strong corroding humors which are divers should be distinguished with names taken from Sulphur or Salt when there appears any remarkable excess of any one humor For Hippocrates calls a defluxion from the head 4. De rat vic in acu sent 31. Lib. de vee Medici hot and nitrous and writes That men are not only fevorish from heat alone nor can that alone cause a disease but bitterness and heat and sharpness or saltness with heat and the like Nor is it strange that such things should be in the body when a man is fed with Plants and Animals which are nourished with plants and these have from the earth their nourishment which contains in it salt bitter and the like juyces and Mineral spirits which are derived into man whose altering force changeth them as much as it can but they can never be overcome by our nature Nature indeed labors to void them being unfit for nourishment and if they be retained and separated from the good blood and abide alone they hurt the body divers waies Galen and other Physitians own this who mention salt and nitrous humors and the effects of Salt are manifest in Catarrhs or Defluxions Some humors are called Aeruginous not that they are like Verdigreece as Erastus thinks but because there is the tast and force of corroding as in Verdigreece and other qualities Nor is it unprofitable to observe these differences of humors for they are of concernment for cures therefore there being great difference of humors as to their colours tast consistence and essence and they cannot be called at by the same name If the Chymists can here help us there is no cause why we should not observe them yet we must not cast off the old names of the humors for Rhubarb doth alwaies purge choler not Salt or Sulphur The Chymists speak diversly of the differences of diseases In labyrinth medic arr Paracelsus saich that there are two kinds of seeds the Iliastrum Cagastrum The Iliastrum is when the feed of the disease is from the beginning as of Apples Pears Nuts Cagastrum is that which is from corruption The diseases from the Iliastrum are the Dropsie Jaundies Gout c. Of the Cagastrum Plague Feavers Pleurisies But as I said diseases do not spring up from seeds but from preternatural causes in the body either bred therein or gathered Paracelsus hath another difference by which he constituteth five Beings of diseases First the Ens or Being of God In paramiro for he saith some diseases come from God The second being is an Astral Ens under which he comprehends not only diseases from the Stars of Heaven but such as come from the stars in Man that depend upon the stars of Heaven The third is a Natural Being when a disease by a fault in Nature and they consider Nature by their three Principles The fourth is a Mental Ens under which are comprehended all diseases from imagination in our selves or others and under this they comprehend Incantations The fifth kind is a Being of Poyson natural or artificial Here Paracelsus shews his ignorance in Logick and Philosophy and he never learned from the Metaphysicks what Ens or a Being is It is ungodly to say that any disease is from a Being of God And he speaks improperly in all the rest of his differences But we may bear with improper speeches so good things be under them Ideae Philos c. 14. Nor can we suffer what Severine saith in referring all diseases and cures to four Monarches The Epilepsie Dropsie Gout and Leprosie to every one of these he reduced certain diseases under the Epilepsie he placeth Catarrhs Palsies Cramps Megrims Melancholies Apoplexies and Suffocations of the Womb. Under the Dropsie Aposthems Jaundies Cachexy Under the Leprosie all Ulcers Under the Gout the Cholick Stone Toothach and Headach But it is evil to refer diseases that differ so in essence and causes to the same head Nor is this division to be admitted into coagulation and resolved diseases They say that some impurities come from the seeds whose fruit doth coagulate Others come from seeds whose fruit ends in flowing resolution those they cal coagulated these resolved diseases What Severine saith of the disease and fruits of the superior Globe hath many absurdities except they are explained otherwise then the words sound We grant that the causes of Epidemick diseases depend in a great part upon the Stars and their influence and arise from the air and spirits that we attract and breath in But that there should be any Opiate Arsenick Orpiment or the like or fruits of celestial bodies or resolutions of celestial seeds I cannot admit because matter of such corruptions which is in the air and drawn in by the breath to infect the body comes not from Heaven but is contained in the inferior World and the coelestial bodies may diversly stir dispose and mingle and alter them The modern Chymists dare not defend this Doctrine of Severine Quercetan searce mentioneth any seeds but saith In defensione contra Anoni That Mercury Salt and Sulphur have all sorts of vertues faculties and properties from whence come infinite varieties colours tasts and scents and the like which produce divers diseases from their distemper and the company of other things If Sulphur abound it brings divers inflammations and feavers besides other narcotick effects which the sleepy Sulphur produceth by its narcotick spirits which do the same thing that wine or the like doth which cause sleep not by cold but a narcotick Sulphur From mercurial sour and sharp vapors come Epilepsies Apoplexies Palsies and all kinds of Catarrhs From Salts he saith come corrosions inwardly Imposthumes Ulcers Dysenteries Bleeding and from the dissolving of them come heat of Urin and Strangury And from the variety of Salts come divers Ulcers Imposthumes Corrosions by their sharp and sour spirits also divers kinds of Colicks From Salts coagulated he brings Nodes Scirrhus Tumors and swollen Joynts and infinite sorts of Obstructions The best distinction of the Chymists is that from the three principles and causes of diseases if they would be constant therein or explain themselves for the matter is very intricate concerning Mercury For if they say every humor is not Mercury but the first and substantial humor which gives sense and motion to all parts it cannot be the cause of diseases But if Mercury be taken for the cause of a disease who will say that it is an excrement of natural Mercury and flegm And I see not how they can distinguish it from Tartar from which Severine saith Catarrhs do arise The differences of Salt and Sulphûr are manifest because sour bitter and falt matter is gathered in the body and vomited up Somtimes the humor is so sour in the stomach that before it is vomited up the teeth are set on edg by it The differences of Salts are plain in divers Ulcers as in the Scab Cancer heat of Urin and the like To this division belong
