and to enjoy all the felicities thereof both earthly 〈◊〉 heavenly Let us therefore by all meanes seeke to preserve the welfare of our bodies since the same is so great a furtherance to the felicity of the mind And the rather because otherwise if the body be unhealthy and distempered the same will bee a burthen to the mind whose Instrument it is and so hinder it in the performance of all excellent matters and in the possession and enjoyance of all delights and happinesses both earthly and heavenly and instead thereof cause therein much distemper perturbation discontent evill and misery Because this matter is of great consequence I shall briefely endeavour to shew how the body thus worketh upon the mind That the humours of the body are an occasion of Passions and perturbations of the mind is a received ground among all Physitians and Philosophers It is well knowne in Philosophy that the affections of the mind doe follow the apprehensions of the phansie And Physitians doe well know that the apprehensions of the Phansie are conformable to the dispositions of the body and the humours that are predominate therein They tell us and Experience also teacheth us that the Cholericke humours if excessive being fiery and impetuous make the â—pprehension to bee swift and violent exciting to Anger and Rashnesse The Melancholy being cold and dry bring feare sorrow and darke thoughts Phlegme being cold and moyst maketh the apprehension to become dull slow and without vigour And too much bloud being hot and moyst excites to sensuall Lusts Prodigality Riot and the like A mixture of excessive inflamed and corrupted Choller Melancholy and other humours causeth the Phansie to apprehend things as having enmity excites to hatred Revenge Frowardnesse and to desperate mischiefes and miseries So that it is apparant the body workes upon the Mind and the excessive distempered humours thereof doe also annoy and distemper the Mind But how Not by depriving it of any power or faculty given it of GOD as some say which remaines without diminishing but by corrupting the next instrument whereby the mind worketh and consequently the action it selfe which commeth to passe by reason that the evill humours of the body do send up grosse and maligne fumes into the braine annoying the animall Spirits which are most thinne and subtill vapours proceeding from the bloud and the Instruments whereby the mind worketh and performeth the actions thereof Those Spirits are a medium betwixt the mind and the body as some say Others that they participate of both and being refined enlivened and quickned by the reasonable and divine Soule they become of a middle nature betweene Ayre and Flame being pure and undistempered they cause in the mind Tranquility Joy and good desires The Ayrie part raising quicke pleasing and delicate conceits in the Phansie and the Flame inciting noble and active desires in the soule But these Spirits being distempered dulled and corrupted by the maligne fumes proceeding from ill humours The dispositions and actions of the mind also by reason thereof will become corrupt and evill for these animall Spirits being the medium betwixt the body and the mind participating of both and the next instrument whereby the mind and body worke upon each other being corrupted and distempered the mind therefore grieveth and distempereth it selfe at the distemper of these Spirits and so of the body And therefore cannot please it selfe or effect any excellent matter having such distempered corrupted Instruments to worke withall So that although the Spirit be willing yet the Corruptions and weakenesse of the flesh will pervert the actions thereof and the dull distempered body cannot bee capable to effect or know the good dictates operations and Inducements of the soule But both being annoyed by evill humours and those distempered Spirits become out of Temper and Corrupted It being apparant that the body thus workes upon the mind it is of very great Consequence that we take diligent care of the good temper health and welfare of our bodies The usuall directions prescribed to mainetaine our bodies in good health and due temper are a convenient proportion and moderation in these which Physitians call the sixe non-naturall Things according to Galen's Division Which are 1 Ayre 2 Meate and Drinke 3 Sleepe and watch 4 Labour and rest 5 Emptinesse and Repletion 6 The affections and passions of the mind All which are by divers Authors at large treated of and described But for asmuch as neither the matter of Diet nor the quantity thereof nor the use and observation of those other non-naturall things ought to be the same in all sorts of people but very different according to the diversity of Ages Complexions Constitutions and the like It is therefore good that every man be well skilled in the Temperament of his body and mind that he may be a Rule unto himselfe in that which is best for him Hence that Proverbe hath its probability Every man is eyther a Foole or a Physitian Let therefore every man survey himselfe and if he find the plight and state of his body to be in equability and of a perfect Temper Let him cherish and preserve himselfe in this good estate which is to be done by a due order apt proportion and convenient moderation of these things before mentioned Namely with little alteration according to that in Hippocrates Aphorisme Ayre Meat Drinke Exercise Sleepe Venus and affections of the Mind But if our bodies doe any way decline from a good Temper and Disposition Then had we need to recure the same by