Van Helmont's works containing his most excellent philosophy, physick, chirurgery, anatomy : wherein the philosophy of the schools is examined, their errors refuted, and the whole body of physick reformed and rectified : being a new rise and progresse of philosophy and medicine, for the cure of diseases, and lengthening of life / made English by J.C. ... Works. English. 1664 Helmont, Jean Baptiste van, 1577-1644. 1664 Approx. 5998 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 612 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A43285 Wing H1397 ESTC R20517 12175854 ocm 12175854 55532 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A43285) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 55532) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 601:20) Van Helmont's works containing his most excellent philosophy, physick, chirurgery, anatomy : wherein the philosophy of the schools is examined, their errors refuted, and the whole body of physick reformed and rectified : being a new rise and progresse of philosophy and medicine, for the cure of diseases, and lengthening of life / made English by J.C. ... Works. English. 1664 Helmont, Jean Baptiste van, 1577-1644. J. C. (John Chandler), b. 1624 or 5. Helmont, Franciscus Mercurius van, 1614-1699. [46], 814, [18], 827-1161, [23] p. : port. Printed for Lodowick Lloyd ..., London : 1664. "An index": prelim. p. [37]-[40]. Includes a reprint of the first edition of John Chandler's translation of the Ortus medicinae, including original t.p.: Oriatrike, or, Physick refined ... now faithfully rendred into English ... by J.C. London : Printed for Lodowick Loyd, 1662. Includes a translation of the preface of the original edition by F.M. van Helmont. Special t.p. on p. [1] following p. 827: Opuscula medica inaudita, that is, Unheard of little works of medicine : being treatises 1. Of the disease of the stone, 2. Of fevers, 3. Of the humors of Galen, 4. Of the pest or plague. 1662. Special t.p. on p. [1067]: Tumulus pestis, or, The plague-grave. "A table ..." [i.e. index]: p. [2]-[23] at end. Reproduction of original in the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus). Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor. The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines. Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Medicine -- Early works to 1800. Medicine -- Philosophy -- Early works to 1800. Fever -- Early works to 1800. Plague -- Early works to 1800. 2006-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-05 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-06 Andrew Kuster Sampled and proofread 2006-06 Andrew Kuster Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion Van Helmont's WORKS : Containing his most Excellent PHILOSOPHY , CHIRVRGERY , PHYSICK , ANATOMY . WHEREIN The Philosophy of the Schools is Examined , their Errors Refuted , and the whole Body of Physick REFORMED and RECTIFIED . Being a New rise and progresse of PHILOSOPHY and MEDICINE for the Cure of Diseases , and Lengthening of Life . Made English by J. C. sometime of M. H. Oxon. LONDON , Printed for Lodowick Hoyd , at the Castle in Cornhill , 1664. ORIATRIKE OR , Physick Refined . The common ERRORS therein REFUTED , And the whole ART Reformed & Rectified : BEING A New Rise and Progress of PHYLOSOPHY and MEDICINE , for the Destruction of Diseases and Prolongation of Life . Written By that most Learned , Famous , Profound , and Acute Phylosopher , and Chymical Physitian , John Baptista Van Helmont , Toparch or Governor , in Morede , Royenborch , Oorschot , Pellines , &c. And now faithfully rendred into English , in tendency to a common good , and the increase of true Science ; By J. C. Sometime of M. H. Oxon. Job 32. 8. There is a Spirit in Man , and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth Understanding . Pro. 8. 12. I Wisdom dwell with Prudence , and find out knowledge of witty Inventions . Aeternarum rerum seria contemplatio eò usque animum nostrum subvexit , ut Divina loquuti videámur de rebus Naturae subjectis , quae tantò perfectiores sunt , quanto propriores Aeternis , &c. LONDON , Printed for Lodowick Loyd , and are to be sold at his Shop next the Castle in Cornhill . 1662. TO THE English READER . AS the bare report of Solomon's Wisdom , was enough to attract the Eastern Queens attention ; and that , to travel her to the Fountain-head it self : ( which she relished at first , as pretious Wine , but then as divine Nectar ) so doubtless , the loud Fame of Learned Helmont , ringing in the ears of our ( as well as other ) Nations , must needs excite the attentions , and level the Affections of those that can value the Wisdom found in the true knowledge of Nature and Art ; and so sharpen their Appetites , as to induce them to find where the Fruit grows ; and there to feed their fill : their fill of essential ( not formal ) Learning ; of experimental ( not historical ) Knowledge , of Hermetick ( not Culinary ) Practice . So that , methinks 't is sufficient to tell thee , that great Helmont now dictates in thine own Dialect . Wouldst thou then find a clear efflux of pure ( not fleshy ) Ingenuity ? here it is . Wouldst thou behold acute Invention , in its unmixt clarity ? here it is . Wouldst thou contemplate the depth of exact and solid Judgement ? here it is . Wouldst thou be acquainted with Arguments Impregnable , to the production of Truth , and conviction of Error ? here they are . Wouldst thou understand the vanity of evolving unweldy Volumns of Vegetables ; and neglecting the utility of powerful Medicines ? Wouldst thou discern the vast difference between the efficacious kernel and useless shell of natural Products ? between potential Essences , and impotent Superfluities ? between heterogeneal Co-mixtures , and artificial Separations , Purifications , and Exaltations ? In a word , wouldst thou not dwell in the Circumference of Knowledge , but dive into the very Center it self ? here then imploy thy Faculties , here exercise thy Abilities , here impend thy Studies . Then wilt thou moreover find ( to omit his Humanity , Magnanimity , Piety , and Charity ; wherein he much excelled ) his Disputes subtile , grave , and of great validity : his Assertions soind , his Demonstrations clear , and his Conclusions infallible : eradicating Error , and implanting of Truth ; and that with rare Integrity , and indefatigable Industry . But ( saith Zoilus ) Diruit quidem , non autem Aedificat . A Position well becoming the owners of it ; granting a Verity to infer a Fallacy . As how ? as thus ; That Learned Helmont hath demolished the feeble Fabrick of an erroneous Method , is apparently true ; not onely in it self , but confest , even by his adversaries ; but that he hath not rebuilt a stronger Structure on a firmer Foundation , is as false : and that it is so , this his unparallel'd Works do demonstrate , to any intelligent Reader , that is not drunk with envy ; or poysoned with malice ; or infected with prejudice . His own Works indeed , do best express his worth . Neither can I suppose , that another Pen can Preface any addition to it . Canst thou Reader , sum up the perfections required in a Philosopher not Traditional ; in a Christian not Hypocritical ; in a Physitian not Verbal , not Superficial ? then art thou nearest his true Character . But he that shall attempt to tell thee the Summa totalis of him , or these his eminent Emanations ; may sooner want wind for his Words , than work for his Pen ; and whilst he recounteth their excellencies , seem to numerate the Sea's sand . I therefore desist , and refer to thy experience , which may happily evidence thy proficiency ; that , thy industry ; and both render thee gratefully joyful , for so great a jewel : whose due rate and proportion , That thou mayst rightly apprehend , Is wisht by thy well-willing Friend . H. BLUNDEN , Med. Lieentiat . יהוה TO THE Unutterable WORD , THE AUTHOR Offers up a SACRIFICE in his Mother Tongue . O Omnipotent , Eternal , and Incomprehensible Being ! the Original of all Good. Thou hast committed unto me a Talent , the which I expose to open Usury : But I acknowledge and confess my nothing impotency , my vile and abusive unprofitableness . Thus being overwhelmed in the Abyss of my own nothingness ; I pray thee , O thou All-providing Good , that thou wouldest clementiously accept of this Book , O thou Eternal Beginning , and End of all Wisdom : Let thy saving Will be done , O Lord , in the grace of thy Love , by this dry tree , this meat for wormes ; this fewel for the flame , thy unprofitable servant , the son of thy hand-maid . Unless at length thou perfect me , and preserve all thy gifts they shall perish in me for ever . This I ingeniously confess , from the knowledge of my very innermost part , before thee , O Lord , unto whom all things are thorowly known in truth ; and before the World , unto whom most of the most excellent truths lay hid : I am amazed at the largeness and greatness of thy benefits towards my nothingness . So being prostrated I celebrate thy most glorious Name , and that Name I invoke from above , O Jebovah , thou most faithful lover of Men ! O holy and incomprehensible Name ! at all times and alone to be sanctified , and the onely free Sanctifier of his Saints alone . Favourably behold from the Throne of thy Omnipotency , the miseries of the living , help the sons of men , seeing it is thy delight to be present with them . Remember the word of thy Promise , no longer to be the God of our Fathers , as in times past , but now as a God declared to be our Father : No longer the God of Abraham , the God of Isaac , and the God of Israel ; but as God , Jesus , the God of Mary our Mother , and who art made our Brother in the love of thy grace . All the end and scope of my desires tendeth to this , that thy incomprehensible Name may be sanctified , not only because thou art called the Thrice most Great and Excellent ; but also , because thou onely art All , unto whom every wish of sanctifying Love doth properly belong ; seeing that thou standest in no need of us , neither can we devote unto thee any thing else . The Prophet did accept , A , A , A , Lord , I cannot speak , behold I am an Infant : but I reply to this Prophet , O , O , O , Lord , my thoughts fail me , and do melt in a naked wish of Love , of the sanctifying of thy Name ; For loe , O Lord , I am nought but nothing , nor any thing besides , but as it hath pleased thee , that I may pertain unto thee . O All , of All , and All my Desire ; I deservedly seem to offer unto thee in my Mother Tongue , and also to vow the Feude or Fee-farm of my Essence and Property , wherewith I being invested by thee , I enjoy the use of them for the help of my Neighbour . For although the first conception of the Soul consisteth out of Words , and so is without a proper tongue : Yet I perceive that it is as yet crude , and not sequestred , as long as it is not polished , and not being joyned to the mind , doth depart into Cogitations , Words , and Writing . This crudity , I perceive doth make an infirm and unstable object of my first Conception , and soon darkens it again : Therefore thy Eternal Wisdom hath granted that it should be carried further , even unto my Mind . T is true indeed , that thou wilt be worshipped by men in the Spirit , but not in such a manner that it may remain in the undistinction of the first object : But moreover , the Angels , and pure simple Spirits , although they nakedly adore thee in Cogitation , as Spirits ; yet they are busied by a certain , and unknown Song to us , in sanctifying thy Sanctifying Name without intermission . Wherefore also , thou commandest to be loved , not onely from the whole Soul , and whole Spirit , but also from the whole Heart , and with all our Strength : So that the Prayer that is Spiritually framed , and naked Worship , do even exclude that which is Verbal , which is unexperienced of the attention of the Mind . Bestow on me , O most beloved Lord , that I may suggest that thing to my Neighbours thy Servants by similitudes . An Organist hearing a new Tune or Song , doth not presently , at first , play it without difficulty : his Soul doth in part indeed perceive the Sound , but his Fingers ( which are as it were the Framers of Sounds , even as his other Members are the Formers of Words ) do not so fitly follow , neither is it granted unto them to attain an absolute perfection of the Song , so speedily , quickly , and distinctly . He beholding indeed the Organ Table or Book , doth presently play it ; to wit , his Capacity being wont to carry his Fingers towards it at the first sight of the Book ; but that Song being composed according to the Laws of Musick , but not turned into a Table , he as less accustomed thereunto , doth the more difficulty play it ; seeing a Table is accustomed to be first composed out of the Musick , for his Spirit before he plays : But as yet with a greater difficulty and rarity , the Table and Plat-form of a Lute , is extemporarily expressed in the Organ , or that of the Organ in the Lute . There hath not seemed unto me to be an unlike reason of the first conception of the Soul , as of a sound as yet crude or raw ; and the Mind desires to have it reduced into Words or Writings , through defect whereof , not a few do stick in a good object , the which by reason of an undistinct Mind , vanisheth without fruit . But moreover , I perceive , that the first Idea of the Soul doth follow an accustomed instinct of the Mind , whereby it being even there polished or corrected , is perceived by Words or Writings : but indeed , whereas man being from the beginning , seasoned with the property of his Mother Tongue , doth obtain it as incorporated or inspired ; and besides is wont to communicate unto his Mind and Mother Tongue , his Cogitations which depart into Meditations , Languages , or Writings ; it seems an inconvenient thing , and a Wonder to the Soul , to endow an object of the first conception ( being decyphored in the Mind by Words in the Mother Tongue ) besides the inbred Custom , with a forreign Idiome or Dialect ; wherein the Understanding labouring by changing the Dialect , it over-shadows , weakens , and wearies it self , and also doth alienate the pure and plainly Spiritual Conception of the first object . But in very deed , the object of every first Cogitation , departing into Words , I have certainly found to be alwaies first had in the Mother Tongue ; even in a man using none but tbe Spanish Dialect , who also heard a Spaniard ; he being mortally wounded , and weak of Mind , spake many things , but in Italian , and heing called on in Spanish , scarce understood . I have likewise seen a Germane that was sick , sitting , or lying , ( even as they placed him ) like an Image , who never was capable of replying unto things asked him , neither did he understand what Words either his Wife , or any one of his Sons did pronounce ; in any other than in his own proper Germane tongue ; when as notwithstanding , within the Walls of his House , he alwaies used the Italian and French Tongues : Yea , and which more is , he being a little after freed from this waking Coma or Sleep , was scarce perswaded to believe the same . And so , O Lord , I have cast down this poor Dedication of my Book in my Mother Tongue , before thy most high Throne , to wit , the Song of my object , which dammage of my Neighbour , thou hast not disdained to let down into me . Unto Thee be all the Honour ! I now proceed to signifie to my Neighbour the wretched ignorance of the Heathens , whereby thy sick People have been hitherto seduced by the Universities , and so , miserably slain , the Precept of the Prophet uttered in thy Name , nothing hindring it ; Thus saith the Lord , do not ye teach like unto the Gentiles . Wherefore , O Lord , grant that my Soul may retain the gifts granted unto it , unto thine Honour , whereby I may imprint thy Goodness , a part of my Debt , in this Path of Death , on my Neighbour . Be thou unto me every Hinge , who alone art the Way , the Truth , and the Life : This is the one onely thing which it becometh us to love . Thou my Angel , Defender , and Intercessor , who beholdest the Omnipotent Good ; Beg in my name , that which is wanting unto me , insist thou in the steps of Raphael ( the Divine Physitian ) who carried the Works of burial of the dead , performed by night , unto God ; thou diligent Curer , carry thou the present Work , performed in the night of my darkness , unto God , that man may not hereafter , be thus killed , nor so soon undergo Death : Offer up this my Work , before the holy sacred Trinity , whereunto I dedicate it ! So act thou for the Glory of God. THE Translators Premonition TO THE CANDID READER . FRIEND , WHoever thou art , know thou , that as the things contained in this Work , were not at the first , written by the honest , conscientious , most learned and judicious Author , from a vain ostentation , or to draw out Peoples minds after the Tree of Knowledge , whereby they might have something to admire at , and talk of , to deceive the time ( as they say ) and so to neglect the Tree of Life which is appointed for the healing of the Nations : But rather that man having eaten of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of good and evil , and having experimentally known evil ( whereby he is expelled from the Tree of Life , which before the Fall was his food , and is become captivated in Understanding , Will , and Affections , from whatsoever may be known of God , either within in the light of his Immortal Mind , which by Creation was in the very Image of its Creator ; or without in his visible Creation , in whose invisible Power and Unity all things consist and subsist ) might come to know himself and his Creator in the Unity of the Spirit , and all other things in that Unity : so neither was it translated into our Mother Tongue to any other end , than that naked and simple Uniform-Truth might appear , to the confounding of that which appears to be Truth but is not ; but is masked , various , compounded and confused ; whose false Plea is Antiquity , and chief support , the self-ends of Ambition and Avarice . It is a saying in the Scriptures , He that is first in his own Cause , seemeth just , but his Neighbour cometh and searcheth him . Also , That the rich man is wise in his own conceit : But the poor that hath Understanding , searcheth him out . How truly these sayings may be applied unto this Author , with respect to the Schools both of Logick , Natural Phylosophy , Astrology , Theology , and in particular those of Medicine , both as to the Theorie and Practick part thereof , I may singly refer the judgement thereof unto him that hath the least measure of true Understanding , without any further enlargment ; because such a one , who with the Lamp or Candle of God being lighted in him ( whereunto the Author bears his Testimony in opposition to blind Reason , in the Chapter of the searching or hunting out of Sciences ) is able to see in his measure , eye to eye , or as Face answereth to Face in a glass : Nevertheless , for the sake of some simple-hearted Reader , who though not yet come unto such a discerning , so as to separate the light from the darkness , may notwithstanding , truly hunger and thirst after the knowledge of the Truth , I shall speak somewhat . That the Schools of the Gentiles have had their time , is well known , wherein they have become vain in their imaginations , exercised themselves in vain Phylosophy , and opposition of Science , fasly so called , as the Apostle Paul observeth , and whereof he admonisheth the true Christians , as to take heed they were not deceived by it . And although Histories mention , That at the coming of the First-born Son into the World ( whom all the Angels of God were to Worship ) the Heathen Oracles at Delphos , and elsewhere , were struck dumb and gave no Answer , as a sign , that all Falshood , false Voices , deceitful Juggles , vain Inventions , &c. were to give way and be abolished at the appearance and rising of the Day-Star , and Sun of Righteousness , on and over the Earth ; the Star of which Star the Wise men of the East saw , and by its direction came to Worship the Child , laying down all their wisdom at his Feet ; for a lively token , that all true Wisdom and Science was to be received from him , in whom all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge dwell ; and not by the dim and dark illustrations of mans own Reason and Discourse : Yet such hath been the subtilty of the fleshly Serpent , that under the pretence of owning and professing the Name of Christ , he hath taken up in his , Paganish means and instruments to build withal , calling the dregs and dross of the Minerva of the Heathenish Schools , Hand-maides unto Divinity , and true Principles of Medicinal Science ; but this counterfeit fiueness can no longer dazzle or blind the eyes of those unto whom God hath given eye-salve that they may see , and gold tried in the fire ; for such are able to discern an Image from a Man , and true and pure Mettal from counterfeit Coyn ; so that the abettors of such deceits shall proceed no further , but their folly shall be made manifest to all men ; forasmuch as that which alone tends to the healing of the Maladies of mans Spirit , and the breaches there , which Sin hath made , is seated in the Invisible Life of God , as is applied thereunto as a Remedy , by the virtue of Christs Blood alone , who is the Lamb of God , and a quickening Spirit : And so also , seeing that which tends to the Healing of any Disease Radically , in the Body , is the Internal Faculty or Property , seated in the first Being of Medicines ; which by due preparation being uncloathed of their gross corporeal cloathings , are made fit to be applied by the Wisdom of a true Physitian unto the Archeus or vital Air of the Body wherein its Diseases Radically dwel , & not in Relolleous qualities , nor in feigned Elementary complexions , as in the following Treatise is clearly manifested : And so that nothing can be a true Handmaid unto Divinity , or Medicine , but the gift of him who is Lord of the whole man. And that which gives the Children of Wisdom , an ability to justifie Wisdom her self , and a Power to judge and condemn the Wisdom of this World , whether it be conversant about things Visible or Invisible , things Temporal or Eternal , is the Son of God , by whom the World was made , and all living Souls created , even the everlasting Father of Spirits , who hath committed all judgement to the Son , in whom they all subsist , who filleth all in all : this Son of God is the Eternal Eye of the Father , which runs thorrow the whole Creation , beholding the evil and the good ; it is that Eye which knows and sees the essence and frame of all things : it doth not behold any thing in its essence to be evil ; because every thing in its Essence and Being is good , and that , because it is one , and true ; but that which is double , varie-form , seeming , or false , that it sees to be evil , and that is the fleshly and sensual apprehension and desire in man , which vailes or taints his Spirit of Understanding and Will , that they are not able to give a right tincture , or rightly to apply themselves unto Objects intelligible or desirable , whereby irregular and evil effects , in Word , Action , and Conversation , do visibly appear ; even as an Engine , whose innermost Spring or Wheel being defective , all its other parts and motions are out of order ; for the Body is but the Shell or Vessel of the Spirit . That eye being opened in Man , or Candle lighted , so far as it is lighted or opened , makes first to behold the evil and the good , and the evil from the good in a mans self ; and so far as he doth this , he is truly said to know himself ; for he consists of darkness and light , till by a holy war , the light hath comprehended the darkness : The truth of this is not to be disputed , for it hath been experimentally known , and witnessed by all the children of light , in all Generations . This being granted to be true , it must needs be accounted the Christians Epoche or stop of Time , from whence he is to reckon upon his progress in all , or any other true Knowledge or Science whatsoever ; For as the Father knoweth all things , and no man knoweth the Father but the Son , and him to whom the Son will reveal him ; So , as the Son revealeth the Father unto any one , according to the measure and manner of his revelation , other things are known also ; as in the bulk of Unity , wherein the Almighty compasseth all things in the hollow of his hand , and swallows them up as out of sight ; which is the knowledge of the blessed ; so also as from this blessedness , a reflex act goes forth with a pure clear ray or Beam , towards particular things or objects , apprehending or looking thorow them , according to their particular natures and properties placed in them by the Word , the Creator : This kind of knowledge , is not the fruit of the forbidden tree , but of the Tree of Life ; for Life is its Root , and Love is its Branches ; first extended towards God the Creator , in the measure of whose Image , the Understanding doth apply it self by an intellectual act , unto the particular thing understood , and so in that Image adoring his Wisdom and Power therein . Secondly , towards the Neighbour , in directing such a particular knowledge or knowledges , unto the use , service , benefit , necessity , and health of the same , in this mortal Life . Now to bring this home unto our present purpose ; such a Root and Branches do I judge , yea and feel to be , of this present Authors knowledge : For although he was as to his visible profession of Religion , a member of the Romish Church , after the Tradition of his Fathers , and so in that respect , was in the captivity in some things , which may well be accounted hay , stubble , &c. Yet as Daniel was a true Israelite , yea and a man of an excellent Spirit , though in Babylon , who saw over the Babylonians , and was hated of them even to the death , for his Wisdom , and Uprightness ; So may it be said of this Author , who by a Divine gift from God , in the light of sound Judgement and true Understanding , out of love to his Neighbour , hath as a Modern , come after the Schools , the Sons of Antiquity ( as they would be accounted ) and so searched them out in their principles , that being weighed in the Ballance of true Science , they are found lighter than Vanity . Neither hath the Errors of the Chymical Schoole in divers particulars , escaped his Pen : yet well observe thou , ( whatever carping self-ended partialists may say ) that the Author doth as well build up his own , as pull down others Doctrine . I do not speak this from a desire to boast in another mans Lines , or to glory in man , or as thinking him infallible even in the Mysteries of Nature , for that were not only to derogate from Gods Honour , to wrong my own Soul , but also to wrong the deceased Author himself , while I should seem to own the gift of God in him ; for I find him in his Writings wholly renouncing all vain glory , self exaltation and ambition , or to receive honour from man , as knowing that every good gift descended from the Father of Lights , and so that he had nothing but what he had received . Therefore whosoever thou art , who desirest to be bettered in the reading and considering of this work , see that thy mind be somewhat stayed and composed out of the giddiness , lightness , and wantonness ; for Wisdom is too high for a Fool : Desire above all things , and in the first place , the Fear of the Lord , for that is the beginning of Wisdom , and a good Understanding have all they that do thereafter ; So may Wisdom pour forth her Words unto thee , and give thee knowledge of wise Counsels , Secrets , and of witty Inventions ; but the wicked shall dwell in a dry land : For Friend , believe me , the hour is coming , and the day hastens , wherein all things shall be seen and enjoyed in the root which beareth them , that all the Pots of Jerusalem may be holy to the Lord , and holiness seen even upon the Horse Bridles : and this was the Word of the Lord to Daniel concerning the last times ; that he should stand up in his Lot at the end of the days ; and that before the end came , many should be purified and made white , and tryed ; but the wicked should do wickedly , and none of the wicked should understand , but the wise should understand : such are those who depart from evil , and abide in Gods fear , as I have said . And as for the manner of rendring the sense of the Author , I have been careful and faithful according to my ability , to make himas plain to be understood by my Country-men as the Work would even possibly bear ; therefore have I not studied for abstruse words , or high flown language ; For Veritatis simplex oratio ; the speech of Truth is simple or plain ; also that might have proved not a true genuine translation , but a subversion to the Readers apprehension : It is not Words but Things , not Names but Natures , not Resemblances but Realities , not Sublimities but Simplicities , that the Sons of Truth do seek after . Yet the Jews seek a Sign , and the Greeks seek after Wisdom , but all in the wrong part ; and so wherein they think to be Wise , they become Fools : So that I may truly apply that antient observation , unto the seeming Wise and Learned of this Age , Satis eloquentiae , sapientiae parum , abunde fabularum audivimus . Enough of Eloquence , Fables abound , But of true Wisdom , little is to be found . Wherefore be sober , be watchful , be humble , be gentle , be courteous , be impartial , wait in silence , and desire of the Lord God , in Faith and Love unfeigned unto the Truth , as Truth , that thou mayest receive it as it is in Jesus ; for there is no Truth out of him ; For thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundations of the Earth , and the Heavens are the work of thy hands ; they shall perish , but thou shal remaine , and as a Vesture shalt thou fold them up , and they shall be changed , but thou art the same ( Truth ) and thy years shall not fail . So the God of Peace and Truth be with all the upright in heart , who seek the Lord with their whole hearts , in this backsliding generation ; and with every truly honest-hearted Reader of this Book ; that it may answer the laborious ends of the Author , and the poor endeavour of thy real Friend . John Chandler . TO THE FRIENDLY READER S. D. FRANCIS MERCURIUS Van HELMONT , A Philosopher , by that ONE in whom are all things ; A Wandring HERMITE . I Had at sometime concluded , by reason of many wandring thoughts , that it would be hardly obtained of me to Write any thing to be published for the use of my Neighbour , in this present Age ; seeing that I have hated feigned , varie-form , vain , and deceitful words , which the Men of the World do thirst after . But now I being constrained by the Reasons and Letters of many moderate wise Men , out of divers Kingdoms and States here and there , who perswaded me that I was devoutly engaged by the pledge of Health , to commit all the Writings of my deceased Father unto the Press ; and to annex thereunto , when , and after what manner he closed his Day : Also in what State or Condition he left the aforesaid Writings : And moreover , to supply those things which were lacking , for the vindicating the Life of Man-kind , from many Errors , Torments , and Destruction . It is [ That ] which hath extorted from me , to leave all other things , and thorowly to review the aforesaid Writings ; which being finished , I gave up my self to hearken to their Calls : I suspended my former purpose , discoursing in plain and most simple Words , the following Narrative , in my Mother Tongue , according to the tenour of the fore-going Dedication of my Father , the which I also imitate , by following him in the very same intent thereof . The Death of my Father , happened on the Thirtieth Day of the Tenth Month , December , of the Year one thousand six hundred forty four , at the sixth hour in the Evening , when as he had as yet , a full use of Reason , and had first required and obtained all his sacred Solemnities and Rights . His Life it self was his Disease , which remained with him seven Weeks , beginning with him after this manner : He at sometime returned home in hast , on foot , at Noon , in a cold and stinking Mist , which was a cause unto him , that when he endeavoured to write a small Epistle of about fifteen lines , or did indulge himself with too large a discourse , his breathing so failed him , that he was constrained to rise up , and to draw his breath thorow the nearest Window ; whereby a Pleurisie was provoked in him , at two several times , from the which notwithstanding , he restored himself perfectly whole ; yea the day before his Death , he being raised upright , as yet wrote to a certain Friend of his in Paris , there being among other , these following words ; Praise and Glory be to God for evermore , who is pleased to call me out of the World ; and as I conjecture , my Life will not last above four and twenty hours space : For truly I do to day sustain the first assault of a Fever , by reason of the weakness of Life , and defect thereof , whereby I must finish it . The which accordingly followed , after that he had bestowed a special Benediction or Blessing on me , the which I esteem for a great Legacy . I do not here more largely extend the property of his Disease , by reason of the straitness of time ; seeing that I am besides , to make mention of him , in my Compendium , from all things unto the one thing , the which I endeavour ( God willing it ) to publish in a short time . A few days preceding his Death , he said unto me ; Take all my Writtings , as well those crude and uncorrected , as those that are thorowly expurged , and joyn them together ; I now commit them to thy care , accomplish and digest all things according to thy own judgement : It hath so pleased the Lord Almighty , who attempts all things powerfully and directs all things sweetly . Therefore attentive Reader , I intreat thee , that thou do not at the first sight , wrongfully judge me , because I have taken care to have the more Crude Writings Printed , as being mixed with the more Digested ones , those not being Restored or Corrected : Know thou , that the desire of promoting this great and laborious Work , hath been the cause thereof ; at length thou maiest experience , that the desirous Reader was to be by all means satisfied no less in this , than in the aforesaid Writings , and then thou wilt judge , that I have well and faithfully performed all things , seeking nothing for my own gain ; the which shall more clearly appear by this my Preface . I call God to witness , that my Desire ( unto whom it is known ) doth extend unto the help of my Neighbour : Wherefore read thou , and read again this Writing , and it shall not repent thee for ever ; for I tell thee in the height of truth that I have published these things from pity alone , as taking good notice , that men by reason of their own Imaginations , are so little careful of or affected with , the safety of an Eternal and Temporal Life . Stop your antient in and out-steps , enter ye into the Royal path Eternal , dismiss ye those innumerable by-paths , which I my self have with exceeding labour and difficulty thorowly beaten , in seeking whereby I might come unto the knowledge of the Truth ; endeavourm in the mean time , to find out the ordination of all created things , and their harmony , and that by all the more internal and external means , which I was able to imagine . I then bent all my Senses , whereby I might make my self known unto Wise men so called , hoping at length , to find some Wise Man , not learned according to the common manner , in all places where I should passe thorow ( which I might call Nations : ) of whatsoever profession or condition they were , I spake to them according to their desire , that I might joyn in friendship with them by discourse , and according to my abilities , I imparted unto them the whole cause : by this and other means I touched at many clear fundamental Knowledges and Arts ; all which , I heare advisedly pass by : And when I understood , all and every of them , to be onely the esteemed workmanship of a great Man , I discerned , that by how much the more a thing was absurd , vain , and foolish or frivolous , by so much the more it was exalted , and respected or honoured ; the which servitude I perceiving , became voluntarily averse thereto , as being one who did prosecute plain simplicity . I descending , ascended unto essential and occult or hidden properties , and for my aid , the understanding of some Latine Books seemed to be desired ; to this end , I read over diverse times the New Testament , in the Latine Idiome , and the Germane , that by that means I might in a few days , not onely understand the Latine stile , but also , that in the aforesaid Testament , I might find the perfect , and long wished for , simple , one onely and Eternal Truth and Life , which the one thing ( to wit God ) doth onely and alone earnestly require , and is averse to all duallity or plurality ; So also , whatsoever God hath created , he created all of it , in that one , and by that one thing , otherwise he had not kept an order . And by how much the more I knew this amiable , free , and one only thing in all things , and did enjoy it ; I addressed my self to a quiet study : I was outwardly cloathed with simple or homely raiment , and for the more inward contracting of my mind , as also for curing thereof , I acted many things known to God alone , as also for the preservation of my health , and increasing of my strongth , I lived soberly for many Years together , I also abstained from fleshes , like as also from Fishes , Wine , and Ale or Beer ; and that so far , that I incurred the contempt and disdain of my Kindred , who upbraided me as I conjecture , from a good zeal : What unwonted thing doth he again begin ? He renders himself unfit for every condition and function , as well Ecclesiastical as Secular : He will at length become mad , when he shall no longer find any novelty for his Delight , or shall adict himself to Magical Arts , or shall attempt a new Heresie : It is become with him , as with other wise Mens Children , as to persist in obstinacy . Others moreover , redoubled ; His Father is in the fault , for he hath rashly educated all his Children , he admitted them from their tender years , unto the Art of the Fire : This man being now become foolish , hath lost the oportunity or occasion of happiness ; when Isabella Clara Eugenia , the Infanta of Spain , received him , and appointed him for a noble service with her Nephew the chief Cardinal , he refused it : it were better he had died instead of his Brethren , some good might have been expected from them ; this man is serviceable for no employment : If he gapes after studies , let him submit himself to his Teachers , as it is the manner of others to do ; or he is to be induced to marry a Wife , who may shake off these strange things from him . On the contrary , others retorted ; This is too late , replying by a mock , he is a Philosopher , he is too stubborn , he is no where seen except in the company of most unconstant , strange , and uncouth persons , of whatsoever profession and imployment ; he will also incur a misfortune , for he knows not how to dissemble , he spareth none , neither great nor small , when he discerns that which is unjust ; we are now dejected from all hope , he must needs be reduced unto wants , for he hath yeelded up all his Patrimony , both that which he did possess , and what should have fallen to him , unto his Sister ; and moreover , as joyful , he hath departed hence , far from home , as shewing that he is never to return ; Who ever remembred the like ! He must needs undergo some changes , notwithstanding , it matters not us concerning what , so that he be not to be accounted foolish , so as to cast off his old dresses , except better , and more certain ones should supply him . Conjectures fail us , seeing that he hath entred into these things without our counsel ; let himself also look to what the end will be ; when he shall stand in need of us , let him be accounted as a stranger . After that I had quietly , and joyfully overcome these , and many other chances , I forthwith devised of the following course or process of unburthening my Conscience , the which , at my Importunity , a Man unknown to the World , fearing God , proposed unto me ; the chief Heads whereof , I will deliver in a Compendium , by Questions and Answers , the subsequent whereof shall at some time hint out more , than is manifestly declared in the precedent Answers ; the which is done to the intent , that the Reader might likewise in the mean time , somewhat earnestly endeavour , and that it might be manifest unto him , that the aforesaid answers do abound . At a certain time , a certain Man called a Friend , came to visite me ; whom , among other things , I asked , whether he did as yet remember his promise made unto me , of administring some things to be joyned unto my Fathers Work , for the further instruction of the courteous Reader ? To which he answered ; Minde Brother , I thorowly weighing and meditating of thy Words all the night last past , and also the new and unheard of deliberation of Mercurius , Trismegistus , Poimander , my Lamp being extinguished , and natural Nourishment being first for some time withdrawn from the Body , whereby I might wholly be at leasure in the inner Man ; hereupon , when I had sustained a great swooning fit , I am made to see ( the use of my Eyes being suspended ) from a certain Light , transparent , weighty , thick or dark , and compacted created Bodies , in their beginning , middle , and end , and I my self also piercing my self ; and at the very moment of the Vision , I was found placed in a clear , living , circular , double Chair or Pulpit , wanting a Foundation , being embracingly enlightned ( toward its Beginning ) by the Stars , being engraven on every side with a circular Letter , which some do call Zenith , others Nadir , the which also by its aspect spake unto me : Hear , See , understand , and talk thou with one in all , and all things in one : The time hath appeared , that all the Blind may see , and all that see may remain blind : Follow ye me , and I will make manifest unto you , my illumtnated Lights or Stars : my most stable Heart is created old and new , which is hung up for every man as a prize , being as it were a thing unknown by an express quality ; proceed ye , earnestly endeavour ye , ye may reach the bottom of my necessary Body , together with all its durable , quiet , and acting Members ; which parts are entire , praising their Creator singularly and universally by their Effects , who hath made me perfect , that I might help thee , and such as thou art , in the moment of necessity ; for I am subjected to thy service , and am nothing besides . I hearing these things , it was manifest that they were truths , and at that very instant , I saw the Prize hung up , whereat I being as it were over furious , attered these words : Thou art a young Man , as also thy Children which shall be born of thee , for thy Brethren are like thee , who are equal unto thee in age , thy Body was created most clean , ponderous , exceeding well compacted , and conspicuous , thy one-two , or single-double colours , are skie coloured and red , which do contain all the Colours of the universe , and the which colour hath transchanged thee into black darkness ; thoubeing a white and red Virgin , shalt bring forth unto him even ten Children at every birth , with the unblemishing of thy Virginity ; for truly , thou , and thy Children do constitute a Light , whose Parts are entire , neither heat nor cold , and not any the most ●●●arpest Sword , shall loosen thy bond ; for the Sun is thy Father , and the Moon thy Mother : Therefore here thou all things as not seeing them , and see thou as not hearing them , and speak thou within in the silence , that all things are in one ; then shalt thou know a double co-united one thing in all things , as neither shalt thou be able to dissolve , as neither to knit the Eternal Band , without loss of time . These things being spoken , a great horrour invaded me , and I soon converting my self unto those like unto me , I there saw an innumerable company of Men of all forts of Nations , learned , and unlearned , wise , noble , and ignoble , young Men , together withold , who all were divided into strife among selves , for the knowledge and science of the Truth ; I well perceiving the ground of this Division , attempted by my wish , to prepare my self for the implanting of a mutual Concord . First , I observed that a certain little Book , being a part of another to follow after , entituled , Opuscula Medica Inaudita , or , Unheard of little Works of Medicine , had in part raised this discord , the which had recalled the more young , godly , studious , and other Reverencers of the Truth , out of the long and obscure night , into the dawning of the Day , that they might believe , that a Light more perfect , nor hitherto learned , did remain , from whence this dawning did shine unto them ; and by how much the more thorowly they looked into the aforesaid little Book , by so much the more they were glad , because they found therein , the promises of the coming of a more perfect desired Light ; it being that which did so heighten their Mind , that a certain one of them , did not fear publickly to propose this Parable with a shrill Voice , unto some eminent famous Professors of Universities , and Christians , yet ungrateful ones , with Interrogatives , and Admonitions : It is no wonder that these our Words do seem the more hard to the Flesh , seeing they are spiritual , whereof the Flesh cannot give Judgment ; even as he spake , who had never looked against the Light , by reason of the sickness of his Sight , and when he saw the least Light , he detested it , relating among other things , that it was the worst of Poysons , because it brought an intollerable Pain upon him ; so that therefore , he remained uncurable , who could not through his obstinacy , endure any mention of curing , seeing that he loved Darkness before Light , and so was made a Son of the same Darkness . Some of the Professors took notice , that this similitude was uttered concerning them , and not knowing how to moderate themselves , as being possessed with fury , they flung out this ; Ye Novices , and seditious Seeds-men of Heresies , ye ought to be burnt alive , together with your Abettors . These Words being spoken , they in a rage rushed forward toward the House of the Seniour Professor , and there called a company together by night , that they might foresee among themselves , what might be taken in hand , whereby this new Doctrin might be subverted : The Patron of this Family was a most covetous old Man , as also very aged , who after he had received them all with a solemn Salutation , began his Speech , saying ; My fellow Brethren , and my sworn Sons of our Profession , it is very well known unto you , that our Doctrin hath been firmly established , whereof nothing is to be doubted , seeing it is so antient , nor ever hath sustained any adversity of the Nations which might brand it with a blemish : In our dayes , it is least of all to be granted , that by this Schismatical Doctrin , it can go to the wall , or that the glory , esteem , and the things suggested by us , eminently appearing in print , can altogether perish ; for the preserving of them , let us earnestly endeavour with all our Might ; by which deed , we shall render our selves immortal unto our successours , and shall bear away a solemn reward for our famous Deeds ; let us be unanimous , then shall we perform many things ; I will first produce my Opinion : If any one of us shall be adverse to our purpose , let him be imposed upon with a Fine ( by a plurality of voices ) agreeable to every ones Wealth or Ability ; I as the first , will bind my self to this , by a Copy ; and assoon as any one shall come to be fined , let the money rebounding from hence , he laid aside for the use of suppressing the Enemies ; and least discord should grow among us for the future , and that we may fitly reach our seasonable conclusion , it is needful , that all things which shall here be dispatched , be committed to writings ; whom they presently obeyed in every thing , and committed it to the Effect ; besides they incited him , that he might proceed as he had begun , saying , Both these Propositions are just and equal ; for truly , all of us have by this our Doctrin , gotten our wealth ; And so also , it is meet and just , that the Goods gotten thereby , should have respect unto our Doctrin , and should defend it , whereby we may as yet attain to be more wealthy . The aforesaid Seniour hearing these Words , with a very grateful , and pleasant Countenance and Gesture , adjoyned thereto ; I hold it most exceeding necessary ; and also to procure other Wealth of the Schools , that they may joyn with us , and enter into a mutual Covenant , because the Matter toucheth them also ; which being obtained , we will presently implore the Magistrate , to condemn that seditious little Book to the Fire , under a further injunction , that they which should make use of it , shall pay the punishment of Goods , and Body . Secondly , it should be diligently endeavoured by us , that we presently setting upon the one only Son of the Author of the aforesaid little Book , by subtilty , who possesseth his other Writings , by an hereditary right , should promise him a certain summe of Money , some third man interceding , as for a congratulation or restoring of his Fathers Books unto us , the which we should allege , were to be committed to the Press , as feigning to take part with his Father , that by his means , we at least might understand , where he might keep them in secret , whereby we might obtain the same to be burnt by the Fire ; for when these Books shall behold the Light , we shall suffer greater things ; neither should any other Remedy avail , than procure a Book to be set forth in the Authors name , containing perverse Doctrin , or hellish Arts , and to disperse it throughout the whole World : also that this thing might the better succeed , the said Heir should be taken out of the way , least he should hinder our purpose : all which things , it is lawful freely to commit without Sin , seeing that we are able to demonstrate , and confirm these things , by a received custom , and Doctrin of very many famous Writers , of a certain predominating Order . These sayings being ended , he intreated the chief Doctor next unto himself , no less to endeavour with all his might , to abolish so gainsay-ing a Doctrin , and to preserve the profitable one ; whereto he as the second , to the first , replyed , he was at this command . He was otherwise , an honest and sincere Man , who had secretly recalled many miserable Sick from the Grave , through his Integrity ; whereby , as oft as opportunity gave leave , he chastised Forms or Sorts of Remedies , from the quantity and violence of his said Collegiates : This Man also understood of , and expected the present coming of Elias the Artist , the which he vehemently desired , and had learned many Years before , from a certain studious Man of the Brethren of his Profession ; and besides , he excelled in the strength of reason , and in a firm health of Body , who dying , seemed to know something beyond the common sort of Men. He once before his Death , went to minister to the Poor freely out of Charity , he wrought many Works of Mercy in the Hospitals and Prisons , until he brought back with him , a common Disease , who presently sent for his Professours , who much rejoyced , that he himself would make tryal of the Fruits of their professed Theory : these Professours calling a wonted counsel , withdrew Blood largely from him , they gave him Purgative Medicines to drink , and so they plainly prostrated his strength : But it opportunely happened , that his remaining strength , and youth , overcame the Disease ; he appeared to have received his lost strength , whereby he was confirmed , that Professours and Licensed Persons , were true Physitians , reckoning from their relation , that he had deserved or was in danger of Death , and that he owed his Life unto their Torments : hence they took of him a double reward , but not according to their deserts . The young Man renewing his former pious steps , was the second time oppressed with the very same malady ; and he hoped by their endeavour , again to escape the same cruelty ; but alass , his spirit failed him , and from sound Reason , and a knowledge of the Truth , he cryed out unto this his Brother : It hath befallen me , as to all others , and it shall so long continue , untill Physitians so called , do in very deed feel and see this present time to be for Eternity ; but now they forget the time past , believing that they possess the present time , they deny the time to come , seeing they cannot see that , and so they take no care for a longer Life ; for they have never been destitute thereof , even as of any other frail or mortal good , whereof there is made a repairing , but they possessing one only Life , and loosing that , all shall be ended : It is a vain thing to employ ones self in Studies , when no necessity is urgent upon us : The Servant who ought readily to serve us , is beaten , which doth perpetually provoke this Man whom he shall name his Master , by all his qualities , he shall be ignorant of his thraldom , although all Men , except a few , are bound up by his Servitude , the which for the most part , deprives of Life both now and hereafter : I despair of a temporary Life ; for they who are said to bring help , do want the knowledge thereof , and they are first constrained to obtain it by brawlings and discords , which will arise among them , through hatred and envy , wherewith those called Doctors or Teachers have never laboured , seeing they are but few , who by running up and down day and night , do excel in Wealth , whereby they scrape together an abundance of Money , as well among the Healthy , and Sick , as those that are dead ; and so they might continue in concord , the which shall remain so long , until the last times appear , which thou shalt discern by that , when thou shalt see the number of Junior and Licensed Doctors of Medicine , so to increase , that they shall scarce have employment : The Seniours shall be offended with the Juniours and Young Beginners , because their dayly revenues shall be diminished , and because they shall find forreign or accidentary Juniours , being constrained to learn more sure Principles , for to get their living , to cure some Sick , whose like , being under their care , did undergo Death ; which thing , the Seniours shall envy , wishingly desiring , that all the Sick-folks might die , unto whom the Juniors should be called : Lastly , they shall reproach them publickly before all the People , saying ; These wicked young Men do cure by Enchantments , they should of necessity , be forbidden to practise . By these and the like means , they shall labour to subvert them , and and they shall offend God , that it may add courage unto other godly and industrious Juniours to perfect that , which they shall propose to the Seniours , in these Words : When we have invited you , to suffer us publickly to cure some Sick of an Hospital , appointing a Prize or Wager for the benefit of the Poor , ye also to be solicitous or diligent on the other hand , and that they who had not answered the effect , should pay the reward thereof , ye have refused that thing ; ye seek not the Poor , but [ Give Ye ] ye resemble Beggars in that thing , who disdain their fellow Beggars , and are unwilling that their number should increase ; for they have a confidence in some rich Mens houses and places , where a larger bounty befel them for their deceitful Words and Tricks , that so they may leave their Arts , and these Houses to their Children for a Dowry ; which very thing also , ye cherish in your Mind , but it shall have a bad success ; because through this publick discord , which shall spring from Covetousnesse , that dayly Deceit shall be made known to the World , and they shall receive only true Doctors , who may be discerned by their good Fruits , and who shall imitate the steps of the Samaritan . These Words being finished , he felt his Life to fail ; therefore , lifting up his eyes towards Heaven , he with sorrow subjoyned ; Oh most merciful Lord , abbreviate thou the term of Mans Salvation , and change thou the frail Doctrine of the Doctors their Flesh , into the natural or peculiar Love of the Spirit , that the Innocent may finish their Life to thy Glory ; I pray thee oh my Saviour , do not thou impute my Death to the Doctors , hereafter , for an Offence , for truly they know not what they do commit ; but vouchsafe thou to open their eyes , that they may assent to the truth , and that the People may publish those things of them , as in times past of holy Paul. Which saying being ended , he wholly committed himself to the Divine Will , and breathed forth his last Breath in the armes of this his Brother , who did alwayes ponder these Words aforesaid . This Man in his turn , uttered these following Words ; We are all of us , being Brethren in Christ , engaged to patronize the truth ; the which , is not better perfected than by opposing , and defending : Hence we will prosecute two things ; one is , that the strength of our Enemies may be made known unto us ; the other is , that we may add more strength to our own , and so , that we may be the more confirmed in our purpose . After that they had heard all these Words , they compelled [ him ] to undergoe this charge , with the threatning of a Fine , for so much as he had taken this voluntary Office on himself : And he alleaged ; I being the second of the Seniours , am desirous to be instructed by any one , in this difficult matter ; I being a Servant of truth , do after some sort yield to the two former Propositions ; but unto the third , I can in no wise assent , to wit , to subvert the aforesaid Books by interdictions and brands of Censures : for if we should endeavour that , we should act altogether rashly , we thinking to extinguish them in one place , should also again raise them up in a thousand other places : Men are no longer so ignorant and unwary , as in times past , when as all Examples or Patterns of religious obedience were published by favour : which thing is chiefly manifest in Printers and Booksellers , they making gain here and there , and it cannot be forbidden and hindered : Doth not the thing it self bespeak that ? we need not go far : That Author himself , set forth a Discourse , inscribed , Of the Magnetick or Attractive cure of Wounds , which was stoln from him , and about five hundred of them printed in Letters , by his Enemies ; whereupon , they divulged three divers Books , in great number , of the Divines and Doctors of Medicine of all Europe , maintaining their Athiesm , consisting of blasphemous Censures , the which Censures they had easily collected , because they live in all Countries ( under every kind of habit , and countenance of Religion ) where Money , or Merchandise abounds ; and these censorious Infamies , they did every where spread abroad in Temples , and other publick Places , whereby the little Book was made known , and was hunted after by every one : I have known many seeking to compass it at a dear rate , neither could they obtain it ; for no Printer had any thing of it to be found , seeing that they kept it only to themselves , it being so often printed , only for the collecting of the Stripes of Censurers , they suffering the loss of above fifty thousand Royals , whereby they might overthrow the Author thereof . Moreover , because the aforesaid little Book or Discourse was approved of by some Wise , Learned , and Moderate Men , great injury was done to the Author ; God foresaw otherwise , and blessed him that he should not be suppressed according to their desire : And lo , in this restraint suffered from above , he published upon it , another little Book , instead of a forerunner , and this other principal Book was to follow after , that it may cleerly be manifest , those Writings of his , are not afraid of a Censors Rod. Fourthly , that the Authors own original Copy of his Book or Writings , in the Heirs Possession , should be by craft or prize , apprehended , it cannot be accomplished to be abolished by the Fire , before that it be printed : for I certainly know , that some disdainful Persons , have by sending a certain Bookseller before them , offered to the fore-threatned Heir , a thousand Crownes in hand , and besides , offering an Assurance of another thousand , on the condition , that he would deliver up all the Writings of his Father , which were in his Possession , no one piece being detained : the Heir smelt out the deceit , as being void of the desire of Money ; he heard him spake , he asked him many Questions , he enquired into all things , and plainly confounded him , so that at last , he imprudently brake forth into reproaches , departing home with a vain Journey . These and many such like Attempts being acted , which the Heir hath had experience of , do breed in him a distrust , so that he only requires a preservation from him who aspireth unto those things , that he may not be deceived . Besides I have understood , if I rightly remember , that himself hath taken care to have those Writings imprinted by an honest and faithful Man , who will be diligent to sell them into all parts . Fiftly , to suborn ba●●ard Books on the Author , containing strange and false Doctrine , that would be made manifest ; for the reason of Invention , doth now every where plainly appear : besides we should so awaken the Heir thereby , and according to the signification of his name , he would so loudly exclaim , that it should be perceived by all , unto whom means should not be wanting , although he wants a Patrimony ; for truly it is affirmed , and is the very truth , that he hath found Elias the Artist , and hath made him his familiar Friend , by help of whom , he shall propagate the Phylosophy of Pythagoras , whose ultimate Tables he doth by unwearied Labour , dig up , with the signification of the Parent of the metallick Rod. The matter being thus , let us not provoke him , let us spare our Pains , and preserve our Charges or Expences ; for if this Doctrin doth bear any evil intent before it , it will soon goe to ruine of its own accord ; and if it descend from God , and we resist it , we could not satisfie our purpose , and we should spend our pains and costs in vain , bringing on our selves destruction both now and hereafter . When as all the rest of the Doctors had now heard these solid Reasons , they returned him great thanks , and esteemed his disprovement of what the other had said , for a decision of the matter ; except the aforesaid Seniour : this man hearing those things , through grief and fear , was smitten with an Apoplex●e , and so died an exceeding sudden Death : his Sons cryed out with loud howlings or lamentations , his Neighbours were awakened , and resorted thither apace , being ignorant of what was done , they found all his Family exceedingly perplexed : Whither likewise , a studious Man approached , who had observed this rout , he presently sacrificed to his own profit ; for when he saw all those Writings there laying up and down , and left , he taking them up , hid them under his Cloak , and presently withdrew himself : asson as the day shone forth , he did his endeavour to read them unto every one of his Friends and Favourites , who spread it abroad , and made it known : Hence it was further spread abroad , that thou in digging , hadst obtained the Will or Testament of Pythagoras , and it was declared by the Supream Lord of hidden Treasures ; this Lord did presently commit thee to custody , because thou hadst not brought forth the Testament of Pythagorus to light , the which ought not to be attained by theft , but by gift ; the Lord appointed three of his Wife Men ( the Seekers or Lovers of peculiar natural Science , whom many of all sorts of Nations and Conditions , yea and the great Ones of the World , did follow or defend ) to go thither where thou wast detained , who thus spake unto thee ; Be of good cheer , this sentence shall be to be sustained by thee , which our Lord hath brought upon thee , the which begins after this manner ; By the command of thy Supream Lord , unto whom it is certainly known , that thou Mercurius Van Helmont , in digging , hast found a Treasure , which he had commanded to be enquired after by his Subjects , by whom , thou being accused , and convicted by certain and full proofs , art condemned to Death , unless thou shalt bring forth that very patched and covered Testament of Pythagoras , and likewise shalt most fully discover , by what way and knowledge thou hast found that : These things being performed , a liberty shall be allotted thee throughout all his Empire . Thou hearing these things with a sorrowful Mind , and being again refreshed with cheerfulness , didst certainly know , that by proceeding in denyals , thou couldest not escape Death ; wherefore thou answeredst , unto those that were sent in message unto thee , after this manner following : I intreat you oh ye Wise , like as also Prudent Sirs , if I can prevaile any thing with you , that ye mutually attest my thankful mind unto our Lord , for so clementious a sentence , wherewith he hath vouchsafed to prosecute me , and to demonstrate unto him , that I have imprudently retained that Testament , as being ignorant that it was to be delivered : I now prepare my self to preform it , together with all the Experience and Knowledge , whereby I have obtained it , and that indeed , unto whom it shall please our Lord , so that his Goodness may grant me the space of a whole Week , within which time , I am to satisfie our Lord , whereby I may re-obtain my liberty , according to the tenour of his Sentence , hoping that that will not be refused : For in very deed , and according to a just computation , I stand in need of two dayes , to wit , that of Saturn , with that of Sol , whereby I may with my self , begin and perfect every Enterprize , or that I may dispose of all things , in order , which in the following day of Lune , and so afterwards , in the whole Week following , I shall distinctly signifie : Whereto the wise Men answered , Oh Mercurius , we are instructed with a full Command from our Lord , by whose authority we condescend to thy Petition , as being supported with Equity ; thou shalt perform all things according to thy own sentence , that the wise Sirs being not learned after the common manner , and moderate or courteous Men , may find no fault in thee , when they shall hear thee in the said day , or subject thee to examination and even as thou hast bound thy self to be kept in custody for thy own , and that an ample limitted term of dayes , until thy promises are accomplished , we will alwayes remain with thee , for an enquiry into thy Conceptions , the which thou shalt frame in this two precedent dayes space . Thou rejoycedst in their Company ; for whosoever he was that beheld them , gathered by their habit and gestures , that they were godly ; for truly , their Countenance , did carry a divine gladness before it , and thou didst say unto them : Seeing that the day cometh , for the winning whereof , my obediences are not in the least to be contested , know ye , oh my wise Men , that I prefixed no time for the recollecting of my Memory , nor any the like thing , because I have no need thereof ; but considering , that to day is the first day of the Week , but to morrow the last day , the Lords day , the seventh day , wherein he had finished all things , and wherein he had rested : It hath seemed meet unto me , to distribute and contain my Knowledge , according to the rate of the Dayes of the week ; I beginning the future day of Lune one the sixth day of the week , after the custom of Mortals ( for before God , all things are eternal and present ) so that unto us , as unto Mortals , the first day may be accounted the last ; and I beginning from Saturns day , to number backwards , have need of two and forty dayes for the fulfilling of the whole week , that which would stir up a weariness in many , through the largeness of time : In the mean time , I will briefly rehearse all things . I Mercurius , being from my tender years , brought up by my Father in the select School of Hermes and there after some sort seasoned , my Spirit being unquiet , was not content therewith , as desiringly desiring thorowly to know the whole sacred Art , or Tree of Life , and to enjoy it : Neither would I set my hands to Work , unless I could certainly understand this , from the beginning to the end . Moreover , I concluded in my mind , that through an approvement of the truth , I might be brought thither at the last , without the help of outward Instruction . I distributed with my self , all Creatures , first those External and Corporeal ( as I may so say ; ) and then those Internal , Spiritual , and Corporifying ones ; which Parts I did again refer or reduce towards and into one : I was not able to subdivide and know those Creatures called Corporeal ones , without the adjoyning of the Spiritual Corporifying ones : I beheld those with an unwonted Countenance ; even as according to my Judgment , I had consequently placed all , in every one his own order , as being free from the anticipated or fore-possessed , false , and obstinate Opinions of the Heathens , who have never frequented Universities , as by this my unpolished Style doth sufficiently appear . Nevertheless , well observe ye , I utter no Saying in vain , but that it doth signifie something , and pertain to the whole . My Spirit could perceive no delight or desire of study , in Temporary and Fraile or Mortal things ; I did alwayes thirst and breath after Perfect and Eternal ones ; I was taken up into admiration within my self from momentary necessary created things , and from hence on God , who created Heaven and Earth at once , the which the Prophane Phylosophers cannot apprehend : and they who desire to come hitherto , they must worship God by a firme Faith , with an humble Hope , and in true Love : then shall they obtain a perfect Knowledge of himself , and of all other Creatures , before their Beginning , in their Being , or Essence , and after their transchanging ; the which I will more largely and manifestly make out , so far as may be done by Words , for the Temporal , and Eternal Health , and Preservation of the Soul , and Body , according to the measure of every ones Capacity , which all have not alike , nor had they : And that they might be the further holpen towards Salvation . God out of his Goodness , raised up Moses of the Prophets , who might be useful to them in a Type ( which after the Dutch Language , is also as much as to say , Books ) and by his Writings ; to wit , in his first Book of Creations , which containeth all of whatsoever can be desired , the which I in part , as the whole , had sometimes learned by heart ( according to Jerom's Translation ) the rather , because it comprehends all things , which man in his Own-ness , Selfishness and My-ness , and the like Appropriations cannot understand : For whatsoever God hath created , he hath created free , and at liberty by One , and in One ; and he that arrogates that thing to himself , makes that very thing it self , his own , seperates himself from God , and doth in himself , enter into the way that leadeth towards utter Darkness : And as God is an Incomprehensible , Eternal , Piercing , and a Filling Fire , Light , and Glory , wanting Beginning , and Ending ; such is he in the Men his Saints ( Hy-lichten , according to the Dutch , is as much as to say , He shineth ) in a co-united Love and Glory ; and in the Godly ( Sa-lichten according to the Dutch , expresseth , ( He ought to shine ) he will be so , according to more and less or a greater and less measure ; but in evil Men , who are Eternal in the Dark , and separated , he is also an Eternal burning Fire , even as it is said . Therefore , even as God is the Eternal Good ( in the Dutch Idiome , it expresseth God ; ) so also , all whatsoever was created , he created Good : The first Man was constituted into Light , and Good , as being created of God ; yet not united in Eternal Rest and Glory ; but as being created after the Image of God , in a freedom of Will ; the which is now become● Property in us , through the seducement and transgression of the Prohibition and Admonition of God , in the touching and eating of Death , or of the Fruit of the forbidden Tree , which [ Hevah , or Eve ] the Mother of all Living , touched and ate . Those called the wise Men , did speak unto thee ; Run thou not out so far , before we perceive , whether thou hast known thy self , and that thou hast told us what thy self art . Mercurius ; I am a Man , created by the Almighty God , after his own Image and Likeness , possessing my Body of the Clay of the Earth , which in the Dutch Idiome is ( Litch-aem ) as if to say ( a Vessel of Light ) having obtained a Spirit and Soul from him ; And one thing ought to be made of these , the Body , Spirit and Soul ought to be sanctifyed ( Hy-lichzijn ( he shineth ) or Blessed , Sal-lichzijn ) he shall be shining ) but if not , the Vessel and Spirit must needs be damned . Wise Men ; We observe or take notice , that thou endeavourest to express thy self to be threefold , but not a Unite , and thy Spirit to be Darksome , or Lightsome , the darkening of it to proceed from the Flesh , which is earthly , deadly , and obscure ; the illumination , or enlightning of it , it shall attain by the Spirit , by beaming in , emptying out , and subduing the Darkness : But we covet to hear , whether there be a third thing ; because thou namest the Light of the Vessel , and a Soul ; are there two diverse Lights , or at leastwise , do they constitute or make one Light , of one Light ? Mercurius ; there is one only Eternal Light , Entirely and Eternally , Externally , and Internally in all Parts , because the Life Eternal , and the whole Eternal Part , was inspired into Man by the Almighty God , even as Moses testifies in the second Chapter of the Book of Genesis ; Man was made into a living Soul ; which Soul , made or constituted the seventh Day , as is demonstrated in the very same Chapter : Therefore the Heavens and the Earth were perfected , and all the Ornament or Dress thereof : And God compleated Work which he had made , on the Seventh Day ; and he rested on the Seventh Day from all his Work which he had made ; and he blessed the Seventh Day , and sanctified it : Because therein God had ceased from all his Work which he had created , that he might make , to wit , Man into a living Soul. Wise Men ; If this Light be the Seventh Day , what dost thou think of the Six foregoing Dayes , and of that which is extant in the eighteenth Chapter of Ecclesiasticus ; He who lives for ever created all things at once ? Mercurius ; In the Beginning , God created all things , the Heaven and the Earth , and whatsoever was created ; the wich Moses at the entrance of Genesis , comprehends into the First Day , where he denotes the making of the other five Dayes , Saying : In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth , but the Earth was empty and void , and Darkness was upon the face of the Deep ; and the Spirit of God was carried upon the Waters : And God said let there be Light , and Light was made : And God saw the Light , that it was good ; and he divided the Light from the Darkness ; And he called the Light Day , and the Darkness Night . And the Evening and Morning was made one Day . Insomuch that Man doth constitute the Sixth Day , which Dayes were distinct from each other , whereby Man may know himself , what he is , what he is to do , and what Power he hath , or may have by his Spirit , as a Man ( not likewise as a Soul ) over the foregoing Dayes , or created things , as it is found in the aforesaid Chapter of Genesis ; And God said , Let us make Man according to our own Image and Likeness ; and let him bear Rule over the Fishes of the Sea , and over the Fowles of the Heaven , and over the Beasts of the whole Earth , and over every creeping thing which is moved in the Earth . Wise Men ; Thou dost satisfie us , and besides , dost also over-signifie , that Man was the sixth Day , and that he seperated the Light from the Darkness on the first Day , which Light or Spirit , he called Day , and his Blood , Flesh , or Darkness , he called Night , which Evening , and Morning , constituted the sixth Day ; and so consequently , the other five , although according to every ones peculiar Nature . But dost thou make no mention of the seventh Day ? Mercurius ; The seventh Morning , Light or Life , is the Spirit of God it self , even as was said : And therefore in Moses his description of the seventh Day , it is not expressed , that the Evening and Morning was made the seventh Day , as in the six precedent Dayes ; and that for this Cause , because there is no Beginning , or Evening granted to be in God the Father , because he is he who [ Is what he is : ] but it is so accounted , because on the seventh Day , he inspired into Man his Face , the Breath of Life , and this man became into a living Soul ; so that of Man , and the Breath of God , the seventh Day was made . Wise Men ; From thy relation , we have fully understood the Beginning and Ending of the first Day , and of the sixth Day following , with the seventh Day not ended , that Man was conjoyntly made into a living Soul : But we desire to hear , what Moses will have to be meant by the Word , In the Beginning ? Mercurius ; The Beginning is God the Son , by whom , in whom , and from whom the Heaven and Earth were created ; as the Evangelist John doth most exceeding evidently testifie , in his first Chapter , in these Words : In the Beginning was the Word ( which with the Dutch also sounds , Woort , that is Fiat or let it be done ) and the Word was with God , and God was the Word . This Word was in the Beginning with God. All things were made by him , and without him was nothing made . In him was Life , and the Life was the Light of men ; And the Light shineth in Darkness and the Darkness hath not comprehended it . There was a Man sent from God , whose name was John. This Man came for a Testimony , that he might bear witness of the Light , that all men through him might believe . He was not that Light , but that he might bear witness of the Light. That was the true Light , which enlightneth every Man that cometh into this Word : He was in the World , and the World was made by him , and the World knew him not . He came into his own , and his own received him not : But as many as received him , to them he gave Power to become the Sons of God , to these who believe in his name ; who were born not of Bloods , nor of the Will of the Flesh , neither of the Will of Man , but of God. And the Word was made Flesh , and dwelt in us , and we saw its Glory , as the Glory of the only begotten of the Father , full of Grace , and Truth . John gives his Testimony concerning him , and cryeth out saying : This was he , whom I said ; he which is to come after me , was made before me ; because he was before me : And of his fulness , we all have received , and Grace for Grace : Because the Law was given by Moses , Grace , and Truth was made by Jesus Christ . No Man hath seen God at any time : The onely begotten Son , who is in the bosom of the Father , he hath declared him . Wise Men ; Now we have perceived this Testimony of Saint John , that it contains every thing serving to perfection : but deliver thy Opinion unto us , after what manner thou art like unto Adam ? and in what respect in him ; and how thou hast proceeded from him ? Mercurius ; Before that man was made into a living Soul , God spake unto himself , as the first Chapter of Genesis witnesseth ; And God created Man according to his own Image ( which Image is God the Son ) After the Image of God created he him , Male and Female created he them . And God blessed them , and said , Increase and multiply . Which command was enjoyned to Adam , in respect of his Spirit , and Humanity , but not as to his Soul ; for this is Eternal and Immutable : So also , all his Parts are like unto him , whereof I also possess the whole : Now even as man was made of the Mud or Clay of the Ground ; so also it behoves him to increase as other terrestrial living Creatures , by a growing and uniting , and eating of living Creatures , which Foods are required to die in the Stomack , and to be changed from their Substance , if they ought to be converted from a more vile Substance , into a more excellent one , or to be promoted by the Spirit of Man , unto a united Life , from which co-nourishing and increasing , my Vessel or Body , and Substance , I hold as Adam did ; because I proceeded from him , after that he was made into a living Soul , as it is found in the second Chapter of Genesis ; but for Adam , there was not found an helper like unto him : Therefore the Lord God sent a deep Sleep into Adam ; and when he had slept , he took one of his Ribs , and filled up the Flesh in the room of it . And the Lord God framed the Rib which he had taken from Adam , into a Woman ; and he brought her unto Adam : And Adam said , This now is Bone of my Bones , and Flesh of my Flesh , this shall be called Virago or Wo-man , because she was taken from Man : Wherefore a Man shall leave his Father and his Mother , and shall adhere to his Wife , and they twain shall be in one Flesh . Wise Men ; Thou hast explained unto us , what thou hast been wholly in Adam , according to thy Spirit and Soul , and in Eve according to thy Body : likewise , that the Vessel hath received the Spirit , and the Spirit the Soul. Now we could desire to hear , in what respect Eve was produced by God out of Adam , and what the sleep sent by God into Adam , before he framed her , doth denote ? Mercurius ; Adam from the Beginning was perfect in his Essence , as being the first Man created by God , so his Spirit did shine thorow his Flesh and Vessel , and did illustrate it ; even as now , the Light did illuminate his Darkness , and was able to subdue it , so it ought to excel and overcome the Darkness ; because it was Internal , Stable , Eternal , and good in its own Essence ; the which Spirit existing , Adam could not of his own accord produce his Like , without Sleep sent into him ; for he persisting in his Essence , was without sleep , and because he had divided himself from himself , all his Parts had remained proper unto him , and again , had returned unto the whole into one , assoon as he had listed , because by his Spirit predominating , he had divided the Body subjected unto it self ; which Parts were inwardly and outwardly enlightned , from his own Light , which gave an Essence unto all his Members . But some may ask , how in the next place had it gone with Adam , if he had not eaten the Poyson from Eve ? It is answered , there had alwayes been in him a combating with his Spirit or Light against his Darkness , the which on the first Day God divided , of which two also Man was composed , even as the said Chapter sheweth , which is further explained at the end of the same Chapter , on the sixth Day , in these Words ; And replenish ye the Earth , and subdue it : And when they had fought to the utmost , they had filled the Earth and the Darkness , with their Spirit or with their Light , and had so subdued it , that the former Darkness had been supped up , and co-nourished , which was his proper and one only Work , alwayes to be done and perfected . But some one may further query , seeing in Adam the said Light being separated from the Darkness , had overcome the Darkness , as it was shewed to be by the very same Light ; whether or no , according to a spiritual returned or restored United Body , he had been entire and eternal in all his particular Parts and Members ? This being so , by that reason , he might have been divided into Innumerable , Eternal , and Infinite men , without the aforesaid sleep preceding ? I answer ; it is certain , that this Deified man , would have been entire in all his Infinite Parts ; likewise that all those Parts would again as one , have constituted one Entire Body : He having himself in such a manner , had been likewise to be one Deified Man ; he being reduced hitherto by his necessary strife , would by Grace in his Life , have enjoyed or rejoyced in the same , with Christ our Saviour after his Resurrection ; Whereby many such men might now have been begotten or brought forth ; and whereby , all also of them might have enjoyed that very same Grace , for which Adam was procreated , and whereby they might have attained it by that very same strife : It pleased the Lord God to send the aforesaid sleep into Adam , to shew , that he soundly sleeping , had not contributed any thing to the structure of Eve ; but she was now founded in this sleep by God. Moreover , the curious might busily enquire , why Eve was framed of the Rib of Adam , but not of his Flesh ? I return an answer ; the former Man was Adam , the second Eve , made for his help , and conjoyned Procreation ; Now Propagation consisteth partly in Man , as in other living Creatures , by conjunction , or nourishing , as was said ; and it is further to be observed in all increase of created things in this World , before they are able to grow ( because they consist of two things ) that the one ought first to die , to wit , the Body and Form , which consist of Water and Earth , and do arise from the Light of the Moon and Stars , as of the Lights of the Night , every thing according to their different Nature , none excepted ; and that this might be perfected in Adam , the Lord God took a Rib out of Adam , which is a Bone , according to its being made in Adam , a Progeny of Veins ( the which , with the Dutch sounds also , a Progeny of Vipers ) which Bone is governed by the Moon , as shall be found , that when the Moon increaseth , the Marrow likewise of the Bones doth increase , like the Waters , and together with it doth decrease : It will further be found , that when Flesh is burnt in the Fire , it looseth that form , A Bone not so , yea that is so stable ; that the Examiners of the goodness of Coyn do make their Crucibles thereof , wherein they melt and search Gold and Silver : So that a Bone or Rib is , and doth retain nothing besides the humane Earth , as it is a second Production in Man ; like that of the Earth out of the Waters , so far it differs from the first and one thing . Wherefore Eve , as she was procreated from hence , she is likewise of a second and lesser thing , according to her Body , not likewise according to her Spirit and Soul ; For these she holds from Adam , which are Eternal and Permanent , and a Part whereof Eve Possesseth , and all that , even as all their Parts , are Eternal , even as was said . Now in a further consideration or avouching of the Premises , thou shalt find , that Women do therefore suffer monthly Issues or Menstrues , serving for Propagation , because they ought to beget a man , as to the Body , in that respect as was said . Wise Men ; We acquiesce ; and moreover , through occasion of two Words , which thou from the Dutch Idiome , hast considerately produced , thou recallest two places of Scripture unto our remembrance ; one rehearsed by the Evangelist Mathew , in the twelfth Chapter , where Christ saith to the Pharisies ; He that is not with me , is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me , scattereth . Therefore I say unto you ; Every Sin and Blasphemy , shall be forgiven unto Men , ( Flesh ) but the Blasphemy of the Spirit , shall not be forgiven . And whosoever shall speak a Word against the Son of Man , it shall be forgiven him : but he that shall speak against the holy Spirit , it shall not be forgiven him , neither in this Age , nor in that to come . Either make ye the Tree good , and its Fruit good ; or make ye the Tree Evil , and its Fruit Evil : for truly , the Tree is known by the Fruit. Ye Generation of Vipers , how can ye speak good things , seeing ye are Evil ? For from the abundance of the Heart the Mouth speaketh . The other is mentioned by Luke in the third Chapter , after the citing of a place of the Prophet Jsaiah , who saith ; And all Flesh shall see the Salvation of God. Therefore be ( to wit John the Baptist ) said unto the Multitude which went out to be Baptized of him : Ye Generations of Vipers , who hath shewn you to flee from the wrath to come ? do ye therefore Fruits meet for repentance , and ye shall not begin to say ; We have Abraham for our Father . For I say unto you ; because God is able of those Stones , to raise up Sons unto Abraham . Which two . Words are also repeated in these two Texts , not badly agreeing with the signification of the Dutch Word ; and thou shewing unto us by all thy demonstration , that the Serpent so called , which seduced Eve , and her Spirit , was certainly her own Flesh and Blood , which desired the Fruits of the forbidden Tree , and spake to her Spirit for that end ; so that the name of Serpent , is not only accounted the Serpent , but as well the Serpent , a living Creature , as a Man , according to the Flesh , the which is also , moreover seen in the Infancy , or Old Age of a Man , or when the Spirit is weakened , that he is and doth become a Serpent . Wherefore , after God had committed unto man the dominion over the living Creatures , over all the Earth , and over every creeping Animal , which is moved in the Earth , this last Dominion is the greatest , whereby he ought to work his own blessedness , that which thou shalt more cleerly make manifest from the Text , assoon as leasure shall permit ; for now we hasten , because half of the second day of those prefixed , hath soon passed away , therefore proceed thou and hasten , and declare unto us the difference between thee and Adam , when he was to strive against his Darkness , whereby he as well as thou might have subdued it . Mercurius ; In no other thing , besides that Darkness was increased in man , by the touching of the Fruits , and eating of the forbidden Tree ; in so much that Darkness holds the prize against the Light , and doth now possess it , even as in Adam , the Light in Adam did possess his Darkness , and did illuminate it before his Fall. Wise Men ; How comes this to pass ? Mercurius ; This hath come to pass , through a Fermenting or Leavening , Contagious , Darksom , and Deadly or Destructive eating . Wise Men ; What wilt thou insinuate thereby , explain thy self by Similitudes . Mercurius ; As Darkness was in the face of the deep , before that the Spirit of God was carried upon the Waters ; in like manner , thou shalt find a certain Vessel , or place , which being shut up , or hoary and filthy , doth even in a very little time , render all that which is cast into it , alike stinking or rank , and surther to infect it ; neither doth any thing of the first more principal Ferment and Filthiness depart . Moreover , that it may be demonstrated , that this filthy place is also darksom , is well learned by those that pertain to Wine-cellars , who being desirous to know and experience , whether a Hogs-head be hoary or filthy , or no , do open its mouth , and by an End do let in a burning Candle , and when the Vessel shall be clean , and infected with no Muck or Filth , the Candle being let down athwart it , will remain burning , until its own begetting Vapour doth choak it self : but if the Hogs-head be filthy , the Flame or Light , cannot pierce through the Orifice of the Hogs-head unto the thickness of the Wood. Therefore it manifestly appears , that the darkness doth also uncloath or discover it self , and make other things darksom , just even as the Light doth operate , and that , when the darkness doth overcome the Light , or the Light overcome the Darkness : These and the like Darknesses , must needs be before all Light ; and by how much the more stable they are , by so much the more stable also , is the Body arisen from thence . Now it is further to be noted , that as a temporal Light doth illustrate out of it self , one thing more largely than another , according to their stability , magnitude , or increasing ; in the like proportion and manner , the darkness powers forth its Beams out of it self , as was shewn : also as a burning and consuming Fire , can by its Light , enflame , burn , and stir up many Seeds into a growth or increase , according to the rate of their more stable Nature , that which I take notice of , thou shalt evidently perceive by this Experiment ; it is seen and felt , that by how much the nearer a Fire is kindled , by so much the more it shines or enlightens , and heats : now this heat and brightness is one and the same thing , as long as it is in the Fire , as by a collection of those hot beams through the help of a certain burning glass , may be proved , whereby the hot beams are again collected , and are made like unto those which exist in the Fire , to wit , hot and burning ones : now when we permit a temporal , dispersed and decaying Fire freely to burn , we shall discern by the Light which shines forth through the Fire , that other created Bodies are burnt at diverse distances from hence , to wit , in the nearest Body , the more stable and combustible one , and as the beams are diffused , so far also the heat is diminished , and will enflame the less stable created bodies : The reason is , because that which is soon made , must needs also have that which soon perisheth : wherefore cold and moist Regions do bring forth larger Fruits than hot and dry Jurisdictions ; yet are they less durable than others which are less hot , because their Light which is in them , is more divided , and that as well in-Bruits as in Men ; Men of moist Coasts or Climates are homely and big , neither can they undergo so much heat , as Men which live in high , dry , and hot Countries , as also the thing it self doth moreover testifie : Yea thou shalt find that even dead Carcases which are slain by a violent Death , even as Histories do declare , and we are able besides , dayly to experience , when a slaughter hath been made , or shall be made of men who had gone out of cold and watery Coasts , to wage War against those of the more hot Provinces , that the Slain on both sides might be discerned a long time after , because they of the more cold Regions did sooner putrifie , these waxed dry , and remained surviving , these did longer endure entire in the Heat , because their Balsam is more durable than that of the other , even as they contain more or less of a moist Matter , or do partake more or less of a Night Light , and they which are the more destitute of that , those do more rejoyce in a day Light : Now even as the Sun is a perfect , and the greater day Light ; so the Moon being the nearest Planet unto us , is a perfect Night Light , which are perpetual in their Essence , and likewise do render those Bodies perpetual and durable , which are born , and renewed by their help . Furthermore , as there is one only Sun , and one only Moon , their created Bodies , no otherwise than those like unto them , may be compared thereunto , they being one only and also perfect , as Gold , which the Phylosophers have called Sol , and Silver , Lune , and the other five Metals likewise according to the thing brought forth , after the rest of the Planets , wherein they have rightly done , and have delivered the Truth , because , those one only Bodies are perfect ; the Fire cannot hurt them , they remain stable therein , Gold lives in the Fire , therefore the Phylosoyhers have marked that , with the name of Salamander , the which now is falsly accounted for a living Creature : A temporary and fraile Fire , possesseth its Fire , only in part as was said ; but the Sun is a perpetual Fire and Life , and can live only in that which is like it self , the which also must needs be a stable Body : And as there is a temporary body in all things , except in these two aforesaid which are like them , and do wholly participate of them , in what respect , bodies ought to be returned , into their first Essence ; by the same reason likewise , the Light ought to be returned unto its Original ; for a frail or mortal thing cannot reach unto a perpetual thing : Furthermore , the stable Darkness must needs be present , before the Light , wherein the Light is raised up ; but if this Darkness be perpetual , the Light also may perpetually dwell in it : first , according to the Spirit , and then , according to the Soul ; which Spirit , seeing it is Eternal , doth illuminate Eternal Darkness , and the Darkness grows together or increaseth into Light , and is made Silver , which is twofold , constituting a Body in the Flesh and Bones of Gold , which is threefold : Now as the Sun is a great day Light , so it overcomes the Moon , and silver is altogether converted into Gold , by that ; the other five Earthly Planets , may be transchanged and brought thorow unto a perfection like unto that of them , because they also are Nocturnal Lights . Further , we must know , that there are many innumerable Minerals , mutually differing like as do the Stars from each other , all which do expect their Perfection , and some of these can more easily and swiftly attain unto their last Perfection than others . Gold and Silver ; how smally soever they may be divided , they may be re-united without loss , because all their least Parts are entire and perpetual : Notwithstanding , they may be rendred Mortal , because they have not as yet co-met or con-joyned into one ; but this Death cannot begin of and from themselves , neither by reason of the Gold , nor of the Silver , because they are stable Bodies . Now some Lovers might ask , after what sort , or by what means that might happen ? I reply ; After the same manner or means , whereby it happeneth in all created things , whereby also it happened in Eve , through an increasing of the Darkness , which draws its Original out of the principles of their Bodies , as was shewn ; yea the Darkness may so grow up , that it may convert the whole Spirit into Darkness : but it that Lune or the Spirit of Sol , doth call the Soul or Heat unto its aid , before it be subjected and overcome , the Spirit shall be strengthened , not as it was before its Corruption , but by this strife and victory , it shall be so strong , and the Spirit thereof shall be so greatly multiplyed , that it is able to render ten of the imperfect Brethren , stable ; but this Spirit hath not by this contention attained unto a liberty even entire , and an Eternal Union ; but it ought so often to repeat this conflict , which shall always more and more increase , according to the increase of the Spirit , and Darkness , until it shall come unto the utmost , and can suffer no more ; and the watery Body or Darkness shall be plainly consumed , and then it is a pure , everlasting , united , and double Light , which will illustrate all things , without dammage and diminishment , and will be able to perfect all its Brethren into the likeness of it self , it s own Virtue being retained ; and when this thing doth happen in Sol , the Light of Lune is changed , and supped up into Sol ; so that it is equally made an Eternal , United , and Trine Sol , that which is the last in Eternity ( out of Man : ) And hence it may be demonstrated , that the Evangelist John , in the third Chapter of his Revelation , doth use the same Similitude , saying ; I exhort thee to buy of me Gold tried in the Fire , that thou mayest be made rich , and to be cloathed with white Garments , and that the confusion or shame of thy nakedness may not appear ; and anoint thou thine eyes with a Collyrium or Eye-Salve , that thou mayest see . I whom I love , do reprove and chastize : Be ye therefore zealous and repent . Behold I stand at the door and knock ; If any one shall hear my voice , and shall open unto me the Gate , I will enter in unto him , and will sup with him , and he with me . He that shall overcome , I will give unto him to sit with me in my Throne , as also I have overcome , and have sit with my Father in his Throne . He that hath an eare , let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches . Wise Men ; We rejoyce that we understand from thee , and do know the shining and quickning Light ; likewise the effluxing , acting , fermental , contagious , and mortal Darkness ; whereby we understand , how Eve hath touched and eaten of the Fruits of Darkness , and that she became darksom and contagious from thence ; through her effluxing Darkness , she delivered that which she had eaten , as she who was to do that very thing in Adam , who did eat of the same : In like manner , through the diversity of the shining Light , from the Darkness uncloathing it self , we understand , after what manner the Ministers or Servants of God , are able by the Light , to perform external , and everlasting Works , as to remove Mountains , restore Sight to the Blind , hearing to the Deaf , to raise the Dead ; and likewise on the other hand , how Evil and Dark men , are able or powerful only in committing or acting Works which are seperated , and mortal or noysom , through their Darkness issuing out of themselves : We have perceived also , that the Tree of Life , was placed in the midst of the Garden , and likewise the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil , which we may collect out of the second and third following Chapter of Moses . We also apprehend the Tree to be Good , but its Fruits to have been Evil : besides , now we know this Tree , together with Paradise , from thy Words , and the same from the second Chapter of Moses ; But the Lord God , had from the Beginning , planted a Paradise of Pleasure ; wherein he placed the Man , which he had formed . And the Lord God , produced from the Ground , every Tree that was Beautiful to behold , and Sweet to eat : also the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden , and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And a River went out from the Place of Pleasure , to water the Paradise , which was from thence divided into four Heads : The name of one is Pison ; he it is which runs about or encompasseth all the Land of Havtlah , where Gold is bred ; and the Gold of that Land is the best . Furthermore , we also conceive of this which is found in the third Chapter ; And when they had heard the voice of the Lord walking in the Paradise , at the coole Air after noon day : That which is further explained in the nineteenth Psalm of David ; The Heavens declare the Glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth the Works of his hands . Day unto day uttereth the Word , and night unto night sheweth Knowledge . There are no Languages , nor Speeches , of which , their voices may not be heard : Their sound hath gone out unto all the Earth , and their words into the Borders of the Circle of the Earth . He hath placed his Tabernacle in the Sun : and he as a Bridegroome proceeding out of his Bride-chamber , hath rejoyced as a Gyant to run his race or course : his going forth is from the highest Heaven , and his encountring even unto the highest part thereof , neither is there he who can hide himself from his heat . The Law of the Lord is unspotted , converting Soules : the Testimony or Witness of the Lord is faithful , giving Wisdom to the little Ones . The Righteousnesses of the Lord are right , making glad Hearts : The Precept of the Lord is lightsom or cleer , enlightning the Eies . The Fear of the Lord is holy , remaining for Age of Age. The Judgments of the Lord are true , being justified for their very own sakes : they are to be desired above Gold , and much Pretious-stone ; and are sweeter than the Honey and the honey Combe . For thy Servant keepeth them , in keeping them there is much reward . Who understandeth his Faults ? Cleanse thou me from my secret Ones , and from strange Ones , spare thy Servant ; If they shall not have dominion over me , then I shall be unspotted , and I shall be purged from the great Fault : And the Speeches or Oracles of my Mouth shall be such as may be well pleasing : and the Meditation of my Heart , alwayes in thy sight , Oh Lord my Helper , and my Redeemer . We have also known that mortal Man might reach to the Tree of Life , and enjoy it , when he shal be a Cherub , and he may be made one , as Moses witnesseth in the third Chapter of Genesis ; And he said , Behold , Adam hath become as it were one of us , knowing Good and Evil ; now therefore , least happily , he stretch forth his hand , and take also of the Tree of Life , and eat and live for ever . And the Lord God , sent him out from the Paradise of Pleasure , that he might labour the Earth from which he was taken : and he cast out Adam , and placed before the Paradise of Pleasure , Cherubims , and a flaming Sword , and that which turned about to keep the way of the Tree of Life . Seeing that now , that two days limited space is slipt away , and that thou art to be left by us in a short time , we first covet to hear , because thou art instructed in the four lesser orders , whether likewise , thou dost ambitiously seek the other three , or to be promoted into a Doctor of Medicine ? Mercurius ; The Priesthood is a great office , and requireth many things , now especially they ought to answer concerning many things , and to be perfect , when they will rightly discharge their duty , the which I never should dare to undertake but constrainedly . The Doctorship of the Art of Medicine I deservedly shun , because the Professors of the same , do for the most part foster other mens opinions , and do the less follow the Truth : But I shall intreat God , that it would please him , to grant me daily to perform his will , with all my might , even as long as Life shall last . The prosperous Wisemen of the Night , did bless thee with their Prayer , exhorting ; proceed thou in thy purpose , and act thou , that thou mayest 〈…〉 ( through the mediation of the day of Saturn , in the day of Lune , by the day of Sol ) liberty to thy self , as was said . And next , we commend thee to the supplication of our followers , who have charged , accused , and convicted thee , that thou mightest bring forth all the aforesaid things , or secrets to light : Speak to them , and hear them gently , as they shall observe all things which thou dost put in practise ; for this two days space , we have stood to our Commission . For these things , thou having performed thy due thanks towards these wise Sirs and Masters , didst say unto their followers ; Ye lovers of the Truth , ye that are most honoured , together with ye that are lesse honoured , noble , ignoble , and ye who are present , I have known none of you apart ( although I have been pricked forward by you ( because your countenance is now vailed unto me ; Know ye , that I do humbly beseech you all , known and unknown , not displeasantly to receive my ready poor labour , and courteous affection , which devotes it self readily to serve all and every one of you with all its might . Which words they hearing , did aloft testifie their acceptation , and a great number of those that were known , did begin to undo their vails , some did read written , letters unto thee , others sounded out Hymns in honour of thy Father and his Writings ; they being sent unto thee , whereby they might be prefixed unto thy Fathers Work : This applause ceasing , after thy thanks being most perfectly performed , thou didst go on ; I have known many of you , some by sight and talk , others by a great celebration , Letters and Verses , which were taken from me by the Count of Giline , when in my absence he had spoiled my Castle , where , amongst the rest of my houshold-stuffe , he had discerned the aforesaid Books , Writings , and Hymns ; all which , together with his Galenical paultry Physitian , he was not able to endure to survive ; this destruction I lament , as the one onely cause , that they could in no wise see the light : Whereupon thou didst wish them all Prosperity and health in the Lord , saying , I will from your earnest desire , commit all things that have been rehearsed , unto the Press . All which things , after that my intimate friend upon urgency , had declared unto me , I contained in few words , and did shew them unto him ; the which being seen , he counselled me to divulge in Print , subjoyning ; if any one shall desire more things , so he be fit for them , I shall never be wanting , but will serve every one more fully according to the thing begun or brought forth in him . Follow me , I walk thorow the whole World. AN ACROSTICK Upon the Great PHILOSOPHER , John Baptista Van Helmont . INcomparable Work ( beyond the reach Of humane praise ) which justly doth impeach Huge Heaps and Volumns of largeful-cram'd sheets , Nicely compos'd , where subtile Learning meets , ( Born up by lofty-winged Fame ) which can Ascend no higher now ( since LEARNED VAN Pres'd into th' Croud ) but ( as attached ) must Take Sanctuary in despised dust , ( Inevitable dis-esteem and shame Surprizing them ) whilst , onely , HELMONT'S NAME Takes hold of meriting Transcendency ; Advancing by the hand of Truth , whereby Virtue , unvails the blinded eye of Vice ; Ambition , Cruelty , and Avarice , ( Notorious Crimes ) which with prevailing force , Have long continued on the World a Curse ; Ent'ring by Ignorance and Sloth , whence all Lame , and imperfect Sciences did crall ; ( Mustring , like Weeds , a multiplying Birth ) Ore-running the whole surface of the Earth , None , knowing how , those Errors to unmask , Till , Painful HELMONT , undertook this Task . JOHN HEYMAN . AN INDEX OF THE TREATISES Set forth by John Baptista Van Helmont . 1. Prophesie concerning the Author , expressed in a Poem . 2. The Authors Promises . pag. 1 Column , 1. 2 Column , 2. 5 Column , 3. 6 3. The Authors Confession . 8 4. The Authors Studies . 11 5. The searching out of Sciences . 15 6. The Causes and Beginnings of Natural things . 27 7. Archeus Faber or the Master Workman . 35 8. Logick is unprofitable . 37 9. The ignorant Natural Phylosophy of Aristotle and Galen . 41 10. The Elements , 47 11. The Earth . 50 12. The Water . 53 13. The Air. 57 14. The Essay of a Meteor . 63 15. The Gas of the Water . 70 16. The Blas of Meteors . 78 17. A Vacuum of Nature . 81 18. An irregular Meteor . 87 19. The Earth-quake . 92 20. The Fiction of Elementary Complexions and Mixtures . 104 21. The Image of the Ferment begets the Masse with child of a seed . p. 111 22. The Stars do necessitate ; not incline , nor signifie of the Life , Body , or Fortunes of him that is born . 118 23. The Birth or Original of Forms . 128 24. Magnum Oportet , or a thing of great necessity or concernment . 148 25. Nature is ignorant of contraries . 160 26. The Blas of Man. 175 27. Endemicks . 188 28. The Spirit of Life . 192 29. Heat doth not digest efficiently , but excitingly onely . 198 30. The threefold Digestion of the Schools . 203 31. A sixfold Digestion of humane nourishment . 205 32. Pylorus the Governour . 222 33. A History of Tartar. 229 34. A History of Tartar of Wine . 232 35. The rash invention of Tartar in Diseases . 235 36. Nourishments are guiltlesse of Tartar. 240 37. Tartar is not in drink . 249 38. An erring Watchman or wandring Keeper . 254 39. The Image of the Mind . 262 40. A mad or foolish Idea . 272 41. The seat of the Soul. 283 42. From the seat of the Soul unto Diseases . 289 43. The authority of the Duumvirate . 296 44. The compleating or perfecting of the Mind . 310 45. The Scab and Ulcers of the Schools . 316 46. An unknown action of Government . 324 47. The Duumvirate . 337 48. A Treatise of the Soul. 341 49. The Distinction of the Mind from the sensitive Soul. 344 50. Of the Immortality of the Soul. 346 51. The knitting of the sensitive Soul and Mind . 351 52. The Asthma and Cough . 356 53. The humour Latex neglected . 373 54. A Cauterie . 380 55. The Disease that was antiently reckoned that of delightful Livers . 386 56. A mad or raging Pleura . 392 57. That the three first Principles of the Chymists , nor the Essences of the same , are of the Army of Diseases . 401 58. Of Flatu's or windinesses in the Body . 416 59. The Toyes of a Catarrh or Rheum . 429 60. A Reason or Consideration of Diet. 450 61. A Modern Pharmacopolium and Dispensatory . 456 62. The Power of Medicines . 469 63. A Preface . 483 64. A Disease is an unknown Guest . 486 65. The Dropsie is unknown . 507 66. A childish Vindication of the Humourists . 522 67. The Author Answers . 524 A Treatise of Diseases . 68. A discernable Introduction . 528 69. The subject of inhering of Diseases is in the point of Life . 531 70. A proceeding to the knowledge of Diseases . 534 71. Of the Idea's of Diseases . 539 72. Of Archeal Diseases . 547 73. The Original of a diseasie Image . 552 74. The passage unto the Buttery of the Bowels is stopped up . 555 75. The Seat of Diseases in the sensitive Soul is confirmed . 559 76. The Squaldron , and Division of Diseases . 565 , 566 77. Things Received that are Injected . 568 78. Some more Imperfect Works . 574 79. In Words , Herbs , and Stones there is great Virtue . 575 80. Butler . 585 81. Of Material things Injected . 597 82. The manner of entring of things Darted into the Body . 604 83. Of things Conceived . 606 84. A Magnetical or Attractive Power . 614 85. Of Sympathetical Medium's or Means . 616 86. Of things Inspired . 617 87. Things Suscepted or Undergon . 619 88. Things Retained . 620 89. A Preface . 631 90. Of Time. 633 91. Life is Long , Art is Short. 645 92. The entrance of Death into humane nature , the grace of Virgins . 648 93. A Position . 652 94. The Position is Demonstrated . 661 95. Of the Fountains of the Spaw : The first Paradox . 687 96. A second Paradox . 691 97. A third . 693 98. A fourth . 696 99. A fifth . 699 100. A sixth . 702 101. A numerocritical Paradox of Supplies . 704 102. The Understanding of Adam . 711 103. The Image of God. 714 104. The Property of External Things . 724 105. The Radical Moisture . 726 106. The Vital Air. 731 107. A manifold Life in Man. 735 108. A Flux unto Generation . 736 109. A Lunar Tribute . 740 110. Life . 744 111. Short Life . 747 112. Eternal Life . 750 113. The Occasions of Death , 752 114. Of the Magnetick curing of Wounds . 756 115 The Tabernacle in the Sun. 794 116. The nourishing of an Infant for Long Life . 797 117. The Secrets of Paracelsus . p. 799 118. The Mountain of the Lord. 806 119. The Tree of Life . 807 Unheard of little Works of Medicine . 1. Of the Disease of the Stone . 827 2. Of Fevers , 935 3. A passive deceiving and ignorance of the Schools the Humourists . 1015 4. The Plague-grave . 1073 A PROPHESY Concerning the AUTHOR , Expressed in a POEM . 1. Medicine before Hippocrates , hath appeared naked and wandring about . 2. A saying of Hippocrates , inviting her unto the Cities . 3. She having admired , answers to Hippocrates . 4. The Praise due to Hippocrates . 5. Hippocrates the first of Physitians , after what manner he manured Medicine . 6. Galen gave an ornament to her tongue , he nourished her not , therefore she grew not . 7. The Arabians have done the same thing . 8. The followers of both these Sects have done the same thing hitherto . 9. Paracelsus unhappily endeavoured ambitiously to compass the Title of the Monarch of Secrets , and Prince of Medicine . 10. Medicine despiseth Paganish attire . 11. She desireth a Looking Glass that she may become the clearer by a reflex Light. 12. The Book of the Author shall serve those that shall succeed , for a Looking Glass . 13. Medicine unfolds her own and the Authors Destinies , by a Prophetick Poet. 14. Medicine praiseth the Authors Studies . 15. The Prophet declares the wished Fruits of his Labors . 16. The Judgement of Medicine concerning the Book of the Author . THe doleful'st Daughter of a high born Birth , By chance doth wander up and down the Earth , In places strange , among wild Beasts so fierce , And spiting her own Wishes , doth rehearse Then her Misfortunes : blames the Powers unkind , As cruel Gods : she blames them in her mind , Through troubled sense , and straies with ire too rife , Whose cause of wandring was the cause of grief . Thus here 's a double slaughter ; for she knew Her wretched Brother did not Death eschew : But perished by vengeance from above Of th' scorching flame of iracundious Jove . This Aepidaurius , while he boldly brake The iron Statutes of three Sisters make , Is said to perish by Aethereal fumes . From hence , uncertain errour straight presumes To walk in doubtful steps ; from hence proceeds Much tears from checks , beclad in mourning weeds . Cous saw her wandring fortune , who when seen Did love her straight , whose beauty pleased him ; Because t was em'lous of the snowie Rose , He speaks unto her thus , Here 's I suppose My Nymph , the Mayden Druides such are , And jolly rout of the God Corniger . For why , thy presence halloweth these fields It hallow's them : which lofty fairness yields A comely grace unto the Grecian Queen . But what delights thee to visit I ween , Valleys of Mountains ? what the hilly tops Assimilated unto stony Rocks ? Do not the City Pallaces thee please , With lofty Roofes , built up for Princes ease ? Art thou not pleased with the multitude Of Citizens , men with great fame endis'de ? For a more tender life , apt habitation , Is it not better in thy estimation ? And to enjoy a more sublimed state , Th' unlearned rout may vilifie thy rate : Mean Peasants with their tects of rustick name , And little houses , much disgrace the same . The comely Nymph , was now astonished , To see the look , majestick grace of head , And gesture of this noble man that spake . Straight from her purple cheeks all tears did sla'ke , And no complaint eccho'd , with mournful sound She beam'd her starry lights upon the ground Which was so green ; and utter'd certain Votes Of joyfulness co-mixt with merry notes . She in a little moment meditated , Touching the words which he to her related , And such respondent answers she began , To render unto Cous , the old man. I am well pleas'd with these thy words , thou art One of the mortals which affect my heart : My proffer shall be like a gift to thee : With thee I 'le dwell ; through thee , I 'le make to flee Both Plagues and Poxes ; yea and all Disease , When 't shall but see thee , shall be ill at ease . The bright Aurora , whereby Cynthius hill Doth rise above the waters , and doth fill Its drowned Horses in the western stream : Yet shall thy glory climb more high , suprem In every Kingdom ; yea thy praises hie , Shall gently touch the lofty starry skie . Posterity hereafter shall declame Thee th' only Medel'-master of great fame , Nor shall there be a fewel for thy praise , Whereby it can it self more highly raise : While fatal Goddesses shall break thy fate , Thee , living fame shall plainly celebrate Throughout the World. Cous returning due Thanksgivings for so great a gift ; ( in lue ) Upon the naked Goddess doth bestow Such gifts as these : the Nymph as white as snow , He doth array in linnen clean and fine , Which doth surpass white Lillies in their prime , With snow be sprinkled . Whether Apollo rose Whether his Chariots hot to rince he chose I' th western Ocean , yet his golden hair Ne're saw the like , with which it might compair . Medicine remain'd long with such trimmed grace , The first ag'd Fathers did her thus embrace : Until five ages after , Galen came Wholly to deck her , not to feed the same : For he bestowed on her , garments fil'd With Tyrian die , the which a hem unskil'd As being writh'd with many knots , adorns His neat gay bubbles , of his glistring horns Of rings distinguish : his fair flags bespread , Also enrich her Virgin daughter head . Next cometh Avicennas as the glory Of the Sabaean Nation ; and the story Also reports , that he spent all his time In decking her with robes as gay and fine . After which two , did many moe suceed In their vast number , yet in very deed , They were such men who acted nothing more , Than t'garnish coats which those had made before . And finally , from the Helvetian coasts Comes Paracelsus , and he proudly boasts , Himself to be the Monarch of the flock , Saying he was the Goddess very stock . Yet she contemns their glistring gems , and eke Their pretious Jewels hanging on her neck : Those help not Goddesses she said . Beside Ornaments breathing forth the antient pride Can bring no help , and that brings greater wrong Which hath the more of Art , it spent upon . To what end are your thousand robes ? I cry ; And ostentations of Luxury ? But certainly , this vain laborious toil , Doth not become my lofty Goddess stile : What! to have sought out ornaments alone , For many hundred years forepast and gone : Woe and alass ! it may be shame enuff , T' have watch'd so hard for faulty triffling stuff . And would it might be lawful but for me , My comely countenance once for to see : For should I not in glass , appear more fair Unto my self , than now my judgements are ? And is my Beauty now beheld indeed , If Godesses be Judges of my weed ? And do all men ' prove of my Majesty ? But haply they do fear ( oh Nymph ) I spie If thou should'st see thy face , thou mayst despise All , and wouldst live alone by beauties guise . If thou belov'd Narcissus hadst not seen Thy proper figure in a well to gleen , The crime , of water being look't into , Would not have prov'd thy death thee to undo . But he was mortal I a Goddess am , God's Daughter , doing , what I desire can : But he alone what the Godesses would . Who gives to me a glasse ? Iun-contrould Require a glass , than which I 'le shew more clear , And it all to be-freckled shall appear . Who gives to me a looking-glass ? But stay Thy just and mournful notes ( Oh Nymph ) I pray : For loe there 's one who doth provide that mirror , Which will direct thy visage , mar'd by error . John Baptist will it give , who drew his name From Helmont , whom Bruxels his pleasant dame Hath nourish'd in her bosom . But if this Be true , which of a Sp'rit departing , is Reported , from one vessel into another To enter ; then I do protest , moreover , That I ( most great Hipocrates ) do find Thy very Genius in this Authors mind . Thy imitated form within this glass , Thou wilt admire , whereto disease ( alas , Death , and the Destinies do greatly stoop : Old age no longer with its wastful look , Shall snatch away the wonted comely grace , Nor oldish wrinkle be in antient face . Nor henceforth in a Labarinth reflex Shalt thou be interrupted , or shalt vex : Because a straight way is made manifest , From every by-path where there is no rest . The Nymph said to the Prophet , that the God Of Heaven hath determin'd with his Rod , To scourge the World with unaccustom'd griefs , Throughout its circle , that mankind's beliefs ( Which is a wretched rout ) may fixed be In this , how great ignorance they do see , In Med'c'nal Doctors of the common sort . Choice ones , he would have famous of report , Indeed by their withstanding of the new , And barb'rous number of Diseases crew . And on the other hand , that vulgar ones The cruel murtherers of many sons , He would they voluntarily decay , By a discharge peculiar , in that day . For every one of them sticking among The beaten words of his own masters tongue , Thinks that a touching of art Med'cinal Is of that Art , the very top of all : While they proceed by circuits or by rounds , And do restore afresh their Parents grounds : And into new Centuries them compose : Therefore they have not durst , or have not chose To walk in Co-us steps : for why they thought , The Healing Art could be no further sought . But what will mortals do , accustomed , Now by this Med'c'nal law to be misled ? And suffer all things each in his own skin ? The cred'lous multitude still pressing in The fixed footsteps of its antient train , By 'ts own deceit ( alasse ) is sadly slain . Long Academick robes ( for Cities health ) Nor bubbles hallowed by the Common-wealth , Were not as yet deposited , while hee The Author ( young ) requir'd with instance-ee , Our bride-beds , swiftly running ( to those ends ) Through devious rough ways of old Fathers pens . Indeed he had procur'd unto himself Chief friends , who many pray'rs on his behalf , Did poure abroad unto the God above ; And whereby he through suppliant words ( from love ) Might nakedly behold sick bodies plight , As Cous old by h's pray'rs , had had the sight . He pass'd through many years with various cost ; His busie members with sore labour tost : Whether clear Phoebus drave his shining Carts , Or Cynthia fair did shine i' th' brightsom parts Of Heaven . He knowing of mee Alchymie , My abstruse heart ( his houshold servant I ) The inward secret privy Chambers , there , Have not lain lurking close , beyond his Sphere . He sought her favour great , by many gifts , And by strong prayers utter'd with humble lips ; That so at length she might our love procure , And joyn with us in sacred marriage sure , Of grateful bed . He with a rest-less brest Poured forth ' plaints , and sorrowful cheeks be-drest With luke-warm showers . He would not that the great Governour of the skiee Olympick seat , Should from his Throne dismiss his deprecations As being frustrate through deaf acclamations . And thou prophetick Poet , this relate : Promise , and things shall follow'f greater state . Now whatsoere Disease or grief shall light , To cure shall be of one and equal weight . A dowry sure , I am ordain'd to give , Unto the Author for his Labours hive : That I a Woman worthy of such a Man , May be conjoyned in bride-bed and ban . And he both bodies shall associate In sacred bond of love . Do thou relate , Such joyful messages to humane kind As these : No sad contagions thou shalt find Of any malady , but such a one , Hath here confer'd a Med'cine for his mone . The Plague , the Queen of sicknesses , the Gowt Shall flee ; the Stone shall be expelled out : Ascites watry Conduits shall be bor'd ; And thin-jaw'd Phthisis shall be well restor'd . And whatsoere distempers , Eve so bold , In humane generations did unfold , After that she , not knowing what she ded , Drew weapons on her own and husbands hed . Now therefore let my judgment of this glass To th' Book , as for a sign of wedlock pass : So the bride-mistriss of the marriage bed . ( But soft , before our Poesie be sped ) Three R's occur . R , notes the antient Ausonia . R , Pelasgia Continent . R , finally , an Hebraism doth denote , And Banks of witty Daedalus betoke . Thus hath S. D. d'A . Sung to his Uncle , in a prosperous Poem . THE Authours Promises . I Will shew the Errours of the Schooles , about things which they have rashly judged to be the fundamentals or ground-works of nature ; afterwards , in the decay of nature , I will shew the defects , or diseases unknown to the Antients : to wit , that they do not arise from the co-mingling , fight , contrariety , or unequal tempering of the Elements ; nor also from the qualities , which they feigne to be the first , and proper to the Elements . Wherefore , that vain are the meditations of Complexions , as well in temperate , as in intemperate bodies . I will also teach , that the four humours are frivolous , and that whatsoever hath hitherto been attributed to them , hath been devised by the Heathens ; and of these , the unhappy or evil spirit , to the destruction of mankinde . To wit , that the composition , connexion , qualities , effects of humours , and the diseases that are dreamed to arise from thence , are meer fictions : also that the Lessons touching laxative Medicines , supposing the Elections or seperations , with drawings , and lessenings of humours , are false . Indeed , that vain hopes , uncertain healings , dangerous experiments , in so great a sluggishness of ignorance , have not constituted the art of Medicine : but uncertain conjectures , Students covering their errours by privy escapes , and in the dust . At length , that hopes no less vain than pernicious , have been set to sale instead of true ; but that bloud-letting never helps , unless it be by accident , to wit , through want of art , and a more courteous or bountiful Medicine : but , that cuttings of a vein do alwayes take away long life . Also that Cauteries or searing Remedies have been brought in without ground , after that by the effect , they had already bewailed in vain , the uncertain and weak help of their Remedies . Next I will make manifest , that neither are Tartarous humours the causers or Patrons of infirmities . Likewise , that neither do Diseases arise from three beginnings as neither out of the essentials , which Che●neia or Chymistry boasteth of . I will also discover the vanities or fictions of a Catarrhe , or Rhume , that , that may not be a disease , which may be begotten by this parent : at length , I will lay the ground work , that errours have been diligently taught concerning Winds . Lastly , I will vindicate the Heaven to be free , or harmless from seminal Diseases . The value of Medicines , and also the abuse of Physitians , on both sides , for Charities sake , I will explain . In the mean time , I will frame an Anatomy , or difecting of Diseases by their true Roots , and now and then I will unfold some , under an occasion of Discourse , by seperating them from the common errour : to wit , the Apoplexie , Leprosie , Asthma , the Dropsie Ascites , Gout , Disease of the Stone , silthinesses of the Wombe : at last , I have represented the Tragedies of Poysons , and of the Plague that Medicines and healing Remedies may be appointed , not by contraries , nor by alike things , but onely by things that are endowed and appropriated : which way indeed , was the work , to destroy the whole natural Phylosophy of the Antients , and to make new the Doctrines of the Schools of natural Phylosophy . Last of all , I will treat of the Root of Life , whereof none hath treated . I beg of the Lord God , that he may vouchsafe to illustrate his free gifts sent into the place of Medicinal Exercise with more able wits , to make them fruitful with the large showre of his dew , and at length , speedily to perfect a cause of so great concernment , in this Age , that is full of misery . An Index or Summary , of the first Columne or Section . 1. The intent of the Authour . 2. The rise of Medicine , and the continual succeeding corruption from thence . 3. The rise of Schools and Sects . 4. The credulous sloath of the Europaeans of greater success . 5. Medicine which entred through Galen , after it ran into a Circle , it was carried about like a Mill. 6. The penurious blindenesses of the Schooles . 7. A shamefac'd composed Catalogue , of incurable Difeases . 8. Against bloud-letting from its indication , or that which sheweth it . 9. The Errours of solutive , or loosening Medicines . 10. The entrance of knaves into Medicine , 11. Some deceits of Galen . 12. With what case Galen obtained the Chiefdom of healing . 13. That the sharpness of wit hath prevailed nothing , as neither the Schooles of the Heathens . 14. How much any one can profit in the Heathenish Schooles . 15. Why Medicine is the highest , and obscurest of Sciences . 16. The end of Medicine hath continued neglects . 17. The Errours of its ends are demonstrated . COLUM . I. ALthough self-love for the most part excludes the knowledge of truth , than which notwithstanding , nothing more pretious , is given to man : yet I have judged it a thing full of Christian piety , to teach , how much Disciplines delivered unto me , have profited . Therefore I have consulted of a quite unwonted matter , to wit , to overthrow the cups of giddiness and sluggishness , wherewith , the Schooles being hitherto made drunk , have deceived the World , and blinded its eyes , for one and twenty Ages . First , Hypecrates , a man of a most rare gift , and a partaker with the Adeptists , hath set forth some tedious things of his own experience , without any false paint , because there are a very few proper things of his extant : and those as yet , forced afterwards , to serve other mens pleasures , and Commentaries : although most of his works are corrupted drogs . Therefore this his industry , others have not boren ; yea , such is the rottenness of dayes , that vertue and truth , have presently , from their first rise , emulous Companions : whence , any humane works are alwayes subject to ruine . For those things which in the more homely , but more sincere ages , were for Charity sake embraced , straightway , in gain , they found profits , riot and glory ; therefore afterwards a boasting of piety , succeeded Charity , and the vanity that arose from lucre , blotted out pity . So indeed , the purity of healing changed into tongues , boastings , Controversies , brawlings and conjectures , and the faithful credit of former observations being left , they erected theoremes or speculations , gently applyed to sloath and giddiness . Afterwards Galen ( his junior by five hundred years ) framed suppositions of Complexions , humours and degrees , promising in an easie Method , Mathematical demonstrations of those things , which nature onely is able to measure : which same things , he kept secret to himself , and at length , laid open some things to Alchymists alone . Galen the mean while , dispersed his Theoremes into a great Body , which afterwards , the prattle of the Greeks increased into a huge one , and which , the Schooles even to this very day , do superstitiously worship , because they have made themselves Trophies by others labours . Hence therefore , Study hath passed into Profession , and Universities , for as much as it hath not repented the Latines ( whom the Greeks call Barbarians ) Galens followers , to propose this man as their Authour . For from the word healing , they have leaped over into Physitians , and erected Medicine , and so have erred in the entrance : also even to this very day , they have written their misfortune in their name : to wit , because they practised Medicine , and were Physitians , not from the work of healing ; but from speaking onely , should they be called Physitians , and their Profession ; Medicine : and their whole Medicinal Art , by their own confession , should be hereafter , onely talkative . Neither have they pointed out by their diyining Etymologie , that they can hope for reputation by their art , who have gotten a name onely from talking . The Moores afterwards promised the vittory , when as the Custom of the Greeks had almost lost the Flowre of Studies . But the Europeans despairing , as if the whole strength of their minde were feeble , have held it sufficient for them , to stay in barbarous inventions , and to have practised strange ones . But their fictions daily to have reduced into Conturies , they never accounted an ignoble thing , but have held it an honour , to be wise by a Commentary onely . Hence the Cup of sloath hath tainted the Schooles with drowsiness , every one being more willing to assent , than to search carefully . Neither from Hypocrates , hath Medicine hitherto made any progress thereby : but that which as yet returned through Galen , afterwards was carried about into a Circle : whence the Schooles conceived a giddiness , and Galens delusions , imitating the Cutkow's note , alwayes wheeled about into the same Circle . For while Studies are set up for gain , Medicine is rowled about the Mill. For seeing that besides cutting of a vein , and the shop of laxatives , the Schooles as yet to this day , do scarce acknowledge other Remedies , and all their endeavour is , that by bloud , dung , bath ; a Cautery , Sweat , and so not but by the diminishing of the body and its strength , and likewise by the corrupting of the bloud ( which they call a Purge ) and by miserable butchery , they do presume to take away all griefs of the body . Hence it comes to passe , that ( as he himself hath done ) the admirers of those frail effects , have erected , a plentious company of incurable Diseases ; as it were driven with despair , they make none but a shamefac'd mention of those Diseases , and have brought in a dissembling kinde of Cure , full of Calamitie and despair . I say Plethora , or the abounding of humours alone , is called the shewer or betokener of bloud-letting , which as it hurts for the future : so hunger , and the withdrawing of meat in the beginning of a sharp Disease do , together with a destructive Disease , easily empty out all abounding humours , in the first dayes . Neither that the vain device of revulsion and derivation , hath greatly profited , at sometimes , by their own position , I have demonstrated in the Treatise of Feavers . But laxative Medicines , since they do at leastwise wipe away very new bloud out of the Meseraiok or sucking veins , and change it through the disposition of their poyson , by divers waves corrupting it : truly , they have given hitherto none but a weak hope of healing by the event , full of confusion , sorrowes , and uncertainty . Therefore we are blinde , unless with a stout heart we ( being at length moved with compassion ) do go to meet so great a slaughter of mortal men , and the sighs of sick persons , or phanes , and of Widowes , and of the dead . For besides that , the helps of the Schooles for the sick , are so uncertain , and of so little credit , I intreat you , let us mutually commiserate mans condition , which hath committed his life and fortunes , to an art filled with conjectures and uncertainty : also that it hath admitted of all sorts of knaves and Harlots , whereby it may without punishment , exercise cruelty on our Kinsfolks . When I exactly consider with my self , the so great sluggishness and blindeness of Schooles and Ages , I give praise to the thrice glorious God , that he hath made manifest to the little ones in himself , much truth , which he hath hidden from Noble Persons , and those in chief Seats : and therefore , I admiring the depth of the judgements of God , do religiously adore him . But Galen snatching the glory of his Predecessors into himself , extended his own Art , contained in a few Rules , into huge Volumes . It pleased him indeed , that all Bodies should be framed of four Elements , and from thence to snatch their wholethingliness or Essence , and so that , to the square of these elements , he confirmed , or framed four qualities , and as many simple Complexions , straight-way so many couples of Compound qualities ; and from thence also foure constitutive humours of us : before , dreamed of by others . And then , from their strife and discord , joyned as well with a simple , as with his own feigned humours , he determined to derive almost all Diseases , and the scopes or indications of healing , even as health , from their fit proportion : also that every Disease is a meer disposition in quality : wherefore that of contraries , there are onely contrary Remedies . With which necessity , he being at length constrained , distinguishing the vertues of simples , word for word out of Diascorides , and the Elementary Degrees , he copied out their Seminal and specifical power , neglecting on both sides , because not knowing either . By what facility of Art indeed , he allured the chiefdom of healing to himself , he obtained it , and Posterity being allured with so great a compendium , a drowsie sleep crept into the Schooles thorow the Doores of sloath ; for the awakening whereof , I would , God might take his honour , and morta●● the experienced fruit which I wish , by my labours . Many I know well enough , will prate , grieving that themselves , and their ●iresome readings will be diminished , if I shall resign the sound truth of Medicinal Science unto the gift of the glorious God alone , but shall have very little hope in the sharpness of wits . But however they may gun , man is a plained and naked Table , and ought to get his Learning else-where , and from one onely Master : of whom it is said , that the Scholar shall never excel that Master , because there is onely one Father , and one onely Master , who dwelleth in the Heavens : from whom is every good thing , all light , and clearness of understanding . Truly we Christians , do profess the Lord Jesus to be the onely wisdom o● the Father , the beginning , and the ending of all Essence , Truth and Knowledge ● and so , s●eing every good gift , not onely of vertues , but also of knowledges , doth descend from the Father of Lights : who could learn perfectly the skill of the Science of Medicine , from the Schooles of the Heathens ? for the Lord , not Schooles , hath created a Physitian . The Heathenish Schooles indeed , may have an Historical knowledge , the observer of things contingent or accidental , of things regular , and necessary : which is a mem●rative knowledge of the thing done : they may also get Learning by demonstration , which is the knowledge of applying things unto measure . And lastly , they may promise rational knowledge , which is derived from either of these , by the fitting of discourse ; and I wish they had soundly and sincerely performed what they might have done by those meanes ! They may I say historically have known the reflux , or going back of the Starrs and Sea , that the water bends to a levelled roundness , and downward , draw divers Sequels from thence , and stablish them into maxims . They have known I say , the craft of composing , and how to fit the necessity of Causes ( in some measure conjoyned ) by discourse . But to understand and savour these things from the spring or first cause , is granted to none without the special favour of Christ the Lord. Therefore the Science of healing is the last of all Sciences , and chiefly hidden , so that it is no wonder , that its first beginnings are even at this day desired from types or figures . The more diligent Heathens have as yet promised the World to continue by its own Law , and things to have their Roots in the whole , and in the particular kindes or Species , whereby by its own proper force , it was to be preserved for ever , and so an independency , or Deity to be in things . Alas ! thereby , from the true Phylosophy and truth of Medicine , even as drunken men , about wan Deities and blindnesses , they have stumbled in the dark : and therefore they have of necessity , been ignorant of created things , and the Seeds , Roots , and knowledge of these . Therefore the knowledge of nature , hath indeed been attempted by the Heathens , through childish conjectures ; and very little ever obtained . Therefore I have grieved with pity , that hitherto the beginnings of natural things have not been fetched forth elsewhere : the which , as I have determined to discover by this my labour : So I humbly intreat that God may grant , that he hath not yielded me his Talent for a recompence of punishment , although in this Work I could not do so much as I would . For the whole faculty of natural Phylosophy is committed to man ; and therefore this ought to respect both his life immediately , and all his defects . Therefore all natural Phylosophy is limited for the use of life , the finding out of causes , the Disease and Remedies : in which last point , I finde , that hitherto little pains hath been taken , no hing known , but much promised , and very much neglected , long expectations , and every where errours . For the knowledge of Diseases containeth the knowledge of the Causes , the dependance and appropriating the same to our defensive faculties : in which hitherto there hath been an universal wandring . But the finding out of the Remedy , doth presuppose the aforesaid knowledges ; and moreover , of the faculties and powers , I say , the manner and the meanes of acting : but the application of those Remedies , their preparation , and deriving or extracting , to be according to the safeguards , and scopes or i●●ents of the parts . It also necessarily contains the knowledge of simples , their powers or vertues , their actions , changes , defects , alterations , interchangeable courses , and connexions or dependances , as well amongst each other , as in respect of the vitall powers . But every one of these do require the gift of God in a peculiar thing , to wit , understanding , and experience of selection or chusing out , of Se●uestration or separation , of preparation , and graduation or subliming : of which I will shew , it hath not as yet been treated of by the Schooles . The Summary of the second Columne . 1. An unwonted kinde of Doctrine is to be required . 2. That Art hath stood by Conjectures hitherto . 3. The Authour excuseth his roundnesses . 4. He had no light from Predecessors . 5. Why all things are new and unheard of . 6. The Prerogative of Physitians before other Artists and Professions . 7. The signes of a true Physitian . 8. The Prerogatives of Physicians out of the holy Scriptures . 9. The resigned liberty of the Authour . COLUM . II. I Ought from the beginning , wholly to set upon Philosophy . A matter I say , never theoretically , or speculatively searched into , and lesse proved and known by exercise , that is , I have determined to lay open an unheard of truth . For unless we shall deal with Diseases , even like as other Arts do , with their objects : and unless we shall be able to promise , and foreknow an undoubted end of Diseases , by answering for the most part , the wished desire of the sick , after the manner of other Artificers , it is a sign that the meanes and end do stand committed to a conjectural and uncertain Art : where ignorance being the leader , and the way , a path of uncertainty , darkness doth at length lay hold of him , that goeth and leadeth thorow unknown paths . I know many will be angry with me , especially those who ascribe my roughness and severity in reproving , to intolerable boasting . And then , as well those whom all things displease , that are not brought forth by their own will or judgement , do scoffe and abhorr all new things : as those who thinking that they know all things , do refuse to learn. Notwithstanding , I could not , because of haters , bury my Talent in the Earth , and not make manifest my Zeal to my Neighbour . Therefore the free gifts and knowledge given me , I will discover to my Neighbour , without envy , deceit , hope of gain , or the vain glory of ambition , and will willingly shew as much as my experiences have made sufficient : hoping that the truth being once sh●wen , those that are endowed with a richer Talent , will be hereafter more profitable to the Common-wealth than my selfe : for so it becometh , that Disciplines by proceeding by additions , should be daily enriched : and therefore thus far shall those that come after , be obliged to those that have gone before . Indeed it is believed , to be of great help , to have rowled over the Books of many that were before me , because it is easie to add ones own to the inventions of others . But in the business which I have taken on me , all kinde of help from Scholars hath been feeble , and therefore the Counsel and aid of my Auncestors , loose unto me . Because where I declare that the very quill of all Writers , hath been ignorant and diseased ; it is very easie to discern , that no mans judgement hath at all profited me , but greatly hurt me . Therefore that the Writings of my Auncestors have fought with me , for some years , for the glory of truth , I do sincerely and candidly protest and profess . But since I draw out all things new and unheard of , I will not interpret others inventions , as neither will I contend with their Authorities : and I have seemed to my self , to be a new Authour of Medicine , hitherto known onely by way of name . And therefore have I put the gifts to usury , for which , God the Creditor , hath ingraven me his poor Debtor , in his Book . All things are Paradoxes , or against the common opinion , I confess : for if they should otherwise appear , I should think my self to be an unprofitable brawler , one prodigal of my dayes , and an unprofitable presumptuous repeater . Wherefore if it hath well pleased the Father of Lights in the dayes of our Auncestors , to increase the number and tartness of Diseases : I likewise may believe , that I do not suppose it an unsuitable thing , that goodness have opened its Treasures , that at length , she may quickly , safely , and gloriously anoint the marks and wounds , which the Father of mercies hath inflicted : to wit , he who appointed a Physitian , or a Mediator between God and man from the beginning : yea , he made it his delight , that he would be overcome by a Physitian ; indeed he testifieth , that he created and chose him to this end , for a peculiar Testimony of his praise . It is so in truth ; for no sooner doth he punish , weaken , and threaten to kill man , but he desireth a Physitian opposing himself , that he may conquer himself , being omnipotent , also in sending deserved punishments : by the proper gifts of his Clemency . This is the Charity of the most high , upon all frail Creatures , to be esteemed , which he hath bestowed on Physitians chosen by himself , from Age to Age. He , he , is incomprehensible , sweetly disposing all things . But of this sort are Physitians which are fitted from their Mothers womb ( for this , the word : The most High hath created him , importeth ) exercising his gift , with respect to no gain , and they are nakedly cast upon his good pleasure ( yea the Command ) of him , who alone being truly merciful , commands us , that under pain of infernal punishment , we be like to his Father . Obey those that are set over you , is a Precept indeed : but , Honour thy Parents , honour the Physitian , is more strict than to obey , seeing we are constrained even to obey our youngers . For the Physician is a Mediator between the Prince of life and death . I desist , timely enough , considering the benefits undeservedly bestowed on me . Moreover , I neither require the Reader to be courteous , nor do I fear the scoffer . For it may be lawful to displease either , to whom it is lawful to dispraise all pains and knowledge . For God hath so appointed , that new things do for the most part procure their hard censurers , and ungrateful ones . For I have renounced with great endeavour , to please Courts and Nobles ; also to hang on the opinions of others , alwayes esteeming this to be a servile thing , even as on the contrary , it is plainly a free thing , not to submit with that Being , which is subject to none but God. For although it was hard in the beginning : yet it being accustomed to me , I have chosen that kinde of harshness , afterwards I made it full of pleasure through Custome , and I have found it sweet ; and God grant , it may not increase in me , so much from arrogancy , as from the possession of more trim knowledge ! For now and then , the while , I am mindeful of that word : God hath scattered the bones of them who please men : they are confounded , because God hath despised them . Therefore I certainly know , if the pleasure of the bestower will suffer , he will send his Dew upon the Corn , he will give increase , and so my Conceptions shall be profitable to the Common-wealth of Man-kinde , if the fulness of dayes be come ; but if not , He at least-wise , knowes my inward parts , and I will expect the rewards of his Clemency . Let God therefore , be between me and the World , who is to judge both the one and the other . Let his Name be thrice gloriously sanctified , and let his sanctifying Will alone , be done in all . Amen . The Summary of the third Columne . 1. By what meanes , understanding may be given . 2. How the Author hath found out falsehoods . 3. The Capitall Ignorance of Physitians . 4. The hardships of the Author ( being as yet a Junior ) with other Physitians . 5. He hath forsaken all Books . 6. What , and how little , he learned by travelling . 7. He thought long agoe , Medicine to be an Imposture or juggling deceit of the Greeks . 8. How much he hath profited by Paracelsus . 9. The Authours Ingenuity . 10. From whence the Schooles are to beg their Excuse . COLUM . III. CHarity intreats , desire seeketh , and necessities do knock in the Soul , out of Compassion . Thus is understanding given . Truly it shamed me , even from a young man , that a Work-man , being called to a work , should promise that work , and stand to his promises : but that I being called to a sick man in the beginning of the Disease , and his strength as yet remaining , should suffer the same man to die . For I being full of fear , believed , that it was not enough to say , It is not in the Physitian , that the siok party alwayes-be eased : and by a liberty springing from thence , rashly to proceed , and continue in the work of a Physitian , by saying , I shall be excused , because I have done what I could , according to the Maxims of Art : if I know my self every way defective , and that the suppositions of Art themselves are rotten in their Root . For indeed the ignorance of Physitians proceeding ill in healing , is almost capitall : because it is not to be blotted out with God , where , a man will give skin for skin . For it is a signe that such a Physitian entred not in by the doores , but by the Windowes , and attributed a false name to himself : I indeed , even from my tender bones or years , have esteemed knowledge before riches . Indeed Physitians demanded , why I lesse cured according to Galen , and refused to follow them , or the flock of those that went before them ? they also promised , that I should gain more Duckats yearly , than many of their own together : but after that , their speculations were of suspected credit with me , I being careful , sought for a more safe path . For I more breathed to know , than to be enriched . And I wish it be purely in me for God! At least , sufficient riches came together with any kinde of knowledge . Straightway I learned , the more to doubt of the stedfastness of Galens Speculations , after I had beheld the very Maxims of the Schooles themselves , to be full of sores and defects ; then at length , by little and little , I more and more confirmed this conceit , by Discourse and Experience ; to wit , that every way , the Seeds of ignorance , by the same contagion , pierced even into the Root of healing , and mindes of the healers . Therefore I straightway left off all Books of all , accurate Discourses , and empty promises of the Schooles , firmly believing every good gift to come down from the Father of Lights , and rather also , that of Medicine Adeptical . I have thorowly viewed some forreign Nations , and I found almost the same sluggishness and ignorance amongst them all . But those who were the more diligent searchers after knowledge , indeed I found also more stedfast in their purpose , and more circumspect in presuming : but alike , yea more ignorant than the rest . In the mean time , it ingeniously grieved me , of the pains I before took , and of the disquictness I endured in learning . But in multitude of Books there was no where comfort or knowledge ; but vain promises , abuses , and very many errours . Therefore I long since considered with my self , that the Art of healing was a meer juggle , brought in by the Greeks : till at length , the holy Scriptures better instructed me ; I considered , that the Plague was a most miserable Disease , in which , every one forsook the sick , and unfaithful helpers , distrusting their own Art , more swiftly fled , than the unlearned common people , and the homely curers of the Plague : therefore I proposed to my self , to dedicate one Salutation to the miserable infected . Although then no Medicine was made known to me , but trivial ones ; yet God preserved my innocency from so cruel an enemy . For though I was not sent for , I went of my own accord to see them ; not so much to help them , as being desirous to learn : yet all that saw me , seemed to be refreshed with hope and joy ; and I my self , being fraught with hope , perswaded my self , that by the meer free gift of God , I should at sometime obtain the Science of the Adeptist . But after ten years Travel , and Studies , from my Degree in the Art of Medicine , taken at Lovaine : at length , in the year 1609 , being now married , I withdrew my self from the common people , to Viluord , that , being the lesse troubled , I might proceed diligently to view the Kingdoms of Vegetables , Animalls , and Minerals ; by a curious Analysis , or unfolding , by opening Bodies , and by senarating all things , I went about to search for full seven years . I searched into the Books of Paracelsus , filled in all parts with a mocking obscurity or difficulty , and I admired that man , and too much honoured him : till at length , understanding was given , of his Works , and Errours . For not a Friend , the thief of dayes , never riotous feasting , or drinking Bouts , detained me , who then as yet , could not bear Wine : but continual labour , through extraordinary watching nights , did accompany my desircs . And at length , being perfectly taught , that the corporeal faculties or powers , were bound up in their principles or beginnings ; and those not worthily to be known , without an unlocking of their bolts , I sung a Hymne to my God , that it repented me not of time , pains , costs , and gain neglected , being recompenced with the sweetness of knowledge Adepticall . In the mean time , Reader , I am angry with my self , because it is scarce lawful to open my conceptions , in the truth , without hurting the esteem of Authours gone before 〈◊〉 . But the 〈◊〉 of former Ages hath raised me up , which made Galen to 〈…〉 ●●ished , yea to be praised , although he frequently made Erostratus , 〈◊〉 , Protagoras , Erisistratus , Herophilus , ( I here make no mention of Moses ) and many that were before him , guilty of errour : yea , and he hath often carped at Quintius his Master , whom notwithstanding ( though an Emperick ) he witnesseth , that he hath followed in most things . But what shall be for a dammage to them that have trodden in the beaten way , but were ignorant of the safe path of healing ? For who hath understanding , which he hath not freely received ? I confess indeed , that the 〈◊〉 of the Schooles have not come through the fault of imprudency : if gi●● do alwayes depend on the free will of the giver , and those do not spring up before the due and ripe fulness of dayes . But to have been unwilling to acknowledge errours once laid before them : this then at leastwise , becomes guilt . Certainly Hipocrates had knowledge to cure the devouring Plague , and with him , that knowledge slept , the most High so willing it . Are those that come after , therefore to be blamed ? for it is not of him that willeth , nor runneth , but alone of God that sheweth mercy : like as it is a fault of the despiser , not to have rested quietly in the truth set before him , and to have lifted up his hand unto him . CHAP. I. The Authours Confession . 1. The muttering or murmuring of the Authour . 2. The Physitians in Ireland , are preferred before the Italians . 3. The Romanes without Physitians , lived the better . 4. A Dream sheweth to the Authour , his Soul. 5. The manner of the minde in understanding . 6. What is the Vicarship of the minde . 7. What is the appearance of the Soul. 8. The minde hath required from the Authour , a disposed or fit intention in writing of this Book . 9. The privy escape of selfishness in the Authour . 10. The answer of the minde . 11. A Confession of vanity that is apt to happen . 12. That which the Authour saw after Repentance . 13. Another Vision intellectual . 14. The Authours Repentance . WHen I had thorowly read over this my Labour , and had ( as it were in one point ) comprehended in my abstracted Intellect or Understanding , the Content of this Book , I said with a sigh : Oh the cares of men ! Oh what emptiness there is in things ! which way is it meet , to pursue the Errours of the Schooles ? or what profit shall the Christian World perceive ? whether we have known Diseases to proceed from conceived Beings ; or at length from heats , or to overflow with feigned humours ? for O wretched man , hast thou not laboured in vain ? For to what end is so great brightness of speculation ? have not all these things the fewel of presumption ? For I remember that a Nobleman of Ireland , gave Land to his Houshold Physitian : not indeed , who had returned instructed from Universities : but he healed the sick . For he hath a Book , left him by his Auncestors , filled with Remedies . And so the Heire of the Book , is alwayes Heire of that Land : that Book deciphers the Signes of Diseases , and the proper Remedies of that Countrey . And the fick Irish are more happily cured , and are far more strong than the Italians , who have their paultry Physitians in all Villages , living by the bloud of miserable men . Therefore I said to my self , What vain errour hath intieed thee ? that thou lastly , hast meditated of a thing that will be of great moment , if the Universities shall scoffe at thy debates , and tread them under foot ? And although thou hast not written , so much as for thy small glories sake , yet all things are vain in the hands of men . Thou hast thought indeed , if thou shouldest do otherwise , that thou hadst buried thy Talent granted unto thee . Truly , lived not the Romanes for five hundred years , without Physitians , and in a far more happy health , than afterwards , when they had vanquished the Greeks from whence they privily received Physitians . Would Age , if the pricks of Speculation , together with the Thistles and Thorns of 〈◊〉 were burnt , and the Tares being left behinde , that we should feed upon Whear alone ? Cerminly , I know not , whether through the tiresomeness of reading , or indeed , by sleep creeping on me , these injuries of the truth , unworthy an answer , did terrifie my minde . At leastwise , a great repose straightway invaded me , and I fell into an intellectual Dream , and memorable enough . For I saw my Soul small enough , in a humane shape , yet free from the distinction of Sek . Straightway I doubted , having wondred at the sight , not knowning what selfishness there was in me , which should see my Soul distinct from it self , and should understand my understanding out of it selfe ? and then a certain light entred into my Soul : in comparison whereof , the visible light of this World , seemed to contain dreggish darkness . For neither was that light seperate from the Soul it self , and therefore it had not any thing like it self , in sublunary things . Then presently , I perceived , that we which are now together with the flesh , are withdrawn by the same , from the true and clear understanding ; and that the Soul understands in peace and rest , not in doubting , and by the leading of enforced reason , for the most part bringing into it self , blinde likenesses of that which is true , intricate fallacies , and unlucky perswasions of the truth : neither rejoycing in running out to things like , should it level Similitudes , and the proportions of these , purging them from the lees , by relations or things referring : neither should it let it self downward , to faculties beneath , stooping down into an Analysis or Solution , and a Synthesis or composing : neither should it weigh all things , as being driven about with divers blasts of uncertainties , passions , and confusions of infirmities . But I have taken notice , that the former majesty , or greatness of the minde , being fallen , another birth did arise : wherein the sensitive Soul , did exercise the Vicarship of the minde : the which , seeing it wanted ( through a confused knowledge ) the stirring up of conclusions and Disciplines , it now supplies the place of true understanding , and proudly attributes to it self , all selfishness . For hence have I learned , that i● happens , that we do not perceive that we do understand any thing , so long as the chief Agent of this wre●ched and frail understanding , hath not turned its force even to the bounds of sense . Wherefore also , neither do we remember that we do understand , unless the same action be propagated or planted into us by a sensitive order or Government . For neither therefore do we mark that we do know , but when there is made a certain mutual passing over of faculties , and as it were the Corners of actions ( through divers Agents playing their parts ) are wrapt together about the middle . Therefore in this duplicity of understanding appointed unto me , the threatning of the Lord , who is to judge our righteousnesses , is turned against my Soul. Because I had purposed to search into all things , which are under the Sun ; and because the thrice glorious God hath given to every one of the Sons of men , their peculiar occupation , that they may exercise themselves . Therefore the Soul determined to examine it self in the Image set before it . According to that saying , For who knowes the things that are of man , but the Spirit of a man that is in him ? afterwards then , the Soul opened the Eye-brow of the right Eye , For it was not indeed , in the likeness of a mans Eye , distinguished by Coats , the Apple , and diversity of humours : but the Eye was the onely , round , clear , even as the Seat of Venis seemeth to be afar off : which Eye , although it was most exceeding beautiful in brightness : yet through its unaccustomedness , it struck me to the heart . But it shone as well inwardly , towards the bottom of the Soul , as without , thorow the whole Soul ; and it sent forth a beam into the splendor of that understanding , afore hidden , which had framed a selfishness , severed from it self . But it desired an account from the animosity or sturdiness of the sensitive Soul : to wit , whether in the composing of this Book , it had alwayes with a resigned will nakedly offered up all things into the most pleasing goodness , and well liking of God ? or indeed , it at any time had presumed of it self , like those that are busied all their life time , in thinking of the Title of a Sepulchre ? Or what posterity should think of it ? But the selfishness , as it were the light of a disoussing Intellect , refusing to suffer , endeavoured to sink it self within the body , by privily I lifting of the diligent examination of contemplative truth . But in the same kinde of visions , wherein the understanding apprehendeth the selfishness : this standeth as besides the Body . Where ore it not being able to hide it self from the ray of the Soul , which did shine thorow it , after a wholly unaccustomed manner , it sought a crafty evasion : as though , for the bashfulness of the thing , and newness of the place ; it required a truce till the next day after the morrow , hoping that perhaps , by one dayes delay , the understanding might be unmindeful of its Enterprise . But the Soul said , Every day hath its burden , and desires its own account : there is no need of delay to the confession of truth : also the morrow will give no aid . Thus therefore , withdrawing and delay are taken away . Then therefore the selfishness confessed ; I confess , and willingly abhorre , that the general frailty of men , disposed to Custom , hath forthwith defiled me . I believing , that honour did deservedly , and worthily nourish all Arts , according to the saying of the Heathens : which being said , the selfishness it self perceived its deformity . And thereupon , even the intellect being the more smitten with grief , as it were sighed , knowing my want , yea , and too much miserable want of understanding in the body , the which , as yet notwithstanding , with the applause of men , and having enjoyed a little unconstant glory , it would carry out . For by a special priviledge , all honour and glory belongs to God. I knew therefore , that I had denounced War against God , and had brought in an estrangedness on the whole Universe , by a vain endeavour . Because the universal order of things , is , that all things be primarily , in their ultimate end , and totally , for the honour of God. Therefore , that my labour might not be wholly reprobate ( as yet far off from goodness ) it was altogether needful , seriously to purge by Sacrifice , this my blot . Wherefore hither did repentance look ; and was expected from above , with an importunate suit . Which coming to me , another Eye at length opened it self . For then I saw , that the searching into all things which are under the Sun , was a good gift , descending from the Father of Lights , into the Sons of men , for a diligent Study , and a certain serious amending of forepast ignorance , otherwise the danger of a vain complacency , or well-liking , would sometimes vex by the By. Wherefore I humbly begged of the Lord , for the good pleasure of his own piety , with the every way displeasure of my own vanity , that he would spare me , and vouchsafe to mortifie the selfishness , alwayes reflex or returned upon me . In the mean time , I decreed with a resolute minde , to bury this Book in the fire : which very thing I had also performed , and was now ready to execute , had not another intellectual Vision offered it self unto me : for I saw before me , a most exceeding beautiful Tree , spread forth as it were thorow the whole Horizon ; whose greatness and largeness , notably amazed me . It was bespangled with flowers innumerable , odoriferous , and of a most pleasing and lightsome Colour : every one whereof , had a bud behinde them , a pledge of Fruit. Therefore I cropt of one of so many ten thousands , for my self , and behold , the smell , colour , and whole grace of the Flowre , straightway perished . At the same instant , an understanding of the Vision was given to me . To wit , all the gifts of God to be like Flowers , and more glorious than Salomon in his Throne : indeed of great expectations , if they shall remain in the Tree . But if man doth appropriate the gift to himself , or dareth to crop it off from its original , although the Flowre doth vanish from him : yet the cropper remaineth the debtor of the promised Fruit. Therefore I decreed hereafter , to leave the gift of God in its own Tree , nor to arrogate any thing to my self by cropping it off ; and I willingly confess my aforepast ungratefulness towards the Tree . Because whatsoever I have of his , hath been freely bestowed , and granted me for a time , conditionally : But from the bottom of my Soul. do I detest my vain and foolish ignorance , because I thought , that gift , falling with a strange beam into me , in the first place , to reflect upon my self . For as from mud or dung , there ascends a stinking sent or smoak : so from Learning , a pride of Learning . Indeed I delighted , rather in the Being of Reason , than in the sound truth : thinking it would happen , after an honourable death , that none shall make himself great by desert . Indeed that honour would be an applause , of many , through the judgement of those that erre . Therefore I abhorre , I refuse from this day , and renounce the prayses , whatsoever they be , that any one , at any time , shall give me . Now at length I perceive , what spots , the love of a little vain glory may have , I have denounced open Warre against the same , knowing , yea feeling by the afore-past Vision , that although it be easie not to take praise , while it is not given : yet how hard it is , not to delight in the same , while it is offered . Because I have experienced how horrid a thing it may be in the Age to come , to have attributed part of the whole glory due to God , to ones self , upon any trifling account . Therefore I did desire , that this Book might issue out for the common good , the name being suppressed , that I might testifie that I do hereafter despise the common Air or Applause . But the Decree of the Powers hindereth . Every Soul is subject to the Powers . Let God the Fountain of all good light , help me , that I may proceed to scorn my self in good earnest , while as sometimes behinde , and anon on the side , vain presumption hath in times past crept in , that hereafter it may not any way trouble me . He will send his dew upon the Corn ; if happily it shall please him to increase , what I have sowen for the use of my Neighbour . In the mean time , I wish , Oh ye faithfull in Christ , that I be judged an unworthy , evil , ignorant , and rash man , so my Neighbour shall not feel dammage in healing , thereby . For he shall not esteem me unprofitable and ignorant in vain : yea , if these things shall not become guilt unto me , I attribute it to his bottomless clemency , which turns all things into good to those that love him , for his great goodness sake : unto whom I humbly offer , return , and lay down , my vain prayses , from the weakness of my confession and submission . CHAP. II. The Authours Studies . 1. The Birth and Life of the Authour . 2. The Authour hath laughed at the masked Industries of Professors . 3. The nakedness of the Authour . 4. He hath prosecuted more solid Sciences at leasure . 5. He did vilifie Astrology . 6. He despised a Canonship . 7. What furtherance there is of Studies among the Jesuites at Lovaine . 8. Stoicisme displeased him . 9. Stoicisme is to be despised from a Command . 10. The Authour is snatcht into Medicine , as it were by chance . 11. The defect of Herbarists . 12. Medicine onely flowes down from above , and therefore it cannot be delivered by Rules . 13. Those that are instructed in an infused knowledge , are not to be taught by Authours . 14. The juggle of a certain Professour of Medicine . 15. Why he left off the Study of the Law. 16. How great the Authours barrenness and nakedness was , by studies . 17. What he hath done for the beginning of Studies . 18. Practise hath discovered the nakedness of Physitians . 19. A Prayer for the Errours of the Schooles . 20. Raphael is promised in a Dream . IN the year 1580 , the most miserable one to all Belgium , or the Low Countries , my Father died . I being the youngest , and of least esteem of my Brethren and Sisters . For I was brought up in Studies . But in the year 1594. I had finished the course of Philosophy , which year was to me the seventeenth . Therefore since I had onely a Mother , I seemed at Lovaine to be made the sole disposer of my Right and Will. Wherefore I saw none admitted to Examinations , but in a Gown , and masked with a Hood , as though the Garment did promise Learning ; I began to know , that Professors for sometime past , did expose young men that were to take their degrees in Arts , to a mock : I did admire at the certain kinde of dotage in Professors , and so in the whole World , as also the simplicity of the rash belief of young men . I drew my self into an account or reasoning , that at leastwise I might know by my own judgement , how much I was a Phylosopher , I examined whether I had gotten truth or knowledge . I found for certainty , that I was brown up with the Letter , and ( as it were the forbidden Apple being eaten ) to be plainly naked , save , that I had learned artificially to wrangle . Then first I came to know within my self , that I knew nothing , and that I knew that which was of no worth For the Sphere in natural Phylosophy , did seem to promise something of knowledge , to which therefore I had joyned the Astrolobe , the use of the Ring or Circle , and the speculations of the Planets . Also I was diligent in the Art of Logick , and the Science Mathematical , for delights sake , as often as the reading of other things had brought a wearisomness on me . Whereto I joyned the Elements , or first Principles of Euclide ; and this Learning , I had made fociable to my Genius or natural wit , because it contained truth ; but by chance , the art of knowing the Circle of Cornesius Gemma , as of another Memphysick , came to my hand . Which , seeing it onely commended Nicholas Copernicus , I left not on , till I had made the same familiar unto me . Whence I learned the vain excentricities , or things not having one and the same Center , another circular motion of the Heavens : and so I presumed , that whatsoever I had go●●● concerning the Heavens , with great pains , was not worthy of the time bestowed about it . Therefore the Study of Astronomy , was of little , or no account with me , because it promised little of certainty or truth , but very many vain things . Therefore having finished my Course , when as I knew nothing that was found , nothing that was true , I refused the Title of Master of Arts : being unwilling that Professors should play the fool with me , that they should declare me Master of the seven Arts , who was not yet a Scholar . Therefore I seeking truth , and knowledge , but not their appearance , withdrew my self from the Schooles . A wealthy Cannonship was promised me , so that I would make my self free to Theology or Divinity ; But S. Bernard affrighted me from it , because I should eat the sins of the people . But I begged of the Lord Jesus , that he would vouchsafe to call me thither , where I might most please him . For it was the year , wherein the Jesultes had begun to teach Philosophy at Lovaine , the King , Nobles , and University , being against it ; and that thing , together with them , was forbidden by Clement the Eighth . But their Scholars aspring to their Degree , they had assembled them to the School houses ; but others , and the more rich , they did allure with the pleasant Study of Geography : and one of the Professors , Martine del Rio , who first being the Judge of Turma in Spain , and afterwards wearied in the Senate of Brabant , being allured to the Society , and had resorted thither also , did expound the disquisitions , or diligent examinations of Magick . Both the Readings I greedily received . And at length , instead of a Harvest , I gathered onely empty stubbles , and most poor patcheries , void of judgement . In the mean time , least an houre should vanish away without fruit , I rub'd over L. Annaus Seneca , who greatly pleased me , and especially Epictetus . Therefore I seemed , in moral Philosophy , to have found the juyce of truth : and then presently I thought , this was that for which Pythagoras might require the strict Silences of so many years , an excellent indgement , and therefore notable obedience . At length , a few years being changed , I saw a Capuchin to be a Christian Stoick . Indeed Study for Eternity , smiled on me ; but for so great austereness , my more tender health was a hinderance . I prayed the Prince of life divers times , that he would give strength , whereby I might contemplate of the naked truth , and immediately love it . Thomas of Kempis , increased this desire in me , and afterwards Taulerus . And when I presumed , and certainly believed , that through Stoicisme , I did profit in Christian perfection , at length , after some ●ay and weariness in that exercise , I fell into a Dream . I seemed to be made an empty Bubble , whose Diameter reached from the Earth even to Heaven : for above hovered a flesh-eater ; but below , in the place of the Earth , was a bottomless pit of darkness . I was hugely agast , and also I fell our of all knowledge of things , and my self . But returning to my self , I understood by one conception , that in Christ Jesus , we live , move , and have our being . That no man can call even on the name of Jesus to Salvation , without the special grace of God. That we must continually pray , And lend us not into temptation , &c. Indeed , understanding was given unto me , that without special grace , to any actions , nothing but sin attends us . Which being seen , and savourily known , I admited my former ignorances ; and I knew , that Stoicisme did retain me an empty and swollen Bubble , between the bottomless pit of Hell , and the necessity of imminent death . I knew I say , that by this Study , under the shew of moderation , I was made most haughty : as if trusting in the freedom of my will , I did renounce divine grace , and as though , what we would , we might effect by ourselves . Let God forbid such wickedness , I said . Wherefore I judged , that Blasphemy to be indulged by Paganisme indeed ; but not to become a Christian : and so I judged Stoical Philosophy , with this Title , hateful . In the mean time , when I was tired , and wearied with the too much reading of other things , for recreation sake , I rouled over Mathiolus and Diascoxides , thinking with my self , nothing to be equally necessary for mortal men , is by admiring the grace of God in Vegetables , to minister to their proper necessities , and to crop the fruit of the same . Straightway after , I certainly found , the art of Herbarisme to have nothing increased since the dayes of Diascorides ; but at this day , the Images of Herbs being delivered , with the names and shapes of Plants , to be on both sides onely disputed : but nothing of their properties , virtues and uses , to have been added to the former invention and Histories : except that those who came after , have mutually feigned degrees of Elementary qualities , to which the temperature of the Herbe is to be attributed . But when I had certainly found , happily two hundred Herbes , of one quality and degree , to have divers properties , and some of divers qualities and degrees , to have a Symphony or Harmony ( suppose it in vulnerary or wound potions ) in producing of the same effect ; not indeed the Herbs ( the various Pledges of divine Love ) but the Herbarists themselves began to be of little esteem with me : and when I wondred at the cause of the unstableness of the effects , and of so great darkness in applying and healing : I inquired whether there were any Book , that delivered the Maxims and Rules of Medicine ? For I supposed , Medicine might be taught , and delivered by Discipline , like other Arts and Sciences , and so to be by tradition : but not that it was a meer gift . At leastwise , seeing Medicine is a Science , a good gift coming down from the Father of Lights , I did think , that it might have its Theoremes and chief Authours , instructed by an infused knowledge , into whom , as into Bazaleel , and Aholiab , the spirit of the Lord had inspired the Causes and knowledge of all Diseases , and also the knowledge of the properties of things . Therefore I thought these enlightned men to be the Standard-defending Professors of healing . I inquired I say , whether there were not another , who had described the Endowments , Properties , Applications , and proportions of Vegetables , from the Hyssop , even to the Cedar of Libanus ? A certain Professor of Medicine answered me , none of these things might be looked for in Galen or Avicen . But since I was not apt to believe , neither did I finde , among Writers , the certainty sought for , I suspected it according to truth , that the giver of Medicine would remain the continual dispenser of the same . Therefore I being carefull and doubtful , to what Profession I should resign my self , I had regard to the manners of the People , and Lawes , and pleasures of Princes ; I saw the Law to be mens Traditions , and therefore uncertain , unstable , and void of truth : For because in humane things there is no stability , and no marrow of knowledge , I seemed to passe over an unprofitable life , if I should convert it to the pleasures of men . Lastly , I knew , that the government of my self , was hard enough for me ; but the judgement concerning good men , and the life of others , to be dark , and subject to a thousand vexatious difficulties : wherefore I wholly denied , the Study of the Law , and government of others . On the other hand , the misery of humane life was urgent , and the will of God , whereby every one may defend himself so long as he can ; but I more inclined with a singular greediness , unto the most pleasing knowledge of natural things ; and even as the Soul became Servant to its own inclinations , I unsensibly slid , altogether into the knowledge of natural things . Therefore I read the Institutions of Fuchius , and Fernelius , whereby I knew that I had lookt into the whole Science of Medicine , as it were by an Epitome , and I smiled to my self . Is the knowledge of healing thus delivered , without a Theoreme and Teacher , who hath drawn the gift of healing from the Adeptist ? Is the whole History of natural properties , thus shut up in Elementary qualities ? Therefore I read the works of Galen twice , once Hipocrates ( whose Aphorismes I almost learned by heart ) and all Avicen ▪ and as well the Greeks , Arabians , as Moderns , happily six hundred , I seriously , and attentively read thorow , and taking notice by common places , of whatsoever might seem singular to me in them , and worthy of the Quill . At length , reading again my collected stuffe , I knew my want , and it grieved me of my pains bestowed , and years : When as indeed I observed , that all Books , with institutions , singing the same Song , did promise nothing of soundness , nothing that might promise the knowledge of truth , or the truth of knowledge . In the mean time , even from the beginning , I had gotten from a Merchant , all simples , that I might keep a little of my own in my possession , and then from a Clark of the Shops , or a Collector of simples , I had all the usual Plants of our Countrey ; and so I learned the knowledge of many by the looks of the same . And also I thorowly weighed with my self , that indeed I knew the face of Simples , and their names : but , than their properties , nothing lesse . Therefore I would accompany a practising Physitian , straightway it repented me again , and again , of the insufficiency , uncertainty , and conjectures of healing . I had known indeed , problematically , or by way of hard question , to dispute of any Disease , but I knew not how to cure the very pain of the Teeth , or scabbedness , radically . Lastly , I saw that Fevers and common Diseases were neither certainly , nor knowingly , nor safely cured ; but the more grievous ones , and those which cease not of their own accord , for the most part were placed into the Catalogue of incurable Diseases . Then it came into my minde , that the art of Medicine , was found full of deceit , without which , the Romanes lived happily , five hundred years . I reckoned the Greeks art of healing to be false : but the Remedies themselves , as being some experiments , no less to help without a Method : than that the same Remedies , with a Method , did deceive most . On both sides , I discerning the deceit and uncertainty of the Rules of Medicine in the diversities of the founders of Complexions , I said with a sorrowful heart . Good God! how long wilt thou be angry with mortal men ? who hitherto hast not disclosed one truth , in healing , to thy Schooles ? how long wilt thou deny truth to a people confessing thee ? needful in these dayes , more than in times past ? Is the Sacrifice of Moloch pleasing to thee ? wilt thou have the lives of the poor , Widows , and Fatherless Children , consecrated to thy self , under the most miserable torture , of incurable Diseases , and despair ? How is it therefore , that thou ceasest not to destroy so many Families , through the uncertainty and ignorance of Physitians ? I fell withall on my face , and said , Oh Lord , pardon me , if favour towards my Neighbour , hath snatched me away beyond my bounds . Pardon , pardon , Oh Lord , my indiscreet Charity ; for thou art the radicall good of goodness it self . Thou hast known my sighes , and that I confess , that I am , know , am worth , am able to do , and have nothing , that I am poor , naked , empty , vain : give O Lord , give knowledge to thy Creature , that he may very affectionately know thy Creature , himself first , other things besides himself , for thy Command of Charity , all things , and more than all things , to be ultimately in thee . Which thing , when I had earnestly prayed from much tiresomness , and wearisomness of minde , by chance I was led into a Dream , and I saw the whole universe , in the sight or view of truth , as it were some Chaos or confused thing , without form , which was almost meer nothing . And thence I drew the conceiving of one word ; which did signifie to me , what followes . Behold thou , and what things thou seest , are nothing : whatsoever thou dost urge , is lesse than nothing it self , in the sight of the most high . He knowes all the ends or bounds of things to be done ; thou at leastwise mayst apply thy self to thy own safety . Yea in that Conception , was there an inward Precept , that I should be made a Physitian , and that at sometime , Raphael himself should be given unto me . Forthwith therefore , and for thirty whole years after , and their nights following in order , I laboured , to my cost , and dammage of my life , that I might obtain the Natures of Vegetables and Mineralls , and the knowings of their properties . The mean while , I lived not without prayer , reading , narrow search of things , sifting of my Errours , and daily experiences written down together . At length , I knew with Salomon , I had for the most part hitherto perplexed my Spirit in vain , and vain to be the knowledge of all things , which are under the Sun : vain are the searchings out of Curiosities . And whom the Lord Jesus shall call unto Wisdom , He , and no other shall come ; yea , he that hath come to the top , shall as yet be able to do very little , unless the bountiful favour of the Lord shall shine upon him . Loe , thus haue I waxed ripe of age , being become a man , and now also an old man , unprofitable , and unacceptable to God , to whom be all Honour . CHAP. III. The hunting , or searching out of Sciences . 1. The minde is not rational , if it be the Image of God. 2. The opinion of the Schooles concerning Reason . 3. A Vision in a Dream concerning Reason . 4. A Dialogue or Discourse of the minde with Reason . 5. The chief juggle of Reason . 6. The minde hath chosen understanding . 7. Reason becomes suspected by reason of her juggling deceits . 8. The weariness of the minde concerning Reason . 9. Reason began from sin . 10. What kinde of knowledge there is of the Soul , being seperated from the Body . 11. The minde hath withdrawn her Garments from Reason , in her flight . 12. Reason enters into the counsel of the minde , from an abuse . 13. Reason burdens the minde . 14. Reason being reflexed towards it self , doth produce many Errours . 15. The great Art of Lullius is sifted . 16. The manner of seperating Reason from it self . 17. An unutterable intellectual Light. 18. A feeling of the immortality of the Soul. 19. Reason is not the Lamp of which Solomon speaks . 20. In what part a Syllogisme dwells . 21. Reason generateth a dim knowledge . 22. Knowledges of the Premises are from the light of the Candle , or Lamp. 23. The minde is not deceived , but by its own reason . 24. Reason burieth the understanding . 25. Reason is known in its poorest nakedness . 26. The understanding refuseth the use of reason . 27. Reason and Truth , are unlike in their Roots . 28. Reason doth not agree with the knowledge of the conclusion . 29. A definition of Reason . 30. The most refined Reason , is as yet deceitful . 31. What Reasoning and Discourse are . 32. What intellectual Truth is . 33. Imagination is a crooked manner of understanding . 34. Bruit Beasts are discursive . 35. A rational Creature for man , is disgraceful . 36. A true definition for a man. 37. The Schooles hearken more to Aristotle than to Paul. 38. An Animall , or living Creature , in the definition of a man , belongs to corrupted nature . 39. What kinde of Skeleton or dry Carcase , that of reason is . 40. A progress to chase after Sciences . 41. Double Images , or likenesses in the Soul. 42. Where the Progress of the minde is stayed . 43. How a truer Progress may be made . 44. New understanding , or the labour of wisdom . 45. The understanding doth strike in , or co-agree with things understood , and how that may be done . 46. Why there is made a transmigration or passing over of the understanding . 47. The memory and will are supped up . 48. The thingliness or Essence of an intellectual thought . 49. How the Image of God lightens or shines all over . 50. How the minde beholds the understanding under an assumed form . 51. The Errour of the Rabbins concerning this State of the Soul. 52. The quality of the understanding , while it stands in that light . 53. Why , and after what manner the understanding transformeth it self . 54. After what manner the understanding beholds it self . 55. What intelligibility or understandingness may be . 56. How the Soul understanding it self , shall understand any other things . 57. Whence that difficulty of understanding is . 58. Why accidents cannot be comprehended by the intellect . 59. The Errours of the Schooles about the dividing of the intellect . 60. In things pertaining to understanding , it is more noble to suffer than to do . 61. Aristotle knew not a true understanding . 62. The Phantasie or Imagination doth not pierce things , neither in like manner , do things enter into it . 63. Eight Maxims touching the understanding , which Aristotle knew nor . 64. A dividing of the Predicament of a substance . The hunting or searching out of Sciences , begins from [ Know thy Self . ] REason is accounted to be the life of the Soul , or the life of our life . But I believe , that the Almighty is alone , the way , the truth , the life , the light , of living Creatures , and of all things ; but this is not reason . And therefore , that our minde ought to be intellectual ; but not rational , if it ought to shew forth the most immediate Image of God. That Paradox is to be cleared up , for the searching out of all things knowable , and especially of things Adeptical , or the attainment of great secrets . By my will , or according to my assertion , all Phylosophy begins and proceeds from the knowledge of ones self : whether it be natural , or morall . I will therefore propose , so far as I ( through my slenderness ) do attain , the understanding , and the abstruse or hid , or inward knowing of our selves . For the undoubted opinion of the Schooles , beares in hand , that God hath bestowed on man , nothing more pretious than Reason , by which alone , we are distinguished from bruit Beasts , but bear a co-resemblance with the Angels . So I being also perswaded from my tender years , believed . But after that , discretion had waxed ripe , and I had once beheld my Soul , I perceived altogether otherwise : I confess in the mean time , that I had rather be wise in secret , than to be willing to seem wise ; but to be alwayes more desirous to learn , than to be one that endeavoureth to teach . Notwithstanding , I ought to teach some things , least I be found to have buried my Talent received , in the Earth . Wherefore , Reason once shewed it self to my Soul , in the form of a more thick and dark little Cloud , or mist : and proposed ; that it was the Nurse , Guide , and Tutouresse of the minde , so ordained of God , for the obtaining of all , even of solid good . Yea it protested , that it was the Sterne of the course of our life , the fore-deck and Sterne of the minde , and so the inventer of all Sciences . For at the first sight , my Soul entertained Reason , wished to rest in her possession , with well pleasing , in joy , and much rejoycing . Because the minde being so diligenty instructed , had once so perswaded it self . Nevertheless , least it should offend through a gentleness of credulity , or rash belief , it presently assaulted Reason with its own Weapons , saying , If therefore O Reason , thou art ordained for my Service , I ought not to follow thee , but thou me . Because thou art she , which affirmest , or demonstratest nothing by Discourse , but I have first begotten that in thee . In what sort therefore dost thou , now being a Scholar , pretend a tutorship over thy Mistress , thou being a Daughter , over thy Parent ? That first Argument , arising from my arrogancy , taught me , that nothing is more nigh to the Soul than pride : which lifting up , nevertheless , arisen from disobedience , it hath covered with the Cloak of vertue : to wit , least it should be led away by credulity . But Reason answered , not indeed affirmatively ; but onely , that it might breed a fear in the minde , and so , by scrupulousness , might draw it unto its desires . For it said , there is no safety to the Soul , to be attained without Reason : to wit , that Mortalls would perish under the allurements of the senses , unless vices should be restrained by the raines of Reason . To whom , the wrothful minde , saith : Away for shame , none of these things are from thee , or by thee : whose knowledge I receive from faith , and attainment or performance , from Clemency . Yea , Faith commands , that for her , we forsake thee . For thy flexible juggling deceit hath brought forth a hundred Sections , or divisions , and clefts in faith , even in the more refined men . But every Section , hath its rational induction , or bringing in of Sophistry . Because Reason doth on every side , bring forth onely a thinking , instead of Faith ; but Faith is of Grace : not of thee , subtill Reason : who dost delude , and miserably lead aside the most witty , or quick sighted men , that trust in thee , unto a Hell of miseries . Finally , my minde considered by Faith , that there was one onely Form and Essence of truth ; and that all understanding was alwayes , onely of true things . Wherefore in the choyce , my minde esteemed it meet , to magnifie understanding before Reason . And therefore it began to fear , least Reason , which through a shew of Piety , Truth , and Religion , under a multiplicity of erring , did guilfully deceive so many thousands of men , as a pleasing flatteress , and crafty Seducer should seduce it . And therefore , my minde suspected , that Reason did not onely feign perswasions , for the deceiving and flattery of it self , as oft as the minde did design it for a Judge and Assistant : but also , that Reason did plainly yield it self for a Parasite , and to the servitude of the desires , even of those that are most Religious : and did bring with it , more of thinking , rashness , and blockishness , than of Knowledge and Truth . Because it was that , which would easily be bended at a beck , by Tongues , sometimes to one , but sometimes to the other extream : and would every where , finde out , feign , and prostrate Reasons , according to the pleasures of the desires : yea , it oft-times proceedeth in discoursing of that which falls without that which is reasonable , and it remains indefinitely undistinct , and uncertain in ignorances , the which notwithstanding , it did promise to untie . Also , now and then , Reason hath made Souls mad , who trusting too much to its perswasions , had enslaved themselves unto it . In the next ●lace , in others , through foolish , importunate , undiscreet , and vain cares , it cuts off the thred of life . The minde therefore hath drawn a wearisomness from the command of Reason ; and the rather , for that it knew Reason to be a Houshold Servant of its Family ; but being a Chamber-maid , it presently did presume upon the whole government of the Soul. And the minde having remembred that divine word , that those of his own House , are his enemies : conceived a loathing over Reason . And its turning away on both sides , was not yet sufficiently founded , yet it got strength in going . From the first , therefore , after that , the Soul began no more to contemplate of Reason , as a part or power of it self ; but as it were a strange guest , plainly divided , and a newter from the essence of the minde . And afterwards , the Soul knew that thing by faith , that it being once separated from the Body , it stands no longer in need of Reason : and therefore that this is frail and mortal ; yea , and that it hapned to us together with death , in the corruption of Nature . Indeed , the minde knowes that it is , after death , to inhabit all its knowledge at once , full , naked , not successive , not wrung out or extorted by force of premises , not conquered by convincement , not deceitful , disputable , or doubtful . Neither that it shall make demonstrations after death , that it may conclude , draw , compel , derive , or reflect , whether that thing shall be to conceive , or indeed to signifie or give notice . Therefore the minde seised on frail Reasons Coat , she being also a fugitive from the Soul , and hath spoiled her of every Garment , even unto nakedness : But then it was confirmed to the minde , that Reason being left with us , came to us , as it were , a brand from a tormentor , for a remembrance of Calamities , and of our fall . And that the knowledge of good and evil , attained by eating of the Apple , was Reason its very self , which is so greatly adored by mortal men . Afterwards therefore , my minde endeavoured to depart ; not indeed against , but from the use of Reason : to wit , by abstaining from all discourse , in the contemplation of a thing , as a thing is good , true , and a Being in act . But that thing I could not presently obtain , because Reason did continually accompany my Soul against its will , as a shadow doth the body , the which , without bidding , comes into the counsel of the minde , from an antient possession , and a not sufficient concealing of our councel . And by this Title , the conversation of Reason was afterwards as yet , more burdensome , sorrowful , tedious and clowdy unto me . For truly , then I began to perceive , that reason did vex the Soul with a multiplicity , with a vain complacency of Sciences , and did tempt with it a ridiculous enquiry after virtues , promising an Ornament of life , before the World , which doth adore its Starry Goddess Reason . Wherefore it did miserably draw the understanding and will into its pleasure , and did so load the memory , that even now , in my man-hood , my memory did fall as an Asse under his burden , and got a defect . My minde therefore had often banished Reason , but it hath alwayes privily entred afresh , against the endeavours of the minde , hath discovered its learned Hypocrisie , and hath placed its batteries against the most weak wall of the minde . Indeed it hath alwayes promised a vulgar applause , the foolish rewards of ambition , boasting , that it is nourished under it . But then it first rose up against a strictness of life , against which , as against harsh Phylosophy , and disswaded from that , as follies , and fraudulently excused many things here and there , unlawful , with the priviledges of youth , or of Custome already in many places received ; and even readily serving for the flattery of the minde , it by a learned Industry , followed it as it were a Chamber-maid , feigning Reasons at the pleasure of the minde , now inclined . At length , my minde asked , what knowledge Reason could give ? Whereto she presently answered , she could effect by the great art of Lullius , that a man may be able to discourse of every knowable thing , as it were an omniscient person , with the admiration of the whole World. Then my minde was wroth , and said to Reason , Be gone wicked pratler : for first of all , I detest discursive matters , therefore have I certainly known , that Reason doth alwayes forsake the Soul , with an unsweetness of dryness , stumbling in the dark with disquietness , uncertainty , and bitterness . Last of all , as I knew , that there was no help to me in nature , nor seperation from so troublesome and tedious a guest , I hid my self within the Prayer of silence , so that sometimes , I could altogether , and now and then in part , uncloath my self of Reason , and all its appendices . It happened therefore , that without , or at leastwise , besides those things , which may be known by reason , or be any way conceived by its help , I came down as it were by a Dream , under an unutterable light . Of which , I have nothing to say further : because that envious reason hath presently withdrawn me from thence . For , as soon as Reason , being not yet putrified , waxing dim under the accustomedness of the light , had entred with my minde , it raised up an admiration in me , who I was , from whence , after what manner , and why I had come down thither : and so I fell out of the light , into miserable darknesses , under the day , or in the day-time . But in my judgement , that light was delayed , scarce the space , wherein any one might drawingly pronounce four syllables . Nevertheless , from thenceforth , I felt my self changed from that which I was before . For I even tasted down the immortality of my Soul , the foundation of Faith and Religion , a knowledge that is to be preferred before all frail or mortal things . I proceeded therefore with a greater study , or endeavour , to depart from Reason : because it was that , which hath never assaulted me naked ; but deceitfully covered with fighting , and deceitful juggles : but it had never truly forsaken me , but with uncertainty . Salomon calls the spirit of a man , the Lamp or Candle of God. But not that God is in darkness , or that he hath need of the splendor of the spirit of a man. But altogether , because the hidden knowledges of things , are infused by the Father of Lights into us , by meanes of this Candle . I apprehended more certainly , daily , that Reason was not that spirit of a man , and therefore neither that Candle of God. Yea neither the light of that Candle : but that there was a far different light of that Candle , by the vigour or efficacy whereof , it might pierce a knowable thing , granted unto it . Indeed , I throughly beheld , that the Soul was not in need of , yea , nor the framer of a Syllogisme , because it will not use it , being once severed from the body . For truly , its native knowledge , was far more noble , and certain , than any demonstration , which is the top of reason . Then in the next place , I knew , that neither did sense frame a Syllogisme ; but that Reason , the framer of demonstrations , did possess the animall understanding , or Imagination , which is a meane between the senses and the intellect . Wilt thou ask , why the light shineth ? why the water is moyst ? yieldeth to a finger that enters it , &c. and thou shalt finde , that , by how much the more clear any thing is , by so much the reason thereof is the more stupid , remote , and dull . Then therefore , I clearly beheld , that Reason is wallowed up and down , among thick darknesses . And then , that , wheresoever there is no discourse , no premises ; there also no conclusion , consequence , or reason , is found . Notwithstanding a knowledge of the premises , is more certain than of the conclusion : because , seeing it is supposed from things that are firstly or chiefly true : also that knowledge is in the Soul without Reason : because , before a demonstration . Whence I concluded with my self , first , that reason doth generate nothing but a dim or dark knowledge , or a thinking . Then next , that the knowledges of the truth , of things , and premises , do proceed , not indeed from Reason ; but from a far different beginning , to wit , the intellectual light of the Lamp or Candle . Wherefore I straightway observed , that the discourse of Reason , doth extenuate or lessen , overshadow , hinder , and choak that noble act of understanding , whereby the knowledges of the premises , are implanted in us . And I learned more and more , that Reason was far of from , and moreover also , out of the light of truth , because like Bats , it onely cannot endure or bear the light , being content with its own borrowed Glow-worm light . Because it is that which is properly nothing else , but a wording faculty of discoursing , co-bred with us as mortalls , from sin . So that I say , it more wearieth the addicted or ready following Soul , by operating , and covers the Scull with Dogs hairs , than it is able to produce within us , a true knowledge of the truth . Forasmuch as I have found , that the Soul wishing to know , by the hunting of Reason , for the most part , embraceth lying meanes , and false satisfactions , instead of the truth , for a reward of its labour . For thus the minde being deceived , beholds a lie , a false paint , deceit ; and in summe , a thinking instead of truth , as long as it , as yet , doubts nothing of the juggles of Reason . For in this respect it hath happened , that there are so many juggling deceits , and false Doctrines , as well in Religion , as in the Art of Medicine , so that I cannot thorowly view any one corner of the Schooles , from whence truth is not overthrown by the aims of Reason . Therefore , I have seen and learned , Reason to be a naked thing , because Reason , for every event , did bring forth nothing but a thinking or truth , by which meanes , it did bury the intellectual understanding . Because that the minde cannot at once embrace and follow two lights , which are so diverse . But the World is every where miserably misled , and deluded by thinkings . And first indeed , because every one thinks Reason to be the Image of God , and our best Treasure , &c. I pray you , let a Reason be asked about a doubtful question , of ten witty men apart : and mark , how much they differ from each other , every one is deluded by his own reason , and how stoutly every one fights for his own thought . For truly , seeing my minde did spoil reason of its Garment , I observed , that the World is chiefly deceived , by its own thinking ; because it calls ●e inquisition of the knowledge of things by their causes , the seeking out , or invention of reason . But therein , I have first of all discovered the false paint , and most wretched condition , and most poor nakedness of Reason ; because it blusheth to appear , unless under the covering of a false Etymologle , or pretended true reasoning , or derivation of words , and a begged Cloak . For truly , Reason is by no meanes , a cause , part , or essence of the thing caused , much lesse doth the rational faculty in man , reach unto things . For a thing is that in it self , which it is , without the reflexion of it on any discourse , and invention of humane reason . Therefore the outmost Garment of reason is a Mask . Indeed , the cause is the beginning , and original of the thing caused . But reason is no such thing . In the next place , I have observed , that the Schooles gave Reason place , in the middle of the essence of the minde ; and that from thence , they did denominate the Soul to be rational , as it were by an essential property . As though reason should be given to it for a Lamp , or Candle , in the innermost essence thereof . When as , otherwise , in very deed , in the minde , or the most immediate Image of God , there is no room for reason . Because , the Soul being seperated from the body , doth not use the discourse of reason : Yea , when the Soul , being as yet the in mate of the body , doth intellectually understand any thing , it plainly refuseth all use of reason . Because that when it makes use of reason , it plainly resembles the savore of a corporeal Soyl. Seeing the rational power is in the lower part of the Soul , as being bound with bodily Fetters . Finally , presently after the uncloathing of Reason , it offered it self as alike frivolous a covering from , the thinking of reason . To wit , that whatsoever is akin to truth , this reason judgeth rationable , and agreeable to Reason . When as notwithstanding , Reason and Truth are unlike , or disagreeing in their Roots . For Truth is a real true Being ; but reason is a mental , problematical , or intricate Being , onely appearing : for hence the being of reason a non-being hath arisen from its Mother , Though . For the rational faculty , and reason derived from thence , doth oft-times embrace false things , for true , and true things for falses . Whence at length , I seriously considered , that reason did not agree with the conformity of a thing proposed by discourse , and the knowledge of a conclusion found by us . Because reason properly , is not the judgement of the outward man , or of his imagination , whereby it rubs together , truth , appearing unto it self , according to the shapes , or figures of Sciences , which are supposed to be inbred in man : from whence it wandering , the Imagination doth then first frame a knowledge agreeable to it self . But Reason , that Steward , reputed in the minde of so great worth , is nothing else , but a disposition of the aforesaid conformity , found by discourse , with the shapes or Idea's co-bred in the Imagination , which conformity in the next place , as it is in it self , confused , obscure , moveable : So of necessity , it ought to be unstable , from the nature of the Subject of its inherence . For so also , the most refined Reason may be in it self deceitful : neither must it be of necessity , that it should compel , contain , or conclude any certainty within it , Mathematical Science excepted because this doth plainly consist in the measurings of co-measurable things . For therefore more Heretiques are converted by the Examples of a Christian life , than by the Discourses of Disputations : Next , the aptness of that Disposition unto the Species , or Shapes co-bred in the Imagination , is reckoned to be , rationality or reasonableness . But reasoning , or Logisme ( from whence is a Syllogisme ) is an act whereby the conformity of the same disposition , is made to approach unto the Species , co-begotten in the Imagination , or as my opinion carries it , finally raised up , or awakened there . As soon as by putting of the shooes of reason , I found most things to be in nature , which the understanding judgeth necessary , the which Reason refuseth as impossible : I knew from thenceforth , that reason did not dwell in the possession of a true understanding ; but without the same . Because that in the understanding , truth is immediately , because truth being understood , is nothing else , but a suiting of the intellect to the things themselves . Indeed , the understanding knowes things as they are ; and therefore likewise , the understanding is made true concerning the things themselves , by the things themselves ; for as much as the Being of things from themselves , is alwayes true : and their Essence is truth it selfe . And therefore the understanding which is carried about them , or brought over them is alwayes directly true . But seeing the imagination , or the reason thereof , is a certain cr●aked manner of understanding , proceeding by Reasons and Discourses ; but not by a transformation of adequation or suiting : therefore that rational manner , is an abusive and deceitful understanding . But good , right , one , and true , have themselves alwayes after one and the same manner , in the intellect ; because they stand alwayes in one point of suicableness in the intellect : but evill , crooked , athwart , false , and manifold , are made after many manners , by reason , in the imaginative part . Therefore I have certainly known , that reason is not to be had in so high an esteem , as hitherto it hath been . And the rather , because Reason and Discourse , do not obscurely flcurish , or grow in b●uit Beasts : for , that an aged Fox is more crafty than a younger one , by rational discourse , doth happen to be confirmed by the remembrance of experience : yea , Bees do number : because if there be 30 Hives placed in order , a small Bee flying out in the morning , numbers out of what Hive she went forth , and then , doth not return nor enter , unless she first re-number the rank : which is easily proved ; For if the fifth or sixth Hive be removed into the seventh , or any other place , and the number being turned in and out , the Bees , which return laden with Hony and Wax , thinking to lay up their fardle within their own Common-wealth , do reck on again , upon the fifth or sixth numbred Hive : the Citizens whereof , seeing they are strangers to that little Bee , coming unto them , do kill the same . And in this manner , 〈◊〉 do in one night , destroy all the Hives . For the Serpent was more crafty than the other living Creatures . And I will confirm by one example , instead of a thousand , a rational Discourse in Beasts . A man of a neighbouring Village , brought up a House , the chief Watchman of the night-prey . But it happened , that in full of the Moon , a Wolf , ran up and down about the Village , at whom , that Dog , straightway barked , and followed the fleeing Wolf. But this being impatient of hunger , reterted himself on the Dog , and followes him . But the Dog running away , and leaping upon his Oven , retired himself in safety , and from thence continually barked ; and waking his Master , discovered the presence of the Wolf. But the day following , the Wolf returned , whom the Dog , as he did the day before , assaulted by barking . For the Wolf feigning a flight , until he knew by conjecture , that his fellow Wolf , which he had brought with him , had hidden himself under the Oven . When therefore , he turned himself towards the Dog , who running away from the Wolf following him , and thinking to retire to his Oven , as it were to a most safe Castle , another hidden Wolf bewrayed himself , who laid hold on the Dog with a grinning mouth , and hindered his leaping upon his Oven . Therefore I have noted a remarkable diligence in all bruit Beasts , also in most insects . I think it therefore a disgraceful definition , whereby a man is decyphered to be a rational or reasonable living Creature , as it were from a description of his Essence . For truly , he was to be defined from his ultimate end , by the properties of appointments in creating , if the end be the first of causes , according to Aristotle . Wherefore , neither was the definition of a man , to be begged from the Fountain of Paganisme , which hath been plainly ignorant of Creation , and the ends thereof . For as my Philosophy is unknown to the Heathen , so likewise their Philosophy is with me , of no value . Indeed , I write for the sake of Christians , for whom it is a shame , to follow Heathens , contrary to Gospel-truth . Neither also am I willing to be accounted a brawler about names , as oft as I treat of the ends , Prerogatives , choiceness , and Dignity of the divine Image . I reject , first of all , the follies of Paganisme , in-definitions , especially those made concerning man. For truly , according to the Testimony of St. Anthony , described by Blessed Jerome : Paul , the first of Anchorets , is referred among the number of the Gods. Also by relation of the same Anthony , Faunus is read to be a talking rational Creature : yea , knowing and worshipping the God of Nature , and of the Christians , and beseeching Anthony , to pray for him and his . It is manifest in the first place , that this Faunus was not a man , from the assertion of Anthony , and his monstrous figure or shape . Next , neither that he was an evil spirit , is gathered , because this is so proud , that if he knew he might be saved by Prayer , he would not so much as ask , that any one would pray for him , neither would he prostrate himself for to beg pardon . For blessed Jerome calls Faunus , not a man , as neither an evil Spirit . Therefore Faunus is neither of these , as the same man witnesseth , by whom that Paul obtained the first place among the Anchorets , and was reckoned among the Saints . Therefore a Faunus is a living Creature , as a Being in reason , speaking his own proper Country Dialect ; but not a man. So in times past , a live Satyr , and afterwards seasoned with Salt , was shewen for money , being carried thorowout Aegypt , Phrygia , and Greece . Finally , in Scotland and Zeland , and elsewhere : there are fished Monsters , using Reason , yea , exercising mechanick arts , in the half shapes of men . Indeed man alone was made after the Image of God , with an excluding of all Creatures or things . But these rational bruits , being in their own Elements , are also different among themselves : yet are they the Images , or likenesses of us , and not the Images of God. Man therefore , is a Creature living in a body , by an immortal minde , sealed to the honour of God , according to the light , and Image of the Word , the first example of all causes . For the day , and its light were sometimes without the Sun , and the Sun shall at sometimes be without light . But the Soul of man , cannot be considered without the Image of God , seeing the Kingdom of God , with all its free gifts , is more intimate to the Soul , than the Soul it self is intimate to it self . Therefore , I am deservedly angry , that the Schooles do badly season Youth , with Heathenish Phylosophy , and that they do even till now , delight in Acorns , the Banquets of the first , or original truth , being now found . Oh Lord , the light of thy countenance is imprinted upon us ; for none hath perfectly known the Image , and whether it doth well answer to its Type , if he shall not first know or acknowledge the Type . Wherefore , as many as do badly define a man , do not know or acknowledge God , as neither themselves in essential things . The Phylosophical Schooles therefore , have rested more in the lessons of the Heathens , than of Paul. Hence I contemplate , that they have meditated of a man , onely according to his dead Carcase ; but not according to the intention of the Creator , or efficient , and the finall ordinations of man. For otherwise , the Almighty , had declined from his scope , if the end be the first or chief of causes , in Creation , and there be something considerable , as first , in the adorable Authour of things . Therefore the Creature was to be defined , and that from the intention of the efficient Creator . For he erreth not in his ends , who frameth the properties themselves , which flow from the very ends of their appointments . Wherefore , man , although he hath from his body , some animal or sensitive , and bodily conditions : yet , from the intent of God , he is created into the living Image of God , in an immortal substance , that he may know , love , and worship God , according to the light of the Type or figure imprinted on him . But after that man hath lived in the flesh , as an animall or sensitive living Creature , God hath said , My Spirit shall not remain , or alwayes strive with man , because he as flesh . For the proper Genus or general kinde of the thing defined , in the definition of a man , which the Schooles name an Animall , or living Creature : that very thing , God nameth degeneration , a turning out of his wayes , the corruption of Nature , and destroying of his intention in Creation . But , that their constitutive difference of a man , or the rational part , doth belong to bruites is without doubt : and also the penury of Logick , which is altogether destitute of all definition , and constitutive difference . But Reason being now stript even unto a nakedness , I got its every way displeasure , because it seemed to me an empty Skeleton , its Masks and Coverings being taken away . Lastly , I beheld the narrow poverty , and unquiet foulness thereof ; especially , when I was mindeful of the confusions and uncertainties , wherewith , it , according to its wonted manner , had intangled me . I began therefore afterwards to contemplate , that my intellect might more profit by figures , likenesses , & visions of the phantafie in dreams , than by the discourses of Reason . Yea , that frequent Discourses did ordinarily render their man , foolish , wrathful , mad , stotmy in his judgement , and moveable , or weak , and so also of a tender health . And at length , I more fully looked into the progress of figures and Idea's : and then I found those , as yet , encompassed with miseries and anguishes : because Images were estranged , by reason of their adulterating from the very truth of the thing , and of its Essence , by an unexcusable disagreement of every Similitude , remote from identity or sameliness . And then I thus judged , because the distinction between the Images of the Phantasie , and the Images of the intellect , had not yet been made known unto me : the which , after their abstractions , do remain in the very Centre of the Soul ; for I was for the most part wearied all the day , about some knowable thing ; the which , although it was unknown to me , as to its foundation and manner , yet by likenesses , I determined it was by much labour to be known unto me . At length , when I perceived my self to be hindered from further proceeding , because astonished , I framed inwardly , that any likeness of a thing not yet perfectly known , is adorned with a possible adiacence of its essence . Under which , I once afterwards , ere long , beholding that , in my imagination , and as it were , talking to the same , I being at length , notably wearied with study , fell asleep , that at least , I might stir up a dreaming Vision , whereby I might draw out that desirable thing to be known . According to that saying , Night unto night sheweth knowledge ; and surely it is a wonder , how much light , those kinde of Visions unfolded unto me , especially , my Body being not well fed for a good while before . For I do not deny , but that , the essences of the thing sought for , which were for the most part , covered under the Cloak of a Riddle ; or confused ; and as yet , very much subject to pluralities , and interchangeable courses : I many times attained by this meanes of knocking , especially , the helps of seeking having gone before , and the ayds and wings of prayer , being adjoyned . And a holy man ( to whom , I had uncovered every corner of my Conscience , and the wearisomnesses of labours and years through restless nights ) said unto me : Ah , I would to God , I had laboured as much , and had spent as much time in loving of God , as thou wretched man hast done , in the searching out of knowable things , whereof , the last day will not require of thee a reason or account ! Truly , I then praised the Lord , that he had freely bestowed on me a certain nearer meanes of knowing and learning , than reason could be : the which did never pierce unto the former , or cause , and seldom unto the latter , or effect , and that , moreover , with much uncertainty . For then , I believed , that the original misery of corrupted nature , could not proceed further , unto the once tasted light , than by the aforesaid Images of the phantasie . By the perswasion therefore of that man , I desisted from a more narrow wishing , seeking and searching into any thing , I stripped my self of all curiosity and appetite of knowing , I betook my self unto rest or poverty of spirit , resigning my self into the most lovely will of God , as if I were not in being , not in working , in desiring meer nothing , in understanding nothing : most especially , because I knew manifold imperfections in my knowledges ; I conceiving great indignation with my self , because that for a frail knowledge , I had bestowed so many and so great labours . Therefore I my self wonderfully displeased my self : therefore I begged of the Lord , that he would wholly sweep out of my minde , every knowable thing , and the profane desires thereof : the which minde , with this inscription , I wholly offered unto his good pleasure . In the mean time , after two moneths , in this renouncing of knowledges , and naked poverty , it once again happened unto me , that I intellectually understood . I placed my Athanar , or the Instrument of my reception and operation , another way . But I straightway returned into my self , neither knew I , how long that light had remained . That indeed I knew , that the newness , amazedness , and rejoycing of the unwonted matter , then stole away that light , and made me to fall out of it , into my antient confusions of darkness ; because that reason was not yet mortified . Aristotle , although he was wholly void of this light , yet he hath seemed from some other , to have described the perceivance of another , concerning the labour of wisdom , or things Adeptical . It is better for a man to be disposed or inclined , than to be knowing by description . To wit , by the deaf suggestion of another , he calls it a better thing to have men disposed , than if they were knowing : that is , by the help of demonstration . By meanes whereof alone , he elsewhere alway boasts , that all knowledge in man , doth arise . I likewise acknowledged , that we must bid farewell to Reason and Imagination , as unto brutall faculties ( and that by reason of the misery of our fall ) if by hope , we are drawn into the deep , for a sound knowledge of the truth . I have known likewise , that an easie Translation of the understanding was required , and a pleasing transchanging of it self into the form of the thing intelligible ; in which point of time indeed , the understanding for a moment is made ( as it were ) the intelligible thing it self . But seeing the intellect is perfected by understanding , and that nothing is perfected , but by that which hath a resemblance with it in its own nature ; therefore I gathered that the understanding and things understood , as such , ought to be , or to be made of the same nature ; but this ought to be done without labour , and disquietness : but with rest , in the light proper to them , with the withdrawing , depriving , and wanting of any other created help whatsoever . But if a forreign help doth concur , now , it shall be with the labour of a desire stirred up without the understanding . Furthermore , that passing over and transfiguration of the understanding , otherwise natural to it , they do signifie to be sometimes subordinate Poets , the name of Protheus , even as a Fable . But I have now known more clearly than that , that that transchanging of the understanding ought to be made , because the intellect is in it self , wholly pure , simple , one onely , and undivided . Wherefore , for that cause also , some onely , simple , uniform , and single act , should belong to it , plainly undivided from the understanding it self . Otherwise , the understanding should loose the homogeneal simplicity of its unity , by a duplicity of interchangeable course . Notwithstanding ; I have sufficiently found , that it is not of the full and free power of our will , now thus to enjoy its own understanding . And that there is more required unto that thing , than to think , endeavour , wish , will , &c. And that not onely by reason of an accustomedness , whereby , we have been wont from a Childe , by animal or sensitive acts , to obey the Imagination : but much more , because the will it self , together with the memory , ought for that space of motion , to be wholly supt up , and as it were , annihilated in the understanding . The which surely , is the weight of a great Mystery . For else , as soon as any one doth think of his Soul , or of any thing as of a third ; with a seperated interchangeable course , without the understanding , for that very cause , there is not yet the thought , or operation of a pure , and onely intellect . But when the Soul thinks of it self , or any other thing , as it self , without an interchangeable course of the thinker , and of the thing thought of , without an appendency , out-turning , or respect to duration , place and circumstances ; Then indeed , such a thought is intellectual , or of the understanding . But it is not as yet , therefore illustrated , or made lightsomely famous , although that understanding is already a far more noble thought , than that which rusheth in by things that happen : whether those do come in to it by likenesses , without a sequel , as being infused ; or next , being drawn from experiences and observations , do by influence , flow to it of their own accord . Because the Soul , in that state of light , doth thus apprehend the more inward and formerly essence of the thing understood , because the intellect it self doth transform it self , by passing over , or thorow , into the thing understood . Hence indeed , it followes . If intellectual knowledge be with a similitude of the thing understood in the understanding it self : that also the Kingdom of God , doth as it were come to us , and is renewed , or doth spring again , as oft as we in faith do intellectually and presentially adore the goodness , power , infiniteness , Glory , truth of God , &c. in the Spirit : And thus it is unto God a delight , to be with the Sons of men . Surely it is thus . Our understanding is as it were all to be sprinkled with a new dew of perfection , as oft as any thing that is super-celestial or heavenly above , is intellectually contemplated of : because for that moment , it passeth over into that , and tasteth down that . Then indeed , the Image of God shines all over within , and becomes glorious . Good God , whitherto dost thou bring mortalls ? But surely , such an intellectual thought , is not made with a distinction of words , or properties of speech : neither with the girding of the sences or reason : neither with a certain more swift conception of a whole Discourse , abundantly drawn in ; nor with a dependance and sequel of things before thought of : nor being environed with circumstances , of here , now , white , great , bitter , like , pleasing , &c. But one is not in the understanding without the other : neither with-the other under an interchangeable course : neither also , even as it may be conceived by Reason , or Imagination , or be thought by Imaginations or likenesses . But in that state , now , here , sense , reason , imagination , memory , and will , are at once melted into a meer understanding , and do stand obscured , under darkness , by the light of understanding . Then , then I say , a certain light falls upon the Soul. And that in my judgement , is all of whatsoever could ever be declared by word , thought , speech , and writing . But whether that light be altogether supernatural , or that the understanding be of its own nature thus kindled , or enflamed , I had rather experience than determine . That one thing at leastwise , I know , that it doth not happen without grace . Wherefore , whether the understanding be transformed , or whether it doth transform it self into the Image of the thing understood , surely it had need of help from God , and that indeed a singular one , because then , at leastwise , the Soul beholds its own understanding , under a form taken on it , in the said light : and in that its glasse , it beholds it self intellectually , without a reflexion of interchangeable course ; and so it conceiveth a knowable thing , together with all its properties . For that , this light of knowledge , is not that which issues out of the understanding , but remaineth within , reflexed upon the understanding , which may be perfected in all truth , and perfect certainty . Indeed , some Rabbins do fear this state of the Soul , as dangerous . The mystical School also feareth the danger of arrogancy , and spiritual adultery . But both , as they do avoid or shun that which is hurtful . And the Adeptists think , if it should often invade one , or long continue , undoubted death would be brought , together with a sickness , which the Rabbins call Binsica : which properly , is an unnourishment , or pining away of the Organ of the phantasie . Notwithstanding I pray , let them pardon me , if I shall think otherwise . First of all , because the Instruments of the Imagination do not labour in this act : but they sleep unmoved , as if they were not . Therefore likewise , they suffer nothing . Then , because that act , is not in our power : for I believe that that principal act , is of Clemency . Which Clemency , doth never give , make , cause , or admit of that which is inordinate . Therefore , although Clemency should the more often , and longer abound , yet neither therefore , could it contain , or argue an inordinacy . I beseech therefore , that the Father of Lights would vouch safe , to prevent , and follow me with his clearness , that he may bring me unto the calling which is pleasing to him , in his grace . The light therefore which falls from above , upon the Soul ( when it is lesse tied and bound to the Organs of the Body , and the which is in it self not capable of suffering , and immortal ) cannot also , hurt the life . For truly , after the receiving of a small quantity of the light , I finde a man scarce to suffer any thing by three dayes fasting . Wherefore it comes into my minde , that the friends might stand by Job , as Companions , for the full nine dayes , without meat or drink . Moreover , according to my opinion , that light , doth so dispose of the understanding , without the help , endeavour , and labour of the understanding , that it may come into its own freedom , which else , through the slavery of the body , is plainly moveable , dark , and confused . Otherwise , the understanding makes not use of Instruments , besides and without it self . And therefore , neither is it wearied , as is the Imagination : neither is it of it self , subject unto Diseases , changes , disturbances , alterations , interchangeable courses , or co-mixtures . For errour , juggling , a lie , or deceit , doth not fall on the understanding , while it stands in that light . For neither do , drowsiness , sleep , or defect , inhabit in it ; neither doth it receive aid from any created thing , as neither from the body , reason , or any imaginary power : but it carries its own native light , above all the circuite or ambush of Reason . Yea , which is more , the understanding is not then provoked , by any power more inferiour than it self , nor from the things themselves , even as they are known , subject to deceit , a juggle and lie : because they are those things which stand in the nakedness of their Being before the understanding , that they may be as it were informed by this , and in passing over , be quickned . All things therefore are in such a manner in their understanding , that all things of the Soul are their own intellect . Yet so , that although the understanding doth by an intellectual act , transform it self into the likeness , or kinde of the thing understood : yet it keeps its own property and essence , unintermixed : whereinto it again returns , as soon as it hath ceased from that act : indeed , the Soul possesseth this Prerogative from Clemency , that it may be the Image of God : and therefore a simple created unknown light . So that , as oft as it conceiveth any forreign thing in it self , it ought of necessity , to desist from the Being of a most simple light , of the divine Image , or to transform it self into the figure of the thing conceived . So indeed , as that the essence of the thing conceived , is a naked essence , and yet essentially in the understanding , even as an Apple in the kernel of an Apple . Hence therefore , it comes to passe , that intellectual knowledge is void of all errour . Because Reason is absent , which doth every where , make us to stumble . For essences do stand naked , and uncloathed in an intellectual conception : the which , as such , the Soul , therein , doth now behold in the glass of its own understanding , as while the Eye doth behold it self in a glasse , in its own reflex beam . Therefore it is reputed for truth , that it is no Eye , except so far as it is conceived in the intellect as such . Wherefore Aristotle was constrained to confess , that the principles of understanding , are wholly the same . That is to say , that the truth of Essence ; and the truth of an intellectual knowledge are one and the same . And therefore , as a Being , or to be , true , good , and one , are convertible : so essence , goodness and truth , ought to be co-melted with each other , into the form of a Being , in the oneness of understanding . For truly , in the understandingness of the understanding , there is not any interchangeable course of the intellect which understandeth , and of the thing understood : because that , before the act of understanding , every reciprocal or mutual relation , rebounding , and reflexion on each other , is first nullified . Seeing the very understandingness of a thing , is nothing but a coming to , and immediate approach of the unity of the understanding , and of the thing understood : or a destroying of interchangeable courses in a relation . The which , that it may be made more clear by an example ; the understanding intellect , is no otherwise different from the thing understood , than as a beam of light which is direct , differs from it self , being reflexed . Therefore the essence of a thing understood , in the light of understanding , is made a spiritual and essential Splendor . Yea , by a co-passing unto a unity , it is after some sort made the light of the understanding it self . That which cannot happen to the Souls of bruit Beasts . Therefore also , our Soul understanding it self , doth after a sort , understand all other things , because all other things , are in an intellectual manner in the Soul , as in the Image of God. Wherefore indeed , the understanding of our selves , is most exceeding difficult , ultimate or remote , excellent , profitable , beyond other things . For a man knowing the divineness of his Soul , he cannot but preferre the same before any kinde of decaying and filthy pleasures , and those of no value . But the difficulty of the aforesaid understandingness , doth chiefly consist in that , that it is the Image of God , which very Image also , as well in it self , as in respect of the Type which it resembles , is almost impossible to the understanding . And then , the Soul not having in it any Image of it self , distinct from it self , it cannot at all understand it self by Idea's or resembling likenesses . But seeing it is simple and uniform , neither can it understand it self in an Image ; neither also is it agreeable or convenient , that by reason of the highest and homogenial simplicity of the Soul , it should make use of divers manners and meanes of understandings in understanding , in respect of it self ; and again , of other manners and meanes , in respect of other things understood . Hence of necessity , the soul , for the preserving of its own homogeneal simplicity , due to the Image of God , hath whereby to understand all other things , without a shape distinct from the things themselves . But seeing the Soul wants a proper shape of its own divine Image , that it may transform it self intellectually into it self : Therefore it cannot properly understand it self after an intellectual manner , but in the light , and faithful witnesse of him , whose Image it is . For the knowledge which we have of God , is of Tradition , Faith , and so of merit . Although it be plainly negative , as it is not this or that , which may be conceived by the sense , or minde . And therefore , the knowledge of the Soul , as of the divine Image , hath a negative abstraction , or withdrawing of other things adjoyned to it , which it calls , non ens , or , a non-Being ; but of a non-Being , no conception , no figure , and no understanding , doth answer . That is of a negative abstraction , seeing its companion is privation ; but negative and primitive things are destitute of an Idea , or equivalent shape : therefore the light of knowledge which the Soul hath of it self , is of clemency , freely given , nor ever at the full in this world or life . But if a happy Soul shall sometimes conceive of God in it self , by the beatifical Vision , then by the same beam of light , he shall behold and know God himself , and all other things inwardly . For therefore , by how much the Soul doth understand intellectually , of it self ; by so much it profiteth in the most profitable knowledge which can be had of created things in this life . Because that in the light of its own light , it doth after a sort , behold the properties , essences , effects , interchangeable courses , distinctions and defects of all things : whither therefore , that knowledge hath once brought , there , all the more clowdy speculation and aid of Reason languisheth ; even as on the other hand , a true understanding is suppressed in us , under the precepts of Reason . Wherefore , seeing the proper object of understanding , is the essence of things it self , for that cause , accidents being as it were abstracted , and rent asunder from the things in which they are , ought to be conceived by the imagination , and that by shapes and likenesses : but in no wise , by the understanding . Wherein , after another manner , I finde all accidents co-knit together in a point , under the essence of the things understood . Because accidents properly are not Beings : but of the Beings on whom they depend ; therefore accidents have not an essence , which doth co-pass unto the unity of the understanding , or into which essence , the understanding may transport it self . But the Schooles do divide the Intellect into the Agent and Patient . For they will have that to be conversant about the invention of meanes , and premises of a demonstration ; to wit , that the sealing marks of the termes , may imprint an understanding on the Patient , as it were , on wax subjected to it . Therefore they call the Agent masculine , noble , and formall . But they liken the Patient to the Woman , and ignoble matter . And these their Dreams they perswade to young beginners ; as Nature doth every where operate toward the perfection of it self : but operation or action is alwayes more noble than passion or suffering : But I do every where pity so great dryness . First , because demonstration is not an effect or of-spring of the understanding , neither doth it any way supply meanes for Sciences or knowledges . I have seen an Aethiopian swiftly to roule a Reed about , in the hole of a Plank , with a Towel placed between : and not long after , the Reed with the Towel took fire . And then , I have hidden a Reed in a bright burning Fornace , and the inflamed Reed , hath more speedily , cleerly , and perfectly shined . When as , nevertheless , the Reed did act nothing : but onely suffered an inflaming . So that , although the acting principle , may now and then be more noble than the suffering one , while the effect tends to perfection : or while the Patient ought to be perfected by the Agent : Yet while a pretious Pearl doth putrifie under the Dunghill , I may not believe the Agent to be more perfect than the Patient . I have sufficiently shewed elsewhere , that in whole nature , the Doctrine of Aristotle is vain , and meer trifles : how much lesse therefore could he subsist in the Court of understanding ? whose Being and operating do depend onely on the Soul ? For we Christians , are constrained to believe , that our intellect or understanding , is an immortal Spirit , Light , and Image of the Almighty , whose beginning , as it exceedes Nature , so it cannot be fitted , or squared to its Rules : Seeing it hath a most simple Being , never to be divided into the strifes of Agent and Patient , or into heterogeneals , or divers kindes . Seeing also that it dependeth immediately , totally , and continually on its original Type : and so that without particular or special grace , it cannot understand any thing : because the object of understanding is truth it self . Wherefore neither doth it understand with a perfect understanding , but by receiving . But that which receives onely , that suffers , but doth not act therein : for neither is that proper to the understanding , which comes to it by grace . The will also , while it suffers , is more noble , than while it wills : to wit , while it is ruled by the will of the Superiour Powers . The Imagination indeed , knowes by acting , and therefore it is wearied , and this Aristotle knew : but not the understanding . Because it is that which suffers ( in understanding ) by way of enlightning onely . For it is a more troublesome , servile , and obscure thing , to operate in understanding , than to suffer : because , by suffering , it receives a more noble light , freely conferred on it . Lastly , seeing that in understanding , it alwayes passeth over into the form of the thing understood : therefore that which partakes of an unlimited light , is perfected without weariness and labour of understanding , and the light understood , shineth , in understanding , in the light of the Intellect it self . So as the things themselves , seem to talk with us without words , and the understanding pierceth them being shut up , no otherwise than as if they were dissected and laid open . Therefore the understanding is alway perfected , by suffering and receiving . But the imaginative knowledge or animal understanding , which was known to Aristotle , beholdeth things onely on the outside , and frameth to it self Images or likenesses thereof , according to its own thinking ; and with all wearisomness of labours , runs about them into a circle . It sees indeed , the Rhines , and husks , but never reacheth at the kernel : because the Imagination doth not enter things ; as neither on the other hand , do things enter and satisfie the imaginative part . For at most , the imaginative part , satisfies it self by likenesses , if it hath long admired the outward Signate : the inward sealer whereof , notwithstanding , it least of all embraceth . For how unjustly doth it square , that the Schooles should acknowledge the Soul to be the immediate Image of God , and to divide the understanding , into two supposed things , which differ in Offices and effects ? For truly , a two foldedness it self in the understanding , disagreeth with the simplicity of him , whose Image it hideth in it self , throughout its whole Being . I believe in the first place , that nothing doth pertain to the knowledge of truth , but faith and understanding . Secondly , That all truth doth issue from one onely and primitive truth . Thirdly , That all understanding deriveth it self , from one onely , and infinite understanding . Fourthly , Even as all Light from one onely Light. Fifthly , Therefore that the Essence of truth doth nothing differ from the Essence of the understanding . Sixthly , That our understanding is vain , empty , poor , and dark . Seventhly , That all its clearness , nobleness , fulness , light and truth , do come to it , by receiving and suffering . Eightly , That it is so much the more ennobled , by how much the more it suffers by the light , which is beyond all nature . Finally , the Schooles of the Heathens have failed of the knowledge of a true understanding . And therefore , man is not a rational living Creature . But the predicament of a substance , is to be divided into a Spirit and a Body . A Spirit is abstract , or withdrawn , or concrete , or joyned with a Body . Man alone is a concrete Spirit , but not to be placed among Bodies . If his denomination be to be drawn from the more especial part : and essential determination , from the more famous thing signified . Therefore man was to be denominated and defined from a Spirit , and an intellectual Light. CHAP. IV. The Causes and beginnings of Natural things . 1. The Authour excuseth himself , why he is Paradoxical . 2. Some Bodies want causes in Nature . 3. A fourfold order of Causes , makes manifest the ignorance of Nature in Aristotle . 4. Some Errours of Aristotle . 5. That the form , the efficient cause , and the end of Aristotle , are not the causes of natural things . 6. The Form is not the Act. 7. A false Maxim of Aristotle . 8. He erreth in the attributes of the Form. 9. He knew not the true efficient cause . 10. The Father is not the efficient cause of the Son. 11. There are two onely causes in Nature . 12. The End hath no reason of a cause in nature . 13. That the three beginnings of Bodies , of Paracelsus , have not the nature of causes . 14. Whence the definition of any sort soever of natural things is to be required . 15. The definition of a Horse . 16. The division of sublnnary bodies among the Auntients , is dangerous or destructive . 17. The definition of Animalls , Plants , and Mineralls . 18. The name of Subject , sounds improperly in Philosophy : why 't is to be called a co-worker . 19. Things without life , that are produced , how they receive their ends . 20. Why the seminal Power is attributed to the Earth . 21. That there is not a conjunction of the Elements . 22. The Principles of the Chymists , have not the power of principiating . 23. That there are two onely Principles , or beginnings of Bodies : to wit , that from which , and by which . 24. What the Ferment or Leaven of things is . 25. What are Ferments in their kinde . 26. What is immediately in places . 27. The Ferments of the Air and water . 28. There is onely a speculative distinction of the Ferment , and efficient cause . 29. The Ferment is the original of some seeds . 30. The principiating Ferment of what sort it is , and where . 31. Ferments are immediately in places , in things themselves , as if in places . 32. The name of matter is speculative ; but that of water is practical . 33. What the inward efficient cause is . 34. A false Maxim of Aristotle . 35. The efficient cause in natural things is explained . 36. Fire is not of the number of seminal efficient causes , as it hath deceived the Aristotelicks : neither is the influence of the Heavens among the number of efficients . 37. The diversity of the efficient and effective cause . 38. The wit of Aristotle is ambitious and idle . 39. A false Maxim of Aristotle . 40. Aristotle was more able in the Mathematicks , or learning by de monstration , than in Nature . 41. How great hath been the ignorance of the Schooles in natural things hitherto . 42. Aristotle is in the things of natural Philosophy ridiculous and to himself contradictory . I Come into a forsaken house , to re-melt the dross that is to be swept out by me . Most things are to be searched into , and those things to be taught which are unknown ; those things which have been ill delivered , are to be overthrown ; what are unclean , are to be wiped off , and what things are false , are to be cast away : but all , and every thing , duly to be confirmed . But let it be sufficient to have forewarned thee of these things , to withdraw wearisomness , if happily new and Paradoxall things do more trouble , than true things delight . The knowledge of Nature , is onely taken from that which is in act , and in the thing it self : for it is that which no where consisteth in feigned Meditations . Indeed , the whole composure of Nature is individual , in very deed , in act , and fastned in any Body , except the number of abstracted Spirits . Lastly , and chiefly , I seriously admonish , that as often as I speak of the causes of Natural things , these things are not at all to be taken , for the Elements , or for the Heaven : because they supernaturally began with the Title of Creation , and to this day , do also constantly remain the same which they were from the beginning . Therefore I understand the causes of natural things , to presuppose a Being subject to change . And although the Bodies of the Elements have come under Nature , yet their speculation is of another manner of unfolding , and another kinde of Philosophy . For they who before me have thought that to all Generations or Births of Bodies , four Elementsdo co-mix , have beheld the Elements after the heathenish manner , & have tried by their lies , or devises , to marry the Elements , & obey them . Therefore every natural Body , requireth no other than corporeall beginnings , for the most part subject to change , and succeeding course of dayes ; but Nature doth not consist of an undetermined hyle or matter , and an impossible one , neither hath it need of such a Principle , as neither of privation : but order , and life , are in the efficient cause , of necessity . And every thing is empty , void , dead , and slow , unless it hath been constituted , or sometimes be constituted by a vitall , or seminal Principle present with it . And moreover , those Lawes should rush down together , unless there were a certain order in things , & which did interpose , which might incline proper things to the support , or necessities of the common good . Aristotle hath declared four constitutive causes of things , which have made also their own Authour ignorant of Nature . For in the first place , he confoundeth the Principle with the material cause , to wit , calling the first cause an undetermined , or unlimited matter , or a corporeal subjected heap , wanting a formall limitation . And then he confoundeth the other cause , even the inward Essence , or form of a thing with another of his Principles . Next the third , which is external , he calleth the efficient cause ; and at length the fourth , he nameth the end , to wit , unto which every thing is directed . But this cause , in the minde of the efficient , he would have to be the first of the three former causes : and so natural things not onely to be principiated , or made to begin by the Being of Reason , and mental : but also , as if they were inanimate things , they did lie hid through the end , in the minde of the efficient cause . But if therefore he doth badly search into natural causes ; he hath far worse appointed a supernatural end in the minde of the first mover , in the room of a natural cause , or he requireth a mentall conceit of the end in things without life . Truly , I who have not been accustomed through the floath of consenting , to serve others enterprizes , without foreweighing them , have very much found , that the three latter causes in natural knowledge , are false , yea and hurtful . But the first of the four , I will by and by shew to be fabulous . For first of all , since every cause , according to nature and succession of dayes ; is before its thing caused . Surely , the form of the thing composed , cannot be the cause of the thing produced : but rather the last perfect act of generation , and the veriest essence and perfection it self of the thing generated : for the attaining whereof , all other things are directed . Therefore I meditate , the form to be rather as an effect , than as a cause of the thing . Yea , more . For the Form , seeing it is the end of generation , is not meerly the act of generation : but of the thing generated , and rather a power that may be attained in generation : but the matter , or subject of generation , as it is in act ; so also its act , is an inward worker or Agent , the efficient , or Archeus or chief Workman . Therefore it is false , that by how much the more a thing hath of the form , by so much the more it hath of the act , of the Entity or Beingness of vertue and operation . Because the form is not gotten or possessed by parts or degrees : neither therefore are Beings more or lesse capable to receive from the form : yea , although they were more capable to receive , yet the activeness of the Agent , is not of the form it self ; but of the Master-workman , or Archeus , of whom by and by . Therefore the form cannot be divided . For whatsoever Aristotle hath attributed to the form , or to the last perfection , in the Scene or Stage of things , that , properly , directively , and executively belongeth to that Agent , or seminal chief Workman . In the next place , seeing that the efficient cause of Aristotle , is external ( as he saith the Smith to be , in his view of the Iron ) I easily knew that he hath set to sale his fictions , for true foundations , and all his speculation , about artificial and external things of Nature , to wander . The whole efficient cause in Nature is after another manner , it is inward and essential . And although the Father generating be effective : yet in order to causing , or doing , he is not but the cause efficient of the Seed , wholly outward , in respect to the Being which of the Seed is framed by generation . For in the Seed , which fulfills and contains the whole quiddity or thing liness of the immediate efficient , that is not the Father himself : but the Archeus or chief Workman . For that the Father in respect of the thing generated , hath the Reason of nought but an external cause , and occasionally producing : for by accident alone , the effect of generation doth follow , although , the Agent applies himself to generation with his whole intent . Therefore the constitutive constituter efficiently , causing inwardly , perfectively , and by it self , is the chief seminal Workman it self , really distinct from the Father , in Being , and properties . Even as in Vegetables . Herbs indeed are the productresses of Seeds , but they are but the occasional and remote causes of Herbs arising from that Seed ; and therefore although they are natural causes , yet not sufficient and necessary ones : for neither of every Seed will therefore rise up a Plant. Therefore the seminal Being is in the Seed , the immediate efficient cause efficiently , the internal , as also essential , of the Herbe proceeding from thence . But the Plant that goeth before that Seed , is the remote cause , the natural occasion indeed of the Seed , which by it self , and immediately frameth the Plant , and effects it , with the assistance of that which stirs it up . For otherwise , if the Herbe causing , should be the efficient of the Herbe produced , the working or begetting cause could not be burnt up , but the Plant produced should also perish . Therefore the Seed is the efficient inward , immediate cause of the herbe produced . Wherefore after a diligent searching into all things , I have not found any dependance of a natural body , but onely on two causes , on the matter and the efficient , to wit , inward ones , whereto for the most part , some outward exciter or stirrer up is joyned . Because that these two are abundantly sufficient to themselves , and to other things , and do contain the whole composure , order , motion , birth , sealing notions , or tokens of knowing properties : and lastly , whatsoever is required to the constituting and propagating , or increasing of a thing . For the seminal efficient cause containeth the Types or Patterns of things to be done by it self , the figure , motions , houre , respects , inclinations , fitnesses , equalizings , proportions , alienation , defect , and whatsoever falls in under the succession of dayes , as well in the business of generation , as of government . Lastly , Since the efficient containeth all ends in it self , as it were the instructions of things to be done by it self , therefore the finall external cause of the Schooles , which onely hath place in artificial things , is altogether vain in Nature . At leastwise , it is not to be considered in a distinct thingliness from the efficient it self . For that which in the minde of the Artificer is the Being of Reason : can never obtain the weight of a cause real and natural : Because in the efficient natural cause , it s own knowledge of ends and dispositions , is infused naturally by God. Indeed all things in Nature , do desire some generating juyce , for their matter ; and lastly , a seminal , efficient , disposing , directing principle , the inward one of generation . For of these two , and not more , have all corporeal things need of . But the three principles of bodies , so greatly boasted of by Paracelsus , although they should be found in all things that are to be framed : yet it would not therefore follow , that those have the force of principiating , because those three , seeing they are the fruits of Seeds , they do partake as it were , of a specifical diversity : which they should necessarily be ignorant of , if they should be true principles : that is , if they should be present before the framing of the particular kinde . Nor also could one thing passe into another , which notwithstanding , is a thing natural or proper to the three first principles of Paracelsus . Moreover , since matter , and also the efficient cause do suffice to every thing produced , it followes , that every natural definition is not to be fetched from the general kinde , and difference , things for the most part unknown to mortal men : but from the conjoyning of both causes , because both together do finish the whole effence of the thing . And then , it also followes , that the thing it self produced , or the effect , is nothing but both causes joyned or knit together . Which thing truly , is to be understood of things without life , to things having life , life is otherwise to be added over and above , or the Soul of the Liver . For so a Horse is the Son of his four-footed parents , created by virtue of the word into a living horse-like soul . Sublunary things are commonly divided into Elements , and things elementated : but I divide them into Elements and seminal things produced . These again into Vegetables , Animals , and Minerals . So as every one of them may shut up a peculiar Monarchie , secret from the other two . Therefore Minerals and Vegetables , if by any condition , they may seem to live , since they live onely by power , and not by a living form in light enlivened ; they may also fitly be defined by their matter alone , and internal efficient . For every effect is produced , either from the outward Agent , and it is a thing brought forth by Art : or from an outward awakener , and nourisher , which is the occasional and outward cause : which notwithstanding , hath an efficient and seminal causewithin , and remains the efficient , even until the last period or finishing of the thing brought forth : yet the occasional cause is not the true , but mediate Agent . But the subject which the Schooles have called the Patient or sufferer , I call the co-agent or co-worker . But in respect of both limits , or in the disposure of the working motion to the co-working , the action doth re-bound . Therefore things that are produced without life , do not receive their forms , through the makeable disposition of the working terme or limit , but onely they do obtain the ends or maturities of their appointments and digestions . For while from the causes of Minerals or Mettalls , a stone doth re-bound , or from the Seed of a Plant , while a Plant is made : no new Being is made , which was not by way of power in the Seed ; but it onely obtains the perfecting of the appointed ripeness . And therefore power is given to the Earth of producing Herbes : but not to the water of producing Fishes . Because it is not so in things that have a living Soul , as in Plants . For as their Monarchies are plainly unlike , so also their manners of generation and generating . For therefore the natural gift of increasing Seeds , durable throughout Ages , is read to have been given to the Earth , not so in living Creatures : although these in the mean time , ought to propagate . Therefore the Seeds of things that are not soulified , are indeed propagated no otherwise than as light taken from light . Yet in the partaking of which enlightning , the Creator is of necessity the chief Efficient . But the Creator alone , createth every where a new light , ( whether it be formal , or also vitall ) of the individual that is brought forth : for neither was that light before , not so much as in part , although from the potential disposure , or fit or inclinable disposition , the Seeds of things not soulified may in some sort be reckoned to obtain a Form ; so are things that have life : yet the formal virtue is not so neerly planted in these , as in Plants . For Souls and lives , as they know not degrees , so also not parts . And although the Seed of a living Creature may have a disposition unto life ; yet it hath not life , neither can it have it or effect it of it self , for the Reasons drawn from the Rise or Birth of Forms . Wherefore I shall teach by and by , that there are not four Elements , nor that there is a uniting of the three remainders , yea nor of two , that bodies ( which are believed to be mixt ) may be thereby made ; but that to the framing of these , two natural causes at least , do abundantly suffice : the matter indeed is the veriest substance it self of the effect : but the efficient , its inward and seminal Agent : and even as in living Creatures , I acknowledge two onely Sexes ; so also are there two bodies at least , the beginnings of any things whatsoever , and not more , even as there are onely two great lights . For the three beginnings of bodies which the Chymists do call Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , or Salt , Liquor and Balsam , I will shew in their place : that they cannot obtain the Dignities of beginnings , which cannot be found in all things , and which themselves are originally sprung from the Element of water , and do fail , being dissolved again into water ( as at sometime I shall make to appear ) for it behoveth the nature of beginnings to be stable , if they ought to bear the name and property of a Principle . Therefore there are two chief or first beginnings of Bodies , and corporeal Causes , and no more , to wit , the Element of Water , or the beginning , [ of which , ] and the Ferment or Leaven , or seminal beginning , [ by which ] that is to be disposed of ; whence straightway the Seed is produced in the matter : which ( the Seed being gotten ) is by that very thing made the life , or the middle matter of that Being , running thorow even into the finishing of the thing , or last matter . But the Ferment is a formall created Being , which is neither a substance nor an accident , but a neutrall thing framed from the beginning of the World in the places of its own Monarchie , in the manner of light , fire , the Magnall or sheath of the Air , Forms , &c. that it may prepare , stir up , and go before the Seeds . This is indeed a Ferment in general . But what things I here suppose , I will at length evidently shew every thing in its place . I will not treat of Fables , and things that are not in being : but of Principles , and Causes , in order to their ends , actions and generations : I consider Ferments existing truly and in act , and individually by their kindes distinct . Therefore Ferments are gifts , and Roots stablished by the Creator the Lord , for the finishing of Ages , sufficient , and durable , by continual increase , which of water , can stir up and make Seeds proper to themselves . Surely , wherein he hath given to the Earth the virtue of budding from it self , he hath given so many Ferments , as expectations of fruits : that also , without the Seed of the foregoing Plant , they may out of Water generate their own Liquors and Fruits . Therefore Ferments do bring forth their own Seeds , not others : that is , every ones according to their own Nature and property : which the Poet saith : For Nature is subject to the Soil . Neither doth every Land bring forth all things . For there is in places a certain order divinely placed , a certain Reason and unchangeable Root , of producing some appointed effects , or fruits , nor indeed onely of Vegetables , but also of Minerals , and Insects , or creatures that retain their life in a divided portion . For the soils and properties of Lands do differ , and that by reason of some cause of the same birth and age with that Land. Indeed this I attribute to the formall Ferment created in that place : Whence consequently divers fruits do bud , and of their own accord break forth in divers places : whose Seeds being removed to another place , we see for the most part , to come forth more weakly , as counterfeit young . But that which I have said of the Ferment or Leaven placed in the Earth , that very thing thou shalt likewise finde in the Air and Water : for neither do they want Roots , Gifts , fermental Reasons or respects , which being stable , do bring forth fruits dedicated to places and Provinces , and that thing not onely the perseverance of fruits doth convince of : but also the voluntarily and abundant shedding abroad of unforbidden Seeds . Therefore the Ferment holds the Nature of a true Principle , divers in this from the efficient cause : that the efficient cause is considered as an immediate active Principle in the thing , which is the Seed , and as it were , the moving Principle to generation , or the constitutive beginning of the thing : but the Ferment , is often before the Seed , and doth generate this from it self . And the Ferment is the original beginning of things , a Power placed in the Earth , or places , but not in seminal things constituted . But the Ferment which growes up in the things constituted or framed , together with the properties of Seeds , hath it self in manner of the efficient cause unto the Seed of things : but the seminal Ferment , is not that which is one of the two original Principles ; but the product of the same , and the effect of the individual Seed , and therefore frail , and perishing . Whereas , otherwise , the principiating Ferment , laid up in the bosoms of the Elements , continues unchangeable , and constant , nor subject to successive change , or death . Therefore it is a power implanted in places , by the Lord the Creator , and there placed , for ends ordained to himself in the succession of dayes . While as othewise , the Seed in things , and its fermental or leavening force , is a thing , which the Scene of its Tragedy being out of date , doth end in an individual conclusion . For a thing , although it successively causeth off-spring from it self : that comes to passe not but by the virtue of the Ferment once drawn , which therefore ceaseth not in its own Places , uncessantly to send forth voluntary or more prosperous fruits , by the Seed of the former Parents . These things are easie to be known , in Mineralls sprung of their own accord : but in Plants , and living Creatures , generating by a successive fruitfulness of the Seed , it is not alike easie , as neither in things soulified , counterfetting indeed a confused Sex by putrifaction ; but straightway causing off-spring also by a mutual joyning . But there is every where the same Reason of the Ferment , and so that the Ferment is on both sides the same Principle . For in the Seed , it is placed by the Parent , and undergoes an identity or sameliness with the same , or it is imprinted in the matter elsewhere , from external causes ; and at leastwise , it on either side holds the place of a true inward efficient . Because the framer of things , hath ordained proper and stable places for some Ferments in the Cup or bosome of the Elements , as it were the Store-house of the Seeds , therefore the first figures of efficient causes . But in other things , he hath dispersed them thorow individual things , and kindes , as if they were places : for elsewhere , he would have these beginnings stedfast , in regard of the Nature of bodies in which they are in : but in another place , that they might passe from hand to hand , into the continuances of things . But in this he would have them to differ , that the stable Ferments of places , should be as it were , the chief universal , simple , and inchoative or beginning Beginnings of Seeds , or the efficients of natural Causes : which indeed , should beget with Childe the Element of Water in it self , in the Air , or in the Earth . But that the sliding Ferments of frail Bodies , and those Ferments drawn from the Parents , should onely concern the matter prepared , and should sit immediately in the bosom of the Seeds : and therefore also that they should contain the inward necessity of death . Likewise the other universal beginning of Bodies which is the water , is the onely material cause of things , as the water hath the Nature of a beginning it self , in the manner , purity , simpleness , and progress of beginning , even as also in the bound of dissolution , unto which , all Bodies , through the reducing of the last matter , do return . Which thing , I will straightway in its place typically demonstrate . A Beginning therefore differs from a cause , onely speculatively ; as that is an actual initiating Being , and thus far causing . But a Cause may be a terme of relation to the thing caused , or the Effect , happily , neerer to a speculative Being . Or distinguish those as it listeth thee . I at leastwise understand , Causes to begin , and beginnings to cause , by the same name , whether it be in the bosom of the Elements , or in the very Family of material Seeds . Therefore in the History of Natural things , I consider the matter for the most part begotten with Childe by the Seed , running down from its first life , unto the last bound of that conjoyned thing ; but not the first matter of Aristotle , or that impossible non-Being . But I consider the reall beginnings of the efficient cause conceived , as the first Gifts , Roots , Treasures , and begetting Ferments . Or if the Reader had rather confound , the efficient Cause with the Ferment of things , and the matter of Bodies , with the Element of water , I willingly cease to be distinct , onely that it be known how those things have themselves in the light of Nature . Thus at least I have discoursed of beginnings , and causes of Bodies , as I judge , and have found by experience ; also I promise much light to those , who shall have once made this speculation their own . Therefore first of all , they shall certainly finde the Maxime of Aristotle false : to wit , that the thing generating , cannot be a part of the thing generated . Seeing that the effective Principle of generation is alway the inward Agent , the inward doer or accomplisher , and the thing generating . Which appeareth clearly enough in those things , which bring forth living Creatures by their onely Mother , putrifaction . Wherein there is no outward univocall or simple thing generating : but the seminal lump it self , or the generative Seed , doth keep in it self all things which it hath need of for the managing of generation . But truly , neither is it sufficient to have shewen a couple of Causes : but rather it hath holpen more plainly to have brought forth the efficient , or chief Builder of the Fabrick . Wherefore I do suppose in this place , what things I will demonstrate elsewhere , to wit , that in the whole order of natural things , nothing of new , doth arise , which may not take its beginning out of the Seed , and nothing to be made , which may not be made out of the necessity of the Seed . But the Tragedy that hath done its office in the bound of the end , is nothing out the period or conclusion of the Seeds , overcome with pains or ended : unless happily they may be compelled by violence to depart . Wherefore I except the fire ; because , as being given not for generation ; but for destruction . Chiefly , because there is a peculiar , not a seminal beginning of it . Indeed it is a thing among all created things , singular , and unlike ( as sometime in its place . ) Last of all , I except the influences of the Heavens , which by reason of their most general appointment , have no seminal power in themselves . Because they are too far distinct from the lot or interest of things to be generated : and therefore influences are chosen to be for signes , times or seasons , dayes and years , by the Creator , nor ordained for any thing else : but not for the seminal causes of things . Moreover of efficient and seminal Causes in Nature , some are efficiently effecting : but others effectively effecting . Indeed of the former order , are the Seeds themselves , and the Spirits the dispensers of these : and those causes are of the race of essences , through their much activity , worthily divided from the material cause . But the effective efficients , are the very places of entertainment , and the neerest Organs or Instruments of the Seeds : such as are external Ferments , the disposers of the matter into the interchangeableness of the passing over of one thing into another . Also hither have the dispositive powers of circumstances regard , likewise the cherishing , exciting , and promoting ones : because the Seed being given , yet not any things promiscuously do thence proceed . Besides , our young beginner shall learn , the wit of Aristotle , ready in founding Maxims , that as oft as he found any thing agreeable to his own conceipts , he would presently draw it into Rules , under an universal head , by binding or tying up the Roots of weaker authority that were taken from one to another . Which Maxims indeed of his , the following age wondered at , to wit , being prone to sloath , and therefore easily worshipping him , and those Maxims . Also oftentimes he brought learning by demonstration into Nature , by a forced Interpretation , as that he would have natural causes wholly to obey numbers , lines , and letters of the Alphabet , by a rashness altogether ridiculous . By way of example : he taking notice , that fire did sooner burn about dry Wood than moyst , he thereupon straightway meditating on a general Maxim , would ; That the act of active things , should onely be on a matter disposed : which thing notwithstanding is enclosed with many ignorances . For first , as soon as he saw the fire , an external Agent , to agree with combustible matter : he shewed hence also , that every other Agent in Nature , ought to act by the meanes of fire , not knowing the fire not to act by meanes of a seminal Agent , and to be a peculiar Creature . Therefore with the like ignorance , he judged every efficient cause , like the fire , to be of necessity , external . He was also deceived in this , that he determined every natural Agent to require a disposed matter : when as otherwise , the Agent in Nature doth dispose of the matter that is subject unto it . For neither doth any counsel of a natural Agent act for any other end , than that it may dispose the matter subjected to it , unto aims known to it self , at least , appointed for generation . Indeed out of one onely juyce of Earth , and one onely Garden , four hundred Plants do grow and fructifie . For if the Agent doth finde a friendly disposition in the matter , 't is well indeed : but if not , he easily prepares the same for himself . What if hereafter I shall plainly shew , that all tangible bodies do immediately proceed out of the one onely Element of Water : by what necessity I pray you , shall the Agent require a fore-existing disposition of the matter : or if the disposed matter do fore-exist , who shall be that disposer , or fore-runner of the Agent ? By it self sufficient to the disposing of every matter , wherein it is ? But if thou sayest , the Ferment . At leastwise , thou oughtest again to have known , that both causes differ not in Nature from the thing produced ; unless in ripeness ; nor is the Agent to be distinguished from the Ferment . The which , if the Schooles , seasoned with the Discipline of a better juyce , did know , they would also know Aristotle to have revolted from his own Rules , which being at first true , he erected into the premises of Scientifical demonstrations . He had even become mad about the wondrous generatings of stones in us . And although , before the Elements of Euclide sprang up , he was more ignorant of the Mathematicks : yet Aristotle being far more skilful in this , than in Nature , endeavoured to subdue Nature under the Rules of that Science . For he knew the Circle to be the most capable of figures in a plain . Therefore he suddenly forced it into a general Maxim , that also Ulcers , and wounds that are round , were more hard to be cured , then any others that were alike in extension . But truly , a piercing wound by a broad Dagger is more difficult , than a round one in the flesh . But in Ulcers , the Fistula of the fundament , or weeping Fistula , are more laboursome in healing , than any Ulcer of the shanks or leggs , extended into a Circuite . Indeed he thought , being deceived with the aptness of Rules , the incarnating of a wound to promote it self onely by an external working Plaister , and that outsideness , not onely to be in relation to the superficies of our Body : but in a figural respect of the distance of the lips of the wound ; in order to its Centre . I will relate a Story . A Trooper infects his Wife with the Pox or foule Disease : but this through extream want of a remedy , enlarged it self into an eating sore or Ulcer . One at least I saw wasting the fleshy membrane or coate , from the Ear into the neck , shoulder and elbow , behinde thorow the shoulder blades , the whole side of the ribs , and breast . Which membrane , as it is fatter in Women , so it contains a deeper depth . She said she had many other and lesse sores , thorow the bottom of the belly into the legs , and she shewed a humane body , almost without a skin . The Woman was carried by my authority , into the Hospital of Vilvord , the Nuns refusing : but might prevailing , also sometimes for a while commands the Nuns . The chief Chyrurgion , Tow being steeped in Aqua fortis , with incredible pain toucheth the quick muscles , and smites the house with a miserable howling . But passing by , I asked why he had done that . He saith , it is an ulcerated Cacner , and wholly so , and by how much the sooner she died , by so much the happier she would be . The complaining Nun hearing that , said , she was not bound by the rules of her house , to entertain the Cancer , Leprosie , or Pox , &c. Forthwith therefore before the twilight , they bring forth the Woman to the Suburbs , and laid her on the Dunghill . But a poor Country man , pitying the unknown Woman , makes her a little Cottage of boughes , against the Rain , but he applieth some Colewort leaves to the abounding or running filthy matter , and to drive away the unkindeness of the Air. He tells the chance to me , I gives her the Corallate of Paracelsus , prepared by the white of an Egge , and in twenty six dayes she was wholly well . For the great Ulcers , with a hastened force , were covered with skin , some exceeding small chaps , from the beginning , keeping a longer continuance . A little after , a certain Kinsman dying , bequeaths to this most poor Woman , a House and Land. Her Husband perished behinde the hedges : She marries the second time , being now rich in a Herde , a flock , and in Lands . For I having admired in her Husband and the Chyrurgion , robbers or murderers : in the Monks , lightness ; in the Countryman , the Samaritane , and in the Woman , Job , I knew the God of Job to be the same , and the continual almighty Ruler of the Universe . From whom , although man hath privily stolen the Titles of Majesty , Highness , Excellency , Clemency , and Lordliness , he hath reserved at least one onely perpetual one to himself , which is that of Eternity . In respect whereof , man is a Mushrome of one night , on the morrow rotten . Therefore let the Schooles know , that the Rules of the Mathematicks , or Learning by demonstration , do ill square to Nature . For man doth not measure Nature ; but she him . For neither shall a Heathen man that is ignorant of the wayes , shew more the wayes , than a blinde man , colours not seen before . Therefore , besides the ignorance of Nature in its Root , and thingliness , or what it is ; the Schooles have not known the causes , number , requirance of things . Lastly , the Fluxes of ripenesles , slownesses , and swiftnesses . And likewise they have not known , the composures , and resolvings of Bodies , made as well by Nature as Art. Likewise the necessities , ends or bounds , dispositions , defects , restorings , deaths , consequences of Seeds , also of Ferments , also their nearnesses and dependencies , for that they diligently taught the natural Agent to be a forreiner and a stranger to things . Also by way of consequence , they have been ignorant of the births of forms , as also of the properties proceeding from thence . In whose place they have exposed fortune , chance , time , a vacuum or emptiness , & that which is infinite , although they are all strangers to Nature , and those things which did contain ridiculous Disciplines . Yea , they have followed the Authour , who believed , the World to be extended from Eternity unto Eternity , by its own proper forces or virtue , and he contradicteth himself , by denying an infinite . Since the first moreover , being to abide for ever , to make all things in his eternal power , doth necessarily include an infinite . CHAP. V. The Chief or Master-Workman . 1. The Archeus or chief Workman is the efficient cause . 2. How it is in Seeds . 3. The properties and differences of the same . 4. The Composition of the natural Air. 5. The Birth of seminal Idea's or shapes . 6. The seminal Garment of the chief Workman . 7. The places of Hospitality , with Curers , appointed for the Seed . 8. The Conjunction of the Stars imitated in Seeds . 9. The first mover hath not the Vicarship in a man. I Have touched at the birth and Causes of Natural things , and least I may seem to have placed the efficient Cause , undeservedly within , I will the more fitly explain the Workman , the Vulcan or Smith of generations . Whatsoever therefore cometh into the World by Nature , it must needs have the Beginning of its motions , the stirrer up , and inward directer of generation . Therefore all things however hard and thick they are , yet before that their soundness , they inclose in themselves an Air , which before generation , representeth the inward future generation to the Seed , in this respect fruitful , and accompanies the thing generated , even to the end of the Stage . Which air , although in some things it be more plentiful : yet in Vegetables it is pressed together in the shew of a juyce ; as also in Mettals it is thickned with a most thick homogeniety or sameliness of kinde : notwithstanding , this gift hath happened to all things , which is called the Archeus , or chief Workman , containing the fruitfulness of generations and Seeds , as it were the internal efficient cause . I say , that Workman hath the likeness of the thing generated , unto the beginning whereof , he composeth the appointments of things to be done . But the chief Workman consists of the conjoyning of the vitall air , as of the matter , with the seminal likeness , which is the more inward spiritual kernel , containing the fruitfulness of the Seed ; but the visible Seed is onely the husk of this . This Image of the Master-Workman , issuing out of the first shape or Idea of its predecessour , or snatching the same to it self ; out of the cup or bosom of outward things , is not a certain dead Image : but made famous by a full knowledge , and adorned with necessary powers of things to be done in its appointment ; and so it is the first or chief Instrument of life and feeling . For example . For a Woman with Child , fashioneth a Cherry in her Young , by her desire , in that part , in which she moveth her hand in desiring . A Cherry , I say in the flesh , true , green , pale , yellow , and red , according to the stations , in which the Trees do promote their Cherries . And the same Cherry sooner waxeth red in the same Young , in Spain , than in the Low-Countries . Therefore a Cherry is made by Imagination : So through the Imagination of lust , a vitall Image of living Creatures is brought over into the Spirit of the Seed , being about to unfold it self by the course of generation . But since every corporeal act is limited into a Body , hence it comes to passe , that the Archeus , the Workman and Governour of generation , doth cloath himself presently with a bodily cloathing : For in things soulified , he walketh thorow all the Dens and retiring places of his Seed , and begins to transform the matter , according to the perfect act of his own Image . For here he placeth the heart , but there he appoints the brain , and he every where limiteth an unmoveable chief dweller , out of his whole Monarchy , according to the bounds of requirance , of the parts , and of appointments . At length , that President , remains the overseer ; and inward ruler of his bounds , even until death . But the other floating about , being assigned to no member , keeps the oversight over the particular Pilots of the members , being clear , and never at rest or keeping holyday . Moreover , as sublunary things , do express in themselves an Analogy or proportion of things above : So every thing , by how much the more lively it is , by so much the more perfectly it imitates the Stars , so that sick persons do seem to carry in themselves sensible Ephemeries , or daily Registers , being skilful of future seasons . Indeed in the bowels , the planetary Spirits do most shine forth , even as also , in the whole influous Archeus , the courses and forces of the Firmament do appear . But the first mover , hath no where had a member in men : but onely under the Archeus of the wombe , it meets by meditating by way of similitude , as it were in the last finishing of created things . For happily a Woman is therefore more stirred , or troubled in her first Conceptions , as she drawes with her , other Orbs , by her first motions . As often as the wombe being swollen , with the ascending Rule of Imagination , doth suffer an animosity , or angry heat , it snatcheth the particular Archeusses of the bowels into the obedience of it self , by striving to excel manly weaknesses , and for the most part , wretchedly deludes Physitians with a feigned Image . The Archeusses of bruit Beasts , are almost like unto mans . Neither shall we draw an unprofitable knowledge of the shop of simples , from the difference of Plants , and their Sexes . Because neither is it without a Mystery , that in creeping things and insects being born in corruption alone , Nature invariously sporting her self , intends nothing so seriously , as the proportionable differences of Sexes on both sides . Wherefore , neither must we think the same things to have been neglected in Plants , although they may make one onely Seed blessed with a promiscuous Sex , and a most fruitful of-spring . But the most able effectress of the greater forces , is discerned under the Signatures or Impressions of Venus : she being very bright , there is a care of the Sexes , and now and then a hermaphroditical confused mixture . For whatsoever Plants are femalls , they do allure or procure the violent motion of the first mover . Therefore the Natural Astrologie of the humane Seed , frames its directions according to the general motion of the Heaven , but it doth not beg it abroad : for if every Vegetable could send forth its seed , before the Creation of the Stars , surely it became man to rejoyce in no lesse priviledge : to wit , to have his subsistence , moving , and his bearing from above , from the inbred Seed , but not from the Stars ; in the book of long life , those things are at large cleared up , which are here desired , concerning the Archeus or Master Workman of life . CHAP. VI. Logick is unprofitable . 1. The Authours Protestation . 2. The Omen or Presage of this Book . 3. What meanes he used in the composing of Philosophy . 4. The Authour writes , as it were from a command . 5. The distribution of Logick , by its parts . 6. The ridiculous penurie of differences for a definition . 7. The misery of division . 8. The method of dividing , deserves not the name of Philosophy . 9. The vain boasting of discourse . 10. Logick brings forth onely an opinion . 11. Why nineteen Syllogismes do not bring forth knowledge . 12. The boasting Syllogistical Pomp is examined . 13. Why every conclusion is annexed to a doubt . 14. Why the conclusion of Syllogismes is not of necessity . 15. In true Premises , false conclusions , and on the contrary . 16. That the knowledge of demonstration is not to be generated in a Learner . 17. Why a Syllogisme doth not bring forth knowledge . 18. True Sciences cannot be demonstrated . 19. The knowledge of Principles is not in reason . 20. What may be found out by Logick . 21. The Schooles of Logick oppose themselves to the holy Scriptures . 22. By Logick is onely re-taken , what was before known . 23. A double , and almost an unprofitable end of Logick . 24. No knowledge but it is from above . 25. To sell Logick for Philosophy , contains a juggle or deceit . I Shall be called a presumptuous brawler , it displeaseth any of those that went before me , to understand , like the Boar , that utterly destroyes the Vineyard . But I know that it would go ill with me , if my Soul should stand subjected to the judgements of men . For I began from my Manhood , to look a squint upon ambition , or that vainest of things , depending on the unstable will or judgement of men . My Eye alwayes directly beheld the calling , which ( my Mother being against it ) I had made mine . But now I know , that I am compelled to teach the truth , & therefore the doctrine of this Book , although it self shall cease with the number of dayes , yet that , that shall remain even to the end of the World. What if I shall shew the ignorance , sluggishness , impieties , and cruelties of Physitians , about things that are to be had in the greatest esteem , and whose losse is irrepairable , and lastly , most dangerous to Souls , and it shall be answered me with despight , scoffing , and taunting : truly from this very time , I rejoyce in my self , and am contented with the living hope of that recompence . For it was needful , that in the composing of new Philosophy , I should break down almost all things that have been delivered by those that went before , and many things ought to be set in good order , and restored , which every one will not receive with a like acceptance . Neither am I ignorant that it is alway the lot of those that deserve well , to undergoe the sharp , and for the most part , ignorant censurer . But if I teach things that are profitable , it is a Command , not to bury ones Talent received in the Earth . I might say with Jerome , in his Prologue of Isaiah , Let them read first , and afterwards despise , least they seem to condemn things unknown , not from judgement , but from the presumption of hatred . But I nothing esteem , whether I shall be read , and reproved , or not . It is enough , that I have sufficiently yielded to the command . For neither was there any animosity or heat of ambition in me , of being made known , who willingly do confess , that I have no good thing that is to be imitated . Yea the Book had been put to the Press without a name , if it could have been done without offence . I began from my youth , to accustom my self to practise upon the Itch , Physitians , Chyrurgeons , and Apothecaries speaking against me , that the rest of the common people , might despise me as an Alchymist and a Philosophe , a few onely favouring me , and from whose favour I have hitherto withdrawn my self what I could . Surely I have spent much time and labour , and have withdrawn much more profitable leasure from my self , that I might satisfie the command of this study . Let the praise be to the first truth , to which alone belongs the recompence of well doers . In whose glasse I have seen , and held it confirmed , that the judgements of men do for the most part directly differ from the judgments of God : That the common applause is foolish , full of Errours , infamous , and alwayes hurtful : but that the Universal Judge , knowes no Errour . Therefore I will begin with things pertaining to discourse . Logick consisteth of three parts , of definition , division , and discussing by Argument . First of all , they teach that a definition consists in the Genus or general kinde , and in the constitutive difference of the thing defined . But seeing that scarce any other constitutive difference of the Species or particular kinde is known , besides rational , and irrational , which is a specifical difference , and neerest to individuals , and that one of these two is hitherto Negative : truly , the first of these , I shall sometime prove to be frivolous : wherefore one foot being taken away from that which hath three feet , the Logitian must needes fall , that hath trusted in such a seat . Especially , because division also is so miserable a member of Logick , that it may be deservedly doubted , whether through a ridiculous barrenness , it hath remained almost neglected by the Schooles themselves . For the former is as well the knowledge of the whole and entire thing , as of its parts . And as concerning Essence , it belongs to an universal one , to be one in many , and therefore it is more knowable . For he that hath known one thing , and that which is profitable , he hath known more things , and particular things : but not on the contrary . Because one thing , and profitable , is in the understanding ; but plurality , or dividing , is in the sense . For by how much the more any thing is divided into parts , by so much the more it approacheth to things infinite , and therefore it is the lesse to be known , sliding unto irregularity , and the more subject to change and opposition . But since Logick treateth of Universals , and that it may be said . 1. Of the latter : that we erre less in Vniversals than in particulars : Surely , Logick leading us by division unto singulars , it is so far from leading to the knowledge of those things , according to Aristotle , that it rather thrusteth us down into errours . Truly if we more fully consider of the member of division , it is able to perfect no part of Philosophy , it is a certain naked method of dividing , so rude and raw , that scarce one supposition , maxim , property , mood , and progress thereof , can be taught or dictated to young men . Therefore Logick being barren , and deprived of two feet of the three , was long since ruinous with me . For Philosophy is penurious , and worthy of pitty , which Boasteth , that with such scanty Houshold-stuffe , also with all necessaries so small , it is the begetter of Sciences . But the third member of Logick , being lifted on high , is accounted to be of great weight with discursary men : although in the true uses of Nature , it is alike inconvenient . Because Nature is that which hateth brawlings , neither doth it willingly bear discords : Indeed the World hath suffered it self to be circumvented by Aristotle , because he boasteth of Logick to be the Mother of Sciences , nor that we do know otherwise than by demonstration . And least Idiots should laugh at this boasting of the Boaster ( most of whom are more crafty and skilful than Logicians , and have known more things ) he hath made Logick as it were native , and proper to us by nature . Therefore he finely extolleth the method of disputing invented by himself , with many prayses , and he takes away all knowledge from man , as being a plained Table , unless he hath yielded himself to be instructed in Logick . Truly , I do even admire at this vanity , and the credulities of the World : especially for that he hath been compelled to grant discourse , or natural Logick to men , by a native endowment . And so he esteemeth his own Philosophy , his finder out of all Sciences , no more a certain hidden Science , but a certain natural strife of scolding in words , and a method composed to this end . Therefore in this place , we must enquire , how much of truth , power , and profit it may have . As to that which concerns my self , I know , that every dispute doth at length , bring forth a conclusion ; but that every conclusion , brings in onely an opinion . Yea , that the most strong reasoning ( they call it a Syllogisme ) never afforded any knowledge at all , or is fit to give it . Wherefore knowledge shall be lesse to be expected from any other small form of argument whatsoever . Among 19 forms of Syllogismes , 12 do conclude negatively : But no negation ever brought forth knowledge , seeing it containeth something privatively ; and reacheth that to be nothing which it denyeth to be any thing . But knowledge must needes be positive , because it is onely of a positive , and from a positive thing . Lastly , since the foundation of every Syllogisme is placed in that , that if two things agree together , the same things ought to agree in some third thing , the conformity of whose agreement , ought to appear in the conclusion it self : therefore the knowing of that conformity doth necessarily fore-exist in us before the conclusion : so that I have altogether foreknown that in the general which is demonstrated by the conclusion . For that lies hid in us , as it were fire under the ashes : and shewes it self openly , through the natural power of discourse , as often as it shall come in use , no less than by the Rules of Logick : which thing Aristotle himself dared not to deny . For otherwise , he which thus should seek knowledge by Logick , hath after some sort , and in some measure known , what he seeketh . For if he had not known that , and could not know it ; how should he know it when he had found it ? unless Logitians had rather to have knowledge that is sought for by demonstrations , to be found by chance . To sum up all , the knowledge which we have by demonstration , was already before in us , and onely is made a little more distinct by a Syllogisme : but yet it remains as before , joyned with doubting : Because every conclusion doth necessarily follow the weaker part of the premises : hence it comes to passe , that it is composed with a doubt of the contrary . Yea , the conclusion or a Syllogisme for the most part , may deny particularly , whose premise was a universal Negative , nor dares it to infer any thing affirmatively , where there is any thing of a Negative in the premises . As a sign , that it teacheth nothing by way of affirming , but doth most willingly deny . Moreover , since knowledge lies hid under the ashes , in the intellect or understanding , this is able as often as it seemeth needful for it self , to shake off the ashes , neither hath it need of Moods and Syllogistical forms , to this end . Yea seeing , that according to Aristotle , we are not to dispute , but with those that do admit of principles , and those which he thinketh to be chiefly true ; it comes to passe , that from unlike principles , a strange conclusion may often follow , to wit , from false premises . Nothing that is to be worshipped is the Creator ; and every Image is to be worshipped : this true conclusion followes : therefore no Image is the Creator . Therefore it cannot be thought that the conclusion of Syllogismes doth constrain of necessity . For otherwise , from a lie doth necessarily follow that which is false , in true understanding , and true knowledge . From an impossible thing , followes that which is impossible , and from an absurd thing , nothing but that which is absurd : Which thing , all learning by demonstration proveth . Therefore even as in a lie , truth and the knowledge thereof , is not contained , or doth lie hidden : So it followes , that in the premises , the knowing of the conclusion is not necessarily included . For either it is false , that no lying Tree , doth make the good fruit of truth : or it is false , that of false premises , as of principles , a true conclusion may arise . Yea seeing it appeares from thence , that there is not a necessary dependance of the conclusion on the premises : it is also easily understood , why the Soul hath hitherto made such a scanty progress by demonstration . Wherefore B. Augustine saith , Even as in false Sciences there may be true conclusions , so in true Sciences there may be false ones . Moreover , where I have more narrowly weighed the nature of demonstrations , I have found demonstration , and the knowledge thereof , to be in the teacher , but not in the learner : and so not so much to finde out knowledge , as to boast of it , being already found out . But in a learner , a Syllogisme , blowes of the ashes from the fire : because whosoever makes a Syllogisme , he already before distinctly knew that which he endeavours to have granted him by the conclusion . To wit , he knew the termes , the mean , and the Mood . For neither doth any one make a Syllogisme , with unknown termes . Therefore demonstration hath seemed to me , to serve School-masters that stir up their young beginners to attend those things which they themselves know . Who certainly , have hitherto found out few and profitable Sciences , however they may boast , that by demonstrations , they do seek after the meanes , and do attain Sciences . For every Syllogisme , hath first conceived an opinion of the thing , and perswades , that that opinion is sure to it self : the which , that it may afterwards confirm , for it self , or for those that learn , it seeketh termes , a mean , and a Mood , that it may force its demonstration into a form . Therefore a Syllogisme is not to finde out Sciences , but rather , that it may demonstrate to others , opinions found out . And seeing that a Syllogisme doth cause a certain remembrance of that in the learner , which he knoweth , and no other thing : but Sciences are not gotten by remembrance ; as if all knowledges of all things , had fore-existed in us : Hence , a Syllogisme cannot bring forth , or finde out Sciences , which onely maketh knowledges found out , and known , more clear . But I know , and confess , that the knowledge of my understanding doth dwell immediately , in understanding , and since ( according to Aristotle ) those immediate knowledges ( that is intellectual ones ) are not to be demonstrated : it also followes , that every kinde of true , or intellectual knowledge , is not to be demonstrated : that is , true Sciences cannot proceed from demonstration . For every demonstration consisteth in Discourse and Reason ; indeed it is a simple and perfect reasoning . But according to Aristotle , the knowledge of principles is not in reason : but altogether above it . Therefore to know by a Syllogisme , cannot be an intellectual , essentiall , as neither a principiative thing , or from a former cause ; but only from suppositions of predicaments and Rules being placed , there is derived a supposed opinion of the Syllogizer ( I have written more and sufficient things concerning this matter , elsewhere . ) Therefore blessed Jerome doth not unworthily compare the art of making Syllogismes to the Plagues of Aegypt : and he calls Logical demonstrations , dog-like discourses . But the Apostle would have them to be wholly avoided ; doing nothing through contention , and to strive with words , profitable for nothing , but to the subversion of the hearers . Because they are that which do quench Faith , and the rewards of Faith. But they say , Logick is the finder out of the meanes : to wit , it is for the finding out of the meanes , and form for demonstration . Dost thou think , that perhaps the Apostle was ignorant , what and how much Logick could profit ? that he speaks without , besides , and against the Spirit of truth , when he commands Logick to be avoided ? or is more to be attributed to such feeble discourse , than to the Apostles Command ? But truly , Logick doth not finde out the meanes of being , having , doing or knowing : but onely of a more brief shewing some kinde of thought or opinion : and so it invents composed brawlings , even to oppose the truth . For therefore doth the Apostle call Logick ( by a Title despised enough ) contentions . Which surely he had not done , if it were the Mother of Sciences , the finder out of profitable meanes , or if it were profitable to Christians . Therefore the Schooles teaching and doing otherwise , supposing Logick as necessary , and daily much using it , do oppose themselves to the Command of the Apostle . Therefore invention in Logick is not properly invention , as neither is demonstrable Science a true and intellectual one . Because we do not properly finde out those things which we do any manner of way know , as we do not finde out , what things we already have in the hand , or in the Chest ; but things not known before , are properly invented or found out , even as also things not had , nor possessed , are gotten by invention or gift . For when any one sheweth me lapis Calaminaris , the preparing of Cadmia or Brasse Oare , the content of , or what is contained in Copper , the mixture and uses of Aurichalcum , or Copper and Gold , which things I knew not before , he teacheth , demonstrateth , and gives the knowledge of that , which before there was ignorance of . But such like things Logick never taught . Therefore Logical invention is a meer re-taking of that which was known before . And therefore what is not known , Logick knowes not . For our Spirit was already before in the possession of that , which they promise is to be found illustrious by Logick . Because it is impossible to know whether the premises are true , appearing , or false , unless the knowledge of the termes shall be in us first , with all knowledge of their matching , or suiting & confirming . Therefore the whole service , office , and profit of Logick , consisteth onely in two things : to wit , that the teacher may be able distinctly to imprint his opinion in the hearer ; and that the hearer , may stir up his memory or remembrance , through the conjoyning , fitting or squaring , matching and suitableness of the termes . Which thing indeed , is not the inventive office of Sciences : but a certain following order of discourse , to that which was found out . Lastly , neither doth any thing so made , any way have respect to Sciences : but onely to words . But Wisdom , the Son of the everlasting Father of Lights , onely gives Sciences or knowledges . But the meanes of obtaining Sciences , are onely to pray , seek , and knock . In the mean time , I wonder at the so great blindness of the Schooles on every fide , in so greatly extolling and magnifying Logick . Truly I could desire to know let the Schooles tell me , what Science Logick hath ever brought forth to light ? whether happily Geometry ? Musick ? making of Glasse ? Printing ? Husbandry ? Medicine ? drawing or conducting of Water ? or Mineralls ? of Warring ? of Arithmetique ? of Building ? or any profitable Science ? verily none . Therefore at length , with blushing , must the Schooles of Logick confess , that the same thing hath befallen Logick , which hath hitherto , the Doctrine of Galen . To wit , that through boasting , deceits , and ignorances , it hath deceived the credulous World. But the Heathens , in setting demonstrations , and Sciences to sale , have had no other light , than what hath flowed from corrupted nature , seduced by dark opinions , into disorder , and inordinatenesses , slavishly obeying the changes of circumstances , and opinions springing from thence . These things therefore have I communicated to learned men , who at length have confessed , that Logick was given to be drunk by young men , at that age , wherein they could not bear any other more sound meat , and that it served them for the sharpening of their wit. ( I would God that Logick did not serve for divers abuses , and that being once drawn in in youth , it did not afford a plentiful age of pernicious wits , and of Logical deceipts . ) To which I add . That deceipt is not wanting , if they may in the mean time , commend Logick for true Philosophy , for the finder out of Sciences . They say , but Logical Discourse is at leastwise , very necessary for Divines , whereby they may refute the subtleties of Heresie . That thing I have judged would be to be wise above the Apostle , and so to commend the abuses of the Schooles above the holy Scriptures . For Gospel truth , desires not Logick , or contendings : but it requires godliness of life , in Faith , an example of living , an uncorrupted conversation , abstinence from inordinate desires , and pride of life , th●● the Word of God may be made fruitful . It hath been sufficiently disputed by enlightned Teachers , from the beginning of the Church ; many testifie with me . CHAP. VII . The ignorant Natural Philosophy of Aristotle and Galen . 1. Aristotle is altogether ignorant of Nature . 2. That thing is proved . 3. What Nature is , among Christians . 4. The same thing is again confirmed by thirteen other Reasons . 5. In Nature , there is the Agent , the matter , the disposing of instruments , and the effect , or thing produced . 6. That heat is not an agent in seminal generation . 7. Why Aristotle hath not known the truth of Nature . 8. His Books of natural Philosophy , contain onely tristes . 9. How young men are to be instructed in the place or room of Schoole-Philosophy . 10. Into what great Apolloes young men might climbe . 11. The Prerogatives of the fire . 12. What a young man so instructed , might judge . 13. Privations do not succeed in the flowing of Seeds to generation . 14. There is no form of a dead Carcase . 15. That generation and corruption do not receive each other . 16. The Vulcan of life , vanisheth , without the corrupting of it self . 17. Death is not the corruption of life . 18. The distinction of privation and corruption . 19. Of forms there is no corruption . 20. The ignorance of Galen . 21. His ridiculous Volumes concerning the decrees of Hipocrates and Plato . 22. His books of preserving of health are foolish . THE Schooles have so sworn constancy , and their end to their Aristotle , that even to this day , they ( by putting one name for another ) do call him [ the Philosopher ] whom notwithstanding . I certainly finde to be altogether ignorant of Nature , and it grieveth me not to write down some causes , which have enforced me hereunto , and that for no other end , than that hereafter , as well Professors , as young beginners , may not through an aptness to believe , and a custome of assenting , be made to wander out of the way , nor may suffer themselves hence-forward , to be led by a blinde man into the ditch . For otherwise I tell no mans tale ; nor am I more displeased with Aristotle , than with a ( non ens ) or [ a non-being ] . Therefore first of all , Aristotle defineth Nature . It is the Principle , or beginning of motion , as also of rest in Bodies , in whom it is in , by it self , and not by accident . Wherein I finde more errours and ignorances of the definer , than words . First therefore the word [ it is in ] sheweth that he speaketh of a Body really existing , but not of his impossible matter . 2. He denotes , that such Bodies , are not of the number , or supposed things of Nature . For truly it belongeth not to Bodies to be in Bodies by it self , and not by accident . 3. He takes away any accidents from the Catalogue of Nature , as if they were without , besides , and above Nature , because accidents are in by accident . 4. He sets down , that Bodies which have motion , or rest by accident , are likewise without Nature . 5. That the Being of things is in Nature , in Nature it self , before the day , or motion , or rest of the same . Because it must needs be , that something first be , before that it move , be moved , or doth rest . And so the Principle of Being , goes before the beginning of moving , or resting : notwithstanding , Nature cannot be , before its existence . For if the beginning of motion or rest , should be latter , or an effect as to their Being : Nature should be an effect , as to its being a natural thing . 6. What if God after Creation , had enjoyned neither motion nor rest ( rest indeed according to Aristotle , presupposeth the bound of motion ) there had now been a Creature , and not Nature . For God , in the beginning , created the Heaven and the Earth . Now Nature was not understood by Aristotle , to wit , there was sometimes a Creature , and it actually existed , before , or on this side Nature , here defined . 7. Bodies , in which the beginning of motion is external , and by accident ( suppose thou , when 〈◊〉 heat of the Sun moves the Seed , to increase , or a Woman with Childe , by accident , transforms the imperfect Infant , by her own Imagination ) should not be under Nature , as neither that accidental beginning . 8. To rest , is not , not to be moved , but to cease from motion , and so not to be moved is more general than rest . Therefore Nature absolutely taken , should be onely after the existence of Nature . 9. If the beginning of motion in a moveable thing , be Nature , and the efficient cause be properly called the beginning of motion , ( as he saith heat not elementary to be ) therefore it must needs be , that the efficient cause is inward ( which is against Aristotle ) or that Nature , in as much as it is the beginning of motion , is not in Bodies most neerly or inwardly by it self . 10. Every outward efficient cause , is the beginning of motion in a thing , by accident . But every efficient cause , according to Aristotle , is external : therefore no efficient cause external , is natural , which is contrary to his second Book of Physicks . 11. Whatsoever things are moved by the Mathematicks , and also a Mill moved by the Winde , or a stream , should not be moved by Nature . But I believe , that Nature is the Command of God , whereby a thing is that which it is , and doth that which it is commanded to do or act . This is a Christian definition , taken out of the holy Scriptures . 12. But Aristotle , contrary to his own Precepts of a definition , takes the difference , which he thinketh to be constitutive , for the general kinde of the thing defined in Nature : to wit , the formall beginning of motion and rest . But for the constitutive difference , he takes the matter , or Body , wherein the said beginning of motion is . But Christians are held to believe , Nature to be every Creature , to wit , a Body , and accidents , no lesse , than the beginning of motion it self . 13. Death also , although it be the beginning , by it self , of rest in a dead Carcase , yet Christians do believe it not to be created by the Lord , and so neither to be Nature : and although it may light naturally on it , yet that happens not by reason of the death , but of its natural Causes . But Aristotle in another place , a like stumblingly touching on Nature , saith : Every power of the Soul seemeth to be a partaker of some other certain Body ( for neither dares he positively and simply to affirm it ) than those which are called Elements . For even as Souls do differ , so also the Nature of that Body doth differ : the Seed contains the cause of fruitfulness , to wit , heat : which is not fiery , but a spirit or breath in the froathy body of the Seed , and the Nature which is in that Spirit , answereth in proportion to the Element of the Stars . This Precept , praised by the Schooles , containeth almost as many Errours as Syllables . And at length , this Writer of natural instruction , being exceeding doubtful , knowes not , what he may call or ought to call Nature . For first he saith it to be , a Corporeal power of the Soul , and therefore he banisheth the understanding out of the powers of the Soul. 2. He saith , the power of the Soul which he afterwards calleth heat , is a partaker of another Body than those that are called Elements . As if it were a partaker onely of a Body above an Elementated one , and heavenly . 3. It is absolutely false , and an ignorant thing , that any power of the Soul is a partaker of the body , although it be tied to the body . For every power is an accident ; and no accident , or quality can be a partaker of a Body : but on the contrary , a Body is a partaker of accidents . 4. That souls do not differ , but in respect of that body ( which at length he calleth meer heat ) notwithstanding that all Souls are a power , partaking of a heavenly Body : therefore Souls do not differ in respect of that Body , in which he hath said , they all do agree : or if there be any difference between Souls , let it be in respect of the matter of a Body , or of an unnamed Client or retainer , being neglected by , and plainly unknown to Aristotle . And so , in so great a dress of words , he hath spoken nothing but trifles . 5. If Souls do differ onely for that bodies sake : the act shall be now limited by the power , the Species or particular kinde , by the matter , not by the form . 6. The Seed contains the cause of fruitfulness ; it is a Childish and triflous thing : because the Seed ceaseth to be Seed , if it be without the cause of fruitfulness . 7. Every power of the Soul , is a partaker of some other body , than those which are called the Elements . Yet he would have the bodies of all soulified or living Creatures , to be of necessity mixt , of non : but actual Elements . 8. The Seed is not fruitful , but by heat . As though Fishes were not more fruitfull than four footed Beasts ; and as though Fishes were not actually cold . 9. He knew not another moderate heat , from live Coals , which nourisheth Eggs , even unto a Chick . And he knowes not that all heat is in one onely most special kinde of quality , being distinguished , onely by degree . 10. He is ignorant , that heat , onely makes hot by it self , and that it should make fruitful by accident . And therefore , although that heat be the principle of motion , and the power of the Soul ( that is , Nature ) by it self ; yet as it should make the Seeds fruitful by accident , it should be the beginning of motion by accident . Therefore in respect of the same Nature , it should be a beginning by it self , and by accident , or with relation to the same Nature , it should be Nature , and not Nature . 11. He confoundeth the quality of heats , with the spirit , and air of the froathy Seed , which notwithstanding , do differ no lesse than in predicaments . 12. Heat is the spirit of the froathy body , and the nature which is in that spirit , is heat . Therefore the spirit shall be in the spirit . 13. Nature is in that spirit , and that spirit is not nature defined by Aristotle for the subject of natural Philosophy ( yet that spirit is the Principle of motion in the Seed , and of life , in living Creatures ) and he much more strictly denies , the froathy body of the Seed , to be of the account of nature ( as though the seed of things were a froath , and not the more inward invisible kernel , in a corporeal seed ) but that onely the power of Souls ( which with him , is nothing but heat ) were nature . 14. Because every power of the Soul is encompassed with heat , he excludes out of the account of nature , any other bodies and accidents . 15. That power of Souls , for whose sake , Souls do differ , is onely heat , not indeed a fiery one , but agreeing in proportion with the Element of the Stars , that is , it hath not been understood by Aristotle , nor is it to be any way to be understood by the Schooles , how heat doth agree with a body , & with an Element : what agreement there can be , between such various dependants of predicaments . 16. He denieth this power of Souls , to be of the race of Elements . That plural number , rejecteth not onely one Element : but by reason of the strength of negatives , all Elements . 17. Every power of the Soul is , a meer heat , not indeed answering to the heat of the Element of the Stars , but altogether to the Element it self . 18. For truly he acknowledgeth no other heat , than that of fire : nor any other Element of fire , than that which is of the kitchin , ( because he distinguisheth Elementary heat , from the Element of the Stars ) yet by his own authority , he hath inclosed fire that is not of the kitchin , between the Heaven and the Air. 19. At length , as oft as he was positively to tell what nature was , the privy shifter saith , sometimes that it is the power of the Soul , sometimes the fruitfulness of the Seed : and at last , he neither perceived , nor ever knew , what the heat not fiery was , and makes a fifth Element of the Firmament of the Stars , after he hath cast away the other four , by denying them . Therefore he runs about in denying , by far fetched speeches , and least he should be laid hold on , he denyeth nature to be of the race of Elements . As if it were enough to have said , there is a Chymera , or certain fabulous Monster , not of the Elements , but of the fifth Element of the Stars . It is not a body , not an accident : but a heat answering to the Element of the Heavens , not to the heat of the same . 20. And he would not say that indeed ; these things are so , bur that they seem to him to be so . Seeing that according to the same man , many things may seem to be , which yet are not . 21. And if thou wilt not believe it , go to see , or expect it for ever . 22. As though the whole action of nature were made by heat . 23. Also that Mettalls , which elsewhere , he writeth to be co-thickned or condensed by their own cold , because they do abound with heat , should now be out of nature . 24. And as though the seeds of Vegetables , because they are not froathy , should not be endowed with fruitfulnesses , or should not contain nature in themselves . 25. Therefore he denieth the heat of living Creatures actually hot , to be Elementary ( the which notwithstanding , I shall at sometime , in its own place , prove to be true ) being unmindeful of his own maxim ; that the cause is of the same particular kinde , with its thing caused . He knowes not , I say , that our heat doth make any other things to be hot , by a naked Elementary heat . And likewise , that since not onely Elementary heat ( which he placeth in the sublunary fire , distinct from the common or kitchin fire ) but also the kitchin fire , do heat us in a degree fitted to us : Therefore they ought to be of one and the same species , or particular kinde . 26. At length he rashly affirmeth , that nature , or the power of the Soul , or seminal truths , are nothing , besides that heavenly heat . 27. Therefore , he acknowledgeth heat , actually cold in Fishes , to be the cause of fruitfulness , seeing it distributes from every power of the Soul. For that is to have sold trifles , instead of Phylosophy . And as oft as he feareth , his toyes are not saleable , he provokes us to the Element of the Stars : after that , he had provoked us , ( it seemes ) by one affirmative , and many trifles of denyalls , to the proportion of the Element of the Stars . Surely it is a shame for Christians , as yet , to follow that Patron in natural Philosophy ; seeing that we believe by Faith , that Plants budded forth by a seminal virtue , before the Stars arose . For in Nature , there is alway found the Agent , the matter , and thing brought forth , or the effect , the instrument , and the disposition , But every Agent , measureth his instrument , and fits the dispositions , unto the end or finishing of the thing produced . But heat , whether thou wilt have it Elementary , or heavenly , may indeed be a disposition brought forth by the Seed , and likewise the Instrument thereof : but it can by no meanes be a seminal Agent , measuring , and squaring its dispositive Instruments . For neither is the operation of heat , any other than to make hot , whether that thing be called Elementarily , or Firmamentarily . Therefore the operation of heat in generation , is not ordained for the end of specifical dispositions , and much lesse is it directed to the bringing in of a specifical thingliness . For if that heat should be this seminal Agent , or the nature of Seeds , besides that , it being one , hath so many specifical differences , as there are kindes of things generated in Nature ; it ought to have , without it self , an Instrument ( seeing that it is not granted to be , without essential properties ) measured , and manifestly limited , to the bringing in of any kinde of specifical thingliness : but no such Instrument , or mean , is present with heat : therefore the co-measuring of every Instrument , according to quantity , manner , motion , figure , durance , and the appointments of any operations whatsoever , dependeth on the seminal Agent , in which such kindes of co-measuring knowledges of proportions are , and no way on heat . For seeing the knowledge of natural truth , doth necessarily depend on nature , and the essence thereof , Aristotle , who was ignorant of the thingliness of nature , also knew not the truth thereof , and so prostituted nought but his own dreams to be diligently taught in Schooles . Truly the operation of generation depends on nature , and its proper Instruments . He therefore that looks on heat , for every Instrument of nature , and accounts this very Instrument for the seminal and vitall nature : he supposeth one of the Kings Guard , to be the King , or the File to be the Workman . Yea heat , as heat , is not indeed the Instrument proper to nature : but a common adjacent , concomitant , and accidental thing produced in hot things onely : but the knowledge of nature , and essence , is not taken from improper , adjacent , and accidental effects : but from the knowing of Principles , which hitherto ( even as it plainly appeares ) the Schoole of the Peripateticks hath been ignorant of . I say the Principles of nature are the matter and the Agent . But the Principles of Bodies are water , and the seed , or vulcane , things answering to both Sexes : which thing I will by and by , teach in its place . Wherefore since Aristotle knowes not the nature , properties , and likewise the causes , and thingliness of generations , who shall not shew , that the Schooles have hitherto drawn the waters of Philosophy out of dry Cisterns ? For his eight Books of natural Instructions , do expound Dreams , and privations , instead of the knowledge of nature . I say they do suppose a matter , or impossible corporeity or bodyliness , with Mathematical abstraction , for the principle , prop , and seminary of nature : The which , as it never existeth : neither shall it have the efficacy of beginning , or of causing . Likewise privation is given to be drunk down as another Principle , which the Schooles themselves do rashly confess to be a meer [ non ens , ] or a non-Being . And at length they diligently teach , surely by an over rash dotage , the form , which is the end , top , and utmost aim of appointment , and the thing it self produced , for a beginning of nature : to wit , they place the effect in the room of a Beginning . But in another Book , he sets to sale the causes of nature , for Principles : to wit , the matter and form , privation being omitted . As I shall sometimes shew , concerning causes . As though they were the Principles of nature , or could principia●e by causing . But fortune and chance , as if they were the proper passions of nature , are handled in a particular Book . For events do not deserve a place in the contemplation and Doctrine of nature . Lastly , a Vacuum or emptiness , and an Infinite , things not belonging to the knowledge of nature , and well high privative things , or plainly negative , have obtained his treatises . But time and place , the Schooles do no lesse ignorantly , than impertinently , reckon among the lessons of nature . And last of all they bring in locall motion , as it serves to Science Mathematical or Learning by demonstration , alike foolishly , and with an undistinct indiscretion , into nature . Certainly I could wish , that in so short a space of life , the Spring of young men , might not be hereafter seasoned with such trifles , and no longer with lying Sophistry . Indeed they should learn in that unprofitable three years space , and in the whole seven years , Arithmetick , the Science Mathematical , the Elements of Euclide , and then Geographie , with the circumstances of Seas , Rivers , Springs , Mountains , Provinces , and Minerals . And likewise , the properties , and Customs of Nations , Waters , Plants , living Creatures , Minerals , and places . Moreover , the use of the Ring , and of the Astrolabe . And then , let them come to the Study of Nature , let them learn to know and seperate the first Beginnings of Bodies . I say , by working , to have known their fixedness , volatility or swiftness , with their seperation , life , death , interchangeable course , defects , alteration , weakness , corruption , transplanting , solution , coagulation or co-thickning , resolving . Let the History of extractions , dividings , conjoynings , ripenesses , promotions , hinderances , consequences , lastly , of losse and profit , be added . Let them also be taught , the Beginnings of Seeds , Ferments , Spirits , and Tinctures , with every flowing , digesting , changing , motion , and disturbance of things to be altered . And all those things , not indeed by a naked description of discourse , but by handicraft demonstration of the fire . For truly , nature measureth her works by distilling , moystening , drying , calcining , resolving , plainly by the same meanes , whereby glasses do accomplish those same operations . And so the Artificer , by changing the operations of nature , obtains the properties and knowledge of the same . For however natural a wit , and sharpness of judgement the Philosopher may have , yet he is never admitted to the Root , or radical knowledge of natural things , without the fire . And so every one is deluded with a thousand thoughts or doubts , the which he unfoldeth not to himself , but by the help of the fire . Therefore I confess , nothing doth more fully bring a man that is greedy of knowing , to the knowledges of all things knowable , than the fire . Therefore a young man at length , returning out of those Schooles , truly it is a wonder to see , how much he shall ascend above the Phylosophers of the University , and the vain reasoning of the Schooles . First of all , he shall account it a shameful thing , for the Schooles to be ignorant ( for example ) in an Egge , that in that space of time , while it comes to be a Bird , a thousand dispositions do succeed each other in the way , and all of them to be external , and accidentary to the Seed : neither that in the mean time , it ceaseth to hasten to the aims of its appointment . For the figure of the yolk of the Egge , together with accidentary dispositions succeeding each other , do passe over it indeed : yet there is not a new generation of the form of that puttified Egge , present at every disposure of the putrifaction . Indeed , one onely vitall form of the Chick being excepted , there comes to it no other : which by degrees is stirred up by foregoing dispositions , and at length , the ripeness of dispositions being attained , floweth into it . For neither when the Bird dyeth , is there a certain essential form , and generation of the dead Carcase . Because all generation in nature , is enclosed in an essential form , which a dead Carcase wanteth , even as also a seed , and an Archeus , the Governour , as shall be shewed in its place . Even as the essence begins him with the Vulcan of the Seed , and the same essence continues with the product , or thing generated : so the same product failing , the same essence perisheth . But the essence perishing , the form , the Governour or President thereof , also goes to ruine . For the Vulcan or Master-Workman forsaking the body , the flesh , heart , veins , &c. do begin to putrifie , for that they are now deprived of the vital Balsam their leader . For under life , the flesh , and the bone , &c. were distinguished . In its particular kinde , and proper form , the flesh was flesh , and was formally severed from the bone , in which form , in the dead Carcase , they do forthwith appear . And so , through death , no form , or essential thingliness , comes upon the dead Carcase , in the whole , or in any particular parts . Onely that which was vitall , is seperated . Therefore let it be an erroneous thing : That the corruption of one thing is the generation of another . Because the corruption of life happens onely through the quenching of the vitall Balsam , or form , therefore without a new generation of a Creature . Therefore no privation happens in things that have life , and so neither can privation there , have the force of a Principle : Seeing that from the seed , even unto the vitall being , there is but one progress , promotion , and ripeness ; about the end whereof , the form is given . Therefore also , generation doth reciprocally or cursarily happen , without any corruption , as often as the matter being now brought to the ripeness of its appointment , by the seminal Vulcan , hath obtained a form coming to it from elsewhere . Yea that Vulcan through the departure of life , departs , flies away , and vanisheth , without any corrupting of it self , no otherwise , than as light perisheth without the corrupting of it self . Indeed life vanisheth , after the manner of light perishing . And the Vulcan , seeing it is a certain vitall Air , fleeth away . Both of them , without the corruption of themselves ; and the body , which is deprived of life , properly ( for that very cause ) is not corrupted : although through the failing of the vitall Balsam , corruption doth soon succeed . Which thing sufficiently appeareth in Mummies , and also in Vegetables , which being dry , and deprived of life , are kept for uses , yea they do very often , drive away all corruption . So far of is it , that their life perishing , for that very cause they should be corrupted . Therefore death in things that have life , is not the corruption of their own life , as neither of that which lives : but the extinguishing of life . And although in some things , the corruption of the body may follow : truly that is to life , and the body by accident : which thing is manifest . For truly , dead Carcases are preserved from corruption by art . Therefore now Aristotle , confounds privation with corruption , and doth not distinguish his own Principle [ non ens ] or a non-being , from the [ Being , ] corruption . Lastly , the forms of things are not subject to corruption , and therefore neither are they corrupted : but annihilated or brought to nothing . Wherefore neither can the withdrawing , or the extinguishing of the form , include any corruption on behalf of the form . Furthermore , I have hated Metaphors , or figurative Translations of words from their proper signification to another , in the History of nature , and Family of essential things : because they are those things , which have introduced the errours of the Schooles , brawls of disputing , and religious Worship given to Aristotle . But besides , if Aristotle be unskilful in nature , and ignorant of all natural Philosphy , truly Galen hath hitherto , every where manifested a greater ignorance . For first of all , I will make it manifest , that there is not a quaternary , or a fourfold kinde of Elements , nor a congress or conjunction of these , for bodies which are believed to be mixt : much less a strife , or fighting of qualities or Complexions , or for the Causes of Diseases . And so that neither doth the Treatise of the Elements properly belong to Medicine . Truly I finde Galen diligent in opinions , and a boasting Writer , without judgement , or discretion . For neither hath he better perceived of Nature , Diseases , Causes , and defects , than of the decrees of Hipocrates and Plato . For I profess , I have twice read over those Volumes of Galen with attention , but I have found the poverty and undistinct ignorance of Galen , to fight with his rashness . For truly those Books , do touch at nothing lesse than the Doctrine of Hipocrates or Plato . Neither also hath Hipocrates any thing common with Plato . And so that I have not found any one , who hath judged them worthy of a Commentary , as neither to have been written concerning the preserving of health . This one thing is alway to be found in Galen , that the names of Authours being suppressed , he hath willingly snatched the Inventions of others to himself ; a man wholly scanty , or very poor in judgement , as oft as he hath expressed the conceptions of his own judgement . I ought to declare these things concerning the two Standard-Defenders of natural Philosophy : that the Schooles may abstain from worshipping these Masters . CHAP. VIII . The Elements . 1. The Doctrine of the Elements , in healing , is wholly impertinent , and so that in Galen , such a heap of those Books is ridiculous . 2. The vain opinions of the Schooles concerning the Elements . 3. The true beginnings of naturall Science , are delivered . 4. Six conclusions out of the holy Scriptures . 5. That there are onely three Elements . 6. The Content of the Heavens . 7. That there are two first-born Elements . 8. That Fire is not an Element . 9. The Errour of Paracelsus , touching the matter of the Heaven . 10. A Quaternary of Elements , for the mixtures of Bodies , and for Diseases , falls to the ground . 11. A Proposition ; that all things which are believed to be mixt , are materially of water onely , with a mechanicall or handicraft demonstration . 12. What the Elementall , and Virgin Earth is . 13. From whence the two Elements may be called , the first-born . 14. An objection from artificial things . 15. The force of the artificial fire of Hell. 16. Another objection from Arts. 17. Why the Water may be reckoned the first-born Element . MY sight is carried on a useful good , but not on vain reasoning . Wherefore seeing the Auncients do call back nature , and every of its operations , to the account of Elements , Qualities and Complexions , resulting in mixture , and the Schooles do even to this day , hand forth this Doctrine to their young beginners in Medicine , to the destruction of mankinde ; I will again and again , set upon the dissection of the Elements , whereby it may appear that they have erred hitherto , in the Causes of Diseases . I will every where , relate Paradoxes , and things unaccustomed to the Schooles , and it will be hard for those to cease from the Doctrine drunk in , who do believe , the whole truth to have flowed into Galen . Galen hath delivered in many Volumes , and with a tedious boasting of the Greeks , that every Body , the Earth , Water , Air , and Fire excepted , doth consist of the Wedlock of these four united together , and so from hence , that a Body is to be called mixt . Moreover , that the whole likeness and diversity of bodies , doth arise from the unlike conflux or concurrence , and continual fight of four Elements . But the Schooles that came after , do as yet dispute it as undecided , whether the Elements with their forms , do remain in the thing mixt ; or indeed , whether in every particular mixture they are deprived of their essential forms , and the which , by a peculiar indulgence , they do re-take from the seperation , and general privation of the form of the thing mixed . At length , from the unlikeness , and combate of the Elements , they bid all the infirmities , and first-born fewels of our mortality to descend . Surely , it is a wonder to see , how much brawling and writing there hath been about these things : and it is to be pitied , how much these loose dreams of trifles , have hitherto circumvented or beset the World : they have prostituted destructive vain talkings in the faires of the Schooles , instead of the knowledge of Medicine , and so , so damnable a delusion , hath thereby deceived the obedience of the sick , in healing . Therefore the juggling deceipts of Pagans , being cast behinde me , I direct my experiences , and the light fteely given me , according to the Authority of the holy Scriptures , at the beholding of which light , the night-Birds do fly away . Therefore it is chiefly to be grieved at , that the light of truth being had , darkness is as yet taught in the Schooles of Christians . In the beginning therefore , the Almighty created the Heaven and the Earth , before that the first day had shone forth . Afterwards in the first day , he created the light , and divided it from the darkness . Secondly , he created the Firmament , which should seperate the inferior Waters from the waters that were above it self , and named that , Heaven . Therefore it is hence plainly to be seen , that before the first day , the waters were already created from the beginning , being partakers of a certain heavenly disposition , because they were hidden under the Etymologie of the Word , Heaven . Yet they were a-kinne to these lower waters , to which they were once conjoyned , before their seperation . In the next place , that darkness covered the face of the deep , and that , that deep did point out the Waters : because then , all the Waters above the Heaven , being as yet conjoyned to ours , upon the Earth , did make an Abysse of incomprehensible deepness , upon which , the Spirit ( whose name is Eternall ) was carried , that he might with his blessing , replenish his new Creature of water . Therefore it is manifest , that the Creation of the Heaven , the Water , and the Earth , was before a day , neither that it may be numbred with the six dayes Creation , afterwards described . Because it pleased the Eternall , also to rest on the seventh day , which in respect of the aforesaid Creation , would have been the eighth , if it had been a day . And therefore it is not reckoned among the number of dayes , because the Creation of the Elementary matter was made before a day sprang forth . Lastly , by this Text , the Firmament is not onely the eighth Starry Heaven : but and also that , which , by our Authority , we distinguish into seven wandring Orbs or Circles . Which the teacher of the Gentiles , hath seemed to contain in one : But the Chrystalline , and first mover , for another : and at length , the huge Heaven of an incomprehensible greatness , wherein every righteous man shineth like the Sun , for the third ; although that Empyrean Heaven joyned with its two fellowes , being taken for the second , perhaps another may remain for the third . Which may be the bottomless retiring place of Fountain-light , full of Divine Majesty , and unsearchable . At leastwise , the Firmament reacheth from the Moon , even to the conjoyning of the Starry Heaven , and seperateth the water that is above it , from these lower ones , and therefore the Heaven , with the Hebrews , soundeth , [ where there are waters . ] But the Lights , and the Stars , began on the fourth day , and were set in order in the Firmament . Therefore , in the beginning , the Heaven , Earth : and Water , the matter of all Bodies that were afterwards to arise , was created . But in the Heaven were the Waters contained , but not in the Earth ; hence I think the Waters to be more noble than the Earth : yea , the Water , to be more pure , simple , indivisible , firm or constant , neerer to a Principle , and more partaking of a heavenly condition , than the Earth is . Therefore the Eternall would have the Heaven to contain Waters above it , and as yet something more ( by reason whereof it is called Heaven ) that which we call , the Air , the Skie , or vitall Air. For therefore neither is there mention made of the creating of the Water and Air , for that , both of them , the Etymologie of the Word , Heaven , did include . Therefore , I call these two Elements Primigeniall , or first-born , in respect of the Earth . But no where , any thing is read of the Creation of the fire : neither therefore do I acknowledge it among the Elements , and I reject my honour or esteem with Paganisme . Neither also , may we with Paracelsus , acknowledge the fire , by the name of Lights and Stars , to be a superlunary Element , as neither to have been framed from the beginning : the which notwithstandig , it should needs be , if it ought to resemble or partake of the condition of an Element . Therefore I deny that God created four Elements ; because , not the fire , the fourth . And therefore it is vain , that the fire doth materially concurre unto the mixture of bodies . Therefore the fourfold kinde of Elements , Qualities , Temperaments or Complexions , and also the foundation of Diseases , falls to the ground . For our handicraft operation , hath made manifest to me , that every body ( to wit , the Rockie Stone , the small Stone , the Gemme or pretious Stone , the Flint , the Sand , the Fire-stone , the white Clay , the Earth , cocted or boyled Stones , Glasse , Lime , Sulphur or Brimstone , &c. ) is changed into an actual Salt , equall in weight to its own body , from whence it was made : and that , that Salt being sometimes forced to a mixture with the Circulate Salt of Paracelsus , altogether looseth its fixedness , and at length may be changed into a Liquor , which also at length passeth into an un-savory water : and that , that water is of equall weight with its Salt , from whence it sprang . But the Plant , fleshes , bones , Fishes , and every such like , I have known how to reduce into its meer three things ; whence afterwards , I have made an un-savory water . But that a Mettall , by reason of the undissolveable co-mixture of its own seed , and the Sand ( quellem ) are most hardly reduced into Salt. I have learned therefore by the fire , that God before there was a day , created the Water and Air , and of the Water an Elementary Earth , which is the Sand. Quellem . Because it was the future Basis , or foundation of Creatures , for man their Standard-defender : and therefore , in the very beginning it ought to be created , although in its own nature , it was not truly primo-genial , or first-born . Wherefore I finde two onely primitive Elements , although there is mention made of neither , in the holy Scriptures , because they are comprehended under the Title of Heaven . But with the two , he also created the Earth . Wherefore he created two great Lights ; that the Moon , and the lesse , by shining , might govern the Water : but that the greater , should shine upon the Earth . But I shall by and by teach , that these first-born Elements , are never changed into each other . Indeed the Water putrifying by continuance , in the Earth , doth obtain a locall , or implanted Seed . And therefore it passeth either into the Liquor ( Leffas ) for every Plant , or into the Minerall juyce ( Bur ) according to the particular kindes , chosen by the direction of the Seedes . Which Seedes , are replenished by the Ferment of the Earth , at first , empty and void , and then straightway , by the blessing of the Spirit boren upon the Waters . But my experience of the fire , hath taught me , to wit , that the three first things , the Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury of the Water , do alwayes remain undivided , whether in the mean time , the water be lifted up in manner of a Vapour , in the form of a Cloud , or be made thin like unto invisible things , or at length also it doth flote in its antient shape of water . For , that Paracelsus would have the water , by evaporating , to be wholly brought to nothing ; let that be his own Idiotisme or property of speech , at leastwise not to be winked at by the ingenious Distiller . Truly I have certainly found , that the water being lifted up into the Atomes or Moats of Clouds , yet doth alway remain the same , in number and water , in kinde , which the Atomes of the Mercury of the water , do shew to us in the likeness of a Cloud . But there is never made in the water a seperation of the three former things , and much lesse any essentiall transmutation or changing . For truly there is a simple turning outward of the inward parts by the fire , the which again return inward , as oft as the Vapour is co-thickned into drops . But the cause why I may think the Earth not to be reckoned among the primary Elements , although it was also created in the beginning , is , because it may at length be turned into water by the depriving of its essence . And therefore I believe the water to be the first and most simple body , seeing that never returns into Earth , but by the vertue of the Seeds , and so the water takes the turns of a composed body , before the Earth or Sand Quellem , be made . Which thing , I shall hereafter more largely demonstrate . CHAP. IX . The Earth . 1. That the Fire is neither an Element , nor co-mingled materially with Bodies , nor that it is a matter , nor that it hath a matter in it . 2. The Earth is not a part of the thing mixed . 3. The Virgin-Earth is demonstrated by Handicraft operation . 4. Grounds or Soils in the Earth , are distinguished . 5. The Water within the Earth , doth more than a thousand times exceed the water of the Sea , and Rivers . 6. The true Original of Fountains . 7. How Waters do of their own accord ascend . 8. The continuity or holding together of a thread is proved , in the Waters . 9. By what chance , the Earth happens to Bodies , that are believed to be mixt . 10. The number of Elements , and their temperaments , are most destructive trifles , after that the same are translated into the art of healing . 11. The Earth is the Wombe , but not the Mother of Bodies , and that is demonstrated by many Arguments . 12. Water and Air do not convert any other thing into themselves . 13. What kinde of thing mixture is , and what the adjoyning or application of Bodies . 14. Objections concerning Glasse , and the Tile or Brick are resolved . 15. The Operations of the Fire of Hell. 16. How out of Glasse , Sand may be safely separated from its Alcali or Lixiviall Salt. 17. That the Center of the World is sometimes changed . THerefore , neither is the Fire an Element , nor is it materially co-mixed in Bodies ; because I will shew , the Fire neither to be a matter , nor to have it in it self . Yea the Earth doth no where offer it self to be co-mixt with any natural body besides it self , which may be re-taken thence by any labour . Therefore I have lamented , and been angry with my self , that the foundation of healing hath been stuft with trifles , and that the sick should be constrained to yield obedience to so great mockeries . But I name the original Earth , of the Virgin-Element , the constant Body of Sand it self : but the rest of every kinde of Earth , the fruit of the Earth , from a Mineral off-spring . The which by the art of the fire , is sufficiently and over proved . For , that the Sand is the original Earth , first of all , its hard reducement into water , proveth ; because the Sand out of a flint , or an Adamant , may be sooner reduced into water , than the Sand , Quellem . And then , that thing also the Spade proveth , because in digging , truly divers Soils do meet nigh the light , indeed made to differ in colours , and thickness , and the which , although by the rustical or homely Etymologie of the Schooles , they are believed to be black , white , yellow , read Earths , &c. yet they are fruits of the Earth , and do consist of a Seed : under which , is a Sand , also elsewhere manifold in its varieties of Soils , as well in one onely , as in divers places : at length , under those , doth the Sand reside , which our Countreymen call , Keybergh , or the flinty Mountain , from whence do flow the originall of Rocks and Mountains , and the chief riches of Mines . At length ( the last of them all ) the white or boyling Sand Quellem , doth shew it self in a living and vitall Soil , which the Spade or Mattock never pierceth . For how much soever Sand , and Water thou shalt take away from thence , so much doth there succeed in the room of that which was taken away , filling up again the same place . This Sand I say being unmixt , is a certain Hair-cloth , or sieve , and the foundation of nature , by which , all waters are strained thorow , that all of them may keep a Communion among each other , from the beginning of the Creation , unto the end , and from the Superficies or upper part of the Earth , even to its Center . And moreover , the water detained in this Soil of Sand , is perhaps , actually greater by a thousand fold , than the whole heap of Seas and Rivers floating on the Superficies of the Earth . And that is easily verified , by supposing , the whole superficies of the Earth also to be covered with waters to the depth of 600 paces . Therefore it followes , respect being had to the Diameter of the Earth , that there is easily a thousand times more water , under , than upon the Earth . For truly dry Sand , drinks up at least , about a fourfold quantity of water , in the same extension of place : yet I will not have it , that although , the Quellem be the last ground or Soil to the Digger , that all subjected grounds are every where to be found by order . For the aforesaid Sand , which sometimes overwhelms it self perhaps to a thousand paces beneath the Horizon , elsewhere boils up with speed under the open Air , yea , and oft-times in the top of Mountains . Of which thing the Schooles , with their Aristotle , being ignorant , do toughly hold , that all true springs do owe the cause of their continuance from the Air co-thickned into water , when as notwithstanding , they cannot maintain that thing ; because in the tops of the highest Mountains , springs do oft-times leap forth , where another Mountain of the like height is not neer , nor a water-Channel extended on either side to this . Therefore they hold their peace with a lofty look , and are silent at the unwonted miracle of the thing . Surely , as long as waters do wander in the living and vitall Soil of the Earth , and are detained in the Sand Quellem , so long I say they are not constrained to bring forth by the water drawing lawes of Scituations , No otherwise , than as the bloud , while it is nourished with life in the veins , so long also , it knowes not above and beneath , and it is as well in the fore-head as in the feet . But at the very moment , wherein it once falls out of the veins , or the waters do disgorge themselves out of the Quellem , they cease not to flow down by obeying the lawes of Scituations . Therefore the Sea in its own ground , doth sup up the received waters in the sieve of the Virgin-Sand . For so , according to the wise man ; however all waters do flow into the Sea , yet it never re-gorgeth them again . Because by one onely thread , there is a continuall passage out of the Virgin-Sand , into Springs , Streams , Rivers , and the Sea , to moysten the Earth , and appointed to enrich it with Mineralls . Whither again , the waters being driven , they are supt up partly by the Quellem , and partly do snatch the Air. So indeed doth the Universe distribute its waters , and lay them aside for divers fruits . And therefore I have meditated with admiration , that the Almighty hath set before him the necessities of ungrateful immortal men , as the aims of things . I return to the Earth . I have found for certain , that the original Earth doth no where of its own accord concur to the mixtures of fruits , slide thereto by chance , nor that it is assumed by nature , nor is found to have assumed the works of nature or art . And therefore the reason of mixtures waxeth lean , the number of Elements , Qualities , and Temperaments ceaseth ; and so they are lying fopperies , which have been hitherto stifly and ignorantly garnished out by the Schooles . For of a man , Wood , &c. be it dust , or ashes that is left by the fire , yet Earth is never drawn out : for else our burying places would soon swell . Therefore the Earth is at least the remaining wombe , but not the Mother . Which if it should sometimes have a conflux unto fruits or mixt bodies : it would either abide in the same , and so by the solution of art or nature , would sometimes be found , or should return from thence ( which is false ) or plainly should be taken to the mixt Body , and in it should cease to be Earth , being already changed into another thing : and so should be elsewhere diminished ( which I will straightway shew to be alike false ) or by the death , or dissolution of the thing , should return again into earth , and there should be a daily and repeated returning of one and the same Element , from a privation to a habit . Or if this should not return into earth , it should remain changed into fruits , and so the whole Earth had long since gone into fruits , and nature had lost her constancy , and had mocked the first aims of the Creator , or the earth had returned from the dissolved mixt body into another Element : the impertinency whereof ceaseth . For truly , it is not natural to water or air , to turn another Element into its own substance . From hence I will straightway demonstrate , that never one drop of water is turned into air , or likewise air changed into water . Which changes notwithstanding do appear lesse labour some , than of the earth into water , or into air . And therefore if nature hath not as yet attempted the more easie transmutations ; after what sort shall it presume on the more difficult ones ? For otherwise , the earth should be ●upt up and brought to nothing by Elements that are so much more large , co-touching with it , and more active . But the Father of the Universe , being a lover of Concord , hateth discord and brawlings , and chiefly in the Elements , which , that they might be the stable props of nature , he hath not created the same , fighting ones . For he hath also directed the Elements to their appointed ends , and lawes of continuance , to wit , that he may bring forth , and nourish his own fruits , for his own honour , and the use of man. Notwithstanding , neither the honour of God , nor mans necessity , did any where , or any way require , the battels , devourings , strifes of the Elements ; their trampling on each other , as neither the exchanging , or nourishing of one by the other . Nor lastly that at the end of an Element to increase it self by covetousness , hunger , luxury , or necessity , with the destruction of anomer . For neither are they guilty of the fault of coverousness , or hatred , as neither do they desire to be nourished . Last of all ; neither have the Elements obtained an Archeus , a kitchin , or properties for that transchanging . Therefore the whole Doctrine of the Schooles concerning the elementary War , is an old Wives fable . Therefore the earth is never taken , or of its own accord doth materially run out of it self , into the constitution of bodies . And there is by right , made no mixture in nature , which can firmly grow together under the unity of the natural composed form , unless it be between juyces and spirits . On the contrary , no pulverous or powder all co-mixture doth tend to generation : but there is onely an apposition or applying , presently of its own accord , and again quickly decaying . Therefore all earth , Clay , and every body that may be touched , is truly and materially the off-spring of water onely , and is reduced again into water , by nature and art . Neither doth that hinder , because of Clay and sand , a Tile or Brick is boyled , even as of sand and ashes , Glasse . For truly , whatsoever is of Clay , is at length of its own accord resolved into a salt , the same sand remaining , which the clay had contracted into it self . Glasse also , as it hath passed , by art , and without a seed , into an artificial composure : So by art again , its bond being unloosed , it refurns to its auntient Beginnings , so that sand is drawn out from thence , altogether the same in number and weight , the which by the flowing of the Furnace , had grown together with the fixed salt , into a clear stone , or glasse . For from hence it appeares , that the sand , or the Element of the earth , doth never concur to natural and seminal generations . And that as oft as it serves for artificial things , for often the sand doth alway remain unchanged in the bright burning-glasse , being hidden in the flux of the salt , and taken into transparent glasse . For silver hath not lost its being , when it is dissolved by Aqua Fortis , although the Eye hath lost that thing , and it hath obtained a clearness like Christall . Seeing therefore , the Sand or original earth , doth resist as well art , as nature , neither can it by any helps ( the one onely fire of artificial Hell-fire excepted ) of nature or art , depart from its first-born constancy ( under which artificial fire , the Sand is made salt , and at length water , because it hath the force of acting upon any sublunary things , without a re-acting ) it followes also , that the original earth is never by any meanes taken unto the seminall generations of nature . Neither doth that convince , because some unskilful man will have glasse to be the last subject of art , and the which can therefore be blotted out , neither by art , nor by fire . For he will be instructed , if he shall co-melt the fine powder of glasse , with more of the Alcali , and shall set them forth in a moyst place ; he shall straightway finde all the glasse to be resolved into water : on which , if Chrys●ca be powred , so much being added as sufficeth to the filling or satisfying of the Alcali , he shall presently finde in the bottom , the Sand to settle , it being of the same weight , which at first was fitted for the making of the glasse . Therefore the Earth remains unchanged , although it may seem throughout the whole World , to be moveable , and to have been moved . Yea a mold , by digging thorow an heap , makes an inundation of a great tract or space of Land , and so the despised Creature , can remove the Earth from its Centre , and the World from its place , if we believe the Centre to hold the place of an equall tenor of height : and we do see the Seas lately to fall and lean on the back of the earth . In Rekem , high the passage of the River Mose , a Sea-ship was found under a sandy Hill , in the year 1594. In the Region of Peele , Pine-Tlees were found standing in rank , under the Earth , which willingly grow not but in Mountains . In Hingsen nigh Scalds , twelve foot under the Horizon , in a moyst Meadow , was found an Elephants Tooth , with the whole Cheek-bone , whose third part , being two foot long , I keep with me . And so living Elephants were once in this Countrey . But , very lately , Groenland hath ceased to be found subverted by the Sea , whence the Centre of the Earth ought necessarily to be changed or removed . CHAP. X. The Water . 1. The scituation of the Earth and Water before the Floud . 2. The Authours Meditation . 3. A Whirle-poole of Waters , or a Gulf. 4. The distributing of that Whirle-poole . 5. The cutting of the veins of that Whirle-poole . 6. The fruit of the Minerall Soil on Ground . 7. Salts do passe into Bur. 8. The progress of Mineralls to their ripenesses . 9. From whence Fishes are digged out of the Earth . 10. The right of the veines over their contained Liquor . 11. The scanty place of the wise man Coheleth or the Preacher . 12. The rise of Fountains , were unknown to Aristotle . 13. That the World is round from East to East : but from South to South , that it is long and round . 14. A prevention of Objections . 15. The Centrall property takes its limitation from necessity . 16. A Reason from Springs . 17. From the motion of the Sun. 18. From the true figure of the Heaven . 19. From the authority of the holy Scriptures . 20. From shadowes , and the quantity of the day . 21. From the sight of the Sun by Saylors . IN like manner , after that the Firmament did seperate the waters from the waters , the Eternall gathered together the sublunary ones , and their Collection , he called Sea. From the opposition of a Diameter , the dry Land appeared , which he named Earth ; and both these framed one Globe , the which in the middle of the Earth , should be therefore a little more eminent or standing out , because in the midst of the earth , it should gape with a huge gulf , from whence a Fountain should break forth , appointed for the moystening of the earth . For if neither besides the wonted roundness of the Globe ( whereby all lines do equally differ from their Center , within their Circumference ) the earth in its middle , had not been far deeper , the Fountain could not have thence run down unto the more steep Sea : but straight way from its beginning , had stood as a pool . Whence I conceive , that the earth in the beginning , was con-tinuall or holding together , and undivided . Because it was that , which wholly ought to be watered by one onely Fountain . Lastly , neither that it had Islands ; but the whole Globe shewed in one part Sea , and in the other Land. This indeed was the face of the World before the floud . Under which afterwards the earth did cleave into divers divisions , and from the deep pit of chaps , the waters abundantly brake forth . The great falls of waters as well of the Iower abysse , as of the Heavens , were opened , that they might wholly drown the whole Globe of the earth . Great God I thou intendest to cut off thy Vine from the unprofitable branch , and to punish the World for its desert , but yet thou couldest not abstain , but being mindefull of thy Fatherly affection , in the midst of thy most just anger , thou seperatest the earth , and rentest it asunder for their greater profit , necessity and Commodity . The Sea which being onely one , stood onely on the whole side of the Globe , thou sendest over into divers Coasts of the earth , neither ceasest thou from a new blessing upon the ungrateful work of thy hands . For upon the earth guilty in thy sight , thou abundantly powrest out the lively effusions or showers of thy super-celestiall waters , which do far exceed the dew in fruitfulness . But the earth , being sufficiently made drunken with them , again appeared , and incontinently returned to her wonted Workmanships . At length , the one onely Fountain , and Spring of waters , which thou hadst placed in the heart and top of the Earth , is afterwards spread abroad into a thousand veins , which did almost every where pierce thorow the Globe of the earth , to far better uses . And moreover , thou hast also dashed the Sea almost into every Creek of the earth , that there might be the greater fellowship of Mortalls thereby . Therefore if thy punishment be blessed and happy ; what shall the free gifts of thy blessings be ? Oh Lord , keep us for the exceeding greatness of thy goodness , within that number , who shall praise thy great and mighty deeds for ever , in the sanctifying of thy name . But although that one onely Fountain now ceased , neither Lands being now rent asunder , one alone was not enough yet perhaps the same entrance of waters remained . Because , in the sweet Sea , between Roest and Loefelt , according to the Table of Gothland , a Gulf of waters is described by Olaus , whereinto Ships , Marriners being not aware , and their endeavours being in vain , are supt up . For indeed it is the mouth , into which the waters of that Ocean do fall , and by one onely passage , were before the Floud , carried thence unto the aforesaid Fountain . But afterwards , that passage like the hollow vein , was diversly distributed , and hedged in by a Rock , by some thousands of veins ending upon the face of the Quellem , from which , afterwards , the waters being drunk up , do hasten from far , unto their appointed offices . Moreover , that Whirle-poole or Gulf , if it ought to be any where , and Olaus be a true Writer , or if not , at leastwise , it is fitly in the Sea , as well for the sweetness of the Sea , as for the long and round figure of the World , by me straightway to be proved . In the next place , if one onely Fountain were for the moystening of the Earth , the aforesaid Whirle-poole shall be sufficient , especially because the bottom of the Sea , hath the Sand Quellem longly and largely laying open , which would be sufficient for the drinking up the water . And the rather , because the Sea doth sometimes wash upon , and rince the earth on every side , and thorow many middle spaces . Therefore the Sea being supt up in the said Whirle-poole , it is by little and little brought thorow stony Channels , and hence by lesser pipes , thorow a great part of the earth : Notwithstanding they are scarce over whelmed beneath the Soil [ Keyberch ] : but as often as the veins of the Whirle-poole do cut , or touch at the Quellem rising up thorow middle places , and rushing forth into a Fountain , indeed the sweet veins do perish , and veins of Sea-Salt , are produced . Otherwise the briny Liquor , if there be also any in the Gothick Sea , doth through the lively Archeus of the Earth , lose by degrees , the nature of Salts : or if the Ferments of Salts in places do any where exist , those very waters do put on the seeds as well of divers Salts , as of Stones and Mettalls , and are changed into the same fruits . For so neat , gemme , nitre , aluminous , vitriolated , Sea , Salts do grow of the water , they as it were promising the first birth of the water to themselves . And then from hence they do decline or decay into [ Bur , ] or the first off-spring of Mineralls , and degenerate by the guidance of the seeds . So some fruits of the water do stop up the passages of their own Fountain ; and by their last ripeness , do attain the perfection of that Minerall , whose appointments the seeds did bear before them , which were entertained in the Ferments of places . Moreover , as that Northern Whirlepoole or Gulf , doth also sup up Fishes within it , so it sups up the same exceeding small ones , the greater being detained within the Channels . Where oft-times , they are either made Rockie , or wax filthy through putrifying , or also are seasoned with the Balsam of the soils , as also that Fishes are oft-times found digged up , which the Husband-man , and others being amazed at , do think they were born in undue places , and without a seed . Furthermore , whether the Conduits have received the water , or at length have drunk up that Quellem : the waters are at least , there endowed with a lively and seminall property . For no otherwise than as a vein , even in a dead Carease , preserveth the bloud contained in it , from coagulating or curdling ( which is a corruption of the first degree ) : truly by a stronger Reason , that right agrees to the veins of the earth which is not yet dead . Therefore the water is supt and drawn within the lively soil of the Earth , whence it having gotten a common life ( Come let us worship the King , by whom all things live ) it knoweth not the Scituations of places , it easily ascendeth unto the tops of Mountains without trouble , together with the Quellem , that it may from thence send forth fountains without ceasing . VVhich things surely being unknown to the Schooles , they have left that place of the wise man Coheleth , or the Preacher , scanty or barren : where he saith , all Rivers hasten towards the Sea : the which notwithstanding doth not therefore re-gorgethem again . For truly , Rivers do return to the place from whence they came forth , that they may flowagain . Which words , have been corrupted heretofore with divers modellings or qualifications . Because springs in the tops of Mountains , were not seen to proceed from the Sea , whither they at length do rush . Therefore Springs have been hitherto falsely judged by the Schooles to take their Beginnings and Causes , from Air condensed or co-thickned by the force of cold , between the hollow places of Mountains , ready to fall upon each other . The which , I , in a little Book concerning the Fountains of the Spaw , printed in the year 1624 at Leidon , have shewne , that they have themselves after the manner now delivered in this place . Therefore the true originall of true Springs being manifested , it hitherto remains unknown to the Schooles . The Scripture-Text , entire , and cleared . But seeing the same Law , course , and re-course of waters , from the Quellem into Fountains , and at length from Fountains into the Sea , was kept , no lesse in dayes wherein it hath not rained for three years and more , than when the whole year doth almost wax barren with a continual showre : we must know , that it is sumcient for the Earth , that it doth not send forth such bountiful Springs through its Water-pipes , and steep-running Brooks , as by the common besprinkling of Dew and Rain . Moreover , before I shall come to the unchangeable substance of the water , wherein the Schooles do promise that Air is easily changed into water , and this likewise into it , I will first clear up another Paradox . To wit , that the Globe being composed of Earth and Water , is indeed round from the East thorow the West into the East : yet not from the North into the South : but long and round , or of the figure of an Egge . Which thing , in the first place hath much deceived Saylors . Because the Waters do slide with a more swift course from North to South , than otherwise from East to West . For very many Waters do alwayes descend by Rivers from the North , which do never run back unto the North. So the River Danubius , with many others , doth slide thorow the Hellespont or Greek Sea , into the Archi-pelago or chief Sea : the Waters descend , neither doth any thing return from the Mediterranean Sea. Whatsoever doth once descend into the Mediterranean , is never spread into the Ocean . For the River Nilus , alwayes descending in a right line from the Mountains of the Moon , is wholly plunged into the Zebunutican Sea with its dresses : neither doth the Mediterranean Sea in the mean time increase , nor become the salter . Which thing notwithstanding should be altogether needful so to be , if in manner of a naked vapour , the waters powred into it , should exhale out of the Sea. But the Eternal wisdom , hath in most places made the Mediterranean Sea deeper than the Ocean , that the Virgin-Sand might drink up the Waters together with its Salts like a sieve . For mans necessities ( which do seem to have dictated a Law to God , out of his goodness ) did require Springs and Rivers falling down from the highest tops . Lastly , the waters being turned forth of the Quellem , by Fountains do ( by a continuation ) draw after them , the following waters , and therefore also , in the bottom , do they drink up the Sea-waters by supping . Therefore properties are added to places by Divine Providence , by reason of necessities . The flowing of the North Sea about Kent of England , doth prevent or go before the flowing of the West Sea , almost for half an houre . Whence I conjecture , the Earth and Sea to ascend in the Northern Climate or Coast . For the whole Northern Earth is named Scandia from Scandendo or climbing . And the North Sea should not be frozen to ice , if it were salt . If it be sweet , it points out , that the Salt of the Ocean , cannot by ascendding be co-mingled with it , but that the Northern waters , do uncessantly rush into a steep place . For it is likely to be true , that , as well in the first mixture of the deep , as in the floud of the generall overflowing , all Waters were once again co-mixt , and that the co-mingling of these , was therefore called Sea. Which waters therefore in the beginning were once salt , and straight way afterwards , were sweeter : it is certain , that those waters have continually flowen downwards , because they are sweet at this day : and so Scandia is far higher in Scituation than Aegypt . But let us imagine onely , earth of ten foot , to have framed a banke to the Sea , in the shoares on every side , and let us keep an equall roundness : at least Nilus , which is carried head-long in a straight line from the South , into the Mediterranean Sea , for a thousand Leagues space , if besides the roundness of the Sphere , which is not any where steep , it also hath it self in manner of a plain , with relation to its Center , it should have onely ten foot fall at the highest , from its rise , even into the Sea. Which is , to call Nilus a quiet pool , but not a steep running River . For when a Ditch was devised at Gaudave Bruges , there was found a declining height of 18 foot , the dimension being taken by night over the flame of a Candle , and that by the withdrawn roundness of the Sphere . If therefore by a slow rowling or running , there is 18 foot of fall or descent in eight Leagues , Nilus flowing alike slowly , shall have need of 2230 foot in height at least , in its beginning . But if it shall flow after the manner of Nilus , it shall of necessity have need of four times as much at the least : or of nine thousand foot . But if Nilus doth measure this height of the Earth by 15 degrees from the Southern Tropick or turning point , unto the Mediterranean Sea , where the figure of the Globe is as yet Sphericall or round , the which altitude therefore , is it not lawful to conjecture to be from the Mountains of the Moon , even to the South ? An unwearied fall of the waters from the North , promiseth a notable elevation of the Earth : so it is . But thence it is not granted to collect , that all the waters ( that being supposed ) do forsake the North ; because the Lawes of Scituations are silent , where the water falls down on every side about the Center of the World. And so hath been the necessity of the Universe , and the rule of properties . For I feign a subiunary place , without a palpable body : but a flint of an Egge-like form , to fall down from Heaven , and him to rest in his Center : yet shall his length be inclined towards some part of Heaven . What if this be towards the Poles ; it will express to us the figure of the World. For it hath not therefore lost its auntient weight ; yet should it not fall towards Heaven , because that is against the nature of every weight : neither should it fall crooked-wise , seeing that so it should fall into an infinite , and should have no bound of motion , which is alike absurd . Therefore that Stone , with its weightiness , should be stayed in that place wherein it was laid . But since that thing happens not under the Moon , it must needes be , that besides the weight of things , there be some property in place , at the sight whereof it be remooved , and may make the respects of upper and lower . Therefore , if that thing above and beneath , is not but in respect of Bodies and perhaps onely of sublunary ones , those kindes of respects do wholly subsist , from the intent of the Creator , which is the original cause of all rest and motion . Wherefore if his intent hath been to make the figure of the Universe , Egg-like , ( because that was the more commodious habitation of Mortalls , for the needful nourishments of the heat of the Sun ) and hath alwayes made that which is far the best in all things : he hath also limited an Oyall or Egg-like figure to the waters , and the same respect to their Center . Or that the Ovall figure , should keep almost the same intention to the Center , as a round figure hath . What if Fountains do ascend to the tops of Mountains : the Water of the Pole might also hold the reason of an ovall Scituation , no otherwise than of a round one : otherwise , if the Heaven , as the adequate or suitable Husband of the Earth , be plainly Spherical or round . 1. It would follow , that the Sun makes a greater Circle under the Aequinoctials , than under the Tropicks . 2. The Sun to be so much the swifter moved under the Aequinoctiall , than under the Tropick . 3. The motion of the Sun , to be daily inordinate , and unequall to it self . 4. Houre-glasses , which do measure the motion of the Sun in order to slowness ; and the pins of Sun-Dialls , which measure motion , in order to the scituation of the Orbe or Circle of the Sun , should not answer to each other . 5. If those Instruments should agree under the Aequinoctial lines , they should varie at leastwise , under the Sol-stices or Sun-steads . Also the Heaven , which is as it were the sheath of the Earth , nigh the Poles , is deeper than under the compass of the Sun ; for if Lucifer or the Day-star , being willing to place his seat over the North , may be understood to have been guilty of pride : Truly , if he were not higher in the same place , that should not be imputed as a signe of arrogancy : especially since in the places , where the holy Scriptures were written , the Pole-star hath alwayes seemed very neere to the Horizon , neither doth the Heaven there promise any thing of height , as to sight . But in our Horizon , I have seen the whole Body of the Sun to have given a shadow on the pin of the Diall , a little after the ninth houre , in the fourth moneth , called June : but in the morning I have seen the whole Body of the Sun above the Horizon , about the fourth houre : for it did not as vet , cast a shadow , by reason of the thickness of the Air and Vapours . Therefore the shor●est night is onely of seven houres at the most : but in the Winter Solstice , the Sun ariseth ●5 minutes before the eighth , but sets 27 minutes before the fourth . Therefore the shorest day ; is at least 7 houres and 42 minutes . But it d●rogates or takes away from the roundness of the Sphere , to have more of light , than darkness . At length , modern or late made Navigations , have seen the Sun under the North for a moneths space , before that the perfect roundness of the Heaven had suffered that thing . CHAP. XI . The Air. 1. The Dreams of the Schooles concerning the maystness of Air. 2. A foolish or unsavory objection . 3. They pre●uppose impossibilities . 4. The Air is never made Water through a condensing of its parts . 5. They beg the Principle . 6. A ridicu●ous thing of the Schooles , concerning the ●●tive heat of the Air. 7. The old Wives fiction of an Antiper●st●si●●● compassing about of the contrary . 8. The deep stupidit●●● of the Schooles are discovered . 9. Arguments . 10. Another alike st●pidity . 11. That the Air is colder than Snow . 12. An Exhortation of the Authour unto young beginners . A Mathematicall demonstration , that the Air and Water are primige●iall or first-born Elements , and ever unchangeable , by cold , or heat , into each other . THE Schooles with their Aristotle do hitherto endow the Air with eight degrees , that is , to be most moyst ; but to be hot unto four degrees , or to a mean : but they give the greatest coldness to the water , with a slack or mean moystness . And so they command the Air to be twice as moystas the water ; for that , because the Air by its pressing together and conjoyning , doth generate the water . But I pray you , what other thing is that , than to have sold Dreams for truth ? For if the Air be co-thickned , the moysture thereof shall be also more thick , greater , and more palpable in water , than it was before in Air : seeing that condensing cannot make a new essential form , nor is it a principle of generations ; what other thing is that , than impertinently to trifle ? At least , the water , should not be but Air co-thickned in the moysture , to ten fold , or rather to an hundred fold , and more active , and therefore , and straightway it should moysten more , and stronger , than the Air , by a hundred fold : So far as it , that therefore the water , should be lesse moyst than the Air. But if a naked condensing doth dispose the Air to a new form ; seeing the same disposition of the inward efficient , is the necessary cause of that thing generated , it must needs be that the same doth remain in the thing produced ; and so , if the Air co-thickned , be water , there shall now be but two Elements , to wit , Water and Earth : Whiles the water shall be as moyst ; as while it was being at first Air , to wit , wherein the condensing alone came , which is a co-uniting of parts , but not a formall transchanging of a thing into a thing . For truly the form every way re-bounding from the moysture of the Air , being condensed into an hundred fold , it shall be even moyster , and shall more moysten by an hundred fold , than the auntient Air. But surely , the water doth not moysten by reason of thickness ( for otherwise the Earth should , hitherto , more moysten ) because moysture onely doth moysten , and not thickness . For else Quick-silver should more moysten the wooll or hand than water . For whatsoever doth more moysten , that it self is also more moyst ; and on the other hand , whatsoever in an Elementary nature is moyster , that likewise doth more moysten . Nature laughs , to require belief of things known by reason of sense , from a Dream , and even till now , to teach the shameful devises of Airstotle for truth . But the Schooles will say , we must thus teach it for a Maxim : That by reason whereof every thing is such , that thing it self is more such ( as though that for the honour of a Maxim , we must belie God! ) But the water is not moyst but for the Air ; therefore the Air ought to be moyster than the water . But they shall sweat more than enough , before they will prove the subsumption or second Proposition : but the Air is neither moyst nor hot in it self , and whatsoever of moysture there is in it , that is a stranged contained in it ; never touching at the nature of Air , although vapours may be contained in the porinesses or hollow places of the Air. For what doth it belong to the nature of Glasse , if it shall inclose water within it ? For I shall teach by and by , that it is impossible for Air and water to be changed into each other . And so by absurdities , the Schooles do wholly suppose impossible speculations . For it also contains an absurd and impossible thing , that Air condensed , should be made water , and be the perpetual matter of Fountains . For there hath been Air pressed together by some , in an Iron Pipe of one ell , almost the breadth of fifteen fingers , which afterwards in its driving our , hath like a hand-gun discharged with Gunpowder , sent a Bullet thorow a Board or Plank . Which thing verily could not be done , if the air by pressing together , might by force , be brought into water . Especially , because that experiment did no lesse succeed in the deepest cold of winter , than in the heat of Summer . What if therefore the Air being pressed together by force in a Pipe , and cold season , be not changed into water ; by what authority shall the Schooles confirm their fictions , touching the co-thickning of the Air , for the springing up or over-flowing , and the continuance of Fountains ? For Cold hath not the Beginnings , Causes , and properties of generating , in nature . Yea , no moysture at all is found in the aforesaid Pipe ; and moreover , wet Leather in the end of a Hand-Pistoll , drieth presently . It is also a ridiculous thing to prove the Air to be moyst by the original of Fountains : and likewise to prove the rise of Fountains from the supposed moysture of the Air. Both Arguments of the Schooles is from the scarcity of truth , and a childish begging of the Principle . And that they may adorn the four Elements with qualities , they attribute to every one , one , the highest quality , but another , a slack one , and the Schooles command nature to obey their fictions . Therefore they say , that the Air is slackly bot ; because they will have it neer to the seigned Element of fire : that is , or because it borroweth that slack quality of its Neighbour : and it changeth its proper and native disposure , at the pleasure of its Neighbour ; and that impertinently , while the speech is of native properties . Or because it hath that quality of its own disposition , and although slack , therefore notwithstanding , it shall also have such a Neighbour , which thing is alike impertinent and naught . And that they may prove the moderate heat of the Air , they carry on the like foolish invention of an Antiporistasis or a compassing about of the contrary . To wit , that the Air in its uppermost part is hot by reason of a nearness of the fire ( and so they seign , not an essential heat , but a begged and improper one by accident ) and that nigh the Earth it is likewise hot , from the reflexion of the Sun-beams . Which heat is for a little space , a stranger by accident , and therefore a seigned property of the Air. But they will have the middle Region of the Air to be wonderful cold , by reason of an Antiperistasis : To wit , because both parts of the hot air doth compass it about . Whose like , they say doth happen to deep wells , they being cold in Summer , and luke-warm all the Winter . But I wonder at the deep or profound benummednesses of the Schooles , and the drowsie distemper of the auntients . 