Chyle then Blood Choler or Flegm c. Severinus is out when he saith there is blood in Balsom with spirit flesh bones ligaments and nerves and that these are seperated from it by help of the mechanick spirits There is in all sood somthing familiar to us that turns nourishment and may have divers forms as the parts are to which it comes call it Balsom or Mummy I am indifferent but I allow not that the things mentioned should be contained in them and be only made known and separated by the mechanick spirits Thus we should say with Anaxagoras that all things are in al things and there is no true generation But when chyle is made of bread blood of chyle bones membranes flesh of blood in every change there is a new form And every part hath force to turn its nourishment into its own nature which is the peculiar faculty of the vegetative soul what we have spoken of blood and humors is meant of alimentary humors that make blood We shall speak of excrementitious humors in the next Chapter in the Causes of Diseases Lastly They make two Anatomies the one local which they esteem little as the dissecting of bodies to see the shape figure and position and number of parts this they called a dead Anatomy for Butchers by which the Carcass is only seen but not the secrets of the nature of man The other they cal essential vital formal by by which every body is dissolved into its principles Paracel de orig morb ae tribus primis substantiis c. 6. alibi Severin c. 3. alibi passim he that wil try this must first know the nature of seeds and properties the offices of the elements and of the principles the roots of generation and transplantation the laws of Astronomy and the disposition not of the dead but of the whole living body Therefore they say the heart is wheresoever there is vital heat The Stomach is every cavity or place of concoction The womb is every place where there is seed of any fruit and they think the consideration of the great world is chiefly to be had in this Anatomy They say whatsoever is in the great world is also in man not according to a superficial likeness but indeed and according to the species and that man contains all things in himself though invisibly As to the local Anatomy they speak of they dishonor it for Anatomy is much beyond a Butchers work for by it all parts are artificially found out and their constitution and use Thus did Galen in his Book of the use of parts and others which if Paracelsus had read he had not written so absurdly They arrogate to themselves only the vital Anatomy but the Galenists had it as you may see in Galens Books of the faculties of nature of the Seed of the sorming of the Infant of Breathing temperaments Elements c. in which he speaks of the faculties of the soul which govern the body and of the instruments thereof in action Yet if the Chymists by their Principles can give it more light we wil accept of it thankfully But they here rather quible with words and with new terms they sell the opinions of the Ancients as their own and do little discover them or clear them up as when they say the heart is wheresoever there is vital heat It is the part of a wise Philosopher to call things by their own names and not so to quible with names as to confound things that are distinct Chap. 16. of Pathologie or Diseases THe Chymists seem also to enlarge the Pathological part of Physick Ideae Philos c. 13. when they suppose that the antecedent cause the Disease and the Symptom differ not in kind essence or specifical propreties but only in power and act Thus Severinus and that they differ no otherwise then a sleeping Physitian doth from the same being awake brimstone not burning from that which burneth salt not dissolved from that which is dissolved therefore he supposeth names are to be given from the roots as from the hidden roots of diseases in intermitting feavers when no heat is fired in the heart while the feaver lies close in the body and not from the antecedent cause But Galen doth better divide all things that are besides nature in mans body into three Cap. 12. that is the disease the cause and the symptom and there is no Discipline that makes no difference between the causes and the effects therfore it must be in Physick for the humors are the causes the diseases the effects and again the symptoms are effects of them both and all these differ in their whole essence and nature Therefore Severinus writes foolishly saying That which is most remote from producing of an effect is a genus that which is nearest to the individual is the species and the effect is the individual He makes the most general genus or kind to be the stony tartarous Mucilages in fruits and those in the stomach and guts to be the sudordinate genus But when they cause diseases and symptoms they are species and the last actions being hurt or hindered are the individuals But every true Philosopher may perceive this absurdity He writes like a fool when he saith he saw a feaver vomited forth for he saw the cause but not the feaver And more simply when he saies that matter so vomited up shaked for a time like an ague But either he read not or observed not what Galen and Galenists have written concerning the shaking of feavers But these Severinians are offended that the names of diseases are not given from the causes But they are unreasonable to think names must be given as they please and that fit names may be rejected Therefore it is not bad to define a feaver from its essence then let them enquire into the nature of the cause and whether the cause of a feaver may be called Choler or Sulphur Nor do the Galenists allows eye the disease alone but look often more at the cause much less do they only observe the symptoms for many of them come often from the same cause and one somtimes from divers causes and if these be not diligently disting dished he plaies the Emperick and will be deceived and if the Chymists will help us in curing we shall thank them As for the nature of a disease Paracelsus errs exceedingly when he saith a disease is a substance and that the disease is a whole man and hath an invisible body and this he shews by the Jaundies But every disease is nothing else but a quality in the body besides Nature Lib. 2. de morb podag by which the body is so disposed that it is unfit for its proper actions Now all error is from this that as plants come from their seeds so they think diseases do also and the true cure of a disease is nothing else but the taking away of those seeds and if they be not taken away by changing
