excepted are bred and born with Natural Defences against Injuries and Discommodities as the Tree is preserved by the Bark the Birds by their Feathers the Fish defended with his Scales the Sheep clad with his Wool and Man only is brought into the World naked and altogether unarmed For needful it was that Nature should take care of them who were not able to take care of themselves CHAP. II. A Consideration of the Action of the Vital Spirits IT is well observed that Angels were the first Creatures God made created pure as the Light ordained with the Light to serve God The same day was the Soul of Man created therefore it is said that Man is but little lower than the Angels if he lives after the Spirit I shall not trouble the Reader any more concerning the charge the Angels have over the Soul of Man but come to treat of the Archeos that is the Place Habitation c. wherein the Omnipotent Power hath lodged the Soul of Man viz. the Body of Man wherein the Soul the Image of God abideth for a time which is moveable and changeable and may be called a tottering Tabernacle These Earthly Bodies have their assistances and being from a Spirit in Latine called Vita or Life the Vital Spirit which hath its Nutriment from Blood and this Sanguine or Blood is maintained and preserved by Nourishment as Meat or Drink which we inwardly take It may be convenient to give you a word or two concerning the Blood how it comes to support the Body or Vital Spirits as I have told you before by Food and after it hath passed that place called the Ventricles or Stomach which is there concocted or digested it descends into the Hungry Gut called Jejunum it is drawn from the Jejunum by five of the Miseraical or Sucking Veins which chuse out the best for Blood it is drawn into the great hollow Vein called Vena porta it is drawn from Vena porta into the Liver and there 't is converted into Blood it is drawn from the Liver into the hollow Vein again the second time to be refined and separated it is from thence sent each to his natural place and receptacle as Choler to the Gall and Melancholy to the Spleen c. as the Principles of the Bodies so called of the Physitians Now the Living or Vital Spirits stand in need of two things that it may subsist convenient Motion and Aliment and so is the Body of Man preserved and kept alive CHAP. III. Where and how the Vitals do perform their chief Operation NOw these Spirits as Authors have observed are the Master-Workmen in the Body and as the upper Wheel which turneth about the lower Wheels in the Body therefore whatsoever is healthful and refreshing to the Spirits works powerfully good effects in the Body and that speedily and suddainly as the Author saith Vapours and Affections work compendiously upon the Spirits It is well known that the Almighty hath placed in the World all things for the use of Mankind and nothing in vain it was appointed by God that Mans Body should receive Nourishment by the Fruits of the Earth what is a greater Earthly Blessing than perfect Health of Body Some say Valetudo est summum Bonum Health is the chiefest Good First To shew you how this Wheel or Vital Spirit doth work for or against us first for us viz. for Health of Body First good Nourishment causeth Health Secondly good Air will revive the Vital Spirits But for fear this small Volume should be too big I will only give you two Reasons which will give light to the lowest Capacity viz. All Bodies are guided and governed by four Elements not only the Bodies of Men but all Vegetables Animals and Minerals An Element is a Body pure Simple and unmixt from which all Natural Things have their Original they are held to be in Number four viz. Fire Air Water Earth Since that there is none born into the World but their bodies do participate of all these four Elements and these cause all Alteration and Change by Reason of these four Elements because of their changing and shifting one with the other therefore no Man stands at one stay but he is either growing Rich or Poor in Health or Sickness Now when these four Elements can be weighed in the Balances of Uprightness there can be no Sickness viz. the Heat to oversway the Cold or the Cold to be prevalent or over-power the Heat The Cause of Sickness is when those four Elements are unequally balanced viz. if Heat be most prevalent then it causeth Choler and extream high Fevers if Cold be then Phlegmatick and Moist Humours This is the way that our Vital spirits strive for us and against us so they borrow one from the other and change this World of four Elements which is produced out of the two inward Worlds and is a Glass of them wherein Light and Darkness Good and Evil are mixt It is not Eternal but hath both a beginning and ending meant of Heaven which comes out of the midst of the Water viz. of Mercury whence ariseth the Male and Female Kind in the Spirit of the outward World that is the Male in the Fiery