issuing out of the blood is rather an argument of Revenge than of Sympathy and Love For what Sympathy could there be between inveterate enemies hence also proceeds that remarkable disagreement between Garlick and the Loadstone for a Loadstone rubb'd with Garlick will not attract Iron The enmity between the Oak and the Olive-tree is so great that one planted in the others place quickly dyes The like instances of Antipathy may be observed in all kinds of Animals but in none so conspicuously evident as in Man Many swoon at seeing Apples or Pears pared others cannot endure the noise of Cloath some others can neither endure to see nor eat Cheese Butter Onions roasted Pig Calves-heads but all these are rather to be referred to the imagination as shall be said in its proper place They therefore deserve to be laughed at who seek for the causes of these and the like effects in the apparent and natural qualities of the Elements of which sort are those who reproachfully call occult proprieties the refuge of ignorance There are a great many dull and lazy genius's who imagine that all the proprieties of natural bodies are occult and upon that account neglect the study of Nature or make no difference amongst occult proprieties or qualities neither exercise their understanding in searching out the causes of those occult Qualities of whom probable causes may be assigned Of such it may be justly said that occult qualities are the Asylum of dulness and ignorance § 3. Nor is their opinion to be embraced who think that the exact causes of natural powers can be nicely demonstrated when on the contrary the Scripture says many things are difficult to be known and inexplicable to the nature of men the causes of many things are occult and many of the works of God remain hid Which also the greatest searchers into nature have acknowledged amongst whom Pliny says Many things are altogether concealed in the Majesty of Nature We must not enquire after Reason says he but the pleasure of Nature 'T is certain there are innumerable such natural powers and qualities in natural bodies of which the causes are concealed from us and of which we ought modestly to judge according to natural knowledge which could never yet unfold all the causes of natural powers The cause is not to be enquired after in every thing it will be sufficient for some things to demonstrate that they are The weakness of our understanding will never penetrate so far as to attain a perfect knowledge of the powers of occult proprieties which more or less reside in the most minute things whence many very wise Authors have accounted it a certain kind of reverence not to be more prying into those things than was useful For an over-scrupulous tracing of many things produces the greater ignorance and confounds the understanding that without all doubt we may assert that errors originally arose partly from Ambition and Envy and partly from an over-greedy desire of knowledge but altho the reasons of occult powers cannot be evidently demonstrated from temperaments yet it is not to be doubted but they proceed from a peculiar and singular temperament which is called Ιδιοσυγκασια from a substantial form proper to every individual § 4. Ιδιοσυγκασια therefore is nothing but the proper temperature of every natural body for whilst the Elementary Qualities as well primary as secundary are â—uited together by a certain celestial â—irtue for the Heaven terminates the â—oncretion of bodies and affords them an exact measure of vivifick light and heat so that by the accession of celestial heat and light in mixing there is made a particular coalition of the Elements and so also of the Elementary qualities which corresponding in proportion and analogy to the forms of bodies produces those occult powers or qualities For example bitter Almonds by an occult power cure drunkenness as many by experience know If all these occult qualities proceeded immediately from the form why would not sweet Almonds have the same effect in regard sweet and bitter Almonds have both the same specifick form Therefore in regard the cause cannot be found in the form we must descend farther And first bitterness itself cannot be the cause in regard there are a great many other bitter things which have not the same effect on drunkenness but rather increase it What is more bitter than Aloes and yet the bitter of Aloes hath no influence that way Therefore we must have recourse to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or peculiar temperament that is in bitter Almonds in which the Elementary qualities are reduced to a certain singular proportion by celestial light and heat that they may produce such an effect CHAP. IV. Of Sympathy Medicinally considered § 1. HItherto we have treated of Sympathy and Antipathy under a natural consideration which was also absolutely necessary now we will handle it Medicinally so far as it assists us in the art of Physick It is long ago since this way of cure hath flourisht some think that Theophrastus Paracelsus was the restorer of it others attribute it to Parmenses Anshelmus an Italian and famous Magician It is otherwise called Magnetick for as the Loadstone by a secret and occult power attracts Iron so and by a like occult power a disease and a wound in a man is healed This art of healing Sympathetically hath abundance of inveterate Antagonists and is miserably dilacerated and mortally hated by those that should countenance and defend it This is so difficult that after the contemplation of divine Mysteries nothing is more noble This is truly the guide of Philosophizing in which it is lawful to pry into the secrets of things and easily become masters of their Arcana's This is an exercise becoming good wise and learned men and a noble pleasure to be desired beyond all others And although in this our Iron age the number of Impostors and Sophists abound and a good man is searce discerned amongst them so that those that endeavour to restore to light this art of curing are not only thought illiterate and obscure but also feel the effects of an almost universal hatred But let the enemies to this art go on with their meer empty babbling who acquire nothing but ignorance in which they mightily solace themselves But the scribble of the ignorant or such such like things will not be capable of destroying it in regard it was confirm'd and established long before Paracelsus Therefore they act very rashly that would ruin that for the madness of a few persons which hath been confirmed by long tract of time which nevertheless cannot be accomplisht in regard it cannot be suppress'd by craft or combination In the mean time Let every one enjoy his own method of study But my business is not in the least to spend time in any further refuting of these things but for brevity sake refer these unskilful persons to the writings of the famous Tidicaeus Goclenius Fracastoreus c. for whatsoever it wanting and
