the wood and juyce of Balsame Gumme-dragon Germander Euphorbium also the Oyles of Nard and Muske Do every one of these conspire for the scope proposed in the Etymologie Or whether from those being co-mixt together and perfuming the intentions of each other a new virtue shall arise which may compleat its Promises To wit Can it powerfully break the stone in the Reins and Bladder and can it presently loosen all the defects of Urine should not Opobalsamum rather perish in other excrements and sweepings But in Opiate confections there is the same deafness as in spicie ones every where easie to be seen The which that I may resolve by one onely example also For whither in Aurea Alexandrina Nicolai doth the confounding together of sixty five Ingrediences tend Of which Simples there is no affinity with Opium and Mandrake the pillars of the Confection Truly the congresses of Simples made at the pleasure of an ignorant man have befooled the Schooles and killed the sick they have frustrated them of their hope put into them and by uncertaine conjectures have exposed them to sale and made them to passe by the occasions of healing which are unstable every moment Therefore the compositions of the shops if thou dost examine them without prejudice of mind thou shalt on every side with a profitable admiration be astonished that in Syrupes Electuaries Pills Ecligmaes Trochies and other things the World hath been deluded by the prate of Physitians the foolish blockishnesses of the Schooles and their hurtful presumptions For we being Christians do believe with the Stoicks that the World was composed for Mans use And when as I in times past earnestly contemplated of that thing with my self it presently seemed to me that humane use might commodiously want so great or so many Poysons For our more cold climates I have found at least in this to be the more happy that they want creeping poysonsome and deadly Monsters wherewith otherwise the hotter Zone doth abound Surely we have not much necessity familiarity abundance of poysons neither shall their use in any respect recompense so many calamities arising from thence Yea if the earth doth bring forth Thornes and Thistles as a curse of Sin truly it brings far greater calamities unto us on its back as well in the order of living creatures as vegetables which are importunate of the life of Mortals wherefore the Text threatens some very small matter by the Thistles and Thornes which man had now bewailed as the greatest in the craftiness of the Serpent his Enemy Surely if it be well searched into Nature hath scarce any thing free which hath not its own Venom secretly admixed with it For we have not Roses or Violets which do not assault us as that under so great a fragrancy they do not hide the contagions of Poyson to wit notable markes of Putrifaction a co-melting of our body and filching away of our strength or faculties Therefore we entring into an account of simples shall find but few guiltless Yea if thou shalt cast an eye on the fields the whole globe of the Earth is nought but one onely and conjoyning spiders-web Moreover by a more full heeding of the matter there seemeth to be at this day the same face of things which there was before one only sin And so perhaps that there were from the beginning more hurtful and guilty Poysons than there were good Medicines in the earth yet there was not a Medicine of destruction for man Because Paradise wanted those Poysons although Serpents were present or perhaps Poysons were to be of no hurt to man in Eden by reason of his immortality But on the contrary the Almighty saw that whatsoever things even in the World out of Paradise he had made were good in themselves and for their ends Wherefore I long agoe was deceived in my self as thinking how unworthy Poysons were both because the Honour of God did not require their existence and also because man had willingly wanted many Poysons and so I supposed that Poysons were made neither for the glory of God nor for the use of man There are indeed a few things which are guiltless in the use whereof without a caution there is safety but most things do fight against us with a horrid Tyranny Other things also do gnaw us by scorching us with their sharpnesse very many other things do every where under a shew of friendship mock us and carry a secret destructive enemy within them But there is nothing universally which doth not abound with dreggs and is not horrid through impurities In the next place which doth not consist with crudities an unequal tempering and an unvanquished stubbornness of perverseness For although man was brought into Paradise yet the Creator of things worthy to be praised foreknew from Eternity that the World should be a Mansion for Man and as he gave the Earth to the Sons of Men so also he made the same for Man with all things contained therein At length I by Chymistry beholding all things more clearly it repented me of my former rashness and blockish ignorance For truly I did on every side humbly adore with admiration the vast Clemency and Wisdom of the Master-Builder For he would not have Poysons to be Poysons or hurtful unto us For he neither made Death nor a Medicine of Destruction in the Earth but rather that by a little labour of ours they might be changed into the great pledges of his Love for the use of Mortals against the cruelty of future Diseases For in them lies hid an aid or succour which the more kind and familiar Simples do otherwise refuse So horrid Poysons are kept for the more great and heroick uses of Physitians For bruit Beasts are scarce fed with them whether it be that they do beholdingly know a Poyson which else by odour and savour is not bewrayed or that a certain Spirit the Ruler of Bruits doth preserve those Poysons for greater uses as heirs of the greatest virtues At least-wise it is sufficient that bruit Beasts do leave the most powerful Remedies for us as it were by the command of the most High who hath more care of us than of Beasts For crude Asarum or Asarabacca with how great anguish doth it provoke Vomit and the Stomack testifieth that a Poyson is present with it and how easily doth it depart through boyling and the Poyson is changed into an opening Urine-provoking remedy of lingring Fevers the which the occult or hidden spiciness therein doth discover So Aron or Wake-robbin being boyled in Vinegar waxeth milde and becomes a healing Medicine of great falls Wherefore the Schooles have appointed corrections but I wish they were not ridiculous ones not rather geldings not withdrawings of their faculties Indeed they think that the laxative part flies away out of Asarum by boylings even as every thing doth through its own rottenness in languishing years consume But at leastwise the root of Asarum doth not wax mild being boyled in Wine even
enlargements every one being distinct in a particular degree in an understanding supernaturally arising Which I thus prove Every good Gift descendeth from the Father of Lights The obtainment of Healing is a good Gift Therefore it descendeth from the Father of Lights The major Proposition is of Faith But the minor is manifest as a Physitian as such is created by the Father of Lights They reply by a certain similitude and nothing to the Syllogism after this manner The Knowledge of God is more difficult than that of Medicine But the Heathens have naturally found by the Operations of their understanding the existence of the God-head Therefore they far more easily obtained the natural Science of Healing I answer by granting the whole if they shall not bring in four Terms Therefore even as by Nature none can draw the Light of Faith but only a certain shadowie knowledge So also in the Gift of Medicine I grant that a certain knowledge of healing is naturally attained by observations of what is helpful and hurtful but surely that knowledge is so shadowie and blind that it plainly resisteth the Text which should say in vain That God created the Physitian as such and him to be honoured unless there did shine forth some Light in this created Physitian above the vulgar ordinary and natural intellectual Power of the Soul At length that neither Atheists nor Heathens as neither Jews ever received that Gift of healing it is not elsewhere nor farther to be drawn than that De facto or from the deed done a Disease Remedies and every appropriation hereof are as yet to this day unknown to Mortals For it is an invincible argument The obtainment of Medicine hath been hitherto unknown Therefore God hath not given that gift unto Paganism in fore-past Agâ—â— at neither to the Schools they following 〈◊〉 Leaders The correlative whereof is That whosoever assents unto the Doctrins of the Paganish Schooles is secluded from the true Principles of Healing For I will demonstrate the Assumption God favouring me in an ample Volume To wit that the Principles of knowing the Causes and Roots in Diseases Remedies and Appropriations have remained unknown The Consequence is by it self clear unless they shall shew that every good gift is derived elsewhere than from God For it ought to be sufficient for the establishment of the Gift of Medicine that although the obtainment of Healing be so near the Nature of the Understanding that by reason of the nearnesse of natural Objects and their necessities it is accustomed to three natural Sciences apprehended by a simple Intellect yet as at least it includeth the Gifts of Prudence Counsel c. which are the free Gifts of the holy-Spirit truly the Gift of Medicine ought to be brought and expected from such a Beginning which is plainly carried above the path of Nature For oftentimes some one being sunk into the middle of his Dreams forthwith conceives a Knowledge which being awake he had never attained For Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge So oftentimes some one reads a place that was many times read without Fruit from whence at length he begins a more reformed Life For do not those things desâ—end from the Father of Lights Therefore such Knowledges are indeed infused although not â—â— the more excellent order They are I say Talents upon which the Understanding being weâ—â— formed doth afterwards build profitable Dostrins For the Learned as such shall shine before the unlearned in the Kingdom of Heaven if for the sake of learning their Soules have fitted themselves for the greater free Gifts For the Almighty hath pleased himself in the diversity of Mansions Quires Clearness and Understanding of Angels and of Men accompanying these At least-wise in favour of the obtainment of Healing he causeth that among the seven Spirits that are next to the Throne of God the name of one is the Medicine of God For he is above Principalities Thrones Powers and Dominions Nevertheless the heavenly Wights are not sick nor stand they in need of Medicine Neither is that Medicine of God to be taken metaphorically which well knew the Properties even in the Gawl of a Fish But in this place I have undertook the Birth or Original of the Disease of the Stone which I promised as the Stone contains a Metamorphosis or Transformation which in no wise can draw its beginning from Humours but from the meer excrement of the Urin. And therefore this Treatise might easily want a Treatise concerning the fiction of Humours and Complexions AN EXPLICATION OF SOME Words of Art 1. THe Liquor Alkahest of Paracelsus it resolves every visible Body into its first matter the power of the Seeds being reserved Concerning this Liquor Chymists do say The common People do burn by Fire we by Water 2. The Archeus of Paracelsus it is the vital Air of Seeds and the directress of Life and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates that is the Spirit that maketh the assault 3. Blas for want of an Etimology I call it the power of Motion as well alterative as local 4. Bur it is the juyce of Minerals or Mettals 5. The Duelech of Paracelsus it is the proper name of the Stone of man For Calculus or a pebble stone is a Metaphor 6. Gas is a Spirit not coagulable such as is from fermenting Wine and also that red one which through the operation of Aqua Fortis is belched forth c. 7. The Magnal is the Sheath in the Air being a middle Creature between a Body and not a Body 8. Magnum Oportet it is the Thistle and Thorn of the Earth in the middle Life of man whereof in a particular Treatise 9. The Leffas of Paracelsus is the juyce of the Earth newly drawn into the Root as it were the Kitchin of a Vegetable 10. The Zenexton of Paracelsus is an Amulet or Preservative Pomander against the Plague 11. The Powder of Vigo it is known to Barbers 12. The Element of the Fire of Venus is the Oyl of the Sulphur of Copper 13. Aqua Chrysulca and Regis it is Aqua Fortis and this same being married or joyned with somewhat less than a fourfold quantity of Sal Armoniack 14. Horizontal Gold it is Gold in its Weight but not yet sufficiently Yellow 15. Diaceltatesson of Paracelsus it is the Quicksilver of the Vulgar being coagulated in the Alkahest and tinged with the water of Eggs And it is made the Coralline Secret of the Essence and condition of Aureity or goldiness because it is also Horizontal 16. The Relolleum of Paracelsus is a Quality not having in it a seminal Being even as are the Elementary Qualities likewise the Colour and Signature of Simple things But the other Words less usual are either Medicinal ones or at least described and cleared up in the present Text of the Author and so are obvious to or easie to be understood by the Reader An unheard of DOCTRINE Concerning the manner of making the Contents Roots and dissolving