Mercury and the Female in the Watery This Separation was made all over in every thing to the end the Fiery should desire and long for the Watery and the Watery for the Fiery that so there might be a desire and love between them in the Light of Nature from which the Conjunction ariseth therefore the Fiery Mercury viz. The over-flowing Word Seperates it self according both to the Fire and Water-nature of the Light and thence comes both the Male and Female kind in all things both Animals and Vegetables In the third days Work the Fiery and Watery Mercury entred again into Composition or Mixture and Embraced one another wherein the Salnitre viz the Separator in the Earth brought forth Grass Plants and Trees and that of the first Generation and Production between Male and Female In the fourth days Work the Fiery Mercury brought forth his Fruit viz. the first Essence on Higher Powers or Vertue of Life then the four Elements and it is in the Elements of it the Stars were made In the Fifth days Work the spiritus Mundi viz. the Soul of rhe World opened it self in the first Essence it is here meant of the Life of the Fiery and Watery Mercury wherein God Created all Beasts Fishes Fowl and Worms every one from its own peculiar property of the Divine Mercury Here you see how the Eternal Principles have moved themselves according to Evil and Good for there are Evil and Good Creatures Created every thing as the Mercury viz. the Seperator and yet every kind of life hath its Original in this Light of Nature from which it is that all Creatures in their kind or property love one another In the sixth days Work God Created Man for in the sixth day the Understanding to the Life
bestowed on mankind as it is said in the Eighth Psalm Thou hast made him to have dominion in the works of thy hands and in Deut. 4. where God hath appointed the service of the Stars unto all people that are under Heaven but in particular to the business we are on now he hath made him King and Lord over three Kingdomes viz. Vegetable Animal and Mineral and by Vertue of these what cannot he do and how honourable are they that have the Command of these They may command Lead into Gold dying Plants into fruitfulness the Sick into Health Old Age into Youth and what not Prevail with Nature and the fair Diana of the Philosopher is at your service I you cannot prevail with Nature for the fairest of her Daughters viz. the Mercury of Philosophers Yet there is another of wonderful Beauty as are the Essence and Magister of Philolophers which are endowed with Riches Honour and Health for these you may more easily prevail with Nature This Art is more noble than all other Arts and Sciences and if it did once truly shine forth out of the Clouds wherewith it is Eclipsed it would darken all the rest as the Sun doth the stars or at least swallow up their Light This is that true Natural Philosophy which most accurately Anotomizeth Nature and Natural Things c. As you see in the first Chapter that Fire is the grand principle of Natural Bodies so by Fire and Heat we are able to subdue hard Bodies change and separate their Souls or Spirits from their Feces which are dull earthly mixtures which do but hinder the Efficacy they should have on sick Bodies but by the Art of Chymistry we take their purest part of their Bodies which will sooner shew their efficacies and power viz. to support and heal any of the four Humours which the Bodies of mankind are supported by we may by good Reasons divide Diseases into two parts Chronick and Acute Chronick by the Sun Acute by the Moon the Acute Diseases may be cured in a very short time but Chronick Diseases not so soon for they proceed from Obstructions or Stoppages in Head or Viscera but far sooner by our Chymical Medicines than those of the Gallenical Way Mr. Bacon is pleased to tell us in the latter part of his book strange things viz. that he Cures Chronick Diseases as continued Feavers Agues and such like in two or three Fits and also any considerable Disease or Sickness within six hours and also saith he all Pestilential Feavers Those that believe this certainly must be of a strange Faith and Opinion as to think that Mr. Bacon is able to alter the Creation of the World and to cause the Signs Circles and Stars of Heaven which God hath made fixed for him to make moveable and common surely not so methinks he is too hasty the only way in my Judgment is not to disannul but remember and agree with that wise saying of Solomon Tempus est ad omnia perpetrandra There is a time for the doing of all things which must be allowed of for it is that which brings things to perfection CHAP. IX The Character of a true Medicine SOme will say How shall we know how to distinguish betwixt good and bad That will be too large for me here to lay open to you all the ways to know a good Medicine from the bad for it is well known that it is very difficult to know some sorts of