Remedy and by only one Unction they pretend indifferently to cure all different distempers Secondly here is no natural manner of application for mutual touching whereby the power of the Medicine or Unguent may be conveyed to the affected part as is absolutely necessary § 2. But here is none for the Medicine is not applied to the part affected but to water appropriated to a certain Sympathetick Medicine and the Ointment or Powder is rubb'd on the instrument that gave the wound Thirdly here can be no virtual action or touching It is true indeed that there are various occult proprieties in Nature from whence Sympathy and Antipathy take their original but in this Sympathetical Cure there is no evident reason of a Virtual action The Load-stone attracts Iron by an occult power but not from a too remote place a just distance is required Plants are hurtful mischievous and unlucky to one another and so likewise are Animals but no action is observable at a very remote distance and that Power cannot be diffused to immensity and infinity but when by the power of Sympathetick Cure only by the Urine of sick persons Sweat Vomit or Stool shall be caused by certain Sympathetick Medicines or when we use Water or Sympathetick Powder prepared for the closing up a wound in one travelling or absent twelve twenty or more miles what proportion of distance is here between Agent and Patient But if that wonderful Magnetick and Balsamick Powder be efficacious with things very distant it is objected How I pray can such a power proceed from a quantity of Urine clotted blood and the purulent matter of wounds how can those Balsamick Spirits pass thro so many heaps and folds of intermediate matter break thro a Chest have access to a remote languishing body as also to a wound in a Bed perhaps and a Chamber close shut every way but if when the air is turbulent the Suns beams can scarce exert their powers and extend themselves to our bodies how will those travelling Spirits which are so easily agitated by rough winds reach the body and wound of persons hurt but here is admitted no Vital or Medicinal Spirits operating at great distance § 3. In regard things of this kind do not remain in Urine Blood split and purulent concrete matter but vanish at the first moment for Urine vanishes immediately as also Blood once cooled can no longer exercise any faculty pertaining to life Fourthly whether what is performed be done not by the assistance of any Medicine but by the help of Nature We see that in wounds where Nature cures distempers and endeavours and procures healing and consolidation especially if all obstructions are removed and the wound be carefully lookt after which is done by keeping it clean and washing it twice a day with the Urine of the person who will deny that consolidation to proceed from Nature it self to wit by the internal Balsam of Nature promoting its healing Dogs and other Animals often cure their own wounds by licking of them and why may not something of this kind be expected from Nature In the Fifth place No power can proceed from the Spirit or Soul of the world which is accounted the vehicle of this magnetick faculty for a non entity hath no affection no action in the examination and confutation whereof let us consult other Authors CHAP. VIII Of the Defence of Sympathetick Cure § 1. THere are others who oppose these strenuously undertaking the defence of Sympathetick cure Fracastorius Goclenius Tidicaeus Freigius Helmont c. are of opinion that we ought not altogether to disbelieve it in regard they have proved this cure for so long a time by the certain experience and affirmation not of vain men but of those most worthy of credit they say the matter lies here whether probability and verisimilitude drawn from the secrets of Philosophy and the testimony and approbation of the chiefest Philosophers can add any thing to its reputation they say the foundation of the whole cure is that wunderful and occult consent of natural things as the Loadstone and whatsoever hath acquired a Magnetick Nature in the Mariners Compass in Sun-dyals or Clocks always and infallibly distinguishes the Quarters of the world from the North. So also say they the cure of bodies although very far distant without all doubt may be performed by Medicines that possess a Magnetick quality by a energy arising from thence And in regard that between agent and patient there is required a kind of repassion they assert that something like it is to be found here Mans Urine impregnated with a Sympathetick Medicine acts upon its own body which causes sweat vomitings and stool and without any difficulty or detriment Moreover a weapon sprinkled with humane blood operates on the wound given and the wounded Flesh also operates on the weapon infusing something of it self into it and although that is so small that the degree of its alteration and mutation cannot be perceived by us nevertheless it is so much that the weapon hath contracted a certain cognation affinity and consent with the wound and so similitude which is not the same is as it were the same From thence the Magnetick Oyntment acting upon the whole is as if it acted on the wound it being joyned in a sort of affinity to the weapon The defenders of Magnetick cure endeavour to explain all these things better where amongst other things they produce these A Magnetick virtue is propagated from the weapon anointed to the wound by reason of the Cognation and Continuation of Nature which a successive impulsion follows thro the middle of the air impregnated by the universal and primary Spirit of the world with a Magnetick Vigour and Power There is a Balsamick Spirit in the Unguent Mummy especially being in humane blood This is excited or rather called forth for the producing a particular effect by a like Spirit and Sympathetick to it to wit by the universal Spirit of the world This Spirit that calls forth directs and disposes bodies and tyes things to it self by a mutual knot of Nature is not every Spirit but a determinate one to wit that which being present and touching causes the effect and which failing it ceases Therefore this motion must be acknowledged the first cause in all Sympathetick cares let it be what it will This directs and brings the Sanative power sixt in the Spirit and Balsamick Medicine to the body and the wound itself for these are Sympathetick Spirits and reciprocally desire each other and by reason of this occult yet natural appetite they conspire to a determinate effect so that in the whole it may be truly said the Magnetick cure of diseases as well as wounds is effected by a meer transplanting of virtues which the appetite between the Balsamick Spirit and the Spirit of the World causes and perfects That there is therefore Sympathy in this Cure is sufficiently experienced in which first is to be considered the subject or
Coals that sparkle in the Heaven nor of the invisible body of the Stars in the firmament but every ones proper Star therefore the firmament above does not infuse virtues or secret powers into what is specified below as some conceit that the Stars of the firmament do influence Herbs and Trees but 't is nothing so Every Vegetable and Animal carries its own Heaven and Star about itself and in itself The superior Stars by their motion thro the Zodiack raise up inferior Vegetables supply them with dew rain and wind but don't influence their internal Star they do not furnish them with smell colour or form but all proceed from that occult workman their interior Star and not from without the external Stars do neither incline nor necessitate man § 5. The Motion of the External Firmament with its Constellations is free and governed by nothing so the Motion in the Firmament and Stars in the Microcosm which is not perform'd materially but by the Spirits of bodies with its Constellations is also free and not in the least govern'd by the External Firmament All things are contain'd in Man and he carries all things in himself he carries that whereof he was made in himself he was made of the World and the World he carries in himself and is carried by the World The invisible body of Man from the breath of God or which continues to all future ages is not subjected to the Stars Moreover as the first matter which was confused Essence without