delivered that which she had eaten as she who was to do that very thing in Adam who did eat of the same In like manner through the diversity of the shining Light from the Darkness uncloathing it self we understand after what manner the Ministers or Servants of God are able by the Light to perform external and everlasting Works as to remove Mountains restore Sight to the Blind hearing to the Deaf to raise the Dead and likewise on the other hand how Evil and Dark men are able or powerful only in committing or acting Works which are seperated and mortal or noysom through their Darkness issuing out of themselves We have perceived also that the Tree of Life was placed in the midst of the Garden and likewise the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which we may collect out of the second and third following Chapter of Moses We also apprehend the Tree to be Good but its Fruits to have been Evil besides now we know this Tree together with Paradise from thy Words and the same from the second Chapter of Moses But the Lord God had from the Beginning planted a Paradise of Pleasure wherein he placed the Man which he had formed And the Lord God produced from the Ground every Tree that was Beautiful to behold and Sweet to eat also the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And a River went out from the Place of Pleasure to water the Paradise which was from thence divided into four Heads The name of one is Pison he it is which runs about or encompasseth all the Land of Havtlah where Gold is bred and the Gold of that Land is the best Furthermore we also conceive of this which is found in the third Chapter And when they had heard the voice of the Lord walking in the Paradise at the coole Air after noon day That which is further explained in the nineteenth Psalm of David The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth the Works of his hands Day unto day uttereth the Word and night unto night sheweth Knowledge There are no Languages nor Speeches of which their voices may not be heard Their sound hath gone out unto all the Earth and their words into the Borders of the Circle of the Earth He hath placed his Tabernacle in the Sun and he as a Bridegroome proceeding out of his Bride-chamber hath rejoyced as a Gyant to run his race or course his going forth is from the highest Heaven and his encountring even unto the highest part thereof neither is there he who can hide himself from his heat The Law of the Lord is unspotted converting Soules the Testimony or Witness of the Lord is faithful giving Wisdom to the little Ones The Righteousnesses of the Lord are right making glad Hearts The Precept of the Lord is lightsom or cleer enlightning the Eies The Fear of the Lord is holy remaining for Age of Age. The Judgments of the Lord are true being justified for their very own sakes they are to be desired above Gold and much Pretious-stone and are sweeter than the Honey and the honey Combe For thy Servant keepeth them in keeping them there is much reward Who understandeth his Faults Cleanse thou me from my secret Ones and from strange Ones spare thy Servant If they shall not have dominion over me then I shall be unspotted and I shall be purged from the great Fault And the Speeches or Oracles of my Mouth shall be such as may be well pleasing and the Meditation of my Heart alwayes in thy sight Oh Lord my Helper and my Redeemer We have also known that mortal Man might reach to the Tree of Life and enjoy it when he shal be a Cherub and he may be made one as Moses witnesseth in the third Chapter of Genesis And he said Behold Adam hath become as it were one of us knowing Good and Evil now therefore least happily he stretch forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever And the Lord God sent him out from the Paradise of Pleasure that he might labour the Earth from which he was taken and he cast out Adam and placed before the Paradise of Pleasure Cherubims and a flaming Sword and that which turned about to keep the way of the Tree of Life Seeing that now that two days limited space is slipt away and that thou art to be left by us in a short time we first covet to hear because thou art instructed in the four lesser orders whether likewise thou dost ambitiously seek the other three or to be promoted into a Doctor of Medicine Mercurius The Priesthood is a great office and requireth many things now especially they ought to answer concerning many things and to be perfect when they will rightly discharge their duty the which I never should dare to undertake but constrainedly The Doctorship of the Art of Medicine I deservedly shun because the Professors of the same do for the most part foster other mens opinions and do the less follow the Truth But I shall intreat God that it would please him to grant me daily to perform his will with all my might even as long as Life shall last The prosperous Wisemen of the Night did bless thee with their Prayer exhorting proceed thou in thy purpose and act thou that thou mayest 〈…〉 through the mediation of the day of Saturn in the day of Lune by the day of Sol liberty to thy self as was said And next we commend thee to the supplication of our followers who have charged accused and convicted thee that thou mightest bring forth all the aforesaid things or secrets to light Speak to them and hear them gently as they shall observe all things which thou dost put in practise for this two days space we have stood to our Commission For these things thou having performed thy due thanks towards these wise Sirs and Masters didst say unto their followers Ye lovers of the Truth ye that are most honoured together with ye that are lesse honoured noble ignoble and ye who are present I have known none of you apart although I have been pricked forward by you because your countenance is now vailed unto me Know ye that I do humbly beseech you all known and unknown not displeasantly to receive my ready poor labour and courteous affection which devotes it self readily to serve all and every one of you with all its might Which words they hearing did aloft testifie their acceptation and a great number of those that were known did begin to undo their vails some did read written letters unto thee others sounded out Hymns in honour of thy Father and his Writings they being sent unto thee whereby they might be prefixed unto thy Fathers Work This applause ceasing after thy thanks being most perfectly performed thou didst go on I have known many of you some by sight and talk others by a
set before it According to that saying For who knowes the things that are of man but the Spirit of a man that is in him afterwards then the Soul opened the Eye-brow of the right Eye For it was not indeed in the likeness of a mans Eye distinguished by Coats the Apple and diversity of humours but the Eye was the onely round clear even as the Seat of Venis seemeth to be afar off which Eye although it was most exceeding beautiful in brightness yet through its unaccustomedness it struck me to the heart But it shone as well inwardly towards the bottom of the Soul as without thorow the whole Soul and it sent forth a beam into the splendor of that understanding afore hidden which had framed a selfishness severed from it self But it desired an account from the animosity or sturdiness of the sensitive Soul to wit whether in the composing of this Book it had alwayes with a resigned will nakedly offered up all things into the most pleasing goodness and well liking of God or indeed it at any time had presumed of it self like those that are busied all their life time in thinking of the Title of a Sepulchre Or what posterity should think of it But the selfishness as it were the light of a disoussing Intellect refusing to suffer endeavoured to sink it self within the body by privily I lifting of the diligent examination of contemplative truth But in the same kinde of visions wherein the understanding apprehendeth the selfishness this standeth as besides the Body Where ore it not being able to hide it self from the ray of the Soul which did shine thorow it after a wholly unaccustomed manner it sought a crafty evasion as though for the bashfulness of the thing and newness of the place it required a truce till the next day after the morrow hoping that perhaps by one dayes delay the understanding might be unmindeful of its Enterprise But the Soul said Every day hath its burden and desires its own account there is no need of delay to the confession of truth also the morrow will give no aid Thus therefore withdrawing and delay are taken away Then therefore the selfishness confessed I confess and willingly abhorre that the general frailty of men disposed to Custom hath forthwith defiled me I believing that honour did deservedly and worthily nourish all Arts according to the saying of the Heathens which being said the selfishness it self perceived its deformity And thereupon even the intellect being the more smitten with grief as it were sighed knowing my want yea and too much miserable want of understanding in the body the which as yet notwithstanding with the applause of men and having enjoyed a little unconstant glory it would carry out For by a special priviledge all honour and glory belongs to God I knew therefore that I had denounced War against God and had brought in an estrangedness on the whole Universe by a vain endeavour Because the universal order of things is that all things be primarily in their ultimate end and totally for the honour of God Therefore that my labour might not be wholly reprobate as yet far off from goodness it was altogether needful seriously to purge by Sacrifice this my blot Wherefore hither did repentance look and was expected from above with an importunate suit Which coming to me another Eye at length opened it self For then I saw that the searching into all things which are under the Sun was a good gift descending from the Father of Lights into the Sons of men for a diligent Study and a certain serious amending of forepast ignorance otherwise the danger of a vain complacency or well-liking would sometimes vex by the By. Wherefore I humbly begged of the Lord for the good pleasure of his own piety with the every way displeasure of my own vanity that he would spare me and vouchsafe to mortifie the selfishness alwayes reflex or returned upon me In the mean time I decreed with a resolute minde to bury this Book in the fire which very thing I had also performed and was now ready to execute had not another intellectual Vision offered it self unto me for I saw before me a most exceeding beautiful Tree spread forth as it were thorow the whole Horizon whose greatness and largeness notably amazed me It was bespangled with flowers innumerable odoriferous and of a most pleasing and lightsome Colour every one whereof had a bud behinde them a pledge of Fruit. Therefore I cropt of one of so many ten thousands for my self and behold the smell colour and whole grace of the Flowre straightway perished At the same instant an understanding of the Vision was given to me To wit all the gifts of God to be like Flowers and more glorious than Salomon in his Throne indeed of great expectations if they shall remain in the Tree But if man doth appropriate the gift to himself or dareth to crop it off from its original although the Flowre doth vanish from him yet the cropper remaineth the debtor of the promised Fruit. Therefore I decreed hereafter to leave the gift of God in its own Tree nor to arrogate any thing to my self by cropping it off and I willingly confess my aforepast ungratefulness towards the Tree Because whatsoever I have of his hath been freely bestowed and granted me for a time conditionally But from the bottom of my Soul do I detest my vain and foolish ignorance because I thought that gift falling with a strange beam into me in the first place to reflect upon my self For as from mud or dung there ascends a stinking sent or smoak so from Learning a pride of Learning Indeed I delighted rather in the Being of Reason than in the sound truth thinking it would happen after an honourable death that none shall make himself great by desert Indeed that honour would be an applause of many through the judgement of those that erre Therefore I abhorre I refuse from this day and renounce the prayses whatsoever they be that any one at any time shall give me Now at length I perceive what spots the love of a little vain glory may have I have denounced open Warre against the same knowing yea feeling by the afore-past Vision that although it be easie not to take praise while it is not given yet how hard it is not to delight in the same while it is offered Because I have experienced how horrid a thing it may be in the Age to come to have attributed part of the whole glory due to God to ones self upon any trifling account Therefore I did desire that this Book might issue out for the common good the name being suppressed that I might testifie that I do hereafter despise the common Air or Applause But the Decree of the Powers hindereth Every Soul is subject to the Powers Let God the Fountain of all good light help me that I may proceed to scorn my self in good earnest while as sometimes behinde and
working motion to the co-working the action doth re-bound Therefore things that are produced without life do not receive their forms through the makeable disposition of the working terme or limit but onely they do obtain the ends or maturities of their appointments and digestions For while from the causes of Minerals or Mettalls a stone doth re-bound or from the Seed of a Plant while a Plant is made no new Being is made which was not by way of power in the Seed but it onely obtains the perfecting of the appointed ripeness And therefore power is given to the Earth of producing Herbes but not to the water of producing Fishes Because it is not so in things that have a living Soul as in Plants For as their Monarchies are plainly unlike so also their manners of generation and generating For therefore the natural gift of increasing Seeds durable throughout Ages is read to have been given to the Earth not so in living Creatures although these in the mean time ought to propagate Therefore the Seeds of things that are not soulified are indeed propagated no otherwise than as light taken from light Yet in the partaking of which enlightning the Creator is of necessity the chief Efficient But the Creator alone createth every where a new light whether it be formal or also vitall of the individual that is brought forth for neither was that light before not so much as in part although from the potential disposure or fit or inclinable disposition the Seeds of things not soulified may in some sort be reckoned to obtain a Form so are things that have life yet the formal virtue is not so neerly planted in these as in Plants For Souls and lives as they know not degrees so also not parts And although the Seed of a living Creature may have a disposition unto life yet it hath not life neither can it have it or effect it of it self for the Reasons drawn from the Rise or Birth of Forms Wherefore I shall teach by and by that there are not four Elements nor that there is a uniting of the three remainders yea nor of two that bodies which are believed to be mixt may be thereby made but that to the framing of these two natural causes at least do abundantly suffice the matter indeed is the veriest substance it self of the effect but the efficient its inward and seminal Agent and even as in living Creatures I acknowledge two onely Sexes so also are there two bodies at least the beginnings of any things whatsoever and not more even as there are onely two great lights For the three beginnings of bodies which the Chymists do call Salt Sulphur and Mercury or Salt Liquor and Balsam I will shew in their place that they cannot obtain the Dignities of beginnings which cannot be found in all things and which themselves are originally sprung from the Element of water and do fail being dissolved again into water as at sometime I shall make to appear for it behoveth the nature of beginnings to be stable if they ought to bear the name and property of a Principle Therefore there are two chief or first beginnings of Bodies and corporeal Causes and no more to wit the Element of Water or the beginning of which and the Ferment or Leaven or seminal beginning by which that is to be disposed of whence straightway the Seed is produced in the matter which the Seed being gotten is by that very thing made the life or the middle matter of that Being running thorow even into the finishing of the thing or last matter But the Ferment is a formall created Being which is neither a substance nor an accident but a neutrall thing framed from the beginning of the World in