pestilent one which image I have therefore denoted with the name of terrour as distinct from an image of conceived fear whereby a living creature is affraid A pestilent terrour therefore doth not here denote any terrour or the dread of any calamity but onely a pestilent horrid poyson conceived in terrour as well by the man as by the Archeus of the same In this Idea therefore is scituated the essence of the Pest and the thinglinesse of this whole Book I confesse indeed that the images of any fear are easily changed into the Idea of a pestilent terrour even so as a woman great with child deriveth the image of a mouse on the undefiled flesh of her Young yea hath sometimes transplanted the whole Embryo into an horrid animal or monster Because as I have elsewhere taught concerning formes formal images do mutually pierce each other and the latter doth readily draw the former into the obedience of it self which Hipocrates calls a leading of seeds whither they would not Truly to convocate a diversity of elements and a combating assembly thereof for a mixt body and likewise of complexions humors and conditions inclinations and studies sprung from thence Lastly the divisions of climates angles or quarters ages proportions strengths bignesse and interchangeable courses for a succour of ignorance that hereby we may make the more greater and more difficult calamities may increase uncertainties may rule ignorances may beget doubts may patronize impostures and promote despairs of life is nothing else but to have laboured in vain For the perfect light of Sciences is like fire which burns up every combustible matter without exception Such a Science Hipocrates had in times past obtained CHAP. XIV The property of the Pest I Have demonstrated that the passions of the mind do destroy the appeâ—iâ—e as also prostrate digestion In the next place that the first motions of cogitations do obtain their own assemblies in the midriffs Therefore also I have dedicated the mouth of the stomach unto Mercury whereunto the Heathens have attributed the sharpnesse of wit as also the sleepifying white wand of truce I have also said that the plague is originally conceived from the terrour of man and that the air which being brought out of a pestiferous body is carried into us doth at its first assault rush into the spleen which presently shakes out the same and delivers it as it were by hand unto the Oâ—ifice of the Stomach From hence are dejection of appetite vomiting head-ach dotages faintings thirst the drowsie evil c. But the Plague which is made in us even as that which is drawn in from without have their own Inns wherein every one begins to rage But as long as the Idea of sorrow and fear do besiedge the Tartar of the bloud in the Stomach and as long as the image of the terrour of the Archeus is absent the Plague is not yet present In the mean time indeed it comes to passe if they shall keep themselves the lesse exactly that the Tartar of the bloud being more and more malicious doth at length terrifie the Archeus and he stamps a pestilent poyson on himself For Plagues which are bred onely through terrour are more swift and much more terrible than those which proceed from an infected air for this perhaps strikes many to the heart because the stomach seeing at least it is a membrane yet I have placed the perturbations and first assaults even in the Orifice thereof or in the spleen at least wise in that extream or utmost part of it self which lays on the orifice or upper mouth of the stomach and from hence a ferment is bestowed that is requisite for the necessities of digestion But the Schools themselves call the mouth of the stomach by the Ftymology of the heart For a wound of that place and a wound oâ— the heart do kill with the same sumptom and alike speedily For I have seen many whose head a strong Apoplexie had made plainly unsensible and dead yet that were hot in the midriffs many hours after For a Bride in a Coach nigh Scalds is saluted by Country Musqueteers and the bullet or a Musquet smites thorow the temples of her head not a little of her brain is dashed out and her head presently dies But she being being brought to Vilvord four leagues distant from thence her pulse as yet afforded testimonies of liâ—e Is not also the vital spirit being a certain ruler of the whole body in the womb and the which is onely a membrane after the manner of the stomach and the seat of far greater disturbances than the liver lungs and kidneys Truly the members in themselves are nothing but dead Carcasses but the spirit is the Governour which quickens those members which spirit and after what sort God hath planted where he would Indeed I remember that I have often seen that those who had the Tartar of their bloud corrupted by some kind of fear of the Plague but without belief or presumption of a contracted infection diâ— undergoe an uncessant anguish and combating day and night yea although they were wise and laughed at their own perplexities yet they were not able but that as restlesse they would present the image of fear conceived before their eyes For they were like unto those who were bitten by a mad dog who will they nill they have their imagination readily pâ—yable at the pleasure of the poyson At length in the very Tartar of the bloud sticking about the midriffs I have found a proper natural phantasie which the image of fear conceived in the spleen had feigned to it self So lascivious dreams do not always follow from the imagination of the fore-past day but for the most part also from the matter it self predominating in the Testicles no otherwise also than as one that hath a desire â—o make water dreameth that he doth continually make water Therefore the terrour of the man is the occasion of the Pest and the terrour of the Archeus is the efficient cause of the pestiferous image and poyson For it is as it were the Father of the Plague the which the poysonous image being once bred although it may cease at least wise the Plague conceived is in its own image For if the terrour of the man were a sufficient cause of the Plague of necessity also the Plague should always follow a pestilential terrour which is false even as also in an inâ—ant who is void of all terrour the Plague is received at pleasure From whence it is sufficiently manifest that the Archeus himself being affrighted is the primitive efficient cause of the image of the pestilence The plague therefore consisteth of a defilement to wit of a contagion in the swiftnesse of its course in the singulaâ—ity of its poyson in the terribleness of its concomitants lastly in a difficulty of preservation and curing But indeed I leave behind me the inquisition of that plague which is sent for a punishment by reason of the hidden
rage Furthermore the transmutation of the Arterial bloud into Spirit which is begun in the heart is ripened in the current of the Arteries or stomach of the heart Neither therefore is it a wonder that in the Spleen abounding with so many Arteries a Ferment and the first motions of the heart are established instead of a stomach the mentall and sensitive Souls being indeed Saturns Kingdoms For the digestion of the heart is with a full transmutation of the arteriall Bloud into Spirit without a dreg and smoakiness Because it is that which neither containeth filths nor admits of diversities of kinde neither doth the Spirit the Son of heat degenerate by reason of heat Indeed it is the immediate operation of the sensitive Soul alwayes univocall or single like to it self and to life for the life that is uttered by vitall motions Therefore the chief aims of the Pulses are 1. A bringing of the venall bloud from the bosom of the hollow vein unto the left womb of the heart 2. An increase of heat 3. A framing of arterial bloud 4. And again a producing of vitall Spirit 5. And then there hath been another ultimate aim of Pulses to wit that the original life residing in the implanted Spirit of the heart may be participated of Therefore I will repeat what I have said elsewhere To wit that some Forms do glister as in Stones and Mineralls but some moreover do shine by an increased light as in Plants but others are also lightsome or full of light as in things soulified And so a vitall lightsomness is granted to the vitall Spirit by a kindling not indeed of fieriness but of enlightning and specificall or differing by its particular kindes So indeed Fishes do not live more unhappily are more straightly and lively and longer moved than hot bruit Beasts The Schooles in the room of those things which I have already demonstrated do suppose the bloud in the Liver to receive the nature of a Spirit which perhaps they therefore call naturall To wit such an Air as is wholly in all juyces of Herbs and from hence at length they will have the vitall Spirit to be immediately bred and made But I do from elsewhere derive the Spirit and from a far more noble race But whether the Schooles or I do more rightly phylosophize let the Reader judge who now drinks down both Doctrines together he being at least mindefull of that which I am straightway to say to wit that sometimes the whole arterial bloud and the nourishable Liquor created from thence or the nearest nourishment of the solid parts are at length dispersed by the transpirative evaporation of the Body without any dregs or remainder of a dead head And therefore that the Reader may from thence think that the arterial bloud is of it self inclined that it may sometimes be made Spirit which is not equally presumed of the vapour of the venall bloud For therefore they have been ignorant that the whole bloud of the Arteries is often turned into a spiritual vapour or vitall Spirit But the venall bloud if it be changed in our Glasses by a gentle luke-warmth into a vapour it leaves a thick substance and at length a Coal in the bottom Therefore the Doctrine of the Schooles is far remote from the knowledge of the Spirits who think the vitall Spirits to be framed of a vapour or watery exhalation for they have neglected in this vapour of the venal bloud how of bread and water and venal bloud prepared thence not indeed a watery exhalation as they think but a Salt and enlightned Spirit is stirred up and its heat not onely made hot but also making hot For no Authour hath hitherto diligently searched into that vitall light whereby the Spirit is enlightned and is after a sort made hot So that the Life Light Form and sensitive Soul are as it were made one thing Again the rotten Doctrine of the Schooles confoundeth the ends of Pulses and breathing To wit that Breathing is made for the nourishment of the vital spirit the life of the fire which they will have to be nourished with aire the cooling refreshment of the heart and expelling of smoaky vapours For they intend or incline to nourish the vitall heat and coolingly to refresh or to diminish it which things how they can agree together let others shew I am willingly ignorant thereof at least in the greatest want of vital spirit and while the increase thereof is chiefly desired then indeed there is the least and slowest elevation of the Arterie And on the other hand while the Spirit aboundeth there is the greatest elevation of the Artery I confesse indeed that breathing is drawn by the bridles of the Will or by the instruments of voluntary motion but the Pulse not so But seeing that a sound breast may satisfie by its breathings the ends of the Pulses the Pulse should not therefore be necessary as long as any one is cold and his breathing doth sufficiently inspire But seeing notwithstanding in the mean time the Pulse doth not therefore pause surely there must needs be one cause or necessity of the Pulses and another cause or necessity of breathing For we percieve the necessities of breathing we also do measure our breathing at our pleasure and some can wholly press it together or suppress it in themselves But why do we not feel the more vitall and no less urgent necessities of the Pulses Chiefly seeing it is the life that is the Original of sensibility which alone indeed doth feel all its own necessity and doth alone exclude us from every act of feeling Wherefore hence I conjecture that there are other necessities unknown to the antients I know indeed that from the Arterial bloud and from the vital spirit there are no dregs filths or superfluities expelled as I shall shew in its place but that smoaky vapours are wanting where there is no adultion but that the venal bloud in the wasting of it self by the voluntary guidance of heat doth produce a Gas as water doth a vapour or exhalation And that that Gas which the Schools do signifie to be the spirit of the Liver or natural spirit of the venal bloud is subsequently of necessity expelled it remains without controversie For otherwise a man being almost killed with cold should the sooner wax hot again if he should for some hours hold his breath understand it if the breath should be drawn for cooling refreshment notwithstanding neither indeed in that state doth he notably stop his breath upon pain of death Also a fish wants Lungs and breathing for the bubbles which do sometimes belch forth are blasts of ventosities of digestion but not breathings But Frogs and Sea-monsters that utter a voice have little Bellows which perform the office of Lungs yet Fishes are not colder than Frogs yea Frogs and Horse-leeches are preserved under the mud all the Winter from corruption and do live without breaching yet not without a Pulse Therefore there is one
Neither is it a wonder because we therefore drink more liberally in Summer but we are more speedily nourished with drink than with meats Therefore the use of the Pulses are 1. That the venal bloud may through the Partition be transported into the least bosom 2. That therein and in its dependent Arteries the spirit of life may be made of the Arterial bloud 3. That of venal blood may be made a yellow arterial blood 4. That it may be informed by the mind of man Indeed the Arteries are the stomack of the heart as the sucking veins are the Kitchin of the Liver 5. That there may be a continuation of the vital Light throughout the whole body 6. The Blas of the Pulses is for the framing of heat but not of cold 7. That the venal bloud being dispersed into the habit of the body for nourishment may be made wholly capable to be breathed thorow the pores without a Post-hume or Future remembrance of a dreg 8. But breathing hath for its aim only this last use of the Pulse At length I also adde this That there is not an Animal spirit in nature Because the change which the vital spirit receives in the Brain is not unto a formal transmutation but is a perfective degree to the appointment of it self Indeed the in-bred spirit doth intend of a vital influx to generate its own like to it self and that in all the particular shops of the senses and giveth to it the seal of its own instrument For so the Optick or Seeing spirit doth not taste yet they do not therefore both differ in the particular kind although in their own offices For in the vitality or liveliness of the heart it is at once quickned by the mind and is made the universal instrument of that life CHAP. XXV Endemicks or things proper to the People of the Countrey where they live 1. The Schools have stated whence it was to be begun 2. That the encompassing air is not breathed into the Arteries 3. It implyeth that the air doth inspire at every turn and that smoakie vapours are expelled 4. The mutual unsufferableness is demonstrated 5. It would thence follow that the artery is not lifted up but that it may fall down 6. The end manner and possibility of air attracted by the pulses should cease 7. That Endemical things are drawn by breathing 8. That vapours are not drawn inward by Ointments 9. It s own generative vertue is wanting to the vital spirit 10. The humane Load-stone of Paracelsus is a fiction 11. That no smoakiness is to be granted in the heart and Arteries 12. That the whole knowledge of the Schools by signs or tokens is polluted 13. The progress of Endemical things IT is not sufficient to say That the Mines of Veins do belch forth the wild Gas of a hurtful Arsenick and a metallick malignity Fens a stinking vapour breachy Rivers and Shores a diseasie mist and a contagion of the soil putrifying by continuance But by coming nearer the suitings of causes do every where give understanding to those that search diligently but neglect to the ignorant or unskilful For without doubt man was to dwell in the air to be thorowly washed round about with the air yea and to be fed and to be subjected to the violent tyranny of its impressions and to the interchangeable courses of its successive changes whereby the air is the continual seperater of the waters Therefore the air is promiscuously drawn thorow the mouth and nostrils into the Lungs in its chiefest part But whether the air and by consequence also an Endemical Being be drawn inward by the encompassing aire through the Arteries the Schools affirm it But I as the first being supported with the much authority of reasons and the great authority of truth have doubted of it By consequence also That Oyntments applyed to the places of Pulses that they may be drawn inward are made vold First of all These Propositions do resist themselves The aire is drawn through the skin into the Arteries And the depression of the Pulses is to drive away smoaky vapours successively raised up by the heart Because if continual smoakinesses are stirred up by continual heat and the heart doth uncessantly labour with the Arteries for the expelling of those Surely there shall be no room nor space of motion for the attraction of the air from without to within For if there be a successive continual and uncessant expulsion of the Pulses from the center of the heart by the Arteries of necessity also the whole Channel of the Arteries shall by a continual thred from the heart even unto the skin be filled with a smoaky vapour of the expulsing of which smoakiness seeing there should be a greater necessity than of attracting air for fire is most speedily extinguished by smoaks but doth not so soon consume the whole through extream want of cooling or refreshment there is no leisure for the attraction of the air And moreover the Pulse being stirred the attracted air and that in the least space of delay should be besmeared being involved in smoakiness so also the aire in the smallest branches of the Arteries that it should rather increase the use of expulsion than satisfie the cooling refreshment of the heart Therefore the supposition of smoaky vapours standing the air is in no wise drawn by the Arteries from without to within and so the Schools do unadvisedly dictate their own and yet do subscribe to each other And moreover it follows from the same supposition that the Artery is not lifted up by it self and primarily but that it is only principally elevated that it may fall down next that by that endeavour it may shake of the fardle and drive away the fear of choaking seeing that should be the chief end of the Pulses but the other which is that of cooling refreshment is in respect of the former a secondary end Again If the Arteries should suck the air inwards to what end I pray should that be done seeing the sucking of the more crude endemical air should rather hurt than profit For not for the cooling refreshment of the heart seeing all the Pulses should scarce allure the smallest thing from the air by the least and utmost mouths of the Arteries which being the more swift in drawing should not straightway afterwards be expulsed by the depression of the Artery yea it should so most speedily in that very moment be co-united with the smoaky vapour and made hot by the Arterial bloud that the heart should not feel in it self any cooling or refreshment thereby Especially seeing the air should not by one only attraction proceed that way from the skin to the heart but by a manifold depression of the Artery coming between it should wax so hot in the way that it should deceive all hope of cooling refreshment Wherefore if the Arteries should allure the air from without the elevation of the Artery should of necessity alwayes far exceed its depression
in swiftness greatness which is abusive As also that the air should keep the quality of a cooling refreshment undefiled being introduced by little and little through so many windings of the Arteries In the next place neither should the Artery draw the air that the vital spirit may take increase thereby Because with the consent of the Schools the vital spirit is not made of air but of the vapour of the venal bloud elaborated in the heart to the utmost and ennobled with a vital faculty And it is a dull affirmation which supposeth the vital spirit to be nourished by a simple Element Seeing we are nourished by the same things whereof we are generated Wherefore seeing the in-drawn aire is an elementary body it hath not the nature of a sanguine spirit as neither seeing the air can ever be made individual by a humane determination it shall not be able to nourish a composed body as I have taught in its place Moreover It alwayes keeps the properties of a universal Element but doth not attain the condition of an Archeus For the aire is neither akin to us nor is it capable of a vital light And therefore the Artery shall abhor a Forreigner neither doth it admit the air into its family before it be elaborated in due shops neither doth nature attempt any thing in vain as neither to prepare the aire that it may be made that toward which it plainly hath not a possible inclination otherwise the vital spirit should be made in vain through so many preparations of digestions long-windings and shops of the Bowels if by so light a breviary and without usury it may be ripened from without For this hath deceived the Schools that it hath hitherto been believed that fire is necessarily nourished by air Therefore also that vital spirit as the Authour of all our heat doth want for its food the Element of air But I have already cleered it up above that the fire is neither a substance nor that it is nourished by air Yea neither by a combustible matter unlesse that in hastening to the ends of its appointments it doth require an inflamable matter for its object but not for its nourishment Also for want of an object it perisheth in an instant when it hath attained the end of its appointments Because seeing it is neither a substance nor an accident it also perisheth for want of an object for that its own object is also its subject And so also that is a thing most singular to it and hitherto unknown Therefore the supposition of smoakie vapours standing the end ceaseth for which the outward Air should be drawn through the Skin into the Arteries the manner ceaseth and the possibility ceaseth Again if the Arterie sucks the Air by the Pulse it should indifferently suck and such an attraction should be promiscuously endemicall and so hurtfull which I have observed to be false by often experience Especially because that as oft as a forreign or strange Plague is contracted from without by the breathing the suiting or setling thereof is not made but nigh the stomach which thing is made manifest by the sense of the place anguishes vomiting sighs head-aches and doatages And so that part in us which feeleth and formeth the first motions of apprehensions doth also feel the first onsets of the Plague I grant indeed that the Plague is contracted by the contraction of a defiled matter and that forthwith the pain as it were of a pricking needle is felt But this doth not prove that therefore the sucking of the Air is made by the Arteries when as the poyson it self is apt to infect the skin and forthwith to burn it into an Eschar Surely it is a far different thing for the Pest to be drawn inwards by the Arteries or to be allured by sucking and another thing by force of its own contagion to creep inwards by touching as it were by the stroak of a Serpent for emplaisters Baths and Oils do alter the skin and consequently they do either proceed to alter or do draw from the Center to the skin but not because vapours fetched from thence are drawn materially inward Then at length the Pulse is not after the manner of breathing which by one sigh doth blow out whatsoever is of Air in the Breast but the motion of the Pulses is interrupted by an opposite and therefore the expiring motion is most frequent no lesse than the inspiring and those successive motions do so much hasten that if they had attracted any Air that should enter for a frustrate end seeing it would be knocked out in an instant For truly that which is nearer to the mouthes that should also first be blown out And so the Air should not have hope ever to be more thorowly admitted or that it should satisfie the cooling refreshment of the heart Lastly a generative faculty is wanting to the vital Spirit whereby it should bring the Air into Spirit by a formall transmutation Seeing that power belongs to the Ferment and Shops without which venal bloud is not made For neither can venal bloud generate venal bloud and the chyle of the stomach being granted to be in a Vein or Arterie venal bloud should not therefore ever be made thereby or arterial bloud Therefore the Air although it should be a fit Body yet it could not be made the nourishment of the vital Spirit unless it had first been elabourated in the heart being quickned and enlightned therein individually according to a humane Species all whereof do resist an Element Therefore the frivolous device is made void and the cooling refreshment of the heart by the attraction of Air inwards by the Arteries is feigned And the Load-stone of Man celebrated by Paracelsus is feigned Seeing the Arteries do not suck inwards and the Air so introduced should be for a greater load to the Arteries than the feigned smoakie vapour of the Schooles If therefore the Arteries do not draw Air certainly much lesse should flesh do that being an enemy wanting the hollowness of the Air For indeed that the Air is drawn from without unto the heart by the Arteries as well for its cooling refreshment as its nourishment and increase of the Spirit of the Archeus is nothing but a meer device So is the invention of the Schooles alike frivolous that the necessity alone of expulsing the smoakie vapour bred in the heart should depress the Arteries For truly in the foregoing Chapter I have already shewen at large that there are other aims of the Pulses For whatsoever is made in the heart is either a pure Being and a meer refined thing and vital For there is no adustion corrupt matter dryth nor efficient cause of smoakinesses For it is an unsavoury or foolish thing thus to have compared the Fabrick or frame of life to destroying fire that it must be feigned the arterial bloud there to be burnt to and to send forth smoakie Fumes For if any forreign vapours do sometimes besides
ones contrary to the nature of relatives and contrary to their own Maxim That one contrary is said to be as many wayes as the other For the doctrine of contraries in Remedies standing health likewise ought to come forth of Medicine as a chick out of an egge Or seeing that contraries ought to reduce each other unto nothing health ought to proceed from a Disease even as otherwise weakness proceeds from a Disease For if a Remedy be contrary to a Disease verily the faculties of our life cannot be contrary to a Disease and by consequence a Disease shall not be able to hurt our faculties or the actions of these And the Schools have erred while they contend that in a Crisis or judicial Sign a Disease doth in its whole course sustain a single combat with our faculties But if a Disease be contrary to our faculties and to the Remedy it self at least wise they shall incongruously apply cold things in a Fever they being applied no lesse to the vital faculty than to the Disease Yea if from a contrariety of disposition a Disease be bred our action ought not wholly to depend on the Spirit making the assault but on the meer cause of the Disease and the which therefore seeing it should have the principle of its motion in it self it ought to operate as well in a dead carcass as in a living Body and the whole skirmish should be only between the dispositions of strange accidents suppressing each other Of which strife the life it self should be only a hateful spectator without discommodity to it self What other thing is this than to have feigned a sluggish and cold vital Philosophy and that the Physitians or Curers of Fevers are cold What if a Disease doth stand in a quality whose contrary warriour they will have to be known by sense and elementary why therefore are so uncertain weak and slow Remedies of Diseases devised Why are there so manifest and ready Tokens Remedies and Simples of manifest contrary qualities boasted of in the Schooles Therefore according to mee a disease is a substantial Being begotten by Archeal causes as well materially as efficiently But heat and cold and that sort of signed Concomitants I call fruits and symptoms far different from the produced Diseases For a Disease is oft-times furiously moved against us wherein many symptoms do interpose which Disease notwithstanding doth oftentimes cease without a product As is manifest in intermitting Fevers For neither doth a new Disease arise from thence But only nature intends to shake off a tedious guest under which endeavour fruits and symptoms are produced drowsinesses heats colds pains watchings disquietnesses vomits weaknesses c. Elsewhere also a Disease doth often convert the matter of its Inne To wit while the Archeus being stirred up by an occasional ferment doth bring forth a new product whether in the mean time the former Disease be shut up in the term of the product or not Neither doth a Disease also seldom occasionally produce a Monster unlike to it self While a Fever doth cause the Dropsie a Cataract Scirrhus c. because they are the products of Diseases by accident To wit whereof a new Idea from the Archeus is the Mother as shall appear beneath in its place But weaknesse is a universal Fruit of Diseases the Chamber-maid of these The which indeed is no other thing than a disposition following a diminution of the strength or faculties And it is either total by reason of the afflictings of a notable or noble part It happens also through an adherency of a diseasie occasion unto some solid part Whence the Archeus being at length the extinct a blasting of that part and presently after a death of the whole Body do also proceed Or weaknesse is particular by reason of a particular Blas affecting some member by its animosity or wrathfulnesse For so from the stomack is there a giddinesse of the Head Head-ach c. as from the Womb the parts do diversly and miserably languish by an Aspect Which things surely are the symptoms and fruits of the Archeus but not the Diseases thereof the which otherwise do naturally lay up their own efficients in themselves Even as elsewhere concerning the action of Government In the next place the product of a Disease differs from a symptom in this as this is a fruit it requires indeed a mitigation from the Archeus himself but not a curing as it is by it self Because it likewise vanisheth together with the Disease But I find no mention of the product of Diseases in the Schools but it is either confounded with a symptom or is attributed to a certain new distemperature and a new aflux of humours Others also are wont to dedicate Diseases to the parts containing the causes likewise to the parts contained but to banish symptoms into the spirit making the assault Being in the first place badly mindful that they attribute the heat and cold of the first qualities as Diseases to humours contained In the next place if a Disease be in the part containing and the cause in the thing contained If the spirit in-bred in us shall not move or stir up the cause and the disease whereby I pray you shall it be done what shall beget a disease by a cause if not the spirit For as wrath bashfulnesse and agony do heat by a Blas so fear grief and sorrow do cool without the aid of humours But Pepper and heating things do heat living creatures but not dead carcasses as neither do Cantharides Scar-wort or Smallage embladder these But Causticks do even wast a dead carcasse and that not through the effect of their own heat but only by virtue of a burning Salt which resolves the solid parts into a Salt without heat To wit even as Calx vive doth resolve Cheese into a muscilage Causticks therefore or searing Remedies do generate an Eschar in a live Body but not in a dead carcasse but they do resolve this by a simple resolution of their Salt But because in a live Body the Archeus is also inflamed within an Eschar is produced from both Agents To wit the Caustick and the Archeus Lastly the fire doth indifferently burn as well a living as a dead Body and more speedily the live Body it self Because the fire consumes from without by burning and the spirit it self through its inflaming becomes caustical or burning within Therefore from a fourfold handy-craft operation to wit of the Fire Pepper a Vesicatory and Caustick the remarkable things which follow do voluntarily issue 1. That the efficient heat of heating things is ours In Pepper therefore there is only an occasional exciting heat 2. That a Fever is not heat effentially but it hath things proper to it as well cold as heat from the property of an alterative Blas And that not efficiently but only occasionally incitingly and accidentally But the Archeus alone is the efficient of heat and cold For neither is a Feverish matter in a Body otherwise hot
destruction of the whole Bodo and his own I will therefore open the matter so far as my Industry hath permitted me to conceive For in Nature there is twofold Action to wit One whereby a Body is enclosed in a Body as Wine in a Bottle and the Water of the Dropsie between the Peritoneum and Abdomen Yea the pores of these Membranes are Diseasly closed For the Body is per-spirable in health and the sweat doth wholly diminish the Latex so that the watery drink in Summer doth presently by sweat flow through the skin But sweat is for the most part unprofitable in the Dropsie so that although the Belly sweats yet it doth not diminish the Dropsie however many have vainly tryed many things about these trifles There is also another Action which is regular and of a different kind in Nature Whereby I have elsewhere shewed by many Examples in us a certain solid Body to wit a knife beard of corn needle arrow or dart head bones shells of fishes and the like are transmitted thorow the Stomack Paunch Veins without the hurting or wounding of these And so that there is a wonted and necessary penetration of Bodies in Nature For the first of those Actions as it is every where known is made so far as a Body doth altogether obey its own bolts of superficies hardness weight channels c. And one Body in respect of the other is as it were dead But the other Action is wholly vital and of the Spirit of Life which is not cloathed with the Garment of a thicker Body But it s own self is the veriest Garment of that Body And the which it doth therefore derive through another vital body subjected unto it For so Chyrurgions have noted Apostems or Ulcers to be made through the very bones themselves And so Authors who are worthy of credit whom in the Chapter of injected things I have alleadged do admit of a penetrating of corporeal dimensions as oft as a knife passeth through the Stomach and with a corrupt mattery Aposteme is returned through the Ribs without a wound of the Stomach In the Dropsie therefore the aforesaid double action is conversant about the same Latex For this Latex as long as it being cloathed with a clear vital spirit doth after some sort enjoy a venal life is led through the solid places it slighteth passages seeing there is none unpassable by it But it deriveth it self unto the Prison of the Dropsie and there as well through a constriction of the Pores of the Membranes as singularly and especially by reason of a deserting of the same cloathing spirit it lays up it self as it were an excrement now dead And the which neither doth therefore find deliverance from thence unless the vital spirit doth again cloath and encompass it This is indeed that spiritual force which is more powerful than any Bellows The which we bear in our inward parts the power whereof we dayly admire have never known and being compelled by demonstrations to admit of do scarce beleive In the Dropsie therefore I have found a fury of the Reins and their erring powers which furie shutteth and is scarce that which may open and the which doth open and lay up neither is it that which maketh to re-gorge Seeing therefore those actions of fury conspiring toward their own destruction are plainly spiritual for as a Physitian I every where contemplate of the spirit as a vital air raised out of the arterial Blood but I touch not at the immortal mind neither do such spirits act unless they are constrained by likenesses or Images framed by them Therefore indeed I call it the furies of the Archeus while the Kidney ceaseth and is almost forgetful of its own Office and appointment in separating the Latex from the venal blood therefore it shuts it self and being as it were wroth and exorbitant it lays up the Latex elsewhere But that I may analogically or resemblingly conceive of and express this tenour of fury as I ought I first of all consider the out-chased venal blood to be detained in the Kidney or to lurk upon the hollow boughtiness of the intestine c. Wich blood when it hath put on a fermental malignity presently the Kidney the governour of the Latex being full of wroth receives the sleepie or stupifying poyson of that blood But the ordination of the Latex is to wash off filths if there are any detained in any place of the Body and seeing the Kidney cannot by the Latex wash off that out-hunted blood because the Latex cannot descend thither this co-heaped in the veins for disdains sake and the Kidney is thereby so affected with disdain and weariness or grief that it cannot performe the office enjoyned it And therefore it presently shuts the passage of the Urine that that which it cannot do by a regular plenty of the Latex it may perfect by an abundance thereof As if it considered Thou Latex goest not whither I would send thee to wash off the out-chased blood I will not let thee pass through thy accustomed Ureters Such therefore is the fury of the enraged Archeus of the Reins the which at length arising to a degree cloaths the Latex and derives it whither it will But besides not only the event in making doth confirm this fury of the Archeus but also in drying especially while a Dropsie is sometimes cured of its own free accord For truly that comes to pass as if the Archeus did repent him and were sorry for his deeds I knew the Countess of Falax who while being a young Maid did swell with a Dropsie by the perswasion of a certain Physitian for she was held desperate by all abstained almost for the space of a full year from drink being content with the more solid food and broaths And she became healthy and is now alive being seventy years of age In the first place thirst whether it be taken from a sense of moisture failing or for the defect it self of moisture At leastwise in neither manner doth it dry up a Dropsical water For although no drink be Drunk at leastwise broaths which do afford a sufficient quantity of venal blood do also yeild a small quantity of Urine and Latex so much as is sufficient for the subsistance of a Dropsie In the next place neither doth thirst nor the defect of drinks it self take away the occasional Cause of a Dropsie which for the most part is venal blood expelled but rather they do the more dry up and the more stubbornly reserve for it that it may resist a resolving through the abstinence of the counterfeited thirst But that continual thirst together with a hope and perswasion of health did pacifie the errour or indignation in the Archeus of the Reins from whence I have learned that thirst doth regularly arise from the Kidney but not from the Liver and much less from the lesser branches of the veins sucking the greater until a defect of moisture be brought unto the Orifice
work of the flesh and also common to bruits as to us hence indeed it is framed in the outward man from which nothing but this somethings being far different from a spiritual conception proceedeth But for-the obtainment of which subsisting entity the Archeus himself so cloaths his own conception which as yet is a meer and abstracted mental Idea in his own wrappery or in a particle of his own air that what he conceived in himself by an abstracted conception of imagination that very thing the Archeus presently arraieth and cloatheth with the vital air So as that afterwards it is a subsisting Being to wit an image framed from imagination Moreover as there are diverse unlikenesses of conceptions and passions according to the liberty of that Protheus so undoubtedly there are also manifold varieties of those same images far seperated from each other and the Idea's of these being cloathed with engraven in and having made use of the vital spirits do diametrically utter forth unlike operations in us And therefore the images of terrour are very poysonsom and potent to defile the vital spirit bearing a co-resemblance with them which unhabites as well in the heart and arteries as in the very family of the solid parts it self To wit the which image and most powerfull efficacy thereof I have already before and many times elsewhere demonstrated as much as I could I have said also and demonstrated that the same image is the essential formal and immediate essential thinglinesse of the Pest Because that the plague is not unfrequently framed from a terrour of the plague only although there fore-existed not a material cause from whence it might be drawn I have afterwards treated by the way of the preservation and curing of the Pest by a Zenexton and remedies in times past used in Hipocrates his time yet â—here hath not as yet been enough spoken for the present age in order to a cure For truly very many difficulties offer themselves which have not been sufficiently cleered up First of all the image of terrour is only one indeed in its own kind and therefore it may be difficulty understood that the Pest should be able by the one only and uniforme Idea of affrightment to afflict so diverse things and not only in distinct emunctories but equally so distinct parts throughout the whole body at its pleasure Secondly And then that the same image of terrour should be able only by its beck to stamp products so different from each other Such as are Carbuncles Buboes Eschaâ—s little bladders Pustuâ—es Tumours Tokens c. Thirdly in that the one only Idea of terrour should invade and besiege not only the external parts but also the stomach and likewise the head c. Fourthly that a unity of that Idea should sometimes produce a most sharp disease at another time a disease that is slow and twinkling by degrees elsewhere a disease by degrees decaying of its own accord since such effects may seem to accuse rather a diversity of the poyson than an identity or sameliness thereof Fifthly that the Archeus of man being sore afraid of the poysonous Idea of terrour and as it were a run-away should have the power and courage of producing an Eschar in the skin like unto a bright-burning iron Sixthly because doatage I say and watching seem not to bud from the same Beginning with a deep sleepy drowsiness But one only answer easily blots out every such kind of perplexity For indeed every first conception and the first assaults or violent motions of conceptions do happen beneath the Diâ—phragâ—a or midriff-partition which therefore are denied to be subject to reason or to be in our power Wherefore that Hypochondriacal passions do grow in the same place every age hath already granted and then that the pest or plague is oftentimes immediately introduced from a pestilent terrour none doubteth which terrour as it is framed by the imagination of that place So also the image of terrour is stamped from whence the imagination hath drawn an Etymology to it self But such an image is not idle or without a faculty of operating seeing none is ignorant that most diseases have took their beginning from naked perturbations or disturbances In the next place terrour is not only the dread of the Soul of man and of Reason alone but also the Archeus himself is terrified and wroth with a certain natural fervency and the illurements of passions Furthermore terrour stamps indeed an image the Effectress of the plague the Mother of confusion and terrour but that image assumes not a poyson from an undistinct confusion of terrour from a confused terrour and from the fear or flight of the forsaking Archeus But as every Serpent and mad dog produceth a poyson by the conception of a furious anger So also the terrour of the Archeus is not sufficient for the producement of a pestilent image unless the fury of the Archeus shall bring forth a poysonous image which also piâ—rceth and is married to the image of terrour Hence indeed it comes to pass that the Pest is for the most part bred about the stomach and doth there manifest it self by loathings vomiting lack of appetite pain of the head a Fever drowsie evils and at length Deliriums or doating delusions For truly I have amply enough demonstrated elsewhere concerning Fevers and in the Treatise of the Duumvirate that this houshold-stuff is conversant about the stomach For an Eschar is not made in a dead body but only in live ones and so from the life and Archeus himself even as concerning sensations elsewhere who being wroth brings forth the image of fury which was bred to change its self and the whole spirit of the Archeus and the inflowing spirit of the Arterial blood it self into a corroding Alcali For the vital spirit which in its first rise was in the digestion of the stomach materially sharp and which in the succeeding digestions is made salt and volatile doth formally degenerate and is made a corrosive salt and a volatile Alcali the efficient of the Corrosion and Eschar For for the madness of so strange and forreign a transmutation to wit produced from a strange and forreign image whatsoever is vital in the very solid substance of the parts it self all that through the wrothful vital principle being angry and enraged is enflamed and brings forth divers diseases which are plain to be seen in the burning coal in the Persick fire in a Gangren in an Erisipelas c. It is manifest therefore that from the same Beginning of the Archeus being sore affrighted and enraged into a dog-like madness it happens that the plague is â—iversly stirred up sometimes in the stomach sometimes in the skin Glandules Emunctory places and also now and then in the very solid family it self of â—e similar parts or bowels from whence mortal spots Eschars and combustions do happen according to the diversity of the parts whereunto the Archeus being full of fury and full of terrour shall
whereby they might have something to admire at and talk of to deceive the time as they say and so to neglect the Tree of Life which is appointed for the healing of the Nations But rather that man having eaten of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of good and evil and having experimentally known evil whereby he is expelled from the Tree of Life which before the Fall was his food and is become captivated in Understanding Will and Affections from whatsoever may be known of God either within in the light of his Immortal Mind which by Creation was in the very Image of its Creator or without in his visible Creation in whose invisible Power and Unity all things consist and subsist might come to know himself and his Creator in the Unity of the Spirit and all other things in that Unity so neither was it translated into our Mother Tongue to any other end than that naked and simple Uniform-Truth might appear to the confounding of that which appears to be Truth but is not but is masked various compounded and confused whose false Plea is Antiquity and chief support the self-ends of Ambition and Avarice It is a saying in the Scriptures He that is first in his own Cause seemeth just but his Neighbour cometh and searcheth him Also That the rich man is wise in his own conceit But the poor that hath Understanding searcheth him out How truly these sayings may be applied unto this Author with respect to the Schools both of Logick Natural Phylosophy Astrology Theology and in particular those of Medicine both as to the Theorie and Practick part thereof I may singly refer the judgement thereof unto him that hath the least measure of true Understanding without any further enlargment because such a one who with the Lamp or Candle of God being lighted in him whereunto the Author bears his Testimony in opposition to blind Reason in the Chapter of the searching or hunting out of Sciences is able to see in his measure eye to eye or as Face answereth to Face in a glass Nevertheless for the sake of some simple-hearted Reader who though not yet come unto such a discerning so as to separate the light from the darkness may notwithstanding truly hunger and thirst after the knowledge of the Truth I shall speak somewhat That the Schools of the Gentiles have had their time is well known wherein they have become vain in their imaginations exercised themselves in vain Phylosophy and opposition of Science fasly so called as the Apostle Paul observeth and whereof he admonisheth the true Christians as to take heed they were not deceived by it And although Histories mention That at the coming of the First-born Son into the World whom all the Angels of God were to Worship the Heathen Oracles at Delphos and elsewhere were struck dumb and gave no Answer as a sign that all Falshood false Voices deceitful Juggles vain Inventions c. were to give way and be abolished at the appearance and rising of the Day-Star and Sun of Righteousness on and over the Earth the Star of which Star the Wise men of the East saw and by its direction came to Worship the Child laying down all their wisdom at his Feet for a lively token that all true Wisdom and Science was to be received from him in whom all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge dwell and not by the dim and dark illustrations of mans own Reason and Discourse Yet such hath been the subtilty of the fleshly Serpent that under the pretence of owning and professing the Name of Christ he hath taken up in his Paganish means and instruments to build withal calling the dregs and dross of the Minerva of the Heathenish Schools Hand-maides unto Divinity and true Principles of Medicinal Science but this counterfeit fiueness can no longer dazzle or blind the eyes of those unto whom God hath given eye-salve that they may see and gold tried in the fire for such are able to discern an Image from a Man and true and pure Mettal from counterfeit Coyn so that the abettors of such deceits shall proceed no further but their folly shall be made manifest to all men forasmuch as that which alone tends to the healing of the Maladies of mans Spirit and the breaches there which Sin hath made is seated in the Invisible Life of God as is applied thereunto as a Remedy by the virtue of Christs Blood alone who is the Lamb of God and a quickening Spirit And so also seeing that which tends to the Healing of any Disease Radically in the Body is the Internal Faculty or Property seated in the first Being of Medicines which by due preparation being uncloathed of their gross corporeal cloathings are made fit to be applied by the Wisdom of a true Physitian unto the Archeus or vital Air of the Body wherein its Diseases Radically dwel not in Relolleous qualities nor in feigned Elementary complexions as in the following Treatise is clearly manifested And so that nothing can be a true Handmaid unto Divinity or Medicine but the gift of him who is Lord of the whole man And that which gives the Children of Wisdom an ability to justifie Wisdom her self and a Power to judge and condemn the Wisdom of this World whether it be conversant about things Visible or Invisible things Temporal or Eternal is the Son of God by whom the World was made and all living Souls created even the everlasting Father of Spirits who hath committed all judgement to the Son in whom they all subsist who filleth all in all this Son of God is the Eternal Eye of the Father which runs thorrow the whole Creation beholding the evil and the good it is that Eye which knows and sees the essence and frame of all things it doth not behold any thing in its essence to be evil because every thing in its Essence and Being is good and that because it is one and true but that which is double varie-form seeming or false that it sees to be evil and that is the fleshly and sensual apprehension and desire in man which vailes or taints his Spirit of Understanding and Will that they are not able to give a right tincture or rightly to apply themselves unto Objects intelligible or desirable whereby irregular and evil effects in Word Action and Conversation do visibly appear even as an Engine whose innermost Spring or Wheel being defective all its other parts and motions are out of order for the Body is but the Shell or Vessel of the Spirit That eye being opened in Man or Candle lighted so far as it is lighted or opened makes first to behold the evil and the good and the evil from the good in a mans self and so far as he doth this he is truly said to know himself for he consists of darkness and light till by a holy war the light hath comprehended the darkness The truth of this is not to be disputed for it hath been experimentally
in the Dutch Idiome is Litch-aem as if to say a Vessel of Light having obtained a Spirit and Soul from him And one thing ought to be made of these the Body Spirit and Soul ought to be sanctifyed Hy-lichzijn he shineth or Blessed Sal-lichzijn he shall be shining but if not the Vessel and Spirit must needs be damned Wise Men We observe or take notice that thou endeavourest to express thy self to be threefold but not a Unite and thy Spirit to be Darksome or Lightsome the darkening of it to proceed from the Flesh which is earthly deadly and obscure the illumination or enlightning of it it shall attain by the Spirit by beaming in emptying out and subduing the Darkness But we covet to hear whether there be a third thing because thou namest the Light of the Vessel and a Soul are there two diverse Lights or at leastwise do they constitute or make one Light of one Light Mercurius there is one only Eternal Light Entirely and Eternally Externally and Internally in all Parts because the Life Eternal and the whole Eternal Part was inspired into Man by the Almighty God even as Moses testifies in the second Chapter of the Book of Genesis Man was made into a living Soul which Soul made or constituted the seventh Day as is demonstrated in the very same Chapter Therefore the Heavens and the Earth were perfected and all the Ornament or Dress thereof And God compleated Work which he had made on the Seventh Day and he rested on the Seventh Day from all his Work which he had made and he blessed the Seventh Day and sanctified it Because therein God had ceased from all his Work which he had created that he might make to wit Man into a living Soul Wise Men If this Light be the Seventh Day what dost thou think of the Six foregoing Dayes and of that which is extant in the eighteenth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus He who lives for ever created all things at once Mercurius In the Beginning God created all things the Heaven and the Earth and whatsoever was created the wich Moses at the entrance of Genesis comprehends into the First Day where he denotes the making of the other five Dayes Saying In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth but the Earth was empty and void and Darkness was upon the face of the Deep and the Spirit of God was carried upon the Waters And God said let there be Light and Light was made And God saw the Light that it was good and he divided the Light from the Darkness And he called the Light Day and the Darkness Night And the Evening and Morning was made one Day Insomuch that Man doth constitute the Sixth Day which Dayes were distinct from each other whereby Man may know himself what he is what he is to do and what Power he hath or may have by his Spirit as a Man not likewise as a Soul over the foregoing Dayes or created things as it is found in the aforesaid Chapter of Genesis And God said Let us make Man according to our own Image and Likeness and let him bear Rule over the Fishes of the Sea and over the Fowles of the Heaven and over the Beasts of the whole Earth and over every creeping thing which is moved in the Earth Wise Men Thou dost satisfie us and besides dost also over-signifie that Man was the sixth Day and that he seperated the Light from the Darkness on the first Day which Light or Spirit he called Day and his Blood Flesh or Darkness he called Night which Evening and Morning constituted the sixth Day and so consequently the other five although according to every ones peculiar Nature But dost thou make no mention of the seventh Day Mercurius The seventh Morning Light or Life is the Spirit of God it self even as was said And therefore in Moses his description of the seventh Day it is not expressed that the Evening and Morning was made the seventh Day as in the six precedent Dayes and that for this Cause because there is no Beginning or Evening granted to be in God the Father because he is he who Is what he is but it is so accounted because on the seventh Day he inspired into Man his Face the Breath of Life and this man became into a living Soul so that of Man and the Breath of God the seventh Day was made Wise Men From thy relation we have fully understood the Beginning and Ending of the first Day and of the sixth Day following with the seventh Day not ended that Man was conjoyntly made into a living Soul But we desire to hear what Moses will have to be meant by the Word In the Beginning Mercurius The Beginning is God the Son by whom in whom and from whom the Heaven and Earth were created as the Evangelist John doth most exceeding evidently testifie in his first Chapter in these Words In the Beginning was the Word which with the Dutch also sounds Woort that is Fiat or let it be done and the Word was with God and God was the Word This Word was in the Beginning with God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made In him was Life and the Life was the Light of men And the Light shineth in Darkness and the Darkness hath not comprehended it There was a Man sent from God whose name was John This Man came for a Testimony that he might bear witness of the Light that all men through him might believe He was not that Light but that he might bear witness of the Light That was the true Light which enlightneth every Man that cometh into this Word He was in the World and the World was made by him and the World knew him not He came into his own and his own received him not But as many as received him to them he gave Power to become the Sons of God to these who believe in his name who were born not of Bloods nor of the Will of the Flesh neither of the Will of Man but of God And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt in us and we saw its Glory as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth John gives his Testimony concerning him and cryeth out saying This was he whom I said he which is to come after me was made before me because he was before me And of his fulness we all have received and Grace for Grace Because the Law was given by Moses Grace and Truth was made by Jesus Christ No Man hath seen God at any time The onely begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him Wise Men Now we have perceived this Testimony of Saint John that it contains every thing serving to perfection but deliver thy Opinion unto us after what manner thou art like unto Adam and in what respect in him and how thou hast proceeded from him Mercurius Before that man was made into a living
Soul God spake unto himself as the first Chapter of Genesis witnesseth And God created Man according to his own Image which Image is God the Son After the Image of God created he him Male and Female created he them And God blessed them and said Increase and multiply Which command was enjoyned to Adam in respect of his Spirit and Humanity but not as to his Soul for this is Eternal and Immutable So also all his Parts are like unto him whereof I also possess the whole Now even as man was made of the Mud or Clay of the Ground so also it behoves him to increase as other terrestrial living Creatures by a growing and uniting and eating of living Creatures which Foods are required to die in the Stomack and to be changed from their Substance if they ought to be converted from a more vile Substance into a more excellent one or to be promoted by the Spirit of Man unto a united Life from which co-nourishing and increasing my Vessel or Body and Substance I hold as Adam did because I proceeded from him after that he was made into a living Soul as it is found in the second Chapter of Genesis but for Adam there was not found an helper like unto him Therefore the Lord God sent a deep Sleep into Adam and when he had slept he took one of his Ribs and filled up the Flesh in the room of it And the Lord God framed the Rib which he had taken from Adam into a Woman and he brought her unto Adam And Adam said This now is Bone of my Bones and Flesh of my Flesh this shall be called Virago or Wo-man because she was taken from Man Wherefore a Man shall leave his Father and his Mother and shall adhere to his Wife and they twain shall be in one Flesh Wise Men Thou hast explained unto us what thou hast been wholly in Adam according to thy Spirit and Soul and in Eve according to thy Body likewise that the Vessel hath received the Spirit and the Spirit the Soul Now we could desire to hear in what respect Eve was produced by God out of Adam and what the sleep sent by God into Adam before he framed her doth denote Mercurius Adam from the Beginning was perfect in his Essence as being the first Man created by God so his Spirit did shine thorow his Flesh and Vessel and did illustrate it even as now the Light did illuminate his Darkness and was able to subdue it so it ought to excel and overcome the Darkness because it was Internal Stable Eternal and good in its own Essence the which Spirit existing Adam could not of his own accord produce his Like without Sleep sent into him for he persisting in his Essence was without sleep and because he had divided himself from himself all his Parts had remained proper unto him and again had returned unto the whole into one assoon as he had listed because by his Spirit predominating he had divided the Body subjected unto it self which Parts were inwardly and outwardly enlightned from his own Light which gave an Essence unto all his Members But some may ask how in the next place had it gone with Adam if he had not eaten the Poyson from Eve It is answered there had alwayes been in him a combating with his Spirit or Light against his Darkness the which on the first Day God divided of which two also Man was composed even as the said Chapter sheweth which is further explained at the end of the same Chapter on the sixth Day in these Words And replenish ye the Earth and subdue it And when they had fought to the utmost they had filled the Earth and the Darkness with their Spirit or with their Light and had so subdued it that the former Darkness had been supped up and co-nourished which was his proper and one only Work alwayes to be done and perfected But some one may further query seeing in Adam the said Light being separated from the Darkness had overcome the Darkness as it was shewed to be by the very same Light whether or no according to a spiritual returned or restored United Body he had been entire and eternal in all his particular Parts and Members This being so by that reason he might have been divided into Innumerable Eternal and Infinite men without the aforesaid sleep preceding I answer it is certain that this Deified man would have been entire in all his Infinite Parts likewise that all those Parts would again as one have constituted one Entire Body He having himself in such a manner had been likewise to be one Deified Man he being reduced hitherto by his necessary strife would by Grace in his Life have enjoyed or rejoyced in the same with Christ our Saviour after his Resurrection Whereby many such men might now have been begotten or brought forth and whereby all also of them might have enjoyed that very same Grace for which Adam was procreated and whereby they might have attained it by that very same strife It pleased the Lord God to send the aforesaid sleep into Adam to shew that he soundly sleeping had not contributed any thing to the structure of Eve but she was now founded in this sleep by God Moreover the curious might busily enquire why Eve was framed of the Rib of Adam but not of his Flesh I return an answer the former Man was Adam the second Eve made for his help and conjoyned Procreation Now Propagation consisteth partly in Man as in other living Creatures by conjunction or nourishing as was said and it is further to be observed in all increase of created things in this World before they are able to grow because they consist of two things that the one ought first to die to wit the Body and Form which consist of Water and Earth and do arise from the Light of the Moon and Stars as of the Lights of the Night every thing according to their different Nature none excepted and that this might be perfected in Adam the Lord God took a Rib out of Adam which is a Bone according to its being made in Adam a Progeny of Veins the which with the Dutch sounds also a Progeny of Vipers which Bone is governed by the Moon as shall be found that when the Moon increaseth the Marrow likewise of the Bones doth increase like the Waters and together with it doth decrease It will further be found that when Flesh is burnt in the Fire it looseth that form A Bone not so yea that is so stable that the Examiners of the goodness of Coyn do make their Crucibles thereof wherein they melt and search Gold and Silver So that a Bone or Rib is and doth retain nothing besides the humane Earth as it is a second Production in Man like that of the Earth out of the Waters so far it differs from the first and one thing Wherefore Eve as she was procreated from hence she is likewise of a second and
lesser thing according to her Body not likewise according to her Spirit and Soul For these she holds from Adam which are Eternal and Permanent and a Part whereof Eve Possesseth and all that even as all their Parts are Eternal even as was said Now in a further consideration or avouching of the Premises thou shalt find that Women do therefore suffer monthly Issues or Menstrues serving for Propagation because they ought to beget a man as to the Body in that respect as was said Wise Men We acquiesce and moreover through occasion of two Words which thou from the Dutch Idiome hast considerately produced thou recallest two places of Scripture unto our remembrance one rehearsed by the Evangelist Mathew in the twelfth Chapter where Christ saith to the Pharisies He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth Therefore I say unto you Every Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men Flesh but the Blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven And whosoever shall speak a Word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but he that shall speak against the holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven him neither in this Age nor in that to come Either make ye the Tree good and its Fruit good or make ye the Tree Evil and its Fruit Evil for truly the Tree is known by the Fruit. Ye Generation of Vipers how can ye speak good things seeing ye are Evil For from the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh The other is mentioned by Luke in the third Chapter after the citing of a place of the Prophet Jsaiah who saith And all Flesh shall see the Salvation of God Therefore be to wit John the Baptist said unto the Multitude which went out to be Baptized of him Ye Generations of Vipers who hath shewn you to flee from the wrath to come do ye therefore Fruits meet for repentance and ye shall not begin to say We have Abraham for our Father For I say unto you because God is able of those Stones to raise up Sons unto Abraham Which two Words are also repeated in these two Texts not badly agreeing with the signification of the Dutch Word and thou shewing unto us by all thy demonstration that the Serpent so called which seduced Eve and her Spirit was certainly her own Flesh and Blood which desired the Fruits of the forbidden Tree and spake to her Spirit for that end so that the name of Serpent is not only accounted the Serpent but as well the Serpent a living Creature as a Man according to the Flesh the which is also moreover seen in the Infancy or Old Age of a Man or when the Spirit is weakened that he is and doth become a Serpent Wherefore after God had committed unto man the dominion over the living Creatures over all the Earth and over every creeping Animal which is moved in the Earth this last Dominion is the greatest whereby he ought to work his own blessedness that which thou shalt more cleerly make manifest from the Text assoon as leasure shall permit for now we hasten because half of the second day of those prefixed hath soon passed away therefore proceed thou and hasten and declare unto us the difference between thee and Adam when he was to strive against his Darkness whereby he as well as thou might have subdued it Mercurius In no other thing besides that Darkness was increased in man by the touching of the Fruits and eating of the forbidden Tree in so much that Darkness holds the prize against the Light and doth now possess it even as in Adam the Light in Adam did possess his Darkness and did illuminate it before his Fall Wise Men How comes this to pass Mercurius This hath come to pass through a Fermenting or Leavening Contagious Darksom and Deadly or Destructive eating Wise Men What wilt thou insinuate thereby explain thy self by Similitudes Mercurius As Darkness was in the face of the deep before that the Spirit of God was carried upon the Waters in like manner thou shalt find a certain Vessel or place which being shut up or hoary and filthy doth even in a very little time render all that which is cast into it alike stinking or rank and surther to infect it neither doth any thing of the first more principal Ferment and Filthiness depart Moreover that it may be demonstrated that this filthy place is also darksom is well learned by those that pertain to Wine-cellars who being desirous to know and experience whether a Hogs-head be hoary or filthy or no do open its mouth and by an End do let in a burning Candle and when the Vessel shall be clean and infected with no Muck or Filth the Candle being let down athwart it will remain burning until its own begetting Vapour doth choak it self but if the Hogs-head be filthy the Flame or Light cannot pierce through the Orifice of the Hogs-head unto the thickness of the Wood. Therefore it manifestly appears that the darkness doth also uncloath or discover it self and make other things darksom just even as the Light doth operate and that when the darkness doth overcome the Light or the Light overcome the Darkness These and the like Darknesses must needs be before all Light and by how much the more stable they are by so much the more stable also is the Body arisen from thence Now it is further to be noted that as a temporal Light doth illustrate out of it self one thing more largely than another according to their stability magnitude or increasing in the like proportion and manner the darkness powers forth its Beams out of it self as was shewn also as a burning and consuming Fire can by its Light enflame burn and stir up many Seeds into a growth or increase according to the rate of their more stable Nature that which I take notice of thou shalt evidently perceive by this Experiment it is seen and felt that by how much the nearer a Fire is kindled by so much the more it shines or enlightens and heats now this heat and brightness is one and the same thing as long as it is in the Fire as by a collection of those hot beams through the help of a certain burning glass may be proved whereby the hot beams are again collected and are made like unto those which exist in the Fire to wit hot and burning ones now when we permit a temporal dispersed and decaying Fire freely to burn we shall discern by the Light which shines forth through the Fire that other created Bodies are burnt at diverse distances from hence to wit in the nearest Body the more stable and combustible one and as the beams are diffused so far also the heat is diminished and will enflame the less stable created bodies The reason is because that which is soon made must needs also have that which soon perisheth wherefore cold and moist Regions do bring forth larger Fruits than hot and
dry Jurisdictions yet are they less durable than others which are less hot because their Light which is in them is more divided and that as well in-Bruits as in Men Men of moist Coasts or Climates are homely and big neither can they undergo so much heat as Men which live in high dry and hot Countries as also the thing it self doth moreover testifie Yea thou shalt find that even dead Carcases which are slain by a violent Death even as Histories do declare and we are able besides dayly to experience when a slaughter hath been made or shall be made of men who had gone out of cold and watery Coasts to wage War against those of the more hot Provinces that the Slain on both sides might be discerned a long time after because they of the more cold Regions did sooner putrifie these waxed dry and remained surviving these did longer endure entire in the Heat because their Balsam is more durable than that of the other even as they contain more or less of a moist Matter or do partake more or less of a Night Light and they which are the more destitute of that those do more rejoyce in a day Light Now even as the Sun is a perfect and the greater day Light so the Moon being the nearest Planet unto us is a perfect Night Light which are perpetual in their Essence and likewise do render those Bodies perpetual and durable which are born and renewed by their help Furthermore as there is one only Sun and one only Moon their created Bodies no otherwise than those like unto them may be compared thereunto they being one only and also perfect as Gold which the Phylosophers have called Sol and Silver Lune and the other five Metals likewise according to the thing brought forth after the rest of the Planets wherein they have rightly done and have delivered the Truth because those one only Bodies are perfect the Fire cannot hurt them they remain stable therein Gold lives in the Fire therefore the Phylosoyhers have marked that with the name of Salamander the which now is falsly accounted for a living Creature A temporary and fraile Fire possesseth its Fire only in part as was said but the Sun is a perpetual Fire and Life and can live only in that which is like it self the which also must needs be a stable Body And as there is a temporary body in all things except in these two aforesaid which are like them and do wholly participate of them in what respect bodies ought to be returned into their first Essence by the same reason likewise the Light ought to be returned unto its Original for a frail or mortal thing cannot reach unto a perpetual thing Furthermore the stable Darkness must needs be present before the Light wherein the Light is raised up but if this Darkness be perpetual the Light also may perpetually dwell in it first according to the Spirit and then according to the Soul which Spirit seeing it is Eternal doth illuminate Eternal Darkness and the Darkness grows together or increaseth into Light and is made Silver which is twofold constituting a Body in the Flesh and Bones of Gold which is threefold Now as the Sun is a great day Light so it overcomes the Moon and silver is altogether converted into Gold by that the other five Earthly Planets may be transchanged and brought thorow unto a perfection like unto that of them because they also are Nocturnal Lights Further we must know that there are many innumerable Minerals mutually differing like as do the Stars from each other all which do expect their Perfection and some of these can more easily and swiftly attain unto their last Perfection than others Gold and Silver how smally soever they may be divided they may be re-united without loss because all their least Parts are entire and perpetual Notwithstanding they may be rendred Mortal because they have not as yet co-met or con-joyned into one but this Death cannot begin of and from themselves neither by reason of the Gold nor of the Silver because they are stable Bodies Now some Lovers might ask after what sort or by what means that might happen I reply After the same manner or means whereby it happeneth in all created things whereby also it happened in Eve through an increasing of the Darkness which draws its Original out of the principles of their Bodies as was shewn yea the Darkness may so grow up that it may convert the whole Spirit into Darkness but it that Lune or the Spirit of Sol doth call the Soul or Heat unto its aid before it be subjected and overcome the Spirit shall be strengthened not as it was before its Corruption but by this strife and victory it shall be so strong and the Spirit thereof shall be so greatly multiplyed that it is able to render ten of the imperfect Brethren stable but this Spirit hath not by this contention attained unto a liberty even entire and an Eternal Union but it ought so often to repeat this conflict which shall always more and more increase according to the increase of the Spirit and Darkness until it shall come unto the utmost and can suffer no more and the watery Body or Darkness shall be plainly consumed and then it is a pure everlasting united and double Light which will illustrate all things without dammage and diminishment and will be able to perfect all its Brethren into the likeness of it self it s own Virtue being retained and when this thing doth happen in Sol the Light of Lune is changed and supped up into Sol so that it is equally made an Eternal United and Trine Sol that which is the last in Eternity out of Man And hence it may be demonstrated that the Evangelist John in the third Chapter of his Revelation doth use the same Similitude saying I exhort thee to buy of me Gold tried in the Fire that thou mayest be made rich and to be cloathed with white Garments and that the confusion or shame of thy nakedness may not appear and anoint thou thine eyes with a Collyrium or Eye-Salve that thou mayest see I whom I love do reprove and chastize Be ye therefore zealous and repent Behold I stand at the door and knock If any one shall hear my voice and shall open unto me the Gate I will enter in unto him and will sup with him and he with me He that shall overcome I will give unto him to sit with me in my Throne as also I have overcome and have sit with my Father in his Throne He that hath an eare let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Wise Men We rejoyce that we understand from thee and do know the shining and quickning Light likewise the effluxing acting fermental contagious and mortal Darkness whereby we understand how Eve hath touched and eaten of the Fruits of Darkness and that she became darksom and contagious from thence through her effluxing Darkness she
Iun-contrould Require a glass than which I 'le shew more clear And it all to be-freckled shall appear Who gives to me a looking-glass But stay Thy just and mournful notes Oh Nymph I pray For loe there 's one who doth provide that mirror Which will direct thy visage mar'd by error John Baptist will it give who drew his name From Helmont whom Bruxels his pleasant dame Hath nourish'd in her bosom But if this Be true which of a Sp'rit departing is Reported from one vessel into another To enter then I do protest moreover That I most great Hipocrates do find Thy very Genius in this Authors mind Thy imitated form within this glass Thou wilt admire whereto disease alas Death and the Destinies do greatly stoop Old age no longer with its wastful look Shall snatch away the wonted comely grace Nor oldish wrinkle be in antient face Nor henceforth in a Labarinth reflex Shalt thou be interrupted or shalt vex Because a straight way is made manifest From every by-path where there is no rest The Nymph said to the Prophet that the God Of Heaven hath determin'd with his Rod To scourge the World with unaccustom'd griefs Throughout its circle that mankind's beliefs Which is a wretched rout may fixed be In this how great ignorance they do see In Med'c'nal Doctors of the common sort Choice ones he would have famous of report Indeed by their withstanding of the new And barb'rous number of Diseases crew And on the other hand that vulgar ones The cruel murtherers of many sons He would they voluntarily decay By a discharge peculiar in that day For every one of them sticking among The beaten words of his own masters tongue Thinks that a touching of art Med'cinal Is of that Art the very top of all While they proceed by circuits or by rounds And do restore afresh their Parents grounds And into new Centuries them compose Therefore they have not durst or have not chose To walk in Co-us steps for why they thought The Healing Art could be no further sought But what will mortals do accustomed Now by this Med'c'nal law to be misled And suffer all things each in his own skin The cred'lous multitude still pressing in The fixed footsteps of its antient train By 'ts own deceit alasse is sadly slain Long Academick robes for Cities health Nor bubbles hallowed by the Common-wealth Were not as yet deposited while hee The Author young requir'd with instance-ee Our bride-beds swiftly running to those ends Through devious rough ways of old Fathers pens Indeed he had procur'd unto himself Chief friends who many pray'rs on his behalf Did poure abroad unto the God above And whereby he through suppliant words from love Might nakedly behold sick bodies plight As Cous old by h's pray'rs had had the sight He pass'd through many years with various cost His busie members with sore labour tost Whether clear Phoebus drave his shining Carts Or Cynthia fair did shine i' th' brightsom parts Of Heaven He knowing of mee Alchymie My abstruse heart his houshold servant I The inward secret privy Chambers there Have not lain lurking close beyond his Sphere He sought her favour great by many gifts And by strong prayers utter'd with humble lips That so at length she might our love procure And joyn with us in sacred marriage sure Of grateful bed He with a rest-less brest Poured forth ' plaints and sorrowful cheeks be-drest With luke-warm showers He would not that the great Governour of the skiee Olympick seat Should from his Throne dismiss his deprecations As being frustrate through deaf acclamations And thou prophetick Poet this relate Promise and things shall follow'f greater state Now whatsoere Disease or grief shall light To cure shall be of one and equal weight A dowry sure I am ordain'd to give Unto the Author for his Labours hive That I a Woman worthy of such a Man May be conjoyned in bride-bed and ban And he both bodies shall associate In sacred bond of love Do thou relate Such joyful messages to humane kind As these No sad contagions thou shalt find Of any malady but such a one Hath here confer'd a Med'cine for his mone The Plague the Queen of sicknesses the Gowt Shall flee the Stone shall be expelled out Ascites watry Conduits shall be bor'd And thin-jaw'd Phthisis shall be well restor'd And whatsoere distempers Eve so bold In humane generations did unfold After that she not knowing what she ded Drew weapons on her own and husbands hed Now therefore let my judgment of this glass To th' Book as for a sign of wedlock pass So the bride-mistriss of the marriage bed But soft before our Poesie be sped Three R's occur R notes the antient Ausonia R Pelasgia Continent R finally an Hebraism doth denote And Banks of witty Daedalus betoke Thus hath S. D. d'A Sung to his Uncle in a prosperous Poem THE Authours Promises I Will shew the Errours of the Schooles about things which they have rashly judged to be the fundamentals or ground-works of nature afterwards in the decay of nature I will shew the defects or diseases unknown to the Antients to wit that they do not arise from the co-mingling fight contrariety or unequal tempering of the Elements nor also from the qualities which they feigne to be the first and proper to the Elements Wherefore that vain are the meditations of Complexions as well in temperate as in intemperate bodies I will also teach that the four humours are frivolous and that whatsoever hath hitherto been attributed to them hath been devised by the Heathens and of these the unhappy or evil spirit to the destruction of mankinde To wit that the composition connexion qualities effects of humours and the diseases that are dreamed to arise from thence are meer fictions also that the Lessons touching laxative Medicines supposing the Elections or seperations with drawings and lessenings of humours are false Indeed that vain hopes uncertain healings dangerous experiments in so great a sluggishness of ignorance have not constituted the art of Medicine but uncertain conjectures Students covering their errours by privy escapes and in the dust At length that hopes no less vain than pernicious have been set to sale instead of true but that bloud-letting never helps unless it be by accident to wit through want of art and a more courteous or bountiful Medicine but that cuttings of a vein do alwayes take away long life Also that Cauteries or searing Remedies have been brought in without ground after that by the effect they had already bewailed in vain the uncertain and weak help of their Remedies Next I will make manifest that neither are Tartarous humours the causers or Patrons of infirmities Likewise that neither do Diseases arise from three beginnings as neither out of the essentials which Cheâ—neia or Chymistry boasteth of I will also discover the vanities or fictions of a Catarrhe or Rhume that that may not be a disease which may be begotten by
there all the more clowdy speculation and aid of Reason languisheth even as on the other hand a true understanding is suppressed in us under the precepts of Reason Wherefore seeing the proper object of understanding is the essence of things it self for that cause accidents being as it were abstracted and rent asunder from the things in which they are ought to be conceived by the imagination and that by shapes and likenesses but in no wise by the understanding Wherein after another manner I finde all accidents co-knit together in a point under the essence of the things understood Because accidents properly are not Beings but of the Beings on whom they depend therefore accidents have not an essence which doth co-pass unto the unity of the understanding or into which essence the understanding may transport it self But the Schooles do divide the Intellect into the Agent and Patient For they will have that to be conversant about the invention of meanes and premises of a demonstration to wit that the sealing marks of the termes may imprint an understanding on the Patient as it were on wax subjected to it Therefore they call the Agent masculine noble and formall But they liken the Patient to the Woman and ignoble matter And these their Dreams they perswade to young beginners as Nature doth every where operate toward the perfection of it self but operation or action is alwayes more noble than passion or suffering But I do every where pity so great dryness First because demonstration is not an effect or of-spring of the understanding neither doth it any way supply meanes for Sciences or knowledges I have seen an Aethiopian swiftly to roule a Reed about in the hole of a Plank with a Towel placed between and not long after the Reed with the Towel took fire And then I have hidden a Reed in a bright burning Fornace and the inflamed Reed hath more speedily cleerly and perfectly shined When as nevertheless the Reed did act nothing but onely suffered an inflaming So that although the acting principle may now and then be more noble than the suffering one while the effect tends to perfection or while the Patient ought to be perfected by the Agent Yet while a pretious Pearl doth putrifie under the Dunghill I may not believe the Agent to be more perfect than the Patient I have sufficiently shewed elsewhere that in whole nature the Doctrine of Aristotle is vain and meer trifles how much lesse therefore could he subsist in the Court of understanding whose Being and operating do depend onely on the Soul For we Christians are constrained to believe that our intellect or understanding is an immortal Spirit Light and Image of the Almighty whose beginning as it exceedes Nature so it cannot be fitted or squared to its Rules Seeing it hath a most simple Being never to be divided into the strifes of Agent and Patient or into heterogeneals or divers kindes Seeing also that it dependeth immediately totally and continually on its original Type and so that without particular or special grace it cannot understand any thing because the object of understanding is truth it self Wherefore neither doth it understand with a perfect understanding but by receiving But that which receives onely that suffers but doth not act therein for neither is that proper to the understanding which comes to it by grace The will also while it suffers is more noble than while it wills to wit while it is ruled by the will of the Superiour Powers The Imagination indeed knowes by acting and therefore it is wearied and this Aristotle knew but not the understanding Because it is that which suffers in understanding by way of enlightning onely For it is a more troublesome servile and obscure thing to operate in understanding than to suffer because by suffering it receives a more noble light freely conferred on it Lastly seeing that in understanding it alwayes passeth over into the form of the thing understood therefore that which partakes of an unlimited light is perfected without weariness and labour of understanding and the light understood shineth in understanding in the light of the Intellect it self So as the things themselves seem to talk with us without words and the understanding pierceth them being shut up no otherwise than as if they were dissected and laid open Therefore the understanding is alway perfected by suffering and receiving But the imaginative knowledge or animal understanding which was known to Aristotle beholdeth things onely on the outside and frameth to it self Images or likenesses thereof according to its own thinking and with all wearisomness of labours runs about them into a circle It sees indeed the Rhines and husks but never reacheth at the kernel because the Imagination doth not enter things as neither on the other hand do things enter and satisfie the imaginative part For at most the imaginative part satisfies it self by likenesses if it hath long admired the outward Signate the inward sealer whereof notwithstanding it least of all embraceth For how unjustly doth it square that the Schooles should acknowledge the Soul to be the immediate Image of God and to divide the understanding into two supposed things which differ in Offices and effects For truly a two foldedness it self in the understanding disagreeth with the simplicity of him whose Image it hideth in it self throughout its whole Being I believe in the first place that nothing doth pertain to the knowledge of truth but faith and understanding Secondly That all truth doth issue from one onely and primitive truth Thirdly That all understanding deriveth it self from one onely and infinite understanding Fourthly Even as all Light from one onely Light Fifthly Therefore that the Essence of truth doth nothing differ from the Essence of the understanding Sixthly That our understanding is vain empty poor and dark Seventhly That all its clearness nobleness fulness light and truth do come to it by receiving and suffering Eightly That it is so much the more ennobled by how much the more it suffers by the light which is beyond all nature Finally the Schooles of the Heathens have failed of the knowledge of a true understanding And therefore man is not a rational living Creature But the predicament of a substance is to be divided into a Spirit and a Body A Spirit is abstract or withdrawn or concrete or joyned with a Body Man alone is a concrete Spirit but not to be placed among Bodies If his denomination be to be drawn from the more especial part and essential determination from the more famous thing signified Therefore man was to be denominated and defined from a Spirit and an intellectual Light CHAP. IV. The Causes and beginnings of Natural things 1. The Authour excuseth himself why he is Paradoxical 2. Some Bodies want causes in Nature 3. A fourfold order of Causes makes manifest the ignorance of Nature in Aristotle 4. Some Errours of Aristotle 5. That the form the efficient cause and the end of Aristotle are
