attained to 90 yeeres of age replied that hee had rather die within ten yeeres then live a hundred yeeres by meanes of so strict a diet And I make no question that without seeking farre wee might easily find many of this Epicurean Kings mind but since that health comprehends within its compasse a great latitude it cannot be that a like diet should fit every individuall and particular person Such as by reason of a laudable temper and natural constitution of body even from their very cradle injoy a perfect health are by an extraordinary prerogative privileged above their neighbours and may more boldly deale with any kinde of diet but let even such not be too bold but wise and circumspect lest they be overtaken and although the constitution may be strong yet we know a strong and able horse may be overloaded and sometimes haue his backe broken and let the aliment be of as laudable a condition as it will and thy stomacke as strong as that of the Ostrich yet may it be mastered at length And consider well this sentence worthy to be ingraved with letters of gold Plures gula quam gladio periere The sword hath killed his thousands but gluttony his ten thousands How many generous gentlemen of noble parentage and of an ingenious and liberall education might have attained to Nestorian yeeres and shined like bright starres in their orbes by the great good they might have procured to their common countrey if they had not too much prostituted themselves to their sinfull and carnall pleasures and bin drowned too licentiously in their worldly delights which have too much now adaies ceized upon the most part of the Christian world Now such as are valetudinary and of a more crazie constitution ought in a stricter manner compose themselves to a more exact observation of physicall prescriptions Herodicus being but of a crazie constitution of body yet by vertue of his precise diet attained to the age of an hundred yeeres Asclepiades relied so much upon his diet that he would lay a wager against Fortune that hee would never assume to himselfe the name of a Physician if ever he fell sicke And surely who so considereth aright the fraile and crazie condition of the body of man dare scarce be so bold as to lay any such wager I count it for a miracle saith Plinie and finde but onely this one example that Xenophilus the Musitian lived an hundred and five yeeres without any bodily infirmity or as another calleth him Pythagoras of Chalcis Curtius relateth the life of the Philosopher Calanus who being surprized with a great loosenesse and fearing lest his former felicity of seventy three yeeres health should be by this noysome disease interrupted threw himselfe into the fire and so was consumed into ashes CHAP. II. Whether by meanes of Diet the life of man may be for many yeeres prolonged IT is reported of that famous Philosopher Theophrastus that dying he accused nature in that shee had given and granted to brute and unreasonable creatures a long and to man the noblest of all other creatures so short and so sorrowfull a life in so much that weighing both life and death in even and equall balance one might and not without cause doubt whether life or death were rather to be chosen as also in regard of the nights rest a man lives but the one halfe of his time that I say nothing also of the yeeres of infancy when as he liveth void of understanding and of old age his yeeres seeming to be produced to this period onely for a punishment witnesse so many cares and casualties so many dangers and sicknesses extorting so frequent an invocation of death that nothing seemeth more welcome then the fruition of such a wish But unjustly was noble nature of this unjust judge condemned before shee was heard For shee like a kinde and loving mother being very solicitous and carefull of the life of man hath not onely ministred unto him such things as are necessary for the maintaining and producing of his life but besides hath indued him with reason and given him hands to the end hee might more comfortably make use of such things as she in her bounty had bestowed upon him Now our life consisteth in moisture and heat neither is our life any thing else but a ioint-continuance of heat and moisture in our bodies But since our heat doth daily consume waste away this naturall and radicall moisture it is againe by the like humidity to be repaired Now this is performed by meanes of food both meat and drinke the right and moderate use whereof this dieteticall part doth instruct and direct the which also not onely maintaineth and entertaineth health present but helpeth also to recover that which is by sicknesse impaired and as some would have it produceth the life of man farre beyond the fatall period for all men appointed And some there were who by meanes of diet would promise the perpetuity of mans life and of a mortall man to make him immortall and such a one was that Sophist mentioned by Galen who promised immortality to all such whose education he had from their tender yeeres undertaken Galen is of opinion that the necessity of death can by no solid reason be demonstrated but confirmed by experience onely Some who would make good Galens assertion argue thus All men die either by meanes of externall or internall causes Externall causes which procure violent death are either such as may be avoided and befall the body of man from without as blowes bitings of venomous beasts and the like all which since they may easily be avoided come not within the compasse of this dietetiall art or else they are unavoidable and such be the things we call not naturall by the excesse and defect of the which diseases are ingendred and death doth thereon ensue In the golden mediocrity consisteth this health we now discourse of the which whosoever shall strictly observe shall prolong his life for many yeeres This mediocrity did our forefathers in that first and golden age of the world strictly observe and so many of them attained 900. and some neere 1000. yeeres Neither are we to suppose that these were Lunary yeeres or of the age of a Moone onely as S. Austine proves against Pliny and Baro. But yet further the longevity of these our forefathers did not onely depend upon their simple diet but there was besides a speciall providence in prolonging their lives and that as well for the multiplication of mankinde as also by meanes of their long lives they might the better attaine to the knowledge of the arts and sciences mathematicall especially and that part principally which concerneth the motion of the celestiall orbes which required no small time The internall causes of naturall and fatall death are according to Galen three naturall drinesse the continuall wasting of our triple substance and the abundance