1. Because from this their whole Structure , it appeareth , that the air is generally cold , but not meanly hot . 2. For truly the fire is not an Element in nature , and much lesse is it under the hollow of the Moon , neither therefore can it make hot the uppermost part of the Air , except by a Dream . 3. For if the Air be hot by it self , and of its Elementary property : then is it alwayes and every where hot , even in deep Wells . 4. But if it be hot through any other thing proper of familiar unto it , which makes it hot : then besides that it should have something besides it self mixt with it , from whence the Elementary simplicity of its own Body should cease ; it should also alwayes and every where actually be hot ; or lastly , should be hot by reason of something applied to it , acting by accident . Which thing is impertinent , as often as the thing to be proved , is taken as concerning essential things . Therefore if the Air be not by it self hot , it must needes be cold by it self . Since those two do subsequently exclude each other in nature . 5. If the fire be never cold or moyst , and the water be never dry : so the Air can never be lesser than intensively or most moyst , and slackly hot , if the Schooles speak truth . 6. They would have that to be the middle Region of the Air , which is scarce distant half a mile from us , being unmindeful of their own Doctrine . To wit , that the Diameter of the Air , exceedes the Diameter of the Water ten fold : but that this is greater than the Diameter of the Earth two fold : which fiction being granted , the Semi-diameter of the Air should be deeper than 570000 miles . Therefore half a mile should be as nothing in respect of the middle Air. Oh ye Schooles , I pray you awake ! For if the Air should of its own accord , and of its own nature be hot , by what cause at length should it be cold in its middle part ? For is it because its Neighbour on both sides is hot ? But then the Air would not propose to it self wrathfulness , but rather joy , from the agreeableness of its neere nature . For why doth the Air put off its natural property , because it did on both sides touch the luke-warm Air , agreeable to it self ? For how shall luke-warm powred on luke-warm , wax cold , because it doth finde luke-warmness on both sides ? Or if cold be placed between two Colds , shall it therefore wax hot in its middle ? I cannot sufficiently wonder at the unpolished rudeness of the Schooles , who deliver the Doctrine of Antiperistasis , which desireth so great credulity , not judgement . For although that fiction should please us , while the Air is hot about the Earth ; but certainly it could by no meanes , in the Winter seasons . For truly , neither then indeed is that middle Region of the Air adorned with a native heat . 9. It is a wonder I say , that such absurd falsehood and Doctrine hath not yet breathed out of the Alps. And so hence it is manifest , that the Peripateticks do even from a study of obstinacy teach known falsehoods , least they should not swear in the words of Aristotle : or that no judgement at all is left them , that they may ingeniously perform their office : and that they may think they have done enough , if they follow the herds of those that went before them . Therefore Antiperistasis is a dream of his , who when he knew not the least thing in nature ; yet would seem to have known all things , and to be worshipped for a Standard-defender by the Schooles his followers . But because Aristotle fleeth to the heat of Wells in Winter , for the demonstration of an Antiperistasis , that shall straightway fall to the ground , through the instrument whereby we measure the just temperature of the encompassing Air : Wherein we see by handicraft-demonstration , that the Air in deep Wells and Cellers is stable in the same point of heat , whether it shall please us to measure it in Winter , or lastly in the greatest heats of Summer . 10. But it being granted , that there were not an equall temperature in Wells : but yet surely it would be a foolish thing , for the Air otherwise , naturally , moderately hot , sometimes to be cold , sometimes again to be hot , as it were through despight , by reason of the applied alteration of the encompassing air . 11. The holy Scriptures declare the Snow to be colder than the water ( because Snow is water , in which the utmost power of cold is imprinted ) and the Air to exceed the Snow in coldness : hence it is read ; He that spreads abroad the Snow and the Wooll , that the Wheat may be kept safe under the Snow , from the cruelty of the cold Air : as it were under a woolly Covering . For we see by handicraft operation , that a member almost frozen together , waxeth hot again under the Snow , and is preserved from putrifaction or blasting ; because else the Air would straightway proceed wholly to congeal it ; or if it be suddenly brought to the fire , it dieth by reason of the hasty action of another extream . Therefore this is to have gone thorow [ meanes ] if it be to go from the cold air , thorow Snow , water , and then into a slack luke-warmness . Therefore Snow is lesse cold than air . 12. But why , to the moystness of the water , do they implore its thickness for moystening ( which is a ridiculous thing ) doth it not assume the same thickness of water , even by reason of cold ? For so they had at least spoken something likely to be true . Give heed therefore whosoever thou art , that endeavourest by healing to work out the salvation of thy Soul , what a Patron the Schooles do hitherto defend . By what counsel have they made the Elements , Complexions , and degrees of qualities , the foundation of healing ; who being seduced not but by a sleepy credulity , have yielded the number , essence , use , properties , fruits , and passions of the Elements , and their own names to heathenish blindness . Behold how slavishly the Schooles have borrowed their Elementary qualities , and would have them be obedient at the pleasures of Dreams ; they have coupled , increased , blunted or repressed , and divided them ; they have even sent abroad as it were wan devises for the causes of natural things , knowings of Diseases , healings , and destructions of the Temples of the holy Spirit . Therefore the air , water and earth are cold by Creation , because without light , heat , and the partaking of life . Heat therefore is a stranger to them , external to the Elementary Root . But the air and earth are by themselves , dry : the water onely , is moyst . These are the qualities of those Bodies , which none may vary as it listeth him . But the air hath emptinesses ( as in its place else where ) whereby it drinks up and withholds vapours . This is the state , order , Complexion of the Elements . And which belongs not to the profession of Medicine , unless by the way . And so I will shew , that in the Schooles , that which least belongeth , hath been very much searched into , as if it were of the greatest moment , and that which is of the greatest moment hath been hitherto neglected . Because the whole pains of Physitians hath given place to mockeries , and unprofitable brawlings . Therefore if the Elements do not enter into mixt Bodies , vain is the Doctrine of the Schooles touching the number , composition , temperaments , concerning the contrariety , proportion , strife , and degree of Elements : for degrees are bound to the Seedes of simple Bodies ; not to an Element . They are vain trifles , whether the forms of the Elements do remain in the thing mixt ? because they are those things which are not in it , as an Element : it never ceaseth from that which it once began to be , except the water ; to wit , when being espoused to the Seeds , it departs into a Body , which hath hitherto been believed to be mixt . Vain therefore is their fight , interchangeable course , Victory : and that hence , every Disease , dissolution , ruine , healing , and restoring , doth depend . Vain also is the method which is framed by contraries fetched from hence . For the Schooles being by degrees guilty of those ill patched lies , however they may a long time prate concerning Complexions , at length they fail , and being contented with feigned humours , they scarce any more do debate concerning the fight of the Elements , except in the six things besides nature , and the frivolous Commands of Diet. 1. The Air and Water , are Bodies not to be changed into each other . The Demonstration . The air which is in A being made thin by the heat of that which encompasseth it , increaseth by the increase of dimensions , and therefore it takes up more room than before . Which thing notwithstanding cannot be , unless it drives the Liquor B. C. into C. E. ( otherwise a poriness or fulness of little holes of the Vessel should be admitted , or a Rupture of A. Which contradicteth the supposition of Heer ) and successively the air which was in C. E. into the Vessel D. But D. cannot receive that air , unless it drive away so much air through the hole of the Pipe F. The Conclusion . Therefore without the opening in F. the Liquor B. C. had not been moved from its place . Therefore it is no wonder , that the Liquor of Vitrioll hath by little and little exhaled of its own accord , through the necessary opening in F. Therefore the stupidity or dulness of N. is laid open ; to whom , when I had given many Instruments of like sort , yet he had never observed the opening in F. Yea although I had plainly shewen these things to him ( many being present ) before that he had set forth his ridiculous fable against me ; yet he feigned afterwards that he wondred : Because that Liquor had perished by degrees . He saith , that he found the whole Vessel most perfectly shut ( for neither doth that which is not exactly shut deserve to be called shut ) yet he grants that a motion of the Liquor was made , which had shewen the temperature of the air . And that the Liquor was changed into air , the Glasse being shut . Therefore false observations being supposed , I will discover his misfortunes . It being granted , that the Vessel D. is as equally shut , as is the Vessel A , according to his supposition . The thing required we must demonstrate . That the water B. C. cannot be moved . Likewise that it cannot teach the temperature of the air ; also that it could not be dried up or exhale . Likewise that it could not be turned into air . The preparing of an absurdity . For if he admitteth of the motion and dryness of the water , he ought to admit absurdities and contradictories , or to confess his errours . The preparing of the demonstration . Let some heat be applied to the Vessel A. exceeding the temperature of the air encompassing : for then the air included will enlarge it self , according to the more or lesse heat , and according to , and as it exceedeth the true temperature of the air shut up in the Vessel D. against which , it driving forward the water B. C. it shall destroy the equall tenour through too much action . So that the air shall be pressed together , and co-thickned by restraint , that it may yield to the enlargement made in A. The Demonstration . Therefore according to the supposition of Heer ( that air pressed together is turned into water ) the Liquor had never failed in the Vessel . Yet his own observation will have it : that the Glasse being on every side exactly shut , the water was nevertheless dried up and made air . But he cannot admit of dryness in a Glasse exactly shut , unless his own supposition be destroyed ( to wit , that air pressed together is changed into water ) neither again can that supposition subsist , unless he shall admit of the continuance of the Liquor ; which notwithstanding doth contradict his own observation . Likewise he cannot admit of the moving of the Liquor B. C. unless he shall grant the Glasse to be opened in F , and by consequence he confesseth , he hath erred in his observation . And which thing , although by the force of demonstrations , he was constrained to confess , before that he vomited forth his Apologie with all kinde of reproaches against me , yet he hath persisted therein , to discover his own ignorances . The Conclusion . Therefore it must needes be , if the water B. C. be moved through some temperature of the air , that both the Vessels A and D , are not shut . For else the Instrument should not be convenient for measuring of the temperature of the air ( which is contrary to his supposition ) for seeing the air is of the same heat about A , and about D ; the Liquor B , C , shall also necessarily take rest . Because the quality of the air which encompasseth , is the moving cause of the water B. C. acting with an equall strength , and giving an equall tenour . Now , through the supposition of that which is false , I will demonstrate , what may follow upon his ignorance . Let I say the water B. C. according to his observation , be changed into air . In the first place , this observation cannot be admitted , without rarefying , caused by heat . Nor can that rarefying be granted , without an increase of place , beside the heat . And the increase of place cannot subsist without the enlarging or breaking of the Vessel . Because he confesseth the Glasse to be exactly shut , with a continuation of the Glasse , without ruine , or poriness . 2. A transchanging of the water into air cannot be granted , without co-thickning and restraining ; and restraint is not given without the addition of parts , by pressing together , actually within the same space or magnitude . Which ought altogether to be named a condensing of the air , which in this place , cannot be made but by cold alone ; which supposeth the air to turn into water ; therefore not the water into air . Since therefore neither heat , nor cold , can turn water into air , much lesse shall that which is temperate do that . For that , this doth not beget an alteration in those Elements . Likewise air is not turned into water , because this conversion cannot be admitted , being made by rarefaction , because the rarefying of the air doth not happen in this place without the mediation of heat . But Heer will have it , that the air is co-thickned into water by cold . Therefore water shall not be generated of air by heat . 2. That transchanging of air into water , cannot be admitted , but by condensing and restraining , which cannot happen in a Glasse perfectly shut , but by cold . Which agent upon the air being shut up within A and D , should change it into water , according to the supposition of Heer . For so water , had been increased by generation , in Vessels perfectly shut . Which contradicteth his own words . This pretious Liquor perished , it is no more , it hath ceased to be , and that indeed in the raging winter . Therefore , since neither heat nor cold can co-thicken air into water : much lesse shall that do it which is temperate . Therefore never . It is a wonder therefore , why it hath not hindered the drying up of the Liquor in Vessels . Since according to his own prattle , those should be onely buried under the Snow , that they might be filled with water . Now there shall not hereafter be need of rain , if the Cave being perfectly shut and cold , continual Cisterns should be made . And likewise , when the water should over-weigh the air , that water shall fall into the bottom of a great Vessel very closely shut , from whence , as oft as one would list , the water should be drawn out . And so that Vessel should be changed into a winter Fountain . For as Heer saith , The Vessel was very closely shut , it wanted little holes , neither had it need of opening , as well for the entrance , as the transpiration of the air . But if a new air might afterwards enter the same way , and by the same meanes , whereby the water that was changed into air , the Glasse being shut , flew out : Hereafter therefore , sweet water shall not be wanting to Marriners in a Ship , if by the cold of the night , the air growes together by drops into water . Venice and Antwerp , shall frame Fountains in the belly of a Brasse Cock , which in the Pinacle of the Temple sheweth the windes . For by the night-cold , the air shall weep , being turned into water . And although the Pipe be moyst to those that play on Flutes ; that is not from the air : Otherwise Organ-Pipes also should be moyst within , which is false . For the air utters the sound or tune , and the salt vapour , drops water out of the Pipe. They having pressed air of one ell , together , in a gun , to the space of 14 fingers , even in the cold of winter : and so far is it , that the air so pressed together in excelling cold , was changed into water ; that it cast out a leaden Bullet thorow an Oken Plank , more strongly than a hand-Gun or Pistollet . Now I will proceed to prove that thing by positive Reasons . Because an applied esteem or thinking , hath on every side overshadowed the Schooles with a manifold absurdity . CHAP. XI . The Essay of a Meteor . 1. A vapour raised from the heat of water differs from that which is made by cold . 2. That Air is not made of water . 3. That air can neither by art or nature be brought into water . 4. That the Air doth not subsist without an actuall vacuum or emptiness . 5. It is proved by Handicraft operation , that the subtilizing or rarefying of Art , however exact or fine it be , is nothing but a sifting . 6. By handy operation the same thing is shewen in the sifting or making of leaf-Gold . 7. The water is examined by three proportionable things , and the Doctrine of necessity in the highest degrees of cold of the middle Region of the Air is delivered . 8. The likeness of Mercury with water . 9. The nature of Mercury . 10. The rashness of antient Chymists , concerning Mercury . 11. That earth and water are never made one thing by any co-mixture . 12. How art exceedes nature . 13. The Earth is properly the fruit of the two primary Elements . 14. A neere Reason of an uncapacity in Mercury , of being destroyed . 15. Aquae fortesses do not operate upon the Center of Mercury . 16. Nor the Spirit of Sea-salt , upon the body of it . 17. The inward Sulphur of Mercury . 18. How water may give a weight more weighty than it self . 19. After what manner there is an ordinary piercing of Bodies in the way of nature . 20. In the way of nature , there are not the three first things , although in its own simpleness there is a conceivable difference of kinde , which is to receive the Seedes . 21. Smoak is meer water . 22. Why Clouds do stink . 23. What the Dew is . 24. What a mist is . 25. Wherefore it behooved the Air in the middle Region of the Air to be cold . 26. In this cold , all seeds seperated by Atomes or Motes , do die , and therefore the water returns into the simplicity of its own Element : but in Earth and Water , if things are spoiled of their seed , they do not return unto that simplicity : but do conceive a new seed . 27. By Handicraft operation the errour of Paracelsus is laid open . 28. The errour of the Galenists about the savours of things Elementated . 29. What the Gas of the water is . 30. The unconstancy of Paracelsus concerning the seperation of Elements from Elements . IT is already sufficiently manifest , that the water by the force of heat , is lifted up in manner of a vapour , which vapour nevertheless , is nothing but water made thin , and remains as before ; and therefore being retorted or struck back by an Alembick , it returns into its antient weight of water . Yet it may be doubted , whether water consumed by the cold of the air , is not changed into the nature and properties of air . Because after the floud , the Almighty sent the windes , that they might dry the face of the Earth . And even unto this day , water is sooner supt up under the most cold North , than in Summer heats . Also a Fountain falling into a place or Vessel of Stone or Marble , under the most chilled cold , with a continuall Gulf , the motion of the steep falling Fountain , hinders indeed the water from congealing ; yet a certain vapour is seen to ascend , which being straightway invisible , is snatched away in the Air. That which is presupposed , is , that the every way nature of air , is at least , consumed by cold , if not by heat . First of all I answer ; that absurdity being granted , the Schooles in the first place , have not any thing for themselves from thence , that therefore , the air , by it self , should be moyst : so far is it that the air ( as they determine ) should be far moyster than the water . Because it is at least , water dried up . For that which is transchanged , doth alwayes loose the properties which it had in the terme or bound [ from which ] and borroweth the qualities of the thing transchanging . For however , either the whole air was sometimes water , or that onely should be moyst , which was born of water : but the other first-born air , should be dry from its Creation . And so there should be two aires essentially different . But that the air in its own purity , is dry by an inward property , it appeares from the objection of the aforesaid cold : because if the air from its Root were moyst , windes had not been sent to dry the Earth . But if indeed through the windes , the waters of the floud were truly changed into air , there should be much more air after the floud than before . Consequently , either some part of the World had been empty , or certainly , now by reason of a pressing together , and thickning caused by a new air of so great an heap , we should be choaked ( which thing shall hereafter be manifested , by the handicraft operation of a Candle ) or an equall part of air ought successively to had been annihilated or brought to nothing , under the generation of so great a new air . For the Text will have it , that so deep waters , and the whole superficies of the Earth also , was dryed by the windes . Or if before the floud , the waters had been air in the floud-gates of Heaven ; in like manner therefore in the whole floud , there had been an emptiness in those floud-gates of Heaven : to wit , if the water be thicker and more condensed by a hundred fold at least , than the air . Therefore , I lay it down for a position , That the water doth never perish , indeed not through cold , or that it can be changed , by any endeavours of nature or art ; and likewise , that the air in no ages , or by no dispositions ( not so much as in one onely small drop ) can be reduced into water . For the water doth not endure an emptiness , as neither the co-pressing of it self , in being pressed together by any moover . Onely it is pressed together in a seminall in-thickning , through a formal transchanging of it self . But on the contrary , the air cannot subsist without a Vacuum or emptiness , ( which thing I will prove in its Chapter ) and therefore it suffers an enlarging and straightning of it self . Therefore there are two stable Elements , differing in nature and properties among themselves ; because it is impossible for them to be changed into each other . I confess indeed , that out of the Stone-Vessel of a Fountain , a watery exhalation doth ascend like a mist , from the smallest Atomes of the water ; which exhalation , although departing but a little from thence , it be made altogether invisible , it doth not therefore corrupt the Doctrine delivered . For truly of one equall agent , there is one onely , and equall action . Wherefore , if cold doth first change the water into an icy exhalation , the same cold cannot afterwards have another action upon that exhalation , than of more extenuating and dispersing the same ; so as that through its fineness , it may soon be made invisible ; And afterwards may be made more and more fine . For neither could the hundredth extenuation of the same exhalation , more transchange the water , than the first . Because it is an Element and Body , impossible , by its appointment , to be reduced into a greater simplicity : since subtilizing made by the division of parts , is nothing but a certain simple shifting . For example , Beat Gold into Plates , and then into the thinnest leaves , but thence into the Gold of Painters ; straightway again , make it smooth or plain , in a Marble Morter . And then with minium or red Lead , and Salt , bring it into an impalpable , or exceeding fine Powder ; seperate the minium by the fire , and wash away the Salt with water , and repeat or renew it often as thou listest : At length , also with Sal armoniac , Stibium , and Mercurie Sublimate , drive it through a retort ; and renew that seven times , that the whole Gold may be brought into the form of a flitting Oil of a light red colour . For it is a very smooth , yea and a hard , sound , that which may be hammered , and a most fixed Body , which now seemeth to be turned into the nature of an Oil. But truly that dissembled Liquor , is easily reduced into its former weight and body of Gold. What if therefore Gold doth not change its antient nature , by so many manglings ; nor doth by any meanes loose its own seed ; much lesse doth water , a thing appointed for a simple Element by the Lord of things , for the upholding of the Universe . Although water should be potent in the three divulged Beginnings , and should truly consist in Salt , Sulphur , and Mercurie , mingled together : yet it suffers no seperation of the same things , by reason of the most exquisite simpleness of its nature , and the most firm continuance of its constancy . For Bodies when they are made subtile or fine to the utmost , that they could be no more fine ; if they should continue in making them fine , at length they depart into another substance ; with a retaining of their seminall properties . And in this respect , the Alkahest of Paracelsus , by piercing all Bodies of nature , transchangeth them by making them subtile . Which happens not in the Elements , Water and Air ; because , by reason of their highest simplicity , and priority of their appointment , they refuse to passe , or to be transchanged into any thing that is before , or more simple than themselves . Therefore when exhalations being gotten with child by the odours or smells , and seeds of compound Bodies , are translated from the lower parts to the middle Region of the air : there , through the most subtile dividing of the vapours by cold , as much as is possible for nature to do , they are reduced indeed , into their most simple and primitive purity of Elementary water : but in that last sub-division of their finenesses and Atomes , all Seeds , Odours , and Ferments , which they lifted upward with themselves , do dye together , and do return into their first Element of water whence they were materially formed . Hence Clowdes , as long as they are Clowdes , do stink in Mountains : but not after they are by the greatest colds , there extenuated into the last division of fineness . And this necessity hath been in nature , that the middle Region of the air should ( not far of from us ) be most cold . For therefore the water alwayes remains whole as it is , or without any dividing of the three beginnings , it is transformed and goes into fruits , whither the Seedes do call and withdraw it . Because an artificial diligent search hath shewen me indeed , after what sort , the three first beginnings , and that in a proportionable sense , are in the water , yet by no art , or corruption of dayes , are they to be divided from each other . For an Element should cease to be a simple body , if it be to be seperated into any thing before , or more simple than it self . But nothing in corporeall things is granted to be before , or more simple than an Element . The water therefore , is most like to the internall Mercurie of Mettalls ; the which , seeing it is now stript of all manner of spot of Mettalick Sulfur , it as well cleaves to it self on every side , by an undissolvable joyning , as it doth radically refuse all possible division by art or nature . Hence Geber had occasion given him to say , that there is no moysture in the order or course of things , like to Mercury , by reason of the Homogeneall or samely kinde of simplicity continually remaining with it in the torment of the fire . For truly either it being wholly changed in its own nature , flees away from the fire ; or it wholly perseveres in the fire through the transchanging of its seedes . I confess indeed that I learned the nature of the Element of water , no otherwise than under the Ferule or Staffe made of the white wand of Mercury . But since I have from hence , with great pains and cost , thorowly searched for thirty whole years , and I have found out the adequate or suitable Mercurie of the water ; I will therefore endeavour to explain its nature , so far as the present speech requireth , and the slenderness of my judgement suffereth . First of all , the Alchymists do confess , that the substance of Mercurie is not at all capable to endure any intrinsecall or inward division , and they shew the cause : because by a homogeneall and sweet proportion , its watery parts , are by an equall tempering conjoyned to its earthly parts ( the aiery and fiery ones , being suppressed in silence , for that these should flee away , if they were in it , neither do they contain the cause of constancy here required ) and therefore that both these cannot forsake each other , by reason of their just temperature , they embracing each other , though against the fires will. In the first place , the errour of the auntients hath deluded them , concerning the necessary confluence of four Elements into the mixture of mixt bodies . But surely , that errour was not to be indulged by Alchymists : because they are those , who durst not enforce or comprise the air and fire of Mercurie , when as they treated of its constancy . And then , because it was very easie for them to experience , that the water , after what manner soever , either by art , or natural proportion , it was married to the Earth , yet that it never obtains a constancy in the fire , as neither to be at any time truly radically joyned to the Earth : Because water , after what manner soever it be co-mixed with Earth , ceaseth not to be water . For neither shall manner or proportion ever make water to degenerate from its own essence , as neither shall any conjoyning of it with Earth , be able to procure that thing . But water remaining water , is born , alwayes to flee away from the fire . Surely it is a ridiculous thing , that the water should rather love a proportioned weight of Earth , than an unequall one , and that , for that loves sake , it should against its will , the rather forsake that temperament of Earth . For truly when the speech is concerning the co-mingling of four Elements , it is understood of pure Elements , and those plainly unmixed together , and so not defiled , with any spot of mixture , or otherwise prevented by any disposition . For neither doth the water carry a ballance with it , nor beares a respect as to weigh the Earth that is to be co-mixed with it , that it may be the more toughly conjoyned to the same . I greatly admire , that the wan errour of the co-mixing of Elements being received , hath brought forth such so●tish absurdities among all the Schooles , and that they by that absurdity alone , have locked the gate of finding out of Sciences and Cau● Mercurie doth not indeed admit into it , or contain so m●ch as the least of earth , 〈◊〉 is alwayes the Son of water alone . Yea earth and water can never be compelled into any naturall body , or be subdued into an identity or sameliness of forme , by whatever skill that thing be attempted : For T●les or Bricks , if from moyst Earth they are boiled into a shelly stone , they do not receive water , but for the guidance of the Clay : but earth hath a seed in its own Salt , whence the Clay becomes stony through the coction of Glasse-making . Therefore of the water and earth , there is onely a powring on , and applying of parts ; but not an admixture of growing together . For whatsoever is meet to depart into a compounded Body , and of divers things , to be converted into [ this something ] this must needes be done by the endeavour of the working Spirits , and so far , of those things that do contain them , as they do promote the matter by transchanging it into a new generation . But the Elements are Bodies , but not spirits , and much lesse do they also act into each other . The Earth therefore , ought first to loose its Being , and be reduced into a juyce , before it should marry the water , that by embracing this water gotten with childe by the seed , it might bring it over into the fruit ordained for the conceived seed . But what agent should that be , which should transport the earth into a juyce , and not rather into water ? since the earth being a simple body , should be changed into nothing but into a simple body its neighbour ? Surely another co-like Element should not cause that ; seeing nothing of like sort , hath been hitherto seen to agree with the water or air . Nor , at length , should the earth intend the corruption of it self , since this resisteth the constancy of Creation . Therefore although part of the earth may be homogeneally or by way of simplicity of kinde , reduced into water by art ; yet by nature onely , I deny that thing to be done : seeing that , in nature , an agent is wanting , by which agent alone , onely mediating , the Virgin-earth , or true earth , is reduced into Salt , and from thence into water . Let it be for a Lesson to Chymists ; That the Earth , although it was in its first constitution , created , yet properly it is even a fruit of the water . Therefore neither do generations or co-mixtures ever happen in nature , but by a getting of the water with childe . And so that as long as the water is chief in the seed , never any generation proceedeth from thence . Therefore much lesse , is there a flowing compound body to be exspected from thence ; because it resisteth the fruitfulness of the fire . And that thing least of all , as oft as water and earth are mutually connexed to their own bodies . Therefore the constancy of bodies is onely in the fire , in the family of Mineralls , and indeed most perfect in the purest Mettalls . Because the Eternall , hath not created moysture to be ●●kened in its constancy , to metallick Mercurie . And therefore there is in Mercurie it self , even as in the Elements , a near reason of an uncapacity to be destroyed . For truly I have discerned in Mercurie , a certain outward Sulphur , containing the originall spot of Mettall ; the which , because it is originall , therefore is it also taken away from it , with difficulty . Which at length , nevertheless , being seperated by art , skilful men say , that the Mercurie is cleansed of a superfluous Sulphur , and superfluous moysture . Because afterwards , it may not by any fire be precipitated or cast into the form of Earth , by reason of its greatest simpleness , whereby it is compared to the Element of water . For it hath lost its earth , that is its Sulphur , which earth in the center of its essence , is no less from the Element of water , than its remaining refined Mercurie , which earth , albeit , it had from its first beginning most deeply co-mixed with it self . If therefore the Mercury in its former state , had a suitable temperament of earth and water : therefore at leastwise , after the taking away of that Sulphurous earth , it had lost its an●ient uncapacity of being devided , the which rather , by a contrary disposition of relation , it ha●h hence-forward c●nfirmed far more firm to it self for ever . For Mercurie , after it is spoiled of that Sulphur , is found not to be changed by any fire : because it is the Mercurie of Mercurie . But the Sulphur is death and life , or the dwelling place of life in things : to wit , in the Sulphur , are the Fermen●s or leavens , putrifactions by continuance , o ●ours , specificall savours of the seedes , for any kinde of transmutations . The Mercurie therefore being cleansed of its originall spot , and being a Virgin , doth not suffer it self to be any more laid hold on by Sulphurs or seeds ; but it straight-way consumeth , and as it were slayeth these , except its own compeere . For other sublunary bodies , are to weak , that they should subdue , pierce , change , or defile Mercurie of so great worth : Even as it well happens in other bodies , where the seed which lurketh in the Sulphur , sends it self into water . But the Salt and Mercurie of things , as it were womanish juyces , do follow the conceptions of the Sulphur . For Aqua fortis is not wrought upon Mettalls , or Mercurie , but by the beholding of the Sulphur . For the spirit of Sea-salt , without the conjoyning of some embryonated or imperfect shaped Sulphur , doth not therefore so much as dissolve the common peoples Mercurie . Therefore the Sulphur onely is by adjuncts immediately dissolved , and changed by the fire ; which successive change , the other parts of the compounded body do afterwards undergoe , not but for the Sulphurs sake . Therefore Mercurie of Mercurie , or in Mercurie , remaineth safe , as well in fires as in its Liquor the air . Otherwise , if a Corrosive matter should touch on that Mercurie , the pains of many might happily be recompenced : Because the whole Root of transmutations is in the Sulphur . Therefore there is another Sulphur of Mettalls , internall to Mercurie it self , and therefore it remains untouched by every corrosive thing , no lesse , than from the destructions of fire and air . Yea a totall ruine of things should follow , if every thing dissolving should pierce into the innermost Root of dissolving . And although Silver dissolved in Aqua fortis may seem to have perished , as being in the form of a water ; yet it remains in its former essence : Even as Salt dissolved in water , is , remaineth Salt , and is fetched from thence , without the changing of the Salt. Which thing surely should not thus come to passe , if the thing dissolving , should in the least be joyned in dissolving , and should not be stayed by the Mercurie of that composed body . Therefore the inward kernel of the Mercurie , is not touched by dissolvers , and much lesse is it pierced by them . But the ignorant being astonished at the novelty of the Paradox , will urge : If the water be not pressed together , nor its parts go to ruine , and Gold be of water alone , whence therefore have Gold or Lead their weight ? For truly , water hath not pores , bigger by ten fold than the whole water . In the first place , as this doubt doth not take away doubts , so it argues nothing against the matter of Gold , to be taken from water onely . For truly , if Gold should be of four proportioned Elements : and air and fire are light ones : I therefore may likewise object , from whence hath Gold its weight ? But if it consist onely of Earth and water , from whence hath Gold its ten fold weight ? Therefore an argument which of it self doth not drive away difficulties , doth nothing presse the adversaries . But since it behooves an Interpreter of nature to be ready to search into , and render the causes of nature ; I will shew from the premises , that the seed of Gold hath a power of transchanging the water into [ this something ] which is far different from water . Wherefore it is agreeable to nature and reason , that in transmutation , the water doth sustain as much pressing together , going to ruine , and aduniting , as great Stones or Mettalls do overpoyse the water in weight , and as much as the necessity of the seed doth require : Because that , of nothing , nothing is made . Therefore weight is made of another body weighing even so much ; in which there is made a transmutation as of the matter , so also of the whole essence . Therefore the water , while it undergoes the lawes of the seed , it is also bound to the precepts of the dimensions of its own weight , co-thickning , and going to ruine . For if the water of its own accord flies up , out-flees the sight , in the shew of a vapour a hundred fold lighter than it self , and yet remains water ; why shall not the water , while it is made , [ this something ] neither is any longer formally water , also receive thicknesses greater than it is wont , by ten fold ? for indeed on both sides , the matter doth follow the properties of the seedes . Therefore the liberty of nature is perpetuall , of its own accord , to cause , and to suffer the pressings together of a watery body , and will not undergoe those by any guidance of an Artificer ; yea Mountains are sooner overturned by Gun-powder . Therefore there shall be sixteen parts of water pressed together into the room of one part , where Gold is framed of water . Wherefore , so far is it , that the piercing of dimensions becomes impossible , seeing that nothing is more natural or home-bred to nature , than to co-thicken the body of the water : but indeed , although there may something appear in the water like to the three first things , yet also there is no hope that they should be rent asunder from each other , because in the every way simplicity of the water , an adequate or suitable Sulphur is after a certain sort hidden , which cannot be seperated from the other two , but they all do accompany together . Those are not the three true Principles , which are abstracted or seperated onely by the Imagination . The water therefore , since it doth on every side vary off-Springs according to the diversity of their seedes ; thus so many kindes of Earths , Mineralls , Salts , Liquors , Stones , Plants , living Creatures , and Meteors , do rise up in their particular kindes , from the blast or inspiration of the seedes . For the water putrifies by continuance , in the Earth , is made the juyce of the Earth , Gums , Oyl , Rosin , Wood , Berries , &c. and that which of late , was nothing but water materially , now burns , and sends forth a fume or smoak . Not indeed , that that fume is air , but is either a vapour , or a drie exhalation , and a new fruit of the water , not yet appointed to be wholly turned by its seed . It is proved . For the Body of the air cannot make a shadow in the air ; but whatsoever doth exhale out of a live Coal , doth make a shadow in the Sun. For since the air hath a limited consistence and thickness , and that agreeable to its own simpleness : it followes , that whatsoever is thicker than the air , that is not air . Moreover , that which being made thin by the heat of the fire , doth now exhale , is as yet thicker than the air ; and so for that cause , makes a shadow ; surely that shall become far more thick in the cold , and shall be made visible in Clouds . Whatsoever exhalations therefore do from the Earth climbe upward , and are joyned in Clouds ; for this cause also , those Clouds do stink , no otherwise than as water doth under the Aequinoctial line : and there the Ferment and Seed of their Concretion or growing together being consumed , they are turned into pure water , no otherwise , than the water is , after it hath escaped and overcome the bounds of its putrefaction : which it had conceived under the line . The dew therefore is a Cloud belonging to the Spring , not yet stinking , falling down , before it can touch the place of cold . So a mist or fogg , is a stinking Cloud , not as yet refined through the putrefaction of its Ferment : because as many as have passed over the Alps with me , have known , how greatly , Clouds taken hold of with the hand , do stink ; but the Rain-water collected thence , how sweet and without savour it is , and almost incorruptible . For when any thing doth exhale , whether it be in the shew of water , or Oil , or smoak , or mists , or of an exhalation , although indeed it brings not away with it , the seedes of the Concrete or composed Body , at leastwise , it carries the Ferments upward , which that they may be fully abolished from thence , and that the remaining matter may return into water , it behooves , that they be first lifted up into a subtile or fine Gas in the kitchin of the most cold air , and that they passe over into another higher Region , and do assume a condition in the shape of the least motes or Atomes . And that the Ferments do there die , as well through the cold of the place , as the fineness of the Atomes , as it were by choaking and extinguishing . For cold is therefore a principle not indeed of life , but of extinguishment . To wit , as it doth sub-divide the parts of the Atomes , as yet by more subtilizing them , even as I have above taught . And so that Woods are also the sooner consumed by fire under cold , as if they were driven by a blast . From which necessity , verily that place was from the beginning , alwayes chilled with continuall cold . Because the Authour of nature , least he might seem to have been wanting to the necessities of his Creature , hath every where fitted ordinations according to necessities . Therefore cold is naturall and home-bred to that place : but not from the succeeding Chymera of an Antiperistasis . Indeed the matter of fruits being brought thither , must needes return into their first Being ; and the infections of the Ferments are therefore first to be removed , by the mortifications , sub-divisions , subtilizings , piercings , choakings and extinguishings of the cold . The Air therefore is the place , where , all things being brought thither , are consumed , and do return into their former Element of water . For in the Earth and water , although Bodies sprung up from seedes , do by little and little putrifie , and depart into a juyce ; yet they are not so nearly reduced into the off-spring of simple water , as neither into a Gas : For Bodies that are enfeebled or consumed , do straight way in the Earth , draw another putrifaction through continuance , a ferment , and Seed : Whence they flee to second Marriages , and are again anew increased into succeeding fruits . But the fire , the death of all things , doth want seedes , being subjected to the will of the Artificer , it consumeth all seminall things , but brings over their combustible matters into a Gas. Paracelsus affirms , that three Beginnings are so united in all particular principles , that one cannot wholly be freed from the other , by any help of art . But saving the authority of the man , our Handicraft-operation containing his secret , Samech , hath affirmed , that which is contrary to his assertion , by the Spirit of Wine being turned into an un-savoury water . And so neither can that man cover his ignorance . Indeed the Spirit of Wine being wholly capable of burning , made void of Phlegme or watery moysture , and Oil ; it alwayes for the one half of it , passeth into a simple , un-savoury , and Elementary water , by a touching of the Salt of Tartar on it . Again , the same thing is made by repetition , as to the other part . For that man was ignorant of the thingliness of a Gas ( to wit , my Invention ) and next of the properties of cold in the Air ; yea he thought that the vapour of the water was plainly annihilated : which sottishness of that his proper form of speech , is least of all to be winked at in so great a Distiller . Especially , because he would have the Elements to be seperable from feigned Elements , rather than the three first things . Wherefore from the dissection of the water delivered , it now sufficiently appeares , that the simple water is not crude or raw , and that fire doth not take away the crudity from it , which it hath not . Because the whole action of the fire , is not into the water , but into that which is co-mixed with it by accident . Galen according to his manner , transcribing Diascorides word for word , and being willing to measure the Elementary Degrees of Simples , he hath not attempted it by the discretion of his Tongue : and so he divined , that more of the fire had concurred to a mixture , where he found the more sharpness and bitterness . Which thing , the Schooles even till now hold as authenticall ; although Opium being bitter , hinders it , although Flammula or Scarrewort ; ( the Glasse being close shut ) layeth aside its tartness ; as also Water-Pepper , and the like . And what things are moyst , do burn or sting , but dried things do binde . Neither shall the Galenists easily finde out a way , whereby they may bring fire for water-Pepper , under dirt . For it hath been unknown in the Schooles , that all properties , not onely those which they call occult or hidden , but also that any other properties , do flow out of the lap of seeds : and all those which it pleaseth the Schooles themselves also to call formall ones . Surely I do experience four Elementary qualities , to be as in the outward bark of things ; the second qualities to be more dangerous or destructive : but the most inward ones , to be immediately pressed in the Archeus . Yet all of them to be from the bosom of the seede and forms : But no quality to come forth from the first matter , as neither from the Wedlock of the Elements , because they are both feigned Mothers . But because the water which is brought into a vapour by cold , is of another condition , than a vapour raised by heat : therefore by the Licence of a Paradox , for want of a name , I have called that vapour , Gas , being not far severed from the Chaos of the ●●untients . In the mean time , it is sufficient for me to know , that Gas , is a far more subtile or fine thing than a vapour , mist , or distilled Oylinesses , although as yet , it be many times thicker than Air. But Gas it self , materially taken , is water as yet masked with the Ferment of composed Bodies . Moreover , Paracelsus was altogether earnest in seperating four Elements out of Earth , Water , Air and Fire ; and so from his very own Elements : which seperation notwithstanding , he denieth to be , from the three first things , possible : as if those three first things , were more simple , and before the Elements : Being unmindefull of the Doctrine many times repeated by him : To wit , that every kinde of Body , doth consist onely of three principles ; but not of Elements : because Elements were not bodies : but places , and empty wombs of bodies or principles , void of all body . For although the Elements are among us commonly not believed to be undefiled ; yet Paracelsus calls them so : the which he teacheth , are by art to be seperated from pollutions . But this description receiveth the air in one Glasse , common water in another ; but the Earth , either of the Garden , or the Field , in a third ; and at length , the flame of the fire in a fourth . But he shuts the Vessels with Hermes's Seal , by melting of the neck : And the water for a moneth , continually to boyl in its Vessel . As though that thing could possibly be done , and the Glasse not the sooner leap asunder : especially , because he commands the water to be shut up without air , unto the highest brim of the Vessel ( and the Glasse to be melted , to wit , with the water . ) Lastly , he conceives a flame in the Glasse , and in the very moment wherein it ceaseth , it is no more fire , but an aiery smoak : nor is the fire a substance . Last of all , nor can the fire be detained within the compass of the Vessel . In another place , he denieth any Element of fire besides the Heaven ; but now , he calls the fire , the Gas of the thing burnt up . And he exalts these his trifles for causes of great moment , the which notwithstanding , he dared not to name . Because the doubtful man hath exposed his Dreams to the World , in hope of deserving thereby , the name of the Monarch of Secrets . CHAP. XIII . The Gas of the Water . 1. The Gas of the water differs from a Vapour . 2. A Demonstration from Creation . 3. That the Air in Genesis is signified by the Heaven . 4. That in the Firmament is the operative Principle of dividing of the Waters . 5. The seperating Powers of Waters in the air . 6. A History of a Vapour . 7. Gas differs from the exhalation of the auntients . 8. A supposition of Principles . 9. The manner of making in a Vapour . 10. The Gas of the Water . 11. An example in Gold. 12. The Gas of the Water is shewne to the young beginner . 13. The incrusting of the Water . 14. The heat of the Alps is great , yet not to be felt . 15. That Gold is not the absence or privation of heat . 16. Why Gas is an invisible thing . 17. Why the Stars do twinckle . 18. Why the Heaven is of an Azure colour . 19. The Air knowes not the motion of snatching . 20. Above all Clouds , the Air is not voyd of all motion . 21. What quietness there may be in that place . 22. Gas is the Mother of a Meteor . 23. Gas and Blas , do constitute the whole re-publick of a Meteor . 24. The Sun is hot by it self . 25. The soils of the Air are the folding doores of Heaven . 26. Why some are side-windes , but others perpendicular or down-right ones . 27. From whence the Blas of the air is originally stirred up . 28. Two Causes of every Meteor . 29. The water is in the same manner that it was from the beginning . 30. From whence there is a stability in the quiet Perolede or Soil of the Air. 31. Peroledes are proved . 32. A solving of an objection . 33. The water is frozen of it self occasionally , but not effectively , by cold . 34. Why Ice is lighter than water . 35. The proportion of lightness in Ice , by Handicraft-operation . 36. The constancy and simplicity of the water . 37. That all Beings do after some sort feel or perceive . 38. A Vapour doth sooner return into water than into Gas. 39. The changing into a Vapour , in respect of the air the seperater , is oblique or crooked . 40. The air is dry , and cold by it self . 41. In an elementated Body , there is not a simple and an every way sameliness of kinde . 42. The rarefying of the Sulphur of water , gives smoothness to Ice : but not the immixing of a strange air . 43. In the Patient or sufferer , re-acting differs from resistance . 44. It is proved by 17 Reasons , that air is never transchanged into water , nor this into that . GAS and Blas are indeed new names brought in by me , because the knowledge of them hath been unknown to the Antients : notwithstanding , Gas and Blas do obtain a necessary place among natural Beginnings . Therefore this Paradox is the more largely to be explained . And first , after what sort Gas may be made of water , and how different a manner it is , from that , wherein heat doth elevate water into a Vapour . And likewise we must know after what sort these things do happen , by the dissection of the water . I will therefore repeat , That the thrice glorious God , in the beginning , created the Heaven , and the Earth , and the great deep of waters . But the great deep began from the hollowness of the Heaven , and was bounded upon the Globe of the Earth . Nothing is there read of the creating of the air , which notwithstanding is a Body , and created into an Element , not indeed after the six dayes Creation , that it might fill up the place , where the air now is . Therefore the Heaven designeth or signifieth the Air , and the matter of the Heavens , is otherwise , hitherto unknown . And then the Eternall created the Firmament , that it might seperate the waters which ought to remain under it , from those that were to remain above it . But the Firmament was not as it were the floud-gate , or as it were an idle partition of the waters : but rather the operative Principle of that seperation . Even as the Sun , is not the middle partition between the day and the night ; although it was made to seperate the day from the night : but the Sun is the maker of the day it self . Therefore the Heaven or Air was appointed the seperater of the waters , to endure as long as the very World it self . For which cause , it hath obtained two notable powers . To wit , exceeding coldness , and dryness proportioned thereunto . It hath indeed great lights in it , which are rowled about in it , and the which , however they may mitigate its in-born cold : yet the air ceaseth not from that office of a seperater . And in what part that kinde of seperation ought to happen ( which is neere to us ) there are no lights at all ; yea , nor also far aloft . But by how much the neerer that air toucheth at the Chambers of the blessed , it abounds with many lights . Thus is the air it self disposed . But now I will set upon the History of an exhalation , which contains a vapour and also a Gas , and so we must examine the thing contained in the air . For neither is Gas a dry , and Oily Body , which the Antients have called an exhalation : but it containeth moreover , another watery body also , besides Vapours , from whence the body , manner , and progress of Meteors will be known . I consider the body of the water , to contain in it an Elementary , and native Mercury , liquid , and most simple : next an un-savoury , and alike simple Salt. Both which , do embrace within them , a uniform , homogeneall , simple and unseperable Sulphur . These things I suppose , even as Astronomers do their excentrices , that I may go to meet the weakness of our understanding . Therefore the Salt of water , as it is moved , and waxeth hot from the least lukewarmness being impatient of heat , straight-way climbes on high , as it were to the place of rest and refreshment , with a proportionable part of its own Mercury . And for that cause , the Sulphur also being unseperable from both , ought to accompany them . The three things being thus conjoyned , are the vapour , which being brought into the luke-warm air , for the same Reasons , hasteneth to ascend , untill it hath touched the places of its refreshment , provided by the Creator . Whither the vapour being now brought , the heat which troubled it being presently laid down , the Salt as it were repenting of its flight , could wish , that it might again receive a resolving in its Mercury , and return into its former state of water . But the lofty and troublesome cold of the place hinders it . By occasion whereof , the Mercury of the water is so frozen or congealed , that it is unfit for the resolving of its Salt. Wherefore that vapour is presently changed into a Gas , and Gas hanging in doubt , in a shape , wanders up and down : So that , unless the cold did dry up the Sulphur of the water in a bark or shell , and in this respect divide it , every vapour and Cloud ( even as in our glassen Vessels ) as being heavier than the air , should by and by rush downwards . Hence we see , that vapours having slidden down a little beyond their bound ( even as straightway after great colds , when as the South winde blowes on it at unawares ) the Mercury of the water being unfrozen , that the Salt is at length easily resolved within its Mercury . For the importunities of cold and heat , do command the Beginnings of the water , to be turned inward or outward . For so the lesser rains and the dew , do fall down in the least Atomes , as it were descending and resolved vapours . Therefore there is not a new and substantiall generation , while of water , a vapour is lifted up ; since it is onely an extenuating , by reason of a turning of its parts outward : As neither also , whiles the Mercury of the water doth resolve the Salt , which it again shuts up within it self , and is changed into rain . Which is nothing but the resolving of the former Atomes of the water , and a co-uniting them into greater drops : For a changing of the essence doth not interpose , where there is onely a locall dividing ; and turning of parts outward . For example , yellow and malleable gold doth not change its essence , while being dissolved by Aqua Regis , it hath the colour of Iron rust , nor while it waxeth black in Chrysulca , and is beaten into the smallest powder . Moreover , that thou mayest know Gas ; in the first place , meditate , the air to be the seperater , next to be simple in its Root , so likewise to be simply cold and dry . Since therefore heat and cold , are more active than moysture and dryness : therefore the moysture of the Mercury doth first suffer by the coldness of the air : and seeing that the Mercury and Salt of the water , are more cold than its Sulphur , therefore they are more speedily affected , and first of all indeed the Mercury , because it is the coldest of the two Companions . But since every thing desireth to remain in rest without the change of successive alterations , and since the Elements also ought to remain without destruction ; therefore the Mercury and Salt of the water do hasten to preserve themselves from the coldness of the air . And so they co-thicken , arm , and incrust themselves in Ice , that they may the more resist in soundness , which otherwise , being changed into Gas , are lifted up ( for it is alwayes a property of the air , to seperate the waters from the waters ) or else they stop or hinder that changing and flight . But if indeed the water being stirred or disturbed , is not made Ice , then the cold and dryth of the air do lay hold on the three first things of the water , so as the Mercury of the water is made uncapable of resolving the salt in its moysture . And so the Salt doth , under the cold , after a sort wax clotty in the Mercury and Sulphur : So as that the Sulphur being more dry than the other two , doth also more easily suffer than its fellowes , and more from the dryth of the air , than from its coldness . Wherefore the Sulphur is enlarged into the smallest parts , and the Mercuries and Salts of all which parts being made clotty , they thrust their Sulphur outward , that it might suffer from the dryness of the air . Wherefore , seeing the Sulphur is equall , to either of them both , the other two must needes be divided , and enlarged , according to the measure of the Sulphur . From whence the Mercury with the Salt of the water , are also most easily frozen within the Sulphur , by the cold of the air . Wherefore seeing the Salt and Mercury are unfit for the moystening of the Sulphur , they are likewise necessarily changed into Gas , and being more and more made fine , they are sub-divided even into the utmost and possible fineness of the Element . Therefore Gas differs not in substance and essence ; but by way of alteration onely . For the Salt in the vapour being impatient of heat , riseth up with the Mercury , and they have the Sulphur included in themselves : And Gas turns the Sulphur of the water outward , throughly dries it , and sub-divides it . For the vapour , while it toucheth at the place of its refreshment , doth for the most part wander up and down ( half congealed in the shape of a Cloud ) nor doth it ascend : but the cold of winter coming on , when now that Region of the air doth beyond measure wax cold , straightway the air becomes clear , the Clouds do sever or disperse , and are changed into Gas. In the Mountains of Helvetia and Subandia , the Clouds do float under ones feet , and through their holes , we behold the World downward , by reason of the cruel cold of the place : but whatsoever is above the Clouds , is without a Cloud , because that whole vapour is by degrees extenuated into Gas , and ceaseth to be seen . Indeed the Sun shines clear in that part , unless it do snow ; but the heat thereof is not to be perceived , although I have seen my Companion , on that side whereon the Sun-beams had directly struck him a whole half day , to have scorched his face and neck , no otherwise than as if he had applyed Cantharides . And that , without the feeling of heat or pain . For neither doth this come to passe , through the too much subtility of the air and heat . For truly degrees of heat , but not the fineness and purity thereof do burn : yea the thicker body , as Iron , burns more fervently than the live Coal that is thinner . And much lesse , by reason of the reflexion of beams . For truly he was burned in that part , whereon the Sun , but not the adverse reflexion of the Mountain did strike him . For the cold of the place causeth , that the heat of the Sun is the lesse felt . Hence indeed it is manifest , that cold is not a meer absence or privation of heat , or a [ non-Being . ] For truly here , both of them do stand , also distinctly operate , and that indeed in a high degree . And do make the air , by their tempering , to be almost the sweetest in the whole world . Yet the Snow cannot be melted in the Mountain by that heat of the Sun : because the cold of the Snow , and also of the place , are both suitably equal to the heat of the Sun. But by how much a man is hotter than the snow , by so much indeed the heat of the Sun doth prevail , and mightily burn ; for that humane warmeth doth almost wholly exclude the cold of the place , and the heat of the Sun doth almost act alone by it self . While Vapours and Clouds are made Gas , they are made fine , and by how much the finer they are , by so much the higher also do they climbe in sub-dividing , and do more shun the sight . For otherwise the Sun , by reason of the multitude and thickness of the Clouds , should never shine on us , and much lesse should it heat the Earth . Therefore the Stars do twinckle , and the whole Heaven being void of colour , is bright or cleare ; yet it sheweth an Azure colour . For although Gas be a most subtile thing , and invisible in its own body : yet because it as yet , differs from the every way clearness of the Air , therefore in so great depth of it self , it dissembles a Skie-colour . For Gas , which in its first division , I have said , to give a shadow , in a thousand sub-divisions of it self , doth not appear , unless that in much depth , it , at least sheweth the aforesaid colour . It is also a frivolous thing , that the air is carried about by the snatching motion of the first Moover . Because Clouds do follow the guidance of the windes : But the motions of the windes are irregular , because they are of the Blas of the Stars ; but not of the mooving of the Orbs. And moreover , far above the Clouds , the air is almost unmooved . For truly , a Dutch Merchant ascendeth a Mountain in the Canaries , which at this day is thought to be the highest of the whole World. But there was one guide , two Masters , and as many Servants , five Camels , one whereof was appointed for Victuall and Fodder . In the fourth moneth called June , early in the morning , they went up : But they had scarce gone an houres space , when as the cold offended them , and they complained all the day , that about night , it would be so unwonted , that they ought to increase their Garments . On the third day in the morning , about three houres after Sun-rising , they came to the top of the Mountain . For there in the Sand , were the steps of Camels , imprinted a year before , being as it were new made , and the names of certain persons written on the ground , as if it had been with a yesterdayes finger . For , besides a most exceeding sweet air , they found no Vegetable for want of rain . Therefore they hastened to descend , the Camels all the five dayes space , being nothing at rest , except a little while , wherein they might take their Fodder . But all the third day , they were distant perhaps fifteen Italian miles from the Horizon . But although this Region of a quiet air did not so feel the tempests of windes ; yet notwithstanding , it must needes have a sweet flowing air , and an alterative Blas ; not onely , because it suffers day and night , cold and heat : but also because it transmitteth the Blas of the Stars , receives the lower Gas , and suffers other Consequences from thence . And , as that Region sends thorow it the alterations of the Stars , so also it conceiveth and partaketh of them . For the Sun ( let the same judgement be of the other Stars ) cannot but heat , which burneth Bladders in the coldest Mountains , and it is required , that this heat be there in the day-time : Because also the night there wanteth this heat . Therefore those successive changes must needes be in that very place entertained . After the same manner also , the beams of the Stars , with their full forces , do passe thorow the vast Monarchie of the Air , and in it do sow their alterations . For neither , although they do not produce their proper effects , but in the bound of their scope into which they are directed for the use of mortall men ; yet they cease not to season the air ( by altering it ) with their impressions , throughout the bounds where they passe . And as yet the rather , because in this part are the Floud-gates of Heaven : that is , in the huge space of the quiet air it self , is the Gas of the water , which by the most exact rarefying of subdivision , is many times re-shaken & sub-divided by the colds through which it hath passed . This Gas at least should never of its own accord return into its auntient water , nor should descend unto the most cold places through which it escaped by climbing upward , unless the uppermost Blas of the Stars should force its descent . And so the Region of the still air is not void of successive changes , but that the Rain doth not there moysten the ground , nor the rage of windes serve for the commotion of the waters . For since the Gas which it keepes in it self , is now reduced to so great a fineness of it self , and all its Atomes being as it were roasted with heats in the outward superficies of the Sulphur ; surely they cannot return into rain , unless by a sweet winde , they descend to the middle Region , where they do re-take the beginnings of coagulating , under the luke-warm blowing of the air . For a certain alteration opposite to that place from which the Gas departed , ought to reduce the Gas into water . For a sweet luke-warmth in the still air , maketh the Atomes of Gas being covered in their own Sulphur , to divide : which Sulphur ( a skin being as it were broken thorow ) or like a Glasse , that is brought suddenly from luke-warmth into the cold ) is broken ; and so the Mercury of the water doth dissolve its Salt , at the dissolution whereof , the Sulphur it self may be melted into its former water . And that kinde of inversion or turning in and out of the body of the water , and that torture through the exact searching of the cold , is necessary , that all the power of the Ferment , may be wholly taken away out of the Clouds . For else , much corruption , and the much stink of mists , would soon destroy mortalls . As in Silver being melted , the exceeding small atomes of Gold do slide to the bottom ; So do the atomes of the Gas settle , and by sliding they do increase or wax bigger , which otherwise , being infirm by reason of the coldness of the Air , are again lifted up , unless a gentle or favourable luke-warmth , in the coldest place , did now and then hinder it . For so indeed rains , shoures , storms , so Hail , Snow , mist , and Frost , are through an alteration by accident , having arisen as well from a motive , as an alterative Blas , in the most cold places . And so Gas and Blas have divided the whole Common-wealth of a Meteor , into Colonies . In like manner , I have learned by the examples cited , that the Sun doth not heat by accident , but by it self , and immediately . And that heat is as intimate and proper to it , as its light is to it . The Air hath therefore its grounds or soils , no lesse than the Earth , which the Adeptists do call Peroledes . Therefore the invisible Gas is entertained in the various Beds or Pavements of the Air , if the Water hath its depths of its Gulfs ; it s own Gates are in the Peroledes , which skilfull men have called the Floud-gates and folding doores of Heaven . For neither is Gas falling down into the place of Clouds , carried out of the depth of Heaven without its directer Blas . Yea it falls not down but thorow ordained Pavements and folding-doores . For all the folding-doores do not promiscuously lay open to the Planets : but all the Planets in particular , are by their own Blas , the Key-keepers of their own Perolede . Which thing I submit to be examined by Astrologers that are the shewers or disclosers of Meteors , and I promise that they shall finde out a rich substance . For so windes do sometimes hasten perpendicularly downwards , and smite the Earth , but otherwise they go side-wayes out of their folding-doores , they beat down Houses and Trees ; as also bring miserable destruction on all sorts of Shipping . But the more luke-warm Air , doth foreshew the Winde to come out of the depth of the Air and the Gas to bring with it the Blas of Heaven downwards . Whence Gas is straight-way again resolved into a Vapour , and afterwards into rain . Indeed Clouds do then appear , which not long before , were not beheld at any corner of the World : Because the invisible Gas slides downward , out of the depth of the upper Air , the which growes together into vapours , and from thence into drops . For that is the appointment of the Air , that it may continually seperate the waters from the waters . But seeing that one part of water , is extended at least to a hundred fold of its dimension , while it is made a vapour , and so much the finer , by how much the Gas thereof is sub-divided into the more lesse parts , and since there is that order , and that law of universe , that all things may be carried on for the necessity of man , and the preserving of the World ; Indeed in this respect , do heavy things tend upward , & light things are drawn downward . Hence it hath seemed to me , that the Blas of the Stars is disturbed into rain , and is carried into clearnesses , and other seasons , as oft as the pluralities of Gas it self , in the still Perolede of the air , do seem to threaten , almost choakings , and the too-much com-pressions in the air . Yet I am not so carefull concerning the occasionall causes of a Meteor ; it is sufficient that I have known an exhalation arising from beneath , to wit , a vapour , and Gas , to be the materiall cause of every Meteor . It sufficeth to have known Blas to be the effective cause , by the authority of the holy Scriptures . The Stars shall be to you for times or seasons , dayes , and years . This therefore is the unrestable appointment of the water , that by proceeding continually upwards and downwards , it should answer no otherwise than as the windes by an inordinate and irregular motion , do answer to their Blas of the Stars . And so the water which existed from the beginning of the Universe is the same , and not diminished , and shall be so unto the end thereof . But I meditate of the Peroledes or Soils of the Air to be as it were the Bottles of the Stars , by which they do unfold their Blas , ( even through their determined or limited places ) for the uses and interchangeable courses of times or seasons . And chiefly , because the upper and almost still Perolede , doth contain the cause , why there are windes , fruits , dewes , and especially things pertaining to Provinces . For seeing that the winde is a flowing Air , and so hath an unstableness in it , we must needes finde the locall cause of stability in the more quiet Perolede . Therefore the folding-doores are shut , or laying open in the Perolede , according to the Blas of the Stars which they obey . Nor is it a wonder that there are limits , or invisible bounds in the air , of so great power , and capable to restrain a heap ; for the visible World doth scarce contain another Common-wealth of things , and the least one of powers . For who will deny , that under a Rock or great Stone of Scotland , scarce 12 foot broad , and deep 30 , there is not some division of a Perolede , ( that in the mean time I may be silent concerning the Equinoctial Line , and its wonderfull properties ) that a Canon being discharged on one side of the Stone , not any noyse or trembling should be heard on the other side thereof : the which therefore is called a mute one . So also we must needes consider that there are side folding-doores , or Gates of Peroledes in the Air , because the windes going forth for the most part with a side motion , are also by the Blas of the Stars , agreeably carried a crosse their bounds . From the aforesaid Doctrine of Gas , I at length object against my self . If the water be frozen by cold into snowes , Hail , and Ice : then the water shall not be dissolved by cold into Gas , if of a uniform Agent and Patient , there ought to be the same action and effect . Where I must seriously note , That the Water freezeth it self , but is not frozen efficiently by another . For although cold may be hitherto thought to congeal ; yet that is onely occasionally , not effectively . The water therefore , after the sense of its measure , perceives the cold of the air , not indeed a certain absence , or privation of heat ( even as I have already demonstrated by an ordinary example in Helvetia ) but as a positive cause in a naturall quality . For truly first of all , it is without doubt , and is manifest by the sight , that the cold Air , doth by degrees consume Water , Snow and Ice : yet these two more slowly , and the other , more swiftly . In the next place , it is easie to be seen , that whatsoever the Air thus privily steales away , that presently , for that very cause , passeth over into an invisible Gas. If therefore the cold of the Air should harden water into Ice , a further action of the Air , would also ( the Ice being now made ) continually cease ; but the consequent is false : therefore also the Antecedent . For the Sulphur of the water doth easily wax dry , and is divided by the cold ; wherefore the Mercury and Salt of the water , perceiving the frost of the Air , that would seperate the Waters from the Waters , and that they ought to suffer the extension and drying up of their Sulphur , and so an alltogether violent impression of the seperater , and that they do desire to remain as they are : Hence the whole water at once , doth arm it self by a Crust , that it may resist the seperater . Which thing indeed it could not accomplish , but that also some part of the Sulphur , hath already suffered an extenuating of it self , and so also in this respect , the Ice doth swim upon the water . But , that the Sulphur of the water , although it was extenuated in the Ice , yet hath not laid aside the nature of water , is proved by handicraft-operation . Fill a glassen and great Bottle , with pieces of Ice , but let the neck be shut with a Hermes Seal , by the melting of the glasse in the same place . Then let this Bottle be put in a balance , the weight thereof being laid in the contrary Scale ; and thou shalt see that the water , after the Ice is melted , shall be weightier by almost an eighth part than it self being Ice . Which thing , since it may be a thousand times done by the same water , reserving alwayes the same weight , it cannot be said , that any part thereof was turned into air . For such is the continuance and constancy of the Elements , that although the water departs into a vapour , into Gas , into Ice , yea into composed bodies ; yet the auntient water alwayes materially remaineth , in some place masked by ferments , and seedes coming upon it ; and else-where , onely by the importunities of the first qualities , made to differ in the Relolleum of Paracellus , that is , without a seed . But from what hath been said before . Some remarkable things do arise . 1. That the water hath a certain kinde of sense or feeling , and so , that all Beings do after some sort partake of life . Come let us worship the King by whom all things live . 2. Seeing that the water doth not incrust it self in the fabrick of a vapour ; therefore a vapour as well in the cause , as in the manner , is more acceptable to the water than a Gas is . And that thing doth argue in the water something like to choice . 3. And that therefore a vapour doth sooner return into water than into Gas. 4. That the changing of water into a vapour , is , in respect of the seperater , oblique or crooked , and as it were by accident : but that Gas consisteth of a proper appointment of the air , whereby the air doth seperate the waters from the waters . 5. That the air is far more cold in it self , than the water . 6. That it is dry by it self . 7. That the unity or connexion of entire parts , is as acceptable to nature , as the dividing of the same is to things opposite . 8. That the fabrick of Gas , shall afford another intimate principle to the water ( since it hath not a compositive beginning ) or part that is the cause of some small difference of kinde , besides that which is touched by heat in the rise of a vapour . 9. That all created things , by how much the more simple they are , by so much the more of the same kinde : yet an every way most simple homogeniety or sameliness of kinde , is not found in bodies . 10. That the Sulphur of the water being extenuated in the Ice , is the cause of smoothness in congealed things , but not the enclosing of a forreign air : because alwayes and every where , water doth exclude the Wedlock of air . 11. That the cold and dryness of the air , can act nothing else into the water , but to extenuate its Sulphur : But that the congealing or hardening it self , is an action proper to the water , whereby it puts a stop to the seperater . 12. That the air acts upon the water , without the re-acting of this , and the suffering of the air : since it is appointed by divine right , the seperater of the waters . 13. That even in unsensible naturall things , re-action differeth from resistance . For truly there is no re-action of the water , on the air , and yet the water is with a resistance . 14. That the Schooles have erred , because they have dictated every action of nature to be made with a re-acting of the Patient , and a suffering of the agent . 15. That the changing of Gas into air is impossible . 1. For otherwise the air should alwayes increase into a huge body , and by consequence , all water had long since failed . 2. Because , besides that which I have elsewhere demonstrated , that the air can by no meanes return again into water , the same thing is manifest from the but now aforesaid particulars . 3. For truly it is proper to water , to suffer by air , and not likewise to re-act on the air : Therefore air being once made by water , should alwayes remain air : seeing a returning agent is wanting , which may turn air into water . 4. But for air , by it self to return into water , opposeth a generall Maxim. That every thing , as much as in it lies , doth desire to remain in it self . 5. Especially because air wants in it self , a dissolutive principle of it self , caused by the rottenness and interchangeable course of parts . 6. If air should at any time be made water ; that thing should especially be , while air is pressed beneath the water . And if in water there should be the action of water , it should then chiefly obtain its effect upon that air . Therefore fill a Glass Bottle half full of water , and stop its mouth with a Cork , that nothing may breath out , then shake the vessel strongly a thousand times upwards and downwards , that all the water may as it were froath into bubbles : At length notwithstanding thy pains , thou shalt not finde air to have departed into water , or water into air . 7. If therefore water doth not change air into it self ( otherwise , a natural agent works to this end , that it may make the Patient like it self ) there is no other thing afterwards , whereby the air may be made water . Where , as it were by a Parenthesis , it comes to be noted , that the aforesaid Maxim looseth its universality and truth , not onely in the Elements ; where a mutuall action happens among each other without a desire of changing one into themselves : but also in the Heavens : yea , and also in very many compound bodies . For neither doth Mercury in its whole and indivisible substance , therefore kill lice , that it may make them like it self . So neither doth Amber draw Chaffe , that thereby it may make it Amber . Therefore by a strawie argument , the Maxim of the Schooles falls to the ground , which otherwise is blown away with a light winde . 8. For if air were changed into water , that would chiefly happen where those two Elements are co-mixed with each other in their smallest parts for that is in the Clouds : But in the Clouds this comes not to passe : because , in whatsoever place , degree , manner , and quality , the air hath touched on the superficies of the water , the water is alwayes lessened by the air , never at any time increased . Therefore there is no action of water into air : for if there were any , it should be in the hollow superficies of the air , where the force of the Element of water , residing in its native place is strongest , and most conjoyned : but there the air consumeth the water , because it divides it into a vapour . Therefore air never departs into water . 10. Seeing therefore no Element hath in it self a Root , by which , it being as it were affected with wearisomness , may change it self into another Element : for truly , every transmutation , proceedeth from a duality or a twofold thingliness , elsewhere , but there is not a voluntary desire in an Element , of dying , and converting into another ; and an appetite , appointment , and necessity of increasing , of nourishing , of exchanging it self , or of changing the nature in which it was created of God , is wanting . 11. Vain therefore is the contentious co-mingling of Elements in compound bodies , and frivolous is the transmutation of one into another , seeing none of the Elements is careful for the passing over of its being , from another , nor from it self . Wherefore I have first concluded with my self , that the water and air are primary Elements , nor that they can ever make a retrogression or return . 12. For the blessed Parent of Nature would not that the Elements should be hostilely opposite and applied , that they should breath forth mutuall destruction and devouring continually , and that they should be so often made , fail , and with so many daily formall privations , should rise again from death unto their former state , without the interposing of a more simple mean. Which mean surely should otherwise be desired to be a partaker as well of air as water , and yet ought to be neither of these . 13. Therefore the holy Scriptures do name the air , the seperater , but not the destroyer or annihilater of the waters . Nor is it right , that the air should be drawn to other offices , than those which are enjoyned to it by the Workman and Lord of things . 14. Finally , rarefying , or condensing , do not change the essential form of the water , because they are materiall dispositions destitute of an Archeus . 15. Moreover , if water having suddenly taken to it a ferment and seed , be transchanged into a concrete or composed body : Yet that is perpetuall to it by an Elementary priviledge , as neither therefore , that it ever layes aside the matter of Elementary water . 16. It is granted indeed to seeds , to frame their composed bodies out of water , and to act their Tragedy ( by the defluxion of forms ) untill death : But the forms of composed bodies do not therefore destroy the simplicity of water , and sameliness of its form : Much less than the Soul coming suddenly on a body , doth destroy the form of flesh . For subordinate forms , do every where , in composed bodies , suffer together with each other : Therefore much more doth the form of a composed body , suffer also the form of its own Element to be untouched . Last of all , although the air by its greatest coldness , doth change the water into Gas , yet it never desisteth from the office of Seperater of the waters . So that if its cold be restrained , at least by its dryth , it ceaseth not to raise a vapour out of the water . For the action of the Heavens in their circumvolving , is uncessant , and next also the obedience of the air and water is continuall ; yea , there is an interrupted thread in the acting of all seminall things . For truly , created things do alwayes respect the will of their Creator , which man alone neglecteth . CHAP. XIV . The Blas of Meteours . 1. What Blas is . 2. The Blas of a Star , worketh more famously by locall motion , than by light . 3. What the Motive Blas of the Stars is . 4. What the Winde is , and whence it may be moved . 5. That the Stars are made for us . 6. Divers activities in Blas . 7. That the activities of the Stars are brought down by Blas the executer of motions . 8. The errour of Paracelsus . 9. The two great Lights do work their own properties , 10. How the influences of the Stars may be reduced under the two Lights . 11. The Births of rains and Meteors . 12. Putrefactions by continuance do arise straightway after the sliding down of the Waters , whence are the Ferments and seeds of things . 13. A History of Cyprus . 14. A resolving of a Question touching the rest or quiet of the Summer-air , and the continuall breathing of the Winter-air . THE Stars are to us for signes , times or seasons , dayes and years . Therefore they cause the changes , seasons , and successive courses or interchanges . To which end , they have need of a twofold motion , to wit , locall , and alterative . But I signific both these by the new name of Blas . And they do rather stir up a Blas by their mooving through a place , than by their light . Indeed in a dark night , the South winde oft-times followeth the blowing North-windes , and this likewise , it . Therefore because Blas breaths forth a luke-warm winde , it hath need , not of the heat or light of Heaven it self ; but of place , direction and connexion . Whither , when the light of the Stars shall descend , the folding-doores do open and shut themselves . Therefore let the Key-keeper of the folding-doores , be the motion of the Stars . Which also moveth the Peroledes or Pavements of the Air. Therefore all heat is not made by fore-existing fire , or light , nor doth cold shew a naked absence of heat : But the motive Blas of the Stars , is a pulsive or beating power or virtue , in respect of their Journey through places , and according to their aspects . Which circumstances in the Stars , do cause the first qualities on these inferiour bodies ; no otherwise than bashfulness , anger , feat , &c. do stir up cold and heat in men . And that thing the Stars have by the gift of Creation . The Winde according to Hypocrates , is a flowing Water of the Air : but I defining it by its causes , say , that the Winde is a flowing Air , mooved by the Blas of the Stars . And that for a naturall winde : but otherwise , it is often granted to an evill Spirit , that even without a Blas he should stir up windes , or increase a tempestuous Blas . Therefore the Air , unless it have a Blas , remains quiet , nor hath it the principle of motion from it self , but it comes to it from elsewhere . Therefore the motive Blas stirreth up Windes , Tempests , over-flowing of Waters , by running thorow the divers Peroledes of the Air , sometimes upwards , sometimes downwards , across , long-wayes , side-wayes , into all the Coasts of the Earth : although the Elements have no need of motion , yet mans necessity requireth that motion . But seeing nothing was for mooving of it self ( except the Archeus granted to seedes ) it hath well pleased the Eternall , to place in the Stars , a flatuous , violent , motive force , not much unlike to the Command of his mouth . So that Blas is for a testimony to us , that God of his excelling goodness , hath made the Elements , and Stars for us , by measuring out bounds of these according to our Commodities . Blas therefore mooveth , not so much by light beames , and motion , as motion : but as the Stars have come down unto certain places , whereunto these Stars do owe their offices . Therefore there are stable properties in those places : but if they are not stable , that happens in respect of other Stars brought with them by an analogicall or proportionable motion , for the interchangeable courses of continuance . Blas therefore as a Masculine thing in the Stars , is the generall beginning of motion ; it seemes no lesse to respect the Earth , than the Air and Water . For the Moon according to the holy Scriptures ruleth the night , as the Sun doth the day : although the Moon for her own half , runs not under the night . For the Globe of the Earth is divided into four parts , into two accesses or flowings , and recesses or ebbings of the Ocean daily . And it spends almost 28 houres therein ; and so much the lesse , by how much the Sun and Moon shall in the mean time , depart from , or draw near to each other . Blas therefore stirs up also a raging heat in the waters , the winde being still . But the alterative Blas , consisteth in the producing of heat and cold ; and that especially , with the changings of the windes . But the Stars , neither have nor give moysture or dryth of themselves . For neither is moysture to be considered in nature as naked quality without a matter , and therefore neither is it brought down from the Stars unto us . For all moysture is from the water , which was before the Stars were born . Therefore Paracelsus erreth , who saith , that rains , snow , &c. are so the fruits of the Stars , that they are boyled to a ripeness in the Stars , as it were in bottles . Dryness also was in the air the seperater of the waters , before the Stars : nor is it to be considered without a body , in manner of a quality . But heat and cold are rather qualities abstracted from a body . Therefore there are onely two great Lights , and therefore two onely qualities of them are spread into the air , from whence all Meteors are stirred or mooved . For the heat of life , is the property of the Sun ; but cold , of the other Star. Also the other Stars have given their names or honours to these two Lights . As often therefore as the Stars of the nature of the Moon , are brought thorow places of the Sun , a luke-warmth is made in the air ; but if Stars of the nature of the Sun do run down under the same places , heat is made ; according to which qualities of the air , the Gas of the air is also diversly altered . Hence indeed Blas heats after the same manner , thorow the soils of the air : therefore Gas also , is either detained in its pavements or soils , or is brought downward to us . So as that the atomes of Gas , being invisible through their too much smallness , loosing their constriction , and excess of cold , do again fall together or decay into the smallest drops , and hasten downwards . But if indeed the luke-warmth doth affect the lower Peroledes , when Gas being provoked by Blas , wandereth downwards , Summer Snowes are made . Surely Gas being grown together through frost , a luke-warmth presently arising , it is melted , and rusheth headlong downwards . For the Mercurie of the water , resolveth its Salt , and the Sulphur doth as it were rowl up these two : And so , they fall down into rain . But if indeed that thing happens in the upper Perolede , the drops descending , are frozen in the middle cold pavements ; and so they are cast down headlong into Snow and Hails . But if luke-warmth do bear sway thorow some continuall Peroledes of the air , daily rains do accompany it . Hence also it appeares , that an unequall Blas , in divers soils of the air doth bring forth divers effects . For oftentimes the lowermost Peroledes are luke-warm , and the day is plainly clowdy , and there are very many Clouds . But else , the second and the third Perolede are luke-warm , the lower being cold ; whence are Snowes . And so the other Troop of Meteors is caused unto us . Therefore I am now confident , that by Gas materially , and by Blas operatively and motively , their causes and manner do more clearly appear than heretofore they have done . From whence Astrologers and Physitians shall be able from a founder ground , to presage of some things . In the mean time , I leave the matters of presages untouched , which God by his ministring Spirits hath laid up among his signes of good or ill . Onely I will relate what Fryer Stephen of Lusignan , the last of the Family of the Kings of Cyprus , of the Order of S. Dominick , in his description of Cyprus , printed at Paris in the year 1580 , page 212 , rehearseth in French to this purpose . About the end of the year , an Earthquake happened at Famagusta , which continued eight dayes . But afterwards , raging or Whirle-windes arose , passing over the Island , and entring into the Market-place of Famagusta ; for there by beating down a great Pallace , they presently take away very many Houses , with some Men. So that if some Marriners had not by the chance of fortune , come suddenly unlooked for ; Famagusta had been destroyed . Therefore let the Reader know , that the Eastern Marriners were wont , on the day that they do observe such Windes , to take a great Knife , wherewith they make the Sign of the Cross in the Air , and do utter these words . In the beginning was the Word , and the Word was with God , and God was the Word ; and suddenly all the Whirle-winde , and tempest , seperates it self , and ceaseth . For I have seen this experiment twice : And on the second time , while I returned out of Cyprus into Italy . For neither do I finde any thing of Superstition therein , but that the Knife must have a black handle : And so I can determine of nothing certainly . Thus far he . A wonder at least : That this divelish tempest should cease , and the Devill spare the whole City , perhaps for the sin of one sinner . Moreover about Blas , this is as yet considerable . If in the great heat of Summer thou holdest a burning Candle about the hole of a Window , there is no foot-step , for the most part , of mooved Air to be perceived : but throughout the whole winter , however small the hole be , a troublesome Winde breatheth , and that continually . But since there is not a greater quantity of air ( let us now take the air for its Magnall or sheath ) being constrained by reason of cold , than of that which is rarefied by reason of heat ; there seemes not to be a stronger reason of this than of that , to stir up the Winde . Therefore there is a twofold Motive locall Blas in the Air : one indeed which stirs up the Windes , and so includes a violence or swiftness , from a native power or motion : But the other , which followes as for an alterative Blas , for co-thickning , or rarefying in the air . But since this is almost universall , by reason of Summer and Winter ; it also sends forth a certain slow flowing of the Air. And although cold may equally condense the Magnall , and the Air be in this respect unmoved , by reason of an alterative and violent windy Blas ; yet seeing in the opposite Coast of the Sphere , the Magnall or sheath in the Air is generally made thin onely by reason of heat , the Air in the Northern Coast must needes partly go back , be knit together , and so occupie the lesse room , and partly be gently driven forward by the rarefying and rarefied Magnall of the Air that co-toucheth with it from the other half of the Orbe . And this is the cause of the Question proposed : to wit , of the slow and uncessant flowing in the Winter Air , which we do experience through a Chap , be it never so small , also the Winde ceasing : But not so in the Summer-time . For the Magnall being once made thin through heat , the air stands unmooved amongst us . CHAP. XV. A Vacuum or emptiness of Nature . 1. The true definition of the Winde . 2. The undistinct sincerity of former ages . 3. Whither the Authours invention tendeth . 4. An examining of the Air by an Engine like to a Hand-Gun . 5. A Vacuum or emptiness in the Air is proved . 6. A Vacuum is easier believed than a piercing of bodies . 7. A Handicraft Demonstration , by fire , in behalf of a Vacuum , and five remarkable things of it . 8. A Handicraft operation concerning a sulphurated Torch or Candle . 9. Subsequent Collections from both the Handicraft Operations . 10. Pores of the Air are demonstrated . 11. Opposite suspitions are taken away . 12. Inward heat and inward fire being shut up together in a Glasse , how they act diversly into the Air. 13. That it acts more strongly by the pressing together of its smoak , than by the enlarging of heat . 14. Of what sort the sense or feeling of the Air is . 15. A new end of the Air. 16. That the fire lives not by the air , but onely is choaked through penurie . 17. Vacuities or emptinesses in the air are needfull . 18. That every thing hath hated pressing together made by its guest , by the lawes of self-love . 19. A Vacuum being an impossible thing with Aristotle , hath now become a requisite thing in nature . 20. That there is given in the Vacuum of the air , a middle thing between a body and an accident , and so , a neutrality . 21. What the great Magnall may be . 22. How the Blas of the Stars is communicated without Species or particular kindes . 23. The tristes of the Aristotelicks , concerning the Winde . 24. A ridiculous multitude and plenty of exhalations according to Aristotle . 25. The Opinion of Galen touching the Windes , is hissed out . 26. The Opinion of Galen , concerning Quicksilver , badly from Diascorides , and worse copied out . 27. The nature of rarefied air for the confirming of a Vacuum . 28. While the air is commonly thought to be made thin , it is indeed , pressed together by reason of the extension of of its Magnall or Sheath . 29. The body of the air , hath its just extension under cold . 30. Why in a hotter Climate , the favours of the Heaven are the greater . 31. The Magnall is proved to be increased and diminished : but not the air to be properly rarefied or condensed . IN the beginning of the Blas of a Meteor , I have defined the Winde , by a true definition , that is , by its constitutive Causes . Seeing that a thing without , or besides the containing of its Causes is nothing , and every thing produced doth naturally shew an originall and essentiall respect unto its own producer , which is inward to it . Therefore a naturall Winde , is a flowing Air , mooved by the Blas of the Stars . And that for distinction from a prodigious or monstrous Winde , raised up by the malice of evill spirits . Hypocrates calls the Winde a Blast ; and saying , that all Diseases are from blasts , he reckoueth up his [ To Enormon ] or forcible blast , among the chief or first causes of Diseases . For such was the plainness , and candour or simplicity of former times , wherein , because they being more blessed , there was not yet , such knowledge , nor cruelty , nor frequency of Diseases : For all things were not granted to Hypocrates . For it hath well pleased the Almighty , since Hypocrates , to have also created his Physitians . He made known indeed to Hypocrates , that there is in us a Spirit , stirring up all things by its Blas , which Spirit , he afterwards by a microcosmicall analogie or the proportion of a little World , compared to the blasts of the World , and restrained into the order of a blast , whether they were partakers of life , or indeed did contain the causes of death and destruction . Lastly , he left it undecided , whether they being stirred up from the Heaven , they should shew the suitable proportions of the Heavenly Circle , or at length were stirred up by a sublunary law . For the race or descent of the vitall Spirits had not yet been plainly made known . For none had hitherto learned by experience , that the matter of Gas was water , and so it had not been as yet known , that the windes of the World did wholly differ from the vitall Spirit . From the knowledge of the windes , handed forth by me in the fore-going Chapters , I now at length proceed to a diligent examination of the Air. For I have therefore said , that it is to be proved by Handicraft-operation , that water is not from the co-pressing of air , how cold soever it be : and so that they have hitherto erred in the mixing of the Elements , originall of Fountains , &c. But the Handicraft operation is true ; that air may be pressed together in an Iron Pipe of an ell , about the length of fifteen fingers , at the expansion or enlarging of which co-pressed air , the sending forth of a small Bullet thorow a Board or Plank , should happen , no lesse than if it were driven out of a Hand-gun . Which thing surely could not so come to passe , if the air by so great a pressing together of it self , under the cold of wintery Iron , were to be changed into water . For from thence have I first of all learned the matter and conditions of the air ; that it should sometimes most easily sustain a pressing together , and enlarging of it self , as the sight doth shew . From whence I consequently have supposed , that by all meanes there must needes be in the air enlarged , some free space and vacuum , according to the double extension of it . Suppose thou , if from the breadth of twenty eight fingers , air be shut back under a Pipe of five fingers , without any destruction of air , it followes , that almost the fingers , and almost half of the air , are void of a body . For either of the two must needes be so , under this mechannick proof ; that either absolutely , there is ordinarily granted a vacuum in the nature of the air , or a piercing of bodies in the air , being pressed together as was said . Many surely will with me , more easily admit of a vacuum , than of an existence of divers bodies in the same place : Seeing a vacuum doth not far differ from nothing ; and since the action of nothing , is more weak than the action of a doubled Being : And since nature began of nothing ; it is neerer to nothing than to a double Being . And so nature doth more skirmish against a double Being : For Gun-powder over-turns Mountains , Mines and Cities : But an example of the same force is never offered in behalf of a vacuum . But besides , I again thus prove an ordinary vacuum in nature , in the air . Let a piece of Candle be placed in the midst of the bottom of a dish , being fastened to its melted Tallow in the bottom : Let it burn , and let water be powred round about it , to two or three fingers space ; but let a deep Cupping-glasse be set over the flame , the flame appearing three fingers space out of the water , so that the mouth of the Glasse set over it , may stand upon the bottom of the dish : Thou shalt straightway see the place of the air , in the aforesaid free Glasse , but the water by a certain sucking to be drawn upwards , and to ascend into the Glasse in the place of diminished air : and at length the flame to be smothered ; wherein many things come to hand . First , true things . 1. And in the first place it is not to be doubted , but that the flame is a kindled smoak . 2. That that smoak is the body Gas. 3. That a smoakiness or fuliginous vapour doth ascend from the top of the burnt smoak . 4. That one part of the Tallow or Wax is easily extended into ten thousand fold as much as it self . From whence I conclude , that the place of the air , ought not to be lessened by the flame , but necessarily to be increased , unless some place in the air were empty , which is lessened . Nor otherwise doth it want an absurdity , that an Element should be brought to nothing or consumed . For indeed , a Gun , or fiery Mines or Burroughs , should not work those monstrous things of our age , nor the breakings asunder of the hardest and greatest stones in Mines , unless a small quantity of powder , being kindled as it were at one moment , did send forth ten thousand times as much flame as it self at least : which flame cannot be stayed with the former place of the Powder ; it rather breaks asunder all things , than that smoak should pierce smoak , or flame , flame . 5. To which particulars , the extension of the air through the heat of the flame , hath access , and not a pressing of it together as it otherwise appeares to the common sort . Lastly , let a sulphurated Toreh or Candle be hung up by a thred in a Glasse-bottle : but let there be some small quantity of water in the Bottle , and let the Bottle be exactly stopped with the bark of the Cork-Tree , that nothing breath out : Thou shalt see the flame , and smoak of the Sulphur , to fill up the whole floore or space of the Bottle in which the air is , and at length the fire to be quenched : Yet that there is not made a lessening of the air , nor a sucking of the water upwards , because the water ought to be put in the place of the air , so that sucking here should make no gain , nor should recompence the defect in the air : Well indeed , because the cover being opened , a sucking is discerned . But the flame doth not so toughly stick on the Candle , that it may be for the lifting up so great a weight of water , which flame is dispersed from its Candle , by the least blast : And so the flame doth not immediately lift up the water : but a sucking being caused through a consuming of some part in the air , doth lift up the water , and for many dayes , the water remains as yet advanced , after the extinguishing of the flame . Wherefore I have meditated , that the air hath pores or little holes , which should suffer a violent constriction of the air in the Pipe , and some certain naturall annihilation in the dish . But that the Air should be co-thickned in the Glasse by reason of the heat , flame , and smoak , that opposeth Mathematicall Demonstration . And the Instrument sheweth , that by how much the degrees of the encompassing air are measured , the heat doth enlarge , but not contract the air . Therefore the aforesaid objection opposeth the supposed position , wherein it is granted , that there is made an addition of matter in the Air , by a new matter of flame and smoak . But if it be said that there is something in the Air that is inflameable , which is consumed by the flame of the Candle ; Now a new absurdity ariseth : To wit , that some body is plainly annihilated , or burnt up by the flame , and in burning up that it is not enlarged . Again , by supposing something to be wasted away ; it is at leastwise necessary , that that inflameable matter be turned into nothing , or into something : But it is the property of fire , that in burning up , it doth extend every thing that is inflameable , but doth not presse that thing together : As before I have taught by Gun-powder . But if we say , that the air in the Glasse is lessened by the flame : now I have what I intended : To wit , that there is in the air something that is lesse than a body , which fills up the emptinesses of the air , and which is wholly annihilated by the fire . Nor that indeed , as if also it were the nourishment of the fire it self : For although that thing be impertinent to this Question and place ; yet that which is not truly a body , can nourish nothing . And then , seeing it is neither a body , nor a fat thing , it cannot be inflamed , kindled , or wasted or consumed by the fire . Then also I will demonstrate in the Chapter of forms , that the fire is not a substance : but that which is not a substance , doth not require to be nourished . Lastly , seeing the Air is an Element , and a simple thing , it cannot admit of composition , or a conjoyning of divers things or Beings in its own nature : Nor are there in the essentiall substance of the Air , diversities of parts , some whereof may be consumed by the fire , but others not . For therefore , if the fire had found a part in the Air capable of inflaming , the whole Air being kindled , had even by one onely Candle , long since perished : For neither had the fire ceased , if having need of nourishment , it had known that to be in the Air which was neighbour to it : Yea , if the Air could be burnt up by the fire , the Air should passe over to some more simple and formerly Being , and should cease to be an Element : for the flame of the Candle should be before the Element of the Air , and more simple than it . Therefore it is manifest , that the flame in the aforesaid Glasse , although in respect of heat , it enlargeth the quantity of the air ; yet that naturally it will have its smoakes entertained in the hollownesses of the air , so far is it , that the air doth extend it self : and this is the one onely cause of the diminished space in the air , whence the flame is also consequently smothered . For the heat that is externall to the Glasse , seemes to inlarge the air in the Glasse : but the fire within , by reason of its smoakes , doth actually stir up a stifling and pressing together of the air . Therefore the heat doth by it self enlarge the air , as appeareth by the Engine meating out the degrees of the encompassing air : but the fire by reason of its smoakes , presseth it together . And so it followes , that smoakes do more strongly act by pressing together , than heat doth in enlarging : And then also that smoaks are more importunate or inconvenient to the air , than its own naturall vacuum , yea than is the enlarging of its own vacuum . Seeing that the enlarging of the space of the air , made by heat , is delightfull to it , in respect of com-pression caused by smoakes . For from hence I conjecture , that all particular members of the Universe , have a certain sympatheticall feeling . And so , seeing the air essentially hath porosities or little hollow spaces , it grieveth it , that they should be filled up , and over-burdened by a strange Gas. Yet unless the air should have empty porosities ( at leastwise the Doctrine of naturall Philosophy founded upon a vacuum negatively , falls ) bodies could never admit of an enlargement of themselves , or of a strange Gas : because by the changing of them into Gas , they should require a thousand fold bigger capacities , and so room would fail for the breathing our of belching blasts . Therefore the air was created that it may be a receptacle of exhalations ; wherefore also it must needes have an emptiness in its pores : yet it receiveth those exhalations , by its set and just proportion : and where it hath its emptinesses filled up to a just measure , the air fleeth away , and in its flight , it forceth or gathereth all the flame into a Pyramide or Spire . But if the air being detained from its flight , be loaded with too much smoak , it straightens it self , and extinguisheth the fire , which fills it self with smoak above due measure . These things have not as yet been thorowly weighed by the Schooles , and therefore they have thought , the fire to live , and be nourished by the air , neither have they proof for this , unless on a contrary sense ; because fire being stopped up with air , is straightway smothered . But that Idiotisme of the Schooles doth sufficiently make it self manifest : Seeing the fire is not a body , for as much as it is fire ; nor is it a creature of the first constitution , for neither doth it live , nor is nourished , the which is like unto death . Even as shall be manifested concerning the birth of forms . But the Air is a simple Element . For neither doth the stifling of the fire presuppose a necessary life ; as neither nourishment : nor is there for this cause , an increase of the fire , although it be built in an abundantly open air : neither also doth fire consume even the least quantity of air , or convert it into its own substance ( which it hath none ) as it were its nourishment : they are fables . For the fire being deprived of air , perisheth : not indeed in respect of denied nourishment , or of a participated life ; but for want of room , which cannot contain the smoak , by the pressing together whereof , the fire being stifled , is extinguished . For after another manner , from the too much and hasty blown up air , the flame straightway perisheth , when the flame being lesse toughly fastened to the Candle , is presently taken away by a blast , and being once taken away from the Candle , it cannot have afterwards a subsistence in the air , as neither having a substance in it self . Therefore the pores of the air being filled up with smoak , they fly away , and give place to another air coming to them , that they may also receive their juyce or moysture from Gas : Which flight of the air , stirs up , as also requireth winde . In the Salt pits of Burgundy , a plain Earthen pot being filled up with water , and placed nigh the grate of a Furnace , doth far sooner freeze , than any other which is set out in the open air and frost , by reason of the continuall Flux , and passing over of the air , which by the Schooles , hath been rashly thought to flow thither for the life , or nourishment of the flame . Therefore the empty places of the Air are moderately filled : but if they are over-loaded , the space of the air doth presently straighten it self , and shuts it self up in a narrower room , the empty porosites being consumed , that it may by stifling the exhaling fire , divert it from its enterprise . That thing is inbred in all created things , through self-love . For neither otherwise doth water incrust it self in Ice , than that it may not be snatched away by the cold of the air into Gas. There are therefore necessary vacuities or emptinesses in the Air , that according to their capacity , they might entertain the fluide vapours that are to be evaporated , for whose sake , the air hath seemed to sustain a pressing together , and enlarging . For else , a vacuum of the air being taken away , the least motion should move almost the whole Universe , through its continuity or un-interrupted joyning , and exhalations soon arising , the mortalls that are near being choaked , should go to ruine , no otherwise than as doth very often happen in the burrowes of Mines : Where those that dig Mettalls are stifled , not through want of air abounding , nor also alwayes through a choaking poyson : but especially , for that , the air in the Burrowes , being filled by the Gas of the Minerall , is not renewed . And so from hence it also happens , that the Lights , and Lamps , are presently of their own accord extinguished , together with the diggers . Wherefore they do beat the Burrowes very much , and do draw out the air that is filled up with the exhalation , with divers Engines , and powre on them , and inspire into them , new air . But the air doth refuse too much exhalation , no otherwise than as the water doth of the air , and any other thing violently coupled with it in the same Mine . Let there be a brassen Bottle ; in whose bottom let the water be A , the air B , the neck C , the hole of the Bottle D , by which with a Sypho or Pipe , the air may be strongly snuffed up . But then let the neck be rowled about , that it may violently withhold the air under it . I say therefore , that while the neck is again swiftly rowled about , that it gives utterance to the air ; For it shall not onely snuffe up the air B , that is pressed together , but also together with it , A shall wholly fly upwards with a great force . The air therefore , doth sustain an unvoluntary co-pressing of its emptiness ; therefore it also brings up the water A , with it , which surely sheweth that a vacuum is more pleasing than the pressing together of the air ; because it is that which approacheth to the unvoluntary penetration of a body . Now therefore , of a vacuum , an impossible thing with Aristotle , is made a thing ordinarily required of nature . Notwithstanding , those porosities of the air , however they may be actually void of all matter : nevertheless they have in them a Being , a Creature ; that is , some reall thing , not a fiction , nor a naked place onely : but that which is plainly a middle thing , between a matter , and an incorporeall Spirit ; and neither of the two , I say , of the number of those things which in the beginning of the Chapter concerning forms , I have denied to be a substance , or accident . It is the Magnall or sheath of the air , the which seeing it hath not in created things , its like , therefore it refuseth to be made manifest by that which is like unto it . The Magnall indeed , is not Light : but a certain form assisting the air , and as it were its companion , and as it were conjoyning to it by a certain Wedlock : An assistant I say , not conjoyned to its essence , and therefore an associate in its pores : To wit , by this , the Blas of the Stars is immediately and without hinderance extended on every side , and by a momentany motion : but not by a thousand generations of a thousand kindes , finished as it were at one onely moment , as oft as the light , or heavenly influences do strike inferiour bodies . These very things are the fables of the Schooles , to wit , least they should be compelled to grant one accident to passe over from subject into subject , they had rather that a thousand generations of a thousand particular kindes of light should be made in an instant , while the Sun doth at so far a distance shake his beams at us . For that which the Schooles do in this respect determine to be as an unpossible thing , I will teach to be the ordinary course of nature , in the entrance of Magnum oportet . Now therefore the natures of Gas and Blas are sufficiently manifest , and which way Blas may descend unto us . The Doctrines of the Schooles concerning the windes are to be added . First of all , the Schooles of Aristotle do teach , that the winde is a dry exhalation , ( but not an air ) lifted up from the Earth by the vertue of heat ; the which , when it is hindered by a Cloud , from climbing upwards , it , as furious , runneth down side-wayes , and effecteth the strength or force of so great an heap or attempt . As if it had lost its antient lightness , through the first repulse of the Clouds , and that therefore being mad , it runs down sidewayes ! as if there were a continuall co-weaving of the Clouds , nor should there in any wise be granted any entrance , and any passage to the climbing exhalation , being once repulsed by so small a Cloud ! as though a Bottle filled with air , and pressed down under the water , but ascending , should finde a hand against it , and therefore should run down sidewayes thorow the water ! and as if it had lost its former endeavour upwards , for the future ; so as having forgotten to climbe upwards , although it should not finde a continuall Cloud , it should wish thenceforward , rather to be carried sidewayes ! For neither have they considered , that the side motion of the windes ought to be broken or weakened , and also of necessity to be more feeble than its motion upwards : and so that the winde is more able to beat down high Towers , than to remove or scatter the vaporous Cloud about it . Surely in all things I wonder at the subscribed sluggishness of the Schooles , through a custom of assenting . For Aristotle writes , that the Salt of the Sea ( which notwithstanding he thought to be co-eternall with the World ) hath its originall from an exhalation ( he understood not an exhalation in the least ) because it is that which is volatile or swift of flight , and the Salt of the Sea a fixed body : for neither can Sea water , otherwise sweet , fix the volatility or swiftness of an exhalation any more , than Sal Armoniac it self ) also all Metcors , and especially windes , yea the Earthquake , and Comets ( whereof that of the year 1618 , was a thousand times bigger than the Earth ) likewise small Stones , Rocks , great Stones , he hath dedicated to exhalations alone . A suitable Store-house whence so great exhalations should proceed , hath been wanting to his Dreams . And nevertheless , the Schooles subscribe to those trifles , nor do they awake out of their drowsie sleep , but while Aristotle doth expresly spurn against the faith . But Galen thinketh , the winder or blast , to be vapours lifted up out of the water and Lakes , by the force of heat : but now and then , that it is an air resolved out of a mixt body : But both of them , he salth to be cold , being likened to decrepite age , to inbred heat failing , and to cold effects : surely he stumbling in all , and every thing , hath hugely spread his childish Dreams for truth . For in the time of Galen , the art of distilling was not yet made known , who never saw Rose-water , as neither Argentvive or Quick-silver . For he had badly read Diascorides , together with Pliny ; he writing , that Quick-silver , by reason of its great weight , cannot be detained in Leather , not in wooden Boxes , but is to be kept onely in Cases of Mettall : As if one onely ounce thereof , should weigh more than an ounce of Lead . Wherefore Galen must needs have been deeply and heartily ignorant of the deepest things of Philosophy , and of the most inward principles of nature , and of the seminall resolutions and exhalations of any properties whatsoever . At length , to shew an emptiness in the air , it is convenient more deeply to search into the thingliness or nature of its rarefying and condensing . For first of all , whatsoever I have hitherto spoken concerning the rarefying of the air , that I confess hath been done for the capacity of the common sort : else , to speak properly , although the air may seem to be pressed together , and to be enlarged in the space of place : yet rarefying it self doth not belong to the air its self ; that is , that the very body of the air may be made thinner than it self , in the same manner , wherein a vapour is made of water . Because I have already divers times shewn , that a vapour is a Cloud of the atomes of the water rent a sunder from each other by the middle parts of the air interposing , and that therefore the water in the vapour doth also alwayes remain water ; neither that it suffers any thing besides the extension of it self , and division into atomes , made by its seperater . For if the body of the air be therefore made thin ; this should be , either as it should be changed into another body more slender , thin , and simple than it self , which is to feign a new and unheard of Element , actually cold , thinner than the others , and more simple than the air : Or the air should be made thin by the seperation of the atomes , and the interposing of another unknown body ; and then the body coming between , should admit of degrees of thinness . And therefore the rarefying it self , should not be so much referred unto the air , as unto the unknown body coming between . Nevertheless rarefying is not of the air , but in the air ; and that not onely by reason of admitted smoaks ( as in the Handicraft operation of a dish ) but through a naked quality of heat ( as is manifest by the Instrument meating out the qualities of the encompassing air ) therefore as oft as rarefying doth appear in the air , it must needes by all meanes happen through an increase of the Magnall : Which sounds , that a vacuum being increased in the air , the pores of the air are enlarged and extended ; and so , so far is it , that by reason of heat , the air by it self ; and in its own body doth sustain a rarefying , and that the body of the Element is changed : that rather it is coagulated , at least is pressed together , and that the little holes of the vacuum , do extend themselves , or that the Magnall it self is multiplied in the air . Wherefore there is also an improper speech , while we signifie the air to be tarified by it self , when as rather it is thickned or pressed together by it self : but the Magnall that is co-bred with it , is therefore extended . But from what hath been said before , is deducted , that the body of the air is under cold , brought unto its just extention . And again , that which followes from thence is , that cold is naturall or pleasant to the air : But that the Magnall is contracted under cold . But as oft as the Magnall is straightned , the wayes or passages of the Stars to us are straightned . And hence it is plainly to be seen , why the Land of promise is very hot : that is why in the more hot Zone , there are the more happy confanguinities or neernesses of alliance of the Heaven with the earth , the more plentifull fruits , and the more savoury ones : Therefore the Magnall is like light , and is easily made , and easily brought to nothing . For that which is in it self the vacuum of the air , is almost nothing in respect of bodies . For it came forth from nothing , also it may be reduced to nothing : But not but against the will of the air ; because it hath need of this vacuum . Alas ! how nigh to nothing is all nature , which began of nothing . In the aforesaid Instrument meating out the encompassing air by the heat , or cold of the Sun , the place of the air is seen to be greater or lesse : but we perceive , that at the rarefying of the thing contained , the air is expelled : whose breathing place , if it then be shut up for want of air , a sucking is felt . Therefore by more fully looking into the matter , the vacuum or Magnall of the air , is increased and lessened ; but the Air is not rarefied . So also the condensing or pressing together of the Air , is not in respect of its body : but onely of its Magnall or Sheath . CHAP. XVI . An Irregular Meteor . 1. The Mysteries of the Rain-bow , and the Images of the Sun. 2. That before the floud there was no Rain-bow . 3. That the Rain-bow was given for a signe of the Covenant ; yet that the cause thereof is not yet known . 4. Yet the Rain-bow doth daily bring its own Covenant to remembrance . 5. The Mystery of the Covenant is as yet under the Rain-bow . 6. In what thing the Rain-bow doth denote the end of the World. 7. The dotages or toyes of the Schooles concerning the Rain-bow . 8. Things required of the Schooles . 9. That the Rain-bow hath not its Colours immediately in a Cloud , but in a place . 10. That the Rain-bow is of the nature of Light. 11. The existence of Colours immediately in place , is proved . 12. The Object of the sight is immediately in Place , the object of hearing is immediately in the body of the Mean. 13. Creatures of neutrality do subsist immediately in place , without a body . 14. Paracelsus concerning the Rain bow is refuted . 15. The frequenoy of a Miraole doth not reduce that miracle into the number of nature . 16. Some supernaturall things are ordinary . 17. An Atheisticall , and childish opinion of the Schooles , concerning Thunder and Lightning . 18. Wonderfull sights or visions in high mountains . 19. The spirit all noyse or cracking is the Blas of the evill spirit . 20. A Historie of Thunder . 21. The noyse of Thunder , how it putrifieth . 22. Outward Salt preserveth . I Have said that Meteors do consist of their matter Gas , and their efficient cause Blas , as well the Motive , as the altering . But the Rain-bow is irregular , a divine Mysterie in its originall . I judge the same thing of the Parelia or Image of the Sun , whereby two or three Suns do appear at noon-day alike equally clear or lightsome . But for Thunder , it doth not alike include a Mysterie and monstrous token . We being admonished by the holy Scriptures , do believe by faith , that the Rain-bow was given for a sign of the Covenant between God and mortall men , that the World should no more hence forward perish by waters . For first I draw from thence , that the Rain-bow was never seen before the Floud ▪ Otherwise mortalls had justly complained : For we have oftentimes already seen the Rain-bow , and yet the World hath perished by a deluge : what safety dost thou therefore promise us by an accustomed Rain-bow ? this Covenant is suspected by us , it takes not away our fear . The Rain-bow was therefore new to the World , when it first appeared for a sign of the Covenant : Wherefore , mortalls were amazed at that unwonted Being , and being ( otherwise incredulous ) gave credit . Secondly , From hence I learn , that the Rain-bow was given for a meer sign : wherefore , neither that it hath even to this day , any reason of a cause , with relation to any effect . Thirdly , seeing now the World before the floud , had been about two thousand years old , and yet there had been causes in nature , which to this day , the Schooles do attribute to the Rain-bow ; yet there was no Rain-bow : Surely that convinceth of the falshood of those causes . Whence at length in the fourth place it followes : That unless the Rainbow be also at this day , for a sign of the Covenant , and for the sake of its first appointment , it otherwise appeares for a frustrated purpose . Therefore also the Rain-bow doth now and then remember us of the Covenant once stricken , that we may believe , and alway be mindfull , that God the avenger on sinners , sometimes sent the waters , that they might destroy every soul living on the Earth , that the same God might be a conscious or fellow-knowing revenger and Judge of our sin . For all flesh had corrupted its way by luxurie , which ought to be choaked by waters . By the Rain-bow therefore , God will alway have us mindefull of threatned punishments , who by this sign doth signifie , that he is the continuall President or chief Ruler , & the Revenger of nature . But that the Rainbow might signifie , that the World should be no more drowned with waters , it was meet that it should bear before it , not indeed a certain unwonted spectacle in the air , without difference to any other thing : but the mystery of the promised Covenant , ought to lay hid in the Rainbow , which might declare the promlse and belief of the thing promised , by a signe . Surely I seem to my self , to admire with Noah three colours in the Rainbow , and the pleasing splendours of three Sulphurs shining forth in co-burnt Mineralls . And so the Colours do give testimony , that the Earth being the womb of Mineralls , is at length to satisfie the wrath of God , by the extream melting of the burning of her Sulphurs . Therefore the Rainbow doth not henceforth presage water , but fire . I wonder at the Schooles , who will not hearken to the truth of the holy Scriptures delivered ; but that they even to this day , proceed to make young men drunk with heathenish toyes or dotages . For they hand forth , that the Rainbow consisteth of a twofold Cloud , to wit , one being deeper and thicker , but the other being thinner , and moreover extended over that other , that in manner of a Glasse , it may resemble the Sun from the contrary part . Verily it is a vain devise , like unto an old Wives Dream . For I have sometimes kicked the lower part of a Rainbow with my feet , and have touched it with my hands : and that not onely in Cloudy Mountains , but in an open and Sunnie-field . And so I have certainly known by my eyes , hands , and feet , the falshood of that supposition : Seeing that , not so much as a simple Cloud , was in the place of the Rainbow . For neither , although in the morning I did cleave the Rainbow , and drew it by the colours of the Rainbow , have I perceived any thing , which is not every where , on every side in the neighbouring Air. Yea therefore were not the colours of the Rainbow troubled , nor suffered confusion . The Schooles ought at least to declare , why it should have alwayes the figure of a Bow , or Semi-circle , but never the resemblance of a Glasse . Why if it be the Image of the Sun reflex , doth it not shine in the middle of it self : seeing the Parelia shines like the Sun , with an undistinct and ruddie light ? Why should those two Clowds be alwayes folded together with the equall form of a Bow , and variety of Colours ? Why doth not the Glasse that is against the Sun , represent those Colours , if that double Cloud be in the room of a Glasse ? Why doth not that doubled Cloud , at least in its more outward and conjoyned part , change the wandring Latitude of the Clouds , if its hollow part be pierced with an abounding light of the Sun declining or going down ? Why doth a Rainbow also appear , the Sun being hid under the Clouds , and no where shining ? Why doth the Sun I say , paint out alwayes those uniform and various Colours , and so neerly placed together , and not one onely Colour , according to the simplicity of its own light ? Wherefore do many Rainbowes now and then appear together in one field ? For truly , in so vast a Circle of the Air of the Horizon , the reflexion falls not in one or two miles : but the Cloud opposite to the Sun , hath not its reflexion directly , unless on the opposite part answering to it self in the Horizon ; but not on the part near to its side . Lastly , it is absurd , that the upper and thinner Cloud which is void of Colour , and which the light of the Sun doth easily pierce , should fashion Colours in the other thicker Cloud , which neither the Sun , nor either of those Clouds have in themselves . Surely I have very much admired at these vain positions of the Schooles , while as I should handle a Rainbow with my hand , and should see no Cloud at all round about . Wherefore I have noted that the Rainbow by a peculiar priviledge , hath its Colours immediately in a place ; but in the Air , by the place mediating : And so , I have taken notice , that those Colours , and the figure of the Rainbow , in their manner of existing , are of the nature of light : That is , the Winde blowing , the Colours which are immediately in a medium or mean , do walk together with the mean , and are dispersed , according as the mean in which they are , is : but the Colours or Lights which are immediately in place , are not changed , although the Air or Mean in which they appear , may change its place , and flow . So neither the winde blowing , doth the Rainbow perish or walk . For from hence it is , that the object of sight is at one onely instant brought to the Eye : but the object of hearing , because it is not immediately in place , but in an Air placed , doth presuppose a durance of time and motion . Wherefore the Rainbow not onely is not in a Cloud : but moreover , not indeed in the Air , but immediately in place ; but in the Air immediately , to wit , as this is in a place : For so , the light of the Sun doth the more swiftly strike it self in an instant , even unto the Earth , because it is immediately in place , but in the Air mediately , to wit , as this is in a place . But that the Sun is the cause of the Rainbow , that I believe is naturall ; but that a Bow , immediately in place ; is appointed to be so coloured by the Sun , but in no wise in the Air ; that hath the force of a sign . For the Schooles have hitherto been ignorant , that Light and Colours can subsist , unless they do inherit or stick in some certain substance . But it is no wonder ; for truly they have not known some Creatures , some whereof they have brought back into a substance , ( to wit , the fire , substantiall forms , &c. ) but others they have surrendred into meer accidents ( as the Rainbow , Light , the Magnall , &c. ) The which notwithstanding I shall demonstrate in their place , to be created things of a neither sort : But let it be enough to have said it , in this place . But if the Rainbow should be immediately in the Air , and not in a place ; it must needes be , that by any little winde , it should straightway flow abroad , and be puft away by blowing , together with a Cloud , or the Air : which is false in the Rainbow , the which doth also remain a great while under the Windes , sometimes without any presence of Clouds , and yet in the same constant figure of a Bow or Semi-circle : therefore the Rainbow seeing it is immediately in place , it is a new figure of a coloured Light. Indeed the Rainbow began supernaturally , for a Sign and Mystery of the Covenant struck with Mortalls : and since it hath at this day its Root in the Air , without any matter , yet after the manner of naturall things ; I do reverence its efficient cause , and its presence , and do ponder with my self , that the Rainbow is at this day given for a Sign : of the Covenant ; even as in times past . Paracelsus supposeth the Rainbow to be the Evestrum of the Sun ; but the Evestrum he calls the Spirits or Ghosts of men . The which from the absurdity of it self alone , as sufficiently rejected , I passe by . For truly the Sun hath neither a Soul , nor ( being as yet alive ) hath an Evestrum after its Buriall . There are some , who will laugh at me , for these daily Miracles . But certainly , while I do more fully look into things , I see divine goodness to be actually , alwayes , every where , and immediately President or chief Ruler : because , all which things , he in very deed , even from end to end , reacheth to , strongly , and disposeth of all things sweetly . For in God we live , are , and are moved , in very deed and act : but not by way of proportion , or similitude . For truly , when the Lord the Saviour said , I am he , to wit , by whom ye are , live , and are moved , he withdrew onely , that his power whereby they were moved , and straightway all the Souldiers fell on the ground . And although the Instrument in nature whereby we are moved , be ordinary ; yet there is another principall , totall , and independent cause of our motion , and the originall thereof , being a miraculous hand , doth concur in every motion . So also in the Rainbow , the Sun , and place do concur as it were second causes : Yet there is another independent , totall , miraculous and immediate cause , which hath directed the Rainbow to the glory of his own goodness , and of the Covenant stricken , not onely indeed with Noah and his Family ; but with the Sons of men his posterity , even to the end of the World. And so from the same originall ; and for the same end for which the Rainbow began , it is promised to endure as long as Mortalls shall be : and seeing it is a sign of the Covenant with the Sons of men , but not onely with the Sons of Noah , it also includes a certain Covenant or agreement . Therefore there is a miraculous thing in the Rainbow , that its colours are not in any body ; but immediately in place it self , like light , and that immediately from the hand of God , without the concurrence of a second cause : Nor is it a wonder , that from the condition of the Covenant , a supernaturall effect should interpose : Because that in many places , continuall miracles do offer themselves . Therefore as the Rainbow is a sign of an everlasting Covenant , and a Messenger of divine goodness ; so Thunder causeth an admiration and adoring of the power of God. For there is nothing in the Catalogue or number of things , whose rains , the Almighty Creator doth not immediately rule . Surely he every where inforceth his love and fear , and so will have man to be ordinarily put in minde of his power . According to that saying , The Voyce af Thunder hath stricken the Earth . For a sudden and monstrous Blas is stirred up in the Air. The Heaven is oft-times clear , straightway also , being without winde , it is suddenly bespotted with a black Cloud : For often times it thunders , the Heaven being clear without any small Cloud : And so , Thunder doth not require a Cloud ; but if it doth suddenly stir up any , it is made , as the cracking noyse shakes the Peroledes , and as Gas settles downwards , into a thick Cloud , being drawn together by the cold of the place . Therefore the Doctrine of the Schooles is frivolous , determining , that an exhalation is kindled between the sheath of the Clouds , that it dasheth forth Lightning , and that there are so many rentings of that Cloud , as there are sounds and cracking noyses . For I have seen in Mountains , wandring Clouds , and most cold in the touching ; yet none of any firmness , or strength , that they being discontinued , can utter so great a noyse , or cast down Lightning of so great a power , by a mooving downwards , and with so violent a motion , and that besides the nature of ascending fire . I have seen , I say , Lightnings about me , and have heard Thunder also under my feet . Notwithstanding , I have even least of all discerned those firmnesses of Clouds , and trifles of Thunder . I say , I have seen Lightnings and Thunders diversly to play under my feet , where at first , there was no Cloud ; and a Cloud to descend , as if it had been called to them by the voyce of the Thunder . And so I have beheld Lightning , with a magnifying of the Divine Power ; but not with fear , although I have been twice in a house that was smitten with Thunder . For I , by so much the more admiring , have praysed the magnificencies or great atchievements of the Lord , by how much the nearer his effects were unto me . I have seen also once , nigh Vilvord and again at Bella in Flanders , a certain black Sheath , as if it were a long Horsemans Boot , to fly among the Groves of Oaks or Forrests , with a great cracking noyse , having behinde it , a flame , as it were of kindled straw : but great Snow succeeded it . Therefore , seeing Thunder hath no cause plainly naturall in the Clouds of a Meteor , I believe that it hath wholly all its cause , not above , but besides nature ; and so that it is a monstrous effect . For first of all , we are bound to believe , that the evill Spirit is the Prince of this World , and that his Principality doth not shine forth amongst the faithfull , unless onely in the office of a tempter : For so it is said , that the Adversary as a Roaring Lyon , goeth about , seeking whom he may devoure : but that , not from the office of his Principality . Therefore he hath obtained the Principality of this World , that he may be a certain Executer of the judgements of the chief Monarch , and so that he may be the Umpire or Commissioner of Thunder , and Lightning ; yet under covenanted Conditions . For his Bolts being shaken off , unless his Power were bridled by Divine goodness , he would shake the Earth with one onely stroak , and would destroy mortall men . The cracking noyse therefore , or Voyce of Thunder , is a spirituall Blas of the evill Spirit , surely an effect of great strength . But Thunder is not conjoyned with a Miracle : but it contains a monstrous thing in Nature . So moreover , although the fire of Lightning , be naturall ; yet the manner and mean are divelish Powers . For God , as a most loving Father , will be loved in the first place : but by himself immediately , he doth not willingly cause or inforce feares : because it belongs not to his goodness to be loved from the fear and fearfullness of pain or punishment . Therefore the terrours of his power , and angry feares of his Majesty , he causeth or enforceth not but by appropriated spirituall Sergeants , his Ministers , that is , by a terrible Spirit . And that thing all Antiquity hath alwayes judged with me , which hath declared Jove or Jova ( as much as to say with the Hebrews , Jehova ) to be the God of Thunder . Seeing the Lord and Father of things , doth unfold his Thunder by the bound hand of a tormenter ; the evill Spirit thereupon , would not indeed be contented with the Title of Prince of the World ; but would have the name Jehova , to belong unto himself . Therefore Thunder and Lightning , although they may have concurting naturall Causes ; yet the moover of them is an incorporeall Spirit . Atheists may laugh at my Philosophy , who believe , that there is no Power , or God , and no abstracted Spirit : But at leastwise , they cannot but admire at the effects of Thunder , and accuse themselves of the ignorance of its causes . One History at least I will tell , among a thousand . In the year 1554 , in the Coast of Leydon , the Tower of Curingia being taken away by Thunder , no where appeared : after fifteen dayes , a Grave is opened in a Herbie Plot of Grasse of the Burying place , wherein a Shooe-maker was buried , and behold under an unmooved and green Turf , first the Brass Cock with the Iron Crosse , appeareth , and then a Pinacle of the Tower , and at length the whole Tower is digged out . I have seen , my self being present , by one onely Thunder-clap , some thousand of Oaks and Hazels to be burnt up , in their first bud and leaves ; to wit , the whole Wood being named from a place neer Vilvord , where the Birch , the Beech , and Alder-Tree , being frequently co-mixed with other Trees , in a thick confusion , had the mean while remained unhurt by the Thunder . But elsewhere , by one onely stroak , he strikes many things at once , that were far distant asunder . For who can sufficiently unfold the thousand various crafts and wiles of the cunning Workman ? It sufficeth , that many spirituall actions do concur being divers from the ordinary course of Nature , they being also alike powerfull at a distance , as nigh at hand . Therefore that terrible Voice of Thunder , striketh the Earth , kills Silk-worms , shakes Ale or Beer , and constrains it to wax dead , causeth the flesh of a slain Oxe hung up , to be flaggie , it curdles Milk by the sudden Leaven of its sourness , &c. But Salt applied without , to the brim of the Hogs-head , or Earthen-pot , doth turn away such kinde of effects . Surely a weak resister for such an agent , if in nature the thing resisting ought to prevail over the agent . But why ? the evill Spirit hateth Salt , and therefore Salt is alwayes said to fail or be wanting in his Sabbaths of his Imps : he being sufficiently expert , that Salt is adjured for holy water , as oft as the Baptizer useth Salt. Also Salt that is not blessed , may trample upon his commands . If therefore the Tree is to be known by his fruits , therefore the Authour by his Works ; and so much the rather , because so weak remedies do resist so great strength . Nor surely doth that make to the contrary : that God appearing to Moses in the Mount , in continuall Lightning and Thunder , environed the Mountain before Israel : Yea rather it is thereby confirmed , that the cracking Thunder , and Lightnings , do belong to Spirits his Ministers , to Spirits I say , his tormenters and executioners : For truly , Israel was driven away from ascending the Mountain under pain of death : For neither therefore were the Thunders in the top of the Mountain , but beneath , round about the Mountain : neither also appeared the Almighty to Eliah in the Whirle-winde , or in the strong Winde ; but in the sweet Air. As an addition I will hitherto referre the Decree of the Church , which in the blessing of a Bell , doth prescribe certain forms , wherein it confirms the same Presidentship in Thunder , which I have prescribed in this Chapter . For in the words of their adjurations , they have it . Let all layings in wait or treacheries of the enemy be driven far away , the crashing of Hails , the storm of Whirle-windes , the violence of Tempests : let troublesome or cruel Thunders , Blasts of Windes , &c. beallayed . Let the right hand of thy power prostrate Alery powers , and let them tremble and flee at this little Bell of the hearer . Before the sound thereof , let the fiery darts of the enemy , the stroak of Lightnings , the violence of Stones , the hurt of Tempests , &c. be chased far away . Whence indeed , all adjurations do conspire against Tempests . For , Hail , Winde , Rains , Clouds , &c. are Meteors of Nature : but a tempestuous darting , exceeding the fall of a Body in grains and the flowing of the Winde , are understood to be done by malignant powers . These things indeed , concerning Tempests of the Air , Hail and the Sea , are thus confirmed : but in Thunder , not onely the very casting of the Thunder-bolt , or Stones ; but moreover , the cracking noyse of Thunder , doth depend on the powers and enemies of the air : because that no renting of the Clouds , or Air , can naturally utter such noyses , and the effects of these , unless monstrous and hostile Powers do immingle themselves , and play together . CHAP. XVII . The trembling of the Earth , or Earth-quake . 1. The name of the Moving of the Earth , is improper . 2. The opinion of Copernicus . 3. A shew of the Deed. 4. All Schooles do agree with Aristotle in Causes , for 21 Ages hitherto . 5. The Opinion of the Schooles is demonstrated to be unpossible , from a defect of the place . 6. The same thing may after a certain manner be drawn from the force of exhalations . 7. Likewise by the Rules of proportion and motion . 8. The rise or birth of exhalations , their quantity , power , progress , manner of being made , entertainment , and swiftness , are all ridiculous things . 9. All these are demonstrated to be impossible things . 10. The cause of their Birth is wanting . 11. It is proved by the Rules of falshood and absurdities . 12. That those trifles being supposed according to the pleasure of the Schooles , the manner is ( as yet ) impossible . 13. That an exhalation being granted according to their wish , yet an Earth-quake from thence is unpossible . 14. Rentings asunder or disruptions for fear of a piercing of Bodies , do differ from that which might happen through the supposed gentleness of exhalations . 15. An impossibility is proved , from the nature of the composition of exhalations . 16. Those things are resisted , which were granted from the connivance of a falshood . 17. Wells and Caves , are all the year , in their depth or bottom , of an equall temperature . 18. That there is no fiery exhalation , as neither a fiery Gas. 19. An exhalation cannot lift up the Earth with its lightness . 20. A Bladder filled with Air , doth not spring up out of the water efficiently , by reason of its lightness , but occasionally . 21. Weightiness is an active quality ; but lightness , seeing it hath no weight , doth signifie nothing . 22. Three remarkable things drawn from thence . 23. That the manner of an Earth-quake delivered by the Schooles , is impossible . 24. The ignorance of the Schooles concerning the properties of lightness . 25. A faulty Argument of the Schooles , from ignorance . 26. After what sort the Schooles are deluded in this thing . 27. A new Sophistry by reason of errours . 28. An Earth-quake declareth monstrous tokens . 29. The Earth trembles , being shaken by God. 30. The one onely cause of an Earth-quake . 31. An objection of a certain one , is resolved . 32. The Earth doth not feel or perceive after an animall manner . 33. What an Earth-quake may properly portend . 34. Sacrifices for the purging of offences , do differ according to sins . 35. The proper inciting cause . 36. What an Earth-quake in the Lords Resurrection , denoted . 37. An answer to a friendly objection . I Being to speak of the Earth-quake , its Causes , and ends , will first of all , begin with its name . It is wont to be called , a Moving ; but it seemes to me , to be a name too generall , and very improper : For truly , while the Earth , or any other heavy Body doth hasten downwards ; it is said to move it self ; so that water flowing , moves the Wheel actively : but in an Earth-quake , the motion seemes to be passive , and so by accident , as improper to it . Nicolas Copernicus , by very many fictions , doth contend , the Earth to be circularly moved , with the Orbe of the Moon : and seeing that no motion is proper to a Globe , but a Sphericall or round one , and that doth not agree to the Earth , according to the Decree of the Church ; therefore I have withdrawn the name of Moving , from the Earth , and have changed it , to wit , that it being rather fearfull , is said to tremble . For truly the Earth being passively smitten , or threatned by a certain huge force , it is as it were jogged or shaken through fear and horrour , but doth not leap or skip for joy ; because it seemeth to undergoe some cruel and horrid thing besides the ordinary course of nature . Therefore the name of Quaking , being first established , next the shew of the deed comes to hand . For truly , there was a night , between the third and fourth day of the second month called April , in the year 1640 , indeed a quarter past the third houre after midnight , the Moon being at full , two dayes after that time , and it being the fourth day of the week called Wednesday , before Easter , when as Mecheline ( where I then was by reason of some occasions ) notably trembled , and leaped with three re-iterated approaches or fits , and at every onset the trembling endured a little lesse than there might be of the space of repeating the Apostles Creed ; but a certain roaring in the Air , went immediately before every fit , and as it were the action of Wheeles whereby great Ordinance are carried thorow the streetes , shooke the Earth . I say the night was fair , clear , void of Windes . For truly , for the cause of the revisall then to be sifted , a little before midnight , I returned home : But I rested nigh Dillie in the Commendatory of Almaine , commonly called Pitzenborch ( being received through the Courtesie and humanity of the famous man , the Lord Wernher Spies of Bullensheim , of the Teutonick order , he being Provinciall Commendatour of the confluence of Bullensheim , and Commendatour of Pitzenborch , Toparch or President in Elson , Herren-nolhe , &c. ) But I was removed for the space of seventy spaces from the streetes : And then , I learned of my friends , that almost at the same moments of time , and with the same three re-iterated turns , seperated by an equall intervall , and the same roaring accompanying them , Bruxells , Antwerp , Lire , Gaudan , the Mountains of Hannonia , Namurc , Camerac , trembled : Afterwards we heard ; that the same thing happened in Holland , Zealand , Friesland , Luxemburg and Gilderland ; yea , that even Francford upon Menus , no lesse trembled . That at Mentz , some Towers were beaten down , and that new Buildings nigh Theonpolis fell down together : Also that Westphalia ; yea Ambiave , and the nearest Coasts of France trembled . Truly all these places trembled at the very same instant of time , although by reason of the roundness of the Sphere , the Dialls , the Messengers of dayes , did necessarily differ . It is a tract of Land , at least of three hundred and sixty Leagues , in every one of the least places of its Circle , the ground every where trembled with an equall fear . For neither was the Watchman in the most vast Tower of the Temple of Mecheline , any otherwise shaken , than any one that lay in a low Cottage : No otherwise , I say , a borderer of Scalds , an Inhabitant of the Islands , and Citizen of the Medows , than they which stayed in the more high Hill. Then was the fortune of all , and every one alike . Lastly , I understood , that the Ships in the Havens of Holland and Zealand were shaken in their Masts and Sails , without Winde . Concerning the immediate Causes of so great an effect , there is much agreement among Writers . The modern or late Writers , I say , supping up the Lessons of Aristotle , have not gone back from thence , a nails breadth hitherto : Although they have added their own inventions to the Precepts of the Auntients . The Schooles therefore , do teach , that the Earth trembles by reason of Air , Winde , or an exhalation gathered together in the hollow places and pores of the Earth : which seeking , and sometimes making a passage for it self , doth make the Earth to leap or dance . For from hence , it oft-times suddenly breaking out thorow gaps and clefts , hath given a rise to destructive Diseases . This is a Tradition of the Schooles , received throughout the whole World , for one and twenty Ages . Which , if it had seemed to me to be agreeable to the ends of the Divine power , I had desisted from writing . But truly , it hath seemed to me , to be sowen with heavy perplexities , and an unavoidable absurdity ; so that it containeth not a little of an old Wives fable . Indeed Man-kinde doth of its own accord so incline to drowsiness , that the hope of Learning being as it were beheaded , it hath commanded all the Treasures of Sciences , being drawn out in one Aristotle , to have been as it were left off from a further diligent search . First therefore , I will shew the impossibility of that Doctrine ; and then , I will perfectly teach my own opinion , not stablished by heathenish Dreams , but confirmed by the Doctrine of a higher authority . For first of all , the Earth is actually distinguished by certain Pavements , Soils or grounds ; for truly , the outward Soil of the Earth , is plainly Sandy , Clayie white , else-where clayie-yellow , muddy , grisely or grayie , white , yellow , black , red , &c. sporting with divers varieties . Under which , for the most part is a Sand , and this very Sand differenced every where with great variety . But under this Soil , is at length the flinty Mountain ( which they call Keyberch ) being the Pavement and Originall of Rocks , and first Root of Mineralls . And at length , every where under this Soil , is the living or quick Sand , the boyling Sand , Drif , or Quellem , which is extended even into the Center of the World , being thorowly washed in its un-interrupted joyning , with waters . And although all the aforesaid Soils , do not every where succeed each other in order ; yet the Quellem is every where the last Pavement of the World , although oftentimes , immediately exposed to the Air , and plain to be seen . ( As , concerning the Originall of Fountains , in my Book of the Fountains of the Spaw . ) This therefore being once supposed , I say , that the place where the exhalation should be , which is believed to be the cause of the Earth-quake , ought to be placed or appointed in some , or amongst some of the said Soils , seeing that in the Earth , there is not a place out of the aforesaid Pavements . But to the overthrowing of that Doctrine , a demonstration is required , which from a sufficient enumcration of the Pavements , may shew , that such an impossible exhalation cannot be contained , or be raised up in any of the said Soils ; or if it should be there stirred up , yet that it hath not the power of forming an Earth-quake . As to the first of the three members , ( to wit , that not any exhalation can be contained under the Earth , which may actively cause its trembling ) I prove . First of all , not under the outmost , Clayie , or first Soil of the Earth next to the Air , and designed for the habitation of Mortalls : because so , S. Rumolds Tower , had not trembled , as neither Buildings built immediately upon the Quellem . As neither had Ships , without the raging of Windes , been removed , in deep Waters , far from the ground of the Sand. For it being granted , that the bottom of the Sea , did tremble , just even as the Earth else-where inhabited ; yet the Superficies of the Water could not keep the tenour of the same trembligg Sand , without winde and storm : which thing notwithstanding , is discerned to be false : for flying Birds also , feeling the trembling of the Earth , would not fall down , they being as it were sore smitten or astonished ; for a sign , that the Air it self doth tremble . For the Elements shall at sometime melt in the sight of the Judge . Therefore if the water doth tremble , no lesse than the quiet Earth it self , the cause thereof is signified to be in the Globe , or because the Earth and water do at the same stroak of smiting , together with the Air , feel a fear , or hand of the smiter . Secondly , neither can an exhalation , the cause of an Earth-quake , dwell in any of the Soils of Sands : because then , Fens , Medows , and places wherein the Quellem is immediately prostituted beneath the Clay , had not trembled : VVhich thing is as equally different from the truth of the deed , as the former . Next in the third place , neither can the same exhalation be hidden under the Keyberch : For in the whole Circle , a few places excepted , wherein the Earth then trembled , at the same moment of time , the ground Keyberch is not extant . At length , neither could an exhalation arise or be detained between the Quellem , which is sufficient to shake so great an heap with an equall fury : Because the Quellem ( that is oft-times next the Air , and conjoyned even into the Center of the Universe by its continuall unity , and thorow mixture of waters ) should easily puffe out such an exhalation , before it could equally lift up so great an heap at once . For it is of an unexcusable necessity ; because such an exhalalation should break forth , out of the more weak , lesse heavy , and lesse resisting part : that is , in the place that is least ponderous : And so under the position of the granted exhalation , there could not be an alike trembling of all places , which resisteth the thing done . For before that the exhalation should lift up so great weights , through so vast , and various spaces of ground and waters , at once , and at one moment , it had sought , and had found out easie following , and the more weak places , through which it had made a way for it self to break out at . For otherwise , the exhalations should fight against the rules of nature , proportion , and motions , which should lift up equally , and at once , all the parts of the Low-Countries , and a great part of Germany . Especially where there is not an equall capacity of every place wherein the exhalation should be entertained , not an equall fardle of the incumbent burden , or resistance of weight ; as neither is there an equall awakening of that exhalation , possible to be ; that at once , and almost at one onely moment , it should alike act thorow so many Regions : Which is to say , that it is impossible that the exhalation the Mover of the Earth-quake , being granted , there should be an equality in the sameliness of time , and power of motion , through so great a space , through so great a difference and resistance of the Soil , and of the Heaven , and diversity of weight ; seeing such an acting exhalation , meating out its efficacy by the variety of places , difference , greatness , activity , swiftness of the Mover , being of necessity unlike , ought also to obey the unlikenesses of places . Therefore let the quantity , rise , power , entertainment , and swiftness of exhalations be ridiculous , which should at one and the same moment , after a like manner , and re-iterated course , shake so many Cities , Mountains , Valleys , Hills , watry places , Meadows , Rivers , Islands , and so vast a heap , longly , and largely displaced , and sooner , than it should seek , finde , and make a passage for it self . But now I coming to the second Member of proving ; to wit , that in the aforesaid Pavements of the Earth , the raising up of an exhalation is impossible , which may be the cause of an Earth-quake : Let every kinde of naturall vapour be determined and examined by its causes . The exhalation , which may be supposed to be the Mover of the Earth , is not in the first place , a vapour , or watery exhalation ; because that most swiftly returns again into water daily by pressing together , of its own accord , in our Alembicks : but an exhalation according to Aristotle , that is chiefly necessary for these bounds , is a hot and dry flux , or Issue out of Bodies ( for the most part also Oylie ) lifted up from the dry parts , by a sharp heat into the form of Air , or a rising smoak . But I could wish , that the Schooles may answer , what therefore at length , shall that actuall , equall , and connexed heat , under the Sea , Rivers , pooles , Meadows , and under the Quellem , be ? For truly , it behoveth heat , and dryth , to be actuall and strong , which may there be sufficient for so notable an effect : but not potentiall , naked , remote , possible , or dreamed qualities . What is that heat , from what and whence is it rowsed in the more deeper cold ? what is that heat , so short , so strong , and so interrupted , which after a few rigours or extremities of tremblings , ceaseth ; nor which doth shake the Earth a new by trembling ? For if the cause of so great motion be in heat , there shall not at leastwise after the motion , be in heat , the cause of so sudden rest . Lastly , what is the dryness connexed to the fire , which may forthwith kindle under the Earth and Waters ( the Waters being all alike dryed up throughout all the Low-Countries ) a fire , the Patron of so great exhalations ? But go to , let us feign by sporting , and grant a heat to be actually under the Earth and Water , which is made by kindling : likewise , that great and stubborn heat , and its unwonted action , which may raise up the exhalations before the dryness of the thing ? It is verily an irregular effect , not as yet hitherto seen among the Artists of the fire . Again let us feigne also other absurdities , that actuall fire , violent in the Water , or under watery Bodies , may there be bred without fewel , and be sustained , proceed , and long persist without fodder : but at leastwise , that fire shall not be able to raise up vapours , and much lesse inclosed exhalations , and to detain them in a narrow place , which may not choak that fire , out of hand ; and make the sufficiency , forces , and successive generation of those exhalations void . For truly in the Burrowes of Mineralls , if the lights are not forth with from above refreshed with a new blast of Air , they are presently extinguished , and the diggers also are deprived of breath and life . But if that the fire , and that the exhalation do subsist untill a sufficient breathing be given : Now , for that very cause , the motive exhalation its off-spring , shall first expire from thence ; or if there be not room for a sufficient breathing , the fire verily shall of necessity be stified , nor shall there be place for so great a successive exhalation , or for the repeated onset of an Earth-quake . Let us feign again , not indeed that actuall fire or heat is entertained under the Waters , in the aforesaid Soils of the Earth : but that all the Low-Countries have had something in all places , like to Gun-powder , which at length , by its own ripeness , or a hidden conspiracy of the Stats , is enflamed at once and every where , and for that cause , doth afford a sudden exhalation , in every place equall . But neither truly , under so many trifles , should all the Low-Countries then jogge any more than once , and it had gaped in the more slender , and lesse deep , and weigh y places , and some pieces thereof had leaped forth on high , and a Chimny of that exhaling flame , would there follow . But the Low-Countries , and part of Germany , had not therefore trembled : For once , and at once , the Earth had some where rose up on the top , where it had gaped ; but it had not often trembled , as it were with an aguish rigour . For truly the supposed action of inflaming , should be made onely , that the piercing of Bodies might be hindered , Therefore as to the third point ; To wit , that also a sufficient exhalation being granted to be under the Earth , nevertheless an Earth-quake is impossible ; I have begun indeed , already to prove , by some granted fictions : Otherwise , after what manner soever an exhalation may be taken , and wheresoever that of the Pavements may be supposed , the Earth should not thereby tremble : but , where the least resistances should be , it should rise up into a heap or bunch , untill it had gaped , and the exhalation had made a passage for it self , by expiring thorow a huge Gulf. Which things , seeing they are not found to have happened , the tradition of the Schooles doth in this respect also , go to ruine . For first of all , that it may more clearly appear , that the action and manner of the action is divers , when as for fear of a piercing of Bodies , a thing leaps forth , and that nature doth operate after another manner , by reason of the supposed lightness of exhalations striving to break forth : observe a Handicraft-operation : Let there be a Glasse-bottle , spatious , thick and strong ; infuse in it four ounces of Aqua fortis , being prepared of Salt-peter , Alume , and Vitriol , being dryed apart . But cast into that water , one ounce of the Powder of Sal Armoniac , and straightway let the neck of the Glasse be shut by melting it , which is called Hermes Seal : As soon as the voluntary action shall begin , and the Vessel is filled with a plentifull exhalation ( yet an invisible one ) and however it may be feigned to be stronger than Iron , yet it straightway dangerously leapeth asunder into broken pieces , for fear of piercing , but not by reason of the lightness of many exhalations . For truly , although it bursteth , by reason of the multitude , and the pressing together of most light and invisible exhalations ; yet the lightness of the same , in this things hath nothing of moment : Because if any of these things should happen for lightness sake , the Glasse Vessel it self , before its bursting , would be lifted up into the Air , and fly upwards : Because it is a thing of lesse labour , to lift up a weight of three or four pounds , than to break asunder a most strong Vessel . Therefore the exhalations which do break the Glasse , should much more powerfully lift up the Glasse , if the Schooles did not beg the vain help of lightness from exhalations , for an Earth-quake . If therefore exhalations are not able by their lightness , to lift up the Vessel wherein they are shut , much lesse so great a quantity of Earth , and vast an heap . Lastly , seeing that every exhalation is of some body , and every body if it be to be seperated , is divided into Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury ; and the Mercuriall part be the watery part of the body : therefore it must needes be , that every exhalation is of a Salt and Oylie matter : And that , that is first to be raised up before the watery part : Which thing hath not as yet so happened in our Glasses , by the an equall action of heat . If therefore an exhalation be Salt , it is easily soaked or imbibed into the Earth ; which may be seen wholly in all waters and exhalations of what Salts soever , which in acting upon the Earth , are coagulated in it , and loose all activity . Therefore , if they should be stirred up in the earth , they had failed , before they were , or in the making , had ceased to be . But if the exhalation be oily , surely that being laid , deposited or laid up into the Earth , it retakes the former shape of Oyl , and so growes together : Which thing , seeing it easily comes to passe , it cannot be thought , how an exhalation may by its lightness , make so great a heap of Earth , and of huge weight to stumble , sooner then to consult of coagulating . And upon every event , there should not be room , but for one elevation of the Earth , and one onely settling of the same , after some gaping chap is found ; but not of stirring up a quaking trembling . But let these Dreams be in watery places , Meadows , Clayie places , pooles , the Sea , Rivers , &c. Therefore the absurdities , which I granted before in jest , I will now oppose in earnest . First of all , I demand , what is that so unwonted heat , which from the year 1580 , even unto the year 1640 , was not seen at Mecheline ? as neither an Earth-quake ? wherefore not every year ? wherefore in the 2d moneth called April , under a most cold night , when as the day before , it had snowed much ? under the continuall North Winde ? and not under the Dog-Star ? Is it because the more inward parts of the Earth are then hot ? Why therefore not every year in the eleventh moneth called January ? But this Argument of the Antients ceaseth , after that the Instrument meating out the Degrees of the encompassing Air , is found . For Wells and Caves are found , all the year , of an equall heat and cold . Again , why doth so great heat , the stirrer up of exhalations , cease so suddenly ? especially where it may stir up an exhalation , the moover of so great an heap ? by what fewell it is kindled under the water ? by what Fodder doth it live and subsist ? by what Law is it not in the same place stif●ed ? by what priviledge doth it despise the respects of bodies , places , and weights ? at length , by what Prerogative doth it stir up an exhalation of so great a vastness , out of moyst Bodies , without moyst vapours : or if it doth also allure or draw out vapours after the ordinary manner , why do not these mitigate a heat of so great moment ? do they extinguish ? do they choak together with their Sisters , and forthwith following exhalations ? or what is that exhalation , which shaketh the vast Tower of Mecheline , with no greater respect than a low Cottage ? nor that respecteth any resistance of a huge weight ? or which doth in a like manner operate near at hand , as at a distance ? or which doth at once , every where , and alike , finde throughout its whole Superficies , the collected power of its own Center , that at once , every where alike , it may operate in one moment , equally and alike strongly ? Why through the necessity of naturall causes , is not the thred broken in the weaker part : but all things do at once undergoe , yea and sustain the same law of violence ? Surely if these things be rightly considered , there is found in the Earth-quake , a certain operative force , of an infinite power , which lifts up Mountains and Towers , without respect of lightness , or weight , as if nothing were able to resist this moving virtue . But I have proved , that an exhalation , if in any there be an efficient moving cause of an Earth-quake , is neither of the race of Salts , nor of Sulphurs , as neither of Mercuries ( because that this is not an exhalation , but the vapour of the watery parts . ) Therefore it remains , that it is not an exhalation : but Gas it self , not an eflux of Bodies stirred up by heat ; but rather an effect remaining after the fire : To wit , the Gas of the flame of the fire alone , or of the smoak sprung from this . But neither of these exhalations also , can be the effective cause of an Earth-quake . Therefore if none of these exhalations be the mover of the Earth , there shall be none at all ( since another is not found ) and by consequence , it is a vain fiction of the Schooles , which they will have themselves to be believed in , in the Earth-quake . But if indeed they thinking of an escape , do say , that they do not understand an exhalation raised up by heat , not brought forth by dryness , but an unnamed vapour constituted by its causes : To wit , like as Aristotle writeth , that all Rockie Stones , small stones , Mineralls , and likewise the Salt of the Sea , Comets , although a hundred fold bigger than the Globe of the Earth , and all Windes , do proceed from some irregular and un-explained exhalations , distinguishing the Windes therein , against the Air : This I say , is to be willing to doat with Aristotle , and to remain ignorant of naturall Philosophy , with the same Aristotle . Lastly , it is an impertinent thing , for them to have cited Aristotle , and by his authority to be willing to defend their errours . Notwithstanding , I will treat against the Schooles by reason , that seeing they do publish themselves to be so rationall , they may deliver up their weapons to reason . I say therefore , that no exhalation can be more light , simple , or subtile , than the Air : because , this is the simple body of an Element ; but , that is a composed body ; and so however it be , it hath in it a weighty body , which the Air wanteth : Yet the Air is not lighter than a Body that is without weight : that is , the Air is not lighter than it self , nor can it lift up any thing besides it self , unless by the motion of a Flatus or blast , or of flowing , that is , by a Blas : Which ceasing , the body which it lifted up , setleth . From whence I conclude , that the Air or Winde , whether it be shut up or free , cannot lift up the Earth , by reason of its lightness alone , unless it be by chance stricken by an externall and violent Mover : but in this case , the force of the exhalation ceaseth , seeing it is a constraining force which moveth , but not the exhalation it self : Because it is that which in such a case , is onely the mean or Instrument of motion , but not the chief motive force . And much lesse is that agreeable to an exhalation ; because it is that which is thicker and weightier than the Air , as it containeth water . I prove it by Handicraft-operation . A Bladder stretched out with Air , springs up out of the water ; not primarily ; because the Air is lighter than water : but because the water is a heavy and fluide body ; and therefore it suffers not it self to be driven out of its place by a lighter body . For indeed it is the first endeavour of the water , to joyn it self to the water , from whence it was seperated : its secondary endeavour , or that as it were by accident , is to presse out by its falling together , whatsoever is lighter than it self . Therefore weightiness , not lightness , doth operate in this thing , for the reason straightway to be shewed . Let a Bladder able to contain three pounds or pints of water , be put in a small trench or ditch , and let it be covered with Earth : Truly it shall not shake off from it , half an ounce of the dust poured upon it : Yea , neither shall the Bladder desire to appear out of the dry more weighty Sand. Let it therefore be ridiculous , that a Bladder weighing half an ounce , doth ever from any lightness of Air , of its own accord fly up into the Air. If therefore much Air cannot lift up a Bladder ; surely , much lesse shall the Air rise up , being pressed down under the huge weight of the low Countries . For indeed the Elements , do in the first place , and onely respect themselves ; truly they act all things , for their own sake : And therefore , a Glasse-bottle being filled with Air and buried , can never a whit endeavour to spring up out of the Earth ; because the Air is every where in its own naturall place , as oft as the space of its place is not filled with another body , neither is it carefull for passage . Therefore if there are hollow places under the Earth , the Air doth naturally rest in those places , from all locall motion : But in places where Sands fall down as it were a fluide body , there , because the dust fills up the empty place , and falls down through its weight , it also by accident presseth out the air . But that motion of the Earth or Water is not therefore efficiently from the lightness of the Air ; or , that the Air , by the proper motion of its own lightness , doth move it self , and climbe upwards . But ( mark ) in this thing , weightiness it self , is the active , primary , and totall efficient cause : seeing weightiness , hath a reall weight , and is an active quality : but on the contrary , the lightness of the Air is the effecter of nothing ; seeing it hath no weight , it of necessity betokeneth nothing , neither can it have any efficacy of acting . From whence it followes , 1. That the lightness of the Air , worketh nothing : nor , that a Bladder , which should be great , and weigh onely six grains , could be of its own accord , lifted up by the inclosed Air , how great soever , otherwise ( which is false ) the Air should be lighter than that which hath no weight . 2. That the Air doth not appear out of the water , by reason of its lightness , as it were the active , or the moving quality of swimming ; but weightiness is the reall quality which expells the Air. 3. And therefore the position of the Schooles is absurd , wherein Air , or an exhalation is appointed for the efficient cause of an Earth-quake , by reason of its lightness , as if it should shake the Earth by lifting it up . Wherefore , seeing it is now sufficiently proved . 1. That there is not a place in the Pavements or Soils of the Earth , wherein any Aiery Body may be entertained , whether that Body be a Winde , or an Aiery exhalation : but by how much the deeper that place shall be sought for , by so much the greater difficulties do arise , as well by reason of the greater abundance of water , as the greater fardle of Earth , from above ; so that , that is as it were of an infinite power , which should cause a trembling of the Earth . 2. And then , that there can be no fire , heat , driness , or any other stirrer up of an exhalation of so great power : or that which is co-related to it : That there is no possibility of such an exhalation in nature , there to subsist . And at length , thirdly , that no exhalation , by reason of lightness , doth operate any thing , or lift up a heavy body , much lesse , so vast a Country of Earth . Therefore I conclude , that it is an empty fiction of the Schooles , whatsoever hath been hitherto diligently taught concerning an Earth-quake . Wherefore I will perfectly teach , that the manner of an Earth-quake diligently taught by the Schooles , is altogether impossible . Let us therefore again feigne absurdities , that , as it were , by the rule of falshood , the errour of the Schooles may be discovered . To wit , let us grant a Bladder to be of a matter that is tractable or easily to be beaten thin , being a thousand times stronger than all Iron , and to be spread ( it is unknown in what Soil ) throughout all the low Countries and Germany , under the foundation of Mountains , Cities , Seas , and Rivers : But a thousand huge paires of Bellowes , most firmly , and excellently annexed thereto . Therefore that they may be able to lift up all the low Countries at once , it must needes be , that those Bellowes , and the Posts and Axles of these , be so strong , as that they might be sufficient to lift up the weight . And then , a hand should be required , or an Agent of so great strength , that it might be able to lift up all the low Countries with its Palme , or else it could not presse together those Bellowes which are full of winde : But such an Agent is not in the Sublunary nature of things , although the other granted absurdities should be present : therefore the vain lightness of the Air or an exhalation , is frivolous , and the inbred desire of their breaking forth . Therefore , I never a whit doubt to deny the naturall cause rendered by the Schooles , invented by the Devill , that my God his own honour may be over-clouded . Because the Schooles have been hitherto ignorant , that lightness is not an active quality , and so much lesse should it be an overturner of Mountains : but they have sometimes considered , that a Mine which was before over-covered , hath straightway after an Earthquake , belched forth a stinking poyson , and made a gap for it self : therefore , they have dared through inconsiderateness and ignorance , to refer this effect of an Earth-quake by accident , into a cause by it self . Which things , that they may more clearly appear , let us again feign the aforesaid Bladder under the low Countries , to be stretched out with an Aiery Body , of its own accord , or by the influence of the Stars ( for when reason faileth , those that are ignorant do alwayes run back to the Stars , and causes afar of , ( and for Witnesses not to be cited ) and no Bellowes to be , as neither holes round about . Then at leastwise , the Body of all the Low-Countries , laying on it , should so presse the aforesaid Bladder with its weight , that , if it burst not , it should at least , in its weaker ; and lesse ponderous part , belch forth that which is contained in it . Which thing being obtained , now indeed the cause of the pressing together of the Bladder , and of the fall of the Low Countries , together with the opening of some gap , is present . But the cause of the lifting up of that Bladder , is not yet to be found , and much lesse , of the repeated succession of trembling and quaking . Lastly , neither is such a Bladder , and its substance possible to be , without which , although there should be room in the Earth , yet it is not fit for nourishing , or receiving that exhalation . Yea the bounds of the aforesaid Bladder being set or supposed , at leastwise , the Air , or exhalation works nothing , that it may lift up the Earth by its lightness ; but if the Earth fall down or go to ruine , it findes not a cause for it selfe , as to this thing , in the lightness of the detained Air ; seeing it shuts up the whole cause in the Fist of its weightiness ; and the pressing out of the Air is to be measured , according to the measure of the weight that layeth on it . Therefore the Bladder being again supposed , if any Winde or Air should blow from without into the aforesaid Bladder , being pressed together , laying on the ground , and void of every Body : however most strongly it should blow , yet it could not at all blow up the Bladder , because , the low Countries laying on it , should presse it together . But if indeed , a fiery exhalation be sought for , in the place of the Winde , or Air , I have already demonstrated before , that fire to be impossible , and the exhalation of so great an effect throughout all the low Countries , to be fabulous . At length , that continuall Bladder , so strong , and capable to be hammered thin , also faileth , which may sustain , with its back , the low Countries , Seas , Rivers , and far more : For although , I have granted the same , it is not because I think it to be ; but because , that Bladder being supposed , so great absurdities may also follow , and the Schooles at length be squeezed to an impossibility . Mountains , Sulphurous places , and the mansions of Mines , have afforded to Countrey people ( whence the Schooles have them ) the beginnings of this Dream . Alass ! is there every where a miserable drowsiness , in searching into the causes of effects ? The Mountain Soma or Vesuvius , nigh Naples , hath burned now for some Ages , with Sulphur or Brimstone , and fire-Stones . But it hath a gap in its top , large enough , whereby the smoaks and flame might expire or breath out : To wit , perhaps to the largeness of three filed measures or Acres of Land : But a Vault that was next to the flame , as being now sufficiently roasted , and full of chaps , at length , about the sixteenth day of the tenth Moneth or December , of the year 1631 , by one sudden fall , fell down into the Gulf of the flame : But it is the property as well of some Metalls , as of bright shining Fire-stones , while they are melting , that if any thing of water shall fall in among them , they all leap asunder : therefore the Sulphurs with the Fire-stones being melted in the bowels of Vesuvius , they did not endure the roasted fragment falling down from the Rocks , without a great deluge , but the flame did vomit out all of whatsoever had slidden down from above , and more . Neither was this sufficient : But moreover , some Fountains were loosed from above , into the Chimney of the fire : But what have the melted Sulphurs , or what the raging tempests of smoakes , common with an Earth-quake ? Do Sulphurs thus burn throughout all the low Countries ? For an Earth-quake had gone before at Naples , and did accompany that danger of Sodom . And although they shall happen together , they do not therefore partake of one onely root , the which do obey divers causes : that Earth-quake fore-shewing a wonder , did also inclose in it a monstrous token , and doth alwayes inclose some such : But the belching out of Metallick Veins , stands by its natural causes . Surely a wretched Sophistry it is , to argue from not the cause , as for the cause : For neither are exhalations to be believed to have been enclosed in that Earth-quake , a Chimney is produced , having long since , a way opened for exhalations . I would , the Schooles hath hearkened to their Pliny , that oft-times , at the present time or urgency of an Earth-quake , Birds , the winde being still , being as it were sore smitten with fear , do fall down out of the Air : that in a quiet Haven , the Oare Galleys do leap a little . But what fellowship interposeth between the Air and the Sea , with an exhalation shut up under the Earth ? For doth the Air tremble , when the Earth doth ? Is so small a trembling of the Air sufficient to cast down Birds , which fly in every winde ? For because the Sand of the Sea ( and that indeed without gaping ) should leap a little , for the depth of half a foot ; ought therefore the Superficies of the deep Sea , void of Winde , together with Ships , to tremble ? A Manuscript of the Curate of S. Mary beyond Dilca of Mecheline was shewen , wherein he had written , that in the year 1540 , once every day for three dayes space , the Earth trembled , before that lightning inflamed its Sand-Port , and also the Gun-powder contained therein : whence the City , by an un-thought of slaughter , being almost utterly dashed in pieces , went to ruine . Lastly , in the year 1580 , the second houre after noon , the fury of the Windes ceasing , the City trembled , two dayes before the English invaded Mecheline , and took it for a prey . But what have those events ( happening from a fatall necessity ) common , in the joyning of causes , with a dreamed exhalation under the Earth ? For what could a supposed exhalation portend , besides or out of it self ? For why should it include a future signifying of a VVar-like invasion ? or Lightning to come , and to kindle the Vessels of Gun-powder there also kept , shaking the Sandy Tower , and throwing down the whole City ? For before that the Mountain Vesuvius , belched out its bowels , and covered very many small Towns , with a Minerall Clod , and denyed hope to the Husband-man for the time to come , thick darkness under the Sun went before , in the Air , lamentable howlings , and the Earth trembled , things stirring up the required devotion of the Nation . Truly the Earth trembled , from its own cause , for a fore-knowledge of the future slaughter threatned : But the slaughter it selfe followed by its naturall causes : But the fore-going signes , have never any thing common , with the event of future fire . Since therefore now it is certain , that there is no place among the Pavements of the Earth , nor exhalation that layes under them ; and if any should be under , yet that it were impossible to cause an Earth-quake ; yet that it is an undoubted truth , that the Earth doth truly and actually tremble , without the dis-continuance of its pavements , or through the opening of some gap , I have considered that trembling to be in the Earth , no otherwise than in Brasse , when as the Clapper hath smote the Bell. For as long as the Bell trembles without a cleft , so long it gives a Tune . The Earth also , while it is shaken with its Super-natural Clapper , sends forth a deaf sound , because its body toucheth together indeed by Sand and VVater , even into its Center ; yet it is not holding together by a continuance of unity without intermission . And it may tremble without the dis-continuance of touching together ; indeed by so much the more freely , if the Mettall be bended without the renting asunder of that which holds together : the Earth also in trembling , hath its inward Clapper more famous than the voice of Thunder . But because the stroak waxeth deaf in the Sand and VVater , therefore it is shaken together with a certain tune or note , while it trembled : yet the roaring which is sometimes heard , is not of the Earth , but a strange one ; not proper to the Earth-quake , but an accidentary howling of Spirits , which by the Italians is called Baleno . At length , I weighing the cause of an Earth-quake , do know , that in the first place , there is a motive force in the Air , whereby the Air doth commit to execution , the spurre conceived in the Stars : For the Stars shall be to you , for signes , times or seasons , dayes and years . Moreover , I know , that in the Sea , and deep Lakes , there is their motive force , whereby they suffer a raging heat without windes , whereby , I say , our Ocean is rowled six houres , and else-where , six constant months , with one onely flowing . Lastly I know , that the Earth is at rest , nor that it hath a motive force actively proper to it self . Therefore , I believe , that the Earth doth quake and fear , as oft as the Angel of the Lord doth smite it . Behold a great Earth-quake was made : for the Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven , Mat. 28. The word ( For ) among the Hebrewes , doth contain a cause , as if he should say ( Because . ) For this is the onely cause of an Earth-quake , whereby all things , do without resistance equally tremble together , as it were a light Reed . In the Revelations , the third part of Mortalls , Trees , and Fishes perished at the very time , wherein the Angel powred forth his Viall : For abstracted spirits do work by the divine Power , and nothing can resist them . Evill spirits also , as oft , as it is granted them to act by a free power , they act without the resistance of bodies , or a re-acting of resistance . For matter is the Client of , or dependant on another Monarchy , and it cannot re-act into a spirit , which it by no meanes toucheth , and with no object , affecteth . Even as the Angel useth the powred out liquor of the Viall , unto the aforesaid slaughter ; so , for the Earth-quake , he for the most part , makes use of a note or voice . For a wandering note was heard in the Air , no otherwise , than as the creaking of Wheeles driven : thereupon , as it were a tempestuous murmuring sound succeeded ( yet without Winde ) and at that very time , the whole tract of so great Provinces trembled at once , with a huge horrour : Which same note , accompanied the trembling of the Earth at every of the three repeated turns . The same thing almost , happens in Lightning : Truly the Lightning burns , and causeth melting : but surely , it smiteth not : According to that saying : The voice of Thunder shall strike the Earth , because it smiteth . For Silk-worms die , Milk is curdled , Ale or Beer waxeth sowre , a slain Oxe hanging up , retains flaggie flesh unfit to take Salt , and that onely by the Thunder-stroak , the Lightning doing no hurt there . Therefore let the voice of Thunder , and the voice of the Earth-quake , be the note or tone of ministring spirits . But the Stars do not stir up a motive , and alterative force of the Air or Water , through a note : but do act onely by an Aspect , which they call an Influence : And it hath its action and direction in a moment , even as light , sight , &c. For otherwise , there should be need of many years , before the audible Species or resemblances that are to be heard , should come down from Saturn to the places of a Meteor . And then , a note or sound , although it be great ; yet it faileth by degrees in the way . But that the Earth doth tremble , with a Tempest of Windes , or that the Tempest doth sometimes run successively thorow Villages , Cities , and as it were thorow street by street in its wheeling about : That is wholly by accident , and according to the will of him , who shaketh the Earth for a monstrous sign . Likewise , that else-where , it doth oft-times tremble ; in quick Belgium , very seldom : that changeth not the moving cause : For it stands in the free will of him , who encloseth the Universe in his Fist , who can shake the Earth at his pleasure , and alone do marvellous things : At the beholding of whom , the Earth shall at sometime smoak , and the Mountains being melted , shall go to ruine . But that in another place , gapings , chaps , after an Earth-quake , have sometimes appeared , and a filthy poyson , and fumes of arsenicall bodies have breathed forth , that is joyned onely to its naturall causes ; Nor are they the effects of an Earth-quake , but by accident , but not the causes . But this blindness of causes of the Earth-quake , hath been invented , the Devill being the Authour , whereby mortall men might set apart all fear of the power , and so , might prevent , if not wholly neglect the ends which God hath appointed to himself , for the serious reverencing of the power of his Majesty , that they being mind-full of the faults of their fore-led life , might repent . Deh ! qual possente man conforzze ignote Il terreno a crollar si spesso riede Non e chiuso vapor como altro crede Ne sognato stridente il suol percuote . Certo la terra si rissente , & scuote , Perche del pe●cator sa aggrava il piede : Et i nostri corpi impatiente chiede , Per riemper se sue spelonche ●uote . E linquaggio del ciel che l'huom riprende Il turbo , il tuono , il fulmine , il baleno , Hor parla anco la terra in note horrende , Perche l'huom ch' esser vuol tutto terreno , Ne del cielo il parlar straniero intende : I l parlar della terra , intenda al meno . Behold ! with what a mighty , yet unknown A force , the Earthy Body makes a noyse , And with so thick a rushing gives a groan : 'T is not a vapour hot shut up ( they 'r toyes ) Even as some believe , which beats the ground [ Or thumps its entrails ] with a whistling sound . Truly , the Earth it selfe doth feele and quake , Because the sinners foot doth load its back And our impatient [ mortall ] bodies fall In , to fill up its own deep Vaults withall The Language of the Heaven which reproves Man , is the Whirle-winde , Thunder , Lightning flash , And sp'ritous howling in the Air [ Ecchoes . ] Now speaks the earth more-o're , with horride lash Of signall tokens , ' cause since man which would Be wholly earthly , doth not understand , The Linguo strange of Heaven , yet may or should At least the Earth it 's Language apprehend . These things nothing hindering , there hath not been one wanting , who said , that from a most deep well of the Castle of Lovaine , he by a sure presage foretold , an Earth-quake was shortly to be , because the water of the same Well , three dayes before , sent forth the stinking savour of Brimstone , and that its contagion , yellowness , together with the turbulency of the water , did bewray it . But let that good man know , that that Well is one hundred and fifteen foot in depth , because they go up to the Castle ( from the Street that is next unto it ) by ninety three steps : And so , that Well in one part , is not deeper than its Neighbouring Wells , although in the other part where it is co-touching with the Hill of the Castle , it is deep , as I have said . But seeing that a vein of Sulphur is not hidden in the Hill , the water could not breath Sulphur , which was not there : But if it cast the smell of Sulphur , a sign might precede , God admonishing : but it had not Sulphur , which neither is in that place , nor was enflamed : therefore neither could it cause an Earthquake unto all Belgium or the Low Countries . Therefore there is no naturall reason , why the water in that Well , should be more troubled by Sulphur , than in its neighbour-wells , wherein no such thing was seen . Lastly , we must know , that an Earth-quake is not made by the long preparation of causes from three dayes before : Because then the Earth could not be lifted up in one manner , at once : Yea , if any exhalation of Sulphur , had now three dayes before , fore-timely made a passage for it self , at that very time , it had now found a passage for it self , and had sooner breathed forth that way thorow that Well , before it had lifted up so great an heap on every side : yea , a passage being found , it had made the water by its blast , and boyling up , to sound in the boyling , and much more prosperously in the streetes that were so much lower , and the exhalation had broken forth in the more neighbouring places , and had burst in sunder the Hill it self more easily , by rising into an heap ; but the Earth had not trembled : Therefore I reject the example of the deed , as long as the reasons opposed by me against it , from its impossibility , are not overthrown . Therefore the Earth trembleth , not because it feeleth or feareth after the manner of a living Creature : but it denounceth unto us , something like it , and doth as it were speak unto us , accusing of the stroak of the Angel , or the hand of an angry God. But the Earth is smitten , and trembleth by the Command of God , pointing out , that sin hath ascended up to Heaven , crying out for vengeance before his Throne : Indeed the smiting doth presuppose indignation , and indignation , a heaped up measure of sin : But the end of an Earth-quake , is , that the sinner may amend himself , and that the righteous man may as well beware that he doth not sin , as of the threatned punishment of sin . Therefore an Earth-quake , doth alway threaten punishments . But all particular offences , have chastisements suitable to themselves : For Luxury , and uncleanness , have Plagues and Diseases , for purging sacrifices and punishments : But Adulteries pay their punishments , by Diseases , imprisonment , disgraces , poverties ; also barrenness , of off-spring , untimely death , or the like ; According to that saying : He that someth in the flesh , shall reap in corruption . But pride of life is punished , by poverties , barrennesses , wars , destructions , sudden death , a miserable losse of friends , &c. At length , covetousness payes its punishments , by deceits , thefts , juggles , discommodities of some member , &c. But if two or three sins do abound at once among a people , then punishments are also co-mingled : to wit , in-clemencies , tyrannies , breakings of a Vow or Oath , juggles or deceits , extorsions , plagues , barrennesses , wars , &c. But if sins are conjoyned in Powers or Princes , as well of the Church , as in Secular ones & Judges , The Prophesies are full , that for the injustice of the same , Kingdoms are translated from Nation to Nation : Which things , if they happen , with the rise of Arch Heresies , scandalls , and subversions of Altars , and especially , where the Poor suffer together with them ; it is a signe that these evills do proceed , from filthinesses , in-clemencies , ambition , covetousness , breakings of a Vow , and drunkennesses or gluttonies . For the Prophesies do abound with threatnings , that Jerusalem shall be plowed as a field ; the City shall be made as a heap of stones ; that the Pestilence , and Enemy shall take away all the prey , and shall lead away the Chief of the Church bound ; the holy place shall be defiled , that they may be for a derision among the Nations . But if Wars do not touch Religion , the sins onely of Princes and Judges are taken notice of . But the Earth trembleth , being smitten especially , for the sins of bloud , which cry out for Heaven to be a revenger . Therefore after an Earth-quake , punishments are to be expected , which are deservedly due to excess , cruelty , and injustice . The trembling of the Earth therefore , denotes nought but the judgements of God a Revenger : To wit , a good thing from an evill cause ; as it containeth an inflicting of punishment on the impenitent . Therefore from the Lords Resurrection , the Earth trembled , signifying the desolation of the City , and of the Jewish Monarchy , which the Gospel , together with the teares of the Lord foretold , and which Josephus hath written down at large . For no calamities are without the Lords permission , nothing without its cause , neither doth grief or misery spring out of the ground . Job 5. Isai 45. Neither do calamities at any time happen unto us by chance . It was the most rare or un-couth wickedness of men , that slew the guiltless Son of God for his benefits : wherefore a most rare kinde of purging of the offence , ought also to rain upon that Nation , which had been educated with so great favour , to the killing of the men , and lasting destruction of the Common-wealth ; As was fore-seen by Daniel , Isaiah and Psal . 10. But when an Earth-quake runs as it were thorow , street by street , a tumult of a City against a City is signified , and the streetes to be desolate or forsaken . For a friend saw this Chapter , it being as yet in Writing ; he presently perceived that a naturall cause was wanting , and he consented : but he was angry , because I had deciphered the manner , and that the Earth should be smitten , not indeed with a Staffe , but by a note , or voice , and he laughed at the conjecture . Why hath not God ( he said ) done those things by Gun-powder , by Winde , an exhalation , and a vapour ? wherefore hath not he said it or spoken it , and the Earth was moved ? with God there are a thousand wayes , neither is it certain what mean he hath used . First of all , if I have given a reason , why the Earth trembling doth necessarily chap , by the example of a Bell which trembles after the stroak ; certainly , he ought not to be angry with me ; For , neither intended I , that he that exceedes every manner , doth tie up himself to manner and meanes : But in-as-much as that friend doth inter-ject naturall meanes ; as are the winde , a vapour , an exhalation , Gun-powder , laid under the Low-Countries : These things were already sufficiently refuted in my Writings , as to be possible in nature : wherefore , they are again unseasonably alleadged , as if God should have need of those meanes ; Because when God makes use of meanes in working miraculously , he also often-times useth naturall things ; but he doth not then make use of things which are reckoned as fellow-causes : For those meanes rather are , and do contain mysteries , than the vigour of any causality . Therefore , I have drawn my conjecture of the smiting voice or tone ( not that I am a conscious or a fellow-knower of , or a searcher into divine Counsel ) out of that word . The Voice of Thunder shall strike the Earth . Moses smote the waters of Aegypt , and they were turned into bloud , and the Frogs over-covered the Land of Aegypt : he smote the Sea with his Rod , and the waters stood still : he smote the Rock , and it brought forth a Fountain . Elisha commanded the King , to smite the Earth , and was wroth with him , because he had not smitten it oftner , because the number of Commissionary smitings , did contain the number of Victories , and repeated turns of the enemy as yet to be beaten . Therefore for the keeping of peace with my friend , I have explained my self . I confess ( I say ) willingly , that I would not search into Divine Mysteries : But the manner and meanes which God useth in the Earth-quake , I have attained onely by conjecture . But neither at length , have I desired to make these things known , nor that I might be taken notice of as a brawler ; but that the fear of the Lord , which is the beginning of wisdom , may arise from the trembling of the Earth . D. Streithagen Cannon of Hemsberg , in his Germane Flourish , hath writ down a Chronograph , or Verse of the time of this Earthly trembling , by reason of its unwonted strangeness , and largeness of the places . Smitten ( the 4th of April ) was the Earth with tumult wide , From which unwonted slaughter , covered Bodies down do slide . From the face of the Lord the Earth was moved , from the face of the God of Jacob. CHAP. XVIII . The fiction of Elementary Complexions and Mixtures . 1. Why the Earth hath seemed not to be a primary Element . 2. That the fire is neither a substance , nor an accident . 3. That all visible things are materially of water onely . 4. Why the place of the Air which is called the middle Region , is cold . 5. What the three first things of the Chymists may be . 6. Some Bodies are not reduced into the three first things . 7. The unconstancie of Paracelsus . 8. The errour of the Chymists . 9. The reducing of the three first things , into the water of a Cloud , is demonstrated . 10. The swift or volatile Salt of simple Bodies , may be fixed by co-melting , 11. The three first things were not before , but are made in seperating , and that indeed , a new Creature . 12. The Oil of things is nothing but water , the seed of the compound Body being abstracted or withdrawn . 13. The same thing is proved in a live Coal . 14. What the wilde Gas of things is . 15. How a Gas is bred in the Grape . 16. The Gas of Wines . 17. Why much of the Grape may hurt . 18. That the Gas of new Wine , is not the Spirit of Wine . 19. An erroneous opinion of Paracelsus . 20. A twofold Sulphur in Tinne , from whence , the lightness of the same . 21. Gun-powder proves Gas. 22. Some things do mutually transchange themselves into Gas. 23. The mutuall unsufferableness of some things that are melted together . 24. That Gas , materially is not Earth or Air. 25. The same thing , by a supposition of a falshood , and seven absurdities . 26. That a mixt Body is not converted into an Element , by the force of an Element the Conquerour . 27. A Handicraft operation of the Liquor Alkahest . 28. Gas is wholly of the Element of Water . 29. It is proved by the Handicraft operation of a live Coal . 30. By Handicraft operation , that every Vegetable is totally and materially of water alone . 31. So a stone is wholly of water . 32. Fishes and all fatness , are wholly of water . 33. Every smoak is onely of water . 34. All Sulphurs are reduced into a smoak and Gas ; but these are reduced into water . 35. Why fire cannot make Air of Water . 36. Ashes and Glasse are of Water alone . 37. The Gas of Salts is nothing but an un-savourie Water . 38. The Gas of fruits is nothing but water . 39. The Comments or devises of Schollars concerning exhalations . 40. Naturall Philosophie is in darkness without the Art of the fire . 41. The spirit or breath of life , is materially the Gas of the Water . 42. The sweat before death , is not sweat ; but the melting of a Liquor . 43. By an Endemicall or common Gas , we are easily snatched away . I Have said , that there are two primary Elements ; the Air , and the Water ; because they do not return into each other : but , that the Earth is as it were born of water ; because it may be reduced into water . But if water be changed into an Earthy Body , that happens by the force or virtue of the Seed , and so it hath then put of the simpleness of an Element . For a flint is of water , which is broken asunder into Sand. But surely , that Sand doth lesse resist in its reducing into water , than the Sand , which is the Virgin-Earth . Therefore the Sand of Marble , of a Gemme , or Flint , do disclose the presence of the Seed . But if the Virgin-earth , may at length , by much labour be brought into water , and if it was in the beginning created as an Element ; yet it seemes then to have come down to something that is more simple than it selfe ; and therefore I have called those two , Primary ones . I have denied the fire to be an Element and Substance ; but to be death in the hand of the Artificer , given for great uses . I say , an artificial Death for Arts , which the Almighty hath created , but not a natural one . But now I take upon me to demonstrate , that Bodies which are believed to be mixt are materially the fruits of water onely ; neither that they have need of the Wedlock of another Element : to wit , that Bodies , whether they are dark , or clear , sound , or fluide , bodies of one and the same kind● or those that are unlike ; Suppose them to be Stones , Sulphurs , Mettalls , Hony , wax , Oils , a Bone , the Brain , a Grisle , Wood , Barke , Leaves : lastly , that all things , and all particular things , are wholly reduced into a water , altogether without savour , and so that they do consist , and are contained in simple water onely : For indeed , most of those things are destroyed by fire , and do straightway of their own accord , give their part to the water : which part , although it after some sort resembles the nature of the composed body , at length , at least-wise , the contagion of that composed Seed being taken away , that water , or Mercury of things , returns into the simple and un-savoury water of rain : So Oils , and fats , being seperated by the fire , a little of the Alcali Salt being added to them , do at length assume the nature of Soap , and depart into Elementary water : yea , whatsoever things are inflamed by an open fire in the very entertainment of the Clouds , are reduced voluntarily , into water : For such was the necessity of the cold of that place ( as I have already taught above ) that whatsoever things should rise up thither from the lower places , should forget their seeds , by the mortall cold in that place , and their sub-division into a Gas of almost infinite Atomes . For Salt , Sulphur , and Mercurie , or Salt , Liquor , and Fat , are in the most speciall particular kindes or Species : not indeed , as certain universall Bodies which are common to all particular kindes ; but they are similar or like parts in composed bodies , being distinguished by a three-fold variety , according to the requirance of the seeds . Therefore if the seminall properties shall the more toughly remain in the three things now seperated : then , by things being admixed with them , the impressions of those properties are taken away , and estranged ; From whence they do afterwards passe into the Element of water . But some Bodies , do refuse to be divided into the three things ; at length , the Liquor Alkahest of Paracelsus being adjoyned , they decay into a Salt , and that Salt is destroyed by passing over into an un-savory water . The Art of the fire being despised , hath made these things to be unknown in the Schooles . But I have not onely a War with those that are ignorant of nature , the despisers of the searching mistress of Philosophy , but also with Paracelsus , the Standard-defender of the Chymists : for whom , when it was hard to have declined from the beaten Road , he sometimes would have those three things to consist in the co-mingling of the Elements ; and sometimes he thought the Elements of the World themselves , not to be bodies , but the empty places , or wombes of things : But in another place he denieth all of whatsoever is corporeall to be Elementary , but the Masse onely of the three first things . And again in another place , he hath taught , that the very Elements ( yea the flame of the fire ) do reduce themselves by a Method , into the four Elements : And so they cease to be naked Elements , in the place of three principles : But the flame it selfe ( which is nothing but a kindled smoak ) being enclosed in a Glasse , straightway , in the very instant , perisheth into nothing ; So that a Glasse made in a glassen Fornace , with a bright burning fire , and being shut , could never contain any thing besides Air. He being unconstant to himself , hath made himself ridiculous , and all those particular things , in fit places , are to be refuted by me . For the Chymists have hitherto believed , that the Elements do lay hid in the three first things . For they had seen Air and Fire , in burning Wax , to fly away together ; and thereupon they have thought , that the water doth in part challenge to its self its air and fire : But they have thought , that the Earth flies away with the smoak . Which thing they have likewise supposed concerning those things which do leave a Coal and ashes behinde them ; placing ashes in the room of earth : But they have believed that the fruits of the Earth and Mineralls , are indeed , as it were the allied pledges of the water ; but they have believed them to be stirred up by the Wedlock of the other three Elements : but I come to the hand . Let there be Aqua vitae excellently well purified from its dregs , which burns Oily bodies through its whole Homogeniety or sameliness of kinde : for that Aqua vitae by Salt of Tartar which is near akin to it , is presently changed as to its 16th part , into Salt , and all the rest becomes a simple Elementary water : And one onely part is made a Salt , although it be of the same kinde with the other , and so is equally reducible into water , because that in actions of bodies and spirits , under their dissolving , there are made divers coagulations of the dissolver . In like manner also in the operation of the fire , Salts which before were volatile or swift of flight , may partly be co-melted into a fixed Alcali , no otherwise than as Salt-peter and Arsenick , being both volatile things , may be fixed by co-melting . Therefore the three first things are not onely seperated , but are sharpened , changed , do vary the nature of the composed body , and so are made by the fire , a new creature , not indeed being created anew , but being brought forth by the fire . So a sile , is no more the earth of the Potter : but now a Stone : So ashes and smoak are no more Wood , nor an Alcali , nor Sand Glasse : Because the force of the fire doth not produce seeds , but by consuming doth transchange them , and by seperating , alters all particular bodies . Moreover , none dares to say , that the Salt of Tartar , in the case proposed , doth produce an Element out of that which is not an Element , as if a Salt were the Father of the Element of water : but the Sulphur of the Wine , the seed being taken away , doth leave the matter of the Aqua vitae to be such as it is : But the part , which may be fixed in the Salt of Tartar , which hath taken to it the condition of a Salt , was fat : it being before wholly capable of burning , volatile , and of the same condition with its fellowes . Immediately therefore after the destruction of the seed of the Sulphur of the Wine , it is nothing but an Elementary water . So every Oil is materially simple water , which a small quantity of seed translates into a combustible Masse , and playes the maske of a Sulphur : And every seed is ( according to a Chymicall computation ) scarce the 8200 part of its body : which part , if the fire shall change into families , it shall not be hard for it also to return into water . For the fire burning the fatness into Air , it wholly flies up to the Clouds , and there doth sometimes grow together through the cold of the place , into water : For Fishes , do by the force or virtue of an inbred seed , transchange simple water into fat , bones , and their own fleshes : it s no wonder therefore , that Fishes materially , are nothing but water transchanged , and that they return into water by art . I will also shew by Handicraft-demonstration , that all Vegetables and fleshes , do consist onely of water : but all things , if not immediately , at least-wise with an assistant , they do again assume the nature of water . Also every small Stone , Rockie or great Stone , and Clay , doth passe into a fixed Alcali of its own accord , or by things adjoyned ( for an Alcali is that which before was not a Salt , yet its combustion being finished , it is a residing Salt. ) So ashes is by its own proper Alcali made a meer Salt : But every Alcali , the fatness being added , is reduced into a watery Liquor , which at length , is made a meer and simple water ( as is to be seen in Soaps , the Azure-stone , &c. ) as oft as by fixed adjuncts , it layes aside the seed of fatness . For otherwise , it is not proper to the fire to make a water ( rather a flame ) but onely to seperate things of a different kinde . Therefore , if water may be made out of Sulphurs , and not by the proper transmutation of fire ; it must needes be , that Sulphurs are begotten of meer water : For truly , neither is water seperated from Oils , but that is truly made of these ; because the water was not in it by a formall act , but onely materially : to wit , the mask of the seeds being withdrawn . Moreover , every coal which is made of the co-melting of Sulphur and Salt ( working among themselves in time of burning ) although it be roasted even to its last day in a bright burning Furnace , the Vessel being shut , it is fired indeed ; but there is true fire in the Vessel , no otherwise than in the coal not being shut up ; yet nothing of it is wasted , it not being able to be consumed , through the hindering of its eflux . Therefore the live coal , and generally whatsoever bodies do not immediately depart into water , nor yet are fixed , do necessarily belch forth a wild spirit or breath . Suppose thou , that of 62 pounds of Oaken coal , one pound of ashes is composed : Therefore the 61 remaining pounds , are the wild spirit , which also being fired , cannot depart , the Vessel being shut . I call this Spirit , unknown hitherto , by the new name of Gas , which can neither be constrained by Vessels , nor reduced into a visible body , unless the seed being first extinguished . But Bodies do contain this Spirit , and do sometimes wholly depart into such a Spirit , not indeed , because it is actually in those very bodies ( for truly it could not be detained , yea the whole composed body should flie away at once ) but it is a Spirit grown together , coagulated after the manner of a body , and is stirred up by an attained ferment , as in Wine , the juyce of unripe Grapes , bread , hydromel or water and Honey , &c. Or by a strange addition , as I shall sometime shew concerning Sal Armoniack : or at length , by some alterative disposition , such as is roasting in respect of an Apple : For the Grape is kept and dried , being unhurt ; but its skin being once burst , and wounded , it straightway conceiveth a ferment of boyling up , and from hence the beginning of a transmutation . Therefore the Wines of Grapes , Apples , berries , Honey , and likewise flowers and leaves being pounced , a ferment being snatched to them , they begin to boyl and be hot , whence ariseth a Gas ; but from Raysins bruised , and used , for want of a ferment , a Gas is not presently granted . The Gas of Wines , if it be constrained by much force within Hogs-heads , makes Wines ●urious , mute , and hurtfull : Wherefore also , the Gra●e being abundantly eaten , hath many times brought forth a diseasie Gas. For truly the spirit of the ferment is much disturbed , and seeing it is disobedient to our digestion , it associates it selfe to the vitall spirit by force ; yea , if any thing be prepared to be expelled in manner of a Sweat , that thing , through the stubborn sharpness or soureness of the ferment , waxeth clotty , and brings forth notable troubles , torments , or wringings of the bowels , Fluxes , and the Bloudy-flux . I being sometimes in my young beginnings deluded by the authority of ignorant writers , have believed the Gas of Grapes to be the spirit of Wine in new Wine . But vain tryalls have taught me , that the Gas of Grapes and new Wine are in the way to Wine , but not the spirit of Wine . For the juyce of Grapes differs from Wine , no otherwise than the pulse of water and meal , do from Ale or Beer : For a fermentall disposition coming between both , disposeth the fore-going matter into the transmutation of it self , that thereby another Being may be made . For truly , I will at sometims teach , that every formall transmutation doth presuppose a corruptive ferment . Other more refined Writers have thought , that Gas is a winde or air inclosed in things , which had flowen unto that generation , for an Elementary co-mixture : And so Paracelsus supposed , that the air doth invisibly lurk under the three other Elements , in every body ; but in time onely , that the Air is visible : but his own unconstancy reproveth himself , because , seeing that he sheweth in many places else-where , that bodies are mixed of the three first things ; but that the Elements are not Bodies , but the meer wombs ' of things . But he observed not a two-fold Sulphur in Tin ( and therefore is it lighter than other Mettalls : ) whereof one onely is co-agulable by reason of the strange or forreign property of its Salt , whereby Jupiter or Tin maketh every Mettall frangible or capable of breaking , and brickle , it being but a little defiled with its odour onely : but that the other Sulphur is Oily . For Gun-powder doth the most neerly express the History of Gas : For it consisteth of Salt-peter ( which they rashly think to be the Nitre of the Antients , ) and the which is at this day plentifully brought to us , being dried up from the inundation of Nilus ) of Sulphur , and a Coal , because they being joyned , if they are enflamed , there is not a Vessel in nature , which being close shut up , doth not burst by reason of the Gas. For if the Coal be kindled , the Vessel being shut , nothing of it perisheth : but Sulphur , if ( the Glasse being shut ) it be sublimed , wholly ascends from the bottom , without the changing of its Species or kinde . Salt-peter also being melted in a shut Vessel , as to one part of it , gives a sharp Liquor that is watery ; but as to the other part , it is changed into a fixed Alcali . Therefore fire sends forth an Air , or rather a Gas , out of all of them singly , which else , if the air were within , it would ●end forth from the three things being connexed . Therefore those things being applied together , do mutually convert themselves into Gas , through destruction . But there is that un-sufferance of Sulphur and Salt-peter , not indeed by the wedlock of cold with hot , as of powerfull qualities ( as is believed ) but by reason of the un-cosufferable ●lowing of boyling Oil and Wine , no lesse than of water ; or of Copper and Tin , being melted with Wine . For in so great heat , when they co-touch each other throughout their least parts , they are either turned into a Gas , or do leap asunder . For so Lead being roasted with Mercury and Sulphur , departeth into a sudden flame , a small lee or dreg being left , almost of no weight , yet enlarged to the extension of the Lead . VVherefore if the Gas were air , all the Gun-powder should be air , and the Lead it self should be wholly air . But it is not possible for the fire to produce out of the same Elementary fruit , sometimes air , sometimes water , with an ultimate reducement , unlesse the fire loose also its uniformity of working that was planted in it by the Creator . In the next place , it is already above sufficiently manifested , that air and water , can never be brought over into each other . Therefore if Gun-powder , or Salt-peter , may observably be reduced into an Elementary water , by fire or any other mean whatsoever , a transmutation thereof into air is not possible to be . But some thousands of pounds of Gun-powder being at some time enflamed at once , have not yielded any thing but an inflamed Gas : which hath growen together in the Clouds , and at length , returning into water . Furthermore , a Coal is reduced in some Fountains , into a Rockie stone . Likewise I have known the meanes , whereby the whole of Salt-peter is turned into an Earth , and the whole of Sulphur being once dissolved , may be fixed into an Earthly Powder . What if therefore these three Earths should contain three or four Elements : at leastwise , the Earth should occupie the greatest part , nor that reducible into its former Gas : neither is it consonant to Reason , that a Body , which wholly flies away into an aiery Gas , should be converted into Air , or into Earth , as man listeth . Next , seeing the three aforesaid Powders are at length made water , under the Artificer , which afterwards cannot any more through humane cunning , return into Earth or Air : it also followes , that the convertings of the Sulphur , Coal , and Salt-peter , into a Gas , or into Earth , are not the ultimate , as neither the true Elements of Air and Earth . Lastly , let us measure these things in a rusticall sense : as if the aforesaid simple bodies should be sometimes turned into Air , but sometimes into Earth , because there was a mutuall transmutation of the Elements into each other : But at leastwise , the agreed on opinion of the Schooles doth resist these determinations , to wit , because a mixt body , in its corrupting , ought to restore the Elements whereof it is composed in generation . 2. Because a mixt body , consisting almost wholly of the Element of Air , the same cannot almost wholly consist of the Element of Earth . 3. Because the conversion of the Elements , is made by the action of one Element , and its superiority over the other . 4. But not that the forms of mixt bodies , or fruits , suffering by the inward Elements , have power to turn one Element into another . 5. Next , because the fire cannot dispose the mixt body , that it should be sometimes turned into Air , after inflaming , but another time wholly into the shape of Earth . 6. At length , because that in the corrupting of mixt bodies , there is not an immediate converting of one Element into another . 7. Last of all , because the variety of converting a mixt body into Elements , doth not depend on the will of man , who is able onely to joyn active things to passive : to wit , whose activity is in the victory it selfe of the superiour Element . Which kinde of Element , man neither bringeth , nor hath he it in his hand . That may here stand for a position , against them , which hath been sufficiently demonstrated in the Chapter concerning the birth of forms : To wit , that the fire is neither an Element , nor indeed a substance . Which things being supposed , it followes , that the three aforesaid simple things in Gun-powder , are not to be reduced from air into air , while they fly away into Gas , neither that they are to be reduced from Earth into Earth , while the Salt-peter doth by a certain Sulphur incline into Earth ; but the Coal and Sulphur are changed through waters , into a Rockie Stone , and into Earth . And so the mixt suffering body , is not turned into an Elementary nature , by the action of a proper and conquering Element , as hath been thought . Wherefore , since it hath been already sufficiently demonstrated , that air and water , are by no possibility of Nature , Ages , or Art , to be transchanged into each other ; It altogether followes , that while those three simple things do wholly yield themselves , sometimes into the likeness of Earth , but sometimes , into the form of Air , they are not true Earth , or true Air ; but such an Earth , and such a Gas , which by their last reducement do return into water , dissembling a strange maske , according as they follow the guidance of forreign seeds . For I have known a water ( which I list not to make manifest ) by meanes whereof , all Vegetables are exchanged into a distillable juyce , without any remainder of their dregs in the bottom of the glasse : which juyce being distilled , the Alcalies being adjoyned , it is wholly reduced into an un-savory Elementary water : Neither indeed is that a wonder ; For I will shew in its place , that all Vegetables do materially arise , wholly out of the Element of water alone . If therefore every mixt body doth at length return into meer Rain-water ; it must needes be , that every Gas proceeding out of mixt bodies , is materially of the Element of water . Therefore the Gas , which by the fire exhaleth out of a live Coal , although it be enflamed , yet materially it is nothing but water : which very thing I have shewen above in the handicraft-operation concerning Aqua vitae . 2 Macchab. 1. Nor else-where is there mention made in the holy Scriptures , of a thick water , which should be a perpetuall fire , perhaps not unlike to ours . For I have put equall parts of an Oaken Coal , and of a certain water , in a glasse Hermetically shut : in the space of three dayes , the whole Coal was turned by the luke-warmth of a Bath , into two transparent Liquors , divers in their ground and colour ; which being distilled together by Sand , in the second degree of heat , the bottom of the glasse appeared so pure , as if it were newly brought out of a glassen Furnace : Straightway the two Liquors do first ascend , through the Bath , both being of equall weight with the masse of the Coal : But the dissolving Liquor , remaines in the bottom , being of equall weight and virtues with it self . Moreover , those two Liquors being mixt with a small quantity of Chalk , do at the third distilling , ascend almost in their former weight , and having all the quality of Rain-water . Therefore the Gas of a Coal , which doth not otherwise exhale , but in an open and fired Vessel , together with its ashes , are materially nothing but meer water : For the Seminall property of the composed body , which remains in the Gas , by the force of cold , and maturity of dayes , dieth , and the Gas returneth into its antient water . But I have learned by this handicraft-operation , that all Vegetables do immediately , and materially proceed out of the Element of water onely . For I took an Earthen Vessel , in which I put 200 pounds of Earth that had been dried in a Furnace , which I moystened with Rain-water , and I implanted therein the Trunk or Stem of a Willow Tree , weighing five pounds ; and at length , five years being finished , the Tree sprung from thence , did weigh 169 pounds , and about three ounces : But I moystened the Earthen Vessel with Rain-water , or distilled water ( alwayes when there was need ) and it was large , and implanted into the Earth , and least the dust that flew about should be co-mingled with the Earth , I covered the lip or mouth of the Vessel , with an Iron-Plate covered with Tin , and easily passable with many holes . I computed not the weight of the leaves that fell off in the four Autumnes . At length , I again dried the Earth of the Vessel , and there were found the same 200 pounds , wanting about two ounces . Therefore 164 pounds of Wood , Barks , and Roots , arose out of water onely . Therefore a Coal since it is wholly of water , if it be reduced in any Fountain , into a stone , it shall not be able to be by water changed into a stone , unless also that whole stone be materially meer water . For Fishes , as they do make of waters , much grease ; so likewise , all fat , with the Alcali Salt , is made a Soap , which being afterwards distilled , doth return almost wholly into water , the which , when as by adjuncts it is spoiled of the seed of the Soap , it becometh an un-savory water . But every smoak is partly the volatile Salt of the composed body , being preserved from inflammation , by reason of the co-mingling of a water that flies away , and is partly an Oil , which through the swiftness of flying away , escapes combustion . For so the sharp Liquor of Sulphur drawn forth by a Campane or glassen Bell , doth shew that a great part of the Sulphur being untouched by the flame , ascended upwards , the which is again seperated safe from that Liquor by rectifying . For Sulphurs , or fats , although they are many times distilled ; by any degree of the fire : yet they do alwayes remain fats , and even do retain their nature , as long as they do enjoy or obtain the seed of their composed Body : The which , when as the flame or artificiall death hath touched , they straightway flie over into Gas , but not into water : For that , every Gas doth as yet retain some condition of its composed body . For smoaks of the flame do differ by their generall , and speciall kindes : which surely should not be , if they should immediately depart into their first Element . The fire indeed destroyeth simply , but it generates nothing : for why , seeing it wants the power of a seed ; and those things which it cannot destroy , those it at leastwise seperateth , or leaveth untouched : and in this respect they are called fixt bodies . But the fire doth not prevail in that , as to exchange that which is in it self materially water , into Air : for otherwise it should have the seed of the Air. It is also sufficiently manifest before , that water is made air , or air water , by no help of art or nature . Therefore Wood , since it is wholly of water , its ashes , and likewise Glasse shall be of water . But that the Gas of Salts is nothing but water , the following Handicraft-operation proveth . Take equall parts of Salt-peter , Vitriol , and Alume , all being dried and conjoyned together ; distill a Water , which is nothing else than a meer volatile Salt : Of this , take four ounces , and joyn an ounce of Sal armoniac , in a strong Glassen Alembick confirmed by a Cement of Wax , Rosin , and Powder of Glasse , being powred most hotly on it ; straightway , even in the cold , a Gas is stirred up , and the Vessel , how strong soever it be , bursteth with a noyse : But if indeed thou shalt leave a chap or chink in the juncture of the receiving Vessel , and after voluntary boylings up , thou shalt distill the residue , thou shalt finde a water somewhat sharp , the which by a repeated distillation , and an additament of Chalke , is turned into Rain-water . Therefore one part of the Salts yielded into water , but the other part into Gas. But the Salts that fled away by a Gas , are of the same kinde of nature with those that were reduced into water : therefore the Gas of Salts is materially nothing but water . But the Gas of fruits , I have likewise already shewen to be nothing but water , as arising immediately out of water . So the Raisin of the Sun being distilled , is wholly reduced by art into an Elementary water : which yet being new , and once wounded or bruised , much new Wine and Gas is allured or fetched out . If therefore , the whole Grape , before a ferment , be turned into a simple water ; but the ferment being brought , a Gas is stirred up : this Gas also must needes be water : Seeing the disposition of the ferment cannot form air of that which is materially nothing but water . Therefore the unrestrainable Gas of the Vessel , breaks forth abroad into the air , untill it being sufficiently confirmed , and by the cold of the place spoiled also of the properties of its composed body , passeth over into its first matter , and in the air the seperater of the waters , it recovereth its antient , and full disposition of the Element of water . But exhalations , which in the account of the Schooles , are the daily matter of Windes , Mists , Comets , Mineralls , Rockie Stones , saltness of the Sea , Earth-quakes , and of all Meteors , seeing they have no pen-case or receptacle in nature , nor matter sufficient for so great daily things , and those for so great an heap , they are wondrous dreams , and unskilfully proportioned to their effects : And therefore I passe by these unsavourinesses or follies of the Schooles by pittying of them : At leastwise it followes , that if Rockie Stones , if all Mineralls do proceed from exhalations , and being now fixed , do resist the Agent which should bring them again into an exhalation , there shall be in the remaining Earth , matter for new exhalations , producing effects of so great moment : Especially because , scarce any thing exhaleth out of the saltness of the Sea ; and such is the aptness or disposition of heat , that it scarce stirs up exhalations , unless it hath first lifted up all the water by vapours . What matter therefore , shall be sufficient even for daily Windes alone ? Truly , it is altogether impossible for the Schooles to have known the nature , and likewise the differences , causes , and properties of Bodies ; for as many as have set upon Philosophy without the art of the fire , have been hitherto deluded with Paganish Institutions . At length , I have written touching long life , that the arteriall Spirit of our life is of the nature of a Gas : Which thing is seen in the trembling of the heart , swooning and fainting : For how much doth it die to a lively colour , to a vitall light , and to a swollen or full habit of flesh , and the countenance it self being the more wrinckled or withered , how quickly doth it decay , straightway after the aforesaid passions ? For the Spirit , which before did as it were unite all things by a pleasing redness , doth straightway fly away , and being subdued by a forreign Air , is changed . For truly , seeing the Archeus is in it self , a Gas , of the nature of a Balsamick Salt , if it shall finde the air of another Salt to be against it , or in its way ( even as Sal armoniac , when it meetes with the Spirit of Saltpeter ) it is subject too easily , and forthwith to be blown away or dispersed through the pores , as having forgotten to perform its duties and office of the Family : For neither is it gathered into drops , because it is prepared of an arteriall bloudiness . If any thing of sweat ( at the time of faintings and death ) doth exhale , that is the melting of the venall bloud , but not of the arteriall bloud . Therefore the vitall Gas , because it is a light , and a Balsam preserving from corruption , from the first delineation of generation , it began to be made suitable to the light of the Sun : But after the aforesaid failings of the Spirit , the in-bred Spirits of the other members as it were smoaking , are again kindled by the Sun-like light of the heart , even as the smoak of a Candle put out , touching at the flame of another Candle , doth carry this flame to the extinguished Candle by a Mean : Seeing that the Spirit of our life , since it is a Gas , is most mightily and swiftly affected by any other Gas , to wit , by reason of their immediate co-touchings . For neither therefore doth any thing thereupon , operate more swiftly on us , than a Gas ; as appeares in the Dogvault , or that of the Sicilians , in the Plague , in burning Coals that are smothered , and in persumes : for many and oftentimes , men are straightway killed in the Burrowes of Mineralls ; yea in Cellars , where strong Ale or Beere belcheth forth its Gas , an easie sudden death and choaking doth break forth . Wherefore I have greatly grieved , and pittied mans condition , that by so gross negligence of the Schooles , the more profound Remedies of fumes are almost suppressed , whereby not onely those who faint are refreshed ; but also whereby the healings of most Diseases are performed : Which thing concerning odours or smells , at sometime explained in the matter of Medicine , every one shall with me , more easily disclose . Surely almost all Medicines are neglected which do restore the strength , and they have applied themselves onely to the diminishments of bodies , by the with-drawings of bloud , and solutive scammoneated potions , and by Cauteries , Baths , Clysters , Sweats , and Cantharides . For a Gas is more fully implanted , and odours do keep a more immediate co-touching with the vitall Spirits , than Liquors ; if they are not partakers of a poysonous infection , at leastwise of the dulled properties of second qualities : and the which qualities , or especially that sublime one of the first digestion , they do lay aside , as it were Soils covered with Clay , if they are not as yet received with a great averseness of the Archeus , or they being rebellious and stubborn , do with anguish resist the digestive powers . Notwithstanding , the Scripture might be opposed against me , which saith concerning man : Thou art Earth , and into Earth thou shalt go . How therefore , shall flesh , bone , &c. be materially of water alone ? But I will say this from the force of the same Argument : If man be Earth , how therefore do the Schooles affirm , that man materially is not one onely Element , but foure Elements ? therefore from that Text , those things which I have spoken above , are confirmed : To wit , that the Earth is not in the holy Scriptures , a primary Element ; but every thing co-agulated of water , is called Earth , because by its consistence , it is more likened to Earth than to Water ; and so the veriest Earth it self , the prop of nature , is of water , no lesse than Man , Wood , Ashes , a Stone , &c. CHAP. XIX . The Image of the Ferment , begets the Masse or lump with childe of a Seed . 1. There is no seminall successive change without a Ferment . 2. Handicraft operation is brought into a Circle by Ale or Beere . 3. The Ferment makes volatile that which otherwise is changed into a Coal . 4. It is proved by handicraft-operation , in the venall Bloud . 5. The Bloud attains its own various ferments in the Kitchins of the members . 6. The unconstancie of Paracelsus is taken notice of . 7. The Beginnings of Paracelsus are made by the fire ; but they are not in Bodies . 8. There are double ferments , from whence are the seeds of things . 9. The Birth of Insects . 10. 'T is not sufficient to have said , that Insects are born of putrefaction or corruption . 11. A twofold manner of generation . 12. How seedes are made . 13. In what manner an odour or smell causeth a ferment and seed . 14. A Scorpion from Basil . 15. The ferment in voluntary seedes , reacheth to the Horizon or bound of life . 16. The ferment of Diseases and healings . 17. Almost all Medicines do act by way of an odour onely . 18. Therefore seedes are strong onely in a specificall odour . 19. An odour and light do pierce the spirits . 20. Odours do cause or incite , and cure the Plague and divers Diseases . 21. Art having forgotten its perfume , is translated into a servile rage or madness . 22. Vnappeaseable pains , are presently appeased by the odour of an outward application . 23. The ferment is the Parent of transmutations . 24. Of what quality the ferment of the stomach is . 25. Why very many do abhorre Cheese . 26. A sharp fermentall thing differeth from soure things . 27. From whence belching is . 28. The labour of Wisdom . 29. All things which are believed to be mixt , are onely of Water and a ferment . 30. The ferment of the Equinoctiall Line . 31. The progress of seedes and ferments unto proPagation . 32. The originall and progress of Vegetables . 33. Ferments do sometimes operate more powerfully than Fire . 34. Paracelsus is noted . AS no knowledge in the Schooles is scantier than the knowledge of a Ferment , so no knowledge is more profitable : The name of a Ferment or Leaven being unknown hitherto , unless in making of bread : when as notwithstanding , there is made no successive change , or transmutation , by the dreamed appetite of matter , but onely by the endeavour of the ferment alone . In times past , leaven , and all things leavened , were forbidden , and the Mystery hidden in the Letter , was then of right interpreted according to the Letter : For as leavens or ferments were altogether the way-leaders , and necessary unto every transmutation of a thing : so they did denote corruption , unconstancy , and impurity ; and therefore a flight from leaven was enjoyned . I will first of all explain a thing surely so paradoxall in naturall Philosophy , by an example : The purest of Ales or Beeres ( which is deservedly the nourishing juyce or meat , melting , or finished right of the Grain ) requireth so much Grain , by how much there is capacity and largeness in the Vessel or Hogs-head : And so indeed , that the Bran being taken away , all the Meal doth melt into the Ale or Beer , and the Water onely supplies the place of the Bran. That Ale or Beer , by a very little ferment or leaven being administred , doth boyl up by fermenting in Cellars , it waxeth clear by degrees , and the dreg falls down to the bottom : at length something doth fermentally wax soure , by which tartness it consumeth all its dreg : And then , it looseth more and more , daily , its sharp , or pricking soureness : At length it is deprived of the taste , virtues , and body of the meal . And last of all , it , of its own accord , returns into water . That Ale or Beere , being distilled , layeth aside very much residence in the bottom , like a Syrupe , which at length by proceeding , is changed into a Coal : But if that same Ale or Beere , by the degrees of the ferment shall passe over into water , it leaveth no more dregs in the bottom while it is distilling , than otherwise , the water from whence it was boyled , did contain , because the natall sediment of the waters is not subject to the ferment of the Grain , since it is not the object thereof ; but the Client of or dependant on another Monarchy . Therefore the Grains do return unto their first matter whereof they are , which is water , and that by the virtue of the ferment onely . In the next place , every one of us doth daily frame to himself , 7 or 10 ounces of bloud ; but ( at leastwise in our standing age ) as much bloud must needes be consumed , as is a-new , generated : For else a man might straightway fear a hugeness or excessive greatness . And then , the bloud is by degrees , changed into a vitall muscilage or flimy juyce , the true , immediate nourishment of the members of which it is wont to be said , we are nourished by those things , whereof we consist . But they will have this nourishment to be sprinkled on all the particular members ; in manner of a dew ( but I believe it to be framed in all the least Kitchins of the parts ) whereby it may moysten the same , and for that cause , defend them from dryness , the calamity of old age , as much and as long as it can . At length , that dew doth unperceiveably flee thorow the pores of the skin , neither doth it leave any thing of a solid sediment remaining behinde it : For so do nourishments at length exspire thorow the skin in the shew of a Vapour , and like water . But the Schooles will have this secondary humour , after that it hath slidden like a dew into the parts , to be assimilated or made like them , and to be informed by the Soul : But I permit it to be assimilated , onely under the growing of youth , but no longer afterwards ; seeing that neither is it any longer turned into the substance of the similar parts . For which way should that dew be assimilated to a Bone , in strength , hardness , and driness , &c. if the bones do now no longer receive an increase ? Let the same judgement be of the other parts : for all particular things in nature have a birth , an increase , a state or standing , a declining , and a death . This is therefore the Tragedy and Metamorphosis or transforming of the bloud , by the virtue of the seed . But otherwise , the bloud being distilled , doth at length lay down much of its salt Coal , neither hath it any manner of volatility , which the operation of the ferment doth consequently grant unto it under the other digestions . Because heat , seeing it wanteth a transmutative ferment of things , it onely seperates the parts , but doth not change them . Therefore the bloud doth obtain its aforesaid ferments , in the very Cook-roomes of our body , and is thereby made so volatile , that moreover it leaveth no remainder of it selfe . I admire at Paracelsus , that he teacheth , the bloud to be the universall Mercurie of the body , as also of meats ; yet that he will have sweat to be an excrementitious Sulphur . Seeing all bloud doth exhale thorow the skin ; but if together with the watery Liquor or juyce of sweat , but a very little of fat flowes out ; it is not therefore presently of Mercury , made Sulphur , unless he be unmindfull of his own Doctrine ; Although something of fatness , may infect our garments in manner of sweat ; for greases are not unchangeable , but they perish daily even as they do increase . Surely I have hated the proportionable resemblance of the principles of Paracelsus brought back into the three principles of nature : because they are those things which are neither in bodies actually , nor are they present , nor are seperated , unless by changing them first as it were by the fire , or by the reducement of melting , they are prepared as it were new things . For truly , I do willingly behold a naked naturall Phylosophy every where ; surely , I do not apply figures or moving forces in Mathematicall demonstration unto nature : I shun proportionable resemblance , as also metaphoricall speeches as much as I can . I have dedicated every necessity of nature to the seeds ; but the seeds of many things , I fetch not so much from the Parents , as from the Ferments . There are therefore double Ferments in nature : one indeed containeth in it a flowable air , the seminall Archeus which aspireth by its flowing into a living Soul : But the other doth onely contain , the beginning of the moving , or the generation of a thing into a thing : The which indeed , although in its beginning , it should not have a seminall air , which may embrace or contain the aims of things to be done ; yet it straightway obtains a vapour , which , as well the locall ferments , as those things which the disposition of the matter it self attaineth by externall nourishing warmth , do awaken : Whence something like an Archeus is made , which changeth , fitteth , and increaseth it self , and its own perceived entertainment : Moreover , afterwards it acteth the other things unto a proportion of perfection , and to what is required of that air : For this seed doth at first abound with a certain , and that a genericall largeness : For although it rejoyceth to have directed the masse subjected under it , unto the scope of the conceived ferment ; yet oft-times it receiveth the fewels of a more hidden light from elsewhere , and a rash boldness being taken , it aspireth also into a living soul . For from hence , not onely lice , wall-lice or flies breeding in Wood , Gnats , and Worms , become the guests and neighbours of our misery , and are as it were bred or born of our inner parts , and excrements : but also , if a foul shirt be pressed together within the mouth of a Vessel , wherein Wheat is , within a few dayes ( to wit , 21 ) a ferment being drawn from the shirt , and changed by the odour of the grain , the Wheat it self being incrusted in its own skin , transchangeth into Mice : and it is therefore the more to be wondered at , because such kinde of insects being distinguished by the Signatures of the Sexes , do generate with those which were born of the seed of Parents : That from hence also , the likeness or quality of both the seeds , and a like vitall strength of the ferments may plainly appear : And which is more wonderfull , out of the Bread-corn , and the shirt , do leap forth , not indeed little , or sucking , or very small , or abortive Mice : but those that are wholly or fully formed . Now and then , the lowsie evill ariseth in us , and a louse , mans upper skin being opened , goes forth : he is also otherwise generated in the pores , being not indeed enclosed in the Egge-shell of a nit ; but small , and scarce to be beheld . But the gnat is alwayes not generated , but by the ferment being drawn more outward . Neither hath it been sufficient to have said in the Schooles , that such insects do proceed from putrified things : For Birds Eggs also do notably putrifie , and stink hugely , before the constituting of a chick . Therefore life is in those putrified things , no lesse than in Eggs : nor is it sufficient to have doubted from whence those kindes of Insects may draw a uniform and specificall vitall spirit out of our Body , seeing a natural generation doth presuppose an imprinted Seal of likeness : For truly in an irregular generation , an Archeus sufficeth , not indeed a humane one , but such a one , which by a fermental virtue , and for identity or sameliness sake , doth alwayes generate in excrements , such Insects of a like or an equall form : And so , although in respect of us , it be a monstrous and irregular generation , yet it is naturall and ordinary in order to its causes , to wit , we affording onely a ferment and nourishing warmth : therefore the ferment of the shirt being sprinkled on the Wheat , doth resolve the matter by going or entring backwards , and so a youthful mouse , but not a new one is born : For that , it hath respect unto another manner of making . Therefore in the former , and vitall seedes , the generater inspires the Archeus , and the vitall air , together with the masse of the seed , with his own likeness : But in the latter , the Odour onely of the ferment is snuffed in from the containing Vessels , or from the contagion of the encompassing air : which when they shall be rightly fitted together , they are straightway formed into a Plant , or Insect , to wit , the Air being stirred up by the Odour , and ferment of putrefaction by continuance , which afterwards is exalted into a ruling Archeus : Even as concerning forms elsewhere . Therefore seeds are made by the conception of the generater , making his own Image through desires , or from the Odour of the ferment , which disposeth the matter to the Idea or first shape of a possible thing : For even as the matter drawes from the Odour a disposition of transmutation ; so from the Image is afterwards made a disposition of the matter , which procureth and promoteth a specificall ferment : But in this the ferment differs from the seed : that , that is an Odour , or quality of some putrefaction by continuance , apt to dispose unto an alterity or successive alteration , and corruption of the masse : But the seed is a substance wherein the Archeus already is , which is a spiritual Gas containing in it a ferment , the Image of the thing , and moreover , a dispositive knowledge of things to be done . Therefore whatsoever things do contract a filthiness , or putrefaction by continuance , from an Odour , do also presently conceive Worms : and therefore also Balsams know not how to putrifie , or breed Worms : For the Odour of the Herbe Basil being inclosed in the seed , produceth that Herbe , together with an Air that existeth within it ; which Odour , if it be changed by a putrefaction through continuance , it produceth true Scorpions : For neither is it a fiction ; but in very deed , the Herbe being bruised , and depressed between Bricks , and exposed to the Sun , Aquitane after some dayes , hath yielded unto us , Scorpions . But the more curious one will say , That the Scorpion came from without , to the sweet smell and food of the Herbe : but that doubt is prevented . For truly , the two bricks being mutually beaten together , did suitably touch each other , so that they hindered the entrance of the Scorpion , as well by their co-touching plainness , as by their weight : But a trench did contain the Herb in the middle . The Ferment therefore in a voluntary seed , doth after a neer manner reach to the Horizon or terme of life : For neither is one thing changed into another without a ferment and a seed . Which things , as they have stood neglected hitherto , all things have been ascribed to naked or bare heats , and the healings of many Diseases have remained desperate : For truly they have hitherto laboured onely about the correcting of the first qualities , and the withdrawing of a feigned humour , either alone by it selfe , or together with the bloud ; but they have not a whit considered , that every Disease is poysonous , if not to the whole body , yet at least , as to a part of it : and so although it be not contagious to every part , yet it ceaseth not to imprint its fermentall odour from its self , on the part whereon it setteth . Therefore healing for the most part , is perfected by Odours , as also , contagions being imprinted on the skin , do forthwith depart from odours : For because an odour doth contain the resembling mark of the ferment , and from hence the Seminary cause of transmutation ; I conclude , the virtues of things , and their masculine strength to be from odours ( even as in magnum oportet , in its place . ) Yea , if the thing it self be more fully looked into , even inward Medicines , as well solutive as corrective , do work onely by way of an odour : For hence it is , that the smell of a Medicine being once put off , the faculties or virtues of the same do perish . For I have often seen the Quartane-Ague , over-flowings of the wombe , melancholy , pains of the Colick , &c. to be seperated by Ointments alone : But it is certain , that not the Ointment it selfe , but its odour onely creepes and acts inward : For so one that hath the falling-sickness , falleth by an odour , yea the brain in the falling-evill , which heareth not , which perceiveth or feeleth not , nor which , if it hath fallen into the fire , doth withdraw it self , obeyeth onely Odours . For so an Erisipelas or Anthonies fire , is healed by the odour of a towel dipt in Hares bloud , if it be bound on drie : So wounds , Ulcers , and Impostumes or corrupt swellings , do through odours applied by anointings , wax milde , or are exasperated or enraged . Therefore if the seeds of voluntary living Creatures are to be born of odours , and a putrefaction by continuance , nor do differ in the particular kinde , from others which are procreated by a conjoyning of the Sexes : the seedes of all living Creatures also , must needes have their specificall odours , whereby there are made suitings or fittings of the Archeus to the matter , and the more easie obedience for transchanging : From whence at length are made diversities of impressions into any bowels Organs , and powers , and in the strength , and life : Surely specificall odours do affect the matter , and subdue it into their own protection : and an inclination , and selfe-love ariseth from the specificall odour : Next , through custome , there is an easie receiving , and a more perfect fitting : and at length , a love snatcht into all desire of its selfe : Therefore fragrant or sweet smelling things do delight : Even like as the light pleaseth good natural inclinations , so it displeaseth reprobate ones ; and that not , because both do see alike well , without , or with light , or have need of the use of a clear air , or not ; but by reason of the abstracted , and Almighty light , whose Image the light of the day is : For the spirits are delighted with an odour and light , because light and odour do immediately touch and pierce them : For the spirit of the bloud in one that fainteth , ought to be more refreshed by the smell of roasted flesh , than by a sweet smell , unless the fragrancy should as soon as it toucheth the life , prepare herein a purity , and sweetness . Odours therefore are seen to reach even unto the abstracted spirits , even as a pestilent smell being not perceived by the nostrils , shakes the Archeus with horrour . For there are odours which do move , and by their contagion imprint head-aches , loathings of the stomach , vomiting , Coughs , the hicket , giddiness of the head , falling evill , Apoplexie , bloudy-flux , &c. And therefore there are others also , which in a co-like manner , do cure the same , or at least do mitigate them , though they have taken a more fast root : And there are some odours , which choak without a perceivable astriction of the matter , and some are also convulsive or pulling together , and there are some , which do likewise infatuate or befool , as it very often comes to passe in affections of the womb . For the Antients worshipped their perfumes even unto superstition , whereby they would drive a man as it were into an extasie , and they supposed that they thereby profited the awakened : For they infected their Bed , Garments , Head , and things that they used , with their Odours , whereby they might provoke their minde to studies : whereunto when Satan had joyned his hidden deceits , the art of perfumes being first suspected , straightway after remained wholly rude or untilled . They had learned in the Law , that sweet smelling Sacrifices were pleasing to the Gods above ; and the Israelite was enjoyned in the Camps , daily to cover his excrements in the ground , least it should grieve the Angel to go over , or compass the night Camps : For I remember , that a certain man was well nigh consumed with a grievous pain of the stomach : For four houres after meat , he wailed , howled , and was drawn together , unless he laying on a Table , did strongly presse the place : For I being deceived with an aptness of belief then thought , with Paracelsus , a Canker of the stomach to be incurable : for it was the place where the bastard ribs do approach the mouth of the stomach . This man , I say , I saw cured in a few houres , by a fragrant emplaister extended scarce to the breadth of the palm of ones hand . After what manner the ferment is the parent of transmutations , I have not better found out , than by the art of the fire : for I have known , that as often as a Body is divided into finer Atomes than the necessity of its substance doth bear , a transmutation of that Body doth also continually follow in an Element : As the ferment being drawn , and snatching to it the aforesaid Atomes , doth season or besmear them with the strange character of it self , in the receiving whereof , there are made divisions of the parts , which diversities of kindes , and divisions of parts , a resolving of the matter doth follow : for this cause indeed , Chymistry doth digest , and send putrefactions before hand , that a ferment being received , the parts may cleave asunder into the smallest things : And so meats in the stomach are resolved through the ferment of the place , being seasoned with a sharpish quality : but in the liver , and other places , continually by other ferments . For so , although people are fed with much Sugar , yet straightway , they sometimes vomit up that which is soure : yet neither is the ferment of the Stomach , as it is sharp , the ferment : For neither do therefore , Vinegar , or Raspes Leaven , although they are soure and harsh : but the sharpness of the Stomach , is the proper specificall mean thereof . But yet also , in one particular kinde or Species , it undergoes much latitude : for this man beares grievously , Potherbs , another pulse , some one , Fishes , or Wine ; because he doth not digest them . Very many do not eat Cheese : not indeed because it is a meer Tartar , or a meer Salt , ( both , by course , so Paracelsus willeth ; ) but the new , waxeth breachily sharp , which doth easily stir up torments or wringings in a soure stomach : But the old casts a smell of rottenness or corruption , which it hath from the dead curd , being before excrementious in it self . Therefore it breedeth worms , and easily putrifieth , because it hides part of a stinking or Dunghilly ferment under the soureness of the milk ; in many , it is manifested , and ariseth into a degree : And therefore it displeaseth many , onely with its smell : therefore the latitude of a sharp ferment , although specificall , happeneth to be in the stomach , because there are divers alterations of the framer and receiver , in acting : but in this , a sharp fermentall thing , differs from soure things ; That what things that pierceth , it doth also make volatile by the same endeavour : but every sharp Spirit , in dissolving is it self coagulated , according to that Chymicall maxime . The bread of one , is broken small by a Man , a Dog , Horse , Cow , Sheep , Bird , Fish , and so , by as many specificall and soure ferments being distant in kinde . Boyes say that Sparrowes wax wondrous sharp in the throat , and therefore they are also devouring : for it happens , that a Sparrow hath snatched at the tongue of a Boy put out , and hath endeavoured to swallow , by which meanes , they say that they have tasted the sharpness of his throat : For so many living creatures are constrained for the asswaging of sharpness sake , to eat Chalk , Lime , Bricks , or white Earth . Therefore the more fine , and the volatile Atomes of meats are easily changed by the ferment of the Stomach , into a windy Gas , when as the other part is content to be resolved onely into a juyce : For Chymistry is carefull in searching for a body , which should play together with us by a harmony of such purity , that it cannot be dispersed by that which corrupteth . And at length , religion is amazed or astonished at the finding of a latex or liquor , which being reduced to the least Atomes possible to nature , as loving a single life , would despise the Wedlocks of every ferment : therefore , desperate or without hope is the transmutation of that , it not finding a body more worthy than it self which it might marry : But the labour of wisdom , hath caused an irregular thing in nature , which hath arisen without a ferment diverse from it self , that may be mixed with it : That the Serpent hath bitten himself , hath revived from the poyson , and knowes not hereafter to die . And indeed , because the Schooles have been ignorant of ferments , they ought also to have been ignorant , that solid bodies are framed onely of water and a ferment : for I have taught , that Vegetables , and grain , and whatsoever bodies are nourished by those , do proceed onely from water : for the Fisherman never found any thing of food in the Stomach of a Salmon . If therefore the Salmon be made of water onely ( even that of Rivers ) he is also nourished by it . So the Sturgeon wants a mouth , and appeares onely with a little hole beneath in his throat , whereby the whole Fish draweth nothing besides water : therefore every Fish is nourished , and likewise made of water ; if not immediately , yet at least by seeds and ferments , if it be great with young . From the Salt Sea , almost every sweet Fish is drawn : Therefore it turneth Salt , into not Salt , or at leastwise , water into it self , not into water . Lastly , Shell-fishes do form to themselves stony shells of water , instead of bones ; even as also all kinde of Snails : therefore the Salt of the Sea , which scarce yieldeth to bright burning fire , waxeth sweet by the ferment , in fishes , and their flesh is made volatile , and at the time of nourishing it is also wholly dispersed , without a residence , or dreg . So also Salt passeth over into its original Element of water : and so the Sea , although it receiveth salt streams , yet it is not every day the salter . For the purest water , although it be free from all defilement , nevertheless under the Equinoctial-line it waxeth filthy or hoary , stinketh ; straightway it becomes of the colour of a Brick half burned , and then it waxeth green ; and lastly , it waxeth red with a notable horrour or quaking : Which afterwards , of its own accord returns entirely into it self again . Truly , these things happen by the conceived ferment of the place ; and that being consumed , they cease . So the most pure Fountain-water waxeth filthy through a ferment of the Vessel putrified by continuance , it conceiveth Worms , it brings sorth Gnats , yea is covered with a skin . Fens putrifie from the bottom , through continuance : hence arise Frogs , Shell-fishes , Snails , Horse-leeches , Herbs , &c. And moreover , swimming-herbs do cover the water , being contented onely with the drinking of water putrified through continuance . And even as stones are from Fountains wherein there is a stony seed and ferment existing ; So the Earth stinking with metally ferments , doth make out of water , a metally or Mineral Bur. But the water being elsewhere shut up in the Earth , if it be nigh the Air , and stirred by a little heat , it putrifieth by continuance , which is no more water , but the juyce Leffas or of Plants : by the force of which hoary ferment , a power is conferred on the Earth of budding forth Herbs : for that putrified juyce , by the prick of a little heat doth ascend into a smoak , is made spongie , and encompassed with a skin , by reason of the requirance of the ferments therein laying hid . Therefore that putrefaction by continuance , hath the office of a ferment , and the virtues of a seed , hastening by degrees into the Archeusses , through its seminall virtues , into a quantity of life . Therefore the juyce of the Earth putrified through continuance , is Leffas : From whence ariseth every kinde of Plant wanting a visible seed , and from whence seeds that are sown , are promoted into their appointments : therefore there are as many rank or stinking smells of putrefactions by continuance , as there are proper savours of things ; for that , odours are not onely the messengers of savours , but also their promiscuous parents . The smoak Leffas being now gathered together , doth at first wax pale , afterwards wax yellowish , straightway it waxeth a little whitishly green ; And at length it is fully green . And the power of the Species or particular kinde being unfolded , it assumeth divers Colours and Signates : In which flowing , it imitatets the leading of the water under the Equinoctial-line : yet in this it differs , that these waters have borrowed too Spiritual a ferment from the Star and place , without a corporeal hoary putrefaction ; and therefore , through their too frail seed , they straightway return into themselves : but Leffas is constrained to perfect the Tragedy of the conceived seed . Therefore Rain conceiving a hoary ferment , and being made Leffas , is drawn into the lustfull roots by a certain sucking . And it is experienced , that within this Kitchin , there is a new hoary putrefaction of the Ferment the Tenant : by and by , it is brought from thence to the Bark or Liver , where it is enriched with a new ferment of that bowel , and is made an Herby or woody juyce , and at length , a ripeness being conceived , it becommeth Wood , becometh an Herb , or departs into fruit : but the Trunk or Stem , if it sooner putrifies under the Earth than the Bark or Rhine becomes dry , it cleaves asunder by its own ferment , sends forth a smoak thorow the Bark , which in its beginning is spongie , and at length hardens into a true root ; and so planted branches become Trees by the abridgement of art . Therefore it is now evident , that there is no mixture of the Elements , that all bodies primitively and materially , are made onely of water through a seed being attained by a ferment , and that the seeds being exhausted or overcome with pains , Bodies do at length return into their antient Inne of water : yea that ferments do sometimes work more strongly than fire , because great Stones are turned into Lime , and Woods indeed into ashes , and there the fire makes a stop : the which notwithstanding , a ferment in the Earth being assumed , do of their own accord , return into the juyce of Leffas , and so also at length into simple water : For otherwise , Stones and Bricks do of their own accord decline into Salt-peter . Lastly , Glasse which is unconquered by the fire , uncorrupted by the Air , in a few years putrifieth by continuance , rots under the Earth , and undergoes the lawes of water : for whatsoever things may be melted in water , do forthwith return into water ; but other things are made volatile by the ferments , and what things soever were compacted , and not to be thorowly mingled , being brought by the ferments of putrefactions by continuance , into a necessity of transmutation , are opened , and do hastily consult of seperating . But the most clear Fountains , although they climbe thorow the Rocks and Sand , out of the un-savoury soil of nature , or the Quellem , are purified far from the contagion of Clay , a ferment , and corruption : neither do they also fall down by chance , but are appointed for great uses : yet seeing they contract at least the hidden Odours of the Rockie Stone , unperceivable by us , they hasten into other bounds . Therefore , Streams , Springs , Rivers , Fens , Pooles , Seas , and whatsoever things are contained in the belly of the water , do likewise , even from the very birth of the Fountains , conceive their seeds , and in wantonizing , do ripen them by their course . Also great storms of Rain , being struck down through the putrefaction of Thunder , are fruitfull ; but sober rains are great with young of dew , or a conceived exhalation : For I have perfectly learned by the fire , that the dew is rich in a sweet Sugar . They deliver , that in Snow , Northern worms are bred : therefore the Mountains to be covered over with a long Snow ; and although their Grass be sparing , yet that it is most apt for the fatting of lesser Cattel ; so that unless they are driven away in time , they will be choaked with fat . But the waters which contain a melting , Paracelsus doth call corporeall ones , and he ignorantly denieth that they contain an Element in them . Therefore Ferments do by seeds play their universall part in the World , under the one Element of water . CHAP. XV. The Stars do necessitate , not incline , nor signifie , of the life , the body , or fortunes of him that is born . 1. Naturall Philosophy without Medicine , wants its end . 2. The objects of the Stars . 3. By what Argument the admittings of Ephemerides or Dayes-books may be supported . 4. The errour in admitting them . 5. However influences may be taken , they do alwayes include a necessity . 6. What the Works of the Lord in Psal . 14. are . 7. The fore-knowledge of God is infallible as well in things freely happening , as in those of necessity . 8. Death is foretold to Hannibal . 9. How the Devil foreknoweth things to come . 10. The Confession of the Authour . 11. How much and from whence an evill Spirit hath a foreknowledge of things to come . 12. Which way foreshewing Signes may be made , which scarce any one understands . 13. The foreshewings of the Stars determined out of the holy Scriptures . 14. In what manner , or what thing the Stars may act . 15. The action of government . 16. A diversity of government is shewen from their motion , and from their light . 17. Sick persons foreshew things to come . 18. Why Insects have better known things to come , than men . 19. VVhy diseased persons do fore-perceive Tempests . 20. Foreshewing doth not take away a liberty of judging or willing . 21. The figures of the windes are described in the Heaven . 22. The knowledge of the signification of the Stars , is unknown to man. 23. The Magitians or wise men of the East . 24. From new Wine , Sooth-sayers or Diviners of God. 25. The Prophesie of Feasters was from new Wine . 26. That the drunken or besotted gift of Paracelsus was made known to the Hebrews . 27. Three histories of predictions . 28. The Stars onely to incline , resisteth the Scriptures . 29. The inclining of the Stars , how far it reacheth . 30. The Stars the solemn prayses of God , do not necessitate as causes , but as signes bewraying the will of the Lord. 31. A solving of an objection . 32. The common explaining of the Proverb , derogates from the Grace of God. 33. That the Heaven doth not incline . 34. The seed of man doth of its own accord deflux into a living , animall , and dispersing soul . 35. VVhat the seminall properties of inclinations are . 36. A fourfold inclination . 37. The inclination of calling , is onely from God , but not from the Stars . 38. The morall inclination , is from the seed , and from education . 39. The inclination vitall or of the life , is from the seed , and education . 40. The vain and proud presumption of Astrologers . 41. The inclination of fortunes is immediately from the hand of the Lord. 42. The Schooles seduced by the evill spirit of Paganisme . 43. The sloathfull or careless negligence of Astrologers . 44. How the sensitive soul of man differs from the soul of a bruit beast . 45. How custome brings forth inclination . 46. How a wise man shall have dominion over the Stars . 47. Why predictions from the Stars are fundamentally vain . 48. The error of the Authour . 49. Astrologers confess their deceipts . 50. They suppose astrall or Starry effects from causes not in being . HItherto concerning the Elements , their qualities , Complexions , and contrarieties , in order to the Science of Medicine , without which indeed , I have thought the Study of naturall Philosophy , to have lost as it were its end : no otherwise , than if a Clergy-man shall treat of the State politique , or of War-like affaires : For why , S. Paul drives every Sacrificer from the like things . No man ( he saith ) going a warfare , intangleth himself with the affaires of this life : Therefore , the Studies of naturall Philosophy ; have I directed to a farther end , to wit , to the profit of men , but not to the delighting of the Readers : For this cause also I declame concerning the Stars , because they are thought to be the causers of any kinde of Diseases , Inclinations , and Fortunes . And indeed , Paracelsus at length consented in this thing , although he be refractory in all other things , to the Study of the Antients . First of all , I will take the Text : The Heavens declare the glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth his handy works . For that soundeth , that the Heavens were chiefly created , that they might declare the large Majesty , Power , Goodness , and Wisdom of God : to wit , on which four Pillars the whole Globe of the Universe stands , and is supported : but the Star-bearing Heaven doth as it were a Preacher , shew the wonderfull works of the Lords hands to intellectuall Creatures : For thus far the Church admitteth of Meteorical Predictions , the barrennesses of years , and their fruitfulnesses , the stations of sowings , the dangers of sailings , the deaths of chief men , Plagues , inundations , yea , whatsoever things do not depend on the direction of our will or judgement : to wit , as all those things are believed to be connexed with the first qualities of the Elements , by a contingent or accidentall consequence : even so that , although it doth admit of the deaths of great men , the tumults of Wars , and fires , to be prognosticated of in Ephemerides ; yet it will have those things to be beheld , not as free contingencies , or arbitrall , and much lesse as necessary ones ; but nakedly , as it were the effects of the first Qualities and Complexions . Wherein , how much they have erred , I have already demonstrated in the premises : And moreover , how far they have in this thing gone back from the holy Scriptures , I will here shew . If the Heavenly influences do obtain the reason of a cause , surely their effects shall of necessity be connexed to their causes , and so also thus far at least , necessary , after the manner of other second causes ; whose effects , the causes being placed , do necessarily succeed , unless they are supernaturally hindered , or changed . Which thing is alike proper to all causes , neither doth it include a singularity for the Heaven : but if the Influences of Heaven are onely after the manner of a sign and fore-shewing ; surely , neither shall they import a lesse necessity ; but a far more strict one , if we believe the certain foreknowledge of Divine Providence , and do believe , the Handy works of the Lord to be fore-signified by the Stars . Therefore , after what manner soever it may be taken , the Stars do necessitate . The Stars shall be unto you for Signes , Times or Seasons , dayes and years . But these Works of the Lord shewed from a necessity , by the Stars , and by the Firmament , are not the works of the first six dayes : For neither could the Stars shew forth either themselves , or what things were created straightway after them , without an absurdity of speech . In the next place , the Stars ought not to foreshew Winter and Summer , which they actually cause by their Blas , and which we do ordinarily know , and perceive to invade us by degrees : but they ought indefinitely to foreshew the Handy works of the Lord , and rather those which are called contingent ones , than otherwise , necessary , and ordinary Revolutions : Which contingences do not therefore respect the fruitfulnesses of Victuall , which they do cause ; but for the Majesty , Wisdom , and goodness of the Creator , the Stars ought to foreshew those future Handy works of the Lord , whence he hath taken to himself the name , the God of Armies , by whom Kings reign , a zealous God , a revenger , translating Kingdoms from Nation to Nation by reason of injustice : which kinde of works are contained in the life , birth , vertue or power , continuance , change , interchange , motions , and interchangeable courses of successive things : And so the preachings of the Stars must needes have place in the removing of Scepters ; and by consequence , in the foreshewing of the meanes by which those things are done , framed , do depend , and subsequently follow , as it were by second causes : For such kinde of effects , are not to be taken away from the Handy works of the Lord , without blasphemy . Therefore of this sort , are also Tempests , Earth-quakes , wonted and unwonted flouds of waters : For the Lord of Hosts giveth Scepters to the Shepherd , which he taketh away , and translates from the King , by reason of the injustice of Kings , of Clergy , and Judges . Therefore by consequence , the Stars do foreshew this injustice also , If the translations of Crowns are the works of the Lord , if the lots of all men do stand in the hands of the Lord : For neither doth Faith permit fortune , or misfortune to be else-where , or to be expected from elsewhere : For he is the Prince of life and death , the Alpha and Omega of all things , He giveth , and taketh away Victories , Wars , Famine , and Pestilences ; also second , partaking causes , also free mediating con-causes , and occasionall ones accompanying them : over all which , notwithstanding God is , sits as chief , as the totall , immediate , and independent cause . Therefore the Firmament is a preacher of all these Works : for neither doth God more erre in these free contingent things , than in animall , accustomed , and necessary things , if the Firmament was made by God , ( the Mover and knower of all things ) to foreshew . The Land of Libyssa shall over-cover the dead Carcase of Hannibal , as Appian relates it to have been foretold by an Oracle of the evill spirit . Hannibal hoped ( he saith ) that he should therefore die in Lybia or Africa , who died in Bythinia near the River Libyssus : For the Devil cannot foreknow the lots , or events of future Wars , which are in the hand of the God of Armies , and as yet in the future will or judgement of man , unless he shall first read them decyphered in a fore-telling Star. Which Picture of the Stars ; while they no where finde mentioned , but cannot deny but that the Devill declares things to come ; they have meditated of a privy shift , and do say , that the knowledges of future things are nearly related to Angels , and so are co-natural to them : but that they differ according to the Quires or Regions from whence they were expelled : so that , they which fell down from the highest Hierarchy of the Angels , should have a much more clear understanding of future things ; which understanding , because it was naturall , God had not took away from an evill Spirit : For neither is it more naturall to the Devil to have known the enlightnings concerning future things , than to have known the natures and names of living Creatures not seen before , like Adam . But I conceive with Dionysius , that the inferior Angels are enlightned by the superior : but this light continually to beam forth from the wisdom of the Father , and never to have been natural to Angels , but to be a free and beatifical gift . Next , that every good gift doth descend from the Father of Lights , that the gift of the Counsels of God , and of his future works is not to be searched out by Creatures , by their gifts of nature : else , the naturall knowledge of evill spirits , should be almost infinite , if it should include in it self , the fortunes of mortall men to come , distinguished in their second causes : yea if an evill spirit , otherwise , had had this natural participation of divine counsel , he had not been ignorant of future effects , which he himself as the fire-brand of all evills was to raise up , and suffer ; and so he could scarce have sinned . Therefore it is more safe to believe , contingent or accidentall things to be painted out by the Stars , not indeed all , but perhaps those of one age : and likewise , the Tragedy of every man to be deciphered in his own Star ; the Picture whereof ceaseth , with the closure of his life . They will say , Hannibal took poyson , Satan perswading him : But this he did not certainly know , as neither could he foretell it , if man hath free will , and therefore neither did he know that Hannibal would certainly obey his perswasions : neither doth Hannibal die by the foolish perswasion of Satan , which could not be knit to its causes depending on the divine will : For neither doth he die by the poyson , but first he is a run-away from many adverse battels : But the Lord , the onely God of Armies , hath Victories in his own hand , neither is the evill spirit chief in Battels : Therefore to have foreknown the issue of Wars , is the same , as of free contingencies : For truly , Victory doth for the most part arise occasionally , from a contingent thing not premeditated of : therefore I conclude , that the infernal enemy doth read the Pictures of the Stars , whereby the Firmament is said to foretel the Handy works of the Lord. But thou wilt say , whence do the Heavens make Predictions , which no mortall men have known , and the which to be known by the evill spirit , is wickedness ? In the first place , it should be sufficient , that the fore-tellings of future things do chiefly declare the glory of God , and the infiniteness of his wisdom , and fore-knowledge ; to wit , that it may not remain unsignified . And then , The Lord hath not done a word , which he doth not signifie to his servants the Prophets . Lastly , if the number of mortall men , be scarce the hundreth of Angels that are good Spirits : it sufficeth , that these at least , do read the foretokens of future things , and therefore do they praise the Lord anew . Lucifer indeed hath waxed proud by the much knowledge of things , both of those that do exist , and of things afterwards to be , and it was naturall to him , the which he breaths in without grace : But it doth not therefore follow , that he hath known all mortall men to come , and their fortunes , vices , defects , sins , grace , and whatsoever things should be hereafter , like to a second cause ; as neither the secret mysteries of God , that are revealed in succession of dayes , and added to a connexion of causes . But , whether Plagues do arise , and rage , or Tyrannies , Wars , destructions , tumults , or the beginnings of arch-Hereticks , the Lord permitting them , at leastwise those things shall be as well connexed to their own necessary , and second causes , although arbitrall and occasionall ones , as otherwise , Meteors are to theirs : For neither is the office of foreshewing the Handy works of the Lord to be restrained to the changes of the Air alone ; but absolutely unto all the works of the Lords hands : Because if the Stars can be preachers of the threatning effects of the wrath of God , which without second causes should be committed to the smiting Angel : why shall they not also , in like manner , shew the works of the Lord deputed or reckoned to second and free causes ? For truly , what things soever God foreknoweth , he can also , if he will , shew them by his Instruments : but those proper Instruments of God are the Firmament , and the Lights thereof , as the Scripture witnesseth . Yea truly , I have been bold to attribute more Authority to the Heaven , than what hath wont to be given unto it by the holy Scriptures : To wit , that the Stars are to us for foreshewing Signes , Seasons , or changes of the Air ; lastly , for dayes , and years : wherefore the Text takes away all power of causes , besides in the abovesaid revolutions of seasons , dayes , and years : Neither do they act , I say , but by a motive and alterative Blas . But the Stars are said to act by motion and light onely ; but motion in the Schooles is said to act onely by reason of the divers Aspects of Light ; for , that the motion of the Heavens , even the swiftest , as well as those remote from us , should produce as well heat , as motion ; is a devise or fiction . For truly , the daily motion of the Heavens is almost equall , therefore also the heat should be alwayes alike : but seeing the property of Light by it self , is not but to enlighten , but by accident , by reason of its conjunction , to make hot , or make cold : and the dayes are now and then cold , and Clowdy unto us , under the Summer Solstice : Hence surely I ought to have borrowed other causes from the Blas of the Heaven . There is a certain action indeed , hitherto unknown to the Schooles , which in the proper limit of government I have taught , which operates on the objects subjected unto it , almost like to abstracted spirits : And even as the Soul moveth , and altereth its own Organs or Instruments : Thou mayest call it for me , an influence , so that a connexion of the Stars be moreover understood , of stirring up the Gas beneath , according to the lawes of directions given , and fixed by the Almighty : for otherwise , seeing that a beam of Light may be hindered by a covering , every Blas also of the Stars on us should cease , if they should act on us onely by light , and motion : yea , and in an over-clowdy Heaven , no action on the waters , or on the things sowen in the Earth , should be beheld : For diseased persons do perceive a proportionable resembling motion of the Moon , and for this cause do they foretell Tempests to come ; because there are in the very seeds of things , the co-bred , and allied Lights of Heaven , Which do suit themselves to the motion of the nearest , or Neighbour-lights , and so to the most universall Blas of the Stars . For therefore , hot-Houses being shut , the same effects are felt con-centred or harmonious : not indeed , because they light on us from without ; but we carry a heaven within , in our vitall beginnings , and the Almighty hath sealed things soulified with that Pledge or Signet . Notwithstanding , that con-centring , and conformity do signifie a connexion of suitableness with the more large superiour Heaven . And moreover I may easily believe , if Insects do utter the foreshewing signes of seasons , that we also at the time of health , might foreknow all things , unless corruption had bespattered our whole nature in the ground , and had left us naturally so much the more stupid , and miserable than those small Beasts : for sin hath withdrawn the Celestial familiarities of talk from us : in diseased persons onely , it hath left its marks of antient foretelling ; whereby we may know , that the marks of things to come are left us from nothing but the misery of corrupted nature : which else , in her purity , had made us true diviners of the Heaven , no lesse than Adam knew the natures of living Creatures . And although the Stars do foretell the effects depending on free , and contingent causes ; yet I would not be understood , that a gift is given to the Stars of bringing in the causality of future things : for it is sufficient , that in this thing they perform the office of a Preacher , as it were meanes depending on the fore-knowledge of God : for as the fore-knowledge of God doth not take away from man a liberty of willing or judging , and his tie with the fore-knowledge doth not take away the infallibility of events : nevertheless , it least of all contains an unavoidableness : much lesse doth the fore-telling of the Firmament induce any necessity of contingency , or accidentall event on the wills part , although it doth altogether happen in respect of events coupled to their free causes . Truly I have oft admired at those that refuse a denouncing of the Stars in free causes , as though they did therefore necessitate , and did take away a liberty of willing , when as in the mean time , they do admit , that divine fore-knowledge doth not cause any thing against free will , but that it can denounce : Seeing the reason of necessity in the fore-knowledge of mans glorification is far greater in the power of God , than in the fore-shewing of the Stars , it being of its own nature tyed to change by reason of the repentance , and unstable or frail nature of sinners . For it hath happened , that sometimes the Stars have foreshewen onely threatnings , whereby the antient mortalls through the terrour of punishment , do return into the way , as did the Ninivites : In which case , although the Stars do loose much of their certainty , and strength : yet they do not forsake a certainty of necessity , as oft as the Signes do shew forth the fore-tellings of Events . Wherefore , I reckon with my self , that the figures of things , successive throughout Ages , are decyphered in the Heavens , as it were in Tables ( which figures , they name the lawes of destiny ) and that , not indeed , by an Hebrew Alphabet ( as some of the Rabbins Dream ) but that Provinces , Kingdoms , and men , have their Stars , on which the Stage of things accidentally happening to their Subject , appointed for every one of them in the revolutions of dayes , is decyphered : wherefore neither is it a wonder , if evill Spirits shall know how to foretel many of these things : And so much the lesse , if to every one of us , are designed good Spirits our keepers . Even as the Mountain Garganus , Kingdoms , and Common-wealths , have Spirits for their own Rulers , and Defenders . For so the fore-shewings , not onely of the rising , and period of Kingdoms are therein painted forth ; but also the races , and ends of all men are historically figured out by their peculiar Star , which are also typically decyphered . Which knowledge indeed , although it being known to Spirits , naturally forbidden to man , I do oftentimes read it by its true name , the divining of the Heaven , yet , I finde it granted onely to the Servants , or Prophets of God , according to his good pleasure . For your old men shall dream Dreams , and your young men shall have Visions , and shall prophesie ; for this which containeth all things , hath the power of a voice , it openeth future contingencies shewed by their Stars , onely to whom , and when it will. On some in the mean time , he bestoweth a figurative knowledge of the Stars , even as to the wise men of the East : but to others , he giveth Dreams , as to Joseph , and the same wise men ; and that the same may be truly interpreted , as to Joseph , and to Daniel a man of desires . Also there are some at this day , as mad men , and drunkards , fore-telling things to come , and not knowing , what , to whom , in what manner , or by what meanes , or why they do presage : For so according to Josephus , Jesus , a certain man , foretold the destruction of the holy City with a continuall cry , and for that cause , he was beaten . But the Apostles spa●● from the Comforter , with the Tongues of all Nations which were then under the Sun ; but by the Hebrews and Pagans , they were accounted to be drunk with new Wine . Although there was no new Wine then to be found in Palestina : For they prophesying , glorified the Lord Jesus : for neither is it read , that any was then preached unto , or converted . Therefore they were accounted to be drunk with new Wine , but not with Wine , because drunkenness by new Wine , among the Gentiles , did stir up , those that kept Bacchus's Feasts , to Predictions . Therefore Prophesie from new Wine , or otherwise foretelling , seemeth to be in some men , almost foolish , but if they were drunk , familiar : which constitution or frame , Paracelsus calleth a drunken or besotted gift , which was made known to the Jewes , and therefore falsly attributed to the Apostles . Moreover , that I may demonstrate , the events of men to be described in the Stars , I will shew at least three examples of d●abolical Predictions , instead of a thousand : nor those drawn out by the evill spirit from any other place than out of the decyphered figure of the Stars . First of all , Roderick the fourth , the last King of the Gothes , reigning , the Castle of Toletum which had now stood shut even from the dayes of King Bamba , was through the curiosity of Roderick , opened ; but there was nothing found in it , besides one onely Chest : But in the Chest , a Cotten Towel , rouled up , shewing the Garments , and Persons of the Africans . But there was in it thus written , When this Castle and Chest shall be unlocked , a Nation shall break into Spain , of this similitude and cloathing , and shall obtain Victory over the Spaniards . But the Moores were decyphered with a cloathing , as it was to be above 200 years after . Two others are modern examples . The Duke of Biron being apprehended by his King , for the crime of Treason , straightway busily enquired , of what Nation the tormenter or Executioner of Paris might arise : whom , when he understood to be a Burgundian , he fearing , sighed , and said : Alass , I am undone ! for truly he had sometimes understood by a Soothsayer , that he was onely to beware of a mortall stroak , which a Burgundian was to give him in dayes to come . The Earl of Loniguium was slain in a Duel nigh Bruxels , itching with a desire of Combates , and being the more bold , because he had understood by Fortune-tellers , that ●e should be mortally wounded by a Wolf. But there was a young man , a Companion in the Duel , to the Earl de Sancto Amore , whose Sur-name was Loup , or Wolf , who being deadlily pricked , thrust Loniguius thorow . Let the Devill be the Authour of these Predictions . But it is at leastwise of Faith , that the Lots of every Victory , are in the hand of the Lord. Let us grant , that the Devil stirred up Roderick to open the Chest , and also to have pricked on very many Kings of the Moores to invade Spain ; Yet he could not know , that he was to obtain this , beyond the will of so many persons : much lesse , that the Arabians should obtain Victory ( which the Lord alone gives to whom he will ) unless he had first read the consent of the Lord , painted forth in the Stars : for neither could the evill spirit have known this by the motion and Light of the Stars , that was to come for two Ages from thence . In the two other Histories , the Devill , besides the houre and place , had foretold also the Nation of the killer , and his name : but at leastwise a name is not shewen by the Planets . Moreover , the divulged Rule ; The Stars do incline , but not necessitate , hath seemed to me contradictory to the Text of holy Scripture ; The Stars shall be to you for Signes , seasons , dayes , and years : because it is not lawfull for any mortall men to extend the bounds , effects , or appointments of the Stars , above , without , or besides the intention of the Creator . Whether therefore they are for fore-shewing Signes onely , or at length , for causes of seasons , dayes , and years : Seeing that they are meanes for both ends , which God useth as second causes , they ought to have a relation of necessity , by reason of the certainty and independency of him whose meanes they are . But so far as it hath regard to inclination , which the Schooles do grant to the Stars : it no where appeareth in the holy Scriptures , that the Stars are to us , causers of inclinations ; but as oft as the Stars are the causes of causes , so oft also , they are the necessitating causes of the thing caused , by the meanes of other second causes For the Sun doth with no lesse necessity bring on the day and Summer , than burning or flaming straw under a dry Fagot , doth kindle this Fagot . But when Stars do obtain the nature of a Signe , Preacher or Messenger : then also they do not exceed the conditions of a presage , nor in any wise assume the office of a cause ; but they do onely then foreshew from the infallible fore-knowledge of God , and so also do import a necessity as much as is from them , and from mans free will , as fore-shewing Signes of the Handy works of the Lord. And although they do not necessitate causatively , things to come , yet they do necessitate as they shew the will of the Lord. For free contingencies do depend on their causes , also sometimes primarily on those not intending such kinde of effects which by divine permission do proceed from thence unthought of : for neither in the mean time , are those things which come to passe from free causes immediately , understood in any respect to be inclined by the Stars ( although fore-shewing ones onely ) to produce their effects : For truly , a strong native , continuall , soliciting , repeated , &c. inclination , doth after some sort import a necessity over free will , which I do not indeed grant , in the least point of it , to be inclined by the Stars : For even so as a friend is not the inclining cause of War , or the inciting cause , if he doth secretly declare to his Prince by an Epistle , that an enemy doth prepare War , and plot the invasion of his Camp. But the Schooles defend themselves by that saying : A wise man shall rule or have dominion over the Stars . As though , if the Stars should stir up any one to murders , thefts , man-slaughters , adulteries , seditions , drunkenness , &c. yet a wise man , might by the liberty of his own free will , make those inclinations void ; and this they call , to rule over the Stars . But surely the authority of the Scriptures being badly understood , brings forth perverse consequences . For , first of all , it is not in a wise man , to resist evill inclinations : but it is of grace : And so , a wise man in this place , is not understood to be him which is fenced with sufficient grace : because if he shall rule over the Stars , there is no cause why he should fear conquered inclinations , even as , the word , to dominate or bear rule doth import ; yet this is false throughout his whole life . Next also , they presuppose a falshood , because it is by no meanes of the appointment of the Stars , that they should cause inclinations in us : but onely , that they are for signes , seasons , dayes , and years ; and no more . In the next place , the Heaven was created without spot : Therefore it is absurd , that it should be unto us in the room of the Devill the Tempter , and which is more , of an incliner : because it should infuse into us a continuall fewel unto vices , and a headlong inclination . Far be it , to think these things of the divine goodness . Every evill inclination , doth not come unto us from without , elsewhere ; but it hath increased it self within , from sin . Out of the heart , are murders , Adulteries , and evill thoughts : surely not from the Stars . Therefore according to a humble Protestation of my slenderness or weakness , I do utterly renounce the opinion , teaching , that the Stars have a power of infusing an inclination . For I was in the beginning , held in opinion by divers effects , that the seed of a Beast did of its own accord flow into a living Soul , and that not obscurely running to and fro : and although that in the conceived Embry● , or imperfect young , first of all a certain power doth clearly appear , as if it were a certain vegetative Soul ; yet the same is at length perfected , and ariseth into the degree of a sensitive soul . And seeing that the seed of man is not more imperfect than a beasts , I did also suppose , that to flow with the like pace , and at length to be perfected into a sensitive soul ; yet , not so , as that this sensitive soul doth likewise passe into the nature of mans minde : For since two Masters at once , not subordinate to each other , no man can serve , but he must hate either of the two , because they are unsufferably opposite : So in nature , one onely body cannot serve two determined or limited souls ; and the sensitive soul is not a substance ; nor lastly , an accident ( as I shall teach in the Chapter of forms ) but the minde of man is a Spirit , also a living substance in the abstract , and immortall : hence indeed it comes to passe , that the sensitive Soul surviving , nature doth also willingly receive the humane Soul , or it s perfectly ultimate act , and that both Souls do peaceably suffer with each other within . Which thing being premised , I began to consider , that a Dog is a devouring , biting , envious , watchfull , barking , and hunting living Creature , and for one crust , unmindfull of all benefits , ungratefull , flattering , &c. All which things , as seminall properties , and specificall ones , are in the seed of a Dog , but not imprinted on him by the Stars ; but I have known very many of those properties proper to the kinde ; but some of them to be moreover , peculiar to them from their Parents : Even so that from hence , the race of Dogs doth differ in price or esteem : Therefore , I have known the like conditions to be in a Dog from the stock of the Seed , and not astrall or from the Stars ; and so , where I have beheld the like conditions in a man , I have also presently thought , that these have from some Dog-like property lurked in the seed of man. Again , I have noted some living Creatures , to be conjugall , but others to be born by a promiscuous , and incestuous copulation : So I have noted , tame , wild or bruitish , crafty , uncapable of learning , theevish , cruel , fugitive , fearfull , milde , &c. living creatures : which conditions , as being common to the whole kinde , or dispersed throughout famisies , I have learned , not to arise from the Stars , or from the Planet that is Lord of their Nativity ; but wholly , and onely from the seed : And therefore I have also likewise thought , that such inclinations of men do increase in him that is born , from some bruitish property of the seeds . I have also found amongst men , oft-times , whole families to be furious , stupid or blockish , crafty , insolent or proud , lascivious , &c. Whence some are called , a viperous generation . Likewise , Tell ye ( Herod ) the Fox ; wherefore I have begun to remove wit , judgement , memory , manners , inclinations , yea , the dispositions of death , and fortune , wholly from the Stars . Again , it is also in the hand of the causer or begetter to generate a male , or a female ; but masculine conditions , inclinations , wits , properties , are far distinct from female ones : For the Church prayeth for the devout femall Sex : wherefore morall inclination , or devotion , is due to the Sex , not to the Stars : For Horses are judged by the colour of their hairs ; but colours are varified in conception , by art . Moreover , conditions , and inclinations are changed by ages : To wit , Children are delighted with other things than men : For a sober young man sometimes becomes an old drinker , and on the contrary . A liberall young man is oft times covetous when he growes old : Also a greedy desire of Seed ( which he lesse wanteth , and ought lesse to desire ) doth oft accompany him : which surely do not depend on the direction of the Stars , if the same Lord of the Nativity doth govern the whole life . For truly , I have distinguished of inclinations : to wit , that one is that whereby any one doth naturally incline into Professions , Religions , Arts , Sciences , Merchandise , or affaires of Exercise : This I name , an inclination of ones Calling . But the other inclination , concerneth manners , virtues , vices , which I call morall , or ethicall : But the third respecteth , health , Diseases , a long , or short life : And therefore , I name this inclination , vitall . At length , the fourth , is of fortunes . But so far as belongeth to the first , we believe by faith , That God immediately creates mans minde , and directs it to a certain Calling of its own , in which it may please it self most ; which way , he reacheth to it worthy Talents , 5. 2. or one onely Talent . Therefore the inclination of Calling , whereby any one is made a Physitian , a Geometrician , a Musitian , &c. is given to the Soul by the Creator himself , from whom every good gift cometh from above : Therefore all inclinations of Calling , for that very cause are good . But a morall inclination , as it is meerly Beast-like , so , I have already demonstrated before , that it dependeth on the Being of the seed : For truly , the Stars should be simply evill if they should incline man to vices : And the Creator had erred in judgement ; Because he had seen that whatsoever things he had made , were good : Therefore an inclination to evill , springs from nature corrupted in its Root , and Seed : out of the heart do spring evill thoughts , according to Gospel-light , and from the Soul , consents ; even as a strong inclination , from a custom of sinning : But good , springs from grace , will and exercise . Surely it is in no wise a stranger to us by reason of the Stars : For the first things which constitute us were equally defiled by corruption ; but unequally distributed , and participated of from the goodnesse of the seed , the conception of the Mother , education , &c. or on the contrary . And therefore all inclinations seminall , do grow , are increased , or do decrease according to the properties of the flowings of the seeds to increase , or declining . But that the third inclination , is from the weakness , or strength of the seeds , and wholly subject to the Archeus the directer in nature , none but an Astrologer will dispute , who being ill prepared , refers all things to the motions of the Stars , even unto Idolatry ; and attributes to himself the right of unfolding them : first of all , not distinguishing the power of shewing , from the effective virtue : nor knowing that the seven Planets or wandring Stars are onely to be chief over the Blas of the Elements ; But that the fixed Stars do contain particular Tragedies : And therefore , when besides the wont of nature , there shall be signes in the Sun , and Moon , they do signifie the monstrous signes of a future ruine of the Universe . But such blockishness hath more and more grown on the common sort , that they think every one must be believed in his art : in this indeed rightly , That the Astronomer hath learned to measure the motions , and distances of the Stars : But we must not therefore believe him as a Prophet of the Stars , unless he shall also bring very authentick or warrantable marks whereby he may be believed , as did Aholiab , and Bezaleel . Therefore as to the vitall inclination , I do praise the Proverb : Strong men are created , by strong , and good seeds or Parents . Moreover , so far as concerneth the inclination of Fortunes , That in its very Etymology hath exceeded the Catalogue of inclinations : Therefore I think that all the fortunes of all , as well those prosperous , as adverse , do concern a divine disposing , but not an inclination , much lesse to depend on the Stars , although they are fore-signified in the Firmament . For truly this fore-signifying also , doth plainly shew , that those do depend immediately on the will of the signifyer : For our lots or conditions are in thy hands O Lord : Therefore I believe that all the lots of all , are good in themselves , and to be fully in the hand of the Lord. I believe moreover , that , by how much the more remote any one is from this opinion , by so much he is nearer to Heathenisme . Indeed the Heathenish Schooles did see that living Creatures had suitable inclinations according to their kinde ; yet being amazed at the plurality of morall inclinations in one onely humane kinde , expressing all the inclinations of all Beasts , and therefore not knowing in what cause they might settle so great a number of inclinations ; the evill spirit perswading them , they by their Sooth-sayers of the Heaven , confusedly fled to the uncertain , and momentary coupling , and estranging of the Stars . Never searching into the cause , why mankinde is capable of many bestiall inclinations : For they neglected to consider that bruit Beasts should have their specificall inclinations from the Being of the seed , not the signe of the Horoscope to be due to bruit Beasts . That man likewise had his inclinations like bruit Beasts : wherefore in like manner , Nativities are not to be searched into for the inclinations of men : For neither do they naturally happen to man from any other place than from a part of his body , which wholly , whatsoever it is , it oweth to the seminall Being , no otherwise , than the bodies of bruit Beasts do : For truly the Soul is immortall , wholly simple , and uniform ; and seeing it is immortall , it cannot have its inclination from the frail , and sliding motion of the Stars ; but onely it hearkeneth to the nature corrupted by sin , in Adam and his Posterity : Wherefore in a late or young Nephew , do oft-times the manners , behaviours , and inclinations of his Grandfather not before seen by him , rise again : Indeed the Schooles also are content that these should be given to the Being of the seed , and not to the Stars : But being ●ulled asleep through a custom of assenting , and by the importunities of Astrologers , they have neglected thorowly to weigh , that the aforesaid inclinations of the Grandfather are of no other dignity with , nor seperated from the company of the other inclinations ; and therefore that they are tyed by the same Law , to the being of the seed : I know not how deservedly they do as yet teach to this day , that a man is so subjected to the Stars , that he is continually tempted by them , to wit , that the morall inclinations of vices , and goodnesses are to be drawn from the houre of ones Nativity : But surely , God hath appointed man in the hand of his own will : For the sensitive Soul , the vicaresse of the minde , doth surely rejoyce in a greater liberty than the souls of bruit Beasts , by reason of the Seals ministred to it by the minde . But the souls of bruit Beasts live contented with the inclinations of their own particular kinde , under a small latitude ; but mans sensitive soul is enlarged to all inclinations : for as a humane young , as soon as it begins to be nourished in its own square or quarter , is not a plant of any kinde , even as neither a bruit of any kinde , while the sensitive soul floweth together with the rational : So the sensitive humane soul being not tied to a brutall kinde , doth wander through all the latitude of brutall inclinations , and easily hearkeneth to the strange inclinations of the immortall minde brought into it at its own pleasure : for the minde sliding into corrupted nature , doth easily fall into the motions and enticements hereof , and being alwayes shaken out of its place by an unbridled appetite , doth serve as a Lackey or Chamber-maid to disturbance , which hath driven it from its place : Whence , there is a strange inclination : By the frequent use , or desire whereof , there is a strong custom , which at length doth imprison the minde . It likewise appeares , that a morall inclination is in the innermost properties of the sensitive soul , dispositively sliding out of the Being of the seed : And that the Stars have obtained over us , no power of causing , except by the Blas of Meteors . But although the inclination of calling , or a morall one , may change the vitall inclination : as when a pruner of Trees becomes gowty , a brawler is wounded or slain ; so a Gilder miserably trembleth , a digger of Mineralls , and likewise a Chymist perisheth by an Asthma or stoppage of breathing ; yet those things come to passe occasionally onely , neither do they bring with them any right to the Astrologer . Cease therefore for shame , hereafter to believe , that the Stars were created to tempt , incline , destroy , make happy , infuse Sciences , or to prevail by an acquired right or authority : for thus is the power of desert or punishment taken away , also a way is opened to Athersme , and the fatalities or destinies of appointments . Therefore a wise man shall rule over the Stars : not indeed , that he can hinder , change , suspend , and pervert the courses , or lights of the Stars ; as neither the successive changes of times or seasons , dayes , and years following from thence . Therefore it followes , that a wise man shall not rule over the effects which are coupled to the revolutions of the Stars , as causes ; neither shall he rule over the Stars , as signes , to wit , that he is able to change them at his pleasure : but he onely foreseeing , that the seven wandring Stars are about to stir up a motive , or alterative Blas , whence barrennesses , colds , heats , dearnesses of Victuall , or the like , do necessarily follow , he shall be able to provide himself with necessaries , and so by meeting the discommodities bred by the Flux of the Stars , he shall from consequence ; in some sort rule over them . An Astrologer with this authority , not exceeding the bounds of a Meteor , is reckoned by the holy Scriptures , among wise men : Which square , if Astrologicall Predictions shall through a rash boldness exceed , they are not onely vain , and conjectural ; but driven out of both Testaments of the holy Scriptures , with the name of Sooth-sayers of Heaven : So that St. Ambrose doth rightly compare them to Spiders Webs , which indeed do serve to take flies , and gnats ensnaring themselves , but by a stronger living Creature they are most easily broken asunder : So indeed these Predictions , do catch onely those that are apt to believe , and lesse firm in the faith . But that they are vain in themselves , and framed by conjecturall Rules , I prove , because they are supported with a double foundation , to wit , with none at all , and by a false one : that which concerns nothingness , is , that they will have attributed to the Seven Planets , the figure , inclinations , strength or valour , wit , fortunes , and death of him that is born , Seeing God hath appointed the Stars onely for signes , seasons , dayes , and years , but not for the causes of Predictions : And so , if those Predictions do contradict divine appointment , for that very cause , they are null , and false . Secondly , because it is not yet agreed among Astrologers hitherto , concerning the Scheme , or order of the Heavens . To wit , whether Mercury , and Venus are carried in particular Orbs beneath the Sun , according to Ptolomy , and all the antient Judiciaries ; Or whether they are rowled about in like or equall Circles , round about the Sun : Which thing , the Optick-Tube or Glasse hath thus searched out : therefore the Aphorismes of Predictions supported by that foundation , that those two Planets are alwayes lower than the Sun , do fall to the ground : And then , if two of the Planets ( Venus being the greatest or chiefest Star except the Sun ) be carried about the Sun , and they are of so great power in judgements , and so near to us , those spots , or Stars in the Sun , or most near to it , shall likewise be of far greater authority to refell all the Aphorismes of the Antients : And the Stars which have lately been found to be moved about Jupiter , shall conjecturally convince of the Rules of Almegistus , whether they were written from a foundation . That in the mean time I may be silent touching the opinion of Copernicus , which at this day doth not want its followers , and those of no small authority , although they do presse their consent under silence : which opinion notwithstanding , once breaking forth , will ruine all apparitions in the Heaven , and Predictions . Fourthly , the point of nativity is uncertain : and seeing that the Stars do vary in every point , Every prediction is of necessity uncertain : I being sometimes deceived in my younger years , have attributed very much to the significations of the Stars ; but when I could not satisfie my self , that by the remarkable accident of him that is born , I could finde the point of his Nativity ; which is plainly necessary , if those accidents do any way proceed from the Stars : at length , in behalf of a great Nobleman , I described or wrote down his accidents , to wit , That in the eleventh year of his age , a Wife of six years was married unto him , he having obtained the degree of Knight of the Garter , having travelled far , even to the nineteenth year , that he had received a wound in a Duel , that his right thigh was broken by chance , in a Coach , the precise houres being adjoyned , with very many observations of things : The Countrey where he was born , being added ; on the ninth day of the fourth month called June , and the houre , between seven , and ten in the forenoon , of the year 1604. I my self went to the most skilfull Judiciaries , the Question being also sent away into other Countries , with a promise of 600 Crowns to him who could divine or tell the point of his Nativity ( to us known ) from the aforesaid accidents : At length , none touched at the true point , but he that came nearest , did differ as yet the space of seven points above half an houre from thence . There were in the mean time , Standard-defenders , who denied that such a point was between the seventh and tenth houre , by which such accidents could be signified ; but indeed , that point was found to be presently before the fifth houre in the morning ; yet in the truth of the matter , he was born at London , I being present , seven points after the ninth houre Solar or according to the Sun , and not horologiall or according to the Diall or Clock . Afterwards therefore , I with a notable repentance , lamented my aptnesses of belief . Moreover , touching the falseness of the foundation of Predictions , it as yet more clearly appeareth : For indeed , they themselves do confess , that their Eccentricks or things not having one and the same Center &c. to be meer fictions , and almost impossible to save or preserve their speculations : which soundeth , that they are ignorant of the Orbs or Circles of the Heavens , and the carryings of the Stars : And so these absurd fictions being supposed , it s no wonder that many near akin to them do follow . I have known a remedy whereby otherwise the young would stick in the birth for the space of a day , and houres , and that drink being taken , the Woman brings forth presently after a quarter of an houre ; and so the point of Nativity is deceived ; and likewise Herms's Scale of Empsuchosis or quickning ; but this Remedy , I have written else-where , to consist in the Liver , and Gaul of an Eele , being dryed and powdered . Lastly , the falshood doth more appear ; for they say , that Saturn is a cold , and dry , melancholy Planet , and therefore envious , and stirring up to thefts , and treacheries , plainly evill , because of the nature of the Earth . But that Mars , because he is hot and dry , ( not the Sun ) is evill , cholerick , a Warriour , murderer , and cruel , because of the nature of the Element of fire . But that Jupiter and Venus are of the nature of Air , merry , sanguine , good , even as the Moon , and Mercury being cold and moyst , are of the nature of water , and phlegme : And so also therefore of a middle nature . But a moderateness agreeth to the most hot Sun , not a humour , nor an Element . Wherefore , either the Sun shall languish by reason of injury , or the feigned powers of the Elements are badly attributed as causes of the properties of the Stars , whose property it is , not to change , but to give an alterative Blas to these inferior Bodies . Wherein , many falshoods come to hand . For first of all , they do causatively ●ink evill within the Heaven . Secondly , That the qualities of the Earth are evill or naught . Thirdly , They place the fire among Elementary Bodies . Fourthly , The Stars also , even the two Elements which God had made , were not to be good . 5. They falsely compare the Stars in their causative property , to Elementary qualities . 6. Therefore they do falsly attribute to the Stars a causall virtue of fortune , wit , &c. with respect to the first qualities . Wherefore , since there are in the judiciall part of Astrologie , so great nakednesses , falsehoods , vanities , and in brief , nothing but conjectures supported by meer lying Rules ; it is no wonder , that the cunning Workman doth immingle himself with those thousand , that he may have now again his four hundred Prophets opposite to one Mica●ah . Therefore Reader , whosoever thou art , be not ( after my example ) wise in things on high : but the Heaven , as well in its Scituation , as through the deep blindness of our ignorance , none doubteth to be high . Wherefore surely , I would not search into the secrets of Heaven , who truly have not in the least known earthly ones : But if God do of his own accord reveal them , sing to him prayses with a thankfull heart . I am sure nothing is to be revealed , but what shall have respect unto his own glory , and the usefull fruit or benefit of men . I have written , in the Treatise of the Plague , more things concerning Epidemical or Universal Diseases . CHAP. XXI . The Birth or Originall of Forms . 1. The Schooles do abusively teach the birth of forms to be from the Heaven . 2. The belief of the Authour . 3. It is proved . 4. What hath deceived the Schooles . 5. An errour about the causing or begetting lights of the Sun. 6. The unconstancy of the Schooles . 7. At length , they had rather that forms should arise out of the power of the matter , but not from the causing light of the Heavens . 8. The opinion of S. Thomas is refuted . 9. The contradiction of the same Thomas . 10. The opinion of Scotus is refuted . 11. The dull opinion of the School of others is refuted . 12. Atheisme beginning . 13. The Schooles do conclude against themselves . 14. Augustine thought excellently well . 15. As oft as the Schooles do stumble , they easily nod with doubting . 16. Seven Positions of the Author . 17. How much the Creature can give to the producing of forms . 18. What kinde of thing a fruitful seed may be . 19. The progress of the seed to the wished light . 20. The like flowing of Mineralls . 21. A faculty in some sort sensitive , is proved in Mineralls . 22. A heathenish errour hath seduced both those Nobles into five absurdities . 23. And likewise they had knowingly learned nine remarkable things . 24. That the fire is neither a substance , nor an accident . 25. The demonstration of the proposition . 26. The proof of the subsumption by handicraft-operation . 27. That Light wanders from subject into subject . 28. What the flame is . 29. The definition is proved by handicraft operation . 30. The fire is a positive artificial death . 31. Some positions teaching the nature of the fire . 32. A conclusion out of the premises , and positions . 33. A Mathematicall demonstration . 34. The Schooles do contradict themselves in answering . 35. Some further proofs . 36. The Schooles intangle themselves . 37. They contradict the holy Scriptures . 38. What the vitall spark is . 39. How the Light of the Sun differs from that of the Moon . 40. The Light of the Sun is plainly changed in the Stars . 41. Why the Moon , although lesse than the other Stars , may be called a great Light. 42. The Moon rules the nights by a night light , even while she accompanies the Sun upon the opposite Horizon . 43. The Moon is not onely a receiving , and reflecting Light. 44. She is proved to have a Light proper to her self . 45. A cold Blas of the Moon is from the property of her own proper Light. 46. Demonstrations upon that Light. 47. The difference of the Beames of the Sun , and Moon . 48. To rule the day and the night , to seperate the Light from the Darkness , and to seperate the Day from the Night , do differ . 49. The Moon by the Light borrowed from the Sun doth not rule the night . 50. How living Creatures that wander by night , do perfectly see under the thickest darkness . 51. They do not send forth a Light out of themselves . 52. What darknesses that may be felt , and what utter darknesses in the superlative Degree are . 53. Why evill . Spirits do the more willingly make tumults or noyses in a dark night . 54. A History of a Night-walker . 55. A wound is hardly cured , if a Moon-Bea●● hath shone on it . 56. The Light of the Moon cureth excrescences or over-growings of flesh . 57. A whole Frog by a Blas of the Moon-and cold , doth return into a Chrystalline Muscilage . 58. Gluten de aquatico , Or the Glew of the watery thing , is commended . 59. Why the Moon doth respect Plantations . 60. Why Plants are digged up , and cropped off before the rising of the Sun. 61. That two great Lights are sufficient . 62. The manner , and Progress of budding or springing . 63. A bright Lightning is at length in the Archeus . 64. From whence the fruitfulness of Mineralls is . 65. Brightness is not the form it self , as neither is the brightness of the Candle the form of the flame . 66. Nature by it self , doth not contain , nor reach to the form . 67. A progress in hot bruit Beasts . 68. A fourfold form of things . 69. That no substance is of right , to be brought to nothing . 70. The Schooles fight against their own Doctrine by a Maxime . 71. The Mystery of the Creation of man. 72. There are more Species of Lights , than of materiall things . 73. How the brightness of seeds differs from a formall Light. 74. The Light of the form dissers from fire in its whole generall kinde . 75. The power of framing or creating of forms , belongs to an infinite wisdom and power . 76. in what manner the minde pierceth other forms , according as its own sensitive form . 77. Properties are in-bred by a formall co-touching . 78. God toucheth and pierceth all forms ; but is touched of no form but of a good minde . 79. The innocencies of Aristotle are the blasphemies of Christians . 80. That the Soul suffers nothing destructively from frail Bodies . 81. The sensitive Soul in us , is not the specificall one of a bruit Beast . 82. How the sensitive Soul is limited or disposed of by the minde . 83. The Vegetative form in a bruit Beast is not of the Species of Plants . 84. Fire is made hotter than fire . 85. The vegetable Soul is indeed vitall , but it is not properly to be called , living . 86. The offices of one soul are extinguished , those of another being unhurt . 87. The differences of the Archeus . 88. The Solar light is in the Bird , and four-footed Beast ; but the Lunar light is in the Fish . 89. The Schooles are ignorant of the degrees of simples , so long as they know not the powers of formall Lights . 90. The fire of Hell doth seperate the Archeall Being . 91. Quercetanus deceived in Ice . 92. The errour of Paracelsus in the degrees of Simples . 93. The Light of the Sun is not the constituter of a Being . 94. The seeds of Solar , and Lunar things are distinguished by the sight . 95. The two great Lights do answer to the two primary Elements . 96. Light is drawn into a slint out of the light some Body of the Sun , and is for some time kept in darkness . 97. The use of breathing assigned by the Antients , is fallacious . HEathenisme doth yet so remain with us , that we being diligently taught by the Schooles , do even still believe , that the whole governance , and successive change of sublunary things do depend on a certain ( that is , an unnamed , unknown , conjectural , and uncertain ) motion of the Heavens , on the scituation , light , and aspect of the Stars . Not considering , on the contrary , that the gift of multiplying , or generation was powred forth before the Stars were born ; and therefore , that the blessing of generation , and of successive changes following thereupon , would be after a sort frustrate , if the whole government of the inferiour things were from the Heaven ; and that also should be true , That a man and the Sun doth generate a man : For the first man that was formed was made of the mud or dust , and was endowed with a Soul by the in-breathing of the divine Blast : But I have already sufficiently proved above , that the Heavens are neither to confer manners , nor knowledge , nor fortunes . Now I will prove moreover , that indeed they can neither give Life , nor Form : For truly these opinions of the Schooles have in times past so infatuated or befooled them , that it hath stood believed that the immortall minde it self is naturally produced by the seed of man , and the influence of the Stars ; and although the Church hath forbidden that thing , yet the Schooles being even till now , seasoned with the errours of the Heathen , do teach , that besides the minde of man , all forms , essences , beginnings of all things , and consequently , that our life , inclinations , perfection of properties , properties , and fortunes , do proceed from the motion , and light of the Stars , and perhaps moreover from their influence . But I believe far otherwise ; for I profess , that he who by the onely word of his good pleasure , made the Universe of nothing , is All in All , and at this day also , the way , originall , life , and perfection of all things : So that although second causes are , and do operate as it were partiall causes , directions of motions , and all dispositions necessary to generation ; Insomuch , that therefore , the Almighty will in nothing more , give his honour to any Creature ; yet he alwayes remaineth , as the totall cause , continuing the perpetuall parent of things , the framer of nature , and its governour by creating : therefore I profess , that as in the beginning , nothing was made without him ; so also , that at this day , the creation of every form is a thing made of nothing , by the very same Creator : which thing I not onely speak in behalf of the matter once formerly created , but also of any kinde of forms : because as the form , is as it were a certain light of the thing , and the top of that light ; So none can cause or beget the forms of things , but the Father of Lights , who giveth all things to all , nor is not far off from every created thing : Neither may I believe , that the Heavens do frame naturall forms of nothing , or that they give the seeds , or souls of things , which they in no way have : because Faith , and also Religion do teach me , that God is also at this day , the immediate principle of things , every where present , working all the perfection of all things . And therefore , whatsoever is any where , essentially , that that thing doth owe to God its whole , as much as it is , can do , knoweth , or hath . For Creation hath respect , and sheweth a disposition unto a thing existing in perfection ; but the perfection of a thing is the proper internall essentiall form of every thing : therefore its immediate beginning cannot be from any other than Creation : And therefore is immediately from the one onely unutterable Creator of things . The Schooles therefore thinking the contrary , were deceived , when they saw the light by it self , to make fire thorow a Glasse . I say , they thought the light to be an accident ; but the fire to be a substance , and in their thoughts of both , they stumbled . And therefore they waxing blinde at the natural light of the Sun , flee together unto it , as it were the Creator of the substance of fire , doubting in retiring , whether the Heaven should as yet frame the form of the fire , or whether there were any other artificial light equivalent in this work ? For such a sluggishness of the Schooles doth alwayes remain , that having gotten an example ( erroneous and supposionall ) they straightway slide to a generality : least by diligently searching through particular kindes or Species , they should be wearied , and finde something which should constrain them to depart from the possession of a supposed knowledge : I say they could not understand , but that they should believe the light of the Sun to be a Creator , and also of all essential forms . But they stumble , and fall in the place of exercise , and being unconstant , do run away : For when they thought that one essential form of the fire was generated immediately by heat , putrefaction , and rubbing ; and now to be taken from another light without respect to the Heaven , and its co-working , they sand a recantation , they fought against the Heavens , and their own former opinion , and will have the Creation of forms to be fetched back from these ; the which notwithstanding , they do sometimes freely , and credulously yield unto them , as being uncertain , to what Authour the birth of forms may be due : wherefore , when they saw fire to be taken or drawn from fire , and so that in a combustible object , there was fire potentially ; Straightway also , by the same right , that all seeds did contain a potential form , and so far indeed , that at length , an actual form is brought and procreated out of a potential disposition , which they call the power of the matter ; but surely ridiculous : For at first they thought , that the same thing did happen to the generations of all seeds which they had already experienced in the light , and fire : Therefore they afterwards began toughly to maintain , that every substantial form ( but I do grant an essential form to any things whatsoever , yet a substantiall one to none but to man , by reason of his immortal minde ) or act , was produced without a mean , out of the power of the matter : That is , that it was created by the onely dispositions of the matter , which is to say , by accidents . And as this knowledge of those forms was brought forth from the brain , as it were Minerva the Daughter of Jupiter : it was also doubtfull , unconstant , without sense as to the subject of its inherency , and soon rent a sunder into divers Sects . And indeed first of all , S. Thomas reacheth , that accidents do in truth indeed generate a substance ; but that is onely in respect of the substantial form , whose Instruments they are . In the first place , here S. Thomas hath forsaken his Aristotle , and will have the efficient cause to be internall , sliding out of the bosom of the form , and dependent on it , & in this respect the generating efficient cause thereof . 2. He declareth these intricacies : one substantial form , doth not cause another , of it self ; but its accidents , do in truth , do that Likewise , Accidents do not in very deed of themselves , cause substantial forms ; but it is the virtue of substantial forms , whose Instruments onely accidents themselves are : or as he elsewhere saith ; That accidents are the properties of substantial forms , & whatsoever they do work , that that is done by virtue of the forms : But surely , by the leave of so great a man , it is not in the things of nature even as it is in humane affaires , where the Judge , or Priest doth work by the name or authority of an office , and not as John : For such kinde of respects , nature is ignorant of , and those she hath even hitherto willingly wanted : For every thing in her possession acteth that which it doth act , without the relation of authorizing : To wit , an accident doth act as much , and such as it is in it self ; but not as by the commission of that whereof it is the Instrument : because nature is ignorant of under-appointments , and every fallacy of right or authority : For a thing operateth , as much as , and what it can , without a Commission . For what doth it belong to the effect of producing of forms , that accidents do act , in as much as they are the Instruments of the substantial form , or in any other respect , if in the mean time , essential forms are in very deed , and actually constituted by accidents themselves ? But surely an Instrument , although it may generate something in Mathematical Science , yet in no true understanding is it a generater in nature , because it is external to the thing generated , and singularly , to its form , nor indeed containing the essential Idea or first shape of the form , much lesse the Archeus thereof : For truly , Accidents as they proceed from the generater for the intent of generating , ought to contain a thingliness , and seminall properties requisite to generation : whereof , accidents as they are such , are deprived : Because at the most , they are onely dispositive meanes of the matter to receive a form , but not to procreate it : therefore it seemes , according to D. Thomas , that accidents as they are the Instruments of the form , should be as it were the Instrumentall pipes , by which the form of the generater should breath a form into the thing generated , if the matter hereof be first well disposed by other accidents , But then , the immediate generation of the form should not agree , or belong to accidents : as ( indeed ) accidents , are never ( under the understanding of an Instrument ) substantiall producers . But Scotus insisting on the same delusions drawn from the producing of fire , declareth , that accidents do no manner of way generate substantial forms , but that one substantial form doth in very deed actually produce another out of it self . This saying , at leastwise , taketh from the Heaven , and Sun , the generation of forms . Secondly , it maketh every seed actually animated , to be endowed with a substantial life , and form , with the doating Thomas Fienus , Physitian at Lovaine . A third there is , which holds , that accidents by their own proper virtue , and without the concourse of a substantial form , do immediately produce a substantial form : For this man , ( as I have said ) being most exceedingly over-blinded by the presence of the fire , and light , like Bats , is constrained to confess , that the solemn command of that great blessing , increase and multiply , is given onely to accidents : For others like Africa , do alwayes bring forth new Monsters out of the presumption of humane knowledge ; So that although the foregoing opinions were absurd : yet these men do here set up as yet more superlative absurdities : For indeed , if nature doth require ( as the Naturalists do suppose ) a certain seminal succession , and continuance of one flowing from another , as a principle or beginning , con-substantial , and conjoyned with the thing begun : how therefore could accidents , being any way taken , procreate , or contain a substantial form ? they confess that every form is the inward perfection of the thing , the essence , substance , and originall of the accident of its composed Body ; yet they will have it to be born , produced , and as it were created of nothing , by accidents , as it were dependances of the essential form its Predecessor : But seeing that all natural things do produce their like in the special kinde : therefore it followes , that they will have the essential form to be of the same Species with accidental forms : yea that accidents have have snatched that Prerogative from substances , that accidents should produce accidents , and moreover the essential forms of substances : But that substantial forms as it were growing dull through rest , should keep holy-day , and had committed the whole weight of their business to accidents their Vicars ; that they might falsifye their own proper maxim , and that of Aristotle : That every Agent , is naturally born to produce its like . Seeing accidents should not in producing , be onely accidentall , but also substantial forms , and the which they teach also to be substances . Therefore the maxim of the Schooles , seemeth to me to contain a falshood , and something of Atheisme ; That every Agent which disposeth to a sorm , doth also give that form : because if a substance differs in its predicament from accidents , their principles ought not lesse to differ : For the active , motive , dispositive , and essential principle of generation is the very efficfent cause , and the Archeus Faber or Master-workman . Therefore the glorious God , doth at length , create the forms of substances : therefore , whose principles are in the general kinde and predicament , divers , the effects of those things do equally differ , even as the same like causes are like to the like things caused . But it followes from what hath been already said . That heat produceth heat , not fire ; and much lesse by far , the form of a Chick : in the next place , not any other thing besides heat , because seeing the efficient cause is internall , and of the essence of the thing caused ( which thing I will afterwards prove against Aristotle ) therefore one and the same thing cannot be constituted by high causes different in the particular kinde ; And much lesse by things differing in the whole predicament : For neither is a thing granted to be without its essential properties , as neither an Agent without an Instrument , and mean. By what mean theresore , or at length , by what property out of it self , shall heat be an agent in the producing of a form , or any substance ? and by what co-touching shall heat touch a form , that it may produce this form in another general object , from the participation of its own Being ? For truly , according to the Schooles seasoned with heathenish errour , every form of substances is a substance . From whence Christians ought to infer , That the Heaven , as neither accidents dispositive to a form , can frame any substance out of nothing : because the creating of a substance is proper to the Creator alone . Therefore B. Augustine rightly thought ; if God contains all particular kindes or Species , ( yea and their individuals ) in his eternall understanding , how should he not make all things ? would he not be the artificer of some things ? of effecting which , his laudable minde should have the art and knowledge unutterably ? Therefore , although the seed doth contain the Image of the Begetter , an Archeus proper to it self , with all things requisite to generation ; yet unless the essential Being of a form did depend originally , wholly , exemplarily , perfectively , issuingly , and immediately on God , nature could never work any thing to attain a form , because it should plainly want an active power , if it should be deprived of that relative respect : Therefore in the first place , the Heaven , or Stars , in no manner of understanding , by motion , light , influence , concurrence , co-operation , or coupling , do efficiently , and immediately produce the essential forms of things : which indeed are onely alone to us for signes , seasons , dayes , and years ; and whose offices , none may compell into new services . Jeremy : according to the wayes of the Gentiles do ye not learn , and be not afraid of the Signes of Heaven , which the Nations fear . If not of the Signes , much lesse of the Stars , because they have not the reason of causes , but as they are for seasons , dayes , and years . Neither can a Christian without wickedness , give them other offices : For there is according to Gregory , a power conferred on the Earth , of budding , from it self ; even as also I esteem it wickedness , to attribute the power of increasing , and multiplying to living Creatures , as to the Heaven But the Schooles do easily go back from the Heaven to dispositive accidents . But I on the contrary , state it for a position : That accidents neither by themselves , nor as they are the Instruments of forms , do produce the forms of substances . Neither that they do produce any other form of one substance : Seeing the form of the thing generating is locally without the seed . 2. The Earth also , although it hath received a power of budding , and the seeds of fructifying , without the intervening of the seed of Heaven , or any other cause ; yet it is not the productive or effective cause of forms . 3. I suppose therefore , that God is the true , perfect , and actually all the essence of all things . 4. But the essence which things have , belongs to the Being , or the Creature it self : but is not God. 5. For although a Being hath its essence from God dependently , for a Pledge , Gift , League , or Talent : yet it is proper to the them by Creation . 6. But it agreeth to a Being , with its essence , that it doth , and operateth something for the propagation of it self , according to the blessing , increase and multiply . Hence indeed , it hath the place of a second cause . 7. Therefore God concurreth to the generation of a Being , as the Universal , Independent , totall , essential , and efficiently efficient cause ; but a created Being concurreth , as the dependent , partial , particular , and dispositively efficient cause . But what the Creature can contribute to the producing of a form : Mark , That since Beings have nothing from themselves for generating , but do possess all things from a borrowing , and freely : they do confess for that very cause , that God worketh all things mediately , and immediately , but that a living Creature doth not generate a living Creature , but the seed well disposed to a living Creature : Therefore , it doth not generate the form thereof : But the seed is as it were the disposing Master-Workman , as to the form of a living Creature ; but not as the maker of the form : indeed it borroweth the Archeus from the thing generating , not the form , yea nor the light of life wherein the form shineth . Therefore in the beginning of generation , the Archeus is not as yet lightsome ; but it is an Air , into which the form , life , or sensitive soul of the generater hath a little twinckled , untill it had sufficiently imprinted some shadowie Seal of its brightness . Which Air being greedy of the splendor felt in the generater , once , and shadowily conceived in it self , intends by every way possible for it , to organize the body or fit it with Instruments , for the receiving of that light , and of the actions depending on that light : which way therefore it breathing in desire , enfiames it self more and more ( this thing in a metaphoricall figure , is for nature through a desire of self-love , to pray , seek , and knock ) and runs most perfectly that it may receive that light , form , or life , which at length , it obtains not else-where , than from him , who is the way , the truth , and vitall light , or light of life . Whither therefore when the Archeus hath come , nor in the mean time can proceed any further , and is stayed : at length it receives forms from the hand of the Father of Lights , after that it hath fully performed its offices . Christian Philosophy dictates these things thus , which in living Creatures , and Plants is made easie to be understood . : But in Stones , Mineralls , and Metalls , and so in fruits of the water that are without life , the same things are fuitably to be interpreted : For although this Family doth not propagate by virtue of a seed , neither doth send forth its posterity out of it self , a Being is not therefore wanting in it which may thorowly bring it unto the appointed bounds of maturity : For indeed , since nothing doth any where dispose , or move it self , unless it be a seed ; it must needes be , that whatsoever is generated , that hath a disposer within , who sits in a soft , watery , salt , clayie , &c. Air : Not indeed that it floweth here , or wandereth thorow that masse , even as it doth in bruit Beasts , or that therefore it dwelleth in a perpetual juyce ; but the Air is incorporated throughout the whole Body , nor varying from the disposition of the fruit produced : yea in the number or rank of Mineralls , that disposer is almost vitall , and sensitive . Because Chymicall Adeptists do with one voyce deliver , that if the seed of the Stone which maketh Gold , being once kept warm in their Egg , be afterwards , in the least cooled or chilled , its conception , and progress to a stone would be afterwards desperate : which thing , seeing it is like to Birds Eggs , it also therefore cannot subsist without a sensitive life . Truly , it is to be wondered at , that the Schooles do acknowledge all second matter to flow from a certain universal matter , yet that they do not admit , immediately to derive every life , or all forms from the primitive life , and first act of all things : To wit , to derive all the perfection of things from the universal , and super-essential essence of perfection : yea rather , that they at this day do deride Plato with his principle of the Gods , and Avicenna , with his Cholcodea Panto-Morphe or goddess of Cholchis that gives a form to all things : who nevertheless , have far neerer saluted the truth in this thing than Christians , who maintain , that the very lives , substantial forms , and essential thinglinesses of things are produced by the aspiration or influence of the Heavens , by the endeavour of accidents , and the favour of material dispositions . I set forth the blindness of the most rare men , made under or in a time of light . For they think the fire to be a substance , and the light to be an accident onely : They have consented through the strong belief of credulity , into the errours of the Gentiles , and have been seduced into many absurdities . 1. They have been constrained , absolutely to deny the forms of things to be lights . 2. That lives , or forms , and lights , are placed among substances : seeing they acknowledged no middle Being between a substance , and an accident . 3. Matter , although it is a substance , to be constantly abiding , and alway remaining ; but forms to be privative substances , yet to be annihilated like accidents . 4. That matter doth b●rrow its substantial essence from a form not constantly abiding , but to be annihilated or brought to nothing . 5. That forms do yield to the matter in supporting , and subsisting : which absurdities , unless they had been credulous , they had by looking back taken notice of . 1. For they had known , that the minde onely among forms , is a substance . 2. But all other forms to be of the rank or number of life , without an accident , and substance . 3. That it is impossible for matter ever to be made an accident . 4. Because matter is not to be annihilated . 5. That it is impossible for an accident to be changed into a substance . 6. That an accident taketh to it degrees , but not a substance . 7. And that therefore an accident being on both sides graduated , cannot lay aside its graduality , that it may be made a substance . 8. That although light be accounted an accident , it shall never make fire of it self , unless fire cease to be a substance . 9. That it is a frivolous Question , how an accident doth make a substance , seeing it presupposeth an impossibility . Therefore an accident shall not produce a substance from it self , seeing this is impossible : neither can an accident make a substance of a substance : For also , the Question doth not presse , how a substance is made of a substance ; But how an accident doth produce a substance : For although a dispositive and accidentall operation doth interpose in the producing of a substantial thing : yet the producing of a substance it self doth not any way respect an accident , as its productive principle . Moreover , seeing the two chief leaders of the Schooles , waxing blind under the beholding of the light , and fire , have been made to wander from the truth , I have judged it worth my labour , for me to demonstrate to the young beginner of the art of the fire , that the fire is neither a substance , nor an accident ; but a Creature peculiar , and seperated from both , which no where hath its like : But that Kitchin fire is not a substance : For indeed none is Elementary ; yea if it were , it should be of no use ( as I shall shew in its place . ) For four Elements cannot concur to the composition of Bodies which are believed to be mixt : Because the substance of Elementary fire doth not descend from so many leagues , that it may joyn it self to its fellow Elements for the constitution of those mixt Bodies , and that hastily and presently , at the pleasure of the seeds . Neither is it the property of fire to descend , as neither is it the property of the water to call to it fire for a mixture for the future to be made . For those co-mixtures of Elements are the Dreams of Heathens , and their ridiculous mockeries , whereby the Schooles have hitherto without controversie , suffered themselves to be circumvented : Because if there were an Elementary fire nigh the Moon ; that it might be true fire , it ought plainly to have the same properties , which Kitchin fire hath ; or this likewise should not be fire , and the properties of this should not be essentially common to Elementary fire : For the Heavenly , or Elementary fire ought actually to consume , and to have a nourishment , not indeed one more outward about it ; but wholly very well mixt within it ; seeing one part of the fire , ought to be nourished as well as the other : yea , for unless this should thus happen , the fire that was neighbour to the Air , as to its nourishment , had devoured and consumed that its nourishment , and in the mean time , the fire near the Heaven had before perished without nourishment . Also I have shewen in its place , that it is a ridiculous thing for the Air to be the nourishment of that fire , and that being as yet granted , that all Air had long agoe failed , that fire cannot make an excrement out of Air , nor any thing more pure , simple , before it , or finer . And moreover , if it should make fire of Air , there is not afterwards an Element a Neighbour to fire , which of fire may at length produce another Element : Now of necessity , there had long since been no longer Air , but whatsoever had been of an Aiery form had been onely fire : Or if Elementary fire ought not to be nourished , although it hath most exceeding devouring qualities , at leastwise , the Schooles ought to have shewen , why fire is lesse nourished , or doth turn the guest its neighbour into it self , than they suppose the other Elements to do that . And likewise why Kitchin fire , seeing it is true fire , hath this adjoyned necessity of nourishment for its support , or decay , and why the primary Element of fire it self is deprived of the same : For they have not considered that true fire stands in the will of the Artificer , and is forged , slackened , and heightened for his uses : For he stirreth up fire at his pleasure , out of things which it is virtually in ; neither also promiscuously out of all things : Otherwise , man shall be a creator of the fire , who is onely the stirrer up thereof . Furthermore , I call accidents all the properties , powers , and qualities of things : But the Beings which have those qualities in themselves , besides their essence , are not accidents ; but the originall or entertainment of these : So the heat of the fire , is 〈…〉 property , and accident : neither is fire more heat , than fire is dryness , as neither is drynes●●eat : And seeing there is a distinct duplicity of these , those two cannot be together in the fire , that they may be the immediate essence hereof . But fire so differeth from both , that it may rightly be denied , that the fire is either heat , or is dryness : Therefore the fire hath also its many properties , and first qualities ; To wit , heat , and dryness : And likewise other properties , as there is in it a force of seperating , destroying , burning up , making glass of that which is not glass , of promoting , ripening , &c. Thirdly , there is light in the fire , as it were a property more intimate , and formall to it . But the first and second of the aforesaid qualities in the sire are meer accidents , distinguished in themselves apart from the fire : to wit , whose subject of inhering the fire it self is ; but light doth little differ in essence from fire , although in a formall piercing , and congress , the light may receive a degree requisite to the Being of fire . Therefore I will shew , that the fire is not a substance , or matter : yet it is the subject of inhering of those accidents , or of its aforesaid properties : therefore the fire is a certain true , and subsisting Being , the which notwithstanding , as it is not a substance , so neither is it an accident , but a creature of a neither sort , appointed by the Lord for the uses of men , and given under the leave or pleasure of the same . Indeed I admire that the Schooles have not hitherto acknowledged , have not looked into , have not sifted out a thing so plainly to be seen ; but that they have believed it to be an Element , and by the onely beholding of the fire , have feigned it to be a fourth Element , and have supported its subsistence with so many absurdities : Neither likewise have they once heeded , that if the greatest heat should be fire , that heat should have the other accidents of fire infolded in it ; and therefore the heat of the fire should cease to be a simple thing . Therefore the ignorance of the fire , and that which St. Thomas , and Scotus have subscribed to the invented mockeries of Pagans , hath afforded the cause of the errours set down in the beginning of the Chapter . Therefore my proposition is ; That all substantial forms ( the soul of man excepted ) likewise the fire , light , place , the Magnall or sheath of the Air , life , &c , are neutrall creatures between a substance and an accident : For concerning the Magnall , I have partly treated in the Chapter of a Vacuum : but I thus prove my proposition ; because they are actually something , and a Being ; they likewise act , and have Instruments , and properties ; yet they are not substances , as neither accidents : Therefore [ neither ] creatures . Which things , for the stating or confirmation of so great a Paradox , are desired more liberally to be explained . Wherefore the Glasse which sends thorow it all the conceived beames of the light of the Sun , and gathers them together in the Air into the point of a Cone or Crest , teacheth , that this light being united , is true , and actual fire , yet not any thing diverse from the light it self , except onely in its collection . But light is not a substance , according to the Schooles : therefore neither that fire . But moreover , that fire in the Air is not diverse from that which is in the flame : For , for that it hath a combustible matter in the flame , but not in the air , that is to the fire by accident ; even as it is to be nourished , and not to be nourished . The major proposition , that it is true fire , is proved ; because it acteth all things after the manner of fire , by heating , drying , kindling , burning , melting , &c. and it hath the same meanes , and properties which true fire hath ; but no accident doth act by other meanes , or other properties , out of it self : but light being knit together , is an agent by properties , and other meanes out of it self : because it is the property of light , onely to inlighten : therefore light is not an accident . Neither doth that shew it so to be , although the light being collected in the crest , liveth without nourishment : because it is sufficient , that the light of the Sun , or flame doth sustain that light in the crest , without any other corporall food : And so that it liveth , and subsisteth in the crest by the same priviledge of the Sun , or flame . Truly to be nourished , or nor , is an accidentary thing , and an effect as to the essence ; and so the question of nourishment is impertinent in the question , whether the thing be . Therefore , there is true fire with all its own properties , in the point of the Crest , but a little above , or beneath the Crest , there is likewise light , not any longer burning fire . But since the same thing cannot be in one place a substance , but in another an accident ; and now there is fire sound , which is nothing else but meer light knit together : Therefore , there is now a creature found , which is not a substance , nor an accident : Seeing there cannot be of one and the same thing , essences diverse in the whole predicament , and that thing in speaking absolutely , and without any respect , is thus true . Therefore , there is meer actual fire found , which is nothing else but meet actual light connexed or knit together . Therefore all fire wholly , is essentially nothing but light . Neither is there room for supposing that light in its connexion is made a compound Body diverse from it self , being not connexed : for we should be thrust thither onely for the difference of fire wanting nourishment , and refusing it . Wherefore in looking more fully into the matter , truly Kitchin fire is by no meanes nourished : For nourishing doth convert the thing which is to be eaten up , into it self , and for it self , that it may convert that which it taketh to it , for its own subsistence , or increase : But that thing happeneth not to the fire , which acts onely for the necessary ends of its own appointment : which are to seperate seperable Heterogeneals , or things of a different kinde that are to be seperated , to change by the flame , and the which otherwise , if they cannot be inflamed , it onely seperates . But the Fire hath need of Air , that it be not stifled : First of all , surely that doth not come to passe that it may be nourished by the Air , or be sustained by the same , or in any wise convert the Air into it self , but onely that it may thrust forth its smoaks into the Air , which the combustible matter hath provided , by inflaming : But Fire is no where found , which ever appropriated any thing of a combustible body to it self , which was nourished , or increased thereby , which thing notwithstanding , the Schooles have even hitherto without any controversie supposed : To wit , that the fire is necessarily fed , not onely with Woods and Coals , but also with Air ; and so that it is alwayes of necessity , to be nourished with a double food : Because it shall beneath appear that the beams in a connexed Crest , do as yet keep their own property , and essence , not throughly mixed . In the next place , if connexion should change the essence of Light , truly it going from the Crest , should not be like to it self while it tended to the Crest . And therefore , here is to be noted , that light is immediately in a place , but not in the Air , or a Mean. Lastly , the Beams do not onely proceed in a straight line , from the light to the object ; but also they are sidewayes , and crookedly collected , and go together , and do passe from subject into subject , whether thou shalt suppose a place , or the Air. Therefore by their fruits and works ye shall know them : that is , the works of the fire do prove the fire to be true : But those are , heat , drying up , raising up of vapours or exhalations , burning up , melting , kindling or enflaming , or producing of another fire from it self , a generating of its like , together with enlightning . The flame indeed is the kindled , and enlightned smoak of a fat exhalation : be it so ; but as the flame is such , and true fire , it is not another matter , being kindled , and not yet kindled , neither doth it differ from it self ; but that light being united in its Center , hath come upon a fat exhalation ; which is the same as to be enflamed . Let two Candles be placed which have first burned a while , one indeed being lower than the other by a span ; but let the upper be of a little crooked Scituation : then let the flame of the lower Candle be blown out ; whose smoak , as soon as it shall touch the flame of the upper Candle , behold the ascending smoak is inlightned , is burnt up into a smoakie or sooty Gas , and the flame descendeth by the smoak , even into the smoaking Candle . Surely there is there , a producing of a new Being , to wit , of fire , of a flame , or of a connexed light ; Yet there is not a procreation of some new matter or substance . For the fire is a positive artificial death , but not a privative one , being more than an accident , and lesse than a substance . Which thing since the Schooles are as yet ignorant of , we must more largely declare , as well because it is a Paradox , and hath respect unto the knowledge of forms , as that because from the ignorance thereof , most grievous errours have crept into Medicinall affaires . Wherefore , that I may perfectly teach the divers inclining nature of the fire , I will suppose some positions . 1. That the fire in an inflamed Body , is so united to the inflamable matter , that it is like an essential form to it ; when as notwithstanding , it is the destroyer of the same . 2. That the inflamed matter is converted into a smoakie Gas , which is not yet water , because although the fire hath consumed the seminall forces of the thing ; yet some first fermentall marks of the concrete Body do remain ; which at length being consumed and slain , that Gas returns into the Element of water . 3. That every essential form is as for the essence of the thing in which it by it self is : And that the fire doth destroy even the fat smoak , or Coal , the which it inflameth , and converts into a wild Gas ( of which in its place . ) 4. That every essential form is so united to its own matter , that it being once seperated from thence , by extinguishing , or withdrawing , it returns no more to the same habit , or formall act . 5. That every form coming upon a matter , is impatient of another totall form : But a Metall , or any other fixed Body , being fired , the presence of the bright burning fire being withdrawn , returns alwayes into its former state . 6. That every form of a substance hath a specificall matter wherein it is : but the fire hath Wood , Wax , Pitch , and as many subjects as there are particular fireable kindes . 7. That every substantial form doth at length rise up in the matter disposed by a foregoing seed : but the fire wants a seed , yea if there are any , it consumeth or wasteth them away . 8. That the forms of substances , have not degrees , but the fire doth admit of a degree by the bellowes . From which particulars I conclude , that fire is not a substance , not the essential form of substances ; but a positive death of things , and their destroyer , a singular creature second to no other : from whence I proceed thus to demonstrate it . There is no doubt , but that a Coal is far more porie than Iron , and that it hath lesse of soundness ; but yet , Iron being fired doth more burn than a Coal : Therefore of necessity , Iron contains more of the fire , in matter , and form ; but the consequence is false ; Therefore fire is not a substantial composed Body , consisting of the matter , and form of fire : because otherwise , if there were any substance proper to the fire , it should not pierce the dimensions of the body of the Iron . The Schooles answer to this against themselves , to wit , that the matter is more compact in Iron , than it is in a Coal ; and therefore it burns the more powerfully , as the Iron is capable of the more fire : For that thing I assumed , to wit , that I might draw this Argument from thence : If fire were a substance , consisting of a fiery matter and form , after the manner of any other substance ; the Iron should of necessity be capable of lesse fire than the Coal , for that it is weightier than a Coal , and hath lesse , and fewer pores wherein the fire may be entertained : But if therefore the Iron be capable of lesse matter , it ought to burn lesse : But the consequence is false , therefore also the antecedent : Because two matters , or Bodies , as neither the essential , totall , or ultimate forms of these , cannot suffer each other at once in the same place and subject . Wherefore Iron , and fire ( it this were a substance ) could not lodge together in the same subject . But if the Schooles endeavour to evade , and say , that Iron indeed , becomes on a fire , yet that it is never changed into fire : I answer , whatsoever obtains every property of fire , is fire : or fire hath not proper , but common passions with another Being of another particular kinde : But the properties of fire , are to kindle , burn , seperate Heterogeneal things , to melt Lead , Copper , Wax , to burn in a combustible matter , and to consume : But all these things , Iron fired doth more powerfully perform than a Coal ; therefore in fired Iron there is fire , and so much the more of fire , by how much it doth more burn than a Coal . Again , if Iron fired , hath not in it true fire , but the properties of fire without fire ; those therefore shall be brought in , and left in the Iron by the fire : From whence it followes , that the formal properties of the fire have left the proper form of fire in which they were ( suppose in the Coals , or flame ) and have wandred into the substance of the Iron diverse from them : For truly , they will not have it called fire , but as the inflamable body is kindled . Add to these things , that if fire be a material substance , the substance of glasse ( which the detaining of the most subtile Chymical Spirits teacheth to have no pores ) and the substance of fire , should pierce each other at the pleasure of the Artificer ; which things the Schooles themselves do utterly deny . But besides the aforesaid absurdities , another doth accompany ; to wit , that heat in the fire doth onely make hot , but its dryness dryeth up , and nothing else : So also , the kindling , enlightning power doth kindle and enlighten , the seperating power seperates , the destructive doth destroy , &c. All which properties should not onely be generated by the form of the fire , in the strange matter of Iron ; but should also there subsist without the proper subject of their inherence . Wherefore the fire that is infired , is true fire not a substance , as neither an accident ; but a neutral Creature , having in it self divers properties , after the manner of substantial Beings . If the Schooles , I say , had known this thing , they had known that light doth generate light and fire , not indeed as differing in the particular kinde ; but onely in uniting , dispersing , and so to be different onely in degree : Neither therefore that an accident doth produce a substance in any respect : Indeed they think that a fat smoak is the matter of fire , but the flame to be the form of fire , and by that thought , they feign it to be a composed Body after the manner of other things : But as many absurdities as I have before repeated do hinder it : therefore the Iron remaining Iron , doth receive into it self true fire , together with its form . So the Air remaining Air , receives fire in the Crest of the uniting Beams , with its forms , and all its properties : But Iron retaining the antient form of Iron , cannot at once be informed by the form of the fire , if the form of the fire were any way substantial ; that is , unless the form of fire can leave its matter , that it may be onely the assisting form of the Iron , but not the informing : For neither can Air , remaining Air , be at once also another Body , as one Body cannot be two , really distinct . But I pray you , if Iron be not throughout its whole Body fireable , but a Coal altogether fireable ; what should move the fire , that having left its own matter , it should wander into the Body of Iron which is uncapable of fire ? Therefore surely , the Iron is fired , and it is capable of fire throughout its whole Body , and so , as it hath thicker parts than a Coal , so it self is capable of more fire : therefore it is manifest that fire is not a matter . Lastly , it is not the property of Elements presently to devour and consume other things ( as I have elsewhere largely taught : ) But fire plotteth the destruction of the thing wherein it is : therefore it is not an Element , not a matter , or a substance ; but a destructive Creature , and a death serving for crafts , and given for the great uses of mortall men . None ever reckoned light among substances ; therefore neither light connexed : For truly to be knit together , or not , is an accidentary thing ; which substantial thing is not generated ( as they think ) by an accidentary Being . But moreover , the fire consisting in a slack degree of Light , is for the most part the Companion of life . But Light being united , burns up things that have life . It is the Vulcan or Smith of Arts , dedicated to humane necessities : For it hasteneth ripenesses , it promoteth the seeds to their ends ; it also hasteneth the seperations of things , the closure or end whereof , shortness of life could not else expect without grievous discommodity . For in this respect , it openeth , it teacheth to dissolve secrets , or things hidden , to hasten the operations of nature , otherwise oft-times , slow , drowsie , and buried . Next , it seperateth and expelleth superfluities , it by the vertue of an adjoyned Ferment , removeth the middle life of things , whence are , chearfulnesses , and increases of strength : It also seperateth the pure from the impure , the pretious from the vile , the hurtfull from the profitable , and the crude or raw , from the mature or ripe , yea , it ripeneth crudities themselves . And then , the fire prepareth the Instruments of Arts , which our life stands in need of . Therefore let the Father of Lights , the Creator of the Light be highly exalted throughout Ages , who hath placed a Tabernacle in the Sun , that he might comfort or supply all necessities by the Light of his Sun. Now I will conclude from what hath been said before . 1. That fire , and hot light , do not differ but by accident ; to wit , in connexion and degree . 2. That the beames of Light do pierce each other . 3. That in piercing , they notwithstanding do keep their essence and properties , not thorowly mixt . 4. That Light is primarily in place ; therefore also fire . 5. That Light and Fire do pierce their Mean. 6. That a thick , dark Body , seeing it cannot be pierced by the Light , is first affected by Light in its Superficies , and then this heats the succeeding parts even to its opposite Superficies . 7. That heat is heightned in an object by degrees , and that in every degree it hath singular operations . 8. That whatsoever the fire affecteth , it is by reason of the place which the thing placed doth occupie ; and so , by accident ; seeing the chief intention of the fire is to heat by enlightning . 9. That the fire being at length the Conquerour , overcomes the difficulties cast in between it , by the thick dark Body . 10. That fire , seeing that it acts immediately , and primarily acts into a place , it burns all things indifferently , without respect to Bodies cast in between , as it were removing the impediments . 11. That a thick , dark Body being fixed , and resisting kindling , is at length enlightned by the fire . 