not the causes of natural things 6. The Form is not the Act. 7. A false Maxim of Aristotle 8. He erreth in the attributes of the Form 9. He knew not the true efficient cause 10. The Father is not the efficient cause of the Son 11. There are two onely causes in Nature 12. The End hath no reason of a cause in nature 13. That the three beginnings of Bodies of Paracelsus have not the nature of causes 14. Whence the definition of any sort soever of natural things is to be required 15. The definition of a Horse 16. The division of sublnnary bodies among the Auntients is dangerous or destructive 17. The definition of Animalls Plants and Mineralls 18. The name of Subject sounds improperly in Philosophy why 't is to be called a co-worker 19. Things without life that are produced how they receive their ends 20. Why the seminal Power is attributed to the Earth 21. That there is not a conjunction of the Elements 22. The Principles of the Chymists have not the power of principiating 23. That there are two onely Principles or beginnings of Bodies to wit that from which and by which 24. What the Ferment or Leaven of things is 25. What are Ferments in their kinde 26. What is immediately in places 27. The Ferments of the Air and water 28. There is onely a speculative distinction of the Ferment and efficient cause 29. The Ferment is the original of some seeds 30. The principiating Ferment of what sort it is and where 31. Ferments are immediately in places in things themselves as if in places 32. The name of matter is speculative but that of water is practical 33. What the inward efficient cause is 34. A false Maxim of Aristotle 35. The efficient cause in natural things is explained 36. Fire is not of the number of seminal efficient causes as it hath deceived the Aristotelicks neither is the influence of the Heavens among the number of efficients 37. The diversity of the efficient and effective cause 38. The wit of Aristotle is ambitious and idle 39. A false Maxim of Aristotle 40. Aristotle was more able in the Mathematicks or learning by de monstration than in Nature 41. How great hath been the ignorance of the Schooles in natural things hitherto 42. Aristotle is in the things of natural Philosophy ridiculous and to himself contradictory I Come into a forsaken house to re-melt the dross that is to be swept out by me Most things are to be searched into and those things to be taught which are unknown those things which have been ill delivered are to be overthrown what are unclean are to be wiped off and what things are false are to be cast away but all and every thing duly to be confirmed But let it be sufficient to have forewarned thee of these things to withdraw wearisomness if happily new and Paradoxall things do more trouble than true things delight The knowledge of Nature is onely taken from that which is in act and in the thing it self for it is that which no where consisteth in feigned Meditations Indeed the whole composure of Nature is individual in very deed in act and fastned in any Body except the number of abstracted Spirits Lastly and chiefly I seriously admonish that as often as I speak of the causes of Natural things these things are not at all to be taken for the Elements or for the Heaven because they supernaturally began with the Title of Creation and to this day do also constantly remain the same which they were from the beginning Therefore I understand the causes of natural things to presuppose a Being subject to change And although the Bodies of the Elements have come under Nature yet their speculation is of another manner of unfolding and another kinde of Philosophy For they who before me have thought that to all Generations or Births of Bodies four Elementsdo co-mix have beheld the Elements after the heathenish manner have tried by their lies or devises to marry the Elements obey them Therefore every natural Body requireth no other than corporeall beginnings for the most part subject to change and succeeding course of dayes but Nature doth not consist of an undetermined hyle or matter and an impossible one neither hath it need of such a Principle as neither of privation but order and life are in the efficient cause of necessity And every thing is empty void dead and slow unless it hath been constituted or sometimes be constituted by a vitall or seminal Principle present with it And moreover those Lawes should rush down together unless there were a certain order in things which did interpose which might incline proper things to the support or necessities of the common good Aristotle hath declared four constitutive causes of things which have made also their own Authour ignorant of Nature For in the first place he confoundeth the Principle with the material cause to wit calling the first cause an undetermined or unlimited matter or a corporeal subjected heap wanting a formall limitation And then he confoundeth the other cause even the inward Essence or form of a thing with another of his Principles Next the third which is external he calleth the efficient cause and at length the fourth he nameth the end to wit unto which every thing is directed But this cause in the minde of the efficient he would have to be the first of the three former causes and so natural things not onely to be principiated or made to begin by the Being of Reason and mental but also as if they were inanimate things they did lie hid through the end in the minde of the efficient cause But if therefore he doth badly search into natural causes he hath far worse appointed a supernatural end in the minde of the first mover in the room of a natural cause or he requireth a mentall conceit of the end in things without life Truly I who have not been accustomed through the floath of consenting to serve others enterprizes without foreweighing them have very much found that the three latter causes in natural knowledge are false yea and hurtful But the first of the four I will by and by shew to be fabulous For first of all since every cause according to nature and succession of dayes is before its thing caused Surely the form of the thing composed cannot be the cause of the thing produced but rather the last perfect act of generation and the veriest essence and perfection it self of the thing generated for the attaining whereof all other things are directed Therefore I meditate the form to be rather as an effect than as a cause of the thing Yea more For the Form seeing it is the end of generation is not meerly the act of generation but of the thing generated and rather a power that may be attained in generation but the matter or subject of generation as it is in act so also its act is an inward worker or
the disposing of instruments and the effect or thing produced 6. That heat is not an agent in seminal generation 7. Why Aristotle hath not known the truth of Nature 8. His Books of natural Philosophy contain onely tristes 9. How young men are to be instructed in the place or room of Schoole-Philosophy 10. Into what great Apolloes young men might climbe 11. The Prerogatives of the fire 12. What a young man so instructed might judge 13. Privations do not succeed in the flowing of Seeds to generation 14. There is no form of a dead Carcase 15. That generation and corruption do not receive each other 16. The Vulcan of life vanisheth without the corrupting of it self 17. Death is not the corruption of life 18. The distinction of privation and corruption 19. Of forms there is no corruption 20. The ignorance of Galen 21. His ridiculous Volumes concerning the decrees of Hipocrates and Plato 22. His books of preserving of health are foolish THE Schooles have so sworn constancy and their end to their Aristotle that even to this day they by putting one name for another do call him the Philosopher whom notwithstanding I certainly finde to be altogether ignorant of Nature and it grieveth me not to write down some causes which have enforced me hereunto and that for no other end than that hereafter as well Professors as young beginners may not through an aptness to believe and a custome of assenting be made to wander out of the way nor may suffer themselves hence-forward to be led by a blinde man into the ditch For otherwise I tell no mans tale nor am I more displeased with Aristotle than with a non ens or a non-being Therefore first of all Aristotle defineth Nature It is the Principle or beginning of motion as also of rest in Bodies in whom it is in by it self and not by accident Wherein I finde more errours and ignorances of the definer than words First therefore the word it is in sheweth that he speaketh of a Body really existing but not of his impossible matter 2. He denotes that such Bodies are not of the number or supposed things of Nature For truly it belongeth not to Bodies to be in Bodies by it self and not by accident 3. He takes away any accidents from the Catalogue of Nature as if they were without besides and above Nature because accidents are in by accident 4. He sets down that Bodies which have motion or rest by accident are likewise without Nature 5. That the Being of things is in Nature in Nature it self before the day or motion or rest of the same Because it must needs be that something first be before that it move be moved or doth rest And so the Principle of Being goes before the beginning of moving or resting notwithstanding Nature cannot be before its existence For if the beginning of motion or rest should be latter or an effect as to their Being Nature should be an effect as to its being a natural thing 6. What if God after Creation had enjoyned neither motion nor rest rest indeed according to Aristotle presupposeth the bound of motion there had now been a Creature and not Nature For God in the beginning created the Heaven and the Earth Now Nature was not understood by Aristotle to wit there was sometimes a Creature and it actually existed before or on this side Nature here defined 7. Bodies in which the beginning of motion is external and by accident suppose thou when 〈◊〉 heat of the Sun moves the Seed to increase or a Woman with Childe by accident transforms the imperfect Infant by her own Imagination should not be under Nature as neither that accidental beginning 8. To rest is not not to be moved but to cease from motion and so not to be moved is more general than rest Therefore Nature absolutely taken should be onely after the existence of Nature 9. If the beginning of motion in a moveable thing be Nature and the efficient cause be properly called the beginning of motion as he saith heat not elementary to be therefore it must needs be that the efficient cause is inward which is against Aristotle or that Nature in as much as it is the beginning of motion is not in Bodies most neerly or inwardly by it self 10. Every outward efficient cause is the beginning of motion in a thing by accident But every efficient cause according to Aristotle is external therefore no efficient cause external is natural which is contrary to his second Book of Physicks 11. Whatsoever things are moved by the Mathematicks and also a Mill moved by the Winde or a stream should not be moved by Nature But I believe that Nature is the Command of God whereby a thing is that which it is and doth that which it is commanded to do or act This is a Christian definition taken out of the holy Scriptures 12. But Aristotle contrary to his own Precepts of a definition takes the difference which he thinketh to be constitutive for the general kinde of the thing defined in Nature to wit the formall beginning of motion and rest But for the constitutive difference he takes the matter or Body wherein the said beginning of motion is But Christians are held to believe Nature to be every Creature to wit a Body and accidents no lesse than the beginning of motion it self 13. Death also although it be the beginning by it self of rest in a dead Carcase yet Christians do believe it not to be created by the Lord and so neither to be Nature and although it may light naturally on it yet that happens not by reason of the death but of its natural Causes But Aristotle in another place a like stumblingly touching on Nature saith Every power of the Soul seemeth to be a partaker of some other certain Body for neither dares he positively and simply to affirm it than those which are called Elements For even as Souls do differ so also the Nature of that Body doth differ the Seed contains the cause of fruitfulness to wit heat which is not fiery but a spirit or breath in the froathy body of the Seed and the Nature which is in that Spirit answereth in proportion to the Element of the Stars This Precept praised by the Schooles containeth almost as many Errours as Syllables And at length this Writer of natural instruction being exceeding doubtful knowes not what he may call or ought to call Nature For first he saith it to be a Corporeal power of the Soul and therefore he banisheth the understanding out of the powers of the Soul 2. He saith the power of the Soul which he afterwards calleth heat is a partaker of another Body than those that are called Elements As if it were a partaker onely of a Body above an Elementated one and heavenly 3. It is absolutely false and an ignorant thing that any power of the Soul is a partaker of the body although it be tied to the body For every
power is an accident and no accident or quality can be a partaker of a Body but on the contrary a Body is a partaker of accidents 4. That souls do not differ but in respect of that body which at length he calleth meer heat notwithstanding that all Souls are a power partaking of a heavenly Body therefore Souls do not differ in respect of that Body in which he hath said they all do agree or if there be any difference between Souls let it be in respect of the matter of a Body or of an unnamed Client or retainer being neglected by and plainly unknown to Aristotle And so in so great a dress of words he hath spoken nothing but trifles 5. If Souls do differ onely for that bodies sake the act shall be now limited by the power the Species or particular kinde by the matter not by the form 6. The Seed contains the cause of fruitfulness it is a Childish and triflous thing because the Seed ceaseth to be Seed if it be without the cause of fruitfulness 7. Every power of the Soul is a partaker of some other body than those which are called the Elements Yet he would have the bodies of all soulified or living Creatures to be of necessity mixt of non but actual Elements 8. The Seed is not fruitful but by heat As though Fishes were not more fruitfull than four footed Beasts and as though Fishes were not actually cold 9. He knew not another moderate heat from live Coals which nourisheth Eggs even unto a Chick And he knowes not that all heat is in one onely most special kinde of quality being distinguished onely by degree 10. He is ignorant that heat onely makes hot by it self and that it should make fruitful by accident And therefore although that heat be the principle of motion and the power of the Soul that is Nature by it self yet as it should make the Seeds fruitful by accident it should be the beginning of motion by accident Therefore in respect of the same Nature it should be a beginning by it self and by accident or with relation to the same Nature it should be Nature and not Nature 11. He confoundeth the quality of heats with the spirit and air of the froathy Seed which notwithstanding do differ no lesse than in predicaments 12. Heat is the spirit of the froathy body and the nature which is in that spirit is heat Therefore the spirit shall be in the spirit 13. Nature is in that spirit and that spirit is not nature defined by Aristotle for the subject of natural Philosophy yet that spirit is the Principle of motion in the Seed and of life in living Creatures and he much more strictly denies the froathy body of the Seed to be of the account of nature as though the seed of things were a froath and not the more inward invisible kernel in a corporeal seed but that onely the power of Souls which with him is nothing but heat were nature 14. Because every power of the Soul is encompassed with heat he excludes out of the account of nature any other bodies and accidents 15. That power of Souls for whose sake Souls do differ is onely heat not indeed a fiery one but agreeing in proportion with the Element of the Stars that is it hath not been understood by Aristotle nor is it to be any way to be understood by the Schooles how heat doth agree with a body with an Element what agreement there can be between such various dependants of predicaments 16. He denieth this power of Souls to be of the race of Elements That plural number rejecteth not onely one Element but by reason of the strength of negatives all Elements 17. Every power of the Soul is a meer heat not indeed answering to the heat of the Element of the Stars but altogether to the Element it self 18. For truly he acknowledgeth no other heat than that of fire nor any other Element of fire than that which is of the kitchin because he distinguisheth Elementary heat from the Element of the Stars yet by his own authority he hath inclosed fire that is not of the kitchin between the Heaven and the Air. 19. At length as oft as he was positively to tell what nature was the privy shifter saith sometimes that it is the power of the Soul sometimes the fruitfulness of the Seed and at last he neither perceived nor ever knew what the heat not fiery was and makes a fifth Element of the Firmament of the Stars after he hath cast away the other four by denying them Therefore he runs about in denying by far fetched speeches and least he should be laid hold on he denyeth nature to be of the race of Elements As if it were enough to have said there is a Chymera or certain fabulous Monster not of the Elements but of the fifth Element of the Stars It is not a body not an accident but a heat answering to the Element of the Heavens not to the heat of the same 20. And he would not say that indeed these things are so bur that they seem to him to be so Seeing that according to the same man many things may seem to be which yet are not 21. And if thou wilt not believe it go to see or expect it for ever 22. As though the whole action of nature were made by heat 23. Also that Mettalls which elsewhere he writeth to be co-thickned or condensed by their own cold because they do abound with heat should now be out of nature 24. And as though the seeds of Vegetables because they are not froathy should not be endowed with fruitfulnesses or should not contain nature in themselves 25. Therefore he denieth the heat of living Creatures actually hot to be Elementary the which notwithstanding I shall at sometime in its own place prove to be true being unmindeful of his own maxim that the cause is of the same particular kinde with its thing caused He knowes not I say that our heat doth make any other things to be hot by a naked Elementary heat And likewise that since not onely Elementary heat which he placeth in the sublunary fire distinct from the common or kitchin fire but also the kitchin fire do heat us in a degree fitted to us Therefore they ought to be of one and the same species or particular kinde 26. At length he rashly affirmeth that nature or the power of the Soul or seminal truths are nothing besides that heavenly heat 27. Therefore he acknowledgeth heat actually cold in Fishes to be the cause of fruitfulness seeing it distributes from every power of the Soul For that is to have sold trifles instead of Phylosophy And as oft as he feareth his toyes are not saleable he provokes us to the Element of the Stars after that he had provoked us it seemes by one affirmative and many trifles of denyalls to the proportion of the Element of the Stars Surely it is a shame for Christians
the foundation of nature by which all waters are strained thorow that all of them may keep a Communion among each other from the beginning of the Creation unto the end and from the Superficies or upper part of the Earth even to its Center And moreover the water detained in this Soil of Sand is perhaps actually greater by a thousand fold than the whole heap of Seas and Rivers floating on the Superficies of the Earth And that is easily verified by supposing the whole superficies of the Earth also to be covered with waters to the depth of 600 paces Therefore it followes respect being had to the Diameter of the Earth that there is easily a thousand times more water under than upon the Earth For truly dry Sand drinks up at least about a fourfold quantity of water in the same extension of place yet I will not have it that although the Quellem be the last ground or Soil to the Digger that all subjected grounds are every where to be found by order For the aforesaid Sand which sometimes overwhelms it self perhaps to a thousand paces beneath the Horizon elsewhere boils up with speed under the open Air yea and oft-times in the top of Mountains Of which thing the Schooles with their Aristotle being ignorant do toughly hold that all true springs do owe the cause of their continuance from the Air co-thickned into water when as notwithstanding they cannot maintain that thing because in the tops of the highest Mountains springs do oft-times leap forth where another Mountain of the like height is not neer nor a water-Channel extended on either side to this Therefore they hold their peace with a lofty look and are silent at the unwonted miracle of the thing Surely as long as waters do wander in the living and vitall Soil of the Earth and are detained in the Sand Quellem so long I say they are not constrained to bring forth by the water drawing lawes of Scituations No otherwise than as the bloud while it is nourished with life in the veins so long also it knowes not above and beneath and it is as well in the fore-head as in the feet But at the very moment wherein it once falls out of the veins or the waters do disgorge themselves out of the Quellem they cease not to flow down by obeying the lawes of Scituations Therefore the Sea in its own ground doth sup up the received waters in the sieve of the Virgin-Sand For so according to the wise man however all waters do flow into the Sea yet it never re-gorgeth them again Because by one onely thread there is a continuall passage out of the Virgin-Sand into Springs Streams Rivers and the Sea to moysten the Earth and appointed to enrich it with Mineralls Whither again the waters being driven they are supt up partly by the Quellem and partly do snatch the Air. So indeed doth the Universe distribute its waters and lay them aside for divers fruits And therefore I have meditated with admiration that the Almighty hath set before him the necessities of ungrateful immortal men as the aims of things I return to the Earth I have found for certain that the original Earth doth no where of its own accord concur to the mixtures of fruits slide thereto by chance nor that it is assumed by nature nor is found to have assumed the works of nature or art And therefore the reason of mixtures waxeth lean the number of Elements Qualities and Temperaments ceaseth and so they are lying fopperies which have been hitherto stifly and ignorantly garnished out by the Schooles For of a man Wood c. be it dust or ashes that is left by the fire yet Earth is never drawn out for else our burying places would soon swell Therefore the Earth is at least the remaining wombe but not the Mother Which if it should sometimes have a conflux unto fruits or mixt bodies it would either abide in the same and so by the solution of art or nature would sometimes be found or should return from thence which is false or plainly should be taken to the mixt Body and in it should cease to be Earth being already changed into another thing and so should be elsewhere diminished which I will straightway shew to be alike false or by the death or dissolution of the thing should return again into earth and there should be a daily and repeated returning of one and the same Element from a privation to a habit Or if this should not return into earth it should remain changed into fruits and so the whole Earth had long since gone into fruits and nature had lost her constancy and had mocked the first aims of the Creator or the earth had returned from the dissolved mixt body into another Element the impertinency whereof ceaseth For truly it is not natural to water or air to turn another Element into its own substance From hence I will straightway demonstrate that never one drop of water is turned into air or likewise air changed into water Which changes notwithstanding do appear lesse labour some than of the earth into water or into air And therefore if nature hath not as yet attempted the more easie transmutations after what sort shall it presume on the more difficult ones For otherwise the earth should be â—upt up and brought to nothing by Elements that are so much more large co-touching with it and more active But the Father of the Universe being a lover of Concord hateth discord and brawlings and chiefly in the Elements which that they might be the stable props of nature he hath not created the same fighting ones For he hath also directed the Elements to their appointed ends and lawes of continuance to wit that he may bring forth and nourish his own fruits for his own honour and the use of man Notwithstanding neither the honour of God nor mans necessity did any where or any way require the battels devourings strifes of the Elements their trampling on each other as neither the exchanging or nourishing of one by the other Nor lastly that at the end of an Element to increase it self by covetousness hunger luxury or necessity with the destruction of anomer For neither are they guilty of the fault of coverousness or hatred as neither do they desire to be nourished Last of all neither have the Elements obtained an Archeus a kitchin or properties for that transchanging Therefore the whole Doctrine of the Schooles concerning the elementary War is an old Wives fable Therefore the earth is never taken or of its own accord doth materially run out of it self into the constitution of bodies And there is by right made no mixture in nature which can firmly grow together under the unity of the natural composed form unless it be between juyces and spirits On the contrary no pulverous or powder all co-mixture doth tend to generation but there is onely an apposition or applying presently of its own accord and again
that last sub-division of their finenesses and Atomes all Seeds Odours and Ferments which they lifted upward with themselves do dye together and do return into their first Element of water whence they were materially formed Hence Clowdes as long as they are Clowdes do stink in Mountains but not after they are by the greatest colds there extenuated into the last division of fineness And this necessity hath been in nature that the middle Region of the air should not far of from us be most cold For therefore the water alwayes remains whole as it is or without any dividing of the three beginnings it is transformed and goes into fruits whither the Seedes do call and withdraw it Because an artificial diligent search hath shewen me indeed after what sort the three first beginnings and that in a proportionable sense are in the water yet by no art or corruption of dayes are they to be divided from each other For an Element should cease to be a simple body if it be to be seperated into any thing before or more simple than it self But nothing in corporeall things is granted to be before or more simple than an Element The water therefore is most like to the internall Mercurie of Mettalls the which seeing it is now stript of all manner of spot of Mettalick Sulfur it as well cleaves to it self on every side by an undissolvable joyning as it doth radically refuse all possible division by art or nature Hence Geber had occasion given him to say that there is no moysture in the order or course of things like to Mercury by reason of the Homogeneall or samely kinde of simplicity continually remaining with it in the torment of the fire For truly either it being wholly changed in its own nature flees away from the fire or it wholly perseveres in the fire through the transchanging of its seedes I confess indeed that I learned the nature of the Element of water no otherwise than under the Ferule or Staffe made of the white wand of Mercury But since I have from hence with great pains and cost thorowly searched for thirty whole years and I have found out the adequate or suitable Mercurie of the water I will therefore endeavour to explain its nature so far as the present speech requireth and the slenderness of my judgement suffereth First of all the Alchymists do confess that the substance of Mercurie is not at all capable to endure any intrinsecall or inward division and they shew the cause because by a homogeneall and sweet proportion its watery parts are by an equall tempering conjoyned to its earthly parts the aiery and fiery ones being suppressed in silence for that these should flee away if they were in it neither do they contain the cause of constancy here required and therefore that both these cannot forsake each other by reason of their just temperature they embracing each other though against the fires will In the first place the errour of the auntients hath deluded them concerning the necessary confluence of four Elements into the mixture of mixt bodies But surely that errour was not to be indulged by Alchymists because they are those who durst not enforce or comprise the air and fire of Mercurie when as they treated of its constancy And then because it was very easie for them to experience that the water after what manner soever either by art or natural proportion it was married to the Earth yet that it never obtains a constancy in the fire as neither to be at any time truly radically joyned to the Earth Because water after what manner soever it be co-mixed with Earth ceaseth not to be water For neither shall manner or proportion ever make water to degenerate from its own essence as neither shall any conjoyning of it with Earth be able to procure that thing But water remaining water is born alwayes to flee away from the fire Surely it is a ridiculous thing that the water should rather love a proportioned weight of Earth than an unequall one and that for that loves sake it should against its will the rather forsake that temperament of Earth For truly when the speech is concerning the co-mingling of four Elements it is understood of pure Elements and those plainly unmixed together and so not defiled with any spot of mixture or otherwise prevented by any disposition For neither doth the water carry a ballance with it nor beares a respect as to weigh the Earth that is to be co-mixed with it that it may be the more toughly conjoyned to the same I greatly admire that the wan errour of the co-mixing of Elements being received hath brought forth such soâ—tish absurdities among all the Schooles and that they by that absurdity alone have locked the gate of finding out of Sciences and Cauâ— Mercurie doth not indeed admit into it or contain so mâ—ch as the least of earth 〈◊〉 is alwayes the Son of water alone Yea earth and water can never be compelled into any naturall body or be subdued into an identity or sameliness of forme by whatever skill that thing be attempted For Tâ—les or Bricks if from moyst Earth they are boiled into a shelly stone they do not receive water but for the guidance of the Clay but earth hath a seed in its own Salt whence the Clay becomes stony through the coction of Glasse-making Therefore of the water and earth there is onely a powring on and applying of parts but not an admixture of growing together For whatsoever is meet to depart into a compounded Body and of divers things to be converted into this something this must needes be done by the endeavour of the working Spirits and so far of those things that do contain them as they do promote the matter by transchanging it into a new generation But the Elements are Bodies but not spirits and much lesse do they also act into each other The Earth therefore ought first to loose its Being and be reduced into a juyce before it should marry the water that by embracing this water gotten with childe by the seed it might bring it over into the fruit ordained for the conceived seed But what agent should that be which should transport the earth into a juyce and not rather into water since the earth being a simple body should be changed into nothing but into a simple body its neighbour Surely another co-like Element should not cause that seeing nothing of like sort hath been hitherto seen to agree with the water or air Nor at length should the earth intend the corruption of it self since this resisteth the constancy of Creation Therefore although part of the earth may be homogeneally or by way of simplicity of kinde reduced into water by art yet by nature onely I deny that thing to be done seeing that in nature an agent is wanting by which agent alone onely mediating the Virgin-earth or true earth is reduced into Salt and from thence into water Let it be for
signes times or seasons dayes and years Moreover I know that in the Sea and deep Lakes there is their motive force whereby they suffer a raging heat without windes whereby I say our Ocean is rowled six houres and else-where six constant months with one onely flowing Lastly I know that the Earth is at rest nor that it hath a motive force actively proper to it self Therefore I believe that the Earth doth quake and fear as oft as the Angel of the Lord doth smite it Behold a great Earth-quake was made for the Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven Mat. 28. The word For among the Hebrewes doth contain a cause as if he should say Because For this is the onely cause of an Earth-quake whereby all things do without resistance equally tremble together as it were a light Reed In the Revelations the third part of Mortalls Trees and Fishes perished at the very time wherein the Angel powred forth his Viall For abstracted spirits do work by the divine Power and nothing can resist them Evill spirits also as oft as it is granted them to act by a free power they act without the resistance of bodies or a re-acting of resistance For matter is the Client of or dependant on another Monarchy and it cannot re-act into a spirit which it by no meanes toucheth and with no object affecteth Even as the Angel useth the powred out liquor of the Viall unto the aforesaid slaughter so for the Earth-quake he for the most part makes use of a note or voice For a wandering note was heard in the Air no otherwise than as the creaking of Wheeles driven thereupon as it were a tempestuous murmuring sound succeeded yet without Winde and at that very time the whole tract of so great Provinces trembled at once with a huge horrour Which same note accompanied the trembling of the Earth at every of the three repeated turns The same thing almost happens in Lightning Truly the Lightning burns and causeth melting but surely it smiteth not According to that saying The voice of Thunder shall strike the Earth because it smiteth For Silk-worms die Milk is curdled Ale or Beer waxeth sowre a slain Oxe hanging up retains flaggie flesh unfit to take Salt and that onely by the Thunder-stroak the Lightning doing no hurt there Therefore let the voice of Thunder and the voice of the Earth-quake be the note or tone of ministring spirits But the Stars do not stir up a motive and alterative force of the Air or Water through a note but do act onely by an Aspect which they call an Influence And it hath its action and direction in a moment even as light sight c. For otherwise there should be need of many years before the audible Species or resemblances that are to be heard should come down from Saturn to the places of a Meteor And then a note or sound although it be great yet it faileth by degrees in the way But that the Earth doth tremble with a Tempest of Windes or that the Tempest doth sometimes run successively thorow Villages Cities and as it were thorow street by street in its wheeling about That is wholly by accident and according to the will of him who shaketh the Earth for a monstrous sign Likewise that else-where it doth oft-times tremble in quick Belgium very seldom that changeth not the moving cause For it stands in the free will of him who encloseth the Universe in his Fist who can shake the Earth at his pleasure and alone do marvellous things At the beholding of whom the Earth shall at sometime smoak and the Mountains being melted shall go to ruine But that in another place gapings chaps after an Earth-quake have sometimes appeared and a filthy poyson and fumes of arsenicall bodies have breathed forth that is joyned onely to its naturall causes Nor are they the effects of an Earth-quake but by accident but not the causes But this blindness of causes of the Earth-quake hath been invented the Devill being the Authour whereby mortall men might set apart all fear of the power and so might prevent if not wholly neglect the ends which God hath appointed to himself for the serious reverencing of the power of his Majesty that they being mind-full of the faults of their fore-led life might repent Deh qual possente man conforzze ignote Il terreno a crollar si spesso riede Non e chiuso vapor como altro crede Ne sognato stridente il suol percuote Certo la terra si rissente scuote Perche del peâ—cator sa aggrava il piede Et i nostri corpi impatiente chiede Per riemper se sue spelonche â—uote E linquaggio del ciel che l'huom riprende Il turbo il tuono il fulmine il baleno Hor parla anco la terra in note horrende Perche l'huom ch' esser vuol tutto terreno Ne del cielo il parlar straniero intende I l parlar della terra intenda al meno Behold with what a mighty yet unknown A force the Earthy Body makes a noyse And with so thick a rushing gives a groan 'T is not a vapour hot shut up they 'r toyes Even as some believe which beats the ground Or thumps its entrails with a whistling sound Truly the Earth it selfe doth feele and quake Because the sinners foot doth load its back And our impatient mortall bodies fall In to fill up its own deep Vaults withall The Language of the Heaven which reproves Man is the Whirle-winde Thunder Lightning flash And sp'ritous howling in the Air Ecchoes Now speaks the earth more-o're with horride lash Of signall tokens ' cause since man which would Be wholly earthly doth not understand The Linguo strange of Heaven yet may or should At least the Earth it 's Language apprehend These things nothing hindering there hath not been one wanting who said that from a most deep well of the Castle of Lovaine he by a sure presage foretold an Earth-quake was shortly to be because the water of the same Well three dayes before sent forth the stinking savour of Brimstone and that its contagion yellowness together with the turbulency of the water did bewray it But let that good man know that that Well is one hundred and fifteen foot in depth because they go up to the Castle from the Street that is next unto it by ninety three steps And so that Well in one part is not deeper than its Neighbouring Wells although in the other part where it is co-touching with the Hill of the Castle it is deep as I have said But seeing that a vein of Sulphur is not hidden in the Hill the water could not breath Sulphur which was not there But if it cast the smell of Sulphur a sign might precede God admonishing but it had not Sulphur which neither is in that place nor was enflamed therefore neither could it cause an Earthquake unto all Belgium or the Low Countries Therefore there is no naturall reason why the water
From whence they do afterwards passe into the Element of water But some Bodies do refuse to be divided into the three things at length the Liquor Alkahest of Paracelsus being adjoyned they decay into a Salt and that Salt is destroyed by passing over into an un-savory water The Art of the fire being despised hath made these things to be unknown in the Schooles But I have not onely a War with those that are ignorant of nature the despisers of the searching mistress of Philosophy but also with Paracelsus the Standard-defender of the Chymists for whom when it was hard to have declined from the beaten Road he sometimes would have those three things to consist in the co-mingling of the Elements and sometimes he thought the Elements of the World themselves not to be bodies but the empty places or wombes of things But in another place he denieth all of whatsoever is corporeall to be Elementary but the Masse onely of the three first things And again in another place he hath taught that the very Elements yea the flame of the fire do reduce themselves by a Method into the four Elements And so they cease to be naked Elements in the place of three principles But the flame it selfe which is nothing but a kindled smoak being enclosed in a Glasse straightway in the very instant perisheth into nothing So that a Glasse made in a glassen Fornace with a bright burning fire and being shut could never contain any thing besides Air. He being unconstant to himself hath made himself ridiculous and all those particular things in fit places are to be refuted by me For the Chymists have hitherto believed that the Elements do lay hid in the three first things For they had seen Air and Fire in burning Wax to fly away together and thereupon they have thought that the water doth in part challenge to its self its air and fire But they have thought that the Earth flies away with the smoak Which thing they have likewise supposed concerning those things which do leave a Coal and ashes behinde them placing ashes in the room of earth But they have believed that the fruits of the Earth and Mineralls are indeed as it were the allied pledges of the water but they have believed them to be stirred up by the Wedlock of the other three Elements but I come to the hand Let there be Aqua vitae excellently well purified from its dregs which burns Oily bodies through its whole Homogeniety or sameliness of kinde for that Aqua vitae by Salt of Tartar which is near akin to it is presently changed as to its 16th part into Salt and all the rest becomes a simple Elementary water And one onely part is made a Salt although it be of the same kinde with the other and so is equally reducible into water because that in actions of bodies and spirits under their dissolving there are made divers coagulations of the dissolver In like manner also in the operation of the fire Salts which before were volatile or swift of flight may partly be co-melted into a fixed Alcali no otherwise than as Salt-peter and Arsenick being both volatile things may be fixed by co-melting Therefore the three first things are not onely seperated but are sharpened changed do vary the nature of the composed body and so are made by the fire a new creature not indeed being created anew but being brought forth by the fire So a sile is no more the earth of the Potter but now a Stone So ashes and smoak are no more Wood nor an Alcali nor Sand Glasse Because the force of the fire doth not produce seeds but by consuming doth transchange them and by seperating alters all particular bodies Moreover none dares to say that the Salt of Tartar in the case proposed doth produce an Element out of that which is not an Element as if a Salt were the Father of the Element of water but the Sulphur of the Wine the seed being taken away doth leave the matter of the Aqua vitae to be such as it is But the part which may be fixed in the Salt of Tartar which hath taken to it the condition of a Salt was fat it being before wholly capable of burning volatile and of the same condition with its fellowes Immediately therefore after the destruction of the seed of the Sulphur of the Wine it is nothing but an Elementary water So every Oil is materially simple water which a small quantity of seed translates into a combustible Masse and playes the maske of a Sulphur And every seed is according to a Chymicall computation scarce the 8200 part of its body which part if the fire shall change into families it shall not be hard for it also to return into water For the fire burning the fatness into Air it wholly flies up to the Clouds and there doth sometimes grow together through the cold of the place into water For Fishes do by the force or virtue of an inbred seed transchange simple water into fat bones and their own fleshes it s no wonder therefore that Fishes materially are nothing but water transchanged and that they return into water by art I will also shew by Handicraft-demonstration that all Vegetables and fleshes do consist onely of water but all things if not immediately at least-wise with an assistant they do again assume the nature of water Also every small Stone Rockie or great Stone and Clay doth passe into a fixed Alcali of its own accord or by things adjoyned for an Alcali is that which before was not a Salt yet its combustion being finished it is a residing Salt So ashes is by its own proper Alcali made a meer Salt But every Alcali the fatness being added is reduced into a watery Liquor which at length is made a meer and simple water as is to be seen in Soaps the Azure-stone c. as oft as by fixed adjuncts it layes aside the seed of fatness For otherwise it is not proper to the fire to make a water rather a flame but onely to seperate things of a different kinde Therefore if water may be made out of Sulphurs and not by the proper transmutation of fire it must needes be that Sulphurs are begotten of meer water For truly neither is water seperated from Oils but that is truly made of these because the water was not in it by a formall act but onely materially to wit the mask of the seeds being withdrawn Moreover every coal which is made of the co-melting of Sulphur and Salt working among themselves in time of burning although it be roasted even to its last day in a bright burning Furnace the Vessel being shut it is fired indeed but there is true fire in the Vessel no otherwise than in the coal not being shut up yet nothing of it is wasted it not being able to be consumed through the hindering of its eflux Therefore the live coal and generally whatsoever bodies do not immediately depart into
water nor yet are fixed do necessarily belch forth a wild spirit or breath Suppose thou that of 62 pounds of Oaken coal one pound of ashes is composed Therefore the 61 remaining pounds are the wild spirit which also being fired cannot depart the Vessel being shut I call this Spirit unknown hitherto by the new name of Gas which can neither be constrained by Vessels nor reduced into a visible body unless the seed being first extinguished But Bodies do contain this Spirit and do sometimes wholly depart into such a Spirit not indeed because it is actually in those very bodies for truly it could not be detained yea the whole composed body should flie away at once but it is a Spirit grown together coagulated after the manner of a body and is stirred up by an attained ferment as in Wine the juyce of unripe Grapes bread hydromel or water and Honey c. Or by a strange addition as I shall sometime shew concerning Sal Armoniack or at length by some alterative disposition such as is roasting in respect of an Apple For the Grape is kept and dried being unhurt but its skin being once burst and wounded it straightway conceiveth a ferment of boyling up and from hence the beginning of a transmutation Therefore the Wines of Grapes Apples berries Honey and likewise flowers and leaves being pounced a ferment being snatched to them they begin to boyl and be hot whence ariseth a Gas but from Raysins bruised and used for want of a ferment a Gas is not presently granted The Gas of Wines if it be constrained by much force within Hogs-heads makes Wines â—urious mute and hurtfull Wherefore also the Graâ—e being abundantly eaten hath many times brought forth a diseasie Gas For truly the spirit of the ferment is much disturbed and seeing it is disobedient to our digestion it associates it selfe to the vitall spirit by force yea if any thing be prepared to be expelled in manner of a Sweat that thing through the stubborn sharpness or soureness of the ferment waxeth clotty and brings forth notable troubles torments or wringings of the bowels Fluxes and the Bloudy-flux I being sometimes in my young beginnings deluded by the authority of ignorant writers have believed the Gas of Grapes to be the spirit of Wine in new Wine But vain tryalls have taught me that the Gas of Grapes and new Wine are in the way to Wine but not the spirit of Wine For the juyce of Grapes differs from Wine no otherwise than the pulse of water and meal do from Ale or Beer For a fermentall disposition coming between both disposeth the fore-going matter into the transmutation of it self that thereby another Being may be made For truly I will at sometims teach that every formall transmutation doth presuppose a corruptive ferment Other more refined Writers have thought that Gas is a winde or air inclosed in things which had flowen unto that generation for an Elementary co-mixture And so Paracelsus supposed that the air doth invisibly lurk under the three other Elements in every body but in time onely that the Air is visible but his own unconstancy reproveth himself because seeing that he sheweth in many places else-where that bodies are mixed of the three first things but that the Elements are not Bodies but the meer wombs ' of things But he observed not a two-fold Sulphur in Tin and therefore is it lighter than other Mettalls whereof one onely is co-agulable by reason of the strange or forreign property of its Salt whereby Jupiter or Tin maketh every Mettall frangible or capable of breaking and brickle it being but a little defiled with its odour onely but that the other Sulphur is Oily For Gun-powder doth the most neerly express the History of Gas For it consisteth of Salt-peter which they rashly think to be the Nitre of the Antients and the which is at this day plentifully brought to us being dried up from the inundation of Nilus of Sulphur and a Coal because they being joyned if they are enflamed there is not a Vessel in nature which being close shut up doth not burst by reason of the Gas For if the Coal be kindled the Vessel being shut nothing of it perisheth but Sulphur if the Glasse being shut it be sublimed wholly ascends from the bottom without the changing of its Species or kinde Salt-peter also being melted in a shut Vessel as to one part of it gives a sharp Liquor that is watery but as to the other part it is changed into a fixed Alcali Therefore fire sends forth an Air or rather a Gas out of all of them singly which else if the air were within it would â—end forth from the three things being connexed Therefore those things being applied together do mutually convert themselves into Gas through destruction But there is that un-sufferance of Sulphur and Salt-peter not indeed by the wedlock of cold with hot as of powerfull qualities as is believed but by reason of the un-cosufferable â—lowing of boyling Oil and Wine no lesse than of water or of Copper and Tin being melted with Wine For in so great heat when they co-touch each other throughout their least parts they are either turned into a Gas or do leap asunder For so Lead being roasted with Mercury and Sulphur departeth into a sudden flame a small lee or dreg being left almost of no weight yet enlarged to the extension of the Lead VVherefore if the Gas were air all the Gun-powder should be air and the Lead it self should be wholly air But it is not possible for the fire to produce out of the same Elementary fruit sometimes air sometimes water with an ultimate reducement unlesse the fire loose also its uniformity of working that was planted in it by the Creator In the next place it is already above sufficiently manifested that air and water can never be brought over into each other Therefore if Gun-powder or Salt-peter may observably be reduced into an Elementary water by fire or any other mean whatsoever a transmutation thereof into air is not possible to be But some thousands of pounds of Gun-powder being at some time enflamed at once have not yielded any thing but an inflamed Gas which hath growen together in the Clouds and at length returning into water Furthermore a Coal is reduced in some Fountains into a Rockie stone Likewise I have known the meanes whereby the whole of Salt-peter is turned into an Earth and the whole of Sulphur being once dissolved may be fixed into an Earthly Powder What if therefore these three Earths should contain three or four Elements at leastwise the Earth should occupie the greatest part nor that reducible into its former Gas neither is it consonant to Reason that a Body which wholly flies away into an aiery Gas should be converted into Air or into Earth as man listeth Next seeing the three aforesaid Powders are at length made water under the Artificer which afterwards cannot any more through humane cunning return into
or glassen Bell doth shew that a great part of the Sulphur being untouched by the flame ascended upwards the which is again seperated safe from that Liquor by rectifying For Sulphurs or fats although they are many times distilled by any degree of the fire yet they do alwayes remain fats and even do retain their nature as long as they do enjoy or obtain the seed of their composed Body The which when as the flame or artificiall death hath touched they straightway flie over into Gas but not into water For that every Gas doth as yet retain some condition of its composed body For smoaks of the flame do differ by their generall and speciall kindes which surely should not be if they should immediately depart into their first Element The fire indeed destroyeth simply but it generates nothing for why seeing it wants the power of a seed and those things which it cannot destroy those it at leastwise seperateth or leaveth untouched and in this respect they are called fixt bodies But the fire doth not prevail in that as to exchange that which is in it self materially water into Air for otherwise it should have the seed of the Air. It is also sufficiently manifest before that water is made air or air water by no help of art or nature Therefore Wood since it is wholly of water its ashes and likewise Glasse shall be of water But that the Gas of Salts is nothing but water the following Handicraft-operation proveth Take equall parts of Salt-peter Vitriol and Alume all being dried and conjoyned together distill a Water which is nothing else than a meer volatile Salt Of this take four ounces and joyn an ounce of Sal armoniac in a strong Glassen Alembick confirmed by a Cement of Wax Rosin and Powder of Glasse being powred most hotly on it straightway even in the cold a Gas is stirred up and the Vessel how strong soever it be bursteth with a noyse But if indeed thou shalt leave a chap or chink in the juncture of the receiving Vessel and after voluntary boylings up thou shalt distill the residue thou shalt finde a water somewhat sharp the which by a repeated distillation and an additament of Chalke is turned into Rain-water Therefore one part of the Salts yielded into water but the other part into Gas But the Salts that fled away by a Gas are of the same kinde of nature with those that were reduced into water therefore the Gas of Salts is materially nothing but water But the Gas of fruits I have likewise already shewen to be nothing but water as arising immediately out of water So the Raisin of the Sun being distilled is wholly reduced by art into an Elementary water which yet being new and once wounded or bruised much new Wine and Gas is allured or fetched out If therefore the whole Grape before a ferment be turned into a simple water but the ferment being brought a Gas is stirred up this Gas also must needes be water Seeing the disposition of the ferment cannot form air of that which is materially nothing but water Therefore the unrestrainable Gas of the Vessel breaks forth abroad into the air untill it being sufficiently confirmed and by the cold of the place spoiled also of the properties of its composed body passeth over into its first matter and in the air the seperater of the waters it recovereth its antient and full disposition of the Element of water But exhalations which in the account of the Schooles are the daily matter of Windes Mists Comets Mineralls Rockie Stones saltness of the Sea Earth-quakes and of all Meteors seeing they have no pen-case or receptacle in nature nor matter sufficient for so great daily things and those for so great an heap they are wondrous dreams and unskilfully proportioned to their effects And therefore I passe by these unsavourinesses or follies of the Schooles by pittying of them At leastwise it followes that if Rockie Stones if all Mineralls do proceed from exhalations and being now fixed do resist the Agent which should bring them again into an exhalation there shall be in the remaining Earth matter for new exhalations producing effects of so great moment Especially because scarce any thing exhaleth out of the saltness of the Sea and such is the aptness or disposition of heat that it scarce stirs up exhalations unless it hath first lifted up all the water by vapours What matter therefore shall be sufficient even for daily Windes alone Truly it is altogether impossible for the Schooles to have known the nature and likewise the differences causes and properties of Bodies for as many as have set upon Philosophy without the art of the fire have been hitherto deluded with Paganish Institutions At length I have written touching long life that the arteriall Spirit of our life is of the nature of a Gas Which thing is seen in the trembling of the heart swooning and fainting For how much doth it die to a lively colour to a vitall light and to a swollen or full habit of flesh and the countenance it self being the more wrinckled or withered how quickly doth it decay straightway after the aforesaid passions For the Spirit which before did as it were unite all things by a pleasing redness doth straightway fly away and being subdued by a forreign Air is changed For truly seeing the Archeus is in it self a Gas of the nature of a Balsamick Salt if it shall finde the air of another Salt to be against it or in its way even as Sal armoniac when it meetes with the Spirit of Saltpeter it is subject too easily and forthwith to be blown away or dispersed through the pores as having forgotten to perform its duties and office of the Family For neither is it gathered into drops because it is prepared of an arteriall bloudiness If any thing of sweat at the time of faintings and death doth exhale that is the melting of the venall bloud but not of the arteriall bloud Therefore the vitall Gas because it is a light and a Balsam preserving from corruption from the first delineation of generation it began to be made suitable to the light of the Sun But after the aforesaid failings of the Spirit the in-bred Spirits of the other members as it were smoaking are again kindled by the Sun-like light of the heart even as the smoak of a Candle put out touching at the flame of another Candle doth carry this flame to the extinguished Candle by a Mean Seeing that the Spirit of our life since it is a Gas is most mightily and swiftly affected by any other Gas to wit by reason of their immediate co-touchings For neither therefore doth any thing thereupon operate more swiftly on us than a Gas as appeares in the Dogvault or that of the Sicilians in the Plague in burning Coals that are smothered and in persumes for many and oftentimes men are straightway killed in the Burrowes of Mineralls yea in Cellars where strong Ale or
Beere belcheth forth its Gas an easie sudden death and choaking doth break forth Wherefore I have greatly grieved and pittied mans condition that by so gross negligence of the Schooles the more profound Remedies of fumes are almost suppressed whereby not onely those who faint are refreshed but also whereby the healings of most Diseases are performed Which thing concerning odours or smells at sometime explained in the matter of Medicine every one shall with me more easily disclose Surely almost all Medicines are neglected which do restore the strength and they have applied themselves onely to the diminishments of bodies by the with-drawings of bloud and solutive scammoneated potions and by Cauteries Baths Clysters Sweats and Cantharides For a Gas is more fully implanted and odours do keep a more immediate co-touching with the vitall Spirits than Liquors if they are not partakers of a poysonous infection at leastwise of the dulled properties of second qualities and the which qualities or especially that sublime one of the first digestion they do lay aside as it were Soils covered with Clay if they are not as yet received with a great averseness of the Archeus or they being rebellious and stubborn do with anguish resist the digestive powers Notwithstanding the Scripture might be opposed against me which saith concerning man Thou art Earth and into Earth thou shalt go How therefore shall flesh bone c. be materially of water alone But I will say this from the force of the same Argument If man be Earth how therefore do the Schooles affirm that man materially is not one onely Element but foure Elements therefore from that Text those things which I have spoken above are confirmed To wit that the Earth is not in the holy Scriptures a primary Element but every thing co-agulated of water is called Earth because by its consistence it is more likened to Earth than to Water and so the veriest Earth it self the prop of nature is of water no lesse than Man Wood Ashes a Stone c. CHAP. XIX The Image of the Ferment begets the Masse or lump with childe of a Seed 1. There is no seminall successive change without a Ferment 2. Handicraft operation is brought into a Circle by Ale or Beere 3. The Ferment makes volatile that which otherwise is changed into a Coal 4. It is proved by handicraft-operation in the venall Bloud 5. The Bloud attains its own various ferments in the Kitchins of the members 6. The unconstancie of Paracelsus is taken notice of 7. The Beginnings of Paracelsus are made by the fire but they are not in Bodies 8. There are double ferments from whence are the seeds of things 9. The Birth of Insects 10. 'T is not sufficient to have said that Insects are born of putrefaction or corruption 11. A twofold manner of generation 12. How seedes are made 13. In what manner an odour or smell causeth a ferment and seed 14. A Scorpion from Basil 15. The ferment in voluntary seedes reacheth to the Horizon or bound of life 16. The ferment of Diseases and healings 17. Almost all Medicines do act by way of an odour onely 18. Therefore seedes are strong onely in a specificall odour 19. An odour and light do pierce the spirits 20. Odours do cause or incite and cure the Plague and divers Diseases 21. Art having forgotten its perfume is translated into a servile rage or madness 22. Vnappeaseable pains are presently appeased by the odour of an outward application 23. The ferment is the Parent of transmutations 24. Of what quality the ferment of the stomach is 25. Why very many do abhorre Cheese 26. A sharp fermentall thing differeth from soure things 27. From whence belching is 28. The labour of Wisdom 29. All things which are believed to be mixt are onely of Water and a ferment 30. The ferment of the Equinoctiall Line 31. The progress of seedes and ferments unto proPagation 32. The originall and progress of Vegetables 33. Ferments do sometimes operate more powerfully than Fire 34. Paracelsus is noted AS no knowledge in the Schooles is scantier than the knowledge of a Ferment so no knowledge is more profitable The name of a Ferment or Leaven being unknown hitherto unless in making of bread when as notwithstanding there is made no successive change or transmutation by the dreamed appetite of matter but onely by the endeavour of the ferment alone In times past leaven and all things leavened were forbidden and the Mystery hidden in the Letter was then of right interpreted according to the Letter For as leavens or ferments were altogether the way-leaders and necessary unto every transmutation of a thing so they did denote corruption unconstancy and impurity and therefore a flight from leaven was enjoyned I will first of all explain a thing surely so paradoxall in naturall Philosophy by an example The purest of Ales or Beeres which is deservedly the nourishing juyce or meat melting or finished right of the Grain requireth so much Grain by how much there is capacity and largeness in the Vessel or Hogs-head And so indeed that the Bran being taken away all the Meal doth melt into the Ale or Beer and the Water onely supplies the place of the Bran. That Ale or Beer by a very little ferment or leaven being administred doth boyl up by fermenting in Cellars it waxeth clear by degrees and the dreg falls down to the bottom at length something doth fermentally wax soure by which tartness it consumeth all its dreg And then it looseth more and more daily its sharp or pricking soureness At length it is deprived of the taste virtues and body of the meal And last of all it of its own accord returns into water That Ale or Beere being distilled layeth aside very much residence in the bottom like a Syrupe which at length by proceeding is changed into a Coal But if that same Ale or Beere by the degrees of the ferment shall passe over into water it leaveth no more dregs in the bottom while it is distilling than otherwise the water from whence it was boyled did contain because the natall sediment of the waters is not subject to the ferment of the Grain since it is not the object thereof but the Client of or dependant on another Monarchy Therefore the Grains do return unto their first matter whereof they are which is water and that by the virtue of the ferment onely In the next place every one of us doth daily frame to himself 7 or 10 ounces of bloud but at leastwise in our standing age as much bloud must needes be consumed as is a-new generated For else a man might straightway fear a hugeness or excessive greatness And then the bloud is by degrees changed into a vitall muscilage or flimy juyce the true immediate nourishment of the members of which it is wont to be said we are nourished by those things whereof we consist But they will have this nourishment to be sprinkled on all the particular members in
evill inclination doth not come unto us from without elsewhere but it hath increased it self within from sin Out of the heart are murders Adulteries and evill thoughts surely not from the Stars Therefore according to a humble Protestation of my slenderness or weakness I do utterly renounce the opinion teaching that the Stars have a power of infusing an inclination For I was in the beginning held in opinion by divers effects that the seed of a Beast did of its own accord flow into a living Soul and that not obscurely running to and fro and although that in the conceived Embryâ— or imperfect young first of all a certain power doth clearly appear as if it were a certain vegetative Soul yet the same is at length perfected and ariseth into the degree of a sensitive soul And seeing that the seed of man is not more imperfect than a beasts I did also suppose that to flow with the like pace and at length to be perfected into a sensitive soul yet not so as that this sensitive soul doth likewise passe into the nature of mans minde For since two Masters at once not subordinate to each other no man can serve but he must hate either of the two because they are unsufferably opposite So in nature one onely body cannot serve two determined or limited souls and the sensitive soul is not a substance nor lastly an accident as I shall teach in the Chapter of forms but the minde of man is a Spirit also a living substance in the abstract and immortall hence indeed it comes to passe that the sensitive Soul surviving nature doth also willingly receive the humane Soul or it s perfectly ultimate act and that both Souls do peaceably suffer with each other within Which thing being premised I began to consider that a Dog is a devouring biting envious watchfull barking and hunting living Creature and for one crust unmindfull of all benefits ungratefull flattering c. All which things as seminall properties and specificall ones are in the seed of a Dog but not imprinted on him by the Stars but I have known very many of those properties proper to the kinde but some of them to be moreover peculiar to them from their Parents Even so that from hence the race of Dogs doth differ in price or esteem Therefore I have known the like conditions to be in a Dog from the stock of the Seed and not astrall or from the Stars and so where I have beheld the like conditions in a man I have also presently thought that these have from some Dog-like property lurked in the seed of man Again I have noted some living Creatures to be conjugall but others to be born by a promiscuous and incestuous copulation So I have noted tame wild or bruitish crafty uncapable of learning theevish cruel fugitive fearfull milde c. living creatures which conditions as being common to the whole kinde or dispersed throughout famisies I have learned not to arise from the Stars or from the Planet that is Lord of their Nativity but wholly and onely from the seed And therefore I have also likewise thought that such inclinations of men do increase in him that is born from some bruitish property of the seeds I have also found amongst men oft-times whole families to be furious stupid or blockish crafty insolent or proud lascivious c. Whence some are called a viperous generation Likewise Tell ye Herod the Fox wherefore I have begun to remove wit judgement memory manners inclinations yea the dispositions of death and fortune wholly from the Stars Again it is also in the hand of the causer or begetter to generate a male or a female but masculine conditions inclinations wits properties are far distinct from female ones For the Church prayeth for the devout femall Sex wherefore morall inclination or devotion is due to the Sex not to the Stars For Horses are judged by the colour of their hairs but colours are varified in conception by art Moreover conditions and inclinations are changed by ages To wit Children are delighted with other things than men For a sober young man sometimes becomes an old drinker and on the contrary A liberall young man is oft times covetous when he growes old Also a greedy desire of Seed which he lesse wanteth and ought lesse to desire doth oft accompany him which surely do not depend on the direction of the Stars if the same Lord of the Nativity doth govern the whole life For truly I have distinguished of inclinations to wit that one is that whereby any one doth naturally incline into Professions Religions Arts Sciences Merchandise or affaires of Exercise This I name an inclination of ones Calling But the other inclination concerneth manners virtues vices which I call morall or ethicall But the third respecteth health Diseases a long or short life And therefore I name this inclination vitall At length the fourth is of fortunes But so far as belongeth to the first we believe by faith That God immediately creates mans minde and directs it to a certain Calling of its own in which it may please it self most which way he reacheth to it worthy Talents 5. 2. or one onely Talent Therefore the inclination of Calling whereby any one is made a Physitian a Geometrician a Musitian c. is given to the Soul by the Creator himself from whom every good gift cometh from above Therefore all inclinations of Calling for that very cause are good But a morall inclination as it is meerly Beast-like so I have already demonstrated before that it dependeth on the Being of the seed For truly the Stars should be simply evill if they should incline man to vices And the Creator had erred in judgement Because he had seen that whatsoever things he had made were good Therefore an inclination to evill springs from nature corrupted in its Root and Seed out of the heart do spring evill thoughts according to Gospel-light and from the Soul consents even as a strong inclination from a custom of sinning But good springs from grace will and exercise Surely it is in no wise a stranger to us by reason of the Stars For the first things which constitute us were equally defiled by corruption but unequally distributed and participated of from the goodnesse of the seed the conception of the Mother education c. or on the contrary And therefore all inclinations seminall do grow are increased or do decrease according to the properties of the flowings of the seeds to increase or declining But that the third inclination is from the weakness or strength of the seeds and wholly subject to the Archeus the directer in nature none but an Astrologer will dispute who being ill prepared refers all things to the motions of the Stars even unto Idolatry and attributes to himself the right of unfolding them first of all not distinguishing the power of shewing from the effective virtue nor knowing that the seven Planets or wandring Stars are onely to be
upon a fat exhalation which is the same as to be enflamed Let two Candles be placed which have first burned a while one indeed being lower than the other by a span but let the upper be of a little crooked Scituation then let the flame of the lower Candle be blown out whose smoak as soon as it shall touch the flame of the upper Candle behold the ascending smoak is inlightned is burnt up into a smoakie or sooty Gas and the flame descendeth by the smoak even into the smoaking Candle Surely there is there a producing of a new Being to wit of fire of a flame or of a connexed light Yet there is not a procreation of some new matter or substance For the fire is a positive artificial death but not a privative one being more than an accident and lesse than a substance Which thing since the Schooles are as yet ignorant of we must more largely declare as well because it is a Paradox and hath respect unto the knowledge of forms as that because from the ignorance thereof most grievous errours have crept into Medicinall affaires Wherefore that I may perfectly teach the divers inclining nature of the fire I will suppose some positions 1. That the fire in an inflamed Body is so united to the inflamable matter that it is like an essential form to it when as notwithstanding it is the destroyer of the same 2. That the inflamed matter is converted into a smoakie Gas which is not yet water because although the fire hath consumed the seminall forces of the thing yet some first fermentall marks of the concrete Body do remain which at length being consumed and slain that Gas returns into the Element of water 3. That every essential form is as for the essence of the thing in which it by it self is And that the fire doth destroy even the fat smoak or Coal the which it inflameth and converts into a wild Gas of which in its place 4. That every essential form is so united to its own matter that it being once seperated from thence by extinguishing or withdrawing it returns no more to the same habit or formall act 5. That every form coming upon a matter is impatient of another totall form But a Metall or any other fixed Body being fired the presence of the bright burning fire being withdrawn returns alwayes into its former state 6. That every form of a substance hath a specificall matter wherein it is but the fire hath Wood Wax Pitch and as many subjects as there are particular fireable kindes 7. That every substantial form doth at length rise up in the matter disposed by a foregoing seed but the fire wants a seed yea if there are any it consumeth or wasteth them away 8. That the forms of substances have not degrees but the fire doth admit of a degree by the bellowes From which particulars I conclude that fire is not a substance not the essential form of substances but a positive death of things and their destroyer a singular creature second to no other from whence I proceed thus to demonstrate it There is no doubt but that a Coal is far more porie than Iron and that it hath lesse of soundness but yet Iron being fired doth more burn than a Coal Therefore of necessity Iron contains more of the fire in matter and form but the consequence is false Therefore fire is not a substantial composed Body consisting of the matter and form of fire because otherwise if there were any substance proper to the fire it should not pierce the dimensions of the body of the Iron The Schooles answer to this against themselves to wit that the matter is more compact in Iron than it is in a Coal and therefore it burns the more powerfully as the Iron is capable of the more fire For that thing I assumed to wit that I might draw this Argument from thence If fire were a substance consisting of a fiery matter and form after the manner of any other substance the Iron should of necessity be capable of lesse fire than the Coal for that it is weightier than a Coal and hath lesse and fewer pores wherein the fire may be entertained But if therefore the Iron be capable of lesse matter it ought to burn lesse But the consequence is false therefore also the antecedent Because two matters or Bodies as neither the essential totall or ultimate forms of these cannot suffer each other at once in the same place and subject Wherefore Iron and fire it this were a substance could not lodge together in the same subject But if the Schooles endeavour to evade and say that Iron indeed becomes on a fire yet that it is never changed into fire I answer whatsoever obtains every property of fire is fire or fire hath not proper but common passions with another Being of another particular kinde But the properties of fire are to kindle burn seperate Heterogeneal things to melt Lead Copper Wax to burn in a combustible matter and to consume But all these things Iron fired doth more powerfully perform than a Coal therefore in fired Iron there is fire and so much the more of fire by how much it doth more burn than a Coal Again if Iron fired hath not in it true fire but the properties of fire without fire those therefore shall be brought in and left in the Iron by the fire From whence it followes that the formal properties of the fire have left the proper form of fire in which they were suppose in the Coals or flame and have wandred into the substance of the Iron diverse from them For truly they will not have it called fire but as the inflamable body is kindled Add to these things that if fire be a material substance the substance of glasse which the detaining of the most subtile Chymical Spirits teacheth to have no pores and the substance of fire should pierce each other at the pleasure of the Artificer which things the Schooles themselves do utterly deny But besides the aforesaid absurdities another doth accompany to wit that heat in the fire doth onely make hot but its dryness dryeth up and nothing else So also the kindling enlightning power doth kindle and enlighten the seperating power seperates the destructive doth destroy c. All which properties should not onely be generated by the form of the fire in the strange matter of Iron but should also there subsist without the proper subject of their inherence Wherefore the fire that is infired is true fire not a substance as neither an accident but a neutral Creature having in it self divers properties after the manner of substantial Beings If the Schooles I say had known this thing they had known that light doth generate light and fire not indeed as differing in the particular kinde but onely in uniting dispersing and so to be different onely in degree Neither therefore that an accident doth produce a substance in any respect Indeed they think that
than the stars yet the seeds of these are not more ignoble than the seeds of plants or annexed to the stars by the band of a greater subjection Because the Stars were before the Creation of sensitive things therefore it was meet that the Blas of men should not indeed follow the guidance of the Stars but only that it imitate the motion of those not as of motive powers but no otherwise than as by a free motion we do follow the foot-steps of a Coach-man or Post for so our bowels have perhaps assigned the Planets as their fore-runners For every bowel forms a proper Blas to it self within according to the figure of its own Star which also hence is called Astrall or Starlike Because it imitates the foot-steps of the Heaven as well in the priority of the dayes of the Star its fore-runner as in the Laws of appointments in nature Otherwise In infirmities as all the endeavour of nature is sumptomatical so then the Blas of man goes before and fore-sheweth future tempests whereas otherwise in health a humane Blas doth ordinarily follow after the remarkable successive changes of times or seasons But bruit beasts as they were created in a day before man so their Blas doth alwayes go before and fore-run the Blas of the Stars Wherefore many Prognosticks of a Meteor are drawn naturally from beasis And superstition hath had access thereto which hath added Divinings and Sooth-sayings to the credulous and superstitious Yet the Blas which is by the will of living creatures directed to a local motion surely that is by no means connexed unto a Supernatural or Coelestial circumvolving motion Because all carnall Generation flows out of the power of the Seed and the power of the seed from the will of the flesh Therefore fleshly generation hath a Blas of its own readily serving for the uses of its own ends flowing out of the Beginnings of its own Essence which are the will of the flesh and the lust or desire of a manly will Therefore there is in us a twofold Blas To wit One which existeth by a natural motion but the other is voluntary which existeth as a mover to it self by an internal willing Hence therefore it is impossible that the predictions of the Stars should rightly conclude in us It hath now been sufficiently demonstrated that there is something in sublunary things which can move it self locally and alteratively without the Blas of the Heavens and an unmoveable natural mover The will especially is the first of that sort of movers and moveth it self also a seminal Being as well in seeds as in the things constituted of these Moreover as God would so all things were made Therefore from a will they were at first moved For from hence whatsoever unsensitive things are moved they are moved as it were by a certain will and pleasure or precept of nature and have their own natural necessities and ends even as is seen in the beating of the Heart Arteries expelling of many superfluities c. For Galen hath artificially enough distributed the Pulses yet being by Aristotle deluded therein who supposed the end and efficient to be externall causes and thought the ends of Pulses to be their totall Causes For he passing by the proper Blas of the Pulses searched only into the ends and necessities of nature for which things sake indeed the Pulses should not be made but rather measured or modelled And therefore he hath distributed the differences of Pulses into a Scheme or Figure only by their ends And so that therefore he hath not reached their more potent and efficient respects Therefore he hath reduced the Causes of Pulses unto two heads of necessity To wit To the cooling refreshment of the heart to which end the Heart and Arteries should at once dilate themselves and to the casting out of smoaky vapours stirred up by heat For which cause indeed the Heart and Artery should at once presse themselves together and fall down at once for fear of choaking which two by variously interweaving them with their Correlatives according to strength swiftnesse weaknesse hardnesse and greatnesse he hath compiled the differences of Pulses by an artificial diligent search And I wish that his other writings did not bewray that these things were transcribed our of some other Authour But the Antients being not contented with two ends to wit cooling and refreshment and expulsion of smoakinesses have added a third which was the nourishment of the vital spirit by aire As if indeed aire could ever be made vitall spirit For if the Spirit be increased or nourished by aire adjoyned to it seening a Simple Body is not to be digested now only by mixture vitall spirit should be made of aire and now all things shall no longer be nourished immediately of those things whereof they consist Therefore it hath been the ignorance of the Antients who knew not the constitution of the vital spirit thinking that a little water being co-mixed with much wine or a little Tinne co-mixed with much melted gold should be made wine or gold I will tell here what I have perceived after that I made more use of discretion than of the sloath of assenting Therefore I began first to consider That heat was not primarily and of it self in the heart but to be a companion of the life and soul a sign and mean of operation in living creatures that are hot from the nature of the light of the Sun But in fishes that the life is of the nature of a cold light and therefore that it subsists without an actual that is a true heat And therefore that a Pulse is not made in nature for a cooling refreshment of the 〈◊〉 and puffing out or dispersing of smoaks a dissected Frog will teach For in a living Frog thou shalt see his Heart and Arteries to be moved his Heart at every Pulse or by dilating to wax red and by contraction or pressing together to wax more pale although it be not transparent Notwithstanding seeing the Antients thought heat to be the cause of Pulses yet there is none that hath decyphered that heat by its heats by what way reason and mean that heat is stirred up kindled and doth persevere in us because none hath meditated of life and forms And therefore none also of the efficient cause of Pulses None indeed hath hitherto doubted that heat springs from the Heart and none contesteth but that the young is at first nourished by its mothers heat untill that through maturity of dayes a fewel of its own be kindled in it But what that fewel is and why it being once kindled doth not presently dye and doth continue even to the end none hath diligently searched into because all have passed by the life The Schools indeed do feign a fiery heat in us contrary to Aristotle who will have this heat to answer in proportion to the Element of the Stars and hath distinguished it from an Elementary and Fiery one also that it lives
by devouring and consuming of the radical moisture whence it would follow That the heart is the Torch of a consuming fire But notwithstanding seeing the substance of the Heart and Pericardium or case of the Heart and also of the Bloud is not fit for fire They have been forced to confesse that fire not to be fire and that heat not to be fiery yet devouring but they have said It is sufficient for them to have described the Fewelor Torch or Beginning of heat Metaphorically As if nature should admit of Metaphors For first of all I remember that some swooning Virgins were beref't of Pulse and breathing so far as was conjectured by humane judgement and so for some hours were bewayled among the dead yet that they revived and being married afterwards to have lived without sicknesse and to have brought forth five or six times For they were cold as Ice assoon as their Pulse had failed from whence I began to be doubtful whether the Pulse were not made rather for the effecting of Heats sake than through the occasion of fetching in cold whence I began to account the final causes of Pulses to be frivolous and so also I suspected the presaging part of healing to be weakened And that I thus prove For there is Hedge or Partition between both bosomes of the Heart in it self as long as life remains So Porie That by the attraction of the ears of the Heart for on both sides it is reckoned to be eared by way of proportionable Resemblance because it hath as it were Bellows the Veinie Bloud doth passe from the hollow Vein forming the right bosom of the Heart by its passage and wanders into the left bosom not likewise from hence to the right bosome Because the pores in the hedge or partition it self are triangular whose Cone or sharp point ending in the left bosom is the more easily encompassed or pressed together but the Base of that Triangle in the right bosom never but by death But the bloud of the left bosom is now arteriall and is the bloud of a true name being diverse from the bloud it self as being yet in the hollow vein in colour and subtility or fineness Wherefore I must needs not without cause have found out a new or fourth digestion in the left stomach of the heart For no otherwise than as the bloud of the veins differs from the cream and chyle so also doth the bloud of the Arteries differ from the thick bloud of the veins although by a neerer kinne and cloathing of the Heavens they have after a sort returned into one Family Yet in that is the specificall difference of both that the arterial bloud is informed by the immortall Soul in the left bosom but the venall bloud not and that it is illustrated onely by the light of the sensitive form participatively but not informatively For the other digestions do require rest But the fourth is perfected by an uncessant continuation of motion Not indeed that the very motion of the heart is the formall transchangeative cause but onely that it concurs dispositively Indeed in the left bosom of the heart as it were in a stomach doth a singular most vitall and lightsom Ferment dwell which is a sufficient cause of the venall bloud its being transchanged into arterial bloud even as it is chief in the transmutation of arteriall bloud into vitall Spirit Because all venal bloud doth naturally tend into its own end which is nourishment yet at last it is dispersed and vanisheth away into a vapour or into a Gas unless it be stayed by the Coagulum or co-thickning of growth But the arterial bloud hath for its aim not indeed that it may incline into a smoakiness or excrement For if that thing come to passe it happeneth to it from a Disease and by accident After another manner the proper object of the arterial bloud is to be brought over into vitall Spirit which if afterwards it doth also vanish let this be unto it besides its intent Seeing that every Being doth naturally desire to remain For the vitall Spirit is a light originally dwelling in the Ferment of the left bosom which enlightneth new Spirits bred by the arterial bloud to wit for which continuation of light the Arterie is lifted up For thus the Spirits are made the partakers of life and the executers thereof even as also the Vulcans of continued heat Therefore the life of man is a formall light and almost also the lightsom or clear sensitive Soul it self and so death doth forthwith follow the blowing out of this Because the immortall minde is involved in the sensitive Soul which after death slies away this other perishing But far be it that that vitall light be called fiery burning and destroying the radicall moysture and that by the continuall plenty of the smoakie vapours hereof it should defile the heart and Arteries But it is a formall light even as I have said before concerning Forms for neither shall he ever otherwise describe the in-most essence of life who had seen the formall lives of things even in an Extasie Because words are wanting and names whereby these may be shewen or called as it were by an Etymologie from a former cause And although God had shewen to any one the essence of life in a composed Body yet he will never give his own honour of teaching it unto any Creature Seeing life in the abstract is the incomprehensible God himself For so by little and little the meat and drink ascends into the Chyle or juyce of the stomach into the juyce of the mesentery or Crow into venal bloud and at length by arteriall bloud unto a most thin Skie or Air the vitall Spirit and the prop of the Soul which exchanging doth presuppose a motion of the heart For neither is it sufficient that the Ferment be effective efficiently that the arterial bloud be quickened and turned into Spirit and it to dwell in the left bosom of the heart unless a pulsative motion doth concur which is likened to the motion whereby sowrish milk or cream by a true transmutation is changed into Butter For by the motion is made an extenuating not indeed of the soure but of the salt arterial bloud neither therefore is it turned into a fat or butter but into vitall Spirit of the nature of a Salt and so of a Balsam For so the arteriall bloud is by motion heat and the Ferment changed into an Aiery or Skyie off-spring the immediate Inne of a vitall light Wherefore the Bloud VVater and Spirit are one and the same For if that light be in the Spirit but this be carried thorow the Arteries into the whole Body also that light ought to be on every side continuall to it self seeing it is the property of light else to be extinguished Therefore the Arteries ought to remain open so indeed that they do never remain long pressed together wherefore it was also meet that the pulse should dilate the same nor
