light he cannot endure for his braine is too light already He presumes that his head containes more knowledge then tenne Bishops and wonders that the Church was so ouerseene as to forget him when offices were disposing or places a dealing and because he can get none railes at all for Antichristian He is the only wise man if he might teach all men to iudge him as he iudgeth himselfe and no starre should shine in our Orbe without borrowing some of his light Hee offers to reforme that man that would informe him and presumes of so much light that if himselfe were set our world would be left without a Sunne 3. Wine he hates specially when it is powred into his wounds as the Fathers interpret the Samaritans wine to the wounded man to clense and purge him Reproofe and hee are vtter enemies no man is good enough to chide him wholsome counsell which is indeed Wine to a weake soule he accounts Vineger nothing so pleaseth him as his owne Lees. Opinion hath brewed him ill and he is like water scared out of the wits 4. He must not bee moued nor remoued from what hee holdes his will is like the Persian law vnalterable You may moue him to choler not to knowledge his braine is turned like a Bell rung too deepe and cannot be fetcht backe againe His owne affectation is his pully that can moue him no engine else stirres him A man may like him at first as one that neuer heard musick doth the Tinkers note on his kettle but after a while they are both alike tedious There is no helpe for his auditour by by any excuses to shift him off if he haue not the patience to endure an impertinent discourse hee must venter the censure of his manners and run away His discourse is so full of parentheses as if he were troubled with the rhume and could not spette He is euer tying hard knots and vntying them as if no body had hired him and therefore he must finde himselfe worke If hee light on the sacred Writ he conceitedly allegorizes on the plainest subiect and makes the Scripture no more like it selfe then Michols Image in the bed vpon a pillow of Goates haire was like Dauid He carries bread at his backe and feedes vpon stones Like a full fedde Dogge he leaues the soft meate to lye gnawing vpon bones that wee may say of him this man hath a strong wit as wee say that dogge hath good teeth Curation THe way to cure the Migram is diuers according to the cause either by cutting a veine purging revulsiue or locall remedies But the sanation of this Brainsicke malady is very difficult insomuch that Salomon sayth There is more hope of a foole then of one wise in his owne conceit For he imagines the whole world to be sick and himselfe only sound I might prescribe him the opening of a veine which feedes this disease that is affectation the itching bloud of singularity let out would much ease him Or a good purge of humility to take him down a little because he stands so high in his owne imagination and full vessels to preuent their bursting must haue timely vent Or a little opium of sequestring him from businesse and confining him that hee might take some sleepe for his braines want rest Or a little Euphorbium of sound admonition and fit reproofe dropped into his eare warme Some Euphrasia or Eye-bright would do well Vnctions if lenifying will do no good nor any of the former I doubt except a strong pill of Discipline goe with them The speciallest remedy is Discipline as the Father sayd when hee heard his sonne complaine of his head my head my head commanded a seruant Carry him to his Mother so for these men so troubled with the Head-ach deliuer them to their mother let the Church censure them Inconstancie a kinde of staggers Disease 2. THere is a Disease in the Soule called Inconstancie not vnfitly shadowed to vs by a bodily infirmity possessing the superiour part of man vertigo a swimming in the head a giddinesse or the Staggers The disease in the body is described to bee an astonishing and dusking of the eyes and spirits that the Patient thinkes all that he seeth to turne round and is sodainly compassed with darknes The paralel to it in the Soule is Inconstancie a motion without rule a various aspect a diuersifying intention The Inconstant man is like a Pour contrell if hee should change his apparell so fast as his thought how often in a day would he shift himselfe He would be a Proteus too and vary kinds The reflection of euery news melts him whereof he is as soone glutted As he is a Noune hee is only adiectiue depending on euery nouel perswasion as a Verbe he knowes only the Present Tense To day hee goes to the Key to bee shipped for Rome but before the Tyde come his tyde is turn'd One party thinke him theirs the aduerse theirs he is with both with neither not an howre with himselfe Because the Birds Beasts be at controuersie he will be a Batte and get him both wings and teeth He would come to heauen but for his halting two opinions like two Water-men almost pul him a-pieces when he resolues to put his iudgement into a Boat and goe somewhither presently he steps backe and goes with neither It is a wonder if his affections being but a little luke-warme water do not make his religion stomack-sicke Indifferencie is his ballast and Opinion his sayle he resolues not to resolue He knowes not what he should hold hee knowes not what hee doth hold He opens his mind