Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	place_n	see_v	2,893	5	3.1798	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45747	Chymical, medicinal, and chyrurgical addresses made to Samuel Hartlib, Esquire. Viz. 1. Whether the vrim & thummim were given in the mount, or perfected by art. ... 9. The new postilions, pretended prophetical prognostication, of what shall happen to physitians, chyrurgeons, apothecaries, alchymists, and miners.	Hartlib, Samuel, d. 1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing H978; ESTC R209495	57,837	197

yet had it yet may it be possible to be found out not onely for this general reason that nature hath not given us desire in vain but particularly because all Mettals are of one kind being made of one Matter which is Sulphur and Mercury and are concocted by the same heat of the Heavens and differ onely in the coction as the grapes of one bunch which ripen at several times Which appears to be true because gold and silver may be extracted out of all Mettals yea even out of Iron and Lead which are the most imperfect of all So that Art ought not in this case to be counted inferiour to those things which it perfects And the Greek Etymologie of Mettals doth shew that they may be changed from one to another The fifth said That as in the production of corn by Nature the corn and the fat juice of the earth are the Matter and the Efficient cause is partly internal and inclosed in the grain and partly external that is the heat of the Sun and that the place is the bosome of the Earth So also in the production of gold by Art the Matter is the gold it self and its quicksilver the Efficient cause is partly in the gold and partly in the external heat the place is the furnace which holds the egge of glass wherein is inclosed the Matter which dissolves and turns black and this they call the crows head then grows white and after hardens into a red lump so hard that they call it a Stone which being beaten to pouder and kept three dayes together over a strong fire in a vessel Hermetically sealed turns into a purple colour and then one dram of it will turn two hundred drams of quicksilver into pure gold and the whole Sea too if it were of like Matter The sixth said That Art may imitate Nature but cannot outdo it As it would be if men could change other Mettals into gold that being impossible for nature to do even in the Mines and in never so long time For Mines of Iron Lead Tin or Copper never become Mines of Gold or Silver therefore muchless can the Alchymist do it in his furnace no more than he can produce something more excellent than gold as this Philosophers stone would be for gold is the most perfect compound of all mixt bodies and is therefore incorruptible muchless can the Alchymist bring to pass a thing concerning the immediate Matter of which its Efficient cause its Place Time and Manner of working men are not agreed there being as many several opinions about it as there are Authors who are in great number And besides it is a mistake to say that Mettals are all of one kind and that they differ but in coction for we see that Iron is more concocted than Silver it being harder and not so easie to melt and because their differing is needful for mans use Now those perfect species which are neer of the same kind as Mettals are do never change into one another no more than an horse changes into a Lion Nay if there were such a Philosophers stone could work upon Mettals yet would it not make gold or silver but other stones like it self or else would onely imprint its qualities in them according to the ordinary effects of all natural Agents And if it were true that this pouder of Gold being thrown upon other mettals could produce more Gold as one grain of corn being sown in the ground doth produce many other grains yet ought the same order and progress to be observed in the multiplication of gold that is in the production of corn but this the Chymists do not for they will have their multiplication to be done in an instant The seventh said That seeing Art doth draw so many natural effects out of one fit matter as out of little worms may be had Serpents Frogs Toads Bees and Mice and considering that the subject of these Metamorphosies is a great deal harder to receive life than mettals which are insensible to receive a Form as well divisible as its matter He did not see but that at least by the extraordinary help of good or evil Angels men might come to have some knowledge of it For besides we see that several species do naturally change the one into the other as Egpytian Nitre turns into stone Jasper into Emerald the herb Bazil into wilde Tyme Wheat into Cockle and Caterpillers into Butterflies And if we will believe the Scotchmen they have a Tree whose fruit falling into the water turns into a bird PHILARETVS TO EMPYRICUS SIR THough I am not ignorant that the Secrets you possess are equally unknown in their compositions and famed for their effects yet I dare confidently expect from your goodness and Communication of that which was proved so successful in the cure of that disease that the Proverb hath listed amongst the inconveniences of Wealth And though I doubt not but the charitableness of your own disposition needs no Auxiliary motives to obtain the grant of so just a favour yet a desire to let you see that Piety and Reason are no less your Petitioners in this particular then Philaretus will I hope excuse my zeal if to justifie your good nature as well as my request I take leave to represent to your consideration the immensity of that goodness that excludeth not its very enemies from its gratious effects and there heapeth benefits not onely where they were never deserved but where they never can be returned this is a noble president and fit for your raised spirit whose imitation cannot possibly mislead you since both Gods Wisdome and his happiness being no less infinite than his goodness places it above controversie that a transcendency in the one is not at all inconsistent with the possession of an equall degree of the others Our Saviour assureth us that it is more blessed to give than to receive and in effect we see that God that enjoyeth a felicity as Supream as any of his Attributes maketh it his continual employment to oblige and that there where he cannot expect a Retribution And therefore the more diffused and the less selfish and mercinary our good actions are the more we elevate our selves above our own and the neerer we make our approximations to the perfections of the Divine nature But to descend from these abstracted thoughts into less Platonick considerations we are all acquainted with the strong obligation that not charity onely but bare humanity layeth upon us to relieve the distresses of those that derive their pedegree from the same father we are descended from and are equal partakers with us of the Image of that God whose stamp we glory in And can we fancy that all the duties of charity are fulfilled with the emptying the refuse of our servants tables into the poor mans basket and flinging a piece of market money to a shivering Beggar though we deny not those acts their just commendation no as our neighbour so