the places of its own Monarchie in the manner of light fire the Magnall or sheath of the Air Forms c. that it may prepare stir up and go before the Seeds This is indeed a Ferment in general But what things I here suppose I will at length evidently shew every thing in its place I will not treat of Fables and things that are not in being but of Principles and Causes in order to their ends actions and generations I consider Ferments existing truly and in act and individually by their kindes distinct Therefore Ferments are gifts and Roots stablished by the Creator the Lord for the finishing of Ages sufficient and durable by continual increase which of water can stir up and make Seeds proper to themselves Surely wherein he hath given to the Earth the virtue of budding from it self he hath given so many Ferments as expectations of fruits that also without the Seed of the foregoing Plant they may out of Water generate their own Liquors and Fruits Therefore Ferments do bring forth their own Seeds not others that is every ones according to their own Nature and property which the Poet saith For Nature is subject to the Soil Neither doth every Land bring forth all things For there is in places a certain order divinely placed a certain Reason and unchangeable Root of producing some appointed effects or fruits nor indeed onely of Vegetables but also of Minerals and Insects or creatures that retain their life in a divided portion For the soils and properties of Lands do differ and that by reason of some cause of the same birth and age with that Land Indeed this I attribute to the formall Ferment created in that place Whence consequently divers fruits do bud and of their own accord break forth in divers places whose Seeds being removed to another place we see for the most part to come forth more weakly as counterfeit young But that which I have said of the Ferment or Leaven placed in the Earth that very thing thou shalt likewise finde in the Air and Water for neither do they want Roots Gifts fermental Reasons or respects which being stable do bring forth fruits dedicated to places and Provinces and that thing not onely the perseverance of fruits doth convince of but also the voluntarily and abundant shedding abroad of unforbidden Seeds Therefore the Ferment holds the Nature of a true Principle divers in this from the efficient cause that the efficient cause is considered as an immediate active Principle in the thing which is the Seed and as it were the moving Principle to generation or the constitutive beginning of the thing but the Ferment is often before the Seed and doth generate this from it self And the Ferment is the original beginning of things a Power placed in the Earth or places but not in seminal things constituted But the Ferment which growes up in the things constituted or framed together with the properties of Seeds hath it self in manner of the efficient cause unto the Seed of things but the seminal Ferment is not that which is one of the two original Principles but the product of the same and the effect of the individual Seed and therefore frail and perishing Whereas otherwise the
principiating Ferment laid up in the bosoms of the Elements continues unchangeable and constant nor subject to successive change or death Therefore it is a power implanted in places by the Lord the Creator and there placed for ends ordained to himself in the succession of dayes While as othewise the Seed in things and its fermental or leavening force is a thing which the Scene of its Tragedy being out of date doth end in an individual conclusion For a thing although it successively causeth off-spring from it self that comes to passe not but by the virtue of the Ferment once drawn which therefore ceaseth not in its own Places uncessantly to send forth voluntary or more prosperous fruits by the Seed of the former Parents These things are easie to be known in Mineralls sprung of their own accord but in Plants and living Creatures generating by a successive fruitfulness of the Seed it is not alike easie as neither in things soulified counterfetting indeed a confused Sex by putrifaction but straightway causing off-spring also by a mutual joyning But there is every where the same Reason of the Ferment and so that the Ferment is on both sides the same Principle For in the Seed it is placed by the Parent and undergoes an identity or sameliness with the same or it is imprinted in the matter elsewhere from external causes and at leastwise it on either side holds the place of a true inward efficient Because the framer of things hath ordained proper and stable places for some Ferments in the Cup or bosome of the Elements as it were the Store-house of the Seeds therefore the first figures of efficient causes But in other things he hath dispersed them thorow individual things and kindes as if they were places for elsewhere he would have these beginnings stedfast in regard of the Nature of bodies in which they are in but in another place that they might passe from hand to hand into the continuances of things But in this he would have them to differ that the stable Ferments of places should be as it were the chief universal simple and inchoative or beginning Beginnings of Seeds or the efficients of natural Causes which indeed should beget with Childe the Element of Water in it self in the Air or in the Earth But that the sliding Ferments of frail Bodies and those Ferments drawn from the Parents should onely concern the matter prepared and should sit immediately in the bosom of the Seeds and therefore also that they should contain the inward necessity of death Likewise the other universal beginning of Bodies which is the water is the onely material cause of things as the water hath the Nature of a beginning it self in the manner purity simpleness and progress of beginning even as also in the bound of dissolution unto which all Bodies through the reducing of the last matter do return Which thing I will straightway in its place typically demonstrate A Beginning therefore differs from a cause onely speculatively as that is an actual initiating Being and thus far causing But a Cause may be a terme of relation to the thing caused or the Effect happily neerer to a speculative Being Or distinguish those as it listeth thee I at leastwise understand Causes to begin and beginnings to cause by the same name whether it be in the bosom of the Elements or in the very Family of material Seeds Therefore in the History of Natural things I consider the matter for the most part begotten with Childe by the Seed running down from its first life unto the last bound of that conjoyned thing but not the first matter of Aristotle or that impossible non-Being But I consider the reall beginnings of the efficient cause conceived as the first Gifts Roots Treasures and begetting Ferments Or if the Reader had rather confound the efficient Cause with the Ferment of things and the matter of Bodies with the Element of water I willingly cease to be distinct onely that it be known how those things have themselves in the light of Nature Thus at least I have discoursed of beginnings and causes of Bodies as I judge and have found by experience also I promise much light to those who shall have once made this speculation their own Therefore first of all they shall certainly finde the Maxime of Aristotle false to wit that the thing generating cannot be a part of the thing generated Seeing that the effective Principle of generation is alway the inward Agent the inward doer or accomplisher and the thing generating Which appeareth clearly enough in those things which bring forth living Creatures by their onely Mother putrifaction Wherein there is no outward univocall or simple thing generating but the seminal lump it self or the generative Seed doth keep in it self all things which it hath need of for the managing of generation But truly neither is it sufficient to have shewen a couple of Causes but rather it hath holpen more plainly to have brought forth the efficient or chief Builder of the Fabrick Wherefore I do suppose in this place what things I will demonstrate elsewhere to wit that in the whole order of natural things nothing of new doth arise which may not take its beginning out of the Seed and nothing to be made which may not be made out of the necessity of the Seed But the Tragedy that hath done its office in the bound of the end is nothing out the period or conclusion of the Seeds overcome with pains or ended unless happily they may be compelled by violence to depart Wherefore I except the fire because as being given not for generation but for destruction Chiefly because there is a peculiar not a seminal beginning of it Indeed it is a thing among all created things singular and unlike as sometime in its place Last of all I except the influences of the Heavens which by reason of their most general appointment have no seminal power in themselves Because they are too far distinct from the lot or interest of things to be generated and therefore influences are chosen to be for signes times or seasons dayes and years by the Creator nor ordained for any thing else but not for the seminal causes of things Moreover of efficient and seminal Causes in Nature some are efficiently effecting but others effectively effecting Indeed of the former order are the Seeds themselves and the Spirits the dispensers of these and those causes are of the race of essences through their much activity worthily divided from the material cause But the effective efficients are the very places of entertainment and the neerest Organs or Instruments of the Seeds such as are external Ferments the disposers of the matter into the interchangeableness of the passing over of one thing into another Also hither have the dispositive powers of circumstances regard likewise the cherishing exciting and promoting ones because the Seed being given yet not any things promiscuously do thence proceed Besides our young beginner shall
thing doth it not assume the same thickness of water even by reason of cold For so they had at least spoken something likely to be true Give heed therefore whosoever thou art that endeavourest by healing to work out the salvation of thy Soul what a Patron the Schooles do hitherto defend By what counsel have they made the Elements Complexions and degrees of qualities the foundation of healing who being seduced not but by a sleepy credulity have yielded the number essence use properties fruits and passions of the Elements and their own names to heathenish blindness Behold how slavishly the Schooles have borrowed their Elementary qualities and would have them be obedient at the pleasures of Dreams they have coupled increased blunted or repressed and divided them they have even sent abroad as it were wan devises for the causes of natural things knowings of Diseases healings and destructions of the Temples of the holy Spirit Therefore the air water and earth are cold by Creation because without light heat and the partaking of life Heat therefore is a stranger to them external to the Elementary Root But the air and earth are by themselves dry the water onely is moyst These are the qualities of those Bodies which none may vary as it listeth him But the air hath emptinesses as in its place else where whereby it drinks up and withholds vapours This is the state order Complexion of the Elements And which belongs not to the profession of Medicine unless by the way And so I will shew that in the Schooles that which least belongeth hath been very much searched into as if it were of the greatest moment and that which is of the greatest moment hath been hitherto neglected Because the whole pains of Physitians hath given place to mockeries and unprofitable brawlings Therefore if the Elements do not enter into mixt Bodies vain is the Doctrine of the Schooles touching the number composition temperaments concerning the contrariety proportion strife and degree of Elements for degrees are bound to the Seedes of simple Bodies not to an Element They are vain trifles whether the forms of the Elements do remain in the thing mixt because they are those things which are not in it as an Element it never ceaseth from that which it once began to be except the water to wit when being espoused to the Seeds it departs into a Body which hath hitherto been believed to be mixt Vain therefore is their fight interchangeable course Victory and that hence every Disease dissolution ruine healing and restoring doth depend Vain also is the method which is framed by contraries fetched from hence For the Schooles being by degrees guilty of those ill patched lies however they may a long time prate concerning Complexions at length they fail and being contented with feigned humours they scarce any more do debate concerning the fight of the Elements except in the six things besides nature and the frivolous Commands of Diet. 1. The Air and Water are Bodies not to be changed into each other The Demonstration The air which is in A being made thin by the heat of that which encompasseth it increaseth by the increase of dimensions and therefore it takes up more room than before Which thing notwithstanding cannot be unless it drives the Liquor B. C. into C. E. otherwise a poriness or fulness of little holes of the Vessel should be admitted or a Rupture of A. Which contradicteth the supposition of Heer and successively the air which was in C. E. into the Vessel D. But D. cannot receive that air unless it drive away so much air through the hole of the Pipe F. The Conclusion Therefore without the opening in F. the Liquor B. C. had not been moved from its place Therefore it is no wonder that the Liquor of Vitrioll hath by little and little exhaled of its own accord through the necessary opening in F. Therefore the stupidity or dulness of N. is laid open to whom when I had given many Instruments of like sort yet he had never observed the opening in F. Yea although I had plainly shewen these things to him many being present before that he had set forth his ridiculous fable against me yet he feigned afterwards that he wondred Because that Liquor had perished by degrees He saith that he found the whole Vessel most perfectly shut for neither doth that which is not exactly shut deserve to be called shut yet he grants that a motion of the Liquor was made which had shewen the temperature of the air And that the Liquor was changed into air the Glasse being shut Therefore false observations being supposed I will discover his misfortunes It being granted that the Vessel D. is as equally shut as is the Vessel A according to his supposition The thing required we must demonstrate That the water B. C. cannot be moved Likewise that it cannot teach the temperature of the air also that it could not be dried up or exhale Likewise that it could not be turned into air The preparing of an absurdity For if he admitteth of the motion and dryness of the water he ought to admit absurdities and contradictories or to confess his errours The preparing of the demonstration Let some heat be applied to the Vessel A. exceeding the temperature of the air encompassing for then the air included will enlarge it self according to the more or lesse heat and according to and as it exceedeth the true temperature of the air shut up in the Vessel D. against which it driving forward the water B. C. it shall destroy the equall tenour through too much action So that the air shall be pressed together and co-thickned by restraint that it may yield to the enlargement made in A. The Demonstration Therefore according to the supposition of Heer that air pressed together is turned into water the Liquor had never failed in the Vessel Yet his own observation will have it that the Glasse being on every side exactly shut the water was nevertheless dried up and made air But he cannot admit of dryness in a Glasse exactly shut unless his own supposition be destroyed to wit that air pressed together is changed into water neither again can that supposition subsist unless he shall admit of the continuance of the Liquor which notwithstanding doth contradict his own observation Likewise he cannot admit of the moving of the Liquor B. C. unless he shall grant the Glasse to be opened in F and by consequence he confesseth he hath erred in his observation And which thing although by the force of demonstrations he was constrained to confess before that he vomited forth his Apologie with all kinde of reproaches against me yet he hath persisted therein to discover his own ignorances The Conclusion Therefore it must needes be if the water B. C. be moved through some temperature of the air that both the Vessels A and D are not shut For else the Instrument should not be convenient for measuring of the temperature of
