onely deprehended and known from the affects CHAP. VI. Of the differences of Stars namely of the Benign the Mean and the Extreme hurtful IF the inferiour bodies be as the superiour which is confirmed by the Testimony of the Holy Ghost and of Hermes then all the stars in the Firmament do contain in them the anatomy of Diseases and Death but many are found forth whose resolutions are wholsome for in the inferiour Globe Nature hath set before our eyes Gold Silver Gemms Balmmint Roses Violets Betony Wheat Barley Wine Milk withall which Nature refreshes the vital spirits continually as with food and aliment Again we see the herbs and medicamental simple bodies Lettice Cassia Rheubarb Polypody or Oakfern Vinegar Agarick the herb Trinity Arsemart Cuckowpitle and others of that kind Lastly some do shew poison manifestly as Arsenick Wolf-bane Poppy Hemlock Antimony Vittiol Mercury Scammony Devils Milk Colocynth all which resist mans Nature and intend present death As the inferiour Globle yields unto us three Orders of all fruits of the Earth and Water common to things and kinds namely that some are wholsome unto men and necessary for life as is said of Wheat and Wine Some are indifferent and mean as is said of Cassia of Lettice Polypody and Rheubarb Some are altogether contrary to mans Nature as Arsenick Hemlock Woolf-bane Even so we distinguish all the stars in the visible Heaven into three Orders First some stars have the anatomy of Soundness whose resolutions are necessary for the health of Animals and they have also the sincere conditions of Nutriment neither is there any poisonful property found in them by sense or effect These stars answer in the inferiour Globe to Gold Silver Gemms Balmmint Rose Wheat Wine Milk Secondly some stars have tinctures and medicamental properties but yet lighter admixt in their exaltations and their resolutions which rise at the several times of the year and are frequent These stars in the inferiour Globe agree with Lettice Cassia Cuckowpintle Arsemart Agarick and others of this kind Thirdly some stars in the resolutions of the seeds shew the poisonful properties of Arsenick Auripigmentum Sulphur Woolf-bane Libberdsbane by manifest testimonies of the effects These stars in the inferiour sphere have these nigh and of affinity with them namely Mercury Antimony Arsenick Sulphur Woolfbane Scammony Ellebor the herb Devils Milk Colocynth c. From these it is manifest that natural things and fruits of the Elements as well of the superiour as of the inferiour sphere are divided into three Orders Into those which are benign and friendly unto mans Nature and into those which are indifferent and mean and lastly into those which are extreme hurtful and bring present death and destruction as all fruits of aliments and resolutions of seeds whether they be alimentary or medicamentary or extreme hurtful CHAP. VII Of the differences of Stars of which some Benign some Malicious THough it be not our purpose to handle of the differences of stars in this place and to explain their Nature and properties in particular Seeing that it belongs rather to Astronomy and Astrology notwithstanding seeing that this knowledge of stars in this Doctrine is especially required we will briefly say somewhat of it The first of all we must consider which Planets are benign which are malicious and hurtful and this of erring stars Concerning the fixt stars we have distributed them into seven Orders cap. 1. of this Treatise and that in regard of the Planets and dominant stars to whom the fixt stars do as it were serve and imitate the Nature of their dominant Planets That the benignity and clemency as on the contrary the malignity of the Planets might be made manifest we have divided the erring Stars or Planets into two kinds The clement or benign and the malignant The benign or clement Planets are the Sun Jupiter Venus Mercurius The malicious or malignant are Mars and Saturn The indifferent Planet is the Moon After the same manner the signs of the Zodiack are to be explained which the Planets or erring Stars illustrate and illuminate and for the Nature of the guests the Houses or Guesthouses are made friendly or malignant Notwithstanding for the most part they shew and exercise their malice in their proper houses as Saturn in Aquarius Capricorn and Libra which is the house of exaltation So Mars in Aries Scorpio and in Capricorn which is the house of exaltation It is to be observed that there are four triplicities of the Stars in the Zodiack and there are three signs attributed to every Planet which are indued either with good or malignant qualities by reason of the quality of their Planet Again those signs in the Zodiack are twofold in regard of the Elements Some are fiery and aery Some watery and earthly Saturn hath a triplicity in the fiery and aery signs Mars in the watery and earthly signs so that Saturn and Mars are thought to comprehend the whole necessity of things by their malignity for the Moon and Venus which otherwise are numbred amongst the benign and mild Planets when they are in the ends of Saturn or Mars they are made partakers of their malignity so that they are deprived of their good and friendly Nature unto men and take upon them the unfriendly Nature and malignant to their inseriours for these signs which are very much Saturnal and too much Martial are hurtful and unfriendly spirits naturally to the spirit so that we say the Signs or Planets are infortunate and contrary