any Medicines to go or send to Mr. Ralph Clarke Apothecary at the sign of the three Crowns on Ludgate-Hill in London where they shall be sure to have such as are skilfully and honestly made Divinity Books Printed by Peter Cole c. Eighteen Several Books of Mr. Burroughs's viz. on Matth. 11. 1 Christs Call to all those that are weary and heavy laden to come to him for rest 2 Christ the great Teacher of Souls that come to him 3 Christ the Humble Teacher of those that come to him 4 The only easie way to Heaven 5 The Excellency of Holy Courage in Evil times 6 Gospel Reconciliation 7 The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment 8 Gospel-Worship 9 Gospel-Conversation 10 A Treatise of Earthly Mindedness and of Heavenly Mindedness and Walking with God 11 An Exposition of the Prophesie of Hoseah 12 The Evil of Evils or the exceeding sinfulness of Sin 13 Of Precious Faith 14 Of Hope 15 Of Walking by Faith and not by Sight 16 The Christians living to Christ upon 2 Cor. 5.15 17 A Catechism 18 Moses Choice Dr. Hills WORKS VIZ. 1 The Beauty and Sweetness of an Olive Branch of Peace and Brotherly Accommodation Budding 2 Truth and Love happily married in the Church of Christ 3 The Spring of strengthening Grace in the Rock of Ages Christ Jesus 4 The strength of the Saints to make Jesus Christ their strength 5 The best and worst of Paul 6 Gods Eternal preparation for his Dying Saints Twenty one several Books of Mr. William Bridge Collected into two Volumes Viz. 1 Scripture light the most sure Light 2 Christ in Travel 3 A lifting up for the cast down 4 Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost 5 Of Sins of Infirmity 6 The false Apostle tried and discovered 7 The good and means of Establishment 8 The great things Faith can do 9 The great things Faith can suffer 10 The great Gospel Mystery of the Saints Comfort and Holiness opened and applied from Christs Priestly Office 11 Satans power to tempt and Christs Love to and Care of his People under Temptation 12 Thankfulness requiin every Condition 13 Grace for Grace 14 The Spiritual Actings of Faith through Naturall Impossibilities 15 Evangelical Repentance 16 The Spiritual Life and In being of Christ in all Beleevers 17 The Woman of Canaan 18 The Saints Hiding place c. 19 Christ coming c. 20 A Vindication of Gospel Ordinances 21 Grace and Love beyond Gifts Four New Books of Mr. Sydrach Sympson VIZ. 1 Of Unbelief or the want of readiness to lay hold on the comfort given by Christ 2 Not going to Christ for Life and Salvation is an exceeding great sin yet pardonable 3 Of Faith Or That believing is receiving Christ and receiving Christ is believing 4 Of Coveteousness Mr. Hookers New Books in three Volumes One in Octavo and two in Quarto These Eleven New Books of Mr. Thomas Hooker made in New-England are attested in an Epistle by Mr. Thomas Goodwin and Mr. Philip Nye to be written with the Authors own hand None being written by himself before One Volume being a Comment upon Christ's last Prayer in the seventeenth of John Wherein is shewed 1 That the end why the Saints receive all Glorious Grace is That they may be one as the Father and Christ are one 2 That God the Father loveth the Faithful as he loveth Jesus Christ 3 That our Savior desireth to have the Faithful in Heaven with himself 4 That the Happiness of our being in Heaven is to see Christs Glory 5 That there is much wanting in the Knowledg of Gods Love in the most able Saints 6 That the Lord Christ lends daily Direction according to the daily need of his Servants 7 That it is the desire and endeavor of our Savior that the dearest of Gods Love which was bestowed on himself should be given to his faithful Servants 8 That our Union and Communion with God in Christ is the top of our happiness in Heaven Ten Books of the Application of Redemption by the effectual Work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the bringing home of lost sinners to God By Thomas Hooker of New-England In which besides many other seasonable and Soul-searching truths there is also largely shewed 1 Christ hath purchafed all spiritual good for HIS and puts them in possession thereof 2 The soul must be fitted for Christ before it can receive him and a powerful Ministry is the ordinary means to prepare the heart for Christ 3 The heart of a Natural man is wholly unwilling to submit to the Word that would sever him from his sins 4 God the Father by a holy kind of violence plucks His out of their corruptions and draws them to believe in Christ 5 Stubborn and bloody sinners may be made broken hearted 6 There must be true sight of sin before the heart can be broken for it 7 Application of special sins by the Ministry is a means to bring men to sight of and sorrow for them 8 Meditation of sin a special means to break the heart 9 The Lord sometimes makes the word prevail most when it 's most opposed 10 Sins unrepented of make way for piercing Terrors 11 Gross and scandalous sinners God usually exerciseth with heavy breakings of Heart before they be brought to Christ 12 They whose hearts are pierced by the Word are carried with love and respect to the Ministers of it And are busie to enquire and ready to submit to the mind of God 13 There is a secret hope wherewith the Lord supports the hearts of contrite Sinners 14 True contrition is accompanied with confenion of sin when God calis thereunto 15 The Soul that is pierced for sin is carried with a restless dislike against it The Kings Tryal at the High Court of Justice The wise Virgin Published by Mr. Thomas Weld of New-England Mr. Rogers on Naaman the Syrian his Disease and Cure discovering the Leprosie of Sin and Self love with the Gure viz. Self-denial and Faith A Godly and fruitful Exposition on the first Epistle of Peter By Mr. John Rogers Minister of the word of God at Dedham in Essex Mr. Rogers his Treatise of Marriage An Exposition on the Gospel of the Evangelist St. Mathew By Mr. Ward A BOOK Concerning the Agreement Disagreement Of the CHYMISTS With Aristotles and Galens Followers Chap. 1. Of the Nature of Chymistry WEE shall not stand much upon the Interpretation of the word Chymistry because it is disputable whether it be derived from the Greeks or from the Arabians or Egyptians Paracelsus other modern Physitians called it Spagery from the Greek words that signifies to pull in pieces or divide and also to unite or joyn together as being an Art to dissolve and Unite again any natural bodies Some proudly call this Art Philosophy and they who study the Philosophers-stone are called the only true Philosophers and Philosophers Sons of which see the Book called Turba Philosophorum It is called from Hermes or Mercury the