of the belly which is sometimes otherwise seen in devouring Children their Pylorus being not yet sufficiently able to obtain its own ends Therefore weaker stomacks do complain that great sournesses do arise in them which in the morning they do cast up with their yesterdays food or at night with the Chyle of the precedent Noon and the Reliques of their last meats Furthermore for a more full knowledge of these things we must repeat that it belongs not to the veins of the stomach to suck to them the Chyle detained in the stomach likewise that vomiting is made by the Pylorus being shut and that the whole length of the stomach is contracted from the neather parts upwards to the Orifice Lastly that this motion is made by the Pylorus which if he should be opened he should certainly unload the stomach of a lesse trouble but seeing he openeth not himself he judgeth it to be inconvenient for health to have those dregs dismissed beneath And so he hath seemed to me to be the Rector or governour of digestion But that vomiting doth happen two manner of wayes To wit by the proper Blas of the Pylorus but then it is without pain But the other is made by provokers and that although it be made also by the Pylorus yet not by its own proper will Therefore also it is troublesome and grievous at leastwise vomiting is not made unless by the shutting of the Pylorus Else that should fall down into the Duodenum which is expelled by vomiting For when vomiting is made by the proper motion of the Pylorus all of whatsoever it judgeth to be hurtful to it self parteth at the first vomit But if the Pylorus be provoked by a repeated vomit other things are ejected than those which bewrayed themselves in the first vomit To wit yellow yolkie things and then those things do follow which are of a more transparent yellowness like the Oyl of Rape-seeds and which are believed to be gaulie by reason of their bitterness and at length now and then things Skie-coloured and green which by taking of the more cruel purging Medicines do happen straightway after the beginning Here the Pylorus was opened between the first and following vomits so that whatsoever doth lay hid in the empty or fasting gut and in neighbouring places the Pylorus may pull upwards unto himself whereby he may wash off as it were the mark imprinted by the Medicine But those things are for the most part bitter both because they have again and again undergone the ferment of the Gaul and that an exorbitant and angry one then also because they are besides their Custom snatched up into anothers Harvest where they are corrupted into an excrement made notable by the quality of the ferment which it hath immediately drawn therefore the Chyle in the same place becomes gawly and bitter But in this place I do behold the Schools with admiration that they should prescribe meats of an easier digestion to be sent into the stomach before those which are of a harder cocture being unmindful of their own Doctrine which sheweth that all Contents of the stomach are turned into a single or simple Chyle but the Pylorus to be so shut from the beginning that it suffers nothing even so much as a drop to slide forth before digestion be finished Next that coction is made by the un-cessant heat of the stomach and so for this cause also the digestion continued from the beginning to begin neither ever to keep holiday as long as its Valcan heat doth remain But that all particular things contained do receive that digestive heat after the manner of the receiver which Doctrine indeed standing seeing all things are reduced into a liquid Chyle and are thorowly mingled exquisitely in the one onely pot of the stomach it followes that in feeding those things are first to be sent in which are of a harder digestion because they are cooked by so much the longer space of heat Suppings say the Schools and things of a more ready coction if they are taken last would putrifie if they expect the ultimate bound of the more hard assumed things As if the digestive faculty were the parent of putrefaction neither that there should be made a co-mixing of things eaten or a conversion into a fluid Chyle but that those things which are taken by morsels should lay secret by Soils or Grounds As if I say the Pylorus should open it self by set periods or turns that the order may be kept in dismissing the Chyle which there was in receiving of the meats which things if the Schools shall believe to be possible the Pylorus at leastwise should have a greater power of discretion in observing the priorities of meats than that the Schools should so sloathfully neglect its office But the closure of the Orifice doth not conduce unto digestion neither doth it govern the appetite But the Pylorus doth command both because a sufficient satiety is indeed for the most part present yet moreover we as yet do eat and drink from vice Therefore the closure of the Orifice is not from an appetite as neither from fulness But weariness loathings and aversion from fleshes do begin presently after Fevers and the rise of Diseases of the stomach and they have the Orifice shut Therefore the Orifice is neither shut from fulness nor for the necessity of concoction as neither is it continently or sparingly opened by reason of appetite to wit if it be shut without appetite fulness and concoction and doth remain open after fulness in time of coction For belchings are uttered in the morning the stomach being fasting empty and desiring yet belching doth denounce a closure of the Orifice In the next place the Orifice is shut in those who being pressed with long hunger do languish and who have been infirm through a long continuing abstinence from food To whom the unstopping of the Orifice is very difficult grievous and painful If therefore the Orifice be not necessarily shut from hunger appetite fulness and coction therefore the closing or opening of the Orifice doth not respect necessities in the coction of the serving faculties but the Orifice doth especially serve for this least to him that layes down the Chyle should re-gorge into the jawes whence first of all it is manifest that the service of the Pylorus is more famous than that of the Orifice For truly he is the Ruler of the whole Family-administration of the stomach even unto the last Circle of the Intestines or greater bowels wherein because seeing the operation of the Gaul is perfected therefore also the Gaul ought to be superstructed and incumbent on the Pylorus Of both which if there be not a full consent Fluxes wringings of the Bowels Dysenteries the Hemorrhoids or Piles and divers miseries of the Abdomen or bottom of the belly do arise It is also an erroneous thing in Galen and his modern Schools that we do hunger and thirst onely through the penury of venal bloud and
the Bloudy-flux The spittle of a Dog cures wounds by licking them but if he be corrupted with madness he propagates the deadly poyson of his own madness on other Species yea on general kindes we have Houshold examples Eunuchs are beardless of a straighter neck their knees being writhed inwards c. Therefore the Beard at least doth efficiently depend on the stones being come to maturity yea the whole habit of the Body and inclinations of the Soul in gelded persons do differ from entire individuals which thing is evident and daily seen in an Oxe a Bull a Capon and a Cock But yet the stones have not their Pipes Fibers Guards or Vapours on the skin of the Chin on the feathers of a Cock or on the horns of a Bull as neither on the animosity or sturdiness of the minde or on the haires But there is an unsensible influx of the stones as it were another of the Moon beginning even from an Infant before the ripeness of age also at the time of ripe years changing the voyce Therefore the action of government of the stones is no otherwise than as the Moon begetteth the Marrows with child So the Brain is the chief over growth which the straining of the turning joynts in crook-backed folks or putting bones out of joynt do sufficiently shew Which thing also in the womb doth not sluggishly offer it self by reason of the womb alone a Woman is that which she is she wants a beard and although she be of a moyster habit of Body yet she growes sooner to a perfect state She suffers other disturbances and animosities and makes another flesh and bloud diverse from a man And so that also for the wombs sake the Sex assumes a devotion to it self by a certain Prerogative The ruler of these actions sits in the womb who being sore smitten or disturbed in his own Circle is for the producing of all Diseases universally And therefore the Jaundise Apoplexie Strangling Asthma c. are not from things retained But they draw their original from a more sublime Monarchy For oft-times the womb straineth one onely tendon in the foot or throat or it plainly presseth together the whole Weasand as if the disease were local when as in the mean time no exhalation is sent directed or received unto that sinew or place For by an Aspect onely it contracts the Lungs that it may wholly deprive them of breathing They are trifles which are brought hither concerning a hurtful vapour Because it is that which should more neighbouringly pull the Intestines Stomach and Midriff together than that it should come unto the Lungs onely Elsewhere also the Throat ariseth unto the heighth of the Chin and setleth again neither is that the reward of vapours But the dominion government aspect and influx and command of the womb causeth it so to be For it affecteth that part which it will and sometimes destroyes the whole Body because it is subjected For as long as it is not shaken by the disturbances of the Soul it stands with a straight foot yea the womb sleepeth or slumbereth but being once enforced by disturbances for the future it brings forth its own inundations throughout the whole Body and now and then those durable till death Because if the womb by its own Monarchy wholly distinguisheth a Woman from a man and it be the promiscuous parent of that distinction it is no wonder also that it doth by the same government disquiet all even the most remote parts no otherwise than as the nearest when or where it will And it is certain to him that makes a full search that the operations of the sensitive Soul are of a co-like order and of co-like progresses in operating that if the womb by a spiritual governmen snites the health this is indulged to the Soul by a like priviledge of acting on the womb For if a Woman great with Child being stirred with a desire as elsewhere I have repeated doth behold a Cherry and shall touch her self on the fore-head he Young presently receives the Cherry Not indeed the naked spot of a Cherry but a Cherry which waxeth green white yellow and looks of a ruddy colour every year together with the fruits of the Trees yea which is far more wonderful For that which happens to the Young in Brabant that happens far sooner to the same in Spain to wit where Cherries do sooner come forth Therefore the thought or cogitation reacheth the Young in a direct passage not indeed by the directions of fibers or straight beams and the conveyance of aptness of readiness as neither by the conceit of the Brain and Womb but onely by a reciprocal or recoursary action of government But besides if there be no Young present the Idea's of Imagination do not therefore cease to be deciphered in the sides of the womb The which seeing they are strangers to the womb it becomes easily furious as being impatient of forreign Tables There is therefore a passable way from the sensitive Soul into the womb and from this to it which thing Hippocrates first took notice of To wit that the whole Body was exspirable and conspirable From whence it comes to passe that some Symptomes of the womb are scarce discerned from enchantments For it so straightly strains the Coat of the Lungs that it sends no Air at all thorow it into the breast Here is no communication passage access scope or manner of a vapour and much lesse is there an affinity with Rheums in this respect seeing it begins and is bounded or finished without a material aflux or eflux It is therefore onely the action of government whereby the mad womb doth disturb all things But a co-knitting nighness aptness or consent are not to be regarded but a superiority of Monarchal power and a vital dependance of parts For the ruling parts do act by an absolute power not being bound to the nearness or nice scituations of places in every scituation of the Body alike cruelly And that which is far more famous the ruling power or virtue reacheth undefiled unto its bound or mark without a defilement of meanes The womb doth oft-times live and tumulteth after the death of a Woman which it hath brought on her And so it enjoyes a singular Monarchy which that duplicity declareth neither doth it obey the Body unto which then it prescribeth Lawes For neither otherwise is it violently shaken but by the disturbances of the Soul wherefore besides the singular perceivances of smelling tasting and touching it is powerful also in a certain bruital understanding whence it is mad and rageth if all things shall not answer its own will or desires It rageth I say by writhing it self upwards downwards before behinde or on the sides with an undeclarable torment of pain But as long as that fury is restrained in its own Inn it indeed stirs up local griefs For the parts which it forcibly snatcheth or beholdeth at a distance it doth as it were strain and
