of drives away Caterpillars and it kills Moths and cloathflies as Wormwood Rue wild Mints Southernwood Savory Walnut-leafs Fern Lavender Gith Coriander being green Fleawort Bean trifoly kills fleas and Wiglice either put under the beds or sprinkled upon the bedsteads with the decoction of the vinegar of Squils It is observed that in our times and also in our Ancestors days the seed of Navews that the Low-Countrey factors make so great profit of hath a wonderful force in killing Weezels not by any venomous quality but by the sweetnesse of it For it is sweet and oyly and the Weezels will leave the Corn and eat greedily on this till they be killed with Sweet things sometimes kill Worms And the same thing happens to them when they get into frails of Raisins So I know by experience that eating many Raisins will kill the Worms in Children if they eat them fasting without any thing else eaten with them For as bitter so sweet things taken abundantly will kill worms For they swell and burst with eating too much sweet meats So the stomach of a man will swell and be tortured if he cram in too much sweet things CHAP. XXII The cunningnesse of Worms in Mans body and what it portends when they come forth by the Mouth and Nostrils IT hath been seen sometimes miraculously that long and round Worms especially have crambled upwards and crept forth at the mouth and the nostrils and they do this by an imbred natural motion if a man be long fasting For then they bite the stomach Worms creeping out at the Nostrils and seek for meat and when they find none to satisfie them and preserve their lives they creep upwards and hunt for meat as far as the very throat For they by their natural instinct perceive that the food comes in that way and the nostrils being open to the very throat almost they creep thither and tickle the part or else they are cast forth by sneesing or are pulled forth with ones forefingers I have oft-times observed this in sound people and when I shewed them the cause of it I gave them content I have seen this also happen in sick people but not without some imminent danger foreshew'd by it For so great is the putrefaction and inflammation of humours in such bodies that the Worms cannot endure the deadly force of the disease wherefore they break forth of themselves not urged by any Crisis or naturally but from the malignity of the disease But when the violence of the disease abates and they are carried downwards with other excrements Hippocrates holds that to be healthfull but to come forth of their own accord L. 2. Aph. 18. and not forced by any faculty as we see in people that are dying is ill for the patient for by a sagacity of nature they find the body ready to fail and that they shall want their food and therefore they leave their habitation Mice forsake old houses So it is observed that Rats and Mice will forsake ruinous houses three moneths before they fall For they naturally perceive that the frame of the house begins to part and that the house will shortly fall So Lice and Fleas where they find mens bodies decay and that the blood fails in every part they either leave the body or lay hold on those parts that the blood and naturall heat stay longest in Experience from the sagacity of Lice For it is approved by those that search and bury the dead that they will hide themselves in that pit of the stomach where the breast blade ends or in that grisle that lyes upon the vocal arterie For those parts being next the heart are hot untill the last breath which when some related unto me that were employed about sick people I said presently That it was a certain sign of death and that the Soul was ready to breathe forth But since we formerly made mention of Worms I thought fit to add this That many things will kill all worms and drive them forth But nothing is better than Worms dryed upon a tile at the fire and the powder given to those that are full of worms will presently drive forth all within the body As Pliny and other searchers of Natural things assert that a man being stung by a Scorpion L. 10. c. 2. the remedy is to drink in oyl or wine the ashes of Scorpions So our Countrey-men say that the biting of a mad-dog is cured by the burnt hairs of the same creature drank in wine For it drives forth the venome and keeps off all the danger of it and makes the body that is bit that it is of force to attract and overcome the venome So sometimes two contrary poysons mingled do cure and not kill As Ausonius wittily sets down in an Epigram concerning a woman that would have poysoned her husband with Wolfs-bane A whorish Wife her jealous Husband to Gave poyson yet she fear'd it would not do Wherefore Quicksilver intermingled shee Thought for to hasten death which set him free For if apart these poysons you shall give They kill but joyn'd together make him live Laevinus Lemnius a Physitian of Zirizea CONCERNING Hidden and Natural Questions The Second Book CHAP. I. That humours and not bad Angels cause diseases yet the aereal spirits do mix themselves therewith and increase the diseases by adding fire unto them THere are some amongst us that are but moderately versed in the Works of Nature and know not the causes of diseases their original progresse and symptoms that follow or accidents and because they cannot attain to the reason of them they refer all to evil Angels and say they are bewitcht since the Devils do constantly employ themselves to hurt us Plenty and malignity of humours is the beginning of diseases So they that are sick of a Tertian Ague the humours entring the veins every third day are said to be troubled with an evil spirit and the like is said for quartans and continent feavers as quotidians diurnals and all burning Feavers But how unreasonable and absurd this is any man can tell that is moderately versed in the Secrets of Nature For since man's body consists of the mixture of the four Elements and hath as many humours which from the faculty of the seed partake of four qualities hot moyst cold dry what can be said more than that diseases arise from the distemper of these by defect or excesse and from thence they take their original It is proved because we see they grow mild and quiet by vomit sweat opening a vein cupping-glasses set to the part affected by the opening of the Terms and Emrods also by the giving of Glysters and Suppositaries But God for his inestimable Wisdome hath appointed orderly motions in the nature of things and would have nothing done rashly or by chance but all things in a decent order and continued series So the Stars the Elements the Sea the times of the year
into the Nature and manners of men and with which by the marks and signs of the body we may judge of the motion and propension of the mind is not to be disliked Moreover I shall prove by Testimony of Scripture what is most convenient to be observed hereby Page 130 Chap. 27. Whether it be more wholesome to sleep with open mouth or with the mouth and lips shut close Page 132 Chap. 28. That the curses of Parents and the ill wishes that they wish against their Children and ban them withall do sometimes take effect and fall out so and their good wishes whereby they desire all good to happen to them are a means to make them prosper and to obtain what their Parents desired might happen to them Page 133 Chap. 29. How comes it that according to the common Proverb scarce any man returns better from his long travels or from a long disease and to lead a better life afterwards Page 134 Chap. 30. Stones or Jewels dug forth of the Earth or taken out of the Sea or out of the bodies of living Creatures what vertue they have and by what means they perform their operations Page 138 Chap. 31. Of the events of dreams and how far they ought to be observed and believed Page 140 Chap. 32. Of the Climacterick or graduall year namely the 7. and 9. in which years the bodies of men suffer manifest changes and of old Men especially 63. is the most dangerous Likewise of the reason of Criticall dayes that is of the judgments of diseases whereby Physitians undoubtedly foreshew whether the sick will live or dy Page 142 Chap. 33. How a Looking-glasse represents objects and what good the polished smoothnesse of a Looking-glasse can do to Students and such tire their eyes in reading and how it may restore a dull sight Page 144 Chap. 34. What force and vertue Aqua-vitae hath or the spirit of Wine distill'd and who may safely drink it by the way some admirable effects of this made-wine are set down Page 146 Chap. 35. The prodigious force of Quicksilver and the nature of it the Dutchmen call it so from its quick motion Page 148 Chap. 36. How when we want Salt may flesh and other meats be preserved from corruption By the way Of the wonderful force of Salt and Vineger Page 150 Chap. 27. Pale Women are more lascivious than such as are of a ruddy complexion and lean Women than fat and do more lust after men Page 152 Chap. 38. Whether a man should drink greedily and plentifully or by little and little and sparingly at severall times when he is thirsty or is sat at Table Page 153 Chap. 39. All such things as hastily come to maturity or rise to their full length do the sooner fail and cannot last long as we see it in children and some kind of plants Page 155 Chap. 40. Sometimes our meats are hurt and contract a venemous quality by the siting of some venemous creatures upon them Likewise in mens bodies from filth abounding in them some things are bred as Frogs Toads Mice Rats Bats and an example of this is set down Page 156 Chap. 41. The force and Nature of the Sun and Moon in causing and raising tempests And next to that what change may be made in the Bodies Minds and Spirits of men by the outward Ayre By the way whence proceeds the ebbing and flowing of the Sea that is interchangeably twice in the space of a naturall day Page 158 Chap. 42. Of the force and nature of Lettice and whom it is good or ill for Page 163 Chap. 43. Of Patience commonly call'd or the great Dock Page 164 Chap. 44. Of the operation of Mans spittle Page 164 Chap. 45. Of the use of Milk Beestings Cream The dutch call the first Beest the latter Room also what will keep these from cloddering in the Stomach Page 166 Chap. 46. Why Gouty people are Lascivious and Prone to venery and as many as lye on their backs and on hard beds Page 166 Chap. 47. Whether the Small-Pox and Measils may be cured with red Wine or with Milk that women use to administer when such Pushes shew themselves Page 168 Chap. 48. Wine is spoil'd by Thunder and Lightning and so is Ale and Beer and how this may be hindred and the force of them restored Page 168 Chap. 49. Predictions of Tempests by the touch of Sea-water and what Winter Thunders fore-shew Page 170 Chap. 50. Children are delighted with beautifull things and cannot away with the sight of old wrinkled women and therefore they are not to be put to lye with old women in their beds and much lesse to lye at their feet in the bed Page 171 Chap. 51. How it comes to passe that children women with child Priests and such as lead a solitary and sedentary life are of all people first infected with popular diseases and with the Plague Page 171 Chap. 52 Divers documents of Nature and a fit conjunction of several matters which because I purposed to handle them with a convenient brevity I have bound them up together in one bundle Page 172 The Contents of the Chapters contained in the Third Book Chap. 1. HOw children are forced to endure the reproaches and disgraces of their Parents and the faults and wicked actions of their Progenitors are so far imputed unto these that by reason of them they lose their reputation or substance and goods of fortune or sustain some dammages in their bodies or minds Page 180 Chap. 2. Wherefore when men grow well after a disease do their genitall parts swell and they naturally desire copulation and of this matter here is a safe admonition and wholesome counsel set down Page 184 Chap. 3. Of the effect of the Ayr and gentle blasts and of the names of the winds with their forces and natures to cause diseases and to stir the humours which being agitated sometimes move the mind and molest it Page 187 Chap. 4. Of the Marriners Compasse which Plautus calls Versoria by observation whereof Marriners sail to Sea and by what vertue and for what reason it alwaies points to the North. Page 198 Chap. 5. What it is makes Dogs mad and at what time of the year chiefly and what are the best remedies to cure them Page 201 Chap. 6. Of the Nature and force of Gold and what effect it hath if it be at any time used for the health and defence of Mans Body Page 205 Chap. 7. Of the Meazels of Hogs and other diseases of this Creature that are next kin to the Leprosie and are commonly called Orighans or contagions from the unwholesome and sickly habit of the body And how this disease may be cured in Men. Page 207 Chap. 8. Wherefore do the Low-Dutch when they have had a tumbling and unquiet night that likes them not say they have had Saint John Baptist's night Page 211 Chap. 9. Of a singular new way how to make Salt and of the Nature Effects Force Use and
marrow hath taken from them all sense thereof But at first when any strange quality seizeth on the body whereby it corrupts and is changed what parts soever receive sharp biting humours they feel pain But when the disease growes old and is grown up with Nature they feel not much pain because they agree together and the humours wax faint by commerce with the body and keeping company with it and by the mixture of other humours they are weakned as strong Wine is with Water Yet the footsteps of the old disease and reliques of it alwaies remain which if they fall down upon the Lungs they make the sick hoarse and short winded if it fall on the joynts it makes them subject to the Gowt in the feet hands hucklebone and it returns at certain times So all that have pocky sores are gowty But all that have the Gowt in their feet or hips All that have pocky sores have the Gowt but not contrarily have not the symptoms of the Pox. And if the flux of humours is sent to the outward skin their skin is made rugged and crusty their face is deformed with tetters scabs foul sores and scurf and their hair falls For it falls out with them as it doth with Trees and Twigs on which pisse A Simile from Trees that are corrupted or some salt water or filth is cast For when the root is hurt the leafs fall off and the branches wither yet the Tree dyeth not at the root but it decayes and is hardly restored CHAP. XV. How it is that Men dying though they have their mind and understanding firm yet they make a hoarse noise and a sound that returns back which the Low Dutch vulgarly call Den rotel IN the Low-Countries and in all the Countries toward the North those that are dying shew certain arguments of their departure by making a murmuring noise and none of them die but have this mark before How those that dye make a murmuring noise For as death is at hand they make a noise as the water doth when it falls through rough winding crooked places they will sound and murmur like to the noise that Pipes make in Conduits For when the vocal artery happens to be stoped the breath that would fain break forth at once finding a narrow passage and the pipe sunk down comes forth by a certain gargling and makes a hoarse sound in smooth places and springing forth forsakes the dry limbs Wherefore the breath being heaped together and mingled with swelling froth causeth a noise like the ebbing of the Sea which also comes so to passe in some by reason of their pannicles and membranes drawn into wrinkles so that the breath comes forth by a crooked and winding revolution But they that have a strong and great bodies and die of violent deaths sound more and strive longer with death by reason of plenty of humour and grosse and thick spirits But in those that are wasted in their bodies Who dye gently and who with great trouble and that die easily by degrees the breath runs not so violently nor with so great a noise so that they dye by little and little very gently and do even as it were fall asleep CHAP. XVI The death of man and destruction of things that are is against Nature and is very improperly called natural Yet the mind must be resolved not to fear death though not without cause all men are afraid of it THough it be so ordained by