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
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
caused assemble many skilfull Philosophers I thinke it should have beene Physitians to consult about his health and some advising one thing some another one among the rest delivered his opinion thus that hee could never better inioy his health than never to eat untill such time hee found his former food digested And such as will have but that care of themselves that they have of their Hawkes and many other creatures to whom they will give no new food untill they have concocted the former follow the advice of the Wise man I live not to eat but eat to the end I may live and againe the same Authour hath these words The greedy desire of such gluttons is like unto the desire of the Divell or of hell it selfe for as Hell swallowes up many people yet never is satisfied yea rather sorry it cannot swallow more for the which cause these hellish ministers leave no wind unsailed even right so fareth it with Gluttons who are never satisfied to whom it is said Agg. 1. You have eaten and yet are not satisfied to wit according to their disorderly appetite being displeased with themselves that they are able to devoure no more And for this cause they invent all the waies they can to please their palates both in the colour taste smell and in the various multiplicitie of meat and drinke And hence commeth it to passe saith Saint Bernard that they double their great dishes upon the which being totally intent they can keepe no measure in eating c. Is not this then a great blurre and disgrace to our Christian profession that we should be farre inferiour to so many heathen and meere morall men But especially is this a time for riot and excesse for chambering and wantonnesse when many of our neighbours and brethren by Christian profession lie groaning in grievous affliction The want of this sympathising with the afflictions of the Church is that which God reproacheth his own people Amos 6.4 They drinke Wine in bowles and stretch themselves upon beds of yvorie but no man remembred the afflictions of Ioseph And as at all times so more especially in the times of penury and scarcity wee ought to be sparing in our diet and those whom God hath inabled ought to be the more helpfull to the poore whose pinched bellies often would be glad of the scraps and crums which fall from many a rich Gluttons table Againe I could wish that many did not so profusely spend upon unreasonable creatures and that onely for sport and recreation that which would fill the bellies of many a poore Christian who scarce can have a bit of browne bread to satisfie their hungry appetites while their beasts have abundance of the best If any shall here againe reply may not I doe with mine owne what I list Let mee then be so bold againe as to demand what is their owne And if they will not I will answer for them that is just nothing they are but onely Stewards put in trust with their Masters goods the great God of heaven and earth and there will come shortly and how soone they know not a messenger to discharge them of their Stewardship thou maiest be no longer Steward and then if thou hast been a good and faithfull Steward and canst make thy Master a true account thou maiest expect with comfort that Euge bone serve Well done faithfull servant enter into thy Masters ioy but if otherwise let them looke to it I will conclude with the words of the late alleged Author Now who so will not by all the former inconveniences and dangers be reclamed neither by afflictions and troubles nor yet by faire perswasions yet let this one thought and consideration what they shall be after death affright them for all Gluttons and generally all sinners and wicked people are usually affraid of death the which Gluttony if not avoided will inevitably hasten and further I have somewhat the longer insisted upon this point in regard this sinne is so frequent in this Kingdome which hath been thereby with our neigbours the French reproached Les Anglois sont grand mangeurs English are great eaters But wee have eaten more than enough it is time wee now proceed to drinke CHAP. XXIIII Of Drinke and what things in the use thereof to be considered of morning draughts drinking betwixt meales beginning or ending the meale with drinke and drinking to bed-ward AFter meat it is seasonable now to come to drinke the one being as necessary if not more than the other This liquid substance helpeth the distribution of the food thorow the whole body withall quencheth thirst and as without food so likewise without drinke the life of man cannot be prolonged And although wee read of some who without any drinke at all have spunne out the whole threed of their life as namely one Lasyrtas Lasionius Andrew of Argos Mago of Carthage and Iulius Viator a Roman Knight yet is it most certaine that without drinke or some moisture to conveigh the meat thorow the body man cannot subsist and such persons were not of a sound constitution of body and that because they did not sweat at