-confuted and now lately-revived Philosophy of making Atoms the beginning of all Bodies and their flying up and down in vacuo not to be without great difficulties and probably not true This that hath been said I conceive abundantly sufficient to clear that part of his discourse concerning the Propagation of the Lues Venerea and Scorbute by accidental Contagion Hereditary Propagation and Lactation by all which ways I admit those diseases may be transferred from one to another but deny that either of them are so general as he would infer or that they are transferred by such an infection at distance as the Plague Malignant Fevers and some others but must be got by Contact or very near and frequent Conversation There rest now onely to examine his second cause to wit their Propagation by the ill-curing of them both For my part I shall never rise up a Champion to defend the ill-curing of any disease much less either of them named onely I would have him remember that of the Poet Carpere vel noli nostra vel ede tua He justly condemns the going for cure to any Pretender Pag. 76. amongst which number I reckon all Mountebanks or such as take upon them the Practice of Physick without lawful Warrant thereunto and then runs over the ordinary Methods first of Issues where by the way he should do well to observe his inadvertency in calling this age by exprobration an issuing age for if the Pox be so general and this be one kind of cure though it be but the Poor-Whores cure certainly he ought not to blame the Age for taking any course to cure their Maladies Then comes Mercurial Vnguent Mercurial Cinabar fume by Salivation and inveighs against them all notwithstanding he cannot but know they have been all succesfully used by skilful men and in unskilful mens hands the best Remedies will not succeed Moreover he forgets the Method used by Fernelius and most others by Sudorifick Potions made with Lignum sanctum Sarsaparill China c. He touches not upon Quercetans Method in his Consilium pro Lue Venerea Whether he approve these ways better than any by Mercury I know not or whether he hath any better of his own 'T is much to condemn all the Physicians in the world and then leave us in the dark Out with it Man tell the World if you know any better than others do till then give us leave to think this onely an artifice to cry up your selves to the defamation of others this is usual with the rest of your Gang Manwairing Odowd and others who pretend great things but conceal what they are In the Scurvy likewise he inveighs against Bleeding Specificks and that ordinary way by which we find by daily experience that disease cured if Judicious men deal with them He blames the use of Pills Infusions Powders Electuaries reputed Classical and tells you in all the Pharmacopoeus he cannot pick out one Composition proper to purge Scorbutical Humours in so gentle and effectual manner as they ought to be What if there be not Doth not he know that every Physician is able to be his own Pharmacopoeist and that those Books are rather made for the use of Apothecaries and Surgeons than them But let us see what thinks he of the Pilulae macri of the Tartareae Quercetani of the Sal Cochleariae Absinthii and the rest Cannot a Mass be made out of these proper enough to purge Scorbutick Humours Pray Sir bless us with something of your own that we may judge of your Abilities and owe our Knowledge to you I have thus done with the Argumentative part of his book and have shewed his fallacious ways of Argumentation throughout First I have shewed that the nature of Man Beasts Plants Herbs Fruits and all things conducing to the nourishment of Man are of the same nature and therefore Diseases at least those that were known to the Ancients are not altered in their nature nor the Method in the curing of them altered That the discovery of new Remedies if any have been do not take away the virtue of those that were known and practised before but both may be good and stand together and that my Lord Bacon and those other Worthy persons that have encouraged men to make further search into the things of Nature and those Noble persons that have written and still labour in Experimental Philosophy do not do it to disparage the Ancients but search into the Reasons of the works of Nature and discover new Truths and establish the old by new Confirmations I have in the second place shewed that the Pox and Scurvy which this Author much insists upon were not new diseases in themselves though
perhaps lately brought into Europe that their Cures were found out by and upon the Foundation of the ancient Method which is able to furnish a Physician not onely with means to find out the seat of any disease but also to apply appropriate remedies thereunto I have shewed in the third place that the Complication of Diseases cannot alter the general Method of curing them though it may cause a variation in the application of Remedies That the variation of Remedies according to the nature of Diseases in their Complication is the Office of a Physician who ties not himself to any Remedies delivered in Pharmacopoeus but ordering them pro re nata and that 't is impossible to give any general Method to cure any one complicated Disease as it is lodged in Peter because never any such Disease came twice alike in all circumstances nor can any Remedy be found out I am confident is not by this Undertaker that shall have that effect What the Chymists speak of their Sulphur fixum and their Vniversale solvens which shall have that power and also with some other help of Art shall six an imperfect Metall into Gold as I will not deny the truth of it so will I suspend my judgment till I shall be better convinced For all other Remedies in the preparation whereof Chymists have laboured I shall give them my ready thanks with much gratefulness of mind for their pains they have many of them made their Medicines and Preparations