so to be pressed together that the whole Arterie should wholly rush or fall down on it self perhaps therefore it is not unjustly cloathed with a double and harder coat For the discontinuance of that light is the cause that in one moment every chief faculty of the Brain in those that are hanged doth perish But not that the Spirit had so quickly vanished from the Brain Again if a pulsative motion should not be made a deadly cold would straightway arise and we should be more cold than a Frog So that although many things do live in the Winter time without breathing under the Clay yet not without a pulse Also the Ferment of the left bosome doth transchange its own arterial bloud not without a slow delay and would send it thorow the Body every way too slowly and therefore it should not satisfie the importunate necessities of the Spirits For let us feign a Bottle seasoned with an Odour but to be filled with Liquor up to its half For that Liquor shall scarce snatch the Odour of the Bottle but if it be shaken together that Odour also doth presently insinuate it self through the least parts of the Liquor So indeed is the vitall Ferment of the left bosom presently given to the Arterial bloud by the motion of the heart and doth compel it also to a hasty obedience of its own Impression For light is easily kindled by light and therefore also the Arteriall bloud being now quickned it easily snatcheth to it the light of that Sunny Lamp and is brought into a Skyie or Aiery off-spring Therefore the Blas of the heart is the Fewel of the vitall Spirit and consequently of its heat but the Spirit being thus enlivened is the mover of the heart almost neglected in the Schooles Also by consequence that motion is made for a necessary heat in Sunny constituted Animals and for the framing of Spirit in them Therefore I may not believe that the Pulse is appointed for a requisite cooling refreshment of the heart For truly things that have life do not war under the deadly Ensigns of cold neither do they intend or hearken to cold but onely do meditate on vitall things Indeed cold in us is a token because a Companion of death And therefore whatsoever it should attempt in the Fountain of life it should intend a taking away of life as also it should be destructive to our Monarchy so far is it that cold should be for necessity and co-temperaments sake For without a Pulse heat is not over-much kindled but straightway also life remaining heat dies For the Schooles being deceived do thus judge they thinking Elementary fire to be for the composition of Bodies and that fire in its heightned degree without which its fire ceaseth to be fire doth consist in the heart and that indeed Kitchin fire seeing else a ridiculous fire is to be far fetched from the concave of the Moon otherwise it should not by a loosed Bridle slide downwards safe at the pleasure of inferiour Bodies and contrary to its own disposition thorow so many colds of the Air unto the ordinary constitution of Simples And so if the Schooles had instead of radicall heat understood a fire feigned to be under the circle of the Moon they should improperly say that the same doth onely subsist in us as it were the Torch of radicall moysture Seeing else they dream that the fiery Element which they rashly feign doth alike unwisely live without a necessity and consuming of nourishment Therefore the Schooles do understand that there is in the heart a kindled Kitchinary and smoakie fire and that it is hot in a great degree and so that unless it be tempered by a continuall blast of new Air and all the smoakiness raised up by this fire be fanned out there is danger of choaking burning up and enflaming For so false authorities do bring forth false positions and through the ignorance of causes the speculations of healing have perished Truly in my judgement the Schooles ought at least to have remembred that the very blowing of the Bellowes doth not refresh or cool the fire but rather enflame it Neither do I see by what reason the motion of living Creatures may be the cause of their cooling refreshment In the next place I know that fire is in no wise to be joyned to the other Elements being divided by their least parts but that in an instant it is exstinguished I know also that its impossible that fire should be able to exist which is not truly fire and hot in the highest degree And so that if nature should attempt refreshment or cooling by a Pulse its endeavour should be foolish vain and impossible Whence a horrible thing followes that God in the ends proposed to himself hath actually erred Therefore let the Schooles repent But besides there ought to be a speedy transmutation of venall bloud into arteriall bloud and of this into vitall Spirit least that after faintings and tremblings of the heart under which are made most speedy divisions and scatterings of those Spirits so that the little pits of the small Pox or measills before not to be beheld do straightway appear as it were a necessitated death do invade Therefore aid was not to be fetched from far and to be deferred which his speedily required Indeed this is the reason why in a Fever the Pulse is swifter but not an expelling of smoakiness nor a greediness of cooling refreshment For truly let a Thorn be put in the loose or fleshy top of the finger there is presently a hard strong and more swift pulse but afterwards for the increase of the Pulse there is every where presently an increase of heat but not of cold and indeed as well before as without the births of smoakie vapours And then at the beginnings of intermitting Fevers after some houres and as long as the cold is delayed the Pulse is little slow deep or depressed yet putrefaction is kindled if the Schooles have spoken truth and therefore also the present smoakie vapour in the Schooles is the cause of the fit and they do thirst greatly in their cold and vomit up yellow choler Therefore also there ought to be a most frequent pressing together of the Pulse and the whole Pulse to be most exceeding swift Especially because many dying in those Fevers do perish in the cold a little before the Feverish fit through a great want of the Spirits and being as it were choaked But in troublesome heats also in an Erisipelas the burning Coal or Fever the Persick fire c. the vitall Spirit being incensed and as it were provoked to anger by the diseasifying cause waxeth exceeding hot as appeareth in the aforesaid locall also burning Inflammations whereas otherwise a temperate lightsome kindling doth on every side shine forth under a vitall Harmony yea that a little before death or sounding the horny membrane of the Eye is seen to be deprived of light the fire being not before in a burning
use of the Pulses and another of breathing and â—â—â—ther for heat only For in the most sharp and hot diseases to wit as oft as there is the greatest breathing drawn and that like a sigh the Pulse is small and swift also the strength remaining Therefore the use of breathing and the Pulse do not answer especially because we are more refreshed by a great draught of cold water abundantly drunk than if the same quantity be drunk at many times I say we are more refreshed by one only sigh than by many small and more frequent breathings Even so as a pair of Bellows doth perform more by a great and continual blast than by those that are lesse exact although many whence it may be sufficiently manifested to a well considerate and judicious man that there is another use of the Pulses of greater moment to wit That which respecteth the ferment of digestions Whence I repeat a handicraft operation to wit That at length under the last digestion all our Arterial bloud doth perish and exhale neither that it leaves any dreg behind it Yet whatsoever doth exhale by heat alone all that as well in living as in inanimate things doth leave a dreg behind it the skilfull do call this The dead Head which dreg being at length thus roasted doth resemble a Coale For the action of heat is of it self every where Simple Univocal and Homogeneal differing in the effect by reason of the Matter Therefore if the vitall bloud ought to be wholly so disposed in us that it be at length wholly blown away without a dead head it was altogether necessary that that should happen by some other Mean than that of heat But the aire was alwayes and from the beginning every where the seperater of the waters from the waters This hath not been known in the Schools to wit that the whole Venal bloud that it may depart into a Gas it hath need of two wings to fly the aire and a ferment Wherefore observe thou That as oft as any thing of bloud becomes unfit or is not by degrees disposed of and undergoes its degrees in the outward part of the body that it may wholly throughout the whole be made volatile and capable to flye away or thorow the poâ—es at the same moment now Scirthus's Nodes or Knots and Apostems are conceived but if that thing happen in the more inward part thereof for the most part Fevers Apoplexies Falling evills Asthma's likewise pains and deaths do soon follow Let us see therefore what the aire or what a ferment may conduce hereunto First of all Every muscilage of the earth which else is easily turned into worms likewise Starch Fleshes Fishes c. being once frozen at that very moment do lose their muckinesse and return into water As the aire was once very well combined to the Ice as I have sometimes spoken concerning the weight of Ice and so it is the first degree whereby the aire doth resolve a tough body into water And then under the greatest colds and purest aire we are more hungry yet we sweat and less is discussed out of us with a small and more hard siege or excrement Therefore one that saileth in the Sea eats more by double if not by treble unlesse he be sick and le ts go less excrement than himself doth living at Land whence is the Proverb The water causeth a promoting of digestion As if indeed he that saileth should not float in the aire but in the water but floating doth renew the aire in us and from hence there is a stronger digestion Therefore if we do eat more strongly and do cast forth less excrements it necessarily follows that the more is discussed or doth vanish out of the Body which is to say That the more pure Northern and Sea-aire doth conduce to a transpiration or evaporation of the body or doth dispose the bloud unto an insensible perspiration or breathing out of it self Surely for that cause is breathing made not indeed that the air may depart into nourishment for the vitall spirit but that it may be connexed with it being sucked to it thorow the Arterial Vein and Venal Artery of the Lungs and that the air being for this cause transported into the heart it may receive a ferment which accompanying it they both may dispose the venal blood into a totall transpiration of it self After another manner many things are made fixt and do resist a breathing forth if they are provoked by heat otherwise they were in themselves volatile Wherefore an Alcali is not generated in ashes by the fire essentially although effectively it proceed from thence For the office of the fire is indeed to kindle consume and seperate yet not to produce any thing Seeing the fire is not rich in a seed it is the very destroyer of seeds But from seeds all Generation proceedeth When therefore an Alcali is fixed out of a Salt that was before volatile it is not a new production of a thing but only the Alteration of a thing For the Alcali was indeed materially in the composed body before burning and did flow together with its Mercury and Sulphur Notwithstanding while the fire takes away the Mercury and Sulphur the Salt indeed as being a principle more subsisting in the melting of the combustion doth snatch to it self the neighbouring part of the Sulphur or Fat and when it is not able sufficiently to defend it from the torture of the fire it partly also flyes away under the mask of a Gas and attains the odour of corrupted matter and is partly incorporated in the laid-hold-of co-melted Sulphur and is made a true Coal Wherefore the Sulphur being now fixed by the wedlock of the Salt it doth not speedily incline from a Coal into a smoaky vapour But by degrees and not unlesse in an open Vessel and so with the former Sulphur for from hence the Sulphur of a thing being for the most part sharp doth retain the savour of a volatile Salt and at length with the Coalie Sulphur the just weight of its volatile Salt flies away Which thing surely is no where more manifest than in the Coal of Honey For if this be urged or forced by a shut vessel it remains not changed in a bright burning fire but the vessel being open both do so depart that moreover no remainder of ashes doth ever survive Therefore the Alcali Salt doth fore-exist materially in the composed body before combustion Because all the Salt was formally volatile in the composed body and not in the form of a more fixed Alcali which thing is now especially manifest in the bloud which being wholly volatile exhaleth unsensibly through the Pores without any residence But if it be combusted or burnt it leaveth very much fixed Salt in its own ashes In the next place The wood of the Pine-Tree which affordeth little ashes and less Salt in the preparation of ashes barrelled is by calcining wholly turned into an Alcali For barrelled ashes are brought
saltness is a volatile and salt Spirit which being co-fermented with Earth doth at length in part assume the nature of Salt-peter The venal bloud also doth by distillation afford this salt spirit plainly volatile and not any thing distinguishable from the spirit of Urine Yet I have considered that they both do differ in this essential property that the spirit of the Salt of venal bloud doth cure the falling-evill even of those of ripe age the spirit of the salt of Urine not so Therefore it is manifest that in the Venal blood a salt and volatile spirit is contained But after what manner all the venal bloud may be transchanged by the ferment of the heart into spirit without a diversity of kind as much as may be said I have explained in the Treatise of Long Life Because otherwise Natures are not to be demonstrated from a former Cause as neither the operations of Ferments because they are essentiall causes for the transmutations of things Therefore the vital spirit is saltish and therefore Balsamical and a preserver from corruption and that not so much by reason of the salt as in respect of a light conceived in its own Salt And so neither can air be made the addition or nourishment thereof For although the Aqua vitae be easily assumed into vital spirit yet this is not oylie and combustible but the spirit of wine onely by the touching of a ferment doth easily ascend wholly into a saltish volatile nature forthwith assoon as it looseth its oylie or enflamable property Even as I have taught by Handicraft operation in the Treatise of Duelech To wit after what manner at one onely instant Aqua vitae may be truly changed into a yellow gobbet or lump not inflamable which thing doth more evidently happen to Aqua vitae by a saltish vital Ferment Therefore the Spirit of Wine is straightway snatched into the heart without delay or by a further digestion through the Arteries of the stomach and restoreth the strength because it is by small labour perfected in the heart yet we must not think that the vital Spirit is soure because the Spirit of Salt-peter is pleasingly sharp and is made at length of the Spirit of Urine Because the Spirit from whence Salt-peter is coagulated in the Earth was not soure or sharp while it was the Spirit of Urine Therefore the vitall Spirit is Salt not soure for that which is sharp out of the stomach is an enemy to the whole Body being nearer to the Spirit of Urine than to Salt-peter and it is as yet much more divers from the Spirit of Salt-peter by the adustion and co-mingling of the adjunct with the thing extracted But they do easily perceive the saltness of the vital Spirit who have had some stupid member which by degrees receiving touching doth suffer pricking and stingings which are the true tokens of saltness Indeed the saltness of the Spirit may be known but the light of the same proceeding immediately and fountainously from the Father of Lights doth drive away all further search of mortall men Furthermore that the whole venal bloud is a meer Salt it desires not more strongly to be proved than because the whole venal bloud is in Ulcers the dropsie Ascites c. homogeneally made a Liquor by an immediate degeneration For the venal bloud is intensly red but it growes yellow while it is made arterial bloud because redness waxeth yellow when it is as it were dissolved by a volatile Salt It is as yet a dead thing whatsoever I have spoken of hitherto The vital Spirit performs the offices of life But the famous top of life is not proper to a Liquor or exhalation as they are Salt things And that the life of things may live it ought of necessity to have a Light from the Father of Lights Therefore it behoveth that the Spirit or vital Skie or Air be enlightned with a Light simply vital not indeed universal but specifical and individuating Nor also with a fiery burning enfiaming light and conspicuous by concentred beames But it is a formal light of the condition of a sensitive Soul In which word the descriptions and further diligent searches of mortal men are stayed to which end imagine thou that Glow-worms have a light in their belly a little before night as also bubbles of the Sea have a night brightness and very many things which through purrifying do proceed into the last matter of Salts yet vital and that which is extinguished together with their life Suppose thou a certain a like light to be in the spirit of life which as long as it liveth shineth and when it forsaketh the eyes of one dying they appear horny and made clean And that light is now and then extinguished the material vital Spirit being as yet safe in the Plague poyson sounding c. yet thou mayst not think that the like essence of light is in us and Glow-worms that indeed lights do differ onely in the tone or tenor of degrees But in very deed there are as many particular kindes of vital lights as there are of Creatures that have life And that is an abundant token of divine bounty that there are as many particular kindes of Lights which are comprehended in us under one onely notion and word and that there are as many vital differences as there are Species of vital things because that those lights are the very lives Souls and Forms of vital things themselves yet I except the immortal minde while I treat of frail lights although it self also be a certain incomprehensible light and so by the same Lights themselves is the alone and every distinction of particular kindes Therefore the Father of Lights delighteth in the unutterable abundance of generall kindes of Lights with a far greater bounty than in fashioning almost infinite varieties in one onely humane countenance For there is with himself a certain Common-wealth of Lights and a Legion of unmemorable Citizens a certain likeness whereof he expresseth by the Forms of vital things in the sublunary World Therefore the vitall Spirit is arterial bloud resolved by the Ferment of the heart into a salt Air and enlightned by life which light is in us hot of the nature of the Sun and is cold in a Fish neither doth it ever aspire unto any power of heat wherefore our heat is not a consumer of the Original moisture even as concerning long life seeing fishes have not hitherto escaped death Neither could the first men who before the floud saw a thousand Solar years have had more radical moisture by ten fold than us unless they had had all things ten fold more extended which is an impertinent thing For truly it is probable that Adam being formed by the hand of God obtained the most exceeding perfect Stature of the Lord Jesus Christ neither to have exceeded the same Lastly Fishes should naturally be immortall under the frozen Sea seeing their radical moisture should not there evaporate by heat
themselves by the same right concoct for themselves and are thereby nourished For truly in this humour every part lives in its own Orbe and every part hath a singular Cook-room in it self for it self But besides even till a certain age and measure inbred in the Seeds of things the nourishment departs into increase Then it stayeth and is no more mixed with its first constituters And therefore this nourishment is opposed onely for the retarding of the dryness of old age even unto the closure of life This indeed is the distribution of the digestions and Regions of the Body among the Antients and modern Schooles which hath never seemed to me to be sufficient but full of ignorance because it is that which besides rude observations hath brought no light unto the art of healing CHAP. XXVIII A six-fold digestion of humane nourishment 1. The miserable boastings of the Galenists 2. Whence the first dissolution of the meat is 3. A sharpness being obtained is presently changed into a salt Salt 4. The use of the gut Duodenum neglected in the Schools 5. Sharpness or soureness out of the stomach doth hurt us 6. The variety and incompatibility or mutual unsufferableness of the Ferments 7. An example of that ready exchanging 8. Nothing like a Ferment doth meet us elsewhere 9. The volatileness of sharpness doth remain in a salt product 10. The latitude in Ferments 11. Whence it is known that the first Ferment is a forreigner to the Stomach 12. Why Sawces do stand in sharpness 13. Sharpness is not the Ferment it self but the Instrument of the same 14. Too much sharpness of the Stomach is from its vice 15. A receding from the Schools in the examination of the Gaul 16. That Choler is not made of meats 17. That the Gaul is not an excrement but a bowel 18. The membrane of the wombe is a bowel even as also that of the Stomach 19. Why the Gaul and Liver are connexed 20. What may be the stomach of the Liver 21. VVhy it goes before the Ferment of the Gaul and is the second digestion 22. VVhy the venal bloud in the Mesentery doth as yet want threds neither therefore doth it wax clotty 23. The wombe of the Vrine and the wombe of Duelech or the Stone in man are distinct 24. The stomach of the Gaul and its Region 25. The rotten opinion of the Schools concerning the rise of the Gaul and its use 26. Nature had been more careful for the Gaul its enemy than for Phlegme its friend 27. The separation of the Vrine differs from the separation of wheyiness out of milk 28. The second and third digestions are begun at once although the third be more slowly perfected 29. What the stomach of the Gaul is 30. The Gaul doth import more than to be chief over an excrement 31. Birds want a Kidney and Vrine but not a Gaul 32. Fishes also do prove greater necessities of a Gaul than of filths or excrements 33. That the Schools are deceived in the use of the Gaul 44. The Liquor of the Gaul with its membrane being a noble bowel doth now and then banish its superfluity into the gut Duodenum 35. How excrements do obtain the heat of the Gaul yet are not therefore choler or gaul 36. The proper savour of the dung doth exclude the gaul and fiction of choler 37. Gauls seem what they are not 38. Whence the vein hath it that even after the death of a man it doth preserve the venal bloud from coagulating 39. The extream rashness of the Schooles 40. The solving of an Objection 41. It is proved by many Arguments that the veins of the stomach do not attract any thing to themselves out of the Chyle 42. The Authour is dissented from the Schools in respect of the bounds of the first Region in the Body 43. The true shop of the bloud is not properly in the passage of the Liver 44. The action of a Ferment doth act onely by inbreathing neither doth it want a corporeal touching 45. The absurd consequences upon the positions of the Schools concerning touching and continual nourishing warmth 46. The Ferments of the Gaul and Liver do perform their offices by in-breathing 47. Why Flatus's or windy blasts do not pierce an Entrail 48. The Errour of Paracelsus about the pores of the Bladder 49. The first digestion doth not yet formally transchange meats 50. Where the absolute transmutation of meats is compleated 51. It is false that nourishment is not to be granted without an excrement 52. It is false that the stomach doth first boil for it self and secondarily for the whole Body 53. The Gaul hath the nature of a Balsam 54. A miserable objection 55. The Gaul taken for a Balsam in the holy Scriptures 56. Against the Gaul of the Jaundise 57. Two Idiotisms in Paracelsus 58. How the Salt of the Sea is separated from Salt-peter 59. Out of water there is Vinegar 60. The fourth digestion and Region of the Body 61. Why the heart is eared 62. The fifth digestion 63. That the vapour in the venal bloud is not yet a Skyie Spirit 64. The nourishing of the flesh and the bowels is distinguished 65. That the Animal Spirit doth not differ in the Species from the vital 66. The fourth and fifth digestions do want excrements 67. What the sixth digestion is 68. The Diseases in the sixth digestion are neglected by the Schools because not understood 69. In the designing of the Kitchin and Shop there are some errours of the Schools 70. Why an Artery doth for the most part accompany a vein 71. Paracelsus is noted 72. The errour of Fernelius concerning Butter 73. The rashness of Paracelsus concerning Milk 74. A censure or judgement of Milk 75. The best manner of drawing forth Goats bloud 76. An undoubted curing of the Pleurisie without cutting of a vein 77. Why Asses milk is to be preferred before other Milks 78. The education of a Child for a long and healthy life 79. Some things worthy to be noted concerning the Vrine 80. Why dropsical persons are more thirsty than those that have a hectick Fever 81. The proper place of the Ferment of the Dung is even as in a Wolf 82. The proper nest of Worms and the History of the same 83. The difference of Ascarides from VVorms 84. That a Clyster is injected in vain for nourishment sake I Have observed notable abuses committed throughout the whole description of Functions or of the use of parts Although Galen doth not more gloriously triumph in any place than in the Treatise of Pulses and in the use of parts the which notwithstanding the modern Anatomists do shew that he never thorowly considered wherefore it is altogether probable that without the knowledge and searching out of the truth these Treatises described by Galen from elsewhere and prostituted for his own are as yet to this day worshipped in the Schools Wherefore I have premised the digestions which Antiquity hath hitherto known and hath confirmed
also that That Oyls and Emplasters are the true food of wounds so that a wound is truly nourished by them and that the corrupt matter is the excrement of that nourishment Therefore the sour salt of the Cream seeing it is destitute of an object and the which seeing it wandreth through the action of a dissolver into a fixed salt as I have taught before concerning volatile spirits it is suitably exchanged into the volatile salt of Urine And that not by the action or re-action of sournesse on a certain object but by a true fermental transforming for the Spirit of life it self is of the nature of a volatile salt and of that which is salt And so even from hence alone the vital action of the Gaul is proved For Sea salt being oft eaten doth remain almost whole in the excrements Which thing the Boylers of Salt-peter do experience against their wills For they are constrained to seperate salt out of the dung of Jakeses being sometimes eaten up by the Salt-peter through a repeated boyling and coagulation of cooling For the Sea salt being coagulated doth stick fast to the spondils or chinks of the vessels being nothing changed from it self long ago eaten And that before the Salt-peter hath obtained a sufficient drying up of its own coagulation And therefore from hence it is known that Sea-salt is more readily coagulated than Salt-peter Therefore humane excrements are lesse fit for Salt-peter than otherwise those of Goats Sheep and Herds Yet as much of that Sea-salt as is subdued by the ferment of the stomack so much also is sour and volatile Consequently also although any one do use no salt his Urine should not therefore want salt because it is that which is a new creature and a new product out of the sour of the Cream The Salt of the Urine therefore hath not its like in the whole Systeme of nature For not that of the Sea Fountain Rock Gemme not Nitre not that of Salt-peter Alume or Borace Lastly not of any of natural things as neither the Salt of the Urine of flocks or herd with which although it may agree in the manner of making yet the salt of mans Urine disagreeth from them throughout the general and particular kinds no lesse than dungs do vary throughout the species of Bruits although bruits are fed with common fodder to wit by reason of the diversities of an Archeus and Ferment Therefore of meats and drinks not sour or salt is made a salt sour and at length a salt Salt and it is easier for a thing of a sour salt to be made Salt than of not Salt to be made sour salt I remember that I have seen a Chymist who every yeer did fill a Hogs-head of Vinegar to two third parts with water of the River Rhoan he exposed it to the heats of the Sun and so he transchanged the water in it self without savour into true Vinegar a ferment being conceived out of the Hogs-head This I say he was thus wont to do by reason of the singular property of that Vinegar For truly out of the Vinegar of Wine the weaker part doth alwayes drop or still first but the more pure part a little before the end riseth up with the dregs but this Vinegar made of meer water as it wants dregs so it alwayes doth minister an equall distillation from the Beginning even to the end Wherefore as the ferment of a vessel doth by its odour alone change Water into Vinegar So indeed by the fermental odour of the Spleen breathed into the stomack meats are made a sour Cream which afterwards is turned into a urinous salt yea and into a vital one Because the Schools never dreamed of these things neither had their followers read them in the labours or night watches of their Predecessors therefore they have been ignorant of the use of parts and ferments and the celebrations or solemnities of transmutations but they have introduced both the Cholers into the masse of the bloud Lastly They have not known the Contents and be-tokenings of the Urine Therefore the third Digestion is made by the President-ferment of the Liver which is by the blind odour of a Gas doth begin Sanguification in its own stomack of the Mesentery and at length perfecteth it in the hollow Vein Furthermore The fourth Digestion is compleated in the Heart and Artery thereof in which elaboration the red and more gross blood of the the hollow Vein is elaborated made yellower and plainly volatile For the heart is said to be eared on both sides and hath at its left bosom one onely beating Artery inserted in a great Trunk fit for it that by a double rowing it may the more strongly draw the fenced venal bloud which is between both bosoms in the middle of the heart Refer thou hither what I have above noted concerning the porosity of the hedge or partition which distinguisheth the bosoms of the heart and why the Arterial bloud doth not return from the left bosome into the right but only the spirit of life as it were through a thin sive Therefore the venal bloud of the Liver differs from the arterial bloud by the fourth digestion manifested by the colour and consistence of the matter digested But the fifth Digestion doth transchange the Arterial blood into the vital spirit of an Archeus of which I have discoursed under the Blas of man as also under The Spirit of Life I could not satisfie my self that in the venal bloud of the Liver there was any spirit although it hath gotten a degree of its perfection after that it hath overcome or exceeded the Mesentery But that venal blood alwayes seemed to me as it were a certain Masse of Mummie and the matter Ex qua or whereof But not as yet to be accounted for perfect vital blood For if the blood of the hollow vein had begged a spirit from the Liver the right ear of the heart had been in vain which works uncessantly for no other end than that some spirit may be drawn from the left bosom thorow the fence of the heart that the blood in the hollow vein nigh the heart may begin to be quickned by the participation of that spirit But seeing from the left sides there is an ear and especially the notable Trunk of an Artery hence also the â—â—cking is stronger from the left bosom And from hence by consequence also little of the vital Spirit is communicated to the venal blood For truly the blood of the Liver is alwayes throughout its whole moist with too much liquor whereof it ought to be deprived before that it be made a fruitful and worthy support of spirit neither finally hath the Liver had a fit hollowness in it self for the framing of spirit Wherefore as I have intellectually seen throughout the whole Scene of Generation one onely Framer and Ruler of the spirits of life in the seed So also I admit of one onely spirit of the vital family-government For the venal
the middle waters but it hath need of a fermenting odour of the side whereby it doth as it were putrifie Therefore coagulation is made on the sides of the Vessel to which it fastneth it self According to the common Chymical Maxim Every Spirit dissolving by the same action whereby it disselveth Bodies is it self coagulated Therefore the more sharp Wine dissolveth the Lee in its Bark because a sharp Salt of the sour dissolving Spirit is presently coagulated together with the dissolved Lee or Dreg and applyeth it self to be neighbour to the side or Concave of the Vessel And that least both to wit the thing dissolving and thing dissolved be hindered from coagulating but at least that it be not on the other side encompassed by Liquor Therefore Tartar the new off-spring of coagulation is affixed Understand thou also that before it be coagulated there is not yet a coagulation and therefore that somewhat sour Wine the Lee being now dissolved by it in an instant before it is coagulated snatcheth hold on the Vessel and doth affix and glew it self on there by the proper Solder of its Cream Else it should settle to the bottom This very thing is the Tartar of Wine of which we are speaking That these things are on this wise Vinegar it self proveth For Wine set in the Sun and the Vessel being heated by the Sun the Vinegar never hath Tartar in the Vessel yet it is the same matter differing onely in cold or heat There indeed with Tartar but here without it First of all a remarkable thing plainly appeareth from what hath been before deduced that the aforesaid Maxim of Chymistry erreth in that because it will have the dissolution of a Body to be made together with the coagulation of the Spirit by the same action in number For if divers moments of motions should not intercede the coagulated thing it self should not adhere toughly glewed to the Hogshead as if by that which is melted it should be there powred on it but if it should be coagulated in the very motion of dissolution it should fall down to the bottom in the shape of a coagulated matter but should not adhere to the sides But on the other hand in the Region of the Lee Tartar is not found Let there be another remarkable thing and of greater moment that the Tartar of Wine is altogether impertinently taken according to the likeness of coagulated things in us wherefore the name History manner and end of Tartar of Wine hath been impertinently introduced into the Causes which make Diseases And these things shall be made manifest when as I shall make the devise of Tartar in Meats and Drinks plainly to appear Likewise as to that which belongs to Tartar of Wine for that is not a strange forreigner to Wine produced by a forreign Mother matter against or besides the nature of Wines as neither to expiate the wickednesses committed by Wine by those things which are adjoyned for a curse And then neither is the Tartar of Wine ever coagulated by a Cream proper unto it although Paracelsus hath otherwise so supposed but the Tartar is coagulated after that the dissolutive sourness of the Wine is woren out and glutted by the Lee. That is the sourness being overcome by the dissolved content doth think of making a coagulation not indeed to make a true Stone but a feigned one because it is that which is again dissolved in hot water as it were a sharp Salt in Liquor which is therefore commonly called Cremor Tartari or the Cream of Tartar All which things surely do badly square or suit with our coagulations yet they all have by a like identity or sameliness of Tartar in all particular nourishments been intruded by a winy devise Lastly and that a violent one Because Tartar is not an excrement of Wine unless in respect of one part which is a solved Dreg which thing surely was not also hid from Paracelsus who now and then doth extol the Tartar of Wine far above the Wine as it were an heir of greater virtues Wherefore he doth badly accommodate or fit the Tartar of Wine by the identity of Being and framing with diseasie Tartarers which he calls an excrement yea a curse arising from the Thistles and Thorns or an ill endowed entertained Being in a pure Saphirical Being of things Therefore the Tartar of Wine although there should be any other being erected into the matter of Diseases in taking the Tartars of Diseases they should even according to the minde of Paracelsus badly agree together And so he hath also but impertinently referred the cause of Diseases unto Tartar Seeing they do not any way agree in the matter efficient manner cause of coagulations in the bound of a Cream in their object as neither in their principles For the Sand or Stone are not resolved by elixing or seething even as otherwise the Tartar of Wine is Therefore the whole metaphorical transumption of name and property is frivolous and a bold rashness of asserting by bespattering all created things with a curse so as wholly throughout they should be nothing but of Tartar and the boldness hath proceeded so far that they seign Tartar to be even in the Marrows yet not coagulable which neither hath Paracelsus ever seen but hath asserted onely by a boldness Now he maketh Tartar not to be Tartar nor coagulable And so that not onely every coagulable thing and that which hath solidness but that every liquory thing that is the whole Creature should be nothing but Tartar appointed for a punishment of sin Now when new Wine hath waxed cold hath lost its sweetness and hath assumed the qualities of Wine the whole Lee hath fallen to the bottom and then the transmutation of the more sour part of the Wine beginneth to act of the Lee For truly that which is more fruitful than the Spirit of Wine desiring by degrees the more inward parts doth forsake the Superficies of the Hogs-head but this beginning thereby to wax sour nor finding an object nigh to it self on which it may act but onely in the bottom it by degrees dissolves that object in the same place And thus indeed the sharpness thereof is by degrees the more confirmed But seeing every sour thing doth as it were boyl up in corroding hence it comes to passe that when the sourness which is about the bottom hath acted upon the dreg it ariseth from thence and is substituted or affixed in another place Therefore the generation of Tartar is slow And therefore cannot the Tartar be affixed in the bottom by reason of the disquietness of that continual boyling up wherefore generous Wines nor Wines easily forsaken by their fleeing Spirit do not readily wax sour and they do yield none or but a little Tartar But old Rhenish Wines do become weak indeed in the acceptableness of a winie tast as their sourness was drunk up in the Lee yet are they stomatical because that their Spirits are not wasted according to
it self Therefore something doth precede in the masse or lump which should be plainly an immaterial yet a real and effective Beginning wherein there should be a power of figuring by the impression of a Seal Therefore the Soul of the begetter while it slides outward and doth lighten the Body of the seed in a certain Air it delineates the Seal and figure of it self which is the cause of the fruitfulness of seeds Otherwise if the Soul should not be figured but the figure it self of the Body should as it were of its own accord be formed now the Trunck in some member should also generate nothing but a Trunck for that the body of that generater is not entire but at least faileth in the implanted Spirit of that member If therefore the shape be implanted in the seed it shall receive that Image from a vital and former Beginning out of it self But if the Soul doth imprint a figure on the seed it shall not dissemble a forreign or strange face but shall decipher its very own Image For so the Souls of bruit Beasts do keep their own particular kinde in generating But the minde although by reason of its beginning it be above the Laws of Nature yet by what foot it hath once entred the threshold of Nature and is incorporated and joyned unto another it is afterwards also restrained by its own Laws Because there is a univocal or single progress ascention descention limitation and end of vital generations For neither otherwise doth it want absurdities that the operation of so great a thing as is the generation of man and the continuance of his Species should happen without the co-operation of the minde Therefore it must needs be that fruitfulness is granted to the seed by a participation and specifical determination of vital principles which thing surely doth not otherwise happen than by a sealing of the Soul in the Spirit of the seed whence the matter obtains a requisite maturity and a delineated shape or figure that at length it may obtain by request a formal light of life from the Creator or the Soul of its own Species the similitude whereof is expressed in the figure Furthermore it is of faith that our minde is a substance never to die The new framing of which substance of nothing belongs onely to the Creator who if it hath well pleased him to adopt the minde alone into his own Image it also seems to follow that the vast and unutterable God is of a humane figure and that from an Argument from the effect if there be any force of Arguments in this subject But because the Body is oft-times defectuous they have thought the glorious Image of God the Arch-Type represented in the minde to consist onely in the power of Reason Not knowing that the rational power is a servant to the understanding but not of its essence as neither its unseparable companion which thing I have already explained in the Treatise of the searching or hunting out of Sciences But others hold the Soul most nearly to express the Image of God by a single simplicity of its own substance and a ternary of its powers to wit of understanding will and memory which similitude hath alwayes seemed to me fabulous that the minde should be the Image of God by a singular valour or ability For truly an Image doth involve a similitude of essence and figure but not an equality or likeness of number onely yea if the Soul doth in its substance represent God himself now understanding will and memory shall not be the powers properties or accidents of the Soul And so the likeness of ternariness shall cease such an image shall badly square with the Type whose image it is believed to be And than it is absurd to compare the persons of the Trinity to memory or will Seeing no person of the holy sacred Trinity doth represent the will onely or the will a separated person in God Also the three powers in the Soul cannot any way expresse the image or a nearer supposed thing than a naked threeness of accidents collected into the substance of the Soul In which sense the Soul doth lesse denote the Image of God than any peece of Wood To wit because it by its resolution doth express Salt Sulphur and Liquor but not like the minde in the aforesaid similitude of its own powers and the divine persons three powers onely or a naked ternary For every Wood hath three substances concluded under a unity of the composed Body separated indeed in the things supposed which in their connexion do make one onely substance of Wood. But Tauterus severeth the Soul or minde not indeed into three powers but into two distinct parts To wit the inferiour or more outward which by a pecullar name he calls the Soul and the other the superiour the more inward and the which he calls the bottom of the Soul or Spirit In which part alone he saith the Image of God is specially contained unto which there is not access for the Devil because there is the Kingdom or God But to either part he assigneth far unlike acts and properties whereby he distinguisheth both from each other But at least that holy man doth blot out the simple homogenity or samelinesse of kinde of the Soul whereby notwithstanding it ought especially to express the likeness of God or at least he thus far denies the Image of God to be propagated throughout the whole Soul of man Surely I shall not easily believe a duality of the immortal Soul or the interchangeable course of a binary or twofold thing if it ought to shew forth in its very own essence a unity But rather I shall believe that the minde is rather made like unto God in a most simple unity by an indivisible homogeneity of Spirit under the co-resemblance of immortality and undissolution and identity without all connexion Therefore the glorious Image of God is not separated from the Soul as neither to be separated but the minde it self is the glorious Image as well intimate to the Soul as the Soul it self is to it self for therefore the likeness between the minde and God cannot be declared or thought seeing God himself is wholly incomprehensible neither can therefore the Character of identity and unity wherein that likeness is founded ever be thought or conceived It is sufficient that the minde is a Spirit beloved of God homogeneal simple immortal created into the Image of God one onely Being whereto death adds nothing or takes nothing from it which may be natural or proper to it in the essence of its simplicity And because from the constitution and appointment of it it is a partaker of blessedness therefore damnation coming upon it is to it by accident to wit besides its purpose and by reason of a future fall or defect Therefore the minde being separated from the Body doth no more use memory nor the inducing of remembrance by the beholding of place or duration but
that sense whereby I did percieve that I understood and imagined in the Midriffs and not in the Head cannot by any words be expressed And there was a certain joy in that intellectual cleerness for it was not a thing of a small time of continuance nor happened to me while I slept or dreamed or being otherwise diseasie but fasting and in good health Yea although I before had had experience of some extasies yet I took notice that those have nothing common with this discourse and sense of the Midriff understanding which excludeth all co-operation of the Head Because that I discerned with a sensible reflexion as before I had been forewarned the Head altogether to keep Holiday in respect of the imagination because I did wonder that the imagination should be celebrated out of the Brain in the Midriffs with a sensible pleasantness of operation In the meane time I somtimes in that Joy being in doubt feared least the unwonted chance should lead to madnesse because it had begun from poyson but the preparing of the poyson and only a somwhat light or gentle tasting of the same did insinuate another thing In the mean time although the joyous unthought-of cleernesse or illumination of my understanding did render that manner of understanding suspected yet a most free resigning of my self into the Will of God restored me into my former rest At length after about two hours space a certain gentle giddinesse of my head twice repeated invaded me For from the former I perceived the faculty of understanding to have returned and from the other I felt my self to understand after my wonted manner And then although I afterwards divers times tasted of the same Wolfs-bane yet no such thing ever happened unto me any more But I from thenceforth perfectly learned many things And first indeed that as by extafies certain flourishes of the soul do cleerly appear so by the aforesaid Rule of knowing it appeareth that our understanding as long as we are tied to the Body is originally formed in the Duumvirate or Sheriffdome Secondly And that thing is by so much the more unthought of because the ordinary framing of discourses is about the mouth of the Stomach but not in any Bowel but as it were in the Membrane or Filme of the Stomach as if in an undividable place Nor much othewise doth there inhabite in the Membrane of the Womb a certain Monarchy of the whole yet so that a wound of the Stomach doth presently import life but a wound of the Womb not so Thirdly That for about two hours I did perceive after an unlooked-for manner nothing to be acted in the head and after an undeclarable manner the whole Soul most cleerly to meditate in the Midriffs Fourthly That the like thing doth almost happen in the prayer of silence and more and more manifestly in an extasie Fifthly And that therefore the intellectuall Soul is centrally entertained in the same place Sixthly Then also that as madnesse is a defect of the understanding so therefore that it is stirred up from the part about the short Ribs Seeing the same faculty which in health performs a healthy function suffereth under diseases a defect of the same to wit as oft as the understanding is ecclipsed in its own seat Seventhly I have also certainly sound that the power of willing doth inhabite in the heart for from the heart proceed murders adulteries c. Eighthly That the memory sits in the Brain there imprinted by the soul and that therefore it is in comparison of the other faculties most easily hurt by a disease and old age Yea if any one doth labour that he may remember a thing forgotten he sensibly perceiveth this his labour in the fore-part of his head Ninthly Again seeing the will and memory differ are at a far distance from the seat of the soul or understanding I have concluded with my self that the understanding is of the Essence of the soul and unseperable but the will and memory as they are possessed in the frail life to be frail faculties and of the sensitive life Tenthly To wit that sins are made in the heart and will in the flesh of sin in the will of the flesh and of man Therefore that love is required wholly from the whole mind which by reason of its unseperablenesse is taken for the understanding from the whole heart or will from the whole imaginative soul and the powers thereof dispersed throughout the whole Body Eleventhly I have found the understanding to cast its beams lightsomly into the head yet by the means of a corporall connexion through an Aiery spirit which while it strikes the bosomes of the Head should bring on it a certain giddinesse and cloudly understanding So although for sense and fear the spirits in that state should be plentifully diffused from the brain yet there was likewise need of a singular light which ascending from the midriffs should enlighten the spirit the meane through which it did passe which lightsome beame is no otherwise expressible than that it is intellectuall and exceeding a sublunary contexture or composure Because it is that which ought to be framed by the soul alone which in it self is nothing but a meer understanding or a substantiall and intellectuall Light Twelfthly That because sense and motion stood free I did think there was another Light brought from elswhere or they did denote that there was in that state a free passage of the spirits through the Nerves or Sinews But my giddinesse did signifie that there was a certain obscurity in the head before not perceived and that it was dispersed in the Bosomes of the brain by a new light shining from beneath Thirteenthly That the Liver should be of a due strength or prosper well also the heart of the Spirit should uncessantly blow out into the Brain and likewise the required will of acting should persist indeed but the intellectual Powers onely being stupified in the Brain should as it were sleep if they should not be enlightned by the Midriffs But this light pierceth the whole Body which way it casts its Beams Even so as the light of a Candle doth ruddishly shine thorow the bones of the fingers in younger persons as if the bones themselves were transparent Fourteenthly That from that time I am wont also to have more significative dreams with a more formal discourse and a clearer than before For the minde once as it were retaking the offices of its own Body doth afterwards better understand From whence also afterwards I attained the knowledge how day unto day doth utter the Word and night unto night sheweth knowledge Fifteenthly I was more assured that then my state was one but that of madness the Lethargie Apoplexie c. another For I seriously weighed my self with circumspection whether that were the way whereby men became foolish Seeing that in my full judgement I was so void of all fear that I did contemplate of my own matters not as mine For I
memory of the brain then a certain waking Dream with an expresse doatage from the Midriffs doth enter For neither is the doatage made with a cessation of understanding even as in the Apoplexy sleepy evil swooning c. But there is a confused uncessant propagation of Idea's formed in the Midriffs shaken like beams upward And seeing that in health conceptions are not otherwise made without Idea's in a dotage also there must needs be its own mad Idea's But altogether with this distinction That Idea's or likenesses in health are formed from a liberty of the soul but mad ones are sealmarks brought into the sensitive Soul against our will and therefore they doe also violently withdraw this out of its path So far is it that mad Idea's should be formed by the mind which knows not how to play the fool For it is manifest that Idea's doe follow the disturbances of things from whence they are made which is most clear in a mad dog and the Tarantula whose poison doth produce a proper determined and equal madness and Idea's alwayes co-like to themselves so also a strong disturbance of our imagination doth forge an image and imprint it on some filths but if not on the nourishment it self yet even on the solid and constitutive part of us whence indeed there is a continued propagation of new Idea's 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 and ampleâ—ess thereof in mad folks 〈…〉 or truly from fear contention envy ambitiâ—â— love study care shame coverousness and 〈◊〉 co-like disturbances are madnesses made And so much the more miserable are those which are stirred up without the infamy of excrements because they do either continually persevere or do return at set periods of relapses Otherwise the filthineâ—ses being consumed the blemishes sprung from thence do voluntarily cease But madnesses whether they do rage with a continuall heat or do return by intervals they at least have so defiled the spirit of the Duumvirate that they have radically imprinted the storm of furious-images received after the same manner as a blemish branded on the Young from the exorbitancy of its mother great with child is durable for term of life Indeed even as the mark of a Cherry in the Young doth every year wax green yellow and red with the fruits of the Trees So also maddish Idea's arising from disturbances have in the Spirit of the midriffs their incentive or provoking intervals of repetitions accesses of periods and imbitterings or also their uncessant fewels of continuations Which thing a Lunacisme doth cleerly expresse unto us to wit it keeping the Conjunction of that Star Neither verily is it a wonder that those madnesses have themselves in the Duumvirate in manner of a blot for the Spirit is capable of seeing in the eye not elsewhere in the whole body Therefore seeing the Duumvirate doth by a radical Ordination of the Lord continually employ it self about imaginations therefore the incidencies or chances that are brought on it ought so to vitiate the family-Government of the Imagination that it receives a re-planting of the relapses of the Idea conceived In the meane time we must take notice that a Lunatick person could not be cured but by the casting out also of the unclean spirit whether this shall be a companion of the Night-star or finally the chief effecter I likewise in all madnesse do find a great arrogancy in taking to it a certain unmortified sociall passion which doth also remain for terme of life and being transferred on modern Nephews doth shine forth Because the mad Idea hath pierced the implanted Spirit whence at length it violates the Seed being made proper or natural to it For I have the more curiously searched into many mad men and have cured not a few as well those who had become mad from great disturbances passions and other diseases as those that so becâ—me from things taken into the body and they have told me that they fell by degrees into madnesse which was wont with a foregoing sense to ascend in them from about their short â—bs or midriffs as it were an obscure Phantasie and cloudy temptation of madness wherewith it first they were pressed as it were against their will untill the Idea at length had gotten a full dominion over them But being returned to themselves they were mindfull of all things acted for they boldly or confidently complained of all things to wit that at first they were spoyled of all consequence of discourse and that they remained in the punctual plunging of one conceipt without which they thought of no other thing with grief trouble and importunity For they thought no otherwise than as if they had alwayes beheld that conceipt in a glass yet neither did they know that they did then think that or so behold it in their own conception Although they did so stedfastly think that if at length they should happen a little before the entrance and dominion of madnesse to stand they had stood for some dayes without weariness neither should they know that they did stand For it thus befell them that that Idea of foolishness which had driven away discourse by which else they had been eased from their immoderate and inordinate weighing or examining was imprinted with a dominion over the Spirit the Lieutenant to the understanding Yea that which these persons had made in themselves by a long delay continued cogitation was attained by others by a sudden and violent disturbance in a short time of delay In the mean space some complained that while it was a working they were oppressed with an unwilling and importunate Troop of thoughts as it were a Smoak being stirred up from beneath the which if they would suppresse by discourse yet a repeating of the same conceipts alike troublesome and importunate returned But others who had not power over themselves or were otherwise without comfort presently after they were diverted from a strong and fixed contemplation as oft as they would sleep or were otherwise at leisure they returned with a plausibility into their forbidden or hindred speculation yet altogether troublesome therefore rejoycing in solitarinesse they withdrew themselves from the talks of others Because conceipted Idea's as yet wanting a body have and hold themselves in respect or manner of an intellectual light and therefore they do pierce the first constitutives of us which is not likewise lawful for meats and other bodies to do Therefore they do pierce and cloath themselves with the aiery body of Spirits and by means hereof do infect the vital Forms of the parts Yet with this difference that Idea 's which were forged by the excentricity of conceits did indeed enter and more admitted more powerfully but were imprinted more slowly whereas otherwise 〈…〉 that cause madness a disease mediating â—â—d by degrees sow their own ferment on their proper objects but at length they did 〈…〉 imprint it on them as it were sealed on nature And it is a thing proper to mad folks that however naked he doth lay on
that it is written that Abraham carried the Messiah in his Loyns That is unaptly withdrawn from the spleen unto the Reins from a bowel I say chiefly vital unto an excrementous shop and sieve I have noted also very many who from a Quartane Ague had retained their spleen ill affected to have been very much curtail'd in the provocation to leachery I have also observed Women in a difficult labour for some dayes an adventurous or experienced draught being offered them to have brought forth at furthest within the space of half an hour And that thing hath been proved 200 times and more For surely the Medicine being as yet in the stomach the mouth of the share is opened and the folding-doores of the Ossacrum are opened in the loins and the Young is presently expelled Indeed I have noted the Stomach to keep the Keyes of the Womb And this medicine I have divulged willingly for the good of my Neighbour that she who is in labour may not hence-forward undergo the danger of her life But it is the Liver together with the Gaul of an Eele being dried and powdered and drunk in Wine to the quantity of a Filburd-Nut The gift of God is in this Simple That seeing the Woman ought to bring forth in pain by reason of the envy of the Serpent God whose Spirit was carried upon the waters hath filled them with his blessing He would have the Eele or water-Serpent by his bowels of a sanguifying power to appease the rigour of that curse The Liver of Serpents would effect the same and perhaps better but in the experiment of the Eele the event hath never deceived From this time likewise the Judiciary divination by the Stars Hermes his scale and whatsoever is supported by the point of Nativity falls to the ground But upon occasion hereof I shall a little digress in what part the Young is knit to the womb by the Navil-strings and without the coat of the Secundines or the swadling-band of the Young it hath a substance in form of a Spleen as Vesalius witnesseth And so it hath as it were an external spleen to wit wherein as it were the venal bloud of the Kitchin and the Arterial bloud of the Mother is re-cocted the Spleen in this respect stirs up in me a suspition of a more exact sanguification than that of the Liver to wit as the venal bloud being there re-cocted by so manifold a winding of Arteries doth go back as it were from the stomach to the heart Even so as Birds and Beasts that chew the Cud do rejoyce in a double stomach At least it is manifest that that external milt doth command the conceits of her that is with child For the mothers themselves do wonder that they are then affected with such unaccustomed conceits longings furious frights and storms of troubles But it is no wonder to me seeing nothing is milty or like to the milt if it do not swell with the properties of the milt But that is a wonder that this flesh of the milt is not informed by the soul of the Mother or Young but that it enjoyes a life of its own being communicared on both sides For it hath not a sensitive Soul seeing that it is also long before quickning but it possesseth it self in manner of a Zoophyte or a Plant alive such as are Sponges and also the thicker muscilages swimming in our Sea which do enlarge embrace strain suck and shew forth rare testimonies of life being present with them Moreover if the poyson of a mad Dog or a Tarantula do make a madness limited and that like unto it self it is now wonder also that this milty lump is enlightned participatively doth live balsamically and move the minde of the woman with childe with a diverse passion As well because it performs the office of a Kitchin as because there are in the things themselves their own vain visions or apparitions as is manifest in a mad Dog But besides the minde of man being the near Image of the most high wholly immortal doateth indeed with the sensitive soul but is not capable of suffering by a little Liquor Because the passions of the sensitive soul do affect the minde which they cover within themselves do roul up and co-knit in a bond The minde indeed properly is not sick although it hearken to the frailty of the sensitive soul whence it is made manifest that the sensitive thoughts or cogitations are from flesh and bloud according to that saying For flesh and bloud have not revealed these things unto thee Therefore discourse and conceit is from the milt or spleen as being a bowel most sanguine of all and rich in very many Arteries But I have proved elsewhere that the conceit of a woman although it be formed in the spleen yet that it is brought down for the most part with a straight line unto the womb whether there be a Young within it or not and therefore the principality of the womb doth war under banners of its own neither therefore is it evidently seen in its own rest but onely while according to a wicked pleasure and fury it strains wrings blunts choaks resolves and looseneth its Clients poureth forth bloud c. But the Duumvirate doth on every side keep a due proportion of life and that with so sweet a pleasant tuning or musical measure of the life that therefore it hath hitherto been passed by by the Schools But as soon as it withdrawes its government the strengths of the parts how chief soever they are are eclipsed For so there are faintings Apoplexies Epilepsies heart-beatings or tremblings giddinesses of the the Head and madnesses And so indeed that as the occasional root of which defects is voluntarily consumed and the circuits and durations of the same do vanish away even as in the milder Fevers So also they may be voluntarily silent that they may forget to return however the boastings of Physitians do differ in this thing For those whose Roots do the more stubbornly cleave unto them they are the more fully con-tempered therefore after another manner they altogether resist a voluntary resolving and therefore they wax old together with it together with the nourishments of the stomach and do expect their own relapsing fruits unto the end of life And therefore an Epitaph of uncurableness of these defects not voluntarily ceasing is now every where read to be subscribed because they have hitherto wanted a meet Secret whereby they may be rooted out But the Roots of these Diseases as long as they do affect onely the inflowing Spirit they produce off-springs proper to their own seed and Inn For so the falling-sickness because it besiegeth both Spirits it dashneth together as well the faculties of the body as of the sensitive Soul And so that hath distinguished a great Apoplexie from a little one that the lesse hath besieged the inflowing Spirit but the greater the implanted Spirit Likewise there are in Simples those faculties which make drunk
findeth out measures as well according to extent in length breadth depth c. as in the division of weights to wit it hath appointed Axles or Diametrical distances and far removings so that all the consideration from thence is artisicial and therefore also changeable in the samelinesse and unity of one body And therefore weights as such do never act or re-act on each other naturally or by a co-mixture of their own properties although they seem to act something artificially For so the light suffers nothing although the continuation of light be hindered by a suffering wall For otherwise if the lesse weight should in very deed re-act on that which out-weigheth it the weight it self should be rather lessened in the thing weighing for a continuance and actually and not only with respect to the ballance so that a pound thenceforth should not any longer weigh a pound as before And seeing nothing is changed or taken away from the weights on either side it is manifest that there are onely artificial relations of moving strengths but not a true re-action of the lighter weight For as long as a pound doth weigh a pound nothing is attained or hath suffered in that pound by another opposite weight but on both sides one is external forreign by accident to the other and limitable by a relative foundation that it may be readily serviceable to humane considerations And whatsoever thus acteth in our power or seemeth to re-act acteth in very deed nothing But as to that which pertaineth unto other moving strengths If an impressive force of strength doth act indeed by it self but in the mean time be limited by space of place duration or be weakned by impediments or lastly if it act measuringly by reason of figure and hardnesse at leastwise there is never in these any re-acting of the patient or re-suffering of the Agent For example If any one smite on an Anvil with his fist and thereby receives a wound or bruise there is not in that stroak any re-acting of the Anvil or operation of hardnesse or of a corner in the Iron For although the hardnesse doth resist repulsing the smiting fist and the bounds of resistance or repulse may seem necessarily to include some kind of force of re-acting yet it is an improper speech proceeding from the popular errour of the Antients For that is not the reaction of the Anvil but it is the very action of the fist it self which I call a resulting or rebounding one For if the Anvil should truly re-act by hardnesse seeing there is no reason why the Anvil should impart act on the fist and should expect a stroak that it might act for it ought by its whole hardnesse and weight together to act also on a quiet hand and from that very deed done plainly to fret or tear it Neither should the action of the Anvil be limited by the strength of the stroak if there should be a re-acting of the Anvil it self For truly the same thing should happen to the fist whether it had smitten it strongly or in the next place modestly or if at length the opposite fist should rest on it onely because that in either act there was the same hardnesse of the Anvil Wherefore that hardnesse of the Iron acteth or re-acteth nothing by a proper power of acting For there should be a force in the Anvil which in re-acting should be seated throughout its hardnesse and in any stroak should act alike equally and according to its full power but not according to the measuring of the striking fist which is altogether a stranger to the Anvil Therefore in truth the fist doth act simply on the Anvil and the Anvil suffers simply although it took no offence thereby but the fist suffers by accident if it do the more strongly strike the Agent of which suffering is notwithstanding not the Anvil but the fist it self Because there is one only and single action of the stroak and hurt which I therefore call a rebounding one And so the fist suffers and is hurt by it self from its own self but by accident from the strength of the stroak and occasionally from the hardness or figure of the Iron which three things are to be noted in one only stroak For truly that which by accident and occasionally acteth externally only doth not in very deed act by an action of its own and therefore neither is there any re-action as neither action of the Anvil But the smiting and hardness are the occasional means of the wound one whereof to wit hardnesse is a proper occasional and internal thing the other to wit the smiting is accidental by accident In the next place there is another action of a moving strength which hath deceived many with the title of re-acting as while a hand layeth hold of bright burning Iron for the hand in laying hold doth in very deed act and that by it self and the apprehended Iron it self doth suffer in the laying hold but this doth likewise act by a new action indeed but by a far different action in burning the hand for neither is that the scorching of the Iron as being comprehended although that touching be an immediate occasion and cause without which it is not done but it is the proper action of the Iron as being burning bright for so touching and scorching are Beings wholly distinct and separable in the root and so also both their actions differ in their objects though in time of acting they do now and then co-unite Therefore the searing is not a re-acting of the Iron as being laid hold of or it is not the re-acting of comprehension Although in both the sorts of action the acting hand becomes a sufferer because two actions wholly unlike do concur to wit one of the hand laying hold and the other of the Iron burning Again swiftnesse while a Ram or Engine is sore smitten against a wall is not the proper activity of the Agent but it is a measuring of strength imprintingly moving and so is external and by accident Now as in respect of Agents by an altering Blas those do undergo not any thing of re-acting from their own objects because they generate by an absolute dispositive power of their objects which power seeing it is conferred on Nature by God it also acteth without a re-acting For example If the whole Globe of the earth and water should be of meal all that heap would at length be leavened by a leaven of bread being once put into it which verily could not be done if there were but the least re-action of the fermentable body For the small quantity of ferment or leaven should be presently choaked by the more big heap of the Object even as also the seminal spirits do dispose the subjected lump by reason of a faculty conferred on them and in-bred in them and do by a famous prerogative alter it and that without the re-acting of the subjected heap Neither doth that hinder because the stomach cocting
the more hard meats is felt as it were to re-suffer and to undergo a re-acting of digestible things because also that speech of Physitians is too rustical because unlesse that which is to be digested be perfectly cocted and at a set term of time the digestion of the same is in vain expected for it tarrying longer in the stomach is corrupted and so then a new Agent ariseth neither is the former any longer digestible when it is corrupted neither also doth that new Agent re-act in manner of bright burning Iron because there are in that digestible matter parts uncapable of digestion in respect of that stomach Neither also doth the leaven or ferment of bread leaven the powder of glasse or the sand of a flint because it is a strange and uncapable object and not to be subdued by it For so the digesting ferment of the stomach doth ferment the flour of meal but not the brans In the mean time the ferment of the meal suffers nothing by the powder of glass as neither doth that powder re-act resist or truly repel For truly altering ferments do never act but on things that have a co-resemblance but they are quiet do cease and sleep if they have not an object proper for themselves Therefore the hinderances of Agents by an alterative Blas are uncapacities hardnesses impurities unequalities and the requisite movers of space Therefore the action of these is terminated on a proper object and disposeth that object unto periods or ends and manners decreed for it But interposing hinderances are not the re-actions of the patient but the incapacities of the same For neither doth silver re-act while it is solved by Aqua fortis with so great a heat although this in the mean time decayeth in acting and loseth its own force and virtue but there is an in-bred property of Spirits and a natural endowment which do operate in acting that by reaching unto their appointed mark they may perfect themselves and bring down their own objects unto bounds naturally enjoyned them which thing distilled Vinegar doth sufficiently teach while it dissolves the stone of Crabs Snails Corals c for the sharp spirit of the Vinegar doth coagulate it self in acting and that which else was volatile and liquid is not onely strained together but also changeth its savour for it collects and constrains it self in a tangible form as if it did more rejoyce to remain in the shape of a more solid body than of a liquor But that such a coagulation and change of savour doth happen by the proper motion of the spirit of Vinegar but not through a re-acting of Bodies standing in the act of dissolution is manifest because there is not made a diminishing of those Bodies even in one grain at least in weight while as in the mean time some measures of stilled Vinegar do undergo the aforesaid change and so it doth not seem consonant to reason for that thing to be done by reason of the bruising or breaking of the stones onely but by reason of a proper natural gift-like unfolding of the Spirits The same thing almost comes to pass while the Spirit of Vitriol waxeth very hot with Mercury For the Mercury remaineth being unchanged in the essence and matter of Mercury onely that it assumes the countenance of snow losing in the mean time nothing of its own substance yet the Spirit of Vitriol passeth over into a true Alume but if the Spirit of Aqua fortis which for the other half of it is also the Spirit of Vitriol be combined with the Mercury that snow of Mercury is not made as neither doth the liquor it self pass over into an Alume And so from hence it appeareth that the action is not proper to the Mercury but to the Spirit of Vitriol diversly disposing it self of its own free accord and according to an in-bred inclination unto divers objects differently changing it self Wherefore the Spirit of Vitriol which is in the Aqua fortis through a strong heat of bubbles stirred up and a tempestuous boiling up dissolveth the Mercury and far otherwise than while it is the naked and simple Spirit of Vitriol which variety indeed in acting doth manifest the various virtues of the acting Spirit rather than those of the Mercury it self because in the one action the Mercury is made invisible which in the other becomes white like snow For the Spirit of Sea-salt although it be most sharp yet it is never changed by the fellowship of Mercury as neither also doth it act into the Mercury And so the effects of actions are seen and not of re-actings So Aqua fortis acts into all metals except gold but with Sal armoniack it acts only into gold but no longer into silver And so there are particular properties of Spirits but not re-actions of a suffering body because it is that which in its own substance and weight sustaineth nothing but a meer and one onely division of it self Therefore Spirits being tossed with divers passions in acting undergo divers transformations but if they remain drowsie and sleeping and do not act on their object they also remain in their antient qualities For that thing appeared at first to happen by reason of the touching of the Mercury because it is that which is also a certain Spirit but afterwards in the silver and gold that was wholly silent But moreover I remember that the Calx or lime of Silver hath drunk into it the liquor of Sulphur which they call a distillation which presently in the Silver laid aside all harshnesse and tartnesse and it changed this liquor into a gauly bitternesse by distilling for the silver remained the same which it was before in substance weight and powder therefore that bitternesse could not be afforded from the silver and for that cause in no wise from a re-acting of the silver but of its own free accord it was made by the property of the Spirit of the Sulphur for neither is there a lesse reason why the same Spirit of Vitriol in diversly acting doth also change it self after a diverse manner than that the same silver should under the boyling up of diverse Spirits wax cruel by a various manner of re-acting on these Especially while that in a Spirit there is made a various transmutation in acting but there is no successive alteration made of the substance of the silver in suffering or diminishing of its weight which things may be far more clearly demonstrated by Adeptists unto whom to wit the one onely and same Liquour Alkahest doth perfectly reduce all tangible Bodies of the whole Universe into the first life of the same without any changing of it self and diminishing of its virtues But it is drawn under the yoak and thorowly changed by its own compeere or co-equal onely For from hence there appeareth a certain sense to be in all particular things the which mediating they do sometimes one way and sometimes another move and unfold themselves about divers objects but not
heeded that an Insect by one onely Liquor extended throughout his length doth supply the promiscuous offices of Veins Arteries Sinews and Bowels so as that a Flie as yet flies away his Head being cut off and I have seen the Head of a horned Hornet which they call a flying Stag which was cut off to live and be moved six dayes after Therefore varieties do not depend on a necessity of powers and Organs but onely because it hath well pleased the Creator to distinguish some offices and ends or bounds in the more perfect living Creatures by a blinde and mutual dependance of Organs or Instruments In the mean time the action of government doth not cease in man by reason of this dependance and reciprocal successive course of members the which I have already accused in an Insect but not a few offices are administred in the Family-government of the same without all connexion of deriving Channels which thing because it hath stood doubtful therefore the Schools have assigned the greatest glory of life and studies unto Anatomy And when as the bond or conjunction was to them unknown they therefore with the amazement of the unwonted matter presently fled unto blinde ascending vapours or humours prostrating themselves without order for a sacred Anchor of ignorance For as much as after that they had dissected at pleasure those that were strangled by the womb those that were cut off by swooning or those who died by fits of the Falling-sickness or tremblings of the heart and had found no destroyer of life in the passages to whom the guilt of the murder might be imputed they betook themselves unto blind vapours and filthy or defiled exhalations derived into the heart and head However they then at leastwise ought to admit those deadly vapours to be carried about on every side by no continued commerce of passages I willingly admit of corporeal actions whereby heat doth afterwards make that hot which is brought unto it also of a passage whereby belching doth ascend out of the stomach thorow the Weasand into the throat and nostrils in the next place that excrements do covet their own Conduits and from which that which is grievous is exorbitant or stumbleth also that the vital Spirits are ordinarily dispersed into the Body by the vassally Channels or Pipes of their own Bowels I may be accounted out of my wits unless I confess these things Again I admit of an action whereby the Ferments of the Bowels do issue into the Kitchins of the digestions as it were by certain beames nor are they carried by an oblique or crooked motion But I do not passe by a third action in mans Body which is called Influential or that of government The which although it cannot ordinarily wander without the Body yet it is abstracted from a co-binding mean For neither doth it act by a direct and Sun-like beam onely but also by another to wit by that which doth unsensibly pierce the whole juncture of the parts and in manner of the Moon whatsoever it also obliquely beholdeth that it affecteth or moveth even as already before in our new Meteors This is I say the action of government or of dependance shining or beaming and piercing every way without the bawdery of co-binding or conjoyning yet not but unto a proper object Note here that I have elsewhere said that the Beard is generated by the stones in a man whom they distinguish from a gelded person But besides this action of government I acknowledge moreover two natural ones but prodigious or monstrous ones Therefore there is a third action proper to incorporeal Spirits which for action do not require a direct beam nor a beholding of the object nor a nearness disposition or co-binding of the same but they act onely by a powerful beck for indeed they want extreamities or outmost parts whereby they may touch as well the Bodies which they pretend to move as also the meanes themselves whereby they may move Bodies with a far more efficacious influential force or virtue That action is nigh akin to that whereby the Soul doth signifie its will or beck unto its own Organs whereunto it is tied For thou hast made him O Lord a little lesse than the Angels by the obligatory bond of a Body otherwise he is more worthy whom thou more esteemest of who art not deceived in thy estimation Thou wert incarnate for the redemption of men not for the redemption of Angels There is also a certain lying action usual with wicked Spirits to wit a jugling and bewitching one The which although it contain in it a true action yet it doth not manifest a true effect But the bewitcher befools the sight while the same things appear to one which are not or which are not to another or not in the same manner He befools the eyes that he may represent false things unto them and mock them with his beck or at his pleasure It is almost just as in Fevers doatages are naturally objected which are not before the eyes and ofâ—-times also without doatage a feverish matter seemeth to be brought thorow the back-bone unto the places affected For they are impostures the participation of a blemish the dispersing of a strange tincture from a contagion of the inflowing Spirit but not a puffie dispersing of corporeal vapours That is government whereby one part obeyeth another In the joynt-sickness or Gout that doth clearly appear Because a certain indisposition of the stomach with a small Fever goes before before that any sign doth manifestly appear in the joynts So in swooning sudden death the Falling-sickness giddiness of the Head Apoplexie c. the part is played about the mouth of the stomach so that for this cause it hath deserved the name of the heart and stomach-remedies being suddenly offered they are for the most part restored And so like juggles they are made elsewhere and seem to be carried to some other place For whatsoever is written concerning vapours lifted up out of the stomach and womb they do spread forth bewitching darkness as well about the matter conveyances of passages and meanes as the government of life it self After another manner there are true actions and true effects Even as elsewhere I have distinguished in the Treatise of Catarrhs or Rheumes I must now more deeply enquire into the Paradox of the action of government For indeed in the first place it is commonly well observed that anger fear and other passions of the minde do not onely with speed diversly affect the Spirit carried in the Arteries and Sinews with the very stroak of the eye that the Cheeks do fall the Appetite perisheth the hairs stand upright the voyce sticks the Spittle foams sweats and the other excrements themselves do defile through the storm of disturbances â— But a Horse-beast affords the fragments of his hoof which being fried and taken cures the Bloudy-flux but if the Beast be a wanton Colt then his hoof is mortal to those that have
strangle with a Cramp no otherwise than as being stirred with fury on them I remember that I once saw those that were strangled by their womb whose dead Carcasses looked black and blew being black in those parts wherein they had been pained before death Neither also doth it largely poure forth its Issues unless it should open its own Veins by an inordinate madness to overthrow the guiltless treasure of life So neither doth it contract the sinewes and muscles make the joynts lame displace the tendons resolve the muscles and crisp and cowrinckle the coats or membranes but onely by the action of government and unless it being stirred with fury it should keep a duality with the Womans life otherwise as long as every thing keeps unity it desires to remain in its Essence or Being When therefore a fury acts out of the womb alone it is the lesse evil But when it flies thorow into the sensitive Soul with which I have shewen that it hath an agreeing co-resemblance it pours forth the true madness of its own fury out of the hypochondrial part In young Maids at their first being enflamed or swollen with a lesse pleasure it withholds suppresseth discoloureth their courses and brings forth inordinate ones Then at length it produceth Palsies Cramps beatings of the heart tremblings and swoonings and contracteth the sinews which distempers by the volatile tincture of Coral Oyl of Amber Salt of Steel and such like Medicines I daily cure The same distempers being of the milder sort do obey stupefactive things Also the more cruel ones require greater Secrets of Chymistry What things I have already spoken touching the government of the Stones and Womb I have demonstrated by many Arguments in the Treatise of Catarrhs and likewise of the Duumvirate not by a more dull priviledge to belong unto the Stomach neither that fumes as neither that vapours do ascend out of the Stomach unto the Head and so that in this respect an impossible Fable is taught in the Schools Likewise in the Treatise of Fevers and elsewhere I have shewen by what sume drunkenness is made and by what way fumes are derived into the more formerly bosoms of the Brain Now I will teach the manner of making in an Apoplexie the Falling-sickness drowsie Evil c. that when I shall have denied them to be made by a co-knit Chain of vapours they may at least be understood to undergoe the action of Government To which end I must repeat what I before spake by the way To wit that the Beard is bred by the stones and that the distinctions ages varieties and colours hereof do depend thereupon which thing seeing it is commonly known I at leastwise admonish that it ought to be understood that a Vapour is not made which is brought forward by the Ministery of particular Organs but that a power is to be considered which in manner of light doth affect and dispose the whole Body or at leastwise its own objects according to the gift and ends seminally implanted in them by the Creator therefore a certain power or virtue beames forth from the Stones throughout the Body into the Archeus and so also into the sensitive Soul seeing the Church commends the femall Sex for a natural devotion Why therefore doth the Beard grow on the Chin and not on the Fore-head or on some other place seeing that eflux of the light of the Stones throughout the whole Body is universal This matter carries in it a most hidden Root of Philosophy demonstrated in the Treatise of the entrance of death into man For we must know that Souls do act on their own Body by the power of their own certain vital light the which seeing it is by the life in which the Soul it self is every where present every way extended the Soul in that its light deciphers the Idea's of its own conceipt and command that afterwards it may by the administring Spirits be wholly committed into the Organs for execution But those soulified lights or lightsome Souls themselves cannot be comprehended by us by a direct conceipt Seeing they are as it were the immediate clients of another and that an intelligible World wherefore the most High calls himself the Father of Lights For the Senses do bring nothing unto us from without which may decipher a conception of the soul in the phantasie wherefore in the Treatise of forms I have according to my slenderness touched at this matter as largely as I could in the newness of so great a Paradox which is as yet more strongly to be considered elswhere therefore lest repetition should tire it is sufficient here to have said by the way that substantial Souls and Forms even as likewise also a formal substance which I elsewhere distinguish from the former are certain unnamed Lights immediately framed by the Father of Lights Therefore the powers depending on Souls and certain ministring guarding Lights are also thus far lightsome I have shewen therefore by Science Mathematical that those very Lights do pierce each other yet that they reserve the Essence and properties of their former Lights But in inferiour things wherein Forms do inhabite and also formal Powers that these have their light even actually capable of being stirred up by our Archeus no otherwise than as in an Egg the power of the seed is actuated by a nourishing warmth Therefore there is in the roots of the hairs in the chin a power of growth duration and other dispositions although the masculine ruling power thereof be of one stone which power of the stones indeed although it be absolute yet it is not but diversly received in places to wit according to the manner and capacity of every receiver But as much as this speculation conduceth unto Medicine I will translate poysonous powers into the place of vital ones Because they are not lesse lightsome than those which are otherwise wholsom if poysons do immediately issue from their own forms For they are the gifts either of the more outward or forreign Simples of the first Creation or in the next place are begotten afterwards in us through errour of living By the same priviledge also the natural powers of the parts to wit of the Womb Stomach Stones c. do beam forth their own lights throughout the whole Body and do pierce the light of the Archeus also by the action of government depending on their light whence indeed this Archeus is comforted weakened estranged prostrated yea perisheth Therefore poysons in the Midriffs or those bred elsewhere do act by virtue of their own formal and lightsom powers according to the natural endowed Idea imprinted on them and they do affect the vital light planted in the sensitive Soul in the Archeus and so in the parts and they mutually pierce each other by a radical union and that either by a contagion of poyson remaining and transplanting the in-bred formal and vital light of the parts or onely for a little space as in those that have the
many Stools he recovered Although by a tough falling-Sickness he is accounted for dead Being a Youth and young man he was nimble enough but of an unconstant Health Presently from his Youth he felt that in running he breathed more than was meet which he attributed to a life abounding with profits In his Manhood he felt that a moderate Dance did punish him with a shorter Breath than was meet But about his fiftieth year he manifestly suspected that he was Asthmatical And that he perceived was manifestly increased about his fixtieth year For from his Infancy he had his Spleen notably offended now then payning him so that one dayes riding would be troublesom by reason of the jogging of his Spleen and especially he was tired if he had spent a day in the running of a Coach Moreover that falling-Sickness although it did not bewray it self but by the more weighty Causes otherwise laid to Sleep for some years yet it was not convulsive but like unto a fainting of the mind But he felt a certain joy about the Orifice of his stomack and presently self down Indeed he seldom had a Cough but even from his Youth a frequent Spitting out by reaching But he had his Spittle in small drops of a Skyish Colour like unto Gum-Dragon dissolved His Spitaings were seldom all the Summer more frequent in time of cold so that old age growing great he had very many reaching Spittings all the Winter At length being now wholly Asthmatical he read over a whole Psalm from the depth in one Breath his Speech not being stirred or interrupted if so be he sate He walks also in a plain the space of a League with a swift pace enough but if he climbs a Street or upright assent with a moderate step he presently Foams pants for Breath his Breast is straightned his Heart forthwith beats with and inordinate Pulse Interruptingly His Tongue waxeth dry behind towards his Jaws and he Foameth about his Teeth But besides his Knees do almost fail with the Asthma and according to the measure thereof more or less when as notwithstanding before the Asthma his whole Leg was nimble and strong But in sitting or standing yea in walking home he never pants for Breath if he doth not climb As oft as he is refreshed with a larger Supper he pants for Breath in the night his Breast is drawn together and his Wind-pipe snorts with a noise as it were continually and his Weasand would ring or tingle with Spittle All which things are presently allayed by sitting and he doth far more easily spit out some Phlegms by reaching which being dispatched he layes down backwards again But a sparing Supper as it gives rest to his Stomack so also peace to his Lungs But he perceiveth that this his Asthma hath its Nest and primitive Fountain in the middle space between the Mouth of his Stomach and Navil I thus draw out these things at Length whereby the seeds of an Asthma may be the more manifest For truly as well in the Consul Citizen and Hunter as in the Canonist the Asthma stands in a Poysonous seed which hath gotten the Spirit of some Bowel for its Root and Inn. But the property of that Seed is to contract the pores of the Lungs whereby it gives passage for Breath into the Breast The necessity of which constriction doth presently appear in the Teeth and Gums For it affecteth the whole Body because it is dispersed into the Common Archeus the Instrument to the whole Body For therefore do the Reins suck the Urine the Belly is loosened the Bowels do rumble Sanguification or Bloud-making Stumbles the Heart beats and at length the Lungs is contracted or drawn together even no otherwise than as the Cod under a desire of wantonizing But the nest of the Asthma is in the Duumvirate of which I shall treat in a particular Treatise to wit from whence the Government of the whole Body dependeth For otherwise the evil doth not sit immediately in the inflowing Spirit the which indeed should be finished by one only Fit for unless it had obtained a stable Root within it should not repeat it self as neither should it persevere Then in the next place the Character of the evil which so long as it sleepeth in a stable part it doth not seem that it can elle where be established than from whence the Government of the Body doth depend and so also it hath assumed the Prerogative of the heart The Asthma therefore in this is like to the Falling-evil the which although it doth not strike the mind doth not contract the Sinews or stir up swoonings yet it sleepeth in some Seat whence at length it defiling the Archeus with a certain contagion if it doth not contract the Sinews yet at least wise it doth the Lungs Indeed it hath a singular respect unto that Bowel yea although it may seem with the like speed to contract the Veins Kidneys and Liver yet there is not so manifest a hurting of these as is felt in Choaking All which things are as yet more cleerly manifest in the Citizen and old man of Sixty years of age For this reteined from his Infancy a Spleen ill affected and also Fits of the falling-Sickness else his Lungs were free enough But the other through the Agony or Passion of shame of Anger Revenge and the Modesty of commanding Reason sheweth that the Bowel in him was hurt wherein the first Motions of conceptions are enfolded We may lawfully therefore by a Phylosophical Liberty name an Asthma the falling-Sickness of the Lungs Indeed its Nest is in the Duumvirate it is also a Disease of the whole Body as it shakes all the Members before the Fit and so also sore shaketh the Spirit the ruler of the whole body notwithstanding it Fructifes in the Floor or Region of the Breast and singularly respecteth the Lungs themselves as it were the scope proper Object of its property That falling-Sickness of the Lungs is made by a Poyson which by its property doth affect the Lungs no otherwise than as a Cantarides doth the Instruments of the Urme There is indeed a certain Poyson which strikes the Head and whole man into an Epilepsie or falling-Sickness and much more insolently and wondrously than that it should strain the Lungs yet the rareness or slenderness of its affect durst not compel unto the Position or State of any Epilepsie when as notwithstanding in the mean time whatsoever cures an Epileptical man of Ripe years doth also cure an Asthmatical one Also I have seen a Poyson to have arisen out of the Womb which would strain nothing but the Ocsand so as that a Famous Matron could scarce swallow any thing for three Months I came unto her I knew her Malady and presently the Lord healed her For by reason of Leanness and Hunger she was molested with a continual falling-Sickness and for 37. dayes she had one only Stoole to the bigness of an Acorn In the Consul
