all those things that are compact or solid do contain Salt and where there is no Salt there can be no hardness And for this reason they esteem Salt to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Solidity which they that deny say they are obliged to shew some other cause from which Salts have that aptitude to coagulate themselves and become solid bodies For it is manifest that the Salts of Vegetables as Crystals of Tartar c. also Nitre Allom Vitriol Salt Gemm and divers other of this Nature do coagulate themselves not only into hard but even brittle bodies in the bosome of the water and to this end they alleadge that if the Salt be washed from ashes no heat of fire will make them hard but if the Salt be left in them and they be mixt with a little water the fire will not only quickly make them become hard but if they be strongly press'd with it turn them into Glass The Learned Kircherus is also of the same opinion with the Ghymists viz. that Salt is the cause of stonifying and giveth us this experiment to confirm it Si saxum inquit quodcunque in tenuissimum pâ—llinem resolveris aqua perfectè commixtum per Manicam Hippocratis Colaveris illa nil prorsus saxeum sed preter arenaceum solummodo sedimentum nil relinquet si verò Nitrum vel Tartarum aqua perfecté commixtum addideris illa quacunque tetigerint intra subjectam concham posita sive frondes similiaque post exiguum temporis curriculum aeri exposita vel in saxum ejusdem generis conversum si non totum saltem cortice Saxco vestient If saith he you reduce any sort of stone into a most subtile powder and mixing it throughly with water you strain it through Hippocrates's bagg therewill nothing of it remain that is stony nor will it leave any thing of it behind but a certain sandy sediment but if you shall add to this Nitre or Tartar perfectly dissolved in water whatsoever body they shall touch being placed in the same Dish whether it be the twiggs of a Vine or the like after a little while being exposed to the Air it will be turned into stone or at least it will be covered with a stony Crust And though this opinion be held by Crollius Hartman Quercetanus Severinus and Sennertus who are but Neoterick or late Writers yet is it no new opinion but hath been asserted by the venerable Ancients as long agoe as the time of Hermes Tresmegistus who is said to have lived in the Age of Ioshua who in his Smaragdine Tables as they are called hath left us these words Salis est ut corporibus in Mundum prodituris soliditatem coagulando praestet Sal enim corpus est Mercurius Spiritus Sulphur anima that is T is from Salt that Bodies are produced in the World it causeth Coagulation and Solidity for Salt is the Body Mercury the Spirit and Sulphur the Soul This Doctrine though much more rational than the former and seeming to be confirmed by experiment and to be verified by the account our senses give us of it cannot yet gain my full assent to it so far as to allow Salt to be the Primary either Matter or Efficient of Solidity in bodies or the cause from whence stones are produced For it is observabe that Salts are reducible into Liquors and do seem to lose their solidity either by being mixed with water or exposed to the Air in which many of them run per deliquium But to let this pass what Salt can be supposed to be communicated to Quick-silver when it is coagulated by the fumes of melted Lead by which it becomes so solid that it may be cast into Moulds and Images formed of it and when cold is not only hard but somewhat brittle like Regulus of Antimony What access of Salt can be fancied is added to the white of an Egg from whence the whole Chick is formed which is a Liquor so near water that by beating it with a whisk it is reduced into so fluid a substance that it will easily mix with water and is hardly distinguishable from it And yet this white of the Egg by the assistance of a gentle heat to stir up its seminal Principle and enable it to turn and new shuffle the parts of that liquid substance by the means of which motion divers of its parts are broken into shapes and sizes fit to adhere one to another is all of it turned into solid bodies some of them very tough as the Membranes and Nerves and some of them hard and brittle as the Beak Bones Claws c. of the Chick and all this without any new addition of salt 'T is likewise remarkable that very credible witnesses assure us that Corral though it grow in salt water at the bottom of the Sea is yet whilst it remains there soft like other Plants and juicy also neither will the example of Kircherus alleadged above avail much sinceit is commonly known that the powder of Plaster of Paris or burnt Alabaster if it be mixed with water without any sort of salt will coagulate into an entire stony lump or Mass. I do not deny but that salt may very much conduce towards the coagulation of some bodies as we see in the curdling of Milk with Runner Spirit of salt Oyl of Vitriol juice of Limmons and the like but then this happens but to some bodies and is caused from the shape and motion of its small parts which entring the pores of some bodies that are naturally fitted to be wrought upon by it it fills up many of the cavities of such bodies and also affixing it self to the particles of them it causeth them not only to stick to it self but also adhere closely one to another I say salts do this to some bodies not to all for to some other bodies instead of being an Instrument either to cause or confirm their solidity it by dissociating the parts of which they consist and putting them into motion doth reduce them into the appearance of Liquor as we see in the action of corrosive saline spirits both upon Metals and stones Now for that Argument that salts do shoot even in the water into hard and brittle Crystals if I should say they do so upon the account of a seminal Principle I should not perhaps be thought to have much mistaken the cause by those that have well consider'd the curious and regular Figures yet constantly distinct from each other which their Crystals shoot into which certainly cannot proceed from chance for they do as constantly keep their own figure as for Example that of Nitre alwayes appears in a Sexangular form that of Sea-salt in a Cubical As Wheat produceth Wheat and the seed of a Man a Man Philosophers hold there are two sorts of Agents one they stile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the principal cause or Agent from which immediately and primarily the Action depends and
governing and directing all things to their proper and peculiar Offices Functions and Ends. And this Providence was by them somtimes stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul of the World by which sayth Seranus they understood nothing else but the Fire Spirit or Efficacy which is universally diffused in the Symmetry of the Universe for the Forming Nourishing and Fomenting all things according to their respective natures Which Vivifick Principle Plato calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 effective Fire but this they never understood or meant to be a material part of any Body but is the same which Moses calls the Spirit of God And now in the last place I am come to give you the mind of Plato and his â—onformity with Moses His judgment hath always been soâ—esteemed that men to express the Reverence they had of him did usually call him the Divine Plato And in delivering his opinion I shall also at the same time give you that of Timaeus Locrius that great Philosopher and Disciple of Pythagoras from whom Plato borrowed much First then Plato tells us that the World was made For he puts the question whether the World had a beginning or was made To which he answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was made Then as to the first matter of which the World and all the Bodies in it were made he says thus in his Timaeus it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Genus or Species out of which every thing is composed and He calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first Matter and is indeed the same with Sanchoniathans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mot c. and Thales and Orpheus's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all of them the same with Moses his Chaos and Water as will appear by comparing their descriptions together Thus first Moses calls his first matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ohu without from which Rabby Kinchi calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Fabius tells us which is the same word that Plato uses to express his first matter by and differs little in sound but less in the sence from the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sanchoniâ—thon which Philo Biblius stiles Mot from the Hebrew and Phenitian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mod which signifieth Matter Yea Plato expresly calls his first Matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat without form just like Moses his Bohu And in his Timaus he tells us that God out of this first matter wâ—ter commonly called Chaâ—s because disordered and irregular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beautified Ordered and Figured or Form'd