all their bones being all solid without any marrow And our stomack is not vnfitly compared to a pot with meat boyling in it which without moisture must needs be burnt up Besides drinke seemeth to be of a greater profit and utility to the body than meat it selfe and the want thereof hardlier to be indured it allaying both hunger and thirst in man especially and therefore the old aphorisme holdeth here true It is easier to be refreshed with drinke than with solid food Drink is a thin liquid substance quenching thirst furthering the concoction and distribution of the food thorow the whole body and often also apt to nourish the same Drinke is two-fold either that common liquor whereof all living creatures are partakers as well as man or else it is desumed from beasts and plants from the which a wholesome liquor or juice is expressed fit for quenching thirst and nourishing the body also Now some rules concerning drinke are carefully to be observed and first wee are not to indure too much thirst but moderately to drinke in time of need especially at our meales In the next place it is good to drinke little and often at our meales to the end there may be an exact mixture of our meat and drinke in the stomacke neither are wee to follow the custome of the people of the East to drinke most after meales as is also the custome of our beasts Thirdly wee are not to beginne our meales with drinke but rather with solid food Fourthly wee are not to drinke betwixt meales for feare of disturbing and interrupting the concoction of the stomacke except a very hot and dry stomacke sometimes for feare of burning up the meat plead privilege for a cup. Fifthly after bathing running or any other violent exercise it is not good suddenly to drinke
urines and other excrements The Arabian Physitians are of another minde and would have us give store of cold drink in the very beginning of the disease It is indeed very certain that better it were to wait for signes of concoction if the fever were not violent but in extremity of heat and for feare of further inconvenience by meanes of too long absteining it is better to yeeld to an inconvenience than to a mischiefe True it is indeede that drinking of cold water before signes of concoction may somewhat prolong the disease and make the humour grosser and more crude but againe this scalding heat would parch up the humours of the body before these signes of concoction And therefore Galen sometimes fore-seeing this danger was forced even in the beginning of the paroxysme to take this course As for the particular time in intermittent Fevers it is by Hippocrates himselfe determined while as he willeth us in the fit to absteine from all manner of food and if hee forbid food why not drinke also since that by much drinking in the beginning of the fit wee see it prolonged While the feet are yet cold wee are to absteine not from suppings only but from all manner of liquid substances saith the same Hippocrates and so the common currant runneth that the sicke should not drinke during the fit and yet are not all of this minde And there is a learned late Writer who would not have the sicke altogether debarred from drinke during the fit And although saith hee Hippocrates willed us during the fit to absteine from all food even from suppings also yet must not this be extended to drinke And Galen himselfe in the heighth of a burning Fever ordeineth a good draught of cold water and the fit of an intermitting Fever is correspondent and answerable to the whole duration and continuance of continuall Fevers As for my part as I would not be too rigid in denying any reasonable gratification which might not prove prejudiciall to the patient so would I not be too servile and obsequious without some great necessitie it being most commonly seene that if wee give an inch they will take an ell Besides there is difference betwixt our bodies here and the French in the South parts of that Kingdome where this Author lived and both in regard of the ambient aire and their ordinary diet and drinking of wine their bodies in any fever must needs admit of a higher degree of cooling than our moist foggie phlegmaticke bodies in this our climat But if any particular individuall patient should be thus by excessive heat scorched up as I should not my selfe be too rigid so I wish others to be wise It resteth in the next place to define the quantity which would seeme to be controverted some allowing of a great draught at once and some againe would have drinke taken by degrees It is by the most both Greeke and Arabian Physitians mainteined that the sicke may drinke ad satietatem even to satiety But Aristotle seemeth to be of another minde and it seemeth it was the custome of some Physitians of his time for saith he Physitians use to give cold drinke by degrees whereof he rendreth this reason that being thus drunke by degrees it moisteneth more than drunke plentifully and at once even as wee see soft showers moisten more than great dashes of raine I answer that wee intend not here so much humectation