all good endeavours and Remedies To rectify therefore and remedy the ill Temperament of our bodies Let us observe these directions First to forbeare and disuse such things as are an occasion of the distemper or any way hurtfull Secondly to enjoyne our selves to a contrary order of Usage and Diet. Thirdly to evacuate and empty the body of ill humours and of such things as are an occasion of the distemper Of all which I intend briefly to discourse in the ensuing Divisions in a mixt way according to the foure severall Complexions together with directions concerning the divers passions and affections of the mind incident to each Complexion or humour abounding tending to the eschewing of the infelicity or misery of the mind and to encrease the felicity thereof But in the observation of the following Physicall directions we are to observe this Caution That seeing the many and severall Rules and observations therein though briefly prescribed we doe not too scrupulously and precisely tye our selves to such a multitude of particulars nor perplexe our selves in the observation therof for why those good effects for which they are severally prescribed may be happily effected if we doe but observe some part of those directions so much onely as wee may with conveniency And J have the rather collected and mentioned so many and divers particulars and many such as are very common and easie to be attained and observed to the intent we may
thinne waterish humours and of superfluous corrupted Choller and Melancholly The best time of purging is in the Spring or Autumne and it were good for such as live very intemperately to purge once at the least or twice every yeare And for the manner of an exact purge Physitians say it is not amisse that the body be first opened with a Clister And if much bloud and sanguine humours abound and be corrupted to begin with Phlebotomy if age weakenesse or other occasion hinder not opening the Cephalica veine in the Arme and then the humours to bee made plyable to nature This being done now to expell concoct and purge the humours soundly which molest the body with such apt medicines as are appropriated to evacuate and purge such severall humours as doe abound therein If the stomacke and body bee very much stuft foule and corrupted it will not be amisse to use a vomit and after the same presently to take such things as will strengthen the weakned parts comfort the braine Heart Liver Splene and disperse the Reliques such as are Triacle Methridate and divers others If Intemperance and disorder have beene long used or if the disease be old it is not amisse to purge three or foure times gently because ill humours which have remained long in the body cannot so well be expelled by a suddaine purgation at once as by degrees It is good also for such as abound with Phlegme to purge the same by degrees at three or foure severall times rather then suddainly at once because clammy Phlegme will not easily and presently follow a suddaine Purgation But choller being more thinne and moveable is more easily purged But forasmuch as there are many and divers matters to bee observed herein as the humour which aboundeth The nature of the Disease The strength age and Complexion of the person The operation and force of the Purgation and the particulars thereof aptly to be sorted and appropriated to the nature of the disease and humours abounding Also how much how often to purge how farre to proceed and by what wayes and passages all which requiring a large discourse I referre the same and such as have occasion to use them to the advice of some honest skilfull practicall Physitian whose directions and assistance is most convenient and ought to bee had concerning these matters So may these Cures and Remedies be happily effected they being carefull that universals be in right manner sorted with particulars and the body and mind reduced to its naturall good Temper and disposition Concerning other Evacuations and particular Cures and Remedies of the many and divers severall Diseases incident to man Since they are too large to be treated of in this briefe and Compendious Discourse And are amply dilated and treated of by divers in great volumes and lesse necessary to be vulgarly knowne then the former prescriptions I omit The rather because I conceive That if the body be well purged of such ill humours as abound therein and afterwards a good and apt diet be observed it is sufficient for the cure of almost all Diseases especially such as are bred by Repletion which are the most common maladies of our age unlesse they be inveterate and uncureable However such directions and remedies may doe us much good and make the Temper of our bodies and minds much better then otherwise All these Rules and prescriptions are very good to be known and observed aswell by the healthy as the diseased and in their due use and observation may cause much benefit and happinesse Neither doe we want Remedies though the body be incureable we may remedy the miseries thereof by the mind which is its Governour and ought as much as it may to comfort the same for as the body workes upon the mind as hath bin shew'd So much more doth the mind worke upon the body For the reasonable soule being Immortall and Divine doth guide and governe the Animall Spirits which are the organs thereof as the fabricke of the parts of the body is the organ of these animall Spirits And these spirits like a quick light flame doe continually worke on the body as the soule doth on them they make the body lively and lighter