the Universe and as Moses says the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the waters So Plato affirmeth that God made the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by an importunate mâ—tion fluctuating and not quiescing upon the matter And as for Plato's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Soul of the World we are assured by Ludovieus Vives he meanâ— by it the same Spirit of God which Moses says moved upon the waters in the Beginning and which the Psalmist calls the breath of his mouth Psalm 33. verse 6. For according to Platoes Philosophy as well as that of Moses God is the Executive cause and productive Efficient of all things and therefore he usually stiles God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Supream Fabricator Perfector and Essentialisor of all things And as to the manner how all things were made he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every thing was essentialised by certain Prolifick or efformative words which the Stoicks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spermatick or Seedy word Which agrees exactly both with Moses his Fiat and with that of St. Paul The Worlds were framed by the word of God that is Gods Fiat was the Creator of all the Seminal and Prolifick Principles of all things and those created Seeds were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Efficients and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 water was the Matter of which they were all made These Seminal or Efficient Principles of things do contain within themselves certain Pictures or Images of those things which they are to make out of the matter viz. water To which purpose let us here what Plato says of his Ideas which is to this effect There are two sorts of Worlds one that hath the form of a Paradigm or Exemplar which is an intelligible Subject and always the same in being but the second is the Image of the Exemplar which had a beginning and is visible By his Intelligible World Plato means the Divine Decrees which are inherent in the Mind and wisdom of God and these Original Idea's he says do produce a Secondary sort of Idea's that is the Seeds of things and these he makes to be the more immediate Delineation or Image of the whole work somtimes calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Exemplar somtimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Image His words run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making use of this Exemplar he frames the Idea and Powers that is the Seeds of things So that he makes the first and Original Idea which is resident in the Divine Wisdom or Mind of God and which Divines call the Decrees of God to be much more Noble than the latter or secondary Idea or Seed and to be the cause of it And this last Idea and Seed contains the Picture of the thing to be made and depends upon the Primary or Original Idea and Exemplar which is seated in God himself Which Doctrine rightly considered we have a satisfactory account of the cause why the last Idea's viz. the Seeds of things do proceed so regularly constantly and unerringly in the producing their likes For if we consider that the Seeds of things do depend upon their Paradigmes and that they are inherent in the Mind of God himself who is a God of Order this will appear not so abstruse as it hath hitherto done And though we out of Pride and self-love to our own Nature are unwilling to afford any creature that is not of our Species the Priviledg of doing any thing by a Principle of reason that is with a design tending towards the accomplishment of such an End yet it is certain that all creatures even those that we count inanimate do enjoy upon the account of their Seminal Principles not only Life but even reason in some measure Which wanting the use of Languages they do nevertheless plainly declare to heedful and inquisitive men not only by their regular and consequently designed working the parts of matter till they have produced such a distinct sort of Body but also by those affections which wee call Sympathy and Antipathy and for want of this knowledg have hitherto referred to occult or hidden causes the usual Sanctuary of Ignorance by which Sympathy and Antipathy of theirs it is very manifest they have hatred and love and have a knowledg of those things which are either pleasing or agreeable too or else unpleasant or hurtful to their natures And
Liquor in the Earth is by Paracelsus and Helmont by a Barbarous name call'd Leffas Terrae and is the proximate matter of all Vegetables For proof of what I seem to have with some boldness asserted in this place Let any sort of Grain be put for a small time in an Oven or any analogous heaâ— that the external warmth may suscitate and excite this ferment of the Seed to take wing and desert its body This Grain though entire to sight if it be committed to the Earth shall never by any Art be brought to produce its like As Vegetables and Animals have their Original from an invisible Seminal Spirit or breath so also have Minerals Metals and Stones To this purpose Dr. Iordan tells us There is a Seminal Spirit of all Minerals in the Bowels of the Earth which meeting with convenient Matter what that is we shall shew in its place and Adjuvant Causes is not idle but doth proceed to produce Minerals according to the Nature of it and the Matter which it meets withal which matter it works upon as a Ferment and by its motion procureth an actual heat as an Instrument to further its work which actual heat is increased by the fermentation of the Matter The like we see in making of Malt where the Grains of Barley being moyst'ned with water the Generative Spirit in them is dilated and put in Action and the superfluity of the water being removed which might choak it and the Barley laid up in heaps the Seeds gather heat which is increased by the contiguity of many Grains lying one upon another In this work Natures intent is to produce more individuals according to the Nature of the Seed and therefore it shoots forth in spires but the Artist abuses the intention of Nature and converts it to his ends that is to increase the Spirit of his Malt. The like we find in Mineral Substances where this Spirit or Ferment is resident as in Allom and Copperas-Mines which being broken exposed and Moystned will gather an actual heat and produce much more of these Minerals than else the Mine would yield as Agricola and Thurniser do affirm and is proved by common experience The like is generally observed in Mines as Agricola Erastus Libavius c. do avouch out of the daily experience of Mineral Men who affirm that in most places they find their Mines so hot as they can hardly touch them although it is likely that where they work for perfect Minerals the heat which was in fermentation whilst they were yet in breeding is now much abated the Minerals being now grown to their perfection And for this heat we need not call for the help of the Sun which a little Cloud will take away from us much more the body of the Earth and Rocks nor for subterranean fires This imbred heat is sufficient as may appear also by the Mines of Tinglass which being digged and laid in the moyst Air will become very hot so Antimony and Sublimate being mixed together will grow so hot as that they are not to be touched If this be so in little quantities it is likely to be much more in great quantities and huge Rocks Heat of it self differs not in kind but only in degree and therefore is inclined no more to one Species than to another but as it doth attend and serve a more worthy Superiour such as this Generative Spirit is Thus far he Moreover that Minerals and Metals have their proper Seeds hear further what a Mystical Chymist but a very rational Man Cosmopolita sayes Semen Minerale vel Metallorum creat natura in visceribus terrae propterea non creditur tale semen esse in rerum natura quia invisible est Nature doth Create the Mineral or Metalline Seed in the Bâ—wels of the Earth therefore it is not believed that there is such a Seed in Nature because it is invisible And the same Author again thus Et quam praerogativam vegetabilia prae Metallis habent ut Deus illis semen inderet haec immeritò excluderet Nonne ejusdem dignitatis Metalla apud Deum cujus arbores Hoc pro certo statuatur nihil sine semine crescere ubi enim nullum est semen res est Mortua that is And what prerogative have Vegetables above Metals that God should put Seed into them and undeservedly exclude these Are not Metals of the same dignity with God that Trees are This may be held for certain that nothing doth increase without Seed for where there is no Seed that thing is Dead So that it is plain you see by the afore-cited Authorities that Minerals and Metals have Seed that this Seed is invisible and that it works by the help of its ferment or as a ferment That stones grow common experience teacheth us as also the tenth History alleadged in the first Section of this present Essay and consequently must be endowed with seed and ferment so that here is at least an analogous way of production to that of Animals and Vegetables which we have declared above and was the thing we intended here to prove But before I proceed that I may be the more