now what he would in times past it is not our part to aske of God a reason of his own will therefore it is a foolish Argument God doth not now do what he did in times past therefore he cannot do it The Hebrew people was a small people out of whom Christ ought to arise and that people were on every side beset with Enemies and the which unless they had been supported with the stretched-out Arme of God and as it were by a continual miracle they being presently brought to nothing had yielded as a prey to the Conqueror from whence notwithstanding it was decreed that the Messias should arise But the condition and Law of Christians is far otherwise For the Israelitish people in the hardness of their hearts did measure the grace or favour of God by the abounding of Wealth Of-spring Fruitfulness of Fruits and their peaceable Possession But we have known that offences should be necessary in the Church Tribulations also how great soever yet not worthy to be reckoned with the Expectations of the Age to come And likewise it hath so pleased God that for unjustice Kingdoms are translated from Nation to Nation But that I may shew that there is the same God of the Christians which there was in times past to the Hebrews I must not indeed run back unto the written Chronicles with which Atheists the Bibles themselves are of no credit the Argument of Atheists is to be overthrown Seeing their understanding admits not of that which is not introduced outwardly by the Senses Their whole Faith is from a knowledge but that knowledge is founded in a present Sensibility a fore-past Observation renouncing of Histories and succession of Ages for otherwise there ought to be no less Authority of sacred than of profane Writers Yea all the knowledge of Atheists descends to the Eyes to Sight Numbers Lines Figures Tones or Sounds Weights Motions Smells Touchings Handlings and Tasts that is it wholly depends on a brutal Beginning and they are unapt to understand those things which do exceed sense For that is the cause why they exclude themselves from the intelligible world and do kick against the corner Stone But at leastwise they confess that they do see and know those things which they are ignorant of which thing happens in the Speculations of the Planets But I wish that Atheists may measure the compass of the World I say the real distance of Saturn from us for they shall confess for that very cause even against their wills the distance of so many thousand Miles which their understanding it self will contradict by seen dimensions or they shall of necessity incline themselves to confess that a three-fold circuite of Saturne in respect of his own Diameter could not have arisen from himself or of his own accord but rather that there is some Author of these of infinite power wisdome greatness and so also of Duration c. But if the Atheist doth think that the Orbs of so incomprehensible greatness and so regular a constancy of successive changes have been thus of their own accord from everlasting at least wise the perpetuity of that infinite Eternity ought to follow a certain Law Order and ordained Government which did require a certain presiding or overseeing or ruling Being everlasting in continuance great and powerful Most miserable therefore are they who by an utter denial of all things do exclude Faith and the rewards of Faith For let us consider the Circle of the Earth to be cloathed with waters or that place without Earth and water to wit that all things do of their very own forceable Inclination fall towards their Center So that if two men were there to wit from East and West these should touch each other with their Feet and should look upwards with their head even as we and the Antipodes at this day This I say the Atheist doth believe although sense hath not suggested it unto him For weighty bodies do teach indeed their own ready Inclination of falling downwards but that the Heaven is on every side aboue in respect of one Center and that such is the property of this Center that there is not another like unto it neither yet hath the Atheist seen that property but nevertheless he believes it yea whatsoever he may at any time frame he alwayes finds the contrary and without that property of a Center he believes I say that same one only natural property in the universal Center but he never beholds or looks into the working cause thereof or that which is like it in the least and he had rather through unbelief exclude it from himself But at least if there be not a God nor he every where present and giving all things to all it should be all one if all things were confounded should fall upwards or downwards whether weighty Bodies did rush downwards or upwards whether Plants and Beasts did perish or not Therefore the constancy of order perseverance of the Species or particular kinds do of necessity require some primitive Fountainous Being from whence they began are and do propagate by a continual thred and the which doth govern all things at his own pleasure or by his own beck and gives a constancy and Succession of Continuation least all things should go to ruine and be confusedly Co-mingled Indeed he beares a universal care and keeps things in their essence or being In the next place let the Atheist consider the flowing and ebbing of the Water To wit that no water doth ascend of its own accord yet that the water of the Sea doth alwayes ascend as well in the flowing as ebbing of the Sea He believes this because he sees it but the cause thereof he believes not because he seeth it not neither hath the knowledge thereof entred by sense because it is that which contradicteth his senses But he at least ought to believe that those things do happen by a cause although he hath not known the same by which notwithstanding every thing hath drawn such a property For although all particular kinds should have this kind of power of seeds and gifts from everlasting yet nevertheless there is not a certain universal property in the Universe which may have respect unto all particular things that they may be ordained and which may know all particular things newly risen and to arise unless it be out of and besides the nature of all particular things Otherwise there should be innumerable Deities as there were in times past and moreover there should be continual Divisions and Dissolutions of the species or particular kinds For the Atheist denies to believe what things he knows not by sense he sees indeed the water to be moist but he knows not what that is which is moist in the water or why it is moist Therefore he believes that which he doth not know and that which he doth not pierce that is as the Beast doth for neither shall Humane knowledge ever raise him up
it rush it self headlong into danger which should draw a hurtful poyson within the veins Therefore a solutive poyson while as yet it is detained and that in the Stomach it putryfies and defiles whatsoever was a-loof of deposed in the Mesenteries for better uses and draws the refined Blood out of the hollow vein instead of a putryfied treasure and by degrees defiles it with a poysonous contagion and dissolves it with the stinking ferment of a dead carcass For from hence is there a loss of strength by laxative Medicines and a disturbance of the Monarchy of Life without hope of cure thereby But that fury of laxative things endureth not only so long as their presence But also so long as the lamentable poyson doth burden the Stomach and Bowels with its contagion So indeed an artificial Diarrhaea or Flux ariseth which now and then persisteth even until Death and laughs at the promised help and attempted succours of astringent things Unto the second and third I likewise say it hath been sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere that the Elements are neither tempered for Bodies falsly believed to be mixt nor for the temperature sake of the same Bodies and much less for a just one and as to an adequate or suitable weight Therefore the Schooles presuppose falshoods yea and contend by sophistry For although Arcanums do cure a broken bone as well as Comfrey or the Stone for broken bones yet it is on both sides required that the fracture of the bone be reposed I likewise remember that a burstness being well bound up hath been cured beyond expectation because from the breaking of a bone some one had layen long on his Loynes Neither therefore doth it want an Arcanum Unto the fourth and also the fifth it sufficeth that the Arcanum or Secret doth wipe away the occasional Causes to wit nature being holpen supplying the rest Unto the sixth let the Schooles refrain their tongue For an Arcanum cures Diseases which they under blasphemy have maintained to be uncurable Which thing the Hospitals of those that were uncurable do testifie for me if they are compared with the Epitaph of Paracelsus But the seventh reproach breaks forth from ignorant Jaws to wit from the proper testimony of a guilty mind Unto the eight and ninth it is certain that the Exclaimers do grieve while they are beaten for from a sense of grief the Mouth speaketh reproaches But if of thousands of Alchymists scarce one doth arive unto his wished end that is not the vice of the art because the endowment doth not depend on the will of him that willeth and runneth But because it is not yet the fulness of time wherein these secrets shall be more common Be it sufficient for me that the signs do no where appear but among the obtainers of Arcanums that is Adeptists and that none of the Humorists hath ever come thither neither also shall come Therefore there is no place for reproaches against the truth of the science of healing but where there is no order and an everlasting horrour doth inhabit For Owles and monstrous Bats do shun the light of truth because they are fed with a great lie to wit that they have known how to cure Fevers without evacuation When as indeed they know not by both succours as well of a cut vein as of a loosened Belly how to cure Fevers certainly and safely for let them cure a Fever as they affirm Shall they not likewise for that very cause bring rest to the sick And afterwards safely take away that which they say doth remain which was not lawful so fitly to be done as long as they believe life to conflict or skirmish with Death and the Disease with health But they shun the light of truth under the Cloak of a lie thus ignorance dictating and gain thus commanding miserable men do defend themselves For Medicine is not a naked word a vain boasting or vain talk for it leaves a work behind it Wherefore I despise reproaches the boastings and miserable vanities of ambition Go to return with me to the purpose If ye speak truth Oh ye Schooles that ye can cure any kinde of Fevers without evacuation but will not for fear of a worse relapse come down to the contest ye Humorists Let us take out of the Hospitals out of the Camps or from elsewhere 200 or 500 poor People that have Fevers Pleurisies c. Let us divide them in halfes let us cast lots that one halfe of them may fall to my share and the other to yours I will cure them without blood-letting and sensible evacuation but do you do as ye know for neither do I tye you up to the boasting or of Phlebotomy or the abstinence from a solutive Medicine we shall see how many Funerals both of us shall have But let the reward of the contention or wager be 300 Florens deposited on both sides Here your business is decided Oh ye Magistrates unto whom the health of the People is dear It shall be contested for a publique good for the knowledge of truth for your Life and Soul for the health of your Sons Widows Orphans and the health of your whole People And finally for a method of curing disputed in an actual contradictory superadd ye a reward instead of a titular Honour from your Office compel ye those that are unwilling to enter into the combate or those that are Dumb in the place of exercise to yeild let them then shew that which they now boast of by brawling For thus Charters from Princes are to be shewn Let words and brawling cease let us act friendly and by mutual experiences that it may be known hence forward whether of our two methods are true For truly in contradictories not indeed both propositions but one of them only is true But now the Humourists while any commits himself to me for cure do possess him with fear to wit least they give up themselves unto an Authour of new opinions but rather that they go in the paths of Heathens that they may not through a novelty of opinion be accounted to have put their Life in doubt and that they rather trusting in an old abuse do enter into beaten paths Ah I wish those of another Life and of the intelligible World might return that they might testifie unto whom their death is owing Presently they who being now subtile Scoffers do seem to ask counsel for their own life should acknowledge that they do incurr on themselves the destruction and loss of their Life while they had rather commit their Life to plurality or the great number only by reason of the constancie of an old errour and abuse than that they are willing to be bowed unto the Admonitions of the truth As if War were still to be waged only with Darts or Arrows and Slings because that is the most antient kinde of Weapons But nevertheless neither are our Medicines so new that there are only the thousandth of experiences in them the which