mixed The modern Chymists follow Severinus and Crollius saith they are lighter but they are more dark Thus he writes In praefat admonit Our visible Elements are only the bodies and houses of others and keep off their force The Earth is twofold the outward visible the inward invisible The outward is not an Element but the body of the Element and is Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Element of the Earth is Life and Spirit in which the Stars of the Earth lie which by the body of the Earth produce all growing things and so of the rest In which he follows the Doctrine of Paracelsus but differs from Severinus and other Chymists But many things here cannot be proved First they abuse the word Element contrary to the custom of all ages for it properly signifies the least part of that from which the thing is made as from its matter But their Elements are only places matrices receptacles And the place differs much from the matter The wiser Chymists have three principles that come from the Elements or are joyned in the composing of natural bodies But Paracelsus puts his principles before the Elements and from one mixture of Salt Sulphur and Mercury and makes Fire In labyr med err from another Air another Water and Earth which no Philosophy can allow Others make the Elements vile and servile Bodies in disgrace of God and Nature who made all very good They serve God and man and all sublunary creatures and so are to be commended nor are they by that of no value or relolling as they say For the Chymists know their actions who can do nothing with heat and cold They erre also in making the Elements gross Bodies though the Earth be Also they erre in calling them visible they may see Earth and Water but when they will see air or fire I know not They foolishly say they are dead because they never were alive And it is worse that they say The Earth is cursed As for their invisible Elements Inexam philoso we shal believe it when they prove any such hidden under these for their affirmations only cannot creat new beings Libavius writes well of Severinus The good man saith he speaks well as if he came from the treasure of Nature and saw all open but he proves nothing Severinus his Eloments being without bodies and dimensions are not to be allowed for all learned men say the principles of bodies are corporeal He saies they are not infinite therefore they have dimensions and bounds Nor doth it hang together when he calls these incorporeal Elements empty and void and allows to them contrariety and resistence and explains their invisible Nature It may be that Paracelsus put one Element within another for the form and beginning of action and original of all qualities for when the external visible Elements which are inferior to their internal have noble qualities their Elements must have more noble qualities and actions but they never shewed us any yet They say in general only that they are vital and strong to nourish the seed of generation Nor do they prove that seeds are without their species in the Elements as they say Nor did God put seeds in the Elements in the Creation but into the species of natural things in the Elements Nor are seeds seen out of the individuals in the Elements but only in the individuals of their species Nor did God say in the Creation Let the seeds of Plants be in the Elements the same reason is in Animals All things have their seed in themselves and multiply by force of the Divine Word and so the species are preserved And to that they say from Orpheus and Hippocrates We know they spake often from the opinion of the Vulgar and themselves and many things are attributed to Hippocrates which were not his And many absurdities are among the Ancients most from ignorance of the Creation Erastus examines their Doctrine at large As for the first qualities which they value not but call relolling and dead It is foolish to fight against the experience of fense by which it is plain that the first qualities have great force for generation and corruption of natural things and are as considerable as scent savor and colour While we desend the Elements we must not adhere to them alone as some Aristotle knew above the Elemēts as in his Books of the Soul And when he saith 2. de generat anim c. 3. The vertue and power of every soul partakes of another body which is more Divine then the Elements and as the souls are more or less noble so is the Nature of that body For there is in all seeds which makes them fruitful which is heat not a fire but a Spirit which is contained in the seed or froathy body And the Nature in that Spirit is like the Element of the Stars c. Alexander Aphrodisaeus saith many things are in Nature that are known only by experience In proemio probl and are called by Physitians secret proprieties and accuseth them that say the causes of such effects come from the Elements or their qualities Galen accuseth Pelops his Master Lib. 11. de simpl facult Exercit. 101. sect 14. because he would bring all things to manifest qualities and Scaliger saith it is great impudency to Cardan thus What evil genius hath lead thee to say that iron may draw the Loadstone only by mixture of Elements Hence we see that Galenists and Aristotelians are not drowned in the qualities of the Elements Also they knew the Sympathy and Antipathy of things and we defend not them that know nothing but the first qualities For alteration or hurt from manifest qualities cannot kill a man so soon as poyson Secondly the first qualities have not very great force in a smal quantity but poyson hath a little spittle of a mad Dog lyeth somtimes above six months in the body and then offends grievously 3. delo art c. 7. which elementary qualities cannot do and so of other things as the Loadstone and Purgers and Antidotes Nor do occult qualities arise from a singular temper of things mixed unknown to us Lib. 1. de plantis called Idiosynorasia for occult qualities cannot arise from the first qualities For as Scaliger saith There is no savor or tast in any Element as it is an Element nor can it be in a compound from the Elements And if occult qualities are from a singular mixture of Elements may not life laughter sense and voluntary motion and the soul come from the same And to what they say the strange actions come from the form though the qualities are the instruments of forms and are directed by them yet they never loose their strength or Nature but only exercise them If any more noble action be done it is from other faculties and qualities meeting And while they are directed by their forms they act not beyond the strength of their species As things differ