form call'd by the Philosophers the Mother of the World or the Chaos was the seed of the great World so the Great World is the seed of Man Therefore Man is the last most Excellent and most Noble Creature because he hath the parts of the Great World and there is nothing in the greater World which is not really to be found in Man himself All things were created out of nothing The great World was the womb of Adam so the womb of the Woman that of all his Sons is the Machine of the whole World The Son in all things is like his Parent If you know the Parent you know the Son also Therefore Man is the most to be admired Extract and Kernel of the four Elements the chief and most finished Workmanship of God Every creature is truly the Example of God because he is the whole World and is alone intituled to this honour to co-operate and converse with them all But I have said enough on this subject it is not my design at this time to demostrate all things from the foundation what cognation a Star hath with Inferior things but to prove some Sympathy and Combination as is sufficiently hinted before CHAP. IV. Of the different way of Curing § 1 I Now come to the method of Curing diseases This is done either by Nature by internal and external Medicines or Sympatheticks Diseases are most principally cured by Nature by Art as she is Natures handmaid by the Physician as the Servant of Art by remedies as they are applyed by the Physician by the direction of Art But some Diseases are subdued by Nature alone others are cured by the co-operation of the Physician No person is preserv'd unless Nature separates the Distemper No body dies unless Nature be overcome for Nature is active as well as passive in the cure of Diseases and those stand in need of no Physician but sometimes by reason of the stubbornness of the Disease Nature is obstructed and languishes then the Physician is forced to lend his helping hand and to finish and perfect the lame and imperfect gifts of Nature by evacuating digesting and corroborating assistances Sometimes the Physician goes beyond Nature as in setting Bones out of joynt and closing up wide gaping wounds which Nature cannot accomplish When a Distemper affects the whole Habit of the body as in an Hectick Fever because there is neither inclination nor aptitude for the parts to return to their natural state this cure cannot proceed from a Natural intrinsick cause that being perform'd only by the unaffected parts the cure therefore of Habitual distempers require the assistance of Physick though the cure cannot be perform'd by Physick only for the aformention'd Medicinal operations cannot be perfected but by the intervening help of Nature for the Setting of limbs out of joynt and closing up wounds is not perfected till Nature strengthen the Joynt and breed new flesh so also to the curing of an Hectic Fever there must be a concurrence of the internal principle Nature and the Physician rectifie all those things in our body that are repugnant to Nature for all Cures are perform'd either by Nature or her servant the Physician When diseases are cured by the help of a Physician they put him in mind of his own duty For a Physician is not only a servant of Nature but ought to be a servant of Art also As therefore Nature moves primarily by its self alone when without remedies it overcomes digests and concocts distempers and drives out the cause restoring the body to its former state but this is to be understood of Diseases that Nature cures spontaneously so Physick and the Physician are not the first movers but by the intervention of helps that are opposite to the disease but when Nature succumbs and hath not strength of it self to rise a Physician chosen by the benignity of God and one to whom almost all distempers are equal for there is such an one who having attain'd to the universal Medicine or Panacea amongst many of the same kind is now no more a Servant but an Interpreter Ruler and absolute Master for t is reported that this universal art of curing was by the Antients ascribed to some Physicians The School of Paracelsus laboured hard after it giving credit to his arrogance whilst he says This universal Medicine is invisible fire devouring some distempers This cures the French Pox Leprosie Dropsie Cholick Apoplexy Cancer Fistula Schirre and all interior maladies To which are added many others Besides a Tincture found out and prepared by Paracelsus is a kind of universal Medicine amongst the Physicians which consumes all distempers just as Fire does Wood. § 2. Besides this Panacea hath an effectual virtue in curing all infirmities beyond all other Medicines for it encreases strength preserves youth keeps the blood free from all putrefaction purges whatsoever is contained in the spirituous parts and preserves all the members of the body But it were to be wished that what Paracelsus and others perhaps were Masters of although many very ingenious Physicians do much question it were vouchsafed to us and others cultivators of the art of Physick for by that means we might perchance cure all diseases with more expedition safety and pleasure What great pains might we save in searching to find out the place affected and prescribing fit Medicine for the part aggrieved the Sex and Age and applying them at proper times and other things necessary to be observ'd in
Physick to give her a Medicinal Spell to hang about her he being ignorant what to do in this matter to avoid the old Womans importunities wrote in a small piece of Paper which he folded up in a piece of fine Linnen and hung it about her Neck the pain immediately ceased Whensoever she found her Teeth to ake again she made use again of this Charm or salutiferous Paper and never without success at last meeting with a person averse to these superstitions he unfolded this mighty Charm found this Sentence wrote in it The Devil break your Neck What I pray could this sentence successfully either act upon or infuse into the Imagination or Body God would have Physick accompanied with Piety and expects himself to be acknowledged and worshipped in the use of it Nevertheless many things lye hid in the bosom of Nature not to be apprehended by humane sence which although by reason of our ignorance they seem superstitious and irrational because their causes are unknown to us yet are very far from being guilty of that crime We read of Q. Fabius Maximus that he was cured of a Quartane Ague by a great slaughter of his Enemies From whence many of Antients superstitiously imagined that a Quartane Ague was curable only by Pollution Democritus was of this opinion But this cure of Fabius certainly happened by a surprize of joy the squalid juice and Foeces of the Quartane being mollified and dispersed and not in the least from pollution In the same manner I think that a perswasion in it self either by Faith or Credibility cannot effect any thing but it causes a sudden motion of the Spirits and Minds in very soft and tender Natures by which the blood is carried about by a various Flux and at once removes the Morbilick causes from the parts aggriev'd by which means the distemper ceases Here is no Superstition unless superstitious persons create it by attributing the effect to other causes So very often there is a more occult virtue in those Amulets that are hung about persons which growing hot by touching the body send forth atoms and little particles and effluviums when we perceive them not and infuse into us efficacious Antidotes which we receive in at the mouth and thro the skin Learned Physicians made use of these formerly out of choice when the