indeed the Poyson consisteth in the Spleen and therefore it began with a Fever and doth alwayes so begin because it was co-fermented in the same place with feverish beginnings But in the Hunter about the Mouth of the Stomach and when it laid hold on him he was free from feverish beginnings And so also he begins his Fit in manner of the falling-Sickness and also his Fit is daily because the Ferment of his Asthma is con-centrical with the Bowel imitating the Harmony of the Heart In this therefore it communes with Exceutricities of Tempests but in the other it doth not so readily hearken unto them For on both sides it ought to expect the Ripeness of it self and a co-mingling with the Spirit of the whole Body And therefore Mountainous and Hot places do ripen and hasten the breaking forth of that Seed the which in another doth more easily break forth in Watery and Fenny conditions or seasons else where it being long silent because requiring a severish Seat which doth hasten the cast in Poyson and ripeneth it unto the Period of its breaking forth Wherefore in speaking properly the Seed it self is the Asthma and falling-Sickness of the Lungs although it may be silent a good while But while it is brought to Maturity now it is the Apple of that Tree the Root Fruit on-set and product of the lurking Asthma And because it riseth into Act by vertue of a vital Government and in manner of Influences hence it suddenly invades no otherwise than as a Snare cast on the neck For I esteem a man to be Asthmatical as well out of the Fit as within it because a true Asthma is in him even as a Pear-Tree is as well a Pear-Tree in Winter as in Autumn while it hath Pears In the mean time I suppose every one is satisfied at least that the aforesaid Asthmaes do not owe their Original to Phlegm flowing down into the Lungs or to a supposed Rheum or Catarrhe seeing they do suddenly invade and are solved without a manifest Spitting out by reaching which might have been able so to have exercised the Lungs Yea if any thing a little before the end of the Fit be by chance spit out and that as little as may be that ought not to undergo the reason of a former or occasional cause but rather it hath the room of a product to wit from a great co-straightning and unseasonable injury brought on the Lungs Wherefore I am cruel if I shall propose a Remedy for a Rheumy-Head or evapourating Stomach Hence therefore every one that will be a wise man and a Christian shall learn that the careful diligenees of Expectoratings in an Asthma especially in a dry one by Lickings Lohochs Syrupes by Bloud-letting and loosenings Medicines by the Drinks of China Sarsaparilla or Sassaphras which they falsely name Dryers are vain and by a spareness of Diet Sweats Baths Cauteries to wit that they may stay pull back evacuate consume or turn away the foregoing or conjoyned Cause of an Asthma lifted up out of the Stomach or otherwise materially raining down out of the Head And therefore any undistinct Remedies hitherto attributed by a like indiscretion unto Coughs and searched out by the frail events of Fortune are in vain in the next place vain are the beginings of Flowrs of Brimstone however variously Sublimed in so great a Malady and hence are the counterfeited Remedies of extracted Milk and Tinctures although these do promise more confidently and speciously than others and do infuse a hope the more likely to be true by so great a Preparation In like manner I understood the co-fermentings and promises of Wine with Colts-foots and Lung-Remedies to be vain And the cause being certainly known unto me I then at length throughly viewed the Paragraph or short sentence of Paracelsns concerning the Asthma stablished on a boasting of the Author together with his Medicines of Tartar Sulphur Bawm c. But I found the Errhina or Medicines that purge the Head by the Nostrils the Apophsegmatisms or Purgers of Phlegm by the Palate caps of Saffron of the Antients and other Medicines of the like fort to be more foolish than these Likewise solutives or Purgers by Stool and Bloud-lettings to be cruel ones because the dejecters of strength I confess indeed that by those Arts the Fits are now and then allayed or chafed away dispersed that that thing hath in times past deceived me but afterwards it seriously repented me of my Blockishness I acknowledge that I then spread Masks and Cloaks over Diseases that I healed none but deluded as many as relyed themselves on my Ignorance Therefore after that I stood cast on the Shoar as unprofitable Froath by the Storms of vulgar Ignorance I greatly wondered that the Schools Spires of so great Wits could not yet bid adieu unto the false persuasions of Predecessors seeing the Asthma is never taken away by any Remedy but by the Remedy of a Secret which may pierce all the paths of the Body throughout the whole that it may leave nothing unattempted and so that by one only means it overthrows the falling-Sickness with the Asthma and whatsoever hath any where immediately fixed its Seat in the Dens of the Body I except the Gowt and the like Diseases which have taken up their Inns immediately in the Spirit of Life And when in the mean time I as amazed did seriously weigh my vileness or little esteem in the sight of Wits in times past so great I could not but presently falling down on my Face praise the Father of Lights in the Prayer of Silence in that he had given knowledge unto the little Ones which he had hidden from the wise of this World Seeing it is not of him that wills runs and labours but only of God that sheweth mercy To whom be all Honour and Glory for ever But forasmuch as sweet Smels Sorrow likewise sweetnesses of Tast did cause the Asthma I will not have it understood as if an Asthma should by it self be made from those causes Seeing that in some Women the same things are grateful and unhurtful but in others instead of an Asthma they bring forth the Megrim beatings of the Heart and Swoonings For all those particulars distempers do proceed from a singular Fury of Womt-madness A certain rich Elder and of a good life had never spent his Youthful years in Lust or Riot in his 38th year he becomes suddenly hoarse he looseth by degrees his Tone and Voice and expressed his words being only formed by his Breath He after the Hoarsness wholly panting for Breath after a years time dyeth His Lungs being dissected the hinder Lobe of the left side is found hard and stony like a Pumice and within as it were a Clot of Bloud had waxed Brawny throughout his Lungs But where the rough Artery is dispersed into four Lobes the Clots were Cheesy of a middle consistence between a Gristle and a Pumice and many of those
recompence the fore-going errours and defect Nevertheless although it may be lawful from the aforesaid considerations to prove a greater necessity of difficult Breathing yet at leastwise they do nothing convince why there is a straightned Breathing in our Man of sixty Years old but otherwise in a healthy person not any at all And seeing in the Man of sixty Years old the Lungs do want obstruction even as is manifest from the signs supposed it must needs be also that his defect be fetched from elsewhere especially seeing he feels in his Abdomen or lower Belly the place of his Stomack pressings together the causes of his Asthma Therefore his Asthma is from the Spleen being ill affected and that from the Duumvirate and the cause is stirred up by an ascending motion otherwise sleeping by reason of the considerations above which by the action of government doth otherwise strain a weak Lungs by aspect only no otherwise than as was declared concerning a dry Asthma whither a lurking Falling-sickness the pain of the Spleen after riding the sore shaking of the whole Body in riding c. do tend Moreover that I may give the more safe judgment whether the Lungs did labour by a passion of its own or indeed by a secondary passion I busily enquired whether he felt carnal copulation troublesome unto him and he confessed to me that before the Asthma was manifested Venus had hurt him that after the flesh lyact he felt cold in his Breast a looseness in his Muscles and fainting threatned unto him But involuntary pollutions that he experienced no such thing At length in his old age presently after a seldome carnal act that he perceived a snorter of Phlegms in his rough Artery or else silence Whence I certainly conjectured that seeing from an Infant he had retained his Spleen troubled by a Quartane-ague and falling-sickness and that the Milt is the nest of carnal Lust because in the case proposed the Duumvirate strikes the Lungs with a right Line especially being prostrated by an unequal strength that the provoking and radical cause of his Asthma was in the Spleen yet so as that the Lungs doth not altogether want blame although it labour not with the first or chief affect of the Asthma For it sufficeth that it is trodden down by an unequal strength that the Duumvitate may exercise on it its own diseasie Tyranny For if the Lungs should labour with an Asthma from a primary or first affect or moving they should continually pant for Breath and breath forth a difficult air Indeed a thin or slender poyson layes hid in the Duumvirate which is the cause of this dry Asthma ordinarily fast a sleep in it self nor awakened but by too much motion and so in climbing sooner than in descending for the considerations of the oblique Muscles of the bottom of the Belly afore-touched Neither doth that poyson strike the Heart and Lungs materially in manner of an exhalation vapour or Smoakiness but by the action of Government And seeing the Heart doth beat the pulse is inordinate and also a great and frequent panting for Breath is desired and the place between the Navil and mouth of the Stomack is vexed from one only cause stirred up and by one only motion and after a like manner it becomes undoubted that there is one only Poyson which may affect the vital power of the Heart and Lungs Then also he is vexed more grievously manifestly and cruelly every Year because an unacceptable guest abiding in the Spleen doth daily through old age become more troublesom And these things I have more strongly concluded with my self because that Asthmatical Man doth complain that for many Years his left hand was now and then astonied or stupified and that he was cold in the Palm or hollow of his Hand under the auricular or ear vein and likewise that his left shoulder did greatly pain him although laden with a light habite if he walketh the farther although but modestly For I have observed that all Splenetick persons when the Spleen begins by reason of old age to fail of its office do difficultly breath This therefore is sufficient to be spoken concerning the Asthma of the Man of sixty Years of of age one thing only I will here note to wit that his left hand in the length of the palm doth pain him through cold piercing it and likewise that his fingers are now and then benummed from the discommodities of his Spleen that that is made by the action of Government But if the Schools do command that that comes to pass by reason of blind vapours at leastwise let them strew the way whereby they may go thitherto The archer therefore of this Asthma is in the Duumvirate but his mark is the Lungs Therefore there is a two-fold Asthma a moist and a dry one That indeed hath found its name from a plenteous spitting by reaching and for the most part is made by the proper vice of the Lungs and so is continual and doth more trouble one at seasons the cold and the moist in old age weakness and things a-kin to Death But a dry Asthma is for the most part interrupted And even as it tumultuously sore shaketh the whole Body even the Teeth with a confusion of the vital Spirits it must needs be the Falling-sickness of the Lungs wherein the Lungs alone suffereth a constraining or convulsion of it self because it causeth a straining together of the Pores thereof For in this Asthma the whole Archeus is defiled in its root some part to wit the Womb or Spleen c. doth first affect the inbred Spirit of the Lungs by the action of government And therefore from an invisible and sudden immaterial storm the whole Body is sore shaken and is again suddenly restored to an unhoped for health In vain therefore are openings of the pores hitherto unknown attempted in a dry Asthma and in vain are many and easie expectoratings because they are cloakative and vain helps as many as are intent on products or effects indeed vain are the Remedies which are wont to be administred in Coughs seeing the Cough doth most far differ from a dry Asthma But a moist Asthma although it for the most part produceth the Cough that it may expectorate the produced Snivelliness yet it is severed from the Cough in the whole particular kind because it is wont to be bred from many causes For it hath either a mattery imposthume or some secret phlegm obstructing in the very bowel it self or an imprinted mark of some cold or some other injury from whence it may bring forth many muckinesses or snivels and corrupt its proper nourishment Oft-times also those muckinesses are stirred up not so much from the malady of the Bowe◠as from the weakness of the wandring keeper Although this kind of vice 〈…〉 rather bring forth a Cough than an Asthma yet they do easily happen or agree together for the unequal strength of the Lungs and obstruction thereof The
so bent their Studies that what was not yet found out by the Greeks and Arabians they may find more successful elsewhere Hence indeed they have been devolved with a steep fall unto the Fictions of Tartar but surely their curiosity is to be had in great esteem although it shall not attain unto its desire For It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God alone that sheweth Mercy Therefore the Schooles donow leave their title and Market For what shall they do if the conjoyned root of Diseases and method of Curing them be not to be drawn out of the Elements Qualities Contrarieties Humours Stars Windes and Catarths But seeing other Examples of healing have possessed the more Modern followers of Paracelsus it must as yet be diligently searched into whether the Causes of Diseases have been made known to Paracelsus For when he the Lessons of the Ancients being rejected had sufficiently understood that there was nothing of a Foundation or Truth in Complexions and Humours he began by variously doubting to inquire into the most immediate Cause of Diseases and Posterity owes him Praise for it Although he hath not exactly touched at the matter that cannot be accounted a fault if the Most High the Dispenser of Gifts as yet vouchsafed not to open the Truth to Mortals in Paracelsus's days This man therefore had learned of Basilius Valentine that Water Oyle and Salt were to be separated by Distillation from most Bodies He began to call these Three Things not only the first universal beginnings of corporal beings but also he so introduced them within Diseases and the necessities of healing that he referred all Diseases immediately into some of those three things And thus he made his followers almost mad that the first hope of diligently searching into the truth being rejected they consecrated all things to the three first things Which Doctrine hath fixed its roots the faster because the three things are actually separated from most Bodies and so that they were not undemonstrable like humours arisen from feigned beginnings But surely this abuse was discovered while as these three beginnings were wrested aside unto the originals of any Diseases whatsoever For truly because many Bodies being dissolved by the fire gave from them Salt Sulphur and Liquor which they point out to be Mercury it was thought that all Diseases did owe their Birth unto those constitutive beginnings First of all Hermes before the industry of the Greeks sprang up because in his Pymander he had noted every Trine to be perfect consequently also he foresaw that in Chymical things Mettals did consist of two extreams to wit of a Body and a Soul and the which he would have cleave together not but by the baudery of a certain third thing or Spirit Afterwards Basilius Valentine a Monk of Benedict wrote more distinctly he named the Soul of a Mettal the Sulphur or Tincture but the Body the Salt and lastly the Spirit he called the Mercury Which things being thus borrowed of Basilius Theophrastus Paracelsus afterwards transferred by a wonderful diligency of search into all the Principles of Bodies he being one Age younger than Busilius The Doctrine of whom the Authors name being suppressed he snatched on himself and by a liberty of his own introduced it into the speculations of Medicine So indeed that after he had banished every Disease into the Caralogue of Tartars and had not yet satisfied his own scruple at length he adoms his Paramire of the three first beings with much boldness Indeed he forged these three things as it were the beginnings of all Bodies and declameth many things in general touching Diseases but being constrained by necessity when as he would reduce Diseases into the ranks of the three first things being pressed down under the burden he was silent Except in the Family of Ulcers where he had seemed to himself to have found salt at least wise in the other two beginnings he on both sides remained scanty and almost ridiculous For he had commanded that it should every where be believed that the four Elements were nothing but the incorporeal Wombs and asit were the Inns of Bodies but that the first beginnings did so supply the conditions or offices of Bodies that also the Elements of the world have all their substance and subsistance from those three things only Elsewhere also he being unmindful of these hath stuck wholly in the Elements and next he hath ascribed the inclinations and properties of Stars and men to the complexions of these He also hath dedicated unto all the particular Elements their own fruits and degrees of fruits but not all to one Element nor the fruits any longer proceeding from incorporeal Elements as Wombs but that these did borrow their Bodies from the material Elements themselves Lastly by the same liberty and unconstancy of a borrowed matter he hath taught that Bodies do by a resolving decay sometimes into four but sometimes into three Elements only Truly he hath so graced the Art of the Fire by bringing it into Medicine that he breaths after an eternal Name for himself and hopes that the time would come that he should sometimes wax proud with the Title of the Monarch of Secrets He foreseeing that the Doctrine of Basilius was not commonly known therefore the Name of the Author being concealed he made it his own and in this respect hath he enlarged his own Sections Wherefore his Tartar now and then losing its universal dominion in Diseases it being suppressed he makes an invasion as being constrained by the Laws of his three first things Which his three first things as presuming on increase he would at length that they should become the Mothers and Wombs even of all Diseases as well of the mind as of the Being or Body This indeed was only his own and not the Invention of Basilius and the which when he would endeavour to disperse into the ranks of Diseases by Troops he sometimes goes confusedly to work yet doth he again more oft go beyond himself being every where forgetful of his own Doctrine delivered For in his Archidoxals he hath dedicated a little Book to the separation of the Elements which are to be brought out of the flame air water and earth And thus far he hath resisted his own Doctrine concerning the three first things and concerning the Wombs of the Elements because now there should be four beginnings no longer the three first and ultimate into which at length by long labour the three first things as being after the Elements so of right no longer the first should be derived For they being also thus enriched by one number should beget far more Diseases than of late than while that pretended Monarch commanded only three to be the principles as well of Bodies as of Diseases Yea truly he accuseth as guilty only and at length one only Tartar to be the cause of almost all Diseases But elsewhere in some peculiar Treatises he calls the Heaven
Objects receiving Especially because dungs are not the voluntary putrifyings or artificial putrifactions of things but the limited and specifical ones whose efficacy seeing it doth not proceed onely from the thing it self it hath need of an external author alwaies operating in the same agreeing resemblance also in the same manner and character most especially because the impression follows both the healthy disposition of its ferment as also the sick one Which thing doth from thence more clearly appear Because belching or a flatus originally in the stomack even as also the flatus of the Ileon do extinguish the flame of a candle But a dungy flatus which is formed in the utmost bowels and breaks forth thorow the fundament being sent thorow the flame of a candle is enflamed in flying thorow it and expresseth a flame of divers colours like a Rain-bow But that which is formed in the Ileon or slender bowel is never inflameable is often without smell unless it bring down the mixture of another with it it oft-times strikes through being tart sharp and brackish in the Fundament Therefore flatus's or windinesses do differ in us in their matter form place ferment properties and so in their whole species Neither have flatus's less their own generical and specifical varieties than the Bodies from whence they proceed For flatus's are in no wise Air. Yea flatus's are not only distinguished by the matter whereof they are but also by the ferment and seed of flatus's Hitherto have those things regard which I have taught concerning the birth of a Gas or wild Spirit which surely should else remain in its antient concrete Body unless a ferment of the place being adjoyned and a seed of sharpness drawn it be made or composed into a flatus or Gas I will repeat in this place the general kinds of diversities of flatus's bred in us which are specificated by their ferments and the properties of things from whence they arise Behold their Scheme or Figure For there are two irregular flatus's in us whereof one is ordinary natural and necessary in the Ileon The other is plainly pestiferous and degenerate the which a poyson being taken or bred within doth for the most part lift up the whole habit of the Body into a tumour And then there are four flatus's in the stomack and bowels One of the stomack which is belching And this is either specifical from undigested hard and stubborn meat Another is unsavory of the cream being almost digested but bred from a weakness of digestion but a third is sower from the cream digested but yet hindered A fourth belching is brackish being produced from the ferment of the place being exasperated The second flatus is that of the and it hath some diversities in it The first whereof containeth farting arising from Ileon the abundance of the aforesaid natural flatus The other is bitter which breaks forth from strange and ill digested dregs And it hath somewhat of an over-hasty dungy ferment Also the flatus of the gut Colon succeedeth from meats not plainly freed from their stomatical sharpness but being corrupted by a prevention a dungy ferment fore-timely coming unto them There is also a dungy mortified flatus from a resolving and putrefaction of the lively and vital nourishment of the solide parts Lastly without the channels of a bowel is the flatus Tympany arising from a diseasifying cause between the Bought of the intestine and the concave of the Peritoneum or skin which covereth the bowels Which diseasifying cause hath the property of a local matter but a more mild one But the flatus which is hence begotten is not from a diseasifying matter but it is the product thereof indeed it is from the same matter whereof the natural and ordinary flatus of the Ileon is That is from the very immediate nourishment of the bowel But it is mortal as well from a poysonous cause or from a radical Disease as in respect of the place which produced Disease may be increased without a limit and at length may choak the sick like the Dropsie Ascites The Scheme being now finished thou shalt see that the matter whereof flatus's are is that concrete Body about which a ferment doth operate And then that he who strives to drive away flatus's by propulsion or dispersing and so to overcome the Disease doth not take away the cause but goes unto the last effect Which thing that it may be the more cleerly made known to thy view I will suppose three Brethren to be nourished with the same drink and meat one whereof can send forth almost no flatus But another and the weaker can bring forth many un-savory and now and then sower belchings But the third undergoing a disproportionable temper of his bowels can make many crackings From whence first of all it becomes plain to be seen that flatus's are not made of flatulent or windy meats the use whereof is therefore so greatly forbidden in the Dietary of the Schools But even as fulness doth for the most part cause many windy blasts the which sobriety excuseth therefore it follows that the fardle is for a burden but that a burden presupposeth a labour or weakness of the digestive faculty So sharpish Apples if they are roasted do puff out very much windiness the which if they are eaten by a strong stomack are void of windiness Whence it is sufficiently manifest that a flatus is the vice of us but not of things The which that nothing hinders that some things are more apt for the producing of flatus's and that from hence they are called windy Because those things which are most flatulent do not beget flatus's but in defective persons For if windinesses were by themselves and materially in meats flatus's should equally bewray themselves in all and he that should send forth the less of flatus's the same being retained he should be the weaker Both whereof is false Therefore the aforesaid interchangeable course of flatus's doth accuse the agent rather than the matter In the next place if it should be moved principally from the matter and there be a fatty flatus in us but that could in no wise be troubled or moved by our luke-warmth which is first obliged to vaporal moistures before that it can be sufficient for dry and oylie exhalations Therefore even from hence it is also manifest that flatus's are made by a causing but not by a separating agent Again that also of Galen is absurd that some things are windy in the first digestion but that other things utter their flatus in the second which he calls sanguification and so also hence he names them things venereous or causing natural lust But the third things he calls windy in the last digestion even as he saith concerning the keepers of Fig-trees That their fleshes are blown up and swollen with windiness from the eating of abundance of Figs. For every flatus which was after any manner materially in meats at least while the food
those very Diseases but the causes manner means passages end or appointments of a Rheume I deny I deny those causes and I diligently search into those in the removal whereof health consisteth I acknowledge indeed that a corrupt mattery Imposthume of the Lungs being broken any one doth presently dye yet I deny that the mattery Imposthume is a Rheume or that death is to be imputed to a Catarrhe And much more vehemently do I deny that the corrupt mattery Imposthume is bred of a vapour of the stomack So I name a Consumption not a defluxion into the Lungs but I know it arose from an inward error of the Lungs I grant that the Gout is fore-felt as it were a hot defluxing drop yet I do not admit of a Catarrhe in its matter manner means and bound of making Even as in its own Chapter more cleerly The latex also being dedicated to the sweeping or cleansing of the Kitchins is in it self indeed guiltless but it in the way admitting of a coupling of dissolved salts doth constitute divers Colonies of Imposthumes Ulcers and itchings I deny therefore that vapours are carried into the Head which may pierce through the brain and coats Neither in the next place do I endure that the breath is carried from the breast unto the stomack and the bowels in a direct passage as it hath otherwise pleased Paracelsus but that a very small quantity thereof doth breath thorow the pores of the Diaphragma For neither when the breath is pressed together doth any thing worthy of note go forth under the Midriffe neither doth the breath smell of the places which are under the Diaphragma In like manner neither are vapours carried from the stomack into the Head but by the Arteries if men are made drunk But whatsoever causeth the giddiness of the Head faintings and other distempers of like sort is the retainer of another Common-wealth than that of vapours So neither from the womb are vapours derived into the Head however bruitish symptomes of the Head may thereby be said to be bred for that is not the obligation of transpiration which is the single duel of another Monarchy and that whereby the throat ariseth unto the height of the chin is not to be called the action of vapours indeed it is an action unknown to the Schools which I shall some times explain to be that of government whereunto all parts in the Body do owe a Clientship For there is no other command of the womb over the whole Body than that whereby the stones do distinguish a Cock from a Capon a Bull from an Oxe and a Man from an Eunuch in figure blood flesh hide and courage But because in supposed Rheumie affects the liquor latex being defiled doth obtain its own dominion of water hence as many Diseases as are ascribed unto Catarrhes are for the most part exasperated in the night time indeed the Blas of the Moon doth work the operations of successive changes in us The which do most especially boast themselves over the weak or defective brain and likewise over the sinews and membranes and these operations do oft-times fore-feel and fore-divine future tempests and therefore I also call them the torture of the Night And I wish this knowledge of presaging were not sold to us at so dear a rate that they ought to be thorowly paid by pains and anguishes For a short-winded Gouty person yea he that carrieth a callous matter or corn under his foot being often awaked out of his sleep in the bed or chimny doth fore-feel the future storms of times or seasons a black cloud to be by degrees spread over the Heaven and the hinges of winds to be shortly changed But Paracelsus would have Mercury to be President or chief over the liquour of nourishment throughout the whole Body and therefore he elsewhere concerning Minerall Diseases confounds that in name and thing with an earthly Moon Yet I know that the humour follows the commands of the seminal or seedy part whereunto it is most neerly resembled for therefore neither do liquid Bodies as yet rejoyce in the conferences of the Stars as long as they are not radically implanted in the Spirit of Life For from hence it is manifest that the marrow is a homogeneal or simple part of the Body but not the liquor thereof Because it manifestly answers to the Moon and brain whereunto the bones are obedient For so whatsoever things do tyrannize under the name of defluxions and likewise the foul Disease Convulsion wringings of the bowels do return under the torture of the Night because they hearken to the latex through the Dominion of our Moon they being offensive affects which hearken unto the motion of the Stars CHAP. LVIII A Reason or Consideration of Food or Diet. 1. They prescribe a Diet for Diseases who are ignorant of Diseases 2. The dietary part of Medicine is suspected 3. Some errors about the rules of Food or Diet. 4. Curing is not subject to the dietary part of Medicine 5. The Authors opinion 6. The object of the dietary part 7. A proof from a common event 8. Crooked ends 9. From a numbring up of parts 10. A diet doth privily accuse of the ignorance of a Remedy 11. A just complaint of the poor 12. Observances of the Author 13. The mockeries of the dietary part 14. Bread is not so much a meat as a universal victual 15. Why bread is mixt with meats 16. The chief hinge of the dietary part 17. A certain rule 18. Why the commands of the dietary part of Medicine are not to be trusted to 19. Ten Positions of the Author 20. How far the force of a sparing Diet may extend it self 21. The necessity of chewing 22. Whence the varieties of things digested are 23. An examining of Barley water or Cream 24. Some preventions or fore-cautions accustomed to the Author 25. A Question concerning the Ferment of the Stomack 26. The digestions do prescribe the Rules of Diet. AFter that I had finished the Treatise of Digestions I had willingly brought Diseases on the Stage but the action of Government being too scanty in the Schools was left behind as yet maimed and the Majesty of the Duumvirate it self and plainly the spiritual radiation or beaming influence of spirit according to its whole Wherefore I interweaved the Treatise of the Soul as it yeelds up its full right to the Duumvirate But I could not as yet moreover depart out of the Stomack but I presently added upon the Duumvirate some examinations of my opinion concerning Diet. Truly I have promised to demonstrate that the Schooles have passed by those things the profession whereof they chiefly boast of to wit that they have not as yet known a Disease in the general kind or have diligently searched into it by its particular kindes or species or to have handled it by its causes or by meet remedies And therefore it consequently followes that if through the aide of Physitians by conjectures there hath
putrifie together with its gripings if it be joyned with Gumme-dragon The Corrections therefore in Dispensatories are burdens and blockish addittaments which do not cause the moderatings of poysonous qualities but wastings of their faculties For even as Poysons have a fermental readinesse of acting so we were to have laboured that we might reserve the strength and aptness of Medicines but withal that we might direct them through the in-graftings of Art unto the necessities of Chronical and far scituated Diseases This one onely thing remains in this business that we do infringe and tame the chief or greatest violence of the thing with the propagation of its ferment Wherefore as I do in general pity the Compositions and Corrections of the Shops so I do as yet more detest the precipitatings glassifyings and preparations of Mercury Antimony Tuttie Sulphur c. And likewise the adulterations of Spirits out of Spices hot Seeds Vitriol Sulphur c. For they are prepared for gain by our fugitive servants and purchased by the Shops rather to the disgrace of the Art of the Fire than for the defect of the sick I likewise bewail the shameful simplicity of those who give men leaf-gold and bruised or poudered precious stones to drink with great hope selling their ignorance if not deceit at a great rate As if the stomack may expect even the least succour thereby And therefore the more subtile error of those is more to be bewailed who corrode Gold Silver Corals Pearls and the like by sharp liquors and seem to dissolve them and think that by this means they are to be admitted within the veins and truly to communicate their properties with us For they know not alas they know not that that which is souâ— is an enemy to the veins and therefore that the forreign sharpness of the dissolving liquors being conquered and transchanged those Mettals and Stones are a pouder as before The which into howsoever the finest pouder it may be reduced yet nothing of it is digested by the stomack or bestows on us its virtues Which thing that thou mayest see before thine eyes For pour thou the salt of Tartar on things that are dissolved in some brackish corrosive liquor and presently that which was dissolved will fall to the bottom in form of a pouder For if strong waters or aquae fortes's do not change mettals in their substance although those are made transparent which were before thick or dark but that Silver is thence safely recovered with what blindness therefore do they give Stones and Pearls to drink as if through the corrosives they should lead the antient essence of Stones or a Mettal behind For it was the invention of a subtile deceiver that he might have his Medicines in great esteem with the sick Because ignorant deceivers think that if the thing dissolving be not distinguished by the sight from the thing dissolved that the very thing also dissolved is truly transchanged in its substance In the next place Oyles and fatnesses are not of value for Balsams Oyntments and Emplaisters unless perhaps as they may give a consistence to the Medicine For first a great part of men do not suffer Oyntments in their skin because they stir up itchings and wheales with swelling And then because the aforesaid Oyles are for the most part prepared out of Herbes the virtue whereof lurketh in a muscilaginous and gummy juice but that juice is drawn by boylings into the broaths or is pressed forth with a press the which is not truly married to Oyles but being fixed doth at length wax hard But I do more rightly constrain or gather the Balsams of flowers in Honey Yet I more admit of the simplicities of simple Oyles than of compound ones Therefore I do most especially expel the disconsonant and deaf compositions of the Oyntments and Emplaisters of the Shops because nothing is more blockish than for the Pouder of Vegetables in fixing to be scorched and so made unfit under various fatnesses and those ignorantly co-mixed The which if it shall be Mineral it doth not admix it self with fat but rather is so covered and imprisoned within the Oyntments that it becomes of none effect and is for weight only For nothing is to be mixed with Oyles Oyntments or Emplaisters which cannot be Homogeneally resolved in them throughout their whole Body It is also worthy of loud laughter that Loaf or the whitest Sugar is commended not because it is more sweet and more worthy in its virtue but because it is dearer and hath often boyled with the Lixivium of Calx vive Whereas the name of purity hath caused a juggle Flowers Herbes c. being bruised and Loaf-sugar admixed therewith do fall asleep those which are mixt with the more sweet Sugar do snatch up a ferment and in waxing hot do unfold the virtues of a simple But presently after through a close digestion of heat the ferment is restrained and they become far more powerful But the diversity of the Ferment depends on the Lixivium wherewith one of the Sugars doth abound but the other wanteth that Lixivium I am wont also to apply Unguents outwardly with choice or judgement To wit in affects wherein the Cure is abroad or far from the Center as in a wound bruise burn c. I perswade them to be applyed luke-warm But where an inward affect requires an outward succour as the Bloody-flux Collick Convulsions in the Stone of the Reins a Schirrhus c. I bid that the Oyntments be cherished from without with a heated stone or hot sand And that thing I learned by beholding Chaff walking upwards and downwards in a kettle of luke-warm water as it were from heat under-kindled and therefore first I conjectured that through a potent heat Oyntments being applyed are quickened and do joyn their Spirit to our venal blood and then I certainly found that thus the evil or Malady is drawn or allured forth and that symptomatical on-sets are stayed And that whatsoever things Baths do perform in the whole Body this same thing heated and kept-warm Oyntments do finish in a part thereof without the decay of the whole body For a cherishing Tile or Brick doth drive the odour of the Emplaister inwards and doth attract outward those things which being the more slow do else stick fast and likewise the spirit making the assaults is attracted together with the blood is dispersed by the heat and another succeedeth in its place draweth the force of the Medicine and as it were boyling up within is driven back Concerning the gathering of Simples also men are not every where sufficiently grounded They determine that roots are to be gathered in time of Autumn But for the most part many things do afford the more effectual roots in the Spring-time Polipodium flourisheth chiefly at Spring but in Autumn it affordeth a grey and black root indeed barren and oldish I judge that all things are to be gathered immediately before their state of maturity for a full ripeness
poysons of Minerals are bred of Salts Sulphurs and Mercuries whereby their fury is propagated by a Seed Analogical or agreeable in proportion But how evident is that thing in the company of Vegetables where those seminal perturbations and therefore also co-natural ones are by Seeds transplanted with a continued course For we may well know any kind of poysons which are reduced by the ranks of perturbations by distinguishing of them Consequently also the knowledge of specifical properties is drawn per quia or from the Effect of the Cause if they are reduced unto the certain orders of perturbations or disturbances and affections Even as more largely elsewhere concerning the Plague So indeed many things are searched into and found out we thereby by the Effects come to the Causes and being led by the hand from one knowledge to another the poysons of an Erisipelas and Dysentery being in their Tearms from the wroth of the Archeus their cure is in a Hare wherein is fear meekesse flight and an harmless life Neither is the argument of contrariety of value For first of all I have admitted of contrarieties in living Creatures and I say that the properties of those being as it were sealed in the Idea's of living Creatures are in some sort contrary in the priority of the efficient tree as the Seals of Passions do end in to this Idea And so the fruits of this tree do act no more by way of contrary Passions but from the force of a received and inbred seminal Character wherein every thing acteth according to the Talent received even as it is in it self but not by reason of a repugnant duality or disagreeing contrariety Therefore the blood wherein is the seminal product and the effecter of the fearful meekness doth mortifie the poyson which is bred from a poysonous wrothfulness For I have noted in things loves hatreds terrors and the seminal products seals Idea's and characters of these Whence I have found out the immediate Causes of many hidden Remedies But I have interpreted them to be found out and suggested by me with the truth of possible and appearing consequences These things I have spoken concerning occult or hidden properties out of the Dream that we may cease to be occult Philosophers and may follow the manifest Doctrine of the more tractable ones Now I will prosecute my Dream I perceived I say that Smallage Asparagus and whatsoever things are taken to open Obstructions have indeed a Salt of a specifical savour the which being with their middle life made the Cream of the Stomack remaineth surviving although enfeebled yet that they do obtain weak Remedies for the opening of Obstructions For truly those things which do keep the Savour of their own concrete Body under the ferment of the Stomack as Onion Garlick Mace Turpentine Asparagus c. Those I perceived even to slide along with the Superfluities because they wax soure with their specifical Savour and then do take under the Gawl the nature of a Salt and at length under the dungy ferment of the Reines do put on a Urine-provoking or diuretical faculty But whose specifical Savours do putrifie by continuance and perish with the sourness of the Cream those things I perceived to be indifferent meats but whose Savours do not plainly yeild themselves into the sourness of the Cream and do after some sort remain in their mediocrity for the Cream if it should alike on every side receive a ferment and wax soure it should easily be sharper than Vinegar those things indeed-do through the force of the Gawl easily perish in the Meseraick Veines that together with a third or mumial ferment they may be changed into Venal Blood Therefore I perceived those to reach forth feeble aides for dissolving or opening of Obstructions At length I perceived that all simple Salts of the Sea Sal gemmae Fountaines Salt Peter c. as such do depart through the Urine and Intestines and in the mean time resolve the filths or dregs in those passages and render the expulsive faculty mindful of its duty But I perceive that Salts which carry a Mineral fruit in them are Strangers to our Nature and therefore are scarce to be inwardly admitted But Salts which are a part of the composed Body as Lixivium's and Alkalies I perceived to be deprived of Seminal Virtues and to have onely an abstersive or cleansing Soapie or resolving property unless they are volatile wherein I perceived the radical Beginnings and seminal Balsams of the concrete Body to be I perceived I say that these are easily transchanged into a new fruit because they do associate themselves with and act in all things according to their inbred endowments In the next place I have perceived the corrosive spirits of Minerals to differ far from themselves being crude to resolve the Excrements adhering to the sides of the first Vessels Yet not to be altogether destitute of Dammages by reason of an occult infection of Arsenick admixed with them from their original Therefore I perceived that occult properties as they call them being seminally traduced into the Archeus by the generater or efficient do unfold the presence of their Object and a sympathetical knowledge as they are immediately entertained in the bosom of the Formes Some to wit by a motive local Blas as the Load-stone Amber Gummes Lacca the herb Turne-sole Diamond for this also even as Carabe or Amber doth attract chaffes c. do bewray themselves but other things are terminated into an alteration as poysons likewise laxatives medicines tied about the Head or Body Antidotes c. Laxatives I have peculiarly perceived to operate onely by reason of a poyson lurking within them which being once admitted inwardly nigh the entrance whatsoever they touch they do ferment do afterwards resolve the things fermented and for that very cause do putrifie the things resolved I perceived therefore that Laxatives do putrifie the vital juyces but seldom the excrements the occasional causes of Diseases For seeing they are Poysons in respect of us and not of excrements hence they rise up rather against us than against Diseases And most speedily indeed do putrifie the more crude juyce or the not yet vital blood of the Veines or the yesterdays Cream But because they scarce suppress the excrements neither do these in like manner obey them seeing every action or Blas in us doth proceed from the Spirit which maketh the assault whereof excrements are deprived hence no Physitian dareth by taking Laxatives to promise a cure But true Solutives do neither cause Putrifaction nor selectively draw forth feigned Humours neither therefore do they resolve our vitial parts or things and the which Solutives I have perceived to bewray themselves by a three fold Sign First That they draw nothing from a healthy Body neither do they move after or weaken that Body Secondly That they do not fetch any thing forth but what is offensive and therefore they do not aggravate but ease of the burden and presently
is a lightsome Being it acts not but by its instrument of the vital aire or by the Archeus as a mean between the light of Life flowing from the father of lights and the body But this aire or Archeus doth not act but after the manner wherein every seminal spirit acteth on the mass subjected under it that is not but by an imprinted mark or sealie Idea which hath known what and which way it must act Therefore all and every disease hath a sealie mark and as it were a seminal act which is expert of things to be acted by it self This Declaration therefore doth far recede or differ from an elementary distemperature from humours and the disproportionable mixture of those from the fight and contrariety of the elements of our composition because every disease is nothing but a Sword to the Life wounding or totally cutting it off For as a Sword doth exhaust the Life together with the arterial blood and vital aire wherein according to the holy Scriptures the Soul it self sitteth So a disease consumeth the same air of Life on which it afresh sealeth an hostile character drawn as well from occasional Causes as gotten through the errour of its own indignation This exact account of a disease being granted lo I come unto the explaining of a disease And first I will demonstrate from the very Theoremes of the Schools that the thingliness or essence of a disease hath been hitherto unknown Whence in the next place any one shall easily judge what hath even hitherto been done in the remedies and vanquishing of diseases I have oft-times promised that I will demonstrate that the Schools have hitherto neglected that is that they have not known the essence root or nature of a disease in its own universal quiddity or thingliness And seeing I have already from the Elements prosecuted that thing even unto a conclusion thorow all their privy shifts now at length by an Anatomy of particulars I shall also stand to my promises if I shall detect the same in the general and especially if I shall shew that thing no longer by the fictions of Elements temperaments and humours but by the very words of Authors whereby they corrupt their Young beginners as it were with a mortal contagion In the premises it hath already been demonstrated by me that the Ages before me being deluded by the trifles of the Peripateticks have been ignorant of the Causes to wit the Matter and Efficient of natural things Then also that a thing it self is nothing besides a connexion of both Causes and that this same thing is in diseases especially seeing a disease although happening unto us by sin is now admitted for a prodigal Son of Nature Truly the univocal or simple homogeneity of Causes in natural Beings hath compelled me hereunto whereby the efficient Cause is denominated from effecting but not from the Effect which is after the Efficiency Therefore the Schools do first of all define a disease to be an affect or disposition which doth primarily hurt the actions of our faculties wherein they do as yet very much stumble For truly first they name this Affect a distemperature of one or two qualities of the first Elements For so they rehearse the same thing because they consess a disease to be an elementary quality it self as it exceedeth a just temperature Therefore a disease shall no longer be that disposition resulting from the first qualities which they suppose immediately to hurt the functions themselves And so they feign the whole disease hereafter to consist in nothing but in a degree or excess of an elementary quality Again now and then they call the very distemperature of qualities not indeed a Disease but well the antecedent cause of the same They will I say have those four solitary qualities to be diseases whether they shall proceed from external qualities co-like unto themselves or whether they owe their beginning in the body to be from a strange disproportion of mixture Furthermore they afterwards combine those qualities in a bride-bed from the congress whereof they then derive their off-spring a Disease to wit they believe that the Elements are so subservient to their own dreams As that also qualities being joyned at their pleasure they have commanded them to answer to as many elements So that those naked qualities being even balaced with feigned elements and dreamed humours they have feigned to be Diseases themselves For in this place I declare the unseasonable yea sporting varieties of the Schools and their poverty greatly fighting otherwise surely I have sufficiently proved elsewhere by a Demonstration chiefly true That in the nature of things there are not four elements and therefore neither are they mixed that bodies which they have called mixt may be thereby constituted and by consequence that neither can distemperatures be accused for diseases As neither that ever there were four constitutive humours of us in the nature of things whereby it is sufficiently and over-manifest that the causes of diseases yea and diseases and the predicament of diseases have been hitherto unknown in the Schools Notwithstanding I will now dissemblingly treat with them by the supposed Positions of the same Schools Therefore the Schools sometimes repenting them of their sayings will have the elementary qualities and not unfrequently the humours equal to these not indeed to be diseases but onely the containing causes of almost all diseases Otherwise again that of those qualities being more intense than is meet a third or neutral one doth arise which they have called the Diathesis or Disposition or Disease it self And so however they toss the business they have hitherto commanded a disease to inhabite among qualities but humours although intemperate ones they for the most part driven out of the rank of diseases Indeed a Cataract in the eye although as a substance it doth immediately intercept the sight yet it cannot be a disease Therefore they have feigned a certain Being of reason and an imaginary relation or obstruction which might contain every property of a disease and might be truly a disease the Cataract being rejected And so by degrees a disease comes down unto non-beings and privations And now and then they for the essence of a disease do ridiculously distinguish a simple distemperature from a conjoyned one and again both of them from a humourous one when as a humour should be a substance void of degrees Indeed they have distinguished the societies of proportionable and disproportionable mixtures of the first qualities into pedigrees and then they have thereby erected specious Schemes and at length they have filled whole Volumes with those fables But at leastwise they have never admitted an evil or vitiated humour to be bred in us which may not presuppose some elementary distemperature to be mother unto it Wherefore a distemperature in the Schools shall be onely the cause of the cause and of the thing caused but it shall not be the thing caused it self or the disease nor in
the importunity of times or seasons quantities and strength In the next place there are occasional defects which seeing Good doth bring forth Evil by accident and doth oft-times proceed from our own vital powers are endowed with properties of their own as it were their seminal Beginnings therefore they immediately tend unto the vanquishing of our powers as their end The which therefore I elsewhere call Diseases Potestative or belonging to our Powers But neither is that a Potestative Being which the Schooles do call A Disease by consent and do think to be made by a collection or conjunction of Vapours But a Potestative Being contains the government of a constrained faculty as well in respect of the authority of Life as of the diseasie Being it self the which indeed is born by a proper motion to stir up a Potestative Disease of its own order Just as a Cantharides doth stir up a Strangury And that also is done through a power of internal authority and by the force of parts on parts So an Apoplectical or Epileptical Being being as yet present in the Stomack or Womb shakes the Soul yea and from thence transports the Brain together with its attending powers will they nill they into its own service A Potestative Being therefore doth not only denote a hurting of the Functions but also a government of the part and an occasioning force of a Diseasifying Being prorogued or continued on the subordinate faculties as on the vassals of an Empire It being all one also whether the parts are at a far distance from each other or whether they are near For they are the due Tributes of Properties Yea truly Hippocrates first insinuated that Diseases are to be distinguished by their Inns and Savours And I wish his Successors had kept this tenor But that Old Man being as it were swollen with fury presaged of the future rashnesses of the succeeding Schools and precisely admonished them That they should not believe that Heats Colds Moistures Sharpnesses or Bitternesses were Diseases But Bitter Sharp Salt Brackish c. it self But he sung these things before deaf or bored ears For truly the long since fore-past Ages being inclined unto a sluggishness of enquiring and an easie credulity snatched up the scabbed Theorems of Heats and Colds and subscribed unto them by reason of a plausible easiness and bid Adieu to their Master who having supposed that Diseases were to be divided according to their Innes divided our body into three ranks to wit into the solid part containing or the vessel it self into the thing contained or liquid part and into the Spirit which he said was the maker of the assault The which indeed is an Airy or Skiey and Vital Gas and doth stir up in us every Blas for whether of the two ends you will Which division of Diseases although he hath not expressly dictated yet he hath sufficiently insinuated the same For he wrote onely a few things and all things almost which are born about are supposed to be his And therefore I wish that posterity had directed the sharpnesses of their Wits according to the mind of that Old Man Peradventure through Gods permission they had extracted the understanding of the Causes of Diseases But they afterwards so subscribed unto the Authority of one Galen that they as it were slept themselves into a drousie Evil being afrightned while they are awakened by me But in the Title of Causes I understand in the very inward or pithy integrity of Diseases the matter being instructed by its own proper efficient Cause to be indeed the inward immediate Cause and to arise from a vital Beginning Wherefore also I name those external and occasional Causes as many as do not flow from the root of Life it self And therefore I treat of Causes which are the Disease it self For Bread being chewed and swallowed is as yet external because it may be rejected or cast up again So also the Chyle thereof being cocted in the Stomack is as yet external Yea and which more is after that it is become domestical and although it be made a more inward citizen of our family administration Yet while it is separated from that which is living and rusheth into the Kitchin of Diseases for that very Cause as it is become hostile so also it is to be accounted External in respect of Life So also a pestilent Air being attracted inward although it hath spread its poyson within and in respect of the Body be internal yet it is not yet internal in respect of Life And so neither yet is it the Disease it self to wit whereof it contains only an occasion in it self neither shall it ever lay aside that same occasionality But the Plague is while the Archeus the contagion being applyed unto himself doth separate a part of himself it being infected from the whole For the banishment whereof the remaining part of the Archeus doth Co-laborate and is earnestly careful that it may not be pierced by the Symbole or Impression and perish A co-like thing happens almost in the rest of Diseases For truly the Life is not immediately hurt but by a certain poyson of its own and proper to it which it hath suffered to be applyed unto it self CHAP. LXVII The Subject of inhearing of Diseases is in the point of Life THe Life which is perfectly sound hath no Disease because health presupposeth an integrity which a Disease renteth And so health and a Disease do contradict each other Also Life being extinguished is not a Disease neither doth it admit of a Disease into it Because in speaking properly that Life is a meer nothing and no longer existing But a Disease is hoc aliquid or this someting Thirdly in the next place a dead Carcass however poysonous it be or infected with corruption yet it is no way capable of Diseases Wherefore although a Body while it lives be the mansion of Diseases yet it is not the true internal efficient of Diseases much less also indeed have filths or excrements which are thought to be the constitutive Humours of us a right or property of Diseases But if any part of a Disease be to be ascribed unto inordinate fecuencies or dregginesses truly that tends wholly unto an occasional Cause For truly a Disease is a Being truly subsisting in a Body and composed of a matter and an internal seminal efficient and so also in this respect doth it far sequester it self from occasional Causes Especially because the internal beginnings of things do constitute the Being it self and are unseperably of its essential thingliness So indeed that if we speak of the Body or Soul as Humane both of them is rightly called a man although not an entire man So indeed the matter of a Disease is truly a Disease Even as also the seminal efficient thereof is truly a Disease although it be not properly an entire Disease Therefore seeing that a Disease is only in a live Body but not in a dead one it must needs be
while the same things are engraven by a stronger apprehension For things conceived do teach us that from passions or perturbations which are non-beings true real actual Images do arise no otherwise than as the thoughts of a Woman with Child do stamp a real Image how strange and forreign soever it be Wherefore thus indeed the Phantasie brings forth poysons which do kill its own Man and afflict him with diverse miseries So that as those Images do primarily proceed from the imaginative power whose immediate instruments the Archeus himself is So it is altogether necessary that he which toucheth Pitch should be defiled by it That is it behoveth the Archeus himself primarily and immediately to conceive and put on that new Image to be affected with the same and by virtue of a resembling mark or Symbole other things depending on him according to the properties of that hurtful Idea And that Ferment being once decyphered in that aire which maketh the assault is a Disease which forthwith diffuseth it self into the venal Blood the liquor that is to be immediately assimilated and next into the similar parts and into the very Superfluities of the Body according to the property even of that its own Idea for from hence the Diseases of distributions and digestions What if Idea's are formed in the implanted Spirit of the Braine or inne of the Spleen by imagining which also in Bruits are the principal Blas and Organ of all Motions It nothing hinders but that the Archeus himself implanted in the parts may frame singular and now and then exorbitant Idea's not unlike to the imaginative power for so the Spittle of a mad Dog Tarantula or Serpent and likewise the juice of Wolfesbane Monkshood or Nightshade do communicate their Image of fury on us against our wills Wherefore likewise nothing hinders the chief or primary instrument of imagination from forming in-mate seminal fermental poysonous c. Images unto it self Whatsoever doth of its own Nature by it self and immediately afflict the vital powers ought for that very Cause to be of the race and condition of those Powers For otherwise they should not have a Symbole Passage Agreement Virtues or Piercing into each other as neither by consequence an application and activity For seeing the powers or faculties are the invisible and untangible seals of the Archeus who is himself invisible and untangible those powers cannot be reached and much less pierced or vanquished by the Body because those powers however vital they are yet they want extremities whereby they may be touched whence it follows which hath been hitherto unknown that every Disease for it glistens in the Life because it is of the disposition of the vital powers it ought immediately to be stamped and to arise from a Being which was bred to produce seminal Idea's And seeing nothing among constituted things is made of it self originally of necessity the powers as well of Diseasie as vital things do depend either on the Idea's of the generater himself whence hereditary Diseases or of the generated Archeus But that that thing may the more clearly appear in the seed of Bruites and Man there is a power formative after the similitude of the generater Because it is that which seeing it is dispositive and distributive of the whole government in figuring its activity is contested by none The seed therefore hath a knowledge infused by the generater fitted for the ends to be performed by it self for the seed which in its own substance is otherwise barren is made fruitful by an Image stirred up in the lust To wit the imaginative power of the generater doth first bring forth an Idea which at its beginning is wholly a non-being but by arraying it self with the cloathing of the Archeus it becomes a real and seminal Being And that as well in Plants as in sensible Creatures For in vegetables a seed proceeds from an invisible Beginning for truly there is a virtue given to a plant of fructifying by a seed and so it hath an analogical or proportionable conception which formeth a seminal Idea in propagating borrows its fruitfulness and principles of Life from it but not Life it self even as elswhere concerning Formes therefore a seed borrows knowledge gifts roots and dispositions of the matter espoused unto it for Life from a seminal Idea to wit the cause of all fruitfulness And they who a little smelt out that thing in times past have said that every generation doth draw its original from an invisible World The thrice glorious Almighty by the naked and pure command of his own cogitation and conceived Word Fiat or let it be done made the whole Creature of nothing and put seminal virtues into it durable throughout ages But the Creature afterwards propagates its gift received not indeed of nothing as neither by its own command but it hath received a power of Creating its own seminal Image from God of tranferring or decyphering the same on its own Archeus This indeed is the seminal virtue of Man Bruits and Plants But not this beast-like conception is in plants nor is stirred up from lust for it is sufficient that it happen after an analogical manner whereby the Antients have agreed all things to be in all which manner by a similitude drawn from us the Sympathy and Antipathy of things do shew for they feel a mutual presence and are presently stirred up by that sense unto the unfolding of their natural endowments Because they are those things which else would remain unmoved but a sense or feeling cannot but after some sort have an equal force with an imaginative virtue The which I have elsewhere profesly treated more at large concerning the Plague But now my aim is not to Phylosophize concerning Plants but only of Diseases It sufficeth therefore that the imagination it self so called from the forming of an Image doth stampe an Idea for whose sake every seed is fruitful And seeing that in us that imaginative power is as it were brutal earthly and devillish according to the Apostle therefore it is subject unto its own Diseases and can stampe an Image in the Archeus it s own immediate instrument Hence it happens unto us that every Disease is materially and efficiently in us For whatsoever is bred or made that wholly happens through the necessity of a certain seed and every seed hath its this something from an Idea put into its spirit but a Disease is a real Being and is made in a live Creature only Whence it follows that although a Disease doth oppose the Life as the forerunner of Death yet it is bred from a vital Beginning and the same in the Life to wit from the flesh of Sin Notwithstanding Death and all dead things do want rootes whereby they may produce And so seeing Death bespeaks a destruction or privation it wants a seminal Image wherein it is distinguished from Diseases Life indeed is from the Soul and therefore also the premised character of the first constitution
own Glass and with a plausible delightfulness the which hath even brought a self-love and a certain arrogancy in the first cradles of Nature yet diverse in it self by reason of the variety of Pleasures For while the Archeus doth with-draw and abstract himself as I have said yet he cannot but be in a Body as in a Place Therefore I call him abstracted not indeed from the Body but from his Court or ordinary Throne But an abstracted contemplation of the Archeus is not made in the Heart as if he did floate in the continual motion of agitation and pulses as neither are the bosoms of the Heart the Court of Counsel of the Archeus being abstracted yea neither in the very substance of the Heart but his Pallace it self is more inward To wit in the stable Spirit it self implanted in the spleen Indeed that same Image of his own self conceived in time of lust doth put on a particle of the Spirit whereby it is begotten which particle according to a Chymical account is the 8200 part of its whole And the which least particle therefore being thus decyphered passeth afterwards into the in-flowing Spirit domestique to the Heart together with the Idea of lust and desire But the Idea's of desire are only motive directresses even as else where concerning Sympathetical things and therefore the conceived Image of Mans Archeus is implanted through that direction in the material seed Wherefore as Death began from Venus or carnal lust So it is dayly hastened even as also the death of a Plant beginneth from a conceived seed as the vital faculty is thereby mightily diminished In the next place surely that is truly made and not by a phantastical deceit wherein such an Idea doth not only represent a total or entire humane Being but also individual inclinations properties and defects For from hence a trunk in one Arm doth not therefore generate an imperfect Arm because the formative Idea is a branch derived into generation not from else where than from the implanted Archeus of the Bowels Therefore hereditary Diseases do increase on the young from a Diseasie Being To wit the Idea being imprinted on the seminal Spirit seeing it is the very Disease as yet lurking and sealed in the first Life of the seed doth as yet sleep and expect its maturity until it being awakened and breaking forth from the disturbance of the Archeus be apt to bring forth its own products So indeed furies are bred in and propagated on off-springs together with the whole race of seminal inclinations Moreover also from thence it is evident that not all Diseases of the Parents are transferred on their off-spring but those only whose Idea's have defiled the Archeus of the Bowels in the Parents for neither is any occasional matter of the Gout or fury socially transferred with the integrity of a proper or natural seed For besides that that strange-born duality doth contain a barrenness of the seed also that supposed matter of the translated Disease should putrify it being vanquished by the importunities of the place and ferments and repetitions of digestions should stink putrify or vanish away in the successive multiplicity of dayes but it should not accompany unto the period of Life and stir up its own relapses But as to what belongs unto silent Diseases although acquired ones surely that thing they have proper unto them that they do rise again at the set periods of importunity For so the Falling-evil doth sometimes sleep for Months and Years yea and is never stirred up but by Venus Anger Grief Child-birth c. For neither is any matter in any place detained the fewell of the Falling-sickness Because it should either putrify wither be consumed or loose the Antient blemish of poyson The which seeing it doth not come to pass but remains for Life it hath therefore chosen another Beginning and immediate Inne than superfluities because it is sealed in the Idea of an active Being and that constant throughout the whole Life Therefore the Spirit of Life concluded in the Organs doth suffer its storms from its own Diseasie Idea's the which as oft as the inflowing Spirit receiveth from thence so often it presently brings the contagions of the same into act For as the poyson of the Falling-sickness is that which makes drunk is sleepifying and after some sort furious its original cleerly appears about the Stomach and afterwards is chiefly perceived in the Head and doth singularly affect the clients thereof So the Archeus of the Head stamps poysonous Images which are hateful to the very implanted Archeus and suspected of a poysonous Contagion and he is thereby easily made wholly Apogeal or most remote from his center Thirdly some Diseases are con-centrical in their matter and efficient Cause yet seeing they are Youngs conceived in the irregularity of the Archeus being become exorbitant hence they are ex-centrical in respect of health but con-centred in the more inward soyl of the Archeus For hitherto have the stars respect and they especially are moved at the conjunction of the Moon They do also fore-shew the hinges of winds to come For neither doth the Archeus shew himself to be obliged to the Stars unless through the importunities of Diseases Wherefore those Diseases are commonly called the Ephemerides or dayes-books of the Sick Therefore in those that are in good health the Archeus is not ruled by the Stars But because they do singularly follow the Moon which is the night Star therefore they do most rage in the night Therefore I call them the torture of the Night because it seems to be carried by a co-like Blas and to talk with its Stars and that thing surely doth not belong but to the Archeus seeing a more gross compaction of Body is not fit for this purpose they are therefore sealed in the vital Spirit implanted in the principal Organs but nothing is there sealed besides Ideal Characters The Archeus is a fountainous Being which by his own Blas doth stir up every assault or violation in us according to Hippocrates but he remains a fountainous Being how neatly soever Diseasie products are taken away For although he may sometimes vitiate as well things contained as things containing yet the Archeus reserves an imprinted vice peculiar to himself whereby he stirreth up every storm at pleasure Lastly Diseases which in the fourth place I call those under an unequal strength are inbred or obtained And because they bespeak strength they have manifestly enrouled themselves under the powers or faculties But it hath alwayes been a difficult thing in nature for a desired strength to be bestowed on all particular Organs without the complaint of some but that one doth alwayes prevaile over or is weaker than another Unto which indeed Humours or snivelly superfluities do not flow or run down from the guiltless Head even as it hath been otherwise attributed to feigned Humours and Catarrhs in the Schooles But rather the Archeus implanted in the more weak part observing the
penury of distribulation and perceiving the unequality of injustice becomes a complainer and seditious as it were against a step-mother The Idea's of which passion or impatience seeing it is not meet to send else where he being crabbish retorts on himself and brings forth the effects of sorrow in his own Digestions Therefore the very seminal Beginnings themselves of Diseases are drawn out for diverse ends although they glisten in one only immediate subject of inherency because they are received after the manner of the reciever That is they do sustain a dis-formity or disagreement in their mansions through the diversity of the humane Body and parts And moreover the Archeus himself according to the diversity of his motions doth stir up a various houshold-stuff of Symptoms The Spirit saith Hippocrates hath made three motions in us within without and into a circuit and he moveth and transchangeth all things with himself even while he is orderly But in his irregularity whatsoever he shall perform he shall also utter memorable effects of his disorder CHAP. LXXI The birth or original of a Diseasie Image 1. A description of a Disease by a numbring up of things denied 2. What a Disease is 3. The vain thought of Physitians concerning a Disease 4. The Inne of Life belongs to a Disease 5. The force of a Diseasie Idea is proved by Vegetables 6. By the Blas of meteours 7. The Blas of an Archeal Idea in us is proved from the Premises 8. The ordinary seat of Diseases 9. The Images of perturbations are cited 10. From a mental Non-being is made this something 11. A twofold Diseasifying Archeal Idea 12. Idea's brought unto the venal Blood 13. The rule of right in healing 14. Why the Author keeps the names of the Antients 15. A probative or proofe-ful Idea is framed in the Archeus alone I Have already at large described an unheard of Doctrine of a Diseasie Being premised by me That Physitians may learn to look into a Disease from the fountain and may desist from being seduced by Paganish Opinions Wherefore a Disease is not a certain distemperature of elementary qualities or a victorie proceeding from the continual strife of these even as hitherto the Galenists have dreamed neither likewise is a Disease one of the four feigned Humours exceeding its natural temperature or mixture and matched to the four Elements Neither at length is a Disease a certain degenerate matter awakened by an impression of the Elements But every excrementitious matter is either a naked matter preceding a Disease and therefore an occasional Cause of a Disease or it is the product of a Disease resulting from the errour of the parts and so a certain latter effect of a Disease although afterwards it may occasionally stir up another Disease or may nourish or increase another antecedent Cause Nor lastly is a Disease a hurtful quality budding from the poyson or contagion of another and that a hurtful matter Notwithstanding such offences as those do only accuse its presence but not the effect depending only occasionally thereupon A Disease therefore is a certain Being bred after that a certain hurtful strange power hath violated the vital Beginning and hath pierced the faculty hereof and by piercing hath stirred up the Archeus unto Indignation Fury Fear c. To wit the anguish and troubles of which perturbations do by imagining stir up an Idea co-like unto themselves and a due Image Indeed that Image is readily stamped expressed and sealed in the Archeus and being cloathed with him a Disease doth presently enter on the stage being indeed composed of an Archeal Body and an efficient Idea For the Archeus produceth a dammage unto himself the which when he hath once admitted he straightway also afterwards yields flees or is alienated or dethroned or defiled through the importunity thereof and is constrained to undergo a strange government and domestically to sustain a civil War raised up on himself indeed such a strange Image is materially imprinted and arising out of the Archeus A true Diseasie Being I say which is called a Disease For although Physitians are only busied about the dissolution cleansing away and expulsion of the hurtful occasional matter yet our thought is not able to vary the Essence of a Disease To wit that because a Physitian labours in the banishment of the occasional hurtful matter therefore also that a Disease ought to be that which that deceived Physitian doth in a rash order intend to expel For a Disease is effentially that which it is whether the Physitian be absent or present For neither doth a Physitian in the begining more determine or limit a Disease than the Disease doth terminate it self because it is that which doth not accommodate it self unto the thought or esteem of others but doth dayly deride the same Wherefore as health consisteth in a sound Life so doth a Disease in the very Life it self being hurt but Life doth only and immediately subsist in the seat of the Soul but the Soul doth not operate out of it self unless by virtue of its official Organ which is the vital air of the Archeus And therefore it is a wonder that it hath hitherto been unknown that a Disease sits immediately in the same vital inne where the Life enjoys it self of which more largely hereafter for hateful persons will scarce believe that every power of sublunary things is stirred up and contained in Idea's But that thing I have already before sharply touched at by the way yet it shall profit to have it more strongly bound or confirmed For we have known and believe by Faith that a power is given to Herbs of propagating their like But that proprietary faculty is a real Being actually existing which is alwayes and successively manifested in the seed neither is that faculty a certain accidental power or naked quality but it is a seminal virtue whereby the Plant which is the Parent decyphers an Idea in his own seed the container of figure and properties according to which it will stir up delineate the seed it self and make the Plant its Daughter to grow For in seeds a manifest Image is known skilful of things to be acted for a new propagation In like manner the Sea doth not cause but suffer horrid tempests which the Wind doth efficiently stir up and truly the Wind is not moved by it self and of its own free accord But by an invisible influence of the Stars according to that saying The Stars shall be unto you for signs times or seasons dayes and years for so great a storm of the primary Elements or Air and Water breaks forth from a Being which is like unto Light But the Blas of the Elements is not stirred up from the meer Light of the Stars For although the Light of the Stars be incorporeal and immaterial yet it is not a certain simple Light but that which besides the property of a solitary Light which is only of enlightning hath a motive Blas in it self
understands Paracelsus with me But seeing that Sulphur is not translated that it may be turned into arterial Blood yea and restore and renew the implanted Spirit of the Members although it be in it self the top of the Wonders of Nature yet then it doth only as it were pass thorow the two former digestions and doth not satisfie its calling for which it shineth with so famous Endowments And so even from hence it is easie to be seen that long Life is not but for choise or chosen Men nor indeed for all of them not so much because the youth of Princes doth shorten the thred of their Life in fleshly lust and pleasures and so that a remedy for long Life is received and applyed to the Life after the manner of the receiver But especially because Adeptists are wanting to whom alone it is given to unmask these kind of Secrets from their husks I suppose indeed that this is a masculine Mettal because it doth easily suffer its Sulphur to be sequestred from it and this separated Sulphur is dissolved in the Oyl of Cinnamon or Mutmeg or in the Oyl which drops out of Turpentine till that by boyling it is coagulated into the best Rosin But at least-wise although the Sulphur thus dissolved hath notable virtues yet because it draws a stinking Odour and reserveth a resistence of the dissolved Sulphur neither can it pass thorow unto the inmost parts but can only act as it were in passing thorow and by its touching stir up by the way a superficial remembrance of its gift Therefore it more differs from the wine of Life than a Carbuncle doth from a flint Yet if that melted Sulphur be so united in the Oyl of the Spice that however stinking it shall pass through an Alembick and afterwards be after a due manner circulated with its Alcaly or fixed Salt and at length doth pass into a volatile Elixir of Salt it doth after some sort imitate the faculties and virtues of the wine of Life and Essence of the Members For truly that Elixir being rectified into the best Spirit of Wine doth loose all its stink and resume something of its natural or proper endowment that it at leastwise takes away difficult and Chronical Diseases yet it doth not ascend unto the highest perfect act of the Bowels that it may be the renewed Essence of the Members CHAP. LXXVIII In Words Herbs and Stones there is great Virtue THere is a place in the holy Scriptures which taketh Stones for mineral Bodies Words indeed so far as commanding from a supernatural Power they do command Creatures the which because they are subject they do also obey And then the virtue of Herbs is that of Medicines but it doth not comprehend Herbie Meats There is therefore a medicinal faculty of Plants Simple indeed but most excelling so that for the most part it ascends into a degree of Poysonsomness Because it exceeds the ampleness of our Nature and therefore also is troublesome or offensive unto us For Pot-herbs Pulses and corny Plants ought to be wholly subdued and dissolved in the Stomach that is in the seat of the Soul into which while they light with unbroken virtues they do also by their new Hospitality oppress the same with their Laws For so the seat it self doth as yet labour about rude Simples and in operating doth undergo the Crudities Damages and Troubles of entertained Vegetables For in this respect whatsoever is not rightly subdued in the Stomach after its aforesaid troubles is commanded out by the Bowels as an unprofitable and hurtful excrement Wherefore the more cruel Plants while they do not promise nourishment nor are directly drawn into meats or foods if they shall not notably hurt at least-wise they are totally sequestred and are driven forth with labour and anguishes the which hath hitherto plainly appeared in a Quartane Ague which hath notably deluded the promised help of Physitians and hope of Medicines For although the occasional matter of a Quartane doth stick only about the Spleen and in the neighbouring places of the Stomack Yet the Medicines of Vegetables have not yet come unto the threshold of a Quartane In the mean time the more stronger Vegetables seeing they have obtained degrees beyond the strength of our Nature they are for the most part for that cause Despised or Gelded and so by corrective means are plainly alienated and do degenerate and so pass over into a forreign Family Many also have in vain attempted to seperate the Poysonous Power from the appropriated ones lurking under them However it is at this day accustomed to be those Medicines are the more strong horrid troublesome neither are they admitted into our more inward parts because they rise up against and weaken or defile our vital Faculties and do every way bring with them Anguishes as Companions For although they depart not into nourishments in us nor are the more inwardly admitted than to enter the threshold it self yet by their only touching and naked passage yea and as it were by a deaf defilement of aspect they alter the Archeus and subject and snatch away this Archeus into their own client-ship This is the cause why the more strong remedies of Vegetables are for the most part suspected of cruelty and poysonsomness Which things are as yet more clearly beheld in mineral secrets and the more profound Medicines Because they are those which perform their Offices and attain the scopes of their Endowments by no co-mixture of them but as it were by aspect alone For so Mothers do dip a piece of wollen cloath in a co-mixture of Argent-vive or Quick-silver and patch it up between the girdle or circle of Garments knowing that although Quick-silver doth not evaporate any thing out of it self for it is a thing so homogeneal that it is not to be divided into a heterogeneal part and that which is unlike to it self yet that it doth hinder the presence and generation of Lice throughout the whole Body I have also described after what manner common Argentvive may be reduced into a most white or Snowie lump if the spirit of Vitriol be distilled from it The which Spirit indeed is coagulated upon Mercury and is transchanged into an Alume but separable by washing or cleansing from the Argent-vive To wit which Argent-vive becomes a yellow Powder which easily returns into its antient Quick-silver and of equal weight with it self So indeed the whole spirit of Vitriol being in it self most sharp is by a bare touching of the Mercury and without any radical co-mixture of them both converted into an aluminous Salt and that shall be done a thousand times yet it looseth nothing of the weight and nature of Argent-vive For Argent-vive doth without any participation of it self or from it self yea and without any radical co-mixture from it self change whatsoever of a Sulphurous Spirit it shall touch which radical or beaming co-mixture of Argent-vive is as yet more to be admired To wit if Argent-vive be
have seen the Children of Orphans to have cast up by Vomit the sharp Stake of an Harp it being drawn out by the hands of the Standers by To wit the four-footed Bench or Balk being furnished with its wheele and Strings But in whatsoever scituation the sharp Stake could be placed it was easily by twofold bigger than the Throat I have seen at Antwerp in the Year 1622 a little Maid who might vomit up perhaps two thousand of Pins together with Hairs and Filths in a heap or lump Another Virgin in the Year 1631. At Mecheline who we being present did Vomit up Wooden Sweepings shaved of with a Plain by plaining together with much sliminess unto the quantity of two Fists It is a frequent thing being seen in many places and admitted of by Learned men Yet the more deriding ones do stick at it because they cannot understand how things which are far more big do go forth thorow a small passage For some do excuse the matter so that although they may seem to be rejected by vomit yet they will have them never to be admitted within I say they esteem them the mockeries and bewitchings of the eyes while they issue forth to appear anew and do bring us tidings afar off Indeed they do admit of true things For Insects do live Mettals are melted and Woods do burn all things do by degrees voluntarily go forth or are drawn forth with the hand But others think that in very deed such things are cast within and darted into the Body but they know not the manner thereof Delrio with his followers do grant that they are brought within the Body and that they are in very deed such as they appear to be and therefore they refute the foregoing Opinion But as to the manner of enterance and utterance they affirm That those things are broken in pieces by the Devil into a most fine powder that they are restored within in the Body into their former integrity figure and conditions But while they issue forth they affirm them to be again beaten into fine powder and that in the instant time of their going forth and on this side the strait or narrow port they are again reduced into their antient Being to wit that Woods Needles Toads living Creatures are broken into powder and as often reduced unto their former habit and to revive For these men do deny that they do agree with the other in the foregoing Opinion while as notwithstanding they say the same thing with them for their utterance and enterance To wit that those things do not in very deed enter or go forth even as otherwise they seem unto the standers by seeing they enter or go forth whole but being first poudered They suppose the same bewitching of the eyes which do think things to be whole which are onely powders For Martin Delrio doth frequently suppose that indeed to infringe his own Judgements For concerning Magical Inquisitions in his Treatise of the making of Gold when as he had theevishly described Arguments word for word out of Geber and Bonus Ferrariensis he at length when as he declares his own Judgement doth forge 18 Contradictories Truly I believe that it is resistant with piety if a power which exceedeth Nature be attributed to the Devil To wit to make destroy and again to re-make and so often to reduce the same thing from a privation unto a habit whose dispositive seed had already come unto its end But those that are ignorant of Nature do presume that they are the Secretaries of Nature by the reading of Books but whatsoever lies hid unto them let it be either unpossible or false or juggling and diabolical As if Satan were above Nature and could operate things impossible to Nature I grant him indeed a forreign manner in operating 〈◊〉 but surely he as yet ought to be restrained within Nature Therefore I will shew that there is not plainly a need of the help of Satan that a certain solid Body be derived thorow a Passage far less than it self without the breaking of it in pieces Because that this also is certain That indeed all such Injections are immediately made by man but not by Satan For although the evil Spirit hath a motive Blas yet it is contrary to piety that he should be able to hurt the Innocent at his pleasure Which thing surely should come to pass if he should in all places Inject those kind of things according to his wicked will into the little ones I have seen I say these things to happen in the guiltless in pious Virgins and in those who have been singularly dedicated unto God Corn. Gemma concerning Cosmocriticks or Judicials of the World hath mentioned that he saw a piece of a brass Gun of three pound or fourty eight ounces the which a Maid a Coopers daughter had voided out thorow her fundament with its characters or letters together with an Eele wrapped up in his own skins or coverings But it is impossible for Nature to melt a powdered Mettal in us and for it to be detained in the Bowels for so great an interval of Moneths in his antient figure For an Eele together with his coverings to be so often bruised in pieces and to rise again from death And for pieces of Wood and Hide to be so often broken in pieces and again to be restored into their antient state For I have seen at Bruxels in the Year 1599 that an Oxe having taken three Hearbs vomited up a Dargon with his Tail like an Eele a Hidy Body a Serpentine Head he being no less than a Partridge The manner is unknown how Nature could do that The manner is alike unknown how Satan could do that They therefore gain nothing who refer the work of Nature unto the Devil But whether they do sin others shall see For it hath been at least-wise an invention of huge sloath to have referred all things which we do not comprehend unto the Devil Truly I find a very near or co-touching penetration of the dimensions of Nature although not an ordinary one Neither will I that the Devil be invoked to satisfie us in our questions through a rash attributing of Powers unto him There is a History of a Polonian a Countrey fellow being lately seen by the son of the Lord Ericius Pouteanus The rude man had attempted to open a Squinancy in his own Throat with a short knife the which he at unawares swallowed down and at length he with much corrupt pus and after many anguishes restored the same again out of the right side of the bottome of his belly and survived in health Likewise at Vilvord in the Year 1636 a country-man known to me being willing to fat a Cow gave her every day a pot wherein he had boyled pot-herbs with bran At length she becomes more and more lean daily and began to halt with her right leg the Cow being slain a short knife of his Wifes being wreathen into a box haft was