to mans Nature by Saturn or Mars unless they be in their Houses or Kingdoms that is either when they are there or have their Aspect thither either in Opposite or Quadrate We call the Opposite Aspect that which is betwixt those which are distant very far amongst themselves We call the Quadrate Aspect that when as one is distant from another the fourth part of the Heaven that is it is distant the third space of the signs and then the confluence doth somewhat mitigate the malice of Mars so Jupiter doth temperate the malignity of Saturn and bruises his poisonful glass The Aspect of Saturn or Mars unto the Moon exists every where ill and malignant And thus much of the Nature Property and Difference of the erring stars Now concerning the fixt stars and especially the signs All are not indued with poisonful and malignant properties manifestly but use and experience hath observed four namely Piscis Aquarius Scorpio and Cancer these are also malignant Pleiades Hyades the Constellations of Pisces which represent stupefactive somniferous Poppies and the Mandrakes tinctures as also the Sulphureous and Vitriol tinctures In like manner Bootes and Vrsae have the poisonful properties of Aquarius so also of Scorpio and Cancer The Satuâ—nine and Martial stars obtain the poisonful properties but more forcible and grievous of Auâ—ipigmental spirits Arsenick Armonial and Sulphureal spirits The revolutions or circular motions of these stars are made with great Eclipses and Conjunctions Hippocrates lib. Epidem
lie it is certain and most true that that which is below is as that which is above and that which is above is as that which is below This saying of Hermes is not only to be understood of the Conspiration and Harmony or Conflux and Consent of the First and uncorrupted Matter or of the stars of Generation in both the Globes but also of the Conspiration of the superadded tinctures and stars of Transplantation The Holy Ghost confirms this Hermes his concord of the superiour and inferiour things and as well of the first perfect Nature as of the corruptible and superadded Nature by John in the Apocalyp where it is writ that Apoc. â— the star of Wormwood fell upon the Waters and made the Waters bitter for the Destruction of man Furthermore this star and other like in properties are The Transplantation of Water and Earth deprehended to be in the superiour sphere â—â—ars of the Firmament So also the properties of Arsenick Colocynthis Devils Milk and Scammony and all the properties of things and of superadded tinctures according to the sentence of Hermes and Doctrine of the holy Ghost are found to be in the superiour Globe and visible stars which properties are hidden in the bodies of the inferiour Globe We were ever happy Astronomers Philosophers and Physicians if we knew that concordance of Hermes then we could truly interpret that which God spake by Moses That they were for signs which thing we see with half shut eyes these Concordances being not known Certainly many Physicians do neither believe nor do grant that from the stars of the four Elements as from universal causes of all Diseases as well spiritual as material acute as chronical all Diseases do rise seeing that the stars are such clear beautiful and lucid bodies which do absolve and finish a certain Course From hence it appears that they only read the Writings of the Heathen and that they have lost the great book of Nature and the book of Philosophy and art of Physick and that they have not read the Bible from which as from a Fountain all Wisdom floweth for if they had read the Bible with judgment they would have found it in express words writ in Job that the stars before God are not pure but contaminated with impurities and tinctures superadded wherefore as the Earth for the fall and prevarication of the first man was Cursed and filled with thorns and briers even so the superior bodies the like spiritually which the inferiours receive corporally which Hermes and all real Astrologers confirmed by Experience do affirm CHAP. V. Of the Being of Poison in the Visible Stars SEeing that in the visible stars of the Firmament there are found not onely the form of the Wheat but of Darnel and not only the Nature and Properties of Gold and Silver Balmmint and Rose but of Arsenick Woofsbane and Poppy it follows necessarily that the Being of Poison is contained in the Being of the stars though it differ from the being of poison in the inferiour bodies because it is in the stars spiritually but in the inferiour bodies corporally for Paracelsus in his book de ente Astr cap. 9. writes that there do not more poisons exist in the Earth than do in the stars when as he says all the kinds of poisons which the fruits of the inferiour Globe of the Earth and Water do shew unto us are likewise contained the stars of the Firmament And furthermore he saith of those exalted stars poisoned with impurities and resolved seeds that they can produce all Diseases which these inferiour bodies by the being of their poison can produce for the original and cause of all Diseases is the being of poison and all Diseases are generated from poison Wherefore Physicians perswade themselves that all Diseases as well spiritual as corporal have their original and beginning from the spiritual or corporal being of poison The being of poison is rightly distinguished for the difference of the superiour and inferiour bodies into the spiritual in regard of the superiour and corporal in