partly by refining the moisture thereof and converting the same into themselves and also by infusing themselves into all the parts thereof enliving lightning quickning and spiritualizing the same The Divine and reasonable soule therefore ought as much as it may to spiritualize quicken and comfort the living Spirits in such sort that the body being guided by these spirits these wholly dependant on the reasonable soule and the soule being guided by divine grace which is as it were the life thereof and by faith having its Conversation in heaven with God viewing and enjoying thereby in some measure already his heavenly glory and felicities expecting the same hereafter to be revealed infinitely and to enjoy the same in perfection eternally even forgetteth the griefe of the body or rather doth convert even the senses and spirits thereof into the purer parts of the soule which in faithfull contemplation being possest with heavenly Joy in God the whole man is as it were spiritualiz'd and transported with divine pleasures However if by reason of our frailties and weakenesse we cannot attaine to such Divine extasies and transportations yet we may know that our Corruption shall put on Incorruption and our Mortality shall inherit Immortality 1 Cor. 15. That our fraile bodies shall be changed and made spirituall bodies like the glorious body of the Sonne of God Phil. 3 21 With whom we shall enjoy infinite happinesse for ever How may such faithfull Contemplations comfort vs in greatest maladies and distempers yea even in death it selfe since the same is a passage to heaven when ceasing to be as men wee shall begin to live the life of Angels with God himselfe in heavenly glory and happinesse But to Returne Now to remedy such passions of the mind as are most incident to these mixt distempers of the body which being compos'd as in a medley of all the superfluous humours adust corrupted and distempered doe cause the mind in a mixt distemper also to apprehend all things in a bad manner as having Enmity and so doth edge and eneager malice and provoke Revenge and Cruelty For remedies hereof Let vs consider that these evill dispositions of Envie hatred malice Revenge and Cruelty being seldome one without the other are Compounded of many other vices and are the occasions of many evils and even of destroying all humanity and goodnesse Envie and malice are strange passions Gnawing the heart and turning the good of another to the envious mans hurt Good and prosperous men as also their good deeds goods and prosperity are eye sores to envious malitious Spirits causing in them despight griefe and even gnashing of teeth While the envious mischievous man looketh obliquely upon the goods of another he looseth that which is good in himselfe or at least takes
to come knowing there are inestimable Treasures Crownes of Glory A Paradice of delights prepared in the Heavens to reward such as live a good and vertuous life on Earth And when we find within us that we haue done well the same tickleth our affections with sweet and pleasant delectation So that when wee find within us this heavenly Temper of a vertuous disposition and seeing that therby we often avoid evill and vitious Courses and often accomplish good and worthy Actions our minds are thereby filled with joy and pleasure even as the Sunne is with light the choysest flowers with fragrant smels and the gay apparelled Spring-time with greennesse There is a Congratulation a pleasing contentment in well-doing It is a true and essentiall Reward of a good mans Soule which never failes him So as the priviledge that vertue hath in rewarding her followers is much greater then the world can afford for the world at the best can give but fleeting but transitory delights and the windy praises of men But such as are truely vertuous have greater Rewards even within themselves for besides that vertuous men usually live more healthfully prosperously honourably pleasantly and every way even outwardly more happily then vitious men their vertue doth alwayes inwardly afford to their Mind Conscience most sweet joyes and pleasures and hath also eternal glorious rewards assign'd for the same in the Heavens And albeit the body have its distinct pleasures apart from the mind yet cannot the same be either truely pleasant or laudable if not contained within the precincts of vertue which is the proper object of the minds happinesse Because the same will otherwise breed much more displeasure then content But being limitted within the bounds thereof are laudable and good to bee enjoyed So as it is indeed this vertuous habit of the mind onely that well prepares the same and makes us truely enjoy all Corporall and Terrestriall happinesse also for vertue iâ— the Rule and guide of all sensuall and externall pleasures so as thereby and within the limits thereof we may and should freely and cheerefully as in my former Booke J have dilated enjoy the good and lawfull pleasures and felicities of the world even a Terrestriall Paradice of delights and Happinesse within us Yea by the guidance of this divine and immortall quality of vertue we may and should be directed the way to GOD himselfe to Heaven and even in this life thereby we doe become most apt and well prepared to enjoy a Paradice of heavenly delights also within us For why Wisedome which is compounded of all the other vertues of the intellectuall soule shewes and perswades us to love and embrace that which is truly good and principally that which is most good But the most excellent good is God himself