away if the disease may be cured without and that leads me to the fourth Conclusion 4. That all Feavers Agues and Pluresies may be cured without Phlebotomy In the Plague Small Pox and pestilential Feavers the question by our Antagonists will be yeelded every year affording sad presidents of Galenists dotages in this kinde as I instanced before in that great Doctor Sir Theodore Mayherne and could instance in above forty that my self have known and observed and that very lately but in the Pleuresie it will be a great controversie because without bloud-letting that disease is commonly reputed deadly without hope or help although that opinion be altogether groundless and false Truth the Pleuresie is a most dangerous Feaver with a Spasmus or Convulsion of the side especially the left among the ribs a little below the heart this accompanied with the Cough doth make a forcible dilaceration in that place and that causeth extravenate bloud and that threatning apostemation indangers the suffocation of the party affected without a speedy remedy forasmuch as extravenate bloud in such a heat will not be long uncorrupted but that the proper speedy and adequate remedy of this grief is bloud-letting that I deny That by bleeding in the beginning this disease findes mitigation by mean of the revulsion or diversion made thereby I grant and yet this notwithstanding phlebotomy is a dangerous often desperate sometimes alwaies a prejudicial prescription be the prescriber who he will which hath its absolute inseparable inconveniencies annexed to it and following it on which score it is not a remedy for an honest man to apply or prescribe That an eminent fright will take away not only Agues but other more deeply rooted and Chronick diseases is a thing very well known to many and would be believed by more yet the practise of that way of cure hitherto hath not and I presume never will prevail in the world At that sad fire by Gunpowder in Tower-street I heard of many cured of rigorous maladies by being put in a sudden fright to run for their lives and many on the fright sickned and there first took the beginnings of those diseases which after proved mortall to them and many mothers miscarried and many women fell into uterine and those terrible passions the like in other frights may be instanced as in taking of Cities and Towns unexpected alarms c. in which cases many have risen from their sick beds and come from their sick chambers and fought stoutly for their lives and lost their disease they knew not how others contracted diseases of which they never before were sensible and of which afterwards they have never been rid For to say truth a disease is most of all the fury of the indignation of the Archeus which finding a preterusual character impressed on its place of habitation straight rages and acts in its fury beyond all rule and measure this is the disease whereas that fury being pacified the product Nature can finde waies to evacuate with ease and the character impressed being but transient would abide but a short time as the smell of garlick in the breath of him that eats it only the Archeus growing mad as conceiving its habitation unfit to be indured with that odious Idea sets all on fire producing a real misery from it self effectively on apprehension of a conceived injury so verifying the Proverb Nemo laeditur nisi à seipso Now the life dwelling in the bloud and the balsam of life being contained therein the taking of this away doth threaten ruine to the life and so consequently to the Archâ—us which is but its immediate servant by which fear it is oft taken from its fury to the abatement of Symptomes speedily after which sometimes the Archeus repents of its former fury and madness and so by accident this evil of the losing bloud produceth health sometimes when the danger threatned by loss of bloud is over the Archeus returns to its former fury and afflicts though not altogether with its former rigor the principle of life being wasted yet so as to delude afterward the vain Art of the Doctor and for its Epilogue ends in a Tabes according to Galen who laies down for a maxim Pleuretici nisi restaurentur intra quadragenarium fiunt Tabifici But admit the cure were certain by bleeding as it is not yet is it not to be practised by an ingenuous man since at the best it cures only by accident and that by fear of greater danger drawing or rather forcing the Archeus out of its rage and fury by which means the threed of life is cut shorter by wasting its subject in which it is kept and by which it is maintained especially if it may be certainly speedily and safely cured and the bloud preserved which is a thing promised by Paracelsus Helmont c. and performable by medicines that are preparable by the Art of Pyrotechny of which I shall by and by give an account to the studiour and judicious Reader I shall have don in this place with Phlebotomy because elsewhere I shall have occasion to ventilate it only this I shall say that it is an inhumane barbarous butchery because so much bloud as is taken away so much is cut off from the threed of life and so the Doctor becomes Journeyman to Atropos cutting short the life of many by the rules of his Art or at least impairing their strength which art so magnified is at the best but a dotage because that where ever it is used with shew of good successe and colour of necessity there I know the cure may be performed without loss of one drop of bloud and so I come to examine purgatives concerning which I shall propound a fifth Conclusion 5. That no purge quatenus purging is an intentional remedy against a Feaver or Pleuresie nor Vomiting as a vomit For Purges properly so called or rather improperly are absolute venomes confounded by the Art sometimes with a little knavery together of the Apothecary and so prescribed ignorantly by the Doctor and taken unsuccessefully by the Patient These in the Plague Small Pox and malignant Feavers after the appearing of Symptomes with rigor are like fiends that must be conjured down till another season that is till the matter be digested or rather in other words till nature hath foiled the distemper then comes the Doctor to play both the fool and knave with his rules of Art and prescribes his lenitives gentle purges for fear lest the party should seem to recover without his help before this while purges are too desperate he deviseth a Clyster which trade almost every old wife hath got from him who now a daies can prescribe Clysters as confidently and as wel as the Doctor Here the Apothecary who in this case is groom of the close stool is as busie as a cut purse on which score I heard of one who had his holiday face and band spoyled by one of his Patients for want of a
