poore mens purses Neither is it any way to be iustified that they ordinarily trauel vp downe to spoile the more worthy of his fee and the proper laborer of his hire nor yet is it lesse shame that without shame or blushing their bils in many places inhabite ordinarily Apothecaries files and shoppes as if their owne vndoubted right Their maister Saint Paul teacheth euery man to walk within his owne calling and not to be busily stragling in others so shall they honour their calling and their callings honour them and both honour God that sent them I know the gift of healing in the Apostles was the gift of God his grace and speciall fauor and allowance vnto them for those times but it was in them a miraculous and diuinâ— power conseâ—rated vnto an holy end but in these times it is an acquired facultie and in these men vnto a mercenarie vse It is indeed a deede of mercie to saue and helpe the sicke and a worke of charitie to aduise them for their health ease but the common good and publicke weale the law for both doth inhibite the doing of euery good by euery man and doth limit and restraine it vnto some speciall and select sort of men for necessary causes and respects vnto good gouernment and policie and for auoiding confusion which is the ruine of publicke weales Shal then Diuinitie teach and allow for priuate deedes ends and respects of charitie and mercie to breake publicke edicts to transgresse lawes to contemne magistracie to confound and disturbe good order Good order forbiddeth that for pretence of any necessitie whatsoeuer cause or reason one man presume to breake into anothers bounds yea and Diuinitie teacheth the same God himselfe tieth men in all things in all necessities vnto certaine and appointed ends He ordained a select number of Apostles and Disciples and vnto them onely annexed the diuine worke and calling of nations and people vnto saluation commanding all men vpon paine of damnation to seeke out and follow that meanes wheresoeuer or howsoeuer distant and did not ordaine the meanes confusedly in euery person to waite vpon euery priuate necessitie In like maner in a commonweale lawes and policie ordaine preferring the common good before euery priuate ease and benefite that euery man haue his distinct calling vnto which all other mens necessitie therein may and ought to repaire For if euery man might be of euery calling confusion of callings would in the end leaue no calling Therfore euery mans need or necessitie is not sufficient to make euery one capable of giuing supply needfull thereto but God and nature and law haue tied and allotted men to seeke meanes and those meanes confirmed to certaine set bounds and limits that men may still in all things according to the law of mortalitie be euer in this life subiect vnto casualties oft for their triall sometime for their punishment or else for a further decree and secret purpose of the Diuine prouidence so and to such ends thus ordering Thus by cleare truth ouershining the mists clouds of false pretexts to the contrary it is manifest that this fluctuation of these men betweene two callings is offensiue to God scandalous vnto religion and good men and iniurious vnto commonweales and but presumption borrowing the face of Diuinitie What encouragement their example hath giuen vnto drones and idle persons abounding by their example infinitely in the same wrong he hath no eies that doth not consider Their many ordinarie rash ignorant and vnskilfull errors and commissions against the health and life of many besides their forenamed omissions intrusions procrastinations and neglects of one calling by another I could by many too true instances confirme but for reuereÌ„ce of the callings I spare the men I wil onely giue two knowne instances wherein as in a glasse men may view the diuers faces of many more of the like sort A gentleman in Bedfordshire not long since was sodainly surprised by a continuall feauer accompanied with a generall lassitude and wearinesse of the whole bodie and together with heate and burning delirations and lightnes of braine The habit of his bodie and his flesh were musculous and well liking the season warme his age firme and constitution sanguinâ— his pulse high full large and in the vehemence and strength of motion manifest euen vnto the beholders eye A Parson or Vicar comming vnto him maketh many feares and seeming-graue discourses of the danger and imminence of a Marasme and from this supposed grand perill stoutly withstandeth the needfull vse of due phlebotomie The allies and friends of the patient obseruing the dayly decrease of hope and health diligently enquire after another Physition and by happe found me where then employed When I came vnto the patient the Parson entertaineth vs with confident discourses and disputes concerning a Marasme whom when I found after long patience and calme conference in the presence and hearing of diuers worthy knights and gentlemen still endlesly and reasonalesly vaine and yet possessed with an inâ—incible spirit of open and obstinate contradiction I in the end with their common consents contemned and reiected him The patient I found free from any particular which might inhibite phlebotomie and manifestly saw the danger of the delay thereof both which may appeare by the description of his estate and therefore seeing the indication so plaine and the necessitie so vrgent contrarie to the babling opposition and causâ—esse predication of needlesse danger I caused him to bleed whereupon within few