12. That the fire or connexed Light finding a combustible matter , doth remain con-centrated or centred together in its degree of connexing , neither are the beames of Light seperated ; because it continually increaseth new fire which proceedeth in consuming ; but the old fire continually perisheth so long as the ascending doth continue . At the end whereof , the whole light perisheth , since it hath not light from whence it may be enlightned . Whatsoever therefore , hath been hitherto spoken of united Light , I understand it onely of the Light of the Sun : For truly the Light of the Moon being sent thorow a Glasse , is so far from having fire in the Crest , that it is also felt to be colder than the rest which environeth or goes about in the Crest : Therefore , I call for touching to be the judge . And that which is more wonderful than that , that the Splendor of the Sun which is hot , being reflexed in the Glasse of the Moon , doth actually wax cold : For the Almighty hath created two great Lights : And although most of the Stars are bigger than the Moon , yet they are not reckoned great , because all their activities are comprehended under the two Lights : therefore he created those , First , That they might seperate the day from the night . Secondly , That they may shine upon the Earth . Thirdly , That they might rule the day and night . Fourthly , That the greater might rule the day , and the lesser the night . Yet we learn from the Speculations of the Planets , that the Moon shines as many houres upon the Horizon by day , as she doth by night : Yet the Almighty hath appointed the Moon , to shine , and onely to govern the night : And seeing the Creator cannot erre , it must needes be , that the whole Light , and governance of every night doth depend on the Moon as much as the day depends on the Sun. Therefore , the Moon was created to shine as well in the Heaven , as upon the Earth , the full of all nights . Therefore the Moon is not like a receiving Glasse , reflecting on the light of the Sun , and void of her own proper light : For although our eye findes no proper Light in the Moor , be it little : For we must give more credit to the Scripture , than to our eyes , according to that saying ; The Sun shall be darkened , and the Moon shall not give her own Light. From another place this truth shall by and by appear . First of all , it is manifest by the aforesaid Handicraft-operation of the Glasse , that the Light of the Sun being united , is made meer Fire , with every thing requisite thereunto . And then , that the same Light of the Sun falling upon the Icy Glasse of the Moon , doth loose the property of his own heat , and is made a cold light : Which comes not to passe ; if it shall fall upon Ice , Glasse , Water , a white Wall , &c. Therefore the Moon hath powers or faculties , whereby she altereth the Sun-beames : And that cold Blas , ought to be of the nature of her own light , if between the Agent and Patient a co-resemblance ought to interpose : For truly , another cold object re-percussing or smiting back the Sun-beames , cannot therefore change these into cold beames . Truly neither heat , cold , rough , brickle , sweet , or bitter , do act on the Light ; but onely visible , and dark objects : therefore the Moon hath a lightsome force or power of her self , which as it is such , doth act upon the hot light , and changeth it into a contrary property . What if the Astrologer doth foretell the future Colours of Eclipses , do not those Colours promise some certain light proper to the Moon ? For truly , they are not conjectured of from a Mean or vapours : because colour cannot be foretold from the quantity of vapours , in the calculation of a future Eclipse . Therefore let the Colours of the Moon failing of light , be the tokens of a light proper unto her . And in this the beames of both Lights do differ , That the Sun strikes his light by beames in a right line ; but the Moon doth never respect the Center of the World , or the Earth in a right line ; but her center is alwayes excentrical : For she respects the Center of the World onely by accident ; that is , when she is con-centricall with the World : And therefore as oft as she is con-centricall in full Moon , and new Moon , there is an Eclipse . Therefore the Dragons Head and Tail , are night-points , wherein onely the Sun is directly opposed to the Moon in an excentrical Diameter . Therefore the Moon-beames , do not strike the Earth in a right line ; but they are dispersed into an excentricall space , and so she , by way of influence , or by the action of government ( of which in its place ) displayes her forces on the night , or on Nadir the point underneath the Horizon right opposite to our feet , whether she accompany the Sun , or indeed be estranged from this Sun by a full Diameter : For such is the appointment of the Moon , which the exundations or Spring-Tides of the Sea do confirm , which are wont to be no lesse under the Moon laying hidden , than at the full of the same . Therefore one end of the Lights is to rule the day and night : next , another end is to seperate the light from the darkness ; and another end to seperate the day from the night . Neither is that repetition to be imputed to a Solecisme or incongruity : For truly , the Sun shining , or the Moon restoring her Light received from the Sun , the Light indeed is sufficiently seperated from the darkness ; but the Light of the Sun never rules the night , as neither doth he shine in the night : therefore , that the Moon likewise may satisfie her appointment , she can never rule the night by a borrowed Light of the Sun. Which thing sufficiently appeareth , at leastwise , while she runs with the Sun by day , according as by night . Therefore if then also , the Moon ought to satisfie the divine intention , she must needes have also by all meanes , another light , whereby she may shine all nights , and may rule the night , and a far other manner of powring forth her light , than that wherein she reflecteth the Light of the Sun. Indeed the Moon sends forth her proper displayed Light , beyond , no lesse than beneath the Hemisphere of the Air , Water and Earth : which way , the supposition of the Center of the Universe maketh or tendeth , according to the Opinion of Tycho : Yet so , that the action of government of light , and influence operates more powerfully in the night , from whence the Sun is absent : the which , that he may seperate the day from the night , ought to seperate the properties of the Moon from his own , although the Moon be conjoyned with him . Diseases belonging to the Moon do prove that thing , which are exasperated a little before night , also at the new of the Moon : And so she worketh thorow the bones , and Marrowes of those who are shut up in their Bed-chamber : which thing , is not so proper or natural to the Sun. Therefore the Moon doth sometimes make a stronger influence on that part of the Sphere that is opposite unto her , than on the part where she is placed . This light being unknown to the Antients , hath been called an influence : But I had rather reserve the sense of the Scripture ; because it is said , The Moon was created to give light by night ( that is , all nights indifferently ) even so as the Sun gives light by day . Therefore that which they have called an influence , is the property of the Moones light , and that is not to have named a thing from the effect , but from the causes . The Bat , Dormouse , Mouse , Owl , and whatsoever Creatures do distinguish their objects afar off in the night , under the thickest darkness , and do note the swiftest motions of objects , which our eyes can scarce observe at noon-day ; some of whom , although they may bear before them a Grayish , or Skie-coloured brightness ; yet they never enlighten the mean by that brightness , that they may see perfectly through it at a far distance : Therefore there must needes be some continual light in the thickest night , and shut up Den , for which lights sake such living Creatures do perfectly see : But if it be unperceived by us , and yet doth in truth exist , it is no wonder if the light proper to the Moon hath deceived our eyes . But that it may be plainly made known , that night-wandring Animalls do send no light out of their eyes , which may be for the enlightning of a medium or mean , to know distinctly an object placed afar off ; and so that those Creatures do see onely for the light of the Moones sake . Let a Looking-glasse be placed between the Eye of a living Creature , and its object , and that under the thickest darkness ; and surely thou shalt not finde the least reflexion of light in the Glasse : yet if thou shalt put a small Candle at the utmost end of a large Hall , but if in the other furthest end of the Hall there be a hole , thorow which that feeble light may passe into another dark Hall or room , in whose end let a Looking-glasse be ; truly that weak light being shaken by the direct beame of the flame of the Candle , is received , and will appear in the Glasse ; yet it is not sufficient for a man to discern any object . Therefore much lesse shall the brightness or shining of the Eyes , a beam whereof doth not fall , and appear in a nigh Glasse , be fit to enlighten the mean , that they may perfectly discern all things . For there is under the Earth a light even at midnight , whereby many eyes do see ; being witnessed in the holy Scriptures , and bewrayed by those kinde of bruit Creatures , which owes not its rise but to the Moon : For therefore there was darkness that might be felt : which should far exceed ours , although thick , because it was deprived of all help of the Moon : Nor is it a wonder that darkness hath its degrees , seeing the infernall pit hath its utter , or uttermost darkness ( because an Hebraisme wants the superlative degree ) without the favour of the Moon . For happily , abstracted spirits have something which for seeing , may answer to our eyes , that it may not see wholly throughout the whole , of what belongs to it self ; and some of these Spirits are Seers by night , but others being mute or silent like to Bats , may as it were wax dim or dark under the Sun or in the day time ; and therefore they do the more willingly appear to their own in the dark , and mid night : therefore I will subscribe a History of this . I had in my time of being at the University , a Chamber-fellow born of honest Citizens . This man , his eyes being shut , did for the most part rise , and wander in the night ; but he carried away the Key with him , and returning , opened the Lock that he had shut after him . In the Evening therefore , I arise , and secretly hide the Key under the Bolster ; but he arising in his sleep , takes the hidden Key , as if he had seen it , and goes his way . I taking my Coat , followes him : But he climbed an antient Wall , the bound of the Colledge , beset with Mosse , and Hay : For there was an Arch , whereby , on the other side of the River , the Wall did support the Wall of a Neighbouring Garden . It was full Moon , and a frosty night . I was amazed at the sight , and by reason of the cold returned . But my Chamber-fellow by and by returning , he so quickly or cleverly , hid the Key in a hole of the Cloyster , that any one seeing , could scarce do that thing so undelayingly at noon day : But in the morning , he was unmindefull of all that he had done . For those walkers , their eyes being shut , do see clearly under the thick darkness , they climbe securely , without giddiness of the head , because they do enjoy a Moon light . A small wound becomes oft-times hard to be cured , because it is inflicted on a member by the Moon , appearing or advancing . Under the Equinoctial line all things do soon putrifie : not indeed by reason of excess of heat ( which is now and then greater , and more constant elsewhere ; for truly , under the line it sometimes raineth for dayes together ) but surely , by reason of the continual nearness of the Moon , and the long and round figure of the Globe , as I shall prove in its place . If a dead man , or a bruit Beast , shall passe ( one night at least ) all the night under the Moon ( for there she smites the near places with a full beam ) on the morrow morning the dead Carkase flowes abroad or abounds with corruption . By occasion whereof , it is related among experiments , that if any one ( the light of the Moon being collected into a Cone or Crest ) doth cast her beames through a Glasse , upon Warts , Apostemes that have a humour like hony , small tumours called Nats , and the like excrescences , untill they shall feel the cold within , they do easily vanish afterwards of their own accord . Nor is it a wonder ; for such defects do heatken to the Moon increasing : Hence also in her decrease they shall the more easily perish . Indeed I know , if the Moon shall shine upon a wound , that its lips do straightway wax black and blew , or envious , and resist healing . In the next place , if a Frog be at the full of the Moon , in a most sharp North winde of winter , digged up , washed clean , and tied to a staffe in a field , the morrow morning a certain white , and transparent muscilage is found , resembling Gum Dragon dissolved , and the shape of a Frog . For that is not the Workmanship of cold ( which by it self onely cooles , and occasionally freezeth ) else the full of the Moon should not be required : wherefore I impute it to be a passage into its first matter . Moreover , that first matter of a Frog doth very much prevail in the healing of a Cancer , life . and is called by Paracelsus , under a riddle , Gluten de aquatico or the glew of the watery thing or Creature ; Therefore the Sun doth call forth the flowing of seeds , unto the bound of the last life . But the Moon on the contrary , drawes to the first matter of a thing . For seeing the Moon doth draw waters , and fat or nourishable things into the juyce Leffas , therefore a profitable observation of planting , and dunging is referred to the Moon . Also that Plants do profit no lesse by night than by day , the family of Mustromes and Pompions doth shew . Neither is the gathering of Plants before Sun-rising , superstitious : not indeed because nature like unto Serpents or creeping things , ceaseth from its works by night ; but because they being the more plentifully nourished by the night , have obtained a full nourishment . Therefore the Moon is chief over the night , darkness , rest , death , and the waters ; As all things do return to death , rest and water : And for that cause doth the Moon bring in a passage to transmutation . Indeed she doth primarily behold , and move or affect rather the seminall powers than the matter of the same : yea truly , because the light of the Moon drawes back seminall things especially , to their first life , or matter : therefore some Adeptists do begin the labour of wisdom with the light of the Moon , according to that saying ; Night unto night sheweth knowledge to those that seek it . Therefore two great Lights are sufficient for all motions , and progresses of seeds , from the first into the last life , and from this into that : For because they do abundantly suffice to the fruitful use of nature ; hence they do enroule the other Stars among their Bands : And therefore the Scripture hath made mention onely of the two greater Lights . Thus far of Fire , and Light. I being now about to speak of the birth of Forms , will rehearse that the Masse of seeds do receive into them a corporall Air , the Vulcan , which I name the Archeus or Master-Workman . Some seeds of Woods , or Kernels , or Oil , do contain him in them , as Almonds , Pine-kernels , Pistack-nuts , and the seeds of many Pot-herbs : or they are mealy seeds , as Acorns , Chesnuts , and Corny or grainy seeds : or they do powre forth a milky fruitful muscilage or slimy juyce : For the Archeus inhabits them , being drowsie , and sleeping in the curd of the seeds , being content with his condition as long as he is negligent of propagation : But when his seed is once committed to the Earth , he cannot but drink in his liquor , and become swollen , and then contract a Scituation , and presently snatch to him a Ferment putrified by continuance : Which Odour , and Savour , although it be putrified by continuance , yet in every seed it is specificall , and therefore altereth by its obtained Ferment , the proper savour of the seed , and consequently , is disposed thereby into a transmutation of it self : For through the putrefaction by continuance , that native or seedy moysture as soon as may be thinks of its resolving , whence is a certain vapour , and afterwards an exhalation : A Gas ( which indeed doth easily ascend out of putrifying things ) is stirred up , and there ariseth out of them a heat at the time of that putrifying , of what sort soever it be , such as plainly comes to passe in Woods rotting by laying under the ground ; and the which , do straightway thrust forth a spongy smoak : because that smoakiness , the signifier of the heat , and dissolved Body , doth threaten a seperation of things of a different kinde , and so that vitall Air , although but even now more deeply shut up , threatens a breaking forth out of its seminall Liquors , yet its reins being loosed , it wanders first within : So new , and moyst Hay hath made the un-looked for firings of houses : truly not tokens of a slack heat , but of heat rising to a degree . Therefore the Air having once gotten a moderate heat , it by degrees meditates of the perfection of an Archeus , doth aspire it , and provoketh the lump of the Body placed under its charge , to the archieveable dispositions of Forms . But what hath been already said concerning Vegetables , that doth more plainly appear in the Eggs of Fishes , flying Birds , and creeping things , and most manifestly of all , it shines forth in the seeds of four-footed Beasts . At length therefore , the thin , shining , and twinckling or bright light doth kindle the aforesaid Air of the Archeus , so as thereby he may be made vitall . Furthermore , as Mineralls are not diminished , nor made great by the substituting of off-springs , and their manifold propagation : yet because they do contain in them their Beginnings from whence they have increased , and are : therefore , although they are not blessed with a fruitfulness of Issue , yet they have in their own Monarchy the constitutive , radicall , and seminall beginnings of themselves within . I have already said , that this Air is awakened in the seeds of things by a fit matter ; and then , that by the young birth of an inward heat , by reason of a received putrifying through continuance , it doth conceive a heat , and at length a brightness , as in Fishes ; or a shining , as in things actually hot : not indeed that that splendor is the soul or form of a Plant , bruit Beast , &c. ( For otherwise there should be of every Plant the same Form in the Species , or particular kinde ) notwithstanding , there is in the splendor it self , another specifical thingliness conceiving with young by a specificall Odour , nor far different from the Splendor which limits the light it self unto [ this something , ] or particular essential thing : So indeed , that although that splendor be stirred up by the force of nature alone ( as putrified Woods , things salted , and the Sea it self do teach ) yet it is never made vitall but by the Creator , the specifical form of a certain light being added to it , the effectress of a thingliness or essence : To wit , which alone draweth the Odour , Splendor , and all the properties of the enlightned Air at once into the unity of it self . Indeed this is the life , or form of a thing , for want of whose supply , the young degenerateth into a hard piece of flesh in the womb , a monster , or corruption . And although the vitall Air , and its Splendor be present , and do increase ; yet because the formall and vitall light faileth , which draweth the subaltern or coursary succeeding properties , and diversities under unity , the young is corrupted , and straightway putrifieth . Wherefore the Father of Lights alone doth immediately frame or create the Lights of Forms , and the Forms of Lights : who giveth life and all things to all , nor is not far off from every one of us . Moreover , the progress of generation in hot seeds , is of a more easie conception : For the seeds do presently putrifie by reason of heat , afterwards the Archeus of those doth easily borrow a Splendor , as the betroathed Air of a greater light : For being not yet contented with the obtained vegetative faculty of his own kinde , he breatheth further , and proceeds to the light co-promised to his seed , and stayeth , and is quiet in the sensitive soul , as not being able to climbe beyond it . But even as in the Systeme or constitution of things , there are onely four degrees ; So also there is a fourfold Form of them : one of them indeed is of those which do promise scarce any manifestation of life , as the Heaven , the Stone , Metall , Fire-stone , Salt , Sulphur , Liquors , Earths ; likewise barren Vegetables , dry bones , &c. whose form is a certain material light , a form containing , and giving a Being to the thing , and therefore it is also deservedly called essential . But the other rank of things , seemeth to contain a vitall beginning , and character of a Soul by the vigour of nourishment and increasing : As are Plants , whose form varying from the fore-going form , are graced with the Title of life : therefore is it to be called the vitall Form : Not indeed that such a Form is a living Soul ; but vitall onely , as it beares the entrances or flourishes of a sensitive and living Soul. At length , the third Order of things , obtains a living Form , not by Similitude , but truly motive and sensitive : And therefore it is likewise called a substantial Form ; not indeed by an absolute name , a substance : but substantial onely , as if it should carry it self after the manner of a certain abstracted spiritual substance . And lastly , the fourth is truly , and one onely substance among them all : So it ought to be callod a formall substance , never to perish through the infiniteness of its continuance . But I have demonstrated , the light and fire to be a neutral Creature between a substance and an accident . The same thing in this place , comes to be understood concerning every natural Form , to wit , the essential , and substantial , as they are of the race of Light. But that the Angel , and minde of man are formall substances , and truly spiritual ; their abstracted manner of existing doth prove : which is denied to other forms , who do subsist , and perish after the manner of every light . Whence I collect it into a new position for the Schooles . That no substance is to be annihilated by the force of nature , or art . It hath alwayes seemed an absurd thing to me , that a matter imperfect in it self , barren , and impure , should after its Creation , be thenceforth eternall , and that forms that are to be annihilated by death should be true substances : that substances , I say , should be so much more lively than matter , and yet momentary . Wherefore it now appeareth , that the consideration of the fire by the discourse of nature , doth unlock the gate of nature , and enlighten all Philosophy , and hath excluded all despisers of the Art of the fire . I considered in times past with trouble : If the form of a thing be most chiefly , and principally a substance , and so an act whereby the matter is [ this something ] or particular subfisting thing : truly the form ought most principally to subsist , and endure , or that maxime is false ; That by which every thing is such , that thing it self is more such . But the consequence , together with the maxim is false : For all the souls of Beasts , and all their forms are frail or mortall ; for therefore I reckoned with my self , the antecedent also to be false . Indeed all created things were made of nothing , and so they keep the disposition of that principle , and therefore the Forms and Being of things , do in the first place return of their own accord into their former nothing . Notwithstanding , God created not man immediately of nothing , but of the mud or dust of the Earth ; and therefore his Creation was far otherwise , than that of other things : For the Almighty took dust from the Earth , not indeed that which was equall in weight to a man , like an Image-maker ( for of one onely Rib , he formed the whole Body of the Woman ) that he might manifest the Mystery of this irregular Creation not to be after the manner of other things ; but substantial as to the Form : I say , the whole Mystery directed to its ends , or to the Soul , manifesting that the Soul of man was not onely an out-law , and one onely substance among other Forms ; but also , that from the unequalness of mud , or the Rib , to a whole Person , we might see that our Soul is a formall substance , not of quantity , but meerly spiritual : And that which being at sometime abstracted by way of a truly sub-standing or remaining Being , should afterwards ( by the gift of Creation ) endure for ever . Therefore every Form is created by the Father of Lights , into a proper particular kinde , and is a certain Light of its own Body . But Forms are distinguished among themselves , not onely by the degree of Light , but in the whole Species : And therefore there are as many Species of lights in nature , as there are of things . And seeing that also Angels are numbered among things ; it followes , that there are far more Species of lights , than of material things . But we must deservedly call to minde , that there is a brightness or Splendor in the Archeus of Seeds , and so something like to a formall light , which brings the matter to the suitable bounds of its particular kinde : yet that that Splendor doth far differ from a formall light ; for truly that is forthwith , and immediately created by the Father of Lights ; but the Splendor proceedeth out of the lap of nature . And the largeness of the difference and unlikeness , is placed in this , that amongst it or at the most , the Splendor of the seeds , is the effect of the Master-Workman ; but the formall light is a cause and vitall act . Again , the Splendor differs from the Archeus as light doth from matter , and therefore the whole Being of the Splendor is terminated in shining ; but the light of the form is so annexed to the thingliness or essence of it , that they are formally one and the same , being distinguished onely by a relation : And so , although the formall light doth shine ; yet its act is not terminated in shining , but in an essentificall thingliness . And therefore brightness and shining are indeed the beginnings of degrees to a fireable light , and the heats thereof ; whereas the formall light , differs in the whole general kinde from a fireable light , and therefore it knowes no degrees ; but hath distinct , and distinctive Species or shapes in its formality , as well in the specificall essence , as in the individual essence : And therefore nature ought to receive its specifical distinctions from the formall light , it not being otherwise able to distinguish it self from it self , unless by some former thing which may contain an act of distinction : As neither to perfect it self , by it self , unless it doth receive that from some former thing , efficiently perfecting . And seeing that Forms do actively distinguish things themselves , and perfect them , a Power of infinite wisdom , foreknowing from end even to end , is considered in them . I have already taught before , that the light of the Sun falling on the Earth , meeting with the light of the Moon , they do mutually pierce each other : So the light of our Soul may touch , and immediately pierce all the forms of all things , so it hath but once lost the contagions of its Body : But as long as it is the companion of the Body , it pierceth forms subordinate to it self : which thing is signified in the Word ; He hath put under his feet the Birds of the Heaven , the Cattel of the field , and the Fishes of the Sea. For whatsoever the immortall Soul ( I speak not of the sensitive ) doth issuingly think of , it also reacheth to that very thing , even as in the Treatise of the hunting or searching out of Sciences ; and in the Squaldron of Diseases . So likewise the minde pierceth also its sensitive Soul ; and so they do derive the thoughts of the Soul into the Body . On the other hand , the conceipts of the sensitive Soul ( to wit , while a man being asleep , thirsteth , is hungry , &c. ) do ascend into the heart , and oft-times do strike the immortal minde . Hence therefore it followes , that all the properties of things , as well hidden , as manifest , are imprinted on Bodies by reason of a formall co-touching , so that at length they do also defile even the deliberations of the formall substance : As when a mad man doth but even lightly wound the skin with his tooth , presently thereupon , the resembling mark of madness is propagated or increased in the light , whereby the sensitive Soul , and minde do touch each other . But God , although he hath an immediate co-touching of all Forms ; yet he is not likewise touched or reached by any form ; but by the Soul actually mediating or intreating in the Symbole or resembling mark of good ; and that , as being his Image , reflecteth it self upon God. But other forms as they are frail or mortall , so they have no right of acting on the infinite , substantial , and thrice glorious light . Therefore from what hath been said before , it is certain , that what things are innocency in Aristotle , are the blasphemies of the Schooles ; in saying , That if God should act any thing immediately , he ought also to suffer are-acting . And that the immaterial God , doth make use of immaterial instruments , that he may work or do any thing . Moreover , seeing the minde of man doth most nearly shew forth the Image of God , is immortall , and therefore is not capable of suffering ; I could not perswade my self that it is so restrained to the lawes of the Body , that it can suffer by this Body . I know that this is true , that while health remains , the chief powers of the minde are often troubled : Therefore I acknowledge one health in the Being , and another in the Mind : yet I cannot comprehend that an immortall , spirituall substance can suffer by an infamous excrement which in no wise reacheth it : For whatsoever suffers , that is made by a stronger Agent , and subjecteth it self unto it . But a frail Agent , capable of sliding every hour , and every way limited , cannot be stronger than an immortall and spiritual Being , with which it hath no resemblance , nor co-touching . Therefore the immortall minde is not mad , doth not doare , sleepeth not through Opiates or sleepy Medicines , is not estranged through the exorbitancy or irregularity of hypocondrial melancholy , doth not vary through Lunatickness or Frantickness at a certain time of the Moon , neither stumbleth it through Wine , as neither doth it feel madness through the stroak of a mad Dog , or the Tarantula . Therefore madnesses , and the alienations of reason are not proper to the minde : But this being afterwards afflicted by corrupted nature , through the weariness of the body , hath committed its Vicarship to the sensitive Soul , which it pierceth onely with a vitall beam , that it may be , and live , may be entertained , and rowled up in it ; but as to any thing else , it beholds it ill-favouredly , onely crookedly or by the by . But the sensitive Soul in a man , is not the specifical form of any bruit beast , and much lesse an individual one , that it may be a bruit beast , before it is a man. They were doubtful in this thing , as many as before me have thought the forms of bruit beasts to be substances , and to be taken immediately out of the very substance of the matter , not a new light to be brought down from above by the Creator , which may not be a substance ; but a light which may be the band of a specificall oneness : Without which , all the endeavours of nature , dispensations of bodies , excitings , and splendors of the Air , are void , and so whatsoever endeavours of seeds are enticed out of the bosome of nature are vain and barren . For the Archeus cannot give that which he hath not , neither hath he that which is far narrower than his own nature . Therefore the Creator doth enlighten or illustrate the Archeus with a light of specifical essence of thingliness , after an unutterable manner , and also co-knits it into the unity of a composed body : And there is in the sensitive creatures a Soul , or sensitive life : therefore in its moments of maturity , and period of appointment , the bruitall conception is soulified with a specificall formall light : but seeing the seed of man hath not a specificall determination unto brutall dispositions ( unless a Woman with young doth by chance through imagination , alienate the figure of mans seed ) and the Almighty hath knowledge , whence , and whither all seeds do flow ; when now it is come to a life in man , it receiveth an undistinct sensitive Soul , as to its brutality , in splendor , enjoying onely life ; and also at the same instant , together with life , the Creator coupleth an Immortall minde , that by this ultimate act the sensitive Soul may be limited to a species or particular kinde by a humane individual : yet it is to perish together with the life of man , because it is coupled indeed to the formall and immortall Substance ; but is not united , nor pierceth the same , but onely toucheth it irregularly , even as in the Chapter of long life : therefore the sensitive Soul is specifically limited by the minde , as it were light by a clear substance , else it should be unfit for the union of the body : And so its subordination to a further act , in the conception of the Creator , takes away from the sensitive Soul a specifical limitation : because the being of a subordinate Form doth not appoint or limit the name , or Species of a thing , although it actually exist in the individuall . And that also , because the sensitive Soul is not a substance , or an accident , but a neutrall lightsome nature : For neither is the vegetative Soul the form in a bruit beast , whiles he onely groweth , and doth not yet perceive : because it is subordinate to the sensitive Soul. Many therefore have thought , that two formall acts do not suffer together with each other , because they thought they were two substances ; and they contradicted themselves in the fire , while they might see light to ●ierce light , fire Iron , yea and fire to be pierced ( by the bellowes ) with adjoyned fire . Lastly , the sensitive Soul in bruit beasts is not a naked promotion of the vegetative Soul , or a passage to a more perfect state of it self : that , that coming to it , this should decay , or that this should be changed into that : For none hath said , that the souls of Plants are an accident ; but all confess them to be a vitall subsisting Being : For they are vitall Souls , but not proper living souls : For so a Plant waxing dry , its vitall light perisheth with its soul ; yet for the most part , the virtue of that simple remaining long : I have said for the most part , because the root of Anemony or Wind-flower being plainly dried into wrinckles , doth as yet wax green or revive again , &c. Therefore the operations of Souls , and their effects do remain different ; So that the functions of one Soul may be extinguished , those of the other being unhurt : Therefore the severed lights of the Soul , and the subordinate ones , are limited to the bound of an appointed duration , in motion : In which bound , unless they are pierced by a light coming upon them , they straightway cease to be . Therefore this vitall light differeth from a fiery light ( as I have said ) in the end , meanes , Instruments , effects , and properties : Because a fiery light in a slack degree , is not at any time living , not vitall , unless occasionally , as it stirreth up : But in a heightned degree , being reduced by the folding up of it self together , it is a destroyer , and an artificial death , and a simple Creature : whereas otherwise , the lights of Forms are divided throughout all the Species of things : Seeing things do not elsewhere draw their thingliness , than from lightsome Forms . And we may easily measure the diversities of lights , if the same light of the Sun being repercussed or struck back by the Moon , can so easily change its properties . Last of all , the Archeus of Mineralls is plainly materiall , liquid , covering a hidden and drowsie brightness under thickness , which is more growing , and liquid in Plants : but in the four-footed Beast it openly flo●teth and shineth ; so that the living Creature dying , a failing splendor may be presently seen in his eyes . For feign an Oxe of 800 pound weight , which the light of life being extinguished , is straightway cold : Therefore that hot light must needes be of so much moment , that it may preserve so many pounds rushing into cold , by its continual nourishment , from cold . Therefore the light of four-footed Beasts , and Birds is Sunny , no otherwise than that of Fishes doth prove it a Splendor of the Moon : For there is no seldom example of the cold light of Fishes : by night I say , in shrubs or tamarisks , Earths , and combustible things : For there is a light , and that a kindled one , a shining exhalation without fire and heat : For now and then , I under the thickest darkness of the night , clearly distinguish lines under the aforesaid light . Suppose also after the same manner , Vegetables to obtain a twofold light , from the nature of light , but not of an Element , because all things do consist of one onely Element . Seeing therefore the Schooles have been ignorant of the properties of Lights , it is no wonder that they have stumbled in the degrees of Simples . And so , another judgement is hereafter to be given concerning the degrees of Simples , according to their participation of more or lesse light from their governing light . That which the art of the fire declareth , by the separation or withdrawing of the lightsome Being from the other part of the composed Body : which thing is scan●y or difficult enough to many ; but to the Ade●tists very easie : For by the fire of Hell , which is the Liquor Alkahest of Paracelsus , it may be known , how great a part of either light a Vegetable ( even unknown , bruised , and covered in its Scituation ) may possess , no lesse than with what shape or figure it was adorned : And that , not by the perswasion of Quercetanus , who when he had seen a weak Lixivium or Lye to be congealed , thought the seminall Being of a nettle after its turning to ashes , to have ●emained in the Salt of the ashes ; because the Ice beginning , doth contract its drops point-wise . Paracelsus also is deceived , because he writeth that all Vegetables cannot exceed a heat of the first degree . Indeed the great Lights have wonderfully shone in Simples , and their seeds do ascend for the grace of the Universe , to a largeness of degrees , and therefore all Forms have a light of essentificall thingliness , reduced to the conjunction of either light . Yet the lights of the Luminaries are not the constitutive Forms of Simples ; for that , the light of the Sun is combustive or burning up , even in its simplicity . Therefore it is a shamefull thing , that a man and the Sun doth generate a man : Because it is that which is stuffed with the Idiotisme or proper form of speech of Heathenisme . In the next place , the seeds of Birds , and four-footed Beasts are at first muckie or snivelly , because they are perfected by a very small help of the light of the Sun : But they are contracted and thickned by little and little , that they may be sufficient for the consistence of their generated young . In the mean time , the Eggs of Fishes are at first more hard , and straightway the light of the Moon assisting , they wax tender into a snivelliness . Therefore there are two great Lights , and those sufficient , as there are so many primitive Elements . The Sun is chief over the Air , as the Moon over the wombs , or Motherly Waters . Wherefore a living Creature brought forth by the light of the Sun , hath need of a continual sucking of Air ; as also Fishes are constrained uncessantly to draw waters for the sustaining of themselves , and the refreshment of their light . I have known indeed , the light of the Sun to betake it self into a Flint ( to wit , onely by the preparation of the Flint ) that without the presence of the Sun , that attained light may remain for some space under the thickest darkness ; and again , the light is drawn out by a new exposing of the Flint to the Sun in the day-time , although clowded . Therefore this was the necessity of inspiration , not to be despised by us ; to wit , as a restauration of the lights contained by a certain consanguinity in seeds , doth happen ; but not onely a desired temperature of cold alone ; as the Fish witnesseth . It sufficeth therefore , that no form of naturall things is produced by the Heaven , by the Sun , out of the dreamed appetite of the matter , or whatsoever disposition of the seeds ; because that all these things are included in the race of accidents : neither have they known the way to a creating of nothing : For nature is not able of it self , ever to ascend to the procreation of a vitall light : but Christ the Lord of the Universe , is alone the life and parent of all things ; neither will he give this honour to any Creature . Therefore God alone is the Father of Lights . But he is not so called , because he made the Stars : For as he is not called the Father of Stones , or of things not living ; so neither of the S●ars . Yea , neither is he therefore called the Father of Vegetables , although they have a certain vitall light in them . Therefore the Father of all lights , is he alone to whom onely the name of Father belongs : And who is onely to be called Father , and is in the Heavens . For although a fleshly Father doth give of his own , whence the name of Paternity or fatherliness is given unto him : yet because he is not the giver of vitall lights , or the Creator of Forms , ●he name of vital Fatherliness is forbidden to be given to the Creature . Therefore God is the Father of Lights , or of vitall Forms . And there are as many of those diverse lights , as there are of vitall forms : For because Souls are not known by a notion from something before them , or of a precedent thing : therefore , are they by a general Etymologie , called Lights , with a Son-like property , whose correlative is a Father : Yet so , as that paternity is by way of proportion or similitude : For although he truly createth all living Souls , yet Beasts do not assume the Sonship of a proper name ; because , neither the likeness of that their father : For their souls do perish with their life , in manner of the flame of a Candle : Therefore the mind of men onely is an immortall substance , shewing forth the Image of the Father of Lights : and therefore power is given to him of becoming the Son of God. Which things , seeing we believe by faith , I am angry that even still to this day it is taught by Christians , that the forms of things , and souls of bruit Beasts are true and spiritual substances ; by consequence , that they are not vitall lights , nor created by the Father of Universal Lights , but are given and made by the Sun , and likewise raised up out of the power of the seed . As though a spiritual substance could be created by the power of a matter . For I esteem that thing to be retained in the Schooles among the sweepings or drosse of Heathenisme ; but not without wronging the Divine Majesty : To whom all Filial or Son-like love is due . CHAP. XXII . Magnum Oportet , that is , it is a thing of great necessity , or concernment . 1. The unconstancy of Paracelsus . 2. The birth of voluntary things by their generall kinds . 3. The disagreement of Archeusses . 4. Very many accidents do remain in a new generated thing . 5. Species are to be added to , or diminished by Oportet or necessity , contrary to Aristotle . 6. The errour of Paracelsus in Oportet it self . 7. Accidents do change their own proper formall objects . 8. A contrary perswasion hath hitherto overthrown natural Philosophy . 9. How the same accident doth wander with the middle life of a thing . 10. From whence there are so many diversities of natures in a man. 11. That feigned whorish appetite of the matter . 12. A demonstration of the errour . 13. Whence the necessity of things , really , and principiatively , is . 14. The Schooles have not taught true Beginnings . 15. Some things are corrupted in the Air , but other things are preserved . 16. Whence the corruption of things is . 17. Corruption is onely of the matter . 18. What corruption is . 19. Corruption is not from privative things , contrary to Aristotle . 20. Carruption and generation do not reciprocally succeed . 21. The unadvisedness of the Schooles . 22. What Magnum Oportet may be . 23. The Earth , but not the Water shall bring forth Thistles and Briars . 24. What kinde of digestion there was before sin . 25. What is the misery of Thistles . 26. Odours and Savours are fundamentall Ferments . 27. The errour concerning the eight tasts . 28. The three lives , their flowings and ebbings thorow the three Monarchies of things . 29. Why Warts do perish through the touching of an Apple . 30. The foundation or ground of Sympathy . 31. The going backwards of life . 32. A threefold life of Mineralls . 33. Properties are in a place , and in the thing placed . 34. What the double nothing is , in the words ; The Earth was empty , or without form , and void . 35. It is proved by the Handicraft-operation of a Flint , that Light is a Being without a shining light . 36. Perceivings are in the Instruments of the Senses . 37. Which way the Magnall is serviceable . 38. Who are the immediate Citizens of places . 39. The originall , and progress of Metalls . 40. A more manifest progress of life in Metals . 41. Whence Mineralls are of so great efficacy . 42. The dignity of the Archeus before sin . 43. Which are the ambulatory or walking qualities . 44. That which the Schooles cry out to be impossible , is necessary in nature . 45. Whence that errour is . 46. Some absurdities following from thence . 47. A frivolous Maxim. 48. The blindnesses of the Schooles are to be pitied . 49. Why the objects of sight do more work in one that is with young . 50. Adeptists do walk through the objects of sight . 51. Some Speculations in the position of the appearances of Spirits . 52. The distinctions of qualities by modern Writers or Philosophers . 53. The occasions of Diseases . 54. The manner whereby a Hydrophobiaor a Disease causing the fear of water is made . 55. The same concerning other poysons . 56. The successive alterations of poysons . 57. The manner whereby poysons do work . 58. Considerations about the activity of poysons . 59. The blowing out or extinguishing of life , in what manner it happeneth . SUrely I have thus at unawares fallen from the Elements into the birth of Forms , and there I have distinguished of a fourfold Form , diverse in kinde from each other . 1. To wit , an Essentiall Form. 2. A Vitall Form. 3. Next a substantiall Form. 4. And at length , the excellency of a formall Substance , I have added for the end or top of nature . For when I had explained my Doctrine concerning the Elements , I fell by degrees into the History of vitall things , and consequently also I perceived my self devolved into the necessities of Diseases and death ; indeed , that I might apply the beginnings of naturall Philosophy to the end of humane appointment : Therefore have I come to Magnum Oportet : To wit , I have come down to the flowings and ebbings of life , and so to the hidden calamity of death . Wherefore all our consideration of nature shall hereafter become Medicinall . For truly , Paracelsus being not constant enough to himself , stumbled in the finding out of the cause of a Disease , in the mean and manner whereby every thing tends to a declining : ( To the clearing up whereof , I have already taught before , that the fruits which antiquity hath believed to be a heap of Elements , are the off-springs of the one Element of water , begotten with childe by the seed , which disposeth the water to generate in places , as it were in wombs : For wheresoever the water obtains an Odour , it straightway also conceiveth in that very moment , a Ferment , and after that a seed , in the begun disposition of the matter disposed by the Ferment : For truly most things are made for the sake of the Odour alone . For oft-times , the Root , stalk , pith , leaves , and History of a whole Plant , is born by reason of the flour of the Odour , or Odour of the flour , and the Odour is the ultimate end of many particular kindes , as well in Plants that are for Sauces , as in those for Medicines . Because out of Sand , or simple Earth , and Water , doth grow nothing at first , but a moyst filthiness or mouldiness , they contract a putrefaction through continuance , or Odours . For nothing putrifieth by continnance far under the Earth , neither doth a Plant grow in the Sand. But almost nigh the light or day , the Odour is putrified by continuance , and Leff as brings forth its Plants . If one part of mud or dung do putrifie in the Earth , it may beget the water with childe in a five fold weight of it self , and send forth fruit : For the water being void of all Odour , unless it shall conceive the Ferment of an Odour in its Sulphur , surely it remains in its antient simplicity , as Rain-water , without fruit . Therefore in the deep Pavements of the Earth , where there is a departure far from filthiness , putrifying , and corruption , although there be no Leff as , yet the waters are got with Childe by a hidden Odour of the place ; first of all , by an unconceivable contagion of a certain Salt , straightway they do hasten to the more wealthy Colonies of Fruits , and do break out . Indeed it s own strange fermentaceous Odour dwells every where , which may get the Sulphur of the water with child , and sleeping within it , may at length grow together ; As in Mineralls : Or being grown together , and even over-spread with a thicker Air , may grow , as in Plants , and Creatures that bring for h Eggs : or wholly from the beginning , the form of the Air doth glister ; Even as in things that bring forth a living off-spring . Therefore the Archeus being now conceived , remains every where the keeper of life , and the promoter of transmutations , and by and by , a change of his life doth follow the change thereof , to wit , from his first life and matter , into his last . For the Archeusses of things do agree in this ; as being vitall , they do possess a certain Splendor : yet they differ , as they are unlike fore-runners , and Stewards of the Form. Yet they do not mutually receive each other , least their government be disturbed ; but for order sake ( which they do badly explain by the Title of self-love ) he remains Master , who shall be the stronger : which way indeed they liberally dispense the Impressions of their Ferment , that one may restrain the forreign disquietnesses of his fellow Archeus , and may subdue him : For even as under the immortall minde , the subordinate forms of a bone , membrane , &c. do not perish : So also it happens in the transmutations of things . Indeed , although the food doth by an every way transmutation , obtain the form of bloud ; Yet this keeps no obscure accidents of the former food , which do therefore walk from one matter into another . Surely this is a hard and Paradoxall saying in the Schooles : which I will presently prove by an example of the deed : Nigh the Mountain at Zome , a Hog , the Sea departing , is fed with Sea-Onions , shell-fishes , &c. His flesh savours of the grease of a Fish , yet it is Hogs-flesh , forbidden to the Hebrews . Therefore it is vain , that the Species of things , are as it were the species of numbers , whereto , not a unite is added , or substracted , but the species it self is continually changed . For one onely flesh of a living Creature , doth receive strange savours through the variety of meats . Irish Oak doth so retain the properties of an Antidote , that it chaseth Spiders from our Buildings : which property , our Countrey Oak wanteth : For the passings over of accidents do not happen in meats , through want of a perfect and essential transmutation : Neither also doth Urine smell of Terpentine , Mace , or Asparagus , as some excrementitious part of the meat may remain with the bloud in the flesh : For that lesse resisteth a perfect transmutation , separation , and election in things due to the Archeus , in whom , to wit , there is perfectly a transmutative , dispositive power of the matter into figures , Odours , Colours , and every property of accidents . For Paracelsus hath now and then made mention of a middle life , and matter ; but he hath not owned himself in the greatest necessity , whereby he dreamed of Tartarous humours : For he had seemed to secure the matter to himself by the example of living Tartar , if he had obliquely or by the way immingled a co-like Tartar in meates and drinks , to the finding out of the matter , and originall of Diseases , not yet discovered before . For neither hath he explained , from whence it is , that notable favours do survive after the true transmutations of meates . Wherefore it must needs be , that the same accident in number doth passe from its subject , that it is ( I say ) in the formall transchanged thing , which was first in the thing to be transchanged , although the form of the subject of inherency shall fully perish . Because although the matter doth not remain , yet the middle life remains , of which nothing hath hitherto been heard in the Schooles . Indeed the middle life remains in the transchanged Archeus , no otherwise than the form of a bone , a man being dead . For although there be a fermentall virtue in the stomach which resolveth things carried into it , and afterwards , the same things be perfectly transchanged in the other shops or places of digestion : yet so , that nothing can be so perfectly transchanged in us by assimilating or making like , through the immediate flowing of digestions , as that there do not remain for the future , the more dull qualities of the middle life of the former composed Body . By which necessity indeed , the accustomed nourishment of divers Climates doth imprint into the sound parts , very strange or forreign contagions of properties . Whence do happen , so many unlikenesses of deformities of one humane nature : the which surely , I could never dedicate to the vain complexions of qualities . Indeed Swines flesh is Swines flesh , although the horrid taste of Fish-grease shall remain in its middle life . Which thing being never before considered , hath made the whole contemplation of nature , barren . For truly this hinge hath been neglected in the Schooles . For Oportet is a thing altogether necessary , whereby the qualities of the middle life do remain in things that are transchanged : For unless that be granted , there shall be no power of Medicines , as neither occasion of Diseases : For nothing doth more prosperously operate to heal , than that which hath most fully entred by the transmutation of it self , and is neerest united to that which ought to be healed . So a grain dies in the Earth , that by its middle life , it may stir up new off-springs for usury . Also in meats , although the former forms of meates have wholly perished ; yet the operative properties of the former middle life have remained ; and that into the second , and now and then the third transmutation of the thing generated . For the native property of the middle life sailing by degrees , under the dominion of the Archeus ascending , to wit , of whose Ferment it is the subdued matter : That indeed is Magnum Oportet in this Valley of successive changes ; but it is not the whorish appetite of an impossible matter : For Aristotle feigned a matter deprived of every accident , as also of all essential Forms , and he appointed this Chymera to himself for the Beginning of nature : And so he constituted for a material principle , not indeed a naturall Being existing in act , or possible in power ; but a Mathematicall corporality or bodiliness ; but not [ this something ] or a principiating Beginning : For he thought that nature was at an imaginary pleasure , to hearken to figures , and measures . In the mean time , that that matter might be principiating , he feigned that a certain motive principle did agree or belong to it , to wit , a universall appetite unto any forms unknown to it self : Which Dreams , although they are ridiculous , agreeable to no end , use , or necessity , and bringing forth many absurdities from them ; yet are they at this day adored by the Schooles , who have made themselves ridiculous thereby : Seeing there can be no appetite of that corporiety , breathing to any perfection which it had not before in it self : To wit , that it may be capable of forms , and figures . For otherwise , in the consideration of nature , and indeed in a principiating Being , every appetite of a Being is carried to perfection ; not any one , but that of the seed fore-existing in the disposition of the ferments , and so also operating : But a seed doth not aspire but to the limitation delineated or represented in the disposition of the Archeus . For truly as learning by demonstration doth propose to it self a Body capable of all figures without any accident ; So Aristotle hath brought this Speculation according to his pleasure , into nature , unknown to him , and hath introduced an appetite into this matter , the lover , and one onely cause of successive change : Even so that he reckoned the first matter to be void of all quality and form ; but endowed or given up to all and any forms , onely by a whorish appetite : Not knowing in the first place , that successive change doth proceed not from the appetite of the matter , but from the instruction of the seeds . Neither have the Schooles once looked back , that the desire of remaining is more antient , strong , and naturall than the desire of permutability or much changeableness ; and that the Schooles themselves do contradict their own Aristotle , who will have every Being to desire to remain from the proper endeavour of nature : Seeing it is of necessity a Being , before it can think of a change , or wish for it . Therefore the matter ought to have obtained to be perfect , before it should disdain to be old , and should desire a successive change . For to be , is before , to please ; and to please , is before , to displease ; and nothing can displease , or wish for a successive change , but as a pleasure being gotten and known , something more perfect , possibly also better , is shewen . For in the more crude seeds which nave conceived their first ferments by Odours , the Odour goes before the complacency or good pleasure ; but this doth generate a desire of it self , and of a thing remaining : But in things possible , desire causeth the same appetite of remaining , but not of perishing , by the changing of its Being . But if indeed by reason of the hidden impediments of death , a permanency is not granted ; there is made a dissolution in Bodies , but thence a weariness : but from weariness there is a proceeding to a remove or change through the ruling virtue by degrees declining , from whence at length destruction is not intended , but following after through necessities . It belonged to the Schooles to have known , that to be , doth alwayes go before a wearisomness unto a non-being : because this wearisomness is not of the intent of nature , but rather an imaginary Metaphor or translation succeeding upon the defects of things : At least , that this wearisomness ought to precede the desire to a non-being : And much more a desire to a new Being , and unknown to it self ; Seeing a new Being is not granted before the death of the present Being . In brief , because also the wearinesses of the displacency of the appetite do but dreamingly agree to a non-being : And at length , because from dreaming principles so absurd , nothing is to be exspected besides errours full of confusion . Therefore successive change in nature , is not from the desire of the matter , but from the power of the efficient Vulcan : Wherein the Odour and Savour of the middle life : do generate a seminall Image , the beginning of transmutation : For neither are the Schooles as yet constant enough to themselves in that appetite of the matter ; yea the Schooles do not seem to have taught the speculative principles of nature for the service of the truth . For truly , when they descend to the things themselves , they do no more blame the appetite of the matter for the corruption of a thing ; but they blame the Air as the effecter of all corruptions whatsoever : But I know that many things are dried under Air , which otherwise , under the Earth , or water , do putrifie presently . For truly , Glasse the last of things putrefiable , doth in the Air : main as it were for ever : But being buried , after some years it admits of a putrifying through continuance , is covered or enrowled with a Crust ; its Salt being dissolved , it decayes , and its constitutive Sand remaineth . The Air is a Case , in whose porosities some things do dispose themselves into successive alterations , some things under the water , and many things also under the Earth , according to the dispositions of the seeds . For truly , those things which do spinkle from themselves an Odour , do loose the same by the flowing and snatching wind ; or the Vessel being close shut , they do retain the same within : For if the former , the pores of Bodies being afterwards empty , they do receive Air ; which being there enclosed , doth putrifie through continuance , with the odourable thing , whence the residue of the Odour doth receive a ferment , doth draw a warerish filthiness from the said putrefaction by continuance , and becomes rank , or muckie : But if the latter comes to passe , then the Air there detained doth cause the composed Body , to putrifie by continuance , and brings it to corruption , unless the odourable Body hath the properties of a Balsam : because a new ferment thinks of a successive change . Volatile , or exhalable and swift flying things do easily decay ( because for the most part , they have a diversity of kindes , through want whereof , distilled things are scarce corrupted ) one whereof doth ferment or leaven another , from their true Element they are even choaked , and do putrifie through continuance , or do conceive an air as before . Therefore the ferment changeth the thing , as it alters its Odour according to the essence of the matter imprinting of the Vessel of the place , or of the thing adjoyned : which things I prove by this Handicraft-operation : For truly , I do preserve the broaths of fleshes , of Fruits , even as also any boyled things , ( otherwise soon subject to corrupt ) for years , from corruption , so that I shall poure a balsamicall ferment into the Air , and that ferment being continued , I shall restrain it . With me therefore , corruption is thus , as I have said : Forms are never corrupted : they die indeed , onely the minde of man departeth safe , but all other forms do perish : But matter neither departeth nor dieth ; but is corrupted : And so , corruption is onely of the matter . Therefore corruption is a certain disposition of the matter , left behinde by the ruling Vulcan decaying . For as the Body saileth its Ruler or Pilots being in good health , it being safe doth not hearken unto strange ferments . Neither is corruption therefore to be numbred among privative things , if it consist of positive causes : Wherefore another Beginning of Aristotle in nature falls to the ground : For truly the Archeus is not of his own accord taken away , dispersed , changed , or estranged , unless by a new one troubling him under another ferment . Therefore strange ferments are chief over all corruptions , and by the interchangeable courses of ferments all corruption begins , doth by little and little ascend unto a degree and pitch , and at length having obtained its period , is terminated : For there are some things in whom the proper lust of their seeds is wanton , and calls them away from the tenour of constancy , to undergo the transmutations of successive changes , not indeed by reason of a desire to another form ; but because the implanted Balsam of nature is easily blown away , and perisheth ; as are fleshes , and Fishes : But others do change their Wedlock , not without a putrifying being first stirred up , and do put on the careful governments of new seeds : As are Woods , Stones , and Glasse which is most constant in fire : Among which , they do interpose in a middle degree , for whom the touchings of the place do cover their Superficies with a hoary putrefaction or mouldiness : From whence Odours being dispersed , they do disjoyn the Wedlocks of the antient seeds , and meditate of a new Generation by dissolving . It is a mark naturall or proper to the Air , uncessantly to seperate the waters from the waters ; and there are many things which do not endure such a successive alteration without a spot or corruption ; hence therefore they do most immediately slide into a sudden disorder : Therefore corruption , as it includes an extinguishing of the naturall Balsam ; so the constancy of a thing desires its continuance : for in such things whose Balsam doth voluntarily flow forth or expire , it being joyned to fixed things , they are seasoned therewith , it sticks fast , is restrained by the bolts of dryness , or at leastwise is nourished by a predominating ferment that is no stranger to the disposition of a Balsam : For so , sweet things , smoak , Salt , Pepper , Aqua vitae , Vinegar , distilled Oils , do preserve fleshes . But at leastwise about the end of life , there is on every side a great confusion of the thing , and a large losse of strength : So that seeds serving to the lower conjunction , do oft-times die together , from whence the chief assisting Vulcans of things being as it were sore affrighted with fear , and as mercenaries , do first run away . Therefore although corruption doth induce a transmutation , with the death of another thing , it is not a privation , neither doth it therefore necessarily follow generation , as neither this , it : Even as those things which exclude each other by a succeeding presence , as otherwise , light and darkness do . First of all , our death subsisteth without the failing of the form , without a necessitated destruction of the matter , if the Mummy doth continue ; although it includes a seperation of the life or form : For that doth not shew corruption to be present , although it doth straightway follow of its own accord , and be preserved by art : At leastwise it sufficeth , that corruption is not made the immediate heir of the thing constituted , nor that it necessarily succeeds from its dying without a will. So neither , when a thing proceeds out of a seed , not any corruption of the seeds doth go before , or accompany it : For it is an incongruity in word and deed , that the promotions , perfections , and maturities of seeds have regarded corruption . An errour of rashness is maintained in the Schooles , through ignorance of naturall principles : As that those things which are the works of nature , are thought to be non-beings , to be banished into the abstracted considerations of Learning by demonstration . Truly when Aristotle was connived at , to put ( by a large word ) Privation between a Being and a Being , he began by taking a liberty , to substitute corruption in the room of privation . For that privation , as it was not a Being , and so a dreamed Being of reason , it was yielded to by a liberty transumptive or of taking one thing for another , without taking heed . But the Schooles had understood that the same right ought not therefore to agree to corruption , if their sluggishness of assenting could have suffered them to be distinct . Wherefore the whole Stage of nature hath stood neglected through the thoughts of the Gentiles : For truly , the ferments , Vulcans , and flowings of seeds being neglected , all the efficacy of Nature hath through the undeserved orders of privations , been wrung aside into the fables of heats and colds , their discords , hatreds , skirmishings , and contrarieties , and have made the searching into naturall Philosophy ridiculous . Moreover , I have called Magnum Oportet , A necessary remaining of the properties of the middle life , in the thing nourished and constituted . From whence it followes , that the same remainder of the middle life , from meats and drinks , are the Thistles and Thorns which the Earth was to bring forth after the fall , or departure out of the right way : otherwise , Thistles & Thorns , as they are Plants , are Creatures , made for the use and adorning of the World before the fall . I have also sometimes vainly thought , that the tartarous humours of meats and drinks were those Thistles and Thorns : Because the middle life subsisting ( but it subsisteth by a reall and true act ) it was in vain , to feign forreign Tartarers , as shall be shewen in its place . But observingly , it is not included , that the water shall bring forth Thistles and Thorns , although it may bring forth its discommodities : For the fleshes of men , and bruits living on the Earth , do shew forth the aforesaid Thistles . But Fishes are nourished within and without , and are washed thorowly with Salt , yet are their fleshes sweet : But those which inhabit in mud , do express the Thistles in the savour of their fleshes , not from Water , but from Earth . Before sin , our Archeus had not only perfectly transchanged meats after a daily manner ; but had supt up the whole properties of the middle life into his own rule or jurisdiction , as if he were their Master . For truly , the immortall minde being then as yet , without the mean of the sensitive life , was the very immortall life it self unto , and not capable of suffering by its own Body : Even as touching long life , in its place : For Paradise , in this respect , had excluded death , because it had excluded a successive change of us : But the Tree of knowledge of good and evill alone , had retained a property to it self , that it could imprint , to wit , the dualities or double properties drawn out of things on our Archeus ; because the Companions of the middle life do easily adhere to each other : Whence a Gate was laid open to duplicities , interchangeable courses , successive change , and disorder . At length jarring , the breaker of agreement , thus brought in the apple of discord . For we afterwards feel the perpetuall Tyranny and multiplicity of Thistles and Thorns . For as many specifical Savours and Odours as there are in things : so many forreign properties of the middle life are suggested daily by nourishments : For these are the strange ferments , by whose interchangeable course we are wearied or much troubled : For truly no generation doth any where happen , which a foregoing disposition in the matter hath not stirred up : therefore such a ferment alters the inbred Savour and Smell of things , whence the Archeusses are by little and little withdrawn from the obedience of the seeds , and do hearken to the mockeries or enticements of a forreign ferment . In brief , the remainders of the powers of the middle life , as well in nourishments , as excrements , are almost the occasionall Beginning of all sicknesses , and in this respect to us , of the Thistle and Thorn. For Odours and Savours do bring forth a desire , a dislike , or a neutrality in the Bodies of seeds : But an appetite being thus moved , doth paint an Image in the Archeus , no otherwise than in the Young of one with childe : which Image is the invisible essence of seeds , stirring up to embrace , or abhorre : But the neutrall Odour serveth for station and rest . If therefore in the middle life , Savours do as yet remain in things transchanged : it is frivolous , that things shall weigh their vertues , and essences by eight material , and not specifical tasts . Furthermore , seeing it is called the middle life , in respect of two extreames : The first shall be of the received and working seed seated in the Archeus , he being endowed with a power of managing things : Which , when it hath obtained some maturity , as when the seed is a Body , having flesh , and tender bones , according to the requirance of the Species ; then is the middle life of a thing present : For it is meet to measure the life it self by the Archeus , as it were the Mediator , the Instrument of life . Therefore the first life doth glister in the seeds , but in the Embryo or imperfect young , the middle life : But the last life is , when the total perfection of the constituted thing is present : which indeed , although it be the last life of the thing , yet is it the middle life of the Archeus , if the first life of the thing doth begin with the last life of the seeds : For in Herbs , although seeds may seem to begin their life when they swell , and chap ; yet they do then rather die in the last life of themselves , that they may bud in the first life of the thing that is to be constituted . Therefore the first life of the fruit is the last of the seed . In the middle life , Herbs , Roots , and stalks do grow or increase : but Floures , and Fruits do threaten a period to the last life : To wit , this life must needs die in things , if profit be to be hoped for from nourishment , and Medicine . Medicines hanged about the neck , or head , and what things do act by the force of rule or government ( of which sometimes ) I except . Indeed the last lives of things ought to go backwards , that the thing in the juyce , which the Archeus from the beginning , married , may unfold its vertues , to wit , by laying aside the Title and property of the last life , that it may rise again to a middle one : Which death , is not an exstinguishing , and a true death of the thing ; but rather a transmutation : which shall presently appear in an Apple . For grain is eaten : Truly at that very moment , the last life of the grain dieth within , is reduced into its own life , the which our Archeus coming upon , over-shadoweth , and bringeth the middle life into its first life , by transumption or translating it , but the remaining properties of the former grain being dulled . In the death of the grain , or the last life of the seed , the first life of a new Creature ariseth together with it . To be brief : as oft as the Archeus of a thing is transplanted under a strange guide , so oft is there a changing of life made from the last to the first Being : which first Being is translated into a new life of the thing , and a middle life of the Archeus the Conquerour , onely the blunted property of the middle life remaining , whereby the going backward is made . Let an Apple be cut asunder , whose inward pulp let it be rubbed on Warts untill it shall be luke-warm , and the half pieces being tied fast by a thred , untill the Apple shall putrifie : for then thou shalt see that the touched Warts have dispersed : For as soon as the last life of the Apple perisheth , unto which the impression of the Warts was glewed , the last life of the Warts perisheth , by going backward through the middle life : For here words , faith or confidence are not required : because , if that Apple be eaten by a Sow , or a Mouse , the Warts perish not : For that , the Stomach doth as it were preserve the last life of the Apple , in the going backwards of the middle life , which the Archeus taketh to himself : But in the death , and extinguishing of the last life of the Apple by putrefaction , there is not a preserving , nor a going backwards into the middle life : And so with the death and extinguishing of the last life of the Apple , the absent Warts do perish together with it , by a Sympatheticall action of government : for the resembling mark of Sympathy is seated in this thing ; Because the pulp of the Apple which cloathes the Kernel , is as it were the Mushrome of its own branch , no otherwise than as Warts are the Mushromes of their own flesh . Therefore the impression of the Warts being translated into , and sealed on the co-resembling fruit , together with the death of the last life of the Apple , the Seal dieth , and that whereof it is the Seal : For by no lesse reason , doth an eflux bear a co-resemblance with its own body from whence it was taken , than a Tune or note doth with its own musicall Instrument , not so nigh at hand placed : For in a Unisone or one and the same sound , it manifestly leaps and triumphs for joy on a ring being hanged or laid on the string of the Instrument ; but in other notes , although far greater , and otherwise higher ones , it is quiet : For where the sense of a little leaping is beheld , there is also a possible sense or feeling both of gladness , and of sorrow , and of death . Therefore it hath seemed to me to be void of Superstition , if the Wart consume through a natural sense of sorrow , a sense of its own Eflux being imprinted in the death of its last life ; And so much the rather , because the Apple is as it were the Mushrome of the primary intention of nature , and of a more strong effect ; but the Wart is not of a primary intention , neither hath it a Root in the whole Archeus : For the death of the Apple doth not intervene , if it be eaten by a Dormouse , as neither a death of the added impression ; because the middle life is preserved , being transplanted under the preserved Archeus of the Apple , into the Archeus of the living Creature . Wherefore , although the Schooles have made mention of one onely corruption in generall ; yet there are divers destructions : For some things do return from the last life into the first ; but others there are , which go back unto the middle life : but those things which go not back unto any life , do expect the last resolution of themselves , that they may passe over into a new seminall generation ; but they rise again by their first life , at the coming of a new seed out of a Ferment putrifying by continuance . Of this sort , are those things which perish by the poyson of life , or by the death of the fire : For so , an Apple putrified of its own accord , and any dead Carcases , do either wax Herby with the juyce Leffas , or do first breed worms . At length , Mineralls also do shew three lives by a distinct order . It is thus : Mineralls indeed , have not a seed , with the Image of their Predecessor , after the manner of soulified things ; which thing notwithstanding , hath deceived many , a proportionable or resembling flux of seeds being not rightly well weighed : For Mineralls are tied to their constitutive causes no lesse than other things ; and so do proceed from a necessity and flowing of their own seeds : And therefore they cannot want a threefold difference of a seminall life : For whatsoever doth proceed without a Father , unto [ this something ] ( as do Mineralls ) it findes its seed in the Inne of places : Wherefore some things are immediately in place , but other things in the Body placed . The winde indeed doth uncessantly flow in a place ; yet its property is in some places stable : there are certain windes , and stated Tempests in Provinces : which things I attribute to the place , not to the Air , or the unstable waters . Therefore God hath endowed , not onely Bodies with Virtues ; but also places he hath immediately replenished with an incomprehensible Treasure of seeds , to endure to the end of the World : For he hath loaden places with riches , to come forth to light in a set maturity of dayes , and to put on the garment of water : For the Earth was at first without form or empty , and void ; to wit , after a twofold manner without form ; because it was spoiled of naturall endowed vertues , as well in its own body , as in the places of its retirances : which thou shalt thus behold . For although the Air do flow under the Blas of the windes ; yet light ( because it is immediately in place , and mediately in the Air ) remaineth stable : For if light may be thought to flow together with the Air , even at every instant in the flowing of the Air , light should be generated anew . Thou mayst know that the light is in very deed , a Being without a shining light : For I keep a Flint in my possession , which if I shall expose to the Air ( the Sun existing above the Horizon ) for the space of three or four pauses at least ( neither also is it materiall , whether the day shall be clear or clowdy ) and from thence shall bring it into a dark place , it keepeth the conceived light of the Sun , perhaps for some such like space : And that is done as oft as the aforesaid enlightning is repeated : And so from hence it is manifest , that light is a Being subsisting immediately in place , nor having another Being of inherency ( besides the placed essence of it self ) seperable from a shining Creature : And so , if it depart from the Air into a stone , that it might also passe from the Air into the next Air , if its immediate existence were in the Air , and not in place : For truly it is alike to light , to wander out of place ( its immediate subject ) into the Air , or into the Flint : in that is only the difference ; that the essence of light doth not subsist in the Air besides the continuall warmth or nourishing of shining , as neither doth the flame without a combustible smoak : But if it hath the Flint a fit retaining place for it self ( as it comes to passe when fire possesseth Iron ) it remaineth therein for some time . For hence it comes to passe , that the sight doth at one instant perceive its object , because as well light , as colour is immediately in place ; but in the Body of the Mean , as it were by accident , and secondarily . For seeing place is its subject , it findes not resistance in transparent placed Bodies , but in one onely moment light is shaken from the eight Sphear , even on the Earth : But Sound , or the object of hearing , is immediately in the Case of the Mean , and walketh without the flowing of the Air , from subject into subject : Although the Schooles in this thing are made half deaf . But an Odour or smell is not dispersed without that which is odourable , which is the Gas of a thing , which is dispersed thorow the emptinesses or Magnall of the Air. And the Magnall is a Case or Sheath , wherein every Gas is reduced into its first matter of water . Therefore , not onely lights and colours do inhabit in places , as it were immediate guests : but Ferments , Reasons ; and therefore they are placed by the Creator the Word , that they may be the Roots of successive seeds even to the end of the VVorld . Therefore Mineralls are not promiscuous every where ; but certain Mineralls in set years , and places : For Suevia is as rich in Copper , as Cyprus in times past could be : Therefore cold is guiltless , as heat is vain , to the constitutions of their seeds : For places which have wanted Mines in times past , will at sometime in their day , their seed being ripe , restore Usuries not unlike to the more rich ones ; because the Roots or Ferments of Mineralls , do sit immediately in place , and do breath without disdain , for fulness of dayes : The which , when it hath compleated a seed , then the Gas environing the water in the same place , receiveth a seed from the place , which afterwards begets the Sulphur of the water with childe , condenseth the water , and by degrees transplants it into a Minerall water . For it oft-times happeneth , that a digger of Metalls in Mines breaking great Stones asunder , the Wall cleaves or gapes , and affords a chink , from whence a small quantity of water of a whitish-green colour hath sprung , which hath presently grown together like to liquid Sope , ( I call it Bur ) and afterwards its greenish paleness being changed , it waxeth yellow , or growes white , or becomes more fully green : For thus that is seen , which else without the wound of the stone , comes to passe within : because that juyce is perfected by an inward efficient . Therefore the first life of a metallick seed , is in the Buttery or Cellar of the place , plainly unknown to man. But when as the seed comes forth to light cloathed with a Liquor , and Gas hath begun to defile the Sulphur of the water , there is the middle life of the seed : But the last life is when it now waxeth hard : But the last life of the metallick seed , is the first life of the Metalls , or at leastwise very nearly conjoyned to it . But while that Masse doth breath Sulphur , and shuts up its Mercury within ; then I say , is the middle life of Metalls : But their last life is , when it hath attained a fixedness , and the proper stability of a vein . Wherefore there is a more manifest progress of a life , and seed in Metallick Bodies , than in the two fellow Monarchies : For that Metalls do not require a figure , nor their whole Body so exquisite or exact : yea if the Image of seeds in things that have life , do flow forth from their own Father or begetter ; surely the typicall Images of Mineralls are to be fetched from the Cellers or Store-houses of divine Bounty . Hence also the seeds of Mineralls are not defiled with the filthiness and wantonness of their begetters ; nor therefore do they offer themselves as monstrous : But because they are undefiled , therefore they are of famous power in healing . Mineralls therefore are to be spoiled of the possession of their last life , no more than other things , if we do expect obedience from them in healing : Else they will bring a feeble help , and will bewail that they have come in vain , because they have attained the ends of their appointments ; but are directed for the leaders of whoredoms and Riots . I will repeat what I have said above in Eden : our Archeus was able fully to subdue all the Archeusses as well of poysons as nourishments , into his own increase , without any weariness of himself , or re-acting of the same poysons , or nourishments : To wit , he could take away every impression of the middle life , and overcome it without difficulty : For the Archeus was immediately governed by the immortall Soul , and so also therefore was not capable of suffering : For God not onely made not death in Paradise ; but moreover , neither was there created a Medicine of destruction ( that is a poyson ) for man , in the Earth : But man being straightway cast out into the Earth , this Earth clasped Thistles and Thorns : that is , although our Archeus being Conquerour , doth subdue the Archeusses of meats to himself ; yet the surviving Reliques of strange properties do remain . For the last life indeed of meates , departeth , the middle life surviving : Wherefore the more weak stomach , feels a greater load or grief about the end of digestion , than presently after food ; as if the Archeus were mindefull of his antient lost dignity . Therefore I call these surviving qualities of the middle life , ambulatory or walking ones . And so that which the Schooles do cry out of as impossible , is a common and necessary journey in nature : as though it should be necessary for the matter of generation to be wholly stripped of every accident of its former essence , nor that it could overcome fore-going dispositions ; and as if corruption or privation should precede every generation : And so that it should be of necessity for a first matter , or summary hyle , to be actually underlaid , and immediately to go before generation , which notwithstanding , they will have to happen in an instant : For unless previous dispositions , and the ferments of those to be generated , should fore-exist in being made , any thing might indifferently be generated of any thing : when as the authority of principles being badly understood , hath forced the Schooles against this Rock , they thinking that all accidents do immediately and originally depend on the totall Form of a thing : As though the form coming to it in the point of generation , should have all the characters of its seed in it self , and had infused them before it were : But if the dispositive properties are sent into the Archeus by the form of the generater , at leastwise they differ in the whole individual of the thing supposed , neither shall they have respect unto the form of the thing generated . The Schooles have neglected the perfect act of the seeds , and the Archeus ; as also the actualities of subordinate forms : And they have not known , that from the beginning of generation , even unto the voluntary end of the thing generated , there is not but the flux of one seed , not at all reaching to the forms of things generated . Therefore the powers of seeds arising unto vitality or liveliness , and the lives or forms of the living thing underlaid , are concealed in the middle life of the Archeus : Therefore the properties of the middle life do passe with the transchanging Archeus of meats , and are transplanted into the jurisdiction of the humane Archeus , yet much more dull than themselves . Therefore it is frivolous , that there is no accident in the ●●ing begotten , which was first in the seed ( which they do badly call corrupt . ) Likewise also , that from the form of a thing is all the off-spring of accidents : For so , from the univocall , simple , and homogeneall immortall minde , should so many properties and inclinations of men badly be fetched : But if thou shalt adjoyn the Stars to the minde , these will soon forsake thee : And the far-fetcht aid doth faint in the journey , and faileth before its striking upon it . It should also go ill with the seeds , if from the form of a vitall thing , which onely comes to it afterwards , every property and efficacy of seeds were to be borrowed . Therefore the opinion of the Schooles brings a disagreement ; that generation doth presuppose corruption , and this likewise , it . Otherwise , if the middle power consisteth in the totall form , and last life of the thing ; Surely Physitians deceive or blinde the eyes of the sick , when as the vitall form being withdrawn out of Plants and living Creatures , they make use of these for the refreshment of the diseased . They see indeed , that oft-times in the Urine of a sucking Childe , the Odours of the things which the Nurse hath taken , do subsist : to wit , Oil of Anniseed , Mace , &c. That which the Nurse hath took , casts a smell in the Urine of the sucking Childe ; and so they are drunk down by the Nurse to that end : yet they forbid the same accidents to remain safe in the thing born or begotten , which was before in the thing corrupted : Notwithstanding , that rather in every naturall point of motion and alteration , or between one and another instant , all accidents are renewed . Indeed the Schooles had rather that the light from the Firmament even to the Earth , should in every instant of places , and motions , actually produce infinite kindes of light , propagating each other by a continuall thred in every Mathematicall point of a Mean , than to grant that light is immediately brought through a place by the shaking of its beam : They had rather I say , that the smell of Asparagus should spring from the specificall form of the Urine , than from the middle life : For they have not known any Being but a Substance and an accident , nor a light subsisting , but immediately within the substance of a mean. Neither do they observe that they acknowledge an equivocall or double generation of accidents , while they acknowledge one to be sprung from an accident , but another from the specificall form . But there are Reasons , why the objects of sight do more strongly move the Imagination of Women with young , then the objects of the other Senses that are more corporeal . The first is , because a visible object is in place immediately , and so doth more affect , and reacheth nearer , and pierceth the Soul , by reason of the alike manner of existing : To wit , they reach to one another by an intimate touching . 2. The other Senses do readily serve the sight : To wit , a Woman with childe seeing a Salmon , is carried into a desire of eating : For then whatsoever she shall take , affords her indeed actually the taste of Salmon , and the taste serves the sight as its Master : but it falling down into the stomach , nor she having Salmon really in a visible object , she perceiveth her deceit which her appetite causeth unto her ; and therefore she hath a loathing , and the Woman is weakened , trembling or panting at the heart : For the appetite feigneth the taste of Salmon , but the womb is angry at the deceit ; but it cannot transform the meat into Salmon , Yea , although she shall eat of another Fish , and there is an easie passage in things that have a co-resemblance ; yet she cannot thereby form the longed for Salmon , because it is the object of taste , but not of sight : Whereas otherwise , suddenly by the object Salmon , or Duck , she easily transchangeth her Young into such a Monster : For the objects of taste sitting immediately in some body , cannot by reason of their corporeal thickness , form a tranchangeative Image . Therefore they who study in Adepticall things , do strive to promote their labour of wisdom by the objects of sight , and indeed by the light of the Moon ; That indeed the Soul may be touched by a formall light , and night unto night may shew knowledge . As touching the Young , surely I consider it as a forreign branch implanted in the stock of a Tree , which although it be nourished by its Mothers Liquor , yet it liveth presently within , in its own proper quarter : For neither is it within as an entire part ; but as it were an entertained Souldier , it snatcheth all things into its pleasure or desire , and enlargeth the Vessel it self for its own command or government . But I consider the Womb as an empty house , possessed and enlarged by a stranger : whereinto therefore , Pictures do more easily fall , than into it being exactly shut . 3. The object of sight is more spiritual , and therefore its Image more naked , spirituall , and more active . A fourth reason is ; the Father of Lights in this thing , doth by a similitude manifest , that in thinking only of the light , he created all things of nothing : I say , he brought forth the particular kindes of things into a created essence , which he from eternity comprehended in himself , onely by cogitation or thinking . So also the imagination of the lust of Souls , by the object of sight , poures forth its own Image into seeds , that so they might be fruitfull from the command of God. It might here be said , how may the apparitions of Spirits be made immediately in place , colour , figure , and light , but not in a Body ; and by consequence , why may they be seen by one , and not by another that is nearer . By what way may Lights and Colours cut thorow each other in place , the existence of every one being nevertheless unchanged ; after what sort may they pierce each other , and deceive the Rules of the Optick Science : that is , how may a bewitching or charm be made : How may a Colour have a dark splendor , invisible in the middle or Mean , visible in the repercussing or re-bounding bound : although that brightness be no less in the mean , than in the said bound or terme , nor in any beam , but in a direct one onely . But these things I leave to others , under the positions by me framed I rather treat of naturall Science . Modern Writers have distinguished of qualities by their Ranks or Orders : to wit , that the first might shew forth the Elementary countenance of heat , cold , moysture and dryness , ( of which two latter I have demonstrated my judgement elsewhere : ) But that the second qualities might contain light , heavy , soft , hard , rough , smooth , brickle , tough , white , black : And likewise Odours , and Savours , as sweet , bitter , salt , sharp , breachy , soure ; because they think they are those which do most nearly rebound from the mixture of the Elements : which is false , seeing the Elements were never mixed : therefore the aforesaid qualities do follow as it were the formall Beginnings of seeds , their own gifts , and have themselves by way of a fermentall putrefaction by continuance : as appeares in the particular kindes of Mushromes . And then , the third qualities , they call specificall and formall ones , and they have as yet added to those , fourth qualities , as the more abstracted ones . Therefore the third quality is a special aromaticall savour in Cinamon , Saffron , Cloves , &c. keeping every one to its own Species . The fourth therefore are more formall , and more remote from the Body ; such as is a poysonous quality in poysons , a solutive one in laxative or loosening things , an attractive one of Iron in the Loadstone , a productive quality of milk in Fennel , &c. The three former sorts at least , do operate corporeally by vertue of the seeds , as they have espoused the matter to themselves : But the two latter are plainly formall ones , and do act by a lightsome , and an abstracted power tied fast to their composed Body , and therefore they have a power to imprint their actions on vitall forms . Indeed the three former do scarce pierce other Bodies , and much lesse are they co-mingled with them radically : And therefore they are transchanged by our Archeus ; So that although they may as yet carry with them from their being transchanged , an obscure property of their middle life ; yet they are subdued into our protection , and are made our Citizens : Although many things at the time of their transchanging , do remarkably disagree with the Archeus , because they have an untamed valour , and other incapacities , I say , dregs and impediments : To with , they are incorporated in us with a mark of their own middle life , which they difficultly put off ; yet are they subdued : But if not , they are rejected , after their own Contagion is left in us : And therefore they degenerate into dregs or filths , the occasions of Diseases : whereby the Archeus being divers wayes troubled , and wroth , doth afterwards form Diseases . But formall , and wholly abstracted properties do spring out of the forms , and are lightsome , and therefore also being sparks of the form it self , have a force of piercing the Archeus throughout the whole light thereof , likewise the life , and forms of the parts . Therefore I long agoe thought , whether the biting of a mad Dog might bring down a certain Signall phantasie which might convert ours being as it were its patient or sufferer , into it self , and might form unto it self a proper lightsome property , the effectress of an Hydrophobia or a disease wherein water is exceedingly feared ; or whether our Archeus might frame a poysonsome Image of his own proper accord ? But at length , that dispute seemed to me to be onely about a name : Because I found in these kinde of lightsome actions , a co-knitting of unity in a point , to wit , of the occasionall cause , and of our efficient Archeus ; for that they do pierce each other after the manner of lights , and do radically unite without any other distinction than that of relative termes . That which is now judged concerning the outward poyson of a mad Dog , let the same judgement be of a Cancer , and other things : For a formall poysonsome light being budded in our life , is it self living ; and so , even as the Archeus being mad , doth fermentally receive an externall infection ; so also in a Cancer , he wandring , transplants himself into suries , whereby he locally troubleth or vexeth the flesh : For whether they are carried inwards by an externall chance , or indeed be raised up within , and so thus far , do in some sort differ as to their principiative Beginning ; yet in the mean time ( notwithstanding ) it is the same , by application of the poysonsome light , the manner of propagating and piercing being kept according to the properties of the seeds , and also , the Sphere of activity proper to every poyson being kept : For some poysons do suddenly propagate themselves into the whole Body , and do straightway bring on death ; but others do exercise a locall poyson , because the property of these is , that although from the nature of poyson , it pierceth ; yet it enlargeth it self onely according to the prescription of its own poyson . This is indeed an immediate acting of Forms into Forms , by the penetration of a fermentall uniting , with the transmutation of our Archeus . Therefore a new poyson is not properly stirred up in the Archeus , that it may form a poyson to it self : Even as otherwise elsewhere ( as in a Fever ) an occasional matter stirs up the Archeus into futy ; not indeed to frame other occasionall Feverish matters ; but naked Idea's of fury , to expell the addicted ones which he decyphers in the very substance of himself . But the formall lights of poysons do pierce the vitall light , by changing it efficiently and powerfully , by reason of the occasionall poyson implanted in them , being present , and radically piercing our middle life , and it disposeth it into the last life , by the first life of the poyson : For they are formall sparks , soulified , or not soulified , be it all as one : Because they do not act by a formall leave and liberty , whereby they pierce in a point , and insinuate in an instant : And they do act that which they are commanded by the Lord to act . And then , we must consider after what manner they so easily prostrate or destroy our life . 1. To wit , whether they do transchange ours their own . 2. Or indeed do drive the Archeus into a fury , that being mad , he may destroy himself , and diffuse himself throughout the whole Body . 3. Or whether indeed they do mortifie by a depriving of light , to wit , by blowing out the light of our spark in the Archeus . 4. Or at length , do press together the Archeus under them by a poysonsome exaltation of themselves ? First of all , it is certain , that this is not done by contrariety , the which is demonstrated elsewhere , never to have entred into nature . 2. It is certain , that it is done by gifts conferred by God on the poyson , which are called properties . 3. And it is certain , that poysons do divers wayes act into us , and that their differences have appointed a fourfold manner of poysons . 4. And at length it is certain , that God hath not created death , as neither poysons as the destruction of men , whom he endowed with immortality : notwithstanding , his integrity being corrupted , things became to him deadly , which before were not poysons unto him . In the mean time , some poysons are fermentall , which do not destroy us so much by the force of a lightsome spark , and by a formall property , as by a certain ferment almost odourable ; and so one onely life doth on every side fear many enemies unto it : For such sort of ferments do more approach to the nature of Bodies . Thou seest that thing in a sulphurated Torch or Link , the which being lighted , and hung up in a Glassen Vessel , will burn indeed , and will fill the Vessel with the sublimed smoak of the Sulphur : the which , although thou shalt cause to exspire , and again shalt put into the Vessel a burning Torchor Link , in the very moment that it entreth , it is extinguished : Not indeed , by the Sulphurous smoak ( the which seeing it self is as yet Sulphur , ought rather to be enflamed ) but by a wild Gas , the onely Odour whereof extinguisheth the new flame : not indeed by a materiall blast , but by its Odour : Yea , it not onely extinguisheth a sulphurated Torch , but also the flame of a Candle : and that is proved : Because if thou shalt send the flame into a spatious Hogs-head , so long as the Vessel casts the smell of a hoary putrefaction , or otherwise doth contain any small quantity of dregs putrified by continuance , it blowes out the flame of the Link or Candle . Understand thou therefore the same thing proportionably in vitall formall sparks : For so indeed in Vaults and Mines , men are easily killed by the Odours and Gas of the place . So also a pestilent poyson doth oft-times without delay , slay the vitall light : Because such kinde of poysons are positive , and blowing out , mortall , but not privative ones : For neither can they be endowed with any other Etymologie , than that they do efficiently blow out by their poysonsome Gas , the formall light , sensitive Soul or substantial Form of our life . And therefore they have place among reall Beings , and indeed among the most mighty or potent Beings . CHAP. XXIII . Nature is ignorant of contraries . 1. The bruit Beasts were not in Paradise , that man might not see a brutall coupling , but that he might remain innocent of shame . 2. The bruit Beasts were brought from elsewhere to our first Parent , in Eden , that he might name them , might thereby praise God , and acknowledge himself . 3. What kinde of Trees were there . 4. Many individuals were created in every particular kinde , but not in man. 5. Man alwayes ate fleshes , and of the Sacrifices themselves , besides the Turks , and Calvinists . 6. The first contemplative Philosophy of weeping Adam . 7. Tillage , the first of Arts. 8. Zoosophie or the wisdom of keeping living Creatures , the second . 9. Meteoricall Astrologie , the Chamber-maid of Tillage . 10. The entrance of Medicine was the last . 11. They stand as yet , in the first Principles . Galen hath brought in a Method too easie , and therefore suspected . 12. Galen hath feigned one onely naturall indication ; to wit , by contraries . 13. The deceipt of that Maxim is discovered . 14. Paracelsus being badly constant to himself , scoffed at Galen : 15. He badly judged , that all healing is made by like things . 16. That Seeds do not operate by contrariety ; but by a Command known from a former cause to the onely Lord of things . 17. They know not which way the necessities of Seeds may be directed . 18. The blindness of Heathenisme is hidden in the Maxim of contrarieties . 19. The foolishness of Aristotle concerning the first matter , is noted . 20. The Argument out of Aristotle is retorted upon Galen . 21. Some Arguments concluding the same thing . 22. The Schooles are deceived by a metaphoricall , and hyperbolicall or excessive introduced nature . 23. That in the Elements contraries are not to be granted . 24. That the greatest cold doth peaceably combine with the greatest heat , in the same point of Air , and that without contrariety . 25. What a Relolleum is . 26. Water doth not wax hot by fire by reason of an introduced contrariety . 27. Water doth not quench fire by reason of contrariety . 28. It is proved from the Elements , that fire is not a substance . 29. Moysture and dryness are scarce qualities to be understood in the abstract . 30. Neither are they Relolleum's , after the manner of heat and cold . 31. That there is not a radicall co-mixture of moyst with dry . 32. One onely Question of the Authour propounded to all the Learned , who believe a temperature of the Elements in a mixt Body . 33. That the Elements are not contrary to each other . 34. That the Elements do not waste or consume each other . 35. That the Elements do not fight . 36. That things without life , have not contrariety . 37. It is proved from Faith , and then by some Arguments , that the action of nature is void of contrariety . 38. The same thing is shewen in other things . 39. What Nature may be . 40. The name of a Crisis is impertinent . 41. Paracelsus is noted , because he will have a remedy to work by reason of likenesse . 42. In what the vertue of a Medicine may be seated . 43. Why hunger kills . 44. What things are required for healing . 45. The Doctrine of Paracelsus is refuted . 46. A foolish Objection . 47. Sin is not opposed to virtue , simply , in a privative manner . 48. That the poyson of a mad Dog , of Serpents , of a Bull , &c. have not at all a contrariety of causes , from whence they are made . 49. A Declaration of what went before . I Having already sufficiently contemplated of the integrity of nature , afterwards , by little and little , I descended into the defects , and successive alterations of the same , while I reach or aim at Medicine : To wit , I have shewen that there are not four Elements in nature , and especially that the fire hath not the thingliness of an accident , yea neither of a substance , much lesse , the nature of an Element : Wherefore , the quaternary of Elements and Complexions being broken asunder and made void ; therefore also the constrained knot of four humours . So that although from hence it be sufficiently manifest , that the causes and essence of Diseases have been untouched in the Schooles ; yet I would elsewhere demonstrate that very thing from their own positions , in a peculiar Chapter . But in this place , I will demonstrate , that nature is ignorant of , and likewise , that she doth not admit of contraries in desire . In the beginning , God created the Heaven and the Earth , and whatsoever is contained in the Universe . But he placed the man in Paradise , after he was created : For neither had he a Lion , Sheep , with him , or Tyger contrary to him , or Wolf his Companion : Nor lastly , any other Creature , which might lay in wait for him , or for the Fruits of Eden : Yea neither would the Almighty , that man should behold the bruitish copulation of the Sexes , whom he withed to live in the purity of innocency ( as elsewhere concerning long life . ) But God brought even one at least of all living Creatures of every Species , to Adam , even from the remotest Coasts of the Earth ( for truly the Ranging Creature remains not long alive but in his own Climate ) that Adam might give them their proper names : But it was not of so great moment , to give a name to the bruit Beasts , that God should without a further end , lay these before Adam for to name them . But that was done , that he might know the knowledge of all things to be freely given him from God , and that the Judgement or Umpire of so great an heap , might constantly worship or adore in Spirit , for so many benefits : For from that whereby he named all Bruits according to the proper nature of every one , his own knowledge of himself was included ; which is the top of Wisdom . For he had known himself to be wholly ( not indeed himself to be a Fruit ) not a disagreeable , and the immortall Image of the Divinity . Therefore the bruit Creatures were brought to him from every part , chiefly for the honour of God ; and next for his own profit , that by an utter denyall or renouncing of the Bruits which he had not seen before , he might extract the knowledge of his own self , and so might depart from the mockeries of the Tempter . The Bruits might want Sir-names , when as especially they ought not to name each other ; also it was not required for one to know another , or judge of the nighness of their kin , by a name . Therefore , after their naming , all of them were again restored to their naturall places : For man wanted a bloudy Banquet by slain living Creatures ; but he bare the good pleasure of his Creator , in granting him the fruits of the Trees . There then , every Tree did look fresh and green , with a perpetual leaf , did bear a successive flower : Lastly , a perpetual fruit , not wormy , nor falling before ripeness ; as neither brought it forth a barren or untimely Flower . Such was the daily race or increase , pleasure , abundance and happy plentifulness in Paradise : For even as Herbs fit for meats , are to us for Corns , Pulses , Pot-herbs , and Spices ; there the Trees also , did bring forth one of these , if not the four , or some of them connexed at once : For truly the manifold Acorn did there represent the divers Corns : Olives , and Nuts did note out as many Pulses ; Even as the Apples also , so many Pot-herbs . The Trees also , the Mother of Spices , did present Herbs fit for Sawces . And last of all , many things stood connexed , under one onely particular kinde , even as now also , the Apple doth now and then consist of an Oily Kernel . Indeed , all things did flatter mans Senses . But after that the majesty of man became of no value , by reason of his departure from the right way or Fall , and his nature was now polluted , he ought to die the same day ; and the vigour or force of the declared sentence had stood , unless he by whom all things were made , had impledged himself a Surety before him who made all things , that he would die for man in the fulness of times , that love might kisse his Justice : whence there was peace . Man is to be cast out of Paradise into the earth , where the more barren Trees offered themselves , nor those sufficient for the continual necessities of foods . But before that he was driven away , when as now himself was ashamed of his own nakedness , God cloathed them both in Coats of skin . Indeed that great Priest and Lamb , was offered up an unspotted Sacrifice , from the beginning of his loving promise , who for a Mistery , therefore sacrificed two Lambs , without spot to his eternall Father , before man : one indeed for the Burnt-offering of his future passion : Another also , without the breaking of its bones , to be 〈◊〉 sacrificed , and partly to be eaten , for a Peace-offering ; he gave both to the Man and Woman that from the foundation of the World , the Lamb might be one and the same , for a continuall Sacrifice , oblation , and food : with the Skins of which Lambs , our Parents were covered : Which first Tenor or right of sacrificing , Heathenisme afterwards imitated . Although two Sexes onely of every particular kinde , entred as Companions into the Ark ; yet the Lion fasted not for a year , that he might divide the first hope of the Flock together with the Leopard , and Wolf ; and he had afterwards again abstained for a year : For the Lord replenished the Earth with a sufficient number , which before was empty and void : For neither would he have any thing to be wanting : Even as he enriched the Sea with a multitude of individualls , so also the Earth with a plurality of individual bruit Beasts : For although onely two living Creatures of a sort , entred voluntarily , yet Noah by the Command of God , took food for himself , and necessary foods for the other Creatures . Therefore it is a vain and foolish question ; why at this day there are more Sheep than Wolves ? Man therefore had fleshes from the beginning , wherewith he might be fed , and might sacrifice ; and the rite of sacrificing was even from the beginning of the World , that the Sacrificers might eat of the thing sacrificed . And at this day , onely the Mahometans , and Calvinists do fail , being as it were destitute of a Sacrifice . Let them therefore give place , who write , that mortall men before the Floud were not wont to eat flesh ; because it was written , Fleshes shall henceforward be like unto Pot-herbs : For otherwise Abel had in vain led● Flock and Herds ; neither had another been slain in the hunting of wilde Beasts , and Nimrod should have a vain name . Therefore I may believe , that Mortalls used as well tame as wild Beasts ; yet scarce Fishes before the Floud : Because then , one onely Fountain did water the whole Earth , and the Sea stood on the other part of the Globe , whose other half was calfed dry Land : And so Fishes were onely of the Sea , while the whole World was an undivided Continent : in the middle or heart whereof , one onely Fountain being divided into four Rivers , did water the whole Earth : Therefore Cock-boats or Skiffs , had not as yet been made known : so fishing in the Sea , was unaccustomed . Neither also did the Habitation of men occupie the shoares : For one onely , and vast Continent of the Earth gave pleasures enough to the Husband-men , that they detested the barren Sea , made frightfull by a thousand Tempests . Gen. chap. 1. v. 28. It is read , that first of all , the Dominion of the Sea was given to man , and then , over the Fowls of Heaven ; and thirdly , over all living Creatures which move upon the Earth : yet when as the speech is of meats , Chap. 1. v. 29. Every Herb and Tree is given for meat . And Chap. 1. v. 30. All living Creatures of the Earth , and Birds of Heaven , and whatsoever is moved upon the Earth , having a living Soul , is given to men , that they might have that which they might eat : Yet the Fishes are no where read to have been granted , as neither the Fishes of the Sea to have been brought over to Adam , that they might obtain their names . From which particulars , it is presently plain to be seen , that no Herbs , Trees , or any creeping things , were contrary to man , or for a Medicine of destruction unto him . Likewise the restriction , for Birds , and what things do move themselves upon the Earth , doth exclude the Fishes . Wherefore , as soon as after the Floud , by the dividing of the one Continent , the Springs and Floud-gates diffused themselves from the lowest bottom , Fishes being allured by the sweetness of the down-sliding waters , some remained in Rivers , and Fens : others in the mean time through a new thorow-mingling , and liberty of the Floud , ascending out of the Sea : Therefore let Fishes be fleshes , although before , not used by man : Fleshes I say which after the Floud should be like unto Pot-herbs : otherwise , the flesh of flying Fouls , did nor repay or supply the Rooms of Pot-herbs ; but Corns , as four-footed Beasts , had now long since from the beginning , supplied the place of pulses . Therefore our first Parent being banished into the Earth , and being full of miseries , weariness , and repentance , through the leasure of most ample Ages , perceived his nature now to be defiled with corruption , and wanting preservation . Lastly , as necessity is the Mother of Wits and Inventions , he began to meditate , by what reason or meanes he might prevent the inward Calamities of life , and especially the injuries of a Meteor . In which labour , the eldest of his Sons began thorowly to weigh the Nativities of fruits , their prosperous , and unfortunate increases . whence Agriculture or Tillage was the first Philosophy . The other Son also , noted the properties and Societies of living Creatures ; whence by the undoubted hope of a Flock , a quiet life is led : This indeed , was Zoosophie or the wisdom of keeping living Creatures together . But their successors making afterwards , a more plentifull progress , joyning the decrees of the Stars with the observations of their Predecessors , observed the denounced successive changes of things , with a profitable , and pleasant observation . Therefore Astrologie , the Chambermaid of Tillage thus arose . Notwithstanding , the dispensations of naturall things have remained altogether obscure ; even as also , among all men , the knowledge of ones self is the last and hardest of all things . But the generations or births of Diseases , their Remedies and Curings ( which as yet then were most rare or seldom ) were far more obscure : For at first , every one brought the Remedies which had profited him , into open view , without envy : But Hypocrates first laid up his Observations into a written style or method : in which labour , he felt the divine assistance , which he had not known : But Galen ( as it were the North winde ) having seemed to himself to have dispersed the vain Clouds of desires , & having filched many things from every place , boasted that he had raised up the Speculations of the Elements , first qualities , Complexions , and humours : And dedicated all the works , and fortunes , as well of found , as invalid nature , to these : which things afterwards , the Greek Nation plentifully increased : By which suppositions , the Moores striving for the Victory , built loose experiments upon them . This therefore was the Originall , and condition of bringing forth Medicine ; and these were its inventers . At length , in these it was at a stand , neither afterwards made it a progress . Galen being instructed by his Elders , observing that fire was quenched by water , and that water being heated by fire , did vanish away , supposing that he held the Hare by the Eares , boldly constituted almost all Diseases , and their Remedies in those first Bodies , and their qualities : For he said , The fire was at enmity with the water , and this with it : whence he established it by a generall decree , that there is in us the combate of four Elements , fighting in us by a continuall Warre : And that there doth skirmish in us a continuall and unexcusable strife of contraries : Wherefore , although nothing should weary us from without , yet it would come to passe , that sometimes a distemper , or Disease , and ruine should happen of their own accord : That death I say , should break out of the composition of the Elements . This indeed was to be winked at in Galen : But not in Christians , if they do not teach , that in Adam , there was a like necessity of composition before , as there was after sin : To wit , if the composition of Adam , stood connexed unto four encountring Elements : Therefore all the Schooles do determine , that onely contraries should be the remedies of contraries : To wit , whereby every excess ( being notably marked with the name of a Disease ) might be reduced into a mediocrity or mean. That plausible and stupid Doctrine easily pleased all that were inclined to a sluggishness of subscribing : Because it was that which might easily be conceived by a rusticall sense , a great compendium , and in all places by any one ; and , hence therefore it was most greedily drunk in . Galen ( the while ) although he knew that cutting off or resection was privately opposite to a Being that is born , yet he doubted not to reduce the withdrawing of parts , or humours , in respect of the members , unto the order of contraries : And he neglected the Family of privations , as born by an adulterous congress : Hence all things universally , which should disagree in number , scituation , magnitude , proportion , afflux , or eflux , he took from their due order , as though they were contraries , that he might make an establishment of his own foolish Rule : As if Medicine did not work naturally , but stood by learning by demonstration alone . Hence at length , by a most generall absurdity , he dictated the naturall indications or betokenings of Diseases , to be made onely by the oppositions of contraries : For he would have necessities to be subservient to his own Maxims ; but he erected not Maxims conformable to necessities : which fictions therefore are commanded to work ruine , as many of them as are handed forth at the pleasure of so great ignorance : Therefore that Maxim hitherto remains adored by the Schooles , and common people , ( as it were the top of healing ) which by contrarieties , that is , by brawlings , strifes , Wars , fighting , and Crises or judicial periods , do mark out the beaten path of healing : For it hath so been credited , so wrote , and feigned hitherto , and that , so without controversie ; that nothing is thought to be alike plausible , and fit for subscribing , and doth through its own facility of understanding deceive , by delighting , and captivating every unwary person . But the knowledge of the Causes and Roots of healing , do grow from a far more hidden stock , than that the vulgar by a rusticall perceivance can crop the flowers of the same : Neither hath Galen considered , that one contrary ought so often to be predicated of ( according to Aristotle ) as oft as another , because both of them stood under the same generall kinde , and did rejoyce in an equall priviledge : wherefore neither hath he at any time diligently searched , what that generall kinde should be , under which , positive coldness , or cold , might stand contrary to so manifold a putrified heat as he seigned particular kindes of Fevers : To wit , where he might finde cold contrary to a Malignant , putrified , and hectick or habituall heat ; And resisting heat in so many excesses of spaces : Or what might be that singular and individuall action of cold ; of so diverse Degrees and Species , whereby as many heats being brought under the yoak , they should be compelled to a due proportion : which thing surely , so long as it hath been neglected by the Galenists ; also a just remedy for every Fever hath remained unknown , and Remedies have been administred , being prescribed by guess and chance : For through Galenical scantinesses , they on both sides prostrate their lies , conspiring for the death of mortalls . Paracelsus indeed scoffed at Galen with an Helvetian taunt , although as being constrained , he now and then runs back to the same method , being unmindfull of his own continuall chiding : For oft-times he would have contraries to be coagulated in things resolved , and resolving : yea , many times , he uncompelled , runs back to hissed-out elementary distemperatures : at length through a heat of contradicting , he constituted the healing of all diseases in the likeness , as well of nature , as of the causes making Diseases , with the remedy it self , being indeed every where , full of indistinction . But I under a Phylosophicall liberty , being addicted to no Master , do perceive that if by the taking away of the causes , all co-knitting of affects is thereby cut off ; that every healing of Diseases ought also to be defined by the same law of Causes : So that a correcting , withdrawing , and extinguishing of the immediate efficient cause ( which doe suitably enclose within themselves a privation of the effect following from thence ) should contain the chiefest substance in healing : But not the likenesses , as neither the contrarieties of Remedies . In the first place , the products of Diseases ( suppose the Stone ) as they retain in themselves their own Agent co-agulated in them ; So also , they are very often cured by taking away of the effect onely : Because , sometimes the co-knitting of the inward cause , or of the immediate efficient is taken away , together with their matter . Add to these things , that onely a solution of the co-knitting of the efficient cause to the matter ; and so a strained , or loosened fitting , and quenching and appeasing of a privative disturbance in the Archeus ( which do sometimes include in them a meer privation ) do oft-times compleat the History of healing , without any contrariety , or likeness of the Remedy to occasionall causes : which very thing Paracelsus ought to have remembred , if he had once looked back unto his own Arcanums or secrets : For he had soon taken notice , that any one of those Arcanums do of right chase away almost all Diseases , without any respect to likeness , or contrariety ; but through the besprinkling of a vitall tincture alone , by a secret gift , that is , by an over-flowing of goodness : For indeed , whatsoever is made or born in nature , is made from the necessity of efficient seeds : But seeds themselves do in no wise operate for the scope of likeness , or contrariety ( as otherwise is commonly thought ) but onely because they are so commanded to operate by the Lord of things , who alone hath given knowledges , bounds or ends to seeds , known to himself alone from a former cause : Else seeds do wander , and whither , they know not : And indeed , they direct themselves as though they were strong in knowledge ; but they tend by the meanes granted unto them , unto ends unknown to themselves : For we do improperly call them the intentions of Medicines , or scopes of nature : not that they have prefixed an aim to themselves , from the beginning , as if they were potent in a minde and fore-knowledge : but because by a created gift , they are born to flow down voluntarily and naturally by their own direction , unto such limits as are known to God : For Christian Philosophy doth thus dictate this thing ; but the Heathenish Schoole is ignorant of it . Therefore even in the light , I do admire at the boldness of the Schooles , which have not acknowledged the seminall Beings of nature in Diseases ; and have placed qualities in the room of Beings subsisting by themselves , and that Diseasie ones : nevertheless , they would have them to be esteemed after the manner of will or judgement , of feelings , and animosity , as they should possess Antipathies and contrarieties by their own proper force . Truly , I have thus accustomed my self to play the Philosopher , as I coveted to mere out things themselves by a radicall foundation , according to the Whet-stone of sacred truth , as near as might be lawfull for humane wits . Therefore , that I may shew the positions of Contrariety to contain meer incongruities in nature , it is first of all to be observed , that they have suffered the frivolous invention of Aristotle to prostitute a matter wholly deprived of every accident , for the subject of generation , as well in a sound nature , as in a corrupt one ( to wit , in the grief of a isease ) for he thus prosperously beginneth from a twofold , and every way privation of accidents , and forms , for the original Beginning of things ) Therefore that every accident as well inbred , as suddenly hapning , doth also consequently depend , and issue out of the bosome of forms . So indeed , that from the Forme , and its first Essay , all activity in the Archeus , as well of matter as accidents , doth necessarily depend : in the mean time , the Schools were thorow taught by this Aristotle ( they support it even to this day ) That nothing can be contrary to Substances , as well those material , as formall : I do not see therefore whence accidents shall beg their own contrariety to themselves , especially those which are the naked , immediate , and meer instruments of their own forms ? For from whence had they drawn their own contrariety , whose matter , and form ( indeed the total principles of accidents ) do repulse all contrariety far from them : especially , because accidents being considered in themselves , are not so much [ Beings ] as [ of Beings ] ; and so that of themselves they are nothing , do work or prevail nothing : Therefore it must needs be , that if there be any intention of contrariety in nature , that is primarily in the active Principle , that is in the bosom of the forms : So that even in this respect , forms themselves ( the which notwithstanding without controversie , they have banished into the number of substances ) should be actually , and potentially contrary by a primitive right . Consequently also the Maxim of the Schools is false , That nothing is contrary to substances , or it behoveth accidents to have the same contrariety , not depending on forms , and from their own proper nature , without , and against the possibility of forms : That is , not to be the immediate means , products , and instruments of forms ; but to arise , stand , persevere , and act of themselves , even against the will of forms , without , and besides forms ; To be I say , independent Beings , and no longer [ of Beings ] : Or Thirdly , At length they must confesse with me , That there is no contrariety in nature , except among free and elective Agents . I adde , If the equality of contraries subsisteth according to the aforesaid Maxim , it must needs be , that the relation of a relation to be founded between contraries , depends on a substantial root , or on a radical respect of contrarieties , and an intimate suitableness of proportion most fully present ; which is as much as to say , That the essence of the relation of contrarieties to be founded ( otherwise more former than the existence it selfe of forms can be ) is altogether seated in the most full , or innermost substantial principle of forms it self , wholly uncapable of contrariety : And that , whether thou dost respect God himself , or any other created substance : and so it must needs be , That contrariety in nature doth include a contradiction in its own Beginnings , and those of Phylosophy . But if thou considerest these things even as supernaturally , and in God , they are not also therefore made contrary ; and so , neither shall they flow from God into nature , as contraries . And this very thing I say , I also urge further , If one contrary may be declared so many wayes , as oft as also another ; Neither is there any thing contrary to substanstial forms ; therefore there is also no friendship , co-resemblance or likenesse between forms , which is false : For truly , from hence doth appear a Character of things not to be blotted out , because all things were created by God the Lover of Peace . For after that I submitted my self to be instructed by better Beginnings , I seriously knew for certainty , whether I should behold substances , or at length accidents , that there is no contrariety in nature , unless among angryable or wrathful Beings , and moveable living creatures : So far is it , that the action of every Agent on its Patient , should onely proceed from the term of relation of a contrary unto its contrary . Therefore I have found contrariety only in the wrathful power of Sensitive creatures , and not else-where : Whence perhaps by an improper metaphor , or hyperbole or excessiveness , contrariety hath been also wrested unto all individuals of the world . Whether the Schooles feeling a proper animosity of disputing , have also meditated that the other products of Seeds also , are in like manner stirred up only by anger ; to wit , by the action of the greater to the lesse , of the Conqueror to the thing conquered , and of the stronger to the weaker , by Reason of the Relations of Contrariety : Therefore the sense of that Negative Maxim , wherein it is said , That nothing is contrary to substances ; is equivalent to the Position fore-placed in the Title of this Chapter : to wit , That nature is ignorant of or knows no contraries . If there should be any power of contrariety in nature , except in the wrathful faculty of sensitive creatures ( for of Terms , and applyed Relations of Logick , I do not speak ) surely that should be in the manifest and primary qualities of the Elements ; but in these there is no contrariety ; therefore in no place elsewhere . The Assumption is proved , for that the Schools do draw the first qualities in mixt bodyes from the very contrarieties of the composing Elements : But the Subsumption I have proved elsewhere , here to be repeated : A young man in the morning descending from the Alpes , which are covered with continuall Snow , yet on the side respecting the Sun , his whole neck was burnt into Bubbles or Bladders : And there the aire is exceeding delightfull , and poured all abroad , as it were with a new sky : ( Learn thou thence in the mean time , first of all , That Cold is not a privative absence of Heat , but a true Being ) Therefore Cold and Heat being there heightned at once in the same place , time , and subject of the aire , do mutually suffer each other ; which thing , the Schools will not admit to be possible in contraries : for truly , they are such things which they will have mutually to beat down , break , expell , slay each other , and to bring to a middle and neutral state . We must note here by the way , that in the same place the heightned cold is entertained immediately in the aire ; but the heightned , and bladdering heat to be there in respect of the Light , and so immediately in the place it selfe of the aire , but mediately in the aire : But seeing that place doth pierce the aire throughout its whole substance , and the enlightned place doth heat also the aire it self , which therefore the light doth at once pierce ; therefore in the same point of the aire , there is a heightned heat , together with heightned cold : The knitting of both which , brings forth an acceptable , and friendly luke-warmth to the sense ; yet a mocking one , because the effect of both qualities being knit together , bewrayeth a great heightning or degree under that luke-warmth : And therefore neither is luke-warmth caused as both qualities being equally heightned , do dash or batter each other through the fight of contrariety , and reduce each other into a middle , and plausible mediocrity ; but the Senses , and Schools ( which according to sensualities , suffer themselves to slide , every where , without a more inward narrow search ) are too improper , and rusticall Judges of natural things . Likewise hot water being powred into cold , of a like proportion , although they do presently stir up a luke-warmth in the thing co-mixt ; Yet both qualities in a heightned degree , are in that luke-warmth , no otherwise than as in the aforesaid aire of the Alpes , although the sense doth not distinguish them : For otherwise it is not possible , that that heat of the water gotten by the moment of degrees , should perish in an instant ; yea , neither is it the fight of contraries , which hath presently generated that luke-warmth , as neither the victory of cold excelling the heat , while the former heat is slackned ; but the heat in the water is a transitory Relolleum , because it is violently brought in : For therefore , the fire ceasing from which it was produced , of its own accord , it presently is diminished , and ceaseth , being no longer cherished : That the heat in the hot water being divided throughout the least Atomes of its subject , perisheth of its own accord , but is not overcome expulsively by a contrariety . Because a Relolleum is an efficient quality , not proceeding out of the Ferments and Seeds of things : And it is twofold ; to wit , One in its own body , but the other in a strange body . Amongst proper Relolleum's , some are seperable , As cold in the air and water : but others are unseperable , as heat in the light of the Sun , Candle , and Fire , which can never wax cold : A strange Relolleum is violent , by which , if it be not nourished , it therefore perisheth by its moments and degrees : And therefore it is called transient , as is heat in the water . Therefore aire , and water are not made hot by the fire , through contrariety , but by the generating of a strange Relolleum , as it acteth that which was commanded it to act , after a different manner of acting with seeds . And therefore , it neither acteth to , or for a form . In like manner , when water extinguisheth fire , or fire lifts up water into a vapour , that never happens by the force of contrariety : Because the whole fire of the universe cannot blot out , or lessen the least moistness from one only drop of water ? Wherefore , the contrariety of the fire should be in vain and foolish , or its fight vain and invalide : But that aire cannot in any ages , by Art or Nature , be converted into water , or this likewise into aire , as I have elsewhere demonstrated by Science Mathematical , and by other means sufficiently enough demonstrated : For neither is the fire quenched by the water , by reason of the presence of a contrary cold in the water : For so hot water should not quench fire : And fire burns more strongly under the blowing and cold of the North , than of the South ; and the coldest blowing of Bellows doth the more kindle or enflame the fire : Therefore water slayeth fire , but not fire , water : Also fire gives place , not being overcome by cold , but being choaked it perisheth : And so hot Oyl doth extinguish a bright burning Coale . If therefore contraries ought to be under the same generall kind , fire cannot be contrary to water ; seeing fire is not a Substance ; even as I have sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere . Lastly , If they were contrary , they should be primarily , by themselves substantially , and immediately contrary , as simple bodies ; and that being granted , their action ought to be a like and equall sight , which thing I have already before shewn to be false , even as also that nothing is contrary to substances : For by the beholding of which two things , to wit , The fire , and the water , the Schools have feigned every contrariety of Mixtures and Complexions in the Universe : What wonder is it therefore that the contrariety of nature dreamed of in the Schools , is now to be had in suspition ? Seeing their own privative contraries are without contrariety , likeness or equality , combate , co-mixture , and grappling of forces ? Furthermore , moysture , and dryness are qualities scarce to be understood in the abstract ( even as otherwise , heat is considered in the hand , besides or without the fire : yea in its improper subject , as is the water ) but moystness , and dryness are rather very Bodies themselves qualitated or endowed with qualities : Neither therefore are they attained by parts and degrees ( with the leave of the Schooles ) after the manner of qualities : For moystness is not properly produced , but a moyst Body being added to a dry one , more of the moyst Body is applyed , and so moystness improperly waxeth great : That is , moysture increaseth quantitatively , but not qualitatively : But water doth never wax dry , although it may deceive the eyes by vanishing away : Even as concerning Gas elsewhere . Again , Siccum or Dry soundeth properly , ex-succum or without juyce , and contains onely a denyall of moysture : But although through the admixture of dry , water may seem to be diminished in Clay , yet the water doth alwayes keep its own intrinsecall moysture : As also the dry Body keeps likewise its own dryness ; Because there is not a piercing co-mixture of those in the Root , but onely an applying of parts : Therefore moysture , and dryth are so tied to a Body , that they can in no wise be distinguished from it . And therefore they are not Relolleum's , in manner of heat , and cold , which are brought in by degrees . The whole water indeed vanisheth away into a vapour : yet it never assumeth even the least quantity of dryth : But if of meal and water , pulse or bread be made , and at length , the nature of a fermentall seed being conceived , they do passe into a Stone ; yet truly those things are coagulated ones , which do cover and vail the antient moystness of the water ; but at length , the antient water is fetched again from thence : For it was not dryed up , nor hath it perished , although it were coagulated by the seed of things : For I have demonstrated elsewhere , mechanically , and mathematically , that all solid Bodies are onely of water , nor that they do admit of the congress or concourse of the other Elements : Or that every rangible Body is at length resolved into a simple Elementary water , such as falleth down through Rain ; yea , being of equall weight with its former solid Body : which onely head , destroyeth the compact , temperature of the Elements , and the intestine , and uncessant Warr of qualities in us : wherefore it behoves the Schooles diligently to search for altogether other causes of Diseases ; which I have declared by the unheard of beginnings of naturall Philosophy : Therefore it is a part of blockishness to be admired at , to have dreamed that moysture cometh to a thing by degrees , and likewise , that moysture , and dryness are slackened in the Elements : And so that it is a huge fiction , to have introduced these stupid Dreams into the Families of Diseases , and Cures , and confidently to have built upon these , the whole foundation of healing : So that throughout the whole ranks of moystures , and dryths , they have married each other , as well by their mutuall kinne , as by the bawderies of heat , and cold : To wit , for one onely fault , that their Neighbours might mournfully deliver their substance unto their vanities of temperaments . Being altogether ignorant , that there is no piercing of moyst with dry , in nature , no radicall union , co-mixture , or radicall temperature , whereby they may divide between each other in the bosom of a Form. And I do propose one question at least , to all , by me resolved elsewhere , how many contrary Elements soever they hitherto suppose to conflux into the constitution of Bodies which are believed to be mixt . Since indeed they suppose two weighty ones , to wit , the water and Earth , and two light ones : And likewise do suppose a penetration of Bodies to be impossible in nature . Thirdly , also seeing they suppose , that Gold without controversie is a Body mixt from a reall Wedlock of the aforesaid Elements ; how can it come to passe , that Gold doth exceed water in weight , sixteen times at least ? For if there be in Gold , parts of Air and fire , mixt by an undissolvable , and equall tempering : ( for that thing they affirm to be altogether necessary , seeing they assign the perpetuall remaining of Gold in the greatest torture of the fire , to be from an equall mixture of the four Elements . ) Therefore Water and Earth in Gold being constituted , shall two and thirty times out-weigh their own matter , from whence the Gold ariseth : Shall therefore Earth pierce it self two and thirty times at least , while Gold is made of it ? Therefore seeing the weight it self doth bewray infallibly , a ponderous Body , neither doth weight wholly consist of nothing ; they must resolve me of this question , before they shall draw me to their own opinion concerning the mixtures of the Elements . In the mean time , shall be room for me to shew by way of Handicraft-operation , that solid , and ponderous or weighty Bodies , do afford out of them , water of an equall weight , deprived of all manner of taste : Neither that an Element in nature is , as neither that the Elements can ever by any skill , or endeavour of nature , be knit together into a formall unity : these things already , more largely above . Therefore it is a deaf kinde of Doctrine , that there are four contrary Elements , which flow together to the co-mixture of other Bodies ( which hitherto are deceitfully supposed to be mixt ) and that they fight also in such mixt Bodies wherein they are enclosed , no otherwise than as in their own simplicity , by reason of contrarieties ; and that therefore they do mutually slay each other by an uncessant War , and that they do as oft rise again immediately by privation , that they devour ; and again vomit up each other . That stupidity of the Schooles is not to be borne , whereby they do without scruple , subscribe to each other in these trifles , not enquiring , what that appetite in an Element of enlarging it self should be ? or what the motion beyond the bound once appointed for it by the Creator ? For first of all , there is not any hunger , thirst , penury , or any the like defective thing , to which they should be subject , from their Creation : Neither also , do they suffer defects , much lesse an actuall feeling of defects ; Seeing every one is in it self a first and simple Being , neither doth it admit of VVedlocks , neither is it wasted by nourishments , and through the exchange of it self hath it , or doth it cast out excrements , nor doth it suffer rust ; neither doth it by waxing weary or declining , degenerate into any Body more pure than it self , more former than it self , more simple than it self . Therefore a necessity is wanting , whereby the Elements may consume each other after a hostile manner : For God saw , that whatsoever things he had made , were good . If therefore two good things should fight against each other ; that fight at least , could not but be a great and continuall evill , the authour whereof should be the Creator himself : For from thence it would follow , that such a property of the Elements should not be from God , as neither from sin , therefore , from some greater than God is : But if the Elements are said to be so created by God , that one should continually change another into its own nature ; not indeed by reason of mutuall Hostility , but for the necessity of nourishment : Although , that presupposeth a ridiculous thing ; yet I have what I wished : to wit , the taking away of contraries : Therefore , it is a vain privy shift , and a false devlse : For truly , that supposition cannot subsist together with the position it self : For that excuse being supposed , it must needs be , that there should be a fight and resistance : Else , one Element should presently convert all the other that co-toucheth with it , into it self : Because there is no difficulty of overcoming , where there is no necessity of fight or resistance ; Because every part of an Element should have the same passion , motion , and desire to consume its Neighbour , such things as are supposed to be in parts akinne to themselves . And so that therefore , those activities should be heightned into a hugeness , that it should easily and presently convert the Element subjected unto it , into its own nature , without a re-acting : And these being thus converted , afterwards uncessantly others , and successively others : At leastwise , that uppermost Air , and that which is at the farthest remote distance from the water , being pressed with a most tiresome and long thirst , had long agoe perished , or at least should languish through wearisomness or grief , as being deprived of its naturall nourishment . Therefore , however these things may be excused , the Creatures at least , should be ordained by God , with a desire of troubling the order and Harmony of the Universe , and of their first constitution : to wit , of bringing in the first dissolution , and disproportion , by overcoming , slaying , and transcnanging their Neighbour into themselves : Truly , humane frailties are the inventers of these fables , brought in by the Paganish Schooles . Because through ignorance of nature it self , the common people have brought in Lawes , confusions , contrarieties , fights , hostilities , reducements , and repeated Resurrections , that men might excuse their own angry contrariety , and might apply it to things that want it . Indeed the Schooles , and also the common people , who have been deceitfully , thorowly instructed by these , have esteemed , that in nature it is a greater , more glorious , and better thing to overcome , than to be overcome ; to subdue equalls , than to be subdued : But God hath taught us otherwise : To wit , that in the top of perfection of nature , it is more glorious to suffer , than to do wrong : that it is a more blessed thing to be overcome of a stronger , than to have cast down a weaker . And seeing God cannot erre in his judgements , hence the judgements of the Schooles and common people , have sprung , not from the truth of nature ; but indeed from our animosity and frailty : And therefore they are erroneous and abusive , as as being opposite to the divine judgements : Neither also , shall those which God hath despised in man , be able to praise him in the simplicity of a Law , and necessity of Nature , if they were glorious : But if there were any true contrariety in things that want sense , they had rightly judged , that that doth necessarily arise , and presuppose a conception of hatred and hostility , being radically sealed in their own first and formall beginnings ; by reason whereof , the Agent from its own self-love , should stir up to it self a hatred against the Patient : or it should have that hatred singularly put into it by nature , for resistance , unlikeness , and an endeavour of successive alteration : And that , which way soever it may be taken , is to confess Radicall , Seminal , and most inward contrarieties in substantial forms : And so substances themselves to be immediately contrary to each other , unlesse they had rather deny forms to be substances . But I am provided to teach , That nature doth act all things by its own middle properties , no aime of contrariety , hatred , or fight being proposed to it selfe . For truly , in the first place ; We believe it by faith to be true , That God is the daily Authour and Governour of Nature ; and that every where his own creature doth as much as it can , expresse and witnesse him in goodnesse . In the next place , That God is the fountainous Beginning of love , concord , and peace ; also that he hateth discords and contrarieties , so that if he could have framed the Universe without brawlings and contrarieties , there is no doubt but he hath done it : But he could do that very thing most readily , because he is Almighty , and hath made all things as he would ; therefore also hath he done it . The Subsumption is plain , because nothing could resist him , but what he would make free : but the Seeds of things , or the Agents of nature , he hath not endowed with a freedom of willing ; therefore neither could the Agents of nature resist God : And by consequence , he made the Agents of nature , according to the good pleasure of his own love , goodnesse , and peace : For so , when I take meat , I never find in my self a contrariety , as neither in the meats ; but if its abundance or quality shall offend me , I find indeed a defect in me , but not a contrariety : If any one be averse to Cheese , it argueth not a contrariety , but a seminal disposition working some hurtfull thing , through a seminal power directed by God : For it listeth not us by reason of the necessary successive changes in things , to call any hurtfull qualities the hostilities & enmities of things : Because we must speak properly in Phylosophy ; whereas otherwise , words do change the sense , and do estrange the Essences of things , and especially , when as thereby the whole constitution of healing is wrested aside to the destruction of man : For contrariety doth not only bespatter the face of nature with as many vices as there are Agents , and Properties of things ; but also seemeth to have accused the Parent of nature himself , as if he were the Maker and Favourer of hatred and brawlings : And so that the whole universe should be only an Inne of hostility , a perpetuall Duel , and a true infernal Fury , no where expressing the Figure of its Creator . Therefore contrarieties in nature are not from the Creator , who despiseth them in things capable of choice ; much more in those things which himself hath framed , according to the example of the Arch-type or first pattern . Again , The creature , seeing it came out of nothing , bears before it no Property from it self : But if therefore , contrarieties should proceed from errour alone , from the accustomedness of Seeds being wrested aside ; then at least they should not subsist , but in monstrous effects , and therefore should be thrust rashly into the composure of nature . And Lastly , From hence it followes , That the contrarieties of Seeds are only from God : of which Assertion , a Christian judgeth the folly . For the Schools have never hitherto thorowly weighed , how much these might differ from each other ; to have done any thing through a conception of contrariety , and to have wrought any thing through the obedience of the Seeds due to the Properties given them by God : For therefore , to admit of contraries , is to place errors in the intention , means , and end of nature . Therefore we must know , That nature doth altogether refuse contraries , if we hope to attain its in-most tone or highest strain . But that which the Schools have devised concerning radical heat , at least they have forgotten , That radicall cold doth marry it under the same vitall principle , That contraries might rejoyce in their own equall right : And they have opposed death only unto it , out of the general kind : Wherefore , they have left that principal quality single without a contrary : And leaving their own false Maxim , That contraries are under the same general kinde , and that they are predicated by as many equal turns on both sides . For seeing death is a privation and non-Being , it can never supply the place of a contrary ( according to the dictate of the Schools ) That it may be opposed to life or radicall heat ; seeing that which is not , and which is nothing , doth not stand under the same generall kinde with radicall heat : Concerning the Fables whereof , and the fictions of Primogenial or Radical moisture , I have treated very largely in the Treatise of Long Life . Again , The Schools being dashed against the Rocks , do now and then treat of heat , and cold , as potential things , yet not as contraries ; because in every small drop , or the least atome of Simples , they determine heat and cold to be connexed , and very excelling in strength : to wit , They declare in Opium , a heightned cold to be , and also a heat in its bitternesse : And so also , I have now rendred their knowledge drawn from savours , ridiculous , from one only example touching Relolleum's : Because Seminal and Specificall Powers have by the Schools been rashly brought over into Elementary qualities , or 〈◊〉 : For they Divine cold to be in Opium , although bewrayed by no judgement of the senses , from its effects ; because they by a ridiculous dream , have tied up the seminall , sleepifying power unto cold : As though the most High , when he would send sleep into Adam , had stirred up cold in him ! And as if , after Dinner a notable cold in us should ascend into the head ! Truly , the Schools do every way require an understanding for the obedience of an incomprehensible faith . But if the Herb Flammula , or Scarwort , although it hath it self after an univocal or simple manner ( as much as in it layes ) unto all things whereunto it is applyed ; yet it doth not embladder a dead carkasse , even as it doth a living body : Because a dead carkasse is not moved actively , or by its own motion , by the poysonsom ferment of the Flammula : Because those potential qualities are no more those of heat and cold , than the Elementary ones are ; But the proper and formall-specificall efficacy of things . Wherefore the device and testimony of rudeness or ignorance for contrariety , is vain or foolish , whatsoever hath been by the Schools subscribed to the desires of the Gentiles concerning heat , and cold potential ; Seeing they deny potential heat to be the companion of actual heat under the same kinde , under which notwithstanding they do collect contraries : And so , the rash history of temperaments hath drawn to it the vital and seminal faculties of things ; for it is unknown in the Schools , that whatever acteth by reason of Salts , is not of the proper power of the Seed , but an accident varying by reason of the obiect : For they have esteemed Lime as a most hot Simple , because by its Salts , it moved an escharre or crust in a wound : Neither minded they , that in Calx vive , even as in Snow , worms do of their own accord arise : What is desired in this place , I have elsewhere more largely explained concerning actions , even as also touching the knowings of diseases . Therefore hitherto I have taught , That qualities are , and do operate in the Elements without respect to contrariety : But now I descend unto a Systeme or collection of things . First of all , Oneness or a Unite is not contrary to a Binary or that which is twofold , although they go back divided by interchangeable courses : Likewise , neither are upwards and downwards , East and West , contraries , but oppositions of Scituations , which do vary through respects : And so , that which is above , in respect of another thing , is beneath : neither therefore is the right eare contrary to the left , although opposite : For neither do I speak of contradictory terms , which do only contradict in a Relative respect , but have not hostile Properties in things : Neither also is my speech concerning privative things : Yea , neither do I deny contraries in the wrathfull power ; but I constantly affirm onely this one thing alone , That God hath not made contraries in nature , which by hostility may kill and set upon each other : Or , I deny contrary properties in natural things ; That is , I deny positive and reall contraries to be in the order of natural actions : For vertue hath it selfe opposite to vice , from the disposition of the thing depriving : Neither also is a flying creature contrary to a creeping one , for the same Silk-worm is both : Neither is generation it self contrary to corruption ; but there is one only flowing of the Seeds , from point to point , by wearying , withdrawing , losing , or extinguishing the strength or faculties . Likewise , neither is great contrary too little , nor straight too crooked ; Seeing one and the same thing may sometimes be small , sometimes great , strait , and crooked . Let the same judgement be of sweet and bitter , hard and soft , rough and smooth , heavy and light , sharp and blunt , coagulated and resolved , or of white and black : For all the powers of things are in themselves absolute ; neither do they respect others that are diverse from them ; Because every thing is even as it existeth by it selfe : But for that they are opposed by us , even as if they did disagree among themselves , that is unknown to things , and plainly by accident , or forreign unto them . In the mean time , a Hatchet doth not cut wood , or a Knife cut bread , by reason of contrarieties or hostilities , but every property acteth without reflexion on an opposite one , that which it is commanded to act . It is a foolish thing to will things to be contrary , wherein there is no pretence of hatred , disagreement , victory , or superiority : And therefore , neither is there any intention of contrariety in nature . Therefore every thing acteth even as it is commanded to act . For within an egg-shell , a war of contrariety is not inclosed , although the Seed may flow through various successive alterations of dispositions , far unlike from each other ; a Unity and concord of nature is on every side kept , which is no where contrary to it self : yea , it abhorreth every contrary , and whatsoever disturbeth unity . For indeed , there is in the Seed a transchanging of the water existing in the earth of a Garden ; and so that one onely water passeth into a thousand hot , sharp , bitter , sour , and cold Herbs : For not because any Seed is contrary to the juice or water in the earth ; or that another sharp simple doth envy a sharp one that is neighbour to him , which doth lesse answer to him in the resembling mark of unity ; far be it : For they proceed indifferently from the vitall Beginning of their own Seeds , wherein hostile contraries are not entertained : For accidents , seeing they are the dispositions of Seeds , or of absolute Beings in themselves , not of Relative ones , and therefore ignorant of contrarieties , they follow also the guidance of their own Seeds , whose instruments , and products they are : Therefore the Table of repugnant things admits of contraties onely in the sensitive and wrathfull power of free Agents . Secondly , It admits of privative things . Thirdly , Last of all , of those things which do contradict in Relative terms . Since therefore there are not things absolutely contrary in nature ; how carelesly it hath hitherto been proceeded in the fictions of Complexions , and healings of the sick , they shall see , whom the mournings of Widows and Orphans shall one day accuse ; to wit , That for one only sluggishnesse , they have rashly subscribed to stupid heathenish Doctrines : And so , that indeed they have not hitherto so much as known the definition of nature , which I thus define . Nature is that command of God whereby a thing is that which it is , and doth what it is commanded to do : But that fitly , because the Schools reject their own Theorems or Speculations ; And do seem to set their Speculative Art to sale , the which as oft as they please , they do not follow : For in the Plague , and Malignant Feavers , they give Triacle , and other things not obscurely hot , as also medicines causing sweat , to drink , the indication or shewing token of heat being neglected : Also an Erisipelas the most fiery of Apostems ( as they say ) they cure by applying of the best Aqua vitae . Lastly , If nature the Physitianesse of her self , can overcome diseases by her own goodnesse , but not by a fighting quality : Let them shew I pray , what kind of cold it may be in a Feverish body , which may slay the heat of the same Disease at set hours . And moreover , if nature be her own Phyfitiannesse , what necessity is there I pray , that the disease should be bounded by a Crisis or judiciall period , where there is no strife , nor disease cited , heard , or admitted for judgement ? Where the Patient in the Beginning , is more able to strive , than himself , being brought nigh a recovery of his health ! To wit , After many labours , pains , fastings , watchings , and evacuations ? So now he of necessity ought rather to faint for feebleness , than to overcome strife , and to conquer his enemy by his own power : Yea , if any strength had been known to have been in the entrance of the Disease , plainly it ought to have been judged in the Beginning , when as he had a judge and witnesses in his behalfe , and an equall cause against the Trayterous disease : At least it is an unjust thing , and worthy of loud laughter , that the Judge himself be a party in the Crisis . Let sports depart in serious matters : For if Nature be ignorant of contraries ( as I have shewn ) surely these could not fight in us , and least of all so long as the creature stands in need of help or ease , and the disease was present : For truly , our nature doth alwayes work a univocal or single thing , whether it resolveth coagulated things , or at length coagulateth resolved things : For it doth no otherwise than as Gold-finers powder , which giveth a hardnesse to Lead , a difficult melting to Quick-silver , and Tinne , both which qualities it taketh away from Iron : Not indeed , Because that powder is contrary to it self , and to Metalls ( which it perfecteth ) in working , and adds to these what is wanting to themselves ; to wit , That one only powder doth afford to every one of them , their own , and far diverse Dispositions which they have believed to be contrary , as hardnesse in Gold is to softnesse in Lead . Let Paracelsus likewise give place , because he hath inclosed all healing in things that are alike , by admitting in the mean time , the tempest of contraries : And although liknesse doth involve a familiarity , and easie receiving of a remedy , its union , entrance , piercing by reason of an agreement of co-resemblance ; Yet that good man was ignorant , that those are not Agents sufficiently requisite to healing ; but are only occasional , external means , or Reconcilers of healing : Such as is also the purity and subtility of a Medicine . Wherefore I judge , that a Medicine doth properly , immediately , and efficiently consist in that which belongs or agrees , or in that which is appropriated : To wit , Whereby nature doth rise again from its fall . For truly , there are native endowments within things , which differ from that which is like ; to wit , They are those wherein our Archeus doth find his delights . For example ; Hunger is as it were a very sharp disease , killing in good earnest , at least , through the sufferance of a few dayes : But it is not cured by contrary food , nor lastly by like food . Neither also doth hunger argue a defect of wasted bloud : Otherwise , Bloody-Fluxes , and Blood-letting , should necessarily make men hungry : But in hunger there is a consuming of the nourishment of the stomack it self , from the vigour of the digestive , or hungry and devouring Ferment , whence at length a Cough is the perceivance of hunger . Indeed , as oft as the Ferment is well disposed , nor having an object on which it may act , it consumeth the proper nourishment of the stomack ; therefore food doth allay hunger , not in as much as it is contrary to the ferment , nor as it is like to the same , but because it is an appropriated Remedy . The like thing is to be required in the healing of any deseases whatsoever ; to wit , a suitable fitting of the Remedy to the indisposition of the Archeus , and a taking away of the occasional cause : which appropriated agreement , or natural endowment of a Remedy , doth presuppose a proportion , as well in degree , as in quantity , a fitting , and application , together with a specificall matching of conformity . In this respect also it includes a shewing and knowing of the end , the disposition , and necessity of our faculties , and their agreements with the Remedy , whereto again the Dose is supposed . For so , Remedies may not onely answer to the likenesse or equality of objects ; but also to the determinations or limitations of the ferments . Paracelsus sometimes supposed , That no Simple is fit for healing , unlesse it self doth first dye . And again in another place , That it is not sufficient for a Simple for that cause to dye , unlesse it be first reduced into the three first things , Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury ( so he calls them : ) Which errour of the Affirmer , hath raised up in the Authour a frequent unconstancy : Because there are not a few Simples which do unfold the specifical property of their form , the Subject wherein they in-here being safe : Of which sort that comes first to hand , are Medicines tied about the head for the Head-ach , and very many Amulets , which himself calleth Zenexton . So indeed , we have pleasantly noted , That tremblings or beatings of the heart , the disgraceful pain of the Hemorrhoides or Pyles , inordinate Fluxes of Bloud , Falling-sicknesses , stranglings of the womb , and Fevers themselves , have been appeased by things hung on the body . So on the contrary , not a few distilled Remedies do scarce know how to dye , or to passe into the family of man ; Yet great is their effect in diseases . Let Paracelsus also pardon me , because that resolution of simple Remedies is never made in our body : For I have elsewhere sufficiently taught , That the Digestion doth never tend to those late three first things ; Nor that we that are ever nourished by these things , but by the one only , and the same , or colike liquor whereof we consist . Many things also , through their first boy sing , do lay aside their former virtues : For so Asarum or Fole-foot , of a vomiting Medicine , becomes a provoket of Urine : And by the dividing of a thing into those three first things , its specificall Property is for the most part destroyed : For although they keep some kind of constitutive temperature of their composed body ; yet they are by the fire made a new creature . Also he is happy , who by crude or raw Simples , hath known safely and readily to take away diseases : For it is the more antient method of healing , noted in the Scriptures ; Because the Almighty hath created medicine from the earth : For truly , a specificall Being cannot but be altered by the fire : Therefore not un-often , Extracts , and Magisterial Medicines are weakened . For indeed as Alchymie brings many things to a degree of greater efficacy , as it stirs up a new Being : So on the other hand again , it by a privy filching , doth enfeeble many things . Indeed , he accuseth nature of sluggishnesse and imperfection , whosoever thinketh the same to have perfected nothing without the fire : Let the seeds of things be the witnesses of these things : For some seeds do bud of their own free accord ; But some do want sowing , and harrowing , but very few stand in need of the Art of preparing : at length none do admit of the fire , or of a resolving : For the powers or virtues which immediately stick fast in the bosom of nature , do act after the manner of an influence , neither will they willingly be submitted to the fire . But those powers which are immediately in the forms , not indeed of a Simple , but of Heterogeneal parts , do very often shine again in the more abstracted part of them : For so Mace , Terpentine , and Asparagus , do even paint their mark of resemblance in the Urine . But the powers which arise out of things by the fire , although they owe something to their own composed body , as it were the pledges of its family ; yet certainly they are new , and transplanted branches , for the most part the Vassalls of another Monarchy , even as elsewhere concerning the faculties of Medicines . For I have alwayes greatly esteemed the ordination of the Creator in the endowment of Simples : For in very deed , according to his mind , very many , or most Diseases do give place by Simples , as if they were driven out by a most old Wedge . But because I speak in the praise of Simples , I would not be received into a sleighting of the Art of the fire : But I speak only to those who admit of nothing besides those three first things , and do far preferre the Sweets drawn out of Herbs by stilling , before their bloody juices . For first , They may learn , that the Juices of Herbs , and likewise the Broathes of fleshes , do season and keep from corruption for yeers , without Salt , Vinegar , Honey , Sugar , and Fire ; Then at length they will easily despise the stilled waters of Herbs , no lesse than Syrupes : But when as the disease hath arisen into a degree , and hath intimately married , prostrating nature ; higher remedies are required , than those which nature hath of her own accord produced . At length perhaps , I shall by many , be judged to have strived about Goats Wool , and onely about a name : And that , what the Schooles do call a contrary , I have strove to mask with the Etymologie of an opposite : But this punishment remaineth with me from the ungratefull onely . I speak to the Physitians , and Schooles , which admit onely of those Remedies of Diseases , which by a contrary hostile property , are reckoned to set upon Diseases by fighting : And who , by a contrary distemper ( as they say ) do diligently teach , that a temperature is onely to be obtained ; of which sort of things that none hath at length , hitherto been , and plainly appeared in nature , I am satisfied : Neither is it sufficient , that they do require in a Remedy , superior forces related to the Disease ; but also they will have that to come to passe , with the VVar of contrariety , strife , and a Crisis , if Victory be thence to be hoped for . Truly I have shewen , that such powers are not found in nature : Likewise , that neither do the seeds of things act from a hope and endeavour of Victory , or of trampling on their Patient , as being contrary to it : Nor also of overcoming the activity of the Patient : And so that there is not any contrariety , striving , hatred , VVar , combate of arrogancy , or superiority to bear any shew , or be preferred in naturall things , but that they act without an intention and foreknowledge of the end , as they were so created by God their Umpire , and were so endowed , and so commanded by him to act : Therefore it is clear , that contrariety as it is taught in the Schooles , to be implanted in any kinde of things , is banished from whole nature , except from the wrathfull faculty of living Creatures : and so , although self-love , sympathy , antipathy , choice , yea and some sense or perceiving may be attributed to things without life ; Let it be an Analogy , or proportionable resemblance re-shining rather in their effects , and causes ; than in the direction of the Creator , or Ordination of ends ; because , in a proper sense , they are deprived of choyce , intention of acting , and foreknowledge of ends . But seeing any of these sort of things do plentifully witness , that they have a directer , strongly moving , and sweetly disposing the ends of all things even to their bounds ; the unfoldings of their properties are Testimonies , that the most glorious God doth rule the rains even of things of small esteem , by powers given unto them , ignorant thereof : And so , that they are wholly right , withut a knowledge of the end : that is , without their violent force , anger , strife , and hatred . So far is it therefore , that I judge the actions of things , and remedies , to be made by opposites ( in the room of contraries ) that I have equally banished , as well opposites as contraries , from nature ; but I have admitted opposites , after the manner of a Relation of termes ; But not in the way wherein they act on each other : For I have alwayes from the Age of a man , supposed ; that if there should be contraries , or they should act as such , nature should not totally , exemplarily , formally , and dependantly respect its Creator : And that , of such a Creature , it could not be fitly said ; And God saw that whatsoever things he had made , were good : if it could not unfold the properties planted in it , without hatreds , after a hostile manner . At length , how much opposite things , which I have reckoned among repugnant or resisting ones , may differ from contrary ones , those Physitians have known , whosoever do not burn with a pleasure of reproaching : Therefore let young Beginners mark , whether he who overthroweth the first principles of healing , from the intent of the Creator , striveth with me about a naked name who would have all things operate according to the endowment of nature conferred on it ; not by contrariety , or a desire of destroying each other , but for the ends foreknown to God alone , who is love and peace ; but not hatred , strife , or the fewel of contrariety : Therefore , from the intention of the Creator , are created things to be weighed . The VVoolf hath deceived the Schooles , who kills if he could , not one Sheep onely , but also the whole flock . Contraries are in man , and Beasts , by a power of animosity or angry hear , which is banished as well from the Minerall , as vegetable Kingdom . At length , in mortall men , sins are opposed to virtues privatively , seeing Sin is reckoned a non-being . I may think habituall virtues not to be contrary to vices , as they do as yet reside in the understanding ; but onely when the issuing of them out of the understanding is in the consent , wherein it is opposed to an animosity willing another thing , which in the Progress doth at first bring forth anger , hatred , grudges , that is , contraries : For out of the heart proceedeth Murders , Adulteries , &c. But a meer non-being doth not proceed , as neither doth it fall under a conception ; seeing it hath not a Species of its own wherein it may represent it self . Therefore sin is not onely a turning away from the Creator ; but also a mentall or mindelike act of a determined wickedness or malice : but an act of the minde doth alwayes put on matter , whereon it decyphers its own Idea which it hath formed by conceiving , or imagining ; and thus far it springs forth according to the Soyl of the Soul , into the faculties of the Body . Hitherto , I have discoursed of Faculties created from the intent of the Creator : to wit , that there is not given an incentive or inciting Faculty of contraries and enmities , unto things existing without the animosity of sensuality : But it shall be profitable , to shew in this place , that by the same animosity , some things are made , which express a beast-like hostility ; as , by the spittle of a mad Dog , the stinging of Serpents , Bees , &c. yet the same things do operate after the manner of poysons , and poysonsom Plants ; which divine goodness , hath not created to hurt , or kill , or unto an ill end ; but for other ends directed for the glory of his Majesty . But it will be very hard to attribute the contraries of Hostility to inaminate things by an accustomed , and wanton analogy of powers , to consider a matter or thing ( to wit , the Spittle of a mad Dog , or of Serpents ) to be imprinted by anger on a man , without that contrariety which we of our own accord grant to be in a bruit Beast from whence it sprang : But surely , he shall with me , easily perceive it , if he consider , that poyson , whether it be created by a Beast , or prepared through the contagion of animosity , doth not therefore cease to be poyson , and to act according to the nature of poyson : The property whereof is , to act by a naturall force or power ; yea although having risen from the impression of anger ; yet this quality is no more anger to it , but a certain naturall product : and so wherein there is indeed a mark of anger and contrariety , but not anger it self : And therefore there is not a certain product like unto love , wherewith a man being stricken , or anointed , may by so much profit , by how much he is deadlily smitten by another product . Whence it is manifest , that that poyson , however it be produced by anger , and be mortall unto a man ; yet that doth not happen through any contrariety ; seeing that a direct contrary is wanting unto it , which doth equivalently or equally help , and promote the life , even as this poyson hurts it . And so , if these kindes of poysons do act by reason of contrariety , now the Maxim is false ; That so many wayes one contrary is said to be , by how many wany wayes another is so said . Therefore it hath now beensufficiently shewen , that poysons indeed , are made from the anger of Beasts ; but it doth not therefore follow , that the poysonof a Plant , if it act ( as was shewen above ) by reason of its own naturall endowment implantedin it by God , and not by reason of any contrariety , that the poyson of bruit Beasts is more capable of contrariety , than that of other Simples : Otherwise , the same thing is wholly to be judged concerning the poysons of those that have the art of poysoning , Sorceresses , &c. For although they are compounded , and given to the drinker ; to hurt the minde : yet those do operate either naturally , and so without an intention of contrariety , or fight : or they operate by the power of the Devil ; which is either solitary or singly alone , and so is truly a hostile effect ( because from the evill Spirit an enemy ) or naturall : And then , not by the force of contrariety or fight ; but onely by the unfolding of its naturall endowment : The which I have already shewen above , to be void of contentious contrariety . Furthermore , through occasion of these things , the efficacy of poyson prepared by animosity , is to be explained : it is known to the common people , That the bloud of a Bull doth strangle him that drinks it ; but not the bloud of an Oxe or Cow. And that thing I have elsewhere referred to the fury of the Bull , with the desire of a dying revenge , after the manner of Serpents . But a Hog , although he perish with anger ( perhaps therefore , God forbad the bloud of living Creatures under pain of indignation ) yet that is done with a fear of death . But the Bull is struck with so great a fury , that he suffers no apprehension of death : And so , although his bloud be poysonsom , yet not his flesh ; Because his fury approaching nigh unto death , hath not space enough to defile his flesh . But a mad Dog , because he was a good while mad before death , doth also infect his flesh . Therefore fearfull Animalls , as the Mouse , Toad , &c. do centrally besprinkle their fleshes , and bones with a certain fear : Even as I have demonstrated elsewhere in the Plague-grave . But hitherto hath that Maxim regard , Morta la bestia , morto il veleno : The Beast being dead , his poyson is kill'd : which surely hath place in a poysonsom living Creature ; because between while , he burns with a fury of revenge . In brief , if the vertues and endowments of Simples be adverse to us , that proceedeth from Divine Ordination ; but net from the Idea or Image of revenge , or hostile contrariety : For these do far differ from each other ; to be contrary to any thing , and to have hurtfull endowments in nature : For truly this proves Gods order and variety of powers appointed in nature ; But that declareth Hostility , an enemy to God and nature : therefore they differ in their end ; That is , in the institution and direction of God in nature : which is , in the order , intention , ordination , and so in the whole scope of the minde of God : according to which , I consider contrarieties in Bruits , and in Man , and not in other Simples , and least of all in the Elements . And therefore to conclude ; the question is not here , about a name ; if I shall overthrow the contrarieties of Elements , and their fights , and successive courses of Complexions in things falsly believed to be mixt : even as also , whatsoever hath from these Suppositions , been hitherto pratled in the behalf of life , a Disease , Death , and Remedies . CHAP. XXIV . The Blas of Man. 1. The errour of the Schooles about the first Moover . 2. Aristotle contradicteth himself . 3. Blasphemy in a Christian . 4. An errour hath slown from Science Mathematicall badly appropriated . 5. The Blas of man doth imitate the flowing of the Stars . 6. When our Blas doth go before , and when it followes the Blas of the Stars . 7. Why the Blas of Bruits goes before that of the Stars . 8. A voluntary Blas is not annexed to the Stars . 9. A twofold Blas in us . 10. Whence unsensitive things are moved . 11. Galen resisteth Aristotle in the Pulses . 12. He sought into the measurings of pulses , but not into the efficient cause . 13. The use of the pulses with Galen . 14. A third use unknown to Galen . 15. The consideration of the Authour . 16. That a cooling refreshment is not the end of pulses . 17. Some suppositions . 18. None hath treated concerning life . 19. Contradictories concerning the fire of the heart . 20. Whether a pulse be for the procuring of Colds sake . 21. Why the pores in the inclosure of the heart , are triangular . 22. Wherein the venall bloud , and the arteriall bloud do differ . 23. The sensitive soul is the framer of pulses . 24. To what end the motion of the heart is . 25. The absurdities of the Schooles concerning radicall heat . 26. The motion of the heart cannot be judged to be for cooling refreshment sake . 27. Why a Feverish pulse is swiftly moved . 28. A Thorn in the finger teacheth that from the swiftness of the pulse heat is increased , but not cold . 29. Five chief ends of the pulses . 30. How the kindling , and enlightning property of fieryness do differ . 31. That the Spirit of the bloud is not from the Liver . 32. It is a rotten Doctrine which confoundeth the ends of pulses with breathing . 33. The necessities of pulses have been hitherto unknown . 34. The use of the pulses hath respect unto the digestive Ferment . 35. The sluggishness of the Schooles about these things . 36. Why healthy Sailers are more hungry than themselves not sailing . 37. The Air cannot nourish the spirit of life . 38. An Alcali is formed by burning up . 39. The wonderfull Coal of Honey , and divers speculations of Chymistry are cleared up . 40. The Common-wealth of Alcalies . 41. The fabrick of the Balsam Samech of Paracelsus . 42. An Alcali is made volatile , and so interchangeably under the same formall property of a composed Body . 43. Of the labour of wisdom . 44. An Handicraft Operation of distilled Vinegar . 45. Some Handricraft Operations of Chymistry are re-taken for the finishing of the venall bloud without a dreg . 46. A new and unheard of use of the pulses . 47. There is an unwonted pulse from the part grieving through a Thorn. 48. Pus or corrupt matter being made , why Sumptomes wax milde . 49. Whence the hardness of an Artery may straightway be made . 50. What a hard pulse may portend . 51. That the use of the pulse differs from the use of breathing . 52. While Pus is made , the labour is greater . 53. The quality of a vulnerary or wound-potion . 54. It is false , that the bowels are by nature hotter in VVinter . 55. A contradiction of the Schooles . 56. A begging of the principle . 57. An eightfold scope or aim of the pulses . 58. As there is not a Livery Spirit in the venal bloud ; so neither is there an Animal or sensitive pulse of a proper name , in the , shop of the Brain . THe Elements , Complexions , Compositions , and Causes of natural things , for natural Phylosophie , being already dispatched : to wit , After the birth of forms , the ignorance which circumvents mortal men about the Beginnings of healing , being unfolded ; also the necessity of Ferments , and of Magnum Oportet , being perfectly taught : Now therefore I will examine the Beginnings of life . The Schools have raught , That in every locall motion , a first unmoveable Mover is of necessity to be appointed : Which thing , I neither find true by Art , nor Nature : For the demonstrating whereof ; A drunken man of an unstable mind , and foot , in a floating ship , goes and hangs a weight on a Clock : Therefore in voluntary motions , there is not required a first stable or unmoveable Mover . Likewise , the Sun doth with his beam enflame Gun-powder through a Glasse . This first Mover hath not any thing in his possession , that may be unmoveable : That thing is also already manifest in the fire , an irregular Being . Thirdly , In nature every seed being once conceived in a due place , doth not cease afterwards by its own motion , to stir the lump subjected to it : Therefore the true and first Mover of seeds in nature , and work-man of all things moves himself first , & doth not require a motion beyond his own motion : And whatsoever doth stir up any natural Mover to move , is its very own proper and internal Beginning of motion , and it falling into improper places , dyes ; and its motion ceaseth . Therefore the Aristotelicks , who call Nature the Principle of Motion , or the first Mover , do by an absurd forgetfulnesse , require an unmoveableness in the first Mover . And although seeds have need of an external fewel or nourishing warmth , or Stirrer up , yet the stirring up is not an inward motion , nor a mover of the same motion ; But is only an alteration accidentally hastening or ripening the power of its own motions , or the activity of the first mover , otherwise , weaker than that which may be for the moving of its own matter : Which activity seeing it is a certain accidental successive alteration , which in very deed , is not in it self at rest ( so far is it from being unmoveable ) neither also doth it remain in its antient and one state : Surely it confirms the Archeus , that he may the more strongly unfold his inbred strength of moving , and may direct it unto his own ends . But if indeed the Schools would have their Aristotle , ( although unfitly a Naturalist ) yet in this place to have had respect in natural things , unto the one and first supernatural Mover of all things , who is the independent Beginning of all motion ; Truly , I respect that as impertinent , it being without natural Phylosophy : For that most glorious Mover hath given powers to things , whereby they of themselves , and by an absolute force may move themselves , or other things . Indeed , it is impertinent to run back to God the Mover , to demonstrate the natural motion of Bodyes . But neither also is the blasphemy to be endured in a Christian , which requireth God of necessity to be unmoveable , that he may be able to move other things : For truly , God doth not move by a touching of extreams , and by an attraction , or expelling of things . Lastly , Neither doth a thing that is moved , attain vertues from the unmoveableness of the first Mover , as it fore-requires this : But the Divine beck or pleasure strongly reacheth all things from end to end , but not being constrained by a necessity of co-touching of extreams , pressed with consequence , led by manner , or subjected to a Law : But being altogether free , as well in his beck and motion , as in rest , he indifferently and alike powerfully moveth all things : Therefore his own unmoveable essence doth not import a necessity required of the Schools , but the meer good pleasure of his glory . For his own word ( Fait or Let it be done ) hath departed into nature , which afterwards is for the moving of it self . So B. Gregory saith , That there is a power conferred on the earth , whereby it may thrust forth Plants from it self . Therefore it is a Paganish Doctrine drawn from Science Mathematical , which necessitates the first Mover to a perpetual unmoveablenesse of himself , that without ceasing he may move all things . The errour is to be indulged in Aristotle , not in Christian Schools defiling young Beginners : for otherwise , there is no motion naturally made , but from a motive Principle , which moveth not other things , unlesse it be by it self , and in it self moved . And moreover also , in artificial , and natural things , if any thing be moved by an external Mover , and in that motion if the mover himself be supported by some unmoveable foundation ; as suppose when a Marriner thrusts back a ship from an unmoveable bank by a staff , the shoar or bank doth not move the ship , neither doth it naturally contain a motive power in it , but it is onely a means by which the mover measureth his motion ; to wit , on which the mover himself stablishing himself as it were on a bottom , doth by weight and the acting forces of Science Mathematical , frame his own motion , ( which otherwise is wholly moveable , and is actively moved : ) For so a Gun doth the more strongly cast out a Bullet , if it hath a resisting unmoveable body behind it . But surely , as that body is not motive , so it doth not but by an absurdity , require an unmoveable mover , and is unfitly compared to the first Mover : Yea in natural bounds , the first and totall Mover is Gun-powder enflamed , which that it may be moved , it requireth no unmoveablenesse , but that it may measuringly move , it hath need of a measured instrument : Therefore it is impertinent to think , that all motions are made by God the first Mover , as if he did move all things moved , with a certain staffe . It is also an impertinent thing while it is searched into , whether the Mover as he is such , ought of necessity to be unmoveable : it is answered , That the first mover shall measure his motion , and more strongly move , if he be unmoveable , or it is strove against an unmoveable foundation . Is that to have taught Christian Phylosophy ? For indeed , it is not to be doubted , but that the Stars by their various aspect which they beg from motions , do infuse a Blas motive of the water and aire , that they might be to us for seasons , dayes , and yeers . Again , in that the earth hath received an internall Beginning of propagating Plants before the Stars were born ; therefore bruit beasts ; although they were more latter than the stars , yet the seeds of these are not more ignoble than the seeds of plants , or annexed to the stars by the band of a greater subjection : Because the Stars were before the Creation of sensitive things ; therefore it was meet , that the Blas of men should not indeed follow the guidance of the Stars , but only that it imitate the motion of those , not as of motive powers , but no otherwise than as by a free motion we do follow the foot-steps of a Coach-man or Post : for so our bowels have perhaps assigned the Planets as their fore-runners : For every bowel forms a proper Blas to it self within , according to the figure of its own Star , which also hence is called Astrall or Starlike : Because it imitates the foot-steps of the Heaven , as well in the priority of the dayes of the Star its fore-runner , as in the Laws of appointments in nature . Otherwise , In infirmities , as all the endeavour of nature is sumptomatical ; so then the Blas of man goes before , and fore-sheweth future tempests ; whereas otherwise in health , a humane Blas doth ordinarily follow after the remarkable successive changes of times or seasons . But bruit beasts , as they were created in a day before man , so their Blas doth alwayes go before , and fore-run the Blas of the Stars : Wherefore many Prognosticks of a Meteor are drawn naturally from beasis : And superstition hath had access thereto , which hath added Divinings and Sooth-sayings to the credulous and superstitious . Yet the Blas which is by the will of living creatures , directed to a local motion , surely that is by no means connexed unto a Supernatural or Coelestial circumvolving motion : Because all carnall Generation flows out of the power of the Seed , and the power of the seed from the will of the flesh : Therefore fleshly generation hath a Blas of its own , readily serving for the uses of its own ends , flowing out of the Beginnings of its own Essence , which are the will of the flesh , and the lust or desire of a manly will. Therefore there is in us a twofold Blas : To wit , One which existeth by a natural motion ; but the other is voluntary , which existeth as a mover to it self by an internal willing . Hence therefore it is impossible , that the predictions of the Stars should rightly conclude in us . It hath now been sufficiently demonstrated , that there is something in sublunary things which can move it self locally , and alteratively , without the Blas of the Heavens , and an unmoveable natural mover . The will especially , is the first of that sort of movers , and moveth it self ; also a seminal Being , as well in seeds , as in the things constituted of these . Moreover as God would , so all things were made : Therefore from a will they were at first moved : For from hence whatsoever unsensitive things are moved , they are moved as it were by a certain will and pleasure or precept of nature , and have their own natural necessities , and ends ; even as is seen in the beating of the Heart , Arteries , expelling of many superfluities , &c. For Galen hath artificially enough distributed the Pulses , yet being by Aristotle deluded therein , who supposed the end , and efficient to be externall causes , and thought the ends of Pulses to be their totall Causes . For he passing by the proper Blas of the Pulses , searched only into the ends , and necessities of nature , for which things sake , indeed , the Pulses should not be made , but rather measured or modelled . And therefore he hath distributed the differences of Pulses into a Scheme or Figure , only by their ends : And so that therefore he hath not reached their more potent and efficient respects : Therefore he hath reduced the Causes of Pulses unto two heads of necessity : To wit , To the cooling refreshment of the heart , to which end the Heart and Arteries should at once dilate themselves , and to the casting out of smoaky vapours stirred up by heat : For which cause indeed , the Heart and Artery should at once presse themselves together , and fall down at once for fear of choaking : which two , by variously interweaving them with their Correlatives , according to strength , swiftnesse , weaknesse , hardnesse , and greatnesse , he hath compiled the differences of Pulses by an artificial diligent search : And I wish that his other writings did not bewray , that these things were transcribed our of some other Authour . But the Antients being not contented with two ends ; to wit , cooling and refreshment , and expulsion of smoakinesses , have added a third , which was the nourishment of the vital spirit by aire : As if indeed aire could ever be made vitall spirit : For if the Spirit be increased or nourished by aire adjoyned to it , ( seening a Simple Body is not to be digested ) now only by mixture , vitall spirit should be made of aire , and now all things shall no longer be nourished immediately , of those things whereof they consist : Therefore it hath been the ignorance of the Antients , who knew not the constitution of the vital spirit , thinking that a little water being co-mixed with much wine , or a little Tinne co-mixed with much melted gold , should be made wine , or gold . I will tell here what I have perceived , after that I made more use of discretion , than of the sloath of assenting . Therefore I began first to consider , That heat was not primarily and of it self in the heart , but to be a companion of the life and soul , a sign , and mean of operation in living creatures that are hot from the nature of the light of the Sun. But in fishes that the life is of the nature of a cold light , and therefore that it subsists without an actual , that is , a true heat . And therefore , that a Pulse is not made in nature , for a cooling refreshment of the 〈◊〉 , and puffing out or dispersing of smoaks , a dissected Frog will teach : For in a living Frog thou shalt see his Heart and Arteries to be moved , his Heart at every Pulse , or by dilating , to wax red , and by contraction or pressing together , to wax more pale , although it be not transparent : Notwithstanding , seeing the Antients thought heat to be the cause of Pulses , yet there is none that hath decyphered that heat by its heats , by what way , reason , and mean that heat is stirred up , kindled , and doth persevere in us , because none hath meditated of life and forms ; And therefore none also , of the efficient cause of Pulses . None indeed hath hitherto doubted , that heat springs from the Heart , and none contesteth , but that the young is at first nourished by its mothers heat , untill that through maturity of dayes , a fewel of its own be kindled in it . But what that fewel is , and why it being once kindled , doth not presently dye , and doth continue even to the end ; none hath diligently searched into , because all have passed by the life . The Schools indeed do feign a fiery heat in us ( contrary to Aristotle , who will have this heat to answer in proportion to the Element of the Stars , and hath distinguished it from an Elementary and Fiery one ) also that it lives by devouring and consuming of the radical moisture : whence it would follow , That the heart is the Torch of a consuming fire : But notwithstanding , seeing the substance of the Heart , and Pericardium or case of the Heart , and also of the Bloud , is not fit for fire : They have been forced to confesse that fire not to be fire , and that heat not to be fiery , yet devouring ; but they have said , It is sufficient for them to have described the Fewelor Torch , or Beginning of heat Metaphorically ; As if nature should admit of Metaphors : For first of all , I remember that some swooning Virgins were beref't of Pulse and breathing , so far as was conjectured by humane judgement , and so for some hours were bewayled among the dead ; yet that they revived , and being married , afterwards to have lived without sicknesse , and to have brought forth five or six times . For they were cold as Ice , assoon as their Pulse had failed : from whence I began to be doubtful , whether the Pulse were not made rather for the effecting of Heats sake , than through the occasion of fetching in cold : whence I began to account the final causes of Pulses to be frivolous , and so also I suspected the presaging part of healing to be weakened : And that I thus prove : For there is Hedge or Partition between both bosomes of the Heart , in it self , as long as life remains ; So Porie , That by the attraction of the ears of the Heart ( for on both sides it is reckoned to be eared by way of proportionable Resemblance , because it hath as it were Bellows ) the Veinie Bloud doth passe from the hollow Vein ( forming the right bosom of the Heart by its passage ) and wanders into the left bosom ; not likewise from hence to the right bosome : Because the pores in the hedge or partition it self are triangular , whose Cone or sharp point ending in the left bosom , is the more easily encompassed or pressed together ; but the Base of that Triangle in the right bosom , never but by death : But the bloud of the left bosom , is now arteriall , and is the bloud of a true name , being diverse from the bloud it self , as being yet in the hollow vein , in colour , and subtility or fineness . Wherefore I must needs , not without cause , have found out a new or fourth digestion in the left stomach of the heart : For no otherwise than as the bloud of the veins differs from the cream and chyle ; so also doth the bloud of the Arteries differ from the thick bloud of the veins , although by a neerer kinne , and cloathing of the Heavens , they have after a sort returned into one Family : Yet in that is the specificall difference of both , that the arterial bloud is informed by the immortall Soul , in the left bosom ; but the venall bloud not , and that it is illustrated onely by the light of the sensitive form participatively , but not informatively : For the other digestions do require rest : But the fourth is perfected by an uncessant continuation of motion : Not indeed that the very motion of the heart is the formall transchangeative cause , but onely that it concurs dispositively . Indeed , in the left bosom of the heart , as it were in a stomach , doth a singular , most vitall , and lightsom Ferment dwell , which is a sufficient cause of the venall bloud its being transchanged into arterial bloud , even as it is chief in the transmutation of arteriall bloud into vitall Spirit . Because all venal bloud doth naturally tend into its own end , which is nourishment ; yet at last it is dispersed and vanisheth away into a vapour , or into a Gas , unless it be stayed by the Coagulum or co-thickning of growth : But the arterial bloud , hath for its aim , not indeed that it may incline into a smoakiness , or excrement : For if that thing come to passe , it happeneth to it from a Disease , and by accident . After another manner , the proper object of the arterial bloud is to be brought over into vitall Spirit : which if afterwards it doth also vanish , let this be unto it besides its intent ; Seeing that every Being doth naturally desire to remain : For the vitall Spirit is a light originally dwelling in the Ferment of the left bosom , which enlightneth new Spirits bred by the arterial bloud , to wit , for which continuation of light , the Arterie is lifted up : For thus the Spirits are made the partakers of life , and the executers thereof , even as also the Vulcans of continued heat . Therefore the life of man is a formall light , and almost also the lightsom or clear sensitive Soul it self , and so death doth forthwith follow the blowing out of this : Because the immortall minde is involved in the sensitive Soul , which after death slies away , this other perishing . But far be it , that that vitall light be called fiery , burning , and destroying the radicall moysture , and that by the continuall plenty of the smoakie vapours hereof , it should defile the heart and Arteries : But it is a formall light ( even as I have said before concerning Forms : ) for neither shall he ever otherwise describe the in-most essence of life , who had seen the formall lives of things even in an Extasie : Because words are wanting , and names , whereby these may be shewen or called , as it were by an Etymologie from a former cause . And although God had shewen to any one the essence of life in a composed Body ; yet he will never give his own honour of teaching it , unto any Creature ; Seeing life in the abstract , is the incomprehensible God himself . For so by little and little , the meat and drink ascends into the Chyle or juyce of the stomach , into the juyce of the mesentery or Crow , into venal bloud , and at length , by arteriall bloud , unto a most thin Skie or Air , the vitall Spirit , and the prop of the Soul : which exchanging doth presuppose a motion of the heart : For neither is it sufficient , that the Ferment be effective efficiently , that the arterial bloud be quickened , and turned into Spirit , and it to dwell in the left bosom of the heart , unless a pulsative motion doth concur , which is likened to the motion whereby sowrish milk or cream by a true transmutation is changed into Butter . For by the motion is made an extenuating , not indeed of the soure , but of the salt arterial bloud ; neither therefore is it turned into a fat or butter ; but into vitall Spirit , of the nature of a Salt , and so of a Balsam : For so the arteriall bloud , is by motion , heat , and the Ferment , changed into an Aiery or Skyie off-spring , the immediate Inne of a vitall light . Wherefore , the Bloud , VVater , and Spirit are one and the same : For if that light be in the Spirit , but this be carried thorow the Arteries into the whole Body ; also that light ought to be on every side continuall to it self , seeing it is the property of light else to be extinguished . Therefore the Arteries ought to remain open ; so indeed , that they do never remain long pressed together : wherefore it was also meet that the pulse should dilate the same , nor so to be pressed together , that the whole Arterie should wholly rush or fall down on it self : perhaps therefore it is not unjustly cloathed with a double , and harder coat . For the discontinuance of that light , is the cause that in one moment , every chief faculty of the Brain in those that are hanged , doth perish : But not that the Spirit had so quickly vanished from the Brain . Again , if a pulsative motion should not be made , a deadly cold would straightway arise , and we should be more cold than a Frog : So that , although many things do live in the Winter time , without breathing , under the Clay , yet not without a pulse . Also the Ferment of the left bosome doth transchange its own arterial bloud , not without a slow delay , and would send it thorow the Body every way , too slowly , and therefore it should not satisfie the importunate necessities of the Spirits . For let us feign a Bottle seasoned with an Odour , but to be filled with Liquor up to its half : For that Liquor shall scarce snatch the Odour of the Bottle ; but if it be shaken together , that Odour also doth presently insinuate it self through the least parts of the Liquor . So indeed , is the vitall Ferment of the left bosom presently given to the Arterial bloud by the motion of the heart , and doth compel it also to a hasty obedience of its own Impression : For light is easily kindled by light ; and therefore also the Arteriall bloud being now quickned , it easily snatcheth to it the light of that Sunny Lamp , and is brought into a Skyie or Aiery off-spring . Therefore the Blas of the heart is the Fewel of the vitall Spirit , and consequently of its heat ; but the Spirit being thus enlivened , is the mover of the heart , almost neglected in the Schooles : Also by consequence , that motion is made for a necessary heat in Sunny constituted Animals , and for the framing of Spirit in them : Therefore I may not believe , that the Pulse is appointed for a requisite cooling refreshment of the heart : For truly things that have life , do not war under the deadly Ensigns of cold : neither do they intend or hearken to cold , but onely do meditate on vitall things . Indeed , cold in us , is a token ( because a Companion ) of death : And therefore whatsoever it should attempt in the Fountain of life , it should intend a taking away of life ; as also it should be destructive to our Monarchy , so far is it , that cold should be for necessity and co-temperaments sake : For without a Pulse , heat is not over-much kindled ; but straightway also , life remaining , heat dies . For the Schooles being deceived , do thus judge , they thinking Elementary fire to be for the composition of Bodies , and that fire in its heightned degree , ( without which its fire ceaseth to be fire ) doth consist in the heart ; and that indeed Kitchin fire , seeing else a ridiculous fire is to be far fetched from the concave of the Moon ; otherwise , it should not by a loosed Bridle , slide downwards safe , at the pleasure of inferiour Bodies , and contrary to its own disposition , thorow so many colds of the Air , unto the ordinary constitution of Simples . And so , if the Schooles had instead of radicall heat , understood a fire feigned to be under the circle of the Moon , they should improperly say that the same doth onely subsist in us , as it were the Torch of radicall moysture : Seeing else they dream that the fiery Element ( which they rashly feign ) doth ( alike unwisely ) live without a necessity , and consuming of nourishment . Therefore the Schooles do understand that there is in the heart a kindled , Kitchinary and smoakie fire , and that it is hot in a great degree , and so that unless it be tempered by a continuall blast of new Air , and all the smoakiness raised up by this fire be fanned out , there is danger of choaking , burning up , and enflaming : For so , false authorities do bring forth false positions , and through the ignorance of causes , the speculations of healing have perished . Truly in my judgement , the Schooles ought at least to have remembred , that the very blowing of the Bellowes doth not refresh or cool the fire , but rather enflame it : Neither do I see by what reason the motion of living Creatures may be the cause of their cooling refreshment . In the next place , I know that fire is in no wise to be joyned to the other Elements , being divided by their least parts , but that in an instant it is exstinguished . I know also , that its impossible that fire should be able to exist , which is not truly fire , and hot in the highest degree : And so that if nature should attempt refreshment or cooling by a Pulse , its endeavour should be foolish , vain , and impossible : Whence a horrible thing followes ; that God in the ends proposed to himself , hath actually erred : Therefore let the Schooles repent . But besides , there ought to be a speedy transmutation of venall bloud into arteriall bloud , and of this , into vitall Spirit , least that after faintings , and tremblings of the heart ( under which are made most speedy divisions and scatterings of those Spirits , so that the little pits of the small Pox or measills , before not to be beheld , do straightway appear ) as it were a necessitated death , do invade . Therefore aid was not to be fetched from far ; and to be deferred , which his speedily required . Indeed , this is the reason , why in a Fever the Pulse is swifter , but not an expelling of smoakiness , nor a greediness of cooling refreshment . For truly , let a Thorn be put in the loose or fleshy top of the finger , there is presently a hard , strong , and more swift pulse , but afterwards for the increase of the Pulse , there is every where presently an increase of heat , but not of cold ; and indeed , as well before as without the births of smoakie vapours . And then , at the beginnings of intermitting Fevers , after some houres , and as long as the cold is delayed , the Pulse is little , slow , deep or depressed ; yet putrefaction is kindled ( if the Schooles have spoken truth ) and therefore also the present smoakie vapour in the Schooles , is the cause of the fit ; and they do thirst greatly in their cold , and vomit up yellow choler : Therefore also there ought to be a most frequent pressing together of the Pulse , and the whole Pulse to be most exceeding swift : Especially , because many dying in those Fevers , do perish in the cold a little before the Feverish fit , through a great want of the Spirits , and being as it were choaked . But in troublesome heats , also in an Erisipelas , the burning Coal or Fever , the Persick fire , &c. the vitall Spirit being incensed , and as it were provoked to anger by the diseasifying cause , waxeth exceeding hot ; as appeareth in the aforesaid locall , also burning Inflammations : whereas otherwise , a temperate lightsome kindling , doth on every side shine forth under a vitall Harmony : yea , that a little before death or sounding , the horny membrane of the Eye is seen to be deprived of light , the fire being not before in a burning rage . Furthermore , the transmutation of the Arterial bloud into Spirit , which is begun in the heart , is ripened in the current of the Arteries , or stomach of the heart : Neither therefore is it a wonder , that in the Spleen abounding with so many Arteries , a Ferment , and the first motions of the heart are established instead of a stomach ; the mentall and sensitive Souls , being indeed Saturns Kingdoms : For the digestion of the heart , is with a full transmutation of the arteriall Bloud into Spirit , without a dreg , and smoakiness : Because it is that which neither containeth filths , nor admits of diversities of kinde ; neither doth the Spirit the Son of heat , degenerate by reason of heat . Indeed it is the immediate operation of the sensitive Soul , alwayes univocall or single , like to it self , and to life , for the life that is uttered by vitall motions . Therefore the chief aims of the Pulses , are , 1. A bringing of the venall bloud from the bosom of the hollow vein , unto the left womb of the heart . 2. An increase of heat . 3. A framing of arterial bloud . 4. And again , a producing of vitall Spirit . 5. And then there hath been another ultimate aim of Pulses , to wit , that the original life residing in the implanted Spirit of the heart , may be participated of . Therefore I will repeat what I have said elsewhere : To wit , that some Forms do glister , as in Stones and Mineralls ; but some moreover , do shine by an increased light , as in Plants ; but others are also lightsome or full of light , as in things soulified . And so a vitall lightsomness is granted to the vitall Spirit , by a kindling , not indeed of fieriness ; but of enlightning , and specificall or differing by its particular kindes : So indeed , Fishes do not live more unhappily , are more straightly , and lively , and longer moved than hot bruit Beasts . The Schooles in the room of those things which I have already demonstrated , do suppose the bloud in the Liver to receive the nature of a Spirit , which perhaps they therefore call naturall : To wit , such an Air as is wholly in all juyces of Herbs , and from hence at length , they will have the vitall Spirit to be immediately bred and made : But I do from elsewhere derive the Spirit , and from a far more noble race : But whether the Schooles , or I , do more rightly phylosophize , let the Reader judge , who now drinks down both Doctrines together : he being at least , mindefull of that which I am straightway to say , to wit , that sometimes the whole arterial bloud , and the nourishable Liquor created from thence , or the nearest nourishment of the solid parts , are at length dispersed by the transpirative evaporation of the Body , without any dregs or remainder of a dead head : And therefore , that the Reader may from thence think , that the arterial bloud is of it self inclined , that it may sometimes be made Spirit ; which is not equally presumed of the vapour of the venall bloud : For therefore they have been ignorant , that the whole bloud of the Arteries , is often turned into a spiritual vapour , or vitall Spirit : But the venall bloud , if it be changed in our Glasses by a gentle luke-warmth , into a vapour , it leaves a thick substance , and at length , a Coal in the bottom . Therefore the Doctrine of the Schooles is far remote from the knowledge of the Spirits , who think the vitall Spirits to be framed of a vapour , or watery exhalation ; for they have neglected in this vapour of the venal bloud , how , of bread and water , and venal bloud prepared thence , not indeed a watery exhalation ( as they think ) but a Salt , and enlightned Spirit is stirred up , and its heat not onely made hot , but also making hot : For no Authour hath hitherto diligently searched into that vitall light whereby the Spirit is enlightned , and is after a sort made hot : So that the Life , Light , Form , and sensitive Soul , are as it were made one thing . Again , the rotten Doctrine of the Schooles , confoundeth the ends of Pulses and breathing : To wit , that Breathing is made for the nourishment of the vital spirit , the life of the fire ( which they will have to be nourished with aire ) the cooling refreshment of the heart , and expelling of smoaky vapours : For they intend or incline to nourish the vitall heat , and coolingly to refresh , or to diminish it : which things , how they can agree together , let others shew ; I am willingly ignorant thereof , at least in the greatest want of vital spirit : and while the increase thereof is chiefly desired , then indeed there is the least , and slowest elevation of the Arterie : And on the other hand , while the Spirit aboundeth , there is the greatest elevation of the Artery . I confesse indeed that breathing is drawn by the bridles of the Will , or by the instruments of voluntary motion , but the Pulse not so : But seeing that a sound breast may satisfie by its breathings , the ends of the Pulses , the Pulse should not therefore be necessary , as long as any one is cold , and his breathing doth sufficiently inspire . But seeing notwithstanding in the mean time , the Pulse doth not therefore pause ; surely there must needs be one cause , or necessity of the Pulses , and another cause , or necessity of breathing : For we percieve the necessities of breathing , we also do measure our breathing at our pleasure , and some can wholly press it together , or suppress it in themselves ; But why do we not feel the more vitall , and no less urgent necessities of the Pulses ? Chiefly seeing it is the life that is the Original of sensibility , which alone indeed doth feel all its own necessity , and doth alone exclude us from every act of feeling : Wherefore hence I conjecture , that there are other necessities unknown to the antients . I know indeed , that from the Arterial bloud , and from the vital spirit , there are no dregs , filths , or superfluities expelled ( as I shall shew in its place ) but that smoaky vapours are wanting where there is no adultion ; but that the venal bloud in the wasting of it self , by the voluntary guidance of heat , doth produce a Gas , as water doth a vapour or exhalation : And that , that Gas ( which the Schools do signifie to be the spirit of the Liver , or natural spirit of the venal bloud ) is subsequently of necessity expelled , it remains without controversie : For otherwise a man being almost killed with cold , should the sooner wax hot again , if he should for some hours hold his breath ( understand it , if the breath should be drawn for cooling refreshment ) notwithstanding neither indeed in that state doth he notably stop his breath upon pain of death . Also a fish wants Lungs , and breathing ( for the bubbles which do sometimes belch forth , are blasts of ventosities of digestion , but not breathings . ) But Frogs , and Sea-monsters that utter a voice , have little Bellows which perform the office of Lungs ; yet Fishes are not colder than Frogs : yea Frogs , and Horse-leeches are preserved under the mud all the Winter , from corruption , and do live without breaching ; yet not without a Pulse : Therefore there is one use of the Pulses , and another of breathing , and ●●●ther for heat only : For in the most sharp and hot diseases , to wit , as oft as there is the greatest breathing drawn , and that like a sigh , the Pulse is small , and swift , also the strength remaining : Therefore the use of breathing , and the Pulse , do not answer ; especially , because we are more refreshed by a great draught of cold water abundantly drunk , than if the same quantity be drunk at many times : I say , we are more refreshed by one only sigh , than by many small , and more frequent breathings : Even so as a pair of Bellows doth perform more by a great , and continual blast , than by those that are lesse exact , although many : whence it may be sufficiently manifested to a well considerate and judicious man , that there is another use of the Pulses of greater moment : to wit , That which respecteth the ferment of digestions . Whence I repeat a handicraft operation : to wit , That at length , under the last digestion , all our Arterial bloud doth perish and exhale , neither that it leaves any dreg behind it : Yet whatsoever doth exhale by heat alone , all that , as well in living , as in inanimate things , doth leave a dreg behind it ( the skilfull do call this The dead Head ) which dreg being at length thus roasted , doth resemble a Coale . For the action of heat is of it self every where Simple , Univocal , and Homogeneal , differing in the effect , by reason of the Matter . Therefore if the vitall bloud ought to be wholly so disposed in us , that it be at length wholly blown away without a dead head , it was altogether necessary that that should happen by some other Mean than that of heat : But the aire was alwayes and from the beginning , every where the seperater of the waters from the waters . This hath not been known in the Schools ; to wit , that the whole Venal bloud , that it may depart into a Gas , it hath need of two wings to fly , the aire , and a ferment . Wherefore observe thou , That as oft as any thing of bloud becomes unfit , or is not by degrees disposed of , and undergoes its degrees in the outward part of the body , that it may wholly throughout the whole be made volatile and capable to flye away or thorow the po●es , at the same moment , now Scirthus's , Nodes or Knots , and Apostems are conceived : but if that thing happen in the more inward part thereof ; for the most part Fevers , Apoplexies , Falling evills , Asthma's , likewise pains and deaths do soon follow . Let us see therefore what the aire , or what a ferment may conduce hereunto . First of all , Every muscilage of the earth which else is easily turned into worms ; likewise Starch , Fleshes , Fishes , &c. being once frozen , at that very moment do lose their muckinesse , and return into water ; As the aire was once very well combined to the Ice ( as I have sometimes spoken concerning the weight of Ice ) and so it is the first degree whereby the aire doth resolve a tough body into water . And then under the greatest colds , and purest aire , we are more hungry , yet we sweat , and less is discussed out of us , with a small and more hard siege or excrement . Therefore one that saileth in the Sea , eats more by double , if not by treble ( unlesse he be sick ) and le ts go less excrement than himself doth , living at Land : whence is the Proverb , The water causeth a promoting of digestion : As if indeed , he that saileth should not float in the aire , but in the water ! but floating doth renew the aire in us , and from hence there is a stronger digestion : Therefore , if we do eat more strongly , and do cast forth less excrements , it necessarily follows , that the more is discussed , or doth vanish out of the Body ; which is to say , That the more pure Northern and Sea-aire doth conduce to a transpiration or evaporation of the body , or doth dispose the bloud unto an insensible perspiration or breathing out of it self . Surely for that cause is breathing made , not indeed , that the air may depart into nourishment for the vitall spirit , but that it may be connexed with it , being sucked to it thorow the Arterial Vein , and Venal Artery of the Lungs , and that the air being for this cause transported into the heart , it may receive a ferment ; which accompanying it , they both may dispose the venal blood into a totall transpiration of it self . After another manner , many things are made fixt , and do resist a breathing forth , if they are provoked by heat , otherwise , they were in themselves volatile : Wherefore an Alcali is not generated in ashes by the fire essentially , although effectively it proceed from thence : For the office of the fire is indeed to kindle , consume , and seperate , yet not to produce any thing . Seeing the fire is not rich in a seed , it is the very destroyer of seeds : But from seeds all Generation proceedeth : When therefore an Alcali is fixed out of a Salt that was before volatile , it is not a new production of a thing , but only the Alteration of a thing : For the Alcali was indeed materially in the composed body before burning , and did flow together with its Mercury , and Sulphur : Notwithstanding while the fire takes away the Mercury , and Sulphur , the Salt indeed as being a principle more subsisting in the melting of the combustion , doth snatch to it self the neighbouring part of the Sulphur or Fat , and when it is not able sufficiently to defend it from the torture of the fire , it partly also flyes away under the mask of a Gas , and attains the odour of corrupted matter , and is partly incorporated in the laid-hold-of co-melted Sulphur , and is made a true Coal : Wherefore the Sulphur being now fixed by the wedlock of the Salt , it doth not speedily incline from a Coal into a smoaky vapour : But by degrees , and not unlesse in an open Vessel ; and so with the former Sulphur ( for from hence the Sulphur of a thing being for the most part sharp , doth retain the savour of a volatile Salt ) and at length , with the Coalie Sulphur , the just weight of its volatile Salt flies away : Which thing surely is no where more manifest than in the Coal of Honey : For if this be urged or forced by a shut vessel , it remains not changed in a bright burning fire ; but the vessel being open , both do so depart , that moreover , no remainder of ashes doth ever survive . Therefore the Alcali Salt doth fore-exist materially in the composed body , before combustion . Because all the Salt was formally volatile in the composed body , and not in the form of a more fixed Alcali , which thing is now especially manifest in the bloud ; which being wholly volatile , exhaleth unsensibly through the Pores without any residence : But if it be combusted or burnt , it leaveth very much fixed Salt in its own ashes . In the next place , The wood of the Pine-Tree , which affordeth little ashes , and less Salt in the preparation of ashes barrelled , is by calcining wholly turned into an Alcali : For barrelled ashes are brought to us out of Scandia , called Weedaschen , combusted for the most part out of the Pine , and some out of the Oak , which do infect the Hogs-head wherein they are carried , with a more moist aire , to wit , with a melted Salt : Therefore the woods of the Hogs-heads being thus salted , when they are burnt , they melt like Horn , and do almost wholly degenerate into Salt : for part of the ashes also is made a Salt , by reason of the contained Salt , which afterwards they name , Potaschen : For else , the ashes of the same wood , the Salt being taken away , do remain ashes , and are not made Salt. Whence indeed it is manifest , that the Salt of the ashes doth afterwards make a Salt like to it self by co-melting , and that indeed a fixed one : And therefore there doth arise a fixedness in the composed body by reason of the Salt , and co-melting , which otherwise doth not exist . So when Tartar of Wine is burnt , sixteen Ounces of it doth scarce yield two Ounces and a halfe of Alcali Salt : therefore thirteen volatile Ounces and a half have perished in the calcining : Yet if these are distilled , and are at length imbibed in their own remaining Coal , they will as yet yield four Ounces and the third part of an Ounce of Salt , by co-hobating . Therefore what thou seest to be done ( thy self being Judge ) concerning the four Ounces and a third part , judge thou the same , touching the two Ounces and halfe of the former Alcali . Hitherto doth that belong , which I have elsewhere spoken of Aqua vitae , being fixed in the Alcali of Tartar , and the same thing happens in distilled Vinegar . Hence therefore it appeareth , that the volatile Salt of a thing is fixed in its own fixed Alcali or Salt. Yea likewise , that the whole ashes was before , volatile ; and fixed , under the first co-melting of combustion : But that the volatile Salts , which were nigher to their Essences , departed together with their Essences , in the first torture of the fire . Yet note , that although an Alcali be made of the spirit of Wine in the fixed Salt of the Tartar : nevertheless , as the Salt of the Aqua vitae was changed by the Wedlock of Essence , yet one is to be separated and distinguished from the other in the univocal or single fixedness of them both ; As the Alcali of the Spirit of Wine being powred on Aqua fortis , becomes red , but the Alcali of Tartar doth not change its colour . Wherefore also there is among Alcalies , their own Common-wealth , and the Adulteraters of money do labour very much about Salt of Tartar , he Alcali of Salt-peter being contemned . Also an Alcali Salt being prepared , as is here said of the Spirit of Wine , doth by the joyning of it self , change the Savour of the Lixivium or Lie of Tartar : So as that it becomes the astringent Balsam Samech of Paracelsus ; the which , before it had the Savour of a Lixivium , was an expert Balsam , and did resemble a Caustick on . At length , hitherto that suits , that rotten and putrified Woods do scarce leave a Salt in their ashes ; Because the volatile Salt departed with the Sulphur , through a Ferment of putrefaction : And so , there was at least , as much volatile Salt in the thing or composed Body , as is found to fail in the ashes ; that is , the whole : whence it followes , that the volatile Salt fetched as well from the Sulphur , as from the Mercurie , is materially the same with the Alcalized or fixed Salt. And therefore a volatile Salt is fixed , and likewise a fixed Salt is made volatile , the formal property of the composed Body remaining . Again , it followes , That the Sulphur of a composed Body being distilled , and the Sulphur of a Coal , are of the same particular kinde , although this be imprisoned , but that is free . Truly Handicraft-operation taught me these things ; after that I knew how to seperate the three things from ordinary composed Bodies , without a corruption of matter , I learned that every combustible Body hath in it a volatile Salt , which by the snatching of its own sulphur unto it , is fixed into an Alcali . In the mean time , that part , for the most part aboundeth , which escapeth the embraces of the co-melting volatile sulphur : In which co-melting , the action springs into the Sulphur of the thing : Which , understand thou by an example of distilled Vinegar . This I say , seeing it is water impregnated or got with childe of a sharp volatile salt , if it shall through the action of its sharpness touch any thing by biting , it is straightway co-agulated , which afterwards by combustion , is found to be a fixed Alcali . Yea , if the sharp and volatile Spirit of Vitriol shall corrode a Mercurie alike volatile , the sharpness of the Vitriol is fixed into a true Alume . Which Handicraft-operations , I do moreover shew , in drawing them to the scope of a totall consuming in the Venal Bloud . If the Air ( let him who can , comprehend the secret ) doth in the first place , volatize the Sulphur of the composed Body , with the every way seperation of its Salt , this Salt ( which else in the Coal , should be fixed into an Alcali , by the fire ) is made wholly volatile , and climbs upwards , sometimes in a liquid shape , and oft-times , in the form of a Sublimate , and hath the whole constitutive temperature of the composed Body . This Salt is demonstrated by Handicraft-operation ; but its demonstration is known to few , although it listeth us to make it plain . At least , it from thence appeareth , that the true use of the Air in the Pulse , and breathing , was not made known to the Antients , by reason of the ignorance of the Art of Alchymie . Likewise from thence it is manifest , that from a continual necessity , the Air is drawn inward for a peculiar end , that it may cause the bloud of the veins ( else through our heat not to be discussed , but rather to be condensed ) to be plainly volatile , without the remembrance of a remaining dead Head. But in Fishes , as the venall bloud is not stirred by heat , but onely by the vitall Ferments of the parts ; So neither was there need of breathing : For truly those living Creatures might freely want breathing , whose venall bloud wants the fear of heat : Because it is a thing unseparable from heat , that the more watery part of the venal bloud being exhaled , the remainder doth wax clotty , and at length doth degenerate into a dry lump , unless by the uncessant attraction and Wedlock of the Air in the Bride-bed of the Lungs and Breast , the Air it self should be co-mingled with the sulphur of the bloud , it being as it were the seperater of the waters , and should bring forth the sulphur changed in its last essence , and breathed thorow the pores , together with a watery vapour , by an unperceiveable Gas. That was not a naked office of cooling refreshment ( although it be in the Schooles so thought , who are wont to measure all things by heat , and cold ) but the vitall Ferment of the Arteries being adjoyned ( for this cause perhaps , and that especially , the Arteries do accompany veins thorowout the whole Body ) there was need of a greater moment and necessity : And so , that neither is the Pulse any more to discuss or puffe away the smoakie Vapours of the venal , than of the arterial Bloud , not of this more than of that , but it meerly especially serveth ( besides the framing , enlightning , and continuation of the vital Spirit ) to prepare the arterial bloud in to an exspiration , without a dead Head : which thing indeed , is altogether requisite to nature : Not indeed to chase away smoakie vapours bred by heat ( although no smoakie vapour doth properly exhale out of moyst Bodies ) but rather to hinder , least by the ordinary endeavour of heat , vapours ( which they undistinctly call smoaks ) should be bred : Or by speaking more properly , least vapours departing out of the venal Bloud , the other part of the venal Bloud being thickned , should cause a totall destruction . To which end behold , that the finger being pained , hot , and wounded , presently an unwonted Pulse doth bewray it self in that place , because the Air is hindred from entrance unto the bloud there chased out of the veins , and detained in the lips of the wound : And there is a fear , least the bloud should grow together , and harden into corrupt matter . But corrupt matter or Pus being made , that fear is diminished , because it stops in the deed : For before the wound , a hidden Pulse , straightway a violent one ariseth in the same place , even before heat , or a presupposed smoakiness were present . In like manner also , as soon as any night doth invade the inward membranes , the Artery doth presently after a wonderfull manner , wax hard throughout the whole man , and brings forth a hard , extended , shaken Pulse ; yea , and a Pulse like a Saw : But by no meanes ( as the Schooles think ) that the Arterie is dried , that it may foreshew in the heart , and open to a Physitian , the quality and nature of the part affected ( which is ridiculous ) : for nature doth every where intentionally employ it self in the ripenings , promoting , or removing of Causes ; but never at all in uttering or setting forth the pathological or sumptomaticall Signes , the diagnostical or discernable signes , or prognostical or foreshewing signes : For these are signes by accident , and to be noted and observed by the Physitian , besides the intent of nature : For if in the progress of nature , a thing conringent or happening , be drawn into our knowledge , that is unto it by accident , and wholly forreign , which ( the Stars excepted ) doth work nothing with an incent of foreshewing : But whatsoever it doth , that is by a Command , which is the natural endowed property thereof . The Artery therefore , doth not produce a hard Pulse for that it self is made more withered and dry ; because there should never be any hope , after the dryness of the membrane , of a softer Pulse ; as neither of a re-moystning of the part once dried up . Old Age it self , being dry or withered , and without juyce , is a witness . Neither lastly , doth the Pipe or Trumpet of the Artery wax hard for a sign , but for the cause , end , and meanes of another intent : to wit , if the lesson of the Schooles be true , that the Arteries do beat to the end that they may draw Air which refresheth or cooleth the heart . Surely , if they were alwayes mindful of that their own Doctrine as they ought , the Arteries should at least by that hardness of extention , more fitly breath-in Air ; Seeing otherwise a soft Artery , doth by attracting fall down , it creeping , and being watery , slides on it self , and so that its mouth , which in the hardness , gapeth , in the looseness , is closed . Therefore a hardned Pulse doth betoken a contracted Artery , but not one that is dryed up : For if the Pulse should be uttered to this end , that the defect and quality of the parts should be bewrayed ; Surely in an Apoplexie there should be a most soft Pulse ( because the Brain being wholly a marrowie part , shall be concluded to be offended ) which at the same time is alwayes hard , and strong : So also the breaking of a Bone should make the hardest Pulse of all : And corrupt matter being now made , the Pulse should be more great , and frequent , than while it is making : Because the fore-going labour hath brought forth a want of Spirit , and the present corrupt matter or putrefaction doth want a speedy discussion . Likewise in an enflamed tumour or a Phelgmone , the contraction of the Pulse should be more fit or due , and far more manifest than the dilating thereof : which things , seeing in the truth of the deed they are not so , the Schools must needs have erred in the ends of the Pulses . And moreover , the Coat of the Artery , at the coming of sweat , however it was before , harder , it again waxeth soft : to wit , seeing there was a greater necessity of expelling smoakiness , than of attracting Air. I say the Artery ought to be both spreading , and more hard , with a frequent pressing together ; but not to fall down with a great Pulse , more slowly , after the manner of waters . At length , in affects of the Lungs , the neighbouring cords being on every side filled with so many veins , arteries , and gristles , the Pulse is loose and watery , and in the vomiting of corrupt matter , with some kinde of intermission : The Lungs I say , being opportunely importunate in its own expulsions of smoakiness , should want a most hard , extended , and strong Pulse . Whether perhaps is the double Coat of the Artery , now besmeared with a future sweat ? Doth it hitherto wax moist with a strange moisture ? or else is it void of moisture ? whether it doth retake its hardness after the hour of sweat ? and shall almost recompence at pleasure it s own driness by a successive or coursary softness ? For how full of weakness are the medicinal speculations of the Schools ? For truly in the aforesaid affects of the Lungs , a most loose Artery , and watery Pulse do plainly shew unto us , that breathing is given for the service of the breast : For nature is conscious that there would be no need of a provoked Pulse , as neither of an extended Artery , when as breathing hath undertaken its office , first for the breast , and consequently or secondarily for the rest of the body : by that very thing is shewn us , that the use of breathing was chiefly appointed for another end , and over another part , than for and over that which the Pulse is . As oft therefore as there is need of very much aire for the blood dispersed thorow the Veins , to volatize that which threatneth to be hardned , so oft doth the Artery strain , extend , and contract it self , but is not dryed : But that air is attracted , not for the nourishment of the Spirits , or the expulsing of smoaky vapours ; But altogether , that ( as that which is in it self the seperater of the waters from the waters ) it may adde a spur to the Ferment of the last Digestion , that after the performance of its offices , it may expell the whole nutritious liquor , without any residing remainder of it . Therefore the in-breathed air is serviceable to this Ferment , not for cooling or refreshment , not for the food of the spirits , as neither for the Bellowes of smoakie vapours : For otherwise , the looseness of the Artery is uncapable to breath-in sufficient air . But the future and prepared swear , seeing it is already in it self volatise , and presently flowes forth in manner of a Latex , or Liquor , it doth not require very much labour , nor hardening of the Artery : for the strength decaying , the Pulse is watery before it be creeping . Because nature , being weakned , doth not any longer meditate of great labour : but an Apoplectical Pulse is the chief and most hard of the Pulses , by far and especially a little before death . The Schools will have that to come to pass , because there should be the same , and an individual necessity and end of the Pulse and breathing : As ( they say ) the heart will recompence the defect of breathing . But the swooning of Virgins in the affects of the womb , whose breath is stopt , and their strength strong ( for from thence they do for the most part rise again ) have their Pulses very small , for a reproof of the foregoing Doctrine . So likewise the Pulse of those that are diseased in the Lungs , is watery , and feeble , for whom notwithstanding nature ought to be diligent in supplying the penury of breathing . But why in an Apoplexy , the Pulse is hard and great , we must search it from the nature of a disease , which I will at sometime profesly touch at in a Book , and that of the disease of the Stone . Now for the neernesse of the matter , I will explain two Aphorisms . The first whereof is ; While Pus or corrupt matter is made , the labour and pain is greater than when the Pus is made . Every Aposteme ending into corrupt matter , doth necessarily contain a sharpnesse , which forceth the Venal blood into a clotty Lump : And therefore it is afterwards uncapable of transpiration . Wherefore nature moveth every stone , and stirs up the Arteries and breathing , that the Ferments by aire may hinder such an effect : And at length she profiting nothing , ceaseth from that endeavour : For the venal bloud is troublesome to nature , not only as it waxeth clotty , but as it containeth some forreign thing ( for else an Aposteme should not be made : ) for it is the property of sharpness to coagulate or curdle every immediate nourishable thing : from hence corrupt pus ariseth . Therefore Hippocrates spake more rightly than Galen ; Diseases are not hot , or cold , &c. but soure , sharp , bitter , and brackish . For a wound as soon as it feeleth corruption , its lips do swell , and corrupt Pus is made , unless a more violent force do compel a worse thing , or the thin matter sanies to wax duggy or curdy : But the corrupt pus is called by Idiots , A good digestion of a wound ; that is , more rightly to be reckoned a less evil : but if the wound be new , and fenced by Ballam from corruption , corrupt pus happens not thereto : But when a sharpnesse , the token of putrefaction , doth contract or draw the Bottom or Lips of the wound together , corrupt matter is made : For worms are oft-times plainly to be seen in wounds by reason of corruption . In Kitchins , if fleshes do begin to corrupt , their broaths do wax foure . Wherfore every vulnerary or wound potion , ought to contain in it a hidden Alcali , and indeed a volatile one , if it ought to resist the accidents that sprang from the corruption of tartness : In as much as every Alcali doth slay all sharpnesse which it toucheth : For so indeed , the stone of Crabs is a provoker of Urine , and vulnerary ; which is manifest enough : For it being steeped in Wine , doth after a dayes time savour of a Lixivium . The other Aphorisme saith Bellies are by nature hotter in Winter than in Summer . Truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sounds or imports hollownesses , not bellies . It is a suppositive Aphorisme , not agreeable to its neighbour ones , nor agreeable to the Genius of the old man. In the first place , It is false . Again ; for in Winter I eat hot things , likewise , I do not drink cold things ; yet after food I am cold within , none whereof I feel in Summer : For in tangible things I take the touching to be Judge . The Schools excuse themselves and say , That the outward cold drives our heat inward , whence there is a more plentifull digestion . First of all , I have sufficiently taught elsewhere , that digestion is not from heat . And then , after meat cold is more felt within , in Winter , than in Summer . I confess indeed , That all heat is from the vital spirit of the Arterial blood : If therefore by cold , the spirit be driven inward with the Arterial bloud , there shall be perill of choaking , and the Pulse should give a token , if smoakinesses that are to be expelled , do import the use of the Pulse : Likewise the Pulse should be greater and swifter in Winter than in Summer , If the supposition of the Schools be true : But the consequent is false ; therefore also the supposition . But if they will have heat to fly inward alone without the Spirit ; Now they shall against their wills admit , that the same accident doth wander through subjects . At length , which way should heat go inward unto its own fountain ? And indeed should that be done generally in all , at Winter ? For whether a sound heart , which by reason of the abundance of heat , and fear of smoakie vapours , should beat from a continual necessity , shall not be able by reason of Winter , to provide it self of a sufficiency of heat ? or why doth it not rather cease in beating , than that it should by reason of an ordinary want , repeat or renew the heat dismissed from it ? The Schools after their manner , leap over these things with a light foot : for they say , That a greater quantity of nourishment is consumed in Winter , than in Summer , by reason of the abundance of heat : And again , they divine a more plentiful heat to be in Winter , from a want of the more nourishment : For the same thing , and that in the same respect , should be the cause and effect of the same thing : The father and the son , before and after , in respect of themselves . But I blame the air , which as oft as it is colder , is also nearer to its own natural quality , and a more potent seperater of the waters : And so , by how much the air is colder , it doth the more volatilize the venal bloud into a Gas : No otherwise than was said concerning Sailers . Otherwise , the dreams of the Schools do vanish , as to the heat of hollow places and Wells , by an instrument meting out the qualities of the encompassing air . And likewise as concerning the belly of man , if it live in a somewhat luke-warm Stew : But the instruments of sense cannot exactly distinguish the moments of heat , where there is a six-months interval ; because they themselves remain subject to the alterations of seasons . Therefore also the application of sensible objects , to the instrument of sense , is at a different station , deceitful . Also stomacks seem more hot in Winter , because we want the more nourishment . Neither is it a wonder because we therefore drink more liberally in Summer ; but we are more speedily nourished with drink than with meats . Therefore the use of the Pulses are 1. That the venal bloud may through the Partition , be transported into the least bosom . 2. That therein , and in its dependent Arteries , the spirit of life may be made of the Arterial bloud . 3. That of venal blood , may be made a yellow arterial blood . 4. That it may be informed by the mind of man. Indeed the Arteries are the stomack of the heart , as the sucking veins are the Kitchin of the Liver . 5. That there may be a continuation of the vital Light throughout the whole body . 6. The Blas of the Pulses is for the framing of heat , but not of cold . 7. That the venal bloud being dispersed into the habit of the body for nourishment , may be made wholly capable to be breathed thorow the pores , without a Post-hume or Future remembrance of a dreg . 8. But breathing hath for its aim , only this last use of the Pulse . At length , I also adde this ; That there is not an Animal spirit in nature : Because the change which the vital spirit receives in the Brain , is not unto a formal transmutation , but is a perfective degree to the appointment of it self . Indeed the in-bred spirit doth intend of a vital influx to generate its own , like to it self , and that in all the particular shops of the senses , and giveth to it the seal of its own instrument : For so the Optick or Seeing spirit doth not taste ; yet they do not therefore both differ in the particular kind , although in their own offices : For in the vitality or liveliness of the heart , it is at once quickned by the mind , and is made the universal instrument of that life . CHAP. XXV . Endemicks , or things proper to the People of the Countrey where they live . 1. The Schools have stated whence it was to be begun : 2. That the encompassing air is not breathed into the Arteries : 3. It implyeth , that the air doth inspire at every turn , and that smoakie vapours are expelled . 4. The mutual unsufferableness is demonstrated : 5. It would thence follow , that the artery is not lifted up but that it may fall down : 6. The end , manner , and possibility of air , attracted by the pulses , should cease : 7. That Endemical things are drawn by breathing : 8. That vapours are not drawn inward by Ointments . 9. It s own generative vertue is wanting to the vital spirit . 10. The humane Load-stone of Paracelsus is a fiction . 11. That no smoakiness is to be granted in the heart and Arteries : 12. That the whole knowledge of the Schools by signs or tokens , is polluted . 13. The progress of Endemical things . IT is not sufficient to say ; That the Mines of Veins do belch forth the wild Gas of a hurtful Arsenick , and a metallick malignity ; Fens , a stinking vapour ; breachy Rivers , and Shores , a diseasie mist , and a contagion of the soil putrifying by continuance : But by coming nearer , the suitings of causes do every where give understanding to those that search diligently , but neglect to the ignorant or unskilful . For without doubt , man was to dwell in the air , to be thorowly washed round about with the air ; yea and to be fed , and to be subjected to the violent tyranny of its impressions , and to the interchangeable courses of its successive changes , whereby the air is the continual seperater of the waters . Therefore the air is promiscuously drawn thorow the mouth and nostrils , into the Lungs in its chiefest part : But whether the air , and by consequence also an Endemical Being , be drawn inward by the encompassing aire through the Arteries ; the Schools affirm it : But I as the first , being supported with the much authority of reasons , and the great authority of truth , have doubted of it : By consequence also , That Oyntments applyed to the places of Pulses that they may be drawn inward , are made vold . First of all , These Propositions do resist themselves ; The aire is drawn through the skin into the Arteries : And the depression of the Pulses is to drive away smoaky vapours successively raised up by the heart . Because if continual smoakinesses are stirred up by continual heat , and the heart doth uncessantly labour with the Arteries for the expelling of those ; Surely there shall be no room nor space of motion for the attraction of the air from without to within . For if there be a successive , continual , and uncessant expulsion of the Pulses from the center of the heart by the Arteries ; of necessity also , the whole Channel of the Arteries shall by a continual thred , from the heart even unto the skin , be filled with a smoaky vapour ; of the expulsing of which smoakiness , seeing there should be a greater necessity , than of attracting air ( for fire is most speedily extinguished by smoaks , but doth not so soon consume the whole , through extream want of cooling or refreshment ) there is no leisure for the attraction of the air . And moreover , the Pulse being stirred , the attracted air , and that in the least space of delay , should be besmeared , being involved in smoakiness , so also the aire in the smallest branches of the Arteries , that it should rather increase the use of expulsion , than satisfie the cooling refreshment of the heart . Therefore the supposition of smoaky vapours standing , the air is in no wise drawn by the Arteries from without to within ; and so the Schools do unadvisedly dictate their own , and yet do subscribe to each other . And moreover , it follows from the same supposition , that the Artery is not lifted up by it self and primarily , but that it is only principally elevated that it may fall down ; next that by that endeavour it may shake of the fardle , and drive away the fear of choaking ; seeing that should be the chief end of the Pulses , but the other which is that of cooling refreshment , is in respect of the former , a secondary end . Again , If the Arteries should suck the air inwards , to what end I pray , should that be done ; seeing the sucking of the more crude endemical air should rather hurt than profit ? For not for the cooling refreshment of the heart ; seeing all the Pulses should scarce allure the smallest thing from the air , by the least and utmost mouths of the Arteries , which being the more swift in drawing , should not straightway afterwards be expulsed by the depression of the Artery : yea it should so most speedily in that very moment be co-united with the smoaky vapour , and made hot by the Arterial bloud , that the heart should not feel in it self any cooling or refreshment thereby : Especially seeing the air should not by one only attraction , proceed that way from the skin to the heart ; but by a manifold depression of the Artery coming between , it should wax so hot in the way , that it should deceive all hope of cooling refreshment . Wherefore if the Arteries should allure the air from without the elevation of the Artery , should of necessity alwayes far exceed its depression in swiftness & greatness ; which is abusive : As also , that the air should keep the quality of a cooling refreshment undefiled , being introduced by little and little , through so many windings of the Arteries . In the next place , neither should the Artery draw the air , that the vital spirit may take increase thereby : Because with the consent of the Schools , the vital spirit is not made of air ; but of the vapour of the venal bloud elaborated in the heart to the utmost , and ennobled with a vital faculty : And it is a dull affirmation , which supposeth the vital spirit to be nourished by a simple Element : Seeing we are nourished by the same things whereof we are generated . Wherefore seeing the in-drawn aire is an elementary body , it hath not the nature of a sanguine spirit ; as neither seeing the air can ever be made individual by a humane determination , it shall not be able to nourish a composed body , as I have taught in its place . Moreover , It alwayes keeps the properties of a universal Element , but doth not attain the condition of an Archeus . For the aire is neither akin to us , nor is it capable of a vital light : And therefore the Artery shall abhor a Forreigner , neither doth it admit the air into its family , before it be elaborated in due shops ; neither doth nature attempt any thing in vain , as neither to prepare the aire , that it may be made that , toward which it plainly hath not a possible inclination : otherwise , the vital spirit should be made in vain , through so many preparations of digestions , long-windings , and shops of the Bowels , if by so light a breviary , and without usury , it may be ripened from without . For this hath deceived the Schools , that it hath hitherto been believed , that fire is necessarily nourished by air : Therefore also that vital spirit as the Authour of all our heat , doth want for its food , the Element of air . But I have already cleered it up above , that the fire is neither a substance , nor that it is nourished by air : Yea , neither by a combustible matter , unlesse that in hastening to the ends of its appointments , it doth require an inflamable matter for its object , but not for its nourishment . Also for want of an object , it perisheth in an instant , when it hath attained the end of its appointments : Because , seeing it is neither a substance , nor an accident , it also perisheth for want of an object , for that its own object is also its subject . And so also , that is a thing most singular to it , and hitherto unknown . Therefore the supposition of smoakie vapours standing , the end ceaseth for which the outward Air should be drawn through the Skin into the Arteries , the manner ceaseth , and the possibility ceaseth . Again , if the Arterie sucks the Air by the Pulse , it should indifferently suck , and such an attraction should be promiscuously endemicall , and so , hurtfull : which I have observed to be false by often experience . Especially , because that as oft as a forreign or strange Plague is contracted from without by the breathing , the suiting or setling thereof is not made but nigh the stomach : which thing is made manifest by the sense of the place , anguishes , vomiting , sighs , head-aches , and doatages : And so that part in us which feeleth , and formeth the first motions of apprehensions , doth also feel the first onsets of the Plague . I grant indeed that the Plague is contracted by the contraction of a defiled matter , and that forthwith the pain as it were of a pricking needle is felt : But this doth not prove , that therefore the sucking of the Air is made by the Arteries , when as the poyson it self is apt to infect the skin , and forthwith to burn it into an Eschar . Surely it is a far different thing , for the Pest to be drawn inwards by the Arteries , or to be allured by sucking ; and another thing by force of its own contagion , to creep inwards by touching , as it were by the stroak of a Serpent : for emplaisters , Baths , and Oils do alter the skin ; and consequently , they do either proceed to alter , or do draw from the Center to the skin : but not because vapours fetched from thence , are drawn materially inward . Then at length , the Pulse is not after the manner of breathing , which by one sigh doth blow out whatsoever is of Air in the Breast : but the motion of the Pulses is interrupted by an opposite ; and therefore the expiring motion is most frequent , no lesse than the inspiring ; and those successive motions do so much hasten , that if they had attracted any Air , that should enter for a frustrate end , seeing it would be knocked out in an instant : For truly , that which is nearer to the mouthes , that should also first be blown out : And so the Air should not have hope , ever to be more thorowly admitted , or that it should satisfie the cooling refreshment of the heart . Lastly , a generative faculty is wanting to the vital Spirit , whereby it should bring the Air into Spirit by a formall transmutation ; Seeing that power belongs to the Ferment , and Shops , without which , venal bloud is not made : For neither can venal bloud generate venal bloud , and the chyle of the stomach being granted to be in a Vein or Arterie , venal bloud should not therefore ever be made thereby , or arterial bloud . Therefore the Air , although it should be a fit Body , yet it could not be made the nourishment of the vital Spirit , unless it had first been elabourated in the heart , being quickned and enlightned therein individually , according to a humane Species : all whereof do resist an Element . Therefore the frivolous device is made void , and the cooling refreshment of the heart by the attraction of Air inwards by the Arteries , is feigned : And the Load-stone of Man celebrated by Paracelsus , is feigned ; Seeing the Arteries do not suck inwards , and the Air so introduced , should be for a greater load to the Arteries than the feigned smoakie vapour of the Schooles . If therefore the Arteries do not draw Air , certainly much lesse should flesh do that , being an enemy , wanting the hollowness of the Air : For indeed , that the Air is drawn from without unto the heart by the Arteries , as well for its cooling refreshment , as its nourishment , and increase of the Spirit of the Archeus , is nothing but a meer device . So is the invention of the Schooles alike frivolous , that the necessity alone of expulsing the smoakie vapour bred in the heart , should depress the Arteries ; For truly in the foregoing Chapter , I have already shewen at large , that there are other aims of the Pulses : For whatsoever is made in the heart , is either a pure Being , and a meer refined thing , and vital : For there is no adustion , corrupt matter , dryth , nor efficient cause of smoakinesses : For it is an unsavoury or foolish thing , thus to have compared the Fabrick or frame of life to destroying fire , that it must be feigned , the arterial bloud there to be burnt to , and to send forth smoakie Fumes : For if any forreign vapours do sometimes besides nature disorderly touch the limits of the heart , we straightway feel the numbers of beatings , and the defects of intermitting storms . But if an ordinary framing of smoakinesses should be in the heart , how should they be seperated from the vital Spirit ? and by what trench should they remain divided from each other ? How should the expulsion of smoakie vapours be possible , which should not also abundantly power forth the vital Spirit most intimately co-mixed with themselves ? And so , as the Schooles have nothing of pure Doctrine , do they also suffer no unpolluted thing , no undefiled thing without an excrementitious and dungie smoakiness ? do they think that the essential offices of life do indifferently belong as well to a smoakie vapour , as to the Spirit of life ? And so hitherto also to be co-mixed ? How should the depression of the Arterie thus far tend unto a good end , and that appointed by the Creator , which together with the smoakiness , should also puffe out the vital Spirit thorowly mingled with it ? And so shall it forthwith bring death and destruction ? How had not that Vmpire of things , most highly to be honoured , even from mans Creation , made death by the contraction of his Pulses ? Last of all , if a smoakie vapour should be the Musical measure of the Pulses ( as they will have them ; ) what should be that seperater , who should compel the smoakie vapours rather to depart into the habit of the flesh from without , than thorow the chief Arteries with a straight line , into the head ? Or if a co-mingled smoakiness doth indifferently hasten with the vital Spirit into the bosoms of the Brain , why do they not continually disturb the Family-government of the Senses ? what if the pressing together of the Arterie be dedicated to the expulsion of smoakie vapours ; for since the Arteries are thumped sidewayes , so also thus far they do bestow Spirit and vital Powers on the places thorow which they passe : therefore that way also they should mutually expell smoakinesses : which surely should be more pernicious to all the Bowels , than to the Arteries themselves , because these are judged to be refreshed by fresh Air , but not the Bowels . If therefore they will have smoakie vapours expelled by the pressing of the Arteries together , let them first shew us that smoakie vapours cannot be otherwise purged , than by the last or utmost mouths of the Arteries , and that with the continual safety of the Spirit that is thorowly mixt with the smoakinesses . Truly , the Schooles do support their defiled Doctrine by a smoakie vapour , and by a blinde perswasion of sluggishness do subscribe their Genius unto Galen . Seeing therefore they have been ignorant of the matter , heat , residence , content , and circle of the Urine , but have passed by the efficient cause of Pulses , but have fled back chiefly to heats and colds , and have neglected their true ends , the whole significative knowledge of healing hath remained polluted : Therefore the Schools are prophesied of as it were from a three-legged stool , as well in the knowledge of Diseases , as in the progress , and end of the same : which thing I shall hereafter , much more plentifully prove . Therefore Endemical things do affect or stir all things whereby , and which way they enter : to wit , the Head , Breast , and the Dependants on these : And by how much they do prevail , by so much do they operate and effect : For some do imprint a spot or defilement on the part , and afterwards depart : Such as are misty or clowdy things , stinking things , things putrified by continuance , &c. But some do enter in the shape of a smoak , and are breathed into Minerals , which are again divers wayes coagulated within : For some are spewed-forth spittings , if they are not hurtfull : But others do for terme of life toughly adhere on the walls of the pipes of the Lungs , and do exercise their tyranny for their entertainment . Of this sort , is , whatsoever doth fume out of the veins of Minerals : wherefore also the Fume of Minerals , by reason of its malignity , & an Arsenical poyson , have become Sunonymalls or things of one name : to wit , the Arsenick , and smoakie vapour , and smoak of Metalls fall together or agree in one : Whence are hoarsnesses , tremblings of the heart , faintings , Asthmas , Pleurisies , Inflammations of the Lungs , Coffs , spittings of Bloud , Consumptions , Imposthumes full of matter , &c. In the mean time it is not manifest , that Endemicks or things proper to people in the Countrey where they live , are drawn by the Arteries , neither that the same are immediately affected : But if Mercury doth bring forth tremblings , that at least is impertinent to the Arteries . Neither also do they therefore tremble , into whom Mercury is driven by Ointments : But they are bladdered in the mouth , throat , the Uvula falls down , and their teeth are ulcerated , do shake or are loose , and wax black , their head swells , and they spit stinking things greatly . Also Guilders , Diggers and Seperaters of Mercury , because they do inspire a deadly poyson into the head , and Sinnewy parts , they do work or effect Endemicks in us as much as they can . CHAP. XXVI . The Spirit of Life . 1. The Doctrine of the Antients concerning a threefold Spirit : 2. They have stated whence we must begin : 3. The spirit of wine doth contain onely two Chymical Beginnings , flexible at the pleasure of the Artificer . 4. Vital spirit out of spirit of wine . 5. How drunkennesse comes . 6. How the spirit of wine , and Aqua vitae or Water of life do differ . 7. Whatsoever is stilled onely by fire , doth go back from the virtues of its former composed body . 8. The ferment or leaven of the stomack , and of bread , differs . 9. The Plurality of ferments . 10. Gas being unknown , hath brought forth many absurdities in the distinction of things . 11. The soul is in the Arterial bloud , and not in the venal bloud : 12. The Venal blood is without a spirit of the Liver . 13. Drunkennesse . 14. The progresse of the vital spirit through its offices . 15. The declared disposition of the spirit it self . 16. What things are by sense reckoned to be one , are severed or discerned in their effects . 17. From whence the spirit of life is Balsamical . 18. The spirit of Aqua vitae only by touching , looseth its oylinesse . 19. It is presently made a Salt. 20. The whole venal blood is turned into a Salt. 21. Of the life of the vital spirit . 22. The light is now and then extinguished in the matter of the spirit . 23. There are as many particular kinds of sublunary lights , as there are of vital lights . 24. The definition of the vital spirit . 25. The heat of life is not the Constituter of its own moisture . 26. That heat is an adjacent to life . 27. The undistinction of the Schools , of the effects of heat , and of a ferment . 28. Whence heat is Escharotical or the maker of an Eschar in us . 29. Whether the animal Spirit be distinct from the vital . I Have discoursed already before of the Archeus , as it were the Vulcan in the seed , and after what manner he may dispose of all things , as well in generation , as in the transmutations of meats , throughout the course of life ; which office doth properly respect the inbred or implanted spirit : But now , how , and whence the spirit floating in the Arteries may be constituted by occasion of the Blas of man already described ; consequently I have undertaken to explain in this path , their Office , and Properties . The Schools teach , That nourishments are first changed into Chyle , and then into digested juice and venal bloud , and so that a certain naturall spirit is made in the Liver , which afterward by a repeated digestion of the heart , is changed into vital , and at length is in the Brain made animal or sensitive , so as that the natural spirit is ordained for nourishing of the parts , but the vital for the preserving of the same , and the animal for the functions of sense , motion , and the soul . But I think it hath been far otherwise Phylosophized , and farther proceeded : For they had known out of Hippocrates , That a certain spirit is that thing which causeth violence , or maketh the assaults . But it was not sufficient to know , that there is a certain Spirit to have told by what instruments it should be made , or what it might act , unlesse they should explain also the disposition , substance , and properties of the same , together with the manner of its making . I have elsewhere delivered , That of any plant , and fruit , a ferment being applyed , Aqua vitae or a water of life may be made ; which thing seeing it is commonly known , while out of Grains , Hydromel or Water and Honey , and juices , it frameth a water of life ; The Proposition needs no demonstration . But Aqua vitae is a volatile Liquor , Oylie ( as it is wholly enflamed ) and wholly Salt ( as being sharp , biting , as being detained the longer in the mouth , it burns the upper skin of the gums and lips ) and is one and the same simple thing , and so it containeth two only , and not the three Chymical Beginnings : So indeed , That according to the will of the Artificer , the whole Aqua vitae may be made Salt , or Oyl , that is , That those Beginnings are not Beginnings not constant things , but changeable at the will of man. But the Wine as to its Winie part , contains a spirit answering to Aqua vitae : For this is searched through the Arteries of the stomack unto the head , without the maturities of other shops . So that if more wine be in the stomack than is meet , drunkennesse follows , as the spirit of the wine doth flow more largely into the head , than that by a fit space or interval , it can be changed by an individuating humane limitation : For from hence the changing , and likewise the operation of the ferment is manifest . Notwithstanding , in Wine , that spirit is milder than Aqua vitae which is drawn forth by distillation : which thing appears from the like in Oyl of Olives : For the Oyl ( which they call Oyl of Tiles or Bricks , or Olem Phylosophorum ) being distilled , doth far differ from the Oylinesse which is drawn out of simple Oyl , by digestion only with the circulated Salt of Paracelsus : for that circulated Salt is seperated the same in vertue , and weight , after it hath divided the oyl of Olives into its diversities of parts : For a sweet , and twofold Oyl is seperated out of oyl of Olives , even as a most sweet spirit out of wine , being far severed from the tartnesse of Aqua vitae . Whence I have learned by consequence , That whatsoever is distilled only by fire , doth far recede from the vertues of the composed body . But in us , although meat doth putrifie after its own manner ( to wit , if that putrefaction be a mean of transchanging a thing into a thing ) yet in our digestions , by that putrefaction ( I speak of the action of the ferment of the stomack ) Aqua vitae is not extracted out of Potherbs , Graines , Apples , or Pulses : For truly , the intention of nature is not then to procreate an Aqua vitae ; and there is one ferment in us , whereby things are resolved into Chyle , and another whereby things do send forth an Aqua vitae or a water of Life out of themselves : For while herbs do putrifie in water through a ferment , the stalk , stumps or stocks , and leaves do remain whole in their antient figure and hardness for the extraction of Aqua vitae , which being eaten by us , are turned into Chyle and loose their first face . Wherefore I have comprehended as many varieties of putrefactions , and as many dungs of one bread different in the particular kind , as there are particular kinds of living creatures nourished by bread : Yea , further , far more ferments of bread , because bread doth putrifie as yet by more means as well of its own accord , as from an appointment : But what is spoken of bread , as much is said of other meats . The Schools indeed knew , That nothing doth profit us , which should not contain a Beginning or Essay of life in its root ( and so therefore they do admit of the air for the increase of spirit , being deceiued by the Lessons of Poets , who call them Vitall airs ) to wit , they would have in the venal bloud , a spirit of the Liver , naturally actually to be , and to glister like air . For they thought it to be a vapour ; being ignorant that a vapour is never made an uncoagulable Gas , an air , sky , or wild exhalation , but that it alwayes remains water . Therefore they thought a vapour exhaling from the venal bloud , hunted outwards ( even as out of a certain luke-warm Liquor ) should be that spirit of the venal bloud , whence vital spirit should be materially framed . But surely the venal bloud , as long as it flowes in the vessels of the Mesenterie and Port vein , is void of spirit ; Wherefore it being also called out by laaxtive Medicines , it is voided forth stinking , without any notable token of weaknesse , which comes not so to passe , if it hath once well touched at the hollow vein : Because then the venal bloud is Homogeneally or after one and the same kind sealed in its entrance , that it may be made the bloud of the Artery , and spirit ; and therefore it is in the Holy Scriptures indifferently with the Arterial blood , called a Red spirit , in which the Soul inhabits : Although that be properly understood of the Arterial bloud ; Because the Scripture is there speaking of men stabbed or slain , whose venal bloud is poured out , together with their arterial bloud . I shall at sometime teach concerning digestions , that whatsoever is made or composed in the stomack , that doth wax soure there by a ferment , ( also Sugar it self , not indeed with a sournesse or sharpness of Vinegar , Oyl of unripe Olives , Citron , or Vitriol , but by its own like ferment , and with a specifical sowrenesse , although it symbolizeth or coagreeth with other sowre things , in that which is sowre : Yet the sharpnesse is diverse from them all by an internall power . And that sowreness of meats is perfectly volatile : Neither doth that hinder , that the Chyle in Youths doth assume the fixednesse of a bone , as also in the fractures of bones : For the Chyle of the stomack is the same after growth , as it was in a Youth : But all that is at length discussed without any remainder of it self : it again retakes the nature of a bone in a callous concretion in the solidness of fractures : And therefore for that very cause all Chyle is volatile , and thus far it sometimes doth assume the disposition of spirit in the venal bloud : Not indeed because there is a natural spirit in it , and diverse from the venal bloud ; but rather because the whole venal bloud hath obtained a spiritual Character in the promise , John 5. The water , the bloud , and the spirit are one . But I will teach concerning digestions , after what sort that sowreness in the Chyle may be transchanged into a volatile Salt , whose excrementitious part is banished with Urine and Sweats . But the very Masse of venal bloud , through the fermental virtue of the heart , and assistance of the Pulses , doth passe over into Arterial bloud , of yellow , looking reddish ; whence it is made vital spirit ; And so , is not the air or vapour of the venal bloud , but the venal bloud it self is brought into arterial bloud , and from thence at length into vital spirit . For the Office of the Liver is univocal , and is called Sanguification , but not the creation of spirit , which do differ far from each other . For neither do so many , and so diverse Offices belong to one bowel , especially because the rude heap of venal bloud , is not yet a fit seminary for the spirits : For it is sufficient for the Liver being enriched with so few Arteries , and a communion of life , that it performeth a true transmutation of the Chyle into venal bloud , and a true generation of a new Being . But in the heart , as it were the fountain of life , it is first of all meditated concerning vital Beginnings : For the Venal bloud is there extenuated into Arterial bloud , and vital air : which two are wholly perfected by one only action , according to the more ready , and slow obedience of the venal bloud : For the venal bloud is made with the in-thickning of the Chyle or Cream , therefore by the separation of the liquid excrement , or urine : But the spirit is made with the attenuating or making thin of that which is in-thickned : Both which actions so opposite , do not therefore agree with one Liver . But if the Schools will have a natural spirit to have fore-existed in meats , but to have received a perfection in the Liver : But yet it easily expires in things boyled , cocted and roasted : And if any doth by chance remain , that spirit is not the hepatical or Liverie one of our Family Goverment . I confesse indeed , that the Spirit of wine is the spirit of Vegetables , and is easily snatched into the Arteries , as it were a simple Resembler , previously disposed , that it may easily passe over into vital spirit : But from thence the Schools do frame nothing for their spirit of the Liver : For the Spirit of wine is immediately snatched into the Arteries , out of the stomack , without digestion : Neither is it taken as a vital companion by the degree of venal bloud ; it is also easily from thence gathered , that the vital spirit doth not presuppose a natural one : And what I have said is manifest : For truly , they which suffer fainting or trembling of the heart , do presently and immediately feel the spirit of wine to be admitted into the fellowship of life , for neither then also are they made drunk by much wine abundantly drunken . Otherwise , Wine being as yet corporally existing within the stomack , drunkenness doth not from elsewhere proceed , than because the winie spirit is abundantly snatched into the heart , and head , and there breeds a confusion of the fore-existing spirits , it self being a stranger , not yet polished in the shop of the heart . Therefore the venal blood it selfe , let it be the spirit of the Liver , corporal , coagulated into a matter , and subjected to a vital Goverment : with me it may be so ; so that we understand it Rhetorically : to wit , the venal bloud it self to be an object capable , and a matter that it may thereby be made Spirit . And in speaking Phylosophically , or properly , there is no spirit in the venal bloud made for it self by the Liver , because the labour of Sanguification , seperation of the Liquor Latex , Urine , and Sweat doth employ the Liver : to wit , while those do most swiftly pass thorow the slender Flood-gates of small veins . For the venal bloud although it received an entrance of it self in the Meseraick veins , yet the true generation of the same is made , also the endowments of small threds , and coagulation , under the most swift passage , together with its Whey , through the small Trunks of a hairy slendernesse . But if also the generation of spirit , doth moreover employ the Liver : Truly , besides the vain generation of the same , the Liver is to prostrate it self like an Asse , with too much fardle , and plurality of offices : And it is sufficient for the venal bloud , that being made a Citizen of the veins , it doth partake of life , and be illustrated with a vital light . Therefore even as by the ferment , and labour of the heart , the venal bloud is made arterial bloud , and volatile spirit ; So a ferment the Vicar of the heart , being drawn from the arteries , they are also made so volatile , that after their consumings they leave no remaining lees that do go forth with a totall transpiration of themselves . Therefore the heart doth frame out of the venal bloud , arterial bloud , which it fitteth and extenuateth by the same endeavour , and makes so much vital Spirit in the arterial bloud , as the groseness of the venal bloud , and the resisting substance of the same doth permit in so little a space , wherein it is agitated and shaken together within the bosoms of the heart : yea indeed , neither is it enough to have known the venal bloud to be Spirit , also to be brought over into arterial bloud , and to grant a vital Spirit , by whose favour it may be informed by the minde , and be made animate ; and from hence at length to be translated into the bosoms , or stomachs of the Brain , there to receive the various limitation of Characters ; So that it is made motive in the thorny marrow or Spina Medullae , as we have seen in the Shops optical or of the sight , which if they are through some errour brought to the tongue , they are plainly unprofitable for tasting : Wherefore it comes to passe , that oft-times the fingers are benummed , some moveable part , looseth ( its sense being left ) either feeling or motion , for that the parts are bedewed with a strange , and wandring Spirit : For the Authours of touchings are unfit for motion , and those of this likewise for them ; But moreover , it behoveth to have known the disposition of the vital Spirit : For truly , it will sometime sufficiently appear , that of soure Chyle , partly venal bloud , and partly salt Urine , and the excrements are made : But that , that excrementitious saltness is a volatile , and salt Spirit , which being co-fermented with Earth , doth at length in part assume the nature of Salt-peter . The venal bloud also , doth by distillation afford this salt spirit , plainly volatile , and not any thing distinguishable from the spirit of Urine : Yet I have considered that they both do differ in this essential property , that the spirit of the Salt of venal bloud doth cure the falling-evill , even of those of ripe age , the spirit of the salt of Urine not so : Therefore it is manifest that in the Venal blood , a salt and volatile spirit is contained : But after what manner all the venal bloud may be transchanged by the ferment of the heart , into spirit , without a diversity of kind , as much as may be said , I have explained in the Treatise of Long Life : Because otherwise , Natures are not to be demonstrated from a former Cause , as neither the operations of Ferments , because they are essentiall causes for the transmutations of things . Therefore the vital spirit is saltish , and therefore Balsamical , and a preserver from corruption , and that not so much by reason of the salt , as in respect of a light conceived in its own Salt : And so , neither can air be made the addition or nourishment thereof : For although the Aqua vitae be easily assumed into vital spirit , yet this is not oylie and combustible , but the spirit of wine onely by the touching of a ferment , doth easily ascend wholly into a saltish volatile nature , forthwith assoon as it looseth its oylie or enflamable property . Even as I have taught by Handicraft operation in the Treatise of Duelech : To wit , after what manner , at one onely instant , Aqua vitae may be truly changed into a yellow gobbet or lump , not inflamable ; which thing doth more evidently happen to Aqua vitae , by a saltish vital Ferment . Therefore the Spirit of Wine , is straightway snatched into the heart without delay , or by a further digestion , through the Arteries of the stomach , and restoreth the strength , because it is by small labour perfected in the heart : yet we must not think that the vital Spirit is soure , because the Spirit of Salt-peter is pleasingly sharp , and is made at length of the Spirit of Urine : Because the Spirit from whence Salt-peter is coagulated in the Earth , was not soure or sharp while it was the Spirit of Urine : Therefore the vitall Spirit is Salt , not soure ( for that which is sharp out of the stomach , is an enemy to the whole Body ) being nearer to the Spirit of Urine than to Salt-peter , and it is as yet much more divers from the Spirit of Salt-peter , by the adustion , and co-mingling of the adjunct with the thing extracted : But they do easily perceive the saltness of the vital Spirit , who have had some stupid member , which by degrees receiving touching , doth suffer pricking and stingings , which are the true tokens of saltness . Indeed the saltness of the Spirit may be known , but the light of the same proceeding immediately and fountainously from the Father of Lights , doth drive away all further search of mortall men . Furthermore , that the whole venal bloud is a meer Salt , it desires not more strongly to be proved , than because the whole venal bloud is in Ulcers , the dropsie Ascites , &c. homogeneally made a Liquor , by an immediate degeneration : For the venal bloud is intensly red , but it growes yellow while it is made arterial bloud ; because redness waxeth yellow when it is as it were dissolved by a volatile Salt. It is as yet a dead thing , whatsoever I have spoken of hitherto . The vital Spirit performs the offices of life : But the famous top of life is not proper to a Liquor , or exhalation , as they are Salt things : And that the life of things may live , it ought of necessity , to have a Light from the Father of Lights : Therefore it behoveth , that the Spirit , or vital Skie or Air , be enlightned with a Light simply vital , not indeed universal , but specifical and individuating : Nor also with a fiery , burning , enfiaming light , and conspicuous by concentred beames ; But it is a formal light of the condition of a sensitive Soul. In which word , the descriptions , and further diligent searches of mortal men are stayed : to which end , imagine thou , that Glow-worms have a light in their belly a little before night , ( as also bubbles of the Sea have a night brightness , and very many things , which through purrifying , do proceed into the last matter of Salts ) yet vital , and that which is extinguished together with their life . Suppose thou a certain a like light to be in the spirit of life , which as long as it liveth , shineth , and when it forsaketh the eyes of one dying , they appear horny , and made clean . And that light is now and then extinguished , the material vital Spirit being as yet safe , in the Plague , poyson , sounding , &c. yet thou mayst not think , that the like essence of light is in us , and Glow-worms , that indeed lights do differ onely in the tone or tenor of degrees : But in very deed , there are as many particular kindes of vital lights , as there are of Creatures that have life . And that is an abundant token of divine bounty , that there are as many particular kindes of Lights , which are comprehended in us under one onely notion and word , and that there are as many vital differences as there are Species of vital things : because that those lights are the very lives , Souls and Forms of vital things themselves ( yet I except the immortal minde , while I treat of frail lights , although it self also be a certain incomprehensible light ) and so by the same Lights themselves , is the alone and every distinction of particular kindes : Therefore the Father of Lights delighteth in the unutterable abundance of generall kindes of Lights , with a far greater bounty , than in fashioning almost infinite varieties in one onely humane countenance : For there is with himself , a certain Common-wealth of Lights , and a Legion of unmemorable Citizens , a certain likeness whereof he expresseth by the Forms of vital things , in the sublunary World. Therefore the vitall Spirit is arterial bloud resolved by the Ferment of the heart , into a salt Air , and enlightned by life : which light is in us hot , of the nature of the Sun , and is cold in a Fish , neither doth it ever aspire unto any power of heat , wherefore our heat is not a consumer of the Original moisture ( even as concerning long life ) seeing fishes have not hitherto escaped death . Neither could the first men who before the floud , saw a thousand Solar years , have had more radical moisture by ten fold , than us , unless they had had all things ten fold more extended ; which is an impertinent thing : For truly , it is probable , that Adam being formed by the hand of God , obtained the most exceeding perfect Stature of the Lord Jesus Christ , neither to have exceeded the same . Lastly , Fishes should naturally be immortall , under the frozen Sea , seeing their radical moisture should not there evaporate by heat . Some of our Religious Country-men are almost for a whole year so cold from the Foot even to the Belly , that they do not feel that they have feet : wherefore they should likewise be longer lived than us , yea and their Legs should be like young mens , when as their whole Breast is crisped with old wrinckles , if primogeneal moisture being consumed by heat , should afford an unavoidable necessity of death . And likewise , as well Fishes as those Religious men , ought to refuse the daily refreshments of nourishment , because scarce any thing doth exspire thorow the pores : or if heat should be of the essence of our life , certainly the part languishing with continual cold , should either die , or at least should be changed into a Fish . Whence it is plain , that heat is onely an adjacent to our life , and its concomitant token , but not the primary foundation thereof . Therefore the Schools may see , how unfitly they have hitherto circumscribed the whole constitutive temperature of nature in heat : For far be it hereafter so blockishly to phylosophize , and not to know , that the consuming of moisture by heat , which is terminated with in-thickning , is one thing ; and that which is wholly moved forward to transpiration by an extenuating Ferment , is by far another : For this leaveth no residence behinde it , but that a Sandy Stone , or Coal . But if an increased heat doth sometimes rise up in us , so that it is that which doth as it were burn the members , gangrene them , and like fire make an Eschar , or now and then doth eat into the flesh like a Dormouse , those indeed are the works of corrosive , degenerating , lawless Salts , that are banished from the vital Common-wealth : So also by laxative poysons , and Fluxes , the whole venal bloud is resolved into putrefaction , and the venal bloud being resolve by other poysons into a liquor Sunovie or Gleary water , poyson , jaundous excrement , &c. doth flow sorth , oft-times most sharp , and oft-times raging without a Corrosive ; For such kind of errors do happen in the life ( for therefore in a dead carcasse they do cease ) as they by a proper Blas , do put on the animosity of nature corrupted by the Life , and the life doth enflame a sword , whereby it doth manifoldly hurt it selfe , even as sometimes concerning diseases . At length , whether there be any Animal spirit to be distinguished in the Species from the Vital , or whether the disputation thereof be a true brawling about a name . I have shewn what a thing is in it self , whereunto a name adds nothing , or can take away nothing . The vital spirit doth climb through the chief Arteries into the head : But in the heart or middle of the Brain , there is one onely bosom , which being beheld above , seemeth double ; but its Vault being lifted upwards , it sheweth a onenesse . Moreover in this bosom the Arteries do end into a certain wrinckled vessel , plainly of another weaving or texture , than is the other compaction of Arteries . Hereby indeed , the vital spirit flowes abroad , and exspireth into the bosom of the Brain , for the service of the chief faculties , to wit , of the imagination , judgement , and memory . Hereby also it proceeds to be distributed into the small mouths of the Sinews , beginning from the Brain : So that , if it be to be called Animal , as receiving or under-going in the Brain , a limitation of the part , it doth obtain the properties fit for an appointed function , yet it doth not therefore seem diverse from the vital , by its matter , and efficient cause . For truly , in the largeness of its own vital light , it is capable of all those Properties without the thorow changing of its native essence : For that Spirit which is thrust forth unto the tongue , doth exercise the tasting , but that same doth not tast in the fingers , but doth every where receive a particular Character of Organs or Instruments , and puts on a particular property : The which if thy mind carry thee to distinguish from the vital spirit , there shall again be as many essential divisions of the spirit , as there are offices , and as many as there are services divided by the pluralities of offices . In the mean time , understand the thing , and call it as thou listest : For I am not contradictory to the Schools out of a stomackful passion : for I being admonished by a superiour Authority , ought only to have laid open their errours , and to teach things unknown . Let they themselves likewise disclose my errours or mistakes with an equal mind , surely I shall rejoyce , if so be that onely my neighbour do obtain the profit , which I wish . CHAP. XXVII . Heat doth not digest efficiently , but only excitatively or by way of stirring up . 1. Heat is not the proper instrument of digestion . 2. What hath deceived the Schools herein : 3. The defences of the Schools . 4. The rashness of Paracelsus . 5. The anguishes of the Schools . 6. They forgot their own Maxim concerning contraries . 7. They have constrainedly made heat , and the predicament of heat , more powerful than fire . 8. Digestion , and Seething do differ . 9. Ferments are angry because they are put after . 10. What the univocal action of heat is . 11. A fish digesteth without heat . 12. There is no place for potential heat in things to be digested . 13. An Argument of hunger . 14. Another from the unity of specifical heat . 15. The third from a Maxim. 16. Another Argument . 17. Why sowre belching after the savour of burntish ones is good . 18. Why one sick of a Fever abhorreth fleshes . 19. From the scope of healing . 20. The admiring of Paracelsus . 21. An error of the same man. 22. The digestive sorce of Hens . 23. The Authour being as yet a Boy , learned the true cause of digestion . 24. He knew resolving to be from sowrnesse . 25. We grow old only through extream want of Ferments . 26. The quality of a fermenting sowrnesse . 27. Whence is the dislike of some meats . 28. The forces of ferments . 29. Mice accuse the Schools of errour . 30. Why the Ferment of the stomack is divers from it self . 31. A commendation of the Spleen . 32. Degrees of heat and cold do vary . 33. The errours of the Schools concerning the degrees of Elements . 34. The degrees of Chymicall heat . 35. The Authour hath made degrees of distinction . 36. Moisture , and drynesse are not to be considered as qualities . 37. Why they do not admit of degrees . 38. Hence trifles were introduced by the Antients into the doctrine of the Elements . BEcause the whole foundation of nature is thought to hang on the hinge of heat , and the Elements , mixtures , and temperaments are already banished far off ; therefore to establish the progeny of the Archeus , and vital Spirits , we must hence following speak of digestions : The which , because the Schools have enslaved to heat , I will shew that heat is not the proper instrument of digestions . Indeed , the metaphor of digestion hath deceived the Schools : to wit , it being by a Poetical liberty borrowed from a rustical sense , introduced , they have made concoction of the same name with digestion . And as they knew seething or boyling to be concoction , therefore they translated digestions to boyling , and on both sides where they thought heat to be the natural , total , and one only cause of them : For they saw that by seething , and roasting , very many things waxed tender , and were altered : Therefore a liberty being taken from artificial things , they translated a Kitchin into the amazed transmutations of the bowels and meats : not indeed by way of similitude , but altogether properly and immediately , and by thinking , the matter passed over into a belief , and then into a true opinion ; and all the offices , and benefits of our nature , they translated into heats , and temperaments , as it were into totall causes : Especially indeed , because they perceived the bellies of men , and four-footed beasts to be actually hot ; even so that afterwards they laboured more for increasing of heat , than for strengthening of digestion : For neither have they diligently searched further into it , although the event did for the most part deceive their hope : Thinking it sufficient that heat might be found as well in boyling , as in the natural digestion of the belly , from which , they slumbered as expecting abundant help to themselves . In the mean time they were in doubt , when they took notice that meats were not by seethings , wholly transchanged into juice by a total metamorphizing : For fleshes ( the vessel being shut ) they resolved into a consummated B●oth , a true portage being pressed out and melted : but indeed they observed their errour , because fleshy , tough , and hard remaining threds did abide , and never melt by a true transmutation into juice yet through an aptnesse of belief , and antiquity of errour , they suffered their eyes to be vailed ; seeking privy shifts , and biding places , they presently thought themselves safe , while that they had implored the divers degrees of heat , if not also its particular kinds and general kinds ( as is a fiery , elementary , radical , correspondent to the element of the stars , &c. ) yea , and the moments of heats for a help of their excuses ; So that every degree should almost in every moment , have its own constitutive temperature in digesting . In which stupidity Paracelsus also involved himself , who will have one only bread in so many particular kinds of living creatures , to receive a specifical diversity of venal bloud , and dungs , by reason of the moment of degree alone , in heat : As if the Latitude of heat could frame a species , or vary in the substance . But while the Schools did presume to have taken away every knot in the Bulrush , they afterwards fell into the spongy differences of digestive heat , natural , and likewise into , that of besides , and against nature : And at length , they ought now and then against their will to fly back unto the sacred Anchor of hidden secrets or properties in digestions ; So indeed , that there should be some certain heat the Authour of digestion , as well in diseases as in health . Having forgotten in the mean time , that as they had feigned one only kind of contraries , and both to be said or declared after like manners , that there should be one only , and a uniform condition of both : Wherefore they forgot to devise the like particular kindes and properties of colds : to wit , of what so it that natural digestive cold , besides , and against nature should be . And likewise they ought to have taught some radical and primogeniall cold : So that if radical heat doth answer in proportion to the Element of the Stars , and doth differ in the whole general kind , from any other luke-warmth , also radicall cold ought to differ in as many numbers , and faculties , from any other cold , unlesse through the great want of truth they forsake their own wisdom as barren . So indeed , although heat not natural should proceed into natural , and this into it by an unheard of license of seeds ; yet they have banished native , and feverish heat into distinct species ( yea also into generall kinds ) that they might save the effects attributed to digestive heat . So that while they would believe that some Birds do digest those things which otherwise do defend them against the fury of the fire ; they have acknowledged some fire to be more powerfull than fire : For a Dog doth digest swallowed bones , which fire never dares to convert into Chyle : Therefore , The diversities of which effects , have constrained the Schools to erect heat into the Latitude of a predicament ; opposite colds being in the mean time neglected : When as in the mean time , there is only a specifical diversity of heat , which is not able to with-draw it from the number of other things . For truly , whatsoever is cast into the stomack , digestion being at length finished , is transchanged , and far separated from boyling and other coctures , after whatsoever degree prepared . Because the one only ignorance of ferments hath caused digestions , and the remedies of unconcoction to be unknown , and a faulty argument to be promoted , of not the cause , as of the cause : where it is not an idle brawling , as it were about a name , while fermentall effects are ascribed to heat ; Because the resolving of this question doth change the intentions of healing . Therefore I willingly accustome my self to enquire into the proper causes , to wit , at the meditation whereof , profit follows , diseases tremble , or the strength or faculties are made vigorous . Therefore ferments are worthily wrath , because they are against their will believed to war under a Relolleum or quality not having a seminal Being : For it never belonged to heat to withdraw a thing into a formal transmutation ; Seeing heat by it self and primarily doth nothing but make hot , but by accident it separates watery things from stiff or tough things : Which univocal or single action of heat , is no wise a digestion , being wholly included in transchanging : For although digestion doth happen in us , heat accompanying it , yet that is not heat , although it be by accident connexed with heat . For therefore in a Fish , there is no actual heat , neither therefore notwithstanding , doth he digest more unprosperously than hot Animals : Neither is he after the manner of men , badly affected by things cast into him . Therefore it is a frivolous thing to flee to potential heat for a fish ; For in sensible things known by sense , the touching only is witnesse and judge ; but not to flee to dreams : For if digestion be to be attributed to heat not actually hot , but to a virtual power ; I now enjoy my wish : For otherwise , what is that I pray , but ignorantly to brawl about heat as such ? And in the mean time to confesse , that there is something besides a sensible heat , which is the containing cause of digestion : For what can more foolishly be spoken , than that potential heat doth actually make hot , and that digestion is made for this heatings sake ? Can a thing in power , now act actually ? But at least in a Dog-like hunger , there is a most swift digestion , and implacable hunger . Therefore a troublesome and offensive heat even then ought to be felt in us hot creatures , if digestion be made in us by actual heat . For if a little heat causeth a small digestion , and amean heat , a mean one , Verily , at a powerful and troublesome digestion , a great heat ought also to be present : Which thing notwithstanding , although I have divers times the more curiously searched into , I have not found to be true . Then at length it is to be noted , That the digestion of bread in a Man , Dog , Horse , Fish , Bird , differ in the whole general kind , no otherwise than as a manifold venal bloud , and filths sprung from thence : Wherefore from one only particular kind of digesting heat , those kinds of varieties of digestions cannot proceed : Therefore let the Schools erect , and defend so many general kinds of heats , and colds , before they do require for themselves to be believed . I therefore do draw so great a difference of venal blood from formal properties , and specifical ferments , never from heat . For truly , I perfectly know , that whatsoever things have divers essential efficients , have also divers effects and attributes : to wit , So that products divers in the general kind , do necessarily require their own efficient causes diverse in the general kind : For otherwise any thing should produce any thing indifferently : to wit , even as one and the same thing doth arise from the same nigh causes . For how frivolous a thing is it to have adjudged the vital powers , and the formal and specifical parents of transmutations , unto luke-warmths . For if the digestion of heat were needful , a more prosperous and plentiful digestion should continually follow a greater heat : For by how much every cause is more powerful in nature , by so much it doth also more powerfully perfect its own proper effect : By consequence the stomack of one sick of a Fever , in a burning Fever , should more powerfully digest , than that of a healthy person ; But surely in the stomack of him that hath a Fever nothing is rightly digested . For Eggs , Fishes , Fleshes , and Broths , are presently made cadeverous or stinking within , and therefore they do cause adust or burnt belchings , the which , if sowre belchings do soon follow after , Hippocrates hath reckoned to be good , as well from the sign , as from the cause : Yet there is in one that hath a Fever a heat , also sometimes that heat is temperate , to wit , while it is not troublesome , neither doth stir up thirst , yet the digestion is void . Impure bodies , by how much the more powerfully thou nourishest them , by so much the more thou hurtest them : which in a Feverish man is manifest , wherein we must presently use a most slender food , & easie of digestion : And we must abstain from the more strongmeats , to wit , those consummated or accomplished in growth , & from meat Broths , because the ferment being absent , they do easily putrifie , contract an adust savour , and turn as it were into a dead Carcass : No otherwise than as raw flesh being bound on the Wrist , Breast , Soals of the feet , or Neck ; so far is it that it should be resolved into Chyle , that straight-way after some hours , it putrifies and stinks , although it be salt . The same thing is in an impure Feverish body where heat is present , but a digesting ferment is wanting : For if heat be the cause of digestion , otherwise , digestion is wanting in a Feaver , but heat is present ; but we must more apply our selves to digestion than to cooling refreshment , especially if no very troublesome heat be present . Therefore we should rather study the increase of heat , than cooling : And so the Scope of the Physitian should be changed , while it should be devised concerning the increase of heat in a Fever , for digestion , nourishing , and increase of strength . Neither also shall sharp and hungry Medicines of Sulphur , Vitriol , Salt , Niter , Citron , and the like , help ; but the heat should be stirred up , and increased by sharp things . He speaketh something like madness , who saith , That the Snow makes cold , as it is white : So it is a ridiculous thing to affirm , That the specificall ferment of the stomack doth digest by reason of vitall heat existing in it . Surely it is to be lamented , that the credulity and sloath of those to whom the care of the life is committed , have changed burying-places into a meer Sumen or fatting juice , despairing of the searching out of natural properties , whence notwithstanding , they have their Sur-name . Paracelsus also being deluded by a digestive heat , and ignorant of the Ferment of the stomack , admires that some things which are most hard , are changed into Chyle in a few hours , and that a bone is consumed in the luke-warmth of the stomack of a Dog : who aspiring to the Monarchy of healing , failed thereof , after that he named this a power to be admired at , was ignorant of and knew not the ferments . For being unconstant to himself , he wrote elsewhere , That this digestive property doth agree no lesse to the mouth being shut , than to the stomack ; and so also from hence , That Anchorets have spent their long life happily without swallowed meat . But surely , that Idiotisme is to be left to his own boldness ; while in the mean time , whatsoever hath perhaps remained within the hollownesses of the Teeth , is straight-way made like a dead carcasse , with a horrible stink , but is not digested . For I remember that a white and thick glasse being cast out of my Furnace , was swallowed by my Hens , they being deluded through the heat of Milk , but the fracture of glasse is always sharp-pointed ; but after a few dayes some Hens being killed , the glasse was found to be pointingly diminished on every side , and to have lost its sharp tops , and to have been made roundish or globish . But the other surviving Hens and Guests , had presently after a few dayes , consumed the rest of the Glasse , although they had also devoured the small Pellets of Glasse taken out of the Hens formerly slain . Thou shalt take notice in the mean time , that glasse doth resist waters which resolve any Mettals . Indeed the ferment in many Birds is so powerful , that unlesse they are now and then fed with Tiles or Bricks , Chalk , or white earth , they are ill at ease through the multitude of sharpness : But on the contrary , that the stomack of one that hath a Fever , is wholly of an adust savour , he rejecteth meats of three dayes continuance , being oft-times as yet distinguished by the sight , or sometimes turned into a yellow , or rusty liquour , to wit , through the straining scope of the ferment . I learned the necessity of this ferment of the stomack , while being a Boy , I nourished Sparrows ; I oft-times thrust out my tongue , which the Sparrow laid hold of by biting , and endeavoured to swallow to himself , and then I perceived a great sharpness to be in the throat of the Sparrow , whence from that time I knew why they are so devouring and digesting . And then I saw that the sharp distilled Liquor of Sulphur had seasoned my Glove , and that it did presently resolve it into a juice , in the part which it had moistned ; which thing confirmed to me a young Beginner , that meats are transchanged by a sharp or soure thing , and so that a ferment doth inhabit in the stomack , which should change all things cast into it , although sweet ; presently into a sowreness : Wherefore also all things are sharp which are given to drink to him that wants an appetite , as are Oyl of un-ripe Olives , Vinegar , juice of Citron , of Orange , Mùstard , also Salt , and Salt-peter , as it hath a spirit in it that causeth hunger , and most pleasingly sharp : And likewise , the Berbery , Rasp , Cherries , Quinces , &c. In this respect they give content to silk folks that want digestion or concoction . Therefore the contemplation of this ferment is so necessary , that it is chief in the Government of life , and therefore it is to be grieved at , that the knowledge thereof is hitherto suppressed in the Schools . And although the dryth of the whole body waxeth strong with old age ; yet we do not wax old , unlesse by the penury , poverty , and extinguishing of some ferments : For truly , the Stag , Crow or Raven , Eagle , Goose , &c. in their first yeers of youth , are far more dry than we , yet they remain alive for some ages , yea Youth is voluntarily renewed to the Eagle , and Stag. But that digestive ferment is not placed in any kind of sharpness only : For neither doth Vinegar , or the Broth of Citron leaven or ferment the meal ; yea , neither is leavened meal therefore the ferment of the stomack ; but this is a sharp , hungry , stomatical , specifical , and humane ferment : Indeed so specifically distinct throughout all the species of Bruits , that it is appropriated to themselves : For Mice , Dormice , and Swine do sooner perish with hunger , than they do eat of a Ring-Dove or Wood-Culver : But in a man it for the most part aspireth to the largeness of a general kind . In the mean time , many do abhorr Cheese , Wine , Milk , or do despise other things , because they do not digest them ; And therefore what things soever do strive with our digestion , are specifically contrary to the property of that Ferment , and do endeavour to oppress the Ferment . Therefore the Digestive Ferment is an essential property , consisting in a certain vital sharpness or soureness , mighty for transmutations ; and therefore of a specifical property : For the Falcon dyeth before he will eat up Bread. I have already said elsewhere , that if the venal bloud be stilled , by whatsoever degree of heat , yet it is alwayes thickned , waxeth dry , and leaves a Coal behind it ; yet that and the same venal bloud doth wholly exhale by our Ferments , with an unsensible transpiration . Seeing therefore heat doth alwayes univocally or singly operate it , cannot by digesting change the meat into Chyle , into bloud , into a nourishable liquor , and at length banish it by an unsensible efflux , without any remainder of it self : One only heat cannot I say , in a Youth , change venal bloud into bones , and likewise in the breaking of a bone , constrain the venal bloud into a callous matter , which in those of ripe yeers , and likewise in healthy people , doth wholly fly away into exhalations , unless besides heat there are other powers , knowledges and perceivances , the chief effectresses of these things : For truly it is proper and natural to heat to consume moisture , and to retain the thicker part by drying up . For Mice are fed only with meal , without drink , and do resolve it into their own Juice or Chyle ; which thing , surely , is far diverse from the scope of heat : Therefore heat is not the Authour of digestion , but there is a certain other vitall faculty which doth truly , and formally transchange nourishments : And that I have designed by the name of Ferments . But there are many Ferments in us , even as I shall by and by explain concerning digestions . But seeing the Stomack doth now and then want a Ferment , it is manifest from thence , that its own Ferment is not proper to it selfe ; but that it flowes thither from elsewhere , and is inspited : And therefore the Spleen doth so rest upon the stomack , that Hens have their spleen most unitedly heaped about their stomack , and therefore do they also the more strongly digest . I do here lay open the blindness of the Schools , exceedingly to be admired , and bewayled with tears of bloud ; who have dedicated that Noble bowel of the Spleen for the sink of the worst melancholious excrement , by the assistance of which one Bowel we live , and do possess life , and the golden Kingdoms of Saturn : But they have devised , that the sharp and black excrement , which being now and then seasoned with too much Ferment , is rejected by the Spleen by reason of the indisposition of the Bowel , is therefore black Choler : which things shall hereafter in out Duumvirate , and likewise concerning Digestions , be made more cleer . Moreover , before the conclusion of this question , we must note that among Physitians there are only four degrees of heat , and as many of cold , in Simples : to wit , from the temperate degree even unto Causticks and Escharrers ; because they treat only of a virtual and potencial quality , the which I shall sharply touch , in its place elsewhere : For therefore the fourth degree of heat is with Physitians , in the nature of things , and temperate as to the touching . But the Phylosophers do measure heat according to the sire , and so even to the fire , they feign eight degrees , whereof the fifth , sixth , and seaventh , they have not yet designed , because men are wont to believe their positions . They will have the eighth to be only in the Elements , and into this they have believed the passage of the Elements to be ; for they supposed to have proved something in the fire ( as if Kitchin-fire were an Element ) and never elsewhere . But I have already before demonstrated this whole opinion to be of no value . First of all , it is ridiculous , that they have made the degree of heat in the fire equall to the cold of the water , to the moisture of the air , and to the dryth of the earth : Wherein they being notably deluded , neither therefore have they bravely shewn the same degrees to be so violent elsewhere , as in fire . Indeed in this eighth degree they affirm , That the Elements do destroy , devoure , and consume each other , no otherwise than as fire doth consume wood . And then , he Chymists after the custome of Physitians , have made only four degrees in the fire it self , taking little care to themselves touching the other Elementary qualities , because they had enslaved themselves only to the Art of the fire ; which degrees indeed they distinguished , so that the first is from a luke-warmth under a wandring Latitude , even unto the fire of sublunation or cleering up of Oylie spirits : But the other from hence , even to the sublunation of dry spirits : And then a third is , even unto an obscure fierynesse : But the last is , even unto the utmost power of the flame of a Reverbery or striking back . But I for a more cleer doctrine , do in Chymicals , distinguish the degrees , that the first may be where the greatest cold is more remiss or slack : For I who conceive Chymistry to be the Chamber-maid , and emulating Ape , and now and then the Mistriss of nature , do subject the whole of nature unto Chymical speculation . Therefore the second degree in nature , may be heat as is that of water not yet frozen . The third is , where it is remisly cold , even as Well water : Otherwise , absolute heat is deceived at our touching ( which is luke-warm ) and it is thought to be cold , whatsoever doth heat lesse than it self : And seeing the touching is more or lesse hot , it makes and unconstant token or signification of heat . At length , a fourth degree is that of a gentle luke-warmth . The fifth is now luke-warm . The sixth is ours . The seaventh is now Feverish . The eighth is of a May Sun. The ninth is distillatory , and that which now overcomes the touching . A tenth distilleth with boyling up . The eleventh sublimes Sulphur , and dry spirits . A twelfth doth melt , and sublime the fire-stone . The thirteenth is in a somewhat brown fierynesse . The fourteenth is a bright burning fierynesse . The fifteenth , Lastly , is the ultimate vigour of the Bellows and Reverbery . Lastly , Although heat , and cold are real qualities , and do undergo degrees ; yet moisture and drinesse are not to be considered but in their own Concrete or composed body , and therefore neither do they constitute qualitative degrees , but only quantitative ones : Because moisture in one only drop is as deeply moist in dry white earth , as in its own Element ; because moist and dry do co-mingle themselves in their root , neither do they mutually enter , and pierce each other ; And therefore neither do they mutually dispose of , and affect each other formally : For those kind of appropriations , do agree to seeds , but not to Elements . Therefore moisture , and driness do not admit of degrees , neither therefore do they change , as neither do they alter each other : Because properly , they are not qualities in the abstract , but qualified bodies themselves . But heat and cold do mutually pierce each other throughout their least parts , and do break , and graduate each other : And therefore it is no wonder that the Schools have remained so dumb in the degrees of moisture , and drinesse : For to the air , that there is a moisture heightned unto eight degrees , but to the water , that the same is remiss or temperate , to wit , to the fourth degree : Lastly , That driness is heightned in the earth to eight , but remiss in the fire unto four degrees . But these trifles of Complexions , as well in Elements as in Bodies which they have hitherto believed to be mixt of the Elements , have fell to dung , being on every side already sore shaken by a manifold necessity of going to ruine . CHAP. XXVIII . The threefold Digestion of the Schools . 1. The generall scope of this Book . 2. The first digestion , in the stomack . 3. The first Region of the Body . 4. Two things are to be admired in this work . 5. Another digestion , and second region . 6. The third digestion . 7. The last Region of the Body . 8. The forgetfulnesse of the Schools . 9. The state of Growth . IT is not enough to have shewn that there are not four Elements in nature , as neither the material mixtures of them , and Complexions , and Strifes resulting from thence : Lastly , Not their Congresses or Combates , embraces of humors feigned from thence , and the madness of these ; But that contrarieties sprung from thence , and the abounding of humors in the Body , are the meer dreams of the Gentiles , brought into Medicine , and even till now adored by the Schools : Neither is it enough that I have shewn elsewhere , that the three-first things are to be banished from the rank of diseases , and cures : Likewise to have refuted the causality of the Stars in healing ; also to have hissed out Winds , to have rejected the Consumptions of radical moisture , as vain terrours : Last of all , to have expulsed Catarrhs , and the hard , and new invention of Tartarous humors ; and so to have shewn that a disease as well in the general , as in the particular , hath hitherto lain hid from the Schools , and consequently that mortall men do languish under a conjectural Art , as yet fundamentally unknown , unless I shall even discover the proper causes of Diseases . And seeing the causes of the most inward enemies are for the most part intimate or most inward : I will before all things propose a history of the functions or offices ; but after that done , I will demonstrate some principles of nature necessary to be known , hitherto unheard of . The Schools affirm That the meat and drink are by the force of heat transchanged in the stomack into a liquor ; the which , by reason of its likeness to Barley Cream , they have called Chyle : But they say , That afterward , this Chyle is by the veins inserted in , and accompanying the stomack , and whole guidance of the Bowels , therefore being annexed by the mediating Mesentery ( which in the room of a third Coat , doth cloath , encompasse , and involve the Bowels ) by little and little sucked forward , and drawn inward : But that the more grosse remaning part is left in the Bowels ; as it were unprofitable dross , to be expelled thorow the Fundament . Indeed this first coction , they have called the first of the three digestions : And so that the first Region of the Body begins from the mouth ; but to be terminated in one part , in the fundament ; but in the other part in the hollow of the Liver . Two things sufficiently admirable do concur herein ; To wit , that in a few houres , hard meat is resolved into juyce , and that the veins are terminated into the bowels by their utmost mouths , that by these I say , they suck thorow as much Liquor every day , as is cast in , and made ; But that they do not suck to them any thing of a blast more subtile than that Cream : yet the bowels are not found porous or holie in life more than in death : Nevertheless , the whole Chyle passeth thorow the veins of the Mesentery , into the Liver ; Wherein they say , the whey of the venal bloud is again seperated for Urine , which passeth thorow to the Reins ; but they will have the more corpulent Cream to be changed in the Liver , into venal bloud : For in the first digestion , that which is more hard and thick , is excluded : But in the other , the thick is retained , the transparent part being secluded : Therefore the second Region and Shop of the Body , begins from the very Body of the Liver , and is terminated in the ultimate branches of the hollow vein . And then in the third place , the bloud falling down out of the veins , and being snatched into the nourishment of the solid parts , is by degrees perfected , and transchanged into a humour , which they call secondary : And that they divide into four degrees of affinity , before it being truly informed , be admitted into the solidity of the sound parts : Therefore , in this alimentary humour , is bestowed the labour of the third and highest digestion . And therefore , they call this last shop of the Body , the habit of the Body , and do forget the Bowels : The which indeed do also themselves , by the same right , concoct for themselves , and are thereby nourished . For truly , in this humour , every part lives in its own Orbe ; and every part hath a singular Cook-room in it self , for it self : But besides , even till a certain age , and measure inbred in the Seeds of things , the nourishment departs into increase : Then it stayeth , and is no more mixed with its first constituters : And therefore this nourishment is opposed onely for the retarding of the dryness of old age , even unto the closure of life . This indeed is the distribution of the digestions , and Regions of the Body , among the Antients , and modern Schooles : which hath never seemed to me to be sufficient ; but full of ignorance : because it is that which ( besides rude observations ) hath brought no light unto the art of healing . CHAP. XXVIII . A six-fold digestion of humane nourishment . 1. The miserable boastings of the Galenists . 2. Whence the first dissolution of the meat is . 3. A sharpness being obtained , is presently changed into a salt Salt. 4. The use of the gut Duodenum neglected in the Schools . 5. Sharpness or soureness out of the stomach , doth hurt us . 6. The variety , and incompatibility or mutual unsufferableness of the Ferments . 7. An example of that ready exchanging . 8. Nothing like a Ferment doth meet us elsewhere . 9. The volatileness of sharpness doth remain in a salt product . 10. The latitude in Ferments . 11. Whence it is known that the first Ferment is a forreigner to the Stomach . 12. Why Sawces do stand in sharpness . 13. Sharpness is not the Ferment it self , but the Instrument of the same . 14. Too much sharpness of the Stomach is from its vice . 15. A receding from the Schools in the examination of the Gaul . 16. That Choler is not made of meats . 17. That the Gaul is not an excrement , but a bowel . 18. The membrane of the wombe is a bowel , even as also that of the Stomach . 19. Why the Gaul and Liver are connexed . 20. What may be the stomach of the Liver . 21. VVhy it goes before the Ferment of the Gaul , and is the second digestion . 22. VVhy the venal bloud in the Mesentery doth as yet want threds , neither therefore doth it wax clotty . 23. The wombe of the Vrine , and the wombe of Duelech or the Stone in man , are distinct . 24. The stomach of the Gaul , and its Region . 25. The rotten opinion of the Schools concerning the rise of the Gaul , and its use . 26. Nature had been more careful for the Gaul its enemy , than for Phlegme its friend . 27. The separation of the Vrine differs from the separation of wheyiness out of milk . 28. The second and third digestions are begun at once , although the third be more slowly perfected . 29. What the stomach of the Gaul is . 30. The Gaul doth import more , than to be chief over an excrement . 31. Birds want a Kidney and Vrine , but not a Gaul . 32. Fishes also do prove greater necessities of a Gaul , than of filths or excrements . 33. That the Schools are deceived in the use of the Gaul . 44. The Liquor of the Gaul with its membrane , being a noble bowel , doth now and then banish its superfluity into the gut Duodenum . 35. How excrements do obtain the heat of the Gaul , yet are not therefore choler , or gaul . 36. The proper savour of the dung doth exclude the gaul , and fiction of choler . 37. Gauls seem what they are not . 38. Whence the vein hath it , that even after the death of a man , it doth preserve the venal bloud from coagulating . 39. The extream rashness of the Schooles . 40. The solving of an Objection . 41. It is proved by many Arguments , that the veins of the stomach do not attract any thing to themselves out of the Chyle . 42. The Authour is dissented from the Schools , in respect of the bounds of the first Region in the Body . 43. The true shop of the bloud is not properly in the passage of the Liver . 44. The action of a Ferment doth act onely by inbreathing , neither doth it want a corporeal touching . 45. The absurd consequences upon the positions of the Schools concerning touching , and continual nourishing warmth . 46. The Ferments of the Gaul and Liver do perform their offices by in-breathing . 47. Why Flatus's or windy blasts do not pierce an Entrail . 48. The Errour of Paracelsus about the pores of the Bladder . 49. The first digestion doth not yet formally transchange meats . 50. Where the absolute transmutation of meats is compleated . 51. It is false , that nourishment is not to be granted without an excrement . 52. It is false , that the stomach doth first boil for it self , and secondarily for the whole Body . 53. The Gaul hath the nature of a Balsam . 54. A miserable objection . 55. The Gaul taken for a Balsam in the holy Scriptures . 56. Against the Gaul of the Jaundise . 57. Two Idiotisms in Paracelsus . 58. How the Salt of the Sea is separated from Salt-peter . 59. Out of water there is Vinegar . 60. The fourth digestion and Region of the Body . 61. Why the heart is eared . 62. The fifth digestion . 63. That the vapour in the venal bloud , is not yet a Skyie Spirit . 64. The nourishing of the flesh , and the bowels , is distinguished . 65. That the Animal Spirit doth not differ in the Species from the vital . 66. The fourth , and fifth digestions do want excrements . 67. What the sixth digestion is . 68. The Diseases in the sixth digestion are neglected by the Schools , because not understood . 69. In the designing of the Kitchin , and Shop , there are some errours of the Schools . 70. Why an Artery doth for the most part accompany a vein . 71. Paracelsus is noted . 72. The errour of Fernelius concerning Butter . 73. The rashness of Paracelsus concerning Milk. 74. A censure or judgement of Milk. 75. The best manner of drawing forth Goats bloud . 76. An undoubted curing of the Pleurisie without cutting of a vein . 77. Why Asses milk is to be preferred before other Milks . 78. The education of a Child for a long and healthy life . 79. Some things worthy to be noted concerning the Vrine . 80. Why dropsical persons are more thirsty than those that have a hectick Fever . 81. The proper place of the Ferment of the Dung , is even as in a Wolf. 82. The proper nest of Worms , and the History of the same . 83. The difference of Ascarides from VVorms . 84. That a Clyster is injected in vain for nourishment sake . I Have observed notable abuses committed throughout the whole description of Functions , or of the use of parts : Although Galen doth not more gloriously triumph in any place , than in the Treatise of Pulses , and in the use of parts ; the which notwithstanding , the modern Anatomists do shew , that he never thorowly considered : wherefore it is altogether probable , that without the knowledge and searching out of the truth , these Treatises described by Galen from elsewhere , and prostituted for his own , are as yet to this day worshipped in the Schools . Wherefore I have premised the digestions which Antiquity hath hitherto known , and hath confirmed each to other by subscribing ; and I will subjoyn those things which singular experience under divine grace , hath taught me . Without controversie , it belongs to meats and drinks , together , and in like manner , to be dissolved into a Cream , plainly transparent in the hollow of the Stomach . I add , that that is done by vertue of the first Ferment , manifestly soure or sharp , and borrowed of the Spleen : for I have found as many suitable Ferments , as there are in us , digestions . Again , neither is it of lesse admiration , that that Cream is spoiled wholly of all drawn sourness of the ferment , as soon as it slides out of the stomach into the great Bowel or intestine , than the power of that ferment in the stomach , was wonderful . That intestine is called the Duodenum , from the measure of 12 fingers , and it is immediately under the Pylorus or lower mouth of the stomach . Truly Anatomy complains of trouble in this place , by reason of the stretching out the offices of the kernels and Vessels , to wit , in so small a space , for Instruments of so great uses ; and so that in the whole dissection , nothing doth offer it self alike difficult : For neither are there so many Vessels and Organs in vain , although their use hath stood neglected . For first of all , when I learned that the ferment conceived in the Cream of the stomach , was pernicious as well in the intestines themselves , as in other parts , by reason of many torments or wringings . I not sloathfully noted , that all particular parts have obtained particular ferments , seeing there is an unexcusable necessity of these , in transchanging . And so I also from hence further concluded , that all particular ferments do abhorre strange ones to be their Companions , and the commands of strange patrons , as if they were forreign thieves , and such as thrust their Sickle into another mans Corn : And that indeed through no vice of jealousie , as though they did envie the activities of others : But from an endeavour of executing the office ; which was enjoyned them by the Lord of things . It is a wonder to be spoken , that a sour cream in the Duodenum , doth straightway attain the savour of Salt , and doth so willingly exchange its own sharp Salt , into a salt Salt. No otherwise almost , than as the Vinegar which is most sharp , hath forthwith ( through red Lead ) put off its former sharpness , and doth presently change into an aluminous sweetness ; Even as also the sharpness of Sulphur , is forthwith changed in the Salt of Tartar , But by a far more excellent vigour of transmutation , that sour Cream is presently made Salt in us . For truly , that is made without any co-mixture of any Body , even as when Vinegar waxing sweet , it is constrained by the addition of the Lead , or a sharp distillation is drunk up in an Alcali-Salt : Because in very deed , nothing is any where found , which can fully answer to the force of a ferment ; seeing Ferments are the primitive causes of transmutations , and that indeed from a former cause : and therefore it must needs be , that the similitudes of those , drawn onely from a latter effect : do very much halt . Therefore our sour Cream is made salt , only by a fermental , and unchangeable disposition : wherefore also , the volatile sharpness of that Cream doth remain in its antient volatility , while it exchangeth its own first obtained soureness with saltness : For the volatile stillatitious sharpness of Vinegar , doth not thus remain volatile as before , while it dissolveth Litharge , Minium , or Ceruse : because in dissolving , it is coagulated , and doth assume the form of a more fixed Salt , now separable from the liquid distillation of the Vinegar , which it had lately married ; but in dissolving it is coagulated , and doth assume the form of a more fixed Salt : because it is the action of a thing dissolving , and dissolved , but not of a transchanging Ferment , which doth continually tend to a new Form on either side . For indeed , the Stomachs of some do more easily digest Potherbs , Pulses , or bread-Corns ; but those of others do more succesfully digest Fishes , abhorre Cheese , prefer water before Wine ; whereas in the mean time , the stomach of others , is a devourer of flesh , or addicted to Apple ; to wit , by reason of a specifical , yea and also an appropriated property of that Ferment : yea neither is it sufficient to have said , that the sour Ferment of the first digestion , and totall cause of the melting of the harder meats doth freely inhabit in the stomach , unless that very thing be more plainly explained . First of all , the stomach hath not this Ferment in it self , or from its own self : For the digestion of the appetite , and Family-government of the stomach do sometimes depart , and return without extinguishing ; because they are not of the stomach it self . Wherefore I have said , that the membrane of the stomach hath all the efficacy of its digestion , and government thereof , from the Spleen : For surely , the Spleen together with the stomach , doth therefore make in us one onely Duumvirate or Sheriffdom , from whence indeed , the Poets have erected the Golden and prosperous Kingdoms of Saturn , and in pride , the liberal Feasts of Saturn . The Antients have smelled out some History of antient truth : To wit , that whatsoever things , meats being digested , are cast out by vomit , are of a soure taste , and smell ; yea although they were seasoned with much Sugar : For soure belchings coming upon adust ones in Diseases , are reckoned to presage good , according to Hypocrates . Hence indeed , all saltnesses or seasonings , and Sauces of meats for sharpening of the Appetite , are sharp ; as the juyce of Citron , Orange , Pomegranate , the unripe Olive , Tartar , Vinegar , Berbery , Vine-branch , Mustard , and likewise Salt of the Sea , as it containeth a sharp Spirit in it : in which respect , also the Liquors of Sulphur , Vitriol , Salt , Sal Niter , &c. are commended : For I will not that the sharpness of any of those be consumed into increase of a specifical and appropriated ferment dwelling in the Spleen : Far be it ; for ferments have nothing besides , or out of themselves in nature , which may worthily be assimilated to themselves ; seeing they are specifical gifts of a vital nature : For therefore a ferment , in what respect it is a ferment , is a vital and free Secret , yoaked to no other quality : for it is sufficient for Sawces , that sharp things do prepare meats for a more easie entrance of the ferment of the Spleen . In the next place , although the ferment of the stomach hath a specifical tartness , yet that tartness is not the vital ferment it self ; but onely the Instrument thereof : For the ferment of the stomach hath a sharpness , as a singular companion unto it self , it being also divided by properties , by general kindes , and Species : but digestion in it self , is the work of the life it self , whereof , sharpness is in this Shop , the attaching or guarding Instrument : But in the other Shops which are afterwards , the life associates to it self a secondary quality on either side , as a Minister of its intention to the fermental quality , and suited to the vital scope . For from hence , there is no seldom offence of the stomach , it having arisen from a degree of a forreign sharpness : wherefore , an Orexis or inordinate appetite to meat , and such like perplexities or the stomach , do offend in an adulterous tartness : For from hence , are prickings in the stomach , difficult concoctions ; lastly , very soure belchings , and vomitings : wherefore , if a ferment should consist in soureness ; Vinegar , Oyl of Vitriol , and the like , should ferment the lump of bread , and should digest our meats by a perfect transmutation : but they do neither of these ; Therefore the ferment is a free Secret , and vital , and therefore it every where co-fitteth to it self a retaining quality in its own Borders : Because , seeing ferments are of the rank of formal and seminal things , therefore they have also severed themselves plainly from the society of material qualities : But if they have associated unto them a corporeal ministring quality , whereby they may the more easily disperse their own vital strength ; account that to be done for a help ; and so it cannot but contain a duality with the Ferment : And therefore also , that quality may offend , as well in its excessive , as in its diminished degree . For in that thing I greatly differ from the Schooles : Because first of all , they teach , that the Gaul is not a vital bowel . 2. That it is not a noble member . 3. That it is nothing , but a very unprofitable superfluity it self , and banished from the masse of venal bloud ; to wit , least it should infect the venal bloud . 4. That it is therefore a product besides the intention of nature . 5. Being onely profitable for the expelling of Dung , and Urine . 6. And therefore that the little bag of the Gaul , is not of the substance of a Bowel , but a sack or sink of dregs and superfluities . 7. That at length , Sanguification or the making of bloud doth begin , and is compleated in the Liver : which things indeed seem to me , dreams . For first of all , seeing Choler is not required to the constitution of venal bloud , that bitter Gaul or Choler should not of necessity be procreated of all kinde of meats , unless it be propagated by a proper Agent , and in a particular Shop of its own , for a profitable , vital , and necessary end : For much lesse hath the Gaul seemed to me , to be an excrement , than the water of the Pericardium or Case of the heart . It is a wonder at least ; why Fishes , of water , and Cattel , of Grasse , do nevertheless alwayes daily make so bitter a Liquor . Truly that simple identity or sameliness of the Gaul , through so many particular kindes , seemed to me to prove some necessity in the Workmanship of life : And so , the Gaul not to have the necessity of an excrement produced by any nourishments whatsoever , but rather the constitution of a necessary Bowel : For I ceased to admire , by considering , how great Tragedies of rule , the paunch ( which is nothing but a Sack and Skin ) might stir up ; and that it obtained the room of a principal bowel ; by considering I say , how great a prerogative the membrane of the stomach might challenge to it self ; so that it hath snatched to it self , the name and properties of the heart before the other bowels : Whence surely I ceased to admire , that the name of a bowel should be given to the little bag of the Gaul , and to the Gaul it self : especially , because the wrathful power is believed by most to be bred in the same . Surely I have found in the Family-administration of mans digestion , Bodies , and Ferments connexed of two bowels ( the Gaul and the Liver ) for Sanguification . To wit , the Gaul to precede in the work of Sanguification , and for this cause to be nearer to the Stomach and Entrails , than the Liver : For the Gaul is nourished in the Bosom and lap of the Liver , as it were in its Mothers Bosom ; for it is the Balsam of the Liver and Bloud . For seeing Sanguification is not a transmutation , which may be introduced by a momentary disposition ; and since the Liver is deprived of a remarkable hollowness , whereby it may be able to contain within it , the juyce that is to be made bloud , for the leisure or terme of digestion ; That is , the Liver in it self , is a solid Body , having few and slender veins , and so the whole Cream being accompanied with so great a heap of Urine ; it ought to passe thorow the Liver with a swift passage ; but the crude Cream , cannot by so swift a passage onely , be straightway changed into venal blond . Wherefore a perfect Sanguification could in no wise be made in the Liver ; Because the Liver was not a Kitchin , but a family Governour by its own Sanguificative ferment , whereby as it were by a Command , it chiefly by successive dispositions , executes the office enjoyned it from its creation . Therefore the plurality of the Mesentery veins is the stomack of the Liver it self , and the preparative Shop of the venal bloud : And the perfection thereof , the Liver doth breath into the venal bloud , as yet naked , after that it is laid up into the hollow vein . Truly , as Sanguification is a certain more exquisite digestion , and a more manifest transmutation of a thing , than is the melting of the meat into Chyle , it could not fitly or profitably happen in any large vessel , but in many the more straight ones , which together , may equalize some notable capacity ; whereby indeed that fermental Archeus may most strictly , narrowly , and neerly touch , and comprehend them all , and his Liver may communicate a ferment in changing , and may inspire a vital faculty . Forthe Spleen doth inspire its Ferment into the Stomack , a large vessel ; for neither doth the Spleen touch the meats immediately : So also doth the Liver inspire the act of Sanguification by the breathing , or ferment of its own life into the veins subjected under it . And even as the meat slides from the Mouth into the Stomack , and there expecteth the end of digestion : So from the Entrails the Cream is immediately snatched into the stomack of the Liver : But seeing that Cream is much , and for a great part of it excrementitious ( for as yet it containeth the Urine in it ) it ought first to be unloaded of its excrement , that it may the more conveniently be made bloud : Because that Cream is as yet wholly undistinct ; neither therefore doth it acknowledge an excrement : what therefore shall the Liver act by a single action of Sanguification ? For shall the severing of the excrement , the degeneration of the Cream , and Sanguification of the Cream , be made and finished by one and the same work ? Nay , Surely the Cream had need of a Ferment its transchanger , distinct from the Sanguificative ferment , whereby indeed that part of it that is less fit , is changed into a meer excrement ; for the action of Sanguification could not make an excrement of that which is not an excrement : For both those do differ too much from each other : For the action which prepares an excrement out of the greatest part of the Cream , is not made by the coagulation of the venal bloud , and separation of the more wheyie part : Seeing the venal bloud in the Meseraick Veins is not onely not coagulated , but neither indeed is it as yet coagulable , as long as it is conversant in that stomack : As is manifest in the bloody flux . Therefore there is made a seperation of the wheyie excrement from the venal bloud , in the Meseraick veins themselves , and indeed from a far other acting ferment , and bowel , than that which is employed about Sanguification or making of bloud : For it is a certain act which condemns a part of the Cream into an excrement ; But it preserveth the venal bloud , and leaveth it untouched : therefore a production , and seperation of the excrement goes before Sanguification . And so the womb of the Urine beginneth before the Meseraick veins : Yet the womb of the stone is not as yet in the same place , because the ferment of the Rein or Kidney changeth the spirit of the Urine in the Liver , and round about it . Therefore whatsoever was soure in the Cream is changed by the ferment of the Gaul , into the salt of the Urine : But the stomack of the Gaul is the Duodenum , and the following Reed of the neighbour Bowels , and it ends in the beginnings of the Veins of the Mesentery . But because this use of the parts and ferments is hitherto unheard of in the Schools , it is therefore to be dilated by a large discourse . First of all , The Doctrine of the Schools standing ; That the venal bloud is made in the Liver , and that together with the venal bloud , the Gaul is also made : Therefore of necessity also , the seperation of the Gaul shall in motion , and nature be after Sanguification : Wherefore the Chest of the Gaul ought to be above the Liver , and not beneath it , nigh the port vein . For by way of supposition , I now grant the fictions of four humors ; at least it had far more commodiously purged the matter , bloud , from superfluous Choler , than the Chest of the Gaul ( seeing indeed the Choler should as yet be mingled immediately with the Urine ) and especially because they teach , That the Urine ought to be tinged by the Gaul , and therefore in vain . For why should the Gaul be so precisely separated from the Urine , if it ought again straight-way to be added unto it ? I conjecture the Liver to be loaded for every event , with a vain and importunate baggage , by the little bag of the Gaul hanging on it ; by the little bag I say , onely of cast-out dung , dedicated to the provoking of Urines . And being by so much more unhappy than the bladder , because seeing it is that which is a membrane of the first , and Spermatick constitution , yet that it ought to be nourished by the Gaul alone ; Seeing it wants a vein propagated by running through its little bladder . For since we are nourished by the same things whereof we consist ; where shall that little bag find a spermatical nourishment from the Gaul ? which in it self should be nothing but an excrement ? But if the Gaul be said to be collected into the Chest under the Liver , for the wiping away the dregs of the paunch ; at least , the Agent which procreateth in the Urine a Salt of not Salts , had more commodiously left a part of its own Urine for the washing and cleansing of the Entrails , and disturbing the superfluities of these , as it had freed the Liver of the stinking ; and ●edious burden and consociation of the Gaul . Neverthelesse it is of Faith , that our body is so ( workman-like ) framed by God , that nothing therein is in vain , and nothing therein diminished : Because that , it is far more artificially and commodiously made , than our understanding can comprehend . Therefore , if the ends of the Gaul granted by the Schools , should be true , verily the Reins had far more commodiously satisfied those ends ( as I have said ) than that the workman of things had therefore loaded ; the Liver with that unprofitable weight : But the consequence convinceth its antecedent of falsehood . Therefore the whole doctrineis false . If Birds do want Reins a Bladder and Urine , whereby they may the more fitly fly , but the Gaule should serve onely for the wiping or cleansing of the blood , at least the bloud had more willingly wanted the refining of the Gaul , than the refining of the Urine ; that is , if nature be able to seperate drink in a Bird , without Urine , and therefore likewise to want Reins , and Bladder , would it not bemuch more easie for it to have severed some small quantity of the Gaule with the Urine , and superfluities of the paunch , than to have loaded a noble bowel with a Chest , and so by the unprofitable baggage of an excrement , to have troubled Sanguification ? even in Birds ? Certainly nature at least reckoned to be more indulgent to Choler , than to Phlegme , because she hath framed for it a peculiar little Bladder or Bag : For it is a foolish or unsavoury thing , that nature had placed the Gaul in the lap of the Liver , for the dregs of the paunch , and bladder ; when as otherwise she had dissembled Choler to be abundantly thorow mixed with the venal bloud . Wherefore I more fully looking into the matter , have observed , that the Chest of the Gaul is as it were the Kernel of the Liver , curiously kept in its hollow part from injuries ; but the Liver to be as the rhine or bark of the Gaul : And then , that the Gaul is so much the nearer tied to the Duodenum , because its digestion , and ferment should go before the digestion of the Liver , or Sanguification . Indeed the wheyie superfluous part ought to be seperated from the lively Cream , which seperation therefore is not to be compared to whey and milk , which are not severed from each other , but with the corruption of the milk : For truly , in the Cream a separation of the whey happeneth , together with the rectifying and preserving of the venal bloud : That is , the ferment of the Gaul is the perfective one of the Cream , the preservative one of the bloud , and the cor●uptive one of the whey : which three things do together concur in one point , whereby the Gaul doth convert the sharp salt of the stomack ( except that which is hurtful & corruptive in the stomack ) into a salt Salt. Moreover , although I have said , that Sanguification is the latter in respect of the seperation of the Urine , and transmutation of the sour into salt : Yet both ferments , as well indeed of the Gaul as of the Liver , do begin at once , because neither of them keeps Holy-day or is idle : For as the ferment of the Liver is of a greater work and perfection ; So it doth more slowly perform its charge , than the Ferment of the Gaul : For the aforesaid transmutation of the Cream ought to proceed , that the Liver being somewhat eased of an unprofitable burden , might the more commodiously employ it self in Sanguification . Therefore the second digestion or that of the Gaul , is distinct from the first and third , in the ferment , bowel , womb , taste , effect and end : All which the Schools are hitherto ignorant of , because erring in the use of the Gaul . For in the first digestion , the stomack is the receptacle , but the Spleen doth inspire from it self , a sour ferment into the meats , and a sour Cream is thereby made : But in the other , the slender entrails are the stomack , but the ferment is inspired from the gaul , for the corruption and seperation of the watery part , and a sharp volatile salt is changed into a Salt volatile one : But that this might be done by a speedy touch , I shall at sometime shew by some Handicraft operations : To wit , that the Oyl of Vitriol is by the only touching of Mercury , converted into a meer Alum , Vinegar , and Salt , &c. Also straightway after drink , there is oft-times a watery pissing made , yet Salt , and the mark of the first digestion is scarce conceived , but that a notable part of the drink slides forth under an errour of the Pylorus , and by consequence , there was not made a seperation of the Urine from the bloud in the Liver : Because the venal bloud is not as yet made in the Liver , if the Chyle it self be as yet made or concocted out of meats in the stomack : To wit , when drinkers do very often make water after meat : Therefore also Urine is made of watery drink , yea out of drink from whence venal bloud was not made ; and so the generating of Urine doth there go before Sanguification . At length , the very veins of the Mesentery , are the stomack of the third digestion , which way the Liver inspires a bloudy ferment , and a very red or ruddy salt venal bloud is the effect thereof . For the wounds of the Gaul are presently mortal , but those of the Liver not so . If the e●ore the Gaul were likewise Choler , death would of necessity follow every effusion of the Gaul . Nevertheless , the yellow Jaundise is not mortal , although the Gaul ( as the same Schooles do teach ) is not onely diffused over the entrails , but throughout the whole Body , equally , longly , largely , deeply , and throughout its least part : Therefore either a wound of the Gaul doth import more than the effusion of Choler , or the Jaundise is not effused Choler , or both is necessary . Wounds of the Bladder also , being inflicted above the share ( as successful Wurtz is witness , in my judgement the Standard-defender of the more modern Chyrurgio●s ) are cured , although the Urine , together with its Gaul ( as they will have it ) cannot but be powred forth at that very time or moment . Therefore the Chest of the Gaul hath a necessity , and Integrity , fast tied to the life by reason of sudden death : Neither is it the effusion of that gawly superfluity , which doth necessitate that speedy death . Again , Birds do live prosperously without Kidneys , or a Bladd●r , yet not without a Gaul : wherefore there is a more conjoyned necessity of the Gaul , than of Kidneys : Because that the Kidneys being rockie and putrified , the life is safe . And then , Fishes ( according to the Doctrine of the Schools ) do abound with very much phlegme , and are destitute of actual heat : they are onely nourished with cold bloud , and watery food . At length , their excrements easily glistering , they had no need of a spur , the Gaul . Wherefore , seeing the ends , matter , and efficient cause of the Gaul attributed by the Schools , should fail in a Fish ; surely we shall believe that the Liver is vainly , deceitfully , and by the errour of nature , yea and of the Creator , wearied , unless we had rather acknowledge perpetual errours in the Schools , and to contemplate some greater moment of a necessary bowel to be in the Gaul . From hence therefore , I determine the Gaul to be a vital Bowel , and its very Body to be a bitter Liquor prepared of the best venal bloud , containing the Balsam of the Liver , and Arterial bloud : But whatsoever it by chance casts back of it self , into the bowel Duodenum , is the excrement of it self , and a Liquor now despised of the Gaul . But that these things have themselves after this manner , I have at sometime shewen under the impostures of Choler , by the example of a Calf , who●e motherly , and sweet milk waxeth sour , and is coagulated in the stomach , and therefore affords Runnet for Cheeses : For milk is made a watery Cream , but little of coagulated milk : But that Cream contains Urine and venal bloud ; but another coagulated Body , which of pale , begins to wax yellow , is made dung : But that baggage straightway falling into the Duodenum doth proceed unto the Ileos , being coagulated , and waxeth of a Citron colour , the more , by how much it hath departed farther from the stomach ; and at length it waxeth green ; yet there is not bitterness in the yellow , but a nitrous taste : But in the green , the smell of Dung doth now plainly appear : But the wheyie Cream is presently drawn and supped up with greediness by the meseraick veins , for the use of sanguification . Likewise Milk is stirred in Infants , whence also those that are the more young ones do cackie all yellow , not from the plenty of Choler , neither by reason of the domination of the Chest of the Gaul ; but surely , because the ferment of their Dung is feeble . Therefore the ferment of the Gaul doth not change the sourness of the stomach into bitter , but into Salt , for the reasons explained concerning the Spirit of life . Spare me ye more tender eares , because I ought to treat of Dungs . I will therefore shew , that the savour of Dung excludes the Gaul , that it befools the use of the Gaul invented by the Schools , and convinceth Choler of a fiction . A Boy of four years old had fowled in Bed ; but being much afraid of whipping , he ate his own Dung , yet ●e could not blot the sign out of the sheets : wherefore being asked by threatnings , he at length tells the chance . But being asked of its savour , he said it was of a stinking , and somewhat sweet one : For among other things , he had eat Pease-pottage ; but he complained , that the undigested husks or brans of the Pease were notably soure : for there is not an equal vigilancy of the ferment of the Gaul , over thick , and undigested Dungs , as there is over transparent things , and those things which are to be prepared into the dignity of venal bloud . I came by chance unlooked for , the same day , and I diligently enquired , a price being also added , whether those things which he had eaten , were bitter . He answered negatively , and the same as before . Likewise Nuns did Board noble Maids sufficiently sober , at their Table : but they continually preached , that they who did eat dainty fare , should have their parts with the rich Glutton ; but that they onely should be saved , who by the every way denyal of mortification , did eat any the most vile things . Therefore a noble little Virgin being very desirous of her Salvation , and much moved by the aforesaid perswasion , eats her own Dung , and was weak or sick . But she was called home again by her Parents , and at length told the chance : She was asked thereupon , of what savour it was , and she answered , it was of a stinking , and waterishly sweet one . Thirdly , a Painter of Bruxels , being mad between whiles ; about the beginning of his madness , escapes into a Wood near by , and was there found far from the sight of men , to have lived 23 dayes by his own Dung. He was straightway brought home ; I went to see him , and the Lord healed him . But he was perfectly mindeful of all things past at the time of his madness . I asked him , whether he remembred of what savour his Dung was : He said , it savours as it smells : And being afterwards examined by me through the Capital tasts , he answered , it was not sour , not bitten , sharp , salt , but waterishly sweet : Yea , he said , that by how much the oftner he had re-earen it , by so much it had alway been the sweeter . But being asked , for what cause he had rather eat Dung , than return home ? He said , that he throughout his whole madness abhorred men , being perswaded by his own fury , that men sought to destroy him by a snare . Therefore it is manifest , that there is not even the least drop of Gaul in the Dung : for the Gaul being once burst , however a Fish may afterwards be most exactly washed , yet the bitterness of the Gaul conceived by the least touching , is never laid aside . For if yellowness should bewray the Gaul , the dung of Infants should be especially gawly , which notwithstanding is licked by Dogs , because it hath as yet retained some kinde of savour of the milk : But whatsoever hath not been fully subdued in the stomach , nor hath assumed the beauty of a transparency , may not hope to be digested in the bowels by the ferment of the Gaul , although it be tinged with a yellow colour ; Because it goes not to the second , or third , but thorow the absolute first . Whatsoever therefore is thick , and tinged with heat in the Ileos , that is wholly banished into an excrement , and under a certain sweetness , doth attain the savour of putrefaction ; No otherwise than as soure fruits wax sweet by a little heat : But whatsoever was before sour in the stomach , that is made salt in the Duodenum , and is severed from the Dung : but if any thing do persevere sour , which may resist the ferment of the Gaul , wringings of the bowels , &c. do presently follow : But the excrement of man doth putrifie , because the ferment of the dung is chief over that place : But that which slides out of the stomach undigested , also is not digested in the bowels ; It is cast out whole , but it keeps , and now and then increaseth the part of sournesses which it assumed in the stomach : For from hence do the brans in bread , provoke the stool , by reason of sharpness ; but other things do wax more sharp , and stir up wringings of the guts : Therefore from the Duodenum , the Chyle doth forthwith begin to exchange its own sharp volatile Salt into an equall saltness , it being resolved in the Cream : But the remaining , and more corporal substance of the Cream doth expect a sanguification in the veins of the mesentery , from the inspired ferment of the Liver : The salt Liquor in the mean time being attracted by the Reins thorow the Liver , is it self committed to the Reins and Bladder for expulsion . Therefore the third digestion begins in the veins of the mesentery , which is terminated in the Liver : For the venal bloud as long as it is in the mesentery , is not yet digested , not yet thredded , or perfect : For the venal bloud of the mesentery , doth therefore not grow together in the Bloudy flux : But otherwise , a vein of the stomach being burst , the venal bloud doth forthwith wax clotty in the stomach . For the ferment of the Liver is so much inclined to sanguification ( for it is its univocal and one onely office ) that the veins do even by the right of league retain or hold that from the Liver , and its proper implanted Archeus thereupon confirming it ; So that the bloud in the veins of a dead Carcase is not coagulated a long while after death , which being elsewhere powred forth , doth presently wax clotty : For the Cream running down afterwards thorow the Bowels , becomes the dryer , and also the liquid matter thereof being sucked upwards into the veins : But thereby , the rest doth more and more putrifie , so that , when it is almost brought down to the ends of the Ileos , now not a little of a more liquid Dung is generated ; because before it hath fully putrified , it is snatched to the mesentery , that it may be thorowly mingled with the Urine , profitable for its ends : Even as elsewhere concerning Fevers , and likewise concerning the Stone . Which yellow Dung , the Schooles have believed to be Choler and Gaul ; and so out of the Dung , they have founded their demonstration for one of the four humours , and a Gate hath thereby layen open to miserable errours , and wicked slaughters : For it was of little regard for them hitherto , to have built up their false significative knowledge by the unknown substance of the tincture of the Urine ; but to have made Choler and Gaul the constitutive humours of us , the causers of all Diseases ; to wit , to have feigned yellow Choler , and that a little the more digested , to be adust , and like the cankering of Brasse , and from thence , to be dry , and scorched melancholy or black Choler ; but the gaul it self to be the sink of superfluous Choler ; but the venal bloud to be nothing but an artificial Body , connexed of many things or humours , which being again seperated , they should be the same after their death , as before in their life ; but that a Body is not born of Mother nature , by a true transmutation of the Chyle into univocal or simple venal bloud ; and at length , to have instituted healings about the removing of accomplished causes , which never will be , or were in nature . Surely that thing doth exceed gross ignorance , and renders the Snorters of the Schooles unexcusable . But perhaps they will object to me ; Thou sayest that the veins do suck the Cream , being slidden out of the stomach , into the intestines : therefore the same office belongs to the veins of the stomach , that they may draw that sour Cream into themselves , without the interceding of the Ferment of the Gaul ; that is , without changing of the Sour into Salt : And by consequence , thy ferment of the Gaul is a dreamed and invented thing : yea meat broath injected by a Clyster , shall be able to pierce to the Liver , without the knowledge of the Gaul ( touching the right of a Clyster , I have finished this question in the Book of Fevers . ) I answer , that it is an antient abuse of the Schooles , who have equally attributed the same use to all the veins : As if the veins seperated in the arms , should busie themselves in drawing of the Cream ? First of all , I have already shewen , that the bloud in the veins is coagulable , the bloud of the Mesentery not so . And then , we must know that all sour Cream is an enemy to the veins , but that these do draw no hostile thing unto them : from whence it followes , that the veins of the stomach do not allure any thing of the Cream under them ; and that all bloud , before it be attracted by the veins of the Mesentery , hath boren the hand of the ferment of the Gaul , in its own stomach of the bowels : yea , although the Arteries being dispersed throughout the stomach , do suck the Spirit of Wine , yet they draw no juyce : For which way should the Arteries draw juyce , seeing they can never do any good thereby ? seeing sanguification doth not belong to the heart , but to the Liver ? Seeing the juyce being attracted in the Artery , should of necessity be a hinderance , and ought to be corrupted ? If therefore the Arteries have a natural endowment of avoyding things hurtful , and likewise of drawing vital things unto them , and things appointed for them by the Lord of things ; shall that discretion be denied to the veins in the stomach ? For nature should have dealt ill with Horses , who being content with one onely draught in the morning , are fed all the day after , with Straw , Hay , Chaffe , Oats , or Barley : For truly dry or unjucie things , should straightway contract thirst in the stomach ; if the veins of the stomach should draw drink unto them , Horses should be thirsty all the day : Therefore the drink ought of necessity to remain in the stomach so long , as that it may expect there an end of future digestion , least the sour Liquor be drawn into the veins , which is plainly hostile , or least the Cream being half cocted , be supped up by the veins , before the appointed time . Therefore there is another use of the veins of the stomach , than that which is of the meseraick veins : And therefore the Argument objected falls to the ground : because the meseraick veins are the stomach of the Liver , and there is not another besides those : the veins of the stomach are not likewise that which are onely dedicated to the nourishing of the stomach . Again , whensoever the Pylorus is not exactly shut , it happens ( as in long drinkings ) that the stomach doth almost with a continual thred , as it were make water downwards , by dropping into the bowel : but in those that have Fevers , whose Pylorus doth erre through too much straightness , the drink doth sometimes remain a full three dayes space , and at length , more is cast back by one onely vomit , than was taken in two dayes ; which thing surely doth oppose that , that the veins of the stomach do attract juyce . It hath oft-times befallen me lying in a Coach with my face upwards , that I should hear through the jogging of the wayes , my stomach to contain a Chyle floating in me like to a Bottle half full : but that I have often gone to bed after that , without a Supper , or drink ; yea that I felt my stomach in the morning , as I did the day before : Wherefore I being somewhat curious , have provoked my self to vomit , and I vomited up Cream somewhat sour , plenteous , transparent , so that my teeth were astonished by reason of the sourness ; and although I felt no burden before vomiting , yet after vomiting , I perceived an easement or lightning : whence I observed , First of all , that if the veins of the stomach had now sucked the Chyle 20 hours , I had not been as yet able to have cast back so much , from a moderate yesterdayes dinner . 2. That the sour Cream is not allured by the veins . 3. That that sourish Cream was not as yet dismissed from the stomach , not indeed through the vice of digestion , but through the errour of the Pylorus . 4. That digestion differs from the expulsive faculty , if one be perfected , the other being absent , or failing . 5. That now and then , the digestion beares the unguilty fault of the expulsive saculty , and this of it . 6. That as I did offend by too much shutting of the Pylorus , so drinkers do offend-by a too much negligent bolting of the Pylorus . 7. Moreover , at the beginnings of Diseases things are often cast back , which were taken three dayes before . 8. That it belongs not to the veins of the stomach to attract the Cream . 9. That nevertheless the Doctrine remaineth , which hath made it a foolish thing for a Clyster to be injected by the fundament , for nourishing of the sick . 10. That the upper orifice of the stomach in Fevers , offends by too much opening and thirst ; but that the Pylorus errs through a strict closure of himself . 11. That in Fevers , both digestion , and also expulsion do offend . 12. That the Key of the Orifice or upper mouth of the stomach is in the Spleen , and that of the Pylorus , in the Gaul , by reason of the divers seats of a twofold ferment . 13. That the reason of Scituation for the Spleen , and Gaul , is from the reason of their office . For indeed , the Schools do extend the first Region of the Body from one extream , from the mouth even into the fundament ; and from the other extream , even into the hollow of the Liver : But I do describe the Regions by digestions , seeing otherwise , without these , a Region it self is a Being of Reason : For what doth it belong to a digestion , that there is the utterance of an excrement ? what doth it pertain to the stomach , that its drosse departs thorow the fundament ? For the Dung of the intestine is no more the excrement of the stomach , than sweat is : therefore if the fundament belongs to the first Region , by reason of the excrement of the stomach ; therefore also , the Skin shall belong to the first Region by Reason of sweat , and the Bladder by reason of Urine . Therefore not an excrement ; Lastly , not the departure hereof , but digestion alone , doth prescribe a limit unto a Region ; and therefore , there are as many Regions , as digestions . In the next place , the shop of sanguification is not the Liver it self in its own substance : because even the Liver of Fishes should also make their venal bloud : but yet seeing every thing generates the like to it self , it should of necessity be , that either the Liver of Fishes should be red , or their bloud to be white ; both whereof are false : whence we learn , that sanguification it self is made in the Liver it s own stomach , which is the manifold vessel it self of the Mesentery : Otherwise , the Liver hath too few and slender veins for the due perfecting of the juyce of so great a heap : For out of them , the last perfection of sanguification is inspired into the hollow vein on the venal bloud , by the ferment of the Liver . And the Schools do think , that sanguification is made by an actual nourishing warmth of the Liver , and Cream ; because they are ignorant of any other actions , than those which happen through a daily touching or comprehending . And therefore also , that every Agent ought necessarily to suffer , by reason of a resistance , are-acting of the Patient ; and that is the unexcusable containing cause of our death , because the radical heat ( For they hold it a firm thing , that they have attributed all things to heats , and colds ) being by degrees wearied by the re-acting of Patients , should be extinguished : which two Maxims of Aristotle , having more place in the Mathematicks , than in nature , have deceived the Schools : which thing I shall elsewhere abundantly prove . In returning to our purpose , I conclude , that the Gaul , and the Liver do perfect their own offices , not indeed by a corporeal co-touching , congress , or co-mingling of themselves ; nor lastly , by embracing , or receiving within their own bosom : But the Gaul dismisseth its own Fermental Blas into the bowels , and the Liver his into the veins of the Mesentery : which actions , although unaccustomed in the Schools , I will demonstrate in its place . Furthermore , the Schools stand amazed , why windes cannot passe thorow the Coats of the intestines , in wringings of the Bowels , while notwithstanding so great a glut of Liquor is every day , abundantly snatched into the meseraick veins , and yet Pores are not seen in the intestine , thorow which so much Liquor may daily hasten into the veins : yea neither indeed , although after death , the Bowel being swollen with winde , is strongly , and even unto its bursture , pressed together . Truly as oft as by heats , and colds , figures , and similitudes of artificial things , ( which are of the Schools Instruments , and sacred Anchor ) they do not attain the thing , they presently fly to miracles , or at least to the hidden Mysteries of things : being frighted away by the greatness , or unwontedness of the astonished matter , they with the sloath of a narrow search , acquiesce in the admiring of hidden properties . Paracelsus for the framing of Medicinal Vitriol out of Brasse , bids old or decayed Salt to be hanged up in a Brasse Kettle of hot water , in the bladder of a Swine , and so that the whole Salt will presently be dissolved : wherewith he dids the Plates of Brasse to be anointed , and promiseth that Vitriol will be bred in the Air. I was indeed as yet in my young beginnings , yet I knew from Phylosophy , that Salt could not be resolved into Water in its own weight , without its substantial transmutation : yet on the other hand , the authority of Paracelsus perswaded the contrary ; to wit , That without the adjoyning of water ( for else the Bladder should be in vain ) the salt should melt into water . Wherefore I being a young Beginner , decreed to try the rash monstrous assertion of so great a man : But presently by a slow or gentle heat , I found the water in the Kettle to be not much less salt than that which was in the Bladder , whose neck was tied fast to the handle of the Kettle appearing above the water ; from whence I knew , that the water did pierce within and without the Bladder ; to wit , That the Bladder was passable by Salt , and hot water , but not by air : For seventy seven parts of rain water do resolve twenty three parts of dryed salt : But whereas one of the seventy seven parts of the water flies away , a crust of salt swims on the brine . Therefore Paracelsus doth vainly command by a Bladder , those things which are commodiously done without it : And that , besides the supposition of a falshood hitherto . Therefore I observed that a Bladder is Porie in a degree of heat , but not in the heat of our family-administration : Hence therefore I gathered , that throughout the Conduit of the Veins , the Bowels do abound with more , and very small Pores , than elsewhere , to which Pores others should answer being passable throughout the Conduit of the veins . Therefore the Cream doth pass thorow the bowels , partly by its imbibing of them , even as Salt water doth a Bladder , and partly by a proper sucking of Sympathy thorow the aforesaid Pores , open indeed in our life time ( even as also in heat , waters do pierce a Bladder ) but shut in the time of death . But wind is not imbibed by the Bowels by moistening , neither is it sucked by the Veins , and therefore neither doth it for this cause pierce the Bowels : And that especially , because it wanteth the drawings of agreement , and a motive Blas , whereby the wind the severer of things to be drawn , may be drawn , and doth resist . The Veins therefore that are dispersed between the double Coat of the stomack , do want the aforesaid Pores : but the porous ones , with which outer Coat they being encompassed , do sweat thorow them the elementary venal bloud : And so the proper Kitchin or Digestion of the stomack is from without to within ; But the Kitchin which is made universal in its hollowness , is there also wholly composed and enclosed ; And that , least the digestion of them both should breed confusion . Indeed , there is a twofold Cook in the Stomack ; one from the Spleen ; and the other being proper to it self sends forth divers digestions . Moreover , the sharp ferment in the Stomack dissolves the meats into juice ; but the ferment of the Gaul , by saleing the sour Chyle , doth seperate the juice for venal bloud , and from thence doth with-draw the Liquor Latex , Urine , Sweat , Dung , being yellow and liquid , and the parts of a thicker Ballast . Neither therefore is Digestion in the Stomack , a formal transmutation of meats : For example ; for Magisterials among Chymists , do indeed melt the body of a thing , and do open it with a seperating of some certain dregs also : Yet they do not therefore include a transmutation of it ; even as neither doth Salt being resolved , differ substantially from it self being dried ; Because the same seminal Archeus is as yet on both sides chief Ruler . So neither in an egge is there a formall transmutation , although at the time of nourishing heat , the yolk doth melt and contract a stink ; but they are onely material disposures required unto a formal transmutation , resulting at length from thence again . Neither is the Digestion of the Gaul in respect of the lively Cream , as yet reckoned a formall transmutation , although in respect of excrements , it doth formally transchange : For the unlike parts of the Cream , of which an elementary application is not intended for them , do putrifie through a dungie ferment , and are deprived of their middle life , as also of an Archeus : But there is onely pretended a transmutation of the Homogeneal Cream , as also an enjoyment of the same . Therefore meats are not truly and essentially changed , unlesse when the venal bloud is made in one part , and the dung in the other part is fully become putrified . Also the bowel deputed for the making of venal bloud , cannot be at leisure for preparing of yellow dungs in the Ileos and Colon : And the dung differs from the eaten meat essentially , but it must not be believed to be putrified in a few hours by heat onely , the which , neither is it turned by heat into a certain kind of Cream , but by the proper ferments of the Kitchins . Therefore the meat is not yet fully transchanged , unless when its own Archeus being subdued , our vital one is introduced with a full vassallizing of the former : For so wine is wholly changed into Vinegar , Quick-silver wholly into Gold , an Egge wholly into a Chick , and the bloud wholly into the last nourishment . From whence I conjecture it to be a falshood , that there is no nourishment without an excrement : For the Schools have meditated of dungs : and have not minded that Homogeneal things do onely concur to generation : Therefore , although before the transmutation of the food , there are made the seperations of dregs ; Yet that afterwards , dregs are no more made in transchanging ; to wit , after the obtaining of Homogeneity or parts of the same kind : For a seperation of dregs from that which is Homogeneal is impossible , wherein one thing doth not any thing differ from another : But in meats , or under the first ferment , there is a diversity of kind , by reason of the difference of the meats , and parts of the same , the unequality of chewing , and an unlike application of the received ferment : For the sood doth partly hearken the more easily to the ferment , and being partly rebellious , doth resist ; whence also a disagreeable capacity of the ferment doth arise . That also of the Schools is false , That the stomack doth primarily coct for it self ; secondarily , only for the whole body , and so that it self is truly nourished by a sourish Chyle : And so that if it should not be nourished by its own Chyle , neither would it begin , or attain a Cocture ; Because that from the self-love of nature , every thing doth act intentionally for it selfe . 1. If that thing may have place in a totall Agent ; yet surely not in the direction of all particular parts . 2. Because no part doth act any thing in the body from a proper pleasure of self-love ; and much lesse do the shops dedicated to the service of the whole , so act : But nature doth on every side obey the appointments of the Creator , which were measured out by use and necessity , in the power of the Lord of things . 3. We are nourished by the same things whereof we consist ; but we in no wise consist of the Cream . 4. The stomack is nourished with no other matter than the other rank of membranes , which is destitute of the Cream . 5. The Cream doth not receive life , but by the Degrees of venal bloud ; but the stomack cannot be nourished by a nourishment not yet vitall . 6. The Cream is a melted food , having as yet the Archeus , and Properties of the food ; but spermatick and similar members of the first constitution , cannot be nourished by a liquor not yet limited unto a humane species . 7. The veins are not dispersed into the stomack that they may suck venal bloud , but that they may diffuse nourishment ; But they do not contain the Cream : Therefore the family-administration of the Members being unknown , faulty arguments , from not the cause , as for the cause , do every where sprout forth in the Schools , and do bring forth capital errours , and deaf experiences , to be purged in another Tent. Francis Alvares an eye-witness writeth , That the Abyssine , or Aethiopian Nobles are delighted in their feasts with raw Oxe flesh , with a seasoning , or sawce of its own Gaul , yet they are not any thing weaker than the strongest Europeans . If therefore the Gaul be an excrement ( as it hath pleased the Schools ) and of so great cruelty ( as they think ) that the Gaul being detained in the stomack , doth produce a fainting of the Spirit ; yea that within few dayes , Choler , through a disease , doth kill us : How shall a raw and cadaverous Gaul , make men sound , and the more strong ? Perhaps they will object ; If the Gaul be so necessary a Bowel ; Pigeons or Doves could not want that : But they know not that the scituation of the Members , and heart in a Pigeon , is turned upside down : For if an Emmet hath his Choler in him , Pigeons have also their Gaul , although it be not bitter , nor distinguished by a little bag , as neither in Emmets : For it is sufficient that the Blas of the second digestion is established in another part : For the heart of a Pigeon sits in the four Lobbets of the hollow of his Liver , they being overwhelmed above , and its bunch hangs forth downwards : The Pigeon being a great fighter even unto bloud , doth want a little bag of Gaul : But the Lamb hath a large Gaul , even as also every the least , and mildest of fishes . They gave me Gaul to eat , and in my thirst they gave me Vinegar to drink That was wine of Myrrhe mixed with Gaul , which they offered to the Saviour of the world , now fainting with the pains of an unwonted passion , and wearied out with the weight of his own Crosse : Not indeed that he might presently swoon , even as otherwise they are threatned with fainting , who undergo bitter vomitings ( which the Schools falsely call Gaulie ones . ) The Jews therefore , did acknowledge the Gaul for a Balsam preserving life ; and it fat differeth from that yellow poyson rejected by Vomiters : Therefore the Sacrilegious did offer Gaul , whereby they might the longer torment the Lord Jesus under pains , before death . Therefore the Gaul if it be a Bowel , and its action be altogether vital , it can scarce be restored , and at least , is by no means delighted with material Remedies , as neither with solutive ones , but with an equivalent ferment , of the nature of a Blas : for there is a certain immediate and mutual traduction or passing over , and easie operation of powers into powers ; Because there is a touching of each other , and that mutual , in a co-resemblance , and therefore also a piercing one . For I remember that I saw the diffected dead carkass of a certain Comptroler to a King , & of another , a School-master , who were dead of the yellow Jaundise , yet the emunctory of neither Gaul was brought close to the Duodenum ; but in some of the Meseraick Veins , were pellets , which I judged to be liquid dung there detained , molesting the action of the ferment of the Gaul : also sorrow hath oft-times given a Beginning to the Jaundise and doth nourish it being begun . If therefore sorrow doth inhabit in the Spleen , the seat of Melancholy ( according to the Schools ) why therefore should the Gaul be stopped from sorrow ? and not the Spleen ? Therefore , 1. Sorrow doth not only hinder the digestion of the Stomack , but also of the Gaul ; By the errour whereof , the liquid Dung , which is especially carried through the Fundament , doth immoderately , and unseasonably arise into the veins . 2. Therefore the Gaul is a noble , and vital Bowel . At length , The Cream sliding out of the Pylorus or neather mouth of the Stomack , into the Duodenum , being straight-way snatched within the Sphear of activity , by the in-breathing of the Gaul , doth exchange its sourness into Salt , and its more watery part is made severable from its more pure or un-mixt part , which is drawn by the Reins . Whence the Urine is sufficiently salt ; but the venall bloud , a little . But that Paracelsus will have the Urine to be brought into the bladder , not by the Reins and Urine vessels , but by the habit of the flesh that is indulged by his own Idiotisme or Property of speech : Even as also that , That Oyls and Emplasters are the true food of wounds , so that a wound is truly nourished by them , and that the corrupt matter is the excrement of that nourishment . Therefore the sour salt of the Cream , seeing it is destitute of an object , and the which , seeing it wandreth through the action of a dissolver , into a fixed salt ( as I have taught before concerning volatile spirits ) it is suitably exchanged into the volatile salt of Urine ; And that not by the action , or re-action of sournesse on a certain object , but by a true fermental transforming ; for the Spirit of life it self is of the nature of a volatile salt , and of that which is salt : And so even from hence alone , the vital action of the Gaul is proved : For Sea salt being oft eaten , doth remain almost whole in the excrements . Which thing the Boylers of Salt-peter do experience against their wills : For they are constrained to seperate salt out of the dung of Jakeses , being sometimes eaten up by the Salt-peter , through a repeated boyling , and coagulation of cooling : For the Sea salt being coagulated , doth stick fast to the spondils or chinks of the vessels , being nothing changed from it self long ago eaten ; And that , before the Salt-peter hath obtained a sufficient drying up of its own coagulation : And therefore from hence it is known , that Sea-salt is more readily coagulated than Salt-peter : Therefore humane excrements are lesse fit for Salt-peter , than otherwise those of Goats , Sheep , and Herds : Yet as much of that Sea-salt as is subdued by the ferment of the stomack , so much also is sour , and volatile : Consequently also , although any one do use no salt , his Urine should not therefore want salt ; because it is that which is a new creature , and a new product out of the sour of the Cream . The Salt of the Urine therefore hath not its like in the whole Systeme of nature : For not that of the Sea , Fountain , Rock , Gemme , not Nitre , not that of Salt-peter , Alume , or Borace ; Lastly , not of any of natural things , as neither the Salt of the Urine of flocks or herd , with which although it may agree in the manner of making , yet the salt of mans Urine disagreeth from them throughout the general and particular kinds ; no lesse than dungs do vary throughout the species of Bruits , although bruits are fed with common fodder , to wit , by reason of the diversities of an Archeus and Ferment : Therefore of meats , and drinks , not sour , or salt , is made a salt sour , and at length a salt Salt , and it is easier for a thing of a sour salt , to be made Salt , than of not Salt , to be made sour salt . I remember that I have seen a Chymist , who every yeer did fill a Hogs-head of Vinegar to two third , parts with water of the River Rhoan : he exposed it to the heats of the Sun , and so he transchanged the water in it self without savour , into true Vinegar , a ferment being conceived out of the Hogs-head : This I say he was thus wont to do , by reason of the singular property of that Vinegar : For truly , out of the Vinegar of Wine , the weaker part doth alwayes drop or still first , but the more pure part a little before the end , riseth up with the dregs : but this Vinegar made of meer water , as it wants dregs , so it alwayes doth minister an equall distillation from the Beginning even to the end . Wherefore as the ferment of a vessel doth by its odour alone change Water into Vinegar ; So indeed , by the fermental odour of the Spleen breathed into the stomack , meats are made a sour Cream , which afterwards is turned into a urinous salt ; yea , and into a vital one : Because the Schools never dreamed of these things , neither had their followers read them in the labours or night watches of their Predecessors , therefore they have been ignorant of the use of parts , and ferments , and the celebrations or solemnities of transmutations , but they have introduced both the Cholers into the masse of the bloud : Lastly , They have not known the Contents and be-tokenings of the Urine : Therefore the third Digestion is made by the President-ferment of the Liver ; which is by the blind odour of a Gas , doth begin Sanguification in its own stomack of the Mesentery , and at length perfecteth it in the hollow Vein . Furthermore , The fourth Digestion is compleated in the Heart , and Artery thereof ; in which elaboration the red and more gross blood ofthe of the the hollow Vein is elaborated , made yellower , and plainly volatile : For the heart is said to be eared on both sides , and hath at its left bosom , one onely beating Artery , inserted in a great Trunk fit for it , that by a double rowing , it may the more strongly draw the fenced venal bloud which is between both bosoms in the middle of the heart . Refer thou hither , what I have above noted concerning the porosity of the hedge or partition which distinguisheth the bosoms of the heart , and why the Arterial bloud doth not return from the left bosome into the right , but only the spirit of life as it were through a thin sive . Therefore the venal bloud of the Liver , differs from the arterial bloud , by the fourth digestion , manifested by the colour , and consistence of the matter digested . But the fifth Digestion doth transchange the Arterial blood into the vital spirit of an Archeus , of which I have discoursed under the Blas of man , as also under The Spirit of Life . I could not satisfie my self , that in the venal bloud of the Liver there was any spirit , although it hath gotten a degree of its perfection , after that it hath overcome or exceeded the Mesentery : But that venal blood alwayes seemed to me as it were a certain Masse of Mummie , and the matter Ex qua or [ whereof : ] But not as yet to be accounted for perfect vital blood . For if the blood of the hollow vein had begged a spirit from the Liver , the right ear of the heart had been in vain , which works uncessantly for no other end , than that some spirit may be drawn from the left bosom thorow the fence of the heart , that the blood in the hollow vein nigh the heart , may begin to be quickned by the participation of that spirit : But seeing from the left sides there is an ear , and especially the notable Trunk of an Artery ; hence also the ●●cking is stronger from the left bosom . And from hence by consequence also , little of the vital Spirit is communicated to the venal blood : For truly , the blood of the Liver is alwayes throughout its whole , moist with too much liquor , whereof it ought to be deprived before that it be made a fruitful and worthy support of spirit ; neither finally hath the Liver had a fit hollowness in it self for the framing of spirit . Wherefore as I have intellectually seen throughout the whole Scene of Generation , one onely Framer , and Ruler of the spirits of life in the seed ; So also , I admit of one onely spirit of the vital family-government . For the venal blood slides indeed within the stems or threds of the Muscles , and is made flesh , but it doth not easily transcend unto the Bowels that are to be nourished , and to the threds or fibers of the flesh : For an infirm man being extenuated by a long disease , a recovering even after youth , doth easily retake the former state of his flesh ; but he which is waxen lean by the vice of a certain Bowel , doth not therefore likewise rise gaain unto his former state : And this is the difficulty of healing the Consumption , and of healing the Ulcers of the Bowels , whereas in the mean time , external Ulcers being far worse , are healed by Medicines taken in by way of the mouth , although they are at a farther distance from the mouth than internal Ulcers : Because the Bowels and inward Membranes are nourished by Arterial blood : more than by Venal blood . But life hath received its bound from God : Therefore also whatsoever things are nourished by vital bloud , they stop their increase at a certain number of dayes : Whereas the while , the flesh of the Muscles ( which is nourished onely with venal bloud , and the fibers of the Mufcles which are nourished with Arterial blood ) doth uncessantly increase as oft as it faileth , and groweth up to a hugeness , to the destruction of some : So also broken bones are made sound by a bonie callous matter , at any age . But seeing the Bowels do cease to increase , all the spermatick fibers also , and those of the first constitution do cease from growing : For which of you shall adde a Cubit unto his stature ? For I have observed that women with child being long afficted with notable grief , have brought forth the less Young. First of all therefore , I do not admit of a Livery spirit to be in the venal bloud . And then , neither do I distinguish the Animal spirit from the vital : For truly in one onely ship , one only Pilot stands at the Stern , neither do more suffer themselves to be together , without confusion : Neither do I admit of a new Digestion for animal spirits in the bosom of the brain . Like as also , that the spirit doth not differ in the species , from it self , in all the particular Organs of the Senses , and Executers of Motions : Although the senses dirfer among themselves in the Species , as also from motion : So I think it to be a confused argument , that deviseth many Archeüsses to be in a man : For although the Gas shall draw a singular disposition from the instrument , yet this doth not prove a specifical diversity . Therefore in the Fourth , and fifth Digestions , there are no excrements , nor unlike things or parts , nor do they proceed from them . And therefore it is false , That in every nourishment there is an excrement : For the arterial bloud , and spirit do agree in a simple and vitall unity : But if any superfluities of the former Digestions do rush into , or are ingendred into the Arteries , let that be a diseasie , turbulent and confused government : I now speak of the ordinary Digestions . At length , the sixth and last Digestion is perfected in all the particular Kitchins of the Members : And there are as many stomacks , as there are members nourishable . Indeed , in this Digestion , the in-bred spirit in every place , doth Cook its own nourishment for it selfe ; under which Digestion , as there are divers dispositions incident , so also divers errors of those dispositions do happen : And so the diseases which the Schools do attribute unto their four feigned humours , should rather be owing unto things tranchanged : But I call things transchanged , dispositions , which afterwards do in the Arterial blood , consequently succeed into the true nourishment of the solid parts . The Schools divide these transchanged things into four successive coursary dispositions ; and as if in these , no errour could offer it self , they have forgotten the diseases which from hence ought to be attributed to a rank or order . Indeed , they say the first is , because the venal bloud doth within the extremities of the veins , obtain the Muscilaginous substance of a raw seed . Presently in manner of a dew it is diffused or falls out into the empty spaces of the flesh . Thirdly , When it is now applyed to the solid parts . And lastly , When it is assimilated or made like to the thing nourished , and is truly informed hereby , it assumeth the nature of a solid part ; which to be the dross of the Schools , surely they do not diligently mind . For in the first place , Neither the Arterial , or Venal bloud do wax white in the extremities of the Veins , seeing the extream or utmost parts are not potent with any other power of ashop or office , which its whole more former Channel of the Vein hath not : And so the Vein , although it be the vessel of the prepared nourishment for the Kitchins of the solid parts , yet the Vein is not the Kitchin of the solid parts . Indeed all particular solid parts do nourish their own and proper Kitchin within . Therefore the venal , and arterial blood are not altered , unless they be applyed to the solid parts ; Because they are diverted by the property of the solid parts , into a raw seed , but not of their own free accord in the utmost part of the veins . Secondly , The spermatick Muscilage is not be-dewed by the veins in a solid Member . For a Muscillage is badly consonant to a dew . But the thin and fluid arterial , and venal bloud slideth along within the Kitchins of every part , which are only transchanged by the ferment of the place . Thirdly , Neither are there empty places of flesh , which are devised to be greedy of a dew . Fourthly , Neither is nourishment applyed to the sound or solid parts , in manner of a dew , which but a little before was a Muscilage . Fifthly , Neither at length is this dew united , and assimilated to the solid parts , but what soever happens to be assimilated unto them , this is within the yeers of growth ; but afterwards , as the venal , and arterial blood have throughly crept into the solid members , by a continued sucking of nature ; so they are there digested , and suited , and at length expulsed by transpiration : Therefore these four Dispositions feigned by the Schools , and badly harmonized , I meditate to be digested into a Quaternary number ( for peradventure a hundred Dispositions do interpose , before of an Egge , of a Chick , a solid part I say be constituted of Arterial blood ) with the blemish of the blindness or giddiness of the Schools : wherein nothing is right or true , but they do behold the very history of the matter bespotted , and to them it is a truth , because they have no nourishment of truth without the excrement of Fables . Therefore also the veins themselves , as they are nourished only with the Arterial blood of the first constitution , even so also in this respect perhaps , an Artery doth every where accompany a vein . For from hence it comes to passe , that through the more cruel issuings of bloud , at last , not venal blood , but a whiteness flowes forth , or the immediate nourishment of the veins , by reason of the penury of venal bloud . But Paracelsus every where bringing nature over to his own desires , saith , That in the Digestion of the stomack , a stinking or putrified Sulphur is seperated from the two other Beginnings : But in the Liver , that the salt is seperated from the Mercury ; but the venal blood to be the Mercury , and the true nourishment of the whole entire part . Neither is it worth ones labour , by scoffing at this man ; to be drawn any longer on the Stage , while himself doth infringe this his own Doctrine : For he diligently searching into the original of Ulcers , saith , That the whole venal blood is nothing but the salt ( now he makes no mention of Mercury , unlesse he confoundeth the Mercury with the Salt , in name and thing ) although the urine of those that are ulcerated doth not contain a crum of salt less than themselves not ulcerated . But surely it is a shamefull thing to reckon the three first things of the venal blood , as if they were excrements , whose Arterial bloud is one of the three . Also he every where compareth Milk to the Arterial blood ; Not knowing that a thing transchanged , is not any more like it self being not transchanged , as neither is a Chick like to an Egge , or to an Yolk . Indeed he calls the Buttery part of the Milk swimming upon the Milk , the Sulphur of the Milk ( never in the mean time , not indeed Analogically , doth the Buttery part swim upon the Arterial blood ) but the Cheese or Curds he calls the salt of the Milk ; therefore also the Whey of the Milk shall be also the Mercury of the Milk , and by consequence its best part , and the best nourishment of the Milk : And the Whey of the Milk shall be the Mercury , out of the Mercury of the Arterial bloud . I will willingly , and smilingly grant Paracelsus the Whey , and will my self take the Cream ; Because the Butter resembles the smell of flowers , where-with the Cow is fed ; but not the Whey . But Fernelius thinketh Butter to be nothing but the froth of the stirred Cream : not knowing a presupposing of a sour ferment in the Cream , that it may be truly transchanged into Butter by shakings together : For from hence , if a little Ashes , Soape , Sugar , or of those things which do participate of a Lye or Lixivium , be immingled with the Cream , there will never be Butter made thereby , by reason of an Alcali which flayeth every sour Ferment : For therefore in Winter , the co-shaking of the Cream is more tedious , before the Butter be brought forth ; because heat doth promote sour things , and all putrefactions . But Paracelsus being elsewhere unmindful of his own Doctrine , doth prefer the Cream before the Whey , and Cheese , as well for health , healing , as for the goodnesse of the food : But the Galenical Schools do prefer the thin and waterish Milk before the more fat Milk. For this cause they determine Ewes Milk to be the vilest , and then Cows Milk ; Thirdly , Goats milk ; And at length , they prefer Asses milk before the rest , by reason of its thin substance , and very much wheyinesse . But I know , that this one only Milk of beasts fed in dry pastures , is the best , as well in healing , as in eating , and to be least wheyie : For they command a Goat ( let the same judgement be of Milke where the like reason appeareth ) whose Venal blood the Schools do prescribe in the Shops , and in many places Sheeps blood is sold for Goats blood ) to be first nourished with things Diuretical or provoking Urine . Therefore the virtues of Milk are to be measured by the soundnesse , life , and meats of the Beast , but never by his grossnesse or fatnesse . And Physitians being called to give their judgement of Milk in a Nurse , do come badly instructed ; neither are they ready to judge otherwise , than of the venal blood drawn out by Phlebotomy : That is , minds being blind through ignorance , do not see with open eyes . I have observed also , that of the same Cow , of the like quantity of Milk , there is an unlike quantity of Cream , although she rejoyce in the same pasture ; for that also is according to the unlike soundnesse of the Cow. But I , for Blood , hang up a He-Goat by the horns , and do bend his hinder legs to his horns : I cut off his Testicles , and his Venal blood being received from thence , I dismisse him without bloud for the Butcher . But this venal blood being dried is like unto glass , and of a most difficult sifting , and very far differing from the Goats blood of the Shops . But it being taken in the weight of a Dram , doth straight-way cause sleep , and cureth the Pleurisie , &c. without cutting of a Vein : Neither will it ever fail thee . For Asses Milk doth more refresh and recreate or renew , yea and thus far it nourisheth ; not as it is more wheyie ; For that is to have judged of the virtues of a Kernel never before seen , by the shell . But a she-Asse , as she is long-lived , her Milk is more excellent than that of other four-footed beasts . For it must needs be , that her Milk also hath an Archeus endowed with a long life : And for this cause indeed , her Cream doth not seperate it selfe till a long time after : Because it doth more slowly hearken to corruption : For that sequestration doth tend unto a duality and destruction . Hence it is manifest , that seeing in child-hood the nourishment is converted into our very Constitutives , Asses milk doth more conferre a long life , and healthier , on Children , than other foods . Wherefore also , Womens milk , although it be most like unto us , immediate , mumial , and nourishable , yet it gives place to Asses-milk for long-life . But the she-Asse is to be combed like unto Horses , and so it may be known by the taste of the milk , whether the Asse were combed that morning , or not . Therefore let the Schools learn a better judgement concerning Nurses , concerning Milk , and Diet ; likewise to judge of the contents of the Urine , nor to acknowledge Choler , or Gaul in the Urine , or Dung ; Let them know I say to distinguish the Urine of the venal bloud from the Urine of the drink : and then , that the drawing of Liquor out of the veins of the Mesentery , doth cause natural thirst , but not from the exhausting of the lesser veins , by reason of the impoverishing of the venal bloud . For otherwise Physical or consumptional persons should alwayes thirst , and more than those that have the Dropsie ; and the repeated thirst should bewray a repeated Consumption of the bloud , distinguished by small intervalls . We must also know , that at the end of the Bowel Ileos , there is a little Sack , which they have called the blinde gut , in which the ferment of the dung resideth ; the which , seeing it is the work of corruption , and not of nourishing , its putrefaction is never to be accounted among the digestions of nourishments : For the ferment of the dung doth not proceed from any Bowel , or vital faculty ; and therefore in this terme of mutation , more secure wringings do happen , while the matter seasoned with a dungie ferment , doth go back , or contract the sudden stains of a defiled putrefaction . Moreover , the blinde gut is small , yet the necessary receptacle of all dung : which is manifest : For indeed , a Wolf , hath beneath the middle of his intestine , two membranous Bottles , or little round Sacks , which are to him in the room of a blinde gut : For his meat falls from a long conduct of the intestine , into one of the little Sacks , but presently into the other ; and at length it is brought hence into the following bowel . But humane Worms are not generated in the Duodenum , and much lesse in the stomach : yea , if they should the longer remain there , they would be digested after the manner of the food : For whither the Ferment of the Gaul doth not reach , there is the Worms country : For they are made of nourishment half digested , the which when it is brought down unto its own places , it is incrusted with a skin , as it were luke-warm Milk , and it beateth , and by degrees is endowed with life : For Worms do scarce creep upwards out of their vital nest , unless by reason of an obstacle horrid unto them , and of an ill contagion ; and so they do scarce presage any good , which are voluntarily ejected upwards : But Worms do presuppose a Ferment of the Gaul . For otherwise , in the Caeliack passion , worms should be continually stirred up : For the Cream would presently putrifie , unless the Gaul did presently season the Cream with its Salt. In the right or straight gut , about the end of the Colon , Ascarides do come forth , which are not Worms of the substance of man , or bred of the Cream ; but of putrified superfluities , even as in Flesh , Cheese , Fishes , and Ulcers , Worms do come forth . Therefore Ascarides are cadaverous or as from a dead Carcase , Worms not so . Lastly , Worms are in us without increase of off-spring ; but Ascarides do bring forth their own Eggs. Common water boyled with Quick-silver , in a little , and unhurtful drink , killeth all Worms , as well in the Bowels , as elsewhere ; but in Ulcers , if that water be powred on them . Last of all , for an over-plus , I will add , seeing the Bowels wherein Worms are bred , cannot digest the same ; thence it followes , that Clysters put up for to nourish , are frustrate of their hope , and they shall sooner nourish Worms , and Ascarides , than the man. Nature therefore , hath with me , constituted six vital digestions ; But in the seventh number she her self resteth . CHAP. XXIX . Pylorus the Governour . 