any thing real herein he will deserve no less of those who are herein concerned which all ingenuous men are or else ought to be then Saul did of the Jabesh-Gileadites who delivered them from the insulting Tyrant who would put out every mans right eye for a reproach unto Israel Now next unto that knowledge which is indeed life eternal namely to know God the only true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ which knowledge is of everlasting concernment the most noble is that which discovers the Creators wildom in the Creatures so as to be able to distinguish their natures and properties and to apply them to the use of Man namely to the restoring of the defects of decaying Nature and the overcoming of Diseases which even unto lamentation do waste and destroy almost in all places the poor distressed members â—f Jesus Christ under which many â—erish being in extremity of depair exposed to a sad spectacle comâ—rtless to the patient and horrible to â—he beholders These diseases and miseries the â—â—uits of sin inflicted most justly â—rom the righteous Judge are yet cuâ—able by remedies which the Almighty hath created for which end the â—ather of mercies and God of comâ—assion hath also created the Physiâ—an that he being an instrument of â—ercy in the hand of a merciful Faâ—er might make whole and binde â—p those whom the same God with â—s hand of justice hath wounded and â—oken This in brief is the use of medicial knowledge the subject whereof 〈◊〉 in the first place the Body and Nature of man to know it both in â—s integrity and defects and secondly all Creatures without man which are to be considered either more directly as they tend to the affording of medicines for remedying and preventing defects or Collaterally aâ— they serve to elucidate the nature either of defects or remedies This Art or knowledge of all Sublunary attainments is the highest 〈◊〉 is the last and bringeth up the Reeâ— as I may say unto all the rest 〈◊〉 that though the Geometrician Arithmetician Politician Mechanist and the like are not to be despised yeâ— they fall far short of that dignitâ— which is due to the Physician whoâ— object is the most worthy of Creatures even Man who is made littâ— inferior to Angels crowned with glory and honour under whose feet 〈◊〉 things have been subjected yet 〈◊〉 for sin is laid under vanity of whiâ— no small part are the distempers anâ— maladies which his frail life anâ— weak body are subject to This Art or Knowledge as it haâ— had continual and shall have perpetual use among men so God hath been pleased to discover it in some degree and measure in all Ages that in no generation there should be wanting a testimony as of his Justice so of his infinite and transcendent Mercy who is ready as with one hand to chastise and afflict so with the other to succour and relieve those who are chastised and corrected Those who have been endowed with this skill or science God endowed also with a Heart communicative so that they have out of compassion unto those who are in misery been free in the discovering unto posterity what they understood herein so far to wit as might conduce to the stirring up of the ingenuous to a personal further inquiry and also be a help to them in their search to discover those secrets which they who were before them found beneficial to the healing of this or that distemper Among whom Hippocrates one of the first and most eminent who left any thing to us upon record of usefull experimental practice whose attainments as they were in reference to the rudeness of his Age admirable so his Candor in discovering the same was commendable saving that what he left sincere hath through the abuse of times been much corrupted with the placits and invention of such who not comparable to him in reality would yet seem to excell him in appaâ—ency The excellent vertue of this man as it was alwaies maligned by Satan to whose malicious disposition it is natural to envie those things most especially which are oâ— may be of the greatest concernment for the good of Man either his spiritual or temporal life So through his policy it was soon forgotten by posterity and his renowned skill for which he was not without cause named Divine Hippocrates after his death was so buried with him that in a short time there was nothing but the bare name thereof retained by his successors And as nothing strikes a more fatall blow to vertue and verity then a glorious shew thereof without any reality so by this policy Satan that he might if possible for ever keep in oblivion this so necessary a science for the use of man At length about five Ages or more from the death of Hippocrates Galen comes in upon the Grecian stage who as if it were his design to rake up the glowing Embers of Hippocrates Art from under the ashes of forgetfulness wrote ample Tomes concerning this Art of medicine and that the memory thereof might be kept from future perishing digested the same into a Method whereby this Art might afterwards be communicated by verball Tradition in Scholastick Lectures and disputations Now had Satan brought his design unto a full head which being once on foot he ceaseth not to prosecute with all possible craft and diligence For as his chief aim is to sever the shew from the substance knowing that way to be of all other the most effectual for the fatal suppressing and smothering truth so this empty shadow was soon had in high esteem insomuch that being cryed up in the Schools it soon got footing all the world over insomuch that there was no civilized nation or people how different soever in Laws manners and customes but with one accord they all submitted to march under Galen his banner and counted it the glory of their studies and the crown of their labours to receive his Badge And to make this the more plausible the Schools invented their honorary Titles the more to allure Students to this their profession bestowing upon as many as had sucked out by their studies and disputations Galens Marrow and learned his Method so as to be able to read a Lecture or make a Commentary upon him the title of Doctors insomuch that they drew multitudes after them all partly through ambition and partly through pride and sloth willingly yeelding themselves to be seduced by the common Error By this means the pure fountains of true learning were miserably pudled and poysoned insomuch that as many as drank of them being lulled into a deep sleep finding honour and riches in that seeming knowledge which they had drank in were abundantly contented Yea and to make their station the surer they decreed that upon penalty of loss of their gradual titles of honour no man should dare to step a step out of the rode-way of Galen whose Volumes being by Scholastick Authority confirmed for Text they left it to