nature since that mans rebellion hath drawn this upon him deservedly that we must all tend to destruction and dye Yet I see that by reason this may be proved that death is not natural but contrary to nature In the beginning this was given by nature to all kinds of Creatures to defend themselves their life and body Cic. l. 1. offâ—â— and to decline that may seem to be hurtfull unto them and to be very carefull to look to their own preservation and safety For who doth not observe what great care and diligence men use by the light of reason and brute beasts by the light of nature to defend and keep themselves from danger All men fear death every one strives to keep himself from it for when death comes Nature is extinguished No man but trembles at the fear of death and ceaseth to be any longer So Christ who would shew the imbred weaknesse of mans nature who except sin and diseases was like to us in all things feared death and prayed against it John 21. Also in Peter is expressed the affect of nature and infirmity of the flesh when Christ thrice asked him if he loved him and that he should take great care to feed his flock showing unto him what should befall him and what death he should die When thou wer 't young saith he thou wandredst whither thou wouldest and didst gird thy self but when thou growest old another shall gird thee about and lead the whether thou wouldest not Whereby he shews the desire and weaknesse of man's nature that is stricken with the terrour of death and is very unwilling to come to it yet the mind is willing and ready John 22. Since therefore death is the deprivation and abolition of Nature how can it be said that it is natural and agreeing unto nature that is violent and wholly extinguisheth Nature I know that man by his fall deserved so much and in that he degenerated from the dignity he was created with being disobedient to his creatour to be punished with all pains and vexations diseases hunger and thirst and unquietnesse of mind and at last to undergo the punishment of death Sin brought in diseases and death But it was not the fault of nature that brought in these miseries but sin For since the fall of the first man all things are changed and become contrary so the stars diseases Elements Wild-beasts and Devils are become enemies to man And as Paul saith the whole creation is made subject to vanity and corruption for mans cause Rom. 8. and the whole series of Creatures the Angels not excepted desire an end of their labours But the certain hopes of a better life doth recreate our minds in so great miseries and our confidence in Christ who restores the decayed Nature of man to his former dignity takes away from us all terrour and fear of death also out of our souls Faith in Christ takes from man the fear of death For the remembrance of his death and resurrection doth wholly confirm and strengthen us for we believe that man shall not be annihilated but changed to a better condition and that death is not our ruine but the door and entrance to a more happy life 2 Cor. 5. A simise from the structure of houses For we know as Paul saith that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved as houses use to be taken down disjoynted that we have a building from God a house not
of both Sexes Page 25 Chap. 10. Whether the Child be nourished with the menstrual excrement and whether Maids may conceive before they have their Terms Page 29 Chap. 11. The Soul comes not from the Parents Seed but is infused by God and can neither dye nor corrupt What day of Child bearing it is infused Page 32 Chap. 12. The Soul though it be incorporeal not made of matter or Elements yet is it subject to passions and perturbations and such affections as redound upon the Body Page 36 Chap. 13. That the Souls of Men are not equal in all things nor of the same condition and dignity but one is better than another Page 42 Chap. 14. Of the immortality of the Soul and certainty of the Resurrection Also how that may be done Lastly how much our minds are raysed toward God from so great a benefit and what great confidence we may have when we die that we shall be saved Page 47 Chap. 15. Whether there be a reasonable Soul infused into monstrous births and to abortives and whether they shall rise again to life And by the way from whence Monsters proceed Page 57 Chap. 16. The humours and food do change the habit of the body and state of the mind apparently And hence arise the affections and stings of conscience And by the by what Melancholy can do and how it may be cured Page 59 Chap. 17. Herbs are subject to change and will lose their forces and form unlesse they be dressed continually Page 67 Chap. 18. How manifold difference and variety there is in the nature of grounds Page 79 Chap. 19. Clusters of Grapes augment but grow not ripe by the Moon beams Page 81 Chap. 20. Why Hesiod dislikes soyling Page 81 Chap. 21. How Weezels and other Creatures that hurt Corn may be driven away or killed Page 82 Chap. 22. The cunningnesse of Worms in Mans body and what it portends when they come forth by the Mouth and Nostrils Page 83 The Contents of the Chapters contained in the Second Book Chap. 1. THat humours and not bad Angels cause diseases yet the aereal spirits do mix themselves therewith and increase the diseases by adding fire unto them Page 86 Chap. 2. Melancholique Med and Frenzy people and such as are furious from other causes will sometimes speak strange Tongues they never learned and yet not be possessed with the Divell Page 91 Chap. 3. Of the Epilepsie's violâ—nce which disease the common people both now and formerly ascribe to certain Saints lastly how it may be cured And by the way that such are not to be buried presently that die of the Falling-sicknesse Lethargy or Apoplex Page 93 Chap. 4. Whence comes it that diseases are long and Chronical and will not easily be cured Whence come Feavers to revive again and to be with intermission and truce for a time which all men ought to know that they may not easily fall into a disease or being fallen may soon cure it Page 97 Chap. 5. Of those that come forth of their Beds and walk in their sleep and go over tops of Towrs and roofs of houses and do many things in their sleep which men that are awake can hardly do by the greatest cage and industry Page 99 Chap. 6. Of those that are drown'd mens bodies will flote on their backs and womens will flote on their faces and if their lungs be taken forth they will not swim Page 102 Chap. 7. The bodies of those that are drown'd when they swim up and come to be seen as of those that are murdered when their friends are present or the murderers they bleed at the nose and other parts of their body Page 102 Chap. 8. Of the Helmets of Children newly born or of the thin and soft caul wherewith the face is covered as with a vizard or covering when they come first into the world Page 105 Chap. 9. Why in Holland they say that such as have unconstant and weak brains have been conversant amongst beans Page 106 Chap. 10. Every strong filthy smell is not hurtfull to man For some of these will discusse contagions and resist corrupt diseases By the way whence came the Proverb that horns are burnt there Page 108 Chap. 11. The excellency of the finger of the Left hand that is next the little finger which is last of all troubled with the Gout and when that comes to be affected with it death is not far off By the way wherefore it deserves to wear a Gold Ring better than the rest Page 109 Chap. 12. Some things will not burn but are invincible in the midst of flames and how that comes to passe Page 110 Chap. 13. The native heat of Man is fostered and increaseth by the heat of other Creatures but espâ—cially by the heat of children if they be laid to that part of the body that is weak For this fomentation doth not onely help concoction but easeth all joynt pains but amongst whelps which do it most effectually Page 112 Chap. 14. Why the French-Pox is more gentle now than it was formerly and rageth not so much and into what disease it degenerates Page 113 Chap. 15. How it is that Men dying though they have their mind and understanding firm yet they make a hoarse noise and a sound that returns back which the Low Dutch vulgarly call Den rotel Page 114 Chap. 16. The death of man and destruction of things that are is against Nature and is very improperly called natural Yet the mind must be resolved not to fear death though not without cause all men are afraid of it Page 115 Chap. 17. The Inconveniencies of Tippling and drunkennesse and what things will resist and cure it Page 116 Chap. 18. Intemperance of drink is worse than of meat Page 118 Chap. 19. Wine makes a man drunk otherwise than Beer or Ale doth Page 119 Chap. 20. Men that are tall and grosse bodied are sometimes not so long-lived as those that are slender and cannot so stoutly struggle with diseases But commonly litâ—le men will drink more wine than grosse men and will be longer before they be drunk Page 120 Chap. 21. They that eat a moderate breakfast in the morning will eat more freely at dinner and if they drink much wine it will offend them lesse By the way whether it be wholesome to eat much bread Page 121 Chap. 22. A Nutmeg and a Coral-stone carried about a man will grow the better but about a woman the worse Page 123 Chap. 23. For the most part such are barren and unfruitfull whose seed runs from them of its own accord and they pollute themselves and how that comes to passe Page 124 Chap. 24. When men are sick they grow tall though they eat lesse but they lose in breadth Page 127 Chap. 25. Whether it is best to open a Vein when one is fasting or after meat and whether it be lawful to sleep presently after blood-letting Page 129 Chap. 26. Physiognomy that is the reason how to look
in the middle and pressed down they have a crestiâ—urining upward their tail doth not turn under their belly as we see it doth in mungrels but it stands upright and bends like a sickle he hath very great eyes and that stick forth and they are both blear eyes weak legs and that are crooked about the joynts but the hinder part of his body is smooth without any hair and their tail is seen very uncomely by those that are present and they will turn their tails on purpose for people to look on This small creature because it is ridiculous for its parts and manners and hath many things that may hurt a woman when she is with child and cause the child within her to be ill formed I think not fit to keep least Women with child should be wronged thereby But this monstrous form and limbs so crooked are not naturall but artificiall Women love dogâ— too well For men shut them up in small Cages and taking their food away they make them grow small as in Terence they took away meat from maids to make them grow small as bulrushes least if any of them should grow corpulent she should seem to be a Champion See your Juglers that passe the Countries use to wrest the limbs of young boyes that they may leap and dance the better Lately A History there was a notable Knave who carried a child to be seen from Town to Town which had a very great head all the other limbs bore no proportion with it This deformity when it is naturall and not by art Physitians call Hydrocephalon Very great heed what disease by reason of the head swoln with a watry humour When a woman great with child had looked on this picture she was so frighted with this unusual sight that when her â—â—â—e came to be delivered she brought forth a child with a spongy vast bead and it had like to have cost her her life And this mischief followed it that it grew greater in the Nurses arms till it became monstrous great The woman a â—e to me and made this complaint bringing the child with hot and when I pressed the head of it with my fingers it would sink down like to a cushions and come forth again These spectacles are not onely to be a â—oided by Women with child but also by all those that may beâ—â—roubled and frighted in their sleep by such frights as it commonly happens to children sick weak old melancholique people Whence Children have ill marks yet monstrous sights will hurt them lesse that they will women with child For they by the sights of such things will frame 〈◊〉 like in their Children For since all their forces and natural faculties are wholly employed to form the child it happens that when the woman is any way offended all the humours and spirits run downwards to the womb And when the imagination of a thing that sticks fast in the mind joyns with these it frames the like fashion on the child that the mind conceives A Proverb from Imagination For it is not said in vain Imagination makes fashion For by the same reason if a Mouse a Cat a Weasel leap suddenly on a Woman or Strawberries Cornel-berries Cherries Grape-stones fall on any part of the body When a Woman doth remove marks from the Face to the Thighs or hinder parts they presently leave their mark and the print of this thing will be printed on that limb unlesse the woman at the same time that these things happen to her body do presently wipe the part and put her hand behind her back or on some remoter part of her body For so the mischief is suddenly cured or the mark is made on that part she touched all her Imagination and natural faculty being turn'd thither CHAP. V. Of the strange longing of Women with child and their insatiable desire of things And if they cannot get them they are in danger of life THe order of the former narration seems to require me to speak something concerning the longing of Women Longing a Disease For they are both all most from the same cause About three Moneths after conception a disease troubles Women which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Pica when by reason of cold vitious humours and sharp â—â—â—gm that lyes in their stomachs they earnestly desire coles parings chalk shels and other things unfit to eat this mischief prevails most when the childs hair first begins to grow and they are with child of a Girle For by reason of want of heat flegmatique humours are lesse concocted Hence it is that winds and often belchings frequently trouble Women Of kin to this is the daintinesse of Women wherewith men and Feavourish people are oft troubled But child-bearing Women that are tempted with this disease are so insatiable in their desire that if they cannot obtain what they long for they bring both themselves and their Child in danger of death Mayst Women long for strong things This disease for the most part troubles the Low Country Women because they are of moyst cold constitutions and feed on ill Nourishment There have been some in our dayes that when they saw a corpulent well â—â—d man they desired to bite at this shoulders A History and there was a man who that he might satisfie a womans longing granted her leave to bite least she might take any hurt whereupon she bâ—t out a part with her teeth and chewd it a little and then she swallowed it raw When she was not yet satisfied she desired to bite again but the man would not endure her But she presently began to languish and to be delivered She brought forth Twins the one living and the other dead for want of a second bite I can see no other reason for it than that the woman grieving in her mind the vitall spirits are lessned A Woman with child suffers if her longing be demed her and the humours appointed to nourish the child turn another way and are not carried to the womb so the child wanting the food which the mother longed for grows feeble and dies For when the passages and receptacles whereby food useth to be derived to the Matrix are stopped it must needs follow that the child will want nutriment and die But if the teeming woman be strong of nature and knows how to moderate her passions the child doth not die but grows sickly By these you may see abundantly what a womans Imagination can do and what outward objects conceived in the mind can print upon the child that is then to be formed When we must please sick people with diet Wherefore I suppose they do not much transgresse the bounds of Art that are not so rigid but do sometimes indulge to sick people such meat as they long for though they are not so proper for them in case they are such as will bring no great hurt to their bodies