1. The use of the Pylorus delivered by the Antients . 2. The chief Diseases of the Pylorus . 3. He is the Moderator of the first digestion . 4. Of what sort the closure of the Pylorus is . 5. The Command or Government of the Pylorus . 6. How vomiting happeneth . 7. The Blas of the Pylorus . 8. The Stern of the first digestion . 9. The Eccen tricities of the Pylorus . 10. Some Originalls of Diseases neglected by the Schools . 11. Some Positions . 12. Whence the diversity of matter vomited up , is . 13. What that gauly thing may be , which is cast forth by vomit . 14. The sluggishness of the Schools . 15. Their ridiculous admonition . 16. The shutting and opening of the Pylorus . 17. The reason of the Scituation of the Gaul . 18. Whence Fluxes , wringings of the Bowels , Bloudy Fluxes , the Hemorrhoids or Piles , &c : are . 19. An errour about hunger and thirst . 20. Some absurd consequences upon the positions of the Schools . 21. A sense of appetites in the Pylorus is demonstrated . 22. The remedy of the Bloudy Flux or Dysentery , and Flux , hath opened the office of the Pylorus . 23. Giddinesses of the Head , whence they are . 24. An example in a Cock. 25. The leekie Liquor of the stomach , is not that of the Gaul . 26. Thirst doth not shew a necessary defect of moysture . 27. Whence there is a yellow and bitter vomiting at the beginning of a Tertian Ague . 28. The use of the Pylorus is confirmed by four Histories . 29. Thirteen notable things resulting from thence . IN what part the Stomach layeth open at top , and being conjoyned to the throat , doth lay under it , that by the figure Autonomasia , is called its Orifice or mouth : But its utterance beneath , is named the Pylorus or Porter : For in those that are well in health , the Pylorus is shut , while the Stomach hath received the meats , or drinks , untill that the digestion of the stomach being finished , the Chyle or Cream be made . For then , not before , the Pylorus openeth himself : but the orifice of the stomach is shut , at least , fulness being present ( if there be not sufficient cast in ) when the stomach begins to give it self up to the performance of its office . These are all things that I have hitherto found delivered by the Schools concerning the Pylorus : But I have apprehended a great hinge of health , and sickness , to be involved in the Pylorus . For first of all , I have seen now and then , in Fevers , that as to day , undigested things have been vomited up , which were the third day agoe cast in : But on the contrary , in the Caeliack or belly passion , the Pylorus is never shut : Yea some , after that they have been filled with dainty fare , they do not desist from rioting all the night , and therefore they do pisse continually : Therefore it must needs be , that their Pylorus being notably passable , doth not onely distil drop by drop , but by a continual thred ; neither that it doth expect any bound of coction : For straightway even from the beginning , that it was not suitably or exactly shut , or at leastwise , that it doth somewhat lay open in divided wrinckles , after that the stomach was not sufficient for the entring drink : For that happens in healthy persons , when there hath been a defect of the closure of the Pylorus . There are others also , whos 's Pylorus is a more stubborn keeper , they vomit drinks after they are half digested : because the digestive faculty being not equivalent to the drinks received , being provoked , doth cast forth the whole . Indeed there is too much obstinacy of the Pylorus , where three dayes meats are cast forth . Which things surely do convince , that the Pylorus is not onely the Porter , but also that it doth govern the first and most evident digestion ; and so that in this respect , there is a drowsie carelesness of the Schools : For that I may give enough to their insufficiency , I say , that first of all , the Pylorus is shut , not indeed by a muscle , after the manner of the fundament , or Bladder ; for it is not the Client of a voluntary motion . Neither in the next place is it shut by contracted fibers or threds , like the Cramp , or wringings of the bowels : For it performs its office of a Porter without feeling , and trouble . But no otherwise than as the womb after conception , doth the Pylorus shut his neather mouth on every side , by his own proper Blas : thus I consider both the Orifices of the stomach to be shut : yet so , as that the upper Orifice , being in a healthy person once shut after meat , doth easily open it self wholly , at every importunity of a morsel , or pertinacy of a draught ; seeing it can scarce endure that any thing should hang above over it in the throat : Although in sick folks , and those that have suffered hunger or want , its opening doth happen with pain and great anguish ; because in the same persons , that closure of the Orifice doth depend on an inordinacy . Therefore the closure of the Pylorus is more obstinate , and exact , than that of the Orifice . Again , it is not to be doubted , that the motive faculty of either part doth not obey the will , and so that it is naturall , or diseasie . The Pylorus is said in the Schools , to be subject to the retentive faculty : But certainly , it sheweth an absolute power , when as the expulsive faculty being against it , the digestive failing , the attractive loathing , and so others being trodden underfoot , the Pylorus is oft-times stubborn , as well in its closure ( as I have said above to happen in Fevers ) as in its opening ( as in Caeliack passions . ) For vomiting is made while the Pylorus being shut , it doth contract it self upwards , not indeed by the co-wrinckling of the stomach , but by a totall motion of the stomach upwards to the throat ; and so the Pylorus doth command vomiting , and hearkeneth not unto the retentive faculty . Seeing therefore the power of the Pylorus is not the Chamber-maid of other faculties , nor subjected to fibers , but Monarchal , and so that the fibers ought to yield obedience to its very pleasure ; It must needs be , that this power is absolutely vital , and that it hath a proper motive Blas , like the womb , independent on the will of man : And that so much the more potent a one , by how much the Duumvirate of the stomach shall now come to light . And although the Pylorus be wearied oft-times by external and occasional causes ( to wit from Medicines , Poysons , or Dregs ; yet its Blas is free unto its self , which is implanted in its part , or Archeus . Wherein notwithstanding , I admire a certain power from above , like unto the influences of the Stars : For the Blas of the Pylorus doth as near as may be , express the Blas of a free will : for truly an external inciter rushing on it , it can nevertheless at pleasure oppose as to shutting , or opening , that as long as the Pylorus is well in health or able , it may be moved for lawful ends , or at leastwise those that appear so to it , for the straightning , or loosening of the passage . Yet when a man being inordinate , doth transgress against those ends , the Pylorus as the Governour or orderer of digestion , doth oftentimes constrain the man to expiate his ofence by punishing him : But seeing there may be defects in that Blas ( in some sort , as it were an arbitrall one ) not onely from occasional causes , but also in its own motive mad principle , so that through fury it doth preposterously open or shut it self freely , like the womb ; Surely , it is a wonder , that these things , with the other beginnings of healing , have stood neglected by the Schools . Every power , and especially the motive , doth easily wander abroad , being stirred up as well by contingent causes , as by a proper beck of madness , seeing they are free , and as it were independent ; in the errour of which motive power , the Pylorus doth for the most part , and easily stumble : Even as the womb not being shaken from elsewhere , doth rush it self headlong , ascend , or being furious , doth writhe it self on the sides , doth alienate , straighten , enlarge , contract the throat , weasand , yea and the sinews readily serving the will , against their office , and doth now and then exhibite cruel motions , scarce unlike to magical ones , as the motive Blas is excentrical in stirring up divers Tragedies of Tempests . And these things are diligently to be attended by Physitians , that as oft as through occasion of the provoking cause , the Pylorus doth wander from its aims , he may straightway study a removing of the cause . But if the Pylorus be exorbitant through the errour as it were the fury of its own proper Blas , let him think that he must fight with excentrical powers , and not with matter ; and least of all , that evacuations must be trusted to . For we may think that in a temperate state , a man having eaten moderately , his Pylorus is suitably shut , least any thing do drop down out of his chinks ; and that at length digestion being finished , the Pylorus doth open it self : Surely neither doth this come to passe from a forreign pricking quality of the Chyle ; but because the Pylorus is expert of things to be done in the stomach , and therefore is to be reckoned the moderator of digestion , by whom indeed are the bounds of Government , and the Keyes are kept : For otherwise , if the Pylorus be shut longer than is meer , seeing that which was sufficiently digested doth not therefore cease to undergoe a further force of the digestive ferment , therefore also it is cocted more than is meet : Not indeed , that the Chyle is therefore more excellently cocted like Glasse in the Furnace , by how much the longer ; but through too much delay it is alienated and corrupted , which afterwards must needs bring forth very many difficulties , as well in the stomach , as in its own neighbouring parts . Notwithstanding , if the Pylorus be lesse exactly shut , surely the new drink cannot but be ( together with its former crudities ) carried into the Bowels ; about which surely since the digestion of the stomach is not employed , a ferment of the Gaul being received , it is changed into a strange substance , and at length doth procreate divers Infirmities in the veins ; because the first digestion being omitted , it is come to the second : For so inspired tremblings and shakings of the hands , beatings of the heart , faintings , sharp Fevers , Tumors , and joynt-sicknesses do break out : So the tartness of Wine being not yet corrected by the first maturity of digestion , being a stranger to the veins , with the Aqua vitae inbred in it , doth cause the proper nourishment of the veins to degenerate with it self ; and an unnamed and unknown guest doth bring forth unwonted and unknown infirmities : Even as for the most part , if the Chyle being well ripened , doth slide down into the Duodenum , and at the same instant , new food be injected from above , be sure , that the Pylorus being well appointed , is presently shut , the former baggage being not yet plainly dismissed : Therefore the detained part of the Chyle is corrupted , doth wax sour more than is meet , and defileth the new food with a fore-ripe ferment ; And the whole Chyle is made a forreigner , unless that before an exact coction it be banished by the Pylorus , which is by exciting divers appetites , wringings , and Fluxes . Therefore the errour of Pylorus , whether it be proper , or stirred up from inordinacy , doth cause many difficulties . But that new food sliding in , the Pylorus is presently closed , it is manifest ; for else , the new and raw food should slide forth together with the Chyle which should appear in the excrement , as if it were bred from the affect of the passion of the belly , which is sometimes otherwise seen in devouring Children , their Pylorus being not yet sufficiently able to obtain its own ends . Therefore weaker stomacks do complain that great sournesses do arise in them , which in the morning they do cast up with their yesterdays food , or at night , with the Chyle of the precedent Noon , and the Reliques of their last meats . Furthermore , for a more full knowledge of these things , we must repeat , that it belongs not to the veins of the stomach to suck to them the Chyle detained in the stomach : likewise , that vomiting is made by the Pylorus being shut , and that the whole length of the stomach is contracted from the neather parts , upwards to the Orifice . Lastly , that this motion is made by the Pylorus , which if he should be opened , he should certainly unload the stomach of a lesse trouble ; but seeing he openeth not himself , he judgeth it to be inconvenient for health , to have those dregs dismissed beneath : And so he hath seemed to me , to be the Rector or governour of digestion . But that vomiting doth happen two manner of wayes ; To wit , by the proper Blas of the Pylorus ; but then it is without pain : But the other is made by provokers ; and that , although it be made also by the Pylorus , yet not by its own proper will. Therefore also it is troublesome , and grievous : at leastwise , vomiting is not made , unless by the shutting of the Pylorus : Else that should fall down into the Duodenum , which is expelled by vomiting : For when vomiting is made by the proper motion of the Pylorus , all of whatsoever it judgeth to be hurtful to it self , parteth at the first vomit : But if the Pylorus be provoked by a repeated vomit , other things are ejected , than those which bewrayed themselves in the first vomit : To wit , yellow , yolkie things , and then those things do follow , which are of a more transparent yellowness like the Oyl of Rape-seeds , and which are believed to be gaulie , by reason of their bitterness : and at length , now and then , things Skie-coloured and green , which by taking of the more cruel purging Medicines , do happen straightway after the beginning . Here the Pylorus was opened between the first , and following vomits , so that whatsoever doth lay hid in the empty or fasting gut , and in neighbouring places , the Pylorus may pull upwards unto himself , whereby he may wash off as it were the mark imprinted by the Medicine : But those things are for the most part bitter , both because they have again and again undergone the ferment of the Gaul , and that an exorbitant and angry one ; then also because they are besides their Custom , snatched up into anothers Harvest , where they are corrupted into an excrement , made notable by the quality of the ferment which it hath immediately drawn : therefore the Chyle in the same place becomes gawly and bitter . But in this place I do behold the Schools with admiration , that they should prescribe meats of an easier digestion to be sent into the stomach , before those which are of a harder cocture ; being unmindful of their own Doctrine , which sheweth , that all Contents of the stomach are turned into a single or simple Chyle ; but the Pylorus to be so shut from the beginning , that it suffers nothing , even so much as a drop , to slide forth before digestion be finished . Next , that coction is made by the un-cessant heat of the stomach , and so for this cause also , the digestion continued from the beginning , to begin , neither ever to keep holiday , as long as its Valcan heat doth remain : But that all particular things contained , do receive that digestive heat after the manner of the receiver : which Doctrine indeed standing , seeing all things are reduced into a liquid Chyle , and are thorowly mingled exquisitely in the one onely pot of the stomach ; it followes , that in feeding , those things are first to be sent in which are of a harder digestion , because they are cooked by so much the longer space of heat . Suppings ( say the Schools ) and things of a more ready coction , if they are taken last , would putrifie , if they expect the ultimate bound of the more hard assumed things : As if the digestive faculty were the parent of putrefaction ! neither that there should be made a co-mixing of things eaten ! or a conversion into a fluid Chyle ! but that those things which are taken by morsels , should lay secret by Soils or Grounds : As if I say , the Pylorus should open it self by set periods or turns , that the order may be kept in dismissing the Chyle , which there was in receiving of the meats : which things , if the Schools shall believe to be possible , the Pylorus at leastwise , should have a greater power of discretion in observing the priorities of meats , than that the Schools should so sloathfully neglect its office . But the closure of the Orifice doth not conduce unto digestion , neither doth it govern the appetite : But the Pylorus doth command both ; because a sufficient satiety is indeed for the most part present ; yet moreover , we as yet do eat and drink from vice : Therefore the closure of the Orifice is not from an appetite , as neither from fulness : But weariness , loathings , and aversion from fleshes , do begin presently after Fevers , and the rise of Diseases of the stomach , and they have the Orifice shut . Therefore the Orifice is neither shut from fulness , nor for the necessity of concoction ; as neither is it continently or sparingly opened by reason of appetite ; to wit , if it be shut without appetite , fulness , and concoction , and doth remain open after fulness in time of coction : For belchings are uttered in the morning , the stomach being fasting , empty , and desiring ; yet belching doth denounce a closure of the Orifice . In the next place , the Orifice is shut in those , who being pressed with long hunger , do languish , and who have been infirm through a long continuing abstinence from food ; To whom the unstopping of the Orifice is very difficult , grievous , and painful . If therefore the Orifice be not necessarily shut from hunger , appetite , fulness , and coction , therefore the closing or opening of the Orifice doth not respect necessities in the coction of the serving faculties ; but the Orifice doth especially serve for this , least to him that layes down , the Chyle should re-gorge into the jawes : whence first of all it is manifest , that the service of the Pylorus is more famous than that of the Orifice . For truly he is the Ruler of the whole Family-administration of the stomach , even unto the last Circle of the Intestines or greater bowels : wherein , because seeing the operation of the Gaul is perfected , therefore also the Gaul ought to be superstructed and incumbent on the Pylorus . Of both which , if there be not a full consent , Fluxes , wringings of the Bowels , Dysenteries , the Hemorrhoids or Piles , and divers miseries of the Abdomen or bottom of the belly do arise . It is also an erroneous thing in Galen , and his modern Schools , that we do hunger and thirst onely through the penury of venal bloud , and so that as many ounces of venal bloud ought to be filled up , as are unfilled . First of all , if that be perpetual , therefore let the Schools choose , to wit , either whether they will make the manglings in cutting of a vein , to be vain , or the appetite not to be stirred up from the sucking of the veins , accusing the defect of venal bloud : which thing first of all , is not to be doubted of in time of health : for if there be hunger by reason of want of venal bloud , therefore Phlebotomy is badly instituted in the penury of venal bloud : But if that be considered in Diseases , suppose in a Fever , where there is no appetite , there also shall be no defect of venal bloud : But if as many ounces of bloud are supplyed , as are consumed , of which Consumption , hunger should be the token : therefore in a Fever , either there is not a consuming of venal bloud , or hunger is not the sense of venal bloud consumed . But if the venal bloud be also wasted in a Fever , Phlebotomy shall be in vain . Likewise for every event , after two or three dayes , as much bloud , shall be now consumed by the Fever ( seeing a Fever doth consume and extenuate more than right health ) as a Plethora or the abounding of humours ( the one onely betokener of bloud-letting ) should command to be emptied out : And by consequence , the positions of hunger being supposed , Phlebotomy shall every where be made vain : For the Schools suppose that the bloud is dispensed into the lesser veins out of the hollow vein ( as if a vein were a dispenser , and there were not a difference between the Vessel it self , and the dispenser , or the power proportionally dispensing ) and at length into the small little branches , whereby in the last place , it may be dispersed into the habit of the Body : And therefore onely from the sense of hunger , that the last small branches of the veins do suck the greater Trunk ; but that this doth afterwards suck the veins of the stomach and mesentery , from whence at length that hunger and thirst are felt . Which thing being supposed , first of all , those whose veins do swell , should be pressed with no hunger , or thirst ; and then , there should not be a sucking of that sense , unless the greater veins were first emptied : Likewise in the third place , this position doth resist the Doctrine of the Schools , who teach , that the stomach doth cook onely for it self in the first place ; but secondarily , or by accident , for the whole body , as the stomach doth undergo a common self-love : For that being granted , the stomach shall neither cook , nor desire , and hunger for the Body , but onely for it self ; therefore neither shall it feel , that it may supply the penury of the veins : But the veins shall primarily thirst and hunger , the stomach onely by accident ; neither for it self , but for the veins : For the ignorance of the truth , hath made the Schools every where rash : They have not known I say , that hunger is inspired from the Spleen into the Stomach ; to wit , that the Spleen hath known the scope of things to be done , as the chief Bowel for the governing of decoctions ; and therefore , it is effectively the chief governour of the appetites , to whom notwithstanding , the Pylorus , the ruler , and executer , is an assistant : For the Pylorus for all that , hath a free Blas of opening or shutting it self at pleasure , which in time of health is moved by reason of its knowledge of the ends known to the stomach , for which , coction , and appetite are created by the Spleen , as if the Pylorus were conscious of the secret ends of the Spleen : But in sickness , the Pylorus openeth and shuts it self preposterously , and with an invented order being as it were stricken with a symptomatical fury . For I being about to buy a Village , I did walk with a notable appetite , then by chance I wrung my foot awry , I slid down , rigour presently came on me , with a loathing , vomiting , and the former appetite to eat , being suppressed ; but I straightway reposed my writhed foot , and that , half put out of its place ; and at the same instant , my former appetite was restored unto me , and the nauseousness of my stomach was ceased . Indeed my Orifice was open , as well in appetite , as in nauseousness ; but I had my Pylorus shut in my appetite , and straightway opened in my nauseousness , and again shut in my vomiting : For as I said , vomiting is not made but by the shutting and inverting of the Pylorus upwards : but in the hicket or sobbing , there is made an inversion of the stomach it self upwards , which therefore is far different from the inversion of the Pylorus beginning to vomit . But that those things were after this manner , is apparent : because seeing my stomach under notable hunger , had not wherewith to vomit , being greedy of meat , the Pylorus by his own consent , presently closed himself : who again , even from the distortion or writhing of the ligaments of my foot , being as it were mad with fury , opened himself , and called unto him the filths from the Duodenum : For at the time of my vomiting , that the Pylorus might expel the conceived ballast , he shut himself , and again had opened himself for a new accumulation or heaping up of filths , unless by the restored small dislocation , the fury of the Pylorus had been appeased . Therefore if with the closure of the Pylorus , my withdrawn appetite straightway returned , who seeth not that the appetite afforded by the Spleen , is governed by the Pylorus ? I have said , that the Pylorus doth snatch the filths out of the Duodenum upwards into the stomach ; that he who before being the Porter , was thought to be dedicated onely to detaining and expelling , may think of attracting hurtful things : which things , although they do happen by a common sorce , whereby all things being once banished , do put on a hostile character , and are thereby presently made worse ; yet they are in an inverted order drawn unto the stomach , by a raging Blas of the Pylorus . I have likewise herein discerned , that the Pylorus is not onely the cause of appetite , nauseousness , and vomiting ; but also , to be the one onely causer of the Disease called Choler of the Dysentery , or Bloudy Flux , and Flux ; and I have experienced , that oft times , a small Remedy being administred , the furies of the Pylorus were appeased , and the aforesaid hurts corrected . Surely it is a thing to be grieved at , that nothing hath hitherto been weighed by the Schools touching these things ; and that their whole aid is placed in a Clister , neither that they have come unto the nest of the evil . They have onely converted themselves unto the thorow passage of the thing produced , like the Dog that bites the stone that is cast at him . For I have seen a young man exceeding well in health , and enjoying a notable appetite , in the morning to have eaten some fresh ripe Mulberries well washed , with bread buttered , and straightway to have felt a sweet delight of cooling refreshment in his stomack thereby : And then his appetite being by chance half an hour after sore troubled or destroyed , he fell with the pain of the Colick into a Flux , and he had daily perhaps seventy stools of a Milkie colour : But presently restringent Cordials were administred as well within as without : To wit , the juice of Quinces , with Confection of Alkermes , of Diarrhodon of Spodium , De hyacintho , and the like exhilerating things . In the mean time , very many Clisters of Whey steelified , and the like sweepings were injected , and all in vain : At length also Opiates were annexed to other things , and nature laughed at the learned ignorance , and sporting experiments ; but the sick man grieved at the vain remedies : And at length at the utmost danger of Life that was appointed , the Lord healed him . For I administred two hard yolks of Eggs , tempered with Rose-Vinegar : his dejected appetite , and the restoring of his appetite by the yolks taken , do testifie that the Flux arose from the vice of the Pylorus : For he perceived a manifest ease , the medicine being as yet detained within his stomack . I remember also that by Horse-hoofs fryed in Buttel , and the same being afterwards powdered , the fury of the Pylorus hath been oft appeased , that dysenteries and fluxes have stopped , and felt the bounty of healing , that strong smelling remedy being as yet detained within the stomack . But if the hoof be the superfluity of a wanton Colt , it is said To bring certain destruction on those that have the Dysentery or bloudy Flux . Therefore the Pylorus being the Ruler of the closure of Digestion , and appetite in the stomack , it doth also through a long journey of the Intestines , govern as well the contents , as the exorbitances of the neighbour-Veins : for the undigestions of meats , and excrements , their corruptions , and quick passages do testifie , that the indignation of the Pylorus only is to be confirmed by remedies . For so yesterdayes gluttony doth stir up giddinesses of the head , not so much over night , as in the morning , the stomack being void of meats , and those do for the most part cease , the break-fast being taken ; Because then the Pylorus doth open , and is beset with filth , and afterwards he closed himself at the coming of the break-fast , and doth as it were forget the former discommodity . A Cock of ours , of two years of age , eats Bran and Oats in the morning , according to his custom : but a little before evening he refuseth to Roost on his accustomed staffs ; he layes on the ground , and the morning following is averse to meat : Being giddy-headed , he runs down side-wayes , and doth oft-times fall backwards : At length , he shakes or smites his Comb and Fore-head harder on the ground , and dyes before noon : But by Dissection were found some lesser flints , not indeed in the first sack or stomack , but in the more inward and true stomack . But a greater Flint had shut the Pylorus , which being lesse than a Flint , had cut of the hope of passage : For neither was there any other cause found of so great giddiness , and unwonted death , but that the Pylorus because it was by force and against its will , shut in the place of Coction , it had confected or made a Leeky liquor above the greater Flint : Which surely , could not have come thither out of the Gaul , seeing the Flint had stopt up the passage from Gaul its coming within the stomack , out of the Gaul , thorow the Duodenum : Therefore that green and leeky liquor was bred in the stomack , through the Vice of the stopped Pylorus . Likewise concerning thirst , I have often observed that those that are thirsty in Fevers , have again vomited up the drink , with a fourfold quantity . Therefore thirst is not of necessity , by reason of the defect of moisture , nor also through the penury of bloud , as that for the same cause the same veins may sometimes be the cause of hunger , and sometimes of thirst , and the messengers of a defect of venal bloud ; yea now and then of both together , as well of hunger , as of thirst : But the Bowel inspiring a ferment on the stomack , doth stir up hunger and thirst : For in Fevers , the cause of the Fever is an Alcali abounding ; hence neither doth the thirst cease , although the stomack doth abound with its own drink : for neither doth the drink come unto that Alcali : For so salt and peppered things do prepare thirst , no otherwise than as putrified Alcalies or Lixivial salts do ; because they exclude the sour Ferment out of the stomack . As salt doth hinder the resolving and transchanging of the food , that is , the entrance of the digestive ferment breathed from the Spleen ; So a quantity of the more pure drink , things peppered , hard , and undigestible , are causers of thirst : but not because they are hot and dry things in the middle waters detained in the stomack ; but because they do resist the aforesaid Ferment of the Spleen . But sour things on the contrary , as they are neer to the Ferment of the Spleen , they do refresh thirst . Therefore thirst in the like cases , is not through defect of nutritive moisture , but by reason of the Ferment of the Spleen being hindred , which at length overcomming ( by a longer time of sleep ) the aforesaid difficulties , therefore sleep takes away thirst . Also thirst ariseth in Fevers by reason of burntish putrefactions , and coagulated things ; but not because nutritive , and cooling refreshing moisture is desired ( as they think ) but a resolver of that which hu●ts : And so it doth not so much shew and require a nourishment , as a Remedy . And therefore neither doth thirst cease by drink , unless this hath brought a co-resembling mean for the receiving of the Ferment . Seeing therefore the Pylorus is the Governour of Coction , and no less the Moderator of thirst , than of appetite , as well meats as drinks shall be also the perceivances of the same Ruler , distinguishing the bounds or ends of digestion . For in the Beginnings of Tertians , a plenteous vomiting of a yellow excrement , together with much thirst , doth molest ; and those two do concur with the shutting of the mad Pylorus , and for this cause he doth instead of a sour Cream , frame that yellow or cankered excrement or liquor , which being detained in the stomack of the Cock , caused his death . Moreover I will adde four Histories which will confirm the efficacy of the Pylorus in the action of Government . My Wives Brother was by chance ill at ease for the space of eight dayes , at Mecheline , from a solemn and gl●ttonous Feast : But a Physitian of the City offers him a vomitory potion , whereby he vomited twice every day : And so he had written the day before , that he the next day would come from Mecheline to Bruxels unto us : Therefore being Boored , and now fitted for his journey , the day following before noon , he dyed , after that in the foregoing night he had been ill , and had vomited often as before , somewhat black Liquor , or venal bloud there corrupted . But his dead carkass being dissected , shewed no vice , except that in his stomack a blackish Liquor floated on the shut Pylorus . 2. A Girle of three yeers old , and noble , takes a vomit to drive away an Ague , of a boasting Italian Physitian , being a few Grains of a certain Powder . Also another Noble young Daughter , not yet exceeding the second yeer of her age , took the same : Both of them indeed straightway after the taking of it , vomited ; but both of them had their right eye wrung or wrested aside , and their whole side as it were beset with the Palsie ; their arm indeed wholly , but their leg not altogether so : For the elder being wholly given to tattle , yet her sorely annoyed ; but the younger , slumber and vomiting now and then interrupting each other , both of them dye . I am called unto both , and I attempted some things in vain : Perhaps indeed because late , and life failing . But both their carkasses are opened : And the same stinking Liquor detained in the stomack ( the Pylorus being exactly shut ) the cause of the murder , comes to hand . 3. A Hen , when she would pick grain on the ground , she retorted her neck to one side , and in picking was rowled into a Circle on her left side , and her legs fayling , at the taking of every Barley Corn , or Crum of bread , she slid on her hinder part upon her tail : And that had remained thus perhaps for eight dayes space , before it might be declared to me , I ran unto the unwonted Spectacle , I unfeathered her most lean breast , and a certain old woman opened her former or memb●anous stomack with a Razor . But I found that she had swallowed a small gobbet of rocky Chrystal : but that woman sowed up her stomack again with a thred , and afterwards she survived in perfect health . 4. One of my house-hold servants forming some Vessels about Distillation , with a most sharp fire of pit-Coals , melted a Glasse by sporting : the Fragments and Vessels themselves were dark and white , from green Glasse , and the sweepings of my distillations , But the Fragments of his new Vessels being cast into a corner of the floor , the Hens devoured them , being deceived in the whiteness of glasse : They were well in health : but it happened that the fifteenth day after , the two fatter were killed for the Table : But that there were found in their first Stomack some of the aforesaid Fragments , which were easily conjectured to have stuck in the same place many dayes : But they were diminished ( so that when as glasse is not broken , but Point-wise ) as well side-wayes , as corner-wise : Those Fragments were on every side obtuse or blunted . But I have hence collected to my self things worthy of note . 1. That the Pylorus being shut , my Brother did alwayes vomit : For truly , also after death , that stinking Liquor was found in his closed stomack , which else had been in the Bowels without any notable dammage . 2. That that shutting of the Pylorus was furious , otherwise it had opened it self , and had not so hurt . 3. That the motions of the Pylorus are of another Re-publick , than all others are : For all contractures do cease with death , those of the Pylorus not so . 4. That in the vomitory medicine , its poysonous faculty had stirred up the indignation and contracture of the Pylorus : For he was not only contracted or drawn together , but he drew forth or allured a bloody juice out of the veins of the stomack , which was forth-with made black , and stinking . 5. That the same things happened in the two little Girls . 6. That the indignation of the Pylorus doth also produce Palsies . 7. But an Ae●uginous or cankery Liquor , death . 8. That in the Cock , the only stubborn stoppage , from the Even-tide , caused his giddinesses . 9. The Hen which had swallowed the Chrystal , doth more strongly prove this , besides which , no other thing was found in her fore-stomack . 10. That the detaining of Glasse in the stomack did remain with health , because the Pylorus was not thereby stopped up . 11. That glasse is of easier Digestion than rocky Chrystal . 12. That an Aeruginous , or black Liquor was made from the indignation and shutting of the Pylorus , but not from the detaining of a Body , or Glasse besides nature . 13. That Glass was consumed by little and little in the stomack of the Hens . CHAP. XXX . A History of Tartar. 1. That a Treatise of the four feigned humors , is to be joyned in this place , for the integrity of the work . 2. After the rejecting of a quality , being an elementary distemper , we must then also treat of Tartar , and the three first things or principles of the Chymists . 3. The Birth and Life of Paracelsus . 4. He first brought Tartar into a disease . 5. Strife unhappily fell out between the Humorists and Paracelsus . 6. They afterwards made use of Remedies borrowed from our fugitive servants . 7. Humours were long ago silenced , which I at length have demonstrated in a particular Book , never to have been in nature . 8. An Epitome or Summary of those things which Paracelsus hath here and there written concerning Tartar. IT hath seemed to me a meet thing to premise natural things in order to the matter of Medicine , because I am he who have alwayes thought the knowledge of the whole of nature to have no respect but unto the health or welfare of man : Therefore have I treated of the Elements alone , whereby I may drive away the fictions , of the Schools , touching the composition of four Elements in every single body , which hitherto is reckoned to be mixt : That I might shew I say , that there are no mixtures ; nor strifes , nor distempers , or complexions of the same , even as neither that the Catologue of diseases of the feigned temperatures of Elementary qualities can stand with truth : That is , that the Schools have not hitherto known the causes of diseases , all which almost they have ascribed to those qualities . Moreover , now the same labour remains to me concerning the four feigned and false humours , and the wandring corruptions of these ; it was to be written & shewn , that such humours were never in nature ; therefore also that they have alike perniciously erred hitherto , as well in the Doctrine , knowledge , subscription of d●seasifying causes , as consequently in wandring Remedies , and the universal directions and applications of these : And seeing that thing is already performed by me in a peculiar book printed in the yeer 1644. at Colonia , by Jodoc Calchove , directed for a fore-runner of this work : and nigh the same yeer I set forth two other Books , to wit , concerning the disease of the Stone , and the Plague-grave wherein I have shewn● , that hitherto the causes of those diseases are unknown in the Schools : Therefore it is enough here to have attested it : Although those books are to be ●ansferred hither for the integrity or en●ireness of the work . Therefore the causes and essences of diseases , have even unto this day stood neglected by the Schools , and they being neglected , therefore the more weak have been destitute of right Remedies . Now at length , because Paracelsus hath lately dared to remove the general cause of almost all diseases into Tartar : And although Paracelsus first , hath rashly made that sufficient ; yet he hath remained uncertain and unconstant , whether he might rather determine the three things ( which by his own Authority he called The three Principles of all corporall things ) to wit , Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , for the general cause of all diseases , than his own brought in Tartar : And therefore he hath left both of the aforesaid assertions to strive : Neverthelesse the more famous Physitians have at this day yielded themselves unto Tartar. Wherefore , seeing there is not in either , at this day , the truth of the Causes , and Remedies of Diseases , I have held it worth my labour , and for the good of my neighbour , to brush and sweep away both those errours of Paracelsus out of the Schools ; That Physitians , who while they do now incline unto the Doctrine of Tartar , all errours being at length removed , they may betake themselves to the true knowledge of diseases and remedies : And that from thence my neighbour ( which thing I onely have wished ) may receive profit . For the knowledge of things according to the Principles by me delivered , is drawn by the definition : But a definition is to be taken from a knowledge of the causes : And therefore in so great darkness on every side , and ignorances of Medicine , I will endeavour to bring those that shall succeed ; yea and likewise modern young Beginners , into the true knowledge of diseases and remedies . For I have long since lost my hope of the Seniours , who will refuse to learn , being brought to that pass , as well by reason of sluggishness of assenting to the inventions of Pagans already drunk up , and converted into nourishment , and of labouring about Furnaces , as through a bashfulness of learning of me a poor man of little esteem , the last of Phylosophers . The father of Paracelsus being a Bastard of the master of the Teutonick Knights , went for a trivial Physitian , rich in a famous Library ; who committed his son Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus of Bombast to Tritemius of Sphanheime : Whence he being rich in the substance of Secrets , went unto Spagyrick or Alchymistical works under Sigismund Fugger : For he was not there given to Venus ( indeed a Sow in a place where three wayes met , had gelded him . ) Secondly , not to sloath , nor spent he his life in flattery , being earnestly desirous of knowledge : For he , about the twentieth yeer of his age , searching into the divers Mines of the Minerals of Germany , at length came into Muscovy , in whose borders he being taken by the Tartars , our gelded Physitian is brought to the Cham : from thence , with the Prince the Chams son , he is sent away to Constantinople . At length about the 28th yeer of his age , he obtained the Stone that makes Gold , it being given unto him ; for which things sake , he took up his Inn in Basil , where when he now became famous through many cures of diseases , he obtained the Chair of Medicinal Phylosophy , that he might give himself wholly up to Spagyrical labours . Indeed as the stone that makes gold lifted up his mind , and he saw the narrow substance of Physitians , and wandring errours of the same , he had long since aspired unto the chief-dome of healing : Indeed he taught at Basil full three yeers space , and expounded a Book concerning Tartar , and likewise of degrees , and compositions ; surely Both , the work of his owninvention , and burdened with many Anxieties . In the mean time , as every one 's own pleasure draws him , he indulging drinkings more than was meet , began to despise the Chair ; yea and the Latine , whence , he had almost forgotten it , and he supposed that he ought to speak truth only in the Germane Tongue . Therefore although he was born with a rare wit , yet he was more happy in the gift of the Azoth or Practick , than in the searching out of the Theory . He I say , first obtruded Tartar on us , into the cause almost of all diseases , and accused us , when he perceived that neither in the Schools of the Antients , as neither in his own three first things , he was sufficiently credited : To which Patron , the Schools at this day have subscribed . I also at sometime thought my self wholly gratified as it were with a found Treasure , till the Lord otherwise instructed me . First of all , the pages of Galen , and Paracelsus have disputed , whether the matters of a Tartarous humour and phlegm were not the same , and onely pure Sunonymal things : But at length , being amazed at coagulations , , or neither daring to ascribe so great a Troop of Diseases unto one onely phlegme , the more learned Galenists admitted of a tartarous humour , and began to use Remedies which they begged from fugitive Servants . Which things , although they were all poysonous , base , and adulterate , and are at this day as yet more ; nevertheless , they have invented a knowledge with pots or Boxes , that they may be daily drawn forth for uses . Likewise Tartar rising up , the humours have almost failed among the more refined wits . Therefore the disgrace or reproach of Physitians from the ill success of curing , hath perswaded them to look back unto Chymical Remedies , and the grounds of their own Art being neglected , they began promiscuously to use as well those Chymical Remedies , and most miserable poysons , indifferently , as those which their Dispensatories do describe , as well to abolish heats , as to shave off the phlegms of the stomach ; so that the sloath of the Remedies , and speculations of Galen being well perceived , the Galenists do by degrees decline unto Tartarous humours : Therefore what things I have read out of many Books , which Paracelsus writeth concerning Tartarers , I will contract into a brief tract . Nature being at first a beautiful Virgin , was defiled by sin ; not indeed by her own , neither therefore for a punishment to her self ; but seeing she was created for the use of ungrateful man , she was as it were defiled with the fault of her inhabitant , that even by the defect of nature , he might in some sort purge the guilt . It after some sort repented the Creator , that he had commanded nature to obey the disobedient : Therefore he appointed ; that the Earth should hence-forward bring forth Thistles and Thorns : under the allegory whereof , the curse and rise of Tartarers are designed unto us ; To wit , their matter which should exceeding sharply prick us : For the words do shew the progeny of the Earth , by the use whereof they do signifie , that Diseases should at length be incorporated in us : For first of all , the hostile Tartarers do trayterously enter with meats and drinks , they pierce into the bottom , are radically co-mingled , and shut up with a hidden Seal : Therefore some of them do even presently separate themselves within , from the pure noutishment ; but others do remain together with the nourishment , which being wasted away , the surviving Tartarers are coagulated under the form of a Muscilage , Clay or Bole , next , of Sand , or a Stone , which then , are not onely uncapable of receiving the breath of life ; but moreover , they keeping their wild Thorn , have become as the most inward immediate causes of all Diseases , the daily Nurses of the calamity of mortals : For as soon as the bloud is converted into the substance of the thing nourished , and afterwards consumed , this off-spring of Thorns doth often remain , surely inconvenient through a forreign coagulation , if not also through acrimonies or sharpnesses : For it waxeth more hard daily , and bespotteth its own Inn with a 1000 Hostilities : But a Tarterer or tartarous humour , differs from the humane excrements of meats in that , because these do putrifie , but that is coagulated : Therefore that stomach , and Liver is onely happy , which have known how to banish the sweepings of Tartar from the stinking excrements , in the beginning . As these Thorns are procured unto us by our antient Tartarous enemy ; So the Stone that adhereth to the Joynts or Ribs of the Wine-Hogs-heads , giving by reason of its manifest Prerogative , a name to the other Ranks of coagulable vices , is called Tartar : For truly the Wine in the Vessel is on every side incrusted with a Stony bark , which is Tartar , diverse from the Lees : For this falls down to the bottom , knowing no coagulation ; but that being extended round about , doth arm the Vessel , and preserve it within , for ever from corruption : But that guest being through nourishments , a stranger , is called a forreign Tartar , to distinguish it from that which groweth together within us , with a fatall Spectacle , by a Microcosmical Law : For whereby any violent thing doth rush into us , for that very cause the nourishable humours being destitute of life do appear hostile , are coagulated , and called the Tartar of the venal bloud : whence are Apostemes , stoppages , and other Calamities , according to the delighted property , and pleasure of every Tartarer : And so Tartar insinuating it self from the mouth , even into the ultimate Coasts of the Pipes , is also the principal cause of all Diseases . These are the things which I could collect out of Paracelsus here and there , into one , concerning Tartar. CHAP. XXX . A History of Tartar of Wine . 1. A fishing for the Whale . 2. The Spirit of Wine is depressed unto the Center of the Vessel , by reason of cold . 3. How Vinegar differs from Wine . 4. Why the Wine in the Superficies of the Vessel , is lesse good . 5. The manner of making Tartar in Hogs-heads . 6. Why it affixeth it self on the Vessels . 7. It is coagulated in affixing or cleaving on them . 8. The things foregoing are proved . 9. The errour of a Chymical Maxim. 10. The History of Wine coagulated in Tartar , is not a like to that of the excrements coagulated in us . 11. The difference of Tartar , and Duelech or the Stone in man. 12. Tartar is not wholly , or truly the superfluity of Wine . 13. The first errour of Paracelsus . 14. The Tartar of Wine doth wholly differ from a coagulated superfluity in Diseases . 15. Another rashness of the same man. 16. Why Tartar is not incrusted upon the Lees of the bottom . 17. Wines are distinguished by their Tartar. 18. Tartar is neither Wine , nor the Lee thereof . 19. Why an Alcali or lixivial Salt out of Wine , or Tartar , doth dissolve Tartar. 20. The Wine-Lee , as to a part of it , is matter for Tartar. 21. How badly Tartar doth square to our coagulations . 22. Tartar is among coagulated Salts , not among Stones , as neither among excrements . BEfore I shall reject the necessity which Paracelsus hath feigned to himself for the constitution of Tartar in every nourishment , for the finding out of the Causes of Diseases , and that the vanity of that fiction may be made manifest , it shall above all things be profitable , to expound the manner how Tartar is bred in Wine : for truly ( even as it is begun to be believed ) all causes of Diseases do stablish their Family , and draw their name from thence . The Cantabrians , whom they call Biscons , before they were associated to our Dutch , for the catching of the Whale , being oft-times under Groynland ( which is at this day thought to have failed ) being prevented by cold under the Quick-sands ( they call them Atalaians ) had their boyled Wines , otherwise generous enough , frozen . Therefore the hoops being taken from the Hogs-heads , they exposed the naked Ice of the Wine , in the form of the former Vessel , unto the open Air : That by one onely night following , the remainder might be wholly congealed . Which being done , they did beat the Ice , and about the Center of the Ice , a Liquor of the Colour of an Amethyst came to hand , the meer Spirit of the Wine , and a fiery and vital Liquor , not knowing how to be frozen : Therefore they drank the Ice of the Wine melted by the fire , a small quantity of that vital Liquor being added unto it . The History is brought for that end , whereby it may be manifest , that the Spirit in Wine doth naturally flee from cold , and that it doth by degrees , betake it self out of its proper Habitation , unto the Center of the Wine . But on the contrary , Wines are laid in the Sun , that they may wax sour , and the Spirit of the Wine slies away , and leaveth behind it Vinegar , the Sunned dead Carcase of it self . But seeing it is a far more desirable thing for the Spirit to go into the Center of the Wine , than to vanish by flying away ; therefore necessity hath caused cold and deep Cellars to be invented for the preservation of Wines . Indeed the Austrian Wines working continually , as it were through the heat of the ferment , are clammy : For from hence the Cellars of Vienna are for the most part no lesse than a hundred steps deep . The Spanish Wines would undergo the same thing , unless a Caution be administred by admixing a Parget of Lime , while they are pressed in the Press , which they call Hieso . Therefore in cold Cellars , the Spirit of Wine by reason of cold , runs back unto the inner part of the Wine , and hides it self . Therefore Wine , because cold doth strike the Vessel in the Bark round about , hath lesse Spirit than in its more inward parts : whence it followes , that as through want of the Spirit of the Wine , Wines set in the Sun do wax sour ; so also proportionally , that the most outward Bark of the Wine being pierced in cold , is more sour than in its Central parts . Therefore when new Wines are brought into the Store-house , and while they have waxed cold , their Spirit doth straightway flee inward , avoyding the cold , and therefore the Bark of the Wine , being now made small , and also somewhat sour , it begins to act upon the Lee as yet swimming on the troubled Wine : For truly it is impossible that there should be any sourness , but that its proportionated object being found , it should not also presently operate on that . Indeed this is the Law and necessity of natural things : For example , Vinegar , how weak soever it be , if it finde the Stone of Crabs , it cannot contain it self , that it should not straightway operate unto its dissolution , and exchange it into a transparent Liquor . Therefore the sour matter in the Wine being now filled with a small dreg , and now stripped of its own activity , inclineth it self to coagulate : But it cannot be coagulated in the middle waters , but it hath need of a fermenting odour of the side , whereby it doth as it were putrifie : Therefore coagulation is made on the sides of the Vessel , to which it fastneth it self . According to the common Chymical Maxim ; Every Spirit dissolving , by the same action whereby it disselveth Bodies , is it self coagulated . Therefore the more sharp Wine dissolveth the Lee in its Bark , because a sharp Salt of the sour dissolving Spirit is presently coagulated together with the dissolved Lee or Dreg , and applyeth it self to be neighbour to the side or Concave of the Vessel : And that , least both ( to wit , the thing dissolving , and thing dissolved ) be hindered from coagulating ; but at least , that it be not on the other side encompassed by Liquor : Therefore Tartar the new off-spring of coagulation , is affixed . Understand thou also , that before it be coagulated , there is not yet a coagulation , and therefore that somewhat sour Wine , the Lee being now dissolved by it , in an instant , before it is coagulated , snatcheth hold on the Vessel , and doth affix , and glew it self on there , by the proper Solder of its Cream : Else it should settle to the bottom . This very thing is the Tartar of Wine , of which we are speaking . That these things are on this wise , Vinegar it self proveth ; For Wine set in the Sun , and the Vessel being heated by the Sun , the Vinegar never hath Tartar in the Vessel ; yet it is the same matter , differing onely in cold , or heat : There indeed with Tartar , but here without it . First of all , a remarkable thing plainly appeareth from what hath been before deduced , that the aforesaid Maxim of Chymistry erreth in that , because it will have the dissolution of a Body to be made together with the coagulation of the Spirit , by the same action in number : For if divers moments of motions should not intercede , the coagulated thing it self should not adhere toughly glewed to the Hogshead , as if by that which is melted , it should be there powred on it ; but if it should be coagulated in the very motion of dissolution , it should fall down to the bottom in the shape of a coagulated matter , but should not adhere to the sides . But on the other hand , in the Region of the Lee , Tartar is not found . Let there be another remarkable thing , and of greater moment ; that the Tartar of Wine is altogether impertinently taken according to the likeness of coagulated things in us : wherefore the name , History , manner , and end of Tartar of Wine hath been impertinently introduced into the Causes which make Diseases : And these things shall be made manifest , when as I shall make the devise of Tartar in Meats and Drinks plainly to appear . Likewise as to that which belongs to Tartar of Wine ; for that is not a strange forreigner to Wine , produced by a forreign Mother , matter , against , or besides the nature of Wines , as neither to expiate the wickednesses committed by Wine , by those things which are adjoyned for a curse . And then , neither is the Tartar of Wine ever coagulated by a Cream proper unto it ( although Paracelsus hath otherwise so supposed ) but the Tartar is coagulated after that the dissolutive sourness of the Wine is woren out and glutted by the Lee. That is , the sourness being overcome by the dissolved content , doth think of making a coagulation : not indeed to make a true Stone ; but a feigned one , because it is that which is again dissolved in hot water , as it were a sharp Salt in Liquor , which is therefore commonly called Cremor Tartari , or the Cream of Tartar. All which things surely do badly square or suit with our coagulations : yet they all have by a like identity or sameliness of Tartar , in all particular nourishments , been intruded by a winy devise . Lastly , and that a violent one : Because Tartar is not an excrement of Wine , unless in respect of one part , which is a solved Dreg , which thing surely was not also hid from Paracelsus , who now and then doth extol the Tartar of Wine far above the Wine , as it were an heir of greater virtues . Wherefore he doth badly accommodate or fit the Tartar of Wine by the identity of Being , and framing , with diseasie Tartarers , which he calls an excrement , yea a curse arising from the Thistles and Thorns , or an ill endowed entertained Being in a pure Saphirical Being of things : Therefore the Tartar of Wine , although there should be any other , being erected into the matter of Diseases , in taking the Tartars of Diseases , they should even according to the minde of Paracelsus , badly agree together : And so he hath also but impertinently referred the cause of Diseases unto Tartar : Seeing they do not any way agree in the matter , efficient , manner , cause of coagulations , in the bound of a Cream , in their object , as neither in their principles : For the Sand or Stone are not resolved by elixing or seething , even as otherwise the Tartar of Wine is . Therefore the whole metaphorical transumption of name and property is frivolous , and a bold rashness of asserting , by bespattering all created things with a curse , so as wholly throughout they should be nothing but of Tartar : and the boldness hath proceeded so far , that they seign Tartar to be even in the Marrows , yet not coagulable , which neither hath Paracelsus ever seen ; but hath asserted onely by a boldness : Now he maketh Tartar not to be Tartar , nor coagulable : And so that not onely every coagulable thing , and that which hath solidness ; but that every liquory thing , that is , the whole Creature should be nothing but Tartar , appointed for a punishment of sin . Now when new Wine hath waxed cold , hath lost its sweetness , and hath assumed the qualities of Wine , the whole Lee hath fallen to the bottom ; and then the transmutation of the more sour part of the Wine , beginneth to act of the Lee : For truly that which is more fruitful than the Spirit of Wine desiring by degrees the more inward parts , doth forsake the Superficies of the Hogs-head ; but this beginning thereby to wax sour , nor finding an object nigh to it self , on which it may act , but onely in the bottom , it by degrees dissolves that object in the same place ; And thus indeed , the sharpness thereof is by degrees the more confirmed : But seeing every sour thing doth as it were boyl up in corroding , hence it comes to passe , that when the sourness which is about the bottom hath acted upon the dreg , it ariseth from thence , and is substituted or affixed in another place . Therefore the generation of Tartar is slow ; And therefore cannot the Tartar be affixed in the bottom , by reason of the disquietness of that continual boyling up : wherefore generous Wines , nor Wines easily forsaken by their fleeing Spirit , do not readily wax sour , and they do yield , none , or but a little Tartar. But old Rhenish Wines , do become weak indeed in the acceptableness of a winie tast , as their sourness was drunk up in the Lee , yet are they stomatical , because that their Spirits are not wasted according to the proportion of the dregs , and sharpness : But red French Wines , unless they shall keep their Lee , and the which , they therefore say is the Mother or Nurse , they dissolve their own Tincture , and drink it up together with their own sourness ; and therefore those of two years old become discoloured , unless they are exceeding generous : For truly the tincture of Wines is a certain separable Body : But generous red Wines , because they do more slowly wax sour or sharp , they are kept for many years : But those bearing a little white , unless they are severed from the Lee , they presently grow weak : For the Lee being taken away , when their sourish part doth not finde an object which it may dissolve , the Wine remains in its own former State. Therefore Tartar is no longer Wine or Lee , but a neither thing , constituted of them both . But that the thing is on this wise , it plainly appeareth , because more Tartar is dissolved in ten ounces of Rain-water , than in two hundred ounces of Wine , however it be stirred by boyling ; To wit , by reason of the sharpness of the Wine , whereby the Tartar was coagulated . Lastly , six ounces of Salt of Tartar do dissolve seven ounces of crude Tartar , because the Lixivium or lye of that Salt doth drink up the sharpness of the Tartar. But that Tartar doth consist of the Lee of Wine , and not of Wine onely , Printers do prove , who do prepare the Lee of Wine or Tartar , to be a suitable Ink for them : And both of these in distilling do belch forth altogether the like Odour , and the like Oyl : But Tartar is not dissolved in cold water , because the Lee of the Wine doth so compass the Salt in the Tartar , that cold water cannot the more fully dissolve it , by piercing . Therefore seeing the Nativity of Tartar doth not elsewhere consist than in winy juyces actually consisting of Spirit of Wine , and lightly waxing soure by reason of the flight of the Spirit inward : Let the Schools of Paracelsus from hence know , how badly the Speculation of Tartar doth suit even with those Diseases , for whose sake it was invented . For truly our Stone is by no meanes solved in boyling waters : because Tartar is rather to be reckoned among the number of Salts , or juyces coagulated with Salt , than among Stones . CHAP. XXXI . The rash invention of Tartar in Diseases . 1. No Disease doth arise from Tartar. 2. Galen is unsavoury about the matter of the Disease of the Stone . 3. Galen was often deceived herein . 4. He thought the Stone to be hardened in us by the Element of fire , in the middle of the Vrine . 5. Some ignorances of the same man. 6. A neutral Judge is called for . 7. The drowsiness of the Humorists , unexcusable . 8. An explaining of the thing granted . 9. Paracelsus came nearer unto the nature of Stones . 10. But he also slid in stumbling . 11. Paracelsus recanteth . 12. His rashness brake forth from the ambition of a Monarchy . 13. Blockishness is the Companion of ambition . 14. The nodding unconstancie of Paracelsus . 15. He was deceived by the Metaphor of a Microcosme or little World. 16. His hidden boasting . 17. The like boldness of Aristotle . 18. That the Metaphor of a Microcosme differs from the truth . 19. Paracelsus . hath not sufficiently trusted to his invention of Tartar. 20. Two ignorances of the same man are demonstrated . 21. The Rise of hereditary Diseases . 22. The Schools have erred in both extreams . 23. The Phylosophy of Paracelsus concerning Tartar , is rustical or rude . 24. His errour is proved . 25. The incongruities of Paracelsus . 26. Paracelsus was ignorant of a formal transmutation of things . 27. He blockishly proceeds . SEEING that Tartar hath first entred into Medicine for the consideration of the Stone , I have finished a Treatise touching the Disease of the Stone , and I have shewen in print , that Tartar is a stranger unto the nature of the Disease of the Stone . Now at length , I will make manifest , that plainly no Disease doth arise from Tartar , but that the meditation thereof in Diseases , is vain . Galen had known a man to be grieved with Stones and Sands in his Reins and Bladder ; but he knew not to what cause he might ascribe so great a hardness in us : at length I found , that not any thing can be condensed or co-thickned , except one onely excrement , which I call muck or snivel ; but he names it Phlegm or a waterishness : And when he discerned the Stone to grow in the remote , and so in the ultimate Coasts of utterance , and did think that nothing had access thither besides his own humours ; he boldly affirmed that the same thing doth happen in the Urine , and therefore that the Stone cannot otherwise be constituted than from a watery Phlegm . VVhich thing , because he marked with the Element of water , and watery properties , therefore that it ought to grow together at the water-pipes in us : The Invention smiled on him , especially because a Stone being brought into the Bladder , there was a continual voyding of muck , together with Urine . Therefore he thought that our fire , because he believed it to be one of the four Elements which do concur unto the constitution of us , was necessary for the hardening of the matter of the Stone , and that the Phlegm should dry up even in the middle of the waters , seeing he knew no other operators in nature besides heat and cold . For he knew not , that all things did at sometime arise out of nothing : now at length , that from a necessitated continuation in nature , all things afterwards should flow forth from a certain Genealogy of Seeds ; but not that from a casual conflux of Elements , and by the virtue of supervening heat and cold , they are so fitly adorned with vital powers : Neither considered he , that those first qualities at the most and utmost , could not generate , or contribute any thing unto a new Being ; but onely occasionally to promote or fore-flow the vital dispositions of seeds , in their own simplicity , but not as the Elements should be combined . Surely it grieveth me for his pains , and that all posterity of sick folks doth hitherto pay the punishment of its own credulity ; because he never deservedly measured , or of himself once desired the Causes of the Disease of the Stone ( as otherwise he ought ) before he erected a method of healing : So his Soul is made the Chamber-maid of his own desires , and he feigneth plausible reasons to himself , according to the appetite of disturbance , which removed it from its place to a consent of himself . Therefore a strange Judge is called unto the Reasons found out by us , least being credulous , we worship our own fictions , and love them as it were Sons , and pledge for the same against equity , as Parents . Therefore let the fire , the sieve of Reasons , be that Judge : But the art of the fire was not yet known in Galens time , but it was hidden among privy Counsellers under an Oath , in the silence of Pythagoras . For Galen never law even the distillation of Roses : Therefore in so great a want of knowledge , his ambition unto the chiefdome of healing might happily be excusable , if he had once at least boyled the snivel coming out of the nostrils , or out of a stony Bladder , in Urine , under a luke-warmth most like to ours , or had by it self dried it without Urine : For he had undoubtedly found that Phlegm which he supposed to be hardened in us unto the consistence of a Stone , never , or any where by any degree of heat wholly to become a Stone , no snivel or muscilage ever to be hardened ( unless otherwise great with Child with the Seed of a Stone : ) but to be constrained into a light and brickle Tophus or Sand-stone , or to be again resolved like Glew : For so it had behooved the Monarch of Medicine to have proceeded , and not to have exposed himself as a laughing-stock in time , among his coequals of posterity , and of a wiped nose , because he being content with so wan a devise concerning Diseases , had filled huge volumes concerning the griefs of the sick , their life , and healing . Indeed I do not deny , but that any Muscilage doth now and then become a Stone ; but I constantly deny , that that comes to passe , in as much as it is slimy or snivelly ; but onely if it be great with young of a stony or Rockie seed : For the more brickle stones do not consist of a pure and transparent Liquor , but of a Clayie and Muscilaginous one : wherefore the whole muckie and phlegmatick Doctrine of Galen , hath been dried up in a seminated or seedied Stone , hath remained barren in the Schools without an Ear , and fruit , and hath there grown sick under the Chair , and as brickle , being even now presently scattered into powder , shall vanish away . Indeed the following Ages being more prone to believe than diligently to search , have followed the flock of their Predecessors , going not in the way wherein they were to go , but wherein it had been gone ; and through the ignorances of their Ancestors , under the conduct of sloath , the easie Schools do hitherto subscribe to so great ignorance . Wherefore Paracelsus aspiring to the new Monarchy of Elias the Artist to come , not resting in the luke-warm and drowsie Dreams of snorters , seeking more firm principles of Stones , finally admiring amongst his diligent searches , the Tartar of Wine , he conceived and nourished great hope in his minde , thinking every Stone , as well in the great Universe , as in the little World , to be meer Tartar. And then , through a rashness of boldness , his Progress began to affirm , that every Body doth extract its own solidity with the same coagulation of Tartar , that those which he had said before to come upon things , from the curse , now he may recant , that they were from the beginning , by the appointment of the seeds . He afterwards withdrawing this his own intent of Tartar , and that ingenious enough , plentifully collected , that even as Tartar was a Stone of Wine ( a Metaphorical Stone I say , because resolveable in waters ) So that the Stone in man should be hardened out of meats and drinks , by a co-like curdling : For so he supposing that he had the sure Beginnings of the Stone , believed that he held the Hare by the eares : His boldness pleased him , and being thereby raised with a hope of Monarchy , he begun to commend in many Volumes and glosses , or compendious expositions , almost all Diseases unto his Tartar , so that he believed the Plague also to arise from Tartar. Moreover , so great was the consequent of this prosperous and easie invention , that he thereby promised himself the Monarchship in healing . But when he had sufficiently well weighed , that the Elements , Complexions , and humours failed , nor that they were sufficient for Diseases , and so the true cause of a Disease not yet to have been made known in the Schools , and the which he did promise to himself to have unfolded together with Tartar ; at length , that he might establish the causes of Diseases , he affirmed that all solid things were either meer Tartar , or that they did contain , for a great part of them , the same for our destruction : As if the vast Goodness in the Obiect of Creation , being solicitous of a Disease , had likewise gaped greedily after our Diseases . The labour of Paracelsus , and his emulation of finding out the cause of a Disease , are to be gratified by us ; who knowing the vain trifles , and shameful sloaths of the Schools , wholly contended for the publick good : And I shall believe , if he had been more negligent of ambition , that through the most bountiful Grace of God , he had come unto the true fundamentals of healing : But as ambition is swelling , and alwayes hanging on others wills or Judgements , therefore God doth alwayes suffers ambition to float into uncertainty . Therefore Paracelsus being unconstant , could never satisfie himself by the invention of Tartar , wherefore he runs sometimes unto Complexions , and then to the Stars , but then to his three first things , and calls upon the Elements themselves , that he might confirm the causes of Diseases : For sometimes he accuseth Chrystal in the fourth degree of heat , as the off-spring of the fire ; but then , as being the Daughter of water , he saith , it is hardened by the greatest cold : And then , he affirmeth that a great heap of Glasse burnt up by a continual fire , and diminished into pieces , doth passe over into a Beryl ; having forgotten his Tartar , and being addicted to the first Complexions of qualities through Elementary Degrees , he affirms the Beryl to be the off-spring of Heaven , and of a deeper fire : Being unmindful that he had seen in his own Helvetian Rocks , Ice to lay knit together by great cold , perhaps for a thousand yeers , yet not to be Chrystal , but to remain Ice as from the beginning : Therefore he was not yet at quiet in full rest , to have tied up the eyes and credulity of his followers in Tartarers , and to have framed to himself a glorious name ; as being confident , he fleeth unto another the last Anchor of his hope ; To wit , he translated the Metaphor of a Microcosme into the truth it self ; Willing , that we should express every way and fully , the whole Universe exactly or as to the square , and in very deed , to contain it in all the differences of Earths , Mountains , Fountains , Stones , Mines , Plants , Fishes , Birds , four-footed Beasts , creeping things , also of the Stars , with all the properties , motions , Tempests , Diseases , Defects , and interchangeable courses of the same : Asserting , that unless we do fully and fundamentally know and believe this thing knowingly , quick-sightedly , distinctly , most certainly , most profoundly , and most properly , in every created thing , we are unfit for to exercise Phylosophy , to practise Medicine , or to dispute against their suppositions : And moreover he saith , that this undoubted particle , and optick Science is easier to be learned by ten fold , than unwholesome Latine : By which Elogie or commendation , he is thought amongst his own , to have shined exceedingly in the knowledge of these things , who by a late testimony of the World , hath onely vanquished uncurable Diseases . So also Aristotle aspiring unto the sameliness of name of [ the Philosopher ] despised the contradicters of his own , and indeed false beginnings ; no otherwise than as Necromancers do require to be credited without demonstration . Let eternal prayse and glory be to my Lord in all Benediction , who hath formed us not after the Image of the most impure VVorld , but after the figure of his own divine Image , therefore hath he adopted us for the Sons of Election , and co-heirs of his glory through grace . Surely the condition of that similitude were to be grieved at , and too much to be pitied , which had hitherto subjected us under the Law of all calamities , from our Creation even till now , and that before sin we should onely be the engravement of so abjected a thing : as if the VVorld had been framed for it self , but not for us as the ultimate end ; but we for the VVorld , whose Images indeed onely we should be ! to wit , we ought to be made stony , that we may represent Stones and Rocks : And so we should all of right , be altogether stony , leprous , &c. For indeed , seeing we are by Creation , that which we are , and a Stone should be made in us , that we may represent Rocks ; Now death and a Disease were in us before that we departed out of the right way or fell : Let Heresies depart : For neither do we all suffer the falling evill , neither do they who labour with it , have it , that sometimes we may represent Thunder , or the Earth-quake , or an unknown Lorinde of the Air its unconstancy : But now , if there were at least , the least truth hereof , verily he who suffers dammages according to Justice , ought also to perceive the profits of the Microcosme , even so that , especially we ought to fly ; Seeing it is more rational , for us sooner to shew our selves Birds , than great Stones , or storms of the Air , or water . Therefore let allegorical and moral senses depart out of nature . Nature throughly handles Beings as they do in very deed and act , subsist in a substantial entity , and do flow forth from the root of a seed , even unto the conclusion of the Tragedy : neither doth it admit of any other interpretation , than by being made , and being in essence , from ordained causes . I observe also , that Paracelsus , Tartar being invented ; and introduced into Diseases , hath not yet stood secure enough : for truly , he immingles Tartar also in the first Beginnings of our constitution , and so neither doth he require the Seeds of things themselves out of Tartar ; but he will have Tartar to be radically , intimately , and most thorowly immirgled with the Seeds , whereby he may finde out the Seminary of Hereditary Diseases : Of which mixture he being at length forgetful , calleth it ridiculous . He saith that a VVoman having conceived by the Seed of man , it doth separate , snatch , lay up Tartar into it self , and that the Seed being as it were anatomized , doth constitute it self the flattering Heir of that Tartar : On the contrary , that the Spirit of Wine is never so refined by possible circulations , as that it doth not as yet contain its own Tartar in it : As if Tartar were the chief Root of the Universe , or an immediate Companion thereunto : But I know , if any forreign thing be materially in the Seed , generation doth never follow : Next , that the Seed of Adam being materially prepared in Paradise , had not generated a more perfect off-spring , than that which afterwards after the fall was made in him , Cain and Abel do especially prove that thing . At length , if Tartar should so intimately grow in Seeds , that after many years from generation , it should cause hereditary Diseases by materially separating it self from the whole ; surely that Tartar should not so soon be separable by the Magnet or attraction of a VVoman , seeing , if any thing be separated from the seed , it is a Gas , diametrically opposite unto Tartar : For if the womb should separate any thing from the seed , that should happen by drawing : but such is the condition of drawing things , that they draw for themselves and unto themselves , and then cease : but if the womb shall extract for separation sake , there shall now be no fear of an hereditary evill , because the womb hath a power of serving that which is hurtfull . Lastly , although Diseases shall come by degrees into the place of exercise , yet they were never materially thorowly mixed with the Seed , after the manner of Tartar ; that not Tartar , not a gowty Chalk fore-existed in the Seed , but that Diseases derived from the Parents , do lay hid in manner of a Character , in the middle life of the Archeus , whose Seal doth at length under its own maturity of dayes , break forth , and frameth a Body fit for it self , and so is made the Archeus of a Disease , together with every requisite property of the Seeds : For a Disease also , is a natural constitution proceeding from the Seed , consisting of an Archeus as the efficient cause . It hath otherwise rustically been thought in the Schools , that Diseasie Bodies do materially conflux unto the Generation of hereditary defects . It also contains an Idiotism , to exclude a Disease out of the number of natural Agents , and corporal Beings , seeing the matter also ( which they say is diseasifying ) is now and then obvious to the finger , if it be thorowly viewed by the eyes . If therefore a Disease be now reckoned among the Beings of Nature , why should it not be established by a necessity of its own seed ? It is rude Phylosophy , that Tartar had been from the beginning in the seed , and that after thirty whole years , it should begin the first principles of a Cream , and should meditate of an Increase , and as it were a particular Republique for it self , and that wholly without the direction of the seed . God made not death , nor therefore hath he connexed Tartar unto seeds , as the matter of Diseases : For if so stupid errours should happen unto the seminal Archeus , the Ruler of Nature hath already forsaken the Rains of the same , and mankinde shall shortly go to ruine . Also that saying of Paracelsus is absurd , that not so much as the Spirit of Wine doth want its own Tartar : For although it should be circulated for the space of an Age , yet it shall never in very deed separate any Tartar. For Paracelsus , who never saw or found that Tartar of the Spirit of VVine , will therefore be credited in his own good belief , no otherwise than as elsewhere , where he thinketh , that water , as oft as it hath ceased to be seen , doth wholly depart into nothing , and that something is created anew : For it doth not follow , a Salt is made out of the Spirit of vvine , it receives a coagulation in the Salt of Tartar , therefore the Spirit of vvine doth contain Tartar : Because although every coagulated thing , should be Tartar ( which it is not ) yet those Bodies do not contain those things which at length are made of them : To wit , Milk is made of Grasse , of Milk Arterial Bloud , and from hence the seed of man ; yet Grasse doth not contain a man in it self , as neither doth Grasse contain Cowes Milk. Therefore he bewraies his own Idiotisme , because he will have every coagulable Body of what sort soever , to be Tartar : That is , whole Nature to be Tartar , for the introducing of the cause of Diseases also out of the most refined Liquors : For even as if he had been to have said , that the matter of a Disease is taken from created Bodies ; but what then had he made himself besides ridiculous ? doth he not the same thing now ? while he tieth up every Body , as well that which is coagulated , as that ever congulable , under Tartar , to finde out the cause of a Disease ? For what new thing doth he bring which before was not known , besides the name of Tartar ? Hath not Galen known , that the material cause of Diseases is coagulated , or coagulable ? Therefore by the name of Tartar , he hath at least dazled the eyes ; Seeing coagulable Bodies do not assume a hardness elsewhere than from the appointment of their own seed ; but not after the manner wherein vvine and Lee do strain themselves together in acting . First of all , these things do resist the holy Scriptures , and his very own position , which teach , that Diseases have come into man from sin , and the position , that Tartar was sprinkled on the Virgin Nature : And by consequence , that before transgression , Bodies had their Creams in them , and not from Tartar : For he had found in the History of Nature , if not an Idiot , that no Liquor doth undergoe a coagulation by virtue of Tartar , but from the intention of the Creator shining forth in the seeds : And therefore whatsoever is condensed , is a new Generation ; but not the ripening of a fore-existing Tartar : For else there had been Tartar not onely in meats before sin ; but whole nature had been nothing but a Disease , and the cause of death a punishment before an offence , and death had arisen from the Creator . For Paracelsus elsewhere thorowly weighing , that favours do remain in the thing transchanged , wandering as yet farther off , thought , that Essences do not die , that they are not corrupted , lastly , that they are not transchanged ; but that they remain safe in the dungs of living Creatures ; and he perswaded himself , that where no , or perhaps the slender footsteps of favours did remain , that their antient Essences also remained safe ; being badly instructed by the Schools , that the same accident did not wander from subject into subject : And so if he had been pressed , he had denied also the the transmutations of things : For he would have fruitful fields dunged , because that the Essences of Vegetables being safe in the mud , as knowing no death , should sub-enter into the Roots of things sowed : Being no more mindful of his own Doctrine , wherein the dung of living Creatures is deprived of every property of the composed Body , and is onely the last matter of Salts : But elsewhere he will have the dung to contain the most especial matter of the Tartar , and that in this respect , the undunged fields of Bohemia do yield lesse tartarous fruits than those which were fattened with a stony , or earthy juyce or food , or at length with the dung of living Creatures , wherein indeed abroad in the Air in a long race of years this earthy Sumen or fattening juyce doth voluntarily melt : Because this Sumen-soil should produce a Tartar in Herbs , more wild and Rockie than dung so often re●cocted and refined into the matter of Salts : In which respect , some filths do wash out of Towels like Soap . And Paracelsus hath grown to that insolency with his Tartar , that as oft as any thing did gnaw the Bladder , or bring on the Strangury or pissing by drops , he presently nameth that thing , a Chalk or Lime , a frosty Tartar , or any such like thing : As if Lime , and Tartar were now Sunonymalls ! as though any thing could be calcined in the middle of the Urine , without burning ! as if Lime did not presuppose the matter whereof the Stones consist ! Seeing there is not ashes which was not before a Coal . Finally , he acknowledgeth also the Tartar of Marrow , not to be coagulable : But how knew he this Tartar , which he could never see ? For he will have himself believed in all things , who knew most perfectly the Beings , and all the properties of the Microcosme : But why doth he now call Tartar a Being not coagulable ? but that all Diseases , will they , nill they , may obey his fiction of Tartars ? For I being a Christian , could not admit of Microcosmical Dreams , as they have been delivered by Paracelsus : That is , by literally , and not metaphorically understanding them , which sense or meaning , doth alwayes banish it self from the History of natural things : Neither do I suffer his Tartarers : but according to the same Paracelsus I will say , we must believe no man [ in that ] which he cannot prove by the fire : And therefore I may not consent that Lime is burnt in us , as neither that Tartar is bred in us , because Tartar is not to be acknowledged but in Winy Liquors : but that the matter of Tartar doth remain from Generation to Generation , through the Shops of the digestions , I reject it as a Fable . CHAP. XXXII . Nourishments are guiltless or innocent of Tartar. 1. Physitians at this day do by little and little accustom themselves to the Doctrine of Tartar. 2. An Argument against Tartar. 3. The Tartar of a Disease should not be a Creature . 4. The Thistles and Thorns not to signifie Tartar. 5. Two womb Sisters in nature . 6. By what means the transmutations of solid things may be . 7. An unbelieving invention . 8. An impossibility , some impertinences . 9. The unconstancy of Paracelsus . 10. A frivolous thing . 11. Absurd Consequences upon the Position of Tartar. 12. The Archeus prepares matter for himself , while he doth not finde the same . 13. The Errour of Paracelsus about the Idea of the Microcosme in Bread , about Anatomies declared in meats , and Medicines . 14. Other absurdities . 15. Some notable things against the Tartar of meat . 16. Manly Age is lesse subject to Worms . 17. A stone growing to a Tooth , hath deceived Paracelsus . 18. Hence another fiction hath sprung . 19. The aforesaid assertion , and some absurdities are discovered . 20. Some absurdities concerning the Stone of a Tooth . 21. A frivolous thing of Paracelsus . 22. What a dental or Tooth-stone is . 23. It s Birth and manner of making . 24. The Family Government of the Teeth . 25. Teeth have their Age. 26. Why Cold is an enemy to a Tooth . 27. An Errour about the hardness of Stones in us . 28. Why the Stone of the Reins doth at length arise pale . 29. The unconstancy of Paracelsus . 30. The neglect of the same man. 31. An instance brought on a Maxim. THE more refined Physitians do so by degrees go back from the Humorists the Schools , that with Paracelsus , they now ascribe almost all Diseases unto the one thing , Tartar : wherefore it hath behoved me to decypher the beginnings of my repentance , and how far youthful and inconsiderate credulity hath in times past seduced me . In the mean time , seeing the counsel of judgement doth spring forth from the understanding , through the Grace of God , with a free choyce of the assenting will , I will not compel any one . Every one may uncompelledly choose , as much as the free gifts received of the truth , shall shew themselves in the understanding . I likewise being also greedy of the truth of Nature , although a dull searcher , began to meditate , if there be any Tartar in us , with a property of subsisting ; to wit , all or every digestion being neglected and finished in us by the retentive faculty , of re-assuming a Cream against our will ; that shall be either miraculous or supernatural , or plainly natural , or deceitful , or divelish ; which although it be not above Nature , yet by reason of its unaccustomed order in Nature , it is sequestred into a peculiar rank : But whatsoever doth subsist onely by art , seeing essential Forms are secluded from the power of Artificers , the artificial Being thence arising , doth not fall under a Medicinal Consideration : Therefore from a sufficient numbring up of parts , the aforesaid division of Tartar is commended . Again , although Tartar were diseasie , and thus far besides the intent of humane Nature , yet it should not be in its own entity besides nature ; seeing every material Being is enclosed in the bosom of Nature : therefore whether Tartar be supernatural , or meerly natural , at least it should be a Creature : therefore Tartar should be created from the beginning , seeing none is read to be created forthwith after sin , neither any matter to be formally transchanged by the curse : Therefore the Creator had made the punishment before the fault , and death in the matter : which resisteth the truth , and Text. After what manner soever therefore Tartar be taken , it was not created by God ; And therefore it is not any wise created . Indeed the seeds of Thistles and Thorns were promised to the first Husbandmen , not that thenceforth through the curse , a new Creature in all nourishments should be transchanged or immingled into or with Tartar , which it had not been before the fall : for the curse had gone before the sin , and the punishment had been brought in before the guilt : For Paracelsus ought to have known that there are in nature two Sisters of the same womb or Mother , among tangible things ; To wit ; resolving ; and coagulating ; which do mutually receive each other by course . For a Liquor waxeth solid , and solid things do likewise melt : Because that successive change is a Law written in the Stamp of Bodies . For truly a solid Body is never transchanged into another Body , but it is first reduced by resolving into its first matter , which is the Liquor , to wit , which it had before it was coagulated : neither must we believe that there is any Body at this day , whose matter was not created from the beginning : neither was there after the first six dayes , any void thing in the Body , which by a new Creation of Tartar following after sin , was supplyed : And much lesse , that God had created Tartar in us for Thistles and Thorns , which our first Parent and capital transgressor , had not much more principally , originally , and capitally felt , and by consequence , likewise all Diseases , which Paracelsus deviseth to arise from thence ; Seeing God is not an excepter of persons ; but a just and severe revenger for every one their deserts . Lastly , very many things do hinder me to believe , that any Tartar doth traiterously enter into us , and that although it be rightly subdued and transchanged by our digestion , yet that being afterwards mindful of its malignity , it severeth it self from the company of the good nourishment , doth retain its antient inclination of hurting , and its antient Hostilities of coagulating : For indeed , although Adam had not sinned , yet Wine had not therefore been without Tartar , Milk without Cheese , Rivers without Stones , and Meats without excrements . Surely , the emunctories of dungs were before sin , neither appointed , that onely after the fall they should serve for their uses . Surely the Tartar of Wine it self , hath deluded this first inventer of Tartars , being ignorant , that that Tartar had proceeded from its Creation , as a profitable and good Creature , having proper ends according to the intention of God ; By how much the more , that the inventer of the Tartar of a Disease doth confess Tartar to be more excellent than Wine ; but excrements are not more excellent than the Bodies whose superfluities they are : At leastwise , it is not reasonable , that a Being should possess a great virtue , which it had drowned in Nature , from the curse of sin : But if a Body in as much as it is coagulable , is Tartar ; now the whole Universe shall not be free from this guilt , but it is the Son of cursing , and not of Creation . In the next place , Tartar of Wine is resolved by the boyling of water , and the water being evaporated , it again groweth together into a Powder , which is now called a Cream : But it being once subdued by our digestion , it is no more afterwards coagulated into a Powder : For even as there is need of boyling water to dissolve ; so there is need of the digestive faculty to transchange . Therefore he should be a Physitian of wicked Counsel , who should give Tartar to drink , if it might again be coagulated within , and should traiterously adhere to the Vessels : For if after absolute digestion , any thing should retain its antient force of coagulating , and thereby should bring forth some Centuries of Diseases , that thing by all prerogative , should be the very Tartar of Wine it self , under whose Banner , the others have given their names in the power of Paracelsus : But besides , the Tartar of Wine is not any more coagulated into its antient state , but it layes aside all hope of hardening , so that it cleanseth the stomach of muckinesses or filths : therefore much lesse could the Tartars of meats do that . Furthermore , if any Tartar having entred out of the Earth , into meats , should again retake the drawn Counsels of a Cream in us , surely that Tartar first undergoing in Herbs and lesser Cattel , and so in meats themselves , the same Lawes of transmutation , it being banished and separated from the same , had either been like Tartar , or otherwise ; it had lost in them the wild nature of coagulating : But seeing it shall not exercise in meats that treason of hardening , neither shall it retain , or hath it the properties of Tartar : after what sort I pray , shall it resume that in us , which at first when it was made an Herb , or afterwards , when the flesh of Cattel ? For how shall it forget its treachery , in its first transmutation into an Herb , and afterwards in its second , into a Beast , and should at first repeat it in us by its third transmutation , with Pot-herbs , with Milk ? But if it had been formally transchanged , and had lost the essence and property of Tartar , while it did put on the vital Spirit , and substance of a Cabbage , Grasse , Milk , and flesh , and was truly made vital in these , the bruitishness of Tartar being laid aside , how I say , and whence shall it finde in us its antient and unchanged principles of coagulating a diseasie Tartar ? or if it shall not lay aside the properties of Tartar , while it was made an Herb , while Chyle , Cream , Bloud , and at length Milk , why doth it not shew it self an open enemy ? For neither doth Phylosophy permit , that it should be both a Tartar , and also a Cabbage , or at length , living arterial bloud , and Tartar also . Wherefore , if Tartar hath lost its own essence , and departed into a strange one , it could not have retained its own , and much lesse , rather have passed in us from a privation unto a habit , than in Herbs , than in Bruits : At length , if there be real Tartar in things , surely that should be persevering through all the transmutations of a Body , nor suffering any thing by the powers of sublunary things , which should suffer nothing at all by so many transmutations succeeding each other , unless being taken by us alone : But this is absurd , to endow any thing with the excrements of perpetuity , which should not be familiar to their pure Being : yea , either a field that is dunged ( Rape roots springing a fourth time therein ) should bring forth fruits laden with no Tartar at all ; or it is absurd , that at the third or fourth turn , Tartar should even manifest it self , before it be hidden . Moreover , if every growing or increasing thing should have a proper and unseparable Tartar in it , that in us onely , but not in the Milk and Bloud of bruit Beasts , Tartar by an appointment should be made ; it should needs be , that Tartar began from the beginning of the Creation , and not from the reproof of sin : But if Tartar should not be in other Creatures , but onely in us , now its original should be supernatural , and no Disease should be natural ; but every Disease should arise from a Miracle ; and our digestion should be viler , and life shorter than that of the vilest little Beast , whereof to wit , there is a digestion unto a true transmutation , and in respect of them , all Tartars of meats do remain miraculously changed in its first matter : This I say , Phylosophy destroyes , which teacheth , that a transmutation is never made without the death and decease of the former Being , and the destruction of the terme , from whence , to wit , least one onely thing should consist to be in two terms or bounds at once : For that the juyce of an Herb may be made venal bloud , the essence of the arterial bloud of the Herb must needs first perish , with the properties of its own Archeus , and for this cause also all Tartar to perish in every transmutation of things . VVhat if Stones in Cherries , Peachies , Medlers , Peares , &c. be the created Tartars of those fruits , surely they ought rather to have been brought on the Stage of Tartars , and into the causes of diseases , than the very Tartar of Wine it self , which is resolved in boyling water : Also the Medicinal Schools should be wicked and pernicious , who do give the shells of those Fruits to drink to their sick folks in manner of a Powder , in as much as whatsoever should melt through our digestions , should contain Tartar , and therefore should necessarily increase our Stones . And moreover , Tartar being granted for the cause of Diseases , of necessity a Kernel had before sin , been in a Cherry , without a shell , and so every created thing after sin , had been forthwith changed , even unto the Sciences and Idea's of Seeds , and had put off its former disposition and figure , and should presently increase from the curse , and not from the virtue of the blessing , Increase and multiply . Therefore are the shels of those Fruits vainly adorned with so great a grace , are sealed by providence , and do keep every where a specifical sameliness , if they are the off-springs and Reliques of excrements or Tartars , if they are not the appointed works of Seeds ; but the accidental structures of Tartar . So also thorow the stalk of a Cherry ( surely a small thred ) a Liquor should passe , the future Tartar of so great a hardening , which had never grown together in the stalk or body of its Cherry , but onely about the Kernel : And moreover , the appointment of Nature is rather and more prime about the skin , and shell of the Cherry , than about its Winy juyce : And so nature should intend an excrement , before the thing it self : But in us , onely by the co-touching of the teeth , Tartar should straightway wax hard : Also Tartar should exceed in a notable knowledge , because it being taken , doth not yet wander thorow the Plant , nor also while it being chewed by a bruit Beast , is it wasted or grinded ; but being in the possession of man alone , should be formed into Tartar , but elsewhere it will not , or knowes not how to be coagulated : Truly if in Fruits , Tartar doth not follow its own appointments ; but first , onely in man ; I can scarce believe , that this Command was enjoyned it by God , while it enters into us in manner of meat : But rather , if any thing of meats doth degenerate within , from the banishment of that which was accustomed in nature , let that be our vice , not the vice of things great with child of Tartar : But if Tartar should lay hid in things , the errour should be in the Archeus , from the ignorance of the Lawes of his own nature . Let that be an absurdity , to wit , to deny that through digestion , the thing digested and transchanged from the former visage and inclination of its seed , can be changed into the nature of the digester : For indeed by one onely and homogeneal juyce , four hundred herbs , and as many diverse trees are sumptuously nourished : not indeed that from that similar juice that is separated for wood , which containeth more of Rozin , and a stronger cream , and as many separations of the same juice of the earth are made , as there are diversities in the aforesaid plants : far be it : That is unworthy of the Archeus , who hath fully known the office of his own life , and hath obtained means for the perfecting those things which are to be done by himself in the matter subjected to him : For not any thing is separated from the seeds , for a root , stalk , leaf , flesh , bone , or brain : The diversity of members is not drawn from the truth of a simple liquor , for the Archeus wanteth not a little , and unperceivable diversity thereof in seeds , on whose power every interchangeable course doth depend , and of which fore-existing disposition , indeed the Archeus himself is the principal and one onely workman , to wit , from the same Vulcan the diversities of things do issue forth , no lesse than the properties of diversities ; for else the Archeus should not be a transchanger , but onely a ripener and cook . For was not wood a juice in its beginning ? and so a meer herby liquor waxed hard by a seminal virtue , but not by a fore-existing hardnesse in the matter . That also of Paracelsus is absurd , that although material dispositions , the causes of heterogeneal members , do not actually exist , at least wise there is a spiritual humane Idea in the bread , without which the food should not be turned into nourishment : and this Idea or Image he calls an uttered Anatomy , and he boasts that it is visible by art : I think that in the same bread there might be thus together , the Idea of a Sparrow , a Carp , a Swine , an Oxe , a Dog , an Horse , an Ape , &c , which Idea's should pierce the humane one , in the same morsel of bread , so that Paracelsus did not shew always an humane Idea , but now and then he offered a swiny one ; unlesse a spiritual separater were present , who might remove the other Idea's as oft as he will , from the humane one , to wit , who makes himself appear visible in an humane Idea to whom he will. Away for shame , with serious trifles in healing . Furthermore , a Bean being set or sowed , the bean presently comes forth to light , neither hath it lost its heterogeneal parts to be propagated into a root , stalk , branch , and leaves : But a thing separated being granted , which should be made in the seeds of things , according to the varieties of parts to be constituted ; therefore how much more curiously hath the Archeus watched over Tartars to be separated from the meat or food ? Nevertheless , if any Tartar be granted in the food , surely that is never sent into the veins ; but when it shall be converted into a true Chyle , that is , after that it shall cease to be Tartar : And therefore coagulation being taken away , it is no more a Tartarous matter , otherwise the whole Universe should be nothing but Tartar. For a certain young man loosing with us from Cales , sailed eighteen whole dayes , even unto Bilbo , and he did eat daily , not lesse than as much as he had eaten in six dayes on land ; but he went once aside on the ninth day , and again on the eighteenth day to unload his belly , but his excrement scarce exceeded the bignesse of two eggs : Whence I infer , that so great an heap of foods was changed and consumed into juice , straightway to be blown away in nourishing : If therefore his meats did contain Tartar , and that young man should not expel this by excrement , he had of necessity been sick ; seeing indeed Tartar is not digested or turned into good arterial blood ; but according to the lawes of Tartar , it being snatched into the veins , ought to have been coagulated ; yet he lived in health above four years after : Therefore the Tartarous trifles do fall to the ground . Again , a man being made not a little lean by a more durable disease , recovered ; but he could not abstain from much meat , because he was exceeding hungry ; neither yet cast he forth thorow his bowels the sixtieth part of the food taken : so that whatsoever he is wont lately to deject by excrements , did then repair his flesh : For so a more strong stomach doth easily coct even the harder meats without hurt , or remembrance of Tartar , which meats notwithstanding , the Archeus separates abroad , as a true excrement , being lately become more sloathful than himself ; to wit , he sometimes is luxurious within , while with threatnings to himself , he corrupts with a superfluous delight , those things which otherwise are unhurtful unto him , and banisheth whatsoever lesse pleaseth him , although it be full of juice : For whatsoever he will not overcome , that he is not intent upon , doth not attempt , but repelleth from him , and condemneth : But as much as he doth not resolve in the shape of a transparent liquor , but leaveth troubled or besmeared with colour ; all that he leaveth as unprofitable , to run down in hast : But that which is fully resolved , being fit for himself , he chooseth , retaineth , and suits with a conformity , draws it inwards , and entertains it within his own possession , being then stript of the inclination of every cream , and it borrows that inclination from the Archeus of the members that are to be nourished : But so much as the Archeus hath once despised , it is either a superfluity in it self , or it presently becomes such , for a repulse ; but whatsoever he hath once repelled , that he hopes will never be assumed again afterwards . Therefore it is manifest , that if meats are not changed into good venal blood , that happens through the vice of digestion , but not for the sake of any Tartar : for a more slow and delicate digestion doth loath all things , as it were with much huckstery , and reserveth but little to it self from much meat , though full of juyce ; but it despiseth the rest , being affrighted through the abundance , no otherwise than as being enraged by its own unaptnesse or drowsinesse : For I remember , that a cock being filled with wheaten bran , expelled the brans whole by excrement , without the floure of the meal ; but that he being by and by pressed with hunger , again ate up the ejected brans ; and in his second dung , that all the bran returned into a liquid excrement . Whence I have learned , that if any thing among the excrements doth appear lesse bruised , or changed , that is not from the vice of Tartar , but from the errour of the digestive faculty : VVherefore also I have conjectured , that manly age is lesse subject to wormes , than old age , or childhood is : For one onely bread in this is almost wholly reduced into blood , which in the other departs into an excrement . Likewise , the venal blood is made a bone , flesh , liver , gristle , &c. And it undergoes various hardenings , not for the sake of Tartar , but of the transchangeative virtue of the Archeus . Therefore finally , we are constrained or cannot admit of any Tartar in meats ; for that hath deceived Paracelsus , because he saw● yellowish stone to grow to the teeth , which although it neither had its like elsewhere in the body , nor abroad in the world , yet because it after some sort answered to the Stone in the bladder , in hardnesse , he rashly affirmed this stone of the teeth to be the Tartar of meats : moreover , to be the harder , by how much the neerer it should be to the meats , and mouth . Lastly , he thinking that nothing of a meaty Tartar did belong to the bladder , said , that the stones of the reins and bladder are onely the Tartars of drinks , not of meats : and to be fitly of that property , that it was the harder , by how much the farther it proceeded or went from the mouth . Surely an elegant devise , which he also imposed so much the harder on it , by how much the longer he persevered in it . For he plainly shewed therein , that he neither knew the original and matter of Tartar , nor of Stones in the kidneys or bladder , yea , nor of the stone of the teeth : And therefore he also hath rashly brought Tartar for to be the Father of any Diseases , which things surely are here more largely to be explained . First of all therefore , I will suppose ale or beer of the best and wholsomest water , ( to wit , rain-water , and refined from all suspition of Tartar ) and heavy , to be made strong , and to be drunk by one inclined into the disease of the Stone ; verily notwithstanding , this man shall not therefore be free from the Stone , because his drink hath nothing but a meaty matter , but not the Tartar of drinks . VVherefore if Paracelsus hath not dictated Fables , that Ale or Beer could never supply matter for a Stone : yea , the Tartar ( which he feigneth ) in comgrain , should lose its meatie property of coagulating it self afar off , and should assume the property of the Tartar of drink , by the onely coction of it self : and by consequence , that the same thing should happen unto bread baked with fire , as also to other meats ; and the aforesaid rule of Paracelsus should be onely for raw meats : So that he which eats onely boiled things , should not be apt for a Stone of the tooth : As if he who drinks pure distilled water , should not be subject to the Stone ! which thing Paracelsus himself denieth concerning Frederick the Emperour , abhorring Tartar : and he will also have drinkers to be subject to Tartarers , by pure water , and boyled , because water once boyled , easily putrisieth : therefore putrefaction , in respect whereof Tartars do decay , shall now be made the Mother of Tartar , which one onely thing otherwise , is wont to be the enemy of coagulated things : As if indeed decoctions , or the broths of fleshes , should either not be subject to putrifying ! or unwholesome , as being boyled ! or that Tartar in waters not boyled , were instead of a Balsam : why therefore doth Paracelsus prescribe preservatives to be chewed with every food , least the drink wax Tartary , if this hath lost its Tartar by boyling ? or if water shall suffer nothing by boyling , why doth he say that it is unwholesom ; soon putrifiable , and the cause of a stinking breath ? But if Urine be made of Drink , through a sufficient mixture of meats ; how therefore will it make the Stones of the reins and bladder out of the Tartar of drinks alone , and not likewise out of a promiscuous meaty Tartar ? Doth he perhaps intend to say , that none doth pisse solid meats ? But that is a folly , if it be spoken in earnest : But if he will have that to be a property to drink , that it makes Tartar so much the harder , by how much the father it shall be brought down ; yet then likewise he shall badly distinguish the Tartar of drinks against the Tartars of meats , seeing ( if there were any ) the Tartar of the meat should be as alike well immingled , as the Tartars bred in drinks : For what journey or delay should drink give to Tartar ? or what shall this obtain for its hardning by running down ? for truly the Stone is not coagulated by heat , course , or digestion , ( as shall be made manifest in its own place ) but from the seminal root of its own internal coagulation . Therefore it must needs be , that Tartar should lesse exactly inhere in meats , than in drink . First of all , Ale or Beer contradicteth this , which although it consist of a water not Tartarous , yet it begets Stones , and the stone of the teeth , no lesse than simple water . Secondly , waters do contradict , which in falling , do at any obvious thing presently wax stony , and so much the less , by how much the farther they shall decline from their Spring-head . VVherefore , seeing at the time of digestion , separations of superfluities do happen , which digestion doth want a flowing water ; Surely the drink should under the first narrow examination of digestion , put off every stone , and that which is most exceeding hard and sincere , and the Tartar should hang too loosely in meats , which by chewing onely as soon as may be , should fasten it self to the teeth , and should separate it self from the meats wherein-it had lurked before through so many circles of years , and metamorphoses of forms , in plants , beasts , milk , &c. But I pray , what separating faculty is there in the teeth , which through a naked , mill-like bruising of the meats , should not onely draw the Tartar out of meats in healthy persons , but also may be for the severing of the grosse from the fine , and the hard from that which is less soundly durable ? But if this do not happen by the severing and election of the Tartarous parts , then the whole meat should be of the same condition , and whatsoever is of the meats , all that should be suitably Tartarous : Thus far therefore God made death , and all things whatsoever he saw were not good . If all meats are Tartars and excrements , why likewise do not earthen pots of the Kitchin affix to the Tartar of the teeth , unto the thicknesse of some fingers ? and while it is stinking and smelling after the manner of the teeth ? For how shall the Tartar of meats being separated from the meats by biting , be able to be affixed in biting , if the teeth do cleanse and moisten themselves by biting ? yea , that Tartar should equally grow to all the teeth without exception , because all things do equally concur , to wit , the teeth , meat , and chewing . But many have their teeth free from being invaded by that stone ; for besides the Ethiopians , whose gums do end into a sharp point upon their tooth , these especially do not easily fasten a stone to then teeth . But on the contrary , whose bloody gums do swell , do end into an obtuse or blunt one , and are badly joyned to the teeth , such a stone is often co-heaped on them . Prince Radzvil tells , that he hath observed a thousand jaw-bones of dead Carcasses in Egypt , seasoned now for two thousand years with a mumial balsam : And that he found none whereunto a tooth was wanting , that was rotten ; or lastly , black : For such is the goodnesse of the Climate , for the teeth , and their brightnesse , which surely it punisheth another way ; because there is scarce a third man in the same place without bleareydnesse , or a notable vice of the eyes . Lastly , if such should be the property of the teeth , that it should separate such a Tartar from meats ; now the teeth of all should be altogether equally beset with stinking Tartar : And likewise if any co-chained order or row of teeth , and that deteined with the hand , should be led or held by bruised meats , even the meats with that order should be bruised as it were with a pest , and the row should be so much cleansed by washing , as one onely draught being profesly taken doth rince our teeth for us , yet never any stone should grow to those teeth , and much lesse that which should stink like a stone of the teeth , because it is that which makes the breath to stink . And then to him that hath a Fever , who eateth or cheweth nothing for four dayes space ; a muscilage is not therefore wanting to his teeth , which at length becomes a stone ; yea , he hath it more plentifully than one that is well in health . Therefore it is manifest , after what manner the muscilage becomming a stone first about the roots of the teeth , where they do appear without the gumme , can be the Tartar of , meats : and then , that meer drink should readily cause the same hardnesse which he feigneth to be proper to the Tartar of meats . Next , another who eareth nothing , and that drinketh by a cane through the defect of his mouth , palate , tongue , jawes , &c. and therefore cheweth nothing , and so touching not any nourishment with his teeth , yet he daily affixeth a stone to his teeth , no otherwise than he which eateth . Likewise , after every repast , although the mouth and teeth be exactly cleansed by washing , yet in the morning a new stone and stinking muscilage is conversant about the teeth , which at least could not have remained of the meat , and the which , if it should be the Tartar of meats , this should also be as often diverse , as there are interchangeable courses of meats ; which the Carthusians have , the same , and alike smelling , as the devourers of flesh have . Likewise they who are fed with simple bread , and apples , have it no otherwise than those who do eat bread , and likewise cheese ; Even those Irish , who live by Trifoil or three-leaved grasse ( which they call Ciambrock ) instead of bread and water : with the Norwayes , who are content with raw and dried fish ; all do agree in the same stone , except a few of a more happy disposition . Therefore it was a frivolovs thing to have founded the invention of Tartar for diseases , out of the Tartar of meats , by reason of the tooth-stone , which certainly in the first place doth not issue from a dreamed Microcosmical property ; because the Macrocosme shall never in chewing affix a stinking stone to its teeth . If therefore the stone be not from the Tartar of meats , neither surely shall it also be from the Tartar of drinks ; because seeing it is that which seldome toucheth at the teeth , it swiftly flowes thorow , and should sooner wash off the same Tartar , than apply it . Therefore I will shew from whence the tooth-stone may have its matter , and efficient cause ; Because it will afterwards as yet be certainly manifest , that the reasons of Tartar are vain . Therefore it is an undoubted truth , that the tongue is cloathed with a fimbrious or seamy coat like unto whole silk ; and if it shall wet any thing of the meat , or drink in the mouth , that this is conteined within those seams or hems , until they are filled up with the same moisture : Yet that is not any Tartar of the meats , or drinks , as if it were a coagulable body separated from that which is not coagulable ; but it is foundly the whole substance of the meat , which perhaps became wet by the spittle , and is deteined within that whole silk . And moreover , that filth being shaved off from the tongue , yet it doth not attain the hardnesse of a tooth-stone , with whatsoever lukewarmth it may at length wax dry : It stinks Indeed , yet not altogether , by reason of the cadaverous smell of the stone of the teeth : For if presently after feeding , the tongue be shaved or scraped with a file , or rubbed with a more course towel , in the morning indeed thou shalt again scrape off lesse muscilage , but not therefore lesse strongly smelling . The like thou shalt find concerning the teeth . Understand thou therefore , that this ballast of the tongue doth spring , not onely from the meats , but also from the spittle and superfluity of the tongue : For if the meat that is deteined in the hollow of a tooth , the same excrement whereof is drunk up in the coat of the tongue , hath remained there all night , it breatheth forth a far more stinking vapour , than the aforesaid shaved muscilage of the tongue : So also between the gums and the cheek-bone , how clean soever thou shalt wash thy mouth after supper , every morning a certain white muscilage is co-heaped , which being wiped off from thence by a towel , and dried on it , doth smell with a proper stink : Therefore by an oblique passing thorow the matter , I will give notice , that this muscilage of the tongue is the special cause of the difficulties arising in the jawes ; consequently also , those that are subject unto these evils , to have freed themselves by a frequent filing , or scratching , to wit , as after every meal or time of feeding , and in the morning , they do claw their tongue : For truly the tender and neighbour parts abhorring this muscilage , when it puttifieth , do wax wroth through a horrid contagion on themselves ; therefore they do kindle a thin inflammation , by reason of the presence of a guest that is a foreigner unto them . But that tooth-stone is not the son of the spittle or meats ; seeing neither , nor indeed both of them together , can ever be coagulated into such an hardnesse , and much lesse into a smell so stinking , infecting ten thousand times every day the whole air of a stinking mouth and breath . I have long since admired with my self , that a generation or birth , so frequent , strongly smelling , and manifest , hath remained unknown for so many Ages , and by so many wits of men : Therefore , as being afraid , I sighed ; what therefore would the Schools act about more abstruse or hidden things ! I will shew what the Mistris of things hath taught me : In the mouth nothing is conversant , besides spittle , meat , and drink : But the tooth-stone is of none of these , but in its first rise is like a white snivelliness , which on the morrow becomes of a pale-yellow colour : thence at length it growes to the teeth into the hardnesse of the Stone of the Bladder , from whose gums it begins to be of a clayish colour , and in the teeth oft-times manifest with black spots , yea , and makes the tooth to be rotten and black : So that the most hard and dry thing of the whole body , that is , the tooth , doth also most speedily putrifie . I have known indeed that the muscilage of meats , and the spittle , did grow together , but never into the consistence of a Stone . For which cause we must note , that the tooth is nourished , not onely in its bottom and root , but also side-wayes from the gums themselves ; gums themselves that are bloody , or lesse sound , are witnesses , which do not fitly to-here unto the teeth , because they forthwith from the beginning of their indisposition , do leave pits or little trenches at the tooth that is badly nourished , and do tinge the tooth with the blacknesse of their out-hunted venal blood . Then lastly also , because the tooth is of a most acute feeling under the gum , which out of it , it wanteth : Therefore in so great a livelinesse of sense , the tooth lives , and therefore also is nourished . Therefore the excrement of the gums , as it was of prepared venal blood , for the nourishing of the tooth ; so also it hath received some kind of limitation , or power , of a tooth-like hardnesse : Which excrement surely of the teeth , when as it hath drunk up the muckinesse of the meats and drink , it straightway also hastens to harden unto its appointed hardnesse . For that which I have said in my Book of the Disease of the Stone , concerning the stony seed , and so of petrescency or the manner of making in stones ; that also not incongruously doth totally agree to the tooth , for the framing of a tooth-like Stone : For it once received the Seal of a Cream , and Seed of a Stone making for the tooth , the which , although it were already made a superfluity , it as yet reteined ; not indeed , that it might therefore be Tartar , but from the determination of the Archeus , whereby it had been already appointed for the making of a tooth . But a spear-like gum is there a sign of the most perfect health , or foundnesse , and therefore it scarce createth a tooth-stone : For the gum co-touching with the tooth , even unto the end of it , doth not admit the tooth to bring forth excrements , but preserveth the tooth : Even as a tooth being bared of gums , doth easily ake , doth putrifie , and affix a Stone : For the eyes do weep forth a Liquor , which in the morning in the eye-lids , looks like Amber , and the which by the Germans is for this cause by way of similitude , called [ Augstine ] or Austine . But the excrement of the eares , like unto a yellow Oyntment , is a great comfort in the pricking of the sinews : therefore it hath not been an unaccustomed thing for the teeth to produce an excrement , and this a strong smelling Carcase resolved out of stinking bloud : For the muckiness cast on the tongue from the meats , is dried , neither doth it wax stony , unless it shall be admixt with an excrement which doth unsensibly break forth between the tooth and the gum : For as that is the excrement of the tooth , it had drawn a limitation of hardness from the beginning : And so it being grown to the tooth , it deceives with the shew of a stony crust . I have observed also a tooth to grow even unto the fortieth year , with a true growth : For that which is opposed to the tooth pulled out , through the penury of attrition or grinding , doth exceed its own rank , and enters into the opposite rank , even unto the aforesaid terme : therefore a tooth , after it ceaseth to grow , scarce wanteth nourishment , or but little ( because it is a substance scarce capable of diflation or blowing away ) ; then therefore the gum is fruitful in more superfluity , snatcheth somewhat more of nourishment , becomes bloudy , and being swollen , is presently lessened , and becomes as it were rotten : For from hence is there often tooth-ach , rottenness , hollowness , and putrifying , especially in those whom a little after due season , they do in youth suspend their growth : therefore the teeth , as they do live in a peculiar Family-administration , so also they have their own ages , which I thus remarkably distinguish . For the tooth which after a mans eighth year doth shew forth the clearness of dark or thick Glasse ( which from the colour of Milk , Artificors call Lattime ) or of a Snail-shelt , is a young one ; It is a white Colour , bright and polished : And then by degrees it waxeth pale : presently afterwards it becomes dully white , as it were Ivory ; It is the youth of the Tooth : Then afterwards it becomes obscurely pale , as is seen in those who swoon , & in deceased Virgins ; And this is its manly Age : And at length it waxeth palely yellow like a bone , and looseth its former brightness ; Then doth the old age of a Tooth begin : For so much as a gristle differs from a membrane ; but the Tooth-ach is frequent , while the Gum decreaseth , and the Tooth is of a bony Colour : But last of all , a rotten , hollow , black , wormy and strong smelling Tooth , is the frail or declining age of that Tooth : therefore cold is an enemy to the Teeth . For it hastens their old Age : the greyness of hairs doth argue the old Age of the same , even besides the old Age of the man , and one hair waxeth grey long before another : So also one Tooth waxeth old before another : whence it is plain , thas every Tooth doth live in his own quarter . Southern people have brighter Teeth than Northern ; because they enjoy a more bountiful Air for the Teeth : the Teeth of Children before the seventh year of Age , do easily feel rottenness , because they are driven out of their ditch by another growing up , are deprived of nourishment , and loaded with a Tooth-like excrement : therefore the hurting , or anointing of the Teeth is to be esteeme● 〈…〉 the annoyance of the Gums : to wit , from the plurality , and bruitishness of 〈…〉 : No otherwise than as the Brain being hurt , doth heap up very much muck , 〈…〉 other part being discommodated , many dregs ; so the Teeth and the nourishing parts of these , if they are hurt , do thrust forth not a little of a stony , and stinking superfluity : But because that excrement is not so much the superfluity of meats , as the excrement of man ; therefore all Nations have very equally a stinking Tooth-stone , which doth circumvent Paraceljus , and hath increased the suspition of Tartar in us . Hence therefore it is manifest , why of the same Urine , the same stone doth first grow together a● brickle , in the Reins ; and afterwards in the Bladder is most exceeding hard : not-indeed , because there is Tartar in the Urine , which by how much the farther it slides down , by so much it is the harder : that is a childish thing : But surely every stonyfiable juyce hath its own determined , and not a forreign hardness , from the virtue of its own seed : For this juyce being oft-times mixt with a matter not becoming a Stone , waxeth greatly hard : Suppose though Rie meal doth not become a Stone ; but being at length resolved into dung , it fails in rottenness or a worm : Notwithstanding , if it be joyned to Lime which is conjoyned with its Saud , it affords a stony , and not perishing Morter : So likewise the Bladder at the time of the Stone being its guest , weeping out the muckiness of its own nourishment , doth also co-mingle it with the stonifying juyce of its Urine , affords a hard Stone to the Bladder far different from the Disease of the Stone of the Kidneys . Wherefore the Reins also being vexed with a Stone of long continuance , do no longer produce a reddish and sandy Stone ; but a whitish and hard one : to wit , when the Superficies of the substance of the Kidneys being wasted , the fibrous parts , and seedy or spermatical stuffe or threds do supply a white co-like muckiness , from a spermatick alimentary juyce : wherein , it hath no lesse been erred hitherto , than if thou shalt say , that Rie meal is of it self stony , which borrowes that from an adjunct , which it had not from it self : therefore the Muscilage in the Stone , is not phlegme ; but a spermatick nourishment separated under the burden , being not of it self stonifyable , but onely by its adjunct : For thus in distinguishing causes by themselves , from causes by accident , sufficient ones from co-assisting ones , primitive causes from transplanted or derived ones , we come down to the knowledge of the thing . For Paracelsus doth for the most part ascribe the hardness of Bodies unto feigned Tartars , but elsewhere , all hardness to be from Salt or from one of the three things : However , both together cannot stand , seeing one of the three first things doth not subsist as a Beginning , nor without the fire : Also if it should subsist , it should differ from Tartar , as it were a principiating material cause from a formal effect . So I have sufficiently and over-proved , that neither of them is true : For it hath hitherto been unknown , that all Bodies are materially of water onely . Indeed Paracelsus had seen Mettals , and Wood to stonifie , and to be immediately reduced into a Salt ; yet he knew not that the hardness of things , as also their solidity , compactedness , and weight , is not from the nature of his thorowly taught principles ( because they are those things which are demonstrated to be non-beings in the nature of principiating ) as neither from a material virtue elementarily ; but onely from the appointment of the Seeds . Therefore I collect two things ; one is , that Paracelsus is unconstant to himself touching the Coagulum or curd of Bodies , and concerning Tartars : But the other is , that the Maxim of Aristotle falls to the ground ; That for which every thing is such , that thing it self is more such : For although hardness do proceed from the Seed , and its appointments , the Seeds ought not therefore to be harder than the things constituted : For the Archeus , which disposeth the bones to their hardness , is not therefore harder than the bones : yea neither are the means directed to the end , more hard , solid , or compacted than the things constituted : For Aristotle being readily inclined unto Maxims , brought over his experiences from artificial things into nature : therefore hath he every where slid in nature , because he being wholly ignorant of nature , doth miserably quarrel . CHAP. XXXIII . Tartar is not in drink . 1. Some suppositions proved before . 2. That Tartarers are not in things constituted . 3. Three Monarchies of things , whence a threefold stone . 4. It far differs from the Tartar of Wine . 5. The Stone in man is made from errour , but not from the intention of Nature . 6. An Argument from the like , is not of value . 7. Some Arguments taking away Tartar out of drink . 8. An opposite Argument . 9. The rashness or heedlesness of the Schools . 10. Two Histories . 11. The boastings of Paracelsus . 12. The swellings in the neck or Kings-Evill , are not from Tartar. 13. Wine is innocent of humane Tartar. 14. Whether stony or Rockie waters do contain Tartar. 15. Whence there are Strumaes or swellings in mans neck , and not in that of Bruits . 16. A Remedy against those swellings . 17. A Remedy against Scirrus's , and swelling pimples in the face . 18. A preoccupation or prevention . 19. A distinction by a Maxim. VVHatsoever Arguments do take away Tartar out of Meats , are like premises in this place : But seeing waters do immediately wax stony , the proposition is to be confirmed by a stronger Engine . In the first place , I have taught , that every Stone is immediately the Son of water , but not of Tartar : And then , that the concretion or growing together of every Body is from the Seed , but not from the Law of Tartar. Thirdly , that the concretion appointed by the Seed , is from the integrity of nature , and so from the gift of Creation ; but not from Tartar , which according to Paracelsus , is nothing but the excrement of a thing . But a natural product is of its Mother matter , but not of a step-mother ; and moreover of a seminal or efficient beginning , in which , all the figures , Idea's , and knowledges of things to be done , are . At length , the Types or figures of Tartars are not in things by Creation , framed for our destruction , as neither a Medicine of destruction in the Earth : what therefore doth it make to the introducing of the nature of Tartat into Diseases , that a stone is the fruit of water , if the condition of Tartar be not in a stone ? Or that Tartar is the fruit of Wine , if there be no such thing in other things ? For what doth it prejudice nature , if the phantasie deluding a Stone external , or the Stone internal with a name , shall call it Tartar ? And he weakly enough , and without proof affirmeth , that Stones , and every solid Body do mutually agree with Tartar of Wine in every property ? For truly that his own assertion is free , without truth and probability : For the Stone in us is generated by another seed , mean , and progress , than Tartar out of Wine , or a Stone out of water , are : To wit , there are three Monarchies of Bodies in the Universe ; the Animal , Vegetable , and Mineral : therefore there is a threefold Stone , and that distinct in the whole Monarchy : For a Mineral Stone differs from the Case of the Kernel of Medlers , Peachies , &c. and both these again from the Stone of Crabs , Bezoar , Snall-shels , Fish-stones , the Stone of Man , &c. Again , those three Stones do also far differ from the Tartar of Wine , which is not to be reckoned among Stones , seeing it is the concreted Liquor of a Salt : For a Mineral is either a Rockie Stone , which may be turned into Lime ; or a small Stone , which is not calcined , as Gems , Marbles , Flints : But both are now concluded in one onely name of Petra or a Rock : But a Vegetable Stone , seeing it is burnable , as the Jeat or Agath , otherwise also , Mineral Sulphurous Stones , it is rather a knotty Wood , than a Rockie Stone : But an Animal Stone is rather a stony bone ( because it is partly burnt ) than a Rockie Stone . Also for distinction of the stone of man from other stones , that is by Paracelsus called Duelech : Because rockie stones , as well the mineral as vegetable ones , are fruits , natural , necessary , and of the first intention in creating : But Duelech is onely a Disease , and like to a monster : But in other enli●ened Creatures , the stone hath obtained a profitable appointment . Whence it is made manifest , that although waters do beget a Rockie stone ; yet that they do not therefore follow the essence , seed , and manner of generation out of the Tartar of Wine : For Duelech after sin , doth from a diseasie excrement , but not from the intention of nature , nor from a Rockie or tartarous matter , but by accident , to wit , through the errour of the faculty , breed a diseasie seed , through the necessity of a connexed agent : wherefore I do not admit of Tartar rather in drink than in meat ; but if it be potentially in Wine , that comes to passe by the necessity of a connexed agent , and by accident ; neither can it have place of exercising forces , or actuating in us , to wit , that by a power , a potential Tartar may be actuated in us ; and therefore I do not admit of a tartarous generation in drink , appointed by God for our destruction : for what if bones are found in the flesh , and the seeds of a Mineral Rock are stablished in the waters , shall therefore the seed and immediate matter of bones be in Fountains ? or the seed of a Mineral Rock , and its immediate matter , be in the flesh , or venal bloud ? If not in the venal bloud , then neither therefore in drink and meat : For death is not the handy-work of God : And God saw that whatsoever things he had made , they were good ; as well in his own intention of goodness , as in the essence of the Creature : Therefore there is no matter in the waters , which was created to stir up the Tragedy of Tartar , or a Duelech in us . Moreover , if there be any evil now , or that may come to passe among the digestions , surely that is not from the Creation , appointment , property , efficient of matter , and the finall intention of the Creator ; but doth issue wholly from our errour , and the corruption of nature : Indeed such things do happen through a received importunity of forreign seeds , a defectuous transmutation of nourishable things , or a not sufficient severe expulsion of hurtful things . Tartar fore-existing , and being solved in the drink , if it were so , verily it should by its appointment presently wax corrupt in us , before digestions , putrefactions , and resolutions , neither should it expect the counsels of coagulating into the last passage of the Urine : And the same should rather stonifie equally in all : Notwithstanding , seeing the stone doth not grow up in the drink , but onely in the excrements , by the admission of the Salt of the Urine , and the assistance of other co-workers ( even as abundantly in my Book of the Disease of the stone ) it is presumed , that Duelech doth not consist of a fore-existing Tartar of the drink ; which is made plain by a Handicraft resolving thereof in the fire : For Duelech being distilled , the Glasse-vessels also being shut , doth produce a stinking Oyl , lastly , the Spirit , and Chrystals of the salt of the Urine , being such kinde of things as are allured out of mans Urine by distilling : For it is certain , that the stomach , bowels , veins , Liver , and kidneys , do not generate Duelech or the stone in man , of their own nature , much lesse do they continue the same , and as yet much lesse of a prepared and fore-existing Tartar in drinks : For else all likewise which do generate mans Urine , and in any man without exception , no otherwise than as little stones do grow in Crabs without exception , should procreate Duelech : But Duelech doth wax stony from a seed , being at length generated in the Urine by a transmutation of a matter : That seed is so prevalent , that although one subject to the stone , drink nothing but distilled water , he should not therefore cease to generate Duelech . But they say , red Wines do generate very much sand in those subject to the stone , therefore they do contain a sandy Tartar : therefore not onely in those subject to the stone , but in all altogether , they should bewray a Sand ; but seeing that thing happens onely in defectuous persons , hence it is made manifest , that the sand is not made by way of matter , but some other way : For truly the stomach of those that are defectuous , should separate the sands before they should come down to the kidneys . The ignorance of the Schools hath arisen from hence , that they know not , or do not thorowly weigh , that many things are made by transmutation , which were no way materially within : For truly , none but a ridiculous man will say , that bones are in grasse : This dispute will cease , when I shall shew that Duelech is formed of things far estranged from coagulation : for neither doth it follow ; some Wines do contain more of the spirit of Urine , or of a volatile Earth ; therefore they contain the stone Tartar , or therefore the Tartar of Wine doth materially generate the stone of man by its separation of it self . Ginger brings forth much sweat , therefore Ginger containeth very much sweat materially : For the Schools do give their judgement after a rustical manner concerning the things of Nature , not knowing , that many things are brought to passe by the endeavour of the Efficient of transmutation , I say , by the seed of the thing coagulating , and at the time of the Operater's transchanging : which works are never due to matter , nor to their heats , and feigned combates of the Elements . For I have seen two that were Twins , educated also by the same Nurse , and meats , the elder whereof was subject to the stone , the younger not so : for the milk did contain no more of Tar●●r the one , than for the other . Likewise the Childe of a certain Governour or chief Ruler , being born of two healthy Parents , had three healthy Brothers and Sisters before him ; but being nourished onely three moneths by a Nurse that had the stone , he underwent Lithotomy or cutting for the stone , once at seven years , and then again at ten , and thirdly , two years after ; and the last time , he gave up the Ghost under the knife : these two Histories at least , happened not from the coming of a forreign Tartar. Seeing therefore there is not matter , existence , truth , knowledge , necessity , or consequence in things taken , which may square themselves unto Tartar ; Paracelsus hath to braggingly boasted , that he first found out every cause of Diseases , that he was the chief Monarch of Secrets and Medicine , and that by this his own invention , he hath accused others of ignorance : But moreover also , that he did discern by the Tartars of Countries , to what Diseases the Inhabitants were subject : For if there never were Tartar either by creation , or from the curse , which may be the original of Diseases ; surely its a frivolous thing , that he hath searched into the same by distilling , and hath found that which never was . Indeed he had seen great stones to be generated in the bottom of waters : Also that in Stiria , Subaudia , Valesia , horrible Strumaes or swellings in the neck , did with a miserable spectacle , deform the shape of man : And he being deceived , hence he concluded , that from the Tartar of waters , there were stones , Strumaes , and consequently every stopping thing : For he was badly ignorant , and that for the destruction of his followers , that all things do arise from seminal Agents , and that it is granted to them to bring over the matters subjected unto them , according to the appointments and ends of the seeds : For indeed although some drink be more hurtful to those that have the stone ; yet that is neither Tartar , nor doth it from hence contain it , neither is any thing of the form of Tartar co-thickned into Duelech ( as I have taught in its place ) but it is the work of that which operates , whatsoever is in the waters , by an actual seed , unto a Rockie Stone or Bole. But if there be any thing in Wine , it shall be as to the Lee , by it self , but as to Tartar by accident ; but not as to Duelech : For thou shalt ask in vain , whether waters in distilling , are potentially made a Rockie stone : For Rivers and Springs do teach that without labour and expences : But of Wine , a Rockie stone , or Tartar is never made , & much lesse Duelech : neither shall also the plurality of Lees or dregs accuse Tartar : as neither the stone : Because Duelech is of another Family than Tartar : Hence , by how much the richer vvines are , in Tartar , they ought to be so much the more healthful against Duelech , if Tartar , otherwise , be given to drink for the cleansing of filths . I agree indeed , that Rockie waters are of a wild disposition , of a mineral condition , and the causers of undigestions , as they do contain strange or forreign things : But they do not therefore materially contain Duelech in them , altbough they do occasionally destroy digestion , do imprint a rockie middle life : whence the enfeebled vegetative faculty of man puts on that wild inclination : But that makes nothing for the Author of Tartars : For truly , it is a far different thing to be made stony occasionally , from a stonifying virtue of the middle life of things , imprintingly and sealingly introduced into the Archeus : and to be made to have the stone from Tartar melted and resolved in waters , which at length in the period of dayes , may re-assume its former coagulation in the drinker : For this latter to be in Nature , I deny : but the former I affirm to be among ordinary effects . But as concerning Strumaes or Kings-Evil-swellings in the Neck , and swelling pimples in the face , many think that they proceed from mineral waters being drunk ; also Paracelsus , from the use of waters of an evil juyce or disposition : But I could wish according to the mans own Doctrine , that he may shew by the fire those evil juyces in waters , whose property it is to be coagulated onely in our last digestion , nor elsewhere than about the neck or throat-bone : But I know that he never found in waters such a Tartar : Therefore he may be condemned by his own Law , wherein he gives a caution , that none is to be believed , but so far as he is able to demonstrate that thing by the fire . I confess indeed that there is in the water a middle life , whose property it is to stir up the Archeus , and to infect it in the exchanging of good nourishment ( but not of a forreign Tartar existing in it materially ) into a Rockie hardness : But unto Strumaes a matter is required , which by the property of its own Archeus , may be bred to stop up our jawes , and as it were to strangle us , and that without the tast of astriction , or an earthly sharpness or harshness ( for otherwise this tast sticking fast in the bosom of the matter , being ripened by the first digestion , dieth ) and which being transchanged into nourishment , and retaining the antient virtues of the middle life , performs its power more about the throat , than elsewhere : which power being left to it by an heredicary right , in nourishments , and from hence in the venal bloud , doth convert the nearest nourishment of solid Bodies into a Rockie excrement , which goes unto the throat by a strangling faculty of the directer . And I narrowly examining that thing in Germany , have found Mushromes to be strong in the aforesaid poyson of strangling ; and that those do often grow out of the Root of a Fountain the Fir-tree , and Pine-trees , in steep Rocks , toward the North , where black Agarick , an Heir of the same crime , is often in the Trunk or Stem . I have learned therefore , that the whole Leffas or Planty juyce of the Earth is there defiled with a Mushromy disposition : Therefore I have believed that hard swellings of the Neck are bred by the use of Herbs and waters , which have drunk in this sort of Leffas . Furthermore , that an Archeal power of the middle life in things , doth beget Strumaes , but not a reviving ill juycy Tartar of the water , the thing it self doth speak : For otherwise , a Struma should bewray it self no lesse in the bottom of the Belly and Liver , nor more slowly , than in the throat . For River or ill juicy waters do not respect the throat , nor should promise so great hardness : Not surely should the hard swelling of the neck or throat dissolve by an astrictive and earthy Remedy , whereby I have many times seen very great Strumaes or hard swellings of the Neck to have vanished away in one onely month , and the strangling suddenly brought on people by a poysonous Mushrome , to be cured : which Remedy is on this wise . Take of Sea-Sponge burnt up into a Coal , 3 ounces ; of the bone of the Fish Sepia burnt , long Pepper . Ginger , Pellitory of Spain , Gauls , Sal gemmae , calcined Egg-shels , of each 1 ounce , mix them with the stilled water of the aforesaid Spongei , and let it be dried up by degrees . Take of this Powder half a dram , with half an ounce of Sugar , the Moon decreasing , that it being melted by degrees , may be swallowed : Or make a Lincture or Lohoch . It shall also disperse Botium or the swelling pimp●● in the face . Others for want of the Sponge , did take the hairy excrescency growing on wild Rose-Trees , very like to the outward Rhine of the Chesnut , rough , and briery or hairy : the powder of which alone , they did use succesfully . Likewise I have used an unction in Strumaes , and Schirrus's ; Of Oyl of Bay ( not adulterated by Hogs-grease ) 8 ounces , of Olibanum , Mastich , Gum Arabick , Rosin of the Fir-tree , of each 3 ounces ; distil them , then distil them again with Pot-Ashes . If therefore the hard swelling of the Neck , or a hard Scirrhus elsewhere , should grow together from a forreign Tartar , it should rather wax hard by hot Remedies , neither should it be so easily dissolved : Therefore the Struma is a defect of the Archeus the transchanger , and not through the coagulation of Tartar : even as concerning Duelech or the stone in man , I have more clearly and abundantly demonstrated : For the Archeus transchangeth every masse subjected unto him , unless being overcome by a more powerful middle life , he shall give place : Therefore the Strama is of good venal bloud , on which , a strangling power of the middle life is felt . And Botium or the swelling pimple of the face , a remedy being taken , perisheth , which is not for dissolving a Rockie matter , if it were of Tartar brought over thither : otherwise , it is altogether impossible that Tartar ( if there should be any ) should conceive a breathing hole of our life , be made lively , be co-sitted to the members , and be admitted inwards unto the last digestion , & conceive a ferment of the Arterial bloud , but to be discussed or blown away by an unsensible transpiration ; as also Schirrhus's bred of vital venal bloud , the aforesaid Remedy being administred . But besides , the contention is not about the Asses shadow : for truly it is not all one to have denied Tartar to be materially in meats and drinks , and likewise to remain throughout the shops of the digestions , and therefore at length to be coagulated in miserable men ; and it is far remote from thence , to admit of a thing in us , to be transchanged out of a good Cream , Chyle , or venal bloud , into an evil one , by virtue of the middle life transplanting the directions of the Archeus : For as there is one order of generation ; so also is there every where another of fore-caution , and healing : Therefore there is no foundation , truth , appearance , or necessity of tartarizing : For which way doth it conduce , to devise Tartar to be the stubborn Prince of coagulations , which oweth his Birth to a fiction ? For truly the dispositions , coagulations , and resolutions of things do depend on their own Seeds . Duelech is made no lesse of the purest meats and drinks , than of those lesse exact , if the middle life do badly season the Archeus . And then , which way is it convenient , to render meats and drinks which the Lord hath judged good , infamous through a tartatous treachery ? I suppose indeed , that it was invented by Tartar Hell , or the Infernal , when Satan did now conjecture , that there would speedily be a banishment of Humours out of the Schools of Medicine . And indeed , seeing every thing is dissolved by the bursting of the bonds which tie the same , it helpeth to have admonished , that coagulated things are not made in us by drying up ( the gowty Chalk excepted ) ; neither by Tartar privily existing in us : surely much lesse from a stony and limy condition of the Microcosme : For that Chalk after the attained thickness of the Sunovie or degenerated spermatick Muscilage , is afterwards by degrees dried up : Even as elsewhere concerning the Gout . After another manner , even as any Schirrhous thing , and likewise a bole , clay , muckinesse , sand , and Duelech , are in their beginning coagulated and resolved by seminal beginnings , and are far otherwise solved and coagulated , than if a stubborn and unchangeable Tartar of any kind of things , had of its own free accord yielded a foreign curd in us . It is a Sophistication , to have accused not the cause , for a cause , or to have neglected the cause , as not the cause , which Sophistry , if it be wont any where to bring on great straights : surely in healing , as great as may be , full of dangers of life , and damnation , as also of dammages : For one doth well digest , and difficulty separate , but another doth successfully expell , and troublesomely digest . Lastly , a third doth briefly digest and cause meking ; but doth vitiously transchange for himself under the command of a foreign seed . Therefore it is one thing to chastize a forreign impression of the middle life ( which consisteth in the concretion or growing together of the thing digested ) & it is another thing to expel or separate that which else being retained , would hurt . And that is contained by dissolving and expelling . Finally , if there should be any Tartar in things taken into the body , ending at length into a stubborn coagulation , which it had treacheroufly brought inward with it , it should every where even contain a desperation of healing : And in this respect a medicine of destruction in the earth had been framed in nature from the beginning by the Lord of things . Last of all , Tartar is not in meats , as neither in meaty drinks ; but in the water there is indeed a seed of small stones , but that Stone is no more Tartar , than a rocky stone is bread : wherefore also from a stonifying Seed , the presence , or power of Tartar can in no wise be concluded . Likewise , although in superfluities or degenerated venal blood , there be a power unto a Duelech or Schirrhus , yet not unto Tartar ; and much lesse that there is Tartar naturally as well in the blood , as in superfluous excrements : For whatsoever is bred by accident from a foreign and estranged seed , and by a Metaphor , by reason of its coagulation , is likened unto Salt coagulated in wines , is onely by an abusive alienation called back unto Tartar : For Nature hateth metaphorical and poetical liberties . Therefore Tartar is not the internal occasional matter of diseases . CHAP. XLIV . An erring watchman , or a wandering keeper . 1. The Schools nod or doubt concerning the four humours . 2. The Authours repentance . 3. A Position , with proofs . 4. What muck or snivel is , and in what sheath it is generated . 5. Who the keeper in the terms proposed may be . 6. The unexcusable necessities of the keeper , hitherto unknown . 7. It is proved , that snivel is not the excrement of the Brain . 8. The brain is from thence concluded to be most miserable . 9. The vanity of Diseases dedicated to a Catarrhe or Rheume . 10. Snivel is not made of venal blood . 11. An argument from a like suitable thing . 12. From the Pose , or distillation of the head . 13. From the likenesse of the other Bowels . 14. From the supposed doctrine of the Schools . 15. From the identity or samelinesse of the Archeus . 16. From Anatomy . 17. From an absurdity . 18. From the necessity of stoppage . 19. From the constitution of the brain . 20. From its scope or aime . 21. From experience . 22. The rashnesse or heedlessnesse of the Schools in a matter of so great moment , and so plain , is taken notice of . 23. That the excrement of the Ears is brought forth by a vapour . 24. A necessity of watchmen or keepers . 25. It is proved by the Pose . 26. By Hoarsnesse . 27. By Coughs . 28. The Keeper is an unheard of power . 29. The Schools thought both powers to be a certain distemper , even in healthy persons . 30. A diversity from other powers is proved . 31. The testimonies of the keepers . 32. A stuffing in the head , or descending Rheume is never healthy . 33. The Cough is examined . 34. A wandring keeper . 35. A dry Cough . 36. The difficulty of curing , from whence it is . 37. The Remedies are taken notice of . 38. The rashnesse of the Schools . 39. Remedies out of Sulphur . 40. A twofold Asthma or difficulty of breathing . 41. The difficulties of healing . 42. The use of the Keeper . 43. The erring Watchman of the wind-pipe is the more destructive one . 44. Snivel differs from a spitting by reaching . 45. That the Keeper differs from the other Faculties in the brain . 46. That the Diaphragma or Midriff is pory . THe Schools pointing with the finger at the muck or snivel from the Brain , and the spittle of Coughs , have said , Behold , Phlegm is one of the four constitutive humours of us . And afterwards they alwayes subscribed to themselves . That boldnesse in wantonizing increased , being confirmed by the prescriptions of so many ages , and subscribed authorities of Schools : As if the brain had consumed the three other supposed and feigned humours for the nourishment of it self , Phlegm onely being excluded , although most like to it self , and otherwise , according to the minde of Galen , most fit to be totally transchanged into venal blood . Also sometimes the Doctrines of the four Humours being forgotten , they have sent away the same muck or snivel , no longer as a Phlegm , or a snivelly Phlegm , but as a superfluity of the brain , being as it were a banished enemy , a superfluity resulting from digestion . It hath deservedly shamed them of that their own Doctrine , because they have acknowledged snivel to be an excrement of the last digestion , but not any longer a humour produced in the Liver , as it were one part of four of venal blood : For an excrement resisteth a vital humour . Therefore they do oftentimes nod , and stagger , and doubt again , while they do promiscuously point out a snivelly man , ( to wit , from that dung and diseasie affect ) to be Phlegmatick , and afterwards they thereby measure and divine of his strength , wit , manners , and fortunes . In the mean time , the Beginnings of the Schools are unfortunate , which from an excrement known to themselves , do denominate the essence , existence , properties of phlegm , of Elements , and the constitutive humours of us : For the phlegm which about the beginning of a pose , doth rain down out of the Nostrils watery ( as they say ) and thin , after some dayes is made thicker , and yellow , because it is thickned by a daily cocture of heat : As if perhaps for full forty years , without the corruption of it self , the Scull being empty , it had exspected a thickning as its chiefest good ? nor otherwise being more thin , should it finde chinks enough for utterance ! These dreams do not deserve reproof by Argument , unless by a serious credulity , they had translated the method of healing into the destruction of mortalls . I confess indeed , that at the time of my young beginnings , I believed , that snivel , if it arose not from one of the four Humours , at leastwise , that it was an excrement of the digestion of the brain : But afterwards , through a more liberal diligent search , I declining from the Schools , began to observe , that in Summer I seldom cleanse my Nose , but in Winter very often : Notwithstanding in either station , I through the Grace of God , do enjoy a brain and its fruitfulnesses or operations , alike strong at both seasons : For I moreover considered , that my Winter venal bloud is alike lively with that which I make or digest in Summer : ( For the life according to the holy Scriptures is placed in the Arterial bloud ) and that the digestion as well of my brain , as of my other parts , is alike wholesom , because compleat : which things should not be on such a manner , if the brain should daily draw out at least four ounces of an excrement , and therefore sixteen ounces of venal bloud , for the onely nourishment of it self , and the abundance of so great a quantity of phlegm ( to wit , besides that which hath remained in the nourished Body for a pledge of nourishment ) which ounces , it should otherwise in Summer leave in the venal bloud : Or if they do suppose that to be made by a more exact digestion of the brain : or if they had rather to have the brain , by reason of the injury of a Winter Air , to be badly disposed ; and which way soever it be taken , the snivel must needs be caused at least from some indisposition : therefore not from the abundance of phlegm , and so from the vice of the Liver , as neither from a more exquisite separation of vvinter phlegm , and the neglect of Summer phlegm . Neither in the next place doth that indisposition happen through the vice of the brain , as not of the venal bloud : For that resisteth the position proposed . Therefore that very thing doth spring from elsewhere : For if those superfluities should remain in the venal bloud , or brain , in Summer-time , which are otherwise , expelled in Winter ; a place should be wanting for the entertainment of the phlegm which was collected in the whole Summer . Hence I lay it down for a position ; that the snivel of the nostrils is more watery , and plentiful , and therefore there is a continual cleansing of the same in winter , but not in Summer : whence it followes , that that thing is caused by reason of an untemperate Station : which if it doth occasionally hurt the digestion of the brain , that shall be , either throughout the whole brain , or in its lower plain , whereby the cold strikes : If it be offensive throughout the whole brain , all the functions of the brain should be hurt together with it , the imagination , the discourse , &c. which is false : For it should denote a superiority of the encompassing Air over the Spirit , the Fountain and Ruler of all Functions : And then the snivel ought to be made , and to descend from all the intimate , connexed , and least particles of the brain , and not onely from those which may immediately be shaken by the entring Air. Whence it is manifest , that snivel is onely an excrement of the lower parts of the brain , degenerated from the totality or wholeness of its nourishment , before it could nourish : But that it is not an excrement surviving from the last digestion , which they affirm to be dispersed in manner of a dew , by the least pieces , into the solid parts : For this also doth equally exhale in manner of a vapour , no lesse from the brain , than from the whole Body . If therefore snivel be naturally stirred up by external occasional causes , and hurtful seasons , and hath its effective cause about the plain of the brain , which way it toucheth the Air , but not from cold ; for that would sound that the brain were conquered , overcome , and its powers as it were extinct ; therefore the matter of snivel ( which I shall teach in its place , to be the matter of the Liquor Latex , and also of nourishment ) is converted for a good and ordinary end : which conversion of that matter , seeing it is natural , is extended as it were a Coat of Mail on the part stricken by cold . And seeing the matter is vitiated through the injury of the Air , surely it doth not adhere , but doth distil a continual drop of water : Therefore I call this effective power of snivel , the Keeper : which thing , to have thus now supposed , let it be sufficient . Furthermore , the the excrements of the Paunch , and Bladder , are indeed the superfluities of the whole Body , and of the parts wherein they are made and do grow , they being superfluous and unprofitable , from within themselves : But sweat , and an unsensible eflux , are superfluities now made in the last digestion , and expelled after the utmost discharging of their ends . But snivel is of a neither kinde : For it is made by the Keeper onely , provoked indeed ; but he is that , which that he may defend and oversmear the part , doth thus change the more crude juyce , and also the venal bloud ; and that changing of the same is plainly natural , ordained to a good end , as long as it ariseth from a well appointed keeper . Truly I do also greatly wonder at the drowsiness of the Schools for so many Ages : That because they saw the snivel to distil thorow the Nostrils , therefore they suddenly by an undoubted Statute , decreed , that the same was nothing else besides the excrement of the brain : yea whatsoever is thrust forth by spitting and cough ( because the likeness of Colours deceived their eyes ) they dictated it to be nothing but a descending excrement of the brain : For neither have they once by the way enquired ; If it be an excrement of the brain ; therefore it ought to be the remainder of the last digestion : when indeed the Arterial bloud , after that it is made a nourishable humour , and distributed in manner of a dew , throughout the equal masse of the brain , should not indeed be consumed in the same place , although now first being assimilated to the substance of the brain , and being expelled , should depart thorow the pores without any remainder of it self , by an unsensible transpiration , but altogether by a diverse or strange kinde of defilement , after that it had put on the condition of a spermatick muckiness ( for we are nourished of those things whereof we consist ) the snivel being as it were recalled from the remote windings of diversity of kinde , and being collected at length into its Cup-board , nigh the Nostrils , should be expelled : For they which touching at the uses of parts , have so greatly provoked themselves to the Gummy Itch of a well-pleasing laughter , have not indeed once touched at what should be the cause of so great an abuse in this digestion . Because , if an excrement be a superfluous part of digestion : should an old man consume more Arterial bloud in his brain ( because he cleanseth out more excrement ) than while he was young ? Is therefore the Arterial bloud being now half cocted , and vital , then at length corrupted into a similar substance of Sperme ? And being thereby on every side recalled from the remote or far scattered places of the brain , is it also collected by the least Atoms of Reliques ? Are these things thus daily performed in healthy persons ? and is an estranged corruption of the Arterial bloud , together with the enjoyment of health ? wherefore hath not the same thing happened to the rest of the bowels , which hath happened to the head ? what if three ounces of snivel be daily expunged , hath there happily remained a tenfold quantity of good bloud ( to wit , forty ounces for the brain , and as many at least for the other parts ) that it may there be co-sprinkled in manner of a dew ? For by what priviledge , or by what necessity doth the lawless brain rejoyce , being a bowel so noble , that it should endure a daily slaughter or ruine of its own Family-Government , without hurt ? The confusion of corruption and alienation ? After what sort in the middle way of transchanged venal bloud , shall the brain wander unto a spermatick and vital Muscilage by so ordinary an exorbitancy , and should be corrupted by the errour of digestion abounding ? For was not the use of another thing even thereby made manifest , and the necessity of that which is not yet known , which might not return backwards from on every side out of its hidden and least cells ( to wit , in the likeness of the Identity of the substance of the brain it self , and of a digestion capable of equality throughout the whole ) corrupting by an ordained motion , it s own & proper nourishment , with the same force whereby it had entred , that it now departing into an excrement , it might be ad-united within the Cup-board : For if that thing do happen in the middle of digestion , or for fear of labour ; now that cannot but bewray an unexcusable corruption , native to the brain : or if that doth happen in the end of digestion ; for besides the diverse kinde , and as well the same and ordinary rule of so alienated a digestion , and now also the course and tract of the venal bloud into the remotest and similar parts of the brain , and the re-course of the excrement from the remainder being left of arterial bloud ; the pains of the brain should be altogether vain , its digestion cruel , its errour intolerable , and its daily labour foolish . For if any of these things be true , I suppose the brain to be the most miserable Cottage of the whole Body : to wit , to want a greater nourishment , the troubles and labours of the brain to be more intensly increased , whereby the force , efficacy , and digestion of the Head is the lesse , slower , and sluggisher : for what had compelled the Brain thitherto , which while the more vile parts do rightly digest their nourishment , and do well disperse the whole into Air ; that the onely and miserable brain , through so plentiful a deluge of snivel , had alienated its own and lively nourishment . I as yet pass by the trifles of Catarrhes or Rheums , raining down with so large and continued a shower , into the breast , and the whole habit of the body : For after what sort shall the chief powers remain safe , which they will have to abide in the case of the Brain , while there is so great a rumour , confusion , and so abundant a diversion of digestion , to wit , a tumult of muscilage returning , and arterial blood going expresly to the corrupting of it self ? But it hath not been once thought even hitherto , whence so great plenty of Snivel should proceed : but the Schools have slept Epimenides dream or sleep , being as it were fed with Lotus or a feigned tree ; so that they may treasure up a little advantage from their credited Catarrhe : for neither is ordinary Snivel from venal blood . And that thing the Schools might have easily taken notice of , if they had not been accustomed in subscribing to trifles : For truly , from great thirst a large quantity of drink doth presently bring forth a pooly muckinesse in the throat , instead of spittle : And so the diseas●e affects of the throat do presently thicken all spittle : And therefore the Faculties , which from the use of their necessity , I call the Keepers , it s no wonder if from the whole race of our Reeds or Pipes , they do naturally allure unto themselves another liquor besides venal blood , ( which I therefore first do call the Latex , and will describe in a particular Tract ) and adopt it into their own borders , to wit , no more unprosperously than the Kidneys do separate the Urine from the venal blood , and draw it unto themselves . For I do here thrust in the Urine , because it is not an excrement of the Reins , as if it should be the remainder of the nourishment of a Kidney , or a committed errour of its digestion . Therefore I give the same judgment concerning Snivel . Therefore , in the pose , as long as the evil doth mostly rage , and the North wind is more fierce ; by so much also is the Snivel the more watery , yet under an equal digestion of the Brain , and the health of the senses , as well internal as external . Therefore the thicker , tougher , more sparing , and more yellow snivel is praised about the end of digestion ( as they say . ) Then next , I consider , that from our small brain , so great a quantity of excrement cannot daily be severed , by reason of the unaptnesse of nourishable venal blood : Especially , because the Liver doth bring forth no excrement from it self , or from its owne nourishment ; Yet is it nourished , and the like fortune of digestions and equal weight of excrements ought to grow on all the Bowels proportionable . At length , I remember that the nourishment of the solid parts are made , with the transmutation of the whole venal blood into nourishment , without a separation of the pure from the impure ( because it is that which should be too troublesome for the Bones , Sinews , Bowels , &c. ) Neither do the solid members therefore yield another excrement in their nourishing , unlesse , after that the nourishing liquor hath satisfied the hunger of the parts , the whole is equally consumed into a very transpiring vapour ; that is , There is not made an excrement of all the solid members , while nourishing is in making , but onely in its being made . Indeed then the whole doth exhale , according to the consent of the Schools . Therefore , because the Brain is held by the lawes of all the solid members and bowels , which the Archeus prescribeth , there shall be no muck of the Brain , neither shall it yield any other thing in the place of an excrement , than that which it wholly exhaleth by transpiration , after the manner of other members . Again , an excrement is a Relative unto digestion , which is made in the thing nourished , because it supposeth the same : But neverthelesse , Snivel is not an excrement of the aforesaid digestion , or the univocal or simple work of the vital Archeus should cease to be in the digestions of the similar parts . Moreover , if Snivel should be an excrement of the brain , it should be collected from on every side from the whole , and should betake it self unto a like Cell , but not unto the Basin : But a collection of the Snivel , ( that is , of a common excrement , and of the whole brain ) from the unperceivable , and all the least parts of the brain , should be difficult , but that it should leave very many obstructions , &c. behind it , which neverthelesse do never stand in the way ; especially because the brain is nourished by a few and slender veins throughout its whole body ; neither doth a passage or channels appear , whereby the Snivel may be derived . Likewise also , the thorny marrow should in like manner have its own muck , and while it should endeavour to evacuate it , that ought to be done , either from above by the fourth little bosome of the brain , or falling downwards ( as a body otherwise fluid , when it is deprived of life , is born alwayes to fall down ) it should stop the common principle of the moving sinews , and especially because Snivel hath the toughnesse of a muscilage , it should not be so easie a follower , but that it might alwayes leave from it self a sorrowful fear of stoppages . In the next place , Snivel , after what manner soever it be taken , and stirred by a luke-warmth , doth never wholly fly away , or is unsensibly dispersed without its remaining dreg : but its vapour being assumed , it is plainly hardned into a Tophus or sandy stone : And so an excrement of the solid brain , or from the whole similar part thereof , is unprofitable , yea unpossible . For it wholly resisteth the thicknesse of the brain , the which , seeing it is not open by pipes or channels , yet that it ought from on every side to be every where continually filled with a tough excrement . At length , by having respect unto the ends for whose sake every thing was made by the Creator : Surely , there doth not any aim appear , why th● brain doth prepare snivel as the superfluous excrement of its own digestion , and doth thus far make it self an out-law from the rest of the bowels : For the whole nourishing liquour is at length severed from the whole body by an unsensible transpiration , without any remainder of it self . Seeing therefore there is such an evident unequality of Snivel in Winter and Summer , that could not come from an internal foundation of mixture , but from elsewhere : And so Snivel is not the dung of the venal blood , much lesse of the brain . For it happens to a man well in health , and sleeping , that he doth not eject any thing of Snivel for eight hours and more : under which period notwithstanding , the brain finisheth a full digestion : how much more , because the natural faculties of the brain , as also of the whole body , do never keep holiday . Therefore the Snivel is not an excrement of a thing , neither is it made by the intent of a natural digestion , neither is it a forreign excrement collected here and there by the brain , and brought back into the basin its natural emunctory or expunging place , nor framed through the vice of digestion ; seeing that else the brain shou●● suffer a continual disease , and especially in Winter . Therefore the testimonies of the Schools in the behalf of phlegm do fall to the ground ; and then their foundations of a Catarrhe ; and lastly , those helps which are drawn forth by the method of healing , from both the foregoing particulars . Indeed they have erred in the shewings of Causes and Remedies from the matter , efficient , beginning , place , conveyance , sliding or falling down of Snivel . Wherefore , we must fitly take notice in the first place , that healthy eyes have no excrements or filths . But that bitter excrement which the Ears do sweat forth , is little in one in sound health , and it is exhaled in the last period of digestions , which is plain enough to be seen : for truly by how much the deeper thou shalt scratch within thy ear , thou shalt find so much the lesse of filth , as a sign , that it hastens outward in manner of a smoaky vapour : no otherwise than as the toes do collect their own moisture , bran doth grow to the bafin , &c. For indeed the air ought by every storm and coursary succession of tempests , to be immediately drawn inwards , as well to the lungs , as to the instrument of smelling . Therefore the parent of things , suiting ends or bounds , and dispositions to their own uses and necessities , as it were to a direct mark , hath appointed one Keeper beneath in the last confines of the brain , and another in the winde-pipe ; a power I say , before me , neglected , whose property it should be , that as often as the injury of an unexcusable air should rise up against either part , that it should as often oppose the snivel or muck , out of the Latex , or more crude venal blood , as it were a garment , and as a partition against it ; against which , the raging air , the inclemency of its first stroak being partly laid aside , should wax mild , and partly conceive within it self the blemish conceived by the air , and should wash off the gotten brand , ( if happily any should be imprinted on the part by a sufficient quantity of Snivel . And that thing is first of all w●itten on the distilling Pose . For a small offence of the evening Air , or a blast of a more cold North-winde , I suppose hath given occasion , that the Keeper might object his own muck , which being exorbitant , besiegeth the spongy bone , through which the Organ of smelling doth receive its odours ; which wandring and watery Snivel , the Keeper doth at first endeavour to wash off with a plentiful liquour Latex . And then , when as this is made void unto him , he brings forth a more tough Snivel , to wit , while the other is made more glewy in the Ethmoides or straining bone . In like manner also , hoarsnesses do happen through Snivel objected by the Keeper . For the Keeper being a delegated power , that he may break the injuries of the air , and fence the part from cruelty through errour , he doth now affect the wind-pipe , and affixeth muck on it for a co●t : Then , as if it repented him of his errour , he first brings forth watery , and then glewie excrements , wherewith he intends to wash off the opposed filths . But that which I have now determined concerning hoarsnesse in the beginning of the throat , let the same thing be judged , if the trunk of the rough artery or wind-pipe be the more low or downwards beset , to wit , when as that which I but now before spake concerning hoarsnesse is cast out of the breast by Coughs . Therefore the Snivel of the nostrils dropping down from above , even as also that which is ●●it out by Co●●bs , doth take its rise from the Keeper the faculty , an excrement indeed in it self profitable , but through errour of the Keeper , hurtful . But I call these powers placed at both the solding doors of the gates of the air , Keepers or Watchmen , and oft-times erring or wandring ones , while by reason of a frequent strife with forreign injuries , the Keeper doth not rightly execute his Offices . Yet the Keeper is not to be numbred under the Quaternion of faculties ( to wit , the attractive , digestive , retentive , and expulsive . ) Because it doth not onely expell its own , but also frameth its own , and indeed onely excrements , which are not made by digestion , but by an abortive or miscarrying power . Wherefore the Schools have altogether neglected both these Faculties prefixed before the doors of the Brain , and Lungs , and have dedicated both , onely to the Brain , and have accused onely the distemper hereof , in those who are in the most perfect health . As long the Keeper is in its right-strength , as a Conqueress of the Cruelty of the Air , it overcomes : but when , by reason of its much broken strength , it cannot satisfie its first ordination , according to its desire ; it at least frames much Snivel , that it may wash off the conceived blemish , in separating , about which it was not at first bruised . Therefore the Keeper differs from the digestive and family-administring property of the Brain . And it happens that one is hurt , the other remaining safe ; which truth , sneezing medicines do discover unto us , which do , presently after the neighbour Snivel being dispatched , stir up meer waterishnesses , most speedily brought forth by the provoked Keeper ; So that at length , if the sneezing medicine shall be the sharper , fibers of venal blood do fall down with the thin muck , and a salt water waxing pale , is expunged from the red : According to the Proverb , he that expungeth too much , doth at length draw forth blood . For the red blood beg●n to wax palish , which through the troublesomnesse of sneezing , was untimely drawn o● allured , otherwi●e it had been snivel . Therefore the Keeper doth first of all witnesse Divine Providence to have watched over both Bowels , in so ready and frequent a necessity : Also they do bewray the effects , not indeed of the digestion of the Brain , and Lungs , but of their own proper power , which neither brings forth diseasie effects , unlesse it wander from its mark . Therefore it is false , to have said that a pose is healthy , as being the expunger or wiper out of filths : For the Offices of both the Keepers , and their errours , I have by the way already touched : Now moreover , for the confirmation of the granted Doctrine , I will explain the exorbitances of the wandering or e●ring Keeper . As the Keeper hath received its Lievtenantship , chiefly by reason of the cruelties of the adverse Air ; so it also moderateth the same , taking to it a matter obeying its functions , to wit , out of the masse of the whole , to wit , of the liquor Latex , and venal blood : Which Doctrine , although it shew a novelty , and for that cause may carry difficulties with it ; yet the ignorance of Ages is never able to prescribe to the truth . For first of all , a multiplicity of matter being drawn out under the errour of the Keeper , sheweth the same not to be the excrement of the brain , otherwise sound and strong : Therefore the instinct of preparing , speedy , ready , and diverse mucks , is raised up from ●lswhere . Indeed the Powers are for the washing of the filths off the atomes of the air , therefore placed at the doors or entrance of the Bowels that are passable for Air : Surely all things proceed well , and orderly so long as the Keeper doth not exceed its own limits : But seeing all humane things are exposed to ruines , where , as often as the Keeper wandreth from its aim , presently , Poses or Distillations , Hoarsnesses , Coughs , &c. do invade us after a miserable manner . Concerning the Grief or Stuffing of a distilled Rheume or Pose , I have already spoken sufficiently : Now moreover I will speak of the Cough . The Cough ariseth from a feeling of that which is hurtful , troubling the wind-pipe from the beginning thereof even unto the bottome or depth of the Lungs , to wit , smoaks , smoaky vapours , sharp exhalations , minerals , and likewise moist vapours , stinking ones , &c. At length , cruel cold overcomes the force of its Inne , as if tending to the extinguishing of the vital guest . The Cough therefore is an effect of the act of Feeling : for as soon as the spirit implanted in those parts is grieved with a trouble lea●ing on it from without , the Keeper presently performs his own office : For that unnamed Faculty doth readily call to it as much out of the mass of the juyce Latex , as seemeth fit for it , and transchangeth it into snivel , which in manner of a dew it thrusts forth unto the wind-pipe ; whereby the injury of the Air may the lesse nakedly and immediately affect the solid p●●● it self ; but may break it self against the aforesaid coat of snivel . But alas I when either the outward injury is greater than that which may ●●ffer it self to be mitigated by touching , or doth more deeply strike the very substance of the wind-pipe , or Lungs ; now the Keeper stumbleth : neither doth it withdraw its aid onely from the Late● ; but doth alienate the very substance of the next nourishment , and wander into a muckie glew : indeed so much the nearer to the immediate nourishment of the Bowel , by how much it shall come deeper unto a Colour of yellow , looking ruddy , and nearer to redness , and having slidden from that Colour , it returns into its former Colour , while it shall approach from a ruddy Colour , nearer to the yellowness of Chaffe , and from thence at length unto the similitude of the white of an Egg. Hence on the other hand , in hectick Fevers , the snivel becomes bloudy , and assumeth the Colour of the more dark ashes , while the very substance of the nourishment it self being transchanged , departs , and doth there shew forth a failing integrity of life : Then indeed the stinking smell of a dead Carcase beginning in the breath , doth bewray the faintings or doata●●s of the Archeus of the Lungs : Therefore the snivel doth readily serve for a partition wall between the hurtful thing coming unto it , and the forces or strength of the Inn : wherefore it hath a saltness brought to it as the prick of its expulsion , that it may provoke the feeling of the Wind-pipe . And in the smallness of Salt snivel , Coughs are dry . But because old Age is likened to a defect , and the Lungs are first deficient ( as above ) hence Coughs are natural to old Age , as it were by property , and they are scarce silent , do scarce cease , or are restrained , woren-out nature not admitting a restauration : These things of the Cough Concerning the Remedy thereof , nothing hath been dreamed of which may be profitable : For first of all they have given to drink the decoctions of Herbs and Colts-foots , but with what an unprosperous event , almost every house doth mournfully detest by its own Law. At length , decoctions being lesse succesfully used , it hath made the Physitian to meditate of Tablets made or confected of Sugar : lastly they have rece●ed into Syrupes and Lohochs , hoping ( I have shewen that to be ridiculous in its place ) that by swallowing slowly , the spittle together with the Eclegma or Lohech would slide down through the think of the voice into the VVind-pipe : Nor having regard , that there would be a straightning of breathing , Coughs , choaking , and expectorating , of greater misery , by reason of the admitting of a forreign guest , than the Cough it self becomes , which stirs up such unhappy fictions of help : which things I have elsewhere on purpose opened at large . Alass ! and a wretched remedy of Fox-lungs hath also entred , whereby the poor living Creature may bestow the power of his daily race , which living , he possessed , on Sugar , after death : For the Schools , and the dispensatories of these , have been wholly ignorant , that the Lungs in only a sieve of Brasse , neither that it doth bring any help at all unto the in-breathings of a daily motion : They are ignorant I say , that it affords no comfort to him that is lame , or hath the Palsey , although be should daily eat Hares feet , or Stags-feet . At length , the root of Chymists succeeded , who when they saw the ground where Sulfurvive groweth , to wax dry and barren , ( but I call the vive or quick , naked Sulphur , & that which is not exacted out of the Firestone , or from elsewhere ) they likewise hoped , that snivel the off-spring of the Keeper , was to be dried up by Sulphur : which thing the Schools hoped to finish by the flour of Brimstone : Therefore some have sublimed that from Aloes , Saffron , Myrrhe , and burnt Vitriol : But others afterwards tryed to solve it by Lime , and Alcalies , which they have ●amed the milk thereof , surely a stinking one : but that lost its credit , after that the milk , yea the yellow Liquor of the Sulphur being prepared with Lime , Vinegar being powred on it , the antient Sulphur returned again unto it self . Indeed they have covered the stomach with a various Vifard , that they might restore the defects of the Keeper placed in the entrance of the Wind-pipe , and the apprehended blemishes of hurtful things : For so the hope of the sick , and the purse hath been divers wayes deluded . I deny not indeed , that Sulphur fitly resolved , doth relieve or help the Asthma or shortness of breathing : But that Asthma is not the guest of the Lungs , to arise from its proper Epileptical passion : to wit , whither those Sulphurs have not entrance : But the nest of that Asthma is about the Stomach ( which I shall teach afterwards ) which way also there is an entrance for the Sulphur the helper : Furthermore the saleable floures of Sulphur are from the vein of Brasse ; For the veins are burnt with a slow fire , that they may thence drive away the theevish Sulphur : For else the Sulphur would snatch a great prey of the Brasse : Therefore let every one who hath known why Arsenick hath obtained the name of the fume or smoak of Mettals , well consider the strength of that Remedy . Truly , the Lungs doth speedily hearken to the destruction of it self , and there is a very difficult restoring of its sliding life : Also the Lungs doth scarce obtain help by nourishments , which have through so many shops of digestions , long agoe laid aside the endowments of their natural disposition , before they enter unto the Lungs : And it is little , although they have reserved a small quantity of their antient Odour from their own composed Body , in then middle life : For that is unefficatious enough and unsuitable or unequal for restoring their weakness : And that is especially more manifest in the Inn of the Lungs , where the power of the Keeper , according to his pleasure , doth retort , alienate , and corrupt its proper nourishments that are immediately to be assimilated or made like unto it : Wherefore I have expelled Minerals from this aim or scope ( except the greater Secrets ) because they are those which neither have a passage to , nor have contracted a familiarity with the implanted Archeus of the Lungs . I have also examined the Remedies throughout all their Ranks or Orders , and those vulnerary ones have promised singularities , which do appease the Archeus ; next , which do divert from corruption , and hence do restrain the wonted furies accustomed to the wound : But not that I hope that those Remedies can reach unto the Lungs , or vvind-pipe in their former power ( even as I shall elsewhere make manifest more commodiously on purpose : ) But onely I did meditate , that although the defects of Coughs were not separations of the Continual , as neither that spittings were corrupt Pus ; yet that a vulnerary potion is that which might afford a nourishment to the whole Inn of man , of such a sort , that it might materially , and efficiently by it self , employ it self in restoring the exorbitancy as well of the Archeus , as of the Keeper . Therefore there was a great necessity of both Keepers to wipe of the inspired filths , which else being brought inward , would willingly affix themselves to the moyst sides of the Ribs , and the Breast would presently thereby in all its parts , be filled up with a Clay : wherefore the snivel which should receive those opposite filths , ought to sweat out , as well in the entrance of the wind-pipe , as before the Organ or Instrument of smelling : Snivel I say , and not water was necessary , because this would presently hasten drop by drop into the bottom : But the inward parts ought to be moyst , least through a continual in-breathing of Air , they should chap or cleave asunder : Therefore a certain distributive virtue ought to accompany the continual moysture , such as is that which dispenseth the Spittle : I say a moderate , and slow or gentle moysture , ought to be borrowed out of the masse of the juyce Latex , in healthy persons : but when as the Keepers are ill affected , they do continually weep out part of their own nourishment , which they ought to assimilate to themselves ; To wit , it being diversly altered in the form of water , or also of a transparent , or thick Muscilage , according to the variety of passions whereunto the Keepers have hearkened . But the restoring of the Keepers from weakness , is very difficult , and that of the vvind-pipe more dangerous or destructive than that of the Nostrils , because it threatens a Consumption , doth alwayes gape , and is molested with a plenteous Air. At length , it never satisfied me , that the snivel of the nostrils , although not much unlike to the snivel of Coughs , in colour , tast , and aspect , should be the same with that which is expectorated from the inward pipes of the Lungs : For I could not perswade my self , that the same snivel should proceed from two Bowels so diverse : ( For if it be the same and co-like , then that one onely snivel is not the superfluity of both bowels ) therefore , as the Keeper being well affected , doth scarce produce any snivel , and that likewise according to opportunity ; so being provoked , it brings forth snivel according to its own indignation , and the property of the bowel receiving : To wit , a fury being snatched to it , it brings forth a Salt , biting , sharp and stinking thing or quality in its snivel , exceeding a mean in quality and quantity ! For from hence are their gnawings of the vvind-pipe , and from thence Consumptions and bloudy spittings , &c. For although an Imposthume full of matter may bring forth divers difficulties of breathing , and straightnesses of the Breast , yet scarce Consumption-Coughs : Therefore I have thought these to spring from the hurting of the rough Artery or vvind-pipe . But that the Keeper doth not touch at the Essence of the Brain ; I conjecture from a strong young man , to me known , who morning and evening , hath daily undergone miserable spittings by reaching , for some years , he being in the mean time , strong enough in his Brain , Sinews , and Muscles : But where one of the faculties is notably hurt , but the other not at all , they must needs be both divers in property and Essences : wherefore also the Keeper of the vvind-pipe , and Head , do far differ . Therefore the Air , after that it is brought down thorow the Lungs into the Breast , and thrusts downwards the very transverse partition ( which is named the Diaphragma or Midriffe ) into a circular form , then therefore the Diaphragma pierceth the pores thereof , and straineth the drunk-in Air thorow it self : which thing , Odours drawn by some nostrils , and at length returned by belching , do teach : For so the fume of Coals doth provoke vomit , and doth sooner affect the Stomach than the heart : yea the Sent of a dead Carcafe is felt about the Stomach long after . So also a VVoman great with young , bearing 〈◊〉 a dead child , the very dead Carcase smells in her breath . For that smell passing thorow her Womb , and Midriffe , teacheth that breathing is serviceable , not onely for the cooling refreshment of the heart , but for the whole Body : So also from a pining fume , others have shewen that their Stomach was tinged with yellowness by reason of smoaks : So also the Stomach abhorreth the smells of loosening Medicines received , although those very purging Medicines are cloaked with Sugar and Spice , because it perceiveth the same Odours by its own smelling : Therefore if an Odour doth proceed in a straight line unto the Stomach , the Air also doth . The Plague it self being introduced by an inspired breathing , is forged for the most part , about the Stomach : therefore vomitings , Head-ach , drowsiness , &c. do accuse and shew the Stomach to be affected . CHAP. XXXV . The Image of the Minde . 1. The fear of the Lord is the Beginning , and Charity is the end of Wisdom . 2. Man was made after the Image of God. 3. Three Ranks of Atheists . 4. The Authours wish . 5. The Intellectual Vnderstanding of the minde . 6. The intimate Integrity of the minde , suffereth by frail things , without the passion of extinguishing . 7. The action of the minde is scarce felt or perceived in us . 8. The first Atheists are scoffers at the divine Image . 9. The second Atheists have newly arose . 10. The Atheistical ignorance of this is manifested . 11. The variety of vital Lights . 12. The minde , how it differs from an Angel. 13. An intellectual Vision of the Authour . 14. Every wish or desire without God , is vain . 15. The Authours misery . 16. The Vision of the minde being separated from the Body . 17. That the minde is figured . 18. The minde is an immortal Substance figured with the figure of God. 19. A common errour about the Image of God. 20. The errour of those who think the Image of God to be placed in a ternary of Powers . 21. Against the opinion of Taulerus . 22. The Image of God in man hitherto not evidently shewen , because it is incomprehensible . 23. The minde is damned by accident . 24. After death there is no more memory , or remembrance . 25. The will was accidentally over-added to the minde after its Creation . 26. In Heaven the will is void . 27. A will appeares in Heaven , not indeed a power , but a substantial intellectual Essence . 28. If the minde be the Image of God , this was known to Plato . 29. The definition of the minde . 30. That Reason is not the Image of God. 31. The Authours Opinion . 32. These two thinglinesses or Essences , do lay hid in the Soul , through the corruption of Nature . 33. This love is onely raised up by an extasie ; not otherwise , in the miseries of this nature . 34. A precision or abreviating of the Vnderstanding . 35. An Objection is solved . 36. That a triplicity or ternary in the minde , is unfolded in every Susteme or Constitution of the World. 37. A Similitude for the Image of God is far another thing than that of a ternary . 38. A repeated description of the minde . 39. How the minde doth behold itself . 40. The constitutive Birth of the Phantasie . 41. The minde doth understand far otherwise . 42. The Prerogative of the minde . 43. An explaining of living love . 44. The differences of Vnderstandings in mortal men . 45. Why that desire doth not cease in heaven . 46. A description of desire . 47. How sin is in the desire of the mind . 48. The love of the mind is a substance even in mortal men . 49. How great darknesse hath veiled the minde by the corruption of nature . 50. The Image of God quite marred or trodden under foot in the damned . THe beginning of Wisdome is the fear of the Lord ; but the fear of the Lord begins from the meditation of eternal death and life : But most of the Moderns ( with 〈…〉 Stoicks ) suppose the end of wisdome to be the knowing of ones own self . I call the ultimate end of wisdome , and the reward of the whole course of life , Charity or dear love , which accompanieth us after other things have forsaken us . Wherefore also , the knowledge of ones own self , according to me , is onely a mean unto the fear of the Lord. And the knowledge of life doth presuppose the knowledge of the soul ; because the life and soul are as it were Sunonymals . And indeed , it is believed by faith , that man was created into a living creature of nothing , after the image or likenesse of God , and that his mind is never to perish or die ; But that other souls , when they cease to live , do depart into nothing ; The weights of which difference elsewhere , concerning the birth of Forms . But hitherto it is not sufficiently manifest , wherein that likenesse with God , our Arch-type , or chief or first Example , doth consist . I will speak what I perceive under an humble subjection to the Church . There is no knowledge more burthensome than that whereby the soul comprehends it self , although none be more profitable , Because the whole faith doth stablish its foundation upon the unobliterable or undefaceable substance of the soul . I have found indeed many Demonstrations divulged in Books , about this Truth : but none of them at all , wherefore , or for what cause it is so , in respect of Atheists , who deny the one onely and constant Power , or Deity from everlasting . Indeed Plato hath determined of three ranks of Atheists ; to wit , one which believeth no Gods : And then another sort , which indeed doth admit of Gods ; yet such as are uncareful of us , and despisers of small matters , and therefore also ignorant of us . Lastly , a third sort , which although they believe the Gods to be expert in the least matters , yet do suppose that they are flexible and indulgent toward the smallest cold prayers or petitions . This most frequent sort of Atheists is among Christians at this day , especially those who professe themselves the most perfect . Indeed they dare do any thing , they grievously impose burdens on the shoulders of others , which they touch not so much as with their finger ; they sweep the purses of those that believe , and set heaven to sale to dying men , and do every where mingle themselves in secular and unknown political affairs , as they have married Religion to Political matters . And as they see themselves Schoolmasters , Deputies for the instructing of sorts of children ; so also they being ignorant persons , bear in hand , that they are fit for the Stern of the Common-wealth . Verily , it should be my greatest desire , That it might be granted to Atheists , to have tasted , at least but one onely moment , what it is intellectually to understand , whereby they may feel the immortality of the mind , as it were by touching . I am even willingly ignorant of the rules and manner , whereby I might illustrate the understanding of another : yet I am deservedly sorrowful , that they who do alwayes enquire into the truth by studying , do never , notwithstanding , come unto the knowledge thereof . Because those who are blown up with the Letter , have not charity , but avarice and ambition doth hide Atheism in them . But I long since learned , that our mind doth understand nothing by imagination , nor at length by Figures or Images , unlesse the wretched and miserable Discourse of staggering reason shall have accesse to it . But when as the soul doth comprehend it self , or in it self , intellectually , reason faileth it , and the Image of its own self , whereby it may represent it self to it self ; that is , the soul cannot apprehend it self by reason , as neither by Images or likenesses . After that , I had known that the truth of essence , and the truth of understanding have pierced each other in unity , and identity or samelinesse , I knew the Understanding to be a certain immortal thing , far separated from frail or decaying things . Truly , the mind is not felt or perceived , yet we believe it to be within , not to be tired , nor disturbed by Diseases . Therefore sleep , fury or madnesse , and drunkennesse , are not the Symptoms of the immortal mind being hurt , but onely the Pages of life , the passions onely of the sensitive soul ; for bruit beasts also do even undergo such passions : For neither do I think it a meet thing , that an immortal thing should suffer by things mortal , and be subjected , or overcome by these : For the mind feeleth and suffereth the torments of hell , yet it is not overcome , as neither is it extinguished : So it being knit unto a frail light , it suffers by frail things . But as the minde is in us , yet is not perceived by us ; so the continual , and unshaken operations thereof are unperceivable : For that which is in it self perceiveable or sensible , cannot at all be spiritual , and meerly abstracted . And indeed neverthelesse , although it may seem to us , 〈◊〉 understand nothing by a total abstraction or withdrawing of Discourses , and sequestration from all things which may fall under Sense , under the Mind , and Understanding , ( and that under the beginnings of contemplations ; ) Yet the mind acteth in those things , after its own unsensible manner and spiritual efficacy ; which I have thus perceived . For he that confesseth , doth oft-times not feel the effect of contrition , and he greatly bewaileth that his own unsensiblenesse : Yet he being asked , whether he would sin ; perhaps he would answer , that he had rather die . Therefore in confessing , there is an unsensible operation of the mind , an effect of a supernatural faith : Because the actions of the Understanding are the Clients or Retainers of another Magistrate . Therefore indeed mystical men do teach , that the minde doth more operate , and in operating , doth also more profit in faith alone , without discourse and cogitation , than he who prayeth with many words , and by discourses doth stir up compunctions in himself . But he is happy to whom it is granted to perceive those unsensible operations of the mind , and to reflect the same into , and over the powers of the sensitive Soul , as operative Faith makes a beginning : Because these do for the most part leave their foot-steps on the life afterwards , and do stir up the memory operating for the future , together with grace , in faith . The first Atheists and Christian Libertines do laugh , as either that the image of God in us , is feigned , or that we were created after the Image of God. But other Atheists of the second sort , do believe , not onely that we were created after the Image of God , but they feign in us an identity with the immense or vast , and uncreated Deity : Neither that man differs in substance from God , otherwise than as a part from the whole ; and that which had a beginning , with that which was not principiated : But not in essence , or internal property : Surely it is that which besides blasphemy hath very many blockishnesses : For truly , whatsoever began , for that very cause it is a creature : but it includes an impossible imperfection in God , that he could create any thing besides himself , in substance or essence , a compeer , or co-equal to himself . For it even is manifest by Philosophy , that all the parts of an Infinite , are of necessity altogether infinites ; but the creature cannot be more infinite according to its substance , than according as it was to be , exist , and endure , as a coequal or second to the eternal Being . And therefore it is a foolish thing to believe , that the Soul , which began of nothing , is a part of the Substance of God , or essentially like to him in power , greatnesse , duration , and glory . If therefore God could not make the soul of man as a part of his own Divinity , seeing there are no parts or minorities of that which is infinite : therefore the Soul was not made by God after that manner : Therefore it voluntarily flowed forth of nothing , and had made it self otherwise than before it was . Therefore they do greatly erre , who believe the essence of the Divine Image to be seated in the mind , by the identities of substance and essence , seeing they differ from each other every way in the term or bound of infinitenesse ; and the mind of man should of its own accord slide or turn , and be dissolved again into nothing , whence it began , unlesse it were preserved in its essence by the Divine Goodnesse : And the mind hath an eternal permanency henceforward , not from its own essence , but from the essence of eternity freely given unto it , and kept with it : Therefore from elsewhere , and from that which is infinitely more powerful than it self . Therefore it is sufficient , that the mind is a spiritual , vital Substance , and a lightsome creature . And seeing there are many general kinds and species of vital lights , that light of the mind differs from other vital lights in this , that it is a spiritual and immortal substance ; but that the other vital lights are not formal substances , although they are substantial forms ; and therefore by death they depart or return into nothing , no otherwise than as the flame of a candle . But the Mind differs from the Angels , that it is after the likenesse and image of the eternal God : for the mind hath that light , and lightsome substance from the gift of Creation , seeing it self is that vital light ; but an Angel is not a light it self , no● hath it an internal light natural or proper to it self : but is the glasse of an uncreated light : And so in that , it faileth of the perfection of a true divine Image : For else , seeing an Angel is an incorporeal spirit , if it were lightsome of it self , it should more perfectly express the image of God than man. Moreover , whatsoever God more loveth , that thing is more noble for that very cause : but God hath loved man more than the Angel , who to redeem the Angelical nature was not made in the Figure of the evil Spirit ; even as the thrice glorious Lamb , the Saviour of the world took on him the nature of a servant that he might redeem man. Neither also doth that withstand these things , That the least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater than John : For the Son of man is not lesse in dignity and essence than an Angel , although he be also made a little lesse o● lower than an Angel ; because the Son of man in his condition of living , was diminished a little lesse than the Angels , while he was made man ; so also was John : therefore also an Angel doth alwayes remain a ministring Spirit ; but he is no where read to be the friend , or Son of the Father , the delights of the Son of man , and the Temple of the Holy Spirit , wherein the thrice glorious Trinity hath made its Mansion : For that is the famous or royal Prerogative of the Image of God , which the eternal Light imprinteth on every man that commeth into this world . In the year 1610. after a long wearinesse of contemplation , that I might obtain some knowledge of my mind , and because I then , as yet thought , that the knowing of ones own self was a certain compleating of Wisdome ; I having by chance slidden into a dream , being snatched out of the paths of reason , did seem to be in a Hall , dark enough ; on my le●● hand was a Table , whereon there was a Bottle , wherein there was a little Liquour , and the voice of the Liquor said unto me , Wilt thou have Honours and Riches ? I was amazed at the unwonted voice , I walked about , weighing with my self what that should denote : in the mean time , on my right hand , a chink was seen in the wall , through which , a certain light with an unwonted splendour , dazled mine eyes , which made me unmindful of the Liquor , of its voice , and former counsel ; because I saw that which exceeds a cogitation or thought expressible by word ; and then that chink presently dispersed : I returning thence unto the Bottle again , but sorrowful , brought this away with me : But I did endeavour to taste down the Liquor , and with long pains I opened the Bottle , and being sore stricken with dread , I awaked out of my sleep . But the foregoing and great desire of knowing my Soul , remained ; with which desire I breathed for 23 full years : For at length , in the year 1633. in the vexatious afflictions of Fortunes , yet with the rest or quiet of my life , given me to drink from the safety of an innocent life , I saw in a Vision my mind in an humane shape ; but there was a light , whose whole homogeneal body was actively seeing , a spiritual Substance , Chrystalline , shining with a proper splendour or a splendour of its own : but in another Cloudy part it was rouled up as it were in the husk of it self , which whether it had any splendour of it self , I could not discern , by reason of the superlative brightnesse of the Chrystal spirit con●eined within : Yet that I easily observed , that there was not a sexual note or mark of the sex , but in the husk . But the Seal of the Chrystal was an unutterable light , so reflex , that the Chrystal it self was made incomprehensible ; and that , not by a denial , otherwise , than because it cannot onely not be expressed in word ; but moreover , because thou knowest not the essence or thinglinesse of the thing which thou feest : And then I knew that that light was the same which I had seen for twenty three years before , thorow the chink : I likewise from thence comprehended the vanity of my long desire : For howsoever beautiful the Vision was , yet my mind obtained not any perfection to it self thereby : for I knew that my mind in the dreaming Vision , had acted as it were the person of a third ; neither that the representation was worthy of so great a wish . But as to that which hath respect unto the Image of God , I could never conceive any thing , not indeed in the abstracted meditation of understanding , which would not by the same endeavour , bear some figure before it , under which it should stand in the Considerer : For whether I shall conceive the thing in imagining it by its own Idea or shape ; or whether the understanding doth transchange it self into the thing understood ; A conceipt hath alwayes stood under some shape or figure : For neither could I consider the thinglinesse of the immortal mind with an individual existence , deprived of all figure , neither but that it at least would answer to an humane shape . For as oft as the soul being separated , doth see another soul , Angel , or evil Spirit , that is made with a knowledge that these things are present with it , while it distinguisheth the soul of Peter from that of John. For truly such a distinction doth happen onely by a proper vision of the soul , which vision of the Soul includeth an external interchangeable to urse , and therefore also a figural one : For truly an Angel is so in a place , that at once , he is not elsewhere ; wherein as well a local as a figural circumscription is of necessity included . And then , the Body of man as such , cannot give unto it self a humane shape : therefore it hath need of an Engraver , which might be shut up within the matter of the seed , and that had descended into it from elsewhere : yet that Engraver , for as much as it was of a material condition , it hath of it self no more power of figuring , than the Masse of the Body it self . Therefore something doth precede in the masse or lump , which should be plainly an immaterial , yet a real and effective Beginning , wherein there should be a power of figuring by the impression of a Seal ; Therefore the Soul of the begetter , while it slides outward , and doth lighten the Body of the seed , in a certain Air , it delineates the Seal and figure of it self , which is the cause of the fruitfulness of seeds : Otherwise , if the Soul should not be figured , but the figure it self of the Body , should as it were of its own accord be formed ; now the Trunck in some member , should also generate nothing but a Trunck : for that the body of that generater is not entire , but at least faileth in the implanted Spirit of that member . If therefore the shape be implanted in the seed , it shall , receive that Image from a vital and former Beginning , out of it self : But if the Soul doth imprint a figure on the seed , it shall not dissemble a forreign or strange face , but shall decipher its very own Image : For so the Souls of bruit Beasts do keep their own particular kinde in generating : But the minde , although by reason of its beginning , it be above the Laws of Nature ; yet by what foot it hath once entred the threshold of Nature , and is incorporated and joyned unto another , it is afterwards also restrained by its own Laws : Because there is a univocal or single progress , ascention , descention , limitation , and end of vital generations : For neither otherwise doth it want absurdities , that the operation of so great a thing ( as is the generation of man , and the continuance of his Species ) should happen without the co-operation of the minde . Therefore it must needs be , that fruitfulness is granted to the seed by a participation , and specifical determination of vital principles : which thing surely , doth not otherwise happen , than by a sealing of the Soul in the Spirit of the seed ; whence the matter obtains a requisite maturity , and a delineated shape or figure , that at length it may obtain by request , a formal light of life from the Creator , or the Soul of its own Species , the similitude whereof is expressed in the figure . Furthermore , it is of faith , that our minde is a substance never to die : The new framing of which substance of nothing , belongs onely to the Creator ; who if it hath well pleased him to adopt the minde alone , into his own Image , it also seems to follow , that the vast and unutterable God is of a humane figure , and that from an Argument from the effect , if there be any force of Arguments in this subject . But because the Body is oft-times defectuous , they have thought the glorious Image of God the Arch-Type , represented in the minde , to consist onely in the power of Reason : Not knowing that the rational power is a servant to the understanding , but not of its essence , as neither its unseparable companion : which thing I have already explained in the Treatise of the searching or hunting out of Sciences . But others hold the Soul most nearly to express the Image of God , by a single simplicity of its own substance , and a ternary of its powers , to wit , of understanding , will , and memory : which similitude hath alwayes seemed to me fabulous , that the minde should be the Image of God by a singular valour or ability : For truly an Image doth involve a similitude of essence and figure , but not an equality or likeness of number onely : yea if the Soul doth in its substance represent God himself , now understanding , will , and memory , shall not be the powers , properties , or accidents of the Soul : And so the likeness of ternariness shall cease , & such an image shall badly square with the Type , whose image it is believed to be . And than it is absurd to compare the persons of the Trinity , to memory , or will ; Seeing no person of the holy sacred Trinity , doth represent the will onely , or the will a separated person in God. Also the three powers in the Soul cannot any way expresse the image , or a nearer supposed thing , than a naked threeness of accidents collected into the substance of the Soul : In which sense , the Soul doth lesse denote the Image of God , than any peece of Wood : To wit , because it by its resolution , doth express Salt , Sulphur , and Liquor , but not ( like the minde in the aforesaid similitude of its own powers , and the divine persons ) three powers onely , or a naked ternary ; For every Wood hath three substances concluded under a unity of the composed Body , separated indeed in the things supposed , which in their connexion , do make one onely substance of Wood. But Tauterus severeth the Soul or minde , not indeed into three powers , but into two distinct parts : To wit , the inferiour or more outward , which by a pecullar name , he calls the Soul ; and the other the superiour , the more inward , and the which he calls the bottom of the Soul or Spirit : In which part alone , he saith , the Image of God is specially contained : unto which there is not access for the Devil , because there is the Kingdom or God. But to either part , he assigneth far unlike acts and properties , whereby he distinguisheth both from each other . But at least , that holy man , doth blot out the simple homogenity or samelinesse of kinde of the Soul , whereby notwithstanding it ought especially to express the likeness of God : or at least , he thus far denies the Image of God to be propagated throughout the whole Soul of man. Surely I shall not easily believe a duality of the immortal Soul , or the interchangeable course of a binary or twofold thing , if it ought to shew forth in its very own essence , a unity : But rather I shall believe , that the minde is rather made like unto God in a most simple unity , by an indivisible homogeneity , of Spirit , under the co-resemblance of immortality , and undissolution , and identity without all connexion . Therefore the glorious Image of God is not separated from the Soul ; as neither to be separated ; but the minde it self is the glorious Image ; as well intimate to the Soul , as the Soul it self is to it self : for therefore , the likeness between the minde , and God , cannot be declared , or thought , seeing God himself is wholly incomprehensible , neither can therefore the Character of identity and unity wherein that likeness is founded , ever be thought or conceived . It is sufficient , that the minde is a Spirit , beloved of God , homogeneal , simple , immortal , created into the Image of God , one onely Being , whereto death adds nothing , or takes nothing from it , which may be natural or proper to it in the essence of its simplicity . And because from the constitution and appointment of it , it is a partaker of blessedness : therefore damnation coming upon it , is to it by accident , to wit , besides its purpose , and by reason of a future fall or defect . Therefore the minde being separated from the Body , doth no more use memory , nor the inducing of remembrance , by the beholding of place or duration : but one onely thing is now unto it , and there it containeth all things . And therefore if any memory should survive in it , it should be vain and burdensome for ever : As also remembrance or calling to minde ; because it is that which is drawn forth into act by the discourse of Reason , which is now dead : And so in eternity it hath no longer place : where indeed the Soul stands out of the necessities of remembring , by the beholding and enjoying of naked truth , without declining , weariness , and defect . Likewise the Soul that is blessed should stand out of the aforesaid ternary of Powers , and therefore neither should it any longer represent the Image of God : for which things sake alone it was notwithstanding created . Yea by looking more fully into the matter , I do not finde in man being mortal , memory to be a singular , or separated power of the Soul , but a naked manner of remembrance ; whereby those that are unmindful , through the aid of the Imagination ( which is the Vicaresse of the Intellect ) do fit or forge an Artificial memory , and far more strong than else a natural memory would be of those things . And moreover , together with the life , the will also departs from the Soul ; and therefore it seems to be accidentally , as it were added to the Soul : For God , after man was created , placed the same in the hand of his own free will : which denoteth not onely a posteriority , but also in a proper manner , that the will is not originally essential to the minde , which from a grant , was added like a Talent unto it ; that man might follow the way which he had rather choose . Otherwise surely , in the whole stage of things , there is no power more destructive to man than free will , because it is that which alone brings forth all disagreement between God and man. Wherefore , such a faculty , in the blessedness of Eternity , cannot likewise have place : But a liberty of willing being taken away , the will it self also perisheth , or it shall be frustrated by torment . Therefore they say , the will is confirmed in Heaven , or rather therefore taken away : That is , in Heaven there cannot be a willing , or a willing to will , except that which God willeth : And they who are in Charity and Glory , cannot but will those things which belong to Charity : Therefore the will of man ceaseth , when the liberty of willing is melted away : And by consequence , the will is a frail power of the Soul ; Because it cannot be serviceable to , or profit a blessed Soul : While a wishing onely , neither can , nor could any more be brought into act , which is not in Heaven , where there is full satiety and possession of desirable things with all abundance . Therefore the will of a blessed Soul should be a burdensome appendice . Let it be sufficient , that there hath been a treasuring up in this life , by a power of willing . Therefore together with life , a power of willing perisheth , and a substantial will manifesteth it self from the understanding , and Essence of the minde , not any thing distinct , and therefore having its Essence distinct from the free accident of willing : For as the power of the Imagination or phansie , is estranged by doatages , doth doat , and perisheth with the life ; So the free power of willing , ceaseth . Plato his Parmenides at sometime understood , that there are not accidents in God , neither that there is a duality , distinct from his Essence : wherefore I conclude , if the minde ought to shew forth his Image , likewise that every property of the minde ought to dissolve together into the intellective substance of a simple light : Even so as the smoak being kindled by the slame , is the same with the flame in figure and matter : So ●he Soul is a naked and pure Intellect or Understanding , and Image of the uncreated Light. And so as the eye doth behold nothing more truly and properly than the Sun , and all other things by reason of it ; So also the Soul that is blessed doth not understand any thing more truly , than the light , wherewith it is inwardly enlightned , and which it enjoyes , from whence indeed , it wholly and immediately dependeth . But as the eye doth not bear a stedfast beholding of the Sun ; So the minde cannot understand God , unless according to what Charity it shall have , according to the measure whereof it also possesseth God gloriously within : For its understanding being free , it doth attain the use of the thing understood , as by removing , it transformeth it self in well-pleasing , and a study of complacency , unto a unity of the light , which pierceth the minde it self , and in piercing , makes it blessed . So indeed , the minde doth principally and primarily contemplate of God by understanding , is illustrated by way of piercing , and so the Image of God which it shewes forth , by transforming the same , doth make it like unto it self . But they which have placed the Image of God in Reason , do argue ; That the Law is the Image of God , but the Law is written in our Souls by reason ; and so they think the Soul to be the Image of God , as it is rational : But they do not consider , that the Soul might so indeed contain the Image of God : but not that the minde should therefore essentially be the very Law it self : No otherwise , than the Law and the Soul do differ in the supposingness of essence : For there was not yet a Law , when the Soul of man was now created . But I , concerning the searching out of Sciences , have shewen , that it is a blasphemous thing , to have brought back the Image of God into Reason ; Seeing there is no likeness of Reason , or comparing of an uncertain and frail faculty , with God. Therefore I will speak my own : For the understanding hath an intellective will , coequal , and substantially co-melted and united with it self , not indeed that which may be a power , or an accident , but the intellectual light it self , a spiritual substance , a simple essence , undivided , separated from the understanding by a supposingness of its essence , after an incomprehensible manner , and not in essence . In the minde there is likewise a third thing , which for want of a true word , I call Love , or a perpetual desire : Not indeed of having , attaining , possessing , or enjoying , but of loving or well-pleasing , equal to the two aforesaid things , equally simple in the unity of substance : which three , under the one onely and indivisible substance of the Soul , are co-melted into unity . But that love is not any act of the will ; but it proceeds together from the substantial understanding and will together , as it were a distinct , and glorious act . Neither in the next place , is that love a passion ; but a ruling essence , and a glorifying act . Therefore the will and love of this place , hath nothing common with the will of man , or flesh : because they are essential Titles , whereby for want of words , the minde doth after a certain sort , represent the Image of God : Because the Intellect doth understand , is intent upon God , and doth love him with all the minde , with an undivided act of love , and one onely act of complacency or desire , in the every way simplicity of it self : But these two intellectual things , to wit , will and love , were together with the understanding from the beginning of Creation : neither must we think , that the same are stirred up anew after death ; seeing they are of the essence of the minde , or of the Image of God : But as soon as the disturbed understanding gave place to the sensitive Imagination ; so also the will , and love that were intellectual things , have through corruption of nature , admitted of a will , and memory , which together with the mortal Soul , depart into nothing , the integrity of the minde remaining : For in an extasie , the understanding , will , and memory do oft-times sleep , the fiery act of love alone surviving , but so distinguished from those three , that notwithstanding , it is not without the understanding and will which are substantial , and also suited to it self . Therefore love , the other being as it were laid asleep , stands in the superficies or upper part , as long as it shall sup up the other into it self : But in this life , love is before desire , because it is a passion of the amative or loving faculty , which proceeds from that supposionality of the minde , which is substantial love , and resembles the Image of a corporeal faculty , in this life ; and therefore , all things do inclinably or readily rush into disorder , and into dissolution : But in the heavenly Wights , that love doth neither constitute a priority , as neither a distinction from desire , neither hath it the nature of a power , as neither is it a habit , or act of willing , neither doth it subsist out of the understanding . Therefore the Intellect or understanding is a formal light , & the very substance it self of the Soul , which beholdingly knoweth without the help of eyes , even as also it discerneth , willeth , loveth , and desireth without eyes , in its own unity , whatsoever it comprehendeth in it self , and sheweth by willing : For neither doth it then any longer remember by a repetition of particular kindes , of a thing once known in an image or likeness ; neither is it induced , any longer to know by circumstances : But there is one onely-knowing at once , of all things understood , and a beholding Aspect of them within it self ; yet so , as that it may know one thing more personally than another , while the understanding doth reflect it self upon the things understood in a distinct oneness of truth ; no otherwise than as now in the artificial memory , where that remembrative memory is not a distinct act from the inductive or brought-in judgement of the understanding . Therefore that is a thing more proper to the minde , being now once dispatched from the imaginary turbulences of understanding . For neither doth it hinder these things , that in living persons the memory decayeth or perisheth , the judgement being safe , or on the contrary : For the faculties of the sensitive Soul are of a diversity of kinde , distinct in the Body , because they are conceived by the mortal Soul , after the manner of the receiver . Even as also unto Inanimate things , I observe a certain deaf knowledge of the object , likewise a feeling , and affection of the object , to belong : And the which have therefore begun to be called Sympathetical things or things of a like passion or affection : which deaf perceivance of objects , is to them like sight and understanding : For there is besides , in those ( for whatsoever things do the farther depart from the simplicity of the minde , for that very cause they are more ready for multiplicities of offices ) a certain vital virtue , and natural endowment , of a certain goodness , ability , and efficacy , for ends ordained by the Creator : Even as there is also a third power , resulting from both the foregoing ones , which is for rejoycing at the meeting of things helpful or delightful , or of turning away from things hurtful : wherein is beheld a certain affection toward things abjected or cast off , and likewise fear , flight , &c. which threefold degree , is as yet more manifest in the more stupid Insects , and in outragious or mad men , in whom no understanding is chief , and onely a power of a visual light the governess , doth shine forth : yet in these moreover , there is an act of vital virtues and functions present , by reason whereof they do subsist : And thirdly , there is in them a far more clear act of rejoycing and turning away or aversness ; which things are yet far more powerfully declared in other sensitive Creatures : To whom indeed belongeth a certain sensitive imagination , with a certain kinde of discourse of Reason , shining forth in them instead of understanding , more or lesse in every one . So that wittiness or quick-sightedness , will , memory , do happen unto them under the apprehension of understanding ; Yet the objects , and offices or functions being continually changed , according to the matter that is apt for divisions and singularities : which matter doth therefore indeed accuse the diversities of receivers . Also in these , there is an issuing power of goodness and virtues , whereby Souls do more or lesse favourably incline into the exercises of their own virtues , or cruelties : And at length there is also in them their own complacency or well-pleasing , weariness , and animosity or angry heat , for the considerations of objects ; so co-united to sensitive Souls , that it is scarce possible to behold two persons , but we are presently addicted to one more than to another : And these being incorporeal things , after the manner of the receiver , shall for that cause , in man , be more clarified . Finally , I will not therefore have the Image of God to be considered for any ternary of faculties , which doth thus far belong to other things in the Systeme or frame of the World : because the Dignity of the Image of God , is not any way participated of by other created things : For truly the Image of God is intimate onely with the minde , and is as proper to it , as it s very own essence is unto it self : But the other properties are not the very essence of the minde ; but the products and following effects of essences : because it is not beseeming the Majesty of the Divine Image , to be drawn out of qualities . For the properties of other things do co-melt into the essence of the Soul , by virtue of the Divine Image : But if they are reckoned as it were attributes , or products ; that is by reason of a miserable common manner of understanding , and an accustomed abuse thereof . For truly , the minde is one pure , simple , formal , homogeneal , undivided , and immortal act , wherein the incomprehensible Image of God doth immediately , incomprehensibly , and essentially consist and forme the minde ; So that in that Image , even all the powers do not onely lay aside the nature of attributes , but also do collect their own supposionalities into an undistinguished oneness : Because the Soul is in it self a certain substantial light , or a substance so clear , that it is not distinguished by things supposed , from the very light it self ; and its understanding is so the light of the minde , that the minde it self is a meer clear or lightsom understanding : For in this its very own light , the minde being separated from the Body , seeth and understandeth it self , wholly throughout the whole : to which end there is neither need of a brain nor heart : To wit , in which Organs or Instruments , the substance of the minde doth seem onely to assume the race of properties . Surely , while the abstracted understanding it self doth make use of corporeal Instruments in the Body , unto which it is bound , and as by its Seat of the sensitive Soul , it is drowned in the depth of the corrupt nature thereof , it representeth and assumeth a qualitative faculty , which is called Imagination : The which , from the Society of the imaginary power , the Splendor of the sensitive Soul and understanding it self being degenerated in the Organs , doth rise up by a certain combination , into the aforesaid qualitative power : Therefore that faculty is wearied by imagining , faileth or waxeth feeble , also it oft-times becomes mad , and by imagining , the hairs wax white or grey : But the minde being once separated , is never tired in understanding . Moreover the Imagination in living persons , is not onely wearied ; but also it hath not from it self intellective representations , which it hath not drawn from sensible objects : And therefore the intellective power which concurreth with the imaginary office of the sensitive Soul , doth follow the disposition of the Organ , and the will of the sensitive life , no otherwise than as elsewhere in natural things , the effect doth follow the weaker part of its own causes . But whatsoever the Soul doth require to know and will , for once , or for oftner times ; that it hath wholly from it self , and not from a stranger without : For the good substantial will of a blessed Soul , doth not arise from the thing understood ; but it is its own goodness of love , by which the blessed minde is substantially , and not qualitatively good . Which Prerogative it hath , because it is the typical Image of the Divinity . But Bodies do slide by a perpetual free accord , into the attributes of Forms , their diversity of kinde , successive changes and dissolutions . Therefore the love or desire of the minde , is not the office of an appetitive power ; but the minde it self is intellectual , and willing : which things are undivideably coupled under unity , in as great a sameliness and simplicity as may be : yet in mortalls they are separated as well by reason of the necessity of Organs , unlikenesses of Functions , as the mixture of the sensitive Soul. For truly , now we often desire those things which the understanding judgeth not to be desired , and the will could wish not to come to passe : But it must needs be , that things whose operations are different , the same things should be distinct in the Root of their own essence , after the manner whereby all particular things are separated : In the minde indeed , by a relative supposingness only ; but in the sensitive Soul , according to a corporeal and qualitative nature . And therefore that amorous or loving desire of the mind , is the substance of the Soul. And although in Heaven there be a full satiety of desirable things , and a perpetual enjoyment of them ; yet the desire of the minde which is a study of complacency , doth not therefore cease , neither doth this bring a passion on the minde , any more than Charity it self ; Because they are those things which in the Root are one and the same : otherwise , the aforesaid desire ceasing , a satiety or full satisfaction should cease , or an unsensibleness of fruition or enjoyment should even presently arise in Heavenly Wights . Therefore that desire or love is the fewel of an unterminable or endless delight : Therefore it is manifest , that understanding , will , and love , are things substantially co-united in the minde : But in the sensitive Soul , that operations are distinguished , from the Root of divers faculties , while we understand things that are not desired , we also desire things we would not , nor do plainly know : Lastly , we will ( while any one inclines to punishment ) those things which we do not desire , but we would not have it so : From whence it happens , that desire doth overcome the will , and likewise the will doth compel the desire , and so that there are mutual and fighting Commands : All which things do happen in mortal men , as long as the sensitive Soul doth draw its own powers into a manifold disorder of division : So , impossible things are foolishly desired , things past , likewise things present , are desired , or wished not to have happened . But the desire whereof I speak , laying hid in the minde , unless it were of the essence of the minde , he that hath seen a Woman to lust after her , should not sin before a consent of the will : Therefore we now desire by the faculties of the minde , emulous or striving in the sensitive Soul , the effects whereof are refused by the will and judgement : Also in the manner ; for now the desire or love worketh one way , and the will another . Likewise in the motion of the day , or in duration , desire goes before , or followes willing , and one thing successively overcomes another , that it may restrain any thing distinct from it self , and that wholly in mortal Creatures ; because it is from the animosity of the sensitive Soul. But in those that are in Heaven , that love riseth again , as it were the substance of the minde : for there , nothing is desired which is not willed : And that is collected into a oneness , as well in respect of act , as substance ; Although they have their suppositions in the Root , diverse : which doth plainly exceed the manner of understanding in mortals : Because , indeed the Kingdom of God is now in man , but after an incomprehensible manner : but after death , the same Kingdom collecteth all things into its own unity : Therefore the chief or primary Image of God is in the minde , whose very essence it self is the veriest Image it self of God : which Image or likeness can in this life be neither thought with the heart , nor expressed by words , because it shewes forth the Similitude of God , without which , there is to other image in us which may be offered to our conception : For therefore the very minde is also wholly unknown to it self . And then , in the husk of the minde , or in the sensitive and vital form , there is the same Image shining back in the powers , according to the manner of the receiver ; because it is over-shadowed by a brutal generation , being frail and defiled through impurity : At length , the Body hath not borrowed so much the essentifical Image of the Light of God , but the figure onely . But the miserable minde being devolved into utter darkness from the uncreated Light , whereby it hath separated it self , hath so lost the native light of the Image , by reason of appropriation , as if it were proper unto it from a due behoof ; whereby it afterwards understandeth , willeth , or loveth nothing besides it self , and for it self : And therefore in rising again , it shall not represent the Image of God that is strangled or stifled in it , unless , in a corporeal manner of Adamical propagation , that is , in manner of a figure : Wherefore it also afterwards understandeth , willeth , loveth all things by a blinde apprehension , alwayes addicted unto it : For it hath known its own immortality , as it feels or perceives its damnation , and it complains that that is done to it as an injustice : Because the love of it self is onely to excuse its excuses in sins , as it were committed in the dayes of ignorance and innocency , with much frailty , layings in wait of enemies , and a want of sufficient grace : neither that an eternal punishment is deservedly due for a momentary transgression : Therefore it is mad , and hateth God , especially because it knoweth the Arrest of the losse to be unchangeable , and a liberty of escaping to be prevented for ever : Therefore its hope being cut off , it passeth into a finall and enduring desperation , from the very beginning of its entrance , unto place , where there is no piety , compassion , consolation , or revoking . And because the understanding doth naturally transform it self into the Idea of the thing understood ( which was known to the Heathens , and deciphered by the figure of Protheus ) that is , into the similitude of evil Spirits its objects : From hence there is alwayes within a present hatred of God , and of the Blessed , desperation , cursing , damnation , and the raging torments of infernal Spirits . The Almighty vouchsafe out of his own goodness , to break the Snares extended in the way for us by hellish hatred . Amen . Let these things suffice concerning the Soul , for the natural knowledge of its own self . Now therefore I enter unto Nature , that I may make manifest the Seat of the Soul in the Body . CHAP. XXXVI . A mad or foolish Idea . 1. A doubt of the Authour about mortal poysons . 2. The ignorance of the Authour from the Idea unknown . 3. A very powerful force of those Idea's . 4. Ignorance is the guide of Physitians . 5. Another Ignorance . 6. The doubting of the Authour . 7. The confession and , acknowledgement of the same . 8. A Prayer of the Authour . 9. The existence of the minde in us . 10. The floating of the Authour . 11. A History of the Authour about the examination of poysons . 12. What hath incited the Authour hereunto . 13. What he hath learned from thence . 14. That the understanding is of the Essence of the Soul. 15. That our will and memory dwells in the frail life , and why love is required from the whole . 16. How the understanding shakes its Beams into the Head. 17. A distinction of some Lights . 18. A certain act of feeling of the Powers of the Duumvirate , and the proper manner of the Soul in its own state of Lights . 19. A difference of Knowledges in respect of place . 20. A clearing up of Remedies for the Head. 21. What the Schools do well teach concerning these Remedies , and what defectively . 22. There is a diversity of understanding in the state of innocency , and now . 23. The difficulties of the Authour . 24. The knowledge of the faculties of the minde is far different from that of any other whatsoever . 25. The difficulty of searching for madness , and the manner proposed by the Authour . 26. A co-knitting of the minde with the sensitive Soul. 27. Why the minde is not in the heart , as neither in the Head. 28. A convincing Argument proveth that it is in the Duumvirate . 29. The glory of divine compassion doth shine forth in our griefs or weaknesses . 30. The first degree of madness . 31. The second is in a drowsie sickness . 32. The inward obstacles of the sensitive Soul. 33. The memory doth first fail . 34. The following arrivals or commings of defects . 35. The conceits as well of a sound man , as of a mad man , are made with Idea's . 36. Some mad Idea's are alwayes , and every where equal , others not . 37. The implanted Spirit of the Midriffs being hurt , madnesses do remain for life . 38. Things worthy to be noted . 39. The Confessions of mad men , being cured . 40. What conceptual Idea's may do for a mad man. 41. Excentrical and poysonous Idea's , wherein they may co-agree . 42. The power in a mad man which overcometh Colds . 43. The immortality of the minde is proved from hence . 44. Whence the Treatise concerning madness may be derived . 45. An extinguishing of a mad Idea is intended . 46. The manner of extinguishing the allied blot , and a double manner against madness . 47. Some Histories of the thing done . 48. The Remedy of a Hydrophobia or a Disease causing a fear of water , and of the biting of a mad Dog before a Hydrophobia . 49. A repeated History of a mad man. 50. Considerations of plungings under water . 51. A ridiculous thing in an added Remedy of Galen . 52. A miraculous curing of madness . COncerning the action of Government , and likewise concerning the Duumvirate or Sheriff-dom in office , even as becometh a natural Philosopher , I have written ; that I might discover the Seat of the phansie or imagination , and might describe the strife about the 〈◊〉 or Seat of the faculties of the minde . Notwithstanding , I being long since in doubt , knew not , after what manner an understanding , man might degenerate into a mad man. I knew indeed , that in sordid and poysonous things , there were certain natural endowed powers , not indeed understanding ones ; but those which might answer in affinity to those : So as that they might seduce our understanding against our wills into their own obediences ; as the biting of a mad Dog , the stroke of the Tarantula , the eating of Night-shade , &c. For I thought that in Feverish filths , their own co-like faculties did inhabit : wherein the dance presently troubled me : To wit , because in the same Fever , cruel raging madnesses had succeeded ridiculous ones : I from thence perswading my self , that in the agreement of madness there were not disagreeing effects : For neither at the first view , did I sufficiently heed , that poysons do wax mild , or are exasperated by ripening . And then , I looked back on a Lunacisme , because it did invade , and go back , together with its own conjunction of a Star , without all Society of poyson : Also that madness did return , and was silent , without any vice of the life running between . I wholly doubted , being ignorant as yet , that besides corporal poysons , there were also poysonous images , impressions , the most absolute and most efficacious Mistresses of the vital Spirits , the which , our intellectual Powers do as willingly as readily obey , as long as we are enclosed in the prison of our Body . In the mean time , I have known by Faith , that the minde is immortal , and that by the same right , it s own understanding doth remain unpolluted by the contagious of the Body ; because it was not meet , that that which was immortal and infinite or without end , should be diminished or hurt by frail or mortal things . On the one side therefore , I did willingly confess humbly my own ignorance ; but on the otherside , I did contemplate on the miserable , and never narrowly searched into condition of a mad man , and the so scanty Remedies in the greatest evils , and those mostly to be pitied : Because Physitians deceiving the World by a vain Doctorship , did perswade it , that they had thorowly viewed all things , neither that there was a Medicine for so great an evil ; because the Brain had equally put on an unequal distemper , as it were a Garment : yet they being asked , which was the primary distemper of the qualities , could not hitherto express it by a suitable Etymology . Wherefore the barren whisperings of the Schools being despised , after that I had taken notice , that hypochondrial madnesses were without controversie , belonging to the Midriffe ; I at first began to doubt , whether that cursed poyson should be brought unto the Brain , through certain singular or particular Arteries ? But at least , that suspition presently displeased me ; because every one should labour with an unexcusable madness ; unless perhapt in wise men , those Channels should remain perpetually stopped , and so they should be diseasie persons , that they might not become such . Likewise I have noted a difference between feverish doatages , and madness ; because this indeed might very often remain safe for a long time , without a lavishment of the health ; also in late Nephews , without the discommodities of the seed , and life . Indeed I often left off the matter , then to me unsearchable ; and I oftentimes from compassion , took it up again : And at length I saw clearly , that I was supported by false principles , that I was led aside by the credulity and authorities of the Heathens , and deluded by the unknown qualities of Diseases : And that thing I thus at first conceived , and by degrees , being more and more confirmed , I stript my self of the Doctrine which I had supped up in the Schools , concerning the Soul , and concerning Diseases : And then , from the search of the functions of the understanding , I committed my minde in rest , and poverty , unto the Lord , that he might perform what should be his good pleasure concerning me : yet I was not so indifferent , but that I alwayes had a desire to profit my neighbour . Therefore I begged of the Lord , that I might become known to my self , not onely , in acknowledging my own deep nothingness , morally ; but that as a natural Phylosopher , I might behold or clearly view the very powers of the minde : For truly I did suppose nothing was alike pleasing , or profitable , after the wisdom of Divine things , as once to behold my Soul as the Image of God. Wherefore I revolved the question concerning the Seat , or Marriage-Bed of the immortal Soul , and therefore I diligently enquired with my self , whether it were so wholly in the whole Body , that without a dependance on the Bride-Bed , or Central Seat , it should wander as a banished person , not being tied unto certain Cottages or mansions ? and it being wholly so in the finger , that this being cut off , the whole should depart from the whole , or through a hastening or speedy chance of fear , it should return inwards : Therefore I found the soul to be homogeneal or one and the same in kind , simple , and not to be divided ; else , neither could it be immortal . And then I knew , that its whole did shine only radially on the ignoble parts , after the manner of the light of the Sun , which should in the mean time as it were lurk in its Throne or Seat , and from thence should shine throughout the whole body , being altogether unknown to the sensitive soul , whose life neverthelesse , the mind it self should be : Verily , even as the God of all , is intimately present with every one of us , yet is he naturally unknown , nor felt or perceived by us . And then a debate arose in my mind , whether there were many centers , and those divided according to the vital necessities of the radicall bowels . But at length I knew that the mind was more tied up to one bowel than to another , as well in respect of the offices of seeing , as of understanding . And at length therefore I was reduced unto the individual bride-bed of one bowel . And while I enquired into the head , and heart , and weighed the doubtfulnesses of Authours , I presently for certainty found , that I ( which I formerly until now detested ) should depart into the precepts of the Heathens , who , as they were denied the knowledge of the true God , so also the knowledge of the divine image , which neverthelesse is the object of healing . Therefore I being destitute of authorities and companions , knew not whence I might begin the judgment of so great an heap : untill at length , God permitting it , I being destitute of humane help and endeavour , under many years diligent search , and hope of knowing the bride-bed of the soul , an unwonted chance befel me , the history whereof I will declare : For I was diligently heedful about the poysons of Vegetables , believing , that the poysons of so great moment were not hurtful to Adam before sin ; Seeing the Almighty created neither death , nor a medicine of destruction , and so to have sent forth such cruel things , not indeed that they might kill man ; but because he was constrained in the sweat of his face to eat his bread , to which diseases he was made subject also in sweats , that he should extract Medicines for Diseases . And therefore I did promise to my self , that that poyson after the manner of a Keeper , and a huske , did cover some notable and Virgin-Power , created for great uses , and the which might by Art , and Sweats allay poysons , and cause them to vanish . Wherefore I began divers wayes to stir or work upon Wolfs-bane : And once , when I had rudely prepared the Root thereof , I tasted it in the top of my tongue : For although I had swallowed down nothing , and had spit out much spittle , yet I presently after , felt my skull to be as it were tied without side with a girdle . Then at length some businesses of my Family unadvisedly befell me , I cast up a certain account , wandred about the house , and finished all things according to what was requisite . At length this besel me ( which never at another time ) that I felt that I did understand , conceive , savour , or imagine nothing in the head , according to my accustomed manner at other times ; but I percieved ( with admiration ) manifestly , cleerly , discursively , and constantly , that that whole office was executed in the Midriffs , and displayed about the mouth of the Stomach , and I felt that thing so sensibly and cleerly , yea , I attentively noted , that although I also felt sense and motion to be safely dispensed from the head into the whole body , yet that the whole faculty of discourses was remarkably and sensibly in the Midriffs , with an excluding of the head , as if the mind did at that time , in the same place meditate of its own counsels . Therefore I being full of the admiration and amazement of that unwonted percievance , I noted with my self , my own notions , and began the examination of the same , and of my own self after a more precise manner : And I plentifully found and sifted out , that I did far more cleerly understand and meditate all that space of time : And so that , that sense whereby I did percieve that I understood and imagined in the Midriffs , and not in the Head , cannot by any words be expressed . And there was a certain joy in that intellectual cleerness ; for it was not a thing of a small time of continuance , nor happened to me while I slept or dreamed , or being otherwise diseasie ; but fasting , and in good health : Yea , although I before had had experience of some extasies , yet I took notice , that those have nothing common with this discourse and sense of the Midriff understanding , which excludeth all co-operation of the Head : Because that I discerned with a sensible reflexion ( as before I had been forewarned ) the Head altogether to keep Holiday in respect of the imagination ; because I did wonder , that the imagination should be celebrated out of the Brain , in the Midriffs , with a sensible pleasantness of operation . In the meane time , I somtimes in that Joy , being in doubt , feared least the unwonted chance should lead to madnesse ; because it had begun from poyson : but the preparing of the poyson , and only a somwhat light or gentle tasting of the same , did insinuate another thing . In the mean time , although the joyous unthought-of cleernesse or illumination of my understanding did render that manner of understanding suspected , yet a most free resigning of my self into the Will of God , restored me into my former rest . At length , after about two hours space , a certain gentle giddinesse of my head twice repeated , invaded me ; For from the former , I perceived the faculty of understanding to have returned ; and from the other I felt my self to understand after my wonted manner . And then , although I afterwards divers times tasted of the same Wolfs-bane , yet no such thing ever happened unto me any more . But I from thenceforth perfectly learned many things . And first indeed , that as by extafies , certain flourishes of the soul do cleerly appear ; so by the aforesaid Rule of knowing , it appeareth that our understanding , as long as we are tied to the Body , is originally formed in the Duumvirate or Sheriffdome . Secondly , And that thing is by so much the more unthought of , because the ordinary framing of discourses is about the mouth of the Stomach , but not in any Bowel , but as it were in the Membrane or Filme of the Stomach , as if in an undividable place . Nor much othewise doth there inhabite in the Membrane of the Womb , a certain Monarchy of the whole ; yet so , that a wound of the Stomach doth presently import life , but a wound of the Womb not so . Thirdly , That for about two hours , I did perceive after an unlooked-for manner , nothing to be acted in the head ; and after an undeclarable manner , the whole Soul most cleerly to meditate in the Midriffs . Fourthly , That the like thing doth almost happen in the prayer of silence , and more and more manifestly in an extasie . Fifthly , And that therefore the intellectuall Soul is centrally entertained in the same place . Sixthly , Then also , that as madnesse is a defect of the understanding , so therefore that it is stirred up from the part about the short Ribs : Seeing the same faculty , which in health performs a healthy function , suffereth under diseases , a defect of the same ; to wit , as oft as the understanding is ecclipsed in its own seat . Seventhly , I have also certainly sound , that the power of willing doth inhabite in the heart , for from the heart proceed murders , adulteries , &c. Eighthly , That the memory sits in the Brain , there imprinted by the soul ; and that therefore it is in comparison of the other faculties , most easily hurt by a disease and old age : Yea , if any one doth labour that he may remember a thing forgotten , he sensibly perceiveth this his labour in the fore-part of his head . Ninthly , Again , seeing the will and memory differ , are at a far distance from the seat of the soul , or understanding ; I have concluded with my self , that the understanding is of the Essence of the soul , and unseperable ; but the will and memory , as they are possessed in the frail life , to be frail faculties , and of the sensitive life . Tenthly , To wit , that sins are made in the heart and will , in the flesh of sin , in the will of the flesh and of man : Therefore that love is required wholly from the whole mind , which ( by reason of its unseperablenesse ) is taken for the understanding , from the whole heart or will , from the whole imaginative soul , and the powers thereof dispersed throughout the whole Body . Eleventhly , I have found the understanding to cast its beams lightsomly into the head , yet by the means of a corporall connexion through an Aiery spirit , which while it strikes the bosomes of the Head , should bring on it a certain giddinesse and cloudly understanding : So although for sense , and fear , the spirits in that state should be plentifully diffused from the brain , yet there was likewise need of a singular light , which ascending from the midriffs , should enlighten the spirit the meane , through which it did passe ; which lightsome beame is no otherwise expressible , than that it is intellectuall and exceeding a sublunary contexture or composure : Because it is that which ought to be framed by the soul alone , which in it self is nothing but a meer understanding , or a substantiall and intellectuall Light. Twelfthly , That because sense and motion stood free , I did think , there was another Light brought from elswhere , or they did denote , that there was in that state a free passage of the spirits through the Nerves or Sinews : But my giddinesse did signifie that there was a certain obscurity in the head , before not perceived , and that it was dispersed in the Bosomes of the brain , by a new light shining from beneath . Thirteenthly , That the Liver should be of a due strength , or prosper well , also the heart of the Spirit should uncessantly blow out into the Brain , and likewise the required will of acting should persist indeed ; but the intellectual Powers onely , being stupified in the Brain , should as it were sleep , if they should not be enlightned by the Midriffs . But this light pierceth the whole Body , which way it casts its Beams : Even so as the light of a Candle doth ruddishly shine thorow the bones of the fingers in younger persons , as if the bones themselves were transparent . Fourteenthly , That from that time , I am wont also to have more significative dreams with a more formal discourse , and a clearer than before : For the minde once as it were retaking the offices of its own Body , doth afterwards better understand : From whence also afterwards , I attained the knowledge , how day unto day doth utter the Word , and night unto night sheweth knowledge . Fifteenthly , I was more assured , that then , my state was one ; but that of madness the Lethargie , Apoplexie , &c. another : For I seriously weighed my self with circumspection , whether that were the way , whereby men became foolish ; Seeing that in my full judgement , I was so void of all fear , that I did contemplate of my own matters not as mine : For I looked back on them crooked-wise or by the by , they being as it were shaken into the Head of a man of another World. Sixteenthly , I learned also , that life , understanding , sleep , &c. are the works of a certain clear or shining light , not requiring Pipes or Channels ; Seeing the shining light pierceth the vital light : Therefore also the Soul doth retract , diffuse , and withdraw it self by a motion proper unto it , and altogether diversly in sleep , watching , contemplation , an extasie , swooning , madness , doatage , raging madness , by its own disturbances , voluntary confusions , yea and the violent impressions of some Simples : Because the minde doth embrace an entire Monarchy in spiritual things , divided in many general and particular kindes ; no lesse than Bodies themselves shall differ among themselves , so also shall lights . Seventeenthly , At length , that the understanding being raised by invention and judgment , with a reflexion on places , on circumstances , on things past , said before , premised , and so on things absent , as absent , is made by an ultimate or the last endeavour in the Brain , through the afflux or issuing of a beam out of the Midriffs , as such an understanding doth presuppose memory : But that those things which are concerning future or abstracted things , without respect of circumstances , as if they were present , are wholly forged in the Midriffs : And for this cause , mad men do behold and prattle of all things as if they were present , as though they did talk of present things . Eighteenthly , Therefore poysons which have a power of displacing the imagination , do not primarily affect the Brain ; but the Midriffs onely : Which thing , the History of a Lawyer , who had drunk Henbane-seed ( elsewhere by me rehearsed ) doth sufficiently prove : For whatsoever the Stomach doth conceive , that very thing is plainly transchanged , and doth wholly passe into another Essence , before that the least quantity doth from thence reach to the Brain , and whatsoever thereof doth come thither , is already venal bloud , which hath put off all the qualities of its former condition in the entry of the first shops ; or at length , it slides cut of the Stomach , and together with the drosses , is thrust out of doors . And so no Simples , after what manner soever they are taken , are materially applied to the Brain : Therefore it is false , whatsoever the Schools do set to sale concerning pills for the Head , Pills of light , &c. For truly neither do Pills allure any thing out of the Head , neither doth the Head afford any thing which it hath not , besides snivel , which it sends unto its own Basin , and not to any other place : But if any Medicines or things do strike the Head , alter it , and profit it ; that wholly happens in regard of the Midriffs , from which there is an unshaken action of Government into the Head , even as hath been already sufficiently proved before . Indeed they have rightly taught , that giddinesses of the Head , and Coma's or sleeping evils , are stirred up by reason of a consent of the lower parts : but neither is their Grain without Chaffe : For the Schools have introduced grosse , Smoakie , and sharp vapours : And then , and that for the most part , in such distempers , they will have the Brain to be affected with the first or chief Contagion : And therefore it s a blockish thing to have applied Remedies to the Head , to the mark I say , and without the Archer : To wit , because they have not known the true internal efficient cause , and its connexions , nor the accustomed manner of making Diseases , and because they have plainly neglected the action of Government , and the Conspiracies of light . Nineteenthly , Also lastly , hence I have understood , that the immortal and untireable Soul , while it did of due right govern its own Body before sin , it understood all things intimately , optically or clearly , and that without labour , tediousnesses , and wearisomness : Because it did understand all things that were in its power , in its own Center and unity , without the help of Organs or Instruments : But now being detained in a strange Inn , it being as it were wholly hindered , hath committed the diversities of Functions unto the sensitive Soul its Hand-maid . In this place , I presume to give a Reason of the thoughts of others , who cannot sufficiently promise , or grieve for my own : For I have proposed to phylosophize concerning the more hidden Spring of Cogitations , and of the most abstracted ones , concerning the vices , and exorbitances of floating and uncertain Cogitations : yea we must pierce deeper , when as we must take aim at the powers of vitiated Cogitations themselves , and must come unto the fountainous and occasional causes of these vices . Surely it is a matter , hard , obscure , and unpassable , wherein the speculations of the Schools , the succours of Bodies do fail before the threshold , yea and of Diseases , whose causes and effects do fall under sense , or are proved by the dissections of dead Carcases : wherein I say , the Patient or suffering imagination doth indeed enlarge it self ; but the Agent or active one is hidden . In other diligent searches , that which is vitiated is known by a knowledge of the whole ; but in those of the minde , the cause and manner of a violated understanding , should as yet be far more easily conceived , than of a sound one : because that a sound faculty doth more ascend unto the likeness of God ; but a defectuous one doth more incline it self unto the meditations of corrupted Nature . And therefore that which is sound or entire in the faculties of the minde , is not demonstrated by a former cause : but that which is deficient , doth after some sort make it self known by a rupture of the co-knitting of causes . Also madness is alwayes of a most difficult learning , because it contains in it a denying , together with a privation : wherefore in the case proposed , I have judged of the same in another way ; whether perhaps , by searching into the manner of making in any one kinde of madnesses , I might finde an utterance for the other : Therefore I have proposed that madness which ariseth from a strong , and continued contemplation , feat , and passion : Forthwith afterwards , I concluded that the quality of the poysonous matter , was to be known , and the dispositions of Instruments which should concur , when as any Simple being taken , or something inwardly generated , had stirred up madness : But the knowledge of one sort of madness being attained , it shall be the easier to measure afterwards the diversities of the same , by descending into the ampleness of the manners or measures , strength , approaching , application , and variety of particular kinds : For therefore I first of all reckoned to search into the Seat of the Sensitive soul , to wit , the exorbitances whereof do cause madnesses . For truly I have considered , that in what seat the animal form should abide , in the same also the immortal mind should co-inhabite , as being tied unto it , which should refuse a duallity , difference and diversities of mansions : For neither was it meet for that mind to be tied to the body without a mean , when as the Seed of man , no lesse then of a beast , by voluntarily flowing down , should be limited even into a living soul exclusively : And so that it was meet for the mind to be tied to a social form , and a formal Light , with which it might best agree ; as in the Chapter of Forms , and the book of long life concerning the entrance of death . Therefore I first of all decreed , that the immortal mind hath not chose a mansion for it self in the heart , indeed a bowel so unquiet , and greatly extended with so many disturbances and divers offices of the body . Also , I have shewn , that the head is not a fit Inn for the immortal mind , because it was busied in governing the motion and sense , and especially because its conspiracy being stopped up from the lower parts , at one only instant , the faculties of the mind being cut off , do perish , neither do they meditate of the least matter , and therefore that it hath not in it the proper operation of the mind the Princesse ; yea rather , I have seen the ill disposed Duumvirate for the most part to disturb the head ( otherwise well disposed ) into madnesses : And therefore I having admired at the quiet of the Spleen , and likewise the withdrawing thereof from the government of the body , I intentively considered of this convincing argument . If the mind , the image of God , be centrally in the head , it shall be either in the bosoms , or in the very substance of the brain : But not in this , because it is that which wants sense and venal blood , being destitute of commerce , whereby it may be present with the whole body , to which it is bound . Indeed it is controverted by none , that the head doth rule by sense and motion : But that is a lesse , bruital and beast-like government . But we are constrained to believe , being perfectly taught by the disorders of diseases , that the head is governed from elswhere , in the suspensions or withholdings , and exorbitances of the mind . But that the soul is entertained in the hollow of the Brain , I have judged it unmeet that the immortal soul should have married a wandring and fluid spirit , daily arising out of the venal blood for every moment . Wherefore it desired a more stable and quiet Inn , than that which should be slideable every hour . It hath rather rested in the Center or middle of the body , in the substance of a bowel , whence it might equally commune with all the Members , by reason of the unity and continuation of the implanted Archeus . But seeing the Organs of the body , in respect of the mind , are dregs and husk , it hath chose out to it self the kernel of the body , to wit , a gentle spark , a formal light , or the sensitive soul , to wit , which the mind hath married by the command of the Lord ; and what God hath joyned together , man may not separate without guilt . In the mean time , the miserable state of mortals is to be lamented , to wit , that the mind is tied to the sensitive soul ; indeed to an impure Being , given to concupiscences , enticements , and pleasures , and that the immortal mind doth so easily assent to it , as if it would now sleep for ever in the carelesnesse of its own self . But not so ; for by so much is the glory of divine compassion the greater , which by its own grace alone , doth freely revive , and support out of the drowsie sleep of death , those whom he will have saved : surely else , the sensitive soul being subject to diseases and madnesses , should be alwayes prone into any kind of pleasures . For the first degree of madnesse doth plainly appear in sleep ; yet is it naturall , while with the Title of honest recreation and leisure , it sinks it self with a pleasure of rest , into its own Inn. Moreover , all drowsie sicknesses are the excentricities , vices , defects , and expresse madnesses of natural sleep ; which indeed do now no longer issue from a proper liberty and pleasure of the sensitive soul ; but arise from excrementitious filths , as it were feverish ones : For even as natural thirst is the feeling of lack of moysture , but feverish thirst is from the deceitful wilinesses of an excrement ; So drowsie sicknesses are not made by a natural faculty , whereby the soul stirs up sleep to it self ; but being seduced , or overcome by the strange impostures of impurities . Therefore sleeping evils , and likewise the Apoplexy , speechlesnesse , &c. are not so much the vices of the erring soul , as the weaknesses of the same , contracted by the Wedlock of vitiated Organs : For the companies of impurities do as soon as may be , occasionally invade the monarchicall state . Not indeed that it is necessary that those materiall impurities do diffuse themselves into the animated or soulified light by a connexion ; for it sufficeth that they have a stupefactive poysonous force , destructive to the sensitive soul ; because they do alienate the imaginative faculty , even so that as of the spittle of a mad dog in the fear of water ; so also the madnesse of carelesness is introduced by those soporiferous things ; that power is in those filths potentially and seminally from the beginning , very unlike to it self , after it hath come to maturity , no otherwise than as an Acorn from an Oake . Therefore the dregs or filths do imprint a forreign Phantasie on the sensitive soul against its will , which manifestly appeareth in Opium , Henbane , &c. And which filthy heap of impurities , besieging the sensitive soul in its own original bowel , doth make the act of the understanding of the mind , drowsie , it not being able to shine freely into the sensitive soul thus besieged . Wherefore the sensitive soul being destitute of a governess , doth stir up tumultuous storms , and lists up its own tempest by degrees into the case of the will , whence it also becomes wrathful , and is carried after an headlong and inverted order . At length the head by a preposterous knitting or conjoyning , draws out its own images of witty or pleasant things : Whence it comes to pass , that the doatages being for the most part consumed , no remembrance of things done remaineth ; because the sensitive soul being violently smitten by the besieging , hath rashly moved all things ; whereas otherwise , madnesses , being void of such filths , are for the most part mindful of things done . For I have many times certainly found , that Doaters have felt before-hand , intellectual Images or Representations to be dismissed from beneath , to be troublesome upwards , and that they have first been weakened about the memory : and so that hence also I have gathered , that the intellective power is seated far from the head ; no otherwise than as the parts remote from the heart , do first of all feel a defect of a vital bedewing . In Doatages I have observed the memory of things once conceived , first to stagger , and then , that instead thereof , an importunate and continued remembrance of one thing hath arisen , which hath it self in manner of a repeated dream , with a most troublesome inversion or confusion , and a labour of sleep , which labour , watchings do presently follow , to wit , while the foregoing dreamie images have enfeebled the memory of the brain , then a certain waking Dream , with an expresse doatage from the Midriffs , doth enter . For , neither is the doatage made with a cessation of understanding , even as in the Apoplexy , sleepy evil , swooning , &c. But there is a confused , uncessant propagation of Idea's formed in the Midriffs , shaken like beams upward . And seeing that in health , conceptions are not otherwise made without Idea's : in a dotage also , there must needs be its own mad Idea's : But altogether with this distinction , That Idea's or likenesses in health , are formed from a liberty of the soul ; but mad ones are sealmarks brought into the sensitive Soul against our will , and therefore they doe also violently withdraw this out of its path : So far is it , that mad Idea's should be formed by the mind , which knows not how to play the fool . For it is manifest that Idea's doe follow the disturbances of things from whence they are made ; which is most clear in a mad dog , and the Tarantula , whose poison doth produce a proper , determined , and equal madness , and Idea's alwayes co-like to themselves : so also a strong disturbance of our imagination doth forge an image , and imprint it on some filths ; but if not on the nourishment it self , yet even on the solid and constitutive part of us : whence indeed there is a continued propagation of new Idea's , 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 and ample●ess thereof in mad folks 〈…〉 or truly , from fear , contention , envy , ambiti●● , love , study , care , shame , coverousness , and 〈◊〉 co-like disturbances are madnesses made : And so much the more miserable are those which are stirred up without the infamy of excrements , because they do either continually persevere , or do return at set periods of relapses . Otherwise , the filthine●ses being consumed , the blemishes sprung from thence do voluntarily cease . But madnesses , whether they do rage with a continuall heat , or do return by intervals , they at least have so defiled the spirit of the Duumvirate , that they have radically imprinted the storm of furious-images received after the same manner , as a blemish branded on the Young from the exorbitancy of its mother great with child , is durable for term of life . Indeed , even as the mark of a Cherry in the Young , doth every year wax green , yellow , and red , with the fruits of the Trees ; So also maddish Idea's arising from disturbances , have in the Spirit of the midriffs , their incentive or provoking intervals of repetitions , accesses of periods , and imbitterings ; or also their uncessant fewels of continuations : Which thing a Lunacisme doth cleerly expresse unto us , to wit , it keeping the Conjunction of that Star. Neither verily is it a wonder , that those madnesses have themselves in the Duumvirate , in manner of a blot ; for the Spirit is capable of seeing in the eye , not elsewhere in the whole body . Therefore seeing the Duumvirate doth by a radical Ordination of the Lord , continually employ it self about imaginations , therefore the incidencies or chances that are brought on it , ought so to vitiate the family-Government of the Imagination , that it receives a re-planting of the relapses of the Idea conceived . In the meane time , we must take notice that a Lunatick person could not be cured , but by the casting out also of the unclean spirit ; whether this shall be a companion of the Night-star , or finally the chief effecter . I likewise in all madnesse do find a great arrogancy , in taking to it a certain unmortified sociall passion , which doth also remain for terme of life , and being transferred on modern Nephews , doth shine forth : Because the mad Idea hath pierced the implanted Spirit , whence at length it violates the Seed , being made proper or natural to it . For I have the more curiously searched into many mad men , and have cured not a few , as well those who had become mad from great disturbances , passions , and other diseases , as those that so bec●me , from things taken into the body ; and they have told me , that they fell by degrees into madnesse , which was wont with a foregoing sense to ascend in them from about their short ●bs or midriffs , as it were an obscure Phantasie and cloudy temptation of madness , wherewith it first they were pressed as it were against their will , untill the Idea at length , had gotten a full dominion over them : But being returned to themselves they were mindfull of all things acted ; for they boldly or confidently complained of all things , to wit , that at first they were spoyled of all consequence of discourse , and that they remained in the punctual plunging of one conceipt ( without which they thought of no other thing ) with grief , trouble , and importunity : For they thought no otherwise , than as if they had alwayes beheld that conceipt in a glass ; yet , neither did they know , that they did then think that , or so behold it in their own conception : Although they did so stedfastly think , that if at length they should happen , a little before the entrance and dominion of madnesse , to stand , they had stood for some dayes , without weariness , neither should they know that they did stand . For it thus befell them , that that Idea of foolishness which had driven away discourse ( by which else they had been eased from their immoderate and inordinate weighing or examining ) was imprinted with a dominion over the Spirit , the Lieutenant to the understanding : Yea , that which these persons had made in themselves by a long delay , & continued cogitation , was attained by others , by a sudden and violent disturbance , in a short time of delay . In the mean space , some complained , that while it was a working , they were oppressed with an unwilling and importunate Troop of thoughts , as it were a Smoak being stirred up from beneath , the which if they would suppresse by discourse , yet a repeating of the same conceipts alike troublesome and importunate , returned . But others , who had not power over themselves , or were otherwise without comfort , presently after they were diverted from a strong and fixed contemplation , as oft as they would sleep , or were otherwise at leisure , they returned with a plausibility into their forbidden or hindred speculation , yet altogether troublesome : therefore rejoycing in solitarinesse , they withdrew themselves from the talks of others . Because conceipted Idea's as yet wanting a body , have and hold themselves in respect or manner of an intellectual light , and therefore they do pierce the first constitutives of us , which is not likewise lawful for meats and other bodies to do : Therefore they do pierce and cloath themselves with the aiery body of Spirits , and by means hereof do infect the vital Forms of the parts . Yet with this difference , that Idea 's , which were forged by the excentricity of conceits , did indeed enter , and more admitted more powerfully , but were imprinted more slowly : whereas otherwise , 〈…〉 that cause madness , a disease mediating , ●●d by degrees sow their own ferment on their proper objects ; but at length they did 〈…〉 imprint it on them , as it were sealed on nature . And it is a thing proper to mad folks , that however naked , he doth lay on the ground , or doth lodge all night in marble , in the sharpest blowing of the North wind , he shall not be frozen , or his joynts d●e together with himself : whence it is not sufficient to have said , A mad man feels not cold , nor knowes that he is cold : For truly a depriving , or denying of knowledge or sense , affords no real thing , and much lesse doth it make hot , or take away the forces from the cold , that therefore it should cease to freeze the flesh : For although a child in the Cradle doth not fear the plague , nor knowes that it is present , the plague hath not therefore lost its right over him . Therefore there is some kind of power which overcomes Colds , neither doth it submit to a sublunary tempest . And hence it is chiefly manifest , that the mind in us is immortal , and not capable of suffering : Indeed the mind it self marking , that the sensitive soul doth not govern man according to the requirance of our Species , doth as it were out of compassion toward a guiltlesse blindnesse , by its own virtue , wherein it is superiour to the Elements , issue forth an unsensible beam , which deprives the body of a mad man , of the mortal importunity of cold . Furthermore , seeing all madnesse doth arise from a budding or flourishing , conceptual , forreign Idea implanted into anothers ground , and that all this speculation is directed unto so●e profitable end , and not onely to curiosity or ostentation : I have considered also , that a mad Idea , to wit , already imprinted on the radical principles of life ( and so also hence to be propagated into families ) cannot be taken away , together with the Subject which hath cloathed it : Therefore a remedy was to be found out , which might slay , kill , take away , or obliterate that aforesaid image of madness , or the blot now charactarized ; no otherwise than as a blemish imprinted on the young , by the moving of the hand of a dead carcasse on it ( which was killed by a long consumption , & stripped of every property of life , until the cold shall pierce the blemished part , which is done in the space of one miserere ) doth for the future vanish away of its own accord . After the same manner also that the Idea of madness ought to perish , the immediate subject wherein it doth inhere , being in the mean time safe : Whether that be done , by introducing a death of the Idea , or by in-generating an Idea of equal prevalency , or one that over-powreth the foolish Idea : For from hence it comes to passe , that a remedy for madness hath been hitherto despaired of , because none hath hitherto carried up the nature and properties of madness above the distemper of the first qualities : yea , Paracelsus himself , otherwise injurious against heats and colds , hath enslaved madnesse wholly unto heat , and blood-letting , and hath therein rendered himself ridiculous . I confess the scope of curing hath seemed difficult , because not onely the Idea of a corrupted imagination , and a sealie mark and blemish is introduced into , and imprinted on the innermost point of the understanding ; but also because the restoring of the in-bred spirit is accounted plainly impossible . Indeed a wished aid of Secrets hath been implored , but the progress hereof hath been slow , because a stubborn enemy did resist within . But medicines have been administred , wherein a symbole or mark of resemblance doth inhabit , that is , the fermental imagination of a sounder judgment . For truly , as there are poisons of the mind , causing alienation for a space , or for the whole life-time , to wit , which do introduce a proper phan●●sie into us ; as a mad dog , the Tarantula , &c. So also there are in Simples their own fruits , of the knowledge of good , and evil , in their first face indeed poisonous ; under which notwithstanding , the more rich treasures and renewings of the faculties of the mind are kept . But seeing it is not safe to cast those remedies on common Physitians , by reason of the manifold abuse of the wits of this age : Lastly , seeing neither is it fit or meet for every one to go to Corinth : therefore in another way , which is of the mortifying of foolish Images , have I thought meet in this place to proceed . But some Histories have confirmed in me the consideration conceived : the which , as those that are to be imitated , I will here rehearse . There is a Castle , scituated by the Sea-●●le , four leagues distant from Gandt , which they call Cataracta : I saw a Ship swimming beyond it , and therein an old man naked , bound with cords , having a weight on his feet ; under his arm-pits he was encompassed with a girdle , wherewith he was bound to the Sail-yard : I asked what they meant by that spectacle : One of the Marriners said , that old man was now Hydrophobial or had the Disease causing the fear of water , and to have been lately bitten by a mad dog : I asked , toward what part of the Sea would they carry him ? did they intend his death ? Nay rather ( saith the Marriner ) he shall presently return whole : And such is the blessing of the Sea , that such a kind of madness it would presently cure : I offered them an earnest-penny , to take me along with them as a companion and witnesse : Therefore we had sailed about the space of an Italian mile , when as the Marriners did open a hole in the bottom , whereby the whole Ship was almost sunk even to the brim : Indeed they used that brine to recoct Spanish salt . And when as that hole was now again exactly shut , two men withdrawing the end of the Sail-yard , lifted up the top thereof , and bare the old man on high : but thence they let him down headlong into the Sea , and he was under the water about the space of a Miserere , whom afterwards they twice more plunged , about the space of an Angelical Salutation : But then they placed him on a smooth Vessel , with his back upwards , covered with a short cloak : I did think that he was dead , but the Marriner derided my fear : For his bonds being loosed , he began to cast up all the brine which he had breathed in , and presently revived . He was a Cooper of Gandt , who being thenceforth freed from his madnesse , lived safe and sound . From hence , as our soul is a Chamber-maid to find out reasons before unknown , I presently understood the Idea of the madnesse , and the mark of the imprinted poison , to be like as is a mortified blemish in the Young : For I knew that warts , and likewise ulcers , and forreign , future , and strange poisons lighting on the first constitution , were separable , the vital root of the Individual remaining . Also the Marriner did relate , that the Dutch , by a raw herring salted , for three dayes space renewed , and applied to the biting of a mad dog , do take away all fear of madnesse . But where negligence had hindered that thing , at least , that by the beheld manner of plunging , they are all cured : For they who abhor water , it s no wonder if they are cured by water . Afterwards it remained deeply imprinted in my mind , perswading my self , that that would not be unprofitable in other kind of madnesses . Therefore it happened at Antwerp , that a Carpenter , perswading himself , that in the night-timehe had seen horrid appearances or ghosts , became wholly mad with the terrour thereof : And he was sent unto the Tomb of St. Dympna the Virgin , where those who are possessed by an evil spirit are wont to be freed ; the matter being thereby wrested into an abuse , that all mad men should indifferently be sent thither : As if the condition of those that are possessed , and mad , were the same : The Carpenter therefore is nourished a whole year , and mad , however the wonted remedies were implored ; and when as moneys were not sent from Antwerp , for the last half year , they sent back the mad man bound in a waggon , who , when he had loosed his bonds , he leapt out of the Wain into a deep and neighbouring pool : He being at length drawn out was laid up into the Waggon , for a dead Carcasse ; but he lived for eighteen years after , free from madnesse . By which example , I ( being raised unto an hope ) knew , that not only the madnesse from a mad dog , but also that an inveterate or ancient Mania or madness might be cured : And that thing I afterwards often tried ; neither hath the event deceived me , but as oft as through fear , I drew these mad persons over-hastily out of the water . I likewise learned by the example of the Carpenter , that it would be all one , whether the aforesaid plunging , or choaking of the mad Idea , should happen to be in fresh water , or salt . A certain woman , to me known , commendable for her much honesty , in the moneth November , in a dark evening , rushed head-long from a bridg , into a small River or Brook , with a Carr of two wheels : And when they were intent about the horse , they neglected the poor ●id woman , but she remained under the water , until they had unloaded the Carr of some wares : At length , being mindful of that poor old woman , they brought her to a neighbouring Village , as it were a drowned dead carcasse , wherein , the wife of the Inn laid that woman on a table , with her face placed downwards , and her head hanging downwards : And it came to pass , that she thus dismissed the water drawn into the lungs . It seemed to me like a fable , until mat in the mountains of Hannonia or Hungarie , a young man drowned in swimming is brought unto a noble Matron , a companion of my journey ; who bad the mother , bewailing the death of her son , to be of good cheer : Therefore she stretched the young man with his face placed downward upon his knees ; and when the feeble young man thus hung , being altogether naked , he at length ( the water being cast back ) began to breath again , and revived in our sight . Again I remember , that in the year 1606. I returning in the evening from the Castle of Perla , two leagues distant from Antwerp , found a company on the bank of the Rotomagian Channel , because they complained , that a young man , the only son of a rich widdow , was drowned , who was sent for , and found his dead carcass laying on the ground in the stubble or straw ; she took him up into her lap , and kissed him , weeping bitterly : I bad that she should turn his body , with his head and shoulders hanging downwards , and his back upwards ; and the young man began after a quarter of an hour , to breath again . I have learned therefore , that drowned persons do not easily die , seeing both the aforesaid young men , lurked perhaps for the space of half an hour under the water : Neither must there be a cessation from prayer , as soon as he which is believed to be dead , doth cease to take breath . Galen , for madnesse of the biting of a mad dog , before the fear of waters hath arose , gives Cray-fishes or Crabs calcined to drink , for fourty dayes : Yet if that Calx be not given presently after the beginning , it profiteth nothing : and so also thus the use thereof hath remained unaccustomed . In the mean time , it is ridiculous , that in burning of Crabs , they add myrrhe , &c. or when they melt silver for to make a cup or flagon for a Perfuming-shop , that they add Triacle ; The antidote whereof the devouring flame consumes , before the living creature be roasted . But Paracelsus affirms , that the Hydrophobia is cured by sharp loosening medicines ; but surely the event hath not answered his promises . Therefore Catholiques despairing , nor trusting to these remedies of the Universities , our Country-men flee to St. Hubbert , where by some Rites performed , they are cured : Yet this is remarkable therein ; That if the Rites be not precisely observed , the madness which otherwise did hitherto long lay hid , doth forthwith arise , and the Hydrophobians are left without hope . There is a robe or gown of S. Hubbert , locked up in a chest with six divers keys , and also kept by six divers Key-keepers : but they do every year cut off part of that garment , the garment the while remaining always whole , for eight hundred years now , and more : Neither is it a place of jugling deceit , because it is not known at this day , whether the Robe be of fine flax , wool , hemp , or cotton ; and so neither could a new one be yearly substituted in its room : But they cut off part of the garment , that they may incarnate a thread or rag thereof , within the skin of the forehead of every one that is bitten by a mad dog : For from hence there is another miracle : That he who hath once recovered by his rites , through the thread or rag taken out of the robe , may delay the time for another that is bitten , and stupifie the prevailing madnesse for fourty dayes , and that for some years , until they to their own profit , can at length come to Saint Hubbert : yet with that condition , that if any one do tarry never so little above fourty dayes , and hath not ( as was said ) before obtained by request , a prolonging of the limited time , he presently falls into a desperate madness . For the Lombards do thus run to the Saints , Belline , and Donine , and so do request preservation : And they require the healing to be from a madnesse arising from a deed done : But for foolish madness or being out of ones mind , they do not hitherto ( as I know of ) invoke any heavenly Patron . CHAP. XXXVII . The Seat of the Soul. 1. The matter is as yet before the Judge . 2. A third opinion . 3. The head being dead , a certain Bride hath over-lived for eight hours at least . 4. The mouth of the Stomach being smitten , hath brought a sudden and total death . 5. A Paradox of the Authour concerning the Seat of the Soul. 6. The Creation teacheth this seat . 7. Physitians do occultly consent to those very things unwittingly . 8. The Lord confirmeth the Paradox of the Authour . 9. Some reasons . 10. Against the existence of the Vegetative Soul. 11. The Heart is a servant to the Stomach . 12. The seat remains fixt . 13. That the first powers of conceptions are felt in the mouth of the Stomach . 14. They unwillingly place the faculty of concupiscence in the Stomach and Liver . 15. Whither this speculation tends . 16. They have also against their wills assented to the Paradox of the Authour . 17. The seat of the mind is the same with that of the sensitive soul . 18. The manner of existing in its seat . 19. A piercing of Souls . 20. What the sensitive soul is . 21. A similitude of its existence . 22. Heat is not the fountain of the light of life , but the light of the Archeal life , or product . 23. What the mind is . 24. By the comming of the sensitive soul , death hath entred . 25. A comparison of the dignity lost , and obtained . 26. The Spleen , for the Duumvirate . 27. The dignities of offices . 28. All foolish madnesses do from hence take their beginning . 29. A remarkable thing touching the examination of remedies , a further progresse being denied . 30. How immortality did stand . 31. A change of the State. 32. A Corollary of what hath been said . 33. The errour of the Schools . THE Sur-name of a Duumvirate , or Sheriff-dome may astonish the Reader with the terrour of novelty : wherefore I am first to render a reason of its Etymologie , and afterwards I shall explain its government . Before all things the seat of the mind is to be searched into : For although the soul be every where , where the life of it is ; yet as the Sun is not properly but in his own place , in heaven , although the light thereof be wheresoever he casts his aspect : There is altogether the same judgment concerning the central place of the Soul : But there is a strife about the center , or place of exercise of the soul in the body : And the Standard-defenders , being as it were hung up in the air , do encounter over this thing , no● having a foundation where to fix their foot . For Plato contends for the Heart , for whom the Holy Scriptures seem to vote , while they reach , that out of the Heart proceed Murders , Adulteries , &c. But Physitians do respect the Head , as it were the Inn of discourse and understanding ; especially because the heart , by such an unwearied motion of a stirred pulse , cannot but make the soul to be troubled and unquiet . Those that baptize do follow the opinion of Physitians . Neither are there those wanting in the mean time , who determine the immortal mind to be so every where , and equally in the body , that they will have it to abide in no certain seat , no more than it can be tied or bound by the body : And so they suppose the soul to be a wandring , ●oving inhabitant of an uncertain cottage , and to be every way dispersed where life is present : But they do not regard , that some parts are cut off , the life remaining safe ; but that others being lightly smitten , do presently bring death on the whole body : Some one oftentimes , by his mangled face , and head as it were diminished , testifies death to be present with him , whose heart notwithstanding , by its lukewarmth and pulse , doth promise the soul to be as yet present : And that thing is daily seen in those that do long play the Champion . A certain Bride , being willing to celebrate her marriage in Opdorp nigh Scalds , because the Governour of the place was there , is saluted by her retainers with the noyse of Guns : But one of them dischargeth a Gun laden with a Ledden Bullet , but it pierceth the Coach , and the Temples of the Bride : She presently falls down , and is reckoned a dead Woman : But Opdorp is seven Leagues distant from Vilvord , whither when she was brought , proceeding to Bruxels , her Head was a dead Carcase , cut in thin pieces , and plainly cold ; yet nigh her heart , I noted a luke-warmth and pulse . Likewise a certain Image fell from a high place , on the Crown of a Woman , so as that the whole top of the Scull had depressed the Brain , almost two fingers in breadth : She was reckoned to have been dead , yet there was a slender pulse in both Arms , six houres after , and it was noted by many . A certain studious man , being strong , strikes another sitting at the Table , with his fist , about the orifice of the Stomach , who presently fell down with a foaming mouth , and being lifted up by us into his Seat , he was forthwith deprived of Pulse , and before Grace was read , his whole Body was cold as Ice . A Carter being thrust thorow about the mouth of the Stomach , with a Dagger , with a foaming mouth , presently dieth ; he is also deprived of all Pulse , and heat . Therefore under a humble Censure of the Church ; I will declare another Paradox . Although life be a token of the Soul , and this life be every where ; yet , as by the cutting of a finger , or foot , the Soul doth not fly away , nor the life of the whole Body ; neither yet can the Soul or life be divided into parts , that the Soul in its whole integral part may be any way dividable , and that death seemes to be near , through the hurting of a more noble member : In the mean time , it is certain , that the life in the member cut off , doth presently perish , although a part of the Soul be not therefore taken away from the whole Body : Therefore it is manifest from thence , that the Soul doth not sit centrally in whatsoever part there is an operation and presence of life : And it must needs be , that the Seat of the Soul is in some place , as it were its proper and central mansion : For from thence it dismisseth its lightsom and vital Beames , by the Archeus the Instrument of the vital light : Because the Soul it self is a certain light , and clear substance in the minde ; but in other Souls , it is indeed a light , yet not a substance : As elsewhere concerning the Original of Forms . The Creator ( to whom be all honour ) hath kept a certain progresse from a like thing , who instructs us in the Seat-royal of the Soul , that from the more grosse things we may consider things more abstracted : For in a Tree ( an Argument is peculiarly drawn from a Tree , by reason of the prerogative of the Tree of Life ) is seen a Root , the vital beginning of it self : For truly , in the Root as it were in a Kitchin , a forreign juyce of the Earth is cocted , altered , is alienated from its antient simplicity of water , and undergoes the disposition of a vital Ferment there placed : But being cocted , it is distributed from thence , that it may more and more be constrained , and become like , according to the necessity of every further Cook-room , which hath established Lawes for the Spirit inhabiting . So in the middle Trunck of the Body of man , is the Stomach , which is not onely the Sack or Scrip , or the pot of the Food ; but in the Stomach , especially in its Orifice or upper mouth , as it were in a Central point and Root , is the Principle of life , of the digestion of meats , and the disposing of the same unto life , most evidently established . For whatsoever natural Phylosophers have ever thorowly weighed concerning the heart that is of great moment ; they , will they , nill they , they have made all that common to the Stomach . So as Cardiogmus or the griping biting of the heart , Cardialgia or the pain of the heart , have been withdrawn from the Stomach , by a transchangeative and borrowed name ; and likewise swoonings , faintings , and epileptical insults or fits of the Falling sickness , and those things which do seem to carry the Rains of life , do take their original from the mouth of the Stomach : For in bloud-letting that is daily seen ; wherein very often , presently after a Vein is opened , giddinesses of the Head , and likewise dulnesses and obscurings of the sight are manifestly felt to spring from the Stomach , and to cease again , as oft as the finger is laid upon the opened Vein , and it being removed from thence , the same Sumptoms are again felt to arise from the Stomach , and to be stirred up from thence . Again , the Authority of the Word confirmeth my Paradox , in the entrance , while it asketh , What Cogitations have ascended unto your heart ? It doth not say , they descend unto your heart : As neither what Cogitations are bred or do arise from your heart : For therefore also , many times , the Stomach is called by the name of the heart , when as Adulteries and sins are reckoned to arise from the heart . For every Cogitation , in its first Original , ought to spring from elsewhere than in the heart : For the Pulse and vehement and uncessant motion of the heart would have forbid that thing : Because that Cogitation or thinking ought to be made in rest or quiet . As oft therefore as Cogitation is attributed to the heart , that manner of speaking is according to the acceptation of the vulgar , by taking the heart for the Seat of the Soul. And although the necessity of Seeds in Plants do tend further , unto a multiplicity of Functions , and consequently also doth proceed into the diversities of kindes of parts , yet the vegetative power , doth not therefore depart out of its antient , and vegetal Bride-bed , wherein it hath once fixt its Seat , neither doth it wander , or divide it self by reason of the dispersing of the Kitchins . That thing happens after a more formal and manifest manner , after that the disposition of the Seed hath adorned a Beast-like figure , and hath ordained a variety of members : For then the sensitive and motive Soul is given , and it is not stablished in any other place than in the Root , wherein it afterwards prepareth all Fewel or nourishment for it self . Indeed , in speaking properly , and understanding distinctly , there is not a certain vegetative Soul in Plants or bruit Beasts ; but there is a certain vital power , and as it were a fore-runner of the Soul : But the sensitive Soul takes into it self the Rains of that Archeal power , and that vital fore-running dispositive power doth melt in the Archeus , and afterwards submits it self unto the sensitive Soul : For the Head being as yet occupied with an animal Discourse , or the heart stirred with continual Pulses , and working uncessantly in the framing of vital Spirits , and in transplanting of venal bloud into Arterial bloud , are not fit Instruments for the Soul of a Beast : But when as this findeth an Inn prepared for it in the Root , it there resideth , remaineth , nor doth wander from thence to another place . For in very deed , the heart is a servant to the stomach , while it all its life long onely employeth it self in framing of the vital Spirits : For the entrance of the life of a very tender young , begins from sucking , and sleep , and for some time so continues : Both which things do happen in the stomach : where indeed the vital Spirits are established and preserved by the soul in the Root , in which the same soul doth for the future , hope especially to be nourished , cherished , fewelled , and increase : For it was never the study or office of the soul , to wander or passe from place to place , that it may chuse out a Bride-bed for it self ; because that which is directed by an understanding in-erring , is stablished in its own and certain seat , from the beginning of life : And there is that Center designed from the beginning of Creation , for the original of seeds , with a command and tye , that the soul doth not change its seat , or enquire after strange places , as it were more commodious for it self : For he who rules all things strongly , and disposeth of them sweetly , hath known the bounds or ends of every appointment . There is indeed in the brain of a living Creature , a motive virtue , and sensitive shop : But not , that therefore , the soul being shaken from its original and primary seat , shall wander from its radical Inn ( designed unto it by the Creator ) unto the Head : For the faculties and functions of the sensitive soul , are indeed distributed into a plurality of parts . In the mean time , the soul it self , remains unshaken from its antient place , where it was first bound and tied : For neither is it divided by reason of the diversities of offices ; because it perfects all things by the ministring Organ of an Archeus , and it being as it were every where present , is an assistant to that vital beam . First of all , it is easily perceived , that all the force of the first conceptions , and every entring and primitive stirring of disturbances doth happen about the mouth of the stomach : For if a Gun send forth a noyse unexspectedly , a shaking about the mouth of the stomach is perceived by the same stroak : so , if a sorrowful Message be brought on a sudden , a sudden and speedied alteration is no where felt , but in that Central Inn of the soul . So that persons against their will , and at unawares have before me , there placed the desirable Inn of the soul : which Inn , because it is first in duration , discourse , motion , and the act of feeling of the external senses ; so it denotes , yea convinceth , that the original Inn of the soul is in the same place : And that thing hath seemed to me most exceeding necessary to be known for the curing of Diseases , as I shall demonstrate in its place , concerning Diseases . For very many have remained without hope of recovery ; because Remedies have been applied to a member appointed for functions , but not to the Root from whence the errour sprang : For the Habitation and Court where the edicts are formed , being unknown , Medicines have been rashly administred unto the places of executions : For the place of the sensitive soul being unknown , it hath been unknown hitherto , that that soul doth there receive the primitive blemish , disturbance , and contagion of most Diseases : And in the same place , Medicines ought to be appropriated , if from the Root , a Medicine for Diseases is to be appointed : wherein surely , they have most grievously erred hitherto . At least , the first motions or assaults which are not in our power , are long since admitted to happen about the Orifice of the stomach , and to climbe upwards to the Head : But it is a certain thing , that every first motion doth begin from the Center , and so that the Center of the soul is wheresoever the beginning of conceptions is felt : But those are called forces , which are not in our power ; because they are the first conceits of the sensitive soul , as yet out of order , and not yet diligently examined by the command of the minde . But that which I write touching the seat of the sensitive soul , I understand also for the immortal minde : For truly , the minde hath not a subject more near and like to it self , wherein it may be entertained , than that vital light which is called the sensitive soul , wherein indeed the minde is involved , and tied by the bond of life , by the Command of God. But the sensitive soul perishing , through the annihilating of it self , the minde cannot any longer subsist in the Body ; and therefore it hastens to the Being of Beings , that it may passe unto places appointed for it . Therefore the radical Bride-bed of the sensitive soul is in the vital Archeus of the stomach , and it stands and remains there for the whole life-time : Not indeed , that the sensitive soul is entertained in the stomach , as it were in a Sack , Skin , membrane , pot , prison , little Cell , or bark : neither is it comprehended in that seat , in manner of Bodies enclosed within a purse ; but after an irregular manner , it is centrally in a point , and as it were in the very undividable middle of one membranous thickness : And it is in a place , nevertheless , not plainly locally . But because every Soul is a light given by the Father of Lights , and Creator of things ; but I have proved elsewhere that lights are immediately in place , and mediately in a placed Air : So also the sensitive Soul is in a place or seat , whereof I write at this present : But the minde , seeing it is a lightsome substance , it pierceth a created light , which is the sensitive soul , and this likewise pierceth the minde , and blunts it with its contagion of the corruption of Adam : of which , in the Book of long life , concerning the entrance of death into man. Therefore the frail , mortal sensitive soul , is a meer vital light , given by the Father of Lights , neither is it declarable after another manner or word ; seeing that in the whole World , it hath not its like , besides the light of a Candle : the which , because it burns , may be compared to a spark , yet onely by an analogical , and much unlike similitude , and as it were by the more outward husk . Therefore indeed , that sensitive soul , although it be locally present , and be entertained in a place ; yet it is not comprehended in a place , otherwise , than as the flame of a Candle is kindled in an exhalation ; and the light in that flame , is as it were life in the aforesaid soul : yet vital lights are never parching , but are separated by as many diversities as there are differences of souls . And from thence is God called by S. James , the Father of Lights . Therefore the heat of things soulified , is not of the Fountain-light of the soul ; but a heating light of the vital life ; and so it is the product of life ; but not the life it self : And therefore also it is emulous of a Sunny light ; even as in a Fish , the vital light is actually cold , because it is of the nature of the Moon : And for that cause , God made onely two and sufficient lights , for the life of sublunary things : yet the light of which light , or the souls themselves , are the subjects of inherency : And they are altogether neither Creatures , between a substance and an accident ; because of the Country of the intelligible world : Therefore in the sensitive soul ( for neither ever elsewhere in frail things ) as it were a spiritual light , made by the Father of Lights , is the Immortal minde conjoyned , and the which also , by the hand of the Almighty , every where present , or by an Angel , is co-knit unto the sensitive soul , by the bond of life , that is , of a vital light : which is an unseparable property of the aforesaid light . But the immortal minde it self , is a clear or lightsome , incorporeal substance , immediately shewing forth the Image or likeness of its God , because it hath received the same engraven on it , in creating , or in the very instant of enlivening or quickning : For both souls are created at once , and conjoyned by God , who will never attribute his own Honour of Creator unto any Creature . But before the fall of Adam , there was not a sensitive soul in man ; but by what meanes or after what manner , that , together with death , hath descended at once into humane nature , that shall be shewed in its own place . At least by the coming of the sensitive soul , death hath entred , and the corruption of our whole nature , and the Majesty and Integrity of our former nature was obliterated or blotted out . For truly , while the minde did immediately perform the offices of life , neither was the sensitive soul as yet present , immortality was also present , neither had beast-like darkness occupied the understanding . And so man indeed suffered Ship-wrack in his own nature , and that an unrestorable one : but by the new birth , under the calamities of tribulations , ma●●s exalted in a far more excellent manner , while from the image of God , he is taken , as adopted for his Son. Furthermore , it is altogether necessary , that every motion of the first force , and of the first conception of the soul , doth happen in the chamber of the soul : which thing , although it be chiefly felt about the Orifice of the stomach , and God be admirable in his works ; because indeed , it hath well pleased him to dispose such admirable powers in the membranes of the stomach , womb , and skins that cover the Brain , because they do bear before them as it were a certain image of a Common-wealth ; yet I have found the Spleen readily to serve for the ferment of the stomach , and for the Sun , Cocter , and Directer thereof . Therefore I have decreed , to call the conspiracy of both Bowels , the Duumvirate or Sheriff-dome . For although the digestive ferment , and the like aids , may seem to shew forth a Family-service of servants ; yet the service of houshold-servants in vitals , as it contains a power and strength , so also it promiseth dignity and authority : So that , as in the stomach there are feelings , faintings of the whole body , and most sensible , manifest , and open priviledges of coctions ; neverthelesse , the vital breathing-hole , causing the digestions of so manifold arteries , and so mightily of the stomach , hath commanded , that without a duality , disagreement , or powerful preferrence , there ought to be made one Family-administration of both Bowels ; indeed by divers offices , into one conspiring scope , although both do singularly attend on their own work , therefore also separated in place . Truly , there is one onely endeavour of the Duumvirate , and agreeing , and set harmony of intention . Therefore the neighbouring Spleen doth lay on the stomack without , as if it would nourish the same by a lively co-weaving of arteries : Not indeed that the arteries do give all force or virtue to the Spleen , but they have themselves as Bowels , after the manner of Stars : For although the Stars do borrow their light from the Sun , yet there is in every one of them his own peculiar property , and strength of acting , which is far most evident in the Moon , about the ebbings , flowings , and overflowings of the Sea. Be it therefore , that the arteries of the Spleen do supply the place of the Sun ; yet the Spleen it self hath obtained a double and native dignity peculiar to it self , although the Family-service of the Heart rejoyceth in the preparing of vital blood and spirit . Therefore the Spleen is the seat of the Archeus , the which seeing he is the immediate Instrument of the sensitive soul , doth determine , or limit or dispose of the vital actions of the soul residing in the stomach : For the sensitive soul doth scarce meditate of any thing without the help of the Archeus , because it rejoyceth not being abstracted , as doth the minde ; the which in its ebbing or going back by an extasie , doth sometimes , and without the props of the Archeus and corporal Air , intellectually contemplate of many and great things . Also in exorbitances of the Archeus , an aversion , confusion , exorbitancy , and indignation is administred . And the sensitive soul it self , being as it were the husk of the minde , doth alwayes , will it , nill it , make use of the Archeus : Hence indeed all foolish madnesses ( some whereof onely have been made known ) are called praecordial or Midriffe ones , and are ascribed to the place about the short Ribs : the which notwithstanding , do spring from the same seat , and the same fountain of the soul , as it were by the hurting of one onely point . Also Remedies do scarce materially go without the hedges or bounds of the stomach : And therefore , they are rare , which are brought thorow , unto the spleen : which thing in the difficulties of a Quartane Ague is plain enough to be seen : For the immortal minde is read to be inspired into Adam , by omnipotency , and that without the Wedlock of the sensitive soul : And that breath of life , he calls a substance : And therefore that is not found to be breathed into bruit Beasts . Therefore the minde was first of all immediately tied to the Archeus , as to its own Organ or Instrument , the which , therefore it could at its pleasure , daily substitute a-new , out of the meats , being sufficiently , and alwayes and perpetually alike strong : And from thence to awaken the immortal life , worthy of or meet for it self : For truly , the immortal minde being every where present , did perform all the offices of life immediately by the Archeus ( and the which therefore doth borrow his own liveliness from the minde ) who also is therefore after some sort , superiour to mortal things , and seemed to be the foster-Child of a more excellent Monarchy , than of a sublunary one . These things were so , before the fall of Adam : But seeing that in the same day of their transgression , they were made guilty of death ; a soul subject to death , came unto them , the Vicaresse and Companion of the minde : To wit , unto whom the minde it self straightway transferred the dispositions of the government of the Body : For at first , there was an immediate Wed-lock of the immortal minde with the Archeus . Presently after the fall , and the stirring up of the sensitive soul , the minde withdrew it ●●lf like a Kernel , into the center of the sensitive soul , whereto it was tied by the bond of life . The minde is not nourished by foods , it could chuse meats for its own Archeus , and prepare them for him , who now is constrained with an unwearied study to watch for his own support of nourishment : And that , by degrees , he lesse and lesse fitly prepares and applies to himself , by reason of the defective duration , and power of the sensitive soul . Thus therefore , I ought to speak concerning the seat of the minde , of the material occasion of mortality , and the necessities of Diseases and distemper : For truly , what things are here required , in the Treatise of the entrance of death into humane nature , is demonstrated at large , with an explication of that Text : From the North shall evill be stretched out over all the Inhabitants of the Earth . Therefore , for a Summary : The central place of the Soul , is the Orifice or upper mouth of the stomach , no otherwise , than as the Root of Vegetables is the vital place of the same . The minde sitteth in the sensitive soul , whereto it was consequently bound after the fall : But the Brain is the executive member of the canceipts of the soul , as it sits chief over the sinews and muscles , in respect of motion ; but in respect of sense or feeling , it possesseth in it self , the faculties of memory , will , and Imagination : Therefore the stomach failing or being defective , there are palenesses , tremblings , drith's , Consumptions of the flesh and strength , wringings of the Belly or Guts , the Asthma or stoppage of breathing , Jaundises , Palsies , Convulsions , giddinesses of the Head , Apoplexies , &c. For the most famous Physitians do wonder , that oft-times extream defects are overcome , not otherwise , than by remedies pertaining to the stomach , and that the evil of the stomach doth bring forth Diseases far distant from it self . And the more modern Physitians are amazed , that vulnerary potions should succesfully cure wounds of the joynts : And that according to Paracelsus , the Cancer , Wolf , the eating inflamed Ulcer , are cured by a Drink . Therefore the errour of those that cure the more outward parts that are ill-affected , as if they were fundamental ones , and they who do translate all healing about the head , it being hurt by the lower parts , proceedeth from hence , by reason of the ignorance of the seat of the Soul , life , and government . CHAP. XXXVIII . From the Seat of the Soul unto Diseases . 1. A greater sense is proved to be in the mouth of the Stomach , than in the eye , or fingers . 2. The Schools do every where , being unconstrained , consent to the Paradox concerning the seat of the Soul , although they do openly dissent therefrom . 3. The wayling of those that are exorbitant through much leachery . 4. The life of the stomach is chief over the other digestions . 5. The Ferment that is a friend to the stomach , is afterwards , an enemy to all the particular shops of digestions . 6. Divers Diseases are stirred up by the Ferment of the stomach being transplanted . 7. The snare of Gatarrhs . 8. The foundation of Diseases . 9. The joynt-sickness proves that thing . 10. Very many Diseases do flow centrally from the stomach , which are feared , and healed by the Head. 11. Of what sort the co-mixture of the Character of some Diseases may be . 12. How Medicines applied to or bound about the Head , do operate . 13. It is proved , that the seat of the Soul is not in the heart it self . 14. Remarkable things about the Character of Diseases . 15. Why the effects of fear do vary their own effects . 16. The same thing is considered for a poysonous occasional cause . 17. They are appropriated to the vital light . 18. An objection . 19. The intent of the Author . 20. A most notable decree or opinion about the Direction , Power , Progress , &c. of Remedies . 21. The healing of a remote wound , and the notable force of Alcalies restraining remote sharpnesses from the stomach . 22. The Schools are deceived about the Remedies of wounds . 23. A lixivial Salt doth potentially lay hid in Herbs , and performeth other things , which the Alcali of things calcined do not so easily do . 24. Whence the diversity in the Remedy of a wound , and Vlcer is . 25. The diuretical or Vrine-provoking virtue in a vulnerary potential Alcali , is examined . THE mouth of the stomach doth ( very often ) not endure the hand laid on it , although on both sides supported by the Ribs ; for a sure token , that it doth there undergo a most acute and precise sense or feeling , which otherwise did seem to be required rather in the tops of the fingers for the distinguishing of things to be felt : But that it cannot suffer the hand laying upon it , by howsoever acceptable a Luke-warmth , obvious , nor burthening it with its weight ; that very thing bewrayeth , that the life , the fountain of all sensibleness , is there : which notwithstanding , as it doth primarily accuse it self to be thus affected ; So also it makes it plain , that it is the sensitive soul , principally obvious to hurtful things , being involved in the immortal minde . But loe , I look back to the Schools , who being uncompelled , do confess the tenderness , or the too much acute , exact , and precise feeling of the Orifice of the stomach , to cause almost all swooning of the minde . And these things they so say , neither in the mean time , do they reflect themselves on their own Maxims stablished concerning the heart , neither do they consider , that that sharp sense , thus named by them , doth argue nothing else besides a vital aptness , but not that more , or more open or manifest sinews have happened to one part more than to another . In the mean time , they have not once considered , that the life or soul is entertained in that seat ; they being unwilling to have the soul beheld in a Sack or Membrane : and they had rather believe it to be laid up in the bellowes of the eares of the heart , or in the idle or slow Brain : For although they delivered their hands bound , while they marked or perceived that there are virtues in the Membrane of the womb , troubling , or stirring up commotions in the whole Body ; yet the priviledge hath not been as yet granted to the Schools , of beholding , and confessing , that that thing is likewise granted to the stomach . Indeed by the complaints of many that do wan●onize with foolish leache●● they were compelled ; because they did bewail that they were oppressed with an eveni●●●owling and vexed about the mouth of the Stomach : But the Schools have n●● therefore recalled the traditions of the heathens into a doubt , nor at least , being p●icked by the way , have they doubted to hold it confirmed ; whether happily there might be in the same place , the light , or entrance of a vital Beginning , which being primarily affected by ●rovoking causes , might first feel its own discommodities : For neither is the command decreed but by the Court ; as neither is the power of life delegated or appoynted , but by the life the President , that is , the Soul. For it is from thence first manifested , that unlesse a granted Character be imprinted on the Seed by the sensitive Soul , that very seed is to remain barren and monstrous ; no otherwise than as the flower of a Pompion , whereto a small Pompion is not seen joyned , or grown behind . Therefore , if the Soul doth sit as in an Inn , whence seeds do originally borrow the Character of their own fruitfulness ; it is also not to be doubted , that the powers , as well those vital , as propagative , do lay hid in the same place : And moreover , because that seat of the sensitive soul doth not only govern the digestive faculty of the Stomach , and doth stir up an unnamed sou●ness of the ferment of the Stomach unto this purpose , and suffers it to be clean taken away from it self , according to the vigour of the laws of nature , and to be cut short of its bound : But the very life of the Stomach is chief over all the digestions of the whole body , however dispersed into hidden , or also remote d●ns : Indeed , that is proper to the soul , by a singular radiation or in-beaming , and as it were participating of its own life , as though by an only and naked beck , and command of the Du●mvirate , it did constrain obedience from on every side , and that it were due unto it from every one : whence it likewise follows , that the same vital vigour is every way dilated , and by an erroneous guidance , that the exorbitances of the same are also diseasedly transplanted even to the fingers ends . So indeed , that hostile sourness , the which , although it be acceptable to the Stomach , yea and very meetly requisi●e ; yet now , in strange soyls , it becomes an enemy : For neither is the proof of that hostility to be borrowed from far : for truly in the dog-dayes it is plain enough to be seen , that fleshes , presently after they have entred the threshold of their begun corruption , they afford sour broths , and those tinged with an unwonted colour . Therefore a forreign guest of the Stomach being brought by a vital Beginning , unto a strange field , some strange defect doth for that very cause presently follow , which doth for the most part also , presently bewray its presence . Indeed , it is a disease , which if it be brought into the Veins , through the errour of the Du●mvirate badly enraged or enflamed , it brings forth Fevers : But if the hostile sourness or sharpness be brought into the habite of the body , or joynts , divers Apostems , and errours of the joynt sickness are straightway present : Apostems I say , which , with the least matter , do bite , no otherwise than as thorns , or an enforced D●●● do at length hasten into corrupt Pus , a weeping liquor , and thin corrupt sanies . This indeed is the deceitful snare of Catarrhes or Rheumes , which hath ensnated the Schools even unto late dayes , through the various descendings , defluxions , falls , and slidings of humours not existing : And it was easie for Satan to have driven readily inclined minds , seduced by Paganisme , headlong , hitherto ; no otherwise than as Astrologers have intentively noted the undeclarable scituation of the Moon and Planers , have feigned excentricall ones relatively , and simply , the which indeed they knew to be vain , and feigned for the necessitie of scituatioins found by measuring . But in healing that was nearer for Satan , thus to have deceived his own , that is , Pagans ; because sense , an industrious and importunate perswader was at hand , whom to prevent , it hath been neglected , while Art began in hast to be drawn unto lucre . For truly , from those things which are alleadged in the Treatise of Catarrhs , concluded demonstratively and necessarily , that is obvious to any one , that there is no matter for Rheums , likewise not a kitchin , place , wherein , or where they should be pr●pared , as neither a channel through which they should so diversly flow down even unto the most distant Coasts of the Body . But that it is a far more easie and nigh thing ( but only the hand being once delivered to Gentilism , hindereth , and that by a credulity they have stopt up their own way of enquiring into the truth ) to meditate that the life is to be on every side continued from the Principle of life : next also , that from a vital errour , errours are spread throughout the whole body , also into the whole body , even into the part as well containing , as the part contained . Again , It hath been rashly and frivolously devised , that this foundation being once passed by , any kind of remedy would be made ●oyd by successors , thenceforth deceived by Satanical craft : which thing , I would those that come after , might with me sufficiently contemplate : for from thenceforth they should also easily with tears , discern the great blindness of mortal men , as well in Physitians , as in all places , in medicinable things . For gowty persons are first ushered in , and they should accuse the Stomach , and that they do there feel the first motions , and as it were feverish disturbances , as the fore-●unners of a fit : For the tar●ness conceived and bred in the same place , only by the aspect and in-beaming of the vital light , is erroneously translated into a seminal glew ; which they now call Sunovia , and it is the transparent nourishable seed of the joynts , and it is there the more plentifully laid up , by reason of the frequency of motions , and a strong com-pressing of the bones : For truly otherwise , the bones should very shortly rage with heat , and be dryed by a mutual rubbing together . But although these things are much more fully described in the Chapter of the Gout , yet it is profitable for me more plainly to enlarge them . Surely , divers diseases are met withal , which draw their original centrally from the Stomach , whose rise and remedy are hitherto by an unhappy guesse , unknown : For there are in the Concave or hollownesse of the Stomach , sharp or sour , bitter , salt , burntish or stinking , poysonsom , unsavoury , &c. savours , & especially the sour , fermental , & digestive or trans-changeative savour is not proper or natural to the Stomach ; but it is prepared and inspired into it , by the Kitchin of the spleen , being a neighbour unto it for this end ; which ferment indeed failing , for that very cause there is an un-concoction in the house , a difficult or slow coction , a dejected appetite , a loathing of meats ; which things are presently beheld to be proper to , and stamped on fevers . Wherefore the old man hath said , That sowr belchings coming upon burntish or stinking ones , is a good sign . Also it somtimes happens that a sparing ferment doth flow unto the Stomach : From thence also that an unnourishing or wasting of flesh is stirred up , and that meats do become hard to be cocted : Yea , the Stomach which seemeth to be deprived of its ordinary feeling , neither which feels any things but those which are hurtful , and that as oft as it is unworthily affected by forreign things contained within it ; it presently under the smalnesse of the ferment , brings forth a watery liquor , and is busie in thrusting it out with a loathing . But I call that watery , which now and then is nothing but a meer water , likewise a slimy muscilage , also oft-times , unsavoury , and not seldome seasoned with a forreign tartness , which doth as far differ from a vital ferment , as a dead man doth from a living one ; so that , although they do participate in tast , yet they very far differ from each other ; which may be seen in the bitterness of Wormwood , and of asses or wild cucumber , or Coloquintida . For while the drink , & also the nourishment to be adjoyned in the Stomach , do offend through the penury of a lively ferment , they presently decay into a yellow liquour , which the Schools have hitherto falsly called the bowel Gaul , yea also one of the four constitutive humours of the venal bloud ; being ignorant the while , by what authour and guider , choler should be seperated unmixt from the venal bloud , nigh akin to , and intimately well mixed with it , and that ( surely much changed from choler swimming on the bloud ) should be all alone brought unto the Stomach ; Seeing there is not a passage from the Liver unto the Stomach , but by so many windings , which may worthily accuse this invention of the Schools of blockishness . But when the nourishment approacheth to the Stomach , that it may be made like unto it , and nourish it , and it faileth through the penury of the ferment , or a storm otherwise arisen in the Stomach , it presently pu●rifies and becomes infamous with a burnt savour : For that being detained in a lukewarm place , which hath now entred the threshold of life , and hath been received into the number of things by an by vital , it presently also putrifies , is made burntish , yea if delay shall have accesse , it becomes cadaverous : Whence are the disease of choler , lienteries or smoothnesses of the bowels , belly passions , &c. Also now and then the Archeus of the Stomach , being even unwilling to supply the smalness of a sour ferment , is wroth , and brings forth a sharp , sour , cruel one ; from thence are inordinate appetites , and likewise wringings as well in the Stomach , as in the bowels themselves , for the most part cruel ones . But if the plenty or harshness of food , doth flow unto , and overflow a moderate sour ferment , then the whole food waxeth bitter , that excrement by such a degeneration grows yellow , and gross , and a various Troop of evils being thereby kindled , it riseth up into a Flux , unless the whole be at once presently cast forth by stool . Somtimes also the Archeus of the Stomach doth conceive a fury , & is enflamed of his own free accord , so as the tartnesse doth not strike into the meats , but doth wandringly infect the Archeus himself : Then indeed the joynt sicknesse or Gout is conceived , and the Archeus being diffused throughout the whole body , doth notwithstanding immediately affect with its sharpness , the Sunovia or raw seed immediately adjudged for the fashioning of the Bones , and therefore laid up within the joynts : But he defiles the Sunovia or raw Seed of the more weak part in the strength of nature : Therefore the joynt sickness is reckoned to choose at pleasure , the part which it apprehendeth . And because that tartness being received in the center of the Stomach , is dispersed by the Archeus unto remote places ; therefore it is false that defluxions are propagated from the head , through the sinews and veins . So indeed , great wringings of the belly , by a conserving or consent of parts , do stir up a hurtful sharpnesse in the Stomach , which afterwards do oft-times wondrously shake the hands , and feet with a convulsion , and likewise straightway after , doth also resolve them with a Palsie . Therefore an undue tartnesse of the Stomach , if it lay hold of the dewy nourishment , and the spermatick nourishable juice thereof , how slenderly soever it be , it stirs up giddinesses of the head , and by so much the more troublesome ones , by how much these do the more behold or respect its hinder part . But an Apoplexy ariseth , while as an unsavoury Muscilage , plainly by a strange motion and entertainment , doth enter from the hollow of the Stomach into the veins thereof , about the Orifice , and doth keep the rightness of its own side , and distinguisheth a great one from a lesse , by theabsence or presence of poysonsomnesse . But there is for the most part in such chronical diseases , a certain sealing Character : So indeed the Gout doth oft-times issue from the Beginning of the Parents into the off-spring , and doth there patiently wait very many years , before that the proper fruit thereof doth obtain its own ripeness . Therefore in the vital Beginnings and radical Organs of the Stomach ( which are the local , or implanted Archeus it self ) that post-bume and translated gouty character or impression , doth stick fast by a hereditary right ; and consequently , likewise also , that entired character which is gotten by an inordinary of living , that sits in the Archeus of the orifice of the Stomach ; the which , while it is wearied by the insolency of a strange guest , doth sharpen it self for an expulsion of the same , and from thence also the fruit of an Apoplexy issues : For neither is that silent gouty Character materially laid up in a certain nest within , and received in a separated Stable , in the folds and wrinckles of the Stomach , as it were some forreign Tartar adhering to it ; But it is a committed character in the very Archeus of life . For let us feign a unity of the thing supposed , and of the property whereby that character doth lay intombed for the Gout , Apoplexy , or Falling evil , and is stirred up at the set stations of its own ripeness , or is much stirred by certain meats taken , or smels . And then let us consider the natural sharpness of the stomach , now degenerate , and likewise the tenderness of its orifice , stirring up swoonings and falling sicknesses ( which testifies nothing besides an easie feeling , hurting , suffering , disturbance of the life , and so an enemy present , tumulting from very many things ) therefore if the sharpness which is co-mingled with the Archeus , be stirred up besides nature , and seeing this is chief over all the particular digestions , that sharpness is beamingly brought down unto strange cottages , whereto is wholly an enemy ; and from thence doth the Gout or joynt sickness issue forth . But if it be co-knit to the meat , or drink , pains of the Colick , wringings of the Guts , and other exorbitances of the parts occasionally are present . But if that the sharpness of the Stomach doth degenerate , and associate it self with an opiate or drowsie poyson , with a piercing toward the seat of the Soul , the falling evil is straightway present . But if a stinking muscilage inclining to bitterness doth arise , there is a giddiness of the head ; and that more strongly insulting , doth stir up an Apoplexy . For neither is it meet to distinguish those precisely from each other , while it is better to have the matter or occasion exhausted . Likewise some external Medicines bound about the head , do preserve from an Epileptical fall and fit , which is for a signe , that either the fruit of the Character is hindered , or the applying of the occasion to the Archeus : Indeed in either manner the hurtfull matter is to be letted or prevented , to be extinguished or annihilated , that it be not co-mingled with the Archeus . And moreover , as vegetables are wont for the most part , to sleep in Winter , and to be as it were awakened at Spring , that they may send forth a bud , leaves , flowers , or fruits ; So a Gouty , Epileptical , &c. Character , is also stirred up into a ripeness at a fet period , unlesse the importunity of provoking things do forestal it : At leastwise , the giddiness of the head , and Apoplexy , &c. although they are brought back within occasional causes ; yet they do sit immediately within the very nest of life , in the Archeus , which indeed is implanted in the orifice or upper mouth of the Stomach . For in how easie a breviary , by things hanged on the neck or body , is the falling-evil suspended and detained ? Because an entrance of the hurtful cause into the sensitive soul , is hindered ; for there is a piercing of the hurtful cause lurking in the Archeus , to within , and the which doth therefore wholly take away the mind : Indeed it leaves a pulse , to wit , of the heart , but it so tramples on the sense , imagination , and every principal power of the soul , that for that space of time , they seem to be plainly withdrawn . From whence also we must note with a pen of iron , that the Soul so trampled upon , doth not dwell in the heart , which never a whit stumbleth . But the Gout , as it tends to without , so the Character thereof doth not so much affect the secret chamber , or seat of the soul , as the Archeus the President or chief Ruler of the digestions : which things do therefore happen , because an hereditary character of the Gout is stamped on the Young , from the beginning of Generation , and long before its quicking : And therefore , it respecteth only the Archeus ( but not the soul ) which then alone bare the whole burden on himself . But he that hath gotten the Character of the Gout by the exorbitances of his life , although it shall come to him being a man in years , yet it keeps the nature of its own property : whence it is made manifest , that the stamp or character of every disease is promiscuously to be admitted into the lap of the sensitive soul . So that as great fear hath made many persons Epileptical or to have the falling sickness for their life time ; so a co-like fear hath afterwards rendred many free from the Gout . Indeed in the one , the fear generated in the conjunction of the life and sensitive soul , an Epileptical character ; which fear being more slack by one or two degrees , and more outwardly , killed the character of the Gout , and rendred it either congealed by the fear , or even oppressed the Root thereof . Black choler according to Hippocrates ( which seeing it hath no where ever existed , is to be taken for the effect attributed to that choler ) subsisting in the Midriffs ( for he hath had respect unto the seat of the soul or the Duumvirate , not yet known ) if it he dispersed into the body , provoketh the falling sickness ; but if into the soul , madness . For such was the plainness of the first age , which indeed did candidly fift things ; but for want of light from above , it came not unto the grounds of the matter . There are some simples which are without a valuable abhorrency , which by eating of them , do produce true madness ; but others cause sleep : some also produce madmen for term of life , but others do bring forth doatages only , as it were certain drunkennesses ; according also to the equalities whereof , I will have the characters of diseases to be judged : Because not only such hostile things being taken , health , the mind , or life is alienated ; but hurtful matters being conceived , bred , and procured within , or also characters only , divers properties are introduced into the life , or into the Archeus the instrument of life : And not only those good inclinations of fathers , or grandfathers , are propagated into the Seed ; but also , certain diseasie seedinesses , such as are in simples , are co-bred , being as it were hardly threatned on us : The which indeed , as they do deserve a serious observation ; so much the more , as oft as that hostile and diseasie poyson is divers wayes coupled , somtimes to the ferment of the Stomach , somtimes to the implanted Archeus , then next unto the arterial spirit , also oft-times beamingly to the life it self , which indeed is nothing but a central light , capable also to be pierced by any radial or beamy light : So indeed the vital light of the sensitive soul is pierced by a forreign light , being coupled with it , no otherwise then as light thorow coloured glasse , doth tinge a simple light in the wall . Truly in the Monarchy belonging to life , and the which descendeth from the father of lights , are those living lights , which otherwise do shine in a simple Sunnie light , or in a coloured light , being attributed wholly to a fraile or mortal light : And there is a combination of living lights , not only capable of bearing each other , but also active on each other : so that from hence it is plain , that the Father of lights doth restrain the Bridles of life , and of whole nature . Therefore in the Arteries of the spleen , or in the very substance of that Bowel , is now a property stamped ( which I call the characteristical one of a disease ) or next in the very coat , veins , sinews of the Stomach , or also in the vital Archeus of the same ; which property doth propagate it self by intervals or spaces , into the sensitive soul ; or it shineth thorough it with a continual fewel , and compels that soul to be its Chamber-maid ; so that the soul it self , or the life or vital Archeus thereof , being vexed or troubled by turns , they are carried headlong into some motion of fury , madness , swooning , giddiness of the head , falling evil , apoplexy , palsie , convulsion , &c. I know well enough , that the adverse party that is not desirous to learn , will accuse the mist which I spread , while I wrest these sublunary things aside unto the life , unto vital lights , or unto the invisible world , where the Father of lights is President : But I pray , let them remember , that this is the right way , which else , cannot be searched into from a former cause : And let them know , that vital motions are not disturbed by , and doe not depend on the life ; Whether the while we contemplate of our life , or in the next place , of the life and vital properties , which do appear to us diseasie , mortal , and hateful . Truly I every where behold it to be nothing but the common good of my neighbour , for to open the windows , whereby the light of nature , hitherto obscured , may come into the Schools , and wits more successful than my self : Wherefore I have withdrawn the Complexions of elementary qualities , and likewise the humours , tartars , and these kind of dreams of Writers : I could wish , that in the room of them , a true knowledge of nature , and diligent search of our selves were introduced . Lastly , I have taken away Catarrhs or Rheums out of the midst of them , as vain fictions , and broken staffs , wherewith mortals have been hitherto supported : And se , whatsoever hath deceived these , through the fraud and deceit of a humour flowing down , as the cause making a disease , all that is to be referred into the fruit and product of a vital cause : and that which is thought by the Schools materially to flow down out of the head , that is darted , shot , 〈…〉 forth and propagated from the vital seat of the soul , by a common guidance of the Archeus , or is in stilled by a participation of life . * Good God , how far do I dissent from the tradition of the Antients ? I would there may be such , or at least I would thou mayest make them such , who may comprehend me , and nourish the hope of the sick with a richer talent ! But thou , O God , wilt do in these things , according to thy own good pleasure , to whom I totally refer and offer all things , and every thing , which I have , know , see , and am able to do . I return therefore unto my path . First of all , I have elsewhere shewn , that vulnetary or wound-herbs do operate , by virtue of a certain in-bred Alcali or Lixivial Salt. Indeed I have taught , that vulnetary Mercury , as well the praecipitate , as sublimate , are easily to be revived , a clarified juyce being imbibed by boiling : Whence it follows , that those herbs are the more excellent in this degree , that juyce of whom , being boiled with the praecipitate , and afterwards washed away , shall the more easily and plentifully revive the Mercury . Wherefore also in healing , the stone of Crabs doth excell , if it be drunk with wine , more than if in water ; because that stone , in wine , doth most easily put on the virtue and savour of a Lixivium or Lye. Neither I pray , therefore , let the Physitian abhor the use of wine in a wound , or fever , &c. For at that very time that it savours of an Alcali , it loseth the virtues & property of wine : For so , the Lixivial Salt of the Teil-tree is successfully given to drink , no otherwise than that powder of Crabs . For the goodnesse of God hath invited us , that by reason of the rarenesse whereby that stone doth subsist in a little space , mortals may be drawn into an admiration thereof , and thereby also may learn its virtues , and may sift out its property alike wonderful , whereby it profiteth wounded , bruised people , and those that have fallen head-long from an high place . And here presently a wonder not yet declared , comes to light ; to wit , that a wound in the foot , and also in the leg , or in the most remote parts from the mouth , is healed ; whither notwithstanding no Alcali hath ever obtained accesse ; to wit , as the Lixivial Salt of this Stone doth correct the sharpnesse , which is kindled in the utmost members , or habit of the body , and which is prepared to be kindled . For neither doth the force of the Alcali passe from the Stomach thorow the Veins , even into the Toes : But neither is it admitted thither : and although it should be admitted , yet it could not proceed free and unbroken , thorow the foregoing questions and examinations of digestions : For there is no man , which may be ignorant of this , and not grant me what I have said . Therefore from thence it is altogether manifest , that that Alcali , although it go not materially even unto the habit of the body ; yet it is sufficient , that it doth disperse its property even thitherto , beamingly onely , that it shall forbid a sournesse or sharpnesse in the stomach , the Fountain of Digestions , and the chief Court-house of life ; wherein is manifested the power of the Stomach over all the families of digestions . Wherefore from a contrary sense , they have sometime perceived , that wine , because it easily waxeth sour within us , it enflames , and perverts wounds , unlesse by a vulnerary Lixivial fixed Salt being administred , that sharp faculty of the wine become mild : For truly the hurt or dammage of a wound is onely an inward fermental sharpnesse , which being absent , the lips of that which was continued , do hasten to run together . Wherefore the Schools being deceived , have universally forbidden wine to those that are wounded ; which thing the use of a vulnerary remedy at this day hath disallowed , to the disgrace of the Schools : For neither doth an Alcali go materially unto places far off , to restrain sharpnesse ; seeing neither indeed is it able to pierce unto the Spleen , the seat of a Quartan Ague . Therefore it sufficeth , that it restraineth sharpnesse in the Stomach , the ruler of all the digestions : Not indeed that it destroyeth the sour ferment of the Stomach , but as it is corrected , and the translation of the ferment unto remote places , is hindered : which thing also the aforesaid Paradox it self confirmeth , to wit , that the digestion of the Stomach is chief over the particular digestions of a thousand kitchins . And then , that there is not made a wandring of Lixivial Salts , materially ; & that it is better to drink the Alcalies of these stones , than calcined Shell-fishes : Because that although they do help , and the Alcali in calcined things is far more powerful ; yet it hath under an actual vigour , vitiated the ferment of the Stomach , or at least doth incline it : Whereas the Stone of Crabsis carried not so much into the ferment , as into the product of the ferment . Also there is a plain reason , why that Stone , and herbs like unto it , do heal great and remote wounds , yet that they do not any thing help small ulcers in the throat , wind-pipe , or bladder . For it is also hence confirmed ; because every Wound doth sharpen its state , if the sournesse beaming forth out of the Stomach unto the wound from the vital digestion , be also hindered to be in the remedy : But because an ulcer doth not arise out of the sharpnesse of the Stomach , ; but from the proper vice and received contagion of the Archeus of the parts : The which also therefore , is not appeased by the taking of an Alcali , and there is need of Secrets piercing every way . For meats , drinks , and medicines do lose their own virtue or strength about the first digestion of the stomach ; neither do they go ; or are carried deeper ; because they onely nourish simply , and therefore do there put off , and plainly detest every mask horrid to nourishment , or are otherwise changed into excrements : And so also they are made unprofitable for the conceived curing . But if indeed the Stone of Crabs be a provoker of urine , it is not that therefore the coming thereof even into the bladder is to be hoped for , or that its virtue remains untouched , and unbroken ; Far be it : For let it be sufficient , if that Stone do spoil the whole drink of a souring faculty ; because it is that which onely , how little soever of it be brought down in the urine , belongs to the breeding of the Strangury or pissing by drops , Dysury or difficulty of pissing , and heats familiar in the disease of the Stone : For the sharpnesse , although it be most excellently subdued by a sound gaul ; yet the least quantity of it may be hostile in the urine , and to the parts subservient unto it , and no lesse unto the whole remaining family of digestions . Now at length I return unto the Authority of the Duumvirate , that it may be manifest in what sort the soul doth divers ways exercise its own commands in its own body , and doth act by way of a command , government , rule , as also of cruelty , fury , and tyranny ; neither that to this end , it stands in need of pipes , winds , vapours , smoaks , and least of all , of the help of heats , colds , and defluxions . The Schools beholding the effects of the Duumvirate , and thinking to knit causes to them all , have transferred all things into heats , or humours , and the declinings or cessations of these ; as if those things which naturally happen in us , should happen only through an urgent necessity of weights , heats , and imaginary humours . And seeing they have gone back from the Soul , from living strength , unto the artificial , or dead examples of learning by demonstration ; at length they have quieted themselves , that they wrought in vain , with the admiration , unwilling experience , and wonted obseruation of the vulgar , that many diseases being among the catalogue of incurable ones , or the number of wonted diseases , are of their own accord cured under the care of the Kitchin ; so that they had but forsaken the vein , and the paunch , oft-times unto the death , or voluntary wearinesse of rhe sick . And at last , for the most part , a Jugler or Fortune-teller , or an aged old woman cureth them , whom the very experiences of Physitians had deserted . CHAP. XXXIX . The Authority or Priviledge of the Duumvirate . 1. An Aphorism of the old man is illustrated . 2. The falling-evil and madnesse are proved to proceed from the Duumvirate . 3. That sleep is from the Duumvirate . 4. An argument against the prerogative of the head . 5. The same thing is confirmed from Galen against his will. 6. A privy shift of the Schools for the head . 7. What all particular Senses can attribute unto the thing generated . 8. The vegetative power is in and from the Dunmvirate . 9. The Young lives divers wayes . 10. The phantasie of the Brain doth presently die , unlesse it be nourished by the lower parts . 11. Why the soul is said to be in the blood . 12. Conceipts ascending from the parts about the short ribs , are presently seen in the countenance . 13. The first conceptions are proved to be formed in the seat of the soul . 14. Sleep and dreams to be from the Duumvirate . 15. The Mare is in the stomach ; therefore sleep and dreams are from thence . 16. But the Gumm-ich before the comming of teeth , from the sensitive soul onely . 17. The opinion of the Schools about the Mare . 18. It is noted for an absurdity . 19. Balaams Asse spake not the word of the Angel. 20. An history of my own steep fall . 21. Some dignities of the Pylorus are reckoned up , and astonishing remedies , by reason of their easinesse . 22. Concerning the seat of the soul for the Duumvirate . 23. An history of madnesse from a medicine as yet existing in the stomach . 24. The same by fainting or swooning . 25. From a Maxim of the Schools . 26. From the suffering of hunger . 27. That troublous passions of the mind have respect unto the Duumvirate , not the head . 28. Too much study brings forth madnesse to be felt or perceived first in the stomach . 29. An errour of the Schools . 30. By the Maxim of the Schools it is contended against the Schools . 31. Sleep is from the Midriffs . 32. A remedy of Opiates . 33. Vesalius carps at Galen . 34. Of what sort the state of innocency was . 35. That the first conceptions are badly said to be those out of our power . 36. A power of remembring in the Scull , and others elswhere . 37. The memory of the mind is divers from that of the imagination or phantasie . 38. The lustful , and wrathful seat of the Schools . 39. The leasures of the Spleen . 40. The Head follows the Midriffs . 41. A stupefactive virtue . 42. The Stone-vessels or Cods . 43. Tickling or provocation to leachery is not to be attributed to the kidney , or reins , but to the stomach . 44. That a frail or mortal life hath entered , and is established , where the soul also is . 45. The mouth of the stomach is the center of the whole trunck of the body . 46. What it may be to have carried the Messiah in his loynes . 47. A remedy for a woman in travel . 48. Judiciary Astrology fals to the ground . 49. An external Spleen , what virtue it may have . 50. Why a woman at the time of her going with Young , is troubled with wondrous conceipts . 51. The mind doth not become mad . 52. Splenetick conceipts . 53. Curable , and desperate diseases , which they may be . 54. The natural endowments of Simples . 55. Conclusions deduced from an ignorance of the foregoing things . 56. Sleepifying remedies do not heal madnesses . 57. The Lydian Whet-stone for a Physitian , in madnesses . 58. An objection of those that are ignorant or skillful . 59. Fatness limited . 60. The Majesty of the Duumvirate is to be admired . 61. Risibility or a capableness of laughter , what it is , and whence it happens to man alone . 62. The dominion of the Duumvirate over the Lungs . 63. The original of Spittles . 64. The virtue of Sulphur is determined . 65. Why the Stomach commands the Lungs . IT is a saying of Hipocrates , In whom a vein doth strongly beat in the part about the short Ribs , their minde is presently sick or distempered : For the Artery of the Spleen is most frequent , yet the Pulse thereof is not manifest , as long as it is in good health , and doth rightly imagine : But when it is rash , it presently , with a strong pulse , even into the left ear , being also oft-times audible by the sitters by , denounceth madness : But that thing is manifest in a thorn imprinted in the finger , whose pulse before unknown , is presently after , before the swelling of the finger , stirred with a troublesom and hard beating . Therefore , madness is denoted to proceed from a thorny spleen . The same old man hath placed black choler in the Midriffs ( For the name of the Midriffs , doth sound , that the stomach doth undergo or supply the room of the heart ) and from thence he presageth the Falling-sickness , if it shall get into the Body ; but madness , if into the minde : Therefore he drawes both weaknesses of the minde out of the Midriffs : But they do especially flourish , where their occasional cause is near at hand : And so the Schools do testifie , where the shop of madness , layeth hid , that there also in health , is the seat of right judgement ; according to the Maxim ; The function of the same part is vitiated , the function whereof in healthy persons , is sound , and on the contrary . For all madnesses ( except the Sisters of sleepy evils ) do undergo watchings : As a sure Argument , that sleep , the drowsie evil , watching , and madness , do live in the same Inn : Because sleep , watching , imagination , dreaming , are powers conversant about the same subject , and are made in the same Organ and Inn. I confess indeed , that sleep is after watching ; but that doth not argue a variety of the Inn the subject : For it is not to be doubted , that in a moment every operation of the minde doth cease by 〈…〉 , &c. Therefore if the Head should be the proper place 〈…〉 Imagination , the operations of the minde should remain , which notwithstanding do perish , presently after light is denied from the lower parts . Galen proposeth ashes of burnt Crabs , against the madnesse proceeding from a Dog : which madness rageth in the desirable or lustful faculty , or in the fear of liquid things ; From whence the name of Hydrophobia is given unto it : Therefore madness by a Dog , layeth in the part of the desirable power : For neither is the Lixivium of Crabs fit to be brought unto the brain : For nothing goes thither , which was not first transchanged in the stomach , neither doth it go to the fifth , or sixth , but through the first and second digestion : Therefore that madness is by intervals , to wit , the Cup being offered , it rageth into the desirable faculty ; but none hath dedicated the lustful power of drinks unto the Brain : Therefore when a mad Dog bit the finger of Dr. Bald , that poyson crept from the finger into the stomach , as the chief Instrument of the sensitive soul ; as also to the Spleen , bending about it : whither the Remedy of that Lixivium creepeth , as it is the subject for the Hypochondriacal passion . But least the Schools should detract from the dignity of the Brain , they grant that madness , to have indeed it s bound [ from which ] in the Spleen ; but the bound [ to which ] they will have to be within the Brain : Wherein they say nothing that is excusable : For although the doubt doth cease at least for a time : it is sufficient , that the first motion of the vitiated phantasie be in the bound [ from which ] . They will answer with the more speed , that that humourable and occasional cause in the Spleen , doth not accuse , that therefore the framing of Imaginations ought to be be made out of the Head : But I will presently make that by degrees manifest by the strength of many Arguments . Peter Bor , a Christian , in his Annalls of Belgium , relates , that in the year 1564 , at Bruxels , a Sow brought forth six young ones , the first whereof ( for the last in generating , is alwayes in bruit Beasts , brought forth first ) had the head , face , arms , and legs of a man , but that the whole Trunck of the Body , from the neck , was of a Swine : For there was no doubt but that the Mother was a Sow : And therefore , the heart , Spleen , and also the other Organs of the Vegetative Soul were like to the Mother : Therefore although it had the head of a man , yet it had onely a sensative soul . Indeed a Sodomitical monster is more like the Mother than the Father . So of a sheep the mother , and a He goat the Father , a Lamb comes forth , which besides Wooll and tail , hath his other parts like a sheep . So a Mule , his Father being an Asse , and his Mother a Mare . And so a Horse of a Bull and a Mare . Lastly , in seven Coneys , from their Father a Dormouse , and their mother a Coney , nothing besides their tail was like unto the ●e ●●tter . If therefore that monster had the soul of a swine , therefore the soul followes the condition , not indeed of the Head , but of the inferior members : And the very prerogative of the phantastical soul inhabits in the Duumvirate ( although the Head be a part which is the conductresse of conceits formed in the lower parts ) for it is in the Center , and very middle of the Body . For I have demonstrated elsewhere that the Spleen doth inspire a digestive Ferment into the stomach ; that is to say , that the Spleen is the beginning of vegetation or growth ; But that the vegetative power belongs to the sensitive soul , that is , unto the Duumvirate : For truly , there is not a vegetative soul singly by it self ; but it is a vital power imitating the soul . But the Young is grown before quickning , onely by the influx of participation from its mother , so long as it is at it were an entire part of her ; but presently after quickning , it lives by a Kitchin of its own . And therefore there is onely a sensitive soul in bruits , the which , because it is also in a man , and the minde is fast tied unto it , therefore the conceits of the soul , are first in the seat of the soul , which although perhaps they may be refined in the head , yet they do not deny their fountain , yea , although they should be a new stamped in the brain , yet they have not need of a succession of motions from the soul into the head , as it were a Pilgrimage for this purpose : For the commands of the will are far more grosse than those of the conceptions ; yet the command of motion being scarce conceived in Fidlers , their finger doth most swiftly execute that command . Therefore the actions of government do beam forth on their objects , with an un-interrupted light : And therefore the discourse being suited unto its own shops , doth receive Lawes on both sides , and likewise appointeth others : otherwise , the apparitions of the brain are loose and consused , if a hurt of the Spleen doth interpose : which is manifest in hanging , in a feverish doatage , in those that are diseased about the short Ribs , in outragious or mad , Apoplectical , epileptical , &c. persons . From 〈◊〉 it sufficiently manifesteth , that the brain doth obey the doating Duumvirate . For it is most agreeable to truth 〈…〉 the wisdom of flesh and bloud ( which is the sensitive soul ) hath its scituation in the most sanguine or bloudy bowel of all : Therefore it is read in the holy Scriptures , that the soul and the life are in the bloud : For if thou dost mark the bowel of the Spleen , and its substance , thou shalt perceive its substance to be bloud newly made clotty , covered with a skin , and to be enriched with so manifold a co-weaving of veins & Arteries , that there is not another bowel in the whole Body , which by about a tenfold quantity , is so rich in so many Arteries : But the Brain hath scarce a vein , or bloud , or but sparingly in its whole lump . The Coats indeed , or covers of the Brain , have their own small veins : And although , there be in the bosom of the Brain , an Arterial Vessel fit for the transpiring or breathing thorow of Spirits labourated in the heart ; yet the lump of the Brain is almost wholly void of bloud : It is no wonder therefore , that the Spleen doth form strange Idea's , and strange conceits , under a forreign guest : The expulsion of which guest , while the spleen doth meditate of , it stirs up a strong pulse , even as a Thron driven into the finger , doth shew a present and hateful guest . For I have observed seriously , the eyes and countenance of one distempered about his short Ribs , to be writhed presently as oft as he would relate to me his foolish and first conceits ; whom while from the beginning of the doatage I would interrupt ; presently also at that very moment , his eyes and countenance did return into their former health . I did wonder in a fellow-feeling , that so swift an innovation of the whole countenance , so often a repeated one , and so great a one , should be propagated by the action of a lower government , into the tower of the brain . Furthermore , for neither are rude and uncomposed conceptions onely from the spleen ; but likewise also , the understanding of the brain being laid asleep under Dreams , we must not despise the light of gifts , it reacheth to the minde . Act. Ap. chap. 2. v. 17. And it shall be in the last dayes , that I will poure out of my Spirit upon all fl●●● and your Sons and your Daughters shall prophesie . And your young men shall see Visions , and your old men shall dream Dreams . To wit , significative ones . Nighr unto night sheweth knowledge , if the Watchmen do fore-learn to withdraw his thoughts from things or affaires , place , and motion . I have also not undeservedly affirmed , that the first conceipts of disturbances are felt in the Midriffs ; Seeing that if a sorrowful message be brought unto a hungry man , his appetite presently perisheth : therefore the Message and Appetite do light into one and the same Inn. I have also taught elsewhere , that the stomach of the Liver , is not some notable hollowness spreading within its own bowel ; but that the Mesentery veins themselves are the sheath of sanguification or bloud-making , into which the Liver doth beam forth the first breathing-holes of sanguification : But that the stomach of the spleen is the stomach it self , which it therefore nourisheth by embracing , that it may inspire into it the Vulcan of digestion : yet there is another and proper stomach of the spleen , admirable for the manifold winding of Arteries , wherein the Milt doth cook for it self alone : Under which digestion , if the least errour rusheth on it , the spleen ceaseth in digesting , and denies the ferments due to the external stomach : which thing is evident in a Fever , while as instead of a sour digestion , burntish or stinking belchings do come for witnesses , which are emulous of a certain putrefaction . The Brain also , through its own unsensibleness , hath relation to the Milt , as also the Coats of the brain unto the stomach it self , in this respect : For the action of the stomach is powerful , and hath in it the Vicarship of the heart , and doth execute the offices thereof , against the will of the Schools . For neither doth the spleen by an unbroken , vital , and wealthy number of Arteries , flourish in vain , in its own conceptions ; but as oft as it makes its conceipts drowsie through the delights of another nourishment , it grants a truce from its work , that is , sleep : which if they shall be lesse perfect , or troubled by the too much care or anguish of the stomach , it also produceth confu●ed Dreams . No Physitian hath hitherto doubted , but that the Ephialtes or Mare is stirred up from the Midriffs : for it comes for the most part , through the taking of a larger supper of the more hard meat ; or the stomach otherwise labouring : and therefore that happens , not indeed to one laying on his right side ; but onely sleeping on his back with his face upward , or at least on his left side : Indeed when he hath almost slept enough : For they feel or perceive obscurely , they discourse , they think they do touch with their hands , and see with their eyes ; yet they are not able to move themselves : For oppressions are perceived to be heard , and felt : otherwise , in sleeping , others ( even sick solks ) do move themselves freely : For the Stomach is loaded and burdened , and the concoction thereof is not yet finished , and therefore it happens to those that lay on their left side , to wit , which way the mouth of the stomach is wrested : From whence it becomes first of all , evident , that the stomach also doth command the motion , and especially that in this , it doth govern the sleep , dreams , and also the motion : For the dreams of the Mare are almost always the same , as also the impotency of moving , as long as the stomach being thus ill affected , is stretched forth in sleep . For the Schools do assign the causes of the Mare to be grosse vapours invading the thorny marrow : And indeed they are carried into vapours , by reason of the momentary solving of that distemper : For if the sleepers are forthwith awakened , the Mare also presently ceaseth : And so those vapours ought to cease at the will of the awakener . In the next place , I hardly hear , that grosse vapours should be accused in many or most causes of Diseases . I hitherto confess , that for fifty full years I never as yet saw a grosse vapour of distillations . There are indeed corporeal exhalations , in which a volatile matter is sublimed , and doth climbe to the sides of the vessel : So indeed out of Sulphur , Orpiment , Woods , Arsenick , Sal-Armoniack , Camphor , Urine ; and likewise from Mercury , Lead , brasse-Oar , Brasse , &c. grosse smoakinesses do ascend upwards : but vapours , to wit watery ones , I never saw or knew to be grosse , unless among University-men , who are ignorant of vapours : yea , however grosse they should be , they should at least , both loose their grosseness at the pleasure of the awakener , and the heat which had stirred up those vapours should presently be stopped : Both of them surely , ridiculous things . Again , they conjecture the marrow to be affected , by reason of motion denied in the Dream : And so every affect of the marrow , and every stopping vapour should cease at the will of the awakener ; which is alike full of frivolous rashness . But how shall one laying with his face upwards , send grosse vapours out of the stomach into his loins , and the marrow enclosed within the turning joynts , and covered with membranes ? to wit , whither , in another place , they say , that not the more thin windes do pierce ? especially because such a Scituation of him that layes down , should of its own nature , rather banith vapours out of the stomach into the bowels , or should carry them upwards thorow the stomach , into the Navil , than downwards unto the marrow being shut up and loaded with the bowels . What community passeth betwixt the speech with the thorny marrow ? or why shall grosse vapours out of the stomach , desire onely the back-running sinews ? For the Mare doth not onely cause a hearing of inward whisperings , and granteth to discourse , also to fear ; but also external , true , and appearing objects are heard : But he cannot move his tongue , how much soever others may speak in time of dreaming . Do the Schools perhaps think , the motions of the tongue to be made by the thorny marrow ? Therefore those grosse vapours shall be far different from dreamy ones , they not hindering the use of motion of the tongue , yea of the whole Body : For while they apply themselves to the sinews that they may afford the causes of unmoveableness , the Schools themselves become dumb and unmoveable : While they shall never understand what they say , as neither , after what manner those grosse ( that is impossible vapours ) shall pierce the stomach , bottom of the belly , hollow vein extended through the back , with a beating Artery its companion , and likewise the ligaments of the turning joynts . And how those things shall be silent , appeased , and cease at a moment , if haply he be awakened who suffers the distemper of the Mare . Surely they had more rightly learned the action of the government of the Duumvirate , to wit , that an impediment brought on the stomach in its vital government alo●●● , doth without vapours , or Truncks , trouble the Brain , doth vitiate the sinews , and first conceptions , as it interrupteth the comforts of the spleen : For so it happens , that those who have the Apoplexie and Palsey , do eat , hear , and sleep , &c. yet that they cannot speak : For the Schools do accuse the back-running sinews to be stopped : Why therefore shall not the Mare have regard to these sinews rather than to the thorny marrow ? Why do Remedies for the Duumvirate , help those that have an Apoplexie , a giddiness in the Head , that know not how to go and speak ; those very Medicines I say , being as yet present in the hollow of the stomach ; but are unprofitable to the back-running sinews , and head ? Hath a Pie perhaps those sinews stuffed together before speech ? Shall a Cow which thrusts forth her tongue moveable into the nostrils , have her tongue bound , and doth she want back-running sinewes ? Or else she shall have them in vain , if they are perpetually and naturally stopped . A certain voluntary command is brought down from the Head unto the sinews of the tongue , that is denied unto four-footed beasts ; but not unto some Birds : Likewise that thing , not at the first turn , but by degrees , through an accustomed going : But he that hath an Apoplexie , doth not put this command into execution , because he is dismayed or astonished almost like a four-footed beast . Indeed the conception of an Asse , God permitting it , once passed thorow unto his tongue : Not indeed , that the Asse was the Instrument of the Angel : For then he had spoken the iudgements of God ; but not his own conceivings , neither had he complained of his stripes : From occasion of the Asse , I will speak my own . In the year 1643. the day before the Calends of the 11th month called January , I sate beginning to write in a close . Chamber ; but the cold was great , and I bad an earthen Pot or Pan to be brought , with burning Coals , that I might sometimes comfort the cold stiffness of my fingers . My little Daughter comes unto me , who as soon as she sented the hurt or offence , wi●hdrew the Earthen Pan , and unless she had chanced to come , I being choaked , had perished : For I presently felt about the mouth of my stomach , a sore-threatned swooning ; I arose from my Study ; while I would go forth abroad , I fell like a straight staffe , and was brought away for dead : For there was a two-fold affect , one of the bruised hinder part of my head , which filched away my tast , and smelling , but did over-cloud my hearing : The other was a sounding affect stirred up from the stomach : For in the first dayes , my Head turned round with giddiness , as oft as I looked on one side , much more if upwards . I thought that that befel me from the stroak of the fall , with the naked hinder part of my Head suddenly , and from my whole statute , on a hard stone : But by little and little , I was better assured , and I for many dayes , revolved all things within my self . I knew therefore at length , that my giddiness proceeded from my-stomach , and that it was there nourished by the same Root , from whence the swooning had proceeded : For some meats did promote that my giddiness , and specially about the evening , to wit , while they were not as yet cocted ; and so that the same thing happens in the Mare , from meats well nigh concocted . I had remembred also , that as oft as I had passed over the Sea in time past , although I was in due health , and was very much given to eating ; yet my Head ran round and staggered for many dayes after , until that by a gentle vomit , I had shaved away the filths out of my stomach , whereon that whirling Idea was imprinted : For I certainly found , that my giddiness did not onely accompany the offensive meats ; but moreover , almost an hour of finished digestion , and that food being taken , and moderate Wine , my giddiness was alwayes presently mitigated . And moreover , although I had long after that , escaped wholly free , nevertheless , at the eating of some meats , I suffered a relapse about the evening : Therefore ( as they are wont to say ) I believed experienced Robert , that all giddiness of the Head doth climbe up from the parts beneath , without a vapour or smoak ; but that the Head doth hearken to the stomach , through the government of action alone . And which is more , at the time of the giddinesse which threatned my fall , all discourse began to reel or wheel about , 〈◊〉 presently after the taking of wine , was restored : And so I comprehended , not indeed the meat left in the stomach , but the first fuel of my swooning , to have received an hurtful impression from the stain of the more unworthy food ; from whence by the Sulphur of Vitriol I was also made free . I have elswhere explained the Pylorus the Governour , together with his dignities , whereby it is manifest , that the stomach is on every side , and in every corner , the seat of the soul : Yet so , that as the mouth of the stomach is chief and bears rule over the head , and chief faculties ; so also the Pylorus commandeth the lower parts : For I have observed the more cruel Colick , sometimes to passe into a Palsie , but at another time to have brought forth a Convulsion of the hands , feet , arms , and legs . I have also seen the griefs of the stomach , by reason of the sharpnesse of pain , to have taken away all motion , and to have caused an affect like unto a Tetanus or straight extended cramp : which affect , our Countrey people have called ( Geschor ) an in-darting , as if it were suspected or overlooked , and sent in by witches . And the Ischiatick passion or Sciatica doth oft-times accompany those in-dartings ; whereupon I have seen cuttings of veins , likewise solutive medicines , Clysters , Emplaisters , Oyntments , cauteries or seating medicines , and the like , administred , and with an unfruitful event : For theirs were mocked endeavours , who would establish a remedy unto the consequents or effects , or products , and would passe by the Springs issuing from the Pylorus : For I have observed the four lesse hot seeds , for the most part to have appeased the storm ; because they succour the most inward Archeus and houshold remedy of the bowels , and appease him being wroth . Wherefore I admonish the Reader , that he take good notice of the stumblings of the Schools , who impute it to their Catarrhs and deffuxions of phlegm , for a sacred anchor of their ignorance . But surely an History is worthy to be noted : A man of fifty years of age , that was burst , suffered a Rupture of his Entrails through the carelessenesse of a Bond or Trusse , which presently encreased to the bignesse of ones head , and waxed hard after a wonderful manner : He renewed hot fomentations of milk and Cows dung , all night , and they tried to put it back ; but in vain : For truly one only hard swelling had become continual or firm , like an earthen pot , and took away the hope of a possibility of its going back through an hole that was ten times less . Therefore we offered him a draught of wine being once boiled with seeds bruised , ( to wit , of Anise , Caraway , Fennel , and Coriander , of each a like quantity ) and presently the hardnesse was made soft or tender , and the burstness was suffered to be thrust back : wherein the hardnesse , with so great a swelling , is stiffly to be considered ; the which indeed owed not their existence unto wind , nor to dung ; but hardnesse is subject to the Pylorus : And therefore it seemed not to be a body co-touching from the passages of the Ileos , but it seemed one only continual body : And then , the Ileos did not fall on that which fell down , neither rushed it of its own accord , forward , into so great an heap ; but it was thrust forth thither by a more powerful force of government . Again , it doth not appear in women with so great a swelling , and so great hardness : Wherefore the injury of the stones stirs up the Pylorus into fury : And therefore the whole remedy consists in the mitigation of his fury . But I have seen some great men to have miserably perished , being seduced with an hope placed in Physitians , locally , according to Galenical absurdities . Furthermore , hence I return unto the Duumvirate , wherein the soul sits . For Plato hath determined the heart to be the seat of the foul , as well in a man , as in bruit beasts . But the Galenical Schools do therefore attribute all understanding , and madness to the head , and they think that they are confirmed by the Church , which baptizeth the head , not the heart . Neither do the Schools regard , that from the heart do come murders and adulteries . But the Common people are of my opinion , which for the vital beginning , or seat of the Soul , do shew with the hand , the Orifice of the stomach , as oft ss they are pressed with straights , to wit , as well with the anguishes of the body and life , as with the afflictions of the mind . For I consider in the Young , a sensitive faculty to be at first hidden in the bowel dedicated to nourishment , and that it is the knowing of things helpful , and hurtful . Next in an Infant , and a child , more distinct conceptions to be formed by degrees : And therefore the Brain and its Clients are by little and little moved , that they may obey the principiating conceipts : But the Soul hath not therefore receded from the bowel which was at first made chief over growth . For all spirituality doth respect the sensitive soul : For the head is baptized , because the sensitive brutal soul being by Organs , there placed for a Spectator , first deceived Eve in the same place , and death invaded . For the Schools do on the one hand scoff at the words Cardialgia and Cardiogmus , as rustical and barbarous words ; but afterwards , on the other hand , they have viewed swooning , so immediatly to spring from the mouth of the Stomach , as if it did wholly consist in the same place , to wit , did proceed from thence , and were there also presently restored by sweet smelling or spicy injected liquours : but they have taken notice in swooning , the understanding , sense , motion , and together also the pulse to f●il ; and so that it climbs suddenly out of the stomach from the functions which are ascribed to the 〈◊〉 and the heart together ; yet without a deeper diligent search , they have attributed the 〈◊〉 constitutive temperature of the life , understanding , and soul , unto the head ; not being able to conceive , that the beginnings of life do belong to the Duumvirate , although they should be put in execution by subservient Organs or Instruments . As if the beginning of motion were in the muscles , and bones , because they are moved ! A certain Lawyer had taken two drams of Henbane seed bruised , instead of Dill-seed , which had been prescribed to him in the Colick ; but he presently became so mad thereby , that he could not utter an intelligible word ; and so mad , that I have not seen any thing more blockish and foolish : He sate indeed nigh the hearth upright , but wholly an unsound and mad blockish man. Therefore by that which provoked vomit , he recovered within lesse than half an hour ; and there had been medicines snuffed up to purge the Brain , sneezing-medicines , and a cap to the head , and also Epithemes or things laid on the heart , in vain . And moreover , whatsoever of that seed he had drunk through the errour of the Apothecary , which was as yet in his stomach , and wholly involved in a muscilage , that he presently cast back by vomit ; neither could any thing of it fume up from thence unto the head , in manner of a vapour ; Yet he was wholly without hurt , and raging mad , because he understood nothing ; yet the motive functions of his head stood strong . From whence I collected , that the intellectual powers were dashed together in the Duumvirate . But I had him a guest with my self in a dinner . For those that faint , do affirm that they feel the fainting to be threatned in the midriffs , more swiftly than by all the activity of vapours , and that every conception is suspended without sleep ; whence every one that is not stubborn , will cleerly see the first conceipts of the soul to be formed in the Midri●fs , and those being taken away , that the light of understanding doth also presently fail or die : So also a timorous person in a sudden terrour , feels the token of fear in the mouth of his stomach , if any great noise ( suppose the nigh stroak of a gun ) be suddenly and unthought-of awakened , which doth prevent and cut off all action of discourse . Therefore , if the maxim of the Schools be true , that from the hurting of the actions the part hurt may be made known ; also the seat as well of madnesse , as of swooning , and of every defect , may be found under the Diaphragma or midriff . For therefore mad-folks are most able to endure hunger and thirst . For I have seen in the year . 