regard of the inferiour bodies We have said in our Philosophy that no Element doth bring forth fruits in his own proper place but in a strange place and that the fruits of the Firmament were absolved and perfected in the Air for as the fruits of Sanity flowing from the Firmament are absolved in the Air so also the stars of the Firmament do lay down the fruits of Diseases and Death in the bosom of the air that there they may attain the predestinated term and perfection But seeing that the necessity of the air is so great to all living creatures that they cannot want it for a moment It comes to pass that not only brute Animals do attract corrupt and infected air by breathing but also men for the aliment of the Microcosm as of the superiour Globe is altogether invisible and spiritual Hippocrates in his book de flatibus shews the unresistible necessity of this aliment The necessity of breathing is so great to all mortal creatures that though man abstain from all other things so that he neither eat nor drink yet he may live two or three days or moe but if any man have the passages stopped by which breath enters into the body he dies in less than a moment of an hour Again men may cease from other labours but there is no rest or ceasing from breathing granted to any Paracelsus in his book de ente Astror cap. 7. calls the Air a great Mystery but yet for some analogy or similitude for by the air he understands the stars of the air which give life unto all things And it is truly said of Paracelsus in the same Treatise cap. 7. that all bodies and Elements are preserved by the air but not by the air alone but by seeds and stars for all aliments and nutriments are seeds but mixt with impurities Neither is the air alone as far as it is an Element infected with poisonsome properties but that great Mystery from the resolution of the poisonful tinctures is Transplanted and transmutated which gives aliment to the vital Balm So that this aliment being received and the great Mystery being Transplanted and transmutated the animal and vital Balm is also infected whereupon follows the Transplantation of the body into a calamitous chance Although this aliment be invisible and want external signatures by which they make differences of the aliments of the inferiour Globe as Taste Solidness Crasness Tenuity Clamminess Heat Easie or Hard Digestion yet it is not destitute of the interiour signatures for the spirits and resolutions of fruits of the superiour Globe are neither sweet nor sowr bitter nor sharp white nor black and very often admit or receive stinking smells In this aliment four qualities as the qualities or faculties of some poisons exist and triumph which neither by taste nor smell or any manifest qualities shew and manifest their occult qualities But pernicious resolutions are
he comprehends all those which we have brought sometimes he calls it the Epilepsie which is from sublimed Mercury He speaks truly Philosophically not as of a beginning but as of an individual in which Mercury notwithstanding predominates So it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the disease of Mercury the disease of Sulphur and the disease of Salt But that we may proceed to the being of Seed we must call in mind that there are impurities and tinctures adjoyned to every kind and worldly root which endeavour death and dissolution and for this cause all things are obnoxious to death and corruption Again that there are impurities and tinctures superadded to the individuals and beginnings which are usual unto mankind for lust and intemperance of which we set down the being of Seed for in them oftentimes the roots of the principles are so polluted that by propagation the impressions of impurities are conserved unto the third or fourth Generation which impressions of impurities we call hereditary diseases in Generations for diseases are brought unto man after a threefold manner either 1. a And these Diseases are called accidentary and acquisitivâ— Diseases vâ—z by Ttansplantation from outward things by the hurt of the aliments 2. by the hurt of external impressions 3. b These are called proper Diseases because we have them from the first original being got of the viclous seed of the Parents by the hereditary seed of the Parents for the seeds of diseases which happen unto us by the hurt of the aliments or noxious resolutions of the elements may turn into hereditary diseases in as much as they yet exist in the First Matter But when the seeds of diseases have happned unto us either by the hurt of aliments or by the hurt of external impressions and are come to their last matter and have admitted a corporeal coagulation or transmutation there never chance hereditary because only the First Matters concur in mans composition and all the seeds of man are spiritual from hence it comes to pass that those which have not the Gout are begot of those which Sev. p. 221. have the Gout and those which have the Falling-sickness are begot of those which have it not from those which have the Stone are begot those which have not the Stone But when the seeds of the diseases do concur with the seeds of the Parents in the First Matter whatsoever it be they cause hereditary diseases and from hence it is that those which have the Gout are begot of those which have it not so those which have the Epilepsie or the Stone are begot of those which have not the Epilepsie or Stone unless the Mothers seed be altogether disagreeable and