diseases have wasted or what is burnt to ashes or is passed into the first principles or into the substance of some other body For the flesh shall be restored to that man it was taken from as his Due A Simile from borrowed money that was borrowed from him They that are men shall find this to be true and those mousters that are bred from them and have the same nature with them shall be partakers of this divine gift CHAP. XVI The humours and food do change the habit of the body and state of the mind apparently And hence arise the affections and stings of conscience And by the by what Melancholy can do and how it may be cured THere is no mortal Man that is not led by his passions and perturbations but one is more driven by them than another and is more easily forced by the motions of his mind All men led by Passions Why Socrates was lesse subject to them For they that are of a good bodily temper and lead a temperate life and sober diet are lesse wont to be troubled with passions So Socrates is reported to have been of that constancy and calmnesse of mind that both at home and abroad he was alwaies of the same countenance and alacrity of mind though he had a very scolding Wife to vex him which he obtain'd no otherwise than by his frugall life and great temperance Hence it is that Cicero saith that Intemperance is the fountain of all the passions Tusc 4. which is a departing from the mind and from right reason So that the desires of the mind cannot be ruled or kept in order Temperance As therefore Temperance abates all disorderly desires and makes them submit to right reason and preserves the judgment of the Mind entire so Intemperance that is contrary thereunto inflames and disturbs every condition of the Mind and urgeth it Whence it comes that all diseases of the body and errours of the Mind spring from thence For as when blood and flegme abound or both cholers are increased sicknesses arise in the body so the disturbance of ill opinions and the jarring between them spoyls the Soul of her health The difference of passions amongst themselves and draws the body into mutual destruction For so anger rashnesse fear envy forrow emulation when they seize upon the veins and marrow and are possessed of the inward parts of the mind are hurtfull also to the body and cause many terrible diseases thereof Also the diseases of the body by sympathy and way of company affect the Soul And though objects and many outward causes stir up many troublesome motions in man yet the principall cause and original is from the heart and from the humours and spirits which if they be moderate and not infected with some strange quality the mind is not so hot The original of Passions and is more calm So if the bloud be clean and pure if the temper be equal and the body be well men are slower to be moved nor are they so exceedingly vexed with fear anger or revenge and if they be somewhat in passion as no man is without all passions presently reason being call'd to counsel and Judgment of the mind admitted all heat of stomach abates and is asswaged Examples of moderation are David and Pericies We have examples of this in David and Pericles who when a naughty fellow reviled them and upbraded them they did not revenge or hate him for it but used him with great humanity The heart receives divers motions of the mind from outward objects Yet oftimes when there are no outward objects presented it breaks forth into violent passions and some secret thought entring the mind of a contumely offered or by indignation by reason of some inconvenience received the mind it self grows hot and is disturbed within Wherefore it is of great concernment in the difference of passions to know what temper every man is of what humours are abounding in his body and what is the quality of the spirits that arise from those humours For those that are of a hot and dry temper of them bodies are soonest angry especially short little men who are presently enraged upon some trivial businesse of no value Which anger by reason of the narrownesse of the place wâ—y little men are soâ—â— angry and the small distance of the organs presently seiseth on the mind and fires and burns them as low cottages and sheep coats For the same reason these little men exceed others for wit and judgment of mind because the spirits are gathered together and not so much dispersed and so perform their forces more closely A Simile from fuel on fire and sharply But as some fuel takes fire sooner than other combustible matters do and some are sooner put out than others are so it useth to happen in spirits and humours whereof some breed long and during passions others sudden passions and fading presently whence it falls out that cholerick men are hot and presently angry The 〈◊〉 of cholerick men and as straw and stubble presently takes fire so they by the thinnesse of a hot humour and sudden inflammation are more weakly angry for their anger suddenly grows cold and they are pacified But me lancholique people are slower before they grow angry Melancholique natures but when they are provoked they are ill to be calmed again and they are so mindfull of in juries that they will hardly be friends any more Flegmatique But flegmatique people as they are cold and moist are scarse ever moved with passions of the mind and are never greatly troubled with any thing whence it is that they are slothfull and sluggish and not fit for any noble actions on them the Proverb may be verified He hath no mind that hath no anger A proverb against sluggards Sanguin complexions But sanguin people are of hot and moist constitutions and are held with no waighty or serious businesse of cares but are wholly taken upon with sports tales songs and jears and complements and take care for nothing but pleasures and delights which conditions and differences of men alter according to the quality and mixture of the humours according to the climate and Ayre they live in and they do variously affect the minds of men and therefore I am perswaded that the humours are the causes of Passions For the heart being affected the spirits are raised and the humours boyl and the minds of men by their agitation are more inflamed as if a torch or fire brand were put under For as when the General or Prince is moved in an Army his guard of Souldiers A Simile from a Captain of an Army and all that are to defend him presently make themselves ready to fall on upon the enemy So when any passion ariseth all the humours are suddenly stirred with the heart and the spirits break forth as in anger shame bashfulnesse immoderate joy but in grief sorrow fear
Natures order and progresse and the Skies of Heaven have their motions and changes and move by a certain order The humours are under the like law for they have certain motions and effects and periods in mans body that every humour keeps its turn according to the variety of the four parts of the year and exercises it faculties and forces on mans body so it is that the blood in the spring is in force and breeds feaver and diseases of its own nature so choler every other day in summer with cholerick burning causeth a tertian Flegm The humours keep their times corrupting in the winter quarter causeth a quotidian intermitting and melancholly when Autumn comes makes a quartan So a diary ends in one day or a little more because that consists not in the putrefaction of humours but with an aereal spirit enflamed And all these are effected by the same law as the rising and setting of Stars are as also is the flux and reflux of the Sea and the pleasant change of hearbs and plants springing forth But that is admirable that the four humours make choise of certain hours and times of the day The motion of the four humours in the body and divide the artificial day and night amongst them by twelve temporal hours which to be true I have found by experience for by observing them I use to pronounce certainly when the feaver will come For the blood is vigorous as Soranus Ephesius testifies Math. 20. which like the Evangelists measure the times and spaces of day and night by equal hours from nine at night till three in the morning Mans mind more lively in the morning from the vapour of bloud in which time the blood is concocted and elaborated in the Liver Hence it is that the mind before day break is more chearfull and all people both sound and sick are more light-hearted by reason of the sweet vapour of the blood but yellow choller hath its turn from three in the morning till nine in the morning in which time the natural faculty doth part the choller from the blood and sends it to the Gall bladder hence it is that a man is then more prone to anger and will be easily offended but black choler or melancholique juice doth its office from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon and sits at helm In this time the Liver is cleansed of this grosse humour which is sent to the Milt by nature hence it is that in those hours the understanding of man is clowded and his mind is sad All the humours are vigorous at certain hours by the dark grosse fumes that arise from thence Flegme moves from three at night till nine at night for then supper being ended concoction begins in the stomach to be perfected and the meat to be boyled and turned to juice Hence it is that flegme swimming on the stomach and carried to the brain makes a man sleepy Now if you exactly count the manner of all these you shall find that the very hours that the several humours take their turns Feavers begin to assault the sick and as the spaces are ended that serve for the several humours if they be simple and without mixture the diseases are terminated also So continent Feavers and as many as proceed from blood come upon us in the morning tertians about nout noon that is at the sixth hour which is to us the twelfth hour both of day and night Quartans come about the ninth hour which is to us three in the afternoon The quotidian comes from flegme about the first watch of the night But if the humours overflow and are mingled one with another as they are wont to be then they keep not their lawfull times and orders for they are more sharp A simile from the concours of the Winds and continue longer For as winds coming together raise more grievous tempests When East and West Aeneid 1. and rainy South do roar Roling the mighty billows to the shoar So a disease is more violent by concours of humours and diseases joyned to cruelly torture mans body For in one body Ovid. Metam l. 1. cold hot moist and dry Soft hard light heavy strive for victory It is frivolous to refer the causes of these things to ill spirits For all these things consist in the corruption or inflammation quality or quantity of the humours For it is these things that make the fits shorter or longer Why blood causes continual feavers But when bloud much abounds in the body it causeth but one continual fit because that putrefaction and inflammation is in the receptacles of the veins in which the bloud runs as through Conduit Pipes Wherefore nature like a wise and faithful consul in a Civill and intestine war is alwaies at work and without intermission to cast forth the disease But flegme A simile from the Wisdome of a Consul yellow choller and black because they are not in so great quantities and are without the straightnesse of the veins they do not constantly molest but with intermission and diseases that arise from these humours are not so deadly because they have not so open a passage to the heart and principall parts and therefore cannot easily do so much hurt Yet some of these Feavours last long partly because the humour abounds and partly because of the clamminesse thereof that it can hardly be melted and concocted Wherefore Melancholiqe men are seldome merry Melancholique people not easily drunk unlesse they drink deep and of strong wine for that humour is wonderfull cold and dry Men of this constitution are like Iron that must have a great strong fire to make it hot A simile fit for melancholique people from burning Iron that it may be hammer'd For they want much strong Wine and they can well endure it and when they are well whittled they will play the mimicks and make sport and dance like Camels For being crabbed by nature when they are in drink they desire to seem very merry Melancholique Natures when they are hot with wine and pleasant And as they are hardly overcome with drink so they can as hardly be recovered of drunkennesse For when they drink abundantly and eat excessively it falls out that the thick grosse vapours stick faster to the brain so that the day following melancholique Imaginations grow more upon them For from the Wine the day before not digested and discussed their whole body sends up stinking vapours For it happens to them as it is with houses set on fire which though they are not wholly consumed by fire nor quite burnt up yet a burnt smell affects our nostrils and brain A good Simile from houses on fire so making ill favoured sents and vapours arising from the drink the day before are very offensive unto them and trouble their brain and minds and when they cannot discusse these and that they perceive their phantasms to increase they fall
to drinking again to expell those vapours of the former wine Crudity hurts Melancholique people and imagination rising from thence as one nail with another since therefore the causes and original of diseases are so and the nature and condition of the humours is such that no reason can be thought on for the accesse and coming on of feavers than from the quantity or quality of the humours Let no man think that evill spirits do raise these tempests or distempers I know Ill spirits offend our minds and bodies and raise winds also and shall easily grant that the Divels or aereal spirits are very knowing and find out all things for their purposes and do not onely mix themselves with the humours but also they entice and urge the minds of men to all wickednesse and that the good Angels help men in all good things and are companions and assistants unto them So Raphael travelled with Tobias his Son So the spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson and he rent the Lion like a Kid. Tob. 14. Also a divine spirit came upon Saul 1 King 10. and he Prophesied with the other Prophets But after wards an evill spirit troubled his mind and stirred him up against David So they thrust themselves into tempests and cause thundrings and lightnings So that with their help we see Towers and Mountains are rent in pieces Corn Cattel and flocks of Sheep are destroyed yet the violence of the winds can do this without them So those winds Saint Luke speaks of are very violent upon Sea and Land Act. 27. and by the breaking and clashing of clowds fire is cast forth that sail-yards and sails are burnt with it A simile from the violence of Guns and Ordinance The like violence is wrought by great Guns upon Ramparts be they never so strong that not onely the ball strikes those that are near but the very wind and noise of them hurts some that are farther off These and many such like things though they may be done by natural reason Job 12. yet the Divell by Gods permission or grant may intermingle with them and make all worse So Satan exasperated Sauls melancholy and provoked him to commit many murders and to lie in wait and to commit many horrible things But because this affect of the mind and errour may be referred to natural causes therefore it appears that the Musick of the Harp took away the fury of him and his mind grew more calm For as when strong winds blow upon the Sea A simile from the flowing of the Sea the waves are more frequent and the Sea rages and as melancholique men grow more sad by losse of their estates and other casualties and cholerick people grow angry by drinking Wine or by being jear'd and mock'd So evill spirits or witches drive on such men headlong to wicked actions that though the will be ready and desires it yet can it not moderate the actions and force of counsels Which our Saviour seems to intimate when he said to Peter by way of reprehension Math. 16. Get thee behind me Sathan For Christ cal'd him so because he was against him and strove to divert him from our redemption that he was about And unlesse the great good God by his singular favour should bridle the fury of the adversary against us 1 Pet. 5. man could not subsist or defend himself against the fury of this Monster