to receiue motions as one opens his palme to take a handful of water he hath very much if he could hold it He is sure to dye but not what religion to dye in he demurres like a posed Lawyer as if delay could remoue some impediments He is drunk when he riseth and reeles in a morning fasting He knowes not whether he should say his Pater noster in Latine or English and so leaues it and his prayers vnsayd Hee makes himselfe ready for an appointed feast by the way hee heares of a Sermon he turnes thitherward yet betwixt the Church gate and Church dore hee thinkes of businesse and retires home againe In a controuerted point hee holdes with the last reasoner hee either heard or read the next diuerts him and his opinion dwels with him perhaps so long as the teacher of it is in his sight He will rather take drosse for gold then trie it in the fornace Hee receiues many iudgements retaines none embracing so many faiths that he is little better then an Infidell Causes THey giue a double cause of this disease in the bodie either the distemperature and euil affectednesse of the braine or an offence giuen to it from the mouth of the stomack vapours grosse and tough humours or windy exhalations either lodging in the braine or sent thither from the stomack turning about
some herbe of Grace an ounce of Patience as much of Consideration how often he giues God iust cause to be angry with him and no lesse of meditating how God hath a hand in Shimeies rayling that Dauid may not bee angry mixe all these together with faithfull confidence that God will dispose all wrongs to thy good hereof be made a pill to purge choler To conclude let reason euer be our Iudge though passion sometimes be our sollicitour Parit ira furorem Turpia verba furor verbis ex turpibus exit Ira ex hac oritur vulnus de vulnere lethum Wrath kindles fury fury sparkes foule words Those let out wounds and death with flaming swords Enuie a consumption Disease 4. ENuie fitly succeeds anger for it is nothing else but inueterate wrath The other was a franticke fit and this is a consumption a languishing disease in the body the beginning of dissolution a broching of the vessell not to be stopped till all the liquor of life is run out what the other tabe is in the body I list not to define by reason that this spiritual sicknesse is a consumption of the flesh also and a pining away of the spirits now since they both haue relation to the body their comparison would be confusion Enuie is the consumption I singularly deale withall which though I cannot cure I will hopefully minister to Cause THe cause of Enuie is others prosperitie or rather an euil eye shot vpon it The angry man hath not himself the enuious must haue no neighbour Hee battens at the maligneds misery and if such a man riseth he fals as if he were Planet-strucke I know not whether he could indure to be in Paradise with a superiour He hates to bee happy with any company Enuie sits in a mans eyes and wheresoeuer through those windowes it spyes a blessing it is sicknesse and death vnto it Inuidus petat a Ioue priuari vno oculo vt auarus quòd priuetur ambobus The enuious man would have happily one of his eyes put out as the couetous should lose both A Physician beeing asked what was the best helpe to the perspicuity of the eyes affirmed Enuy for that like a perspectiue glasse would make good things appeare great things Fertilior seges est alienis semper in agris Uicinumque pecus grandius vber habet He is euen quarrelling with God that his neighbours field beares better corne and thinkes himselfe poore if a neere dweller be richer Hee will dispraise Gods greatest blessings if they fall besides himselfe and grow sullen so farre as he dares with the Prince that shal promote a better deseruer There is no law perfect if hee was not at the making it Hee vndertakes a great worke and when hee cannot accomplish it hee will giue leaue to none other No man shall haue that glory which hee aspired and missed An Aesops dog in the manger because he can eate no hay himselfe hee will starue the horse Poyson is life to a Serpent death to a man and that which is life to a man his humidity and spettle they say is death to a Serpent the rancorous sustenance which a malicious man liues of is the misery and mischiefe to a good man and a good mans prosperous felicity is the malicious mans death God hath in iustice appointed it to be a plague to it selfe Among all mischiefes it is furnished with one profitable qualitie the owner of it takes most hurt Carpitque carpitur vna suppliciumque suum est vt Aetna seipsum Sic se non alios inuidus igne coquit The enuious is a man of the worst diet and like a strange Cooke shewes himselfe nay and conceates pleasure in pining so that his body at last hath iust cause to sue his soule on an action of dilapidations He finds fault with all things that himselfe hath not done He wakes whiles his enemie takes rest Parum est si ipse sit foelix nisi alter fuerit infoelix His affections are like lightning which commonly scorch the highest places He creepes like a Canker to the fairest flowers By putting in a superfluous syllable he hath corrupted one of the best words turning amorem into amarorem loue into bitternesse A Philosopher seeing a malicious man deiected asked him whether some euill had happened to himselfe or