Distemper was proof against alteratives and purgatives for there is a congenite propriety of fellowship and discord between some things by which they alter themselves without any apparent touch as Amber attracts Straws the Magnet Iron Galen much commended the power of Piony hung up and the thread wherewith a Viper hath been strangled He writes that Wolfs Dung hung up is a remedy that gives ease in the Cholick he commends the Jasper Omphatites c. for the same virtue so we use the liver of a Wolf the heart of a Hedge-hog the lungs of a Fox the bone in the heart of a Deer Swallows Frogs the liver of a Goat Mans Skull the flesh of a Cuckow the liver of a Kite the ventricle of an Hen the little Hedge-sparrow Trallianus recounts many more such like to cure the Falling Sickness and ease the pain of the Cholick he gives ease in the Gout by such sort of Medicines by the same Art he cures Quotidian and Quartan Agues and mitigates the raging pain of the Stone § 4. I have by often experience observed that the skin of Snakes being applied to a womans belly in hard labour causes her speedily to bring forth this is to be understood when the Foetus is come to maturity and in its natural state These and many other things have a natural cause and therefore may be vindicated from Superstition In ancient times they used Charms-against Hail and against Scalding Caesar used to secure himself a prosperous Journey by thrice repeating a Charm I do not deny that tricks of the Devil had formerly some efficacy but I believe they proceeded from a wicked Author Our Saviour hath taken away all that power from him and restored us Captives to liberty There is something due to Verses sweet Voices and Tunes the internal commotions of the mind are appeased by them and the blood which affects to run out of its due channel very often by this pleasant method is restrained from its exorbitant motion which is the cause of many dangerous diseases as we daily see happen to persons disturbed with passion Therefore the Musician Damon being where a Phrygian Piper was playing to some young men that were drunk and about to act some mad pranks bid him play a Dorick tune and they immediately desisted from their rude enterprizes because that part of the irrational Soul that is subject to the affections is incited and mitigated by irrational motions The Cure that is performed by Cunning is equivalent to all Magick can do for it is a kind of Stratagem in Physick There was a certain person that thought he was nothing but a Soul and upon that account refused all food because said he Souls eat not At last a faithful Physician got a Table to be spread at midnight and the provisions being brought in by naked men that he knew not they sat down with great silence He asked them what they were doing One in a low murmuring voice answered they were eating He presently asked what Countrymen they were answer was made they were Souls But says the sick man Souls eat not Another answers we eat after our own manner not as men do he leaping out of bed said Pray let me partake of your Banquet This being said he sits down and eats and was cured of his distemper Another that supposed he had so great a Nose that it was impossible for him to go through any Gate as he was asleep an ingenious Physician joyns an Oxes gut filled with blood to his Nose when he awoke he made grievous complaints of the largeness of his Nose the Physician asked him whether he would permit him to cut it off extending both his hands he earnestly begs him to do it The Physician cuts the gut and squeezing it hard squirts the blood into the sick mans eyes and so throws away the gut He being struck with this false imagination was freed from his distemper One that imagined he lived without a Head was cured by putting Lead on his Head A woman that fancied she had Frogs in her Belly was cured by giving her a purge and putting Frogs in her excrement And in this age some perswade melancholy men that they are bewitched and cure them by Holy Water who being sprinkled therewith are restored to their former health CHAP. XII Of some Observations and Examples in this Magnetick Cure § 1. BY what hath been said before in this short Treatise although it is not accurately handled you may see that those Battering Rams levelled against me are not able to overthrow my design of Sympathetick Cure but that in this way of Cure I may still make use of
the art of healing it would then be sufficient only to know that the person was sick the Physician need not be sollicitor after nicer inquiries To what use would it be to study Anatomy so exactly to be well skilled in the several kinds of Minerals and Mettals Plants and Animals of which Medicines are compounded to spend time in finding out the differencâ— of diseases and morbisick causes and the places affected if one universal Medâ—â—cine were an intire cure for all Distemper◠§ 3. Therefore if by divine assistancâ— we may become Masters of that greâ—â— Medicine for I do not in the least question that there are a sort of Medicineâ— as some preparations of Sulphur which will by their sweet particles mightily cherish the vital Spirits yet this is not to be supposed sufficient and that Nature is thereby so corroborated that without any other help and assistance it will remove all the ill that affects it As the vital Spirit is injured by many causes more Medicines than one will be requisite to remove these many obstructions for it is impossible that this Spirit shall be able to expell the Serum in a Dropsie or the foulness of the belly in those troubled with the Iliack passion without Anti-hydropick and Purgative Medicines or dissolve the Stone in the Reins or Bladder or disperse arthritick nodes but by Medicines appropriated to that end Two instruments are required for the right performance of all corporeal actions one common the other proper the common is the vital Spirit the proper some certain parts of the body For to a due digestion of the chyle the vital Spirit is required as the common instrument and a right and just constitution of the Ventricle There is a diversity of proper instruments according to the diversity of Actions to be performed and to every part its peculiar constitution different from all the rest Hence what agrees to one agrees not to another and therefore there cannot be found one Medicine to preserve all particular constitutions or correct all errors Nor will it avail to say as fire consumes all sorts of wood so this universal medicine as an invisible fire devours all distempers for Elementary fire does not destroy all things but those only that will burn and flame it offers no violence to Gold Glass or Earth But if this universal Medicine should be allowed to be fire how comes it to pass that it should only destroy the noxious humours and leave the blood and the other parts of the body untoucht CHAP. V. Of Sympathy Physically considered § 1. BUt before I proceed further it will be necessary that I should treat more copiously of Physic and Sympathetick Magnetick or Diastatick Cure That part of the doctrine of Physick which treats of the Sympathy and Antipathy of natural bodies is full of pleasure and admiration Sympathy is a mutual and natural affection and combination between natural things arising from a peculiar and occult cognation From which affection it proceeds that one body attracts another to it self or being joyned to it is wonderfully assisted either in generation or nutrition in increasing or producing certain powers Others call Sympathy a consent when certain things are joyned together by a mutual marriage as bound in a