1615. at Alost , a Girle of nine years old , wanton enough , the little daughter of a Steward to an Hospital , which now for three years space , had eaten nothing at all , unlesse that perhaps every eighth day , or above , she drank about four spoonfuls of pure water : For she being at first notably affrighted by thunder , had ceased to eat . For it is without controversie , that affrightment , sorrowful things , &c. do in the first place or chiefly affect the midriffs , and presently take away all hunger . Indeed they do sensibly reflect themselves on the stomach , neither can they therefore be referred to the head , because none of those perturbations is felt to aim at or smite the head and heart , unlesse the mouth of the stomach be taken for the heart . Neither is it also likely to be true , that if the head should first apprehend and feel sorrowful things , and sudden fears , that it should presently dismiss them into the stomach , and not rather unto the sinews over which it is more intimately chief : For besides an absurdity , it would also be a cruelty , to vex the part not subjected to it self , and to leave the subjected part safe : For a greater authority of the stomach over the head is beheld , than of the head over the stomach , which I have above already demonstrated by many arguments : For truly , drowsiness , sleep , watching , doatages , and whatsoever sumptoms are wont to be attributed to the head , are abolished by Stomatical remedies , but are not mitigated by Cephalical ones , or head-remedies : For hence is the Proverb , Oh head , that art worthy of Hellebor : For although manifold vomitive medicines are not wanting , yet a peculiar virtue is attributed to Hellebor for a mad brain : Not indeed , that the poisonous and hurtful quality doth reach into the head : For truly , Hellebor being present within the stomach , and that being afterwards cast up , Convulsions do happen thereupon , such as I have noted above , from frettings or wringing in the guts . Therefore black Hellebor easeth madnesses before other vomitive medicines commonly known , because it unloads the antient fevers of the midriffs , and unloads the Spleen : For that , nothing strikes the head by arteries , or vapours , hath been already , fully , and by many arguments demonstrated above . Therefore the aforesaid diseases , and their remedies have regard unto the Duumvirate , neither do they affect the brain , unlesse by government , or by a secondary passion : For Students do inordinately feel a fulnesse within , composed of giddiness , and anguish , with sighs , and they point at the mouth of their stomach with 〈…〉 : But from thence they accuse the pains of the head . But if at length they are 〈◊〉 through continuance , they perceive about the mouth of the stomach , a certain swooning , and afterwards their imagination to be disordered or turned upside down : And therefore unlesse they do speedily desist from studying , they keep a foolish madness returning by intervals , all their life long . Therefore where the hurt is felt , there is the blemish of the understanding , and the soul doth principally reside . The Schools on the contrary , do contend , that the Spleen is the sink of black choler , and that it unloads it self of its own dungs , into the Stomach : and that which I call the ferment of digestion inspired into the Stomach , that the Universities will have to be the excrement of a pernicious humour , and so , the digestion of the Stomach to be stirred up from such dross . But after that I certainly knew that there was no black choler in nature , it was easie for me to depart as well from the humours , as from the use of parts delivered by Galen , and to forsake the black cholery Schools ; concluding by their own Maxim ; If the cause of madnesse be in the Sp●en ; therefore the Inn of the judicious understanding is due to the same place : If there be a hurt action of the same faculty , function , and organ , whereof there is a sound one , and to the contrary . Whence also I further concluded with my self , That the somniferous or sleepifying power is to be placed in that part whose office it was , first to frame watchings , and vain dreams , where also phantastical apparitions are stirred up in watching : from hence indeed a hungry man dreams of feasts : And Fevers , before that they end into doatages , sleeps with labour are first made : and then come nights without sleep , and at length doatages ; which things do testifie the Duumvirate to be badly affected , and that that is the workman of sleep and dreams . For old men whose coctive faculty is the weaker , although their venal blood be more scanty , yet with a sober supper they sleep the better : And younger persons after a sparing supper do most 〈…〉 rest ; yet none hath ever thought , that ●id folks do send the more vapours to the 〈◊〉 , if they are abstinent from a small supper . Yet drowsie sleeps , as well diseasie ones , 〈…〉 ones , or those of Opiates , are most excellently vanquished by Lixiviums , whi●● notwithstanding , are by no means acknowledged for remedies of the head : For he that hath a desire to make water , dreameth that he looseneth his bladder , and pisseth at a corner ( for is happens that some , by the same consent , have much bepi●sed their bed-cloaths ) yet the consent granted in his sleep to be withholden : For although the brain do fully sleep throughout the Organs of all the Senses , yet the discerning faculty of the sensitive soul is not laid asleep in the part about the short ribs : For we do often feel sleep in the eyes , but none about the stomach , and thereupon , that nights do almost slide away without sleep . Also two having drunk , and being drunken with the same wine , do notwithstanding declare divers conditions : For this man becomes devout , another trips or dances , a third scolds or brawls , &c. also the wine as yet existing in their full stomach . Because the phantasie of the Duumvirate doth vary its conditions according to the peculiar affects of the sensitive soul . Galen hath feigned a certain folding or small net of arteries in the bosoms o● the brain ; which thing , Anatomy ha● not yet found ; And therefore Vesalius doth oft-times convince Galen , that he never saw 〈◊〉 humane dead carcasse dissected , how great Volumes soever of Anatomy , he hath set forth : And therefore it is to be suspected , that he wrought the same word for word out of another , who had dissected an Ape , as the same Vesalius proveth ; because it is that which hath the aforesaid folding in its brain . And however Galen was even rashly de●uded in that folding ; yet he determined the judgment to be in the head , by reaso● of that folding that doth not exist . But are not the beginnings of imaginations rather to be drawn from the folding of arteries in the Spleen , from the Saturn of the Spleen ( whence Satur●s Kingdomes are wished to return , in the innocency of the first conceptions ? ) That the the Spleen may communicate the letters , or answers of its own p●●asure to the brain , by the influence of government , without vapours or truncks , and that in an instant , even as I have above demonstrated by the readinesses in Fidlers . For our first parent was not to be presumed ignorant and stupid before the fall ; for he was ●e who put proper and essential names upon all living creatures : but the state of innocency was guiltlesse about luxury , which is covered with the ignorant word of nakednesse : For 〈…〉 not yet a sensitive soul ; and so the immortal mind beholdingly understanding all things 〈◊〉 its own seat , looked reflex on it self , and in the image of God , did intimately know within it self the living creatures put under its feet : But after that man entered into the way of corruption ; as if it were fire out of a flint , so the sensitive soul after sin , the Crea●●ur co-working , bewrayed it self , and from hence the conceptions of the mind were obscured . But such conceptions as are modern , in the first place , ( while I say the first conceipts or first forces to be formed in the midriffs ) I do not understand them to be the forces of the wrothful power , which the Schools have falsly demed to be in our power , as if they were plainly guiltlesse of crime : But I consider now and then , through discourse , that there is a thing altogether ponderous , or weighty in the conceipts of the soul which are felt to be formed about the mouth of the stomach , and in the mean time , the mind sends away the same conceptions unto the head , to lay them up , it being as it were the sheath of the memory . And then , the memory remembers indeed , some conceptions committed to its trust , but it hath forgotten the distinction of the same : Therefore also the soul cannot any more form the same conceptions in its own bride-bed , seeing that the memory hath lost the same . Therefore those are the first conceipts , the first motions , and forces of motions , and the which are no longer in our power , to wit , which the soul hath not in its pleasure ; neither can it forge the same again , if they are not again produced to the view of the soul : And so from hence they are called the first , because they are but once only forged , not by the pleasure of the will , but of the understanding alone ; which unlesse they are kept in the brain , or case of the memory , they perish , until perhaps the soul doth sometimes of its own accord form unto it self the same conceipts : Then indeed the memory being mindful of its fall or slip , doth by calling to mind , ru● hard or renew with grief in the mind , as if it should say , Lo , these are the conceptions which thou didst require of me Memory , and I had then lost the same . Whence I see , that although the soul doth sit in the midriffs , yet that it hath placed the power of remembring in the head , and the other of willing in the heart ; and so that both these are in this life , frail , and companions of the sensitive soul , which although it be centrally the bond of the mind in the midriffs ; yet nothing hinders but that it hath its own powers distributed or placed by Organs or instruments : No otherwise then as the visible power is in th●●ye , the tasting power in the Tongue , not elswhere , and the touching power almost ever●●here : For seeing they are the frail and beast-like powers of the soul , the soul it self hath after the manner of bodies , subjected 〈…〉 bodily rules . The mind after another manner , is wh●● 〈◊〉 ●●vided , and contains its own memory and will under the unity of understanding : bu● 〈◊〉 being after a wonderful manner wrapped up together , and lulled asleep under the bond of the sensitive soul , unto which the mind is bound and co-knit , it feels a law every where resisting its own law , that is of the mind : For the Schools do assign the desirable or lusting power to the Liver , but the angryable or wrothful power to the heart : yea , if they could find more bowels , they had given separated Inns prone to disorder , unto all the particular disturbances of the mind ; when as otherwise , the same disturbances are felt to be exceeding hot in the Duumvitate , and that in their first motions : And it is an absurd thing to separate the desirable and wrothful power in their seats : For while any one resisteth a thing desired , if any one be angry , it is even one and the same power : For neither without injury of the other powers are the two aforesaid ones sequestred from the Bowels . For fear , love , desire , hatred , drowsinesse or unaptnesse , and joy , have not divers stables : Because all such powers , are of the one soul , but not dis-joyned houshold-servants of any kind of perturbations . For truly , when the soul is angry , and while it rejoyceth , or loveth , although it be diversly affected , and ●●cyphereth as it were divers masks in Idea's ; yet , this is not the office or work of the Org●●s , but the passions of the one and only soul , which because they are the works of the flesh , and the interchangeable courses of the conceipts of the sensitive soul , they are framed by the soul in the seat of the Duumvirate . Therefore the Spleen being by intervals intent on its own reflexions , delights , and remedies of wearinesses , filcheth away a third part of our life by sleep ; and as it brings forth dreams in sleeping , so waking , it propagates the knowledges of conception , they being a little distincter , and lesse drowsie . Truly , unlesse the Lord do nourish us with his grace , we dream throughout our whole life , wholly by a confused conc●●pt ; yea , neither do we perceive that we do understand , while the light of the Spleen being troubled , and ceasing , the brain receiveth the first conceipts of Idea's , scarce any longer worthy ones . Therefore sleep is stirred up in the Midriffs , and doth notably manifest it self in the Head , and so the Head doth not blush to bring forth at the consent of the Midriffs . And therefore sleeps are the be-lyed parents of vapours and stoppages of cold : For there is in the Sulphur of the Vitriol of Copper , a stupefactive , sleepifying , and hot virtue , and sweeter th●●●●ey , which in Opium is bitter : whence it becomes easie to be seen , that there is not a ●●●vative stopping , and cooling virtue ( especially after feeding , and drinking of wine ) but a created faculty that over-tops watching in the Spleen . So also some poisons do alienate the mind , and its own native Imaginative power , whereby they do dispose of ours at their own pleasure ( as in the Apple of Adam , in the Spittle of a mad Dog , the pricking of the Tarantula , in Jusquiamus or He●bane , &c. So also stupefactive medicines do withhold the Spleen from a working exercise of serious Visions or Representations dismissed into the Brain , besides the case of the memory , by virtue of a soulified or quickned light of government : For indeed , God formed the last top of Creation , not of the Skin , bloud , or grease of the man , but of a Rib about the Spleen . Also the Vessel or Kernel assistant to the stones , on the left side , is not derived into the stone of a man , even as on the right side : For truly , one is taken out of the sucking vein before the Kidneys , but the other out of the Trunck of the hollow vein it self : Not indeed ( as Galen being deceived , otherwise thought ) to beg a tickling of the seed from the Salt of the Urine ; but that the vessel of the Kidney might be proper or natural to the seed : For who doubteth but that the salt of the Urine , or of an excrement , doth not take away all fruitfulness of the seed : Especially if a small piece of the hair of a Horses mane or tail , how small soever it be , be thrust within an Egg-shell , it extinguisheth the hope of a chick ? Galen being wholly excrementitious and ignorant , who thought our Beginnings or first principles to want a tickling , and begged also the last compleating of fruitfulness from excrements : Therefore at the beholding of this mans ignorance , I will moreover add a Paradox . The Schools ascribe Venus or carnal lust , and the tickling or provocation to leachery , to the Reins or Kidneys ; and Paracelsus and all Antiquity subscribes thereunto : All of whom ( I being silent ) Fishes themselves , and Birds do presently convince of errour : For Birds do want Kidneys , and Urine , and Birds are most leacherous : I at least do believe , that Venus is the office of the sensitive Soul , and so that it is to be placed in the part wherein the first motions , also while we sleep , are made : Because nature was in nothing more careful than in the difference of Sexes : And so from the beginning of the pourtraying of the Young , she is straightway busied in the Instruments of Venus . And so perhaps , this , even the Antients would imply , when as they have ascribed the Spleen , the first paternity , to Saturn the first of the Starry Gods. Yea therefore they deciphered their Fauni or Country Gods , and Satyrs ( a most leacherous and scurrilous kinde ) in the figure of Saturn : For I have alwayes abhorred it as a filthy thing , to have placed Venus the greatest Star next the Sun , in the Kidney the sink of Urine . Truly Birds in this respect , should be far more noble than us . Pollutions also or defilements of the seed , do not happen in time of waking ; because sleep is the effect of the spleen , and to this , after delights : Otherwise , what common intercourse is there between the Reins and sleep ? do we not oftner make water waking than sleeping ? As ( according to the Schools ) sleep doth withhold any kinde of avoyding of excrements , except that of sweat , and unprofitable seed ? Surely otherwise , voluntary pollution should be more subject to a waking , than to a sleeping man : But such an excrementitious expulsion issues forth with the sleep of wantonness , that it may be manifest , that there is the same Instrument of sleep , dreams , and pollution , as they are the workmanship of one soul : For as bloud-making begins in the veins of the mesentery , as it were the stomach of the Liver ; so the cocting of the Sperme or Seed is made in the stones by the spleen : For I remember those that have been stony in both Kidneys , yet to have been much inclined to leachery : But it were an absurd thing that a healthy and lascivious power should remain , or be manifest under a Disease of its own radical Organ : For the Liver being badly affected , a good sanguification doth not arise , neither is there a fit seeing to an eye beset with Sand : Neither shall I ever believe , that the Reins moystening with a continual Urine , and being busied about the expulsion of an excrement , and never keeping holiday , are intent on luxury . Therefore it hath seemed an excrementitious opinion , that the motions of propagating the Species , the Summons's of the vital faculties , and Character of the minde , should beforged in the Stable of forreign dregs or filths . For the first motions of lust are manifestly felt about the mouth of the stomach , no otherwise than as the late repentances of leachery : For if death entred by the first motions , it is agreeable , that the frail degenerating life , ought in the same place to have radically taken its beginning : For the Orifice of the stomach , obtains the place of a Center in the Trunck of the Body , whence the beams are most fitly spread upwards , as downwards . But that it is written , that Abraham carried the Messiah in his Loyns : That is unaptly withdrawn from the spleen unto the Reins , from a bowel I say chiefly vital , unto an excrementous shop and sieve . I have noted also very many who from a Quartane Ague , had retained their spleen ill affected , to have been very much curtail'd in the provocation to leachery . I have also observed Women in a difficult labour for some dayes , an adventurous or experienced draught being offered them , to have brought forth at furthest , within the space of half an hour : And that thing hath been proved 200 times and more : For surely the Medicine being as yet in the stomach , the mouth of the share is opened , and the folding-doores of the Ossacrum are opened in the loins , and the Young is presently expelled . Indeed I have noted the Stomach to keep the Keyes of the Womb : And this medicine I have divulged willingly , for the good of my Neighbour , that she who is in labour , may not hence-forward undergo the danger of her life : But it is the Liver , together with the Gaul of an Eele , being dried and powdered , and drunk in Wine , to the quantity of a Filburd-Nut . The gift of God is in this Simple : That seeing the Woman ought to bring forth in pain , by reason of the envy of the Serpent ; God whose Spirit was carried upon the waters , hath filled them with his blessing : He would have the Eele or water-Serpent by his bowels of a sanguifying power , to appease the rigour of that curse . The Liver of Serpents would effect the same , and perhaps better ; but in the experiment of the Eele , the event hath never deceived . From this time likewise , the Judiciary divination by the Stars , Hermes his scale , and whatsoever is supported by the point of Nativity , falls to the ground . But upon occasion hereof , I shall a little digress : in what part the Young is knit to the womb by the Navil-strings , and without the coat of the Secundines , or the swadling-band of the Young , it hath a substance in form of a Spleen , as Vesalius witnesseth . And so it hath as it were an external spleen , to wit , wherein as it were the venal bloud of the Kitchin , and the Arterial bloud of the Mother is re-cocted ( the Spleen in this respect , stirs up in me a suspition of a more exact sanguification , than that of the Liver ; to wit , as the venal bloud being there re-cocted by so manifold a winding of Arteries , doth go back as it were from the stomach to the heart : Even so , as Birds , and Beasts that chew the Cud , do rejoyce in a double stomach ) : At least it is manifest , that that external milt doth command the conceits of her that is with child . For the mothers themselves do wonder , that they are then affected with such unaccustomed conceits , longings , furious frights , and storms of troubles : But it is no wonder to me ; seeing nothing is milty or like to the milt , if it do not swell with the properties of the milt : But that is a wonder , that this flesh of the milt is not informed by the soul of the Mother or Young ; but that it enjoyes a life of its own , being communicared on both sides : For it hath not a sensitive Soul , seeing that it is also , long before quickning : but it possesseth it self in manner of a Zoophyte or a Plant alive ; such as are Sponges , and also the thicker muscilages swimming in our Sea , which do enlarge , embrace , strain , suck , and shew forth rare testimonies of life being present with them . Moreover , if the poyson of a mad Dog , or a Tarantula do make a madness limited , and that like unto it self ; it is now wonder also that this milty lump , is enlightned participatively , doth live balsamically , and move the minde of the woman with childe , with a diverse passion : As well because it performs the office of a Kitchin , as because there are in the things themselves their own vain visions or apparitions ; as is manifest in a mad Dog. But besides , the minde of man being the near Image of the most high , wholly immortal , doateth indeed with the sensitive soul , but is not capable of suffering by a little Liquor ; Because the passions of the sensitive soul , do affect the minde , which they cover within themselves , do roul up and co-knit in a bond : The minde indeed properly is not sick , although it hearken to the frailty of the sensitive soul : whence it is made manifest , that the sensitive thoughts or cogitations are from flesh and bloud , according to that saying , For flesh and bloud have not revealed these things unto thee . Therefore discourse and conceit is from the milt or spleen , as being a bowel most sanguine of all , and rich in very many Arteries : But I have proved elsewhere , that the conceit of a woman , although it be formed in the spleen , yet that it is brought down for the most part , with a straight line unto the womb , whether there be a Young within it , or not : and therefore the principality of the womb doth war under banners of its own : neither therefore is it evidently seen in its own rest ; but onely while according to a wicked pleasure , and fury , it strains , wrings , blunts , choaks , resolves , and looseneth its Clients , poureth forth bloud , &c. But the Duumvirate doth on every side keep a due proportion of life , and that with so sweet a pleasant tuning or musical measure of the life , that therefore it hath hitherto been passed by by the Schools : But as soon as it withdrawes its government , the strengths of the parts ( how chief soever they are ) are eclipsed : For so there are faintings , Apoplexies , Epilepsies , heart-beatings or tremblings , giddinesses of the the Head , and madnesses . And so indeed , that as the occasional root of which defects , is voluntarily consumed , and the circuits and durations of the same do vanish away , even as in the milder Fevers ; So also they may be voluntarily silent , that they may forget to return : however the boastings of Physitians do differ in this thing . For those whose Roots do the more stubbornly cleave unto them , they are the more fully con-tempered , therefore , after another manner , they altogether resist a voluntary resolving , and therefore they wax old together with it , together with the nourishments of the stomach , and do expect their own relapsing fruits unto the end of life . And therefore an Epitaph of uncurableness of these defects not voluntarily ceasing , is now every where read to be subscribed : because , they have hitherto wanted a meet Secret , whereby they may be rooted out : But the Roots of these Diseases , as long as they do affect onely the inflowing Spirit , they produce off-springs proper to their own seed , and Inn : For so the falling-sickness , because it besiegeth both Spirits , it dashneth together as well the faculties of the body as of the sensitive Soul : And so , that hath distinguished a great Apoplexie from a little one , that the lesse hath besieged the inflowing Spirit ; but the greater , the implanted Spirit . Likewise there are in Simples , those faculties which make drunk , do bring sleep , drowsiness , forgetfulness , blockishness , foolish madness , furies , raging madness , or doatages ; because they contain them in themselves : For in the Apple there was the knowledge of good and evill . And there are other things which are carried into loves , angers , yea toward certain persons onely ; So that the Monarchy of the life and body being firm , they trouble only the functions of the Soul. And furthermore , there are some which also keep degrees ; as they who lately complained of adverse , troublesom , tedious and unvoluntary sorrows , do at length also obey madnesses : And therefore there are some which do add faint-heartednesses , and the terrours of certain objects onely . Others also do remember all things acted at the time of their sury , and the judgement of the minde is seen onely to be sorely shaken . That all these things I say , do strike at the Head , but that they do not arise from the head , the one only hypochondriack passion teacheth : For it presageth a storm , and fit , if a vein do beat strongly , and with an unwonted tempest : But the action of government hath hitherto stood neglected , & the very soulified or quickned faculty of the Duumvirate hath wandred about as a stranger , and they have vainly bestirred themselves onely about the lying purgings of black choler : that is , about the meltings or weakenings of the strength . ( In the mean time , the Quartan Ague hath alwayes laughed at , and cut off the hope of the Schools , and the boastings of these ) : therefore all the command of madnesses , and of struggling Diseases , is attributed to black cholerick vapours . Therefore it is clear as the light at noon-day , that nothing hath been known in madnesses , nothing enacted in the Apoplexie , nothing thought of in the stranglings of the womb , and lastly in the on-sets of the falling-Evil , with fruit or profit , besides the vain torturings of the Body , dissolving Butcheries , and vain losses of the strength . For it hath oft been tried , by things greatly sleepifying , to succour madness , and in vain : For they scarce procure sleep in their four-fold quantity ; and therefore the administ●ing of the same is full of terrour : But fury is not diminished by drowfie sleeps , or bonds : For stupefactive Medicines , do afford sleep , and troublesome Dreams : For madness is nothing but a watching or waking dream : And therefore Opiates do bring on hurtful sleep , and that with labour . For whosoever he be , that cannot resolve the occasional cause of a Quartan Ague from the Spleen ; much lesse can he convert himself unto the curing of madness : for madness sits for the most part without a material errour , in the hypochondrial part , and for that cause it is derivable on posterity . Indeed madness differs from doatage , in this : that that wants filths . Those who refuse to learn , will laugh , because I affirm , that one , or a few secrets of Paracelsus doth prevail over every Disease : whom at sometime in its own place , I shall satisfie : but now it is sufficient to have repeated , that there is one Soul in the stomach , in man , as it were in its own bed , from whence the vital powers are universally to be drawn : and whatsoever troubles or provokes this Soul , that very thing is constrained to depart by the unity of a Remedy , if it containeth in it the strength and essence of all the members . Which thing , that it may be made so much the more manifest , I will bring a History . First , I have seen a fat Body , whose whole fatness hath been resolved into Liquor , which afterwards was voyded by Urine : For I could not think , that the Reins had their office of transchanging fat that was extended under the Skin , into water ; but I rather believed , that that office was to be granted to that faculty which formed the venal bloud into fat : To wit , that it belongs to the same faculty being hurt , to convert the fat into Liquor , whose office it was before to compose fat out of venal bloud : But the Kidneys have not that Dignity to make us fat , or lean ; while as many do oft-times wax fat with consumed and stony Kidneys : But from thence , the chiefdom of the stomach doth manifestly appeal ; and that as the Root doth govern the whole Tree , and the Comedy of the digestions hereof , as well in the Leaves , Fruits , and Barks , as in the Wood , Pith , and Branches ; so also , the same thing doth likewise happen in us by virtue of the Duumvirate : For it often times comes to passe , that a Capuchin being burdened with long fasting , and being satisfied with a little Drink , and a little Ale , is endowed notwithstanding with a grosse habit of Body : But on the contrary , great eaters , and those who are brought up with dainty huckstery , are seen to be notably lean . Surely howsoever I do meditate of both these chances , I finde the fountainous digestion of the stomach to be the governess of the other , as it were successive subordinate ones unto it self . But at least , it is a wonder , after what sort , the Oily fat being resolved , doth return back into its former Liquor , yea is drawn back into the veins , and at length unto the Reins through the Trunck : which thing surely is wholly dark in it self , unless there be a full power , authority , and faculty of the one life , from its seat , over the whole Body : whereby Hipocrates hath dictated , that the while Body is wholly an un-respiring , and exspiring thing : in contemplation whereof , I have elsewhere said , that man is not called an Animal or living Creature , but by an injurious name : For he is , he which put proper names upon all living Creatures ; but not on his own self ; because his own knowledge of himself did fail him , because it is that which was not found , nor was within the latitude of living Creatures : he presently beheld ( although some one Character did not answer , which might represent himself to himself ) that there was something present in humane Nature , which did climbe above the condition of soulified Creatures . And that thing , with Adam , the Schools might have sufficiently sifted out , if they had at least once considered , why man onely laughs . Truly laughter is not from an admiring of things present , or past : For an Infant doth often times salute by his own laughter , those that talk unto him . Therefore laughter is made from the knitting or joyning of a double soul , which Beasts want : For the sensitive Soul ( being the Fountain and original of the first conceptions ) considering of something that is pleasing to it self , doth together with bruit beasts , conceive that thing in joy : but while the minde in a piercing light , perceiveth it self to be the companion of the sensitive Soul , it being as it were full of admiration , doth condescend in the pleasant conceipts of the sensitive Soul , as it were admiring that there is something which is worthy of joy ; and from thence proceeds laughter : Because the minde doth the same thing in laughter , which the sensitive Soul onely doth after another manner , act in its Body by the tickling of an itch-Gum : For any one doth sometimes leap or hop a little , if he shall but onely see a threatning tickler . Indeed the Soul understands , and hath known a thing in its own Seat , all whereof , it very often , cannot finde in the head , although it hath sometimes known , pronounced that thing distinctly , & re-plowed it into the sheath of the memory : For the Duumvirate consisteth of an understanding of its own , of the immortal mind , & moreover , of the understanding or imaginative faculty of the sensitive Soul , using its own Organs diversly distributed , the Colledge whereof notwithstanding is celebrated within the seat of the Soul. I have already expounded , after what manner the Duumvirate doth exercise its own Authorities or priviledges on the bowels , on the heart , on the head , Sinews , in the giddiness of the head , yea and on the principal faculties of the minde : it remains onely to explain , how much force it may have on the Lungs : wherein , in the first place it is obvious to our sight : That he who by reason of a too much sitting life , hath been easily intercepted at every motion of breathing , I have freed the same persons often times , and that by one onely vomitary potion : So from thence I have remained confirmed , that the whole difficulty thereof is seated at the bordering places of the stomach , and the Lungs to be accounted guiltless . But as in regard of Coughs , surely it is manifest that some Opiates do freely operate , and command , not onely that such people may sleep the better , and longer , or quieter : but I remember , that the Laudanum of Paracelsus being taken , although it did afford well-nigh waking nights unto one that had the Cough ; yet it so appeased the Cough , and restrained plentiful , yellow , and compacted Spittles , that they were not onely presently diminished in quantity ; but also that they were changed into snivelly , somewhat pale , and afterwards into white spittles : Especially also , because the Opiate being taken late , returning by vomit in the morning , did testifie the Cough to be suspended or withheld , and also the generating of spittings by reaching , being horrid in plenty , and colour , to have stopped . First of all , I think that I have abundantly demonstrated elsewhere , under the toy or doatage of a Catarrhe , that spittings or reachings are not defluxes from the Head into the Winde-pipe . Therefore it is manifest enough , that they are uncessantly digested in the very Conduit of the rough Artery : And by consequence , that a Medicine being as yet in the stomach , thorowly mixed with other supper meats , doth restrain , that the nourishable Liquor of the Winde-pipe become not degenerate , and depart not so plentifully into that muck or filth : wherein , the restoring or fortifying force imprinted on the stomach , is evident , that it is already conveighed unto the Steward of the Lungs , and that in the same place it stretcheth forth its own Authority : which things indeed , as I in my first years , beheld with joy and admiration , thus to happen ; so afterwards I studied to increase that restoring power , by detaining it , the Opiate , stupefactive and hurtful faculty being the while suppressed : For I was presently after , more assured , that the solved flowre of Sulphur doth effect in this case , those things which from the solved Body of Sulphur it self do not a whit happen : And all that indeed , not inasmuch as Sulphur as such , doth enter unto the Lungs , not indeed that it should be admitted under the priviledge of flowrs , or should come down after every bound of the digestions , every way constant and unchanged , unto the Instruments of breathing ; but onely as the anodyne or allaying virtue in the Sulphur , should thus plainly appear : which being as yet detained within the stomach , should from thence , by the authority of the Duumvirate , contend unto the spiritual government of the Lungs . Happy therefore is the sick party , whose aider the Physitian , hath known how to separate the deadlynesses out of Poppy , its succouring Remedy , the stirrer up of the power in the Duumvirate being retained : Otherwise surely , the hurtful together with the profitable , are taken in at once , and the one hinders the conveyance of the other . Therefore Opiates cannot induce sleep , but at least they can restrain the return of the spermatick and nourishable Liquor into a degenerate and banished one , and into the so frequent and horrid reaching filth and spittle that is to be expelled : The which indeed , by how much the more plentifully it is expunged or spit out , and seems to be dispatched , by so much also the more abundantly it increaseth afresh : wherefore the restraining of ● degenerate generation , is evidently enough known not to happen but by a restoring virtue raised up within the Pipes of the Lungs : To wit , the hurtful power of the Opium is blunted or repressed , so as without sleep ( at least , not by a sleepfying virtue ) a liberty of breathing is brought in in peace , quiet , and without a Cough , hissing or wheesing , & snortings . But the stomach prevails to restrain the producing of so many phlegms cast back by reaching , as the digestive faculty thereof is chief Ruler over the other digestions : And therefore the aforesaid Opiates of the produced Muscilages , do cure , as long as that defect doth issue from the vice of the digestive Ferment ; But not when it depends on a corrupting of the innate or inbred strength : For then also against the stomach's will , it hastens into a Consumption ; no otherwise than as it is impossible for the stomach , to restore the life already bending or declining into a fall . CHAP. XL. The compleating or perfecting of the minde . 1. The blinde knowledge concerning the minde . 2. What the chief operation of the minde may be . 3. The thingliness or essence of the sensitive Soul. 4. Quick-sightedness is not the Daughter of the minde onely . 5. It is proved . 6. From the fruits of the Soul , the knowledge thereof is to be fetched . 7. A nearer knowledge of the minde : 8. The difference of the sensitive Soul of man from that of a bruit Beash . 9. A dispensing of the fruits of the sensitive Soul. 10. They flow from a fore-existing knowledge of the Senses . 11. An exhortation . 12. The operations of the minde are more abstracted . 13. Things required unto the purity of mental operations . 15. The Prayer of silence is commended for the knowledge of the minde . 16. A Reason is added . 17. The Majesty of the minde is learned from the wisdom of the Father . 18. The three wishes are explained . 19. Their excellency . 20. Whatsoever the Lords Prayer includeth , is new and unheard of . 21. The top of an amorous wish or loving desire . 22. The place of a sensible fewel . 23. The abstracted secrets of the minde are felt , and there is not a word meet to expresse them . 24. An illustrating of the amorous minde . 25. The Authour willingly confesseth his own nothingness . 26. The late directers of the minde , who have entred in by the Windowes , are hissed out . 27. These shall fall in the fulness of time . I Have already spoken some things concerning the Birth and offices of the sensitive Soul : but there hath not been as yet said enough , and much lesse concerning the immortal mind ; because that , in which two words , whatsoever things we have by faith concerning the minde of man , are almost explained or declared ; and there is nothing at all , which can bring us into a manifest knowing thereof : wherefore , whatsoever we search into concerning it , is hitherto involved in darkness , and plainly unknown : For neither can we devise any thing touching the thingliness or essence of the minde , besides what we have learned by operating , and what we know to be freely given unto us : For we are commanded to know and distinguish a man by his works . But neither is that the chiesest operation of the minde , which after a drawn knowledge of the premises , the judgement of man doth form and conceive to it self from the conclusion : because neither hath the judgement of man it self , such a proper respect to the minde , that it is the immediate off-spring hereof : For the minde adhereth to the sensitive Soul by so strict a bond in us , that the commerces of humane custom can scarce hitherto separate the distinct offices of the same from each other . Truly all abstracted speculation is even hitherto believed to be the Workmanship of the minde alone , to wit , under which , labours are felt in the head : Especially because these very things are believed to be strangers to bruit beasts : But I have already elsewhere demonstrated , that Bees do observe their numbers , and every morning distinguish their own Hive from their neighbouring ones , by their numbers ; and likewise that therefore also they re-number them in returning , least they should lay up their own fardle of Honey and Wax for an unknown and unacceptable Common-wealth . But nothing is so strange in bruits , as the exercise of numbring . So also we observe in Beasts a certain phantasie , and no obscure marks of discourses : as also a judicious choyce selectively of one before another ; And that indeed even in accidental unaccustomed things , nor those ever before seen , and much lesse in things diligently taught them by their begetter : For the Serpent was more crafty , than the other living Creatures . Wherefore if among bruites there are differences of quick-sightednesses noted , there is place left of conjecturing , that in man , the same operations , are as yet , far more diligent , powerful , eminent , and frequent than in bruites ; and that the sensitive soul of men doth far exceed animal creatures in quick-sightedness ; unless the sensitive soul should be a stranger to men , and altogether a forreigner to their nature : Because he is he , who was wholly beloved , and raised up into the Image or likeness of God , but not that he should degenerate into a specifical and bruital soul , and so defile or mar the Image of God. Therefore the sensitive soul hath remained a voyd table in man ; because it is that which took its original from the fall and spot of corrupted nature , and so also it hath scarce obtained so proper a dignity of imagination , which may not every way depend on the operations of the mind , as shall straightway be more cleerly manifested . And although quick-sightedness or sharpness of wit , be the daughter of judgment , and discourse , yet it is not therefore moreover a proper operation and fruit of the mind : For that which now even from the first fall , hath resigned up all the offices of life unto the sensitive soul , hath also by a just desert , so contracted the judgment of its own quick-sightedness to the Phantasie of the sensitive soul , that the faculties which are exercised in the Inn of the Brain , and do constitute a difference of men in the sharpness , speediness , and dulness of judgment , are not by an unjust title believed to be delegated to the sensitive soul , and as it were proper to this , because its inmates : wherefore , whatsoever faculties in us do distinguish the Climates of the earth , vary them , and cause diversities of wits from thence ; surely it is not likely to be true , that the same do issue from the homogeneal simplicity of the immortal mind . And I at first long stuck in these things , until I had seen madnesses , doatages and foolishnesses to be introduced by Simples , as well those external or forreign , as by those which sprang up in our own cottages : Because they were those which I knew , have not accesse unto the mind , the which indeed , they do not so much as touch at , and much lesse are able to pierce it , and least of all do they attempt to overcome the same . Certainly , many rough places have been met withall in this journey , and no aids of distinctions : which sluggishness , to wit , of Predecessors , driveth us from the knowledge of our mind , yea and withholds us from the true knowing of its operations , without which indeed it is impossible to judge of the calling , ordination , and direction of the mind in every one of us : And so that negligence hath made us hitherto like unto beasts , and keepeth in us , thick , beast-like darkness , if the Almighty goodness had not enlightned it by faith . Wherefore neither could I more distinctly set before my eyes , the operations proper to the mind , than by the Prayer of silence ; because it is that which is most properly a natural operation of the mind , plainly abstracted , and is believed so to be ; to wit , in the splendour whereof , a diversitie of the operation of the mind doth cleerly appear , from the judgment , discourse of the sensitive soul , and decrees of the Phansie : And this maketh us the sons of darknesse more judicious and quick-sighted , like the Serpent , and doth far prefer us before the sons of light in this respect : For the sensitive soul liveth in us , and utters no sluggish restimonies of its own life ; yet because it wants a bruital and specifical supposingness , therefore it rejoyceth only in an undistinct life of light , and conceiveth the vital operations of the mind in it self , and appropriateth them unto its own exercises of powers ; yet they are not the true and proper functions of the mind : because even as the mind is now since the fall involved in the light of a frail or mortal soul , and therefore doth as it were plainly cease from all government of the body , and beams sorth its own vital light into the sensitive soul its Vicaress : yet the actions thereof are not therefore those of the mind it self , which therefore utters only abstracted functions , and those co-like to it self in this thing . Concerning the searching or hunting out of Sciences , I have contemplated about the operations of the mind , and especially those which might concern the dignities of the understanding : But those things are not sufficient for any kind of knowledge of the mind : wherefore that we may draw out some kind of knowledge thereof by its own abstracted operations , I will repeat what things I have already above written concerning the Image of God in us ; to wit , that understanding , will , and love , desire I say , or wishing , are powers so intimate to the mind , that they do denote the substance of the same : That love I say , proceeding substantially from the other two : and from hence I perceive that every and the whole function of the mind is immediately begun in us . But besides I have also demonstrated elswhere , that our life is now another , and corrupted , after that through the flesh of sin , the sensitive soul which is earthly , mortal , frail , animal or sensual , and devilish , was stirred up , whereto the immortal mind was fast tied after sin . Yet we must remember , according to the doctrine delivered concerning the original of forms , that the sensitive soul in bruit beasts , is not a formal substance , but a substantial vital forme , and the which departs into nothing , no otherwise than as the light of a candle : that it is indeed a vital light , created by the Father of lights , and a neither creature , between a substance and an accident : which indeed in bruits subsisteth in it self absolutely , and is limited into a bruital species or particular kind : But in man , because it came to him afterwards , nature being now corrupted , it is not of a limited bruital species , but only a vital light , and not the life it self , even as in bruits ; because life is beamingly inspired into , and as it were borrowed for it from the mind , which it covers or wraps up ; no otherwise then as the Moon receives her light from the Sun. And although this sensitive soul of man , doth far exceed the souls of bruit beasts in quick-sightedness , yet it acts nothing without the mind : for from that which it deriveth life , it cannot but borrow also a power of thinking from thence , to which it is so intimately tied , that the mind wholly pierceth the sensitive soul . Indeed the sensitive soul doth think by a power of its own , but it is illustrated by the mind ; and therefore the whole cogitation of our sensitive soul is of the whole man : For verily it so happens , even as in the Moon and the Sun : that indeed hath a light proper to its self , but she shines more by the reflex light of the Sun , ( even as elswhere concerning Meteors ) and in the Moon , her own light doth as it were perish . Therefore the sensitive soul in us doth diversly think , and degrees of enlargement are felt in cogitation . For first of all , in madness , foolish madness , foolishnesse , doatage , fury , drunkennesse , and dreams , there are indeed divers cogitations of the whole man ; yet with so smal a light of the mind , that this doth bring no brightness unto it , but that which at least it cannot refuse , by reason of the strict necessiry of its bond . Therefore the sensitive soul it self , because it is mortal , being invaded by the injuries of frail things , yieldeth to their importunities , doth well nigh only think by a little light of the mind , as being helped by a prop of life : wherefore those thoughts are voyd of sin ; Because the mind doth not think in those , but is over-clouded by a contracted contagion of the sensitive soul . Furthermore , how much the cogitations or thoughts do the more go back from that guiltless contagion , unto abstracted discourses ; so much the more do they partake of the life of the mind , than of the proper liveliness of the sensitive soul . Indeed every sensitive thought is brought on of necessity , by the service of the senses , neither doth it exceed that necessity , however cleerly it may abstract it self from those : For whatsoever may be perceived by the senses , that doth not as yet reach to the bottom or soil of the mind alone . Therefore this variety of thinking in the sensitive soul , doth bring forth so great a latitude and varieties of our judgments . In the next place , even as in the Moon , the light of the Sun doth manifestly lose its own heat , and puts on it self a strange or forreign cold ; so also in the vital sensitive soul , the beam of the mind , although it be nakedly intellectual , doth pass over into the dominion of the sensitive soul ; and so that also it there finds an earthly law , opposite to the law of the mind . Wherefore we must diligently procure , that as much as is possible , we do withdraw our selves from all that which may be conceived by the senses : for so we come unto the Mountain of the Lord , whither the scope of our journey is . But neither to have thus spoken this by the way , doth sufficiently teach the naked operations of the mind , neither is there away seen , whereby we may attain any kind of knowledge of the mind . For those kind of thoughts are as yet of the whole man , as long as there is any selfishnesse , or the mind doth apprehend something without it self , with a duality or twonesse , and doth not yet behold it self as a transfigured thing . Indeed it beholdeth the properties of man , or of other things ; so the whole thing it self : but it is not the naked intellectual light of the mind which then operateth , but it is a combination of both vital lights , mutually piercing each other : In which act , alas , as the immortal mind doth easily , so also through an evil accustomednesse , it doth for the most part willingly obey the frail sensitive soul its Chamber-maid : Even so that , that we may come unto the wished for purity of our mind , thinking purely and nakedly in the abstract , the doctrine of S. Dionysius to Timothy , is first to be received : For that divine things may be understood ( but divine things are whatsoever things the naked Image of God beholds ) and as yet after a slender manner , and for the looking into divine Secrets , the Senses , are to be rejected , and whatsoever may be perceived by the Senses . Moreover , reason , the actions of reason , and whatsoever may be known and perceived by reason , whether that be created or uncreated ; and that thou goest out of thy self , and out of all knowledg of all those things , and that thou comest into the one Vnity of Him , who is above all nature and knowledge . Thus he . For the mind is the neerest image of the Divinity , therefore as the eye beholds nothing more absolurely than the Sun it self ( the cleernesse of whose light notwithstanding it bears not ) but all other things by reason of it : So the mind doth principally and intimately think or contemplate of nothing properly , besides that Unity , and all other things for the same Unities sake . Whence it manifestly appears , that as long as any thing is thought of , which may be perceived by the senses , or reason , it is not yet a pure and naked cogitation of a mind abstracted or withdrawn . But the manner of comming thitherto , is indeed read , being above described ; but it is moreover far remote , and almost unpassable , by reason of the every way with-drawing and banishing of all created things , yea and every consideration of that which is uncreated ; that is , a renouncing proceeding by a sequestration , even unto every activity of the mind ; which indeed doth therefore exclude every thought and contemplation of the mind , and doth expect or wait for from above the in-flowing light freely given , by doing nothing ; but only by suffering , after all selfishnesse is exhausted . But seeing it doth not at all consist in our own power to be wholly freed , and so that it rather puts us in mind of the grace of ravishment , or violent prevalency , than of the true , and naked , and pure operations of the mind , which I intend to take a View of in this Chapter , for a compleating of the Treatise of the Soul : Therefore , according to my poverty of judgment , a man doth not in acting climbe neerer unto a super-eminent uncloathing of his mind alone , and an abstracted baring of the light of understanding , than by the prayer of silence in the Spirit , wherein the delights of God are to be adored : Because he then doth issuingly illustrate or make light , cleer , or famous , that mind , as the uncloathed image of himself , being thus reflexed in the glass of his own Divinity . This indeed is that which the most glorious Goodnesse wisheth for . But that fruits or exercises may bewray the essence or thinglinesse of the mind ; I have thought that , that is not more powerfully , nor elswhere to be had , than from spiritual exercises , whereby the mind it self rids it self from the co●knit conceipts of created things , and from the service of the acquainted Senses : For it is manifest what the mind it self may be , while it hath withdrawn it self from conceipts , which are wont , or might stain it , or at leastwise hinder it from comming unto the nakednesse and purity of it self , wherein it may be able to worship the aforesaid Unity or onenesse . The Lord Jesus therefore is the Way , the Truth , and the Life : the way I say , unto himself the Truth , and unto the life of the Father of Lights . Therefore the way is directed unto the obtainment of abstracted truth , whose wished desire it is , that the hidden truth which he hath decyphered in the mind , his own image , may be certainly known by us , and worshipped in the Spirit . Where Himself is , the Kingdome of God is present , with all his free gifts : and therefore the manner and mean of worshipping in spirit , cannot be more nearly known , or perfectly learned , than by the way and truth it self , and so by the prayer which he hath dictated unto us : wherein are first three amorous or loving wishes or desires of love , and as many Petitions . For those wishes are without all selfishnesse , and are naked respects toward God himself , and therefore the most pure of all those which can be wished for , and thought by love . And the first of them is , that which the Truth speaketh , Seek ye first the Kingdom of God , and the righteousvess thereof , and other things shall be added unto you : But it is not the righteousnesse of God , that righteousness may be done by us ( for no one living shall be justified in his sight ) but that his Name may be sanctified , which is not only due unto him , & so a just thing but that loving wish justifies us . For it presupposeth first of all , Christian faith itself , and then also his infinite goodness , whereby he vouchsafeth to be our Father : And indeed , in the word [ Our ] selfishness is put for the goodness of God , & the obliging of all of us , which otherwise is nowhere seen in the three wishes . And thirdly , it sheweth forth his vast majesty to be co-measured by his dwelling place of the Heavens , which is the work of his own hands : And so , such like things as those being premised , an amorous wish or desire is kindled in us , which doth not desire , that his Name be only sanctified by his only begotten Son , and our Mediatour , where Deep calls unto Deep : neither also , onely that the heavenly Wights , and whole Church militant , may adore his unutterable Name : neither also therefore is it the sense , that his Name may he sanctified on earth , like as it is inheaven ; but that it may be sanctified or hallowed in us , and by us ; in all this , notwithstanding , selfishnesse and nothingnesse being renounced : and that there may be a naked and most pure reflexion of the honour and delights of God in that which is to be with us , and to be worshipped in the spirit of love : And therefore also the other succeeding wish doth not ask the Kingdom of God for it self , but the Kingdom of God which is in us , that it may come neerer to us : Not indeed nakedly , and simply for our sakes , but because it is of his goodnesse to be with the sons of men in delights : Wherefore also it is wished , that his own Will may be done , in us , upon us , and by us , with a full resignation of our own will. Therefore the three wishes do proceed from the soul , without a modal restriction or reflexion on us ; because they do exceed all personality of the creature , that God may be worshipped for himself , And therefore they do excell all force of prayer , petition , praising , giving of thanks , yea and of glorification it self . For to give thanks , doth denote a benefit , and implyeth a receiver : but glorification , praising , or sanctification it self , as it brings down my selfishnesse before the sight of God ( although in the mean time it be due and obligatory ) it far goes back from the excellency of a most pure and amorous wish or desire , wherein the sanctifying of the Name of God in us , is desired , in which deep calleth unto deep . For who am I , who may presume in respect of an infinite , to sanctifie that Name ? who indeed am nothing but a worm , and a most miserable sinner ? And therefore the amorous or loving desire of sanctification , doth as much excell , let thy name be hallowed or sanctified by me , as a wretched sinner differs from the Son of the God-bearing Virgin. For praises , and prayers , as well in the Mosaical Law , as at this day , were made by Hymns , Psalmes , and Prayers : But man , before the truth be perfectly learned , hath never attained the vigour , height , and depth of a loving desire , of sanctifying the incomprehensible Divinity in us , wherein there is more excellency than all creatures together are able to comprehend : For that sanctification is wished for , not because God is most excellent , most great , bountiful , &c. For those things include a selfishnesse of the praiser , not to be suffered together with the divine Name . Therefore the desire and wish of an amorous soul , fervently desiring the sanctifying of the Name of God , nakedly and simply , is not made indeed by a creature below God , but by a melting of the mind , desiring in the love of God : for the least thing which it contains in it , is to offer it self to God with a resignation of its whole , and likewise to will , act , and suffer any thing , with a total amorous offering up of the heart , soul , and strength into the obedience of the Divine Will : In which loving or lovely offering , all thoughts besides the naked desire of love are unsufferably excluded ; because it transcends all reflexion : For because it is naked , it despiseth every garment which reason might administer unto it . For that so naked , and excellent love ariseth in the seat of the mind , and is felt there where every first conception is made , without a likenesse and imagination : But as long as it can be expressed by words , it is not yet a naked , abstracted cogitation of the mind , which indeed by B. Dionysius , is described to be above all that which can be conceived by reason , sense , and words : Truly it is felt , but without discourse and imagination . Because by a naked conceiving of amorous truth , truth it self is then stricken with , enjoys , and approacheth , yea , and presently pierceth by an unexpressible touch of the mind : Otherwise , as oft as Idea's are formed , or conceptions expressible by words , they retain a motherly frailty of the sensitive soul , a bricklenesse of unconstancy , an uncertainty , and disturbances subject to passions . In the power therefore of understanding , and indeed in the native vigour of the mind , and the desire of a loving soul , a certain God-like Being is bred in us , as it were in the Young of a longing woman great with child , or the mind it self is purified , and so it rectifies the mind , and the Image of God it self : For that is not by sight , and a sensual appetite , as in a woman with child ; neither is it conceived in bodily dens , as neither is it marked in a strange Young : but it requireth every faculty of the mind , soul , heart , and strength , and therefore the Ideal Being being brought forth by an amorous wishing or desire , remaineth in in the mind it self , which it so disposeth , that it may transchange it into a God-like Image , by grace flowing to it from God. But who am I , who do write these things ? Truly , I fear least I may be a Bell , calling the Faithful together unto the Temple , which it self remains in the top of the Tower abroad : But onely I hope , if I shall profit in the aforesaid wishes , that I shall find my self , whereby I shall by humbling my self , neglect my self the more . Moreover , there have lately arisen directers of the conscience , transferring on themselves all liberty of the mind , to be dispensed especially on the devoted Sex : this Sex they called within unto themselves , saying , that nor only Christ the anointed , but also that Jesus the Saviour was with them : But these do presently erre in their first entrance : for they call their devoted women together unto contemplative exercises , to be performed by companies or troops , which the truth it self commendeth to be done after another manner , the Chamber-door being shut after them : And then , they require honour , reverence , and riches to be due unto themselves , under obedience , and a manifold vow . And so the hurtful or envious man scatters his own seeds for tares , that he may suppresse those also which were good Seeds . And therefore the Prophet Hildegard hath foretold , that at length secret luxury shall be co-mingled with them , and they shall fall even as Simon Magus , by the prayer of the Apostles , or of the Bishops and Faithful . But besides , when any one hath at least once been brought into the vigour of that wish or desire , himself being pricked by his own spurs , will hasten to return thither ; and being now as it were made expert in the wayes , the passage will be easier for him afterwards . In the mean time , because every one doth not reach thitherto , God hath made divers mansions to be occupied in his own Palace : So also he hath ordained divers means to this end , through Charity , which I willingly omit , because they are not the proper objects of our Medicinal Faculty . Therefore it is sufficient for me to have proposed the largenesse of the mind in acting , and its wandring power of forming Idea's or shapy likenesses , as well for the consideration of diseases , and of a sound life , as for the exercises of virtues . CHAP. XLI . The Scab and Ulcers of the Schools . 1. Why the Author treats concerning the Scab and Leprousie in this place . 2. He repeats more clearly the beginnings of his repentance . 3. An errour in the causes , indication or betokening sign , and remedy . 4. A question proposed to Physitians and the Schools . 5. The credulities in the Author . 6. Late Consideration . 7. Out of my History , fourteen Conclusions . 8. That the speculations of the Schools are scabbed . 9. A Scab remained in me before the distemperature of the Liver . 10. Pustules or Wheals in Scabbednesse , are signs , and fruits of the Scab , but not the Scab . 11. Grasse roots in an Apozem are taken notice of . 12. The occasional causes of Vlcers . 13. The Dreams of the Schools . 14. Galen is noted to be ulcerous . 15. The unconsiderance of the Schools , and Galen . 16. Some absurdities . 17. Thin Sanies , and corrupt Pus are not excrements , although filths . 18. The corrupter in an Vlcer is the Vlcer . 19. Venal bloud is not vitiated in the hollownesse of an Vlcer . 20. The vain labour of the Schools . 21. The root of Vlcers . 22. The hollow of an Vlcer is not the Vlcer it self . 23. Considerations of Pus or corrupt snotty matter . 24. The differences of Pus and Sanies . 25. Galenical ignorances . 26. Some absurdities of the received opinion of Galen . 27. The occasional cause in the corrupter . 28. How ridiculous a Catarrh is for old Vlcers , and how foolishly Cauteries are applied thither . 29. The ignorance of ferments , what it brings forth . 30. How there are so many diversities of Vlcers in one onely venal blood . 31. Corrosives , if they can heal Vlcers , the rather notwithstanding , their corrosion being appeased . 32. The trifles of Paracelsus concerning the Microcosmical birth of wounds . 33. Paracelsus is urged with an actual and true Identity of the Microcosm or little world . 34. An Idiotism of the same man , concerning the nourishing of wounds from without . 35. A healing Secret of Vlcers . 36. The curing of wounds . HItherto I have shewn , that the causes of Diseases delivered by Galen , and his followers , are erroneous , and false : it should be meet even now , to passe over unto the true doctrine of Diseases , although even hitherto unknown , unlesse some things did detein me , and elswhere divert me , which of right seem to be premised : For after that in a Book set forth , I treated concerning the Plague the Queen of Diseases ; and also that I had spoken in Print , concerning the affect of the Stone , as it were a Monster bred as well in us , as in Urinals or Chamber-pots without us ; and I had by the way there occasionally treated concerning the Leprosie , Apoplexy , Palsie , Sleepy evil , Cramp , and of Diseases a-kin to them , but nothing at all touching defects of the skin ; I thought it worth my pains , before I do profesly finish this my labour of the essence of Diseases , as well in the general , as in the particular kind , to premise some particular things which I have thought will open the doors unto the entrance of the knowledge of Diseases . And first of all , I will touch at the diseases of the Skin , as those that are the more obvious or easie to be seen . Wherefore in the Book of Fevers I have rehearsed indeed the principles of my repentance , whereby I was compelled to depart from the method and doctrine of the Schools , that I may shew the foolishnesse of the Maxims whereby the world is deceived , as well by the drinking of purgative things , as by an estimation that diseases are made , and freed by the ejection of liquors which the Schools do perswade to be the constitutive ones of us , and those erring in their due quantity , and quality . Therefore it hath not ●ked me , hitherto to refer , and to repeat the same beginnings of my repentance . I being a young man , and about to take my leave of a certain Gentlewoman , held her glove and hand for some little while , which laboured with an hidden and dry Scab : But I thereupon , presently contracted , not indeed a dry , but a thin watery Scab , to wit , onely , and that by a sober touching : And then I observed many times , that hand-towels have brought forth the manginesses of scabbed persons , and the hairs of moathy cloths , moaths ; as also the contagions of leprous , and lecherous diseases , to have been propagated by a participated ferment : and that thing the Proverb related to incorrigible persons , signifies ; to wit , that one onely little bird infects a whole flock with his scabbinesse . For such kind of vices being transplanted by a poisonous fuel , are notwithstanding reckoned by the Schools , without distinction , in the guilt of the Liver , and to be stirred from an unseasonable or disordered heat of the same : As if the contagion of the Skin of one Sheep doth distemper the Livers of the other Sheep . Truly this one onely Consideration was unto me the first beginning of light Adeptical : From whence indeed the Maxims of the Schools were with me manifested to be a Scab , and they forced me to another matter , after that I saw the remedies of the Schools to be vain , and the Maxims of the same to be frivolous . Truly I called to me two of the more famous Physitians of our City , almost rejoycing that I might now understand in my self , whether their Studies might answer to their practise : But the Physitians having seen the mattery Scab , presently judged , that adust or burnt choler did abound in me , together with salt phlegm ; and so that the faculty of making blood in the liver , was distempered . I rejoyced presently , because those things which Authors had sung unto me , were confirmed by most expert Masters : Because I who had learned , that in Science Mathematical all Speculations were most exceeding true , did believe that thing to be likewise common and unseparable to the rules or maxims of healing : I thinking that they were that which they ought , and did promise to be . And presently , according to my antient credulity , I asked what that distemper of the Liver should be , which at one and the same act , should enflame yellow choler more unjustly than was meet , and also engender more phlegm than was meet ; seeing an act of the same root , or of the same sanguification , could not be at the same time , and in the same bowel , a two-forked , or double generation , and so unlike , to wit , that which should abundantly send forth a fiery choler , and also a cold and watery phlegm . The most expert Masters doubted , and being amazed with their eye-brows bent , they long beheld themselves , and at length the Junior of them answered , that the same distemper of an inflamed Liver , did not therefore afford true phlegm , but an abounding salt phlegm , but that the temperature of salt was hot and dry . To whom I replied , Should therefore the Salt of the Urin be made through the vice of the Liver and heat abounding ? but the broaths of fleshes that are not salt , not put on salt , although they should boil with heat ? The Senior answered , These things were to be proposed by me in the Schools , but not in times of practise , wherein the family had appointed hours for gain . But he presently asked me , what Authors I had consulted with ? or what I had learned was to be done ? I said , for the cooling refreshment of the Liver , and blood , the vein of the right arm under the Cephalical or head-vein was to be cut : and then that we must proceed by cooling Apozems , in regard of burnt choler , yet so , as that cutting and extenuating , temperate things were to be mingled , by reason of the saltnesse of the phlegm . I shewed out of Rondoletius , an Apozem or decoction , which might perhaps contein 50 ingredients , tending to a most plentiful hope of accomplishing both ends . And seeing they knew not in their readings , a daily diligent noter of all things , they would that I my self should describe all things for my self . Therefore after a sufficiently plentiful letting forth of blood made in the Spring-time of my youth , and otherwise in the fulnesse of health , I took for three dayes together the aforesaid Apozem , whereinto on the fourth and fifth morning , I put a sufficient quantity of Rhubarb , and Agarick , to wit , that Nature might begin to obey the calling purgative medicine , and that both the peccant humors might be rendred pliable unto it : They praised all things , and especially because I was greedy of learning , and obeying . But on the fifth day in the evening , I took pills of F●mitary , because Cordo , ( who was afterwards unto me Codrus ) writeth , that they do draw together , or are profitable in both the peccant humours ( for I had not then as yet known by a feigned name , to impose pills on the sick : as though they provoked Stools by reason of the Fumitary , and not by reason of the cruelty of poisonous Solutives : ) Therefore on the sixth day , I had at least fifteen Stools : in the mean time , they praised my providence , whereby I had made or prepared my body so fluid . Presently after two dayes from thence , because the Scab had not laid aside any of its cruelty , I took the same medicine , with a notable loathing of my stomach , and the like Stools succeeded : They said , that the flourishing age of eighteen years was apt for the breeding of choler : And when they saw , that for all that , the itching , and wheals were nothing diminished , they decreed , that two dayes after , I should take the purging medicine the third time . But then , a little before evening , my veins were now exhausted , my cheeks had fallen , my voice was hoarse , the whole habit of my body going to ruine , had waxed lean ; also it was difficult for me to descend from my chamber , and to go , because my knees did scarce support me . These things had befallen me , who was in health , from the touching of a scabbed hand . Indeed at the first turns , I rejoyced when I observed so large filth , and such stinking ones : But I considered too late , that before the purging medicines , I was well in health in my bowels ; but now that through a dejected appetite and digestion , I had contracted much leannesse , but that the scabbednesse remained safe or firm , with a sharp and hoarse voice . Lastly , that I might see how much choler , and how much phlegm I cast forth , I had made water in an Urinal : and I certainly found , that by a thrice taking of the solutive medicine , I had cast forth almost two little Buckets of stinking and cadaverous choler , the ejections being besprinkled with snivelly branches , which the Physitians affirmed to be that salt phlegm . And in the mean time , while I nourished almost throughout my whole body , mattery and large wheals , especially in my legs ; I asked them , whether the corrupt snotty matter or Pus did not denote the venal blood to be guilty , no lesse than choler , and phlegm : They said , seeing that my strength did now fail , they should be silent , as to a repeated cutting of a vein , otherwise meet to be done in the abundance of corrupt Pus remaining . But I repentingly considered , that before , I was in good health , except the contagion of my skin drawn from elswhere , and that of nothing , nothing was , or could be made ; neither could any corporeal body be placed , but in a body : therefore I leasurely enquired , whence so great a plenty of choler had flown from me ? and in what place it had layen hid ? For all the veins together could scarce have conteined the tenth part of the filth , although they should contein no good blood : I knew moreover , that so great a weight could neither be entertained in the head , nor in the breast , nor in the bottom of the belly , although they had been empty of all bowels . Therefore with earnest repentance , and my own dammage , I collected by Science Mathematical : First , That the name of purging was a grand deceit . Secondly , That a particular Selection of bringing forth such a humour , or any other , was likewise false . Thirdly , Because the birth and existence of humours was also false . Fourthly , That the cause of scabbednesse in respect of burnt choler , and salt phlegm , was feigned . Fifthly , That the Liver was guiltlesse in contagions of the Skin . Sixthly , That my Scab did as yet remain after purgings , although not with an equal fury . Seventhly , That the fury thereof was not slackened , because that some one or more imagined humours were expelled , and that for this cause the abounding of the same humours had offended : For truly , the venal blood being straightway recovered , the scab persisted the same ; and so the scab had been a little diminished through a defect of fulnesse . At length perhaps , after three moneths , I recovered from my scabbednesse by an easie anointing or unguent of Sulphur . Eighthly , That the Scab is an affect of the Skin onely . Ninthly , That the Schools did name as well choler , as phlegm , humors ill affected , as well in the veins , as out of them , as well those hurtful , as harmlesse . Tenthly , That any purging things did promiscuously melt , resolve , and putrifie the venal blood and flesh , even while they abode in the stomach and bowels . Eleventhly , That it is false , that the venal bloud doth return into humours , from whence it was bred . Twelfthly , That in this thing an impossible return from a privation to an habit should happen . Thirteenthly , That it is a grand deceit , that those three humours do remain in the venal blood , flesh , and solid parts , that by purging medicines they should be renewed into that , which they were before the framing of the flesh , &c. All which things , when I found them fighting with the truth of nature , and with the agreement of Phylosophy , I manifestly knew the speculations of the Schools to be scabby and false : And so I could not any longer doubt , whether Choler , or Phlegme were the cause of scabbedness : And I thus understood that thing by little and little , with the Grace of God , more certainly than certainty it self , the which alike equally knew by an intellectual certainty , and as it were by a knowledge Optick , or of the sight , that there is no Choler in nature , nor three humors united with the venal bloud : But that which is shewen by the Schools under the mask of both Phlegms , and Cholers , I have demonstrated in a peculiar Book , to be diseasie filths besides nature , and the vitious products of the Functions : At leastwise in me , the scab was contracted and bred onely by touching , in a full enjoyment of health , before the Liver could even have ever waxed hot : for my scabbedness was conceived in the space of a quarter of an hour . But the scabby Pustules their having more afterwards broken forth in the succession of some dayes , were not so much the scab it self , as the fruits of the same . If therefore scabbedness ariseth from the distemper of the Liver , surely in me , the scab it self was before its own cause . A Sheep feeding onely of Grasse , doth voluntarily get the scab : If that be from a hot distemper of the Liver , truly ye unjustly prescribe Grasse for a cooling refreshment of the Liver . Again , the scab in me , the Sheep , and Dog , are cured onely by Oyntments , or by an external aid , neither is the heat of the Liver heeded : Yea Medicines of Sulphur , Bayberries and white Helebore do never prevail against the heat of the Liver . Finally , scabbedness which is suddenly gotten by the touching of a towel , is of the same disposition with a voluntary one : but if that at least , ariseth not from the heat of the Liver : therefore neither doth this , if there are the same causes of the same thing in the particular kinde , object and subject : For at the very time wherein the scab is conceived by touching of the hand , or by the scabbedness of an infected Towel , in the skin of the toucher ; the scab is already present ; whose Seed or Ferment is in the aforesaid Skin , or Towel ; and then the Embryo or imperfect Young thereof is conceived in the skin of the toucher , the product whereof doth at length visibly break forth . In like manner also , Ulcers are made either from a wound being badly cured , or from a confusion or bruise , as a Cancer in a Woman ; or from an Aposteme breaking forth ; or at length from poyson bred within , which planteth its malignity in the external part , and doth there fix the properties of its own poysonsome Ferment : from whence also , whatsoever of venal bloud is distributed every hour for the nourishing of the part , that is turned into poyson , according to the race of its own Ferment : But humors which may be sent thither from the Liver , do not rise again from the dead , corrupted . The Schools therefore being credulously misled by Galen , have mutually signed unto his dreamed humors rising again out of the venal bloud and flesh , by reason of the importunate distemper of some certain bowel , due to an Elementary fight . For Galen in his Therapeuticks or curings of Diseases , will have it , that an Ulcer ought to consist naturally of a twofold excrement ( for it hath seemed sufficient for him to have laid down this Doctrine , and not to have proved it ) to wit , one of a more liquid Liquor or corrupt matter , and the other of a more grosse one , that is , of a corrupt Pus : from hence in the next place he concludeth , that every Ulcer ought to betoken , to require , and be healed by a double Medicine ( to wit , through the offence whereof , many being despaired of by the Schools , are dismissed unto old Women , to the contempt of Galen ) namely , one which should dry up , and drink up the thin Sanies into it self ; in the next place another , which should be a cleanser of the corrupt Pus . But how seriously hath this man weaved his own Fables ? and how undefiled or fault lesse are these toyes kept as yet to this day ? For now indeed they do no longer remember a four-fold humour , and a four-fold excrement resulting from thence , from the corruption of those . Indeed Galen will have the grosse matter to be venal bloud putrified , neither is he mindful of himself , while he teacheth that the bloud , in corruption , is turned wholly into Choler . In the next place , if purging Medicines do separate three humours apart out of the venal bloud at the will of the Physitian , he ought to have remembred , that that happen through the corruption of the bloud , to wit , while it departs asunder into its fore-going constitutives ( or , whatsoever hath been devised concerning purging things , and humors , is false ) wherefore in an Ulcer , that not two onely , but four ought wholly to issue forth : yea according to Galen , an Ulcer without grosse matter ( to wit a Cancer , a difficult or malignant Sore , or acorroding one fluid with liquid Sanies onely ) shall be more easie to be cured , than otherwise , a grosse mattery Ulcer is : Because it is that which shall have need of driers onely , to wit , Chaffe , or burnt bones . For how stupid and unsound a thing is it : to have taught , that an Ulcer is to be cured by the cleansing and sequestration of excrements , fruits , or products ? But not by a cutting off of the Root , which they no where and never knew , besides an intemperate heat ? seeing that every excrement shewes a necessary Relation unto the digestion , and part , in respect whereof , it is an excrement : So that a true excrement is a superfluous heap , left by a digestion , and by a part , whereunto it is unprofitable , and therefore sequestred from it . Because the name of an excrement , doth contain an expulsion of the impure from the pure : And therefore liquid , and grosse matter , are not the excrements of an Ulcer , or of the part , as neither of a natural digestion ; but they are the products of the Seeds or Roots of Ulcers : And therefore he for the most part , and in the most things labours in vain , who cleanseth an Ulcer according to the prescription of Galen , especially in the more malignant ones . And likewise it must needs be , that those things which are not nourished , do also want excrements : For nature doth no where labour that it may nourish an Ulcer : Seeing that in an Ulcer , a proper corrupter doth inhabit , which vitiateth the nourishable bloud , before it be fit to be digested . A lee also , in speaking properly , is not the superfluity of Wine , but a meer residence ; because of Wine there is no nourishing , and no digestion : Therefore an Ulcer , as such , is not nourished , neither doth nature intend to nourish that : Therefore the liquid , and thick corrupt matter , are not the excrements of an Ulcer , but the products of the corrupter ; and they are the tokens , signs , products , effects or fruits of venal bloud depraved into hurtful matter . For the bloud which is appointed daily , for the nourishing of all particular parts , is sent , is distributed by distributive Justice : nor otherwise to the part being ulcerous , than if it were moreover , in good health : Whither when it is come down , and cannot be there changed into the true substance of that which is to be nourished , it undergoes the lot which the Ulcerous Ferment commands ; and the bloud doth therefore degenerate , and is transchanged in the Root of the part wherein the corrupter is placed and resideth ; but not in the very hollowness or paunch of the Ulcer : For else , it should of necessity be , that meer and harmless venal bloud , should alwayes fall down into the very hollowness of the Ulcer , and by corrupting in the same place , to degenerate : which thing , the Eye and daily experience do affirm to be false . Therefore if the Schools do wipe an Ulcer , whether with a Towel , or in the next place , with a cleansing Medicine ; although they both do the same thing ; yet they take away nothing but the last product , but do never reach unto the radical cause or Original : But if a bloudy Clot , or else a bloudy Muscilage , do fall down into the Ulcer , that comes to passe , because the encompassing places ( to wit , wherein the very Root of Ulcers is ) there is so great a storm of torture , that some small vein that is the nigher , being eaten thorow , cannot contain its own bloud : And so that the bloud , which thus by chance falls down into the hollowness of the Ulcer , is not seen to be changed into corrupt Pus : from whence it manifestly appeares , that the bloud doth not degenerate in the hollow of the Ulcer , but in the brims or lips thereof : wherefore also the vanity of Galens Doctrine is seen , which placeth the healing of an Ulcer in the withdrawing of the product . The Root therefore of every Ulcer , is in its bottom , and lips or brim ; that is , it inhabits in the parts next to the hollowness ; wherein indeed is their own Cookroom , in which the venal bloud is altered into a corrosive liquid , grosse , corrupt matter , &c. But the liquid matter it self , is the product or positive effect of Ulcers : But the very hollowness thereof , which is commonly reckoned to be the Ulcer of Physitians , is the privative and deficient product : For as a burnt or destroyed Village , is not war ; but is the effect accusing the defect , privation , desertion , and destruction made : So neither is an Ulcer the wasted hollowness of the flesh ; but this is the sign left by the Ulcer : For in the Coasts of the Ulcer there doth an hostile corrupter , and guest , the poysonous Ferment , on every side inhabite , for which cause we see the lips or coasts , and bottom to be diversly altered . Let the Schools therefore , take heed what they teach , while they deliver the curing of an Ulcer to consist in the taking away of the latter product : yea corrupt Pus doth not carry the disposition of an excrement , neither doth it proceed as an excrement of nature from the Ulcer ; but it is a fruit of the Ulcer , to wit , of a forreign corrupter , fermentally depraved with a malignity : therefore it degenerates , eats up , gnawes and consumes . And indeed , the greater Ulcers do want grosse matter , they weep out continual liquid or thin matter onely , and now and then a tenfold greater quantity , than otherwise a just distribution of bloud doth require , and the transchanged Liquor flowes abroad into sharp and devouring waters , which the Galenists do never dry up with their driers , although they do moreover super-add all their cleansing Medicines , and however the Catagenians and Catatopian do boastingly glorie of their own experiments . For corrupt Pus is not procreated but in the flesh being closed , and opened , and those not yet altogether ill-affected : whereas in the mean time , the gristles , bones , membranes , veins , sinews , and bowels , do not wax moyst and are melted , but with a Liquor , if they should undergoe an Ulcer . Therefore the corruption , and tempest of an Ulcer of these , should be far more mild and gentle , than those which do otherwise tumult in the flesh : Because the diversity of a Remedy distinguisheth the end for which it is appointed : and therefore a drying Medicine doth denounce a milder affect , than that which moreover should also be astrictive . Therefore Galen and his followers , because they have been hitherto ignorant of the causes , fewel , Womb , subject , efficient , of the manner of making , of the seed and ferment of Ulcers , they have delivered none but ridiculous Curings , Remedies , Maxims , and Doctrine . Wherefore , neither is it a wonder that difficult or malignant , and furious eating Ulcers are not wont to be cured by the Remedies of the Schools : and the which , for that cause especially , have withdrawn themselves from the works of Chyrurgery , with the great disgrace of Galen , and his own Greeks who lived in the same Age , and the Arabians their followers , even as I have profesly touched in the Book of the Plague-grave . For the milder Ulcers , and in those whose malignity is taken away , and while they hasten unto an incarnating and restoring of the hollowness left , they drop down with thick matter onely , and so are reckoned , according to the Rules of Galen , more difficult than while they flow with Liquor : But Ulcers already mitigated , are provoked by cleansing things ; So far is it , that they are healed by the same . Surely , if things that drie up , and cleanse or wipe off , should satisfie all Ulcers , the curing of any Ulcers whatsoever would be easie : For why is the Galenical School so carefully troubled about the choosing of Medicines , when as they do abundantly satisfie both betokenings , with a dry Towel or linnen Cloth ? To wit , one onely Towel dries up , and together with it , cleanseth likewise . Let it shame them therefore , and seriously shame them , to diffuse such trifles out of their Chaires , out of their presses , and out of their mouth , for Youth , and Chyrurgions , instead of a maxim of healing ; and to dismiss thereupon , these men so instructed , as provided , with the specious Title of a Physitian and a Doctor , to the death of mortals , and the torture of those that trust in them . Therefore it is not sufficient to have wiped away , and dried up the thick or snotty , and liquid matter ; but the hostile framer , and corrupter sitting on the part , is to be blotted out ; because he is that which doth nothing slacken or wax mild by drying , and cleansing . Indeed the quality of the seminal mortal poyson , and the poysonous forreign Impression of the Archeal part which perverteth the good venal bloud dispensed unto it , doth naturally shew a withdrawing of it self onely . Therefore the poyson is a certain Ferment and Contagion , implanted in the bottom , the corrupter of the venal bloud and flesh . Therefore the Schools may see , whether a Rheume being lifted up in manner of a vapour , out of the stomach , into the plain of the Head , be able to give a beginning and fewel to the same ; and whether Cauteries or fearing Medicines inflicted at pleasure , are able to satisfie or be sufficient for the same accustomed Catarrhe , instead of Remedies , not onely those that dry up , and cleanse , but also instead of revulsions or repellings , by reason of the continuation of co-knitting , proportion , application , agreement , yea and depending Harmony of the same Remedies in the Root . Truly , as many as are ignorant of the activity , and variety of Ferments , must needs in a blind manner , try , and grope at all things credulously . There are indeed as many Ferments of Ulcers , as there are diverse corruptions of Ulcers , and distances of corruptions : To which end , the testimony of one bread will very much conduce ; because it is that which may be even the Index or Touch-stone of this disputation : To wit , the which hath received as many limitations or disposures in a Man , a Dog , a Cat , a Horse , a Cow , a Hen , a Goose , a Duck , a Sheep , &c. as their differences do issue forth Ferments of blouds , and Dungs , specifically , yea and generically : So also one onely venal bloud in the particular kinde , doth support many Ulcers in the particular kinde , their transchanged corruptions , according to the interchangeable course of strange Ferments : And although one onely Archeus be sufficient for generation ; yet there are divers means of life , and manners of corruptions ; to wit , as many as there are Families of corrupting things . Therefore the full and exact curing of Ulcers , is a taking away of their own Ferment ; but not a cooling refreshment of the Liver ; not the cleansing away of dreamed Choler , or liquid corrupt matter : In the next place , neither are Ulcers cured by an application of abstersive or cleansing things , so that by reason of their malignity , their increase may desire degrees of corroding abstersives . For Arsenick being fixed by Salt-peter , and dulcisied or mitigated into an astringent Sulphur , doth not extinguish , perhaps sixty diversities of Ulcers ; because it gnaweth and eats up ( for so it should not require a dulcifying of it self with the repeated Spirit of Wine ) but because it hath now a mild poyson , which is for killing the very workman of the Vlcer , and the corrupter of venal bloud : The which indeed being once wholly dead , the flesh afterwards ceaseth not of its own accord , to grow up from the bottom : therefore the hollowness of an Vlcer doth betoken a growing up of the flesh , and healing up of the Skin into a skarre , to wit , that it being taken away , a restitution may be made : And the which therefore , have the relation of an effect , in respect of the death of the corrupter . Furthermore , what Vlcers I refer unto a seminal , and poysonous Ferment , Paracelsus after his manner , hath transferred on the minie and saltish minerals of the microcosme or little World : For as Vlcers are for the most part made odious by Salt , he according to his own Idiotism , thought that Vlcers were to be registred in the Progeny of minerals , and in the distinct Families of the same : For I do not give my self to brawlings , as I know , that neither was I born to that end : wherefore I am sorry for the vanity of the man , and for his uncircumspect forgetfulness ; As he saith , that man ( whom elsewhere by an Etymologie or Zodiack , he boasts to be a drawn Epitome of the whole Vniverse , and feigneth that he is more glorious by the dignity of that extraction , than by the Image of the Creator ) is a most miserable monster , every way formed by minerals alone : He I say , in another place being unmindful of these things , calls the Body of man Cagastrical or badly Planet-struck throughout its whole , not indeed , consisting any longer of divers composures of Salts ; but to be proud of the structure of the one onely Salt-peter ; whence , men are born a hard generation , therefore the hatches of the Earth : For he would , that all Salts , Stones , Minerals , Herbs , &c. should lurk in man , as it were in their own Seminaries or Seed-plots : But that they break forth into act , not indeed by the warmth of confused seeds lurking in a Chaos ; but only that by a separation of the vital Liquor , that they return from those things which were co-bred with themselves , into their antient Minerals : Not heeding , that it is an absurd thing , seeing he will have the Macrocosme or great World , to consist no lesse of Stars and Plants , than of minerals , that it should resolve it self , rather into Salts , than into Plants and four-footed Beasts . Therefore in this matter hath not Paracelsus onely forgotten Seeds , Vegetables , Stars , and soulified creatures ; but his own self also ? That it should be the property of a Seed , from whence that heap of venal bloud is separated by mans vital Beginnings , to return rather into this , than into another mineral ? For as Galen , endowing all things with heats , and feverishly doating , drew for some Ages , the chiefdom of healing into himself , So Paracelsus reducing all things into an under-earth off-spring , being proud of his pretious houshold-stuffe , grew mad a while , and thereupon aspired into the same Principality . But I pray , who is that separater , which withdraws and plucks away a part of himself from the Balsam of life ? in the next place , who is that corrupter , which had changed the part plucked off from a vital condition , also into a mineral Salt ( which knowes not how to putrifie in it self ) or into a hidden metal , credible onely by belief ? Dost thou not , concerning long life , call death the dominion of the Balsam ? How is it therefore , that thou now callest death the separation of the Balsam ? Or who is the seminal distinguishes , in the Zodiack of man , which may wrest the one onely , and the same Liquor from the Balsam of life , sometimes into Alume , and at length sometimes into Arsenick ? Truly Paracelsus , after that by a laboursome and ridiculous diligent search , thou hast heaped up great Fables , because thou hast been ignorant of Ferments ( whereunto notwithstanding , thou shouldest have come , as to the active , and seminal principles ) thou hast past by the Beginnings of Nature ; and sporting with the Zodiack or compass of the microcosm at thy own pleasure , hast made thy self ridiculous to Posterity : For a full knowledge of the ferments doth finde out an easie way to know , take away , overcome , and separate the poysons of any Ulcers whatsoever : For whatsoever is made in the course of Nature , that is made by the necessity and guidance of the seeds , and is moved unto the last period of them : But not from the lot or condition of a resolved dead Carcase , or the naked will of a slain or grove●ng part ; The which indeed , should hasten from a privation , by rising again into its former Being . Away with thy trifles : For we have no fountains of Salt , no reducements of venal bloud into feigned and lurking mettals . Neither are there minerals in us , which by wantonizing , do withdraw themselves from the vital Beginnings , or which do exspect the withdrawing of these : to wit , that they should return from mans essence , into their antient and appointed minerals , that so they may become the wombs and springs of Ulcers : Neither also , are there microcosmical Lawes in us , any more than the humors of four Elements mutually agreeing in us , and the fights or grudges of these : For with Nazianzen , I cannot tie up man unto the sporting Rules of a Microcosme : For I had infinitely rather to be the Image of God , than the Image of the corruptible and torturing World : for although man doth grow and increase with Beasts , and Plants ; yet Beasts shall not therefore be the Image of Plants : So although man do feel or perceive , and be moved , yea discourseth , together with Beasts ; yet nothing speaks but a man ; Because an Angel neither stands in need of speech , as neither of the Instruments of Seed : But if a Bird seem to speak , he imitates onely the tone , and distinctions or significations of speech : for there are not in us Hails , Snowes , Rocks , Stones , Metals , Marbles , Flints , Gems ; as neither that Center of a World whereunto all weighty Bodies do incline : Neither is there in us a Stone , by Creation , neither are there particular kindes of the red or purple Marble , Jasper-stone , &c. and the stone in a man differs from a true stone , no lesse than a Peare doth from a Cow : for a Peare is indeed changed into the flesh of a Cow , sooner than the stone in a man can decline into a Mineral Rock or stone . The name therefore of Microcosm or little World is Poetical , heathenish , and metaphorical , but not natural , or true . It is likewise a phantastical , hypochondriacal , and mad thing , to have brought all the properties , and species of the Universe into man , and the art of healing : But the life of man is too serious , and also the medicine thereof , that they should play their own part of a Parable or Similitude , and metaphor with us . Last of all , Paracelsus is wholly ridiculous , who teacheth that an Ulcer , and a wound are nourished by Herbs , Balsam , and Oyntments ; So that these defects are nourished by Remedies , with a true nourishment , and severing of excrements , and that thereby the lost flesh of them , is truly , actually , and immediately restored ; and that , he hath seemed seriously to have written : which thing surely , I willingly grant unto his own Idiorisme or propriety of speech . At length , for the curing of Ulcers , there is use for Colcotar or calcined Vitriol , being diversly applied according to the difference of the Ulcer : For oft-times the Wine wherein it is steeped , doth by its washing , do that ; or else the Powder thereof , after an exact separation of its Salt ; and sometimes being boyled in the Oil of Line-seeds , even unto a blackness , which is for the foundation of the Oyntment of successful VVurtz , in wounds . But I say enough to the curious : To wit , that Colcotar doth kill every corrupter of wounds . Finally , for a wound , know thou , that the very separation of that which held together , is indeed the immediate , and sufficient occasional cause , to wit , as it openeth , beats in pieces , or bruiseth , &c. Every separation also wants a confirming closure , and is presently glewed together by glew dissolved in Wine , because it is prepared of the Skins of living creatures ; Especially if the Glew be of the hide of a man dying a violent death , that is , he being slain in his full strehgth : But the alterations of the Archeus from venal bloud largely poured forth , and a conceived Idea of another revenge or indignation being bred , which by a proper name , I call our wounds , and not anothers ; or those wounds which are inflicted from without , do not onely stand in need of a co-glewing of that which is discontinued or separated ; but an appeasing of the altered Archeus : For hitherto have Oils , Balsams , emplaisters respect , which may procure the peace of the implanted , and local Archeus being injured : To which end , the Balsams of Rosins , flowres , and herbs have arisen , and likewise those which are prepared of Minium or Red Lead , Cerusse , or Colcotar : Hitherto also doth the Salt of ●artar tend , being rectified by the Spirit of Wine , until it obtains an astringent taste : For it is the Balsam Samech or of Tartar , of Paracelsus even as out of Arsenick for Ulcers , whereof , moreover , there is its Balsam of smoak ; because that Arsenick is by skilful men accounted the fume of Metals : Not indeed , that it is not simple , born , and subsisting by it self ; but from a Similitude , for that metallick smoaks do imitate an Arsenical malignity . And so I close up the Doctrine of external Diseases . CHAP. XLII . An unknown action of Government . 1. The Maxim is opposed , That of Contraries the Remedies are contrary . 2. The foundation of that Maxim. 3. The Maxim concerning the re-acting of the Patient , or of its defence in time of fight , is examined . 4. Arguments on the opposite part . 5. The same , by moving strengths , by things generative , and irregular . 6. There is no re-acting of weight . 7. Arebounding action neglected by the Antients . 8. Bright burning Iron acteth , and doth not re-act . 9. The swiftness of a mover is not the action ; but the measuring of the action . 10. Altering Agents do not properly re-suffer . 11. Another Maxim is noted of falshood . 12. From whence the falseness thereof hath issued . 13. What Agents of a different inclination and irregular , are . 14. He proceeds to prove what he hath undertaken to prove . 15. Wherein the opinion of Aristotle may be preserved . 16. An explaining of action in the slowness of the fire . 17. Actions on an object separated from the thing supposed . 18. A Fermental and radial or beaming action . 19. That these kinde of actions are not to be referred unto the fault of vapours . 20. The Blas of Government hath been hitherto unknown . 21. The falshood of a Maxim. 22. The fire suffers nothing by a burnable object . 23. To determine or limit an action , and to re-act , do differ . 24. New actions . 25. The dimness or giddiness of the Schools . 26. Their staggering . 27. Likewise some neglects of the same . 28. The unknown action of Government is not that which they call an action by consent . 29. The Errour , whence it is . 30. Why Anatomy hath arisen into so great curiosity . 31. How much may be required from Anatomy . 32. A neglect of the chiefest part of natural Philosophy . 33. The Schools deluded by thinking . 34. Many things happen in us by the action of Government , without conveighing Pipes or Channels . 35. Blindness hath brought blinde persons unto blinde vapours , the action of Government being unknown . 36. Things admitted by the Author . 37. The action of Government is abstracted from a co-binding mean. 38. A natural action in incorporeal Spirits . 39. Which is a jugling action . 40. Luxury takes away the Remedy of the Horse-hoof . 41. An Example of Government . 42. The government of the Womb is wholly over the whole Body . 43. Government acteth into its own marks , the middle spaces being untouched . 44. The faculties of the actions of the Womb. 45. The furies of the Womb. 46. The manner of making in the birth of a Disease , from the action of Government . 47. Why the fore-head is not bearded . 48. That Capital Diseases do not arise through Fumes out of the Stomach . FRom the first time wherein the Schools placed contraries in Nature , they presently universally established , that nothing acted without strifes , war , and discords : Even so that also chidings , hatreds , emulations , have been reckoned the Foundations or Principles of Nature , no lesse than self-love . And moreover also , they being credulous of hatred , by the perswasion of Astronomers , have introduced the same things into the courses or dances of the Stars . Likewise they have determined , that in the whole sublunary frame or stage , nothing is done , or generated , but by a Relation of the Superiority of an Agent unto a Patient ; So indeed , that the Patient is with violence compelled , tamed , altered , destroyed , and is wholly translated into the Nature of the Agent , onely by the relation of a stronger on a weaker . But when the Schools saw , that Agents did by degrees languish away , either through space of time , or wearinesse of acting ; they likewise decreed from thence , that that indeed , did not so much happen through a tiring out of the seeds , and powers , but by a re-acting of the patient : Therefore they confirmed it , that every patient or sufferer doth likewise of necessity re-act , and for that cause likewise every agent or acter doth re-suffer ; neither also that it is any other way weakened : Whence by consequence , I guessed with my self , that sometimes the seeds of things shall at sometime be naturally , wholly , undoubtedly extinguished , unless they are miraculously preserved : Notwithstanding , I do even contemplate , that there is on both sides a perpetual rudenesse , and continued sloath of a diligent search , in the doctrines of the Schools : And that one onely thing hath repelled from me the former fear : For truly , after that I with-drew contraries out of Nature , I could not afterwards , in sound judgment , find out any re-acting in the patient , as neither could I admit of hostilities in nature , elswhere than among soulified or living creatures : For contrariety is in those things alone , wherein there is an actual defence in the will of the patient against the injuries brought on it , and felt from the Agent : Wherefore there is never a re-acting of the patient on the agent , unlesse where there is a contrariety conceived in the soul . But that this is thus ordinary , and ordained in nature , I will forthwith demonstrate : For first of all , the Universe should remain still , even as it now subsisteth , by the infinite power of the Word , if it should be so commanded ; I say , things should be infinite in their own successions , and duration , but they should not be infinite by an actual virtue of the unity of a creature : And that thing , because it is of faith , it wants no proof . Therefore there is no infinite of sublunary things by their own power . Hence it follows , that at length every particular Agent doth by degrees also of its own free accord , at some time decay , and having finished its offices , dies by a dissolution of its strength circumscribed in space of place , and in the power of continuance , & strength , unlesse perhaps the appointed day of its proper and limited period or conclusion , be shifted off by a preventing of the term , or the impediments of the object . But of natural Agents , some are those which have a motive force , which I have called a motive Blas ; but the Agents themselves I call moving strengths . But other moving Agents , I call an alterative Blas , to wit , those which do operate by the seminal force of a ferment : And such Agents do for the most part generate their like . Lastly , in the third place , some Agents are irregular , or of a different inclination . I will speak of those three in order . Indeed acting strengths do act on their objects ; First , by a prevailing weight , Secondly , by a round , angular , sharp , hollow , &c. figure . Thirdly , by the hardnesse , softnesse , &c. of a Body . Fourthly , by an impressive Blas by the hand , a mallet or hammer , needle , &c. Fifthly , by swiftnesse ; for unlesse a ram or Engine be swiftly smitten against a wall , or a hammer against a nail , although the impressive force may be strong , yet the Blas or motive power thereof shall be slow or sluggish . Sixthly , By the hinderance of a Vacuum or emptinesse . Seventhly and lastly , By the fear of piercing of Dimensions . But that moving strengths do re-suffer nothing by their objects , it is manifest : for first of all , in the sixth and seventh of the aforesaid Particulars , the nature of the Universe doth rather operate , that things may not be , than that they may operate while they should be , and much lesse do they re-suffer ; because an Agent doth not re-suffer by an Object , which as yet is not ; seeing that which as yet is not , cannot as yet act , or suffer again by action . But in respect of the first particular , to wit , that the greater weight cannot re-suffer by the lesse , by any action of the lesser weight , is manifest : Because the lesser weight being oppositely applied , doth not argue any re-action on the Agent ; but that is made by reason of a limitation made , either by the space of place , as in a far removing from the Axle or Diameter of the world ; or by reason of the measured action of the greater weight ; which , that it is not a true re-acting , I thus prove : The lesser weight suffers nothing simply and absolutely by the greater whereby it is elevated ; therefore neither doth the lesser weight re-act any thing , although it be lifted up , and yield or give place : Because the lesse weight doth onely limit the action and heavinesse of the far stronger weight , as every Agent is of a finite and limitable action : But that such a limitation is not a re-acting of the lesser weight , is manifest ; for the same lesser weight , remaining as much as it is , is made greater , while it is estranged or far removed from the Axle . Therefore , if there shuuld be any action , or re-acting in weights , in the case aforesaid , it were to be attributed to the space of place , and not to the heavinesse of weight ; seeing that one and the same weight is various , and manifold at the will of the Artificer , onely by the space of place : But the space of place , or of far removing , is a certain external thing as to the essence of weight , and plainly accidental by accident : And so , neither can it give a true and proper action , or re-action in weights : Therefore the limitation of actions in weights , is not the essential and proper action , or re-action of weight on weight : Even as also space , or distance of place , hath not any internal force , or essential Blas of local motion , on a bullet sent out of a Gun ; but it onely limits the finite force of the imprinted motion ; so as that , through distance , the attained Blas of the bullet doth by degrees necessarily languish : For it is certain , that the bullet doth operate into the middle distance , the which I understand , that the bullet hath no activity on the middle space of the place it self , although this notwithstanding doth so limit the Blas , or motive power of the bullet , that at length it may perish , because it is of a finite power : Likewise also in weights , the greater weight is indeed limited unto a certain measure , and power , by the lesser weight , but that limitation is not the true action of a certain Agent , if local motion be limited by place it self ( which is wholly external and accidental to motion ) without re-acting , or if it doth voluntarily languish by a continuance of motion : But if place , and continuance do not suffer by the motion which is made in them , that is , that the motion doth re-act on the place , and duration ; therefore neither shall there be any true action of the place and duration on the motion , although the motion being finite , doth voluntarily cease in place , and time . It belongs nothing therefore unto a re-acting , although the lesser weight doth limit the greater unto its own certain and designed bound . Therefore , it from hence is clearly enough manifest , that very many things are reckoned to be agents , and re-agents on each other , by reason of the hidden frailty of us in understanding , which in very deed do neither act on , nor suffer by each other , and likewise do neither re-act , nor re-suffer reciprocally : For truly the action whereby the greater weight doth lift up the lesse , and this gives place to the greater , and likewise whereby the greater is limited , and lessened by the lesse weight being opposed , the which otherwise , being opposite to the greater , doth increase this , is not a true natural action , or power of seminal properties , but relative respects of learning by demonstration or Science Mathematical , according to place , duration , greatnesse , &c. which things are plainly external unto natural Agents , and by accident : But actions and re-sufferings in nature are considered in a true and intimate conjoying of forces ; which in the things abovesaid have no place . But that I may shew , that those respects of Science Mathematical , have not an action issuing from the powers of things , but onely the relation of Science Mathematical ( every meer action whereof , although it be made by bodies , yet it is not the action of the body it self , as such ) it is sufficient to have shewn by the aforesaid particulars , that the limitation of motions do far differ from the inward activity of motions , according to which , things are judged by the Antients , to re-suffer , and re-act in every action : For so there are many impediments in nature , which although they do limit , yea and also plainly take away the force of the Agent , yet they are not to be judged to re-act : And so , we must speak most properly , when as the essence of things concerning the properties , and actions of those things , is to be distinguished by a natural Philosopher , especially when he treats of the necessities of life : For the lesser weight doth not refist , and much lesse doth it re-act on the greater . But every thing weigheth freely as much as it doth weigh , without respect of one weight unto another : But if man opposeth one weight to another , that is a humane thing ; neither hath the action of weight a mutual respect : For from hence , what things I have demonstrated above , against the contrarieties of active Bodies , do more clearly appear : For truly , every Agent , in manner of a greater weight , acteth freely , and without respect to contrariety ; but it acteth that which it is commanded to act in nature , and as much as is permitted unto it to act : Therefore weight , or rather a ponderous matter , weigheth in it self , as much as it doth weigh , absolutely and without respect unto another greater , lesse , equal , proportioned , &c. weight . For such respects are of humane industry , which by reason of co-handlings ot commerce , findeth out measures , as well according to extent in length , breadth , depth , &c. as in the division of weights ; to wit , it hath appointed Axles or Diametrical distances , and far removings ; so that all the consideration from thence is artisicial , and therefore also changeable in the samelinesse and unity of one body : And therefore weights as such , do never act , or re-act on each other naturally , or by a co-mixture of their own properties , although they seem to act something artificially : For so the light suffers nothing , although the continuation of light be hindered by a suffering wall : For otherwise , if the lesse weight should in very deed re-act on that which out-weigheth it , the weight it self should be rather lessened in the thing weighing , for a continuance , and actually , and not only with respect to the ballance ; so that a pound thenceforth should not any longer weigh a pound , as before : And seeing nothing is changed , or taken away from the weights on either side , it is manifest , that there are onely artificial relations of moving strengths , but not a true re-action of the lighter weight : For as long as a pound doth weigh a pound , nothing is attained , or hath suffered in that pound by another opposite weight ; but on both sides , one is external , forreign , by accident , to the other , and limitable by a relative foundation , that it may be readily serviceable to humane considerations : And whatsoever thus acteth in our power , or seemeth to re-act , acteth in very deed , nothing . But as to that which pertaineth unto other moving strengths ; If an impressive force of strength doth act indeed by it self , but in the mean time be limited by space of place , duration , or be weakned by impediments , or lastly , if it act measuringly , by reason of figure , and hardnesse ; at leastwise , there is never in these , any re-acting of the patient , or re-suffering of the Agent . For example , If any one smite on an Anvil with his fist , and thereby receives a wound , or bruise , there is not in that stroak any re-acting of the Anvil , or operation of hardnesse , or of a corner in the Iron ; For although the hardnesse doth resist , repulsing the smiting fist , and the bounds of resistance or repulse may seem necessarily to include some kind of force of re-acting ; yet it is an improper speech , proceeding from the popular errour of the Antients : For that is not the reaction of the Anvil , but it is the very action of the fist it self , which I call a resulting or rebounding one : For if the Anvil should truly re-act by hardnesse , seeing there is no reason why the Anvil should impart , act on the fist , and should expect a stroak , that it might act ; for it ought by its whole hardnesse , and weight together , to act also on a quiet hand , and from that very deed done , plainly to fret or tear it ; Neither should the action of the Anvil be limited by the strength of the stroak , if there should be a re-acting of the Anvil it self : For truly the same thing should happen to the fist , whether it had smitten it strongly , or in the next place , modestly , or if at length the opposite fist should rest on it onely ; because that in either act there was the same hardnesse of the Anvil : Wherefore , that hardnesse of the Iron acteth , or re-acteth nothing by a proper power of acting : For there should be a force in the Anvil , which in re-acting should be seated throughout its hardnesse , and in any stroak should act alike equally , and according to its full power , but not according to the measuring of the striking fist , which is altogether a stranger to the Anvil . Therefore in truth , the fist doth act simply on the Anvil , and the Anvil suffers simply , although it took no offence thereby ; but the fist suffers by accident , if it do the more strongly strike : the Agent of which suffering is notwithstanding , not the Anvil , but the fist it self : Because there is one only and single action of the stroak , and hurt , which I therefore call a rebounding one : And so the fist suffers , and is hurt by it self , from its own self ; but by accident from the strength of the stroak , and occasionally from the hardness or figure of the Iron : which three things are to be noted in one only stroak : For truly , that which by accident , and occasionally acteth externally only , doth not in very deed act by an action of its own ; and therefore neither is there any re-action , as neither action of the Anvil : But the smiting , and hardness are the occasional means of the wound ; one whereof ( to wit , hardnesse ) is a proper , occasional , and internal thing ; the other ( to wit , the smiting ) is accidental by accident . In the next place , there is another action of a moving strength , which hath deceived many with the title of re-acting , as while a hand layeth hold of bright burning Iron : for the hand in laying hold , doth in very deed act , and that by it self , and the apprehended Iron it self doth suffer in the laying hold : but this doth likewise act by a new action indeed , but by a far different action in burning the hand : for neither is that the scorching of the Iron , as being comprehended ( although that touching be an immediate occasion and cause , without which it is not done ; but it is the proper action of the Iron , as being burning bright : for so , touching , and scorching are Beings wholly distinct , and separable in the root ; and so also both their actions differ in their objects , though in time of acting they do now and then co-unite : Therefore the searing is not a re-acting of the Iron , as being laid hold of , or it is not the re-acting of comprehension : Although in both the sorts of action , the acting hand becomes a sufferer , because two actions wholly unlike , do concur ; to wit , one of the hand laying hold , and the other of the Iron burning . Again , swiftnesse , while a Ram or Engine is sore smitten against a wall , is not the proper activity of the Agent , but it is a measuring of strength imprintingly moving , and so is external and by accident . Now , as in respect of Agents by an altering Blas , those do undergo not any thing of re-acting from their own objects , because they generate by an absolute dispositive power of their objects ; which power , seeing it is conferred on Nature by God , it also acteth without a re-acting . For example ; If the whole Globe of the earth , and water should be of meal , all that heap would at length be leavened by a leaven of bread being once put into it , which verily could not be done , if there were but the least re-action of the fermentable body : For the small quantity of ferment or leaven should be presently choaked by the more big heap of the Object ; even as also the seminal spirits do dispose the subjected lump , by reason of a faculty conferred on them , and in-bred in them , and do by a famous prerogative alter it , and that without the re-acting of the subjected heap : Neither doth that hinder , because the stomach cocting the more hard meats , is felt as it were to re-suffer , and to undergo a re-acting of digestible things ; because also , that speech of Physitians is too rustical ; because , unlesse that which is to be digested be perfectly cocted , and at a set term of time , the digestion of the same is in vain expected : for it tarrying longer in the stomach , is corrupted , and so then a new Agent ariseth ; neither is the former any longer digestible , when it is corrupted ; neither also doth that new Agent re-act in manner of bright burning Iron , because there are in that digestible matter , parts uncapable of digestion , in respect of that stomach : Neither also doth the leaven or ferment of bread leaven the powder of glasse , or the sand of a flint , because it is a strange and uncapable object , and not to be subdued by it : For so the digesting ferment of the stomach doth ferment the flour of meal , but not the brans : In the mean time , the ferment of the meal suffers nothing by the powder of glass ; as neither doth that powder re-act , resist , or truly repel : For truly , altering ferments do never act , but on things that have a co-resemblance ; but they are quiet , do cease , and sleep , if they have not an object proper for themselves : Therefore the hinderances of Agents by an alterative Blas , are uncapacities , hardnesses , impurities , unequalities , and the requisite movers of space : Therefore the action of these is terminated on a proper object , and disposeth that object unto periods or ends , and manners decreed for it . But interposing hinderances are not the re-actions of the patient , but the incapacities of the same : For neither doth silver re-act , while it is solved by Aqua fortis with so great a heat , although this in the mean time , decayeth in acting , and loseth its own force and virtue : but there is an in-bred property of Spirits , and a natural endowment , which do operate in acting , that by reaching unto their appointed mark , they may perfect themselves , and bring down their own objects unto bounds naturally enjoyned them ; which thing distilled Vinegar doth sufficiently teach , while it dissolves the stone of Crabs , Snails , Corals , &c : for the sharp spirit of the Vinegar doth coagulate it self in acting , and that which else was volatile , and liquid , is not onely strained together , but also changeth its savour ; for it collects and constrains it self in a tangible form , as if it did more rejoyce to remain in the shape of a more solid body , than of a liquor : But that such a coagulation , and change of savour doth happen by the proper motion of the spirit of Vinegar , but not through a re-acting of Bodies standing in the act of dissolution , is manifest ; because there is not made a diminishing of those Bodies , even in one grain at least , in weight ; while as in the mean time , some measures of stilled Vinegar do undergo the aforesaid change : and so it doth not seem consonant to reason , for that thing to be done , by reason of the bruising or breaking of the stones onely , but by reason of a proper natural gift-like unfolding of the Spirits . The same thing almost comes to pass , while the Spirit of Vitriol waxeth very hot with Mercury : For the Mercury remaineth , being unchanged in the essence and matter of Mercury , onely that it assumes the countenance of snow ; losing in the mean time nothing of its own substance , yet the Spirit of Vitriol passeth over into a true Alume ; but if the Spirit of Aqua fortis ( which for the other half of it , is also the Spirit of Vitriol ) be combined with the Mercury , that snow of Mercury is not made , as neither doth the liquor it self pass over into an Alume : And so from hence it appeareth , that the action is not proper to the Mercury , but to the Spirit of Vitriol diversly disposing it self of its own free accord ; and according to an in-bred inclination unto divers objects , differently changing it self : Wherefore the Spirit of Vitriol which is in the Aqua fortis , through a strong heat of bubbles stirred up , and a tempestuous boiling up , dissolveth the Mercury , and far otherwise , than while it is the naked and simple Spirit of Vitriol ; which variety indeed , in acting , doth manifest the various virtues of the acting Spirit , rather than those of the Mercury it self ; because in the one action the Mercury is made invisible , which in the other becomes white like snow : For the Spirit of Sea-salt , although it be most sharp , yet it is never changed by the fellowship of Mercury , as neither also doth it act into the Mercury : And so the effects of actions are seen , and not of re-actings : So Aqua fortis acts into all metals , except gold ; but with Sal armoniack it acts only into gold , but no longer into silver ; And so there are particular properties of Spirits , but not re-actions of a suffering body ; because it is that which in its own substance and weight , sustaineth nothing but a meer and one onely division of it self : Therefore Spirits being tossed with divers passions in acting , undergo divers transformations ; but if they remain drowsie and sleeping , and do not act on their object , they also remain in their antient qualities : For that thing appeared at first to happen , by reason of the touching of the Mercury , because it is that which is also a certain Spirit , but afterwards in the silver and gold , that was wholly silent . But moreover I remember , that the Calx or lime of Silver hath drunk into it the liquor of Sulphur , which they call a distillation , which presently in the Silver laid aside all harshnesse and tartnesse , and it changed this liquor into a gauly bitternesse , by distilling : for the silver remained the same which it was before , in substance , weight , and powder : therefore that bitternesse could not be afforded from the silver ; and for that cause , in no wise , from a re-acting of the silver ; but of its own free accord it was made by the property of the Spirit of the Sulphur : for neither is there a lesse reason , why the same Spirit of Vitriol , in diversly acting , doth also change it self after a diverse manner , than that the same silver should under the boyling up of diverse Spirits , wax cruel , by a various manner of re-acting on these ; Especially while that in a Spirit , there is made a various transmutation in acting ; but there is no successive alteration made of the substance of the silver , in suffering , or diminishing of its weight : which things may be far more clearly demonstrated by Adeptists , unto whom , to wit , the one onely and same Liquour Alkahest , doth perfectly reduce all tangible Bodies of the whole Universe into the first life of the same , without any changing of it self , and diminishing of its virtues ; But it is drawn under the yoak , and thorowly changed by its own compeere or co-equal onely : For from hence there appeareth a certain sense to be in all particular things , the which mediating , they do sometimes one way , and sometimes another , move and unfold themselves about divers objects ; but not that the period of motions , and of those unfoldings , and the variety of Agents , is therefore to be attributed to a re-acting of the Patients ; To wit , even as , while an external luke-warmth bringing up Eggs unto a Chick ; for neither of them doth re-suffer reciprocally : For neither doth the vital Spirit in an Egg any way re-suffer any thing by the luke-warmth , as neither that luke-warmth by the vital Spirit of the Egg. Hitherto tendeth that which I have proved before ; To wit , that altering things do not act by contrariety : Therefore their Patients do not fight in defending themselves , nor re-act by contrariety . That maxim also is false , That every Agent doth of necessity , act in an instant ; and that its action is retarded or fore-slowed onely , by a resistance and re-acting of the Patient : Because in all particular seeds , their own , and certain period of continuances and dispositions is essentially included . For the falshood of that maxim hath flowed from hence , that the Schools being deluded by Aristotle , have thought that the fire is to be compared unto other Agents : the which , when they saw to be any where , almost in a moment , they believed that the same thing was likewise to be wrested unto other Agents : Through occasion whereof , I must now speak of irregular and differently inclined Agents . In the first place it is manifest , that the fire doth suffer or undergoe nothing at all by the re-acting of a combustible object : For otherwise , a small quantity of fire should be sufficient for the burning of the whole Universe , if it were capable of burning : which could not be done , if the combustible matter should re-act even but never so little . Truly a River suffers nothing , if a staffe shall swim on the same , and as yet lesse doth the fire suffer , if it burn Saguntum , or if Gun-powder be fired . In Nature also , no seminal Beginning suffereth by the matter into which it works ; Because it disposeth of the same without re-acting , even as it hath begun plainly to appear in denied contraries . Moreover , that the falshood of the aforesaid maxim may be the more beheld , take notice , that all particular seeds have their own periods and moments appointed by the Creator , wherein they do promote their course unto a ripeness : For Conies , Dogs , Birds , Men , Horses , Elephants , do nourish within , perfect , and bring forth their own Young , at their appointed termes of time : Not indeed , that the seminal matter in a man , is rawer , colder , and more rebellious than the seed of a Cat : But God hath set the bounds of every one of them , according to his own good pleasure , the reason whereof to enquire into , belongs not unto mans judgement : For if the disposition of a seminal matter be of a longer labour . that proceeds not by reason of its resistance or strugling strength , as neither from the weakness , wearisomness , idleness , or disturbance of passions of the Agent : For truly , every Being in Nature operates without labour and passion , and therefore without cessation , rest , intermittency , and trouble ; Seeing indeed , all particular things are made by reason of the communicating of a Ferment , and limitation of appointment : For all particular things do purely operate by a reflexion of their own appointment , according to the ordaining will of their Creator : For so Christians were to philosophize . But in local motion , motive virtues , and so also in the exercise of Science Mathematical , the maxims of Aristotle are indeed serviceable , the which , by a violent Command , and unfitly , the Schools have introduced into nature : For if moyst or wet Wood be not so obediently burnt up , as dry ; that doth not therefore come to passe through a re-acting of the wood , or with a suffering of the fire : For although the wood should cease from all combustion , the fire should not therefore suffer more by the wood , than by Gold , which is not to be burnt : yea if in wet wood , as such , there should be a certain operative resistance , to wit , a re-acting ; surely , water should also longer , and more strongly resist fire , than the Rosin of Wood , or of a coal : But the consequence is false : For the water doth most swiftly , and first of all fly away out of wet Wood , before the fire enflames the Rosin of the Wood : Therefore the slowness in wet Wood doth not argue a re-action of the matter , or strength of the suffering Wood ; But the fire follows its own laws of appointments , whereby it separates first the more volatile things , and next in order , things lesse swift of flight : For so , although the fire be subdued by wet Rosin , which by it self otherwise , had presently been in a flame with the same fire ; yet by reason of the aforesaid lawes , it patiently expects the torture of the fire , and a departure of that water . Iron also being placed between stubble and fire , hinders indeed the enflaming or burning up of the stubble ; but there is not therefore any re-action of the Iron on the fire , or suffering of the fire by the Iron : which thing surely hath not been narrowly enough searched into by the Schools : For although these their maxims have place in corporeal actions , wherein the Agent of necessity , cherisheth and toucheth its own object , and thus far inspireth its own virtue into the same ; yet that is altogether impertinent in Agents which do act on things placed under them , which are far separated in place : For truly , besides the actions of the Heavens ( which are carried by influence , in-beaming , and motion , without the touching of an Agent ; but by a Blas onely do disperse the Seminaries of their own virtues ) Sublunary things are not properly deprived of a Blas : Because fermental Odours , do produce most active , and seminal effects , and do transchange , in nature , their object , by their own perfume , and do draw it after them into their protection . Likewise also a radial or beaming action doth concur into nature : For the Elks hoof is thus said by its touching , to preserve the heart , and head from danger ; yet the Seat of the evil is not in the finger , as neither is there a passing from bound to bound ; Neither is the Hoof therefore diminished of its strength by acting ; but rather is confirmed , as also the Load-stone is comforted by the communication of Iron ; For a clear sign , that an Agent suffers not a whit by reaction , in seminal , or beaming actions , and by consequence , that neither doth the Patient therefore re-act . Therefore Medicines against the pain of the Head , or Amulets or preserving Pomanders , have a Blas , whereby they do constrain objects to obey them , like the Heavens , and they act onely by their own , and not on a strange and nearer object : And they draw out their deserts or worthy virtues , without all corporal eflux , motion , passion , or weakening . I know indeed , that the Schools do not bear these things ; but that they refer these effects into vapours lifted up from the womb , or the least toe ; because they are such , who have sunk themselves in the Clay of a dreggy Minerva or wit. But if a Maid which hath the Mother , doth perfectly see all things , at least but on one side , or on the other half onely , she also seeth onely half the Needle which she holdeth or presseth with her fingers , however she may turn her eyes and head : She may see I say , many folks being collected into a Company , but even to her Girdle , or half-sided ones onely : shall perhaps then the vapours be divided in halfes , the Apple of the Eye nevertheless , appearing entire ? can these vapours I say , permit her to see and discern many things together ; but all things apart , in the one , or other half onely ? But an incorporeal Blas of government hath been neglected by the Schools , which acteth without a corporeal eflux , even as the Moon makes the Sea to swell : For in the strangling of the womb , they complain as long as they are partakers or Mistresses of talk , of the stretching out of the spaces between their Ribs , and they think that the Girdle they are girt with , is tied to their Ribs , or that a staffe is extended from their neather parts , unto their Throat , &c. Consider I pray , with me , oh ye Schools that there is in us a double motive power , and decline from this your thred-bare maxim ; To wi● , That the action of the same power is hurt , whereby the sound one is exercised : For truly there is in us a voluntary Blas , and the Blas it self of the parts ( as elsewhere concerning Convulsions ) . Take ye notice ; That at least , in this place , if voluntary motion be natural , the will also suffers nothing from the muscles moved by it self , yea , neither from the muscles refusing to be moved : Nor in the next place , therefore , that there is a weariness of the faculty ; but onely of the Body , or Organs : Lastly , that the muscles being moved by an importunate Blas of the parts , there is not a wearisomness of the parts , although the pain be heightned , and they do not feel their own weariness ; because convulsive motions being stirred up by the Blas of the parts , are made by a faculty which becomes mad , and for this cause they are scarce felt or perceived . For neither doth that prove , because moysture in Wood , or an interposing of a coal between the flame , and Ro●●n of the intrinsecal Wood , do foreslow the action of the fire , that it may not the more swiftly consume the Wood with its devouring : For truly Impediments do not act properly , as neither do they re-act ; but they do purely and simply suffer . They do indeed some way limit the very action of the fire , or do seclude the same , as it were uncapable partitions , and no more : For it is proper and natural to fire , first to consume water , and the more light discussable things , into vapours , before it in burning , do enflame Oily things ; At length , after Oily things , to consume the fat which hath more fixedly remained in the coal : But neither doth the water re-act against the fire , or doth the fire suffer : For whether water be in the Wood , or not , the fire doth alwayes act univocally or singly , and according to the appointment of its own nature , acteth freely , and in such a manner , as that it convinceth the aforesaid maxim of falshood . Also Gold , Talck , Marble , &c. do not re-act on the fire , although they are not consumed or wasted by the fire : For the manifest incapacity of these , hinders it , by reason whereof , the fire doth not act on those by an ordinary burning or enflaming : For truly , the fire intends to enlighten those Bodies , in themselves dark , so as that they may be after some sort , made clear or shining bright : the which , at length it obtains in making them fiery : Because the fire endeavours to pierce all things with its own form : The which , while inflameable things do not sustain , without their own ruine ; therefore , in burning , they are enflamed , and being consumed , do depart : Neither also doth the fire pretend to enlighten stones and mettals in a moment , according ( as otherwise ) to the aforesaid Maxim ; but the fire suits it self in its own nature of acting , according to the limitation of every object : And so it is perpetually true , that every natural Agent acteth , and is received after the manner of its own object receiving . Therefore the primary action of the fire is to produce in its object , a fire like it self ; wherein some objects do burn under the intention of fire ; but others do persist , and expect the last intent of the fire : So that , if some things are not combustible ; at leastwise , the fire acteth into them as much as it can , to make them fiery . In like manner also , the light suffers not any thing , although at one onely instant , it dart it self from the Sun , from far , on the Earth , or although it be not sent thorow , through a thick mean hindering it : Truly the light suffers nothing by a thick or dark Body , whether it shall passe thorow that Body , or not : For it alwayes attaineth its own intent , which is to enlighten , whether in the mean time , an Impediment doth interpose or not : for the resistance , or repelling of objected Impediments , are not in manner of a re-acting ( because Agents re-suffer nothing ) but they are of a meer incapacity : Therefore it is plainly indifferent , and by accident unto those Agents , whether fixed Bodies are enlightned only , by the fire , and are pierced by the light , or not : For these things are even after the same manner , as the Leaven of Meal in respect of the powder of Glass : For the Leaven suffers nothing , although the incapacity of the Glass doth hinder whereby the Leaven doth work the lesse : For at least there is no re-acting where there is no action . These things about the denial of re-acting , strife , hatred , and war , between the Agent or doer , and patient or sufferer ; to wit , which kinde of action alone , the Schools have acknowledged . I will add also , other new ones . I have said in the Book of Fevers , that a poysonous excrement in Fevers , is included in the Midriffs , producing drowsie sleeps , doatages , &c. Therefore it is an anodynous or sleepifying , and mad poyson . Likewise in Falling-sicknesses , that there is an unsensitive befooling , and mad poyson , afflicting for a space , being enstalled in the Midriffs . In hypochondrial madnesses , that there is a furious poyson , or that which doates with jesting or merriment . In giddiness of the Head , a whirling poyson . In the Apoplexie , that which takes away sense and motion . Lastly , in swooning , a stupefactive or sleepy poyson , a dispersive of the Spirits : And hence , presently taking away sense and motion . But seeing the Schools do not extend themselves beyond a rudeness , they have thought that the occasional matters of these Diseases , is the matter [ whereof ] of Diseases , and that it is brought thorow the Veins and Arteries , from beneath , upwards unto the Brain : which thing nevertheless , I have refuted , for the exposition of that Aphorisme : If in a continual Fever , after yellow Vrines , watery ones shall presently succeed , they denote dotages to come ; by reason ( as Galen will have it ) of Choler snatched into the Brain : But the Schools elsewhere , when they noted that from yesterdayes gluttony , giddinesses of the Head have arisen in the morning , they had rather to have the matter of Diseases to be conveighed into the Brain , in a right line , out of the stomach , in the likeness of vapours , through unnamed Trunks , and the throat : And so , black Choler , according to Hippocrates , to be brought sometimes into the body of the Brain , and to bring forth the falling-Evil ; or else into the Soul it self , and then to cause the passion of hypochondrial madness : And that by uncertain passages , conveighers , and unto certain scopes or objects . But seeing one onely melancholy humour , should be unfit for so great evils , it was doubted in the Schools afterwards ( not indeed in a Quaternary of humours now antiently established ) in the malice of humours , as yet not searched out ; but undiscerned : For least they should be pressed with the straightnosses and samelinesses of passages , not satisfying so great a variety , they fled unto fumes and vapours , that the various fumes of one black Choler should pierce into the bosom of the Brain , and stir up diverse cruelties : And they have safely covered these toyes from credulous young beginners ; they being secure that they were never to be compelled unto a designing and beholding of those fumes . In the mean time , the Schools are worthy of compassion , that in so great a sluggishness of narrowly searching into the truth hitherto , they are compelled unto so miserable straights : but surely , the sick are more worthy of pity , who have suffered such helpers , hired for much money unto the dest uction of their life : Because such Patients be more inferiour , and miserable than such Agents . Therefore the Schools have neglected the matter of so diverse poysons besieging the Head , and life : But they being heedless , have passed over the application of that matter unto the life to wit , that a diseasie occasional cause should stir up a diseasie Agent ; and the immediate , and whole mentioning of this History , no lesse than the consideration thereof . Likewise also , they have therefore dis-esteemed , the manner of making a Disease , and of deriving the poysonous activity unto the vital object ; To wit , because they have been wholly ignorant of the sink from whence those poysons should be derived , and have passed it by as a thing altogether unheard of ; Because they have neglected the proper action of the Family-government of man ; without the knowledge of which , notwithstanding , nothing of those things which do befall us within , can be known : For onely the action of the Agent on the Patient , hath been known in the Schools , the which indeed they would have to be made with a certain circumventing or invasion , with a strife and reacting of the Patient , and with a weakening and re-suffering of the Agent . But there is a certain action far different from the former , whereof Predecessours have never made mention , which I call the Action of Government : which indeed , is not onely made without suspition of re-acting ; but also without a bodily co-touching , and therefore it hath its supposed object at a distance and separated . It is called magnetical and sympathetical , or attractive and co-passionate ( being derided by the modern Schools ) when it consisteth between objects at a distance in place ; but when it is circumscribed in our Body , as a difference from a Magnetisme or an attractive virtue , I call it the action of a meer government ; wherein the Agent disposeth of his proper patient , or object of his own Sphere , as of an Client of a hereditary right , according to an ordination of Laws inbred in him , subjected by a Symbole or mark of resemblance . Indeed , let the Agent be the Tutor here , and the Patient be in his minority . And there is a co-like action of the Stars in the Universe , as well on each other , as on sublunary bodies : The which , seeing without controversie , it is there influential , yet in sublunary things it hath been undeservedly suspected , and so hitherto barren and neglected . But our present action of government , is not the action which the Schools have acknowledged to be a consent of parts , or by a conspiracy of offices and necessities : For truly , government doth not require a consent . It is therefore first of all , a deceiptful name , and therefore it either contains a mask , or besides , a deceit or juggle , a Fable , that is , it containeth nothing : For in very deed , they will have this consent to be stirred up , required , wrested back , by Fumes , Channels , Conduits , or threddy fibers ; which , as they are not in nature , nor are there required ; So also , they have nothing common with the action of government : For the Schools do no where admit of the action of an Agent , unless it be applied to the Patient by a mean , in a continued channel , as it were by a Chain . They deny I say , a continuation of virtue , extended by the sameliness of a mean , unless it be brought or conveighed unto its proper suffering object by a certain Trunk : And especially in the Body of man , they decree nothing to be done without a communication of passages : And this hath been that continued , yet ridiculous necessity of revulsions and derivations amongst them . Truly by this inducement , Anatomy hath been garnished for the Body of man , as if it were the undoubted betokener , and healer of all Diseases : For hitherto they have taken so great pains therein , that the Schools having forgotten their own Galen , do measure him to be a true Physitian , who shall point out most in the filths of dead Carcases , and who shall certainly finde by his own knife , those things which are published by Predecessors in this respect , even unto superstition : And the errour of so superfluous a curiosity , and pride of unsound Doctrine , praysed by the ignorance of the Schools , is to be judged to have been brought in by the spirits of giddiness , and the Authour of dark dimness : for unto whom it is acceptable , under what Title soever , we loose our time unfruitfully . For it was sufficient for Anatomy , to have known the scituation ; co-knitting , and uses of the parts ; but not to have exercised a butchery on dead Carkases all ones life-time , to finde out the passages or conduits of the least vein : For truly they have regard unto a vain and sordid boasting , wherein the most pretious race of our life is unfruitfully consumed . For in truth , the knowing and Phylosophical preparation of Simples , require almost the whole life of the whole man to themselves : For indeed , seeing one muscle ought to be moved , another being in the mean time , quiet , the chief Judge or Arbitrator of things hath appointed interchangeable courses of Organs , so that the command of our will should be declared in the muscles by deputed sinews onely , but that by the muscles and bones it should be put in execution : From hence the Schools have thought , that therefore all our actions are made by nothing but a co-chained thred of Organs or Instruments , through the far-of sequestred and divided Families of the members : neither have they heeded , that an Insect , by one onely Liquor extended throughout his length , doth supply the promiscuous offices of Veins , Arteries , Sinews , and Bowels ; so as that a Flie , as yet flies away , his Head being cut off ; and I have seen the Head of a horned Hornet ( which they call a flying Stag ) which was cut off ; to live and be moved six dayes after . Therefore varieties do not depend on a necessity of powers and Organs ; but onely , because it hath well pleased the Creator to distinguish some offices , and ends or bounds in the more perfect living Creatures , by a blinde , and mutual dependance of Organs or Instruments . In the mean time , the action of government doth not cease in man by reason of this dependance , and reciprocal successive course of members ; the which I have already accused in an Insect : but not a few offices are administred in the Family-government of the same , without all connexion of deriving Channels : which thing , because it hath stood doubtful , therefore the Schools have assigned the greatest glory of life , and studies unto Anatomy : And when as the bond or conjunction was to them unknown , they therefore with the amazement of the unwonted matter , presently fled unto blinde ascending vapours , or humours prostrating themselves without order , for a sacred Anchor of ignorance : For as much as , after that they had dissected at pleasure , those that were strangled by the womb , those that were cut off by swooning , or those who died by fits of the Falling-sickness , or tremblings of the heart , and had found no destroyer of life in the passages , to whom the guilt of the murder might be imputed , they betook themselves unto blind vapours , and filthy or defiled exhalations derived into the heart , and head : However , they then at leastwise ought to admit those deadly vapours to be carried about on every side , by no continued commerce of passages . I willingly admit of corporeal actions , whereby heat doth afterwards make that hot which is brought unto it , also of a passage whereby belching doth ascend out of the stomach thorow the Weasand into the throat and nostrils : in the next place , that excrements do covet their own Conduits , and from which , that which is grievous is exorbitant , or stumbleth : also that the vital Spirits are ordinarily dispersed into the Body by the vassally Channels or Pipes of their own Bowels : I may be accounted out of my wits , unless I confess these things . Again , I admit of an action , whereby the Ferments of the Bowels do issue into the Kitchins of the digestions , as it were by certain beames , nor are they carried by an oblique or crooked motion : But I do not passe by a third action in mans Body , which is called Influential , or that of government : The which although it cannot ordinarily wander without the Body ; yet it is abstracted from a co-binding mean : For neither doth it act by a direct and Sun-like beam onely ; but also by another , to wit , by that which doth unsensibly pierce the whole juncture of the parts , and in manner of the Moon , whatsoever it also obliquely beholdeth , that it affecteth or moveth , even as already before , in our new Meteors . This is I say , the action of government or of dependance , shining or beaming , and piercing every way , without the bawdery of co-binding , or conjoyning ; yet not but unto a proper object . Note here , that I have elsewhere said that the Beard is generated by the stones , in a man , whom they distinguish from a gelded person . But besides this action of government , I acknowledge moreover two natural ones , but prodigious or monstrous ones : Therefore there is a third action , proper to incorporeal Spirits , which for action , do not require a direct beam , nor a beholding of the object , nor a nearness , disposition or co-binding of the same ; but they act , onely by a powerful beck ( for indeed they want extreamities or outmost parts , whereby they may touch as well the Bodies which they pretend to move , as also the meanes themselves , whereby they may move Bodies ) with a far more efficacious influential force or virtue : That action is nigh akin to that whereby the Soul doth signifie its will or beck unto its own Organs whereunto it is tied : For thou hast made him ( O Lord ) a little lesse than the Angels , by the obligatory bond of a Body : otherwise he is more worthy , whom thou more esteemest of , who art not deceived in thy estimation : Thou wert incarnate for the redemption of men , not for the redemption of Angels . There is also a certain lying action , usual with wicked Spirits ; to wit , a jugling and bewitching one . The which , although it contain in it a true action ; yet it doth not manifest a true effect : But the bewitcher befools the sight , while the same things appear to one , which are not , or which are not to another , or not in the same manner : He befools the eyes , that he may represent false things unto them , and mock them with his beck or at his pleasure : It is almost just as in Fevers , doatages are naturally objected , which are not before the eyes , and of●-times also without doatage , a feverish matter seemeth to be brought thorow the back-bone , unto the places affected : For they are impostures , the participation of a blemish , the dispersing of a strange tincture , from a contagion of the inflowing Spirit ; but not a puffie dispersing of corporeal vapours . That is government , whereby one part obeyeth another : In the joynt-sickness or Gout , that doth clearly appear : Because a certain indisposition of the stomach , with a small Fever , goes before , before that any sign doth manifestly appear in the joynts : So in swooning , sudden death , the Falling-sickness , giddiness of the Head , Apoplexie , &c. the part is played about the mouth of the stomach , so that for this cause it hath deserved the name of the heart ; and stomach-remedies being suddenly offered , they are for the most part restored : And so like , juggles , they are made elsewhere , and seem to be carried to some other place : For whatsoever is written concerning vapours lifted up out of the stomach , and womb , they do spread forth bewitching darkness , as well about the matter , conveyances of passages , and meanes , as the government of life it self . After another manner , there are true actions , and true effects ; Even as elsewhere I have distinguished in the Treatise of Catarrhs or Rheumes . I must now more deeply enquire into the Paradox of the action of government : For indeed , in the first place it is commonly , well observed , that anger , fear , and other passions of the minde , do not onely with speed diversly affect the Spirit carried in the Arteries and Sinews with the very stroak of the eye , that the Cheeks do fall , the Appetite perisheth , the hairs stand upright , the voyce sticks , the Spittle foams , sweats and the other excrements themselves do defile , through the storm of disturbances : ● But a Horse-beast affords the fragments of his hoof , which being fried , and taken , cures the Bloudy-flux : but if the Beast be a wanton Colt , then his hoof is mortal to those that have the Bloudy-flux . The spittle of a Dog cures wounds by licking them ; but if he be corrupted with madness , he propagates the deadly poyson of his own madness on other Species , yea on general kindes : we have Houshold examples : Eunuchs are beardless , of a straighter neck , their knees being writhed inwards , &c. Therefore the Beard at least doth efficiently depend on the stones being come to maturity ; yea the whole habit of the Body , and inclinations of the Soul in gelded persons , do differ from entire individuals : which thing is evident and daily seen in an Oxe , a Bull , a Capon , and a Cock : But yet the stones have not their Pipes , Fibers , Guards , or Vapours on the skin of the Chin , on the feathers of a Cock , or on the horns of a Bull , as neither on the animosity or sturdiness of the minde , or on the haires : But there is an unsensible influx of the stones , as it were another of the Moon , beginning even from an Infant , before the ripeness of age , also at the time of ripe years , changing the voyce : Therefore the action of government of the stones is no otherwise than as the Moon begetteth the Marrows with child : So the Brain is the chief over growth , which the straining of the turning joynts in crook-backed folks , or putting bones out of joynt , do sufficiently shew : Which thing also in the womb doth not sluggishly offer it self : by reason of the womb alone , a Woman is that which she is ; she wants a beard ; and although she be of a moyster habit of Body , yet she growes sooner to a perfect state : She suffers other disturbances and animosities , and makes another flesh and bloud , diverse from a man : And so that also , for the wombs sake , the Sex assumes a devotion to it self , by a certain Prerogative : The ruler of these actions sits in the womb , who being sore smitten or disturbed in his own Circle , is for the producing of all Diseases universally : And therefore the Jaundise , Apoplexie , Strangling , Asthma , &c. are not from things retained ; But they draw their original from a more sublime Monarchy : For oft-times , the womb straineth one onely tendon in the foot , or throat , or it plainly presseth together the whole Weasand , as if the disease were local ; when as in the mean time , no exhalation is sent , directed , or received unto that sinew or place : For by an Aspect onely , it contracts the Lungs , that it may wholly deprive them of breathing . They are trifles , which are brought hither concerning a hurtful vapour : Because it is that which should more neighbouringly pull the Intestines , Stomach , and Midriff together , than that it should come unto the Lungs onely . Elsewhere also , the Throat ariseth unto the heighth of the Chin , and setleth again ; neither is that the reward of vapours : But the dominion , government , aspect , and influx , and command of the womb causeth it so to be : For it affecteth that part which it will , and sometimes destroyes the whole Body because it is subjected : For as long as it is not shaken by the disturbances of the Soul , it stands with a straight foot ; yea the womb sleepeth or slumbereth ; but being once enforced by disturbances , for the future it brings forth its own inundations throughout the whole Body , and now and then , those durable till death : Because if the womb by its own Monarchy , wholly distinguisheth a Woman from a man , and it be the promiscuous parent of that distinction , it is no wonder also , that it doth by the same government , disquiet all , even the most remote parts , no otherwise than as the nearest , when , or where it will. And it is certain to him that makes a full search , that the operations of the sensitive Soul are of a co-like order , and of co-like progresses in operating , that if the womb by a spiritual governmen : snites the health , this is indulged to the Soul , by a like priviledge of acting on the womb : For if a Woman great with Child , being stirred with a desire ( as elsewhere I have repeated ) doth behold a Cherry , and shall touch her self on the fore-head , he Young presently receives the Cherry : Not indeed the naked spot of a Cherry ; but a Cherry which waxeth green , white , yellow , and looks of a ruddy colour every year , together with the fruits of the Trees : yea which is far more wonderful : For that which happens to the Young in Brabant , that happens far sooner to the same in Spain , to wit , where Cherries do sooner come forth : Therefore the thought or cogitation reacheth the Young in a direct passage : not indeed by the directions of fibers , or straight beams , and the conveyance of aptness of readiness , as neither by the conceit of the Brain and Womb ; but onely by a reciprocal or recoursary action of government . But besides , if there be no Young present , the Idea's of Imagination do not therefore cease to be deciphered in the sides of the womb : The which , seeing they are strangers to the womb , it becomes easily furious , as being impatient of forreign Tables . There is therefore a passable way from the sensitive Soul , into the womb , and from this to it : which thing , Hippocrates first took notice of ; To wit , that the whole Body was exspirable , and conspirable : From whence it comes to passe , that some Symptomes of the womb , are scarce discerned from enchantments : For it so straightly strains the Coat of the Lungs , that it sends no Air at all thorow it into the breast : Here is no communication , passage , access , scope , or manner of a vapour , and much lesse is there an affinity with Rheums in this respect , seeing it begins and is bounded or finished without a material aflux , or eflux . It is therefore onely the action of government , whereby the mad womb doth disturb all things : But a co-knitting , nighness , aptness , or consent are not to be regarded ; but a superiority of Monarchal power , and a vital dependance of parts : For the ruling parts do act by an absolute power ( not being bound to the nearness or nice scituations of places ) in every scituation of the Body , alike cruelly : And that which is far more famous , the ruling power or virtue , reacheth undefiled , unto its bound or mark without a defilement of meanes : The womb doth oft-times live , and tumulteth after the death of a Woman , which it hath brought on her : And so it enjoyes a singular Monarchy , which that duplicity declareth ; neither doth it obey the Body , unto which then it prescribeth Lawes : For neither otherwise , is it violently shaken but by the disturbances of the Soul : wherefore , besides the singular perceivances of smelling , tasting , and touching , it is powerful also in a certain bruital understanding , whence it is mad and rageth , if all things shall not answer its own will or desires : It rageth I say , by writhing it self upwards , downwards , before , behinde , or on the sides , with an undeclarable torment of pain : But as long as that fury is restrained in its own Inn , it indeed stirs up local griefs : For the parts which it forcibly snatcheth , or beholdeth at a distance , it doth as it were strain and strangle with a Cramp , no otherwise than as being stirred with fury on them . I remember , that I once saw those that were strangled by their womb , whose dead Carcasses looked black and blew , being black in those parts wherein they had been pained before death : Neither also doth it largely poure forth its Issues , unless it should open its own Veins by an inordinate madness , to overthrow the guiltless treasure of life : So neither doth it contract the sinewes and muscles , make the joynts lame , displace the tendons , resolve the muscles , and crisp and cowrinckle the coats or membranes , but onely by the action of government , and unless it being stirred with fury , it should keep a duality with the Womans life ; otherwise , as long as every thing keeps unity , it desires to remain in its Essence or Being . When therefore a fury acts out of the womb alone , it is the lesse evil : But when it flies thorow into the sensitive Soul ( with which I have shewen that it hath an agreeing co-resemblance ) it pours forth the true madness of its own fury out of the hypochondrial part . In young Maids at their first being enflamed or swollen with a lesse pleasure , it withholds , suppresseth , discoloureth their courses , and brings forth inordinate ones : Then at length , it produceth Palsies , Cramps , beatings of the heart , tremblings , and swoonings , and contracteth the sinews : which distempers , by the volatile tincture of Coral , Oyl , of Amber , Salt of Steel , and such like Medicines , I daily cure . The same distempers being of the milder sort , do obey stupefactive things . Also , the more cruel ones , require greater Secrets of Chymistry . What things I have already spoken touching the government of the Stones , and Womb , I have demonstrated by many Arguments , in the Treatise of Catarrhs , and likewise of the Duumvirate , not by a more dull priviledge to belong unto the Stomach , neither that fumes , as neither that vapours do ascend out of the Stomach unto the Head ; and so that in this respect , an impossible Fable is taught in the Schools . Likewise in the Treatise of Fevers , and elsewhere , I have shewen , by what sume drunkenness is made , and by what way , fumes are derived into the more formerly bosoms of the Brain . Now I will teach the manner of making in an Apoplexie , the Falling-sickness , drowsie Evil , &c. that when I shall have denied them to be made by a co-knit Chain of vapours , they may at least be understood to undergoe the action of Government . To which end I must repeat what I before spake by the way ; To wit , that the Beard is bred by the stones , and that the distinctions , ages , varieties , and colours hereof do depend thereupon : which thing , seeing it is commonly known , I at leastwise admonish , that it ought to be understood , that a Vapour is not made , which is brought forward by the Ministery of particular Organs ; but that a power is to be considered , which in manner of light , doth affect and dispose the whole Body , or at leastwise its own objects , according to the gift , and ends seminally implanted in them by the Creator : therefore a certain power or virtue beames forth from the Stones throughout the Body , into the Archeus , and so also , into the sensitive Soul ; seeing the Church commends the femall Sex for a natural devotion . Why therefore doth the Beard grow on the Chin , and not on the Fore-head , or on some other place ? seeing that eflux of the light of the Stones throughout the whole Body is universal ? This matter carries in it a most hidden Root of Philosophy , demonstrated in the Treatise of the entrance of death into man : For we must know , that Souls do act on their own Body by the power of their own certain vital light , the which , seeing it is by the life ( in which the Soul it self is every where present ) every way extended , the Soul in that its light , deciphers the Idea's of its own conceipt and command , that afterwards , it may by the administring Spirits be wholly committed into the Organs , for execution : But those soulified lights , or lightsome Souls themselves , cannot be comprehended by us by a direct conceipt ; Seeing they are as it were , the immediate clients of another , and that an intelligible World : wherefore the most High calls himself the Father of Lights : For the Senses do bring nothing unto us from without , which may decipher a conception of the soul in the phantasie : wherefore in the Treatise of forms , I have according to my slenderness , touched at this matter as largely as I could , in the newness of so great a Paradox , which is as yet more strongly to be considered elswhere ; therefore lest repetition should tire , it is sufficient here , to have said by the way , that substantial Souls and Forms , even as likewise also , a formal substance ( which I elsewhere distinguish from the former ) are certain unnamed Lights , immediately framed by the Father of Lights . Therefore the powers depending on Souls , and certain ministring guarding Lights , are also thus far lightsome . I have shewen therefore by Science Mathematical , that those very Lights do pierce each other , yet that they reserve the Essence and properties of their former Lights : But in inferiour things , wherein Forms do inhabite , and also formal Powers , that these have their light even actually capable of being stirred up by our Archeus , no otherwise than as in an Egg , the power of the seed is actuated by a nourishing warmth . Therefore there is in the roots of the hairs in the chin , a power of growth , duration , and other dispositions , although the masculine ruling power thereof , be of one stone : which power of the stones indeed , although it be absolute , yet it is not but diversly received in places , to wit , according to the manner and capacity of every receiver . But as much as this speculation conduceth unto Medicine , I will translate poysonous powers into the place of vital ones ; Because they are not lesse lightsome than those which are otherwise , wholsom , if poysons do immediately issue from their own forms : For they are the gifts , either of the more outward or forreign Simples of the first Creation , or in the next place , are begotten afterwards in us through errour of living . By the same priviledge also , the natural powers of the parts , to wit , of the Womb , Stomach , Stones , &c. ) do beam forth their own lights throughout the whole Body , and do pierce the light of the Archeus , also by the action of government depending on their light : whence indeed , this Archeus is comforted , weakened , estranged , prostrated , yea perisheth : Therefore poysons in the Midriffs , or those bred elsewhere , do act by virtue of their own formal and lightsom powers , according to the natural endowed Idea imprinted on them , and they do affect the vital light planted in the sensitive Soul , in the Archeus , and so in the parts , and they mutually pierce each other by a radical union , and that either by a contagion of poyson remaining , and transplanting the in-bred , formal and vital light of the parts ; or onely for a little space , as in those that have the Falling-sickness , with a liberty of returning or not , according to the requirance of their root : Therefore the Head is not onely chief over the lower Organs , but also these are likewise chief over the Head , the which I have elsewhere declared in a manifest example by hanging : For truly , the thorny marrow being encompassed in the middle of the turning Joynts , cannot be strained by the Rope , that it should deny the passage of breathing to the Spirit the mover ; nevertheless , the understanding , sense , and memory , perish at the same instant , by reason of the stopping or shutting up of the Arteries of the throat , even before an every way stopping of Air : whence it is sufficiently manifest , that some intellectual light doth continually spring from the lower parts unto the Head , by the intercepting whereof , presently in hanging , and drowning ( although the Brain , thorny marrow , and sinews be not hurt ) every virtue , power , and light of the Soul doth nevertheless perish : As also in a Feverish doatage raised up from the lower parts , the discourse of Reason perisheth . There is therefore a reciprocal government of the lower parts . I willingly confess also , that dimnesses , giddinesses of the Head , deasnesses , Apoplexies , Epilepsies , and other evils of that sort , do arise from the lower parts ; yet not to be derived by vapours , unto the Head : For if they should ascend by the way of the Throat or Weasand , they should at leastwise afford nothing but a distillatory and unsavoury water . But I have shewen elswhere , that watery vapours or exhalations cannot be carried so much as to the plain of the brain , and much lesse into the bosoms of the same : Therefore let the fault and guilt of vapours in the aforesaid Diseases be vain . And then , neither are vapours carried out of the Stomach , unto the heart , and head , through Arteries and Sinewes encompassing the mouth of the stomach ; Seeing the Schools themselves confess , that it is not the office of the sinewes to draw from forreign parts . Indeed , they will have the Arteries to draw Air for the cooling refreshment of the heart , and the pressing out of smoaks ; Neither of which I have shewen to be true : But at leastwise , that hath not place here , in the Arteries ending into the stomach : seeing they do never hope to inspire cold air , likewise that not loaded with a smoakie vapour , out of the stomach , nor out of the bottom of the belly ; as neither fresh air , yea , neither in the next place , should it be convenient to expel their smoake vapours thither , where they should be much more hurtful to the stomach , than being detained in their proper seats : For the mouth of the stomach hath not undeservedly received its name , as to be the mouth of the heart : Because more powerful tokens , signes of life , and more horrible storms of disturbances do arise up out of the stomach , than from any other place : therefore neither was air to be drawn out of the stomach , and much lesse a vapour , the fewel and beginning of so many evils , or smoakinesses , to be expelled into the stomach by the arteries ; that is , giddyish , Epyleptical , Apoplectical vapours , &c. are not drawn , neither do they voluntarily ascend thorow the Arteries : For truly , the unutterable Creator hath directed all the aims of things unto the necessities and requirances of uses . Lastly therefore , if the aforesaid Reeds do not draw hurtful and diseasifying vapours , surely much lesse shall the stomach send or expel those , thorow the arteries , or a sinew ; Seeing that it could after another manner , most speedily free it self by belching : For neither is the stomach a pair of bellowes , that it ought against the will of the Pipes , to derive hurtful vapours conceived for it , into the chest of life . And moreover , the stomach hath but few veins ; and it is a strange thing for these to beg any thing out of the stomach ( as hath been proved in its own place ) : wherefore vapours are not carried thorow the veins : For which way should they allure and receive that which is besides the appointment of nature ? How should the stomach snuff up its vapours into most straight or narrow vessels which are filled with bloud , especially those which are not strong in drawing ? For I consider the stomach , not indeed after the manner of Galen , that it is a sack or naked Kettle dedicated to the cooking of meats ; but as a vital bowel , which is prevalent in tasting , smells out a thing , and which is driven with divers appetites , as if it were a living Creature : and now and then it so loatheth some things , that a man had rather die , than to swallow one morsel which goes against his stomach . Indeed the stomach is of necessity serviceable to the whole Body , also for the vile Houshold-service of the Kettle : But thus far other things do diversly obey it , and unless they give serious heed , they are cruelly beaten ; According to that saying , He that will be the greatest among you , let him be the least . Surely the stomach is diligently busied in a low service ; yet the family-service of the stomach is not therefore vile or base , no more than for the High-Priest of the Jewes to have played the butcher ; but being compared with the stomach , he was a certain counterfeit or personage of life , with a famous majesty . If a Sinew , Artery , and Vein are seen implanted in the stomach , indeed they are rather signes of Clientship , and recompences whereby they confess themselves bowels tied or obliged to the stomach , than that they were added unto it for Government , Mast , and Sails . But neither indeed will I have this Principality to be so conserred on the stomach , as if the Government of that Common-wealth doth wholly belong to that membrane it self : For of the Spleen and Stomach , I make one onely Wedlock , and one Marriage-Bed : Wherein I attribute to the Spleen , the offices of a Husband in the first motions , and to the Stomach , in the first sense or feeling ; Therefore the Stomach is the compleating of the Spleen , and the Spleen of the Stomach ; under the one only Bride-bed of them both , is the Principality of one Duumvirate . Yet I do never , cease to contemplate of that which is sufficiently admirable , what the Lord of things hath fore-seen ; I say , in the naked coats of the Brain , Womb , Stomach , Pericardium , &c. I say in the Membranes ; but that , in things which are abject in the sight of men , God hath wont to constitute his wonders : whose name be sanctified for ever . CHAP. XLIII . The Duumvirate or Sheriffdome . 1. Sleep is from a Sleepifying or somnoriferous power , and not from a defect . 2. The Opinion of the Schools concerning Sleep . 3. The Opinion of the Antients is opposed . 4. Contradictions . 5. The thingliness of Opiates . 6. The immpossiblity is shewn from the Scituation of the Sinews . 7. That Sleep happens , the Opiate remaining within the Stomack . 8. From the effect of Opium . 9. The Sulphur of Vitriol is taught . 10. Some absurdities accompanying the position of the Schools . 11. A ridiculous privy shift . 12. When Dreams are made . 13. Why the Headach ariseth from over-eating or drinking . 4. Paine ariseth from a contraction of the Coats of the Brain , without a Vapour . 15. A Position for the Duumvirate . 16. The Conclusion . THe Heathen Poet doth morally , yet from a homely judgement , call Sleep , the Image of Frozen Death . But I , seeing that I know Sleep to be a natural power , dismissed from the principality of the Stomack into the Brain , and to be committed to the charge of the Power of Government , that it might be put in execution ; being a Christian , do believe that God ( alwaies to be sanctified ) When he intended to frame Woman of the rib , he cast a Sleep upon Adam : Not indeed as a privative Being , but as an actual real faculty , and meerly positive : And therefore that the Power of Sleeping is vital , necessary , and consequently natural : For I may not believe , that God made Death in man , or the image thereof : Neither was it meet , that the image of Death should go before sin , and the occasion of Death . The Schools indeed teach , that Sleep is caused by vapours lifted up out of the Stomack into the Brain , stopping or intercepting the passages of the Senses , Motion , Speech , Judgement , &c. which things surely , I being as yet a young man , judged to be ridiculous : For in very deed , so a disease had been before sin ; because sleep should be a disease ; to wit , there had been a flatulent and vapoury Palsie , and Temporary madness , both in a body then as yet , not capable of suffering , and in a life immortal . It s a shamefull thing therefore , that the blockishness of Paganisme should as yet be seriously taught in the Schools , especially by Christians , better instructed . Yea the Schools do erre in their own position proposed . For those that sleep do move , and turn themselves up and down , some do walls about , do feel the stings of a gnat or flie , so as that they do thereby awake : others also do speak , and oft-times aptly answer . At length , as the Schools do badly accord with themselves , while they confound sleep , and waking Catarrhs , with the same root , causes , and manner of making ; so I , after that the toyes of a Catarrhe were hissed our , rejected also the assigned causes of sleep , as vain fables . Last of all the Schools also lay hands on themselves , while they teach , that from Opiates , things ( as they say ) most cold , and rather things powerfully restraining every evapouration ( at least wise they are feigned to restrain , &c. Vapours for Catarrhs , more than Coriander ) from their own nature ; Sleep , the Drowsie evil , yea and death are most readily brought on a man : and so much the more speedily , by how much the Opiate shall be of a more gradual cold in quality and quantity : And that by how much the more of sincere Opium shall be taken , and the more inward cooling made , by so much the more plentiful , and more continued vapours should be brought from the stomack into the head , also although the mouth of the stomack be shut . But surely it is a stupid devise , that sleep should be made by cold . Neither is it to be understood , how one onely grain of Opium can cause a sufficiency of cold in the Stomack , and had actually driven a sufficient quantity of vapours into the Head ? How likewise , it shall belong to cold , to stir up vapours , rather than to restrain them . But these things we may suppose to be granted by the rule of falsehood . And that Sleepifying vapours are derived upwards from the meats : also that the Sinews , the authours of the senses and motions , are stopped by these vapours . But I would they had first considered , that the roots or first extremities of the Sinews , are continual to the Brain and thornie marrow : and that the other extremities or outmost ends of the Sinews do end into the more outward muscles , or into the very Organs of the Senses : and so , that therefore sleepie vapours first ought materially to pierce , and plainly to be imbibed into the substance of the brain and thornie marrow , and to obstruct both , before that they should according to the position of the Schools , cause sleep . And which way should these vapours incline from the Stomack , and pierce thorow the whole Substance of the Brain , by what meanes should they reach even unto the very innermost , and altogether continued root of the Sinews it self , which is unseperably connexed to the Brain ? In the next place , how could he that is awakened at the will of the awakener , be so speedily loosed and freed from those impediments ? Or what may detain those vapours there for so many hours , without their co-binding , or co-thickning into water ? for truly those vapours being once constrained , a passage should lay open to the Spirits , which should presently shake of the sleep : Or what at length may hinder , that new vapours should not continually make towards the same beginnings of the Sinews , and being there Coagulated , should not bring forth of necessity , daily Catarrhes or rheums ; and undoubted palseys ? Surely if an Anatomist , or a man in his right mind doth but once at least , rudely contemplate of these things , he ought of necessity to admire with amazement at these fables of heathens , especially because they have no affinity or connexion with the principles of our constitution . It also happens that some one is many times awakened in one only night , that he ariseth , and goes to sleep again ; and so almost at his pleasure , there should be so many obstructions of the Sinews in one night , yea in one hour . I passe by in the mean time , that sleep is stirred up , an Opiate being as yet materially within the Stomack ; even as unvoluntary experience hath often taught . Therefore either so small a quantity , and onely the Odour of the Opium , ought to fume up into the Brain , or it self being there detained , should send away sleepy Vapours its Vicars : But not the first , because before that the Opium could strike the sense of Tasting , or Smelling , the Opium should be continually percieved in the Tongue , Palate , Nostrills , and Jawes , and that before Sleep , which is not done . Moreover , the Sulphur of Vitriol , which is an exceeding Sleepifier , seeing it is fixed , cannot shake its Vapours into the Head , as neither dismisse from it , its Vicary partakers . Truly I conjecture that the Greek Authors of Sleep , or those that were riotous , when they perceived that themselves being drunk , were given to Sleep , judged that they were to derive all Sleep from no other thing , neither that Sleep could any longer creep on us , ( not so much as late in the Morning , and the Meats being now digested ) but only from Meat and Drink . I find also in the Schools , the material causes of Giddiness of the Head , not a whit to differ from the causes of natural Sleep : All which things , I have elsewhere concerning Rheums , proved to be meer ignorances , and unsavoury consents , having arisen from a sluggishness of diligent searching , and a readiness of subscribing . But I pray , what is that which is so cold in Opium , which causeth Sleep against my will , and I being sufficiently heated : If the coldness of vapours , why do Wines after Dinner provoke Sleep ? Is there therefore one only identity or samliness of disposition of that which is cold , and hot , to procure Sleep ? Why therefore is cold singularly adjudged to Opium ? Why are not hot things judged to be alike Stupefactive and Dormitive or Sleepifying ? Why have not deadly Poppies much praised by Poets for Sleep , perswaded them to remember another vertue besides cold ? Why doth Opium taste bitter ? And why is bitterness reckoned in the Schools , to be heat predominant ? Therefore the Schools must needs chuse one of these two ; To wit , either that cold in Opium is not exceeding , and by consequence , that Opium doth not cause Sleep through cold ; or that bitterness is a deceitfull token of heat in the Schools . For why is not Purslain which is cold by reason of its third degree , Sleepifying ? Why is not a handful of Purslain equivalent to two Grains of Opium , seeing there is more plentiful cold in it , and it doth more powerfully coole in such a small parcell , than in so exceeding small a quantity of Opium ? Why doth Nightshade make one mad , but doth not by its cold produce Sleep ? But I do find in Opium a sharp Sudoriferous or sweat provoking Salt , and a bitter oyl , far differing from the smell of Opium , yet provoking Sleep . But the Sulphur of Vitriol is sweet like hony , with the smell , vapour , and fury of Opium : because it being fixed in the torture of the fire , is exceeding hot , and Sleepifying . For there are some , who do wash off a powder from Colcotar or Calcined Vitriol , in depriving it of its saltness : But it is almost unefficacious , how ever the writers of young beginnings by vain promises may boast of it : For the right , and that which they call , that of the Philosophers , is made of the Spirit of Green Vitriol ; which by a repeated Cohobating or injection of its own extracted liquor in distillation , being pressed out and made notably volatile in the last torture of the fire , is coagulated and fixed : which thing the common Sal Armoniack performeth , which ought afterwards to be taken from thence by the repeated distillations of the Spirit of wine . That Sulphur is commendable among Secrets for long life , and for chasing away a troop of some diseases . Sleep therefore possesseth many as yet speaking , after the whispering of three moments . How therefore shall a stopping up of all the Sinews be in these , so suddenly at hand ? Wherefore in the next place , doth Sleep sooner creep on those that lay along , than on those which sit , when as otherwise , the motion of Vapours from the lower Parts , ought to be far more easie in a body raised upright , than in one laying side-wayes ? Moreover , although it should be granted , that all the Sinews are equally stopped up , and that before sleep ( which is as unsavoury as ridiculous ) yet from whence are the mental powers stupifyed by Sleep ? Unless thou hast given the Soul a charge of necessity to have placed her Inn in the Chest of the Brain , and nigh the Sinews ? And thereupon the Bosomes of the Brain , all the interval of Sleep to be filled , not indeed with Animal Spirit ; but with forraign , crude , grosse , and diseasie vapours , and the Authors of discourses themselves , the while , to keep holiday , sleep , or to wander far abroad ? But all the Organs to be straightway after set at liberty , at the sound , or pleasure of the awakener ? But I have heard Sleep to be excused by the Title of an Ordinary Effect , and the which should otherwise be diseasie , unlesse it were daily and accustomed . I have laughed at that old wives invention ; That even the first Sleep , or punishment of sin , should be sent into man before excesse of Riot . And then , because an evill , which in it self is a disease or an evil , is never the less an evil , because it is ordinary : And that being granted , Sleep should never bring refreshment to languishing strength , but a perpetual pain or labour . But I , after that I once saw or perceived the light of a certain Soul , by some kind of representation , understood that Sleep is made while the Spleen doth properly labour about , or apply it self to nourishment with recreation and delight : Then indeed it giving a leave unto its own serious imaginations , by delighting , it wholly sinks it self into a ful rest of enjoyment , to wit , from a perceived sweetness of its own fullness ; and the liberty of a stomatichal ferment being restored unto it , it employeth it self in a thorow enjoyment of delights : and therefore also the digestion in the Stomack is more unsuccessful in time of Sleep , because then slower : wherefore enjoyment , and cessation from labour , hath alwaies been the first or chief wish in the whole sensitive nature : vain therefore and full of mockery are the Cogitations in ones first Sleep , while the phantasie of the Spleen or Stomack is with drawn from thinking , from a growing necessity : which things shall presently be more cleerly manifested in this treatise . A Humorist being asked by a riotous Person , why his Head aketh in the morning on the left-side above his forehead , perhaps unto the largeness of a greater dollar ? He readily answerd , that it was manifest by Anatomy , that the Orifice of the Stomack was inclined toward the left-side : that it was also taught now for many ages , that painfull Vapours are carried out of the Stomack into the Head ; but that they cause pain , because they being lest of the wine , are sharp , tart , & biting ; & likewise that they keep the perpendicular line of the same side , neither that they are suffered to be extravagant . The which being said , the Galenist lifts up his Eyelids , joggs or cocks his Cap , and gratifies his own Soul , because the other being credulous , thinks he had given him Satisfaction by so lying a Fable : For in that the pain of the fore-head obtaineth a straightness of the side from the Stomack , it secretly implyeth some remarkable thing for the action of Government , and the Duumvirate : But none hath thought that that can be done without an actuall commerce of vapours . For first of all , no Vapour out of the Stomack , strikes the Head ; as neither also is there any sharp , salt , bitter , or brackish vapour ; even as elsewhere concerning Rheums : Because the pain of which we now speak , is continual , as well to him that layes along , as to him that stands , or sits , and that without a necessity of belching : But if this doth sometimes accompany it , yet the pain doth never , the less , or more molest : neither also is there therefore , any sharpness , saltness , bitterness of vapours , unless that in inordinate appetite the belching be sour & then especially , there is scarce a pain ever present in the Head. And Morover , a Vapour being supposed according to the Schools , the Weasand at leastwise , holds every where the middle of the Neck and Jaws . For that cause therefore , the Vapours , if there were any , should strike the middle , bottom or root of the Brain with a straight line ; but not the forehead , and much less the left-side thereof : neither could they ascend in one that lays down , but should be blown out though the Mouth and Nostrils : Because although they were granted to ascend even into the plain ( which there is none ) beneath the Brain , yet they should not pierce unto its bosomes , without a mortall confusion of the Spirits : And least of all , should Vapours reach uncessantly unto the coats of the Brain ; whereof notwithstanding , a painful feeling is judged to be , but not of the Brain it self : Yea a pain and savour of the smitting Vapour , should presently be felt , rather above the Palate ( where the plain of the Brain is falsly supposed to be ) than in the forehead , or under the Scull : Which thing notwithstanding , as many as ever have undergon these pains , will reprove of falshood . The Schools indeed have been ignorant , that the action of Government doth contract the coats of the Brain without vapours , in what part it hath pleased the Duumvirate of the Soul ( as in the Book of the Disease of the Stone , in the Chapter of the act of feeling ) : therefore should not the top of the Crown , rather pain a man , than the one side of the forehead ? even as in the Megrim ? For the Crown is perpendicular to the Throat ; from whence it is clearly manifest , that the Head is no more pierced by watery vapours from the Stomack , than the Chin by vapours of the Stones , in Bearded persons , but not in those that are Gelded . In the next place , the bottom of the Brain should especially be pained , the which the vapour should first touch at , and not the coats or membranes of the Brain . And then , the back-running Sinews of the Palate , Tongue , &c. should be cruelly affected , before the left wing of the Forehead under the Scull . Neither at length , should those vapours enclose themselves under the Pericranium , or above either of the membranes of the Brain in the circle of one Doller : Neither also should they ever cause a Megrim for one half of the Head , and much less , sometimes for the right side ; but rather they should ascend in a straight line , and likewise , should alwaies , out of the Throat , equally affect the whole Head ; seeing passages are wanting , which may as it were through Trunks , conveigh those vapours , sometimes hither , sometimes thither : for why , according to Hippocrates , doth milk bring the head-ach to him that is Feverish , if the vapours of whey ought rather to asswage these griefs ? Why doth new food appease the head-ach , seeing that from new meat ( especially Wine accompanying it ) sharp vapours , rather than mild ones , like Milk , ought to exhale ? Therefore the pain being once now setled , food should not appease the pain , but rather should stir it up , and make a new one . All which things , seeing they resist the position , and experience , they convince also , that the aforesaid pain , doth without vapours proseed from the Duumvirate , by a naked action of Government . I have many times admired , that it was alwaies subscribed , by all altogether , and throughout all particulars unto the traditional fables of the Antients . But I have shewn in the Treatise of the Toyes of a Catarrhe , that these races of vapours out of the Stomack , are triflours , and therefore also the causes of vapours dedicated to Sleep . Lastly , I have already proved above , that there is an action of Government on the superiour or upper parts , no less than the actions of the superiour parts have been hitherto thought to be , on the inferiour or lower ones . Then also , I have shewn by the way , that out of the Midriffs doth issue the most powerful temper or constitutive temperature of acting in Diseases , which Antiquity hath hitherto dedicated only to the Head. Now I lay it down for a position , that the Duumvirate the president of the action of Government , doth inhabite in the Hypochondrial part , to wit , in the Spleen , and the Stomach : in parts I say , which the Schools have esteemed the sink of the very worst Humor , and the Sack of the more impure meats . Four things therefore in so great a Paradox come to be proved ; to wit , That the Duumvirate commands the whole Body . That the Phantasie or imagination , Venus , &c. is to be attributed to , or belongs to the Spleen and Stomack , That unto this very Duumvirate , belongs Sleep , watching , &c. That in the same place , is the Inn or Seat of the Soul : Which four particulars do meet as it were in one only point . The Phylosophers , together with Astrologers , have dedicated the Spleen to Saturn , the parent of the Starry gods , as to the inchoative or original principle of Life : But the Galenists , who are wont in most things to contradict themselves , have made the Spleen partly the Sink of the most stubborn Excrementous and feigned black Choler , and partly the receptacle of madness , not indeed by reason of a Melancholy matter in it , but rather , by reason of a certain conceptual , irrational and bestial disturbance ; therefore they sometimes name it the Hypochondrial passion . But seeing according to their maxime ; There is a sound function of the same part , and power , whereof there is a vitiated one , and on the contrary : I will conclude from thence , even against the will of the Schools , that a certain sound and entire imagination is due to the Spleen , if vitiated , and precordial or Midriffie Melancholy doth proceed from thence : for many do understand that they are mad , and as it were ignorant Idiots , and they grieve that they cannot bridle those phansies which are importunate night and day : And so , they are vexed at it were with a double mental conceit . For so those whom a mad Dog hath bitten , and are slidden into the fear of waters , ( which Disease they have therefore called an Hydrophobia ) do accuse their unvoluntary madness , which they forefeel , foretel , and do warn the standers by to beware of them . They answer , that that happens , not indeed because any imagining power is there entertained , but because a fume of black Choler is from thence carried up into the Head , the Sheath of the imaginative power . Which particulars surely , seeing they are of great moment , it is meet they should be examined in a peculiar Treatise of the Soul , and of the Seat , Throne , and Inn thereof . CHAP. XLIIII . A Treatise of the Soul : 1. The Treatise of the Soul is Commended . 2. What hath diverted Schollers from this Meditation . 3. The knowledge of the Soul is not to be delivered for a Conclusion . 4. The suppositionary difficulties of the Schools . 5. Why the knowledge of things is to be put after . 6. By an example fetched from Water . 7. The actions of the mind in the Body . 8. What hath deceived Predecessours . 9. The Author hath desisted from his enterprize . 10. Considerable things concerning the mind . SEeing therefore , the entire command of the Duumvirate doth flourish or bear sway from the vital Soul ; truly the three aforesaid positions may be abundantly proved by the fourth : for if so be it may appear , that the very Seat of the Soul is in the Duumvirate ; The principality also of this over the other Members , and stations of the Bowels , will come to hand : wherefore I will ●ere by the way , treat of the Soul , although by other writers before me , the Treatise of the Soul hath been banished out of natural Phylosophy , especially in order to the knowledge of the Theory or speculative part of healing . And although so many sharp discourses of madnesses , do on every side molest us ; Yet verily , seeing I have perceived no aid from Predecessours , but labour and grief have pierced my most inward parts , before that I could lay aside those things which I had drawn from Heathenisme ; Therefore I have altogether judged my self not to be tyed up unto their Method , in whose possession I have not yet found any thing which may or ought to be snatched into the Beginnings and properties of nature . By looking therefore into my own Liberty , I considered , that among knowable things , nothing is alike noble , as is the knowing of the Soul it self ; from which , as all other knowledge doth obtain its brightness ; So also all terms their own distinct bound : for whosoever he be that is un-apt at the beginning , to comprehend themotions , exercises , effects , and thingliness or essence of the immortal mind , shall also be unfit to understand the secrets of nature , which are more remote from the mind than it self is from it self , and therefore he shall scarce be able to proceed unto those things which he shall behold to be the more fit for him . But he that shall first draw forth the essayes of the Soul , and afterwards drink down the juyces of nature , in his return he shall be of a larger capacity than he was in his former reading by the way or besides the purpose . Yet lest I may seem like a lawless Body , to have wrested my pen into the mind , before the explaining of Diseases , I will declare what things have moved me hereunto . For first of all ( even for the consideration of nature ) I meditated that the mind is the top of humane nature , and the perfection of constituted humanity , and that therefore it was more meet for him to know his Soul , that is , his own self by his Soul , than to enquire by a harmony of corporeal properties , and from a notion of these , to be willing to know the mind it self : for truly , it hath seemed to me , that the Soul being once , even but slenderly known , other inferiour things , and those that are placed under our feet , may be added unto us : And that they may be comprehended as it were by no trouble , at leastwise , by a sober labour , which before , at every step , did stir up suspitions , or moove despair concerning that which was true , lawful , like , just , proportioned , the Agent , suffering , priority , that which is appropriated , change , or interchangeable course , or which at length did through too much consent , lead their own followers , their eyes being shut , into fallacy or deceit : whence they were affrighted from the labour of diligent searching , not so much through sluggishness , as through fear of a suspended or stopped progress , and therefore they locked up the bar of the Gate of knowledge as to further things : for it is a clear and undoubted thing , that man cannot know himself , unless he shall first exhaust the knowledge of his Soul. Therefore also the very knowing of the Soul it self ; as it Seals the fear of God in the Soul ; So also it brings the beginning of Wisdom . If therefore the beginning of Wisdom be awakened by the knowing of the Soul , there is not any kind of Doctrine of the Soul to be delivered for a conclusion of natural Phylosophy , according to the custom observed in times past : For it is false , that the knowing of frail things doth make the understanding of our mind easie unto us : But rather , those that are experienced , do know , that the knowledge of the mind , although it shall far depart from a conceiving of sublunary Bodies , yet that it extolleth or lifts up it self , as oft as it shall apply it self unto any humane Sciences or Arts : for he which but once , and by the way only , hath had experience of a turning inward , or Extasie of his Soul , hath known afterwards , unto what things he shall apply his Soul with desire ; not on the contrary : Because , although any one hath obtained a knowledge of many things , yet he shall not therefore be fit for the introversions or turnings in of his mind . Therefore by the leave of all before me , I say , and do meditate , that it is plainly necessary , that a Man do first know himself , and afterwards learn the fear of the Lord , which will raise him up unto the true Wisdom , whereunto the knowledge of mortal or frail things , and the defects of these , shall be added as a consequent to the premises , or as an adjacent unto the principal thing . Our predecessours , after the essences of things , have then chiefly looked back unto the Soul after a rash manner , and that for two reasons especially . The first whereof is , because the knowing of the Soul hath seemed unto them far more difficult than that of any other things whatsoever . The second is , because the knowledge of the mind , might be hoped for , and had , from a diligent search of external things , and an examining of corporeal properties . But although the first of these is true , yet the second can in no wise be so , for if the knowledge of the mind be of an abstracted and spiritual Being , it likewise cannot be derived on us by any speculation of corporeal things . Because God alone is the immediate workman , and prince of the mind , and the very life of life . Therefore the knowing of our selves cannot be hoped for from any other thing than from its Fountain and Governour : For truly the knowing of abstracted Spirits , differs in the whole Heaven , from the speculation of frail things , seeing they do not partake in any common co-resemblance of Principles , or properties . Therefore the thingliness or essence of Bodies containeth not a whit of Knowledge or Light , that the Soul may know or acknowledge , or behold it self , but only by a renouncing , which is a certain despairing and banishment of knowledge , whence also it gets no light unto it self from that which is above , or from that which is contrary to it self , nor also doth it strike a light of understanding for it self , as it were out of a Steel and Flint : Because the manner of knowing the Soul is to be begged from the Father of Lights , and not from else-where : Because it was the good pleasure of the Divine will , that Man should not fetch the knowledge of himself from any other thing , than from the Beginning and Fountain , himself , who is the Beginning Mean , End , Scope , and highest vertical point of all Phylosophy , unto which all knowledge is to be as an addition . But further , the essential knowledges ( and those from a former thing or cause ) of Sublunary things , are quite as darksome , covered , and difficult , as is the very conceiving of the immortal mind , if the essences of things from a former thing , & their causes , be known only to God. Therefore it is simply false , that the knowing of the mind is more difficult , than the naked knowing of things , or therefore to be put after them : Because all things are alike unknown to us , because the essence of all Beings whatsoever , is their precise Truth , shut up to us-ward , and laying open unto that which is infinite . Therefore the knowledge of things is to be measured at the ballance ; all corporeal things are primarily strangers , and forreigners to our mind , and therefore more remote from the mind , than the mind from it self . And moreover , other things , are not to be known but by the mind , and first in the mind : for therefore the knowledge of any things whatsoever , is only a certain observation , from whence we frame discourses according to every ones capacity . Wherefore also , every such observation , and discourse fetched from hence , how polished soever , is only from a latter thing or the effect , & far less illustrated than is the observation which is had from the mind . For who ever of mortals , knew what the water may be ? The which notwithstanding , is the most obvious , manifest , visible , and transparent of created things : for a Country-man , or Idiot , knows as much of it as a Phylosopher : For they do equally conceive of it by the observation of the senses , that it is a Body , weighty , liquid , moist , giving place to ones finger , fluid , and reclosing it self upon the removing of the finger , a receiver of Heat , and extenuable into a vapour ; yet none hath known the internal thingliness of the Water , or why it is liquid or moist : even as indeed , we know the circumstances both vital and intellectual : of the mind , and what things do dispose this its own prison unto various alterations , and which do oft-times produce something seminally , out of its concrete or composed Body : So as when the appetite of a Woman with Child doth produce a Cherry on her young , which flourisheth every Year . Also in that we do moreover , know more of the Soul than of the Water , it is that which is known by the Revelation of Faith : To wit , That the mind is a Spiritual substance , also subsisting by it self without a Body , Immortal , Living , made after the Image or likeness of God , immediately by God himself , giving Sense , as also motion to the Organs , and the which being seperated from the Body , doth perceive without Organs at its beck or pleasure , being able also to move out of it self , and the Body being bridled or restrained , is able to produce a Being out of it self ( as hath been already shewn concerning a Woman with Child ) it understanding , also willing , and remembring , &c. The Observations of which Properties and Functions , are far more strong than is the knowledge of the Water : otherwise , all things and every of things , by an intrinsecal understanding , are equally unknown and unpassable to us . But that which hath Seduced Predecessours , by thinking that the knowing of the Water was easier than that of the mind , hath proceeded from an Opinion , That a visible thing is of necessity more known than an invisible thing : But they have not distinguished the Knowledge of Observation , from the Internal Knowledge of essence or thingliness , according to which , all things are equally unknown unto us . They have not known I say , that the knowledge of Observation , doth not introduce an understanding into the essential thingliness of a thing , but erecteth only a thinkative knowledge : For otherwise , the understanding should perceive causes that are before in essence . Then also they have been deceived by the simplicity of the Water , which simpleness they have confounded with the unity of knowledge to us unknown . In the mean time seeing the observations of the mind are many , and the more plentiful , the property of every one whereof , denyeth a knowing from a former thing : therefore they have thought that they did undergo more impossibilities in the knowing of the mind , than in that of a simple Body : And so as well the number only in the mind , as a visual frequency of Bodies hath brought forth in them that difficulty : when as notwithstanding , after another manner , in the Beingness of a Being that which is visible is as well unknown intellectually , as that which is invisible . For I intended to deliver an intellective Doctrine of the mind , that man might originally , as much as he can , know or acknowledge his own self , and that afterwards he might learn , from the Image of the Divinity , to contemplate of things more inferiour than himself . But when I endeavoured to explain that by the mental acts of Prayer , I had not freedom in that thing : because they were judged to exceed the Square of my own contempt or meanness , I willingly omitted that Treatise . Let it therefore be sufficient for me , to have plainly demonstrated to others more abounding then my self , that the Christian Phylosophy of nature , doth not admit of nor will , mortal , strange , far remote things , and the causes whereof are hidden from a former cause , and not to know in the mean time , who I the contemplater may be , what the understanding may be , how an intellectual act may be formed , and subsist . Especially , because any thing is not conceived , as it is in it self , but a●ter the manner of the receiver ; that is , of the conceiver . Therefore before all , the receiving understanding , which affecteth the understanding of things , who , or what , and after what manner it is disposed in the act of comprehension , seemed to me to be weighed . Next , what the sheath of the understanding may be , and the capacity , vigour , and manner thereof . After what manner , in the next place , a power , indeed undistinct from it self , may be drawn , and descend into the Functions and Organs tied and Subjected unto it . Lastly , before I can know whether a thing it self understood , be true & good , or whether in me , or for me , it is not to be changed in its Beingness by conceiving , or alienated from its own essence , from whence the Truth of Entity or beingness it self had assumed a strange mask . I altogether judged , that those things ought to be cleered up by intellectuall acts , tho which I determined could not be more readily , or successfully begged by any other thing , than by practise , that is , from the mental Prayer of Silence . But that thing others shall discern or judge of and weigh more justly or equally , than I : And therefore I would not willingly descend into this labarinth . CHAP. XLV . The Distinction of the mind from the Sensitive Soul. 1. The Treatise of the Entrance of death into Humane nature , is commended as necessary for obtaining a knowledge of the mind . 2. The Reader is also sent back unto the Treatise Touching the Birth of Forms . 3. The Immortality of the Mind is proved from the Gospel . 4. It prepares a Weapon against the Atheism at this day . 5. Leonard Lessius describing or Coppying out , hath re-delivered only out of Augustine concerning the Immortality of the Soul. FIrst of all , in the book of long Life , I have demonstrated at large , that the entrance of Death into humane nature , had its own causes in nature , by means for bidden , & without the intent of the thrice Glorious Creatour : & that death being once crept in and admitted , although that was not from the Creators intention , yet that it was afterwards continued , and un-intreatable , from a necessity of nature : and thereupon , not only to have been permitted and consented to by the Creatour , but also that the style of Nature being changed , it was admitted , yea and also as it were commanded , under a better state being introduced , in regenerating through the Divine Grace of Baptisme . In which Treatise , I have demonstated a necessity of the Sensitive Soul , which else under immortality , had been in vain : whence indeed a Law in the Members was introduced , contradicting the Laws of the immortal mind : And a Total and unexusable corruption of the whole central nature was received : Which new & unheard of Doctrine to former ages , I presuppose is therefore from thence to be fetched or required , if so be that the knowledge of our Mind be desired : For as it is now thus stranged from its own self & from its own Beginning , because it now seems to hearken unto the commands of the Sensitive Soul , which notwithstanding , in its own essence , Substance , and reality is unchangeable ; so indeed unto those who make a beginning , or do repent , as it addeth the knowledge of the means whereby it fell , and became wholly degenerate ; so also it presupposeth the same Doctrine , to be as it were the foundation of the knowing of it self . In the next place , concerning the Birth of forms , I have likewise shewn , how far this fraile , sensitive , and mortal Soul in us , may differ from the immortal Mind : the which surely that it is made to do , no less than after an infinite manner , is undoubtedly true , seeing the mind indeed is a Substance , not mortal , but the sensitive Soul is neither a Substance , as neither an accident ; But a neither , Mortal Creature , and perishing into nothing , and of the nature of Lights . Which Doctrine is in part , that of the Gospel , which speaketh concerning the Eternal Life and Death of Souls , or that which reckoneth the Soul of man to be the Image of God , and not hereafter to Die ; for the distinguishing of it from the Soul of a Beast ; which indeed together with the Life it self , is returned into nothing , no otherwise than as the light of a Candle . But as to the other part , the present Doctrine is plainly Paradoxal in as much as the Sensitive Soul is banished out of the predicament of a Substance , or an accident . For first of all , I have demonstrated , that the Sensitive and Beast-like Soul , as well in bruits , as that which is in us , is not infinite and immortal ; yet it must needs be so , seeing none doubteth , but that every natural thing that is born , is also Subject unto Corruption by the Law of Nature . But we are obliged by Faith to believe , that the mind of man is immortal hereafter : And so that the mind of man is an abiding substance , or a Spirit subsisting and Living in it self , after Seperation from the body , should not be to be pressed or demonstrated to a Christian , whose understanding is subdued into the obedience of Faith ; but that a most prevalent Atheism had lately arose in the midst of us , and in Hypocrites of the Church , which by an every way renouncing of the Faith , doth shake it self off from the Principles whereby such insolent rashness might be appeased : And especially of them who deny all divine Power : otherwise , neither is it my part to Treate of the immortality of the mind , it being written and demonstrated by Augustine , and piously copied out word for word by Lessius , and by him re-delivered , because they are those who have sufficiently proved the same : But not yet against those which deny all Divine Power . Therefore I might desist , by treading the same under foot , to re-meditate of it , if it had been sufficiently demonstrated by them against the first sort of Atheists : and unless I had put a difference of the mind in nature , from every Soul of living Creatures , unless I say , the integrity or entireness of the same , should have repect unto the knowledge of nature , and that integrity should require a designed difference of man , from any other Created things whatsoever , and that ●ingly and Principally , only according to its cheif and lively part , without which , man is nothing but a stinking dead Carcase , more vile then a Flint , and sooner destroyed and broken than any Glass . Otherwise , Christianity standing , the immortality of the Mind standeth , and the Substance of that Substander o●●emainer ; even as also likewise the Mortality of other Souls , or their reducement into nothing , which is annihilation of a Proper Name . And from thence is the true , and properly said difference of the same . CHAP. XLVI . Of the Immortality of our Soul. 1. Atheism , and that worse than Idolatry . 2. Religious Atheists are the worst of all . 3. The Life of new Religious persons which prefer themselves before others , hath introduced Atheism anew , under the Doctrine of the P●lagiam . 4. Hypocrites abuse the Scriptures . 5. The Argument of perfect Atheists . 6. That modern Atheism was foreseen in times past . 7. The foolishness of their Argument . 8 Of what the Faith of Atheists is . 9. Some Arguments against Atheists , from things granted . 10. Every thing understood is a Lyer , while it is equalized with things understood by Faith. 11. It is further demonstrated by the authority of Scripture . 12. The Bread which comes down from Heaven , Prophesied of . 13. The remainder out of blessed Augustine . 14. The mind cannot be generated by the disposition of Bodies . 15. A neutrality of Beings unknown to the Schools . THe Jewes of old , presently after the Cessation of miracles , were straightway hurried unto Idolatry , & a mad worshiping of Idols . But the modern Age being more wicked then they of the Circumcision , slideth voluntarily by degrees into Atheism : For Lay-men being exsecrably involued in daily Sins , do not only neglect God the invisible Fountaine of all good ; But also some that are bound or engaged to the Church , eating up in the midst of us , the Sins of the people , do ●coffe at God , and protest that they are indebted nothing unto him ; Because they believe nothing Accounting the Faith it self to be a meer politick apparitions Imagination ; and so that all Religions are indifferent : Because they are those which they believe he introduced only to restrain people under a civil Law of living : and that the are therefore almost every where different , and alike just , they being divulged by the Statute Law of Princes , or right of customes received . For else it might be a free thing to believe and do any thing , if the commerces of men should not perish thereby . For there are those who do believe and foolishly utter these things , because Priests and Religious men themselves do privily profess unto their wicked abuses ; who thinking that they have reached unto the bottom of Truth , they boast of their most polished , and sublimed wits , and therefore they laugh at other good or honest persons , who implore the Grace of God in Faith , Hope , and Charity , as simple men , and almost foolish , and as those that roast themselves as a broiled Fish , in vain : And they wax daily worse and worse , the Devil stirring them up , Who goes about as a roaring Lyon , seeking daily whom he may devour . But especially , the evil examples of some Preachers , and Vowers of voluntary Poverty , Obedience , Humility , and Charity , do nourish Atheisms : who notwithstanding , are wholly without Humility , Charity , being altogether Ambitious , Envious , & Couetous , they over flow in Wealth , they follow their own Profits , that not only their Belly , but they themselves wholly may be a God to themselves . For truly under a Cloak of Hypo●●●ie , they wrest aside the Almes appointed and to be appointed for the Poor , to themselves : So as their life being diverted into a Scorn of Religion , hath driven for that cause , even the more Judicious , and also the weaker Sort , into Atheism . But the Holy Spirit shall at sometime Reforme this Madness of Errour on both sides , who is able only to cleanse , and sweep away the Intestine filth from his Church . In the next place , the Scripture it self entering into that evil mind , it is wrested in a wrong sense , and hath confirmed Atheism , which otherwise , ought to moue to filial obedience , and due love towards God. For first , they argue distinctiuely ; and presently after they conclude copulatively for Atheism : To wit , they say , that Bibles do profess one only , and eternal Power , Omnipotent , and Unchangeable . Therefore either the Chronicles of Bibles , are the meer Fables of the Hebrewes ; or the God or Power which the Christians do at this day Worship , or the Turks , is far different from the God of the Jewes . For if we know a Tree by his Fruits , and a man by his Works , the God also may be a doubtful God , which the Christians , with the Turks , do adore and believe , together with the Jewes , as one only God , remaining always Immortal : he shall be to be known and believed by his own works , and that such as beseeme him : For as many enemies , as in times past , are read to have rushed on the people of Israel , were overthrown by a small number , and were slain , through the Astonishment of their minds by Terrour , or by a mutual Slaughter , or killing of each other ; although the Camps of the same enemies , were numerous like the ●o , casts , and the Camels of the same in numerable as the sand of the Sea shore : Yet through a panick fear , they run away howling , from three hundred Hebrews founding Hornes : and now and then , they slay each other with their own Sword , so as there was not one that surviued , who might carry home news of all that Slaughter . Yea , without the help of Warriours , one only Angel destroyed 180 thousand by Death , and that with one only Sword. For if those things are true , which are them read , and esteemed , and the power be at this day , the same which he was in times past , and alike powerful ; he ought alike powerfully to help the Christians ( now his own people ) against their enemies , by whom they are surrounded , and subdued or enthralled daily . For at this day , publick Idolatry ceaseth , which was In times past accused for the cause of overthrow ; and the cause of the Divine power himself is at this day managed ; if the Church , the Spouse of the same , and the Sacraments of his Body , be disgracefully trampled on , and the daily Sacrifice or Host be hung up , and mocked with great reproach : The disjunctive of both which , howsoever it be taken , doth at least , convince that that antient Deity hath failed , in manner , in Being or essence , and in power ; and that the new one , or that which the Christians do now worship ( of which powers , as well as of believers , there are great discords in the whole World , hostily spoiling each other ) is not alike powerful , or alike bountiful to his faithful ones , as the antient Deity was to his own Israel in times past : Because at this day , Angels nor Swords do no longer appear : neither do huge Camps any longer kill each other with a mutual slaughter : As neither being affrighted in crying out , do they run away from Christians armed with Chariots , on Horse-back , and with fiery Engines : & from hence our Atheists conclude , that as many as do believe an Immortal and Omnipotent Being , that is , a God , do live deceived : And from thence consequently , they do further rightly inferre : If any Divine power doth at length die or fail , much more the mind of man which sprung from Mortal Parents . For these Arguments are those which withdraw the people of Christ , first unto a neglect of Divine worship , and at length unto the toplof Atheism . After that the Devil took notice , that worshipping of Idols , and a multiplicity of Starry Gods , among the Judicious , were despised , as being loose and friuo●us meanes whereby he might allure people unto his own Hook , he more subtilly spreads this Net of Atheism , and collected a more numerous Prey : which future Atheism God foretold by his Servants the Prophets : The Foole hath said in his heart there is no God , the Atheists are corrupted , and become Abominable in Iniquities , there is none that can do good . God hath looked down from Heaven upon the Sons of men , to see if there be one that understandeth , or seeketh after Gods ▪ For the Atheist hath said in his heart , if I might see God , an Angel , or evil Spirit ; Yea or the Spirit of a man , I would verily believe that they were : But I will not believe what I do not see , or hear , all things are unaccustomed unto me , and therefore they seem incredible : But I think with Aristotle , that all knowledge , and all intellective Learning , is made only from a fore-existing knowledge of the Senses . To whom the Devil answereth , it is good for him so to remain . And God faith ; for he that to this end desireth to see , that he may believe , is now guilty of sin ; but the spirit of Truth entereth not into a Soul guilty of sin ; and therefore it is not convenient , that thou shouldest see those things which thou desirest to see , that thou maiest believe : For neither is sin a Meanes for the attaining of Faith. It is a Blasphemous and wicked Judgment , to have denied a God , or a Devil , because it was not granted to him to have seen either of the two , neither whereof is to be seen unless in an assumed Form. In the next place , it is a rotten and childish Argument ; God doth not perform to Christians at this day , those things which he sometimes of old performed to the Jewes : therefore he is not the the same as in times past , or is diminished from his antient power : For truly the matter is changed , not so much from the power , as from the will of God. But why he will not now , what he would in times past , it is not our part to aske of God a reason of his own will : therefore it is a foolish Argument , God doth not now do what he did in times past , therefore he cannot do it . The Hebrew people was a small people , out of whom Christ ought to arise ; and that people were on every side beset with Enemies , and the which , unless they had been supported with the stretched-out Arme of God , and as it were by a continual miracle , they being presently brought to nothing , had yielded as a prey to the Conqueror , from whence notwithstanding , it was decreed that the Messias should arise : But the condition and Law of Christians is far otherwise : For the Israelitish people in the hardness of their hearts , did measure the grace or favour of God , by the abounding of Wealth , Of-spring , Fruitfulness of Fruits , and their peaceable Possession : But we have known , that offences should be necessary in the Church , Tribulations also , how great soever ; yet not worthy to be reckoned with the Expectations of the Age to come . And likewise it hath so pleased God , that for unjustice , Kingdoms are translated from Nation to Nation . But that I may shew that there is the same God of the Christians , which there was in times past to the Hebrews ; I must not indeed run back unto the written Chronicles , with which Atheists , the Bibles themselves are of no credit : the Argument of Atheists is to be overthrown ; Seeing their understanding admits not of that which is not introduced outwardly by the Senses . Their whole Faith is from a knowledge ; but that knowledge is founded in a present Sensibility , a fore-past Observation , & renouncing of Histories , and succession of Ages , for otherwise , there ought to be no less Authority of sacred , than of profane Writers : Yea all the knowledge of Atheists descends to the Eyes , to Sight , Numbers , Lines , Figures , Tones or Sounds , Weights , Motions , Smells , Touchings , Handlings , and Tasts , that is , it wholly depends on a brutal Beginning , and they are unapt to understand those things which do exceed sense : For that is the cause why they exclude themselves from the intelligible world , and do kick against the corner Stone . But at leastwise , they confess that they do see and know those things which they are ignorant of ; which thing happens in the Speculations of the Planets . But I wish that Atheists may measure the compass of the World , I say , the real distance of Saturn from us , for they shall confess for that very cause , even against their wills , the distance of so many thousand Miles , which their understanding it self will contradict by seen dimensions , or they shall of necessity incline themselves to confess , that a three-fold circuite of Saturne , in respect of his own Diameter , could not have arisen from himself , or of his own accord ; but rather that there is some Author of these , of infinite power , wisdome , greatness , and so also of Duration , &c. But if the Atheist doth think , that the Orbs of so incomprehensible greatness , and so regular a constancy of successive changes , have been thus of their own accord from everlasting ; at least wise the perpetuity of that infinite Eternity , ought to follow a certain Law , Order , and ordained Government , which did require a certain presiding or overseeing , or ruling . Being , everlasting in continuance , great , and powerful . Most miserable therefore are they , who by an utter denial of all things , do exclude Faith , and the rewards of Faith. For let us consider the Circle of the Earth to be cloathed with waters , or that place without Earth and water , to wit , that all things do of their ( very ) own forceable Inclination fall towards their Center ; So that if two men were there , to wit , from East and West , these should touch each other with their Feet , and should look upwards with their head , even as we , and the Antipodes at this day . This I say the Atheist doth believe , although sense hath not suggested it unto him . For weighty bodies do teach indeed , their own ready Inclination of falling downwards ; but that the Heaven is on every side aboue , in respect of one Center , and that such is the property of this Center , that there is not another like unto it ; neither yet , hath the Atheist seen that property : but nevertheless , he believes it : yea , whatsoever he may at any time frame , he alwayes finds the contrary , and without that property of a Center , he believes I say , that same one only natural property in the universal Center : but he never beholds or looks into the working cause thereof , or that which is like it , in the least , and he had rather through unbelief , exclude it from himself . But at least , if there be not a God , nor he every where present , and giving all things to all , it should be all one , if all things were confounded , should fall upwards , or downwards , whether weighty Bodies did rush downwards , or upwards ; whether Plants , and Beasts did perish or not . Therefore the constancy of order & perseverance of the Species or particular kinds , do of necessity require some primitive Fountainous Being from whence they began , are , and do propagate by a continual thred , and the which doth govern all things at his own pleasure or by his own beck , and gives a constancy and Succession of Continuation , least all things should go to ruine , and be confusedly Co-mingled . Indeed he beares a universal care , and keeps things in their essence or being . In the next place , let the Atheist consider the flowing and ebbing of the Water ; To wit , that no water doth ascend of its own accord ; yet that the water of the Sea , doth alwayes ascend , as well in the flowing , as ebbing of the Sea. He believes this , because he sees it ; but the cause thereof he believes not , because he seeth it not ; neither hath the knowledge thereof entred by sense , because it is that which contradicteth his senses . But he at least , ought to believe , that those things do happen by a cause , although he hath not known the same , by which notwithstanding , every thing hath drawn such a property . For although all particular kinds should have this kind of power of seeds and gifts from everlasting ; yet nevertheless , there is not a certain universal property in the Universe , which may have respect unto all particular things , that they may be ordained , and which may know all particular things newly risen and to arise , unless it be out of , and besides the nature of all particular things : Otherwise , there should be innumerable Deities , as there were in times past : and moreover , there should be continual Divisions , and Dissolutions of the species or particular kinds . For the Atheist denies to believe , what things he knows not by sense : he sees indeed the water to be moist , but he knows not , what that is which is moist in the water , or why it is moist : Therefore he believes that which he doth not know , and that which he doth not pierce , that is , as the Beast doth : for neither shall Humane knowledge ever raise him up aboue its bounds , unless he be enlightned by the light , which the Atheist excludes & : he defineth all things by the Contemplation of his own conceit alone , because he reflecteth every where on all things , as to himself : Being indeed wholly carnal and vain , as long as he believes his understanding to arise from a sensual Subject . For whatsoever is perceived by Consequence , Numbers , Figures , Proportions , and Suitings , is deceitful ; as oft as he preferreth , or equalizeth the same things understood , unto things intellectually understood by Faith and Revelation . What if Science Mathematical doth abstract from real Objects , and all perceived things , and yet they are believed ; why shall it be more difficult to believe things not seen , so they are revealed by a Being , which by transcending Acts , sheweth that he deserves a more full Credit ? If an Atheist can assent unto profane Histories , why not also to the sacred ones ? For Moses was famous by many Miracles , known to all Israel ; he writeth the History of the Creation of the World , the successive Progeny of men ; in the next place , he by Abraham enlarged the bringing forth of Israel out of Bondage . Lastly , he delivered the Law prescribed by God , being confirmed by many Miracles , before an unbelieving people . They being indeed seen in the sight of an hundred thousand co-living people . Their Sons and Nephewes subscribed to the Writings of Moses , and then indeed to the Traditions confirmed by their Ancestours . And that was undoubtfully believed by all the following Ages : And the Gentiles took a diligent care to have them Translated , and indeed the Seventy two miraculously Translated them , without any disagreement of words . But thus far , as well Jewes , and Christians , as Enemies , have believed the sacred Histories touching these things . At length , by the Prophets , there are read predictions for many Ages , before that by prof●●e Histories they are afterwards proued to have happened . For to Abraham it was promised by God , that the Messias should arise out of his own Stock . The same thing Melchizedech foretold unto him , and therefore offered a new Sacrifice of Bread and Wine unto him , which should sometime by pr●pagating , proceed out of his Loy●es . But a Sacrifice is no where offered , but to God alone . Afterwards , in the dividing of the Land of promise , there was Bethlehem or the house of Bread , for the Prophets had foretold that the Messias should from thence be born of a Virgin. The Gentiles also , saw the Bread descend from Heaven , which should destroy the camps of Midian : and he was called the God of Gideon , whom notwithstanding , Gid●on had not yet acknowledged for his God. This Messias also , David afterwards divinely foreknew should be born of his stock ; and therefore he named him his Lord or God , and that he was to be a Priest after the order of Melchizedech : to wit , he foretold it in the Bread and Wine , by the inspiration of the divine blast . Balaam foretold of this God , as the Star or Jacob , which the Magi or wisemen coming from the East , afterwards learned , that he ought to be born in Bethlehem or the House of Bread ; and they saw his Star going before them , by admonishment whereof , they had come from the utmost parts of the East , to worship the Child , who only is to be worshipped . For he who fore-taught them concerning the signification of the Star , could have evidently shewed them the place wherein the Child was born , whom they sought by so remote a journey , but that , he he had determined that that thing should be drawn out of the writings of the Prophets , for the honour of God , and the learning of People . Therefore if there be any credit to be given to sacred History ; that convinceth , that God is one , that the Gods of the Nations are Devils : That this God Messias , his Son , was at length to be raised up out of Abraham , without the will of Man , of a Virgin only ; that he is the Angels food which came down from Heaven , who saves those that are to be saved , freely . And seeing the understanding of Man cannot comprehend these Mysteries , and much less fore-see them by the help of the Senses : therefore it is needful to draw the understanding into the obedience of Faith , which it can in no wise conceive of it self : Because , seeing that is of a limited power , and Faith every where of a profound obscurity , the understanding cannot comprehend an infinite term of continuance , or The Immortality of the Soul. Therefore the Holy Scriptures being at length , granted and believed , at least after the manner of Chronicles : One , Eternal , Unchangeable , Immortal , Infinite , Omnipotent , Good , True , Wise God , the Creator , Author , Sustainer , Governour , and Life of things , doth for that very cause , manifestly appear . Lastly , this divine Power being granted , the arguments of St. Augustine do conclude for The Immortality of the Soul , and Life eternal , Fire eternal , Joy , Peace , also everlasting Misety or Sorrow , are to be granted . And there are Angels , evil Spirits , Prophesying dark Spirits , or the Devils Bond-slaves . But the conceivings of these things are wanting to an understanding which savours only of the Senses , according to Aristotle : and words are wanting to the tongue , and positive words want Properties of Expressions , to declare those things which the Ear hath not yet heard , nor the understanding could comprehend , that which hath not yet descended into the Heart of Man , and that which is in it self undemonstrable by the Discipline of the Senses and intellectual faculty : For Faith , the reward of Faith , and expectation of the Righteous , do exceed all Sense , and whatsoever can be conceived by the understanding . Furthermore , if the mind be Immortal , and to enjoy eternal joy , if it being seperated by Death from its own Mortal body , doth in very deed exist and live ; therefore it is not generated by a Body , which in it self , with every disposition of it , is frail , mortal , and a dead carcass , subject to dayly and any kind of importunities of successive changes . Therefore the mind is an immortal substance , a Life , of the nature of the eternal Light , not to be extinguished : And therefore , neither is it generated , or proceedeth it from a Man , Parent , or Frail-seed : much less doth it arise , or is produced of it self , but by some Eternal Beginning , which in it self is Life , Light eternal , Infinite , not to be altered , or extinguished . But these words are of Faith , and the revelations of this eternal Light , and therefore are they eternally true . But the Carnal Man doth not perceive those things which are of God ; and therefore his Wisdome is Foolishness with God , who is Order , Integrity , Essence , the Father of Lights , and total , Independent , absolute , abstracted cause of all things , unto whom therefore is all honour due from every created thing . But he created not only the substance of the mind , that it may be a substantial Light , after the likeness or Image of himself ; but he also made all the living Lights of Soulified Creatures : The which indeed could not subsist in the abstract , without their concrete or composed Body , and therefore they were to perish with the Death of the fame : And therefore , neither are they substances , although substantial , or after the manner of substantial Spirits : Neither therefore also of the number of Accidents , even as I have elsewhere demonstrated in the Treatise of the Original of Forms . Therefore the beastial Life is of a vital living Light , and a neutral Creature between a Substance and an Accident : which neutrality of Beings , hitherto unknown to the Schools , was given by the Etymology of the Father of Lights : So indeed , that he not only maketh the burning Light of the Sun , and Splendour of the Glow-worm : But also the Souls of all Soulified Creatures universally , whereof himself will remain even the alone Maker , and Master . CHAP. XLVII . The knitting or conjoyning of the Sensitive Soul and Mind . 1. Alpha and Omega . 2. The Body is a dead Carcass of no worth without the mind . 3. The natural Phylosophy of the Author is far remote from the traditions of Aristotle . 4. The understanding of Adam shews this truth . 5. That by the Prayer of Abstraction , the mind ought to be unfolded . 6. The Author declareth his five Professions . 7. From the fifth he draweth five Conclusions . 8. The co-knitting of the mind as of a kernel in the Sensitive Soul , as it were in a shell or husk . 9. Defects are from the sensitive Soul. 10. An Objection against Sin , and desert . 11. An answer to the aforesaid Arguments . 12. By an example of the Sun. 13. Corrupted nature doth alwayes want the aid of Grace . 14. The mind , as it is the Image of God , doth endeavour as it were to create something of nothing . 15. The difference of conceits to be admired in a Woman great with Child , THose things which I have already above written , for the immortality of the Soul , being premised , I forthwith for the knowledge of the Soul , return to my Lord Jesus , who alone is the beginning of the Fathers Wisdom , the unlimiting end , the Alpha and Omega , or the one only Scope , in whom a total clearness of all understandings is and ought to be terminated . For the immortality of the mind being certainly known , the Soul ought to be made known to it self as much as it can : for truly , seeing the Soul the governess , doth continually employ it self about the Government of the Body ; Surely nothing can be searched out in the Body ( unless when by Anatomy alone I behold dead Carcasses ) which is worth ones labour , without the knowledge of the Life or Soul : yea verily I have many times been angry with my self , that I would conceive of external and forreign things , and in the mean time , not to know who I am , who dare to contemplate of forreign , and sublime things : But the Image being not yet understood , which the mind bears before it , nor who , of what sort , or how excellent the understanding may be ▪ And Lastly , neither after what manner an intellectual act may be formed . Wherefore I determined with my self , that there was a far different knowledge of the Soul to be delivered to Christians , than that which hath been diligently taught by the Schools of the Gentiles : for look how much can be declared by words , so much also the Holy Scriptures do deliver : But the rest is ( in exercising ) freely obtained by Grace it self , neither doth the mind admit of any other Teacher than him , who hath commanded to be called the alone Father and Master : Because in very deed , all Learning which is drawn from a fore-existing knowledge of the Senses , proceeds from the Sensitive , Carnal , or Earthly Soul ( and the which therefore , the Apostle calls Divelish ) enlightned indeed , but not by the very mind it self , to wit , which alone wisheth to be enlightned by its Beginning , which is above nature , and not from the observation of the Senses : Whither the state of understanding in Adam had respect , before the received learning of his Senses : For he had known the essences and names of living creatures , because he contemplated of these things within , in his own divine image , while he would , and by the very aspect of viewing thereof , he remembred the same : But after that the sensitive Soul began to spring up , whereinto the immortal mind was involved , the sensitive Soul alone , received the vicarship hereof : but the mind being thereby laid asleep , is scarce awakened ; at leastwise , not more manifestly or lively than while it employeth it self in mental or mind-like prayer : whether that comes to pass , because , the while , it casts off from it the rains of the Sensitive Soul , or next , because God requiring to be worshipped only in the Spirit , calls for his own delights to talk with the Sons of Men. Truly the Prayer of silence , and of a profound intellectual humnity , did require another manner of man than my self , who am now an old man , and an ignorant Physitian : but seeing I have undertaken the natural explication of the mind , and since the essence , thingliness , and natural nature of the mind is plainly Spiritual , and respecting its own immediate and supernatural Beginning ; I ought by all means , to declare and explain the Doctrine of the mind by its exercises , that a man may be bewrayed by his Works . Therefore I beg and deserve pardon , if I shall not declare the thing according to the dignity of the matter . Divine goodness shall supply my defects , by some other more worthy th●● my self . But before that I proceed , let the reader know , that hitherto , I have not found a writer , which hath Meditated any thing concerning the more inward emptiness or voidness , bottom , and fabrick of the mind , or of the Creation , Beingness , Truth , or Thingliness of its Idea : but they have rather cast or hung up this same Doctrine behind their Back , as it were irregular , unknown , and desperate , and through admiration only , elevated into a dark Smoak , neither have they looked any longer behind them , as neither within them . For first of all , I will discover my Errors committed by thinking , and will declare the Circumstances which have sometime deceived me . For I knew first of all by Faith , that we have an Immortal Mind , therefore exceeding any the Powers of nature ; because it is that which was inspired into Adam immediately by God : the same Mind also at this day , is inspired into the young , by the same Prince of Life ; Because it is that in which the Kingdome of God hath of its good pleasure , established its seat , and so that he enlightens every man that cometh into this World , and he hath enriched it with his own free gifts of the God-head , and by his presence hath excluded the evil spirit : To wit , for which mind he vouchsafed to die , but not for the fallen Angell . I knew in the second place from the knowledge of nature , that bruit Beasts have Souls , more , or less prudent , and quicke-sighted ; yet all frail ones , and those which hasten into nothing , and that those do perish no otherwise than as a Blast , as the light of a Candle is extinguished , and departs into nothing : And therefore that the Souls of Beasts are not Spiritual substances of a proper Name ; but only the living vital lights of Soulified Creatures : The which notwithstanding are Created by God the Father only , and are dispensed according to the requirance of Seminal dispositions . I knew thirdly , that every frail and Sensitive Soul did issue from the seeds , occasionally and dispositively only ; and therefore that it did partake of nothing of likeness or unity with the Mind of man : For although both were Created by God , yet that they were both divided a sunder , no otherwise , than as a frail or Mortal Being , from a future Immortal one , or as Light that is to perish by blowing out , from a substance which should be the shining Image or likeness of the God-head . I knew in the fourth place , that in the seed of Man , dispositions and hopes lay hid , unto such a frail or Mortal Soul , no less than in the seed of a Dog unto a living Whelp . Fiftly , I knew that the Sensitive Soul , ( even as I have proved concerning long Life , in the Treatise of the entrance of Death into humane nature , ) arose in us from sin , and that it doth naturally remain afterwards , through a successive coupling of the Sexes : neither that the Mortal mind could be made by nature , Man , or any natural means . 1. Because it was a Substance . 2. Because that it was permanent or durable : and therefore . 3. That it could never be made from a perishing Being . 4. That the mind therefore ought to be made of nothing , after the manner of all Substances , without the aid of Co-operating nature . 5. And that therefore , the Sensitive Soul , before sin , was not in us , as neither necessary . Next I knew in the sixth place , that forthwith after transgression , the mind was fast tied to the Sensitive Soul : Because that in a Body subject to Death , there was nothing more near , or more a-kin to the mind , wherein it might sit ; and that therefore the mind had sunk it self into that cleer and Vital beginning , as in an Inn , and had been annexed to it by God , even unto the Period of Life . For I have therefore beheld so many foolish madnesses , fallacies , defects , errors , and Treacheries of men , yea and all madnesses which might utterly deny all the use of the Mind , and might make its totall absence , rather than its presence to be Suspected . Seventhly , I knew that the Mortal Soul forthwith after the fall , did so over-darken the Mind in its Inn , and over-spread it being idle , and as it were detain it Sleeping , that it did Govern not only corporal actions ; but it did for the most part , so dim or blacken the very presence of the mind it self , that it is able to do nothing at all , readily , in this Life , as though it were no longe belonging to its own right . For there is a Law in our Members , resisting the Law of our Mind . Lastly , I felt or perceived a contrary or contentions disquietness sprung up , which endeavoured to excuse the liberty , and burden of sinning : For howsoever the mind doth continually breath forth a vital beam into its vicaress the sensitive Soul ( because it is that which never keeps holiday , is wearied , or sleepeth ) nevertheless it seemed to be so servile to the mortal Soul , in its faculties , that it is unable to enjoy its own understanding freely , but to yield to the mad will or pleasure of the sensitive Soul. Wherefore I being easily seduced through the deformities of Diseases , readily descended ; because I saw that Serpents , and some Simples , yea even our hous-hold excrements , did every way alter the use of the mind : indeed the powers and functions of these , to become wholly oppressed , and mad , and that we who were constituted in so great a majesty under the image of the Divinity , did become far more miserable than Beasts . For I was incited hereunto , because it did not seem agreeable to 〈◊〉 , or possibility , that any Poysonous frail , Being , and that which is unlike to the immortality of the Mind , could Spurn against the Image of God ; that it should loose all right and Prerogotive , at the will of a mad Dog ; and that the Power of the meanest thing should be enlarged beyond the excellency of a Being , which is infinite in duration hereafter : For it seemed , that that ought not to be capable of suffering by a frail or Mortal thing , whatsoever should by it self be immortal . But moreover the mind of a prudent man is be-set for the most part by foolishness ; because almost every one doth labour in his own point of giddiness : For whosoever loveth , that which is not to beloved is ennared , and who so keeps not a proportion of suitableness between things that are to be loved ; now he herein beholds plausible things , as pleasing , with an affection of madness : For so Eve beheld the apple as beautiful , and therefore as pleasing , she presently took that apple , and ate . And that thing is so usual , that the holy Scriptures say , that the number of fools is infinite . For I have gone head-long into these-fallacies of errors , because I as yet knew not what the necessity , and bond of the combination of the mind , and of the Sensitive Soul was . For indeed , because the mind was now connexed unto the mortal Soul , it stood bound to this , by the right of an Inn ; so that , although the mind were of it self not capable of suffering , yet because they were both combined by a conjugal bond and bride-bed of unity , so as that the mortal Soul did enjoy the sole Life of the immortal mind ; it was altogether necessary , that as oft as the mortal Soul did suffer any thing by frail or mortal , hurtful things , or things hostile unto it , it should consequently also suffer that very thing , through an equality or likeness of wed-lock , a conjugal unity , and social right of hospitality . Not indeed that therefore frail things should obtain a power over an immortal Being , which is supereminently above it , and of a diverse station : but God would have the mind thus to suffer , as it being hindered by the discommodities of its Inn , it should be deprived of its own liberty of ampleness , and should hearken to the straights and anguishes of its mansion . For the immortal life of the mind is communicated to a mortal Soul , Seat , and Inn , which life notwithstanding ( as otherwise , every thing received , is received after the manner and capacity of the receiver ) is made mortal in that which is connexed with it , or in a mortal light : And the which may therefore also be oppressed by mortal things , that the Life may be wholly blown out : and then the mind being deprived of its Inn , is not indeed extinguished , or annihilated ; but is compelled to depart , by reason of an untying and annihilating of the bond . Whatsoever therefore the mind seemeth to suffer under Life , it self indeed remaineth safe : but it doth not freely exercise its Offices , because feeling or perceivance is in the middle of the Bond. For truly I have constantly considered the light of the Sun married as a husband to the Splendour of the Glo-worm ; so as that from them both , one only thing did glitter . For that both the lights of a connexion in us , are not indeed shining Lights , but living and plainly vital ones : To wit , one Heavenly and constant ; but the other wormy or corruptible . Then next , I supposed the Light of the Glo-worm to be spotted or tinged : For whether that might happen through an error of its own , or in the next place , because a tinged rhine or skin was stretched over it , at least wise , the Light of the Sun , which is alwaies constant to it self , as it had now married a tinged or stained Light shining through the Light of the Gloworm , doth as it were take on it the stain and tincture of the same , and doth as it were suffer : not indeed that the Sun doth suffer , but its Light only ; because it utters forth its vital actions according to the defiled Colours of the Glo-worm ; and the Light of the Glo-worm being at length extinguished , the light of the Sun looseth its wife , and departs into its first fountain , that it may render a reason of its performed Offices . For so the mind suffers against its will , all the madness of the Sensitive Soul , which the filths of the flesh do stretch over it : and a cleer or famous beam of the understanding , not being able to pierce the filths , is trodden underfoot ; although in its own root , it be wholly uncapable of suffering . But that which hath been already said concerning the Life , that very thing is interpreted touching the other functions of the mind . In the mean time , it is certain and manifest , that as the Sensitive Soul is the seat of the mind ; so it is the immediate Chamber-maid or Lackey of the same : Unto whom seeing the Government , forthwith after the fall , was committed : therefore it translates into it self by an undue acc●stomedness , all the efficacy of the Mind . No otherwise , than as any one being accustomed , to cut Bread with his left-hand , can scarce divide the same with his right-hand . Therefore the mind being Ordinarily accustomed , consenteth to whatsoever things the Sensitive , brutal Soul , from a co-partaking , spreading Beam of Life , doth commit , through a largeness of its liberty , and a licence of Custome . Wherefore in all , and through all the Journeys of this Pilgrimage , we want the helps of Divine Grace , for the which we must often , daily Pray , that we be not led into the Temptations of our Inn : The which is more distinctly manifest , when as the mind Operates in exercises plainly distinct , and far disjoyned from the Sensitive Soul. To which end , the power of the Sensitive Soul got with child , is first considered : to wit , after what manner , through the aid of a mental Beam , ( for as the mind is the Image of God ; so also it diligently attempts sometimes to Create something of nothing , and that from its will or beck alone ) it may Create a true Cherry without the Wood. by appetite or desire only . First of all , it is not to be doubted , that such a thought is appetitive or causing a desire , or affrightning , &c. not yet discursive , and much less , is it nakedly dedicated to , or suggested by the mind only . And then the Cherry thus produced , is true ; but not the spot of a Cherry only : Because it every year , at set Circuits wherein the Trees do Colour their own Fruits , doth change its Colours . For the action of an imagining Woman great with Child becomes thereby the more manifest , and wrests it self out of the censure of a spot only ; while as a woman seeing a certain man beheaded in the Market Place of Bruxells , presently brings forth a young bereaved of its Head , whose Head was found neer the Trunck of the Body . And that thing , I have else where rehearsed to have happened in the cutting off an arm and hand : where notwithstanding , the arm and hand were not found . At least wise , the Sensitive Soul being illustrated in man by a beam of the mind , doth actually and truly Operate , and therefore that thing is not so much obvious in bruits : And the which , if it should not many times happen , we should by Criticks be easily brought into Suspition of : Covenant striken with the evil Spirit , For because the Sensitive Soul alone doth not work these things ; but as being illustrated by a beam of the immortal mind ; therefore there is a certain similitude of Creation , which is uttered forth from the lively image of its Creatour : neither do bruit Beasts therefore in the same manner imitate this effect . Indeed by the only conceiving of passion , a Cherry is created of nothing in the Young , in that part , whereon she that is with Child , doth move forth her right-hand if it be the right ; or the left-hand if it shall be the left ; because that hand hath been wont to carry the Commands of the Soul. And also , the whole seminal Being of a Cherry is created without its wood , and indeed a perfect one : but not growing by degrees through seasons , even as otherwise , in a Tree where a Cherry-Tree after some years , brings forth his Fruits : But a Cherry in the Womb , or a mouse , &c. is forthwith framed : which framing Power requireth sight , and moreover disturbance , &c. that the force of the conceipt of the Soul may be visibly imprinted : but a need of discourses it doth not require . For neither is this same a true Creation : Because a new matter is not made even of nothing ; but it is a Transchangeative Creation of one thing into another , and almost at an instant : And the which , while it is now created in the conception , by an Ideal Being , and cloathed in the vital Spirit of the mother , a place is presently signifyed by the hand , whither it ought to be brought , and where decyphered : Through defect of which hand , the drawn Seal of the Cherry perisheth , and the Creation is made null . And that is in things which cause desire . It is otherwise , in ●ormidable things that are acted , or ministred : because in things that are so much the stronger , the direction of the Mothers hand is not required . Indeed the hand or arm of the Young is cut off , although the Mothers hand hathremained quiet ; neither is it found among the wrapperies , even as the head is ; even as also , while the Young is transchanged into a Monster . But in things ministred that are not to be feared , the hand is required , as a designer of the place for the Young , that it may be wholly changed . And in those formidable things , the reason is different : Because that in the one , an act only is shewn ; and in the other , a created Being : For in that , it pretends a withdrawing only ; but in this , it desires to imitate , by creating something . Lastly , in these sorts , that is universal , that the effecting Mother doth not intend to make that for her Young ; and so shee affixeth these Images or likenesses , not in her self , but in her Young , at the pleasure of her hand , and not at the will of the Woman conceiving that which is desirable , or afrightful : But some pla●sible , or timorous conceit , with a desire , or turning away , doth go before : And presently after , there follows an appetite of the conceits , with desire , or fear : Which things in this place , I have thus enlarged , that the power of a similitudinary or like●ous creation of the Divine Image , may bring us into the likeness of creating a Divine ●ove in the mind : To wit , while it self , by its own motion ( not by a beam only of it self dispersed into the mortal Soul ( even as in Women great with child hath already been related to be done ) and by its own proper wishing , is car●yed totally inward into the love of God. Ah , I would to God we might be led thither ! CHAP. XLVIII . The Asthma or Stoppage of Breathing , and Cough . 1. The Pores of the Lungs and Sinews do lay open as long as we live . 2. Nothing rains down from the Head to the Lungs . 3. That Remedies are badly applyed to the Head in an Asthma . 4. What the Vulcan the corrupter is . 5. By what errour , sweet Remedies , and Lohochs or Ecligmaes were brought in . 6. What was said is proved . 7. A censuring of usual and ordinary Medicines . 8. They have not distinguished the Remedies of the Congh●and Asthma . 9. A●twofold Asthma . 10. The catamity of the Femal Sex. 11. The heedlessnesse or rashnesses of the Schools . 12. Vain experiments or attempts . 13. The activity of the Womb in an Asthma . 14. How the Womb ruleth and is ruled . 15. An Enemy in the Womb. 16. They have erred in distinguishing . 17. A Woman twice suffers every Disease . 18. A sub-division of the Asthma . 19. The Asthma hath been hitherto unknown . 20. Why Physitians may hear that which they would not hear . 21. A History of an Asthmatical Consul . 22. A History of a young noble Man , a Hunter . 23. A A History of a Canonical Man. 24. A History of a Monk. 25. A History of a Citizen . 26. A History of a Man of Sixty years old . 27. A Searching out of the nest in a dry Asthma . 28. Why its nest is in the Duumvirate . 29. Why an Asthma is an Epilepsie of the Lungs . 30. The quality of an Asthmatical Poyson . 31. A History of a Countess . 32. The place of the Poyson in the Consul was divers from that in the Hunter . 33. How the Seeà and Fruit of an Asthma do differ . 34. Why it suddenly invadeth . 35. Why a dry Asthma is without suspition of a Defluxion . 36. Remedies are not to be applyed to the Head. 37. A censure or judgment of Remedies . 38. A Paragraph or Summary sentence of Paracelsus concerning an Asthma . 39. In what the deceit of Remedies may be . 40. Remedies proper to an Asthma . 41. The causes of a Womb-Asthma are by accident . 42. A History of that which went before . 43. A Doubtful Asthma , between a dry and a moist one . 44. Crafts which cause a moist Asthma . 45. A moist Asthma from Endemical things drawn in . 46. A History of an Asthmatical Man , who was presently choaked . 47. An erroneous judgment of the Lungs grown to the Pleura . 48. Anatomy being founded on bad principles , is oft-times childisher a mockery . 49. From whence death and suddain choaking is . 50. Things worthy of note about the Asthma of him of sixty years of age . 51. It is proved from burtful things often eaten . 52. That that Asthma was from the Spleen . 53. The reason of the Schools concerning a climbing motion in an Asthmatick person , is rejected . 54. A fourfold vapour . 55. An examination by the rule of a false supposition . 56. A privie shift . 57. Some considerations for the questions proposed . 58. A reason drawn by conjectures . 59. Confirming signes , 60. A moist Asthma . 61. It differs from its companion the Cough . 62. From what causes it may arise . 63. A promiscuous Asthma . 64. An appropriated Remedy , as well for the moist , as the dry Asthma . 65. Concerning the Cough from a distillation or pose . 66. Why the Snivell doth varie in the running down of a pose . 67. Some Observations . 68. That for a Cough , Phlegm doth not descend out of the Head unto the Lungs . 69. A judgment or censure of the deeper Remedies . 70. A History of a Snorting old Man. 71. The Authors opinion . 72. Of what sort the decision of the Question is . 73. Both the Keepers do hasten to the Proof , together with a Histery of 〈…〉 Latex . 74. How much , and how far , the use of a Cauterie may answer . 75. 〈…〉 applying of drying drinks . 76. A consideration of Ecligmaes . 77. A co - 〈…〉 of the fume of Sulphur unto drink . BEcause an Asthma or stoppage or difficulty of breathing , hath been translated unto the trifles of a Rheum or Catarrh , and the affect hath not been known , and scarce healed hitherto : Therefore I am constrained to write particularly concerning the Asthma . To which end , somethings out of those that have been afore alledged , are to be repeated : To wit , that the Lungs is passable with pores or little holes , as longas wolive , no otherwise than as all the Sinews are : The which is especially manifest in Opticks , if one eye being shut , the apple of the other seemeth to wax great : But in death , they are shut , which otherwise , in those that are alive , are passable ; and the light of the eyes of dying persons doth visibly perish , because the Optical or eye pores being shut , the visible Spirit ceaseth and leaveth off to issue thither . This my thing , Hippocrates already knew in his age : and therefore , he declared the whole Body to be perspirable or breathing thorow , and compirable on breathingly solding together . And then , I suppose it hath been already sufficiently demonstrated , that nothing falls down from the Head into the Wind pipe , ●r Lungs , the which notwithstanding , is frequently and plenteously spit or reached out by the Cough so that , neither is there an entire place for a feigned Distillation or Catarrh : But whatsoever the Cough casts forth , that that is made in the Pipes of the Lungs , through their proper vice : Therefore that they have erred hitherto , by reason of ignorance of the part commanding , making or committing , and receiving , and by reason of rash thoughts of the matter , and manner of making . It is no wonder therefore , if there hath also been nothing done in curing . Because Remedies have been applyed to the Head ; that it might not make , or not send matter , or that matter might not of its own accord slide into the Lungs , which was never in the power of the Head , but is constantly made in the possession of the Lungs themselves : And therfore the sick have remained without cure , because all the care of Physitians was conversant partly about the Head , which is guiltless in this Disease , and partly about the preventing , and more easie ejection of filths : But not about the amending of that Vulcan , the corrupter , which of the good nourishment of the Lungs , frameth the aforesaid Phlegms . Indeed the ignorances of the former causes , hath alwaies made the Schools to direct their intentions of healing unto the effect & latter thing . For when they diligently observed , that Drinks & Meats were swallowed down by a straight line unto the Stomach ; but to bend nothing toward the Lungs , they devised sweet things which might serve for expectorating , as they might cause a smoothness of the jaws . Then afterwards they invented more thick Syrupes , because they were those which they thought , by licking them in by degrees , would by a greater right , slide in pare unto the Lungs : But again , all things sloathfully . For first of all , the Schools , herein , have forgotten the Head , and next their own positions . Then in the next place , they have not considered , that if such Ecligmaes should enter unto the Lungs , they would cause more straightnesses and troubles , than the filths themselves there running out , and framed by degrees : at leastwise they should heap up or increase evil by a new evil : For in that place they should not any thing profit , unless that for the future , they should through the much straightness of passages , increase the obstruction , and render it grievous . In that respect especially , because Roses , Colts-foot , Fox-lungs , Sugar &c. do not a whit answer to a curative betokening ; because it is that which only requires a renewing of the changing faculty being hurt : But those Medicines which do respect a more easie expectorating , do assault the Disease behind , and its effects only . Seeing therefore , in what part the utmost ends of the rough artery do end , and breath into the Breast , the Lungs do lay open ; it is sufficiently manifest , that in the Asthma , there is a straightness of the same pores . Moreover , they do as yet err , that the Remedies of the Cough do not any thing differ from the Remedies of the Asthma ; when as notwithstanding , they both do greatly , and every way differ in their root and causes . There is therefore , a two-fold Asthma ; one indeed Womanish , depending only on the government of the Womb ; but the other is promiscuous , common to both sexes . Surely a Woman is miserable on both sides , which being excluded almost from all affairs , doth not , withstanding , pay a sufficient punishment , through a single Disease of any kind . For this Asthma is so frequent to this Sex , that the Schools have dedicated every Account of the number of the Womb , which is very manifold , unto the stranglings of the Womb , and would as it were , by one head or Chapter have passed by a great volume of Diseases . For I have seen women-folks often , who by the smell of sweet Savours , besides Head-aches and threatned Swoonings , fell straightway into an extream difficulty of breathing : I have also observed others , who the North wind blowing , the Innocent were presently , even in Stoves or Chimneys , punished with an Asthma . Lastly , also others , which from Anger , a sorrowful Message , drinking of Sugar , Spanish-wine , &c. or also being chidden , were presently taken with a lamentable Asthma . For the Schools being alwayes busied about corporal Actions , therefore also also do they perpetually worship Humours , and have on both sides accused Phlegin , raining indeed , down into the Lungs : That foul or stinking Vapours , should ascend out of the Womb , which should stir up their companional Vapours , as well from it self , as else-where out of the stomack , whence they should press out all the expectorated Snivel or Filth , the Author of an Asthma . For the Schools have granted to such hurtful Vapours , a safe conduct of piercing every way , whither indeed , there is not a free passage ●or Air : which thing is manifest , in a voluntary pressing together , or deteining of the breathing . Yea although these things have place only in a moist Asthma , yet through the same ignorance , they have not desisted to try any vain things , by Clysters , Blood-letting , and Cauteries , and solutive Medicines ; that even in a dry Asthma also , they might give sufficient to the revulsion of feigned Vapours . Therefore they have neglected ; that the Womb , by the action of Government , and almost after an influential manner , doth , at the will or beck of anger , sorrow , fear , &c. like death , stop up the aforesaid pores of the Lungs , where they end into the breast ; even so as the Moon by her Aspect only , governeth the waters ; because the Life and Power of the Womb , commands the whole woman : To whom indeed therefore , there is another Chin , Wit , Flesh , Hair , Bloud , &c. than to a man. And again , the furies and inundations of the aforesaid Government ceasing , her breathing is presently restored free , and that for the most part , without a notable spitting out by reaching . For neither doth the Womb rule the whole woman by the power of Vapours ; but by the meer command of Government ; seeing it is like unto a strange Guest , no otherwise , than as nourishably depending on the Body , even as a shrub on a Tree in which it growes . But besides , the Womb lives in its own Square , and hath known no enemy unto it self , besides the passion of the mind : wherefore it doth not serve the Soul ; but by waxing mad , it exerciseth cruelty on the mind being urgent in disturbances , no otherwise than on the Body : For only the disturbances of the mind , do drive the Womb into divers furies ; So that it cruelly rageth , sometimes on the Sinews , then on the great Guts , Bones , Bowels , and Membranes : the Heart likewise , or Head , joggs the Senses and mind . For I have seen the Cords or Tendons being of times pulled together with great Torment , voluntarily to leap out of their place , and to have stirred up wondrous Convulsions of the Muscles , and with great howling , to have resolved them ; yea and in earnest , to have put the very Bones themselves out of their place . So also , I have observed , Apoplexies , Palseys , falling-Evils , Jaundises , Dropsies , wringings of the Bowels , the Megrim , Madnesses , and much tyranny of Diseases to have proceeded from the Womb : which Diseases , even as they have been in vain attempted by the Schools by manly Remedies ( I will say neglected , and after some sort referred unto the choaking of the Asthma alone ; as if the Throat only , by a singular Perogative should obey the Womb ; so truly the Sex is worthy of much Compassion , ( being given unto us for a help of great necessities ) and as if it were therefore worthy of manifold misery . For truly the Innocent , and devoted Sex undergoes the double punishment of Corrupted Nature , through individual womanish Miseries : once it suffers almost all Diseases from the Womb , and the same again as it is man. But it is happy likewise , in that it bears Tribulations patiently , and thus far , is nearer to the Son of God. The other Asthma therefore is promiscuous to both Sexes . But again an Asthma is subdivided into a dry , & moist one ; so reckoned to be from the Filths expelled . The causes of the Asthma , and manner of its making , have hitherto remained unknown in the Schools : And consequently , the curing of an Asthma hath remained unaccustomed . Let God be witness and judge between me and the Humourists , how much I might commiserate the Sick , that are badly entertained under the unhappy flatteries of Ignorance ; & at length being cut short of their hope , and of Cony-catch'd their Money , to be miserably forsaken ; that is , deluded . For they being disturbed of at vain experiments , were amazed with me , that so slow or fluggish help should be fetched from so many Ages , & Libraries ; when as in the mean time , we have seen them ofttimes cured by poor old women , or a Juggler or Fortuneteller : Because the Schools are asleep at the complaint of the sick . For they indeed , hear the howling of sick , but with the Levites , they pass over into Jerichs : and therefore they hear against their wills , that which they would not hear ; To wit , that unprosperous clientships of Diseases do happen daily unto them . But neither do they therefore depart so much as a ●ailes breadth from their predecessours , that they may once seriously deliberate concerning the life of their Neighbour committed unto them . For to assent to or leane on old and blind guides , hath turned into sloath : therefore neither do they any more blush , to decree as many Diseases to be incurable , as they have not floaked with Bloud letting , a Solutive Medicine , Sweat , Clyster , a Cautery , hot Baths , drinking of Sharpish things , that is , with things that diminish the strength . But now concerning the Asthma . And first of all I will set down some known Histories : But they who shall follow me , shall the better and more successfully trace out the same . A Consul of a great City , of fifty years of age , being a liberal drinker , & a strong man , having slidden from a Ladder in a Ship , on his shoulders and hinder part of his Head , ere-while sounded : returning unto himself , he was well in health for eight Months space : Afterwards he suffered a gentle Fever for some dayes : he left his drinking , because with the Fever an Asthma seazed on him : every Fit , for some dayes and nights , did continually threaten Strangling : But they end without a manifest Spitting out●vith reaching : But the night foregoing , the onset of the Asthma was without sleep , unquiet , with dryth of mouth , a feverish Admonition , a wonderful abundance of Urine , and for the most part urgent with three Stools : And then , on the morning following , as it were at one only Fit , his breathing is at it were cut off with a broken Thred : in Breathing , as he lifts up his Shoulders and Arm-pits , he presseth both his hands on the side of the Bed , whereby he might the more easily and highly elevate his Shoulders : His countenance looks red , and his Eyes stand out : And thus he passeth over some dayes and nights without sleep , and doth continually struggle with choaking at hand : At length , the Fit being finished , he is in good Health , he Eats , Walks , Climbs , Hunts. Rides , and Journeyeth . Yea , neither remembred he that ever his head aked in his life , or that his Breast was subject to a Cough . There was a young Man of 24. years of age , defiled with no Errour of Health or Life , being Studious , Noble , and also employing himself in Hunting ; Hence indeed , swift on Foot and in Running ; But this man coming to Bruxels , three Leagues journey , after a moderate supper with his Sister , is first of all taken with an Asthma , and for three whole dayes space , he straues with Death through a fear of Choaking , Labours , and Sweats : presently after , he is restored without Spitting , and being well in Health , he speedily recovers his own home . For full two years space after that , he durst not lay down , but sitting by the Hearth or Fire-side , he passeth over the nights of those full years : For if he layes down , the Asthma doth presently awaken him being fast a-sleep : also now and then , the Fit threatens , yea begins ; but doth not proceed : also it more cruely afflicts him at one time than at another . It is embittered at the set times of the Moon , as also at the Seasons of the Air , the which also therefore it fore-feels and presageth . Likewise the Fit doth molest him more cruelly , and oftner in Summer than in Winter : Yea at this day it is more frequently , and cruelly urgent on him , than at its first beginning . But in the dayes between the Fits , he Walks , Runs , Rides , Hunts , and duely performeth other Offices of healthy persons , but dares not to lay down by night . He is worse in Mountanious places ; therefore scarce dares to spend a night at Bruxels . Moreover for some hours before the Fit , his Spittle becomes Salt , he feels his Teeth and Gumms to be drawn together , his Bowels also to roar with a great noise , his Sides are pained on both sides ; and likewise he makes frequent , and waterish Urine ; and the Paunch it self being more liquid , is thrice or four times loosed . Last of all , as if a Snare were cast on him , the Asthma presently layes hold on him , and at every return , threatens a choaking throughout the whole Fit. At length , a little before the end thereof , he easily reacheth out four or five Froathy Spittings , without a Cough , and the Snare being as it were with drawn , he is presently freed . But a certaine Canonist , a man of a middle and flourishing Age , who is Asthmatical almost all the Summer , and free at Winter , doth measure a future cruelty of the Fit , from the greatness of the foregoing Signs : But at what Station he is pressed with an Asthma , he itcheth throughout his whole body , casts off white Scales , and shews forth the likeness of a Leprousie . He saith , that his Mother laboured with the like Itching , as also his Sister : that she indeed thus died ; but that this was cured of her own accord , after her second Child . A certain Monk of the order of S. Francis , being a Laick of Paula , is busied in pulling down Houses or Temples . And forthwith as oft as any place is Swept , or the Wind doth otherwise stir up this Dust , he presently falls down , being almost choaked . He is well indeed in his mind ; but his ●●●th being almost stopped , he layes all along as ready to die ; and as long afterwards , he layeth sitting . And while in regard of his order , and appetite , he eateth Fishes fried with 〈◊〉 he presently falls down , being deprived of Breathing ; so as that ho●● scarce distinguished from a strangled man. He saith that he felt the signs of the urgent Asthma which the other , the Hunter , sheweth ; and that he is the more assured of the future Fit , and of its cruelty , by the like fore-token of Sumptoms : To wit , while that Asthma doth voluntarily assault him , and not from Meats , or Dust . A certain Citizen , a wise and prudent man , being by a Peer or great man , openly disgraced and injured ; unto whom he might not answer a word , without the fear of his utmost ruine ; In silence dissembles and bears the reproach : but straightway after , an Asthma ariseth , the which did daily more increase on him ( otherwise in good health ) for two whole years space . At length , a little before his end , a moderate Dropsie killed him in few dayes . A certain Child , presently from his Cradle , strives with a quartan Ague for two whole years ; and beyond the hope of all , through a crisis or judicial Expulsion , and many Stools , he recovered ; Although , by a tough falling-Sickness , he is accounted for dead . Being a Youth and young man , he was nimble enough , but of an unconstant Health . Presently from his Youth , he felt that in running , he breathed more than was meet , which he attributed to a life abounding with profits . In his Manhood he felt that a moderate Dance did punish him with a shorter Breath than was meet . But about his fiftieth year , he manifestly suspected that he was Asthmatical . And that he perceived was manifestly increased about his fixtieth year . For from his Infancy he had his Spleen notably offended , & now & then payning him ; so that one dayes riding would be troublesom by reason of the jogging of his Spleen : and especially he was tired , if he had spent a day in the running of a Coach. Moreover , that falling-Sickness , although it did not bewray it self but by the more weighty Causes , otherwise laid to Sleep for some years ; yet it was not convulsive , but like unto a fainting of the mind . But he felt a certain joy about the Orifice of his stomack , and presently self down . Indeed he seldom had a Cough ; but even from his Youth , a frequent Spitting out by reaching . But he had his Spittle in small drops of a Skyish Colour , like unto Gum-Dragon dissolved . His Spitaings were seldom all the Summer : more frequent in time of cold ; so that old age growing great , he had very many reaching Spittings all the Winter . At length being now wholly Asthmatical , he read over a whole Psalm from the depth , in one Breath , his Speech not being stirred or interrupted , if so be he sate . He walks also in a plain , the space of a League , with a swift pace enough : but if he climbs a Street or upright assent with a moderate step , he presently Foams , pants for Breath , his Breast is straightned , his Heart forthwith beats , with and inordinate Pulse Interruptingly : His Tongue waxeth dry behind towards his Jaws , and he Foameth about his Teeth : But besides , his Knees do almost fail with the Asthma , and according to the measure thereof , more or less ; when as notwithstanding , before the Asthma , his whole Leg was nimble and strong : But in sitting , or standing , yea in walking home , he never pants for Breath , if he doth not climb . As oft as he is refreshed with a larger Supper , he pants for Breath in the night , his Breast is drawn together , and his Wind-pipe snorts with a noise as it were continually , and his Weasand would ring or tingle with Spittle . All which things are presently allayed by sitting , and he doth far more easily spit out some Phlegms by reaching , which being dispatched , he layes down backwards again . But a sparing Supper , as it gives rest to his Stomack ; so also peace to his Lungs . But he perceiveth , that this his Asthma hath its Nest and primitive Fountain , in the middle space between the Mouth of his Stomach , and Navil . I thus draw out these things at Length , whereby the seeds of an Asthma may be the more manifest . For truly , as well in the Consul , Citizen , and Hunter , as in the Canonist , the Asthma stands in a Poysonous seed , which hath gotten the Spirit of some Bowel for its Root and Inn. But the property of that Seed is , to contract the pores of the Lungs , whereby it gives passage for Breath into the Breast : The necessity of which constriction , doth presently appear in the Teeth and Gums : For it affecteth the whole Body , because it is dispersed into the Common Archeus , the Instrument to the whole Body : For therefore do the Reins suck the Urine , the Belly is loosened , the Bowels do rumble , Sanguification or Bloud-making Stumbles , the Heart beats ; and at length , the Lungs is contracted or drawn together , even no otherwise than as the Cod under a desire of wantonizing . But the nest of the Asthma is in the Duumvirate ( of which I shall treat in a particular Treatise ) to wit , from whence the Government of the whole Body dependeth : For otherwise , the evil doth not sit immediately in the inflowing Spirit , the which indeed should be finished by one only Fit : for unless it had obtained a stable Root within , it should not repeat it self , as neither should it persevere . Then in the next place , the Character of the evil , which so long as it sleepeth in a stable part , it doth not seem that it can elle where be established , than from whence the Government of the Body doth depend , and so also it hath assumed the Prerogative of the heart . The Asthma therefore in this , is like to the Falling-evil , the which , although it doth not strike the mind , doth not contract the Sinews , or stir up swoonings ; yet it sleepeth in some Seat ; whence at length it defiling the Archeus with a certain contagion , if it doth not contract the Sinews , yet at least wise , it doth the Lungs . Indeed , it hath a singular respect unto that Bowel : yea , although it may seem with the like speed to contract the Veins , Kidneys , and Liver ; yet there is not so manifest a hurting of these , as is felt in Choaking : All which things are as yet more cleerly manifest in the Citizen , and old man of Sixty years of age : For this , reteined from his Infancy , a Spleen ill affected , and also Fits of the falling-Sickness , else , his Lungs were free enough : But the other through the Agony or Passion of shame , of Anger , Revenge , and the Modesty of commanding Reason , sheweth , that the Bowel in him was hurt , wherein the first Motions of conceptions are enfolded . We may lawfully therefore , by a Phylosophical Liberty , name an Asthma the falling-Sickness of the Lungs : Indeed its Nest is in the Duumvirate ; it is also a Disease of the whole Body , as it shakes all the Members before the Fit , and so also sore shaketh the Spirit the ruler of the whole body : notwithstanding it Fructifes in the Floor or Region of the Breast , and singularly respecteth the Lungs themselves , as it were the scope & proper Object of its property . That falling-Sickness of the Lungs is made by a Poyson , which by its property doth affect the Lungs , no otherwise than as a Cantarides doth the Instruments of the Urme . There is indeed a certain Poyson , which strikes the Head and whole man into an Epilepsie or falling-Sickness , and much more insolently and wondrously , than that it should strain the Lungs ; yet the rareness or slenderness of its affect , durst not compel unto the Position or State of any Epilepsie : when as notwithstanding , in the mean time , whatsoever cures an Epileptical man of Ripe years , doth also cure an Asthmatical one . Also I have seen a Poyson to have arisen out of the Womb , which would strain nothing but the Ocsand , so as that a Famous Matron could scarce swallow any thing for three Months . I came unto her , I knew her Malady , and presently the Lord healed her . For by reason of Leanness and Hunger , she was molested with a continual falling-Sickness , and for 37. dayes she had one only Stoole to the bigness of an Acorn . In the Consul indeed , the Poyson consisteth in the Spleen , and therefore it began with a Fever , and doth alwayes so begin , because it was co-fermented in the same place with feverish beginnings : But in the Hunter , about the Mouth of the Stomach ; and when it laid hold on him , he was free from feverish beginnings : And so also he begins his Fit in manner of the falling-Sickness ; and also his Fit is daily , because the Ferment of his Asthma is con-centrical with the Bowel imitating the Harmony of the Heart . In this , therefore , it communes with Exceutricities of Tempests ; but in the other , it doth not so readily hearken unto them : For on both sides , it ought to expect the Ripeness of it self , and a co-mingling with the Spirit of the whole Body ; And therefore Mountainous , and Hot places do ripen and hasten the breaking forth of that Seed , the which in another doth more easily break forth in Watery and Fenny conditions or seasons : else where , it being long silent , because requiring a severish Seat which doth hasten the cast in Poyson , and ripeneth it unto the Period of its breaking forth . Wherefore in speaking properly , the Seed it self is the Asthma and falling-Sickness of the Lungs , although it may be silent a good while : But while it is brought to Maturity , now it is the Apple of that Tree , the Root , Fruit , on-set , and product of the lurking Asthma . And because it riseth into Act , by vertue of a vital Government , and in manner of Influences ; hence it suddenly invades , no otherwise than as a Snare cast on the neck : For I esteem a man to be Asthmatical , as well out of the Fit , as within it ; because a true Asthma is in him ; even as a Pear-Tree is as well a Pear-Tree in Winter , as in Autumn , while it hath Pears . In the mean time I suppose every one is satisfied , at least that the aforesaid Asthmaes do not owe their Original to Phlegm flowing down into the Lungs , or to a supposed Rheum or Catarrhe , seeing they do suddenly invade , and are solved , without a manifest Spitting out by reaching , which might have been able so to have exercised the Lungs : Yea if any thing , a little before the end of the Fit , be by chance spit out , and that as little as may be ; that ought not to undergo the reason of a former , or occasional cause , but rather , it hath the room of a product ; to wit , from a great co-straightning , and unseasonable injury brought on the Lungs . Wherefore I am cruel , if I shall propose a Remedy for a Rheumy-Head , or evapourating Stomach . Hence therefore , every one that will be a wise man and a Christian , shall learn , that the careful diligenees of Expectoratings in an Asthma ( especially in a dry one ) by Lickings , Lohochs , Syrupes , by Bloud-letting , and loosenings Medicines , by the Drinks of China , Sarsaparilla , or Sassaphras ( which they falsely name Dryers ) are vain , and by a spareness of Diet , Sweats , Baths , Cauteries , to wit , that they may stay , pull back , evacuate , consume , or turn away the foregoing , or conjoyned Cause of an Asthma , lifted up out of the Stomach , or otherwise materially raining down out of the Head. And therefore any undistinct Remedies , hitherto attributed by a like indiscretion , unto Coughs , and searched out by the frail events of Fortune , are in vain : in the next place , vain are the beginings of Flowrs of Brimstone , however variously Sublimed , in so great a Malady : and hence are the counterfeited Remedies of extracted . Milk , and Tinctures , although these do promise more confidently and speciously than others , and do infuse a hope , the more likely to be true , by so great a Preparation . In like manner , I understood the co-fermentings , and promises of Wine with Colts-foots , and Lung-Remedies , to be vain : And the cause being certainly known unto me , I then at length , throughly viewed the Paragraph or short sentence of Paracelsns , concerning the Asthma , stablished on a boasting of the Author , together with his Medicines of Tartar , Sulphur , Bawm , &c. But I found the Errhina or Medicines that purge the Head by the Nostrils , the Apophsegmatisms or Purgers of Phlegm by the Palate , caps of Saffron of the Antients , and other Medicines of the like fort , to be more foolish than these : Likewise solutives or Purgers by Stool , and Bloud-lettings , to be cruel ones ; because the dejecters of strength . I confess indeed that by those Arts , the Fits are now and then allayed , or chafed away & dispersed , & that that thing hath in times past deceived me ; but afterwards , it seriously repented me of my Blockishness : I acknowledge , that I then spread Masks and Cloaks over Diseases , that I healed none , but deluded as many as relyed themselves on my Ignorance . Therefore , after that I stood cast on the Shoar , as unprofitable Froath , by the Storms of vulgar Ignorance ; I greatly wondered , that the Schools , & Spires of so great Wits , could not yet bid adieu unto the false persuasions of Predecessors ; seeing the Asthma is never taken away by any Remedy , but by the Remedy of a Secret which may pierce all the paths of the Body throughout the whole , that it may leave nothing unattempted : and so that by one only means , it overthrows the falling-Sickness , with the Asthma , and whatsoever , hath any where immediately fixed its Seat in the Dens of the Body . I except the Gowt , and the like Diseases , which have taken up their Inns immediately in the Spirit of Life . And when , in the mean time , I , as amazed , did seriously weigh my vileness or little esteem in the sight of Wits in times past so great , I could not but presently ( falling down on my Face ) praise the Father of Lights in the Prayer of Silence , in that he had given knowledge unto the little Ones , which he had hidden from the wise of this World : Seeing it is not of him that wills , runs , and labours ; but only of God that sheweth mercy . To whom be all Honour and Glory for ever . But forasmuch as sweet Smels , Sorrow , likewise sweetnesses of Tast , did cause the Asthma , I will not have it understood , as if an Asthma should by it self be made from those causes ; Seeing that in some Women , the same things are grateful , and unhurtful : but in others , instead of an Asthma , they bring forth the Megrim , beatings of the Heart , and Swoonings : For all those particulars distempers do proceed from a singular Fury of Womt-madness . A certain rich Elder , and of a good life , had never spent his Youthful years in Lust , or Riot : in his 38th . year he becomes suddenly hoarse , he looseth by degrees his Tone and Voice , and expressed his words , being only formed by his Breath : He after the Hoarsness , wholly panting for Breath , after a years time dyeth . His Lungs being dissected , the hinder Lobe of the left side is found hard , and stony like a Pumice , and within , as it were a Clot of Bloud , had waxed Brawny throughout his Lungs : But where the rough Artery is dispersed into four Lobes , the Clots were Cheesy , of a middle consistence between a Gristle and a Pumice ; and many of those small Stones were seen scattered throughout the Region of the Lungs . This good man did undergo a continual Asthma , but not a returning one by Fits ; yet his Spittings did not exceed : For the nourishment of the last digestion is Coagulated by a strange Ferment , whence there is a rare Asthma , a doubtful one between amoist and a dry . Diggers , Melters of Mettals , Seperaters , Quiners , Chymists ; & likewise Artificers of Aqua Regis , Cerusse , rea●-Lead , Verdigrease , Vermilion , Gilders , &c. are all of them presently taken with an Asthma , because a Gas breathed in with the Ayr , doth vitiato the Channels of the Wind-pipe in the sixth Digestion : From whence it comes to pass , that instead of an astimilating or likening of nourishment , it wholly degenerates into an Excrement , according to the condition of the Ferment Transchanging : Which being deteined , and subsisting , the aforesaid Channels are stopped . But because the sixt Digestion it self hath contracted a Stain in its vital Powers , from the Impression of a Contagion proper to ones Country , or a real adhering of the same : Therefore Daily , yea and Houtly , such a new Excrement is bred even until Death , which is even at the Doors , where the expulsive Faculty is not sufficient for expelling of the bred Excrement by Cough : And therefore , they are then choaked with an Asthma . For the Gas : of some Minerals also , do from their property , presently choak , no otherwise than as a hidden Pin doth a Dog. For the fume of the Mercury ( the which , however it be Masked , yet is alwayes Mercury ) doth presently stop up and constrain the Wind-pipe : For because it abhorreth Poyson , the Jaws do presently contract themselves , from the presence of an Enemy . Likewise , every hurtful Gas doth by its in-breathing , vitiate the Digestion of the Lungs : and those Filths , the witnesses of the broughton injury , do presently bring the Tragedy to a conclusion , if they shall the more toughly adhere to them ; because a new off-spring of Filths is continually bred . Therefore the Poyson of an Endemical Gas being drawn in , the fainting Lungs doth presently bring forth an Asthma . So also notable cold , as it over-masters the strength of the Lungs , produceth a moist Asthma , because it there destroies digestion . Another Asthmatical person is suddenly strangled , although he duely cast forth his Spittings : the cause was sought for by Anatomy : There were but very few Excrements found in his Lungs : but the right Lobe , behind , was grown to the Pleura or inner Skin of the sides . The Physitians being content that they had found the Knot of the Matter ; Behold they say , the cause of his sudden death : For the Lungs could not mooue themselves , and therefore being choaked , he perished . I being as yet but a young man , smiled , not believing that the Lungs ( the which I then as yet believed to be necessarily and continually moved ) had perhaps for one small hour , so firmly grown to the Pleura backwards ( especially in one sitting ) that indeed burstness it self , being compelled inwards , and straightly pressed together , should grow together unto the Lip its companion , so much against its will , even while resting in ones bed . In the mean time , that this growing to , of that which was continual , being rent asunder , should be from the betokening sign of Nature ; not likewise of the Pleura to the Lungs , both whereof , their own coat , and scope of nature did distinguish . I despised these rashnesses of the Schools for the future , the more , after that I had dissected some Souldiers ( that were suddenly slain ) for that things sake . For I had seen the Lungs grown to the Ribs behind , in those that were in good health , and whom , no difficulty of breathing had before pressed . Among others , a certain exceeding swift Irish-man , being killed with a Dagger by the Foot-men of the Marquess of Winchester , and dissected , shewed both the Lobes of his Lungs to be grown to his Ribs . But if thou shalt accuse the vice of the formative faculty , or a monster ; thou shalt likewise confesse it to be agreeable unto Birds : For Anatomists , when as they no where find feigned Humours , yet they promise to prostitute every cause of death by the knife : first of all , they admire , then also they are earnestly angry , that death should happen without their leave : For as if they had their hope and remedy in their knife , they rejoyce , that they have found a part in a dead Carcass , whereto they may attribute Death . And then they cry out ; behold a noble Bowel hath long since failed by Putrifying . Neither is it in the Power of the Physician , that the sick may alway find relief . And so Physitians do for the most part , cover their error , and comfort Heirs by trifles , Kinse-men are amazed , and do conceive a comfort from the necessity of Death . As though the putrefaction of a Bowel had fore-existed many months before , which a gangrene in the outward parts killeth in a few daies . Indeed the nest from whence death comes , is indeed disposed unto death by degrees ; but it begins to putrifie an an instant , death approaching ; and it putrifies sooner than otherwise , dead Carcases do , because it is nourished with luke-warmth . I conjectured , that that Asthmatical person died , because he being ( long before ) vexed with beatings of the heart , also with an intermitting Pulse , the Poyson at length attaining the properties of an Asthma , had stopped up the Pores whereby the Lungs breath into the Breast . For the action of Government in the Duumvirate , doth no where more cleerly appear than in the Asthma , Falling evill , giddiness of the Head , Drowsie evill , Apoplexy , and such like : To wit , where no slain or defilement meets in the Bowel , and in the next Place , no detaining of that stranger is seen , which may stuffe up the Pores : For I have taken notice of an old man , who if he did meditate the longer in his Bed , he presently breathed with difficulty . A certain Snorter , with an Noise of Phlegms , was hardly heard ; he was constrained to sit upright , that all things might allay : Otherwise , although laying along , he did expectorate very many filths , others notwithstanding did presently after spring up ; To wit , presently assoon as the Mouth of the Stomack was vexed a straightness of the Lungs was present , and those filths were uncessantly made from a shutting of the Pores : For the breast being raised upright , there is a greater liberty of the Pores , and thereupon a right or straight breathing brings ease : and so for that cause , much off-spring of Spittle was put in place , as long as a strictness of the Pores remained . Thus Sense hath taught the discursive faculty these things . Furthermore , because some hurtful things being usually eaten , that strictness or straightness doth arise ; it is a sign unto us , that the exciting cause of that straightness , and Progeny of phlegms doth not arise from the Lungs , but from elsewhere : From the mouth of the Stomack I say , ( which now possesseth the name of the heart , because it also brings on the like Sumptoms ) the first or chiefe Motions do arise . Wherefore watchings , with careful Meditation , do stir up a sleeping Asthma , by reason of the difficulties caused in the parts busied in Meditating . So also Giddinesses of the Head which Survive from Yester-daies Gluttony or Drunkenness , or from the Tossing of the Sea , are taken away by Vomiting : for not because those filths contain a whirling in them ; but because they do trouble or hinder the Duumvirate in the Mouth of the Stomack . Now I will Speak of the man of sixty years old . For this man in the beginning , never suffered a disturbance of breathing , but in an ascending , and swift Motion : And else , he hath an open , free breathing , and that according to his wish : Wherefore he wants the Asthma of a Proper Name : For although he hath tender Lungs , and those impatient of cold , and through colds , fruitful in much excrement ; yet in respect of these , he undergoes rather a Cough , than an Asthma . But why is his breathing straightned in time of Motion ? Is it from a matter● Imposthume , or a corrupt swelling enclosed within ? But it is manifest , that not from either of these two ; because being out of Motion , he feels neither pain in his Brest , neither doth he draw constrained air in rest . That which is to be noted in him , is a Quartane making its residence in his Spleen , of a Child , and sometimes stirring up his swoonings , in so tender a health and Commotion of his Lungs , the which , sleep failing , doth not bear the labour of Cogitations , but it frameth Snorting Phlegms : for it cleerly appeareth , what I have elsewhere said : that the Lungs in man , is a Member which first dieth , and the rather in this man , who was given to Spittings from his Youth . What if the Lungs do breath air into the Breast through a thousand Pores or little Holes , and 50 of the same are stopped up , shall not spitting out by reaching occasionaily increase in cold Seasons ? But at least wise the doubt is not solued , why he walking with a swift pace , up a steep place , or in a plain , doth not equally pant for Breath , as in climbing with a slow step : or why his hear then beateth ? But the Schools have added a ready cause : To wit , because every Motion doth of its own nature , stir up Smoaks , and therefore the more Smoakinesses do accompany the greater Motion , for expelling whereof , a more swift Breathing is required : but they say nothing : For truly , besides the supposition of a false-hood , the same doubt doth as yet remain , as before : To wit , why a swift motion in a plain , and a swifter , together with a jogging of the whole Body , in descending , doth not stir up so many Smoaks , as a slow motion , in climbing a steep or hilly street by degrees , doth ? For the trouble of slow ascent , is not of the Bowels , or Lungs , but of the Shanks or Legs : shall therefore those plenty of Smoakinesses be made in the Muscles of the Legs , which may provoke the Breast to pant for Breath , and the Heart to beat ? And shall Smoaks find a way from the Superficies to the Center , which nature should rather expel by the pores , than to call back inwards ? And then let them explain , what they understand by the Etymology of Smoaks . For their Aristotle reckons up only 〈◊〉 : to wit , a moist one , which he calls a wa●ery vapour : and a dry or oylicone , which he names an exhalation . Also Chymistry adde a third , unknown to the 〈…〉 a body it self doth ascend from things to knit unto it , in manner of a Smoak , and 〈…〉 it self to the Ribs or sides of Vessels , it is called a Sublimate : so Sulphur , Ars●●●ck , Camphour , Mercury , the fire-stone , Zinck , Sal Armoniac , &c. do afford their own vapours , undistinct from their auntient Body . I in the next place , have adjoyned a forth Smoakiness ; To wit , while a solide Body , by virtue of a ferment , is disposed into a flatus or windy blast , or wild Gas. But seeing the Peripateticks have acknowledged only the two former , the Galenick Schools have also undistinctly understood them both , by the name of Smoakinesses . But first of all , that waterish vapours cannot be admitted , I do even from hence collect ; To wit , because then , Sweats flowing forth more plentifully in Summer , also the Body being quiet , they should of necessity , more vex this A●ehmatical man , even than an ascending upwards in a more cold Air ; which is false . But if therefore , under the name of Smoakiness , they do understand an exhalation ; It is certain in the first place , that those are not stirred up , unless , the watery ones shall first fail : seeing that doth not so come to pass in living Persons ; of necessity also , for want of a Smoakiness , the Schools do not understand themselves , in their aforesaid Reason , as neither in either Columne of the Pulses , demonstrated in the Chapter of the Blas of the pulses . Neither at length , that by the name of Smoaks , both vapours together , are understood , it is manifest : For if by a like degree of heat , dry things with moist , cannot equally climbe , or be seperated from their whole entire bodies , it follows , that the Smoaks assigned are not to be granted , nor are they for the cause . But go to , let impossible and unnamed Smoakinesses be supposed , which they will have to breath forth out of us by an unsensible transpiration , yet , they are not yet examined , whether they war under the vapours , or indeed of exhalations : Because the Schools have been ignorant , that the whole blood in us is blown away by a far different help , than that of heat . But at least wise by the rule of false-hood , let us examine , where those supposed Smoaks are stirred up by an ascending upward , & that a moderate one , which else , in a more swift going , are quiet : For are they stirred up in the Lungs themselves ? So that they may spur up these unto the necessities of passing away : But the Lungs are never moved , whether the Legs do ascend or descend : And the Lungs are ( otherwise ) supposed , to breath freely in the aforesaid old man : what therefore doth ascending touch the Lungs , that they may Belch forth the more plentiful Smoakinesses ? But , if Smoaks are stirred up in the Legs , as labouring the more strongly ; why at least wise , after feeding , is ascending more difficult as to the Breath , than with a fasting Stomack ? Do therefore the Schools understand the Smoakinesses of Meats ? But why shall those molest the Legs after meat ? But if the more plentiful number of Smoaks are reckoned to be made in the Heart , or the Shop-bowells ; yet this at least is to confound the Spirit of Life with a Smoak , a Bowel with an emunctory , & to have held the reason alleadged in the Chapter of the Blas of man , of no esteem . But if therefore Smoaks , are judged to be the Smells & vapours arising from meats ; but they will have them to be brought in a straight line to the Head , & so to bring forth Catarrhs ; at leastwise they are in no wise brought into the Heart . For neither is it a meet thing , but it is a new invention , that the heart should be provoked with the Smells of Meats . Neither is the membrans of the Stomack so passable , that it doth admit , of another utterance or passage , besides the Throat and the Pylorus , for Belching and breaking Wind , the which notwithstanding , are far more thin than vapours . Why therefore , the Legs being moved by ascending , should so many Smoakinesses be made , which do reach the Heart ? Do require a difficulty of Breathing ? And the which , else , by a more swift steep motion , do not arise ? For if they by chance are formed in the veins and arteries , or without the same ; yet it do not as yet from thence appear , why a slower ascent and motion may bring forth more Smoaks in the vessels , than a swift motion of the same Muscles , in descending . But if the aforesaid Smoaks be bred without the Vessels , now besides the absurdity before rehearsed , likewise , by what way , shall Smoakinesses so suddenly proceed from thence , unto the Heart and Lungs ? Seeing otherwise , if one that is not Asthmatical , swiftly running , should have any Smoaks , they should , together with the sweat , sooner exhale out thorow the skin , than they should desire the inward parts by a retrograde motion . Wherefore , there is another cause , for the sake whereof the Breast is strained , the heart beateth , the jaws wax dry , although the Mouth being shut , they do breath with difficulty , only through the Nostrils , but the Tongue is froathy about the Teeth , and the Cheek do fall : indeed by the same cause , all that are in good health in their Lungs , are distinguished , and are free from every Cough , and Asthma ; one whereof nevertheless , is preferred before the other , in a wise and longer running without difficulty of breathing . Therefore our man of sixty years old , doth more difficulty climbe H●lly places , and after meat , most difficulty ; and as oft ●he pants for breath , his knees wax feeble . Shall therefore meat and Drink make Smoaks , whereby the strength of the Knees doth decay ? If this be true : But then that shall happen also to those that are not Asthmatical , who notwithstanding , having taken no Meat , are the stronger . But they will say ; the Stomack being filled , a vacuum or emptiness is diminished in the Breast . Rightly spoken : But this is to have gone back from a Smoak , and to have fled unto the anguishs of place . Why therefore likwise , do not all breath with difficulty after Meat , in a modeeate a scending if the region of the breast be equally diminished in all , after meat is taken ? Is perhaps the region of the Breast extended by descending , or walking in a plain ? A reason indeed is given of a less breathing after Meat , than before : but it squares not to the question , to wit , why in climbing with a mean Pace , any one doth pant for Breath , who by any the more fwift motion through a plain way , is not short-winded ? But inasmuch as that doth more vex one after Meat , it is rightly argued from an unequal straightness of place ; but the Lungs are not pressed together by a Stomack moderately filled , that they may thereby become difficult in breathing : For else , why after making water , and going to stool , also after breaking Winds , is this man of sixty years old , equally panting for breath , and short-winded in a climbing motion ? Indeed being fasting ( and more strongly after feeding ) he feels , in moving upwards , as it were a girdle in his Ribs , a beating pulse , and interruptingly happening on him : But nevertheless , he breaths in a long breath , at pleasure , without hinderance , that is , he hath his Lungs open and free , although breathing with difficulty , and his spittings are freequent , and froathy ; but throughout all a cold season , much Spitting , with expulsion by reaching , most like unto Gumme Dragon dissolued : but besides he Coughs very Seldome . Truly as I have not had any thing as to cleernesses , for the knowledge of diseases , from predecessours ; I at first considered , that all Asthmatical persons do undergo some vice of the Lungs , an external obtructer being there grown together , or an internal one , to wit , which is co-thickned in the outward Mouths of the rough artery , whereby they breath into the breast : But forthwith , neither of them pleased me , because the Asthma doth suddenly invade some persons , and forsakes the● without any notable Spitting : Also , the aforesaid man of sixty years old , doth swiftly , and freely draw a long Breath , without hinderance : Yea , he sitting , and that in the Smoak , doth no less freely Breath , than indeed any healthy Person . I considered therefore whether perhaps , the Muscles of the Legs being the more deeply contracted , and elevated by ascending , and the which otherwise , walking in a plain , or steep ground , do as it were hang down , the belly of the Muscle being in the mean time , . Globy , in ascending , and pressing its artery together , might contain a nearer cause of difficult breathing . Do therefore in this motion , the Muscles hinder the Arteries , and also the Pulse of the same , by successive turns , that hence the ascending may be with a more difficult Breathing ? Next , I considered , whether in ascending , the breath be a little longer retained , than otherwise , in a plain or steep Motion ? Indeed every one doth more press his breath together , while he intends to moove any thing the more strongly . Thirdly , I considered , that in ascending , the breath is interrupted almost at every pace ; no otherwise , than at if any one should at every pace , say Ha , Ha , whereas otherwise , in a steep or plain motion , there is one only and continual Ha , not interrupted by rest . I doubted also , whether the Lungs do labour with a passion of its own , and the Bowel be in a climbing motion , intent , not to expel smoakinesses , how great a conceived errour soever it may overcome . I also beheld or considered , that any one doth more easily walk seven hours space , than stand five ; Because in standing the Muscle of both Knee-pans is continually bent on both sides ; which in going , rejoyceth in a coursary rest : But he that goeth , doth more difficultly breath , than he that standeth ; because many Muscles do successively labour in going : but in standing , although they are bent , yet they are not moved : Whence , I learned , that a cheerful motion of many Muscles , doth make one to breath the more difficultly . Lastly , although every one of these considerations should have some weight in them ; yet all being connexed in one , they could not yet satisfie the question proposed ; To wit , why a slower ascending motion doth cause difficulty of breathing , but not a swifter descending one : Wherefore I have added to these things , that in a moving upwards , how — slow soever the straight Muscles of the neather belly do stretch themselves , that they suffrnot the belly to be sufficiently lifted up . Truly the Breast and Ribs , are indeed , in difficult Breathing , more largly stretched out ; but ( as I have taught concerning Catarrhs ) the motion of the Ribs is not primary and principal for Breathing , but only an asistant , while the principal one is not sufficient : Therefore the Belly not being sufficiently extended , a difficulty of Breathing is presently hastened ; to wit , it being willing to recompence the fore-going errours and defect . Nevertheless , although it may be lawful from the aforesaid considerations , to prove a greater necessity of difficult Breathing ; yet at leastwise , they do nothing convince , why there is a straightned Breathing in our Man of sixty Years old , but otherwise , in a healthy person , not any at all : And seeing in the Man of sixty Years old , the Lungs do want obstruction , even as is manifest from the signs supposed ; it must needs be also , that his defect be fetched from elsewhere , especially , seeing he feels in his Abdomen or lower Belly the place of his Stomack , pressings together , the causes of his Asthma : Therefore his Asthma is from the Spleen being ill affected , and that from the Duumvirate , and the cause is stirred up by an ascending motion ( otherwise sleeping ) by reason of the considerations above , which by the action of government , doth otherwise , strain a weak Lungs , by aspect only , no otherwise than as was declared concerning a dry Asthma ; whither a lurking Falling-sickness , the pain of the Spleen after riding , the sore shaking of the whole Body , in riding , &c. do tend : Moreover that I may give the more safe judgment , whether the Lungs did labour by a passion of its own , or indeed by a secondary passion ; I busily enquired , whether he felt carnal copulation troublesome unto him ; and he confessed to me , that before the Asthma was manifested , Venus had hurt him , that after the flesh lyact he felt cold in his Breast , a looseness in his Muscles , and fainting threatned unto him ; But involuntary pollutions , that he experienced no such thing : At length in his old age , presently after a seldome carnal act , that he perceived a snorter of Phlegms in his rough Artery , or else , silence : Whence I certainly conjectured , that seeing from an Infant , he had retained his Spleen troubled by a Quartane-ague , and falling-sickness , and that the Milt is the nest of carnal Lust , because in the case proposed , the Duumvirate strikes the Lungs with a right Line , especially being prostrated by an unequal strength ; that the provoking , and radical cause of his Asthma was in the Spleen ; yet so , as that the Lungs doth not altogether want blame , although it labour not with the first or chief affect of the Asthma : For it sufficeth , that it is trodden down by an unequal strength , that the Duumvitate may exercise on it its own diseasie Tyranny : For if the Lungs should labour with an Asthma from a primary or first affect or moving , they should continually pant for Breath , and breath forth a difficult air . Indeed a thin or slender poyson layes hid in the Duumvirate , which is the cause of this dry Asthma , ordinarily fast a sleep in it self , nor awakened but by too much motion ; and so in climbing , sooner than in descending ; for the considerations of the oblique Muscles of the bottom of the Belly , afore-touched : Neither doth that poyson strike the Heart , and Lungs materially , in manner of an exhalation , vapour , or Smoakiness , but by the action of Government : And seeing the Heart doth beat , the pulse is inordinate , and also a great and frequent panting for Breath is desired : and the place between the Navil and mouth of the Stomack , is vexed from one only cause stirred up , and by one only motion , and after a like manner , it becomes undoubted , that there is one only Poyson which may affect the vital power of the Heart , and Lungs . Then also , he is vexed more grievously , manifestly , and cruelly every Year , because an unacceptable guest abiding in the Spleen , doth daily through old age , become more troublesom . And these things I have more strongly concluded with my self , because that Asthmatical Man doth complain , that for many Years , his left hand was now and then astonied or stupified , and that he was cold in the Palm or hollow of his Hand , under the auricular or ear vein , and likewise that his left shoulder did greatly pain him , although laden with a light habite , if he walketh the farther , although but modestly : For I have observed , that all Splenetick persons , when the Spleen begins by reason of old age , to fail of its office , do difficultly breath . This therefore is sufficient to be spoken concerning the Asthma of the Man of sixty Years of of age : one thing only , I will here note ; to wit , that his left hand , in the length of the palm , doth pain him , through cold piercing it , and likewise that his fingers are now and then benummed from the discommodities of his Spleen : that that is made by the action of Government . But if the Schools do command , that that comes to pass by reason of blind vapours , at leastwise , let them strew the way , whereby they may go thitherto . The archer therefore ; of this Asthma is in the Duumvirate ; but his mark is the Lungs . Therefore there is a two-fold Asthma , a moist , and a dry one : That indeed hath found its name from a plenteous spitting by reaching , and for the most part , is made by the proper vice of the Lungs , and so is continual , and doth more trouble one at seasons , the cold and the moist , in old age , weakness , and things a-kin to Death : But a dry Asthma is for the most part , interrupted : And even as it tumultuously sore shaketh the whole Body ( even the Teeth ) with a confusion of the vital Spirits , it must needs be the Falling-sickness of the Lungs , wherein the Lungs alone suffereth a constraining or convulsion of it self , because it causeth a straining together of the Pores thereof : For in this Asthma , the whole Archeus is defiled in its root ; some part ( to wit , the Womb , or Spleen , &c. ) doth first affect the inbred Spirit of the Lungs by the action of government : And therefore , from an invisible , and sudden immaterial storm , the whole Body is sore shaken , and is again suddenly restored to an unhoped for health . In vain therefore are openings of the pores hitherto unknown , attempted in a dry Asthma ; and in vain are many and easie expectoratings , because they are cloakative and vain helps , as many as are intent on products or effects : indeed vain are the Remedies which are wont to be administred in Coughs , seeing the Cough doth most far differ from a dry Asthma . But a moist Asthma , although it for the most part produceth the Cough , that it may expectorate the produced Snivelliness , yet it is severed from the Cough in the whole particular kind ; because it is wont to be bred from many causes : For it hath either a mattery imposthume , or some secret phlegm obstructing in the very bowel it self , or an imprinted mark of some cold , or some other injury , from whence it may bring forth many muckinesses or snivels , and corrupt its proper nourishment . Oft-times also those muckinesses are stirred up , not so much from the malady of the Bowe● as from the weakness of the wandring keeper : Although this kind of vice , 〈…〉 rather bring forth a Cough than an Asthma , yet they do easily happen or agree together for the unequal strength of the Lungs , and obstruction thereof : The feeble keeper doth easily faint at any adverse things brought against him , such as are smoaks or fumes , and the Gas of minerals , mettals , and strong Chymical Waters , the which indeed , do so hurt the very power of the Bowel , that for the future , it ceaseth not to bring forth continual phlegms , from its own nourishments : The presence whereof constraineth such artificers to struggle with a continual Asthma , Cough , and spitting forth by reaching . In the next place , an Asthma is partly dry , and partly moist ; to wit , which by reason of receiving Endemicks , drawn by a slender supping , or snuffing up , doth affect the tender Lungs ; and that doth not , but by some endemical injuries offered , or otherwise , sink under an inordinacy of life , and is exasperated . Lastly , a Scirrhus or hard swelling in the skin , the Dropsie , &c. although they bring forth the affect of difficult Breathing , yet , seeing they are burthened with a strange weight , they are not the Asthma . But the jaundise , by a poyson proper to it , produceth a dry Asthma . Last of all , those Remedies are due to a dry Asthma , which are for an inveterate Falling-sickness : But great comforters , and restoratives , as well in respect of the Lungs , as of the Keeper , art required for a moist Asthma . Now I will add my own observations concerning the Cough , by reason of the nearness or affinity of an Asthma , and the cruelties of a Catarrh : For I am wont to be taken with a stuffing in the head or Pose , because my head is weakned , and doth suffer an unequal strength through the injuries of distillations . But I have understood my pose to be , as oft as the wandring keeper had dashed snivel , about , or within the Ethmoides or spongie or straining bone . The pose therefore arising , if in the same evening , I shall breath into my nostrils a sneezing powder of black Helebour and Sugar of equal quantity , on the morning following , I am for the most part better : But if I shall do that to an inveterate pose , it doth not so easily depart : Yea I have profited so much by that sneezing powder , that now I could endure the evening air without hurt : wherefore neither , doth a foolish person ( according to the Poets ) vainly stand in need of Helebour . For although there are very many vomitive Medicines : yet Helebour seemeth peculiarly to profit the Head : Therefore the shivel , doth at first , drop down like salt water through the nostrils , and Jawes , on the same side ( if not on both sides ) whereon the soongie bone is beset : but the jaws hardly bearing the unaccustomed snivel , are wont thereby , together with the adjacent parts , to wax red , and become swollen with inflamation : And the snivel waxeth thick and yellow , as if that which is stuffed into the spongy bone , did ( instead of a ferment ) continually infect the ●●●ivel falling down . Indeed the wandring keeper perceiving the Enemy dashed on him , doth first endeavour to wash him off , with thin snivel . I being about to speak of the Cough , have begun with the pose , because this , if it be strong , doth stir up and fore go the Cough : and that I have alwaies observed . Therefore in the first dayes of the pose , a certain dry small Cough , with an itching of the rough Artery , doth molest , and sometimes causeth hoarsness ; but oft-times , a tickling only in the wind-pipe , one or two fingers below the chin . If there be carelesness of a Remedy , yellow , tough , and much snivel is wiped off ; yea and by an easie Cough knocked out : There was hope thereupon , that in a short time the affect would be loosed of its own accord : Neglect increaseth , and the external injury is urgent . In the mean time , the pipe or channel unto the instrument of smelling , or spongy bone , is wholly stopt up with a strange guest : Thence a plentiful and glewie snivel is powred thorow the nostrills , otherwise wide or open enough ; straightway after , a like snivel is expelled by a Cough : But that this is generated in the Lungs , but not that it drops down from the Head into the rough Artery , I have already convinced concerning Rheums : and I add , that although all of what sort is detained within the wind-pipe and the more near branches thereof , be cast forth in the morning by the Cough , and that afterwards the breath is free ; yea I being attentive , from the region of sight , that the tongue is often suppressed , contemplated , whether the lest muckiness doth threaten a falling into the jaws , and be dispatched by spitting with reaching : nevertheless I presently thereupon , certainly found , that a snorting in the wind-pipe , and tingling out of the Breast , is under-heard , and a saffrony , and tough snivel follows after by intervals , yea by how much the more I shall Cough , by so much my labour is the more apt to Cough , and I am the more constrained to Cough : For I have certainly found a daily generating of the same snivel in the Lungs . Secondly , that my pose doth hurt and take away , not only my smelling , but also my tasting , although distinguished or seperated in a peculiar Organ : So as now and then , I could not taste a Clove . I learned therefore by my malady , that the defect was not only conversant about the Organ of smelling , or in the stuffed bone ; but also that I felt a blemish propagated into the neighbouring Brain , whence the tastive Sinews were made companions of the contagion : wherefore I further discerned , that the Brain being thus defiled by the borrowed blemish , did infect its own keeper , which afterwards affecteth the other neighour-keeper with its weakness ; wherefore a Cough is thus oft-times bred by a pose , and that Cough according to the tenour of this pose , is extended , promoted , and continued : Yet the same injury , doth oft-times , by a like action at once , affect , as well the keeper of the brain , as that of the wind-pipe : But that the Brain doth immediately infect the Lungs into this blemish , by the action of government , this might be a reason to me , because the aforesaid man of sixty yeers old , if he had offended his mind with a more fervent contemplation , and had made half the night restless , presently , without offence of the keeper , he found a snorting to arise , and phlegms to be ingendred in him , which would not be stayed in growing , unless the disquietness of his mind being first appeased by sleep : For it belongs to a family-authority , if the Duumvirate be able badly to season the Head , Lungs , and other parts , that the Head doth snatch the parts beneath it , into its own client-ship or protection . I have likewise also observed this , that as oft as the Cough did proceed from a pose , so often , remedies which do cure the pose , do also heal the Cough ; and such a Cough is easily known by a slow small Fever , a more coloured Urine , and then the propagation of snivel is more continual : For that is the Fever of a Head ill disposed , and communicating its own grief unto inferiour parts : For there is a prerogative of the Head in this , that although the Cough shall happen upon a pose , yet they are both ended together : and then , although thou shalt cleanse thy nostrills wholly of all snivel , yet the Cough arising , snivel doth forth with flow abundantly out of the nostrils . Therefore there is a great co-resemblance of action between the Head and the Lungs ; not indeed that the Head doth lay up its own portions or conditions into the Lungs , but as at the hurting of the smelling , the brain takesaway together with it , the tasting also : So also it wrests the Lungs into the union of it self , because both Bowels are of one nourishment , also both keepers do generate a co-like snivel of the same , as a vassal bewails the chance or fortune of his Prince . Then in the next place , there is the more stri●● necessity to the Head with the Lungs , because both Bowels do conspire in the government of the Keeper , readily seeming for the same end : These things are thus to be pressed from the root , that the cure may be directed unto the roots , unto the antecedent , that is , to the freeing of the spongy bone : For truly , the cough being sprung from the action of government , whatsoever Cough is in the Lungs by accident , ceaseth , the pose being removed . A coughing person , if he sit , the snivel doth the less snort in the wind-pipe , his breath is more free , and his expectorating more easie , ( for hence is the name of orthopnea or upright breathing with difficulty ) when as otherwise , if snivel should distil from above into the wind-pipe , it should hasten downwards rather in sitting than in laying ; which is false : therefore also the antecedent . For if it should fall down from the Head into the Lungs , it should descend with less trouble , and should be more easily received in the Lungs , as long as at the beginning of the pose , it is exspunged in manner of water : It should then ( I say ) easily full up the Lungs , and by its quantity , intercept the breath : but at the beginning of a pose , there is yet no Cough , and next , no difficulty of Breathing : therefore there is no falling down of snivel out of the Head into the Lungs , in a Cough . But as touching a Cough , which is made by the proper malady of the Lungs , and not from the pose , I have already treated before . But as to that which concerns Remedies , first of all , soporiferous or sleep-causing things do ease the Cough , and the pose , as they do also appease a Pleurisie from sumptomatical affects : And I conquer the Cough with those Remedies , wherewith I do the Pleurisie . There are also in the next place , other Coughs , never arising from a pose , but from a corruption of contagion of the air , also from an unseasonable impression of the greatest cold ; and the Lungs are offended in their strengthening or liveliness , no otherwise than as is the wandring keeper before the door : But the excrement which hath overflown longer than was meet , about the utmost parts or ends of the rough artery , is hardened , and moreover affords a difficult breathing . And the Lungs being weary of this guest , do shew forth tokens of their wearisomness , by spitting out of the vitiated excrement , by reaching : And if that excrement be not chased away by Coughs , or inwardly , it ends into a mattery imposthume , and consumption . But a sitting life hath oft-times brought this evil ; wherefore I have alwaies perswaded unto exercises which provoke difficulty of Breathing , whereby excrements may be expectorated or cast out of the Breast , and the over-flowing by force of the air , may be hindered : surely no otherwise , than as havens of the Sea , do require waters flowing on their back , which do wash off Sand from thence : For otherwise , the filth subsisting , the Lungs cannot choose but sustain a hurting of their liveliness , bring forth many and divers spittles , according to the disposition of the blemish received . Such Coughs have an adhering and strange filth , and do successively beget another , which afterwards do end into difficulties of Breathing , Asthmaes , gnawings of the vessels , and of the substance of the bowel : Many of these defects , because they witness a weakness of the vital strength in the bowel , are difficultly restored , and less in old age . But an Asthma sprung from thence , hath as many floud-gates of air shut , as there are little mouths dedicated to breathing : And this is the difference of degrees , in a greater and less straightness of Breathing : But the filths or spittles which do bewray themselves in these affects , are not so much the original causes of the Cough , as they bear the relation of a product for new Coughs continually : For they grow alwaies anew for them , because a hateful guest being within , doth not cease to stir up new filths from the last digestion . Indeed such is the negligence of this bowel , and the command of external things over the wandring keeper . But the Remedies which do as well cure the Falling-sickness of the Lungs , or dry Asthma , as those which cure a moist one , ought to be renewers , and to arise unto the largness of a general kind : Because they are such which ought to contain a restoring of the weakness contracted : To wit , these are the greater Secrets of Paracelsus , of which elsewhere : And likewise which do Sympathetically overcome every Disease ; For Arcanum's do by an every way purifying , take away any Diseases : but seeing they do not infuse new strength into the vitiated part , as neither do take away the evil impression of the implanted spirit ; surely , the lost strength is not after any sort to be restored , but by Sympathetical Remedies . But that some fruit may be cropped from what hath been said before . I will relate one example out of ordinary and domestical ones . A certain old man did Snort after a wonderful manner , so that he seemed sometimes to sing , sometimes also to snort with his weasand : that he being oftimes raised upright all night , was also compelled to sleep in sitting , and he uttered less noyse , and fewer Phlegms , sitting than laying : his Physitians therefore , refreshed him with Meat-broaths perfectly boyled , with a more strong and plentiful nourishment , least he should fail of much Spitting out by reaching , or should suffer a Consumption of the Lungs which they said was threatned : Yet he felt himself better under fastings , and in time of Lent , then presently after Easter : But his Physitians did accuse , sometimes the North-wind , but then the Rain ; but not his much juicie and more strong nourishments . But I went occasionally to see the man , and when I seriously minded all things in my Power , I presently shewed that that generation of Phlegms , had its domestical or homebred cause in the Lungs ; but not that it did slide down from above into the Lungs , or that his Lungs did languish with a secondary passion . And moreover , as the generating of Phlegm was made in the Lungs it self ; so also , the plenty or abundance thereof did not proceed from an increase of a diseasifying cause , but rather from the abounding of good and much juycie nourishment : So as that evil would most certainly come , from whence others divined good to come , who scoffed at me with a secret loud laughter . And when I endeavoured to wipe of , and strengthen my assertion with wine ; to wit , that the moderate drinking of Wine would fortifie him , whom otherwise , the excesse of the same Wine would render subject to much Spitting ; Yet when as they would not fall , being Smitten by one weapon , I descended unto the experience of Lent and Easter now gone and past : And that ( indeed ) forthwith after Easter , he more plentifully spat by reaching , and did more troublesomly Snort . But in fastings , he was scarce , or at leastwise little mindful of these . Wherefore for deciding of the Question , I said there was need of proof , and that I was ( at least ) to be as much boren with , as other unptosperous helpers hitherto : wherefore after a more sparing and hard food ( the which indeed might satisfie a hungry Stomack in digesting , although not so desired a fulness of Bloud ) the Orthopnea or difficult upright breathing was presently diminished , which afterwards , by a continued Moderation of abstinence , afforded quietnesses of the Night : For as the Lungs being ill affected , the more excrementous Phlegm is begotten ; so , by how much the more plentiful matter is present , the same excrement doth the more abound : Because it is not made ( this something ) but by a matter the more nearly disposed : For neither is that Phlegm , whether it be thin and watery , or next , more gross and tough , but from a mass of matter the more a kin and disposed ; to wit , the which also fayling , the vital Bloud it self is transchanged , & passeth over into these excrements . There is indeed , a watery liquor of juyce wandring throughout all the veins in the Body , receiving diverse masks of a watery excrement , and putting on diverse Idea's ; no otherwise than as water wherein the Bark of the Teile-Tree , or the root of Comphry have been sleeped , dissembles the shew of a Phlegm : also the very white of an Egge , on the first day is Milky , the which , by a voluntary Motion , doth presently snatch to it the thickness of Glew : The which , in a pose is more cleerly seen ; where a liquour which is Salt on the first daies , distilleth like water ; and then in the following daies becometh snivelly . But in a Consumption of the Lungs , while the spittle , of venal Bloud , begins to wax snivelly , the Snivel at first , seems to be Yellow and Thick , which afterwards becomes of an ashie Colour , and at length inclines more towards black : Because then they are the excrements of Transchanged venal Bloud , no longer the Co-mixtures of the juyce or liquor latex . Indeed after this sort , both keepers who do at first frame thick Snivel out of the latex , afterwards , the keeper wandring , it presently departs into a watery Brine , and again is thickned assoon as the error of the keeper is corrected : For the keeper , as well of the Brain as of the Lungs , is made subject to diverse injuries and unclemencies of Air , and therefore he calls to him the liquor latex on every side , being swollen with anger , through error , that he may compel it to go back or depart into excrements like unto his own passion . Therefore those Snivelly excrements are formed of the mass of the liquor latex ; on which mass , a certain hurtful blot of error is sometimes imprinted , so as as the more liquid and unripe or raw Bloud is transchanged together with it , into Snivel . Indeed , the venal Bloud it self , is by both wandring keepers violently alienated into Snivel , as well in the Lungs , as Head , no otherwise than as the venal Bloud in an ulcer , doth assume the form of corrupt Pus and Sanies . Therefore , besides the alterations of both the aforesaid keepers ; no seldom impression is branded on every part , whereby the digestion of every member is mightily hurt , or turned inward : by which chance , I call such an evil impression , the Tormenter of a Member , the hinderer of digestion , and depraver of the last Nourishment . About which indeed , the whole scope and hinge of healing ought to be conversant . Therefore the Keeper of the Wind-pipe is as well provoked above , by the injuries of the Air , as beneath , and by a homebred indisposition of his own Lungs . Let these things be thus , concerning the masse dedicated to the Keepers , and touching a masse bedewed for the last Nourishment of the joints : wherein , whatsoever is vitiated through want of integrity , that also increaseth into the occasions of many infirmities : And by how much the worse masse or immediate matter of which , shall wash against them , by so much the more powerful also , is the prick of diseases sprung from thence : And by consequence , abstinence , and fulness , of much juycie food , are fruitful means , as well to cure , as to make weak or sick . Therefore not any of the Liquor latex rusheth head-long out of the Head , which also sets upon us in the shew of Snivel , the white of an Egg , thin sanies , thick Pus , and corrupt matter like hony : For through the error of the digestions , and other impressions , offences and vices do happen in the Members , obvious with diverse faces : Which thing surely is to be diligently noted with a Pen of Steel , where the Curings and Healings of Sicknesses are intended . Hence the error of cauteries or searing Medicines is confirmed : For Issues do in some place profit , not indeed , because they do Evacuate the descending matter of a rheume , divert it , derive it , or draw it elsewhere ; but as they diminish the whole Lump as well of the Liquor Latex ; as of the nourishable venal Bloud . In the mean time , Issues do not a whit detract from , or think of an error of the Members , and of a Disease there stamped or Characterized : because they are not for the taking away or moderating of a homebred destroyer , or diseasie it disposition : And therefore neither do Rheums fall downwards ; but only defects are created by the destroyer , in the part wherein this dwelleth , or he hath his object , and Government . In this path , Barley Broaths , those of Sarsaparilla , China , and the like decoctions are considered : the which besides an elementary Drink , do administer one far estranged from true Nourishment and a much juycie substantial and Spermatick or Seedy Food : And therefore they cannot but detract from the Lump of imbibing . For this is the dryness which Physitians intend to bring on , by the aforesaid Drink and Decoctions , not as they do dry up humors descending , or Phlegm ( for moist things among Phylosophers , do not dry up Humours ) but inasmuch as they diminish the nourishable masse of the Bloud , the which they do elsewhere restore by very much juycie Food cast in , and so they render themselves Childish , for the most part , by the effect of things fucceeding . Indeed they might effect more by a slenderness of Food , than by all the tearing of the Skin , or cruel Scorching of fires , or the Drink of Woods , and Wild or barbarous Roots . These things therefore which I have said , are supplied in the Treatises of the Liquor of the Veins , concerning Cauteries , concerning the wandring Keeper , and of Catarrhs . In the mean time , I greatly admire , that they have thought to relieve the Luags by sweet things , and Ecligmaes , and by a licking : and they have doubted about Fox-Lungs , how unweariedly soever they knew him running , and they appointed Cures with Colts-foot boyled , steeped , drunk , and licked in by licking after diverse manners ; to wit , by means which are neither immediatly admitted to the place affected , and which are mediately deprived of their antient virtue . But the Schools have never considered that if the sick party shall himself daily beat in pieces his own remedies , he shall by Thumping of his Nostrills , be able to attract some remedies to the Lungs themselves , to wit , by breathing in a small quantity of the Powder of the remedies so beaten : And that by this Method , he may be able immediately to apply his own Balsams to himself ; but in vain : therefore Lohochs or Eligmaes which are not brought down to the Lungs , shall be as yet more vain . And likewise they have neglected hitherto , a profitable way or manner , whereby they may immediately connex the fume of Sulphur to the Drink : which Smoak together with the Drink , doth by little and little unfold it self into all the Veins , not indeed in form of a Nourishment , but of a seasoning only ; no otherwise than as the same fume doth free and preserve a hogshead of Wine from corruption . For nothing hath been hitherto thought on , after what sort , and by what companion in the waies , they may make a remedy , which otherwise , by it self , is not most fully admitted inwards , to pierce thither . And although they saw that in thousands , they nothing profited by Syrupes , Ecligmaes , but their own purse ; yet without any further diligent search ; they have alwaies hitherto persisted in the same Clayie path . CHAP. XLIX . The Humour Latex , neglected . 1. A disposing of things to be taught . 2. What may be understood under the word Latex . 3. The reason of that Surname . 4. The effect of four Humors introduced . 5. The distinction of Urine and Sweat from the Humour Latex . 6. Errours arisen from hence . 7. What hath deceived the Schools . 8. It implieth a contradiction . 9. The absurdities of the Humour Latex being unknown . 10. That the Whey of the venal Bloud ; which they so call , differs from the Urines . 11. The unsauouriness and indifferentness of Qualities in the Humour Latex , by reason of their use , largeness , and Liberty . 12. The first Scope of the Humour Latix . 13. Another . 14. A third . 15. Sweat is from the matter of the Latex . 16. How Sweat issues forth . 17. The Sweat of dying Persons , to what it may conduce . 18. The comming forth of Sweat in the form of Salt-water is proved . 19. The fourth Scope . 20. The fifth . 21. The Humour Latex is excused . 22. The abuse of the Schools . 23. The bringing forth of the ignorance of the Humour Latex . 24. If the Schools were not fast asleep , they might have acknowledged their Errors by numbers , and weight . 25. The Squinancy hath alwayes deluded Catarrhs . 26. A necessity of the Humour Latex , although neglected . 27. What Thirst may bewray . 28. What the dryness , chapping , and fowlness of the Tongue in a Fever , do shew . 29. The Journeys , and Clientships of the Latex . 30. The Load-stone of the Latex . 31. Some discommodities of the erring Latex . 32. What things the Error of the Schools about the Latex , hath brought forth . 33. Some effects of the erring Latex . 34. Why the Latex doth easily hearken unto a strange Ferment . 35. The Author passeth by the Idiotism of Paracelus concerning the Latex . 36. Whence Thirst in a Dropsie artseth . 37. Sweat is rather called , than brought of its own accord . 38. Baths and Cauteries are unknown whither they may be applyed . 39. The Original of a Catarrhe is from the Ignorance of the Latex . 40. The Error of the Schools concerning the use of the Glandules or Kernels . 41. Whence there are so manifold Glandules in us . 42. Whence there is so easie or ready a Muckiness and Spittle of a Squinancy . 43. The curing of Diseases hath been hitherto Coniectural , Cloakative , and attempting Escapes . 44. The Author exhorts Physitians . 45. The drying of China hath broak forth from the Ignorance of the Latex . 46. An applying of the fore-going Digression . I Being to speak of the one only Humour Latex , and that , hitherto neglected ; the Question , whether it be or that it is first to be proved : & then the uses , necessities , or ends & Scopes thereof for which it serveth ; Yet , before all , it helpeth to have explained by the way , what I will have signified by that un-wonted name . For truly , besides the one only nourishable Liquor manifestly and openly known , which they call the venal Bloud , a certain watery Liquor swims on it , being materially subjected not only to Spittle , Tears , Sweat , thin Snivel , an Oedema or Phlegmatick Tumour , also to other Diseases , but also Famous for divers uses . The Schools indeed have made mention of it under the name of the Whey of the Bloud , and have made it common as well to Urine as to Sweat. But surely , I shall shew , that the same Humour is far different in matter and uses ; and by consequence , that it is to be referred , not among Excrements , but profitable juices . For I call it Latex , but not an Humour , that the abuses , of names may be taken away , after that I have sufficiently demonstrated by an expr●ss Book , that there never hath exsisted a quaternary of Humors in humane Nature , which the Schools have enlarged by repeated Centuries of Commentaries , and so have introduced Humors as Acters , into the Tragedies of all Diseases : which Book is Intituled , A Passive deceiving of the Schools the Humorists ; in distinction to an Active one , To wit , least , in a stubbor●ness of repentance I may seem to have accused Malice . Wherefore a rash Ignorance of the essence of the venal Bloud , hath over-darkened the whole Table of healing . Therefore they will have part of the Urine left to the Bloud , also after the Urine is severed , and they call as well the Urine , as the same remainder thereof , the very Whey of the Bloud : And I have seriously bewayled that undistinction , because it had been a miserable Fostress of humane Calamity : For the Urine , and its residue which breaks forth by Sweats , they have likewise ( by one name ) called the Whey of the Bloud , whose chief Scopes notwithstanding , they have passed by . For they presently decline from that their own Supposition while as , whatsoever Swims upon the out-chased venal Bloud , they name no more , Whey , but yellow Choler , Choler or Gaul , and one of the four constitutive parts of the ●loud : indeed they have dictated a feigned , bitter , sharp , and moist hot thing , no way at all in us conformable to the qualities of Whey , or Urine . But what may be to be conjectured from such confusions of the Schools , so Fundamental , and in things of so grea● moment , I have profesly and at large rehearsed in the aforesaid Book . For before me , Paracelsus first cast them out , as being guilty of a robbed or extorted Inheritance ; but they being admonished , refused to be willing to be wise , although they were admonished , that they had mooued a Fire-band for its more ready Burning , to the destruction of man. And first of all , I have sufficiently demonstrated , that there is not either of the Cholers , as neither Phlegm in nature : now moreover , I have determined to shew , that it was not sufficient for the Schools to have been Ignorant of the juyce or Humor Latex , and the particular aime thereof , but also that they have altogether erred in the Consti●●tion of the same ; because they are those which do far depart from the Terms of the Latex proposed , being deceived by the Similitude of Milk : Because Whey is never Severed from Milk , but after the Corruption of its Milk , and therefore they compare a Dead-Carcase to the Latex . Next , Whey , because it is not made and appeareth but by the Cheesing or turning of the Milk , it was of the nati●e Constitution of Milk ; so are not Urine and Sweat of the matter of the Bloud : Therefore at least-wise , they confess therein if any thing do swim on the out-chased Bloud , it is a Whey , and of the same Species with the Wheyie body of the Urine : therefore now Whey doth formally differ from Choler : For that which can be absent from a permanent thing , is not of the essential disposition thereof : And so they plainly imply , that they are of the internal constitution and thingliness of the Bloud , and likewise that they are not of the intrinsecal constitution of the Bloud . Therefore it is without an absurdity , that the Liquor Latex in the venal Bloud , but with a lively floating , cannot by right be called the Whey of the Bloud , and much less , a gawly Choler , and the fiery part thereof . Therefore the Schools have commanded that part of the Bloud which they call the Whey or Urine , to have remained in the Bloud , rather through a carelesness of the separating Faculty , than for the necessities sake of an unexcusable essence : Because bloud that is chased out of the Veins , is oftimes seen to be without Whey : And therefore they deliver , that neither is Whey left in the bloud but for the more easie passage thorow the small Fibers of the Veins of the Liver , to wit , by giving a more fluid consistence to the venal bloud : And therefore they say , those slender Reeds being overcome , nature hath presently meditated of a separation of the Whey , and hath commanded it to be brought down into the last Sheath of the Urine , by leaving the remainder thereof a companion to the bloud , that it may also the more easily pierce throw the slender Trunks the of utmost small Veins . By which Doctrine , surely meerly Excrementitious , they defile the purity of the Digestions : because they have not known the principal Scopes of the Latex , and have feigned childish uses for the Whey of the bloud : but I have alwayes confessed it for an undoubted Foundation , that the Parent of nature cannot be frustrated of his ends conceived , nor that any thing of Urine was left to be throughly mingled with the venal bloud , by an ordinary error of nature . In the next place , that whatsoever Liquid thing is in the substance of the bloud , that very thing is not of the constitution of the bloud , nor the Excrement thereof ; but that it is the Liquor Latex , being profitable for its own ends : For 〈…〉 〈◊〉 a part of the Urine , as neither a part 〈…〉 For 〈…〉 the salt of the Sweat is distinct in its properti●● 〈◊〉 the 〈…〉 U●●●● And the Latex is moreover , void of a manifest salt ; and that ●● no wonder : Because the Urine , as it is now seaso●ed with a dungy Ferment of the Reins , ●● also transchanged by the same : For the Urine is made in its own Shops , and 〈◊〉 compleated by its own formal properties , being profitable for its own Offices and Aimes . Therefore the Urine differs not only from the Sweat , but also from it self , so long as it is not yet a partaker of the Ferment of the Kidneys , and of a liquid dung of the Intestines or greater Bowels : And that surely no otherwise , than a● the dung of the Gut-Colon differs from the Cream of the Stomach , or the Chyle from the venal bloud . There is not therefore in the bloud , a part of the Urine , neither is there in the nourishment now refined , an Excrement actually corrupt , and tha● which is for corrupting of another : For that error is too daily and direct , for the remooving whereof , nature hath not so sluggishly every where laboured ; because she in nothing in all places , more industriously laboureth , than that she may most swiftly banish Superfluities troublesom unto her : For truly , all and every of Excrements , are now estranged ( through an Impression of a dungy Ferment ) from themselves in their former State , and therefore they should not be able but by the same natural Endownment , to consume or pine away every of the best things which are admixed with them . Truly the Humour Latex being thorowly mixed , wanders up and down in the venal bloud , not indeed as a part of the bloud , or as a remaining Excrement of the Urine ; but as being profitable for divers aims or ends : And therefore also I have called it Latex , or a peculiar Humour distinct from the venal bloud . It is indeed in it self , almost without Savour , and as to its first Scope , it co-tempereth the sharpness of the venal bloud , that it may drive the same away : But especially after Labours , Heats , Sweats , Baths , &c. For in so great a breathing thorow or evaporation , the bloud would be greatly co-thickned , unless it should haue a watery part admixed with it for Sweat. Another Scope of the Latex hath been , to wit , when as in all the more crude Chyle , cream , and venal bloud , there is some Excrement , and the bloud doth under digestion reserve an Excrementitious salt , even while it is converted into pure nourishment ; therefore the Humour Latex was a fit companion for it , which might receive this salt into it self , and brush it out . A third end of the Liquor-Latex hath happened to the other two ; that it may materially cause , that no Remainder of a thicker compact doth remain in the last Evaporation of nourishment ; but that it may together with it , be expulsed by puffing thorow the pores , by reason of a Ferment of the Arteries ( as aboue in the Blas of Man ) or may be washed out by reason of Sweat : For Sweat is materially , nothing but the Liquor Latex whereunto a superfluous Salt come : which thing is apparent : For from the drinking of Water , or thinner Ale or Beer , plentiful Sweat doth in Summer , presently flow forth : not indeed that the salt Latex of Sweat , is carried thorow the body in manner of a Vapour , that it may first cloath it self with a Salt under the Skin , and also a certain Oyliness : But Sweat is expelled in the form of Water ( as in Health ) or of its own accord is poured forth as Water , in fearful , swooning , and dying Persons : where by way of Impertinency , I take notice by the way ; That the Sweat of dying Persons , is not so much the Liquor Latex in its own nature , as a resolved Alimentary or nourishable Dew over which Death commandeth ; which is manifest : for preseutly the Habit of the body falleth , even as also in swooning : And that Sweat hath wonderful Virtues of mortifying the Hemeroides or Piles , and possesseth Excrescences . Furthermore , that the Sweat is not carried by Heat in the shew of a Vapour , is manifest : For seeing a Vapour doth occupy a hundred-fold more Room , than Water , the body should swell in Sweating a hundred-fold more , than otherwise its propert extent is : For there is not an empty place under the Skin , which may receive a Vapour : also a Kettle of Hot water hath no Vapour within it ; and that which it sends sorth , it exhales only from the supersicies . Therefore a Vapour doth not roue under the Skin ; but is driven forth only in the shape of a Liquor . Sweat therefore , is the Liquor Latex , materially shaving off , or washing away the filth from the Kitchins of the parts , through which it is brought , and therefore for the most part strongly smelling , and that in Diseased persons more then in Healthy ones : And so also in a Cr●●s or Judicial sign , it oft-times finisheth Diseases , as it brings forth with it , filths according to its ordinary Scope . The Schools have admired the dissections of dead 〈…〉 they have not yet looked into the Anatomy of Sweat , by Digestious , Smoakinesses , Vapours , Elections , Admixtures , Resolvings , or Expulsions . The scope of the Latex was more intimate : For seeing the Eye had need of liquor , that its Eyelid might be moved without hurt , and the Tongue wanted Spittle to temper the chewed Meats with moisture ; but it should be absurd for the whole Food to be moistened by the Mass of venal bloud : therefore the Latex is brought by the Veins , whence the Spittle , Tears , &c. should be made : for while in Squinancies , and the disgraceful Salivation of Mercury , more Spittle than is meet flows forth , the Paunch is made dryer then it self . Therefore the Latex wanders unhurtfully in the Mass of the venal bloud , is brought unto fit places readily hearkening unto the distributive faculty : The which indeed , if at any time it shall snatch the Salt of the Brain with it , as in the pose ; yet the Latex is not hurtful in its own nature , neither must that be blamed for a fault , which is unseasonably joyned to it ( being guiltless ) through accident . Likewise , although it being observant , doth abound in diseases , blows up Oedematous legs , that happens by chance : for nature by a general endeavour , brings forth a hateful Guest to her self , and stuffs it with Excrements , which she desireth to drive away . I find a Sheet in a most cold night , to be in the morning , bent and congealed by the night blast , the fourfold quantity of whose water at least hath also exhaled : And the blast of Air in Summer dayes , is no less ; but much more stinking , Therefore some ounees of an unsavory liquor are puffed out from the Lungs alone : But that water is not the Excrement of the Lungs , as neither the matter of venal Bloud resolved : wherefore it is setched out of the Latex , whether it be sent thither by the distributive power of the Archeus , or at length , the Lungs do allure the same unto themselves ; at least wise it is continually supplyed , and the ministry , which elsewhere the Glandules or Kernels do perform , this same service the substance of the Lungs performeth : And so , it is as it were the scope of the Humour Latex , to restrain by its moisture , that the Lungs do not chap through the dryness of attracted Air. It is also an abuse to Teach , that the Latex is ( in the beginning of a Pose ) crude or raw and uncocted , and that in the number of dayes it is thickned by heat , about the end of the digested Ripeness : For it being once expelled , it expecteth not to be cocted , as neither the coagulation of it self , that it may grow together ; neither could the Humour Latex , from the beginning of a Pose , ever have expected a thickning of it self , in an idle or void Scul . Therefore the Ignorance of the Humor Latex , hath stirred up many Dreams in healing , in Catarrhs , and Oedemaes ; to wit , the Legs being over night swollen , reteining a small pit of the pressing Finger , and vanishing away in the morning , is thought to be Phlegm turned into venal bloud by a nights digestion . An ignorance therefore of the serviceable Humour Latex , hath brought forth the fables of a supposed Rhenmatism : But if they had once come to a reckoning with themselves , they had seen ; to wit , that over-night both Legs were loaded , perhaps with four Pound weight of Oedema or Phlegmatish Tumour : But it had been ( as they say ) a more crude Phlegmatick bloud ; seeing the Legs are not known by the Schools to be sinks of Phlegm ; neither is there therefore a reason , why Phlegm should rather fall down into the Legs , than any other of the threor emaining Humours , or than that Phlegm should fall down into the Belly , Thighs , Loyns , &c. Truly a just dispensing of Proportion , should daily require perhaps 40 Pounds for the expence of unripe bloud , to be consumed throughout the whole Body . Basins and Champer-pots are in one only night filled with Spittles , and the Bed-cloaths , together with the Shirts , do drop with moisture : the which , unless they are fetched from the Latex , and not from the Mass of lively venal bloud , whatsoever things are believed concerning Meats , digestions , and making of bloud , do fall to the ground together . For Arithmetick it self , and the Ballance of weight , do delude paultry Physicians in their Fictions of Phlegm : but what ingenious man , will ever believe , that Spittle , Tears , Sweats , and besides , plenty of Urine is to be fetched from the very inheritance of the bloud , without a present dammage of life ? especially because the same doth remain even for long Terms of time ? For let us feign a small Supper , the Stomach and Pylorus to have well performed their office , but a plentiful Salivation , in a fierce squinancy , and exquisite Inflam tions of the Almonds of the Throat : Surely that more thick and continual Muckiness , doth not flow down out of the Brain , the passage of the Jaws being now obstructed , and much less doth it aseend out of the Stomach which is empty , and under the stopping up of the Jaws : therefore let Spittle be the ordinary workmanship of the Tongue and Jaws , the matter whereof is fetched from the Latex ; the which , according to the variety of its Ferment doth change with divers Masks ; to wit , Spittles are watery , Snivelly , Salt , Sharp , Bitter , and tough like a thred . A daily plenty of the Liquor Latex , was therefore necessary in the Veins , and a ready obedience thereof unto the call of the Archeus . For although the Latex be unapt for nourishing , yet is it fit or convenient for its uses : For meats might be reduced into juyce without drinks ( which thing , Mice , and Grass-hoppers teach ) unless the Latex had been also needful for greater Observances . Thirst therefore , is a preacher of the Latex fayling , but not of the want of venal bloud ( as otherwise the Schools do command ) also the Thirst of those that have a Fever , which continues after drink taken , doth denounce the Latex to be made unfit for its offices by a forreign contagion : For truly , as oft as bitterness , saltness , or a burnt Savour doth infect the Spittle , the Stomach is wearied with an unconcoction , and the Tongue ( otherwise towardly , and having no evil in it ) is cleft through dryness ; it is signified , that the Latex doth not pass unto the Veins , as being instructed by a due Convoy or passage ; because in the Inn of the stomack , and its neighbouring part , it hath become unapt for its office . Therefore the dryness of the Tongue , and the crusted filth thereof , in Fevers , is not an effect , or token of an Exhalation derived upwards out of the stomach ( also not cocting the drink ; ) but it is a defect of the Latex defiled , or penurious through want . It is not sufficient to have spoken of the Latex , and some of its uses and offices , by a distribution of its necessities : it helpeth also to discover its journeys , and to have rehearsed its Exorbitances : For the Law and necessity of uses , have also brought in as many offences , if not also double ones , on every side : For seeing the Humor Latex is not of the substance of the venal bloud ; but a foolish , harmless liquor , a co-running Companion in the wayes : Therefore also it is carried together with the bloud , thorow the Veins ; yet it is not the Whey of the venal bloud , nor Choler , nor Urine : but after a separation of the Urine , the Latex receiveth its own Limitation , as soon as it is taken within the Cottages of the Veins : And after some sort it is enrouled without the Catalogue of an Excrement , While as it so easily obeyeth the calling , or commanding Archeus : For the Humor Latex wants , salt , a tincture of the Urine , and the feigned bitterness of yellow Choler : For the Kidneys do such out a salt Urine , which already , even in the Mesentery , hath adjoyned a salt to it self : otherwise , if any one do drink fasting , thin Ale , and that by tarrying out all night ( as is the manner of the English ) it is a wonder , how suddenly , often , and abundantly , he maketh water : That is , it flyes thorow his stomach , Mesentery , and Liver . The fleshy Skin or membrane hath also a property of attracting the Latex , that it may rince it self , and the houshold-stuffe subjected within it ; therefore much Sweat doth presently increase thirst . And hence also wounds do oftentimes power forth an incredible plenty of Sunovie or Gleary or Glewy water , as if the liquor Latex would fit it self to wash off the hurt conceived in the payning and ill cured wound . Indeed the outmost cloathing of the Body doth of its own property and free accord , allure the Sweat , and Latex ; that seeing it ought to be like to a washing or Lather , it may receive the Spur of its calling from the Skin : By the leachery of which drawing , the Skin it self is easily filled with a Grease . Seeing therefore the Latex is appointed for many uses and offices , it follows also , that the same being exorbitant , doth become the occasional cause of as many , and moreover , of more Diseases ; to wit , it receiveth a saltness , sharpness , and co-mixtures of that which putrified , being infected by the filths of the inward parts , and therefore it under goes many diversities of Ulcers and Imposthumes ; Even as also in the Skin , it stirs up its own and divers Itchings . Ttherefore the Schools do erre , which through an erroneous ignorance of the Latex , do refer these defects unto the guiltless Liver , and blame the distemper thereof , and do hurt the innocent Liver by their purging Medicines of blockishness : Neither do they take notice , that one only sheep doth infect a whole flock with the Seab , without any blemish of their Liver : and that to have wiped ones hand with a Towel , which a scabbed person hath used , doth propagate the Scab , without any contagion or defect of the Liver : wherefore through that ignorance of the Schools , they disturb the venal bloud and Liver , as guilty of Heat ; yea and therefore also , do they poure forth the harmless venal bloud prodigally and repeatedly , with the curtailing of lif● but with a frustrated event . But if the Latex doth find any brackish thing within , infected with a sharpish brine of saltness , or be pledged with the hidden contagion of a poysonous Ferment ; now divers malignant or ill accustomed Ulcers do spring up , and he falsely invents Couteries to divert Catarrhs . But the Sunovia or Glewy water doth oftimes raine down with so large a Showr , that if the venal bloud , or nourishable Humor , or seedy dew should cause the same , certainly a man that is penurious in venal bloud , should of necessity dye in few hours : And so the amazement of that abundance being neglected , because they have been ignorant of the Humor Latex , they have transported their Trifles and false helps unto another thing . Therefore Galen knew not the thin corrupt Matter or liquor of an Ulcer , whether he might refer it unto Phlegm , or unto Choler . But it is no wonder , that the Latex being transplanted into a strange off-spring of rule , doth stir up divers Troops of Ulcers ; when as the venal bloud being provoked by divers stroaks of Serpents , and transplantings of Diseases , doth exorbitate or excessively arise into so numerous a variety . But I leave unto Paracelsus his own saltish Microcosmical Fountains , and I willingly indulge his liberty , although together with the Schools , he be ignorant of the Humor Latex . The Latex therefore , doth easily drink up into it , a strange quality ; Hence in the Dropsie , there is much thirst , also after frequent drinking : for thirst is not made through the penury of liquor ; but through a composure of saltness . Let Sweats also therefore be evil , if particular ones : For in that the members do one by one , call the Latex to their aid , it is from an evil . Two things therefore especially , are here further beheld ; that the liquor Latex is not carried so much of its own accord , as being called by the Superficies of the Body , for whose help it was ( otherwise ) ordained : then also , that the Sweats of those parts do witness a defect of the same : wherefore , Bed-cloaths being cast on a man , do provoke Sweat , because it is called by an endeavour outwardly administred ; and therefore things which provoke Sweat , are oft-times given to drink , and coverings are multiplyed in vain : because the faculty drawing the Latex abroad , doth languish . But if the Latex doth abound , heither is allured by the Skin , because it is defiled with a strange blemish , it falls down to the parts , and stirs up unpainful Tumours , if it be not also troubled with a quality : in which cases , as well Baths , as Cauteries have now and then afforded help ; not so much because they do diminish the effective cause , as the product , that is , the Latex : And so a Remedy cloakative , and unto the latter or effect , is applied . In the next place , the whole spring of this evil hath been banished into the guiltless head of man , into Rheums raining down out of the head ; The cause whereof , if they have erred from , they ought also consequently to have strayed in the Remedies : For I remember , that a Pleurisie beginning , hath presently failed or ceased through a plentiful Sweat ; the Sweat being allured by such a Diaphoretick as is that of the flowers of wild Poppy , Colts or Nags dung , he juyce Daysie , and the assistance of the like . Lastly , I have also noted , that there are notable Glandules or Kernels under the Arm-pit , in the Groyn , and behind the ears ; and likewise in the passage of the Urine , nigh the Bladder , and about the gut Duodenum , and almost innumerable ones elswhere , placed at the two-forking of every vein . The one only use whereof , the Schools will have to be ; to wit , that the vessels may not be subject to tearing . But surely there is a manifest errour in the use named : For notable Glandules should be in vain behind the Ears , where there is no fear of tearing , as neither within : & moreover , the fleshy membrane it self is not stretched out , and so , Glandules could not be there placed but in vain , for a vanishing use and end ; That is , the Arbitrator of nature hath erred in the use of the Glandules , or the Schools do erre ; seeing that in none of the aforesaid places wherein the Glandules are seated , the vessels can depart from each other : And also a slender Ligament had better and more commodiously preserved the renting of a vessel , than a tearable and tender Glandule . I do every where take good notice of the perpetual carelessness of the Schools , of narrowly searching into the Truth : For they do not diligently mark , that the aforesaid Glandules are not but for the emunging or attractive alluring of the Latex out of the veins , that they may disperse Sweats into the habit of the body ; which thing in the Tongue , is manifest to the fight ; where the Glandules do make or work the Spittle , and therefore do they allure the Latex . But under the Arm-pits , and in the Groyn , Sweats do proceed ; But they do not foresee a rending of the vessels : The former indeed , is a daily office ; but the other is not but an unownted , rare , and rather a ridiculous one . For the overflowing Latex , doth load the Veins by oppression , and if they are free from the same , the Archeus as it were breathing back again , doth retake to him new strength unhoped for . Therefore the ignorance of the Humor Latex , hath invented , and supported Cauteries or searing Remedies , hath feigned Catarrhs , and hath caused all disagreeing Remedies or Succours to be dreamed of . For nothing of solidity against Diseases hath hitherto been weighed : Because I shall shew in its place , that the Beginnings of Diseases have as yet to this day layn hid unknown : and therefore also that Remedies are vain tryals , neither conteyning any thing of certainty , unless they be naturally endowed with a specifical property for certain Diseases : otherwise , a conjectural uncertainty will prepare privy shifts for them , and the credulity of the Sick hath fortified Physitians : which same Remedy , although it should be said to be appropriated to a Disease , it doth not help any body ; yea , neither do purging Medicines , although they should undoubtly loosen the belly , comfort the Sick by reason of the diversity of Complexions , and of feigned stubborn Humors : For they suppose , to wit , that such a Humor offendeth , and they see it afterwards to be brought forth by loosening Medicines , yet they see nothing of the fierceness of the Disease to be slackened ; Therefore when they ought to acknowledge their ignorance , founded in Humors , and purging things , they reflect themselves on the variety of Complexions , and the uncertain and unknown differences of distempers : which things surely , if they are beheld with an equal mind , they shall not be terminated in any other end , than into a full knowledge , ignorance , and overthrow of the principles of Healing , hitherto . Wherefore I exhort , and humbly beseech Physitians , that they do in time , well learn the unheard of Beginnings , Positions , and unaccustomed Maxims of Medicine . Wherefore , I have judged it meet to digress a little in this place : For as I have seen an Atrophia or Consumption for lack of nourishment , to be occasionally supported by the Humor Latex ; So also I have seen Fatness or Grossness , in one only two months time , by a Urine-provoking drink instead of Ale or Beer , to be wholly expelled . But forreign potions of China , Sarsaparilla , Guaiacum , &c. which should pour forth the Latex by Sweats , by a feigned and lying title , have attained the name of dryers . And indeed , I have already before demonstrated , that every visible body , & that which is believed to be composed by a mixture of the Elements , is materially made only of the Element of water , which originally hath it self in all constituted things , in manner of a Latex , and the which also , here to have supposed , is sufficient , as being once sufficiently prooved . And then , the Maxim of Phylosophy hath it ; That Bodies are not changed into each other , unless they are first reduced into their first , and easie following or clammy Matter . For although they would have that thing applyed to metallic● Transmutations ; yet it is to be drawn out of the noted sublunary Transmutations of any things : Yet not that they will have bodies to be reduced into the first matter of Aristotle ; yea , nor also into the first Separation of the Elements ( for neither do they think that the Food ought to return into its own Element , that it may thereby be made bloud ) but they will have a body to be transchanged into its next matter , or that the subject of the former life ought to return back before it hath fixed a hope of the bound of Transmutation to be attained : To which end , be it certain , that meats and drinks do assume the nature of a Chyle or juyce in the stomach , with a retaining of the qualities of the middle life of the meats : Indeed , that the ancient matter of the meats is destroyed , and made to approach very neer to the matter next to the Latex or the Element of water ; to wit , the specifical Ferment of the stomach being busily employed to this end , no otherwise than as the Ferment of the Liver doth transchange the Chyle into venal bloud , and whose companion and fellow , the Latex is , but not likewise a part thereof . But so differing and singular gifts of Ferments do exist in nature , that some living creatures do make venal bloud , flesh , &c. for themselves , yea and also an Oylie grease , and water only : for in the stomach of a Salmond , Fisher-men say , never any Food or edible thing was found . There are moreover in Salt-waters , some waterish little living creatures , in whom scarce any thing is bred , which do communicate a certain Seed of water drunk by them , from whence they do increase and sustain their own little body ; so that to other Fishes which eat these small living creatures , a Seed is granted to be ingendred in the waters , which is passed over into life , and is derived into the middle participated life . But small living creatures , which do immediately make bloud to themselves , and their whole substance of water alone , have an example , almost in every vegetable , especially in stony and sandy Mountains , which are far seperated from the dung of men , wherein , perhaps 60 particular kind of Rosinous trees are taken notice of , are fully nourished only of rain water , and of snow , or the Leffas or planty juyce of a stony odour , and do grow unto the greatest height , being trees so fat , that they would be choaked , unless they pour forth the same on every side . The ferment of the stomack in man , doth more easily transchange the meats into chyle , than their fatnesses , because fatness is more remote from the Latex , or the first matter , than the meat is . Which digestion of transmutation into watery juyces , is brought hither to this end , that it may be manifest that the Latex ( a forreign seed , and ferment of the members being easily conceived in us ) is transchanged into a strange off spring . And so , that out of the Latex ( I have already shewn above ) there is next of all a transplanting into an excrementous Snivel : where I remember , that after drink being abundantly taken in Summer time , a muscilaginous spittle ( which at the time of dry thirst , failed ) was presently after spit out by reaching . This is the new History of the humor Latex , to be referred unto the treatise of Catarrhs or rheums ; because the ignorance of that Latex , hath given a singular confirmation to conceived Catarrhs , as also hath offered rashnesses for things to be conceived . CHAP. L. A Cautery or Searing Remedy . 