found hidden between her ribs and shoulder-blade for the country-woman in cutting of Rape roots had left the knife among the pot-herbs and the Cow in drinking had swallowed it In like manner Ambrose Pareus relateth of a certain man whom Robbers had compelled to swallow a knife the which he afterwards safely restored by an Aposteme of his side Alexander Benedict mentioneth another whose Back a Dart had pierced the hook or crook whereof of the breadth of three fingers he afterwards voided thorow his fundament without hurt The same man tells of a Venetian Maid who had swallowed a Needle and she two years after voided it our by Urine being incrusted in a stone The same thing Anth. Benevine that a Woman of Tuscany had swallowed a copper Needle the which three years after she being in health had voided nigh her Navil Valesius de Taranto tells of a Venetian Maid perhaps the same who cast forth a needle of three fingers length with her Urine A certain Capuchin of Eburo called Bullonius his Sir-name being Hampreau drank a great Spider which he had seen to have fallen down into the Challico alive at the time of the daily Sacrifice with much averseness of mind Within few dayes a Phlegmone or enflamed Tumor arose in his right Thigh and at the time of the first corrupt pus he restored the Spider whole from thence yet dead A Merchant of Antwerp his young man playing at Venice with an unripe ear of Barley in his mouth swallowed down the same with great fear of Choaking After three weeks from thence an Aposteme appeared in his left side above his girdle and at length the same ear of Barley was drawn out whole with the corrupt pus it being now of a clayie colour but he escaped safe According to Fernelius a studious man is read to be restored by him who rendred an Ear of Corn thorow his Ribs Writers also do rehearse that the Young being sometimes dead and consumed in the Womb hath dismissed its bones thorow the Womb and Abdomen by the Navil and sometimes by the Fundament Many such like things are met withall among Authors here and there which are worthy of credit Whereby it is manifest that solid Bodies big enough have prerced the Stomack Intestines Womb the Omentum or Caule of the Belly Abdomen Pleura or Skin girding the Ribs Bladder Membranes I say which are impatient of such a Wound That is knives to have been transmitted thorow those Membranes without a Wound which is equivolent with the piercing of Dimensions made in Nature without the help of the Devil But that the Body of a Man may be drawn thorow a small hole thorow which a Cat only is able to pass yet not thorow a Wall Yea that the Devil is not able to break a Paper Window without the consent of his Master is to be seen by the Process and Arrest pronounced against a He Witch by Lodowick Godfred at Aquisgrane of Narbonie on the last Day of the second Moneth called April 1611. At length where have three pounds of Brass of a piece of Ordinance marked by its letters lurked in the Body After what manner shall the dross grow so many Moneths in what part is a piece of Brass detained which is bigger than the Intestine For while I treated of a necessary Vacuum in the Aire I promised that I would declare that although a penetration of Bodies be forbidden by the primary Law of Nature and after the common manner of Artificers yet while a Body doth wholly pass over and is translated into the jurisdiction of a Spirit and is as it were weakened by it that then Bodies do naturally pierce each other at least-wise in what part they are porie because the Spirit doth then shut up the Body under it self and so doth as it were take away dimensions I will premise some things A desire of eating Muskles invaded a Woman great with Child but she are some of them rashly or over hastily so that also she devoured the raw Shells being twice or thrice ground with her Teeth presently afterwards within an hour she brings forth an healthy Young and of a ripe growth together with those half-chewed Shells and wounded in its Abdomen Therefore the Shells presently pierced the Stomack Womb and Secundine without an opening of those Membranes or new Shells were generated upon the Young But neither can this latter thing be true for they were the true fragments of the Shell-Fishes but not having strove for an imitation figuratively And then the Appetite is not carried unto an unknown object therefore the Appetite of eating the Shell-Fishes was not of the Young but of the Woman Therefore there was no necessity that new Shell-Fishes should be generated about the Young for they were desired by the Mother that they might be made a nourishment for her self and not for her Young Otherwise by the same argument of identity whatsoever things are desired are alwayes generated about the Young by the which seeing they could not be at all digested they should either alwayes be made to reside about the Young or should in the same place putrifie the which is false in either manner for if that which is desired should putrifie it should cause Abortion or being there conserved should be regularly found for the Young is nourished only by the Navil wherefore those external Shell-Fishes were neither desired by the Young nor were profitable unto the same and by consequence neither were they made anew by nature for an end but were dismissed unto the Young as the Appetite was of the Womb The Appetite is alwayes directed by the end but the Woman great with Child desireth Shell-Fishes not Shells neither also that the animal Shell-Fish should remain in its former state entire wherein it is unprofitable to the Mother neither gives satisfaction unto her Appetite Therefore much less had it the occasion of generating new and unprofitable Shells about the Young At length however it may be taken the Appetite was not for Shells twice or thrice scrounched for if the Shell-Fishes had been cut out of the Shells she had eaten the Fishes themselves having left the Shells And therefore the concomitance and co-breaking of the Shells was accidental to her Appetite Indeed I suspose that as desire affrightment c. do generate seminal Idea's which the Hand of a Woman great with Child doth dismiss unto the Young and decyphers in a set place so the joy of that being found which was desired brings or derives that very thing unto the Young For so the sorrow of the Knife being swallowed the horrour of the Spider being drunk and of the Eare of Barley being devoured doth repulse the same thorow the Membranes which are impotent of or unable to endure a Wound without Death These things of things injected which enter the Body by an ordinary Power of Nature without the suspition of a co-operation of the Devil Some such like thing there is in things that
are from within drawn out of the Body the which I will enclose in one only or two Examples The Wife of a Taylor of Mecheline saw before her Door a Souldier to loose his Hand in a Combate she being presently smitten with horrour brought forth a Daughter with one Hand but dead through an unfortunate and bloody Arm because the Hand thereof was not found and a flux of Blood did kill the Infant The Wife of Marcus of Vogelar a Merchant of Antwerp in the year 1602 seeing a Souldier begging whose right Arm an Iron Bullet had taken away in the Siege of Ostend and who as yet carried that Arm about with him bloody by and by after she brought forth a Daughter deprived of an Arm and that indeed her right one the Shoulder whereof being as yet bloody ought to be made whole by the Chyrurgion she married a Merchant of Amsterdam whose name was Hoocheamer she also surviving in the year 1638 But her right Arm was no where to be found nor its Bones neither appeared there any putrifying Disease for which the Arm had withered away in a small hours space Yet while the Souldier was not as yet beheld the Young had two Arms Neither could the Arm that was rent off be annihilated Therefore the Arm was taken away the Womb being shut but who plucked it off naturally and which way it was taken away surely trivial reasons do not square in so great a Wonder or Paradox I am not he that will shew these things only these things I will say that the Arm was not taken away as neither rent off by Satan And then that it was a thing of less labour for the Arm being rent off to be derived else where than it was to have plucked off the Arm from the whole Body without Death A Merchants Wife known to us assoon as she heard that 13 were to beheaded in one morning it happened at Antwerp in the time of Duke Alban or D'â—lue and Women great with Child are led by inordinate Appeties she determined to behold the beheadings Therefore she went up into the Chamber of a Widow her familiar acquaintance dwelling in the Market place and the spectacl being seen a travaile pain presently surprized her and she brought forth a mature Infant with a bloody Neck whose Head no where appeared At leastwise I do not find that mans Nature doth abominate the piercing of dimensions seeing it is most frequent to the Seeds of things Thou shalt bring forth Children in Sorrow is the punishment of Sin Before Sin therefore she had naturally brought forth tall Young without pain at least-wise of that bigness with which we are now born But not that a Woman had been unsensible before Sin but because it had gone forth the Womb being shut Therefore it was a proper or familiar thing to humane Nature from his Creation for dimensions to pierce each other because he was made that he might live in the Flesh according to the Spirit But Nature being corrupted that authority of his Spirit over his Body perished and therefore Woman doth thence-forward bring forth after the manner of Bruits Yea Writers do make mention that Ulcers or Imposthumes are made thorow the Bones that all things are carried upwards and downwards without the guidance or commerce of the Vessels Indeed that primitive efficacy of piercing Bodies doth as yet consist in the seeds of things but is not subjected by humane force art or will or judgment For there are many Bodies much more ponderous than the Matter from whence they are composed It must needs be I say that more than fifteen parts of Water do co-pitch into one that one only part of Gold may be thereby made for weight is not made of nothing but doth prove a matter weighing in an equal tenour Therefore Water doth naturally as often pierce its own Body as Gold doth exceed Water in weight Therefore a home-bred and dayly progress of Seeds in generations requireth a Body to penetrate it self by a co-thickning the which is altogether impossible for an Artificer to do Let us grant pores to be in the Water yet these cannot contain fourteen times as much of its entire quantity It is therefore an ordinary thing in Nature that some parts of the Water do pierce themselves into one only place And the Seeds do act this by virtue of a certain Spirit the Archeus For although the Archeus himself as well in the aforesaid Seeds as in us be corporeal yet while he acts by an action of government and sups up the matter into himself he utters many effects not unlike unto enchantments because in speaking properly the Archeus doth not imitate enchantments but enchantments do follow the rule prescribed by the Archeus to wit as he doth operate far otherwise than Bodies do on each other As in affects of the Womb the Sinewes are voluntarily extended the Tendons do burst forth out of their place and do again leap back the Bones likewise are displaced by no visible mover the Neck riseth swollen unto the height of the Chin the Lungs are stopped up from air unthought of Poysons are engengred and the venal Blood masks it self with the unwonted countenances of Filths But as to what doth belong unto the penetrations of Bodies our Archeus sups up Bodies into himself that they may be made as it were Spirits For example Aqua-Fortis doth by its Spirit make Brass Iron or Silver remaining in their own Nature thick or dark so transparent that they cannot be seen and doth transport a mettal thorow merchant Paper the which otherwise doth not transmit the finest Powder thorow it it as yet essentially remaining in the shape of a mettal but not that the similitude of the piercing of dimensions doth uniformly square with the Example of a Mettal proposed Because as I have said reasons do not suite with so great a Paradox where I do willingly acknowledge the manner to be undemonstrable from a former Cause Even as no Man can know after what sort an Idea imprinted on Seeds may figure direct and dispose of its own constituted Bodies And therefore we will search after the same from the effect First of all let it be supposed that the Devil hath no authority or command over us against our will unless by the peculiar permission of God For know ye not that we are the Temple of God and that the very Kingdom of God dwelleth in us which thing is to be re-furrowed from its original First therefore it is of Faith that we are the sanctuary of the holy Spirit that the holy sacred Trinity doth make its mansion with the Just That the delights of God are with the Sons of Men unto whom he hath given Power to become the Sons of God but Children being Baptized are innocent just of them is the Kingdom of God the fitted Temple of God Yet Children are killed by enchantments sooner than others Therefore it must needs be that that thing happens from some
But Herbes are gathered and Roots are digged up in a station wherein there is the more of vigor and therefore also presently after Sun-rising For things Injected are driven forth no otherwise than as a Snake from the Fire But Divines are wont to consume things Injected which are rejected in the Fire for a disgrace of the evil Spirit Those things indeed do thus rightly perish yet the relapsing returns thereof are not thus hindred Therefore things Injected which were expelled are more rightly involved and kept in Simples in any whereof there is an expulsive force With the like reason whereby Sympathetical Remedies do cure an absent Wound do these endowed Simples drive away things Injected do detain and restrain them that they are not Injected and do delude the vain endeavour of the Magitian The weaknesse therefore of an in-darting Being is deservedly suspected which cannot send in things that are to be cast into the Body because a certain hindering Herb is present and President Therefore the force which derives things Injected inwards is not that of the Prince of this World and of a most powerful Spirit But that of a certain Ideal and more infirm Being which doth so easily hinder all enterance for the future CHAP. LXXXII Of Things Conceived or Conceptions 1 The Spleen is the Seat of the first Conceptions 2. As well the Idea's of the Immagination as Archeal ones do issue from the Spleen their Fountain 3. Therefore also they smell of an Hypocondrial faculty or quality 4. The Plague alwaies begins about the Stomack 5. Of soulified Conceptions 6. Idea's from the Womb. 7. Madnesses 8. A mad Irreligion 9. The reality of Conceptions in respect of the Matter and efficient Cause 10. Presumption doth blind almost all mortal Men. 11. An occult madnesse 12. Diseasie Conceptions 13. Diseases of the Womb. 14. Womb Phantasies 15. An instruction of every Monarchy 16. A double Government in a Woman 17. The Womb is not ill at ease but from things conceived 18. The Female Sex is miserable 19. Diseases of the Womb differ from their Products 20. The Cure of its last or utmost Fury 21. A twofold Idea of things Conceived 22. The rise and progresse of a Feverish Dotage 23. The progresse of Idea's unto their maturities 24. The Entry of all good is in Faith 25. The flourishing of Passions MOreover a Diseasie Being is like unto things Injected the which I call that of things conceived For although this Being doth not come to us from without nor is nourished from elsewhere Yea neither doth Satan co-operate with it yet because it doth not much differ in its root manner of making and a certain likeness dâ—â—fects from some Injected things I have not unadvisedly referred things Conceived among Spiritual things Received Unto the clearing up whereof I have already premised many Prologues Wherefore I have already elsewhere demonstrated the Imaginative Power of the first Conceptions to be in the Spleen and that it is from thence extended unto the Stomack the companion of the Duumvirate and that also it is hence easily and originally in the other Sex extended unto the Womb. The Spleen therefore is as well the Fountain of Idea's Conceived in the imaginative faculty of a man as of the Archeus himself The Archeus hath his own and peculiar Imaginations proper unto him for whether they are the Phantasies of a true Name or onely Metaphorical ones it is all one to me in this place for the sake whereof he continually feels Antipathies and self-loves and from thence stirs up derived motions Surely the Conceptions of the Archeus doe forthwith attain the most powerful determinations in the aforesaid places Because they smell of their native place they are Hypocondriacal Qualities they bear the Monuments of the first and undistinct motions And although a soulified immagnation which is there delayed without the strength of impression or the inclination of any prejudiced thing may be at length made as it were sleepy undistinct and almost confused wherefore indeed times do seldome wax gray or old with carelesness yet those which in the very shops of the first Motions receive the deliberation of some Passion do also allure unto them the Spirits made old in the Brain do undergo the contagion of the place and are made and forged by the Judgement of a deprived Idea and do seminally bring forth affects co-agreeing with their Causes To wit those which are suspected of Hypocondrial madness confusion and disturbance For therefore we do all of us suffer every one his own anguishes of mind Yet the already mentioned Archeal imagination as it neither desireth the consent of the Soul so neither doth it exspect it and therefore it happens unsensibly and without our knowledge Therefore indeed the Plague whether it be made from a terrour conceived in the Soul or next from a proper Vice of the Archeus yet it alwayes holds its first consultations about the Orifice of the Stomack For the Idea's of the Archeus are most powerful also the most fierce ones of Diseases Because they being irrational do happen unto us without our knowledge and against our will and therefore also incorrigible and are for the most part out-laws and do therefore invade us after an unthought of manner I will now treat of soulified Conceptions because they are the more distinct and sensible ones whosoever they be which do as it were weaken insatuate and now and then enchant themselves with the perturbations of the first motions and the conceived Idea's of these they afford a fit occasion unto the aforesaid Causes And although this kind of Vice doth sometimes invade even learned and judicious Men produceth foolishnesses and crabbishnesses Yet it is more social unto a Woman by reason of the agreement and nearnesse of affinity of her Womb. Indeed the Womb although it be a meer Membrane yet it is another Spleen And therefore it doth as it were by a proper instinct of the Seed presently wrap it self in the external Secundines of the young as it were another Spleen As elsewhere in its place Not indeed that a Woman doth by this Vice of Nature forge execrable Hypocondrial Idea's for the destruction of others after the manner of Witches but they are hurtful onely to themselves and do as it were inchant and infatuate and weaken themselves For they stamp Idea's on themselves whereby they no otherwise than as Witches driven about with a malignant Spirit of despair are oftentimes governed or are snatched away unto those things which otherwise they would not and do bewail unto us their own and unvoluntary madness For so as Plutarch witnesseth a desire of Death by hanging took hold of all the young Maids in the Island of Chios neither could it be stayed but by shame or bashfulness sore threatned unto them after death Seeing therefore the Vice of things Conceived doth also touch men let the Reader be averse to wearisomness if it shall behove me to stay the longer in these things who
Unity 23. The Schooles have been decieved by their sloathfulness of narrowly searching 24. What hath deceived Augustine in Time 35. Some Considerations of the Author about Time 26. What it is to have said in Genesis In the Beginning 27. The Error of Aristotle concerning Place 28. Duration is more intimate to a Thing than Place or a Thing is to it self 29. The true and essential property of Time 30. Why Time is not of the Predicaments 31. Men being badly initiated or instructed do also badly accustome themselves 32. What hath deceived the Heroe's in the consideration of Time 33. Some Demonstrations even from the holy Scriptures in the Authors behalf 34. Priority or Formerliness is difficultly abstracted from Time 35. Duration doth not shew a respect to things 36. The Suppositions are now solidly proved 37. The Law of Fate or Destiny 38. A Consequence upon the Positions of the Schooles 39. Priority is in respect of Fate But not of Time 40. What Succession may be 41. A Treatise of Eternity in respect of Time 42. It is answered unto an Objection brought out of the holy Scriptures 43. An Error is demonstrated by the Operations of Angels 44. An Argument contradicting the Schooles 45. The Author proves it many manner of wayes 46. The Authors profession concerning Time 47. A certain Dulness in the true Division and Measure of Motions as to the Motion of the Day 48. Clocks or Dyals 49. The Error of Clocks or Dyals 50. A Measure found out by the Author 51. Concerning Critical or Judicial Daies 52. Paracelsus is noted 53. A Crisis or Judicial Sign brings forth Infamy to a Physitian 54. Frivolousneses 55. The Consideration of a Climaterical or Dangerous Year of ascent 56. A stubborn privy shift of Astrologers 57. They now cease from their asserted Climaterical number for the half of it 58. The Sabbatary Jubilean and Ninteenth Numbers c. 59. A week is introduced not so much by reason of Number as by reason of Jewish Perfidiousnes 60. A Treatise for Long Life is concluded I Being about to write of Long Life it hath seemed good unto me to premise a Treatise concerning Time because Long Life owes an unseparable respect unto Duration Neither yet is that thus by me determined in the first place as though I would measure Life by Time but rather in speaking properly I compute the continuance of Life in relation unto Dayes and Years the which I will by and by demonstrate not to be Time Paradoxes indeed I confess they are but nevertheless true Doctrine For Aristotle I have elsewhere shewn to be altogether ignorant of the Beginnings of Nature and to be very scanty in the matter of Natural Phylosophy and therefore he being wholly ridiculous hath exposed Time Place a Vacuum Infinite Fortune and such like abstracted Considerations and plainly forreign in the order of Nature as though they were the Institutions or First Lessons of Nature But I have premised the speculation of Time hitherto unknown unto Long Life Wherefore for the clearing up thereof I state this Proposition Time is no otherwise separated from Eternal Duration or Continuance than the Light of the Day the Sun not appearing from the most lightsome or bright Light of the Body of the Sun For I believe that God most Glorious is the Way the Truth the Life and Essence of all Things Likewise that he is the Principle or Beginning in whom all things are Principiated do Live and are Mooved I say therefore that even a Body or Motion not being granted yet Time Place on the other side a Scitual Disposition and Distance should be the same which now they are For truly without the Heavens an unlimmited Place is believed to be which is deprived of all Body and Motion yet filled with the Spirit it being suited thereunto by its Infiniteness of Greatness In like manner I understand Time not to be tied up to Place not to a Body lastly not to Motion but to be a Being separated from the same Therefore neither do I beg Time from the circumscription of the Motion of the first moveable Heaven For even as the motion of the Heaven is made in a Place as if it were a certain Measure of a Place yet as Place is not Motion although it be made in a Place So neither is Motion Time although it happen in Time For neither can Time be Generated by Motion or in the Womb of Motion if the thing Generated be in the particular kind like unto its Generater For indeed a Year a Day a Moneth and Night are not Time but Measures and Accidents of things happening in Time plainly forreign and external unto Time For so our Day is anothers Night In the mean while Time is every where the same in the whole Universe The Spring Summer Autumn Winter are not Time but Alterations of the Air ordained for the interchangable Course and successive Changes of Things Likewise Childhood Young Age Youth Vigour of Years and Old Age are not Time but Names of the successive Alterations of the Body and Life For the Schooles besides that they teach Time either to be the very Measure of the first Moveable or at leastwise that it is concluded under the same for that thing is not yet determined They will moreover that every undividable natural point of Time should actually and really have in it infinite Mathematical points Seeing that there is a positive real infinite Being even as also actually undividable which in it self is not positively intelligible and the which therefore the Schools deny to be possible They now of their own accord in every the least point of Time endow that is bespatter the knowledge of Nature with meer Dreams Therefore it necessarily follows from their Suppositions being granted that every part of Time is not of Time but a certain Mathematical point undividable and so without Duration without and besides Time Therefore that also Time should consist either of undividable parts or should be as it were a certain Product from a connexion of undividable and infinite Points of continuance So indeed as that neither should they be the undividable Atomes or Points of Duration if by their connexion they should co-arise into something that is to be divided They mind not I say that an undividable negative thing can never grow together by connexion into any present actual long short great or little Thing because it in it self comprehends a meer nothing in a Natural that is a Real Being Therefore they contradict themselves in the Word undividable They have beheld indeed a Long and a Short Time and for this Cause they have reduced them under Quantity In the next place they have constituted also the whole Essence and Circumscription of Time in succession which should actually stand in infinite and infinitely undividable Points of Duration being connexed in every the least Point of an instant Natural Being Truly they on both sides have too much addicted themselves unto Science Mathematical
which b. also denies for their Bodies after the Resurrection Therefore it behoves that we are Born again of Water and of the holy Spirit For as from the Beginning man was created and had not proceeded from a being born of Flesh So whatsoever is afterwards born of the Flesh is Flesh But the Water the Blood and the Spirit are one and the same in Christ John 5. and these three do denote an indifferent and one only Baptism in valour or effect Wherefore the only new Birth unto Life Is by Water and the Spirit in the participation of the virginal Body of Christ alone For truly it is alike impossible for Flesh to enter into and see the Kingdom of God as for to ascend into Heaven by a Motion of ones own and that is granted to none but to the Son of the Virgin who for that end descended from Heaven who was in Heaven while the same Son spake these things to Nicodemus and the which a little while after ought moreover for the same Cause to be exalted in the Cross The same therefore which descended from Heaven that he might be incarnated of the Matter of the Virgin is he in whom the Water the Virginal Blood and the holy Spirit are one The Spirit therefore which maketh the Corrupted and Adamical Man to be renewed by Water doth so regenerate the inward man from a new Generation in the Spirit that it becomes a true Spirit to be glorified by rising again whose Voice the Sons of Adam shall hear yet shall they not know from whence it may come or whither it may go because the Spirit the Regenerater is the glorious God himself who breatheth where he will and thou now hearest his Voice by Faith and the Sacrament Thus every one who is born again of the holy Spirit is made Spirit and united to him who is not known from whence he may come or whither he may go I call these earthly things although they touch at a spiritual Generation and new Birth because they have some things like unto them in a sublunary Nature which things every one hath not indeed every where known and therefore neither doth he believe them For the Generations of Bruits do happen from a watery Liquor and a seminal Spirit Notwithstanding those things are not therefore plainly terrene or earthly and naturally intelligible by the Vulgar which the Lord speaks to Nicodemus because the reason of the Love of God is no more conceived in this New-Birth than of his infinite goodness To wit it remains unpassable why he would adopt Man for a Son and Co-heir of his Kingdom yea reduce him into a Spirit of a God-like Form who shall materially be born again of Water For that mystery of love exceedeth all the understanding of Angels Yea to believe and contemplate of the actual Person of Christ in an old Man a Woman a young Man a poor diseased Man a miserable and naked poor or little esteemed Man or Woman none can naturally understand it unless he being compelled by Faith hath subjected his understanding unto Faith So neither are we able to conceive what one thing all are made by that new Birth of Baptism in Christ without a difference of Sexes or Nations unless we are holpen by Faith At length it was not enough for the Love of Christ to be born in the form of a Servant and so to be exposed unto Scorn But moreover he ought to suffer a most sharp and most exceeding reproachful Death the which so cruel and disgraceful Death himself in the abounding goodness of his Love cals his Exaltation But he brings it into the similitude of the exaltation of the Serpent Nehushtan Not indeed because the Serpent did any more represent the form of the Son of Man than the Fork did the Cross but only the likeness of impure Man slidden into Death through the perswasion of the Serpent the likeness of whose Servant the Lord was to assume Therefore the Son of Man ought to be exalted not indeed as being unhurtful in the Fork or as it were an unsensible brazen Serpent and the which otherwise being a live one was perceivable enough to be most fit to hang up But the Son of Man must be exalted alive he being full of Love and also at length to die in that Cross that the deserved New-Birth or Regeneration might be made effectual by his Death For truly else without the Death and Exaltation of him Crucified a Participation of the new Birth by Water and the Spirit had not succeeded neither had Death Perished So that plainly from a deep mystery the similitude of the Fork Cross and Saviour was fetched for a similitude of an incarnated Servant and him compared with the brazen Serpent Neither also did Israel Worship God in the Serpent otherwise Moses by the Command of God had been the Author of Idolatry Neither therefore is a live Serpent bound to the Fork as neither likewise his dead Carcass but his brazen Image only as being uncapable of Life that by this mystery it might be manifest that the whole similitude in that the exaltation of the Fork or Pole and Cross did manifest and clearly hold forth unto us the Flesh of Sin which the Son of Man by way of similitude represented was plainly uncapable of Life and of the Kingdom of God no otherwise than as the brazen Serpent was Therefore it is simply and absolutely true That unless Man be born again of God and doth partake of the unspotted Virginity which the Lord Jesus drew in his most glorious Incarnation from the material substance of the Virgin his Mother the hope of Salvation is for ever cut off Wherefore also from thence it is manifest that from the intent of Creation nothing but a Virginal Generation was afterwards required And by consequence that a Seminal Impure Beast-like and Adamical Generation was by the Craft of the Devil drawn and exhausted from the Apple wherein the Fewel of Lust was Therefore unless the Adamical Flesh doth again die and an unspotted Virgin-Flesh be restored in us in its stead by the favour of the holy Spirit who saveth those that are to be saved freely it is certain that the first intent of our Creator should be frustrate whatsoever may be otherwise done or hoped for For in the Beginning it was sufficient to be born because also then they had been born of God But after the Fall it thenceforth behoveth the Adamical Flesh to die and perish and to be again renewed or re-born of Virgin-Flesh which the holy Spirit by Water stirs up in us while we wish or desire to be Members of that Head and Branches of that Vine We are therefore regenerated in the Lords Body by Grace unto the immortal Life of the Age to come and that we may be raised up again in the Participation of Virginity Death must interpose and whatsoever is Adamical in us be blotted out We all indeed shall rise but we shall not all be
changed for those only shall rise again changed who shall rise again glorified in the Virgin-Body of Regeneration which change the Apostle understood because that He who is not born again cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And therefore He that shall rise again being not born again by consequence also shall not be changed from his antient Being if he shall rise again from Death neither therefore also shall he have entrance unto Gods Kingdom because by the new Birth the whole Man is made Spirit And therefore he which shall rise again from the new Birth shall rise again in a spiritual Nature Otherwise He that is born of the Flesh and not born again of the Spirit shall hear indeed the Voice of him that is born of the Spirit but shall not know from whence it may come or whither it may go This indeed is the changing of Bodies into Spirit and the change of Bodies in the Resurrection or it is the Glorification of those that are to be saved after the Resurrection But other Sins were expiated indeed through Repentance with the victory and triumph of the Lamb but the loss of that Virginity and primitive Purity doth without Regeneration reserve an Eternal Spot of Impurity and Uncapacity No otherwise than as a virginal conservation and Integrity of the re-born Faithful gives unto Virgins that are born again a Golden or Laurel Crown equalized unto Martyrdom Christ therefore as he is the Father of this Virginity so also the Father of the Age to come But those that are to be saved are his own new Creature and new Regeneratition Who to wit hath given them Power to become the Sons of God unto these who believe in his Name who are born not of Bloods nor of the Will of the Flesh nor by the Will of Man but of God after a most chast manner of the holy Spirit by whom before the brutal Concupiscence of the Flesh arose it was decreed that altogether every Man ought to be born of his Mother being a Virgin Therefore Christ being the Top and Lover of Chastity doth distinguish Men as well in this Age or Life by Chastity as in Heaven and will grace them with an unimitable and eternal Priviledge For a great Company followed the Lamb whithersoever he should go and Sang the Song which no other was able to Sing But these are they who are not defiled with Women For there are Virgins of both Sexes Because there shall not be there Jew or Greek But they are all one in Christ For the Almighty hath chosen his Gelded Ones who have Gelded themselves for the Kingdom of God its sake of whom is the Kingdom of Heaven Therefore married Persons are reckoned to be defiled with Women and Mothers to have conceived their off-springs in Sin and in this thing are far inferiour to Virgins For indeed because the Gospel promiseth unto Mortals not only that the Son of God was Incarnate and suffered for their Salvation But that moreover these two Mysteries least else they should be frustrate are to be applyed unto individual Persons I indeed contemplate thus of this Application that as man through the Sin of lust brake no less the Intent of God than his Admonishment and the humane Nature was therefore afterwards radically Corrupted and that thereupon another and almost brutal Generation thereof followed Therefore the joyful Message hath included as well an Abolishment of Original Sin as of other Sins consecutively issuing from thence Who by dying destroyed our Death not his own because he had none The which is not understood of temporal Death for the righteous Man as yet to this day dyeth just even as before the Passion of the Lord but of Eternal Death Therefore seeing man since the Fall ought to be Born Increase and Multiply no longer from God but from the Bloods of the Sexes by the Will of the Flesh and of Man nor from thence could ever be able to rise again of himself and to re-assume his lost and antient purity nor cease that he might again begin to be otherwise and better therefore the joyful message hath brought an assurance unto us that Baptisme should be unto us for the remission of sins through a new birth of Water and of the holy Spirit That our mind as it were through a new Nativity of its Inne by Regeneration might be partakers of the unspotted Virginity and humanity of our Lord. Which New-birth doth indeed repose the Soul into its former state to wit by taking away the sin or debt and the stinks or noisomenesses thereof but by reason of the continuance of Adamical flesh in which the Immortal Mind liveth the antient possession or inclination unto sin is not taken away nor is there a translation of the corruption drawn from the impure original of the blood of Adam But that this is really so we are perswaded to believe For God doth manifestly daily grant a testimony of that actual Grace and attained Purity to be derived into the Body of those that are Baptized through a true and substantiall Regeneration as well in Body as in Soul For truly for this end and in this respect alone Mahometans are Baptized for a proper reproach because Baptisme from the fact or deed done however unlawfully it be administred and received takes away from them for the future the noisomness inbred in them otherwise to endure for their Life time such as in all the Hebrews or Jewes in many places up and down we do daily observe to be with loathing and weariness The true effect therefore of Regeneration and its co-promised character doth much shine in Baptisme even outwardly also in a defectuous Body And the enemies of the Christian Name do serve us for unvoluntary witnesses unto this thing Yea the perpetuity of the same Effect confirms the unobliterable Character or Impression of Baptisme and the wickedness of it being repeated But the New-birth by Baptisme doth not yet for that Cause take away a necessity of Death For Baptisme forsaketh its own with the fardle of a defiled and Adamical body begotten by the Will of Man And for that Cause also the Soul as subject unto the Vices of the corrupted Body and of a Will long agoe corrupted Wherefore by reason of the frailty of Impure Nature also an easie inclination and frequency of Sinning Baptisme hath been scarce sufficient for those of ripe years otherwise for the more younger sort it is abundantly sufficient Therefore the Sacrament of the Altar is Wine which buddeth forth Virgins Which is as much as to say the end and scope of the Lords Incarnation or of the instituted Sacrament of the Eucharist should bud forth Virgins as demonstrating that the intent of the Creator from the beginning esteemed of and reckoned upon Virginity alone and of how great abhorrency Numb 25. Luxury is in the sight of the Lord. For although Bigamy or a Plurality of Wives and likewise a dismissing of ones Wife and much loosing of
Matrimony were in times past dissembled Yet Phinehas being neither a Judge nor a Prince from his very own zeal slew the Fornicator Zimri and the Harlot Cosby and by that famous act not onely diverted the wrath of the Lord from the whole People of Israel But also although he were a Man-slayer and Man-slayers were repulsed from Sacrifices Yet by reason of that simple Death the Priesthood was given unto him persevering in his off-spring In the next place the Potters field Akeldama called Acheldamah or The field of blood as long as it retained the name of a Field confirms the Position because indeed by a supernatural Miracle it so consumeth a dead Carcass inhumed in it in one onely day that besides a Sceleton of Bones nothing remaineth surviving which effect that it was supernatural I prove For otherwise if it should naturally happen that thing without doubt should be done by a corrosive force of the Earth and the which therefore should be wholly a corrosive Salt or at least-wise a certain Mineral vein co-mixed with very much Salt 1. But first of all That corrosion of the flesh happened not onely at Jerusalem as long as it was a Field where there might be a suspition of some Mineral growing but also its Earth being brought from thence the same thing happened in the burying-place at Rome for that cause called The holy Field to wit wherein that Earth scarce equalizeth the depth of one Foot 2. But whether we may suppose a corrosive Salt or next the Earth it self to be Salt yet seeing it is the property of Salt and a thing unseparable from Salt to melt through Water being poured on it Therefore long ago before so many Ages that substance of the corrosive Salt being melted by Raines Snowes and Hailes had wandred even unto the bottom of the sand and the rather at Rome where it found not its native place Wherefore also that faculty of corroding should cease nor should it continue safe until now 3. And so much the rather because the corrosion of Salts is by little and little satisfied and desisteth in gnawing 4. Lastly Such a corrosive of Earth is not any where found in the Earth whether thou shalt respect a Vein of Arsenick Orpiment or any other For all the activity of such Corrosives presently after a good while waxeth mild and is satisfied Therefore the property of that Field remaining after so many Ages doth clearly shew withal against the will of Atheisme that the Field being purchased with the price of the Life Blood and Death of the Saviour presently consumes the flesh of Adamical generation Because that for the consuming and renewing whereof by the body of Christ which was sold for thirty silver pieces paid for the price of that field the coming of the most glorious incarnation is believed to be directed from God as its onely scope The unsufferableness therefore of that Earth with the flesh of sin continually persevering now so many Ages however the Bowels of the Atheists may burst convinceth of an honour to be due to the Saviour or Son of God for ever In the next place a humane dead Carcass was alwayes buried for honour and desert yet in the Law it caused an impurity for a time Because neither did it pollute the Soul but the Body onely for the meritorious fact And that impurity did indifferently affect any one not as the dead Carcass was deputed to the Wormes for the Wormes by their co-touching are not read to have caused an impurity but because Adamical flesh is horrid in the sight of the Lord who indeed promiseth that he will raise them up at the last day as many as shall reverently receive the Eucharist For all indeed shall rise again by the finger of God to wit by a supernatural Virtue Therefore whosoever in rising again shall be changed are reckoned onely to be raised up again by the Lord Jesus to wit in as much as in a Body which they have attained by the Wine which buds forth Virgins they shall rise again partakers of the unspotted Virginity of Jesus I will raise them up again at the last Day What other thing I pray you doth that Promise denote but that the Elect shall rise again changed and raised up by the Lord not indeed in the flesh of sin but in the flesh of the Lord which they have partaked of by Baptisme and the Eucharist Therefore the horrid and damned flesh of sin doth besprinckle its touchers with no undeserved spot of impurity There is therefore a distinct diversity of Virginal purity The First comes to hand before the Fall of Adam and the which therefore did contain a certain Immortality from the suffrage or consent of the Tree of Life But the Second is of them Who were sanctified in their Mothers Womb the which in it self is also twofold For such a sanctification although it dismissed Original Sin and did restore the integrity of withdrawn purity yet because they were conceived by the Will of Man and by Bloods or of the flesh of Sin they were also Mortal But the most holy Virgin Mother presently after the seminal mixture of her Parents was preserved from the knitting and blemish of Original Sin before hec-ceity or the coming of her Soul But Jeremy and John obtained the same but after quickening In these two indeed there was a Remission of sin admitted but in the God-bearing-Virgin there was a prevention before sin could touch her Soul and therefore she was taken up with her body into Heaven but not John or Jeremy Next a Third Purity is in being born again of Water and of the holy Spirit which also happens two manner of wayes To wit Unto Little Children and Unto those of Ripe Years For in these Regeneration doth not onely remit Original Sin but also every grievous Sin But in little ones it remitteth onely Original Sin because it as yet finds no other But on both sides it leaveâ—â— Death and Flesh hastening into a dead Carcass because stirred up by 〈…〉 copulation Fourthly The purity of those is regarded Who have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God its sake and that as yet in a two-way-journey For they have either from a Child devoted their Virginity to the Lamb and have observed it and therefore also they follow the same whithersoever he may go do sing the Hymn c. but all that after Death For otherwise they are of the flesh of sin and therefore are of necessity also guilty of Death and corruption But they who have lost their Purity through a proper Error and afterwards rising up again have vowed or observed chastity These although they are chaste yet are they not to be reckoned among Virgins But moreover after that a Matrimonial generation was constituted by the Lord Regeneration by the holy Spirit and Water doth not fore-require Virginity Fifthly The top of all Purity and Chastity is the Lord Jesus himself who was not conceived by a
copulation of the Sexes for he was truly Immortal and the first who therefore arose from the Dead by his own Power unless the amorous or loving Embassage for which he had come had made him electively to be born in the form of a Servant Therefore now the Question hath seemed to me to be decided which hath driven many that were in anguish about the unspotted Conception of the God-bearing-Virgin into many brawlings Furthermore not onely Regeneration by Baptisme is enjoyned but also unless we shall eat of the super-substantial Bread we are to have no Life in us Which benefit of a vital Purity is the supream pledge given for the Life of the World or for the frail Adamical miserable and mortal Life Because that Heavenly Bread which descends from heaven which is the Wine budding forth Virgins and the same in supposition from its own free property takes away the spot contracted from Adam and the broken Virginity of Eve Because the Merits of the Passion being participated of in that Pledge are communicated of from the unspotted Virginity of the Body of our Lord. The Communion therefore of that most Chast Body uniteth us unto his Mystical Body and makes us partakers of his Incomprehensible and Amorous Incarnation as we participatively put on his Virginity in which we ought to be saved by being born again For Christ was born that he might be crucified for us Therefore his Death was that it might give us Life and that for the whole Species of men in general But in the individual as oft as of the Bread the Body of the Lord is made as if Christ is re-born again not indeed that he is crucified again But that he may give the intended scope of his Incarnation unto that individual Body which there eats the re-born Lamb that is the Merits of his Passion Indeed there are two principal Ends of the holy sacred Eucharist To wit that the Virgin nature of Christ and the Merits of his Passion may be unitively communicated unto us Truly Children that are Baptized shall rise again indeed in a glorified Body Yet by so much the lesse lightsome by how much they were remote from the Union of the Beatifical Body And although there do not now appear the visible signes of so great an effect such as I have above related concerning Baptisme yet they are in very deed communicated unto their immortal mind Because it is that which shall therefore at some time reduce their Body into the form of a Spirit For otherwise Regeneration doth not grow anew in the Resurrection which hath not fore-existed in the Life-time by being born again Neither is Faith of feigned Non-Beings but of things chiefly true although not alwaies visible because they do primarily operate on the Immortal mind which is invisible Wherefore although the mark of resemblance of Union with God by the Eucharist be altogether unsearchable and the fruits thereof are unto us invisible Yet a Mystical aâ—â— real New-birth is reckoned to be in the speech to Nicodemus it being as yet earthly and as it were natural By which title indeed I have transferred this free endowment of Purity among natural Considerations to wit that under the Doctrine concerning Long Life I may speak also of Immortal Life as it is understood by true Christians and actually derived into a true use For I contemplate of the Regeneration of those that are to be saved and of the participation of Life in the Communion of the Eucharist to happen and be reckoned among earthly things because there is shewn something like unto it elâ—â—where in Earthly things Verily almost even as in the Projection of the Stone which make â—â—â—old For I have divers times handled that stone with my hands and have seen a real transmutation of â—aleable Argent-vive or Quicksilver with my eyes which in proportion did exceed the powder which made the gold in some thousand degrees Indeed it was of the colour such as is in Saffron being weighty in its powder and shining like bruised Glass when it should be the less exactly beaten But there was once given unto me the fourth part of one grain I call also a grain the six hundredth part of an ounce This powder therefore I involved in Wax scraped off of a ceâ—â—ain Letter least in casting it into the Crucible it should be dispersed through the smoakinesses of the coaâ—s which pellet of wax I afterwards cast into the three-corner'd Vessel of a Crucible upon a pound of Quicksilver hot and newly bought and presently the whole Quicksilver with some little noise stood still from flowing and resided like a Lump But the heat of that Argent-vive was as much as might forbid melted Lead from re-coagulating The Fire being straightway after encreased under the Bellows the Mettal was â—elted the which the Vessel of fusion being broken I found to weigh eight ounces of the most pure gold Therefore a computation being made a grain of that powder doth convert nineteen thousand two hundred grains of impure and volatile Mettal which is obliterable by the fire into true gold For that powder by uniting the aforesaid Quicksilver unto it self preserved the same at one instant from an eternal rust putrefaction death and torture of the fire howsoever most violent it was and made it as an Immortal thing against any vigour and industry of Art and Fire and transchanged it into the Virgin purity of Gold At least-wise one onely fire of coals is required herein So indeed if so be a just heat of the faithful shall be present a very little of this mystical and divine super-celestial Bread doth regenerate restore and renew a huge number of the Elect Which indeed was the one onely scope of so great a Sacrament And therefore it is said With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with yoâ— Let the Divine pardon me who being to write of the Life of the World if by a similitude I have drawn a demonstration from earthly things in the perswasion of the Lord to Nicodemus to confirm the real and Celestial Regeneration of Purity and Restauration of mans Relapse because it is by an Argument drawn from Earthly things But that person who is so regenerated and preserved against the Fire and Death the Lord will raise up the same in the last day who gave his Life to the righteous eater for the Adamical Life of the World For so a uniting of the amorous Incarnation of the Lord makes us partakers of his integrity so far as by Regeneration we participatively attain unto the Virginity of Christ in which we ought to be saved This indeed is the most proper Circum-locution or expression of the sense of those Words The Wine which buds forth Virgins And without this Remedy some shall rise again being not changed in their former and ponderous Body of Adam the wished for necessity of death being onely taken away from them I return unto the Priviledges of that purity that it may be
Ingredients of the Fountains of the Spaw What the Vitriol of Mars may be 4. Coagulation is never made without Dissolution nor this without that 5. Bodies do not act into each other 6. Between an Action there is the Odour of a dissolving Spirit 7. The dissolving Spirit is Coagulated 8. Why a vein of Iron is Invisible in the Waters 9. Why Waters do smell of Sulphur 10. Why Sharpnesse perisheth in the Waters and when 11. That which is manifest becomes hidden and that which is hidden is made manifest 12. Why not the Iron but the Vein may be said to be in Being 13. The Salt of Fountains doth not grow in the vein of Iron 14. Why one Fountain is stronger than another 15. The difference of Things contained in Fountains 16. Why the Fountain Savenirius is not translated elsewhere 17. Why the Water of Savenirius is the Lighter 18. The Spirit of Salt doth for some time operate upon a Vein VVRiters do with one accord affirm Water to be the continent of the Fountains of the Spaw But we differ from them only in their Original because it is that which brings no small moment unto the Nobility of the same But in respect of the thing contained in the Waters they far disagree from us For indeed they affirm that Vitriol is in the Water of the Spaw and that Calchitis or red Vitriol Mysy Sory Melantera or Blacking Salt Nitre that Nitre I say hath been found to be in them by the examination of Distilling which elsewhere they never saw because they testifie it is that which since the Age of Hippocrates had failed from thence Bitumen or a liquid Amber the pit Coal Alume Bole Oker Red-lead the Mother of Iron the Vein of Iron Iron Aerugo or Verdigrease burnt Chalcanthum Burnt Alume also the Flour of Brass and Sulphur have therein discovered themselves These things I say we read to be attributed by Authors unto the Fountain of the Spaw under their Mistris Uncertainty and so they doubting unto what Captain they may commit so great an Army do conclude that there are some Fountains in which thou mayest most difficulty discern an eminent Subterraneous Matter Elsewhere in the Fountains of the Spaw that a Heat of Vitriol is tempered with the Cold of Red-lead and Brass In another place that the Fountains of the Spaw are actually cold and moist but in Power or Virtue which one Physitians do examine to be hot and dry and therefore especially because they extinguish Thirst At length they say that there is the Faculty of Iron Sulphur Vitriol and of other mineral Things in these Fountains yet an uncertain Proportion of the first Qualities remaining whether thou dost consider the Variety of subterraneous Things or the various Disposition of the Drinkers And I also read that that is to be noted That the Fountain Savonirius puts on it rather the Virtues of mineral Things than their Substance that is Faculties above without or not substantial ones For elsewhere they say that Fountains wax sharp by Vitriol alone and that Vitriol is of a most sharp Savour but in another place with Diascorides they find in Vitriol more of an ungrateful and earthy astriction than of a sharpness Lastly even as nought but the extream torture of the Fires doth allure forth a most sharpe Oyl out of Vitriol to wit a hungry and sulphurous Salt elevating the brassy Spirits So from hence they suppose Fountains to wax sharp and not otherwise to wit that such an Heat in the Earth doth stir up the sharp Spirits of Vitriol unto the Superficies of the Earth which being there constrained by Cold and changed into a sharp Matter are co-mixed with the neighbouring Fountain Which Position many Anguishes do accompany First Because there is no such voluntary Distillation in the Universe And then because at least the inward parts of the Earth according to Hippocrates are Cold in Summer to wit when the Water of the Spaw is at best Thirdly Because the Spirit of Vitriol cannot but gnaw the Earth or Rockie-stones which it toucheth and therefore put of all sharpness which is vainly dedicated to Fountains Fourthly Because in Summer the coldness of the Earth is not in its Superficies only because it is more in condensing the Spirits than the more inward Parts from whence they imagine the Spirits to be chased through the force of heat Fifthly Because the Spirits of Vitriol being immingled with the Water although negligently locked up do neither lay aside their sharpness nor are they tinged with a ruddie colour the which notwithstanding is altogether social unto Fountainous Waters Hitherto the Opinion of others hath led me aside I will confess my Blindness I at sometime seriously distilled Savenirius and Pouhontius and indeed I found not so great a Catalogue of Minerals yea not any thing in them besides Fountain-water and the Vitriol of Iron by other Writers before me neglected But the Vitriol of Mars consisteth of the hungry Salt of embryonated Sulphur and of the Vein of Iron not of Iron which Vein the hungry Salt being as yet volatile hath by licking corroded In which Act of corroding there is made a certain kind of Dissolution of the Vein it self and a coagulation or fixation of the volatile Salt The Salt I say as long as it is volatile that is apt by being pressed by the Fire to fly away is reckoned among Spirits But Bodies do not corrode Bodies as such neither do fixed things act on or into each other but only as one of them is volatile that is a Spirit whether it be grown together or liquid In the next place in all solution as may be seen in the activity of Aqua Fortis distilled Vinegar c. Some Exhalations are stirred up being before at quiet which as they are wild ones they do not again obey coagulation therefore the Waters do of necessity fly away or being restrained do burst the Vessels But besides that also is afterwards to be noted that how much of the Spirits hath compleated the solution of the Body so much also it hath assumed a corporality in the solved Body From hence therefore a reason plainly appeareth why the Waters of the Spaw in so great a clearness or perspicuity do hide in them the dark Body of the Vein of Iron Next why in the activity of an hungry Salt they do cast a smell of Sulphur notwithstanding the corporal Sulphur be absent At length it is also easie to be seen why the Waters about the end of their activity for that speediness of solution doth continue a longer or shorter time in diverse Fountains do loose their Sharpness and why the Vein being before transparent doth then appear ruddy To wit the Spirits being now partly chased away or the same being weakened and coagulated at the end of Activity the imbibed Vein settles and is manifested which before had remained hidden the Waters in the meantime recovering their natural or proper Simplicity Furthermore it is not
Paracelsus described in his Books of the Faculties of the Members I here do hear Whisperers who are wont to swallow nothing but afore-chewed things accusing the unthought of darkness of Words Those Coale-men they say do expose their Medicines unto us hand to hand and afford unto us ocular Demonstrations But that is a new rule of learning the Phylosophy of Pythagoras Let them first buy Coals and Glasses and let them first learn those things which watching successive Nights and Expences of Moneys have afforded us the Gods do sell Arts to Sweats not to Readings alone Therefore the Example of Acâ—aeon affrighteth me from daring indeed to expose Diana to an open view being spoyled of her Garment He that can apprehend it let him apprehend it Depart thou therefore from thine own self and bid farwell to accustomed things who presumest by an easie Compendium of readings to search into the innermost Chambers of Nature But besides whereby we may give satisfaction unto the former head of a full Cure a searching out of a Medicine for the every way safe and secure Dissolution of the Stone did remain 1. Therefore it is fit that it be changed into Urin to wit that it may touch the Place affected 2. That it have in it a Power of loosing the Bolts of the Stone For it is the Gift of God which Art doth not provide but only sequestreth and extracteth 3. That it possess that thing in a specifical and appropriated Property but not in second Qualities because they are for the most part frail things failing in time of Preparation or Infamous through the Cruelty of Qualities 4. That it be subtile that it pass on every side and be able to demolish its Object at a far distance 5. That it be friendly to Nature least indeed it pervert all things For not every Messenger approacheth unto the Mines of Stones but he alone who being loosed from his Bands hath known the wayes being fited for his Journey being a Friend to the Places and which hath Virtues They erre therefore who ascribe this single Combate only unto Corrosives to wit they too much trusting unto second Qualities as being badly secure do sleep thereupon and through a neglecting of specifical Properties also appropriated ones which are only extended on their proper Object being sleighted they have gone into Obscurity For the Oestrich doth not break or digest Iron or little Birds Flints Unions small Stones through an emulous quality of Corrosion There is a Virtue of loosing the Bars and Bolts of Tartar It is convenient this Virtue to meditate of and this to imitate I have spoken Blessed be ye God of Wonders who at sometime converteth the Waters into Rocks and at sometime the Rocks into Pooles of Waters CHAP. CI. The Understanding of Adam ADam put right Names upon all living Creatures and therefore he had an intimate or intuitive or clear speculative Knowledge of these which is called the Attainment of Nature Perhaps he had likewise a most full knowledge of Herbs Minerals yea and of the Stars For truly an Object not before seen being presented unto him he had known the innermost Properties thereof From hence therefore many do conclude that the same Knowledge is given to us by a natural Property as to the successive Heirs of Adam but to be obscured through Sin But others contend that it is wholly withdrawn through eating of the Fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Of these things I being long since badly perswaded alass I also believed them For I left something untryed that I might reach unto the promised Labour of Wisdom the Paradise of Long Life through the knowledge of Adam But at length I observed many things which might subvert these very principles For First of all I could scarce perswade my self that Adam in the State of Innocency knew those Things and more which afterwards he through eating of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil was ignorant of That indeed was when he had eaten of the Apple of Oblivion Drowsiness or Ignorance But not when he had eaten of the Apple of Knowledge But if in Original Sin the Original Transgressour and Defiler of humane Nature himself as yet knew what he knew before after what manner indeed by a super-attained new Knowledge and that of another Disposition being as it were laid up in the forbidden Fruit had he withdrawn all knowledge from his Posterity And moreover how had not he who from his Creation had all Knowledge except that which by a hidden Paraphrase and Emphatical manner of speaking is called by the holy Spirit The knowledge of Good and Evil traduced this likewise on his Posterity For if through eating of the Apple His Eyes were opened the which was even made known to him before after some sort they were closed and he became a knower of Good and Evil and saw himself to be naked why was there not at least-wise in his Seed as much knowledge as there was in the Apple Why if through his Seed Sin be translated is not also Shame translated that it might naturally Shame the Indians of their Nakedness That likewise a Child of three years old should be ashamed of its Nakedness no otherwise than Adam was presently after the Apple was eaten In the next place if he were endowed from his Creation with the knowledge of the Natures Societies and Properties of Animals and from hence it was pithily essential unto him How had God who is so great a Lover of us withdrawn our essential intellectual and natural Gifts whereby he will be worshipped in the Spirit of Man but hath left natural Gifts unto the evil Spirit the most vile despised and worst of Creatures Had he so greatly impoverished our Spirit and favoured the Devil more than the Sons of Men with whom to be he cals it his Delights I indeed after that I conceived in my Soul the Knowledge of long Life and the Causes of Death knew that as long as Adam was Immortal his Mind did immediately quicken his Body and governed it Yea that for that Cause also he perfectly understood whatsoever things are read to have been put under his Feet But after that the sensitive Soul was seminally introduced as a Mean between the Mind and the Body Adam afterwards lived in the Soul and middle Life that is after a modern or mean manner And his Mind for the support of the sensitive Soul dispersed from it self only a darksom Light through the Mists of the Flesh upon the Life of a new and impure Generation But the former Knowledges which he had before the Fall were in the sensitive Life laid up though remembrance yet over-clouded with the Dim and wretched Discourse of Reason when as he had now generated after the manner of Bruit-beasts and had seminally transferred a middle Life then all his Knowledge as well former as latter of Good and Evil to wit the remembrance of the same were obliterated and Man thereby was
from it Self I could scarce discern by reason of the superlative lustre or brightness of the Christaline Spirit contained within it Yet that I observe that the Mark of the Sexes was not but in the Husk but not in the Chrystal The Seal whereof was an unuttered Light so reflexed in the Chrystal that the Chrystal it self was made incomprehensible and that not indeed by a Negation or Privation because they are those things which are in respect of our Weakness so called but it represented a famous being which cannot be expressed by Word And it was said unto me This is that which thou once sawest thorow the Chink But I intellectually saw those things in the Soul which if the Eye should see it should afterwards cease to see The Dream therefore shewed unto me that the Beauty of the Soul of Man doth exceed all Conception At least-wise I comprehended the Vanity of my long desire therefore I desisted from the wish of seeing my soul For however beautiful that spiritual Chrystal was yet my soul retained no perfection unto it self from that Vision even as otherwise after an intellectual Vision the Mind is adorned with much Perfection of Knowledge I knew therefore that my Mind in that Dreaming Vision had acted the Person of a third and so that it was not worth the labour of so great a Wish But as to what hath regard unto the Image of God in the Mind I according to my slenderness confess that I could never conceive any thing whether it were a Spirit or a Body or in the Understanding or in the next place in the Imagination or in a meer intellectual Vision which through the same endeavour may not represent some Figure of it self under which it might stand in the considerer Because surely whether I conceive a thing by its Image or Likeness or whether the Understanding transchangeth it self into the Thing understood At least-wise I cannot consider this thing to be done unless it should wander from it self into the thing understood with an interchangable course of it self the which seeing it hath a certain actual Being it hath alwayes stood with me under a certain Figure or Shape For indeed although I conceived the Mind to be an incorporeal and immortal Substance Yet I could not assoon as I thought of its individual Existence consider of the same as deprived of all Figure Yea nor indeed but that it would answer unto the Figure of a Man For as oft as the Soul that is separated seeth another Soul Angel or evil Spirit that must needs know that these things are present with it that it may distinguish the Soul from the Angel and likewise the Soul of Peter from the Soul of Judus Which Distinction cannot be made by Tasting Smelling Hearing and touching but only by a proper Vision of the Soul Which Vision or Sight doth of necessity include an interchangeable course of Figure For seeing an Angel is so in a Place that he is not at once in another Place Therein also is of necessity included a certain figural Circumscription no less than a local one And then I have considered the mind of Man to be figured after this manner For the Body of man as such cannot give unto it self an humane Shape For therefore it had need of an external Engrave which should be enclosed within the Matter of the Seed and which had descended into it from elsewhere Yet for as much as that Engraver was of a material Condition he was not able to draw a Virtue as neither an Image of figuring either out of himself nor from the Masse of the Body it behoves therefore that something doth precede which was plainly immaterial yet a real and effective Beginning whereunto a Power should be due of figuring by a sealing impression on the Archeus of the Seed The Soul of the Begetter therefore while it slides downwards and through natural Lust doth lighten the Body of the Seed it delineates the Figure of its Seal and the Seal of its Figure there which is the one only Cause of the Fruitfulness of Seeds from whence therefore ariseth so lofty a Stature of a Young For if the Soul it self were in it self not figured but that the Figure of the Body should arise as it were of its own accord a Trunk in any Member could not but generate a Trunk Because the Body of the Generater not being entire doth at least-wise faile in the implanted Spirit of that Member If therefore a Figure be implanted in the Seed certainly it shall receive that Image from a more vital and former Beginning But if the Soul doth imprint a certain Figure on the Seed it shall not counterfeit a forreign or strange Face but shall decypher its own Likeness For so also the Souls of Bruit-beasts do And although our Soul by reason of its Original be above the Laws of Nature Yet by what foot it hath once entered the threshold of Nature and is incorporated therein it is afterwards also constrained to stand to its own Laws because there is a univocal or simple Progress and end of vital Generations For neither otherwise doth it want Absurdities that an Operation of so great a Moment as is the Generation of Man should happen without the consent and co-operation of the Mind which if it be so it must needs be also that fruitfulness is given to the Seed by the Soul by a Participation of its Figure and other vital Limitations Indeed every Soul doth to this end Seal the Image of it self in the Spirit of the Seed that the matter being reduced unto a requisite Maturity shewing a delineated Beauty and also the similitude of the Begetter may be able to beg a formal Light from the Creator or a Soul of that Species whose similitude is expressed in the Figure For we believe by Faith that our mind is a true Substance which is not to die but that the new Creation of a Substance out of nothing doth belong to God alone From whence there is not many but one only spiritual Father of all Spirits who is in the Heavens who if it hath well pleased him to have adopted the mind only into his own Image it seemeth also to follow that the vast and unutterable God is also of a humane Shape and that from an Argument from the Effect Seeing that the Body is like wax on which the Seal of the Image of the Mind is imprinted but the mind hath its Image and essential Perfection from him whose Image it beareth before it But because the Body is now and then defectuous and like unto a Monster Most have thought that the glorious Image of God doth wholly consist in the rational Power or Power of Reason They not considering that the Image of God doth in the nearest and more perfect manner consist in the Soul and from thence also in the Body being formed after the exemplary Character of the Soul In Operation of the Figuring if there be an Errour that
this be not to be attributed unto the Image but unto other Causes issuing from elsewhere Furthermore how much is to be granted unto the rational Faculty for the denominating of the Image of God I have taught in its own tract concerning Reason Yet the more learned Part of Christians hold that the Soul doth most nearly express the Image of one and a trine God by a single simplicity of its Substance and a ternary of its Powers to wit of Understanding Will and Memory which Similitude hath alwayes seemed unto me Improper that the Mind should be the Image of God from an excelling nigh and singular Ability For truly an Image involveth a Likeness of Figure but not an equality of Numbers And moreover if the Soul doth in its Substance represent the holy sacred Trinity but understanding Will and Memory a Ternary of Persons it must needs be that the three Powers of the Soul are not Properties or Accidents of the Soul Yea that those Powers are the one only Substance of the Mind or such an Image doth badly square with the Type whose Image it is believed to be I therefore consider that not indeed the Mind of Man alone but that the whole Man was framed into the Image of God Wherefore although the Soul in this sense doth express a certain Ternary in its Powers yet in no wise Personalities And then because no Person of the holy sacred Trinity doth represent the Will alone or the Will a Person no Person doth resemble Memory as neither any one being separated from the other two the Understanding in Property Then also because the three Powers of the Mind are considered for the most part as it were Accidents of the Soul surely these cannot in any wise express an Image or any nearer supposed thing besides a naked Ternary of Accidents collected into the Substance of the Soul In which sense the Soul doth less denote the Image of God than any piece of Wood The which sheweth by its Analysis only Salt Sulphur and Mercury but not three Powers only like the Mind in the aforesaid similitude of the Vulgar Three Substances I say being concluded under the Unity of a composed Body and diverse the which notwithstanding in their connexion made one only Substance of Wood. Furthermore Taulerus divides the Soul into two Parts to wit the Inferiour or more outward Part which he calls the Soul and the other the Superiour and Bottom which he calls the Spirit In which Part he saith it doth specially represent and contain the Image of God Because the Devil hath not access thereunto the Kingdom of God being there But unto both Parts he assigneth far different Acts and Properties whereby he distinguisheth both But at least-wise that good Man blots out Homogeniety or Simplicity of kinde from the Soul wherein notwithstanding it ought chiefly to express the Image or Similitude of God Yea in this respect he not only denies the Image of God to be propagated in the whole Man but also in the whole Soul Surely I shall not easily believe a duality in the Soul nor admit of the interchange of a Binary if in its Essence it ought to express the Image of the most Simple Divine Nature But rather it behoves that it stand in a most simple Unity and an undivideable Homogeneity of Immortality and mark of indissolution out of all Connexion or Interchange I say therefore that the glorious Image of God is not only in the Soul but the very Mind it self is essentially the glorious Image of God And therefore the Image of God is as intimate to the Soul as the Soul it self is to it self For I consider the mind as a Homogeneal Simple Immortal Undivideable Spirit to wit one only Being whereunto Death adds nothing or takes nothing from it which is natural unto it in its Essence of Simplicity But next as a Partaker of Blessedness because Damnation is unto it by accident besides it appointment and by reason of a future Defect Such a Soul therefore being separated from the Body makes no more use of Memory nor of Remembrance through a beholding of the Place where it was or of Duration But the one only Now doth there contain all things Therefore if any Memory should remain unto it it should be in vain yea burdensome for ever The same thing is to be judged of Remembrance or calling to Mind Because it is that which breaks forth into Act only through a Discourse of Reason and therefore in Eternity it hath no longer Place where the Soul through the beholding of naked Truth without declining Wearisomeness and Defect stands out of necessities of remembring The blessed Soul therefore should stand out of the aforesaid Ternary of Powers and therefore neither should it any longer represent the Image of God for which Cause alone it was created Yea by a more full looking into the Matter I do not find Memory to be a singular and separated Power of the Soul but a naked manner of Remembring For therefore forgetful Persons do by the help of Imagination which is the Vicaress of the Understanding frame an artificial Memory unto themselves and they learn a far more strong one than otherwise their natural Memory would be And moreover Will departs from the Soul together with the Life because it came accidentally to the Soul Seeing that God after the Creation placed Man in the hand of his own free Will which thing surely denotes that the Will is not after a proper manner essential to the Mind but from a grant that it may be instead of a Talent and that he may follow the way which he had rather chuse Otherwise seeing nothing is more pernicious than Free Will beause it is that alone which breedeth all discord between God and Man surely such a Faâ—â—lty cannot have place in the blessedness of Eternity Because the freedom of willing being taken away the very Will it self perisheth For otherwise what shall a power of willing avail where there is no longer a liberty of being able to will But say they in Heaven the Will is confirmed That is the heavenly Wights cannot will but what God willeth For they that are in Charity cannot but will those things which belong to Charity Which is as much as to say The heavenly Wights can no longer will but God alone doth there will and nill Therefore the Will ceaseth while as a liberty of willing is dissolved For truly the Will cannot be serviceable or profitable unto a blessed Soul to Eternity while as neither is it able to be brought forth into Act And such a Will should be onely a wishing The which surely is not in Heaven where there is a full satiety of all desirable things with all abundance The Will therefore should be rather a burdensome Appendency of a blessed Soul Let it be sufficient therefore that in this Life men by a Power of Willing have well deserved and have treasured up their Talents for advantage Indeed I
eighty Year old and yet he easily extends his Life unto one or two Ages In the next if the Moisture ceaseth to be radical because it reacheth not the end or Application unto the Root That indeed is to the moisture by accident and therefore it doth not change the Essence thereof For neither doth the Heat of the Fire cease to be propagated in the Neighboriag Wood although the burning Wood shall not receive a fewel of fatness from without Neither in the next place doth the aforesaid excuse subsist For truly for every Event the solid Parts shall have themselves in manner of a Lamp or Torch which is sufficiently able to burn in what part Oyl is supplyed unto it and so that Oyl being supplied from without the Fire should be able to live for ever For they teach that the Heat of the solid Parts is from the Element of Fire the which they think to be for the mixture of Bodies and to be enflamed in the fatness of the radical moisture or humour First of all that Moisture is spermatick and muscilaginous but not Oylie And then if the Fire passeth out of the solid Parts unto the Moisture which it enflameth it shall be sufficient for the Moisture to be consumed and alwayes to be applyed from without nor to be incorporated in the Root throughout the whole Because if it pass out of the solid Parts unto the unsolid Parts applyed unto it during the whole life time it shall alwayes be able to pass thorow the un-solid Parts applyed unto it neither doth that excuse availe that it ceaseth to be radical while it is no longer United unto the innermost Root Because then prefently after growth the vital Vigour should be extinguished because the Moisture doth not then any longer receive a Union with the solid or sound Parts But why do I stay any longer in refuting of Absurdities It hath been so sufficiently and over-shewn that the Fire is not an Element that the mixture of the same for the Subsistence of all Bodies whatsoever is false because those of mixt Bodies are meer and antient Fables The Fire therefore if there were any in us should be primarily in the vital Spirit for the which enough Moisture doth alwayes supply it self out of the venal Blood Wherefore indeed I grieve that they have hitherto so sloathfully stumbled in the Subject of Life and Doctrine of Integrity or Health For I after the time of my Youth conjectured that there was an Errour altogether shamefully committed and omitted in the Consideration of Defects and Diseases Because none truly knows that which is crooked who hath not first known that which is right This therefore is the feigned Doctrine of the Schools concerning Life which they endeavour to establish by the supposed Authority of a little Book feigned on Hippocrates concerning humane Nature Which saith That we on the first day of our Birth are most hot and likewise at length on the last day most Cold As if there should be a different Condition of our Heat from that of any other things For whatsoever things do arise from elsewhere do presently after assume an increase and that without ceasing and at length decline and fail Wherefore if according to the Mind of the Old-man Heat should most greatly abound on the first day yet neither is the Life tied up to Heat For truly I have demonstrated that Heat is rather an Effect of Life in hot living Creatures than the Life it self or the Cause of Lise and therefore Fishes can most safely want Heat and now for that very Cause it commits an Errour in arguing of not the Cause as for the Cause Truly I am alwayes wont to behold search into believe and measure Heat as Heat and as a Quality neither also to implore any other Witnesses or Judges besides the Sense of Touching and an Instrument of Glasse which I have afore taught for the searching out of Degrees and Moments of Heat in the encompassing Air In which Sense I have found a Man of thirty Years of Age to be hotter than any Child however in the mean time they may doat about the diverse particular Kinds of Heat For let them dispute of Qualities known by Sense as of Fables and under potential Considerations but I have accustomed my self to divide open look into and esteem of things even as they are in themselves But moreover Paracelsus being ignorant of the radical Moisture of the Schools doth now and then confound that with the Mummy of our Body but elsewhere he reputes it to be as it were the inward shadow of our Body from whence he would have shadowie Flames to shine round about us To wit that the radical Moisture is the Image of the Man extended throughout the whole Man and deferring or prolonging his Life In another place also he judgeth the radical Moisture to be the Mercury or one of his three Beginnings not divideable in living Persons which is equally participated of throughout the whole For the Life being extinguished by the Plague for Death takes away the Mummial Goodness the Mummy indeed hath very cunningly failed or forsaken the same Moisture in the Body At length although the Schools confess that younger People are oft-times extinguished the radical Moisture being not yet consumed as neither through Penury of Heat and in this respect they are not very careful for their own Position whereby they may equally measure the Life by Heat and radical Moisture yet they remain in the Bounds of their Ancestours by reason of a custom of Assenting a sloath of diligent Searching and despair of Learning For indeed they have been ignorant of lightsome Lights of Life but that they are indifferent by reason of the distinction of the two greater Lights For that they may be hot like as also cold That is they have not Learned that Forms and Lives are Synonymals But I have alwayes greatly pitied the confused Tradition of this Moisture which is of so great Moment although in the Moisture of the Root they confess both the Hinges of Medicine to be rouled I bestowed much Iabout in my younger Years by the Resolutions of Bodies that I might find some certain Messenger of the radical Moisture And at length through the Favour of God I was at last more assured that not any of those things were in Nature which with a lofty Brow are promised by the Schooles in this respect I acknowledge indeed that there is a seminal Original Moisture which is the constitutive Moisture of us but altogether of the same Species Property and Identity with that whereby we grow and are afterwards uncessantly nourished And so that the Bones Bowels Nerves Tendons of Children do consist of an un-different and do increase from a like Moisture whereby young Folks their Increase being now finished are nourished According to the Maxime of the Schools We are nourished by the same thing whereof we consist But we consist of Original or first-born Moisture therefore we
Ferments as many Varieties of Putrefactions and as many Dungs of one Bread as there are particular Kindes of Animals nourished by Bread Yea and moreover there are more Ferments for the Corruption of Bread because also Bread doth putrifie after many manners as well of its own accord as through the Odour of Places and Impressions of Agents And that which is said of Bread the same thing may be understood of other Foods The Schooles taking notice also that nothings will profit us but that which in its Root containeth the Flourish of Life therefore also they would that the Spirit of the Liver being actually natural should glisten in the Venal Blood like an Air And they have thought it to be a Vapour and therefore also they have confounded it with an Exhalation Not knowing that a Vapour is Water but that it is not a Gas a wild Spirit an uncoagulable Air and Skie Therefore they have thought that a Vapour exhaling out of the out-chased venal Blood even as elsewhere it breaths out of any lukewarm Liquors was that Spirit of the venal Blood from whence the vital Spirit should afterwards be materially framed Of which I have elsewhere profesly spoken For indeed whatsoever defcendeth into an healthy Stomack if it be concocted by the Ferment of the Spleen it waxeth sharp through the fermental and specifical Sharpness of our Species And Superfluities being first sequestred from thence it is at length turned into venal Blood Which Blood after the Bound of its Digestion is transferred into the Heart and is made Arterial Blood which in the holy Scriptures is called A ruddy or red Spirit wherein the Soul inhabiteth For it is made fit to pass over into Vital Spirit and the remainder thereof to undergo the last Digestion of the solid parts and at length without that its residence to exhale into the Air Therefore also for that very Cause it ought to be volatile and to have assumed the Disposition of a Spirit in the Heart Furthermore that Sharpness of the Stomack by Virtue of the ferment of the Gaul is converted into a Salt even as elsewhere concerning Digestions And the Actual Saltness is separated with the Urin and Sweats because it became Excrementitious But the Mass of the venal Blood it self seeing it cannot pass over into Spirit but by the Vital Ferment of the Heart I say there is made a substantial Derivation or Translation of the Venal Blood into Arterial Blood and of the Arterial Blood into Spirit wholly throughout the whole without any residence and separation of heterogeneal Parts because the Excrements are first withdrawn from thence and the Substance of the Heart is restless being continually busied about this Office of Transmutation that it may uncessantly effect Arterial Blood out of the Venal Blood and of this vital Spirit So that a certain natural Spirit doth not fore-exist in the venal Blood from whence as it were of the matter whereof vital Spirit may be made But the whole venal Blood it self if there shall be need is made Arterial Blood and from thence â—ital Spirit Therefore the making of Venal Blood in the Liver and the making of Arterial Blood in the Heart do differ For one is a true transmutation of the Chyle into venal Blood and the generating of a new Being But the other is an extenuating of the Venal Blood into a volatile Arterial Blood and into a Vital Air For venal Blood is made with a thickning of it self and with a Separation of the liquid Excrement or Urin. But the Vital Spirit is made with a melting of that which is thickned and an Aiery extenuation thereof to wit whereunto the Arterial Blood affords a Degree or Mean I confess indeed that the Spirit of Wine is snatched as a Spirit into the Arteries as a certain simple Symbolizing and previously disposed thing that it may easily passover into vital Spirit but the Schooles do from hence conclude nothing for their Spirit of the Liver Therefore let the venal Blood be the Spirit of the Liver it self coagulated and the fore-existing Matter of the Vital Spirits Which Spirit indeed hath the Nature together with the Power of a Body that it may be Spiritualized Therefore even as from the Ferment of the Heart the venal Blood is made arterial Blood and a volatile Spirit So in the Arteries as it were in the Stomack of the Heart and the Ferment of the Heart being drawn the Arterial Blood it self passeth over into the Common-wealth of Spirits Yea the secondary Humours also or the immediate Nourishments of the solid Parts are by degrees made Volatile least they should leave a remaining Residence behind them but they make an egress with a total transpitation of themselves The Heart therefore by its Ferment frameth arterial Blood out of venal Blood the which by the same endeavour it so fits and extenuates that moreover so much of vital Spirits is made out of the arterial Blood in the Arteries as it were in its Stomack as the Grosness and resisting Substance of the arterial Blood in so small a space wherein it is agitated or wrought in the Arteries permits to be made And there is well nigh a single Action while the venal Blood passeth over into arterial Blood and the Arterial Blood into Spirit Because they differ not in their Shops and likewise in the Degrees of Digestion Extenuation and Subtilizing For as much of arterial Blood is bred of venal Blood and as much of vital Spirits is made out of the arterial Blood by the same Feâ—ment of the Heart as is needful for every one of them and the Faculties of concocting are able to make Neither is it sufficient also to have known that the venal Blood doth ascend into arterial Blood but that the arterial Blood passeth over partly into vital Spirit and partly departeth into the Nourishment of the solid Parts Also that at length of vital Spirit it is made animal and the which receiveth an ultimated or utmost Determination in its Nerves so indeed that it is made visive or visible Spirit in the optick Nerves or Sinews of Sight but being exorbitant from thence and being derived into the Tongue it should be plainly unprofitable for tasting even as also the Aanimal Spirits the Authors of touching are unfit for Motion and those of this for them But moreover it behoves us to have known the Marrow of the vital Spirit For indeed of the Sharpe Chyle partly venal Blood and partly a Urin and sweat is made But that excrementous Saltness of the Urin is a volatile and Salt Spirit the which being co-fermented with Earth at length a Salta-peter is formed wherefore that Salt Spirit is excrementous The venal Blood indeed by Distillation shews unto us also a saltish Spirit plainly volatile not any thing distinguishable in Smell as neither in Tast from the Spirit of the Urin Yet essentially different in this that the Spirit of the Salt of Venal Blood cureth the Falling-sickness but the