For he tryes all waies and searches all passages that he may set upon us and winnow us as Wheat Wherefore as Job saith God sets a sword against him that is Luk. 22. ch 40. A place of Job explained sets him his bounds that he cannot passe and limits Satans rage for he can go no further then God will give him leave and God will let no man be afflicted beyond his strength By which Antidote St. Paul comforts all that are in danger 1 Cor. 10. or in calamity but shews a way to escape from the tentation that the affliction may be no more then we can suffer or that we may be suddenly delivered I have been the longer in this that the Reader may understand that the humours are the cause of diseases principally But the divells the Stars and the quality of the ambient Ayre and other external causes are but accidental For since all passions of the mind are quieted by reason but the diseases of the body are cured by fit remedies who can refer the causes of diseases better than to the quantity and quality of the humours And if a man please to examine the humours of the body What manners come from bodily humours and what force they have he shall find that they do not onely constitute the habit of the body but the manners also of the mind yet so that manners and Religion are set above them in the uppermost place For blood or if you regard the qualities heat and moysture produce men of a flourishing constitution but as for the mind they are lascivious merry truly honest without dissembling and they are something above Fools But yellow chollerbrings forth men of a dry and swartish colour but they are hot deceitful ingenious of a fierce angry constitution wise industrious cunning inconstant false Who naught but a fair countenance reveal Pers sat In a false heart a crafty Fox conceal Melancholy juice makes men stable and constant and that will not easily depart from what they once undertake or forsake their opinion that if they happen to addict themselves to any sect they will hold it tooth and nail and not be easily drawn off This affect is milder in cholerick people for they by reason of their unstable floting humours and thin spirits are quickly transported and though they be very hot and clamorous yet they are soon pleased and not so obstinate Flegme is unprofitable to form mens manners and therefore flegmatique people are dull and unfit for any great matters CHAP. II. Melancholique Mad and Frenzy people and such as are furious from other causes will sometimes speak strange Tongues they never learned and yet not be possessed with the Divell The wonderful force of the humours in stirring the mind A Great force troubles the humours and a great heat troubles the mind for those that are in strong feavers will speak some tongue they never learned sometimes elegantly sometimes im perfectly and confusedly which I do not much wonder to be done by those that are possessed with the Divell because they have the knowledge of all natural things As Wine so humours trouble the mind Now the humours are so violent and forcible where they are inflamed or corrupted that the dark smoak of them ascending unto the brain as we see when men drink too much strong Wine will make men speak languages they understand not should this come from the Divell these diseases would not be cured with purging medicaments nor opiats by procuring of sleep For by
these and many more wherewith the Art of Physick abounds being rightly administred we see such persons restored and to be the same they formerly were When therefore the humours very frequently boil and the spirits are much troubled thereby and the exceeding swift motion of the mind brings forth some language not known before as we see sparks fall from striking of a flint A simile from striking sire with a flint Now it is natural to mans mind to be fit and ready to learn and it is endowed with Arts before it hath the use of them so that Plato's saying is not unlikely that all our knowledge is but remembrance The mind is endowed with Arts before we learn them In Phaed. For the mind of man contains in it self the knowledge of all things but it being oppressed with the weight of the body and thick humours cannot easily illustrate it self and as fire raked up in ashes it must be stirred and fostered A simile from fire racked up in ashes though imbred sparks and light of nature may shine forth When therefore this diviner part of man the Soul is shaken with diseases she brings forth such things as lay hid within her and useth her imbred forces An excellent simile from the sweetnesse of plants For as some plants smell not at all till you crush them in your hand so the imbred faculties will not shew themselves unlesse they be tried like Gold on a Touchstone By the same reason Jet Amber will not alwaies draw chaff and straws and such other things as are driven with the wind A simile from the effect of stones and plants but onely when they are rubbed and heated So when you whet daggers often and swiftly you make sparks fly forth Also the force of nature may be known in plants and Jewels For Piony Misseltoe Fruticulus Vervain Corall bloudstone Pearls Emrods Whence there is force in raysing spirits and other Amulets that is such things as drive away things hurtfull applied to the body or hanged about the neck by a present force either discusse diseases or stop bloud and do other things according as their natural quality is But all these are of more force taken inwardly A simile from the efficacy of wine You may make experience by strong wine that if you smell to it it refresheth the mind and spirits and heart but when you drink it down into the body for it doth nothing in the vessel but when it comes into the veins then it shewes its force and will make dull fellows very eloquent in speech For the heat of the wine sharpens the mind and brings forth what lyes hid in the brain Just so do the humours affect men when the whole force of the disease hath filled the cranies of the brain and the mind and spirits both vital and animal begin to be stirred We see some in burning Feavers that are most vigorous commonly in Summer who will discourse very well and speak very eloquently and in that dialect which when they are recovered they cannot perform which I said were not troubled with the devil and that they did not this by the devils instigation but from the force of the disease and violence of the humours whereby the mind of man is inflamed as if a firebrand were put under it I have recovered some of these by Opiates in potion and fomentations applyed to their heads and so brought them to their right minds when the disease was gone they forgot all they spake or did and when I told them of some things they were ashamed of them and wondred they had so much forgot themselves So those that are dying because there is an ardent force of the mind rais'd in them and some divine Inspiration comes into them before their Souls depart use to prophesie and to foretell certainly what shall follow hereafter and that so considerately and handsomely that the standers by admire at it Why a Soul departing will foretell things to come But that the Soul as it partakes of a heavenly original can foreknow things to come especially when death is near shall be shewed by me in its proper place CHAP. III. Of the Epilepsie's violence which disease the common people both now and formerly ascribe to certain Saints lastly how it may be cured And by the way that such are not to be buried presently that die of the Falling-sicknesse Lethargy or Apoplex WE have shewed elsewhere what effects the humours work in the bodies of men but since they do diversly affect us according to the diversity of places I thought good to speak of those also that are inherent in the brain For those diseases that are in the highest part of the body do not onely afflict us with pain but also take away sense and motion and hurt the mind as we may see in the Apoplex Lethargy and the Epilepsie that is weaker in children and women To whom the Epilepsie must be ascribed The Falling-sicknesse against Hippocrates mind was ascribed by the Antients to some special Saints for when those that stood next saw the diseased so suddenly tortur'd and pull'd We must not ascribe to Saints the torments of diseases they thought some Saints that were their Enemies or some ill spirits must be the cause thereof and sent such mischief wherefore they made vowes to them and set up Tables for their deliverance Hence our Age hath distinguished the Epilepsie into many sorts and one they ascribe to St. John the Baptist another to Cornelius and Hubert but as no man should deride the folly of these men so I think by degrees we should perswade them better to understand that these things should be referred to natural causes For they are of divers sorts in respect of the habit of the body or largenesse of the passages or abundance of clammy humours hence some howl and bark like dogs some hiss and gnash their teeth some cry loud and terribly Differences of Falling-sicknesses some are wholly mute especially their brain being stuffed with grosse humours and their midriff oppressed and the conduits of breathing stopped Whence it comes that they cannot freely draw their breath and these are most tormented of all men in my opinion But the symptoms increase most at the full and new Moon or when she is in those signs that respect the brain or heart For then the humours abound most especially when after North winds the South winds begin to blow for as these winds are turbulent and unwholesome so are they cold and moyst The Moon exasperates moyst diseases For moyst bodies that use moyst meats and are in a moyst climate are more fit and subject to this disease which is evident because children and women are most subject unto this and if it cease not about the 25th year when the natural heat is augmented Aphor. 7. Com. 5. and causeth a dryer temper and if it continue beyond that age it useth to
accompany one untill Death that is it never ends till death put an end thereto Since therefore the cause of the Falling-sicknesse is so Evident The habit of Epileptick persons terrible I would perswade the ignorant people to think of no other cause of this disease than the motion of the humours that men may not fear so much when they see their mouths draw awry their cheeks swoln and strutting forth with a frothy humour and should not be dismaid to come near them and lend them their help For so are all those that stand by and are fearful amazed when they see them rending themselves and beating their heads and bodies against posts that they think there is no hopes of them and so cause them to be buried before their Souls are departed from them For I have found it in our own dayes and in former Ages also that some have broken the Coffin and lived again Wherefore it is fit a Law should be made that those who are to take care of the dead bodies should not presently put them into their coffins whom they think to be dead Apoplecticks are not to be presently buried especially those that are strangled by the Apoplex Epilepsie or rising of the Mother for oft-times their soul lies within them and they live again But when the Plague and pestilent Feavers rule Men dead of the Plague must be presently enterred I think it not necessary nor fit to observe this so strictly because the contagion will presently spread when they are dead and infect those that are near For there is lesse danger to stand by those that have the Plague and to attend upon them when they are alive than to stand by them when they are dead A fit Simile from Candles put out for then the contagion spreads and infects as it goes For it is with bodies newly dead as with Torches and Candles that whilest they are lighted they do not stink but when they are put out they fill the room with a stinking savour Wherefore the danger is greater to be present when a man dies of the plague than when he is yet alive or dead and grown cold and stiff But if you keep these bodies a little too long unburied they become stinking Carkasses and they do by little and little send forth filthy exhalations and corrupt filthy matter runs from them which happens but seldome in the Apoplex and other cold diseases of the brain The motion and revolution of humours in such as are dead unlesse it be very hot weather or the bodies be very fat And if there be no such matter to hinder they need not be buried till three dayes be over For when seventy two hours are over the humours cease to move and stir not because in that time the Moon hath passed one sign in the Zodiack by force whereof the humours run in the body which some say was the reason that Christ took occasion to raise Lazarus miraculously that was dead four dayes John 11. lest any man should say he was not dead but onely in a trance and come to himself again Why Christ raised Lazarus no sooner Also when he by his Death and Resurrection wrought mans salvation he took the same occasion For besider that he had a mortal wound on his side he lay three dayes in the Sepulchre to take away all objections from them who would speak irreverently and not as they ought concerning his Death and Resurrection but calumniate all he said or did In which errour and madnesse the Jews continue even to this day But since those diseases are so formidable that bereave a man of his understanding that all the standers by are frighted at it I shall do a considerable work to add some present remedies and those not ordinary whereby every one that is unskilful in Physick may preserve himself and his family from them And because all diseases of the brain especially such as proceed from a cold humour are near of kin these remedies may be used to them all indifferently as to losse of memory vertigo's panting of the heart trembling Epilepsies Lethargies Apoplexies and for the hag and night mare and other diseases of the night which disease is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst innumerable remedies against these diseases I have found four especially to be most effectuall Remedies for the Night-mare not so much approved by experience as by reason The round black Piony seed for the corner'd and red colour'd seed is uselesse herein the round bulbous root of Squils the shavings of mans skull and Misseltoe I should shew severally how they perform these effects The force of Pionie and by what reason they perform it Galen eryes up Pionie as much as Cato did Coleworts which not onely by an Elementary quality but from the whole substance of it and secret property resists this disease And it will raise children that fall because it is not so strong in them if it be but banged about their necks For it discusseth and consumes the flegmatique humour that is the seminary of this disease Also the seeds of this given inwardly will do it more effectually in such as are of years For it drinks up the windy venemous miosture and brings the body to a hotter and dryer temper Some say this seed is the best that comes from the first increase of the male Pionie For a long time it brings forth unprofitable shoots without seed But when it is of perfect growth the husks cleave and in one part you shall see berries very smooth and black in another kernels of a shining scarlet red colour The black seed must be kept for use Yet not so superstitiously as to hold that the seed of the next year is uneffectual for that seed that comes after ten years is a present remedy if it be not rotten and decay'd What sorce Squills have in the Epilepsie Squills are better than Pionie and have a wonderfull force and faculty not onely for the Epilepsie but also for all diseases that proceed of a clammy viscous humour in what part soever of the body For it hath an abstergent force to dissolve all clammy things For which use I use to give a spoonful of an oxymel that I make of it which because it is exceeding bitter I use to mingle it with syrup of French Lavender and I put in a little Nutmeg to it also I command them to wash their mouthes with vinegar of Squills so as to swallow it down by degrees Also I find that the shavings of mans skull are a present remedy to dry up those humours that cause those diseases if some part of a mans skull scraped off be given to a man or of a womans skull to a woman and that in wine or Oxymel of Squills not by any hidden quality but because it dryes exceedingly for which cause the runner and blood of a Hare stayes the bloody flux and other fluxes of