1. A Cautery is nothing but a remaining Wound . 2. No prerogative of a Cantery made by fire . 3. The name of an Issue or little fountain is a Iuggle . 4. What things God hath seen entirely good , are praised by the Schools , as rent or toren . 5. The promises of a Cautery are childish . 6. The denyal of a Catarrh denyeth the use of a Cautery . 7. Ridiculous necessaries for defending Cauteries . 8. The position of the Schools is shewn to be absurd and impossible . 9. What may be purged by a Cautery . 10. Nine conclusions against the appointments of Cauteries . 11. Foolish desires or delights in a Cautery . 12. Cauteries , whom they hurt . 13. The undstinction of the Schools . 14. The scope or end of a Cautery ceaseth . 15. They have circumvented the World by Cauteries . 16. That there is no communion of a Cautery with the brain . 17. Absurdities following upon the doctrine of Cauteries . 18. The one only refuge of the Schools . 19. Answers . 20. Cauteries are driven against the Rocks . 21. What the Schools may answer in the difficulties proposed . 22. The multiplying and choosing of a Cautery , by what boldness it hath arose . 23. Some Stage-play trifles of the Schools . 24. The Gowt of Physitians is a mockery . 25. Cauteries are foolish . 26. They are vain in their own desperate cases . 27. It is not yet determined by the Schools in what cases Cauteries can help . 28. A case wherein a Cautery profiteth . 29. How the cruel and stinking remedy of a Cautery may be prevented . 30. A Cautery is unworthy a Physitian . CAtarrhs or Rheums have found out Cauteries : those therefore being taken out of the way , the treatise of these might seem to be in vain , unless I should write these things for young beginners ; I distrusting that my studies will any thing profit the learned or skilful : Wherefore I have determined to declare the ends and effect of a Cautery . Cauteries therefore are first of all made of fire , bright burning Iron ; a corrosive caustick Medicine , yea with the rasour or penknife it self , or scissers , by cutting off something . It is sufficient , so the fleshy membrans are broken or pierced with a wound : But others do prefer a wound prepared by fire , or a caustick Medicine , before that which was laid open by cutting : Because they think that by actual heat and dryness , a flux of humors is the better stopped . As if , at one only moment , the fire should burn any thing besides the escharre it self , or should dry up an other thing which they seign , is afterwards to flow to the wound . Indeed dreams are on both sides greatly esteemed by the Schools : For an issue or small fountain ( for so they call a Cauterized wound , that the vulgar may believe diseases to be drawn out as it were by a fountain ) profits nothing before the escharre be taken away , , and the footstep of heat and dryness be withdrawn : Because the institution of a Cautery hath the avoyding of excrements or superfluities for its object , which doth not begin before the decay of the escharre ; and because it is alway less able to exhale thorow the escharre , than otherwise , thorow the sound skin : therefore successours have accounted it to be all one after what sort soever an issue shall be made , so they shall divide that which holds together , and keep it divided . For that which God hath made whole and entire , that it might be very good , seems to the Schools that it should be better , if it be kept wounded : Therefore to be oftentimes wounded , and to have kept the wounds open , doth conduce to the health of the Schools . Surely it s a wonder , that they have not transferred [ to be wounded ] unto the precepts of defending health ; even as indeed , Cauteriet , or constant wounds , have been referred thither : But in the time of wounding , or burning , letting out or shedding of blood only , doth interpose ; which ought to excel by that title , in the Schools , unless the deceit of Phlebotomy or cutting of a vein did manifest it self . For they presume and decree , that a Cautery is a new emunctory or exspunging place , whereby Physitians are able to restrain nature , according to their pleasure to unload her self , whereby , they seign , that she doth not indeed otherwise flow down by Catarrhs , and unload her self , or on every side so doth , but only by a hole made : That is , they cite rheums , to appear personally in a place , as the Physitian listeth . Handsomely indeed , if alike truly . Notwithstanding , these marvels have been so profitable , that now Cauteries are also made in Children , before the age of three yeers : But I , first of all , have alwaies beheld an implicite blasphemy in a Cautery , whereby they openly accuse the Creator of insufficiency in framing the emunctories : For I have hidden above a thousand issues to be filled up with flesh , whereof it hath not hitherto ( as I know of ) repented any . In the next place , I have considered , a Childish presumption of Physitians , because they seriously perswade themselves , that nature will hearken to their own commands : also that a defluxion and falling down of humors which they command , being supposed , is a most exceeding absurdity . But let it be sufficient for my foundation , to wit , that there is no dismissing , or voluntary defluxion of a rheum : which negative subsisting , vain becomes the foundation of Cauteries : For the Schools teach , that by issues , evil , yea destructive humors are allured forth , which else , should either be sent to some other place , or of their own accord flow down . A fine thing , surely , that nature doth with a loose bridle , expect the Will of the Physitian , and opening of the skin , that it should there throw off its fardle , which else it would divert on a more noble member : As if sending nature should threaten , unless ye shall maintain a fleshy membrane open to me by a wound , where ye shall see meet , that by revulsion or drawing back ye shall appease me from fury , and do divert me from the conceipt of dismissing , Wo unto you : for that which else I would purge forth under the Skin , I will draw back unto a noble member in revenge . But I pray , in what center , or in what spring-head is that evil humor prepared ? Is it in the Liver the shop of the four humors , as they will have it ? But surely there is a difficult , long , and rough way , as that evil humor is derived from the liver thorow the hollow vein , and so thorow the heart , unto the outmost skin of the arm , thigh , or neck , without defiling the venal blood , but the evil humor it self to be sincere . Surely that is a cruel emunctory , which brings an evil humor thorow the fountain of life : And so , the Physitian is cruel , and the Schools more cruel , which command a hurtful humor to be brought thorow the heart . But if further , that evil humor , unknown to this day , hath the brain for its fountain ; where I pray you ? on in what sink of the head , is that evil humor bred ? Is it in its bosomes ? Or in its basin ? not indeed in the first place , in the vessels of the brain , shall there be made a daily collection and nest of that malignant humor , without a present or sudden fear of death . But if in the basin that be made evil , which before was good ; now it shall of its own wonted accord flow down thorow the nostrils and palate , neither shall it want a Cautery . Or what is that corrupter , which in some part of the head may vitiate by his endeavour , a humor that was before good , that it may be brought down malignant from thence , unto some part between the skin , which the Physitian hath commanded to be stricken ? For how obedient is that , which being an evil humor ( indeed now a dead excrement ) shall suffer is self to be wrested back and sent to another place ; which otherwise , being no more solicitous of the family-government of life , doth obey the law of scituation , by its weight only ! But that the evil humor to be wiped away by a Cautery , is a vapour translated and collected from the stomack into the head thorow the brain , coats , and scull , and from thence dismissed between the outward Muscles and skin , that was before peremptorily hissed out , concerning Catarrhs . In the next place , those things being granted , it should want the essence and Etymologie of a humor ; by consequence also , of an evil humour , to wit , of Phlegm , one of the four : For whatsoever had once been lifted up in manner of a vapour , and had grown together into drops , is neither thick nor tough , nor any more of one of the four humors made in the Liver ; but it should be a Post-hume distillatory liquor . Wherefore if any evil humour , the finall cause of a cautery , be not bred in the Liver , Brain , or Stomack ; which at length shall be the shop of evil humors for Catarrhs ? Or which is the sending , and lofty part , from whence they may be the more steeply brought unto a Cautery ? For in so great a strait of trifles , the Schools are constrained to confesse , that not any evil humor is dismissed unto the hole of a Cautery ; but that the venal Bloud degenerates in the wound it self , and in its Lips being evilly disposed : For this also is proper to all wounds , which want Balsame . Truly if the Schools do examine that Aphorisme , while corrupt Pus or snotty matter is making , the pain , labour , and Fever is greater , then when it is made ; they would certainly know that corrupt pus is materially produced out of the Blood , by the labour of the faculties , and consequently , that in an issue , corrupt Pus is wished for , for the same ends : The which standing , the position falls to the ground , which supposeth that evil humors are derived by Cauteries . 2. That the bringing forth of corrupt Pus in a wound , is not from the Center of the Body . 3. That it is not the excrement of Rheum flowing down . 4. That Cauteries do not purge bad humours , which do prepare good venal Blood into an excrement , with the labour of the digestive faculty . 5. That Cauteries do not any thing conduce to the preventing of a malignant humor which is locally made in the Lips of the wound it self . 6. That corrupt pus , and Sanies , cannot go back-wards from the hole of an Ulcer , and slide into a noble part , and much lesse the good Blood from whence the corrupt Pus is made . 7. If the venal Blood be an evil humor before it come down to the issue , then nature ordaineth some bad humor from the masse of the Blood , for the wounded part only , that it may nourish it , or this is ordinary within all particular parts : now then nature wholly laboureth with the vice of folly . 8. That it is a foolish thing , that to have made much thick corrupt matter , is for the Cautery to have well purged ; Seeing that corrupt Pus sheweth the corrupting of good Blood : And so while a man is not in good health , the issue , instead of snotty matter , weepes forth liquor . 9. If therefore a Cautery should make for the evacuation of ill humours , a man should needs be better in health , while liquor flows , than while snotty matter is made : Which in the position is false . From hence therefore it is rightly inferred , that no select ill humor , or pernicious excrement , which otherwise should fall down elsewhere , is evacuated by an issue ; but that , that whole matter , whether it be corrupt pus , or a thin poyson , is nothing else but meer Blood , designed for the nourishing of the Cauterized part , and there corrupted by the vice of the part ; and so that the corruption of it self , doth measure the goodness , and malignity of digestion in the place of the issue : And therefore while the whole Archeus doth in any sort labour , there is also a greater weakness of digestion in the issue , and the Pus is the nearer to putrefaction : and in this regard , the issue , by reason of a more powerfull hurting of digestion than was wont to be , weepeth liquor . Therefore it is the wish of the Schools , that of harmless bloud , there may very much and white Snotty matter be made : And that they call a good purging , if very much Blood be corrupted in the last digestion : which thing , if it be rightly considered , it will now plainly appear , that a Cautery is not to be imprinted for the purging out of a malignant humour , neither that a bad or evil humour doth exist ; but only for the diminishing of the abundance of Blood ; and so from a beholding of an exesse of a good humor only . Whence it follows , that it is not convenient for Young Folks , not for those that are become lean again , not for such as are brought low by any disease , as neither for those that live orderly , and least of all , for religious abstashing Persons . But they have not yet distinguished , whether corrupt pus in an issue , be only of the venal Blood , or of one of the four feigned humours , or indeed of a co-mixture of the four : If the first should be true , then the Pus should not be from an ill humour , but from the best of the four humours , and so an Issue shall be made void , and the best Pus , or the effect of an Issue shall be worst of all , feeing it was not but the corruptive of the best of all : But if they had rather devise , to wit , that the Blood is not at first evil , but becomes evil while it is seperated from its other fellows ; At leastwise the three remaining ones , shall in that severing , be as yet more bad than the bloud , and upon every event , an Issue shall not be made but for an evil end , that it might corrupt the good and guiltless Blood : But if they will have the corrupt Pus to be made of the four humours being co-mixt ; then a Cautery errs in its end ; seeing a Cautery prevails not to purge out hurtful humours , but to corrupt the good ones , which are by nature ( not erring ) sent daily unto it self for Nourishment . In the next place , a Cautery shall not be to be reckoned , as a preventing of a Catarrh ; or else , the matter of a Catarrhe should not be a vapour , nor also Phlegm ; but venal Blood it self , which the Issue in it self corrupteth : For corrupt pus is not made of Phlegm , but only of venal Blood , as hath been sufficiently instructed in the Schools . Therefore by the essence of corrupt pus , being well searched into , in its matter , & efficient cause , the ends of Cauteries & the purgings out of Catarrhs and evil humours do cease : For indeed any sumptom of wounds being taken away in Cauteries , and a supposed health , it must needs be , that a loosing or seuering of that which held together , doth produce snotty matter in the Issue , and that that doth not flow from elsewhere ; but that it is generated in the part it self . Also the Archeus daily dispenseth so much of the venal Blood to the parts proportionally , as they have need of for their own nourishment . Therefore the Pus or corrupt matter , is venal Blood vitiated in that part wherein the Wound is , and an effect of digestion vitiated in the same place . Therefore to have vitiated the entireness , continuation or holding together , and digestion of the parts , next , to have converted the venal Blood into corrupt Snotty matter , is reputed the very same thing in the Schools , as to have gone to prevent Catarrhs or Rheums ; or thorow the hole of a Cautery , to have extracted from the Head ( from whence they originally fetch all Rheums ) an excrementous humor , which otherwise had threatned to fall down on a noble part ; whether in the mean time , there be an agreement between the Head , and the Wounded part or not ; for it is all one , so the Skin be deteined Wounded , whether that excrementous humour be Blood , or be made snotty pus , or liquid Sanies , is all one , so by the thred-bare words of Catarrhe , prevention , derivation , revulsion , and an Issue , the world be circumvented . For I behold a small Infant of a Year old , now breeding Teeth , and to suffer a Fever , froath of the Mouth , and Spittle , without ceasing ; And a●●ength that there are wringings of the Bowels , and Stools of Yellow-Green-coloured excrements : At least that Tooth is a part of the Head , wherefore the Flux shall be a Rheum of the Head : But what consent is there of a Tooth about to break forth , or a swollen Gum with a Bowel ? Or what power thereof is there of begetting or sending away that Catarrhe out of the Stomack of a little Infant , unto his Head ? And from thence into the Ileos ? By what right shall a vapour dropped or stilled out of the Stomack , be made Cankered Choler in the Head ? Hath perhaps the shop of Choler now wandred from the beginning of Life unto the Head ? Could a Cautery ( if an Infant were for undergoing it ) suck unto it a leeky Flux into it self ? And by a few small drops of corrupt matter , recompence or Ballance the leeky Choler of some pounds ? Why doth the Stomack of a small Infant frame a Catarrhe by reason of the pain of his Tooth ? Why is it sent into a Bowell , and not unto the paining Tooth ? Doth not the reader yet see , that a Flux is not a Rheum ? But that the Archeus ( wheresoever yee will have it ) being enraged , is ready in the Bowels , to transchange the nourishable juyce into excrements , which by the Schools are reckoned Choler , Phlegme , &c. If therefore the Flux be not a Rheume , and the Archeus being wroth , can transchange any thing into a troublesom Liquor , if the Gum be but afflicted ; shall not he be able , on every side to unload himself by the appointed emunctories ? And not to wait for the Skin to be opened by a Caustick ? Alass , hath cruel dullness caused the Schools to be cruel towards their mortal kinsfolks ? For neither do they consider , that in Women , and those that are somewhat fat or gross , there is in the fleshly membrane , about the ordinary places of a Cautery , a meer grease to the thickness of two fingers at least , for which persons notwithstanding , the more frequent Cauteries ( and those the more profitable ones ) are perswaded ; wherefore also the bottom of the Issue shall scarce be in the middle of the grease : therefore there is not a passage , whereby the evil banished feigned humour of a Rheume , may rush down out of the Brain , or between the Scull , and Skin , thorow the middle of the fat . But what is that solitary humour , in the next place , which for its offence , being banished from the sending part , descending thorow the Substance of the grease unmixed , doth degenerate into corrupt Pus ? If it be an exhalation of vapours out of the Stomack , why shall it not be more frequent to younger and hot Stomacks , than to weak , old , and cold ones ? In what sort shall that water that droppeth out of a vapour , put on the form of Snotty matter ? How shall it hasten thorow the Brain , Coats and Scull , to find a hole made by a Cautery , that it may flow down thither only , and be purged ? Why doth not the vapour fly , first an hundred times into the Air , before it reach to the place appointed it by the alluring Cautery ? How shall the Water which climbeth from the Stomack , be now venal Blood , and the mother of corrupt snotty matter ? How shall venal Blood ( the matter of corrupt Pus according to Galen ) be the matter of a Catarrh ? Wherefore is the blood to be reduced into the order of evil humours , which being not yet defiled , is dispensed by nature unto the wounded place ? Why when the wound is made , shall nature cease to thrust down the condemned matter , by , and in to places accustomed unto it ? For shall it , the Skin being opened at the will of the Physitian , become afterwards ignorant of the waies ? Or hath it perhaps laboured only to find a passage elsewhere ? And that being now done , shall it afterwards come the into obedience of the Wounder ? Therefore these four particulars are false , to wit , that corrupt Pus is the matter of a Catarrhe ; that a Catarrhe is materially from a vapour of the Stomack ; that a Rheumy mater is expelled by an Issue ; and that this Rheumy matter is diverted on a noble part , unless it be revulsed or drawn back to some other place by a hole . The Schools have ( at least ) one escape : To wit , that Cauteries , in Chronical or long continuing Diseases , and likewise in the more fat Petsons , and such as abound in humours , have oftimes profited : Therefore it must needs be , that an evil humour at least is purged , and that the Body is unloaded by making of the Wound . Unto which privy shift I say ; The matter of a Catarrhe , its essence , manner , waies of derivation , and affect , and likewise an evil humour , and the ends of the Cautery , are feigned Dreams , the vails of shameful shoath and ignorance ; and so that examples of events , are not sufficient for destroying the Superstructures of Truth . What if Cauteries have sometimes profited : At least , that is not from the Root and essence of a Catarrhe , there being altogether none in it self : therefore if they have profited , let the Schools confesse that Cauteries do ptofit from means , and ends unknown to themselves ; and that they do extol a conjectural remedy , uncertain and by accident , with so great a Praise : For they worthily have admired Cauteries to have profited from the event : for if any affect which was to cease of its own accord , or presently after a fullness of time , hath perished ; do they therefore think that they have a right by Birth , of miserably torturing two hundred in vain , if a Cautery shall not prove unhappy to one by accident ? What if on the contrary , the Histories of many are compared , whereunto Cauteries have proved ill ; they presently say we are not Empericks , nor are we moved by examples : For the Schools are rational , and are supported moreover , by the Authorities of the Antients . And that thing they thus loftily thunder out , as oft as they being destitute of reasons , and convicted by experiences , do cease to be most expert Masters , neither will they be bowed by experiences contrary to their own : But they flee with one accord , unto the reasons of predecessours , the which I have shewn to be wan , sluggish , false , and stumbling in their first entrance . For truly when the Schools had discerned , that some perhaps by fortune had felt ease by a Cautery , presently a bristle , or cord being drawn on both sides thorow the Skin of the Neck , is believed to be a Remedy for an Opthalmy or Inflammation of the Eye , blear-eyedness , yea for Cataracts themselves , and a vitiated digestion of the Eyes : A Cautery in the opposite Leg , is believed to be a Medicine for the pain of the Sciatica or Hip-bone . They have made tryal of diverse Cauteries or Searings , and smiths have made a large house-hold-stuff , they have instituted Arabick burnings ( indeed nothing but Goats-dung fryed in a pan ) deep in the great toes , for those that have the Sciatica , and joynt-sickness or Gowt : Indeed they have every where set to sale Stage-play trifles , and dreams , for truth , in healing : But the Schools have at length admired , that one only joynt-sickness , designed to Catarrhs , hath derided all their speculations and Cauteries ; To wit , that it hath shewn it to be false , that the gowt was made by a defluxing Catarrh or rheum , and that a Cautery was a vain devise of derivation and revulsion , for a humor falling down . I do also more admire their doating Cauteries , in a consumption , defects of the Lungs , head , eyes , reins , to wit , from vain rheumy defects , and so their butchery , together with their juggle , than I do strive to excel their vain attempts : For so , in persons that have the falling sickness , the Paduans , Florentines , and Mount Pielirians , do drive a hot burning Iron even to the seam of the Scull , and they promise that Epileptical fumes will depart out of the brain thereby , not only that they would lessen the continuance of the fit , but that they would oftentimes suspend it for the future : But the sick undergo these things with a deaf hope of health ; but without example : Neither do they once weigh , that dreamed vapours do not affect the brain , through want of passage ; but on the other hand , that causes do stir up the tempest of a Disease , before they can come unto the skin of the hair . Wherefore , wan and vain is the endeavour and aid of a Cautery , which begins from the effect , incuring of Diseases : For it hath not yet been determined by the Schools , in what affects Cauteries may be convenient , because they do seldom and by accident , alone help , and so , that it is impossible , their own suppositions standing , that Cauteries should be profitable , therefore also to find out the reasons , manners , means , and scopes of Cauteries . But besides the decrees of the Schools concerning a Catarrh and a Cautery being left behind , the case may also easily be found , wherein Cauteries may profit : For truly , by reason of the necessary innovations of the venal blood , at every station of the Moon ( even as concerning a lunar tribute elsewhere ) indeed whatsoever shall be left of the old blood abounding , beyond the period of the foregoing Moon , all that ought to go either into fat , or into the excrement of the last digestion : The which , because it is dispersed and drawn forth by a Cautery , beyond the daily transpiration , therefore fat or gross , devouring , plethorick , and sitting bodies , do now and then feel succour by a Cautery , and no other : Because the mass of venal blood is taken away , towards a just weight and requisite proportion : the abundance whereof , doth otherwise load and burthen the Archeus , the parts , and the digestions , and distributions of these . For thus far the fear of an evil at hand is prevented . Therefore the whole benefit of a Cautery to be hoped for , is scituated in the moderating of the abundance of the blood , by a daily and peece-meal diminishing hereof : Else , the remedy of a Cautery is cruel , and stinking , which may easily be prevented by exercise , a just sparingness of dyet , and temperateness of living : whatsoever a more sparing food cannot heal , ease may not be hoped to be brought thereto by a Cautery , For the same things which make to the contemplation of a healthy and long life , excuse Cauteries . At leastwise the healing of a Cautery is alwaies cloakative , and that only in some , indeed hitherto unworthy of the Schools of Medicine : for they are wont to say , unless the issue which is once imprinted , be continued , the fear of a greater evil is incurred : But be it the meer ignorance of the Schools , which have applyed a Cautery for every event , not unto the former or unto the cause and root of the Disease , but unto the latter or product , which was no where worthily to heal . Therefore it is as yet not known by the Schools , by what positions , and in what Diseases , this dissembling cure of Cauteries may prevail : Because perhaps , fortune and ignorance being their leader , they have attempted all things , and do now attempt them : So as they command of course , that if a Cautery shall not help here , not there , nor being repeated , nor much of snotty and liquid matter be poured forth , let Issues be purposely closed up . CHAP. LI. The Disease that was antiently reckoned that of delightful Livers . 1. The false name of a drop , in this Disease . 2. The Gowt grows daily more and more frequent . 3. The Gowt will presently distinguish choice Physitians from others . 4. Things proper to the Gowt . 5. The unconstancy of the Schools . 6. A hot Gowt doth not differ in the particular kind , from a cold one . 7. A hereditary one at least , is not from a Catarrhe . 8. After what sort the limitation or appointment of the Seal in the seed is . 9. Diverse fellowships of the Character , with the corporeal Seed . 10. Nothing of a rheumy substance in the Gowt . 11. Why the Remedies and preventions of the Schools are abusive . 12. How long Medicines will be unprosperous . 13. That the Podagra is not in the foot , as neither the Chiragra in the hand . 14. The manner of making in the Gowt . 15. Why the perpetual place of the Gowt , is between the co-touchings of the bones . 16. Why the Gowt doth infect the seed of the Parents . 17. Why it begins far from the heart . 18. The sharpness of the Gowt is not yet in its seed . 19. After what sort that sharpenss is fermented . 20. What the Synovie is . 21. Whence a Gowty chalk may be formed . 22. From whence , and what is the afflux unto places of the Gowt . 23. Profitable and hurtful things , whom they may instruct . 24. Objects in healing . 25. The true Remedy of the Gowt . 26. A repetition of things spoken . 27. The name of a drop hath caused an errour in the supposition or subject of perceivance . 28. A definition of the Gowt . 29. The rise and progress thereof . 30. It is decyphered from the first into the last life . 31. Wherein the sick may be deceived . 32. Cauteries are vain in the joynt-sickness . 33. That no material thing which is humorous , is sent , doth slide , or is directed into places of the joynt-sickness . 34. The Remedies of the Schools , as well those of the Europians , as Barbarians , are vain . 35. Drying drinks are derided . 36. The Schools through their own rashness , do fail in the Gowt , Consumption , Catarrhs , and Cauteries . 37. Some things are chiefly true concerning moisture , and dryness . 38. Concerning different kinds of Remedies of the Gowt , elsewhere . THe Arthritis , joynt sickness , being understood by the name of the Gowt , it so attributed unto Catarrhs or rheums , that in many Nations , by putting one name for a another , it is called a Drop ; unto which Etimology the sick do assent , and have given their labour unto so great blindness of mortal men ; because they seem to foel the slidings of a certain drop , between the co-knitting of the bones : For the Schools who presume to teach every thing , do rejoyce that they have learned from the undistinct sense of the vulgar , and also proceeding without a diligent search , are become Rheumy : But seeing I have already overthrown the whole fable of a Catarrhe , I will also discover the errour of the vulgar sense , in the Gowt ; which I have judged could not otherwise be done , unless I shall explain the tragedy of the Gowt from its beginning . The Gowt remained unknown to the first ages , although man-kind , even from the Infancy of the World , did run into all luxury : But misery increasing by degrees on the weakness of men , it was at least so rare to the first writers , that it was scarce worthy of their quill : But the corruption of mortals , waxed afterwards more strong , it first of all arose in those who were most dissolute in Luxury : For hence it is believed to be the Plague or common destruction of those that are enslaved to leachery and riot , even unto our dayes . Notwithstanding , seeing it doth now oftentimes molest Labourers , and Capuchines who are most abstinent ; I have coniectured that the Gowt will presently spread abroad over the people , unless God being merciful unto us , shall prevent its in part Hereditary , and in part attained dammage . In the next place also , I have from thence fore-divined , that that will be the Gowt , which is to be brought as a prognostical Sign , after a Quartane , between choice and thinkative Physicians : for when it hath once taken root , it not only abides a companion of ones life ; but sometimes is unin-treatably transferred on remote Nephews : And so as it is ready , manifoldly to erect the fruitfulness of its Propagation for the future , it will distinguish of paultry contemptable Physicians : for there are many things which this princess of Diseases , doth keep as singular to it self : For besides stubbornness , it not only succeedeth through the begetting of parents , for some years ; but also moreover , it thirty years and more , in patience waiteth , before it bewray it self . Furthermore , the generater being not as yet Gowty , doth oft-times constitute an heir of his Gowt , almost the same year wherein the patient after generation , is to suffer the first beginnings of the Gowt . In the parent therefore , a silent , and not yet Plague , being bred , doth generate , before a just maturity of its Seed , which is denied to other Seeds in nature : as if the field of Humane nature being defiled , doth now of its own accord , beget the Gowt . I pass by ; that it produceth small Stones , Chalke or Lime , diverse in their Beginnings from Duelech or the Stone of the Kidneys , or Bladder , and a rocky Monster , out of a wonted and due place , and that it doth deform a man being maimed and cut short in his Members , from so proud a structure , into a Monster . But the Schools do without controversy attribute the Gowt to defluxions ; but it is not yet determined by them , whether that Rheum be lifted up from the stomach in manner of other things ; or whether indeed by the Liver , through the narrow and most knit Receptacles of the Veins , so different a kind of Catarrhe be derived thorow the Veins , not indeed by a straight line , where the mouths of the Veins do end ; but that it be stayed in unaccustomed , and wayes known only to nature , between the joynts , and Ligaments . But I being little careful of Fables , do suffer them to try both opinions . In the mean time they may be ashamed to have discourses of the causes of diseases , problematically only , and to have left them disputable . In the mean time , I certainly know , that the Gowt , whether it slide on the heirs through the Seeds of the Parents , or in the next place , be contracted by a proper error of living , is of one and the same kind , with every property following it : Neither that that doth relate any thing , whether a hot Gowt doth molest , and pain one greatly , or next , be reckoned more sluggish and mild through cold : because those are Ensigns of degrees , whereby the matter is ennobled or made remarkable ; but do not vary its essence . Then also I know , and have learned first of all , that at least an Hereditary Gowt is not derived from a Catarrhe , if it hath layn hid in the Seed , and that which is framed hereof , for the space of thirty years : For truly , seeing nothing that is external can be contained in the Seed , but for that very cause , it looseth the fruitfulness of causing off-spring ; be sure , that nothing of a Rheumy substance remains in the Seed , and that there is not place for any Hostile matter there . Therefore it is confirmed , that nothing doth remain in the Seed besides a Character or Seal of things to be acted in the body constituted ; and that that Seal is not indeed of so great a concernment , as to display the fruitfulness of a Seed , If an Hereditary disease , ought from thence to rise again in the Son , or Nephew . Again , neither can that Seal in the Seed , defile the Young with a monstrous deformity , although other Characters of Seeds by reason of their disposition , do figure the Seed : wherefore , although the Seal of the Gowt be in very deed in the Seed , yet it sleepeth , is silent , and layeth hid in the course of figuring , and so long as till at length , an opportunity of matter , and maturity being obtained , it unfoldeth it self . Therefore the Character or impression of the Gowt is in the Seed , as it were the first life , with a determination of silence , that it may sleep even till the first Fit , as it were a swallow all the Winter : Therefore the formative virtue in the Seed , doth not yet feel its own defect , by reason of the fault of a material Indisposition : for truly the Character in the Seed is not born to generate i●s Gowt , before its own maturity ; which ripeness of the Character , is now and then not unfolded but in the Nephew . Truly although there are strict wed-locks of the Seed of man with the Seed of the Gowt , that they do promise as it were an undissoluable unity for the future ; yet it is certain , that Diseases do not adhere to the root of the particular kind , unless in whom they are , as being created by a condition ( as the Falling-evil in the Elke and Swallow ) but only unto individual Beginnings , whereto they are fast tyed as it were by accident . Therefore if there be nothing of a Rheumy matter , actually , in the Seed of the Gowt , therefore , neither also in the Gowt , which is to arise from thence ; Seeing proper effects ought alwayes to bear a respect to their own causes . In the next place , if any Hereditary Gowt doth want a Catarrhe ; therefore also , any other ; Seeing , of one thing in the particular kind , there are alwayes the same specifical constitutive Beginnings . Furthermore , if that blemishing Gowty Character be so notably homebred to the Seed , so intimately social to it , sleeping with so patient a suspense , and not to be washed off by so many Circuits of years , and storms of Tempests ; I have judged it to be altogether of necessity , for the same to be coupled to the vital Spirit . Whence first of all , it is manifest , that the supposed withdrawings of bloud , and feigned Humors , for attempting the prevention of the Gowt , are vain : because that Character of the Gowt is not co-mixed with the venal bloud , but well with the Governour of the Solide parts : for indeed the venal bloud is many times changed , and the whole Fardle of nourishment , before the access of an Hereditary Gowt to come . From thence likewise it follows , that if the Character of the Gowt , being either transferred with the Seed of the Parents , on the young , or being gotten by the inordinate storms of life , be the connexed and efficient cause of the Gowt , and so that that be a true formal Gowt ; it is a fabulous thing , whatsoever hath been devised concerning Rheums and Drops : For that absurdity being granted , that a Catarrhe rayning down , did cause the access of the Gowt ; likewise , whatsoever Weapon hath been retorted on this , Disease , all that hath been directed unto the effects , the product , latter thing , or fruit ; but nothing unto the cutting off the cause . But seeing the true causes in the Gowt , have been unknown to the Schools , and will stand unknown as long as the doatages of Humors shall prevail ; it must needs be , that unprosperous and cruel Medicines have been hitherto applied by anoynting , for an unseen mark : for the Gowt is not in the Finger , but only the Apple or Fruit of the root ; and therefore , although thou shalt cut off the Finger , thou shalt not therefore cure the Gowt . For from hence two things do follow : The first is that the Gowt doth immediately consist in the Spirit of life , neither therefore , that the fruit of the Gowt is the Gowt , or the root thereof . The other is , that the Gowt doth not flow down materially , or ( as they will have it ) in manner of a Humor , as being a Bridge for the Rheum unto the joynts . Wherefore if I shall explain the Progress of the Gowt in its being made , I think , that by liberal wits , and those not yet defiled by any prejudice , I shall be affented unto : For in the beginning , after that the seminal Gowty Character is constituted ( be it now all one whether it shall be made to increase from the seed of the Parents , or next , be gotten by excess of living ) it must needs be , that it hath prescribed limits of its continuance , as well in rising up , as in continuing , according to the law of its destiny , and the successive change of things obeying . When therefore , the beginning of this Gowty motion is at hand , the vital spirit being an obedient client to the corruptive Character , puts on a fermental sharpness , altogether hostile to it self , and foreign unto us . In the next place , even as all sharpness , as well in the venal bloud , as in the flesh , is demonstrated to contein the beginning and token of putrefaction ; hence it comes to pass , that nature well perceiving or being thorowly sensible of that sharpness in the Spirit , which it conceived from the Seed or Gowty Character , doth presently stir up an every dayes Fever , before the comming of the Gowt : presently also a pain is well perceived in the proper place or Womb , to wit , where two Bones do touch each other ; first a small light pain , but afterwards , as it were that of a burning Drop : Being increased , it afterwards stirs up Pains , Burnings , and at length , oft-times , Swellings : For then the sharpness being conceived in the Spirit , by a spiritual Fermentation ; to wit , by an active alteration , defiles the Spermatical or seedy Glew which is conjoyned between the Ligaments , and the Bones . I have already before demonstrated , that the Character of the Gowt is of its own disposition , bred to infect , and to be transferred with the seed ( to wit , even as Mercury infects the Mouth and Teeth ; but the Spittle of a mad Dog , the brain ) as it were in an Inn , in which it oft-times lurketh for a long Race of years : Wherefore , by virtue of a co-resemblance , it is agreeable to truth , that the Character or Impression of the Gowt doth originally respect the Seeds : Notwithstanding , seeing nature is wholly careful of the Sex , and a diligent preserver of the particular kinds to be preserved , and a saver thereof ; she peculiarly , what she can , forsees , that that Character doth not infect the Species , or that it do not fall on the Stones : wherefore she could not at least prevent , that in respect of its disposition , it doth not Immediately infect the liquor next to the Seed , which Paracelsus calls the Sunovie , being plentifully powred forth between the chests of the Ligaments , and the co-touchings of the Bones . But at the very moment of Copulation , the Character of the Gowt , otherwise sleeping in the Spirit the Archeus , being stirred up under so great a stirring of Lust , is con-tempered with the Spirit , together with the seed , plainly after an irregular manner : because nature being then unable to govern the Rains , could not restrain , but that the Poyson of the Character doth fermentally infect the Lustful seed : Therefore seeing the Seed or Character of the Gowt doth regularly defile the Spermatical or Seedy parts ; therefore , as speedily as may be , the Sunovie ; which no where happens alone , but where two Bones do mutually touch each other : Hence is the place or Nest of the Gowt in the Joynts : which things , seeing they ought to succeed by causes already constituted , nature being at least needy of her own preservation , doth not suffer the imprinted Spirits to infect the Sunovie , but in places far distant from the heart : For from hence the name of Podagra or Gowt of the Feet , and of Chiragra or Gowt of the Hands is borrowed . But at length , when as the Disease hath gotten strength in going , and nature hath lost hers ; the Gowt molesteth more-nigh places also : Therefore the sharpness of the Gowt being conceived , is in the Spirit , as also in the seed potentially , without an actual tartness ; to wit , even as the seed of a Pear doth not shew forth the tast of the Fruit : but while the time of ripening is urgent or at hand , a sharpness is actuated in the Spirit , and desiles this , which in a little space after , defiles the Sunovie with its own Ferment ; no otherwise , than as the smell of a soure Earthen-pot , doth a little after , curdle new Milk poured into it . But in the mean time , while these things happen within , the whole Archeus of the body is altered in himself : For many Gowty persons have known that they did foretel to themselves a fit at hand , from the Excrement breeding between their Toes its being changed : which thing surely , doth not bewray so much the defluxion of a Humour , as the very altering of the Sweat and Latex it self . The Sunovie therefore , from whence or what time it once falls down , or becomes sharp , cannot but provoke Paines , wherefore by reason of a greater and less sharpness , do the heats , greatnesses , or cruelties , & properties of the Gowt only differ . But the Sunovie is a certain cleer Muscilage or slymie juyce , such as drops out of the shanks of a killed Calfe when his feet are cut off : but a sharpness being presently conceived , the Sunovie waxeth clotty , in the form of Cheese , and becomes thick : And so also it is thereby rendred unapt , that according to a wonted Tenour of health , it can wholly exhale , without the residing of a dead Head : And hence the degenerate , diseasie Birth becomes an unhappy mother of knots : for then it suffers a puffing away of the watery parts , the remainders of the thick and hardened Sunovie being retained : Hence are those monsters , Lime and Chalke . Therefore that sharpness is the cause of the pain , but the pain is the cause of the flowing forth of the neighbouring venal bloud which is good and guiltless : But the afluxion of bloud , is not a defluxion from the Head , or Liver , sent thither thorow straight passages of wayes impossible to the understanding : And although it may deceive the unwary senses , and they may seem to feel a defluxion from aboue ; yet they are only the deceitful Judgments of the senses ; even as when the Tooth akes , an increase seemeth to raine down to the payning causes on the whole side of the Head : no otherwise than as at the pain of the cleaving of the Skin at the roots of the Nailes of the Fingers , or a White-flaw , a Kernel appears under the Arm-pit . For by a local Remedy , the pain of the Teeth departs , or it being pulled out by the roots , ceaseth , and the Kernel vanisheth when as the Finger is eased of pain . This is the original & root of the Gowt , & this is the manner of its making : the which surely is confirmed by things helpful , and hurtful : Not indeed that I do approue of that Maxime , shameful in it self : or that I will have curative judgments to be drawn from thence : But errors being sometimes admitted , do instruct Judicious erring persons , who are willing to be wise in Charity , as good Remedies do confirm good operators : And therefore , whatsoever begins a subtile sharpness in the Spirit , doth ripen , increase , or promote the same ; that also Spurs on the Fits of the Gowt ; of which sort are white , sharpish Wines , containing little of Wine , and much of Vinegar being the more largely drunk ; and likewise whatsoever things are corruptives of the liquor Later , as Asparagus , &c. In like manner also , whatsoever things do take away sharpness out of the Spirit of life , and the Latex , before the fit , being inwardly taken , or outwardly applyed , do remove , prevent , or preserve from the fit ; at leastwise they do mitigate the pains , and hinder the knots . But in curing the Gowt . , the sharpness produced is not to be regarded ( which is instead of a fruit and of a product ) but we must meditate , after what manner the Seminal o●seedy Character of the Gowt may be abolished out of the Spirit of Life : The which otherwise , remaining , nothing is done which is worthy a choice Physitian . For neither doth every Letter-Carrier come unto the Caskets of the vital Spirit ; but only the Embassadour who is a Friend . And therefore the purging by the Coralline secret , kills the Gowt in its seed . But that Arcanum is not the Colour or Tincture of Coral ( as the rout that are ignorant of Chymical matters do scoffingly interpret ; because the applied words of Paracelsus ( which is of the essence of Gold ) do sound another thing : Nor also doth the colour , sulfur , or Tincture of Gold move the Belly : but this secret is in matter , metallick , in Colour , Coralline , in savour , like hony , and in essence , Golden : Not indeed , that it was ever a Malleable or Hammerable Body ; but it is the Horizon or circular bound of gold , an un-concluded or un-enclosed and fixed Body , whose Sulfur is sweet , and Co-mixeable with our constitutive parts : For in this Sulfur the almighty hath Collected all the virtues of Sol , to whom alone all Honour and Glory is due . He that understands me is rare ; yet he knoweth that what things I have said concerning Gowt , are true . Nevertheless , seeing that is not sufficiently spoken , which is not sufficiently understood , it shall perhaps be profitable , to have repeated the rise , and progresse of the Gowt in an Epitome . In the first place , those that have the Gowt or are Gowty , do complain that they do well perceive or feel the defluxion of a burning Humor . But I have already sufficiently and more than sufficiently taught , that there never was any humor of us in nature , besides the blood , the Latex , and a secondary or nutritious nourishment , and besides a degenerate excrement , and that none of these do flow down , and much less can a defluxion be felt , a humor no where exsisting but in Galenical books . Therefore in the suposition of feeling or percievance , there is ( of necessity ) an errour Therefore the Gowt is a diseasie Character , Seminally implanted in the spirit of life : the which at the set bounds of its own ripeness , doth beget a fermental sharpe Fruit , co-fermentable with the spermatick or seedy parts . Therefore the Gowt doth not exist in the venal Blood , and muchless in the excrements . But Gowty Persons are first disturbed in their Midriffs , and they do as well feel the inward successive changes of Drinks and Meats , as the outward ones of the air , yea and oftentimes they presage these to come . Wherefore , they at first undergo feverish motions about the Shop of the vital Spirit , and indeed in the beginnings of a fit : For the first Motions do ascend out of the Midriffs , and assault the Seat of the Sensitive Soul : For the Character conceived in the Midriffs , unfoldeth the figures of the Moon , and Mercury , and afterwards is perfected in the Heart : But the formed , or ripened Character , doth there put on a feverish Spirit , as it doth infect it : The which , assoon as it hath conceived the sharpness of the content or co-resemblance of Life , or a fermental sharpeness , it is ill-favouredly driven by a feverish Motion , and is feverishly brought unto appointed places , to wit those of the raw sperm , in the Sunovie of the joynts : The Spirit I say , being thus infected , and not a humor ( which thing is to be noted ) doth Coagulate the Sunovie , being a transparent thing in it self , with the sharpness of a ferment , into a thick clot ; So that by reason of the degree of a conceived brackishness , heats , pains , and swellings of the Gowt are distinguished . But that the Humor Latex is called by the horn of pain , and is dismissed by the veins , to wash it off , it is certain , that it hath confirmed in the Schools the errors of defluxions , an accused Liver , and the Head to have paid the punishment of an undeserved fault , and to have sustained a thousand vain Medicines . Therefore the Gowt is not that which Paineth , and that which Swelleth , or burneth ; but they are the products hereof : For neither when the foot is taken off by the Bullet of a Gun , is the Gowt taken away , or the Joynt-sickness : for truly , in the act of feeling , by an instrument of feeling , there is made only a consent of parts : Which thing hath deceived the Sick , and Physitians who believe or trust to them : neither in the mean time , doth Swelling prove a descending : For that which follows the Pain , ought to go before it , if the descending of a humor , or a Swelling should be the cause of the Pain . Add to this , that the hottest Gowt is without Swelling : For that is wont to be seen in the pain of the Teeth , in the thorn fixed in a part , that the pain of a place doth counterfeit the defluxions of the upper parts ; But what have these things common with the fable of a Catarrhe ? On the contrary , the Schools do persist , they inflict Cauteries on the opposite side , that they may pull back the humor flowing down into the opposite Leg , and expunge it by a hole : But in good sooth , what do Cauteries suck out ? nothing but Snotty , and liquide corrupt matter : But these are the fruits of a Wound , the degenerations of venal Blood. Is therefore the matter of the Gowt , Snotty corruption , or liquid corruption ? Or the Snotty filths of an Ulcer ? Is Snotty matter ever transchanged into a Chalk ? Is Snotty corruption quiet without corroding ? Therefore the Schools sell their own Dream to the Young beginner ; that Snotty corrupt matter doth descend between the joints , or that it is apt to be turned into a Chalk ; but well , that it maks an opening to it self by Corroding : And it is more childish that any Snotty corrupt thing flowing down into the right foot , should decline from the scope appointed to it , if the Wound be made in the left leg ; the which if it do flow down , it falls down of its own free accord , or is sent and directed by a Commander . I pass by in the mean time , the absurdities of making it , and of waies or passages which I have elsewhere blown away : And likewise the falling down of humors seperated from the venal Blood , I have already before , together with the humors themselves , banished without the nature and hope of things , in an appointed Book : First of all that there is no part Commanding , Sending , Darting , or Directing , hath been elsewhere sufficiently concluded : But if of its own accord , it fall down into the side perpendicular unto it ; surely the humor will not fall in one that Sleeps , if the whole Body Sleepeth in a plain Bed , because a Perpendicular line is wanting ; neither shall a humor sliding down by its weight , be called away from its purpose , although the hole be in the opposite Leg. In the Gowt therefore , surely , nature hath derided the vain purgations of Physitians , their extenuations , cuttings of a Vein , Scarrifying , hot Baths , and Cauteries , the which do even detract from the strength , and shorten Life : For it is certain that nature fore-perceiving and fearing a ruine procured unto her , such remedies do often mitigate the aforesaid Sumptoms ; but that appeasing is presently to be requited with a more cruel pain , and cruelty of knots . Therefore all things have been hitherto attempted with an unprosperous event . In the next place , they appoint dry sweats with lesse loss of Life indeed ; but with the like unprosperousness of successes . At length , they give drinks , from a barbarous foundation , of the utmost corner of the Earth , to drink , and when they perceived our own Country remedies to be in vain , they promise that humors ( never seen , named , and bred ) are to be dryed up at least by barbarous remedies . But why do they give these drinks to drink also in a dry consumption ? Is it not that they may dry up the defluxing and exorbitant ill juicy humor ? But let them first satisfie the question , whether the thing be , or not ; whether watery decoctions are for drying up ? And then let them teach , that these drinks will not by a certain priveledge , dry up the Blood , as neither those Humors which they call secondary ones ; but the other three Dreamed ones only in the Blood ; or next , only Phlegmatish excrements ; lastly , that they will not vitiate the requisite composition in the Blood , and the due proportion of the thing composed : But if these sort of decoctions do only dry up slimy and sharp excrements ; at leastwise , they shall increase the clots and knots , by leaving a curd of harshness . But if they do these things in Rheums , why not in the Gowt ? Or if not in the Gowt , why also not in Catarrhs ? If they do dry up Phlegm between the joints , when they are given to drink for prevention of the Gowt , how shall they not constrain Phlegm sliding in the Veins , or in the passage between the Skin , unto a Sand-stone and knots ? If tough Phlegm be dried up into the Sand-stones , by decoctions ; shall they not increase hurt in those that are distempered in their Lungs ? And therefore are they wickedly prescribed and given to Drink : If dry things do imbibe or drink up moisture , at leastwise , I do not see how moist things shall dry up , especially where the Drink of that which is decocted doth alwaies remain Moist . Lastly , at leastwife a Catarrhy humor could not chuse but be an excrement : But the Schools have not considered , that excrementous things cannot be blown away , as neither be dried up without a dead Head. For I have elsewhere taught , that drying up is only of heat , and cold : This whereof , in an increased degree scarce Tolerable for living Creatures , doth convert watery Bodies into a Gas ; but the other is not an Operative quality into a drying vapour , as neither into Moisture ; but that the dry doth drink up the moist , and on the other hand , that the most doth moisten as it is imbibed : But moisture is not dryed up by dryness , but the moisture departing , being supt up by heat , or cold . The Schools in defluxions , do forbid hot things , do forbid Wines , do perswade Barley Broaths , and so in the middle of the Waters , sometimes moistening , and sometimes drying up ( as they say ) they endeavour to dry up ; but they know not what , in what manner , and by what means , because hitherto , the Humor the Author of so great evils , is an unnamed one . I therefore have not known , either the Motion , or manner , or means , whereby these Drinks are able to dry up , by a true drying up , and much less hurtful excrements only , and least of all , can they perform those things which Physitians do promise . Nature therefore despiseth these Dreams of Physitians , and doth alwaies make , and will alwaies make void their promises . I beseech the most excellent God , that he would pardon the offences or sins which we have contracted , not by a stubborn ignorance , but from humane frailty : Yet I fear , least that befall Physitians , which doth other men ; among whom an ignorance of right or Law , takes away or looseth the inheritance . Last of all , even as the Gowt is truly , a primary or chief disease ; hence the knowing thereof , depends on the knowledge of chief Diseases , about the end whereof , some things are recorded concerning the cure of the Gowt . CHAP. LII . A Raging or Mad Pleura . 1. The Pleurisie of the Schools . 2. The errors of the definition , and forgetfulnesses of themselves . 3. Some Dreamed assertions . 4. Whether the weight of Phlegm falling down , doth pull away the Pleura from the Ribs . 5. Some more gross assertions . 6. The Vain Azugos hath no regard unto the essence of a Pleurisie . 7. The vain hope of revulsion and derivation . 8. To what end Blood-letting may conduce in a Pleurisie . 9. The Schools are deceived by Artificial things . 10. Both causes of the Disease do remain in their own effects . 11. Some rashnesses of Paracelsus . 12. The carelesseness of the Schools . 13. The consideration of the Author in a Pleurisie , declared by an example . 14. A contemplation of sharpness in the bounds of a Pleurisie . 15. A Proofe . 16. The vanity of bloud-letting . 17. Things required in a Remedy . 18. A sharpness is proved in the Pleurisie . 19. How the Pleura may be pulled away from the Ribs . 20. Whence an inflammation of the Lungs is . 21. The Thorn being plucked out , the place doth oft become thorny . 22. From whence a Pleurisie is . 23. Where the Kitchin of a Pleurisie is . 24. The repentance of nature in a Pleurisie . 25. The Antients have spoken something of a Husteron Proteron , concerning the Pain of the Pleurisie . 26. How the bloody Flux seperates it self from a Pleurisie . 27. Wherein a Peripneumonia or inflammation of the Lungs , and an Imposthume full of Corrupt Matter , do differ from a Pleurisie . 28. What a clyster can work in the bloody-Flux . 29. The use of Ecligmaes are taken notice of . 30. The Schools are every where buisie about the Cloakatived cure of Diseases . 31. The cruel carelessness of Physitians . 32. Remedies wrested in a Pleurisie . 33. Notable absurdities about the Bloody-Flux . 34. Why a Clyster is hurtful to a Bloody-Flux . 35. Observations of the Author who had a Pleurisie . 36. How a seasonable cutting of a Vein differs from that which is delayed . THe Pleurisie is by the Schools numbred among defluxions or rheums , & they define it to be a bloody Aposteme , wherein the Pleura or coat which girdeth the Ribs , is plucked from the ribs , with a continual Fever , & pain of the place . And Aposteme is the general kind of the Disease defined ; and so those who always define a Disease to be a disposition , and do place it among qualities , do now think , the product or effects of a Pleurisie which follow upon the placing of a defluxing rheum , to be the Disease , and do provide it a place among substances : but they no longer place it among a distemper , disposition , and hurting of an action ; but they now affirm it to be a material product and Aposteme . In the next place , they leave it uncertain , whether they may ascribe the Pleurisie to a Phlegm or salt Rheum , or indeed to venal blood expelled thither : But neither do they also explain in the least , what that furious disposition may be , which by its angry heat , doth rent the Pleura from the Ribs ; Yet that animosity is in nature , and motion , before the defluxing rheum , and the Catarrh before that pulling asunder , and that divulsion goes before an Aposteme . Therefore they define the effect , also they think that a defluxing rheum , doth by its weight of salt phlegm , actually rent the Pleura from the Ribs : Moreover , the Schools omit , that they do in a Pleurisie decree not any remedy for a Phlegmatish Catareh , as also , they are forgetful of the Pleura already torn , because they do provide for expectoratings only , by sugared lickings or Ecligmaes . Indeed they sufficiently see , that the Pleurisie is a sudden Disease , for which , the saltness of the Phlegm could not far of have produced a corroding in the place , or have made a hollowness , which the blood falling down thither , doth fill up , and further extend : Therefore , they will have that defluxing Phlegm , only by its weight to rent the Pleura from the Ribs : As if , it should not flow down by drops , and the weight of Phlegm that flows down from above , now falling down perpendicularly on the place , should make the force of some pounds at once ! But they have not yet declared the hollowness in which that height of heaped-up Phlegm should reside : For although the sick should be as empty in his brain , as is the present foolish assertion of the Schools , yet so great Phlegm in the Scull could not tear the Pleura from the Ribs . 2. They have not yet taught the wayes , whereby the continuance of the Rheum in its passage from the brain , should be unto the membrane between the Ribs , and much less which by its weight , aloof of , should perform that . 3. Neither also , have they as yet denominated that renter and so mighty tearer , which may pluck away the Pleura , grown to the Ribs on every side , by a stiff and much fiber , or which may stretch water into a dropsical belly , like the tympany . Neither lastly , do they shew , why that Catarrh doth rain down unto an appointed and small place , which was made or detained in the brain in common : For doth not the subsequent subscribing to each other , from so many and so great rashnesses of the Schools , deserve to be of suspected credit ? For it is a work of greater violence than that of Phlegm falling down , to have pul'd away the Pleura from the Ribs : For as many as have commented on the ninth Chapter of Almanzor , longly and largly , concerning the vein Azugos or stock arising from the right side of the trunk of the upper part of the hollow vein , whether it be distributed between the Ribs , without a peer or fellow , do scratch themselves , and so forget their defluxing rheum , even as also the weight of the same , being turned only unto the emptying of venal blood : For herein they rather consider the one only remedy which they have , and that alike known to Country People , to wit , by the only repeated cutting of a vein , than the very nature of the Disease , or the Schools their supposed causes of a Rheum . And moreover , all have altogether declined from that absurdity , because the consideration of a Rheum being rejected in time of curing , they think to have brought the cause from that part first , from which the blood slid as it were by accident , out of the unlike vein , between the Pleura : For they have alwayes so greatly fallen under sluggishness , that they for the most part overshadow the causes , by meditating on the effects : Neither have they ever heeded , that the blood is not brought down by the veins of their own accord , as neither that it slides into the place by its own proper fall : For to tear the Pleura from the Ribs , to send venal blood thither , and the like , are the offices of life , but not the faults of a sliding liquor . But what will the Schools do , which are accustomed to subscribe so much to Pagans , whose doctrine is wont to imitate , not nature , but science Mathematical it self in artificial things ? For they see the vein Azugos to be extended and derived thorow both Ribs ; therefore from hence also , they beg all the cause ; No otherwise than as a Traveller sleeping about a river , and a dead carcass is found slain in the next wood by Thievs , therefore , that sleeping man , loosing his head as guilty , ought to shed all the blood . Therefore they appoint blood-letting , and try to draw forthblood by revulsion , out of the vein Azugos , made guilty , as the most neer , immediate , and containing cause . But where now remains your Catarrh of Phlegm , or Choler flowing down from the head ? and the which only by its weight , doth tear the Pleura from the Ribs . They at least intend to pull back blood from the unlike or non-peered vein , not only flowing , but also in possibility to flow : And it is for that cause , called revulsion , even as also , some more near vein being pierced as it were the mediatress of the evil , is called derivation . Alas ! how circumspect are the Schools in discursive and artificial things ? Which in nature are nothing but mockeries ? Because although a vein of the elbow may empty out all its blood , even into the hollow vein , and this consequently , may draw the blood out of the vein Azugos ; yet the Schools ought to know , that presently after , the whole venal blood is equally restored again into the veins ; So that , although the vein of the elbow might be wholly evacuated ( which is never ) yet that the whole blood should be presently again equalized throughout the whole co-weaving of the veins : whence it is manifest , that the trifles of revulsion and derivation are vain , because they are such things , which being granted , yet would be serviceable to the intention but for a small time of delay . I pray therefore let Physitians consider , that blood-letting is not of use in the Pleurisie , for revulsion and derivation , but for a meer exhausting of the blood and strength , and the lessening thereof ; To wit , that nature being sore afraid of that evacuation , may desist and cease from sending an increase of venal blood about the Pleura : Let them well mark , I say , whether this be not , with so notable and sudden a loss of strength ( in a disease wherein the faculties themselves alone do bear the whole burthen ) to cure from the latter or effect , by a forecaution and prevention of its increase ? Is that , I say to go unto the co-knit and nourishing cause , while as they do not convert their whole endeavour unto the thing doing or causing , but unto the thing to be done ? They are altogether foolish services which are drawn from artificial things : For a Brook flowing to a certain bound , is diminished and stayed if its bank be opened at the side , and it slide with a more near and ready journey to a steep place : But what shall that profit , if the blood can be only emptyed unto some ounces alone , and indeed with a notable loss of strength ? Shall not the blood , when the vein is stopped up , flow again unto the place appointed , as long as the beginning of motion doth remain ? Shall it not be more convenient , to have stayed the beginning of the Flux ? Seeing that , from a vein being cut , no other good can be expected in the Plenrisie , than that which may be hoped for by the weakning of the strength ? To wit , because nature being greedy of strength , needy and wanting of venal blood , ceaseth from a sumptomatical motion toward the Pleura , as long as shee remains enfeebled : And therefore , the Pleurisie not increasing for a while , nature as it were repenting of the rumor and storm , thinks of a ripening of the corrupt Pus that is to be framed of the out-hunted blood : All which things would more successfully follow , the blood being retained , wherein the life , that is , the strength dwells ; because the life is nature , which is the alone Physitianess of Diseases , and she failing , the Physitian takes away his shoulders . Therefore the Schools have not hitherto taken heed unto the impulsive cause , which pours forth the blood out of the veins into undue places , beyond bound and measure , and which furiously plucks away the Pleura from the Ribs , and prepares a wound and hollowness : Which causes being co-knit together , are iddeed before the effect ; yet do they so persevere in the same effect , that they are materially and efficiently the very effects themselves : Unto which effect indeed , slow and impotent is the race of false and salt Phlegm out of the head , and the dreamed rheumy defluxions , through channels or continuations of passages not existing . But Paracilsus meditating of this pulling away of the Pleura , and being willing to square a cause thereunto , hath brought in other follies , that he may defend his own mad laws of a little world in us : For he feigneth anew , and Ogertine salt , else never named by him , however variously he itcheth in himself concerning salts in Ulcers and Apostemes , even to the fetching off of the skin . And first of all , he teacheth , that this Ogertine salt is of the property of Arsenical Sulphurs : in the mean time , he is silent concerning its mines , veins , property , history , etymology , and reason of its etymology , because it was dreamed by him : But at leastwise , he had acted nothing more cleerly herein ; seeing he dawbs no less with the same elay , than that wherewith the Schools are defiled : For truly , none hath hitherto declared , why the Pleura departs from the Ribs , whereunto it is adjoyned by a continued thred of fibers ; to wit , whether it be pulled away of its own free accord , or indeed by another tearer : they are content , as satisfied in the doubt , if they shall say , it is rent from the Ribs by the weight of a down-rouling Catarrh : in the resolving nevertheless , of which doubt , as of the root , the whole cure and prevention of a Pleurisie doth consist : For the root of every Disease , is worthy of the dumb silence of the Schools ( to wit , I shall shew in a peculiar treatise , that the very essence of any kind of Diseases whatsoever , hath been hitherto unknown in the Schools ) ; it hath seemed to suffice them , if they have applyed their doctrine unto without , unto artificials , unto the latter sumptoms , unto the consequent fruits or products : as though the stage of causes and essential roots were ridiculous and in vain . Paracelsus also , if he reckoned to confirm any solid thing toward a Disease of so great moment , and to add his doctrine thereto , if he determined not to derive his Ogertine salt it self , from a power unto act , out of the blood ; at leastwise , that unwonted , unnamed , and unknown salt ought to have brought a necessity of its invention , and of its generation , that at least , some place might be afforded for prevention For this , the pretended title of the Monarch of secrets doth require . But all things have remained neglected , because the chiefdome of healing hath stood founded upon empty stubble . I promise therefore , that whatsoever hath been built thereon , shall fall to the ground : For whether a fire , the searcher out of truth , be built , or next , whether the voluntary corruption of dayes shall consume the stubble , at leastwise I know , that at length that building will fall to the ground . But I , in a Pleurisie , consider , the first inward moover , or spur , and afterwards the tearer of the Pleura : And both those being one and the same efficient cause of it , I call the Pleurisie it self : But the venal blood flowing thither , and that which is poured out thither , and the aposteme sprung from thence , I consider as the product ; to which end I will bring common experience for an example : Let a Thorn be thrust into any part of the Body , the which , pain instantly succeedeth ; from the pain there is presently a Pulse , from the Pulse , an afflux of vendl blood , whence ariseth a swelling , a fever , an Aposteme , &c. the Thorn therefore mooves the other things after it . Therefore the Metaphorical Thorn of the Pleurisie , and by speaking properly , the Pleurisie it self , is a forreign sharpness conceived in the Archeus , the which if it chaseth , or layes aside into the blood of the hollow vein , surely that is expelled unto the vein Azugos , yea or into the very flesh near the Ribs , from whence ariseth an Aposteme as the product of the Pleurisie . In the next place , as an Aposteme which is bred from a Thorn fastened in the finger , a not but rashly cured by cutting of a vein ; but it promiseth a cure by reason of the plucking out of the Thorn only : so it happens in the Pleurisie . For as sharpness in the stomack , is an acceptable , and ordinary savour ; so out of the stomack , all sharpness is besides nature , and hostile , which hath been hitherto unknown in the Schools . For so , from a sharpness , are wringings of the bowels , there is a strangury in the Urine , a corroding in Ulcers , in the skin a scab , in the joynts the Gowt , &c. And the which , if thou wilt experience to thy hand , mingle some drops at least , of sharpish Wine , with the Urine that hath been newly pissed out without pain , and cast it in with a Syringe : Thou shalt experience against thy will , that I teach the Truth . In the humor Latex also , ( of which afterwards in its own place ) it raiseth up a bastard Pleurisie , ( the which they , altogether through the same carelessness of narrowly searching , as in other Diseases , do call a windy one ) : but if the Archeus hath laid up a gentle sharpness into the lap of the venal blood , unhappily applied to it ; it as despised , is presently hunted out , and cast out of the veins , and brings forth an Aposteme in whatsoever place that shall happen : but if that doth happen to be the deeper or lavisher in the veins , a certain pestilent affect ariseth : The which ; I prove ; for the venal bloud , or flesh , do never wax soure or sharp , without an actual obtaining of putrefaction ( the which I have els-where on purpose proved by the fleshes of Beasts which do most swiftly Putrifie under the Dogstar , therefore yielding soure Broath , ) for the bloud waxing soure , is , contrary to the nature of the Veins , and to the disposition of the whole flesh ( as long as it liveth ) presently coagulated : For the venal bloud in a dead-Carcasse , is preserved by the Vein , a good while from coagulating , out of which , if it shall fall , it waxeth presently clotty ; which is more largely declared els-where . Hence it follows , that of an Aposteme made in a Pleurisie , the bloud of the same cannot be evacuated by a Vein being cut , however the name of Revulsion and Derivation be boasted of , for fear of the disease , and delusion of the Sick : And likewise , neither doth the cutting of a Vein hinder , that any thing doth any more for the future , wax sharp , seeing blood-letting hath the power only of a Privation : neither can the venal bloud which is brought forth , hinder , that that which ( being within ) hath drawn a sharpness , should not lay the same aside : But a meet Remedy for the Pleurisie , is bound to cause an a versness from the conception of a sharpning in the Archeus . If therefore the sharpness of the venal bloud be a token of the same putrifying , it is certain , that a Vein doth receive into it self , neither putrified , nor putrifying bloud , neither that it suffers it to putrifie , if as yet after death is defend the same from co-agulating . Therefore there is some exorbitant or pestilent Impression in the bloud , if it wax sharp never so slenderly . But if the Archeus be infected by an Endemical matter breathed into the Breast , or a sharp Poyson otherwise bred within , and he shall affect the bloud of the Veins , or other bloud designed for nourishment ; any part whatsoever being sore afraid of corrupting , doth presently repulse the same bloud from it . This I say , is the efficient and true Spur of the Pleurisie : and that thing , Hippocrates the first of Physicians seemeth to have perceived , while he writeth : Hot , Cold , Moist , or Dry , are not diseases ; but that which is Sharp , Bitter , Soure , and Harsh . But that there is sharpness in a Pleurisie , is manifest from this ; because in the Pleurisie , the Urine and venal bloud being drawn forth by a cut Vein , do wax clotty even in going forth , or before the co-thickning of the bloud ; which clottiness or cheefiness is the effect of sharpness : But the Latex which waxeth sharp , lighting into the flesh between the Ribs , causeth a Pleuritical pain ; but not a true and constant affect : And therefore , that which they name a Flatulent or windy one ( although windy Blasts do never reach thither , unless by taking of a transchanging Poyson ; even as concerning windinesses ) doth by a slender Remedy presently produce it self discussable , to wit , by unperceivable Transpirations . Therefore the sharpness presently brings forth pain : but I have called ( in the Book of the Disease of the Stone , in the Chapter of Sensation ) the proper companion , and cause of pain , a Convulsion : In which Convulsion , the Pulse which before lay hid , is manifested , the Artery waxeth hard , and pain acompanies it : But because a Convulsion is for the most part extended , and slackened by intervals ( which the pain of women in Travail doth testifie ) hence it comes to pass , that as oft as the Pleura is intenton its cramp , by a proper Blas of motion , so often something of the Fibers is rent asunder from the Ribs ; and while it doth but never so little slacken it self , the neighbouring bloud runs to it into the place of the wrinckles made by contracting of the Fracture : And this by repeated turns , is the cause of a great Aposteme , according to the frequency , and sharpness of the Contractures : But the venal bloud being hunted out , or otherwise exceeding a just Dose , by reason of the mark of a sharp or soure Ferment conceived , becomes hostile , and is presently curdled . But if indeed the sharpness be dispersed by the infected Archeus into the Arterial Vein , or Venal Artery ( which are the vessels of the Lungs ) a necessitated Inflamation or Impostume of the Lungs doth happen . Let the Schools therefore see and discern , whether blood-letting can cure the containing cause and root ; or whether indeed their whole endeavour doth only extend it self , that with a procured loss of strength , they may prevent an increase of the Pleurisie , when much : For thus the manner of making diseases ought to be explained by their motive and vital causes , if it be needful to have young beginners rightly instructed , and for Physitians to be so consulted with , that afterwards , every one may rightly perform his office , and that the sick neighbour may thereby crop his desired Fruit. For the Thorn being pulled out , the rest doth easily cease ; unless perhaps long delay hath made the Apostem it self Thorny . For an Apostem , or Ulcer being once formed , although they have neither privily gotten root in the body , nor are nourished from elswhere , yet they do afterwards stand by themselves , and subsist without any other Patronage of them . We must therefore employ our selves about the plucking out of the Thorn : and there is a stubbornness of a consumptive Ulcer ; because the Ulcer hath not now , a Thorn , but hath become Thorny . The Pleurisie therefore , is bred in us of its own accord , when a guest of the first digestion being a stranger , flees into anothers Harvest ; or otherwise , a Poysonous Endemick being breathed in ; and then a Pleurisie is frequent among the people . For in much heat , a sudden and much abundant drinking of cold water or drink , doth contract the Pleura , no otherwise than as any other sharp thing which rusheth on it . Also the kitchin of the Pleura is not in its most thin and undividable little membrane ; but in the flesh between the Ribs which co-toucheth with it : For it s too much slenderness doth not suffer a kitchin to be hid within it self : Therefore the blood of the Pleura it self , is most swiftly mortified by a violent external thing rushing on it , whether it shall be sharp , or a sudden cold ; Because in that outward kitchin , nourishment is not digested , and prepared for it . The blood therefore being vitiated , wnile it is in making for the nourishment of the Pleura , it straightway waxeth sharp , and becomes a true Pleurisie : But they do feel the Pleurisie , not indeed , to come , but to have come , and to be present , while it is generated by an external thing rushing on it : For natural generations are made as it were in an instant : And therefore the degeneration of the bloud in the aforesaid and outward kitchin of the Pleura , is as it were in an instant : But the Pleurisie happening from sharp venal bloud defiled from els-where , hath for the most part , other fore-shewing diseases . But it is also proper to the Pleurisie , that it presently repenteth nature of her offence : And so from the horror of the admitted error , she willingly correcteth the offence of her own digestion : And therefore for cure , there is only required , that the Thorn , & product of the confused Digestion be taken away , in the blood it self encompassing , yea and in the Apostem it self : But the Pleurisie which is restored by blood-letting , doth oft-times , after a years space return , and doth more often leave a Consumption behind it ; Because the business of the remaining Thorn is left to be overcome by the shoulders of nature alone , without a help restoring the Character which there stayeth behind . The Antients indeed have perceived , that where Pain , and Heat are , thither venal blood doth flow : But none ( that I know of ) hath hitherto reached to the Thorn , and foregoing motive sharpness , as neither to the convulsiue pain ; from whence notwithstanding , comfort ought to be hoped for . It might justly be doubted , why the Pleura slackening a little while from its contracture , doth not again drive back the venal blood contained within it , unto the places from whence it came : But it is already manifest , that the venal blood doth from the sharpness , presently wax clotty , and hath learned also constantly to stick in this place : After another manner , Tumours do often disperse els-where ; because their venal blood is not estranged by a sharpness . Furthermore , the Dysentery or bloody-Flux differs from the Pleurisie , not so much in the sharpness of the material cause , as in the variety of the subject : For neither have the Bowels flesh behind them for a kitcihn ; And therefore a Bowel hath its own Thorn fastened in its own coats : For besides a double coat of a Bowel or intestine , a third is entrenched with the Gown of the Mesentery : And because it hath not without it self , a kitchin in the flesh : therefore the membrane thereof doth not bring an Apostem : wherefore the blood comming to it for ease of the gripings or wringings , it is not hardned , or waxeth clotty , neither hath the blood as yet obtained the Fibers of the Mesentery , whereby it may be coagulated , or swell into an Apostem : Wherefore , in the bloody-Flux , that blood following to the place for an easement of the pricking pain arising from the sharpness , flows forth without being made clotty : But in the Pleurisie , in one respect , a bloody Spittle not coagulated ( because not yet sharp ) as it were hastening , being sent for an easment of the pain ; neither that , nor such Spittle , is the occasional cause of that disease : but in the other respect , sharp blood is stayed between the Pleura and the Ribs , waxeth clotty , is Apostemized , and therefore is made corrupt Pus . Therefore very much blood hastening for an ease of the pain ( where pain is , thither bloud hastens ) beyond or thorow the Pleura , doth pierce into the Breast , which is reached out by Spitting with a most troublesom Cough . Wherefore a Pleurisie differs not from a Peripneumonia or Inflammation or Imposthume , of the Lungs , in its occasional causes , as neither in its Remedy : For blood is poured into the substance of the Lungs , according to the pleuritical thorn : For in a mattery Imposthume , although the Lungs do contain venal blood , & divers hostile things in them , yet through want of a sharp Thorn , there is not a Peripneumonia : but there are other defects proceeding from the Excrements of their own Digestion . Therefore many diseases do not differ in their occasional matter ; but in the diverse agents , and properties of members , and functions ; The which for the most part do not so much vary the Remedies , as adjacent things depending on the powers of properties . For it is thereby manifest , how vain the Remedie of Clysters is in the bloody-Flux ; because the bloody-Flux is only of the slender Bowels , which are some ells distant from the more gross ones which are capable of Clysters . Therefore in the Pleurisie , and Peripneumonia , they make use of Blood-letting , for a necessary remooval ( as they say ) of the causes ; as if the abounding of blood alone ( the which nevertheless , they say is the one only and suitable betokener of cutting of a Vein ) were their mother . But besides , therefore they have prescribed Ecligmaes , not indeed for remooval of the Thorn ; but for a more easie expectorating of Spittles ; to wit , lickings or Ecligmaes of Colts-foot , of Fox-lungs , &c. For seeing this living Creature is almost unwearied , they have thought , that dying ( for without thinking , the strong authority of the Schools faileth ) he had bequeathed the Remedie of curing difficult breathers to his Lungs , although the Bowel , the author of the Thorn in us , doth remain badly affected , the Apostem which threatneth snotty corrupt matter persisting ; And the which , unless ( as Galen is authour ) it be wholly cured by a set number of dayes , an undoubted Consumption of the Lungs is to be expected . Wherefore , the whole study of the Schools , doth not aime so much to cure , as only to prevent its increase ; ' that is , not in respect of the radical cause , but by viewing of the latter product , to wit , that it decline not into a worse State : For the Schools have this faculty always , to leave their burden to nature , to hope for and defer the time for a critical day : For seeing that they scarce acknowledge Remedies besides purging , and letting out of blood ; they proceed only unto things which diminish the liquor , and strength , and only unto a cloakative cure , being busied about the effects , and latter products ; to wit , that they may banish the remainder into the Hucksterries of the kitchin and a prescribed diet , whether it be those whom a more blessed disposition of strength preserveth , or otherwise have rushed into more difficult diseases , and being destitute of hope , they have reduced into the number of incurable ones . For as I have said concerning the Lohoch of Fox-lungs , they likewise in the Palsey , commend the brain of a Coney and Hare , because they are swift in running , the Yard of a Stag for those that are cold , because he is a wild Beast very much inclined to Leachery . If therefore a country man shall eat the boyled hand of a Musitian , shall he perhaps artificially strike the Lute ? But the Schools do require , that Ecligmaes be swallowed by a slow drawing , and therefore are they endowed with the name of lickings-in , that the Remedie may materially descend unto the place of the Cough . I wonder in the mean time , why they have not likewise prepared Lohoch sanum of a Horses taile , which is stirred all the Summer for brushing off the flies . But nothing hath been thought of by the Schools for taking away the Thorn of the Pleurisie ; by reason of one only Fault ; to wit , because they have not known the same , and have neglected diligently to search , being content with subscribing to each other . In the mean time , they render the strength of a weak man weaker , and pull it back , as if they were willing to destroy him by repeated cuttings of a Vein ; as if the strength being prostrated , some commodious thing is afterwards to be hoped for . I bewail in the mean time , the condition of mortals , who have gotten such helpers in so painful a disease , who being ignorant of the cause , do attempt any absurdities , so they have first weakened the Sick through a Penury of venal blood and strength ; in the mean time , they have left nature swimming with her one Oars : But if in the mean time , a proper strength shall help the infirmity of Youth ; they require , and ascribe honour ( that is , in effect , a reward ) to be due unto themselves : And they declare that they have gotten the priviledge of killing two hundred others by the same meanes : or if the strength being wearied out by the emptying Chrurgion , doth fail , is extinguished by a long Consumption , and a daily mournful Spectacle ; at least wise the Physition can excuse himself by a cruel and unwonted greatness of the disease , because the best Remedies being administred , he hath nevertheless declined into a Consumption : none such whereof would happen ( for I promise and promise upon the penalty of proof ) if the cruel cutting of a Vein being despised , the Balsam of life , and strength of nature being reserved ; the radical thorn be plucked out : so the pain , bloody Spittle , and Fever do pleasingly cease , and that which held together being rent a sunder , is it self , presently incarnated . But the causes being hitherto unknown , have brought forth the ignorance of a Remedy . For my Remedies are such as forsake none in the Pleurisie , and Peripneumony . The Powder of the Yard of a Stag , or Bull , or the venal blood of a He-Goat , or the juice of wild Succhory , of the flowers of wild Poppy , and many such like . I especially , commend the Blood of a He-Goat , not indeed that which is sold ; but I hang up a He-Goat by the Horns , and his hinder feet being tied to his Horns , his Stones being cut off , he is gelded : The blood issuing from thence even until his death , is received , and dryed : And it is known from the Saleable blood ( which is nothing but Sheeps blood ) because that which is sold , is easily beaten , and the Powder thereof is of a red or Pomegranate Colour ; but the true He-Goats blood is most difficultly and tediously beaten , and the Powder thereof is of a pitchie Colour : But the beating is so troublesom , not indeed by reason of its toughness ; but by reason of its meer and incredible hardness . For these kind of Succors being friendly to the Archeus , and homebred or familiar to mans nature , do correct the immediate cause in the Archeus , and take away its sharpness , and do dispose the blood to transpiration , do appease the pain , because they extinguish the sharpness : Also the ferment of Tartness being taken away , they resolve as much as they can of the out-hunted Blood , and the appointment of Corrupt Pus being neglected , they do seasonably cast out the rest by Cough : Wherefore the same Remedies are given to Drink to those that have been thrown down or have fallen from an high place , as they do disperse the venal blood made clotty by the Bruise ; that is , they take away the thorn , they take away the poyson , and for that cause do incarnate the place : And so they do satisfie all betokenings , by the one only amendment of the thorn : For the which , the unexhausted bounty of divine clemency hath made many the like things . For a bloody Flux doth not require astringent Medicines ; for under an ordinary judgement , or under a close stoppage and astriction , death is straightway present : For I being present , and greatly astonished , after 426. vain Clysters , at length , an emplaister of Diapompholigos dissolved in Oyl of Quinces , was cast into a noble man with a Clyster , by our chief Physitians , with an notable stupidity of the Schools : For truly after 18. hundred stools and more , he was cured by me without a Clyster , by a Remedy taken in at the Mouth . And likewise the Schools proceed as yet still to Teach , that the bloody Flux doth not consist but with an Ulcer of the Bowels ; for healing whereof , the Physitians did therefore infuse or pour in the aforesaid Emplaister : As if an Ulcer of a greater Bowel were to be healed by that emplaister ! When as a simple Wound thereof is reckoned uncurable . And likewise if the bloody Flux be in the slender or small Guts , why do they not emplaister the long ones ? For who of the Galenists hath ever cured an Ulcer of the O●sand , Wind-pipe , or of a Bowel , by Clysters ; seeing they know not how to cure a Fistula of the fundament , which they have at hand , by Emplaisters ? I pray let Physitians remember , that the natural Tear doth not bite the Eye thereof , as neither the Urine the Bladder ; So also the Dung in a Bowel , is not to be perceived , untill it be nigh the place of utterance ; Because it is a natural excrement : But that a Clyster doth pain , because it is a forreigner to a Bowel : Therefore it is hurtful in the Bloody Flux . That error floweth from the Schools , who define the bloudy Flux to be an Ulcer of the Intestines or greater Bowels : The which , how inveterate soever , and almost desperate , I have seen to be very often cured , and indeed with much safty ; To wit , by administring some specifical remedies . But surely I behold a bloody Moloch to sit president in the Chairs of Medicine . Look behind ye or recollect your selves therefore , my fellow Brethren : For a cruel horror will invade the world , at the Sound of the Trump , when every one is to give an account of his Stewardship . Finally , I will declare , what I my self having a Pleurisie , have observed . On the third of the Calends of ( the 11th . Month called ) Ianuary , a Fever suddenly invaded me , together with a gentle rigour , so as that my Teeth did shake ; there was a Pricking pain in the forepart of my side about the Breast-bone , which hindred my in-breathing : presently after , a bloudy Spitting was present ; at length meer blood bowrayed it , self : I took presently a cropped piece of the Genital of a Stag ( for it was at hand ) and the pain was presently diminished ; by and by , I drank a dram of He-goats blood : On the fourth day therefore , my spitting of blood ceased , a seldom small Cough remaining , together with some Spittings out by reaching ; but the Fever continued : For on the second day , the pain about my Girdle enlarged it self on my left side , with a difficult breathing , an increase of the Fever , and an intermitting Pulse . I had now finished my 63d . Year , and I did expect that an Aposteme was Co-agulated in my Spleen ; Because my Milt waxing round into a Lump , did cause a weight ; for if I did lift my knees on high , or lay down on my right side , I felt the falling globe of a great weight ; And so I suspected the Pleurisie to be stirred up from my Spleen , the which , when it was driven away by meet Remedies from my Ribs , it at length afflicted my Spleen : The which I presently withstood , by drinking of Wine boiled with the stones of Crabs , and within few daies , all the pain , and lump of weight vanished away . In the mean time , I was visited by a Noble man , who had heeled his Boots with sweet-smelling Pruss●an Leather ; through the smell whereof , I presently felt the pain of my Spleen , and the Fever renewed : From whence I collected , that the Archeus of my Spleen was the Author of the whole tragedy . Lastly I noted , that in the beginning of a Pleurisie , a Vein being cut , doth indeed stay the inward breaking forth of blood , and the Sick seem to be the better : And although a letting out of Blood shall increase weakness ; yet they adjudge the same not to the Launcet , but to the Pleurisie : But if there be a more slow opening of a Vein , the Blood already Co-agulated , and the Aposteme conceived from thence , and the ordained corrupt matter , do hasten unto their bound or limit : For hence , from curing by cutting of a Vein there is a frequent Consumption , or a Pleurisie returneth every Year ; which otherwise , by the aforesaid Remedies , are not beheld to come . CHAP. LV. That the three first Principles of the Chymists , nor the Essences of the same , are not of , or do not belong unto the Army of Diseases . 1. Why the Schools leave the Market ? 2. Why Paracelsus hath sought other beginnings of Diseases ? 3. He hath theevishly transferred on himself the Invention of Basilius . 4. An easie slip or fall of the Paracelsians . 5. An Abuse discovered by degrees . 6. Paracelsus was deceived by Chymical Rules badly understood . 7. He aspired to the chiefdome of Healing . 8. He failed under his Fardle or Burden . 9. He was deceived also by Ulcers . 10. Some Rashnesses of his . 11. Robbery is covered by Sin. 12. Some Rashnesses of his . 13. The Doctrine of the Elements of his Archidoxis is taken notice of . 14. He fleeth to the Stars , least the curious should follow him running away . 15. The Adeptical part of Healing . 16. The Boasting of Paracelsus . 17. The most perfect Distillation of Art. 18. The wonderful Coal of Honey . 19. Paracelsus thrown down from his pretended Monarchy . 20. Fabulous meanes of Diseases . 21. The Venal Blood is blown away without a Dead Head. 22. What things Nature hath once refused , she never retakes again . 23. The Water , although it be a thousand times Distilled , it is not notwithstanding , therefore made subbtile . 24. Some Absurdities . 25. The Fiction of a Microcosme in the manner of making Diseases . 26. The Ambition of Paracelsus . 27. Whence he had the boldnesse to invade the Monarchy . 28. That the Three first Things are not in us . 29. He was ignorant of the Bond of the Three first Things . 30. He was ignorant of the Original of Salt. 31. Some of his Rashnesses . 32. His Error in the knowledge of Feavers . 33. An Example that the whole venal blood doth melt by purgings . 34. Diseases do not bewray the Three first Things . 35. How the Three first Things are made . 36. That Galen and Paracelsus were almost alike in Boldness and Error . 37. The Three first Things are resisted . 38. The Error of Paracelsus about the Essences of Diseases . 39. That the Three first Things are not , nor do operate in Diseases . 40. Paracelsus came more nigh to the Truth than Galen . 41. The Three first Things do not immediately support Life . 42. Although the Three first Things are not Diseases , yet they are Remedies . 43. The manner of the Operation of Remedies , is badly weighed in the Schools . 44. A Quintessence or Fifth Essence is withstood . 45. It hath been inconsiderately subscribed unto the foregoing Things , because the Essence of Diseases hath remained unknown . 46. That the Three first Things is a late Invention . 47. That the Three first Things have not fore existed before their Separation : but that they are bred anew . 48. That Water passeth over into Oyle . 49. For those Three Things to be changed into each other , doth resist Principles . 50. Proofs of Positions . 51. Against Aristotle , that there are onely two Beginnings of Bodies , which are also their beginning or initiating Causes . 52. The oversight or rashnesse of the Paracelsists . 53. That those Three Things are not in any Bodies whatsoever . 54. That the Three first Things are not in the Water , as neither in Mercury . 55. The Objections of some Writers of the Enterance into Chymistry . 56. They proceed further . 57. Paracelsus is brought on the Stage . 58. An Answer . 59. Whence the Immortality of Mercury is . 60. The Principiative Maxims of Chymistry . 61. The truth of Bacon . 62. An Answer to a Paracelsian Objection . 63. What the Three first Things in Bodies are . 64. Other Instances in Sand , a Flint , &c. 65. It is proved by Handycraft-operation , that the Salt in Lime is not an extract of the thing contained . 66. How a necessity of Offices hath invented the Three first Things . 67. That the Three first Things were not natural or proper to a Body , as it was a Body . 68. It is proved by Handy-craft-operation , that the Fire is the Workman of the Three first Things . 69. The unstability of the Three first Things . 70. That in the Digestion of Meats , a Separation of the Three first things doth not happen . 71. Why a Disease is not of the Three first things . 72. That the Three first Things are not the Principles of Bodies . 73. They are ultimate Things , that is , Principiated ones , or those that are begun . 74. The unconstancy of Paracelsus . 75. He was ignorant from whence the Salt of the Urine is . 76. An Essence is said to be after divers manners . 77. A Chymical Essence . 78. Some Homogeneal things do not send forth a Fifth Essence . 79. A greater Virtue is in some Simples than in their extracted Essences . 80. The Rashnesse of Paracelsus . 81. Putrefaction also doth else-where generate a Fragrancy . 82. What a Quint , or Fifth Essence properly is . 83. The Liquor which makes Plants fruitful . 84. The Essential Oyle of Spice , or Crasis of the same : How the Elixir thereof may be made , and that more strong by an hundred fold . NOw after that I have demonstrated , the Elements , Complexions , first Qualities , and at length Tartar , to have been rashly introduced into the Essential causes of Diseases , by the Schools , as well of the Ancients as of the Moderns ; I proceed to teach , That the Three Beginnings of the Chymists , and those of late brought into the Art of Medicine , have been falsely intruded into the Essential causes of Diseases . What therefore will the more refined Physitians do , while as they do clearly enough behold , not onely the miserable stuffe of their Remedies , but also the unprosperous Helps of the howling Sick ? So that they have many times seriously and secretly confessed to me , that nothing almost did any longer obey their indeavours , and that all the curing , aswel of sharp Diseases ( for of Chronical Diseases they have all every where long since despaired in their mind ) as of any of the least ones , was in very deed nothing but a Cloakative cure , and a meer juggling with the sick , to wit , whereunto , unlesse as it were a certain resurrection of the Nature of the Sick , doth voluntarily succeed , the appointed and sure comfort of Remedies is in vain expected . And moreover , that hence it comes to passe , that many an Old Woman is in many places , far more successful in curing some defects , than is the whole School of Medicine , with all their discursive Speculations , speculative Prescriptions , Kitching Precepts of Diet , confirmed by the long experience of the destruction of their Neighbours , and a multiplicity of their Dispensatories . When therefore the more ingenuous persons were long since wearied in the Correcting of Distempers , in the vain expelling of Humours : they now incline to another thing , seeking a Haven from shipwrack , and being easily seduced by Theophrastus Paracelsus , they have so bent their Studies , that what was not yet found out by the Greeks and Arabians , they may find more successful elsewhere . Hence indeed they have been devolved with a steep fall , unto the Fictions of Tartar , but surely their curiosity is to be had in great esteem , although it shall not attain unto its desire . For , It is not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of God alone that sheweth Mercy . Therefore the Schooles donow leave their title and Market ; For what shall they do , if the conjoyned root of Diseases , and method of Curing them , be not to be drawn out of the Elements , Qualities , Contrarieties , Humours , Stars , Windes and Catarths ? But seeing other Examples of healing have possessed the more Modern followers of Paracelsus , it must as yet be diligently searched into , whether the Causes of Diseases have been made known to Paracelsus . For when he ( the Lessons of the Ancients being rejected ) had sufficiently understood , that there was nothing of a Foundation or Truth in Complexions and Humours , he began by variously doubting , to inquire into the most immediate Cause of Diseases , and Posterity owes him Praise for it . Although he hath not exactly touched at the matter , that cannot be accounted a fault , if the Most High , the Dispenser of Gifts , as yet vouchsafed not to open the Truth to Mortals , in Paracelsus's days . This man therefore had learned of Basilius Valentine , that Water , Oyle , and Salt , were to be separated by Distillation from most Bodies : He began to call these Three Things , not only the first universal beginnings of corporal beings : but also , he so introduced them within Diseases , and the necessities of healing , that he referred all Diseases immediately into some of those three things . And thus he made his followers almost mad , that the first hope of diligently searching into the truth being rejected , they consecrated all things to the three first things . Which Doctrine hath fixed its roots the faster , because the three things are actually separated from most Bodies , and so that they were not undemonstrable , like humours arisen from feigned beginnings . But surely this abuse was discovered , while as these three beginnings were wrested aside unto the originals of any Diseases whatsoever . For truly , because many Bodies being dissolved by the fire , gave from them , Salt , Sulphur and Liquor ( which they point out to be Mercury ) it was thought , that all Diseases did owe their Birth unto those constitutive beginnings . First of all , Hermes before the industry of the Greeks sprang up , because in his Pymander , he had noted every Trine to be perfect , consequently also , he foresaw , that in Chymical things , Mettals did consist of two extreams ( to wit , of a Body and a Soul ) and the which , he would have cleave together , not but by the baudery of a certain third thing , or Spirit . Afterwards , Basilius Valentine , a Monk of Benedict , wrote more distinctly ; he named the Soul of a Mettal , the Sulphur , or Tincture , but the Body , the Salt ; and lastly , the Spirit he called the Mercury . Which things being thus borrowed of Basilius : Theophrastus Paracelsus afterwards transferred by a wonderful diligency of search , into all the Principles of Bodies , he being one Age younger than Busilius . The Doctrine of whom ( the Authors name being suppressed ) he snatched on himself , and by a liberty of his own , introduced it into the speculations of Medicine . So indeed , that after he had banished every Disease into the Caralogue of Tartars , and had not yet satisfied his own scruple , at length , he adoms his Paramire of the three first beings , with much boldness . Indeed he forged these three things , as it were the beginnings of all Bodies , and declameth many things in general touching Diseases ; but being constrained by necessity , when as he would reduce Diseases into the ranks of the three first things , being pressed down under the burden , he was silent . Except in the Family of Ulcers , where he had seemed to himself to have found salt : at least wise , in the other two beginnings , he on both sides remained scanty and almost ridiculous . For he had commanded that it should every where be believed , that the four Elements were nothing but the incorporeal Wombs , and asit were , the Inns of Bodies : but that the first beginnings did so supply the conditions or offices of Bodies , that also the Elements of the world have all their substance and subsistance from those three things only . Elsewhere also , he being unmindful of these , hath stuck wholly in the Elements , and next , he hath ascribed the inclinations and properties of Stars and men , to the complexions of these . He also hath dedicated unto all the particular Elements , their own fruits , and degrees of fruits , but not all to one Element : nor the fruits any longer proceeding from incorporeal Elements as Wombs : but that these did borrow their Bodies from the material Elements themselves . Lastly , by the same liberty and unconstancy of a borrowed matter , he hath taught that Bodies do by a resolving , decay , sometimes into four , but sometimes into three Elements only . Truly he hath so graced the Art of the Fire , by bringing it into Medicine , that he breaths after an eternal Name for himself , and hopes that the time would come , that he should sometimes wax proud with the Title of the Monarch of Secrets . He foreseeing that the Doctrine of Basilius was not commonly known , therefore the Name of the Author being concealed , he made it his own , and in this respect , hath he enlarged his own Sections . Wherefore , his Tartar now and then losing its universal dominion in Diseases , it being suppressed , he makes an invasion , as being constrained by the Laws of his three first things . Which his three first things ( as presuming on increase ) he would at length , that they should become the Mothers and Wombs , even of all Diseases , as well of the mind , as of the Being or Body . This indeed was only his own , and not the Invention of Basilius : and the which , when he would endeavour to disperse into the ranks of Diseases by Troops , he sometimes goes confusedly to work ; yet doth he again more oft go beyond himself , being every where forgetful of his own Doctrine delivered . For in his Archidoxals , he hath dedicated a little Book to the separation of the Elements , which are to be brought out of the flame , air , water , and earth . And thus far he hath resisted his own Doctrine , concerning the three first things , and concerning the Wombs of the Elements , because now there should be four beginnings , no longer the three first and ultimate , into which at length , by long labour , the three first things , as being after the Elements , so of right no longer the first , should be derived . For they being also thus enriched by one number , should beget far more Diseases than of late , than while that pretended Monarch commanded only three to be the principles , as well of Bodies , as of Diseases . Yea truly , he accuseth as guilty , only , and at length , one only Tartar , to be the cause of almost all Diseases . But elsewhere , in some peculiar Treatises , he calls the Heaven , the assisting and co-operating Work-man of all Diseases , an angry Parent and revenger . For he saith , that the unknown Star ( Zedo ) is the immediate and containing cause of the Dropsie . So , he affirmeth , that to the Consumption , Gout , Apoplexie , &c. doth belong their own peculiar ( yet unnamed ) Star , and unto every Epilepsie or falling Evil , it s own proper constellation . But in his Paramires , he affirms the three first things to be the immediate causes of all Diseases ; that is , all things confused . Let him explain and excuse him that will ; for I have not dedicated my life to the interpreting of others dreams . Therefore have I seriously searched into Nature , and the particular kindes of Diseases , and it hath happened unto me , no otherwise than as to all others before me , until that the Doctrines of all Authors being cast off , I had seriously implored the Divine Grace . For then I suddenly knew , that unto every Disease hath happened its own matter , which may nourish a Vulcan proper to it self within , the which , although he doth sometimes imitate the courses of the Stars ; yet that the enforcing cause thereof , did not depend on the Stars . For all Seeds do possess , as it were , their own Common-wealth , especially their own vital light , whereby , of their own proper vertue , they do shew forth a proportionable resemblance of the Stars . Be it a ridiculous thing , that the Consumption or Dropsie , although they may be stirred up more severely and mildly , under diverse starry positions , are caused or made by the motion and light of the Stars ; the which do after another manner generate by a manifest occasion , through so clear a collection of filths , and the which being removed , Health doth also follow , without leave of the Stars . The exposition of which Doctrine by me , thou shalt read in the Book of the Plague and elsewhere . But the matters of Diseases , with their seminary Vulcans , from the first , even unto the last , I have prosecuted , with all their duplicity and interchangeable courses , in respect of humane life . The Almighty grant , that so much as he hath bestowed on me , I may nakedly refer unto his Honour , and the profit of my Neighbour , and that he may bestow another more able than my self , on the world . For Paracelsus hath framed divers Books concerning long life , to have chosen death for himself , that he would by a Divine priviledge , have comforted his own old Age by his Elixi● of propriety , but not by Remedies prescribed by him for long life , who died in the 47th . year of his Age. So great boasting therefore , and unconstancy of this Man , have hitherto made me a little careful . In the mean time , many difficulties have long since held me in doubt , about the three first things , until that I having obtained help from God , knew , that Woods and Herbs were to be distilled without any Dead head . For I did long ago wonder , that out of the coal of Honey , no ashes , and by consequence , neither the salt of ashes could be had . Which things afterwards I willingly ( through an universal resolving of a Body ) beheld . For it was sufficient for Paracelsus , to have forsaken all things involved under doubting , who in a slender draught , had drunk down anothers Invention , and had not yet converted it into nourishment , and making it his own , of robbery , hath ( he striving to flie unto a Monarchy ) slipped out of his Nest before he had sufficient feathers . For he snatching unto himself the glory of the Invention , hath well pleased himself , in dispersingly repeating one and the same thing often , although in the mean time , he made little progress in things of his own . For it is a ridiculous thing , and like a Fable , that Sulphur should be distilled , sublimed , reverberated , calcined , resolved in us , and that , from hence divers Diseases should be caused , only indeed by the boldness of the Man , without a Pledge or Surety of greater authority than himself . For he knew not , nor durst to draw Diseases into an open profession or publishment , he being not yet sully committed hereunto by his Inventer . It is also a childish dream , that salt is distilled , sublimed , calcined , circulated , and doth undergo other torments in us ; or that Mercury doth sustain these strict examinations in us , and for every interchangeable course of variations , that it doth of it self alone , bring forth other Diseases , pains and defects , and that others again , be infolded with its other two fellow beginnings , or masked with divers degrees and doses . They are also trifles , that Mercury , by reason of the highest circulation of its subtilty , might be the cause of all sudden death : which we have known to be constituted by its causes , to cure and prevent . For first of all , eight ounces of venal blood , are daily blown away in nourishing , without a Dead head , pain and defect , yea without feeling , while they pass thorow , and whereby they pass thorow . But whatsoever hath once been dedicated unto expulsion in the shew of Water , Mercury or Sweat , or whatsoever hath been once reckoned unfit for nourishing , or the offices of nourishment being now once performed , is designed for scattering or blowing away : that is never afterwards distilled , sublimed , calcined , or circulated in us . For the works of Nature are too serious , because they do ultimately respect God. For Nature doth not play at Ball , that it should again receive excrements into favour , being once rent from the commerce of Life . It never returns into the same point , because it proceeds , and never keeps Holy-day . In the next place , if any watry liquor be a hundred times re-distilled , it shall not therefore be the sharper or subtiler , but rather , by degrees ( the Seed of its middle life being worn out ) it passeth more and more unto the simplicity of an Element . For rain water , which now falleth down from above , is not more subtile or fine , than that which rained in the beginning of its Creation . But if any watry thing should exhale by our luke-warmth , and should obtain a sharpness through dreamed returns , that should not be the fault of subtilizing of Mercury , but of an adjunct . Surely I wonder that so great a Chymist hath not known , that the venal blood is not circulated , nor that it doth bear the circles of subtilizings in us , and that it doth not persevere in us above one only course of the Moon , and the which tribute of feeble blood , a Woman doth therefore pay . Because she is she , which ought to abound with very much blood , as well for an increase of the Young , as for the sucking of Milk. But that Paracelsus might the better overshadow his own Fiction , he supposeth , that one of the three first things being separated , doth presently assume from a Microcosmical Nature , an actuality in that which is casual to any , and one Being , of those which are infinite , a thousand Seeds whereof being collected into one , it did contain ; and therefore , that by reason of a monstrous and strange Nativity , a hostile thing is for that very cause in us , and is made the cause of Diseases . And so that there are tenfold more Diseases at least , possible in us , than there are particular kinds thereof , in Animals , Plants , Minerals and Stars , to wit , as many as there are particular kinds of Salts , Sulphurs and Mercuries , and of those folded together in nature . He moreover giving a caution by an Edict , that any one do not rashly put forth himself to Medicine , who hath not sealingly , certainly , properly and distinctly , known all things most inwardly and most outwardly , by their causes , essences , particular kinds or species , properties , proportions , interchangeable courses and defects . That every one may believe , that Paracelsue himself , who teacheth these things , had also thus sealingly known all these things . Furthermore , he will have us bring back the Microcosme or little World , unto the Rule , and therefore that the three beginnings of our Body doth bring forth as many Diseases in us , as there are particular kinds of created beings . Fot he drives the knowledge of Medicine and young beginners , head-long into a thousand confusions , obscurities , ignorances and impossibilities , by reason of one only fault , to wit , that he may seem to be skilful in all things , and that his dreams may be thought true . He indeed easily knew , that the Medicine of the Schools was supported by false foundations ; for neither therefore ( as he supposed ) might it be hard for him , utterly to overthrow the Schools . Wherefore he meditated for himself , of the Name of Monarch in healing : but when as he thought it an easie way for destruction or throwing down , at least wise , for the building up of so great a principality , strength was wanting unto him , in so great idiotism . He therefore hath brought the three beginnings into Diseases . It is thus : Those three things are found indeed in many Bodies ; or ( as I may more distinctly speak ) the three things are , at least , separated out of many Bodies . But he being bold , a certain absurdity of that which was unconsidered , hath deluded the man , because he hath not considered the impossibility of the matter , for Diseases . Because , those are never separated , or to be separated , whether in us , or elsewhere , but with a corrupting of the whole Body , and that indeed by the fire . Whose sequestred Family-administration , notwithstanding , he hath judged to bring forth Diseases in us . Because the Essences of the first things are co-knit in us , by the middle life of the same , under the dominion whereof , they notwithstanding are restrained , and do alwayes remain that which they are . For first of all , Salt it self hath deceived him , that he might become unsavory , because it confirmed to Paracelsus his own conceit in the Urine , sweat and tears ; he nothing heeding , that , that Salt , is not of the three first things of our body , but a meer excrement of transchanged meats and drinks . From hence therefore he being raised up into a credulity , by thinking , was led aside into Errors . For he had well marked , that a Wound being badly healed , doth pour out salt water , the proper Latex of the body , begotten with child by a strange Salt ; or that the blood it self doth degenerate throughout its whole , as in an Ulcer , Dropsie , &c. and hence he hath collected a plenteous Harvest of Ulcers & Diseases for Salt , which , he being deceived , thought to be one of the three things or beginnings , and not the whole blood at once converted into a salt water , without a separation of the Sulphur & Mercury , by erroneous transmutations . He thought therefore , that as much falt ●●●here was , so many turns of Mercury , and parts also of Sulphur there were , and being confident that his Houshold-stuffe would be sufficient , he had willingly designed the predicament of Diseases unto them . But remaining unfit for the burden , he dyed . But he had discovered his own Error , if he had not been deceived by a bold attempt of great matters . For he ought , without the hope of ambition , and head-longness of preventions , to have examined where the remaining Sulphur should stay , if the salt in Ulcers , in the Dropsie , &c. should by so plenteous a separation , be plucked away from the whole , and its other two companions . He ought also to have been mindful of his own ( although erroneous ) Doctrine , whereby he calls the Salt which is fluide out of us , and present within us , a meer expressure of the Salt-peter of an evil Star , or Cagastral . And so he endeavours to perswade , that not only fleshes and blood , but also that the whole Body is with the life of Salt-peter , and that Cagastrical . For the blood ( as the water yeelds all fruits ) is wholly similar , or alike , which being seasoned with a poysonous or strange ferment , doth sometimes degenerate into divers off-springs of Salt , but another time , into divers off-springs of Dungs , without any memory of a Posthume , Mercury , or Sulphur . In the next place , that Paracelsus may find out his own cause for Diseases , he for example , doth oft-times define a Feaver to be an Earth-quake of the Micro●osm ; which trembling of the earth , he sometimes defines , to be our Falling-fickness . But elsewhere , he attributes the trembling of the earth , to tremblings sprung from burnt or smoaking Mercury . In another place again , he defineth a Feaver to be a Disease of Sulphur and Nitre ; boasting , that the Cause , and also the Remedy , are in that his essential definition . For truly , under an ulcerared Imposthume , the whole Body being in it self fat , is made as it were a Sceleton ; neither doth it expel any thing besides corruptions . So through the force of loosening Medicines , the whole habit of the Body doth oftentimes suddenly melt into putrefaction . The which is brought to pass by the Art of Physitians , but this other , in a Flux , through a defect . But at leastwise , the same poyson on both sides , is only applyed and co-tempered , after a different manner . A Dropsical man indeed , hath a girdle of eight foot : but by an Emperick , in one day , & that by a drink , he is loosed from his Dropsie , and the water weighed perhaps 40. pound , but verily his belly even presently again swelled up into its antient bigness , and after few hours ne dyed . Indeed the remainder beats a resemblance before it , of nothing but skin and bones ; because his flesh and blood had presently at once wandred into the salt water of the Dropsie . And that wonder I saw in this Man. That to day , his belly had plainly asswaged , and that the morrow it again returned unto its former pitch of swelling , extension , and hardness , and then he dyed . If therefore that brine of salt had been one of the three beginnings , of necessity likewise , 40. pound of Sulphur had remained beholdable . An ulcerous Oak weeps continual salt water , and waxeth lean with rottenness ; but if that salt were one of the three beginnings of the Oak , surely the Oak should wax fat like the heart of the Pine Tree , neither should it wax lean , as being unjuicy , rotten , and almost divorced from the Kitchins . Therefore diseasie destructions do not testifie to these beginnings ; but that the whole body is diversly affected , doth melt , and is made to putrifie , according to the guidance of divers Seeds and Ferments . For he had learned that , from Galen , thinking that the blood did consist of as many simples as it was resolved into . I wonder therefore at the unconsiderateness of Paracelsus , that he did not know , that the three first things are never separated but by the fire , their last life being destroyed , the mark of the Seed of their middle life being retained . But that they are not therefore to be called three beginnings , for they are made , and so are bred or born . And much less are they to be reckoned the beginning of Bodies , while as that returneth whole , through the guidance of a strange Seed , by transmutation into another nature . For neither hath that Man ever seen the three first things of any composed Body , to have appeared in living Creatures , in any degree of heat , nor otherwise made and extorted , but by fire . I am also angry , that it is not known , that the same first things remaining , they are nevertheless , materially subject to the divers transmutations of Seeds , under the same weight . He hath after a sort relapsed into the Errors of Galen , who thinks that the Elements do essentially remain in mixed Bodies . For thus was he deluded in his three Principles . For there is every where the same defect of both , in the Principles of Philosophy ; which teach , that the life alone doth operate in a living Body , and into a body . But that the subordinate forms of the entire parts , even of the three first things ( if these are within , before they are made by extraction ) are restrained by the form or superiour life , under the unity of an Archeus ; because the three first things do never appear and operate , much lesse do they offend by distemper , or are diseasie , unlesse their obedience due to the Archeus , be first dissolved : that is , that they shall be separated by the fire , and their last life be destroyed , with a persevering , not of the whole seed , but of a small quantity of the middle life of that composed body , whose properties every one of them do after some sort imitate , when they are made a Being , by it self subsisting . For this being unknown , Paracelsus thought , every power , and the formal operations of things , so immediately to depend on the Essence of the Three first Things , that he hath described the properties of Vegetables , as they did contain such a Mercury , Salt , or Sulphur , and all those according to his own pleasure . As though , these beginnings being shut up under a formal Archeus , could operate , the Archeus of life being idle or at rest . For Galen attributed all things to the Elements : for which Paracelsus being angry , thereupon attributed all things to his three adoptive beginnings . Like Quack-salvers , who having gotten one onely Oyle or Emplaister , give forth , that that prevaileth wholly for all Diseases , and at least for most Diseases . Paracelsus I say , heeded not , that Lead , as long as it is Lead , hath other virtues , than when it is changed into Sulphur and Mercury . For Water , Oyle , and Ashes being shut up in a bottle , do not operate out of the containing Vessel . The bottle indeed as such , doth operate ; but not as it containeth three things , which , of themselves may be separated . So also judge thou of the Three Things as long as they are enclosed under a common Life . Paracelsus therefore , although he hath searched more nearly into Nature than Galen , as some of the Three Things are actually allured or drawn out of many Bodies , which doth not happen unto feigned Elements and Humors : yet both of them have stumbled in this , that he hath introduced his own suppositions into Diseases , when as , otherwise , nothing feels sicknesses in us , besides the vital powers themselves . But the Life moves and altereth matters by its own Seminal Blas , and nothing doth materially hurt us within , which is not hostile , forreign , and an excrement in respect of the Life , and so that it cannot be of its first adoptive beginnings . For neither are those Three Things originally and immediately subject to the whole Life , but to the middle Life of that seed , where of they are said have been to the three corporal beginings ; to wit , the Three first Things of the flesh , blood , brain , &c. are not immediately subject to the command of the total Archeus , but to the Seminal mumial Balsame of composed bodies ; And that not before their manifested Nativity . Diseases therefore do not owe the Original , or Cause of their birth , unto the birth of the Three first Things , or any of them . Because they cannot be , act , or hurt , unlesse being first separated from each other , and the intireness of the whole Body , wherein they are potentially contained , being destroyed by death . But if they should be seperated , that they may be able to wrong and hurt ; surely that should be made by some internal disease and agent , besides Nature , and by a former thing or cause . Therefore the separation of those Three Things from each other , could never be but a product , and so also a more later thing than the Disease ; neither should it first appear , unless , a Disease being supposed . Therefore it could not be the immediate or nearest occasional cause of Diseases . For although the Three first Things are not the Causes of Diseases , yet this doth not-argue , whereby the Salt , Sulphur and Mercury of things are ever the less the Medicines of of Diseases . For it is not requisite that the Remedy and external Cause of a Disease should have a co-resemblance , how ever notwithstanding Paracelsus hath so commanded , whereby he might oppose the maxime of Galen ; Contraries are cured by Contraries . For Poysons are not overcome by a co-resemblance of the Venome , but by that which conquers the Venome . For those medicinal Powers are the gifts of God , which do neither bear a contrariety , or character of hostility , mutually towards themselves , nor towards Diseases . But every thing acteth from a gift , that which it is commanded to act . And moreover , bodies being freed from their lump , enclosure , filths , and impediments , do unfold most noble gifts and most excellent Powers or faculties . Even as elsewhere more largly . Furthermore , it hath been already sufficiently and over demonstrated , that Nature doth not suffer four Elements , neither that she doth admit of their congresse or encounter for the constitution of composed Bodies , and consequently , that there is no contrariety or skirmishing of the Elements for a Disease or Remedy . It follows also from thence , that there is no Quintessence , or Fifth Essence , by a proper Name to be so called , if a Fifth Thing shews a necessary relation unto other four . The Invention therefore of a Fifth Essence , is indeed Chymical , but of Phylosophers , who before me , knew not the Number , Essences of the Elements , and the Nullity of their mixture : Which things , if Paracelsus had known , he had undoubtedly named the Essence which he calls a Fifth , a Fourth , in respect of his Three first Things . Indeed he thought that every Body is constituted , even as also resolved , as well by Art as by Nature , into these Three Things , and that nothing besides remained . For in so great Novelty , he being unconstant , knew not unto what side he might throw himself . For now and then , he denieth the Elements to be Bodies , but he calls them , void and empty Wombs , Places and Seates of Bodies : But that all Bodies are nothing but the Three first Things , but not Elements . But elsewhere he having followed the flock of his Predecessors , teacheth , That the Elements do remain in all particular Bodies , are therein to be found , and that they are thence drawn out safe . So that their Essences and Bodies do remain in the mixt Body , being onely heaped together by mixture . Certainly , aswel in the Three first Things , as in a Fifth Essence , it is at this day no lesse emptily subscribed to Paracelsus , than it hitherto hath been to the Fables of the Elements , Mixtures , and Complexions . For they began in the late Age , by plausible novelties , to have belief and Names given to the Invention of Paracelsus , without a diligent search . Although I have seen , read , or heard of none hitherto , who hath been able , and much lesse hath boldly attempted , equally to separate the Three first Things out of Bodies . Wherefore I state this Proposition . The first Three Things are a late Invention , contrary to the truth of Nature , and of a Thing . The first Position . Although that the Three first Things , are in part drawn out of some Bodies by the Fire , yet that is not done by a Separation of the same , fore-existing , but as by a Trans-mutation made by the Fire , they are there generated , as it were new Beings , and there is made that , which there was not before . The Second . A branch of a Tree of one pound , growing as yet , green , will scarce yield a Drachm of Oyle , which about October , or the Eighth Moneth ( waxing wooddie ) will yeeld about seven Drachms of Oyle . And at length , in the Twelfth Moneth , called February , after , will give almost two Ounces of Oyle , and fivefold more of Coal and Ashes , than before in the Sixth Moneth called August . The Third . That those Things which were not in , as constitutive from the beginning , cannot be the first Things , but they themselves are made and exchanged into each other as later Things , to be made to a likenesse , and which are to arise from the directions of Seeds . The Fourth . Elementary Water is made Oyle in Vegetables , Animals , and Sulphurs ; Likewise all Oyle , with its adiunct , is easily reduced into Water . But the first Principles of other things , cannot be exchanged into each other , or cease to be that which they were before . The Fifth . Some Bodies do not contain the Three Things , but are content onely with one alone , or with two . The Sixth . There are some Bodies , from whence the Three Things were never separated by skilful workmanships hitherto used , the which , do alwayes by a suitable weight , weigh equal with the body from whence they are drawn . The Seventh . Some Bodies are altogether Unchangeable and Inseparable , and not containing a Duality or twofoldnesse . It is profitable for me a little more exactly to explain these things for the sake of young beginners , who do easily subscribe to other mens devises . For , First of all , Woods contain Water and Oyle , not a Coal which was not in them , but is produced by Art , neither was it in them , except ●aterialy , potentially , remotely , neither could it ever be made from thence but by the 〈…〉 . In the next place a Coal unlesse it burn with a manifest fire , it is never in the least changed , so far is it that it should be turned into Ashes or Salt. In a Coal indeed some fatnesse burns , the which is immediately and materially reduced into a Gas , never to be seen . This Gas doth at length pass over into Water ; but as long as it is a Gas and is separated from its concrete Body , or Coal , it is not Sulphur ( for it is wasted away , and trans-changed by burning ) not Salt or Mercury ( for those should not return into an uncoagulable Gas , but should return into Mercury and Salt , if they were the first and constant beginnings of things ) therefore some other thing out of , or besides those three . But besides , neither is the whole Ashes which remaineth of the Coale , a Salt , because the Lixivial or Lyee Salt being taken away , that which remaines , cannot be calcined by any fire , as neither be turned into Salt , Sulphur and Mercury . But if it be by additions turned into Salt , it is a sign that it is made , but that it is not a Salt , and so that a Principle should be born . Therefore Salt in the Ashes ariseth not by extraction , or separation , the other two being wasted away by the fire , but by a trans-changing into a new Being , which was not before . For whatsoever is framed of that thing , is not in that thing . For so blood and bones of divers general kindes and species were in the bread . For neither doth Marble contain Glasse , although of Marble with an adjunct , Glasse be made . For it is one thing to dispute of those Three Things , as the total matter of things , and those actually constituting a thing and far another thing , that the Tree is in the Seed , or a Fish-bone or Grisle in the Bread. For a Hide or Wood , are not a stone , although they are in some springs stonified . For in things trans-changed , the end differs from it self , in the beginning of motion , at least in the particular kind . I have elsewhere also demonstrated , that a fixed Alcali , or Lixivial Salt , hath not fore existed in Vegetables , but that it is fixed in burning . Wherefore the doctrine of the first Things doth not satisfie , because it doth not onely compel Nature under violent Rules , but that if they are the first Things , and do obtain the desert of [ making to begin ] they ought to be stable ( which thing was not hid even from Aristotle ) neither can one be changed into another . For if Wood doth consist of Salt , Oyle , Water , and Ashes , if Salt be prepared not of Ashes , by the Salt it self , of the Ashes : Also if every distilled Oyle be to be changed into a Salt , as also into Water , by things adjoyned , and there be so great unconstancy of those Three Things , and they might therefore also be made by the fire in the separation , and destruction of the composed Body : We must needs in Bodies establish one first , and last , material , real beginning , which is the Water , but not the three things , because they are those which are the off-springs of the feeds of Bodies composed of water . And then there is another motive and effective Principle , which is an Essential seed , or the very Archeal Essence of the seed differing from the form of a thing , because this hath not a rational respect of making to begin , because it is that which it self is generated by generating , as the scope of generation , which is by degrees brought through by passable dispositions unto the perfection of a Being , together with the end of generation . These are the two Principles , as also the Causes of all Bodies . For if every thing be by its Causes , and be thereby principated , or made to begin , it is a vain thing ( after the manner of Aristotle ) to believe other Causes , and other Principles of things . They are therefore Principles , which never slide into each other , by any whirling of successive changes . For the first is stable , perpetual , the real beginning , and prop , and Seminary of Bodies . And it is the last thing whereinto the dead , or ended Tragedies of things do return . But not a certain feigned , sluggish , and impossible hyle or matter . But the other is the Principle of the begining of motion , with every property of things to be acted under their Tragedy . Yea truly , seeing particular kinds do exist into general kinds , no where solitary , or without companions , and they are individuals only , which are , and do subsist by a real Act. Principles ought to have been real , and individually existing . So indeed , that the universality of the matter be individually limited by the activity of the efficient Cause . Wherefore , a falshood being granted , to wit , That all Bodies might be reduced into those Three Things , by the motion of a proper dissolution ; yet it doth not also from thence follow , that these Three things are the beginnings of Bodies . Because an immediate resolving of Bodies , doth not prove Principles , but a diversity of kind of the matter , being ultimated or brought to its last state . And the last resolving of the last matter , is a Witness only of the Seeds of the concrete Body , but not of Principles . Neither in the next place , is there any reason , why the Three Things may be called the First Things , if three do return , or may be reduced into two , and lastly into one only thing . Yea although in the Beginning , three bodys should be seen trans-changably passing over into each other , neither were they therefore , to be reckoned Three rather than Two if of Three , they may be presently after be made two only . Therefore where the three things are found , they are not the material beginnings of Bodies ; but the Bride-beds of the Seeds . The which being worn out , all things do of their own accord , return into their original Element of Water . But that those Three Things are not contained in any Bodies whatsoever , and so are not necessary Principles , is manifest ; because the Mercury , which is drawn out of a Mettal , is so single , homogeneal , simple , and undivideable , that it is impossible for Salt or Sulphur , to be drawn from thence by Art or Nature . But Mercury is never in any respect to be divided . To wit , it hath grown together onely from an elementary Water , and the virtue of a most simple Mercurial Seed , into an undivideable , unpenetrable , and unseparable Body , the which among generated things , hath not its like . Otherwise , it is like unto Water , which in it self being defiled with no Seed , hath on every side , a co-like simplicity , and impossibility of separation . But inasmuch as I have sometime attributed unto the Water its Three Things , that was spoken Analogically , or by way of suitable resemblance , as ( besides abstracted Spirits ) nothing is so alike in Bodies , that it is not understood to be diversly affected according to divers dispositions , and and as those dispositions must of necessity respect some diversity of kind of being . For it is sufficient , in the same place , also to have admonished , that the Heterogeneal parts of Water , are in the most simple Body of an Element , undivideable , and really impossible by Art , Nature , and all Ages , they consisting of the utmost simplicity . Therefore although I have there called them the Three first Things of the Water , yet they are not the Three of composition , as the more formerly Beginnings of the Water ; but the Three things of heterogeniety or diversity of kind . Which Heterogeniety ( at least mentally to be divivided into diverse things ) although the Water doth by the Law whereby it contains a Body , contain : Yet seeing it is an impossible thing that they should be drawn asunder from each other , there is onely place for conjecture , that although those things are not true Sulphur , Salt , and Mercury , at least wise that they do in some sort answer unto them . Therefore there is an instance in the Water no lesse than in the Mercury , whereby the Three first Things are denied to be from thence accounted to be separated . I seem to hear whisperings , that I shall offend very many Artificers , who with full cheeks , do boast of the Oyle , Salt , Vitriol , and Water of Mercury , and that I shall convince them of a Lye , or juggle , while they promise the aforesaid things . I answer , That an active Imposture , or deceitful juggle , doth bring forth its own Imposture , unworthy of life and happiness : But that a passive imposture is worthy of pity . But they who do not as yet discern the fallacy whereby they are circumvented , do Argue , First , Gold ( they say ) a Body which is the most exceeding constant among sublunary things , is dissolved into parts of divers kinds , therefore also Mercury by a more strong reason . Indeed they strain from the less to the greater . Again they urge , Nature hath known , of the first Elements to compose Mercury : therefore she hath known also to destroy it . But the way of composition , is not to make Mercury immediately of the Element of water : but by dispositions of the matter coming between , which are unlike . So also , the way of corruption in Mercury shall proceed by the same dispositions , with a retrograde pace , and a diversity of kind of matter . Where thirdly , Paracelsus saith , the matter of things which cannot be destroyed by Art , is at least wise destroyed by Nature . Because all sublunary things , which are not subject to death , are at least wise , subject to a bound or end . Unto the first , I answer : That Gold is indeed the most constant of Bodies in the fire , but it borrows the constancy of its separation from the Mercury : And so , if the Sulphur thereof doth include a Heterogeneal duality , that doth least of all touch at the Mercury . For Mercury , being pure , and distinct from combustible Sulphur ( which is more or less in the common Mercury ) doth plainly refuse all twoness or duality . That is to say , the nature of Mercury includes a perfect Homogenity or sameliness of kind . But to the other I say , that Nature hath indeed proceeded from the purity of the Element of water , unto the composition of Mercury . Yet that it cannot ( the admitted Seed of Mercury being once enclosed in the innermost parts of the water ) return to the destruction of that composed Body . Because that Seed is nor mortal , nor frail , nor subject unto sublunary Laws : as Paracelsus saith in his vexation of Chymists . But the reason of immortality in Mercury , is , because the Seed and Fruit thereof in the constitution of Mercury , are now one and the same thing , Mercury in Mercury . Neither hath Nature known to invent a manner of destruction in a thing so Homogeneal , where the Seed hath become the Fruit , by a most perfect and undestroyable or undissolveable union . Seeing that Nature cannot pierce unto a dividing , where there is no knot or diversity of kind . I admit indeed , that Mercury through a composition of transmutation , 〈◊〉 a marrying of the Sulphurs of Mettals , becomes a Mettal ; and that this is destroya●●e by reason of the doubleness of its Sulphur : notwithstanding the Mercury of that Mettal , remains undestroyable . Hence Paracelsus in the aforesaid Vexation : Although thou shalt destroy a Mettal ten thousand times ; yet it shall alwayes rise again the far more perfect by its destructions . And in his Archidoxals , in the Book of the separation of Elements , in the Chap. of Mettals . Every one of the Elements in the shew of the Oyle of a mettallick destruction , may be again reduced into its former white and malleable Mettal , except the Element of fire , which containeth the Tincture or Sulphur . Therefore , although the Mercurial part in Mettals , and so also in the Body of Mercury it self , doth by reason of adjuncts , receive the masks of Vitriol , Oyle , Salt , or Water : they are nothing but the jugglings of the eyes . Because it alwayes returns Mercury from thence , because it is alwayes therein according to its Nature , and all its Properties . Therefore I hold with the Principles of the more abstruse or hidden Philosophy : if Mercury should be divideable into Heterogeneal parts , the Art of Chymistry should not be true ; and the Mercury it self should be unfit for work or operation . For unless I had seen Mercury so subsisting , I should deny the Art to be true . For Nature cannot destroy the Seed which cannot dye , nor be separated from its own matter . Neither can it dye through the sublunary engines of this World. Likewise , it is more easie to frame or make Gold , than to destroy it : So also , it is easier for Nature , to compose Mercury , than to destroy it . As many therefore as do promise the separations of Gold or Mercury , and yet do not know how to make or compose Gold in a wealthy quantity , seeing , they know not that which is far more easie , let them believe also that they do not know , that which is as yet , far more difficult . Therefore Bacon inquiring into the first matter of the Art , and running thorow all the Bodies of the World , denies Gold and Silver to be the matter of the Art : because the reducement of the same into Sulphur and Argent vive , is plainly impossible , from whence the Son of the fire , so much in love of the Philosophers , is made . Lastly , unto the third , I say , That those things which are not subject unto death , separation or change , are at least wise subject or lyable to a term or end . I grant that to be true , if we understand it of the dissolution of the World , and the fire of Hell , in the finishing of the World , of which I have nothing to say . Otherwise , the aforesaid affirmation , contains an idiotism . For a term or bound doth naturally operate nothing : but the operation is finished by the agent , in the very term or bound [ unto which . ] But such an agent faileth , about undissolveable things . In the next place , neither time nor duration doth operate any thing by it self : but only the middle dispositions of moveable things , happening in time , do operate . Therefore , whatsoever doth not hearken to the dispositions of changeable things , much less doth it hearken unto time or term of continuance ; which term is included in changeable things only , but not in things unchangeable . If now metallick Mercury , the most noble , I say , of Bodies , of the most constant union , doth wholly want all Sulphur , it is lawful to consider , this Law of the three first things to have failed , like a broken chain . Therefore that other Bodies are not the three first things ; but altogether one only material beginning readily serving for the divers appointments , ends , scopes , and necessities of Seeds , and playing various supposionalities or supposed parts . Those three things therefore are not the first things where they are found , but are made by the dissolving of the fire , and their matter is not espoused according to a principiating of Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , but according to the ends of Seeds . Neither indeed are they beginnings , but subordinate means to the last life . In the next place , I know , that out of sand , flints and stones that are not limy , Sulphur or Mercury can never be drawn . For their Seeds were content with a stonyfying coagulation of water , without an appointment of fatnesses , or Mercuries . But stones which may be calcined , do attain the nature of salt and tartness of lime . But that very thing is a transchanging into a new Generation promoted by the fire : but not an extraction , drawing forth , or separation of the thing contained . Which thing , the Chymical School before me , hath been ignorant of . The which I prove . Because I have known how to reduce a great or rocky stone , and all stones , into a meer salt , of equal weight with its own great or small stone , wholly without all Sulphur or Mercury , and so whatsoever is lost in burning of a rocky stone , let it be rather that of salt , than of three things . But because that unity of the composed body doth respect a way unto its first reducement into the Element of water , neither is the operation obvious to every one : therefore we have been wont by a general way of speaking among Chymists , to speak of things under the name of the three things , to wit , of Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury . Not indeed , that I think those to be the principles of things : but because they are separated by the fire , out of most things , we use their Etymology to distinguish the diversity of kinds of composed Bodies . The same thing happens to a stone , which befals a coal : for unless both are burnt in an open fire , they are never changed into lime or ashes . And although a coal doth by a fan or stirrer up , yeeld a flame , and thus far , whatsoever perisheth of a coal , is of Sulphur : yet seeing nothing is enflamed or enlightened in a stone , let it belong rather to Salt than to Sulphur . Therefore while a small stone , gemme , great stone , or sand , are artificially reduced into a Salt , that Salt , by reason of the every way Homogeniety of it self , which is left it by the fire , cannot send forth , or contain a Sulphur , or be drawn into divers parts . In the next place , if glass be made by the fire , of ashes and sand , there is not an extraction of glass out of ashes ; but a fabrick and new generation of artificial skill . For all Bodies , seeing they derive their matter immediately from the Element of water , being espoused by vertue of the Seeds , truly let the Sulphur be the act of the Seed ; but the salt is bred in the composed body from a voluntary inclination of the Water , yet being changed by the disposition of the Seminal Sulphur . Those two beings therefore do immediately proceed from the two Principles of Bodies : but the Mercury of things , is nothing but meer Water , not as yet sufficiently ripened by the disposition of the Seed , and inclination of the material beginning . And that is thus ordained by the profession , or study of Nature , that by reason of the watrie Principle , being as yet not fully changed , a growth out of its element , and a co-placing with its mother , may by an agreeing resemblance , be the more fitly granted . Therefore I do not admit of the Three first Things to be the constitutives of Bodies , as niether universal things . Which thing indeed is proper to my austereness , who am not wont to frame universal Maxims from any particular thing . But let him do that , that will , I had rather be distinct , that I may the more distinctly understand . For I have found for the most part , that those Three Things do not proceed from Bodies out of which they are thought to be drawn , unless a third trans-mutative thing being adjoyned , or by composition : which is rather to be attributed to the happening or supervening seed , and to the trans-mutation thereby bred , but not unto the first things existing within , as the necessary , immediate , and universal Principles of Nature , out of which , and into which Bodies may be again resolved . For they cannot give us sure credit , that they are in a Body before their separation , even as they are pressed out by the fire , and much lesse that they fore-existed before a Body , whose parts they seem to have been . It is also manifest , that many things are changed by Distilling , neither that they are so , and as much in their composed diversity of kind , even as while they are made by the Fire . Which thing is manifestly the one onely Example of Tartar. For truly in destilling sixteen ounces of the best Tartar , scarce one onely ounce of Water is drawn forth , but of Salt , at the most , two ounces and a half ; the rest is wholly Oyle : that is , of sixteen there are almost thirteen oylie parts . Yet Tartar is not crude , neither doth it act as an oylie Being , neither doth it burn as the bark of the Birch-tree , but hath the nature of a sharp Salt , wherefore by distillation , the nature of a sharp Salt is changed into Oyle . And then , again , if the Salt of Tartar be of its own accord made a Lixivium , and Oyl be joyned to it , indeed a Wash-ball will be thereby made , which being distilled , shall be accounted for the most part Water , and shall cease to be the former Oyle , and shall be changed into another thing . For what is more clear than this handy-craft operation , whereby it plainly appears , that the Fire is the maker of the first Things ; and so , that they neither are in themselves , the first Things , neither that they do fore-exist : such is the composed Body , as they are separated from thence by the Fire : For truly , there is not a naked separation of unlike things , but a transchanging of the concrete Body by the Fire , according to the activity , which the Heterogeneal parts do finish among themselves . But surely , if those Three Things should be in all particular Bodies , so that no Body could be void of them ; yea if all of those Three should keep their ancient disposition , the Salt , I say , should never be made Mercury , neither this likewise be made Sulphur , &c. Then indeed Paracelsus had apparently thought , that every Body is originally composed of Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury . But seeing there is an undoubted successive change of things , through things , and the least parts of Things , even as also through the passages of a threefold Life , those successive changes cannot denote a same , linesse of the three , nor of constant things , whose very race it self is altogether unconstant , and the perseverance thereof unstable . For forthwith after Paracelsus , every one almost hath subscribed to his Invention , and none durst to pierce into the condition of those three things ; they were astonished at the sight of Heterogeneal things , which are often extracted by the fire , whence they being as it were fed with Lotus , or a feigned Tree , they suffered themselves to be misled whither Paracelsus called them . But let Paracelsus learn , that while Venal blood is made of Food , there doth happen indeed a separation of the pure from the impure , but none of the three things . For as oft as a Being passeth through the last Life into a new Life , the lump indeed is changed into a juyce , with a dividing of the Heterogeneal parts , by an extinguishment of the form , and properties of the middle Life : yet not into , or unto the three first things : but there is a proceeding unto a radical destruction , with an ultimate or utmost annihilating of the former Life , under which , at length , they draw a new Seed , for a new generation . For that is the way of the recourse or going back of the Night of Hippocrates , unto the Day of Orpheus . At leastwise it is perpetually true , that those three things are never separated without the Fire , and so before the art of the Fire flourished abroad , those things were unknown to the Ancients : And seeing that Fire , and a degree thereof is wanting , which is the Separator in us , and whatsoever through a degree of our heat is blown away out of us , doth tend unto a Dead Head , or Caput Mortuum , unless it be prevented by a Blas and Ferment , ( even as I have taught above concerning the Blas of man ) surely the original of Diseases cannot any way be imputed unto any one , or more of those Three Things . I deny , in the next place , that Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury are the universal Principles of Bodies . Because they neither existed before the composition of Bodies , nor flowed together , to the making of a mixture , neither lastly , by a natural resolving of Bodies into the Term of their last Life , have they ever appeared in Nature , but onely are brought by the Art of the fire , and that onely out of some Bodies ; as the Seeds of things are cloathed with a material Principle of Water , and are strengthened by the efficacy of their own Efficient , they assume the properties partly of Salt , and partly of Oyle ; but the Mercury of Bodies , is nothing but a part of the Water , being not yet great with Child by a sufficient ripeness of the Efficient Seed . Therefore they do no where exist by themselves , do no where obtain the Virtues of principiating ; Because they have not their own Natures , Conditions , Properties , from an interchangable course , whereby they might fore-exist , but partly from a disposition of the Seeds flowing down into the properties of the concrete Body , and partly from the digestion of the Fire and burning , obtained in time of their separation . For truly it is manifest , that they are made reciprocally of each other by a mutual transmutation . They are therefore the Last things , but not the First , however they may be taken . For all Vegetables , as long as they are not wooddy , do contain a spirit of Wine , as a spirit of Wine is drawn out of them , they being opened by their Ferment . But out of the same matter , now made Wood , an Aqua Vitae , or Water of Life , is no longer extracted . It is made , I say , in Vegetables , through the art of the Spirit of Wine , which before was not in them from a disposition of the matter of a putrifiable juyce , and agreeing resemblance of a winie Ferment . For therefore the Spirit of Wine shall not be the Principle of Vegetables , as all Vegetables divers in themselves , do agree in this Spirit , and might be drawn out of every one of them ; but the Spirit of Wine bears the reason of an Effect and Product : In like manner therefore those three things are principated , but not principles . For shall the Blood want a Salt in distilling , because it hath severed the Urine , which Paracelsus calls , The Salt of the Blood ? And , If Salt be one of the Principles , surely the venal Blood shall in supposition be Eternal , if it wants a beginning , or something shall be able to subsist of Mercury and Sulphur without the Principle of Salt , which thing hath not seemed strange to Paracellus , striving with his own Doctrine of the Three first Things ; when as he teacheth , That the venal blood and flesh of Leprous persons is deprived of all Salt. And from hence again , his own History of Ulcers falls to the ground , if the Ulcers of Leprous persons , being without Salt , are voluntary , and not to be despised . For he hath badly distinguished the Salt of the drink , from the Salt of the Venal blood . Neither hath he known the difference of the Salt in the external humour Latex , from the Salt which is wiped out of the venal blood by distillation , in the torture of the fire . He being wholly ignorant from whence there was Salt in the Urine , Salt being not frequently eaten . Because the rank of digestions being unknown , natural knowledge in Paracelsus was overshadowed with darkness , and through the ignorance of Physitians , the dayes of Mortals are cut short , and burying places do become bossie . Concerning a Quintessence or Fifth Essence also , it hath been soberly enquired into , hitherto , as if it were a glorious thing , through sluggishnesse , to have subscribed unto others devises , and to have stuck in fabulous Principles . An Essence therefore is called by divers names . For it is most principally understood of the most Great and Excellent God , who is the True , Immediate , and the most Very Essence it self , of all things , from which the Being of things doth issue , and depend unseparably in nature . But an Essence for the actual being of things in the Abstract , is the Life in living Creatures , or in the Soul. Otherwise , it is a Form , by reason whereof , every thing is that which it is . But the Life or Form , is not by Chymists taken into the Essence , because the thing being dead , it doth return into nothing ; therefore have they considered of a certain most famous substance , wherein the whole Crasis or constitutive temperature or mixture , and perfection of a thing doth inhere ; as in Spices , there is somewhat , like Oyle , which being withdrawn , the body of the Spice remaineth , as it were ungrateful ; to wit Cynamon , its Oyle being withdrawn , favours of the Bark of an Oak , in its astriction or binding quality . But in things tinged , the Essence is a coloured liquor extracted from things , which substances , as they are more active , so they have themselves by way of a Life or Form , as to the residue of the Lump . So that the name of Essence is plainly Metaphorical . Wherefore very many things have not an Essence , even as I have demonstrated concerning Mercury , Chrystal , great Stones , and things Homogeneal , or of one and the same kind . Then in the next place , a greater power and efficacy , is oft-times in a thing being entire , than in its separated Essence . As is manifest in the Load-stone , Carabe or Amber , &c. For very many Simples do loose their specifical property by preparing : and more by separating , and the fire . In the Elkes Hoofe , and Bezoardical things , there is a certain thing which had rather be proper unto crude Simples . But the Forms , or Essences of Herbs will not be subject to the Artificer . For many things do alike prevaile , whether their Vegetative power , ( they call it a Soul ) shall die or as yet exist in them . But after that they have plainly withered or been dried up , some Herbs do produce their Essence ; but many Herbs , ( especially Water-Pepper ) do loose the same . However therefore an Essence be taken , it is an improper Name , and a [ Fifth ] Essence , is an unsavoury Epithite . For truly , what Essence they do promise , either it is not equally in all , neither doth it obey the Artificer , or it is not drawn from any place whatsoever . But under other things , in the crudity of things , it laughs at painful or diligent Labours . Neither doth every sweet smelling thing sit in the middle , but in the last Life . For the Flowers of Jasmine , of the Lilly of the Valleys , &c. by putrifying do loose their grateful Odour , and Medicinal Virtues , they wax sharp , neither do they ever re-take their former Fragrancy . But elsewhere the sweet smell sits under the middle Life , which Odours indeed do keep their sweet smell in time of putrifying , the which they send forth in Distilling , as Roses . This thing hath deceived Paracelsus , and hath made him to think , that the Essences of things do thus putrify ; and so he was ignorant , that in Dung and dunged-Fields , he dictated safe Mansions for ever . Not knowing , that the Offices of Seeds being loosed and dead , all things do yield themselves to rest , and at length do require their first Inne of Water , or at least wise obeying a stronger seed coming over them , they againe suffer themselves to be led into new Colonies , and themselves to be brought into new Tragedies . Yea there are many Simples which do find a fragrancy in the bosome of putrifactions , which before they had not in their own Species . Such as are Mosch , Ziver , Amber , certain Dungs of bruit Beasts , and putrifying Woods . For a various putrifying by continuance ariseth in them , whence their Seeds do draw a fragrancy to themselves , and do transplant them into a new generation . Therefore the Spicinesse if it be fast tied to the Balsame of the middle life , is not overcome in putrifaction , by a separation of parts , and is the more fitly sequestred from corrupt things . A Chymical Essence therefore is not properly a Fifth Essence , seeing there are not Four others in a concrete Body , neither is it extracted out of the Three things , but is the Seminal part of the Sulphur of the composed Body . Of the Sulphur , I say , Because the Sulphur is the off-spring of the efficient Cause , and so , more formal . For Cynamon , while it is without a spiciness , is indeed , as yet , Cynamon , even as the young , or a foolish person , are men . I therefore name the best part of a thing , the Crasis thereof , whether the Spice or sweet smel do sent or not . But in Herbs which are not fragrant , I call the seminal or seedy Liquor , their Crasis . To wit , I know that from every plant or seed , and likewise from the trunk or stemme of some Plants , a Liquor is to be extracted , which contains the Power of the Seed : which Liquor , although it be not fit for sowings , because the Seed included in it , not being able to draw a More in the Earth , doth exhale , yet it blesseth with a wonderful fruitfulnesse , a Plant of its own likenesse , being poured on its Root . For the seminal Liquor contains a Crasis for propagation , and therefore it is also truly Essential , yet not commonly known , yea not indeed to every of the most expert men . Therefore I pity the progresses of extracting Quint or Fifth Essences , as vain . No wonder indeed , if all the virtues of the thing generated , do shine in the Crasis . Likewise the Oyles of Spices , as Oyles , struggling with , and being unconquered by our digestion , do bring little help , to wit , when as they being taken within , onely for the smels sake do refresh us for a little space . But when the Oyle of Cynamon , &c. is mixed with its own fixed Salt , by an Artificial and hidden Circulation of three Moneths without all water , it is wholly changed into a volatile Salt , doth truly expresse the Essence of its own Simple in us , and doth dart it self even into the first constitutives of us . But otherwise , where the medicinal virtue is hid in Odours ( indeed strong and stubborn Odours do overcome our strength , and are scarce overcome and digested by our Archeus , and so they do importunately or unseasonably act in us ; For the Archeus Labours much , that he may destroy them , and imprint their Odours into the Substance wherein they are ) and especially if they shall be fermenting ones , however they shall promise ease or refreshment , yet because they do not abide , that they may pierce into our first constitutives , they do not afford a constant ease in healing . Chiefly , because they do easily decay in themselves , and degenerate of their own accord : therefore the rather , if they are subdued by our faculties . For so Mosch and sweet smelling things do die , if their Crasis shall depart , although their Body shall remain in it self , safe : and so the Crasis or constitutive temperature or mixture of a thing , doth nothing touch at the dreamed Beginnings of things . CHAP. LVI . Of Flatus's or Windie Blasts in the Body . 1 A fourfold Blas or Windie Blast . 2. The Gas of Life , and Wind of the World , do differ in the whole Element . 3. The Opinion of Galen concerning Flatus's . 4. They have been ignorant of a fivefold Gas. 5. The Art of the Fire , what it can teach . 6. The Schools are deceived . 7. They contradict themselves . 8. The Error of Paracelsus concerning the Limbus or Zodiack of the little World. 9. His ridiculous Doctrine of a fourfold Colick , and a microcosmical Identity or sameliness . 10. That there is not a windie Gas in us , unless it be inspired . 11. Why Paracelsus hath neglected in the Womb , the Cardinal Winds of the Universe . 12. Paracelsus is reproved . 13. His Error concerning a contracture , from the Colick . 14. The Causes of the aforesaid Convulsion and Palsie . 15. The Life of the Muscles is concluded from the Blas of them . 16 Why it is not the last that dieth . 17. Unsound or mad Remedies in windie Blasts . 18. Of what sort that should be , which drives away , or discusseth or scattereth Winds . 19. They are as yet ignorant of the properties of wringings of the Bowels . 20. The Wo●● wants its proper windie Blasts . 21. Windie Blasts are not stirred up without their Bounds . 22. A Flatulent or Windie Plurisie owes its rise unto a Fiction . 23. We must be ashamed to have accused conceived Winds . 24. Wind is accused by many , to be the beginning of all Diseases whatsoever . 25. How cold doth occurre hereunto . 26. What is to be known in this respect . 27. What is afterwards to be done . 28. By whom usual Remedies profitable in Windinesses , were invented . 29. The Ileos or Iliack passion is an averse co-writhing of the intestine . 30. That Affect hath in its Causes and manner , been even hitherto unknown . 31. A History hath discovered the deceit of the Schools . 32. A new Doctrine concerning Flatus's or windie Blasts . 33. A sixfold Flatus in us . 34. No Flatus in us can be a Vapour . 35. What is a wild Gas. 36. Flatus's are distinguished . 37. A certain windinesse is necessary for a Bowel , whereof none hath hitherto taken notice . 38. It is proved by a Monster . 39. Some sequels flowing from thence . 40. A consideration about the mean , and a●ounding of this Flatus . 41. From meats vitiated , or excrements seasoned with a vitious ferment , are paines of wringings in the Gutts . 42. The Convulsions of a Bowel . 43. Galen was Ignorant of the use of parts . 44. The Schools neglecting other Flatus's , have had respect onely to Farting , whence a Fartisme . 45. The windie blasts of a Tympany . 46. The Effects of a dungie-ferment , in respect to Flatus's . 47. The cure of a most stinking windiness by loosening things . 48. Dungs are not the voluntary putrefactions of things . 49. A difference between the windy Blast of the Stomack , Ileon , and Colon. 50. A Scheme or Figure of the Flatus's in us . 51. The Tympany is more mortal than the Dropsie Ascites . 52. Two considerations touching windie Blasts . 53. A consideration of Flatus's . 54 A Flatus is the vice of us , not of things . 55. What the interchangeable course of Flatus's may respect . 56. That Flatus's are made in us by a causing Agent , but not by a separating one . 57. Galen is withstood concerning Flatus's . 58. Divers times again . 59. An Error about lustful Meats . 60. Venus or carnal lust hath respect unto the Spleen . 61. The ingendring of Flatus's , whence and how it is . 62. An example of windy Blasts . 63. A windie Blast doth not fore-exist in the Food . 64. A notable thing concerning the Grape . 65. A notable thing touching the Ferment . 66. Respects of Flatus's , and of the Stomack . 67. The handy-craft-operation of Flatus's in a threefold Monarchy . 68. The notable Gas of Tartar. 69. The windinesses of meats . 70. Sulphur teacheth a flatulent or Windie matter , and the supposing of a Dungie Ferment . 71. Whence wringings of the Guts are . 72. Why poysons do for the most part make the habit of the Body to swell . 73. Why Leavened or Fermented things were forbidden to the Jews . 74. A dead Carcase that is drowned , when it issues up out of the Water . 75. A remarkable Remedy concerning the lesser hot Seeds . 76. The Judgement upon the beholding of the dead Carcase of a gentile Matron . 77. The vanity of a Name and Remedie driving away Windes . 78. A destinction of the Volvulus , or pain of the Ileos , from the wringings of the Bowels . AFter that the more judicious of Physitians , had vainly implored aid from the Elements , Humours and Stars , and in the next place , had in vain invoked Tartar , and also the supposed beginnings of the Chymists for their helps , they afterwards medi●ated , against the will of the Galenical Schools , that the Head-ach , pain of the Megrim , and that pain which was left of yesterdaies drunkennesse or gluttony , and likewise the giddiness of the head , Doatages , Asthmaes , bastard Pleurisies , the Convulsion , Cramp , the Disease of the standing of the Yard , the Tympany , furies of the Wombe , yea and of the falling Sickness , with some other affects , divided in their particular kind , do without controversie , owe their beginnings unto windy blasts , and vapours : wherefore also , they by an equal right , enlarging the Catalogue , brought down their searches unto the Book of Hippocrates [ Peri Phusi●n ] or concerning natural things . That old man , hath so altogether consecrated all Diseases to flatus's or windy blasts , that he hath promiscuously confounded winds with the principles of life . Therefore the more fruitful wits of the Schools began to search , not so much into the nature and properties of windinesses , as ( the suppositions of windy blasts being granted and yeelded to ) further to superstruct and build the nature and causes of almost all Diseases , and to dedicate them to windy blasts , vapours , and exhalations , climbing from beneath upwards : or being thrust head-long downwards . But when as they were not able wholly to deliver themselves out of straits , nor that the edifice of so great a moment could stand firm , because it was supported by no foundation of a more solide enquiry , it was as it were the thred of an enterprise , broken asunder by too much twisting . Truly Hippocrates , constrained a flatus into a predicament , whether they should be partakers of life or death , or at length of destruction , and should contain the causes thereof , or should be stirred up from Heaven by the Blas of the Stars , and so should promise causal necessities of the heavenly circle , or at length they should obey a sublunary , or voluntary Law : to wit , he left it wholly undecided . And so he left a broken method . And that stood , because there was not yet so great a necessity , experience , frequency and stubbornness of Diseases . For it was not as yet known , that the vital spirit had conceived the light of life , which was that of the sensitive soul , and that they were the immediate seats of the forms of soulified Creatures , and so , that they did contain the crasis or temperature of the whole Essence . For none then had learned that the matter of that Gas , the Water , and so none had as yet dreamed that the vital spirit did differ from the wind of the World in the whole Element . For truly the Schools had easily fallen down into this ditch of windy blasts , and had stubbornly there remained , but that they acknowledged the succours of purging Medicines , and blood-letting in winds , to be vain , and foresaw , that they should be in vain without the aid of both those succours . Galen indeed had seen , that Oyles and fatnesses did by degrees exhale through fire , therefore he thought , that winds also are awakened in us through a melted fatness , or the inordinacy of the digestions , because he was he who was not able to distinguish the Air or wind from an exhalation , from a vapour , and from a windy blast . The Galenical School , I say , hath not hitherto known the difference between a windy Gas ( which is meerly Air , that is , a wind moved up and down by the Blas of the Stars ) a fat Gas , a dry Gas , which is called a sublimed one , a fuliginous or smoaky , or endemical Gas , and a wild Gas , or an unrestrainable one , which cannot be compelled into a visible Body . Wherefore the obscurity of the darkness of natural things , hath remained unexcusable among those that are ignorant of the Art of the Fire . The which doth instruct us , in what degree , watry Bodies , or in what degree , and order , every fatness may flie away , in the next place , by what separation , or by what Ferment , Bodies , may depart from each other , may putrifie what all particular Bodies may carry with them by resolving ; in the next place , by what means , the Crases of Seeds , and properties of a composed Body may shew themselves . Lastly , by what endeavour , all of whatsoever is in us , may be disposed into transpiration , without a separation of parts . They had heard indeed winds in the belly , and then unhurtful rumblings , and painful wringings they took notice of to be in the stomack , and Colon , but in Winter , a plurality of winds , wherefore they dreamed of an icy Phlegme in the bowels , and hot Remedies to be applyed to cold Diseases . Wherein the Schools do at first infold or ensnare themselves , while they deliver the original of vapours and windinesses , and do intend to cure and put these to flight , by contrary Remedies as they call them . For they contradict themselves in their principles or beginnings , mean , and manner . For if windinesses in us are vapours or exhalations in us : Surely there will follow upon the administring of hot Remedies against winds , a greater exciting of pains and flatus's , and stretching out of parts , because vapours must needs be increased , and torments be multiplyed , as well by reason of stretchings out , as the sharpness of the winds . And that thing , the Art of distilling doth prove throughout the whole . Paracelsus , although a Potentate of the Art of the Fire , was not free from the storm of winds . Because he was he , which was ignorant of the nature of winds and of the Air , that the matter of vapours of flatus's , is a watry Gas , that their efficient causes , manners , means , as also matter , is water got with child by a Seed . Because he was he who plainly despised the authorities of Philosophy , and endeavoured to bind nature under his own idiotism : he was also forsaken , God so permitting it , by the light of nature , who maketh such endeavours every where void . Also no man ever attaineth unto Wisdom , who hath thought to have come thereunto by himself . For Paracelsus doth every where constantly perswade , that we ought to feel the Diseases and defects of all things , because we are hitherto every way an extract of the whole universe . That we ought to express the universe , as it were , the Parent of a Son. For so he will have us to contain winds and their varieties , our wringings of the bowels also , to answer unto the tempests of the Air. But I will not depart even a nails breadth from the famous Image of God , that we do resemble the Macrocosme or great World , rather than God in his Image . For I believe , that I am not a man , that I might undergo Diseases , and so resemble , Pirke Olam , or Holam Hapiroud : but rather I know that I do undergo Diseases , that I might shew a depraved and mortal nature , but that I am a man for no other end , than that according to the good pleasure of God , I may represent his lively Image . That man therefore divides the wringings of the bowels into four parts , according unto the four accustomed hinges of the winds . Whereof , the Northern one , he first of all placeth in the loyns , whose wind in its colick , should blow against the Navil . But in the Navil he placeth the Southern one , which in its colick , should blow Diametrically on the back . So also he hath disposed the Eastern one in the right side , as also the Western in the left , and he at length , ascribes to every wind their proper Remedies , involved under Hieroglyphicks , as yet to him unknown . Alas ! with how sorrowful a pledge are all these things , and by how sporting a means , hath that man invaded the principality of healing ? to wit , that we are all little Worlds ! for at how dear a rate doth he sell us this Idea or Image of the Macrocosme ! and by what a scanty argument doth he found his dreams ! when as , in very deed , there are no winds , nor matter of winds in us which we do not breath in and breath out , otherwise , that neither is there a flatulent or windy Gas in us , unless in one way , house and passage : To wit , from the stomack , through the bowels , even into the fundament . Indeed Paracelsus had known these things in part , in the next place , that of winds in the Womb , Pleura , Head , and Muscles , there were old Wives fables : Nevertheless , he as yet weaved greater , that he might compose these ridiculous hinges of winds : the which by a stronger right , he had transferred into the Wombe , then into the bowels : The which with great grief doth writh it self sometimes on the left side of the bottom of the belly , sometimes on the right side , and besiegeth even the Navil , or inclines it self behind unto the back and loynes . But he had remained doubtful where he had found a fifth wind in the head-long Wombe , and where a sixth , while the Womb is carried straight upwards ; and therefore although he at large declameth concerning the Star or Astrum of the Wombe in a particular Book . yet he sleeping , hath neglected the Cardinal winds of the World in the exorbitances of the Wombe . Although he also doth seriously declare , that the Womb is a World. but moreover less than the Microcosme . But oh Paracelsus ! by supposing some Els of a bowel stretched out by wind , and that wind shut up on both sides ( for if it be not shut up , it shall neither cause pain , nor stretch out , but shall be evacuated by its own emunctory , of its own accord ) and so that it doth neither breath , nor is carried side-wayes after the manner of winds . My question is concerning the Name , Essence , Original , and Remedy of that wind ? And then , when the Ileon is extended , perhaps for 40 turns , as well from the back forwards , as with a side passage on both sides , with what and what order of twisting shall the hinges of the four winds have their Scituation , Name , and property of Name ? For so in every winding circle , there should be now , fourty Southern winds , and as many Northern ones , &c. For if in the twentieth , or in every particular twisting of the intestine , thou oughtest to have added a reason , why not in the tenth or twelfth , if thou desiredst credit to be given to thee , dreaming of these things . But surely thou hast not been a faithful Aeolus of those winds . Because thou marking the colick to have oft-times afforded the contracted muscles of the hands , Convulsions I say , and Palseys , hast not blushed to say , that winds are carried from the bowels through all the muscles and tendons . And thou hast affirmed that , with so much the more liberty , because thou findest the Schools prone unto every service of vapours and winds , perhaps for all Diseases . For when through the dictating testimony of truth within , they found not rest for themselves in Elements , Complexions , and Humours : they being confused , sought out a mean whereby they might find the cause of Diseases by vapours and winds . For perhaps when humours had deceived them , they wished that they might not be reproved by an invisible position of winds . Indeed it was an invention of the Impostor Satan , who seeing he endeavours to be Gods Ape , by the belief of invisible things , pretends that the understanding of the credulous or those rash of belief , is due unto himself . And that they do suffice for all Diseases , so the belly do rustle its rumblings in the ears . And therefore I ought also by all means to have treated of flatus's or windinesses . Surely I pity , on both sides , so great unconstancy of Paracelsus , and ignorance of those that believe him , whereby he excludes and cuts off from himself his pretended title of the Monarch of Secrets . For he knew not in this place , that such is the property of any poyson being administred even under the friendly shew of purging Medicines , that they do sorely trouble or shake the Archeus , and stir up a Blas thereof , according to the Aphorism . A Cramp or Convulsion after Hellebour , is mortal . And that , that colick which besides the wonted wringings of the bowels proceeding from a sharpness , doth moreover contain an infection of poyson , is also the Author of the Convulsion . Although wind in the mean time , be not carried out of the gut Ileon . So a man dying with a total extinguishment of his strength , leaves his dead carcase on both sides extended with a general Tetanus ; but whenas he is snatched away by a violent Death , his dead carcase is flaggy . Whence I have learned , that there is a certain life , feeling , and motion or Blas in the flesh , besides a voluntary one . To wit , that life apprehending poysons and death , together with an extinguishment , doth extend the tendons on both sides . Whence it is false , that the heart is the last which dieth . For the life of the Muscles doth as yet remain surviving , which is most powerful in Insects , & so also the head being plucked off , flies do as yet , flie away . And in a woman long dead , her Wombe hath oft-times chased out her young . Therefore every Convulsion of the Muscles , whether from the colick , or by taking a laxative poyson , or any other thing , is not from a voluntary motion : but from a natural act of feeling , and moving of the Muscles : but not that the flatus which extends the bowels , doth also efficiently extend the Muscles . Even as in the Book of the Disease of the Stone , in the Treatise of Sense , and Sensation , I have abundantly confirmed . It is therefore for a sound decree . This is carminative , that drives away winds ; but that scatters windy blasts . As if by enchanting verses , winds , to be renounced by Physitians , should depart . For if the conduit and passage of utterance do lay open , wind never wants a forreign aid , as neither a strange driver , that it may go forth . Yea which is more , wringings of the guts do not alwayes cease , although there be a free egress for flatus's . Otherwise if the way be without an impediment , the windy blast whether the Physitian will or no , shall find it : for truly there is but one only passage of the bowels , and that continual unto them . But such driving Medicines ought to have some mean , even as a Pestil thrusts forward the contained clysters . But that mean , that it may be fit for the expelling of a flatus , it ought suitably to answer the conduit of the bowels , as well in the slender as in the grosser ones : and moreover to have a pulsive or driving Blas . But wind being shut up , doth cause the less pain , so long as it is quiet : So every pulsive Remedy , should of necessity increase the pains of the wringings or gripes , and so nature sheweth , that we must abstain from things that do drive or force windiness . But they strongly meditate , that in carminatives , there is the force of a whip . But are flatus's like unto cattel ? For do they acknowledge that they and their carminatives are to be set in the place of a suitable Pestil ? or that perhaps carminatives have the same virtue , like a voice which drives away cattel ? and that windy blasts in the Body do hearken unto the exhortation of enchanting Poets or Singers ? I know indeed from hence , that the Schools are ignorant of the force , property , causes and manner , as well of the gripings or wringings , as of the Remedies . For winds are not to be driven away , and secondly , not to be dispersed . For this is impossible : but that contains a childish Fiction . Neither also by an honest man are flatus's to be restrained by any Verse or Song , a religious Etymology whereof , doth notwithstanding hitherto remain in the Schools . A windy blast is not inwardly stirred up in the Wombe , because the Wombe is destitute of a flatulent matter , and its digestion is not fit for creating of flatus's : but outwardly , Air scarce enters into the Wombe : because it is that , which least it should suffer a vacuum or emptiness in its membrane , it falleth down wholly moist and flaggy : and so of its own accord , a passage for the breathing Air is prevented , unless it be by force , cast into it , by an instrument . In the next place , neither do external winds borrow a force from the mouth , that they may enter into unwonted regions , and that they may strongly thump the Pleura grown to the ribs , but that between this , and the Muscles between the ribs , they may stir up a flatulent Pleurisie , and presently after tear the Pleura from the ribs , and frame a true inflamation of the Pleurisie . Because there is no way for Air thither : yea if it should reach thither , it hath not a Blas behind , which might be of any damage . And by which way it had entred , for therefore , before it had hurt , it had expired . Neither also are flatus's made internally in those parts , the matter whereof , and the efficient cause hindering it . It is also like an old Wives Fiction , that an external wind , or blast of Air , doth pierce thorow the skin , however so pory it be , even as also the fleshy Membrane , and also the Muscles under it . According to the shameful reason of Physitians , wherein they say : He hath lately contracted wind , whence his parts are ill affected . For I have oftentimes with my own blushing , heard this cause to be assigned almost to all Diseases , from the head even to the ankle . The distemperature of the Air is accused for the vices of the head , eyes , ears , teeth , Oasand ; for hoarsnesses , coughs , likewise for all defluxions , unconcoctions , feavers , and so the Air hath been accounted a Pandora's box . And that not only by the touching of cold , as an outward cause , but as a windy blast hath been drawn inwards , and there unduely detained . Of which things elsewhere . But now our speech is of our , and those , internal windy blasts , I grant indeed that an unwonted cold ( as a guards-man of Death ) doth indeed affect some noble part or servile one , as it disturbs the last digestion thereof , whence excrements , pains , yea and Aposthems of the similiar parts do diversly follow . But in these , the faculty of the cold is only an outward occasional cause ; which shews a prevention , not likewise a cure , or quality of a Remedy . Therefore let the trifles of the Schools bid farewel . But besides , that any Physitian may rightly perform his office , he shall know first , what wind is , and then , what is a windy blast , from whence it is made , why it causeth pain ; and then the Remedy shall be easie unto him . Indeed the cause of flatus's being known , we must take heed , least their concrete or composure be turned into a Gas. But a Gas which hath been once made , prepareth an easie way or passage for it self . But if not , and if the bowel where it is beneath it , be stopped with a more hard obstacle , this is to be loosed . But where there is no excrement as a partition , and yet the wringings do proceed , shall not those things be vain , which drive away winds ? and foolish which disperse them ? For truly not the windy blasts , but the matter from whence the bowels are drawn together , and the bowels themselves do generate windinesses , is to be brushed away . The cure , I say , may not be converted unto the flatus produced , but unto the cause producing it . I see therefore that the Remedies of Dill , Caraway , Anise , Cummin , wild Carrot seed , &c. were found out not by the Schools , who are ignorant of the causes of wringings of the bowels : but that they were made known from Divine compassion , to little ones and poor ones , from whom the Schools have begged them , as also many other experiments from thence . For truly the original , essence , matter , property , process and history of flatus's , have lain hid to the Schools . In the next place , neither is the Volvulus , Iliack passion , or that of a barbarous name [ miserere mei ] any twisting or writhing together , and extravagancy of the lesser bowel . For besides that it should be a perpetual , and of necessity , a relapsing evil , Anatomy resists it , which shewes the bowel to be cloathed with the mesentery , to wit , with an external cloathing , with a third garment and upper skinny one , and it being fast tyed to the loynes , by that mesentery , to hang or bend forwards . Therefore that bond being once burst asunder , and the society of the mesentery despised , there is no hope for the future , of reducing the bowels into their former case , from which they had freed themselves by breaking Prison . And so the evil being by a strong fortune restored , should of necessity presently return , and should alwayes afterwards rush into a worse state . Again , throughout the whole tract of the bowel , there should henceforeward be no nourishment with the Veins , and no attraction of chyle for life ; when as nevertheless in the mean time , that Disease gives place to an easie Remedy . For if , besides its wonted circles , the bowel should be co-writhed , who should be that mover ? or who that tormenter ? For from without it hath none , and fears none , which bowel is covered with a smooth caule and simple bladder of the Abdomen or bottom of the belly . Also , if it be stopped up by an internal excrement ( for this nor the other can happen unto it ) now the gut Ileon is stopped ( wherein excrements are not yet wont to be hardned ) by an unwonted dung : but not co-writhed , not dissolved without the case of the mesentery . And so the Schools being amazed , that Disease , hath been unknown in its causes and manner . For I remember , that Thomas Balbani of Antwerp , when I was a Youth , dying within a week of a Volvulus or an Iliack passion , offered eighty thousand Flandrian pounds to him that should cure him , having sent his Coach-men or swift Riders every way . The Physitians of Antwerp then , by the decree of the Schools , with a lofty look , accused the bowel to be rouled inwards , and to be inwrithed as it were with a Gordian knot , their remote ignorances providing a Remedy by way of excuse , but not for the sick man. But Anatomy discovered their Deceit and gross ignorance . For hard dung was found in the slender gut to have stuck sixteen fingers above the blind gut , and much loose ballast to have swumme through the Ileon from above : For it is a rare thing for dungs to harden in the slender gut . Wherefore I afterwards suffered none to perish of the Disease ( ill called ) Volvulus . To wit , I gave some leadden Musquet bullets to drink , that by their weight alone they might drive forward that hard excrement . For by how much the more and bigger bullets are drawn down , by so much the safer and swifter cure follows , so the sick party doth stand , walk , or beeled , with the bottom of his belly as it were raised upright . Now moreover , I will declare a history of flatus's , although a sordid one . Indeed all windiness is in the stomack and bowels . Even as winds are only in the Air , but not beneath the water and earth . Indeed the nativity of a windy blast doth fore-require a certain stomatical sharpness , and yet not an ordinary fermental one . Which thing , because it is not elsewhere found than in the aforesaid places , a flatus also is no where else generated . Even as shall hereafter be manifested . In the next place , every flatus is raised up either from meats , not yet digested , or from the cream , or from the dung of meats , or from the seedy nourishment of the bowels degenerating . There is therefore a four-fold internal flatus in us , a fifth is external , that of a Tympany , which is enclosed without the intestine . One is natural and requisite , or ordinary . But a seventh is poysonsom , in the habit of the Body . But none of them is a vapour , or watery exhalation : because that is that , which of its own accord , and from its proper consistence , doth presently and easily return into water . In the next place , no flatus is air , or wind : seeing the wind or air is not of the composition of concrete Bodies , even as I have longly and largely proved . Therefore it remaineth , that every flatus in us , is a wild Gas , stirred up among the digestions , from meats , drinks , and excrements . One therefore is in the stomack , and is called belching , and it is unsavory , sower , brackish , burntish , stinking or specifical . I call that of unconcocted meat , a specifical flatus : for so Garlick , Radish , and the like , do afford their own savours in belching . But an unsavory and sower flatus , is a belching of the cream , indeed digested , but stirred up through an impotency or weaknesse of the stomack . But a brackish flatus , such as is in inordinate appetite , and a burntish one , are made of meats , well nigh degenerated into a dungy disposition . There is therefore also , another flatus , stirred up in the slender bowels , through the vice of the ferment of the Gaul : and it is either unsavory , sharp , sower , bitter , dungy , cadaverous , or stinking , according to the variety of the matter , and the power of the gauly ferment . This flatus is called a Fart , neither doth it ever ascend through the Pylorus into the stomack . The which if it be stincking or burntish , doth denote the ferment of the dung to be fore-ripe , and lifted up into a strange harvest . There are moreover , two other flatus's in us . One is plainly heteroclite or of a differing kind , being detained and bred , as well in the bowels , as in the whole habit of the Body . For from a poysonous , and dungy forreign ferment , a certain windy blast ariseth in the last digestion of the similar parts ; To wit , while a poyson being taken , dead carcases become swollen , and are blown up : for a sower or sharp corruption entereth into fleshes , after a heteroclital or degenerate manner ; and the solide part dies , and indeed the implanted vital spirit is extinguished , and the part is affected with the poyson of the Venome , whence is a dungie , deadly Flatus , abominable to our nature . And so the immediate or spermatick nourishment of the solid parts , is changed into a wild Gas , and the whole body swelleth , or a part is peculiarly affected . There is also another unsavoury Flatus in the Ileon , to wit , natural , and a certain profitable product , indeed therefore ordinary and natural . And seeing it is made in most , and those oppressed with much hunger ; I conclude with my self , that that unsavoury Flatus was bred of the very immediate nourishment of that bowel it self , being well disposed . For otherwise it should be impossible in Caeliack passions , and other dissolvings of the belly , that so suddain and swift expulsions of excrements should be made , if the Ileon being shut in its emptiness , and falling down , with the continuation of a natural Flatus , should not after some sort , gape perpetually . That thing , I say , the Schooles have never diligently searched into . Whereunto , I will also add greater perplexities , to wit , unless the Ileon do alwaies , naturally , and moderately swell with wind . For otherwise , in the first place , the endeavours of some fibers in the bowels seemed to be in vain , if the Ileon doth not meanly swell with a continual Flatus . For a boy , who suffered a monstrous burstnesse in his Navil , ( for his Navil was wholly clear or shining as it were with a thin upper skin , to the largeness of half the palm of ones hand ) for this plainly monstrous child , as oft as he underwent the gripes or wringings , did afford us the storm of the Ileon to be beheld . So that , that bowel as if it had boyled up , when he walked up and down , did seem to be twisted and pulled together . And that especially as oft as new torments or gripes did molest him : Which things , seeing thty were in such a manner in time of paines , I would also contemplate , of what sort the family administration of the bowels might be in time of health . And then I observed , that there was plainly another successive motion , whereby the bowels did exercise themselves . For as oft as any thing was sent through the Body from above , unto the fundament , ( for it was in the consistence of a more liquid syrupe , and obscurely yellow ) the bowel contracted it self with its own athwart or transverse Fibers , as though it were wholly closed that way , and did drive down the excrement beneath it self : For this was made by a successive contracture of the transverse fibers , no otherwise than as a fidler opens finger after finger , and looseth the former . Even so that it did indeed drive forward the Excrement , together with the Flatus , but this did forthwith return unto its antient place . Surely a thing worthy of great admiration , that through the providence of God , the patrs are not inwardly idle , but do thus without feeling or perceivance , and uncessantly operate , even while we are sleeping . Next I beheld , That as long as the Boy did lie on his right side , the transverse fibers did press themselves together , in the upper part of the bowels of the same side , that they might drive the excrement upwards into the steep part : yet the hairs or threds of the down-bending part of the bowel , then not at all labouring , or being pressed together . I saw therefore , that a Flatus is not alwaies driven forward by the Ileon unto the Fundament , with the excrements : but that it doth leap backwards , and return unto the parts of the Ileon , which are re-opened presently after the secluding of the excrement . From whence , I conjectured , that such a Flatus was natural and profitable , and not burdensome . For the same closure of the Ileon it self , is most exact , before that , that which is thin and slideable can be driven upwards , which being seen , I presently collected ; First , That in the Caeliack or belly passion , the digestive faculty doth not onely erre by reason of the corrupting of a decaying Ferment , but also the retentive faculty of the Pylorus : and furthermore that the propulsive , or forth-driving faculty of the bowels doth then rage with a sumptomatical errour . And then , that some kind of Flatus is natural to the Ileon , being stirred up by its own Spermatical nourishment ; and so that it is to arise from the sixth digestion of that bowel , without stink , sharpness , and trouble : and so that it directs it self into a mean of quantity . But whatsoever of this Flatus , as superfluous , doth exceed its quantity , is presently expelled out of doors . A vice therefore in quantity , doth of its own accord , bewray it self , and is easily banished . It is indeed from a superfluity : but yet it neither causeth pain , nor biteth . But if windy blasts are stirred up from meats vitiated in themselvs , or those seasoned with a vitiated ferment in time of digestion , they are painful through their sharpness , and a forreign impression , but far more powerfuly , if the bowels are pulled together , especially when as a tough muscilage , seasoned with a vitiated ferment , the mother of wringings or gripes , shall stubbornly any where adhere , to wit , for the driving out whereof ( for the most part in vain ) the bowels do co-press , contract , and co-wrinkle themselves . But I call a contracture , the generatress of cruel gripes or wringings , as oft as a bowel is drawn together , not indeed on the transverse , or oblique part of its circle , but wholly on the length of it : especially because contractures by the transverse or athwart , and oblique or crooked fibers , are daily , natural , and without pain . Galen triumphing of the use of parts , being had in great esteem by the Schools , is shewn by Vassalius in an 116 places or errours , never to have seen the dissection of an humane body , which demonstrations of that Anatomical work , as the Schools shall never wash of : So I maintain , that the chief uses of parts , the scopes of the Formative faculty , or their delights , are untouched , not heeded , but unknown hitherto . Indeed since Galen , they have sufficiently seen , that the strait , oblique , and transverse fibers of a bowel , do prevail unto the driving forth of the excrement : yet have they not known , whither , and how , every one of those might incline themselves in their services . For they who in tediously writing , have rashly erred in the platting or weaving of the Choroides or wonderful net of the brain , in the sporting motions of the Lungs , and the passed by uses of the Pulses , have sluggishly passed by the uses of the Pulses , and Bowels in their services . Thus far of Belching and Farting . And Likewise I have discussed concerning a degenerate Flatus throughout the whole Body ; and concerning the natural and requisite Flatus of the Ileon . For truly , I never saw a dead carcase dissected , which would not offer to the Beholders , the Ileon swoln with a Flatus . Now moreover I will proceed concerning the Flatus's of wringing or griping diseases , and the authors of Death . In the third place , there is a Flatus or windy blast in the more gross bowels , consequently bred in the bowels of the blind gut . The Schooles indeed have heeded no other Flatus besides this , as if Flatus's were not conceived but in the strait gut and Colon. And therefore also they have called the Colick , the disease of windinesses , and they have solidly distinguished it into the Colick of the Colon , and of the stomack , into a sandy and windy Colick , and the like shamfulnesses of Confusions . A third Flatus therefore ariseth from a dungy and putrifactive ferment , and it is twofold , to wit , from the food already putrified by a dungy ferment ; and from a spermatical nourishment , degenerate , mortified , and moreover dungified . For this is the most stinking one of all by far . There is also at length a forreign Flatus , which although it have not place in gripings or wringings in the belly as a Cause , yet it is oft-times as a subsequent effect of the same , and is for the most part , worse than a Dropsie , and is called a Tympany . But I call that a dungy ferment , as it is bred without a bowel , so also whose seat is in the blind gut , where the excrements of meats begin to putrifie , under the specifical difference of soulified creatures , and so they there borrow an impression of a dungy ferment , according to their proper kind , or species , neither surely is it an idle or dreamed fiction of this ferment , which doth on every side bring forth a specifical diversity , when as otherwise there is not any transmutation of things without a peculiar ferment . In this ferment therefore oilynesses are made volatile , and an inflamable exhalation is stirred up out of putrifying things , wherefore Chymists do premise all things into putrifaction , that those things , which else being weighty , hidden , and shut up , would remain in the lee , might be lifted up together , with the watrinesse of the matter . For Fleshes , Eggs , Meat-broths , and whatsoever things are of their own accord mortified , do yield most stinking excrements , as also windy blasts . So Amber-grese , Mosch , Zivet , and such sweet smelling things , because in their original , they are partly of Fleshes , and partly because they have once gotten a dungy ferment of that species , being easily again afterwards subdued by our ferment , do bring forth most stinking excrements and Flatus's . By this right also , excrements and Flatus's , which are drawn out by loosening medicines , because immediately dropping from a dead carcase , transchanged aswel through aputrifactive ferment of the loosening poyson , as of the place or bowel : besides the proper horribleness of the mortified matter , they are moreover , most exceeding stinking . And so it is even from hence manifest , that there is a certain dungy ferment in soulified creatures , because it is that which besides the property of its own particular kind , doth as yet keep as many diversities in it self , as there are of Objects receiving . Especially because dungs are not the voluntary putrifyings , or artificial putrifactions of things ; but the limited , and specifical ones : whose efficacy , seeing it doth not proceed onely from the thing it self , it hath need of an external author alwaies operating in the same agreeing resemblance , also in the same manner and character ; most especially , because the impression follows both the healthy disposition of its ferment , as also the sick one . Which thing doth from thence more clearly appear . Because belching , or a flatus originally in the stomack , even as also the flatus of the Ileon , do extinguish the flame of a candle . But a dungy flatus which is formed in the utmost bowels , and breaks forth thorow the fundament , being sent thorow the flame of a candle , is enflamed in flying thorow it , and expresseth a flame of divers colours , like a Rain-bow . But that which is formed in the Ileon or slender bowel , is never inflameable , is often without smell , unless it bring down the mixture of another with it , it oft-times strikes through , being tart , sharp , and brackish in the Fundament . Therefore flatus's or windinesses , do differ in us , in their matter , form , place , ferment , properties , and so in their whole species . Neither have flatus's less , their own generical and specifical varieties , than the Bodies from whence they proceed . For flatus's are in no wise Air. Yea flatus's are not only distinguished by the matter whereof they are , but also by the ferment and seed of flatus's . Hitherto have those things regard , which I have taught concerning the birth of a Gas , or wild Spirit , which surely , should else remain in its antient concrete Body , unless , a ferment of the place being adjoyned , and a seed of sharpness drawn , it be made or composed into a flatus or Gas. I will repeat in this place , the general kinds of diversities of flatus's bred in us , which are specificated by their ferments and the properties of things from whence they arise . Behold their Scheme or Figure . For there are two irregular flatus's in us , whereof , one is ordinary , natural and necessary in the Ileon . The other is plainly pestiferous and degenerate , the which , a poyson being taken , or bred within , doth for the most part lift up the whole habit of the Body into a tumour . And then , there are four flatus's in the stomack and bowels . One of the stomack , which is belching . And this is either specifical , from undigested , hard and stubborn meat . Another is unsavory , of the cream being almost digested , but bred from a weakness of digestion : but a third is sower , from the cream digested ; but yet hindered . A fourth belching is brackish , being produced from the ferment of the place being exasperated . The second flatus , is that of the and it hath some diversities in it . The first whereof containeth farting , arising from Ileon , the abundance of the aforesaid natural flatus . The other is bitter , which breaks forth from strange and ill digested dregs ; And it hath somewhat of an over-hasty dungy ferment . Also the flatus of the gut Colon succeedeth , from meats not plainly freed from their stomatical sharpness , but being corrupted by a prevention , a dungy ferment fore-timely coming unto them . There is also a dungy , mortified flatus , from a resolving and putrefaction of the lively and vital nourishment of the solide parts . Lastly , without the channels of a bowel , is the flatus , Tympany , arising from a diseasifying cause between the Bought of the intestine , and the concave of the Peritoneum or skin which covereth the bowels . Which diseasifying cause hath the property of a local matter , but a more mild one . But the flatus which is hence begotten , is not from a diseasifying matter , but it is the product thereof , indeed it is from the same matter , whereof the natural and ordinary flatus of the Ileon is : That is , from the very immediate nourishment of the bowel . But it is mortal , as well from a poysonous cause , or from a radical Disease , as in respect of the place : which produced Disease may be increased without a limit , and at length may choak the sick ; like the Dropsie Ascites . The Scheme being now finished , thou shalt see that the matter whereof flatus's are , is that concrete Body , about which a ferment doth operate . And then , that he who strives to drive away flatus's by propulsion , or dispersing , and so to overcome the Disease , doth not take away the cause : but goes unto the last effect . Which thing , that it may be the more cleerly made known to thy view , I will suppose three Brethren to be nourished with the same drink and meat : one whereof , can send forth almost no flatus : But another , and the weaker , can bring forth many un-savory , and now and then sower belchings . But the third undergoing a disproportionable temper of his bowels , can make many crackings . From whence , first of all , it becomes plain to be seen , that flatus's are not made of flatulent or windy meats , the use whereof is therefore so greatly forbidden in the Dietary of the Schools . But even as fulness doth for the most part cause many windy blasts , the which sobriety excuseth : therefore it follows , that the fardle is for a burden : but that a burden presupposeth , a labour , or weakness of the digestive faculty . So sharpish Apples , if they are roasted , do puff out very much windiness , the which if they are eaten by a strong stomack , are void of windiness . Whence it is sufficiently manifest , that a flatus is the vice of us , but not of things . The which , that nothing hinders , that some things are more apt for the producing of flatus's , and that from hence they are called windy . Because those things which are most flatulent , do not beget flatus's , but in defective persons . For if windinesses were by themselves and materially in meats , flatus's should equally bewray themselves in all , and he that should send forth the less of flatus's , the same being retained , he should be the weaker . Both whereof is false . Therefore the aforesaid interchangeable course of flatus's doth accuse the agent rather than the matter . In the next place , if it should be moved principally from the matter , and there be a fatty flatus in us : but that could in no wise be troubled or moved by our luke-warmth , which is first obliged to vaporal moistures , before that it can be sufficient for dry and oylie exhalations . Therefore even from hence it is also manifest , that flatus's are made by a causing , but not by a separating agent . Again , that also of Galen is absurd , that some things are windy in the first digestion , but that other things utter their flatus in the second , which he calls sanguification ; and so also , hence , he names them things venereous or causing natural lust . But the third things he calls windy in the last digestion , even as he saith concerning the keepers of Fig-trees ; That their fleshes are blown up , and swollen with windiness , from the eating of abundance of Figs. For every flatus , which was after any manner materially in meats , at least while the food is boyled , and afterwards formally resolved into a cream , seeing the cream , liquor , or water , could never take away the flatus's within , or beneath it self , it should of necessity , presently exhale by belching . But that a flatus out of the cream of meats , doth remain in the blood , or after sanguification is finished ; if that be rightly sifted , it contradicteth the position of the Schools , whereby they suppose , that a natural or livery spirit is bred in the blood , not indeed an external one , stirred up and retained from things : but being made anew , by an ordinary power of the Liver . For that flatus in the venal blood , should be a forreign windiness ( to wit , of the Parsnip , Pease , &c. ) rebellious and stubborn against the formal transchanging of the food into blood . Or if it be by the strength of the Liver , supposed to be transchanged into natural spirit , which they suppose to be the spirit of the venal blood ; first of all it shall be the spirit of the Liver acting ; not of the matter of the venal blood . Seeing the flatus also , which else , every where is not produced but by the error of the digestive faculty , in this place , shall be priviledged , and be made by the force or vigour of the digestive faculty . And so it shall belong to the strong Liver , to be able to stir up very much windinesse out of the cream . Surely , I think it a sign of notorious weakness , not to be able to reduce the transchangeable lump into a single and equable substance : but that a strange and heterogeneal windiness should be left by the Liver to be overcome . The Schools therefore contend , that the strength of Venus or carnal lust , doth beg it self for a forreign flatus . Shall therefore a windinesse arising from strange nourishments , be fit for a species , and specifical propagation ? or from an imaginative spirit of the Liver , bred in the blood , being as yet unripe , shall it by the assuming of an external flatus , be fit for natural spirit , or in the Seed , for humane generation ? I will not believe that the Schools were so mad , as if the first mover of the seed and stones , can be the supposed Air of the venal blood . And much less the more crude flatus of nourishments . Lastly , neither do the Schools satisfie themselves herein . For if a flatus of meats had remained in the cream , and should afterwards as yet , be surviving in the making of the blood , ( for we must not think that a flatus can continue materially in act , for the aforesaid reasons ) therefore at least wise , they will , that an aptness or disposition of the matter unto flatulency , should remain . But this very thing they seriously withstand , being unwilling that the same accident should be in the thing bred or begotten , which was before in the thing corrupted . But all these devices of the Schools do sleep , eftsoon after , that it was plainly shewn , that there is no spirit of the Liver in the venal blood , and much less the retained flatus's of Pease , Parsnip , Eringo , or the Seed of Ash . For I have sufficienly shewn , that the Gas which wanders to and fro in the vital blood , is not a windy one ; nor that it doth relate unto the flatus's or smell of meats : but that it is a lightsom , but that it is a formal Being , the seat of the Soul. But that the matter , bowel , property , interchangeble courses , & defects of Venus hath not yet been made known to the Schools , I will teach in its place concerning the Spleen . Here it sufficeth to have separated the matter or power of Venus from flatus's : A weak digestion therefore , brings forth many windinesses , which a stronger digestion doth not find , even by examining every thing more curiously , and transchanging them more strongly . For a wandring ferment , draws out of a thing that which is not in it materially ; but only potentially : That is , a flatus ariseth from an error of the ferment , being estranged in digesting . For truly , flatus's are not drawn out of the matter , as though concreted and co-agulated ones had fore-existed in it : not from the digestion it self , as a cause by it self , even as heat doth ordinarily allure vapours out of water : but as , there ariseth a certain diminished disposition under the digestion of the ferment , from whence the digestive spirit sucketh a Flatus , as it were a guest inconvenient for it ; and as though the Archeus would correct the Error of the ferment : wherefore a begun indisposition of the matter , was born to change into a wild Gas : the which apprehend thou by an Example . For , Sal Armoniac , and Aqua Fortis , are those things which may be distilled , and suffer heat by themselves apart : but if they are joyned and become lukewarme , they cannot but be presently transchanged into a wild Gas , or an unrestrainable Flatus . So that if the Vessel be most exactly shut , and although most strong and large , yet it bursts asunder , even in the cold . Salt-peter likewise , melteth with a bright burning fire , is cold , and a remedy of Squinancies : yet a coal being adjoyned unto it , both are presently consumed , and do flie away into a flamie Gas. For neither are an Asse and a Horse turned into a Mule ; But the Seminal beginnings of both , from their conjunction , do produce the mule . For so very many things which were not before , materially within , are made a new by adjuncts , ferments , digestions , errors , and interchangable courses . And those things which under their first ferments , were not materially flatulent ; yet because they were not fully digested , and thereupon far removed , they as excrements , when as they undergo another following ferment , do pass over into inordinate Flatus's . So also a Flatus doth not fore-exist in the meats , and much less in the Cream : But there is a certain new and monstrous generation , from the thorow mixed seeds of things , or from the matter unduely transchanged , being placed under the action of another ferment , which thing concerning digestions , shall be more clearly manifest . For so a weaker stomack doth cause the food to putrifie before , or in the chyle , and brings forth frequent belchings , also burntish ones , even as in Feavers , where out of an empty stomack , a frequent belching leaps forth , unaccustomed to healthy persons . For so putrifying doth in distilling , bring forth the colour of Roses , together with the sweet smell and water thereof , which otherwise is not lifted up by the same heat . Likewise there is in the Bowels their own estranging of ferments , and of that which is putrified , it s own estranging , and degrees under which Flatus's are generated , and do break forth . For as long as a Grape is on every side enclosed in its skin , it is sooner dried , putrifies by continuance , or is changed into a raysin ; than that it sends forth a flatus ; but if the skin of the grape be never so little hurt , presently after the wound , the ferment ( the foregoer of any kind of putrifaction ) decayeth ; from whence , neither doth a wild Gas afterwards ceale to belch forth , as long as the heat of the boyling ferment shall endure ; or as long as , from the juyce of the grape , the wine is not perfected . For as meal differs from the leavened paste or dough , and the mealie lump from bread , so doth wine from the juyce of grapes . And as meal if it be boiled , doth not bring forth windinesses ; but being leavened , doth of its own accord belch forth windy blasts : so meats do not in their own nature contain the flatus , which the ferments do draw out . A wonder surely it is , that the Schooles have perceived nothing , have written nothing of these things hitherto ; but that they have delivered all things by hand , to the command of heat . Moreover , concerning the Gas of new wine , and properties of a wild spirit , enough elsewhere . Neither let those things be unseasonable or unfit , which I have elsewhere written concerning ferments , concerning digestions , touching transgressions under anothers harvest , and the diseasie transplantations sprung from thence , to have brought them over unto this limit , concerning flatus's . A most weak stomack therefore , affords un-savoury belchings , but a less weak one , soure ones a vitious stomack , burnish , bitter , and sharp ones . But a stronger stomack doth indeed rightly concoct meats that are full of juyce , not likewise the Onion , Garlick , Radishes , &c. Belchings therefore do witness some weakness , and therefore do express the savours of meats . But under the fardle of much meat that is full of juyce , brackish , also burntish belchings do bewray themselves , especially if the meats are mortified . But brackishness being stirred up by an exasperated ferment , doth bring forth a various appetite to meat . Furthermore also , that flatus's are not bred of windy things ; mark an example . Distilled Vinegar , while it dissolveth Crabs stones , Crysulcha , Silver , a wild spirit is belched forth . A harsh apple in roasting , stirs up very many flatus's : not so if it do longer sweeten on the tree by ripening . If therefore in the same apple , a flatus had materially been , it must needs be , that the greatest part of the apple which was flatutulent , and a meer windiness , was through ripening , converted into the sweet and homogeneal substance of the apple , that is into a non-windinesse . That a mixt Body , ( as they say ) is made of almost a simple element . Wherefore the whole apple , whether it be ripe or unripe , consisteth of the same matter ; and indeed not of a windy one . A sharp apple being roasted in a glass Hermetically shut , constraines the vessel by reason of its windy blast , to burst asunder . But a like apple , being closed up in the like glasse , with as much water , as that it may boyle , sends forth no Gas , but onely a watery exhalation . Aqua fortis , being distilled by its self , doth wholly pass into the vessel receiving , without a wild Gas. But if a dissolvable mettal be added unto it , it brings forth a Gas , so as that if the glass be well stopt with morter , although most strong , it breaks in pieces : when as in the mean time , none of the aforesaid mettal departs into a Gas. The Tartar of Wine , cannot be distilled so much as with the hundredth distillation of its own oyle , unlesse a chink or chap be left in the joynts . Otherwise a wild Gas , how big soever the vessel be , doth suddainly break in pieces . But if therefore Tartar should materially contain a flatus , it had uttered the same in its first combustion , at least in another distillation , the which notwithstanding , is made a new afterwards , in every of its distillations , also of its oyle or sulphur onely . Because a hidden sharpness of the Wine , and also a volatile Alcali is herein , whence of the coupling of them both , a wild Gas is made . For the food not being sufficiently subdued in the stomack , putrifies , and causeth a Gas. For it putrifieth through the corruption of the place , which is of the dung of the stomack : or by an action besides nature . For the least atomes of the meats being well chewed , are well turned into chyle : but the greater atomes in a more weak stomack , although in their circumference , and outward appearance , they are by digestion resolved into chyle ; yet in their center , seeing they indeed perceive sufficient heat , yet do not equally enjoy a ferment , they remain undigested , are corrupted , of a yellowish colour , and for the most part do the business for the bowels : or if they do retain the ancient sliminess of the food , together with a little sharpness , they are changed into wormes ( which are alwayes messengers of weakness ) but the ferment of the stomack finding some things resisting it , and therefore half-cocted , and half-putrified , presently enflameth , doubleth , and heighteneth its tartness , whence there is a gnawing , belching , from a brackishness , the companion of apetite ; which lump falling down into the intestine , stirs up rotten and stinking flatus's from a fat putrifaction . By way of handy-craft operation . Take of Sulphur one part , let it boyl with a double quantity of oyle of Line : presently the Sulphur putrifies , and the substance of Birds lungs appears , breathing forth the smell of humane dung , even as also in distilling , the like Gas belcheth forth . The lump therefore being badly digested in the stomack , descending through the intestine , stirreth up sharp flatus's , if the tartness shall be heightened , whence there are wringings of the guts . But if any snivelly thing thereof shall adhere to a bowel , the more stubborn gripes or wringings are made , and now and then an accompanying Flux . And by so much the more cruel , by how much the sharpness shall be the more brackish . For from a brackish flatus , there is a small and fluid Colick : but from meats it is far more stubborn , and changeth its places and wandereth . But if from a brackish , adhering , and affixed muckiness , it most cruelly afflicts and puls together . Flatus's or windinesses therefore do proceed not from the matter properly : but from an operation of the ferment attempting a new generation besides nature , and from the error of the provoked Archeus . These things of natural and diseasie flatus's . But poysons being drunk , why they produce the habit of the body swollen with a flatus : Know thou , that that comes to pass a little before and after death : For neither doth a dead carcase swell , by reason of an attainment of a new matter , but because the life is chiefly in the bowels , therefore the habite of the body is first defiled by the poyson . But the corrupting of the flesh is alwayes in a sour or sharp savour ( for leavened things are by a famous mystery read to have been forbidden to the Jewes ) therefore a sudden and cruel corruption dashing it self into fleshes , doth also beget in them a windie blast and swelling . So a dead carcass that is drowned , doth presently sink to the bottome , so long as until the flesh waxeth sharp under putrifying , then indeed it springs up , and is swollen with windiness , and the life of the muscles , which is as yet left after death , doth work the flatus . For it is wont to be said , That a dead Carcass will issue to the top of the Water , when the chest of the Gaul is broken . For neither doth this want its own vigor of truth . Not indeed , that it is literally true , that the bladder of the Gaul being broken , and that its bursting forth had brought a lightnesse to the dead carcase : but the Gaul is the balsome restraining corruptions , which are to arise in living creatures from a sharpness : wherefore while corruption is present , a defect of the Gaul is conjectured . A new Alder settles to the bottom : but when the juyce contained in it is corrupted , the tree springs up from the bottom . Furthermore , I have said , that the lesser hot Seeds were from divine compassion , made known to mortals , and by the good common People , the use of the same brought into the Schools , not knowing the cause , and circumstance of Flatus's . Those seeds therefore do restrain the coruption and also the sharpness of matter , and therefore they are refreshments of the Bowels . But that ease or comfort learn thou by this Example . There was a burst man that was negligent , whose Intestine fell out into his Cod ; it presently riseth unto the bigness of ones head , is hardned , and at length waxeth black and blew , or envious . For they in vain attempt with a various warmth of milk , and a luke-warm fomentation of Cows-dung , and it seemeth to be sixfold less through the hole , than is the swelling of the Cod , which is to lay aside the hope of its return , by reason of hardness . And then through the drink of the seeds , to wit , of annise , caraway , fennel , coriander , &c. in wine , the hardness of the bunch doth presently vanish , and it suffers it self to be repulsed inwards . The which , a clyster , and outward fomentation afforded not , therefore that defect doth by it self , silently speak ; That the bowels being exorbitant about the stones , do presently put on an hardnesse , and stirre up flatus's . All which things by a comfort to the Archeus of the bowels , do presently disperse ; which else would cause a swift and painful death . But I will adde something concerning the natural flatus of the Ileon , which is not known by the Schools . A noble woman is taken with a little pain of her belly , she walks about the chamber , had dined , the pain streight way ascends as to her right pap , invades her shoulder , and a little after kills her . Her dead carcass being dissected , nothing is viewed by the eyes , which could be blamed , to have brought death on her . But they fitly see the Ileon stretched out with a little flatus . Wind , wind , I say , the Doctors accuse to be the Executioner . The judgment being brought unto me ; I judged , that the pain of the belly was from the womb ; therefore that it ascended unto the dugs , with whom the womb doth ordinarily talk ; and so to have strangled the woman . But the wind in the Ileon , I said , was not onely guiltless , but that in every dead carcass ( even in him that is slain by a sudden death ) the Ileon is alwayes naturally stretched out with a little wind , because that is natural , unseparable , and proper . For without wind , the bowels should fall down , the excrements should the more difficultly pass thorow . For unless they were driven and liquid , from behind , they should easily return backwards , and as it were without progress , should there contract too much delay . If therefore some wind be a native inhabitant in the Ileon or slender Gut , there is no place for complaint of a flatus in gripes or wringings of the guts , and much less for things carminative , expelling , and dispersing of winds . Let wringings therefore be of a brackish muscilage , more or less sharp , at the resolving whereof ( if they shall stick fast ) or expulsion ( if they shall floate ) a restoring of health is expected . But if in the mean time a sharp flatus be bred , or the Ileon do swell with windes more than is meet , that doth easily find a way for it self . A dismissing of windie blasts doth indeed , lighten from pressing together or stretching out : but a flatus doth not cause wringings or torments of any great moment , but that they do soon produce a way for themselves . But if indeed , a flatus be prevented from utterance by a more hard excrement from beneath : now it is called a volvulus , or rowling pain , and hath departed from the word , of wringings or gripes . Therefore it is now sufficiently manifest , that flatus's or windy blasts in the body , are not made by aire , but materially from things cast into the body , things ordinary , or from poysons corrupting the similar liquor of nourishment . And then , that they cannot be made elsewhere than in the first Kitchin of the digestions : and they are belchings ; in the second also , which is finished in the gut Ileon ; but by no wise in the following families of digestions , unto whom every sharp and brackish thing is a forreigner ; Except in a poyson being taken . Wherefore there is no occasion , force or power in flatus's , for a disease of these regions . But so far as doth belong to a windy blast or exhalation , or vapor , lifted up from the stomack , from the womb , or any other , place ; that I will shew in its own place to be frivolous . Let these things therefore suffice concerning flatus's . CHAP. LVII . The Toyes or Dotages of a Catarrhe or Rheume . 1. Who is the Heir of Diseases , and Nature . 2. Some suppositions in the room of premises . 3. A conclusion . 4. It is proved from experiences . 5. An explication of the thing granted . 6. The Lungs are the first thing dying . 7. Why the Author hath departed from the Schools . 8. Things premised of the miseries of old Age. 9. Why loosening Medicines do hurt in these cases . 10. The miserable Testimonies of Physitians , of their own ignorance . Because the Phrygians are wise too late . 11. A shameful Maxim , which is drawn from things helpful and hurtful . 12. The Errors of Physitians . 13. The Unconstancy of Paracelsus , whence it was . 14. The manner of making a Catarrhe , is like unto an old Wives Fable . 15. The Diseases attributed to Catarrhes . 16. How great destruction of mortals ariseth from thence . 17. After what sort they make the sick perpetual bondslaves unto them . 18. An ordinary privy shift of the Schooles . 19. Thirteen Positions . 20. Nineteen Conclusions proceeding from those Positions . 21. By a sufficient numbring up of parts . 22. A Dilemma or convincing Argument . 23. Some Absurdities . 24. Catarrhs or Rheumes do arise in the Schooles onely from their mother Ignorance . 25. Ignorance is the same Fountain of Absurdities in Curing . 26. Shame makes the Schooles unstable . 27. A denyal of Principles granted in the Schooles . 28. Whence heat happens to the Liver . 29. A proof from Remedies of none effect . 30. The Tooth-ach is again examined . 31. The digestion of the Tooth and Nail , differs from the digestion of all the parts . 32. A Rheum unto the inward parts is shewn to be impossible . 33. A Pose is decyphered . 34. Absurdities following upon a Rheume of the Stomack . 35. A Rheume is fanned into the Lungs . 36. What may drop down at the beginning of a Pose , and what afterwards . 37. An Argument from an impossibility , against the Cause of the Cough of the Schooles . 38. The orginal of matter in affects of the Lungs is demonstrated . 39. The vanity of Remedies from Ignorance . 40. That the drinks of China , Sarsaparilla , &c. do not dry up Excrements , as neither hinder the generations of the same . 41. Some Absurdities caused from hence . 42. What we must diligently heed in affects of the Lungs . 43. The Doctrine concerning the motion of the Lungs , is false . 44. The use of the Lungs is not known in the Schooles . 45. One and Twenty peremptory Reasons against the motion of the Lungs . 46. The Error of the Schools concerning the use of the Diaphragma or Midriffe , established eight Reasons . 47. Seven conclusions issuing from thence . 48. Why the Remedies of Physitians are of no worth . 49. That preventions for the restraining of Catarrhes , are old Wives Fictions . 50. Galen in his Books of the Preserving of Health is wholly ridiculous . 51. The Ignorance of the Schooles is to be pitied and bewailed . 52. The dissecting of a live Dog hath deceived the Schooles . 53. A new Error about Ecligmaes . 54. They suppose a falshood . 55. Some proofs . 56. Whence the Error of Catarrhes or Rheumes was brought in . 57. A refuting of a mad perswasion . 58. What it may be , which is felt to cause the mask of a defluxing Rheum . 59. What the future and succeeding matter may be . 60. The ignorance of the humour latex , hath confirmed Catarrhes . 61. A prevention . 62. The torture of the night . 63. The unconstancy of Paracelsus . 64. Liquid things , which are not yet vitial in us , do not talk with the Stars . 65. The Marrow is not among Liquors . IT is now a seasonable time to shew , that the great heap of Diseases which hath been dedicated to a Catarrhe or Rheume flowing down from the Head , even into the very top of the Toes , without let or hinderance , is an old Wives Fiction , not invented but by the enemy , the troubler of mankind ; to wit , lest the causes of Diseases being known , the Remedies of the same , should also be made known . However it be , at least wise , from thence it is manifest , that the Schools are even unto this day misled by the errors of the Heathen , in the generating , supposing , defluxion , manner , way or passage , matter , means , places , instruments of a Rheume ; and likewise in its revulsion or pulling back , and Remedies : indeed it is false and absurd , whatsoever thou shalt build upon one absurdity or impossibility . Whence likewise , the vain hope which is placed in Cauteries or searing Remedies , falls to the ground , even as I shall demonstrate in its own place . Natures themselves are the Physitianesses of Diseases : but the Physitian is their Minister or Servant , according to Hippocrates . But that is concerning Diseases , which nature cures of her own free accord . But when she hath failed , so that she cannot renew her strength , a Physitian chosen by the bounty of the Lord , and with whom all Diseases are almost of the same esteem ( for such a one is he , who hath obtained some universal Medicine , among many of the like sort ) he remains no longer a Minister or Servant ; but a prevailing Interpreter , Ruler and Master . Let the Name of my Lord Jesus be exalted for ever , who doth alwayes bestow his bounty on his little Ones , who are base or dejected in their own humility . For nature being the chief receiver of the diseasifying impressions of the sick , and the sensitive Soul a mover on the opposite part : likewise where entertained Diseases do prevail , man dies , or at least wise , liveth for the future , more miserably than death it self , unless he be restored by the Physitian , into his former state . Yet it doth not happen to every Physitian to go to Corinth , unless to him that is called , elected , exercised and commissioned , or entrusted . For the universal perfections of healing , which contain in them , the tune or harmony of nature , had not yet been made known to the age of Hippocrates ( for they are as yet scanty , and derided by the common sort of Physitians unto this day ) therefore Hippocrates deserves pardon , if he thought that the whole businesse of a Disease was to be finished by nature , as a Mistris . Moreover , I have said elsewhere , that even forthwith from the beginning of the Young , an implanted spirit , doth sit president over every member as an assisting Ruler : but that the other , being an inflowing spirit , doth issue from the heart , being the awakener and comforter of the implanted one , the which notwithstanding is neither limited nor individually disposed , unless it be first subdued by the implanted spirit . I have also taught elsewhere , that every member doth grow or flourish , according to the virtue of the implanted ferment , and so that neither is a transmutation to be hoped for , for a new generation , unless by a ferment mediating . Consequently it is from thence understood , that all growth is made by the spirits , and so , that a weakened digestion of the members , doth depend on the diminishing of the spirits , and of the ferment of these , according to that saying , My spirit ( the sheath of the ferment ) shall be diminished ( therefore ) also , my dayes shall be shortened . So as that , a member , which in health doth produce even no visible excrement , doth make much thereof , and that without ceasing , if it shall be wounded , hurt , diminished , or hindered in the vigour of its ferment . In the next place , it also from hence follows , that through a hurt , and the variety of things hurting , a disagreement and undue proportion of excrements is bred . Not therefore , from one Fountain , to wit , the Head of man ( whence indeed , the Schools do devise all Catarrhs or Rheums to rain down ) but from an own proper affection or suffering , or from the proper indisposition of every part , brought upon it by local ferments , do Diseases arise . For so wounds which are cured , do suffer a relapse , do oft-times bring forth Ulcers and Imposthumes . And the axle of the winds being turned , they wax fresh , and grieve again , a long course of years after . So indeed , Coughs , Pleurisies , spittings of blood , and Erisipelasses , do return . For a mountain cold exceeding a mean , or any other sudden cold suddenly invading , the night Air , a fenny Air , or Gas of Mines belched out , do oftentimes by one only on-set , tread the ferments of the Brain and Lungs under foot , that for the whole life-time after , they are made shops for divers excrements . Truly after this manner , excrements ( not indeed snivelly ones from the Brain ) are made in the Eyes , Ears , Teeth , Jaws , by an error of their own . So Coughs and Asthmaes do at first begin , and persevere by a continued ferment . Not indeed through snivel flowing down from the Head , but generated within the Lungs by the violated ferment of the place . For the Lungs are most easily affected or disturbed by an external thing rushing on them , before the other members : because it is the first of the members which waxeth old and dieth . As is manifest by the Cough of old folks , and the snortings of dying persons , although afflicted with another vice than that of the Lungs . For that is proper to the Lungs , because it alwayes drinks crude or fresh Air , and being neighbour to the oppressed heart , doth readily restore its strength , and for that cause its own strength the sooner faileth . For truly , I first of all dissent from the Schools , because I know this kind of vice to be of the parts containing , but not of the liquors contained . For those contents are the certain products of a root , which are begotten by the Archeus of the parts being badly seasoned . And then , I also differ in this , that I know it to be a local evil , but not bestowed or dispensed by a secondary affection of the Head. For the Coughs of old age are made under a difficult hope of restoring , because a very small quantity of the excrement bred in the Lungs , doth reside in the utmost small branches of the Airy pipe , which doth not only stop up the reeds : but also , through its presence , disturbeth the ferment of the place , and lessens it ; whence new excrements , the wealthy houshold-stuff of Coughs , are stirred up every hour . Which in old age , are scarce cured , by means commonly known . Because they are those which do not pierce unto the places affected ; yea , neither have they obtained a strength of restoring . Such excrements therefore , are the local defects of the parts . And every part hath its own weakness , whether it be in-bred or attained with a diminishment of the growing or flourishing ferment . And so also from hence , all those excrements of parts do proceed . I understand therefore in the first place , that the repetitions of purges are vain and hurtful in these affects : because they are those things which are appointed only about the products , but not about the causes . Then also , and chiefly , because such excrements do not give place by loosening Medicines . However it is , they do no way reach to the primitive blemish and hurtful root in us : but only do meditate of latter effects : but the former causes or roots , they are not able to touch . Adde thou , that although loosening Medicines do seem sometimes to have succoured for two dayes space , as the lump of the venal blood of the Mesentery being taken away , a more sparing dispensation , and nourishment is brought unto the Lungs , and hence , there is a more sparing spitting forth by reaching . Yet notwithstanding , laxative Medicines do oppose the general strength of the whole Body , by weakening it more and more . Which thing , while Physitians do even see as it were thorow a sieve , neither know they to have profited the sick party , by a diminishing of the Body , and exhausted strength , they at length , dismisse the weak , to be handled by the rules of Diet , and the only aids of a sober Kitchin : only by the aid of a Cautery , and repeated assistance of the more gentle laxatives , they proceed medicinally , that is , to live miserably . By which supposition in the first place , they at least insinuate , that the Kitchin is to be preferred before any unfaithful or distrustful Medicines of the shops , and experience being made , they decree , that these must be abstained from as hurtful . And I wish , that after so many wipings away of the strength , that might suffice ; neither that they would again any more afterwards , by the same succours , attempt to exhaust the hope , Body , veins , strength , and purses of the sick ! I would to God also , they were mindful of their own Maxim , wherein , their chief curative indication or betokening sign , is to be taken from things profitable and hurtful . Which rule , although it be shameful , and only that of Empericks : I would that at least , by the same , they would now skip back from their committed errors . Neither that in the Cough and Consumption , they would return unto Remedies , which hitherto they have found to have profited none . For loosening Medicines , cuttings of a vein , purgers by the nostrils , drawers of phlegme by the mouth , Ecligmaes or Lohochs , the decoction of China , Sarsaparilla , Sassafras , a Cautery in the Coronal suture or seam of the scull , and other unfaithful aids of that sort , would fall asleep , being applied by the Physitian , that they may after some sort , seem , not to have received their money from a free gift . At least wise , I would that they had learned by their practice , that while they meditate of the removings , revulsions , derivations , and preventions of latter effects , that is , excrements , they do openly shew , that the knowledge of the causes have lain hid unto them , neither that they have methodically cured their sick by a taking away of the causes . They had also found the respect of food , to be a dainty or costly , languishing , weak , and desperate kind of Remedy for so great an enemy , now an in-mate , yea and a Patron . No wonder therefore , that the common People , heeding the vanity of these Cures , have took an occasion to say : that it is the best Medicine , not to use Medicine . For I have oftentimes bewailed with great compassion , in reading thorowly of the centuries of medicinal counsels , and especially while they afresh prosecute all the Diseases of Almanzor , from the crown of the Head unto the soal of the foot , because they narrowly searching into the catarctical or principal cause , from the beginning , ( as they think and boast ) they do every where accuse some natural , or attained singular distemper , yet under the uncertainty of a doubt , whether they should appoint the same as the disease , or indeed as the antecedent cause of the disease , whereof they consulted . But least they should erre , even in any diseases , they have accused heat and also cold . To wit , they complain almost in all cases , of a coldness of the stomack , alone , or combined with the heat of the liver , whence they many wayes divine , Rheumes to arise , and to have slidden down into divers parts , and they prosecute as the diseases of the same , not onely almost all internal ones , but also even unto the defects of the skin . Thus indeed do the Schooles season their young beginners , theorically and practically . For so Rheumes are guilty of the defects of the eyes , ears , jawes , tongue , teeth , breast , armes , loines and legs . So coughs , consumptions , astmaes , plurisies , peripneumonies , apoplexies , palsies , sudden deaths corrupt mattery imposthumes , spittings of blood , have found their already supposed cause in Rheums . So in the next place , the Stomack casts up its vomit , loatheth , labours with an unconcoction , the liver also , and the spleen are ill at ease . For an undigestible snivel having slidden down out of the head ; obstructions , hardnesses , dropsies , aposthems , scirrhus's , fevers , wringings of the bowels have taken up their room among Catarrhes , their Clients . Unto which Catarrhes , Paracelsus ( although elsewhere triumphing in Tartars , and his Three first Things , through an invention ) hath notwithstanding , for the most part subscribed , and hath alwayes manifestly acknowledged the name of the defluxion ( fflussen ) by nodding under his Mistriss , Uncertainty . For the Schooles do so seriously adorn this deplorable fable of Catarrhes , and deliver it from hand to hand , unto each other , that it may supply the room of Truth : yea Idiots being made passive Physitians , do declaim with me concerning their Catarrhes , even unto a long tediousnesse or weariness . Wherein indeed , seeing it is hard and nauseous for me to learn all that are unaccustomed , to pluck them out of their supposed doctrine , and to bring in a true light of the Theorie : Especially , seeing the multitude are of that minde , that like new hogsheads , they do scarce lay aside their odour at first drawing . Therefore I am wont to be silent for the most part , among the great ones ; I plead not for a disease , not for its causes , not for its particular kindes , not for its medicines ; I being silent , as to that easie Theorie of the Schooles , do seem ignorant of all things , agreeing to depart from all . Yet elsewhere I shew that I have been otherwise instructed : but that Idiots are not capable of Medicine , seeing neither am I their School-master . I likewise admire daily , that none hath hitherto taken notice of the so great ignorance of Physitians : but that the Christian world hath drawn after it these dreames of the Greeks , for a ridiculous lying worship or service , and destructive to humane society . Indeed they determine , that the original fountain of Catarrhes , is in a cold distemper of the stomack , and a hot distemper of the liver , and that the great part of infirm mortals , are subject to this tyranny : Forasmuch as the manner of making it is , that the stomack being uncessantly in the time of concoction , made hot by the liver , cannot but alwaies send vapours to the head ; but that the brain is in its own nature cold , and like a cover to a boyling pot , or in stead of the hollow head of an Alembick , whereinto vapours do ascend , and are constrained into water . The which , seeing it ought naturally to flow down , it suggests an ample and general matter for Catarrhes or Rheumes . The which if it fall down into the eyes , ears , jaws , teeth , &c. The parts do deservedly grieve , that they have a neighbour brain , and a superiour tyrant : But if it rain down into the lungs , they are transchanged into a cough , shortwinded affects ; next into a consumption of the lungs , beating of the heart , and so also into suddain death . But if indeed , these Rheumes do rain down into the stomack ; now he paies the punishment of their fault by unconcoction , crudities , vomitings , inordinate appetities , stomack paines , faintings , obstructions , fluxes , caeliack passions , cholers , colicks , consumptions for lack of nourishments , dropsies , scirrhus's , and all defects of the belly ; yea fevers , putrifyings in the veins , also affects of the spleen , stones of the reins and bladder , do draw their beginnings from the muckiness of a Catarrh . But if Catarrhs do derive themselves into the bosome of the Cerebellum or lesser brain ; now suddain death , the apoplexie , and palsies are at hand . But if by the chance of Fortune , Rheums do divert themselves thorow the nucha , or marrow of the back-bone , into the sinews , arteries , muscles : divers joynt-sicknesses , plurisies , palsies , and convulsions of the parts do presently happen . And likewise , they will have Rheums to beget Chyrurgial defects of pains , apostems , and the divers off-spring of ulcers . But if they do not fall down , and the brain doth ease it self of its burden , by poses and coughs ; the drowsie evil , the Coma or sleeping evil , the Catochus or stiffe-taking disease , the lethargie , giddiness of the head , apoplexie , losse of memory and the sences , are present . For truly , besides the aforesaid distempers of heat and cold , and a Catarrhe of necessity bred from thence : the Books , Speeches , Counsels , Conversations , Chairs , and Practises of Physitians do re-sound nothing : and so the whole hinge of healing is at this day conversant in purgings , cuttings of a vein , scarrifyings , baths , sweates ; cauteries , and in summe , not but in the diminishments of the body and strength , or dryings up of Rheumes . To wit , to which end they have given the roots of China and Sarsaparilla , from the utmost part of the East , to drink , together with the wood Sassaphras , to dry up . But they measure the Dietary and Medicinal part , for the most part , by the rule of heat and cold : and by this meanes they never dismisse the Sick out of their hand ; but detain them for perpetual Clients , as it were gotten bondslaves : yet under a manifest dispaire . To wit , that the cure or healing would be impossible , seeing the Physitians are ignorant of the Causes and Roots , and do see themselves to operate in vain , because the natural cold of the Stomack , contradicts the heat of the Liver : and so that those things which should profit the Stomack should hurt the Liver , and on the contrary . All which things seeing they conspire for the destruction of Mortals , likewise the destruction of the Common-wealth and Families ; It hath been my part utterly to overthrow this execrable Heresie of the Doctrine of Medicine : and I ought to have done it so much the more forcibly , because that plague doth possesse all the mindes of the Europeans , even from the daies of Galen . The rich indeed learn this Doctrine for a proper reward of Learning , and what they have learned , they teach others ; So all Diseases sound as bred of Catarrhes or Rheumes . I will therefore shew by Positions granted in the Schools ; 1. The Stomack of a man , as long as he is alive , is actually hot , and its membrane or coat is besmeared with some moisture . 2. But it is impossible for any watery moisture , to be actually hot in us , but that also for that very cause , it stirreth up a Vapour from its self . 3. The upper passage out of the Stomack , is the Throat or Oesand , a membrane extended like a Cane or Reed , from the Stomack even unto the Jawes , being like to the membrane of the Stomack . 4. The Oesand , by it self , is actually , wholly moist , and it is shut ( seeing else it crookedly falls down by reason of a vacuum or emptiness ) actually and alwayes , no otherwise then as a bladder which wanteth its proper Content : the Throat therefore doth touch it self side-waies , through a necessity of Nature , which doth not suffer a vacuum . For the Throat which hath not meats , drink , or air in it , should of necessity be empty , if it should lye open : but that it doth not lie open or contain air , is manifest from that ; because else , every morsel being swallowed , the air which should be beneath the same , and should resist the suited gobbet , should be thrust downwards to the Stomack , and so , there should be as many belchings as there are gobbets swallowed . In the next place , seeing the membrane of the Oesand is moist , it should of necessity fall down on it self , unless it were on every side extended by a certain force , the which is neither presented to the view , in dissections , neither should it serve for any end in living creatures . 5. The mouth of the Stomack is shut by a natural , not by a voluntary motion . 6. But there is no other Anatomical knowledge of the Throat , than that it is narrow , shut beneath , being co-pressed by the Pylorus or lower Orifice of the Stomack , and in mans Neck , by very many Vessels . 7. The Throat draws not , as neither doth it contain Aire : For it falls down through the proper motion of a moist membrane , and a penury of the thing contained . 8. The Oesand is not opened throughout its length , unless it shall send nourishments thorow it : The which if they are the dryer , they stick in the passage , neither do they easily descend , unlesse drink be over-added : which could not be done , if it should contain air under the Gobbet or morsel , but that Belching would follow . But the Oesand layeth open about the Wind-pipe , in the beginning of its self . 9. The Oesand or Throat is shut beneath , by a strange , or anothers right , and therefore , neither is it opened , unless by an external guest entring in or breaking forth , or in time of hunger , it is also opened by anothers will. 10. No Aire , and much lesse a Vapour , breaketh forth upwards out of the Stomack , without the sound of Belching . 11. If Heat , which is necessary for the Stomack , causeth a Vapour , yet it doth not thereupon violently thrust forth the same upwards , so that it is able to stretch out and open the locked mouth of the Stomack and Throat : Seeing any contradictory thing being placed , there should be a continual Belching unto every one . 12. In the Stomack , no otherwise than as in the other Vessels , which are of a lukewarmth , every watery Vapour , doth by the least pressing together , sooner grow together again into drops , then that it doth elevate or stretch out the co-pressed Membrane through its length . And therefore neither do they make vapoury Belchings , but Aire , and a wild Spirit or Gas onely . 13. That a Livery Spirit of the venal Blood , being supposed , all the Veines should by their heat , bring forth Catarrhes , either about the parts of the Liver , or in their outmost branches , which are neglected by the Schooles . The first Conclusion . From these Positions for the most part granted , and clear by Anatomy , it followes , 1. First of all , That no Vapour is carried out of the Stomack into the Head , and that the supposed matter for Catarrhes or Rheumes faileth . 2. If so great blindness hath circumvented the world in things manifest ; what is not to be suspected of things more hidden ? 3. That the Doctrine of the Schooles standing , a healthy and hot stomack should generate much greater , and more Rheumes , than a sick one , and otherwise , a colder stomack ; which is already contrary to the Schooles . 4. That they should rather employ themselves in cooling than in heating the Stomack . 5. That all mortals should of necessity be Rheumatick , and alwawes infirme . 6. Because the same Oesand , Brain and Stomack , being actually hot , all do equally consist of moisture , and of the same figure or shape . 7. That every man , like Swine , should almost at every pace , naturally belch , because an uncessant heat and moisture should of necessity send upwards , a continual Vapour . 8. That although a Vapour raised up from the Stomack , should stretch out the Oesand , yea should ascend without Belching ; yet it should wholly bee alwayes blown away through the mouth and nostrills , before it should proceed unto the Brain through the strait and closed passage of the membrane : Because that Vapour ascending from the meats out of the Stomack , should of necessity also smell ( in every man ) of the meates , and the transmutations of these , and should be offensive to himself , and the standers by ; so that if the Belchings are now and then smelling or of a stinking savour , all the breath of all should also continually stink , through an admixed flatus or blast of the meats . 9. That seeing Belching is a wild Gas and a far more subtile thing than a Vapour , and yet doth not strike the brain , unlesse , the mouth being shut , it be dashed forth through the Nostrils : surely much less shall Vapours be conveyed to the Brain . 10. That Belchings are never carried from the Throat unto the Brain , by a right or strait passage , but only by the instrument of smelling ; and therefore that they do not yeeld a smel , unlesse the mouth being shut ; and much less shall a Vapour of its own accord be carried out of the Stomack unto the Head. 11. That , that a vapour the matter of a Catarrhe , might as yet by some means ascend unto the head , or the instrument of smelling : this ought not to be able to be done , but by shutting of the mouth . And so that there would not be a possible matter for a Catarrhe to him that gapes : and therefore this is an easie Remedy for a Catarrhe . 12. That , seeing two bodies cannot naturally pierce each other in the same place , and seeing the passage from the jawes , unto the brain is narrow , filled up ( for there is not a Vacuum granted in those Organs ) shut above , nor passable ( for the breath , although it be pressed together , doth not breath forth upwards to the Head ) therefore a vapour cannot reach out of the stomack unto the bottom of the brain . For example , A Cane , if it be stopped above , although it be held over hot vapours ; yet this doth not admit them to ascend , by reason of the presence of Air , wherewith it is filled . 13. It being granted , that a vapour could climb upwards ; yet it shall not find any plain or hollow thing upon which it should grow together into drops . And much less such a one , which may represent the cover of an Alembick or earthen Pot : but in the bottom of the brain , whither the vapour is freely granted to ascend , there is a narrow part , the basin , or bottom of the funnel , which hath two tables toward the nostrils , and as many toward the neck ; which two latter little mouths , the ascending vapour should only find . And they are almost continually filled with snivel , are moist , and do drop , as the proper emunctories of the brain appointed for the casting forth of its muck or filth . And therefore a vapour of its own accord ascending , being granted : yet there should not be a place for the growing together of a Catarrhe . 14. A vapour , if any one possibly being made from the stomack , had also ascended even thitherto ; yea and had grown together into drops in so slender a space , and if it should fall down together with the muck or snivel , it should bring less damage than the muck it self , which is the ordinary excrement of the Brain . All which things the Schools have seen by Anatomy , and shall by Science Mathematical ( if they do weigh them ) know to be unevitable : yet they go on , they have eyes , and see not ; have ears , and it is to be feared , that they will not hear . 15. That although belching be the Gas of meats , and it bears their smell before it ; yet any kind of vapour of meats whatsoever , doth give an un-savoury and unhurtful water . For example , let the snivel or spittle be distilled with a slow luke-warmth , such as is that of the stomack of a living Creature : Certainly , thou shalt draw out nothing but an un-savoury , and no glewy water : and much less a salt , sharp , and tart Rheume . 16. That although snivel do slide into the jawes , and doth diversly and oft-times badly affect these , according to the divers indispositions of the snivel ; notwithstanding , neither that filth , nor the dropping down thereof , can bear the reason of a Rheume ; no more than the urine sliding out of the kidney into the bladder , is to be called a Rheume . Wherefore if there be an un-savoury , salt , sharp , or soure , fluide , or gross snivel sliding down into the parts , whereby it is deputed naturally to be purged , as it were through an emunctory , it is not to be called a Catarrhe , however badly also it may affect the parts ; even as also the urine , if it shall afflict the bladder . 17. By how much less ought the Flux of any feigned humour , or dreamed excrement , bred , and derived after a manner , through means , places , and journeys naturally impossible , to be reckoned a Catarrhe ? 18. If the brain in living Creatures be not actually cold , the reason of condensing of a vapour ceaseth : but if it be less hot than the other parts : doth therefore a vapour seek the more cold part , by sense or feeling , and choice ? because it desires rather to be coagulated , than to remain as it is ? 19. Or are vapours driven by all the more hot parts on every side , unto the brain , as the more cold part ? But thus there should be altogether a continued unexcusable tempest in healthy folk . But yet all these things being disregarded ( the which notwithstanding cannot have themselves naturally by way of necessity ) Rheumes should nevertheless flow down . But not in the first place , toward the outward parts , between the scull and the skin . For truly , the Schools themselves do teach , that vapours , or the foregoing matter of a Rheume doth climb from the stomack , unto the bottom of the brain , and there doth find a certain plain ( an imaginary one , nor as yet found by Anatomy ) in the hollow whereof , it doth presently grow together , and presently after that concretion , it fall's down by drops . Far be it surely from thence , that an enemy which is a stranger , a meer excrement , a forreigner to the brain , and the cause of so great infirmities passing into water in the lowermost plainness of the brain , should from thence pierce thorow the very body of the brain , or that in the form of water , or at length again in shew of a vapour , it shall sport in the aforesaid plain . For not in the likeness of a vapour , as though a vapour reacheth from the stomack unto the bottom of the brain , and doth grow together in the place of cold ( as they say ) surely by the same opportunity of cold , it shall remain water , neither shall it be again made a vapour . If therefore that vapour be now there made water by reason of the cold of the place , it is not to be believed that this hostile water is drawn inwards , and much less to have become so subtile , that against the will of the receivers , it should pounce the brain , coats of the brain , seames , scull , and the Periostion , or skin covering the bones , that it may be stayed and run down under the skin . For besides unavoidable , and very many absurdities , that water shall be as it were rain water , and unfit for slimy Catarrhs , waxing very hard with muckiness . Yea the Rheumes which are hence to arise , should at the first sense of heat , sooner vanish away by every sweat , unless the Galenists do teach that the water which is made of the vapour of a luke-warm stomack , is afterwards fixed . Also that it hath become salt and sharp , only by the touching of the plain , which thing , the knife hath not yet observed . And then , the skin of the scull being far more pory than the scull , should sooner root out that water by transpiration or sweat , than the evils , from thence believed , can be made . Moreover , the skin which is stretched over the scull , is more toughly adhering hereto ; neither doth the steepness only of the place suffice for the flowing down of a Catarrhe , and for the renting of the skin from the bone . Yea and more is , this water bred from the vapour of the stomack , should of necessity , have a driver within , which should drive it thorow the brain , coats , bone and Periostion . But that should not be any heat : for then it should cease to be water , and should again be made a vapour , which is feigned to be condensed into water by the coldness of the brain . In the next place , Rheumes are said to be more accustomed to old folks , weak people , and to the colder stations : therefore that driver or forcer shall be cold ( which after another manner , is wont to bind the parts together ) and shall now ( the order of things being overturned ) drive the water thorow the brain , and that indeed in the form of water . And that driving or pulse in the water , sprung from the meer vapours of the stomack , shall be even in the brain , which should open it self together with the coats and scull , unto the water coming to it . Again , seeing all such water co-thickned by a vapour , is said to be hanging on the bottom of the brain , neither that it can there be detained beyond the bigness of a drop ; but that it of necessity will presently and droppingly fall head-long down , or the brain being forgetful of its duty , shall set up this excrementitious water by drops . And then , besides a driver , the water should have need of a leader , which should stretch out the skin , and pluck it from the ribs , that it may provide a place ( to wit in the Pleurisie ) for it self hastening downwards . And as well the leader as the driver in the water , should be more powerful than our Blas . Lastly the mask of credulity being at once discovered ; at whatsoever price I shall prostitute the dreams of the Schools concerning Catarrhs , none shall buy their false wares . Neither could I hitherto sufficiently admire , that the world hath been circumvented by Catarrhs : that mortals have placed so great credulity , by reason of one only fault , to wit , ignorance ; in a thing I say , so blockish , foolish , and wholly impossible . Because the Schools , not finding a cause , whereto they might ascribe the Catalogue of Diseases , have commanded these dreams of Catarrhs to be believed . But at least wise , the sweat is salt : wherefore the humour latex should rather afford the matter of a Rheume than that feigned vapour , to be led through so many windings , and scarce possibly consisting , through a thousand absurdities . Then also , the accustomed saltness of the latex , hath more immediate causes of pains , than an unsavory water derived upwards in feigned vapours . In the next place , if water doth pass thorow the brain , coats thereof , scull , and about the bony membrane ; shall it now therefore , being wearied , not be able to pierce even the skin also ? or shall it forget the wayes ? why shall the sudoriferous and pory skin , resist the water which was able to pierce the scull ? But when as it should be collected under the hairs , then it should either there swell into a descending flood , or indeed should flow down with a slender thred of small drops . If it being little , should be dis-cussed in manner of sweat , or if it should make a collection in the temples of the Head , it should presently bewray it self to the finger . What if it flow down from thence ; at least wise it could not but in the term or bound [ to which ] of motion , stir up a tumour of sweet distilled water . But at least wise , that water could never fall down into the muscles , or be the sooner collected among the muscles : because they are they , which are every one cloathed with their own membrane . And moreover , neither is there room nor passage for flowing down between the skin , and the Periostion of the scull , unto the Muscles between the ribs , that the distilled water may cause a Pleurisie . For that which was without pain , under the skin and hairs , should presently with so great a fury of pains , stir up a Pleurisie , and only with its descending , by its naked weight , rent the Pleura from the ribs , it being implanted in , and joyned unto them by fibers . Certainly a huge cruelty should happen by defluxing . At length , neither can a Rheume fall down unto the teeth , and the sinews or nerves thereof ; Because the sinews which on both sides enter from the bottom of the brain , unto the cheek or jaw , do , without and within , so fitly or exactly fill up the hole , that they make a sheath so just and so equal , that there is not room for the entring water to run down ; and so much the less , because the water doth not undergo a small hole , shut beneath . And much less , shall it flow down to one only , wonted , and only rotten tooth , which it may afflict . And furthermore , a Catarrhe being gathered together under the hairs , should run down into the cheeks , but shall not fall down under the gums , thorow the fleshes of these , and without being thorowly mixt with venal blood , according to the guidance of the sinews , under the flesh , nigh the jaw bone , perhaps unto some one tooth . And which more is if the water should rush downwards from above , and it be granted for a cause of pain of the upper jaw : Yet in no wise , nor ever , water not alive , could molest the lower jaw . What if a Rheume can decline unto the eyes or ears ; surely its troublesome matter should first proceed from the plain , and feigned basis of the brain , into its bosom ; it had first called a counsel , yea , had sooner brought forth death , than an ophthalmy or inflamation of the eye . Moreover , I remember , that a Pleurisie is not between the skin , or the external fleshy membrane , and the Muscles between the ribs ( whither notwithstanding it should flow down from the skin of the scull , rather with a straight line , and not inwards ) but either in the very oblique Muscles between the ribs , or between these and the Pleura compassing the ribs , whence it hath found its name . Which way therefore shall a Catarrhe fall down hither from the Head ? I grant indeed by way of supposition , that snivel doth fall down through the palate , even in Children and healthy folks , into the stomack . Yet this doth not pertain unto a Catarrhe or Rheume . Neither doth the snivel arise from that so much reported vapour of the stomack : but it is an unprofitable excrement begotten by the wandring keeper . As in its own place . I further grant , that in the joynt sickness , and elsewhere , a salt excrementitious liquour is oft-times sustained , but the humour latex alone , is the Vulcan , Morter or Parget , and fewel of these : but not an ascent of vapours out of the stomack , into the brain , not many humours , nor the feigned distillation of Phlegme conjoyned with choler . For the very Schools themselves being smitten with shame , that the Head being on every side , filled with the brain , should be the Colledge of Catarrhs , and that from thence almost all Diseases should rain down ; have accused the stomack ( Alas ! ) smoaking with , and supplying matter for continual vapours . But when as they found the stomack in healthy persons , to be guiltless : but for the joynt sickness , do suddenly accuse defluxions in healthy persons ; through the shadow of an over-spread bashfulness , they whisper , neither dare they to speak cleerly , as from knowledge : for they borrow sharp choler , and salt phlegme from the venal blood , and leave the controversie before the Judge , whether those humours are to be fetched from the Liver , and are separated in the veins from the blood , that they may be expelled unto the joynts , or indeed , water , or a certain snivel , or a certain un-named thing , be brought down thither out of the Head between the skin . For they are as yet uncertain ; and so much the more confused , because they are ignorant , who that separater , or who that deriver of humours should be , which alone might bring these sincere humours not defiled by the venal blood , unto the joynts , and should make choice , sometimes of this , and sometimes of that part : but should forsake the more weak and more sluggish part , and should daily enslave a new one unto himself , yea and invade the knotty part , and that which is subject to stoppage . Whatsoever therefore the Schools do prattle concerning vapours lifted up out of the stomack , for the matter of a Rheume , let it be old Wives Fables . For the stomack is never more cold than is meet ; it is the more diminished indeed in its digestive ferment , whereunto the coctive faculty ought to be attributed , but not to heat ; as I have elsewhere taught at full . The Liver also doth never from its own proper temperature , offend in heat ; seeing there is no heat in us , but what is by reason of life : and therefore , every dead Carcass , when the life is extinguished , is suddenly cold . But the troublesome heat of the Liver , is alwayes by accident . For example . Let a cold thorn be fastened in the finger ( an example moreover , elsewhere minded , concerning Fevers ) there is presently a pulse , and heat , and swelling , from the pain . For this is not , because the thorn is hot , nor because the neighbour blood was hot before the thorn : but the heat by reason of the thorn cometh by accident . So think thou of the Liver ; for if it be hot , it hath its own thorn , which doth not shew a cooling of it , but a taking of it away . For cooling refreshment makes not only a cloakative Cure : but draws the evil it self into desperation . And that thing the Schools may seriously take notice of , and the vain device of the heat of the Liver , and the manifold errors of curing sprung from thence . Likewise , let them seriously note , that the Medicines ( Alas ! ) those appointed or applyed to the Head , Stomack , and Liver , for Catarrhs , have been vain and void . A Catarrhe or Rheume therefore , hath not matter , place , passage , custom , admission of piercing into the brain , through the coats thereof , scull , &c. For there is never the room or right of a pledge , for an excrement : for there would be a daily need of a Chyrurgical borer or piercer , no less for a Catarrhe than for snotty corrupt matter . But why doth a Rheume cease to flow down , presently after the tooth is rooted out ? For is it , because it was forgetful of the wayes ? But if matter be supplyed beneath , whither I pray shall this flow ! or in what part shall it fall down , the which before was wont to enter thorow slender holes , wherein the sinews do enter , as well the inward as the outward , and as well the upper as the lower side of both the jawes ? shall , happily , the tooth being pulled out , the stomack cease , or not dare any longer to afford vapours , and matter for Catarrhs ? or , the tooth being pulled out , shall all the matter of Rheumes , also of those which are to come , flow forth together with the blood ? or , the hollow of the tooth being stopped up by the flesh straightway grown up , nor a passing forth being granted , shall the Rheume therefore cease ? But the Rheume did not seek passage thorow the most hard tooth . For why shall it not stir up a necessary Aposteme , in the coasts next unto it ? why , one tooth being pluckt out , shall it oftentimes descend unto another tooth ? Is the channel changed when one is pulled out ? and doth it not any longer know how to flow down , at least wise , into the nerve of the tooth that was pulled out , and into the flesh grown up ? and doth it more easily think of passage for it self thorow the tooth , than thorow the flesh grown up from the plucking out ? why doth it not hold the way which it hath prepared , and keep the passage for it self that way , before the flesh grow up ? surely that Catarrhe is miserably deluded by the Chyrurgion , which thinking to flow down into the tooth , and finding it taken away , should be compelled to return the same way , unto a noble part , which it may torment in revenge of the Chyrurgion . A tooth therefore doth not ake from a Catarrhe : but either the gum being uncovered , it is made too sensible : or else , the matter of its last nourishment being badly digested , doth putrifie about the root of the tooth . Hence is pain . For in this doth the digestion of the tooth and of the nail , differ from the digestion of other parts : that this is made in Kitchins inward unto it ; but the other , in Kitchins co-touching with their root . But that a Rheume doth not descend unto the inward parts , the stomack , lungs , liver , reins , bladder , veins , arteries , muscles and sinews , is in part already sufficiently manifested , from the common and feigned matter being taken away , from its passage , and from the manner of its making : and partly , because nothing can fall down out of the Head , especially unto the stomack , against our wills , but it may be cast forth by spitting out by reaching . For they do not swallow down the mucky snivel descending from the Head , but at unawares . Neither is a Catarrhe of that intention or disposition , to expect sleep , whereby it may oppress one at unawares . Let Fables depart in healing . Whatsoever therefore rusheth downwards from the head unto the jawes , is a snivel natural , or altered , according to the indispositions of the keeper . But that snivel is different from the spittle which is cast out of the breast by cough , in the whole species of an excrement . For what will the inconsiderateness of the Schools advantage them ? to wit , whereby they command , that the spittles rejected by coughing , are to be lookt into , whether they be watery , frothy , cleer , liquid , white , compacted , yellow , or of an ashie colour ? whether round , or running down , &c. why I say , do they bid the dispositions of the breast , or affects of the Lungs to be from thence divined of , if the spittles are the very defluxing excrements or Catarrhs of the Head ? So indeed the Rheume of the straining or spungy bone , obtaining a certain co-thickning from the snivel , doth wet with a crude and watery muck , because nature sends thither a capacious or received latex for the washing off of that obstructing muck or snivel . For if the matter hereof should be brought up out of the stomack , why , when the spungy bone is stopped , doth a healthy stomack rage with vapours ? How shall those vapours being co-thickned a little above the palate , come down unto the fore-head in the shew of salt water , nigh to the instrument of smelling , to wash off the hurt from the bone prefixed to it ? For whence shall un-savoury and guiltless vapours , draw forth so much salt in their passage , which they may melt , and carry down head-long with them , that by their sharpness , they may stir up frequent squinancies , and other inflamations of the jawes ? why shall a matter lifted up from the stomack , and only by its co-thickning into water ( because it is that which by handy-craft operation , is proved to be of necessity without savour ) being first changed from it self , a vapour , falling down into the stomack , cause so great troubles unto it , which a little before , with the rest of the Chyle , was acceptable to the same ? Whence hath it that enmity : for is it from the brain , a principal bowel , and rich in vital beginnings ? But if the vapour shall touch at least the lowermost plain of the brain ( as they say ) and presently after , as soon as it shall come down unto the compleat bigness of a drop , it falleth down ; and seeing there cannot be another third , which may detain every drop : therefore the perverseness of that hurtful matter , shall not be from that small delay , not from the contagion of a malignant part ; nor lastly , shall there be a perverseness from a seed there received ; unless perhaps , they shall shew , that besides a co-thickning of the vapour into drops of water , some other thing hath interposed : Which they have hitherto neglected to prove . But seeing that very many Comments have every where arose in huge Volumes , Councels , and distributions , concerning Rheumy and Lungy affects : It is my office to have shewn , that nothing was ever more negligently , blockishly , and destructively taught by the Schools . Because they have hitherto made no sin of less esteem , than murder or manslaughter , committed through carelessness ; only the earth covers the fault , and they are excused by the delivered maxims of murder . But I have from thence considered , that the Devil Moloch doth sit President in their chairs , and that they have hitherto made the world mad by Catarrhs . Whose matter , birth , place , efficient cause , manner of making , Case containing , passage , and society of co-bindings , do fail at once , and are false . And therefore , none but the old Serpent , the father of a lye , hath taught these things hitherto , unto the destruction of mortals : for truly , whatsoever issues out of the Head is a muck or snivel , and a meer excrement : but not derived thither out of the stomack . Snivel is white , thick and slimy , the keeper of the brain being well constituted : but the powers of the same being diverted and ill affected , the snivel is watery , sharp , salt , harsh , yellow , tough , &c. and runs down by a way which is the more fit for it , out of the basin , or it appeareth in its brain-funnel . For that which in the beginning of a Pose , drops down in the form of water , is not meer snivel : but a salt latex , whereby nature endeavours to wash off that which sits on the spungy bone , which is next the brain , as a forreign enemy , even as I have said . And then , that which flows down yellow and slimy at the declining of the Pose , is not the same which the latex at first was , nor is it there , so long detained and thickned ( as nevertheless , the Schools do teach ) when as otherwise , the whole scull , although it were empty of brain , should scarce be sufficient for a Case , for so great a quantity of excrement . For such new snivel is created every moment , being far different from a healthy one , in colour , stink , slyminess , and sharpness . Moreover , it is a ridiculous thing , that this stinking snivel , should be said to be now cocted , and thickned by the former latex : the which doth again grow , by a strange vice . But that it is the latex in the beginning of a Pose , is manifest : for , presently after two dayes , the belly is dryer , and the urine more sparing . In the next place , that latex , being by a luke-warmth evaporated , hath scarce any thing whence it may wax snivelly ; as much snivel soever as the latex , bringeth down with it , so much muscilage or slyminess it hath , and no more . However it is , and whatsoever that is , which flows downwards from the brain unto the jaws , not so much as one only drop thereof enters unto the Lungs , but first it should at every drop , stir up a peril of choaking . For truly , if one only drop of water by an unwary swallowing , falling down into the winde-pipe , doth incur a fear of choaking unto him that drinketh : what should not so great a plenty of snivel do , which doth now and then , in a small space , fill basins ? For it is far out of the way , that a few hours sleep doth bring down whole basins of snivel into the Lungs , without feeling , and that they do enter them without the fear of choaking . For I being long since in the time of my young beginning , deluded by the Schools , have placed these kind of sick folks in such a manner , that they might sleep between pillows , on their face , hoping that the mucky snivel would slide down thorow the nostrils , which else , should slide into the Lungs ; and thus far , I hoped for a freedom from the effect of the Catarrhe . But the following morning , derided ( through spittings out by reaching ) my ignorance . For then I diligently searched into the Orthopnea , which placeth such as breath , with a straight neck , that it did a little stop the doctrine of a Catarrhe , and convince it , as frivolous . Seeing they should be strangled by a laying with their face upward , and Astronomer like , whereby notwithstanding the fore-going matter of a Catarrhe should be cut off . Wherefore , I began to take good notice , that every member which is badly affected , doth frame , not only very much of its own excrement ; but also , of an adverse or contrary one . For so the eye being diversly affected , very much liquid corruption , and of a sharp tear , doth issue forth : the jaws also , being stopt up by a squinancy , a slymie thread doth continually hang down on the fore-part of the tongue . Hence therefore , I have believed , that the Lungs were held by the Law of other members ; so that , as oft as it was provoked , hurt , pricked , slain , oppressed , or affected through the injury of the Air , or by an Endemical Gas , it did bring forth , through an error proper to it , divers testimonies of its weariness or grief ; not that therefore , those so guilty excrements do unsensibly slide from the brain ( for the most part sound ) between the slender conduits of the rough Artery . Then , at length , I began to wonder that the Schools in the Pose , did see indeed a proper member to degenerate , and to imitate the excrement of the Head : and in the mean time , that they have not supposed the same thing could happen alike to the Lungs , as to the rest of the members . So whatsoever is brought forth of the Lungs , that is wholly to be attributed to the brain , and that that falls down ( a ridiculous thing ) into the rough Artery without feeling , and is by degrees decocted in the banishment of its race , for the most part there to be detained without difficulty of breathing , even until a ripeness . When as now and then , more is cast forth by cough in one moneth , than the whole capacity of the breast is large . Therefore the yellow and ashie spittings of persons in a Consumption , are the errors of the vegetative or flourishing faculty in the Lungs , and the venal blood there degenerated ; the which therefore , a wasting leanness of the whole body follows . Wherefore vain and deplorable Remedies , Cephalical or for the Head , are administred ; vain are the drinks of cooling Barley-broath or Cream , Lohochs , Syrupes , and whatsoever by swallowing , descends into the stomack . Because it is that which is oftentimes formally changed in its journey , before it come unto the part affected . For what is more foolish , than to give Indian roots to drink for the drying up of Rheumes ? for what shall China , Sarsaparilla , Guaiacum , dry up , being drunk in the form of water ? for what shall they dry up , which thing dryed up , should not be more hurtful or pernicious than the liquid thing it self ? why do they call for drying up those things , which that they might not be made , have need only of a restraining Remedy ? and the which , when they are made , do require , not to be dryed up , but to be cast forth ? why have the Schools every where regard unto the effects , and not unto the roots ? what if those forreign and barbarous Remedies do provoke sweat , and diminish the latex with the dammage of the sick , do they therefore come unto the root ? for truly by a sparing nourishment , and plenteous sweat , they do primarily lessen the venal blood , and secondarily cause a leanness , together with weakness . Which thing , the Schools have falsly brought over into the drying up of superfluous humours , thinking to comprehend a competent quantity of venal blood , and the degenerating of a diseasie excrement , and the expulsion thereof , in one and the same name of drying up . For shall therefore , the indisposition , and changing Vulcan , which of good venal blood , brings forth consumptional spittings in the Lungs , be overcome ? sleep ? diminished ? wax mild ? and desist ? which Vulcan in the mean time , under an extream leanness of the Consumption , doth never slacken from his fury . Good God , turn thou away the slaughter , which the School and root of Pagans , gaping after a little advantage , doth commit . The diseasie erroneous impression only , is to be taken away ( which I call the inward corrupter of the Lungs ) which doth empty the membranes of the veins , the gristles of the rough Artery , and the whole lungs of their nourishment , and transchangeth them uncessantly , and with a continual thread , into divers filths . But if a spitting of blood hath gone before , and an Ulcer be present , learn thou to prepare medicines wherewith Paracelsus hath cured the Consumption . Any of those Medicines , which cure the Cancer and eating Ulcers , being taken in I say , at the mouth , which is to have cured the Ulcer of the Lungs . For whatsoever cureth by its draught , an Ulcer of the thigh or foot : why may it not do also the same in the Lungs ? But what will the Schools do ? they are ignorant of the Causes , they are ignorant of the Remedies , and with a lofty countenance do mock at Mercurius Diaphoreticus , which is sweet like honey , and fixed : and the volatile tincture of Lile . And likewise the milk or element of Pearls . For unless the whole Body be universally tinged with a super-eminent Balsam , internal Ulcers are never made whole , or confirmed . For the Lungs first waxing old , and first dying , doth most difficultly recover from threatned death , and doth therefore , reboundingly despise the Remedies of the vulgar . Wherefore a continued error of the Schools succeedeth , which sooner than they do acknowledge a defect in their own wan Medicines , they accuse nature of defects , and its most glorious Author , of a drowsie omission : To wit , they decree , that the four lobes of the Lungs , are as long as we live , uncessantly enlarged and pressed together like bellows , for the use of breathing ; so that the blast or imbreathed Air is drawn only within the Lungs , neither that it doth reach any further , to the hollow of the breast ; which thing surely , hath afforded no guiltless ignorance in healing . Even as also the sporting or mocking privy shift of the Physitian . For by an uncessant and unexcusable necessity of enlarging and pressing together , or from a restless motion of the Lungs , they endeavour to excuse themselves of the impossible miseries , of the Ulcers of the Consumption , and other parts . Alas ! as if for the future , they could cure an ulcerated Cancer , and quiet Fistula of the fundament and eyes , at pleasure ! which error I thus oppose : A thin fine dust of Atomes , flies about the Air : but by a continual necessity , we draw our breath together with powdered or dusty Atomes : and therefore also the whole breast should be filled up with clay or dirt , unless we should have Lungs , in the windings whereof , the aforesaid Atomes of dust should be affixed ; and in this respect , the Lungs do not else unburden themselves of their excrements , but by spitting by reaching ; to wit , that the conceived dust being ensnared , may be brought forth , together with the daily excrement of the Lungs . Surely it is a use , which hath been neglected by the Schools , unanimously denying the Lungs to be passable . Indeed hair in the nostrils , doth detain every fiber flying in the Air , and drives it away , lest it be drawn inwards : and then a manifold enlargement of the pipes of the rough Artery , causeth , whereby the more thin fine dust doth after anothermanner , the less fully pass . A. Furthermore , that it is certain , that the Lungs is wholly unmoved , that is sufficiently manifest , not only from their use already manifested . B. But besides , much more , because the substance of the Lungs is altogether uncapable of enlarging and pressing together . C. Therefore in that manner , the Lungs of Birds ( it serving for the same uses in a Bird and us ) where it is firmly annexed to the ribs , refuseth all enlarging and pressing together of bellows . D. In the next place , the Lungs consist of three vessels suitably dispersed throughout the whole ( to wit , one being the arterial vein , the venal Artery , and the rough Artery ) substance of the venal blood , and a membrane , as it were a gown , being poured about or spread over them . But the three vessels are channels , equally divided throughout the whole Lungs , the two former whereof , are filled with blood , and so uncapable to lay up new imbreathed Air within them . But the third channel doth alwayes appear filled with Air , and therefore it is also uncapable of other new and in-breathed Air , unless the Air contained shall give place to a stranger , shall enter into the breast , and so , that third channel or pipe be bored thorow , together with the membrane cloathing the Lungs . For this third channel is alwayes stretched out and laying open with gristly rings , and those co-touching one another , no otherwise than as the trunk of the rough Artery it self . But the fourth part of the bowel , is its substantial flesh , equally uncapable of Air approaching it . Lastly , the fifth part is the little membrane , or coat of the Lungs . There is nothing therefore of these which is capable of new Air , nothing capable to receive new breath , and nothing which may sustain an enlarging and pressing together , or motion . A wonder surely it is , with how great drowsiness the Schools do nevertheless , snort , in that they know all , and admit of the things already spoken ; nevertheless do not yet even at this day , cease to teach , that the Lungs like a pair of bellows , are driven with a continual motion . E. Furthermore , it being as yet granted , that the third of the vessels , or aforesaid pipes , were not full of Air , but plainly altogether empty of all Air : at least wise after respiration or breathing forth ( when as notwithstanding it otherwise layes open , neither is it able to fall down on it self like a bladder , the gristle of rings forbidding that thing ) it should conceive at least as much new Air in it self , as the part of the bowel should otherwise be . Notwithstanding , seeing we do at one only turn , breath in at pleasure , so great a part of Air , as the whole Lungs is large . It is altogether of necessity , that the Air be not only breathed into the pipes of the rough Artery , to press down and enlarge the other impotent parts : but that it do proceed inwardly from these , into the hollowness of the breast . F. In the next place , if the muscles between the ribs of any one , be pierced by a dagger , the wound is presently bewrayed to have pierced thorow : For by a windy blast , it extinguisheth the flame of a candle . But if afterwards , the wound be shut by breathing in , and again be opened by breathing out , it alway blows out the light of a Candle . Which is impossible to be done , unless the conveighed and inspired Air , proceed beyond or thorow the Lungs , into the breast : And by consequence , that the Lungs are at rest : Especially , because there is in the breast , a double Mediastinum or partitional membrane or coat , from the top to the bottom of the breast , for the defending of the heart from the injuries of the Air. Which Mediastinum or Midriffe , divideth the right side of the breast , from the left . G. Therefore it is manifest by a mechanical necessity , that the breath is carried in a right line into the breast , thorow the Lungs , and so also , that this is quiet . Which thing , is alike manifestly obvious by the expectoratings of the Pleurisie . Because those spittles which were first hunted out and putrified in the ribs , and hollow of the breast , are cast away by cough . It behoveth therefore , the membrane of the Lungs to be very wide , which may suffice for the sending thorow of venal blood , and corrupt snotty matter . These things the Schools see , know , confess and write : yet they deny that the breath is blown away out of the Lungs into the breast : but that the Lungs themselves , are of necessity stirred like a pair of bellows . They grant indeed , that the Lungs have pores , through which , the venal blood and corrupt snotty matter , are in a Pleurisie , supt up : yet they will not have the Air to be transmitted through the same pores , into the breast : but they alike stifly command the Lungs themselves , to be driven like a pair of bellows . Neither is it a wonder . Because they meditate that they are nothing but dead carcasses , as well made , as to be made , in whom the pores of that membrane , are shut by death . For the same thing also happens to the optick Nerves , the thorny marrow , the partition of the heart , and little mouths of the veins at the bowels . The lungs of bruit beasts swims upon the waters , wherein they are boyled whole ; but being cut in pieces , it settles or sinks , because the rough Artery is filled with Air. Whither ( it is added by way of impertinency ) if the boyling water hath not access , while it seeths : how shall a Cattarhe obtain passage thither ? The same thing , by mechanical operation . H. Blow thy breath out of thy breast , as much as thou canst ; measure the circumference of thy ribs with a thread : then again , breath in the Air as much as thou canst , and again measure : thou shalt find by a square , that more Air was attracted , than to the bigness of the Lungs of a man. By how much more , because a great part of the breath doth deceive this measure . To wit , as much as the Midriffe shall bend the stomack downwards . I. Therefore , make tryal again . Draw to thee thy breath , as much as thou canst , and breath it into a bladder , and thou shalt find the same thing as before : and the inspired Air to exceed the greatness of the whole Lungs . K. In the mean time , remember , that after every exspiring or breathing out , the pipes of the rough Artery have as yet remained open with their rings , and to be as yet , filled with Air as before . There is no doubt , but that the breast and belly doth swell up with in-breathed Air : but if therefore the Lungs may be extended ( the which in no wise they are ) yet at least wise there should not be room for placing the in-breathed Air , by almost the tenth-fold so much as the breast is extended . Therefore the motion of the breast doth not prove a necessary motion of the Lungs . L. But if the Lungs should fill up the whole hollow of the breast , which it manifestly doth not , it were consonant to reason , that the elevating of the ribs might extend the Lungs : but seeing Air doth not sustain an enlarging and pressing together ( as is wont to be said ) therefore the elevating of the ribs should not draw an equal or suitable quantity of Air. Yea , seeing that attraction should as yet , be violent ( to wit , for fear of a vacuum ) which is adverse to a natural and vital motion , it also follows that the motion of the ribs was not appointed to extend the Lungs . And seeing the Lungs hath not any principle of its own motion in it self , nor else where , unless from the motion of the ribs ( according to the Schools ) : It follows also , that the Lungs are moved by no mover , but that they are plainly , alwayes at rest . M. For what is a greater folly , than to confess that all the small branches of the rough Artery are opened by a co-weaving of gristle-rings ; and yet to teach , that all the same little branches , new Air being moreover attracted , are alwayes enlarged , divided , and pressed together ? N. At length , the Schools teach , that the Diaphragma or Midriffe , is sufficient for our ordinary use of breathing ; yet they substitute or appoint the muscles between the ribs in the office thereof . Then besides , there is a frequent belching out of the stomack , which doth express the odours drawn into the Lungs . Therefore the Lungs and the Midriffe are members capable of breathing them thorow . Surely it is to be bewailed that such pains hath been taken in the Schools about such hurtful negligences and childish mockeries . For truly , if in laying with thy face upward , thou shalt place one hand upon the bottom of thy belly , but the other upon thy ribs ; but shalt , draw a moderate , or unconstrained breath , thou shalt then easily feel , that the muscles of the bottom of thy belly only , have operated . O. To wit , thy belly being lifted up , that thy Diaphragma was drawn downward , and consequently , that so much of the hollow of the bottom of thy belly was enlarged , as the plain ( which is loose in it self ) or the Diameter of thy Midriffe is less in the Semicircle of it self being drawn downward , and by so much the more ample , by how much also the loosness of the plain of thy Diaphragma is easie to be drawn . Yea , if thou shalt compass thy ribs with a strait girdle , and shalt draw thy aforesaid breath : thou shalt feel thy belly to be lifted up , and pressed down , thy ribs being wholly unmoved . And by consequence , that the Lungs , although it were otherwise moveable ( which it is not ) yet that it can thus rest for a whole day . P. But in a sigh , gaping , sneesing , and strong breathing with difficulty ( but not before ) the muscles between the ribs are felt also to perform the office of a Vicarship and help . For the Semicircles of a rib are hanging down on the forepart , all which , the muscles between the ribs do every one draw upwards unto them . Q. For this cause also , they are made bigger by lifting up , as they are then made rounder , and so do enlarge the hollowness of the breast . R. For so those that breath forth only with a straight neck , do bring their shoulder-blades and shoulders for a help of the blast , do press both their hands on their seats to elevate their shoulders , that the hollow of their breast may be increased , and their Midriffe hang over downward , with the bigger bunch . The Wife of a Senatour , in bringing forth off-spring or travelling with a Child ( for she brought forth with her buttocks foreward ) break and tear her Pleura between the seventh and eighth rib , without feeling ( for the greater pain obscureth the less ) an Aposteme , &c. Presently after the time of her delivery , she felt that as oft as she pressed her breath together in singing , or giving suck , if she had stript her breast , a great flatulent tumour presently bloomed up , which would give place unto a finger pressing it , and did hasten inwards when her breath was dismissed : And so afterwards , she slept not but with a tyed or bound breast . T. Whence it cleerly appears , that the breath is drawn in a straight line , thorow the Lungs . Which thing also I have likewise noted in a Noble Woman or Princess , who had retained her self from Child-bearing , that as oft as she pressed her breath together , the one side of her throat , shewed it self to us , swollen like a bladder . V. Then also , hitherto doth this conduce , that those that are distempered in their Lungs , and likewise those that breath with difficulty , I have attentively considered , and certainly found , that such do for the most part lay more favourably on one side , and on the other side , that they can scarce breath . For it is not to be doubted , but that that is the vice of the Lungs themselves ; and that on the steep side of the Lungs , for ( that is it on which the sick person then layeth ) and with what part it then toucheth the membrane of the ribs , the pores are stopped , through which , otherwise , he is wont to breath : also , that both the Lobes of the side of the Lungs , then laying upwards , the pores thereof are diseasedly stopped , if not all , at least wise for a great part of them , and that is to be measured by the proportion of the failing breath . By which argument , it is manifest , that the Lungs are not lifted up , and do not fall down like bellows : but to be penetrable by pores , through which , the Air passing unto , and without the breast , doth equally answer unto the largeness thereof , being extended and contracted . Hence indeed those that are raised upright , do breath better than those that lay along . Because the lungs hanging , hath its pores on every side free , which have not failed through the vice of stoppage . It is therefore an error of the Schools , in that they teach , the Diaphragma or Midriffe to be the one only motive member of the Lungs , and so the proper and principiative , efficient instrument of breathing . To wit , because , while the Diaphragma contracts it self into its own center , it causeth a breathing out : and as much as this looseth from contraction , so much we breath in . 1. For seeing every voluntary motion is executively made by a muscle , its tail being drawn back unto its head , now , the Diaphragma shall be the first , a differing kind of , and the most principal muscle , and its head shall be in the middle or center of it self . 2. But if therefore the Midriffe be the chief executive instrument of motion , the Diaphragma should by it self attempt motion , even the bottom of the belly and ribs ceasing . Which is false . 3. Yea the muscles of the Abdomen or bottom of the belly , which are ordinary muscles , shall not move , but shall be moved by the Diaphragma . 4. Therefore the belly it s own fleshy membrane , should be sufficient for this office , and those muscles should be made in vain . 5. In the next place , seeing every instrument of voluntary motion doth draw in moving ; the breast ought to be drawn inwards by the drawing of the Diaphragma , and without , about the Midriffe , to resemble the figure of an Hour-glass . 6. Yea , breathing out should not be a resting from motion ; but the motion it self of the Midriffe being contracted . 7. And so , breathing forth even in healthy persons , should alwayes be more difficult than breathing in . Seeing , 8. Breathing in , should not be a motion : but a re-loosing , or resting of the contracted Diaphragma . From whence I conclude : 1. That the use of the Midriffe hath hitherto remained unknown . 2. That the use of the Lungs also hath lain hid . 3. That the manner of making breathing , hath been unknown . 4. That the first and principal instruments of breathing , have been unknown . 5. That for a modest in-breathing and out-breathing of the breath , the muscles of the abdomen only do suffice . 6. That the Lungs is never moved , and that it readily serves for a sieve , that the pure Air may enter into the breast . 7. That the difficulty of curing the defects of the Lungs doth not consist in that , that it is impatient of rest , and that in this respect , it refuseth Remedies : but because , its utmost orisices being besieged and obstructed , they are for the future , made void of hope to be expected from common Remedies : Seeing nothing is carried thither in a right line , besides Air , and because the Air by reason of a stoppage beneath , is hindered or prevented , therefore also interclosed ; and likewise doth at length , the more dry up the stopping muscilages , according to which , other products are stirred up , which in length of time will assume a dryness , sharpness , and malignity : Whence are short-winded affects , a corrupt mattery Aposteme , gnawing or corroding of the vessels , spitting of blood , an Ulcer , Consumption , and Death . For let us suppose , that all the Air is ordinarily carried into the breast , by a thousand orifices of the rough Artery , and so many to be sufficient for health ; if therefore a hundred of them are stopped , then that man , by a swift daily motion or ascent , shall be unlike , and short-winded , by a tenth part . Therefore from hence it is manifest , why Syrupes and Ecligmaes , seeing they do not reach unto the places affected , are vain Remedies : Yea , if they could reach thither , that they would aggravate the malady . And then , why none of these defects may hope for cure , unless the art of the fire shall graduate or exalt a Medicine , into the tone or harmony of nature . But the preventions from Catarrhes , which do command Coriander and such like things to be taken after Supper , to restrain vapours arising out of the stomack ; surely , of how great pitty are they worthy ! For if the rise of vapours , from their own causes ( to wit , the moisture of matter , and heat of the place ) and the ascent of the same , should be natural ; what could Coriander effect , whereby those effects should the less follow their causes ? For shall Coriander being cast into boyling water , effect , that vapours should not be made or ascend out of the water ? Let those Remedies be like it , which are prescribed by combing and rubbing , to wit , that Rheumes may be derived , not in the evening , but in the morning , not in the fore-part , but toward the hinder part of the Head. For old Wives trifles have shut both the gates of healing , because the Causes of Diseases , have lain hid , neither hath it been hitherto greatly laboured in searching into them . For how frivolous is the doctrine of Galen , in his five Books of preserving health ? all the which , is famous in a Bath , rubbings , and wearisom exercise ! and although in all things , and every where , I have pittied the poverty of Galen , yet I have in nothing more manifestly discerned his wit , than where he seriously prescribeth distinctions of rubbings , at length , athwart , crooked wise , and circularly , as it were the Ceremonies of Necromancers , to be observed with strict obedience , upon the command of the penalty of a capital punishment . For so , the world , being from the cradles of Physitians , driven into a Catochus , and being delighted with a Paganish stupidity , hath laughed as it were by a tickling . For in the first five ages , there were fewer Diseases at Rome , and fewer dead Carcasses ; Diseases also were milder , than after it had triumphed for the conquest of Greece . The which , all the Europeans , with whom a Physitian is rare as yet , or there is none at all , will willingly confirm . For the Schools do seriously admire at the vast heap of filth or snivel expelled by Coloquintida , and yet that the spittings of Lung-sick persons are nothing diminished , and so seeing they did rejoyce , that they had found the fore-going cause of a Rheume ; yet being astonished in the effect of laxative Medicines , they would not acknowledge the falseness of phlegmy maxims . For Coloquintida , Scammony , Elaterium , &c. do dry up the Body more in one day , than the drink of China in three moneths . What therefore is to be hoped for in China , when as loosening Medicines are in vain unto you ? and the use of these horrid ? Wherefore the Schooles sticking in the Doctrines of Predecessors , have at length determined to search more profoundly into nothing ; but to cure according to the antient and thread-bare speculations of Art , and on both sides , the matter hath alwayes failed them in their Practice , and they saw it to answer nothing to their own Rules ; yet under the drowsiness of impossibility , they have spread a vail over their so cruel ignorance , and they had rather that the miserable sick should remain in suspence with calamities and evacuations , than that they would think of any thing beyond the other , for the miseries or griefs of their Neighbours . But surely , so many thousand rashnesses and absurdities had not remained in the Schools , in men I say , so acute , honest , witty or quick-sighted , and exercised ( of whom I willingly confess my self to be the least ) if they had been once but a little willing to depart from the Maxims of Pagans . They are beset I say , by the enemy of primitive Truth , who either through arrogancy , or carelessness , or cruelty , or covetousness , or sloathfulness , or blockishness ; or lastly , through a bashfulness of repentance , keeps them bound to himself . Good Jesus ! when , at length , wilt thou take away this Devil out of the Schools ? when , at length , shall there be a heap and ripeness of those evils , that by the Eg●● of thy Truth , thou mayest take away so great blindness , and destruction of mor●●is ? Thou answerest , there is not a Remedy for him that opposeth the known of acknowledged Truth . Therefore , Just God , all things that thou approv'st of , are most just : Thou stedfast Rule of Truth , and spring of Godliness . But since thy sacred Will to do we have no lust : A mock-prey we are made , to vulgar doltishness . For there are Anatomists , who have dissected a live dog , and while they came to the wind-pipe , they cast in broath besmeared with a strange colour , by way of the mouth , that they might see , whether any of it entered unto the Lungs . And some small quantity thereof , was found to have tinged the side of the rough Artery . Therefore they cryed out , that there is an unsensible and ordinary falling down of excrements out of the brain into the Lungs : and they established Ecligmaes to be the utmost Remedy of the Consumption , seeing they are immediately brought unto the wind-pipe , and thereby , unto any of its slender trunks . That experiment was indeed , cruel to the dog ; but far more cruel and unhappy unto mortal men . Because the Schools , at the perswasion thereof , have delivered from hand to hand , and have subscribed unto so pernicious trifles . For first of all , what could Syrupes or Ecligmaes commit in the little branches of the rough Artery , besides the hurt or dammage of obstructions ? for what end therefore , should they naturally and ordinarily , hasten , be sent , or admitted thither ? Seeing they cannot be there cocted , nor changed into a good nourishment , nor heal corrupt snotty matter , or mucky snivels . In the next place , if this should ordinarily come to pass , the ordinary spittles of healthy persons , would cast a smell of putrified broaths , or in-licked Syrupes . And although the first spittles do sometimes presently after , resemble the Ecligmaes ; yet those do not come from the Lungs , but from the neighbouring parts of the jaws . Neither therefore do spittles being repeated , any longer express the Ecligmaes , even as , after another manner , repeated spittles , do reach forth smoakinesses with them . Then also , he that should lick in some ounces in one evening , should of necessity , presently after , yield not onely to an Asthma , but also to choaking . For a part of the Ecligmaes had filled a great hollowness of the rough Artery . Surely it is a wonder , that the Schools being seduced by so wan an experiment of a dog , have not taken notice , that through the unmindfulness of the dog , in so great a howling of torment , that coloured broath was snatcht within the wind-pipe . Not that therefore , that is wont to happen in healthy folk , or is observed in rheumatick people , as they call them . Truly , if a man that hath the stone , in making water , doth even against his will , loosen his fundament for pain , shall that therefore be proper to the muscle of the bladder , that by opening it self , it also , ordinarily opens the fundament ? For the parts do now and then , by reason of pain , badly perform their offices , and do mislead other neighbouring ones , with them , into error . The History was rather to be believed , wherein it is written , that a certain person was choaked by reason of a small feather , but another , by reason of an hair : That they may know , that the Lungs are in no wise capable of receiving forreign things , without notable hurt and anguish , yea and more is , that short-winded persons could not endure so much as fragrant perfumes ( for the reasons rehearsed concerning the Blas of man. ) If therefore , helpful perfumes , are a burden to the Lungs ; what shall not Ecligmaes be , although it be granted , that they may come down unto the Lungs ? For therefore , as often , as any thing is swallowed , the wind-pipe is seriously shut with the cover Epiglottis , which resembles the form of an Ivie-leaf ; that not even any the least thing do slide down unto the Lungs . And I have known some choaked , who at least wise , on one side , had not the Epiglottis strictly enough shut , by reason of a Convulsion of the one part , or a resolving of the other . And therein a new error of the Schools is discovered : To wit , in that , they do affirm , lickings or Ecligmaes which are swallowed by degrees , to be admitted into the Lungs , but not those which are abundantly and hastily swallowed . Hath therefore the diffected dog licked in , and not supt up the broath of herbs injected ? for to what purpose have they cast it in , to be drunk , if they knew that a way would lay open unto the Lungs , through an in-licking alone ? But the supposition standing , that the Lungs doth despise all society of all forreign things , except that , of naked Air , not joyned to smoaks : it also , necessarily follows , whether any thing be swallowed by licking in , or by drinking , that the same care of the Epiglottis the keeper , is alwayes acted , and the same shutting of the wind-pipe observed . For truly , in the same place , no less than the loss of life is concerned . Therefore Ecligmaes and Syrupes , although they make the parts smooth for the affording of spittings by reaching , yet they in the first place , hurt the stomack , and do not in the least , absolutely profit in affects of the Lungs . But they say , that the spittle , by a voluntary sliding , also without feeling , doth flow into the wind-pipe , and that Ecligmaes or Lohochs would in this respect be helpers . But neither of these subsist with truth . Because however the neck be disposed of , the warinesse of nature is alwayes the same , that not any thing do at unawares fall down , or flow down into the wind-pipe . A Player was lately seen ( his hands being unseen ) by raising up his feet and body , to have drunk a great cup of wine , having his head nigh the earth . I appeal to Anatomy , and submit my hand to the Ferule . For there are some , who sleeping , a great deal of spittle flows out of their mouth ; who if they sleep , laying with their face upward , they do of their own accord , presently rowle themselves on their side , or are awakened , nature being affrighted with the fear of eminent danger . But if any thing of spittle shall then through carelesness , fall down into the wind-pipe , the cough henceforth , ceaseth not presently to expel it . But at length , what shall sugar being licked in with fryed stinking Fox-lungs , or being seasoned with the juice of Colts-foot , profit the Lungs , if the Lungs it self abhorring all forreign things , admits nothing of the same , but through carelesness , and straightway with great trouble , expels it ? For shall that be sufficient for the restoring of the hurt faculties ? Is the root of Catarrhes thus cut off ? Certainly , which way soever I shall turn my self , I do not see the Schools to withstand Diseases , but by the feigned dreams of Heathens , in an Image , in their effects , and from a latter thing : And that by reason of the ignorance of Diseases and Causes . For thus the name of Physitian , hath deservedly departed into the merriments of Comedians , because they do not think or consider , what to do , what to say , or what is to be done by them , that they may satisfie that precept : Be ye merciful , as your Father which is in Heaven is merciful . And even as St. Bernard speaks concerning the Clergy , who eat up the sins of the People , as they live only by Alms-deeds ; for Physitians do not think whether they do satisfie the command and expectation of charity , who eat up the sicknesses and infirmities of the People . But I do not see that these plagues of Aegypt had been brought into the utter darkness of the Schools , but that , they being ill seasoned , oft-times found affects whereto they might apparently , and without narrow search , attribute the Tragedy of Catarrhes . Because some one having a pain in his Head , hath forthwith felt his neck to pain him , a difficult motion , a restlesse night ; presently the pain hath manifested it self in the loynes , being from thence propagated unto the thighs , and then , it hath seemed to descend to the calves of the legs , and feet . Hence arose the decree , that pain , seeing it is an accident of inherency , doth not wander from one subject into another , unless some material thing shall depart in dregs out of the brain , by the muscles of the turning joynts , through the readinesse of a sliding Rheume , and doth square to the received Etymology of a Catarrhe . This perswasion of a Catarrhe , its mask being discovered by Anatomy , ought to be known . For truly if the painful matter doth successively drop down out of the brain through the neck : surely that shall be brought down thither , either through the bosomes of the brain , or through the brain and its coats , or between both coats , or between the hard coat or Dura mater , and scull , or at length , between the scull and skin . For the consequence is of force , from a sufficient enumeration of parts . But not in the first place , through the bottles or vessels of the brain ; because that could not subsist without an Apoplexy , and an undoubted Palsey of the whole body : if so be that the supposed doctrine of the Schools concerning these Diseases , standeth . For if it be successively expelled from the former bosomes , unto the fourth bosome : the matter of the Rheume cannot but shut up that forreign and sharp excrement into the thorny marrow , and henceforth breed the Apoplexy and Palsey . Secondly , that matter of a Catarrhe , cannot , by sweating thorow the brain , be heaped up , and slide down between the brain and thin coat , so that both coats may keep a continual separation from the very marrow of the thorny sinew : because the sliding Rheume should bring forth a renting , and solution of that which held together , in the marrowy root of the sinews , throughout its length . Which doth not want very many absurdities . In like manner , if the Catarrhe should rain down between both the coats : first of all , both the little membranes should be double , which might defend the thorny marrow as with a coat of Mail : which thing , the eye hath not yet viewed hitherto . And that being supposed , it could not at least wise , disturbe the motion of the muscles , or know pain . And so , there is an error in the Position ; Because a sinew is indeed a deriving or conveying instrument of the command of the will , but not therefore , an executive instrument of a voluntary motion . Especially , because a small Nerve , doth now and then , scarce exceed the grosseness of a doubled thread : and it being externally implanted into the muscle , the Rheumy humour could not be cast into it , but by a bringing of a Palsey on the part , but not cruel pains of the moved muscle . In the next place , if a Rheume should flow down between the Dura mater , and the scull , Anatomy teacheth , that the egress of the sinews side-wayes , thorow the little holes of the turning joynts , is so suitable and narrow , that a passage for a Catarrhe is in no respect granted from the thorny marrow unto the muscles . Lastly , if room should be granted for that device , at least wise , what should be the cause of its succession , that the humour having once slidden between the little sinew of the two turning joynts , should re-hasten unto other successive Nerves ? doth perhaps , the Rheume being affected with a weariness of one muscle , henceforward wish for other Clients of delights ? For how shall the Catarrhy humour flow down through the small little vein , without an astonying or stupifying of the member ? Shall it enter into the muscle , even unto its tail , by a strange implanting ? but shall it again from thence depart unto other muscles , which henceforward are of a more steep or inclinable scituation ? or if a new Catarrhe be feigned , to flow down with a like success , unto other , and inferiour parts ; how therefore do the upper parts , seem to be free from evil ? for seeing it should proceed from the same fountain the brain , and through the same channel of the marrow of the thorn of the back ; why doth it not rather follow the path already opened ? doth it more largely fall down unto a weakened , inclinable , and affected part , and commit new adulteries ? why doth it shake and seek new Innes ? Is that perhaps the delight of nature , that through a whorish appetite , it doth molest and divide new parts successively ? Finally , that there is no place of refuge for a Catarrhe running down between the scull and the skin , and the muscles cloathed with their own membrane , hath been already before discussed . Therefore there is no way , manner , mean , connexion , or dependance , whereby a Rheume may in truth subsist . And seeing no material thing runs down in those affects , for which the Schools have rashly feigned Catarrhs : therefore , let the lovers of truth , know , that as oft as a strange or forreign Air , odour , ferment , or forreign seed is received into the Spirit which makes violent assaults ; so often that spirit being defiled by the Archeus , is excluded from the Communion of life . But the genius or disposition of that conceived Seed , hath no less parts , whereby also the Spirit defiled by a strange ferment , is sent unto remote , rather than to nigh places : As shall be said in its place concerning the joynt-sickness or Gout , in the Duumvirate , and elsewhere . For so Mercury , being even outwardly anointed , doth affect the jawes , tongue , & teeth . Moreover , when this defiled spirit shall come down unto the place of its sending , it presently seasons the nourishment of the part with its own ferment , transplanteth and translateth it according to the idea or likeness of the Seed , and that Seed doth there interrupt the offices of digestions ( by successive blasts being drawn ) with strange dispositions . Whence it at length stirs up a plentiful houshold-stuffe , and doth oft-times characterize the impression there made on the implanted spirit , with a brand durable for life . These things the Schools beg for primary feigned humours , and for the fallings down of defluxions from the one only brain . I therefore am far from a Catarrhe , who deny the matter , shops , efficient cause , manner of making , and defluxing thereof ; and therefore I also seperate the causes , effect , as also the cure , far from the fictions of a Catarrhe . Therefore salt , soure , sharp , phlegmatick , and cholerick humours do not fall down : but as often as the defiled spirit hath passed thorow unto the places , the first which shall come thither from a common endeavour and study of washing it off , is the liquour or humour latex : For the spirit being depraved by a forreign contagion , is carried through the Nerves , Arteries , yea and through the very habite of the Body . From whence the brain hath bore the blame , and the sick do feel as it were the falling down of a defluxing humour : and because the latex is designed thither by the veins , not as a primitive cause of the evil ( although by accident , it doth oftentimes nourish the evil the longer ) but for an easment , and washing off : therefore the Schools have as yet remained doubtful , whether Rheumes should be dismissed from the Head through the sinews , or between the skin ; or indeed through the veins out of the Liver , at least wise in Gouty persons . Therefore the Phlegme and Choler of the Schools , do not flow from a Fountain or Flood-gate , as if the Head were the one only sink of these : And then , neither do they fall down by reason of a steeper scituation , or by reason of an easiness of passages . For truly , as in a dead Carcass there are no such defects , but in live creatures only : so , whatsoever of these defects doth come to pass , it proceedeth from a spirit which maketh a violent assault , and from a vital beginning : In whose family administration , an ascending upwards , is no more difficult than a descending downwards : Seeing nothing of these in living creatures , floweth by its own motion of weight : but indeed is directed , being sent unto its own certain bounds . It also often comes to pass , that the latex being defiled with a strange salt , doth thenceforth infect the spirit , so that the spirit is not therefore alwayes estranged by an external injury of Air , or from a proper Air of contagion bred within : but rather being stirred up by the latex ( because that is less lively ) it takes on it an animosity or angry heat . And the latex accompanies it , being troublesome as well through its aforesaid sharpness , as through quantity ; and it enters as an importunate Souldier against the will of his Host . Wherefore natural and artificial Baths , do reconcile many of these sort of defects and overflowings : to wit , by consuming the latex , they restore health , rather than the loosening and drying Medicines of the Schools . Vain therefore is the History and matter of a Catarrhe lifted up out of the stomack unto the Head : vain also is the defluxing and falling down thereof between the muscles and the skin , and deplorable Remedies from unknown causes . Vain also are cauteries or searing Remedies to pull back and consume feigned humours . Lastly , vain are the Medicines of drying drinks , seeing the evil or Malady is by the latex and a larger quantity of drink , only occasionally bred . Therefore it is manifest , how wholesom , sober drinking is : for the liquor latex , in respect of its appointment ought to be without savour ; but it waxeth sharp through the much drinking of pure and more sharp wine . But the History and necessity of the latex is due in its own Chapter . Thou shalt remember , that all the fruits of composed Bodies do materially spring from water . Let us therefore also suppose the un-savoury latex , through a little help of a Seed , presently to wax sharp . For example . For at the Spring-time , a plentiful liquor drops out of a Vine or Birch-tree . To wit , if the bark near the earth be hurt , it poures out an un-savoury liquour of the earth . But if the wound be made in the stem or branches ; now the same juice is sharpish . So it comes to pass in the latex , being of its own nature without savour , which through the contagion of things receiving , doth at length wax sharp , or becomes the heir of a strange quality . For the Schools have neglected the latex , because they have confounded the urine with the latex . But it is a blockish argument , to have co-melted the thing generated with the matter [ whereof ] as if the snivel , spittle , water between the skin and flesh , and urine , were drinks . The Liver therefore being badly affected , if it recal the latex unto it self ; truly it doth not thereby prepare urine , but Oedemaes , or the Dropsie Anasarca : therefore I am not such a man , as to call the Pleurisie , Tooth-ach , and other madness of furies , non-beings . For I know and grieve for their too much serious commands over us . I do indeed admit of those very Diseases : but the causes , manner , means , passages , end or appointments of a Rheume , I deny . I deny those causes , and I diligently search into those , in the removal whereof , health consisteth . I acknowledge indeed , that a corrupt mattery Imposthume of the Lungs being broken , any one doth presently dye : yet I deny , that the mattery Imposthume is a Rheume , or that death is to be imputed to a Catarrhe : And much more vehemently do I deny that the corrupt mattery Imposthume is bred of a vapour of the stomack . So I name a Consumption , not a defluxion into the Lungs ; but I know it arose from an inward error of the Lungs . I grant that the Gout is fore-felt as it were a hot defluxing drop : yet I do not admit of a Catarrhe , in its matter , manner , means , and bound of making . Even as in its own Chapter , more cleerly . The latex also being dedicated to the sweeping or cleansing of the Kitchins , is in it self , indeed , guiltless : but it , in the way , admitting of a coupling of dissolved salts , doth constitute divers Colonies of Imposthumes , Ulcers and itchings . I deny therefore , that vapours are carried into the Head , which may pierce through the brain and coats . Neither in the next place , do I endure , that the breath , is carried from the breast unto the stomack , and the bowels , in a direct passage ( as it hath otherwise , pleased Paracelsus ) but that a very small quantity thereof , doth breath thorow the pores of the Diaphragma . For neither , when the breath is pressed together , doth any thing worthy of note , go forth under the Midriffe , neither doth the breath smell of the places which are under the Diaphragma . In like manner , neither are vapours carried from the stomack into the Head , but by the Arteries , if men are made drunk . But whatsoever causeth the giddiness of the Head , faintings , and other distempers of like sort , is the retainer of another Common-wealth than that of vapours . So neither from the womb are vapours derived into the Head , however bruitish symptomes of the Head may thereby be said to be bred : for that is not the obligation of transpiration , which is the single duel of another Monarchy , and that whereby the throat ariseth unto the height of the chin , is not to be called the action of vapours : indeed it is an action unknown to the Schools , which I shall some times explain to be that of government , whereunto all parts in the Body do owe a Clientship . For there is no other command of the womb over the whole Body , than that whereby the stones do distinguish a Cock from a Capon , a Bull from an Oxe , and a Man from an Eunuch , in figure , blood , flesh , hide , and courage . But because in supposed Rheumie affects , the liquor latex being defiled , doth obtain its own dominion of water : hence as many Diseases as are ascribed unto Catarrhes , are for the most part exasperated in the night time : indeed the Blas of the Moon doth work the operations of successive changes in us : The which , do most especially boast themselves over the weak or defective brain , and likewise over the sinews and membranes ; and these operations do oft-times fore-feel and fore-divine future tempests ; and therefore , I also call them , the torture of the Night . And I wish this knowledge of presaging , were not sold to us at so dear a rate , that they ought to be thorowly paid by pains and anguishes . For a short-winded Gouty person , yea he that carrieth a callous matter or corn under his foot , being often awaked out of his sleep in the bed or chimny , doth fore-feel the future storms of times or seasons , a black cloud to be by degrees spread over the Heaven , and the hinges of winds to be shortly changed . But Paracelsus would have Mercury to be President or chief over the liquour of nourishment throughout the whole Body , and therefore he elsewhere ( concerning Minerall Diseases ) confounds that in name and thing , with an earthly Moon : Yet I know , that the humour follows the commands of the seminal or seedy part , whereunto it is most neerly resembled : for therefore , neither do liquid Bodies as yet rejoyce in the conferences of the Stars , as long as they are not radically implanted in the Spirit of Life . For from hence it is manifest , that the marrow is a homogeneal or simple part of the Body , but not the liquor thereof : Because it manifestly answers to the Moon and brain , whereunto the bones are obedient . For so , whatsoever things do tyrannize under the name of defluxions , and likewise the foul Disease , Convulsion , wringings of the bowels , do return under the torture of the Night , because they hearken to the latex , through the Dominion of our Moon , they being offensive affects , which hearken unto the motion of the Stars . CHAP. LVIII . A Reason or Consideration of Food or Diet. 1. They prescribe a Diet for Diseases , who are ignorant of Diseases . 2. The dietary part of Medicine is suspected . 3. Some errors about the rules of Food or Diet. 4. Curing is not subject to the dietary part of Medicine . 5. The Authors opinion . 6. The object of the dietary part . 7. A proof from a common event . 8. Crooked ends . 9. From a numbring up of parts . 10. A diet doth privily accuse of the ignorance of a Remedy . 11. A just complaint of the poor . 12. Observances of the Author . 13. The mockeries of the dietary part . 14. Bread is not so much a meat , as a universal victual . 15. Why bread is mixt with meats . 16. The chief hinge of the dietary part . 17. A certain rule . 18. Why the commands of the dietary part of Medicine are not to be trusted to . 19. Ten Positions of the Author . 20. How far the force of a sparing Diet may extend it self . 21. The necessity of chewing , 22. Whence the varieties of things digested are . 23. An examining of Barley water or Cream . 24. Some preventions or fore-cautions accustomed to the Author . 25. A Question concerning the Ferment of the Stomack . 26. The digestions do prescribe the Rules of Diet. AFter that I had finished the Treatise of Digestions , I had willingly brought Diseases on the Stage : but the action of Government being too scanty in the Schools , was left behind as yet maimed , and the Majesty of the Duumvirate it self , and plainly the spiritual radiation or beaming influence of spirit , according to its whole . Wherefore I interweaved the Treatise of the Soul , as it yeelds up its full right to the Duumvirate . But I could not as yet , moreover , depart out of the Stomack , but I presently added upon the Duumvirate , some examinations of my opinion concerning Diet. Truly I have promised to demonstrate , that the Schooles have passed by those things , the profession whereof they chiefly boast of : to wit , that they have not as yet known a Disease in the general kind , or have diligently searched into it by its particular kindes or species , or to have handled it by its causes , or by meet remedies . And therefore it consequently followes , that if through the aide of Physitians , by conjectures , there hath been successe in any thing , it hath been from the proper goodnesse of Nature . For as soon as might be , after the universal Succours ( for so they name cutting of a Vein and Purging ) they presently yeelded a half part of curing unto the government and orderance of food and Life , which for the most part , through Heats , Colds , and the temperance of these , they esteemed for a consideration of good Juice . They shall finely indeed , prescribe the consideration of diet , for the obtaining of an end unknown unto themselves , while they wallow in the heats and colds of Elements . For truly besides their grosse Ignorance , the consideration or respect of food was even long since suspected by me , and a certain wretched juggle of Physitians was seen , and the Slavery of the sick , prescribed under the pain of a Capital punishment , bringing forth a rash belief and confidence in the sick . For first of all , whatsoever is sold at a dear rate , that is presently commended as most healthful : And in Medicines , leaf Gold , Pearls , bruised or poudered , Scarlet dying grain , the worm Cuchineale , Raw-silk , &c. ( for perhaps Spiders webs , if they were brought a great way off , should be sold at a great price , as is Crocodiles dung ) but in meats , whatsoever hucksterry is therefore grateful to the tongue , nor very difficult to the stomack , that universally and presently is published to be of good juyce , healthful and wholsome : insomuch as those things which do chiefly please the palate , ought to be most acceptable and wholesome : And therefore these do vary according to the palate of Physitians . For that which is by one , praised to be healthy ; by another , whom that thing less pleaseth , is dispraised . For by this means , Pheasants , Partridges , Starlings , Black-birds , and fatted Capons , are preferred before four-footed Beasts : although these together with us , do bring forth a live Young , and in this respect , are they more familiar with us , than Birds , Fishes , and Insects , that is , living creatures bringing forth Eggs. So also , Fishes in stonie waters are preferred before sea-fishes , and Bread of the finest of the corn , before that which is branny . For those Physitians which are somewhat delicate , do study the huckstery of the Kitchin , and that they may please the sick , who being destitute of remedies and knowledge , have otherwayes enslaved themselves to a barren profession ; for they are those who become teachers of Cooks . How leisurely do they view all things , that they may exercise their commands in Kitchins and Parlours ; and that they may seem to have foreseen all things diligently , they are ready to exercise their tyranny on the sick . As if meats and drinks should be the Medicines of the more grievous diseases . Truly it hath alwayes notably shamed me of this part of Medicine . For even from a young man , I did already inwardly foresee , that cures were the Effects of Medicines , but not of meats : wherefore as I said , suspect the feeble endeavour of meats : So also I conjectured , that a strict obedience of diet , as well in the commander as obeyer , did savour of an implicite ignorance of a true and suitable remedy , or of a juggle . But on the contrarie , he that hath fire , he can burn ; and he hath a knife , he can cut ; So also he that hath a secret , fit for curing , he may cure , despise the rules of diet , and passe by the needlesse industrie or flattery of the Schooles in this respect . For otherwise , an error which may unexpectedly happen from the choice of food , is by the prevailing goodness of the remedy easily prevented . For if Hypocrates preferreth things accustomed , although less wholsome in themselves , before things unaccustomed , neither that the diet is easily , nor safely , nor speedily to be changed from things accustomed : what therefore is not to be thought of chosen , wished for , and desired meats and drinks , which have been accustomed to be used ? Because they are those , ( which nature dictating to them within ) have , to the great shame of Physitians , been found to have oftentimes excelled a remedy , especially , where they had before forbidden them . Diet in the first place , doth not treat of things apparently hurtful : for it is not disputed whether it be healthful to eat poysonous things , or the sheards of earthen pots , &c. yea , neither indeed , if it be wholsome for a sick person to be filled with much meat and drink , although of good juyce ; or whether gluttony , drunkenness , and an inordinate life , are healthy acts , and fit helps to preserve or recover health . But the whole of diet is busied onely in the choice of meats and drinks : The which , notwithstanding , being as it were indifferent nourishments , do consist within the limits of goodness , and differ onely in the latitude of neutrality . And so therefore , I have alwayes beheld the dietary part , to be as it were a be wrayer of the ignorance of the causes of true Medicine , and of a prevailing remedy . How many indeed soever they are , who refusing the rules prescribed to them , have often times not recovered : Doth the Physitian in the mean time , laughing between his teeth , at the disobedient sick , arrogate the praise of curing to his Rules ? For from hence that art of healing is drawn into all Tragedies , because the Rules of the dietary part of Medicine do testifie a poverty of judgement , as well in the Physitian as in the sick . Whence Physitians do oftentimes hope to get occasion of excusing death ; by the disobedience of the sick , about the rules of diet not being strictly observed . Alas for grief , how great absurdities are committed through this deceit , which do not yet sufficiently appear unto the world ! Because while they know nothing , or have nothing whereby they may drive away the Disease , and constrain it to obey them ; are they at leastwise reckoned , that they will take away through the flatteries of the Kitchin , and much carefulness , the impediments of its increase ? If the observance of a diet should be profitable , it should be serviceable in the disease or in recovery of health ; But in the disease , how unseasonable , troublesome and impertinent is it ? while as the appetite doth for the most part , lye prostrated , and the which perswades a complacency to its self , that it may not wholly perish : and the preservation thereof is of as great moment , as the betokening of life is ! For in the state of a staggering or feeble appetite , nature doth for the most part suggest unto it self , some convenient food , and that oftentimes , then especially , while it is most in need of help . Then do Physitians strive with this pleasure of nature , by their own rules of food , whereby the sick may abstain , if he will not be imputed the whole cause of his own death , by the unfaithful helper . For then the Archeus doth sumptomatically rage , because he perceives the wished for , and perhaps his familiar food to be denied him ; and so in strife they stir up new strife . Verily , even as a horse which passeth through a water , and not drinking sufficiently according to his desire , doth thereby retain in himself an anxious difficulty of breathing for his life time . But a diet after a Disease , or in time of recovery , is also wonderful troublesome , if not also in vain ; seeing now ; nature shall have enough to do of her own accord . For truly , the prescription of a diet cannot but accuse a defect of a sufficient remedy , and so of an implicite confession of an unfaithful cure . For let a Physitian cure as he ought , and Nature promiseth for a sure performance of Restauration . Truly the Almighty hath seen and judged , that whatsoever things he had made , were good . That is , whatsoever , he had appointed for food , was good ; or whatsoever he had ordained for poyson , was a good poyson . For else , the poor man might from much right complain , that God had dealt lesse fatherly with him , because he had denied means , whereby a poor man , by answering the dainty rules of diet , might be able to recover his health : but unto the rich , together with wealth , that he had also bestowed health : because bestowing meanes upon him , whereby he might pay the price of his diet . For I have now experience with my self , for fifty years space , that I cured more , even those not seen , and the rules of diet being despised , than many Physitians together , who wander to and fro in our City . I have experience , I say , that I do cure all continued and intermitting Fevers , in few dayes , yea and for the most part , in few houres , blood-letting being not admitted of ; but wine being permitted . For truly , the chief part of the diet of Physitians is sumptuous , in the flattery of the sick , being gotten at the favourable pleasure of the Physitian , except wine for the most part : Also every Physitian declareth those things to be healthful , which are the most pleasing unto themselves : But least that should be understood to be a kind of assenting , they enjoyn a strict obedience , that by that way of severity of Lawes , they may be thought to restrain the Bridles of Life . Bread in the first place , is accounted the primary or chief food ; but other nourishments are onely co-meats , or victuals in general . But I on the opposite part , call other nourishments , true meats ; but bread alone , the Universal victual : For many are found to have lived long , with milk onely . The Irish also , being men swift , and of a most ready strength , do in some place , use Chambroch or three leaved-grass , only for bread . And some Northern people do live a long time only with fish , without bread , and do remain stubborn , against colds and diseases . A filling with bread ( in the Proverb ) is worst of all : not onely because it is a token of poverty ; but in very deed , because it is the most burthensome in a weak stomack . For why , bread , by reason of the received leaven ( for else it is nothing but paste or dough ) melting into a cream , constraines the hearbs and meats , with which it is chewed , to co-melt ( which thing we daily experience in the digestion of dung ) and this is rather onely to be called by the name of [ Apsonium ] or general victual , then [ Cibus ] or meat . But I may not long be conversant in Nominals , for it is sufficient for me , after whatsoever manner it be called , so that the use and necessity of bread be known to prevail most especially unto the melting or dissolving of meats . Furthermore , I have alwayes had Sobriety in great esteem , as it were the hinge of all Diet. Then also , if the Appetite was carried about any Object , I have willingly admitted it , yet with the moderation of a mean. Yet I am not he , who am ignorant , that one meal is better , is more convenient for a sick person than another : But I am little troubled or grieved , whether of them both the sick might take , if so be that he had also obtained some good remedy . I supposing if a Remedy , be not able to withstand a Maladie or Evil , by a less convenient food ; far less also shall it be able to overcome or expell diseases . Therefore I have held those Remedies , which are hoped for from the prescription of Diet , to be unconstant and feeble . Because , as is wont to be said , it is easier not to admit of , than to expel a Guest . And from a Correlative ; Whosoever presumeth to overcome a Disease by virtue of a Remedy , let him be sure , that he shall by the same Remedy , far more easily vanquish things accidentally happening from the disagreements of meats . I have therefore reckoned it a sign of weakness and distrust in a Physitian , as oft as he is disquieted with the shameful care of the Kitchin ; for he wanting a meet Medicine , that in the mean time , he may seem to do something , or least he should take his Fee in vain , layes up his hope against a Critical day , and prescribeth a choice of meats . For by this my perswasion , I have learned , 1. First , That Nature in us , is wiser than any Physitian , and more skilful of her own profit and loss , than all the Wits of all the Schooles . 2. That Nature doth therefore choose to her self , and wish for the most convenient things . 3. That Cattel have never died , because they had satisfied their thirst , unless perhaps they had swallowed Poyson , and did faint through too much devouring ; because drink in Feavers doth subvert very many discommodities of Dryness . 4. That to drink in thirst , should be no less natural , than for one that hath need to piss , to have made water . 5. And therefore , seeing this doth not require the consent of a Physitian , that also should not want Consultation . 6. That I did administer some drops together with the drink , with the which , easily piercing , especially in thirst , I have many times quenched most Feavers together with the thirst , with a delightful pleasure of the sick . 7. That a great appetite towards a thing apparently hurtful in the Rules of Diet , is for the most part dictated by nature it selfe , to whom her own Remedy hath been made known , but not to the Books of the Schooles . 8. That therefore we ought to be little careful about things desired , which are but little hurtful , and less accustomed . 9. That if a Remedy ought to prevail over a Disease , Meats and Drinks cannot in their own latitude , contain the strength of a Medicinal Being . 10. That Meats , if they do not contain a Remedy , therefore also scarce hurt ; in speaking of meats as such , that is , of indifferent things . I have thus perswaded my self of these things , thus have I prescribed these things to others : To wit , That abstinence and sparingness , are the best meanes in the Dietary part : And the rather , where any thing is eaten for pleasure and delight , according to the Proverb ; That which Savoureth , Nourisheth . 1. For it sufficeth the Appetite by quality , but not by quantity . Otherwise , if fullness grieves or burdens healthy persons , much more sick and weak folks . 2. To wit , Let them eat , not indeed to the filling up of the hollowness of the stomack , neither at the dictate of pleasure and taste ; but as much as easily sufficeth for the defending of a healthy life . And if that be difficult to him that at first accustomes himself ; at leastwise , it shall not be to him that hath accustomed himself . For how foolish a thing is it for him that groaneth or sigheth through a Disease , to wish for his long since denied ingorgings ? Yet I will not , that any man perswade himself , that this sobriety of living , and light fardle of Food , doth prevent any man from having the Plague , a Fall or Bruise , a Wound , Thunder-bolt or Stone . For external incidencies or accidents , do despise the Family administration of the digestions , because they overcome them . Indeed I reject the Stone even among external things , because it is made by a Ferment that is now a stranger . 3. Seing all food ought to be changed into a Cream , and an exquisite chewing is that which makes the digestions easie ; hence I most strictly commend chewing at all times . For truly one onely morsel , being not rightly chewed , makes more adoe in the body , than three which are well bruised in eating . For therefore birds , because they want teeth have need of a double stomack , however most powerful otherwise , they were in digesting . Every Beast also which cheweth the cud , as it was greatly esteemed in the Law , so it seriously insinuates unto us , that the necessity of chewing is not to be despised . Yea for that cause , a bruit which chewes the cud , is in the holy Scriptures chosen for a clean Beast . 4. In the next place , whatsoever things are taken in gluttony , beyond the power of the Ferment of the Stomack , are indeed made hot within , and do putrifie , neither also , are they for that cause digested ; as in Feavers is most plentifully to be seen . But as much of the more tender meats as is taken under gluttony , is indeed digested , and slides out of the Stomack : but it carries headlong with it , a great heap of that which is undigested , as well by reason of the extension of the vessel , as the negligence of nature being loaded , and forsaking the raines . But if that which is most exceeding tender , shall be digested , and that stayeth in the Stomack longer than is meet , that retained food doth also of necessity wax too sharp , or plainly putrifie , is brought over into a bitter excrement in the morning , being oft-times rejected by Vomit : And the which , the Schooles have falsly called Choller . For Diers do by one onely Kettle of Dye , change above a hundred diverse colours , if the Cloaths be first diversly affected : So also one only wandering ferment of the Stomack , doth diversly dispose and determine of the cream , by reason of the diversity of its parts ( else single or simple ) if it containeth in it , diversities not as yet plainly digested . So that , although it ordinarily tingeth nothing but the digested part of the cream with its ferment ; yet it ceaseth not to affect the undigested part , and wrongfully to season it , by reason of the defect of the receiver . Wherefore most things do thus grow to an exorbitancy in the kitchin of the first digestion . 5. Whatsoever accustomed thing is not taken as malignant , but desired ; that also , fulnesse being absent , is the more easily digested , and in Diseases , is safely admitted , if it be soberly and moderately taken . Because the ferments do easily subdue those things which are accustomed , and especially if they are desired . For Hippocrates perswades us to use a most slender food , in sharp Diseases , to wit , until an appetite doth arise again . For I praise the more thin Ales or Beers , as much as I ( trusting to the words of Galen ) do despise sweet Drinks and Barley-broths . Barley ( saith he ) being a little boyled , causeth Ventosities or windinesses ; but stoppages , if it shall be somewhat better boyled . Wherefore , our Ancestors believing that Barley is not unhurtful , being any way boyled , do constrain that to bud ( which they then call Malt ) by which work , they prevent , aswell windinesses , as stoppages . But of Malt and Hop , they make Beers or Ales. 6. I also urge none with Broths compleated with beaten Eggs , &c. if a sharp Feaver be present ; being mindful of that Precept , Impure Bodies , by how much the more thou nourishest them , by so much the more thou hurtest them . For although in sharp Diseases , people live without meat , and onely by drink ; yet a peril of their life doth not thereupon invade them . Yea thus do they the sooner recover , and the strength and appetite do renew with much less difficulty : As oft indeed as a putrifiable or mortifiable thing , is cast into the Stomack wanting its own digestive ferment , it putrifies that which is digested , & not digested . And that is the true explication of that Aphorism . For I never wished , that those who were sick of sharp Diseases , might return fat , or fatted ; but I did well intend that one only thing , to wit , that they might recover , and indeed not much curtaild , in their strength . The greatest part of Diet therefore , in Diseases of the Stomack , I have drawn out of the Aphorism : That a sower Belching ( of a repaired ferment ) coming upon burnt ones , is good . For burntish Belchings , voluntary loathings , an averseness to Fleshes , Fishes and Eggs , yea and loadings of the Stomack , have commanded the sick to be nourished with things that are to be drunk onely : For else , by things subject so stink or mortifie , I had learned , that strange accidents were to be expected , defects of the mind , and other discommodities of that sort . Then because drinks do moisten , do comfort thirst , and satisfie heat , do drive away drinesses , and weaknesses following thereupon . But by drink , I do not here understand , the suppings of Broths which do abundantly nourish , to wit , of those , which in a hot stomack , without a digestive ferment , are of their own accord mortified : but altogether of those , which do least of all putrifie : such as are Ponadoes , and likewise Beer or Ale tinged with wine , wherewith crums of bread also are co-mixed , that they may be meat and also drink . Hither I recal what I have elsewhere taught at large ; To wit , That digestion is made by a propper ferment , but not by heat . As oft therefore , as there is an aversness to flesh , and burntish belchings , heat is signified to be present , and a sharp ferment to be wanting . Give heed to this , how easily , new flesh , being fast tied to a hot foot or head , doth putrifie , and presently stink . Therefore in a Feverish Stomack , being very hot ; wise Nature fears least a dead or stinking carcass should be made in it , and therefore she is presently averse to fleshes . But whither then hath the ferment of the Stomack in a Feverish man , departed ? Hath it wandred to some other place ? or was it extinct ? For whither had the Ferment departed , which is no where acceptable but in its own dens ? neither also hath it perished , because it is a vital thing ; but whatsoever vital thing hath once perished , doth not return again after privation . But a ferment is that which returns afresh . That therefore happens . For either sometimes the dismissing of the ferment doth not reach out of the Spleen unto the Stomack , by reason of some defect of either of the two : of the duumvirate , or at leastwise , the ferment received into the Stomack , is covered over with a strange and Feverish odour : The which , thus understand thou : Any one being an hungry , and in most perfect health , staying too long in the importunate fumes of Coales , doth presently perceive a loathing or nauseousness to arise upon him , and an averseness to meats , and then also a pain in the fore part of his head ; and at length a Vomiting . Therefore the ferment of the Stomack , as it is covered with the hurtful odour of the Coales ; So likewise , through a poysonsome odour and burntish contagion of the moved Fevers , it happens , that an averseness to fleshes is straightway bred , as the ferment proper to the Stomack is overspred with that burntish odour or contagion . These things , I had thus concluded with my self concerning Diet , and the consideration of Food , within those few common rules abovesaid ; I did measure according to the course of Nature , before I had obtained the greater Remedies . Yet knowing , whatsoever is converted in the Stomack , in the likeness of a transparent cream , by virtue of its ferment , that that hath received the beginnings of a vital juyce , although not yet life ; and for that cause , not so readily or voluntarily to putrifie . But whatsoever , is either not dissolved , or if in it self it be dissolved , neither yet hath received a ferment , as the latex , the brine of Salt ; that very thing , is either an excrement , or is easily made such , or is obvious or ready for corruption . Therefore in the consideration of Diet we must especially give heed unto the Diseases , and Meats , which by reason of the Disease , the sick party is averse to , or desireth . For we must be hand-maides to Nature , but never command her ; To wit , the ferment , which ought to concoct the meats , prescribeth those , but not the Physitian according to his own appetite or desire ; neither may he take out of Authors one form for every shooe . As if the various nature of men , should not have it self by way of relation unto some particular thing . Finally , Exercises , Labours , Works , Rests , Sleeps , and Aire , do depend on the Rules which the moments or requirances of other Digestions do dictate unto us ; To wit , that the juyces generated of the Cream , may the more succesfully attain unto their own ends or come unto their bounds . This is the truth of Diet , which Nature doth of her own accord shew and teach ; and let that thing be one and perpetual ; That whosoever hath obtained the best Remedies of Secrets , as he presently restoreth the sick , and vindicates them from any Disease whatsoever ; So also he prescribeth no other Diet for sick , than for healthy folk . For to the healthy all things are accounted healthy ; because the digestive ferments do powerfully draw and restrain all things into their own jurisdiction : And so digestions do prescribe the rules of Diet. CHAP. LIX . A Modern Pharmacapolion and Dispensatory . 1. The Art of Healing hath crept into Fables . 2. The Barbarians excel the Europeans in Herbarism . 3. The custome of Galen , of filching the Inventions of others . 4. A Tragedial sex of Herbs . 5. The signate or thing signified in Herbs , was ridiculously translated into Palmestry . 6. The Rashnesse of Paracelsus . 7. It was a vain Invention , to have brought back Herbs into the Zodiack . 8. How little that is regarded , which is very much to be weighed . 9. It is a shameful thing ta measure the natural endowed gifts of Simples by their degree of heat . 10. The stumblings of Herbarists . 11. The true refining of Simples hath been hitherto scanty . 12. The venal Blood , and arterial Blood , do differ even in Plants . 13. Ice hath deceived Quercetanus . 14. The Father of Lights , is the alone giver of infused knowledge , without the observance of effects . 15. Vain means to know the virtues of Simples . 16. A specifical savour . 17. Things desired in the knowledge of Simples . 18. The art of the Fire opens the way . 19. The diversity of Agents in Nature . 20. A diverse activity of Spagyrical or Alchymical remedies . 21. A Balsame preserving all the juices of Herbs from putrifaction , without an alteration of their properties . 22. A censure or valuation of Extracts and Magisteries . 23. A horrid confusion and plurality of Simples . 24. Dispensatories prevail onely for expedition , but not for appropriation . 25. A deceiving of Clients or Patients , obtained by the authority of Magistrates . 26. God composeth some things , which man may not separate , nor over-add a third thing unto them . 27. When a conjoyning is to be admitted . 28. A sentence concerning the prevalency of Dispensatories . 29. The virtues of many things are blunted by sweet things . 30. An Answer to things Objected in behalf of sweet things . 31. The vanity of Syrupes . 32. Chymistry is preserred before other professions . 33. The use of things from beyond the Seas . 34. The Crasis or constitutive temperature is the kernel of Remedies . 35. Vices in Decoctions . 36. A defect in Electuaries , Pills , and Confections . 37. Against the confoundings of Simples . 38. An examining of loosening Medicines . 39. What kind of preparation of Simples is to be despised . 40. The dammageable boyling of Odoriferous things . 41. The ridiculous burning of Harts-horne . 42. The Correction of many things is fatal . 43. The Offences of Simples . 44. Absurd Miscelanies , or Hotch-potch mixtures . 45. The whole Earth hath , and brings forth Poyson . 46. Under Poysons do lurk the most powerful Secrets . 47. An Errour concerning the gelding of Asarum . 48. An errour concerning its Crudity . 49. No true Poyson in its first Being . 50. The Death of the Marquess Spinellus , by the folly of Hellebore . 51. The examination of the Viper . 52. Arsenical things , by what right they are the Remedies of Ulcers . 53. How Poysons may be made Remedies . 54. The Chymical Remedies of the Shops . 55. An examining of Gold and Pearles in healing . 56. The use of Oylie things . 57. What hath departed from clarified Sugar . 58. The manner of applying of external things . 