Marriage-bed was Barren But therefore the extension of the Womb ought to be suitable to the Seed by reason of avoiding a Vacuun And then every strange thing is a hostile impediment to Generation Then in the next place after that the Seed of the Man is joyned with that of the Woman the sucking of that Load-stone in the aforesaid hollowness of the Womb presently ceaseth and the Door of the Womb is shut nigh its Neck But the Womb doth by shutting out all Air on every side and equally embrace its Content with a bountiful Favour and a more exact co-mixture of them both beginneth by reason of an occult co-marriage unfolded in the Seeds on both sides Presently after although the conceived Seed be at the first disturbed and a thick or dark Liquor yet two dayes after it assumeth the likeness of the transparent white of an Egge But on the Sixth day but not before the Archeus the Inhabitant of the Seeds appeared unto me as it were a cloudy Vapour the which on the thirteenth day after was shadowily endowed with the Figure of a Man together with a certain clarifying of its own thickness For then the Seed had increased perhaps in the tenth part of it self and had married the nourishable Liquor unto it self being the original or first-born Liquor In the mean time I wondered at the begun Self-love of Selfishness which even in Seeds should presently begin to meditate of their Increase For as lukewarm Milk doth presently incrust it self in a thin Skin so also the Seed straightway after three dayes arms it self with a Skin the which notwithstanding becomes more manifest by Degrees Yet both the Garments do differ in that that the Milk over-spreds its Skin only against the Air but the Seed on every side because the thin Skin is not extended over the Milk by a Spirit the Former or Framer thereof but by Heat which separateth the Diversities of the Milk For from hence it comes to pass that the more slymie and more Fat and more Neighbourly parts of the Milk are alwayes designed for the making of a skin by a separation from the rest and the which being consumed the skinnifying of the Milk ceaseth In Milk therefore that tendeth to Corruption unlikenesses of matter are made The which doth not happen in Seeds collected and disposed to Generation Furthermore although the Air was seen under the Figure of a Man Yet a sexual Character could not as yet be noted by me after some dayes from the Vision I lighted on that place of the Apostle There shall not be Greek or Hebrew not Male or Female but they are all one in Christ About the 17th day I saw that this figured Air did sink and plainly espouse it self within the White and did as it were sleep for full three Days space and about 12 hours and was again a certain dark Chaos in the Seed In which interval it covered it self with a visible Secundine and the hardness of a Membrane which it found not in the Matter it had made unto it self by a formative and transchangative Faculty Indeed this forming Air while it engraveth the Body it useth not separation neither therefore hath it need of a diversity of matter whereby it may frame or fashion the Diversities of Alterations of Organs proposed unto it self in the Figure Which three dayes being finished that Spirit the Framer then first appeared being markable with the Signature of the Sexes yet no longer undistinctly walking up and down throughout the whole Lump of the Seed but under a certain confusion proper unto that three dayes space all that very Air had grown together in every of his Parts although they not yet appearing For neither was there as yet so much another wandring and floating Spirit in that Mass but one only implanted Spirit continual unto it self through the Rudiments of the Parts did finish the whole distributive Divisions of Generation and that its own Pains was uncessant yet without toyle and grief or wearisomness And although it was not wearied in its Work yet it required a Vicar for it self for a distinction of the Parts is more and more unfolded and there is made a growth or increasing of the whole Lump by the Mothers and that more pure Blood and it forms unto it self a Radical Moisture the constituter of the solid Parts Wherefore also it draws an Increase and Fewel to it self from the vital Spirit of the Mothers arterial Blood the which to wit it soon assimilates unto if self by a most perfect Union Indeed the Spirit is nourished and increaseth in the delineation of the Seed no otherwise than as the corporeal Lump of the Embryo it self Yet the inflowing Spirit was not seen by me before the thirty second day after Conception It was then indeed as yet thin and drawn from the arterial Blood of the Mother being translated into a neighbouring Species But this Spirit about the one and fourtieth day had obtained a certain vital Light or Splendour and also it expressed the stature of a Man but heaped round together yet deformed by reason of a disproportionated bigness of the Head which Light was as it were a shining or brightness from a flame which Aqua Vitae sheweth in burning And not much after some moments of time this Light was on a sudden made more Lightsome than it self The sensitive Soul although it make a Species in Bruits and therefore subsisteth by it self yet in Man it contains not a Species but only a subordinate Diversity of Light or a Degree unto the Mind therefore scarce subsisting without the Mind And although in Man there be a sensitive Life yet it is not a specifical Being by Creation but a seminal Being occasioned through the Lust of our first Parent the Character whereof is wholly restrained by the Mind The sensitive Life therefore doth presently inform the Spirit of the Seed under a skie-coloured and obscure Splendour and is also informed by the Mind and that with a clearer Light Yet 4 5 6 or 7 Points of the Cord of a Foot-length do interpose because Seeds do differ in the Perfection of Dispositions and therefore the Spirits the Formers of Seeds do differ in their Perfection and chearfulness of Acting For from hence it is that that which happens unto one Conception in one forty Dayes that happens to another in the second forty or in the third neither yet therefore are the more slow or sluggish Quicknings more imperfect than swift ones no otherwise than as fore-ripe Wits are oft-times to be set behind or less esteemed than the more slow ones At leastwise the whole race of our Generation breaths forth some famous thing For although the Archeus the forming Work-man containeth in it a humane Figure and figureth the Body after its own likeness yet the Fabrick of Man is not from the Begining in an erected or upright Stature as neither confusedly rouled into a circle but bent or hooked after which manner the Young is defective
in the Womb It is false therefore that Nature is every where circular Because she is that which would every where give satisfaction to his ends who is cloathed by the glorious Work-man of Nature and not by Nature For neither after another manner is there a re-bent Reflexion put into the seminal erected Spirit by the Generater but it proceeds from the Finger of him who disposeth of all things sweetely from end even to end Therefore the Seed being conceived the Womb forthwith shuts its neather Gate least any forreign thing should rush into it which might disturb its Conception In the next place the Vessels of the Womb which are subject unto its command as if a Door-keeper were added are also shut above because then a new Common-wealth ariseth in the Womb as a new family-administration of a future Young and therefore also a singular Kitchin is erected in the confining Vessels Even so that the Embryo is a good while nourished and increaseth not by the venal Blood of the Liver but by pure and fined arterial Blood But presently after as soon as this Kitchin is furnished for the Embryo which is about to live in his own proper Orbe the Womb prepars venal Blood which it may hand-forth unto the Embryo and therefore whatsoever less profitable thing it meets withal it is brushed out So that in that whole Motion the Mother for the most part is ill at ease For truly seeing Filths can no longer be expurged through the emunctory of the Womb and the which neither are able to expect the Maturity of Delivery the Filths go backward into the Veins they obtain the condition of an Excrement and are thrust forth by Vomit and other Sinks That which is not equally done in Bruits seeing they want Menstrues and do not admit of an unseasonable Copulation Again the Conception of Men was not from the first intention of the Creator after the manner whereby we are conceived in Sins At length also because for Bruit-beasts pure arterial Blood was not equally required for Nourishment Therefore the teeming Woman alone shall pay for the Itch of one Copulation through a cruel expiation of many Punishments beyond Bruits The Embryo therefore or imperfect Young is at first nourished by arterial Blood prepared in the neighbour Kitchins of the Womb until that after the first fourty dayes he obtaining a living Soul lives of his own right But the preparatory Kitckin is exercised in the spleen-form Flesh whereby the secundine cleaveth to the Womb Therefore Succours for the Young are slow and oftentimes void and also those that are administred to the Mother by way of the Mouth because that before their entrance unto the Embryo all things are recocted And again in the Young it self before they can augment the same But the Infant being born before he is fit for bearing of the more hard Meats he is accustomed to the more gentle ones For so he is a good while fed with arterial Blood which leaves no Dungs be-hinde it For those things which fall from a little Infant that is born presently after his first Cry are the Reliques of the Blood of the Liver the which for the most part is not first admitted into the aforesaid Kitchins but after the third forty dayes And these indeed are the Excrements which do ripen and provoke the necessity of travail or delivery But moreover the Spirit that was once implanted in the Seed being sunk into the Seeds doth presently if not fore-know the necessities of the Body at least-wise perfectly learn them and afterwards draws unto it self a Consanguineal or nearly allyed Spirit or Nourishment by a certain Harmony of Affinity At length the Womb feeling the Maturity of the Young by co-wrinckling contracteth it self which the Antients have called Striving to expel the Young or Off-springs For I have oft-times with-held Abortion threatned and begun But sometimes I could not But I have known that I have detained it as oft as the abortion should be caused from a Symptomatical animosity without a fore-ripe expulsive Faculty to wit from the digression of the Womb And the Remedy did operate by restraining and sleepifying appeasing and pacifying the aforesaid Furies of the Womb But I could not prevent Abortion or miscarying as oft as there was a fall of the Mother from an high Place and much disturbance of Affrighting Grief Anger c. they being inordinate things And likewise if the Young had a remarkable Monstrousness which adds no slugguish Spur unto Expulsion Or if the Young die or pines away or failes through a notable Weakness And likewise if the Mother being strongly smitten with astonishment before the Young could live in its own Quarter hath with-drawn the Arterial Spirit unto her self The which if it shall straightway return from thence yet it finds the same Young as it were in a sound whereunto as unto a Plant so tender Life is scarce re-connexed By this means the semi-vital Conception is now and then wont to miscarry into a hard lump of Flesh or a foolish Branch But that thing scarce happens through a defect of the Fathers Seed because that a barren or foolish Seed is either not attracted and so neither is it conceived or if it be attracted it through a foolish Lust of the Womb soon fals out again and frustrates Conception But the Seed degenerates into a hard Lump of Flesh by reason of external Incidencies lighting upon the Seed whereby Hippocrates saith That Seeds are withdrawn whither they would not Therefore a hard Lump or Moale is made while as the Spirit is funk into the Body of the Seed and is spoiled of a humane Figure yet retaining its former growing Faculty The drowning or sinking therefore alone is able to command the Figure out of the forming Spirit if being to long sleepifyed within it becomes fast asleep But although the dreaming Vision did scarce fill up the space of halfe a quarter of an hour yet it at once represented all the successive Periods of Generation as it were in a Glass of the Thing To wit its Moments Fluxes Motions Aspects Diversities of interchanges and also its Errours stood collected into Unity But I being awaked alass how I sighed at the likeness of our modern propagation with that of Bruit-beasts And therefore Adam not undeservedly bewailed the Death of Abel for the space of an Age He grieving the while at the hateful bruitish Generation and knew not his Wife in all that time As well weighing that Nature being now defiled in its Root was to suffer original and of necessity durable Miseries CHAP. CVIII A Lunar Tribute SEing Woman onely among living Creatures the Ape perhaps excepted suffers Menstrues or monthly Issues and seemeth for this cause to have experience of the operations of the Moon-star but since the Schools do prattle of very many things concerning the Menstrues as if it were the ordinary nourishment of the Young Surely it hath behoved me to discover their boastings in the Treatise
nativity wherein the Lord took on him the Form of a Servant But how much he departed from that former and proper or natural dignity of his humane nature wherein he was conceived in the Womb himself sheweth Because he who came forth into the World the Womb of the Virgin being shut and the bolts of dimensions being contemned presently prostrated himself to the ordained condition of Death and willingly felt every necessity of a servile nature For both Adams in their beginning were immortal For the first Adam ought to be preserved by the Tree of Life But the second did wholly contain the Tree of Life in himself Both of them indeed chose to dye before a possibility to live For the former chose it from a Vice but the second from Charity The Tree of Life therefore and wholsomness of the place of Eden had vindicated Adam in his antient vigor from Death until that a number of years being finished he as happy had departed translated without death unto the Country of Glory Moreover it is of Faith that Adam never tasted of the Tree of Life and that lest he should eat of it he was cast forth of Paradise who ought to dye the death Yea he being now banished out of the Garden of Pleasure was of so perfect a constitution that he had lived unto some thousands of Years who was immediately formed by the hand of the Almighty without the commerce of Nature and had far exceeded the age of Mathusalem from the voluntariness of his own nature but that through the continued mourning and grief of one Age he had cut off the thred of a most Long Life from himself The Death therefore of Adam is not to be bewailed as otherwise Paracelsus badly perswaded himself because that the vital Spirit and knowledge of Long Life had fallen at once together with him For those are contradictions to enjoy Long Life from Knowledge and likewise to be Immortal from the forming of the hands of God and the suffrage of the Tree of Life also after sin to have retained the gift of Long Life by reason of his most perfect and noble constitution of Life and Body From whence the Spirit of a flourishing and abounding Life being at length translated on Posterity its vigor by degrees declining through a passing over of Generations the injuries of Life and Diseases and through the rottenness of Years the Curse co-operating manifested it self as a Magnum Oportet or a thing of great necessity The which having once entred into the Bowels of Mortals presently took possession of the same For the Life of those which at first was by the Tree without Death presently also without that Tree languisheth as being enrouled in a short term of Time and underwent an increase state or height declining and cessation after the manner of other things For so indeed Death through the perswasion of the Devil stablished it self into its Empire For Poysons that were harmless under the Tree of Life were afterwards supported for a Medicine of Destruction For I think that the Conditions and presence of the Tree of Life were hidden from Adam Else that he had extended his hand unto this sooner than unto the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And although the Tree of Life which the bounty of the Creator hath of late discovered may be so prepared that it may proceed unto the first constitutives of us with a refreshment of the decaying faculties yet I do not understand it to be that which is read to have been implanted in the Paradise of Pleasure whereunto no mortal man shall ever stretch forth his hand But ours is a shadowy one and the Vicaress of the other To wit the which hath nothing excellent and famous unless that under a retainment of properties it be reduced by Art into such a juice which may be able by its least parts to co-mingle it self with the solid parts Neither indeed doth our Tree of which I as the first do treat contain a non-sufferance unsensibleness of the pain of Diseases and an uncapacity of Death as the other did And moreover although the Tree of Life of Paradise should at this day be present with us yet it should not cause immortality Because the condition of the receiver is changed For indeed man is become composed by the bond of another generation of corrupted Nature and of another Long Life wherein the immortal mind hath no longer immediately sustained in it all the actions of Life but a frail or mortal sensitive Soul succeeded exercising the Vicarship of the mind and providing for the necessities of Life it self being like the flame slidable and extinguishable every hour CHAP. CX Short Life THe Air which is the former in the Seed ascending by degrees unto its Maturity at length conceives the Light or essential Form of its own Species which is made immediately by the Father of Lights and is of a proper name Life For as many things as differ in their particular Kinds which are involved in Darkness so many also ought the Forms to be under the species of Light For if a thing is what it is by reason of the Form in diversity from any other things whatsoever But the Form of living Things except the Mind and Life are Sunonymals there must needs be as many Lives as there are vital Forms Therefore the Light of Life is by it self every where simple and specifical but not fiery because vital formal and essential But that the Light of Life is hot or cold it denotes that the Life hath not married Heat or Cold but accidentally so that Heat or Cold proceeds from Life but not Life from Heat or Cold Life therefore cannot be otherwise understood than under the Conception of Light And neither Light is more demonstrable from a former Cause than the Forms of things themselves and whatsoever issues immediately out of the Bosom of the Almighty A vital Light therefore by its species wants a proper name We may indeed make a fiery Light to be given unto us for great necessities but it is not in the Power of the Artificer even immediately to produce a vital Light from himself Which thing the Chymists say The Artificer cannot introduce a substantial Form The Generater indeed is the begetter and producer of a vital Air forasmuch as he contributes Matter after the likeness of himself and Dispositions thereof in order unto Life but is in no wise able to produce Life or an ultimate perfect Art In Diseases also sometimes the Light of Life ascendeth unto the degree of Fire Because the Archeus from a threatned distinction or nothing of difference strikes out a fiery Light Not that the Archeus produceth this Light as he that generates his Like But the Archeus through Fury presseth together the moist Hay and it is enflamed the which being dry comes not so to pass After another manner also Woods by a co-rubbing and Iron by striking against it do conceive the fire
cannot cause the Plague 119. Why the blood of a Bull is mortally venemous 120. Why the fat of a Bull is in the Sympathetical Unguent to wit that it may be made an Oyntment of Weapons 121. Why Satan cannot concurre unto the Unguent 122. The Basis or Foundation of Magick 123. From whence Vanities are accounted for Magick 124. A good Magick in the holy Scriptures 125. What may be called true Magick 126. The cause of the Idolatry of Witches 127. The Sirrers up of Magick 128. Satan excites it imperfectly 129. From whence beasts also are Magical 130. The Kingdom of Spirits nourisheth strife and love 131. Why man is a Microcosm or little World 132. The mind generates real Entities 133. That Entity or Beingness is of a middle nature between a Body and a Spirit 134. The descending of the Soul begets a conformed will 135. The cause of the fruitfulness of Seeds 136. Why Lust doth as it were estrange us from our Mind 137. A Father by the Spirit of his Seed generates out of himself in an Object presently absenting it self 138. What Spirit may be the Patron of Magnetism 139. The Will sends a Spirit unto the Object Unless the Will did produce some real thing the Devil could not know of or acknowledge it and unless it did dismiss it out of it self the Devil being absent could not be provoked thereby Where therefore the Treasure is thither doth the Magical spirit of man tend 140. Magnetism is made by sensation 141. That there are many perceivances in one onely subject 142. From the superiour Phantasie commanding it 143. Why Glasse-makers use the Load-stone 144. The Phantasie of attracting things is changed 145. Inanimate things have their Phantasie 146. Why some things by eating of them induce madness 147. Why a mad Dog by biting of a Man introduceth madness 148. The Tarantula by his stroke or sting causeth a madness 149. Why other bruit beasts do not defend themselves against a mad Dog 150. The Sympathy betwixt Objects at a distance is made by means of a certain Spirit of the world which Spirit also governing the Sun and the Sunny Stars is of a potent sense or feeling 151. The Imagination in Creatures endowed with choice is various at pleasure but in others it is alwayes of a limited identity 152. The first degree of power dwelleth Magically in the forms of the three Principles 153. The second degree is by the phantasies of the Forms of the mixt Body the which to wit being destroyed the Principles do as yet remain 154. The Third degree ariseth from the Phantasie or Imagination of the Soul 155. What Bruits are Magical and do act out of themselves by beck alone 156. The fourth degree of Magical Power is from the Understanding of Men being stirred up 157. The word Magick is a proportionable answering of many things unto some one third thing 158. Every Magical power or faculty rejoyceth in a stirring up 159. What may be called a subject capable of Magnetism 160. How Magnetism differs from other formal Properties 161. Humours and Filths or Exâ—rements have their Phantasie 162. Why the Scripture attributes Life to the Blood rather than to any other juyces of the Body 163. The seed possesseth the Phantasie of the Father by traduction or derivation from whence nobility ariseth 164. The skins of the Wolf and Sheep have retained through impression an hostile Imagination of their former Life 165. What the Phantasie of the Blood being freshly brought into the Unguent can effect The manner of the Magnetism or attraction in the Ointment 166. The difference between a Magnetical Cure which is done by the Unguent and that which is done by a rotten Egg. 167. The notable Mystery of humane imagination is the foundation of natural Magick 168. The Understanding imprinteth the Beingnesse which was procreated or produced on the outward object and there it really continues 169. How efficacious Seals or Impressions may be made 170. The Imagination holds fast the Spirit of a Witch by a nail as it were a Medium 171. If Satan doth naturally move a Body without a corporeal touch or extreamity why not also the more inward Man and why not rather also the Spirit of the Witch 172. The virtue of the Oyntment is not from the Imagination of the compounder but from the Simples co-united into one 173. The Author makes a profession of his Faith IN the eighth year of this Age there was brought unto me an Oration Declamatory made at Marpurg of the Catti wherein Rodolph Goclenius to whom the profession of Phylosophy was lately comitted paying his first-fruits endeavours to shew That the curing of Wounds by the Sympathetical and Armary or Weapon Unguent invented by Paracelsus is meerly natural Which Oration I wholly read and I sighed within my self that the Histories of natural things had lighted into the hands of so weak a Patron The Author nevertheless highly pleased himself with that Argument of Writing and with a continued barrenness of proof in the year 1613. published the same work with some enlargement There was very lately brought me a succinct Anatomy of the aforesaid Book composed by a certain Divine rather in the form of a fine or jocond censure than of a disputation my judgement therefore however it should be was desired at least-wise in that respect that the thing found out by Paracelsus concerned himself and me his follower I shall therefore declare what I think of the Physitian Goclenius and what of the Divine the Censurer First of all the Physitian proposeth and boasts that he will prove the magnetick or attractive cure of Wounds to be natural But I found the Promiser to be unfit for so great a business Because that he no where or at least but slenderly makes good his Title or Promises He collecting many patcheries here and there whereby he thinks he hath sufficiently proved that there are certain formal virtues in the nature of Things which they call Sympathy and Antipathy and that from the granting of those the Magnetical Cure is natural Many things I say out of the Aegyptians Chaldeans Persians Conjurers and Jugling Impostors he gathers into one whereby he might prove or evince the Magnetism which himself was ignorant of Partly that by delighting mindes that are greedy of novelties of things he may seduce them from the mark and partly that they may admire the Author that he had rub'd over not onely trivial Writers but also any other the more rare ones Wherefore the Physitian doth rashly confound Sympathy which he after divers manners and fabulously often alledgeth with Magnetism and from that concludes this to be natural For I have seen also that Vulnerary Oyntment to cure not onely Men but also Horses between whom and us certainly there is not so great affinity unless we are Asses that therefore the Sympathetical Unguent should deserve to be called common to Us and Horses In like manner the Physitian badly confounds Sympathy or Co-suffering with Witchcraft
after an Inferiour manner and a proportionable resemblance of the Tribute of Inferiour Bodies in the Superiour Do not Herbs Animals and Sick or Diseased Man fore-feel and presage of future changes of Times or Seasions Is not the more cruel Winter to be expected by how much the deeper a Frog shall scrape his Inn in the Earth for harbour against the Winter at hand For from hence arise meteorical Divinations not indeed that those happen from a fore-timely Motion of celestial Bodies and that as yet to come because then it should cause that presagious feeling in Sublunary Bodies before it be present Far be it For the Firmament doth only foreshew future Events but not Cause them But indeed all particular created things have their own Heaven within them and the Revolution of that Heaven depending on the Being of their Seed in whose Spirit because it is that which contains the Idea or Engravement of the Universe is their own Heaven and there are moreover their own Ascendents Neither is there cause to think that we hereby trample upon Astrology but we illustrate or explain it because every thing contains its own Heaven and for that Cause a conjunctive relation of the Heavens yet the Motion of the Heavens because the most known because the most common directs the Heavens of particular things I may so call them for want of a Name according to it self This indeed is the Cause of every natural Inclination and where a Creature by the perswasion of its own proper Heaven wanders from that Motion of Heaven as the most common rule Sickness and Defect is forthwith present For a Sheep without a guide wanders into uncertainty For therefore sick Persons do fore-feel the Seasons and the future Mutations of Times healthy Persons not so For if the Sea did flow and ebb through the guidance of the Celestial that is the fiery signal Moon only and not from the conduct of its own watry signal Moon Winds also if they were stirred up through the guidance of the celestial Mercury only and not from their own Chaomantical or seminally signal Star truly there could not be any provincial Winds in any Place and because there is one only Mercury and one single Moon in the Heavens a co-like Wind should blow throughout the whole World and the Sea should every where flow if not at the same time at least-wise in the same harmonious Motion which modern navigation disproves Sufficient it is therefore here to have shown by the way that there is a celestial and impulsive Nature in things themselves the which notwithstanding doth excite and govern it self according to the Harmony of a superiour tributary Motion so long as it will not be accounted refractory That the Firmament also doth not Cause future events unless remotely and that only by the first Qualities playing the part of a certain Cook but otherwise doth largely or loudly proclaim the Handy-works of God But that things themselves do contain a particular Firmament in their seminal Being by reason whereof Superiour Bodies do by the Law of Friend-ship and Self-love bear a co-resemblance with inferiour ones From all which we may now at least collect that there is a Magnetism and Influential Virtues every where implanted in and proper to things the which he who expels from Sublunary Bodies seeks a vain Evasion Thou wilt urge that we must yet come nearer to the point neither that it is yet sufficiently manifest that in Sublunary Bodies there is a Quality imitating the Heavens and such a one indeed which carries an Influx unto a far removed and absent Object the which notwithstanding is presupposed in the Armary or Weapon Salve and so that Magnetism is indeed a celestial Virtue yet in no wise to be attributed to Sublunary things and much less to the feigned Weapon Salve But what other thing is this I pray than to deny Magnetism without or besides Magnetism For if we universally call every Influence of Sublunaries on each other Magnetism and for want of a true Name do name that Occult co-suitableness whereby one absent thing acts on another absent one by way of Influence whither that be done by attracting or impulsing a Magnetism truly whosoever denies an Influential Power of Sublunaries toward each other to be by Magnetism and requires an Instance to be given him to the contrary he requires an Absurdity to wit a Magnetism without Magnetism and knows not what he may deny or what demand For truly I have alleaged Examples of the Fact in Sublunary things and brought very many and suitable Instances namely concerning the ingrafted Nose of the Saphire of Water-Pepper Asarabacca and most Herbs But ye deny I sufficiently know because ye are ignorant thereof that either those Effects do not thus happen or thou wilt affirm which thou art more ready to do that they come to pass through the assistance of the Devil It is not suitable to the custom of Naturalists to dispute from naked Authorities we must come up to Handy-blows with those that contend with us to wit unto Experience Make tryal therefore and convince us of a Lie if thou canst not at least believe us Therefore it is an Action of insolent malepartnesse for any to deny the Being of that Fact which is every where frequent because indeed he hath not searcht out the Truth thereof nor hath endeavoured so to search and much more insolent it is indifferently to ascribe that to the Devil which is every where consonant to Nature as shall be hereafter taught and that indeed for one only Fault to wit because the manner of its Operation by its Cause cannot be understood by our Censurer by a Censurer who by the sharpness of his own Understanding and the Study of Aristotles Physicks presumes that he hath on every side exactly viewed the whole Circle of Nature by a Censurer I say who although he can discern nothing of Superstition in the Ungent and nothing of unlawfulness yet by reason of the manner of its Application being Paradoxical to him he condemns and detests it as Impious and affirms that it contains I know not what diabolical Juggle in it But for what I beseech thee Indeed because the Sword or Splinter thereof besmeared with Blood is emplaistred with the Mumial and Magnetical Unguent because the Blood which is once expelled out of the Veins knowes not how to hold a correspondence with that which is as yet nourished within the Veins and because he doth not believe that the Action of the Unguent is extended unto an Object scltuated at a far distance But return to thy self because anon thou shalt both understand and believe those things unless thou art stubborn We will now for thy sake recal the Action of Magnetism in Sublunary things unto the Bar of Light For indeed I will now shew that there is without the Classis or order of things and Herbs undeservedly suspected by thee an influence of some things on each other and that it
that I shall first satisfie thee what can be drawn from the Wound It is to be noted therefore that in a Wound there is made not only a Solution of Continuity or disunion of the part which held together but also that a forreign quality is introduced from whence the lips of the Wound being enraged they by and by swel with heat are apostemized yea and from thence the whole Body is in a conflict through Fevers and a various concourse of Symptoms For so an Egg whose shell is but even slenderly hurt or crackt putrifies whereas otherwise it might be preserved The Magnetism therefore of this Unguent draws that strange disposition out of the Wound from whence its lips being at length overburthened or oppressed by no accident become without pain and being no way hindred suddenly hasten unto a growing together Natures themselves are the Physitianesses of a Wound the Physitian onely the Servant thereof Neither doth the Medicine beget flesh in a Wound it hath enough to do if it shall but remove impediments Which impediments the one onely Armary Unguent or Weapon Salve doth otherwise sufficiently securely and plentifully expel Thou wilt Object That the Weapon Salve ought not rather to allure forth the forementioned strange quality than the natural strength and powers of the Veins and that the Blood seeing it is sound or uncorrupt in the Unguent ought to call to it the Health but not the indisposition of the wounded party even as indeed was written of the Carline Thistle I Answer that there are divers Magnetisms for some attract iron some chaffs and lead some flesh corrupt pus or matter c. but such is the favour of some Magnetisms that they extract onely the Pestilential Air c. Yea if thou shalt couple the effect of curing in our Ointment with thy own Argument thy own Weapon will wound thee For from thence that the Effect of the Unguent is to heal perfectly speedily without pain costs peril and loss of strength hence I say it is manifest that the Magnetical Virtue in the Unguent is from God in a natural way and not from Satan Because if this Satan should be a co-worker of the said Cure which thou affirmest the same Cure would be imperfect together with loss of Strength Weakness Dammage or hazard of Life a difficult Recovery or with a sensibility of some greater inconveniency and relapse of misfortune All which events as they are annexed to Diabolical Cures so they are far absent from the Cure of our Unguent As many as ever have been cured by this Unguent will give in their Testimony for us Satan is never a teller of Truth never a perswader unto Good unless that he may deceive thereby yea neither doth he long continue in the Truth For alwayes if he shall bring any thing of good to any one this Enemy under-mixeth somewhat more of evil therewith And surely he would according to his custome observe the same rule also in this Unguent if he were the Author or Favourer thereof At least-wise this Remedy would then fail when the wounded Person is recalled as it were from the pit of death who otherwise through the mortal contagion of Sin had through his dangerous wound soon poured forth his Life together with his Blood unlesse haply thou shalt say that Satan then takes compassion on us and that he hath now attained to himself a right or jurisdiction over such a wounded person himself leaves it in doubt to wit in curing him by the Magnetical Unguent whom he had rather should perish perhaps because Satan is now in your esteem a strict observer of his Word and Bargaine and no longer wholly a turn-coat fraudulent impostor and lyar Besides we deny the supposition also That the out-chased blood is perfectly sound or uncorrupt but rather that it being now deprived of a common life hath also entred into the beginnings of some degree of corruption onely that it obtains a Mumial Life Hitherto conduceth the putrified and yet Magnetical blood in an Egg. I therefore pass by the absurdity of thy Objection in that it hath been so bold as to wrest the Magnet or Attractive faculty of the Unguent according to thy own pleasure and not to that end for which it was given of God Positive Reasons of Magnetism more nearly brought home unto us by Metaphysical and Magical Science It is now seasonable to discover the immediate cause of Magnetism in the Unguent First of all by the consent of Mystical Divines we divide Man into the external and internal Man assigning to both the powers of a certain Mind or Intelligence For so there doth a Will belong to flesh and blood which may not be either the Will of Man not the Will of God and the heavenly Father also reveales some things unto the more inward Man and some things flesh and blood reveales that is the outward and sensitive or animal Man For how could the service of Idols Envy c. he rightly numbred among the works of the flesh seeing they consist onely in the Imagination if the flesh had not also it s own imagination and elective Will Forthermore that there are miraculous Ecstasies belonging to the more inward man is beyond dispute That there are also Ecstasies in the Animal man by reason of a intense or heightened Imagination is without doubt Yea Martin del Rio an Elder of the society of Jesus in his Magical disquisitions or inquiries brings in a certain young Lad in the City Insulis that was transported with so violent a cogitation of seeing his Mother that through the same burning desire as if being rapt up by an extasie he saw her being many miles absent from thence and returning to himself being mindful of all that he had seen gave also many signes of his true presence with his Mother Many the like Examples daily come to hand the which for brevities sake I omit But that that desire arose from the more outward man to wit from Blood and Sense or Flesh is certain For otherwise the Soul being once disliged or loosed from the Body is never but by a miracle re-united thereunto There is therefore in the Blood a certain ecstatical or transporting power the which if it shall at any time be stirred up by an ardent desire is able to derive or conduct the Spirit of the more outward man even unto some absent object But that power lies hid in the more outward man as it were in potentia or by way of possibility neither is it brought into act unless it be rouzed up by the imgination enflamed by a fervent desire or some art like unto it Moreover when as the Blood is after some sort corrupted then indeed all the Powers thereof which without a fore-going excitation of the Imagination were before in possibility are of their own accord drawn forth into action for through corruption of the grain the seminal virtue otherwise drowsie and barren breaks forth into act Because that
seeing the essences of things and their vital Spirits know not how to putrifie by the dissolution of the inferiour harmony they spring up as surviving afresh For from thence it is that every occult property the compact of their bodies being by fore-going digestions which we call putrefactions now dissolved comes forth free to hand dispatched and manifest for action Therefore when a Wound through the entrance of air hath admitted of an adverse quality from whence the blood forthwith swells with heat or rage in its lips and otherwise becomes mattery it happens that the blood in the Wound freshly made by reason of the said forreign quality doth now enter into the Beginnings of some kind of corruption which blood being also then received on the Weapon or Splinter thereof is besmeared with the Magnetick Unguent the which entrance of corruption mediating the ecstatical power lurking potentially in the blood is brought forth into action which power because it is an exiled returner unto its own body by reason of the hidden extasie hence that blood bears an individual respect unto the blood of its whole body Then indeed the Magnet or attractive faculty is busied in operating in the Unguent and through the mediation of the ecstatical power for so I call it for want of an Etymologie sucks out the hurtful quality from the lips of the Wound and at length through the Mumial Balsamical and attractive virtue attained in the Unguent the Magnetism is perfected Loe thou hast now the positive reason of the Natural Magnetism in the Unguent drawn from Natural Magick whereunto the light of Truth assents saying Where the Treasure is there is the Heart also For if the Treasure be in Heaven then the Heart that is the Spirit of the Internal Man is in God who is the Paradise who alone is Eternal Life But if the treasure be fixed or laid up in frail or mortal things then also the Heart and Spirit of the more external Man is in Fading things Neither is there any cause of bringing in a Mystical sense by taking not the Spirit but the Cogitation and naked Desire for the Heart for that would contain a frivolous thing that wheresoever a Man should place his Treasure in his Thought or Cogitation there his Cogitation would be Also Truth it self doth not interpret the present Text Mystically and also by an Example adjoyned shews a local and real presence of the Eagles with the dead Carcase So also that the Spirit of the Inward Man is locally in the kingdom of God in us which is God himself and that the Heart or Spirit of the animal or outward sensitive man is locally about its Treasure What wonder is it that the astral Spirits of carnal or animal men should as yet after their funerals shew themselves as in a bravery wandring about their buried Treasure whereunto the whole Necromancy or art of Divination by the calling of Spirits of the Antients hath enslaved it self I say therefore that the external Man is an Animal or living creature making use of the reason and will of the Blood But in the mean time not baâ—ely an Animal but moreover the Image of God Logicians therefore may see how defectively they define a man from the power of rational discourse But of these things more elsewhere I will therefore adjoyn the Magnetism of Eagles to Carcases for neither are flying Fowls endowed with such an acute smelling that they can with a mutual consent go from Italy into Affrica unto Carcases For neither is an odour so largely and widely spread for the ample latitude of the interposed Sea hinders it and also a certain Elementary property of consuming it Nor is there any ground that thou shouldest think these Birds do perceive the dead Carcases at so far a distance with their sight especially if those Birds shall lye Southwards behind a Mountain But what need is there to enforce the Magnetism of Fowl by many Arguments since God himself who is the beginning and end of Phylosophy doth expresly determine the same process to be of the Heart and Treasure with these Birds and the Carcase and so interchangeably between these and them For if the Eagles were led to their food the Carcases with the same appetite whereby four-sooted Beasts are brought on to their pastures certainly he had said in one word That living Creatures flock to their Food even as the Heart of a Man to his Treasure which would contain a falshood For neither doth the Heart of Man proceed unto its Treasure that he may be filled therewith as living Creatures do to their Meat And therefore the Comparison of the Heart of Man and of the Eagle lyes not in the end for which they tend or incline to a desire but in the manner of tendency namely that they are allured and carried on by Magnetism really and locally Therefore the Spirit and will of the Blood fetch'd out of the Wound having intruded it self into the Oyntment by the Weapons being anointed therewith do tend towards their Treasure that is the rest of the Blood as yet enjoying the Life of the more inward Man But he saith by a peculiar Testimony that the Eagle is drawn to the Carcass Because she is called thereunto by an implanted and Mumial Spirit of the Carcass but not by the odour of the putrifying Body For indeed that Animal in assimilating appropriates to himself onely this Mumial Spirit For from hence it is said of the Eagle in a peculiar manner My youth shall be renewed as the Eagle For truly the renewing of her youth proceeds from an essential extraction of the Mumial Spirit being well refined by a certain singular digestion proper to that Fowl and not from a bare eating of the flesh of the Carcases otherwise Dogs also and Pies would be renewed which is false Thou wilt say that it is a reason far fetcht in behalf of Magnetism But what wilt thou then infer hereupon If that which thou confessest to be far remote for thy capacity of understanding that shall also with thee be accounted to be fetcht from far Truly the Book of Genesis avoucheth That in the blood of all living Creatures doth their Soul exist For there are in the blood certain vital powers the which as if they were soulified or enlivened do demand revenge from Heaven yea and judicial punishment from earthly Judges on the Murderer which powers seeing they cannot be denyed to inhabit naturally in the blood I see not why they can reject the Magnetism of the blood as accounting it among the ridiculous works of Satan This I will say more to wit that those who walk in their sleep do by no other guide than the Spirit of the blood that is of the outward man walk up and down perform business climbe Walls and mannage things that are otherwise impossible to those that are awake I say by a Magical virtue natural to the more outward man That Saint Ambrose although he were far distant
in his Body yet was visibly present at the funeral solemnities of Saint Martin Yet was he Spiritually present at those solemnities in the visible Spirit of the external man and no otherwise for inasmuch as in that Exstacy which is of the more internal man many of the Saints have seen many and absent things this is done without time and place through the superiour Powers of the Soul being collected in Unity and by an intellectual vision but not by a visible presence Otherwise the Soul is not seperated from the Body but in good earnest or for altogether neither is it re-connexed thereunto which re-connexion notwithstanding is otherwise natural or familiar to the Spirit of the more outward man It is not sufficient in so great a Paradox to have once or by one single reason toucht at the matter It is to be further propagated and we must explain how a Magnetical attraction happens also between inanimate things by a certain perceivance or feeling not indeed animal or sensitive but natural Which thing that it may be the more seriously done it behoves us first to shew what Satan can of his own power contribute to and after what manner he can co-operate in the meerly wicked and impious actions of Witches for from thence it will appear unto what cause every effect may come to be attributed In the next place what that Spiritual power may be which tends to a far remote Object or what may be the action passion and skirmishing between natural Spirits or what may be the superiority of man as to other inferiour creatures and by consequence why indeed our Unguent being compounded of humane Mummies do thorowly cure Horses also We will explain the matter by an Example Let a Witch therefore be granted who can strongly torment an absent Man by an Image of wax by imprecation or cursing by enchantment or also by a fore-going touch alone for here we speak nothing of Sorceries because they are those which kill onely by Poyson inasmuch as every common Apothecary can imitate these things that this act is Diabolical no man doubts However it is profitable to discern how much Satan and how much the Witch can contribute hereunto The First Supposition First oâ—â—â—l Thou shalt take notice that Satan is the sworn and irreconcilable Enemy of Men and to be so accounted by all unless any one had rather have him to be his friend and therefore he most readily procures whatsoever mischief he is able to cause or wish unto us and that without doubt and neglect The Second Supposition And then Although he be an Enemy to Witches themselves forasmuch as he is also a most malitious Enemy to all Mankind in general yet in regard they are his bond-slaves and those of his Kingdom he never unless against his will betrays them or discovers them to Judges and exposeth them to scorn to other men and that for three Reasons First Seeing he is the parent of Pride he is not ignorant that hereby it much detracts from his Reputation Authority and Dominion Secondly Seeing he is the unsatiable Persecuter of Souls he hath known that through certain punishments and flames of Justice such as were otherwise ready and willing to slide into his Protection are affrighted and plainly diverted Thirdly Because he hath many times seen a Witch which this Tormenter could by wresting round of her neck or stopping of her breath wish to destroy sometimes repenting even before the Flames and so to be snatcht out of his clutches From the former Supposition I conclude That if Satan were able of himself to kill a Man who is guilty of deadly sin he would never delay it But he doth not kill him therefore he cannot Notwithstanding the Witch doth oftentimes kill hence also she can kill the same Man No otherwise than as a privy Murtherer at the Liberty of his own Will slays any one with a Sword There is therefore a certain power of the Witch in this action which belongs not to Satan and consequently Satan is not the principal efficient and executer of that Murther For otherwise if he were the executioner thereof he would in no wise stand in need of the Witch as his assistant but he alone had soon taken the greatest part of men out of the way Surely most miserable were the condition of Mortals which should be subject to such a Tyrant and stand lyable to his command we have too faithful a God than that he should subject the work of his own hands to the arbitrary dominion of Satan Therefore in this act there is a certain power plainly proper and natural to the Witch which belongs not to Satan Moreover of what nature extent and quality that power may be we must more exactly fift out In the first place it is manifest that it is no corporeal strength of the Male Sex for neither doth there concurre any strong touching of the extream parts of the Body and Witches are for the most part feeble impotent and malitious Old Women Therefore there must needs be some other power far superiour to a corporeal attempt yet natural to Man This power therefore was to be seated in that part wherein we most nearly resemble the Image of God And although all things do also after some sort represent that venerable Image Yet because Man doth most elegantly properly and nearly do that therefore the Image of God in Man doth far outshine bear rule over and command the Images of God in all other Creatures For peradventure by this Prerogative All things are put under his feet Wherefore if God act per nutum or by a beck namely by his Word so ought Man to act some things only by his beck or Will if he ought to be called his true Image For neither is that new is that troublesome is that proper to God alone For Satan the most vile abject of Creatures doth also locally move Bodies per nutum or by his beck alone seeing he hath not extreamities or corporeal Organs whereby to touch move or also to snatch a new Body to himself That priviledge therefore ought no less to belong to the inward Man as he is a Spirit if he ought to represent the Image of God and that indeed not an idle one if we call this faculty Magical and thou being badly instructed art terrified at this Word thou mayst for me call it a spiritual strength or efficacy For truly we are nothing solicitous about Names I alwayes as immediately as I can cast an eye upon the thing it self That Magical power therefore is in the inward man whether thou by this Etymology or true Word understandest the Soul or the vital Spirit thereof it is now indifferent to us since there is a certain proportion of the internal Man towards the external in all things glowing or growing after its own manner which is an appropriated disposition and proportioned property Wherefore this power or faculty must needs be dispersed throughout the whole Man
in the Soul indeed more vigorous but in the Flesh and Blood far more remiss The vital Spirit in the Flesh and Blood performes the office of the Soul that is it is that same Spirit in the outward man which in the seed formes the whole figure that magnificent Structure and perfect delineation of Man and which hath known the ends of things to be done because it contains them and the which as President accompanies the now framed Young even unto the period of its Life and the which although it depart therewith some smatch or small quantity at least thereof remains in a Carcass slain by violence being as it were most exactly co-fermented with the same But from a dead Carcass that was extinct of its own accord and from nature failing as well the implanted as inflowing Spirit passed forth at once For which reason Physitians divide this Spirit into the implanted or Mumial and inflowing or acquired Spirit which departs to wit with the former Life And this influxing Spirit they afterwards sub-divide into the natural vital and animal Spirit But we likewise do here comprehend them all at once in one single Word The soul therefore being wholly a Spirit could never move or stir up the vital Spirit being indeed corporeal much less flesh and bones unless a certain natural power yet Magical and Spiritual did descend from the Soul into the Spirit and Body After what sort I pray could the corporeal Spirit obey the commands of the Soul unless there should be a command from her for moving of the Spirit and afterwards the Body But against this Magical motive faculty thou wilt forthwith Object That that power is limited within her composed Body and her own natural Inn Therefore although we call this Soul a Magitianess yet it shall be only a wresting and abuse of the Name for truly the true and superstitious Magick draws not its foundation from the Soul Seeing this same Soul is not able to move alter or excite any thing out of its own Body I Answer That this Power and that natural Magick of the Soul which she exerciseth out of her self by virtue of the Image of God doth now lye hid as obscure in Man and as it were lay asleep since the Fall or corruption of Adam and stands in need of stirring up all which particulars we shall anon in their proper place prove which same power how drowsie and as it were drunk soever it otherwise remains daily in us yet it is sufficient to perform its offices in its own Body Therefore the knowledge and power Magical and that faculty in Man which acteth only per nutum sleeps since the knowledge of the Apple was eaten and as long as this knowledge which is of the flesh and blood outward man and darkness flourisheth the more noble Magical power is trampled under foot But because in sleep the whole knowledge of the Apple doth sometimes sleep Hence also it is that our dreams are sometimes Prophetical and God himself is thereofre the nearer unto Man in Dreams through that effect To wit when as the more inward Magick of the Soul not being now interrupted by the knowledge of the Apple doth even on every side diffuse it self in Understanding to wit even as when it sinks it self into the inferiour Powers thereof it safely leads those that walk in their sleep by moving or conducting them whither those that were awake could not climb Therefore the chief Rabbies of the Cabal affirm that it was learnt or conceived in time of sleep to wit when the knowledge of the Apple was consopited or lull'd asleep The intellectual act of the Soul is alwayes clear and unshaken and after some sort perpetual yet as long as the principal agent hath not transferred its power so far as the limits of sense that kind of action is not yet propagated throughout the whole man For we who are only conversant with the virtue or faculty of thinking or of the senses and with our carnal intelligence are perpetually drawn away Alas for grief by the same from the more superiour and Magical Science or Knowledge and are retained in the shadow of Knowledge rather than in the Light of Truth For neither do we the Inhabitants of darkness observe that we do understand but when there is made a certain mutual traduction or passing over of faculties and till as it were the angles or corners of actions being prorogued or propagated by divers Agents are folded together about the middle Satan therefore stirs up this Magical power otherwise sleeping and hindred by the knowledge of the more outward man in his bond-slaves and the same readily serves them in stead of a sword in the hand of a potent Adversary that is the Witch Neither doth Satan contribute any thing to the murtherer at all besides an exciting of the said drowsie power and consent of the Will which is for the most part compelled in Witches by reason of which two contributions the mocking Scurre as if the whole office or performance were due to himself requires by a compact a continual firm and irrevocable submissive engagement a perpetual homage and devout worshipping of himself if also nothing more When as otherwise that kind of power was freely conferred by God the workman being plainly natural to Man For indeed juggling Impostures bewitchings by the emission of the sight or eyes and how falsely soever disguises of Witches may appear and such like delusive acts they are only from Satan and are his proper acts For therefore his works are onely ridiculous ones and false apparitions because our merciful God suffers not the same miscreant to have any longer power but keeps him bound When as otherwise the Witch displaies real and wicked acts from her own natural faculty For truly through sin not the gifts of Nature but those of Grace were obliterated in Adam And moreover that the same natural gifts although they were not taken away yet that they have remained as it were restrained and benummed with sleep For even as Man from that time became subject to mortality after the manner of his fellow creatures so also were the Heroick or excelling powers in Man obscured which therefore have need of a stirring up and drawing out of darkness For hitherto have contemplations continued prayers watchings fastings and acts of mortifications regard to wit that the drowsiness of the flesh being vanquished men may obtain that nimble active heavenly and ready power toward God and may sweetly confer with him in his presence who importunately desires not to be worshipped but in the Spirit that is in the profundity or bottom of the more inward man Hitherto I say hath the art of the Cabal regard which as it were by sleep shaken off may restore that Natural and Magical power of the Soul I will after the manner of Mathematicians yet further explain my self by Examples and will assume the very works of Witches the which although they are wickedly mischievous and
detestable yet are supported by the same root namely a Magical power without difference as unto good and also unto evil For neither doth it blemish the Majesty of free Will or the Treatise of the same although we now and then discourse of a Thief Robber or Murtherer a Whoremonger an Apostate and Witch Grant therefore that a Witch kills a Horse in an absent Stable there is a certain natural virtue derived from the Spirit of the Witch and not from Satan which can oppress or strangle the vital Spirit of the Horse Suppose thou that there are two subjects of Diseases and Death namely one of these the Body wherein a Disease inhabits And because all Beings act on this Body as that which is the most passive subject the other spiritual Dominion hath been thought to have been from Satan But the other subject is the unperceivable and invisible Spirit which of its own self is able to suffer all Diseases The Spirit suffering the Body also suffers because its action is limited within the Body for the Mind after that it is fast tied to the Body flowes alwayes downwards even as when the palate is pained the tongue continually tends thither but not on the contrary For there are some material Diseases which are tinged onely materially For so manifold is the occasion of Death that there is no other ground from whence we may receive an ability for pride The act therefore of the foregoing touch of the Witch is plainly natural although the stirring up of the virtue or power be made by the help of Satan No less than if a Witch should slay a Horse with a Sword reach'd unto her by Satan that act of the Witch is natural and corporeal even as the other fore-going act is Natural and Spiritual For truly Man naturally consists no lesse of a Spirit than of a Body neither therefore is there any reason why one act may be called the more natural one or why the Body only may be said to act but the Spirit to be idle and to be made altogether destitute at least of such action that is proper to it self as it is the Image of God Yea the vital Spirits in speaking most properly are those which perceive move remember c. but in no wise the Body and dead Carcass it self Every act therefore doth more properly respect its agent than the Body the Inn of the Agent Therefore some certain Spiritual Ray departs from the Witch into the Man or bruit Beast which she determineth to kill According to that Maxim That there is no Action made unless there be a due approximation or most near approach of the Agent to the Patient and a mutual coupâ—ing of their Virtues whether the same approximation be made Corporally or also spiritually Which thing is proved to our hand by a visible testimony For if the fresh Heart of a Horse for that is the seat of the vital Spirits slain by a Witch be empaled upon a stick and be roasted on a Broach or broyled on a Gridiron Presently the vital Spirit of the Witch without the interposing of any other mean and from thence the whole Witch her self for truly not the Body but the Spirit alone is sensible suffers cruel torments and pains of the fire The which surely could by no means happen unless there had been made a coupling of the Spirit of the Witch with the Spirit of the Horse For the Horse that was strangled retains a certain Mumial Faculty so I call it whensoever the virtue of the vital Liquor is as yet co-fermented with the Flesh that is the implanted Spirit such as is not found in Bodies dying of their own accord by reason of any sicknesse and any other renting asunder of an inferiour order whereunto the Spirit of the Witch being coupled unto it is a companion Therefore there is made in the fresh Heart a binding up of the Spirit of the Witch before that by a dissolution the Witch her own Spirit return back to her again which Spirit is retained by the Stick or Arrow being thrust into the Heart and through a roasting of both Spirits together from whence by Magnetism it happens that the Witch in the utmost limit or gradual heat of the Fire is sorely tossed or disturbed in her sensitive Spirit That effect is changed from the intention for if Reveng stir up the experimenter then the effect is reprobate But if tryal be made that the Witch may thereby be constrained to bewray her self to be subjected to Judges or the Justice of the Magistrate and that a benefit may be hereby procured to his Neighbour and himself and as by the taking away of so impious blasphemous and hurtful a Vassal of Satan glory to God and the greater peace and rest may arise amongst all Neighbours then certainly the effect cannot be rejected as reprobate We must not think that the whole Spirit of the Witch departeth into the Heart of the Horse for so the Witch her self had departed from the living but that there was a certain univocal or single participation of the vital Spirit and Light even as indeed a Spirit which is the Architect or Master-workman of the whole Man is propagated in the Seed at every turn or act of Generation being sufficient even for many off-springs the Spirit of the Father remaining entire notwithstanding Indeed that Spiritual participation of Light is Magical and a wealthy communication by Virtue of that Word Let Animals and Herbs bring forth Seed and one Seed produceth ten times ten thousand of Seeds of equal Valour or Virtue and as many entire seminal Spirits as Light is kindled or inflamed by Light But what a Magnetical Spirit may properly be and the Entity or Beingness begotten by its Parent the Phantasie I will hereafter more largely write I am now returned unto our Ends proposed Neither is there any ground for any one to think that this rebounding of the Heart into the Witch is a meer Supposition or plainly a superstitious and damnable Juggle and Mockery of Satan seeing she is infallibly discovered by this Sign and is constrained will she nill she to bewray her self openly which is a thing opposite to the intent of Satan as in the second of our suppositions is above sufficiently shewn for the Effect is perpetual never deceiving having its Foundation in reason and the spiritual Nature but not in the least supported by Superstitions Hath not likewise a dead Carcass also that was murdered be-bloodied it self before the Judges or Coroner and his Inquest when the Murderer was present and hath oft-times procured a certain Judgment of his Offence Although before the Blood had already stood restrained Indeed in the Man dying by reason of his Wound the Inferiour Virtues which are Mumial for those are unbridled ones and are not in our Power have imprinted on themselves a Footstep of taking revenge Hence it is that the Murderer being present the Blood of the Veins boiles up and flowes
Excitation is as it were by a waking sleepiness by a Catochus and therefore is imperfect in regard of the manner Evil in regard of the end Obscure in regard of the Meanes and Wicked in regard of the Author Nor doth the Turn-coat-impostor suffer that the Witch should know this Power to be natural unto her self whereby he may hold her the more fast bound to himself or least the exercise of so noble a Power being stirred up should incline otherwise than to Wickedness therefore he commands the Rains himself neither hath the Witch known how to stir it up at her own pleasure who hath wholly prostrated her self to the Will of another Tyrant Also Man himself is able through the Art of the Cabal to cause an excitement in himself of so great a Power at his own Pleasure and these are called Adeptists or Obtainers whose Governour also is the Spirit of God That this same Magical Virtue is also in the more outward Man to wit in the Flesh and Blood Yet after its own and far more feeble manner yea not only in the external Man but also proportionally in Bruits for so the Book of Genesis minds us that the Soul of Bruit-Beasts is in their Blood and upon this account it deservedly enrouls the same out of the Bill of our Food and perhaps in all other things Seeing all particular things contain in them a delineation of the whole Universe and upon that account at least the Antients have seriously signified unto us that there is a God that is an All in All that the Magick of the more outward Man hath need of exciting no less than that of the more inward Man neither that Satan doth stir up any other Magick in his Imps than what belongs to the more outward Man For in the more inward bottom of the Soul is the Kingdom of God whereto no Creature hath access We have further taught that there is a connexion between things spiritually acting and that Spirits as they combate with Spirits as in example of the Witch So also we have shewn by Magnetical Examples and proper Reasons for the fascination and binding up of Soules that they hold a friendly correspondence even as concerning David and Jonathan c. Last of all we have endeavoured to shew that Man predominates over all other corporeal Creatures and that by his natural Magick he is able to tame the Magical Virtues of other things which predominacy others have falsly and abusively transferred on the authority of Verses or Charmes and Enchantments By which Hierarchy or holy Dominion we have sufficiently and over-sufficiently cleered up that those Effects whatsoever they be are wrought which those who not but too rustically and corporeally Phylosophize have referred unto the dominion of Satan It must needs be that those who were ignorant of all things that have been spoken should as yet doubt of many things therefore we determine to repeat all things First of all whereby those things may become the more clear which we have spoken above concerning the Duel of Spirits or their mutual friendly Conspiracy It is worth our labour to define the Weapons of Spirits and the Common-wealth of the same Wherefore we must seriously note the Example of a Woman great with Child who if she hath with violence of desire conceived a Cherry in her Mind the Foot-step thereof is presently imprinted on her Young in that Part whereon the great-bellied Woman shall lay her hand Nor is it indeed only an idle Image or Spot of a Cherry but that which flowers and grows to Maturity with the other Trees in their season to wit the Signatures of Colours and Figures being changed Truly high and sacred is the force of the Microcosmical Spirit which without the Trunck of a Tree brings forth a true Cherry that is Flesh ennobled with the Properties and Power of the more inward or real Cherry by the Conception of Imagination alone from whence we understand two necessary Consequences The First is that all the Spirits and as it were the Essences of all things do lay hid in us and are born and brought forth only by the working Phantasie of the little World The Second is that the Soul in conceiving generates a certain Idea of the thing conceived the which indeed as it before lay hid unknown and as it were Fire in a Flint So by the stirring up of the Phantasie there is produced a certain real Idea and a quiddative or some particular essential Limitation of a Cherry which is not a naked quality but something like unto a Substance hanging in suspense between a Body and a Spirit that is the Soul That middle Being is so spiritual that it is not plainly exempted from a Corporeal Condition since the Actions of the Soul are limited on the Body and the inferiour orders of Faculties depending on it nor yet so corporeal that it may be enclosed by Dimensions the which we have also related to be only proper to a seminal Being This Ideal Entity therefore when it fals out of the invisible and intellectual World of the Microcosme it puts on a Body and then also it is first inclosed by the Limitations of Place and Numbers The Object of the Understanding is in it self a naked and pure Essence not an accident by the consent of Practical that is mystical Divines Therefore this Protheus or transformable Essence the Understanding doth as it were put on and cloath it self with this conceived Essence But because every Body whether External or Internal hath its making in its own proper Image The Understanding knowes or discerns not the Will loves and wills not the Memory recollects not but by Images or Likenesses The Understanding therefore put on this same Image of its Object and because the Soul is the simple Form of the Body which turns her self about to every Member therefore neither can the acting Understanding have two Images at once but first one and anon another Therefore the whole Soul descends upon the Intellect or Understanding and the comprehended Image being as yet tender and forms this Knowledge of the Essence into a persisting Image or Ideal Entity or Beingness The Mind being defiled hath slidden into the Indignation of God and because the same mind was at once polluted the nobleness of its former Condition being put off Death found an entrance not indeed by the command of the Creator but from the degeneration of Man being slidden into filthiness and degenerate from himself by reason of the same Ideal Entity being now put on which Filthiness seriously and diligently springing up even in all particular Sins it is conveâ—ient to extenuate or consume by Repentance here or in the World to come This Entity therefore being as yet in the Understanding is but lightly imprinted neither doth it find a consistence any where but in a Woman with Child the which in us Men it doth not obtain but by the Will that is the Understanding doth alwayes procreate an Entity
but it puts it not on but by the Will except in Women with Child Whether therefore we call Sin a nothing or a something at least-wise there is never made a Consent to Evil without a real Procreation of this certain kind of Entity and the assuming and putting on thereof This hath been the Cause of the Fruitfulness of Seeds for the Phantasie or Imagination being much moved by Lust produceth a slender Entity the which if the Soul puts on through the Will as the action of the Mind being imprisoned in the Body doth alwayes tend downwards and outwards it disperseth this same Entity into the Liquor of the Seed which otherwise would not be but barren Which Action is made as it were by an estranging of the Mind to wit the Will through the true Magick of the more outward Man departing into a certain Ecstasie in which there is made a communicating of a certain Light of the Mind upon the Entity descending into the Body of the Seed As oft soever therefore as the Cogitation or Thought drawes the Sense and Will into a consent so often a filthy Skin is bred and put on being a bastardly Ideal Entity by which birth the Will is said to be confirmed Also that Ideal Entity whithersoever it is directed by the Will thither it goes by this meanes the Will moves sometimes the Arm sometimes the Foot c. Furthermore when the said Entity is spread upon the vital Spirit for to love help or hurt any thing it wants only a light Excitement whether made from the asistance of God of the Cabalistick Art or of Satan that indeed the small Portion of the Spirit which hath now put on that Entity departs far off and perform its Office enjoyned it by the Will So the Male layes aside his Seed out of himself which through the Entity which it hath drawn is very fruitful and performes its Office without the Trunck of its own Body Truly Bodies scarce make up a moyity or halfe part of the World But Spirits even by themselves have or possess their moyity and indeed the whole World Therefore in this whole Context or Composure of our Discourse I call Spirits the Patrons of Magnetism not those which are sent down from Heaven and much less is our Speech of infernal ones but of those which are made in Man himself for as Fire is struck out of a Flint so from the Will of Man some small Portion of the inflowing vital Spirit is extracted and that very thing or portion assumes an Ideal Entity as it were its Form and Compleating Which Perfection being obtained the Spirit which before was purer than the Aetheâ—eal Air is subâ—ilized or rarified like Light and assumes a middle Condition between Bodies and not Bodies But it is sent thither whither the Will directs it or at least whither the inbred infallible Knowledge of the Spirits sends the same according to the scopes of things to be done The Ideal Entity therefore being now readily prepared for its journey becomes after some sort a Light and as if it were no longer a Body is tied up to no commands of Places Times or Dimensions neither is that Entity a Devil nor any Effect thereof nor any Conspiracy of his but it is a certain spiritual Action thereof plainly natural and proper unto us He who well receiveth this Wisdom shall easily understand that the Material World is on all sides governed and restrained by the Immaterial and Invisible But that all other created Corporeal Beings are put under the Feet of Men for indeed this is the Cause why also the Mummy Fat Mosse and Blood of Man to wit the Phantasie existing in them in the Unguent overswayes the Blood of a Dog of a Horse c. being conveighed by a Stick into the Box of the Unguent There hath not been yet said enough concerning the Magnetism of the Unguent I will therefore resume what I spake of before namely that the Magnetisms of the Load-stone and of inanimate things are made by a natural Sensation or Feeling which is the Author of all Sympathy is a certain Truth For if the Load-stone directs it self to the Pole it ought of necessity to have known the fame if it be not to commit an Errour in its Direction And how I pray shall it have that Knowledge if it be not sensible where it is Likewise if it self to Iron placed aloof off the Pole being neglected it must needs have first been sensible of the Iron Therefore one single Load-stone hath diverse Senses and Images Neither also-shall it be sufficient that it hath Sense unless we add the Spurs of Friendship and Self-love and so that it is endowed with a certain natural Phantasie and by reason of the Impression whereof all Magnetisms are forged For it is directed by another manner of Phantasie toward the Iron than toward the Polo â—or then its Virtue is dispersed only through a neighbouring Space It s Phantasie is changed when it restraines the abortive Young Catarrhs or Rheumes or the Bowel in a Rupture Also by another Phantasie doth the Load-stone draw any thing out of Glasse throughly boyled or melted by Fire for a very small Fragmen thereof being cast into a Mass or good quantity of Glaâ—s while it is in boyling of Green or Yellow makes it White For although the Load-stone it self be filled with a red Colour and be consumed by the Fire that dissolves the Glass Yet in the mean timâ— while it hath Life it aâ—â—racteth and consumeth the tinged Liquor out of the Fiery Glass and so its attraction is not only to Iron but moreover unto that aiery Part which would with difficulty depart out of the Glass and for this Cause it is of common use with Glass-makeâ—s The Phantasie of Amber drawes Chaffs and Moates by an attraction indeed slow enough but yet with a sufficient perfect Signature of attraction for it being married to our Mummy is also stronger than our attractive Faculty drawes in opposition thereunto and becomes a Zenexton or preservatory Amulâ—t against pestilential Contagions But Amber being mixed with Gumms its imagination being now transplanted draws the Poyson and Bullet out of a Wound indeed its pleasure and desire of drawing being on both sides varied But what Wonder shall it be unless with those who being ignorant of all things do also admire all things that inanimate things are strong in Phantasie When as he who is wholly the Life creates all things and hath therefore promised that nothing is to be expected as dead out of his Hand Also no one thing at all shall come to our view wherein himself also may not clarely appear as present The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole Globe of the Earth Yea this Expression That he containeth or comprehendeth all things carries the force of the World Do we not believe that there was much Knowledge in the Apple and that through the eating thereof our first Parents both are it up and together
such a Balsam which not but by its own Phantasie becomes also Medicinal Magnetical and is also an attractive of all the strange quality out of the Body whose fresh Blood I say abounding with Spirit is carried unto it whether it shall be that of a Man or of any other living Creature The Phantasie therefore is a returner or reducible and Ecstatical from part of the Blood that is freshly and most newly brought unto the Unguent but the magnetical Attraction begun in the Blood is perfected by the medicinal Virtue of the Unguent But the Unguent doth not draw the infirmity of the Wound unto it self that it may be made a Pandora's Box but alters the Blood newly brought unto it in its Spirit makes it Medicinal and stirs up the Power thereof From thence it hath a certain medicinal and magnetical Virtue which returns unto its whole Body to cure its Cousin German the Spirit of the Blood throughout the whole Man To wit it sucks out the sorrowful Impression from the Wounded party and expels it being ready to perish by its medicinal Power and commands it forth which medicinal Virtue being the conqueress of the Malady is stir'd up partly in the Blood and is partly also generated in the same by the Unguent to wit by the Spirit hereof thus commanding over the Spirit of the Blood by its own Phantasie that is by its created Endowment Otherwise the Blood putrifying with its entire Faculties or Vigours under the enclosure of an Egg-shell and the Spirit thereof being now as it were freed from its Fetters through the foregoing Putrefaction drawes by the mediation of the Mummy of a Dog and really translates the Grief which sits in the Phantasie and astral Virtue of the Filths of the Sick into the Dog himself that eats it Indeed for no other Cause than because the Magnetism is not perfected without the interposing of the Balsam of the Oyntment We have also observed that if a wounded Man happen to have received many Wounds at once it is sufficient that Blood be had only out of one of his Wounds and indeed that by that one endeavour the rest of the Wounds are cured also because that Blood keeps a concordant Harmony with the Spirit of the whole and draws forth from the same the offensive quality communicated not only to the Lips of the Wound but also to the whole Man For from one Wound the whole Man is wont also to grow Feverish I have hitherto deferred to make manifest a great Mistery namely to shew to our hand that in Man there is placed an essicacy whereby he may be able only by his beck and Phantasie to act out of himself and to imprint a virtue a certain influence which afterwards perseveres or constantly subsists by it self and acts on an Object at a very far distance by which onely mystery those things which have been spoken hitherto concerning the Ideal entity conveighed in a Spiritual fewel and departing far from home for to execute its offices concerning the Magnetism of all things begotten in the Imagination of man as in that which is proper to every thing and also concerning the Magical superiority of Men over other Bodies will come to light It is a clear truth and manifest without controversie that of Steel is to be made a Needle which by the touch of a Load-stone shews the Pole or North-Star to Sailers but in vain is the Steel hammered into a Needle and placed on the Marriners Compass to point out the Pole if a due rubbing of the Loadstone upon it hath not gone before Which things seeing they are undoubtedly true it is now convenient to frame a Marriners Needle onely by a Magnetical beck On the Anvil therefore whereon the Needle is hammered out of Steel let the North Point be marked out and that in a straight Line then stand thou the Vulcan with thy back towards the North that when the Steel is drawn under the Hammer for making of the Needle thou mayest draw it towards thy self and the North. I say therefore that such a Needle so made shall without any other help observe or point out the Pole and that indeed without any wonted variation which is a great Mystery Moreover the Needle which is made upon the said Line by chance and without the knowledge or intent of the Workman is void of that quality and doth not observe the Pole From hence it consequently follows that the Imagination of the man that frames it doth as it were in that moment of the Needls Nativity when as now indeed the greatest heat or glowing of the fire hath ceased and as yet under an obscure redness of the Steel imprint this kind of Magnetical faculty and that indeed on the Steel or an appropriated subject But not that the Heaven doth then make that impression because then it also should influx it self into the Steel without the intention of the Smith which is false for if the Heaven should give forth its influence at a certain Hour and Position now might the Characteristical or Notary and Sigillary or sealing Science of the Stars triumph which we pass by But the Constellation which flowes into the Steel and perhaps every Seal or Impression flowes from the Microcosmical Heaven that is from our Olympus or the Heaven in us Therefore in vain have been those Seales which were not stamped by the Magitian exalted in his Phantasie or Imagination for inferiour Entities and Phantasies are constrained to give place to ours Whereby a wise Man shall bear rule over the Stars to the command of whom the Parent of things hath subjected whatsoever is concluded in the Circle of Heaven What things have been alledged concerning the Phantasie making this Impression on the Marriners Needle I have learned from the Testimony of many also from my own experience and shall be confirmed ten thousand times to be true by the experience of every one that is willing to make trial thereof So indeed Asarabacca and the tops of Elder hearken to the commanding Imagination of the Cropper who imprinteh on the plant but this Magnetically on the absent leaf seeing otherwise the leaf being boyled as the Needle that was re-heated in the fire and administred as a Potion the virtue of the Phantasie imprinted on it would perish if the Magnetism were not cherished from the entire plant That blood which is boyled and ready to be eaten doth as yet contain the Soul is true But that virtue consisteth not from the impression of the humane and external Phantasie but from the proper endowment of its own Phantasie After this manner also a Nail Dart or Arrow that is thrust into the heart of the Horse withholds the Spirit of the Witch and conjoynes it with the Mumial Spirit of the Horse whereby they may be roasted together that by that torment as by a sting the Witch her self may be bewrayed and that at length she that is offensive to God destructive to mortal men may by the
less may be washed off So also the Infant growes and waxeth of ripe Years without Diseases and is made capable of a Remedy for a Life of long continuance Therefore also according to the Letter it is not badly read concerning the thrice glorious Messias being incarnated That he shall eat Butter and Honey For truly the one contains the Glory of a Dew together with the extraction of Flowers But the other is the Magistery almost of all Herbs Therefore he shall eat Butter but not Milk From whence the discerning of the Good from the Evil and the sharpness of Judgment is promised But the strength of dayes increasing let our Child accustom himself to the more vigorous and hard Meats yet I fitly praise a Mean or Moderation But let him take twice every day four Drops of the Tree of Life CHAP. CXV The Arcanums or Secrets of Paracelsus BUt moreover we believe by Faith that the Life of men was by the divine Will shortned but that the Sins of mortal Men gave an occasion hereunto The Will or Command of the Lord hath entred into Nature and the Reasons of Death which it found not it made before the Floud as it were in a successive order the Life was continually changed by Off-springs at length it was extended unto the hundred and twentieth Year And last of all the Dayes of a Man were seventy Years which moreover is a Misery except in the Powers which he would should attain unto eighty Years This therefore is a short Life an ordinary Life unto which Man necessary supplies being brought unto him doth by the free will of Nature flow and come the which was by a divine Testimony out of the holy Scriptures appointed The Roots therefore of short Life have henceforward a place in Nature First of all the Mind which knowes not how to die waxeth not old But the sensitive Soul although it be at length extinguished like Light yet the Light it self doth not wax old because it cometh not unto it by Parts or Degrees For if the sensitive Soul or the vital Light it self should wax old seeing nothing can be added unto this perishing which may be of the Disposition thereof I should meditate of long Life in vain Therefore the vital Powers only wax old which are implanted in every Organ under the Beginnings of Generation The which I do not contemplate of as naked Qualities but I behold them as Governours failing by degrees in an aiery Body and therefore also that the Powers of the Spirits do follow the Nature of that Body which is worn out by little and little For Sorrow gnawes the Life no otherwise than as the Moath doth a Garment So also the Inordinacies of Living do violently overthrow the Life In the next place Man is a Wolfe to Man Which things surely do mow down the Life in many being as yet in its flourishing estate Neverthelese these are not the natural Reasons of a short Life as neither the necessities of a connexed Species or of an inbred shortness Surely besides accidentary Contingences we do bear about with us the Cause of short Life in the middle of our delights For first of all the memory decays and then the sight taste hearing and walking wax dull For to savour doth not undeservedly signifie as well tasting as a judgment of the Mind without distinction because they oftentimes die together but the Taste first fails in the Stomack by reason of the Spleen Wherefore I have elsewhere sufficiently distinguished the tasting of the Tongue and the tasting of the Stomack Presently by reason of the unequal strength of the Parts the inbred Ferments of the Shops do here and there by degrees fail but the Ferment of the Spleen being astonied the Power of the first Conceptions goes to decay And old Men are said to become Children For the Schools grant a lively Memory to be in Children by reason of the tenderness of their Brain easily receiving any kinde of Seales but that the Brain being the harder through dryness the Impressions of the Seals should be by so much the harder by how much the more stubborn they are from dryness to retain the marks of Conceptions But the Comparison of the Schools is frivolous that the Brain should have it self after the manner of Wax as neither do the cogitations express the interchanges of a Seal For first of all there should scarce be a fit place for ten Seals For if those kind of Seals should be so corporeal as that they ought to follow the disposition and alterations of the Brain they shall of necessity square themselves unto the extension of the place because Place is more difficulty sequestred from a Body than to be hard or moist And therefore let the Schools shew how great an extension all particular Seals of Conceptions in the Brain may require Doth the Memory for the seal of a Conception require a bigger place in the Brain of an Horse than that which is of a Mouse or Flie Therefore also consequently the extension of place in the Brain for a Horse should be also ten thousand times bigger than for a Mouse and so the whole Brain should scarce suffice for the remembring of two Horses That since place should fail I should rather remember the good things of the middle half than of the whole Yea I should far better remember things past for one Year agoe than those things which at sometimes happened unto me in my Childhood For I have seen a Boy who at the second time had learned the Aeneides of Virgil by way of Memory who scarce understood the hundredth Verse And so every particular Word did require as many Seales and Places of these But if the Seals of Conceptions should require no place nor do occupy an Extension of themselves in the Brain Therefore nothing is sealed and there is no Seal and also the Comparison of the Schools is dull For the Schools are too muddy who ascribe the Offices of the vital and principal Powers unto the first or second Qualities But what will the miserable Schools do if they scarce dare to withdraw their Finger from these accidents of Bodies Therefore Scholastical Respects of hardness dryness and tenderness being neglected I descend unto the Cause of short Life I have said indeed that from a decaying Vigour of the vital Powers the Life is of necessity and proportionably diminished From whence I will truly repeat that the Powers themselves wax old as it were with a covered Rustiness and do by little and little cease because the Arterial and Venal blood are at length successively transchanged into the nourishment of the Parts to be nourished and the growth of youth being finished truly the Juice that is prepared from thence is bedewed or besprinkled on all the solid Parts and a certain muscilaginous and spermatick or seedy Liquor is glewed unto them but it doth no more long remain with them but being consumed and concocted by the Ferment of the parts