as sudden extinction of this exorbitant scorching heat for even as we see in Smiths forges that a little water kindleth the fire and maketh it burne faster even so doth a little drinke rather increase the heat of the fever than extinguish it Now because so great a quantity of cold water if it should long lodge within the body might breed some inconvenience it is therefore by Physitians appointed that the sicke should cast it up againe as both by Hippocrates and many other Authours may appeare And in another place relating the disease and death of the wise of one Antiochus in Larissa to the end of his long discourse subjoineth this that it seemed shee might have lived if shee could have drunke store of cold drinks and cast it up againe But now to come home to our owne country wherein we live and to see how the premisses may agree with us I thinke it will not be impertinent It is then to be observed that all those countries wherein the Greekes and Arabians lived were very hot and the inhabitants thereof much naturally addicted to drinking of water their wine being there too strong for ordinary drinke as it is in many parts of Europ even at this day where the vulgar drinke most water or mingled with a little wine and therefore in time of sicknesse cannot so much offend them But with us water is not so usuall for ordinary drinke and therefore might more wrong our bodies Besides water is hurtfull to weake stomackes whose bodies abound not with blood or yet are troubled with any tumour or inward inflammation and oppressed with tough and crude clammy humors And therefore wee safely permit the use of small beere which neither indangereth the body if not cast up againe neither can it much wrong the body by sudden overcooling of the same Besides the boiling correcteth the crudity the barly is good in all acute diseases as after shall appeare and the hoppe openeth obstructions of the inward parts If the patient after a good draught can cast it up againe it will doe him good and if not it will finde a vent some other way as being farre more penetrant than water And as for the benefit might by casting it up againe be procured it may by meanes of a convenient vomit easily be effected which may by a discreet Physitian be according to severall circumstances accomodated But if the heat were yet very violent and more cooling drinke be yet requisite we are not unfurnished of variety of distilled waters whereof we can easily compose such variety of cooling juleps with the addition of tart acid juices and liquors as may give content to the nicest and daintiest palats And wee are not unfurnished of barly waters posset drinkes of severall sorts and many others whereof we purpose shortly to make mention And yet if wee would make use of water in fevers I see not but it might be very well and to good purpose used I would have then pure spring water well boiled and afterwards well cooled againe and then made tart with a spoonfull or two of good white-wine vineger or some drops of the acid spirit of vitriole some barberries or the like This would prove a soveraine good cooling and wholesome drinke in all hot fevers whatsoever contagious or others and the poorer sort might reap as much benefit by this as any other drinke CHAP. XIII Of warme Drinke and whether it be usefull or no. WHat hath hitherto beene spoken concerning cold
water and the many waies were used to coole it its hot countries to please the palate wil easily finde credit with a vulgar understanding hot drinke being of no living creature whatsoever desired and cannot therefore be naturall for thirst is nothing else but an earnest desire of a cold and humid substance Now de facto that there were such hot drinkes in use among the antients if we should deny yet many Authors will make the truth thereof appeare But whether this now used in sicknesse or in health or both as likewise de iure whether usefull for the body or no resteth now to be discussed It hath beene an usuall speech among people that wee ought to drinke as hot as our blood and that for feare lest naturall heat by cold drinke be quite extinguished And it would seeme that the antient Romans had this custome in frequent use for wee read that in Rome there were shops where such hot drinkes were sold called therefore Thermopolia as may appeare by that the Emperour Claudius discharged this custome and tooke quite away all such places And againe Caius Caligula put to death a Master of one of these shops for selling of this warme drinke during the funeralls of his wife Drusilla And from this warme drinke was the Emperour Tiberius nick-named Biberius Caldius mero And in great families one of the servants had the charge of fetching such warme water which was alwaies in a readinesse to be sold the which if he brought too late his punishment was 300 stripes And that the Romans had it in ordinary use especially at their suppers when as they fed most liberally may also by many places of the old Poets appeare And the old comicke Poet Plantus make thereof frequent mention and