and specifical vertue proceeding from their form and wholly contrary to that of the disease For the understanding whereof it must be observed That as the natural constitution of each Mixt body doth consist in a perfect mixture of the four Elementary qualities and in the fit disposition of the Matter and in the intireness of the form so may it be changed one of these three wayes either in its Temper or in its Matter or in its Form And from thence it comes that each mixt body as all medicinals are can work upon our nature by its first second and third Faculties The first Faculties come onely from the Mixture of the four qualities according to the diversity of which the compound body is either hot as Pepper or cold as Mandrake or moist as Oyle or dry as Bole-Armeniack not immediately but in operation And by this Faculty only which proceeds from the temper of the thing it is that the Medicine works chiefly upon the temper of mans body Their second Faculty comes from the different mingling of these same qualities with the Matter For a hot temper joyned with a matter disposed according to its degree of heat shall be opening or eating in or corrosive or burning or of some other vertue wherof there are many sorts according to the degrees of their mixture from whence they are said to be either Attenuating or Thickning Scouring or Sticking to Rarefying or Condensing Loosning or binding drawing or beating back softning or Hardning and by this second faculty onely do Medicines work upon the Matter The third Faculty of Medicines is that which comes not from their quality nor from their Matter but from their Form and from their specifical and occult vertue and such is in the herb Sina the faculty of purging away melancholy and in Terra Sigillata or Lemnia the fortifying of the heart against poysons as also the Scorpions killing with his tail and thence some poysons do kill without altering the Temper The fourth said That diseases are to be considered either in their genus or in their species or in their individuals For the first When the disease is nothing but a disposition disturbing the workings of nature it may be cured by regaining the natural disposition As for the second If it be a distemper for example cold in the second degree then the specifical Medicine for it is hot in the same degree if it be a disease in some of the members of a mans body as for example an obstruction then the only remedy is to open the Conduits If it be a breach then the remedy is to peice again what is parted asunder But if the disease be considered in the individual whose substantial Form it destroys then must we use particular remedies of the same nature and those are the true spicifical ones The fifth said It is the same thing with the causes of health that it is with the causes of diseases Now we see that the same thing is hurtful to one and not to another and that not onely in different species but also in several individuals of the same species because of several circumstances And therefore some remedies will cure one and will kill another nay and that which was lately good may be now hurtful for the same Individual so that it is impossible to assign any specifical remedies for an Individual and yet it is an Individual man that must be cured and not the whole species of man The sixth said That in nature every thing is determined to one particular Action and this proceeds alone from its Form and Being which hath a neerer relation to that one Action than to any other So a Tree is determined to bring forth one fruit rather than another It is the same case with those remedies which are had from the three Families of Animals Vegetables and Minerals Some are proper to purge one particular humour as choler or melancholy or water or they provoke vomiting or urine or by sweat or they are discussive or cause sneezing or stop coughing Other Medicines strengthen one particular member as the heart the head the liver or the spleen Some again are good against particular poysons So Treacle is specifically good against a bite by a viper So a Scorpion applyed to a place which he hath stung heals it So the Oyle of Pine apple kernels is good against Orpiment So long Hart wort Rue are good against Aconite or Wolf-bane and the rinde of Lemon Tree against Nux Vomica and the seeds of winter-cherry against Cantharides and Mummy against the Ulcers made by wilde spurge and the flower of water-Lilly against Hellebore So the root of wilde Roses and the herbs Gentiane Balme Betonie and Pimpernel are excellent against the biting of a mad dog and so it is with others There are others called Amulets which being worne about the neck or laid to certain parts of the body do preserve from diseases So as Galen himself reports Pionie worne keeps from the falling sickness So Wolfes dung allayes the Cholick and Jasper strengthens the stomack And Trallian assures that the Aetites or Eagle-stone cures the quotidian Agues and snails and green lizards cure quartan Agues and that an Asses forehead and a nail taken out of a broken ship are good against the falling-sickness So the ashes of Tad-poles and Frogs are used against the bloody Flux Lapis Judaicus and Goats blood against the stone in the kidneys and the water of a Stags head and the bone of his heart against the diseases of the heart Now there is no reason why all these marvellous effects should be ascribed to the first qualities and therefore Galen laughs at his Master Pelops who gave that reason for them The seventh said That Physick being first found out by use and experience hath no need of reason in those things which fall clearly under our senses but only in those things which are beyond the preception of our senses the which being confirmed by reason are much the more infallible However when reason seems to thwart experience we ought rather to stick to experience so it be founded upon many observations Seeing then that experience shews us there are many specifical remedies whereof the weak wit of man cannot finde out the cause it is better in this case to rely upon sense without reason than upon reason contradicted by experience Now if there be specifical remedies for some diseases there are also for all but they are so very many that we cannot know them And who is that man that can know the vertues and properties of every thing in the world The Chymists are of this mind for they hold that all Medicines have their signatures or their peculiar marks and figures by which they resemble the parts or diseases of mans body and that they are writings as it were sealed with the hand of God to teach men their faculties Whence it comes that Lung-wort is good for the ●ungs Stags tongue for the spleen