some good to his neighbour Signes and Symptomes THe Signes of this disease are giuen by the Poet. videt intus edentem Vipereas carnes vitiorum alimenta suorum Pallor in ore sedet macies in corpore toto Nunquam recta acies liuent rubigine dentes Pectora felle virent lingua est suffusa veneno A pale face without bloud and a leane body without any iuyce in it squint eyes black teeth a heart full of gall a tong tipp'd with poison Amazednes makes the face pale griefe drinkes vp the bloud looking on mens prosperitie makes the eyes squint and cursing the teeth blacke It were well for him on earth that he should dwell alone It is pittie hee should come into heauen for to see one starre excel another in glory would put him againe out of his wits I wonder when he is in hell whether hee would not still desire superiority in anguish to sit in the chaire though he receiue the more torments The enuious man is so crosse to God that he is sure of punishment hee hath in present one like to the nature of his offence For his sinne whereas GOD brings good out of euill hee brings euill out of good For his punishment whereas euen euill things worke together to the good of the good euen good things worke together to his euill All the happinesse lights on him that is enuied for it goes well with him with whom the malicious thinkes it goes too well Cure HIs Cure is hard euen as with a tabe in the body too much Physicke makes him worse Crosses are fitly called Gods physicke whereby if God will cure him hee must minister them to those hee hates Strange that one man should bee healed by giuing physicke to another Two simples may do him good if he could bee wonne to take them a scruple of content and a dramme of charity If these be giuen him well stirred in a potion of repentant teares he may be brought to wish himselfe well and others no harme and so be recouered Idlenesse the Lethargie Disease 5. IDlenesse in the soule is a dangerous disease as the Lethargie in the body The very name of Lethargie speakes the nature for it is compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forgetfulnesse and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slothfull and so consequently is defined to be a dul obliuion The Idle man is a piece of base heauy earth moulded with muddy and standing water Hee lyes in bed the former halfe of the day deuising excuses to preuent the afternoones labour Hee cannot endure to doe any thing by himselfe that may be done by Attourney Hee forestalls perswasion inducing
and Caninus appetitus or the dog-like appetite Disease 7. NExt to the Dropsie of Couetice I would place the immoderate hunger of Usurie for as the one drinks so the other feedes to satisfie and the former is not more thirsty after his cupping then the latter is hungry after his deuouring Some haue compared Usurie to the Gout by reason of that diseases incidency to Vsurers which is an vnnatural humour flowing to the extreame parts It is either Arthritis an articular disease which we call a ioyntsickenesse or Podagra a paine inuading the ioynt of the great toe or the heele or some inferiour parts of the foote this like a strong charme bindeth a man to his chayre Musculus sayes that Diuines shall reforme Vsurie when Physicians haue cured the Gout the sinne and the disease are both incurable And that will one day racke the conscience as this the sinewes Herein the meerely Couetous and the Vsurer differ the Couetous to be rich would vndergoe any labour the Vsurer would be rich yet vndergoe no labour therfore like the gout-wrung desires to sit stil. I haue thought fitter to compare it with the dog-like appetite which cannot refrain from deuouring meat without measure which the stomake not able to beare they fall to vomiting like Dogs hence againe hunger is excited to more meate and much meate prouokes spewing so that their whole life is nothing else but a vicissitude of deuouring and vomiting Causes IT is caused through colde distemper of the stomake or through vicious and sharpe humours which gnaw and sucke the mouth of it or through vnmeasurable dissipation of the whole body which lightly followes the weaknes of the retentiue vertue This animall hunger is raised partly from the coldnes of the heart for there is no charitie to warme it partly from corrupt affections which like vicious humours gnaw and suck the conscience dry of all viuiditie whether of grace or humanity partly through the weake retention of any good instruction whether from the Scriptures of God or writings of sobermen Signes and Symptomes THe corporal disease is easily perceiued by insatiate feeding which yet ministers almost no vertue to the body but it is rather made lean and wasted therwith the skinne is rarefied the body made fluid and apt to much egestion c. An Vsurer is knowne by his very lookes often by his speeches commonly by his actions euer Hee hath a leane cheeke a meagre body as if hee were fedde at the diuels allowance His eyes are almost sunke to the backeside of his head with admiration of money His eares are set to tell the clocke his whole carkase a meere Anatomie Some Usurers haue fatter carkases and can finde in their hearts to lard their flesh but a common meagernesse is vpon all their consciences Foenus pecuniae funus animae Some spinne Usurie into such fine threeds