many other Authors whom for brevity I here passe by A late Writer rendereth a reason why some of the Easterne nations as namely the inhabitants of China and Iapan use warme drinke and yet live long and in good health to wit that by reason of the extreme heat of the ambient aire their stomackes and inward parts are cold and therefore to warme them within use this warme drinke Others againe used this warme drinke onely for wantonnesse to make them cast up their meat and so fill their stomacke againe with fresh food the which the same Authour also out of some antient Writers relateth and that this was a common custome among the Rhodians Some againe were of opinion that the antients never dranke warme water of it selfe but mingled with their wine At least it seemeth it was the custome of some as likewise that nothing might be wanting at a great and sumptuous feast as the Poet intimateth unto us Some againe thinke that although they warmed their water yet that they let it coole againe before they either drunke it or mingled it with their wine at least it seemeth it was the custome of some as of some others to warme both their water and their wine and then to coole them being so mingled before they dranke them Some learned men are also of opinion that these warme drinkes were not alwaies water but some other sweet artificiall drinkes and which people out of wantonnesse were wont to drinke as is the custome both in high Germanie and the Low-countries to repaire in a morning to certaine shops where strong waters are sold whereof they drinke some being mingled with sugar or sweet sirup But certaine it is the best course is to drinke our drinke cold as it is in its owne nature and if in extreme cold as in frosty weather or any otherwise be by extreme cold drinke offended then may they qualifie this extreme quality either by putting a warme tost into it or otherwise abate the extremity of the cold but in no case to drinke it hot And yet we see that even among our selves we have a custome sometimes to drinke warme wine burning it with spices as is supposed to qualifie the heat and strength of the wine and so drinke it warme But in my opinion this is a wrong both to the wine and themselves also burning away the spirit which is the life of the wine they procure unto it an accidentall and adventitious heat more hurtfull to the body than the naturall heat of the wine it selfe And besides although it be often used in cold weather yet to drinke it so actually hot is nothing so good the wine howsoever it be actually cold yet doth it alwaies by a potentiall heat warme the inward parts But let us now see whether warme water were in use with the sicke or no It would seeme to bee more usefull for the sicke than for the whole and the Arabian Physitians administer it in pectorall diseases by reason cold drinke is an enemy to all the pectorall parts And an antient Roman Physitian commendeth it in all Fevers Others commend it in that Fever called diaria or of one day Besides the Greeke Physitians used it ordinarily in diseases of the reines But yet that it is not so good for the stomacke cannot bee denied And although it be not now the custome with us to give our patients warme-water to drinke yet upon divers occasions we use also warme drinks as warme posset drinke to further the operation of vomits and others to provoke sweat And howsoever we use not to exhibite this warme water as did many of the antients yet because we are accustomed for the sickes use and benefit to boile our water with addition of some simples something I will say concerning this point Water boiled is more subtill and of a more sudden penetration than crude as it commeth naturally out of the earth The antients boiled it either with the heat of the Sunne or of the fire And the Persian and Aegyptian Kings were wont to boile their water at the he at of the Sunne were it never so thinne and pure in it selfe With us we have in use a double boiling of water the one by the heat of the fire in ordinary vessells the other by way of distillation to the antients unknowne Which of these two wayes is the best we are now to inquire Our Physitians are for distilled water and must needes be the best Indeed boiled water is to bee preferred before the crude and is farre more familiar for the stomacke but in this distillation hath the preheminence that whereas by decoction many thinne parts are evaporated this is here avoided And indeed by distillation all uncouth taste if any is removed and by reason of this refining and attenuation it will also keep a long time without putrefaction But this point is so cleere that I shall not need to prosecute it any longer And although we are not accustomed to distill ordinary water yet is it very frequent with us to distill waters out of simples of all sorts both hot and cold whereof here