clearly understood I shall declare what I understand by the Ferment of the seed The word Fermentum which signifieth Leaven is by â— some esteem'd to be quasi fervimentum or a thing made hot and generally is used to denote not only a turgescence and dilatation of the parts of Matter as in Leavened Bread c. but also signifieth the working of any sort of Liquor till it become Maturated and exalted into a generous and sprightly Drink Fermentation is thus defined by the Learnned Dr. Willis Fermentatio est motus intestinus particularum seu principiorum cujusvis corporis cum tendentia ad perfectionem ejusdem Corporis vel propter mutationem in aliud Fermentation is an intestine or intire motion of the Principles or particles of which day Body consists with an intent to perfect the said Body or change it into another Ferments then are subtile tenuous Bodies which we generally call Spirits for as to Leaven Yeast c. they are but the cloathings of these Spiritual and finer Substances as we before shewed the Grains of Vegetables and the Sperm of Animals were which fine subtile breath the Ferment hath an expansive power by which being immersed in any Matter or Substance it desiring to dilate it self variously agitates the small particles of that matter it is joyned to and making Excursions through all parts of the Subject it is resident in it adhering intimately to every small part of the Matter doth first by the peculiar motion it hath put them into alter and break the particles into new shapes and sizes and then by conveneing together with them constitute a new texture of that Matter and thus a new Concrete is made by the power of the Ferment So that in truth the Ferment of a Seed I mean Natural Ferment is not any Substance
by whose power the thing is made and this as we shall prove in its due place is an Architectonick stonifying Spirit or Petrifick seed The other cause they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Adjuvant or assisting cause of which sort there are many by which the principal Agent may be furthered in its acting upon matter of which last sort of causes of the solidity in Bodies viz. the Helping or Assistant we will not deny but that salt may be one as being such a praevious disposition of the parts of Matter as renders them more apt to be wrought upon by the first kind of Agent viz. the Seed So that in some sence we may for the reasons above alloadg'd allow the Chymist to think salt is though Nec prima materia nec efficiens Yet Proxima maâ—eria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soliditatis The Proximate matter and Adjuvant cause of Solidity But since not only salt but the whole Tria prima or Three first Principles of the Chymists as also the Quaternary or four Elements of the Peripateticks are justly enough denyed to be the first Elements or constitutive Principles of all Bodies they themselves being further resolvable into more simple parts as we shall prove by and by I say since it is so I must be excused if denying my suffrage to both their Doctrines in that large sence they propose it in I offer to render other causes by which not only solidity but Petrification also may be introduced into Matter Section the Third THe Doctrine I am now about to affirm is no Novel conceit but so Ancient that we shall find that it was held and by them transmitted to Posterity not only by Plato Timaeus Locrus Parmenides Pythagoras c. Philosophers of the Academick and Italick Sect but also by Orpheus Thales the Milesian and also by Mochos and Sanchoniathon the great and Ancient Phoenitian Philosophers nay by that Divinely illuminated Man Moses I urge this point of the Antiquity of the Doctrine I am now going to affirm because I know it is the custom of some Men to disgust any Philosophical truth that cannot shew it self to be as ancient as Aristotle's time but to please such let them consider that the Hypothesis we intend to make use of in this ensuing Discourse beareth an equal Date with the World and was at first deliver'd to Man by the Ancient of Dayes himself This Doctrine then which hath of late years been revived and assumed by the Noble Helmont and other great wits I now am come to lay down and explain and in the next place shall endeavour to prove and confirm it first by reaâ—on then by experiment and lastly by Authority The Hypothesis is this viz. That stones and all other sublunary bodies are made of water condensed by the power of seeds which with the assistance of their fermentive Odours perform these Transmutations upon Matter That is that the matter of all Bodies is originally meer water which by the power of proper seeds is coagulated condensed and brought into various forms and that these seeds of things do work upon the particles of water and alter both their texture and figure as also that this action ceaseth not till the seed hath formed it self a Body exactly corresponding with the proper Idea or Picture contained in it And that the true seeds of all things are invisible Beings though not incorporial this I affirm and shall endeavour to prove But to make this the better to be understood I shall praemise some generals and then descend to particular proofs of what I assert First then nothing is produced by chance or accident And therefore in every Generation or Production there must necessarily be presupposed some kind of seed which hath a power or faculty to alter the Matter and dispose it to such a Being and Form as God and Nature have design'd to produce Secondly all seeds in some degree are endow'd with Life and a power of acting for nothing that is not Vital can promote it self to perfection And if Bodies are distinguishable from their internal Efficients and are specificated by them then must they be allowed to contain a seed These positions will not pâ—rhaps be denyed to Animals nor Vegetables because their supposed feed is visible For the seed or rather sperm of perfect Animals is an efflorescence of the best parts of the blood elaborated in the Testicles and impregnated with Spirits from all parts of the Body in which resideth the vis Plastica or Efficient and this indeed is the real seed or geniture though it be invisible which containeth in it self the Image or Type of the thing to be made which it performs by a Fermental Odor or Aura and by breathing upon those proper juices it finds in a Female Womb it first coagulates them and then by degrees explicates it self working this Female Matter into a Body exactly corresponding with its own pre-conceived Figure the grosse body of the Male-seed all this while being but a vehicle to convey with safety this subtile fermentative breath to its proper place of action which being done the body of the sperm is ejected from the Womb as useless to Generation That this is so hath been proved by the industrious and curious dissection of divers sorts of Beasts made at several seasons after their Conceptions and continued till the formation of the foetus and yet no Vestigiae or foot-steps of the Male-sperm could be found in the womb This is asserted by that incomparable Man Dr. Harvy to whom I refer him that desireth further satisfaction in this point The sperm of Man if but for a moment it be exposed to the touch of the external Air becomes dead and unprolifick and that by reason of the subtilty of the spermatick ferment it being very apt to desert the body of the seed This is a truth so generally known that the Virtue of that Lady is justly suspected by all rational Men who pretended to have Conceived with Child by attracting the seed of a Man which floated in a Bath wherein she Bathed her self As to Vegetables They also take their beginnings are propagated and do fructifie from the like invisible cause viz. a fermentative Odor or Aura which also contains the Idea of the Plant to be produced The body of the Seed or Grain which is the Casket that contains this invisible Workman being committed to the Earth its proper Womb is softened by the Nitrosulphurous juice of the soyl that the Vis Plastica which is the Efficient of the Plant may being loosened from its body be at Liberty to act Which being done the body of the seed or Grain is destroyed according to the sacred Writ Except Seed committed to the ground dye it produceth no fruit But the Architectonick Spirit being now at Liberty ferments by its Odor the Liquors it finds in the Earth converting them into a juice fit to work the Plant out of it which it by degrees performs This