houres after besides immediate alleuiation nature seconding the worke expelled at his nose diuers quantities of bloud at seuerall times and thus was enabled to performe her Crisis being before detained by the oppression of the former quantitie of bloud whereunto her strength was not equall The life of man vnto God and men is deare pretious yet behold how presumptuously glorious ignorance and the lawlesse breach of the due lists of distinct and proper callings doth licentiously hazard the vtmost price and date thereof And how likely may it seeme that the memorie of this wrong had bene in the same graue buried if it had not bene preuented and by the preuention solely obserued I will now annexe another example of secret betwitching flatterie by close whispering of the sicke ordinarily practised by these kind of men vnto the vnobserued and stoln perdition of many Anno 1611. a gentleman in this maner falleth sicke He was sodainly surprised by a continuall feauer with burning thirst troublesome heate in the soles of the feete and palmes of the hands frequent delirations and perturbations of the mind fulnesse of the stomacke loathing painfull distentions and ructuations drinesse and yeallownesse of the tongue bitternesse and heate of the mouth paines about the short ribs loynes backe and shoulders ill sleeps confused dreams There entertained these accidents the vsuall fulnesse of his body vnto the coÌ„mon outward view
but oft and continually mistake manifoldly much more And thus we haue briefly discouered the Empericke in matters requiring extraordinarie counsell ignorant in cases of his best experienced knowledge yet vnto some circumstances vnfurnished in many matters of substance altogether vnexpert in rare accidents and before vnseene at a maze in true right discerning wanting the eye of right reason in confounding things differing in separating things in their owne nature inseparable dāgerous Now as we haue pointed out the Empericke himselfe so it remaineth that with him and in him we note all that by institution educatiō tradition instruction or stolne obseruatiō deriue their rule example custome from him In this number are all that vsually professe thēselues in confidence of their choyce secrets and excellent medicines commanders maisters of all diseases Such also are they who in all places proclaime open defiance against all maladies with vehement remedies vpon euery light occasision needelesly vnprouoked if diseases presently cānot away either fire them out or pull their hold about their eares with the fall of the disease needelesly hazarding the diseased Oft times a good euent may authoritse it for skill their friendly offer call it good will but their kinde care is too oft seene and proued a keene weapon to wound their friend and the sicke are nor seldome oppressed with being so loued I would it were a slander in these dayes that good will and excellent medicines put to death more liues then open murther For as the most complete armour engins and forts of warre the excellent munition and rich prouision vnto a man without knowledge to mannage them are but instruments without life vntill some better skill put life into them so good medicines being the Physitions instruments and weapons either defensiue for nature or offensiue against the forces of diseases in other hands then his must needes proue as but dead in themselues so ofttimes deadly vnto others To square and leuill their right vse requireth more vnderstanding then is to be found in reasonlesse medicines or yet their senselesse maisters For as in all other affaires where knowledge prudence and discretion haue prerogatiue the attempt is commendable and the issue likely to be happy so also in cases of health wherin wise iudicious dispensation or in rash erroneous the vertue and efficacy of medicines doth liue or die in vse and power It is strange notwithstanding in these dayes to behold with what senselesse madnesse men are become worshippers of medicines and so great ofttimes is their idolatrous folly herein that as if they had gotten some rare good in a boxe I meane some rare secret they presently inflamed with the furie and opinion thereof dare vpon the consused notice of a disease commend with as sacred secrecie and intolerable vsurped titles of infallible absolute and irresistable vertue force as if any particular excellencie were able to coniure the generall casualty whereunto all earthly things must needes be subiect For God hath set downe a law of mutability and changeablenesse to all things created according to diuersitie of circumstances by which all things vnder heauen are continually altered changed and gouerned There is no creature medicine or herbe that hath any such boundles or infinite power as to keepe the same inchangeable or infallibe but there shall be a diuers and manifold consideration and coaptation of the same thing There can be no endeauor meanes way or instrument of neuer so complete perfection or tried proofe directed to what effect issue or end soeuer that receiueth not ordinarily impediment opposition and contradiction whereby those things which in themselues might haply seeme certaine and good by accident and circumstance are againe very vncertaine and euill All ignorants therefore whatsoeuer such are whosoeuer are not Artists had they for all diseases the most choyce and excellent medicines knowne euen vnto God and nature aboue and beyond all knowledge of men yet except therewith they know their due dispensation they