concord betwixt such parties as ought to be in this sacred ordinance as I have often observed and by relation heard of a many more besides that many times they prove afterwards more incontinent for considering that they were not of judgement sufficient when they were first married disliking the party that before was as it were pinned upon them breake forth into unlawfull lust It is their sinne I confesse but parents and friends minister occasions which prove more dangerous when these parties have not first been trained up in the feare of God which alas the pitty is too much neglected Such therefore as have children marriageable it is the parents duty to provide for their children matches in due time observing the disposition of their children lest the neglect of this duty done in due time extort out of them aftewards a too late repentance Such as cannot so suddenly as need requireth be furnished to their liking let parents be more watchfull over them and all have a care of their pious education in their younger yeeres preventing all occasions of evill idlenesse especially reading of lewd lascivious love books frequenting lewd and lascivious company stage-plaies especially the very bane and break-necke of all modesty honesty and chastity and all other things that may worke prejudice in this kind And such as are of yeeres of discretion and sui iuris and now by death of parents freed from that triall of obedience I wish them to marry rather than burne and breake out in sinne and so live to dishonour God and scandalise their neighbour And if they cannot accommodate themselves so suddenly let them in the meane-time avoid all provocations to lust use spare and thinne diet avoiding the pampering of the flesh using often for companion the Bible and other good bookes and other good meanes But in any case never abandon thy selfe to idlenesse but alwaies be imploied in some good and laudable vocation whereby thou maist prove profitable either to Church or Common-wealth But this belonging more properly to the Divines pulpit than the Physitians pen I leave to them But now because it concerneth every one both in sicknesse and in health to be acquainted with that which concerneth them so neere I therefore advertise all weake feeble and infirme persons that they be not too busie in this particular Of constitutions the hot and drie cholericke and next dry melancholicke persons are most thereby indamaged but hot and moist sanguine and phlegmaticke bodies are hereby most benefitted And I advise sicke persons especially in acute diseases and in their recovery untill they have atteined their full strength for feare of a relaps to absteine from this act As for chronicall or long continuing diseases by reason it is an enemy to the nerves and nervous parts it is therefore in many infirmities of the braine Epilepsie especially and all manner of gouts most hurtfull As for the age the particular yeeres cannot so well be determined some being more able at twenty than others at thirty or upwards and some old men of fourescore abler than others at fifty but yet as I touched before to marry children or young people while they are yet a growing it is both prejudiciall to the publike and their owne private persons For feeble old age it cannot but prove very pernicious as any one may easily understand As for the time of the yeere the most temperate keeping a meane and moderation betwixt heat and cold as in other evacuations so here likewise is alwaies most seasonable But in extreme hot or cold seasons be wary circumspect especially in time of great heat which is more hurtfull than the cold As for the particular time some have preferred the evening by reason of sleepe insuing after but most are for the morning as most seasonable Howsoever after a full stomacke any violent exercise or bodily labour that hath much debilitated the strength is not to be used And besides among men some are sometimes ignorant of that they ought to know and some more sensuall than becommeth so noble a creature therefore in time of a womans menstruous fluxe as likewise that time which is set apart for this evacuation after a womans delivery they must absteine the which as we see to have beene by Gods owne appointment practised among the people of the Iewes so for divers good respects the same is to remaine with us inviolable Now if this excrement be not in due time and order expelled it proveth often the cause of divers diseases both in man and woman as that we call gonorrhaea or involuntary effluxe of seed in either sexe proceeding also sometimes from the debility of the retentive faculty In women it occasioneth often histericall Passions or fits of the mother greene sicknesse obstructions palpitation of the heart c. But in both sexes I wish that moderation which becommeth Christians to be observed and withall to consider that a man may be drunke with his owne drinke if he take too much and besides that a man may as our Divines hold even commit adultery with his owne wise There is yet no small prejudice hereby procured to thine owne health and besides hath cost many a man his life Pliny maketh mention of two Roman Knights Quintilius Horatius and Cornelius Gallus who both died in this act I thinke few that read this treatise but