pass But if a Vice subsisteth in the Shops of the Digestions and not sprung from things assumed Now a primary Parent of confusion is supposed which hath neglected and defiled the things assumed Oft-times also things assumed do scarce continue changed in the Reliques which is called the Coeliack or Belly-passion invading with a remaining delight of eating no less than with a dejected Appetite that we may know that in the ferment of the spleen diverse Offices and dispensations of Properties do lay hid to wit those of Digestion and Appetite Things assumed also which are less grateful or convenient if they floate about diary Fever burntish unnamed Contents likewise inordinate Appetites c. are made but if they shall the more stubbornly adhere they bring forth diverse and stubborn Disasters of one Stomack From whence are Sobbings or Hickets Swoonings Faintings Convulsions Gripings or Wringings of the Guts Dissolvings or Loosenesses of the Paunch Vomitings Atrophia's or Consumptions for lack of Nourishment c. the which do manifestly enough appear in the labour of the Duumvirate But if indeed the Ferment in the first Digestion shall be diminished through age or the promoted difficulties of Diseases Things assumed howsoever good they are are vitiated Because Ferments do no otherwise govern things assumed and left than the Digestions themselves Wherefore I refer the Lientery or Smoothness of the Bowels Fluxes Choler because they are as well the Heires of things assumed and of Reliques as of things transchanged unto the Vices of Digestions But Stranguries although they do often happen from things transmitted from the first Digestion unto the third as the native sharpnesses of things have remained stubborn in things assumed even as is especially conspicuous in the drinking of new Ale yet they happen through a defect of the Ferment of the second Digestion and therefore such a kind of Strangury is familiar unto old age Therefore I have ascribed Stranguries as well to things left as to things transchanged in the second Digestion Let it be sufficient also to have admonished by the way that I have been every where less exact about the splendour and order of division in so great Paradoxes than about the Essence of a thing For neither do things assumed only offend through a double fault to wit through the errour of Reliques and local Ferments But also the things digested themselves are after a twofold manner badly affected For the Stomack doth cook not only for the whole Body but also for it self So also concerning many Organs in the diverse Offices of whose digestions and functions their own errours do alienate their Products Yet the Stomack is manifestly subject unto a double Calamity To wit of its own Digestion and of the sixth Because every part lives by its own Kitchin which in the Stomack being subjected unto that which is assumed rushing on it is most easily disturbed even with every shaking of the mind Therefore in the first second and third Digestion obvious manifest and frequent stumblings and omissions of Digestions do happen But in the sixth although they do manifestly every where leave Products yet these the Schooles have referred unto the four feigned diversity of kinds of the venal blood Yea and far more absurdly also have they for the most part dedicated the Vices of the sixth Digestion unto the Snivel lifted up by a feigned Vapour of the Stomack and from thence distilled Wherefore they have devised that Rheumes do fall down into the Common-weal of the sixth Digestion but they unbashfully affirm that Phlegm also which they contend to be generated by a vital Beginning in the Liver together with the venal Blood is now a Relique through a casual distillation of Art But in the fourth and fifth Digestions because they are altogether vital ones with much care first refining all things from Filths their Inmates although there are not so manifest superfluities of things assumed yet it is not absurd that inbred Retents should there be procreated because the Nature of Mortals being now wholly corrupted is in no place free from all contagion or blemish Authors do rehearse that small Ulcers have been found in the bosome of the Heart and likewise that a Woman being dead of a four Months disury or Difficulty of Urin two small Stones together with some Pustules or Wheales have shewn themselves to the Dissecters c. in the substance of her Heart Although indeed these things do rather convince of the Vice of the sixth Digestion than of the fourth or fifth But dayly beatings or pantings of the Heart do accuse of Reliques or rather of things transchanged although not plainly manifest ones It is sufficient that Idea's tinged with Poyson do as much as may be and often spring into the Spirit of Life as the causes of unthought of Death For neither doth the madness of Dogs otherwise corrupt by their Tooth the Spirits which are the authors of discourses because the Tooth being vitiated in its disposition infects the cases of the Brain and Spleen which hath assumed the Nature of a poysonous Relique Simples also although they are but once only assumed do oftentimes make mad for term of Life As they do defile the Spirit of the Bowel with a slow Poyson that it self degenerates into the condition of the Poyson left And moreover also the very Itch-Gum or tenderness of tickling is folded in the naked sensitive Spirit that as oft at it being once set at liberty is by a retrograde motion carried into the Arteries it causeth that feeling in healthy folk as it being snatched out of its own Hinge doth abound with a strange and infatuating Poyson But in sick Folks the aforesaid original of tickling a manifest Poyson now sufficiently or plentifully abounding stirs up the dance of S. Vitus and the Trippings of the Tarantula by the Arteries derived into the Head The same Spirit also because it is of the race of Salts as of long Life elsewhere being degenerate in this point doth receive a Poysonsomness into it self stirs up a proper Idea in it self and therefore being chased into the Skin doth receive the blemish or contagion of itching into it self from whence Scurvinesses or Manginesses Scabbidnesses yea Erisipelasses and a various troop of Ulcers doth spring up some whereof do afterwards there sustain themselves by the proper Poyson of a Ferment and do now and then propagate Therefore the inflowing Spirit doth also suffer its own defilements by the fourth and fifth Digestion In the mean time through occasion of a wandring Spirit if that which was once dedicated to motion doth repeatingly re-pass into the Head and from thence be again dispersed into the Sinews because it is marked with a double Idea of exercising motion the which I have taught mutually to pierce and co-suffer with each other it brings forth tossings of the Members and Fools become four-fold stronger than themselves But indeed if in the first Digestion that which is assumed doth not answer unto the
Life and Soul of soulâ—fied Creatures For in that those Words did differ to say Let it be made and to make For in the sixth or last day Adam was formed But on the seventh day God rested At length he afterwards translated Adam from the Earth into Paradise and deliberated to make Woman of the Rib of the Man but not of his Reins Thigh or Belly Therefore on the eighth day that it might be the Beginning of a new week for a new and super-natural Generation of an off-spring to come Wherefore it may be collected that Woman being wholly an Out-law ascended into a new heap of Choiceness as being a Vessel of Choiceness or Election But we may after some sort conjecture of the quality of humane generation in Eve a Virgin before the Fall by the most glorious Incarnation of our Lord For indeed the Father unto whom every name of Paternity is singularly and solely due and whom his Son as a Father doth alwayes adore hath indeed alwayes generated his Son from Eternity who yet is not read to be the Father of his Incarnation The which thing I even reverence for a vast mystery and the rather after that I understood the insinite goodness of the same as well from the first virginal conception of Creation as in the restoration by the regeneration of Man Indeed the Father Almighty would that the glorious incarnation of Christ should be conceived of the Person of the holy Spirit the which it self to wit therefore was not generated but proceeded from eternity from the Father and the Son For the Spirit of God had caused a humane conception of off-springs in the Arterial Blood of the Heart of the Virgin Eve it being the Image of the Divinity with all its free Gifts without the pleasure of the Flesh But the Mind being thus in the garment of Arterial Blood conceived in the Womb of the Virgin in a humane Shape had took an increase and full maturity from thence For he who the Womb being shut and the Gates being closed came into the World and unto his own also out of the Case of the Heart wherein he was conceived was by a foregoing consent brought unto the Womb of the Virgin and kept even unto the maturity of his Body For he piercing all Members was brought into the Womb For therefore our Lord's Incarnation happened altogether besides the order of Nature now accustomed For 1. The Incarnation of the Lord happened not first in the Womb but in the very Sheath of the Heart of the Virgin 2. Of the most pure and most lively Blood of the Heart but not of the Seed of the Virgin For truly the God-bearing Virgin in that singular respect was not only cleansed from Original Sin but was conceived altogether free from Sins to wit that she might be so much the more void of all Seed than a Child that is newly born For Seed is composed of a mixture of Venal and Arterial Blood or from a co-mixture of Bloods which mixture was no manner of way not so much as materially in the conception of the Son of God who was conceived not of Bloods nor of the Will of the Flesh or of Man but of God alone and born of a Virgin 3. He had not a Man to his Father nor a masculine Matter from whence he should be made which thing surely confirms that a feminine Matter was the more excellent governess or deputy and alone fore-elected from the Beginning 4. He fore-elected the most chast and unspotted Virginity of a Mother which he formed with a divine Hand 5. He was materially conceived onely and of most pure Arterial Blood To wit whereinto the seal of the holy Spirit inspired an humane Mind and a most pure Image of it self made or framed by his Father God 6. That conception was brought from the Heart into the Womb of the Virgin with a piercing of Dimensions 7. Lastly He exspected an increase and just maturity of Nativity as it were in the celebration of a Sabbath Furthermore that the knowledge of Good and Evil signifies nothing but the Concupiscence of the Flesh the Apostle doth manifestly testifie calling it the Law and Desire of Sin From whence to wit the first Bruital and Original Sin the fewel of the other Sins hath immediately issued and is hereafter to endure for a continued Seed of Mortals In the 8th to the Romans God sending his Son into the likeness of the Flesh of Sin hath also concerning Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us Original I say because it is the Beginning of the original of a humane Generation whereby all contagion of Impurity is derived on Posterity and Death became natural unto Man even as unto Beasts So that although the eating of the Apple did contain a note of distrust and ingratitude and the which also is a Companion unto every Sin Yet therefore even every Sin afterwards ought with the same Punishment of necessity also to descend unto Posterity unless the unwonted transgression of a loving Admonition should not so much consist in the disobedience of eating or abstaining as in the horrid Distrust of doubting and confidence of Faith given unto the Devil And so that the generation of the Flesh of Sin which is an effect of the Concupiscence of the Flesh hath of necessity defluxed into Death even unto all Posterity For it pleased the Lord of things to insert in the Apple an incentive of the Concupiscence of the Flesh to wit from which he was able safely to abstain by not eating the Apple therefore diswaded from For otherwise he had never at any moment been tempted by the Flesh or his genital Members the which I will hereafter shew to be therefore called the North in the holy Scriptures Therefore the Apple being eaten Man presently from a natural property of the Apple conceived the lust of being luxurious and from thence was made an Animal Seed which hastening into the previous or foregoing Dispositions of a sensitive Soul and undergoing the Law of other Causes reflexed it self into the vital Spirit of Adam which therefore like an ignis fatuus or foolish fire presently receiving an Archeus or ruling Spirit and animal Air I say a houshold Thief it conceived a Power of propagating an Animal and mortal Seed ending into Life At the arrival whereof at length the immortal Mind putting off the Rains of the Life and government of the Body substituted the sensitive Soul as its Chamber-maid From hence therefore we are conceived born and do die after the manner of Beasts For the day before the immortal Mind acted all in all and was the very immortal Life it self in the whole Body because it was solely and wholly immortal in the whole Body But that very so great Beauty of Nature was presently vitiated in our first Parent after that he was cloathed with the similitude of a bruital generation For then the immortal Mind being moved
also disturb the imaginative power because they actually proceeded through the arteries upwards as forreigners and strangers to wit by be-giddyng things whereby indeed whirlines only how cruel ones soever were presented the understanding remayning fafe For the occasional causes also of these whirlings do remaine in the places about the short ribs from whence they by the power of government vitiate the Brain it self but not the abstracted faculties of the mind which are immediatly sealed in the spirits Even so as the Elf's hoofe being bound to the finger restraines the same rigour of the Duumvirate in those that have the falling sicknesse I also well weighed as it were by an Optical inspection after what manner the first conceptions might be formed the midriffs and from thence being sent unto the head polished And at length after what sort these midriffs might be diversly tossed in dotages and Hypochondriacal madnesses without any running round of the head And how in drunken persons a whirling might accompany their foolish madnesse But elsewhere after what sort a whirling 〈…〉 of the head might induce no stumbling of the minde Even as otherwise how the memory might stumble the man remayning safe and sound Truly as I seriously and with much leisure weighed these things with my self I found that qualities do follow their own Idea's and by course act their own tragedies in the excrement themselves to wit which diverse properties of qualities I then at first cleerly apprehended to be as it were seminal endowments and true formal Idea's whereby indeed the strength of the sensitive soul for why they are companions of the same formal order was vitiated and variously subdued and yielded to the importunities of active Idea's Alasse for grief then the bottome of the soul so called by Taulerus manifested it self unto me which was nothing else but the immortal minde it self to wit in what great utter darknesses it might be involved as it were in coates of skin as it was fast tied to and entertained in the Inne of the very sensitive soul while the terme of life endures And so from hence I clearly knew him whom I have also therefore concerning Long Life by an unheard word explained to the honour of God the contempt of Satan and the Magnificence or great Atchievement of the whole Perigrination of man I have also taught concerning Long Life that the Head is the fountain of the growth of the parts placed under it which thing Crump-backed persons do also confirm and so that from the head the State and Duration of Growth is limited That bounds also are described by the hairs and therefore that heads void of care do scarce wax gray I profess therefore with the Schools That a vital Light is indeed diffused from the Brain as from a fountain and dispersed through the sinews and that that Light being absent the faculties that are silent in their proper Inns are also straightway silent through a priâ—ative occasion For although Sense and Motion do after some sort depend as well perceptively as executively on the implanted spirit of the parts yet because all particular parts are vitally nourished by a besprinkled light of the Brain The Thred also or Beam of this Light being intercepted Sense and Motion likewise are as soon as may be intercepted But these things do shew only a privative Apoplexie not indeed so truly a Disease as an accidental one even as I have shewn above in the Strayning of the Turning-Joyuts But not that therefore the fountainons cause of the Senses and Motions in the spirit dieth with that privation although