Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	air_n	body_n	element_n	4,001	5	9.7677	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96797	Scarbrough Spaw, or, A description of the nature and vertues of the spaw at Scarbrough in Yorkshire. Also a treatise of the nature and use of water in general, and the several sorts thereof, as sea, rain, snow, pond, lake, spring, and river water, with the original causes and qualities. Where more largely the controversie among learned writers about the original of springs, is discussed. To which is added, a short discourse concerning mineral waters, especially that of the spaw. / By Robert Wittie, Dr. in Physick.	Wittie, Robert, 1613?-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing W3231; Thomason E1830_2; ESTC R204108	73,129	263

not bottemed by the Earth as naturalists averre The Water being a lighter Element lib. 2. met cap. 3. it 's proper place is to be above the Earth so as the greater part by far of the superfices of the Globe is covered with water notwithstanding which the higher places of the Earth stand out of the Water 2 Pet. 3.5 and appear above it giving bounds to the Water which it cannot pass over as the Scripture saith Psal v. 9. and so are become habitable for men and beasts It 's Nature Sea Water is Salt and hot in operation binds and dryes the body if it be drunk as do all salt waters according to the judgment of Hippocrates De aere aquis locis which he sayes are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De remed l. 2 c. 53. indomicable and hard it rather increases then quenches thirst and hath been found deadly to such as have drunk of it being exceeding thirsty as saith Paulus Aegineta I would not be so understood as if I thought all salt waters were to be r●j●cted from inward use or as if no salt waters would purge the body The Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough a gallon whereof being vaporated away yields two ounces of salt is dayly used inwardly with very good success in many cases and purges the body as I know by experience and as Dr. Dean and Dr. French do both witness in their Books upon that Subject This Spring does the same and hath some salt in it Notwithstanding if salt waters do loose the body it is from other minerals of which they do participate and not from the salt on which account they rather dry up the humours and are singular good even in hydropick constitutions especially in the beginning the truth whereof I have proved by good experience in an Honourable Lady to whom I commended the use of the Sulphur Well before mentioned in the Dropsy with good success Hence it is that Hippocrates in the place afore cited blames them for their ignorance that upon any slight occasion use salt waters inwardly expecting to loose the body with them they having from the salt no such vertue but rather stay the belly and cause the body to break out in Scabs and make the fundament and lower parts troubled with checks De simpl c. 4. as Rasis saith The Sea water hath indeed some sweet parts in it which are thinner and lighter then the substance of the water is from whence it comes to pass that the flesh of those fishes that live in the Sea is as fresh as those that are taken in fresh waters If one distill Sea water in a cold Still it yields fresh water And I have read an experiment in Gamillus Flavius which is worthy a tryal Paraph. in Hip. de aq p. 43. and may be of use to such as go on long voyages and want sometimes fresh water He saith that if a bottle bee made of Wax and the mouth of it be close stopped so as no water can run into it and it be cast into the Sea and made to sink in a few dayes it will be found to have fresh water in it very pleasant and wholsome to be drunk I have inserted this for the Seamens sake to whom it may be beneficial Sect. 4. In the next place I come to treat of Rain water with it's original and qualities Of Rain the product or original is thus The Sun and the rest of the Heavenly bodies do by their heat exhale It s cause and draw forth out of the Sea and other moist bodies that are on the Earth the vapours which are the more rare and thin part of the water and bodyes these by their heat they do so rarify that through their levity they fly upward towards the upper region of the aire next to the Element of fire the proper place of such light bodies where they continue till according to the ordinary course of Providence by the influence of the Moon or some planetary Aspect out of signs of the watery Triplicity or some other cold and moist constellation they become more gross and moist and so by their weight descend into the middle region of the aire where by the excess of cold they are condensed into waters and now being become an heavy body do fall down upon the Earth in showers making thereby a kind of circulation in Nature through the ascent of vapours and descent of showers This I say is according to the ordinary course of Providence when notwithstanding without any of those previous influences of the Celestial bodies Almighty God who is a most free Agent and doth what he will in the Heavens and the Earth doth sometimes by a special Providence cause it to rain Exod. 9.18 and at other times also he doth so suspend the aforesaid influences Jam. 5.17 that it rains not at all Amos 4.7 as in the use of Elijahs prayer Thus as the Prophet observes he makes it to rain upon one City and not upon another and this he doeth that he may keep us in a constant dependance upon himself as upon the first and primary cause without whose concurrence secondary causes can produce no effects at all No this my judgment concerning the causes of rain is agreeable to what is writ upon that subject by the best Philosophers and Physicians the Scripture also being clear in it Amos 9.6 He calleth for the Waters of the Sea and poureth them out upon the face of the Earth to which add that in Job 36.27 28. He maketh small the drops of water they poure down rain according to the vapour thereof which the clouds do drop And that the rain doth falls or is with-held from us in ordinary providence according to the influence of the celestial bodyes is deducible from another place in Job Chap. 38. v. 25. and so forward where God expostulating with Iob concerning his mighty works of providence reads a Lecture to him concerning the Meteors of Rain Lightening Thunder Dew and Frost with their causes and in the 31. Verse he hath this question to him Canst thou bind or restrain the influence of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion with other expostulatory questions The meaning thereof is this Canst thou stay the rain and hinder it from falling or canst thou loose the frost and make it thaw The Pleiades being a moist constellation in the shoulder of the sign Taurus which brings wet and Orion a dry constellation in the last decade of Gemini arising in the evenings in the beginning of the Winter causing frosts I might enlarge concerning Mazaroth viz. the 12. signs and Arcturus which are mentioned in the 32. vers but I hasten Nor is this my own private interpretation but it 's agreeable to the judgment of the most learned Interpreters upon the place and particularly of those that were Members of the late reverend Assembly of Divines in that their excellent exposition upon the