cannot but peruert their right vse be they neuer so soueraigne The generall remedies against the common causes of diseases ordained except first rightly administred shall continually and necessarily forestall and hinder the good and benefite from any particular There are no materiall diseases wherein the common remedies are not requisite Such are phlebotomy purgation vomite and the like And wheresoeuer these are requisite if they be not rightly administred all other medicines be they neuer so excellent and incomparable must needs lose their excellent and incomparable vse And none can rightly dispence the generall remedies but those that are more generally learned then the best acquaintance and familiarity which particular medicines can afforde From hence it cannot but be manifest how infinitely blinde good will and zeale do herein daily erre to the destruction of many It were happy if at length the common inconuenience and publike scandall might beget a law and law bring forth restraint For illustration of that which hath bin said it were indifferent to instance in any disease but I will make choyce of some few onely to satisfie for all It is an ordinarie custome in those daies with women to giue medicines for the greene sicknesse other stoppages in young women In which practise if it so happen that no inward impediment frustrate the indeuour they casually ofttimes do seeming present good and blaze the excellencie of their medicine but if ofttimes which they cannot distinguish or obserue the generall cause of the obstruction be not first by the generall remedy remoued or diminished or the immediate cause setled within the stopped parts be not first fitted and prepared to yeeld all their medicines of neuer so great force yea though commonly as strong as steele or iron do not onely no good or small good but ofttimes incorrigible hurt and mischiefes neuer after able to be reformed or by the most learned counsell to be redressed while from the plenty or ill disposition of humors in the body these searching and piercing medicines carry with them into the stopped parts either more or worse matter then was before and thereby there leaue a disease which shall neuer after die except by exchange for a more pernicious In the common knowne disease of the stone likewise many and famous medicines are at this day in many common hands and perhaps truly celebrated yet if sometimes bleeding haue not a first place namely where is present or imminent danger of inflamation of the reines sometimes if vomit be omitted namely where the stomacke is stopt and full vnto euery thing impenitrable sometimes if glysters or lenitiues be not premised namely where the fulnesse of the belly doth presse the passages the bladder and the vreters all other excellent medicines whatsoeuer for the stone do not onely in vaine exasperate the disease but hazard the party much more then the omission of meanes
Likewise in a continuall feauer if sometimes present and immediate opening of the veine without delay or intermission haue not precedence all other meanes are not onely preposterous but pernicious Likewise in the small pocks a disease so well knowne and common to children and other whatsoeuer other fit and good medicines and Cordinals be administred sometimes if bloud-letting go not before their breaking out sometimes if not vsed after all other good meanes are frustrate And at another time if there be any bleeding at all it is hazard danger and death it selfe There are no medicines so commonly well knowne as such as are euery where in vse and at euery mans hand prouided for the paines and diseases of the stomacke and for that vse haply speciall good yet ofttimes we see how long and vainely those meanes without benefite are applied vntill the true cause by a generall remedy be haply remoued and that remedy perhaps the most vnlikely in a common iudgement and seldome in common practise prescript or custome vsed for that purpose When all other trials are waste and lost in this case and paine doth nothing stoupe sometime the opening onely of a veine in the arme being reckoned amonst the most vnusuall and commonly harmefull for that vse doth prooue the sole helpfull refuge and author of case And as in this case is sometime said of bleeding so at another time may be said of purging and vomite In the apoplexie sometime bleeding is present death sometime the onely hope of life In pestilent feauers and in the plague it selfe all the most choyce Cordials and Antidotes are made frustrate sometime by bleeding sometime for want of bleeding And from hence growe our so great disputes differences amongst Physitions themselues some chiefly and aboue all magnifying it some with execrations detesting it which groweth in them for want of right distinction of the seuerall causes and differences of the pestilence In the same disease the like may be said of vomite if at sometime vsed at all at another time if omitted The common generall remedies vsed against the dropsie are purging vomiting sweating and the like yet sometime the most vnusuall and seldomest safe is onely necessary and helpfull vnto it Sometime if a woman with child be let bloud she suffereth abortion saith Hippocrates Sometime if she omit letting bloud she cannot escape abortion saith Fernelius Many and innumerable more might instances by but these may suffise for light and illustration to all the rest as also for sufficient caueat for putting any trust or confidence in the excèllencie of any particular