can relate the tragicall stories of many who have by this meanes both shortned their lives wasted their meanes and purchased to themselves many loathsome and dangerous diseases the poxe especially a punishment sent from God to punish this odious sinne and we may see in every corner of the country the wofull effects of this excesse of luxury In all that I have already said my purpose is not to disswade any from the use of that sacred ordinance of wedlocke which God in the depth of his sacred wisedome hath ordeined as a fit remedy for preventing of sinne and for the great good and manifold comfort of mankinde but only to advise all people to a moderation and withall wishing every one to know themselves and who have more or lesse need and accordingly to accommodate themselves in the lawfull use of this ordinance And from hence may manifestly appeare the malapert sawcinesse of that man of sinne and his shavelings who in direct opposition to Gods command and approbation of this sacred ordinance will make it knowne to the whole world that he is that man of sinne foretold by the holy Apostle forbidding marriage and meats It hath by that which hath bin said plainly appeared that some persons and some constitutions may better and longer forbeare this ordinance than others but never was it by God absolutely forbidden any estate degree sexe or any sort of people to use this sacred ordinance Priest nor people in the old or new Testament nay is there not a punctuall place to the
Angell of light or darknesse this being also a thing most certaine that hee neither can nor dare in the least point exceed his commission And therefore it is altogether without sense or reason to aske if then the tutelary Angells leave their charge as though God had now forsaken them I answer that his is meant of either his owne electiones and then he somtimes leaves them to Satan to try for a time as he did to Iob or else they are reprobate Ahab who was by lying Prophets seduced and that by Satans inspiration although by Gods owne direction Hath not the Potter power over the clay to make of it a vessell of honour or dishonour And to no more purpose is it that because it is said The uncorruptible Spirit of the Lord is in all things and that from the Spirit of Gods mouth proceede the vertues of all things with such other places which for brevity I here passe by therefore God doth not make use of inferiour Angells And therefore there was no neede of the enumeration of so many places to so small purpose no man calling in question the power of Gods Spirit But whereas the defendant would from hence inferre such a new spirit of Paracelsus and his owne forging to operate in this weapon-salve we have at least as good reason to deny it I cannot here for brevity insist upon the severall acceptations of this word spirit in holy Writ but must leave it with the true meaning of the severall places alleaged to those who have more leisure and meanes to effect the same Yet sure I am that in all holy Scripture there is no such signification of spirit as is here intended But now I proceed to the salve it selfe the ingredients and manner of use or application As for the ingredients the various waies of composition doe evidently evince the vanity and nullitie of the operation of this ointment Some indeed set downe a number of various ingredients collected after a superstitious manner Some againe are not so scrupulous and superstitious either in the number of simples or curious composition some contenting themselves with dogges grease and a learned late Writer relateth an insianee in a woman of high Germany who professed shee onely stucke a sticke or weapon in a piece of lard and had as good successe as others with their most curious composed ointment And it is there usuall with others to sticke a knife or any other thing that hath hurt them or a sticke in stead of it in a loafe of bread or in the earth it selfe and yet say they followeth still the same effect And this I thinke were sufficient to confute this weapon-salve if there were no more But it is to be observed that whereas blood by our defendant is accounted one of the principall ingredients of this ointment how commeth it then to passe that Crollius as it were Paracelsus his owne genius doth omit the same But howsoever since such an account is made of the blood I will not quite passe over it in silence It is then demanded why God gave so strict a charge to his owne people of Israel that they should eat no blood if not for this reason that the life is in the blood I answer that indeed the blood is the vehicle and receptacle of life which is communicated to the whole body But this was not the reason why God forbad them the eating of the blood of beasts but as that worthy light of the Church Calvin allegeth In this prohibition God would accustome men to a gentle and milde kinde of diet and lest then being too much accustomed to the eating of blood they should afterwards be imboldned to shed mans blood which is the principall scope is here aimed at Besides as the