of excrements Now naturall drinesse may be prevented by such things as moisten much The wasting of our triple substance may be prevented by good ayre meat and drinke of a good and laudable quality engendring but little excrementitious matter and if notwithstanding by reason of their condition or quality they shall chance to ingender any excrement they may either naturally or else by artificiall meanes be voided out And therefore conclude they by this dieteticall art may the naturall causes of fatall death be declined But this is an uncontrolled truth Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis It is appointed for all men to dye and then commeth in iudgement saith the Oracle that cannot lie True 't is and cannot be denied that by vertue of a laudable diet the life of man may be prolonged to an hundred or an hundred and twenty yeeres as hath beene published by some of our Authors but for ever to be perpetuated is impossible and that both by reason of the materiall and the efficient cause The matter is either first or second the first matter by reason it hath adjoyned privation a maligne principle therefore cannot alwaies continue the same The second matter is of the elements whereof the body of man is composed the which howsoever it conteineth in it the substance of the elements well united and compacted together yet can their disagreeing qualities never so well be composed but some discord and disagreement will arise which is the cause of dissolution of the whole frame The efficient cause is either remote or neerer the remote is God himselfe who hath placed severall and contrary motions in the heavens one from the East to the West and is once every day accomplished Another againe from the West to the East which are at great length to be found in the writings of our learned Astronomers Now if God would have made the world to continue for ever faith Plato he would never have placed these contrary motions in the heavens because identity and unity is the cause of continuance as contrariety the beginning of destruction The neerer efficient cause is our naturall heat which by little and little destroyes our naturall and radicall moisture the which once failing death undoubtedly followeth And howsoever by the use of aliments it be in some sort repaired yet this devouring heat getteth daily ground of it till at length it giveth it the foyle concerning which more may be seene in the workes of the worthy Plato It hath then sufficiently and plainely appeared that the life of man by meanes of a good and laudable diet may be prolonged and diseases prevented howsoever death is unavoidable But then here one may aske what is the ordinary period whereunto the life of man by meanes of art may be prolonged Our ordinary Authours as wee have said assigne 100 or 120 but wee have a certaine sort of people who in shew would seeme to transcend vulgar understanding and tell us strange things of the prolongation of mans life for many yeeres farre beyond this above-mentioned period and that by meanes of certaine medicines made of metalls of gold especially and these be Paracelsus and his followers And although this great miracle-monger as his foolish followers would make him died not without tormenting arthriticall paines many times notwithstanding all his secrets before ever hee atteined the 60th yeere of his age yet will not their folly depart from them if they were braied in a morter affirming him yet to live in his grave by vertue of aurum potabile writing great voluminous bookes and inditing many profitable precepts to his disciples I hope the Printers shall not want worke when they are ready But Paracelsus tells us yet stranger tales for I doubt the reader will account them for such of attracting not onely life I meane strength and vigor from a young man but relateh of one who drew learning and knowledge from another yea that from any learned man he met and kept company with hee could easily by vertue of his strong imagination attract and draw unto himselfe the others wit and learning The same Author and his expositor tell us strange things of the long life of some particular persons where is likewise to be observed the great confusion he useth as in all his writings so in this particular where sometimes hee mentioneth mortall men as the Patriarches and others and againe confounds this narration with a discourse of immortall spirits who are neither to be confined with in his 1000. nor yet 1200 yeeres And is it not a thing ridiculous now in these later times to extend the life of man-kinde to 1000 900 or at the least to 600 yeeres And besides may it not easily to an indifferent understanding appeare how ridiculous this opinion is that Adam and the rest of the old Patriarches lived so long by vertue of the Philosophers stone And what then became of this so rare medicine when holy Iacob complained that few and evill were the daies of his pilgrimage And how came it to passe that Abraham and Sarah lived then so short a while That Isaacs eyes were dimme Did their forefathers envie them such a medicine all Arts and Sciences were transmitted from the antient Patriarches to posterity and were they so envious as to conceale from them so great a good If these prattlers could by their owne experience make this appeare there might be some colour for us to beleeve they had knowne this Art and concealed it from their successors But the contrary hath already appeared whatsoever they prate of one Artephius who by meanes of his wisdome as they say lived 1000 yeeres But now it may be some will here aske mee the question whether I am not of opinon that mens ages now daily decline the world waxing old and some holding that the Sunne now by that reason to wit of the age of the world draweth neere the earth as having more need now in this old age of a greater supply of warmth then heretofore But as concerning this subject because it hath beene of set purpose in a large volume handled at great length I shall neede to say the lesse yet something I must say concerning this subject now in hand I meane the life of man If this assertion were of an infallible truth that the age of mankinde had proportionably still declined then had the period of mans longest life beene by this time comprehended within a very small number of yeeres But the contrary of this we see by daily experience confirmed that in many places of the world yea and in most men live as long as in antient times I meane after the times of our first forefathers the old Patriarches This caution I would withall to be put in that in our comparison with antiquity we must alwaies put in this proviso caeteris paribus making the cases both alike As they lived a sober and