59. The Collection or gathering of Simples . THe Art of Healing is every where drawn into the Tragedies and scorn of the vulgar . Because Physitians will not be wise , but according to the custom of the Schools . For what they read , they believe , and what they believe , they deliver to the trust of the Apothecary , his Wife , and Servant or Family , to be put in execution . For thereby every maker or seller of Oyles or Ointments , and old Women , do thrust themselves into Medicine , scoffe at Physitians , because also , they oft-times excel them in many things . For they were wont in antient time to reserve some things to themselves for a pledge of fame and family . But afterwards , sloath overcame , and gain disposed of Medicine as a plough , and by the just judgement of God , all things grew ●orse . Before my entry of the Shop , I cannot but be angry at the describers of simples : For although there be no field more spacious , plentiful , and delightful in the face of the whole earth , and where the mind is more delighted , than in Herbarism ; yet there hath scarce been a less progress made in any other thing . For truly the Arabians , Greeks or Gentiles , Barbarians , wild country People , and Indians , have observed their own Simples much more diligently than all the Europeans . For even from the dayes of Plato ( wherein Diascorides a man of War , lived ) nothing almost hath been added to Herbarism : but much diminished . Galen , from a desire of robbery , wrote this study of another , his name being suppressed . He being plainly a non-Diascorian , snatched up the words of Diascorides . The which , in the mean time , Pliny hath besprinkled with many trifles : Because , as it s very likely , he being of a mean judgement , not being able to distinguish between truth and falshood , scraping many things together , on every side , hath described them , that he might equalize his name unto the greatness of his Section . But even unto this day , the more learned part of Physitians do as yet carefully dispute only about the faces and names of Herbs : As if the vertues could not speak before their countenance were known ; the virtues I say , being first delivered by Diascorides : As if the power of Medicine had attained unto its end , in the first Author . But the more modern Herbarists , began to distinguish Herbs into Sexes , and supposing that they understood many things from thence , complained , that these things had remained hidden or vailed : As if nature , did labour in jest and not in earnest , had been careful of a Sex , where it was content with a promiscuous and Hermophroditical Being or Body . For a sex doth respect only generation , but not operation , or the relation of like or equal objects . Therefore , that she might not frame , even the least tittle , in vain , who hath wholly referred her self unto the certain ends known to her Creator , wheresoever there was not need of the marks of Sexes to generate , she hath also disesteemed them in operating . But if of two Simples , one be stronger or rougher than another , surely that doth not denote the Sex , but the degree . For while the same Simple putrifieth , and is changed into small living creatures , these indeed , are not of one , but of both Sexes . The which surely could never be , if those Simples , should now have a Sex , or sexual virtues within them . For the same Herbs in number , are in Sex as well Masculines as Feminines , promiscuously bred . There were also afterwards , others , who would observe signatures in Herbs , as it were a Palmestry : and this Meditation , the root of Satyrion or dog-stones , hath notably promoted . And therefore through the desert hereof especially , they have introduced a sealed knowledge , or essayed Anatomy , that is , new names , and great swelling Titles , embroidered with their own boldnesses . I believe by Faith , that man was not of nature , and therefore likewise , that nature is not the Image , likeness , or engravement of man. God out of the eternal providence of his goodness and wisdom , hath abundantly provided for future necessities . He himself hath made and endowed Simples for the appointed ends of all necessities . Therefore , I believe , that the Simples , in their own simplicity , are sufficient for the healing of all Diseases . Therefore we must more study about the searching into the virtues , than about disputing any hard questions : Seeing that in Simples there is a perfect cure , and healing of all Diseases : And by consequence , that Dispensatories , which will us to compound and joyn most things together , do destroy the whole , and through a hidden blasphemy , do as it were strive to supply divine insufficiency . Hence Paracelsus rightly writeth to Chyrurgions : To what end do ye over-adde unto Symphytum or the root of greater Comfrey , Vinegar , Bole , and such like wan additaments ? when as God hath composed this Simple as altogether sufficient against the ruptures of bones ? finally , whatsoever thou shalt adde unto it , thou makest , as if thou wouldest by thy correction , supply the place of God. Thou dost grievously erre . In like manner , I also think , that God hath perfectly , and sufficiently composed in Simples , compleat Remedies of any Diseases whatsoever . In the next place , I infallibly know , that there is in the Archeus of vegetables , no anatomical alliance or affinity with us , whether we regard the whole , or at length , their parts . For the endowments of Simples , are by creation : but not from an usurpation of possession : for properties were already in their-own Herbes , before sin , death , and necessity . Lastly , I believe , that God doth give the knowledge of Simples , to whom he will , from a supernatural grace : but not by the signes of nature ! For what Palmestrical affinity hath the Boars tooth , the Goats blood , the peisle of a Bull , the dung of a Horse , or the Herbe Daysie , with a Pleurisie ? or what signature have those Simples with each other ? Truly , I praise my Lord , who before Diseases were , created all things primarily for his own glory ; neither marked he Simples for Diseases that were to come by accident : but for the grace of the universe , from whence indeed the Lord hath honour . Therefore I have laughed at Paracelsus , because he hath erected serious trifles into the principles of healing . There have not been those wanting also , who have brought the huge Catalogue of Diseases , into the signes of the Zodiack : whose number , seeing it was too narrow , they have enlarged every one of the signes into a threefold Section : To wit , that they might divide all the virtues of Herbes into 36 , and gather them into a narrow fold . But the earth hath of it self , a seminal virtue of producing Herbes , the which , therefore , it doth not beg from the Heavens . For the whole property of Herbes , is from their Seed , and the seminative power is drawn from the earth , according to the holy Scriptures : but not from the faces of the lights of Heaven . For 16 or 20 Stars , may be put to make a constellation , or one of the 12 Houses , and to be extended into 30 Degrees . But in what sort could so few Stars , contain the essences , seeds , faces , and properties perhaps of five hundred plants , differing in their species and internal properties ? Moreover , besides a thousand vain attributions of so many things , as well humane as politick ? Away with these trifles ! The properties of Herbes are in the Seeds , but not in the Heaven or Stars . The powers of the Stars , are grown out of date , the which by an old Fable , have stood feigned unto heats , colds , and complexions . For the Stars , in whatsoever manner they are taken , do differ from Plants , much more , than Herbs do from mists and frests , or fishes from precious stones . Let it therefore be a faulty argument , to have attributed effects to causes , which do contain nothing at all like a cause in them . That is even as for a watch-man to dream , if he shall believe such a thing , or wholly to go out of his wits by his own thought . Mathiolus , Tabernomontanus , Brasavolus , Ruellius , Fuchsius , Tragus d'Allichampius , and other observers of Herbes , are hitherto busied , only about the faces , and visual knowledge of Plants : but their virtues , they all as one , describe out of Diascorides : they also tye them up unto the degrees of heat and cold , as though they did demonstrate something from the foundation : A shameful thing indeed it is , to have drawn the Crasis or constitutive temperature of Simples out of heat , but not from the fountains of the Seeds . Dodonaeus Friso , being now become a Dutch-man , Tabernomontanus , with a few others , although they did insist on the same steps of Degrees , yet they have subjoyned some additions , from their own , or the gathered experiences of others : but as yet , plainly confused , uncertain , and badly distinct : because that they have not written from knowledge , but either from the noted revelation of the vulgar , or they being things drawn from a casual experiment . There is none amongst them all , who hath knowingly described the properties of Simples , even as he , who had described all things , from the Hyssop , even unto the Cedar of Libanus . As a sure token , that true knowledges or Sciences are not elsewhere to be fetched , than from the Father of Lights : even as I have elsewhere touched at by the way , concerning the hunting or searching out of Sciences . A living creature that is entire , and alive , cannot be bruised without its dung . It is therefore to be lamented , that it hath not been yet weighed , that Herbs have much dung , which have never cast forth any out of them , and so that they are to be refined with the greater wariness . In the next place , we distinguish the arterial blood in a man , from his venal blood , by divers marks : But in plants , it hath seemed sufficient to have said it . That plant , in one only subject , consisteth of divers and opposite properties : they have acquiesced , neither hath there been a deeper entrance , than by some common savours , and uncertain events . For out of the stalk or hollowness of Poppy being hurt , Opium distilleth . Celendine or Swallow-wort weeps a golden , and Tithymal or Spurge , a milky juice ; out of the burdock , gums , out of the Herbe Chamelion , a Bird-lime , &c. whose Simples , if thou shalt bruise , they shall give forth another and a far more inferiour juice , to wit , a dung and venal blood , well mixt with arterial blood , however they are clarified . For let young beginners learn to distinguish and separate an arterial blood from the venal blood and substance of Plants , if they do ever minde to have performed any thing worthy of praise , by Simples : for from hence it comes to pass , that how stoutly soever thou hast operated in extracting , ( the manner thereof being taught by those of late time ) yet one dram of crude Rhubarb doth effect more being administred in pouder , than whatsoever thou shalt extract out of a dram and a half . For the stomack resolves more by its ferment , than whatsoever the mediating or middling juices of extractions can take away ; because they resolve without distinction , liquor of the substance which is like unto a dreg , and despised . For Quercetanus , when as he had taken notice , that the innermost powers of things were not to be sufficiently examined by Palmestry , and Anatomy , which they call , Sealed ; calls divination by the fire unto his help , but he failed in the way ; to wit , he had drawn out of the ashes of a nettle , a Lixivium or Lye , the which by chance of fortune , an Ice in his galley pot , had a little constrained or bound together ( for if the Lye had been the stronger , it could not have been frozen ) he wondring in the morning , cryes out ; Behold , oh what a figure of the nettle , do I behold in the glass ! And rejoycing , he established a Maxim : To wit , That a seminal figurative Being of Herbs , doth remain in the ashes , unconquered by the fire . That good man declareth his ignorance of Principles , not knowing , first of all , that every Ice , beginning , maketh dented or tooth-like points , like the shape of the leaf of a nettle : And then , that the Archeus is the figurer of the thing to be generated , which is burnt up by the fire , long before a coal or ashes is made . Thirdly , if a Lixivium should express the seminal Being of Herbes , surely it ought to resemble , not the leafes ; but the root , stalk , flowers and fruits . But the figurative power of the Seeds , lurketh in the Archeus , the Vulcan of herbs and things capable of generation , which cannot subsist with fleshly eyes . It is to be begged only of God , that he may vouchsafe to open the eyes of the mind , who to Adam , and who to Salomon , demonstrated the properties of things at the first sight . St. Theresa , having once , mentally seen a Crucifix , perceived it to be the eyes of her soul ; the which she thenceforth kept open for her life-time , and the flesh hath shut them up in us , through the corruption of nature . For neither for the future , do we else , know natures from a former cause ; neither do we now know the interchangeable courses of the Archeus , but by a naked observation . Many Simples are indeed assigned us ; but for the most part , false and disagreeable . Neither doth the reading of Books make us to be knowers of the properties , but by observation : No otherwise than as a Boy who sounds or sings the Musick , doth notwithstanding , not compose it , as neither hath he known the first grounds of harmony , by means whereof , the tunes or notes were so to be disposed . If this thing thus happen in sensible things which are to be known by sence , the reason whereof , the hearing measureth : what shall not be done in Medicinal affairs , wherein the virtues of Simples are not penetrable by any sense ? But the descriptions of all kind of Medicines , are read , being delivered in the Shops , with a defect of the knowledge of properties and agreements . For I speak concerning a knowledge of vision , such a one , as the soul hath , being separated from the Body , and such a one , as God bestoweth in this life , on whom he will , and hitherto hath he removed this knowledge from the company of those who ascribe all reverence unto heathenish Books . The Father of Lights therefore is to be intreated , that he may vouchsafe to give us knowledge , such as once he did unto Bezaleel and Aholiab , for the glory of his own Name , and the naked charity towards our Neighbours : For so , the Art of Medicine should stand aright in us , under every weight . But it is to be feared , lest he who hath suffered the Books of Salomon to perish , may reserve this knowledge of Simples for the age of Elias the Artist . For the Schools have by savours or tastes , promised an entrance unto the knowledge of Simples : That as it were the crafts-men of all properties , they by sharp , bitter , salt , sweet , astringent , soure , and un-savoury , heats and colds , would measure them . But proud boastings are made ridiculous by the effect . For truly , also Opium being very bitter , the which in this respect , they will have to be hot ; yet they teach it to be exceeding cold . So sharp or tart Camphor , according to their Rules , ought to be hot ; yet they declare it to be ( without controversie ) cold . In like manner also Aqua fortis , oyle of Vitriol , Sulphur , &c. being soure things , according to the Rules of tastes , ought to be exceeding cold . But I am to shew , at sometime , in its place , that the Schools have not yet beheld the faculties of things , as to the outward bark or shell of them ; and therefore that they have passed by the fountains of their seminal properties . Finally , there is in every thing , a specifical savour , which ought to teach their property , if there be any other external signates : To wit , there is in Cinnamon , besides a quick sharpness , a peculiar grace or acceptableness in savour , the which thou canst scarce find in any Simple besides . So Gentian , Elecampane , &c. have besides common bitterness , a specifical savour , which ( by reason of a singularity proper to any kinde of Simples ) cannot be reduced under Rules , and is the alone accuser , as also distinguisher of all properties . Furthermore , that Simples are to be chosen or gathered in the station wherein they are in their vigour , this is common to the Schools , country people , and my self : To wit , Seeds , while they are almost dry : but stalks and leafs , while being juicy , they are moist through a full quantity of venal blood : roots also , while they swell with strength , and are not as yet worn out with generating and cocting : but being now filled through much rest , their Archeus being awakened , they meditate of budding . Others perswade the Autumn ; I for the most part , love the Spring : the which I have learned by experience in Polipodium , Briony , &c. For the juice of Herbes , is their venal blood , the which being more and more ripened , is either gathered into them , or ends into the nature of fibers , or at least wise doth slackly perform its office , whilst the vital power meditates of propagating a Seed . Therefore , in searching into , and gathering Simples , nothing hath remained more neglected , than that which was most desired , and wherein , even from the beginning hitherto , there hath been no progress . Indeed the powers of Simples , and their immediate subjects , have remained unknown . For those , besides a cleer and visual knowledge of them , do require a desired preparation and appropriation . First of all , the knowledge of Sciences : but that doth not presuppose traditions declared at pleasure , and transcribed one to another . But preparation doth not only require the boylings and bruisings of the shop : but the whole Art of the fire . At length a fitting or suiting , applying or appropriating , requires a speculation founded in the light of nature , of man , Diseases , and affects , and then their dependencies , changes , and interchangeable courses . It s no wonder therefore , that the Doctrine of Simples , hath remained barren . In the mean time , under so great sloath of mortals , the Almighty hath vouchsafed to raise up Alchymists , who might worthily think of the transmutation , ripening , tincture , and promoting of virtues , as of things chiefly necessary : And so they having proceeded by degrees unto the harmonious unity of Medicine , have become the obtaining followers of their own desire . For they have not gone unto the unequal tempering or mixture of feigned humours , their strise , and defluxions ; yea , nor indeed , unto the products , or fruits of Diseases ( to wit , for the avertings whereof , they had known that they followed only the relapsing cloakings of Diseases ) but they converted their study unto the more formerly , or first causes : knowing that the impowering foundation of many defects , was stamped or imprinted in the Archeus of Life . Wherefore , by the purity , simplicity , and subtility of Remedies which have a mark of resemblance , they have attempted an entrance unto the middle Life . That if any of them do not pierce unto the first Constitutives of us ; at least wise , they may unfold their natural endowment in the entrance of these , by stirring up our powers , by their acceptable talk or communication . For truly , nature doth not only acknowledge the actions of agents , which do wholly enter into the jurisdictions of Patients ( indeed there is only a corporeal action of such , and an obedience of the nourishing faculty ) but there is also another authority of agents , not to be despised , which is an unfolding of their native endowment , into the very middle Life of the Archeus , by reason of the sequestrings of mortality , dregginess , and turbulency . By which superiority , such agents , do suffer not any thing from their Patients , and much less are they altered , by resistance or re-acting . For some Remidies being thus prepared , do by their deaf wedlock , so refresh our faculties , that they do the more assure us , that they came into the world for this purpose . For some things do even refresh us by their fragrancy : Also , there are other things , which being shut up , are hindered from shewing their good will unto us ; as gold , and gems or precious stones . Others in the next place , ( their shakles being loosed ) are brought up into a degree , being as it were happy through the favour of an increase , and the liberty & authority of their powers or virtues being obtained , they raise us up from a fall , and comfort us : Surely not more sluggishly , than ( after another manner ) deadly poysons do prostrate our strength : To wit , they drive away a corporal , yea and fermental poyson : but not that any Medicine is able to renew again the powers implanted in the parts , they being extinguished , abolished , and worn out . But it hath been the error of the Schools , not first to subdue the juices of Herbs , together with their substance , and their ferment , before that a choice or separation of the best parts be possible to be made . Then also , they have neglected diligently to search , that the juice of things being pressed forth with a press , doth afterwards , only through the odour of a certain sulphureous fire , remain uncorrupted , without sugar , or any other additament : by favour whereof it attains a certain Balsamical Being , and translates the airy draughts incorporated with it , unto a great act of perfection . Moreover I now descend unto the labours of the shops . For first of all , although Extracts may seem to ease a weak or dull stomack of pains : yet I have those in no great esteem , for their errors already before noted . But Magisteries , I willingly lay up in the place of extracts , whereby the whole substance of a thing is reduced into its primitive juice . Which manner of preparation , shall remain for ever unknown to the common sort of Physitians . In which regression or return of solution , juices differing in kind , are voluntarily separated , swimming upon each other , for the most part , with divers grounds , and one Ruler , famous in diversity , containing the seminal Being , settles to the bottom . In the second place , I pitty the so many connexions , and confused hotch-potch mixtures in the shops , the bewrayers of ignorance , and uncertainty . For the Schooles hope , that if one thing help not , another will help : and so ( through the preachment of Herbarists ) they joyn many things together with each other , they being extolled by them , for the same purpose . The sisters of huckstery , seething and tempering or seasoning , are adjoyned : Therefore the Dispensatories described by the Schools , and used by Physitians , are commended , for expedition , and promptitude or readiness ( indeed for this cause , Promptuaries or store-houses have their name ) but not for property and necessity : To wit , they having only general and universal intentions , with a substituting and dispensing one thing for another . Whence they are called Dispensatories . In all and every one whereof , the concourse and confounding of crude Simples , do afford a conjectural event . For the sick man is on every side ( for his money ) deceived ; indeed , as well through the belief and deceit of the Apothecary , as by the oath of Doctorship . He thinking , that he cannot erre , deceive , or be deceived , who swears that he is admitted as a skilful and sufficient Physitian . Ah , I wish that Magistrates , may prevent so great deceiving of Patients , and fraud of Physitians . I , in the first place , do greatly admire a sincere composition in Simples , which is made by Gods compounding . For , I find in the greater Comfrey , a full Remedie of a broken bone , it having all things whereof that hath need . Whereto , if thou shalt admix Bole , Vinegar , or any other forreign things , even as I have admonished above out of Paracelsus ; thou hast now corrupted the mixture ordained of God. Yet , as oft as any particular things have not there intent , I do forthwith admit of adjoynings , if the things do couplingly attain that by their conjoyning , which they had not in their singularity : Which is hereafter to be confirmed by a teaching experiment . An example whereof , is most evident in Ink , and Tinctures or Dies . For indeed , at the time of repenting me of my studies , I often considered , that seeing there was in nature , a certain proportion of matter unto matter , and of form unto form , the same proportion of properties unto properties , and by consequence , of effects unto effects was also kept . But the composition of Simples , presently taught me the defect of these , where their interchangeable courses do presently enter after the co-mixt beginning of the Seed , and do for the most part , demolish themselves , no otherwise than as the Seeds of many things being bruised and confounded together , do exclude a seminal hope . I afterwards knew , by many labours , and expences , that the mattes of Remedies being advanced to a more noble dignity only by their preparation , did ascend unto a degree of perfection , liberty , subtility , and purity , and did far excel the Decoctions , Syrupes , and Pouders of the Shops co-heaped under Honey . For whosoever is well instructed in the exercises of the fire , doth cleerly behold with me , that there is no Medicine to be found in dispensatories , which may not contain more hurt than profit . For the Schooles which profess Hippocrates , if they acknowledge that Diseases do proceed from sharp , bitter , salt , or soure ; may see , that they do wholly mask and season all things with one honey , and one only sugar , and do blunt the properties of Remedies ( otherwise weak enough in themselves ) : as though the one and alone Medicine , and top of all Diseases , did stand in sweet . For they answer , That laxative Medicines do operate nothing the more unsuccessfully , although sugared ; as also , because they are the more acceptable to the palate ; and thirdly , because they are thus preserved from rottenness and corruption . As to that which concerns the first ; I grant indeed , that poysons have an equal effect , whether they are accompanied with sugar , or are swallowed alone . For truly the power of laxative things , is wholly sealed in the melting of the Body , as also in the putrifying of that which is melted , and so that it ought to be of no credit or esteem with poyson . Therefore the answer of the Schools by poysons , is impertinent unto the question concerning the Remedies of Diseases , as bitter , sharp , &c. Unto the second I say , that it is a frivolous answer , while there is not satisfaction given unto the first . They know not therefore as yet , that the virtues of Remedies are changed and blunted by sugar . That to many , the taste of Aloes is more grateful , than that of honey . In the next place , that those who desire to flatter the tongue ; yet , cannot the stomack , which only by the beholding , abhorreth Medicines covered over with the deceit of sugar . That a thing is more easily taken in some liquor , in a few drops , and is more freely digested or concocted within , than being seasoned with plenty of sugar . Again , that things being immingled with a convenient liquor , do the more fully or piercingly enter , than being overwhelmed with much sugar . That sugar , although it be grateful to healthy persons , yet it presently becomes horried unto sick folkes , being hostile in most Diseases of the stomack and womb : but that in other Diseases , it oft-times makes the help of the adjoyned Medicine , ridiculous or vain . For sugar is diametrically opposite to the soure ferment of the stomack , and therefore it causeth the more difficult digestions . For sugar is clarified with the Lixivium of Calx vive , and Potters earth . For if the Schooles had known the sharpness of the spirit of honey , and the stinking dregginess of sugar , they had been content with a more sparing use of them among the sick . Lastly , unto the third , I say , that the Schooles herein confess their ignorance , that they know not how to preserve Medicines from corruption , without a pickling , and gelding of their virtues . The deceit therefore of Syrupes , is sufficiently discovered , which are made onley by boyled Simples , honey or sugar being added . Hitherto at length , that tendeth ; that Vegetables do only lay aside their juice and muscilage , by boyling in waters : Which crude and impure things , do impose their troubles on the stomack , before that they being digested with the honey , do appoint us to be heirs of their virtues . Especially , because the gumminess of herbes , is fryed with the honey and sugar , becomes ungrateful and troublesome to the stomack , and by boyling , a notable waste is made of its virtues . I praise my bountiful God , who hath called me into the Art of the fire , out of the dregs of other professions . For truly , Chymistry , hath its principles not gotten by discourses , but those which are known by nature , and evident by the fire : and it prepares the understanding to pierce the secrets of nature , and causeth a further searching out in nature , than all other Sciences being put together : and it pierceth even unto the utmost depths of real truth : Because it sends or lets in the Operator unto the first roots of those things , with a pointing out the operations of nature , and powers of Art ; together also , with the ripening of seminal virtues . For the thrice glorious Highest , is also to be praised , who hath freely given this knowledge unto little ones . I also , seldom use Remedies fetcht from beyond the Seas , or from the utmost part of the East ; as knowing , that the Almighty hath made all Nations of the earth capable of curing ; neither that he would , that wares should be expected to be brought from the Indian shore , as neither , that God was less favourable unto mortals , before the Indies were known . Therefore the Divine Goodness hath perswaded me , that for Diseases Inhabiting us , their own Remedies are to be found at home . And Alchymical speculations have taught me , that a small liquor may be prepared , which keeps the Crasis of Simples uncorrupted , without a forreign or hurtful seasoning . Therefore , they boyle Herbs in water , wine , or a distilled liquor , unto a third part , half , also co-heaped in a double vessel ( as they say ) and under a Diploma . Wherein , the chief virtues , if they do not perish ; at least wise , none but the burdensome and ungrateful muck of the Herbes ( to be digested by the stomack ) is drawn out , however the decoctions and juices may be refined with whites of egges , and may be masked with sugar : Because they are drunk without a separation of the pure from the invalid or weak part , without an unlocking of the shut-up virtues , without the root , and participation of life , an amending of defects , crudities , excrements , and violent powers , whose activities our nature cannot bear without a grievous dammage . And then , Electuaries , Confections , or Pills , whether to comfort , or to loosen the Body , do as yet abound with greater miseries than Syrupes : for they are ridiculously , ignorantly , and unconsiderately co-knit of many Simples , without boyling , only by bruising or poudering ; the which , are for the most part , cross to each other , do hurt one another , and themselves are hindered from joyning in a mutual endeavour for us , as they ought . For that is not in nature , which the Schools have expected in numbers , wherein forces do agree together in one , because they consent by unities . For truly , in nature , every thing is singular , lives in its own Family-administration , nor rejoyceth it in Wedlock . Thus far also , the operation of healing proceeds into the middle life of the Archeus , the which , by connexions and confoundings , if it doth not plainly perish : at leastwise , it is manifestly weakened . For the vain successes by the mutual embracing of many seeds , ought to have admonished the Schools , to abstain from the confounding of so many and so divers Simples . By how much the rather , because under that multitude , many supposites or things put in the place of others , opposites , vain things , but besides most of them ponderous , impertinent , unfit , improper , and therefore , weak , barren , evil and dead things , do run together , or at least wise , are made . For although the worthinesses , and adulteries of Simples , belong more to the Merchants , than Apothecaries : yet not to have distinguished of those Simples , is the part only of a sluggish , ignorant , or covetous Apothecary . In the mean time , it is certain , that for the most part , all things are at length , taken crude , hard , unripe , shut up , poysonsom , impure , bound , and unfit for the communicating of their virtues , and to be the more depraved by co-mingling . And because the stomack of sick folks is in the entry of the House , and therefore also first offended , because it is weak , and unfit to extract the middle life , being beset with so many difficulties : Therefore it was by all manner of labours and singular care to be prevented , that we may prepare all things for a weak stomack , if we hope sweetly to reach unto our conceived and desired ends . The use therefore of all Confections , is horride , nauseous , and tiresom . And therefore , from hence is the Proverb : Take away that ; for the Shops have a smell . Also , if thou takest way from loosening Medicines , Scammony and Coloquintida , the whole fabrick of the Shops in loosening Medicines , will fall to the ground . For purgative Medicines , besides Scammony , Coloquintida , Euphorbium , Elaterium , Esula , and so manifest poysons , and those moreover adulterated , sorbid , and horrid ( the heads of diminishing of our faculties and strength ) do contain plainly nothing : unless we suppose the same poysons to be mitigated in Aloes , Rhubarbe , Senna , Agarick , Manna , and the like , and to be so much the more obvious or easie for deceit . Therefore I have hated the preparations of Simples , as oft as washing , boyling , burning or scorching , adjoyning , or calcining , makes havock of their faculties . For Aloes looseth its juice by washing , and the residue remaines a meer Rosin , the which , by its adhering unto the bowels is a stirrer up of wringings , and the piles . In the next place , seeing the proper and chief virtue of Spices is in that which is odourable , if this doth of its own accord vanish away , and voluntarily cease from the Body perfumed , what shall at length be done by boyling and roasting , especially where a degree shall happen thereunto ? which thing , our distillings of odoriferous things do teach . At length , what can be said to be more foolish in the Schools , than to have reduced Harts-horn into an un-savoury ashes ( and that deprived of all virtue ) for great uses ? and to have substituted a gelding or rather a privation , in the stead of preparation ? For I have , learned , that that or most Remedies , do by their odour & savour , as well within as without , help our infirmities : and therefore I have detested the co-mixtures of many Simples , because , if unto a healing odour , thou shalt moreover adjoyn another , which may suppress , cloak , convert the former into its self , or also raise up a neutrality from them both ; I have known , that from thenceforth , the specifical healing virtue would be abolished , and the effect desired by the sick , made void . Therefore , the joyning of Spicy odours , and sweet tasted savours are suspected by me . Furthermore , I have hated many other Confections of the Shops , because foolish ones : whereby they endeavour to cloak and blunt the supereminent and violent power of things , by some ridiculous things . Yea , in the mean time , they declare abroad , that the in-bred savour of such a Medicine , is by so much promoted , by how much they do withdraw its powers by virtues adjoyned thereunto . For in most of them , they admix some grains of Cinnamon , or other fopperies , that they may subdue the furies of the more violent things ; as if the furies of laxative Medicines , are tamed by some grains of Spices ! For who that is but even slenderly instructed in Chymical preparations , knows not , that in Spicy Confections , there is in the first place , the offence of plurality ? and then , that most of those things also do vainly offend in the crudity , hardness , shuting up or closness , choice , and substituting of Simples . In the next place , that those Simples do moreover , flow thither in an uncertain Dose ? whence indeed , the hoped for effect is prevented ? And indeed , by the error of every one of them ? And that I may resolve this thing by one example : what is there I pray you , in Lithontribon , or the Confection for wasting or breaking of the Stone , which may satisfie the promises of its Etymology . For to what end is there in it , Cinnamon , Cloves , the three Peppers , Acorns , or Galengal , Costus , Rhubarb , Cassia , Bdellium , Mastick , Amomum , Peucedanum or Dog-fennel , Spikenard , Ginger , the wood and juyce of Balsame , Gumme-dragon , Germander , Euphorbium , also the Oyles of Nard and Muske ? Do every one of these conspire for the scope proposed in the Etymologie ? Or whether from those being co-mixt together , and perfuming the intentions of each other , a new virtue shall arise , which may compleat its Promises ? To wit , Can it powerfully break the stone in the Reins and Bladder ? and can it presently loosen all the defects of Urine ? should not Opobalsamum , rather perish in other excrements and sweepings ? But in Opiate confections , there is the same deafness , as in spicie ones , every where easie to be seen . The which , that I may resolve by one onely example also . For whither in Aurea Alexandrina Nicolai , doth the confounding together of sixty five Ingrediences tend ? Of which Simples , there is no affinity with Opium and Mandrake , the pillars of the Confection ? Truly the congresses of Simples made at the pleasure of an ignorant man , have befooled the Schooles , and killed the sick : they have frustrated them of their hope put into them , and by uncertaine conjectures have exposed them to sale , and made them to passe by the occasions of healing , which are unstable every moment . Therefore the compositions of the shops , if thou dost examine them without prejudice of mind , thou shalt on every side , with a profitable admiration be astonished , that in Syrupes , Electuaries , Pills , Ecligmaes , Trochies , and other things , the World hath been deluded by the prate of Physitians , the foolish blockishnesses of the Schooles , and their hurtful presumptions . For we being Christians , do believe with the Stoicks , that the World was composed for Mans use . And when as I in times past , earnestly contemplated of that thing with my self , it presently seemed to me , that humane use might commodiously want so great , or so many Poysons : For our more cold climates , I have found , at least , in this , to be the more happy , that they want creeping , poysonsome , and deadly Monsters , wherewith otherwise , the hotter Zone doth abound . Surely , we have not much necessity , familiarity , abundance of poysons , neither shall their use , in any respect recompense so many calamities arising from thence : Yea if the earth doth bring forth Thornes and Thistles , as a curse of Sin ; truly it brings far greater calamities unto us , on its back , as well in the order of living creatures , as vegetables , which are importunate of the life of Mortals : wherefore , the Text threatens some very small matter by the Thistles and Thornes , which man had now bewailed as the greatest , in the craftiness of the Serpent his Enemy . Surely if it be well searched into , Nature hath scarce any thing free , which hath not its own Venom secretly admixed with it . For we have not Roses or Violets , which do not assault us ; as that under so great a fragrancy , they do not hide the contagions of Poyson : to wit , notable markes of Putrifaction , a co-melting of our body , and filching away of our strength or faculties . Therefore we entring into an account of simples , shall find but few guiltless : Yea if thou shalt cast an eye on the fields , the whole globe of the Earth , is nought but one onely and conjoyning spiders-web . Moreover by a more full heeding of the matter , there seemeth to be at this day , the same face of things , which there was before one only sin . And so perhaps , that there were from the beginning , more hurtful and guilty . Poysons , than there were good Medicines in the earth ; yet there was not a Medicine of destruction for man : Because Paradise wanted those Poysons , although Serpents were present ; or perhaps , Poysons were to be of no hurt to man in Eden , by reason of his immortality . But on the contrary , the Almighty saw , that whatsoever things , ( even in the World , out of Paradise ) he had made , were good in themselves , and for their ends . Wherefore I long agoe was deceived in my self , as thinking how unworthy Poysons were ; both because the Honour of God did not require their existence ; and also because man had willingly wanted many Poysons , and so I supposed that Poysons were made neither for the glory of God , nor for the use of man. There are indeed a few things which are guiltless , in the use whereof , without a caution , there is safety ; but most things do fight against us with a horrid Tyranny . Other things also do gnaw us by scorching us with their sharpnesse ; very many other things do every where , under a shew of friendship mock us , and carry a secret destructive enemy within them . But there is nothing ( universally ) which doth not abound with dreggs , and is not horrid through impurities : In the next place , which doth not consist with crudities , an unequal tempering , and an unvanquished stubbornness of perverseness . For although man was brought into Paradise , yet the Creator of things worthy to be praised , foreknew from Eternity , that the World should be a Mansion for Man ; and as he gave the Earth to the Sons of Men , so also he made the same for Man , with all things contained therein . At length , I by Chymistry , beholding all things more clearly , it repented me of my former rashness , and blockish ignorance ; For truly , I did on every side , humbly adore , with admiration , the vast Clemency and Wisdom of the Master-Builder . For he would not have Poysons , to be Poysons , or hurtful unto us : For he neither made Death , nor a Medicine of Destruction in the Earth ; but rather that by a little labour of ours , they might be changed into the great pledges of his Love , for the use of Mortals , against the cruelty of future Diseases . For in them lies hid an aid or succour , which the more kind and familiar Simples do ( otherwise ) refuse . So , horrid Poysons , are kept for the more great and heroick uses of Physitians . For bruit Beasts are scarce fed with them ; whether it be that they do beholdingly know a Poyson , which else by odour and savour , is not bewrayed ; or that a certain Spirit , the Ruler of Bruits , doth preserve those Poysons for greater uses , as heirs of the greatest virtues : At least-wise , it is sufficient , that bruit Beasts do leave the most powerful Remedies for us , as it were by the command of the most High , who hath more care of us , than of Beasts . For crude Asarum or Asarabacca , with how great anguish doth it provoke Vomit , and the Stomack testifieth that a Poyson is present with it ? and how easily doth it depart through boyling , and the Poyson is changed into an opening , Urine-provoking remedy of lingring Fevers , the which , the occult or hidden spiciness therein , doth discover ? So , Aron or Wake-robbin , being boyled in Vinegar , waxeth milde , and becomes a healing Medicine of great falls . Wherefore the Schooles have appointed corrections ; but I wish they were not ridiculous ones , not rather geldings , not withdrawings of their faculties ! Indeed they think that the laxative part flies away out of Asarum by boylings , even as every thing doth ( through its own rottenness ) in languishing years , consume . But at leastwise the root of Asarum , doth not wax mild being boyled in Wine , even so as it doth if it boyle in Water : Yet in an equal degree of the fire , its laxative part would in like manner fly away . Therefore others think , that the crudity in Asarum , is the effector of its loosening ; but these do neglect pot-herbs , which are more crude than Asarum : But that Hellebore is not to be ripened by boyling , if Vomiting be to arise from crudity . They boyl Scammony in soure things , that they may mittigate it ; but the common sort of Physitians have already known that Scammony is thus gelded ; so as , that if it be exposed unto the sharp vapor of Sulphur , it is plainly deprived of its virtue ; and so much of the Scammony doth depart , as it shall draw of the sharpness . But I being willing from a fatherly affection , to correct the furious force of Medicines , do understand , that the ancient faculties or virtues of things ought to remain , and to be turned inward in their root , or to be transchanged under their own simplicity into other endowments or qualities privily lurking in the same place , under the Poyson their keeper ; or to be bred a new , by reason of an added perfection : After which manner , Coloquintida , turns its laxative and destructive quality inwards ; and a resolving faculty springs up from the bottom , being a greater or singular curer of Cronical or long continuing Diseases . For Paracelsus laudably attempted that thing in his tincture of the Lile of Antimony ; yet was he silent , or knew not that the same thing was to be done in all Poysons of living Creatures and Vegetables whatsoever , by their own circulated Salt : For truly all the Poyson of those perisheth , if they shall return into their first Beings . This Hinge , not the Schooles , but Physitians chosen of God , whom the Almighty hath chosen from their Mothers Womb , in time to come , shall know ; and he shall make a difference of the Sheep from the Goats . Simples therefore of great powers or virtues , are not to be gelded , nor mortified , but to be bettered by Art ; by reason of the extracting of hidden faculties , or by a suspension or setting aside of the poysonsomeness , or by a substituting of one endowment in the roome of another , by commanding specifical adjuncts . These things are for those , to whom it hath not been granted to taste the power of the greater circulated Salt. For some things do by adjuncts wax milde , their cruelty being laid aside , do become neutral ; to wit , through virtues being partakingly assumed on both sides . Neither therefore may we borrow these adjuncts from the received Dispensatories of the Shops , which do not teach a bettering , or even corrections ; but a destruction of things , or surely they afford nothing but correctingmockeries . For Example ; Marquess Charles Spinelli , late General of the Genoans , when as he had walked late on foot about the City , having thorowly viewed all the Walls , commanded the Physitians to be called , and said unto them , that he had sometimes laboured with the Falling-sickness , and was cured by me , and that now and then he as yet felt a giddiness in his Head , since he had come out of Aquitane into Liguria or Genoa , by crossing the Sea. A circle of Physitians , next morning , gives him a scruple of white Hellebore to drink , and for a correction thereof , added as much of Annise-seed ; presently after half an hour , he Vomiteth , and afterwards he invokes the aid of me , being absent , and accuseth his Murderers , saying , Helmonti mio , voi me lo dicesti , gli Medici t'ucciderano . Oh my friend Helmont , thou toldst me this ; that these Physitians will kill thee . He was silent , and after two hours , his Stomack being first contracted , and then having a convulsion throughout his whole body , he dies : the Physitians seek excuses , and the Earth covered their fault . For so the Confections of the Schooles throughout their Dispensatories , do carry many foolish correctives into the fardle with them , Opiates have not things ( especially ) adjoyned unto them ; but laxatives , for the most part , Ginger , Mace , Annise , and whatsoever things might cure wringings of the bowels , from a later effect of loosening Medicines . Fie , with how unpunished a liberty , doth ignorance rage on mortals ! How little do they understand their own Hippocrates : If those things are taken away , which is meet , ( that is , which hurt and burden ) the sick feels himself better , and doth easily bear it . For seeing those things which hurt within , do now and then , scarce weigh a dram , every purge which is directed for health , ought to be an evacuation , either unperceivable , or at leastwise , exceeding moderate , and that with a restoring of the strength or faculties . For this is that which the sick do easily bear , with profit or help . The Correctories therefore of Medicines , are unprofitable patcheries , and a weight described by the Schooles , without the knowledge of things , and so destructive at least , to the Medicines , if not together also , to the sick . This part of Medicine requires a diligent and expert Secretary of Nature ; Because in that part , the most ample riches of Medicines , and guilded houshold-stuffe of Glaura , is found . The Schooles had in times past , learned of our Philosophers , that most excellent virtues do inhabite in Simples , over which destructive poysons were appointed chief Keepers : thereupon , their rashnesse succeded , which co-mingled express Poysons , and manifest Corrosives , with Antidotes ; hoping , that by the goodness and quantity of adjuncts , the malignity of the Poyson was to be overcome ; as if it were convenient for health , for a pestilentious Glove , to be brought unto guests into a chamber filled with healthy aire . For I do not here accuse the Viper in Triacle , without which , to wit , this hotch-potch of Simples is as it were dead ; For the flesh of Vipers is in it self unhurtful , and without Poyson ; yea , an Antidote against Poyson : But little balls prepared thereof , in the boyling do leave all their state in the Pottage , which the raw flesh did keep . I complain in this place of Arsenical things , which are Magistrally ( as they call it ) put into an Antidote . For the Schooles by reason of the rashness of boldness , or self-confidence , presume to deserve credit , and to have placed the glory of Studies , in the Authority of their possession . Neither is it alwayes , that even the most excellent virtues do abide or dwell about destructive Poysons , in the same subject , so as that these are covered over by Poysons . For Arsenick and Orpiment , &c. How much soever they may be fixed , and dulcified or made sweet ; yet they are never to be taken inwardly , however others shall otherwise perswade . They onely prevaile without , and do kill and tame other Poysons of Ulcers , if they themselves have been first subdued . The corrections therefore of Medicines , are without the knowledge of properties , parts , and agreements . For what doth a spice Ballance , in respect of a Poyson ? If the whole body of man being strong and full of life , doth presently faint or fall down at the stroke of the tooth of a Viper ? Shall Wolfes-bane wax mild through the admixing of the clove ? Shall Coloquintida cease to putrifie , together with its gripings , if it be joyned with Gumme-dragon ? The Corrections therefore , in Dispensatories , are burdens , and blockish addittaments , which do not cause the moderatings of poysonous qualities : but wastings of their faculties . For even as Poysons , have a fermental readinesse of acting , so we were to have laboured , that we might reserve the strength and aptness of Medicines , but withal that we might direct them through the in-graftings of Art , unto the necessities of Chronical and far scituated Diseases . This one onely thing remains in this business , that we do infringe and tame the chief or greatest violence of the thing , with the propagation of its ferment . Wherefore as I do ( in general ) pity the Compositions and Corrections of the Shops ; so I do as yet more detest the precipitatings , glassifyings , and preparations of Mercury , Antimony , Tuttie , Sulphur , &c. And likewise , the adulterations of Spirits out of Spices , hot Seeds , Vitriol , Sulphur , &c. For they are prepared for gain , by our fugitive servants , and purchased by the Shops , rather to the disgrace of the Art of the Fire , than for the defect of the sick . I likewise bewail the shameful simplicity of those , who give men , leaf-gold , and bruised or poudered precious stones , to drink , with great hope , selling their ignorance , if not deceit , at a great rate . As if the stomack may expect even the least succour thereby . And therefore the more subtile error of those , is more to be bewailed , who corrode Gold , Silver , Corals , Pearls , and the like , by sharp liquors , and seem to dissolve them , and think that by this means , they are to be admitted within the veins , and truly to communicate their properties with us . For they know not , alas , they know not , that that which is sou● , is an enemy to the veins ; and therefore that the forreign sharpness of the dissolving liquors being conquered and transchanged , those Mettals and Stones are a pouder , as before : The which , into howsoever the finest pouder it may be reduced , yet nothing of it is digested by the stomack , or bestows on us , its virtues . Which thing that thou mayest see before thine eyes : For pour thou the salt of Tartar on things that are dissolved in some brackish corrosive liquor , and presently , that which was dissolved , will fall to the bottom in form of a pouder : For if strong waters or aquae fortes's , do not change mettals in their substance ( although those are made transparent , which were before thick or dark ) but that Silver is thence , safely recovered ; with what blindness therefore , do they give Stones and Pearls to drink , as if through the corrosives , they should lead the antient essence of Stones or a Mettal behind ? For it was the invention of a subtile deceiver , that he might have his Medicines in great esteem with the sick : Because ignorant deceivers think , that if the thing dissolving be not distinguished by the sight , from the thing dissolved , that the very thing also dissolved , is truly transchanged in its substance . In the next place , Oyles and fatnesses are not of value for Balsams , Oyntments , and Emplaisters , unless perhaps , as they may give a consistence to the Medicine . For first , a great part of men do not suffer Oyntments in their skin , because they stir up itchings and wheales , with swelling . And then , because the aforesaid Oyles , are for the most part prepared out of Herbes , the virtue whereof , lurketh in a muscilaginous and gummy juice : but that juice is drawn by boylings , into the broaths , or is pressed forth with a press , the which is not truly married to Oyles , but being fixed , doth at length , wax hard . But I do more rightly constrain or gather the Balsams of flowers , in Honey : Yet , I more admit of the simplicities of simple Oyles , than of compound ones : Therefore I do most especially expel the disconsonant and deaf compositions of the Oyntments and Emplaisters of the Shops : because nothing is more blockish , than for the Pouder of Vegetables , in fixing , to be scorched , and so made unfit under various fatnesses , and those ignorantly co-mixed : The which , if it shall be Mineral , it doth not admix it self with fat ; but rather , is so covered and imprisoned within the Oyntments , that it becomes of none effect , and is for weight only . For nothing is to be mixed with Oyles , Oyntments , or Emplaisters , which cannot be Homogeneally resolved in them , throughout their whole Body . It is also worthy of loud laughter , that Loaf , or the whitest Sugar , is commended , not because it is more sweet , and more worthy in its virtue ; but because it is dearer , and hath often boyled with the Lixivium of Calx vive : Whereas the name of purity , hath caused a juggle . Flowers , Herbes , &c. being bruised , and Loaf-sugar admixed therewith , do fall asleep ; those which are mixt with the more sweet Sugar , do snatch up a ferment , and in waxing hot , do unfold the virtues of a simple : But presently after , through a close digestion of heat , the ferment is restrained , and they become far more powerful . But the diversity of the Ferment depends on the Lixivium , wherewith one of the Sugars doth abound , but the other wanteth that Lixivium . I am wont also , to apply Unguents outwardly , with choice or judgement : To wit , in affects , wherein the Cure is abroad or far from the Center , as in a wound , bruise , burn , &c. I perswade them to be applyed luke-warm . But where an inward affect requires an outward succour , as the Bloody-flux , Collick , Convulsions in the Stone of the Reins , a Schirrhus , &c. I bid that the Oyntments be cherished from without , with a heated stone , or hot sand : And that thing , I learned , by beholding Chaff walking upwards and downwards in a kettle of luke-warm water , as it were from heat under-kindled : and therefore first I conjectured , that through a potent heat , Oyntments being applyed , are quickened , and do joyn their Spirit to our venal blood : and then , I certainly found , that thus , the evil or Malady is drawn or allured forth , and that symptomatical on-sets are stayed : And that whatsoever things Baths do perform in the whole Body ; this same thing , heated and kept-warm Oyntments , do finish in a part thereof , without the decay of the whole body . For a cherishing Tile or Brick , doth drive the odour of the Emplaister inwards , and doth attract outward , those things , which being the more slow , do else stick fast : and likewise the spirit making the assaults , is attracted together with the blood , is dispersed by the heat , and another succeedeth in its place , draweth the force of the Medicine , and as it were boyling up within , is driven back . Concerning the gathering of Simples also , men are not every where , sufficiently grounded . They determine , that roots are to be gathered in time of Autumn : But for the most part , many things do afford the more effectual roots in the Spring-time . Polipodium flourisheth chiefly at Spring ; but in Autumn , it affordeth a grey and black root : indeed barren and oldish . I judge , that all things are to be gathered immediately before their state of maturity : for a full ripeness is a beginning of declining . Therefore let all Fruits , Flowers , Roots , Leafs , Barks , &c. have their own determined spaces of ripenesses . For also , the juice in Plants doth first abound , the which in many doth forthwith after wax dry , or is consumed into Leafs . Therefore , the variety of maturities , doth bring forth a variety of Collections . For so , some Leafs are more lively after their Flowers , but others are more juicy before their Leafs . Then also , there are some things which are stronger before the increase of their Fruit. Some remain with a perpetual countenance . Wherefore , they do the more rightly determine , who measure Simples according to the requirance of their aim . CHAP. LX. The Power of Medicines . 1. The Authors comfort in his persecutions . 2. The Author decyphers his Adversaries . 3. A dream of the Author . 4. He felt or perceived the Elementary qualities . 5. He perceived Coagulations . 6. He perceived Atrophiaes or Consumptions of the flesh . 7. He perceived drynesses in us . 8. He perceived drynesses in other things . 9. An Error of the Schooles . 10. Whence the heat of the Liver is , and in what manner it subsisteth . 11. He perceived the adulteries of Merchants . 12. He perceived two savours of things . 13. Notable things touching the taste and savour . 14. He perceived the Causes of Healing . 15. And likewise , a twofold manner . 16. He perceived the hope of immortality to be taken away . 17. He perceived a certain goodness in nature . 18. He perceived the digestive Ferments . 19. He perceived true diureticks or provokers of Urine . 20. He perceived the changing properties of Salts . 21. He perceived the spirit of Salt to be changed by the co-touching of things connexed . 22. He perceived the nigh or ready , or slow obediences of Salts . 23. He perceived Salts to be the Authors of wringings of the Bowels . 24. The top or perfection of Salts is seen in their first Being . 25. He perceived specifical Savours . 26. The definition of a Savour . 27. Things without savour are tasted by the stomack , which are not judged of , or discerned by the tongue . 28. He perceived the occult property , and the boastings of the Schooles . 29. The searching after hidden or secret things , is not [ for what ] but by the way [ of because ] from the effect to the cause , according to the Gospel . 30. He perceived unstopping or opening things . 31. He perceived the activities of Salts . 32. He perceived the spirits of Minerals . 33. He perceived the loosening poyson of purging things . 34. A threefold sign of a laudable Laxative . 35. The error of Paracelsus . 36. Chymistry . 37. Distilled things are not to be judged suitable , or equal to their concrete Bodies 38. He perceived many things to be transchanged by adjuncts . 39. He perceived the sanguine glassie colour of a Mettal . 40. He perceived the distillation of Lead , whereof Paracelsus above . 41. He cured divers Diseases . 42. He perceived that the planetary faculties of Mettals were to be drawn forth by a higher or deeper resolving , than that which hath been before . 43. He perceived the divers virtues of dissolved Gold. 44. He perceived the virtues of the Alkahest . 45. He perceived the virtues of Mercurius vitae , in its synonimal or fellow name of Lile . 46. He perceived the action of renewing things . 47. He perceived the root of a bewitching Sorcerie . 48. He perceived Poysons . 49. He perceived the actions of things , according to the applications of the receiver . 50. An Idiotism of Paracelsus , about the nourishing of a Wound . 51. The use of Salt. 52. The variety of Oyles . 53. The use of the water , and salt of artificiated things . 54. The Elixir of a Spice . 55. The praise of Magisteries . 56. Meats seasoned , why unwholesome . 57. A censure of some Minerals . 58. He perceived a sixfold digestion . 59. He perceived when the venal blood is quickned . 60. What the inward and anointed grease may suffer . 61. He perceived the action of Cantharides and Caustick Remedies . 62. He perceived the virtue of an Amulet . 63. The virtue of Stones . 64. He perceived whence the diversity of effects in acting , is . 65. He perceived the necessities of death . 66. The order of Chymical operations . VExation brings forth understanding , as too much pressure stifles it . Although in my sharpest adversities , I might make use of Job , and Paul ; yet the Lord Jesus , the Son of God , so over-mightily helped me by his exemplary straits or griefs , that he did not only ease my labours ; but as it were bear them in himself . Let his name be alwayes honourable in my sight . For I perceived the examples of Saints , to be indeed inductives or motives , but not to confer any grace , by themselves . For my mind in my greatest pressures , for the most part , grieved , that I was comforted after a certain humane manner , and through the sloath of unsensibleness : that I did rather resemble an arrogant Stoicism , than that I did with the joy of concentricity or a mutual centredness , purely resign up my tribulations unto my most bountiful Jesus . For I feared that rest of my soul which innocency raised up , lest it might proceed from a despising and arrogancy , and so lest my tribulations should be fruitless : That I , ( I say ) being immingled with the common lot and fellowship of the good men of the age prophesied of , had become evil and unprofitable . For I feared every hour , that I was unsensible of grief , neither that I did in the least , feel those persecutions brought on me by a certain Clergy-man , and those great ones which joyned with that Clergy-man , and at length , by the better part of the people , otherwise , in a man which was but in the least judicious , very sensible ones . For I feared , lest that unbroken rest of my mind , might happen from a despite toward my enemies . I intreat therefore , that God , the fountain of all good , may judge with Clemency : At least wise , I often considered , by largely running through the foregoing ages , and future persecutions of the Christians ; that the first persecution of the Church , was violent , and that of Tyrants : Afterwards , that there was another which followed , that was fraudulent , and that of Hereticks : But ours hath indeed , arose from Hypocrites ; but that it should be composed of deceit and force . For there are those ( as saith the Prophetess St. Hildegard ) who shall first deceive the potent Prelates , and their subjects or substitutes , under a shew of Piety : and at length , as many as will not favour them , they shall oppress by the power of great men . Good God , what have not I felt , and how much could not I witness ? But the whole revenge , have I referred to thee alone , and I intreat thee out of Charity , that thou wouldst spare them , or that thou wouldst not damn them for my sake : Because I receive all things from thy hand , and they know not what they do . At length , I thought of a means whereby I might meditate , that all my tribulations were transferred on the head of Nero and Tiberius . Therefore I being at once , wearied and refreshed , and suddenly with great consolation , sliding as it were into a dream , I saw my self in a certain Kingly Pallace , excelling humane artifices . But there was a high Throne , encompassed with an unaccessable light of Spirits . But he who sate in the Seat of the Throne , is called [ He is ] And the foot-stool of his feet [ Nature ] The Porter of the Court , was called [ Understanding ] who without speech , reached unto me a little Book , a choice out of darkness , the name whereof was [ The bud of a Rose not yet opened ] And although the Porter uttered no voice , yet I knew , that little Book was to be devoured by me . I stretched forth my hand , and ate it up . And it was of an harsh and earthy taste , as if it would stop up my winde-pipe ; so as I swallowed it with a great slowness of labour . From whence , afterwards , my whole head , seemed to be transparent . Then , afterwards , another spirit of a superiour order , gave me a bottle , wherein was [ Fire-water ] as being in one word : A name altogether simple , singular , undeclinable , unseparable , unchangeable , and immortal . But I knew not what my business was with it : Neither , heard I any thing more of it ; and by reason of the fear of its greatness , my jawes were shut up , and my voice clave to my jawes . At length , having performed due worship before the Throne , I endeavoured diversly to experience , what the bottle might contain . Behold , before the doors of the Court , there was the Art of the Fire , a cheerful old Woman being the Turn-key , who did not open the locks without , unless the Porter had first withdrawn the bolt within ; the which he did not attempt , unless , from a sign given him by the light of the Throne . But unto those that knocked at the doors , the Porter answered , the Key-keeper holding her peace : I know you not . But they who tryed to look in thorow the lattices of the windows , being smitten with darkness , forthwith fell down mad , many wandred up and down , promising great things without a foundation . I stood a good while silent ; and then afterwards , a hand ( the rest of whose Body I saw not ) led me aside unto a pleasant Garden : where on a sudden , all Simples worshipped me , as though every one had been singular by themselves . In which assault , I felt or perceived all the Simples of the world , not indeed , as if their qualities did act in me ( for I being but one , had not been sufficient for the bearing of them all ) as it were , their object : but they all were seen , as on a Theatre , to represent in me their Tragedies . And I wish , I may well declare them with my pen ! I perceived in the first place , that all heats , colds , moistures , and dryths , were as it were momentary qualities , happening on things constituted , like colours : But those things which do heat , cool , moisten , or dry us up , I perceived , that that did not happen indeed , by reason of an excess of those qualities , whose names they did obtain : but in respect of an appropriation of the object . For in this respect , the dead carcass of a man , who dyed of a languishing death , although being nigh the fire , it violently waxed luke-warm ; yet , unto our touching , it seemeth to be most cold ; so that the hand can scarce recover its heat a long while after it . And surely , that comes not to pass , through a quality generated in us , which is named cold : the which indeed in contemplating of it , doth so many points exceed our heat , that it imprints an excess of so great cold : but rather because the vital spirit being greatly afraid of the dead carcass , doth depart or retire from the hand . For in like manner , Camphor , resembling the savour of Pepper , and bitter Opium , are said to cool , as they subdue or chase the Archeus : After which manner also , a Feverish Blas , being the same in number , doth stir up , first cold , and afterwards heat , in the Archeus . I perceived therefore , that hot things , from the moment of their first degree , even unto the degree of an Eschar , do not brand our temperature with an excess of heat : To wit , by producing in us an excelling of their heat : but by the ministry of sharp salts , they do so inflame our Archeus , that they do more and more exasperate the same ; and at length , do by burning , assume a fiery violence , through the motion of their own Blas : Such as is the Prune and Persian fire . And therefore , none of those hot things do heat dead carcasses . In the next place , I perceived , that nothing doth properly moisten us , but by appropriation , and therefore that neither doth water properly moisten us through a defect of appropriation , which is the cause of approximating or the nearest approaching , and assimilating . But those things which do besmear , stuffe up , resolve , and make the substance of our body ( as it were by small points ) salt , without the sense of burning heat and sharpness : those things I say , do moisten . And that only occasionally , and as it were , by accident . Therefore I have perceived , that whatsoever things do dissolve , resolve , and co-melt glutinous things , do moisten : To wit , as they do withdraw the impediments of coagulation and drying . And therefore the Mallow , Marsh-mallow , and those things which are believed to be moistening , and so do stop transpiration , have produced an error in the Schools . For truly , such a moistening , was nothing but a diseasie detaining of excrements , but not a dewie moistening of the parts . I perceived also , that no other things do dry up in us , but those which by extenuating , do dispose to exhalation . For so sweat , although it moisten the skin , and make the habit of the Body swollen , yet it meerly dryes us . Furthermore , whatsoever things do coagulate , I perceived rather to harden and make clotty , than to dry up ; and therefore resolving is opposite unto coagulating , but not moistening . But those things which do induce an Atrophia or Consumption for lack of nourishment , and do make lean , I perceived that was not done by a drying quality ; but because the Liquor , otherwise nourishable , is theevishly withdrawn elsewhere : by occasion whereof , the Ferments connexed to heat , do perfect a true drying . I perceived therefore , that there was no other drying in us , than that which was made by the resolving of the Ferments , and the diflation or pussing away of heat . I perceived , I say , that Coagulation it self , or hardening , did proceed from its own curd , or property of a seed , promoting the Liquors into a more solid Fruit. I perceived also , that dry things , which drink up liquors into them , although they are actually dry , yet that they are quickly satiated or filled with moistures , do cease from combibing , neither that they do at length enter into the root of the mixture of dry things : And therefore I perceived , that thirst is not an introduced quality of driness ; but that natural thirst is a sense of the Latex being diminished , but not so plainly failing , that it may even accuse of a principiating driness . So I perceive , that a thirst besides nature was not a token of drying ; for such do drink and extend the bottome of their belly , their thirst remaining safe . For that thirst doth proceed , as a forraign excrement doth cause the nourishable juice of the stomack to melt . For truly , while I describe my feelings or perceivances , I am not so much besides my self , as that I shall deny the excess of an external heat , to burn , and cause a wound or ulcer ; or that cold excelling , doth mortifie as if it did burn . But in the Dream proposed , I onely perceived them as they are serviceable to the speculation of healing . Therefore the examples of excessive heat and cold , are like a sword , but not to be referred among the occasional and internal causes of diseases , to be considered by a Physitian ; If indeed , according to the speculations of Medicine , health is expected by the removal of those : wherefore the speculation of external and antecedent Causes , is not curative , but onely now and then , significative and directive . For a wound being once inflicted , although the sword be taken away , the wound is not healed ; neither is the fire to be taken from the hearth , although it hath at sometime burnt or scorched some-body in the same place . For truly , the causes of Diseases are inward , as they are connexed occasions ; therefore the consideration and removal of those , is truly medicinal . But the Schools , when they saw the fire to burn its objects , likewise also , cold to mortifie and destroy ; and so the body of man , by those external qualities excelling , to be diversly disturbed ; they for that cause thought , that Effects which should have heat adjoyned unto them , were raised up by fire ; and in this respect , that in Feavers , two Elements did strive in us , whereof the Water should alwaies obtain the former part of the victory ; but the Fire the latter part thereof ; to wit , that the Fire did cause Erisipelas's , the Prune or burning coal , the accute or Persian fire , the burning Feaver , &c. That it did likewise harden by drying or exsiccation of Schirrus's , Stones , Bones , and Knots . They have also decreed Remedies beseeming such rules , by contrarieties , not knowing after what sort the spirit of life may stir up heats and colds , without fire , or icy cold ; because neither from the Elements of our body , or from feigned humours : But they have on both sides neglected the [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] or violent assailant of Hippocrates : Even as I have sometime by one example of a thorn thrust into the finger , demonstrated ; wherein the Heat , Pain , Inflamation , Feaver , do not efficiently proceed from the fire of the thorn , but because the sensitive Spirit doth grievously bear the forreign thorn : So indeed , heat and cold are accidents , impertinent to the nature of a Feaver ; even as in the Liver are felt its heats , because in the same place there are its thorns ; and the heat is not the cause , but the effect of the thorn . And therefore the alterations which do happen in the vital Family-admistration , and do cease in dead carcases , do not depend on the fire or icyness of the body or humours , but on the Beginnings of life . Yea , if the Schools had touched at the matter as it is , they had found , that natural , artificial Baths , &c. do not dry and burn us up , but rather moisten us , unless their heats are inordinate , and of daily continuance ; yea , neither then indeed , otherwise than because more is consumed than is received , doth the body accidentally wither . At length , I presently after the first qualities , perceived the theevish adulteries of Merchants , wherewith they load , defile , estrange , and substitutively dissemble foreign Medicines or Drugs ; who have no need of my Doctrine , because they are such as are not moved with the fear of Hell. I presently after perceived two distinct Savours at least , of things , if not sometimes three or four ; one to wit , whereby things are sharp , bitter , salt , &c. but the other , which is called specifical , being appropriated to the seed . The first therefore I perceived to be the dignities and offices of Salts ; not indeed of Salts separated from the three first things , or ( as they say ) drawn from corporeal Beginnings , but of Salts glistening in their composed body : But the other of the savours , I perceived to be the seminal nature of Odours , performing , or at least unfolding the office of Forms in concrete bodies : for Salts , as being most sensible , do first offer themselves to the taste ; whereunto therefore Hippocrates hath attributed the knowledges of diseases ; to wit , bitter , salt , sharp , and brackish , pointing forth diseases . But heats and colds he rather understood to be subsequent affects or passions , than diseases . But I do ascribe their judgement to the taste , by reason of the aforesaid tastable qualities , wherein for the most part a more profound power or faculty sits , and containing the seminal and efficient cause . But not that therefore the judgement concerning diseases doth belong to the tongue and the pallate ; but I name it the taste , by reason of the tastable qualities : Otherwise , it is the feeling wherewithal the Instruments are strongly endowed , whose sensitive force , by an approximation of touching , makes the signs of friendship , or enmity about the hidden thing perceiveable . After this manner therefore , I perceived that it is the offices of the salts exceeding in force , which do unfold the vertues of the subordinate forms of their concrete body , and carry them unto the Archeus , as it were their object whereon they act . Therefore I perceived that Cures , as well by Mediciues as by Nature , are made by an appeasing of the disturbed Archeus , and the removal of the seminal and diseasie character produced by the Archeus . This indeed I have perceived to be the nearest , safest , and highest or chiefest curing : But that which succeedeth by the help of secrets , is busied about the taking away of the product . And therefore I have perceived , that Arcanum's do operate as Salts . Indeed such cures do happen , by removing of that which is hurtfull , and by adding that which is defectuous : for else , those things which do hinder increases or appropriations , have rather a regard unto prevention , than unto curing it self ; but hurtfull things are taken away by resolving , cleansing , exhaling , or expelling ; which properties are agreeable unto Salts . But the removals of that which is hurtfull are not duly wrought by poisonous , melting , and putrifactive things ; as neither by the withdrawings of the venal blood and life . But the adding of that which is deficient , I have perceived not to be done by a proper means ; and therefore that we go back or decline by little and little , through great want of the Tree of Life ; the which be it spoken of the vital faculties , but not of the want of the venal blood , which is restored by the kitchins . But I have perceived , that Nature doth voluntarily rise again , and repair some of her defects , if she shall be made to sit up after her prostrating : To which end also , balsamical and tinging things do help . I perceived also , that in the stomack is bred a soure salt , partly volatile , and partly fixed . But that both are afterwards changed by their ferments of the bowels , which being enslaved by snatched ferments , do often and successively measure their Original : To wit , of a mummial ferment , is made the salt of the venal blood , which is to rectifie or govern our family-administration : but if in the kidney it be made diuretical , it is now made an Urinary salt . I perceived therefore , that those things are onely and truly provokers sf urine , which have a faculty of increasing the urinary salt , and which do make it an easie client unto themselves . In the next place I perceived , that not onely in the dispositive ferments of the organs , but besides , by reason of Magnum Oportet , or the necessary remainder of the middle life , in Simples themselves , that there are their properties of propagating and changing salts . For some things have more gross salts , and those unfit for receiving the ferment of the stomack , and therefore they remain unconquered . Others , in the next place there are , which by a hostile property , are contrary to the vital powers , and so they enter not but for troublesome ends , into the Inns of Life . I perceived , that the volatile salt of the spirit of Vitriol , did from a ready obedience in the first action of dissolution , pass into a meer Alume . For if the body of Mercury shall coagulate into a white powder , although it reserve nothing of the matter or vertues of Mercury ( for that declareth the former weight of Mercury ) yet it passeth into a meer Alume . But if the sharpness of Vitriol shall finde in the stomack a muscilage meeting with it , it melts the same ; neither yet therefore doth it become Aluminous : So that I perceived one and the same salt to be diversly transchanged by the thing connexed with it . I perceived therefore , that there were some salts which would cleanse away the filths in the stomack , before they were subdued by its ferment : but others which did slowly open their saltnesses , and that not but after another digestion ; and seeing they did now manifest that thing , that they were diuretical , and diaphoretical or sudoriferous salts ; so also , that then they would successfully free the veins of their obstructers . I moreover perceived , that there are salts which do not finde their disposition but at the time of dunging ; and they are sharp and colical , or those which are opposite to these , and are connexed in oily essences . But the chiefest and most successfull of salts , is that which reacheth unto the utmost bound and subtility in Nature , which passeth thorow all things , and in acting doth alone remain immutable , and the which doth at pleasure through a ready obedience , resolve other things , and melts and makes volatile all rebellious matter , even as hot water doth snow . I by and by perceived , specifical savours , ( to wit , of Mace , Saffron , &c. ) to be as properties , or as the shop of the ultimate forms , uttered by salts excelling in strength . Not indeed that these savours were the proper vertue of that form , but rather the fermental putrifaction of that seed , proceeding unto that ultimate form . For truly , a savour , as such , is a solitary quality , unprofitable for healing , a witness of the putrifying of its ferment by continuance , a co-operator of curing , as it disposeth the Archeus , as a messenger , that it may descend into the knowledge of a hidden property : For unless , things shall smile on the Archeus by savour and odour , they are not admitted within . Yea , purging Medicines being in their first look without savour ( as are Turbith , Hermodactiles , Jallop , Mercury , Stibium , &c. ) as being masked with much Sugar ; yet if they are taken again , they cause horrour and abomination . There is therefore one taste of the tongue , and another in the stomack , as it were the utmost part of the Archeus . Therefore stomatical savours which are acceptable , do denote , that there is in the thing , a bountiful life a-kin to ours : Wherefore a Cat is more delighted with the smell of putrified and stinking fish , than of Cinnamon . So indeed , we do oft-times well perceive , that poysons are occult or hidden , by reason of their specifical savour and odour , horrid to our Midriffs . In like manner , as oft as a pleasing taste appears in a poyson , I have perceived , that under the same Simple , there lurketh a great secret ; the which , the poyson being repelled , is born and ordained for difficult effects . I afterwards perceived , that besides specifical savours , and the gratefulness , benevolence , or horrors of these , there was a certain formal property issuing forth ; yet unperceivable by the tongue , and to be comprehended by the Archeus alone . The Schools are amazed , when they come unto occult qualities , as they do therefore call them : For when they cannot ascribe their trifles to heats , colds , and the begged complexions of these , Writers indeed do lay aside their pen , and Physitians do lift up their shoulder and eye-browes , because they accuse that property to be known to them in the effect , but unknown in the cause : and they excuse themselves of this ignorance , because the searching into those properties is impossible for mans understanding , the which , they else , had already long since enquired into : As if they should say ; We Schools are able to determine of as much as the mind of man can search : We therefore decree , that no powers of things can be understood , or searched into by man , but those which are the first qualities of the Elements , or to arise from these : We confess therefore , that the formal faculties are occult , because unpossible to be known . Certainly , the Schools are exceeding clayie or earthy , watery , airy , cloudy and fiery ! how ignorant do they shew themselves of their own objects , and how unlike to the exercise or practice which they profess ! For they have enslaved their wits to sluggishness , that nothing may be more acceptable unto them , than to have inclined to excuse their excuses in the ignorance and impossibility of nature , wherewith every one vails his own in particular . For at first , when the Antients saw any Disease to be cured by a specifical and appropriated Remedy , they were amazed as it were , at the miracle of an unwonted thing : But afterwards the Schools thought it satisfaction enough , to have banished their blockishnesses into a general ignorance . For neither , although they had distinguished causes from the elementary qualities , unto them known , had they therefore spoken any thing undefiled , and without suffusion of the sight . For whoever hath more searched out the cause of moistness in the water , or of heat in the fire , by a reason from a former cause , than of drawing Iron in the Load-stone ? The elementary qualities therefore , are as hidden as any other . Truly in this were the Schools blinded , because they have proceeded against the Doctrine of the Gospel : For primitive Truth willeth , that we know the Tree by its Fruits ; but the Schools will , that the Fruit ought to be known by the Tree . I will therefore shew by the Fruits , in what manner we must come unto the knowledge of the Tree . First of all therefore , for the knowing of occult causes , a certain effect is supposed , and likewise a cause thereof ; neither is it doubted , what that effect , or what the cause thereof may be ; but the knitting of them both , is only sought for : To wit , after what sort , the effect proceeds from the cause ; or on the other hand , after what manner , and by what means , such a cause may produce its effect . The knowledge I say , of the Tree and its Fruit , is presupposed : The which , if we compose them for healing ( for if the whole world be for man , also the whole physical knowledge of nature , shall therefore be subservient to man ) the knowledges of ones self shall be first to be presupposed : To wit , that a true Physitian , doth know the Tree of the whole nature of man , and the fruit thereof ; to wit , health . Likewise also the tree of vitiated health , and the very rank or order of health depraved , as the Fruit of that . Which proper knowledges of the thingliness or essence , together with its adjacents , are required . Therefore , that we may know the Tree in its root and properties , that ought to be done by the Fruits : wherefore also , the Fruits are first to be known . But the Fruits as well of entire , as of vitiated health , seeing they are the Scopes whereunto the properties of occult Remedies are referred , have themselves in manner of a Tree and Trunk , whereinto the young budding slips , and seeds of things ought to be ingrafted , as it were the Fruits of the same . This indeed the ordination of Medicine requireth , that Remedies , although they have themselves , in manner of a cause ; yet that they become fruits or effects in us , as they do fructifie in our Tree : and so , they are not only the Fruits of their own native Tree , whence in the nature of things they are derived ; but rather , they are new Fruits , from an ingrafting of a product , and so are plainly promiscuous , of a branch , or Fruit of the Tree implanted , and of the vital power of the stock , whereinto it is ingrafted . Such fruits indeed , do bewray their own Tree : And so , as in every progress of nature , a duality of Sex is required for the production of every Fruit ; it was no wonder that the rank , and applications of occult Qualities , or Remedies , hath remained unknown , if it hath hitherto stood neglected , that a healthy , and diseasie state is bred by the same Parent : and so also they have referred the whole essence of a Disease , into external , occasional , efficient , and warring causes ; but not into the true and inward Tree of sicknesses . Let us suppose therefore the Archeus to be provoked , and almost furious , the which being provoked by occasional causes , doth pour forth its own blood , and causeth the Bloody-Flux : or likewise , let us feign the Archeus , grievously bearing the mark of pain , conceived in some part serving to the last digestion , and being as it were stung with fury , to stir up an Erisipelas . The question is , of finding out a Remedy , by the occult or hidden property . The Schools therefore have considered to apply cooling things to the Erisipelas , as to the fruit , and they would not apply a Remedy to the vitiated tree . But the Secretaries of natural things , have attended to the aforesaid furies , to be restrained by fear ; so that the fear is not to be incurred on the man , but on the Archeus . Therefore they have killed the most fearful creature ; to wit , a Hare : Not indeed with a weapon , that he might dye by an unexpected death ; but by hunting , that he might perish by the biting of Dogs : whereby a doubled force of fear may be imprinted on his whole Body . Therefore they have tinged a bloody Towel in the blood of the Hare , and kept it being dryed : And that they have administred by pieces in Wine , and the Dysentery was cured . And likewise , they have put it dry on the Erisipelas , and it was cured . Yea , the Germane Souldiers , do give an Hare dryed in the smoak , in drink , and the Bloody-Flux or Dysentery is cured with an undeceiveable event . From whence they have learned , that cuttings of veins and purgings are vain , whether thou respectest feigned humours , or in the next place , a diminishing of heat and strength , together with the blood : likewise , that coolings are ridiculous ; because they are those things which endeavour to heal from the effect , do never touch at the roots , and for that cause , do for the most part provoke nature into greater furies . The Erisipelas therefore , and Bloody-Flux , have obtained some common point wherein they might agree : And that is a certain Ideal poyson bred by the Archeus : For truly in the Tree of man , every exorbitant passion of the Archeus , doth tinge its own Idea or likeness on the blood , yea and on the excrements , no less than in the Tree of a Dog , through the exorbitancy of madness , Fruits are bred in his spittle , which do afterwards produce in us , the Fruit of the transplanted madness . Therefore the knowledge of hidden Remedies , is badly sought into from the Fruit. For I have known , that whatsoever things are made in the world , are made from the necessity of the Seeds of every Archeus , and so by means of an incorporeal and invisible Being . But I have known , that seminal Beings do arise from an imaginative sorce of soulified things , or the Archeus of the same , by a co-like perturbation : And so , that by a certain invisible Principle , this visible world is continued : But in things subjected , or not soulified , I have observed , that they after a co-like manner , have themselves by the same certain Analogical proportion : But that every disjoynting or irregularity of the Archeus , doth by its Idea's , frame the Seeds to be poysons unto its own Body , and so a sound Tree rusheth into a vitiated one . I have considered , that the poysons of some things which are bred with us , do bear Seeds , not those which by the exorbitancy of their of own Archeus ; but in respect of our Archeus , might produce vitiated Idea's , and to themselves natural , to us mortal Idea's . Whence indeed , if Fruits or Branches be implanted into the Tree of our entire health ; it happens , that from both , as it were from a promiscuous Sex , vitiated or poysonous Fruits do arise in us . But the poysons are on both sides , among the number of occult properties . Let therefore , suitable helps or Remedies , have Idea's which are chiefly the extinguishers of the poysoned Idea's : or those which by an eminent goodness , may transchange as well the Archeus , the producer of the poyson , as the poyson it self produced : whence I have very clearly learned , that almost every poyson , and its Antidote , and so also the whole race of occult or formal properties , do seminally descend from the activity of a vital light . For so the poysons of soulified creatures do arise from disturbances : the which , by how much the sharper they shall be , by so much also , the more cruel poysons they bring forth . For so the poysons of Serpents , are bred from anger , envy , sury , pride , and those being variously mixed with fear . But the corrosive and putrifactive poysons of Minerals , are bred of Salts , Sulphurs , and Mercuries , whereby their fury is propagated by a Seed Analogical or agreeable in proportion . But how evident is that thing in the company of Vegetables ? where those seminal perturbations , and therefore also co-natural ones , are by Seeds , transplanted with a continued course . For we may well know any kind of poysons which are reduced by the ranks of perturbations , by distinguishing of them . Consequently also the knowledge of specifical properties is drawn [ per quia ] or from the Effect of the Cause , if they are reduced unto the certain orders of perturbations or disturbances , and affections : Even as more largely elsewhere concerning the Plague : So indeed , many things are searched into , and found out ; we thereby , by the Effects come to the Causes , and being led by the hand from one knowledge to another , the poysons of an Erisipelas and Dysentery , being in their Tearms , from the wroth of the Archeus , their cure is in a Hare , wherein is fear , meekesse , flight , and an harmless life . Neither is the argument of contrariety of value : For , first of all , I have admitted of contrarieties in living Creatures ; and I say , that the properties of those being as it were sealed in the Idea's of living Creatures , are in some sort contrary in the priority of the efficient tree ; as the Seals of Passions do end in to this Idea . And so the fruits of this tree , do act no more by way of contrary Passions ; but from the force of a received and inbred seminal Character , wherein every thing acteth according to the Talent received , even as it is in it self ; but not by reason of a repugnant duality , or disagreeing contrariety . Therefore the blood , wherein is the seminal product , and the effecter of the fearful meekness , doth mortifie the poyson which is bred from a poysonous wrothfulness . For I have noted in things , loves , hatreds , terrors , and the seminal products , seals , Idea's , and characters of these : Whence I have found out the immediate Causes of many hidden Remedies : But I have interpreted them to be found out and suggested by me , with the truth of possible and appearing consequences . These things I have spoken concerning occult or hidden properties , out of the Dream , that we may cease to be occult Philosophers , and may follow the manifest Doctrine of the more tractable ones . Now I will prosecute my Dream . I perceived , I say , that Smallage , Asparagus , and whatsoever things are taken to open Obstructions , have indeed a Salt of a specifical savour ; the which , being with their middle life made the Cream of the Stomack , remaineth surviving , although enfeebled ; yet that they do obtain weak Remedies for the opening of Obstructions . For truly , those things which do keep the Savour of their own concrete Body , under the ferment of the Stomack , as Onion , Garlick , Mace , Turpentine , Asparagus , &c. Those I perceived even to slide along with the Superfluities , because they wax soure with their specifical Savour ; and then do take ( under the Gawl ) the nature of a Salt , and at length under the dungy ferment of the Reines , do put on a Urine-provoking or diuretical faculty . But whose specifical Savours , do putrifie by continuance , and perish with the sourness of the Cream : those things , I perceived to be indifferent meats ; but whose Savours do not plainly yeild themselves into the sourness of the Cream , and do after some sort remain in their mediocrity ( for the Cream , if it should alike on every side receive a ferment , and wax soure , it should easily be sharper than Vinegar ) those things indeed-do through the force of the Gawl , easily perish in the Meseraick Veines ; that together with a third , or mumial ferment , they may be changed into Venal Blood. Therefore I perceived those to reach forth feeble aides , for dissolving or opening of Obstructions . At length , I perceived , that all simple Salts , ( of the Sea , Sal gemmae , Fountaines , Salt Peter , &c. ) as such , do depart through the Urine and Intestines , and in the mean time resolve the filths or dregs in those passages , and render the expulsive faculty mindful of its duty . But I perceive that Salts which carry a Mineral fruit in them , are Strangers to our Nature , and therefore are scarce to be inwardly admitted . But Salts which are a part of the composed Body , as Lixivium's , and Alkalies ; I perceived to be deprived of Seminal Virtues , and to have onely an abstersive or cleansing , Soapie or resolving property , unless they are volatile ; wherein I perceived the radical Beginnings , and seminal Balsams of the concrete Body to be . I perceived , I say , that these are easily transchanged into a new fruit , because they do associate themselves with , and act in all things , according to their inbred endowments . In the next place , I have perceived the corrosive spirits of Minerals , to differ far from themselves , being crude ; to resolve the Excrements adhering to the sides of the first Vessels : Yet not to be altogether destitute of Dammages , by reason of an occult infection of Arsenick admixed with them , from their original . Therefore I perceived that occult properties , as they call them , being seminally traduced into the Archeus by the generater or efficient , do unfold the presence of their Object , and a sympathetical knowledge , as they are immediately entertained in the bosom of the Formes ; Some , to wit , by a motive local Blas , as the Load-stone , Amber , Gummes , Lacca , the herb Turne-sole , Diamond , ( for this also even as Carabe or Amber , doth attract chaffes ) &c. do bewray themselves but other things are terminated into an alteration , as poysons ; likewise laxatives , medicines tied about the Head or Body , Antidotes , &c. Laxatives , I have peculiarly perceived , to operate onely by reason of a poyson lurking within them , which being once admitted inwardly nigh the entrance , whatsoever they touch , they do ferment , do afterwards resolve the things fermented , and for that very cause do putrifie the things resolved . I perceived therefore , that Laxatives do putrifie the vital juyces , but seldom the excrements , the occasional causes of Diseases . For seeing they are Poysons in respect of us , and not of excrements ; hence they rise up rather against us , than against Diseases ; And most speedily , indeed , do putrifie the more crude juyce , or the not yet vital blood of the Veines , or the yesterdays Cream . But because they scarce suppress the excrements , neither do these in like manner obey them , seeing every action or Blas in us , doth proceed from the Spirit which maketh the assault , whereof excrements are deprived ; hence no Physitian , dareth by taking Laxatives , to promise a cure . But true Solutives , do neither cause Putrifaction , nor selectively draw forth feigned Humours , neither therefore do they resolve our vitial parts or things ; and the which Solutives , I have perceived to bewray themselves by a three fold Sign . First , That they draw nothing from a healthy Body , neither do they move after or weaken that Body . Secondly , That they do not fetch any thing forth , but what is offensive , and therefore they do not aggravate , but ease of the burden ; and presently the sick doth thereby feel himself well . Lastly , In the Third place , That they do not draw out the Disease by Sweat , Vomit , or Stool ; but do unsensibly resolve , in whatsoever part the Disease is entertained ; Nature being busied about the rest . I have perceived also , That such Laxatives , do not electively bring forth Humours , which are in themselves feigned ; but ( seeing we are nourished by none but one onely juyce , the blood ; therefore also we intend the driving forth , not of the blood but of Diseasie excrements ) do resolve whatsoever forreign thing is implanted within the Inne of Life , but not vital things , unless they are taken in an undiscreet dose , or frequency . Otherwise they onely have respect to excrements ; Nature affording her aid within , to this end . And chiefly , seeing they are from God , as well by Creation , as the endowment of knowledge ; they have received the ends of their Ordination , onely for a good purpose . Therefore I perceived that Paracelsus had erred , who teacheth ; That Laxatives do not otherwise operate , but as the Laxative Medicine by calcination , and a supervening moisture , should be resolved together with the Humours , like Calx vive . For first of all , he that proclaimed War against the Humorists , now again acknowledgeth Humours . Then also , his assertion is wholly ridicvlous ; Yet the lesse , if either Laxatives should be taken being first calcined , or might have been calcined within ; or the ejections should ascend onely unto a treble of the things taken . For what of calcination have the leaves of Sena in them ? Doth not Asarum , by boyling , cease from making Laxative ? And thus far is ignorant of a Calx . I have furthermore perceived , That Chymistry doth give more powerful and absolute operations , and that there are those things prepared by the same , which before were not . For neither was the Oyle of Tiles or Bricks formerly in the Oyle of Olives , as neither the spirit of Salt in Salt , or of Vitriol in Vitriol , &c. For by the fire , they assume an Acrimony , as Honey , Sugar , Manna , Dew , Earth , &c. Other things do thereupon lay aside their corrosion ; as the juyce of Citron , Scarrewort , Frogwort , Water-Pepper , &c. They erre therefore , who do equally judge of the Spirits by the concrete Body : For truly , although Spices and sweet smelling things , do persist in distilling ; yet the seminal virtues of the concrete Body , do for the most part perish through the fire , and are made another thing . For some things , their volatile parts being separated , do become an Alcali or fixed Salt , a Calx , Ashes , and Glass ; which things were not before in the composed Body : For I perceived , that there was nothing in the concrete Body , which did not issue from its seed . For the Fire seeing it is the death of things , if it doth not totally destroy the seeds of things , yet at leastwise , it notably transchangeth them . Therefore in one thing a preparation doth transchange the whole matter ; as in Magisteries ; but elsewhere , by reason of a sequestration of some things , it onely changeth , sharpeneth , destroyeth or consumeth the things which are left . Thirdly , In the next place , by things adjoyned , now and then , the things themselves , together with their adjuncts , are diversly transchanged by the Fire , and become neutral ; as Glass , which is no more Ashes and Sand. Often times also , without the fire , adjuncts do pierce the root of the mixture , and that especially a ferment coming between ; and then a neutral concrete Body is constituted . For so , of Rie-bread and Honey , Ants are bred ; of Honey and Dew , Eeles ; of Basil and the hoary putrifaction of a Stone , Scorpions ; of a Calf being strangled and Dew , Bees . But those things which are mixed by fusion onely , do oft-times suffer themselves to be reduced into their former Being : For so , although Glass be no longer Sand ; yet from thence by Art , yea and through the oldness of putrifaction by continuance , the same Sand is found ; because it is as yet , alwayes materially in it , not thorowly changed , because without a ferment . I perceived therefore , that many volatile things being joyned to volatile things , by reason of a mutual action with each other , are transchanged into a certain third thing . In the next place , that volatile things are fixed by fixt things ; and in this respect , do pass over into a new Being ; after another manner fixed things being joyned with fixed things , do remain in their antient Being . I perceived also , that Mineral Remedies , being changed into the nature of Salt ( I do not understand those which are seasoned by an adjoyned Salt ) do carry with them their seeds , yet exalted into a degree . These things Paracelsus hath sufficiently taught concerning Hematine or sanguine glassie Mettals ; wherein , although the whole Mettal be resolved into a strange disposition ( which is that of a Magistery ) yet , because the running Mercury is straitway drawn out from thence ; whatsoever hath truly assumed the nature of a resolvable Salt , is not the Mercury , or inward and immutable kernel of the Mettal ; but onely the Sulphur thereof . Wherefore those Hematines or Magisteries , do perfect admirable operations in the Remedial part of Medicine . I perceived therefore that the Hematines of Sol and Lune , or of Gold and Silver , although from the purity of their Balsame , they might comfort ; yet that they did contain some strange thing in them , in respect of us . I perceived , I say , That the crudity of Saturn or Lead , was solvable through the fatnesse of fixed Salts , to be sometimes destroyed piece meal , by the Fire alone ; and so , that the parts of the composed Body were divided , and the crude Argent-vive , permitted to run ; the fugitive Sulphur overcoming in the Saturn , doth draw unto a volatilized fixed one , unseparably joyned ; And the which , the sublimation of the Saturn doth chiefly dispatch . In the expression whereof , there is no difference of colour , or substance between that which is elevated , with that which resideth : Whence also , the causes of Heat , Fusion , and Softness , deeply or inwardly residing after the calcinements , and reducements , doth not refute the Fusion and wonted Softness , without the Fire . There is the same cause of the sweetness of Saturn : For the most sharp calcined things , if ( as in Lead , they are tempered by a concourse of Vitriolated things , they are dulcified or sweetned with the properties of Sal Armoniack resolved , and of Tartar being putrified . The Symbols or resembling Marks of all which things , in all their examinations , especially in distilling , separating of Lead into Salt , fugitive , sulphurous , coloured , fat parts , with the sharpness of Roch-Alume , are discerned by a quick-sighted and industrious Chymist , not without great delight . I perceived , I say , That there are Planetary virtues in Mettals , if they are reduced into the nature of a Salt or Sulphur ; yet that ought to be done without the remainder of every adjunct , wherein , not every Boaster , could go to Corinth . For after that I knew how to unloose bodies by things agreeable to their radical Principles ; then at first , I began with a comfortable weariness , to deride my blockish credulities , whereby I in times past dissolved Gold : yet I less profited by its potable juyce , than by the decoction of any Simple : But afterwards I could dissolve Gold , and mock it with the face of Butter , Rosin , and Vitriol : But I no where found the virtues attributed to Gold , because it was also so reluctant to our ferments . I perceived therefore that Gold without its own proper corrosive , is dead ; dead , I say , unless it be radically pierced by its own corrosive . Not indeed that it doth then resemble the Nature of the Sun , and doth add any thing unto its vital faculties ; but onely that its whole body doth by purging unsensibly cleanse , in a unisone , tone or harmony . Yea also , the pretious Pearles called Vnions , are by that corrosive changed into a Spermatical Milk , which is sociable with the first constitutives of us ; and in this respect are they a Remedy of the Consumption , Palsie , &c. At length I perceived , That the liquor Alkahest , did cleanse Nature , by the virtue of its own Fire : For as the Fire destroyeth all Insects , so the Alkahest consumeth Diseases . In the next place , I perceived , That Mercurius vitae , reckoned by Paracelsus among his four secrets , besides the fiery force of the fire of Hell , doth clarifie the Organs , no otherwise than as Stibium doth purify Gold from things admixt with it ; which same thing , I judge concerning the tincture of Lile , a Sunonymal . Nature in the mean time , desireth as it were , by a new spring , to rise again under these Medicines : Yet we are without hope of restoring into our former state , seeing an infusion of new faculties , arguing immortality , is wanting unto us . For it is appointed for every living Creature once to die . Because there is nothing in Nature which can have an equal prevalency with the Temple of the Image of God. Therefore I perceived , That all renewing Medicines , do operate by refining , and in this respect by exhilarating ; otherwise there is not a true renewing of Youth . And then I perceived , That Secrets which do cure by resolving , and expelling , do nothing but awaken the faculties placed in us ; the which impediments being removed , do as it were bud again , under a new spring . Lastly I perceived , That there were Simples , wherein a proper issuing of the forme doth not operate ; but the command of a strang form and character doth happen unto them , that they might cause a contagion between Symbolizing or co-resembling things ; and from thence are Sorceries and Inchantments . For whatsoever things are prepared by a voluntary Blas , are for the most part propagated to the functions of local motion , they are directed , I say , unto the Sinewes , being most apt for the stirring up of pains , and sicknesses or griefs . For neither have they poysons or ferments , unless an evil spirit do add them , or couple them by functions vanquished by himself ; for then they do excell other poysons , being a-kin to the poyson of the Plague . Yea I perceived , That even all poysons ( besides corrosives ) did act by reason of a specifical property , emulous of , or imitating the imaginative faculty , placed in the seed , formally inbred , and having the powers of a ferment equivocally acting . I perceived moreover , That every thing doth variously diffuse its activities , according to the manner of the thing receiving , and of application : For bread operates otherwise within in us , and otherwise in all bruit beasts , and otherwise in the Stomack , Liver , and in the other Kitchins : by reason of the diversities of ferments . So I perceived , that flesh applied to the outward parts , doth presently putrifie , which within is resolved by the ferments , and at length assimulated unto our parts . To wit , I have perceived Polenta or Barley floure dried by the fire , and fried after soaking in water , to besmear and soften the outward parts ; which within nourisheth , heateth , bindes the belly , and moves flatus's . For every Simple , being outwardly applyed , doth under the sixth digestion , display its virtues with us ; the which within , is almost in its first progresses , for the most part subdued . A live man , being long detained in the water , would putrifie ; but dead flesh , being alwayes well rinced in a new stream , doth put on the nature of Balsame : So the Stomack , although it be perpetually moist , yet it doth not thereby putrifie : For the operations of Nature , Galen was ignorant of , because he smelt not out the properties of ferments . But Paracelsus hath caused the incongruities of an Idiotisme , in affirming , that Oyles , and Emplaisters , are digested and transchanged into new flesh , in a Wound , even as meats are in the Stomack . But he is ignorant , that there is no passage into the sixth digestion , but gradually , by precedent digestions . For this cause , there is no venal blood made in the Stomack ; as neither is any nourishment made by a Clyster detained in the Colon , or confines of the Ileon ; however the Schooles may whisper to the contrary . For Brothes do presently putrifie in the Bowels , neither is there a making of Cream ; but far be it , that blood should be made , if it shall not be first a Cream : neither is the Liver the shop of the Cream ; much less is there an incarnating in the Stomack : But least of all , that of an Emplaister , flesh or blood should be made ; For the skin being opened , putrifaction is presently introduced into it , no otherwise , than as the shell or peel of an Egg being bruised , there is corruption . For hence is there a weeping Liquor , Sanies , Pus , Sandy-water , Latex , Wormes , &c. for preventing whereof , the whole care of the Chyrurgion diligently endeavoureth ; and the which , being separated , the flesh doth voluntarily grow , but not by applyed Remedies . I have also perceived , that Salts , which are domestical unto us , are fitter for seasoning of meats , also for dissolving , and exterging , or clean wiping away of filths ; than that they are promoted into nourishment : But that Oyles are scarce proper for sanguification ; but least of all , those which ascend by the fire . But that distilled waters , have small conditions of medicine ; Because Nature doth every where rejoyce in nourishment , caused of Bodies existing in their composition . And therefore artificial Salts do pierce deeper , than Oyles , the which do resist sanguification ; neither are they thoroughly mixed . And therefore the Salts of Spices , or sweet smelling things , which are made of their Oyles , do supply the room of their first Being . Magisteries are to be had in great esteem ; because , the substance of these is entire , digestible , and obedient to the ferments . And therefore Nature refuseth meats which are hidden in their Essences , by reason of their difficulties of fermentation ; For all things that are too much graduated , do draw after them the middle Life of the Blood ; but they are not easily subdued by the ferments . In brief , Those things which do the more stubbornly keep their middle Life , are not easily vanquished by our Archeus ; neither are they onely stubborn in digesting ; but they are obstinate in perseverance , and do act on us , so far as they are not subdued . But Verdigrease , Crocusaeris , Cerusse , Precipiate , Sublimate , &c. have ascended into a poysonsomnesse by addittaments . But these , seeing they are not admitted , within the root of the Mercury , do operate onely without , about the Sulphur , and are there variously disposed , according to the manner of the receiver . At length , I perceived , That there was a sixfold difference of Digestions in us , and that the three former of them , were busied about the disposing of the matter appointed for to nourish ; the which , although they do truly transmute , yet they are sent before , rather for a preparatory disposing , than for a vital espousing thereof . For truly , in the Fourth Digestion , a vital power is communicated to the venal blood ; and so the Controversie is decided , whether the arterial blood be quickned . For the venal blood is not truly enlivened , until it be made arterial blood ; The which is drawn through the partition of the Heart , into the Arterie Aorta ; for no other end , but that in that Buttery it may be endowed with Life , and informed with a mind . But we are nourished by both bloods , even as we have our original of the seed of a twofold Sex. For perhaps , the Mysterie of the Lyturgie is hence known ; why a little Water is mixed with much Wine : That the Water may pass into venal blood , and the Wine into arterial blood . I perceived therefore , That the Fifth Digestion , was plainly occupied about the participative communion of Life . But Lastly , That the sixth did operate by a dispositive quality , but did rejoyce in an assimilating ferment ; and that , inducing humanity . Therefore external aides , are stirred up , and do operate by another quality than internal ones . Fat or gross persons , are taken with Paines , or Crampes , or Convulsions of the Tendons ; the which notwithstanding , the grease of man being outwardly over-smeared , doth alay . For the Sixth Digestion is wholly assimilative ; therefore it indeavours to change the grease brought on it , into its own vital aire . But the internal grease of fat things , being now subdued by an assimilating ferment , is kept without action . But the Sixth Digestion enters into the middle Life of the external anointed grease , the which our Archeus doth therefore appropriate to himself ; which Life , and its properties , are hidden in the last Life of the internal grease . Moreover , I perceived , after what manner a Cantharides doth embladder in living People , but not in a dead carcase ; as neither doth it raise up a burnt Escharre in the dead carcase , although it dissolves the dead carcase no otherwise than as Calx vive poudered doth resolve Cheese . For the Cantharides , as long as it remains dry , doth not act , but is moistened by an unsensible eflux of our dew ; then first it begins to itch , whence the Archeus under the Epidermis or outward skin is furiously inflamed , not much otherwise than as under an Erisipelas , the burning Coal , or burning Fever ; and so the Cantharides begins in the Epidermis , and an Escharotick in the skin ; the same which a Gangreen doth at length finish in the habit of the Body . For Causticks do at first crisp the skin ; the which afterwards they resolve into a muscilage , after they have fully moistened . For then they do not onely sharpen our heat , but also they assume the strength of a proper corroding . Then I say , they do not onely make an Escharrhe , which ariseth from an inflaming of the Archeus , but do melt the whole . Lastly , I perceived also that Amulets or preservative Pomanders , things bound about the Head , and hung about the Body , do act by the virtue of influence , and that directive , without the evaporation of those things , which indeed do reside in the more fixed Bodies . Although there are other things hung on the Body , which are by little and little diminished of their Virtues , because they dismiss a Vapour out of them . But things tied to the Head or Body , are Bony , Horney , Animals , and Plants ; but others are Mettallick , Stony , Salts , Transparent things , or Thick or Dark things . But Mettals are seldome Amulets , unless they are as yet opened , or exalted by an external adjunct : Because they have a dividable Sulphur in them . But in Stones there is great virtue ; but of Stones , some are transparent Looking-glasses , but some are thick or dark ones ; As Corral , Coraline , the Turcois , the Jasper . But in clear Stones , the Evestrum or Ghost of Life , being well or ill affected , doth reverberate ; To wit , the life rejoyceth to be reflexed in a clear glass , whereby it is then made like to the Understanding , which in its own light is altered , ( after the manner of a Chamelion ) at the assimilation of Objects . Neither also have I in vain perceived , Gemms to be as it were thick Glasses , well polished : Because the native and natural Endowment that is in them , from the nature of the Glasse , doth more powerfully reflect the vital beam communicated unto it . For something is continually , and necessarily discussed or blown out of us , which is not yet plainly destitute of the participation of Life : That very thing doth keep the activity of its own sphear about us ; the which , while it findeth in the polished Glass , it easily reflecteth on the whole Body from whence it issued ; for thereby sympathetical Remedies or Things were first made known . But afterwards when it was known , that things tied about the Body , were applied in operating , by virtue of a Glasse ; there were thereupon , boughtie or convex , concavous , &c. figures of Looking-glasses , presently bethought of , whereunto Gentilisme joyned Hieroglyphicks , that by a figure they might denote the sign of a hidden virtue : Superstition in posterity thereby encreased , who anointed Gamahen , Talismanicks , and devilish Scurrilities of that sort : Thinking that Figures had not indeed the virtues of a Sign , but of a Cause . But transparent Glasses , do receive an Evestral or Ghostlike faculty , the which , although they do not reflect , as otherwise dark ones do ; yet they approach nearer unto the nature of life , or the shining glasse . Finally , I perceived that the diversity of Effects , the end and appropriation of Medidines , did not proceed from the fourfold fiction of Complexions : but from the very powers of Simples themselves ; whose Election , dose , and preparation , have therefore stood neglected , because they have not been hitherto searched into , in their root and manner . After the perceivances of all these things ; at length , another Spirit , took from me the bottle , which the other had given me : And with great grief I then perceived all the necessities of Death in me , unfit to be declared : Whereby I presently returned unto my self , neither could I receive comfort , but when I truly knew that all things were acted onely by a Dream ; and because that if I ought to rehearse the virtues of things , I could not better performe it , than if I had as it were felt all those things within . This one thing , at least , I did moreover remember , that Chymical things did rather act by the force of Art , than by the native power of Nature , because their beginnings were brought forth and changed by the Fire . To wit , Chymistry separates fixed things from things not fixed , which is the first and easiest sequestration of Heterogeneal things . There are not a few things also which it fixeth , before they were volatile , or on the contrary : And then , among some volatile things , it separates odoriferous things from things not odoriferous ; which distinction is falsly reckoned , of the pure from the impure . For truly , the action of the fire , is to burn , and therefore it burns as well the pure as the impure . And then a third separation is made by digestions and proper ferments , as the parts which do stick fast with a stubborn continuity , do depart from each other , through a discord of the ferment . For so Bodies do in the fulness of their last life , voluntatily decay ; and entertained faculties do come to light . Moreover , by boyling and melting , the parts formerly ruled by one rein , do now act on each other , under which degree they attain other virtues : Therefore Chymistry produceth those things , which else should never be made , or had in Nature ; and that not onely in separated volatiles , but also in things residing , and the which residues , are therefore calcined . But if by a co-mingling , and co-fermenting of the composed Body , new faculties do arise ; that very thing is more beholdable in Alchymical things , not only because Art doth wholly imitate Nature in all her operations ; but also in a peculiar efficacy of a moist influx and melting , which do perform various operations under the fire , and change the Nature . For so , the spirit of Salt-peter doth elevate a moist Sulphur , and embrination or sharp waterishness of Vitriol , from whence are poysonous waters ; the Spirits of both which , notwithstanding being separated , were fit for Healing , and grateful to the Stomack . In the last place , Chymistry doth bring up some more milde things unto a degree ; as poysons may be made of Honey , Manna , &c. most things , how violent soever they are , do also wax milde under the Fire : So that fixed Alcalies , is they are made volatile , do equalize the powers of great Medicines : Because by the virtue of Incision , Resolving , and Cleansing , they being brought even unto the entry of the Fourth Digestion , do fundamentally take away the toughnesse of things coagulated in the Vessels . For Chymistry doth so resolve the most hard and compacted things , that they being not onely forgetful of their former curdling , and constancy against the Fire , do retire into a tameable juyce , and being occult , are made manifest ; but moreover they become social unto us : Yea it doth not onely so prepare things themselves ; but it also effecteth means , whereby Bodies may be opened . For so , coagulated things , do depart into the Family of resolved things ; fixed things are changed into volatile , and on the contrary , crude things are ripened , and things Heterogeneal or of diversity of kind , are divided into their Classes's or Ranks . In the next place , drowsie or sleepie things , do attain degrees of Virtues ; and many new things spring up which have remained unknown in the Schooles of the Gentiles . Finally , and finally , Chymistry , as for its perfection , doth prepare an universal Solver , whereby all things do return into their first Being , and do afford their native endowments , the original blemishes of Bodies are cleansed , and that their inhumane cruelty being forsaken , there is opportunity for them to obtain great and undeclarable Virtues . But how much purity the Understanding may attain under this Work , the Adeptist hath onely known . Ah , I wish the Bottle once possessed by me , had not been taken away ! But God hath known , why he hath given to the Goat so short a Taile . Let his Name be exalted throughout Ages ; and let the alone sanctifying Will of him onely be done . CHAP. LXI . The Preface . 1. The Authors intention . 2. The Authors excuse . 3. The event is suspected from Divine Ordination . 4. A wish of the Author . 5. A reason of doubting of the fallacy of the Devil , 6. How the Author knew , that he was not deceived . 7. A Reason , teaching that this Talent is of God. 8. The judgement of quick-sighted men . 9. The whole light of Healing hath appeared in one only moment . 10. What the Author hath conjectured from thence . 11. Why the Author hath written sharply against the Chaires . 12. The event is intellectually foreseen . 13. Fevers are frequently stirred up , the occasional cause being absent . 14. A Relation of terms , seeing it is not a Being , it doth not cause a Being in act : To what end the dissection of a man of sixty years old , was re-minded in his sleep . I Have deliberated in the good pleasure of God , to make manifest , that before the world , and especially in the Schools , the causes of Diseases , the knowledge of their essences , and their Remedy , have been hitherto hidden : To wit , that the essence of Diseases have not yet been pierced by so many Ages and Judgements of men . Truly I have earnestly and notably grieved , that this Ignorance of Ages past , and of the present Age , is true ; and so , that it ought to be discovered by me an unprofitable old Man. It hath seriously grieven me , that they have been careless , as well for their own life , as for the life of their Neighbours , and that Physitians should seem to have studied only for gain : but that such was the ordination of God , that as long as the Schools did adhere to Paganim . Doctrines , they should also persevere in the aforesaid darkness ; until at length , in the fulness of times , there should be one who should open the essence and thingliness of Diseases unto his Neighbours , and that indeed , before the very Chaires of Medicine ; to wit , that as it were in a Fountain ( the errors of Heathenism being driven away ) the Truth may hereafter shine , and as many as had not shut their eyes through obstinacy may repent . Truly , I propose to the whole World , and to our Posterity , a matter new , and plainly to be admired . And ah , I wish , that I alone , who do first make manifest these things , may therefore contract on my self , and sustain the reproaches , nor that the life and health of my Neighbour may suffer . For I had willingly been silent ; neither had I divulged my Talent , but that I knew this one only Talent to have been given me for the life of my Neighbour . And while I do as yet contemplate with my self of the greatness of the thing , in the succession of so many Ages , and their fatal ignorance , and the continued sluggishness of Body , or negligence , in a thing I say , of so great moment , as is the life of Man ; I cannot but many times , for amazement , look back , repose my quill , and doubt of my own fallacy of rashness : To wit , that in the Universities themselves , wherein fresh , the more fervent wits , and those not yet defiled with gain , are exercised , a Disease is as yet altogether unknown ; to wit , the adequate or suitable object of the Medicinal faculty ; the object I say , of so many readings established by Princes . Surely , I had wholly doubted of my own rashness , unless he who giveth such a Talent , were the dispenser of the same within , and did give a cleerness beyond all demonstration and fear or error . Otherwise , it had been hard for me to perswade my self , and believe , unless I being constrained within by the authority and security of a greater Title , ought boldly to object my self against the censures of all . For what I teach , will be at first incredible , among quick-sighted men , if they shall place me at the Tribunal of so many Ages , who willingly confess my self unfit to reach unto so great a top of light , unless expert men do the more lively contemplate with me of the wonted super-abounding of the Divine Majesty . For no man shall the more cleerly know the honour of God in this case , and the present gift to come freely from the Father of Lights , unless in my adjected smalness and ignorance , they do see it to be the accustomed path of God , that he reveals unto little ones , that which he hath ordinarily denyed unto the greater of the World : To wit , by reason of one fault ; because they all have by a continued error , even sunk themselves into the Precepts of Pagans . For quick-sighted men , will from hence discern , first of all , that they must not go against me , as against a man. Then , in the next place , they will weigh in their own jugdement the Reasons of the Schools , drawn out of my bosom : Whence at length , they themselves being as it were led by the Principles and Theoremes of nature , will voluntarily hasten unto far more sublime and famous Beginnings of healing , whither the tenderness of my judgement could not ascend . For truly , I admonish and exhort the wise men of this World , that the errors and ignorances of Physitians , have not opened themselves to me by little and little , and by degrees entred into my Soul ; so as that I have conceived or meditated of one thing before another : To wit , that I at first considered the Schools to be deceived , about the congress , tempering , and complexions of Elementary mixtures , and diseasie distempers ; but that from thence , I was tossed or tumbled about the errors of Catarrhs : and afterwards in the next place , that I had sought for the roots , causes and essential thingliness of Diseases and Remedies . Indeed none of these : For if one thing had been made known unto me before another , I had thought , that all this progress had been the inductions or inferences of reason and imagination , subject to errors and fallacies . But after that , one only flash or enlightning of light had overshadowed the whole intellectual conceit ( to wit , of the ignorance of Physitians , as well in the knowledge of causes , Diseases , as of Remedies and applications ) at once , I undoubtedly knew , that this Talent was given to me for the profits of my Neighbours ; and therefore , that it was to be handed forth to the Chairs ( from whom correction is much desired and expected ) and to be seriously under the penalty of the more grievous punishment , profered unto them . When as therefore , I had now determined to demonstrate , that the Essence of Diseases , by their intimate and proper roots was not yet known , there was a night , before the fourth hour in the morning , the ninth of [ the sixth Month called ] August ; and it seemed to me , that as from the crowing of the Cock , dreams are sometimes formed , I heard from the fore-conceived care of writing , that I should call to mind the Anatomy ( whereof a little after , I shall make mention ) and when I seemed admonishingly to have understood these things , I doubted being half awaked , which way that dissection of the dead carcass , might touch or concern the Treatise which I had determined to write touching the essence of Diseases . Therefore I being without care , dreamed , that I saw a man externally big , sitting at my Table , and eating fresh Salmon in the sauce of Vinegar and Pepper , and so greedily , that as if he would fill himself thereby ( for in his own Country , fresh Salmon was not found ) and I saw , that two dayes after , about the evening , a small Ague took hold of him , and that his teeth did shake ; and from thenceforth , that it kept the figure or resemblance of a Tertian : That is , on the fourth day from the digestion of that meat : So that nothing of its remainder had putrified , and much less , that that had remained which might provoke the Aguish tumult , at set intervals . For that which commonly sounds , is that an Elementary distemperature was left , which should prepare the diseasie impression . But that thing , besides the absurdities of distemperatures and complexions , by me elsewhere demonstrated , seemeth to signifie a meer [ Ens rationis ] or Being of Reason . Because the thing imprinting and imprinted , are indeed things in act , and relative terms ; but the impression it self , seeing it is nothing but a relation , resulting from a co-fitting of the terms , it can contain only the room of a Being of Reason . Wherefore , at least wise , the impression or distemperature , cannot remain a surviver , where the thing distempering , or imprinting it self , hath ceased to be , and by consequence , hath ceased to hurt . It must needs be therefore , that the thing imprinting it self , had produced a hurtful quality out of it self ; and had deposed it , as it were its product , on the subject of impression : And that thing , seeing it was made in an Organ which was the partaker of life , that product likewise , ought to be by all means , and immediately sunk , or entertained within the bosom of life it self ; and the rather , if it ought to return at set periods , and to interrupt the silent rest of health ; yea , if by acting in a hostile manner , it ought after some sort , to shew forth signs of the life disturbed . Even so , that I have by this dream , the more perfectly confirmed the essential thingliness of Diseases : For even as these things do not happen beneath and without the life ; so the life it self , is the very impulsive cause , after that it is once disturbed in its place , peace or rest . Behold , on the same day , after the aforesaid Dream ; a Senator , whom I had not seen for many years before , comes as a guest unto my table ; and seeing it was the Vigil , or Eve of S. Laurence , it happened also that a fresh Salmon boyled , was set on the Board , and he eat no otherwise than as I had seen in my sleep : Yea , that two days after , he slid into a Tertian Ague : But the dissected dead Carcass , whereof I had received admonition , hath respect unto the same ends . For truly a man of sixty years old , had from the entrance of his age , lived in a tender health and through occasion of a light errour , was easily feverish ; whom sudden death , afterwards at length took away ; and I being willing narrowly to search , whether I could find the Cause of his Feverish aptness , in the places wherein the lamented that he was pained as oft as he had the Feaver : Indeed it was the Hypocondrial in both his sides , as well where the Liver , as where the Spleen are kept . But there was not the least thing about these parts to be seen with the Eyes , which might be fitly accused . Wherefore this dissection being compared with the dreaming Vision of the Tertian Ague , from the eating of too much Salmon ; I presently perceived , why they were both at once recalled to mind , while I was about to write the present Chapter ; to wit , that through the opportunity of them both being remembred , I might the more strongly insist about the true thingliness or essence of Diseases , con-centred in the bosome of the vital spirit ; but that the dregginesses , which the Schooles have reputed for the immediate and containing causes of Diseases , are nothing but the external occasional Causes , how intimately soever they should be admitted within the veines themselves . CHAP. LXII . A Disease is an unknown Guest . 1. A Narration of things hitherto done . 2. The Object and Intent of the Author . 3. That the Art of the Medicine of the Pagans was an invention of the evil Spirit . 4. A Prayer for his Persecutors . 5. The Author searcheth out or espieth from his Persecutions , that the evil Spirit was the Inventor of the Doctrine of the Pagans . 6. The Labours of the Schooles from hence are vain . 7. The Authors Anguishes . 8. A Prologue of the thingliness of a Disease . 9. The most immediate , containing , and essential Causes of Diseases . 10. The necessity of a seminal Idea is collected . 11. How far this Doctrine departeth from the Schooles . 12. The true causes of things and of Diseases . 13. The Schooles , their ancient definition of a Disease . 14. The first Contradiction of the Schooles . 15. Another Stumbling . 16. A Third . 17. The Author teacheth ( in his Treatise of the Elements ) that there are not mixt Bodies , as neither humors in Nature , whence the whole foundation of the Medicine of the Schooles goes to ruine . 18. A Fourth Stumbling . 19. A Fifth . 20. A Sixth . 21. A Seventh . 22. Against the distemperature of Elementary qualities in us . 23. An Eighth staggering . 24. A Ninth . 25. A Tenth . 26. An Eleventh . 27. The Error of the Schooles is discovered . 28. A Twelfth stumbling . 29. An absurd consequence according to the position of the Schooles . 30. The uncertainty of a predicament for Diseases . 31. Arguments on the opposite part , and against a feigned disposition . 32. Tee true efficient Cause of diseases . 33. The occasional matter . 34. Wherein the whole thingliness or essence of a Disease may be scituated . 35. Whence the Schooles have been seduced . 36. Two false Maxims of the Schooles . 37. Another delusion of the Schooles . 38. What natural generation is . 39. The Schooles deceived by Aristotle . 40. Some ignorances arisen from hence . 41. A Disease consisteth of matter , and an efficient cause . 42. Whatsoever is generated , that is made by seminal Ideas . 43. All the predicaments are in every Disease . 44. The stip of Heathenisme in healing . 45. That the definition of a Disease hath been hitherto unknown . 46. A Disease is not a Being of the first Constitution , yet hath it entred into the account of Nature . 47. Wherein Diseases are distinguished from other created things . 48. The Error of the Schooles from the subject of Inhaesion of Diseases , and very many Absurdities issuing from thence . 49. That those Absurdities are not to be connived at by Christians . 50. A stubborn ignorance . 51. Hunger is not a Disease . 52. The Schooles depart from their own Hippocrates . 53. Some neglects of the Schooles . 54. The rashness of the Schooles . 55. That the hurt of action , is not to be regarded for the essence of a Disease . 65. Whence that fiction sprang . 57. The consequent upon a confounding of the cause with the symptome . 58. A removal of the Cause doth not of necessity respect a withdrawing of the occasional matter . 59. The Schooles being deluded by artificial things , delude their young beginners by artificial things . 60. How the Seed may differ from its constituted Body . 61. A Thirteenth stumbling . 62. Some knowledges chiefly true in the Author . 63. What a kind of production of a Disease is made by a Blas . 64. The efficient Cause in a Disease . 65. A Disease pierceth the Life with a formal Light , in a point . 66. Some differences of efficient Causes . 67. An example in the Stone . 68. The Stone is not properly a Disease . 69. While the Effect hath concluded the occasional efficient , there is not the former Disease . 70. The products of Diseases neglected by the Schooles , are touched at . 71. The Error of the Schooles about the Objects of Contrarieties in Diseases . 72. Some Arguments against the Schooles , that it may jerk them . 73. The Products of Diseases , Secondary Diseases ; together with a destinction of Symptomes and Fruits , are resumed . 47. Weakness or Feebleness , what it is . 75. An improper division of Diseases , by the Organical parts . 76. Whence there is a divers action of diverse things . 77. From the handy-craft operation of the Fire , of Pepper , an Escarrhotick , and Caustick , are Thirteen Conclusions , Paradoxes to the Schooles , and diverse things are illustrated , worthy to be noted . 78. The Fire is but little profitable unto the Speculation of Curing . 79. Some notable things concerning our heat . 80. A various Classis or Order of the Occasions of Diseases . 81. Hippocrates is explained with a connivance . 82. That which Nature doth once despise , that she never afterwards receiveth into favour . 83. A Disease is of the matter of the Archeus . 84. An explaining of Products . 85. Our Nature is ruled by an erring Understanding , after that it is corrupted . 86. The Schooles again deluded by artificial things . 87. To Produce , differs from , to Generate . 88. The Schooles have onely thought of taking away the occasional cause . 89. In us , there is a Nature standing , sitting , and lying . 90. A decree of Hippocrates is explained , with the moderation of that age . 91. Anatomy is frequent to excuse excuses in sins . 92. The sloathful negligence of the Schooles . 93. After what manner death and a disease , have become the Beings of Nature , since the creation , and have received second Causes their producers . 94. Two Objections of the Schooles refuted . 95. A Guess or Presage from the unseparable goodness . THe integrity of Nature being already , at first , constituted , to wit between the Matter , the Archeus , and the Life , or forme of a vital Light , with the seminal and vital beginnings ; the ferments also , the authors of transmutations , being newly discovered , also the elements , qualities , complexions , and miscellanies of these , their fights , strife , and cursary victories being rejected : likewise humours and defluxing Catarrhes , being banished out of Nature : Lastly , Flatus's , Tartars , and the three Principles of the Chymists , being banished out of the exercises of Diseases ; it now remained that the defects and interchangable courses of Nature themselves , should be intimately or pithily considered . Wherefore , before that I make a more profound entrance , I have undertaken to prove , That Diseases have not onely been unknown in the Schooles , in the particular , and therefore that their Cure hath radically layn hid ; but moreover , That the very Essence of a Disease hath been hidden in the general . Truly it is matter of grief , that it hath been so ingeniously elabourated in other Professions ; but that in the Art of healing alone , men have been hitherto , so stumbled through deaf Principles ; wherein , notwithstanding Charity towards our Neighbour hath been penally commanded : For all things have remained most obscure , many things most false ; and those things which might chiefly conduce unto the scope of Curing , untouched . For there is no where a tractable acuteness , but on every side a great dulnesse ; So that , from what hath been said before , there is none but may easily gather , that whatsoever hath been hither to diligently taught , according to the Doctrine of the Pagans , and against a mutual Charity , was the Invention of the evil Spirit . Therefore indeed , the stability of Paganish Theorems , hath remained through the perswasion of the Devil ; which speculations notwithstanding , through their easinesse onely , at the first sight , ought to have been suspected by any one of a sound mind . Therefore nothing more hard , inhumane , and fuller of cruelty , hath been received now for so many Ages , among the Arts of Mortals , than that Art , which under a con-centrical subscription , makes fresh experiments by the deaths of men . The Professors whereof , while they presume , that themselves do keep the keys of knowledge , they neither enter the passages themselves , nor admit others who are willing to enter in : but do drive away all , by all wiles and subtilties : Alwayes learning , and never coming to the knowledge of the Truth ; according to the Apostle . Oh Jesus , my light , my life , my glorying , and the helper of my weakness and corrupt disposition , who in they own matters , dost easily find out a passage , with whom that is easie , which with mortal men , is as it were impossible . Thou , who hast made me to undergo all adversities : I offer unto thee my calamities , and the oppressions of justice . Nevertheless , thou hast always comforted me with thine unvanquished right hand : afford me thine hand , that if thou vouchsafe not to snatch me out of the deep pit of so many tribulations ; at least wise , that through thy strength , I may not sin against thee , and that they may repent , who have hated me undeservedly : and that they who adore thy Power , may acknowledge in me , that thou alone art God , the helper of the oppressed , and the undoubted hope of them that trust in thee . Let them be cloathed with contrition , and find favour with thee ; and that I wretched man , may sing forth the praises of thy greatness , after this life . For the rottenness of this Age is such , that ( thy judgement being hidden ) the hypocrisie of mighty men , professeth Faith in deceit , and collects their wickedness under the shadow of Piety . But in so great a tempest of my miseries , unto the miseries of mortals , and the defective errors of Physitians , before the view of my mind , I have attempted , under thy command , to record in writing . That as hypocrisie hath trampled on me and my fortunes , so I likewise know , and that primarily , that the father of lyes , hath introduced the cup of ignorance , and the bane of charity and health , into the Paganish Schools ; lucre strewing the way , under the beaten stormy path of Tritons . For every young beginner that is to come , shall admire with me , that nothing hath been so unskilfully handled , as those things which concern the life of mortal men . For truly , according to Thomas a Kempis , it is all one with the Devil , so he may render thee uncapable to serve God : whether that be by true things , or things appearing . Therefore it sufficeth him , so he shall but frustrate man of health , and cut short his life , wherein he might serve God , if so be he shall make him a despiser of Divine aid , by the appearing Doctrines of Pagans . For the Schooles have written a thousand Volumns concerning the temperature and strife of qualities ; in the next place , it hath been much and long interpreted by the Successors of Galen , about these trifles , and they have daily relapsed into new centuries and patcheries . And at length , they have squared unto those qualities , feigned and excrementitious humours , which should so wholly govern man , as well healthy as sick , that they should be chief over humane affairs : as though the conditions , manners , healths , appetites , instincts , inclinations , slips or mis-deeds , strengths , valours , defects , events of fortune , yea and the deserved punishments of loss or damnation , and the adoptions of eternal life of mortal men , should depend thereon . A horrid , surely , and intollerable thing , that these toyes have stood so long , and that from things not existing , and never to be , and the which , by the asserters themselves , are accounted for excrements , so serious and pernicious Fables have been co-feigned and believed . And so that , by the Schooles themselves , scarce any thing hath been ever narrowly searched into , which under such Principles , may in very deed , be truly true and good . In the mean time I grieve ( I testifie it again ) not indeed , that I have obtained the light of Truth , from a long compassion towards my Neighbour : but that it hath behoved me to lay open these Errors : That is , I grieve , that the Devil hath deceived the Schools , and will deceive them , as long as they shall suffer themselves to be deluded by Paganish Fables , and to be separated from the Schools of Truth . But that , that thing may be manifested , I will by a Prologue , declare it by the way , and as it were by a positive demonstration . For truly , God made not Death . And that is of Faith. Therefore man became mortal , from another thing than from God. And seeing the scope or bound of most Diseases , is Death it self ( because it is that which is nothing else , but an extinguishing of life ) therefore a Disease and Death , are Diametrically opposite to life . Whence it follows , that every Disease doth immediately act on the life . But nothing is able to act on the life , unless it be applyed unto it , and well mixed with it . But a Disease , the enemy , is not applyed unto the life , promiscuously , unless it shall besiege a part of the life , and so shall sit totally or partially in the very life it self . Which being done , that part of the life besieged or overcome , doth retire from the vital Air , and the which , being thus vanquished and become degenerate , is made hostile unto the life as yet remaining , or as yet constituted in its integrity . Hence it necessarily follows , that every Disease , as it finds matter in the Organical or instrumental Air of life , whereby it most immediately and inwardly riseth up against the life it self , so in the same vital light , it finds an efficient cause : And so a Disease , being thus instructed or furnished with matter and an efficient cause , is entertained about the life . Neither is it of concernment the while , whether that contagion of a Disease , be drawn from occasional Causes ; or in the next place , be bred within in the Archeus , through the errour of Life : At leastwise , it is sufficient in this place , that the Life it self is on both sides the principal object for the hostile disease . But seeing the Life it self is a lightsome Being , it acts not but by its instrument of the vital aire , or by the Archeus , as a mean , between the light of Life flowing from the father of lights , and the body : But this aire or Archeus , doth not act , but after the manner wherein every seminal spirit acteth on the mass subjected under it ; that is , not but by an imprinted mark , or sealie Idea , which hath known what , and which way it must act . Therefore all and every disease , hath a sealie mark , and as it were a seminal act , which is expert of things to be acted by it self . This Declaration therefore doth far recede or differ from an elementary distemperature , from humours , and the disproportionable mixture of those , from the fight and contrariety of the elements of our composition ; because every disease is nothing but a Sword to the Life , wounding , or totally cutting it off . For as a Sword doth exhaust the Life , together with the arterial blood and vital aire , wherein , according to the holy Scriptures , the Soul it self sitteth ; So a disease consumeth the same air of Life , on which it afresh sealeth an hostile character , drawn as well from occasional Causes , as gotten through the errour of its own indignation . This exact account of a disease being granted ; lo , I come unto the explaining of a disease . And first , I will demonstrate from the very Theoremes of the Schools , that the thingliness or essence of a disease , hath been hitherto unknown . Whence , in the next place , any one shall easily judge , what hath even hitherto been done in the remedies and vanquishing of diseases . I have oft-times promised , that I will demonstrate , that the Schools have hitherto neglected ( that is , that they have not known ) the essence , root , or nature of a disease , in its own universal quiddity or thingliness : And seeing I have already from the Elements , prosecuted that thing even unto a conclusion , thorow all their privy shifts ; now at length , by an Anatomy of particulars , I shall also stand to my promises , if I shall detect the same in the general ; and especially , if I shall shew that thing no longer by the fictions of Elements , temperaments , and humours , but by the very words of Authors , whereby they corrupt their Young beginners , as it were , with a mortal contagion . In the premises , it hath already been demonstrated by me , that the Ages before me , being deluded by the trifles of the Peripateticks , have been ignorant of the Causes ; to wit , the Matter and Efficient of natural things . Then also , that a thing it self is nothing , besides a connexion of both Causes ; and that this same thing is in diseases ; especially seeing a disease , although happening unto us by sin , is now admitted for a prodigal Son of Nature . Truly , the univocal or simple homogeneity of Causes in natural Beings , hath compelled me hereunto ; whereby the efficient Cause is denominated from effecting , but not from the Effect , which is after the Efficiency . Therefore the Schools do first of all define a disease to be an affect , or disposition , which doth primarily hurt the actions of our faculties , wherein they do , as yet , very much stumble . For truly , first they name this Affect , a distemperature of one or two qualities of the first Elements : For so they rehearse the same thing , because they consess a disease to be an elementary quality it self , as it exceedeth a just temperature . Therefore a disease shall no longer be that disposition , resulting from the first qualities , which they suppose immediately to hurt the functions themselves : And so they feign the whole disease , hereafter to consist in nothing but in a degree or excess of an elementary quality . Again , now and then they call the very distemperature of qualities , not indeed a Disease , but well , the antecedent cause of the same : They will , I say , have those four solitary qualities to be diseases , whether they shall proceed from external qualities co-like unto themselves , or whether they owe their beginning in the body to be from a strange disproportion of mixture . Furthermore , they afterwards combine those qualities in a bride-bed ; from the congress whereof they then derive their off-spring , a Disease ; to wit , they believe that the Elements are so subservient to their own dreams : As that also , qualities being joyned at their pleasure , they have commanded them to answer to as many elements . So that those naked qualities being even balaced with feigned elements , and dreamed humours , they have feigned to be Diseases themselves . For in this place I declare the unseasonable , yea sporting varieties of the Schools , and their poverty , greatly fighting : otherwise surely I have sufficiently proved elsewhere , by a Demonstration chiefly true ; That in the nature of things there are not four elements ; and therefore neither are they mixed , that bodies which they have called mixt may be thereby constituted : and by consequence , that neither can distemperatures be accused for diseases : As neither , that ever there were four constitutive humours of us in the nature of things ; whereby it is sufficiently and over-manifest , that the causes of diseases , yea and diseases , and the predicament of diseases , have been hitherto unknown in the Schools . Notwithstanding , I will now dissemblingly treat with them , by the supposed Positions of the same Schools . Therefore the Schools sometimes repenting them of their sayings , will have the elementary qualities , and not unfrequently , the humours equal to these , not indeed to be diseases , but onely the containing causes of almost all diseases . Otherwise again , that of those qualities being more intense than is meet , a third or neutral one doth arise , which they have called the Diathesis or Disposition , or Disease it self : And so , however they toss the business , they have hitherto commanded a disease to inhabite among qualities : but humours , although intemperate ones , they for the most part driven out of the rank of diseases . Indeed a Cataract in the eye , although as a substance , it doth immediately intercept the sight , yet it cannot be a disease . Therefore they have feigned a certain Being of reason , and an imaginary relation , or obstruction , which might contain every property of a disease , and might be truly a disease , the Cataract being rejected : And so by degrees , a disease comes down unto non-beings and privations . And now and then , they for the essence of a disease , do ridiculously distinguish a simple distemperature from a conjoyned one ; and again , both of them from a humourous one ; when as a humour should be a substance void of degrees . Indeed they have distinguished the societies of proportionable and disproportionable mixtures of the first qualities into pedigrees ; and then they have thereby erected specious Schemes ; and at length they have filled whole Volumes with those fables : But at leastwise they have never admitted an evil or vitiated humour to be bred in us , which may not presuppose some elementary distemperature to be mother unto it . Wherefore a distemperature , in the Schools , shall be onely the cause of the cause , and of the thing caused : but it shall not be the thing caused it self , or the disease ; nor in the next place , the immediate and connexed cause of the disease . Oft-times again , the opinion of their minde being changed , they have withdrawn those qualities out of the account of diseases and causes , and have undistinctly banished them into the troop of sumptomes and co-incident things onely : being altogether doubtfull , what a disease , what a cause causing , or what a sumptome should be : But of the internal occasional causes of diseases ( which in the Book of Fevers I first brought into open view ) and of the equivocal or various kinds of products of diseases , nothing hath been heard in the Schools . For besides heats , colds , pains , weaknesses , and co-incidents of that sort , they have known no other fermental effect of a disease ; whereunto , at length , for a conclusion , they have brought death . And so they have confusedly joyned privative things to positive . In the mean time , they have doubted to what predicament they might ascribe diseases . For they oft-times denominate a disease to be a quality : otherwise also , a certain relative habitude or disposition of body ; oftentimes also , to be a quality of the number of actions ; they do often say it to be of the predicament of quantity ; to wit , while they say that diseases are not the first qualities themselves , but their distemperature , or degree , or excess onely ; and while they bring a sixth finger into numbers . But being unmindfull of what they said before , they will have a certain disposition , resulting from a hurtfull quality of humours , to fill up both pages or extensions of a disease ; to wit , so as that , that disposition may be the daughter of the hurtfull quality , as of the diseasifying cause : And so then a disease should supply the room , rather of an action hurt , than of the hurter of actions : And likewise a disease should not be any longer a distemperature , or the excess of a quality , but another product ( as yet unnamed ) from the distemperature it self ( to wit , a hurtfull quality of humours ) shall generate the disposition ; which onely and alone , should at length be truly the disease . For truly , a man that hath the falling Evil , a mad man , a gouty person , and one that hath a Quartane Ague , besides and out of the fit , are diseasie , and do nourish the disease within : Yet they have not such a diathesis or disposition ( for if the Schools do believe diseases to be meer accidents , surely these know not how to sleep , neither are they while they do not act ) in the time of rest from invasion . Therefore at least-wise in that sort of sick folks , the disease shall by no means be such a dispositive disposition . Again , they being unmindfull of themselves , do will , that if that disposition be small , it is not to have the reason or essence of a disease : but therefore , that it then doth bring forth a neither state , or an hermaphroditical Being , between a disease and not a disease : so that its essence doth , for the half of it , partake of a non-being ; and that as well in the state of declining , as of recovery : And which more is , they reckon such a small diathesis not among diseases , but with the weaknesses of a state of neutrality , and among symptomes : And that there it doth patiently wait , until that having obtained a degree of a symptome , it be made a disease : And so a diseasie disposition is not a disease , if it hath not as yet manifestly hurt by its excesse : wherefore also , not the disposition it self , but the excess thereof , is the disease of a proper name in the Schools : The correllative whereof is , that the degree onely of some qualities doth make and change the essence and species of its own self ; neither shall a species therefore have its own thinglinesse , in its being specifical , but onely in the point of excesse . So at length , a disease shall wander from a quality , into the predicament in relation . In the next place , if a disease be an effect , immediately hurting action ; they ought even from thence , at least , to acknowledge that the Archeus himself , or the maker of the assault , while he is irregularly moved , ( to wit , while Scarr-wort doth embladder a living body , not likewise a dead carcass ) and layes aside , and loseth a part of himself , for this purpose , ought to be the universal and primary disease of all : Even as I have threatned to demonstrate concerning Feavers . They likewise ought to acknowledge , if material causes do by themselves , and primarily suffice for an immediate hurting of the functions themselves ( to wit , as a Cataract before the apple of the eye doth by it self , and immediately bring forth blindness : even as the cutting off or mayming of a tendon , doth take away motion , without the intervening of a disposition really distinct from the curtailing wound ) that there is no need of feigning such a disposition ; for there is not any stoppage , or diathesis which stops up the passage of the urine : if the stone alone doth immediately do that , and materially stop , and doth so perfectly and really contain the whole foundation of a relation in it self , that the disposition or stoppifying action proceeding from the stopping stone , is nothing but a relation , and meer Being of reason , which in diseases , in time of healing ; as also in true Beings , and things truly existing , hath no place : wherefore extrinsecal diseases , such as are wounds , and what things soever do intercept any passage , seeing they do not arise from a seminal beginning , nor do nourish a cause which may stir up the Archeus , they are the clients of another Monarchy . But for seminal diseases , it is a nearer thing in nature and motion , to suppose the Spirit , the Archeus , as it is the efficient beginning of feeling and motion , to be immediately , and most nearly affected by hurtfull things , and that , that occasional cause , and the Archeus , do mutually touch each other in a point ; whence a disease : For the occasional matter , whether it be brought to within , or be bred within , or be coagulable , or putrifiable ; lastly , dispersable , or waxing hard , doth alwaies onely occasionally stir up the Archeus , that he may thereby be astonied or sore afraid , and wax diversly wroth : To wit , under whose perturbation , an Idea is bred , informing some part of the Archeus . And that thing composed of the matter of the Archeus , and the aforesaid seminal Idea , as the efficient Beginning , is in truth , every seminal disease . Therefore the Schools being seduced by their own proper liberties of dreams , have thought , that because the consideration of Causes and Principles differs from the consideration of the thing produced by them , therefore from a necessity formally causing , all Causes ought in making , being , operating , and remaining , to remain perpetually separated from the things caused : not heeding , that for the most part , the consideration of Causes and Principles , doth not otherwise differ from the consideration of the thing caused , than by the relation of a mental Being ; the which , although it be received in Science Mathematical , and discoursary things , yet not in the course of Nature . Therefore the Schools , being deluded by such faulty arguments , have believed every efficient Cause to be of necessity external ; and that therefore it cannot be united with the thing caused ; and therefore that neither is the thing generating a part of the thing generated ; when as otherwise in Nature , that which mediately generates a Being , is alwaies the internal , vital Governour , and assisting Architect or Master-workman of Generation : and so he who for an End , directeth all things unto their scopes , causeth all things for himself , and for himself acteth all things . Therefore they being also deceived in Diseases , have believed that the diseasifying Cause is external in respect of the body of man ; or at leastwise in the beholding of the Family-administration of Life . For it hath not been known , that Generation bespeaks nothing but a flux of the Seed unto perfection , maturity of properties , an unfolding of things hidden , and a consummating of Orders unto their own ends . First therefore , Aristotle hath deceived the Schools , teaching , that Corruption and Generation do throughout whole Nature , and that alwaies and of necessity , by steps succeed each other : And therefore he hath made a mental Being , a meer negative , non-being ( a naked privation ) the immediate Principle in Nature , between Generation and Corruption . Neither could ever the Schools understand , that the same Workman which hath made a Plant of a Seed , hath not failed in the generating of a Plant , hath not , as being banished , departed , as being worn out , not died ; nor lastly , that another hath been surrogated in his stead for the coming of a form ( whereof that Workman remains the immediate executive Instrument , for ends foreknown by God ) or a participation of life : but that he himself doth even onely and alwaies remain in the government of Life . Hence indeed , neither have they understood , that the thing generated doth proceed from Causes really and suppositively , not distinct from the essence of a thing ; yea nor indeed , with any interchangeable course of causality : Because the Schools have hitherto more diligently considered of Operations demonstrable by Sense , ( Science Mathematical , I say , and artificial things diverse from Nature ) than the natures of things themselves , seated in the Cup or bosome of essentiality . For they have never heeded that the Instrument of Art , the Artificer himself ; yea , the Measures themselves of things measurable , cannot generate any thing seminally in nature , or introduce a seminal , substantial or essential disposition , for the transchanging of products . Consequently also , neither have they understood a disease , as a real and substantial Being , but onely in manner of an accident : when as otherwise , a disease is not a disposition , not an accident hurting the actions ; and much less the hurt of an action it self , proceeding from a duel of hurtfull Causes with out ruling Powers : But a Disease is a real Being , having its Causes , the Material and Efficient , stirred up by occasional Causes : For if a Disease , and Nature , or our Faculties , do stand in a diameter , ( for so they will have them ) a Disease and a sound or healthy Life , cannot be at once in the same immediate Subject : therefore a disease cannot be a disposition , which doth even bring a detriment unto our powers : but such a disposition should be rather a fruit of the disease , and a consequent more latter than the disease , and the mother and nurse of weaknesses . I therefore distinguish this disposition from the occasional causes , and products of diseases . But the fruits of a disease , seeing they have respect unto the term [ unto which ] the disease generates those its own products , they may also be co-incident , or happen together with the Life ; and therefore some symptomatical fruits are among dispositions ; which thing the Schools have not yet explained : To wit , the defects of digestions , motions , &c. And likewise weaknesses are dispositions , which proceed indeed from the products of diseases ( even as by and by in its own place ) yet they are not diseases , because they light into nature , whereinto they are introduced by the strange violences of diseasie seeds , and thus far are unially entertained in the life ; neither therefore can they have the nature of a disease , because a disease cannot remain together with the life , in the same point of identity . But a disease retires out of the bosome of life , no otherwise than as it separates it self out of health . But Life is in it self , a certain integrity or sound state of light , with which a disease cannot co-habite ; as neither doth a disease subsist but in the vice of life , or in life that is degenerate : The which indeed is separated from the vital light it self ; and therefore also , from the central point of life it self . For as light , which the Soul it self is , is not life it self : So neither is the light of life it self , a disease it self : But this sits in the ulcerous degeneration of the vital Archeus , and so also vitiates the light hereof : and therefore by reason of a mark of resemblance , it participates of life , and doth sometimes render it conformable to it self , and doth wholly vitiate it : which thing , in the Plague is ordinary and manifest . It hath not been known therefore in the Schools , unto what predicament they might attribute a disease . But I say , that a disease consisteth of Matter , and an efficient Cause , no otherwise than as other Beings of nature do : For the essicient Archeus , in labouring by his own disjointings of passions , and in bringing forth the Idea's of his own disturbances ( for whatsoever things are made in nature , do arise , & are propagated by Idea's inclosed in seeds ; for otherwise the progresses of nature should be foolish , which want an internal guide or leader ) procureth to dispose of some portion of his own substance , according to the hostile ends which he hath proposed to himself , and to the whole Body , in that very kind of his estrangedness ; and at that very moment , wherein the matter comes down unto the bound proposed to the efficient Idea , a disease is bred : Even so that , every seminal disease consisteth in a real act , which causeth an indisposition of the matter proper to it self , that is , of the very Archeus which makes the assault , and being applied unto us . I therefore have learned , that every circle of predicaments , are in very deed in Diseases after the true manner of other Beings by themselves , subsisting in Nature : For by this meanes , I have found , not Diseases in Predicaments , but all Predicaments in Diseases : For truly in all seminal Diseases , I find an occasional matter , which like a violent guest , making an assault , doth violate the Inne , and right , and disturbes the administration of the Family . From thence I find , that the Archeus himself is disturbed in all partitular Diseases : for from hence also , I consider another internal matter of a Disease , to wit , that part of the Archeus , which he hath defiled by his own exorbitancy ; on which part he hath fashioned the Idea of his perturbation , and the seminal efficient Cause of a Disease . So indeed a true and real Being , doth conserve in it self the respects of all the Predicaments ; through the ignorance of which , or one only point , heathenisme hath overwhelmed the Schooles of Medicine , with the contagion of blindness ; And all curing hath been believed to be subject unto naked qualities , excesses of degrees , relative respects and actions . For from hence they have feigned , Contraries to be Remedies of Contraries ; and no Disease to be mitigated by the goodness of Nature , the mildness of Medicines , and by the appeasing and repentance of the Archeus , that was first disturbed ; but only by fighting , skirmishing and war , to be reduced into a mean , or temperature of the first qualities ; So that seeing they think every Disease to be a Disposition , likewise that all Remedies ought to be a naked Disposition , or they are deceived in their position ; whence it follows , that the taking away of the stone out of the Bladder , shall never be able of it self to import a cure of the sick . For truly , seeing it is a Remedy onely privative , whereunto an appeasing of the Archeus belongs ; but it is not a Disposition contrary to the Stone : And much lesse a prohibitive of the foregoing matter , which they suppose of necessity to be supplied from elsewhere , uncessantly to flow thither , nor to cease , the Stone being taken away by the knife , to wit , if the Disposition generating the matter [ whereof ] shall not first cease : Therefore according to the Schooles , He that is cut for the Stone , should be cured onely for a little space , to wit , as the Impediments of Functions are taken away , otherwise produced , and cherished by the Stone being present ; and also as the disposition mentally interposing , is secondarily , casually and by accident obliterated . But the mattter is far otherwise ; For truly a seminal Disease is a creature , which made and found out its own matters , and its own Idea's in us after sin , by an hereditary right of the Archeus , neither had he it originally in Nature : And therefore the root of Diseases , ought totally to be unknown to all Heathenisme : And seeing an essential definition is not to be fetched from the Genus of the thing defined , and its constitutive difference ( even as I have taught in the Book of Feavers ) by reason of the manifold perplexities of Errors , and ridiculous positions ; but altogether from a connexion of both Causes , which are Beings in Nature , and therefore , that the primitive and Ideal cause of Diseases hath stood neglected hitherto : It follows also , that the definition , knowledge , essence , and roots of a Disease , have remained unknown : And finally that curings have been instituted by accident , with an ignorance of the universal disposition of internal properties , their efficacie and interchangable course . Truly I know , as a Christian , that a Disease is not a Creature of the first Constitution ; because it is that which hath taken its rootes from sin , in the impurity of Nature , which afterwards in their own spring have at length budded in Individuals . For neither were created poysons Diseases , as long as they were without us , but then , when the Archeus of the same was made domestical unto us , through the forreign disposition of its middle life , it raised up seminal Idea's in our Archeus , even as Fire is struck out of a Flint : Then I say , Diseases , are made unto us , the fore-runners of Death , from an occasional poyson . Diseases therefore do continue with us , when they have their provoking occasions subsisting in our Nature , until neither their occasional matter be wasted away , or at least until the Archeus be rid of his own perturbations , or of his office . For Diseases indeed came on us by Sin , and afterwards in Nature now corrupted by Sin , the ferments and ready obediences of matter , waxed strong , and so they pierced into the number and catalogue of Nature , and even unto this day do most inwardly persevere with us , after a singular manner : Yet alwayes distinct from other created things in this , that the created things of the first constitution , have a proper existence in themselves ; but diseases neither are , nor are able to subsist without us : Because they proceed as it were from a formal light , and the vital constitutive Beginning of us : And therefore the natural Archeus and a Disease , do pierce each other , because they have a material co-resemblance . But the Schooles , when they heeded , that Diseases do never exist without us , supposed that our Body was the subject of Inhaesion of Diseases , and consequently , that Diseases were only accidents , and therefore to be stirred up from an elementary distemperature , because they apprehended them in a most prompt , and rustical sence ; also for that cause , they hoped that they should sufficiently , and over vanquish Diseases by Heats and Colds : And therefore they likewise decreed , that every refreshment , aid and help , which nature being informed , did require of the Physitian , was not to be administred in shew of a refreshment , in peace and tranquility ; but herein onely to prevail , and that wars , strifes , contraries , and discords were to be appointed , whereby the hostile elementary qualities being cobroken in us , they might by constraint , return into a mediocrity of temperature , that so they may restrain the injuries of Nature now corrupted by contrary injuries , and subdue them by revenging : Which thing surely they have thus judged , nor have otherwise understood , because that , they knew no other action , than that which from a superiority of the agent , rules over the patient . But surely those things do not savour of an help , neither is the Law of Christ ( by whom all things were made ) conformable to those Lawes of the Schooles : And so ( as elsewhere more largely ) either Christ is not the parent of Nature , or an adversary to himself in Nature , or such Heathenish speculations of healing are rotten . The Schooles therefore have not considered , that the matters of many Beings do not consist but in a strange Inne , whereunto they were appointed : Wherefore by reason of their different kind of manner of existing , they thought a Disease to be a meer accident , but predicamentally seperating the matter , which a Disease might carry before it , from a Disease : As if an Embryo should be an accident , because it is no where but in the womb . Indeed it pleased the revenger of sin , that Diseases , with their matters , as well that occasional , as that equal and inward unto them , should not subsist , but in those whose the Diseases and offence should be , and that without respect of the Being of one unto another . For neither have the Heathenish Schooles ever considered , as neither the Moderns who have been established on Paganish Beginnings , that this relation of existence came unto them from the condition of sin , and the procreation thereof , from the Archeus sore shaken with perturbations : Because such thoughts never entred into Heathenisme , neither is it a wonder , that the Gentiles knew not the force of Transgression , although they do deliver by the Fable of Promotheus and Pandora , that they learned something from the Hebrews : Yet it is a wonder , that they were ignorant that a Disease , before it should be made ours , ought to proceed from the most inward Beginning of Life , and to be incorporated in us ; neither therefore , that occasional Causes , can be the connexed and constitutive Causes of Diseases ; for truly , those Causes , do as yet remain after life , and yet Diseases cease . But we must in no wise indulge Christians , who are thorowly instructed by the Scriptures , that they have even until now , esteemed it for an honour to have delivered their minds bound unto the hurtful stupidities of Heathens . They took notice indeed , that there was that affinity of some Diseases with us , that they were so connexed unto our Body , in respect of an occasional matter , that they could scarce be divided from a consent of the mind , or be seperated from a hurt action ; as in Wounds , instrumentary Diseases , those deprived of the strength of Seeds . For the Haw upon the Coat Cornea , is that which immediately , hurteth the sight ; as also the Stone , doth without a medium , stop up the passage of the Urine . But the obstruction flowing from thence , is a relation and Being of Reason ; the which as it acteth nothing , so neither hath it the reason , nor consideration of a Disease in Nature : Nevertheless , the Modern Schooles had rather to commit the Essences of Diseases unto Elementary discords , than that they would confess the Bodies of Nature , to bespeak nothing else besides a connexion of both constitutive Causes , to them unknown . For that reason , miserable mortals have hitherto groaned under this burden of blindness , expecting Cure from those , who were fully ignorant of the constitutive Causes of Diseases . Wherefore , seeing a Disease ought to contain its own efficient Cause , and its own matter within it self ; Hence it easily appears , that hunger , although like a very sharp Disease , it kills in very few dayes , yet is not a Disease ; because it doth not consist of Diseasie Causes , whether it be considered as a sorrowful sense of the number of Symptomes ; or next as it consisteth of real defects : Because for as much as the soure ferment of the Stomack ( even as in the Treatise concerning Digestions ) wanting an Object whereon it may act , yet cannot therefore take rest , it attempts by resolving the secondary humour , and immediate nourishment of the Stomack ; for the Archeus is as well in hunger as in fullnesse , the cause not onely of a Disease , but of Health it self : But a want of the matter of Food , bespeakes a privation , but not a Disease : Wherefore we must altogether exactly note , that Hunger although it doth cruelly slay , as if it were a Disease ; yet that it is not a Disease , in that respect , to wit , because the Archeus is in no wise diseasie in hunger : From whence it ought to be clearly manifest , that every Disease doth primarily and essentially respect its efficient Archeus . For that cause it was rightly decreed by Hippocrates , to the carelesnesse of the Schooles , that hot , cold , moist , or dry ( not indeed as such , and concrete or composed ) are not Diseases , or the causes of these ; but sharp , bitter , salt , brackish , &c. For peradventure in the age of Hippocrates , the occasional cause was not yet distinguished from a true Disease . Indeed , he knew a twofold excrement to be in us : One indeed natural and ordinary , and so ours , but the other a diseasie one , from its mother errour , and a hostile propagation , and the which , we Christians know to have proceeded from the vigour of sin : For when the oldman had distinguished this by forreign savours , he supposed , that if it were not a Disease it self , at leastwise , it was the adequate or suitable occasion of Diseases , not yet then distinguished from a Disease : The removal whereof at least , should open both the folding doors of Healing . But it is matter of amazement , that he whom the Schooles do boast to follow as their Captain , they have skipped over this his Text , through sluggishness ; as also another Standard-defender of the same Captain ; wherein he hath declared , that every motion , unto a Disease , Death , and Health , is efficiently made by the Spirit which maketh an assault : And likewise wherein he saith , that Natures themselves are the Physitianesses of Diseases ; and by consequence the makers also of Diseases , if that assaulting spirit by its disturbance , doth work all things whatsoever are done or made in living Bodies . Indeed the Schooles have passed by many such things , which did deserve to be accounted like Oracles ; because they being deluded and bewitched by four feigned Humors being traduced by the deep shipwrack of sleepiness , drousiness , and sluggishness ; have neglected the liquors which he himself nameth secondary ones : as if a Disease might not be as equally possible in those , as in the four feigned primary humours . Therefore have they also neglected the Diseases arising from the retents or things retained of Digestions and transplantations ; because also they have been utterly ignorant of the Digestions and Fermentations themselves , even as I have taught in its place . Alas ! How penurious a knowledge hath graced Physitians hitherto , whom otherwise if they had been true Physitians , the most High had commanded to be honoured . For they have considered a Disease to flow forth as an accident , produced by its Agent , a diseasifying matter ( wherein therefore that its own efficient is , they have in the enterance been ignorant ) and the patient , which they say is the Body of Man. First of all , They do not distinguish the Agent from the Matter , which is most intimate hereunto . Secondly , Then , They deny a Disease to be material , because it is that which they suppose to be a meer Quality . Thirdly , Neither do they distinguish provoking Occasions , from the internal Efficient ; because with Aristotle , they suppose every Efficient Cause to be External . Fourthly , They separate the constitutive Causes from the thing constituted . Fifthly , They know not the Chain of Efficient Causes , with their Products . Sixthly , They for the most part , confound Occasional Causes with their Diseases and Symptomes . Seventhly , They somtimes look upon a Disease as a Disposition skirmishing between the Orders of Causes , and the Body of Man. Eighthly , They had rather have that very later disposition , arisen ( as they say ) from the fight of Causes , to be a Disease , the which , to wit , should immediately ( so they say ) hurt the actions , whether in the mean time , it be contrary unto a vital action , or indeed , it be the effect of that contrariety , which shall offend the functions . But I do not heed the hurtings of Functions for the Essence of a Disease , but the operative disturbances extended on the Archeus , do I contemplate of , in Diseases . For he doth often die without a sense of action , being hurt , who indeed suddainly falls down , being in the mean time long diseasie ; or he that perisheth only by a defect of Nature : Wherefore also , I reckon it among other impertinencies , to have tied up the Essence of Diseases unto the hurtings of the functions , seeing that is accidental and latter to Diseases , but not alwayes a concomitant . Yea truly , because a voluntary restoring of the enfeebled faculties , doth follow health ; hence the Schooles have measured the Essence of a Disease , to owe an unseparable respect unto the hurting , and things hurting of Functions ; So indeed , that these Essences of Diseases should be included therein : Because they have thought , that the whole hinge of healing was rowled about contraries ; when as otherwise , it is wholly by accident , if in Diseases , Functions are hurt ; otherwise , whoever was he , who denied a Disease not really to be present in the silence of a quartane Ague , the falling sickness , madness , and Gout ? When notwithstanding no hurting of Functions is seen ? who is he , which doth not now and then observe in a person recovering , greater hindrances of actions and weaknesses , than in the flaming beginning of Diseases ? It hath therefore alwaies seemed a blockish thing to me , for a thing to be essentially defined by later and separable effects . And seeing a Disease is primarily made by the Archeus which maketh an assault , ( yet by an erring one ) certainly the action hereof shall be much nearer into the faculties themselves than into the actions of the same ; especially because , as long as the faculties are as yet ( in one that is in recovery ) as it were vanquished and sore shaken , there are indeed impediments of the faculties present , likewise a hurting and suppression of actions , yet no Disease surviving . And seeing that I have elsewhere sufficiently demonstrated , that both causes in natural things , do not differ in supposition from the very thing it self constituted : Therefore if a disease should be the cause of the hurting of an action , as the constitutive difference of the same ; it should also of necessity be , that a disease it self , is not any thing diverse from an action being hurt ; which thing is already manifest to be false . It should also be false , that the cause and the disease , should by the one onely title of the hurter of an action , be undistinctly comprehended , or the Schooles do badly decree , that the hurter of action is the cause of a disease it self . But the hurting of the action , should be the disease , and the action hurt , the symptome it self ; for that is also a devise too childish . For First , A Disease should be a meer being of Reason , mentally arising from a disposition of the tearms of the Cause unto the Effect ; To wit , of the Hurter , and the thing Hurt . And then , an Error is discerned in the definition of a Disease delivered by the Schooles ; To wit , That a Disease is a Disposition , primarily hurting an Action : Because it is that which should define the Cause , and not the Disease it self , or the Effect of the Cause . Thirdly , If a Remedy ought to remove that it self which hurteth the Action ; that shall either have a singular Monarchy , whereby it may call forth , and shake off the Hurter it self , or the Remedy shall joyn it self to Nature her self , and that so most unitingly , that their forces being conjoyned , and they being now as it were one united thing , doth set it self in an opposite term , against the Hurter it self . But the first of these is not true . Because the Remedy should be as forreign unto Nature , as is otherwise the Disease it self ; by reason of a particular direction , and arbitriment of motions despised by our Archeus . For if it ought to help , it should have a power superiour to man's Nature , in such a manner , that it should obey , neither the Lawes of things causing Diseases , nor bringing Death : And so it should expel the Cause which bringeth the Disease , as well from a dead Carcass , as from a languishing person . Neither likewise hath the later , place . Because , if the Remedy should be united to nature , radically , and by an unitive mixture , it should have a priviledge above the condition of nourishment . A hurting therefore of Action it self , doth not fall into the definition of a Disease : Especially , because a Remedy doth not respect so much the occasional Cause , as the internal efficient Cause of a Disease it self . Whence that Maxime is verified ; That Natures themselves are the Curesses of Diseases , as the Effectresses thereof . They indeed do on both sides confound the Disease with the Symptom , to the destruction of those that are to be cured , seeing curing is seated oftentimes in the removal of the occasional Cause , but never in the removing of Symptomes . And because the removal of the occasional cause is thought to be an eduction or drawing out of matter : nothing but solutives and diminishers of contents have flourished hitherto ; whereas otherwise , a removal of the occasional cause doth more respect a correction or pacifying of the immediate efficient , than a pulling away of the occasional matter : Because after correction , even without a removal of the occasional matter , a cessation , and unhoped for rest , yea , and also a cure , do for the most part , by and by happen : The which in a sympathetical cure doth frequently come to hand , and manifestly appeareth . The Schools therefore have been deceived by artificial things , and because they have thought , that all generation is begun from the privative point of corruption ; They have not known , that that which now flows in the material seminal Beginning of all things whatsoever , hath already , for that very cause , it s own real Being , although an unripe one , and that it is hereby , [ this something ] in it self , and distinct from any other thing ; and that it doth by a natural generation attain only a maturity and illustration in its top or perfection , by reason of a new formal light of acting . Neither indeed , doth the seed therefore differ from its constituted Being , by the efficient internal cause and matter ; but only by an individual alterity or interchangeable course of the perfection of a formal light , even as elsewhere concerning the birth of Forms . For the Seed which at first , had need of an exciter , this formal light being obtained , is afterwards for the moving of it self . The Schools also do now and then consider a Disease , even as if it were a neutral product , proceeding or issuing forth through an activity of the cause , and a reluctancy of our nature : But I know , that as well the formal Agent , as the Patient , in a Disease , are strangers unto us in that act : To wit , I know , that the Falling-sicknesse , is no lesse really in us , at the time of its silence , than when it shall be in its full fit . I know also , that a Disease is a real substantive Being ; but not a relative Being , not a naked disposition of the Agent and thing striving , unto the Patient , as of extreams unto a mean or middle thing . Neither lastly , that it is a conformity of proportion or disproportion , between extreams : Although this respect of forming a relation between the Beings of Reason , be nearer than the effect produced . I know further , that every natural Agent , is born to produce its like , except that which acteth by a Blas ( but the power or faculty , as well that locally motive , as alterative , because it wanted a name , it seemed good to me , to have it called Blas , in the Beginnings of the Physicks or natural Phylosophy . ) So the Heaven generates Meteors , not Heavens . And a man , by a voluntary Blas ; and likewise the Archeus , by an ideal and seminal Blas , stirs up divers alterations . But a seminal Agent , being inordinate , doth through a strange Blas , bring forth a Monster , which is properly a Disease : For although a Disease , according to its causes , be natural ; yet in respect of us , it ceaseth not to be against nature , as well , in as much as it began from a forreign Blas , as that it carrieth a hostile Blas , and raiseth it up from it self : And therefore , neither doth this Monster generate a Young like it self , unless it by serments doth transfer its own seminal contagion , and so causeth Diseases in others by accident . But as to that which belongs to the efficient cause of Diseases ; There is in an abortive Birth , a certain efficient cause bred within ( as is a Cataract in the eye , the stone in man , a Feverish matter ) the which , although it be called by the Schools , the efficient , immediate , and containing cause of a Disease ; yet it is only the occasional cause of Diseases , and external in respect of the life , wherein every Disease alway is : And therefore neither can such a visible matter , not only obtain the reason of a true efficient ; but neither also can it be of the intrinsecal matter of a Disease it self , to be any part thereof . It remains therefore the conciting and occasional cause of Diseases : Because the efficient and seminal matter , if it ought immediately to reach and pierce the vital faculties , and so also the life ; even as also in a point it is altogether necessary , that it doth contain a resembling mark of life ; Even so that also , that thing is perpetual in seminal Diseases , that a Disease , as it is never in a dead carcass , so it cannot but be in a living Body . Furthermore , of efficient causes , there is a certain one , which is and remaineth external : As a sword , having obtained an impulsive force , maketh a Disease in the divided matter , which is called a wound : After the like manner , is the fretting of the bladder , which is made by the Stone ; For although some external efficients , have their own seminal Beginnings whereof they are generated ( as the Stone ) yet in respect of the Disease which they produce , they want Seeds , and therefore are they external and forreign to the Disease it self . But internal occasionals have a Seed , whereby they nourish the Disease stirred up by them , and are also oft-times shut up or finished in their being made : As is manifest in a Fever , an Imposthume , &c. In the next place , there are occasional efficients , which do defile by a continual and fermental propagation : As Ulcers , the Jaundice , &c. And there are internal occasionals , which do now and then sleep a long time : As in the Falling-sickness , Gout , Madness , Asthma , Fevers , &c. Of internal occasional causes also , some do uncessantly labour , that they may estrange the matter of our Body from the Communion of life : Whereto if a Ferment shall come ( which thing , Hippocrates in Diseases , calls divine ) co-meltings of the Body are made . But in a Fever the efficient occasional matter , according to its double property , doth stir up the Archeus unto a propulsion or driving out , for the consuming of it self : Wherefore , neither doth it leave any other product behind it , unless a new Idea shall from the Archeus being provoked , spring forth by accident : In like manner , as the Dropsie followeth Fevers , &c. But let pains , drowsinesses , watchings , weaknessses , &c. be symptoms and dispositions ; so also , a strange seminal efficient doth beget the Stone , and there ceaseth , although it thenceforth stirs up troubles every moment , and new motions . But the product of the Stone are excoriations or gratings off of the skin , and new Diseases , which are Monsters unlike their Parent . For in speaking properly , the generation of the Stone is not a Disease ; and much more the Stone it self , which in it self is a natural composition , but in respect of us , diseasie : Wherefore also in the Chamber-pot or Urinal , and without the life , it is generated by its own causes of putrifaction or stonifying : And so , it is a monstrous and irregular Disease ; because it is that which is bred in us by accident , and without the life . In the next place , as soon as the effect or product in its being made , hath lost its occasional efficient , that product is no longer the very connexion of both causes , or the former Disease ; but it hath its own causes , more latter than the connexion of the first causes . For so an Imposthume hath brought forth an Ulcer ; but this weeps a poysonsom liquor ; this in the next place , doth oft-times excoriate , changeth the former Ulcer , or raiseth up a new one : But it nothing pertains unto the causing Ulcer , whether its liquor doth afterwards ulcerate or not ; because there is not in it an effective intention to produce an Ulcer by the liquor : Because the corrupt Sanies or liquor it self , is the product of the Ulcer causing it , which received its effective and seminal intention in its own essence ; but not for the propagation of a new Ulcer , which is therefore unto it by accident . The Stone also , is the product of its constituting causes , which it encloseth and terminates in it self : Because the causes thereof being brought unto the end of their effecting , do cease in the product , and are shut up as if they were buried : Although that Stone be an occasional means , whereunto the generation of a new Stone happens by growing : In the mean time , it is to the Stone by accident , if it produce other Diseases more cruel than it self ; yea , than death it self . But in the Dropsie , the efficient Archeus of the Reins , in the conception of an Idea begotten by his own perturbation , closeth up the Kidneys , and a Dropsie is made : Yet the former efficient doth not cease , even unto the strangling of the person . In that Dropsie being caused , and the water being produced and dismissed , there is not a further intention to produce any other thing . After another manner , oft-times , the product of a Disease , seeing it is an in-bred Monster , it hath an occasional propagative faculty from the property of the efficient Archeus , not enclosed or bound up in the product ; but free in the Organs of life . Whence indeed other products do now and then successively spring forth : At least-wise , the lavishments of the faculties and life , ought not so much to be accounted the products of Diseases , as their ordained fruits , and symptoms , and the periods of these . Neither in the mean time , is that a Disease by a less priviledge , which is produced by a diseasie ferment , than was the Disease , the Parent of that Product : Neither indeed doth it more sluggishly corrupt some vital thing or part , by strange efficients being received , than that , in the primary efficient of whose action , the Disease it self is . But the Schools do suppose a contrariety of the Disease , with health , with life ; and again , with the Remedy it self . Therefore unto one term , they apply many contrary ones , contrary to the nature of relatives , and contrary to their own Maxim ; That one contrary is said to be as many wayes as the other . For the doctrine of contraries in Remedies , standing ; health likewise ought to come forth of Medicine , as a chick out of an egge : Or seeing that contraries ought to reduce each other unto nothing , health ought to proceed from a Disease , even as otherwise weakness proceeds from a Disease : For if a Remedy be contrary to a Disease , verily the faculties of our life , cannot be contrary to a Disease ; and by consequence , a Disease shall not be able to hurt our faculties , or the actions of these . And the Schools have erred , while they contend , that in a Crisis or judicial Sign , a Disease doth in its whole course , sustain a single combat with our faculties . But if a Disease be contrary to our faculties , and to the Remedy it self : at least wise , they shall incongruously apply cold things in a Fever , they being applied no lesse to the vital faculty , than to the Disease : Yea , if from a contrariety of disposition , a Disease be bred ; our action ought not wholly to depend on the Spirit making the assault , but on the meer cause of the Disease : and the which therefore , seeing it should have the principle of its motion in it self , it ought to operate as well in a dead carcass , as in a living Body ; and the whole skirmish should be only between the dispositions of strange accidents suppressing each other : Of which strife , the life it self should be only a hateful spectator , without discommodity to it self . What other thing is this , than to have feigned a sluggish and cold vital Philosophy ? and that the Physitians or Curers of Fevers , are cold ? What if a Disease doth stand in a quality , whose contrary warriour they will have to be known by sense , and elementary : why therefore are so uncertain , weak , and slow Remedies of Diseases devised ? Why are there so manifest and ready Tokens , Remedies , and Simples of manifest contrary qualities , boasted of in the Schooles ? Therefore according to mee , a disease is a substantial Being , begotten by Archeal causes , as well materially as efficiently . But heat and cold , and that sort of signed Concomitants , I call fruits and symptoms , far different from the produced Diseases : For a Disease is oft-times furiously moved against us , wherein many symptoms do interpose ; which Disease notwithstanding , doth oftentimes cease without a product : As is manifest in intermitting Fevers : For neither doth a new Disease arise from thence ; But only nature intends to shake off a tedious guest ; under which endeavour , fruits and symptoms are produced ; drowsinesses , heats , colds , pains , watchings , disquietnesses , vomits , weaknesses , &c. Elsewhere also , a Disease doth often convert the matter of its Inne : To wit , while the Archeus being stirred up by an occasional ferment , doth bring forth a new product : whether in the mean time , the former Disease be shut up in the term of the product , or not . Neither doth a Disease also seldom occasionally produce a Monster unlike to it self : While a Fever doth cause the Dropsie , a Cataract , Scirrhus , &c. because they are the products of Diseases by accident : To wit , whereof a new Idea from the Archeus is the Mother : as shall appear beneath in its place . But weaknesse is a universal Fruit of Diseases , the Chamber-maid of these . The which indeed is no other thing , than a disposition following a diminution of the strength or faculties : And it is either total , by reason of the afflictings of a notable or noble part : It happens also , through an adherency of a diseasie occasion , unto some solid part ; Whence the Archeus being at length the extinct , a blasting of that part , and presently after a death of the whole Body , do also proceed : Or weaknesse is particular , by reason of a particular Blas , affecting some member by its animosity or wrathfulnesse : For so from the stomack is there a giddinesse of the Head , Head-ach , &c. as from the Womb , the parts do diversly and miserably languish by an Aspect : Which things surely , are the symptoms and fruits of the Archeus , but not the Diseases thereof : the which otherwise , do naturally lay up their own efficients in themselves : Even as elsewhere , concerning the action of Government . In the next place , the product of a Disease , differs from a symptom , in this , as this is a fruit : it requires indeed a mitigation from the Archeus himself ; but not a curing as it is by it self : Because it likewise vanisheth together with the Disease . But I find no mention of the product of Diseases in the Schools ; but it is either confounded with a symptom , or is attributed to a certain new distemperature , and a new aflux of humours . Others also are wont to dedicate Diseases to the parts containing ; the causes likewise , to the parts contained : but to banish symptoms into the spirit making the assault : Being in the first place , badly mindful , that they attribute the heat and cold of the first qualities , as Diseases , to humours contained . In the next place , if a Disease be in the part containing , and the cause in the thing contained ; If the spirit in-bred in us , shall not move or stir up the cause and the disease , whereby I pray you shall it be done ? what shall beget a disease by a cause , if not the spirit ? For as wrath , bashfulnesse , and agony , do heat by a Blas ; so fear , grief , and sorrow , do cool , without the aid of humours . But Pepper and heating things , do heat living creatures ; but not dead carcasses : as neither do Cantharides , Scar-wort , or Smallage , embladder these : But Causticks do even wast a dead carcasse ; and that , not through the effect of their own heat , but only by virtue of a burning Salt , which resolves the solid parts into a Salt , without heat : To wit , even as Calx vive , doth resolve Cheese into a muscilage . Causticks therefore , or searing Remedies , do generate an Eschar in a live Body , but not in a dead carcasse ; but they do resolve this , by a simple resolution of their Salt : But because in a live Body , the Archeus is also inflamed within , an Eschar is produced from both Agents : To wit , the Caustick and the Archeus . Lastly , the fire doth indifferently burn , as well a living as a dead Body ; and more speedily , the live Body it self : Because the fire consumes from without , by burning ; and the spirit it self through its inflaming , becomes caustical or burning within . Therefore , from a fourfold handy-craft operation ; to wit , of the Fire , Pepper , a Vesicatory , and Caustick , the remarkable things which follow , do voluntarily issue . 1. That the efficient heat of heating things , is ours . In Pepper therefore , there is only an occasional exciting heat . 2. That a Fever is not heat effentially , but it hath things proper to it , as well cold as heat , from the property of an alterative Blas : And that not efficiently , but only occasionally , incitingly , and accidentally : But the Archeus alone is the efficient of heat and cold . For neither is a Feverish matter in a Body , otherwise hot , now made cold , then afterwards hot , that the whole Body may be cold and hot at the successive change thereof : But they are the works and signatures of life ; not the properties of diseasie Seeds in the matter , but meer pessions of the Body , thus moved by a Blas , from the heat and cold of the Archeus ; And therefore , neither do they any longer happen in a dead carcass , as neither after a Disease obtains the Victory , neither also when the Disease ceaseth ; the occasional matter in the mean time remaining . 3. That the very thing , which worketh heat in us , doth efficiently also produce cold : Not indeed privatively , in respect of heat ; because cold is a real and actual Blas of the Archeus . 4. That no curing is made by contraries , as neither by reason of like things ; because a Disease consisteth essentially in the seminal Idea , and in the matter of the Archeus ; but at leastwise , substances do not admit of a contrariety in their own essence . 5. That a Disease is primitively overcome , by extinguishing of the Idea , or a removal of the essential matter thereof . 2. Originally , by allaying and pacifying of the disturbed Archeus . And 3. From a latter thing ; to wit , if the occasional matter be taken away , which stirs up a motive and alterative Blas of entertainment , that the Idea or Disease , may be efficiently made . 6. That both the inward causes , connexed in the Archeus , is the very substantial Disease , having in it , its proper root : But the occasional matter , however it be received in the Body , is alwayes external , because it is not of the inward root and essence of a Disease . 7. That Symptoms are accidents by accident , breaking forth by excitation or stirring up , according to the variety of every Receiver : And it is rather a wandring error , or fury of our Powers . 8. That the Archeus , which formed us in the Womb , doth also direct , govern , move all things during life . Therefore occasional causes are perceived only in the Archeus : who afterwards , according to the disturbance thereby conceived , doth bring forth his own Idea's , which immediately have a Blas , whereby they move , direct , and change , and finish , whatsoever happens in health and Diseases . But the parts of the Body , as well those containing , as those contained , and likewise the occasional causes of Diseases , of themselves , are dead and idle ; neither can they move themselves , or any other thing ; Seeing nothing is moved by it self , which is not by it self , and primarily vital ; except weight , which naturally falleth downwards . 9. That the products and effects of Diseases , are seminal generations , so depending on the Seeds , that they do shew forth the properties of these . 10. That heat , cold , heates , &c. seeing they are not the proper causes of a Disease , nor the true products of Diseases , but only the symptomatical accidents and signatures of Diseases ; therefore also , neither do they subsist by themselves , but they do so depend on Diseases , that they depart together with them , like a shadow : Because they are the errors of a vital light , or an erroneous Blas stirred up from Diseases . 11. That Diseases are seminal Beings ( except extrinsecal ones , wounds , a bruise or stroke , burning , &c. ) and therefore effects of the Archeus resulting in a true action , from the occasionals of the exciter , accidentally sprung up in an Archeal error of our Powers . 12. That , although without the will of a living Creature , contraries should be found in nature ; yet by these , there should be no possible restauration of the hurt faculties , as neither a pacifying of the Areheus ; and by consequence no curing , if that be even true , That Natures themselves are the Physitiannesses of Diseases , and that the Physitian is their Minister . Truly that thing is proved by the Fire ; the which , by reason of the most intense coldness of the Aire ( which I have elsewhere proved to be far more cruel than the cold of the Water ) doth the more strongly flame and burn : So far is it , that Fire should be exstinguished by cold , which is falsly reputed its contrary : And moreover , neither have the Schooles known , that Fire is not extinguished by Water , because it is cold , moist , or contrary to it ; but by reason of choaking onely : The which we daily see in our Furnaces . For as the Fire is momentany , and connexed unto it self by a continual thred of exhalations ; hence it is stifled almost in one only moment : for so the water , because it is fluid , enters into the pores of the burning matter , and by stopping them up , doth suffocate or quench the Fire ; so also a Mettal or Glasse , being fired , and burning bright , do shine long in the most cold bottom of the Water ; and in the mean time , a Coal being fired is choaked in an instant , under the Water : Because the pores thereof are presently stopped . Therefore Copper burning bright , is sooner extinguished than Silver , and Silver than Gold. But Glasse being fired , because it wants pores , shines longer under the Water , than a like quantity of Gold : Yea hot Water doth sooner quench Fire than cold ; because it sooner pierceth the pores . Therein also , they have remained dull ; that they considered our heat alwayes , by making a comparison of it with Fire : For although the Fire be a Being of Nature , yet because it was directed by the most High , for the uses of Mortals , that it might enter into Nature as a Destroyer , and might be as it were an artificial Death ; therefore it prosecutes its own artificial ends , but hath not any thing in its self , which may be vital or seminal : There is therefore , no Fire in Nature , if it hath not first arose unto a due degree for a Destroyer ; wherein it is nothing , or little profitable for the speculation of Medicine . Surely , our heat is not graduated , and therefore neither is it fiery , neither doth it proceed from the Fire as being weakened or diminished ; but it is the heat of a formal light , and therefore also vital ; neither therefore doth it subsist in its last or highest degree , even as the fire doth : For it admits of a latitude , and its degree is made to vary according to the provocation if its Blas . For although it be from a formal light , and in that respect doth live ; yet through a Blas , it doth oft-times ascend higher , or is pressed lower , as well in healthy persons as in sick folk . In the next place , it more highly deviates through furies , and then it ( as burnt up ) uncloaths it self of a vital light , and assumes a Caustical or burnt Alcali ; which thing is seen in moist and compressed Hay , where Fire voluntarily ariseth . So in Escarrie effects , our heat being forgetful of its former life , passeth into a degree of fire : For through a congresse of lightsome beames , and a degeneration of the salt of the Spirits , even as in Hay , true Fire is bred , and would burn us , if the Archeus should expect this end of the Tragedy before death . Our heat indeed is in the Fire , as the number of Two is in the number of Forty ; yet the Fire is not in our heat : And so , neither can our heat be called fiery , as neither is the number of Two the number of Forty . But besides , a diseasie occasion doth sometimes burthen with its weight alone , and by its hateful presence ; such as is that of a hateful guest . Afterwards from the more mild beginnings , a porous quality oft-times increaseth or groweth , being of the order of Tastes . Thirdly , Or at length it stinketh . Fourthly , It snatcheth up a strange ferment . And Lastly , it threatens destruction unto us through the contagion of an unluckie poyson ; and the cruel seminal occasion of Diseases either comes unto us from far , or ariseth from within . It often-times also degenerates in its last qualities , which the Schooles have neglected , because ( as being content with their first humours ) they have fallen asleep . There is something , I say , of a hurtful chaffe separated from the guiltless vitals , and the co-mixed occasion of a Disease floateth among the good nourishments , and hath even more toughly mirried , adhered to , and chosen its local bride-bed in the same . But it on both sides , stirs up the hostile properties of diseasie seeds , by variously sporting in their Innes . The Archeus therefore is not affected by heat and cold , but from an excelling quality , and strange fellowship of a taste , and fashions the seminal Idea of a Disease . And I wonder that the Schooles of the Greeks , do profess Hippocrates to be their standard-defender ; yet that they have despised this hing of healing in him , and have even sunk themselves into meer heats , and the foolish wedlocks of qualities . For a Disease according to Hippocrates , is made of a good , or before-condemned liquor , being turned into an excrement . Therefore I do truly pardon this ( as yet ) undistinction of that Age ; and therefore I call those superfluities , not the Diseases themselves , but the occasional Causes of these ; For an excrement being vitiated in its own , or the last Kitchins of Digestions , or sticking the longer elsewhere , through the delay of its slownesse , is first accused of sloath , and afterwards , through the activity of the place of its residence , abhorring it , as a troublesom guest is corrupted , from that Title , as it is destitute of the Balsame of Life : For our Archeus-Faber , or master-workman , seeing he is never idle without blame , neither is ever destitute of a local exchanging ferment ; therefore by a continual heat and warmth , he doth more and more disturb excrements bred within , or brought thither from elsewhere , and shakes them into their appointed ends . Therefore , neither can any excrement long remain in its former state . It is also altogether to be despaired of , that Nature should ever receive that again for a true citizen , which was once abhorred by her ; or againe adopt it , by entring into a reconciliation ( such as is the fiction , that of Phlegme Blood is made , of burnt venal Blood , yellow Choler , and of this , a leekie aeruginous or cankered Choler ; and at length , a melancholly or black coloured humour ) for Nature cannot but alter a forreign contained guest , which of its own condition is alterable , and promote it unto its own ends : And if that shall happen within the Innes of its own digestion , the excrement shall be far more mild , than if it shall be once brought unto others Cottages , and out of its own limits . Then indeed , that adulterous fruit , and Young , applied to , or placed in that part , is refused , as a strange , ominous , and tumultuary enemy ; into whom therefore the strange ferment of another harvest ( from the necessity of an unquiet alteration ) is introduced : Whence of things retained , which are at first , simply troublesome , are hurtful things made , and at length the retained things or excrements are transchanged : Wherein , if a notable savour be not , it doth at leastwise , for the most part , presently arise , being designed by Hippocrates , in the place cited , for a diseasie signature . For as long as a nourishable liquor is restrained by the bridle of the Balsame of Nature , it of right enjoyes the savours of blood , and assimilable nourishment , all things are in a good state ; but it being once divorced from the Archeus , it presently also assumes a forreign disposition ; So also a savour , and through the agitation of dayes , doth varie the degrees of its malignity : That indeed is the sharp , bitter , and soure , from which the old man doth search out by his oracles , almost all Diseases to spring . For this although in its quantity it be very little in weight , light , and scarce perceivable by the sight ; yet it is the true occasion of a Disease ; But a Disease it self sits more inwardly , to wit , in the vital Beginnings , and those more active and commanding , than those things which are called Excrements , do . For every seminal Disease , and that which is cherished by an occasional cause , as it began from a being immediately sensitive , and the subject of concupiscence , which is full of Passions , and perturbations , and inordinacies ; so also it hath its seat in no other thing , than in the Fountain , Prince , and Ruler of all motions : Yet by degrees it strives not with one onely weapon of malignity , but it s More or Root being defiled , doth also occupy the part it self , and likewise deprive it of the continuation and communion of Life , if besides , it doth not burden it with the hurt of its impression , or the filth of a ferment being drawn , in a similar part , it doth not threaten its extinction . A Disease therefore begins from the matter of the Archeus , as it rageth in us by a forreign Idea , from a conceived injury , which it judgeth that occasional Causes hath done it . But let the concomitant action , and that which results from the proper exorbitancy of its efficient Cause ( as the head-ach , doatage , &c. ) be the Symptome : But whatsoever Springs are caused by a Disease , or by reason of Pain , the Cramp , the Government of the parts , or a fermental Action , if that do really subsist in its own Root , that is the Product of the Disease . But of Products , some are ultimate effects , left by a Disease , as a Scirihus , or dropsie after a Feaver ; or they do break forth , in its being made ; As the pissing of muscilage or slimie matter by those that have the Stone : The which , do neither meditate of the propagation of another evil , as neither of a Diseasie matter , or of after products : These again are like to their Causers , because they are those , which from the contagion of a ferment , do creep farther ; even as is familiar with the Scab , Leprosie , Lues Venerea or Pox , &c. But others by proceeding inwards do wholy enlarge themselves , and generate after an irregular manner : As an Apnaea or shortnesse of Breath , Convulsion , &c. from the Womb or Stomack . So Wringings of the Bowels , the Diarrhea or Flux , Hemorhoides or Piles , Dyscenteries or Bloody-fluxes , and other evils of that sort , do proceed , as being made by sharp or soure things : Yea the seed of Diseases being at quiet , by intervals , some unaccustomed and dis-continual thing is budded forth from the hidden seminary of the Archeus : Such as is the Falling-sicknesse , the Gout , Madnesse , &c. Truly in all these things , there is a manifest Errour of the Schooles , which teach , That whole Nature is governed by a Ruler , or a created Understanding , not erring , knowing all ends , and for the sake of these , acting after a most excellent manner . For truly , it is not to be doubted , but that a Wound might be healed or closed , without the Tumor , Pain , corrupt Pus , and Inflammation of its Lips : But that a Thorn may be drawn out of the Finger , with greater brevity , than that the Finger should therefore arise into a corrupt mattery Aposteme : For the fat or grease of an Hare , being annointed on it , doth extract the Thorne in one Night : Meanes are not wanting to the Archeus , whereby he might perform that very thing , safely and quickly ( even as he doth , in some , of his own accord ) but that our Archeus is subject to any kind of Passions , as if he did conceive childish indignations , from the least hurting of the Body . No wonder therefore , that the sublunary being of Nature , by no means subjecting it self to Justice , doth yeeld to , or fall under its own inordinate Passions : When as also , the whole man , whereof the intellectuall mind is President , doth exceed the path of right Reason in many things . At length , that is remarkable , that in the works of Art , the efficient Cause is alwaies without : and the Schools being deceived through the errour thereof , have not known , that in natural and substantial generations , the Agent is internal : For therefore , they have banished the efficient Cause , as external , in the catalogue of natural Causes : Yea , it hath been unknown , that both the Causes of natural things being connexed ( as I have demonstrated in its place ) doth not differ from its Effect , but in the priority of flowing ; which thing hath deceived as many as have similitudinously contemplated of Nature by artificial things : For neither have they been elsewhere more blinded , than while they have introduced that incongruity of their own speculation into Diseases : For they have not onely made artificial things like unto seminal , speculatively ; but also in endeavouring to cure , they have , through a great confusion of falshoods , bespattered the whole practice of healing , with contrarieties . For they have thought , that to produce , and to generate , are altogether the same ; while in the mean time , a generater bespeaks , that he brings forth something from his own substance : but he produceth , who onely couples active things with passive , although he contribute nothing of his own ; He maketh , or doeth also , who acteth any thing how he listeth . Furthermore , I also oft-times admire , that while the Schools do constitute the benefit of healing in the removal of Causes , after what sort , they could place distemperatures within the rank of Diseases ; seeing the hot , and most known of diseases , doth both suddenly , and of its own accord , slide into cold ; and we are able presently to remove the intemperance of heat at pleasure , without helping of the Fevers . And then , seeing they have never received the vital Cause , which is the impulsive one in Diseases , for the efficient Cause of Diseases , they have determined of removing nothing but the occasional Cause : For the Archeus , although he be the true and immediate Cause , as well according to the matter ( the which he brings vitiated , and that out of his own bosome ; ) as also , according to a seminal and efficient Idea : yet the Archeus doth not shew the removal of himself . But the Schools do act contrarily , while they attempt their Cures by blood-letting , purgatives ; and next , by every means fortifying Life : But upon what ground they do that , they themselves shall see . Moreover , in Diseases , Nature is standing , sitting , and laying . Nature standing , doth her self cure her own Diseases , from a voluntary goodness ; as wholsome Fevers : And likewise , a Quartane , which is cured by the proper guidance of Nature , but not by the helps of the Schools . And Nature standing , can also presently walk ; the which belongs onely to Health . But Nature sitting , although she be able of her own accord to stand , and at length , to walk , yet she is constrained to arise , before she stands ; and therefore she ariseth with the more difficulty : But if she attempt to arise by inordinate remedies , she is prostrated from her seat , and lays on the ground ; and being not a little shaken thereby , is pained , and sometimes dies of her fall . Yea also , while many , that they may not be sick or ill at ease , do make use of counsels or advices , which do for the most part hasten old age and death , and oft-times also deprive them of life . But Nature laying along , can never rise of her self ; as the Leprosie , falling Evil , Asthma , Stone , Dropsie , &c. Yea , neither is it sufficient for her to arise : for if the nerves or sinews are not confirmed , they do easily relapse . Furthermore , Hippocrates will have a Physitian to be onely the Minister or Servant of Nature : but Natures themselves , to be their own onely Physitiannesses ; and that thing he thus commanded in his age : When as otherwise , a Physitian is the Patron and Master of Nature being prostrated ; which kinde of Physitian , if the old man had not as yet acknowledged , surely much less , the succeeding heathenish Schools , even unto this day . Last of all , dead carcasses are dissected , which is done to excuse their excuses in sins ; for after a thousand years Anatomy , the Moderns do scarce either the better know Diseases , or the more successfully expel them . They rejoyce indeed , that they have found an imminent mark of any corruption in a part , which covers their unfaithfull Aids or Succours , with the Buckler of impossibility : So indeed , the world is deceived with a lofty brow : For neither was that corruption there , before the space of two days , although the place might be pained long before : So far is it from excusing the Physitian which is seasonably sent for , that it rather lays open the fault of the same , who ( to wit ) had seasonably or in due time , dispersed the accused excrement : For nothing of the parts containing is destroyed in live Bodies , but it is first deprived of the commerce of Life : And besides , neither can it long be deprived of the Balsame of Life , nor a mortisied part wait many houres in the lukewarmth of the Body , which doth not likewise speedily putrifie , stink , and draw the whole Body into its own conspiracy . Therefore from thence , it is manifest , that the corruption which is obvious in the Dissected dead Carcass , was made but a few hours before , and began but a few dayes before Death : For corrupt mattery Imposthumes , which are stirred up by malignant assemblies in the Lungs , do indeed contain the Seeds of Diseases ; but the mortifying of Internal parts , doth not many paces , precede the day of Death . One onely thing is at leastwise to be admired , that the Schooles indeed have acknowledged a Spermatical or seedy nourishment , whereby we are immediately nourished : because it is that which they divide into four secondary humours ; yet that they have not known , that the same Humours do become degenerate , in the passage of Digestions , and are the occasions of many Diseases . But that the Liver alone , in Vices of the skin , doth bear the undeserved blame , that is , a thing full of ignorance , and worthy of pity . I will at length , moreover , commune with Christian Physitians by one only Argument . To wit , I● is of Faith , that God made not Death for Man : Because Adam was by Creation Immortal , and void of Diseases . For concerning long Life , I have explained after what manner a Disease and Death , at the eating of the Apple , as an Effect unto a second Cause , have entred into Nature . Therefore in this place it hath been sufficient to have admonished ; That the Concupiscence of the Flesh arose from Transgression , and also to have brought forth the flesh of Sin ; and therefore that Nature being corrupted , produced a Disease through Concupiscence . I could wish therefore , that the Schooles may open the Causal Band and Connexion between the forbidden Apple , and the Elements , or the Complexions of these : Whether in the mean time they are lookt upon , as the Causes bringing Diseases , or as Diseases themselves . To wit , let them teach ; If the Body of Man from his first Creation , did consist of a mixture of the Four Elements ; after what manner those second Causes , or co-mixt Elements onely by eating of the Apple ( which else had never been to fight ) the Bonds of Peace , and Bolts of humane Nature being burst asunder , at length naturally exercise hostilities , and all Tyranny . What common thing , I say doth interpose betwixt the Apple and our constitutive Elements ? But if this came miraculously and supernaturally to passe , that Death was made a punishment of sin : Then God had made Death Efficiently ; but Man had given onely an Occasion for Death : But this is against the Text , yea and against Reason : Because Death was made with Beasts , in the Beginning , even as also at this day , unto every one happens his own Death , that is , by a natural course , and a knitting of Causes unto their Effect . It must needs be therefore according to Faith , that Death crept naturally into Nature ; so that man was made Mortal after the manner of Bruits . For it is certain that at the eating of the Apple , the brutal concupiscence of the Flesh was introduced : Neither do we read ( at length ) of any other knowledge of good and evil to have been brought in , which was signified under the opening of their Eyes , than that they knew themselves to be naked , and then it first shamed them of their nakedness . Wherefore I have long stood amazed , that the Schooles have never examined the aforesaid Text , that they might search out the Disposition or Respect of the Cause bringing a Disease unto its natural Effect . In what day soever ye shall eat of the forbidden Fruit , ye shall die the Death . Which indeed is not so to be taken , as if God had said , by way of threatnings : If ye shall eat of the forbidden Tree , I will create or make Death in you , Diseases , Paines , Miseries , &c. for a punishment of sin , or that , through a condign curse of my indignation , ye and your posterity shall die . For such an Interpretation as that resisteth the divine goodness : because that for the sin of our two Parents , he had equally cursed all their posterity , with an irrevocable curse of his Indignation ; who after sin commited , and the Flood it self , readily blessed Noah , by increase and multiply , &c. Wherefore those words , Ye shall die the death ; did contain a fatherly admonition : To wit , that by eating of the Apple they should contract the every way impurity of Nature , as from a second Cause , seated ( to wit ) in the Concupiscence of the flesh of sin . But seeing such a concupiscence can never consist in elementary qualities ; it is also sufficiently manifest , that a Disease and Death , are not connexed as Effects to the Elements , and the qualities of these : But the concupiscence of the flesh , as it infected onely the Archeus , even so also , it did onely respect the same . In the Archeus therefore , every Disease afterwards established it self , and found its own onely and immediate Inne : And so also from hence , the Archeus is made wholly irregular , inordinate , violent , and disobedient : Because he is he , who from thenceforth hath framed inordinate images and seales , together with a spending of his own proper substance , as it were the wax of that seal : For images or likenesses , are at first indeed the meer incorporeal Beings of the mind ; but as soon as they are imprinted on the Archeus , they cloath themselves with his Body , and are made most powerful seminal Beings , the sealing dames , mistresses , and architectresses of any kind of passions and inordinacies whatsoever : which thing I will hereafter more clearly illustrate in the Treatise of Diseases . Finally , the adversaries will be able to Object , That it would be all as one , whether a Disease be accounted a disposition , or a distemperature of the first qualities , or a disproportionable mixture of humours , or lastly , whether it be called an indisposition or confusion , and likewise that it is as one , whether the Cause which brings a Disease , he called the occasional , or the material Cause of Diseases , or the internal and conjoyned Cause thereof : For truely the one onely intention of Nature , and Physitians on both sides , is conversant about the removal of that matter , for the obtainment of health ; Therefore that I am stirred about nothing but an unprofitable brawling , concerning a Name . I Answer Negatively , and that indeed , because both the suppositions are false ; For as to the First , For that doth not onely contain a manifest fault in arguing , of [ not the Cause ] as [ of the Cause ] and of a [ non-Being ] [ for a Being ] : But besides the Destruction and Death of mortal men , doth from thence follow : For , for that very Cause , for which a Remedy is administred to correct the distemperature of a Discrasie or the abounding or disproportion of humours ( because of things not existing in Nature ) they at least cannot deny , that our Disputation is of things , but not of a Name onely ; when as ( to wit ) they accuse , cure , or undertake to cure the Disease for the Cause , or this , for it . They handle I say , things that are never possible , as if they were present . And then also , they presse a falshood : Because indeed , I never said , that a naked confusion or indisposition of the Archeus , is a Disease ; but I affirme that the immediate and internal matter of a Disease is to be drawn from the masse of the Archeus himself : But I call the imprinted seminal Idea , which springs from the disturbances of the Archeus , the efficient Gause ; but as to what appertaines to the other supposition , the occasional or inciting Cause , and the internal containing Cause , or the very Body of a Disease , do far also differ from each other . For example ; The occasional Cause of intermitting Fevers is present out of the fit , which should not be if the occasional Cause were the very internal matter of Fevers : For I have seen some hundreds cured of divers Diseases , by some Simples hanged on the Body , without any removal of the occasional matter : To wit , Nature being busie about the rest . Thirdly , the fits of Diseases are oft-times ended , the occasional Cause being present and remaining , but it is altogether impossible for that to be , while the containing and internal matter of the Disease is present . In the next place , there are Diseases which have no occasional Cause , whose own connexed matter is neverthelesse , excussed or struck out about the time of their period , even as fire out of a flint ; They not having I say , any other occasion of them , besides Ideal impressions ; such as is the Gout , falling-Evil , Madnesse , Asthma , &c. To wit , whose perfect Cure consisteth in the removal of the seminal Character , and incorporeal Ferment , not likewise in the sequestration of any matter : For so a certain odour being drawn thorow the nostrils , hath strangled many , without a material vapour or moist sent unto the Paunch . However therefore they may strive with me , they shall discern , and confess with me , that hitherto , none hath come unto the knowledge of Diseases ; and that there hath been blindness in Healing hitherto : Give leave to the truth . It hath therefore been sufficient for me to have demonstrated , that Diseases do lead their Armie into us , by unknow Seminaries and invisible Beginnings , according to that antient Maxim , That every direction of Sublunary things depends on an invisible World. Hence it hath come to pass , that although Diseases have oftentimes been silent , and have wholly ceased to be , under the uncertain Cures of experiments ; yet nothing hath been hitherto acted from a fore-knowledge of the means and ends , in Diseases of nature standing , or sitting : Because also , they do very often of their own voluntary and free accord , hastily run unto the end of their race . But in Diseases of nature laying along or prostrated , nothing hath been heard hitherto , besides the despaires of incurable Diseases , and the Lamentations of miserable men . What things therefore , have been assayed before , touching the nature of a Disease , let them be Prologues unto those things , which remain to be by and by spoken concerning Diseases : Where I shall professly touch at or reach , the causes of all Diseases in the point of Unity : Here only , handing forth by the way , that Diseases do now issue into depraved and impure nature , plainly after the same manner wherein they at first began to be framed and issue : And the Schooles will not deny that that thing lay hid to the Heathens and their followers . Last of all , new Diseases have lately happened unto us , and antient ones do hereafter scarce any longer answer unto the names and descriptions of our Ancestours : Because they have put on strange signes and properties , whereby they go masked , and deceive Physitians under the precept of the Antients : For I conjecture that from thence , there will be almost the greatest destruction of Diseases ; and so also , that from hence the mercy of God will be so much the nearer unto Mortals : For it hath pleased the most High , to have sent Paracelsus in the forepastage , who might propose unto the World the more profound preparations of Medicines , so far as it was lawful : But at this day , afterwards he hath vouchsafed also , to open the knowledge of Diseases : Wherefore I shortly expect another to come , whose Schollar I am not worthy to be : For neither therefore , hath the most High permitted my self to hope for the coming of the same man , who hath sent me before , as the publisher of his Praise : For truly with him , every Disease shall equally find its own remedies , under the Stone or Harmony of unity ; together with the speculative knowledge of Diseases and Remedies . I intreat the thrice most great and excellent God , that he would preserve the same man from the vanity of arrogancy , and from sudden Death , sorely threatned unto him by hateful men . CHAP. LXIII . The Dropsie is Unknown . 1. At length the Author shewes , that there is the same ignorance of the Dropsie , as of other Diseases . 2. The Distinctions of Names used by the Schooles . 3. He must first strive with the Schooles about the difference of occasional Causes . 4. The hurtful ignorance of the humour Latex . 5. The Errour of the Schooles is shewit with the finger . 6. A cruel Remedy . 7. A ridiculous Opinion . 8. Some absurd Concomitants . 9. A History . 10. Absurd Anatomy . 11. Some remarkable Histories . 12. The Root of Grasse is examined . 13. A Stumbling of the Schooles , that they may fall . 14. The Author answers by Eighteen Arguments . 15. The occasional Cause is meditated of . 16. The occasional cause is proved . 17. Paracelsus is taken notice of . 18. A most secure Remedy of Mercury described by Paracelsus . 19. Some remarkable things . 20. The Dropsie is described by its Causes , and by Nineteen Positions . 21. An Objection of Paracelsus is refuted . 22. The poysonous furie of the Archeus of the Reines . 23. A Maxime is preserved . 24. The carelesness of the Schooles are to be admired at . 25. The Author narrowly searcheth into some hidden things . 26. The examination of a thing or matter , which seems repugnant unto Science Mathematical . 27. The difference of the Latex from the Urine . 28. The use of the Kidneys being neglected , hath brought forth the ignorance of the Dropsie . 29. An Explanation of a new Question . 30. The furie of the Reines is the Efficient Cause of a Dropsie . 31. The manner of making in a Dropsie . 32. It is prooved by a voluntary Cure. 33. What the abstinence from Drink in a Dropsie , may effect . 34. Thirst doth in no wise dry up a Dropsie . 35. After what manner , the abstaining from drink hath cured the Dropsie . 36. All thirst ariseth from the the Reines , but not from the Liver , as from the slender Veines , according to the Schooles . 37. The ignorance of Causes hath rendred the Dropsie neglected . 38. The Vanity of Hydragogals or Medicines drawing out Water . 39. A Remedy of the Dropsie . 40. A remarkable thing concerning Briony . 41. That the government of the Reines hath hitherto remained unknown . 42. A Definition of the Dropsie , by its Causes , and manner of making . 43. An examination of the Tympany . 44. A History hath proved to the Nostrils what hath been said . 45. The vanity of Carminating Medicines . 46. Why Paracelsus perswadeth Dungs . 47. Mercury is commended . 48. A Bastardly and new Dropsie . 49. The preparation of Precipitate , and of the Arcanal or secretous Remedies of the Dropsie . 50. Universal and pacifical secrets , do ( as yet ) more powerfully operate . I Have made a Treatise concerning Feavers , and seeing that , no seldome Dropsie is the Metamorphosis of malignant Feavers , it seemed meet to me to subjoyne the Treatise of the Dropsie to Feavers ; yet afterwards , when I saw that the Dropsie was solved or loosed by the Reins or Kidnyes , I doubted , whether the Dropsie were rather to be considered after the Treatise of the Disease of the Stone ; or whether by way of example , I should subjoyn it to the Treatise of Diseases : For truly , if the Belly swell , through a defect of the Urine ; therefore the Dropsie seemed to be referred unto the forgetfulness of the Reines : But the Stone hath expelled the Treatise of the Dropsie , therefore it hath made a Treasie singular to it self : But I shall be the less solicitous of order , so my proposed Scope of curing be reached with fruit . I have made it manifest , that the causes of Feavers , the Disease of the Stone , Apoplexie , Palsey , Lethargie , Leprosie , Convulsion , Plague , Jaundice , Colick , Flux , and other like Diseases , are unknown : Then in the next place , I have alreadie atchieved to demonstrate the same ignorance to be , about the knowledge of a Disease in general : Now moreover , I will shew , that the same thing doth happen concerning the Dropsie , as it were the heire of many Diseases . In the Schools , a Threefold Dropsie is observed , to wit , Anasarca , a water between the Skin , and the which , they call a Leuco ( or white ) Phlegmacie , as if it did arise from Phlegme , and for the most part , they confound it with a local Oedema or Phlegmatish tumour . And then , Ascites follows , which is the Dropsie of a proper Etymology , being forthwith manifest in the Belly and Legs . And the Third is a Tympany , or windie Dropsie , concluded only in the Belly : Because indeed , the Abdomen or neather part of the Belly doth extend it self from a Flatus alone , or being mixed with a little wheyishness , and that no otherwise than as through water , and at length , that it doth miserably kill by choaking . The Tympany is more rare and cruel than Ascites , and is easily from the beginning , distinguished from an Ascites : Because the Patient being rowled on his side , doth not feel the water to floate , even as , otherwise , that thing is manifest in an Ascites ; yea truly , Authors do scarce distinguish an Anasarca from an Ascites , in its causes or place , especially while this begins about the Ancles , in the same seminarie place with an Anasarca and Oedema : The which , if they do enter the deeper into the Belly , then they name them Ascites , the name of Anasarca and Oedema ceasing : And so , the degree onely doth varie the species of the Disease in the Schooles : But if the whole habit of the Body , doth appear Swollen ; as it were through a poyson being taken , they presently think that Phlegm hath committed the crime , and do call it a Leuco-phlegmacie : Wherefore the water between the skin seemeth again to be distinguished from Ascites , onely by degree , and therefore they have accused the Liver to be the one only Fountain of them both . With the Schools therefore I will talk , concerning the occasional causes ; for why , seeing the ignorance of the immediate efficient cause , hath hitherto made the Dropsie an unknown guest in us : But I could never conceive , that the Liver should be the cause of the Dropsie , if the whole Dropsie be solved by the Urine ; and so , the Liver doth not offend in generating Urine ( because it is that which is a natural product of the constitution of our nature ) so much as the Reines do offend in not emulging or sucking it out . Wherefore the vice hath seemed to me , to subsist rather in the Kidney than in the Liver : And therefore , I wholly even from the beginning , do decline from the Schooles in the Seminary and Fountain of the Dropsie : For because they blame Phlegme in an Anasarca , Leuco-phlegmacie , Oedema , and a Cacochymia or an affect of bad juice , that doth not seem to touch an Ascites , the which , they think to be bred from heaped up Urine , or a certain whey of the Blood ; seeing in very deed , they , with an earnest countenance distinguish the Urine ( which they also signifie to be the whey of the venal Blood ) from Phlegme , in its whole principles : To wit , while Urine is an excrement in its original : But Phlegme is called venal Blood , being not yet cocted unto maturity : For therefore this swims in the Blood throughout its whole ( for such is their pleasure ) and is an entire part hereof : Whereas , in the mean time , the Urine , wheyie Latex , and an Excrement , was never fit for , or dedicated to nourishment ; for we must not jest in the principles of Medicine , in the Rules , in the Causes of Diseases : For truly , it is seriously treated concerning the skin of man , of subverting families ; yea , and of the damnation of Souls : For it is not all one , whether the Dropsie doth depend on Phlegm , or on a vriny Liquor ; and on both sides , to have accused the vice of one Liver : For there is a sluggish and stumbling progresse in the searching into Diseases , while they refer , perhaps two hundred Diseases unto the distemperature of one Liver . They have forgotten the while , the manners of making , and sending Phlegme , or Urine unto the bottom of the Belly , and not far of elsewhere : They have thought therefore , that the water of the Dropsie is meere Urine , or a metamorphyzing of Phlegme , melted into Urine after an unheard of manner hitherto : But at leastwise , they have been Ignorant of the Latex to be distinct from the Urine among the principles of natural Phylosophy : For even as the food is not dung , although this be afterwards made of food : So neither is the Latex Urine . Furthermore , it is so confessed , that the Dropsie doth universally arise from the error of the Liver alone ; that when I had once , Judged in a written consultation , that Count Destaires or Stegrius , did labour with a Dropsie of of his Lungs , extended from the left part of his Midriffe into a swollen Arm ; the chief Physitians hissed out this my Paradox with loud laughter , because I sought the seate of the Dropsie out of the Liver : Yet , when after death his Breast was opened , perhaps two buckets of water flowed forth , the which had run out or digressed between the left part of his Midriffe , and Breast , into his Arm and Fingers . Anasarca therefore seeing it was as it were a lesse and beginning Dropsie , it was derived ( by opening things ) into the Liver : And likewise they hope , that the remaining white Phlegme , the more crude Blood , Urine , and Dropsical whey ( they confound those four in this place ) will be hereafter dried up by the one onely abstinence from Drink ; as a capital remedie ; For in the evening , they see the Shanks or Legs that are Swollen , in the morning , as slender , to have fallen : They say therefore , that the Blood is concocted in sleeping , but to be wasted , or consumed afterwards into nourishment , neither dare they to affirm , neither do they say , whither it hath departed : Neither also do they dare to say , that in so small a space of the body , and time , so such Phlegme being turned into Blood , is expelled out of the Legs , by an unsensible transpiration of the Skin , if they shall not maintain that two buckets of Blood are dayly consumed in a like proportion , of one and every night , and of the whole Body . They are therefore constrained to feign , that the more crude Blood , or Phlegme , being now once hunted out , in the habit of the Legs , is recocted into good Blood about the Ancles , without the Shop of Sanguification , and dominion of the Liver : That is , that the once out-hunted and cocted Blood , is by a forreign agent , and unfit organ , at length received into favour , that it doth by an inspired motion , retire into the mouths of the Veines , and is received or associated , as equally fit for vital Offices : But whence do they spend so much labour in drying up of the Dropsical affect , that they can scarce command a possible abstinence of one year from liquid things , if the Dropsie be the vice of the one Digestion of the Liver ? Why do they referre it , among Diseases offending onely in moisture , the which was to be attributed unto a full half Digestion , For I will first dispute about the Liver , and under the same by-work , I will discover the occasional cause of the Dropsie . I saw a certain un-savory Simple ( nor by any meanes to be manifested ) administred by a Physitian in the Suspition of the Stone of the Kidneys , which suspended the Urine for eights dayes , and even unto death ; the which , presently before death , was loosed , and then it throughly be-pissed the bed cloathes : The Disease brought forth another thing like it : For truly , neither in the Urine-pipe , or Bladder , appeared any obstacle after dissection : But he had his left Kidney , triangular , free or undamnified from all obstruction and Stone ; But the right Kidney was plainely monstruous , and scarce of the bigness of a Filburd-nut : Therefore , he had pissed 76 years with his left Kidney not letted or stopped . That the Liver therefore is guiltless in the Dropsie , I will declare my experiences : For because the precepts of the Schooles , did the less satisfie me in the Dropsie ; therefore I was wont , being as yet a young Man , to hasten ( although not called ) unto the Dissections of Dropsical Bodies , that I might search out the birth-places of the Dropsie : For I thought with my self , to what end , hath there been Anatomie now for two thousand years , if there be not at this day , a more successful curing of the Dropsie than in times past ? For wherefore are we the Butchers of dead Carcases , if we do not learn by the errors of the Antients ? If we do not amend fore-past things : For we flee unto Anatomie with a prejudice , and sweep the purses of Heires , if we do not look into the causes of Death , that we may learn the cures . For truly dissection , profits the Dead nothing . Heires also do not expend their moneys , that they may heal the dead by Anatomy ; and much less , that they may wound the same , least happily he should rise againe ; nor also , that they may learn to cure others , which are unwilling to be healed : But only the dead Carcase is opened for the Physitian ; and that he may more perfectly learn , the Heire paies the reward of his learning . Thus Oxen , yee , that yoaked are , The Plow , not for your selves do beare . But Physitians , seeing they scarce any longer expect to learn , they stand by , stop their Noses , and hope by the expences of the Heires , for the most part , to escape the mark of Death . A Lawyer , after divers Gripings or Wringings of his Bowels , died of a Dropsie : But in the Dissection , we saw his Liver without blemish . An English-man , my Neighbour , by eating his fill of roasted Porke , sliding into a daylie Flux , and presently after into a Dropsie , he died , and being dissected , his Liver was seen to be unhurt . Hitherto also , doth the Tragedie of Count Stegrius tend . In the Autumne of the year 1605. I returning out of England to Antwerp , found some hundreds , after a malignant and popular Fever , to be dropsical : I cured many , and many under the unhappy experiments of others , in the mean time Perished : But that People have a perswasion in them , that unless all the Water be drawn out of the dead Carcases the Dropsie will passe over into the next Heire : And so , they are Solicitous of Dissection : And I certainly affirme , that I found the Liver of none defiled . A certain Citizen , was long pained between his bastard Ribs , neither breathed he without Pain ; at length , the Conjectures of Physitians being tried , he died of a Dropsie : But his Liver was seen to be without hurt . One pertayning to the Kings Treasurie of Brabant , after a sudden pissing of Blood , was long handled by Physitians in vain , and thefore being sent by his Physitians , unto the Fountains of the Spaw , he returning , began to shew a hardness in the left Side of his Abdomen , under his Ribs , and thereupon , the Leg of that side was swollen : But the chief Physitians , and those of Lovain , although they saw his Urine like unto that of healthy Persons , and thereby did betoken his Liver to be guiltless , yet they desisted not from the continual use of solutive , opening , and Urine-provoking things : yea , they gave him steel diversly masked , against the obstructions of the Liver , to drink : And at length , having a huge Abdomen , he Perished with a Dropsie : For neither was there place for excuse , as to say , they were called late , who were present with him , from the hour of his bloudie Pissing : But his dead Carcase being dissected , his Liver was found innocent : But his left Kidney had swollen , and that more than was meet , with a clot of out-hunted Blood ( such as is in a boyled Gut. ) A Major of Souldiers , from a bloudie Flux which was at length appeased , died of a Dropsie , whose Liver notwithstanding , was without blemish ; however the Schooles may grin . A certain Merchant keeping his bed through a Colick of four months , fell into a Dropsie ; but being dissected , he had his Liver without fault . A Woman of sixty years old , hearing in the night , Theeves at the windows , and rising , dashed her Belly beyond the Breast-bone , against a corner of the Table : But first it pained her , and then her Menstru'es brake forth ( as she thought ) the which , although it was little , yet it desisted not , but with the birth of a Dropsie : it also expurged into the masse of a greater Tympanie : But she being dissected , Her Liver offered it self undefiled . Another old Woman , being vexed with a more cruel Husband , after inordinate menstru'es , Perished with a Dropsie , and shewed an unblamed Liver . A certain Hand-maid ; hanging some washed webs of Cloath to high for her Stature , sliding into a flux of the Womb , at length , died of a Dropsie , neither offered her Liver , it self guiltie , to the beholders . A Cuaplaine of Bruxells , of the age of 31 years , complaines to me , of the shortness of his Breath : he shews his Legs to be puffed up , and his Belly to be swollen : And he saith , that his Cod was swelled to the bigness of ones Head : For I saw , that he had a face bespotted with red pricks or spects , as it were with the marks of stripes : He as yet , celebrated the Masse , yet with difficulty : presently after three dayes from thence , he suddenly dieth : but he being dissected , his Belly was found to be without water : But in his Breast , much Blood had choaked him : And so a small vein being burst , had caused a difficult breathing , and did also dissemble a Dropsie : But when as the rupture of the vein , being more rent , had poured forth its Blood , it choaked the man. A certain Dropsical Man , and but one onely , being seen by me , shewed a black and stinking Bubble in the hollow of his Liver . Barth-Cabrollius , an Anatomist of Mount-Pellier , Saith , that he cured very many Dropsical Persons , by Incision made in the very Navill it self standing out , and that , in both sexes : But surely if the errour had been in the Liver , it could not have issued forth with the water , through the Navil : or that the Liver being mortally defiled , should admit of a restoring : Which thing , the Schooles will not admit of . Wherefore I remember , that I have restored above two thousand Dropsical Persons , also whose Urine did now wax-blackish with Bloodinesse , and who had scarce made a spoon-ful of water in one night , whose Liver , if it had had but even a mean ( and not a mortal ) fault , I consess I had not Cured them . I have seen also , that they whose Liver hath been notably wounded , have escaped , who although they thenceforth fore-perceived the Storms of the Aire , yet not the Dropsie . I have seen moreover those whose last day , a slow Fever had closed , in whose Liver small Stones had grown ; yet they had not shewn a Dropsie . It is a familiar thing for the Liver of Oxen to abound with small Stones , although they are continually fed with grasse : Whence at leastwise , I have learned , that Grass-roots do never remove the obstructions of the Liver . The Schooles will say to these things ; the Dropsie , indeed is not made , from a visible corrupting or obstruction of the Liver ; as neither from the Salt of the feigned Jamenous-alume ( as otherwise hath seemed to Paracelsus ) but from a meer cold and moist Distemperature thereof , for so a large Flux of Blood , because it brings the aforesaid distemperature , it causeth the Dropsie . But this is wholly prattle , old Wives Fables , and vain sounds . For first of all I have sufficiently demonstrated the nullities of mixtures and temperatures , not any more to be repeated . 2. I have seen many , all the venal Blood of whom , a Consumption had exhausted , so as that scarce two ounces had remained , when their Heart , Lungs , and Liver were plucked out ; but their Liver was of a yellowish Colour , because it was without Blood ; yet there was no cold and moist distemper in these Livers , as neither a Dropsie , the Supposed son of its feigned Mother . 3. If much Flux of Blood should generate cold and moist distemperatures , surely the Schooles do not affirm that thing to be done , but by the reason of a withdrawing of the vital Spirit , which alone , is the cause of our heat : But the defect whereof , seeing it includes a privation , it cannot induce a positive Being , such as a cold and moist distemperature and Dropsie should be . 4. And likewise , seeing they will have contraries to be contained under the same general . kinde ; our vital heat ( which they will have to answer to the Element of the Stars ) cannot have an Elementary cold , contrary unto it . 5. A notable Flux of Blood , doth of necessity cause cold : And therefore , if a cold distemperature arisen from a Flux of Blood , should be of necessity , the mother of the Dropsie , at every notable flux of blood , the Dropsie should of necessity be present : But the consequent is false : Therefore also the Antecedent . 6. And moreover , seeing cold , from a flux of blood , becomes universal , there is no reason , why the Abdomen should be rather loaden with water , than the Breast , whither to wit , the Aire being continually breathed in , doth increase the cold . 7. If the Dropsie be the son of that distemperature in the Liver ; Whence therefore is there an uncessant thirst ? 8. If the Expulsion of water into the Abdomen , be an action of a distempered Liver ; Why doth not the Liver use the same its own expulsive action , while the Veines do swell with Urine , they being intercepted by a destructive Stone ? 9. Likewise the Blood of Dropsical Persons , even as also the Urine , should be exceeding watery , if the Dropsie should be from a cold distemperature of the Liver : But the Urine should not be so reddish and Bloody . 10. In the next place , between a Dropsie , and cold distemperature , arisen from a flux of blood , a positive cause , being a third from a cold , should of necessity interpose : Which the Schooles do hitherto name , because of a non-being there is no search made . 11. Neither also , do such distemperatures produce thirst , together with a Salt Water , in the Abdomen ; seeing they do not thirst , who do plentifully detain a salt Urine throughout all their veins , in the Stone which stops up the Reines on both sides . 12. If the Dropsie be from a cold distemper , Then a Dropsie should never be expected after a Fever , or wringing of the Bowels , if there be not a branded confusion of causes . And in vain do they flee unto a cold distemperature for a Dropsie , the which , should equally proceed even from opposite causes . 13. Every old and decrepite Person , should now nourish the necessity of a Dropsie . 14. A cold distemper , seeing in its root it is like to Death , extinguishment , old Age , and privation , every Dropsie should contain a necessary despaire of health , even as such a distemperature denies a restauration . 15. If the Liver be the Liver and not the Lungs , by reason of its Elementary co-tempering ( as the Schooles say ) and so from one only Seed , all the Elements do proceed and wander hither and thither confused , that they may be the constitutives of appointed Organs ! therefore the Liver receding from its natural temperature , shall cease to be the Liver , and shall be the Kidney , Lungs , or Milt . 16. At leastwise , a Member struck with a Palsey , should not be wasted , but should be after some sort , swollen with a Dropsie . 17. At length , if the Venal Blood be resolved into four , or again into three Humours , from whence it is either naturally composed , or they are in it , being applyed unto , or co-mixed in the subject of the Blood ; The Blood shall never be able to be changed into a Dropsical water : Seeing this is not any Humour of the constitutives of the Blood : Yet I have seen a country-man , out of whom all the water was taken by a Borer , in twelve hours space ; for he being become my Opposite , Scoffed at me : But the morrow morning , being swollen with the former Lumpe of his Belly , he died . For the Dropsie increased not by degrees , even as it had increased from its beginning ; but it presently hastened and proceeded unto an extream extension : For I observed , that his Flesh and Blood , being melted into Water , had made their retreat to the neather part of his Belly : For in that one only day , he had descended into extream Leannesse : Therefore his Flesh and Blood , shall now wander into an Hydropical or fifth Humour , through the cold distemperature of his Liver . I could perhaps pardon , that the Liver being cooled , doth afterwards generate the more cold Blood ( for all Blood being deprived of vital spirit , naturally waxeth cold , because it is a dead carcase : ) But that a more cold Liver doth melt fleshes into a Dropsical water , that can be founded upon no reason . 18. The Schooles cannot deny but that a Dropsie is sometimes solved by the Kidneys : But there is no reason , why the Reines do stubornly close themselves even untill Death , because the Liver was more cold than was meet . Let these arguments onely , as yet , suffice the Humourists which are distempered with cold , that the Liver may be from a mortal offence . Now I will over-add somethings concerning the occasional Cause ; I will therefore resume the fact of our Treasurer , who shewed nothing memorable in this dissection , beside Blood out-hunted , and hardned in his Kidney , to be the occasional Cause of his Dropsie and Death : yet while the Stone , plentifully stopping the Kidney , doth not produce a Dropsie , yea although the whole Kidney shall wax brawnie or hard with little Stones , and shall reserve nothing of its substance besides skin : Therefore the obstruction of the Kidney , as such , is not the occasional cause of Dropsie : But the out-chased venal Blood : For so the Woman of Sixty years old , having dashed her self against a corner of the Table , contracted a Dropsie : So those that are wounded in their Abdomen , and badly Cured , do become Hydropical : So out-chased venal Blood lighting and laying on the Menynx or Coate of the Brain , doth presently render the countenance swollen with a Dropsie : So at length great gripings of the Guts , do pour forth Blood out of the Veins , into the space bordering on the hollow bending Bowel : So those that have the Bloodie-flux : And so Drinkers , do enter into a Dropsie , as something of blood is co-heaped in the hollow Bought of the Bowel . But this thing I learned , in a Fracture of the Scull , and in a Dropsie of the Lungs : For there the Blood making oftimes a stop , blows up the whole Head and Face as it were with a Dropsie . But here , I have observed the Blood to have consisted or remained about the conduit of the arterial Vein ; for neither doth the venal blood degenerate in the form of corrupt Pus , unless it be cocted in the hollowness of the Flesh ; but without the Flesh , in a free place , the Blood presently waxeth clottie , and straight way after it being made more dry , is hardened , and presently conceives a Poysonous ferment : Whence the Archeus , stirs up a Dropsie . Indeed our Treasurer hath taught me , that the blood being hunted out and become clotty , causeth a Dropsie of the Belly ; and besides that the Kidney is an Adequate or suitabl Aertificer , Causer , Executer , and Judge or Arbitratour of a true Dropsie . That thing hath confirmed it to me , because at the time of a Dropsie , the Kidney scarce makes Urine : and on the other hand , because the Kidney being excited to restore the Urine , himself doth empty the whole Dropsie out of the Belly : Wherefore also , that the water is brought back into the Abdomen , by the arbitration of the Kidney . Vain therefore is the devise of Paracelsus , that the Star Zedo is the one only and singular Architector of the Dropsie : For the cause is in our innermost parts , and in the very Beginnings of Life , but not to be so far fetched , and Cured : For the Dropsie is not the workmanship of the Stars , neither is there such an ordination of the Stars : neither is that of concernment , although Mercurie being seperated dead from its Vein , doth truly and perfectly cure the threefold Dropsie : For Mercurie is an Analogical , and feigned Name , neither doth it denote a Star ; but a running Mettal : For what doth a Name that is Metaphorically feigned , belong unto the feigned Star of Zedo ? For metallick Mercury , is neither a Star , nor kills a Star , nor hinders its operation , nor dis-joynes the conjunction of a Star with us , if there were any : For the Stars are the occasions of Meteors , but of Diseases , occasions onely by accident : For primarily , they are the Causes of times or seasons , and of the Blas of a Meteor ; but secondarily , and by accident , they disturbe our Bodies , proyoke Diseases , or ripen the occasional matter : But Causes by accident do not respect Cures , but fore-cautions , especially , where Causes [ per se ] or [ by themselves ] do operate with or in us by a proper motion , and appointment of their own seeds . For indeed the left Kidney of the Treasurer is stuffed or condensed with the more dry Blood , the left part of his Abdomen is extended , and presently waxeth hard , the right part being safe : His Leg also , presently swels , and afterwards his Thigh on his left side , and therefore the extension of his Belly is extended , not by reason of the quantity of water onely ; but his Membranes are extended from the Disease it self , no otherwise than as the Artery under a hard pulse : But the Membranes are extended and contracted also , before a plenty of water , by the same workman which begets the Dropsie : Indeed it contracts all the pores of the Membrane , that they cannot transmit or send the Wind or Liquor thorow them , when as otherwise , in those that are alive ( that is healthy ) the whole Body is perspirable , and conspirable , or inspirable . The Treasurer therefore , first of all makes a little water , the Dropsie straightway invades him by degrees , and begins on his left Side : And therefore presently after its Beginning , his left Leg is besieged by an Oedema , and afterwards his whole Body becomes swollen . But why doth not his right Kidney draw the Urine , nor transmit it , the which otherwise happens when but one Kidney is besieged by the Disease of the Stone ? For therefore , there is a double Kidney by Nature , and a single Spleen or Milt , that one may relieve another in their troubles , and banishments of an Excrement : Yea , and from hence it is sufficiently manifest , that the Spleen is not a sink , nor emunctory . Therefore in the Blood being chased out of the Veins , deteined , and condensed , there is an exciting ferment , such as is wanting to the Stone . I will therefore declare the whole order of the matter so far as my Observation hath taught me : For the Liquor Latex unknown to the Schooles , as long as it is carried with the Blood in the Veins , or to the Glandules , it enjoyes a common life , neither doth it obey the rules of water-drawing Organs : But it knowes not upwards and downwards , because it hath it not : But it being once rejected out of the fellowship of Life , now it undergoes the nature of an Excrement , and hastens downwards , as being burthened with its own weight : Therefore the Latex is of a vile esteem : And therefore , as oft as every Bowel is ill affected , it presently neglects the Latex , and excludes it from the company of its Venal Blood ; and findes business enough for it self at home , for its own defence . The Latex therefore being once divorced elsewhere , and spoiled of the society of Life , doth presently receive the disposition of an Excrement ; Because it s own , and that which is native to it . 1. This is the cause of an Anasarca , or in speaking precisely , the Water is not the Dropsie , as the Anasarca it self , neither is the Wind the Tympany it self , but the Water in the Abdomen , and the Latex in the Anasarca , are the Products of the Dropsie , As the Wind is in the Tympany . Surely the Dropsie is a Guest received with a more inward society of familiarity , and is more intimate unto us , the which doth attempt the vital principles , and faculties of Life before the Water be bred : and so every Disease , doth by occasional Causes immediately talk with the vital Beginnings , wherein at length it findes its matter and efficient Cause . 2. And then I have noted , that seeing the Urine of all Dropsical persons in general , is little , and of a ful colour , the Latex was the matter , as of the Urine , so also of the Dropsie : For neither is it formally Urine , but the matter hereof before Urine was made thereof by a co-mixture of other things , and the receiving of a Urinal ferment . 3. But I understand in the Dropsie a threefold matter : To wit , the first , occasional , such I have said out-chased venal blood to be . And then , a second , which is the Water it self , and the very Latex in the Abdomen , which is a certain product . And lastly , the third matter hath its internal efficient arisen in the internal vital principles of the Archeus of the Reines . 4. Like as also , drink failing , the Reines do notwithstanding , as yet , allure forth the Urine of Blood , although sparingly . 5. So also in the Dropsie , the Urine is of the Blood , not of the Drink , not of the Latex : The Reines do actually , conceive , frame , and contein the Dropsie : But the Abdomen or neather part of the Belly , through the action of government of the Reines , doth afford an Inne , and the Kidney sends the Latex thither , as the product of the Tragedy . For it is not , as the Latex is theevishly snatched away by another Bowel , but the Kidney alone doth banish the Latex unto places subjected unto it . 6. But the Latex being lesse chief in the accustomednesse of Life , in an Oedema , and Anasarca , than in an Ascites : it is also again supped into the Veines , and slides unto the Reines , that it may undergo the last determination of Life . 7. An Ascites is regularly cured , if the Kidney shall make much and abundan● of Vrine of its own accord , or by a Remedy : But it committeth a relapse , if the Disease be not wholly taken away out of the Kidney . 8. The Water between the skin , or Anasarca , by a retrograde motion draws the Latex into the mouthes of the Veines , from thence through the Veines it is sucked into the Kidneys , and expurged in manner of Urine : The least quantity whereof , onely doth exhale by transpiration : And therefore they abusively teach , that the Latex is Phlegm , in an Oedema , and that it is recocted into lawful Blood. 9. Therefore the Command and Action of Government of the Reins doth extend it self , not only into the Kidneys , Ureters , and Urine Vessells : But besides , into the hollowness of the Belly , between the Peritoneum or wrapping Skin thereof , and Muscles of the Abdomen , and likewise into the several Divisions of the hollow Vein beneath its self , even also into the Feet and Legs . 10. The Reins therefore do not suffer the Latex to fall down through its own weight , but do truely send it , no otherwise than as they do truly again draw the same thorow all the blood of the Veines , to wit , until the Dropsie be cured by pissings . 11. And which is more , the Kidney doth alwayes co-operate , and principally operate in the framing of a Dropsie : It is therefore of necessity , primarily affected : Because it wanders from the ends of its acting . 12. And seeing the Kidney is the chief effecter , of the Dropsie , although another member may now and then contain , the occasional Cause . 13. Therefore a Cure which is instituted by a removal of the Water , is alwayes subject to a relapse , and is for the most part attempted in vain : Because a worthy or meet Cure is never instituted from the ultimate or last Agent . 14. Therefore the Dropsie Ascites , is alwaies an immediate effect of the Reins , and so the Cure of the same doth expulsively require a restauration of the Kidneys , whether the defect be occasionally stirred up , or in the next place consisteth in the Kidney it self . 15. Wherefore I do far retire from the Doctrine of the Schooles , which , the Reins being paspassed by and neglected , doth continually behold the Liver , and direct its desires of curing thither . 16. But the Dropsie is not a wandring abuse , or exorbitancy of the Archeus in the Kidney , a stopping up thereof by a stone or muckishnesse : But a certain sleepy or stupifying poysonous faculty in the venal blood , which is expelled , or in a like manner entertained ; through importunity whereof , the Kidney doth first of all forget its office , casts away the Rains of separating the Latex : and straightway after also , doth snatch up a fury , while through an inordinate motion , it banisheth the Latex into the Abdomen . 17. Even just as I said before , that a Kidney was exclusively shut against the simple Urine , even until death . 18. Indeed I meditate of a co-like devious or wandering quality of out-chased venal blood , in the Dropsie ; through the occasional Cause whereof , the Kidney is made forgetful of its duty , and the seasonable removal of which poyson doth free the Kidney from its bond , and so the Abdomen from the Water : For when the Kidney seeth that an Error was committed by it , and being well admonished by a right Medicine , it earnestly repents , and again suppeth up the Latex being dismissed unto it , and drives it forth . 19. Therefore the true Dropsie Ascites is in the Reins ; or to lose the stubborn bolt of the Reins , is to lose the Dropsie ; even as to solue the congealed Blood , is to solue the occasional cause thereof : That is , the immediate cause , as well the material , as efficient of a true Dropsie , is the Archeus of the Reins erring ; to wit , so far as he becomes Exorbitant , and is as it were driven into a furie by the occasional Cause , he begets an Idea or shape , the which the implanted Archeus of the Reins himself , being stubborn , doth foster and nourish : Whereby indeed , he doth not , or scarce separates the Urine , or imploys himself in the care of his Office , or of his appointment : Yea , neither doth he only pass by and neglect his own Offices ; but also , being as it were in a rage , dismisseth the Latex unto the Abdomen , that he may as it were procure his own Destruction . Therefore we must dissolve the vice of stubbornness in the Archeus , so that pissing may follow if health be to be expected . Paracelsus feigneth , that in the Dropsie , the venal Blood is by the star of Zedo turned into a muscilage ; but from hence into water : But that its cure doth consist in the withdrawing of the water , and first matter , or removall of that aforesaid Muscilage : But what other thing is this , than to cure from the effect ? I grant willingly indeed , that as oft as the Latex doth not sufficiently serve the turn , the Archeus of the Reins , that he may satisfie his own furie , doth sooner cause the blood to melt , than he desisteth from his errour begun : But where there is a plentiful Latex , the dissoluting of the Flesh and Blood into a Latex , is not worth his labour : For in very deed , as speedily as he can , he drives all the Latex unto the places of the Dropsie ; neither is he idle , but rageth as if in the driving of the Latex unto the Abdomen , his own profitable end were to be expected : For neither would it detain the Urine if it were the endeavour of the Archeus to dissolve the flesh and blood . Those in whom both Kidneys are stopped by the Stone , and do die , being at length choaked by the Urine , are not nevertheless therefore Dropsical ; because the Urine remaineth in the veins , whereof ( to wit ) the Kidney intends to unload it self , but cannot : But in the Dropsie it is able , but doth not intend to unload in it self : In a Dropsie therefore , there is a poysonus fury of the Archeus , not likewise in an obstruction by the Stone : And therefore one Kidney being disturbed through a poysonous occasionall cause , together and at once , all the other Kidneys also alike rageth ; which thing , in a stoppage by the Stone , doth not in like manner happen : But the Essence of a Dropsie doth require , that not only the Kidney do neglect the separation of the Latex , and shut the bolt of the Urine : But moreover , it must needs be , that together also , it dismisseth the Latex unto the places of the Abdomen , yea and that it doth strictly close the pores of the Membranes , least indeed any thing of the Latex , or Winds , do transpire and break out . Truly the Archeus of the Reins doth rage with a great and foolish carefulness , that he may make a Dropsie ; and his fury is nourished with a foolish stubbornness , because when he feels the powers of nature to be dejected , yet he nevertheless , not any thing slackeneth from his concieved furie : If therefore a stoppage by the Stone , doth induce a Disease and death , not a Dropsie ; if a Dropsie also brings a Disease and Death , without a total , yea or a material obstruction of the Kidneys : it becomes manifest , that the diversity of the same Diseases doth depend only on the immoderate desire , and intentional fury of the Archeus , being stirred up by a bloody poyson , not likewise from a material errour of the Latex . It is a Maxim , that every being , desires to be and remain . Which indeed is to be understood , of a Being governed by God , by common , and ordered , or regular nature : But not of a foolish Being , and that which is outragious through a poyson , such as is the Archeus from his corruption by sin , and being provoked by the poysonous occasional cause of a Disease : For it is even all one , as a furious Man , Horse , or Oxe , which casts himself headlong from a high place , and procureth his own end : For so the Archeus in his furies , doth as it were by a stubborn endeavour , procure destruction to himself : The which indeed , in many Diseases is perpetual , wherein therefore it is lawful to accuse the madness and furies of the Archeus : also that furious , and mad images or likenesses are formed , whereby he doth seminally communicate his own furies to a potent ferment : Whence also , it is wont to be said , that a man is immediately , more powerfully hurt of none , than of himself . Furthermore , with what great carelesness , and with how light a foot , the Schooles of the Humorists have skipped over the consideration of Diseases , may be seen , not only from the cold distemperature of the Liver , the which only and alone , they suppose to be in the present Disease , and so , as if ( that being laid down for a Position ) they had given a full satisfaction , and had declared a profound Oracle , they repose themselves in quiet : Yet without consideration , that such a cold distemper , cannot be restored ; but that Dropsical Persons do every where admit of cure . But chiefly , the negligence of the Heathenish Schooles doth clearly appear : Because that , among so many thousands Writers , the first , is as yet wanting who hath dared to think , which way , or by what possible means , the Liver should lay up its water between the Abdomen and its Muscles ; none I say , hath hitherto known , that the Latex differs from the Urine : And seeing that sometimes , the Dropsie is for many months leading the Languishing weak unto their Coffin , the Urine should of necessity stink , if it should but for a very small time associate the liquid dung or drosse ( the which , concerning the Disease of the Stone , touching Fevers , and elsewhere , I have in words plentifully explained ) unto it self as a companion : Which dross notwithstanding , is required unto the integrity of Urine . But if a Dropsical Person , shall assume any of that dross , from a Bowel , into the meseraick veins ; that drosse likewise remaines with the small quantity of Urine , neither being co-mixed with the Latex , is it sent unto the Abdomen : All Writers therefore , have hitherto so feared this Gordian knot , that indeed , they have not mentioned so much as a word of it : Let us therefore consider , that which others before me , have neglected : For truly , all juice , or chyle of the Stomach , sliding down through the Bowels , is naturally , regularly , and alwayes attracted , and sucked by the Meseraick veins , to wit , the Mouths or extreamities whereof , do end into the Intestine or Bowel : it hath also remained scanty hitherto , after what manner , so plentifully a Chyle doth dayly passe through the intestine into the mouths of the veins of the Mesentery , without any hole : And likewise , why winds being pressed by the intestine , do not proceed through the same pores , into the veins of the Mesentery , seeing they are by so much the thinner and subtiller than the Chyle , by how much their Body is lighter , which hath no weight , with the ponderous Chyle : But these things shall by degrees manifest themselves under explication , the which , because they being reckoned as it were the impossible , or at least-wise the unsearchable miracles of nature , have suspended every quill of Writers , and the Schooles through the excuse of hidden Causes , have been content to have suspended all things . But go to ; as to my search in hand : Every liquor is sucked by the intestines ( for that thing I willingly grant without controversy ) and is snatched into the veins of the Mesentery , to wit , as well that which is appointed for Blood , as that which is after any sort , at sometime deputed for excrements : But afterwards , there is not any passage of the veins of the Mesentery , but unto the port vein , which insinuates it self into the Liver . Therefore the matter whereof a Dropsie is carried into the Liver , no otherwise than as all the Fibers of roots , do at length end into the Trunk it self , which is called the Root : But what are the Channels , whereby the Liver conveyeth the Matter or Water of the Dropsie , as it were by the hand , unto the space of the Abdomen ? If those are the sober veins , whereby that Membrane of the Abdomen , or Peritoneum , is nourished ; Why at least-wise , hath the Liver rather designed these veins , and doth aflict these places , when as it might far more commodiously expel such superfluous Water by the fundament veins , before the Liver be burdened with its importunity and weight ? Because they are those which seem to be dedicated unto the easing of burdens . In the mean time , it is certain that the Latex , or matter of the Dropsie , doth swim in the veins which are beneath the Liver , seeing it is not then rightly separated by the Urine . At least-wise , however it be taken , the Liver is not able to super-adde even on the only drop more unto the Abdomen , being now extended into a huge heap and hardness , by reason of an heap of water , but that , the mouths of those veins being open , as it were , by a Floudgate broken open , the Dropsical watter should retire , and regorge out of the whole Abdomen into the Liver . For first of all , the mouths of the veins ending into the Membrane or Filme of the Abdomen or neather part of the Belly , have not all of them folding doors applyed unto them , like Bag-pipes restraining the in-snuffed Wind and Latex within . And then , if they should have such folding doors , at least-wise the Liver wanteth an expulsive faculty of so great force , but rather the Liver it self , and the channels of the veins , should sooner chap and crack , than they can super-add the contained water to the hydropical Abdomen , being extended into an immense hardness . In the next ylace , if any such veins do end at the Prison of the Dropsie , for its nourishment , at least-wise , they are the Daughters of the vena cava or hollow vein : And so , all the water should be in the Liver , and the hollow vein , before it is in the Abdomen , and those Bowels should be swollen into an huge hardness : Yea , all the Dropsical Blood should be nothing but meer water ; which is false : And the Schooles will grant me of their own accord , that the water of the Dropsie should be emunged by the Reins , before it should come unto the Abdomen , unless the vice and offence should be rather of the Reins , than of the Liver : For sanguification belongs to the Liver ; but the sepatation of the Latex from the venal Blood , is before , and belongs to another Workman , than the Liver : For the Latex is in the meats and drinks from the beginning , and is essentially separated by the Gall , until it assumes the nature of a certain Salt , and changeth its sharpness into saltness , and remaineth locally well mixed with the venal Blood , until it having obtained the last supply of Urine , being attracted by the Reins , is expelled . The Reins or Kidneys therefore , are governours of the Latex , as the Liver is of the venal blood . And then , the water of the Dropsie , is the Latex , not likewise ( as yet ) Urine ; whose ferment seeing it is dungy , and is imprinted by the Reins , that Latex is not yet Urine : The expulsion therefore of the Latex into the Abdomen , is rather the Office of the Reins , than of the Liver : And therefore the Kidneys , as it were repenting them with an after return , have oftentimes also fetched back the water laid aside in the Abdomen , and have voluntarily restored health from the Dropsie . Then also , sanguification or Blood-making is not hurt or hindred in the Dropsie , neither do Hydropical Persons wax dry through a penury of Blood , for as much as they are choaked with an abundance of the Latex : But if in a Dropsie , Blood doth not abound , yet that comes not to pass , because the Liver denyeth the framing of venal Blood , but because the Blood is even diminished by a forreign thief ; yea , neither doth the Liver vitiate the Blood being made , by it self , seeing they are opposites and unco-sufferable actions , to wit , Sanguification , and Destruction of Blood. For the Kidney hath received the dominion of the water ; so that , the drink failing , it vitiates the Blood , and transchangeth it into Urine ; which things being unknown medicines for a distempered Liver , have proved unsuccessful : For what more blockish thing hath been ever declared , than because the Liver is the shop of venal blood , therefore it is also the shop of water , and of wind , for a Tympany ? The water is colder than the blood ; Therefore the Liver in the Dropsie , laboureth with a cold distemper : For the water is not so much generated in a Dropsie , as it is reserved , in as much as it is not expelled . But whence , in the whole systeme of Diseases , is there so slothful a blindness of the Schooles ? Whence so wan experiences about the Sick ? do they not find themselves forsaken by the truth of God , because they have delivered themselves over unto Heathenish Doctrines , with a stubborn sloath ? Indeed , I sometimes sticking in the manner of making a Dropsie ; did in times past , believe that the water was made in the Abdomen it self ; but not to be derived thither , seeing that it should else , regorge thorow the same channels through which it was conveyed by reason of too much extension ; but I knew that the water or wind was breathed into the Abdomen , more strongly , than by any Bellows , if by Pipes it were led thither ; especially , because those passages ought successively and frequently to open and gape , to wit , as oft as the water should droppingly depart unto the extended Abdomen : But after that , I saw the Dropsie to be perfectly cured of its own accord , by Urine , and the whole water by a remedy , to be expelled through the Kidneys ; I also undoubtedly beleived , that the water was brought into the Abdomen , through the same passages , by which , it being fetched back , doth proceed unto the Reins , in the curing of a Dropsie : Therefore I was bound to acknowledge other wayes , and to desert my former opinion : Especially , because I found sparing Urins in a Thirsty and Drunken Dropsie : Indeed , the water is loosed through the same passages whereby it was conveyed into the Abdomen . These things I have known , and believed , because I have seen them : But I could not come unto the knowledge of those passages , as neither of that violence , which might extend the Abdomen more strongly than Bellows , and nevertheless , by a continual drop , might as yet increase it : Those passages are hitherto unknown to Anatomists , and the manner whereby the tumour ariseth unto so great an extension , is touched by none , or lightly searched out . The great things of God in nature I humbly reverence , and greatly admire : For I am astonished at the furies of the Archeus , and the every where excentrical varieties of these , whereby he sometimes encloseth water , at another time wind , in the Prison of the Abdomen , even until the destruction of the whole Bodo , and his own . I will therefore open the matter , so far as my Industry hath permitted me to conceive : For in Nature , there is twofold Action : to wit , One , whereby a Body is enclosed in a Body , as Wine in a Bottle , and the Water of the Dropsie between the Peritoneum and Abdomen : Yea , the pores of these Membranes are Diseasly closed : For the Body is per-spirable in health , and the sweat doth wholly diminish the Latex ; so that the watery drink in Summer doth presently by sweat flow through the skin : But sweat is for the most part , unprofitable in the Dropsie , so that although the Belly sweats , yet it doth not diminish the Dropsie , however many have vainly tryed many things , about these trifles . There is also another Action , which is regular and of a different kind in Nature : Whereby , I have elsewhere shewed by many Examples in us , a certain solid Body ( to wit , a knife , beard of corn , needle , arrow , or dart head , bones , shells of fishes , and the like ) are transmitted thorow the Stomack , Paunch , Veins , without the hurting or wounding of these : And so that there is a wonted and necessary penetration of Bodies in Nature . For the first of those Actions , as it is every where known , is made so far as a Body doth altogether obey its own bolts of superficies , hardness , weight , channels , &c. And one Body in respect of the other , is as it were dead . But the other Action is wholly vital , and of the Spirit of Life , which is not cloathed with the Garment of a thicker Body : But it s own self is the veriest Garment of that Body : And the which it doth therefore derive through another vital body subjected unto it : For so Chyrurgions have noted Apostems or Ulcers to be made through the very bones themselves : And so Authors who are worthy of credit ( whom in the Chapter of injected things , I have alleadged ) do admit of a penetrating of corporeal dimensions , as oft as a knife passeth through the Stomach , and with a corrupt mattery Aposteme , is returned through the Ribs , without a wound of the Stomach . In the Dropsie therefore , the aforesaid double action is conversant about the same Latex : For this Latex , as long as it being cloathed with a clear vital spirit , doth after some sort enjoy a venal life , is led through the solid places , it slighteth passages , seeing there is none unpassable by it : But it deriveth it self unto the Prison of the Dropsie , and there , as well through a constriction of the Pores of the Membranes , as singularly , and especially by reason of a deserting of the same cloathing spirit , it lays up it self , as it were an excrement now dead : And the which , neither doth therefore find deliverance from thence , unless the vital spirit doth again cloath and encompass it . This is indeed that spiritual force , which is more powerful than any Bellows : The which we bear in our inward parts , the power whereof we dayly admire , have never known , and being compelled by demonstrations to admit of , do scarce beleive . In the Dropsie therefore , I have found a fury of the Reins , and their erring powers , which furie shutteth , and is scarce that which may open , and the which doth open , and lay up , neither is it that which maketh to re-gorge : Seeing therefore those actions of fury conspiring toward their own destruction , are plainly spiritual ( for as a Physitian , I every where contemplate of the spirit , as a vital air raised out of the arterial Blood , but I touch not at the immortal mind ) neither do such spirits act , unless they are constrained by likenesses or Images framed by them : Therefore indeed , I call it the furies of the Archeus , while the Kidney ceaseth , and is almost forgetful of its own Office and appointment in separating the Latex from the venal blood ; therefore it shuts it self , and being as it were wroth , and exorbitant , it lays up the Latex elsewhere : But that I may analogically or resemblingly conceive of , and express this tenour of fury as I ought ; I first of all consider the out-chased venal blood to be detained in the Kidney , or to lurk upon the hollow boughtiness of the intestine , &c. Wich blood , when it hath put on a fermental malignity , presently the Kidney the governour of the Latex being full of wroth , receives the sleepie or stupifying poyson of that blood : But the ordination of the Latex is to wash off filths , if there are any detained in any place of the Body ; and seeing the Kidney cannot by the Latex wash off that out-hunted blood , because the Latex cannot descend thither , this co-heaped in the veins for disdains sake , and the Kidney , is thereby so affected with disdain , and weariness or grief , that it cannot performe the office enjoyned it : And therefore it presently shuts the passage of the Urine , that that which it cannot do by a regular plenty of the Latex , it may perfect by an abundance thereof : As if it considered : Thou Latex goest not whither I would send thee , to wash off the out-chased blood ; I will not let thee pass through thy accustomed Ureters : Such therefore , is the fury of the enraged Archeus of the Reins , the which at length , arising to a degree , cloaths the Latex , and derives it whither it will. But besides , not only the event in making doth confirm this fury of the Archeus ; but also , in drying , especially while a Dropsie is sometimes cured of its own free accord : For truly , that comes to pass , as if the Archeus did repent him and were sorry for his deeds . I knew the Countess of Falax , who while being a young Maid , did swell with a Dropsie , by the perswasion of a certain Physitian ( for she was held desperate , by all ) abstained almost for the space of a full year , from drink , being content with the more solid food , and broaths : And she became healthy , and is now alive , being seventy years of age . In the first place , thirst , whether it be taken from a sense of moisture failing , or for the defect it self of moisture , At leastwise , in neither manner , doth it dry up a Dropsical water : For although no drink be Drunk , at leastwise , broaths which do afford a sufficient quantity of venal blood , do also yeild a small quantity of Urine and Latex , so much as is sufficient for the subsistance of a Dropsie . In the next place , neither doth thirst , nor the defect of drinks it self take away the occasional Cause of a Dropsie ( which for the most part , is venal blood expelled ) but rather they do the more dry up , and the more stubbornly reserve for it , that it may resist a resolving , through the abstinence of the counterfeited thirst : But that continual thirst , together with a hope and perswasion of health , did pacifie the errour , or indignation in the Archeus of the Reins ; from whence I have learned , that thirst doth regularly arise from the Kidney , but not from the Liver ; and much less , from the lesser branches of the veins , sucking the greater , until a defect of moisture be brought unto the Orifice of the Stomack : But as a defect of Blood , is restored by the more meer or pure meats and drinks ; So the defect of the Latex , is recompenced by watery things , it being that which experience teacheth . Thirst therefore , proceedeth from the governour of the Latex , and not from the Bowel of sanguification : for there is as much necessity of the Latex , as there hath been hitherto dulness in the passing it by . Some Authors do commend live Toads , being fast bound to both Kidneys , to lose the Dropsie by the Urine : At leastwise , I have seen a Country-man that had a Dropsie , cured by an Adder tyed about his Belly and Reins : For an Idea of fear is brought on the Reins , whereby they loose their indignation . Indeed , by the same title , thirst doth stir up an Idea of sorrow , or of a denyed appetite , whence the Kidney forgets its wroth . From what therefore hath been said before , the ignorance of Causes in the Dropsie is sufficient manifest ; and next , with what great obscurity they have laboured about the distemperature of the Liver , and emptying of waters ; how vainly they have thought of provokers of Urine , of Vesicatories , and of solutive Medicines : and it is to be observed in this place , that purgative Cholagogals or movers of Cholar , have been wickedly given to drink , to Dropsical People ; because they are such things which trans-change the Flesh and venal Blood , into a stinking and yellow ballast , without the help of a Dropsie ; But with the destruction of the a Hydropsical person : But a hydragogal or mover of water , differs from a Cholagogal ; because that being drunk down , the Belly asswageth , neither doth it expurge stinking things or excrements , unless the force of a Cholagogal , be adjoyned to an Hydragogall . Therefore Mercury precipitated according to the prescription of Paracelsus , cures every Dropsie , not as it purgeth , but forasmuch as it material passing through the Bowels , dissolues the out-hunted Blood : But if it together with that , do provoke Vomit , or Stool , that is to the Dropsie by accident . Take notice therefore of this ; that white Briony or white Vine , being scraped or filed , and laid on a bruise wherein the blood looketh black under the skin , doth in few hours resolve that blood into water , the which it likewise fetcheth through the skin : Wherefore take notice , that there is the profitable virtue of an Hydragogal or mover of water in Briony , if thou shalt take away the solutive poyson from the same . But surely I have observed , if Antimony be turned into a liquor , and afterwards into a pouder which purgeth only by sweat , a remedy is procured , which modestly takes away every Dropsie whithout fear of a relaps ; for truly it removeth as well the occasional Cause , as the distemper of the raging Archeus it self : For such remedies as are carried through the intestines , their natural endowment remaining , and being secure , and the which are therefore apt to resolve the occasional Cause , do free Nature of her impediments ; whence the Archeus of the Kidney , percieving the proper madness of his fore-past fury , doth open the veines , suck to him and strain the water through , according to his due and wonted manner , and recompenceth with diligence , the stubbornness of his fore-past fury by an excentrical and opposite motion of the Latex ; grieving that through disorder , he intended his own destruction : whence it is plain to be seen , that the government of the Kidney over the Abdomen and Veins , hath hitherto been unknown . The Dropsie therefore , is a Disease occasionally arisen from a bloody depraved matter , as it were from a fermental Beginning : at whose incitements , the Archeus of the Reins formeth an Idea of indignation ; through the power whereof , he shuts up the Urine-pipes , and Veins , corrupts and diverts the abounding Latex , and transmits this Latex into the compass of the Abdomen or nether part of the Belly ; in the mean time he so straitens the pores of these Membranes of the Abdomen , that they can let nothing of all thorow them even until Death . But the Tympany doth very much differ from the Dropsie : For there is unto it a different occasional Cause , a different manner of making ; in the next place a different matter , and also a different efficient Cause : Therefore a different Disposition and a different Product : For Water is not generated , but Wind : And then , neither is a Tympany made through the Arbitration of the Kidney ; but onely by a poysonsom ferment of the spermatick or seedie nourishment , sticking and defiled in the crooked bought of the Intestine , sitting as President . Neither also hath Anatomy hitherto viewed the veines to be swollen with wind , neither ought the Liver to suffer punishment by reason of the wringings of the Bowels , although aswel the Dropsie as Tympany may follow wringings or gripings . Also if the Flatus's of the Intestine should be made by the Liver , a Remedy is to be applied to the Liver , but not a carminative Medicine to the Intestine : or the Schooles make themselves guilty through a different manner of curing : For if they were mindfull of their own Theorem , that of the same faculty , there is a found and infirm Action , they had known that Belching and Flatus's , are generated by the Bowels and Stomack : And so that the crooked bought of the Intestine is no lesse apt for generating of Flatus's , than the concave or hollowness thereof . A Tympany molesteth from Liquors which were to be assimilated , but are become degenerate : For a Windinesse or Flatus is made in the Intestine , from a certain indisposition of the Archeus of the place , who then doth forthwith change meats which are nothing flatulent , into a flatus . Seeing therefore in the Tympany , it is in the out-side or in the crooked bought of the Intestine : the same flatulent indisposition is to be considered to be with-out-side , as is within in the Intestine : To wit , it is made from a similar nourishment degenerating , whereby a dungy ferment happening , the very Archeus of the place being wroth and ill affected , doth turn , not indeed the aforesaid occasional Cause , but the proper nourishment of the Membranes into Flatus's . But for this purpose a part of the dungy-ferment , doth passe from the inward cavity unto the outward bought of the Intestine : And therefore that is not the unsavoury , or four flatus of Belchings , as neither doth it smel of dung , because it is not of a dungy-matter ; but of a degenerated , and cadaverous or mortified nourishment . A certain man by the perswasion of Physitians , sustaining an Incision on the side of his Navel , who was judged to have the Dropsie , and that they might draw out the water ( I being a Young Man , and looking on ) the Chyrurgions Lancet or Fleam being drawn out , his Abdomen presently pitched , and he by and by died : But a Flatus which hugely stank , uttered it self , and his dead Carcass smelt . It is manifest therefore that the occasional matter , and next , the true matter , and inward effecter , with all the knowledge which credits a Physitian , have remained unknown . The vanity also of Remedies appeareth , and especially of carminating things , which doe not respect the outward bought of the Intestine : And vainly do they feign , that Winds are dispersed by extenuation or rarefying : For to what purpose do they hope to have Winds extenuated , in a matter more subtil than Wind ? or what shall it profit , for to render the Wind more subtile than it self , if it then requires a larger room , and doth encrease the troubles of its extension ? For it is a home-bred foolish Remedy drawn from Fables . Cabrollius , an Anatomist of Mount-pellier tells , That he cured a man of Eighty Years old , who by the perswasion of Rondoletius , ate nothing but salt things , and least he should be overwhelmed with thirst , he mixed pickels or sauces made of Vinegar and Sugar with his meats : He also fomented him twice every day with a Lixivium , wherein Salt , Alume , and Sulphur had boyled : And thereupon used Cows-dung for a Cataplasm , and at length he escaped , and survived , being a Hundred Years old . For those things are not administred in vain , which do consume the occasional Cause : Neither therefore doth Paracelsus vainly commend dungs , seeing they are the salts of putrified meats , unto whom it is granted to resolve the occasional matter of a Dropsie . Surely there is on both sides a wonderful action of the Archeus , as well where he deteins the keys , as where he unlocks the Closets , and expels his Enemy . But Paracelsus approves of his Praecipiolum or Mercury , drawn dead out of its Mine , before other Remedies : But other Simples according to the degree of assinity , wherein they reach unto this metallick Mercury . It is a Phrase of his own liberty . I reverence and admire the endowments of Simples , as they arose from God , but not as they are consanguineal or akin to mineral Mercury . I confesse in the mean time , that that Mercury hath alwayes served or answered my desires . Indeed the attainment thereof is difficult : but the dose of two grains is sufficient , being three or four times administred . But Mercurius Diaphoreticus being once obtained , it is sufficient for many thousands of sick folks , as well for himself being a Physitian , as for his successors . Finally , I have seen a bastard Dropsie ; whereof none hath made mention ( that I know of ) before my self . For I have frequently seen that from an inordinate growth of the Liver , the extension of the Belly did counterfeit a Dropsical Disease : Yea also in those who have died of a Tabes or Consumption of the Lungs , and in those who have been exceeding sean , I have seen their Liver to have increased beyond measure , although wholly without Blood. That Mercury therefore slayes the increasing or growing faculty , even as Quicksilver being cast into a tree bored even into its pith or heart , with an Auger , doth kill the same . Therefore it belongs to the property of Mercury to extinguish the growing faculty of the Liver : But that that thing may succeed according to thy desire , the Mercury ought to die , without any association of external Salts , or fellowship of forreign Spirits : yet thus it ought to die , that a vital Being may remain in the Chariot , which may be able , in the middle life of the Mercury , to carry it unto its appointed places . I am thankful in the behalf of him , whom the Fire hath taught me to understand . Hither do I referre the Remedy of Stibium solulutive : For truly those Remedies do resolve , consume , and brush off every occasional Cause elsewhere lurking and detained . That indeed is the cure of Arcanums , which is attained by a removal of the occasional Cause : and any one of those secrets doth suffice , the which do resolve , cleanse forth , and disperse without distinction whatsoever ( I except the Stone ) is besides Nature concluded in the Body . For truly , although of any kind of Diseases there are two pillars whereby the disease edifice is supported ( to wit , the occasional matter , and the matter with the Archeal efficient ) yet either of the two pillars being with-drawn , the whole building goes to ruine , which was superstructed upon them . Therefore the secrets of Paracelsus do take away every Disease by consequence , as they mow down the occasional Cause . And then , there is another more hidden way of another secret , to wit , whereby peace , rest , and comfort , is brought into the Archeus , to wit , lest he being wroth , do bring forth a Disease , and rather that he may abolish it , being bred : Yea also that he himself may meditate of putting the occasional Cause to flight : For so , as a Thorne being thrust into the Flesh , is drawn out by the fat of an Hare , a common , and milde Remedy ; Otherwise the Archeus is presently as it were angry with the entring Thorne , doth make a tumult , the place swels , and a various exorbitancy of Symptoms is awakened , that indeed , corrupt Pus being at length made , and the place putrified , he may exclude the Thorne ; the which if they had gone more mildly to work , had issued or rushed out , even as it happens under the perswasion of the Hares grease . In like maner , I say , there is an Arcanum or secret in nature , which cures almost every Disease , as it takes away the indignation & confusions of the Archeus , and commands this Archeus to be peaceable . Of which Arcanum I ( first ) will endeavour to open the way . Therefore in the Dropsie the Archeus of the Reins , looseth the passages , and riseth up against the occasional Cause that is to be put to flight , no otherwise than as by a stubborn fury he seeks his own distruction ; and so a Maxime of Hippocrates shall be verified , That Natures themselves are the Physitiannesses of Diseases , but the Physitian onely their Minister . Therefore from the Premises , I conclude , that there would be ( as yet ) a far more peaceable and desirable cure , from a sedative or appeasing Secret , than by the Secrets of Paracelsus : For they make more for the preservation of long life ; of which in a peculiar Book . CHAP. LXIV . A Childish Vindication of the Humorists . 1. The End of the Race proposed or published . 2. It hath happened to the Author even as he had judged . 3. The Clamours of those who are beaten . 4. The more secret Arcanums are not to be openly revealed . 5. The Author Answers unto Letters written unto him . 6. Ten Reproaches . I Had now set forth some small Works which have been hitherto unheard of ; to wit , concerning a different kind of sharpish Fountains , and especially of those of the Spaw , and of the Original of Fountaines , Concerning Fevers , concerning the Disease of the Stone , concerning the miserable state of the deceived Humourists , and of the Plague : That mortals might return the race of all natural Philosophy , and might thereby safely learn the rise , manner , mean , and progress of healing . First of all , the Book of Feavers , reprehendeth the ignorant Schooles of Medicine , about the knowledge of an infirmity so common , whereby they might repent and excuse the publishing of this Volumn . But concerning the Stone , a Monster accidentally bred in us , and touching the Plague , as it were an irregular by-work of the mind , that I might learn what the judgement of the more learned might be of things hitherto unknown . But I found that the greater number hath despised those things which I have taught , and presuming to know every thing knowable , hath scorned to learn , by the labours of another , because I did the more sharply carp at Errors , not indeed at the infamy of any man ; But at the Ignorance of the Schooles in general : The Errors , I say , which one day , in the very chaires , ought to be chastized with the penalty of infernal punishment , and by expert Princes , shall be judged guilty of Crime : Especially where Admonition being in vain , shall render the endeavours of Charity vain . The more nice or delicate ones therefore , have passed their judgement according to every ones intention and extension : And many of them were offended , because I did not onely bring in , and demonstrate new and unheard of things , above the reach of many ; but because I did destroy the Antient Principles of Healing , and did not perfectly teach other better Principles : As if so great a burthen of Labour , were the measure of one day . But many wished that those things which in secret , were once fore-chewed by me , I would thrust piece-meal into my jawes ; that they without labour might learn better Instructions , and Remedies . Wherefore some of the more curious wrote to me , praising indeed my Work , and unwearied Paines , and Charges : But not enduring that I had left secret Remedies involved under thick darknesse ; neither that I had openly revealed the whole Art of Chymistry , and hidden Phylosophy , contrary to the Precept of the Gospel , and that I had not cast Pearls before Swine ; that is , the unworthy : But surely , I have on both sides performed as much as I could , and what I was disposed to do . For I had safely learned by experience , that in the Year , 1602. I returning into my Countrey , cured some that were past hope , by the Spirits of Salt , Sulphur , and Vitriol , and by vitriolated Vomitories , &c. whereof there had been no foot-step of Memory among the Dutch. Therefore the Arch-Physitians , and others the more famous , laid a Privy Snare for my Remedies : For if I had given any of the aforesaid Medicines to any one , they presently procured to have them brought unto them , that they might imitate and exceed me . I Therefore proposed Chymical Medicines , by my Servants , now married , unto publick Sale : Because they were those who had withdrawn themselves from my Family-Service . These therefore did gain or earn their Bread : But as all things are subject to ruines , other fugitive Servants of Forreigners planted themselves among them , who thrust these saleable Medicines on People at a cheaper price : And so Medicines adulterated with a thousand fallacies , came in place , and all things were accounted the best , whatsoever were sold at a cheaper rate . Hence nothing is found at this day of counterfeited Medicines , which is not thus adulterated , and the which , the hope of greater gain doth not as yet more corrupt daily : And therefore from hence , I being well instructed , have learned , that we must proceed no longer in this path : But that whatsoever of the more rare Philosophy is to be divulged , that is altogether to be performed under the Heroglyphicks or Mysticall Figures of the more skilful . Therefore let them pardon me , as many as do write unto me these words : I pray thee explain thy self , speak more manifestly of the Preparation of Secrets : Because that is a new method of learning Philosophy , the which they must learn in the same manner that I have learned it . For God sels Arts to Sweats . For nothing in Alchymical things is written to that intent that they may be promiscuously understood by all , but onely , that they may not be understood : And that thing , Chymistry hath alwayes observed singular to it , before other Disciplines , by the Command of God ; least Roses should be spread before Men , and Swine : For our Writings are in stead of Exhortations , that every one may profit by his own Labours , as much as shall be indulged him from above . At length the reproachful , and more unlearned , do reproach me , and insult over me ; saying , 1. With what face doth this rash , foolish old Man , a trifler , unlearned , affirm or maintaine , that one and the same hot Remedy doth prevail against cold Diseases ? also to break the Maxim of the Ancients which is chiefly or most true ? Of Contraries there are onely Contrary Remedies . 2. With what sace doth he say , That without Purging and Cutting of a Vein , the abounding of a hurtful Humor is to be taken away . 3. If he thinks that the Secrets of Paracelsus doth bring a just temperature of the Elements , as to weight , shall they therefore repose a broken or displaced Bone , or cure Burstness ? 4. What if secret Remedies or Arcanums can wipe off the peccant matter , shall this help , if it be not also driven or carried forth by a loosening or purging Medicine ? 5. Or what hath this common with the Diseases of mad folks , that we should believe , that as it were with the one Knife of an Arcanum , every Disease is to be cut off ? 6. And likewise in some hereditary Diseases , there doth no Lee or Feces reside , but a certain co-bred , and naked incorporate distemperature hath remained , whereby at set intervals , unhoped for Mists are awakened , the Authors of new fits ; what refreshment shall Arcanums bring , which do alwayes sound the one Cuckow 's note , of one quality ? 7. Have the industries of so many Men , and Ages been of no value , whom , to wit , a better and safer Minerva or Genius hath been pleasing ? 8. We also cure any Diseases without Blood-letting , as oft as we will : But we fear worse relapses , while as a hurtful humour being left within , we should deceive the sick by sleepifying and appeasing Medicines : And therefore , we proceed not according to the prescription of the boastings of Smoak-sellers , while as the health of the sick is dear or near unto us , and by a rational method , we separate our selves from these Empericks . Helmont alone hath known all things , and we have been Blockheads hitherto . 9. For he assembles all unto himself , that the credulous may think , that Medicine which the most High hath created out of the Earth , doth issue from the Fire . For learned men do not thus bid Adieu to Academical Studies , being confirmed in healing , by a long course of Years . 10. For principal Men are better perswaded , who do not admit of any other besides Vniversity Men , unto whom they commit their Life , &c. CHAP. LXV . The Author Answers . 1. That some one Arcanum cures all Diseases . 2. He at length Answers fitly to every Particular . 3. Of what sort a true Laxative Medicine is . 4. The solving of an Objection . 5. The maxime of Hippocrates is retorted on the Schooles . 6. A saying of the Schooles is reflected on the Schooles . 7. Why Laxative Medicines are foolishly administred . 8. He directly and regularly gives satisfaction to his injurious reproaches . 9. The Author provokes the Humourists of the whole World unto an actual Combate . 10. He gives answer unto the maskes of fear objected by the Humorists . 11. He goes to meet his Adversaries . 12. The intentions of the Author . 13. An old abuse doth not give a right . 14. That it is the miseries of Princes to live encompassed with flatterers , and therefore out of the truth . 15. The Courts are wanting of the best Physitians . I Will prove first , that the liquour Alkahest , the first being of Salts ; Lile , the first Mettal ; Mercurius Diaphoretius , or Horizontal Gold ; that any one I say , whatsoever it be of them ( for all of them , through the consanguinity of one dissolver , do conspire into a Unisone ) is sufficient for the curing of any Diseases whatsoever , however the carping Momus's guts may crack . First of all , Adeptists have known with me , how far the Dispensatories of the Ap●thecary do differ from hence ; yea and how remotely those Writers are absent , who being themselves as yet Young beginners , through a great itch of a little Glory , have set forth Basilicals , and the first principles of Chymistry : But I will prove it by the assumption of this Chapter , and the other Calumnies raised up against me , shall voluntarily melt like Snow : Wherefore I being the last of Alchymists , will thus prove the aforesaid Assumption . Health it self , doth not consist in a just temperature of the Body , but in a sound or entire Life : For otherwise , a temperature of Body is as yet in a dead Carcass newly killed , where notwithstanding there is now death , but not life , not health ; but health is the one only homogeneal integrity , and unblamed disposition of life ; requiring a preservation of that integrity in healthy Persons , and a restoring thereof in sick Persons : And that thing Hippocrates so long agoe smelt out , affirming , that Nature alone ( which is only one ) is the Physitianess of Diseases , but the Physitian the Minister or Servant ; as also the Medicine , a means of reducing nature being exorbitant : Therefore the integrity of health is in a Unisone , and there is one only governour of Life , and no more : Therefore this governour alone , is ill affected in Diseases : For it is he alone which maketh the assault as well in healthy , as in sick folkes , and the rupture of him only , doth rent asunder the family administration of Life . For although nothing doth provoke from abroad , and nothing from the seed of our Parents doth disturb us ; Yet that Archeus doth now and then fail or decay of his own free accord , and from hence our integrity is dissolved ; and impurities by an after right , are thereby many wayes bred , which do ensnare the Monarchy of Life . Truly seeing nature it self , as Hippocrates witnesseth , is the Physitianess of Diseases ; therefore its Unity is to be conserved , and its integrity to be restored : But that thing may be sufficiently over-performed by one only remedy : For there is a Unity of altered nature , a Unity of health being hurt , and therefore a Unity of the Spirit which is disturbed under the Disease is only to be considered ; but not a multiplicity of occasional diseasie varieties : And seeing one of the aforesaid Arcanums , doth plentifully contain in it all things requisite , from the gift of God , and by the preparations of the Artificer : Therefore one of those Arcanums or secrets , is sufficient for every , and any Disease whatsoever : And therefore the text doth not say , Almighty created Medicines from the Earth ; But Medicine , in the singular number ; which Medicine otherwise , already prepared for the art of healing , he created not from the earth : That Medicine therefore , pierceth the innermost parts of the Body , which of its own very gift of goodness , doth comfort , and confirm all the members : And next , doth most powerfully dissolve whatsoever filths have been any were co-heaped : The which being once dissolved , nature is busie to disperse the hurtfull matter , through a passage known unto her self . Let Young beginners take notice in this place , that according to a wonted blockishness , they beg the Principle , after that I have already made it abundantly manifest , that there are not contraries in Nature , no temperature of Elements , and much less , a distemperature of Elementary qualities : Neither likewise Humours , whereunto health , and by consequence an infirmity , do by a just title , owe their patronage . In like manner also , I have so withdrawn from Fevers , a trust to solutive Medicines , that I may not again recollect the same , without the grief of the Schooles . Indeed a perfect purgation ought to loosen only the sick , but not healthy folk : And for that cause it is most perfect , the which doth at first , unsensibly lull asleep , and pacifie the Archeus , who afterwards ( seeing nature is the only Physitianess ) doth cut down the Diseases , and the occasional Causes of these : for it is an unheard of thing to learn in a tone or harmony , in the presence of the refusing hinderers of Young beginners , who desire to learn : And they only do apprehend me , as many as do understand the things or principles before recorded . For they do object for their purging Medicines ; that it is nothing material , although a laxative Medicine doth eject a laudable juice out of the veins , especially because by a stronger right , and a briefer compendium , it will expell the Diseasie Fex or Dreg ; neither must we greatly care , although solutive Medicines do with the more crude Blood , a little diminish the strength : But the Books concerning Fevers and Humours do under the consent of experience , deny that purgative things do take away hurtful Humours , or any Disease dedicated to the same Humours : And then , because there are not in nature , such Humours ; neither likewise , do any Diseases answer to the same : Then also , whatsoever purgatives do chase away and exterminate , it doth not belong to one of the three Humours , which they say do offend ; but it is venal Blood slain by the poyson of the purging Medicine , and the stinking Carcass whereof is ejected by the Fundament . And therefore , neither do they dare to give purging things to drink , no not indeed , in sharp Fevers , unless after that the matter do swell for anger ; which is as much as to say , after that Nature hath become the conqueress ; to wit , when perhaps the Diseasie guest which is vanquished , being presently about to retire of its own free accord , shall as to a part of it fall out of the Body , together with other filths caused by the purging Medicine : Unless the Archeus being wroth , with the injected poysonous purgation , doth stir up a relapsing Disease : Which thing , I remember very often to have happened , and have recorded in my written Catalogues . And that thing the Schooles are not Ignorant of , who long since affirm with a serious Character ; that only Aloes is unhurtful . Therefore every laxative , is absolutely hurtful , if not also , together with that , in vain . I may be guilty therefore before God , if I do not altogether perswade , that we must wholly abstain from laxative things . For neither , if nature be not foolish , is a Laxative Medicine sucked unto the veins : Neither without danger doth it rush it self headlong into danger , which should draw a hurtful poyson within the veins . Therefore , a solutive poyson , while as yet it is detained , and that in the Stomach , it putryfies and defiles whatsoever was a-loof of , deposed in the Mesenteries for better uses , and draws the refined Blood out of the hollow vein , instead of a putryfied treasure , and by degrees defiles it with a poysonous contagion , and dissolves it with the stinking ferment of a dead carcass : For from hence , is there a loss of strength by laxative Medicines , and a disturbance of the Monarchy of Life , without hope of cure thereby : But that fury of laxative things endureth not only so long as their presence ; But also , so long as the lamentable poyson doth burden the Stomach and Bowels with its contagion : So indeed an artificial Diarrhaea or Flux ariseth , which now and then persisteth even until Death , and laughs at the promised help , and attempted succours of astringent things . Unto the second and third I likewise say , it hath been sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere , that the Elements are neither tempered for Bodies falsly believed to be mixt , nor for the temperature sake of the same Bodies , and much less for a just one , and as to an adequate or suitable weight : Therefore the Schooles presuppose falshoods ; yea and contend by sophistry : For although Arcanums do cure a broken bone as well as Comfrey , or the Stone for broken bones : yet it is on both sides required , that the fracture of the bone be reposed : I likewise remember , that a burstness being well bound up , hath been cured beyond expectation , because from the breaking of a bone , some one had layen long on his Loynes : Neither therefore doth it want an Arcanum . Unto the fourth and also the fifth , it sufficeth , that the Arcanum or Secret doth wipe away the occasional Causes , to wit , nature being holpen , supplying the rest . Unto the sixth , let the Schooles refrain their tongue : For an Arcanum cures Diseases , which they under blasphemy , have maintained to be uncurable : Which thing the Hospitals of those that were uncurable , do testifie for me , if they are compared with the Epitaph of Paracelsus . But the seventh reproach , breaks forth from ignorant Jaws , to wit , from the proper testimony of a guilty mind . Unto the eight and ninth , it is certain , that the Exclaimers do grieve while they are beaten , for from a sense of grief the Mouth speaketh reproaches : But if of thousands of Alchymists , scarce one doth arive unto his wished end , that is not the vice of the art ; because the endowment doth not depend on the will of him that willeth and runneth ; But because it is not yet the fulness of time , wherein these secrets shall be more common : Be it sufficient for me , that the signs do no where appear , but among the obtainers of Arcanums , that is Adeptists ; and that none of the Humorists , hath ever come thither , neither also shall come . Therefore there is no place for reproaches against the truth of the science of healing , but where there is no order , and an everlasting horrour doth inhabit : For Owles and monstrous Bats do shun the light of truth ; because they are fed with a great lie , to wit , that they have known how to cure Fevers without evacuation : When as indeed they know not by both succours , as well of a cut vein , as of a loosened Belly , how to cure Fevers certainly , and safely ; for let them cure a Fever as they affirm : Shall they not likewise for that very cause bring rest to the sick ? And afterwards safely take away , that which they say doth remain ? which was not lawful so fitly to be done , as long as they believe life to conflict or skirmish with Death , and the Disease with health : But they shun the light of truth under the Cloak of a lie : thus ignorance dictating , and gain thus commanding , miserable men do defend themselves . For Medicine is not a naked word , a vain boasting , or vain talk , for it leaves a work behind it : Wherefore I despise reproaches , the boastings , and miserable vanities of ambition : Go to , return with me to the purpose : If ye speak truth , Oh ye Schooles , that ye can cure any kinde of Fevers without evacuation , but will not for fear of a worse relapse ; come down to the contest ye Humorists : Let us take out of the Hospitals , out of the Camps , or from elsewhere , 200 , or 500 poor People , that have Fevers , Pleurisies , &c. Let us divide them in halfes , let us cast lots , that one halfe of them may fall to my share , and the other to yours ; I will cure them without blood-letting and sensible evacuation ; but do you do , as ye know ( for neither do I tye you up to the boasting , or of Phlebotomy , or the abstinence from a solutive Medicine ) we shall see how many Funerals both of us shall have : But let the reward of the contention or wager , be 300 Florens , deposited on both sides : Here your business is decided . Oh ye Magistrates , unto whom the health of the People is dear ! It shall be contested for a publique good , for the knowledge of truth , for your Life , and Soul , for the health of your Sons , Widows , Orphans , and the health of your whole People : And finally , for a method of curing , disputed in an actual contradictory , superadd ye a reward , instead of a titular Honour from your Office : compel ye those that are unwilling to enter into the combate , or those that are Dumb in the place of exercise , to yeild ; let them then shew that which they now boast of by brawling : For thus Charters from Princes are to be shewn : Let words and brawling cease , let us act friendly , and by mutual experiences , that it may be known hence forward , whether of our two methods are true : For truly , in contradictories , not indeed both propositions , but one of them only is true . But now the Humourists , while any commits himself to me for cure , do possess him with fear , to wit , least they give up themselves unto an Authour of new opinions ; but rather that they go in the paths of Heathens , that they may not , through a novelty of opinion , be accounted to have put their Life in doubt , and that they rather trusting in an old abuse , do enter into beaten paths : Ah , I wish those of another Life , and of the intelligible World , might return , that they might testifie , unto whom their death is owing . Presently , they who being now subtile Scoffers do seem to ask counsel for their own life , should acknowledge , that they do incurr on themselves the destruction and loss of their Life , while they had rather commit their Life to plurality or the great number , only by reason of the constancie of an old errour and abuse , than that they are willing to be bowed unto the Admonitions of the truth : As if War were still to be waged only with Darts or Arrows , and Slings , because that is the most antient kinde of Weapons . But nevertheless , neither are our Medicines so new , that there are only the thousandth of experiences in them ; the which have been made consonant with truth , by an hundred thousand experiences : Therefore as many Physitians as do object such things as these , from debility of mind , and ignorance of Art , are cruel Impostors , Enemies of Christians , being envious for a little advantage : For truly , they increase fears in the sick , and vex the sick , that they may extol themselves , and their own Medicines . And they say ; for we are willingly ignorant of those things which are evil : Because the new remedies of Chymists ( for we make use of them sometimes , when there shall be need ) are cruel , hurtful , burning , and dangerous : But if thou shalt admit of a Chymist , thou shalt be alone with thy Chymist ; all we will stay at home ; because they are Idiots , and boasters , who do not agree with us . Be ye mindful in the mean time , that eyes do see more than an eye . Therefore in a toren ship , thou seekest ship-wrack , if thou shalt depart from the safe shore : They bring the Apostatical rout of Chymistry , and likewise the Jews , and wicked Men , for a confirmation : As if in like manner , all the dross and froath of Harlots , and Knaves , do not insinuate themselves under the name of Humorist-Physitians . For if Brawlers had been of value with me , I had not been constrained to Write . For if Charity , or the care of your Souls doth vex or grieve you , let us go unto the challenged Combate ! For I promise , if ye shall overcome , that I willingly hereafter depart from my Evil , into your Doctrine wholly . In the next place , while I prefer refined Medicines before yours , and the true principles of healing , before Paganish trifles : This is not done from an intention of catching or alluring of gain : Neither also is it meet , that I should be judged by your covetous mind ; for I have begun to preach the truth of Medicine from a pure intention , that Physitians may repent , and may learn those things which they know not ; may enter on a safer way , and may cease from badly handling the life of their Neighbour : That they may cease I say , to destroy Widows , Orphans , and their own Souls : For I know , that in the fulness of time ( for nothing is so hidden , which shall not be revealed ) the Doctrine which I have now divulged by this volume , shall be made manifest : I wish at least , that it may happen the more timely or seasonably , for the safety of Souls , and preservation of Families ; but as to that which concerns my self , I do not now for many years , go to see the sick , neither do I invite any one to make use of my endeavour ; which thing is sufficiently known to our country men : Because I am he , who get not gain by others miseries : But I dismiss no sick Body from me without comfort . Let the boastings also of the Schooles cease , which do implore authority from the antiquity of possession : For truly a prescription or title doth not happen into nature . For I grant Paganisme to be older than Christianity : I also presuppose that the errours of the Schooles , began presently together with Paganisme : They are new and unheard of things which I teach , because God taking pitty on our kind , hath under this fulness of dayes , opened a treasure of truth , even when it pleased him , for all the Nurseries of the Heathenish Schooles , that hence forward they may learn to assent unto safer Doctrine ; for by reason of an old abuse , those things are withered , rotten , and wormy , which are demonstrated to be deprived of the juice of truth ; because it is universally and singularly true , that every gift which descends not from the Father of Lights , is false and obscure ; but it is not to be believed , that an Adeptist hath enlightned the Medicinal Schooles of the Gentiles , whose posterity doth as yet cure with so great blindness of Speculations , and is deprived of the Favour , Vigour , and honour of Medicines . Let those boastings also cease , as many as do glister with a wording or discursive Doctrine , because they are celebrated by the Powers of the World : For those Physitians whom the Almighty hath created , are not Pipers : But in the commpassion of Charity , do peculiarly cure the poor , and are acknowledged by that token : But the Father of the poor beholdeth them with bountiful eyes , who hath attended unto the intreaties of his miserable ones , for the remembrance of his Christ : They with-draw themselves from the flatteries of the People , and great men ; they live of their own right , being injurious to none : And by this one only sign they are distinguished from paultry Physitians , as in well doing , they do suffer vilifying from these , and do willingly bear it : Yea the People ( to whom they are bountiful ) do report ill and prate of them . Because that is the Lot which the Giver of Lights doth always reserve for his : For without hope of gain , they procure to be merciful : But if money be voluntarily given unto them , they receive it indeed , but they lay it not up but for the former uses . But these are very rare , and not easie to be seen in Princes Courts . There was in times past witten in the Epitaph of an Emperor , [ He perished through a Rout of Physitians ] So that Princes are the unhappiest of men , unto whom none speaketh Truth ; but being environed with flatterers , they hear nothing but flatteries , and are nourished with deceits : At leastwise , it doth not belong to Princes to have known how to chuse the best Physitian , unto whom they may commit their Life ; but they receive this Physitian being commended or approved by a former Physitian ; and thus they remain in Courts by a continued race or line . And therefore a Prince for the most part , is not to be numbred among those that are endowed with long Life : For although he hath honoured his Father , yet of length of dayes promised unto him , he is spoiled by unfaithful Helpers . So much in Answer . CHAP. LXVI . A Treatise of Diseases . A Diagnostical or Discernable Introduction . 1. A Re-sumption of the whole work . 2. Why the Author useth so great austereness in repressing . 3. He invokes God , while he perceives himself deprived of humane aid . 4. The poverty , and false 〈…〉 of Logick were discovered . 5. The nakednesse of hearkening to the natural Phylosophy of Aristotle . 6. An unheard-of method of searching into a Disease . 7. Why the Schooles have wanted the knowledge of Diseases . 8. A Disease hath flown from departing out of the right way . 9. An entrance into the knowledge of Diseases . 10. A Scheme of Diseases out of Hippocrates . 11. The Schools being fed with Lotus , have forsaken their own Hippocrates . 12. A pithy contemplation of Diseases . IT hath seemed necessary to have begun from Elements , Qualities , Mixtures , Complexions , Contrarieties , Humors , and Catarrhes , that I might demonstrate , the Schooles never to have heeded the Nature of Diseases ; and therefore that they have been ignorant of the true Scopes of Medicinal Affaires , or the Principles , Theorems , Manners of making , Causes of suiting , Allyances , Agreements , interchangable Courses , and properties of Diseases ; likewise of the Inventions , Choyces , Preparations , Exaltations , Appropriations of Remedies : That is not to have known a Scientifical or Knowldegable Curing of the Sick. For I have believed , that I must proceed by the same Beginnings : Because they referred all sicknesses ( a few perhaps being excepted ) into Elementary qualities , and the inbred discords of Nature , into Humours , Catarrhes , Flatus's , Smoaks or Fumes : So that the knowledge of the Schooles being withdrawn into a Fume , and Vapours , doth vanish into Smoak . At length , through the Errors of Tartar , it descends unto Tartarers , that they might shew , that they being involved in darkness , have stumbled in their wayes : For it hath behoved me diligently to detect those things , if Young beginners must hereafter repent . But it hath not been sufficient to have shewn their Errors , Unskilfulness , Sluggishness , and stubborn and constant Ignorance , unless I shall restore true Doctrine in the room of Triffles : For the abuses of Maxims , had remained suspected by me for very many Years ( the which in the Book of Fevers I have deciphered to the Life ) before that I came unto a sound Knowledge of the Truth : And I had a long while thorowly viewed the truth of the Theorie , before that in seeking I had found some right Medicines which were sufficient for those that had made a Beginning . Wherefore seeing I was about to speak of Diseases , under so great a Paradox and weight of things , and sound none among the Antients and Modern Juniors to be my assistant , I seriously invoked God , and I found him also favourable . Therefore I determined before I wrote , to call upon Logick , that by its Definitions it might demonstrate unto me the Essences of Diseases ; indeed by their Divisions , Species , and interchangable courses or mutual respects ; and at length , that by Augmentation , it might suggest the Causes , Properties , Meanes , and Remedies of knowing and curing them . But at my acclamations made even into its mouth , it was deaf , stood amazed , heard nothing , remained dumb , and helped not me miserable man in the least : Because it was wholly impotent , without sense . Afterwards therefore , I called the Auricular Precepts of the natural Philosophy of the Schools , unto my aid : To wit , their three ( boasted of ) Principles , four causes , fortune , chance , time , infinite , vacuum , motion , yea and monster . Whence at length , I discovered , that their whole natural Philosophy , was truly monstrous , having feigned , false , mocking Beginnings , not principiating , and much less vital , in the sight of the King by whom all things live : likewise Causes , not causing . Also adding or obtruding the phantastick Beings of Reason , and opinions beset with a thousand absurdities , wherein I as yet found not any footstep of Nature entire ; and much less the defects of the same , or the interchangable courses of faculties , or vital functions : But least of all , from such a structure of Principles , was the knowledge of Causes Natural , Vital , of Diseases , Remedies , and Cures to be fetched : Whither notwithstanding I supposed the knowledge of Nature had respect , as unto its objected scope . For whatsoever I sought for from the Schooles , and attempted to handle by their Theorie , that thing wholly Nature presently derided in the Practise , and it was accounted for a blast of Wind : She derided me , I say , ( to speak more dictinctly ) together with the Schooles , as ridiculous : And at length , she , together with my self , complained of so unvanquished stupidity Then also , Logick bewailed with me her impotent nakedness , and the vain boasting of the Schooles : Because she being that , which even hitherto was saluted the Inventer , and Searcher of Meanes , Causes , Tearms , and Sciences , grieved that she ought to confesse , that she was dumb no lesse in Diseases , than in the whole compact of Nature and also that she ought to desert her own professors , in so great a necessity of miseries 〈…〉 she , by one loud laughter had derided also the natural Philosophies of Aristotle , and the blockish credulities of the World , and of so many Ages , if she her self had not been a non-being fiction , swollen only with the blast of pride . Wherefore seeing Nature doth no where exist , or is seen , but in Individuals ; there is need that I who am about to write of Diseases , have exactly known the Causes of particular things , even as also it is of necessity for a Physitian , to have thorowly viewed those Causes individually , under the guilt of infernal punishment . Therefore it hath seemed to me , that the quiddities or essences , as well of things entire , as of those that are hurt , were to be searched into after the manner delivered , concerning the searching out of Sciences . But seeing the Knowledge thus drank , may be unfolded , I have confirmed unto the Young Beginner , that an essential definition is to be explained by the Causes , and properties of these ; which is nothing else besides a connexion of Causes , but not the Genus or general kind , and difference of the thing defined . But this is an unheard of Method of explaining , even as Logick the Inventress or finder out of Sciences hath feigned : And also seeing all that faculty is readily serviceable unto a discursive Philosophy , ( for they do vainly run back unto the Genus of the thing defined , and the constitutive differences of the Species , for the Diseases which have never , and no where been known : ) Therefore , seeing it hath been hitherto unknown , that things themselves are nothing without or besides a connexion of the matter , and efficient Cause ; By consequence also the Schools have wanted a true Definition : That is , a right knowledge of Diseases . If therefore the Essence or thingliness of Diseases , and the condition of Diseasie properties , do issue out of their own immediate essential Causes ; of necessity also , the knowledge of the aforesaid Diseases , and properties , is to be drawn out of the same Causes : Because the consideration of Causes , is before the consideration of Diseases . Therefore I have already shewn , even unto a tiresomness , That the Essences of Natural things , are the matter , and efficient Cause connexed in acting : Therefore also , the Essence of every Disease , doth by a just definition , consist of those two Causes , and its knowledge is to be fetched out of the same . First of all , a Disease is a certain evil in respect of Life , and although it arose from sin , yet it is not an evil like sin , from a Cause of deficiency , whereunto a Species , Manner , and Order is wanting : But a Disease is from an efficient seminal Cause , positive , actual , and real , with a Seed , Manner , Species , and Order . And although in the beholding of Life , it be evil ; yet it hath from its simple Being , the nature of Good : For that which in its self is good , doth produce something by accident ; at the position whereof , the faculties inbred in the parts , are occasionally hurt , and do perish by an indivisible conjunction . Defects therefore there are , which from an external Cause , do make an assault beyond or besides the faculties of Life concealed in the parts ; and they are from strange guests , received within , and endowed with a more powerful or able Archeus : And from hence they are the more exceeding in the importunity of times or seasons , quantities , and strength . In the next place , there are occasional defects , which ( seeing Good doth bring forth Evil by accident , and doth oft-times proceed from our own vital powers ) are endowed with properties of their own , as it were their seminal Beginnings , therefore they immediately tend unto the vanquishing of our powers as their end : The which therefore , I elsewhere call , Diseases Potestative or belonging to our Powers . But neither is that a Potestative Being , which the Schooles do call A Disease by consent , and do think to be made by a collection or conjunction of Vapours : But a Potestative Being contains the government of a constrained faculty , as well in respect of the authority of Life , as of the diseasie Being it self ; the which indeed is born by a proper motion , to stir up a Potestative Disease of its own order : Just as a Cantharides doth stir up a Strangury : And that also is done through a power of internal authority , and by the force of parts on parts . So an Apoplectical , or Epileptical Being , being as yet present in the Stomack , or Womb , shakes the Soul , yea and from thence transports the Brain , together with its attending powers , will they nill they , into its own service . A Potestative Being therefore , doth not only denote a hurting of the Functions , but also a government of the part , and an occasioning force of a Diseasifying Being prorogued or continued on the subordinate faculties , as on the vassals of an Empire : It being all one also , whether the parts are at a far distance from each other , or whether they are near : For they are the due Tributes of Properties . Yea truly , Hippocrates first insinuated , that Diseases are to be distinguished by their Inns , and Savours : And I wish his Successors had kept this tenor . But that Old Man being as it were swollen with fury , presaged of the future rashnesses of the succeeding Schools , and precisely admonished them , That they should not believe , that Heats , Colds , Moistures , Sharpnesses , or Bitternesses , were Diseases : But Bitter , Sharp , Salt , Brackish , &c. it self . But he sung these things before deaf or bored ears : For truly , the long since fore-past Ages , being inclined unto a sluggishness of enquiring , and an easie credulity , snatched up the scabbed Theorems of Heats and Colds , and subscribed unto them by reason of a plausible easiness , and bid Adieu to their Master ; who having supposed that Diseases were to be divided according to their Innes , divided our body into three ranks ; to wit , into the solid part containing , or the vessel it self ; into the thing contained , or liquid part ; and into the Spirit , which he said was the maker of the assault . The which indeed is an Airy or Skiey , and Vital Gas , and doth stir up in us every Blas , for whether of the two ends you will. Which division of Diseases , although he hath not expressly dictated , yet he hath sufficiently insinuated the same : For he wrote onely a few things , and all things almost which are born about , are supposed to be his . And therefore I wish that posterity had directed the sharpnesses of their Wits , according to the mind of that Old Man ; Peradventure , through Gods permission , they had extracted the understanding of the Causes of Diseases : But they afterwards so subscribed unto the Authority of one Galen , that they , as it were slept themselves into a drousie Evil , being afrightned while they are awakened by me . But in the Title of Causes , I understand , in the very inward or pithy integrity of Diseases , the matter being instructed by its own proper efficient Cause , to be indeed the inward , immediate Cause , and to arise from a vital Beginning . Wherefore also , I name those , external and occasional Causes , as many as do not flow from the root of Life it self : And therefore I treat of Causes ; which are the Disease it self . For Bread being chewed and swallowed , is as yet external , because it may be rejected or cast up again : So also , the Chyle thereof , being cocted in the Stomack , is as yet external : Yea and which more is , after that it is become domestical , and although it be made a more inward citizen of our family administration ; Yet while it is separated from that which is living , and rusheth into the Kitchin of Diseases , for that very Cause , as it is become hostile ; so also it is to be accounted External in respect of Life : So also a pestilent Air being attracted inward , although it hath spread its poyson within , and in respect of the Body , be internal ; yet it is not yet internal in respect of Life : And so , neither yet is it the Disease it self : to wit , whereof it contains only an occasion in it self , neither shall it ever lay aside that same occasionality : But the Plague is , while the Archeus , ( the contagion being applyed unto himself , doth separate a part of himself , it being infected ) from the whole : For the banishment whereof , the remaining part of the Archeus doth Co-laborate and is earnestly careful , that it may not be pierced by the Symbole or Impression , and perish . A co-like thing happens almost in the rest of Diseases . For truly , the Life is not immediately hurt , but by a certain poyson of its own , and proper to it , which it hath suffered to be applyed unto it self . CHAP. LXVII . The Subject of inhearing , of Diseases , is in the point of Life . THe Life which is perfectly sound , hath no Disease ; because health presupposeth an integrity , which a Disease renteth : And so health and a Disease do contradict each other : Also Life being extinguished , is not a Disease , neither doth it admit of a Disease into it : Because in speaking properly , that Life is a meer nothing , and no longer existing : But a Disease is [ hoc aliquid ] or [ this someting . ] Thirdly , in the next place , a dead Carcass , however poysonous it be , or infected with corruption , yet it is no way capable of Diseases : Wherefore , although a Body while it lives , be the mansion of Diseases ; yet it is not the true internal efficient of Diseases ; much less also indeed have filths or excrements ( which are thought to be the constitutive Humours of us ) a right or property of Diseases : But if any part of a Disease , be to be ascribed unto inordinate fecuencies or dregginesses ; truly that tends wholly unto an occasional Cause : For truly , a Disease is a Being , truly subsisting in a Body , and composed of a matter , and an internal seminal efficient , and so also , in this respect doth it far sequester it self from occasional Causes : Especially , because the internal beginnings of things do constitute the Being it self , and are unseperably of its essential thingliness : So indeed , that if we speak of the Body , or Soul , as Humane ; both of them is rightly called a man , although not an entire man : So indeed the matter of a Disease , is truly a Disease : Even as also the seminal efficient thereof , is truly a Disease , although it be not properly an entire Disease : Therefore seeing that a Disease is only in a live Body , but not in a dead one , it must needs be , that the Life is the immediate mansion of a Disease ; the inward subject , yea and workman of the same . But seeing Life is not essentially of the Body , nor proper to the Body ; but that a Body without Life , is a dead Carcass , and a Disease is in the Life : Of necessity also , every matter , or mansion , and efficient Cause of a Disease , doth not exceed the Limits of Life : That is of necessity , every Disease doth inhabite within the Case of the Archeus , who is the alone immediate witness , executer , instrument , as also the inne of Life ; but Apostemes , Ulcers , Filths , Excrements , &c. Are only , either the occasions of Death and Diseases , or the latter products of the same , raised up into a new scene or stage of the Tragedy : Neither surely is it therefore a wonder , that together with the Life , all Diseases do depart into nothing , if the Life be the immediate subject , and mansion of Diseases : But I long since admired , that no Physitian hath hitherto known , in what the essence of Diseases should shine : But that they have wandred about Elementary qualities , Humours , Complexious , Contrarieties , and Dispositions : Neither that indeed , they have once observed , that as filths are not Diseases ; so neither are Diseases in filths ; but that they live only in the Life it self , and being included in the same , do so arise , grow and perish , that seeing they are no where out of the Life , they ought to be the intimate and domestick Thieves of the Life : These things be spoken of the proper receptacle of Diseases . Furthermore , seeing a Disease is without controversie , admitted to be a Being existing in us , as in an inne , and doth enjoy its own and singular properties , and different Symptoms ; A Disease of necessity , is not of the number of accidents ; because an accident is not of an accident combined with it , and distinct from it self in the whole Species : For truly , sharpness , or bitterness , is not a property of whiteness , blackness , lightness , or heat : But every one of them , do stand by themselves . Wherefore if a Disease be a Being , and not an accident ; if in the next place , it produceth from it self , not only alterations , diverse dispositions , weaknesses , &c. But moreover , doth generate substances , degenerating from the ordinary institution of their own nature : of necessity also , it ought to consist of matter , and its own internal or seminal efficient . Lastly , seeing a Disease is internal as to the life it self , it also follows of necessity , that the matter of a Disease is Archeal , and its efficient cause is vital : And that I may speak more clearly , every Disease is of necessity , an Ideal efficient act of the vital power , cloathing it self with a Garment of Archeal matter , and attaining a vital and substantial form , according to a difference of the slowness and swiftness of Ideal seeds ; which things indeed have been hitherto unknown by Mortals , and those things which follow , are as yet more largely supported with this position : God made not Death ; and so far is he alwayes estranged from Death , that he refuseth to be called the God of the Dead . First of all also , although Death doth sometimes invade without a Disease , yet for the most part , Death follows Diseases , so that none doubteth , but that that Death is the daughter of Diseases , or the second Cause whereby , and by means whereof the Life is extinguished : That is , Death is present ; but seeing God is not in any wise the Author of Death , to wit , by whom Death entred into Man , who else was immortal , and that no more , or by a stronger right , in the beginning of the World , than at this day ; A Physitian must diligently enquire , from whence Death doth causally invade , from the beginning , and even unto this day , that it may from thence be manifest , from whence a Disease hath drawn its integrity : For truly , although it be sufficiently apparent , that Death doth contain as it were a privation or exstinction of Life ; so neither in it self , or for its existence , it doth not require any substantial form , and much less a vital one : But surely a Disease as such , doth not bespeak a privation ; but a Being , truly subsisting , acting by an hurtful act of Life , and ensnaring the Life : So also it behoveth a Disease to consist in the form of its own thingliness , which the Life can receive into it , and be informed by it . But seeing a Disease arose from the same Beginning , as Death did , neither is God ever the Author of Death : It by all means follows , that God is not the Author or Creator of Diseases ; neither therefore although a Disease hath a certain substantial form , Yet it hath not Life nor a vital Light , but what it hath borrowed from the Life it self ; ( to wit , ) so far as it glistens in the Light of our Life , or in that of Cattel : But not that a Disease doth require , or hath begged a vital Light from the Father of Lights for the being of its seed ; the which in it self , is rather to be named a deadly or mortal thing , and altogether estranged from the goodness of God the Creator . Therefore although God alone doth create all the forms of all things , and the Father of Lights doth give every essential form , to wit , a vital , substantial form , and so also the formal substance , without any mutual competitor , yet that hath not place in Diseases ; in the forming of which indeed , man alone is chief : Because the Life of Man alone containeth the second Causes of Diseases and Death . Therefore because the Creator , God , denyeth that he made Death ; therefore also a Disease : For a Disease standeth in the Life of Man , and therefore all its quiddity or thingliness depends on the Life of man ; and that not only Seminally , even as otherwise , it is proper to all the seeds of any things whatsoever : But besides , also formally , so that the Life of the Archeus , or his Flesh and Blood are , and do remain the whole formal Cause of Diseases , or the effective Cause of the formes of a Disease . For he who from the beginning refused to have effected Death , or Diseases , will never at length thence-forward , be willing to have made Death nor Diseases : For the Father of Lights , will not give his Honour of Creating formal Lights , unto any Creature , except the Mortal formes of Diseases whereof ; as neither would he be called the God of the Dead : Therefore Man remains the workman of his own Death ( who the day before was immortal ) as also of his own Diseases , as if he were the Creator of Death : So indeed , that whereas God hath made vital Lights , Man Createth Diseasie , Obscure , and deadly Idea's or Shapes ; and such an Idea doth as much differ from a vital Light , as a black heat doth from Light : Therefore the formal act of Death , and Diseases , sprang from the action of original Sin , and shall so spring even unto the end of the World. For the same Cause which in the beginning of the World , made Death , or the same second natural Cause which gave a natural entrance of Death into humane Nature : The same Cause also , doth wholly at this day , make Death and a Disease : For it is repugnant with the Glory of the Creator , not to have made Death from the beginning , and afterwards , when it was made by Man , for him to have assumed to himself the Glory of knowing how to make it ; as if he ought to have learned that thing from Man. But what hath been already spoken concerning Death , that is by an equal right , to be understood concerning Diseases : Because that seeing Death , and a Disease have issued from the same piont of their original , therefore if God be said to give Diseases , or Death ; it is not , that now he will be the Creator of those things , whose Fabrick he before wholly refused : But he is permissively called the Author and Prince of Life and Death : Because as he is the true and alone Author of Life , and therefore doth govern it , and suffer it at his Pleasure ; So he permits , that this man doth yield or depart , and the other Man fall , and that second Causes do happen as well directly , as irregularly , whence Man dieth , or a Disease groweth : But the Creation of a Disease , as of a Being subsisting from a seminal matter and efficient , and of an Ideal and deadly evil , never proceeded from God : For while he had placed it in the will of Man , that he might remain without Death , or the same day to die the Death ; by the same step also , he put it into Mans hand , to frame Death , and a Disease it self , as a fore-runner and preparer of Death . The entrance of Death into the nature of Man being considered , even as I have elsewhere explained it by a remarkable Paradox , doth most exactly prove , that a Disease doth nor only consist in the vital part of Man ; but also that a Disease it self is bred by a seminal Idea , out of the Archeus himself . But I will briefly prove that thing : From the concupiscence of the Flesh arose the flesh of Sin , and therefore also , a mortal Archeus in that Flesh , and from thence by consequence also , the Archeus , forasmuch as he is vital , acts in the flesh of Sin , every action , and produceth every formal , hurtful , and deadly act which God hath refused to do , and hath suffered Man to stamp on himself the Causes of Death and Diseases : Yet Man is not therefore a Creator , although he maketh formal acts to himself , or the substantial formes of Diseases , or the hurtful ones of Life : For truly , that was granted unto him by virtue of the Word , That on what so ever day he should eat of the Fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good , and Evil , he should die the Death ; and should make guards-men , appointed for his own Death : And that , from the very Nature of Death it self , necessarily brought forth in the flesh of Sin. The act therefore which is of the Essence , Exsistence , and Subsistence , even as also of the propagation or fruitfulness of the contagion of Diseases , doth altogether depend in the Life , from the Life , by the Life , within which it is also enclosed : Surely miserable are Mortals , and most exceeding miserable are the Sick , who have hitherto hired Physitians at a great and dear price , who know not what a Disease may be , from whence it may arise , and in what it may consist , and subsist . But I admire that before me the more Antient , as neither Modern Physitians have smelt this out ; because their sacred Anchor being for the most part in the hope of a Crisis ; and concerning Crises's , they have devised very many things to excuse their own Ignorances . For truly a Crisis or judicial sign in Diseases , proveth nothing besides the Archeus , if they believe their own Hippocrates , who saith , that Natures themselves are the only Physitianesses , and helpers of Diseases . For the Moon doth not make Crises's causatively , but the Archeus alone , who follows the Harmony of the Moon . For the Moon measureth dayes , hath more regared unto the proof of the actions of the Archeus , than unto causality : For the Moon is alwayes on the fourth day , in an opposite place , to that which she was in on the first day : Therefore also the Archeus hath opposite powers or faculties , who doth imitate the Harmonious motions of the Moon ; So also on the seventh day , &c. I conclude therefore for the knowledge of a Disease , that a Disease hath either a Fewell , or an excitement only from the occasional Cause ; or doth arise from a voluntary and proper motion , and perseveres in its own contagion of a seed ; as while an Epilepsie or the falling Evil is once con-centred , or the Gowt hath taken root , doth indeed awaken of its own free accord , as oft as it listeth : Even as also the Disease ceaseth for two or three dayes , or more , and again returns at set Periods , although the occasional cause in the mean time , be alwayes present ; and so after a hurtful solutive Medicine being taken , although it be expelled a few hours after , yet the Archens being thereby defiled , rageth and is obedient to the drunk contagion of the venom : So also ready inclinations , and hereditary Diseases , Proper or Natural unto some one whole Family , are co-bred with us : Because they are Con-centred in the Life it self , and are as it were the Characterical marks , and imprinted seales of hurtful Diseases . CHAP. LXVIII . I proceed unto the Knowledge of Diseases . 1. Medicine is the most occult or intricate of Sciences . 2. Therefore the ignorances of past ages are excusable . 3. In what thing Diseases may inhabit . 4. The rise or original of Diseases . 5. Whence a Disease began . 6. Why a Disease is immediately in the Being of the first Motions . 7. Why the essence of Diseases hath been unknown . 8. A Disease hath married a vital Being . 9. After what manner all seeds do issue from the invisible World. 10. The rise of Efficient Causes , and the property of seminal Idea's . 11. All the seminal Beginnings of things , are from an invisible Idea . 12. How a seminal beginning receives its compleating . 13. The Ideal power of seeds is declared by their ranks . 14. Although Death and a Disease began from the same Beginning ; yet they differ , in that a Disease hath Idea's , but a Death not . 15. The Schooles will laugh at Idea's ; But the Author carps at the ignorance of the Schooles . 16. He proveth their ignorance , at least by one Example . I Have already oftentimes , nor in vain asserted , that Arts and Sciences have hastened unto a pitch ; but that the art of healing alone , if it hath not gone backwards , at leastwise , to have stood at a stay , and to have whirled round about the same deceitful point . Hence also I have conjectured , that the knowledge of Diseases , and a Medicine depending thereon , was to Man most difficult ; On which , so many flourishing wits have for so many ages , vainly bestowed their endeavours : and that thing I do not hereby conjecture to be from a contingency , or events alone ; to wit , because the knowledge of Diseases hath even hitherto stood neglected : But because , in respect of the Causes , it is wholly invisible and unpassable . Wherefore although I tax the ignorance of the Schooles , I will not have that to be done by me , for a little vain glories sake , as neither from an intent of reproaching the whole Body of the faculty : Because it is that which hath not transgressed against me ; but only from a desire of teaching Mortals : Not indeed that I perswade my self , that the goodness of God doth envy this doctrine for the health of Man , while as even from the beginning of the World , he hath dispersed his gift , by some , throughout the ages of the World ; the holy Scripture also do most greatly commend the Physitian : But that most , through a sluggishness of diligent searching , and a readiness of credulity , have stifled in themselves that endowed or gifted Light : And so the Devil being the builder , it hath alwayes been super-structed on the false Principles of the Heathens . Therefore Medicine , the most difficult of Sciences , by reason of the invisibility of Diseases , and deceit much increased by Heathenish Theorems , hath not been penetrable by any acuteness of Wits ; which difficulties , the invention and knowledge of so many Simples , and preparations , appropriations , and applications of remedies , fetcht from thence according to the varieties and speedinesses of sliding occasions , hath increased ; in every of which , they are on both sides , the invisible actors of their own tragedy : The which Diseases unless any one shall perfectly know , or hath obtained a super-excelling remedy , truly he shall spend his weapons at the effects , but not at the roots themselves . Therefore the gate of healing , hath even from the Cradles or non-age of the World , remained shut , which my Talent received , hath commanded me to open ( for of boasting hereof , it hath notably shamed me , God is witness ) wherefore , I ought first to free the Hinges , and Bars from rust , that I might set open the Doores to those that are willing to enter : Therefore I ought to expose the one only and golden Key , hitherto hidden in the Arches of the Archeus , unto the Fire of the Art of the Fire , and Light of Truth : That any one may enter into the secrets of the Court , so far as shall be granted him from Above . First of all , I do not name a Disease , a Diathesis or Disposition ; but the very wandering or erring Being , which is stamped by the vital Archeus himself : I do not therefore behold a Disease as an abstracted quality . And that thing I thus perswaded my self of , in times past , that like Life , it is a Being proper unto the Life it self : It being the reason why a Disease doth with so swift a pace , pierce into the Life , by reason of its co-resembling mark . Wherefore the Apoplexie , Leprosie , Dropsie , or Madness , as they are Qualities in the abstract , with me , are not Diseases : But as the Apoplectical , Leprous , Maddish , &c. Being , contains the very Scope and Causes of the Diseases in it . Truly a Disease begun from Sin : For in the integrity , purity of our Nature , and vigour of Innocency , there was no Death , and much less a Disease : For Death was threatned , not a Disease , but that they were understood concomitantly , as to future times . Therefore a Disease doth in its own Nature , oppose the Life , no otherwise than as Death it self , and the powers thereof , the which therefore we call vital : Because through the spending of those , a lingring , or sudden Death happens . We believe by Faith therefore , that Death and every infirmity hath entred into Man by Sin , and that through the concupisence of the Flesh of Sin , they were propagated on all posterity : Therefore that neither could the entrance of Diseases and Death , be learned by Heathenisme . Because it was reasonable , that all the ranks of sicknesses should be rooted in the same concupiscence of the Flesh , whereby Sin entred : For as concupiscence in the conception , doth not Sin before a consent , which fashions an Idea of plausibility ; So it must needs be , that every Disease arising in the Flesh of Sin , doth consist in a strange Image , or seminal Idea of corrupt Nature . I have gathered also that it was suitable , that , the Being , which under a concupiscible pleasure , consented , and sinned , should primarily also be strucken with Diseases : So indeed that it should not only fail or faint through external violences , but should experience the revenges of Sin in the Flesh , by its own proper exorbitances ; to wit , that the Archeus himself , the governour of the Flesh of Sin , should by the same liberty of his own passions , frame erroneous Images to himself , which should be unto him as it were for a poyson : Indeed that from the delights of the concupiscible part , from passions which are the storms of the wrothful part , and likewise even through voluntary disturbances , he might stand subject unto his own Ruine , which he should stamp on himself . Which Images or Likenesses indeed , as being the seeds of Diseasie Beings , should be thenceforth wholly marriageable unto him in the innermost Bride-bed of Life . This indeed is an hard saying , in the ears which are not accustomed to hear beyond trifles , heats , and dirt . Wherefore if any one doth admire at so great an efficacy of the Archeus being Ideated , and of seminal Idea's , as to produce Diseases , and Death it self : He doth not yet know that the natural beginning of all things doth altogether depend on the Ideal part in every seed : Wherefore let him consider , that as the Light being united ( for truly in sublunary things , there is scarce any thing more spiritual than Light , because it is that which pierceth solid Glasse , yea also place it self ) doth enflame Woods , and Houses : So also that every Idea is a Light , as well forasmuch as it is stamped by the Spirit the partaker of a vital Light , as in that it is lightsome from the property of its own essence . Otherwise Idea's themselves , as they are conceived , are nothing besides the Lights of a vital Soul reflexed on its own cogitations ; and the which therefore are not conceived , but in a lightsome Spirit , in which they receive the figure of the thing conceived . That is , they are there made an intellectual Idea it self : Therefore although cogitation it self be a meer [ non-being ] Yet every thing conceived , doth from the very right of its nativity , consist of a matter conceived , and of a vital Light intelligibly reflexed on it : And seeing the Imagination is the Ape of the Understanding , although it doth not transform it self into the thing conceived , after the manner of the Understanding ; yet by conceiving , it transports this thing figurally into it self , and seales the conception thereof , and decyphers a certain seminal Idea of the thing imagined , together with light , efficacy , and every manner of operation : And that wholly under its greatest Unity , and Simplicity : So that if in fructifying seeds , and those continuing the perpetuity of the universe , these things do appear to happen , and to operate by a Light , with great efficacy ; wherefore shall we be ignorant , that these do not otherwise come to pass in Diseases ? Especially while the same things are engraven by a stronger apprehension . For things conceived do teach us , that from passions , or perturbations which are [ non-beings ] true , real , actual Images do arise , no otherwise than as the thoughts of a Woman with Child , do stamp a real Image , how strange , and forreign soever it be : Wherefore thus indeed the Phantasie brings forth poysons , which do kill its own Man , and afflict him with diverse miseries : So that , as those Images do primarily proceed from the imaginative power , whose immediate instruments , the Archeus himself is : So it is altogether necessary , that he which toucheth Pitch should be defiled by it : That is , it behoveth the Archeus himself , primarily , and immediately to conceive , and put on that new Image , to be affected with the same , and by virtue of a resembling mark or Symbole , other things depending on him , according to the properties of that hurtful Idea : And that Ferment being once decyphered in that aire which maketh the assault , is a Disease ; which forthwith diffuseth it self into the venal Blood , the liquor that is to be immediately assimilated , and next into the similar parts , and into the very Superfluities of the Body , according to the property even of that its own Idea ; for from hence the Diseases of distributions , and digestions : What if Idea's are formed in the implanted Spirit of the Braine , or inne of the Spleen by imagining , which also in Bruits are the principal Blas and Organ of all Motions : It nothing hinders , but that the Archeus himself implanted in the parts , may frame singular , and now and then , exorbitant Idea's , not unlike to the imaginative power : for so the Spittle of a mad Dog , Tarantula , or Serpent , and likewise the juice of Wolfesbane , Monkshood , or Nightshade , do communicate their Image of fury on us against our wills : Wherefore likewise nothing hinders , the chief or primary instrument of imagination , from forming , in-mate , seminal , fermental , poysonous , &c. Images unto it self . Whatsoever doth of its own Nature , by it self and immediately , afflict the vital powers , ought for that very Cause , to be of the race and condition of those Powers : For otherwise , they should not have a Symbole , Passage , Agreement , Virtues , or Piercing into each other ; as neither by consequence , an application , and activity : For seeing the powers or faculties , are the invisible , and untangible seals of the Archeus , who is himself invisible and untangible , those powers cannot be reached , and much less pierced , or vanquished by the Body ; because those powers however vital they are , yet they want extremities whereby they may be touched ; whence it follows ( which hath been hitherto unknown ) that every Disease ( for it glistens in the Life ) because it is of the disposition of the vital powers , it ought immediately to be stamped , and to arise from a Being which was bred to produce seminal Idea's . And seeing nothing among constituted things is made of it self originally , of necessity the powers as well of Diseasie , as vital things , do depend either on the Idea's of the generater himself ( whence hereditary Diseases ) or of the generated Archeus : But that that thing may the more clearly appear , in the seed of Bruites , and Man , there is a power formative after the similitude of the generater : Because it is that which seeing it is dispositive , and distributive of the whole government in figuring , its activity is contested by none : The seed therefore hath a knowledge infused by the generater , fitted for the ends to be performed by it self ; for the seed which in its own substance is otherwise barren , is made fruitful by an Image stirred up in the lust : To wit , the imaginative power of the generater , doth first bring forth an Idea , which at its beginning is wholly a [ non-being ; ] but by arraying it self with the cloathing of the Archeus , it becomes a real and seminal Being : And that as well in Plants , as in sensible Creatures : For in vegetables , a seed proceeds from an invisible Beginning ( for truly there is a virtue given to a plant of fructifying by a seed , and so it hath an analogical or proportionable conception , which formeth a seminal Idea in propagating ) borrows its fruitfulness , and principles of Life from it , but not Life it self ; ( even as elswhere concerning Formes ) therefore a seed borrows knowledge , gifts , roots , and dispositions of the matter espoused unto it for Life , from a seminal Idea , to wit , the cause of all fruitfulness : And they who a little smelt out that thing , in times past have said , that every generation doth draw its original from an invisible World. The thrice glorious Almighty , by the naked , and pure command of his own cogitation , and conceived Word [ Fiat ] or let it be done , made the whole Creature of nothing ; and put seminal virtues into it , durable throughout ages : But the Creature afterwards , propagates its gift received , not indeed of nothing , as neither by its own command ; but it hath received a power of Creating its own seminal Image from God , of tranferring , or decyphering the same on its own Archeus : This indeed is the seminal virtue of Man , Bruits , and Plants : But not this beast-like conception is in plants , nor is stirred up from lust : for it is sufficient that it happen after an analogical manner , whereby the Antients have agreed all things to be in all , which manner , by a similitude drawn from us , the Sympathy , and Antipathy of things do shew ; for they feel a mutual presence , and are presently stirred up by that sense , unto the unfolding of their natural endowments : Because they are those things which else would remain unmoved ; but a sense or feeling cannot but after some sort have an equal force with an imaginative virtue : The which I have elsewhere profesly treated more at large concerning the Plague : But now my aim is not to Phylosophize concerning Plants ; but only of Diseases : It sufficeth therefore that the imagination it self , so called from the forming of an Image , doth stampe an Idea , for whose sake every seed is fruitful : And seeing that in us , that imaginative power is as it were brutal , earthly , and devillish ( according to the Apostle ) therefore it is subject unto its own Diseases , and can stampe an Image in the Archeus it s own immediate instrument . Hence it happens unto us , that every Disease is materially , and efficiently in us . For whatsoever is bred or made , that wholly happens through the necessity of a certain seed , and every seed hath its [ this something ] from an Idea put into its spirit ; but a Disease is a real Being , and is made in a live Creature only : Whence it follows , that although a Disease doth oppose the Life , as the forerunner of Death ; yet it is bred from a vital Beginning , and the same in the Life , to wit from the flesh of Sin : Notwithstanding Death , and all dead things , do want rootes whereby they may produce : And so seeing Death bespeaks a destruction or privation , it wants a seminal Image , wherein it is distinguished from Diseases : Life indeed is from the Soul , and therefore also the premised character of the first constitution : But a Disease hath proceeded from the confusions and disturbances of an impure Archeus , and being radically implanted in him , hath so remained thenceforth unseparable , to wit , as to a formative power of infirm Idea's : A Disease therefore growing together from Idea's , as from its seminal efficient Beginning , cloathes it self with a fit matter borrowed from the Archeus , and ariseth into a real Being , after the manner of other natural Beings : And seeing the Idea is now formed in the Archeus , he presently also begins to act these things , neither is he idle , but defiles a part of the Archeus : In which part , a ferment , as the means of the efficient Cause , is forthwith stirred up through an aversion from the integrity of Life ; and at length by assistance hereof , he either defiles the more gross masse of the Body , or at least-wise disturbs the family-administration of the digestions . The Schooles I well know will deride the doctrin of Ptato , because I have assigned seminal Idea's , Ideal powers , and formal activities unto Diseases ; for they will rather acknowledge four qualities environed with feigned Humours , and do grin that these trifles are trampled on by me , as not knowing whereunto the Causes , Essences , and Medicines of Diseases should be due : Being ignorant I say , that a more powerful , near , and more domestical Being , hath mustred an army against the life of Man , of whom also it was divinely said ; That a Mans Enemies are those of his House ; for they do every where notably accuse obstructions occasionally induced by the injuries of filthinesses , as Diseases ; which obstructions do notably argue not so much the obstructer , or also the thing obstructed it self , as they have alwayes noted with a losty brow , the majesty of an action , passion , and relation , sound in the obstructer ; as if the obstruction it self , or a relation it self , should be a Disease ; but that the foundation of that relation , should include the reason of a Diseasifying Cause : Indeed the whole errour of the Schooles , ariseth from the ignorance of a Disease , which consisteth immediately in the life it self ; but not in dregs , and filthynesses which are erroneous forreigners , and strangers to the Life : Good Jesus , the wisdom of the Father of Lights ! with how great confusion of Darkness do humane judgments stumble unless thou govern them . For truly while they have consecrated the Stone of the Bladder , in the next place , all the filths , mixtures , powers , properties , effects , and liberties of effects , activities , and interchangeable courses , unto the combates , and wars of the Elements alone , they have signified by the same method , that they will not , and cannot be wise beyond heats , and colds . For so they have hitherto taught without shame and judgment , that the Stone doth wax dry , is dryed , and hardned in the midst of the Urine , by heat , and by the same priviledge of rashness or boldness , they have neglected every thing , the whole history of Nature , and nativity of things , and have made themselves miserable , because ridiculous in the age to come : Wherefore I have often complained with thee good Jesus , O thou Prince of Life , how difficult it would be for the Schooles , who have been constantly nourished from their childhood with so great an harlotry of trifles , and juggle of mists , to have assumed the true Principles of things : Unless thou hold the stern of the Ship , and inspire a prosperous wind on the Sailes , I guesse that the envious man will be ready to deliver up my Writings for Volusian , Unlearned , or wast Papers . Help O God , for the good of thine own Image , that Seeds themselves may testifie the Archeus to be present with them , who unless he be fructified by the onely conceived Idea of the Generater , they do return into a Lump , and dis-shaped Monster , unto which a vigor is wanting , no lesse of figuring , than of unfolding of Properties . Let Diseases witnesse , I say , although I am silent , that they are Active Beings , admitted into Nature by natural Principles : Let them confesse , according to Trismegistus , that things superiour and inferiour , are carried by the same Law of proportion , and co-like Principles : That by the meditation of one Thing , Archeus or Principle , all things do even to this day subsist , and are continued : That by the Meditation , and Idea of that one , they do receive the perfect Act of Superiour or Inferiour Beings : What he spake is Truth , and that Truth shall vanquish every strong Fortresse , and pierce through all Solidities or Difficulties . CHAP. LXIX . Of the Idea's of Diseases . 1. A division of the things to be spoken . 2. The Spleen sits in the middle Trunk of the Body . 3. The forming of real Images of the Phantasie , is confirmed by an Example . 4. Why an Idea descendeth from the Mother , into the Young. 5. Consequences drawn from thence . 6. A measuring of the moderatenesse of Wine . 7. The piercing of Idea's . 8. A Child declines from his native disposition . 9. What may be understood by an Agony . 10. Most cruel Idea's . 11. A most especial care of Educations . 12. A difference in the motions of the mind . 13. The doctrine of Desires . 14. The rise , and progress of Desires . 15. A diversity of the Sin of Commission , and of Omission . 16. Why God hath endowed the Femal Sex with a peculiar favour . 17. What the gift of a Sexual devotion may operate by it self . 18. Why the Author hath treated of Morals . 19. The Author repeats Eight Suppositions concerning the Idea's of the Archeus . 20. The Author wanders about forreign Idea's . 21. The foundations of Physiognomy . 22. A Reason why Idea's are so powerful in us . 23. What the Abolishment of the Cause of a Disease may be . 24. A Diseasifying Cause is invisible . 25. The Birth-place of Diseases . 26. The Author brings forth that Divine thing of Hippocrates in Diseases , unto the Light. 27. Why Diseases do imitate the properties and activities of the Life . 28. An Example in the Stone . 29. There is need of two suppositions , for an introduction of the knowledge of Diseases . 30. A Conclusion drawn from thence . 31. A Mechanical proof in a Bean. 32. The same in a Cancer . 33. The progress of a Cancer . 34. How the Beings of Creation , do differ from the Beings of Prevarication or Transgression . 35. The Thinglinesse or Essence of a Cancer . 36. Some products of Diseases do lose an occasional causality . 37. An erroneous Method of Curing hitherto kept . 38. The Schooles , their Causes of a Cancer are Erroneous . SEeing therefore , a matter and efficient Cause is required unto the Essence of a Disease , and seeing the Idea is the Efficient Cause it self of a Disease , both of them are to be explained . And first of all , I will describe the thingliness of Idea's , their Efficacy and Fabrick , that the Action and Nativity of effecting a Disease may clearly appear . And first I will declare the Idea's conceived by Man. And then I will treat of the Idea's of the Archeus . And at length of strange and Forreign Idea's . And Lastly , I will deliver the matter making a Disease , that from a Connexion of both Causes , the thingliness of a Disease , and its immediate Essence may be manifest . First indeed , I have taught elsewhere , that there is a certain unbridled imaginative force of the first motions , not reduced into the power of the will , being infolded in the Spleen : And that the Almighty hath entertained a faculty of so great moment , even in meer Membranes , and almost un-bloody purses , so that as well the Orifice of the Stomack , as the womb it self , may be of right and desert , equalized to the heart ; To wit , by reason of a notable Crasis or constitution of acting , and likewise obedience performed unto it by the other Bowels : From the prerogative of which power the spleen is scituated almost in the middle place between them both ; yet it is inclined a little more demissly or downwards , because it hath undertaken the place of an entire root : For it toucheth at the Stomack with its largeness , in respect whereof a Duumvirate subsisteth : But it reacheth the Womb with its other extream or end , to wit , being by its Ligaments annexed to the Loins . And then I have said , that although at first , that which is imagined is nothing but a meer Being of Reason ; yet it doth not remain such , for truly the Phantasie is a sealifying virtue , and in this respect is called imaginative , because it formeth the Images , or likenesses , or Idea's of things conceived , and doth characterize them in its own vital spirit : And therefore that Idea is made a spiritual or seminal , and powerful Being , to perform things of great moment , which thing it helpeth to have shewn by the example of a woman with child : For a woman with child , if by her imaginative virtue , she with great desire hath conceived a cherry , she imprinteth the Idea thereof on the young ( even as of the plague elsewhere ) an Idea I say which is seminal , sealing , and of its own accord un-obliterable : Because the Idea whereof , waxeth green , becomes yellow , and lookes red every Year in the flesh , at the same Stations of the Year , wherein these Cherries do , otherwise , give the tokens of their successive change in the tree . But why the Idea of a Cherry , or Mouse , is imprinted not on the mother , but on the young , and doth now presently wander from the imagining woman into another subject , the which also hath oft-times began to live in its own quarter : the cause is an uncessant , nor that a feigned affection of the Mother , whereby she naturally watcheth more for her Young , than for her self : Therefore the inward , natural , and unexcuseable carefulness of the Mother , laying as it were continually on the Young , directs the Idea bred from passions , by one beam , unto her Young. And because the hand is the principal Instrument of activities , therefore the carefulness descending unto the hand , as it were for the defence of her Young , receiveth the conceived Idea , and proceedeth with it further , on her Young. But seeing Idea's are certain seminal Lights , therefore they mutually pierce each other , without the adultery of Union : Therefore the conceived Idea of the Cherry , through a supervening or sudden coming Idea of the Mothers care , is directed unto the part of the Young where the hand hath touched the Body of the Mother . For indeed , there is alwaies a certain care for the end whereunto the hand doth operate . The Hand therefore , as the executive instrument of the Will , deciphers the Idea of the Cherry conceived , on that patt whereto the Mother hath moved her hand . Whence it is even in the enterance manifest , after what manner a cogitation , which is a meer [ non-being ] may be made a real and qualified Being . And then , it is from hence manifest , that the Spirit is primarily seasoned or besmeared with that Image , and being once seasoned with some one kind of Idea , it afterwards becomes unfit for the execution of other offices ; because the Idea being once conceived , it is a Seal onely to perform things determined . Therefore that Character of the seminal Image , being once imprinted in some part of the Archeus , causeth that it is thenceforth uncapable of other Offices : For by reason of the skiey or airy simplicity of that Spirit , the Idea's do so marry themselves unto it , that the matter , and its efficient Cause are not for the future separated from each other , as long as there shall be an Identity or Sameliness of the supposed Character ; seeing the Idea it self is the seed in that Spirit , which therefore cannot be spoiled of that Idea without its own dissolution : For neither doth it just so happen to the Archeus as to Mettals , which by melting , return into their former State , and do loose onely the labour of the Artificer . It is alike as while a Woman with Child is affrighted by a Duck or a Drake : For at that very moment , the imaginative faculty imprints the Idea of the Being , whereby she is affrighted , on the Spirit : So that , that Idea is there made seminal , and so indeed , it doth not onely destroy the Embryo now formed , but transformeth this Embryo into a Duck or a Drake . Whence likewise is manifest , not onely the Power and Authority of the imaginative , but also that Idea hath drawn from the imagination a figurative Faculty , and hath a seminal and figurative Power , yea and a Power of Metamorphizing or Transforming . And it follows from what hath been said before , that a man of much imagination , is of necessity also weakened in his Strength : Because he is no otherways wearied , than he who hath spent the day in tiresome Labour , and should wholly fail , aswell in Mind as Body , unless he were refreshed with an acceptable Discourse , a sociable Walking , a pleasant Conversation , and the more pure Wine : According to that saying , Wine moderately taken sharpens the Wit. Neither is that moderateness to be delivered by ounces , under the harsh Crisis of the Physitian , while as by the Wise Man it is left free to every one , according to his capacity . Wine , he saith , was made for Mirth , but not for Drunkennesse . Sorrowful persons therefore being wearied , exhausted , and oppressed , must be succoured with Wine , even unto a chearfulness . Therefore Idea's , as it were formal Lights , do pierce each other , and imprint their own Images on that part of the Archeus whose Image and Seed they are : Therefore the Idea's of inclinations do first pierce the Idea of the fructifying seed ; to wit , for Manners , Sciences , Affections , Diseases , and Defects : For therefore the Idea's of Women great with Child , are easily co-knit unto constituting Idea's ; the which as they do oft-times corrupt manners , otherwise good , yea and also , sometimes beget foolish ones ; so also they do not seldom , amend other manners from the Womb : Else , for the most part , Valiant Men are begotten by Valiant and Good Men : For a Child by a rigid , or tender Education , begins to decline from his native Inclinations : Then at length when he is endowed with some kind of Discretion , by Exercises , and Companies , he falls into diverse Idea's of Affections , the which he is constrained for the most part to obey for Life ; because they are implanted from his tender branches . Presently after that , in Youth , the Idea's of Consideration or Judgement do begin to grow ; the which , although they are for the most part as yet guiltless ; yet when the Idea's of any Passion being introduced by the hand of Inclinations , shall associate themselves to these ; then the former Idea's are pierced by the stronger ; to wit , of Hatred , Love , Revenge , Luxury , &c. But if a notable Fear shall happen , from thence so vehement an Idea ariseth , that it inflicts a violent sickness , with a perpetual faint-heartedness . But the mildest of Idea's , are those of Love , Joy , and Desire , which at length delight with their sweetness , and do so ensnare the whole Soul , that they continually gape after Delights and Pleasures . The more violent Idea's , are those of Anger , Sorrow , Agony , Envy , Fear , Arrogancy , Despite , Terrour , Revenge , Drunkenness or Sottishness , Jealousie , and Despair : Where also , this is to be noted ; That Agony is not a co-striving of Hope and Fear alone , but also of Anger and Fear , of Anger and Dissimulation , of Hope and Anger , of Hatred and Fear , of Hope and Sorrow , &c. For as there is contrariety in conceptions alone , so also , in Idea's from thence bred . And those which are not contrary , are contracted and do pierce each other : But contrary Idea's do destroy each other , the which shall at sometime , in the curing of Diseases , be made manifest by Histories . As many Idea's therefore as do pierce each other , and co-suffer , do arise together into Unity , the prevalency of the stronger Idea being retained . But sudden Idea's are the most cruel , and most deadly of all ; because they shake the Imaginative faculty at unawares , and so do as it were defile the whole Archeus : And then daily Idea's succeed these ; because by a certain accustomedness , they are made household-thieves , have known the Treasures , and Cloisters of these : Hence a strong custome binds the mind , as the Idea's conceived in the inflowing Archeus , do at length also defile the Spirit implanted in the parts : For indeed , the Idea's of inclinations unto Virtue , are supernaturally given , after that the whole Nature is corrupted by sin : But they are implanted in us by the seminal Idea's of the Parents , for Morality , Arts , and Defects : or being instilled into us from our Childhood , by Education , they depart into Nature , as they pierce the native Idea's , and do co-unite with the same . But there are affections of a proper name , the Products of Inclinations , Passions , and the Exercises of Affections , and they do not happen without a new Propagation of Idea's : And the which , therefore , like the life , do prepare in us a natural habitation and disposition : But Passions are the internal Motions of the Mind , about the Bridles whereof , whole Stoicisme is conversant . At length Perturbations or Disturbances , are Passions , being Idea's stirred up for the most part , by extrinsecal or forreign Causes : And the common Mother of all Passions is Desire ; For this is in it self either good or evil : For that Desire which is indifferent , or neutral , doth most easily put on the corruption of Nature and is perverted . But the one only Remedy of evil Desires , is the Resignation of the Will : Because Desire is bred after this manner : For corrupted Nature is now naturally turned on it self , and therefore it willingly meditates on things plausible to it self ; as it is continually busied about the Objects of the Concupiscence of Sin : And as Fire is struck out of a Flint , so is Desire from the plausibility of the Object : Whereunto , unless thou dost insert the Fear of the Lord , by way of a Graft ( which therefore is the Beginning of Wisdome ) for a Bridle , or shalt cut off the plausibility of conceits , in its budding of the first Conceptions ; it now finds a fewel in corrupted Nature , Lewdness grows , being not yet apparent by reason of its smallness ; and presently draws the whole Soul under it : So that it becomes enslaved unto that Appetite , by which it was expelled from its Throne of Majesty . Suppose thou , if Ambition , or a greater Concupiscence do wax hot in the Frying-pan of Desire , those things are either possible in hope , without hope , or against hope : If man persisteth in his Desire , these two latter will make him mad or besides himself : Seeing every Desire of corrupt Nature , hath alwayes something of foolishness and anguish annexed unto it . But if indeed the end of a Desire be with hope , it is carried ( at leastwise ) on an Object not yet present , and then impossible ; and so it hath a disdainful expectation , and a troublesome companion : For we desire those things which are not . Therefore a painful Desire , is also , for the most part , of its own nature evil , and from its affect far worse , and at length , from its consequence evil : Because the Desires do presently decline into Anger , Hatred , Revenge , Frowardnesses , Crabbishnesses , Un-sufferance , Arrogancy , Contempt , &c. For a natural Desire doth always rush into that which is worse , because it descends from self-love , is formed by corrupt Nature , and is for the most part conversant about the Objects of sin , doth accompany Anguishes , Expectations and Troubles , and bow down the liberty of Willing : But so far as it is reflected beyond it self , and on a future thing , it brings forth Impatience , affects a Liberty , resisteth Mortification : It brings Frowardnesses , Perplexities , Un-sufferance , and now and then Despaire . A good Desire is always given by Grace from Above , whose Product is Love , and an endeavour producing the Perfection of the Soul. Vitrues therefore , as they come from Grace , they transcend from the imaginative faculty , together with their Idea's , into the understanding , and so they tinge the Soul ; even as also the vices of Passions , the exercises of Sin , and of withdrawing from the Fear of the Lord , do tinge the Soul , that it becomes as it were beast-like . Hence are ravening Wolves , generations of Vipers ; tell ye that Fox , &c. Therefore sins of Commission will sometimes be conspicuous in the Soul , without the search of a diligent enquiry . But sins which are meerly negative , because they are not Beings , nor have any thing of actuality , they do not tinge or stain the Soul ( such as are sins of Omission ) and therefore these onely shall be upbraided as faults in the last Judgment : when as other sins shall be distinguished by the sight alone . Furthermore , although God be no accepter of persons , yet because he disposeth of all things sweetly , according to his good pleasure , he loveth women after a peculiar manner : not onely because he hath surrounded them with very many Diseases ( arising from their womb ) Perplexities , Miseries , and Tribulations ( for the Lord saith to the Woman , I will multiply thy Sorrows ) but especially because he hath for a comfort requited them with the gift of Devotion . For from hence do arise Idea's of Compassion of Miseries , toward their neighbours , of Meeknesse , Contrition , and Compunction ; the which , for a foundation , do precede the Fear of the Lord and Charity . For that Devotion ( although it be sexual ) is the gift of Grace , gaining Grace or Favour , a desire of Praying , of Talking with God , with humility , an amorous , perfect , and exceeding delightful Faith or Confidence : For these things the World is ignorant of . For I being a Phisitian , ought here on purpose to treat of Morality , however others may laugh : And that not onely as the indispositions of the Soul , do defile and blemish , or corrupt the Health : But especially from that Title , because , seeing a Disease is the Son of Sin , it cannot be perfectly known , if the faculty of the Concupiscence of Sin be unknown , from whence every assault towards a Disease drives it self into the Archeus . But hitherto concerning Idea's conceived by the cogitation of Man , of which it shall as yet be more liberally treated under the Chapter of Things Conceived . Now it remains to unfold , from whence Idea's made by man are of so great strength , that oft-times they call for a Disease , yea and also Death on the Imaginer . From the Premises therefore we must resume , 1. That Idea's are stamped in the Imaginative faculty , by cogitation . 