Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	reason_n	think_v	2,515	5	3.9487	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03119	A modest defence of the caueat giuen to the wearers of impoisoned amulets, as preseruatiues from the plague wherein that point is somewhat more lergely reasoned and debated with an ancient physician, who hath mainteined them by publicke writing: as likewise that vnlearned and dangerous opinion, that the plague is not infectious, lately broched in London, is briefly glansed at, and refuted by way of preface, by Fr. Hering D. in Physicke. Reade without preiudice; iudge without partialitie.	Herring, Francis, d. 1628.	1604 (1604)	STC 13248; ESTC S116668	27,376	51

catholike diuine Medicine by the Authors and commenders thereof He may likewise call to minde that the most precious Balmes and soueraigne Antidots which is more Physicke herselfe that noble science is esteemed no better by many than a meere trifle Besides this if the greatest learnedest and complet Prince of Europe haue vouchsafed of late to stoope so low as to take vp though to throw away againe that base strange ill-sauouring weede or rather intoxicating poison Tobacco discoursing thereof so learnedly iudicially and admirably as he may seeme to haue beene brought vp all his life at the feet of Hippocrates and not exercised from his birth in the gouernment of great States and Kingdomes it can be no disparagement for me who am infimus è plebe to spend some few spare houres in the examination of these Amulets Wherin if I haue failed and slipped now and then as I feare I haue too often impute it I pray thee friendly Reader to my manifold auocations and distractions in this heauy dolefull and lamentable time of visitation Da mihi Maeoniden tot circumspice Casus Ingenium tantis excidet omne malis The Lord of his infinit goodnesse continue and perfect his gracious worke of mercy toward vs in remoouing wholy this grieuous contagious and fearefull Plague putting vp his sword altogether into the sheath and restoring vnto vs the daies of Health and Comfort that we being schooled by these afflictions may euery one of vs breake off our sinnes by compassion to the poore and putting away the wickednesse that is in our hands serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of our life A MODEST DEFENCE OF THE CAVEAT GIVEN TO THE WEARERS OF impoisoued Amulets as Preseruatiues from the Plague AMicus Plato Amicus Socrates sed magis Amica Veritas Plato is a friend Socrates a friend but Trueth ought to be the chiefest friend to all true Philosophers much more Christians I set foorth of late a short Caueat concerning empoisoned Amulets or Plague-cakes as they are called moued thereunto as by many other reasons so especially because I greatly feared that through an vnsound and idle persuasion of their force other more rationall and effectuall remedies were neglected An ancient and graue Physician whom I reuerence for diuers good respects hath stood vp and pleaded their cause I amno Pythagorean Nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri I would not willingly pinne my iudgement vpon any mans sleeue be he neuer so graue and learned vnlesse I be drawen by good and sound reason Humanum est errare Therfore remaining yet vnsatisfied I haue thought good not in any contentious humor but in desire the trueth may be sifted out and my selfe resolued and better instructed if I erre to consider of them somewhat more largely That if they be found so noble and Catholike a Medicine as some esteeme them they may be still retained and imbraced in our bosoms and if vpon examination they prooue suspicious dangerous and hurtfull they may be cashered and abandoned First therefore because Opinion and Name preuaile much to forestall the Market and wholly possesse mens mindes with preiudice leauing no one roome for reason I will be silent a while and you shall heare one of the most learned wise and famous Physicians of Europe I meane Horatius Augenius very learnedly ingenuously iudicially grauely and honestly after his maner vttering his mind of this point in Question Whom I produce the rather because it is intimated that Italian Physicians which Countrey without question breedeth many excellent men in that faculty haue these Amulets in high and rare estimation Heare therefore what Augenius without exception one of the greatest Masters in Physicke that Italie nourisheth at this day if he be yet aliue speaketh to this purpose Lib. 3. de Peste cap. 27. De sublimato Arsenico Cristallino Puluere Bufonis I haue read in the writings of some Empericks that the powder of a Toad Arsenicke or Sublimat if they be worne vpon the region of the heart so as they touch the skin do maruellously preserue men from the Plague And they esteeme this as a great secret and as I vnderstand haue drawen some rich persons to be of their opinion I who do not easily beleeue euery thing which I reade or heare doe greatly doubt of the force and nature of those poisons and do assuredly persuade my selfe that they can neuer produce any such effect And that I may lay open my opinion we must know that Experience especially in such kinds is perillous for since the action of the Physician is performed vpon so noble a Subiect as the body of Man the