condensing 7. In the lime of rocky stones there are two divers salts for neither could it otherwise ever become a stone 8. The errour of Galen concerning Ashes 9. The Author when he had learned nothing from coagulated Bodies at length examined divers spirits 10. The errour of Paracelsus concerning Tartar 11. An examination of salts 12. The highest vertue of Vegetables 13. From whence a salt ariseth in urine 14. Duelech doth not stonifie after the manner of lime 15. What the Sunovia is 16. An examination of fermental savours 17. Paracelsus is taken notice of concerning Mercuries 18. An abuse in forbidding the use of salt 19. The handicraft Operation of the salt of urine 20. The vanity of Turnheisser his signifyng by the urine 21. Two the more fixed salts in urine 22. The differences of both those salts 23. The difference of the Volatile from the fixed salt of the urine 24. The ferment of the stomach is not any kind of sharpnesse whatsoever 25. Burnt vrine yielded not an Alcali to the Author 26 The Vulnerary drink of a certain Country man 27. That an Alcali doth not fore-exist but is made in burning 28. A digression Unto some ranks of Simples 29. The calcining of Harts-horn is a thing of notable blockishnesse 30. Sea-salt whether it hurt those that labour with the stone 31. That salt is not to be forbidden for its owne sake as neither for its spirit-sake 32. The fittest salt for eating 33. A wonderfull handicraft Operation in the distillation of urine 34. The judiciary part in Vrines why hitherto false 35. What the stone being distilled may teach 36. Earth together with the spirit of Vrine never makes Duelech 37. The constituting principles of Duelech 38. How sands are made in the Vrinal or Chamberpot 39. The Confirmation of the stone is fabulous 40. A stone of a wonderful bignesse 41. Paracelsus is ridiculous in the stone of a Thunderbolt 42. Duelech is made of meer volatile things 43. Three spirits concurre in the Vrine for the nativity of Duelech 44. Volatile Bodies are oft-times through their concourse presently fixed together at once WEE read in our Furnaces that there is not a more certain kind of Science in Nature for the knowing of things by their radical and constitutive causes than while it is known what and how much is contained in any thing So indeed that the knowledge and connexion of causes are not more clearly manifest than when thou shalt so disclose things themselves that they bewray themselves in thy presence and do as it were talk with thee For truly real Beings standing onely in their owne Original and succeeding principles of seeds and so in a true substantial entity do afford the Knowledge and produce the cause of knowing the nature of Bodies their middle parts and extremities or utmost parts Because they are the cause of the Generation existence and thorow changing of them according to their Root Because as Raymund testifies However a Logitian may have a profound wit discourseable or natural concerning things without Yet he shall never by any reason which comes unto sense be able directly to know nor judge with what kind of nature or vertue through a fortitude or strength within the multiplication of grain possesseth it self so as to grow or increase upon the earth unless by reason of a similitudinary example drawn from observation Neither shall he ever know after what manner a seed buds growes and collects fruits in the earth unless he shall with an experimental Doctrine first enter into our natural Philosophy and not that Sophistical discursive one which is bred in Logitians by divers phantastical presumptions who with the Prognostications of Sequels contrary to the power of Nature make many stubbornly to erre in the sophistication of their mind Because by our handicraft knowledge the understanding is rectified by the force of experience in respect of the sight and of a true mental Knowledge Yea our experiences stand over the head of the phantestical or imaginative proofs of Conclusions and therefore neither do they endure them But they shew that all other Sciences do livelily enter into the understanding From whence we afterwards understand that thing within what it is and of what sort it is Because by such knowledge the Intellect stands uncloathed of superfluities and errours which do ordinarily remove it from the Truth by reason of presumptions and prejudiced or fore-judged things believed in the conclusions For from hence it is that our Philosophers or followers have directed themselves to enter through any kind of Science into all experience by Art according to the course of Nature in its Univocal or single Principles For Alchymie alone is the Glass of true understanding and shews how to touch and see the truths of those things in the clear Light Neither doth it bring Logical arguments because they are too remote and far off from the clear Light And therefore the Smaragdine Table hath it By this kind of demonstration all obscurity will free from thee and all the strong fortitude of strength which vanquisheth subtile things and pierceth all solid things will be attained by thee Wherefore I am called Hermes Trimegistus as having the three that is all the parts of Philosophy and the perfection of the whole world Thus he Between praying therefore and knocking a mean in naturals namely of seeking by the fire is supposed I indeed hoped by searching into the Contents of urine visibly to know it no otherwise surely than by a true solving or resolution of urine Therefore first of all I distilled my own urine being first kept in a wooden Vessel untill that at length it voluntarily conceived a ferment and boyled up no otherwise than as Wines do so that my ear could perceive the boyling About the end whereof there was a little burning water distilled from thence But of the remainder I collected a most white salt of a sharp and uriny stinking odour But I know not whether there be any thing more subtile in the whole nature of things It being a noble Remedy against the Jaundise and other Diseases I endeavoured by this Salt to dissolve Duelech in a Glass But the event answered not my attempt Again my own urine was putrified anew in Horse-dung That the unlike part thereof might incline to a separation of its last life Then I distilled it by cohobating it four times according to the prescription of Paracellus and I found frequent Crystals therein being yellow and of a sharp top The which although they might be of conducement against the old obstructions of Excrements yet of none against the affect of the Stone Thirdly I mixed the spirit of my Urine with Aqua vitae dephlegmed or refined and in a moment both of them were coagulated together into a white lump or gobbet yet wondrous swift or volatile and subtile My Eye in the first place there taught me That the spirit of Urine was an unparallel'd and great Runnet because it was
that which was for coagulating of Aqua vitae 2. That in coagulating it had separated the sluggish and watery part which swum upon the aforesaid white lump perhaps no otherwise than as in coagulation of Duelech from the rest of the body of the urine and so that it perfected its coagulation in the middle of the waters 3. That the curdy Runnet or spirit of Urine had undissolveably knit it self to the spirit of Wine 4. That it is not a perpetual truth the which notwithstanding the Schooles hand forth instead of a Chymicall Maxime that every sharp coagulating Body did by the same endeavour dissolve its own Compeere 5. That the spirit of Urine had not coagulated it self in the Glass according to the powder of a beaten Duelech but onely that it had mingled and coagulated it self together with another thing namely with the spirit of Wine 6. That if therefore it had met with an earthly spirit it had also contracted wedlock with the same so as that of both spirits it had made a stony Body 7. I likewise learned after what manner the spirit of urine might coagulate another spirit within the urine 8. That such an association is not a certain naked co-mixture of parts but an undissolvable wedlock of unity a certain substantial transmutation a production of a new Being by an Agent and a Patient into a neither Body This experiment gave me an entrance for a diligent search into the Disease of the Stone Yet I as yet remained wandring about For after giving of thanks I transferr'd my self into a meditation how many ways a thing might be condensed or coagulated in the Universe For Ice first presently offered it self unto me wherein the water incrusts it self for fear of cold and from a primitive action but is not actively congealed by cold Even as elsewhere concerning the Elements But other Bodies which are believed to be mixt as they bewray themselves to be the true Fruits of water by the same Zeal and Tenour are they congealed by cold occasionally For so Bones and a Sword are more easily broken in time of cold Seasons than in time of heat or Summer 2. Any kind of Salts according to their Species and inbred property while their brine being not sufficientts dryed up is left in the cold are separated from their water and become corny 3. If Salts shall subdue any thing by gnawing it they pass over from their native condition into a neither Body and are coagulated For so the Tartar of Wine Sope Borace c. are coagulated 4. And then Muscilages being thickned by the wedlock of their seeds and resolved from their own Body become Glews Gums Solder c. 5. But if a muscilage or slimy juyce carries a co-mixed fat with it it is coagulated in both respects So are Aloes a Chibal Pitch Rosin Gum Ammoniacum Frankinsence Myrrh Mastich the Gum Opopanax Sarcocolla Assa Elemi c. 6. Earth converting into a salt or muscilage if it be dryed is condensed and waxeth hard 7. A mineral Salt that was bred in the earth by burning stonifies into stones shells or sheards and earthen Pots 8. The which if they are urged by a stronger degree of heat they at length vitrifie or become Glass 9. The watery Leffas or planty juyce of the Earth by vertue of the seeds is hatdened into Woods Herbs c. 10. So Water by vertue of a seed is made a rocky stone 11. A muscilage being joyned to a powder or dust makes sand-stones but with dust and lime it now dissembles divers Marbles 12. Whatsoever lime dissolved comprehends or encloseth in it self that thing coagulates with it Because there are in Lime two salts the one a lixivial Alcali salt and the other an acide or sharp one which two salts while they demolish each other are coagulated together 13. Mettals Fire-stones Sulphurs etc. do by vertue of their seeds obtain their own and proper coagulations 14. Also most things through an inbred Glew do voluntarily grow together which afterwards by drying do harden As Blood Cheese the white of an Egg Varnish c. 15. Glass is an earthen stone consisting of an Alcali salt The which while being fired it is dissolved makes the sand or powder of stone that is not calcinable nor otherwise capable of powring abroad to melt by corroding and so they are both together turned into a transparent lump Therefore the Lime-stone or rocky stone by reason of its sharp salt is unfit for Glass because the lime thereof destroyes the Glassifying Alcali and there is made a certain neutral thick or dark Body Lime therefore against the will of Galen very much differs from ashes To wit because this separates the Lixivium or lye from it self but the other containes a sharpnesse that is not separable from the whole Whereby it being at length burnt by too much fire is Glassified throughout its Lixivial part being unfit for Building According to Geber Because all fixed Bodies are at length Glassified with Glassifying things Cheese also as it is curdled by moderate sharpnesse so it is resolved with an eminent sharpness For the pating of Cheese dissolves with dry Calx vive or quick-Lime but not with the Alcali or Lixivial salt of Ashes From all the aforesaid particulars I have collected that the coagulation of Duelech is singular and irregular Lime also doth by degrees stonifie in the middle of the waters as its aforesaid salts do coagulate each other But the body of Man as it doth not coagulate a rocky stone so neither doth it endure a Calx or Lime-stone in the Bladder For indeed that admirable Coagulum or Runnet alwayes stuck before mine eyes whereby more swiftly than in the twinkling of an Eye the spirit of urine had condensed the spirit of Wine into a lump Therefore I discerned that all other Coagulations had nothing common with Duelech Wherefore I determined to examine Spirits Therefore first I distilled Horse-pisse But surely the spirit thereof wanted that Runnet Wherefore I noted with the highest admiration the singularity of mans Urine Afterwards I observed that the spirit of Sulphurs or of Salts being sharp would with an Alcalized body be made earthly For so with Iron is made drosse rust a cankered rust Ceruss c. And these Paracelsus rashly judgeth to be Tartars or the separated impurities of things over-covered with their own and that an inward Runnet when as otherwise they are nothing else but the astonishment of two mutual Agents to wit when both their strengths are spent Afterwards I long examined Salts throughout every of their Analysis or Re-solution and I discerned that the spirits of all salts were sharp except Alcalized ones and those of essential Sulphurs in Vegetables Whose saltish tartnesses indeed are fat and sulphurous neither readily reducible into a salt unlesse by a tedious inversion or turning in and out of the principles which salts being then as it were elixirated do represent the true and highest Crasis or constitutive
temperature of the seeds of their composed Bodies But the spirit of mans urine is neither sharp nor Alcalized but meerly salt even as also that of Horses is And that for this cause because the Volatile sharp matter of the Chyle of the stomach is by vertue of another ferment transchanged into a Volatile salt Even as elsewhere concerning the digestions of Animals I here give thee to observe by the way that in things transchanged there is not an immediate regresse or return unto that from whence they were transchanged no more than from a privation to a habit For that in transchanging the last life of the thing perisheth because the whole disposition of the middle life of the former Being is at once taken away by reason of the extinguishment of its former seed For therefore things transchanged do keep the essence of a new Being with a neglect of their former composed Body Therefore have I found any Remedy whatsoever unprofitable which I otherwise had believed to be very likely a dissolver of the Stone from its former composed Body Yet that is a truth that the spirit of Urine in the fundamental point of its nativity is salt and that by reason of that salt it doth more readily coagulate other Spirits than any sour or sharp spirit doth Milk Neverthelesse the spirit of urine doth not coagulate milk or the venal Blood Because the spirit of the venal blood yea and our vital Spirit is salt after the manner of Urines From hence indeed the spirit of the urine hath it self after the manner of an excrementitious spirit cut off from the blood and so by reason of a co-resemblance it is its Chamber-fellow neither do they act on each other And then also I observed that the spirit of Urine doth not more strongly coagulate those things which were already before coagulated For Bole Clay or the rocky or Chalk-stone do by degrees degenerate by the spirit of urine into a nitrous Salt and are rather dissolved Since therefore the spirit of Urine doth not coagulate Bodies already coagulated such as are Bole Clay c. As neither Bodies coagulable such as are Milk and the venal blood but it coagulates the spirit of Wine or the like thing which is entertained with it in the urine for as was shewn above after the fermenting of urine that urine containes also a spirit of Wine or Aqua vitae I desisted not seriously to enquire after what manner the stone is coagulated in us and in our urine 1. First of all it is an undoubted truth that Duelech is not of a calcinous or limy condition however Paracelsus may be carried on the contrary 1. Because a calcining degree of heat is wanting in us 2. And then because every Alcali is rather that which is destructive to a rocky stone than a Coagulater thereof 3. Because a Calx or Lime presupposeth a Chalky-stone and therefore Duelech should be calcined before it were a stone 4. From the composing parts of Duelech it shall by and by be made manifest that it is not possible for Lime to be in it yea nor that Duelech himself is calcined or doth send forth a Lixivium or Lye Likewise neither is Duelech of the nature of a gowty Chalk because he growes together in the midst of the urine but that Chalk is coagulated from the Sunovia But the Sunovie is a living seedy muscilage which degenerated in the journey of nourishment and from a transparent and Crystaline matter hath passed over into a thick white and slimy matter as of Gouty persons elsewhere from a matter without savour I say it is transplanted into a sharp one though the tartnesse whereof indeed it hath attained a thickness or grossness For then also it is unfit for a total diflation or transpirative dispersing of it self To wit whereby the nourishable Liquor is wholly consumed without any remainder But the Sunovie being once infected with a tartness its watery parts are pufft away but the gross remainder waxeth dry by degrees into the utmost dryth and hardnesse of a Sand-stone But Duelech attaines to the utmost hardness of it self in one onely instant of time The Gouty Chalk therefore differs from Duelech in its whole matter and efficient cause For therefore such a Chalk is hardned out of the water because indeed by drying Neither for that cause doth it imitate the hardness of a rocky stone but onely of a sandy stone I have spoken these things to that end that it may be manifested that Duelech differs from any other coaguted Bodies whatsoever in its different kind of Agent and matter And seeing notwithstanding I as yet knew not the manner or process of the birth of Duelech but I knew in the mean time that Bodies do nor receive the limitation of their hardning but by the actions appointments and properties of their own seeds Lastly Since I knew that whatsoever things do act corporally are altogether sluggish slow and idle as for the coagulation of Duelech therefore I enquired into fermental savours and Odours as the Authors of many seeds Therefore I found the savours and actions of Salts to be indeed famous ones but not any thing reaching the vertue of the salt of Urine And then also I beheld the more weak or feeble Salts which might follow the Race of Sulphurs But Mercury although it alone according to Paracelsus did contain the whole perfection of the thing yet I found it to be slow and feeble For as oft as I distinguished Salts and Sulphurs from their Mercuries I admired at their sluggishnesse and indeed at the dignities of these two Principles Wherefore I stuck in Salts for the searching out of the nativity of Duelech I confess indeed that Mercury being a flowing mettal in its nature and properties is never sufficiently known But that body hath deceived Paracelsus through a similitude of proportion he thinking because his Device had pleased him because he had endowed the watery matter of things with the name of Mercury that therefore the properties of Quick-silver and its natures without a peere being never to be sufficiently searcht into did agree as suitable to all Liquors which may be drawn out of Simples For all the Philosophers of former Ages confess that nothing in the Universe is not so much as by far to be likened to Argent Vive Yet it hath not been hitherto sufficiently unfolded that Argent-Vive or Quick-silver is a Simple actually existing body but not a constitutive part of things And so that there hath been nothing but a meer abusive passing over of a Name For this cause I as yet perswaded my self that seeing a non-Duelech was made of Duelech that ought to be done by the action of an Agent on a disposed matter And although I knew these and many the like things yet I discerned that I therefore knew nothing the more Wherefore I as yet more detested a wording or discursive Philosophy because it was that which stayed me before the Threshold of Nature
and together with it self my Conductress I was shut out of doors I again returned to my self and after a homely manner I considered that Duelech was not bred but out of the principles of the Urine and since I knew the urine to be salt I again had recourse to the varieties of Salts And I stood amazed that the use of Salt should every where be forbidden as well by the Schooles as by Physitians to those that have the stone Yet I discerned that the foundation of that prohibition was unknown amongst them Especially because the use of Sea-salt though much and often never from real experience hurt any one that had the stone But rather I have exactly noted that many who by the plentiful use of salt have cut off the relapse of a new and growing stone from them For I had seen the Rocks as also the rocky stones of the Sea to be gnawn or wasted in the Haven In the mean time it had alwayes a recourse unto my mind with admiration that the spirit of Urine had at one instant coagulated the spirit of Wine together with a separation of its watery part Therefore I consulted first to anatomize the salt of urine unto the utmost veines thereof Wherefore in the strong smelling or stinking body of my urine after its putrefaction under dung I began that dissection and presently by distilling it I found in it besides the aforesaid spirit of urine two the more fixed salts also and no more However Turnheisser doth variously triflle at pleasure of as many species of Salts found by him in Urine as there are almost of Simples in the Vniverse He being willing that man should not onely be a Microcosme or little World but also that his urine should rejoyce in the same prerogative For on this distillatory Vessel he according to his own boldnesse distinguisheth it into 24 parts and marks it outwardly with his Lines and divides the body of man into as many soyles At length he will have it that the vapors lifted up from the urine in distilling ought to strike especially the Region of the Glass and in that part to grow together into drops whereby the businesse of a Disease in man whose urine it is is finished He likewise feigneth as many diversities of vapours to arise out of the urine as there can be diversities of a disease on the whole body That we may thereby visibly perfectly learn not onely the places affected but the diseasie matter for as he thus excuseth his urine Inspections suspected of the wickedness and vanity of Magick he hath busied himself by his water-divining distillatories to deceive the World That is in sportings he would seem to be altogether serious but I have never distilled that I might befool others with my self The unprofitable invention therefore of Turnehisser is at least of a trifling value if not also wickedly introduced into Medicine Therefore in the lee of my urine I distinguished of two salts one indeed a Sea-ee salt being not so long agoe assumed and as yet remaining safe and unchanged as elsewhere I have shewn concerning the boyling of Salt-peter But the other is of the Urine it self being bred in our digestion and from not a salt transchanged into one but it differs from the Sea-ee salt 1. If for some days there shall be no use or need of any Sea-ee-salt yet the urine failes not of its own salt 2. The Sea-salt coagulates it self into graines of a point-like sharpnesse but the salt of urine growes together into Gemmie Dyes and square Cubes 3. The Sea-salt alwayes shewes forth its antient tast even when it is digested out of Jakes's with Salt-peter but the salt of urine savours alwayes of urine 4. The Sea-salt in its cooling adheres to a wooden Vessel even as while it is separated from Salt-peter But the salt of urine growes together in the bottome of the Liquor Furthermore the fixed salt of urine distinguisheth it self from the Volatile salt thereof 1. By fire and flight For the one flyes away the other remaining 2. The fixed salt is separated from the lees by an extraction in moisture but the Volatile salt is sequestred by fire For although meats and drinks wax universally alike sowr in the stomach yet the salts sprung from thence are not alike volatile Because that ferment of the stomach is received after the manner of the Receiver and so it varies Even as neither is Chrysulca dissolving the whole and homogeneal mettall therefore made totally alike volatile And this diversity doth not break forth from essential properties but by reason of a partic pation of the properties of the middle life of things Neither finally is that ferment of the stomach a naked sharpness or sowrness but a vital and specifical Endowment whose end indeed is for transchanging of the food into the Chyle of mans digestion For truly many the more fixed Beings are received with the meats which notwithstanding ought to undergoe the like condition with volatile Juyces if they ought the more fully to passe unto the root of Life In which point especially the efficacy of Nature shines forth the which of a lump that is altogether similar or alike frameth bones and the fibers of flesh c. In the next place it reduceth bones in the stomach of a Dog unto Chyle that blood may again from thence be made The two aforesaid Salts therefore are the more fixed But one is exceeding volatile in urine but an Alcali or any thing like to a Lixivium ot Lye never appeared unto me from urine For if but any Lixivial matter shall be received inwardly that is presently filled with sharpnesses so that it layes aside its Lixivial disposition For I have seen a Country-man who cured great Wounds with the drink of a Lixivium prepared out of the Teile-tree Yet the urine of those so cured shewed nothing at all of a Lixivium Therefore have I taught elsewhere that every Alcali lixivial is made by a dissolvative expression of the fire Neither that it was before in the composed Bodies But if indeed any volatile spirit doth shew forth the property of an Alcali such as is the vulnerary matter of any Herbs whatsoever that indeed is abstersive or cleansing and a provoker of urine yet of its own faculty under the second digestion it puts on the nature of the salt of urine restraines sour corruptions which would otherwise voluntatarily afterwards arise in the wounded Since therefore there is no Alcali in the urine I have held it an errour to give an Alcali to drink for breaking of the Stone seeing it cannot reach to the places of the urine For neither doth the Ludus of Paracelsus or his Medicine for dissolving of the stone prepare a Lixivium but a bitter salt of a sharp one Wherefore he calls his Ludus the Gall of the Earth For it is a flinty stone yet the more tender one and the which almost wholly flyes away through a continual fire of two dayes But
that have wholly banished salt out of the use of men But the common people deride the Schooles and the use of Salt hath grown frequent in despight of their Rules So that the Authority of the Schooles being despised Food is not onely unpleasant but also unwholsome without salt But if the seasoning of salt smile on the Palate that is not any otherwise favoured than as salt resolves the Excrements which burden the stomach with their muckinesse For if salt be put into the mouth of those that are Catechised or instructed in the Principles of Religion in the first houres of their Nativity as a resembling token of Wisdome But the Schooles have with much endeavour forbidden all eating of salt Truly what other thing is to be presaged from thence but that the Heathenish Schooles do not admit of Wisdome to wit the resembling Mark whereof they advise to be excluded And that the Church doth from the Beginning intend the destruction of Infants For salt is sequestred out of Jakes's by the Boylers of Salt-peter such as was once received into the Body together with the meats Therefore it ought likewise to remain in Duelech it self But there is not so much as the least of Sea-salt found to proceed from Duelech by Art And that thing the Schooles might have learned with no charge if any earnest desire of learning and Charity towards their Neighbour had acted them At leastwise the Boylers of Salt-peter have been more curious or carefull than so many ten thousands of Phisitians The reproach therefore re-bounds on themselves as every one of the vulgar sort doth now know how unpolished the Decrees of the Schooles are Since they know not in the Dietary part of Medicine to what end they forbid salted things Nor indeed had it been to be feared if not salt it self but onely the spirit thereof should hurt the Diseased with the stone 1. Because salt is forbidden by the Schooles Ages and the Schooles being hitherto ignorant whether there be any spirit to be found in salt or of what condition it might be 2. That power in acting is in vain which is never brought forth into act For it is sufficiently manifest that out of Sea-salt received into the Body there is never any possible drawing forth of its spirit in us For it is most sharp neither hath it a Remedy like unto it self for extinguishing of the burning heats of the urine even while the stone is present in the Bladder also in the Stranguries of old people it hinders putrefactions dissolveth mucky filths and expelleth sands Therefore salt is profitable for those that have the stone as well in its body as in its spirit For indeed Fountain-salt was given by the providence of divine Bounty for the necessities of mortal men That where the Continent departs from the Sea by a long Tract of Land saltish Springs or Fountaines might supply that defect of the Sea But the Schooles are so far from repaying thanks to God for his Benefit that they accuse God to have given salt not onely in vain but also for the destruction of men It is to be noted in the mean time that salt flowes down into the Sea from many and plentifull Fountaines yet that the saltnesse of the Sea is not increased thereby because something of salt ascends by degrees from the Sea in manner of a vapour and however it may be converted into its first matter of water at leastwise in the Clouds it hath some kind of constancy or perseverance in it From whence it is no wonder that Rain-water by it self is not to be corrupted in any Ages But in the more hot Zone that salt doth exhale even out of the Sea is manifest for there is none but smells out whether fleshes are boyled in a pot with salt or without it But the Sea-salt seeing it makes for the preservation of the Element doth difficultly exhale Therefore the Spanish Sea well nigh wants a vapoury salt is stronger and the more expels putrefaction and Duelech On the contrary the Seas of Lorraine abound with a vapoury salt and it in part waxeth sower in the stomach Also that vapoury spirit of salt which is sublimed being as it were the flowre of salt differs from the distilled spirit of salt just even as Oyl of Olives doth from Oyl of Bricks For the spirit of Oyl of Olives which departs in its first moity with me doth at length dissolve a silver thred in a Bottle But Oyl of Olives preserves Iron from rust And far more powerfully doth that remaind of Oyl from whence the aforesaid half or moity was withdrawn preserve 〈…〉 rustinesse Therefore it is to be noted that there is not a more pure and 〈…〉 than that which is re-cocted or re-boyled from the brine of Swines-flesh For 〈…〉 seasoning or operating on the Swines-flesh its object it lost its more vapoury spirit by coagulation And so the residing salt being almost fixed and freed from its earthlinesse is found to be clear and most fit for Sawces It being also cast into an Hogshead of sowring Ale or Beer preserves the same which other salt doth not so do Wherefore it drinks up into its self and transchangeth the superfluous sharp spirits in us which are the Authours of all Corruption if they shall be out of the shops of the first digestion It being thus re-boyled with Spanish-salt it is almost equal in goodnesse with that which was at first dissolved in the bright burning-pot Since therefore Sea-salt is not of the composition of urine but is wholly a forreigner unto it and so remaines yea since Sea-salt being detained in the urine keeps its nature unmixed and unchanged even until the last extraction of things and separation of the Salt-peter it is certain that it hath not any businesse with Duelech And therefore that neither is the least of Sea-salt ever found in the composition hereof seeing it more destroyes the native birth of Duelech than it doth promote it Therefore Sea-salt is forbidden by the Schooles unto those that have the stone without a foundation Thus much of Salts But I had hitherto learned that Duelech was an irregular coagulated matter bred from the salt of Urine which had not its peere in the whole Universe for that Mans urine is never found out of man For therefore it irked me not many times to distill Urine Therefore I decreed to putrifie my own urine for full 40 days in a Horses belly that by a foregoing ferment of putrefaction the unlike parts thereof might dis-unite Then I distilled abovt a half part thereof But being called away from the work by reason of business of my Family and afterwards being letted through the Feasts of Pentecost I ceased from it for fifteen dayes But the Vessel receiving it was exceeding great clear Crystalline and precious the which I had now sequestred from the long snout of an Alembick all that interval of time when as therefore I returned to the Work first I powred forth
although I knew mans urine to be onely in our species and that the spirit of mans urine alone was in the possession of man Yet I examined Horse-pisse in the name of the bigger Cattel as being carefull whether perhaps there might not be another like coagulating spirit which by reason of Impediments co-bred with it could not every where obtain the command of coagulating But however I laboured I found not that spirit the Coagulater in Horse-pisse As neither the spirit of a ferment or of Aqua vitae Therefore I found a potential Aqua vitae intimate with mans urine and that a pliable one between that spirit the Coagulater and the putrified spirit the Receiver of the aforesaid Runnet or Coagulum And it is chiefly to be noted that the spirit of urine doth not coagulate but by the Wedlock of Aqua vitae the which I have often approved by distilling There are therefore three things in the urine of man which must of necessity concur and by so much the more powerfully by how much every person troubled with the stone doth now bear no light or small principle of corruption in his urine as presently in its place from whence indeed a ferment is swiftly stirred up in the urine for the aforesaid Aqua vitae that is capable of Coagulation For neither doth it withstand these things that as well the spirit of Life as the Aqua vitae it self are exceeding swift of flight and so scarce fit for the stubbornnesse of Duelech for it is certain that the spirit of Vitriol doth most swiftly flye from its volatile Companion yea and that it is presently fixed by the swift Sal Armoniack So that it undergoes a fusion or liquidnesse of substance whereby our followers being perfectly instructed do presently cease to wonder which things otherwise affect the ignorant with amazement CHAP. IV. A processe of Duelech 1. The manner of making Duelech 2. It is a singular Being nor having its like 3. A mechanick or handicraft Operation of the Fountaines of the Spaw 4. Oker in the Fountaines of the Spaw might have scared Paracelsus from his device of Tartar 5. A dissection in the actions of Spirits 6. The Fire-water that hath not an homogeneal Being like unto its self 7. The difference of the aforesaid dissolving liquor with all others of the whole Universe 8. Some Oyl of Gold is of a Pomegranate or light-red colour 10. What the generation of Duelech may bespeak 11. The action of Bodyes on Bodyes of what sort it is 12. The Doctrine concerning the action of Bodyes and Spirits 13. The participations of faculties out of mettals without a metalick matter 14. The delusion of the Alchymist 15. Diseases are appointed for a punishment and Reward 16. Some exercises beginning from salts 17. The spirit of salt is made earthly 18. A trivial Question 19. The device of frosty Tartar 20. From whence the Strangury of old people is 21. Four remarkable things issuing from thence 22. A second Question 23. A third 24. A fourth 25. Catarrhs or defluxions of the Bladder are ridiculous 26. A fifth Question 27. A sixth 28. Astrologers are taken notice of 29. Paracelsus is noted like as also Galen 30. The solving of a question proposed 31. The heedlessnesse or rashnesse of Galen THe spirit of the Urine laying hold of the volatile earth that was procreated by a seed and a hoary and putrifying ferment stirs up the spirit of Wine the inhabitant of the Urine as yet laying hid in Potentia or possibility by the which as it were by two Sexes concurring the certain aforesaid earthly spirit drinks in the one onely aforesaid Coagulater by reason of which reciprocation or mutual return a most thorow connexion of them both ariseth in acting because they conjoyn in manner of spirits throughout their very least parts And so the Coagulater doth at one instant coagulate the spirit of Wine that was potentially stirred up in the putrifying ferment whereunto when the hoary or fermental putrified Masse hath applyed its matter they are condensed or co-thickned together into a true Duelech surely a Monster this new something coagulated in the middle of the urine Nor therefore capable of being again resolved into water For it is a rocky Animal Being like unto no other and the which therefore Paracelsus names Duelech And that Being will the more easily enter into the mind by a daily example which the Fountaines of the Spaw present unto us For they have a sulphureous spirit manifestly tart from whence they are called the sharp Fountaines and also a vein of Iron For both being of an imperfect and immature shape are contained as dissolved in the simple water Therefore they both begin mutually to joyn their reciprocal forces against each other And at length when as their strength being tyred they have desisted from their action they are condensed into a stony body which affixeth it self to bottles in the form of Oker and so the water returns into its antient Element as uncloathed of every strange quality Which Sharpish Fountaines if Paracelsus had sufficiently contemplated of or he had neglected the history of the Tartar of Wine borrowed from Basilius Valentine for he had known that there is not the like birth of Oker and of Tartar of Wine At leastwise he might have been with the more difficulty convinced Because Tartar is resolved into water but Oker is not as neither is the stone For neither have I ever attempted to deny that solid bodyes are constituted of Liquors But I refuse tartarous liquors they being forcibly brought into the Causes of Diseases as in the Treatise concerning Tartars but on the contrary I have reverently admired the activities of spirits on spirits Truly since Oker growes out of the waters of the Spaw or since a stony crust is spread over bottles throughout their whole hollownesse let it first of all be wickednesse to give the water of the Spaw to drink if we believe that Tartars are made just as Oker is in the Spaw-water That is if we believe that there is Tartar in the water of the Spaw which is presently to be coagulated in the Drinker he commits wickednesse who gives the Spaw-water to drink For while the acide or tart salt of Wine corroded the Lee that salt indeed which before was tart and not coagulated remaines tart and is coagulated Neither doth it change the essence of Salt although that salt which before was fluide be constrained or bound fast together In like manner also although the Lee hath supt up the acide spirits and coagulated them into it self yet a solid body remaineth while the spirit of the acide salt is coagulated into the solid body of Tartar of Wine Yea before that it be fully coagulated it affixeth it self to the Vessel For in the Generation of Tartar of Wine the spirit acteth on a body and there is altogether a far different action while two spirits act on each other For in this action even
as in the water of the Spaw in Duelech c. a new and neutral Being is constituted such as is Oker of the spirit of Sulphur and the volatile vein of Iron But in the Tartar of Wine onely the tart spirit or sour liquor of the Wine is changed into a Salt and the Lee remaineth such as it was before And therefore the matter constituted thereby is again dissolvable For a metal stone or solid Body is not unbodyed changed or volatilized by reason of the corroding of spirits That is manifest For Silver Pearls Corâ—als Spongy-stones Crabstones Snails-stones c. although by Aqua fortis and other sharp Liquors they vanish out of our fight yet they are stones as before even as concerning Fevers indeed the spirit did what it could but it operated as it wore in vain upon the body while in corroding that body it coagulated it self For indeed there is in the whole nature of the Universe one onely fire the burning Vulcan So also there is none but one onely Liquor which dissolveth all solid bodyes into their first matter without any changing or diminishment of their faculties which thing Adeptists have known and will testifie but in all other faculties of Liquors a body can never radically co-mingle it self with the solving Liquor And therefore it is corroded indeed but is not intimately solved or loosened even as otherwise is required for a formal transmutation For every sharp gnawing spirit in gnawing of another body is coagulated and well nigh fixed and passeth over into the form of a thickned salt yet the body that hath suffered the wil of the gnawing spirit to be done upon it doth not act any thing on that spirit which in gnawing by its own proper action coagulated it self the which indeed comes to passe while two active spirits run together on each other For then there is a double action whereby both of them do mutually act on both For therefore such an action of theirs is made with a thorow radical mixture and there is constituted of them both an of-spring of unseparable mixture and this transchanged body is a neutral product from them both But if Paracelsus bad timely of fitly contemplated instead of his Tartar of Wine he had taken the Oker of the water of the Spaw and had spoken something more probable than that there were Liquors in all things which were coagulated after the manner of Tartar in Wine and that they were the common mother and matter of any Diseases whatsoever Oker indeed the daughter of the Spaw is not again resolved like as Tartar of Wine is and yet it differs from Duelech as much as a Mineral stonifying doth from the stone in man For in this the Spirit the Coagulater existing in the urine operates by vertue of its own and of a different salt upon a hoary and putrifying spirit of earth without the boyling up or belching forth of a wild Gas and so it finisheth its operation and coagulates it self with the spirit of Wine that is proper to the urine in a moment even as I have above declared in the handicraft Operation of the spirit of urine and Wine or of a burning water But the acide spirit of the water of the Spaw having sprung up from an Embryonated or non-shaped Sulphur do operate first in a long Tract do stir up bubbles and a wild Gas and at length affix themselves to the Vessel For otherwise if that Gas cannot be belched forth the waters of the Spaw remain safe being fit for healing For if the Gas be hindered from going forth it hinders whereby the subsequent effect cannot follow and the spirits are rendred feeble and barren in acting But the lee of Wine seeing it hath its own coagulation and that which is proper to it self it hath no need to attain it from elsewhere But since the sharpish spirit of Wine hath gnawn the lee there is no reason that it should give that in gnawing which it self hath not in it self Therefore in the generation of the Tartar of Wine that sharpish saltish spirit shall be coagulated indeed by reason of the earth of dreg but it shall remain in the shape of a dissolvable salt and not in the form of a rocky stone By reason of that Rule that a transmutation of the essence presupposeth a transmutation of the matter Therefore the earthy body whether it be dissolved by a Corrosive or not keeps its own antient Being Because that Dissolver doth not pierce the matter dissolved in the radical bond of connexion The which notwithstanding in things that are essentially to be transchanged is exceeding necessary to be done Therefore let the young beginners in Chymistry learn that bodies are not resolved by the calcinations of Corrosives although they are also often repeated unlesse a fermental impression through putrifaction whichgoes before every radical dissolution doth interpose Camphor indeed in Aqua fortis assumeth the nature of a swimming Oyl but that Corrosive being washed away by common water the Camphor is presently what it was before whether that be once done or lastly a thousand times For in my young beginnings I rejoyced that by a Retort at the seventh Repetition I had dispatched Gold into the shape of a Pomegranate-coloured Oyle As being mindfull that he who knew how to destroy Gold hath known likewise how to make or build it up But the Corrosive its Companion being taken away the Gold returned into its self and my vain joy ceased He labouring in vain to extract that which is not in it They also labour in vain who do not operate by due meanes The generation of Duelech therefore is not the imaginary stonifying of a cocted muscilage or of a feigned phlegme dryed by the heat of the place or confirmed or hardened by drying for so a Bole or clod onely should be resolvable but not Duelech but there is a passing over of three spirits at once into Duelech by a true essential transmutation Truly Bodyes do not act on Bodyes by a natural action of Composition but whatsoever Bodyes do perform on each other that is done by reason of weight greatnesse or magnitude hardnesse figures and motions And truly those are serviceable for Science Mathematical but scarce for Science Natural But if corporeal salts do operate it comes to pass either because they after some sort contain a volatile spirit or do find that spirit in a Body Let young Beginners at least remember that Bodyes after whatsoever manner they shall be once intermingled by co-melting do notwithstanding remain in their antient essence unlesse they are transchanged by the fire or a ferment Lastly that Bodies do operate nothing on Spirits but do onely limit these by suffering Which operation of Bodyes therefore is not a true re-acting but father a meet effect of spirits resulting from the proper activity of the same For therefore Spirits when their faculties are woren out and exhausted do voluntarily decay in the end of their motion And
although that action of spirits be made with the suffering and losse of their own powers yet they do not therefore transchange Bodyes into their own nature For they onely gnaw them and grind them into pouder the which also they interpret to be a calcining by water By way of example joyn thou a pound of Crocus martis to a sixfold quantity of Oyl of Vitriol then distill thou whatsoever shall be watery Thou shalt find the Vitriol of Iron or Mars Take from thence the Iron and thou hast the Vitriol of Iron A Salt I say like Vitriol whose tast is of Iron Yet retaining nothing of the Mars or Iron For thou hast a limitation from the Mars as to its efficacy but not in respect of its matter And the former spirit of Vitriol or Oyl of the vitriol of Copper shall be fixed into a certain salt onely by the odour of the Iron Again Take the same and more clear example Conjoyn thou a pound of running Mercury or Quick-silver unto a four fold quantity of Oyl of Vitriol Take away its flegme by distilling and a white precipitate shall remain in the bottom like snow Likewise If thou shalt pour on it more Oyl than is meet the Mercury will unsensibly surmount together with the Oyl Furthermore If by a Liver thou shalt take away the tartnesse from the aforesaid snow there will be a pouder of a Citron colour in the bottom which being revived or unto Life recovered shall be of equal weight with the former Mercury But the water which in washing off the salt drinks it up into it self affords a true Alum For so one onely pound of Quick-silver onely by its touch should be able by degrees to change many thousands of pounds of the sharpest Oyl of Vitriol into an Alum without any losse of its substance which same Oyl by the touch of the Iron is in like manner changed into the vitriolated salt of Mars being a noble Medicine for healing Let the action of the Mercury without an essential â—â— suffering of its substance be taken notice of And it is a Contemplation of great moment For truly a great rout of Alchymists are deluded by their own hope thinking that fixed Bodyes being solved in Corrosives gave unto these Corrosives their properties at leastwise if those dissolving Corrosives have from a voluntary motion of activity coagulated in their possession They know not I say that Spirits being wearied by acting do degenerate into a new Being To wit while they descend unto the limit of their power in acting And then we must know that every operation which tendeth unto a transmutation of both namely the Agent and Patient consisteth onely between meer Spirits But that the operation of a Body with a spirit of things without Life begins from the spiritual odour of a certain putrifaction by continuance because seeds and fermental dispositions depend thereupon and according to their own will or arbitration do command Liquors appointed for Generation Wherefore the Antients have not unfitly advertised us That the rise and continuation of the visible world is from an invisible and incorporeal Essence such as are Odours and Ferments And in our own borders Duelech growes together from an incredible Spirit the Coagulater and from an invisible Beginning For neither hath it stood in need for its nativity of Tartar brought from without of the Son of a more inward muckinesse or of the feigned curdlings of drying It is a far more calamitous thing that we carry the very vulcan of the Stone about us in our urine unto the importunate command whereof the properties of a volatile spirit do hearken For God had seemed to have loved Bruits before us if he had not directed Diseases unto a Reward and so unto good whereof a temporal punishment is not worthy But besides where a fore-seen end of punishment is present he hath from the Gift of his Bounty erected the powers of Medicines In Beasts also stones are bred but not given for a punishment nor for a Reward which grow in them for Medicines to us And therefore they also arise from a far different Root Moreover before that I proceed unto the History of the Stone I will premise some exercises First therefore In the Salt-pits of Burgundy there are at this day no more than two pits the pit of Brine and the pit of Gray But if indeed an hundred measures of both pits are boyled apart they yield far lesse salt than if they are boyled in the same quantity being conjoyned The Inhabitants admire at the Experiment and therefore they henceforward confound both Brines together For indeed the one of them containes more of a vapory or volatile salt which being boyled apart by it self with a flaming fire flyes away before its coagulation Notwithstanding meeting with another more fixed salt it is imbibed and constrained into a solid salt The example teacheth this That Bodyes of Salts do drink up their own Spirits and that their spirits in like manner do gnaw their Bodyes For truly the Brine of Burgundy being clearer than Crystal doth notwithstanding through its vapory salt spirit drink up into it self a great part of a rocky stone which therefore in time of boyling To wit while the spirits are coagulated in the more solid body of the salt settles and is scummed off with difficulty Therefore that spirit of salt although it dissolved the stone yet it therefore contracted not wedlock with the earth as that either this should stonifie or the other be made salt Yea it even from thence is manifest that although the Sea-salt had vapory or volatile parts yet it could not come unto the stone as neither to the spirit of urine for an increase Because it is that which consists of far different principles even as elsewhere concerning Digestions but the Sea-salt by how much it is a stranger with the Urine by so much it shall stir up consultations of dissolving Duelech For whatsoever dissolveth the stone of a Rock and doth hide it invisibly in it self that at least shall not perswade the original of the stone Thus far concerning a fixed Earth dissolved by the spirit of salt and of the vapory and coagulated spirit of Salt Now concerning a volatile salt decaying into a solid body Sublime thou Stibium with an equal part of Sal Armoniack by a gentle or indifferent fire thou shalt see the salt to arise tinged with divers colours Separate the colour from the salt by water and thou shalt have a pouder which with Salt-peter flyes away almost wholly into a flame But if that which is left with the Sal Armoniac be as yet twice sublimed by it self and freed from its salt thou shalt have a pouder of Stibium voyd of salt wherewith if thou shalt then mix Salt-peter it shall be no longer inflamed but as much Salt-peter as thou shalt mix with it is changed into an earth and neglects the nature of a salt For the odour of the Sulphur pierceth
the aforesaid poyson and also confound or dissolve the ice of the foregoing winter with a new Spring And although that poyson be fermental in respect of the poyson and therefore also from a formal quantity of it self it endeavours to creep into all places afterwards yet it is not apt as to be co-fermented equally with the spirit by reason of the force and fighting nobleness of the Subject into which it is received and the drowsie sluggishness of its icie disposition For such is the difference in contagious things that the poysons of some things do voluntarily or by art depart and are separated from and forsake the bodies infected by them But of others that there is no voluntary division to be hoped for for the ice of the Leprousie doth the rather besiege the more outward parts because it is an icie malady and is thrust forth abroad by the in-bred heat for therefore it more defiles the Standers by towards their outward parts than their more inward bowels which are co-touching with them in the root in the unity of life But no Physitian ever cured the Leprosie which obtained not the Liquor Alkahest The which since it is of a most tedious preparation none although skilful in art shall come unto the obtainment thereof whom the most High shall not by a special gift conduct thither For he must needs be chosen and endowed by a particular priviledge if he ought to obtain that Medium or Mean To wit whereby as well sensitive as unsensitive sublunary bodies are equally pierced even into the seminal and intrinsecal root of their first Being therefore also it subdueth and changeth all things under it without a re-acting of the Patient and impoverishing of the Agent For otherwise it is vain whatsoever hope the Leprosie shall perswade it self of from elsewhere Therefore in times past the curing of those that had the Leprosie was granted for a sign unto the Messias alone My first born daughter being now five years old became leprous and that more and more and at length wan Ulcers and horny white scales grew throughout her whole body But then the image of the Virgin Lady newly shewed it self by many Miracles in our City famous for the Hospital of St. James The Girle therefore being now seven years of age desired to go to the place and the Grandmother with her Nephew hasten thither and she returns after an hour sound and forthwith the scales fall off Presently after a year the same Leprosie suddenly returned And I confessed my self guilty that I had concealed the honour of the Lady Virgin Therefore my little daughter returnes with her Grandmother unto the sacred Image and she again returned healed and so afterwards remained But I fearing the return of the Leprosie divulged the Miracle and by a publick Writing confessed the favour and clemency of God unto whom be all praise and glory with the sanctifying of his name for ever I have already said that sensation or the act of feeling according to the mind of Hippocrates doth as well effectively as susceptively or receivingly consist in the Animal spirit But because all such spirit is dead and a dead Carcass unless it be illustrated from the life it self And because life it self in that spirit is not proper unto it and unseparable from it but life is from the vital or animal spirit I now confound them both in name it being distinct in the whole subject the which elsewhere more manifestly concerning long life therefore first of all it is manifest that that vital spirit doth not immediately feel but that it is the very life it self which doth the more nearly and immediately feel and grieve or pain in that spirit For indeed I have demonstrated in the Treatise Concerning the Forms of Things that the life or form of things is a certain light a special Creature shining in its own Inne throughout all the Guardians of the parts yet that it is not a substance nor an accident however by reason of the so great Novelty of the thing the School of the Peripateticks may crack Which Paradox I have demonstrated by Mathematical demonstration and Mechanically in the book of the Elements And so I here assume it as being elsewhere sufficiently proved I will therefore speak much more nearly than Hipprocrates concerning Sensation and Sense That if Sensation or the act of Feeling were in times past said to be made with a passion of the body wherein the spirit making the assault receiveth the impression of the thing to be felt and the which therefore is abusively called the very Sensible Species it self We now understand that this impression is in one only moment and in the same point â—sinuated into the life existing in it To wit under which Insinuation Application and Suiting Sensation doth then first arise being made in the life it self and by the life Of which life indeed Sense it self is an unseparable property And seeing Life is not of a body nor proper to a body nor lastly of the Off-spring of corporeal properties but is a light comming into it by the gift of the Creator beyond the condition of the Elements and Heavens Hence also Sensation is not of bodies nor of matter nor of a solution of the Con-tinual c. But plainly a vital property proceeding from the very trunk of life As also it is not sufficient that there be an Eye a Mean a vital Spirit that Seeing may be made but moreover there is required an application of the visual spirit unto the Life and therefore the effect of seeing however altogether ordinary doth exceed the whole Elementary nature because it contains the image and co-resemblance of the Life it self for that Seeing Tasting Smelling Touching c. are the immediate effects of the Life sporting it self or playing thorow its own Organs For in all sense it must needs be that the allurements of the spirits and the Species of things perceived are fitted immediately to the life if sensible acts do at any time happen But indeed in a matter so difficult and so far separated from the common Doctrine grant me Reader that I may as yet talk more nearly with thee For thou hast perceived that it is not sufficient unto Sense and Sensation to have have said that the Brain and likewise the Sinew is the immediate Organ of Sense nor also that it is enough to have implored for this purpose the inflowing spirit yea or the spirit it self implanted in the parts as it is cherished from the influxing vertue of the brain or nerves unless unto all these the life shall concurre For Sensation it self is of so great a weight that it easily exceeds the compass of all Sublunary things together with the whole power of the Heavens and Elements Therefore since thou hast already perceived that I will speak further For what things I have now spoken concerning the Life I have shewen in my whole book Of long Life whereunto I dismiss thee for speedy
recourse how variously the Life glistens in nature to wit as it is seminally in the very vital spirits but as it were fountainously in the sensitive soul it self Therefore in speaking properly of Sense and Sensation the Sensitive Soul it self is the primary and also the immediate Being which acteth all Sensations and in acting undergoes them in it self And therefore the spirit of the Brain is only the immediated Organ but the life is the Organ or Medium whereby the Sensitive Soul perceiveth external Objects rushing on it For Sensation is not immediately in the thing contained nor in the things containing nor also in the spirit diffused through the Sinews into the vital parts Because that spirit which makes the assault differs from the Sensitive Soul no otherwise than as a fat material smoak doth from the flame by which it is enflamed But the Soul the immortal Mind is wholly unpassable by humane conceptions as it is the Image of the very incomprehensible God himself But the Sensitive Soul although it begins in nature from an occasional seed that is dispositively yet seeing it is the nearest Image of that Image it is also after the manner of men unknown and altogether scanty For therefore indeed neither can it be defined by its causes but only is described by an absurb or incongruous Circle of reflexions own its own actions and properties To wit that the Sensitive Soul is a formal light whereunto the properties of a Sensitive life do chiefly agree but in man that it is the Prop and Inn of the immortal Soul and its immediate bond with other created corporeal Bodies besides it self Therefore there is as yet a more remote aspect or beholding of the Soul as being related to the life Seeing life and the Soul are distinct things as it were the abstract and the Concrete or rather as the property of a Being and a Being it self This same Soul therefore through life perceiveth in the animal Spirits and seeth immediately in the Optick or visual spirit which inhabits in the apple of the eye the visible Species conceived For the Optick Spirit there is a transprrent glass the light whereof is the very Sensitive Soul it self present in the same place being the Seat and Chamber-maide of the immortal mind Therefore there is no need of a recourse of the received Species that are to be perceived thorow the Sinews to the Brain But the Soul being immediately present and bestowing all vertue from it self upon the visual Spirit she her self sees and discerns But the Brain is only the Shop and Cup of those spirits wherefore the sinews do not serve for the conveighing of the Specie's drawn unto the Brain in the act feeling or perceiving But for bedewing of the spirits illustrated in the Brain for the refreshing and confirming of the parts wherein themselves are implanted Neither is there also altogether a like reason of the external Senses with the imaginative power and its Sisters For the sensible Specie's outwardly perceived by the Soul are abstracted by sensibility and then at length as it were of the matter whereof Specie's or shapes are from thence forged into the Image of the thing to be perceived After another manner Sensitive Objects entring from without are conceived after a Concrete or conjoyned manner in the Organs of the senses and therefore they do not only displease but moreover do now also pain But concerning the seat of the Soul it is variously disputed for the Heart and the Brain But I may suppose that the Sensitive Soul is conformable to its own seeds and by a real Act distinguished from the immortal mind the image of the Divinity Yet that the Sensitive Soul which is the carnal old Adamical man and Law of the flesh is not on both sides distinguished from a formal and vital light neither that it sirs immediately in the inflowing Spirit the which indeed is wholly slideable and flowing But the Spirit which increased in the Organs presently after their first constitution although it live in the last life of the seeds yet it doth not as yet truly live in the middle animal life which is the Sensitive life until that a vital light comming upon it shall actually shine The dispositions whereof are indeed gradually premised But notwithstanding they are in one only instant enlightned by the divine goodness of the Creator Even as in the Book of long life For that happens no otherwise than as in the co-rubbing of the flint against the Steel Therefore an undeclarable light is kindled by the Creator in the spirit of the more noble Bowels and first indeed in the heart which light as it attaineth strength by degrees is more powerfully enlarged no otherwise than as the smoak of a lower Candle doth visibly receive the dismissed flame from the upper Candle So that although the Organs are divided in diversity of Offices yet by a mutual conspiracy they readily serve for the necessities and ends prefixed by the Lord the Creator Notwithstanding there is one only Harmony and continued Homogenial Life and Sensitive Soul of all the Bowels and Members which in every one of them receiveth and presently after cloatheth it self with certain limitations or properties which it had prepared for it self by the seeds For as the flame of a Candle is not extended above or without its own Sphear nor perisheth as long as it lives within that Sphear although the smoaky fumes arising from thence being void of flame did fly far away out of that Spheare so likewise the inflowing spirits although they are illustrated by a participation of life are pufft away do wander far and therefore are materially diminished in their Cup or Buttery yea and for this cause the liveliness of a vital Light growes feeble yet nothing of the essence of the Sensitive Soul perisheth because Life is not attained by parts and degrees as neither doth it subsist like accidents but is alwayes life although more or less liveliness may appear in that light For no otherwise than as a fire where it is never so small is as well fire as another that is heightned In like manner also whatsoever exhaleth from the body which before rejoyced in the participation of Life yet looseth life so soon as it departs out of its own limits So also Excrements do not indeed keep Life but a co-participation of the vital spirits Wherefore also from thence the order of the inferiour Harmony slides into disorder according to that saying My spirit shall be diminshed and therefore my dayes shall be shortned Therefore a more immoderate evacuation of corrupt Pus and the like brings sudden death As indeed they do not contain the Soul but only the last seminal life of vital spirits For as concerning the immediate existence of the immortal Mind or Divine Image the matter is as yet in controversie between the Heart and the Brain For I who know that even Quickning is made at the very instant wherein the Sensitive Soul
is present that is while that formal Animal and Sensitive Light is kindled even as elsewhere concerning the Birth of Formes believe also that the immortal mind is present and that it doth wholly sit immediately in the Sensitive Soul as being associated or joyned thereunto Not indeed that it sits in a certain corner bowel prison of the Body or shop of the spirits But I conceive that the mind is throughout the whole Sensitive Soul and that it pierceth this Soul nor that it doth exceed the Sphear thereof as long as it lives and in this respect that it is subject unto many importunities of circumstances But in death the mind is separated because the Sensitive Soul it self departs into nothing as it were the light of a Candle which things surely were here to be fore-tasted of before the explication of Sensation Pain therefore as that which is chiefly to be felt shall open unto us the way For it is a hurtful and sorrowful Sensation or act of feeling conceived in the vital Spirit being by life implanted in the sensitive soul And in speaking most nearly Sense or Feeling is a Possion of the sensitive soul conceived in the spirit of Life For nothing can be glad sorrowful or in pain besides the soul it self And so that Sense seeing it is the first conception of Pain or well-pleasing it is by all means made primarily in the Soul And therefore Sense represents unto me nothing besides that power of the Soul of conceiving and judging passively of external Objects rushing on it Therefore seeing that these Acts do depend on the Soul the whole History whereof is blind unto us it is no wonder that it hath been hitherto nought but carelesly treated by the Schools concerning the Soul and Sensation Because they are those who have skipt over the Enquiries of far more manifest things as untouched yea through sloath they have neglected them by subscribing to the dreams of Heathens In Pain therefore the irrational Sensitive Soul is first or chiefly sorrowful is mad is angry is perplexed doth itch or fear and as it is in the fountainous root of all vital actions it naturally moves and contracts not only the Muscles but also any of the parts unto the tone of its own passions Sense therefore is the action of external Objects that are to be perceived the which while they are conceived in the Soul it self also suffers no less than life its companion than the animal spirit and the rest of the guard But the immortal mind suffers not any of these things in its own substance but only in its Subject Seat Inn to wit the Sensitive Soul Otherwise all voluntary things at once are too invalid so as to be able to affect an immortal Being which is Eternal in its future duration But it is as yet a very small matter that the Sensitive Soul doth suffer by sensible Objects unless it self be made as it were hostile to it self while aâ— impatient it is exorbitant or disorderly For it begins to act while it is provoked and doth suffer by sensible Objects For truly it shakes the vital Spirit and the whole body and at length as prodigal it disperseth the vital furniture and breeds diseases on it self and hastens its own death That even from hence also the Proverb may be verified That none is more hurt than by himself as the Sensitive soul is a meer act And so that it being once spurred up by sensible conceptions for it is wholly irrational brutal wrongful and greedy of desire it leaps over into furies and symptomatically or furiously shakes all things Therefore sensible Objects are the occasions of hurts and diseases But the sensitive Soul well perceiving the same occasions nor being willing to suffer them diversly stirs up its own Ministers and by Idea's imprinted on them estrangeth them from their Scope or Purpose From whence afterwards proceed various seeds and Off-springs of Diseases The Soul therefore undergoes and suffers the aforesaid affects from the Object that is to be felt from whence it being disturbed or tossed by the pricks of Sensations doth act and suffer lastly as being prodigal it in a rage disperseth its own family-order of Administration And while it perceiveth sweet plausible helpful Objects and those things which are grateful unto it self it is not in this its acts of feeling differing from the Judgement whereby it feeleth hurtful corrosive pricking rending brusing Objects not but by accident which is plainly external to the life it self From whence it is easily discerned that Sense is made by the Judgement of the sensitive Soul being brought upon a conceived sensible object it altering at first by it self according to the Sensation conceived and then it conveigheth it further unto another imaginative Judgement which is separated from the sensitive Judgement no otherwise than as Sense and Phantasie or Imagination do disagree in their Faculties but not in their Subject Spare me ye Readers if I attribute all material perturbations and affections immediately to the sensitive soul and to the spirits its guardians but not unto the organs of those For there are some tickling things which by their itching and itch-gumme do stir up laughter and a small leaping in some which in others do not move the least of these For oft-times the Soul is inwardly overclouded with a natural Sensation and is also sadned the Subject thereof being scarce known yea it elsewhere doates And elsewhere the sensitive soul becomes unsensitive as in those that have the Falling Sicknesse for a time but in the Palsey oft-times for Life at leastwise in Organs that are hurt although as yet alive But in many without Sense Judgement and Reason although the animal spirits do issue forth and being diffused into the habit of the body do move and in the mean time do otherwise draw hurtful impressions So the life and that sensitive soul have their own drowsinesse madnesse and trouble within although nothing shake and burden them from without because seeing that in sleep also there is its own foolish Lust or Desire Hunger Thirst Fear Agony and a wondrous dissolute liberty of irrational vain dreams And moreover friendly things are presently changed into mixt neutral or hostile ones as the Archeus which never keeps Holiday or is idle doth of sweet things make bitter and corroding ones For the Soul as I have said conceiveth of sensible things by the means of a Guard and Clients unto whom she her self as present is an an Assistant and by applying those objects unto her self stirs up Sorrow Love Fear c. To wit of which Idea's she sealingly forms the Characters or Impressions in her own Archeus whereby she changeth all things acording to the Image seminally proposed unto her self Which Character being through a bedewing of the Sensitive Soul made partakers of Life and Sense do first cloath the seminal body of the Archeus from whence at length most prompt faculties or abilities for action do spring And there is
manner of a stroak The place therefore of the nativity of an Apoplexy is in the Midriffs and therefore it hath also the foreshewing signs of giddiness of the head of benummedness nauseousness c. The place therefore of an Apoplexy is in the Archâ—us of the Midriffs but in every of the parts for a particular astonishment because through the errour of Digestion the Liquor that is immediately to be affimilated by reason of the defect of the Archeus degenerates into an Anodynous poyson and is made the occasional matter of so great a malady an excrement I say being sealed by an Idea of the abhorring Archeus is sealed on the dreg who is to shew forth an equally aged memory of his own hostility But that it doth not depart from thence nor obey Remedies known by the Apothecary the very Quartan-ague teacheth the which hitherto repeates its Tragedy at pleasure to the disgrace of Physitians If a Quartan-ague be uncurable by the Schooles much more an Apoplexy For the stupefactive poyson of an Apoplexy is milder indeed in it self than that of the Falling-sickness but it far more cruelly molesteth with its invasion For besides astonishment it strikes the mind begets a deep drowsinesse and a Catochus or unsensible detainment But if besides it also attaines a sharpnesse it produceth malignant Ulcers according to the mortifying of the Anodynous poyson But because that poyson is brackish therefore it threatens Atrophia's or Consumptions for lack of nourishment For I have observed a Chymist who had been a good while occupied about Râ—gis's to have fallen into terrible beatings of the Heart at length into paines of his armes and his mouth was pulled on the right side he suffered also restless nights and deep paines of his armes the which notwithstanding were not exasperated by touching He had also consumed with a notable leanness by reason of the conceived brackishnesses of the waters in the mean time any the more external Remedies were attempted in vain for neither did I spare costs or service for him but he being fully restored by a Laudanum onely for thirteen dayes administred soon after recovered the habit of his body and former strength For because the harsh brackishness of the Liquors had defiled the sensitive Spirit the product whereof pierced the Archeus his mouth being pulled together unto one side and his fingers being wâ—ithed side-wayes resembled a certain Apoplectical Being But because it ascended not from the Governour of the Midriffs but only the Odours of the waters had immingled themselves with the inflowing sensitive Spirit there was not a perfect Apoplexy of that man although otherwise one giddie enough But because I call that a brackish Anodynal or stupefactive which in Opium is a bitter one but not in Henbane or Mandrake and a very sweet one in Vitriol and Sulphur This first of all discovers the Errours of the Schooles while as from commonly known Savours they divine of the faculties of Simples But indeed I know that the interchanges of things or the maturities of days are not yet digested nor likewise That Truth instead of falshood will please every one therefore I will subjoyn some Anguishes which the Apoplectical Rules of the Schooles have brought forth unto me For while I insisted more than was meet in the examination of Minerals I felt from the Fume of some of them an Apoplexy to be at hand with a defect of my left side and so that I had fallen headlong down if I had as yet but one onely turn breathed in the ayr of that place Wherefore I learned first of all that the Palsie is not more latter that an Apoplexy in duration Then again that there is no stoppage in the bosomes of the Brain For I was already almost prostrated and unlesse I had turned away my head from whence the stinking cruel blast breathed I as Apoplectical had rushed down and I was ready to fall And then my arm did already decay and my leg being stupified failed of sense and motion But the Schooles will never answer to these particulars if nothing of phâ—egme had ever fallen into the fourth bosome of the Brain how was the effect in me before its Cause But if any thing thereof had fallen down which had at least stopt up the half of its Bosome which way retired that phlegme so speedily Or why is not every Apoplexy likewise by the same endeavour voluntarily cured the phlegme which is the Effectresse thereof vanishing but if they had rather privily to escape that my Apoplexy came from the mischievous vapour and not that to be from phlegme At leastwise why was that cruel Fume brought sooner unto the fourth Bosome than unto the former ones and those nearer and more obedient unto the Nostrils unlesse perhaps the former were Leprous and sluggish and without Sense Yea all the sinews which are deputed unto the Senses alone receive their sensitive spirits from the former Bosomes But in the former Ventricles of the Brain there was no sign of the hurting of Sense yet there is no coming from without unto the fourth Bosom but through all the foremost ones Sense likewise except that it was the more dull on one side and motion remained and also a Judgement perswading a departure Therefore had the phlegme waited now for some years at the coast of the fourth Bosome that the Odour of that Fume being once repeated it the signe as it were of a Trumpet being given might rush headlong into the pit Why therefore fell not the phlegme down in me a leaping Run-away For in the Falling-sicknesse the chief powers of the Soul and Senses on both sides go to ruine motion onely surviving when as notwithstanding every sinew even that which is dedicated to motion feeleth Therefore the Brain and all its Bosoms ought to be affected on both sides where the more internal senses together with the more external ones are laid asleep as if they were extinguished How therefore doth motion alone remain After what manner in the Falling-Evil Apoplexy and Palsie are the senses laid asleep when as in the Apoplexy and Palsie the Organ of motion onely is besieged for one half They will say that in the Epilepsie the foremost parts of the Brain do suffer but the hinder ones remain safe First of all Why therefore are the joynts contracted if the Organs of motion are free The memory is especially hurt in the Falling-sickness shall therefore that also â—e onely in the forepart of the Head But that which is required being granted why therefore hath every sinew designed for motion leaping through the Thorny marrow from the hinder part of the Brain lost Sense but not Motion Therefore the Brain in the Falling-Evil is sore smitten as well behind as before by Midriff-Causes Foâ— oft-times some one that is about to dye doth as yet feel or perceive speak and hear motion in his lower parts being taken away a good while before by the displayed sinewes of the Thorny marrow The Brain being
stir up a pain or averseness from thence conceived in its injured Center The Spirits therefore inserted in the Joynts ought readily to serve the necessities of the Members without consultation and recourse had unto the Brain seeing not the Brain but the Soul it self being every where present doth immediately feel For there was need of excessive swiftness for the averting and preventing of hurtfull things therefore to send a Messenger unto the Brâ—in had been inconvenient I grant indeed that the pain of the Intestine drawes other parts into a consent and resolves them either with a stubborn Palsie or contracts the parts serving for voluntary motion that the Kidney being pained the stomach is nauseous and begins to vomit the Bowels are writhed and the Thigh placed under it is astonied That the Nail of ones Hand paining stirs up a remote kernel For truly the presence of the Soul confirmeth but doth not take away a consent of parts Therefore that consent in paines is forreign unto pain and by accident neither therefore doth it touch at or estrange the essence or cause of pain Because that Consent is latter unto pain and therefore also separable from it Therefore all the particular Spirits of the parts do feel without the commerce of the inflowing Spirit As in the Teeth and in new flesh being restored in a hollow Ulcer For because the parts do on both sides live in their own quarter Sense is according to the diversities of the Organ and therefore there are many paines con-centred in Seasons and they answer unto the unequalities of the Moon because they are centrally received in the Spirit which is Astral unto us Again Neither the venal bloud nor the very bloud of the Arteries are strong in Sense and an animal Touching although they being even hunted out of the Vessels do Sympathetically feel because they flourish onely with influous Spirit Therefore it hath been hitherto questioned by Divines whether the venal bloud be informed by the Soul I suppose therefore under the Correction of a better Judgement That nothing is informed by the Soulof a living Creature which doth not partake of the sensitive Soul that is that nothing is informed by the Soul which doth not feel by the Spirit implanted and quickned in the parts Because informing argues of necessity life in the living Creature as also Life argues a sense or feeling at least a dull one such as is in the Bones and Brain But if indeed meates in the stomach an abounding of Seed in the seedy Kernels Hunger yea and the Urine do produce their own dreams in the Soul and stir up the Soul under sleep according to their pleasure Yet it followes not from thence on the other hand That therefore the Soul informeth the food or the urine For although the Soul shall feel urine abounding and pressing it yet this urine doth not feel its own Objects For the Soul also feels a pricking Knife the which notwithstanding it doth not inform That therefore any thing may be informed by the Soul it is necessary that it lives and feels as it were the subject of the life it self Sense therefore and pain are in the parts or things conteining subjectively but in those conteined objectively onely Yea although things conteined are intimate with us and after a most near manner vital yet in respect of their being things conteined and of the sensitive Soul they are as it were external Notwithstanding it is not sufficient to have said with the vulgar That a hurtful cause is painful yea nor is it sufficient to know that the Sensitive Liâ—e doth primarily feel and from thence the spirit implanted in the parts and at length the stable Organs and so indeed that the Sense testifies of the presence of that which is hurtful seeing these things the Schools and the common people have after some sort known But it ought more manifestly to appear what may immediately cause pain and after what sort Pain may be made in feeling As to the first a Needle pricks and from thence is pain A litte Bee stings and wounds like a Needle But both of them do pain after a far different manner Therefore the solution or dividing of that which held together it self otherwise common in both prickings doth not primarily cause pain For truly the dividing or that which held together effects no other thing in respect of it self than a Non-solution The which in leprous affects and in the Palsey is without Sense and Pain But if indeed the solution of the Con-tinual causeth pain or doth not that is to the knife by accident neither doth this touch at the Solution primarily except in the condition of an occasion without which it is not therefore because the stinging of a Bee causeth another manner of pain than an equal solution that is made by a Needle surely it dependeth on a more piercing judgement of Sense or Feeling And so it is even from thence presently manifest that the Sensitive Soul it self doth immediately feel censure and judge of the Object of Pain But Sense in the Schools is said to be made passively even as motion actively But I have already shewn that Sense is made by a power or by a primary sensitive Being through action Although the Members do suffer subjectively through the application of sensible Objects Therefore Sense or Feeling is made actively because the Act of feeling it self is an active censure of the Soul But in as much in the mean time as the members do suffer seeing that is unto the act of feeling by accident it cannot hinder but that feeling is made sensitively There is indeed the same proper agent in that sensitive action of Sense and Pain because the Agent it self is the Soul And Sense or Feeling differs from pain by the judgement of the Soul concerning sensible Objects And so Sense is of the Soul it self to wit its action but not its passion The Schools indeed have known with the common people that violent causes do bring on Pain even as also that the water is liquid But to have shewn the internal animosity or courage of the sensitive faculty and to have manifested pain in the root that they have not yet hitherto been intent upon To which end the following consideration doth conduce Live flesh is most easily scorched and is excoriated or flead by boyling water But dead flesh is the more slowly burnt And there is a different scorching if a live hand and that of a dead Carcase be burnt For truly the former burning stirrs up bladders with the least fervency of heat so as that the same happens even under the Sun But the latter burning parcheth the flesh no otherwise than if it were roasted namely without little bladders and excoriation The Schools also have not yet registred that difference because neither have they heeded it And perhaps they will say that it is more easie to make hot things already heated and that therefore live flesh is the more
some other place namely in the heart alone Again from the same position it followes that that there may be a Fever it is not-required that the offending and feverish matter be enflamed but some other inflameable thing primarily residing in the heart and from thence slideable throughout the whole body For this inflameable body I together with Hippocrates call the spirit which maketh the assault But this last matter I have brought hither not from the minde of the Antients but it is extorted and by force I have commanded it to be granted me Whereof in its own place when I shall discourse of the efficient cause of Fevers At least wise that being now violently begged it followes that the peccant matter of Fevers is not properly enflamed neither that it is in it self primarily or efficiently hot nor indeed that it makes hot besides nature if the first inflameable body ought to be kindled in the heart Therefore neither is the peccant or offensive matter in a Fever hot beyond or besides the degree of nature But that which is kindled in the heart was not kindled before the comming of the Fever and so it every way differs from the peccant matter in Fevers At length it is also from hence fitly concluded that in whomsoever they intend to slay a Fever by cooling things as such they do not intend to cure by a removal of the causes by a cutting up of the Root and a plucking out of the fountaine and fewel of the Fever but only they intend to take away and correct the heat which is a certaine latter product entertained with-out the feverish matter To wit they apply their remedies unto the effect but not unto the cause For truly the heat of Fevers is kindled in the Archeus which maketh the assault and the root of Fevers is the peccant matter it self They have regard therefore only unto the taking away of the effect following upon and resulting from the placing of that root for the sake whereof the Archeus is enflamed not indeed by the root but by heat drawn from elsewhere while as indeed he enflames himself by a proper animosity and by his own heat being beyond a requirance extended unto a degree wherein he is wholly troublesome as he is enlarged beyond the amplenesse of his own necessity Foâ— neither must we think that any heat is so in a hateful feverish matter which with me they name the offensive one that it afterwards makes feverishly hot the whole entire body For truly that for which every thing is such that very thing they will have to be more such And then also because every calefactive or heating agent doth throughout its own specie's more strongly act on a near object than on an object at a distance wherefore if a feverish matter should make the other parts hot by its own heat it should of necessity be that the center or nest wherein that peccant matter of a Fever is received should be first roasted into a fryed substance before that any distant object should be made hot thereby Yea if the peccant matter should be hot of its own free accord and the Fever should be that meer heat besides nature every Fever as such ought to be continual nor should it have intermission until that all the offensive matter were wholly consumed into ashes Neither therefore should there be any reason of a repetition or relapse seeing the peccant matter should even from a general property always make hot for the consuming of it self And moreover a dead carcase also should be hot as well after death and be more ardently tortured or writhed with a Fever than while it lived because the same matter in number from the obedience whereof death happens even still persisteth in the dead carcasse and seeing they suppose it to be hot by a proper heat of putrefaction and since it is more putrified after death as also after death more powerfully putrifying and affecteth more parts co-bordering upon it than while it lived therefore also it should be more actually hot after death than in the life time But surely this errour is bewrayed For a Fever which made a live body hot ceaseth presently after death and all heat exspires with the life The which ought to instruct us that the heat of a Fever is not proper unto the peccant matter or its inmate and that the heat of the offensive matter doth not efficiently and effectively make hot in Fevers Therefore it is perpetually true that the peccant matter makes hot occasionally only but that the Archeus is the workman of every alteration and so by this title that which efficiently primarily immediatly always every where maketh the assault and that he alone doth not make hot according to the maxime Whatsoever utters healthy actions in healthy bodies that very thing utters vitiated ones in diseases For that spirit heats man naturally in health it being the same which in Fevers rageth with heat For example The thorne or splinter of an oake being thrust into the finger and actually and potentially cold presently stirs up a heat besides nature in the finger Not indeed that hot humours do flow thither as if they being called together thither by the thorne had exspected the wound of the splinter and the which otherwise as moderate had resided in their own seates For truly the blood next to the wound first runs to it and preventeth the passage for other blood coming thither And that blood also by it self is not hot but for the sake of the vital spirit Therefore the inflamation and swelling together with an hard pulse pain and heat do proceed from the spirit alone causally but from the infixed thorn occasionally only Surely it is an example sufficient for the position manner knowledg and cure of a Fever To wit the cause offending in a Fever is not hot of it self but it makes hot only occasionally and upon the pulling out of the thorne or occasional cause health followes The Archeus alone every where effectively stirs up the Fever and the which departing by death the Fever ceaseth with it Therefore heat is a latter accident and subsequent upon the essence of a Fever For indeed the Archeus enflames himself in his endeavour whereby he could earnestly desire to expel the occasional matter as it were a thorne thrust into himself But whosoever takes away this thorne whether that be done by hot meanes or by temperate ones or at length by cold ones he takes away the disease by the Root and it is unto nature as it were indifferent Because for that very cause the animosity of the Archeus is appeased and ceaseth Wherefore heat however it being besides nature increased may be a token of Fevers yet it is not the Fever it self neither therefore must we greatly labour about it in time of healing For from hence Hippocrates hath seriously admonished that heat and cold are not diseases as neither the causes of these but that the causes to wit the