by nature were concreted and made fluid by heat and then concreted again by cold But in regard many things congeal in moisture and grow together hard whose cause is neither heat nor cold nor driness we must think of another internal cause Two kinds of concretion are to be here considered which are when no part of the matter is taken away or any other added but the whole taking its consistence and concrescence from moisture which we want fit words to distinguish The Chymists call one of these by the High-dutch word Schiessen this coagulation is properly of Salts as Vitriol Allum Niter Salts of Herbs come from a moisture to a consistence This is of Salt properly and they by nature tend to this by their form But being there is one form by nature of Niter another of Vitriol another of Allum another of common Salt Every Salt according to its form and proper spirit coagulateth and grows together in this or that figure so do Gemms concrete in certain figures Lib. 2. demasc prima v. 9. for every form makes bounds to the bigness and quantity and sigure as Zabarel shews Another sort of concretion is called Lapidescentia or turning to stone the next and adequate cause of this is not the Elements nor the principles of Chymistry only but a stone making juyce or spirit which is not without Salt and contains more then Salt as the order of nature is to go from simples to things more compound This is in all Jewels and Stones but according to their special forms We said it was a spirit and a juyce but the chief force is in the spirit and the juyce hath it from the spirit because that stone-makeing force is found in the spirit without the juice As for the differences of Salts they are altered in divers Plants and Animals as in corruption of humors there are divers differences There is Salt in Vitriol Allum Sal Armoniack Iron There is a volatile Salt in a Nettle Arsmart Cokow-pints smal Celandine Mustard There is a salt in humors that causeth the Itch Scab Cancer and other corroding Ulcers There are made Salts as Borax Sal Armoniack and the like Sulphur is another Principle of the Chymists which is properly to burn and nothing burns without it The Elements of themselves are not inflamed and if they seem to burn it is from the sulphurous vapors in them Therefore Sulphur is the first scented thing and other things are smelt by their Sulphur many things that are very sweet being whole scent not but when they are burnt or bruised Hence it is that Sulphur and Fat 's scent not much but when they are burnt or smoak Some joyn scents and savors in a subject and say the scent is of the savory part but experience shews otherwise for there are many most savory and sharp things which have little or no scent as Arsenick Sublimate Mercury and other corroding Minerals that have little or no scent Some impute colours to Sulphur and more probably then to Salt but in colours the matter is more difficult Aristotles Interpreters that bring colours from the mixture of the Elements proye nothing Therefore let the principle of colours be Sulphur or as Anshelme Boetius saith God himself who gives colours as well as shape to Jewels and the like for they come from the proper seminary of every thing Common Sulphur Petroleum or Naphtha Amber and Sea-coal have much Sulphur Gums and Rosins of fat Trees as Pine Fir tree Pitch Oyl and the like Fat 's of Beasts of which see Libavius Parte 3. singular He useth the word Bitumen generally as the Chymists use Sulphur The third Principle is Mercury somtimes taken for Quicksilver Ide Philos c. 8. somtimes for a Principle Salt and Sulphur Severinus saith it is added to the other Principles that by daily moistning of them to nourish them from decay by often action In defens contra an̄o c. 14. In Tyrocin Chymico Quercetan saith it is a liquor sharp and penetrable pure and aetherial and so saith Beguin But they agree not therefore Libavius writes that the modern Chymists describe Salt Sulphur and Mercury by Notes but when we ask what it is they consound all and say that Salt is in Sulphur and Mercury In exami Philoso vit and Sulphur and Mercury in Salt and Mercury and Salt in Sulphur and then he gives this definition Mercury is an essential Liquor drawn by the Chymists from a mixed body after the elementary impurities are separated opposite to the Sulphur and Salt of the same mixed body To speak my mind if there be any such Mercury it is a spiriful Liquor or Spirit which can scarce be separated from subtile Sulphur and volatile Salt to be seen by it self and though it be not seen it is no matter for pure fire is not seen nor air nor the spirit in Animals which are true parts of the Nature of things and the best Such things saith Scaliger deceive the vulgar eyes but wise men see them But I appeal to the Learned whether I be absurd in making these principles mixed with the Elements the common matter for the habitation of forms of the Natural bodies To conclude Metals Minerals Stones and Gemms and Plants are not simply mixed and have not only their forms from the forms of the Elements much less from a double exhalation which maketh the next matter of Meteors because they have better actions then are from Elementary qualities and a double exhalation But the Elements give them matter with the chymical Principles and may hence be better by the causes of many things then from the doctrine of Meteors We can clearly shew Salt and Sulphur from a Chymical separation though they are not manifest before We desire to know more of Mercury not of the Metal but of the Principle Aristotle attributes all to a Spirit which the Chymists do to Mercury for Quercetan and Beguin call it a substance or body to be passed through penetrated aethereal pure subtile quickning and the next instrument of the form and call it the Spirit of ancient Hermes The Chymists call that vital Sulphur which Aristotle calls the Natural heat and describe their Mercury as that it is in the Natural heat And this Sulphur and Mercury are so united in Nature that they cannot wel be separated but when the Sulphur is on fire Mercury flies away Also the actions from the whole substance and the hidden qualities are attributed to this Spirit as to the proper subject this in poysons is a venemous spirit in purges a purging spirit As for the original of these Principles some think them to be the first mixtures others to be peculiar natures in the first Creation concreted with other species of natural things to be of the Nature of the Elements He that will embrace the first opinion must hold that these bodies have nobler forms by which they are more noble then the Elements and from which other qualities