nature and force of euery vnknowen medicine is with great iudgement to be examined searched out and the Rule of Examination is to cōsider whether Reason approue and persuade it or disclaime and reiect it If Reason allow and persuade it thou maiest boldly vse it without scruple but if Reason gainsay it no medicine is to be vsed vnlesse thou be assured of the operation thereof by the long experience of men of singular iudgement I say long experience for we must not trust one two or three experiments but very many are to be diligently considered and wisely gathered that the right habit of experience may be attained which may deserue the commendation of all men because it is one of the instruments as we haue sayd elsewhere by whose meanes and helpe Remedies are inuented We must likewise marke well that our experience take her originall from a man worthy to be credited of great iudgement wise knowing well how to distinguish from what cause the successe proceedeth whether from the medicine the temperament of the body the time of the yeere chance or other infinite respects It falleth out dayly that we see many effects which haue a farre different cause from that the common people dreame of Now to applie those things that haue beene spoken to our purpose I affirme confidently that such a medicine of poisons applied outwardly to the body hath no manifest probable or demonstratiue reason whereby we may be persuaded that they haue so miraculous efficacie against the Plague They will say that by similitude of substance there is attraction of the venim from the heart to the outward part by the attractiue vertue of the poison But this can not so much profit as euidently hurt Let vs grant that the venimous facultie of the poison penetrateth to the heart I pray you what effect will it produce there It can not draw the venom to it for there is none because he whom we will preserue is yet sound If therefore the heart be disposed to receiue the venimous infection of the aire what shall hinder the force of the outward poison that it may not infect the heart and other principall parts and if it be once entred into the heart what shall let the distribution of it by the Arteries into all the bodie O great

miracle and neuer yet heard of that a venimous facultie should flow into the heart wander thorow the Arteries not finding his looked for friend should go out againe without any offence offered to the parts whereby he passed Besides if the attractiue facultie be inuenimed what reason can be giuen the heart should not be continually offended by the poison thereof It is euident thar the heart is the principall obiect of poisons how then shall it be touched by a venimous qualitie and not endure wrong Touching their experience I cannot yet giue credit to it I desire to see these things often tried with good successe to haue many testimonies of Physicians of great iudgement before I can beleeue them But let vs come to those that are infected and haue the poison actually seized on their heart It may be they may doe them good None at all For attraction proceedeth from the stronger power which draweth to it that which is weaker Let then some man tell me how he can be sure that the poison of the Plague shall not draw to it the venim of the outward medecine and why the poison thereof may not be stronger and greater than the other Besides the matter of the Plague is not properly poison but by similitude and therefore cannot be drawen by another poison But me thinke I heare one answer to all my arguments that the effect is performed though the cause be vnknowen because it is secret This is the miserable refuge of al empericks wherby they may easily wind out of any doubt and absolue the most intricate Question of our Art without much adoe But I abhorre this from my heart not because I allow no secret causes which I grant but because I thinke it a notorious fault redounding greatly to the reproch of our Art if we run still to hidden causes when manifest reason may easily end the controuersie How will they demonstrate that poisons haue this effect By experience But what experience can they shew worthy to receiue this credit And where are the Physicians of note and learning which approue them You haue heard my opinion reseruing to others their better iudgement Now that I haue stayed your stomacks with this honest graue and iudiciall speech of Father Augenius that great and learned Italian Physician who if I be thought too light may well weigh in the ballance with any one man whosoeuer he be giue me leaue briefly to examine the reasons that are produced to proue that these Amulets do no hurt secondly that they do good The first Argument if it be not altogether impertinent must thus be reduced to forme There is vse of poisons in Physicke therefore impoisoned Amulets of Arsenicke or such like may be safely vsed by men in health to preserue them from the Plague without hurt The proposition is somewhat largely stood vpon which was neuer to my knowledge called into question by any man of iudgement and the consequence which should haue beene proued left altogether vntouched Physicke consisteth of diuers parts That may be of vse in the Hygieine the preseruing part which hath no place in the Therapeuticall And there be many things