distinct or separable from the Seed it self since it is connatural with it and intimately the same and is indemonstrable à priore as well as the Seed and may be thus defined A Ferment is an Expansive Elastick or Springy power of the Seed of any thing by which motion of its self it also moveth the smallest particles of that Matter in which it is immersed by which motion also which is of divers kinds according to the variety of Seeds the particles of Matter acquire new shapes sizes and postures amongst themselves and so a new texture of the whole is produced agreeable to the peculiar Nature of the Seed and correspondent to its Idea which Idea we shall explain in its place We have likewise declared often that seeds do operate by Odors or scents which we think is not said without cause for if it be well observed it will be found that no seeds do generate but in the time of their acting upon the Matter there are specifick Odors produced that is while they are in Fermentation and the work incompleat for when the Concrete is perfected the Odor is much abated as not to instance in artificial things making of Malt the fermenting of Beer and Wine in the Barrel and the leavening of Dough c. for 't is observable that the Grains of Wheat or other Vegetables sown in the ground when their invisible seed begins to ferment do send forth Odors so also the Eggs of Birds on which the Hen hath sat And that Minerals and Metals whilst in their making they do send forth such plenty of stinking Odors that many times the workmen in Mines are suffocated therewith no body can be ignorant Now these Odors are fine and subtile Effluviums or small particles of the Matter now put into motion by the power of the seed Ferment which having extricated themselves from their Companions and roving in the Air do at last strike against those parts of our Noses that are fitted by Nature to be sensible of the touch of such very small Bodies Odors then are a sign of Fermentation begun and are nothing but small particles of Matter got loose from their Fellows begun to be alter'd and specificated by the seed and therefore are very various according to the diversity of seeds and their Ferments from whence they proceed Having before declared that all Bodies proceed and are made from Seminal Beings and that the real seeds and Ferments of things are invisible and having declared what I would have understood by a seedy Fermenâ— and Odor and also having hinted above that all Bodies are Materially and Primarily nothing but water I shall now endeavour to prove the same more fully and clearly the which I shall do by three sorts of Arguments The first is grounded upon thaâ— Philosophical Axiom viz. Quaesunt prima in Compositione sunt ultima in resolutione Et quae sunt ultima in resolutione sunt prima in Compositione That which is first in the Composition is last in the resolution And those things which are last in the resolution the same are first in the Composition The second Argument is grounded upon another axiom commonly received That is Nutrimur iisdem quibus constamus We are Nourished by those things of which we are constituted or made The third argument shall be to shew and prove a necessity of all Bodies being formed out of water because neither the four Elements of the Peripateticks nor the Tria Prima or three Principles of the Chymists can possibly concur to the constituting of Bodies as either the Efficient or Primary Matter they being themselves but great disguised Schemes of one and the same Catholick Matter Water from whence they were made and into which they are ultimately to be resolved and uniformly to be reduced either by Art or Nature All which assertions I hope to prove both by Experiment and Reason and shall likewise endeavour to strengthen by good and sufficient Authorities Section the Fourth AS to the first Argument founded on that Axiom that All Bodies are made of that Matter into which they are ultimately resolved and è Contra This Maxim is agreed upon of all hands both by the Aristotelians the Old Chymists and the New ones and that almost upon the same ground For the first supposed all Bodies reducible at last into Fire Air Water and Earth and therefore held the Quaternary of Elements which by the way they could never yet sufficiently prove And the Second believed Salt Sulphur and Mercury to be the first Principles of all Bodies And the last sort the modern Chymists hold Spirit Oyl Salt Water and Earth to be the true Primary Principles of Bodies for the same reason viz. because many Concrets are resolvable by fire into the first three if not into the last five distinct Substances before named But that all Bodies are by Art to be brought back uniformly into water hear what that Learned Man Helmont saith Nostra namque operatio Mechanica mihi patefecit omne Corpus puâ—a saxum Lapidem Gemmam Silicem Arenam Marcasitam argillam terram Lapides coctos vitrum Calces Sulphur c. Transmutari in Salem actualem aequiponderantem suo Co pori unde factus est Et quod iste sâ—l aliquoties câ—hobatus cum sale circulato Paracelsi suam omnino fixitatem amittat tandem transmutetur in Liquorem qui etiam tandem in aquam insipidam transit Et quod ista aqua aequiponderet sali suo unde manavit Plantam verò carnes ossa Pisces c. quicquid similium est novi redigere in mera sua Tria unde post modum aquam insipidam Confeci Metallum autem propter sui seminis anaticam commistionem arena quellem difficilimè in salem reducuntur Cum igitur arena sive terra Originalis tam Arti quam Naturae resistat nec queat ullis unico duntaxat Gehennae artificialis igni excepto Naturae vel artis à primaeva sui constantia recedere sub quo igne artificiali arena sal â—it ac tandem aqua quia vim habet agendi super sublunaria quaevis absque reactione c. For our handy-craft Operation that is his Liquor Alkahest hath manifested to me that all Bodies to wit the Rocky Stones the Pebble the Precious stone the Flint Sand Marcasits Clay Earth Brick Metal Glass Lime and Brimstone c. may be reduced into a real Salt equal in weight to its own Body from whence it proceeded And hat Salt being often cohobated with the circulated Salt of Paracelsus doth altogether lose its fixedness and is transmuted into a Liquor which also at length becomes insipid water and that water is of equal weight to the Salt of which it was made But Plants Flesh Bones Fish c. and every such thing saith he I know how to reduce into its three first Principles from whence afterwards I have made an insipid water but Metal by reason of its strict and exact commixture with its
present that you need not fear my rejecting this Opinion since however the Helmontians may in Complement to their Master pretend it to be a new discovery yet though the Arguments be for the most part his the Opinion it self is very Ancient I have now done with the first Argument that is that all Bodies are made of those things into which they are at last to be resolved and that I have proved to be water I now proceed to the second Argument viz. that all Bodies are Nourished by that of which they are Constituted Section the Fifth THat Vegetables are nourished by water will plainly appear from hence that no Plants do either grow or increase without the assistance of water either by the way of Rain or Dew or else by the overflowing of some Spring or River for if they be destitute of water they dye and wither And it is commonly known that the tops of Rosemary Marjoram Mint Baume Penny-ryal Crows-foot and many other Plants will thrive flourish and grow to a large Bulk without being Planted in the Earth if they be only put into a Glass with fair water in it into which they will shoot out springy Roots and from whence they will gather sufficient Nourishment to become large Plants To confirm which I shall relate a couple of very remarkable passages the one borrowed from that honourable Philosopher Mr. Boyl the other from that Learned Naturalist Helmont Mr. Boyl tells us that he caused a certain quantity of Earth to be digged up baked in an Oven and weighed and then put into an Earthen Pot in the which he set the seed of a Squash which grew very fast though planted too late viz. in the Moneth of May it being watered only with Spring or Rain-water in October by reason of the approaching Winter he caused it to be taken up and the weight of it with its stalk and leaves was found to be two pounds twelve Ounces and the Earth in which it grew being baked as before it was found to be exactly the same weight Helmont's Relation is this He took he saith two hundred pounds weight of Earth which was dryed in an Oven and putting it into an Earthen Pot he moystened it with Rain-water and in it he Planted the trunck of a Willow-Tree which weighed five pounds covering the Pot with an Iron cover which had a hole for the Tree to grow out at and at the end of five years he took up the Tree and found it to weigh one hundred sixty nine pound three Ounces and the Earth being dryed was of the same weight as at first Now if this be throughly consider'd from what can we possibly suppose the bulk of the Swash and this great addition of 164. pounds weight to the Tree did proceed but from meer water there being nothing else added to either of them and no doubt Nature observeth the same course in producing all other Vegetables whether springing up from their innate Seeds or transplanted into other soyls for the Earth is only a Receptacle to receive the seeds of things and to sustain the weight of Minerals Animals and Vegetables which Seeds conceive in the water where they beget themselves Bodies and from which all Plants arise and by the power of the Architectonick Spirit of the seed fermenting the particles of water do proceed the stalks wood leaves flowers fruit grain or Casket of the real seed as also the Colours Odors Tastes and all the specificate qualities of the Plant according to the Idea wrapt up in the bosom of the seed Animals also are nourished by water some immediately others