the functions thereof be suspended while that Light from above is suspended For a Fly doth sometimes frequently flie when his head is taken off Also the Head of a man being cut off his joynts do oftentimes for a good while leap a little and are contracted and do as yet afford the signes of an in-bred motion But of a positive and diseasie Apoplexie there is a far different cause and property For now and then a depriving of Sense and Astonishment straightway lights into the palm of the hand or into the one only finger the motion thereof notwithstanding remaining safe Doth therefore Phlegm a forreigner to that finger fall into the middle or pith of the sinew To wit by a pipe wherewith the small Nerve is throughout bored thorow and conspirable with the Brain Or perhaps doth an unwonted Vapour of Phlegm run down thither and the which otherwise was wont or ought to climb upwards the nature of Vapours so determining and by a vital violent force obeying But at leastwise one only Nerve extended into the Tendon of the Palm bestowes Sense and Motion on the four fingers alike Why therefore is the Feeling alone stupified in one finger only Again What Vapour being ever lifted up even from the most tough snivel was grosser or not equal to that which ascends from the water Let as many as have been Distillers in the Universe answer Why therefore shall a gross Vapour of Phlegm the which I have sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere to be a non-being be required for an astonishment and not that of simple water or of the blood But if indeed a Vapour of the latex or blood shall effect that thing then also there shall be a necessary ordinary and continual general stupefaction of all parts without intermission And then if some forreign or exerementous humour or vapour be the ocasional cause of such an astonishment to wit the privative and stoppifying one of a nerve surely it is sent oâ— runs down thither of its own accord If it be sent yet at least not from the Brain or the marrow its Vicaress For so it should not straightway affect as neither at leastwise strike at one only finger and the utmost part of the finger which was but presently before healthy Neither is that Vapour sent from the spirit the Family-administrater of Life because it is that which should more willingly and readily go forth as being banished by transpiration Therefore that thing manifestly contradicteth providence and a natural care of diligence which alwayes dispenseth all things foâ— the best end Because nature as too injurious to her self should dash against the sinewes those things which she according to her wonted manner had more easily better and more nearly commanded away unto the natural and ordinary emunctory of the skin And so that vaporal Fable of the Schools which is to be scourged contains a manifold impossibility For the Pipe of the Sinews ends into the thorny marrow with a straight thred and a continued passage neither hath it any transverse trunks through which it should transmit that phlegmatish vapour sidewayes for otherwise there would be made a total loss of the spirits before they could come down unto the Muscle the Executer of Motion so far is it that it should suck the same vapour that way That Humour or Vapour therefore cannot be transmitted or descend unto one only finger and much
oft-times seem presently to be eased and also to be cured yet cutting of a vein cannot but be disallowed seeing that Feverish persons are more successfully cured without the same For however at the first or repeated cuttings of a vein the cruelty of Fevers shall oft-times slacken Surely that doth no otherwise happen than because the Archeus much abhorreth a sudden emptying of the strength and an undue cooling and so neglects to expell the Feverish matter and to perform his office But they who seem to be cured by blood-letting surely they suffer a relapse at least they obtain a more lingering and less firm health which Assertion the Turks do prove and a great part of the world who with me are ignotant of the opening of a vein because it is that which God is no where read to have instituted or approved of yea not so much as to have made mention thereof But as to what belongs unto the first scope of a co-betokeming sign which is called Cooling Truly the letting out of the blood cooleth by no other title than as it filcheth from the vital heat But not that it obtains a coolifying and positive power In which respect at least such a cooling ought to be hurtful Why I pray in a Hectick Fever do they not open a vein Doth not that Fever want cooling or doth it cease to be a Fever But blood is wanting in Hecttick Fevers wherefore through defect of blood and strength there is an easie Judgement of hurt brought by Phlebotomy which otherwise the more strong faculties do cover In the year 1641. Novemb. 8. the body of Prince Ferdinand brother to the King of Spain and Cardinal of â—oledo was dissected who being molested with a Tertian ague for 89 dayes dyed at 32. years of age For his heart liver and lungs being lifted up and so the veins and arteries being dissected scarce a spoonful of blood flowed into the hollow of his breast Indeed he shewed a liver plainly bloodless but a heart flaggy like a purse For but two dayes before his death he had eaten more if it had been granted unto him He was indeed by the cuttings of a vein purges and leeches so exhausted as I have said yet the Tertian ceased not to observe the order of its intention and remission What therefore hath so great an evacuation of blood profited or what hath that cooling plainly done unless that those evacuaters were vain which could not take away so much as a point of the Fevers Is that the method of healing which makes a Physitian whom the Almighty hath created and commanded to be honoured by reason of the necessity of him If that method knows not how to cure a Tertian ague in a young man to what end shall it conduce Is that the art whereof the infirm and unhealthy person stands in need I wish and wish again that that good Prince had not made use of it who when the returning from Cortracum was saluted by the Senate of Bruxells recovering from the agony of death by reason of the diminishments of his blood and strength then walked in good health about his Chamber Physitians therefore abhor to expose their feverish persons to the encountring of cold things to wit whereby they might presently and abundantly experience the vertue of cooling things by a manifest token because they put not much trust in their own rules of Heats and Coolers For since it is already manifest that the whole heat in a Fever is that of the very vital spirit it self it follows also that the cooling which is made by cutting of a vein is meerly that of the vital spirit and together also an exhausting of the blood and an impoverishment thereof For if a Fever be to be cured as a distemper by cutting of a vein as a cooling remedy Alas the contrary is manifest by the exhausting of all the blood out of the Prince the Infanto of Spain In whom as yet but the day before his death the Tertian Ague kept its fits â—o great cooling not hindering it and if others intens a curing even in a Quotidian only by cold which they writ to be kindled of putrified Phlegm at leastwise that cooling should be far more easily obtained by exposing the sick half naked unto the blowing of the North or West wind or by hanging him up in water or a deep well until he should testifie that he were sufficiently cooled For so they should prefently and abundantly perfect a cure if their conscious ignorance did not within condemn their own feverish essence of heat Therefore a Fever is not a naked Tempest of heat but an occasional vitiated matter is present for the expelling whereof the Archeus being as it were wroth doth by accident inflame himself The which as long as it shall be neglected in the Schools the curings of Fevers will be rash destructive and conjâ—ctural therefore none shall owe any thing worthy of giving thanks unto Physitians seeing they are cured by the voluntary goodness of nature and I wish they were not put back by Physitians But unto the argument of curing by sudden cold the Schools will answer that there is a perilous departure from one extream unto another By which excuse of their ignorance they stop the mouth of the people as if they spake something worthy of credit not taking notice that they therein contradict themselves while as they praise and prefer the cutting of a vein before laxative medicines chiefly for that end because it presently and abundantly succours by cooling and therefore they have given it the surname of a speedy and universal succour For they constrain their own impotency founded in ignorance unto the will of a Maxim badly understood and worse applied For truly it is not be doubted but that it is lawful presently to cut the halter of him that is hanged that he who was deprived of air may enjoy it as soon as may be Likewise that it is lawful presently to place him that is drowned in a steep scituation that he may cast back the water out of his lungs That it is lawful I say to draw any one presently to the bank and that it is lawful presently to free a wound from its indisposition and to close it with a scar For so very many wounds are closed in one only day because a solution of that which held together wants nothing besides a re-uniting of it self That it is lawful presently to repose a broken or diplaced bone Likewise that it is lawful in the Falling Sickness Swooning Fainting Cramp to recall the weak as soon as one can presently to loosen the detainments of excrements and presently to stop the excessive flux of womens issues For neither must we think that nature rejoyceth in her own destruction and that from an healthy state she indeed le ts in sudden death but refuseth a remedy which may suddenly repell a disease otherwise she should not do that which in things possible is most exceeding
full of disgrace that himself being once a Doctour or Teacher ought as yet to learn of others A nourishing clyster therefore is an old wives invention For I have seen broaths in the more strong persons to have been rejected as horride through the stink of a dead carcase but in the more tender persons to have provoked swoonings when as in the mean time clysters of Mallow and Brans cherished a lesse discomodity Vain therefore are the common helps taught by Physitians for the intentions or betokenings of Fevers Because they take not away subdue or reach to any thing of the roote of Fevers CHAP. VIII The usual Remedies are weighed 1. A censure of distilled waters 2. Of what condition essential waters may be 3. A censure of decoctions 4. The comforting remedies of Gold and pretious stones are examined 5. A mechanical demonstration of abuses 6. Gems are not any thing dissolved in us hewever they are pawdred 7. Pearles that are beaten and dissolved in a sharp spirit are examined by the way 8. The Authour testifies his own bashfullnesse 9. The Pearles which are dissolved in the shops are not Pearles 10. Pearles or Coralls being disssolved in some sharp liquour remaine what they were before 11. Five remarkeable things taken from thence 12. The help of an old Cock an old wives invention 13. Alkermes is examined 14. Comforting remedies are in vain when as the enemy within tramples even on the strongest sick THe internall remedies used by Physitians in Fevers if they are look't into will be found to be of the same leaven with the other of their succours For except that they are brought into one heat as it were the scope and hinge of the matter they are as yet of no worth in themselves neither do they any way answer unto a putrified matter For first of all distilled waters as well those which are called cooling ones such as are those of Succhory Lettice Purslane and Plantaine as those which are of the order of the greater alterers such as are those of Grasse Dodder Maidenhair Carduus-Benedictus Scorcionera c. Or those also which are fetcht from cordial plants are in very deed nothing but the sweates of herbs but not their blood and I wish they were not adulterated for the perswasion of gain For they are the rain waters of green and fresh herbs but not the essential liquors of the herbs which shew forth the whole Crasis or constitutive temperature and savour of the thing Therefore they cover an imposture in their name and in the mean time the occasion of well doing slips away Moreover the decoctions of plants since they conteine the gums and muscilages of simples they provide pain or cumbrance for a feverish stomach loathings overthrows and other troubles therefore also they joyn themselves with the excrements and are sequestred after that they have procured all those perplexities nor at least wise is any thing of them carried inwards unto the places affected and vitall soiles Physitians also are wont to brag of their exhilarating Cordials and restoring remedies prepared of Gold and gems or pretious stones surely from a like stupidity with the rest For although they are broken into a fine powder they undergo nothing from the fire and much lesse do they suffer by the digestive virtue For they are first made into a light powder in a brassen morter and the gems shave of a part of the brasse with them because they are harder than any file And that thing I have at some time demonstrated to the shops while as I steeped that powder of gems in aqua fortis For a green colour presently bewrayed it self and the Apothecary confessed that his fortyfying remedies acted most especially by communicating verdigrease or the rust of brasse unto the sick And then if gems are afterwards the more curiously beaten in a grindstone or marble which is far more soft than themselves they increase in weight and become comforting marbles and stones beyond the original gems For at length gems that are made into a light powder do no more profit than if flints or glasse powdered are taken And that thing as many as have ever been diligent in examining the resolution of bodies will subscribe to with me and with me will pity the empty blockishnesses of Physitians and the unhappy clientships of the sick Yea they administer Pearles and Corrals being beaten to dust or dissolved in distilled vinegar orthe juice of limons and again dryed and solvable in any potable liquour But Pearles are not of the same hardnesse with Christalline gems but of the Animal kingdome and they conreine most pretious natural endowments they cannot but bestow a famous help For Pearles are of their own accord resolved indeed in the stomack of a Pigeon but in ours they do not undergo any thing whether they are drunk being beaten into a powder or being dissolved as before For first of all it is to be noted that I before my repentance had learned by some pounds of Pearles being so prepared that it was only vaine boasting whatsoever Physitians promise concerning them And then that a true Pearle hath not within it a mealy powder and that of a different likenesse from its own bark but that the whole body of the Pearle even unto its center is meere little skins laying on each other as it were the rhines of onyons spread under each other which thing they know with me as many as have known how to reduce Pearles of an egg-like figure unto a circular Pearle But the aforesaid barks of Pearles are in no wise dissolved by the aforesaid sharp things therefore they shall dissolve only the meale of false Pearles Yea although the aforesaid barks were dissolved which they are not the Pearles should as yet be the same powder which they were before To wit wherewith the salt of the sharp dissolver is now combined and so it happens that that salt of the dissolvent being dissolved the powder of Pearles or Corrals which that salt drinkes up is also solved together with it Which powder however it may be reckoned to be dissolved by the judgment of the eyes and the substance of the Pearle thought to be changed yet it is nothing but a meer deciet and delusion of the sight For Pearles or Corrals do as yet remaine no otherwise in their own former nature than otherwise Silver remaines safe being dissolved in Chrysulca or aqua fortis it been plainly unchanged in all its former qualities For otherwise the same silver could not be fetch 't again from thence seeing there is not granted a return from a privation to an habit They therefore that drink Pearles thus solved so far is it that they enjoy the milky substance of Pearles that they drink unto themselves nothing but the dssolved salt of the vinegar The which I thus prove by handicraft operation If thou shalt poure some drops of the salt of Tartar on dissolved Pearles or Corrals the hidden pouder of the Pearles presently falls