the belly so I find by experience that mans bones grated given for the dysentery in red wine will stop it by a binding quality and drying force which also is excellently performed by artificial Pissaphaltum that is Arabian Mummie if you mingle but a little sea-Amber which is called Sperma Coeti Misselto a Plant what force it hath against the Epilepsie Misselto is next to these if not before them and it is called viscus because there is a clammy humour in the berries which if you rub it with your fingers is like birdlime for by that word is not meant venemous glew and snotty matter called Ixia that will inflame the tongue and glew all the Entrals together But a shrubby plant that the Priests and Druides of France as Caesar calls them held most sacred Comment l. 6. It never growes on the earth but is alwayes green upon the Oke and Holm Tree nor of any seed but from the excrement of the wood pigeon and blackbird I have often seen that shrub a cubit in height green as a leek within brownish without and the leaf like box leafs almost Saffron colour'd Which Virgil the Father of all Learning and who was as well versed in the knowledg of all things as any man sets down in elegant verse Talis erat species auri frondentis opaca â—â—â—id â— Ilice sit leni crepitabant bractea vento Quale solet silvis brumali tempore Viscum Fronde virere nova quod non sua seminat arbos Et croceo foetu teretes circundare truncos Latet arbore opaca Aureus foliis lento vimine ramus Auricomos generans acinos atque arbore soetus Whereby the Poet intimates that the deadly assaults and terrible diseases of the brain will yield to nothing sooner than to the use and medicament made of this golden colour'd shrub For it discusses extenuates and dryes clammy humours and by a wonderful force it cures the Falling-sicknesse if sand or the powder of it be drank in wine The Elk. Now we shall speak of the force of the Elk. Cajus Caesar in his Commentary saith it is a Creature of a Goat kind but greater in bulk Bel. Gal. 6. Deut. 14. In the Bible it is called a stone buck like to the wild Goats that the Jews might seed on The claw of this Beast is a present remedy against the Epilepsie as I have proved by many Experiments though the reason seem hard to me In the Low-Countries there are many subject to this disease because this Country is cold and moyst The South wind raiseth the Epilepsie and the South-wind blowes most commonly which is the most unhealthful of all winds so that you shall see them in the publike wayes and streets miserable spectacles and they fly to this remedy as the cure of it It chanced that in my Entry twice a woman fell down suddenly as if she had been thunder-stricken A true History which when I saw I came near and I put a Ring on her finger next her little finger that had a piece of an Elks claw set in it She presently arose and drank and went merrily on her way Another woman when I was not at home cryed out strangely and fell down on the earth and knockt her head against the ground One of my family laid a piece of the Elks claw on the palm of her hand and so shutting her hand because it was not set in a ring How things applyed outwardly can abate diseases the disease presently left her I think this is done by some special hidden property or because it dryes and discusseth mightily Were it not a solid substance some might say a vapour goes forth of it as from flowers and herbs which yet I think may be done though the spirits that come forth be very thin and dry and not windy so that they are not so sensible and cannot be perceived but by a secret operation So Stones Jewels Gold Iron and all brasen metals breathe forth a hidden force but they must be heated by rubbing for when they are on fire they smell more manifestly and insinuate themselves into the body A Simile from Wheels heated and spakling flints As we see when wheels grow hot with a quick motion or when a horses shoes strike fire on the pavement For presently a smoky burnt sent is raised into the Ayr. And if the cause of this Effect is not evident enough and no probable reason can be thought on yet we may say that these things are effected by that force by which the Unicorns horn put into wine or water dispels the poyson Unicorns horn resists venom and kills spiders by touching them I shall speak of stones taken out of the mawes of Swallowes and by what vertue they cure the Falling-sicknesse in another place CHAP. IV. Whence comes it that diseases are long and Chronical and will not easily be cured Whence come Feavers to revive again and to be with intermission and truce for a time which all men ought to know that they may not easily fall into a disease or being fallen may soon cure it LOng diseases may be well compared to long and tedious voyages that a weak man A simile from a journey that is difficult or one that carries a great burden is forced to go on his feet He by reason of the difficulty of the way and weight of his burden goes forward the more slowly and is more pressed than if he were carried in a Chariot or had some loving partner to help him carry his pack But since there are many causes that lengthen out diseases amongst the rest this seems to me to be the chief because so soon as diseases take hold Withstand in the beginning they neglect to call a skilfull Physitian who by prescribing a wholesome diet and fit remedies in time may help nature and by his Art may underprop her when she fails For the Physitian is Natures servant and takes care for her preservation with all his might The Physitian is Natures servant Whence it comes that they that know not what may do them good or ill feed on naughty meats even when diseases are seizing upon them and make no choice of diet and so stoppings and corruption is augmented and the disease gathers strength and all force of the body fails But if diseases fall in Autumn For diseases are like unto the year Turning about the same way like a sphere Now there riseth together a double cause of duration partly from the abundance of cold clammy matter and partly from the toughnesse and clamminesse of it For Autumn and Winter parts of the year cool and thicken the humours and cause a continuance that diseases are longer for the diseases cannot be discussed because the humours are thick and fast together and the skin is not so full of transpiration For as Wax Pitch Tallow Rosin and all fluxible matter grows hard in winter season
and will not be so easily handled and made pliable A Simile from a fluxible thing so when the weather is cold the humours are hardly melâ—ed and dissolved and it is proved because in winter men sweat lesse wherefore we must give such medicaments as will wipe away forcibly and open the pores For the filth and rubbish of the humours stick no lesse to these mens bodies than the lees and dregs do to vessels which must be soked with salt water or pickle A simile from rubbing of vessels and rub'd with beesoms to make them clean and take away all ill smels from them Otherwise whatsoever is put into them will grow sowre and be spoiled Wherefore Hippocrates seems to me to have spoken very right Impure bodies the more you feed them the more you hurt them L. 2. Aphor. 12. For the food corrupts being mingled with vitious humours and so the disease lasts the longer or if at any time by the Physitians skill or force of nature the disease begins to abate it will grow again by the least occasion For new corruption is bred in the body and a filthy smell accompanies it as we may perceive by the breath and this diffused in the body vitiates the spirits and extinguisheth natural heat for want of transpiration To this belongs that sentence of Hippocrates If there be any remainders in the body or reliques L. 2. Aph. 12. the diseases will grow again for the nutriment taken in doth not strengthen the sick but corrupts by mingling with ill Juice and increaseth the disease as we see in quartans and bastard tertians when the Patients will not be ruled by the Physitian not use a good diet Now these Feavers are with Intermission because the humour is without the veins and farther from the heart Whence comes intermission in Peavers But in continual feavers men are tormented constantly by reason of the sharp biting vapours of blood and choler inflamed within the veines which when they cannot freely get forth and breathe out they immediately offend the heart and liver and do more hurt by their corruption arising from stopping Blood subject to corruption than if they were without the veins For when there is great plenty of humours and the corruption is vehement and the proportion of this is great for putrefaction for blood is of a hot and moist quality and soon corrupts it falls out that these feavers alwaies rage and soon come to their state Whence Hippocrates maintains that such diseases dure not above fourteen daies L. 2. Aph. 23. and sometimes where the matter is surious and swels they end on the fifth seventh ninth or eleventh day The causes of Feavers that come by circuits and at set times are contrary for they come from some force bred in the humour and by reason of place and time whence it happens that they come with intermission that they anted are the time or come slower and later that they are unstable and unconstant and the fits last longer sometimes Feavers grow stronger and come sooner where the humours are increased and more inflamed Anticipating Feavers or where some errour hath been committed or there hath been some intemperance in meat and drink Feavers that come later But Feavers come later and more gently when the matter decreaseth and the stopping and corruption being discussed it abates and decayes sensibly Instable wandring feavers But when one humour takes upon it anothers nature or changeth its place or is mingled and confounded with another the fits come in no order but with uncertain motion and no certain time is observed by them Long Feavers A long fit is made by a plentifull humour and vapour and that is diffused all through the body and that which is clammy and grosse For as moyst green wood is long a lighting and burning A simile from green wood and old flesh and as Ox beef if it be old requires long seething so a clammy humour must be longer a steeping and grow soft by concoction and made fluxible that it may be fit for excretion But since we shew'd before that humours corrupting without the veins and when they are inflamed in any other part of the body Intermitting Feavers cause intermitting feavers than give us time to breathe yet of times we observe that these will more continually though they be without the veins both by reason of plenty of humours and from the sharpnesse of them As we see in parts that are inflamed as in carbuncles bubo's Carbuncles without the body cause continual feavers and all contagious and pestilent Impostumes In which a continual feaver and not an intermitting is kindled though the venome break forth without the veins and be far from the heart for the pestilent venemous force penetrates to the heart and hurts the principal parts infecting both the naturall and viral spirits Whence it is that these diseases are numbred amongst acute diseases because they soon come to their state and the change to health or death is very sudden For the like befalls those bodies as happens to a City besieged A simile taken from a City besieged which is so stormed without intermission by the Enemy with Guns and other engines of war that it can hardly stand out any longer against the violence of the enemy and looks every moment to be subdued unlesse it can with Ordnance and Engines make opposition or can sally out and beat the enemy away For to yeild and to make an agreement for life and safety as they do that fight faintly against an enemy or a disease were ignoble and commonly very hurtfull for the Conquerours of times will not stand to agreements but will break their words so in acute diseases it used to fall out that the sick cannot endure violence of the disease and cannot live above fourteen dayes if they can hold out so long unlesse nature be strong and well assisted by the Physitians art and can conquer the disease which being obtained she can hardly recollect her forces As the assaults of enemies so diseases must be driven off and cannot presently recover what she hath lost by violence but recovers her forces by degrees and to reedifie and fortifie her batter'd walls CHAP. V. Of those that come forth of their Beds and walk in their sleep and go over tops of Towrs and roofs of houses and do many things in their sleep which men that are awake can hardly do by the greatest care and industry IT happens that some in their youth and flourishing years for old men want vital spirits and are to weak too undertake such things Whence it comes that some men walk and cry out in their sleep and are slow in venerious actions will leap out of their beds at mid night or about break of day and do such things that men that are awake can hardly do and to do it with so little danger that all that see it admire
ariseth from the weaknesse of the spermatick vessels so there is also another vice contracted by venery and contagious copulation when men lye with whores For a corrupt filthy matter distill's from the secrets sometimes of a wan colour and sometimes green as Copras or Leeks that smell most filthily Whence it comes that the vessels are sometimes corroded The Dutch call this the fowl dropping and the secrets are hurt But that moisture and dropping of a moyst fowl humour is more virulent in women and when it is corrupted it is like the whites of Eggs whereby the guts are vexed with an intollerable pricking as if they were wet with Allum or salt They that have the French Pox are alwaies leacherous and by this means all that are diseased with the Pox are extream letcherous by reason of the acrimony of the corrupt humour and they think to abate it and hinder it by copulation and to ease themselves of the greatest part of the disease Wherefore when they desire to rub rheir scabby matter upon all yet the bawdy Letchers chiefly seek and hunt after such as they know to be of a wholesome and sound constitution For they powre forth their filthy matter upon these and corrupt them with their polluted seed for they can contract to themselves no contagion by such copulation For since they are troubled with the flux of seed contracted by whoring Sharpnesse of urine is proper to this disease and filthy copulation with Harlots It is not a seminal and fruitfull excreement that runs from them but a contagious filthy matter flows from their groins that stinks ill favouredly not of a white but green wan colour that causeth ulcers in the secrets and in the fore-part of the yard so that their urine can hardly come forth and is now and then stopt by the purulent matter Who have their urine stopt And if at any time they begin to lust and tickle and their yard to have erection they suffer intollerable pains For this part seems to be stretched as it were with a cord by reason of the nerves that are wet with a biting acrimonious humour whence it comes that they have now and than a dropping of their urine that comes not forth upon heaps and freely but by little and little with intollerable pain This disease is taken from pocky sick people and by lying with whores whose privities are infected with bubo's other contagions Which disease being it consists about the privities and secret parts Swellings of the groins not to be repressed and from putrid humours causeth filthy tumours it is call'd the gowt of the secrets or a Winchester-Goose But if the contagion doth spread it self as it useth to do when the body is not presently purged after the disease contracted and where outwardly discussive cataplasms that may represse the matter and not such as may ripen it are applied to draw it forth the whole masse of the body together with the blood and spirits is infected and the whole collection of humours is carried to the nerves panicles membranes muscles Whence pains of the Nerves and causeth intollerable pains The Dutch call this disease in their language Pocken met de Lempten because all the parts are rent and pierced with cruell pains and the symptoms