publick and daily use is made of them when this unknown M. N. makes us partakers of any of his betâ—er than what we know I shall readily return him my due thanks but must not believe some few moneths study of Chymistry under Mr. Johnson set up by the College of London for their use have made him so perfect an Artist as to know more than his Teachers in that Art The pretending to be Masters of great and universal Remedies and conceal what they are a practice now used by Odowd Manwairing and some others is a thing so unworthy a Scholar that I would not have this Author so like a Mountebank in any thing The Examination of the Sixth Chapter THus have I with all possible brevity run over his first Five Chapters which indeed contain most of what is Argumentative in his book I come to the Sixth which begins with a recapitulation of what he had formerly proved In the former we have had a taste of his Philosophy and Logick we shall now try his Logick alone and see whether the Conclusion drawn from the Premises now laid down be answerable to those of his first Chapter where he argues thus If Diseases are altered in their nature wholly from what they anciently were Then New Indagations new Causes new Cures must be found Physick and Surgery must be rebuilt from the very foundation But Diseases are wholly altered in their nature Therefore in his sixth Chapter he argues thus If there be now introduced in Men and Diseases as it were another nature Then The former Rules calculated for Curation from other Causes or from Causes less important are almost if not quite out of doors But Men and Diseases are as it were altered in their nature Therefore the former Rules c. Quo teneam tandem mutantem Protea nodo In the beginning of his book his premises were universal and general in this place they are limited and particular At the first there was a total alteration of Nature now a partial perhaps at the later end we shall find none at all But this is not all we must find other infirm parts of his Argument Certainly Aristotle as dull as he was would never have thus concluded nor any man that had read or well understood his Analyticks or the reason why they are so called Where he first supposeth the Conclusion which is the Res ignota as known and true and then infers it ex veris concessis so that if there be any thing in the premises which is not verum concessum then can the Conclusion be never truly inferred and the thing sought concluded Now Sir would I gladly see how you infer the consequence of your Major what have we to do to leap from Nature to Causes You ought thus to have assumed If there be now introduced as it were in Men and Diseases another nature Then Curations found out for Men and Diseases which now are as it were of another nature than formerly must be as it were changed But Men and Diseases are as it were altered in their nature Ergo. But in this Syllogism both the sequel of the Major and Minor are neither of them granted for there may be a partial and circumstantial alteration of a Disease and if you will of a Man without any alteration at all of the Nature of that Disease in its Cause or the Nature of the Man in its Cause But certainly when we can believe the Nature of Man can be altered in its Cause the next step will be to believe he may be altered in his species too May not a Fever that invades a Pocky or Scorbutick body have the same Cause though in respect of the Complication there may be a partial alteration in the Disease and consequently a circumstantial variation in the Cure I admit that the Cures of the Ancients were built upon the considerations of Diseases in their Causes but must not grant that the same Cause may not produce a Disease somewhat altered in circumstances So that if it were granted him which he hath no way proved and is not true that Diseases anciently known are at all altered in their Nature yet would it not follow that they were altered in their Causes The whole Argument brought into form ought to run thus Major If there be now introduced in Men and Diseases as it were a new Nature from rebellion and alterations not known to the Ancients in their Causes or taken notice of so fully as they ought to be by the later Physicians Then The Rules of Curation calculated for Men and Diseases now as it were of new natures from those alterations not known to the Ancients in their Causes or taken notice of so fully as they ought to be by the later Physicians must be as it were altered and changed Minor But there is now introduced in Men and Diseases as it were a new Nature from malignity and alterations not known to the Ancients in their Causes or taken notice of so fully as they ought by later Physicians Conclusion Therefore the Rules of Curation calculated for Men and Diseases now as it were of new natures from alterations not known to the Ancients in their Causes or taken notice of so fully as they ought to be by the later Physicians must be as it were altered and changed 'T is evident here that the whole strength of his Argumentation depends upon the introduction of a new Nature into Men and Diseases so that till that be proved 't