wherefore true Wisdome or Vertue referres it selfe and all its faculties and exercises to him and to his Glory he being the Fountain or rather the Ocean of all true pleasure and happinesse To whom and to which True Wisedome also perswades and directs us the way which is by divine Grace and chiefly the principall and fountaine of heavenly Graces Namely Faith Hope and Charity This habit of vertue also doth well prepare the mind and maketh the same apt to receive conceive and retain all heavenly graces happinesse all divine Illuminations and Consolations So that if our faith and hope bee high and heavenly enough and our Minds pure and divine enough we may by Contemplation in some measure before-hand enjoy heavenly delights and pleasures within us But of this more hereafter Let us therefore spare no labours no endeavours to gaine this excellent treasure of Vertue Let our desires and our designes be wholly employed in the acquiring of it since by the guidance thereof wee are directed the way to mount up to heaven and in the meane time thereby enjoy a marvailous deale of happinesse on Earth even a Paradice of delights and pleasures both terrestriall heavenly within us Since that in vertue is such Mines of most excelling Treasures And choise delights let our designes bee bent to gaine her pleasures Let her delights allure and winne us still to acquire to finde This pleasant Paradice within us this joyfull happie Mind THE II. DIVISION How to gaine this felicity of the Mind IN the acquisition of vertue which is this hippinesse of the Mind we seeke for These three things are especially requisite First Education to incline us Secondly Reason to direct us Thirdly Exercise and Custome to conforme and confirme us First concerning Education Youth may be compared to a Field which if well manurd and sowne with good seed bringeth forth good fruit But if neglected therein springeth up many ill weeds Even so if we be well educated if the seeds and fundamentall parts and habits of vertue be well sowne in our hearts at first the same is likely to spring up and become deepely rooted and even naturall in us Whereas otherwise without this good education vice and wickednesse is like to spring abundantly in our depraved and corrupted Minds Education therefore is very necessary In youth our natures are easily moulded to what frame our Parents and Tutors will whose opinions like Oracles doe then altogether sway our minds yet weake and not allur'd to Vices nor troubled by Temptations And if we be in our tender yeares taught to be vertuous and to abhorre all vices as Prodigies and things unusuall The same will then bee so ingrafted in our nature as vertue will be even habitually lovely and pleasant to us and Vice hatefull and loathsome Insomuch as even till old age many men doe retaine in them the same love to vertue and hatred to vice as they did in youth which then also is much encreased by Reason and good Custome It is good therefore that vices be named to children and youth in a shamefull disdainefull manner and to hide from them the shamelesse practice thereof by many in our dissolute age even without infamy yea with applause by some vitious minded men Also to let them thinke as it were to be wish't that all men hated Vice and wickednesse and often to discourse of the punishments and miseries inflicted and due for the same Also to shew and often commend unto them the amiablenesse pleasantnesse excellency and Rewards of all vertue and goodnesse It is certainely better that children bee Instructed rather mildly and by Encouragements if it may be then with trouble and severity for whatsoever we doe for feare of punishment our nature with a kind of loathing useth to be averse from the same things afterwards and the hatred received against the same in youth may be retayned even to old age But in this Discipline of Tender Youth rewards Prayses and encouragements for well doing doe sweetly kindle in us a desire to learne and to doe well in all things and this learning and vertuous disposition so gained is willingly loved easily retayned and encreased in after-times by Reason
and good custome so that as their yeeres their vertue encreaseth and replenisheth their minds with internall Joy and happinesse Secondly Reason ought to direct us in this acquisition of Divine vertue for Reason is the light and life of vertue and as our eyes doe serue to guide our bodies so haue our soules great need of Reasons light to discerne vertue from vice True good from deceipt and forgery And even in Reason vertue appeares easie amiable and pleasant And vice painfull loathsom and displeasant It is onely an evill Custome that makes vice seeme pleasing and vertue displeasing for the essentiall part of vertue is said to be truth and of vice false-hood and it is more easie and pleasant in Reason to tell truth then a lye and so of all particulars in Reason Vice appeares painefull hatefull hurtfull and vertue easie louely pleasant and beneficiall as I shall shew more plainely in the ensuing Divisions Let therefore Reason informe our Judgements and both of them guide and instruct our wils for the will hath not any light from her selfe but is illuminated onely by the shining Rayes of the understanding That is by reason and judgment yet the act of the will is from it selfe though it bee directed by the understanding Wherefore if the will of man doe conjoyne it selfe with reason in the persuite of vertue then with great facility it is able to governe the sensuall Parts as a Lady and Mistresse within the precincts