that accompany the disease and come from the fiercenesse of it cause as great anguish as the disease it self For they are not racked with one kind of pain onely but with many kinds of torments that rend and tear and prick the nervous parts that are of most exquisite sense and motion placce = marg Those that have the Pox feel all sorts of pains as if they were wounded with bodkins pincers and other Instruments And since they wander all over the body and possesse all parts none excepted from the continual pain without any Intermission our Country-men call this disease de Mieren a name that signifies an Ant that is an active and unquiet Creature that runs continually to new places and from that the Physitians call one kind of pulse the Ant pulse The Ant-pulse for the slender motion of it when the forces are spent and cast down so that a man hath but a little of life left when such a pulse is felt like to this is the worm-creeping pulse because it moves as a worm doth A Worm-creeping-pulse and this promiseth but little hopes of recovery And as there is a disease where men seem to be rent as it were What disease is Verminatio and what formicatio and eaten with worms so is there a disease wherein men seem to be stung with Ants for the body is deformed outwardly with filthy bloches and pushes and inwardly they feel as it were Ants that bite them and vex them so that they are still forced to scratch and rub to find some ease So those that have the French Pox can be no where at rest but must alwaies scrub themselves Fornication comming upon the French-Pox Wherefore our Country-men do fitly apply Formication to this diseased body not that this disease should be so called but because it affects the body as that disease doth Hence Plautus because many in that time were polluted with most foul diseases as filthy running sores on the face scabs leprosie and many more that shew themselves in the most comely part of the body calls such Ant-bitten Ant-bitten men mouldy lither putrid ulcerated men and these as our Country men say if you do but shake them they will come in pieces and their flesh will part from their bones and they commonly deride them with this jeer Vanden grate Schudden The comparison is taken from stinking fish The common proverb comes from stinking Fish and rotten salt fish that with the least shaking will fall off from the back bone Wherefore they that have contracted pocky swellings about their secrets and groins either from venerous copulation or by keeping company with one that hath the Pox and lay in bed with him for of former times this contagion was easily taken from others either from their breath The incredible contagion of diseases or eating or drinking in the same cup with them though now it grows feeble by degrees I advise such first to wash their privities with sharp Wine or Vineger and all parts near putting a little salt thereto then if it be requisite bring the swelling or apostume to maturity and when the corrupt matter is come forth The cure of swellings in the groins to wash the hollow ulcer with abstergent remedies before they close it up And as for the biting of a mad dog that is sometimes more gentle than to be bit with a whore men keep the wound along time open least the virulent matter kept within the disease should increase again and grow worse yet before you open the Impostume you must purge the body well and for this use Epithym Fumitory Polypod Sena A short
purpose of a better life And no man can be perswaded that God is displeased with his way of living or that his manners and customes and studies are not approved by him unlesse his mind be afflicted with some grief and sadnesse and his body with some diseases For the mind is so deaf to all wholesome admonitions and counsels and the understanding is so hardned with the custome of sin that it will either reject milder corrections or not be much moved by them and there appears no hopes of amendment unlesse more sharp remedies be applied Hence was it that God threatens by Esaias Chap. 5. and 9. because this people returns not to him that smites them therefore is not his fury turned away but his hand is stretched out still and lifted up again to smite them The like is said in Jeremiah and complained of Chap. 2. In vain have I smitten your children and they have not received instruction Hierem. 5. Again I smote them and they lameâ—â—d not I bruised them but they refused to be instructed they made their â—â—ces harder than a stone and they would not return they are grown rich great and fat and they foulely passed over my words Wherefore God sometimes chastiseth us more bitterly to recall us to an honest and more pious life So Alexander King of Macedo who suffer'd men to honour him as a God Alexander wounded confessed he was mortal when he was wounded with an arrow and when he saw the blood run out abundantly he forthwith remembred that he was but a man and laid aside all his cruelty and Arrogancy Psalm 88. To which may be referred that of the Psalmist Thou hast humbled the proud as one that is wounded thou hast broken all his strength Wherefore when things are at the height of prosperity and all goes according to our minds and as we would have it let no man too much elevated by his good successe pride himself too much or bray immoderately but let every man duly consider himself and think on adversities losses crosses dangers calamities diseases mishaps that hang continually over our heads and that God sometimes sends these upon man for a remedy and cure to correct his errours and cause him to repent and may have a certain confidence of his salvation elevating his heart unto God which God would have every man to know and observe diligently when he saith Psalm 88. If his sons offend and obey not my laws and keep not my Commandements I will visit their iniquities with the rod and their sins with scourges but I will not take my mercy from them nor suffer my truths to fail whereby he openly declares that he corrects us for our amendment God corrects us to make us better and not for our destruction That so our carnal desires being subdued and our licentiousnesse in sinning restrained every man might turn to lead an honest and innocent life and to sober and good manners For it is Gods correction on us which proceeds from his fatherly affection a great argument of his exceeding love and a Testimony of his good will towards us For whom the Lord loves them he chasteneth Prov. 1. and correcteth them as a man doth the son whom he loveth But such as God suffers to wander licentiously and to live loosly and to be involved in all corruptions Heb. 12. and doth not by his secret spirit call them back from their errours it is because God hath given them over and forsaken them I will not saith he Hosea 4. visit nor correct your sons and daughters when they commit fornication nor your wives when they pollute themselves with adulteries as there are some women whereof our age can shew examples that have layn with other men Adulteries noted before they lay with their husbands to whom they were before contracted so that another man had their Maiden-head before the nuptial feast was ended and that they came to bed to their husbands So God provoked by the continuance of sin and daily custome of doing wickedly holds back his hand from smiting them and suffers them to fall and run to all disgrace infamy reproach and to obey their lusts By which erroneous life they first get a troublesome and restlesse mind than which nothing can befall a man more lamentable and miserable then besides their unhappy end and bitter death wherein they have nothing to support them they passe to eternall punishment and intollerable torments When therefore God gives a man abundance of all things as riches Gold Silver gallant houses stately furniture brave garments in a large measure We should be thankfull to God we should never forget that God by whose bounty we have obtained all this abundance freely For there is no vice in magnificent houses and Mannors in money Lands possessions if we look how to use and employ them well Rches are not ill but the abuse of them Lastly if what is the principall and is chiefly required at out hands we have a thankfull heart towards God and are bountifull to our neighbours and poor people Deut. 8. Moses the Law-giver amongst the Jews by the Commandment of God and by what he received from God did admonish them of this matter and often inculcated it unto them that no man should ever forget him to whom we owe our selves and all we have When saith he thou hast eaten and art full and hast built goodly houses and when thy heards and they flocks thy Silver and thy Gold are multiplyed and all that thou hast take heed that thine heart be not then lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God the giver of all these things And least that should be objected to them for their ingratitude and forgetfulnesse that God gave them butter from the heard and milk of sheep with the far of Lambs and Rams with the flower of Wheat and delicate Wines in abundance but when Israel was fat and full he kicked backwards and forgot the Lord that made him and was unthankfull to the Authour of his salvation Wherefore to such backfliders Moses threatneth terrible threatnings and punishments and lays it down that many sad and miserable calamities shall befall them whereby Let their posterity learn an be warned as God speaks in Jeremias Deut. 32. If they continue in the same fault Chap. 2. what a sad and bitter thing it is to forsake the Lord our God and not to fear and reverence him who is the Lord God of hosts CHAP. XXX Stones or Jewels dug forth of the Earth or taken out of the Sea or out of the bodies of living Creatures what vertue they have and by what means they perform their operations BOth reason and experience prove that stones and Jewels have great vertues so they be not counterfeit and artificial stones Wherefore to wear a ring or a Jewel that hath a handsome and effectuall stone set in it is good for the eyes to look on
Jaws fumes rise from these and infect the spittle with a contrary quality Whence it is that sometimes we perceive a salt sowre sweet Sweat and spittle have their forces from the humours or sharp taste in our spittle as there is in sweat also Hence it is that when men are fasting their breath stinks exceedingly and the unsavourinesse of the breath offends all near us that talk with us For some foggy ill smells evaporate and boyl forth of the body as out of some muddy lake and these being of a venemous nature infect the fountains of spittle And this moysture that swims in the mouth and moystneth the tongue and waters our meat is nothing else What spittle is than a flegmatique excrement that ariseth from the stomach from the nutrimental juice received in and flees to the brain and so is sent down to the tongue and Jaws Hence it is that those whose stomachs abound with flegme are alwaies full of spittle in their mouths and is overwet with immoderate moisture but such as are hot about the entrals and dry with a feavorous heat their tongues are not wet at all Who have a dry or moist mouth but crack as the earth doth when it is over-dried and parched by the heat of the Sun Since therefore the qualities and effects of Spittle come from the humours for out of them is it drawn by the faculty of nature as fire draws distilled water from hearbs the reason may be easily understood A simile from distilled hearbs why spittle should do such strange things and destroy some creatures And if the spittle of a sound man be effectuall for many uses that it will not onely destroy many creatures but kills Quicksilver also and fixeth it what shall we think of such that are sick of the Leprosy the Pox and many other contagious diseases I know many that have catcht the small Pox and measils by onely putting their mouths to the cups whereon the spittle of those that were infected did stick by reason of the clamminesse of it and venemous mud that fastneth to the teeth so that for the same cause the bitings of all creatures are dangerous by reason of the contagiousnesse of their spittle except the nerves and muscles be not hurt by it CHAP. XLV Of the use of Milk Beestings Creame The dutch call the first Beest the latter Room also what will keep these from cloddering in the Stomach Milk Who it is good for THe use of Milk is not alike wholsome for all people for those that have cold Stomachs it grows soure in them and fills the body with wind and those that are very hot of temper in them it burns and sends forth stinking vapours and offends the Head And since the nature of Milk is so that it will thicken and be condensed by heat Milk is thickned by heat and melts by cold and melted by cold it follows that it is soonest clottered in a hot Stomach and nothing will hinder this more than Honey and Sugar adding a little Salt to it But since I have known many strangled by clottered Milk coagulated in their Stomachs their breath being stopped when they began to vomit I think some wanton young men and lascivious suiters do very ill who at their afternoon meetings use to stuff themselves with Creame and Biestings and other Milk-meats and drink Wine abundantly with them to the great detriment of their health For Wine makes Milk curdle Wine and milk mingled are naught and become like to Cheese wherewith the Stomach being offended and is not able to concoct it all turnes to corruption and these are the foundations and seminaries of great diseases Milk corrupts Fish So fish and Milk and all soure things mingled with Milk and drenched with Wine cause Scabs and the Leprosy For all things cramb'd in thus promiscuously corrupt and are made subject to putrefaction Those gluttons that when a Cow hath new Calved love Beestings Beestings shall find nothing more hurtfull to man so that Children that within three dayes after they are born do suck their Mothers Milk are very ill by it and onely escape Death For it coagulates and clotters in their bodies and stops the Channells of the blood and the Veins so that nutriments cannot passe fitly and without hurt But these things dissolve Milk and Clottered blood also Cummin-seed Oyxmel and Vineger of Squils Angelica Master-wort CHAP. XLVI Why Gouty people are Lascivious and Prone to venery and as many as lye on their backs and on hard beds Gowty people are very lascivious SUch as have the Joynt-Gout are most commonly Lascivious and lust exceedingly partly because they have been used to it by long custome by the immoderate use whereof they came to have that disease partly because their Nerves are grown stiff and stretched out by it and by lying often on their backs the humours flow to the generative parts They also that ride much or lye along on Ship-boards and lye hard on their backs are very Prone and given much to Venery For the Nerves destinated for mans generation that run to the genitall parts grow hot so that by the agitation and influence of humours the loines are provoked and there is erection made thereby By the same reason if any man hurt or bruise his great Toe of his foot immediately from this effect the groin and cods swell that is that wrinkled cover of the Testicles is in pain by it arising from consent and by reason of the interweaving of Nervs and Veins As if any man puts into a fire that is very hot a pair of Tongues or other iron A simile from Smiths not only the part put into the fire will be red hot but also that part which is farr from the fire grows so hot that it cannot be handled so pain is communicated to the parts that are on the same side and the sickly affect is conveighed to the neighbouring part So from the Stomach Intestins Matrix Spleen Liver the head is affected and when the brain is hurt or troubled with any distemper the mischiefe is derived from thence to the parts that are under it And therefore Mid-wives though they know not the cause of it The generative parts are signs of good health or sicknesse use to search and see the Testicles of Children when they are sick and their privy member by the observation whereof they can judge young men also may perceive certain signes of recovery of death of health or sicknesse For if the cases of the Testicles be loose and feeble and the Cods fall down it is a signe that the naturall faculties are fallen The Testicles hanging down or close up what signs they are and the vitall Spirits that are the props of Life But if these secret parts be wrinkled and raised up and the yard stands stiffe it is a signe all will be well But that the event may exactly answer the praediction we