s tronomy Chymistry and their properties First for his Chymistry whence he would have his Physick called Paracelsian we say no more but by this he cannot now be accounted a good Physitian that is ignorant of Chymistry Paracelsus makes the second foundation of Physick to be Magick and its parts He shews In labyr med err c. 9. That the Magick Art is the Anatomy of Physick and the Teacher and Doctoress to cure diseases We shall not here say what Magick is Natural and what is Diabolical read Picus Mirandula and Peucer We shall shew what Paracelsas saies of it but speak all he hath written of it in his Labyrinth C. 9. in his Error of Physitians he saith Magick is the Art of Arts and the Inventor of all hidden things and we must learn from it and not from Galen and Avicen And he saith De pestitit tract 2. A Physitian must learn Magick and Astronomy Pyromancy Chyromancy Hydromancy and he saith that St. John the Evangelist and all the Prophets were Magicians And in the end of his Book of occult Philosophy he saith that Magick is a hidden Art and the chiefest knowledg of supernatural things And there was no Divine that without Magick ever cast out a Devil and the like blasphemies And to conclude 5 De morbis invsibil his whole foundation of Magick he writes thus It is the safety from our enemies and keeps us from the hands of them that hate us and he concludes That the effects of Magick depend upon the Heavens or from Spirits good or evil That Heaven or the Stars and Spirits are subordinate to man and the force of the Heavens and Stars may be brought into Characters that words and wax and other things and the Spirits themselves may be constrained to serve man so he thinks Magick to be very lawful and to be as that of the Wisemen and that a true Magician doth that by faith and imagination that a Witch doth by conjuration Read Paracelsus of wise Philosophy Archidox and of occult Philosophy and his Labyrinth of erring Physitians He makes six kinds of Magick The first is Lib 1. philos sagac c. 4. the Interpretation of preternatural signs such was the Interpretation of the Star that brought the Magician or Wisemen from the East to Judaea and to this belongs the Interpretation of the Prophets and the Revelation The second kind is the Transformation of Living creatures as was in the time of Moses and Pharaoh By the third are made words which have all strength and whatsoever a Physitian can do by Medicines may be done by words This kind of Magick he calls Characteral By the fourth he shews how to make Hamachyes that is Images and Sculptures upon which the strength of the Heavens is impressed and which do all things which instruments made of Natural things can perform as a key opens a lock or a sword wounds The fifth sort is when images are made like the people for whom they are and whatsoever is done to them they suffer whose pictures they are and he saith that in an image of wax any may be roasted made blind wounded or have a Palsie The last kind he saith is Cabalistical now the Cabal among the Ancients was a kind of Mystical Symbolical and Aenigmatical Divinity and the Cabalists did believe the Tradition of their Ancestors and examined no opinions This was threefold The first was that by which Adam delivered the Knowledg he had from God to his Children The second was that by which God explained the Law to Moses in Mount Sinai when he was with him forty daies and by which he again taught Joshua The third was invented by the Rabbies who turned the letters and syllables into numbers and brought hidden meanings out of them But Paracelsus speaks not of this Cabal who calls the Jews stupid Asses Ciâ—â— libro Philos sagaâ— But the Cabal of Paracelsus shews the way how wonders are wrought by Characters Seals Figures and Words By this a voice may be heard from beyond Sea and one dwelling in the West may talk with him that dwells in the East And a Horse may do that in one day which by Natural strength cannot be done in a month that the Wise-men of the East had such Horses and they came to Bethlehem by Magick not Natural force Lib. 1. de vit longa c 9. And Trithemus fetch his Supper out of France or Italy saying this word Affer that is Bring to me Crollius consents with what is said saying In praefact pag. 36. 38. Whatsoever we see in the greater World may be produced in the imaginary World so all herbs and things that grow and Metals may be produced by imagination and the true Cabal Crollius calls this kind of Magick Gabalistical from the Gabal or internal Heavenly or Starry Man who by the affinity of Magnetick vertues can attract to himself all the strength of the Stars and apprehend by his Starlick spirit the knowledge of all things He saith this Cabalistical Magick stands upon three pillars the first upon the prayer in spirit and truth when there is Union with God in the Holy of Holies and the created Spirit where God is worshiped by a sacred silence The second is Faith not saving but natural as he calls it which is that wisdom which is equally given to all men at the first Creation which is common to men and Devils Lib. de peste 1. de origin morb invis this he calls enchanting Faith The third is the Imagination strongly lifted up of which Crollius speaks Ernestus Burgravius saies the same in his Book called Achilles Revived And he promiseth his lamp of life and death in which as in a fatal light the fortune diseases and death of every man may be seen See more of this in Burgrave and Roger Bacon his Book of the wonderful power of Art and Nature and Paracelsus in his Books of Archidox Magick and others Now Andreas Libavius in short mentions whatsoever the Paracelsians promise by Magick Lib contra Crollacus pag. 55. And if they be wel examined they are almost all ungodly and blasphemous And though Paracelsus seems to condemn that infamous Magick which is from the Devil and to commend that which is natural and lawful yet you may know by what hath been said alleadged and from his Writings what he followed Lib. principio seu de myste Especially by his upholding that infamous Conjurer Judaeus Techel and there was scarce any Magician in any age but he commends him He saith the Magicians of Pharaoh had their Art from God and is offended that the Scripture gives them such harsh language From whence and from many other arguments it is manifest that his Magick was from the Devil And he makes only this difference between lawful and unlawful Magick that one doth flatter the Devil by Incantations ceremonies And the other by force commands his Arts and makes him serve by faith