kind of league one to the another Therefore because amongst all natural bodies there is a consent or dissent confederacy or war we shall now treat of Sympathy and Antipathy in general that if we cannot find one universal cause we may make some essays towards it There are six degrees of Sympathy and Antipathy established amongst natural bodies The first is betwixt Metals and Precious Stones for example between Coral and Gold who amicably conspire together to refresh the heart The other degree is between Plants and Metals as some report of an Hazel twig sprit in two by which the Metallists discover Mines of Gold and Silver therefore they call it the divine Rod the power of which twig encreases and strengthens mineral juices or those that are of a near nature to Metals whose juices this Hazel switch sucks with its roots out of the earth thrown up in an heap and thereby is miraculously nourished and strengthened They carry this Hazel rod at their fingers ends and to which part soever the Rod shall seem to incline there the Miners presume there are Mineral Veins Some deny this virtue to be in the Hazel but others as boldly assert it The third degree of Sympathy is reckoned between Plants and the Sun so the * Sun-flower Heliotrope and its species and also the Tragopodium turn round with the Sun so that at Sun rising it turns its Flowers to the East at Sun setting towards the West The fourth degree of Sympathy is between Herâ—â— themselves as between Rue and the 〈◊〉 tree Rue says Johannes 〈◊〉 a 〈…〉 under a Fig-tree 〈…〉 bark There is likewise a secret confederacy between Garlick Roses and Lillies for the flowers of them both will become more extraordinary fragrant if Garlick be planted near them The Sea Squill makes every thing that is sown near it thrive extreamly All Pot-herbs grow mightily if the Herb Rocket be sown by them The fifth degree is between Plants and Animals Many affirm it will tame a Bull to tye him to a Fig tree The sixth degree is between Animals themselves as between a Lizard and a Man for a Lizard as if he were fore warning a Man against the approach of a Snake will catch at him and overlook him to lick his spittle This is true that a Lizard is a most inoffensive creature to a Man unless it be provoked so that a great many put them into their bosoms without any harm This is also evident that where ever Lizards are there are no Snakes one always avoiding the place where the other is 'T is also manifest that the Lizzard mounts his head when he sees a Man and it is observable that if he be sprinkled with Mans spittle he seems mightily rejoyced and solaced So the Dolphin also is * A Lover of Man φιλανθωπος for inâ—â—â—ting Mulâ—ets the Fishermen make use of Dolphins instead of Dogs who will also suffer themselves to be beaten if they have been out in hunting There is also a mutual love between Storks and Partridges § 2. Antipathy is a natural enmity and repugnancy of natural things or when things disagree from each other by a mischievous secret discord so the Lyon trembles at the Cocks crowing the Elephant hates a Mouse and cannot endure the fodder wherein he hath seen one So the Snake cannot bear the very shade of an Ash tree and amongst Men very often there is a secret natural abhorernce of one another to this disagreement and Antipathy may be referred that if the murderer be present blood will by little and little begin to flow from the wound or nostrils of a Corps lately slain They therefore are mistaken who imagine this very thing to be attributed to Sympathy for the
the matter in which that is humane Blood Urine Excrement c. Secondly the efficient cause from which the universal Spirit of the world viewing all things Thirdly the Instrumental cause without which the Cure cannot be perfected which is the Medicine or Unguent sympathetically prepared § 2. Libavius allows no Sympathy and argues that it is only of natural things but Sympathy is a continuation of Nature and its agreement for although the bodies of the Magnet and Iron are at a distance yet Nature is so continued in them that they agree together and why shall not we assert that there is a kind of continuation and therefore Sympathy between Urine and the Medicine the Wound and the Ointment as also Powder magnetically compounded But what that is in what it consists and how it is performed and what is its cause this is that which is to be enquired into There was never any person yet that was so arrogant as to pretend to demonstrate all these things particularly Yet we ought not to stand still but to endeavour a search after it as far as our understandings can penetrate Daily experience shews that many are Magnetically cured in the most desperate diseases sick persons being absent by exciting a great steam in Urine without any pain at heart and weakness in the head and this I my self have two hundred times experienced by those that have been afflicted with an inveterate Head-ach Palsy Running Gout Scurvy Asthma Hypochondriac distempers c. For this is certain and no body in their right wits will contradict it that by the help of Sweat almost all distempers are curable by transplantation with Vegetables by the means of Sulphur microcosmically prepared Much may be taken away from a morbisick constitution by the help of Sweat and likewise much may be communicated by it to other bodies as is manifest in those that have the Pox Leprosie Itch and Plague Howsoever it is done it is infallibly true that by the permission of God men are cured after this manner by Urine and that Wounds are healed although at some miles distance To what purpose then is it to shut our eyes against the light manifest of experience although we cannot trace out the true and adequate causes how these things come to pass The Magnet draws Iron and each are in a wonderful manner mutually affected but who yet hath been found so ingenious to discover the true causes that produce that affection although many systems have been written on that subject the same thing ought to be thought of Sympathetick cure and especially its Medicine and not immediately attribute it to a Diabolical art although it is very effectual beyond belief or else we must call in question or altogether deny the truth of matter of fact CHAP. XI Of the false conjectures of those that think this Art diabolical § 1. BUt we ought here by the way to consider whether the Devils have any such power as some attribute to them in this Magnetick cure The power of the Devils is great and tremendous yet they could not so much as enter into the Swine without divine command or permission Moreover there is no power granted them over the will or understanding of man but only over the Senses and Fancy it is certain that they work great and stupendous things without Man not immediately by the motion of generation and alteration which is beyond their power to effect but only by local motion So they can cause Thunder Lightning raise the Wind and Storms and mix the Elements together but they cannot imitate any thing that is peculiarly proper to God Therefore they cannot create new species nor work real miracles but those that are such in shew and appearance only which are called lying signs while they deceive the eyes by their tricks imposing upon the sight and stirring up false species in the fancy or doing such things as are produced by natural causes therefore they cannot claim the name of Miracles But pray were there any that before Hippocrates his time raised the dead by incorporeal Medicines only or the power of the Soul Did Moses Elias Elisha or any other of the Prophets work Miracles They