repugnant for the seed of the Male and Female commix and become one seed therefore when their seeds have conspired and conjoyned with the properties and seeds of the diseases they generate one polluted with hereditary diseases but if the seeds of the Male and Female be disagreeable in regard of the impurities and seeds of diseases the strange and unnatural principles of diseases are separated in the womb by the power and vertue of natural Balm for they do not agree with the First Matter but with the individuals and principles of mans nature and anatomy which is made manifest from hence because they come unto divers differences of ages as sometime the hereditary diseases happen to end at the fourth Off-spring sometime at the sixth sometime at the tenth The Roots therefore being spent and consumed those which have not the Gout are begot of those which have the Gout and those which have not the Epilepsie are begot of those which have it of Mad-men and Melancholick From Lepers Lepers are still begot The cause of it in Sev. p. 222. are begot those which are not Mad and Melancholick Concerning that we said that the diseases from the being of seed of the Parents contain in them the four courses of the Elements Planets Humours and Qualities these four courses are but one course for in every disease these four concur First all diseases are elementated and have their beginnings Secondly all diseases are from the Planets by reason of their places for all diseases whether they rise by the hurt of the aliments or hurt of the external impressions or being of the seed of the Parents either are Solar Lunar Saturnine Martial Venerial Mercurial or Jovial Three Salts concur in every disease for from three principles all diseases are generated and not from one four qualities are found to be in all diseases for the diseases are either hot or cold moist or dry PART III. CHAP. I. Of the unity of the Stars of Generation and Transplantation and of the Curing of Diseases THe Stars of Generation are fourfold in regard of the Elements for every Element hath his Star vital principle and agent form which produces divers effects which differ in exteriour form but are like and every way correspondent in the interiour form Though there are four of these Stars and some diversity of Generation yea the greatest difference of the fruits may be beholden in the Elements yet if we examine the matter more deeply we shall find the unity of the Stars and the golden Chain of Homer of the whole World for the inferiour bodies are as the superiour are and the superiour are as the inferiour are Hermes and the Holy Ghost bearing witness because the Heaven conspires with the Earth and the Earth with the Heaven in all things who will deny the unity of Nature and the Society of the invisible Nature with the visible wherefore we profess that all the Stars of the Elements are only one Star which have been united from the beginning in the fountain of unity concerning that they produce divers effects in divers places we do not ascribe it to the diversity of the stars but to their Sciences Gifts and interiour Signatures In the general explication of diseases we have mentioned three kinds of Beings of Diseases The Being of Stars the Being of Nature and the Being of Poison but wherefore are there these three Beings for there is but one only star of Transplantation and there is only one Nature which suffereth yet not Nature it self but the receptacle and container of it whether do more affect than are affected not so but as in the Macrocosm there is a great difference of the Generation and the Transplantation of fruits to be observed so also in the Microcosm the Generation and Transplantation of diseases is to be observed for there is the same reason concordance conspiration and unity of the stars of Transplantation and Generation And from hence rises the Off spring oâ— Issue of contrariety oppugnance and discordance from hence also rises Hatred and Love for there is nothing in the whole World which is not connext with very many things by a natural bond and also repugns and is contrary to many other for surely all things are conjoyned and
inbred and Native heat It is also the first substance which they call the First-begotten moisture for it is the first and common to all living things in which the spirit perfused with heat primarily and by it self consists so that neither of them can endure long without the help and vertue of this humour for there is such an agreeable conspiring harmony and continual affinity amongst them so that they work mutually neither can any of them effect any thing being destitute and deprived of the help of the rest The Radical matter is as it were the Original and nourishment of the Heat for the heat is sustained by the benefit of it This Heat is as the principal efficient cause the Humidity is subjected to the heat in the place of the matter and suffereth more from which we may at the first behold as it were in a glass that the Native heat is the Radical moisture perfused every where with inbred spirits and heat And this is the whole substance of the sounder Galenists as they call them of the which we have sufficiently spoke Now it followeth that we handle of Nature CHAP. VI. Of Nature PLutarch a grave and learned man saith that the knowledge of truth is so amiable and delectable that our very being and act of living was given unto us for the knowledge of the truth Seeing therefore that it is elsewhere