of distinction that they take away all the names whereby it offends and because R. is a dogged letter and they conceiue a toothlesse practice Interest Usury and all termes with R. in them shall be put out and the Usurer shall be called only one that liues vpon his moneies All his reaches are at riches his wit workes like a Mole to digge himselfe through the earth into hell Plutarch writes strangely of Hares eodem tempore parere alere alios concipere foetus at one time to bring forth nourish and to conceiue Your Usurer makes his money truly do al these at once He drownes the noyse of the peoples curses with the musicke of his money as the Italians in a great thunder ring their bels and shoote off their Cannons by an artificiall noyse of their owne to dead the naturall of broken cloudes His practice mockes Philosophy Quòdex nihilo nihil fit and teaches of nothing to get something He is a ranke Whore-master with his mistresse Pecunia and liues vpon the lechery of mettals He doth that office for the Diuell on earth that his spirits doe in hell whip and torment poore soules His blowes are without fense except men as Strepsiades desired could plucke the Moone out of the skies his month and day will come Nature hath set a pitch or terme in all inferiour things when they shall cease to increase Old cattell breede no longer doted trees deny fruit the tired earth becomes barren only the Usurers money the longer it breeds the lustier and a hundred pounds put out twenty yeeres since is a great great Grand-mother of two or three hundred children pretty striplings able to beget their mother againe in a short time Each man to heauen his hands for blessing reares Only the Vsurer needs not say his prayers Blow the Wind East or West plenty or dearth Sicknes or health sit on the face of earth He cares not Time will bring his money in Each day augments his treasure and his sinne Be the day red or blacke in Calender Common or holy fits the Vsurer He starues his carcase and true money's slaue Goes with full chests and thin cheekes to his graue Hee hath not his gold so fast as his gold him As the couetous takes away the difference betwixt the richest Mine and basest mould vse so this pawne-groper spoiles all with ouer-vsing it It is his ill luck that the beames of wealth shine so full vpon him for riches like the sunne fires and inflames obiects that are opposed in a diameter though further remoued but heateth kindly when it shines vpon a man latetally though neerer He shrinks vp his guts with a staruing diet as with knot grasse and puts his stomake into his purse He sels time to his customers his food to his coffer his body to languishment his soule to the Diuell Cure HIs Cure is very desperate his best reprehension is deprehension and the best purge is to purge him out of the land Hiera picra Galeni is a soueraigne confection to clarifie him Let him be fed as Physicians prescribe in the cure of the corporall disease with fat suppings and let him drink abundantly till he forget the date of his bonds Turne him out from the chimny-corner into some wildernesse that he may haue a cold and perspirable aire Giue him a good vomit of Stibium till he hath spued vp his extortions Let his dyet-drinke be repentance his dayly exercise restoring to euery man his gotten interest Giue him a little Opium to rocke his cares a sleepe and when he is cold make him a good fire of his Bils and Bonds Giue him a Iulep of the Gospel to beget in him the good blood of faith If nothing worke with him let him make his will and heare his sentence that hee shall neuer dwell with the blessed Pride and the Pleurisie Disease 8. THe Pleurisie is defined to be an inward inflammation of that vpper skinne which girdeth the sides and the ribbes and therefore is called dolor lateralis Pride is a pursie affection of the soule Lege modo ratione carens
the animall spirits hence the braine staggers with giddinesse This spirituall Inconstancie ariseth from like causes If it be in religion it proceeds from cloudy imaginations fancies fictions and forced dreames which keepe the mind from a sober and peacefull consideratenesse Multitude of opinions like foggy vapours mist the intellectuall faculty and like reuerberated blastes whirle about the spirits Hee sees some Ceremoniall deuisions in our Church and therefore dares not stedfastly embrace that truth which both parts without contention teach and obserue So leaues the blessing of his mother because hee beholds his brethren quarrelling whiles he sees the vnreconcileable opposition of Rome and vs which he fondly labours to atone he forsakes both and will now be a Church alone Thus his brest is full of secret combates contradictions affirmations negatiues and whiles he refuseth to ioine with others he is diuided in himselfe And yet will rather search excuses for his vnstayednesse then ground for his rest He lothes Manna after two dayes feeding and is almost weary of the Sunne for perpetuall shining If the Temple pauements be euer worne with his visitant feete hee will runne farre to a new Teacher and rather then be bound to his owne parish he will turne Recusant He will admire a new Preacher till a quarter of the sand is out but if the Church dores bee not locked vp he cannot stay out the houre what he promiseth to a Collection to day