as needfull for us as our nourishments for without them mans nature can subsist a while Hunger when hurtful for some have pined away seven or nine dayes for hunger but without the outward Ayre and gentle blasts no man can subsist one moment but he would be strangled Now the purer and the lesse contagious the Ayre is Ill Ayre worse than ill dies the more wholesome it is for the body For if the Ayre be pestilent and contagious it is more hurtfull than venemous and faulty meats for such meats may be vomited up again or digested by the heat of the stomach but pestilent and contagious Ayre cannot be easily conquered or altered when it is once taken into the body for it presently infects the heart and vitall spirits Wherefore this common Ayre that serves us to live in and by help whereof we draw out and put in our breath must be carefully regarded And no lesse respect must be had in preservation of our health unto the winds that proceed and are diffused from the Ayre and that not onely in regard to an open and free Ayre that we are exposed unto but also in building of our Houses Observation in making our dores Galleries Porches Windows Dores and all prospects by which the Winds without may enter into our Chambers and Dining-rooms that we may be refreshed with wholesome blasts and great and unwholesome winds may not offend us Hippocrates counsel in the Plague Which Hippocrates carefully observed in the Plague-time that wasted almost all Asia and Greece and thereby he freed many thousands of them from it Also Marcus Varro when he was at Corcyra Varro's Counsel in the Plague-time and the sick people generally lay to sleep in all sorts of houses he caused them to stop up their Windows that looked toward the South and to make new ones looking to the North and to change their dores and by that means he secured his company and family So in the Low-Countries near the Sea because many Cities and Towns are exposed to the South and South-west Men are sick the greatest part of the year and subject to flegmatique defluxions To this belongs that of Victruvius In the Island of Lesbos there is a Town called Mytilene L. 1. chap. 5. built most sumptuously and bravely but not prudently scituated in which City when the South wind blows the men fall sick for that wind causeth corruption when the North-west that is neighbour to the South-west blows from the Western solstice men are subject to Coughs but when the North-wind blows they are well again Whereby it appears plainly that the unstable moving of the winds bring sicknesses to mens bodies and makes them have their health worse which if we could avoid and shut out every man would lesse fall into diseases or if by any cause a man do fall sick if you bar out ill winds he will recover the sooner Cardinal Winds are sour The Antients because there are four quarters of the world divided the winds into as many and Ovid elegantly described them Metam L. 1. The East wind went where first the morning Sun Doth shine the West where the Sun sets the North Invaded Scythia when they begun The Cloudy South from Southern parts came forth Others that thought to do it more exactly number twelve winds But in our dayes the Art of Navigation by reason of the vast and spacious circumference of the Ocean and the long voiages in the Mediterranean Sea hath found out thirty two winds The Marriners Compasse shews 32. winds and the Pilot and Steerman do continually behold them in Marriners Compasse and in the darkest and most tempestuous night they steer their course by it and come to their desired Haven And this compasse is no new invention for Plautus makes mention of it But do you think that it is lost Trinum act 4. scen 3. Take the compasse But Politick men that are not used to the Sea do not so much regard the number of the winds as the nature of them Of the Ayre and places For every man that would take care of his health by Hippocrates rule must observe the four quarters of the year and also cold and hot winds that we are exposed to The Ayre and winds change our bodies For the concourse of winds and Ayre have great force to preserve health and drive away diseases For not so much the bodies as the minds of men are changed by reason of the Ayre and winds The mind troubled by distemper of the Ayre So that men in health are otherwise affected when the Ayre is tempestuous and troubled and otherwise when the weather is calm and the sky clear otherwise when the West-wind blows otherwise when the South or South-west that not onely mens bodies are more active but their minds are more ready and more tractable all fullennesse and frowardnesse being cast off when the Ayre is pleasant and the calm gentle winds blow as in the Spring of the year But that all things may be done by rule I shall set down the conditions effects forces and Names of all the winds that are known both to learned and ignorant men Whereby every man may decline what seems to be hurtfull and may safely expose himself to such winds that seem to be healthfull and harmlesse The East-wind the High-dutch call it Oost The effect of the East wind that comes from the East the Italians Levante is most commonly wholesome and drives away sorrow of mind but it is cold in the morning before the Sun rise at noon when the Sun is Southward it is moderately warm we call it Luke-warm when our bodies are not troubled with over-great heat but saint with a mean heat that makes them to nauseat L. 1. Cor. Celsus and Ovid call it neither hot nor cold The cold North the Lukewarm South But at Midsummer when the Sun is hot the Eastern wind causeth heat and kindles yellow choller and from the inflammation thereof burning Feavers spring up But in the winter it is somewhat milder and not so sharp and cold as the North-wind The East-wind called Eurus is kind to the true East-wind The place of the East wind and effects and declines a little on the left hand towards the South it is called Eurus from Aura because when the Sun first riseth it causeth gentle blasts they commonly call it East South-East East South-East causeth the Plague sometimes for it is in that point of the world next to the East In Summer it is very hot and causeth burning Feavers And I have oft observed it in the Low-Countries that when any popular disease spreads as it doth when that wind blows it causeth Carbuncles and contagious swellings to rise in the groin and under the Arm-pits and the Measils and small Pox that boil forth to the outmost skin For this wind partaking of a warm beat namely some moisture being mingled with it it affords
especially in the month of March Whence comes the Nails Also this Infant that was a Female wanted her nails upon her fingers and the utmost joynts of her fingers upon which from the musculous or cartilaginous matter of the skin nails that are very smooth do come forth and grow hard there appeared hardly any marks or prints of nails and they were not so hard as horn but soft as thin skin But on the joynts of their feet there were not resemblance of nails because those parts are not so hot as the hands and are farther from the heart the Fountain of heat for the joynts of the hands that are fastned to the brest by the Armes by the benefit of the heat that is diffused from the heart have more apparent signes on the fingers than any other parts The judgement of Physitians concerning Child birth with no favour or disfavour unto any Wherefore the Physitians observing many naturall causes and depending on solid reasons with favour or disfavour to neither side but as the matter would beare it if he would be so content that was in question to set his integrity and honesty upon it pronounced before the Judges to whom that tryall was commited by them that amongst the Dutch are the King of Spains vicegerents at Brussels that this Infant was to be taken for a Child not of nine but of seven months birth the time the woman went with Child being 27 weeks and such a Child must be accounted born in seven months though the time was not quite finished and one or two weeks were wanting and some dayes to make the time compleat But in this businesse the Moons circuit must be observed The Moon makes the months for women with Child that is perfect in four weeks that is in lesse than 28. days in which space of her revolution the blood being agitated by the force of the Moon the courses of women flow from them which being spent and the matrix cleansed from the menstruall blood as it useth to be oft times on the fift or seventh day Naturall conception is after the courses if after that time a man lye with a woman the conception proves to be most naturall so that the Infant born after seven or nine months is most healthfull and free from diseases to which Children use to be obnoxious For Children use to be troubled with many diseases by reason of the menstruall blood The Epilepsie is Childrens diseases that stays in the Matrix at the time of conception as are the Measils that is lively eruptions commonly called Measils and small-Pox in low dutch Maeselen ende Pocken and other red or wan Pushes that are contracted by the menstruall foulnesse and in the Spring or Summer thrust themselves forth into the outward parts of the body To this we may add the Epilipsie or Falling-sicknesse the Dutch call it Vallende Siecte which disease because it hath many differences the superstitious Gentiles of old were wont to referr it to certain Gods before the light of the Gospel was revealed to men whereas it proceeds from naturall causes and chiefly from clammy and tenacious flegme Moreover in the mouths of young Children there breed almost so soon as they are born some blisters about their throats and Palates the Araâ—â—ans call them Alcolam the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Dutch dan Sprowe What is Alcola and uâ—der rheir tongues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly call'd the Frog What the Frog is in low Dutch Spanare which either by incision or with ones naile or rubbing with Salt as I use to do when they fear the iron instrument or Oxymel of Squils is taken away to say nothing of Hydrocephalon A spongy head that is a head swoln with a spongy watry humour and of many other collections of humours that come from vitious milk and menstruall blood which also use to accompany men in yeares and when they seem to be gon they will come oft times again Therfore both in tilling and sowing of ground A simile from tilling of ground as also in copulation with women and manuring that ground and proâ—reation of Children even by Moses law the Moons motion was to be observed by force whereof at set times womens courses run or are stopt The Moons circuit is performed through the Zodiack in 27 dayes and in one third part of a day which dayes comprehending lesse than four weeks make a Lunar month In how many dayes the Moon peâ—fects her course especially if you take away that time that this planet lyeth hid and is not seen for she is three dayes more or lesse in conjunction that is as they say conmonly the time she is invisible See Galen of decretory dayes in which time she doth not exercise her force upon the earth and is not fit to alter them But when she begins to shew her selfe and is new and when she is full that is she is in opposition to the Sun and shews round she hath wonderfull force in conception and many other things for she both augments Corn and fruits and shell-fish and flesh that hangs to the roofs of houses is corrupted by the beams of it shining upon it such as sleep or continue long in the Moon light she makes pale and trembling and heavy headed brings the Epilepse to Children as also stupidnesse and the Palsey and many more things she doth not that she exceeds the other Planets but she doth it by being so neere to us For she being so placed in the lowest Orb The Moon is a Planet next the Earth and next to the earth she doth so guide the beginnings and increase of things that by the effect of her even after conception of the seed the Child in the Mothers Womb by the Mothers blood that nourisheth it is augmented and made to grow The time of carrying the Infant is to be referred to the course of the Moon Also all the time a woman goes with Child whether you please to measure it by dayes or months or weeks as great bellyed women commonly use to reckon must be referred and counted by the age of the Moon But she shews her forces more effectually upon the body either when first she meets with the Sun begins to be enlightned by him or when she is round and full but when she is but a halfe Moon she hath lesse forces and least of all when she is crooked and by degrees fades and is obscured For at that time there is no concourse of waters in the Ocean no abundance of humours in the bodies of men no collection of marrow in the bones so that then it is fit for tender bodies to leave off copulation and to make a League with it But I oft times use to foretell to women great with Child when their travel shall be easie When the birth will be easie and so to raise their minds to hope very well if they chance
whereby even in the Low-Countries some Witches and cunning Women do mischief to their neighbours heards and flocks of Cattel Witchcraft is hurtfull and rob them of their milk and butter by the help of the Divel spoyling their Corn and Wine and destroying them Also they take strength from men and as if they were gelded they make them weak and feeble for the Marriage bed of which some strong brawny men have complained to me and that they were become Eunuchs and unable to their great disgrace and losse to their Wives to whom I strove to afford help and to give them amulers applying to them such hearbs that in such cases are present remedies by the gift of God Now for a man to toil his wits in such enchantments is not onely unnecessary and idle but also dangerous and destructive For by laws of God and man they are to be punished with death and tied to a post Deuter. 