their sufficiency not their profession It is not then the materials used but the preparation of the materials so as to be able to effect what the Physician promiseth and the Patient expects surely safely and speedily that distinguisheth a true Son of Art from pretending bunglers of which some are more crafty and cautious others more ignorant and rashly venturous yet both more distinct from true Artists then from one another If Nature had made true Medicines ready prepared to hand for every disease that it were no more then to pluck them as an Apple from the tree then indeed a distinction might be made of professors of the Art of Medicine according to the materials wrought upon But contrariwise it is sadly evident that very few Simples are endowed with a medicinal virtue without virulency and those also have their excellency obstructed with the gross feculency which growes together with the spiritual â—incture and as a shell doth hiddenly contain the same so that without some previous preparations few things are worthy the name of Medicaments Now what preparation is usual for vegetal Simples only decoction or infusion or conserving with Sugar or Honey whereby the good is not so separated from the bad but that several crudities remain but of this Helmont hath at large treated I shall not repeat It would be a tedious Wild-goose chase to trace their medicines and refute them for that will be but to agere actum and I intend here an Apology not a charge a defensive not an offensive conflect I shall come therefore to state our Case for till that be done it is a vain thing to contend in words First of all we differ from the Goosquil Tribe in the Theoretical discovery of Diseases and secondly in our Practical cure of them Now as to the Theory of Diseases and the Philosophical contemplation of Simples it is not essential to a Physician for a man may know the remedies with which to cure all diseases and yet erre very much in the discovery of Causes for the remedy being to the disease as water to fire which will undoubtedly quench it as a man may know certainly by water to quench fire and yet erre in the Philosophical appre-prehension of the same so may a man by a proper remedy rightly and in due proportion applyed certainly cure the disease and be able to distinguish the same generally though he be not able to finde our and apprehend the manner of its original with its occasional causes progress and variations Nor let this seem a Paradox for it may easily be evinced against the most snarling gainsayer for consider the forementioned example of quenching fire by water and it may be made unquestionable What rustick that doth not know that water is for the quenching of fire and will give a very near guess how much water will quench so much fire and yet how many of our School Philosophers can assign the true cause of that effect it is not water as water for milk whey wine-vinegar c. will do the same nor yet as cold for hot water and other hot liquors will perform it as well as cold nor yet as moist for oyl and oleaginous moistures being thrown on fire in one measure encreaseth it and in another measure will quench it as a week of a candle or lamp may be drowned with too much tallow or oyle So that in very deed the Philosophical speculation doth follow practical knowledge and experience denominates that science which else would be but bare opinion But of this I speak sufficiently in my large Treatise called Organu Philosophiae novum and shall not in this place repeat what there is sufficiently proved and confirmed Therefore the effects of diseases so far as they are obvious to every observer can instruct any who make it their work to be conversant therein that are of capacity so as to be able to judge and distinguish one disease from another and by the Symptomes to discover if or no it do proceed in the ordinary course of the same malady or if by complication it doth alter and how this is as much as is absolutely requisite for a Physician in the knowledge of diseases for this knowledge doth essentially conduce to the cure but to be able to unfold the quiddity of it its efficient and continent causes the material and occasionate with other curiosities which a Philosopher doth contemplate upon and in which the intellect is occupied this adornes but doth not constitute a Physician So then the absolute things requisite in one who would conscionably undertake the lives of the sick are first to know how to unlock those medicines which the Almighty hath created and to prepare them and after how and when and to whom to apply them and how to order and dispose the Patient so as that he may reap that good from them which by careful administration of them is expected Mistake me not I do not deny nay I confidently affirm that he who is endowed with wisdom from above to be so curious and so diligent in his search as to attain the noble medicines which the Lord hath created for mans relief and unspeakable comfort he if he prove but so observant in the administration as he was acute in the preparation cannot but so far be inlightned from Natures light in these observations as to apprehend the causes of the diseases and their whole quiddity or being which may by arguments à posteriori be collected from their effects as likewise he may be able to demonstrate à posteriori the cause and manner of cures wrought by medicines a work most worthily performed by noble Helmont which contemplation will wonderfully delight a true Son of this Art but yet as I said before this doth follow and adorn not precede and constitute a Physician And this I shall adde that the soul which is a I may say ipse in homine homo when once an effect is apparent and so known as to become a mechanism doth no farther any more reap content from it unless it be in reference to some deduction it gathers from it to the finding out of some new hidden truth nor doth the soul ever feed on it more as upon its object originally directly and in an absolute consideration no more then in the knowing how to make a fire or that the fire will burn boyl dry c. Therefore justly saith the wise man that in much knowledge is much vanity and vexation of spirit but this only as a digression To return therefore we conclude that to a true Physician is required to know if a disease be probably curable and if so then how as for instance the plague-tokens appearing are rightly judged mortal and so may any such state be reputed in which nature will admit of no remedy nor death accept of any truce The careful observer of these things will by experience learn to distinguish between dangerous and desperate cases and so may order