foot if this were caused from choler wherefore it is neither choler nor gaul but the meer excrement of the stomach and Jejunum or empty gut Because that yellow excrement which is ejected at the beginning of a Tertian comes not from the liver or gaul and so from the shop of Choler but it comes not far off from the orifice of the stomach to wit where its birth is but not from the Liver seeing it neither takes away the ague nor even diminish it And likewise it ought to be derived from the liver unto the stomach through unknown thwarting passages wherefore neither could it come thither easily nor readily even as otherwise it is quickly present in the like vomiting and choler nor safely nor unmixt and it should sail over far more safely from the gaul into the intestines and from the liver backwards through the veins of the Mesentery than unto the sensible orifice of the stomach Indeed as well the feigned shop of choler as the very seat of a Tertian it self is placed too far from the stomach that this may be the ordinary Emunctory or avoiding place in these maladies Why therefore is gaul brought rather unto the stomach than to the bowels which are far more prone and apt For if that bitter excrement be bred elsewhere than in the stomach it is altogether impertinently and through a guilty passage derived unto the stomach And likewise there is oft-times sixfold more of this yellow and bitter Balast rejected at one only vomiting than the largeness of the little bag of the gaul can receive The which therefore could not be the Inn of that gaul as neither could it obtain a capacity in the liver for its generation nor be entertained between the liver and the stomach without a mortal hurt full of confusion But if indeed it be gaul and the product of the stomach it self now the stomach hath stoln the faculty of making gaul from the liver and now choler and gaul shall be made out of the liver in a different Inn by a different Guide and equivalent workman from that whereby the simple bloud is prepared with it self or certainly there is no Choler of the essential composute of the bloud Is peradventure therefore this choler and this gaul which is rejected by vomit made in an irregular place and by an erring workman Therefore also of necessity it shall be neither choler nor gaul But there is nothing as yet manifested concerning another choler that of the bloud It is therefore an injurious thing to the bloud and to the inbred choler of this if there were any to be founded and proved by an excrement which is never prepared by the princiciples or in the shops of choler Yea from thence there is an equal right and liberty for whatsoever is supposed to be cholery to be compared in essence colour savour and in its efficient cause unto this poysonous excrement voided by vomit in a Tertian Ague and other nauseous effects and likewise for that which in the disease called choler is expelled as well upwards as downwards and in solutive medicines through a continual framing thereof And so now from hence it clearly appeareth that the Standard-defending inventers of choler have by a rash and undiscreet boldness introduced choler for an elementary apposition or making up of the bloud which they call its composition and have falsly affirmed that yellow and bitter vomited-up excrement to be gaul and choler from the efficiency of the liver and of the constitution of the bloud For how uncertain and stupid is the begetter separater sender conducter way and channel by which that choler should be designed from the liver unto the stomach by a retrograde motion unless they had rather that the obediences and necessities of these should be foolish But the Schools have never examined these things but with a swift foot they have skipped over the bridge and clay from whence they feared perplexities from absurdities as if they gaped only after gain the which notwithstanding they might have diligently searched into to their greater profit than to have daily over-added their own centuries unto the writings of Galen For neither doth an excrement less differ from the bloud than the dead carkass of a swine from a man For that carkass was at sometime alive but that excrement never lived But it hath been already proved that no choler is formed in the liver But if choler also be made elsewhere than in the liver from this supposition of the Schools also it was not true choler and much less from the essence of that to wit of an excrement shall the essence of Choler be capable of proof but if indeed Choler shall with any foot originally enter into the family of an excrement now for that very cause it shall be an Humour different from Choler the which notwithstanding the Schools do with a serious intention will to be intended caused and desired by our nature as if they were advertized by an Elementary necessity At leastwise none of a sound mind is able to understand why the veins of the stomach which I have demonstrated elsewhere never to be able to sup any chyle at all shall allure unto themselves as a freind that which the Liver and which the veins and the whole family-administration of the body have been once seriously averse unto as worthy of banishment which indeed so naughty a Fardle being begotten in some other place being a Bastard and Forreigner should be brought unto the stomack which possesseth the Sense Nobilities passions and tenderness of the heart Surely in an inverted and confused order of things should filths be thrust down unto a bowel expressing the harmonies of the heart if they should be adopted being as forreigners comming from elsewhere Who is that mad and straying guide which may thrust down such excrements to the stomach For noâ— the term of Choler ceaseth while as the reliques of yesterdays supper are supposed to be badly digested and to be cast back again as yet whole with an unchewing tooth yet yellow and bitter For neither are they correlative things that much Choler should flow forth into the stomach as oft as any notable vice hereof is present For after a liberal and troublesome supper even as also after the fit of a Fever loss of appetite sufferance of hunger bitter burntish belchings loathings weight giddinesse of the head c. are alike present wherefore it is easily to be believed that those sumptoms have also sprung from a like mother So that which I promised in the title it is nothing but a dissembled vomiting of Choler whereby the first inventers of Humours have credulously perswaded Choler They also say that therefore Choler is also drawn out of the little bladder of the Gaul unto an hungry stomach But by how sluggish a judgment that is confirmed and that filths are by a retrograde driving motion fetcht back unto the stomach let Phylosophers speak For hunger desires not iron or
the steel be lighter than the Load-stone it is drawn to the Loadstone but otherwise if the stone be lighter than the steel Because the drawing is not in the one and the obedience of the drawing in the other but there is one only mutual inclinative drawing and not of the drawer with a skirmishing of the resister And so from hence it is manifest that a desire is in nature before the drawing and that the drawing followes the desire as some latter thing as the effect doth its cause If therefore according to the testimony of truth all things are to be discerned by their works and the fruits do bewray their own tree truly such attractive inclinations cannot subsist without the testimony of a certain co-participated life sensation knowledge and election Moreover neither is the life of minerals lesse than the life of vegetables distinguished from the animal life by their own life and their generations among themselves Because that which is vegetable and that which is mineral do not operate but one or a few proper things and the same things as yet with a precisenesse interchangeable course property inclination and necessity as oft as a proper object is present with them but a living creature operates many things and those neither constrainedly as neither by accident of the object but altogether by desire well pleasing appetite will and choice of some certain deliberation Seeing the first operation of the same is life but the second a proper appetite desire or love or delight At length thirdly there is a deliberative and distinctive choice of objects So I have seen a Bull that was filled with lust to have dâ—spised an old Cow but an heifer being offered him to have again presently after wantâ—nized But the first operation of things obscurely living is a power unto a seminal essentialnesse Next the second is an exercise of powers and properties At length the third operation is a greater and lesse inclination motion and knowledge The which indeed flow not from a deliberative election or choice but from a potestative interchangeable course strangenesse likenesse appropriation purity or unaptnesse of objects wherefore it was a right opinion of the Antients that all things are in all after the manner of the receiver But those powers by reason of their undiscerned obscurity and the sloath of diligent searchers have been scarce believed but by predecessours and moderns were not considered and by reason of the difficulties of accesse they have circumvented the world with a wandring despaire and with the name of occult properties have hood-winkt themselves by their own sluggishnesse But my scope in this place hath been that if in Herbs and Minerals there are such kind of notions the Authoresses and moderatresses of hidden properties the same by a far more potent reason and after a more plentiful manner do inhabite in flesh and blood To wit excellently with a particular and affected notion motion inclination appetite love interchangeable course hostility and resistance as with that which occurs in us through the service of the five senses Even so that in flesh and blood there is a certain seminal notion distinction imagination of love conveniency likenesse and also of fear terror sorrow resistance c. with a beholding of gain and losse offence and complacency of superiority I say and inferiority and so of the agent and the patient Because those necessary dependances of a consequent necessity do flow from and accompany the aforesaid sensations or acts of feeling The which surely in the vital blood are characterized in a higher degree by reason of the inbred Archeus the Author and workman of any of these passions whatsoever than otherwise in the whole kind that is not soulified or quickned For a tooth from a dead carcase that dyed by the extinguishment of its powers constraineth any tooth of a living man to wither and fall out only by its touching because it compels it to be despised by the life The which a tooth from a dead carcase slain by a violent death or presently extinguished by a sharp disease doth not likewise perform In like manner the hair of a dead carcass whose life was taken away by degrees by a voluntary death makes persons bauld only by its touching Watts and brands brought on the Young by the perturbation of a woman great with child through the touching of a dead carcase that died of its own accord and by degrees untill part of the branded mark shall wax more inwardly cold the mark also doth by degrees voluntarily vanish away Observe well with me whether these are not the testimonies of another act of feeling than that of cold Moreover whether in that same sensation there be not a natural knowledge and fear of death connexed which things are as yet also in the dead carcass For truly a Tetanus or straight extension of a dead carcase or stiffnesse thereof is not a certain congelation of cold But a mear convulsion of the muscles abhorring death and living even after the departure of the soul For from hence the dead carcases of those who die by a violent death because they die the faculties of their flesh being not altogether extinguished they feel not the aforesaid Tetanus but a good while after CHAP. X. A living creature imaginative I Have said that Herbs and Minerals do imagine by a certain instinct of nature that is after their own manner so in the next place that the blood and mummie have certain native conceptions in order and likenesse unto man which things that they may be directed unto our purpose concerning the Plague thou mayest remember after what sort the perturbations of a woman great with child her hand being applied unto some certain member although unadvisedly rashly and without a concurrence of the will do decipher the member in the Young co-agreeing in co-touching with the image of the object of that perturbation with the image I say but not with an idle signature But suppose thou that her desire was to a cherry verily a cherry is deciphered in the young and in a co-like member such as the child-bearing woman shall touch with her hand which cherry waxeth green yellow and red every year at the same stations wherein the cherries of a tree do attain those interchanges of colours And which is far more wonderful it hath happened that the Young so marked hath suffered these signatures of colours in the Low-countries in the moneths called May and June which afterwards expressed the same in Spain in those called March and April And at length the Young returning into his countrie shewed them again in a bravery in those called May and June Also under a strong impression of a woman great with child not onely a new generation of a cherry is brought in thereupon but it also happens that the old one is to be changed and it constrains a seminal generation to give place yea and the image of God being now lively or in the readinesse