did indeed raise the dead the Elements obeyed them but it was not by any dexterity of art not by their own power There was no Magical Impiety no Cabalistical Vanity no Fantastical Imaginations in these persons but the arm of God Those things that are reported of Orpheus or any other of the Heathens who preceeded or followed Hippocrates were either false or Diabolical but almost all of them are fabulous The Poets tell of Hypolitus that being dismembred was brought back from Hell and restored to Life by Aesculapius but this was either spoken Hyperbolically or invented and feigned by the Painters and Poets To this we have Plato's testimony who in his Cratylus saith this is a fiction Philostratus relates that the Ghost of Achilles that is rather the Devil was raised by Apollonius which the Soothsayers at this time perform But what are these but fabulous and monstrous pretensions Or if the Heathens did any thing in Antient times that caused admiration they were lying signs § 2. Those things that the Devil wrought by the Egyptian Magicians in Moses's time were either the effect of natural causes or meer trifling delusions Of this kind were what the Antients admired in their Idols Caves and Groves amongst all of which there was nothing that could properly deserve the name of a miracle We read in the 20th Chap. Book 6. of Iosephus that Magick was never more in vogue than in his time and Pliny says There were never more Magicians than in Nero's time and he adds never was their folly more known to wit at that time when Iosephus and many others were astonished with wonder at the miracles of Christ then they say it was the Devil if he had any exercised his utmost power by the Magicians that by his works he might eclipse the then flourishing name of Christianity But what was then done by his Emissaries that could even affect the minds of the vulgar Iulian as much as he could cultivated Natural and Diabolical Magick that he might imitate the works of Christ's Disciples But who did we hear he restored to life When do the winds obey him When did he cure the blind Is there any thing like this said to be performed by the Modern Magicians or the Iews who are continually turning over the Cabala or by others who to the disgrace of the Christian Religion are now maintained by great men What besides meer vain pretensions mock impostures childish trifles deceits and cheats Who therefore will believe those that lived before Hippocrates his time wrought such miracles All these things were done either by the assistance and help of the Devil or by natural causes and therefore not to be accounted Miracles or proceeding from incorporeal Physick or any faculty of the Soul for example to turn Water in to
Ice to produce Rain Hail and Snow or such like delusions But to cure Paralyticks and other sick persons by a word to raise the Dead to create new substances to make the Earth transparent to the very Center to change the nature of Fire is not the work of a Creature but the Creator who is the Lord of Nature and is not confined by its Laws Although Menecrates of old successfully cured many of the Falling Sickness and never appeared in publick but like a Deity cloathed like Iove himself in Purple with a Crown on his head carrying a Scepter in his hand and honoured like a God by those he had cured as one who if he pleased could remove even Iove himself from Heaven Who is ignorant what the Ghosts and such like follies of Simon Magus were There are so many Absurdities and Impieties in all these things that they deserve totally to be obliterated to say no worse of them CHAP X. Of the Jews Cabalistical way of Curing THe Iews Cabalistical Cure is not to be thought of without indignation being nothing but a pernicious superstition which by collecting dividing and transferring Words Names and Letters dispersed here and there in Scripture according to their own Fancy and composing one out of another they frame members of Sentences Inductions and Parables Thus they would adapt the oracles of God to their own fictions and by wrestled accounts of Words Syllables Letters and Numbers they endeavour to bring forced proofs for their own perfidiousness And moreover being pufft up with these trifles they brag that they have found out and know the ineffable mysteries of God and secrets beyond any things the Scripture hath revealed and blush not with the greatest assurance to say by these they can P'rophesy heal and work miracles What can a perfidious Iew utter more impious and blasphemous These are their wretched words Moses received this Cabalistical Art from God in the Mount which hath been successively dilivered down to posterity only by word of mouth like the Pythagorean Philosophy without any written remains They give out that Moses by his knowledge herein performed all those miracles that Scripture records of him his turning the Rod into a Serpent the Rivers into Blood and all those many calamities he brought upon the Egyptians were performed by help of this by this art Ioshua caused the Sun to stand still Elijah restored the blind to sight and called down Fire from Heaven But this is nothing but a vain and impious fiction of men superstitiously desperate for they cannot attribute these and the other wonderful works of God to the Art and Industry of Man without manifest and apparent sacriledge The Rabbins pretend that the Cabala was first communicated to Moses and so continued to the succeeding Iews and was not only known to those Prophets who are recorded in holy writ but also to a great many more It is manifest that neither Moses Elias or any other of the Prophets wrought any miracles but by the particular command of God What God did by them the Prophets themselves cannot be said to have done either of their own proper motion or by any such Art nay they were not so much as foreseen by them as we have before noted For this cause Moses and the rest of the Prophets after him so often repeat it that they attribute all these works to God Thus saith he The Lord commanded this The word of the Lord came unto me c. Lastly if the Power of the Cabala be so great as the Iews impudently lye concerning it how comes it to pass then in regard they have cultivated it so long both in the present and former ages and are so very conversant in it that by its assistance they have performed nothing that can raise admiration even in Children Especially when Iosephus lib. 20. Chap. 6. reports that it was very common and familiar in his time But they never did any thing that can have the least pretence to a Miracle § 2. I conclude therefore with other learned men that this whole matter is nothing but a sort of Allegorical sport that idle persons imploying themselves about particular Letters Points and Numbers which the Hebrew Tongue very much admits of invented according to their own pleasure This wretched Iewish progeny goes on further and in regard the miracles of Christ were so illustrious and manifest that they cannot be denied and yet they will not acknowledge him for the Messiah and the promised seed they villanously sometimes attribute them to Magick sometimes to the Cabala and utter such horrid expressions against the Eternal Son that their very remembrance forces me to silence By these things which we have toucht on by the way it is easie to perceive that this vain Superstition of the Cabala was not abolished at the coming of Christ as a great many Authors assert who have wrote on this subject But indeed those studies which now adays are nicely inquired into and as proudly bragged of not only by the Jews but also by a great many nominal