mediately Immediately from meer water as Salmon Sturgeon and several other sorts of Fish in whose stomacks no food that I know of was ever yet found And to confirm this Rondeletius an Author of good credit affirms that his Wife kept a Fish in a large glass and fed it with nothing but water so long till it grew so big that it could no longer be contained in the glass which they were forced to break to get it out Those living Creatures that are nourished immediately by water and Vegetables are most sort of Cartel proper for food so that in these Beasts which feed upon Corn Grass and other Herbs which are really but water once removed from its primitive simplicity by the power of Seeds water is a second time transmuted by the Ferment of a Beasts stomack by which it is changed into Chyle Blood Milk Urine Flesh Bones Fat Sinews c. and all these different one from another according to the species of the Beasts that feed upon them Now these Creatures and their parts as the flesh and milk of beasts serve for food to those Animals that are nourished mediately from water such are Men and divers Wild beasts who live upon the flesh milk and blood of Cattel and by the Ferments of whose stomacks these things are again Transmuted into another kind of Chyle blood flesh bones milk Urine c. which juices of our bodies are still but water disguised by the operation of different feeds and Ferments which is quickly discovered by distilling them for if our blood be distilled five or six parts of seven will rise in Phlegm which is easily reducible into simple water as we have shewed in the last Section before this Nay the sperm of Man by which we propagate our selves is nothing but water Originally altered by the several Ferments of the body and ciâ—culated in the seminal Vessels Upon this Subject there is much good matter to be found in that ingenious man Simpson in his Hydrologia It now remains that we prove the growth and nourishment of Metals and stones from water which that we may the better do I think it necessary in the first place to discover whether they do really grow and increase or no for some men believe that God Created them at first when he formed the world but that since they do neither grow nor increase which error we shall endeavour to confute by several good Observations taken from approved Authors Almost all the Mystical Chymists have handled this point so obscurely that though they have asserted that metals and stones do grow and increase and that they are generated from a seminal principle yet have they proved nothing clearly but left it as a principle to be granted without any further dispute 'T is a known truth in Cornwall that after all the Tin that could be found in a Mine hath been taken out and the Mine filled up with Earth yet within thirty years they have opened them again and found more Tin generated of which Dr. Iordan doth take notice also and in the above-cited place he sayes thus The like hath been observed in Iron as Gandentius Merula Reports of Ilna an Island in the Adriatick Sea under the Venetians where Iron is bred continually as fast as they can work it which is confirmed also by Agricola and Baccius â—he like we reade of
frail Seed they presently return into themselves But Leffas is constrained to finish the Act and obey the Power of the Conceived Seed Therefore Rain Conceiving a hory Ferment is made Leffas and is sâ—cked in by the lustfull Roots 'T is experienced also that within this Kitchin of the Root there is a new hâ—ry putrefaction produced by the Ferment which is Tenant there by and by it is brought from thence to the Bark which is as it were the Liver of the Plant where it is inriched with a new Ferment of that part and is made a Herby or Woody juice and at length it being come to Maturity it is made Wood an Herb or becometh Fruit. If the Arm or Stem of a Tree shall be putrefied under the Earth then the Bark or Rinde becometh dâ—y and cleaveth assunder and sendeth forth a smoak by its own Ferment which in the beginning is spungy byt at length hardens into a true Root and so Planted Branches become Trees by the abridgment of Art Therefore it is now evident there is no mixture of Elements and that all Bodies primitively and materially are made of water by the help of Seeds and their Ferments and that the Seeds being worn out and exhausted by Acting all Bodies do at length return into their Ancient principle of water yea that Ferments do sometimes work more strongly than fire because that fire can turn great stones into Lime and burn wood into ashes but there it stops but notwithstanding if they shall assume a Ferment in the Earth they return into the juice of Leffas and at last into simple water For Stones and Bâ—icks do of their own accord decline into Salt-petre Lastly Glass which is unconquâ—red by the fire and uncorrupted by the Air in a few years putrifieth by continuance in the Earth and undergoes the Laws of Nature c. Having now gone through the two first Arguments by which I proposed to prove the Doctrine I have asserted which Arguments were grounded on two generally received and allowed Axioms viz. Those things which are the last in the resolving or retexing of a Body the same are found to be the first in its composition Secondly we are nourished by those things of which we are made or consist And having I hope sufficiently proved by both of them that Water is the Original Matter and Seeds the Efficients of all Bodies I am now come to the third and last Argument which was to shew and prove a necesssity of all Bodies being formed out of water because neither the four Elements of the Aristotelians nor the three Principles of the Old Chymists no not yet the â—ive of the Modern Chymists can possibly concur to the constituting of Bodies as either their Primary Matter or Efficient they being themselves but great disguised Schemes of one and the same Catholick Matter Water from whence they themselves were made and into which they are ultimately to be resolved and uniformly to be reduced Section the Sixth ANd First for the Chimical Principles I have shewed in the Fourth Section of this Discourse That the Oyls of Vagetables and their Fermented Spirits which are their Sulphurs that the Fat 's and Oyles of Animals which are their Sulphurs and also the Sulphurs of Minerals and Mettals are all of them reducible into Water As are also both Mineral Animal and Vegetable Salts And as to the Mercury of Animals and Vegetables improperly enough so called they being but of a loose Contexture are easily made to remigrate into water as I have taught in the same place As also is though with somewhat more reluctancy because of its strong Compression by its Seed true Mettallin Mercury or Quicksilver as my own experience hath assured me Which is also confirmed by Raymundus Lullyus the ingenious Mr. Boyl and divers others All this may be performed two ways that is Either by the means prescribed in the sorecited pages or else more solemnly speedily and universally by the help of that rare Solve the Alkahest The manner of whose operating upon Bodies I have described from the râ—lation of that worthy man Helmont in the fourth Section Now as to the two other Principles added by the Modern Chymists the one of them viz. Earth doth properly belong to the School of the Stagyrâ—t and therefore I speak to that when I come to discouâ—se of the four supposed Elements of Bodies But as to the other viz. Spirits they are all of them of one of these two Classes either Vinous and made by Fermentation or Saline and made without Now for the Vinous they are totally inflamable Bodies and therefore to be Ranked under the Classis of Sulphurs and may be reduced to water as I have shewed you above Other Sulphurs and Spirit of Wine it self may The other sort of Spirits viz. Saline are nothing but Volatlle Salts diluted with Phlegme or water and therefore by repeated distillations and careful rectifications will be brought to constitute a Lump or Mass of dry Salt Wherefore it is not an other Principle distinct from the former three of the Old Chymists and by the same handycraft-means may at last be reduced to water as I have before shewed the three Principles of the Chymists may be Nor indeed can any of these three Bodies called Salt Sulphur and Mercury pretend to be the principles of all Concretes excxept only Mercury or Water for it is proper for Principles that they be Primary and not further resolveable into more simple parts But both Salts and Sulphurs as I have made out above Being further reducible viz. into Water they therefore cannot whilst such deserve the Name of Principles Besides it is very much questioned by those two great Phylosophers Helmont and Boyl whether the Fire indeed be an adequate and fit instrument to Anatomise Bodies And whether or no those distinct Schemes into which the common Chymists resolve the matter of Bodies by Fire and which they call their three Principles were indeed really existing in those Bodies from which they were Educed that they were matterially there no man will deny they being themselves composed of water But whether they were resident in the Concrâ—te that yielded them in the same fâ—â—gures and Shapes that the Fire Exhibites them to our Sendes is very disputable And it may easily be imagined that the Fire acting upon a Body that it can master for some it cannot doth not only put the small parts of which that Body consisted and which were before in some measure at rest amongst themselves into a tumultuous motion by means of which they are sent hastily off into the Receiver but doth also break by forcing them asunder those small particles of that body into other Shades Figures and Sizes upon which account they do conyene together after new manners and so the Fire may present us with new Bodies which were not prae-existent in the Concrete when first exposed to its Action But because this point is throughly and Learnedly handled both by