28. they are to be burnt who exercise any wicked Arts by the help of the wicked spirits But how inchantments may be driven away and repelled I shall shew at the end of the Book where I shall speak of the Majesty of the name Jesus lest we should here interrupt the order and series of this treaty CHAP. XXI We must not lesse take care for our Minds than for our bodies We must adorn both minds and bodies BUt since man is made of Soul and body we must with all providence take care for the safety of them both The Soul is the principal part in man and the body is the house of the Soul We use most the command of the Soul A simile from domestick affairs and the service of the body therefore we must not be slothfull in the consideration of them both For if we be so carefull that our houses stand not in boggy and marish lands that there be no rifts nor open places for the rain and winds to come in and that our cloathes be not mouldy and for want of ayring come not to be eaten by flyes and mothes how much more need have we to look to our bodies the vices whereof will affect the Soul also by consent and law of company and they converse together in all things For Horace Our bodies Faults do fasten on our mind The Soul divine is thus made earthy kind To which agrees that of the Wise man The corruptible body presseth down the Soul and the mind that meditates on many things Wherefore we must take some care of our body upon whose props as Pliny faith the Soul stands Saint Paul observed that who forbad Timothy to use water any longer and prescribed unto him the use of Wine 3 Tim. 5. to comfort his stomach and to make him more cheerful in the propagation of the Gospel For the body being in a sound condition can better serve the Soul and hinders not nor burdens the mind when it is employed in the contemplation of high things But in the first place we ought to take care for out mind and to adorn that which is no way better performed than by a firm and stable confidence in God which raiseth a man into a most certain hope of immortality and takes out of our minds all dread and fear of death And as meat is nutriment for the body The Souls food so is Gods word the food and nourishment of our Souls whereby alone we conceive peace and tranquillity in our minds than which there is nothing more to be desired and sought for in this life But even the external habit of the body shews what disquietnesse and anguish of heart there is and what tortures wicked men endure in their minds The wicked are unquiet For wickednesse is such a revenger of it self that what mind it hath once fastned on it will never suffer it to be at quiet but continually holds it upon the rack with perturbations which Esaias expressed by an elegant similitude taken from the waves of the Sea Esay 57. The heart of the wicked is as the troubled Sea whose waters cast up mire and dirt That is the minds of those men who are stain'd and polluted with sins and wickednesse are tumultuous troublesome Naughty affections hurt the mind and unquiet For what man can take pleasure in his life or enjoy a quiet mind who carrieth a body about with him that is soiled with most foul faults and a Soul polluted with obscene vices wherefore since great part of misery comes from the vicious affects of the mind we must by all means abstain from them that the body may receive no hurt thereby With the like care and industry must the body be freed from diseases least any blemish or contagion might be conveied from the body to the Soul For being that ill and vitious humours communicate ill fumes to the brain Ill humours cloud the mind they drive and provoke the mind to many mischiefs CHAP. XXII How we must help the body that it may subsist in perfect health Frugality is profitable FRugality and temperance in diet defends health and drives off diseases using moderation in those things that are necessary to confirm health and to cause strength Galen calls these conserving causes because they are fit to conserve the habit of the body Art Med. 83. so we use them well and opportunely Things that bring strength The modern Physitians call them things not-natural not that they are besides nature but because being set without the body and are not within us as the humours by use and effect they affect nature and the faculties thereof with some inconvenience if they be employed amisse and not duely as they ought to be Of this kind is the Ayre that is about us meats and drinks sleeping and waking repletion and inanition affections and motions of the mind all of which mans body requires for the preservation and defence thereof But because the principal part of health consists in a sound diet we must diligently observe in that what is good or hurtfull to the body And since gluttony is no lesse loathsome than it is pernicious and hurtfull to the body we must take in so much meat and drink as will serve natures necessity and that the forces of the body may be fed and not oppressed Moderate diet is profitable for students Moderate diet is profitable and necessary in all occupations of study and managing of great affairs to endure watchings in labour and in performing publick duties For it is this that keeps health perfect it makes the spirits both animal and vitall that are ascribed to the brain and heart to be cheerfull and ready so that what a man conceives in his mind he can readily effect and bring to passe without any trouble But daily examples prove that by luxury and intemperance of life diseases are brought on our studies are hindred all honest cogitations fail we cannot proceed in our lucubrations the
the urine vex a man if dimnesse and blear-ey'dnesse hurt the eyes if the hands or feet be held with the Gowt Horace in Art If Scabs or swelling tumours do offend The mind of man cannot so readily perform it's office or functions Wherefore I suppose they do well who take care of their health and keep the body and all its parts free from excrements For so the mind is fit for great matters and more ready for any noble employments The greatest part of men neglecting all ornament and taking no care of their health hunt onely after wealth and is busied in getting of gain Health is better than wealth though health be better than Gold and there is nothing more to be desired than tranquillity of mind Horace confirms it by Verses L. 1. Epist 12. If thou be sound of body feet and hands 'T is better than to have rich Craesus lands For 't is not wealth nor baggs of Gold be sure Can cares of mind or body sicknesse cure And that he might recal men to a frugal and moderate use of things he adds L. 2. Epist 2. He that enjoyes his wealth Must alwaies live in health The wise Hebrew accords with the words of Horace exactly It is better to be poor and well Ecclus 30. than to be rich and sick Health and a sound body is better than any Gold or the greatest riches There is no wealth better than a sound body and no joy greater than the joy of the heart Wisd 4. therefore felicity is not to be measured by wealth or prosperous successe but by the soundnesse of the body and of the mind For he onely lives and is well that perfectly enjoyes the commodity of both these CHAP. XXIX Wholesome precepts are no lesse proper for the mind than they are for the body THere are three things reported to be most wholesome which are fit for every man to observe To feed not to full Not to fly from labour To preserve natural seed To these I oppose as many things most unwholesome which besides diseases bring on old age apace and cause men to die young To eat too much To be idle To use too much venery We must use moderation in natural things For since frugality when we banish gluttony keeps the body sound and exercise when we drive away idlenesse and sluggishnesse makes the same nimble and ready we may take examples from horses for the other Virg. l. 3. Georg. Our minds are strengthened by no industry As by declining love and venery Old age is not proper for venery For intemperate and lustfull youth makes the body feeble in old age Wherefore since we are to use moderation in our desires in our youth we are to do it much more in our age and to stop up all wayes of luxury for as it is naught in youth as Cicero saith so it is most unseemly and foul in old age For as we need strength in war and agility and force to endure labours so in love we need strength to wage war in Venus camps in the night which will consume the tediousnesse of matrimony and make us able to sustain the conditions of a froward Wife Wherefore not War nor love are fit for old men because both these carry with them many troubles and hindrances which old age is not fit nor able to undergo L. 1. Amor. Eleg. 9. Ovid hath expressed this in very elegant Verses Cupid hath Tents and every lover war Believe me Attic every lover war What times are fit for war with love agree Old souldiers are naught so old venery Love is a kind of warfar cowards then For to maintain these Ensigns are no men The Winter nights hard labour and long wayes And every pain is found in Venus frays Who sees not how uncomely it is for an old man that is full of wrinkles and worn out to fall to kissing and embracing like to young people for old folks are unable to perform those duties So Sophocles when he was old being asked by one whether he would use venerious actions answered well that the Gods had order'd it better and that he would with a good will fly from that as he would from a rude and cruel Master CHAP. XXX We must take care of our credit and reputation USe all the means you can that your acquaintance may have an excellent opinion of you We must have care of our credit and may give a laudable testimony and commendation of your worth and may think and speak of you worthily Nor be ashamed to observe what opinion the common people have of you and how they stand affected towards you For to neglect what any man thinks or speaks of a man ◠1. offic is the part saith Cicero not onely of an arrogant man but also of a dissolute man Math. 16. So we read that Christ asked his Apostles what the multitude said of him and what rumours they scattered abroad concerning him lastly what they thought of the Messias not that he sought for glory and was ambitious but that he might make trial whether after they had heard so many saving Sermons and seen so many Miracles from him they thought any better and more honourably of him than the common people did Chaist did not seek for honour amongst men Wherefore he enquired so much of them that he might draw from them a solid profession of their faith and that he might try how much they had profited in the heavenly doctrine that hath no fraud or vanity in it no deceit or impostures as the Pharises did caluminate it but is all saving and sincere delivered unto us by the truth it self and the Son of God who is the Saviour that was expected Whom when Saint Peter by the inspiration of God had openly professed in the name of them all Profession of faith and had undoubtedly proclaimed Jesus to be the Saviour of the World and that by belief in him all mankind obtains redemption Christ praised the profession of Saint Peter that he had by inspiration from above and saith that being it stood on so firm a foundation it should never be conquered or fail We must take care for decency In every action and in every word and deed be mindfull of decency and what is most comely for the reason of honesty requires that Whence it is a handsome saying that it is the chiefest Art to know what is decent that is what is fit for nature and convenient to our wit and manners Dat ù wel voeght ende betaemt How we must affect glory It is a compendious and ready way to solid glory if you shew your selves to be such a one as you would be thought to be which Horace gives us notice of 'T is good to be what men do say thou art L. 1. Epist 27. That is what thou art said to be and which the people testify of thee For if they say thou
a sure Anchor and let him continually think of that the Prophet David speaks I beheld the Lord allwaies before me because he is at my right hand that I should not be moved In which words he shews that he hath his eyes allwaies fixed upon God and that he depends wholly upon him that he subsists onely by him in doubtfull and dangerous matters that he did not waver or was carryed about with every wind of doctrine but was constant and stable and was not moved from the firm confidence in God for this reason onely that he finds God gracious unto him Ephes 4. Heb. 13. Psalm 27. and present with him in all things So that he confidently breaks forth into these words Behold the Lord is my helper in him have I trusted and I am helped and my flesh hath rejoyced in him I will confesse unto him from my whole heart CHAP. LVII Concerning the amplitude Majesty and power of the name Iesus by which onely we may resist Magical Charms and all deceits of the Divels are to be conquered and all mischiefs or dangers that may happen to the Soul or body I Said before that Inchantments and Magical Arts were to be rooted out and that no man ought to exercise what may do mischief It remains to shew by the way by what force and efficacy by what words and prayers the minds of men possessed and afflicted may be relieved The Devils are enemies to men and such as are entangled by the snares of the divels also by what means witchcrafts may be removed which are brought upon miserable men by the wicked Instruments of the divels whereby their bodies and Souls are tortured These insinuate themselves closely into mens bodies and offer violence to mans nature and spoil it of its faculties or at least make a change in them The evil spirits mingle themselves with our food humours spirits with the ayre and breath The Devils mingle with the humours as contagious diseases do with our bodies that we draw in and breathe out and they pollute many other things that serve for our use and whereby our health is preserved Wheefore I think I shall do something worth my pains if I can shew by what means miserable people may be happily freed from those chains wherewith they find themselves entangled and hindred For the inconveniences and hurts they sustain cannot be referred to any natural causes nor be cured by the same remedies that common diseases are If any disease proceed from Gluttony Venery wearinesse cold heat satiety hunger each of these is cured by its proper remedies The mischiefs the devils bring upon us cannot be referred unto natural causes God useth the malice of the devils to correct sins Why God sussers us to be tortured by the devil 3 Kings 32. Ahab deceived But such diseases as the divells bring upon us do not in any sort require natural remedies but such as are divine and supercelestial Some wonder that so great power is given to the divell and his instruments to vex and torment men But God doth partly wink at those hurts witches bring upon sinfull men and he suffers them to be afflicted and in so doing he hath a sufficient reason of his own counsell and providence and he partly instigates the Divells and their instruments to rage against many that have deserved to be so punished and he useth to another end their malice to chastise wicked men So a lying spirit was sent into the mouths of all the Prophets whereby the King Ahab being deceived might go to the battel wherein present destruction was made ready for him Sometimes God suffers some to be hurt to try their patience So he suffered Iob not onely to lose all his goods and to be spoiled of all his estate but to be tormented in his body also And this God suffered to be done partly to try the constancy of the man and that he might stir up other mortal men to endure evills Why Job was tormented by the Devil least when trouble comes upon them they should revolt from God and partly to declare his power whereby he comforts and stayes those that trust in him and raiseth such as are quite down restoring them to their former dignities But the reason is different in those vulgar operations of such as are possessed by the Devil or are tortured by him in any part of their bodies For a great part of those people are stupid and know not God upon whom as fit instruments and ready for him he exerciseth his tyranny â—he Divel sets â—pon stupid people So Satan assaults idle people Idolaters Superstitious in whose minds he rather lodges than in those that know God and are supported by trust in him for he is rather afraid of these and is fearfull to plant any engines against them because he knows that all his endeavours and attempts against such who stand upon their guards and trust in God are too weak and shall be frustrate and come to nothing A simile from a City not well-fenced For as Forts and Towns that have no walls ditches or Trenches to defend them nor guards of Souldiers to keep them are easily surprised so dull and sluggish minds that have no saving nor heavenly doctrine to support them and are strengthned by no trust in God are more exposed to the wiles of the divell The Devil provokes a man to all mischief and soonest yeild to him But since Satans chiefest end is to abolish the glory of God and to draw men from Salvation and to sollicite them to revolt he doth not cease to assault him both within and without and sometimes he troubles the body Sometimes the Soul and sometimes both to work their destruction Judas Iscariot besides Cain and King Saul affords us an example Gen. 4. 1 Kings 31. who when the Divel had driven his mind to desperation and distrust he caused him to hang himself being weary of his life Math. 27. and he made his body reproachfull by being hanged And though Satan the greatest enemy of mankind hath a thousand wayes and Arts to mischief The Devil is driven off by trust in God yet by one effectual means that is ready at hand is he chiefly driven away conquered namely by solid faith certain confidence in God the Father by Christ Met een vaest gheloove Saint Peter instructs us against the Devil ende een goedt betrowen op Godt Also the Apostle Peter shews that by this means we ought to fight against the snares of that Tyrant against his frauds impostures deceits subtilties rage cruelty namely by sobriety and vigilancy garded and defended by Faith 2 Pet. 5. For so he warns such as are secure Be sober and watchfull because your adversary the Devill goes about like to a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour whom resist constantly in the faith 1 John 5. For this saith Saint John is the victory which conquers the