Christians prove that it is not extinct as it is to be wished it were but on the contrary with grief be it spoken it was never more studied in any age Thus you see in short what is the Jews Cabala which many that are greedy of the Jewish impiety swallow down This Cabalistical Art as also Magick chiefly consists in words and characters I acknowledge indeed that anciently Magick and the names of Magicians were held sacred And I also know that this specious name is now at this time given by some to those wicked arts by which Satan endeavours to darken the glory of God and obstruct mans salvation Not only the thing it self but also the name of this art ought to be an abomination to every good man because there can be no figure either in Wood or Stone or engraven in any other matter which in it self hath the power of acting in regard according to Aristotle and Aquinas figure is nothing but a certain situation and order of parts from whence the modification of quantity arises Therefore in regard quantity is not active by it self nor figure likewise which is only the modus of quantity by necessary consequence it cannot be the principle of mation or action nor can a Statue as such produce another Statue or quality Whence then proceeds that power and efficacy that the Jews and Magicians attribute to words and characters If it is neither from God Nature or Art it must be from something else to wit the Devil who by these sort of stratagems endeavours to entice miserable mortals to pay devotion to him Therefore the practicers of such detestable arts are deservedly punished with the utmost severity both by the Laws of God and Men. There was never any want of Natural Remedies but the fault lies generally in our gross ignorance As there are two sorts of Physicians one who cures miraculously the other who cures naturally by
as the four first qualities Heat Cold Moisture Dryness and the second qualities which proceed from their intervention Those that proceed from Heat are the qualities of opening rarifying attenuating separation c. Those that proceed from Cold are thickning repelling condensing c. Those that proceed from Moisture softning and relaxation and from Dryness hardning c. 7. Accidents that are produced from the Form as it is living are the Faculties that operate under some determinate degree of life either vegetative sensitive or rational 8. Those that follow and are produced from the Form neither as it is mixt or living but as it is specifically such are neither the first qualities nor those that proceed from their intervention nor Powers contained under any determinate degree of life otherwise every mixt and living thing would possess them as the Anti-epileptick power in the Piony the attraction of Iron in the Magnet c. But from the force and power of the Form as it is precisely such for the particular Mode of a Substance is specifically determined by the Form to its due and fit qualities so that although the Form doth give Form to the Matter according to other Modes of Substance it does not produce in it such a quality as is evident in Rhubarb whose smaller parts have a laxative virtue and the thicker are restringent Mastick in one part is solutive so some Animals in one part carry Poison in another an Antidote It is to be observed that the affections that proceed from a faculty that arises from the Form of a thing as it is specifically such are accounted wonderful because their cause is not evident as others are and likewise because they work no change on any external sense as other affections are determined by the whole Substance because they proceed from a Form totally determined by the Matter as the Power of the Magnet c. are not called occult as if we were wholly ignorant of their nature but because they are not perceived by the external sence These are indeed fine and specious words but stand upon a weak foundation fabulous Peripateticism and if a storm should attack them they would without doubt perish under their own Rubbish And sirst supposing all Bodies to be mixt and to be composed of a collection of the Elements they offer the greatest violence to experience and right reason in regard Bodies which are supposed to be mixt are only the product of water impregnated with ferment as I have plainly demonstrated before in the beginning of this Treatise by evident Examples And in regard a Non-entity can have no passions how can qualities arise from the Form of a mixt that no where exists but admitting this how will those qualities which they call the first come by their original to wit Heat Cold Moisture Dryness which they produced immediately as it were out of the bosom of a mixt for those qualities equally belong to all things and not only to the first Elements as they pretend because all Bodies and all Air Water and Earth are capable of receiving heat or cold c. their Substance remaining unchanged nay even Fire itself may have greater or lesser degrees of Heat and the beams of the Sun are in themselves wet and dry and receive it not from Fire But the reason of that consequence is say they because mixts have those qualities as they contain the Elements either formally as some assert or virtually and eminently as others which in mixts are reduced into act by the advention of the form of the mixt and moreover if those qualities were called the first because they exist in the first Bodies the Elements then also gravity and levity which are called moving qualities would also be first qualities because they are also in the Elements For gravity and levity are equally indifferent with respect to heat or cold and many things are light or heavy in which not even potential heat or cold can be perceived but if gravlty and levity did proceed from heat or cold c. then those things would be lightest that participated most of Fire the contrary whereof is manifested in red hot Iron heated Stones c. because the fire doth not make them in the least lighter and so the Earth should be heavier than Gold Tin Copper c. which according to their suppositions being mixt bodies have more fire in them as was said before Neither do gravity and levity proceed from them mediately to wit by the mediation of rarity and density for then Oyl being thicker would not be lighter than Water and oyly substances would not swim upon the Water c. And if those first qualities as they call them do not rise from those things which are commonly called the Elements from whence will this suppositious Off-spring of theirs deduce its pedigree that is these second qualities which they will have to proceed from the intervention of the first which is impossible to prove although we should grant that heat and cold c. were the first qualities and do primarily exist in the first bodies For if they proceeded from the first qualities we could by them give an exact judgment of those first qualities which I will shew to be simply impossible by an example We can give no judgment concerning the first qualities from colours for almost all Herbs tho very different in their own natures are of a green colour Whiteness is in the cold Snow and hot Arsenick also in the Flower of a white Poppy and the Flower of Galangals and there is a milky juice in hot Wood-spurge and in cold Succory and Lettice 2. Neither can we make any judgment of the qualities from taste for bitter Opium cools and Camphire has a taste like hot Pepper the juice of Poppies refrigerates Acids as Vinegar Oyl of Sulphur of Vitriol juice of Barberies c. heat for they dissolve Coral Stones Pearls and Shells and dissolution and penetration are the Actions of Heat 3. Nor can we make any better judgment of these first qualities from Scents For first man of all Animals has the worst smell and many things that smell strong are cold as Camphire Opium Hemlock c. and many things that have scent are hot as Arsenick Mercury Verdigrease Cantharides c. Lastly no judgment can be given of the first qualities from thickness softness hardness subtilty dryness lubricity friability and roughness for there is none of them that proceed more from cold than heat as is evident from experience for many thick things are hot and many cold and so of the rest But also the qualities of the third rank which they call occult cannot proceed from the figuration of Matter by the form from the mixture of the Elements altho we should grant mixture the figure of the form of fire would only produce heat of water moisture c. and so they cannot any way produce occult qualities for they themselves grant they do not proceed from the first