Helmont and my excellent Friend Mr. Boyl in his Scâ—ptical Chymist I shall spare my self the pains of expatiating upon it and refer the Inquisitive to those two Authors for full satisfaction in this point Only I think it very necessary in this place to examine the Arguments which are brought by a very learned man and Eminent Physitian to evince the real Existence of the Chymical Principles in Bodies and to prove that they are not products of the Fire And I the rather take notice of it here First because they are not bare ratiocinations of this Learned mans but experiments upon which he hath built very much And Secondly should I omit to examine these Experiments which indeed do seem weighty they might perhaps be produced against the Doctrine I desend And some might likewise object that I had not dealt candidly with the Chymist in that I had taken no cognisance of the best weapon they have to defend their Cause This Learned man then intending to prove the real existence of Salin and Sulphurous Principles in Bodies before the action of the Fire upon them produces Experiments nevertheless that are made by the Fire His sence is this For the first viz. Salt it is commonly known that if the Salt be once washed out of the Ashes of any vegetable if they be again calcined they will yeild no more Salt Moreover if any concrete being distilled shall yeild a very sharp and acid Liquor their Calces or Ashes do remain less Salt and è contra that is where the salt is vblatâ—zed and become a Liquor and doth ascend by the Alimbec you shall in vain seek for it in the caput mortuum That which vindicates the Existence of the Principle of Sulphurs in Vegetables is this Take Guaâ—acum or any other sort of heavy wood in pieces or shavings and putting it into a Glass-Retort distill it by degrees and it will give you together with a sowet Liquor which is the Saline Latex a blackish oyl which is its sulphury part in a great quantity That this was at first in the distilled Body and not all produced by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appeareth from hence because if you do proceed another way by which the Sulphur may be taken from the concrete bâ—fore it be distilled the Liquor which cometh forth will be almost totally deprived of its Oylyness Wherefore if you shall pour spirit of Wine upon the Shavings of this wood this menstruum will extract a great quantity of pure Rozin from it which is the same Sulphury parts and if afterwards you take these Shavings that are left and wash them with common water and being dry put them in a Retort and distil them as at first you shall have but a little Oyl But that which is more to be wondred at and which doth more fully confirm this truth is that several Bodies which have little of Spirit or Sulphuâ— in them they being for the most part found amongst Volatils and which chiefly consist of Salt Earth and Water and are separated into these Elements by distillation which being again mixed together doth restore us the same sort of mixts marked with the same sort of qualities as before V. G. if you distil Vitriol in a reverberating Furnace you shall have a Phlegme almost insipid which is its watry part Then a very sower Liquor or rather a â—luid Salt and in the bottom remains a Red Earth of a pleasant purple Colour These being rightly performed if the two distilled Liquors be poured back upon the Caput Moâ—tuum we shall have the same Vitriol as before revived of the same colour taste and almost of the same weight The like may be done with Nitre Sea-salt Salt of Tarâ—ler and perhaps with Alome and other Mineral bodies which you may proceed withal with the same success so that those concrets that consist of fixed and stable Elements may like Mechanical Engins be taken to pieces and put together again without any prejudice Thus far he First then he saith that if Salt be washed from the Ashes of a vegetable though the Ashes be afterwards never so much calcined yet will they yeild no more Salt and also that those things that yeild a sower Liquor have little or no fixt Salt in their Aâ—hes The matter of fact I do not deny but the inference from thence I suppose I may For it is no necessary consequence thatâ—a thing was really existing in that form in the body that yeilded it in the which Art presents us with it when separated from the said body As for Example who ever believed that a Cole was ever really Existent as a Cole in wood any otherwise than materially and it is sufficiently known that the Cole is a product of the Fire which hath dissipated some parts of which the wood consisted and new modified the rest From which action of the Fire the new body of the Cole resulted From which Cole if it be fluxed with an Alkalizat-Salt may be obtained a perfect true and totally inflamable Sulphur no way distinguishable from common Brimstone as I have often proved Which Brimstone is a body very different from that of Salt which the same Cole if burnt to Ashes will yeild us in the room of this Brimstone And if it shall be objected that this Brimstone is the Oyl of the Wood or Plant which this Learned man is pleased to call the Sulphury Principle and which he afterwards tells us may be obtained together with an acid Saline Liquor upon which it swimmeth by distillation from Guajacum if this be objected I desire it may be considered First that the Oyl of the wood was before sent off into the Receiver and that a much greater Stress of Fire is required to burn the wood into a Cole then is needful to separate all its Oyl from it And Secondly that after it hath afforded all the Oyl which the Fire can make of it yet then at last this Brimstone may be made out of it And thirdly that it be taken notice of that it is not a sufficient ground nay that it is a liberty not to be allowed to give different bodies the same denomination because they agree in some one quality as this Oyl and the Sulphur do in that of Inflammability when they differ in so many others as is obvious to every man And as to that part of the Experiment alledged by this Learned man in the first place viz. that these Concrets which yeild in distilling a sower Spirit which is saith he their Salt volatised and brought into the form of a Liquor and therefore as he â—aith in vain to be sought for in their Ashes in which very little will be sound It proveth no more but this that according as Bodies are differently made up so the Fire acts diversly upon their Matter As is to be seen in Wax and Clay the former of which the fire melts and the last it hardens Nor doth it appear that this Saline Liquor was such
whilst it recided in the Concrete and before the action of the Fire upon it any more than it doth that there is really and actually residing in the body of Wheat or Barly before they be made into Mault and afterwards Brewed and Fermented a vinous and inebriating Spirit Which when they are so managed we find there is But if otherwise these grains of Barly or Wheat shall be ground into Flower and made into Bread they then become wholesome Food of which a great quantity may be eate without procuring drunkenness which their fermented liquors will cause And yet from this very substance of the Grain which affordeth two such bodies as Drink and Bread by a different managing of it may be made a liquor which is so far a Corrosive that it will draw Tinctures which are solutions of the small parts of bodies from divers Minerals Mettals and Stones and that many times without the help of External heat Nor can it with more Justice be affirmed that these Salts whether fixt or volatile were really and in that form existing in the wood or other Concrete then it may be said and believed that there is actually in Bread-corn the Flesh Blood Bones Sinews Hair Nailes c. of a man because we see that by the action of a humane stomach these things are made out of Bread And as to what is alledged concerning the Oyl of Guajacum it yieldeth if it be distilled per se but if it be inâ—used in Spirit of Wine it will impregnate it with a certain Rozin or Gum. And the wood after this Extraction if it be committed to distillation will not then afford the same quantity of Oyl as before it would have done That I easily grant but then it will quite destroy the inference for which this Learned man brings it viz. That Oyl was in that form a constituant Principle of the mixt For there is a vast difference betwixt Rozin and Oyl the one being a firm body that will admit of pulverisation the other a fluid and unctious body And