the species received by the imagination they are ascribed to the phansie nor can the passions of the mind of themselves produce them as when Mulberries Warts and the like come from the imagination upon the child And it may fall out that the same signature may be upon the child from divers passions and a woman may bear a child somwhat like an Ape if she either loved an Ape and plaid with it or was frighted by one which is a sign that somthing else goes with determinate signatures namely the imagination which directs the conformation For the forming faculty alone immediately makes the whole child whether well or ill fashioned But the phansie somtimes seduceth the forming faculty and directs it to make such a thing as is not conformable to the nature of the seed but like that which is imagined And so it is said to be the cause of these marks concurring to determine them but this is hard to be explained and some are of another mind It is safest to conclude that the forming faculty is directed by the imagination by the species exemplarily or objectively as they say by objecting the species conceived to which as to an example or rule the forming faculty doth her work But if any wonder that the forming faculty which belongs to the vegetative should know this exemplary species let him understand that all the faculties in a man are powers of the same soul and have some communication among themselves although the manner how is not known plainly Then let him know that the soul doth not this by its own power but a power given by the Creator And though the knowing faculty differs from the forming yet they are in some things agreable for so all parts know and attract the nourishment But how the species being conceived in the brain should be carried to the womb is hard to be understood We may say that while the child grows to the mother and partakes of her life those things that move the powers of the soul in the mother may stir up the faculties in the seed also and more affect the child then the mother because her body is so perfect that it needs nothing but nourishment but the soul is still busie in forming the body of the insant therefore any external thing may easily be admitted to direct it or seduce it to do this or that Many arguments are for this so as the passions of the soul are not alwaies necessary but a fixed intention and imagination is sufficient to mark the child The Queen of Aethiopia conceived of a white child by only viewing the picture of Andromeda So Jacobs sheep marked their lambs by beholding and imagining the party-coloured rods and we see the same in other beasts These changes are in the time of conception and child-bearing but more usually when they are gone some time in which time the forming faculty is at work and busie to make the parts after conception But all marks are not made at all times at the end of the colours may change and the whole figure the foot may be like that of a Horse the head like a Dog or Hog in the last month this cannot because all parts are fashioned For when Nature hath once fashioned the child she cannot alter the figure divide or change the number of parts Nor can the imagination make impression of any changes but only such as the matter of the body is disposed to and the forming faculty is apt to make by Natures order she cannot produce true feathers scales or horns and the reason why these are rather stamped upon the child then the womb is because the forming faculty is not busie about the womb but the child Hence it appears that the phansie cannot act upon a strange body and although the imagination of the mother affects the child yet is it so joyned to her that it seems as a part of her Avicen Alchirus Crolâ—ius Therefore they all are out that think the fancy can affect strange bodies and they that would shew causes disagree among themselves Paracelsus is of their opinion and heaps one absurdity upon another and give reasons as weak as the rest They should have shewed that Phantasmes move another way then by representation nor doth the phansie do any thing but receive the species of things from the senses to judge and bring them to the understanding And how can the species and representation that onely are to represent the thing from which they came change or move any thing without a man Especially seeing the action of the phansie is immanent And as for the imagination of women with child and the marks upon their children by the fancy they only prove that the soul any way moved by the imagination may be the cause of peculiar motions in its own body Therefore what Paracelsus and Crollius have written concerning the imagination is not worth the refuting and to speak short the foundation of all Magical operations and the great Wheel of all Crollius his Magick is false and it is this opinion of the strength of imagination and sew modern Writers follow them This Magick is old nor is it better for that because it came from Plato Lib 3 de vit caelitus comparanda and the Aegyptians given to Idolatry the foundation of this was laid by Marcus Ficinus when he writes that by the application of our spirit to the spirit of the world by the Art of Physick and affection that deeds are cast upon the soul and heavenly good upon our affection But this union of the soul of man with the Angels and Spirits which is by imagination and the calling upon Spirits to do man service is the work and invention of Conjurers Chap. 15. of the Physiological part of Physick THough Severinus and the Chymists seem in many things to dissent from the Galenists yet they disser not much but teach almost the same things only they deliver themselves in other language First Contra Anonimum they make three Principles in man and Quercetan placeth theÌ„ in the three principle parts of the body He saith that the natural faculty which is seated in the liver hath its conservation and nourishment from salt which is the first radical Principle and the foundation of the rest That the vital faculty in the heart is sustained by a sulphurous liquor And the animal faculty is preserved by Mercury which is altogether aetherial and spiritual Then they make a twofold body in man the one visible of the four Elements and blood the other invisible This last is called by them The Starlick Man within incorporeal a kind of Gabal man a houshold God a visible shadow of the body a familiar a shade a little wise man a Demon or good genius The internal Adech of Paracelsus A ghost the Euestrum or presaging light of Nature which is a Prophet also the imagination which contains all the Stars in it self and knows all Stars and keeps