is in Chymical Medicaments and with this clamour they have filled the world and buzzed it into the ears and hearts of as many as by their impudent confident railing they could incline to embrace this opinion whose aspersions now I shall endevour to wipe off And here I shall entreat the Readers candor in pondering the weight of Arguments on both sides before he proceed to censure for which end I shall minde thee of one general rule which is in the urging of all Controversies to observe the interest of each party and then you will confess that what ever is said on either side and not proved savours of passion not of Reason Consider that the Galenical Tribes credit honour reputation and fortunes do all depend on impugning this way of Chymical preparations no marvel then if you hear from them Demetrius his outcry Great is the Diana of the Ephesians especially since the moving cause is the same namely Sirs you know that by this Art we get our wealth our honour and all and therefore it behoves to oppose that upstart Chymistry which will if it once be accepted into the world make us to be as contemptible as common Fidlers Hinc illae lachrymae Hence it is that you hear such terrible newes concerning this Art of Pyrotechny for this Art requireth in a sense a new birth or regeneration as then it was an irresoluble riddle to Nicodemus that a man when he was old should enter into his mothers womb and again be born so is it an insufferable task for an old Putationer who hath by prescription attained the reputation of a skilful Doctor to make loss of all this his imaginary skill and to employ his time pains study and moneys in the attaining of that which he either neglecting oâ— slighting in his youth is in his age as capable of as an Asse is to play on the Harp there is therefore no way left for him to uphold his own reputation then by casting durt on that Art which is so diametrically opposite to his former way of profit Nor is it any thing of weight that he urgeth his as the old way and condemns the other as new for error wants but a few hours of the Age of truth nor was this old way elder then error and therefore to plead its antiquity is a fallacious argument of its authority and verity Yet could I if it made to my present purpose trace this noble Art of true Chymical Philosophy to a far more ancient pedigree then Galen or Hippocrates either although Hippocrates was as incomparably different from the other as truth is from error But as I said before here lies the very knot of all the Galenists have a Trade which is supported by Garrulity performed with ease and idleness and accompanied with riches credit esteem and honour their work is not attended with any pains untill they come to practise and then that only consists in visits which pains is the key of their wealth As for the properation of Medicaments that the Doctor little acquaints himself with it his Theory consisting only in turning over of leaves and his Practise in tossing of Pisse-pots and writing of Bils this O! this is their Diana they so much admire and propound to the credulous world to be adored But now a true son of Art he is not so blassed for his interest doth not hang on such a hinge but he propounds the workman to be judged by his work nor can there be too many endowed with this true skil for in the search of nature there are infinite secrets and those lucriferous to the Artist so that he need not gape after the practise of medicine for gain God in mercy dispensing his gifts for the use of mankinde gives such to whom he imparts this skil an heart to improve it without the sordid by-ends of gain and profit But admit that every Galenist were indeed a true Chymist what disadvantage could accrew thereby to any true Artist for every one would have sufficient imployment so many are the sad diseases to which mortal man is subject Experience sheweth that the Galenists envie not Chymists as Physicians but as Chymists for otherwise they can with patience bear the daily swarming of their own Tribe so fruitful is that profession of its Clients that it is incredible what a number there is of them in and about London Now it is not to be doubted but all or most of them get a living by their Art besides old Wives Quacks Mountebanks Barber-surgeons and their men Apothecaries c. who all as confidently pretend to a patrimony in the Art of Medicine as if they were the natural sons of Galen and Hippocrates Yet sad experience doth teach that for all this rabble of Physicians there is not a third part of diseases cured nor a tenth part by the skill of the Doctor If then so many get a living by pretending to that they know not and undertaking what they cannot performe this livelihood would not be diminished but rather encreased if all were holpen that are undertaken and those moreover who in numberless swarmes lie up and down in Hospitals and Spitles and many who languish at home in private both hopeless and helpless But if once true Artists were countenanced and embraced scarce the tenth pretender but would be thrown under the board for true medicine is not prostituted in formal receipts to be prepared by the hand of any blundering Apothecary but it is one of the choice secrets of nature which she hath with great care locked up nor will she open them to any who have not the true keyes It is not an overly reading of Fernelius Avicen Galen that can entitle a man a Son of this Art but it requires a mental man patient laborious and one who is not niggardly in expences such a man must toyl without wearisomness and although after several years searching with the expence of many pounds he hit not what he aims at yet must he still patiently proceed which task is more than Herculean for a lazy Pisse-prophet CHAP. V. BUt to come to the matter propounded namely concerning poysons of which aspersion I shall acquit the right Chymicall Medicines Poyson properly is that which by an over powering activity in the body doth destroy the vitals and is of divers sorts some are putrifactive poysons others corrosive others narcotick c. This in general concerning their Nature but in particular they are all found either in the Animal Vegetable or Mineral Kingdome Not to speak of those endemical malignant vapours which infect the air oft-times nor of the virulency of the Pestilence Leprosie c. which oft doth seat it self in the very wals of houses cloth paper c. But although there are several sorts of malignities which are properly so called poysons yet in the common acceptation of the word it denotes such a thing by which either man or beast is destroyed and that either by the eating of it or