Medicines by an Oculary Judgment therefore it lieth and consisteth in the honesty and uprightness of the Operator or those that sell those medicines for there are some who buy of Chymists Medicines Cheaper than ordinary and the other sell for little profit when they know that it is not as it ought to be Therefore this lies and consists too in Experience Your best way therefore is to confide in an ingenuous and approved Chymist or an honest Apothecary Drugster or the like by which you will not fail There is one thing more which casts a great scandal upon our Medicines viz. A mistake of the Doctor or by his unskilfulness First in not Administring such of them as ought to be or in the quantity of the Dose and so it works not the expected Effects for which we bear the blame Secondly by unskilfulness for there are many who go under the Title of Doctor who know not what Humour or Disease they are to Cure neither can they give an accout of what they take in hand Si tu Cupis peritus esse in arte Medendi debes in hac Oratione sequenti id est de Medicina Astrologia gnarus esse Nam hic ad studendum satis tibi praebet Scilicit Sympathia Antipathia nec sunt Planulae quibus totum Medicinae Corpus vertitur Deducitur hoc fundamentum tibi datum est ad tuam erigendum Constructionem CHAP. X. A Word of Advice to all in general as well as to Chymists NAture hath given to Man no better thing than Death it is meant here that Death by which we fulfil the course of Nature Non deterret sapientem Mors quia propter incertos casus quotidie immanent propter brevitatem vitae nunquam longe potest abesse Death cannot terrifie a wise man which by reason of so many uncertain chances is always imminent and in regard of the shortness of his life can never be long absent The living Spirit is instanly Extinguished if it be deprived either of Motion or Refrigeration or of Aliment these three are the proper and immediate passions of the Spirit for all the Organs of the principal parts serve hereunto that these Offices may be performed And again all destructions of the Organs which are deadly bring the matter to this point that one or more of these three fails There are divers ways to death but they end in these three Now the whole Fabrick of the parts is the Organ of the Spirit as the Spirit is the Organ of the reasonable Soul which is Incorporeous and Divine CHAP. XI A Word or two how the Body of Man is supported BY these three Intentions First the prohibiting of Consumptions The perfecting of Reparation and The Removing of Oldness These three Intentions to those Operations First is the Operation upon the Spirits that they may renew their Vigour The second is upon the Exclusion of the Air. The third is upon the Blood and Sanguine Heat The fourth on the Juyces of the Body The fifth upon the bowels for their extrusion of Aliment The sixth is upon the outward parts for their attraction of Aliment The seventh is upon the Aliment it self for the Nutriment thereof The eighth is upon the least Act of Assimulation The ninth is upon the Intineration of the parts after they begin to dry The tenth is upon the purging away of the old Juyce and to the supplying it with new The four first belong to the first Intention the four next to the Second and
opened its self out of the Fiery Mercury and that is out of the inward ground God Created them in his Likeness out of the three Principles and made them Images and breathed into them the Understanding Fiery Mercury viz. according to Time and Eternity so he became a Living and Understanding Soul CHAP. IV. What is the Object of the Digestive Faculty THe four Administring Vertues are Attractive Digestive Retentive and Expulsive But the Digestive Faculty is the principal of them all and the other like Footmen and Handmaids to attend it The Attractive Faculty draws that which it should digest and serves continually to feed and supply it The Retentive Vertue retains the substance with it till it be perfectly digested The Expulsive Faculty casteth out and expelleth what is superfluous by digestion I think no one will deny this that hath but a spark of Reason but that the Object of the Digestive Faculty is nothing else but this viz. an earnest desire and eagerness after those Things of Nature it self or Vital parts of the Bodies after solid Bodies which are digestable or agreeable to its self and so joyn with its Spirit from whence that old saying may be made good What is one Mans Meat is another Mans Poyson To this my good friend William Bacon comes very nigh which is the truest sentence in all his Book In these material matters viz. the digestive Faculty or Vertue wherein lyeth the Ground-work of the Bodies of Mankind for when this Vertue or Digestive Faculty is debillitated both Spirit Vitals and Body decay and also the Fundamental parts on which Physitians whet their wits on viz. in searching out for such Medicines and Spirits as