from this yeere untill 45 is called properly manly or consisting age which falleth upon the seventh week of yeers What remaineth of the life of man is called old age which is againe divided into other seven weekes especially in temperate places and such where men live longest where the body is of a good and laudable temper and constitution and the diet good and wholesome and then this time is divided into two parts the first being called fresh or greene old age Cruda viridisque senectus from the end of the seventh weeke to the beginning of the tenth to wit 62 or 63. the later is called decrepit old age continuing from this yeere to the fourteenth weeke which falleth on the 97 yeere Now besides this numericall others assigne an astrologicall reason every seventh yeere say they the planets returne in order to Saturne who removes then to another signe contrary to that from whence hee last departed and therefore by reason of this maligne constellation as also by the contrary place of the planet it commeth to passe that the maligne influence of Saturne is increased But before wee proceed it must be observed that these events are not alwaies precisely confined to the very individuall climactericall yeere but often to the yeere next insuing and sometimes also a little before to the yeere immediatly preceding And a late Writer maketh the climactericall yeere as it were the time wherein sentence is pronounced although often execution come not till the next yeere after howsoever the body be before disposed prepared and fitted either for sicknesse or death although sometimes also the effect is accelerated and falleth out before the climactericall yeere And this is confirmed by instances of examples produced in that same place as to wit of Adam having lived 930 yeeres died in his climactericall yeere 931 conteining seven times 133. Abrabam also died in his climactericall yeere 175. King Cyrus in his 70 as likwise the Poet Ennius and the famous champion Hannibal and Ioanna mother of that famous Emperor Charles the fifth and this Emperor himselfe in the â—63 being his climactericall The renowned Augustus Caesar survived his climactericall yeere 70 about some three moneths And Edward the first King of England ended his daies about the same period Solyman the Turkish Emperor ended his daies in his 76 yeer preventing this his climatericall yeere by one Charles the 8 the French King prevented his climactericall yeere 28 onely by the space of 22 daies Many more instances might be to this purpose produced and many other things out of many Authors alleged for the magnifying of this number of 7 in these yeeres Now that many notable alterations are often observed to befall our bodies in these seventh and ninth yeeres especially the sevenths cannot be denied and with Hippocrates we may well say that the seventh yeeres are no lesse criticall in the life of man than are the seven daies and moneths in the crisis of acute and chronicall diseases and yet these numbers have no vertue to produce any such effect nor prove any causes nor occasions thereof which to prove any able yea ordinary understanding making no question thereof were I thinke to spend my time in vaine And as for astrologicall vanity it hath been already by so many worthy and learned men confuted and something also shall be said hereafter of their foolish and superstitious opinions so that at this present I passe by it Onely this by the way let it be kept in minde what hath lately beene said that these great and notable events fall not alwaies out on the same yeere but sometimes before and sometimes after and Saturne to whom they principally impute these strange events must keepe his set turnes in his regular motion every seventh yeere besides that by their owne assertion he is quite excluded from the ninth And although some such notable effects fall out about such a time and about the time of some great conjunctions yet are they no more causes of such effects than the shining of the Sunne is the cause of a mans intended journey of him before resolved upon whether the Sunne shone or no. Now then there must be some physicall cause assigned the other two failing A learned late Writer labours to acquaint us with the reason of the prerogative these climactericall yeeres assume unto themselves In the periods and revolutions of certaine yeeres saith he there is a great abundance of superfluous humours collected in the body of man by the motion and agitation whereof diseases commonly are ingendred For when as the body hath collected such an abundance of superfluous humours that the places accustomed to receive the same are now no longer able to conteine them diseases must of necessity follow and if not remedied death it selfe And therefore to avoid this danger he adviseth people in the spring and fall every yeere by purging and bleeding to unburthen their bodies of this masse of oppressing humours by which meanes at the returning period of these yeeres they may live more secure and free from feare And certaine it is there is a fatall necessity and disposition to die from the very first birth attending and unavoidably accompanying every man and this was first procured by that wilfull and wofull fall of our first parents and from them as a legacie propagated to all their sinfull posterity which fatall period is often furthered or hindered by the good or bad order of diet and divers other externall and inevitable causes and yet nothing befalling us without the all-disposing and overruling providence of the Almighty And in the interim although many dangerous diseases do often both about these especially and other times also ceize upon a mans mortall bodie yet untill this appointed period nothing can cut the thread of this life Now that every one may be acquainted with these yeeres I set them here downe to thy view The sevenths are 7 14 21 28 35 42 49 56 70 77 84 91 98. Then ninths are 9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99. Who so surpasseth this number let him reckon the rest himselfe CHAP. IIII. Of things called not naturall and first of the Aire AS man by naturall composition partakes of all the elements so in this life can hee not long life without the use of them all especially of this ambient aire and of the which for this cause wee will speake in the first place Now the utilitie and necessity of this element doth in this appeare that howsoever sometimes one may live without meat and drinke for divers daies if not moneths and yeeres as some relate yet without the use of this element was never any yet able to subsist and continue one day no nor yet one houre there being so great an use for the body of man both of perspiration and respiration The whole body of man is composed of a triple substance of an aire or spirituous and next of severall humours