convulsions of the stomack which have Hellebore mixed and their purging quality with gripings and such symptomes that have Scammony mixed thus you use to correct poysons thus you intend to cure diseases Minervam crassissimam But as a Jugler when his feats are discovered so you by this means become ridiculous you know the serious check the Frog in Aesop received who as you do would pretend to be a Doctor Cur tibi ipsi labra livida non curas Coughs Colds Murres Hoarsenesses Head-aches Tooth-aches and the like nay oft-times the simple Itch and Scab doth reproach you at home and outdare you abroad and what is your excuse they are trivial cases By which it appears that if other diseases should become as common as these they would all be too mean for the Doctors reverence and good reason because they are above his abilities Though you name Mountebanks with contempt yet you differ from them chiefly herein They pretend skill in notorious diseases chiefly there where they are least or not at all known You in a place where you are most known are most desirous to deal in hidden unknown maladies How often shall a man finde the Doctors worship himself tormented and at his wits end with the Tooth-ach or Head-ach muffled up for a Hoarsness often coughing at every breath to whom if you object the common Proverb Physician heal thy self he will thank you heartily as much as if he did but he knowes he cannot do it but it must wear away he will take perhaps some old wives Medicine and what is the cause If another come to him for the same grief he is straight at his rules of Art the Cough saith he is caused by a Catharr and therefore first you must purge and then make an issue and use Conserves of Fox-lungs and such like remedies why doth he not use these tricks himself this is the reason he knows it is a folly for these remedies are invalid yet be it as it will he that hath money shall have his counsel which he will not take himself because he wants some body to pay him for it and other good he expects none but the Patients confidence he hopes will help out the insufficiency of the Medicament which therefore he will confidently prescribe and count this his Counsel worth a Fee to another which to himself would not be worth taking Well be it so that according to the Proverb Aquila non capit muscas the Doctor is above these petty imployments which are too vulgar which might be the better beleeved if he were free from them himself yet I then desire to be enformed what they say to the forementioned Gout is not that a disease worthy their care and cure Yes without doubt for it is a disease that often followes great men and Heroes whom it so affects that he should not be unrewarded and that highly that could perform that here the Doctor hath proved his skill and method ad nauseam and at last he concludes it to be incurable Perhaps upon some disorder of the body by sudden heat and cold there may be caused a running and very sharp pain which as I said before is accidental and therefore transient the Doctor is advised and consulted with he adviseth fomentations unguents plaisters sear-cloths and scarifications then he purgeth the body once or again as the fansie takes him perhaps he will cause blisters to be drawn and after them cause issues to be made then he prescribes a Dietory and perhaps causeth him to sweat the pain goeth away sometimes he useth bathing of the part in hot Bathes either wet or dry then the Doctor strokes his beard and perswades himself he hath cured the running Gout Ne saevi magne sacerdos Oft times a good old woman sweating a party so taken soundly with Carduus Camomile-flowers bathing the place affected with Brandy Wine warm hath performed the like Ampla spolia This O this is the Doctors Method this is the Art they so magnifie in respect of which a Chymical Physician in contempt is by them termed an Emperick and a Mountebank and what not We have seen their mystery in common maladies which are too vulgar for them a gallant excuse and in more difficult cases in which being convinced by daily experience and opportunity of being more fully convinced still presenting it self hath extorted a confession of their impotency herein yet palliated with a shameless falshood that such diseases are incurable which censure they give on a multitude of other diseases as the Phthisick Consumption Strangury Palsie Epilepsie and many others which it would be tedious to relate and name But a true Physician acknowledges none of those shameful distinctions of trivial and considerable diseases nor that false distinction of curable and incurable but by his Art with Gods blessing he is able to cure and restore to their integrity all distempers of what kind soever which I shall briefly yet fully clear up and demonstrate This task may seem to some very difficult especially to a Pisse-Prophet who I suppose are very desirous to hear it demonstrated I doubt not but many of the Goosquill Tribe hope the contrary having this confidence that what ever is beyond their capacity is beyond possibility whom therefore I shall principally assail in this demonstration If any of you desire to know how I prove all diseases to be curable who am so confident to affirm it I shall aske you how you prove any diseases to be incurable which you so confidently affirm to be so I know that what ever you will answer though by much circumlocution it will all tend to this because you never could certainly cure such diseases therefore you so judge them In very truth Gentlemen if you from negative experience are so bold to collect a positive Maxim and confidently pronounce that incurable which you cannot cure I hope you will give the like liberty to a Son of Art to affirm those diseases to be curable which he hath oft and certainly restored Worth derision was that of an Ideot who being asked how many seven and seven was he counted it on his fingers and could tell the number being asked how many four times seven was his finger Arithmetick failing he could not tell but being asked how many seven times seven was he said No man could tell he thought some men might possibly count up 4 times 7 but 7 times 7 God only knew So you some diseases you think you can cure others though you cannot yet some more experienced in your Art can but the knotted Gout Stone Strangury Epilepsie c. God only can cure This is your sentence somethings often succeed in our hands and some though rarely yet sometimes therefore they are curable others never succeed therefore they are incurable This Logick would make almost all Mechanicks to be impossible if what ever you cannot do must straight be unfecible Can any of you or all your Colledge together make the Tyrian