being spent most upon Invectives against Hippocrates and Galen persons above the biting of his venemous tooth and the first as to his Cavils against his Aphorisms Prognosticks c. so fully and learnedly vindicated by Doctor Sprackling that when he or any of his Tribe shall give a solid Answer thereunto he shall then see what more may be added upon that subject onely let me adde this to the much materially said by Doctor Sprackling that he condemns some of them for their Plainness in which he discovers his own Ignorance not knowing that Aphorisms are short Determinations and therefore ought to be plain But pray Sir is it not as plain that totum est majus parte that the whole is greater than a part that if from equal you take away equal the residue shall be equal which may as well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet these were thought fit to be laid down by Euclide as previous to his Elements and yet was never blamed for their plainness nay without them we should have been at a loss for many Demonstrations both by Euclide Archimedes and others made good onely per deductionem ad impossibile But because in his next Chapter he is so bitter against the frigid notion of Four Elements that we must away with them root and branch without being heard what they can plead for themselves I shall enter into consideration of the Compofition of Mixt bodies and though I would not be understood to defend that Doctrine in every thing but onely that those that make the principia corporum to be Atomi and those that make them Salt Sulphur Spirit Water and Earth either are the same with the four Elements or where they differ are subject to as inextricable difficulties as can be urged in allowing their composition to be from four Elements Fire Air Water and Earth An Examination of the Doctrin of the Elements and the Composition of Mixt Bodies TO him that considers under what great obscurities the ancient Philosophers laboured to find out the causes and beginning of things who being either wholly deprived of the knowledge of the Creation or but darkly comprehending the History of it delivered indeed very anciently by Moses but by most of them either not seen or not believed to wit that there was an Omnipotent Power who was able of nothing to create all things by the effectual operation of his Word concurring with his Spirit He commanded and they were made Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they were created To him I say that considers these things it will not at all seem strange to find them sometimes run into errors which we see those that come after them in this fertile Age of Learning and deep search into Natural Causes cannot fully excuse themselves of Insomuch that had we that ingenuity which might deservedly have been expected from us by our dead Predecessors we should rather render them their due honour for many great Truths delivered by them to us when like our M. N. with too great presumption and boldness rail upon their persons with invectives calling the Philosophy of Aristotle dull the notion of four Elements frigid Galen the great corrupter Hippocrates his learned Book De Principiis slighted his Doctrine of Critical Days called as childish a conceit as was ever owned by any long beards called the children of men Without returning invectives against this Writer who lies open enough to him that hath a mind I shall onely with as much brevity as may be propound the several opinions as well of the ancient as modern Authors touching this matter and with as much candor as I can lay them down and then leave the Reader to judge where the most reason is I shall not enter into the subtil speculation de Materiâ primâ an Abyss fathomless and in which all that have endeavoured to penetrate have rather lost themselves then found that out and 't is no wonder for how can Man who is not able to judge of any thing but under the Idea of somewhat hath fallen under some of his senses tell what that is that cannot possibly fall under any one of them Plato Pythagoras and those of their Sect made the beginning of things to be what could not be comprehended either by sense or imagination but made it consist in certain eternal and unchangeable Ideas or Numbers Aristotle makes Privation to have the nature of a Principium for having disputed upon that subject Ex nihilo nihil fit he tells you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That according to his opinion nothing could be simply made ex non ente yet per accidens it might for out of Privation which in it self was nothing having no existence something is made Phys lib. 1. cap. 8. Then after saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here he tells you That Hyle or Materia prima and Privation are different and of these that Hyle is a Non ens by accident but Privation properly that Hyle is near and as it were a substance or existence but Privation by no means Last of all saith Phy. lib. 1 cap. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is That Hyle is the first subject of every thing out of which what ever hath being not by accident is begotten By all which you may see how Aristotle was streightned to extricate himself in the business of the first beginning of things He found there was a necessity to admit in a manner something to be made out of nothing and yet not seeing how that could be tells you it could not be simply true but true by accident explains his meaning by Privation which though it were in a manner non ens yet gave beginning to something that was as the privation of one thing is the generation of another where Privation is but accidentally the beginning of an Entitie Then after tells you that Hyle is a Non ens per accidens but Privation properly so Why is Hyle a Non ens per accidens Because he could not comprehend how if it were admitted to be an Entitie and have existence there must not be something precedent which must be the matter of that matter and so there would be a climbing in insinitum All this I conceive proceeded from his not knowing the power of God to create all things of nothing and that Maxim Ex nihilo nihil fit was onely true à parte post not à parte ante 'T is true since the Creation nothing can be made by it self but must come from a seminal vertue by God's blessing given to the Creation that various things might be produced according to their several kinds but before the Creation it was not so But the speculation of these things being wholly Metaphysical I shall so leave them and refer those that have a mind to wade beyond their depths in them to what Vasques Scotus Suarez and all the Thomists have written upon this subject Yet withall let me adde this Observation