remedies without aduice for right dispensation of the generall And here by may be iudged and discouered the indiscreete thoughts of light braines and vnderstandings in these dayes of men that so preposterously diuulge in all places so many bookes and paper-Apothecary-shoppes of secrets and medicines better iudgment and learned soath teaching the wise and discreete that things without reason in themselues are by reason and wisedome to be guided and ordered lest in ignorant handling and vnwotting abuse their faire promising seemings proue gilded poysons If any man want wit to see or know this or knowing will not consider let the danger proue it selfe vnto him and let such experience be euer the mother of fooles And for those that herein make mercy and commiseration apologie for their rash violating the rules of wisedome sobrietie and safe discretion in ignorant intermedling I wish them consider how dangerous are the harmes and consequences of good intentions and charitable indeauors where they runne before knowledge and proprietie in the agent Euery honest function is not euery honest mans but vnto euery man is distributed and allorted the action of his owne calling which also must be made his and appropriate not onely by approued sufficiencie in himselfe but authorized approbation in others whereby the action being good in it selfe lawfull in the doer fitting and accommodate vnto the circumstance it is blessed of God commended of men seasonable in it selfe harmelesly profitable and euery way without reproch CHAP. III. Women their custome and practise about the sicke common-uisiting counsellors and commenders of Medicines OVR common offenders in the former kinds are generally all such as are knowne to want institution in arts and sciences are not educated in pertinent precepts not studied nor brought vp in places of good libertie without which good meanes ordinarily there cā accrew to mē no perfectiō in any faculty For althogh it be possible that there may grow in some few an allowable mediocrity in some sort sufficient to informe themselues and profit others by a fitnesse in nature ioyned with industrie though the ordinarie course of instruction by readers teachers and schooles be not so plentifully supplied yet is it no safe discretion ordinarily to trust a sufficiency so very rarely found so hardly so seldome and in so few truly gained Here therefore are men warned of aduising with women counsellours We cannot but acknowledge and with honor mention the graces of womanhood wherein by their destined property they are right and true soueraignes of affection but yet seeing their authority in learned knowledge cannot be authenticall neither hath God and nature made them commissioners in the sessions of learned reason and vnderstanding without which in cases of life and death there ought to be no daring or attempt at all it is rash cruelty in them euen there to do well where vnto the not iudiciously foreseeing that well might haue proued ill and that ill is oft no lesse then death or else at least the way to death which is the hazard of health Their counsels for this cause in matters of so great and dangerous consequent modestie nature law and their owne sexe hath euer exempted We may iustly here taxe their dangerous whisperings about the sicke wherein their preualence oft being too great they abuse the weake sense of the diseased while they are not themselues and make iust and wise proceedings suspected and with danger suspended For it is not sufficient for the Physition to do his office except both the sicke himselfe and also all that are about him be prudently and aduisedly carefull and obedient vnto good reason without which loue it selfe may be dangerously officious the error of friendship a deed vnto death and a kind worke in intention the wound of an enemy in issue and execution Among those that are wise a good conscience doth stay all rash commission and confirmation of all necessary offices by such as are learned doth preuent the accusation of carelesse omission and in this meane for the vnlearned to consist is onely harmelesse piety Betweene the vnconsiderate hast of abundant affection and the lame and carelesse pace of want of loue and duty betweene too busie medling and too curious forbearance are conspicuous the
him a witch there shall thereby be allowed vnto the diuell a large commission which his malice will easily extend beyond the latitude as by right obseruation of many learned in their own experiences hath ben◠and may be oft truly noted I do not deny nor patronage witches or witchcraft but wish that the proofes and triall thereof may be more carefully and with better circumspection viewed and considered that rash determination beguile not the wise nor condemne the innocent vpon whom the diuell can with more nimblenesse and agilitie transferre his owne euill workes then either they can auoide it or others easily espie it Euerie thing whereof euerie man cannot giue a reason is not therefore a miracle There are many things whereof few men many whereof no man can attaine the reason yet euerie man knoweth to haue a reason in nature Behold a toy for an example There is seene in the hand of a iugler a thing as it is indeed sodainly in a moment without perceptible motion it is againe seene as it is not That there is a cause of the change who knoweth not what it is who knoweth except to whom it hath bene made known With great wonder and admiration haue diuers in this age shewed mercenarie spectacles