firm and stable but especially in Philosophy it is judged to be ratified firm constant and stable therefore I say it is to be weighed more deeply in our judgments lest that we be thought only to follow the shadow of Nature the image of light being left behind our backs and also lest that the inquisition of truth being posthibited we do fall into errours which cannot be avoided and so make our selves unwotthy of our life and office Certainly if we consider Aristotles Philosophy and the difference of the Nature of things and examine this well in a Philosophical ballance Aristotelians will seem unto us to be like Children which hold nuts in their hands but yet they are ever busie about the shells and never taste the kernel First we will bring the definition of Nature into light that it may throughly be understood of us Nature is the beginning of motion and of rest in that Aristotle in the second Book of Physical auscultations cap. 1. Josephus Michaelis in his Chemical apolygy p. 21. The Nature of every thing is nothing but the Commandement of God by which all things are that they are and do that they are commanded to do At his bâ—ck the Elements observe the prescribed Law and the Heaven and Earth do obev The substance and essence of Nature is inbred heat thing in which it is primarily and by it self and not by accident What doth he mean by this definition of Nature for it makes nothing for the knowledge of the very substance of Nature For though thou say unto me that Nature is the beginning of motion or that which moveth all things nevertheless it remaineth as yet unexplained and defined what the substance of Nature and what the essence of the Movent is from whence all actions proceed which are comprehended under Motion But these are the subtilties of the Peripateticks by which they bring counterfeits unto others but let us let them pass lest we be thought to contend with shades and ghosts and let us convert our speech to those which have searched forth the very essence of Nature and have contemplated the very truth thereof and have as it were handled it in their hands and seen it with their eyes with whom we profess that the substance and essence of Nature is Native and Inbred heat which before we have described It hath conformed and augmented Animals Vegetables and Minerals from the beginning and as it were nourish the cause of all natural effects Therefore Nature as likewise inbred heat comprehends three things namely Radical moisture Spirits and Heat All these ate generated of one seed and at one generation This is that Nature in which the seminary causes of things are secretly contained In which the Philosophy of the Platonicks triumphs Aristotle and Galen and their Sectators which writ the precepts of Natural Philosophy doubted not that there was a certain Nature with us and that well known and that which all conclude to be the vulgar principle of Philosophy which neither ought nor can be demonstrated which only we comprehend in mind and understanding Galen brings Hippocrates to confirm this in the ninth Book of the Opinions of Hippocrates and Plato Hippocrates durst not affirm what the substance of Nature is in the conforming and governing of us and that it was the workman and cause of us But Galen durst in his Book of Diet where he saith that Fire Hippocrates understands by the name of Fire Nature it self can move all things generally and that Water can nourish all things and that these two things are sufficient for all things and for themselves but neither of them separately is sufficient for it self or others in which words he manifestly declares the essence of Nature and the substance thereof in that he signified Nature by the name of Fire which moveth all things universally He calleth the essence and substance of Nature Water which nourisheth all things wholly for it is received from the more profound Philosophers that all natural bodies are nourished by this natural Balsam though not pure but mixed with diverse impurities so all nutriments are spiritual and humid after the similitude of seeds which in the beginnings of generations must be spiritual and humid But he expresseth his mind more plainly by much in these words These two are sufficient both for all others and for themselves but separately they are neither sufficient for themselves or others What meaneth he almost by this divine Oracle but that these two Fire and Water that is Nature and Essence to constitute all natural things from which they have their name But separately they are neither sufficient for themselves nor others that is neither Fire without Water nor Water without Fire or otherwise neither Nature without Essence nor Essence or substance without Nature can subsist And this is that which the Philosophers call the hot and humid temperament of all things Namely to continue in their state though perchance that one thing amongst the rest do prolong the life for many years So that many have supposed that it was not able to continue or consist seeing that continually without intermission of time the humour is consumed by the force of the Heat so that in a short time the Heat remaineth single in the place of the hot and moist temperament and at last it is brought to a hot and dry temperament Again the humour being consumed and wasted and the Heat being destitute of aliment by little and little it fadeth away and driness altogether succeeds and also the heat being dis-jected and cast forth of it and