the best spring water or good river-water In quantity it must not exceed for so it would hinder the concoction of the stomacke And as for the order it must be drunke as is already in the generall directions of drinke set downe little and often at a meale Vsed before meales it moistneth much dry bodies and cooleth more than sacke or any wine whatsoever be it never to small and therefore fitter for hot and drie bodies than wine or strong drinke Vsed after meales it inhibiteth and hindereth the hot vaporous fumes of strong drinke to ascend into the braine and so is said to resist drunkennesse but I advise weake stomackes to looke unto themselves for feare of too much debilitation proceeding from too much humectation And howbeit in hot countries their water by reason of correction by the splendor of the Sunne-beames is accounted wholesomer than ours yet might ours be farre more used than it is especially by hot and dry bodies especially such stomacks and yonger people especially but this is the mischiefe that such commonly powre downe most strong drinke by this meanes adding fewell to the fire untill Fevers inflammations and such furious diseases in the very Aprill of their age bring them to an untimely death And the poorer sort I am sure might make more use of the same than ordinarily they doe which would better become them than go a begging strong drinke or which is yet worse steale to procure mony to buy it And notwithstanding this our nicity I know som honourable and worshipfull Ladies who drinke little other drinke and yet injoy more perfect health than most of them that drinke of the strongest Two things do most deterre people from the use of this noble antient drinke the coldnesse and the crudity As for the coldnesse howsoever it doth often actually to the palat appeare such yet have I shewed that there is no such intense cooling quality here to be feared The other is the crudity which is indeed nothing else but the abundance of moisture wherewith it is indowed and most offensive to weake and moist stomackes and all is notwithstanding ordinarily imputed to the coldnesse of water Some to correct what they deeme amisse in water use to adde some sugar to it and so thinke all is well amended and is most practised by the female sex But this is no good correction for of this they cannot be ignorant and experience teacheth no lesse that sweet things doe rather hurt than helpe a weake and tender stomacke And besides Sugar being but temperately hot could adde but a little heat to such a drinke if it were as cold as is supposed Againe sugar having no drying quality ascribed unto it but rather a meane moisture it will rather adde to than detract from this moist quality But in my opinion the best correction is by boiling it first and then if thou wilt adde thereunto a little hony or sugar and a little wine vineger which well correcteth the moisture and joined with the other sugar or hony giveth it a pleasant rellish thou maiest make thee a pleasant and wholesome drinke Now as concerning the boiling of waters there is a controversie about the quantity or how much should be boiled away some willing to boile water to the wasting away of the third part others of the halfe which others againe thinke too much and indeed a meane is the best Againe some would have water corrected by distillation which I must needes confesse to be best if not too costly besides that it is not so easy every where and at all times to be effected Some straine it thorow a cleane linnen cloth and some againe boile it with sand Some with corall beaten to powder correct the bitternesse of waters and some attribute a correcting qualitie to Penniroall Pliny reports that bitter waters are made sweet and potable by casting into them a little meale or flowre of wheat so that they may bee drunke within two houres after I doubt this triall would hardly answere our expectation And I am sure the practice of the Prophet Elisha in healing the water with salt was miraculous It is familiar with mariners after the use of evill waters to eat garlicke The Arabian Physitians advise him who is to remove his habitation to a place where waters are not good to carry with him some of the earth where hee lived before and mingle with his water and being well strained drink of it Now because oftentimes water is either somwhat warme and therfore quencheth not the thirst so well or else is not so cold as to please some nice and curious palats therefore partly for pleasure and wantonnesse and partly for necessity especially when all manner of riot and excesse began to reigne amongst many other things were devised severall waies to coole both their water and their wine And it cannot be denied that cold water doth better further the concoction of the stomacke than warme And Galen in Sommer alloweth of very cold drinke yea even cooled with snow and to such especially as labour hard and use much exercise but others that live idly leading a sedentary life and free from imployment either of body or mind he adviseth to drinke water as nature hath produced it without any alteration Avicen wisheth alwaies to eat before they drinke water and to drinke sparingly and often at our repast and out of a vessell with a narrow mouth that so the draught may be the more moderate There were six several waies the antients used to coole their water by means of the aire which was familiar to the Aegyptians as witnesseth Galen In the Sommer saith he the Aegyptians of Alexandria having first well warmed their water and put it up in close earthen vessells exposed it to the night aire and before Sun rising set them in some shadie places of the ground environed round about with cooling herbes Sailers have beene seene sometimes to expose their water to the night aire and afterwards cover their bottles with many clothes and thus it is very certaine it reteineth still the cold quality The reason why they thus boiled their water was because that water once boiled receiveth sooner and easilier the impression of the cold aire as witnesseth the Prince of Philosophers And therefore in Pontus where they fish alwaies in frost they besprinkle their angling-rods with warme water which afterwards congealeth and freezeth so much the harder which serveth them in stead of glue The second way of cooling water is by letting it downe in an earthen bottle into a deepe well howbeit others are of opinion it receives some evill impression from this close water and therefore thinke it better to draw up the water and so set it in it The third way is by injection of some salt peter which afterwards for a while is stirred about with a sticke howbeit this is not so well approved of with whatsoever present