of divine Vertue But if our wills disdainefully contemne Reasons Councels and if in stead of mounting aloft to the divine excellency thereof it descends towards the ignoble part of intemperate sensuality and if it dedicates conjoyns it selfe thereunto it then becomes like her brutish Companion and in stead of being the Commander now becomes the slave of the body and consequently both of them ignoble and brutish whereas otherwise if the Will doe chuse to obey Reason rather then Passions and so preferre Heaven before the Earth the same doth make not onely it self but even those sensuall parts which it then commandeth as a Mistresse to become Divine and celestiall and the whole Mind to be filled with true joy and felicity For certainly if wee will be guided by the divine light of Reason wee shall plainly see That vertue is inwardly most excellent pleasant lovely and delightfull alwayes crowning the followers thereof with true pleasure even with a Paradice of delights and happinesse Then also should we plainly see of which more hereafter That vice and wickednesse however painted over with the gay out-side of ostentation and hypocrisie of seeming felicity is indeed most deceitfull inwardly all deformed and loathsom alwayes ingendring and breeding discontent and sorrow Rewarding at last the followers thereof with a multitude of griefes perturbations and miseries Insomuch that if wee would indeed be directed by reasons divine Councels wee should greatly detest and immediatly forsake all vice and wickednesse wee should then presently be enamour'd with divine Vertue embracing the same with swift desires with open armes and Rejoycing therein with most pleasant delights and happiness Thirdly Exercise and Custome is necessary to conforme and confirme us in this vertuous and happie Way for continuall use of the Mind in vertues divine Pathes doth deeply impresse the same therein so as it becommeth thereby more excellent and even habituall in us And to such as are truly accustomed to vertue the same becomes most easie pleasant and delightfull Wherefore wee are First to avoid Sloth and Idlenesse in our selves Secondly the idle unprofitable and dangerous Company of vicious men both as hinderances to this vertuous Exercise and Custome Thirdly in all our endeavours herein we are to make a good use of all accidents of our owne experience and of the examples of others Fourâ—â—ly in all respects well to use and imploy our time herein And fifthly to goe on with due Perseverance towards the perfection of vertue and happinesse of all which more plainly yet briefly First let us contemne Sloth and Idlenesse as an hinderance to this vertuous exercise for why such as lead their lives in lazy slothfulnesse doe much endamage not onely the health of their bodies dulling and putrifying the same but also their minds which are thereby also soone corrupted with sottish dulnesse and evill thoughts even as water in a standing Poole soone becomes muddy and noysome for when the mind is not busied in some laudable thoughts or actions either 〈◊〉 lazy dulnesse evill desires or sullen sadnesse commonly creepes in and hinders the same in all goodnesse in all happinesse And on the contrary let us endeavour with an active quicke stirring and lively Spirit to goe on in all vertuous and happy wayes Secondly we are to avoid all dangerous idle and unprofitable company as an hinderance to this good use and exercise of vertue and happinesse The rather because evill examples are notable Corrupters of civill demeanours and dangerous depravers of a good disposition and on the contrary let us frequent and be inwardly familiar with onely such company as are good and vertuous Thirdly let us endeavour by all accidents by our owne experience and by the examples of others to avoid all vices and miseries and to embrace all vertue and happinesse in all our endeavours while we goe on in these vertuous Wayes and Exercises Then which there cannot be a more familiar plaine easie and usefull doctrine Fourthly in generall Let us still remember to imploy our time well in such things as are good and profitable The rather considering that nothing is more precious then time on which dependeth the accomplishment of all our affaires and actions and which if we neglect can never be recalled And lastly let us forward all good beginnings in this exercise with due perseverance So will this excellent Treasure of Vertue this happinesse of the Mind which we seeke for be in good time so deepely impressed in our Minds as the same will even become naturall habituall very easie and pleasant to us By this discourse wee may perceive That next under GOD all good beginnings in this blessed way of Vertue proceed from Education The happy progresse and ample encrease thereof from Reasons Precepts and the confirmation and full accomplishment thereof from use and exercise So then let us goe on in this happy way of vertue which certainely will leade us in good time to that Paradice of perfection whose entertainement is true pleasure true happinesse So if our soules were truely wise to seeke out vertues wayes We then should find a Paradice of pleasant sweetest joyes THE III. DIVISION How the Body worketh upon the Mind and how wee may and ought thereby to mainetaine and encrease the felicity thereof A Well tempered healthy body is an occasion of a long and happy life wherein we may enjoy this Paradice within us which we seeke for And the mind thereby will become well prepared and fitted for all vertuous Dispositions exercises and Contemplations