Purple Can you make that refined Copper which in Ezra is spoken of and is as precious as Gold yet both are not only fecible but the Art was formerly known as appears by the Authority of the Scripture But what need I propound such hard Cases to you Can any of you make a Sword or a pair of handsom Schooes I hope you will not therefore conclude it impossible Is all wisdom with you Is nature limited to your knowledge Shall that skill not be accounted true which you have not Fie on all such arrogance and fie on all positive conclusions drawn from negative experience which is indeed but ignorance for what is negative experience but want of experience and what is that but ignorance It is a true saying Qui ad pauca respicit facile pronunciat Tell me seriously why should you account that incurable which you cannot cure What have you tryed for to give such a resolute sentence Do you know all natural things with all their preparations and the virtue of them both in their simplicity and what they may be advanced to by a due preparation Or do you think that this is needless for a Physician to know Do you think that diseases will be scared into conformity by the vengeance of your gravity Or what is the matter for shame confess the truth and say it is a refuge only for your ignorance and laziness that you have compiled that Catalogue of incurable maladies and if you be not past all grace and shame attend to him who offers to inform you better If the cure of the sick be your aim and the good of mankinde do not envie a profitable truth because it is fallen out of your lot which you might have shared in had you been industrious in your time and youth But then being too slothful to learn and now too proud to confess your ignorance I cannot expect but you will be like Momi Zoili snarling at what you cannot imitate verifying the Adagy Inscius quae non capit ea carpit Doctus tanta mysteria ridet Ambo sic pergam fatuus at unus Invidus alter The truth is what you affirm to be impossible that I will yeeld to be very difficult which difficulty respects not the cure for all diseases are alike to a noble Medicine but the preparation of the Medicines but you know the proverb Difficilia sunt quae pulchra But though they be difficult yet they are not to be despaired of according to the Poet Nil tam difficile est quod non solertia vincat Do you think that Science and Art will drop down on you without pains and diligence as Diana is fabled to have fell from Jupiter or to be inspired miraculously as Danae was fabled to be impregnated by Jupiter coming down into her lap in a showre of Gold know you not that vendidere dii sudoribus Artes It is not reading of Aristotle that will make a Philosopher or of Galen Hippocrates Avicen Mesue or Fernelius Sennertus or the like that will make a Physician It is not the reading over of Herbals or learning the form and history of plants that will make a true Son of Art No verily it requires a far greater diligence There are Medicines to be made that will cure all diseases none excepted which if the health of men and conscionable performing of your duty were a thing you made conscience of you would seriously attend and not suffer so many to languish and perish hopeless and helpless when God hath appointed means abundantly for their recovery You will say if we could be sure that there were such remedies we would not spare for any cost to attain them but we cannot beleeve any such thing But why cannot we beleeve it Doth not the Scripture say that Gods mercy is above all his works it is a great diffiding in Gods mercy to think that there are so many diseases left incurable and yet this is one of Christs Attributes that he took our infirmities and bare our griefs he went about doing good and curing all manner of diseases among the people therefore it is a good thing that all diseases should be cured and is any good thing impossible The saddest affliction of all that befals mankinde as to this life and the most deplorable God hath not left without a remedy viz. the possessing of the body by the Devil which being a preternatural affliction hath a supernatural remedy which is prayer and fasting And is it likely that he hath left any natural malady destitute of a remedy Again doth not the Lord protest that he doth not willing grieve nor afflict the children of men which would be a paradox to believe if there were no remedy for such and such diseases when the Lord by the most deplorable diseases would seâ— set out the saddest afflicted State oâ— the Church for their sins sake askes this question Is there no balm in Giâ—â— lead is there no Physician there 〈◊〉 it were a very unapt similitude iâ— there were such a catalogue of sore for which there is no balm and sucâ— a roll of diseases for which there iâ— no Physician Tell me did you never read of a medicine created out of earth which he that was wise should not despise But according to your Doctrine if this wise man were either afflicted with the Gout Strangury Palsie Epilepsie or the like he should despise that Medicine and that justly if it would do him no good for his distempers It must needs follow that that which no wise man should despise that is unless he would discover folly in so despising must needs be of virtue to cure all diseases or any or else if a wise man may be subject to any disease which that Medicine could not cure he could not without folly but despise it in reference to his own behalf Did you never read that the sick have need of a Physician To what end I pray thee to entreat God for him and to prove one of Jobs comforters that is to tell him that his sickness was incurable if then the sick indifferently not this sick man and that sick man excluding such and such need a Physician it must needs be that the Physician hath or should have remedies to help such an one or else he hath little need of him to take his money and to torment him with his Rules of Art which are to no purpose if he be incurable Did you never read that God had created the Physician for necessity and appointed him to be honoured for necessity sake either then such cases which you shamelesly account uncurable are cases of necessity and so the Physician is created of God in such cases or no what honour think you is Physician like to receive that when he is called to some Patient hath this shameful subterfuge it is not to be done Nor do there want examples sufficient to convince the truth of this if you were but as careful to minde