to strengthen and renew the digestive faculty things which will best agree and suit with the Vital Spirits For if a sick Person take never so much nourishment into his Stomach it will not nourish the Body or Spirits but hurt and prejudice the same and turn to Corruption For prevention of which disastre incident to most men I will here lay down a few Regulae Salutares or wholsome Rules of Dyet for advice viz. Mensae ne sint aequales sed Coena semper LeviÌ„or Nuâ—lus sumatur Cibus nisi priore Concocto ad quod octo hâ—raeâ—i imbecilli stomacho requiruntur And withal let them take this Rule by the way with them that Nature may not be over-burdened which is the cause of distempers and twice worse than robbing it of its accustomed duties Semel in septimana una mensa omittatur Cum scilicet natura minus videbitur indigere There is besides Dyet another Preservative for Nature against Distempers that may oppose it that is by using a Rule in sleep viz. Somnus octo horas non Excedat nec septem sit brevior Somnus diurnus omnino fugiatur The Exposition or Construction of these few Sentences are so plain that they expose them in English to the open view of their Curteous Readers CHAP. V. Whether there may be an Vniversal Medicine or not MR. Bacon declares thus According to my Hypothesis I conceive there may be for if there be but one formal Cause of Diseases and also to prove it so because in Womens Causes for he tells us that the same Medicine which preventeth Miscrrriages the same to turn the Child in the Mothers Womb and to bring it away and truly says he I have a Medecine of mine own may well be called Panaceas and besides it may well deserve the Name of Polyaceas I must Answer Mr. Bacon plainly that he doth not understand the Bodies of men or Physick I cannot compare him to any thing but that great Mahomet who deluded the People by a Pigeon which he brought up and trained to take Pease out of his Ear and so made the People believe that it was an Angel from Heaven which informed him of all Transactions and by that means he was worshipped as a God Now 't is convenient to give some Reasons to convince the World that there is no such Medicine as a Panaceas or Universal Medicine for almost all Diseases First some slender Arguments viz. Are all Mens Children of one Substance and Constitution or can one Pair of Shooes serve one Pair of Feet And also of all the multitude of People in the World are not each of them discernable one from another sometimes you may see two will resemble one the other at first sight but bring them together and discern them both with a strict Eye and you shall soon perceive a great alteration But some may say that there may be an Universal Medicine in case of an Universal Distemper as Pestilence Small-pox Feavers c. which generally happens in Cities Towns and Countries No there cannot be any Universal Medicinal Rules for one particular Person For it is well and often observed in the time of the Plague some are taken with a Giddiness in the Head some a Pain in the Side some no Pain at all before they fall down dead some Persons have the Sore break out in one place some in another And so in all other general Dâ—seases which will be tedious here to nominate which may tend all to one Distemper The Reasons why it is so I will give you else-where Also it is well known that the four Complexions do not agree one with the other for what is good to Cure the Sanguine is prejudicial to the Melancholy Experience tells me that a small Portion will purge the Sanguine Man but a double Portion will hardly purge the Melancholy man because his Nerves are very close I am certain and do very well know that many lose their Lives by the Delusions of such new Fellows and Pretenders to an Universal Medicine Some have a good Receipt for the Pox Some have a good Receipt for a Feaver Some have a good Receipt for the Scurvey Some will say they had it from a very learned Person and that they keep it not as it is as a rare Jewel I will not deny but that it may be good to its kind but it may want a true Application I have Experience that many dye with the Running of the Reins and Pox because they put their Lives into the Hands of such Men that do not understand the nature of their Bodies for it is well known by Woful Experience that these Distempers break out several ways according to the Nature and Constitution of the Bodies of men and Women For in some it remains in the Secret Places in some Persons in the Head and in other some in the Legs and Shin-Bones This one Argument should be enough to Convince the Ignorant viz. that several Natures being mixt together should make so great a War and Disturbance in the bodies of Men and Women Some Seed is very hot and some very cold and by consequence your own Reason will tell you that what is good for one Body is sometimes prejudicial to another There may be an Universal and Nutrimental assistance