incredible euen vnto the beholding eye and yet in the actors by meane vnderstandings deprehended to be nothing but agilitie and nimble cunning by continuall practise and custome working desperatenesse into facilitie Thus with common wonder haue some walked and danced voon cords Some are written to haue leaped and danced vpon the edges of sharp swords without hurt vnto thēselues with pleasure vnto the beholders Some haue credibly bene supposed to deuoure daggers and other sharpe and dangerous weapons That naturally the loadstone draweth iron the meanest know the reasō or cause the wisest neuer knew There are wonders in nature wonders aboue nature these are subtilties the other miracles That fire and aire contrary to their owne particular nature of the owne accord descend and waters ascend that the heauie mettals of iron and lead contrary to their owne naturall motion should with such admirable swiftnesse in so short a moment passe so large a distance through the aire from a small flash of a little flame these and such like are subtilties because the cause and reason thereof doth vnfold it selfe to few or not to all yet vnto the learned That the Sunne should stand still in the firmament the Moone be ecclipsed in no interposition the bodies of men should flie in the aire or walke vpon the face of the water these and the like are miracles because hereof is neither power nor reason in nature And as in the former to be easily drawne to admiration and to ascribe naturall effects to supernaturall causes is grosse ignorance so in the latter to enquire naturall causes in supernaturall effects is profane curiositie In both these extremes men too commonly erre the learned for the most part in the latter the vnlearned in the first the one too wise the other starke fooles None truly learned or that truly know the face of nature whose scholers the learned euer professe themselues can be vpon the vaine flashes of seeming wonders lightly moued to denie or call into question the power and force of nature With therfore the common amazed thoughts of vulgar people to be blasted by the stupiditie of euery idle feare to gape after witchcraft or to make nature a diuell or a bugbeare must needs be base procliuitie and vnlearned lightnesse To admit also nothing aboue or beside nature no witchcraft no association with diuels at all is no lesse madnesse of the opposite and extreame But those whom true learning and wisedome hath well instructed know how to stay themselues and to consist in a temperate mediocritie betweene both these The actions of the diuell are discouered by the proper notes and difference First they are euer euill either in themselues or in their end Secondly they are aboue the power and course of nature and reason This appeareth manifestly in his violent cariage of so many heards of swine headlong into the sea mentioned in the Gospell in his bringing fire from aboue so sodainly to deuoure so many thousands of Iobs sheepe These with other such like carry in their mischiefe and hurt the stamp of such an author and in the transcendent and supernaturall power thereof the testimonie of a spirit This is plaine and by these notes men may learne to distinguish between an imaginarie and a reall diuellish practise Now the doubt remaineth how we may in these workes and practises of the diuell detect the conuersation and commerce of men I do not conceiue how any markes in the flesh or bodie of any one may be any triall or manifest proofe for besides the grant that likenesse may deceiue who can assure me that the diuell may not as easily secretly and insensibly marke the flesh of men as their soules vnto destruction If the diuell may marke them without their knowledge and consent shall his malice be their offence or how shall I be assured he cannot so do He that can do the greater can do the lesse He that could giue vnto the Son of God a view of all the kingdomes of the world in one instant which was no doubt a speciall straine of his vtmost spirituall cunning considering he was then to deale with wisedome it selfe can that cunning finde no meanes to make a small scarre impresse or tumor in flesh Who dare presume to say God will not suffer him Who euer so farre entred into the counsell of God or measured what therein he doth permit If no holy writ no reason manifest it proud and blasphemously daring is obseruation in so infinite and vnmeasurable a subiect I denie not that the diuell by couenant may sucke the bodies and bloud of witches in witnesse of their homage vnto him but I denie any marke of neuer so true likenesse or perfect similitude sufficient condemnation vnto any man and beside and aboue all other notes or marks whatsoeuer iudge it chiefly and principally and first to be required that both the diuels propertie therein also the parties consent thereto may be iustly and truly euicted which is oft too lightly weighed It may be with good reason iudged that the diuell doth not blush to be both bold and cunning there to set his marke yea and make his claime where he hath no interest But when the diuell doth appeare in workes and signes proper to himselfe and therewith shall be euident either directly or by good consequent the act of any man consenting or cooperating there law may iustly take hold to censure and there also the former presumptions and markes denied sufficiencie while alone and single may now concurring be admitted and allowed I speake not this in contradiction of other learned iudgements but retaining