of the most unworthily sordid covetous practitioner of the Art but as he who did but dare to gaze upon Diana naked was crowned with horns and made a prey unto his dogs so he who assayed such violence to this chaste and most retired Nymph is worthily rewarded with Midas purchase viz. a pair of Asses ears Those who know and see how studiously any of their own sect doth hide any one Receipt or Medicine which the finde singular so that many of them have never revealed it dying who would imagine them to be such Animals that whatever they read they should straight believe provided the Author have but had the luck to die famous and straightway to draw it into their Dispensatory to be put in practise by the Apothecary As though many who do write aiming at pomp and applause do not write meerly conjectures which they account rational Adde to this Natures simplicity which doth that with one or two things duly prepared and applyed which would not be done by all the Doctors pompous receipts which by hap some or other lighting of either by conference with some good old woman or having by fuccess found the reality of the thing which the Doctor willing to advance by his method of extracting candying or conserving or compounding he finds it to answer his expectation worse in composition then in its simplicity with a due preparation which therefore he keeps to himself as a secret and perhaps gets much credit by it for that is the Doctors craft that what a good old woman shall do by natures simplicity shall be judged not worth thanks yet the same done by him shall be enhanced within a degree of a miracle two or three such trivial experiments yet more effectual then the ordinary slops perhaps he accounts his mystery which he will not discover till at last dying he is won to impart them to the world which he knowing to be so simple that if told sincerely would be received with this of the Poet Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amici He therefore garnishes out the naked simple truth with addition of many things which he hopes or thinks will be but as herb John in Pottage of which some by reason of their dearness some for the hardness of procurement may raise a reverend esteem of that secret so much esteemed in his life and which he fears if nakedly declared would be contemptible after death and thus what to him was effectual being by his direction clog'd and perverted with a fortuitous medley becomes frustrate hence it is that so many things which were famous to the Inventor are at this day but contemptible slops Thus the Countess of Kents Powder is since her death brought into usual receipts which I rather suppose is a spurious Receipt forged by others then left by her yet in that she wanted not her costly additions which added to the price but diminished the virtue of the Simples the like may be said of Gascoines Powder which is by some accounted the ground of the other But what I particularise these things for I do to this end that it may appear how sottishly Doctors take for granted what ever they read in a book written by any man who was famous in his life which must needs be believed and taken thus on credit is so transmitted unto the Apothecaries to be accordingly prepared when as their secrets which they so esteemed they concealed in their life what they could and might have many reasons not to leave candidly written after death Partly lest the naked simplicity of them should bring them into contempt but it may be chiefly because perhaps to some friends under colour of friendship they have enviously given wrong Receipts which they must not alter at death lest they should brand themselves with a black note of infamy by so doing or for other reasons which it is not my design to reckon up or to endevour to conjecture only the grand reason I doubt not is because when a Doctor gets such a secret how simple soever it be he values it to the Patient richer then if made of Gold and Jems which therefore when ever published to the world must have some costly additions to make his price seem conscionable lest after his death by his own confession all that ever have used his Medicines should judge him an unconscionable cheat and so posterity falsly attributed the singularity of the virtue of the Medicine to the most costly ingredients come at last to leave out or neglect at least the due care and choyce of the most effectual ingredient Not that I do judge or think or contend for that a Physician is to sell his Medicines at the rate they cost him allowing such or such gain for his pains as a Merchant or Shop-keeper takes No verily for first Medicines are not every mans money the whole need them not and for their own use so long as healthy would not value that at twenty pence which might cost twenty pound The sick only needs them and to such they are precious if effectual and applyed in season As then I do not value Ambergreece the less because it is oft found by chance and seldom costs the finder more then his pains to take it up the like may be said of Jems in their first finding so I do not value a Medicine by what it costs but by what it will do and according to the party to whom it is applyed As then a poor mans credit is as dear to him as rich mans yet a defamation which to one may not be valued at six pence may to another be valued at six hundred pound so a Medicine which will cure both rich and poor though given to the poor for nothing yet doth not argue that it cost the maker of it nothing and though the making of it cost not above five shillings yet this doth not hinder but it may be valued to a rich man at five pound if it really do him more advantage then perhaps he would be without for five hundred pound A Physician then is bound only to the rules of true Charity and being given of God to help and relieve the lives of many that are endangered he may and that piously so take of the rich as to be able to help the poor freely and yet as cordially and as truely affording to them his best help and remedies for nothing as he doth to the rich for a reward Yet is it not fit that any reward should be accounted due where the disease is not cured for the Patient doth not want a Doctor for to tell him a tale of his disease nor yet to pray God for his recovery but to administer to his disease what may be effectual a Saylor though he take never so much pains yet is not paid that performes not his voyage yea and all callings whatever are paid for their pains only with proviso that they do what they undertake only a Doctor is paid