to attract well but the Magnet and those things that act by love or hatred do not Electrical Bodies also will not attract if any Bodies be interposed nor will those Bodies that act by love or hatred Lastly the Magnet hath not only its orb of attraction by which it acts within a certain sphere but also its orb of virtue turning itself constantly towards the Pole let the distance be what it will Sympathy agrees with love and hatred specially so called in this that they alter each other and with the Magnet that they act at a distance and equally penetrate close bodies neither are they tied to the laws of Dimensions And moreover they have this peculiar to themselves that one of them being well or ill affected by that with which it agrees or disagrees the other at a distance is affected after the same nature Let this at present suffice to have been said of Sympathy Love and Hatred and Magnetism We now come to examine the opinions concerning acting at a distance And first some to find the cause thereof say that in the exteriour part of Man that is in the Blood and Spirits there is a certain extatick power and this not in Man only but also in Brutes and Vegetables and their parts that wants to be excited from death in regard it is sleepy by an exalted imagination a vehement desire or some such like art as in the sympathetical unguent or Powder an extatick virtue is excited in the Blood spilt upon a stick by the unguent which drives away whatever was hurtful from the lips of the wound from whence the Blood proceeded and that this may be perform'd at a distance they say that there does lye concealed in the Universe a certain Spirit which they call the great Magnale which is the procurer confederate and assistant to the actions of Sympathy and Antipathy and by whose means Magnetism as in a vehicle is conveyed to the distant object which they prove by the Magnetism of the strings of two Lutes being tuned unisones that one being struck upon the same string of the other at a distance will vibrate and the rest be unmoved But to confute this opinion first it is objected that its Defenders suppose entities without any necessity for it is not necessary to the production of such operators to conceit such a Spirit different from Forms which they call their great Magnale And moreover it doth not agree with their principles for they deny that there is a Soul of the World or an universal Form in regard they say that all specifical distinction doth immediately proceed from Forms Also they assert that Forms are Lights and differ in specie and are new created in the instant of Generation by the Father of Lights and again annihilated by accidents and although it should be granted that there was such a Spirit and that it was the procurer of those actions it would be impossible for Vegetables irrational Animals and their parts to send forth these imaginations to so great a distance although we should grant that all things do live and so consequently do participate of some sort of sence and fancy in regard those things which have a more apparent life as Animals and those that have the use of reason cannot extend the power of their fancy to so great a distance neither do they operate as such things can so operate for those things that are endued with the most noble fancy must needs be most operative as is evident in the example of the strings of an Instrument tuned unisones if this were performed by this Magnalian fancy as they pretend it would be perceived at any distance and where-ever one was struck the other unisone string would move in any part of the world which is contrary to manifest reason and experience for it is performed but within a certain distance and beyond that no motion is ever observed but what is said of the fancy of Animals and Vegetables that convert our fancy to be like theirs as a Mad-dog the Tarantula c. doth not infer any thing of the Magnatism of the fancy to very distant places for in all these things is required either the contraction of motion or virtue within a certain sphere but in the mean time it cannot be denied that if a mans fancy be vehemently taken up about a thing mightily desired although the thing may be at a great distance he shall have a sort of view of it as if it were present before him and be as it were transformed into the thing desired but there is no person in his right wits will believe that a fancy extatically raised shall be carried thousands of leagues to the wished-for object And if we should grant that an extatick fancy should be carried to this distance yet nevertheless it could not operate by itself either on Friend or Foe by causing so many different compassions as are performed sympathetically in regard all actions besides those that are proper to Souls proceed from Ferments I should have said more at this time but that it is almost the discourse of every one that fancy of itself doth transmute all things and upon this reason only I thought fit to say something briefly of its actions Others to prove that there is this operation at a distance say first that all Bodies send forth Beams in which the Soul acts by its own presence and communicates a power of acting to them and that these rays are corporeal and contain in them a portion of vital spirits and upon that account live and that their life is the same with that of the Animal whose excrements they were also that there is a kind of concatenation of those rays at every distance though never so great the like also is perform'd between the blood and any other part of the body that is separated from it at never so remote a distance But first we answer if granting these effluviums from blood urine sweat and excrements if they be corporeal it is impossible that they should have a concatenation at any distance for if the greatest body was rarify'd even to invisible Atoms it would not be sufficient to supply effluviums for a thousand Leagues and if it was allowed that it would suffice in regard they allowed them no vehicle they would certainly miss of the right way but if they say this concatenation proceeds from a Soul it must necessarily follow that there is a certain Soul which fills the whole space from Pole to Pole but admitting that there were a Soul that extended itself to all places those corporeal effluviums could not accompany it for the reason before alledged We also see that the Blood and Excrements in a Glass or Box are not diminished which would of necessity be if they were continually sending forth corporeal effluviums to so great a distance Again when they assert that Excrements have life this indeed is true but what Naturalist will be so impious to assert