oftentimes deprive themselves even of the use of their senses making themselves by this meanes as senselesse as blocks and contrary to the common course of nature alwaies carefull and sollicitous to preserve it selfe either rush upon their owne ruine or by their in discreet carriage bring ruine upon themselves And of this I need not I thinke produce any instances there be few if any that cannot instance in some particulars of his owne knowledge And as for diseases of the body procured thereby they are not a few as namely the Apoplexy Epilepsie or falling sicknesse Incubus or nightmare Palsie giddinesse lethargy and the like soporiferous diseases besides sudden death losse of memory and understanding red and watery eyes a corny face all beset with rubies and carbuncles accompanied with a copper nose Besides it is often after attended with rottennesse and roughnesse of teeth a stinking breath a stutting and stammering tongue rotten lungs filthy and stinking belching vomitings Fevers inflammations defluxions on the joints procuring gouts of all sorts Dropsies of all kindes the stone strangury with many more yea to speake in a word it may prove a meanes of most diseases which befall mankind And besides all these how many dangers from without attend a drunken man which without one minute of an houres time to repent him of his former wicked course often suddenly send him into another world Moreover it is not to be omitted that drunkennesse overthroweth also a mans temporall estate lavishly and prodigally wasting that substance in a very short space which had by honest industry and paines beene a long time a purchasing by which meanes many times besides a crasy and rotten body they pull at length poverty not upon themselves alone but upon their wives children and posterity also leaving likewise a many beggers behind them to be a burden to the common-wealth besides that in this is also transgressed the Apostles rule if any man provide not for his owne especially those of his owne house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an Infidell Besides they prove also in this pernitious plagues to a common-wealth by mis-spending and wasting so much graine in drinke as might feed a number of poore people Against this beastly sinne a many worthy writers both Christian and Heathen have much inveighed And the heathen Poets have not failed to play their parts Vino forma perit vine corrumpitur atas By wine is spoiled quite the beauty of the face By wine our life corrupted is it cutteth short our race And againe another describeth some effects following this vice Consequitur gravitas membrorum praepediuntur Crura vacillanti tardescit lingua madet mens Nant Oculi clamor singultus jurgia gliscunt Hence follow the vnweldinesse and weight of members weake The shaking thighes are hindered the tongue is slow to speake The mind is moist the eyes doe swimme clamors and noise increase Deepe sighes and sobs chidings and brawles from such do never cease Heare yet another speake to the same purpose Quum bibitur concha quum jam vertigine tectum Ambulat geminis exurgit mensa lucernis When men are whitled with their cups when now their giddy braine Thinke that the house doth walke about and judge one candle twaine It were no difficult matter for me to produce a multitude of such invectives against this vice out of these and other Poets but that I must husband my time It is therefore worth the observing how carefull many of the heathens were not onely in shunning themselves this vice but by wholesome lawes suppressing the spreading of it abroad into the common-wealth And no small commendation was it for that great and potent Emperour Augustus Caesar that during all the time of his warres he never drunke above thrice at a meale On the contrary wee read of that great Conqueror of the then knowne world Alexander the great unconquerable by all the Persian forces was notwithstanding at length overcome with their wine which made him imbrue his hands in the blood of his dearest friends And by divine punition in the aprile of his age by a draught from the hands of Proteas ended his daies The like it were easie for mee to instance in many others of high and eminent ranke as likewise of a multitude of others of inferiour degree if time would permit mee Eusebius Plato Aristole and Galen greatly commend the lawes of the Carthaginians whereby was forbidden any man during the warres to drinke any thing but water Among the Indians it was not lawfull at any time to be drunke And among the Persians on that day onely when they sacrificed to the Sunne it was lawfull for them to be drunke and to dance after the Persian manner I have already in the chapter of Gluttony made mention of a Scottish King that made a law that the drunkard should be put to death Now as this swinish sinne is odious to all ages sexes and conditions so it is more odious in some than in others And therefore wine was forbidden youth untill certaine yeeres and then permitted with moderation And women were forbiden wine among the Massilians and Milesians and at this time is not usuall for women in France to drinke wine before they be married but water onely And among the Romans this same law against womens drinking of wine was in force To this purpose it is very memorable which is recorded that one Ignatius Melentius a Roman killed his owne wife for being drunke the which fact of his was so farre from being punished that there was not so much as one to accuse him for the same every one accounting her justly punished for exceeding the bounds of sobrietie Now as this sinne of drunkennesse is unseemely and odious in all ages and degrees of the laity so it is yet farre more odious in a Church-man who as a light ought by his life and conversation so shine before others that men seing his good workes holy life and good conversation may glorifie our heavenly Father This being well considered of the antient Fathers of the Church was the occasion of so many canons and constitutions against this so loathsome sinne in the Clergie And that this same sinne reigned even among the Clergy of the Iewes may by some places of Scripture appeare God forbad Aaron and the other Priests under the paine of death when they were to offer up sacrifice to drinke either wine or strong drinke The Nazarites were also all forbidden wine and strong drinke The Apostle Paul reckoning up the qualities wherewith a Minister of the Word ought to be indued among the rest reckoneth up this that hee must not be given to wine nor strong drink And wee see that holy Timothy was so observant of sobriety and so fearefull to fall into this sinne that hee indangered his owne health and needed by the Apostle to be put in minde to