he forgets or at least denies the next morning His best dwelling would be his confined chamber where his irresolution might trouble nothing but his pillow In humane matters the cause of his variablenesse is not varied but the object Hee is transformable to all qualities a temperd lumpe of waxe to receiue any forme yet no impression stickes long vpon him he holds it the quicknesse of his wit to be voluble Signes and Symptomes THe signes of this disease in the body are a mist and darkenesse comming vpon euery light occasion If hee see a wheele turning round or a whirle-poole or any such circular motion he is affected with giddinesse The Symptomes of the Spirituall Staggers are semblable Hee turnes with those that turne and is his neighbours Chameleon He hates staiednesse as an earthen dulnesse He prosecutes a businesse without feare or wit and reiecting the patience to consult falls vpon it with a peremptory heat but like water once hot is soonest frozen and instantly he must shift his time and his place neither is hee so weary of euery place as cuery place is weary of him He affects an obiect with dotage and as superstitiously courts as an Idolator his guilded block but it is a wonder if his passionate loue out-liue the age of a wonder 9. daies He respects in all things noueltie aboue goodnesse and the childe of his owne braines within a weeke hee is ready to iudge a Bastard Hee salutes his wits after some inuented toy as a Seruing-man kisseth his hand when instantly on another plots arising hee kickes the former out of dores He puls downe this day what hee builded the other now disliking the site now the fashion and sets men on worke to his owne vndoing Hee is in his owne house as his thoughts in his owne braine transient guests like a Haggard you know not where to take him He hunts well for a gird but is soone at a losse If hee giues any profession a winters entertainment yet hee is whether for a penny the next Spring He is full of businesse at Church a stranger at home a Scepticke abroad an obseruer in the street euery where a foole To conclude their owne vnfaithfulnesse making the Inconstant thus sick there is an accession of the Lords plague he addes dotage as a punishment of wilfull dotage The Lord hath mingled a peruerse spirit in the midst thereof and they haue caused Egypt to erre in euery worke thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit Cure FOr the curing of this bodily infirmity many remedies are prescribed odoriferous smels in weaknesse the opening of a veine in better strength cupping glasses applyed to the hinder part of the head with scarification gargarismes and sternutatory things together with setting the feet in hot bathes c. To cure this Spirituall Staggers let the Patient bee purged with Repentance for his former vnsetlednesse let him take an ounce of Faith to firme his braines let his repose be on the Scriptures and thence fetch decision of all doubts let a skilfull Physician order him a good Minister Let him stop his eares to rumours and fixe his eyes on Heauen to bee kept from distracting obiects Let him keepe the continuall dyet of Prayer for the Spirit of illumination and thus he may be recouered Madnesse and Anger Disease 3. THe next disease I would describe is Phrenzy or Madnesse Now though Physicians do clearly distinguish betwixt these two Phrenzy and Madnesse calling Phrenzy an inflammation of the braine without a Feuer or an impostumation bred and ingendred in the pellicles of the braine or pia mater and Mania or Madnesse an infection of the former cell of the head without a Feuer the one abusing the imagination the other rauishing the memory I list not to dispute or determine That which serues my intention is to conferre either of these passions with a Spirituall disease of like nature Anger Irafuror breuis It is a madnesse I am sure I am not sure how short I doe not ask for men passionlesse this is hominem de homine tollere Giue them leaue to be men not mad men Iraoptimo loco donum Dei magna est ars irasciverbis praemeditatis tempore opportuno Anger in the best sense is the gift of God and it is no small art to expresse anger with premeditated termes and on seasonable occasion God placed Anger amongst the affections ingraffed in nature gaue it a seate fitted it with instruments ministred it matter whence it might proceed prouided humours whereby it is nourished It is to the Soule as a nerue to the body The Philosopher cals it the Whetstone to fortitude a spurre intended to set forward Vertue This is simply rather a propassion then a passion But there is a vicious impetuous franticke anger earnest for priuate and personall grudges not like a medicine to cleare the eye but to put it out This pernicious disease of the Soule hath degrees 1. It is inhumane Tygers deuoure not Tygers this rageth against kind and kindred 2. Impious it rageth often against God as that Pope vpon a field lost against the Frenchmen Sic esto nunc Gallicus So turne French now c. 3. Mad for it often rageth against vnreasonable creatures as Balaam striking his Asse how much is such a man more irrationall and bestiall then the Beast he malignes 4. It is more then mad striking at insensible things as Xerxes wrote a defying letter to Athos a Thracian mountaine Mischieuous Athos lifted vp to heauen make