it self since it shall not produce any good to it self thereby For that Chyle or juyce being attracted doth as yet want foregoing means whereby it can ever be brought unto the perfection of arterial blood Otherwise the Arteries had drawn unto themselves more vexation but by a little sucking of a forreign liquor than they are able to wear out by long pains for the future I grant indeed that the Arteries do ordinarily and immediately attract a be-drunkening spirit of the stomack which is bred almost in every vegetable which is disobliged from the composed body through art only by vertue of a serment and at length is drawn out by the fire For example If the berries of Juniper are boyled in water under an Alembick an essential oyl and water do presently after rise up and are collected At length if those berries are then in the next place steeped by a ferment the distillation being afterwards repeated a water most gently burning or an Aquavitae is extracted yet less than if from the same berries an oyl were not first withdrawn Thirdly at last if the remaining berries being strained thorow a searse are boyled into an Electuary thou hast now obtained solutive Medicine excelling all the compositions of the shops An Artery therefore willingly snatcheth to it self the burning spirit of life a guest of the vegetable nature out of the stomack which the Grecism of the Schools never saw or knew the which otherwise nature by her first instruction prepares out of the digested Chyle surely she rejoyceth that she hath found a liquor with much brevity from whence she may make vital spirit for her self For in this respect Wines are regularly pleasing to Mortals they exhilarate the heart and do make drunk if they are drunk down in more than a just quantity For the spirit of Wine is not yet our vital spirit because it is as yet wanting of an individual limitation that the vital inflowing Archeus the Executer of our functions may from thence be framed Wherefore since neither the Mesentery nor Liver are ordained for the framing of vital spirit the heart rejoyceth immediately and readily to suck to it that spirit being already before prepared through the arteries out of the stomack Whence it follows If the arteries attract unto themselves the Spirit of Wine like unto vapours they shall also draw the odours of Essences For from hence are faintings yea and on the other hand restaurations But the arteries draw not Oils although essential and grateful ones because they suck not the substance of liquor and much less oils Therefore that a Medicine may be received by the heart and by this heart attracted inwards it ought to be that which yields a good smell and to be unseparably married to the spirit of wine Wherefore Wines that are odoriferous do more readily bedrunken than others because the odours which are married to the spirit of wine are most easily admitted unto the heart head womb c. But oylie odours being abstracted from their Concrete bodies do rather affect by defiling than materially enter into the Arteries For therefore through the immoderateness of Wine and the errours of life not only a meer spirit of Wine is allured into the arteries but also something of juyces together with it Whence at length difficult heart-beatings grow up in the gluttons of Wine and the meer or pure spirit of Wine by an importunate daily continuance strikes the reed of the artery within disturbs the local and proper digestions thereof wherefore also a part of the arterial nourishment degenerating stirs up divers miseries even durable for life For it happens in the Artery of the stomack that the spirit of wine joyning it self by its own importunity to the spermatick nourishment of the artery in the course of dayes stirs up un-obliterable Vertigo's or giddinesses of the head continual head-aches the Falling-sickness I say Swoonings Drowsie Evils Apoplexies c. For in the family-administration of this member as it were that of the heart it obtains its own animosities durable for life which are not to be extirpated but by the greater Secrets The same way also sudden or unexpected death hath oft-times made an entrance for it self because such a vitiated matter is never of its own free accord drawn out from thence For although the Archeus be apt at length to consume his own nourishment yet he doth not obtain this authority over excrements degenerated by a forreign coagulation and so for that cause not hearkening to the vital power or vertue For therefore that part hath assumed the title of the heart stirs up swoonings from an easie occasion Falling-sicknesses also after the twenty fourth year and likewise such affects as are attributed to the heart are accounted uncurable by those who have not much laboured in extracting the more potent faculties of medicine Hippocrates by leave of so great a man and of such an age I speak it was ignorant of this seat of the falling evil because he was he who being constituted in the entrance of Medicine faithfully delivered unto posterity at least his own observations and Medicinal administrations sprung from these For he said If Melancholy passeth into the body it breeds the Falling Sickness But foolish madness if it peirce the soul If therefore black Choler passing over into the body and soul causeth the Falling-sickness and Madness Whither therefore shall it proceed that it may generate a Quartane Ague The Schools especially rejoyce in so great an Author for their humour of black Choler But they are forgetful of a Quartane which far departs from the Falling-sickness and Madness For after whatsoever manner they shall regard it a Quartane shall either not be made from black Choler or this shall not be in the body nor in the soul while it makes a Quartane But as to what pertains to Madness and the Falling-sickness as if they were separated only in the diversity of passages or that the same humours did sometimes evaporate or were materially entertained in the Inns of the principal faculties Surely it is a ridiculous although a dull and plausible devise to have found out the cause of all diseases in so narrow a quaternary of humours For first of all The Falling Evil doth much more strictly bedrowsie and alienate the powers of the soul although Madnesses do that far more stubbornly or constantly Wherefore the aforesaid diseases are far otherwise distinguished let the Genius's of Hippocrates spare me than in the changing of their wayes and bounds And which more is the general kind of foolish Madness shall differ by its species in its proper matter and proper efficient as is to be seen in madness from the biting of a mad dog or stroak or sting of the Tarantula For the cause of things had not as yet been made known in the age of Hippocrates the knowledge whereof the Prattle of the Greeks hath hitherto suppressed Neither also are wrothful doatages made from yellow Choler bruitish ones from
life it self is entertained and sits and so it hath an immediate and plenipotentiary power on the life which is con-nexed unto it in the resembling mark of uniformity for otherwise it should be an inconvenient thing for the mad or raging life of a Fever to bring forth a disease or to conceive effect and nourish a formal and essential Beginning foundation and seed out of it self For the life is not able to establish a disease which is a seminal Being in the forreign and external subject of excrements For if the life ought to suffer by a disease to be vexed and killed thereby surely it being now defiled ought to suffer all the injury from its own self according to the Proverb None is hurt but from himself Hippocrates in times past after a rustical manner perceived that thing the first called that vital spirit The maker of the Assault as well for life as for death For God made not death for man the which began from sin But I do not deny that the life is provoked into its own injury by occasional causes yet at leastwise I could wish that the Antients had divided as is meet to be the internal cause essentially from the external occasional ones But I take not the internal and external matter for a respect of the body but that which is radically and essentially proper to the disease that I call the Internal and unseparable matter But otherwise if if it be only accidentally adjacent thereunto Therefore before all it is seriously and only to be noted in what manner the very essential thingliness of Fevers may be formed by the Essence of the efficient life That not only the very local thingliness of principiating a Disease may be hereby conceived but that moreover an essential limitation thereof essentially issuing from the life it self may be known Which things therefore are more deeply to be peirced Wherefore let it be instead of a Proposition that Mortality Death and a Disease seeing they entered with sin they corrupted the life and defiled the whole humanity with impurity Not indeed that the entrance of all particular Fevers is therefore from a new sin as neither immediately from original sin although they have originally defluxed from thence But in the state of Purity there was Immortality no Death no Disease because then the immortal mind immediately governed the body and therefore it suffered not any thing by frail things which are altogether inferiour to it self therefore it deserveedly freed its own Mansion united unto it self from death and corruption But after the departure out of the right way the mind delivered up its government to the sensitive soul whence the life became subject to a thousand inconvenient necessities of death The Sensitive soul therefore afterwards stirred up the Vital air which after that began to be called by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Maker of the Assault and the chief Work-man of Diseases But the power of the same was badly understood by his followers and that Maker of the Assault remained neglected by Successours it being also unknown that the differences of diseases did issue immediately from the life And therefore the whole buisiness of Diseases was falsely committed unto occasional and never existing Humours For I have concerning the Original and Principles of Healing delivered the manner whereby that Maker of the Assault produceth an Ideal Being from whence Fevers and all Diseases borrow their Original The which generation of Idea's or shapie likenesses being there professly handled I will only touch at by the way First therefore it is confessed that the madness of a dog is stirred up by or in his conception through the effective Idea of that mad poyson The which is not in any healthy dog even as in a mad one And from thence it is manifest that that poyson which strikes our imagination after the biting is framed by an Idea caused by the conception of the mad dog The same thing ptoffers it self in the Tarantula in Serpents and things sore moved with fury So in the Plague-grave I have demonstrated that this Idea is made not only by the fear of the man but also of the vital air Wherefore also it is very equally necessary that for a Fever which is stirred up from the assaulting spirit and vital Beginning not which ariseth is moved or increaseth of its own accord or of nothing a motive Idea or effective cause springs up in the same vital Beginning being indeed poysonsome in it self and varying according to the signatures or impressions which this tree of a feverish Idea utters for its fruits For since of nothing nothing is made but of something alwayes something As well the Antients as the Moderns have supposed that any Fevers whatsoever do of necessity arise from the strife of the Elements or at least of feigned Humours Neither have they till now cleerly defined of which of these two the texture of Fevers might be But since the Elements are but three in number neither do these flow together unto the constitution of bodies because I shall elsewhere shew the connexion of these to be impossible they cannot produce any strange Beginning from themselves But Humours since they never have hitherto any where been and since Fevers are of a more aiery and abstracted body than that which a liquid excrement is thought to be I have discerned that from nothing nothing is indeed materially made but that most things are efficiently effectively and formally made from a conceived Idea which do forthwith after cloath themselves with bodies Indeed by the conception active Ideas are made and the formal Beginnings of seeds which presently cloath themselves with the coat of the vital spirit wherewith they then in the next place come upon the stage and are made that Maker of the Assault which is known by the Schools only by its name alone and therefore neglected by practical Physitians For that Fevers do now and then arise from the disturbances of the mind that is very well known to persons of no reputation and Barbers But that the Archeus or the spirit which violently assaileth doth suffer its own perturbations and conceive the Off-springs of these the Idea's stirred up in it self hath indeed been even hitherto unthought of and unheard of in the Schools Notwithstanding nothing is more certaine than that the spittle of a mad dog doth a good while after the death of the dog produce its madness in whom he bit it being plainly very like to its own dog from whence it issued Wherefore there was in the spittle a forming seminal Idea of that madness produced being like unto that from whence the first infection flowed For such an infection presupposeth an active vital and potent propagative power of its seed because it can cause death and madness in us But that power never acteth as a naked accident but as it inhabites in a formal subject of inhesion Neither also that the visible matter or Inn of its
filths of the digestions even into the uttermost coasts of the body otherwise in the last digestion very many griefs do offer themselves they being referred by the Schools among incurable ones by reason of one only fault of a remedy alone which accompanies and accuseth the defect no otherwise than as they are destitute of curing in the work of witches because remedies are neglected which may go into the root of the malady For truly those devilish discommodities do not lay hold so much on the body or the filths thereof as on the Archeus himself the which since he is as it were the clear image of the man it follows that while that Spirit is wrested aside in any Organ of its body the same member suffers the sumptoms of the Archeus And so whatsoever the Spirit suffers which is the Ruler of life and sense it must needs be that the body suffers but not on the contrary For neither doth he that is maimed in one leg therefore generate a maimed off-spring because the spirit is not defectuous For whatsoever the body suffers although the Spirit feels this same thing yet this is not drawn together unless the passion incline unto extremity that is that it is co-fermented within the root of life or implanted spirit even as I have elsewhere shewn concerning the convulsion in the Colick It s no wonder therefore if a Tartar of the blood be stirred up by the state or insisting urgency of the Archeus For who is he that knows not that indignation confusion a sorrowful message affrightful fear c. do presently take away an appetite of eating do stir-up sighs or tears and extend an unwonted fardle under the Midriffs to wit as the nourishment of the sixth digestion degenerates in the stomach namely where such passions are immediately framed This Tartar of the blood therefore being once become degenerate doth presently molest in manner of an Enemy And even as a dog being once mad pays the punishment of his madness with his own death So that Tartar being once banished and referred into the number of excrementitious filths doth never afterwards return into favour because whatsoever the Archeus once forsaketh straightway dieth and that which is dead doth no more revive nor strike a peace with the Enemy Therefore an earnest desire of revenge and indignation of self-love are radically co-bred in the first Fountain of Nature They do also more manifestly rise up in the more perfect subject and so in sensitive creatures do challenge to themselves the animosity and glory of a wrathful power Wherefore that Tartar of the blood being subdued by the plague doth no longer obey the Laws of Life but repenting of its former obedience arrogates to it self an unbridled liberty of fury and by so much the more cruelly molesteth us by how much the more confidently it hath once received the hidden counsels of the Archeus within which thing the Schools name to symbolize or co-resemble For then it is an houshold-Thief unto which the ways to the treasure and privy store-houses are known For how speedily do a few drops of corrupt matter under the scull kill and what cruelty doth not the blood chased out of the veins threaten how cruel is even but one only thorn in an Aposteme It s no wonder therefore that the Pest the most fierce of diseases doth presently bring forth its own product and if it shall not find â— seaâ— that it presently makes one for it self notwithstanding a hope of curing the plaguâ— remaineth because that Tartar and the Pest it s own Inn may be pufâ— away or disâ—â—ssed by a due banishment of sweaâ— The which understand thou as long as it shall remain in the shape of dissolvable Tartar For otherwise if it shall catch hold of a solid part the hope of life fails unless the part it self which is catcht hold of can forthwith be sequestred But Wheals black strakes or black and blew spoâ—s or tokens denote the Archeus to be affected for they are the superficial tinctures of the skin the which if they shall the more deeply lay hold of they do also cauterixe it and since they do immediately pierce the Archeus before others they stand in need of a most speedy remedy It is also worthy to be noted thâ—t an unsensible transpiration in the plague differs from sweat because Diaphaeresis or unsensible transpiration is the matter of the nourishment and so also of the Tartar of the blood being defiled but sweat is of the substance of the Latex But transpiration seeing it is continual it is also without sweat Hence it comes to pass that sweat doth most especially wash off and for that cause a dry transpiration is seldom sufficient for curing of the plague and therefore a plentiful rincing sweat is to be provoked that while the Pestilent Tartar breatheth the naughtiness of its poyson thorow the pores it may be partly washed off by the sweat and the delay of its departure be partly speedied Here a difficulty is manifest to be noted and not decided by the Schools to wit why some defects of the stomach are cured not by vomiting or stool but only by sweat because they consist in the Retents of the stomach being transchanged in the sixth digestion but not in the remainders of the Cream The Plague therefore for the most part begins in the stomach and there begets and infects the Tartar whereon as soon as the perturbations of the Archeus have made their assaults For every imagination of the desirable faculty hath its seat in the same place and there frames its Idea and chiefly about the orifice of the stomach the vital powers are concealed as I have elsewhere many times profeâ—ly demonstrated But because the Tartar of the blood is in the form of a mucky sliminess Hence the Idea of the Pest willingly buds forth into Glandules for the stomach and the Archeus thereof because it sends a continual society of imagining into the brain hence are Parotides or tumors behind the ears But it pierceth thorow the Diaphragma into the lungs and arm-pits and a perplexity of breathing doth arise But pestiferous odours being prepared in the stomach frequent vomitings do accompany them together with a pain in the head the which we having often experienced from the odours of burning coals to have vomited with headach and a dejected appetite But if they proceed unto the Liver Now there is a Bubo in the groyn CHAP. IX Minerals and herbs do imagine after their ownirregular manner VVHatsoever subsisteth by a real essence doth after some sort love it self Wherefore also it hath the sense of a friend or enemies that is of its own commodities and troubles wherefore a self-love resteth in the bosome of Nature But things do scarce ever remain in the same state without interchange Therefore they undergo somewhat but if they suffer and walk in the way of destruction verily it must needs be that they have a cause from whence they are
shuns the day being frequent in the Silver-Mines of Sardinia and it creeps in secret and through imprudency causeth the Plague to those that sit upon it which poyson indeed is not the true Pestilence but a poysonous pustule or wheal for he subjoyneth that there are hot Fountains near which presently abolish the poyson implanted by the Solifuga So indeed the deadly vapours of Mines are oftentimes called Pestilent ones because they kill the Diggers that â—arry the longer therein But they are wont to make tryal of this danger if a burning Candle being let down into the burrowes of the Mines it be forthwith extinguished neither is it a wonder if besides their poyson they also choak the light of Life if they do extinguish the fiery light of a Candle CHAP. XI The Ferment of the Pestilence COnsider thou how sorrowful a Dog walketh how he refuseth meat and abhorreth drink how many spurs of hatred and conceptions of envy he nourisheth before madnesse Again how that a full force of his conceipt being translated not only into his spittle but into his tooth which is cleanly wiped thorow the garments as it were by its odour alone and by the simple suffumigation of one smell or odour is sufficient to stir up a late and serious madnesse in him that is bitten for the least touch of the tooth in what part the skin layes open and gapeth only in the Epidermis or upper skin however clean the blood leaping forth be washed off neverthelesse it so deriveth the Image of its own madnesse that as the hand of a Woman with Child paints the member of her young so a Dog by the touch of his tooth within the fortieth day will bring madnesse But neither doth it proceed for death onely however the wound be onely in the Epidermis but before death the chief faculties of the mind perish and as Lackeys do presently follow whither they are led aside by the imaginative poyson For that odour of the tooth is as it were a mâ—er nothing an incorporeal Being no otherwise than as the smell of an hoary putrifyed Hogshead or the smell of a foot put into a new shooe that makes a foots-step For a Dog hath known his master a good while by his imprinted footstep and distinguisheth that he passed that way So the odour of a garment or paper being infamous through a pestilential corrupt matter defiles us with a most subtile unperceivâ—able and most thin poyson And it not onely seasons and kils us with a deadly poyson but it also casts down the mind from its seat no otherwise than as the touching of the tooth of a mad Dog under the skin thrusts down the Reason from its majesty and constrains it to follow according to the determined Rule of its own madnesse For the party bitten at a set period of time is sore afraid at the beholding of all liquid things he conceiveth a dog-like envy and wisheth that he could destroy all living and multiply his own madnesse Writers declare that wormes do grow in a Wound in the heaâ— of a Dog At leastwise I deny noâ— but that a Ferment is to be supposed to be in this poyson respecting and affecting the spirits of Imaginations into which the least co-participation of an odour introduceth the Idea of its own Image whereunto our phantasie is constrained to yield yea rather is fully transchanged into that horrid apparition For it is a wonder that a hunting Dog which is the first-born of all the whelps of his Dâ—m doth alone assault and overcome a mad Dog There is in him the natural endowment of an unconquered Imagination even so that if he be bitten by a mad Dog yet he doth not become mad whereas in the mean time all the rest do by biting contract madnesse do fleâ— from a mad Dog neither dare they to defend themselves against this Dog That poyson therefore is the Inne of the madnesse also the forreign guest of Imagination which is overcome by the Imagination of an opposing Soul Therefore from hence we have known that all poysons are in themselves fermental for some destroy the matter onely and together with it the Imaginative Spirit from whence are diseases that have a foolish madnesse connexed unto them but others affect the Spirit onely Such as are those which bring a dog-like madnesse and which bring on foolish madnesses and Catalepses 's or sudden stâ—pefactive congelations to wit The which do not notably melt or alter the body but they draw only the sensitive Spirit into destruction for indeed the Taranâ—â—ta is scarce ever at rest and therefore also he disturbs the man whom he hath stung with a restlesse trouble dFor behold with what an horrid effigies he transplâ—nteth his Imaginations into the man whose skin he hath pierced but even with a slender sting For the vile small and weak creeping Animal by an unperceivable quantity of his poyson infects the whole â—an and presently snatcheth the powers of his mind under his own protection Also surely the odour of a footstep doth fitly square with the Plague being likened unto it For although the Houses are opened in a high place and that well-faâ—ned with the Wind and the infected Ayr of the House doth yield to the Winds yet the Plague doth not therefore cease the third day after but that it is sufficient for taking away the wholecommon people for neither doth the odour of a footstep in the way being exposed to the Winds cease though nothing in quantity unlesse it be washed with Rain or covered with earth for it alwayes represents unto the Dog his own master I remember also that in the Plague at Ostend the very pestilent hoary putrefaction it self is â—wont a little to smell of the soales of shooes burnt and I was wont by that odour to bewray one to be infected with the Plague Furthermore before the Fall every living Creature was subject to man as to its master and its middle life melted and perished in eating before the sight of our Archeus But now even a Whelp hath a predominacy over our life and constrains the free powers of the Soul of mortals under his own infirmities of madnesse For it is a miserable thing for the Image of God thenceforth to be subject to the biting of Insects and that it ought to follow the various Images of the poysonous Ferment of every one And it is a degenerate thing for servile Bruits to season their biting with the Image of Anger with a mad and deadly poyson Alas how piercingly and strongly is the Image of anger sealed And with what a snatching speedinesse doth it passe over unto the spittle Unto how great infirmities is a Woman subject from the hidden Odour of her Womb For with what Exorbitances not to be spoken of is her understanding vexed For truly oftentimes a hoary putrified Odour being communicated from the soales of the feet casteth down our lofty Stature and deprives those that have the Falling-sicknesse of sence
the final periods of an Italian Imposture Moreover the Jews and Heathens to wit these from ignorance but the other from a sworn enmity against us do sell roots at a dear rate to be born about by us that are rash of belief as being deluded by a hope and they feign that first Moses and afterwards Solomon successively delivered those secrets by the Cabal delivered unto their Fathers the Rabbiâ—s As wicked Josephus himself in his eighth book of the Jewish Antiquities Chap. 2. notably feigneth concerning so many thousand books of Enchantments described by Solomon no otherwise than as he malignantly concealeth the death of the little innocent Babes under Herod Lastly our Physitians after that they beholding the disproportion of events and promises described sweet perfumes and grateful odours in apples powders and bolsters and sponges continually smelling before their nostrils they hoped that they should strain the air of the Pest as it were thorow a Sieve from the exhalation of the Spices and so should kill or correct the poyson with the odour that was plausible unto them as if the poyson should cease to be filled with the Spicâ—ness and should not enter the more fully with the grateful odour its companion and as if sweet smelling things themselves were not subject to contagion as though Arserick or Wolfs-bane being married to Ambergrease should cease to hurt as if the most odoriferous wines should not be presently defiled with a hoary putrified Hogshead at leastwise I gratulate my own soul that it hath never been ensnared with such childish delusions Wherefore an Amulet is founded not indeed in an excited imagination or belief because they are those which are the expert souldiers of another Monatchy but altogether in an actual endowment conferred on things by the Creator First of all therefore it is manifest from the premises that sweet smelling things gold gems Christal and whatsoever things are able to draw an odour are able also by the same Law to be defiled with the Pest Not indeed that I do altogether despise the medicines of the same not being infected far be it For it is one thing to dispute whether any thing be capable of receiving contagion and a far different thing whether any thing can help those that are infected for I have taught that wine doth preserve from a future contagion which otherwise is in it self so defileable that it brings the plague only by its touching and drinking But in a Zenexton there is altogether another method condition and property required for a preservative Amulet requires that in it self it be wholly undefileable if it ought to preserve for the future and it is distinguished from other preservatives by that condition from whence indeed it is known what sort of Zenexton is to be chosen and what kind thereof is unfaithful the which I desire that thou thus understand The Pest of Oxen is not that of dogs or of falcons and none of these is that of men Yet the skins or fleshes of bruits may be defiled with our Plague as that they may be pestiferous contagions unto us although not unto them Because the pest infecteth in an appropriation or mumial co-resemblance Although the plagues of the last times shall take away from amongst us not onely men four-footed beasts birds and fishes but also trees and therefore they shall be of another and more cruel disposition than modern plagues which issue out of the bosome of nature and likewise we are instructed by the aforesaid particulars that the Archeus of man and of all bruits have now and then alike dreadful fears and that the characters or impressions of these are formed into a pestilent poyson or poysonous idea whence it manifestly enough appeareth that the plague is not a poyson alike with others For truly wolfs-bane the viper c. do kill oxen as well as men Therefore in beginning our Zenexton or preservative pomander from stones The Saphyre of a deep skie colour and the Jacynth full of a yellow golden colour if it be leisurely rouled into a circle about a Bubo in the groyn and a pestilent Eschar by drawingly bringing it about from the region of the Sun or light it causeth that the same circle do afterwards become black and that the rest of the poyson doth exhale out that way as it were through a chymney Also if there are more glandulous knobs elsewhere yet these do settle down and perish together and do follow at the departure of the drawn poyson but I prefer the saphyr before the jacynth For neither is a saphyre in vain read to have been in the breast-plate of the Priest and the jacynth to have been excluded For a Zenexton was anciently alwaies attributed to precious stones and heathenism soon ingraved figures numbers and characters thereon but since gems were not for the poor for whom notwithstanding the vast goodnesse foreseeth with a large showre before the rich and hath offered himself freely to be the father of the poore I am not easily induced to believe that these Gems are the true Zenexton of the plague A Chirurgion of Spain whose Sir-name was Guardiola being chief Chirurgion of the Hospital of those that were infected in the siege of Ostend shewed me a piece of red Amber which he said had been his one onely preservative amulet for full three years space The secret whereof was to wit that it had been rubbed on the seven principal pulses even unto a heat namely on both the Temples of his head on his wrists ancles and on his left pap At leastwise I saw him to have been alwaies preserved his other co-assistants being taken out of the way But the Pest was on a sandy shoare and that for the most part molested with a windy skie and with colds being exceeding destructive and cruel But that which I find to be in amber is not altogether to be despised first of all there is in it an attractive faculty manifested and stirred up by rubbing on the place and then amber although it be in it self transparent and gummy yet it is the lesse strictly closed and therefore is the more easily moved and altered by our heat Again neither hath amber a limited power of drawing such as the loadstone hath which allureth iron and not copper unto it self but a general one and that without choice so that which is drawn be light Indeed it is sufficient for drawing of the pestilent air and poyson if it shall draw any light bodies whatsoever unto it self The signate or token therefore of this attraction denoteth a preservative external remedy founded in nature and so much the more strongly if it hath obtained an appropriation with a mumial ferment For so I have oftentimes seen that by amber dissolved in the spirit of wine cures of poysoned wounds have been wrought they being otherwise altogether desperate Yea even as amber dissolveth not being co-melted with other rosins or fat which denotes some singular thing to be homebred in it surely
breaths And the air being once drunk in he at length undergoes the laws of death and diminishment For before he breathed he lived onely and that by his own Archeus Almost all other created things do putrifie in a rock But the Toad is nourished and grows to maturity in a fermental putrified liquour within a rock or great stone From hence also it is conjectured that he is an Animal ordained of God that the Idea of his terrour being poysonous indeed to himself should be unto us and to our Pest a poyson in terrour For as it is sufficiently manifest from the aforesaid particulars that the Toad is most disagreeable unto our co-tempering and suiting so the Idea of terrour in the Toad is exceeding pestilential to the pestiferous terrour it self in us Since therefore the Toad is an Insect most fearful at the beholding of man which in himself notwithstanding forms the terrour conceived from man and also the hatred against man into an image or active real Being and not subsisting in an only and conâ—used apprehension even as hath already before been nakedly demonstrated concerning the Idea's of a woman great with child and likewise of a mad dog c. Hence it happens that a poyson ariseth from a Toad which kills the pestilent poyson of terrour in man to wit from whence the Archeus waxeth strong he not onely perceiving the pestilent Idea to be extinguished in himself but moreover because he knoweth that something inferiour to himself is terrified is sore affraid and doth flie For so in every war and duel from an evident dread of the enemy a hostile courage is strengthened But so great is the fear of the Toad that if he being placed with a direct beholding before thee thou dost behold him with intent eyes or an earnest look for some time for the space of a quarter of an hour that he cannot avoid it he dies through terrour The Toad therefore being slain after the manner of Paracelsus he dying without terrour is an unworthy Zenexton The Archeus therefore his courage being re-assumed casts away dread most especially when as he well perceives the bred poyson of his own terrour to be killed For a Zenexâ—on acts not after the manner of other agents no otherwise then as the poyson of the plague is altogether an unwonted poyson Neither doth a Zenexton act materially but the action of the same is spiritual and altogether sympathetical For truly the co-resemblance of activity wherein the reason of founding a Sympathy consisteth is in the poyson of terrour conceived as well in the Pest as in the Toad But even as the poyson of the Plague is irregular having nothing common with other poysons so also a Zenexton being exorbitant or rising high in the activity of a strange and forreign terrour is a manifest poyson to the pestilent image of our terrour together with a refreshment confirmation strength and resurrection of the Archeus which activity of a preservative amuleâ— surely the Schools could not contemplate of because they have not been able to contemplate that that of Aristotle not onely in the plague but also in other poysons is false Indeed the action of a Zenexton is from the victory of the Patient over the agent for thou shalt remember that the terrour and hatred in the Toad from man the agent overcomming indeed but in no wise operating are made imprinted actuated agents and those brought into a degree by the proper conception of the Toad which in the aforesaid Idea are as it were fugitive living creatures and therefore they restore the terrified Archeus of man and kill the image of the poysonous terrour Truly in single combats that are spiritual there is altogether a far different contention from that which is wont to be by appropriated corporal agents The which I have elsewhere demonstrated in removing the activities of contrarieties from the properties of nature A Zenexton therefore is of a magnetick or attractive nature to wit acting onely on a proper object while it meets with it within the sphere of its own activity It might seem a doubt to some why the image of hatred in the Toad is a remedy but why the image of hatred in a mad dog is a poyson the reason is in the adjoyned Idea of terrour in the Toad which brings forth an inferiority of poyson For the one exceeds the other in the sturdinesse of conceptions and therefore also of images For a mad dog is bold rash and his sealed image enforceth its obedience For neither is he mad forasmuch as he feareth but he feareth water as he hates living creatures But the Toad is an Animal that is most afraid of us and as from his inbred hatred towards us he is badly conscious to himself divine clemency so disposing it So the images of those conceptions mutually piercing each other and accompanying each other do confer a mark of the greatest pusillanimity or cowardise dipt in the venome of hatred Hence indeed the image of the pestilent terrour is killed by the image of the deadly hatred and our Archeus is beheld by the image of the cowardly terrour through the application of the preservative Pomander as it were in a glasse and doth well nigh reassume the superiority which before he had lost And therefore the Idea of terrour in the Toad hates and also the image of hatred terrifies the Toad from whence he puts on a poyson for our terror To wit by both means he kills the image of pestilent terrour in the Archeus There is indeed in spiritual things a primitive self-love seeing that every original single duel of sensitive creatures issueth not but from premediated conceptions but the Idea of every ones conceipt is formed in the imagination and puts on an Entity or Beingnesse for to do somewhat for the future For as the images of motions to be made do end into motions so also the images of the Senses are carried first inwards for further deliberations of counsels and they soon there degenerate into the images or likenesses of apprehensions passions or disturbances and from thence they are carried to do something in the body or out of it and they slide and grow according to the directions and inclinations of passions In this respect indeed such images do limit the vital spirits or the very operative part of the bowels according to an impression proper to themselves which thing most cleerly manifests it self in the poyson of a mad dog who if he were afraid of us as he is afraid of water would not do us violence neither would his biting be venemous unto us For the Spider Scorption c. are wrathful little Animals and the which if the strike us they lay up they anger of their own poyson in us or rather the poyson of their anger A certain hand-maid now and then are spiders not only the party-coloured ones of the Vine but also those black ones out of Caves and moist places and lived in health thereupon
divert himself But that the Archeus being terrified and a run-away and returning as half in a rage is made so hostile unto the parts his Clients over which he alone is president the confirmation thereof is not elsewhere to be fetched than that a thorn is thrust into the finger which by the fat or grease of an Haâ—e is safely expelled without discommodities as that remedy asswageth the fury of the Archeus which thorn doth otherwise stir up a great Tragedy of fury For the Archeus brings forth a poyson in his Clients by his own fury the which otherwise a simple small wound would willingly be ignorant of Conceive thou how unlike is the wound of phlebotomy and the sting of a Bee And likewise the stroak of phlebotomy that is clean how far doth it differ from the prick of unclean phlebotomy It s no wonder therefore that the seat where the image of the conceived terrour and piercing of the combined image of fury shall first happen is hostilely disturbed is furiously scorched yet oftentimes poysonous tempests are transmitted and chased unto the more outward habit of the body by the implanted spirit of life unto places I say whither the Latex or liquor of the veins tendeth of its own free accord in time of health or they are dismissed unto the external habit of the body And therefore whatsoever is to be done in the Pest that is to be cured with speed For sometimes the image of the Pest is cloathed only with the inflowing spirit and then medicines that provoke sweat do readily succour But where the inhering and in-bred Archeus conceiveth the image of his terrour and fury in the solid parts unless he presently resign up and lay aside the conceived image unto and in the spermatick nourishment I have called that corrupt nourishment the Tartar of the blood and produce a tumour there is danger least it presently pass over into the very substance of the solid parts which contains an unexcusable detriment of death And therefore that the plague may not take up for it self a tough Inn within the body we must procure that the pestilent image do not long float within but that the whole houshold-stuff be allured forth and fall out by sweat For the Carline Thistle is said to have been in times past shewn unto an Emperour by an Angel for the plague of his Army perhaps therefore called Angel-Thistle because the first rise of the image of the Pest stirs up drowsie evils loathings a Fever vomiting and head-aches about the stomach but the herb Ixia or Chamilion drives away sleep and much more deep drowsinesses against Nature and therefore they hope that the extraction of fresh Carline Thistle should not be unfruitful for the plague that is newly begun The End A TABLE Of many of the Chief things contained in this Book The rest being referred to the Contents of the CHAPTERS A. WHat Accidents properly are to what serving c. 131 9. c. Acheldamah consumes a dâ—ad carcasse in one day 671. 54. Adam not cursed 654. A demonstration of his fall 659. What he generated after sin 663. 17. Why he and his posterity Bearded 666. Adam's lust arose from a natural property of the apple 668. No motion of lust in Adam before his fall 682. 85. Of Adam's understanding 711. The Praise of Agnus Castus 707. 52. What kind of knowledge in the apple 665. Air not reducible into water 60. 12 76 41. Air the reducer of bodies into water 68. 26. Air the seperater of the waters 71. 4 152 19. Air is exceeding cold and dry Ibid. 76. 40. 1120. Air acts on the water without a reaction 76. 41. A vacuity in the air proved by a manual 82. 4 7 1126. It s magnal or sheath 85. 20 692 12. It is imprinted with the seal of formes c. 133 18. c. What office it bears in minerals Ibid. 20. How it joyns to the vital spirit 183. 37. Air seperates sulphurs 184. 45. It Volaâ—izeth the blood 186. 187 56. Air not capable of a vital light 189. It doth not nourish the vital spirit 190. 9. How the Alkahest of Paracelsus operates on bodies 65 7 105 6 104 27 479 43 787. it is compared to the fire mentioned in Macchabes 108. 28. It s operation on a Coal Ibid. It s Aenigmatical description 115 28. The Revealer of the proportion of light c. 146. 89. The operation of the liquor Alkahest one the Cedar 811. Aloes hurt by washing 463. 39. Alcalies reduced into a meer simple water 106. 12. How alcalies are made 183. 38. The Common-wealth of Alcalies 184. 40. Alcalies why fit for wound drinkes 186. 53 294 21. Amber drawes the virtue from vitriol without touching it 764. 22. Amber becomes a Zenexton against the Plague 767. 37 787 1146. Amulets act by influence 330 19. 481 An Amulet against the Plague 767. 37. Antimony in its form better than in its principles 788. 153 Antimony observes an Influence 773. 63. How a sweet Anodine workes 918. No Animal spirit in nature 187. 58. A good Angel never appears Bearded 661. 37. Anasarcha by what produced 513. It s cure 521. The Apoplexy hitherto unknown 906 998 Its rise 917 Its seat 915 Apple takes away warts 154 Apostemes how made 186. 52 290 6 Aqua Fortis c. 96. 14 Aqua Vitae see spirit of wine  How Arcanum's do operate 473. 15 164 15 Arcanum'â— cure all Diseases 524 Arcanum's never go into nourishment 577 Arcanum's iâ— some sort exceed the powers of nature 753 Arsenick though never so well preparâ—â— is not to be inwardly administred 466. 52. It is fixed by co-melting with salt-peter 105. 10 The Arterial spirit of life is of the nature of a Gas. 110. 40 Arterial blood exhales without a Capâ—t mortuum 182. 34 By what 185. 40 How an Arterie becomes hard 185. 48 The Arteries do not atract air 190 Arteries attract spirit of wine but no juicy things 203. 41 The Archeus its constitutive parts 35. 4  110 41 Its seat 430 287 28 What it is in the beginning of Generation 133  18 142 60 The manner of its operating 142 61 c. Its defects 549 Archeus sensible of death 553 Archeus receiving of evils the cause of our hurt 1127 Archeus hath an imaginâ—tion of its own differing from the mind 1128 Aroph of Paracelsus 709. 53 878 879 Aristotles four constitutive causes of things condemned 18. 3 Astrology natural why preferred before the stellar astrology 26. 9 Its supports or props vain 126. 46 c. Condemned by an experiment 127. 48 By a review of the attributes they give to the Planets Ibid. 50 Astronomy slighted 12. 5 Ascites what 508. 524 Asarum by boyling lays down its vomitive force 172. 45 The difference of Ascarides from worms 221  83 Its cure Ibid. Asthmawhat 260. 40 356 What the Asthma consists of 360. 27 Froâ— whence the Ashma ariseth 261. 42 â— twofold Asthma 357. 9 358. 368. 68 The Asthma is
a disease 537 Death began from carnal lust 550 676 In divine things the Senses are to be cast off 310 13 What a Disease is 452 The difficulty of curing Diseases concluded from the Seat of the Soul 455 Of Diseases according to their occasional cause 565 Their division 566 How Diseases enter the Body 567 Most Diseases are centrally in the Stomach 261 10 Diseases concentred in the vital Spirit proved by dissection 485. Of the essence of Diseases 488 558 Hitherto unknown 489 171 145 A Disease is a real Being 947 Hunger no Disease 494 Diseases pierce the formal Light 496 A Disease begins from the matter of the Archeus 502 The product of a Disease differs from a Symptom 999 How a diseasie occasion augmenteth it self 521 Cure of Diseases not furthered by Anatomy 524 Diseases varie in respect of a six-fold digestion 620 What the ground of Diseases is 404 15 407 40 c. 430 3 448 60 238 21 269 Lunar Diseases their Symptoms 140 148 Diseases Produced by concupiscence 524 Cure of Diseases 446 The roots of Diseases from the beginning 1092 What the Dew is 68 23. What it abounds with 117 33 Decoctions censured 970 Defluxions of the Bladder ridiculous 856 Distilling without any Caput Mortuum remaining 404 18 Distilled waters of small force 970 Distillation of Vitriol 891 Distillation of Urine 847 Observations thereon ibid. Distillation unfolds natural Philosophy 692 Â 8 Of Diet its uselesness as to curing 451 9 c. Of the nature of Diuretickâ— 862 863 Of the dispensatories of the Schools 461 24 Thâ—ir hurtfulness ibid. 28 Illustrated by two Examples 464 43 Things externally applyed operate under the sixth digestion 479 48 A six fold Digeston 480 57 206 What a depraved digestion produceth 1104 Of the Retents of digestions 625 626 1003 The digestive Ferment what 201 206 What things help digestion ibid Of the threefold digestion of the Schools 203 703 16 There is as many suitable Ferments as digestions 206 2. From whence the force of digestion springs 207 21 Whâ—t helps it 703 17. The first digestion 207 The second digestion 209 21 22 The second and third digestion are begun at once 210 28 The third digestion where it begins 212 Digestion in the stomach not a formal transmutation of meats 215 48 When digestion may be said to be finished ibid. The fourth digestion its Seat 218 60 The fifth digestion ibid. The sixth digestion 219 67 Our digestions why attributed to the Planets 748 Supream of all digestions in the stomach 290 4 Death how it comes to â—e 649 8 After what sort death entred the Apple 657 41 Death followed sin 664 19 Death comes not from a dry habit of the Body 729 Death is from a decay of vital powers 730 Several occasions of Death 752 753 Drif what it is and what required thereto 595 Manner of making it 596 Dâ—atages observed 278 33 What drinks best in sharp sicknesses 454 22 24 The actions of the phansie from the Duumvirate 303 31 The power of desire in the Duumvirate 304 37 The Harmony of life from the Duumvirate 306 52 Fatness from the Duumvirate 308 59 The Duumvirate 337 Its Power Seat and Works 340 341 364 49 Vnderstanding is formed in the Duumvirate 275 Why the Spleen and Stomach are called the Duumvirate 287 26 Authority of the Duumvirate 296 The Dropsie Anasarcha whence 449 62 Its seat 515 Dropsie unknown 507 Not seated in the Liver 509 How stirred up 512 What the efficient matter thereof is 513 The Cure 521 A Bastard Dropsie ibid What abstinence from drink may effect in the Dropsie 519 Of Dungs and Toads in the Dropsie 519 520 Why drowned Bodies swim after a season 427 73 Drowsiness as well artificial as natural helped by Lixiviums 303 31 The vanity of drying up superfluities 440 42 Of drunkenness 449 63 Of being drunk with new Wine 122 23 Duelech of Paracelsus 833 Duelech is made of the Urine 836 837 Three Spirits concur for the nativity of Duelech 850 Its manner of making with an observation of the Fountains of the Spaw 851 What may be found in Duelech 861 Of the savour of Dungs 212 26 VVhere the Forment of Dung resideth 221 811 E. EArth why not reckoned among the primary Elements 49 16 11â— 44 What the Oxiginal Earth is â—0 3. 'T is Called the foundation of nature 4. ibid. It breaks forth to light in some places 51 5 The Earth is a fruit of the water 66 23 The various distinct Pavements of the Earth 94 5 The diversity of Soils in the Earth 688 3 In the last Soil the waâ—ers live 689 Of Earth-quakes 93 2 c. It is alwayes a threatner of punishments 102 33 Ear-wax good for pricking of the sinews 247 Eels bred by Honey and Dew c. 478 37 1026 65 Of the virtue of the Liver and Gaul of an Eele 304 46 An informative Similâ— of an Eg. 45 12 113 10 The prayse of Elecampane 703 10 Of the Elements 48 The two Elements Water and Air untransmutable 65 7 69 1 Their co-mixture no constitutive principles of bodies 134 24 Elements do not fight nor have contrariety 168 They Cannot destroy each other 1048 16 Electrum of Paracelsus against Inchantments 65 Elixir proprietatis and its prâ—paration 574. Elixir proprietatis not made without the Liquor Alkahest 813 Of the Embrio of a Bull-Calf its use 883 Of Endemicks 188 Endemical things are drawn in by breathing 189 7 The Progress of Endemical things 191 13 The Epitaph of an Emperour 528 Of the Ephialtes or night-Mare from what stirred up 299 15 Epilepsie whence stirred up 114 17 Erisipelas its Cure 475 29 114 17 Essence what it is 414 76 81 And in some things not so effectual when separated ibid. 78 Eve not cursed 654 13 Eve not appointed to bring forth in pain 654 14 Eve destowred in Paradice 666 33 Excrementitiousness whence caused 430 4 Extracts their invalidity 459 12 F. OF the infection of a dead Falcon. 1134 Fasting when easily brooked 24 51 Fever not cured by Phlebotomy 953 A Fever hitherto unknown 935 Thirst in Fevers examined 936 Drink allowed in Fevers 453 â—9 902 Caution about their food 454 24 Flesh to be shun'd ibid. Whence Cold and then hot 471 4 973 VVhat the Sunochus Diary and Hectick Fever are 978 Seat of a pâ—trid Fever 978 The occassional cause of Fevers twofold 979 980 986 The Cure 987 A Diary and Hectick affect onely the vital Spirit 973 Essence of Fevers discovered 1002 Feverish matter swims not in the Blood 956 The essence of Fevers not from heat 940 The seat of intermitting Fevers 948 The original of Camp-Fevers 1096 The poysonous Excrement in Fevers included in the Midriff 331 25 VVhat a Ferment is 31 24 c. By what continued 1124 Ferments being different do cause different operations 479 48 115 26 No transmutation without it 111 1207 2 Why commanded not to be used 111 1 Its properties c. 112 3 c. The
not be refused For in very deed and according to a just computation I stand in need of two dayes to wit that of Saturn with that of Sol whereby I may with my self begin and perfect every Enterprize or that I may dispose of all things in order which in the following day of Lune and so afterwards in the whole Week following I shall distinctly signifie Whereto the wise Men answered Oh Mercurius we are instructed with a full Command from our Lord by whose authority we condescend to thy Petition as being supported with Equity thou shalt perform all things according to thy own sentence that the wise Sirs being not learned after the common manner and moderate or courteous Men may find no fault in thee when they shall hear thee in the said day or subject thee to examination and even as thou hast bound thy self to be kept in custody for thy own and that an ample limitted term of dayes until thy promises are accomplished we will alwayes remain with thee for an enquiry into thy Conceptions the which thou shalt frame in this two precedent dayes space Thou rejoycedst in their Company for whosoever he was that beheld them gathered by their habit and gestures that they were godly for truly their Countenance did carry a divine gladness before it and thou didst say unto them Seeing that the day cometh for the winning whereof my obediences are not in the least to be contested know ye oh my wise Men that I prefixed no time for the recollecting of my Memory nor any the like thing because I have no need thereof but considering that to day is the first day of the Week but to morrow the last day the Lords day the seventh day wherein he had finished all things and wherein he had rested It hath seemed meet unto me to distribute and contain my Knowledge according to the rate of the Dayes of the week I beginning the future day of Lune one the sixth day of the week after the custom of Mortals for before God all things are eternal and present so that unto us as unto Mortals the first day may be accounted the last and I beginning from Saturns day to number backwards have need of two and forty dayes for the fulfilling of the whole week that which would stir up a weariness in many through the largeness of time In the mean time I will briefly rehearse all things I Mercurius being from my tender years brought up by my Father in the select School of Hermes and there after some sort seasoned my Spirit being unquiet was not content therewith as desiringly desiring thorowly to know the whole sacred Art or Tree of Life and to enjoy it Neither would I set my hands to Work unless I could certainly understand this from the beginning to the end Moreover I concluded in my mind that through an approvement of the truth I might be brought thither at the last without the help of outward Instruction I distributed with my self all Creatures first those External and Corporeal as I may so say and then those Internal Spiritual and Corporifying ones which Parts I did again refer or reduce towards and into one I was not able to subdivide and know those Creatures called Corporeal ones without the adjoyning of the Spiritual Corporifying ones I beheld those with an unwonted Countenance even as according to my Judgment I had consequently placed all in every one his own order as being free from the anticipated or fore-possessed false and obstinate Opinions of the Heathens who have never frequented Universities as by this my unpolished Style doth sufficiently appear Nevertheless well observe ye I utter no Saying in vain but that it doth signifie something and pertain to the whole My Spirit could perceive no delight or desire of study in Temporary and Fraile or Mortal things I did alwayes thirst and breath after Perfect and Eternal ones I was taken up into admiration within my self from momentary necessary created things and from hence on God who created Heaven and Earth at once the which the Prophane Phylosophers cannot apprehend and they who desire to come hitherto they must worship God by a firme Faith with an humble Hope and in true Love then shall they obtain a perfect Knowledge of himself and of all other Creatures before their Beginning in their Being or Essence and after their transchanging the which I will more largely and manifestly make out so far as may be done by Words for the Temporal and Eternal Health and Preservation of the Soul and Body according to the measure of every ones Capacity which all have not alike nor had they And that they might be the further holpen towards Salvation God out of his Goodness raised up Moses of the Prophets who might be useful to them in a Type which after the Dutch Language is also as much as to say Books and by his Writings to wit in his first Book of Creations which containeth all of whatsoever can be desired the which I in part as the whole had sometimes learned by heart according to Jerom's Translation the rather because it comprehends all things which man in his Own-ness Selfishness and My-ness and the like Appropriations cannot understand For whatsoever God hath created he hath created free and at liberty by One and in One and he that arrogates that thing to himself makes that very thing it self his own seperates himself from God and doth in himself enter into the way that leadeth towards utter Darkness And as God is an Incomprehensible Eternal Piercing and a Filling Fire Light and Glory wanting Beginning and Ending such is he in the Men his Saints Hy-lichten according to the Dutch is as much as to say He shineth in a co-united Love and Glory and in the Godly Sa-lichten according to the Dutch expresseth He ought to shine he will be so according to more and less or a greater and less measure but in evil Men who are Eternal in the Dark and separated he is also an Eternal burning Fire even as it is said Therefore even as God is the Eternal Good in the Dutch Idiome it expresseth God so also all whatsoever was created he created Good The first Man was constituted into Light and Good as being created of God yet not united in Eternal Rest and Glory but as being created after the Image of God in a freedom of Will the which is now becomeâ— Property in us through the seducement and transgression of the Prohibition and Admonition of God in the touching and eating of Death or of the Fruit of the forbidden Tree which Hevah or Eve the Mother of all Living touched and ate Those called the wise Men did speak unto thee Run thou not out so far before we perceive whether thou hast known thy self and that thou hast told us what thy self art Mercurius I am a Man created by the Almighty God after his own Image and Likeness possessing my Body of the Clay of the Earth which
aboue its bounds unless he be enlightned by the light which the Atheist excludes he defineth all things by the Contemplation of his own conceit alone because he reflecteth every where on all things as to himself Being indeed wholly carnal and vain as long as he believes his understanding to arise from a sensual Subject For whatsoever is perceived by Consequence Numbers Figures Proportions and Suitings is deceitful as oft as he preferreth or equalizeth the same things understood unto things intellectually understood by Faith and Revelation What if Science Mathematical doth abstract from real Objects and all perceived things and yet they are believed why shall it be more difficult to believe things not seen so they are revealed by a Being which by transcending Acts sheweth that he deserves a more full Credit If an Atheist can assent unto profane Histories why not also to the sacred ones For Moses was famous by many Miracles known to all Israel he writeth the History of the Creation of the World the successive Progeny of men in the next place he by Abraham enlarged the bringing forth of Israel out of Bondage Lastly he delivered the Law prescribed by God being confirmed by many Miracles before an unbelieving people They being indeed seen in the sight of an hundred thousand co-living people Their Sons and Nephewes subscribed to the Writings of Moses and then indeed to the Traditions confirmed by their Ancestours And that was undoubtfully believed by all the following Ages And the Gentiles took a diligent care to have them Translated and indeed the Seventy two miraculously Translated them without any disagreement of words But thus far as well Jewes and Christians as Enemies have believed the sacred Histories touching these things At length by the Prophets there are read predictions for many Ages before that by profâ—â—e Histories they are afterwards proued to have happened For to Abraham it was promised by God that the Messias should arise out of his own Stock The same thing Melchizedech foretold unto him and therefore offered a new Sacrifice of Bread and Wine unto him which should sometime by prâ—pagating proceed out of his Loyâ—es But a Sacrifice is no where offered but to God alone Afterwards in the dividing of the Land of promise there was Bethlehem or the house of Bread for the Prophets had foretold that the Messias should from thence be born of a Virgin The Gentiles also saw the Bread descend from Heaven which should destroy the camps of Midian and he was called the God of Gideon whom notwithstanding Gidâ—on had not yet acknowledged for his God This Messias also David afterwards divinely foreknew should be born of his stock and therefore he named him his Lord or God and that he was to be a Priest after the order of Melchizedech to wit he foretold it in the Bread and Wine by the inspiration of the divine blast Balaam foretold of this God as the Star or Jacob which the Magi or wisemen coming from the East afterwards learned that he ought to be born in Bethlehem or the House of Bread and they saw his Star going before them by admonishment whereof they had come from the utmost parts of the East to worship the Child who only is to be worshipped For he who fore-taught them concerning the signification of the Star could have evidently shewed them the place wherein the Child was born whom they sought by so remote a journey but that he he had determined that that thing should be drawn out of the writings of the Prophets for the honour of God and the learning of People Therefore if there be any credit to be given to sacred History that convinceth that God is one that the Gods of the Nations are Devils That this God Messias his Son was at length to be raised up out of Abraham without the will of Man of a Virgin only that he is the Angels food which came down from Heaven who saves those that are to be saved freely And seeing the understanding of Man cannot comprehend these Mysteries and much less fore-see them by the help of the Senses therefore it is needful to draw the understanding into the obedience of Faith which it can in no wise conceive of it self Because seeing that is of a limited power and Faith every where of a profound obscurity the understanding cannot comprehend an infinite term of continuance or The Immortality of the Soul Therefore the Holy Scriptures being at length granted and believed at least after the manner of Chronicles One Eternal Unchangeable Immortal Infinite Omnipotent Good True Wise God the Creator Author Sustainer Governour and Life of things doth for that very cause manifestly appear Lastly this divine Power being granted the arguments of St. Augustine do conclude for The Immortality of the Soul and Life eternal Fire eternal Joy Peace also everlasting Misety or Sorrow are to be granted And there are Angels evil Spirits Prophesying dark Spirits or the Devils Bond-slaves But the conceivings of these things are wanting to an understanding which savours only of the Senses according to Aristotle and words are wanting to the tongue and positive words want Properties of Expressions to declare those things which the Ear hath not yet heard nor the understanding could comprehend that which hath not yet descended into the Heart of Man and that which is in it self undemonstrable by the Discipline of the Senses and intellectual faculty For Faith the reward of Faith and expectation of the Righteous do exceed all Sense and whatsoever can be conceived by the understanding Furthermore if the mind be Immortal and to enjoy eternal joy if it being seperated by Death from its own Mortal body doth in very deed exist and live therefore it is not generated by a Body which in it self with every disposition of it is frail mortal and a dead carcass subject to dayly and any kind of importunities of successive changes Therefore the mind is an immortal substance a Life of the nature of the eternal Light not to be extinguished And therefore neither is it generated or proceedeth it from a Man Parent or Frail-seed much less doth it arise or is produced of it self but by some Eternal Beginning which in it self is Life Light eternal Infinite not to be altered or extinguished But these words are of Faith and the revelations of this eternal Light and therefore are they eternally true But the Carnal Man doth not perceive those things which are of God and therefore his Wisdome is Foolishness with God who is Order Integrity Essence the Father of Lights and total Independent absolute abstracted cause of all things unto whom therefore is all honour due from every created thing But he created not only the substance of the mind that it may be a substantial Light after the likeness or Image of himself but he also made all the living Lights of Soulified Creatures The which indeed could not subsist in the abstract without their concrete or composed Body and
therefore they were to perish with the Death of the fame And therefore neither are they substances although substantial or after the manner of substantial Spirits Neither therefore also of the number of Accidents even as I have elsewhere demonstrated in the Treatise of the Original of Forms Therefore the beastial Life is of a vital living Light and a neutral Creature between a Substance and an Accident which neutrality of Beings hitherto unknown to the Schools was given by the Etymology of the Father of Lights So indeed that he not only maketh the burning Light of the Sun and Splendour of the Glow-worm But also the Souls of all Soulified Creatures universally whereof himself will remain even the alone Maker and Master CHAP. XLVII The knitting or conjoyning of the Sensitive Soul and Mind 1. Alpha and Omega 2. The Body is a dead Carcass of no worth without the mind 3. The natural Phylosophy of the Author is far remote from the traditions of Aristotle 4. The understanding of Adam shews this truth 5. That by the Prayer of Abstraction the mind ought to be unfolded 6. The Author declareth his five Professions 7. From the fifth he draweth five Conclusions 8. The co-knitting of the mind as of a kernel in the Sensitive Soul as it were in a shell or husk 9. Defects are from the sensitive Soul 10. An Objection against Sin and desert 11. An answer to the aforesaid Arguments 12. By an example of the Sun 13. Corrupted nature doth alwayes want the aid of Grace 14. The mind as it is the Image of God doth endeavour as it were to create something of nothing 15. The difference of conceits to be admired in a Woman great with Child THose things which I have already above written for the immortality of the Soul being premised I forthwith for the knowledge of the Soul return to my Lord Jesus who alone is the beginning of the Fathers Wisdom the unlimiting end the Alpha and Omega or the one only Scope in whom a total clearness of all understandings is and ought to be terminated For the immortality of the mind being certainly known the Soul ought to be made known to it self as much as it can for truly seeing the Soul the governess doth continually employ it self about the Government of the Body Surely nothing can be searched out in the Body unless when by Anatomy alone I behold dead Carcasses which is worth ones labour without the knowledge of the Life or Soul yea verily I have many times been angry with my self that I would conceive of external and forreign things and in the mean time not to know who I am who dare to contemplate of forreign and sublime things But the Image being not yet understood which the mind bears before it nor who of what sort or how excellent the understanding may be And Lastly neither after what manner an intellectual act may be formed Wherefore I determined with my self that there was a far different knowledge of the Soul to be delivered to Christians than that which hath been diligently taught by the Schools of the Gentiles for look how much can be declared by words so much also the Holy Scriptures do deliver But the rest is in exercising freely obtained by Grace it self neither doth the mind admit of any other Teacher than him who hath commanded to be called the alone Father and Master Because in very deed all Learning which is drawn from a fore-existing knowledge of the Senses proceeds from the Sensitive Carnal or Earthly Soul and the which therefore the Apostle calls Divelish enlightned indeed but not by the very mind it self to wit which alone wisheth to be enlightned by its Beginning which is above nature and not from the observation of the Senses Whither the state of understanding in Adam had respect before the received learning of his Senses For he had known the essences and names of living creatures because he contemplated of these things within in his own divine image while he would and by the very aspect of viewing thereof he remembred the same But after that the sensitive Soul began to spring up whereinto the immortal mind was involved the sensitive Soul alone received the vicarship hereof but the mind being thereby laid asleep is scarce awakened at leastwise not more manifestly or lively than while it employeth it self in mental or mind-like prayer whether that comes to pass because the while it casts off from it the rains of the Sensitive Soul or next because God requiring to be worshipped only in the Spirit calls for his own delights to talk with the Sons of Men. Truly the Prayer of silence and of a profound intellectual humnity did require another manner of man than my self who am now an old man and an ignorant Physitian but seeing I have undertaken the natural explication of the mind and since the essence thingliness and natural nature of the mind is plainly Spiritual and respecting its own immediate and supernatural Beginning I ought by all means to declare and explain the Doctrine of the mind by its exercises that a man may be bewrayed by his Works Therefore I beg and deserve pardon if I shall not declare the thing according to the dignity of the matter Divine goodness shall supply my defects by some other more worthy thâ—â— my self But before that I proceed let the reader know that hitherto I have not found a writer which hath Meditated any thing concerning the more inward emptiness or voidness bottom and fabrick of the mind or of the Creation Beingness Truth or Thingliness of its Idea but they have rather cast or hung up this same Doctrine behind their Back as it were irregular unknown and desperate and through admiration only elevated into a dark Smoak neither have they looked any longer behind them as neither within them For first of all I will discover my Errors committed by thinking and will declare the Circumstances which have sometime deceived me For I knew first of all by Faith that we have an Immortal Mind therefore exceeding any the Powers of nature because it is that which was inspired into Adam immediately by God the same Mind also at this day is inspired into the young by the same Prince of Life Because it is that in which the Kingdome of God hath of its good pleasure established its seat and so that he enlightens every man that cometh into this World and he hath enriched it with his own free gifts of the God-head and by his presence hath excluded the evil spirit To wit for which mind he vouchsafed to die but not for the fallen Angell I knew in the second place from the knowledge of nature that bruit Beasts have Souls more or less prudent and quicke-sighted yet all frail ones and those which hasten into nothing and that those do perish no otherwise than as a Blast as the light of a Candle is extinguished and departs into nothing And therefore that the Souls of Beasts are
the reverbery of Life Take half an ounce of this Cinnabar being bruised or beaten hang it up for twenty four hours in a hogs head of Wine whereof one only spoonful being taken for some dayes thou shalt admire at the effect and the same Cinnabar is sufficient for many hundred hogs heads being again equivalent in virtue if it be repeatedly re-sublimed I have Ingeniously spoken some things concerning the great virtue of Words the which I more admire than apply The use of Herbs indeed is very well known yet their valour or virtue is not sufficiently known as neither suitably circumcised And that not only by reason of an ignorance of their Powers but especially by reason of an un-harmonius suiting of Diseasie Causes the defects of the knowledge of Causes unto their effect and the ridiculous Lessons of Complexions and Degrees and fabulous Dimensions which others before me have sufficiently hissed out For I do not here call to mind the thousand confusions of Simples and wastings or ruines and the every way extinguishments of their Faculties But especially I bewail the defect of the knowledge of the applying of Causes unto their Effects or of suiting the thing applicable and of the thing to be applyed unto it For before all things we must know that as the Nativities and Promotions of some things are slow So proportionally also they have the greatness of Virtues to be expected and the Varieties of esteems For even as it is in the Proverb That which is soon made doth also soon perish So neither is a thing able to be protracted into a long hope of Maturity which hath not intimate occasions of its own constancy For truly it should be in vain expected by a delay of eight hundred years that some one Mettal should be rightly changed into humane uses if any Vegetable through the course of some Months be to be equalized unto it But indeed under the account of Herbs I also understand Trees and Fruits and I could willingly add living Creatures if happily I did not read by the text of the Law that many or most living Creatures and the parts of these were resigned and abominated among impure Bodies For the whole stock of Insects being directed for Medicines and the Comodities of great Powers rather than for the services of Men was banished out of uses and every resigned Remedy begged from thence And therefore there was only a commendation made of Words Herbs and Stones For it is certain that Herbs may be digested and subdued by our Stomack unless they have a Malignity their companion Small indeed is the number of Pot-herbs and Corns in the rank of Herbs which scanitness doth certainly accuse them of a certain maglignity which being rightly sequestred they then first and not before shall bewray their Powers as the scopes of their sending which the poysonous Keepers did cover under them Truly Vegetables do act on us only so long as the Stomack doth operate about them Neither do they proceed further but that they do first lay aside almost all strength of a Remedy for else it should go ill with us if the Stomack as not being able to tame the received Vegetable cannot subdue it under the rules of its Archeus For otherwise if a Vegetable should proceed with its faculties entire it should also be made the consort of excrements or else should disturb the family-administration of sanguification or making of Blood For otherwise how could that which had resisted the action of the Stomack already accustomed unto crude Simples be transchanged and subdued in the second digestion which is unaccustomed to crude Meats The effects of such Remedies should likewise be of greater difficulty and of a more labourious work than the Fruit from thence to be expected In the next place that being granted an undistinction confusion and perpetual turbulency of our family-administration were to be granted if any thing being not first rightly subdued in the Stomack and the Excrement being not first separated thereby should inwardly proceed unto the vital parts For truly every thing should from thence without repulse indifferently proceed inwards either of its own accord or should gratiously be admitted without choice Therefore a Vegetable ought of necessity to suffer the digestions and the formal transmutations of these and the digestive faculties themselves do also in operating ordinarily suffer by the forreign that is not the food-like faculties of Vegetal things A thing surely for the most part dangerous of a difficult experiment and judgment Then again besides all things being weighed at the Ballance all the virtue of Vegetables is tyed up and limited unto its degree to wit after that it hath bowed it self as being prostrated under the digestion Neither doth it exceed those limits and in the mean time hath difficulties to wit the commands of Poysonous and Vitious Tyrannies The which surely whether they were added for a preservation or cover of their faculties or indeed for their defence denyal and impediment or hinderance at least it is sufficient that most of them have their own annexed cruelty infamie immaturities or crudities scabbedness rottenness exhaustings of strength besides moreover manifold Dregs and Impurities because seeing they are deprived of emunctories dedicated to the evacuation of an excrement their whole nourishment must needs be full of excrement and it is a most exceeding cruel thing that no Remedy hath been devised in the Schools against these defects besides a simple Decoction Lastly without the reckoning up of these things and the injuries of Plants being seperated whose burdens nevertheless our Nature cannot bear without great dammage besides their unwonted frowardness so great is their weakness that scarce any thing worthy of praise is to be hoped for from the bosome of Vegetables Seeing they are not only constrained to separate or lay aside their cruelty in their entrance if they are to be admitted more fully within but also to be altogether formally stripped of all their bounty before they can become Citizens of our Common-wealth For the single scope of our Nature intends only a sanguification of things cast into the Body for nourishment sake The which seeing they ought not to proceed from every thing promiscuously but only from things truly transchanged into seminal Beings and from things agreeable to our Species Surely whatsoever of the Vegetable race is handed forth for the more inward families of Digestions is vain so as that it should be thought to retain the antient Power of its Parents Which thing in the first place a Quartane Ague and all Diseases occasionally procured by Excrements which have hitherto disgraced the Schools do sufficiently confirm because they are those who have not meditated beyond Lettices and boyled Herbs There are indeed Vegetables plainly to be seen answering unto the Diseases of their first Ages But for chronical Diseases which are for the most part increased by the infamous cruelty of Vegetals and having obtained their privy chambers of the Body and
Spirit far from the Mouth as that their dissolutions by Vegetable are difficult they promise full Hospitals wherein the continual mournings or waylings of the unfortunate Sick do dolefully sound Wherefore from hence also every one doth almost dayly behold in his own House a stubborn and uncessant Disease amongst those of his Family and Physitians are made the Comedy of stages because they have scarce done any thing worthy of thanks For some of them confess their own and their Authors weaknesses and many do unwillingly flee unto Chymical unknown Remedies most of them abounding with their adultery and ravishment they fly back to Books not likewise to Furnaces for their unexperiences do promise most ample Fruits and they boast of all illegitimate and ridiculous Remedies The which while University Men do not understand and on the other side they do behold their withered Galen so destitute they as full of doubt flee over unto Cauteries sharpish Fountains and Baths Alas for grief what an unhappiness to the Sick and a vain refuge to themselves hath so great a stumbling of darkness in the Schools produced I will therefore shew that the text and that great boasted of virtue doth by the name of Stones understand all Minerals wholly and mettals the Marrow of these before the rest Because they are those things which do scarce shew themselves in any other Image than that of small Stones or great Stones For indeed this is the most rich and constant off-spring and chief treasure of Nature So that therein the conjunctions of the Stars are laid up or hidden and moreover in speaking properly and out of the profound Idiotisme of the Gentiles the Stars do excel or are chief over Meteours only causally but Mettals in their Excellencies or Remedies do far exceed the Stars For truly I have taught according to the text of the holy Scriptures That the Stars are not unto us for Causes but only for Signs Seasons Dayes and Years Neither is it lawful for Man to extend the Offices of the Stars any further Wherefore I have never in my desire married the number of the Stars unto the wandring Stars or Planets as neither have I enclosed both their Offices and Dignities in a like equality or resemblance For as they are at a far distance from each other so also they have unlike Offices and ends of Offices divided from each other But this one thing I willingly admit of to wit that Mettals do exceed Plants and Minerals in healing by long stades or distances And therefore that Mettals are certain clear or shining glasses not indeed by reason of their brightness but rather because that as oft as their virtues are opened and set at liberty they do act by an endowed light and a vital co-touching Mettals therefore do operate after the manner attributed to the Stars to wit by an Aspect and the touching of an alterative Blas which things will by handicraft-operation more clearly appear For Mettals themselves are Glasses the most excellent off-spring I say of the inferiour Globe to wit upon which the whole central virtue hath for some Ages before prodigally poured forth its treasure that it might most rightly espouse this liquor of the Earth this duggy nourishment and this off-spring of divine providence unto the ends which the weakness of Nature did require Therefore the Glasses of Gold Silver Mercury Lead Copper Iron and Tin and the fire-stones of these are not yet shut up or closed c. But I call those shining Glasses which have such a force of piercing and enlightning the Archeus from his errours furies and defects that they restore him into a brightness through the tincture of an endowed perfection For although these Minerals are not for food or of the condition of the Body of Man Yet they have the internal faculty of a Glass and a Power most chiefly efficacious co-touching with or very near to the Archeus of man being entire and appeased such as was the Archeus before the mind was conceived the which mind indeed was afterwards estranged from its right path after that the sensitive Soul wherein the mind sits drew the government of the Body on it self the which indeed was wholly frail and brutal in it self But in shining Glasses for a distinction to wit of Vegetables which do not shine a certain figure of our former immortality hath as yet remained resident and in this respect those Glasses are not only communicated but are willingly received by our Archeus Yea and which more is the restauration of the Archeus should the longer continue if the Glasses themselves were not presently banished which thing is manifest in the preparation of Copper Iron c. These things concerning the Tree of Life I do prosecute in the Book of long Life that there may be a stable Remedy transchangeable into mans Nature to be taken from ones childhood especially as long as the growing faculty doth flourish This Remedy I say doth exceed the force of a shining Glass for long Life but not likewise for a healthy Life Furthermore whatsoever is further to be spoken concerning Stones that was either so far as they do partake of a certain Metallick Sulphurous Tincture or of a Mineral Salt But as a mineral Being is neither for food nor nourishment neither could it be Vital or for Life but before that I shall pass over unto Arcanums which is called the great virtue of Stones in this place surely it is profitable to enter into the very seat of the Body and inwardly to view how much any Remedy can there operate To which end that which I have already said above comes first in our way To wit that the Stomack doth not coct any thing but as from a single aime it doth from thence at length frame a nourishment for its whole Body and for that very cause it hath an intention to make thereof a nourishable Liquor to wit venal Blood and afterwards a spermatick Humour fit for the nourishing of the chief constituting parts So that it may be turned into a substance fit for the nourishment and increase of the parts To wit as long as they are appointed within the bound designed for growth or increasing From whence it necessarily also follows that none but fit and foody matters concocted and digested by the Stomack are transmitted into the more remote shops of the digestions Wherefore I have first of all withdrawn every Plant by whatsoever cruelty being infamous from the border of the Mesentery because every thing that is unfit for these borders is for that very cause driven downwards by the Stomack and adjoyned unto the excrements But whatsoever hath now passed over into Chyle hath presently laid aside every strange quality whereby it may act as it were by choice But if from Magnum Oportet any kinde of quality of its antient concrete Body shall as yet remain surely that is drowsie feeble sluggish loose and vain and therefore it doth for the most part deceive Physitians in
Woman doth seminally conceive by Man besides the first intent of Creation Wherefore if Man were created that at least-wise from a foreknowledge of the consequence he might supply the Place of the Evil Spirits in Heaven he ought either to be created in a great Number at once from the Beginning or Successively If therefore They which are to be saved cannot be born by the will of Man of Flesh or of Blood and there was one only Man created therefore all Posterity ought by a successive Continuation to be born in Paradise of Women alone to wit the Birth-place of the Woman and of necessity to be Conceived from God and to be Born of a Woman a Virgin unto whom he afterwards Gave Power to be called the Sons of God and to be made with an exclusion of the Will of Blood Flesh and Man which Chastity alwayes pleased God doth please him at this Day and will please him alwayes And whatsoever hath thus once pleased the fountain of Chastity can never again displease him And so that Onely those that are of a clean Heart shall see God and shall be called his Sons wherefore the Prophet singeth Create in me a clean Heart Oh God! such as Adam had before the Fall And renew a right Spirit of the chaste and antient Innocency by the regeneration of the Spirit and Water in my Bowels Because my Bowels being now impure have contracted a Spirit of Concupiscence of the Flesh of Sin For indeed Man as long as he was Immortal and Pure Saw thy Face oh Lord and thou talkedst with him which Face afterwards Man shall not see and live But after that Man defiled his Bowels through Concupiscence thou casteth him from thy Face out of Paradise I pray thee therefore that thou cast me not from thy Face and that thou take not thy holy Spirit of Chastity from me Restore unto me the Gladness of the Regeneration of thy Salvation and with thy principal Spirit the Comforter do thou confirm me against the inbred Impurity of the Flesh For truly I shall teach the Unrighteous thy wayes of thy Regeneration the which among the hidden things of thy Wisdom thou hast manifested unto me and the Wicked shall be converted unto thee At leastwise free me from Bloods from the Concupiscence of the Sexes Thou who art the God of Chastity the God of Salvation as of new Regeneration and my Tongue shall exalt thy Righteousness and thy just Judgment whereby thou hast condemned Man who was born of Bloods and by the will of Man in the Concupiscente and of the Flesh of Sin as he hath made himself uncapable of thine Inheritance For loe in Iniquities aforesaid I was conceived and in Sins hath my Mother conceived me although under a lawful Marriage Bed Therefore I confess that besides the primitive scope of the Creator an Adamical Generation hath arisen into natural Death and is devolved into original Sin The Woman therefore as she hath conceived after a bruital manner she also began to bring forth in Pain The Male also in the Law was only circumcised as for a mystery of the deflowring of Eve Yet both Sexes ought to expiate the Offence committed in their privy Parts to wit whereby they had offended which thing although it be chastly insinuated in the Text Yet that was covered before Israel who were otherwise most ready for all Perfidiousness to wit that Godmight not seem a contemner of Matrimony instituted after the Fall The Woman therefore was not circumcised and yet she was saved but not the Pain of Child-birth or the Obedience of her Husband had expiated Original Sin in her For both a single young Virgin dying was saved as also a barren Wife Therefore from hence is manifested the mystery to wit that Eve so much as she could resisted the Insolencies of Adam and was by force deflowred in Paradise So that also our first Parents were Murderers of all their Posterity through Concupiscenc So also the eldest Son was a Brother-Killer For the fore-skin being taken away did of necessity cause a Brawniness of the Nut of the Yard whereby indeed he might be made a Partaker of the less Pleasure Concupiscence and Tickling whosoever should desire to be ascribed or registred among the Catalogue of the beloved People of God The Rabbins also confess That Circumcision was instituted by reason of unclean Virtues walking in a circuit The which I interpret that the diabolical and primitive Enticements of Concupiscence unto Mortality were not hid to the Hebrews and that at leastwise in an obscure sense the Sin arisen from thence was insinuated Also illegitimate Persons were in times past driven from the Temple and Heaven and those who should be born of an adulterous Conception because they did wholly shew forth an Adamical Generation but those who were born of a lawfull 〈…〉 Bed were as yet Impure until that the fore-skin being taken away they might seem to renounce the Concupiscence of the Flesh And in this respect they represented in a shadow also those that were to be renewed from far by the Spirit of God and the laver of Regeneration Moreover the very Word of Truth doth profesly confirm the Position 1 John 3. Except any one be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God B. Except any one be born again of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God C. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit D. The Spirit breatheth where it listeth Thou hearest the Voice thereof but knowest not from whence it may come or whither it may go E. So is every Man who is born of the Spirit F. If I shall speak unto you of Earthly Things and ye believe not how shall ye believe if I tell you of Heavenly things G. None hath ascended into Heaven but he who descended from Heaven H. And as Moyses exalted the Serpent in the Wilderness So it behoves the Son of Man to be exaltâ—d Christ Jesus descending from Heaven took not on him the Flesh of Sin by Adamical Generation or by the will of Man but he receiving the form of a Servant was made into the Likeness of the Sons of Adam being found in Habit as a Man Yet being Adamical was a true Man such as Adam was being newly created But he being made into the similitude of an Adamical Man emptied or humbled himself taking on him the form of a Servant But he was not made a Servant or Impure But in this glad tydings he denieth the Vision of God or the sight of the Kingdom of God and in b. an entrance into the Kingdom of God For not that the Glory which makes blessed may be seen without entring into Heaven or the same thing is twice spoken in vain or that a. doth require another new birth than b. but a. contains a denyal of participating of the Heavens for the Souls of the Dead before the Resurrection