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies locus declivis or a steep place Yet I deny not but there may bee some Springs which at some small distance have a supply of water from the Sea but this makes nothing for their opinion concerning the supply of Springs at great distance and upon the high mountains lib. 2. c. 56. Pliny tells us of a Spring in the Gades which observes the Seas motion in ebbing and flowing and I am credily informed there is another in the Peak in Derbyshire which ebbs and flowes every twelve hours So the Spring at Giggleswick in Yorkshire ebbs and flowes many times a day even to the admiration whether that of Plinies may have any correspondence with the Sea or no I know not Lib. ● Nat Q●●st I am sure the other two have not and I had rather with Seneca look on such as these as wonders of God then trouble my selfe curiously to enquire into their causes that are too hard for me Se●●●l concet●s But these that are of opinion of the Seas percolation to be the cause of Springs are not all for this way of conveyance they say the water of the Se● is conveighed by transcolation into huge Caverns in the body of the earth indeed but then they differ again in finding its passage to the Spring heads each propounding a way according to their fancy Of agitation by subtterraneall winds as Socrates in Plato In Phoed. Compulsion by a Spirit or breath that is in the water as Pliny and Valesius Pl. l. 2. c. 65. of compression De sac phil c. 1. 63. and that either through the weight of the Sea it self Nat. Qu. lib. 3. a great part whereof he supposes to be out of its place in the air as Seneca ib. 2. The at nat Or of the earth as Bodinus and Thales Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Geograph Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Or attraction by the heat of the Sun and the heavenly bodies as Thomas Aquinas held Or Belmonts Sabutum or Virgins earth Ag in Sum. p. 1. q. 69. all which as they seem at the very naiming to be nothing more then empty conceits besides the disagreement that is among themselves tenders it the more questionable so they are sufficiently confu●ed some of them by Mr. Carpenter in his Geography Lib. 3. Nat. Qu. and the rest by Dr. French in his discourse upon the Spaw of Knaresbrough There is another account given by Empedocles an ancient Greek Philosopher Spaw p. 21. 22. c. as also Seneca for theebullition of Springs to which Gabriell Fallopius lib 1. de aquis medicatis c. 3. Mr. Carpenter Mr. Lydiat and Dr. French adhere the last taking a great deal of pains to make it out and that is by heat wheareby he will have the water which is conveyed from the Sea into the Caverns of the Earth to be elevated to the heads of Springs after the same manner as from the Sea to the middle region of the air and that is by resolving the water into vapors Dr. French opinion nor matters he whether that heat be above or beneath the waters if so be it turneth them into vapours and maketh them ascend as high as is requisite they should And this heat he will have maintained by subterraneall fires that are kindled and fed by Naphtha or some bituminous matter And he makes two degrees of heat one more intense in the deep Caverns to rarefie the waters in the Caverns into vapours the other more remiss nearer the superficies which must condense them again into waters which he illustrates by the head of an Alimbyck and the cover of a boyling pot whose more remisse degree of heat turns the vapours into water Although Aristotle who also will have water to be generated in the Earth L. 1. Meteor c. 11. says it is condensed by cold and the Philosopher seems as much to bee believed especially since its more agreeable to their own parallell of the middle region where certainly the vapours are condensed by cold That there are bituminous fires our own reason besides the testimony of good Authors doth sufficiently evince Sol. they being the efficient cause of hot Springs such as are those mentioned by Plato and Pliny the one in Sicily the other at Somosata and our own at the City Bath in Somersetshire besides many others from whence also are those burning mountains Aetna and Vesuvius besides others that we read of in Athours But first Dr. French supposes great Caverns of waters to be in the earth which come from the Sea pag. 16 17. pag. 23. the heat also to be of like proportion with the water what a conflict this would make in nature wee may easily judge when these two enemies fire and water must be so immured together I wonder the water being of like proportion which the fire doth not quench it or that the fire consumes not the water and so in both cases we should want water in our Springs and the world would be destroyed but it seems they do better agree and combine to bring about his end and he tells us how they both dwell together in the Caverns Secondly L. 1. meteor c. 10. this supposes the earth to be almost nothing but Caverns for if that be true that Aristotle saith concerning Springs that if all water that runs out of them in one year could bee kept in a vessell it would almost equalize the whole bulk of the earth and Dr. French tells us there is a like proportion of fire and water in the Caverns and reason tells us that fire cannot be kept in without a greater quantity of air which it continually consumes then what may wee judge concerning the Caverns Thirdly this implyes the Earth to be almost nothing but bitumen or Naphtha nor will his new generations be enough to maintain the expence Fourthly this supposes all the Earth to be on fire since almost in all places there are Springs and consequently contradicts the whole suffrage of Philosophers who call the Earth Elementum Frigidissimum Fifthly the Earth would in time be consumed by so many fires as saith Agricola it being of a calcinable and combustible matter Sixtly If it were so then the water would have a bituminous taste or smell which we know it hath not ordinarily it not differing in quality from those waters which are wont to break in the manner of Springs after great rains of which sort we have many break out yearly on the Wolds in York-shire commonly called by the name of Gypsies Lastly it s not probable that there are so many fires in the earth because those that dig in Mines in several Countries do meet usually with water which molest them but no fires But to proceed if the percolation of the Sea were the cause of Springs then we should usually have the most