same Authour allegeth that the flesh and the blood are not here as divers and distinct set downe as differing so much one from another but the same in substance and yet was the flesh of beasts even then permitted to be eaten and so was the milke being nothing else but blood refined and dealbuted or whitened in these gloobus mamillarie glands Moreover if this had beene simply and in it selfe a sinne and had obliged us adsemper for ever then had it beene still a finne the contrary whereof is true this ceremoniall precept being but a part of that legall pedagogie as the difference of meats cleane and uncleane and the like And the blood of the murthered cries as loud in these our times as ever it did after the death of Abel this being still a crying sinne and this being a figurative speech as the plantiffe hath sufficiently proved And howsoever blood by some be esteemed for one of the principall ingredients in this salve yet saith the same learned Libavius Surgeans hold mans blood to be poyson to wounds and that the cure is thereby rather hindred than helped and put the case it were indeed helpefull yet were this onely applyed and not at so farre a distance And as for the spirits in the blood wee justly deny so active operating spirits in the blood now separated from the body And besides admit there were any such matter yet were all spirits alike efficacious Hath a heavy melancholicke or phlegmaticke blood as active spirits as a quick cholerick and firy blood And what if the blood be putrefied by the poxe plague poison or any other contagious disease the blood being starke naught shall these corrupt spirits be so powerfull and efficacious Surely the more we stirre in this businesse the more it stinketh And whereas it is said that of mans blood with the spirit of wine is extracted a spirit whereof is made that burning lamp which will burne as long as the party whose blood it is liveth and at his death goe quite out with divers other like allegations I answer that even in this they then confesse that this blood is actuated by meanes of this operating menstruum the spirit of wine and therefore no such efficious power proceeding from so farre a distance can be the cause of this cure Besides that the right spirit of wine is to be knowne for such if it be suddenly quite consumed with the flame and put the case the blood might a little retardate and hinder this operation yet could it neither wholly inhibit the operation of this devouring element nor could there such strange effects follow as are related of this lumpe But for brevity I passe by all other things concerning this point The fat is likewise forbidden to be eaten howbeit no vehicle of life the flesh permitted notwithstanding to bee eaten being farre neerer the substance of blood as hath beene already proved Againe as for the bones of the skull mummy and skull-mosse or usnea by them called the essence I say rather the excrement of the skull being now but parts of the cadaver or dead corps them cannot bee that
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
administered therein ibid. They are often needlessely feared ibid. This season often colder than other seasons of the summer 251. 252 c. Dogs-flesh See uncouth flesh Dosis of medicines divers 278. Dreames and their severall kindes 338. Signification of dreames and whether they concerne the ficke 338. 339 340. Drinke and the utility thereof 312. What drinke is ibid. Division of Drinke and rules to be observed in the use thereof ibid. Quantity of Drinke ibid. The ordinary measures of Drinke among the ancients 113. Morning draught ibid. Strong Drinke not to bee used fasting ibid. Beginning the repast with a draught ibid. Drinke often used in ancient time to close up the stomacke 114. Drinking to Bed-ward 115. Drinke made of corne used by the ancients especially Aegyptians 125. Drinke made of corne with us differeth much from that of the ancients ibid. Drinke very usefull in many diseases but in hot and acute Fevers especially 183. Divers drinkes usefull for the diseased 198. 199 c. Drunkards breake all the Commandements 130. They are pernicious to a cōmon-wealth 132 To bee put to death by the Lawes of a Scottish King 133. They are often short lived and many times dye of long lingering diseases 137 No new sinne 129. What it is ibid. Nations taxed with drunkennesse ibid. It is the cause of great mischiefe to the mind and understanding 131. It procureth divers diseases to the body making the same also subject to many outward dangers 131 132. It proveth likewise often dangerous to the soule and many times overthroweth a mans temporall estate 132. It is unseemely to all estates and degrees 133. Diet hath divers significations and what properly among Physitians 1. Diet whether necessary for healthfull and sicke persons 3. Whether by Diet the life of man may bee prolonged for many yeeres 4. Diet cannot perpetuate the life of man and yet a most forcible meanes both to preserve and recover health 5. Diet of the Diseased but slenderly handled heretofore and by very few 140. Strictly observed among the Antients ibid. Among the Aegyptians and Locrians ibid. Diet of the Diseased in generall 162. 