yea rather efficacious to the contrary to put out eyes And the better to blind the world and to confirme and strengthen his opinion of working miraculously or as sometimes againe hee sayeth ' mystically hee would have us quite to abandon and abdicate all heathen Philosophie the Apostle giving us warning that we be not therwith deceived But I think the abuse doth not abolish the right use What shall all Universities give over teaching Aristotles philosophicall precepts The scope drift of al is this that we be not tied to the ordinary operation of agents and patients but adhere to Paracelsus and his followers and beleeve their mystical miraculous if not cacomagical manner of curing and so by this meanes must we take for current whatsoever they shall obtrude upon us as may by the question now in hand plainely appeare By this meanes also should all our rationall and methodicall proceeding by our antient Physitians so carefully prescribed be quite overthrowne And what were miracles in the old Law so seldome and that by holy men onely performed and afterwards by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles and is it now in every mans power that can greaze a weapon or sticke at pleasure to worke a miracle We justly tax the church of Rome for their lying wonders and miracles by Gods owne spirit foretold and shall we beleeve that whatsoever strange or wonderous act transcending the ordinary course of naturall agents is some miraculous worke of God Nay wee have no reason so to doe We know there was a Simon Magus who with his counterfeit miracles wonderfully deluded the Samaritanes And have we not good reason to suspect Paracelsus and what he and his followers obtrude upon us of such especially as transcend the course of ordinary agents If he had bin either Prophet or Apostle we might have had a better conceit of his strange cures and yet not so that we would not have his tenents examined tried by the true touchstone of Gods word with the which this doth not agree And that he was too much addicted to infamous magick but that I wil not now so spend my time I could easily make it appeare And that he was no holy man may appeare by his manifold impieties in abusing and wresting many places of holy Scripture to maintaine his phantasticall and impious opinions concerning which a learned writer hath composed a whole tractate As for his wholesome and approved chymicall remedies either of his owne invention or collected from other men I am so farre from disallowing the use of them that being discreetly used I doubt not but they may and doe produce very laudbale and desired effects neither am I or ever was I so rigid that I would refuse the use of any safe and lawfull remedy whosoever were the Author As for that they tell us that if the weapon be exposed to the cold aire the wound will smart and be in paine but not so if kept warme in a close place and free from dust To that I have already said concerning sympathy may serve for an answere And if there bee such a sympathy seeing wounds are much wronged by great noises as shooting of ordinance and the like I mervaile whether such a noise many miles distant from the party wounded but hard by the weapon anointed would annoy the said wounded partie It is by that famous Pare reported that at the siege of Hesdin in France by the army of Charles the fifth Emperour at the shooting off of the ordinance many hurt in the head were extremely tormented whether the weapons wounding them were in the open aire or lapt up warme by the fire-side And I meruaile whether our souldiers now in the Germane warres doe alwayes keep their weapons in the open aire or close lapt up I beleeve it is not the custome either of the King of Sweden or his enemies to lap up their weapons by a fire-side and yet if one should make inquiry hee should find that many of them were notwithstanding easily cured without great paine as many by experience have heretofore found true Some wounds againe in regard of the ambient aire although but small and in themselves seeming secure yet many times prove mortall that I say nothing of the severall constitutions of bodies time of the yeere the country age and sex c. But it seemeth this cure like an Empiricke contemneth and neglecteth all such circumstances As for the signe of life and death by the blood sweaty drops I hold it either imposterious or impious and superstitious the sympatheticall operation being alreadie overthrowne Powder of red sanders being laid upon the weapon being warme and being moister then it may make a shew of bloody sweat and then this is but to cozen the world and if otherwise it is already answered And as for the knowledge of life and death by a lampe made of his blood with the spirit of wine I have already touched it and if any such thing be effected it is more like to bee produced by art diabolicall than otherwise As for that which is alleaged that lying with a menstruous woman will frustrate the operation I hold that the carnall knowledge of any woman is hurtfull to the wounded and this standeth to farre better reason than that the person that anointeth the weapon lying with a woman should be hurtfull to the wound But on these and the like I will not any longer insist but proceed to some examples Now although that which hath beene said already might suffice to prove the invalidity and unlawfulnesse of this cure yet will we say something of these examples also These examples then are of two sorts either of such cures are supposed to have beene performed by the weapon-salve or of other magneticall and sympatheticall cures as the defendant calls them seeming farre stranger than those performed by this ointment As for the first sort then admit they have been performed wherein I will not call in question the relaters credit of what quality soever the question is not here de facto as we say but de jure not whether there hath beene any such cure performed but by what meanes and therefore they are of no validitie And the invalidity of this argument desumed from issue and event I have already in the beginning of this discourse answered Of one of those cure notwithstanding I will speake a word A fellow saith he had his finger cut with a sith and when the blood could not bee stanched the Noble man his Master wished to knocke off the handle of the sith and send him the very sigh to anoint the which the wounded fellow himselfe went about and at the very first knocke he gave the sith that had wounded him the blood stanched In the same place he avoucheth that the same noble personage acknowledged that although there were not drop of blood to be discerned on the weapon yet if hee anointed