therefore I shall not repeat here what is fully delivered and made plain there However as I hinted our commonly venal Mercurius dulcis is a Fairy changeling intruded upon the world for the sweet oyl or Ladanum of Mercury fixt as gold and sweet as hony in its first fixation which corollated is Paracelsus Arcanum Corallinum otherwise called Mercurius praecipitatus dulcis which by cohobation with the fire of Hell that is the Alchahest becomes volatile and sweet like hony and withall being anodynous is called Ladanum Mercurii and not seldom Mercurius dulcis which can never be revived to Mercury again but by the same Art which would revive gold and discover its central Mercurial profundity I need not instance in other mock mimical preparations falsly obtruded upon the world for Paracelsus never sufficiently to be commended Secrets as Mercurius vitae Aurum vitae Magisteries of Pearls and Jemmes their quintessences of Antimony c. of which comparing their either desperate efficacy or ridiculous languidness with the promise of Paracelsus and Helmont concerning their Arcanaes of those names he may say with the Poet Spectatum admissi risum teneatis amiciâ— Being a true embleme of the Mountains travel or the shearing of hogs the one after infinite expectation producing a silly mouse the others after the Proverb making a foul squeaking for a little wool I know that the Galenical Tribe will whine and hone pitifully rather then lose to be reputed Chymists nay if we may believe them they have prepared for them the choicest of Chymical preparations and some pretend to very great share in the skill of this Art themselves If so I am glad for to such I may address my self as a Brother and without vanity let me speak it such a one of whom the best accomplished in that way of Pyrotechny may not be ashamed of for though I am low and vile sufficiently in my own eyes yet when I must give a true testimony concerning my industry my searches and my attainments to the glory of God may it be spoken I have learned practically to understand both Paracelsus and Helmont and know what they write to be true and though I am an unworthy nothing yet when the Galenists come to vie their mock Chymistry with that which God hath made me to understand by the reading of Helmont and Paracelsus through the tutorage and under the ferula of the fire then as Paul when contesting with the false Brethren and Pseudo-apostles would not give way to them one jot no more shal I forasmuch as I do contend and stand up for truth it self and do not fight nor am engaged in any personal quarrel Thanks be to God then that I fall not short in mine understanding of ought of the Arcanaes of Paracelsus and Helmont through the blessing of him who chose me before many who excel me far in parts in the Galâ—nical Tribe in which respect not transgressing the bounds of modesty confessing what ever I have received to have been from above I shall yet be more confident and do affirm that the Chymistry of the Galenical Tribe is a ridiculous partly and partly dangerous Empericism in stead of so commendable a Method and Art as they with confidence and impudence sufficient boast it to be and though I am of my self a weak and unworthy person to combate with such an army of Philistims yet as they once fell before Jonathan and his Armourbearer so shall as many as oppose me fall before the truth which I stand up for but they have forsaken and now persecute and resist When it was first told me that very many of our Colledge Doctors did pretend to Chymistry and to Furnaces think you that I envied them for my own sake No verily but I did then and do now wish that not only some but all of them might equall nay exceed both Paracelsus and Helmont so would much good be done yet would not I be the Author of bringing such a thing into practise far be it from me even to think so for God will be the dispenser of these Talents to the worlds end nor hath he left my spirit free but absolutely bound up in this particular whereby I know that yet these things shall be hid and that concerning these things between me and the Galenists will be many sharp conflicts but I shal and must prevail and shall both by argument and experiment batter down not only their old way of which I spake in my Apologetical part sufficiently but also this new way of Mimical Chymistry which they presume being added to the other may prove to their safe standing as an high wall about a Castle or Town I shall lay flat to the ground and the ruine of this rotten though patcht up and gaudily garnished fabrick will be great The various providences of God and dispensations toward me are aâ— sure earnest to me and confirmation of my spirit that I am reserved to and preserved for more then ordinary imployment in this particular Let us come then to the true Art of healing which is the right and only test for comparing and trying our skill it being the best way to have the work man judged by his work How long will the world hang between two opinions If the Galenical way be the truth let it be established if not let it fall and be brought to ruine Some mightily addicted to the common way and withall my very good friends have spoken to me from the dictates of some Galenists how easily my way might be reconciled to the other to the making up between both that which is defective in each my Medicines to wit with an able Galenists Method being judged a mixture convenient to make up a most admirable Art of Medicine This hath been spoken aloud to me by many who were cordial friends to me as a wise course to be taken which counsel proceeded as I said from some Gaâ—enists or rather of the Tribe of Goosquil Piss-prophets who finding my Cures beyond cavil and my Medicaments so safe as to admit of no jealousie concerning them used this as a crafty way of lessening my repute to make as though they had an Art by which they in their method as they call it could do much more then I did or could do with the same things as for want of method being to seek of the most safe and effectual use of my own Medicines which without Art were accidental with me as sometimes choice secrets may be found with old women This opinion having fastned upon the spirits of my immovably favouring friends to others they pretend no difference between my medicines and theirs but that theirs are the safer and better or at least that my Medicines are no others then such as all of them know and use So then they who where they cannot allow me less will only allow me habnab experimental receipts casually gotten without Art for methodical applying the same they to others will allow me nothing