of speciall vertue in the Therapeutice which if a man should practise vpon sound bodies to preserue their health he might well be sent to Anticyrae to purge with Hellebore his vnsound braine A sturdie horse requires a rough rider Duro Nodo durus Cuncus In magnis 〈◊〉 Morbis vbi ager necessariòex morbo periclitatur anceps potius Remedium tentandum quàm nullum In such cases Physicians are inforced to vse Euphorbium Opium and Paracelsus his deceitfull Laudanum and that sometimes in large quantitie which yet no wise man will prescribe to his Patients to preserue them in health There is therefore vtterly no consequence in this that because there may be sometimes in some diseases vse of Deleteries in the Therapentice therefore they may be safely vsed as Preseruatiues to maintaine health For in such cases they are opposed against the disease to fight with it as an Enemy and so by their colluctation Nature sometime saueth herselfe as when by the fighting of two dogges a Man sometime escapeth without hurt or wound In the Curatime part of Physicke there is a necessarie vse of the Saw and of both potentiall and actuall fire Secamus vrimus And yet by your leaue a Man in health will hardly be persuaded to such Preseruatiues Before I leaue this argument I will by your patience point at some defects in the proofe of the proposition Arsenicke Orpiment Toads and Adders are acknowledged ranke and deadly poisons in the highest degree This is true concerning the Minerals which consist of similar parts But touching Toads and Adders it cannot be verified that they be absolutely and generally poisons For these haue their venome Incertis determinatis Partibus in certaine and determinate parts not vniuersally diffused thorow the whole bodie Touching Adders or Vipers it is euident that their Poison lodgeth onely in the head specially the teeth and taile Their flesh which onely is receiued into that noble Medicine which thereof hath his name and is called Triacle is so farre from being a poison that it is a present Antidote against the poison of the other parts And this will not seeme strange if we dare credit Iacobus Ferrarius a learned Physician of Mantua who in his booke De Theriaca lately set foorth reporteth that he hath seene mens hands besprinkled with the blood of Vipers without any farther offence than a little itching for a short time And I haue beene informed by men yet liuing in our owne Country that they haue seene of our adders after their teeth haue beene pulled out handled in mens hands and caried in their bare bosoms familiarly without hurt The like is to be verified of the Scorpion who carieth his venom in his taile And therefore when they would dispatch themselues they turne vp their taile toward their backe and there shooting their stings kill themselues And this they doe when they are so pursued as they see no way to escape making by that meanes a speedy riddance of themselues Neither could they die so speedily of so small wound if the instrument inflicting the same were not venemous since they will endure farre greater wounds without danger of life Therefore it is euident that there is in the taile of the Scorpion a poison contrary to the life and temperament of the Scorpion The poison of the Spanish flies called Cantharides is esteemed to reside in the head wings and legs and the body very medicinable So the poison of a madde dogge lodgeth onely in his fome The poison of Asps in their egges of the Leopard in the gall or choler onely of the venemous Mouse in the vrine the Tortoise in the outward skinne But to returne to Adders or Vipers incomparable Galen in his 11. booke of the faculty of simple medicines and in his booke De opt Secta cap.

and by consequent the plague is no naturall disease If they will reason firmly they must adde this word immediately vnto the proposition And then we will chalenge the assumption as faulty and insufficient It must be confessed that the angels themselues are not to be reckoned among naturall causes But what shall let that by the appointment of God naturall causes should be mooued and actuated by the angels Doe not angels both good and badde mooue and stirre vp the will of man though the maner of their workings be secret and to vs vnknowen if not incomprehensible This is euident by the history of Achab and Iudas But who will deny that the will of man is in the number of naturall causes and principles And if the will of man may be inclined and disposed by angels why should we thinke that they haue nothing to doe with other naturall causes Moses by lifting vp his rod brought armies of flies and lice vpon Egypt raised a terrible haile smot the Egyptians with malignant vlcers This was an extraordinary ministery of Moses aswell as of the angels But shall we therefore thinke that the lice and flies came not of putrefaction the haile of vapors concret sodenly in the aire the vlcers by the rotting of humors Satan hauing a commission signed from God by a mightie tempest of winde blew vp the roofe where Iobs children were Doth it therefore follow that he vsed no naturall causes or is not rather euident that those Princes of the aire do in a moment stirre vp those naturall impressions The diuell casteth the saints into prison 2. Apocal. 