therewith but prosecute that I have undertaken This grief and sorrow then if too much yeelded unto will to some procure irrecoverable Consumptions will dry up the braine and marrow of the bones hinder concoction and so procure crudities by meanes of want of rest and by consequent prove a cause of many dangerous diseases Now as the excesse is hurtfull to all so to some farre more than to others especially to leane spare bodies dry braines persons inclining to melancholy And women especially if with childe young children who be reason of their sexe and age are lesse able to resist such passions and some by naturall constitution very timorous are more liable to danger by reason of feares and sudden frights than other people It is therefore a very unadvised course most commonly to affright children with bug-beares hob-goblins and the like for there is many times thereby such a deepe impression of feare ingraven in their tender senses that howsoever it doth not bereave them of their lives yet are they so possessed with an habituall feare that they are scarce ever freed therefrom at least untill they atteine to ripe and mature age And some that are yet of a more tender constitution are sometimees ceized with some sudden and dangerous disease if they escape death as Paralyticke Epilepticke Apoplecticke and convulsive fits as I could easily instance but that I cannot dwell upon it Of all others it is most dangerous for women with child and that not only for feare of present aborsion but even for some future feare of some hurt may befall the tender fruit of her wombe I have knowne some little better than meere naturalls by reason of the mothers fright during their ingravidation It hath beene often also observed that even upon men of mature age and judgement the strong apprehension of some future danger hath in them produced strange and sudden effects A late Authour relateth a storie of a young Gentleman whose haire was in one night turned white The Gentlemans name saith he was Didacus or Diegus Osorius a Spaniard Who falling in love with a Gentlwoman one of the Queene of Spaines attendants this Gentleman according to former agreements was got up into a tree growing within the precincts of the court but bewrayed by the barking of a dogge was by the guard laid hold on committed to prison and in danger to have lost his life for attempting any such thing within the precincts of the court The next morning the keeper found this Gentlemans haire turned to a perfect white color as the antientest mans in the countrie and yet their haire in that countrie is ordinary of a blacke colour the which the King first hearing related and seeing it so indeed it wrought such an alteration in his minde that not onely freed hee him from his punishment but restored him to his former liberty affirming that it was punishment enough to have changed the flower of youth with white old age There is in the same Author a like accident happening in the cour of Charles the fifth Emperor whom the Emperor himselfe could scarce beleeve to be the same party that was committed to prison the night before and granted him likewise a gracious pardon And many strange accidents are there out of divers Authours related which for brevity I here passe by Now as other passions excite and stirre up some particular humour as joy stirreth up the blood and anger choler so doth feare and griefe stirre and move melancholy But it may then be demanded whether such passibe contrary to all sorts of people and whether one may ever give way on s thereunto I answer some people are more privileged than others provided alwaies that it be not in excesse and such are principally grosse fat and foggie people with full bodies and such as have their spirits hot moveable And in such people sadnes feare and profound cogitations and cares do somewhat blunt the edge of those hot and fiery moveable spirits and withall do extenuate and take away some part of that bulke of body wherewith they are so burthened the which both Greeke and Arabian Physitians doe with unanimous consent witnesse Such as are of a contrarie constitution of bodie braine or both as wee have said already are by all meanes possible as they love their lives and healths to shun and avoid these passions But in sicke persons especially which is that I here principally aime at there must a singular care and regard be had that as little distaste as possible be given And herein that golden rule of Hippocrates hath chiefely place that it is not sufficient for the Physitian to play his part but the assistants also and attendants and all other things must also be answerable The sicke wee know by reason of his sicknesse hath sorrow enough especially if the party be of a feeble fearefull and pusillanimous spirit the phansie still framing unto it selfe new feares of some bad and sinistrous event And thus wee see through rashnesse and indiscretion of some about the sicke sometimes by relating to them some evill tidings and sometimes putting them in needlesse feares without any sure ground or yet when there is just cause of feare in the sicke yet being indiscreetly revealed to him either by the Physitian or others or yet at an unseasonable time as about the time of rest or before meales may much prejudice the sicke And therefore I advise all those whom it concerneth to be very vigilant and circumspect whom they suffer to come about the sicke wee finding by daily experience that many times ignorant and unadvised people prove the causes of infinite evills to the sicke and that sometimes by disswading them from a laudable and legall course for the speedie recovery of their health prescribed by learned and wise counsell especialy if their shallow capacities be not able as seldome they are to dive into the depth of the Physitians intentions and sometimes also by erring in the maner above-mentioned Such constitutions of body as we named heretofore are not hereby so much wronged providing we goe not too farre My meaning is not here notwithstanding that which hath beene said to forbid any that true sorrow for sinne and a true compunction of heart for offending the Majestie of the Almighty God the which will be so farre from producing those effects of worldly sorrow that on the contrary it will purchase to thy soule more solid comfort and content and more inlargement of true heavenly joy to thy drouping and sorrowfull soule than all the silver and gold of Ophir and both the Indies and all the gracious gems and jewells ever gave to the greatest upon earth that possessed them yea if it were yet possible they were all in one mans possession And as the wiseman saith that Even in laughter there is sorrow so may I as well invert it that even in this godly sorrow is joy in the holy