163. A full and liberall Diet A spare and strict Diet and the meane betwixt both 163. Hippocraticall Diet too rigid for our country climat ibid. Arabian Diet better suteth with our bodies ibid. Diet of the Diseased reduced into two heads the diseased and the disease it selfe 164. Diet in acute diseases how to be ordered 167. In intermitting Fevers ibid. In continuall Fevers without intermission ibid. In prescribing the Diet of the diseased divers things to be considered 165. 168. By whom the most sparing diet is to be observed 166. Diet drinke See drinke of the diseased E. Eares of beasts 75. Earth nourisheth not 30. Ebionites haereticks their abstinence See abstinence Eeles not wholesome 93. Egestion See excrements Egges and their nourishment 83. Egges whether fit for the sicke they are not so hot as is supposed by Hippocrates in acute diseases 176. 177. Egs man safely be allowed in fevers ibid. Egs of Hens best of all others ibid. Egs prepared after several waies in sicknesse and in health ibid. Markes of Egges and how to discerne a new laid Egge 178. Electuaries how taken 288. Elements pure and simple nourish not 21. 29 c. Elephants flesh See flesh Embrocations 293. Empericke-physitians Intr. 2. Empericke what ibid. Empericks of divers sorts ibid. Empericks abound here with us Intr. 3. Emulsitions their compositions and severall sorts of them 201. Emunctories in the body of man whereby excrements are expelled 225. Endive 49. Error of such as divulge secrets as they call them in the vulgar coung Int. 26. Esseans fast or abstinence see abstinence Evacuation what 226. Evacuations sometimes too much abound ibid Before Evacuations what to be considered ibid. Evacuations of severall sorts generall and particular when they maybe most liberall 228. Ewes milke See milke Excesse of the Persian Kings in their ordinary expences 106. Excrements of the guts or fecall excrements 313. Best excrements ib. Worse excrements Evill coloured excrements of divers sorts wormes in excrements Liquid excrements and the causes 314. Soft excrements with their causes hard excrements and their severall causes Quantity of excrements Time of egestion and how often it is usefull in sicknesse and in health ibid. 315. Exercise and the vtility thereof 211. Vsefull in sicknesse and in health Fittest time foe exercise 213. Violent exercise immediately after meales hurtfull to health c. ibid. Place fit for exercise the persons to be exercised the quantitie or duration quality order c. 213. 214. Exercises ought not to be too violent especially in some persons 214. Difference of exercise ibid. Exercises of the whole body Of some part mixt particular exercises ibid. Exercises of some particular profession 216. Exercise must differ according to severall constitutions 213. Exercise in what kinde of disease may be permitted 221. Exercises in chronicall diseases ibid. Exercises of the minde 217. Expectoration 323. Error in the use of expectoration ibid. Caveats in the use of expectorants preparation of the humors to be expectorated 324. Forme of expectorants ibid. Expectoration in diseases of the lungs and pectorall parts chiefely to be considered ibid. Expectoration ceasing in vlcers of the lungs and the presage thereof 26. Expressum See Broth. Eyes of beasts 75. Eyes full of resplendent spirits 354. F. Fable of the Foxe and the Crane 218. Fecall excrements See Excrements Fancie See Imagination Fascination and the severall sorts thereof 334. Fascination with the eyes ibid Fascination by speech and voice and how procured 333. Fast See abstinence Fatt of Beasts 74. Feare and the severall kindes thereof 39◠Feare produceth strange effects in the body of man Feare may cause death What persons it hurteth most Feare and Griefe stirre vp melancholy in the body of man Sicke folks are carefully to avoid this passion and great circumspection for the prevention thereof to be used 393 394 395 396. Feet of beasts 75. Figges 65. Filbird See Nuts Fild fare 81. Fish and their severall kindes 88. Fresh-water fish 92 Fish in ancient times how prepared how in our time 182. Fish whether fit for the sicke ibid. What Fish fittest for the sicke ibid. Fisticke ibid. Flesh of severall sorts 72 c. Goodnesse of Flesh according to their severall circumstances 71. Vncouth Flesh 83. Flesh for the sicke and divers preparations made of the same 178 179 180. Flounder 89. Fluxes of divers sorts 315. In Fluxes astringent medicines cautelously to be used ibid. Fonticulous See searing Food See nourishment Food of a grosse slender and of a meane substance 34. Foot-ball play 214. Fore-spoken what See Fascination Fowle of severall sorts 77. Tame-fowle wilde-fowle 79 c. Water-Fowle 81. Frictions usefell for the sicke 221. Frogges See uncouth flesh Fruits and their nourishment 59. Fruits of severall kindes together with their qualities and nourishment ibid. Fruits what fittest for the sicke 172. Frumentie See white meat G.