10. But by Tyrants and enemies of the church In the 6. chap. The pale horse on whom death sitteth as the horseman receiueth power to kill by sword famine wilde beasts Why shall we suppose that he vsed not naturall matter in bringing the plague and famine as well as in sending wilde beasts or the sword which are naturall instruments Afterward in the 4. chap. The angels haue charge to restraine the foure windes that they hurt not the earth or sea Whereupon it followeth that vpon the Lords command they are likewise turned loose and bring with them diuers affections and mutations of the aire and especially contagious seminaries It is apparant that the diuell who being a spirit and of long continuance and experience must needs be a great Naturian reacheth to certaine witches called Veneficae diuers strong and vnknowne poysons whereby those wretched creatures worke much mischiefe Againe if no naturall causes did concurre in the pest then could no naturall remedies ease it much lesse cure it But experience leadeth vs that both these are vntrue We deny not but that the angels are vsed as instruments ministers to inflict this iudgement and plague of the plague for the sinnes of men neither that this disease hath in it Diuinum quid a secret and hidden nature so that we may iustly with the inchanters of Egypt acknowledge it the finger of God yet we thinke it as absurd to affirme that there commeth no plague but by the stroke and ministery of angels as if a man should contend that there was neuer any haile tempest thunder proceeding from naturall causes because we read that great hailes stormes and windes haue beene raised by the ministery of angels Historians report that an old arke or monument being opened in Babylon there exhaled out of it so pernitious and infectious a spirit or breath that propagated the plague euen to the remote Parthians And in the time of Marcus the Emperour the souldiers of Auidius Cassius digging into an ancient sepulchre in hope of golde which had not beene touched for many hundred yeeres there followed instantly a huge and fearefull mortalitie Iulius Obsequeus reporteth that Aetna casting smoke and fire in abundance did exanimate and kill the fishes of the sea adioyning which the Liparenses certaine Ilanders feeding vpon greedily brought a greeuous pestilence among them Orosius Eutropius Augustine de ciuit Dei and Liuie lib. 9. make mention of prodigious swarmes of Locusts in Africa which lying dead vpon the shores and corrupting the aire bred such a pest as consumed in the sole kingdome of Masinissa 80000. and many more in the adiacent Countries and in Vtica of 3000. men 10. onely suruiued This may be sufficient to shew that the plague is not alwaies the immediat stroke of angels Galen reporteth that vpon a dearth in his time wherein the poorer sort of people were constrained to feed vpon roots acornes with other more vnholesome and corrupted aliments there insued a great mortalitie The vlcers botches which are thrust out by nature the preternaturall heat the drought the restlesnesse with many other symptomes and accidents of feuers doe proclaime this affliction a naturall maladie It hath beene obserued in this last mortality among vs the wounds whereof are yet fresh and bleeding that women haue passed thorow the pikes more easily happily than men So that this hath bene called The womens yere because it is thought that for one woman 6. or 10. men haue died We must not therefore thinke that either the Angell is partial in sparing them or their sins lesse hainous or notorious than the sinnes of men The reason hereof as Physicians haue conceiued is because they haue beene more tractable and easily perswaded to keepe themselues warme to keepe house and bed and by these meanes their bodies being likewise more soft tender and perspirable haue spent by sweating and insensible transpiration the venimous matter of the Plague giuing thereby more speedy passage to that enemy of life from the heart and other noble parts Whereas men for the most part being ill house-doues accustomed to stirring and motion haue beene very vnruly and inobsequent to the counsell of their Physicians and by exposing themselues to the aire haue loked in that dangerous guest to whom they should rather haue made a golden bridge It hath beene likewise obserued that this Epidemicall disease hath had as his beginning so his increment state and declination and that it is now for it walketh still amongst vs in corners nothing so acute violent and peremptory for the most part neither so contagious and pernitious as it was in the State and Strength Some haue had the plague twise or thrise this yeere but if it came only by the Angell he might vndoubtedly say with him Let me strike once and I will not strike the second time Secession and departing the city hath beene questionlesse a meane to preserue many as appeareth euidently in that a small handfull among those great numbers who haue stepped aside haue fallen by this sicknesse in the Countrey and those carrying with them from hence the seminaries thereof in comparison of those huge multitudes which haue died in the City And could not the Angell haue found them out as well in the Countreys as in London Againe diuers families vpon their returne being safe in the Countrey haue beene presently