Ghost and comfort unspeakable Worldly sorrow causeth death saith the Apostle but godly sorrow causeth repentance not to be repented of But many are the volumes written by our learned Devines concerning this subject among others a learned late Divine hath handled this point very punctually in his learned and elaborate Treatise of comforting afflicted consciences But this not being my proper element therefore I proceed There is yet a doubt concerning this point which resteth to bee discussed whether of griefe or sorrow any may dye To this question Galen himselfe maketh answer that one may dye of these passions and to this doe all Physitians assent and experience maketh it so appeare And this same Author seconds his authority with sound reason for in such passions the blood and spirits having a speedy and sudden recourse to the heart to succour the same in so great a need where aboarding it with too great violence and in too great a quantity they leave the outward parts of the body quite destitute of this blood and spirits We see what a strange effect this griefe wrought on good old Heli alas how small is our griefe for matters of this nature when he heard the arke of God was taken And that worthy woman his daughter in law although her husband were a prophane and wicked man yet at the hearing of the taking of the arke she was so much therewith affected that nothing no not the newes of a sonne borne of her womb could give her any comfort or hinder her from following the footsteps of her father in law in giving up the ghost And histories relate that Antiochus Epiphanes or rather as some well call him Epimanes that tyrant being chased out of Persia and hearing also that his generall Lysias was defeated and chased away by the Jewes by reason of greife and sorrow fell into grievous diseases although there was yet in him divine punition to be observed and yet not excluding naturall causes A famous Physitian and now and then mentioned in this discourse relateth a story to this same purpose A preacher of this City Basil he meaneth accompanied with his wife onely in the moneth of November returning from a village not farre from the towne hearing them call to shut up the gates hee ranne before to cause them keepe open the gate untill his wife came in and so entring himselfe supposed his wife had been entred after him the gate was shut and she excluded the keyes being as is the custome immediatly carried to the Burgermaster no entry is of any to be expected for that night as I found once too true by mine owne experience and neither could he get forth to her nor shee suffered to come in to him the night very darke this poore desolate woman all the night filling the aire with her complaints there being no house nor town within a great way of this city passed a part of the night and in the morning of this feare and griefe was found dead at the gate The same Author relateth yet two other stories making to us appeare the truth of this point A company of young wenches in the Spring of the yeere walking abroad in a faire morning they came to the place of publike execution where was still hanging upon the gallowes one who had been lately put to death These wild wenches beganne to throw stones at this dead corps at length one throwing a greater stone than the rest this corps turned round at the which motion this maid apprehended such feare and terror that strongly apprehending this dead corps to be alive with all possible speed shee ranne home still supposing this dead body followed her Being come home she fell into strong and violent convulsive fits and so died suddenly Another young maid about 16. yeeres of age went downe into a grave new digged where had beene layed heretofore some matron of the City of Basil and not as yet consumed this dead carkasse this young maid essayed to lift up by the armes but was presently striken with such a feare and terror that she went home and was seized with so violent Convulsions that her eyes were like to leape out of her head and so presently died and was the next day buried in a grave hard by the other as though this dead corps had called for her company as shee cryed out a little before her death In the late yeare 1630. in the beginning of January my presence and paines was craved for a yong Gentleman living within some few miles of Northhampton then sicke of a Fever Within some two or three dayes this gentleman still continuing very sicke the gentlewoman his wife being now quicke with child terrified with some accidents she saw in her husband and withall fearefull of some future event fell suddenly one morning into strong and violent fits of Convulsions being at other times also subiect thereunto the agitation of her head and armes being so violent sometimes drawne one and sometime another way that much trouble it was to hold her but withall the blood and spirits flying all upwards the nether parts were left so feeble that she was presently deprived of the use of her legs insomuch that she was in a chaire carried into another roome But yet the gentleman her husband recovering shee was in a few dayes freed from all her former fits and feares and at her full appointed time was safely delivered of her burden without any hurt or danger either of herselfe or infant I have the more willingly instanced in these particulars to make every one more carefully and circumspect in avoiding and shunning these passions and whatsoever may provoke or incite us thereunto The remedies shall appeare in the next Chapter where wee purpose to speake of the last passion CHAP. XXXIIIJ Of Ioy and Gladnesse and of the excesse thereof which may also hurt the body and whether any may die of excessive ioy THat the former passions are prejudiciall and often very hurtfull to mankinde especially if they exceed may easily obteine credit perhaps with an ordinary understanding but that joy and mirth so agreeable to our nature and so acceptable to our senses should ever produce any such effect will hardlierreceive entertainment And this may seeme yet so much the more strange in regard this is that we all principally aime at as being a soveraigne and excellent meanes not onely to preserve and mainteine our health but likewise to recover the same being already lost And good reason there is for this Joy being a motion of the minde to the outward parts with a certaine gratefull and delighting desire to lay hold on that which may give us content And yet there is withal such a violent motion and agitation of the blood and spirits that weake and pusillanimous people may bee much thereby endangered And the wise man intimates unto us such a moderation in every thing where hee warnes us to