besides many other specifical differences which not to be tedious I purposely omit The Rozin is a product of Nature the Oyl of the Fire For the Rozin or Gum is to be seen in the wood before distillation and is only taken up and dissolyed in the Spirit of Wine which being evaporated it appears again in its own form But the Oyl is I grant substantially and materially the same with the Rozin and therefore that being for the greatest part or totally taken away the Fire produceth either lesse or no Oyl Because if the Rozin be left in the wood when it is committed to the Fire the Fire doth spread abroad break and new alter the texture of the Rozin and elevating and making a new combination of its parts it constitutes that Body which we call Oyl which is in this case a real and new product of the Fire and was not before formally Existing in that Body And it is plain besides the instances before cited that by a different mannagement of one and the same Concrete I will cause the Fire to Exhibite very different substances from it as for Example take any herb as Wormwood Mint c. and having bruised them add Yest to them or by any other means procure a fermentation in the Matter and then commit it to distillation it will afford you an Oyl and a â—inous Spirit which rectified are both of them totally inflamable but if the same herb be bruised and suffered to lie upon the Flore some dayes without fermenting and if it be thus put to distillation instead of yielding a vinous Spirit and an Oyl as the other did it will afford an urinous or Armoniack Spirit which being carefully rectified will coagulate totally into a mass of Salt and that every man knows is very different both from an Oyl and a vinous Spirit For this Salt is not only brittle but also absolutely uninflamable And Lastly as to what this Author instances concerning Vitriol Saltpeter Tarter and Alome yeilding of Saline Spirits which being poured back upon their Caput Mortuums do redentâ—grate and return to the same bodies as they were before The matter of Fact I allow to be true but withal must be allowed to say that it proveth not what he brings it for nor doth evince that Salt and Sulphur are principles in all bodies for 't is the effect of their seeds that forms these bodies out of water For Salts somtimes are the products of sâ—eds as I have proved from the regular figures into which these Concrete juices do constantly shoot as in Section the Second of this Discourse So that it is not strange that the smaller parts of these Saline juices being by Fire divorced from the grosser upon their being put together do hastily run into and lodge themselves in the cavities of their own bodies from whence they were forced by the Fire And to conclude there are many bodies which the Fire cannot force to confess they are constituted so much as of two of the five modern Chymical Principles as to instance in Gold Talk Silver c. and yet by the operation of the Alkahest even these are at last reducible to water of which they were made by the power of seed and the afore-said Oyls Salts and Concrete juices are to be all of them returned to water by the means prescribed in the Fourth Section of this Discourse And here I must again take notice of two things First that this Learned Doctors Experiments are all made by the Fire which of it self alone I deny to be a proper Agent to Analize bodies and to discover to us the truth of those principles of which they are constituted and that for these reasons because it doth not work uniformly upon all bodies exposed to its action for as I have said before it cannot of it self separate any one of these supposed Principles from Gold Talk Sand Silver and many other Concrets and yet of some other bodies it will frame not only Oyles Salt Spirit Ashes or Earth as he is pleased to call it but also a Cole Brimstone and at last Glass which three last no man I suppose will imagin were really existing in those bodies of which they are made and yet are they made by the same Agent and from the same Subject of which the Fire produced Salts Oyls Ashes c. and therefore upon the same ground may as justly plead for the prerogative of being the constituent principles of bodies The Second thing I would have considered is this That those different Shapes and Appearances into which the Fire hath put the matter of any Concrete viz. Salts Oyl Ashes Spirits all of them are yet so compound that they may be yet â—urther returned and divided into more simple parts viz. into water which is indeed the only and true material Principle deservedly so called for it is a primary and simple body into which at last all Concrets and even
the other Four supposed principles of this Learned mans are reduced both by Art and Nature and of which they were made So that we may truly affirm with the Antient Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One is many and many One So that though this Learned Doctor shewed much witt in building so fair and specious a Philosophical Structure from these five supposed principles yet can it be no safe dwelling in it because the Foundation is unsound I have been the fuller in discussing the Experiments brought by this great man in favour of his five Chymical Printiples First because indeed they have a very fair appearance till they be throughly examined And Secondly I would be very loath to have it thought I would eâ—deavour inconsiderately or upon slight grounds to diminish the â—ame this ingenious man hath already gained in the World by his Writings And now having examined not only the Tria Prima or three first Principles of the Old Chymists but also the five Principles of our Modern Chymical Philosophers and not being able to allow them the Title of Principles for the reasons above alleadged I will likewise examine the Quaternary or four Elements of the Aristotelians and see whether they can plead any better Title to be allowed and established the Principles or Elements of which all Bodies are made Section the Seventh THe Quadriga or four Elements of the Peripateticks hath for a long time gained the priviledge of being esteemed the constituent Principles of all Concretes which therefore are usually stilled compound Bodies for they say of Fire Air Water and Earth all sublunary Bodies are made and from the divers mixtures of these do arise all generations corruptions alterations and changes that happen to all sorts of Bodies And first for the Element of Fire placed by Aristotle under the Globe of the Moon but never yet seen by any man certainly it is nothing else but Heat and that we know is caused by the violent and nimble agitation of the very minute-parts of Matter And though there be Heat and consequently a kind of Fire in the Bodies of Animals yet this is no radical Principle but a product of vital Fermentation The like of which we see is produced by the sermentation of Wines in the Barrel to whose Bung if the flame of a Candle be held the subtil vapours of the Wine take flame and burn which vapours if they be otherwayes debarred of all vent they by their brisk motion cause an intense heat and sometimes burst the Vessels that contain them And this hapneth not only to Wines but even to water it self for it hath been observed in long Voyages which somewhere is also taken notice of by Mr. Boyl that our Thames water being kept close stopt assisted by the motion of the Ship and its own secret fermentation a Candle being brought near the vent upon the opening of it hath set all the Cavity of the Vessel into a flame There is the like reason for the bursting forth of flame from wett and closely compressed Hay as also from the Action of dissolvents upon Mettallin Bodies c. in which action if the Glasses be stopt they break with great violence From the incoercible nature of which we may conclude that Fire if there were such an Element can never enter as a constituant Principle into the Composition of Bodies but it is rather as Helmont stiles it destructor seminum the destroyer of Seeds and is a fitter Instrument to Analize and take Bodies in pieces by not suffering their parts to be at rest amongst themselves to which purpose it is generally employed than to constitute any And therefore in this particular Paracelsus was grosly mistaken where he undeâ—takes to teach us a way to separate the Element of Fire from Bodies and afterwards pretends to make a new separation of Elements from them again For if we will suppose an Element of Fire yet if that be further reducible it must of necessity lose both the name and nature of an Element But Fire is but an Accident no distinct substance or radical Principle of Bodies for Fire or Heat as I have said before doth result from the mâ—tion which the small parts of Matter are put into by the power of their Seeds and Ferments For Fire cannot subsist of it self as matter can and doth but necesâ—arily requireth some other Body to which it may adhere and upon which it may Act Which Bodies are either of a Vinous nature as the sermented Spirits of Vegetables or their Rozinous and Brimstony parts or else of an unctuous and fatty nature as the Grease and Fatts of Animals or else of a Bituminous substance as the Sulphurs of Minerals and Mettals are And that all this