the same course of Nature and power with the Heavens Concerning the Creation of Man Severinus saith Man is a quintessence extracted from the Firmament and Elements or a subtile Essence of the whole World extracted and concreted into one body And so is the compleat image of the Universe and he adds that God in creating the World plaid the Spagyrist or Chymist These things plainly taken are not to be endured because there are two parts that constitute man the soul and the body neither of which being alone can be called man There are also spirits in the body which are the principal instruments of the soul and the soul useth them immediately in the actions of life These spirits are invisible but corporeal if the Chymists take these for the invisible man they tell us no news onely they speak improperly when they give the name of the whole to a part of man If they mean any thing besides spirits to be the invisible man they multiply beings or they must prove that besides the body soul and spirit there is an other substance in man and I shall not yeild to them till they do Then in describing the Creation of man Crollius is very rash for God by his power created man of clay and gave him strength as he pleased nor had he need of the Spagyrick Art to give him strength and we read that man was made according to Gods image and we read not that that clay or dust of which he was made was the quintessence of the whole World therefore the Paracelsians are out What they say of generation nourishment and rule of mans body is according to Hippocrates and Galen only a little coloured with other fictions yet some things are false When they say that generation is from mechanical spirits and that after generation the body being compleat all natural actions are administred they say true but it is no news But they erre in two points First for rejecting the temperament to be from the first qualities as though it availed not for actions for an animated part having its temper and full of natural heat and spirits is the adequate or fit organ for every action therefore none of these must be wanting Then they erre in that they give knowledg to act simply to the spirits for they act not by their own strength but are directed by the soul and this knowledg is belonging to the soul which is the first cause of all actions in a living body Fourthly they think not right concerning blood when they deny it to be the nourishment of the body and place it above the dignity of the parts for experience teacheth that the chyle is turned into blood as the meat into chyle for no other end but that the whole body should be nourished with blood Therefore since Severinus hath questioned so plainly a matter and brought no reasons against it we may with as much ease deny what he saies Fiftly when he saith the spirits are hungry and filled it is absurd for it is the creatures properly but the spirits are refreshed and restored it is one thing to indicate and another to defire Consumed spirits indicate restauration but the appetite desires to be preserved by its like and to have what is troublesom removed Sixthly they make blood one of the parts and and it may be allowed but let them understand parts as Hippocrates did when he divided the body into parts cōtaining contained and such as do force otherwise blood is no part but nourishment They do ill to give the government of the body to blood because it is only for nourishmēt but the spirits govern the body under the soul Seventhly they do ill to accuse the Galenists of idleness Nor are they ignorant of that of Hippocrates of places in men which Severinus quored nor are they ignorant that the diseases in the joynts are worst when humors flow from other parts under them This they call by a new name Synovia and they know not what to determine about it But Hippocrates only attributes that humor to the joynts that they may move better Paracelsus thought otherwise of Synovia when he said It is a nourishment of its part Lib. 7. paragr par 7 And they since say it is an internal vertue and agility or a sweet Milk which nourisheth the parts all these hang not well together Eightly Severinus doth undeservedly accuse Galen because he reckoned not the gall among the parts of the body for it ought to be cast out as an excrement it is so far from being a part that constitutes a body Ninthly when Severinus makes a stomach in the liver and other parts it is simple to quible so upon the word Stomach as Paracelsus did when he said the pleurisie was in the head The 10. Chapter of Severinus is Galen in other words Lib. 3. de morb tartareis c. 4. The Paracelsians toss the humors strangely and say they are but bare words and call the Galenists Humorists because saith Paracelsus Neither Heaven nor Earth knows flegm choler or melancholy therefore they are not in man And why should we prove the humors from the Analogy between the great and little World It is foolish without sense or experience to flie to such Analogical proofs For as in other creatures so in man there is blood which nourisheth now sense teacheth that blood is made of meats received but not Salt Sulphur or Mercury and when a vein is opened blood is let out not Salt Sulphur or Mercury and in all bodies in all times ages places and countries blood is found But Paracelsus differs in this from himself and mentions blood and humors in many of his Books But they will answer that it is manifest to the senses that blood is in the veins but they will shew by an artificial dissolving of it that it hath three Principles as they shew from what fountain actions proceed but here they seem wise for while we speak of blood and humors the question is not touching the first Principles of things but of the immediate in mans body and perfect animals Suppose we grant that blood and humors are made of Salt Sulphur and Mercury therefore must the ancient names of choler blood flegm and melancholy be rejected by the same reason you may reject the appellations of bones membranes flesh and of all parts for by the principles of Chymists these are made of their three principles as well as blood Therefore it is fit that ancient should be kept to which Galen Hippocrates Aristotle Avicen Mefue and the rest have agreed both Chymists and others For it is not for every one to give names to things nor was Paracelsus so great a man that he ought so to do The names of the humors are not insignificant without essence and properties Seed Flesh and Bone are made of Blood as the rest but because they have a new form they take new names And that which was before called Bread may be called