is but disguised Water which hath got new textures by the operatiâ—n of Seeds and Ferments I hope I have sufficiently evinced before So that without we will much injure Truth we must degrade Fire from being an Element or Principle in the constituting of Bodies Nor doth Air enter Bodies as an Element of which they are composed though it be not only useful but absolutely necessary both to Animals and Vegetables without which neither of them live or grow and by the means of which the Circulation and Volatization of the blood in Animals is pâ—omoted By the help of which also the motion of every part is performed It also doth not only afford a convenient help to the Vegetation of Plants by its compressing the surface of the water and so forcing it to ascend into the stringy Roots and Fibers of Trees and Herbs but also by acting the part of a Separator for it is contrary to the received opinion of the Aristotelians a very dry and tenious Body it in its passage over the surface of the water inbibes and takes into its Cavities store of water which it Transports to distant places where Springs and Rivers are wanting and then being no longer able to suspend it by reason of its plenitude and weight it returns it to the Earth where it proves a fit nourishment for Plants and a proper matter for all sort of Seeds to form themselves Bodies out of An other use of the Air is to be a receptacle to receive vapours ascending from the water through the pores of the Earth where finding many Cavities these vapours rove about till by the cold of the place or the great extencion of them the Seminal Principle contained in them and by which they were specifically distinguished from water is forced to desert the Body of the vapour and so at last it returns to the Earth in the form of the Catholike and universal matter water It likewise serveth as a fit Body for the Stars to glide through and move in and also by its Elatery Spring pressing equally upon all parts of this Terraqueous Globe it keeps it firmly supported in its place and doth the same Office which I suppose Zoreastes means by his Prestor
profest Chymists but other persons who are deservedly ranked amongst the Modern Philosophers do with much Confidence entirely aforibe the induration and especially the Lapidescence of Bodies to a certaine secret internal principal by some of them called a Forme and by others a Petrifying Seed lurking for the most part in some Liquid Vehicle And for my part having had the opportunity to be in a place where I could in a dry Mould and a very elevated peice of Ground cause to be digged out several Christalline Bodies whose smooth sides and Angles were as Exquisitly figured as if they had bin wrought by a skillful Artist a cutting of precious Stones and having also had the opportunity to consider divers exactly or regularly shaped Stones and other Minerals some digged out of the Earth by my Friends and some yet growing upon Stones newly Torn from the Rocks I am very forward to grant that as I elsewhere intimate it is a Plastick Principal implanted by the most wise Creator in certain parcels of matter that doth produce in such Concretions as well the hard Consistance as the determinate Figure Thus far He Then which what more consonant to the Doctrine I have asserted in this Discourse Conclude we then and I hope at last upon probable Grounds since we have not only the before cited Authorities both of the best Antient and Modern Philosophers and also are taught by the experiments and Manual Operations laid down in this Discourse which shew us the reduction of all bodies ultimately into Water and their Nourishment from thence as also from the inaptitude of at least two of the four Aristotalian Elements viz. Fire and Aire to concur to the Constituting of Bodies and likewise from the Compound Nature of two of the Old Chymical Principles viz. Sulphur and Salt and from the same compound Nature of four of our moderne Chymists Principles viz. Oyle Salt Spirit Earth which all of them are further reducible into Water and therefore not to be allowed for Principles as I have before demonstrated Let us then I say conclude in and acknowledge the truth of the Moysaick Platonick and Helmontian Doctrine That is that all Bodies consist but of two Parts or Priniciples Matter and Seed that their Universal Matter is Water That the Seedes of things do from this Matter by the help of Fermentation alter break and new compose the Particles of which it Consists till they have formed a Body Exactly Corresponding to the Images or Idea's contained in themselves Also that the true Seedes of all things are of a very subtle Nature and Invisible and are secundary Idea's and Images and that they are Connexed to and depend upon their Primary Idea's and Exemplars which are Inherent and resident in God himself And that for that reason they Act with Designe and to a purposed End which they constantly and regularly Accomplish and this is somewhat Analogous to reason in them Lastly that Nature or the Law of Kind is uniforme in its productions thus far that it makes all Bodies out of Water by the power of invisible Seedes so that the Matter of all Bodies is Identically the same And that they are all of them reducible into the same Matter at Last But that their Seeds are various and therefore produce different Effects upon the same Matter yet do they all agree in this viz. That they are all invisible Beings and all of them have a dependance upon their Exemplars which are the Decrees of God and are constantly inherent in him FINIS An Advertisement THere is lately Printed a Book in which is shewed the necessity that lies upon all Honest Discreet and Conscientious Physitians to resume that Antient and Laudable Custom of making and Dispencing their own Medicines with the Advantages thereby accrewing to the Patient Both as to saving of Charges and the speedy cure of their Distempers In which the New way of prescribing Bills or making Medicines with the Pen is shewed to be destructive to the Interest both of the Patient and Physitian It exposing them to the Fraudulent dealing of Practising Apothecaries in which you will find the Marrow of what hath been writt upon this Subject by Dr. Cox Dr. Merrit Dr. Goderd and others together with certain new and cogent Arguments not formerly made use of The Subject I conceive of such general concern that I thought it is very fit to give notice of it here The Title of it is Praxis Medicorum Antiqua Nova or the Ancient and Modern Practice of Physick examined Stated and Compared c. It was written by the Industrious and Ingenious Dr. Everrard Manewring And is to be sold by William Cademan Bookseller at the Sign of the Popes Head at the little Door of the New Exchange next Durham Yard Clarks Examples in two Volumes in Fol. Bacons Natural History in Fol. Reynolds of Murther in Fol. Cozens's Devotions in 12. Playes Cambyses King of Persia in 4. Island Princess in 4. Town Shifts in 4. Juliana in 4. Cataline in 4. Rivals in 4. Flora's Vagaries in 4. Marcelia in 4. Imperial in 4. Fortune by Land and Sea in 4. Unfortunate Mother in 4. Hamlet in 4. Cum multis Aliis To be Sold by William Cademan at the Signe of the Popes Head in the New Exchange Boyl Usefull of experiment Philosephy p. 31. History 1. Falopius de Metal fallilibus 2. 3. 4. D Lapid ex Alberto Lib. 1. Mineral Cap. 7. 5. De fossilibus 6. In Lib. de Baluis 7. Lib. 2. de Lapid Gem. Cap. 300. 8. History 9. In Lib. Hydrogr Spagyr Cap. 14. 10. In vita Peireskli Lib. 1. 11. De Lithiasi Cap. 1. 12. 13. History of Plants Lib. 3. p. 1586. 14. In apend Syntâ—g Arcan Chym. Cap. 32. 15. In Praefat. Lib. de signat Rerum 16. 17. In Histâ—r Bavar Lib. 7. id est in Anal. Bavar 18. De Lithiasi Cap. 1. Sennertus in Lib. concens Cbymis Cum Gaâ—enist Cap. 2. In Meteorologicar Lib. 4. Cap. 8. Kircherus in Mund. Subter Gassendus Lib. 4. Anno Dom. 1624. Mr. Boyl Essay of fermness Dr. Harvy de generat ex Ovâ— Dr. Iordan of Natural Bathes Cap. 2. p. 58 59. Nov. Lum Chym. Tract 6. p. 319. Helmâ—nt in Tract de Elementa ss 11 12. p. 43. DeTerra p. 45. ss 15. Helmâ—nt Complex atque Mistion Figment p. 88. ss 27. Scept Chymist Carmades Dialogus p. Complex Mistion Elem. sigâ— p 86 ss 12. Paracel Liber de Miner Tract 1. p. 342. Plato Timae p. Graec. 488. Latin p. 718. Theatrum Chym. vol. 6. p. 305. Arcae Arcan p. 318. Mâ—tallograph p. 50. Helmont in Mogn Oport p. 127. Helmont in Element p. 43. Metal p. 44. Scept Chym. p. 360. Paracelsus in lib. de Ren. Restor p. 43 44 45 Chyrurg Mag. p. 117 143 â—44 De Renov p. 45. Rer. Natur. Lib. 8. p. 104. Scept Chym p. 218. Scept Chymist p. Complex Mist. fig. p. 88. ss 30. 100 Nat. Bath Cap. 11. p. 51 52. In Sarept Conc. 3. p. II c. Alchym Mag. De Metallis p. 17 19 Lex Alchym p. 56. Peter Martyr Dâ—cad 3. Câ—p. 8. p. 139. 〈◊〉 p. 48. 〈◊〉 de Sale Cap. 7. p. 33 34 35. Nov. Lâ—m. â—hym Tract 4. p. 314. Helmâ—n In Mag. Oport p. 127. â—s 39. Helment Imag. Ferment p. 94. ss 29 30 31. Dr. Willis de seâ—m cap 20. p. 10. Plâ—to Hippâ— Anâ—xâ—g Court of the Gentiâ—s part 〈◊〉 p. 55 Tully de Natur. Deorum lib. 1. cap. 2d Lud. Viâ—â—s in com super Epistle to the Heb. cap. 11. verse 3. Plato Timaeus fol. 49. Boyl in his Essay of Ferm p. 281. Essay of Ferm P. 275.