2. That they imprint their Image on the Spirit of Life . 3. That they are operative means , whereby the Soul moveth and governeth the Body . 4. That they are seminal Images . 5. But that they are graduated according to the power and strength of the Imaginative Faculty . 6. Wherefore that a humane Embryo is changed into diverse Monsters . 7. That every man by the Images of Sorrow , Terrour , &c. doth form seminal Poysons unto himself , which do consume him in manner of the Plague , or else by a violent languishing . 8. That they do also passe forth out of the Body of the Imaginer ; because an Image conceived by a Woman with Child , regularly wanders into the young , even on the last day of carrying it in the Womb ; yet then it is without controversie , that the young doth enjoy its own Life , and lives by its own Soul , and Quarter . It is manifest therefore from the aforesaid particulars , not only concerning the question whether it be ; to wit , that there are in Idea's a most powerful force to operate : but also because they are seminal , that they do naturally pierce and operate on all things . For truly if there be not a certain ruling , and forming Idea of the matter of seeds , formed by the generater , the seed by it self remains wholly barren . In the next place , those Idea's ought to be immediately , not indeed in the Soul of Man ; but immediately in the Archeus which maketh the assault ; because without such an Idea , the Archeus should plainly remain an unpartaker of all action , operation , and propagation . Therefore also by Idea's every motion and action of Nature , as well in remedies as in poysons , and every Natural power , is seminally imprinted by every Parent whatsoever : Yea forreign , strange Idea's are introduced , and those ascending into those already constituted ; because Idea's no otherwise than as Lights , do mutually pierce each other , and do keep a perpetual , and co-marriageable mark of the Archeus with the Archeus ; which Idea's , while they take hold of the matter of him , a Disease is now bred : For as seminal , and primitive Idea's being planted in the seed by the Parents , do figure a Man , Bruit , Plant , &c. So also the Idea's of inclinations , affections , &c. coming upon them , do determine or limit the countenance of a Man unto the delineaments or draughts of Physiognomy : Which afterwards also are varied by the future Idea's of manners , customes , &c. For bruit Beasts through the troublesome Idea's of lust , do not wax fat even as those that are gelded do . But Eunuchs , if they are without care do fatten ; who else through the Idea of grief do also wax lean . But from whence there is so great power in Idea's , it is worthy to be known , that the table or matter upon which , even as on water , the phantasie decyphers its Idea's even as on water , is the very substance of the Archeus it self ; the which being once defiled by a conceived Idea , and as it were instructed by a seminal principle , is afterwards uneffectual for other Offices : Therefore indeed those that are without care do slowly wax grey , and in a contrary sense ; but many cares do speedily draw on and ripen old age : according to that saying , my Spirit shall be diminished , and my dayes shall be shortned . Rightly therefore was it said from of old , That the perfect curing of Diseases , consists in the removal of the Cause , or Root : The which if it should be the visible peccant matter it self ( even as the Schooles do nevertheless point it out to be ) now a Fever , or the colike Diseases could not be cured , unless all the occasional matter were first removed ; which thing is as manifestly false , as it is most exceeding true , that Fevers are silent , the same occasional Cause remaining : So indeed I have oft-times perfectly taken away the Colick , Choler , Flux , Bloody-flux , and other Diseases by a true Laudanum without Opium , although the residing mass or lump were as yet entertained within : Therefore all visible , and forreign matter , either happening from without , or sprung up of its own accord within , how degenerate soever it shall be from the very nourishment of the solid parts , and a liquor separated from them , it hath it self alwayes by a proper name , after the manner of an occasion , and a provoking Cause ; whether that shall be for a primary Disease , or indeed shall be produced and constituted by a primary Disease , consequently afterwards pricking forward the Archeus unto the erecting of a new storm , or Disease . And so every Disease is caused from the violent assaulting Spirit , by Idea's conceived in the proper subject of the Archeus , by whose fault alone , a live Body , but not a dead Carcass suffers all Diseases : But if that this off-spring of a Disease be spred into the families of the digestions ; it produceth occasional matters indeed for secondary Diseases , which are bred to stirr up afterwards the same Archeus unto new seminaries of Diseases . For so , wheresoever Hippocrates hath not found any visible matter , as the occasion of a Disease , he accuseth a Divine Beginning in Diseases , because it is invisible from the hidden Store-house of seeds , from the invisible World , or out of Pluto's River of Hell , or from the Chaos of successive changes : Therefore I do in all things wholly admire at this Divine Beginning ( be it spoken by the liberty of Hippocrates ) in Diseases , as the judge of a broken purity , so also a revenger of an hidden impurity and concupiscence , lurking in the flesh of sin : And therefore also , persevering in the radical disorder of a vital principle . But as it doth immediately sit in , and is awakned by a vital and seminal principle : Hence also consequently , Diseases have properties , directions , proportions , durations , affections , and respects , unto members and places ; which things certainly in a good understanding , cannot be attributed unto the ulcerous predicaments of heats and colds , as neither to Distillations , and Catarrhs flowing down with a voluntary fall of weights : But it is profitable to have made this history of a Disease manifest by one Example : For in the Stone , a Disease , it is most material and manifest ; but the Stone is not the Disease , but the primary Lithiasis or Stony affect , and the true Disease Duelech is the Idea it self , radically implanted in the powers of the Archeus of the Kidneys or Bladder : The which indeed is wanting in healthy Persons , and therefore neither doth it in healthy folkes , regularly frame , actuate , or separate out of the Urine ( the which Urine notwithstanding doth contain materially in it , all things actually necessary unto a Stone ) a Stone , or sand existing therein by an immediate possibility : But Ferments being once introduced into the Archeus of the Reins and subordinate parts , an actuating , and fashoning Idea of that is there established , which lurked by a near power in the matter : And thus is a Stone , or Sand made , which are the product of a true Lithiasis : That Idea I say , inhabiting in the implanted Archeus of those parts , is the Diseasie Separater and Work-man , commanding the implanted faculty of that Organ , and which leads it bound at its own erroneous pleasure : There is also a more eminent power of a seminal and fermental Idea , brought on the implanted and vital faculty of the Reines : But the product proceeding from this primary Disease , in the way of generation , is the monster Duelech it self . The same thing is equally manifest in other Diseases , at least by two suppositions : To wit , one that every Disease is in a live Being , and so in the Archeus the Mover , but not in a Being by it self dead , and unmoved : The other is , that a Disease is a substantial Being , by it self subsisting in us . Whence I conclude , that a Disease , after the manner of other natural Beings , proceeds from a Non-being unto a Being , and is seminally bred : The which I thus prove mechanically . A Bean , as it is the most notable of seeds , is a subject of demonstration . For herein shadowy Idea's do concurre , being co-created with it presently after the beginning of the World , and by propagation seminally co-bred there-with : Because between the two Plates which constitute the Body of the Bean , the flourish or beginning of a bud is found , having two leaves , with a root , wherein the seminal Idea doth shadowily sleep : And it is fast tyed unto both the Plates of the Bean , as it were to both sexual Beginnings : No otherwise than as the more thick white doth adhere unto the yolk of an Egge which containeth the perfect act of a seed : The Bean therefore being committed to the Earth , doth presently drink up either the actual , or vaporous Liquor of the Earth , and swells up there-with : But the Earth hath in it its own putrefaction by continuance , or a faculty of imprinting a fermental odour , in respect whereof , a power motive is conferred on it of a voluntary budding , without a visible seed being committed unto it : By consequence , the juice of the Earth being imbibed , the same fermental virtue is delivered unto this Bean , which is otherwise unto the Earth : Which juice having in it self a fermental putrefaction through continuance , determined or limited by the specifical odour of the Bean , doth stirr up the Idea of the seed laying hid in the Bean , which afterwards proceedeth to act of its own free accord : Wherefore the bud is not bred : ( the which else , the Earth of that place had produced of its self ) but from the intrinsecal , and invisible seminal Idea of the Bean the bud is bred or born , which is the Herb Bean : Yet so as that the specifical faculty of the Herb is inclined according to the disposition of the ferment of the hoary putrifaction of the Earth : Hence indeed wine varies in divers places , although the vine be planted of the same branch : For so seeds do flow into their appointed Offices , fruits , and ends , which thing I will explain in a Cancer . First of all , a true Cancer doth never arise , but in the Dug , and Womb of the Women : but the Idea's of a Cancer , are not in , and do not sleep in the Womb ; Even as otherwise the Idea's of a Bean , in the bud of a Bean ; because Diseases indeed , are naturally made , but are not naturally in ; unless perhaps from the seed of the generater , Idea's are co-bred , as in hereditary Diseases ; and that is the difference of the Beings of creation , from the Beings of Diseases : I suppose therefore for the occasion of a Cancer , that the Dugs of a Woman do suffer a co-pressing and confusion or bruising , and the Glandules , the effectresses of milk , are co-shaken or dashed : And then the sensitive Archeus , implanted in that Organ , conceives pain as it were a pricking thorne : Therefore the shaking , and pain do mutually co-touch in the act of feeling : And an unnamed furious passion riseth up in stead of a ferment , as it were fire out of a flint and steel : Hence a fiery seminal Idea , mad or raging ( and therefore poysonsome ) is struck out , is imbibed and co-fermented with the juice of the place : Whence then at length there is a painful , pricking , beating tumour , because it is also poysonous from fury : The Archeus therefore is stirred up , and made wrothful according to the disposition of the conceived indignation ( for neither do all things grow generally every where ; but here grasses do spring up without bidding , there more succesfully grapes , else where treeie sprouts ) so neither doth the Archeus see in the finger , even as he doth in the eye . The Archeus therefore winds up the poyson gotten by his own indignation , in that bunch of the thorny pain , as the Archeus hath there so married himself unto the Paps , that no part of these doth want him : But that swelling is the product of the Cancer seminated or sown in the indignation , as well of the Cancer , essentially , as being that Cancer which afterwards flows abroad , stinking with sanies or thin corrupt matter : For neither are Ulcers , or Apostems in the Dugs ever Cancerous , unless that fury of the Archeus shall be present : Therefore a seminal Image , rising up from the turbulent tempest of the Archeus , and decyphered in the Archeus of the place , is a true Cancer , whether there shall as yet be an Aposteme , or in the next place an Ulcer : For the Archeus of the Paps being their vital mover , acting , to wit , in that part , the Sergeantship of the furious Womb , being tossed with furies , doth locally stamp his poysonous Idea's , and imprints them on himself by the same right whereby the imaginative faculty doth frame likenesses agreeable unto its own passions : No otherwise I say , than as the Womb , Heart , Brain , Stomach , than the propagative seminal faculty of Vegetables it self ; yea nor otherwise than as it clearly appear in the very excrements of Simples , to wit , in the Spittle of a mad Dog : So I say a Cancer is bred , and doth propagate its own Idea's on the immediate similar nourishment . For the primary or first Cancer in the Archeus of the place , through a dependent connexion of contagion , is further extended into the co-bordering part ; but as from the beginning , even unto the last maturity , there is one only Ideal , and Seminal Ruler of the Bean : So from the beginning of the conceived Idea of a Cancer , even unto Death , there is nothing but the same poyson : But seeing a Cancer is in a sensitive subject , the Archeus therefore dayly rageth a new , doth substitute new Idea's , and poysons in the room of old ones : Not so a Bean , the which beginneth from a singular beginning , and by flowing , doth proceed unto the continuation of its thred . For truly in created things of the first constitution , although there be an Ideal begining , the same with Diseases , and a progress of making from not a Being , unto a Being : Yet in being now made , the progress of Diseases differs . Therefore also a Bean is dayly changed in its outward countenance in growing , although the flourishing part differs not from the budding part , in its vital beginning . In like manner also , Diseases sealed either in the local , or inflowing Archeus , from the various madness hereof the poyson is varified : For although the soyl of an exulcerated Cancer , exposed to the air , was the first object where it was conceived and bred ; yet that soile being wasted by Corrosion , another more deep one doth alwayes succeed , even as if a new Bean should dayly bud : And therefore a Disease doth not only bewray it self from a local center of science Mathematical , but from a Physical or natural center also , which is the furious , and seminal Idea of the Archeus : There is the same judgement , and equality of all other poysons bred within , such as hath been already aforesaid in Chyrurgical affects : For in Bruits ( even as else where concerning the Plague ) every specifical poyson doth not issue but from the Idea of an Image ; whence in the Proverb ; The Beast being dead , his Poyson is killed : For so the Leprosie , fowl Disease , Falling-evil , Apoplexie , and likewise all primary Diseases , do proceed . Notwithstanding , the poysons which are taken into the Body , are not therefore Diseases , or do not arise until the Archeus , through a borrowed ferment of their contagion , hath done injury unto himself : Then indeed he stamps strange Idea's on himself , not so much from his own fury , as he borrows the same from Simples ingested or darted in , and at length doth fall under the same ; In which conflict he forms wondrous Idea's unto himself , the which he tragically unfolds by variety of Symptomes : Therefore a Cancer is not a hollow Ulcer which the eyes do see , neither is it , it s crusted and wan , or black and blew Lips , which the hand doth touch . Lastly , it is not the stinking soil or bottom of the Ulcer which looks blackish with putrefaction , or the sanies dropping from thence which the Nostrils do smell : For without these , the Cancer was as yet already cloathed with its own Skin : But these are the effects , signs , symptomes of the Being whose Fruit they are : For truly seeing an effect or product bespeaks an unseperable respect unto its own producing Cause : Therefore a Disease ought to be a Being , containing the Causes , and Properties of its own entity : And therefore , as well the Cancer being an Aposteme , is a Cancer , as while it is now become an Ulcer : For therefore primary Diseases , do for the most part beget an equivocal or doubtful product in the Archeus : As is the Stone in respect of the first Lithiasis or Stony affect . For the troublesome Stone , wounds and hurts the digestion of the Bladder , stops up the passage of the Urine , &c. Also now and then , a product is troublesome only by its presence , as corrupt Pus in an Aposteme , wound , &c. Water in a Dropsie , coagulated matter in a Scirihus : And those products , have rather the Nature of a Diseasie effect , than of an occasion of Diseases ; unless perhaps they shall draw the abridgements of poyson in a ferment , for then they supply the room of assumed poyson , and do occasionally compel the counsels of a new Disease into the Archeus : Therefore a Disease is a Being truly subsisting in an invisible principle , being endowed with divers properties ; but not a distemperature , or disposition arising from the sight , mixture , degree of contrariety , and concomitance of feigned Humours . But the ignorance of a primary Disease , as it hath caused the ignorance of a remedy ; So also it hath taken away the hope of curing : because they have employed themselves in nothing but cleansing out erroneous products , and occasional Causes , and have rather consulted of a cloakative prevention , or that Diseases might not increase , or return , through founding of a remedy on the back of the Disease : But nothing hath been thought of against the voluntary storms of fury , whereby the Archeus suffers a greater injury from none than from himself : In the mean time nothing is done , unless that fury of the Archeus which buds forth Idea's shall be silenced , and the persisting poyson bred from thence be choaked : For neither is it slain by Corrosives ; yea not indeed in Ulcers , unless also there be a force of killing in the Corrosives ; because they are that , which else do more enflame the fury , than pacifie , or kill it . A certain Man in my dayes , living in the region of Gulick in Germany , cured every Cancer whatsoever , by a Pouder causing no pain , being sprinkled thereon ; and then next , he healed it up with an Incarnating Emplaister ; whose Art was buried with himself . For the Schooles being astonished , as oft as the Cancer , and eating Canker , are not appeased by their Egyptiacal Oyntment , do accuse the Menstrues , or the Humour of black Choler : But being asked , whether of these Causes may adhere thereto , they doubting , betake themselves to both : Now Men are altogether free from a Cancer , as also Women whose courses have left them : The young in the Womb shall be nourished with a meer poyson ; the Menstrues shall offend , not in quantity only ; yea neither shall the detaining of the Menstrues be guilty in a Woman with Child , Nurse , and leanified Women ; and those who are subdued by a long infirmity shall be nourished with poyson , and all shall perish without hope of recovery : But if a Cancer ariseth not from the Menstrues , but from black Choler ; why therefore doth a Cancer happen at the offence of the Dugs ? Why doth it less happen unto jovial or jolly Women , than unto sorrowful ones ? or what community hath the spleen with the contusion of the Dugs ? Or if black Choler doth wandringly ascend unto the Paps , why is not the milk blackishly Cholerick ? Why is there not ordinarily a Cancerous affect to those that give suck ? Why when the purgatives of Epithymum , the Stones of Lazulum , the Armenian Stone , &c. being taken , doth a Cancer never wax mild in the least ? For in times past indeed they have distinguished Diseases by a property of passion , and secondary passion , and by so much the more unsuccesfully , by how much the more undistinctly : So that the Schooles being dashed against the Rock , have transferred these affects concerning Diseases unto Symptoms : As while from the Wombe , there is a Megrim , and strangling , or from a painful Aposteme of the foot , a glans or kernel in the Groyn : They have indeed named them consensual or co-feeling , or secondary effects ; but have never acknowledged them even as they proceed from their own seed : Even as hath been more largely demonstrated by me touching their ignorance of a Diseasifying Essence . CHAP. LXX . Of Archeal Diseases . 1. The necessities of Archeal Diseases rushing on us of their own accord . 2. The Schooles have on both sides neglected the First Mover in us . 3. Aristotle , Galen , and Paracelsus , have become mad about this Tragedy . 4. An unfolding of the thing granted . 5. A preparing of a Demonstration . 6. The clearing up of a Question . 7. An explaining of the Idea's of the Archeus . 8. An Objection is solved . 9. The passions of the Archeus have the Excentricities of another Market . 10. The ignorances of the Author . 11. The fourfold Troop of Diseases , proves the Idea's of the Archeus . 12. Hereditary Diseases do presuppose the Idea of a Disease , to be connexed with a prolifical or fructifying Idea , yet not to be produced from the intention of the Generater . 13. The pleasure reflects the Archeus on its self . 14. Death began from the Concupiscence of the Flesh . 15. Why a Trunk in an arm doth not generate a Trunk . 16. Why all the Diseases of Parents are not equally transplanted by an hereditary right . 17. Silent Diseases do prove an Archeal Idea . 18. The Diseases of an Astral or Starry Conjunction do prove the same thing . 19. What Diseases may pertain unto an unequal strength . 20. An unequal strength , hath caused a beginning of the Fiction of a Catarrhe . IT was already sufficiently shewn , that the Archeus being even well disposed , is estranged by humane Passions and Perturbations , and likewise that by the forreign Image of a strange Archeus piercing him , and that by the assumed destructive powers of purging Medicines and Poysons , he is soon trodden under foot . But while no vice of things taken doth presse him , nor the stormes of external things do rush on us , nor lastly , Perturbations do shake , it hath not been yet made known , by what League , Way , Manner , or by what Perswader and Guider , the Archeus may voluntarily decline , that he may defile a good thing brought so far into him , by so great Labour ; I say , a nourishable and spermatical humour under an unshaken health , and what may straightway corrupt that which was prepared for , and taken into the society of Life ; and from thence frame a dross so hostile , that the Archeus may lead himself , together with his Inne , into the dammage of Life . Of these things the Schooles have thought out nothing but that which concerns Rheumes , easily rowled through their own weight , and passable at that their own pleasure : They have not , I say , made mention of the nourishable humour or liquor , but onely of distilled mucks or snivels : For without consideration they have leaped over this Brook , and also the business of Healing hath remained neglected , while they have hitherto neglected the very corrupter of these nourishable and spermatick Humours . They have indeed rightly judged , That nothing is moved by it self . They have acknowledged indeed a First Mover , and its Intelligences , the motive Forms of the Heavens ; but the proper Movers inhabiting in the Seeds , which should by Idea's prepared for them , of their own free accord , effect their own first movable Blas in us , they have not sufficiently considered ; and much less have they drawn this Philosophy into Diseases , and the business of Healing . For it hath never been thought after what manner a seminal Being is Governour of Life , may intend its own Destruction , and stir up unto it self a mortal Blas , seeing every thing desireth to be and remain . Be gone thou Aristotle with thy whorish appetite of an impossible matter : For I have else where given satisfaction unto those trifles , even unto thy shame . Galen being at the stroke of this Bell , ere-while devolved into a Catochus , snorted , so that indeed he never so much as dreamed of this sound . At length Paracelsus , who thought the Essences of things , and the liquours of these , never to perish , began the dissolution of Life from the disorder of the three First Things . For he scarce believed the Archeus to decay , who affirmed , The Essences of Herbs being taken in Fodder , not to die , so much as in the dung of Fields : Yea he saith , The Archeus is never dissolved by reason of the faintings of Old Age , but is stifled onely through corruptions ripened in the power of Nature : And so , neither doth he think the Archeus then to perish ; but being obvolved in strange things , to be obscured and forcibly to depart , as suspended from the office of acting , and to return unto his first sacramental Being . Surely these things are more worthy of Laughter and Pity , than of reprehension : For they have hitherto been busied onely about the products of Diseases , and occasional things brought inwards . For Paracelsus with his followers hath introduced Tartarous Humours , into the innermost efficient Cause of every Disease , perhaps neither before hurtful ones , but when they should be coagulated at the last line of their extension or passage . But I have heretofore rejected the Errors of that man , and the false paint of falshood being now discovered , I have better instructed a credulous posterity : Because I know that the Archeus hath his own motive , and alterative Blas , naturally given unto him , and proper unto him by a seminal virtue : Because he is he , who even from his first conception , doth move , figure , alter , encrease , &c. as well every living Creature , as Vegetable , at the beck of his proper appointment : And so that the Archeus is he that makes the assault according to Hippocrates , and without or besides whom , nothing is moved , felt , or altered in soulified Creatures . In the next place , I know , that the Archeus doth regularly move himself , according to the Idea either left him by the Generater , or another called unto him from elsewhere . Whence also , I have believed , that it belongs to the same Being and faculty , whereby through health , every motion and alteration are made in an ordained regularity , and whereby these same things are irregularly made . Therefore a Disease , no less than health , must needs be naturally derived from the Archeus alone : So that if Life and Health be by Images imprinted on the seed , by co-like Images also : but of over rash or preposterous Idea's , Diseases are made . But from whence may those Image-guests issue , if no external thing doth shake him , and no internal thing not so much as with an hereditary blemish , doth disturb him ? For truly , I have already treated of the humane Idea's of Affections , Inclinations , Passions , and Perturbations ; but not yet sufficiently concerning Archeal ones , while as the Archeus doth prove exorbitant through his own proper Luxury or immoderate Desire , and like Protheus , doth voluptuously transform himself . For as regular Idea's ( from whence the Archeus hath all his Blas ) are implanted on the seed by the lust of the Generater ; so also from the impurity of Nature , he hath reserved every riotous and voluptuous inordinacy of Concupiscence , which is plainly never laid aside , as long as there is a living in the flesh of Sin : Because , it is altogether proper to Nature defiled in Passions : For so the Archeus is after some sort sorrowful , angry , hateth , is vexed , dispaireth and is burdensome to himself , although a man shall procure no such thing to himself , or feel it in himself . Indeed exundations are made in the Archeus , hitherto unnamed , because they are proper unto him , and not even so much a-kin to humane disturbances ; whence also , excentrical and poysonous Images do bring forth meer Poysons : For they are as it were voluntary griefs , which gnaweth the Life as the Moth doth the Garment , according to the Wise Man. These are indeed unnamed Idea's which do bring forth a Disease otherwise lying hid , or an hereditary Character to light . But if the Brain , Heart , Spleen , &c. are the Courts wherein the Prince , the Archeus , doth celebrate his Counsels : Why hath not the very Principal , Original Being , the Motive one of the Imaginative Faculty , also a Phantasie proper or natural unto it self ? And they do afford in Nature , corrupted by Concupiscence , irregular exorbitances in that Being , especially while he doth as it were withdraw himself from the Commands of the Soul , and had rather be of his own right . Neither doth it hinder that such Passions of the Archeus , are not properly felt in a man , which otherwise , might seem to be required if they ought to draw out Diseasie and Sealing Idea's : But certainly dis-harmonies proper to the Archeus , which happen without the commerce of an Organ and the Soul , are never felt in a man : Neither indeed seeing we know not most dreams , yea neither do we know our selves to have dreamed , unless there be made a certain mutual passing over of Faculties into an Inne . For doth the Generater perceive that he doth form an Idea , which shall a while after build so proud an Edifice ? For doth he once think at least-wise of forming the young ? things to be done ? For in the lust or desire , the mind is after some sort alienated , and doth as it were withdraw it self , in the mean time while the Archeus doth imprint his own Image , without the imaginative faculty . The Archeus therefore being retired without the assemblies of his Court , is molested or vexed within his own possession , as it were with a certain wearisomness ( for neither do the irregularities of the Archeus strain themselves unto the rules of passions , and of mental Idea's , especially while he doth violently wander from his Offices , yea and from the command of the mind ) whence there are Idea's , which are the authoresses of sloath ; and from hence is slowness of digestions , negligence , omission , with a certain unappetite of Life , &c. Of what sort are the immoderate desires of eating , bearing rule , knowing , having or possessing , subduing , revenging , enjoying , &c. And so the Idea's of these conceptions do beget dissolutenesses , desires , lavishments , and unsufferances : From whence at length there are neglects of the digestions , of distributions , and government , expences , voluptuous provocations , irresolutions , loads or burdens , crabbishnesses , &c. Whence at length Plagues , also unknown Monsters of Poysons , venoms , and likewise dissolute or wasting Diseases , and the poverties of an Atrophia or lack of nourishment ; for that sort of Idea's are destitute of counsel , and formed without his wonted Courts : And therefore their Matrimonies and Ministeries , are no more regular than the nativities of the same : Therefore the Archeus having slidden into his own proper , and riotous irregularities , being wholly Symptomatical , and impatient , is as it were mad , doth sometimes forsake the rains of government , the which otherwise can never be idle ; sometimes snatcheth them up again being interrupted , sometimes operates more slowly , and is hastily affected with his own heaviness or weariness : Yea in the midst of the fulness of his pleasures , he stirreth up torments to himself , as a being plainly irrational ; for the exercise of the Digestions being interrupted , a nourishable Humour being detained in the sixth digestion , through to much delay , conceives the forreign ferment of an abounding digestion , and is frustrated of its end : For from hence again the Archeus being as it were greatly affrighted , and as it were repenting him of his carelesness , doth rashly move all things . But I cannot meetly explain the means whereby the Archeus doth make his own voluntary excentricities , nor decypher the Idea's of these by a proper Etymologie , if they are invisible , unpercievable , and made in the withdrawing of the Archeus from corporeal Offices : For I have not known the manner or mean whereby seminal Beginnings do express their natural endowments , the which is plainly unknown unto me from a former thing or cause : For I counterfeit it by conjectures only attained from a similitude or like thing . Indeed by things regular in Man , I have made conjectures which another more judicious than my self may explain ; but it hath seemed to me that it would not be worth my labour for these things to be now wholly searched into according to individuals ; but that it is sufficient as well in knowing , as in healing , to have withstood generated Idea's , and to have taken away all disorder from the Archeus , peradventure by one only Arcanum or Secret , of which hereafter more largely . Therefore ye that will give a wished peace to your Studies , and to the complaints of the Sick ; seek and ye shall find . But besides , all potestative Diseases do assent to the Doctrine already delivered , and those which do as it were wax fresh again without any co-touching of filths : And of that sort , are first of all hereditary Diseases , infused by the generater with the seed : To wit , whose Idea's do patiently wait for some years before they are manifested in the off-spring , yea and sometimes in a late Nephew . Secondly , Diseases which do sleep through long silences of dayes , and which do now and then relapse , do convince of the same thing . Thirdly , con-centred Diseases , which I else where call the tortures of the Night . And Fourthly , Diseases of a disproportioned virtue , do declare the same , the which I call an unequal strength . But as to what concerns hereditary and posthume Diseases : It is certain , that a Diseasie Idea is transplanted , being decyphered in the seed of the Parents . Not indeed that the generater hath the character of any conceived passion , or Disease , proposed unto himself in generating , from an appointed end : But ( as I now attend to speake ) the Archeus in the act of generation , conceiveth a pleasure , whereby he being withdrawn from the Body into his own center , ought by so much the nearer , to reflect himself on the Soul , as it were another extream from the Body ; from whence he receiving a vital Light , cannot but be filled with Vigour , and receive his own seminal Image , indeed the cause of fruitfulness : For it is proper to him in all his pleasures , to contemplate on himself with a well-pleasing , in his own Glass , and with a plausible delightfulness , the which hath even brought a self-love , and a certain arrogancy in the first cradles of Nature , yet diverse in it self , by reason of the variety of Pleasures : For while the Archeus doth with-draw and abstract himself as I have said ; yet he cannot but be in a Body , as in a Place : Therefore I call him abstracted , not indeed from the Body , but from his Court , or ordinary Throne : But an abstracted contemplation of the Archeus is not made in the Heart , as if he did floate in the continual motion of agitation , and pulses ; as neither are the bosoms of the Heart , the Court of Counsel of the Archeus being abstracted ; yea neither in the very substance of the Heart ; but his Pallace it self is more inward . To wit , in the stable Spirit it self , implanted in the spleen : Indeed that same Image of his own self conceived in time of lust , doth put on a particle of the Spirit whereby it is begotten , which particle according to a Chymical account , is the 8200 part of its whole : And the which least particle therefore being thus decyphered , passeth afterwards into the in-flowing Spirit , domestique to the Heart , together with the Idea of lust and desire : But the Idea's of desire are only motive directresses ( even as else where concerning Sympathetical things ) and therefore the conceived Image of Mans Archeus , is implanted through that direction , in the material seed : Wherefore as Death began from Venus or carnal lust : So it is dayly hastened , even as also the death of a Plant beginneth from a conceived seed , as the vital faculty is thereby mightily diminished . In the next place , surely that is truly made , and not by a phantastical deceit , wherein such an Idea doth not only represent a total or entire humane Being ; but also individual inclinations , properties , and defects : For from hence a trunk in one Arm doth not therefore generate an imperfect Arm ; because the formative Idea is a branch derived into generation , not from else where , than from the implanted Archeus of the Bowels : Therefore hereditary Diseases do increase on the young , from a Diseasie Being : To wit , the Idea being imprinted on the seminal Spirit ( seeing it is the very Disease as yet lurking , and sealed in the first Life of the seed ) doth as yet sleep , and expect its maturity , until it being awakened , and breaking forth from the disturbance of the Archeus , be apt to bring forth its own products : So indeed furies are bred in , and propagated on off-springs , together with the whole race of seminal inclinations : Moreover also from thence it is evident , that not all Diseases of the Parents are transferred on their off-spring ; but those only whose Idea's have defiled the Archeus of the Bowels in the Parents ; for neither is any occasional matter of the Gout or fury , socially transferred with the integrity of a proper or natural seed : For besides that , that strange-born duality doth contain a barrenness of the seed ; also that supposed matter of the translated Disease should putrify , it being vanquished by the importunities of the place , and ferments , and repetitions of digestions , should stink , putrify , or vanish away in the successive multiplicity of dayes ; but it should not accompany unto the period of Life , and stir up its own relapses . But as to what belongs unto silent Diseases , although acquired ones ; surely that thing they have proper unto them , that they do rise again at the set periods of importunity : For so the Falling-evil doth sometimes sleep for Months , and Years , yea and is never stirred up but by Venus , Anger , Grief , Child-birth , &c. For neither is any matter in any place detained , the fewell of the Falling-sickness : Because it should either putrify , wither , be consumed , or loose the Antient blemish of poyson : The which seeing it doth not come to pass , but remains for Life ; it hath therefore chosen another Beginning , and immediate Inne , than superfluities ; because it is sealed in the Idea of an active Being , and that constant throughout the whole Life : Therefore the Spirit of Life concluded in the Organs , doth suffer its storms from its own Diseasie Idea's ; the which as oft as the inflowing Spirit receiveth from thence , so often it presently brings the contagions of the same into act : For as the poyson of the Falling-sickness is that which makes drunk , is sleepifying , and after some sort furious ; its original cleerly appears about the Stomach , and afterwards is chiefly perceived in the Head , and doth singularly affect the clients thereof : So the Archeus of the Head stamps poysonous Images , which are hateful to the very implanted Archeus , and suspected of a poysonous Contagion , and he is thereby easily made wholly Apogeal or most remote from his center . Thirdly , some Diseases are con-centrical in their matter and efficient Cause , yet seeing they are Youngs conceived in the irregularity of the Archeus being become exorbitant ; hence they are ex-centrical in respect of health , but con-centred in the more inward soyl of the Archeus : For hitherto have the stars respect , and they especially are moved at the conjunction of the Moon : They do also fore-shew the hinges of winds to come : For neither doth the Archeus shew himself to be obliged to the Stars , unless through the importunities of Diseases : Wherefore those Diseases , are commonly called the Ephemerides or dayes-books of the Sick : Therefore in those that are in good health , the Archeus is not ruled by the Stars : But because they do singularly follow the Moon ( which is the night Star ) therefore they do most rage in the night : Therefore I call them the torture of the Night , because it seems to be carried by a co-like Blas , and to talk with its Stars , and that thing surely , doth not belong but to the Archeus ; seeing a more gross compaction of Body is not fit for this purpose : they are therefore sealed in the vital Spirit implanted in the principal Organs ; but nothing is there sealed besides Ideal Characters : The Archeus is a fountainous Being , which by his own Blas doth stir up every assault or violation in us , according to Hippocrates ; but he remains a fountainous Being , how neatly soever Diseasie products are taken away : For although he may sometimes vitiate as well things contained , as things containing ; yet the Archeus reserves an imprinted vice peculiar to himself , whereby he stirreth up every storm at pleasure . Lastly , Diseases which in the fourth place , I call those under an unequal strength , are inbred , or obtained : And because they bespeak strength , they have manifestly enrouled themselves under the powers or faculties : But it hath alwayes been a difficult thing in nature , for a desired strength to be bestowed on all particular Organs , without the complaint of some ; but that one doth alwayes prevaile over , or is weaker than another : Unto which indeed , Humours or snivelly superfluities , do not flow or run down from the guiltless Head ; even as it hath been otherwise attributed to feigned Humours , and Catarrhs in the Schooles : But rather the Archeus implanted in the more weak part , observing the penury of distribulation , and perceiving the unequality of injustice , becomes a complainer , and seditious , as it were against a step-mother . The Idea's of which passion or impatience , seeing it is not meet to send else where , he being crabbish , retorts on himself , and brings forth the effects of sorrow in his own Digestions . Therefore the very seminal Beginnings themselves of Diseases , are drawn out for diverse ends , although they glisten in one only immediate subject of inherency ; because they are received after the manner of the reciever : That is , they do sustain a dis-formity or disagreement in their mansions , through the diversity of the humane Body , and parts . And moreover the Archeus himself , according to the diversity of his motions , doth stir up a various houshold-stuff of Symptoms . The Spirit ( saith Hippocrates ) hath made three motions in us , within , without , and into a circuit ; and he moveth , and transchangeth all things with himself , even while he is orderly : But in his irregularity , whatsoever he shall perform , he shall also utter memorable effects of his disorder . CHAP. LXXI . The birth or original of a Diseasie Image . 1. A description of a Disease by a numbring up of things denied . 2. What a Disease is . 3. The vain thought of Physitians concerning a Disease . 4. The Inne of Life belongs to a Disease . 5. The force of a Diseasie Idea is proved by Vegetables . 6. By the Blas of meteours . 7. The Blas of an Archeal Idea in us , is proved from the Premises . 8. The ordinary seat of Diseases . 9. The Images of perturbations are cited . 10. From a mental Non-being , is made [ this something ] 11. A twofold Diseasifying Archeal Idea . 12. Idea's brought unto the venal Blood. 13. The rule of right in healing . 14. Why the Author keeps the names of the Antients . 15. A probative or proofe-ful Idea , is framed in the Archeus alone . I Have already at large described an unheard of Doctrine of a Diseasie Being premised by me , That Physitians may learn , to look into a Disease from the fountain , and may desist from being seduced by Paganish Opinions : Wherefore a Disease is not a certain distemperature of elementary qualities , or a victorie proceeding from the continual strife of these , even as hitherto the Galenists have dreamed ; neither likewise is a Disease one of the four feigned Humours , exceeding its natural temperature or mixture , and matched to the four Elements : Neither at length , is a Disease a certain degenerate matter , awakened by an impression of the Elements : But every excrementitious matter , is either a naked matter preceding a Disease , and therefore an occasional Cause of a Disease , or it is the product of a Disease resulting from the errour of the parts , and so a certain latter effect of a Disease , although afterwards it may occasionally stir up another Disease , or may nourish or increase another antecedent Cause . Nor lastly , is a Disease a hurtful quality , budding from the poyson or contagion of another , and that a hurtful matter : Notwithstanding such offences as those do only accuse its presence , but not the effect depending only occasionally thereupon . A Disease therefore is a certain Being , bred , after that a certain hurtful strange power hath violated the vital Beginning , and hath pierced the faculty hereof , and by piercing hath stirred up the Archeus unto Indignation , Fury , Fear , &c. To wit , the anguish , and troubles of which perturbations do by imagining , stir up an Idea co-like unto themselves , and a due Image : Indeed that Image is readily stamped , expressed , and sealed in the Archeus , and being cloathed with him , a Disease doth presently enter on the stage , being indeed composed of an Archeal Body , and an efficient Idea : For the Archeus produceth a dammage unto himself , the which when he hath once admitted , he straightway also afterwards yields , flees , or is alienated , or dethroned , or defiled through the importunity thereof , and is constrained to undergo a strange government , and domestically to sustain a civil War raised up on himself ; indeed such a strange Image , is materially imprinted , and arising out of the Archeus : A true Diseasie Being I say , which is called a Disease . For although Physitians are only busied about the dissolution , cleansing away , and expulsion of the hurtful occasional matter ; yet our thought is not able to vary the Essence of a Disease : To wit , that because a Physitian labours in the banishment of the occasional hurtful matter , therefore also that a Disease ought to be that , which that deceived Physitian doth in a rash order intend to expel : For a Disease is effentially that which it is , whether the Physitian be absent , or present : For neither doth a Physitian in the begining , more determine or limit a Disease , than the Disease doth terminate it self ; because it is that which doth not accommodate it self unto the thought or esteem of others , but doth dayly deride the same : Wherefore as health consisteth in a sound Life , so doth a Disease in the very Life it self being hurt ; but Life doth only and immediately subsist in the seat of the Soul ; but the Soul doth not operate out of it self , unless by virtue of its official Organ , which is the vital air of the Archeus : And therefore it is a wonder that it hath hitherto been unknown , that a Disease sits immediately in the same vital inne where the Life enjoys it self ; of which more largely hereafter : for hateful persons will scarce believe that every power of sublunary things is stirred up , and contained in Idea's : But that thing I have already before sharply touched at by the way , yet it shall profit to have it more strongly bound or confirmed : For we have known , and believe by Faith , that a power is given to Herbs of propagating their like : But that proprietary faculty is a real Being , actually existing , which is alwayes , and successively manifested in the seed ; neither is that faculty a certain accidental power , or naked quality ; but it is a seminal virtue , whereby the Plant which is the Parent , decyphers an Idea in his own seed , the container of figure , and properties , according to which it will stir up , delineate the seed it self , and make the Plant its Daughter to grow : For in seeds a manifest Image is known , skilful of things to be acted for a new propagation . In like manner , the Sea doth not cause , but suffer horrid tempests , which the Wind doth efficiently stir up ; and truly the Wind is not moved by it self , and of its own free accord : But by an invisible influence of the Stars , according to that saying : The Stars shall be unto you for signs , times or seasons , dayes , and years ; for so great a storm of the primary Elements , or Air , and Water , breaks forth from a Being which is like unto Light : But the Blas of the Elements is not stirred up from the meer Light of the Stars : For although the Light of the Stars be incorporeal , and immaterial , yet it is not a certain simple Light , but that which besides the property of a solitary Light ( which is only of enlightning ) hath a motive Blas in it self , and likewise durations , and directions according to places , strengths , and weaknesses ; no less than an alterative Blas hath for all successive changes , and periods of times : These Blas's are Antiently wont to be ascribed unto the aspects of diverse Lights ; the which aspects notwithstanding , as such , do not exceed their own efficacy , which is to have enlightned : But for to stir up so unlike stations of times or seasons , and tempests also foreseen , that is , before the coming of the Stars unto the places of those aspects , is surely the effect of a greater weight than only of a simple Light : I therefore suppose that the diversities of aspects spiritual , Astrall or starry Images of the invisible World are framed , which they lay up into the Air for the exciting of a Blas , according to the Image of those properties ; for truly the aspect of the Stars is only momentary , as also their place is unstable , but their effects do presevere for some long time : Therefore it must needs be that the lightsome aspects , besides a momentary Light have laid up in the Air the Idea of a Blas , operating even unto a Consumption of it self , the irregular Rules , Locks , Bolts , Spurs and Period of times or seasons . Such an Image therefore is of the Nature of Light , that it may operate at a set time , for else it should scarce reach to us in the course of many years , unless it were of the Nature of Light : Therefore as there is in Plants , an awakening virtue of a seminal Image for fructification ; So also there is in the Stars , a faculty of framing the Idea of a motive Light , which is the original principle of motion , making whatsoever is committed unto it for execution . But our Archeus , whether he hath a virtue or force like unto the Earth , or unto the Stars , it is all one , so we understand that it is proper unto him to stir up a tempestuous Blas in us since the disobedience of our first Parent : Whether such a property increased in him from Sin ; or next , whether he doth awaken those Blas's anew by his own beck , and from the aspect of his own perturbation , it is all one , and sufficient ; so we acknowledge that all the force as well of a regular Life , as of an inordinate government , doth issue from nothing but from this vital Beginning . And therefore all Diseases , and the Types or Figures of these , are certain conceptions decyphered by this invisible Ruler , to finish the storms of our calamities . In the Skie therefore of our Archeus , are aspectual Idea's decyphered , as well from the depth of the starry Heaven of the Soul it self , as those formed by the erring or wandring implanted Spirits of the seven Bowels : For so a fear of the Plague creates the Plague : A sudden fear of Death hath oftentimes killed the Gout . Likewise the fear of Honour lost , or to be lost , if it hath endured for the space of one day , hath now and then caused the Falling-sickness : The sorrow of poverty hath brought madness , but in others it hath brought forth the Scrophulus or Kings-evil : All mad folks are for the most part devolved , or overthrown from Pride : And the Wise Man testifieth , That sorrow doth graw the Life of Man , as the Worm doth Garments : But Sorrow is a Sorrowful thought , but this is a [ non-being ] because a mental Being ; the which because it is a [ non-being ] therefore it hath no power of acting from it self . Therefore a sorrowful cogitation doth produce an active Idea , and [ this something ] is made of nothing , no otherwise than as in a Woman with Child , perturbation doth bring forth a Monster , and transchangeth the humane Young into a beast-like one ; because it is proper or natural to the imaginative power , to frame Images or Likenesses as well in mental , as Archeal Beings : Sorrow therefore , which is a slow disturbance , brings forth an Idea which consumes and gnaws the Life ; because such an Idea hath the degenerate vital Air of the Archeus for its matter , the which therefore pretends to pervert the remainder of the Archeus with its own likeness ; and this degenerate Air is corrupted in the Duumvirate : And therefore presently after Sorrow , there are continual Sighs ; and these things thus happen to the faculties or powers of a sorrowful Phantasie : The same thing also happens in the power of the Phantasie proper to the Archeus , whether the inflowing or implanted one ; both of whom , ( even as concerning the Plague-grave , elsewhere ) doth frame the most powerful Images of Imagination . Wherefore also a two-fold Diseasifying Archeal Idea , of a two-fold Archeus , distinguisheth a transient or soon-departing Disease , from a Chronical or long continuing one : Wherefore they who shall hereafter rightly attend , shall find that every perturbation of the Soul , which is strong , dayly , and doth not descend by issuing out of the Archeus of the Bowels dedicated unto imaginative Offices , or out of the duumvirate , doth bring forth a diverse , or distinct madness , through the varieties of Idea's : They shall likewise find that simples , as well degenerated within as received from without , do sometimes affect the Archeus himself from without ; do bring forth an equal Idea of madness of the Duumvirate , which thing is manifest in the smallest contagion of a mad Dog : which kind of Diseases also being con-centred in the vital Members , talking with the Stars , ( whence there is an unequal strength , the torture of the Night , hereditary Diseases , and such as return by circuite ) are seen to have an invisible store-house within , and an original principle of the tragedy ; whence according to the command of maturities , or of a most remote excentricity , Idea's the Authoresses of so great storms , are repeated . But Idea's , if they inform the venal Blood , or the liquor which is immediately to be assimilated , and nourishable , tempests are bred , conformable as well to the Idea's of perturbations , as to the entertaining Archeus : Therefore the Archeus doth so wantonize within through his own proper luxury , voluntary weariness or heaviness , corruption , defect , furious Blas ( for names fail us where a thing layes hid , as being unknown by a former Cause ) that although he shake nothing from without ; yet the Life forsakes , suspends , despiseth , is averse to the Rains of Goverment , and rageth , Man knowing not of it : For so Idea's do arise , which being free , do break forth into all dissoluteness , and unbridled tyranny of Diseases . And seeing the motions of a wantonizing Archeus , are hidden to a Physitian , and so that we are not able to repose the once rejected Rains , into the hands of such an Archeus : By consequence , a certain Universal Arcanum , which is a sleepifier and appeaser of the Archeus , is to be administred . He therefore labours for the most part in vain , whosoever being destitute of a Universal secret , doth place his endeavour in the brushing away of occasional Causes , the Archeus being not first appeased : The which surely is to be exactly noted with a Golden Pen : For it happens unto him no otherwise than as he , who ( having not first stopped up the spring head ) presumes by exhausting of water to dry up the brook . In the mean time , seeing the Archeus proceedeth in an unknown path , in his own fabricks of Images , I am constrained in the explication of Diseases , to keep the Antient Names , and to follow their Sir-names : That in the beaten path of occasional Causes , we may descend unto the knowledge of hidden Diseasie Essences : But it is sufficient for me , to have shewn in this by-work ; that seminal Idea's in the whole Systeme of the World , are the beginning principle of every Blas of seeds , generations , successive changes , and storms : Yet before that I attempt the Scheme of Diseases , seeing it is as yet to scanty , that Idea's are formed by the Archeus , no less than by the imaginative power , it shall be profitable to shew that thing unto the Young Beginner , by one argument . For the dead Carcass of a man , which is dead through a voluntary Flux , exceeds all Ice in coldness , not indeed that in very truth , it is more cold than the dead Carcass of a Cow which dyed of her own accord ( for I distinguishing that thing by the Organ of qualities , and the degrees of the encompassing air , it is clearly demonstrated ) although notwithstanding that thing be thus judged by our touching ; for that happens through the fear of the Archeus alone , which greatly dreadeth at the co-touching of Death in the dead Carcass . 1. He feels Death , the which perhaps the imagination is as yet ignorant of . 2. He greatly dreadeth . 3. The inflowing Spirit retires . 4. But that which is implanted in the hand is troubled and fails for fear , and so conceives a beginning of Death unto himself from the trembling fear . Therefore the Holy Scriptures do not incongrously say , That he that should touch the dead , is reckoned impure , and half dead : Which Image of Death , the Archeus , will he , nill he , doth conceive , and doth so stiffly retain it for some good while , as long as that Idea of fear is surviving , that it scarce becomes hot again at the hearth within an hours space : Therefore the Idea of trembling fear is really there ; for truly it works its effect , and is formed by the Archeus , and not by the imaginative power of the Man : Therefore if the Archeus runs away trembling for fear , by a like reason also , he shall be sorrowful , angry , shall be stirred up through fury , and other passions , and is in a conflict through the Idea's of any perturbations whatsoever , becomes troublesome and hurtful to himself , according to the pleasure of Idea's , which he hath formed unto himself by his own force , and liberty . CHAP. LXXII . The passage unto the Buttery of the Bowels , is stopped up . 1. The difficulty of curing a Disease is concluded from the very seat of the Soul. 2. An example of a quartane Ague . 3. A remarkable thing concerning Remedies hitherto used against a Quartane . 4. Wherein purging Medicines have hitherto decieved the unwary . 5. Purging things have sometimes cured by accident , and have remained through this deciet . 6. A reckoning up of incurable Diseases . 7. Distillation brings forth new generated things . 8. Singularities in things produced by the fire . 9. Deccocted things differ from distilled things . 10. What was the scope of the Author in times past . 11. Some Remedies have decieved the Author . 12. An examination of Remedies . 13. An examination of Digestions . 14. An examination of Water-remedies . 15. The abilities of the Stomach . 16. Whence the chief variety of conditions is . AFter I had discerned that the Stomach was the root of the tree , or the root as well of a universal Digestion , as of all particular ones whatsoever , I had alike seriously known , that the Mortal or sensitive Soul , the Mistris of all kind of actions whatsoever in us , and the Dispenseress of Life throughout the whole Body , did inhabit there : That indeed also the Frameress of the first conceptions , was there scituated ; likewise the shop of sleep , no less than of watchings , and madnesses ; I held it consonant to reason , that the immortal mind , or Image of God , could be no where more decently infolded , or co-knit , than in the aforesaid formal and vital Light ; to wit , in a spiritual principle , for that reason also most near , because akin unto it . And when as the Monarchy of Life being thorowly searched into , I saw , and optically or clearly knew , that every Disease did essentially consist in the Life , and arise out of the same , the causes of difficulties in curing Diseases offered themselves unto me , especially those which are not silent of their own free accord , or which do not hasten through their own violence unto the end of their period , but do accompany the Life which they do bitterly molest . Wherefore of the more lingring Diseases , I saw a Quartane , an Atrophia or Consumption for lack of nourishment , a Cacochymia or state of bad juice , likewise weaknesses , and afterwards , as well those which have chosen their bed in the outmost habit of the Body , ( such as are the Leprosie , Palsey , Sciatica , Convulsion or Cramp , Gout , &c. ) as those which are fast tied to any of the Bowels ( as the Apoplexie , Epilepsie , Astma , affect of the Stone , Dropsie , Madness , &c. ) were not cured , not indeed through a defect of desire of curing , but through want of a remedy alone ; but I long laboured in that remedy , and I many times retreated , until I knew that it should respect the very fountain of Life , or sensitive Soul. Wherefore first , I took the Quartane Ague it self in hand , because it was obvious , most tiresome or tedious , and plainly known ; and the which while it did despise the usual remedies of Physitians , it rendred the hope of the same void . First of all , I was more assured by the same , that wheresoever any material Diseasie product lay hid , the application likewise of a convenient remedy was required ; or else it was to be feared , that the effect raised up from that occasional Cause would remain surviving : And therefore from the correlative of this proposition , I found no remedies of Physitians hitherto ; however through their fame , unstopping , resolving , cleansing , or purging Medicines may be boasted of ; yet that the same do only come or are brought down at most , even unto the entrance of the spleen alone , which bewraies it self to be the inn of a Quartane Ague , by a sensible testimony : Therefore I being from hence certainly instructed , have conjectured , that that unstopping , &c. force of a remedy , doth soon even in the Stomach perish , wax mild , is tamed , or banished through the intestines , if at least-wise it shall not first die : But if any quality of remedies shall remain safe from their middle Life , something broken , and being recieved , shall more fully or inwardly pierce ; ( as Mace , or Terpentine do from the necessity of Magnum Oportet , retain their Savour in the Urin ) but at leastwise the same offers it self so gelded and dismembred , that it doth not effect any of those things , to which end , and for which things sake Medicines are swallowed . Eggs indeed and the Fleshes of Beasts do represent the favours of the nourishment which fatted them : But surely while they pass over into a vital family-administration , although they may retain the foot-steps of their former taste , and so may contain some testimonies of health ; yet the helps of these are so sluggish , for the rooting out of any Diseasie product , that long and lingring Diseases have long agoe manifested the boasting of these remedies to be vain , yea and have taken away their hope . But purgative things only have most especially deceived , and do deceive as well Physitians , as the unwary Patients hitherto , because they have more subtilly blinded or deceived them than other remedies have done : For as they are of the race of poysons ( the which I have on purpose shewed in the Book of Fevers ) they do presently stir up a confusion about the first roots , and mothers of digestion : And so whatsoever was taken the day before , or elsewhere also rightly subdued , that thing , solutive Medicines do presently also defile with the Character of corruption , and the more crude Blood being attracted out of the Mesentery , it is straightway wholly driven forth , upon the account of a defiled ejected liquor ; the which indeed is there likewise straightway corrupted , until the poyson of the solutive Medicines be satisfied and extinguished by working : It hath been thought hitherto , that this stincking liquor of the venal Blood and Fleshes , was the very matter of Diseases ; or that the now mortified and stinking liquor which is fetched from far , by solutive or purging Medicines , is a Humour ( one of the four ) selected , and magnetically or attractively drawn unto them before others . Therefore this perverse Doctrine , hath even hitherto most powerfully decieved Mortals , because solutives did promise , and shew forth some effect , although for the most part a vanishing , and now and then a cruel one ; yet not the Author of health , unless sometimes by accident , nature shall suffer its fardle detained in its first entry , to fall out together with them ; which effect by accident although it be rare , yet it hath given unto solutives , the smoaky name of purging , and hath caused a right of imploring solutives , and of hanging upon their help , as it were a sanctuary ; and in the mean time , most Diseases have remained un-touched , and more cruel : For as many Diseases as do not of their own accord presently hasten unto an end or bound , are accounted uncurable , and they are commanded to be quiet by the vain expected tyranny of solutives : In the mean time , as many remedies as did endeavour by a notably cruelty to compel Nature unto their will , have forthwith felt the resistance of our Life , and for that very Cause are hurtful , because they lay in wait for the Life , while they change the Blood into a mortal poyson : they have become I say , hurtful and dangerous helps ; for if they were suspected of poyson , and the degrees of tyranny , presently assoon as they were taken , they were rejected as infamous , because they seemed to stir up a notable storm of disturbance , confusion , and fainting , and nothing besides a threatned turbulency , and slaughter ; but only and alone , the greater secrets , whereinto an endowed faculty of Nature is instilled from above , or being made glorious through the praise of purity , and subtilty , have equally supplanted all tyranny of Diseases , and have thus arose into an universal Medicine , by the one compendium of restoring Life . I have said elsewhere , that every distilled thing is a new Creature produced by the fire ; and so not of the first institution of its own concrete Body : Verily even as the fire is a certain thing made for artifices or crafts , yet natural ; so whatsoever bewrayes it self by the fire , although it be natural , yet it issues from an oblique or crooked principle of nature , wresting seminal Beginnings aside unto the will of the fire . Hence whatsoever is made or composed by the fire , doth at once attain its first , middle , and last Life , and they are melted joyntly together , as one only seminal principle , which hath flowed together into the matter , being before subjected unto , and distinct in divers terms , is co-united by the fire , and also is thereby made a new Creature , arising indeed from beginnings existing in the concrete Body : Notwithstanding , those seminal beginnings are so altered by the fire , that by a certain co-melting , a new Being is thereby raised up , and the three Properties of Life do arise together with it : Wherefore also , all distilled things are free from corruption ; the which otherwise in a recieved succession of the three Lives , is familiar unto things : For from hence it is manifest , that decoctions are not such Beings as are allured forth by distillation ; but only translations of one being into a middle one , forreign unto it self ; and therefore they do easily putrifie or stink , and are altered . Furthermore among simples , some have manifested themselves , being bewrayed indeed by no signate ; the which notwithstanding have obtained a particular property to restrain the figures of an exorbitant Life in Diseases : For those Simples , although they do not ascend unto the largeness of general kinds , yet they seem to be specifically directed by the glorious bestower of things , for the rooting out of some Diseases : For I who had long since declined from the horrour of purging things , and in thorowly viewing round about , had taken notice of the almost nullities , or unprosperous applications of remedies ; and in the mean time , while the secrets of the art of the fire were covered with their vaile of darkness , and that the specifical efficacy of those Simples did lay hid ; I diligently enquired , whether I could not ( while as new Creatures in springing up are renewed by the fire ) prepare remedies by art , which might either profoundly pierce into the Branches of the Veins , or at least-wise might disperse a somewhat light or gentle property of themselves , together with the venal Blood , and Urine , and might seal it among the family-administrations of Life ? Which lightish quality indeed , is not understood to bewray it self in taste , but the which should remain so safe , and unbroken in the Kitchins of the Digestions , that without a notable unclemency of savour , it might reach unto the scope had in creating Medicine from the Earth . First of all , the contemplation of provokers of Urine smiled on me ; to wit , the which did seem to be dispersed from the Mouth , through the Reins , even into the Bladder : The same thing a vulnerary drink perswaded , uttering its Fruits even into the external joynts : But at length I manifestly knew , that Diureticks themselves , do not indeed materially descend into the Bladder ; as neither vulnerary Drinks , into a remote wound ; but that all the aid of Diureticks or Urin-provokers , and wound Potions , is framed in the Stomach it self . By way of an Example of the Stone of Crabs , or of the most fixed Stone for broken Bones , a helper as well of wounds , as of the difficulties of Urin : For this is not dissolved by Mans Stomach , neither therefore also doth it pierce unto far distant places in its stony matter , or milky form ; but if it be not resolved into its first Being , neither also doth it return into the substance of Milke : But the sharpness of the Stomach , and its native ferment , dissolves as much as it can of the injected Stones , not indeed by a retrograde resolution towards its first Being ; But only , after the manner of soure things it dissolves those Stones , that is , into Powder : Even as in the Book of Fevers , I have profesly by handicraft operation demonstrated : For from hence it is , that if they are first dissolved in Vinegar , they do more powerfully afford their aide , than if they are first boyled in Wine ; also because they are more dissolved in sharpish Wine , than in Water , or Ale : Therefore also they do more powerfully succour , than if they are drunk in the broath of Fleshes , or Water : because sharp things do break those Stones into the most subtil atomes , and seeing they have as yet a native cream in them , tameable by the Stomach : Therefore also by how much the more subtilly they are broken or prepared , by so much also the ferment of the Stomach doth obtain the more of that Cream . Likewise , although Mace , Terpentine , &c. are taken , and shall change the odour of the Urine : Yet their aides are but weak in the Disury , and suppression of Urine : For in very deed , all the Testimonies of the former Life of Simples is annihilated within the Stomach , and none but the flaggy footsteps of tasts do remain ; so that the Nutmeg , and Terpentine ( which do very much differ in their savours ) yet they do breath one only and alike Odour in the Urine , which is a manifest sign , that in the first shop of the Stomach , the primitive Crases's of things taken , do perish , but that new ones do arise , being gotten by cocting : For otherwise , of Terpentine , and its Oyle , and Mace , a sameliness of Odour could not result in the Urine , as neither an acceptable Odour of Violets from thence : So Asparagus stinks in the Urin , as a certain putrifaction being adjoyned unto it , doth hasten the same into banishment . But vulnerary or wound-drinks , do no otherwise succour a wound , than as they do so diminish the unjust sharpness in the Stomach , that they do also restrain , and expel sharpness out of the wound ( all which out of the Stomach is hurtful , Diseasie , and a Companion of putrifaction , as I have elsewhere demonstrated concerning digestions : ) For truly the general digestion of the Stomach is chief over every Kitchin of all the digestions : Yea indeed , Birds are throughout their whole Body actually , and notably hot , and so they do somewhat long sustain the night rigours of Winter ; But they piss not , because they want Reins and Bladder . Therefore whatsoever a drinking Pigeon drinketh , doth wholly depart by unsensible transpiration : Hence therefore it is manifest , that the Kidneys only do make Urine , which else would be sweat : And Urine in Man , differs not indeed in the matter of the first Latex ; but in the efficient ferment of the Reins alone : And it is also manifest , that Birds do unsensibly eject every superfluous excrement without sweat ; Therefore Urine differs from sweat , more than in matter only : besides the proper Essence of Urin not formally received from the Kidney , it doth receive a liquid , and tinging dung into it self , which is not attracted upwards unto the veins in a Bird , neither do they sweat although they are wearied : Therefore because sweat in a Man , is not unsensibly blown away , even as otherwise in a Swine , the Kidney of Man hath the blame : Even as also , that the liquid dung is separated , and drawn from the Bowels upwards , within the veins , the Kidney hath the blame : But the use of that drawing for the Stone , is shewn elsewhere : But the Urine is not tinged , that it may the more readily be ejected ; for the Urin is sharper , and doth more prick , as oft as it is without tinging dross : As the Kidney therefore is the cause of the Urin , and of the aforesaid things , so also it is the cause of the Dropsie , as the Kidney closeth it self , through the indignation of its own Archeus ; whose indignation if it be restrained by a due remedy of the Stomach , forasmuch as its Duumvirate , sits president over the Kidney , the Dropsie is for certaine , soon holpen : For the wheyinesses of the Dropsie are oftentimes expelled out of a swollen , and extended Abdomen , by purgers of water , the solutive Medicines themselves having as yet stayed but a little while within the Stomach : But the Dropsie doth soon repeat the same , because the Kidney being wroth as before , doth persevere in the closure , and diversion of the Urin : For the water which the Kidney hath laid up in the Abdomen , the Stomach fetcheth from thence , and dejects through the Paunch , and so sheweth that it can command the follies , or trifles , and indignations of the Reins , as also reduce the wheyinesses unto the intestines by unknown wayes : Not indeed that such solutives are materially , and presentially present even unto the Abdomen , and that by a purgative poysonous faculty they do reduce the deposited fardle of the Dropsie with them : Nay , but these are the Atchievements of the one Stomach , and the priviledges of the Life and vital Duumvirate . The Pipes or Channels indeed are unknown to us , but the Life , the directress , and mistris of these , reflects it self unto its own seat or center , that is , unto the Soul : And therefore from the very Life it self of the Soul , the Functions , Offices , Vigours , Valours of Powers , and all the defects of these are to be fetched : for the Soul doth distribute all its Offices unto the parts , and doth govern them by the Life ; neither only doth it distinguish the Offices by the parts , so that it hath seperated diversities in the very vessel of the Stomach , as well in its Orifice , as in the Pylorus ; but also it hath co-knit the powers themselves unto a beginning alike in parts indeed ; but those which do every one of them perform their own tragedies : Which thing surely is no where more manifestly seen , than in Diseases , and so in the defects of the faculties ; because that they strow the way unto disorder , and a dis-joynted discord of unity : Seeing that the mortal mind is believed to be of an univocal or simple identity ; therefore also conditions , inclinations , cruelties , &c. come to be ascribed unto the mortal Soul : The which indeed follows a material variety of dispositions : from hence therefore is blockishness , barbarousness , furies , madnesses , as also provocations to leachery , quicksightednesses or sharpnesses of wit ; and lastly , the ruin of sciences , and extinguishments of memory , &c. CHAP. LXXIII . The Seat of Diseases in the sensitive Soul , is Confirmed . 1. Ten Paragraphs or Positions elsewhere proved , are supposed . 2. The twelve Properties of the Stomack are rehearsed . 3. That some Diseases do inhabit in the Life of the Stomack . 4. An Objection is Solved . 5. The Life of the Muscles . 6. A consideration of the Apoplexie . 7. The incomprehensibleness of the Vital Powers . 8. Sleep is the last of Faculties . 9. Why sleep was sent in before Sin. 10. The Seat of all Diseases . 11. An unquenchable Consideration of Hunger and Thirst . 12. That the most powerful Idea's of Diseases are framed in the Duumvirate . 13. The largeness of the Power of Idea's is rehearsed . 14. That Remedies for the most part do not dilate themselves without the cottages of the Stomack . 15. The Schooles not heeding these things , have erred in the application of a Remedy . 16. A choice of Medicines . 17. Remarkable things of the Stone for broken Bones . BUt that the Roots of Life may more clearly be laid open , I will compose some Beginnings or Essayes founded by me elsewhere , and borrowed from thence , into Positions . 1. The Immortal mind , the immediate Image of the Divinity , after that it delegated the Government of Life unto the sensitive , mortal and frail Soul , although it delivered its Power unto this mortal Light ; yet it hath remained connexed to the same , being co-bound unto it by the Symbole or Resembling mark of Life , as it were the band of the nearest Knowledge : Which sensitive Light of Life , because it sits entertained in the Stomack as the Root of a Mortal Life ; therefore also the mind it self hath chosen its Bride-bed and Throne in the same place : The which I have elsewhere more strongly profesly confirmed concerning the Soul. 2. The Soul hath sowed its Faculties necessary for Life , throughout the Organs of the Body : Wherefore neither doth the Ankle See , nor the Ear Walk , as neither doth the Liver transchange Meats received , into Chyle . 3. The vital Faculty of the Organs , in health sends forth healthy or sound Actions , and the same as often as it is vitiated , utters vitiated Actions . 4. But the vital Faculty is not vitiated but by a Disease . 5. Which Disease therefore is nothing but a real and actual Vice of the Faculty ; a positive Being , I say , and for that Cause consisting of Matter and an Efficient Cause , after the manner of other natural Beings . 6. But seeing the vital Faculty it self , doth essentially include in it a Disease it self : Hence it followes , That a Disease it self is in the formallity of its Efficient Cause , a Faculty not indeed vitiated , but vitious : To wit , the which doth vitiate or hurt the vital Faculty : And so a Disease is a Power very much like to the vital Faculties , and that so intimate with them , that also in some Cases it is united as well to mortal and hereditary ones , as those that are centrally rooted . 7. But a vitiated or hurt Faculty , is either a particular one , proper to some one Organ , as Blindness , Deafness , the Palsie , &c. Or it is every way dispersed in the common vehicle of the inflowing Archeus , by way of property of Passion , of a secondary Passion , or by way of Sympathy . And indeed however , and after what manner soever a Faculty is hurt , at least-wise it is discerned and clearly seen every where to undergo a vital Vice ; and that every Disease doth immediately inhabite in the Principle of Life , that is , in the Archeus himself . 8. For all Diseases in general do sit in the universal beginning of Life , whether in the mean time the Archeus be particularly molested by some Organ , or whether he be stirred up and enraged by the Fountain of Life , and a quickned or enlivened Root : For although that may vary the Species of a Disease , yet such a variety doth not take away the maker of a Disease . 9. The Sensitive Soul is chief over all its vital Faculties , whether they are fomented by distributed Organs , or next by the common Archeus : At least from thence it dependeth , that the Cure almost of all Diseases , consisteth and is perfected in the radicall Inne of Life ; that is , in the Seat of the Soul and Center of Life : Unless sometimes perhaps a certain Organical part shall drink up a Disease proper unto it self , and the vital Faculty its guest , shall marry its self unto the same . 10. Whence it becomes evident , that almost all Curing of Diseases ( Wounds , and likewise those that are Chyrurgical ones I except not ) is to be solicited in the Stomack , and in its Duumvirate : and so , neither there to be incongruously sought after or solicited : For so also oft-times , the more outward defects are taken away by an internal Remedy of the Stomack , being else vainly attempted by external Medicines . It is no wonder therefore , that Remedies do scarce exceed the command , order of the Stomack , or are materially farther dispersed . Which things being thus premised by the way , I will subscribe some Priviledges of the Stomack . 1. And First of all , That is a right proper and peculiar to the Stomack , that it doth primarily Cook for it self ; but for the whole Body onely by accident , indirectly , and by an extraordinary right before the other Members : Because Divine Ordination hath so suffered it to be , that it may prepare a nourishment of the rude matter of the meats for all the others : But the Stomack it self is immediately nourished by the Chyle confected by it self , no otherwise than as the Root of Vegetables is nourished by Leffas the Juyce of the Earth : But not that the Stomack doth allure Blood from the Liver for its nourishment , as neither doth the Root of Vegetables fetch back again the Juice , once dismissed from it self , and dispersed upwards from the Bark , that it may thereby be nourished . Wherefore the Stomack enjoys a few Veines for the Office of so great an heap , and a Vessel of so great capacity ; To wit , because it is not nourished by venal Blood according to the accustomed manner of other Members , but it is fed onely with the Chyle , the which it afterward suits into a Spermatick Liquor agreeable to it self . 2. But the Veines of the Stomack do not therefore diffuse Blood out of themselves , neither doth the Stomack being hurt by a Wound , weep forth Blood : And the same right the rest of the Membranes have borrowed from the Stomack unto themselves . 3. The Stomack-Veines do not transmit any thing of the concocted Chyle of Mcats , or suck is unto them , that they may derive the same unto the Port Vein , according as otherwise , the Meseraick Veins are wont to do . And that thing I have else where more strongly confirmed concerning the Digestions . 4. In the next place , neither do the Veins of the Stomack imploy themselves in the nourishment of the Stomack . 5. And therefore the Stomack-Veins being full of pure Blood , have a free , vital , undisturbed faculty , appointed for the sucking of the Chyle or dispersing of the Blood : Either of which two notwithstanding , is domestical to all the other Veines . 6. Yet the Veins and Arteries being knit unto the Orifice of the Stomack , are not in vain extended , but the Soul being entertained in the slenderness of the Membrane of the Stomack as if it were not there , yea being scarce tied to the place , breathes forth the breath of its Life into the Organs ( to wit the Heart , Spleen , Liver , Brain , Kidneys , Stones , &c. ) after an unsensible manner , and through an incredible straitness and slenderness of Pipes or Channels . Hence indeed are there sudden Ecclipses , Apoplexies , Epilepsies , Giddinesses , Swoonings , &c. to wit , as oft as the sensitive Soul ceaseth to beam forth its Light into the Organs . 7. For there is in the Pipe of the Artery of the Stomack , a Vital Faculty of that Soul , for the beaming forth Beams of Light unto the heart , so long as it is in a good state : But when as it behaves it self rashly or amiss , presently also Heart-beatings , Faintings , Giddinesses of the Head , Apoplexies , Epilepsies , Drowsie-evils , Watchings , Madnesses , Head-aches , Convulsions , &c. are stirred up . In the next place also , there is by the Soul , the Governness of the vital Faculties , breathed its own vital Virtue through the Stomack-Veines unto the Liver , and so from the Unity of the Soul , divers natural endowments do flow forth unto all the Organs : for truly alwayes , and on every side , all things as well in the Universe as in us , do issue from one point : For that mortal Soul , and Seminal constant Governess of the Body , seeing it is occasionally begged from the Disposition of the arterial Blood , it of necessity also inhabits in the Organs , as well in the bloudy Spleen , as in the unbloody Membrane of the Stomack : Verily even as the Brain , the Fountain and Judge of the Acts of Perceivances or Feelings , doth most especially want Sense or Feeling , and therefore also it is many times read in the Holy Scriptures , That the Soul of Man dwells in the Blood. 8. It sufficeth therefore in this place , that the sensitive Soul , being placed in these seats , doth there unfold its Virtues , and from thence diversly send them forth . 9. For indeed Sleep , Watching , Appetite , Digestion , Ferment , Chearfulness , &c. do discover by their plurality , a health of the Functions , even as also in the same Fold , and cemral Fountain , the Apoplexie , Epilcpsie , Vertigo or Giddiness , Madness , Fury , Forgetfalness , &c. are entertained : For truly the one onely sensitive Soul is the immediate Cause , Center , Nest , Fountain , and Original of all vital Faculties and Actions whatsoever . But in this Path it is sufficient to have rehearsed that which else where I have profesly demonstrated , that in the more inward Coat of the Stomack , as it were in a Bride-bed , the Mortal Soul doth dwell , and that it involves in it the immortal Mind within its Bosom : But that all those Powers are vital , in their Function indeed distinct , although not in their vitality or livelinesse , and so , so proper and peculiar unto the Soul it self , that the Etimology of their Propertie hath sprung from thence . 10. Wherefore without Controversie also , I suppose that all Diseases universally ( because they rising up against the Powers of the Soul , are Adversaries , and Hostile ) do also immediately assault or invade the fraile and mortal Soul : Against which indeed , they are able to shake their Spears or Darts , and pierce the same by reason of the likeness of a sublunary Symbole . 11. Which strife indeed doth first happen in the Archeus himself , the Porter of the Soul , and from thence they are more inwardly derived , and do pierce even unto the kernel of the Soul it self . 12. Diseases also which are brought from without , and forreignly to within , do stand as retainingly subject to this right , as those which of their own free accord do wax hot , or which are struck out of the Flint of the Archeus . Wherefore , although I have already accused most Remedies of an impossibility of piercing ; yet it sufficeth a Physitian , if the Medicine doth in the very mentioned Inne of the Soul , talk with the same in its own possession . But surely these things are new and unheard of , an unexpected Philosophy of Healing : But the novelty it self ought little to deterre us , so truths are demonstrated . Especially it should be most difficult to perswade , that all madnesses do spring from the region of the Stomack , unlesse it had been voluntarily and freely granted me , that some Madness is praecordial or from the Midriffs , and likewise that the Stomack it self is the Seat of the concupiscible Faculty , that Sleep likewise and Watchings are raised up , &c. from thence : Unlesse I say , the Falling-sickness were the more frequently felt to be lifted up out of the inmost room of the Stomack into the Heart and Head , and so that the upper parts do for the most part , languish through a secondary passion of the inferiour parts . But if the Falling-sickness doth sometimes seem to be raised up from the Feet , yet at leastwise it never invades without Swooning , and never takes away the Senses , unlesse it shall first sore shake or trouble the sensitive Soul it self , and the principal Faculies thereof ; and the proportion of the commotion should determine or limit the proportion of the fit : So that although its occasional nest be reckoned to be in the Head or Feet , yet the Epileptical fit doth never depart , the which leaves not Thirst behind it , and by that Sign it bewrays that it had pitched its Fold in the Stomack , and that the sensitive Soul was smitten in that part especially , where in it planted the thirsting Power . But seeing the Falling-Sickness doth prostrate all the powers of the Mind with an Unsensibleness , Convulsion and Beating attending on them : It is for a certain Sign , that the sensitive Soul it self is pierced in its native and wonted place ; and that it is there and from thence the Governness of all the Senses and principal Faculties : Yea and seeing such a spoiling of the Faculties doth not happen as it were by hands or degrees , but that there is a commotion of all of them at once by one onely stroke ; therefore the government of those Faculties , is denoted to be smitten in its Center , and the Members farther remote from the Stomack , are discovered by a secondary Passion , as to suffer an onset of that Disease : So in like manner also , not to possess from a property those vital Powers which they loose . Neither let any one be amazed or think this a vain kind of Doctrine , although I shall place the Majesty of the Duumvirate within the slenderness of the Membrane of the Stomack : For let that thing be proper to the Soul , that it is deteined in a place as it were without a place . Therefore the Epilepsie painfully and at unwares invading all the Superiority of the sensitive Soul , sitting in the Stomack , doth argue the very seat of the Soul to be there : But not that Epileptical onsets do happen from Fumes or Vapours slowly lifted upwards : The which I have also many times elsewhere , plentifully confirmed concerning Catarrhes . For those Eclipses do happen , no otherwise , than as if a hole be suddenly stopped ; through which Light otherwise doth beam forth into an obscure place . For the Light is suddenly interrupted and ceaseth : So that that thing is so natural to an Apoplexie , that among the Germanes and Dutch , it hath obtained the Name of a Stroak ; the which notwithstanding , being new , I have many times vanquished , by procuring Vomit , or by the more strong Stomatical and Aromatical things being Distilled . Furthermore , in as much as in fits of the Falling-sickness , all Sense , not likewise motion , faileth : Yet that doth not therefore argue , that the sensitive Soul is not the Fountain of both : For although all the intellectuall powers do fail , and onely the Testimonies of a shaking and leaping motion do remain as long as that Eclipse endureth ; yet all those Powers are denoted or designed as issuing from the Soul into the Body , as if they were proper to it : But those Powers which it self hath planted in the Archeus , implanted in the Organs , are under an Ecclipse , and are tumulted by the commotion of the Soul ; yet they subsist obscured , because the Life is not taken away , neither doth the Pulse therefore cease . But in as much as an unvoluntary convulsive motion doth even still remain ; that is not : to be attributed so much to the Soul , as to the singular Life of the Muscles : The which indeed I have elsewhere shewn , as yet to persevere for some time after Death : And that a Tetanus and strait Extension doth begin long after Death : So that although the Life of the Muscles doth proceed from the sensitive Soul , yet it obtains a certain peculiar Efficacy , as also Station of place . Therefore it is less wonderful or absurd , for the Muscles to be therefore tumulted by their own Motion , if on this side Death , they have felt the common Life to be Eclipsed . But in an Apoplexie and Swooning , even the motion of the Muscles also , doth plainly fail , except the motion of those between the Ribs ; because then the sensitive Soul doth undergo a total darkness : Therefore the Soul , the directress of Life , according to the divers Tragedies of its perturbations , doth manifoldly dismiss its Guardians into the Organs placed under it . But every Life , seeing it is of the disposition of Lights , descending from the Father of Lights , it exceeds a humane Understanding : And so by an unfit word , the Father of Lights is called by the Schooles , the Intelligible World , who doth least of all fall under our Understanding : For neither is the most Glorious Father of Lights , and his whole Common-wealth , wholy unknown unto us , according to the Testimony of Truth to Nicodemus , but also the Essence , Thingliness , Direction , and Distribution of the vital Powers , do exceed our Capacity . For how astonishable is the privation of Understanding , Memory , yea or of Speech only ; especially Motion , Sense , Appetite , yea and the integrity of Health remaining ? And how terrible is the fall of these at every onset of the Falling-sickness , Swooning , or drousie Evil ? And how much doth it exceed humane Industrie , that so diverse Faculties do arise and inhabit in one Stomack ? Because so diverse Symptomes do bewray the same hurtings of the Faculties : For all things do drive us unto the amazement of a Miracle , or Wonder : And therefore we being admonished by so many stormes on every side of our Ignorance , and Fondness , do confess , that that one only sensitive Soul is the Fountain of Life , also Life the Spring of many Powers , and Distributress thereof , as well in the healthy as in sick Persons . Therefore also if we Physitians ought to lay the Ax unto the root of the tree ) we are intent for the obtaining of Universal Arcanum's or Secrets , which may conserve , preserve ; plant , and build up the Life in the very Fountain of Life ; the Author of Death and Diseases , no less than of Health . For I now have regard to the frail Soul , but not to the incorporeal and immortal Mind : The which we believe to be Originally inspired alike , and alike perfect in all . And therefore Conditions , Inclinations , Domestick or Forreign , Mild or Fierce ; Tractable or Teachable , Humble or Proud , are instilled into us by the Mortal Soul : Wherein as in a Subject or Place , locally disposing the Inclinations of varieties , are unfolded ; which otherwise , from the Mind or Image of God are naturally banished . Therefore sleep was not in man naturally in respect of his mind , but was afterwards sent into him by the Creator : But before sleep was bred , Sense , Motion , and Appetite were present : Because the Mind as it was thenceforth Immortal , it was also unweariable and had no need of Sleep or Rest . Yet Sleep was sent into Adam before the Fall : Not so much for that he stood in need of Sleep , especially a few hours after his Creation ; as chiefly , because by Sleep he was not yet made sore afraid of known Death , threatned unto him for eating of the Apple : Otherwise Sleep produceth from it self sluggish idleness , and foolish vain Dreames , and causeth the loss of almost half the Life . Whence even at this day , from the antient Sleep sent into Adam , they have yet retained Dreams , That the Old Men shall Dream Dreams ; the Young Men shall Prophesie : And Night unto Night shall shew Knowledge . For the sleepifying Power which was sent into the Mind before the Fall , and the same also being after a sort free from the wedlock of the Mortal Soul , would after some sort draw it into its Original Prerogative of Prophesying , unless the darkness of the Soul sprung up , and put in place , did obscure the same . But while I declaim the Stomack to be the Inne of the sensitive Soul , and for that cause do dedicate the sink of Diseases to the Stomack : I have indeed considered Occasional Causes near the same place , to sit as well in the hollowness and bought thereof , and being as it were strangers onely , there to stick ; and likewise in the tent of the Bowel Duodenum ( which is the Prison deputed for the Jurisdiction of the Gaul , and Pylorus ) and most troublesome to Anatomists for its composure of Vessels and Glandules , as in the Archeal sheathes , no less of that which is inbred , as of that which is inflowing : To wit , that through the conspiring distemperature whereof , the sensitive Soul is diversly disturbed , and all the Vital Faculties , the Chambermaids hereof , to be co-shaken , and so the same being weakened , that an Army of Diseases doth arise , as well those Radical or Chronical , as those soon hastening ; as I long since have known , being thorowly instructed by many Experiences . So that I saw Hunger , and unextinguishable Thirst to proceed not so properly from the sharpnesse of the matter provoking , as from the very fury of the sensitive Soul : For otherwise a Thorexis , or Draught or Potion of generous Wine , should not dissolve Hunger , unlesse Hunger being as it were made drunk by appeasing , should soundly sleep . And therefore Thirst in Feavers doth not afflict but in its own Stations , although the same matter , yea and a more cruel heat doth presse more in their Vigour than at other times . Now even as the Government of the Stomack hath been enlarged on ; So also it hath been shewn , that the sensitive Soul doth there abide , as in the first or chief Kitchin of the Meats , and that the Life doth there Inhabit : For truly the most potent Powers of transchanging and digesting , do there exercise their Offices , and therefore not onely Kitchinfilths are there collected , but also the Fabrick of hurtful Images is there Stamped : Because they can no where be more readily framed , than from the Soul the Inmate of those parts : For there is none but feels Horrours , Fears , Tremblings , Anger 's , Wroths , Sorrows , Sighs , and every Perturbation of concupiscible Affects , to arise and be stirred about the mouth of his Stomack : For if a Gun be unexpectedly discharged , who doth not there feel a sudden leaping of some fear ? Who in the next place is there , who being ready to sit down at a Table , and endowed with a notable appetite of eating , doth not perceive , if at sometime a sorrowful Message be brought unto him , that all sharpness of eating is presently suspended ? Therefore the Faculties do there flourish , whose Effects are there felt . For I have oft-times seen Women , in whom sudden Fear , at another time also , in whom notable Grief had raised up the Falling-sickness . Elsewhere also in whom a lingering and continued Sorrow had moved a Hypochondrial Madness , yea and elsewhere had caused the Scrophulus or Kings-Evil . So a Fear of the Plague doth very often create the Plague ; Even as a sudden fear of Death hath sometime killed the Character of the Gout . Pride also hath often made men mad . I have also known others who having suffered Reproach , and not being able to revenge the same , have suddenly fallen into an Apepsia or Unconcoction , into the straights of an Asthma , and into Beatings , Perplexities of Anguishes , and Oppressions of the Heart . Others who from a suddain sense of Reproach or Contempt , have presently rushed into an Apoplexie . And likewise I have known those that have been wearied with long Grief , have violently rushed into a Dropsie , Jaundise , and Tumors of the Spleen . Likewise very many of both Sexes , who from sudden Anger have departed into an Apoplexie ; but others who have gone into divers head-long Griefs of Contractures . The Fabricks of which Diseases are manifestly felt about the Orifice of the Stomack : For therefore a certain small Feaver , as it were a Diarie or Daily one , doth precede the Fits of the Gout , under which a Character springs up , which is dismissed from the Stomack into the Joynts that it may tyrannize in the same place . An Apoplexie therefore , whether it break forth from an Inordinate Life , or next from Anger , or Grief : yet at leastwise , it alwaies ariseth from the stomack , and is darted into the Head : For the Jaundise doth in no other place more flourish than in the Court of the Stomack , whence it stirs up its Anguishes and Sighs , denoting , that there the Game of its Cruelty is played . Wherefore also I have taught before , that how much soever Vulnerary Potions may restrain the framing of corrupt Pus , and fear of Accidents , in the utmost part of the Foot , yet not that therefore Vulnerary Drinks do enjoy a larger Priviledge otherwise than other Medicines do : For they do not materially hasten unto the remote Wound , when as the while other Medicines are ignorant of a passage to the Spleen , in favour of a Quartan Ague . Which things the School of Medicine hath not hitherto known , although they are the Foundations of Medicinal Art : Because they are those things which do not onely respect the virtue or force of Medicines , and the Expedition , Application , and Appropriation of these : But notwithstanding , besides the manner of acting , and hope from thence resulting , they declare the principal efficient of Diseases . The Ignorance therefore of which thing alone , hath caused a sloath and drowsiness in the Physitian ; but in the sick , Despair , together with a sorrowfull apprehension of Griefs and Discommodities ; and at length ( alas for grief ) have brought forth so many Widdows with mournful Orphans , unto the fowl disgrace , or base esteem of Medicinal Affaires . But so far as it respecteth the choice of Medicines , it hath listed me to wander thorow the rancks of Minerals , Vegetables and Animals , and to take them in their own simple Integrity , as they sprang forth from Nature , and those again diversly to agitate , and so to divide them into Salt , Sulphur or Fatness , and Mercury or a seminal Juice . And first of all , the natural endowed Virtues or Faculties of things , which the Divine Goodness hath given from a Gift for the Sick , do for the most part want the testimony of tasts ; so that even by that same sign alone , they do bewray , that they are endowedly instilled by God for the use of Mortals : neither that they do clearly appear but unto those to whom God hath given his gifts of the Holy Spirit , and hitherto he hath withdrawn them from the knowledge of unworthy Physitians , who to the little ones and ignorant ones of this World doth reveal those things which he hath hidden from the great ones : For there are Gifts dispersed in the Exercise of Simples , by which they ascend unto the largnesse of a general kind : So indeed , as things appropriated and specifical , are acknowledged to be directed by God unto the every way Curing of any kind of Diseases . For the Stone for broken Bones is of a late Invention , which owes its Name unto the Cure of a broken Bone : But it is unconquered by Fires , nor Calcinable ; but notable in its unsavoury taste , being untamed by the Stomack : Yet it is a wonder how much it shews its self Victor as well about the Bowels , and inward Wounds , as in the outmost parts , about the Fractures of Bones . From hence , First of all it plainly appears , That on the Digestion and care of the Stomack , do the Cares and Governments of the Sixth Digestion depend throughout its whole . 2. That there is no necessity for a Medicine to be derived unto the place affected . 3. That a Medicine onely by touching at the Archeus of the Stomack , is able to Cure remote Diseases in the Body . 4. That there is no need , that for to Cure , the Agent doth touch the remote Patient . 5. That as the Stone for broken Bones , or the Stone of Crabs doth finish its Cure in the Stomack : after the same manner also do Purgative Medicines , and all other Medicines whatsoever operate . CHAP. LXXIV . The Squadron of Diseases according to their Occasional Causes . A Primary A Secondary Diseasie Being in an inordinate Archeus . For whether it be Primarily raised up from the Idea of a Man , or doth immediately arise from the Idea of the Archeus , it always at length Retires into the Inne of the Archeus . Things Received , Things cast in by Witches . Things inspired by Endemicks . Things received by violent Invaders . Things taken In Drink .   In Meat .   In Poyson .   In Medicine .   Things Heteroclital or of an irregular kind . The Torture of the Night .   An unequal Strength .   Barrennesse . Things Retained . Things left , or Excrements in the 1 , 2 , 3 , or 6 Digestion . Things transchanged in the 1 , 2 , 3 , or 6 Digestion . Things transmitted from one Digestion into another . Mention is made of these by the Antients , under the name of an Abstracted Quality , or Relation of Terms ; and so they are onely acknowledged by way of a Name , as they have acknowledged an Occasional , that is , a Remote Cause : By Reason whereof , I have commanded this Division to remain in their retained Sir-names . CHAP. LXXV . A Division of Diseases . 1. The Essence of a Disease is Decyphered by way of Repetition . 2. The Method observed in Explaining . 3. The Division of a Disease . 4. What Things may be called things received . 5. What Received Injected things are . 6. What Things Retained are . HItherto I have spoken of Diseases as it were in stead of a Preface : Now afterwards I will touch at the Scheme of the same : For a Division also affords Members , which being explained by course , do bring Light thereunto . Truly every Disease ( the which being once spoken may suffice for the future ) is framed indeed by the Archeus in his own self : But in that part of himself wherein it is sealingly constituted , it also materially there consisteth , as it were in its proper and seminary Inne : But for the most part , it hath either an exciting occasional matter , or produceth a Product from it self , the occasional Stirrer up of a Secondary Disease : But for its Efficient Cause , it hath a diseasifying Idea : Whereof , as its matter is drawn and borrowed from the vital Archeus himself , so also no otherwise doth the Idea spring from thence , because it is that which is stamped and polished by the Archeus himself . Therefore there are in the first place , as many Species of Diseases , as there are of diseasie Idea's . For there are no more , as neither any fewer : Because every Disease draws its Beingness from a diseasie Idea of quiddity or thingliness . By consequence therefore , there are as many Species or particular Kinds of diseasie Idea's , as there are diversities of Filths in us : For whether those Filths shall enter from without , or have been first unfolded within , and have arisen from the Errors of Digestions ; or Lastly , whether they have begun from a nourishable and vital Juice , that is all one in this place . In the next place also , there are as many diseasie Idea's in us , as there are Heirs of Potestative or Facultative Beings : To wit , as when a too violent solutive Medicine is taken : For although it self be soon ejected through the Paunch ; yet the Venome of the same ceaseth not to remain domestical in the Stomack and Bowels : To wit , so that a stinking Flux doth persevere even until Death . So also besides , some Poysons having lost their primitive matter , do sometimes by a lingering slaughter , and long one being left on Posterity , mournfully slay them : And as well , if that be received from without , as if begotten within . Finally , so also Hereditary Diseases , and their Consorts , are seminally co-bred in us , issuing from their own Idea's . So indeed the Gout , Falling-Evil , &c. do without a visible matter of Filths , unfold their Harmonies , and are prolonged for Life : Because they have obtained Idea's to be confirmed in the Archeus , or to be as it were intimately allyed , and adhering unto the implanted Spirit the Governour : And the which therefore do molest onely at their set Termes and Periods , native unto them : Which things being laid down , and now known , I consequently say , that in the Expedition of the dividing of Diseases , I will follow the variety of occasional Causes : Not indeed that I would even from the Beginning invert the Names and every Conclusion or Limitation of Diseases , unto the much tiresomness of the Readers , who should either hardly bear such an every way Novelty , or might attain it or follow it with too much trouble : and therefore although I name an occasional Cause for Diseases : yet I will not have it to be understood , as if the occasional Cause were the Disease it self : But rather that a Disease as an invisible Being , may be understood to be occasionally stamped by an External matter . Therefore , First of all , I appoint two general kindes of Diseases : To wit , Those Received , and Retained . But those things which are Received , are Injected , Conceived , Inspired , or at length Taken . Which Four , I will first expound by course : And then I will soon after Treat of things retained , as well in respect of the Body , and Distributions , as of Digestions , and Transmutations . Things Received therefore , are those which do traiterously enter into us from without , do disturbe or affect the Archeus , so as that from Counsel hurtful to himself , he frameth a Diseasie Idea within himself , and Seals it in his own material part : And so becomes a true Parent of a true Disease . For things Received , before their Enterance and Application , did shew a Fore-Caution and Preservation , but not a Curing : Because indeed there was not yet a Disease : Neither is Curing but from a Disease alone . But from what time things once Received , have made but even onely a privy Enterance , and have been even Admitted by the way , they do by and by Invert or Disturbe the whole Family Administration and quiet of the Archeus . But things Retained do proceed from our Vice and Defect : For Superfluities are for the most part either taken in , or sprung up within , in our own Possessions : the which Being as it were Citizens expelled out of our Common-wealth , as the Enemies of Unity and Concord , they have no part in the Inheritance of Life with us . CHAP. LXXVI . Things Received which are Injected or Cast in . 1. Why the Schooles speak nothing of things Injected . 2. A Three fold Rout of Atheists is here found among Christians . 3. The Ballance of Karichterus . 4. A perswasion of the Devil . 5. How much the Devil can act in Diabolical exercises . 6. Eight Positions brought hither . 7. The Devil hath not a free , but a constrained Will from his depravedness . 8. Satan miserably deludes his . 9. Diabolical means do operate by the force of a Covenant onely , but they have not on operative force in Nature . 10. An objected Argument is Solved . 11. The top of Operation in Bewitching Effects . 12. Why the Devil is Impotent . 13. The Devil can onely freely will Evil. 14. The Act of Man is proved in Bewitching Works . 15. The Prerogative of Man in Operating . 16. What the Desire may Operate in this Thing . 17. Things Buried or Hung up , how they proceed not , the first Enterer being unknown . 18. In vile little living Creatures , there is a Directive Power of their own Will. 19. After what manner Enchantments are transferred by a naked touching . 20. Why a Repercussion or Reflection doth reach to a concoived Enchanting Verse , or Miscievous Act. BUt I thus call Received things Injected : they are those which are as it were Spiritual Wonders , committed by the co-workman of Satan . Of these things the Antients are silent ; Because they are those who also have neglected most Treatises of the more manifest things , because they have known none from a Foundation : For truly they had rather admit of the wickedness of inhumanity and cruelty , than diligently to search into the knowledge of Injected things , and acknowledge or confess their Ignorance thereof . And they choose sooner to behold their neighbour fainting under the extreamest howlings ; than that by a small Remedy , they would be willing to learn how to help so cruel a Malady . Divines indeed and Lawyers , have handled their own Examinations ; but the Schooles of Medicine I accuse of neglect : For I judge that to be done , because the evil Spirit is the Prince of this World , who therefore hath every where obtained his Patrons in the Chaires , Courts and Pallaces , whereby himself sits as it were President : And the whole World is in very deed placed in Malignity : For some of these being the more inclinable unto Athiesme , do deny Devils , Juggles , like as also Enchantments ; and they affirm that they cannot be induced to believe the contrary , unless they shall see them . Whence at length they deride among themselves the Immortality of the mind , and the Fear of God , as Politick Inventions for the restraining of the common People . And then others according to the Decree of the Holy Scriptures , do indeed believe Devils and Infernal Guardians to be : Yet that they are not Cacogeneal or of an evil property or nature to Humane society , but rather fellowly and near friends : And so they esteem bewitching Juggles , for deceitful Fables , melancholly Trifles , and old Wives Dreams . There are also Lastly , others among the Learned , who being admonished by the Authority of the Holy Scriptures , of the Works of the Devil , also of the Enchantments of Witches or Sorceresses , do admit of them indeed : Yet they esteem them to be meer Arts , nor to be condemned by any other Title , but that they are throughly taught by Satan , and are onely Instituted for evil : And these are the most audacious in all wickedness , and at this day cloak Faith with Hypocrisie . I therefore since the dayes of Plato , do behold three Patrons of Witches to have now constantly flourished among Athiests : And I guess that so cursed an Infection hath not hitherto persisted , but by the same president : In the mean time , no Physitians that I know of , except one only Karichterus , hath handled this matter : Who indeed hath proposed the manner of making , and some remedies of curing , but not a little suspected of vain superstition : Neither also hath he touched at the Theory , because he seemed to have been ignorant thereof . Physitians in the mean time , being greatly afraid least they should be accounted guilty of a Magical Crime , while they should by a strong fortune , be reckoned to have conferred a help ( which they know not ) on their Neighbour , under so great straits of miseries . Yet that privy shift , hath been commonly perswaded by the subtilty of Satan , that they might seem , to have neglected the searching out of a remedy , for the assurance of their own fame and conscience : But they passing by their languishing Neighbour , as the unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees , do forsake them in their greatest desolations : For none is otherwise reputed to have carefully heeded the Disease , or to have known the structure of the same , for which he describeth a remedy : And none is believed to have given poyson to drink , who enquireth into the Causes , and discerns the remedies : And least of all , is he judged to have inflicted a wound , who being sent for , hath set to his helping hand compassionately , and freely : As neither is he a Thief , who discovers the dens and counsels of Thieves : Far therefore by that privy shift , that it should be accounted for a● infamous thing , to have known the means , progress , ends , and cure of , or medicine against enchantments ; seeing these things ought to be known , and had from elsewhere than from the Teacher the Devil : For seeing the Devil is restrained within the Court of Nature , we are not to despaire , but that the most bountiful Jesus , hath substituted remedies for so cruel maladies , unto his own Glory , who hath never been wanting to his own Goodness , Glory , and Wisdom . A good Man therefore proceeds in a strait way , neither doth he look behind him , nor careth he what the World doth judge of him ; to wit , most of whose judgements are foolish , and false : For it is sufficient for a good Man , that the hinderer , or destroyer of a Malady , is voide of crime . Therefore according to my capacity , I will shew how far the Devil is concerned in the actions of Sorcerers , or Witches : And the which as to a fundamental concernment , I will rehearse by eight Positions . 1. That every vital Form is a vital Light of its own Body . 2. That although the Forms of inanimate things do differ from Souls in the degree , and disposition of that Light : At leastwise they all do agree in something which is essentially lightsome . 3. That by reason of their Light , they immediately touch , and pierce each other : And so Forms being connexed , do operate on or into each other , even as one Light doth divide another in the midst ; for the Sun-beams being collected by a Glass into the Crest , for although they shall co-unite into a point ; yet they again proceeding from thence , those which were in the Glass on its right side , even unto the Crest , do afterwards pass thorow it , being rebounded in the Glass unto its left side , yet they keep the identity or sameliness of the former Light undefiled ; as neither therefore by reason of the penetration made in the Crest , do they labour with contagion : The which I have elsewhere mechanically demonstrated by a Figure . 4. That therefore formal Lights , which are diverse in the general , or particular kinde , do immediately pierce , and communicatively operate , without wearisomenesse , on each other like Light. 5. That all the forms of Bodies are true Lights , yet not substantiall ones , although Entitated or made Beings , for the reasons elsewhere alleadged concerning neutral Creatures : But the mind of Man alone is a Formal , Immortal , and Un-obliteral substance : In this respect also it operates with a superiority , toucheth at , and pierceth every other form inferiour unto it ( as elsewhere concerning the searching out of sciences ) by that title especially recieved into Faith , and Nature , because it is the true Image of God , and the Kingdome of God inhabits therein : And who therefore hath put all things under its feet . 6. That therefore the evil Spirit , hath not a power from his Creation of reaching any Form , that in it he can perfect his own will by the absolute command of his Beck : For he is a Spirit abstracted from a corporeal Being , and bound , and forthwith after Sin , a most miserable Scoffer or Mocker . 7. But only a local motive power of Bodies , hath remained unto him , and the motion whereof doth turn to the hurt of Mortals : For neither can he beat down one only window of himself , without the help of the liberty of his Clients . 8. For neither doth he move the Elements by touching ( seeing that he wanteth extream parts whereby he may touch Bodies , not indeed those which he taketh to him ) whereby he may lay hold of , or move any thing ; but by his Beck only , he moveth with a beholdable Aspect , such as is , that of the Stars on Meteours , by Idea's , or of our will on its own Organs : Which mutual power , as it was naturally put into the Angelical Nature ; So also it is left to the Devil . Indeed he hath a native Blas , whereby he raiseth up Storms of the Air , and ragings of the Sea , as oft as God permitteth him . For First of all , the Divel is so evil , and our Enemy , that he cannot will good even in the least : Wherefore neither hath he a free will of willing in evil things : But in good things , none but that which is against his will and constrained ; for a Being , one , true , good , are convertible terms : Therefore in a contrary sense , that which appears to be , which is false , evil , and manifold , are the properties of Satan ; and by consequent from his own will or beck , and natural power , he cannot so much as operate any thing freely , and without the permission of God , or without a free co-operation of the mind of Man : For the Dog of Hell is bound , neither can he operate on Forms , the Bodies of these , or their properties , unless he take to him the mind of Man as a co-operatress with him , under whose feet things more inferiour than it self are placed . In this respect therefore , he miserably circumvents his bond-slaves by deciet , and binds them in a Covenant , at least-wise that so they may the rather depart from God ; as if for a reward of the stricken covenant , he were perfectly to teach them secrets , whereby under certain and set Forms , feigned Words , wicked Invocations , Execrations , Conjurations , and Wishes or Vows ; in the next place , by Lines , Figures , Marks , Seals , Characters , Numbers , Hours , Moments , Vegetables , yea and the most filthy things , and the Striffes , Consecrations , Refinements , Defilements of all of these , and such his vain and void trifles , they were to effect things incredible : And indeed all evils , to the despite of God , and the destruction of Men. By which means , after their Covenant , he easily infatuates his own , and befooles them through a rash belief of him : Because they are those whom he fully possesseth , and unto those he committeth his commands . For he perswades these who have renounced divine Grace , of whatsoever he will , and promiseth that he will perform Mischievous or wicked Acts , by strength or faculties which he feigneth to be natural or proper unto himself : For he snatcheth his Imps into the detestable adoration of a Hee-goat ; as if the government of all things stood in his Power , and that he alone could confer the gift of the working of Miracles : Because from the Beginning he was alwayes a lying Impostour . In the mean time that most unworthy or blamable Cerberus , doth only work meer deceitful Mockeries , and only empty Juggles . For otherwise if those means in themselves prescribed by him , should have in themselves any force of operating ( which he boasts of among his own ) from a natural necessity also , alwayes , every where , in every ones Hand , and equally , they should effect the same , without reflexion upon a Covenant or Contract , and vain Circumstances . Neither is that argument of value ; Satan prescribeth vain superstitious Words to his , and those altogether impotent in themselves ; therefore the whole effect of those things which happen unto those that are Enchaunted , are from Satan alone : For truly although the means are in themselves vain and of no moment , power or efficacy ( such as are unsignificative Words , Figures , Characters , Numbers , Gamahen , Talismannicks , Adorations , with all the superstitious exercise of vain Observations ; ) yet other operative means besides do concur , which are not of Satan : Seeing that the Devil hath not an Ideal , Semminal , and Sealing power , as Man hath from the dignity of the divine Image , whereby the Bruits , &c. are put under his feet . Therefore the Devil borrows these mental , and operative Idea's of Witches , the which he can seal in Filths and Poysons . He therefore being cursed , and wholly most miserable , and forsaken by the Grace of God , is by himself no effecter of the same Works , unless he be holpen by the Soul of his bond-slave . 1. Because he hath not a formative faculty of an operative Idea . 2. Neither hath he an immediate touching of access , and much less an entrance unto formal Lights ( whereon indeed , nevertheless , all the properties of things are inscribed by a figurative Idea ) that he may hereby act . 3. Yea neither hath he any free power of acting , and much less unto the hurts of those who do not obey him . 4. For he being wholly most proud , would not ask a Permission from God , that he may hurt the Man that doth not obey him , knowing that the infinite goodnesse will never grant this thing unto him ; Although he now and then may use the evil Spirit as an executioner , as in the history of Job . For we must note that thing seriously in this place ; that in Hell and among all the Damned , there is no honour , or sanctifying of the divine Name , but a continual cursing . For the Dead shall not praise thee O Lord , nor all them which go down into the Pit : Yet in or at the name of Jesus , the knees of all the inferior Citizens are bowed : To wit , as oft as God makes use of the evil Spirit as an Executioner ; so often that is enjoyned him by a command from above , of trembling at the name of Jesus ; and indeed that command being heard , the whole infernal Pit doth unwillingly bow its knees : For otherwise , that which is wont to be said , that the Devil by the permission of God doth hurt Man : That must be understood to be granted unto him , by the aforesaid command of God , as to a Tormentor , or by a mutual operative natural power , which God hath conferred on his own Image . But the Devil himsef , the most miserable of Creatures , can do nothing of himself but will Evil : Because whatsoever departs from God , that is Evil , and therefore cannot but will Evil ; because he that by willing , hath departed from God , ought originally to be Evil in his will it self . Therefore the Devil is by himself wholly unable for every Fabrick of interchangable courses or alterations in Nature , because he is uncapable thereof : And by consequence , he hath need for operation , to beg natural agents or means , which in their property have a free power , which he wisheth to apply : Yea neither indeed is he therefore able , absolutely , and immediately to administer them , but by the Souls , and Hands of those that are bound unto him : To wit , they reaching by the gift of Creation to the Light of Forms immediately subjected unto them : And therefore the first or chief operation by Witches , doth tyrannize on herds and flocks of Cattle . Indeed Satan making use of that free , and borrowed power , requires anothers co-touching , that he may connex the Idea's formed , and begged , and borrowed of his Client , in a medium or mean ; and so that by anothers force he may beam them forth into Formes subjected to Man. And so the lying Impostor dissembles his work , and for it requires adoration ; which work is plainly humane , and that wherein the Mocker himself doth least of all operate . Truly otherwise the condition of Mortals were most miserable , if Satan could execute the Evils known by Satan : For the Kingdom of the infernal Spirits , is not in the Earth . For Example ; 1. A Man is able by his own perturbations , to hurt his own Prudence , Health , and Life . 2. Those tempests which are of the mind , do not remain the Beings of Reason , but falling seminally into a matter , they imprint the constant Idea's of their own perturbations , which things are proved by a Woman with Child being affrighted at a Mouse , who if shee apply her hand to any place , she presently seals a hairy Mouse on the same part in her Young : Yea if such perturbations are fore-timely made , they do oft-times transform the whole Embryo into a Monster . 3. But whatsoever is natural , and ordinary to a Woman with Child , that none doubteth , but that it may be natural to a Witch not great with Child ; Indeed that she can form any kind of Idea . What Impressions therefore , or what Idea's , and sealing Seeds , the evil Spirit raiseth up in his , he also borrows from thence , and imprints the same on filths which he prostitutes to his own , that they may infect them . And so right calleth those Sorceresses or makers of Poyson : But not because they offer Poysons to be drunk only , but rather because of not Poysons , they do make Poysons : but those Poysons are applyed , as well by a local motive faculty proper and free to the Devil ; as also because they are transferred unto the intended object , by desire only , being the mover and directer : As hereafter more at large . The Witch therefore hangs up , buries , drinks up those filths defiled by her through an Ideal Being ; yea and anoints her own hands , or washeth them with those filths , and seasons or besmeares them with cursed Poysons , that by a co-touching , she may transfer those Poysons into the object which she would hurt : For truly those seminal , Monstrous , and poysonous Idea's , seeing they are now the Citizens of another and forreign Archeus , introduced into the Body of the enchanted , and so being without their proper place and subject ; the Archeus of the enchanted is forthwith defiled and corrupted by them . Wherefore seeing the Enemy of Nature cannot of himself compleat the very application ( for else all the miserable enchanted Mortals should fall under the will of the Devil ) he stirs up the Idea of a strong desire , and hatred in the Witch , that those mental , and free means being borrowed , he may translate his own will by what , and the which he intends to affect or corrupt . To which end , he also first of all prescribes exsecrations to his Imps , together with an Idea of desire , and most hateful terrour : For Man hath a free will of hurting Man , by which a Man is able to kill a Man with a knife , and so to destroy any innocent Person ; which the Devil likewise cannot do : And therefore as the application of a knife , so also of a Poyson , is equally forbiden to the Devil at his own pleasure . And therefore also is altogether impossible ; that is , without a free-man , or bond-slave devoted unto him : For neither indeed doth a Man kill another with a knife , unless a desire shall happen or have access in the free consent , and command of a resolute will : from whence it is sufficiently manifest : That First of all , the Devil hath not the creation of a seminal Idea , actually , and positively subsisting , such as is granted to the divine Image : And likewise that neither hath the Devil obtained a voluntary application of such ; an Idea , unless he hath from elsewhere , obtained a free faculty , not bound , and enflamed or provoked by desire ; because that desire , as it is a passion of the Imaginer , so also it creates an Idea , not indeed a vain one , but an executive and motive Idea of the enchantment . Therefore indeed that hostile Mocker , requires a touching at the Body to be enchanted , or at least-wise at something which may primarily be affected , and at length of enchanting the Body , that the Idea's recieved may act on that thing by a Sympathetical , and Natural force ( such as is that whereby Chalcanthum or Vitriol doth naturally cure an absent wound ) and afterwards on the Body , a Sympathetical commerce whereof , such natural effluxes do hold as means . Lastly , things buried under the threshold , or hung up , do hurt ; yea and do unfold their poysonous cruelty on the first entrer only , without a co-touching of the Witch at the Body , of him that is to be enchanted , and without a knowledge , hatred , or hurtful desire against that which is first to enter : But the buisiness is of a more difficult resolution ; to wit , of a more subtile hurt , and propagation , which in Nature , hath called unto it , the sight , the directions of the Basiliske , or Cramp-fish , for approbation : For even so as the Basiliske doth by a beam of Sight , spread his poyson into an object , not into a place , and not into any other Body whatsoever , although it be more near unto him ; but only into that Body on which he hath first directed , and shaken the poynt of his Fye : And as the Cramp-fish doth not cast the Poyson of his sight into any one , perhaps more nigh unto him , but rather , and alone into him that draws the ropes aloof of : So indeed seminal Idea's being connexed to filths hung up , and buried , are vigoured or strengthened by the Idea of the enflamed desire , as by the will of the Basiliske , or Cramp-fish , and do exercise it only on the determined object : And although the similitude may not every way answer in the sameliness of both terms : At least-wise it is sufficient to have demonstrated , that not only in man , but also that in vile small living Creatures , there is naturally an attributive and executive faculty of their intention , whereby they begin to hurt by their sight , intention , desire , or hatred alone . For that natural endowment extends it self also unto whatsoever things do Attractively , or Sympathetically move their Objects being afar of ; which means being naturally given to Man , that they exist in him , as yet in a more excellent manner , is no absurdity , while as we read , That all things are put under his feet . Wherefore likewise , Witches do by a simple touching , or stroke , transfer their enchantments into the object , but after a far more gross manner , than that aforesaid ; and therefore it coucheth in it something like unto a Sympathetical mean : And as yet far more strictly , while as those enchantments are tyed up unto the venal Blood , Snot or Snivel , or any other Efflux : But moreover also , they do of necessity touch or strike the object it self . But neither have I brought Sympathetical things hither , that I might defame the same , as I have demonstrated by those , the manner of application unto a mean : But rather that I may shew that Witches do use natural manners and meanes , otherwise accustomed in the Cramp-fish and Basiliske ; that I may extinguish all hope of diabolical deceit from Sympathetical things . And indeed it is manifest by natural things , how falsly and Iyingly the infernal Serpent prescribeth to himself Worships , and Liturgies or praying services , for those things whereof he hath no power in his hand , but to re-smite the smiting Witch , as it naturally reflects the enchantments on its own Author ; So perhaps it might by those who are un-discreetly scrupulous , be despised for a Superstitious means : but surely it is even so , as it is lawful by a natural right to repulse force with force , especially if that thing doth not happen so much from anger or hatred , as from ones own defence , and for averting of hurt , which the moderation of an unblamed defence doth distinguish : Wherefore even as I have already demonstrated , that the most powerful or especial force of an enchantment doth depend on a natural Idea of the Witch . So also it follows that the aforesaid repercussion or re-smiting is altogether lawful , by reason of the natural Idea of desire whereby any one doth desire , and endeavour to rid himself of the enchantment : And so in repercussion , none follows , or is provoked or allured by virtue of the Covenant with the Evil Spirit : Yea that re-smiting alone , doth manifest the force of an enchantment to be altogether natural , as also the impotency of the Devil . In the mean time , that most unhappy and wholly proud on , being ashamed to confess his own impotency , decieves his credulous Impes , they thinking him to be the only Master , bestower , and ruler of that malignant , and hurtful activity : Wherefore also they adore the same with a serious Worship , and obey him in all his Mockery . Poysons therefore being thus gotten , when as Satan cannot infect , and confect them according to his desire , as neither suit them at his pleasure , and much less apply them ; he commands that that thing be wholly compleated by his bond-slaves , that poysons may be made capable of issuing forth into the proper object of his desire : For so Poysons which before were either wholly material , or things altogether indifferent , nor could they hurt unless by chance they were assumed or taken into the Body , do now hurt Formally , Seminally , and Formentally , through poysonous Idea's being injected . CHAP. LXXVII . These things which follow , the Author left more imperfect , undigested , and uncorrected than those aforegoing . SInce it hath already been demonstrated , that every Disease doth consist in the Life of the sensitive Soul , and in the Archeus the vital Organ hereof , but that this Archeus doth conclude in him a unity and identity ; hereafter from hence also we must teach , that curing and restoring from all Diseases doth consist in the Unity of a Remedy . But the Schooles of the Humourists , will argue on the contrary , and will say , &c. Now therefore a necessity of recovery , from the peace of occasional Causes with the Life , being proved : and so that almost all universal Secrets do prevaile unto the aforesaid appeasing and pacifying of the vital Archeus : Now next it behoveth me to descend unto those very Arcanum's or Secrets ; and not only to hand them forth by denominating of them ; but also so far as charity toward my Neighbour doth permit , to describe the same unto the skilful lovers of Medicine : But it is not lawful to make them openly manifest , that the unskilful , and such as only gape after a little advantage or gain , may dispose of them , and commit them to the Apothecary and his wife . God forbid ! for I have been better instructed , &c. I will therefore speak , so far as the order of charity doth permit , about the revelations of Arcanums . First of all therefore , Nature hath produced by the goodness of God , singular or particular remedies in the vegetable Monarchy , whereby Diseases also are singularly or particularly restored and cured ; which hitherto through a sloath of diligent searching , and a covetous desire , and envy of the Devil , have remained hidden . For so the Elixir of propriety according to Paracelsus , cureth the Asthma , Falling-sickness , Apoplexie , Palsey , Atrophia or Consumption for lack of Nourishment , Tabes or Consumption of the Lungs , &c. But because that Elixir is not prepared but by a most skilful Phylosopher , who not by thinking , but by knowing , is perfectly , and moreover doubly chosen hereunto , and so hath obtained the title of an Adeptist : Hence therefore out of compassion , I will unfold a middle way . Take of clear Aloes , of the Best Myrrhe , and of the best Saffron , of each an ounce , for if thou shalt take more , thou shalt find it to be done in vain : Let the two former be exactly beaten ; but the Saffron , because it is not beaten unless it be dryed , let it rather be made into a round figure by pownsing ; let them be put in a most capacious and strong Glass , and sealed with the melted neck of the Glass ; and let it be distilled with a moderate heat , that the vessel burst not asunder , until thou shalt see the whole lump to have grown together in the bottom , and a cleer oyl , with a water , to be circulated in the sides of the Glass ; then let the neck of the Glass be opened , and pour into a pint of Cinnamon water , and distil it by moist sand , whereon let boyling water be poured by degrees , until not any thing doth any longer drop out of the beak of the Alembick : and with this Medicine , I have presently dissolved as well a Quartane Ague , as a continual Fever : So that he who over night , had received his Sacro-sainted Viaticum , and the extream unction of Oyle , hath had me his Guest about his bed at dinner . Nature hath also produced in the Sub-terranean , or mineral Monarchy , a certain Mineral , the which for its singularity , is called by Paracelsus , the first or masculine Mettallus . The which from its Metallick disposition , is of necessity cloathed with Metallick Mercurie and Sulphur ; to wit , of a liquid Mercurie not adhering to the fingers , and of a Sulphur burnable with a skie-coloured flame : But this Sulphur is distilled with its corrosive , and so often cohobated or imbibed by pouring on it its own liquor , until it pass thorow the Alembick in the forme of a red Oyl ; which Oyle is then at length most exactly cleansed from every whit of its corrosive , not indeed prepared by a separation of its salt , and Mercurie ; but anatically or unhurtfully reduced wholly into the form of an Oyl : For that thing or matter , as it is as yet oylie , is not to be altered by the whole power of the sensitive Soul , or to be applyed to the Life : Wherefore it ought to be transchanged into a Mercurial juice , which Paracelsus teacheth , and calleth the Wine of Life ; because it doth not cure Diseases after the manner of other Arcanum's , by a cleansing away and banishment of every hurtful matter ; besides it renewes the strength being lost in the Body in general , and restoreth the inequalities of the strength : And therefore neither is it in vain called by Paracelsus , the Essence of the Members ; indeed the whole Spire and top of hope for long Life . But how much Light I have brought unto the Writings of Paracelsus , he alone hath known who understands Paracelsus with me : But seeing that Sulphur is not translated , that it may be turned into arterial Blood , yea and restore and renew the implanted Spirit of the Members , although it be in it self the top of the Wonders of Nature ; yet then it doth only as it were pass thorow the two former digestions , and doth not satisfie its calling , for which it shineth with so famous Endowments : And so even from hence it is easie to be seen , that long Life is not but for choise or chosen Men , nor indeed for all of them , not so much because the youth of Princes doth shorten the thred of their Life in fleshly lust , and pleasures , and so that a remedy for long Life is received , and applyed to the Life after the manner of the receiver : But especially , because Adeptists are wanting , to whom alone it is given to unmask these kind of Secrets from their husks . I suppose indeed that this is a masculine Mettal , because it doth easily suffer its Sulphur to be sequestred from it ; and this separated Sulphur is dissolved in the Oyl of Cinnamon or Mutmeg , or in the Oyl , which drops out of Turpentine , till that by boyling it is coagulated into the best Rosin : But at least-wise , although the Sulphur thus dissolved , hath notable virtues ; yet because it draws a stinking Odour , and reserveth a resistence of the dissolved Sulphur ; neither can it pass thorow unto the inmost parts , but can only act as it were in passing thorow , and by its touching stir up by the way a superficial remembrance of its gift : Therefore it more differs from the wine of Life , than a Carbuncle doth from a flint : Yet if that melted Sulphur be so united in the Oyl of the Spice , that ( however stinking ) it shall pass through an Alembick , and afterwards be after a due manner circulated with its Alcaly or fixed Salt , and at length doth pass into a volatile Elixir of Salt , it doth after some sort imitate the faculties and virtues of the wine of Life , and Essence of the Members : For truly , that Elixir being rectified into the best Spirit of Wine , doth loose all its stink , and resume something of its natural or proper endowment ; that it at leastwise takes away difficult and Chronical Diseases ; yet it doth not ascend unto the highest perfect act of the Bowels , that it may be the renewed Essence of the Members . CHAP. LXXVIII . In Words , Herbs , and Stones there is great Virtue . THere is a place in the holy Scriptures which taketh Stones for mineral Bodies : Words indeed so far as commanding from a supernatural Power , they do command Creatures ; the which because they are subject , they do also obey : And then the virtue of Herbs is that of Medicines , but it doth not comprehend Herbie Meats . There is therefore , a medicinal faculty of Plants , Simple indeed ; but most excelling ; so that for the most part it ascends into a degree of Poysonsomness , Because it exceeds the ampleness of our Nature , and therefore also is troublesome or offensive unto us : For Pot-herbs , Pulses , and corny Plants , ought to be wholly subdued and dissolved in the Stomach , that is , in the seat of the Soul , into which while they light with unbroken virtues , they do also by their new Hospitality , oppress the same with their Laws : For so the seat it self doth as yet labour about rude Simples , and in operating doth undergo the Crudities , Damages , and Troubles of entertained Vegetables : For in this respect , whatsoever is not rightly subdued in the Stomach , after its aforesaid troubles , is commanded out by the Bowels as an unprofitable and hurtful excrement : Wherefore the more cruel Plants while they do not promise nourishment , nor are directly drawn into meats or foods ; if they shall not notably hurt , at least-wise they are totally sequestred , and are driven forth with labour , and anguishes ; the which hath hitherto plainly appeared in a Quartane Ague , which hath notably deluded the promised help of Physitians , and hope of Medicines : For although the occasional matter of a Quartane , doth stick only about the Spleen , and in the neighbouring places of the Stomack : Yet the Medicines of Vegetables have not yet come unto the threshold of a Quartane : In the mean time , the more stronger Vegetables , seeing they have obtained degrees beyond the strength of our Nature , they are for the most part for that cause , Despised , or Gelded ; and so by corrective means are plainly alienated , and do degenerate , and so pass over into a forreign Family : Many also have in vain attempted , to seperate the Poysonous Power from the appropriated ones , lurking under them . However it is at this day accustomed to be , those Medicines are the more strong , horrid , troublesome , neither are they admitted into our more inward parts ; because they rise up against , and weaken or defile our vital Faculties , and do every way bring with them Anguishes as Companions : For although they depart , not into nourishments in us , nor are the more inwardly admitted than to enter the threshold it self ; yet by their only touching , and naked passage , yea and as it were by a deaf defilement of aspect , they alter the Archeus , and subject and snatch away this Archeus into their own client-ship : This is the cause why the more strong remedies of Vegetables are for the most part suspected of cruelty , and poysonsomness : Which things are as yet more clearly beheld in mineral secrets , and the more profound Medicines : Because they are those which perform their Offices , and attain the scopes of their Endowments , by no co-mixture of them , but as it were by aspect alone . For so Mothers do dip a piece of wollen cloath in a co-mixture of Argent-vive or Quick-silver , and patch it up between the girdle or circle of Garments , knowing that although Quick-silver doth not evaporate any thing out of it self ( for it is a thing so homogeneal , that it is not to be divided into a heterogeneal part , and that which is unlike to it self ) yet that it doth hinder the presence , and generation of Lice throughout the whole Body . I have also described , after what manner common Argentvive may be reduced into a most white or Snowie lump , if the spirit of Vitriol be distilled from it : The which Spirit indeed , is coagulated upon Mercury , and is transchanged into an Alume , but separable , by washing or cleansing , from the Argent-vive : To wit , which Argent-vive becomes a yellow Powder , which easily returns into its antient Quick-silver , and of equal weight with it self : So indeed , the whole spirit of Vitriol being in it self most sharp , is by a bare touching of the Mercury , and without any radical co-mixture of them both , converted into an aluminous Salt ; and that shall be done a thousand times , yet it looseth nothing of the weight , and nature of Argent-vive : For Argent-vive , doth without any participation of it self , or from it self ; yea and without any radical co-mixture from it self , change whatsoever of a Sulphurous Spirit it shall touch ; which radical or beaming co-mixture of Argent-vive , is as yet more to be admired : To wit , if Argent-vive be steeped in a great quantity of common Water ; for this Water , although it doth not sup up any the least quantity of the Quick-silver into it self , or is not able to convert it unto its own Nature , Yet it borrows a property , not likewise a substance , from the Quick-silver , so as that such Water being drunk , doth kill all Wormes and Ascarides , also those which exist where that Drink never comes ; Because it is that which is soon wholly snatched into urin ; and that Water becomes stronger against Worms , if it shall once boyle with the Quick-silver or Argent-vive : So one only ounce of Quick-silver shall be able a thousand times to infect a measure of Water , and yet remain in its antient weight , and property . For so the Schools also do do against their wills , perfectly learn , that some Agents do freely , alwayes , and with unwearied forces , act without a passion , or re-action of their Patients , and the same weight of themselves alwayes remaining : For Argent-vive doth act on the Water , and imprints its own Character in it ; yet it doth not likewise re-suffer any thing from the Water . It is manifest therefore , that a certain Medicinal virtue is transferred , and doth change its natural subject , and departeth into a forreign object , as it were only by its Beam or Aspect : Yet so , that although the forreign object doth attain a forreign faculty or virtue for it self , yet the acting and in-spiring principle , doth not loose or slacken any thing of its former strength , or weight : Indeed that is done without any Suffering , Diminishing , Changing , Weakening , or Interchangable course of the Argent-vive : Surely the example produced in this place , serves for the celebration of an argument , concerning almost an infinite virtue of Remedies for the future : which thing , after that it had been often and diversly drawn under experience in Minerals , it at length perfectly taught me , that perhaps no Mortals heretofore , had as yet clearly and inwardly beheld , in what manner the more abstruse or secret Remedies might operate , and that indeed without their dissolution , or destruction , without their penetration , inward admission , co-mixture , and changing , they do also freely act aloof of on the stupified , or enraged Archeus , as if it were only by their aspect , in beaming or darting forth of their virtues produced in a mean ; their former weight and properties being as yet retained , and unchanged : And so those Arcanums do testifie , that they are akin to the infinite Goodness , while as they do by degrees disperse their almost , and as it were infinite virtues . Wherefore Physitians shall not remain unpunished , while as the poor shall at some time mournfully complain , at the last Judgement , that they were neglected , who might easily and by the way have been cured without any charges . Therefore Arcanums can never depart into nourishment , because they keep their own ends , as those things which were not ordained for Meats , but for Medicines , and which do remain Medicines , although taken within the Body : For they begin in the Stomack ( the which I have profesly elsewhere demonstrated to be the seat of the Soul ) to unfold or expose the direct Beam of their own Faculties , and their endowed Virtue , and to which end they were ordained of God : Whence at length , the bedewed beaming virtue being drawn in by the Archeus , is dispersed into the whole Body , and health thereupon succeeding is greedily received . So indeed these more universal Remedies being administred , cures do happen , such as I have delivered to happen in the Fountain of Nature , and to be due to the same , and such as Paracelsus hath promised , and afterwards Butler put in execution , I being a beholder , to wit , with the least application of a co-fermenting . Surely , after that this speculation attracted me under it self by a more piercing or inward contemplation , I as it were knew most clearly and visually , that in occasional Causes , and in excrementitious Products , filths indeed did stick , they being the awakeners of peculiar Diseases : Yet I consider the whole Disease it self , and its Remedies to be in the Archeus , to wit , altered , or appeased : And so that with the least touching at , shaking , darting , yea only by radiation or beaming , or illumination ( so that they shall in the seat of the Soul touch at the sensitive Life ) Cures are perfected and compleated , no regard being had unto occasional Causes : And that thing I do more powerfully behold in the Sulphurous Remedies of Minerals , to wit , in the Sulphur of Venus or Copper , of Stibium , and especially in the Sulphur of Glaura Augurellus ; which Nymph doth hitherto want any other proper name . For these sort of Sulphurs , because they are at a farther distance from mans Nature than the whole band of Vegetables , and do in the mean time obtain famous natural Endowments from the Giver : So also they do most fully and stubbornly resist , that they may not decline by the digestive Faculty , into the Common-wealth of nourishments , and therefore they keep their natural Powers free and unbroken ; to wit , the Crasis or constitutive temperature of Minerals remaineth entire , and is the more fit to disperse its own Beam into the Duumvirate the seat of the Soul. For so Mercurius Diaphoreticus , doth attain the ultimate scope of its perfect act , by the redness of an ascending Sulphur , whereunto the Sulphur of the Mercury is joined by an undissolvable Union : For in this respect , the Sulphurs of Minerals do under the Vulcan , obtain the utmost compleating of the intent of Physitians . I therefore exhort Young Beginners , that they perfectly learn to spoile Sulphurs , of their forreign and poysonous Faculty : To wit , under the custody whereof a vital fire is hidden , most pleasingly bringing the Archeus into the desired aims . Indeed there are some Sulphurs , unto whom , they being corrected and perfected , the whole band of Diseases doth hearken , because they are those , whose Plurality is contracted into the unity of the Archeus , as it were into a fighting , or clutched Fist : By this means we have seen Madnesses , Apoplexies , Falling-sicknesses , Palseys , giddinesses of the Head , Asthma's , Dropsies , Atrophia's , and cruel Defects , to be annihilated in the very seat of the Soul , and combined Duumvirate ; indeed to the amazement of Nature her self . In Stones therefore , a great virtue is declared to be by the holy Scriptures , which is hitherto hidden as well in the University , as in the Chymical Schools , until that Kings and Common-wealths shall look into the reformation of Schools : it repenteth them of their labour , who hope craftily to get gain by an abuse : They know not , nor desire not , nor will not labour , who deride those that are studious of Virtues ; for if ever heretofore , now at least-wise , the whole World being placed in malignity , hath deterred my Pen least I should scatter Pearls before Swine . I will shew to our Sons , as the Lyon by his Paw : Extract thou the Sulphur of Antimony , which scarce differs from the common sight , but that it inclines a little unto greenness : Make this Cinnabar as yet six times , thou shalt sublime it by it self , that the sublimation may serve for the reverbery of Life : Take half an ounce of this Cinnabar , being bruised or beaten , hang it up for twenty four hours in a hogs head of Wine , whereof one only spoonful being taken , for some dayes , thou shalt admire at the effect ; and the same Cinnabar is sufficient for many hundred hogs heads , being again equivalent in virtue , if it be repeatedly re-sublimed . I have Ingeniously spoken some things concerning the great virtue of Words , the which I more admire , than apply . The use of Herbs indeed is very well known , yet their valour or virtue is not sufficiently known , as neither suitably circumcised : And that not only by reason of an ignorance of their Powers , but especially by reason of an un-harmonius suiting of Diseasie Causes , the defects of the knowledge of Causes unto their effect , and the ridiculous Lessons of Complexions and Degrees , and fabulous Dimensions , which others before me have sufficiently hissed out : For I do not here call to mind the thousand confusions of Simples , and wastings or ruines , and the every way extinguishments of their Faculties : But especially , I bewail the defect of the knowledge of the applying of Causes unto their Effects , or of suiting the thing applicable , and of the thing to be applyed unto it . For before all things we must know , that as the Nativities , and Promotions of some things are slow : So proportionally also , they have the greatness of Virtues to be expected , and the Varieties of esteems : For even as it is in the Proverb ; That which is soon made , doth also soon perish : So neither is a thing able to be protracted into a long hope of Maturity , which hath not intimate occasions of its own constancy : For truly it should be in vain expected by a delay of eight hundred years , that some one Mettal should be rightly changed into humane uses , if any Vegetable through the course of some Months , be to be equalized unto it . But indeed under the account of Herbs , I also understand Trees and Fruits , and I could willingly add living Creatures , if happily I did not read by the text of the Law , that many or most living Creatures , and the parts of these were resigned and abominated among impure Bodies : For the whole stock of Insects being directed for Medicines , and the Comodities of great Powers , rather than for the services of Men , was banished out of uses , and every resigned Remedy begged from thence : And therefore there was only a commendation made of Words , Herbs , and Stones : For it is certain that Herbs may be digested and subdued by our Stomack , unless they have a Malignity their companion . Small indeed is the number of Pot-herbs and Corns in the rank of Herbs ; which scanitness doth certainly accuse them of a certain maglignity , which being rightly sequestred , they then first , and not before , shall bewray their Powers as the scopes of their sending , which the poysonous Keepers did cover under them . Truly Vegetables do act on us , only so long as the Stomack doth operate about them : Neither do they proceed further , but that they do first lay aside almost all strength of a Remedy ; for else it should go ill with us , if the Stomack as not being able to tame the received Vegetable , cannot subdue it under the rules of its Archeus : For otherwise , if a Vegetable should proceed with its faculties entire , it should also be made the consort of excrements , or else should disturb the family-administration of sanguification or making of Blood : For otherwise how could that which had resisted the action of the Stomack , already accustomed unto crude Simples , be transchanged and subdued in the second digestion which is unaccustomed to crude Meats . The effects of such Remedies should likewise be of greater difficulty , and of a more labourious work , than the Fruit from thence to be expected . In the next place , that being granted , an undistinction , confusion , and perpetual turbulency of our family-administration were to be granted , if any thing being not first rightly subdued in the Stomack , and the Excrement being not first separated thereby , should inwardly proceed unto the vital parts : For truly every thing should from thence without repulse , indifferently proceed inwards either of its own accord , or should gratiously be admitted without choice : Therefore a Vegetable ought of necessity to suffer the digestions , and the formal transmutations of these , and the digestive faculties themselves do also in operating , ordinarily suffer by the forreign ( that is not the food-like ) faculties of Vegetal things . A thing surely for the most part dangerous , of a difficult experiment and judgment . Then again , besides all things being weighed at the Ballance , all the virtue of Vegetables is tyed up and limited unto its degree , to wit , after that it hath bowed it self as being prostrated , under the digestion : Neither doth it exceed those limits , and in the mean time hath difficulties , to wit , the commands of Poysonous and Vitious Tyrannies : The which surely , whether they were added for a preservation or cover of their faculties , or indeed for their defence , denyal , and impediment or hinderance ; at least it is sufficient that most of them have their own annexed cruelty , infamie , immaturities , or crudities , scabbedness , rottenness , exhaustings of strength , besides moreover , manifold Dregs and Impurities ; because , seeing they are deprived of emunctories dedicated to the evacuation of an excrement , their whole nourishment must needs be full of excrement ; and it is a most exceeding cruel thing , that no Remedy hath been devised in the Schools against these defects , besides a simple Decoction . Lastly , without the reckoning up of these things , and the injuries of Plants being seperated ( whose burdens nevertheless , our Nature cannot bear without great dammage ) besides their unwonted frowardness , so great is their weakness , that scarce any thing worthy of praise is to be hoped for from the bosome of Vegetables : Seeing they are not only constrained to separate or lay aside their cruelty in their entrance , if they are to be admitted more fully within ; but also , to be altogether formally stripped of all their bounty , before they can become Citizens of our Common-wealth : For the single scope of our Nature intends only a sanguification of things cast into the Body , for nourishment sake : The which seeing they ought not to proceed from every thing promiscuously , but only from things truly transchanged into seminal Beings , and from things agreeable to our Species ; Surely whatsoever of the Vegetable race is handed forth for the more inward families of Digestions , is vain , so as that it should be thought to retain the antient Power of its Parents : Which thing in the first place , a Quartane Ague , and all Diseases occasionally procured by Excrements , which have hitherto disgraced the Schools , do sufficiently confirm ; because they are those , who have not meditated beyond Lettices , and boyled Herbs . There are indeed Vegetables plainly to be seen , answering unto the Diseases of their first Ages : But for chronical Diseases , which are for the most part increased by the infamous cruelty of Vegetals , and having obtained their privy chambers of the Body and Spirit , far from the Mouth , as that their dissolutions by Vegetable are difficult , they promise full Hospitals , wherein the continual mournings or waylings of the unfortunate Sick do dolefully sound . Wherefore from hence also , every one doth almost dayly behold in his own House , a stubborn and uncessant Disease amongst those of his Family , and Physitians are made the Comedy of stages , because they have scarce done any thing worthy of thanks : For some of them confess their own and their Authors weaknesses , and many do unwillingly flee unto Chymical unknown Remedies , most of them abounding with their adultery and ravishment ; they fly back to Books , not likewise to Furnaces , for their unexperiences do promise most ample Fruits , and they boast of all illegitimate and ridiculous Remedies : The which , while University Men do not understand , and on the other side , they do behold their withered Galen so destitute , they as full of doubt , flee over unto Cauteries , sharpish Fountains and Baths : Alas for grief , what an unhappiness to the Sick , and a vain refuge to themselves , hath so great a stumbling of darkness in the Schools , produced ! I will therefore shew , that the text , and that great boasted of virtue , doth by the name of Stones , understand all Minerals wholly , and mettals the Marrow of these , before the rest : Because they are those things , which do scarce shew themselves in any other Image , than that of small Stones , or great Stones : For indeed , this is the most rich , and constant off-spring , and chief treasure of Nature : So that therein the conjunctions of the Stars are laid up or hidden : and moreover in speaking properly , and out of the profound Idiotisme of the Gentiles , the Stars do excel or are chief over Meteours , only causally ; but Mettals in their Excellencies or Remedies , do far exceed the Stars . For truly , I have taught according to the text of the holy Scriptures , That the Stars are not unto us for Causes , but only for Signs , Seasons , Dayes , and Years . Neither is it lawful for Man , to extend the Offices of the Stars any further : Wherefore I have never in my desire , married the number of the Stars unto the wandring Stars or Planets ; as neither have I enclosed both their Offices and Dignities in a like equality , or resemblance : For as they are at a far distance from each other , so also they have unlike Offices , and ends of Offices divided from each other . But this one thing I willingly admit of ; to wit , that Mettals do exceed Plants and Minerals in healing , by long stades or distances : And therefore that Mettals are certain clear or shining glasses , not indeed by reason of their brightness , but rather because that as oft as their virtues are opened and set at liberty , they do act by an endowed light , and a vital co-touching : Mettals therefore do operate after the manner attributed to the Stars , to wit , by an Aspect , and the touching of an alterative Blas ; which things will by handicraft-operation more clearly appear : For Mettals themselves are Glasses , the most excellent off-spring I say , of the inferiour Globe , to wit , upon which the whole central virtue hath for some Ages before , prodigally poured forth its treasure , that it might most rightly espouse this liquor of the Earth , this duggy nourishment , and this off-spring of divine providence unto the ends which the weakness of Nature did require . Therefore the Glasses of Gold , Silver , Mercury , Lead , Copper , Iron , and Tin , and the fire-stones of these , are not yet shut up or closed , &c. But I call those shining Glasses , which have such a force of piercing and enlightning the Archeus from his errours , furies , and defects , that they restore him into a brightness , through the tincture of an endowed perfection . For although these Minerals are not for food , or of the condition of the Body of Man ; Yet they have the internal faculty of a Glass , and a Power most chiefly efficacious , co-touching with or very near to the Archeus of man being entire , and appeased ; such as was the Archeus before the mind was conceived , the which mind indeed was afterwards estranged from its right path , after that the sensitive Soul ( wherein the mind sits ) drew the government of the Body on it self ; the which indeed was wholly frail and brutal in it self . But in shining Glasses ( for a distinction to wit of Vegetables which do not shine , ) a certain figure of our former immortality hath as yet remained resident , and in this respect , those Glasses are not only communicated , but are willingly received by our Archeus : Yea , and which more is , the restauration of the Archeus should the longer continue , if the Glasses themselves were not presently banished : which thing is manifest in the preparation of Copper , Iron , &c. These things concerning the Tree of Life , I do prosecute in the Book of long Life , that there may be a stable Remedy transchangeable into mans Nature , to be taken from ones childhood , especially as long as the growing faculty doth flourish : This Remedy I say , doth exceed the force of a shining Glass for long Life , but not likewise for a healthy Life . Furthermore , whatsoever is further to be spoken concerning Stones , that was either so far as they do partake of a certain Metallick Sulphurous Tincture , or of a Mineral Salt : But as a mineral Being is neither for food nor nourishment , neither could it be Vital or for Life : but before that I shall pass over unto Arcanums ( which is called the great virtue of Stones in this place , ) surely it is profitable to enter into the very seat of the Body , and inwardly to view how much any Remedy can there operate : To which end , that which I have already said above , comes first in our way : To wit , that the Stomack doth not coct any thing , but as from a single aime it doth from thence at length frame a nourishment for its whole Body , and for that very cause it hath an intention to make thereof a nourishable Liquor , to wit , venal Blood ; and afterwards a spermatick Humour fit for the nourishing of the chief constituting parts ; So that it may be turned into a substance fit for the nourishment and increase of the parts : To wit , as long as they are appointed within the bound designed for growth or increasing : From whence it necessarily also follows , that none but fit and foody matters concocted and digested by the Stomack , are transmitted into the more remote shops of the digestions . Wherefore I have first of all withdrawn every Plant , by whatsoever cruelty being infamous , from the border of the Mesentery ; because every thing that is unfit for these borders , is for that very cause driven downwards by the Stomack , and adjoyned unto the excrements . But whatsoever hath now passed over into Chyle , hath presently laid aside every strange quality , whereby it may act as it were by choice : But if from Magnum Oportet , any kinde of quality of its antient concrete Body shall as yet remain ; surely that is drowsie , feeble , sluggish , loose , and vain , and therefore it doth for the most part , deceive Physitians in chronical Diseases , and in Diseases lurking far off , through the crookednesses of the veins ; which truth that a Quartane may defend in my behalf , it readily offers it self . Indeed the School of Alchymy , admiring , and trusting in the feeble help of Remedies , hath long since indeed observed a noble treasure of healing to lay hid in Minerals , but it long doubted in what respect they might most fully derive themselves unto the inward Buttery of the similar parts . First of all , The former sort hoped in vain and to no purpose , to descend unto our constituting parts by their Remedies : And seeing they despaired in the Vegetable Kingdom , they also vainly roasted or wracked the order of Minerals ; because they were those things which can never by our will be transchanged into foods ; seeing the Artificer cannot at his pleasure induce an esential Form : Yea neither doth Nature by one only leap of Digestion , and by its immediate beck , ever attain that thing : For some being seduced by a deceivable hope of Mettals , and much less also tasting or knowing how much essicacy is seated in shining Glasses , and in the manifest liquors of Mettals : Therefore some have promised almost a certain immortality from their Labours ; and Paracelsus as ridiculous , doth extend them sometimes into an Aniadan year , into the year of the Fire , and afterwards at least into the year of Mathusalem : afterwards others of his followers slid down unto six hundred years . Whereas after that , the later sort promised that they should attain onely unto a renewing of the strength or faculties : Others being content onely with a cropped or defective Cure ; To wit , they rested in the cleansing of the pure from the impure . And although a Body was now and then granted to be renewed according to its Nails , Teeth , and Hairs ; Yet they have not fitly understood that the Pear Tree is never recalled from its old age , although it might renew its Leaves every Year . In the mean time , a rashness of these things , and ignorance of our Family-Administration , hath stirred up the vain boastings of the things aforesaid , and every one hath proceeded in the darkness of vain hope , according to his own touching without a seen Knowledge . Therefore while every one hoped most fully or piercingly to introduce his own Remedies , neither yet would they afterwards be admitted within , because they were those things which the more grievous Diseases , and a want of nourishment , and refreshment of the Faculties did exclude ; they afterwards thought to mask some Arcanums of a lighter weight , into the seigned shew of a Salt , that at least-wise they might not be separated from the Latex ; yea that in this respect they might attain a Liberty of wandering throughout the whole Province of the Veins : And although they have so suited some Remedies , that they were not altogether strange or detestable to the agreement of Nature ; however it is , they could not at least-wise so far descend , as to be admitted altogether within : But if through the Error of Separation a very small quantity of them had but pierced inwards ; that thing straightway induced a benummedness in the more inward Kitchings of the Bowels , as also a repentance of the Archeus . Likewise they who have made tryal of Treey Remedies , have presently refrained from them ; because that they were more hard and difficult than Herby ones , and less fit for penetration : For truly the Flesh and Blood are not fat things , but Treey things are fat , Ro●iny , and unbroken by our Powers . First of all , Paracelsus supposed , that seeing fixed Bodies did resist the fire , also that they should delude the unwasted or unwearied Labours of the Digestions by the same endeavour ; and therefore he established it by an universal Decree , that no fixed Mineral would be taken in at the mouth ; because the Salts which should render that thing potable , being wasted through Digestion , that same fixed Body should be toughly affixed unto the inward wals and pipes of the Members , wherein those Salts are changed , and should afterwards by an unexpected annexion , continue for tearm of Life . Therefore he would that not onely all Mineral Remedies should not onely be made potable , but also moreover volatile : Which admonition , although it be not altogether vain ( Crocus Martis , and very many prepared Powders of Stones taken into the Body , being excepted ) yet those same Minerals do not therefore assume a Foody nature , neither also consequently are they digested , or do they come more fully inwards , unto the intrinsecal seats of Diseases . Neither also hath he sufficiently considered , that volatile Minerals have in them a force or faculty altogether Active , ( even as I have elsewhere demonstrated concerning the affect of the Stone ) and for the most part , so strange a one , that they cannot be promiscuously admitted within , without a notable Errour ; unless we shall say that there is no longer any election or choice in Nature , whereby those things are refused by the Archeus , which do less agree with his Borders . But not every potable thing undistinctly , is admitted within , yea nor any thing which was not Foody and Digested in the Stomack , and transchanged into a humane Chyle : Neither doth any thing pass thorow the Liver , which in the Mesentery Veins ( because they are those which are the Stomack of the Liver it self ) hath not been through an obedient disposition first subdued . And let there be the same Judgement concerning the more utmost Bowels . But seeing as well Vegetables as Minerals being received into the Body , do presently exercise their tyranny , which thing Solutives themselves through a ready obedience do testifie , and so also that it is hence manifest , that any kind of Poysons do powerfully the more piercingly enter , to wit , if they do tyrannize on places at a distance . Therefore two Opinions are to be reconciled ; To wit , On the one hand , That nothing which is not foody doth climb inwards , before that it be elaborated by the Digestions . And on the other hand , That as well Simples as Remedies elaborated by Art , however forreign or bruitish they are , do exercise their operation even far from the mouth , and aloof off . Unto which Controversie , the famous Action of Government hath regard , and also the suparlative excelling Force or Authority of the Duumvirate : For neither doth Cardiogmus or a Griping of the Heart , and Cardialgia or a pain of the Stomack , in vain ( of old ) note the Heart , and have denoted the Stomack it self , by an Etymology of the Heart and Life : For in very deed , the sensitive Soul , and the Archeus himself do inhabite in the very Membrane of the Stomack , distinguishing of the Conveniencies or Agreements , Proportions , Likenesses , and Suitings of all things : Whereof , while the sensitive Soul it self doth draw Apprehensions , it communicates the same also , by dispersing them throughout the whole Body , to wit , to every part according to the requirance of necessity : For Solutive things do Purge and cruelly molest , as long as they are detained in the Stomack , and more formerly Intestines : And therefore that they may quickly and speedily finish their task , Broths are given to drink , whereby indeed they may be the more readily washed out of the Stomack . For truly Mineral Secrets ( for in Stones there is great virtue ) do indeed most powerfully operate ; but they do not therefore materially enter into the Bowels at all , that they may be made the co-partaking Citizens of our Life : For neither do things go unto the Third , or more Ultimate shop of the Digestions , unless they first proceed through the First . Wherefore I have first of all diligently considered , that all Remedies do operate according to a natural endowment which the Almighty hath conferred on them , whether they shall be Vegetables , or Minerals . But seeing the most powerful Virtues of Remedies are not of a foody Substance , and belonging to venal Blood , and much less of an Excrementous substance ( for truly the Intestines are onely a Sack and Sink ) neither is there granted a fit medium or middle thing between that which is foody , and excrementitious : Therefore it is required that a Remedy which hath so famous endowments , be not indeed foody ( because I have already taught before , that that which is for Food ought to be feeble ) yet a Remedy as long as it sticks between , not an excrement and an excrement ; That is , as long as it is in its passage unto , or in its being made for an excrement , it is detained in the Stomack : To wit , that seeing there is not granted a final mean between a foody Being , & an excrement , there may at least-wise be a mediative mean in the Essence of a Remedy : To wit , as long as the determination is undecided , whether the Remedy taken into the Body , be to be put to flight together with the excrements : For this is as long as it is detained in the Stomack it self , wherein the Archeus the distinguisher , doth most powerfully shine and command . And moreover some Remedies do in this Inne attain faculties which were not before in their kernel ; which thing I have elsewhere shewn by the Latex running down out of the branch of a Birch-tree , being indeed the more powerful when it now wanders between the nourishment of its Tree , and the beginnings of corruption presently begun . Therefore now from hence the truth of Remedies hitherto abstruse , doth clearly appear : To wit , that every Remedy doth immediately and principally act only into the Archeus of the Stomack ( the which is therefore also called the Heart ) but this Archeus afterwards acts according to a disposition , drawn and generated to himself from the endowed gift of the Remedies . It also further followes , that every Remedy exceeding the limits of Food , doth act by its touching in manner of a Glass : For truly it acts onely by touching at the Archeus , without a material co-mixture of it self . Indeed the Archeus himself doth first feel the endowment drawn from the Remedy ; but in that act of perceivance he fashions to himself an Idea of things to be done by him , by following the Dispositions of that endowment : from whence he consequently stirring up Peace , Rest , or Anger to himself , and assuming the gotten Idea's of these , doth presently sealingly disperse the same into the Bowels , hearkening to the Action of Government , performing prosperous or opposite Offices , according to the Command of the vital Archeus . Any kind of Remedies therefore are Glasses , and some are shining ones , others onely through their co-touching , Odour , Taste , and Power : But all and every of Remedies do in respect of the Life , remain external ; in this respect also , they do wash off and drive away the inbred , or conceived stain or blemish from the Archeus . But they are never able therefore to detain the Life from a continual defluxion , or to suggest new Faculties , and to create or raise up new Powers for Immortality : Because the Virtues of Remedies cannot together with their Substance , pierce or be transchanged into the vital matter of us , so that it may be admixed by increase with our first constituting parts : For whatsoever they act , all that is busied about the Archeus of the Stomack , and Prince of Life , and Governour of the Stern : To wit , on which Ruler of the Stern , the Center of Life and Pilot of the Duumvirate , all Diseases also do primarily tyrannize , or by a secondary Passion or affect . For , for this cause , neither doth an antient Gout which is pithily rooted within , break forth out of the bosomes of the implanted vital Spirit wherein it is sealed , but that also it doth before its accesse or fit , molest about the mouth of the Stomack , and thereby violate and disturb the whole disposition of the whole : The which Gout apprcaching , a certain precedent small Fever doth for the most part bewray : Wherefore in this respect also do a Remedy and a Disease co-touch , yea and also pierce each other . For who hath not observed that the Odours of Spices being onely tasted , do straightway refresh fainting Persons , not indeed because those Odours being co-mixed with air , are an addittament of the vital air , that they can substitute as it were a new vital Spirit in the place of that which was lost : Because the very restoring of the vital Spirit by a Spice or sweet Smell , should be of a more laboursome attempt than the restoring of it by the Arterial Blood : Neither is the Odour of a Spice pleasing , as it is like unto the vital Spirit , bred by Arterial Blood : But by reason of the natural endowments inbred in a Remedy . In like manner , neither do the Oyles of Cynamon , Cloves , &c. refresh the vital Spirit of the parts by their material joyning ; ( for neither is the Spirit of Life nourished by Oyle ) but those things which are grateful in their Odour and Savour , so many are looking-Glasses , which by a touch of their aspiration or reflexion , do refresh and comfort the Spirit of Life ( being burdened ) as it were with an endowed gift . For as the sights or beholdings of some things do move Nauseousness , Vomiting , loss of Appetite , Anger , Indignation , &c. as they are visual Looking-Glasses : So there are dotal or endowed Glasses , stirring up the Archeus into Peace , Tranquility , Sleepiness , Joy , cessation from Sorrow , Contracture , Grief , &c. Those are endowed Glasses which do stirre up and occasionally move unto a right and orderly solicitation , or careful performance of their Offices in the Archeus : Even as on the other hand , those are Poysons , destructive Things , and the exalted Powers of things which stir up a Blemish , or Contagion , and Consumption , and every sore shaking in the Archeus : And Poysons do exceed any kind of Remedies in this : That these cannot be so connexed unto the Life , that this may indeed be thereby raised up again , or increase into a more perfect disposition . Whereas Poysons do in the mean time kill the parts , do wholly deprive of the inbred strength , and altogether draw into their own likeness , and do therefore truly transchange their vital parts ; which thing is granted to no Remedies , that they can renew the defects of the parts into their antient youth , and bring forth an Immortality : Because the most piercing Remedies are not Identified or Samified in Union with the Archeus , or a Member which is ill affected . And so neither is it able to perform a stable Effect from a Union of the Agent with the Sufferer , the which otherwise is granted unto Poysons . Those therefore are touching Glasses , which disperse the natural endowment which the Almighty glorieth in , that he bestowed it on things cropped from , and pulled out of the Earth , the concrete body of that Glass remaining entire : For as some things being hanged on the Body , and born without the Body , or more strictly tied to the Body , do plainly take away very many sicknesses , or at least-wise suspend them : So some famous Remedies are stable , and do produce a stable effect from themselves . There are also others , which not so much through the force of a touching and nourishing Glass , as of an Odour easily passing thorow , do prostrate great Diseases ; to wit , those arising and cherished onely by an Indignation of the Archeus : For there are also many Remedies which have a certain notable Taste , whereby , although they are not Digested by the Stomack by a passive transmutation ; yet they separate the pure from the impure , although it be the farther remote from them , as they draw the Archeus ( being as it were bound and obliged unto their endowments ) to cause such Effects . Yet the Glasses which I name touching ones , are therefore for the most part fixed without Odour and Taste , and do move the Archeus , not so much by cleansing and sequestring Impurities , as by appeasing his Griefs , Disturbances , and a continual and successive substituting of Nourishing Idea's . For Paracelsus dispraising all fixed Metallick and Mineral Remedies , yet as being unmindful of himself , commends Mercurius Diaphoreticus , being very sweet , yet fixed , and not mutable in the Fire : And the which notwithstanding is a contemner of every labour of the Digestions ; yet it doth in Diseases , as much as a Physitian and Chyrurgion will of right wish or desire : For the sweetness of its Sulphur , sports in the Superficies ; but the Mercurial part being covered over by an external Sulphur , lies hid , neither doth it operate unless by a Glass shining thorow the Sulphur , and so affecting the Archeus at its own pleasure . Otherwise , that sweetness of the Diaphoretick , is of the Sulphur being drawn out of the fire of Venus , which is of the same savour with the Diaphoretick . Wherefore that Fire is harmlesly Anodine , Soporiferous , or Sleepifying , an Appeaser of Pain , and Allayeth all Worth , Grief , Motion , Disturbance and Tempest of the Archeus : And likewise it imprinteth on the Archeus a will of Resolving of all coagulated things : In which respect it takes away every Disease , occasionally , materially , and by way of violent assault , which is attributed unto any Excrements whatsoever . Likewise it is here plain to be seen , That that Mercurius Diaphoreticus remaining indeed in the Stomack undigested , nor piercing inwardly , because it perseveres unchanged , being fixed , stubborn , and untamed in the form of a Powder , doth cause all the aforesaid Effects : not indeed that its very self doth work those things effectively efficiently : But because it stirs up the Duumvirate , the performer of all things . For these things ought thus to be done , not indeed by an actual co-touching of Excrements , which are banished and led forth bound , but by the impression of its natural endowment ( for Stones have great Virtue ) on the Archeus , the which is the Effecter of all Curing ; even as he is the very Original and Fountain of Diseases ; from whence indeed I have shewn above , that every Disease doth immediately after sin , thenceforth daily issue . A Wounded man Cured himself onely by Garden-Nightshade , and that without a Scarre . Note how that may happen ; therefore by applying it about the Seat of the Soul. What , and after what manner it may inwardly appease and pacifie . The same thing Assarum performeth . Those things ought to be done without Fire . In Stones there is great Virtue . The Stone for Broken Bones , it is a fixed Stone , as also not Calcinable : It Cures a Broken Bone being taken in by the Mouth . And after what manner that may be done . 2. Doth or may it not Cure the affect of the Stone , Gout , &c. CHAP. LXXIX . BUTLER . I Have already in the foregoing Treatise sufficiently demonstrated , that a Disease doth not exist but in living Bodies , and that it hath not onely a vital body for its proper subject ; but moreover , that the very intrinsecal Organ or Instrument of Life , is the workman of a Disease and its internal efficient . Yea I have demonstrated , that both the matter and spiritual air of the Archeus himself , is not onely the Object on which all the glasses of Diseases are first sharpened ; but also , that it is the very matter whereof , and about which the vehement motions , overflowings , and exorbitances of that workman do happen about his own destruction . Indeed that such is the foolish off-spring of Sin , while man turns himself away from God , nothing but thenceforth foolishly to convert all things into his own destruction . But seeing every thing in Nature subsisteth onely by a matter and an efficient Cause ( the which also I have elsewhere most amply taught in a peculiar Treatise ) and a thing in Nature doth therefore require to be defined onely by its immediate and proper matter , and its internal efficient Cause ( for truly the whole essence of a thing , and its existence , are nothing besides a connexion of both the same Causes ) certainly now it is sufficiently manifest , that a Disease is the very vital matter of the Archeus , into which the seminal Character or Idea of the Archeus being ill affected , is bred or inserted : Whether in the mean time the Archeus doth persevere in that his abomination from the right path , I say , in a hurtful disjoynting , or next , shall spread the same Idea's of his Anger on some Product , and shall afterwards cease : that is even all one in a Disease ; seeing it is unto this by accident , to be nourished or not , from a violent assaulting Cause : For truely the Archeus doth sometimes presently seal an Idea conceived by himself on some excrement of his Body , the which he prepareth , if he shall not find that excrement before prepared for him : From whence also , and wherein a Disease is thenceforth by it selfe able to subsist . But elsewhere the Archeus doth not wander far , without the matter defiled by him , and therefore he doth either increase the same by a continual nourishment , or through the conjoyning of a resembling mark , is admitted into the implanted Spirit of the Organs , and doth from thence , as from a Tower , either continually fight against the faculties or strength of the Members , or at least-wise doth sleep and awake at set Periods , because in the vital Principle he hath branded himself with the implanted Guest , and houshold Inhabitant of Life , and hath not flowed onely in the Spirit of the fluid Archeus . Moreover , whatsoever of filths is cast in , admitted , or bred up through an error of living , whether that thing may follow the Family of a Procatarctical or foregoing principal Cause , or next , the Family of a Product ; it is wholly altogether nothing but occasional : To wit , at the importunities whereof , the Archeus himself being sore shaken , doth represent the true Tragedy of a Disease . From whence , first of all it is evident , that Diseases are as well real while they are silent and sleep , as those which happen being awakened in the meditation of their fit : I ought indeed , thus repeatingly to press the Tragedy of Diseases , if fruit be from a thing so unheard of , and of so great moment to be hoped for , unto those that shall succeed . The Tree therefore and Fruits of a Disease being known , together with the connexion and progress of concurring Causes ; the Tree of Remedies is afterwards to be contemplated of , which is so greatly breathed after , and unknown hitherto . First of all indeed , I have considered of a six fold Invasion of a Disease , and liberty of taking its possession : as if it were at first stirred up by the evil Spirit , therefore also should follow the Week of Creation . From whence also a sixfold houshold-stuffe of Remedies in Nature was continually to be considered , unless the Super-eminent Divine Goodness , had rather to communicate the figure of his Unity , every where issuingly erected in Nature , unto mans Understanding : Because it is that which through the Unity of simplicity hath most powerfully every where erected most rich Remedies against the slaughter of Diseases : Whereunto therefore , the more weak nature of mans Understanding being cherished by sloath , also easily hearkening , hath searched into the Secrets of Paracelsus ; Whereby it might powerfully relieve all the Errors of defective Nature . We being now especially the more safe through this prop , shall hereafter attempt the vanquishments of Diseases , after that we shall behold the one onely Fountain of Life , now wandering from its scope , to have erected the whole entire predicament of Infirmities . I deny not in the mean time , but that a Disease doth diversly enter into our harvest daily : But that ( I say ) it is daily received in divers Inns , and occasional Causes , which attempt treachery . To wit , First of all , They do of necessity break in by a voluntary declining race of Nature , through a defect and extinguishment of the vital Faculties , from whence at length difficulties of the Functions , and their afterwards awakened Superfluities do arise . 2. They do happen unto us from an unequal strength of the Members , from whence there is presently an unequal temperature , or disorder , very much like to that aforesaid . 3. From the received Inordinacies of Life burthening the Faculties , and the Offices of these by their immoderateness : Under which slipperynesse or unconstancy of Life , Venus or carnal Lust , Blood-letting , and what sort soever of Lavishments of the Strength do war , and after the beginnings of Diseases do at length hasten an untimely Death . 4. Diseases do most manifestly proceed from Perturbations or Disturbances , or Passions of the Mind : And far more occultly , from the Riotous , or Immoderate and Voluntary Disturbances of the Archeus himself , or those being drawn or sprung from an occasional matter stirring them up . Of these especially there is a large Company , and a numerous Army led on us , being even hitherto not attributed to their own proper Causes , because unknown . 5. Diseases do break forth from the unclemency of the Heaven , through the Injuries of unstable tempests , and the unhappy draughts of Endemicks , whereby a hostile guest is drawn and admitted within , that it may make it self a Familiar . 6. Lastly , A Disease enters by external things rushing on us , to wit , Wounds , Breakin gs of Bones , Falls , Bruises , Burnings , Freezings , Stingings of Asps , &c. But at least-wise , all of them do lay in waite for the one Life , and from the Archeus its Defender , from whence they derive their Beginning . Therefore in perpetually aiming at Unity , we shall contemplate of God , as the one only most glorious Fountain , President of Life , and one onely Permitter of all Diseases whatsoever : So also we shall occasionally , and the more amply reverence the same Giver of a Remedy , in the Unity of his own Type or Figure . Wherefore , although I have elsewhere written by the way concerning Arcanums , every one whereof in particular , doth mow down almost all Diseases with one onely Sythe , to wit , by a separation , and cleansing from superfluity ; Yet those Secrets , even as they are most difficultly prepared , yea and ought to remain in secret for ever , in the possession of those of the Privy Counsel ; So also the Cure , through the instituted help of the same , doth not so immediately respect Diseases , as in the first place either the foregoing occasional Cause of the same , or at least-wise , the later product of a Disease : And likewise those Arcanums of Remedies are most sparing , whereof the most part of Mortals is deprived and destitute of hope : And therfore , it doth not seem to me , that the Infinite Goodnesse of God , would not be so issuingly or largly communicated and made known by so scanty a Remedy . Wherefore I conjecture , that the time is at hand , wherein the Almighty Goodness will manifest unto his Faithful ones , the knowledge and essence of Diseases hitherto unknown : But he hath not discovered the aforesaid Arcanums , but for the glory of his own Power , only unto a very few , least the Commerces of the World , should otherwise perish . For neither is it otherwise to be believed , that the Divine Goodness after this intimate Essence of Diseases , being discovered , that he will afterwards also hide the endowed Remedies of his Unity from the Faithful ones , and that the healing of Diseases ought to be planted into Arcanums alone . Therefore it is meet or seasonable diligently to search into a Remedy , with my self , which by a single endeavour , may have respect unto the Tree of the vitiated Archeus , after what manner soever he be altered . For truly , a certain entire thing is more formerly , Nature , than a corrupted thing : And therefore the Life and the Archeus , as they are simply the cause of its Being , they are more antient than is a Vice conceived in them : For as the immediate Cause of any indispositions , is the very Life it self ; So surely the speculation of curing , and renewing of the Life being altered , or weakened , without all discomodity , and burden or pressure , is more principal , more intimate , more formerly by right , and more noble , than the curing which is perfected by Arcanums , or by the most excellent mundificatives or cleansers : For those Arcanums , although they do oftentimes respect , and cut off the more formerly occasion ; Yet it is as it were secondary , as to curing , which proceedeth from internal Causes primarily altered , and affected : And the which therefore do first and most principally require an appeasing of themselves by a natural indication , and that a most capital one of all : For truly Natures themselves have been of old known to be the Physitianesses of Diseases ; even as also the vital Nature was reverenced under the covered Cloud of the Etymology of the Spirit making the assault , as the Maker , and Procreater of any kind of Diseases : Yet from the dayes of Hippocrates , unto Galen , and afterwards from thence the speculation of Diseases , remained and stood neglected . It is therefore scanty , and not very passable hitherto , whatsoever I have said concerning the manner of Curing , by pacifying and appeasing of the Archeus , to wit , by with-drawing or removing of his successive alterations or interchangable courses : Wherefore in principally contemplating of the conjoynting peace , quiet , and docibleness of the Archeus , I will first explain my self by some brief Histories . There was a certain Irish-man , whose name was Butler , being sometime great with James King of England , he being detained in the prison of the Castle of Vilvord , and taking pitty on Baillius a certain Franciscan Monk , a most famous Preacher of Gallo-Brittain , who was also imprisoned , having a formidable Erisipelas in his arme ; on a certain evening when as the sick Monk did almost despaire , he swiftly tinged a certain little Stone in a spoonful of Almond Milk , and presently withdrew it thence : But he said unto the keeper of the Prison , reach this supping to that Monk , and how much soever he shall take thereupon , he shall be whole at least within a short hours space ; which thing even so came to pass with the greatest admiration of the Keeper , and the sick Man not knowing from whence so sudden health had shined on him , seeing that he was ignorant that he had taken any thing ; For his left Arm being before hugely swollen , fell down as that it could presently scarce be discerned from the other : On the morning following , I being intreated by great men , came to Vilvord as a witness of his deeds : Therefore I contracted a friendship with Butler . Presently afterwards , I saw a poor old Woman a Landress , who from sixteen years of age or thereabouts , laboured with an intollerable Megrim , presently cured in my presence . Indeed he by the way , or lightly dipt the same little Stone in a spoonful of oyl of Olives , and presently cleansed the little Stone by licking of it , and laid it up into the sheath of his breast ; but that spoonful of Oyl , he poured into a small bottle of Oyle , whereof one only drop he commanded to be anointed on the Head of the aforesaid old Woman , who was thereby straightway cured , and remained whole for some years , the which I attest : I was amazed , as if he were become another Mydas ; but he smiling on me said : My most dear Friend , unless thou come thitherto , so as to be able by one only Remedy , to cure every Disease , thou shalt remain in thy Young Beginnings , however old thou shalt become . I easily assented thereto , because I had learned that thing from the secrets of Paracelsus : and being now more confirmed by sight and hope : But I confess with a willing mind , that that new manner of curing , was unaccustomed and unknown unto me . I therefore said , that a young Prince of our Court , Vicount of Gaunt , Brother to the Prince of Epifuoy , of a very great House , was so wholly prostrated by the Gout , that he thenceforth lay only on one side , being wretched , and deformed with many knots ; he therefore taking hold of my right hand , said : wilt thou , that I cure that young Man ; I will cure him for thy sake . But I replyed : But he is of that obstinacy , that he had rather die , than to drink even but one only medicinal Potion . Be it so , said Butler , for neither do I require any other thing , than that he do every morning touch the little Stone which thou seest , with the top of his tongue : For after three weeks from thence , let him wash the painful and unpainful knots dayly with his own Urin , and thou shalt soon afterwards see him cured , and soundly walking : go thy way , and tell him with joy , what I have said . I therefore being glad , returned to Bruxells , and tells him what Butler had said . But the Potentate answered ; Go to tell Butler , that if he restore me , as thou hast said , I will give him as much as he shall require ; demand the price , and I will willingly sequester that which is deposited , for his security . And when I declared that thing to Butler on the day following , he was wroth , and said : That Prince is mad , or witless , and miserable , and therefore neither will I ever help him : for neither do I stand in need of his money , neither do I yeild or am I inferiour unto him . Yea , neither could I ever induce him to performwhat he had before promised : Wherefore I began to doubt , least the foregoing things which I had seen , were as it were dreams . It happened in the mean time , that a Friend , overseer and master of the Glassen Furnace at Antwerp , being exceeding fat , most earnestly requested of Butler to be freed from the trouble of his fatness ; unto whom Butler offered a small piece of that little Stone , that he might once every morning lick or speedily touch it with the top of his Tongue . And within three weeks I saw his Breast made more straight or narrow by one span , and him to have lived no less whole afterwards : Wherefore I began again to believe that the same thing might have happened in the aforesaid gouty Prince , which he had promised . In the mean time , I sent to Vilvard , to Butler for a Remedy , in the case of Poyson occasionally given me by a secret Enemy : For I miserably languished , all my joynts were pained , and my pulse , Vehement , being at length become an intermitting one , did accompany the faintings of my Mind , and extinguishment of my strength . Butler being as yet detained in Prison , forthwith commanded my houshold Servant whom I had sent , that he should bring unto him a small bottle of Oyl of Olives , and his little Stone aforesaid being tinged therein ( as at other times ) he sent that Oyl unto me ; and bad him , that with one only small drop of the Oyl , I should anoint only one place of the pain , or all particular places if I would ; the which I did , and yet felt no help thereby . In the mean time , my Enemy according to his lot being about to die , bad that pardon should be craved of me for his Sin , and so I knew that I had taken Poyson , the which I suspected : And therefore also I procured with all care , to extinguish the slow Venom ; and through the Grace of God favouring me , I escaped . My Wife was now for some Months , oppressed with a pain of the Muscle of her right Arm , so as that she could neither lift up her Hand , and much less lift any thing upwards : And moreover by reason of Grief and Sorrow for me , she now by degrees languished in both her Legs , from the Foot , even unto the Groine , with a cruel Oedema , the which did in its pit , shew the foot-step of ones finger dipped into it even unto the second joynt : For because she had contracted these Oedema's by reason of the grief for my tribulation , a Medicine was despised so long as her grief ceased not : She therefore seeing the work of Butlers Oyl to be vain on me , and being willing before some Gentlewomen to mock my credulity , anointed one only drop of that Oyl on her right Arm , and straightway it being freely moved , was beyond hope restored , together with its former strength : we all admired at the wonder of so sudden an event ; wherefore she anointed the Ankles of both her Legs with one only drop on both sides , being spread about on the circle of the Ankle ; and presently within less than a quarter of an hour , all the Oedema vanished away : she also through Gods favour , liveth as yet nineteen Years since , in health . A certain Hand-maid , as soon as she heard that thing to have happened in her Mistris , required some drops of that Oyl , because she had thrice suffered an Erisipelas , in her right Leg , it being badly cured , she shewed a leaden-coulered Leg and swollen , from the Knee even unto the Toes ; in the evening therefore , at her going to bed , she rubs four drops of that Oyl on the hurt part , and in the morning there appeared no footstep of the former Malady ; so that she , who now before could scarce go into the Market in one day , the same morning went unto the Temple of the holy God-bearing Virgin , in Laken , and cheerfully returned , and broguht me Water from the spring of Saint Ann , being far remote from thence . Which thing being heard , a certain Gentlewoman a Widow , being now afflicted for many Months in both her Arms , that she could never lift her hand upwards , was by a few drops of that Oyl , in one only evening , presently restored into full health , and so remained . Afterwards I asked Butler , why so many Women should be presently cured ; but that I , while I most sharply conflicted with Death it self , being also environed with Pains of all my Joynts and Organs , should not feel any ease ? But he asked me , with what Disease I had laboured ? And when he understood that Poyson had given a Beginning unto the Disease : He said : Because the Cause , had come from within to without , the Oyl ought to be taken into the Body , or the little Stone to be touched with the Tongue : Because the pain or grief being cherished within , was not Local , or External : I observed also that the Oyl , did by degrees uncloath it self of the efficacy of Healing ; because the little Stone being lightly tinged in it , had not pithily changed the Oyl throughout its whole Body , but had only blessed it with a delible or obliterable be-sprinkling of an Odour : For truly that little Stone did present in the Eyes , and Tongue , Sea Salt spread abroad or rarefied ; and it is sufficiently known , that Salt is not to be very intimately mixed with Oyl . Butler also cured an Abbatess , sufficiently known , who for eighteen years had had her right Arm swollen with an unwonted depriving of Motion , and her fingers stretched out , and unmovable , only by the touching of her Tongue at the little Stone . But very many being witnesses of these Wonders , presently suspected some hidden Sorcery and Diabolical compact : For the common People hath it already for an antient custom , that whatsoever honest thing their ignorance hath determined not to know , they do for a privy shift of Ignorance , refer that thing unto the juggles of the Evil Spirit : But I could not decline so far , because the Remedies were supposed to be Natural , neither having any thing besides an unwonted quantity . For neither Ceremonies , Words , nor any other suspected thing was required : for neither is it lawful according to Mans power of understanding , to refer the Glory of God shewn forth in Nature , unto the evil Spirit : For none of those Women had required aid of Butler , as from Necromancy any way suspected ; yea the things were at first made trial of with smiling , and without Faith and Confidence : Yet this kind of easiness , and speediness of curing , shall as yet long remain suspected by many : for the wit of the vulgar , being unconstant and idle in hard and unwonted matters , is alwayes ready for judgements of the same tenour , by reason of their facility , and therefore also is weak or flaggy ; for they do more willingly consecrate so great a bounty of restitution unto diabolical deceit , than to divine goodness , the Framer , Lover , Saviour , Refiesher of humane Nature , and Father of the poor . And that thing indeed not only in the common People , but also in those that are learned , who follow , and rashly search into the Beginnings of healing , being not yet instructed , or observing the common , and blockish Rule : Because they are alwayes wise as Children , who have never gone over their Mothers threshold , being a fraid at every Fable . For indeed they who have not hitherto known the whole circuit of Diseases to be concluded within the Spirit of Life , which maketh the assault , or if they hereafter reading my Studies by the way , shall imprint on themselves this moment or concernment of healing ; nevertheless , because they have been already before accustomed from the very Beginnings of their Studies , to the precepts of the Humourists , they will easily at length depart from me , and leap back unto the accustomed and antient Opinions of the Schooles . For look what Liquor Men do once , in a new Vessel steep ; Its Odour , whether Sweet or Sour , it will long after keep . They will again easily betake themselves unto the importunities of Decumbent , or falling down Humours : But I in a more near search , being unwilling to refer the benefits of God unto the Devil , have first of all certainly found , that all things in Nature , do consist of an invisible Seed : That they begin I say , are supported , and ruled by a Being which the great God began from an imaginating Desire , or derived Power , and which remains afterwards throughout the whole duration of their Essence and being . But that afterwards things are made visible , or are [ this something ] onely by the cloathing and apparelling of Bodies espoused unto it self . But I have taught that Diseases do by a stronger reason , arise from a more invisible Seed : Wherefore that the Diseasifying Idea is only to be Vanquished , Abolished , and Extinguished ; because a Disease is a monstrous , and equivocal or doubtful generated Being , and off-spring of Sin , not adhering therefore to the Humane Species , but only to individual Persons after an irregular manner : Because seeing , that after the fall , it began almost from a [ non-being . ] For in more fully looking into the matter ; first of all , very many Maludies do depart by reason of Amulets or Pomanders being hung on the outside of the Body ; even as is plain to be seen , in the Plague , Falling-sicknesse , and other Diseases . In the next place , whosoever he be , who shall rejoyce to have a Towel which was withdrawn from a pestilent Ulcer , or desiled with the sweat of him that hath the Pestilence applyed unto himself , nor doth fear in himself , that the Plague can thereby naturally be communicated unto himself ; we have seen health restored , as with the anointing o● Butlers Oyl : For truly a Sympathetical Remedy hath been of late made manifest , which cureth at a far distance . A certain Doctor of Divinity related to me , that seeing he could not conceive , that in Vitriol there did subsist a natural faculty of curing an absent Wound , if it were besprinkled on a bloody Towel : Therefore also , that he reputed that curing to happen through the work of the Devil ; but on the other hand , that he had seen some experiences made by honest Men : Therefore in a doubtful matter , and case of Conscience , that he had made trial of the thing in this manner : To wit , he sprinkled the Pouder of the best Vitriol , on a bloody Towel , with an express protestation , that he was unwilling to experience any thing , or to be hereafter cured , if there were even the least co-operation of a contract , or of the evil Spirit ; yet that he saw the Wound to be healed sooner than was wont , and the Blood also to be presently allayed : And therefore that afterwards , he believed that natural Causes , although unknown to us , did operate in the aforesaid Sympathetical Cure : The which nevertheless , being not yet sufficiently understood by its Causes , is as yet rejected , only as for the enticements of Satan , by this Argument . A natural Agent , that it may act , ought to be applyed and most nearly to approach unto the Patient . But a Sympathetical Remedy , ought not to be most nearly applyed unto the Patient . Therefore a Sympathetical Remedy is not a natural Agent . I Answer ; if it be understood , that a natural Agent ought immediately to touch the Patient whereon it most nearly acteth , with an immediateness of Supposition , but remotely through the mediation of other Bodies laying between or interposing , whereby that immediateness is communicated to an object at a distance : The Major Proposition is granted : Because it is sufficient that the Agent doth touch the Patient , or its proper Object , and that at a distance immediately , with an immediateness of virtue . And therefore , then the Minor Proposition is denyed : Because a Sympathetical Remedy ought immediately to be present , by an immediateness of supposition , in that subject into which the action is first received , but not in the part affected , whereinto it is secondarily and ultimately received by supposed mediating Organs , wandring , and being extended by an interval : For Fire is not in the hand of him that is heated , nor is the Sun or the Heaven in the Chamber . But Sympathetical Remedies have at this day been made known to be like unto influences in this ; to wit , that not only the Air , but a covered Rock , and thick or dark Bodies , are the capable Subject and Organ of this action , no less than of a Starry influence : For neither doth any thing hinder in sublunary things , whereby God could not , or would not have made those in some sort , less alike in this thing : Seeing that the manners of the Grand-Father , do sometimes not shine forth in the Son , but in the modern Nephew : A sound also doth ●i●rce far , &c. thorow the Bodies suitably or exactly shut : Wherefore if thou art amazed ●● the sphear of activity in Sympathetical things , and dost allow of them in Astral or starry Bodies , thou mayest either grieve for thy Ignorance of those , or for thy credulity of these : For truly the principle of an action of Sympathy , is a faculty akin to influences , acting by an in-beaming into an object appropriated unto it self : And God hath known why those things are thus made or do thus come to pass : Who hath endowed his created things , according to his own Pleasure : For he was at liberty to deliver his natural Endowments , even to the most abjected thing ; s neither can a Christian derive those gifts into the Devil , without Punishment : But neither do I in this place contemplate of Sympathetical Remedies , as that I believe the little Stone of Butler to act by a Sympathetical faculty : For truly this Stone takes away a distance of the object , and gives an application unto the object : To wit , it is a Remedy familiar unto Mans Archeus , and its virtue is graduated unto a thousand fold , by the goodness of God : And therefore it hath respect unto the peace and quiet of the Archeus in his own Simplicity : For let Young Beginners , before the Terrours of their Judgement , have regard , that a Member at the biting of a Snake , doth presently hugely swell , with great pain , by reason of the storm of the imbittered Archeus , and that the Angry sting doth by its stroak , presently stir up an hard , painful , and composed Tumour : For what if the Leprosie , or Plague , can speedily defile us with its Contagion , what shall hinder , whereby our Archeus shall the less willingly receive the Contagion of so most powerful a Remedy , if he be defiled by Poysons against his will ? If at least there ought to be in Nature , a like authority of a Remedy , and of Poyson , of divine goodness and of Maladies ? Let us consider I pray you , that so sudden a Flux of Maladies , may in like manner presently go back or return , being appeased by an opposite re-flux : For I have seen one , whose Fingers had promised the Disease Panaritium , being devided perhaps unto the largness of his Arm , and had miserably tortured him for some restless Nights , whereabout the Blood , and fresh Skin of a mold being wrapped , they by the morrow morning had restored the Finger together with rest in the Night : For reason required , that the Antidote ought even at the least to be equivolent with the Poyson : For the most swift Antidote of Ornietanus , in Poyson , being taken , and that raging even unto Convulsions , doth so presently suppress all Anguishes , and instant soundings , as if there were no Poyson admitted within : Because as a Disease is a defect of Nature , and the straying Archeus ; So a Remedy is of meer divine goodness ; the which also having slidden down into Nature , ought , as to equalize every defect , so also wholly to overcome it . Therefore in one respect , the Remedy is far more powerful and famous than the fault , and therefore also less in quantity , and far more swift than delay : And that largeness and nobleness of Power , doth not so much concern a superiority , which with growth or increase is attained by little and little through the obtainments of Maturities , as a present and effective majesty of things , whereby the medicinal thing it self being unfolded by an endowed virtue , doth free , and restrain the Archeus from Impediments and Furies , and also doth imprint an eminent excellency of a helping faculty , for which things sake it was created : These things it performeth by the manner and swiftness of its operation : But besides , as to that which concerneth the Remedies of so great goodness , and the efficacy of these ; First of all , it is manifest , that that little Stone of Butler , however lightly it be tinged in one only spoonful of Oyl , if that spoonful of Oyl be poured into a Can of Oyl , yea into an Hogshead of Oyl , it shall also be made a Remedy ; no otherwise than as a pestilent Odour doth infect a whole Vessel with its contagion . What if the Odour of a Sympathetical Remedy , being sprinckled on a Towel with a few drops of Blood , be able to help a Wound , a Bone-breach , yea and an Ulcer , and to appease the disturbed Archeus at a far distance ; what wonder is it , if a Remedy being administred to the Sick party himself , doth do that ? Yea neither do the Remedies of Chyrurgions cure otherwise , than only by touching at the wounded part ; because Emplaisters or Oyls , do not enter into the vital composition of the bottom , or into the nourishment of the wounded part . But in topical Ulcers bred and made in a place , such as are the Cancer , Wolf , &c. Indeed the touching only of a powerful Remedy , is sufficient to extinguish the Poyson there arisen from the wroth Archeus : And let the same and equal Judgment be concerning Apostems , Excrescences , Impostumated Ulcers , and those sealed in a place it self , although first bred from elsewhere , but devolved , and at length deposited in a place ; because an external besmearing of a Remedy , doth by a certain attainment of co-touching , tame the whole Archeus , no otherwise than as the Tooth of a mad Dog , although it be most exactly scoured in the Wind , yet doth sometimes bring madness : So also the Remedies of our little Stone , do heal internal Affects ; Yet they do the more and sooner dart forth their Effects , if they are received in at the Mouth , no otherwise than as some Poysons are void , unless they are derived or brought down into the open Skin . But if these kind of Remedies shall but even lightly touch at the Tongue , it is no wonder if that they presently affect the whole Archeus with their powerful benevolence , and appease the straying Archeus from his fury , and asswage him from all imbitteredness : Because that little Stone is of the Nature of a Salt , which is in no wise melted in the Oyl , neither doth any thing materially depart from it , which may be received in the Oyl wherein it is tinged , besides a gentle Odour , such as is the Odour of a pestilent impression in the Plague . And a flourish or Essay of this little Stone , hath seemed to me to be in the holy Scriptures : That the Maker of sweet Oyls , shall compose the Paints or Varnishes of Sweetness , neither shall his Works be consummated or come to an end : That is , although the little Stone be tinged in Oyl , yet scarce a point of its medicinal Virtue is diminished . Therefore if this excelling Remedy be taken inwardly , it then doth not only change the venal Blood into a Medicine like a Balsam , but the very Excrements of a Man themselves ( to wit , his Urin ) do remain tinged with its super-eminent goodness : No otherwise than as the Eggs of a Hen do savour of beech-Corn being eaten , and as the Urin of a sucking Infant doth smell of Anise , if the Nurse hath taken the Oyl of Anise in at the Mouth : And even as the Urin smells of eaten Asparagus ; So also the Urin by its own washing or anointing , doth cure every Disease residing in the habit of the Body . Indeed , such is the goodness of God , that one only little Stone is sufficient for many ten thousands , that the Physitian may not excuse himself about the Poor , discussing the charges of costs . In brief , all Diseases are cured by one only Remedy , to wit , by anointing , or by touching of the Tongue , or tasting alone : Because the Tongue is like unot an open Skin , especially if the succeeding Spittle be presently swallowed . But that there is so great a Power of this Remedy to be demonstrated , not only from Poysons , and so from the similitude of a pestilent Air ; but that because the Remedy ought to be far more Powerful than every Malady , if it ought to overcome it , and that indeed swiftly , and so , that it ought after some sort to express the seal of divine goodness : Wherefore from the betokening of Phylosophy it self , I presently conjectured , that that Remedy doth require : First of all , that it be a Body once raised up , and once destroyed , and afterwards as it were after its Resurrection , after some sort glorified : And therefore that neither may it be thenceforth any longer defileable by sublimary Vices , and mischievous Acts or Injuries . Hence it follows , that therefore it ought to be stronger by a thousand fold , than any pestilent Venom , and to be operative in a more absolute manner ; Seeing the Poyson of the Plague is simple , and sits in a corporal Air : For a Pestilent Poyson , is indeed the more familiarly co-fermented , by reason of a humane Symbole or co-resemblance , but it is not therefore a more powerful Poyson : For a Poyson doth indeed , produce a Poyson according to the Rule , and Ferment of the former Poyson , but it cannot exalt the Power of its Product above it self . But in a Remedy rising again from Death , the bountiful goodness of its simple . Being is increased unto a thousand fold , and through the thin Odour of its co-touching , it is diffused , and enlarged into the Mean , and presently bears command over the Archeus its Object : To wit , that he may compose himself according to Peace and Virtue : For so the Arcanum introduceth the Foster-child of its Power , there is a hope and jubilee of the Archeus , truly existing , and super-eminent in the Life . In the next place , I have considered that this Remedy is not of the Monarchy of Vegetables , because it is that which doth easily spring up , and obtain too slippery or fading Sprouts or Linages , and the which therefore are scarce renewed by Art ; because they are those which like unto living Creatures , do easily die under the Artists hand ; yet do they scarce rise again from Death , seeing they do either wholly perish under the tryal of the Fire , and loose their former Virtues ; or if they may seem as it were to rise again , yet they are rather new Beings , altogether secluded from the path of their Predecessors and Parents . But whatsoever Paracelsus promiseth concerning his four Arcanums of his Archidoxals , that they have a Super-elementary , and almost an infinite Virtue : for the first , which supposeth his Homunculus , it is so horrible as not to be spoken of , Sodomitical , Diabolical , and in no respect to be mentioned . But the other three are Chymical ones , whereunto a promise of extending themselves even unto a tenth Generation , doth not belong : But I speak in this place of a Paint or Varnish , the Works whereof shall not be consummated ; neither shall there be a Disease or Poyson resisting it : or as the Text hath it , There shall not be a Medicine of destruction in the Earth , and the Almighty hath made all Nations of the Earth curable . But by a more full looking into the matter ; all Diseases , because they issue from the fountain of the Archeus , de give place , either by reason of Amulets being hung on the Body , and Medicines bound about the same ; or by reason of Baths , Ointments , and Emplaisters , whereof there is not the least uniting with the Diseasie Body , but only an Odour is offered ; or if they are received inwardly , and are digested as Medicines , yet they are even presently transchanged into the Stomack , and do presently put on strange savours and figures of qualities , as they do even fully put off every condition of their former Life , unless they had rather be accounted ungrateful , or poysonsome : Yea they are afterwards altogether so truly transchanged , that they do wholly leave behind them the Image of their former act of perfection , or may scarce be reputed to have possessed it : In this respect indeed , are they for that Cause , taken in a great quantity , or abundance , that they may seem the more inwardly to breath some very small matter into a Man : And with what great dammage that is done , they have known , who have sometimes experienced , that to live medicinally , is to live most miserably . Therefore scarce any thing of those Medicines which are taken into the Body , doth resemble its former Being ; and if it doth shew it forth , woe to the Receiver . Wherefore if there were any Virtue in a Medicine , surely that was before it laid aside its own proper Nature , and antient Being : for it hath presently failed , assoon as it hath represented only its Odour : Therefore the force of every Medicine is well nigh concluded in the co-touching of its Odour , and in almost a certain momentary perfuming : Neither is there therefore , so great reason for a disturbed Rumour , to wit , because the Oyls seasoned by the little Stone , do presently cure by their Odour : Let them therefore be the murmurings of Young Beginners about the accustomednesses of parts nourished : They are altogether vain , although it shall seem Wonders unto Wits not yet meditating of unwonted matters , but being accustomed unto a subscription alone ; to wit , after what manner , the Archeus being driven into Fury , being so suddenly touched even with a white wand of Peace , doth fall asleep , or being corrected , doth abstain from his own mischief begun : But surely that is less to be wondred at ; seeing every thing doth naturally desire to be , and remain , and easily abstains from its own hurt , so it be made , or be tractable for the pacifying of its conceived Grief , or Fury . What if a Flux of Blood , an Ulcer , Wound , Bone-breach , may be presently restrained , and safely healed , if the out-hunted venal Blood , corrupt Pus , or Sanies , be over-covered with an absent Remedy ? shall not the little Stone season the Oyl with its co-touching , that it may be able , being be-smeared or anointed , to cure a Disease laying hid under it ? For truly no other thing is denoted by these Words : The Maker of sweet Oyntments shall Compose the Paints or Varnishes of Sweetnesse ; neither shall his Works be Consummated or come to an end . For why shall the little Stone touching at the Tongue , less cure , than Woolfes-bane doth cause the Tongue to swell by its co-touching ? God hath made benefits in respect of Diseases , at least , equal in authority , if not much more famous , and more : So far is it , that I should consecrate these kind of Effects to the Devil ; that I am the more powerfully moved in admiring of the divine Goodness , to adore the most ready mercies of Jesus Christ my Lord , whereby without the Labour of Physitians , Apothecaries , and others , who like Lice , are fatted only by others Miseries ; to wit , whereby the miserably Sick are the more safely and speedily holpen . Indeed Examples of these things , have of late been made manifest in external Diseases , to wit , in Wounds and Ulcers , that we may repay the Honour due to God , out of the midst of our Ignorance of Causes , and may cease to refer those things unto wicked Juggles , and uncertain Superstitions , and so unto the Works of Satan , which are the issuing Pledges of divine Love , manifested from God in the most afflicted Seasons of the deep Ignorance of Medicine , for the comfort of the Miserable and Poor , who indeed would be called the Father of the Poor , because he ought so to be . I say this kinde of Sympathetical Remedy in Wounds , hath first , and that now of late ( by the permission of God ) bewraied it self , to wit , that we may by degrees , be led by the Hand , from external , and the more appearing Diseases , unto the reliefes of internal , and the more abstruse Diseases : But that Diseases should almost by the least point of a Medicine be put to flight : To wit , that Butler could cure some ten thousands every year , by almost an infinite Faculty or Virtue , the Text hath perswaded me ; That the Works of that Maker of sweet Oyls , shall not be Consummated or come to an end . And then I ought to believe that thing , as being an eye Witness , that the touching of his little Stone hath blessed first a spoonful of Oyl , and afterwards a whole little Bottle of Oyl , with a medicinal Virtue . Indeed , I have tried and attempted many things , and that long , about the framing of that little Stone . I have learned indeed , that in the family of Vegetables , there is the Herb Chameleon , and likewise Arsmart , which by their touching alone , do presently take away cruel Diseases , or at least-wise do ease them : I have seen I say , the Bone of the Arm of a Toad , presently to take away the Toothach , at the first co-touching ; some things to take away the Falling-Sickness , and the like Calamities : Therefore I have believed , that in the Herby Family , a Remedy doth also lay hid for every Disease ; but surely that they do only obtain an efficacy of particular Diseases , but do never ascend unto a universal and renowned Government over every Disease . Wherefore I ran over unto the race of Minerals , which is enriched with a long Flux of time or ages . First of all , that the Virtue of Stones is great , I ought to believe , being admonished by the holy Scriptures . And first of all , I knew that every colour , and power of Gems or pretious Stones , is begged from Metallick ones : Because although Metallick Faculties are enclosed in Gems , by reason of the hardness of their Christal , yet they are commended in the holy Scriptures for great ones : Therefore I consider , that in Metallick Bodies , the same Faculties or Virtues of Gems , do more familiarly converse with us : For Picus in some Books unto his Wife , doth narrowly search , why Gold is of so great Price , also according to the will and esteem of the Lord : But he was not able to determine his Question : For it is certain and not to be doubted , that the names of the Planets are put upon the seven Mettals , as whereon the Celestial Virtues , we may believe , are so clearly or famously conferred : But at least-wise , let them be the nourishing or milky Juice of the whole terrestrial Globe : And therefore also for the price of things , and the desires , and rewards of frequent handlings . But the Father of the Poor hath not disposed of Sol and Lune , of Gold I say , and Silver , for the uses of Diseases in the Poor , for whom notwithstanding , he hath been eminetly careful ; and therefore he hath so firmly shut up Gold and Silver , that they do for the most part , mock every endeavour of Artificers ; so that when they are thought to be most opened , they have slackened nothing from their antient bolts . But Quick-silver , although it seem to be a certain trembling thing , and so also in this respect , very passable ; yet there is nothing in the whole race of Nature alike con-closed ; even as elsewhere , I have in a long Tract demonstrated against our fugitive Servants . Therefore scarce the hundred thousandth of Artificers ( not only of labouring Servants ) doth obtain the Arcanums which are to be prepared of Sol , Lune , and Mercury . There are therefore four Mettals besides , which do more easily obey the guidance , and desire of Artificers : So that Paracelsus doth not vainly boast , that with Lead alone , he was able to vanquish , perhaps two hundred sorts of Diseases : And nothing doth so alike victoriously act into the radical moisture , as the first Being of Copper , or is more bountifull unto long Life , than the Sulphur of Vitriol : Because it is that which doth therefore point out the Sulphur of the Phylosophers . Finally , Mars , although he be the cheapest in price , and despised for his numerous off-spring ; yet he is not reputed ( by Paracelsus ) the last , from his fighting Nature . Truly , Metallick Bodies are e●●ally closed with the Seal of a safe or harmless Homogeniety , or sameliness of kinde , a cording to their Mercuries ; but their Sulphurs are never wroth with us , they afford mutual converses , if so be they are rendred familiar unto us . Furthermore , I a long time , and carefully , so meditated about the Stone of Butler , that I thought of nothing else at the time of dreaming : For I did oftentimes see the young ones of Chymistry taking preat gains , who should pour forth bright-shining Trochies , like unto the little Stone of Butler : Wherefore I long afterwards attempted the framing thereof ; and at length , although I affirmed something to my self , to be undoubtedly the same little Stone which I had seen in Butlers possession ; yet the business succeeded not according to my desire : And at length I knew , that my errours had proceeded from an accustomed and antient errour of the Schooles : For how many soever have hitherto intended to heal by a removal of the occasional Cause , these consequently and necessarily , have had need of a certain delay , and quantity of a Remedy ; to wit , whereby they might attain a superiority : But they who shall hereafter intend to trample on a Disease only by a restauration , and restitution of the successive alteration of the Archeus , to wit , they contending to induce a placable Ferment ; Surely these Men shall attain their scope , by despising the quantity of a Remedy , and only by the touch of a fermental Odour . I therefore being as yet seduced by an antient Errour , Ignorant of a Diseasifying Essence , did believe that every great Disease was to be put to flight , not but by the great quantity of a Remedy , and a long delay of healing : To wit , I meting out the greatness of a Remedy , not indeed from a Power of Endowment ; but from the meer , and only abounding of its quantity . For I , after the manner of the Schooles , deriving Examples from artificial things , have also erred with the Doctrine of the same : For I being seduced , thought , as two Horses do draw more strongly than one alone , and a whole Loaf nourisheth more powerfully than a Crum thereof ; so likewise I thought , that for a restorative Remedy of the Archeus , the quantity of Ounces , and Drams was required , which might exceed the products of Diseases in strength , and weight . Indeed I had not yet laid aside the contracted blemish of an antient Errour , whereby Diseases are measured only by their occasional Cause , and the weight thereof ; but not by the true efficient Cause of Diseases : For I being as yet sufficiently confirmed , did not yet call to mind , that every Disease was framed and governed by the Archeus of Life , to wit , by the Life it self : And much less did I as yet thorowly weigh , that the erring Life would not be conquered , and subdued by the quantity of a Remedy : Wherefore I soon again considered of what I said before : To wit , That the Tooth of a mad Dog , of a Viper , of a wood Serpent or Land Snake , although their Spittle were first cleansed or wiped off in a Garment , yet that it would kill by its touching alone , without any of its quantity . I considered likewise , that a Liquor was known unto me , wherewith , the Hand being gently anointed , and it being dryed up , if the Chin of a Man should touch at that Hand , the haires of the Beard , Eye-brows , and of the whole Body , would a little after fall off : For if these kind of Poysons do by a gentle touching extinguish the vegetative Life ; yea and that of the haires , which do oftentimes grow after burial ; that also , Porestative or Powerful Remedies , to wit , those which will restrain the Errours of the Life , only by their touch , would by an easie Compendium or breviary , and without any perceivable quantity , besmeare , and pacific the Archeus . Indeed I was the more slowly able to apprehend that thing , being partly prevented by the aforesaid Errours of the Schools ; and partly because I saw , that if Poysons did kill by one only grain , they did the more powerfully , and speedily effect that by one dram : For I did not yet thorowly consider , that all Diseases did proceed from the Archeus , erring , or enraged ; and so that a Potestative Remedy , hath a super-eminent , and no vulgar goodness , whereby it restoreth the Errours of the wroth and angry Archeus : And much less had I as yet thorowly weighed , that therefore a Potestative Medicine ought to be inwardly admitted , as it were without the knowledge of the Archeus : Otherwise , if he doth suspect his turbulency of indignation and alteration , to be set upon , or attempted by Remedies , certainly he presently falls down into furies , he will not admit of helpful things , who being himself now Apogaeal or remote from his Center , doth through his own Errour , prove exorbitant , and will rise up into a greater wrothfulness , and conceptions of stubbornness , the fabrick of his own Diseasifying Idea . Wherefore I have most nearly approached unto the touchings of Butler , with the top of the Tongue alone , or unto Remedies administred in the weight of half a grain : For I ( for want of a name ) have called the little Stone of Butler , and a Potestative , and Fermental Remedy of that sort , after our mother Tongue , Drif ; which denoteth a virgin Sand or Earth ; and likewise in sensitive Creatures , a chasing or expelling Animosity or Sturdiness ; no otherwise than as boyling Sand doth shake off whatsoever forreign thing is inserted in it , Therefore first ; I will shew the things required in Drif , and afterwards the manner of its composition ; so far as is permitted to a Phylosopher , I will declare , least I shall prostrate Roses before Swine . 1. Drif therefore , first of all , even as I have said , requires , that it be a certain Metallick Body : Because it is that which by its long delay , doth signifie constancy , but not a hastened Corruption : And it hath compleated its circle of generation , through a long favour of the Heaven : and it seemeth to be that which by a particular ordination , is directed by the Almighty for the help of the Miserable and Poor . 2. Drif is not of those unwonted Arcanums not bestowed by God , but on a very few Adeptists , they only being certain of his choice Disciples : For truly , our Drif seemeth to be only ordained for the comfort of the Poor . 3. Drif requireth , that it be indeed of a Natural Body , partaker of a Metallick bounty , but that before , it be first made obedient and openea by Death ; not indeed with an extinguishment of its Virtues or Faculties , or like a Carcass dying of its own accord ; but the benefits of its natural Endowments being retained , that it be unlocked by the Artificer , being free from its bolts , and as it were raised up again ; yea that it be an enriched , and plainly a new Being , and rising afresh from the fire . 4. And therefore it ought to have risen again , being as it were altogether Volatile after Death , and spiritual , or to be twice or thrice sublimed , with other things added unto it . 5. But because volatile things do soon perish , are dispersed , and dissolved , even before they are admitted within , do pierce , and draw their excellencies out of their Bosome , or so are able to pacifie the Archeus : therefore Drif requires , that after its volatility being obtained , it be connexed unto a certain friendly Body , whereby it may be detained , and in its Bride-bed be communicable unto mans Body , and grateful and familiar unto our Archeus : And therefore , it ought to obtain that thing , as it were a middle place between a Body that is easily and not easily difflable or to be blown away : And likewise it ought to be connexed unto its mean , while its heat being now almost at the highest , it shall be mild ; to wit , least the volatitle Body , in the co-kniting , do in a great part of it , fly away . 6. And for this cause , it ought to be plainly fermental , not onely in its constancy of Body , but in the extension of its virtues ; so that through the least participation of its Odour it may be able to extend its virtues into the Archeus , and to sleepifie and asswage the same . In which Six Particulars , as Drif is described ; so in a like Number its Composition is discovered . First of all , In the Book of the Disease of the Stone , in the dainty dish for Young Beginners , I have explained a manner of Distilling , whereby the Spirit of Sea-Salt is drawn or allured forth with Potters Earth being dried . For the Salt of the Sea is akin unto us , and desireable by us , neither is it adverse unto us in any of its Tenour . Therefore for Drif , the residing Salt of the Sea , remaining in its Dreg is required , to wit , it being extracted from its Dreg or Lee , which is called the Caput Mortuum or Dead Head. That Salt , I say , being now spoiled of its Spirits , doth desire strange ones , and doth lay them up within it self : yet it doth not altogether stubbornly fix them . 2. I have likewise taught , That the first Being of Venus or Copper , cannot be sequestred but by the Death and Separation of its Mercury from its Sulphur : But moreover , that neither is that Sulphur to be had but in the possession of Adeptists , whose number as it is choice and most rare , so also it is altogether small . 3. I have taught moreover , That in Vitriol , however its Venus being now depraved , and the more often distilled , yet that the very actual Venus doth as yet remain . 4. Wherefore Drif it self requires at least-wise a Sequestration of the Venus from the Feces or Dreg of the Vitriol , which is not otherwise compleated than by Subliming . 5. Which Sublimation is also of necessity made and perfected by a forreign fermental Being ; yet altogether friendly to the Archeus . 6. Therefore the Sea Salt extracted out of its Dreg , being poured forth , before its every way co-thickening ; Let about a threefold quantity of the Being of Venus , being raised again by Subliming , and accompanied with its strange or forreign Ferment , be co-mixed with it : and presently let the roof be covered . But when they shall become wholly cold , beat them into a Powder under Marble , and adjoyn thereto , about a tenfold quantity of Usnea or the Moss of a Dead Man's Skul , in respect of the Ens or Being of Venus . Which Powder compact thou into Trochies upon a Stone , with mouth or fish-glew being dissolved : And thou hast a Noble Medicine . CHAP. LXXX . Of material things Injected or Cast into the Body . 1. What material things are Cast in from without . 2. Some Histories . 3. The Matter of the Deed is admitted , yet it is Disputed concerning the Manner of Injection . 4. The penury of Judgement in a Searcher out of Magical things . 5. That it doth not exceed Nature , that a solid Body is derived without breaking , by a Passage far more narrow than it self . 6. A History rehearsed by Cornelius Gemma . 7. Some Histories of the piercing of Bodies . 8. The piercing of Bodies in passing thorow to a Place , is proved . 9 The same thing in passing thorow out of a Body . 10. There hath been a familiar piercing of the Dimensions of humane Nature . 11. The same Property doth sometimes persist in the Seeds of things . 12 After what manner those things may naturally happen . 13. By a like Example in dark Bodies , which cease to be seen . 14. A Reason by a Conjecture . 15. There is an especial and free force concurring in Enchanting , and therefore also natural unto man. 16. A man as he is the Image of God , doth create some Beings , which are something more than Non-beings . 17. In an imagined Being or a formed Idea , there is a right of Entity or Beingnesse . 18. After what manner an Idea may fall out from the Imagination . 19. How the Soul of man doth create Images . 20. An Objection is Solved . 21. Some Paradoxes of the imagining Soul , for the constituting of an Idea . ANd then also there are things Injected or cast into the Body , which do suppose a visible matter . Of which sort are Darts or Arrow-heads , Sharp Thornes , Chaffs , Haires , Sawings , little Stones , shels of Eggs , and earthen Pots , Parings or Shels , and Husks , Insects , Naperies or pieces of Linnen Cloath , Needles , Instruments of Artificers , the which are indeed unsensibly darted into the Body , and do enter altogether after an invisible manner ; yet are they detained and cast forth with cruel Torments : And it may be , are oftentimes greater than their hole whereby they are sent in . For of late there was part of a Buffe or Oxe Hide Injected thorow the pores of the skin , the skin remaining entire ; the which the Chyrugion drew out with his Tongues unto the bigness of the Palme of ones hand : Yet an Aposteme was first ripened : But a Witch being burnt at Bruges , confessed that she had cast in that piece of Hide into the good Man. So in times past we have seen the Children of Orphans to have cast up by Vomit the sharp Stake of an Harp , it being drawn out by the hands of the Standers by : To wit , the four-footed Bench or Balk , being furnished with its wheele and Strings . But in whatsoever scituation the sharp Stake could be placed , it was easily ( by twofold ) bigger than the Throat . I have seen at Antwerp in the Year 1622 , a little Maid , who might vomit up perhaps two thousand of Pins , together with Hairs and Filths , in a heap or lump . Another Virgin in the Year 1631. At Mecheline , who we being present , did Vomit up Wooden Sweepings shaved of with a Plain by plaining , together with much sliminess , unto the quantity of two Fists . It is a frequent thing , being seen in many places , and admitted of by Learned men : Yet the more deriding ones do stick at it , because they cannot understand , how things which are far more big , do go forth thorow a small passage . For some do excuse the matter , so that although they may seem to be rejected by vomit ; yet they will have them never to be admitted within : I say they esteem them the mockeries and bewitchings of the eyes , while they issue forth to appear anew , and do bring us tidings afar off . Indeed they do admit of true things : For Insects do live , Mettals are melted , and Woods do burn ; all things do by degrees voluntarily go forth , or are drawn forth with the hand : But others think , that in very deed such things are cast within and darted into the Body ; but they know not the manner thereof . Delrio with his followers do grant , that they are brought within the Body , and that they are in very deed such as they appear to be , and therefore they refute the foregoing Opinion . But as to the manner of enterance and utterance , they affirm , That those things are broken in pieces by the Devil into a most fine powder , that they are restored within in the Body , into their former integrity , figure and conditions : But while they issue forth , they affirm them to be again beaten into fine powder , and that in the instant time of their going forth , and on this side the strait or narrow port they are again reduced into their antient Being ; to wit , that Woods , Needles , Toads , living Creatures , are broken into powder , and as often reduced unto their former habit , and to revive : For these men , do deny that they do agree with the other in the foregoing Opinion ; while as notwithstanding they say the same thing with them , for their utterance , and enterance : To wit , that those things do not in very deed enter , or go forth , even as otherwise they seem unto the standers by , seeing they enter or go forth whole : but being first poudered . They suppose the same bewitching of the eyes , which do think things to be whole which are onely powders . For Martin Delrio doth frequently suppose that , indeed to infringe his own Judgements : For concerning Magical Inquisitions , in his Treatise of the making of Gold , when as he had theevishly described Arguments word for word out of Geber , and Bonus Ferrariensis , he at length when as he declares his own Judgement , doth forge 18 Contradictories . Truly I believe that it is resistant with piety , if a power which exceedeth Nature be attributed to the Devil ; To wit , to make , destroy , and again to re-make , and so often to reduce the same thing from a privation unto a habit , whose dispositive seed had already come unto its end . But those that are ignorant of Nature , do presume that they are the Secretaries of Nature by the reading of Books : but whatsoever lies hid unto them , let it be either unpossible or false , or juggling and diabolical : As if Satan were above Nature , and could operate things impossible to Nature . I grant him indeed a forreign manner in operating 〈◊〉 but surely he , as yet , ought to be restrained within Nature . Therefore I will shew , that there is not plainly a need of the help of Satan , that a certain solid Body be derived thorow a Passage far less than it self , without the breaking of it in pieces : Because that this also is certain , That indeed all such Injections , are immediately made by man , but not by Satan : For although the evil Spirit hath a motive Blas , yet it is contrary to piety , that he should be able to hurt the Innocent at his pleasure . Which thing surely should come to pass if he should in all places Inject those kind of things according to his wicked will , into the little ones . I have seen , I say , these things to happen in the guiltless , in pious Virgins , and in those who have been singularly dedicated unto God. Corn. Gemma concerning Cosmocriticks or Judicials of the World , hath mentioned , that he saw a piece of a brass Gun , of three pound or fourty eight ounces , the which a Maid a Coopers daughter , had voided out thorow her fundament , with its characters or letters , together with an Eele wrapped up in his own skins or coverings . But it is impossible for Nature to melt a powdered Mettal in us , and for it to be detained in the Bowels , for so great an interval of Moneths , in his antient figure : For an Eele together with his coverings to be so often bruised in pieces , and to rise again from death : And for pieces of Wood and Hide , to be so often broken in pieces , and again to be restored into their antient state . For I have seen at Bruxels in the Year 1599 , that an Oxe having taken three Hearbs , vomited up a Dargon with his Tail like an Eele , a Hidy Body , a Serpentine Head , he being no less than a Partridge . The manner is unknown how Nature could do that . The manner is alike unknown how Satan could do that . They therefore gain nothing who refer the work of Nature unto the Devil . But whether they do sin others shall see : For it hath been at least-wise an invention of huge sloath , to have referred all things which we do not comprehend , unto the Devil . Truly I find a very near , or co-touching penetration of the dimensions of Nature , although not an ordinary one . Neither will I that the Devil be invoked to satisfie us in our questions , through a rash attributing of Powers unto him . There is a History of a Polonian , a Countrey fellow , being lately seen by the son of the Lord Ericius Pouteanus : The rude man had attempted to open a Squinancy in his own Throat with a short knife , the which he at unawares swallowed down , and at length he with much corrupt pus , and after many anguishes , restored the same again out of the right side of the bottome of his belly , and survived in health . Likewise at Vilvord , in the Year 1636 , a country-man , known to me , being willing to fat a Cow , gave her every day a pot wherein he had boyled pot-herbs with bran : At length she becomes more and more lean daily , and began to halt with her right leg : the Cow being slain , a short knife of his Wifes being wreathen into a box haft , was found hidden between her ribs and shoulder-blade ; for the country-woman in cutting of Rape roots , had left the knife among the pot-herbs , and the Cow in drinking had swallowed it . In like manner Ambrose Pareus , relateth of a certain man , whom Robbers had compelled to swallow a knife , the which he afterwards safely restored by an Aposteme of his side . Alexander Benedict mentioneth another , whose Back a Dart had pierced , the hook or crook whereof , of the breadth of three fingers , he afterwards voided thorow his fundament without hurt . The same man tells of a Venetian Maid , who had swallowed a Needle , and she two years after voided it our by Urine , being incrusted in a stone . The same thing Anth. Benevine , that a Woman of Tuscany had swallowed a copper Needle , the which three years after , she being in health , had voided nigh her Navil . Valesius de Taranto tells of a Venetian Maid ( perhaps the same ) who cast forth a needle of three fingers length with her Urine . A certain Capuchin of Eburo , called Bullonius , his Sir-name being Hampreau , drank a great Spider , which he had seen to have fallen down into the Challico alive , at the time of the daily Sacrifice , with much averseness of mind . Within few dayes a Phlegmone or enflamed Tumor arose in his right Thigh , and at the time of the first corrupt pus , he restored the Spider whole from thence , yet dead . A Merchant of Antwerp , his young man playing at Venice with an unripe ear of Barley in his mouth , swallowed down the same with great fear of Choaking : After three weeks from thence , an Aposteme appeared in his left side above his girdle , and at length , the same ear of Barley was drawn out whole with the corrupt pus , it being now of a clayie colour , but he escaped safe . According to Fernelius , a studious man is read to be restored by him , who rendred an Ear of Corn thorow his Ribs . Writers also do rehearse , that the Young being sometimes dead and consumed in the Womb , hath dismissed its bones thorow the Womb and Abdomen by the Navil , and sometimes by the Fundament . Many such like things are met withall among Authors here and there , which are worthy of credit : Whereby it is manifest , that solid Bodies , big enough , have prerced the Stomack , Intestines , Womb , the Omentum or Caule of the Belly , Abdomen , Pleura or Skin girding the Ribs , Bladder , Membranes , I say , which are impatient of such a Wound , That is , knives to have been transmitted thorow those Membranes without a Wound : which is equivolent with the piercing of Dimensions , made in Nature without the help of the Devil . But that the Body of a Man may be drawn thorow a small hole , thorow which a Cat only is able to pass , yet not thorow a Wall : Yea that the Devil is not able to break a Paper Window without the consent of his Master ; is to be seen by the Process and Arrest pronounced against a He Witch by Lodowick Godfred , at Aquisgrane of Narbonie , on the last Day of [ the second Moneth called ] April , 1611. At length , where have three pounds of Brass of a piece of Ordinance marked by its letters lurked in the Body ? After what manner shall the dross grow so many Moneths ? in what part is a piece of Brass detained , which is bigger than the Intestine ? For while I treated of a necessary Vacuum in the Aire , I promised that I would declare , that although a penetration of Bodies be forbidden , by the primary Law of Nature , and after the common manner of Artificers ; yet while a Body doth wholly pass over , and is translated into the jurisdiction of a Spirit , and is as it were weakened by it , that then Bodies do naturally pierce each other , at least-wise in what part they are porie : because the Spirit doth then shut up the Body under it self , and so doth as it were take away dimensions . I will premise some things : A desire of eating Muskles invaded a Woman great with Child ; but she are some of them rashly or over hastily , so that also she devoured the raw Shells , being twice or thrice ground with her Teeth : presently afterwards , within an hour , she brings forth an healthy Young , and of a ripe growth ( together with those half-chewed Shells ) and wounded in its Abdomen : Therefore , the Shells presently pierced the Stomack , Womb and Secundine , without an opening of those Membranes , or new Shells were generated upon the Young : But neither can this latter thing be true ; for they were the true fragments of the Shell-Fishes , but not having strove for an imitation figuratively : And then , the Appetite is not carried unto an unknown object ; therefore the Appetite of eating the Shell-Fishes , was not of the Young , but of the Woman : Therefore there was no necessity that new Shell-Fishes should be generated about the Young ; for they were desired by the Mother , that they might be made a nourishment for her self , and not for her Young : Otherwise , by the same argument of identity , whatsoever things are desired , are alwayes generated about the Young ; by the which , seeing they could not be at all digested , they should either alwayes be made to reside about the Young , or should in the same place putrifie ; the which is false in either manner ; for if that which is desired should putrifie , it should cause Abortion , or being there conserved , should be regularly found , for the Young is nourished only by the Navil ; wherefore those external Shell-Fishes were neither desired by the Young , nor were profitable unto the same ; and by consequence , neither were they made anew by nature for an end , but were dismissed unto the Young , as the Appetite was of the Womb : The Appetite is alwayes directed by the end ; but the Woman great with Child , desireth Shell-Fishes , not Shells , neither also that the animal Shell-Fish , should remain in its former state , entire , wherein it is unprofitable to the Mother , neither gives satisfaction unto her Appetite : Therefore , much less had it the occasion of generating new and unprofitable Shells about the Young : At length , however it may be taken , the Appetite was not for Shells , twice or thrice scrounched ; for if the Shell-Fishes had been cut out of the Shells , she had eaten the Fishes themselves , having left the Shells : And therefore the concomitance , and co-breaking of the Shells was accidental to her Appetite : Indeed I suspose , that as desire , affrightment , &c. do generate seminal Idea's , which the Hand of a Woman great with Child doth dismiss unto the Young , and decyphers in a set place ; so the joy of that being found , which was desired , brings or derives that very thing unto the Young : For so the sorrow of the Knife being swallowed , the horrour of the Spider being drunk , and of the Eare of Barley being devoured , doth repulse the same , thorow the Membranes which are impotent of , or unable to endure a Wound without Death . These things , of things injected , which enter the Body by an ordinary Power of Nature , without the suspition of a co-operation of the Devil . Some such like thing there is , in things that are from within , drawn out of the Body , the which I will enclose in one only , or two Examples . The Wife of a Taylor of Mecheline , saw before her Door , a Souldier to loose his Hand in a Combate , she being presently smitten with horrour , brought forth a Daughter with one Hand , but dead , through an unfortunate and bloody Arm , because the Hand thereof was not found , and a flux of Blood did kill the Infant . The Wife of Marcus of Vogelar , a Merchant of Antwerp , in the year 1602 , seeing a Souldier begging , whose right Arm , an Iron Bullet had taken away in the Siege of Ostend , and who as yet , carried that Arm about with him bloody ; by and by after , she brought forth a Daughter deprived of an Arm , and that indeed her right one , the Shoulder whereof being as yet bloody , ought to be made whole by the Chyrurgion ; she married a Merchant of Amsterdam , whose name was Hoocheamer , she also surviving in the year 1638 : But her right Arm was no where to be found , nor its Bones , neither appeared there any putrifying Disease , for which the Arm had withered away in a small hours space : Yet while the Souldier was not as yet beheld , the Young had two Arms : Neither could the Arm that was rent off , be annihilated : Therefore the Arm was taken away , the Womb being shut : but who plucked it off , naturally , and which way it was taken away , surely , trivial reasons do not square in so great a Wonder , or Paradox . I am not he that will shew these things ; only these things I will say , that the Arm was not taken away , as neither rent off by Satan : And then , that it was a thing of less labour , for the Arm being rent off , to be derived else where , than it was to have plucked off the Arm from the whole Body , without Death . A Merchants Wife known to us , assoon as she heard , that 13 were to beheaded in one morning ( it happened at Antwerp , in the time of Duke Alban or D'●lue , ) and Women great with Child are led by inordinate Appeties ) she determined to behold the beheadings : Therefore she went up into the Chamber of a Widow , her familiar acquaintance , dwelling in the Market place ; and the spectacl being seen , a travaile pain presently surprized her , and she brought forth a mature Infant with a bloody Neck , whose Head no where appeared : At leastwise , I do not find , that mans Nature doth abominate the piercing of dimensions , seeing it is most frequent to the Seeds of things . Thou shalt bring forth Children in Sorrow , is the punishment of Sin : Before Sin therefore , she had naturally brought forth tall Young , without pain , at least-wise of that bigness , with which we are now born : But not that a Woman had been unsensible before Sin , but because it had gone forth , the Womb being shut . Therefore it was a proper or familiar thing to humane Nature from his Creation , for dimensions to pierce each other ; because he was made , that he might live in the Flesh , according to the Spirit : But Nature being corrupted , that authority of his Spirit over his Body perished ; and therefore Woman doth thence-forward , bring forth after the manner of Bruits : Yea Writers do make mention , that Ulcers or Imposthumes are made thorow the Bones , that all things are carried upwards and downwards , without the guidance , or commerce of the Vessels . Indeed that primitive efficacy of piercing Bodies , doth as yet consist in the seeds of things ; but is not subjected by humane force , art , or will , or judgment : For there are many Bodies much more ponderous than the Matter from whence they are composed : It must needs be I say , that more than fifteen parts of Water do co-pitch into one , that one only part of Gold may be thereby made : for weight is not made of nothing , but doth prove a matter weighing in an equal tenour : Therefore Water doth naturally , as often pierce its own Body , as Gold doth exceed Water in weight : Therefore a home-bred , and dayly progress of Seeds , in generations , requireth a Body to penetrate it self by a co-thickning ; the which is altogether impossible for an Artificer to do . Let us grant pores to be in the Water ; yet these cannot contain fourteen times as much of its entire quantity . It is therefore , an ordinary thing in Nature , that some parts of the Water do pierce themselves into one only place . And the Seeds do act this by virtue of a certain Spirit , the Archeus : For although the Archeus himself , as well in the aforesaid Seeds , as in us , be corporeal ; yet while he acts by an action of government , and sups up the matter into himself , he utters many effects not unlike unto enchantments ; because in speaking properly , the Archeus doth not imitate enchantments , but enchantments do follow the rule prescribed by the Archeus : to wit , as he doth operate far otherwise than Bodies do on each other : As in affects of the Womb , the Sinewes are voluntarily extended , the Tendons do burst forth out of their place , and do again leap back ; the Bones likewise are displaced , by no visible mover ; the Neck riseth swollen unto the height of the Chin , the Lungs are stopped up from air , unthought of Poysons are engengred , and the venal Blood masks it self with the unwonted countenances of Filths . But as to what doth belong unto the penetrations of Bodies , our Archeus sups up Bodies into himself , that they may be made as it were Spirits . For example , Aqua-Fortis doth by its Spirit make Brass , Iron , or Silver , remaining in their own Nature thick or dark , so transparent , that they cannot be seen , and doth transport a mettal thorow merchant Paper ( the which otherwise doth not transmit the finest Powder thorow it ) it as yet , essentially remaining in the shape of a mettal ; but not that the similitude of the piercing of dimensions , doth uniformly square with the Example of a Mettal proposed : Because ( as I have said reasons do not suite with so great a Paradox ; where I do willingly acknowledge the manner to be undemonstrable from a former Cause : Even as no Man can know , after what sort an Idea imprinted on Seeds , may figure , direct , and dispose of its own constituted Bodies : And therefore we will search after the same , from the effect . First of all , let it be supposed , that the Devil hath no authority or command over us against our will , unless by the peculiar permission of God : For know ye not , that we are the Temple of God ? and that the very Kingdom of God dwelleth in us ? which thing , is to be re-furrowed from its original . First therefore , it is of Faith , that we are the sanctuary of the holy Spirit , that the holy sacred Trinity doth make its mansion with the Just ; That the delights of God are with the Sons of Men , unto whom he hath given Power to become the Sons of God ; but Children being Baptized , are innocent , just , of them is the Kingdom of God , the fitted Temple of God : Yet Children are killed by enchantments , sooner than others : Therefore it must needs be , that that thing happens from some free Faculty , that it concludeth with the excellency of a Christian , ( especially of a righteous Man ) that the Devil hath no right or authority of entring , or introducing of his Means ; Seeing it is all one to him , to have hurt by a medium , or by himself . There is therefore a far other Power of enchantment , besides the Devil ; and therefore a natural and free one : over a righteous Man he hath no command : But if the Devil should have a free Power of enchanting , it should also be alike free to him , of killing by a Knife , or a Hammer , and so none should be free : Yea , if the Devil could , he would not enter within the Skin of a just Man , by reason of the divine presence of the Kingdom of Heaven : Indeed the Devil doth behold God to be present in a just Man , after another manner , than any where else , which is an everlasting Cause of his hatred toward us : neither therefore doth he enter , although he could , but he goes about as a roaring Lyon. Therefore a Witch , doth by a natural Being , imaginatively form a free , natural , and hurtful Idea , the which Satan cannot form ; because the forming of Idea's requires the Image of God , and a free Power ; and therefore Witches do operate by a natural virtue , no less on the righteous and innocent , than on wicked men . Yea , seeing enchantments do more easily infect Children , than those that are of ripe years , Women , than stout Men ; A certain natural Power , limited in the enchantment , is signified , against which an opposition is easily made , by a warlicke , and strong or stout mind . The Devil therefore , offers Filths or Poysons to his Clients , that he may fermentally co-knit their Idea's formed in the imaginative faculty of these : Yea he preserves that Ideal Poyson , that it be not blown away by the Wind , or that being over-covered in the Earth , it be not destroyed by a putrifying by continuance : But he locally derives that Poyson , according to the object which is to be enchanted ; yet he is no way able to apply them , or to bring them into a Man : Therefore a Man also doth afterwards dismisse another exsecutive , issuing , and commanding Mean to enchant a Man , which Mean is the Idea of a strong desire : For it is a thing unseperable from a desire , to be carried about desired Objects : In all which the Devil being only a spectator , is an assistant in its passage ; Because in very deed , I have already demonstrated , that the operative means themselves do belong to man alone : For God alone is the Creatour , most glorious , and to be praised for ever , who hath created the Universe of nothing : But man , as he is the Image of God , doth create some Beings of Reason , or non-beings , in their beginning of nothing , and that in the proper Endowment of an imaginative virtue ; the which notwithstanding , are something more than meerly a privative or negative Being . For first of all , while those kind of conceived Idea's , do at length cloath themselves with a Body , in the shew of an Image framed by the imagination , they are now made Beings , subsisting in the middle of that garment , wherein they do equally reside throughout its whole ; and in this respect do become seminal , and operative Beings ; to wit , by whom their very own assumed Subjects are straightway wholly directed : But this Power is given only to Man : Otherwise , a seminal virtue for propagation , is given to the Earth , bruit Beasts , Plants , &c. And likewise , a Dog is able by madness , to transfer his Spittle into a Poyson , because it is proper or natural to his Species : The which also is easie to be seen in diverse Poysons of living Creatures : But to form Idea's abstracted from their Species , and adjacent properties , that is granted to none but Man. Also by a more full looking into the matter , it is seen , that if in an Idea formed by the imaginative Faculty , there was not the authority of a certain entity or beingness president , which was not able to cloath it self , or assume a Body , yea neither could it be associated by the imaginative Faculty , to the Body of the Archeus : For truly that which is in it self meerly nothing , doth effect nothing , hath also negatively a right unto nothing : And therefore the conception should perish presently after the conceit , neither should it cause an Idea : yea if it should be a meer nothing , it should presently also wander into nothing : But seeing the plantasie doth proceed from a conception , unto a formed Idea or Image , and from hence unto a seminal Being , it follows , that the conceit is made [ this some thing ] in the imaginative faculty : That is , that the imaginative faculty doth create a certain seminal Being , which is a Beginning dispositive unto the formality of a Being in Power : Even as out of a Steel and Flint , a spark doth arise , from whence there is a flame very greatly operative : So the imaginative Faculty , doth co-rub it self on an Object by a conception , from whence there is an Idea : And therefore the act of imagination , is not so of nothing , that it hath not some foundation in it , approaching unto a principiating realty : For the imaginative Power hath for this end , either Images proper unto it self , conformed with the Soul ; ( as many do believe ) or at least-wise , Images sometimes present , being stirred up by the Memory , and re-called again by remembring . But I consider of these things ; not that Essaies or flourishes of Idea's do fore-exist in us , before that which is Imaginatively conceived , that they may be the conceived Images of a proper name ; but that they are made by a co-touching of the imagining Power in act , ( that is by the Image of that which formeth ) and of the Object imagined : And therefore the Soul doth nakedly form an Image out of its own Bosom , the which , unless it do presently bind up in the Archeus , it also perisheth , and for that very cause becomes barren : Neither doth that hinder , that in Fevers , or Diseasie watchings , we do against our will experience the shadows of Images : To wit , the which foolish shadows of Images , do walk up and down without a connexion and discourse , before the imaginative Faculty : But whatsoever imagined thing doth voluntarily walk up and down , yea and bring labours or troubles , we being averse thereunto , and unwilling thereof , that very thing must needs fore-exist , as it were shadows laid up before an imaginative force be reflexed upon them . But those kind of Idea's , are sometimes confusedly imprinted , they running back out of the storehouse of the Memory , but not that they had fore-existed before every act of imagining . And likewise , neither doth it prove ; that because the aforesaid shadows of Idea's are confused , oftentimes ridiculous , and false , therefore neither ever before conceived by a sound imaginative Power : For truly Images or Likenesses , being once naturally determined , and seriously constituted , a second , third , and further Image is brought in upon it , and they do fold up , and pierce each other , whence there is a confusion : Otherwise , the following Image doth by course destroy the former , if it be opposite unto it , but if not , and if it agree with the former , it is comforted ; or if there be any crookedness between both of them , both are confusedly undetermined , and wander as being shadowie Images ; which thing surely no way brings help unto the supposed fore-existance of Idea's . It hath alwayes seemed to me , that Idea's are stamped anew , by the act of the imaginative Power , like a spark which is made anew by a co-rubbing of the Steel and Flint : Neither doth this derogate any thing from the activity of Idea's , no more than sparks unto a great flame . I answer therefore unto the first Objection : That as Fire is not present in the Steel and Flint , before a co-smiting of them : So neither doth any essay of Beingness , or footstep of an Image fore-exist , before a conception , and co-rubbing of the imaginative Faculty on the Object ; but every original entity of an Idea , doth arise in the act of conceiving ; and a true Idea is made , while the spark ( which elsewhere should presently perish ) doth fall upon the Fewel , and the conceived Image fals on the imagining Fewel of the Archeus , from whence the most powerful flames of Diseases do follow . Notwithstanding , because the treatise of Idea's doth most nearly touch Conceptions , I defer , and omit further to discourse of Idea's . CHAP. LXXXI . The manner of Enterance , of things Darted into the Body . 1. The one only means whereby the Devil doth co-operate in darting things into the Body , is the juggling deceit of the Eyes , that they may enter invisibly . 2. A motive and determined or limited Blas belongs to the Devil . 3. How much Man may contribute hereunto . 4. The primary or chief Curing of things injected . 5. A natural Cure. 6. The variety of Gifts in Simples . 7. The Author proceeds by way of naming them 8. Karichterus is commended . 9 A fore-caution in Herbs . 10. The manner whereby things cast into the Body , being once expelled forth , do hasten their rejections . I Will now proceed to supply the manner , whereby things darted or injected into the Body , do enter or are admitted ; and also I will subjoin their Remedies . First of all , things injected or cast into the Body , do enter it invisible : And this one thing is meerly diabolical . For truly , the most miserably Mocker , seeing he hath nothing real which is left him in liberty , hath only vain appearances ; because the father of a Lie dissembles things themselves , and makes them falsly to appear , from the Beginning of the World. In these kind of juggles , a Man who is the Devils Bond-slave , co-operates nothing : But after what manner Satan doth make things which are in themselves visible , not to be visible , whether he involves them in his own invisible Spirit , and doth enclose the things themselves round about ; or in the next place , doth act by a bewitching of the Eyes , or also at the very same time wherein any thing corporally pierceth another ( as hath been already at large shewn by Examples ) it be perhaps for that Cause invisible ( for whatsoever looseth the dimensions of a Body , may also deceive the sight ) at least-wise I am not a curious Searcher out of the Works of Satan , which do in propriety belong unto himself : And it is sufficient for me , that what things are believed to belong to him , I have shewn to be proper to Man , and that I have discovered the every way , and most poor misery of Satan . Things therefore which are to be cast in , being made invisible , the Devil transferreth unto an Object , the Idea of mans desire directing their passage : For because it is not any way granted to the Devil to enter into a Man , much less to hurt him , and least of all , that he should encompass him with an invisible burden : Therefore he makes use of the free Blas of a Man which is bound over unto him . A Man therefore doth imprint his own free motive Blas , on a Body which is made invisible ; but the Devil derives it even unto to the man into whom it is cast : And as a Knife is through the desire and consent of the Person wounding , infixed into the Flesh of him that is to be wounded ; So this Body being made invisible by the Devil , is cast into the Body of him that is to be enchanted , by an Idea of the motive Blas of the Witch ; Satan conspiring hereunto , as for direction of the smiting Man. The Cure of things injected , is performed partly by Remedies , famous from the rise of the primitive Church ; the which do not operate but miraculously ; but why they do not regularly alwayes , every where , and amongst all , obtain their effect , I leave it to others : But I do not touch at the unsearchable judgments of God ; as neither the Remedies which are out of the compass of Nature . And partly also , a Cure is had by some Simples , whereinto the Almighty goodness , hath put in a natural Endowment , from the Beginning of their Creation , of resisting , preventing , and correcting of Sorceries ; and likewise of expelling things injected ; such as the suffumigation or smoakiness of the Liver , according to Tobias , is read to be . And such as that of Salomon , or Eleazer , according to Josephus , Lib. 8. Chap. 2. For some Simples do drive away evil Spirits ( a miserable rout of Men it is which gives its service of adoration unto Gods , who are not able to resist the natural , efficacy of simples . ) In the next place others take away the penetration of a formal light , being fast tied to excrements : Some likewise do at least hinder their touching , enterance , or application . Finally , many Simples there are which do correct those kind of Poysons , and kill them . First of all , the Mineral Electrum or Amber of Paracelsus , which is immature , being hung on the neck , freeth those whom an unclean Spirit doth persecute ; the which I my self have seen . But I remember that the drink thereof hath delivered many from Sorceries : But there is none , who ( that Simple being hung on the Body ) which shall not prevent , that things Injected are not sent or admitted within , or that is presently not loosed from importunate bands . Barth Karichterus chief Physitian to Maximilian the Second , the chief among Physitians ( that I know of ) hath dedicated a small Germane Treatise ( as taking compassion on his neighbour ) unto his Master : Wherein , with a few Herbs , he cureth any , and after what manner soever they are enchanted . He hath preferred his Standard-defending Simple Daurant ( it is the Phu of Diascorides ) with Purple Flowers ( it is the last kind of Valerian in the last Edition of Mathiolus ) before all ; I also greatly esteem Vervaine with a Purple Flower , the more herby St. Johns Wort with a small Flower , Southernwood , Adia●tum or Venus hair , Rue , &c. And likewise red Coral , and the extracted tincture thereof , I have experienced to have brought much refreshment . We must use the Herbs raw , cut , but not boiled : Because their entire power consisteth in the integrity of their composed Body . Therefore the Ideal faculty of the herbs perisheth by pownsing or contusion . But Herbes are gathered , and Roots are digged up in a station wherein there is the more of vigor , and therefore also presently after Sun-rising . For things Injected are driven forth , no otherwise than as a Snake from the Fire . But Divines are wont to consume things Injected , which are rejected in the Fire , for a disgrace of the evil Spirit . Those things indeed do thus rightly perish , yet the relapsing returns thereof , are not thus hindred . Therefore things Injected which were expelled , are more rightly involved and kept in Simples , in any whereof there is an expulsive force . With the like reason whereby Sympathetical Remedies do cure an absent Wound , do these endowed Simples drive away things Injected , do detain , and restrain them that they are not Injected , and do delude the vain endeavour of the Magitian . The weaknesse therefore of an in-darting Being is deservedly suspected , which cannot send in things that are to be cast into the Body , because a certain hindering Herb is present , and President . Therefore the force which derives things Injected inwards , is not that of the Prince of this World , and of a most powerful Spirit : But that of a certain Ideal and more infirm Being , which doth so easily hinder all enterance for the future . CHAP. LXXXII . Of Things Conceived , or Conceptions . 1 The Spleen is the Seat of the first Conceptions . 2. As well the Idea's of the Immagination , as Archeal ones , do issue from the Spleen their Fountain . 3. Therefore also they smell of an Hypocondrial faculty or quality . 4. The Plague alwaies begins about the Stomack . 5. Of soulified Conceptions . 6. Idea's from the Womb. 7. Madnesses . 8. A mad Irreligion . 9. The reality of Conceptions in respect of the Matter and efficient Cause . 10. Presumption doth blind almost all mortal Men. 11. An occult madnesse . 12. Diseasie Conceptions . 13. Diseases of the Womb. 14. Womb Phantasies . 15. An instruction of every Monarchy . 16. A double Government in a Woman . 17. The Womb is not ill at ease but from things conceived . 18. The Female Sex is miserable . 19. Diseases of the Womb differ from their Products . 20. The Cure of its last or utmost Fury . 21. A twofold Idea of things Conceived . 22. The rise and progresse of a Feverish Dotage . 23. The progresse of Idea's unto their maturities . 24. The Entry of all good is in Faith. 25. The flourishing of Passions . MOreover , a Diseasie Being is like unto things Injected , the which I call that of things conceived ; For although this Being doth not come to us from without , nor is nourished from elsewhere ; Yea neither doth Satan co-operate with it : yet because it doth not much differ in its root , manner of making , and a certain likeness d●●fects , from some Injected things , I have not unadvisedly referred things Conceived , among Spiritual things Received : Unto the clearing up whereof , I have already premised many Prologues . Wherefore I have already elsewhere demonstrated the Imaginative Power of the first Conceptions to be in the Spleen , and that it is from thence extended unto the Stomack the companion of the Duumvirate , and that also it is hence easily , and originally ( in the other Sex ) extended unto the Womb. The Spleen therefore is as well the Fountain of Idea's Conceived in the imaginative faculty of a man , as of the Archeus himself . The Archeus hath his own and peculiar Imaginations proper unto him ( for whether they are the Phantasies of a true Name , or onely Metaphorical ones , it is all one to me in this place ) for the sake whereof , he continually feels Antipathies , and self-loves , and from thence stirs up derived motions . Surely the Conceptions of the Archeus , doe forthwith attain the most powerful determinations in the aforesaid places : Because they smell of their native place , they are Hypocondriacal Qualities , they bear the Monuments of the first , and undistinct motions . And although a soulified immagnation , which is there delayed without the strength of impression , or the inclination of any prejudiced thing , may be at length made as it were sleepy , undistinct , and almost confused ; wherefore indeed , times do seldome wax gray or old with carelesness : yet those which in the very shops of the first Motions , receive the deliberation of some Passion , do also allure unto them the Spirits made old in the Brain , do undergo the contagion of the place , and are made and forged by the Judgement of a deprived Idea , and do seminally bring forth affects co-agreeing with their Causes : To wit those which are suspected of Hypocondrial madness , confusion and disturbance : For therefore we do all of us suffer , every one his own anguishes of mind ; Yet the already mentioned Archeal imagination , as it neither desireth the consent of the Soul , so neither doth it exspect it , and therefore it happens unsensibly , and without our knowledge . Therefore indeed the Plague , whether it be made from a terrour conceived in the Soul , or next from a proper Vice of the Archeus , yet it alwayes holds its first consultations about the Orifice of the Stomack : For the Idea's of the Archeus are most powerful , also the most fierce ones of Diseases ; Because they being irrational , do happen unto us without our knowledge , and against our will , and therefore also incorrigible , and are for the most part out-laws , and do therefore invade us after an unthought of manner . I will now treat of soulified Conceptions , because they are the more distinct , and sensible ones ; whosoever they be , which do as it were weaken , insatuate , and now and then enchant themselves with the perturbations of the first motions , and the conceived Idea's of these , they afford a fit occasion unto the aforesaid Causes : And although this kind of Vice , doth sometimes invade even learned , and judicious Men , produceth foolishnesses , and crabbishnesses ; Yet it is more social unto a Woman , by reason of the agreement and nearnesse of affinity of her Womb. Indeed the Womb , although it be a meer Membrane , yet it is another Spleen : And therefore it doth as it were by a proper instinct of the Seed , presently wrap it self in the external Secundines of the young , as it were another Spleen : As elsewhere in its place . Not indeed that a Woman , doth by this Vice of Nature forge execrable Hypocondrial Idea's for the destruction of others , after the manner of Witches ; but they are hurtful onely to themselves , and do as it were inchant , and infatuate , and weaken themselves . For they stamp Idea's on themselves , whereby they no otherwise than as Witches driven about with a malignant Spirit of despair , are oftentimes governed , or are snatched away unto those things which otherwise they would not , and do bewail unto us their own , and unvoluntary madness . For so ( as Plutarch witnesseth ) a desire of Death by hanging , took hold of all the young Maids in the Island of Chios : neither could it be stayed but by shame or bashfulness , sore threatned unto them after death . Seeing therefore the Vice of things Conceived doth also touch men ; let the Reader be averse to wearisomness , if it shall behove me to stay the longer in these things , who as the first , do touch at this string in healing . Therefore , if mortals shall dash themselves into a presumption of Faith , if they depart from the Word of God , and for the explications of their own consent in Opinion , do as it were behold themselves in the glass of their own complacency , they now thereupon do stamp on themselves staggering Idea's , and those of a careless Religion , they , from one point , [ being at first doubtful ] do dispute ( as being uncertain ) of more , they proceed un●●●theism through a height of Irreligion . But if they shall fall into Superstitions , they 〈◊〉 Idea's agreeable unto Necromancy or Divination by calling of Spirits , from whence they prepare an apt Soul for Stygian or Hellish Vanities : Whereunto ( as unto those who are become mad ) the enemy of mortal men doth now very easily associate himself ; especially if a stubborn Superstition be defended , and that with a strong desire of hatred , or some other Sin : For they stamp Idea's on themselves , which are second unto a voluntary blindness . We must here again call to mind with the first , that all Ideal Images are seminal in respect of a real Being brought forth by imagination : And then in respect of the Spirits ( as they are vital , and married to a conceived Seed ) whose matter they do assume , or table on , which they are deciphered , they are made the Instrument fit for executing the ends of Idea's : Therefore by both these Prerogatives , they pierce the Archeus , and do estrange him unto the strange Scopes of their own Perturbations . If therefore Faith , and a confident Superstition do offend onely through credulity or a rash belief ; now they forge Idea's whereby they think themselves enchanted , uncurable , and are made the servants of a desperate madness : For their strength being prostrated , they are made lean , and being mad , do wax pale . But if an undiscreet , and inordinate scrupulousness doth vex them , it self frameth a careful Idea on them disturbed with the fear of Hell , from whence their Life is a Horror unto them ; Their Conversation of all things is Fearfull ; almost , as if it were Diabolicall : For they generate a foolishness , the which they acknowledge , confess , bewail , because they are not able to free themselves from it : And at length , they , as impotent , do so fail or decline , that they snatch to them an Idea as it were their Soul : But if a scrupulousness do run back unto the mind for deliberation , before a totall victory , and nevertheless doth in the mean time , stamp new , and inordinate Idea's ; It being unstable easily wanders into the opposite part , and , as if now abhorring its former scruple , doth assume a Spiritual liberty , with a presuming on desert , and a despising of others . For which way soever it endeavours to rise higher , it is sunk so much the deeper : For presumption is nothing but a vain madness , hanging alwayes on others Wills or Judgements : Yet is it as it were proper unto the most of mortals : For by reason of Virtues , Wit , Learning , Birth , Riches , Beauty , Strength , Boldness or Courage , Arts , much Talking or Voice , every one forgeth Idea's applauding himself ; the which do make almost the whole World mad : Of whom it is said , That the number of Fools are Infinite . But the most hurtful madness of Presumptions is in Political matters , and it is that of boldness , because it is that which doth oftentimes subject its own unto a tormenter . Surely madness is seldom without Presumption , if Stupidity be not akin to it : For indeed the Idea of Faith , Despair , Scruple , Irreligion , Arrogancy , Esteem ; &c. because they respect the Powers which are more abstracted and Intellectual , and do the more oppose infused Grace , they do for the most part , so beget a hidden madness , that it is not but slowly discerned by Spiritual , and those much Exercised men . Which be-madding Idea's , those do follow in Order , which belong to the more corporeal Disturbances . For first of all , as an hard emulation of Jealousie , is a Hell , which throws a man headlong into very many Miseries : Also , in the next place , the Idea's of Lust and Fornication , do besides Madnesses , stir up also many Sicknesses together . But all Exorbitancies of Disturbances , if they are sudden , strong , frequent , or of daily continuance , they imprint Idea's and Infirmities like unto themselves , therefore also durable for Life . Indeed there are some who are truly wise , but if they shall pitch upon a matter whose Idea hath made them mad , they do presently bewray an occult madness : I say , a suddain terror and grief have oftentimes extinguished some with an un-fore-seen Death . In others also they have at least-wise caused a Sounding : They have stirred up in many Women an Issue of their Menstrues durable for Life . But if the force of an Idea shall not tyrannize on the venal blood , and therefore shall not banish this as hateful , but shall keep it in its possession in the place about the short Ribs ; it there seals the Falling-Sickness : But lingring grief , and that which is by intervals , being interrupted with a little comfort , doth stamp an Idea , from whence Hypocondrial Melancholly in Women : but the Jaundice in Men is bred , if the Idea's be sealed in the blood : But if in the very bowel of the Spleen , it attemps an Asthma and Choaking : But if grief be connexed with an Idea of Despair , it breeds the Palsie , or Convulsion , especially in Virgins : But lingring grief when it is joyned with premeditated anger , or hatred , doth bring forth Sobbing , trembling of the Heart , or a stubborn suppression of the Menstrues . Yea , if those kind of Passions shall be strong , they cause the Falling-Sickness , and Abortion or a Miscarrying , or do Choak those Women which go with Child . If anger be suddain , and the which notwithstanding ought to be restrained or dissembled ; It stamps an Idea from whence there are Fallings down of the Womb , wandrings unto its sides , with intollerable pain ; but in Men there are Asthma's , Shortness of Breath , and a Fever , which at length passeth over into the Jaundise , or Dropsie . If a violent affrightment or Fear doth rush upon one , Epilepticall or Falling-Sickness Idea's are forged , which do remain for Life . But Hatred and Avarice do generate a Leanness , or Atrophia or Consumption for lack of nourishment ; they stamp I say , Idea's answerable to their own Desires , and they decline so far to folly , that they little esteem of their own Life , and Fortunes of their Neighbours , believing that nothing doth happen unto them , more pleasant in their Life , than the shameful Satiety of Revenge : For those kind of Idea's do make Lean , and because they are bred by slow , and resolute Perturbations , they increase day by day , and do for the most part continue for term of Life . Neither also doth the Seed being corrupted , or the Menstrues detained , stir up Diseases of the Womb ; but these are latter Products , and Defects coming upon the Idea's of alterations . For the Womb , as it hath a particular Monarchy , so also particular Diseases : Because every exorbitant affect of the Womb , is a certain madness , or befooling of the Archeus in the Womb. For even as there is a ferment of a be-madding fury in the Spittle of a mad Dog ; an Idea , I say , which a little after doth make him that is bitten , Mad : So in some Simples , there is a sealifying faculty of Madness , and sealed in some Excrements being detained , or bred in the raging Womb ; a madness of fury there is in them , which doth either propagate the madness conceived , on the off-springs , or perseveres with barrenness unto the finishing of their radical Fury . Surely it listeth me to contemplate of a Power in the Womb , like unto the imaginative one of the first motions ; As it were of a most powerful Blas of the Stars , turning and overturning all things upwards and downwards : For the Womb hath had its own Government hitherto , and hath kept it entire over the whole Body ; yea alwayes hath cruelly exercised it , unto the sore troubling of the Sex which is to be pitied . But for the instruction or orderly preparing of every Monarchy , a certain governing Faculty ( such as in malice , and affects of the Womb , doth clearly appear to be monstrous ) is alwayes primarily required , and another angryable Faculty which is unfolded under a womanish Life , by the diverse animosities of affections : The disturbances of which Faculties , and the overflowing exorbitances sprung from thence , certainly , do presuppose nothing less , than the fury of the Womb : For what can be more madly done , than that the Womb should strain the Neck of a Woman , and miserably destroy its own subject ? should contract the Pores of the Lungs ? should violently powr forth the whole Blood ? For truly at the killing of its Woman , the proper death of the Womb doth of necessity follow : therefore this very thing is by consequence , to cause its own destruction , by a deliberated force . From whence the argument of a twofold Monarchy in a Woman , is at least-wise seen : To wit , from a duality of the Womb with the Body of the Woman , the Enemy of of Unity , and Fuel of discord : But although such a choaking doth for the most part , take its beginnings from the disturbances of the mind , and Idea's stirred up from thence , and the which being deadly , doth obliterate the birth or original , comeliness , and life of the whole Body , like unto Hornets that are stirred up : Yet the Womb in a Woman surviveth , so that , she that travaileth , being dead , the Womb hath expelled its Young , sometimes many hours after : Therefore there is in the Womb a certain Animosity and Fury , from Idea's conceived , exercising the Vicarship of the mind from a certain Being , and it is in the Womb by reason of its singular Life : Every Disease therefore of the Womb is potestative , being directed by the government of the Womb , either on it self , or on the Body of the Woman : From whence entire Idea's may be not unfitly discerned from corrupted ones . For seeing the Womb governs it self , and lives in its own Orbe , from a strange venal Blood ; therefore it is scarce ill at ease , unless it be weakened by a Being of things conceived ; yea it is alwayes after some sort mad , as oft as it is ill at ease : For whether the monthly Issues shall stop , or immoderately flow , are discoloured , waterish , black , clotty , offend in the smallness of quantity , Gonorrhea's or the Whites do issue forth , or the Womb it self being moved from its place , being eccentrical , doth hugely deface , or destroy , or in the next place , being unmoved , doth bring forth an alterative Blas , or produce effects nigh akin unto an enchantment ; or lastly , doth stir up the Being of an Apoplexie , Epilepsie , Palsey , giddiness of the Head , Megrim , pain of the Stomack , Jaundise , Dropsie , Wounding , Asthma , Convulsion , Heart-passion , &c. it is all one ; because its Fury varieth not but by its Tragedies , wherein it abuseth its Power , and the Womb sporteth by a Monarchal liberty , over the whole entire Body : For truly , without material Vapours , it bears the Keys , wherewith it open the Veins , stirs up incredible fluxes of Blood , and without any motion of it , it shuts the Pores of the Lungs according to its desire , yea and takes away the transpiration of the whole Body at its own pleasure : For it is president or bears sway over the Moon in the Body , it despiseth Age , Nature , Maturity , and untimely Ripeness : And likewise it causeth Abortions , and takes away fruitfulness , and in the mean time , compleats its voluptious Fury by a Lord-like tyranny : It perfects the sore shakings of the Joynts , deprivings of Speech , dis-joyntings of the Knuckles , for the Luxury of its Fury : And although a Woman be not mad under so great Evils , yet the Womb is mad in all the aforesaid exorbitances . She is miserable therefore , who layes under such a command ; She is subject I say , unto so many Diseases as a Man , and doth again obey the same from the Being of her Womb : For she also at this day paies a double punishment , as in Eve she is guilty of a double offence : Yet the Womb is not a part of the Man , as she is a man. It is indeed in man , and lives by his venal Blood , no otherwise than as Glew by a Tree , and that sexual part commands the whole Body , much more powerfully , than the Stones do in a Cock or a Bull , who in their gelded ones do expresse notable varieties . For truly , not only every part doth hearken unto the Womb ; but the violent commands of the mad Womb do punish the Body of the Woman , together with her Life . Indeed the passions of the Soul do only stir up the Womb , as it were a sleeping Dog , and the Womb doth thereby assume a cruelty , and presently compels the innocent Woman to repent of its madness : And moreover also , it oftentimes reflects its fury on the very Powers of the mind , by which it had been long since provoked , that it may boast of its absolute command over all things . For the Idea's of the passions of the Soul , as oft as they are importunate on the Womb , if they are introduced into the angryable Faculty of the Womb , and do pierce it , they as forreign and hateful ones , do straightway disturb it ; from whence the impatient Womb doth stir up it self into diverse furies : Which thing also even from thence , was not hid to Plato , while he named the Womb a furious living Creature . In the next place , although from the fury of the Womb , as well the proper Cook-room thereof doth labour , as of other parts laid hold of by it , and from thence diverse excrements are stirred up , being made remarkable by the seminal Idea's of furies ; yet those same excrements are only products : That is , although madnesses arisen from conceptions , do bring forth their foolish Idea's , and do decypher them in the strange tables of excrements , by the inordinacy of a part of them ( even as the madness of Dogs doth pass over into the Spittle ) yet by a removal of the occasional product , although Diseases may be allayed or eased , the fury of the Womb is not Cured : Because that product being taken away , was a latter thing or effect , causing neither the former madness in the root ; so also neither reaching to it , but only aggravating it : For the curing of madness arising from things conceived in the Womb , requires an extinguishment of the fury of the Idea conceived , by appropriated Secrets or Arcanums ( for they cannot be overcome by opposite Idea's , seeing the Woman is now uncapable to form Idea's that are wholesome for her self , so long as she is restrained by the fury of her Womb ) and afterwards a rectifying of the Organ , for otherwise the madness doth very easily return . Hellebore indeed ( which is wont of old , to be singularly commended for madness ) doth lighten the weightiness of conceptions , in as much as it takes away some what from the aggravating product : but surely it cures it not , but in nature sitting ; and that helps it self , as a mad Person , who hath become mad by a proper doting Being , arising out of the proper Idea's of his own excrement : Notwithstanding , the foolishness which hath arisen from a sudden perturbation , although it may oft-times depart by such a Remedy , Nature by its goodness buisily supplying the rest ; to wit , the Spleen , and Brain being cherished or fomented , if they shall the more slowly proceed unto a recovery : but because the madnesses of conceptions do arise from mental Idea's , hence they do so deeply pierce , that they do also radically defile the fructifying Seed in its Spirit , and the madness of the generater is traduced on the posterity . Therefore an Idea conceived in the imagination of the sensitive Soul , is twofold . For there is a certain one which proceedeth from the diseasie Seeds of things : For we see a Calfe to grow mad , and a Dog to die with madness ; likewise a Wolfe that is mad every year , to be restored by incredible fasting : The which Paracelsus ridiculously ascribeth unto the slow Star of Orion : I say it proceeds occasionally , the Power of a forreign Seed being introduced into us , until our Archeus doth borrow from thence the Idea's of fury , the which himself stirs up on himself , and himself cloaths himself withall . Indeed there are Idea's in some Simples which do naturally infatuate ; not indeed that they naturally destroy the temperature of the Brain : Because it is that which doth clearly understand without a temperature ; and those temperaments are meer dreams ; but because they confer there own Ideal character , and do occasionally imprint it on the Spirit , the instrument of the imagination , and stir up Idea's agreeable to their own Idea's : For so the Poyson of the Tarantula , or Dog , do propagate determined , and their own only and proper befoolments : And so those that are careless , having taken in some Simples , do become mad according to their inbred Idea's . The other madness therefore of conceptions , doth arise from things bred within : So in the first place , Dotages in a Fever , are not from things assumed ; but from excremental Idea's degenerated within . And there is moreover , a twofold variety of Idea's conceived within : One madness indeed , being sprung from mad Idea's , through a wandering abuse of the imaginative Power , doth seal it self in the Archeus , and so from its resembling mark doth pierce deeper , and continually , or repeatingly extends it self on the Life ; but the other madness is bred in feverish and hostile excrements , as in the same , some like thing doth occur , the which we have known naturally to inhabit in the aforesaid Simples : And therefore these kind of madnesses , because they are entertained in a corporal , forreign , and hateful Being , they do not so deeply pierce into the inbred Archeus of the imaginative Power . For at first , Feverish Filths do bring forth un-sleepinesses , afterwards dreams interrupted by wakings , and at length more continual ones , the labour and tiresomeness whereof , do produce their own Idea's in the excrements , from whence doting dreams opposite to waking ones , are seen : For if dotish furies should be bred in Fevers from Simples , or Excrements , mocking with a similitude of proportion ; certainly Dotages should assault us in the first fit , neither should they expect a heap of dayes , unless the Idea's of the tiresomeness , and labour of dreams , should manifestly engender a dotage . What if draming Idea's do cut asunder the cords of judgment ? what shall not the Idea's of Apprehensions , Affections , Passions , and Considerations beget or cause ? especially as oft as they being advanced to the height , do defile the Archeus , by violently corrupting , or fermentally bespattering of him ? for the three former are scarce stirred up of their own accord , but are moved and provoked by some foregoing passion : For an abusive perswasion , and credulity , or esteem of falshood , do at first seduce a man into a despising presumption of others , or into an indignation of self-love , anger , hatred , or wrathfulness towards his Neighbour : From whence indeed there is also an unbelieving Religion , Superstition , Scrupulousness , Impenitent Arrogancy , and Drunken desparation , together with Carelesseness . For as Faith is the gate unto Humility , which is the truth of the Intellect or Understanding ; So a credulous esteem or judgment of Falshood , is the entrance of Presumption and Arrogancy , and the first madness of the Soul. For therefore among Miracles , one that was foolish from things imagined , is scarce read to have been restored to health ; because such do ( for the most part ) become foolish from an impenitent pride , and refusing to return into the Truth . But disturbances , as Love , Desire , Sorrow , Fear , Terrour , are especially stirred up by extrinsecal occasions ; and therefore they do produce their Effects , not only in the Soul , but also in the Body : For all Passions do in their Beginning , take away sleep , and then they do at first weaken the desired act of eating : And at length through a long , immoderate , strong , or sudden inordinacy , their Idea's do infatuate the Archeus : The strength whereof is not elsewhere to be measured , than from an exact piercing , and co-mixture of them with a great or small quantity of the Archeus : For the Soul apprehending , or discoursing by little and little , is accustomed to follow without strife , whereby it is oftentimes , and violently led aside willingly with plausibility , or unwillingly , by reason of a superiority of apprehensions : For the Soul is made conscious of that journey , although a straying one , because an accustomed one : And deviations are manifest , ●●d hidden , or unknown , continual , or those renewed afresh . Indeed the manifest ones do presently bewray their excentricalness of madness , it being conspicuous in all things , and about all things : but the more occult and hidden ones , do not appear but in some points , and conceptions ; to wit , whereby the Soul hath been once shaken out of its place , and the judgment sorely shaken ; whose Idea's have indeed been imprinted on the Organ , by reason of a dayly continuance , or plausibility ; that is , by reason of strength and superiority : But in the other points , they seem rightly to perceive . But as to that which concerns the curing of conceptions , I profesly deliver the same hereafter , in a Chapter by itself , and in a Theme or Argument plainly Paradoxal . But now I directly behold or cast my eye on the Affects of the Womb : For from the Effect , I am induced to believe , that in enchantments , the most powerful part of the whole tragedy , doth depend on the Idea's of the bond-slaves of the Devil , and so that they do originally proceed from conceptions , even as I have demonstrated in its place ; because those things which naturally do help those that are enchanted , do also cure the passions of the Womb , and on the other hand : but that the Womb which else is quiet , is stirred up into animosity or wrathfulness , by anger , and grief , is so without controversie , that it is known to poor Women , and old Women themselves : Neither doth any thing hurt the virtues implanted in the Womb , which is plainly a non-being ( as a cogitation is ) unless it be made most nearly to approach into the form of a Being , at the original of all motions in us . But I have endeavoured by a long tract of Words , to convince of this progress in Idea's : Wherefore also I am constrained to ascribe the like nativity in enchantments : For indeed , although Odoriferus and grateful Spices do weaken many Women ; yet any ill smelling and stinking things , ought not therefore to cure them : For Example ; For Assa , or the smell of fuming Sulphur , do not refresh distempers of the Womb , as they do stink ; for neither do they alwayes equally refresh all Women alike , or simply ; but because they restrain , or slay the Idea's that are imprinted without the Womb : So although sweet things do weaken them ; therefore bitter things , as such do cure them : For I have taught , first of all , that contraries do not exist in Nature . Wherefore an argument from the contrary sense , although it may be of value in the Law ; Yet not in Nature : because the contentions and brawlings of the Law are not found in Nature : Neither is it to be thought in the mean time , that the Remedies of the Womb do consist in that which is temperate , as it were the middle of Extreams , the refuge of qualities mutually broken , being taken away from extreams , but altogether in a free Arcanum : So indeed ; that although no Simple be an unpartaker of the first Qualities ; yet things appropriated do least of all cure the Affects of the Womb in respect of those Qualities : But such a kind of Arcanum is the fire , or sweetness of the Sulphur of the Vitriol of Venus or Copper ; and likewise the volatile tincture of Coral , the Essence of Amber , the Agath-stone or Jet , the Nettle with a white-hooded Flower that doth not sting , the black Gooseberry , Ballote or the kind of Horehound so called , Rue , Southern-wood , Sage , Nep , the berries of Elder , of Wallwort or dwarfe-Elder , Assa-fetida , the wart or hillock of a Horses Ham : Golden shining Coral therefore is a stony Herb , or an herbie Stone born for the destruction of Sorceries : For even as Sorceries are made by an Idea irregularly transplanted in filths ; to wit , the which Idea was already before seminal in its own Spirit ; yet while it it inserted in filths , it wanders into a Poyson : So indeed the seminal virtue in Coral is inserted into a stonifying matter : If therefore there be he , who can seperate the vegetable part from the stone of Coral , now an endowment of Nature it attained , or the Idea of that Simple , which doth vindicate and transplant the Idea's transplanted into a Poyson : For I have observed how unvoluntarily the Devil could endure this Stone : Because I knew a Noble-man enchanted , on whom , although Bracelets of Beads of Coral were strongly bound , yet they would presently burst asunder from thence : The like whereof doth occur in that ; because Women being ill at ease , bright golden Coral doth presently wax pale , as it were taking compassion on them ; the which notwithstanding , doth resume it● former brightness of redness , with the health of the Womans Womb. But not any kind of Simples do equally cure the enchanted , as neither all Affects of the Womb alike ; for all particular Simples have their own Endowments , their Idea's , and do take away hurtful Idea's their compeers . To wit , Southern-wood , Sage , and Rue , do drive away the Idea's of Fear : Mugwort , the Nettle , Ballote , and black Gooseberry do prevail in cases contracted from Grief : But Assa , Castoreum , the Elder berries , the Essence of the Agath or Jet , in cases caused from Anger . But Nep , Valerian , and Venus or Maiden-Hair , in cases resulting f●●m the Idea of Hatred : Even as Saint Johns Wort and the third Phu , in Idea's that are ●●l of Fury : So an Hare dried , the Stones of some Beasts being dryed in the Smoak , the rod of a Stage , Agnus Castus or the Willow Vitex , and Amber , in Idea's bred through the suggestion of Lust : But the mineral Electrum , Coral prepared , and the greater Arcanums , do after some sort ascend unto a universality : whereunto the Secundines of a first-born Male , the Gaule of a Snake , &c. do most nearly approach . Truly the greater Secrets perpared by Art , or things appropriated by natural Endowments , do scarce leave any one destitute . Furthermore , how much the method proposed doth deviate from the Schooles , let themselves judge : for they do acknowledge the Disease of the Womb , after a rustical manner : To wit , they have only known the inordinacies of the Menstrues , and the Gonorrhea's or Whites ; because they refer the inordinate lusting of the Woman with Child , and stranglings of the Womb among Sumptomes : For they weigh the retaining of the Menstrues by a stoppage , and are vainly intent to Cure it by opening things : For they have been so accustomed not to heale , or make sound their Patients , that the name of Sanation , hath departed into Oblivion , and Curation hath obtained its place : For so they will have immoderate Courses to be cured by an inordinate opening of the Veins , it being an undistinct observance with the common sort . In the next place , it is a thing full of Mockery ; that they do endeavour only by Phlebotomy , to help as well the retained , as the immoderate flowing Menstrues . In those being retained , they do only cut a Vein of the Ancle ; but 〈◊〉 their inordinate Fluxes , the liver Vein in the Arm : In both Cases I say , they do draw out venal Blood in equal quantity ; because they have sometimes found , that Nature being as well full of Danger and Fear , as empty of Blood and Strength , hath now and then desisted for a space , from the begun fury of a Flux : Perhaps it shall be alike , if they shall make an Horse that is too wanton , to halt through hurting of a Tendon . But the Menstrues failing , the Schooles have now forgotten Obstructions , and as if the suppressing thereof did involue a necessary Plethora or abounding of Humours , they command a Vein to be cut ; the which is to have fought against the Effect , but not against the obstructing or stopping Cause . They know not , I say , that the Menstrues being detained , do offend through a fury of the ruling power or faculty : They sometimes give Solutives repeatedly to drink , and those things which are feigned to be hot in the third degree : In the mean time , as being unmindful of these , they hand forth Steel divers wayes vexed , to drink . I wish the World had known with what vain succours they do disturbe Women , how earnestly they labour in unstoppings , throughout the whole Christian World , and how much the Schooles are busied , that they may derive the errours of their ignorance on the omissions of others : For they enjoyn a strict obedience of diet , the which command , if they shall not obey in all things , even but once to a very smell , they cry out that they have laboured , and endeavoured in vain . In the mean time the strang , or inordinate lustings of a Woman with Child , although they have discerned that they are in vain attempted by their Purgations ; yet while they are destitute of better Remedies , they do never theless , every where administer Purgations in curings of the Womb. The stranglings thereof also , the cruel spectacles of Death , they endeavour to withstand by stinking things applyed to the Nostrills , others do present Theriaca or Triacle to the smell ; but most do violently thrust the Conserve of Rue with Castoreum , in at the Mouth : Being ignorant at least-wise , how much the sweetness of Sugar doth stir up the sleepified fury of the Womb. Lastly in so great an Agony , a conjectural healing is hoped for , by stinking and sweet-smelling things , being applyed unto diverse places . Ah cruel wickedness , that would pacifie the furious or mad raging Womb , by a phantastical or imaginatory revulsion : Vai● are the counsels , and helps of Physitians , which are administred without a knowing of the immediate Causes : For they know not how to apply a finger in the easing of the Malady , and they leave the whole burden on the Womens Shoulders , until they being strangled , do voluntarily give of or die , or by a strong fortune do return unto themselves , the circle of fury being measured or passed over . Frequent Visiters the while , do exhaust their Purses and Strength . Most kind Jesus , who when living on the Earth , barest so great a care of Widows and Virgins , and now alone administring the Monarch-ship of Heaven and Earth , have pity on Physitians , that hereafter they may take a meet care of the more harmeless , and miserable Sex , and may search after due Remedies : Bend their Minds , that they may not refuse to learn , and that under a blessed Unisone of Harmony , we may all alike meditate the one thing altogether necessary , which is to fulfil thy most lovely Will , by worshipping thee with an annihilating of our own will into the supercelestial Ocean of thy sanctifying Will. Amen , ah ! I wish Amen . CHAP. LXXXIII . The Magnetick or Attractive Power or Faculty . AS concerning an Action locally at a distance , Wines do suggest a demonstration unto us : For every kind of Wine , although it be bred out of co-bordering Provinces , and likewise more timely blossoming elsewhere : Yet it is troubled while our Country Vine flowreth , neither doth such a disturbance cease , as long as the Flower shall not fall off from our Vine ; which thing surely happens , either from a common motive Cause of the Vine and Wine ; or from a particular disposition of the Vine , the which indeed troubles the Wine , and doth shake it up and down with a confused tempest : Or likewise because the Wine it self , doth thus trouble it self of its own free accord , by reason of the Flowers of the Vine : Of both the which latter , if there be a fore-touched conformity , consent , cogrieving , or congratulation : At least-wise that cannot but be done by an action at a distance : To wit , if the Wine be troubled in a Cellar under ground , whereunto no Vine perhaps is near for some Miles , neither is there any discourse of the air under the Earth , with the Flower of the absent Vine : But if they will accuse a common Cause for such an Effect , they must either run back to the Stars , which cannot be controuled by our pleasures , and liberties of Boldness ; or I say , we return to a confession of an Action at a distance : To wit , that some one and the same , and as yet unknown Spirit the Mover , doth govern the absent Wine , and the Vine which is at a far distance , and makes them to talk , and suffer together . But as to what concerns the Power of the Stars ; I am unwilling , as neither dare I according to my own liberty , to extend the Forces , Powers , or Bounds of the Stars , beyond or besides the authority of the sacred Text , which saith , it being pronounced from a divine Testimony ; That the Stars shall be unto us for Signs , Seasons , Dayes , and Years : By which rule , a Power is never attributed to the Stars , that Wine bred in a forreign Soile , and brought unto us from far , doth disturb , move , or render it self confused : For the Vine had at some time received a Power of increasing and multiplying it self , before the Stars were born : And Vegetables were before the Stars , and the imagined influx of these : Wherefore also , they cannot be things conjoyned in Essence , one whereof could consist without the other . Yea the Vine in some places , flowreth more timely ; and in rainy or the more cold years , our Vine flowreth more slowly , whose Flower and Stages of flourishing , the Wine doth notwithstanding imitate ; and so neither doth it respect the Stars , that it should disturb it self at their beck . In the next place , neither doth the Wine hearken unto the flourishing or blossoming of any kind of Capers , but of the Vine alone : And therefore we must not flee unto an universal Cause , the general or universal ruling air of worldly successive change ; to wit , we may rather run back unto impossibilities and absurdities , than unto the most near commerces of Resemblance and Unity , although hitherto unpassable by the Schooles . Moreover , that thing doth as yet far more manifestly appear in Ales or Beers : When in times past , our Ancestours had seen that of Barley , after whatsoever manner it was boyled , nothing but an empty Ptisana or Barley-broath , or also a Pulpe was cooked ; they meditated , that the Barley first ought to bud ( which then they call Malt ) and next they nakedly boyled their Ales , imitating Wines : Wherein first of all , some remarkable things do meet in one . To wit , there is stirred up in Barley a vegetable Bud , the which when the Barley is dryed , doth afterwards die , and looseth the hope of growing , and so much the more by its changing into Meal , and afterwards by an after boyling , it despaires of a growing Virtue ; yet these things nothing hindring , it retains the winey and intoxicating Spirit of Aquavitae , the which notwithstanding it doth not yet actually possess : But at length in number of dayes , it attaineth it by virtue of a Ferment : To wit , in the one only bosome of one Grain , one only Spirit is made famous with diverse Powers , and one Power is gelded , another being left : Which thing indeed , doth as yet more wonderfully shine forth ; When as the Ale or Beer of Malt , disturbs it self while the Barley flowreth , no otherwise than as Wine is elsewhere wont to do : And so a Power at a far absent distance , is from hence plain to be seen : For truly there are Cities , from whom pleasant Meadows do expel the growing of Barley for many Miles ; and by so much the more powerfully , do Ales prove their agreement with the absent flowring Barley ; in as much as the gelding of their Power , hath withdrawn the hopes of budding and increasing : And at length the Aqua vitae , being detained and shut up within the Ale , Hogs-head , and prison of the Cellar , cannot with the safety of the Ale or Beere wandering for some leagues , unto the flowring eare of Barley , that thereby as a stormy returner , it may trouble the remaining Ale with much confusion . Certainly there is a far more quiet Passage , for a magnetical or attractive agreement , among some agents at a far distance from each other , than there is to dream an Aqua vitae wandring out of the Ale of a Cellar , unto the flowring Barley , and from thence to return unto the former receptacles of its Pen-case , and Ale : But the sign imprinted by the Appetite of a Woman great with Child , on her Young , doth fitly , and alike clearly confirm a magnetisme , or attractive faculty its operation at a distance : To wit , let there be a Woman great with Child , which desires another Cherry , let her scratch her Forehead with her Finger ; without doubt , the Young is signed in its Forehead with the Image of the Cherry , which afterwards doth every year wax green , white , yellow , and at length looks red , according to the tenour of the Trees : And moreover , it much more wonderfully expresseth the same successive alterations of maturities : Because the same Young in Spain ( where the Cherry-tree flowreth about the end of [ the 12th . Month called ] February ) hath imitated the aforesaid Tragedies of the Cherry , far sooner , than amongst us : And so hereby , an Action at a distance is not only confirmed ; But also a Conformity or Agreement of the Essences of the Cherry-tree , in its wooden and fleshy Trunk ; a consanguinity , or near affinity of a Being , unfolded on the part by an instantous imagination , and by a successive course of the years of its Kernel : Surely the more learned ought not to reject those things unto the evil spirit , which through their own weakness they are ignorant of : For surely those things do on all sides occur in Nature , the which through our slenderness we are not able to unfold : For to refer whatsoever Gifts of God in Nature our slenderness doth not conceive of , unto the Devil , wants not an insolent rashness : Especially when as all demonstration of Causes , from a former thing or cause , is banished from us , and especially from Aristotle , who was ignorant of whole Nature , and deprived of the good Gift which descendeth from the Father of Lights , unto whom be all honour , and sanctification . CHAP. LXXXIIII . Of Sympathetical Medium's or Means . I Deferred above , to close up the Treatise concerning things Injected , until it should be sufficiently and over-manifested concerning things conceived : For I have conjoyned things Injected , unto things Conceived , because they stood connexed in the root of the imaginative faculty : But I have shewn how much both of them may hurt and weaken us : one indeed as it were a forreign being drawn from some other place , and derived from far into the Body , heaping up a various Calamity ; but the other bred at home in our possession : There was only remaining to be searched , Whether those Brans had nothing of fine Wheat adhering unto them ? whether nothing could be fetched from the same Beginnings , which might be as a recompence for so great maladies ? I have therefore discerned first of all , that Sympathetical Medium's are co-bound together with them . In the year 1639 , a little Book came forth , whose Title was the Sympathetical Powder of Ericius Mohyns of Eburo , whereby Wounds are Cured without application of the Medicine unto the part affected , and without superstition ; it being sifted by the Sieve of the reasons of Galen and Aristotle ; wherein it is Aristotelically , Sufficiently proved , whatsoever the Title promiseth : but it hath neglected the ditective Faculty or Virtue , which may bring the Virtues of the Sympathetical Powder received in the bloody Towel , unto the distant Wound : Truly from a Wound , the venal Blood , or corrupt Pus , or Sanies from an Ulcer being received in the Towel , do receive indeed a Balsam from a sanative or healing Being : I say from the Power of the Vitriol , a Medicinal Power connexed and limited in the aforesaid Mean : But the Virtues of the Balsome received , are directed unto the wounded Object , not indeed by an influential virtue of the Stars , and much less do they fly forth of their own accord , unto the Object at a distance : Therefore the Idea's of him that applyeth the Sympathetical Remedy , are con-nexed in the Mean , and are made the directresses of the Balsam unto the Object of his desire : Even as we have above also minded in Injections , concerning Idea's of the desire . Mohyns supposeth that the Power of Sympathy doth issue from the Stars , because it is an imitator of Influences : But I do draw it out of a far more near Subject : To wit , out of directing Idea's , begotten by ther Mother Charity , or a desire of good will : For from hence doth that Sympathetical Powder operate more succesfully , being applyed by the hand of one , than of another : Therefore I have alwayes observed the best process , where the Remedy is instituted with an amorous desire , and care of Charity : but that it doth succeed with small success , if the Operater be a carless , or drunken Person : And therefore I have thenceforth , made more esteem of the Stars of the Mind , in Sympathetical Remedies , than of the Stars of Heaven . But that Images being conceived , are brought unto an Object at a distance ; a Woman great with Child doth manifestly prove ; because she is she ; who presently transferres all the Idea's of her Conceptions on her Young , which dependeth no otherwise on the Mother , than from a Communion of vniversal nourishment . Truly seeing such a direction of desire is plainly natural , it 's no wonder that the evil Spirit doth require the Idea's of the desire of his Imps , to be con-nexed unto a Mean offered by him . Indeed the Idea's of desire , are after the manner of the Influences of Heaven , cast into a proper Object , how locally remote soever ; To wit , they are directed by the desire , specificating , or specially pointing out an Object for it self ; even as the sight of the Basilike , or Nod of the Cramp-fish , is reflected on their willed Object : For I have already shewn in diverse foregoing places , that the Devil doth not attribute so much as any thing in the directions of things Injected ; but that he hath need of a free directing and operating Power or Faculty . But not that I will disgrace Sympathetical Remedies , because the Devil operates something about things Injected into the Body : For what have Sympathetical Remedies in common , although the Devil doth co-operate in Injections by wicked natural Means required from his Bond-slaves : For every thing shall be judged guilty , or good , from its ends and intents : And it is sufficient that Sympathetical Remedies do agree with things injected in natural Means or Medium's . CHAP. LXXXV . Of Things Inspired or Breathed into the Body . AN undistinct novelty of things , hath long detained me in mental Receptions : Now at length I prosecute the third kind of things Received . I call them Things Inspired ; for they enter into us from without , and for the most part , together with the Air : To wit out of Dens or Caves , Fens , Mines , Mountains , Windes , Provincial places , Serpents , or Creeping Things , Filths , dead Carcasses , or growing Things . For they are the Exhalations of Things , which do treacherously , and unsensibly filch away our Life : For Illyricum and Dalmatia , being in times past , populous Provinces , and likewise Alexandria sometimes most famous ; although they have the Ground of a fertile Soile , are now almost forsaken , by reason of a cruel Poyson , which presently tends unto the conclusion of Life . So an Alchymist daily draws a wild and pernicious Gas out of Coales , Stygian Waters , and fusions of Minerals ; and the which being once attracted inwards , doth disturb the Archeus , according to the disposition proper unto every Poyson . So the Air being infected with the importunate or unseasonable ferments of a place , produceth a Gas , which affords accustomed sicknesses unto places : The which others have rashly referred unto the Tartars of places . For truly any kind of Smoakinesses do , through delay , defile the Walls of their Vessels : To wit , from whence under the sixth Digestion , diverse Excrements are forged , most apt for the putrifying of the last nourishments , and corrupting of the Vessels : because if the smoakinesses of Salts are encompassed with an hurtful mixture , they being presently melted within , do pierce and gnaw the tenderness of the Pipes ; Yet they are more mild , than those which are there collected by a dry Smoake or Fume : For if they shall besiege the tender branches of the rough Artery , they stop them up , cut off the hope of dissolving ; whereto , if the excrements of the place do grow , so as that they shut up the Air behind , they are made continual guests , and do stuff the part , that they are also corrupted , and become an Imposthume full of matter . But those things which enter together with Vapours , the watery parts being consumed , they are cruelly joyned unto the similar parts : For so many Endemical things have made Provinces unhabitable . And moreover , the Sea , however it be Salt , yet it is not free from so great Evils . The which , Shoares , by the Scurvy and a various slaughter of Fevers do testifie ; and the Equinoctial Line most manifestly of all . In the next place , the Ministers or Servants of the Sick , do inspire or breath in cruel things , being now fermented by a mark of resemblance . So they which Guild , do Melt Lead , Copper , Fire-Stones , &c. the Diggers , and likewise the Seperaters , and Boylers of Minerals : For although they do not presently take away Life , at least-wise they shorten it , and subject it to divers disasters . So they which labour in Sublimed Cinnabar , Arsenick , Orpiment , and in Stibium ; and they who prepare Minium , Ceruse , Verdigrease , the Azure of Zaffar or Saffron , and which do serve Painters . For things from under the Earth are far more constant , than to hearken unto our heat , than to be tamed or expelled thereby ; and much less that they should depart into nourishment : For therefore the Products of these are wont to remain for Life , unless through the ascending brightness of a more bountiful Sulphur , those very enemies are converted into Friends , or do seasonably depart . For the Diseases of Minerals have been touched by none but Paracelsus ; but have been neglected by the Schooles , who have alwayes dreamed of new Illiad's or commendatory Fictions upon the Commentaries of their Ancestors , and therefore have been very like to the Levites passing by in Jericho : Because they have scarce lifted up their head above Heats and Colds . For truly I have sometimes proved , that the Stomack drawes the odours of things in the cup of things given to be drunk : Indeed the places about the short-ribs do tremble , at the offered cups , with however a grateful smell they are masked . therefore also the Air bringing the Odours unto the Stomack , it passeth through the Midriff . For from hence every Endemical thing is born immediately to affect the hollow bought of the Stomack , and there to imprint Odours , Smoakinesses and Ferments : So as that they being married unto the nourishable liquor , they confound the services of Digestion , and bring forth divers Excrements . For so the Plague , with Endemicks breathed into the Body , do for the most part originally rage about the Stomack : For the passage of the Wind-pipe , seeing it stood subjected unto the Inclemencies of the Air , is to be believed to have received its Armories from the goodness of God , no less than the bladder of the Gaul-Chest have been fenced against the Urine , and its Gaul . But the Membrane of the Stomack being of a great heap , is for the most part busied about its own Digestions , is interrupted with Endemicks , is disturbed by an Endemical Being . Therefore the Cough , Asthma's , Imposthumes full of matter , Heart-beatings , and very many Anguishes do occasionally depend on Endemicks being imprinted upon the hollow bought of the Stomack . There is the same reason of malignant Fevers , of Camp , and other Diseases , which do popularly molest . Fernelius being not contented with the Doctrine of Galen , seeking the seat of all Fevers beneath the Pylorus , hath not rid himself of feigned Humours ; nor hath ever dreamed any thing of the hollow bought of the Stomack , and that a light Endemick being breathed in , should be sufficient for transplanting of the nourishment of the sixth Digestion . Tell me , what the Air , the tempest of Times or Seasons can concern the equal temperature of Humours ? For shall the hot Air of a scorching day , bring forth Choler , or an Excrement , which a more temperate day had transchanged into the venal blood of Life ? Shall thus therefore the primary Shop of Humours , be by every prerogative of right , constituted in the Lungs ? I have learned , that the Digestions are substantial generations of the transchanging Archeus , not of internal heat , and least of all of the external Air : And that the Digestions are troubled by the drinking in of an hurtful , or at least a troublesome Endemick : Also that the errors of Digestions do scarce want a diseasifying Product ; because it is proper to a Digestion to produce something in Digesting . I deny not indeed that intense cold , or heat do hurt the tender Lungs , or Brain , seeing they do also scorch the skin : But doth such a kind of dammage consist onely in a degree more superiour than humane Nature ? And there is a certain largenesse in every degree , which consisteth beneath an hurt . I now have respect unto things Inspired . But Mineral Inspirations do expect no hope of Remedy from Vegetables . I grant indeed that perfumes do hinder a speedy adhering of Smoaks in our Pipes : But they having gotten possession within , they will not refuse it by Vegetables : For they will scarce receive a healing Medicine , unless by Secrets of the same Monarchy . Wherefore I have not found any help from the Manna of a Nettle , and likewise from Semper-vive boyled in the beestings or first-stroakings of Milk , &c. The which , I with the leave of Paracelsus , do thus maintain ; and they who shall be willing to make tryal , I trust will subscribe with me . CHAP. LXXXVI . Things Suscepted or Undergone . THe fourth kind of things Received , I call things Suscepted ; such as are Wounds made by a Point , or a Cut , or Stroak , by Darting , Beating , Casting , Renting , Biting , Bruising , Congealing , Scorching or Burning , or Straining ; Likewise , breaking of a Bone , Displacing , Binding , close Pressing together , and in brief , whatsoever things are immediately subjected unto the Chyrurgion . For truly Ulcers which are bred not by a Wound rashly cured , seeing they are nourished by an internal Principle , they singularly have respect unto a Physitian . And by so much the more evidently , because any kind of Ulcers , and how malignant soever , are perfectly cured by Arcanums taken in at the mouth : Therefore Arcanums being obtained , the Chyrurgion ( being in penury ) will at sometime be idle , who is to be occupied in manual labour only , about things Suscepted or undergone . But because the fulness of dayes hath not yet brought Arcanums into use , hence there is a Liberty for Chyrurgions to invade the Physitian . In the mean time I stay not in the difference between Diseases of the similar and organical members , which is so greatly enlarged in the Schooles : Because I measure a Disease by its Archeal and immediate Causes , but not by the hurtings of the Functions : Especially because all parts how organical soever , do not depart from their homogeniety or sameliness of kind : For neither do I judge it to be of concernment , whether many Offices do concurre in one part , or whether there be a particular defect of particular Offices : Because the eye being thrust out , a Disease doth not succeed , but a Death of the power of Seeing : And therefore , an incarnating being introduced over it , causeth an healing of the Wound , but doth not restore the Death . Neither likewise do I clash with my self , although I have elsewhere said , that all Diseases do arise and are nourished from seminal Beginnings . But I will teach in this place that Wounds undergone by a Sword , do operate , in entering after the manner of artificial things ; Because the Diseases of things Suscepted are not so long as they are in their being made , but after their being undergone : For things suscepted have that thing peculiar unto them , that by themselves they rather introduce Death than a Disease : For it is by accident that a Wound doth cut asunder the fleshy part , or the Heart it self , or an Artery : And therefore a Wound in its beginning , doth threaten Death on the part whereon it is inflicted , and Susceptions do alwayes savour of the nature of artificial things : For Susceptions have first of all deceived the Schooles ; For they have argued after this manner : A Sword woundeth , that which is continual or holding together being divided , is wounded : But dividing is nothing but a relation of terms , and yet a Wound is a Disease ; Therefore every Disease consisteth onely in a relation , or at least-wise in a disposition , or effect of that relation . Which is to say , That a Disease is either a Being of Reason , or a Non-Being , ( such as is the relation of Terms ) or that a real Being doth arise from the Being of Reason . But I who do not destinguish Internal connexed Causes from the thing it self , do call Poysons , Foods , a Sword , &c. Occasions . I call a Wound , an absolute or sore threatned Death of that which is continual : But when they have brought their force into the Archeus , so that this shall be wroth through things applyed unto himself , I referre that which is imprinted by things Suscepted among Primary Diseases : For as soon as a Sword hath divided that which held together , the action of a violent occasional Cause being darted into the Archeus , is present , and this Archeus soon begins his tempests , that is , Diseases . CHAP. LXXXVII . Things Retained [ in the Body . ] THe Treatise of things Received being finished , I now proceed unto things Retained . But in things Retained , let it be sufficient once , and seriously to have admonished of this : That although they are onely the occasional Causes of Diseases , yet I have been willing to distinguish of Diseases according to the things Retained , that I might Retain the antient names of Diseases : But that the Chapter whose Title is , That the Knowledge of a Disease in its universality hath remained unknown hitherto : is sufficient for a fore-caution of those things which are to be spoken of things Retained : Whither I refer the Reader . For truly all particular things which are Retained , do stir up their own Invasions on the Archeus , and from thence also , the differences of Diseases . But those are things Retained , which are either taken into the Body from without , or are bred as domestical things within , by an internal inordinacy . For seminal things , whether they shall be forreign , or homebred , do on both sides stir up a memorable effect of their disorder on the Archeus : Which thing is easie to be seen , even in a simple Lacryma or Tear of the Eye : Because it is that which by a healthy motion of the Spirit is wholly discussed or blown away without feeling or trouble : The Spirit of the Eye being badly disposed , it is wholly thickened , waxeth clotty , or is changed into a gnawing Liquor . In the next place , things Retained do not onely vary in their unlikeness of Form ; but also are changed by reason of the dispositions of the Body : For the Body as it is more or lesse transpirable , doth vary Diseases : For some things retained are discussed , neither do they leave behind them the Root of stirring up a Relapse . Sometimes also they are forgetful of this bounty , they leave an occasional matter , and herewith oftentimes , fermental adulterous impressions , as off-springs which do stir up new Heirs or Products from themselves in the Archeus . Because the inward pores also do sweat , as the whole Body is transpirable , and as liquid things are derived into a strange harvest : The which , because they are brought out of their own cottages , they are therefore soon spoiled of their common Life , are most speedily coagulated ( as I have said concerning the Tear of the Eye ) or do remain resolved into a liquid Poyson . For so the matter of Coughs , the Dropsie , Pose , Flux , Pissing-Evil , Apostems , and Ulcers are bred . For the retained curdlings of some things do stick the more stubbornly fast , are slowly or never resolved , or they do of their own accord think of a dissolving and melting ; or they leave an impressional symptome in the Archeus , introduced for a perpetual remembrance of relapses : For so the seeds of Diseases being ready to depart elsewhere , do depart awry or mishapen . And so in the next place , Diseases do vary in respect of a six-fold Digestion , being hindred , inverted , suspended , extinguished , or vitiated . Diseases also do vary in respect of the distribution of that which is digested : For a proportioned distribution doth exercise the force of distributive Justice , due to every part : But if they are disproportioned , now there is an infirm and necessitated distribution , and that as well in respect of the natural functions , which are never idle , as of a continual transpiration , and from thence , for the sake of an uncessant necessity . But that disproportion is voluntary , and as it were an overflowing distribution , in respect of a symptomatical expulsion , by reason of a conspirable animosity of the disturbing Archeus ; or at length the distribution is disproportioned , as it is necessitated in respect of penury or scantiness ; whence at length also , no seldom dammage invadeth the whole Body : To wit , while in some part , the nourishment degenerateth , is ejected , and so is wasted : Such as is the Consumptionary spittle in Affects or Ulcers of the Lungs , a Snivelly Glew in the Stone , in the Gonorrhea or running of the Reines , &c. For seeing the part , its nourishment being once defiled and degenerate , is thenceforth never nourished , but despiseth and thrusts that forth , yet by reason of a sense of penury , that ceaseth not continually , with importunity to crave new nourishment from the dispensing faculty , and to obtain it by its importunity , that it may satisfie its thirst . Therefore new nourishment is many times administred unto it , and is withdrawn from its other chamber-fellows , because a sufficient nourishment for all parts is wanting . From thence therefore , is Leanness , an Atrophia , a Tabes , or lingring Consumption , and an impoverishment of all necessary nourishment : So indeed , Fluxes , Bloody-Fluxes , Aposthems , Ulcers , and Purgative things do make us lean and exhaust us : For the infirm parts are like the Prodigal Son , because they do waste and unprofitably cast away , being those which have badly spent whatsoever was distributed unto them , and the other parts do lament that lavishment . Things Retained that are taken into the Body , offend onely in quality , or quantity , or indiscretion , or inordinacy : For if they are immoderate in quantity , if frequent , or too rare ( for numbers are in quantities ) also one onely error doth sometimes give a beginning unto a Disease , whereas in the mean time otherwise Nature makes resistance for some good while . But Poysons received , Solutive Medicines , and likewise , altering things , which are too much graduated do chiefly hurt in quality . Discretion also doth offend in things assumed , if they are taken rashly out of their hour , and manner : As if the Menstrues be provoked in a Woman with young , or in a Womb that doth excessively flow : For indiscretion doth every where bring forth a frequent inordinacy , when as any undue thing is cast into the Body or required the scopes of Causes and betokenings of being unknown . Also harmless things which are cast into the Body are vitiated onely by their delay , and long continuance of detainment ; And they become the more hostile , by how much they shall be the more familiar , or the further promoted : for truly , by reason of a mark of resemblance sometime conceived , they do the sooner ferment , and more deeply and powerfully imprint their enmities . And as by things Assumed , things Retained are sometimes at length made inbred : So by things inbreathed , Diseases are oft-times made like unto those made by things Retained . For some inspired things are Retained , and do affect the same parts which things Retained do . Otherwise , they differ in their internal Root , as much as breath doth from drink , and as much as food from blood . But before I descend unto inbred Retentions , it is necessary to represent the unknown Tragedy of the chief or primary Diseases : Because inbred Retents do for the most part , take their beginning from primary Diseases : For indeed , I have already before distinguished of all Diseases , that they do either affect the Archeus implanted in , or inflowing into the parts : Although in both cases , Diseases do proceed by the forming of Idea's . The which I will have to be understood of primary ones : To wit , out of whose bosom superfluities do arise , or degenerate , which give an occasion for new Idea's , or onsets of Diseases . For it is scarce possible , that the Archeus being remarkeably smitten by a voluntary Idea of a Man , or the Archeus , a lot of Disaster should not arise in the inferiour family-administration of the Body , from whence the Digestions themselves first of all wandering from their scope , do frame the pernitious collections of Superfluities , whereby the primary distemperatures of the Archeus are nourished ( to wit , if they shall proceed from the same root : That is , if the root of a primary Disease shall produce its like , to wit , the former Idea of exorbitancy persisting ) or the new off-springs of Diseases are stirred up . But at leastwise , after either manner , the aforesaid Excrements are the Products of primary or the chief Diseases . But primary Diseases are either of Idea's Archeizated , to wit , by the proper substance of the influous Archeus issuing into the composure of the Body , the which indeed he by reason of his madness , wasts : And such kind of Diseases are oft-times appeased by Opiates ; yea are also utterly rooted out : Because they are , for the most part the off-springs of a more sluggish turbulency : The flame of the chaffe either ceasing from a voluntary motion , or being silent at the consuming of the Archeus , informed by the vitiated Idea . But Idea's arising from the implanted afflictions of the vital Spirits , whether they are the governing Spirits of the similar or organical parts , they do for the most part disturb the family-administration of Life , especially , if the Archeus being badly disquieted in some principal bowel , shall form the Idea's of his own hurt : For then he brings forth most potent afflictions : Yea , sometimes those remaining safe for term of Life . For as they are the Rulers of a greater nobleness and more eminent power : So also they draw forth the more efficacious Idea's , and do propagate Diseases of a prostrating nature : Because the Powers themselves , the In-mates of the more noble parts , are defiled with the same Images , as it were with Seals ; the which , diseasie Products arising from thence , the foot-step of the Seal being as it were received into themselves , do afterwards linkingly expresse through the ranks of the Digestions : For so the primary Diseases of the Bowels do abound ; neither do they hearken unto Remedies , but of a more piercing wedlock ; yea and do bequeath their inheritances on Nephews . The Arcanums of which sort I have reckoned up in the Book of Long Life , to wit , the which do every one of them represent the Majesty of an universal Medicine : Although I will not deny but that there is that Majesty in some the more refined Simples , which can heal particular primary Diseases . The Galenists do laugh at the promise of a generality : but every Bird doth utter his voice according to the tune of his own Beak ; and every one talketh of the Faires according as he hath profited in them . From what hath been before mentioned in sundry places , it now plainly appeareth . 1. That the Sanation or sound Healing of a secondary Disease , is vainly intended , unless the primary Disease which nourished it , be first brushed off and trodden under foot . 2. That then the Healing of a secondary Disease is conversant onely in a removal of the Product . 3. That Primary Diseases do continue even after the generation of a Secondary Disease , if its Idea's do issue from the implanted Spirits . 4. That Primary Diseases do also voluntarily cease , whose Idea's have failed in their first on-sets . 5. That the Causality , Succession , and Propagation of a Disease , being hitherto unknown , the Healing of the same hath remained unknown . 6. That the Schooles have esteemed Secondary Diseases , yea and the Products of Diseases , to be the Causes of the same : and therefore they have directed the whole endeavour of Healing unto later things , or to the Effects . 7. And that they had more rightly proceeded by taking away of the Product , than by the contrarieties of Qualities , and they had sought out due Remedies which ( their virtue remaining safe ) would have been able to pierce unto the places affected . 8. That whatsoever hath happily succeeded under healing , that is to be ascribed to conjecture , and the goodnesse of Nature alone , because they being seduced by false perswasions , have wandered about Distemperatures , Humours , Catarrhes , and Tartars by Solutives , not drawing forth Electively , but putrifying every thing furiously . 9. That they have learned some Remedies from Old Women , or Countrey-Folk , which besides the Maxims of the Schooles , might cure diseasie Idea's by a specifical gift . 10. That they have accounted as many primary Diseases as did persist by their own Ferment , to be uncurable , and those that did not transplant their Vigors into their Products . For primary Diseases do for the most part respect the transmittings of seminal causes in Idea's , and disturb the action of Government : From whence , not only the framing of Diseases ; but also the Critical , or judicial freeings of the same , do issue of their own accord , by unwonted expulsions , wandring conspiracies , labours , anguishes , and convulsive assaults , especially if they subsist in the matter , by a Seed , and an efficient Ferment : to wit , by which signs they distinguish themselves from the family of Symptoms . But I have confirmed the Doctrine of primary Diseases , above , by hereditary ones , unequal strength , the torture of the Night , and silent Diseases ; the which indeed do not only presuppose the necessities of Idea's ; but moreover also , primary Diseases . Truly , Nature hath no less variously sported in defects , than in integrity : but also , by a Systeme of the Universe , she ( being every-where conformable to her self ) hath seemed to walk up and down , that also in things of a different kind she may every where represent her self in a proportionable agreement . I have now done as much as I promised in the beginning of the work . I have demonstrated the errors of the Schools in natural things , so far as they concern the faculty of Healing : and that they have been more ignorant of nothing , than of Principles , Means , and Ends , to wit , the Essence and Causes , manner of proceeding and making , the means of Preparing and Remedies . Of things retained which are assumed , because they are by themselves known , I have said something : Now I must come unto the Products of Diseases which are inbred , domestical , and degenerated within our Cottages : For indeed our Retents do offend in abounding , quality , intimateness of place , or in their strangeness , or long continuance of delay ; and because they have crept into anothers harvest , through a vice of the distributive Faculty , therefore I call all of them things transplanted or transmitted . But other Retents , I call transchanged ones , for their distinction sake from things assumed : Truly things retained , whether they are transchanged , or indeed transmitted ; yet they are alwayes made remarkable by an intrinsecal Idea : I say , by a diseasie Being , from whence they have received an hostility of degeneration : Wherefore the root also of a primary Disease , doth for the most part adhere unto them , and therefore they do imitate and represent the same , as they are the Products of it : But because all the particular Digestions do first of all contribute their own Citizens , to wit , the nourishable Liquors unto home-bred Retents , which were prepared in their Kitchins , and those otherwise ordained for the solid substance of our Body : Therefore domestical things retained , have degenerated from the scopes of Nature . But I do as yet divide home-bred Retents , that some may be the dungs of things assumed , which I call Reliques , or they are things which from a good Citizen have degenerated into a Traitour : From whence indeed , I have drawn things transchanged and transmitted ; for they are those which do descend from the vice of the Digestions and Ferments , to wit , from a universal offence of the inflowing Spirit , or a particular errour of the implanted Spirit , through a voluntary defilement of a wantonizing Idea produced by humane , or Archeal Passions . Also the Relique of things Assumed , Inspired , and Suscepted , not unfrequently bringing aide hereunto : Therefore Reliques , next after things assumed , do offer themselves unto the publick view or exercise of Products : For although things taken into the Body , and things there left , are not the Products of primary Diseases ; yea , do often produce primary Diseases ; yet I have accustomed my self to reckon them among secondary Diseases and Products . But not that I am ignorant , that they could have no relation unto a primary Disease , as a Parent ; but I refer them among Products , by reason of their strict affinity with those ; where we must again seriously admonish , that it is an abuse to distinguish intimate Causes from Diseases : For truly the thingliness of causality is obscured , if it be never so little banished from the rank of Diseases : For external Causes , as long as they are external , are only occasions by accident ; but after that they are admitted , and transchanged by the force of Digestions , although they may seem internal Causes ; yet they become not Diseases , but occasions by themselves , which disturb the Archeus , stir up an Idea , and defile the material part of the Archeus with an Ideal Seal : For so things assumed , do wander into Reliques or things left , and do lay up their troublesome remembrance into the Archeus , that he may presently tumult , and stir up a Disease his off-spring : for they are not Products , although they dissemble the marks of Products ; but they leap froth abroad under the name of Reliques : For if by a proper vice of malignity they shall violate the right of their Inn , they are for the most part cast out , crude , half digested , and badly seasoned by Vomit , Stool , Urine , yea , and now and then , do by an Imposthume , pass over into things transmitted : From whence are Paines , Gripings of the Bowels , Un-concoctions , Fluxes , Lienteries , Sranguries , and Miseries of the Parts through which they pass . But if a Vice subsisteth in the Shops of the Digestions , and not sprung from things assumed ; Now a primary Parent of confusion is supposed , which hath neglected , and defiled the things assumed : Oft-times also things assumed do scarce continue changed in the Reliques , which is called the Coeliack or Belly-passion , invading with a remaining delight of eating , no less than with a dejected Appetite ; that we may know that in the ferment of the spleen , diverse Offices , and dispensations of Properties do lay hid ; to wit , those of Digestion , and Appetite . Things assumed also , which are less grateful or convenient , if they floate about diary Fever , burntish unnamed Contents , likewise inordinate Appetites , &c. are made ; but if they shall the more stubbornly adhere , they bring forth diverse , and stubborn Disasters of one Stomack : From whence are Sobbings or Hickets , Swoonings , Faintings , Convulsions , Gripings or Wringings of the Guts , Dissolvings or Loosenesses of the Paunch , Vomitings , Atrophia's or Consumptions for lack of Nourishment , &c. the which do manifestly enough appear in the labour of the Duumvirate . But if indeed the Ferment in the first Digestion , shall be diminished through age , or the promoted difficulties of Diseases ; Things assumed howsoever good they are , are vitiated : Because Ferments do no otherwise govern things assumed and left , than the Digestions themselves . Wherefore I refer the Lientery or Smoothness of the Bowels , Fluxes , Choler , because they are as well the Heires of things assumed , and of Reliques , as of things transchanged , unto the Vices of Digestions . But Stranguries , although they do often happen from things transmitted from the first Digestion unto the third , as the native sharpnesses of things , have remained stubborn in things assumed ( even as is especially conspicuous in the drinking of new Ale ) yet they happen through a defect of the Ferment of the second Digestion , and therefore , such a kind of Strangury is familiar unto old age : Therefore I have ascribed Stranguries , as well to things left , as to things transchanged in the second Digestion . Let it be sufficient also , to have admonished by the way , that I have been every where less exact about the splendour , and order of division , in so great Paradoxes , than about the Essence of a thing : For neither do things assumed ; only offend through a double fault , to wit , through the errour of Reliques , and local Ferments : But also the things digested themselves , are after a twofold manner , badly affected : For the Stomack doth cook , not only for the whole Body , but also for it self . So also concerning many Organs , in the diverse Offices of whose digestions and functions , their own errours do alienate their Products : Yet the Stomack is manifestly subject unto a double Calamity : To wit , of its own Digestion , and of the sixth : Because every part lives by its own Kitchin ; which in the Stomack , being subjected unto that which is assumed , rushing on it , is most easily disturbed , even with every shaking of the mind . Therefore in the first , second , and third Digestion , obvious , manifest , and frequent stumblings and omissions of Digestions do happen . But in the sixth , although they do manifestly , every where leave Products ; yet these the Schooles have referred unto the four feigned diversity of kinds of the venal blood : Yea , and far more absurdly also , have they for the most part dedicated the Vices of the sixth Digestion , unto the Snivel lifted up by a feigned Vapour of the Stomack , and from thence distilled . Wherefore they have devised , that Rheumes do fall down into the Common-weal of the sixth Digestion ; but they unbashfully affirm , that Phlegm also , which they contend to be generated by a vital Beginning in the Liver , together with the venal Blood , is now a Relique , through a casual distillation of Art. But in the fourth , and fifth Digestions ( because they are altogether vital ones , with much care , first refining all things from Filths their Inmates ) although there are not so manifest superfluities of things assumed ; yet it is not absurd , that inbred Retents should there be procreated , because the Nature of Mortals being now wholly corrupted , is in no place free from all contagion or blemish . Authors do rehearse , that small Ulcers have been found in the bosome of the Heart : and likewise , that a Woman being dead of a four Months disury or Difficulty of Urin , two small Stones , together with some Pustules or Wheales , have shewn themselves to the Dissecters , &c. in the substance of her Heart : Although indeed , these things do rather convince of the Vice of the sixth Digestion , than of the fourth , or fifth . But dayly beatings or pantings of the Heart do accuse of Reliques , or rather of things transchanged , although not plainly manifest ones . It is sufficient that Idea's tinged with Poyson , do as much as may be , and often spring into the Spirit of Life , as the causes of unthought of Death : For neither doth the madness of Dogs , otherwise corrupt by their Tooth , the Spirits which are the authors of discourses ; because the Tooth being vitiated in its disposition , infects the cases of the Brain , and Spleen , which hath assumed the Nature of a poysonous Relique . Simples also although they are but once only assumed , do oftentimes make mad for term of Life : As they do defile the Spirit of the Bowel with a slow Poyson , that it self degenerates into the condition of the Poyson left . And moreover also , the very Itch-Gum or tenderness of tickling , is folded in the naked sensitive Spirit , that as oft at it being once set at liberty ; is by a retrograde motion carried into the Arteries , it causeth that feeling in healthy folk , as it being snatched out of its own Hinge , doth abound with a strange , and infatuating Poyson . But in sick Folks , the aforesaid original of tickling , a manifest Poyson now sufficiently or plentifully abounding , stirs up the dance of S. Vitus , and the Trippings of the Tarantula , by the Arteries derived into the Head. The same Spirit also , because it is of the race of Salts ( as of long Life elsewhere ) being degenerate in this point , doth receive a Poysonsomness into it self , stirs up a proper Idea in it self , and therefore being chased into the Skin , doth receive the blemish or contagion of itching into it self , from whence Scurvinesses or Manginesses , Scabbidnesses , yea Erisipelasses , and a various troop of Ulcers doth spring up , some whereof do afterwards , there sustain themselves by the proper Poyson of a Ferment , and do now and then propagate : Therefore the inflowing Spirit doth also suffer its own defilements by the fourth , and fifth Digestion . In the mean time , through occasion of a wandring Spirit , if that which was once dedicated to motion , doth repeatingly re-pass into the Head , and from thence be again dispersed into the Sinews ; because it is marked with a double Idea of exercising motion , ( the which I have taught mutually to pierce , and co-suffer with each other ) it brings forth tossings of the Members , and Fools become four-fold stronger than themselves . But indeed if in the first Digestion , that which is assumed doth not answer unto the ferment of the Stomack ( for many do not desire , do not bear , do not concoct very many things ) however good it shall be in it self , it degenerates into Reliques , and brings forth oftentimes no mean troubles of it self , and sealeth them in the parts ; and they are the faults of some things , as when Minium or Red-lead is cast into the Body , being too hard , stinking , or rebellious : But those are rebellious things , whose middle Life cannot be subdued and taken away by the Ferment of the Stomack ; which things every one doth against his will experience and acknowledge . And then I have said , that there is a twofold Ferment in the Stomack . One indeed for the first Digestion , which flows unto it out of the Spleen . But the other is proper for the sixth Digestion , which is natural or homebred unto it , from the implanted Spirit , and proper to its own Cook-room . But both of them are diminished , altered and estranged through Diseases , Griefs , Age , &c. For the ferment infused by the Spleen is peculiarly silent , and altered in Fevers : for instead of a sharpness , a burntishness is substituted , whereby Eggs , Fleshes , Fishes , and Broaths become averse , and do sooner putrifie within , than they are truly concocted into Chyle : And these Hippocrates calls Impure-Bodies , the which , by how stronger a refreshment or nourishment thou shalt endeavour to refresh them , by so much the more , thou shalt hurt them : For heat doth then more strongly burn in the Stomack ; but the Ferment is withdrawn from the Stomack : Therefore things cast into the Stomack , are not digested , but putrified . So under a dog-like hunger , the Ferment of the Spleen is doubled . In the next place , if not the Ferment it self , but a strange sharpness doth increase , there are sharp pains in the Stomack , co-pressings of the Breast , irregular Appetites , Head-aches , Diseases called Cholers , &c. In like manner , the Ferment of the Gaul being exorbitant , failing , or otherwise vitiated by a forreign Poysonsomness , Products agreeable unto those Roots do soon bewray themselves : For from hence are Giddinesses of the Head , Swoonings , Apoplexies , Fluxes , Cholers , and likewise bitter , or bloody Vomitings , Atrophia's , &c. I again admonish , that although I leave the antient names of Diseases ; yet I understand the Idea's , the causers of these , by abstracted names : Therefore in the first , second , third , or sixth Digestion , I understand vitious transmutations to be made by diseasie Idea's there bred and transchanged . But those kinde of Reliques , or things transchanged , are voided out by a washing of , being made by Sweat , or Urin , or are voided by the Paunch , and an unsensible transpiration . Indeed the Reliques of the first Digestion , are expelled through the accustomed Emunctories or exspunging Places . But those of the second and third , are regularly driven out with the Urin. But because inordinacies do happen in most Digestions ; therefore there is place for things transchanged and transmitted : But things transchanged are the produced , Excrements of primary Diseases , or the Fruits of things assumed : The which , because they were once domestical , therefore they are bred by the vice of the transchanging Archeus . But indeed the Retents of the second Digestion , are made , either by reason of a weakness of the Ferment , or a riotous exorbitancy of the same . Hence a sharpness of the first Digestion remaining , and not sufficiently corrected , proceeds unto the Bowels , for Wringings or Gripes : Moreover , it passing thorow into the Veins , doth stir up diverse Fevers , a contracture of the Abdomen , Dropsies , Obstructions of the Meseraick Veins , likewise Palseys of the Joynts , and Stranguries or Pissings by Drops . But if the Ferment of the second Digestion shall too much increase , or be joyned with a vitiated quality : From hence are Jaundises , bitter Vomitings , Faintings , Giddinesses of the Head , &c. But if that of the third Digestion which is digested , be too much delayed under the third Digestion : for although the venal Blood shall in it self , nothing offend : yet a doubled Ferment of the Shop increaseth , and in this respect it is estranged through inordinacy . For truly , nothing keeps Holiday within , all things do proceed unto the scopes appointed for them , no otherwise than as the water of a defluxing Brook. The venal Blood therefore , although it be the treasure of mans life , being detained beyond its just term , degenerates into Menstrues , Hemorrhoids , &c. And whatsoever things the Schools do generally attribute unto black Choler , they are nothing but the Retents of the third Digestion , retained in the third Digestion . But seeing the Members are not nourished , but under a certain proportion , unknown to Mortals , to wit , of the Blood of the Veins unto the Arterial Blood ; it must needs be , that in the sixth Digestion , an inordinacy doth spring up , which the Schools attribute to the heat of the Liver , and do falsly bend themselves to cure by cooling things . For the Liver in it self is a dead Carcass , and cold , unless it be nourished by the Spirit of life : And therefore , all heat being a stranger to the Liver , is forreign . For it hath it self , just even as a finger which is rightly tempered in it self , whereinto if a thorn be infixed , although it be in act , and power cold , yet the finger presently swells , beats , waxeth hot , and is enflamed , &c. So also , the Liver is never hot , unless it shall conceive a troublesome thorn within it : Wherefore also we must diligently employ our selves in plucking out of the thorn , but not in cooling . Therefore the Liver hath a double thorn : to wit , one from a hurtfull Retent ; but the other from a troublesome Retent , to wit , the Blood burdening it : For so the Liver hath oftentimes , from a hurtful Retent , darted forth Impostumes and Vices of the Skin , the which , by reason of that which is transmitted , do manifoldly degenerate in the way , and do so co-defile the Skin , that whatsoever ( at length ) of Blood is distributed unto it for nourishment , is corrupted in the same through a Title of contagion : Of which sort , are Ulcers , the which if they are healed up , they sorely threaten a greater dammage within . Therefore in Retents of the third Digestion , Cauteries have oft-times performed help , unknown in the Schooles from a foundation , who endeavour with the uncertain conjecture and hope of Events : For they are rare Defects , which are from a plurality of good Blood not vitiated ( even as in the Book of Fevers ) and the scantiness of abstinence of two dayes , doth easily reduce the venal Blood suspected of abounding , into a due proportion : Therefore the Blood offends , if it hath a thorn its Companion ; and then , if it stay within beyond its due time , as I have said . And thirdly , if the venal Blood be disproportioned with the Arterial Blood ; Gluttony is for the most part , the Mother of these three . Whence it is wont to be said : The Throat smites more than the Sword. Also for the most part , a plurality of venal Blood is bred , not because more venal Blood is begotten than is meet ; but because less is consumed than is meet , by reason of want of exercise , an idle . Life , abundance of Fat , &c. For the Gout , and those Diseases which are thought to be the bastard births of Catarrhs , do withdraw themselves from this order : Because that they have a Seed of their own , and therefore also do oft-times rage under the penury of venal Blood. But in this case , an unequal strength flourisheth , seeing that the more weak Organs are quickly filled , loaded , nor do desire to be abundantly nourished , according as the more stronger Organs do : For from hence the Archeus of the more weak Organs is sadned , doth through delay , and impatience , wax wroth , and stamps on himself diverse Diseases : Wherein , while Issues weep a plentiful Pus and Liquor , the Ancles do swell in the evening , a more plentiful Snivel is dashed out of the Head , and unthought of Phlegms out of the Lungs , under a consent of the wandring Keeper : To wit , a total deluge of the Archeus , and prone Excrements , do grow or spring up according to the weaknesse of every part : For the term of the Moon as a Law , doth prescribe to the quantity of the Blood , that it may be wasted in both Sexes , nor may make a longer delay : For from hence it is , that because there is little transpiration under cold , there are the more frequent Spittings . Also under cold , more of meat is Injected , yet there is not therefore more of Blood composed . In brief , in Diseases of strength , a Vice of the Distributive Faculty is alwayes present . At least-wise , it is manifest from what had been said before , that the force of Appetite is not to be measured from sanguification , as neither from a consuming of the Blood. But things of the sixth Digestion that are transchanged , have been neglected by the Schooles , and dedicated to their own Humours and Catarrhs : As if all Diseases should arise from the Vice of the Liver , and a defluxing Phlegm of the Head. They have moreover neglected the primary Offences of the Members containing , which are to be attributed unto the inordinate enforcements of the Archeus , but not unto things retained . For I have seen the Liver , in a temperate Duke of Catafractum , to have weighed 16 Brabant Pounds : For he complained of the swelling of his Belly ; he had drunk of sharpish Fountains , and at length of Wine steelified , who when he was variously disturbed or handled by his Physitians , as for an Hydropical Man , and but the day before had walked thorow the Streets , suddenly died . I have seen a Woman who lived a single Life , alwayes thirsty , and pressed with a diseasie thirst ; for she was thought to be Hydropical , and being tormented with many solutive Medicines , died : But when after Death , her broached Belly did not afford Water , she being unbowelled , appeared sound within , but that her Liver , harmless to the sight , did weigh 21 pounds and a little more . I have seen a Man , who after a long torment of his Belly , voided many Membranes , the which being dryed and affixed to a Board , with Nailes , did dissemble Parchment . We have seen a little Pouch grown to the Stomack of a certain Governour , filled with small Stones . Likewise a new Sack to have grown to the Abdomen of a Woman , wherein were fourteen Pounds or Pints of Water and more . So very often , another of the Kidneys being stopped up with Stones , to have monstrously voyded them forth : Which primary Diseases , are to be attributed unto the local Spirit of the parts containing . I sometimes believed , that growth ceasing , the growing Power was extinguished , because all things did stop from increasing : But after that I saw many things to increase through Errour , which were of the first Constitution , I thought that the growing Faculty was detained from its progress , only through the disobedience of the bony Matter . But Pores are bred in Broken-bones , and the Ribs do become longer through an enlarging of the Breast , long after the cessation of growth : A swollen burstness of the Veins is bred anew , and becomes by degrees like a Sinew . A Lobe growing every year unto the Liver of an Wolf , bewrayes his age . Wherefore I refer the Excrescences of Flesh of a remarkable bigness , troublesome through Pain , and endowed with a beating Motion , among the Diseases of the patrs . containing , which have been neglected by the Schooles : As also new Fibers having arisen on the Muscles , I have observed to have brought the Palsey , and those being taken away , this to have been Cured : For in the Grease , not only fatness alone is bred , but also Fibers , or the Honey-combs thereof , which are of the condition of solid things . So there are notable Super-crescences of the Gristles and Ligaments , which are subject to the Chyrurgion , not as the occasional Causes of Diseases ; but as erroneous Products which are to be taken away , they being sometimes annexed unto their primary Diseases : For from an injured Bone , a nourishable Liquor doth oftentimes distil , which dissembles the hardness of a Bone : Yet with rottenness as being a partaker of a bony curd . Therefore if I shall reckon up the Diseases of the part containing , among Retents , think thou that that is done , because they are nourished by a Root of their own , nor are taken away but by Mortification : Unto these Diseases voluntary Excrescences , Bunchinesses , Strainings , and Disjoyntings have also regard : The which because they follow an inbred unequality of Strength , they for the most part shew a receit from the seed of the Parents , or from the Defects of Nurses : For from hence whole Families are inclined unto an Hectick Fever , Asthma , Gout , affect of the Stone , Jaundise , Dropsie , and Madnesses : For if they are not drawn from the Parents , they are drawn from Nurses : For the Young doth easily drink some Defects with the Milk , and derives them into the similar Parts . For seeing our Powers do uncessantly operate , hence Retents cannot make a long stay in their former state and place , but that the term of their motion being finished , they do revolt from their fomer Disposition , and being estranged , do decline into a worse : For so things retained do degenerate into things transmitted , as well because they offend through an inordinacy of their own vitiated matter , as through an exorbitancy of distribution caused from the Archeus being provoked . For among things transmitted , the Carrier Latex first offers it self , which by floating up and down , doth manifoldly erre : For seeing that is ordained to wash off the filths of the parts ; it first offends by a strange Vice , which it hath contracted on it self : From whence are some Vices of the Skin , which at length a Ferment being called to it , do frequently persevere : But if the attractive Faculty labours , Oedema's are made , and the Latex overflowes into the Liver and Veins : Whence are Disuries or Difficulties of Pissing , Pissing-evils , and a various houshold-stuff of Diseases : As also in Squinances , the Toothach , and elsewhere , is oftentimes easie to be seen , especially if by a singular adulterous Allurement , the Latex be derived 〈…〉 certain part : So also Poses , Cataracts , and Pins and Webs in the Eyes , Defects 〈…〉 Eares , and Teeth , do arise , if the Latex finds either the Vices of Digestions , or brings strange ones thither with it ; because it is that which from its appointment , drinks up the strange defects of the parts : So also the Latex doth of its own desire , slide into a Sunovie or spermatick glewiness , from whence it stirs up the torture of the night : For it floats about according to the coursary successive changes of stations , and subjects it self unto the government of the Moon : Wherefore it afflicts the Sinews , Tendons , Ligaments , and Membranes , as well by reason of its own transmutation , as through the draught of a forreign Seed . In the next place , if Dross ( which elsewhere , I call a liquid Dung ) from the Bowels , be joined beyond a just proportion with the Latex , and doth float within the Veins , now the Stone shall be present . Or next if it putrifie , it adornes or promotes Dotages , and diverse ranks of Fevers : Even as elsewhere concerning the History of the Humour Latex , of Fevers , and likewise of the Stone in man. In things transmitted also , the Errours of things transchanged are especially regarded , and their Effects are esteemed according to their Qualities , or the Degrees , or Powers of Quality : To wit , the which especially , do on both sides occasionally determine of the varieties of Diseases . Furthermore , if the things transchanged of the first Digestion , are brought down unto the second ; too strange and hateful Guests , do bring forth Fevers , Wringings of the Bowels , Loathings of the Stomack , Faintings of the Spirits or Swoonings , &c. But if they proceed even unto the third Digestion , Dropsies , Cachexia's or ill habits of the Body , Jaundises , difficulties of Urin , pains of the Hypogastrium or neather Belly , &c. do subsist . But if indeed the Defects of the first Digestion are brought into the sixth : sudden Fevers , Pleurisies , Peripneumonia's , &c. do arise . But if the things transchanged of the second Digestion , do re-gorge into the first ; Un-concoctions , bitter Vomitings , the Iliack Passion , the Disease of Choler , the Lientery , Caeliack Passion , Flux , &c. are stirred up . But if those of the second Digestion shall reach into the third ; now Cachexia's , Fevers , Jaundises , various Obstructions , are at hand . In the next place , if things of the third Digestion which are transchanged , are derived into the first ; bloody Vomitings , bloody Fluxes , the Piles , &c. do bewray themselves . But if into the second ; Fluxes , and diverse Fevers are bred : For things retained , are on every side hostile , and much more things transchanged which are transmitted ; and therefore the Archeus cannot but stir up feverish Storms . But if indeed things transchanged of the third Digestion , do proceed into the fourth ; It will presently come unto Heart-beatings or Pantings , Swoonings , and sudden Deaths . But if things of the first Digestion transchanged , do go into the sixth Digestion of the Stomack ; From hence are Giddinesses of the Head , Apoplexies , Palseys , &c. And likewise , if the transchanged Retents of the third Digestion , do go into the sixth , there are soon Apostemes , and almost all local Maladies ; for truly , through the errour of the sixth Kitchin , as well Diseases of its own proper transchanged Retent , and of a strange one transmitted , do happen , as whatsoever is falsly attributed to Defluxions out of the Head : But things transmitted , are sometimes mild ; and those things , which as it were through repentance of their deed , do repent them of one only Errour , and for that Cause , do cease through one only Importunity : but otherwise they are fountainous ones , which owe the substituting of their continuation , unto the part transmitting ; if they are not also con-centred with the implanted Spirit of the place : For a ferment of their defilement being drawn from thence , they are Poysonous , and defile the part by a certain Contagion remaining ; so as that their Fewel being there laid up , they have as it were by one only stroake , established their Center . I say , they afterwards erect a Colony hearkening to the importunate circular motions of the Stars : They therefore erre , as wandring out of the way , as many as by cuttings of a Vein , solutive Medicines , Diaphoreticks or transpirative Things , Cauteries , Vesicatories , Baths ; and by Diminishers of the Body and Strength , do hope that fountainous Transmissions are to be Cured : For those kind of things do desire renewing Arcanums , after the manner of the Leprosie ; as of the Leprosie in its place . In the sixth Digestion therefore , Nourishments do either degenerate presently before assimilation , and a curd of their solidity being received from the place , they afterwards lay it up for a durable Disease ( the Moderns accuse the Tartars of the Blood ; ) or if a thing transmitted be a forreigner in the place , neither while it hath not also associated unto it a Poyson ; the Powers do presently conspire for its banishment , for the most part , with much co-shaking of the Strength or Faculties . But although four Degrees of nourishable Liquor are determined by the Schooles ; yet have they found in none of them an Errour , Degeneration , 〈…〉 of Diseases : And although they take notice of a mattery Imposthume in the Lungs , and a great harvest of obstructions elsewhere , yet they refer all things into the four first and feigned Humours , as if they knew not that the Liquors of mans Body were slideable , and subject to Corruption every hour : But I determine of much houshold-stuffe of diseasie occasions , in a numerous aversion and degeneration of the Liquors which do immediately nourish : And likewise I place not , I know not their number , because I know that it is not knowable , where one only thing runs down with a continual Thred , by a multitude of coursary Dispositions . At leastwise , it is to be admired at , that no Errour hath hitherto been found out , or believed by the Schooles , to be in transchanging , while as , notwithstanding some degenerations do offer themselves to the sight , and every degeneration doth occasion its own Diseases : For so the Giddiness of the Head , maketh the Sense and Motion to stumble , because a nourishable Liquor being degenerate , hath joyned unto it a be drunkening Faculty : Also if it shall be sleepifying , it becomes next neighbour unto an Apoplexie : And the which , if be also made stupefactive , it now bears the conditions of the Falling evil . Let those also take notice , who intend to Cure Mad-folks by sleepifying things : For stupefactive Medicines do scarce procure sleep unto mad Persons by a fourfold Dose ; but they increase the Madness : for Madness is nothing but an erring sleepifying Power ; because every Mad-man dreameth waking : Therefore stupefactive Dreams , are added unto doating Dreames in waking : For the sealing Character in a Mad-man , presupposeth a restoring of the Member , and a Correction of the Poyson by its Antidote , but not a stupefactive Poyson . In the mean time , it nothing hinders erroneous transmutations from being bred , and likewise the Digestions from wandring , through the importunity of things transmitted , and from obeying an off-spring of their own condoling Sympathy , agreeable to the impediment : From whence are painful Fluxes , distrubed by a sharp Chyle of the first Digestion , and likewise con-folded and double Fevers : Neither doth it also forbid a primary Disease to be con-folded with its own , or with a secundary one bred from else where : In such a manner as is a primary Fever which brings forth a Product , from whence there is a resolving of the Blood into the putrifying Disease of a malignant Flux , matched with a feverish Ferment . At length , neither is there a necessary passage of the three first Digestions unto the sixth , by the fourth , and fifth : Because the greatest part of the venal Blood never comes unto the Heart , and much less is it snatched into its left Bosom : Because all particular parts are nourished no less with Venal , than Arterial Blood. From hence indeed it happens , that the Vices of the three first Digestions , do oftentimes immediately pass over into the sixth : And therefore the transchanged Retents of the three first Digestions , if they shall reach unto the sixth , they offend not by transmission of a proper name , but only by transmutation ; because a transmission from the third into the sixth Digestion , is regular , lawful , and ordinary . I will add concerning the Spleen . If from the first Digestion , a sharpness of the Chyle be immediately brought unto the Spleen , A Quartane Ague is soon present , to wit , from a curdled Retent being there a stranger . But if the sixth Digestion in the Spleen be troubled , seeing it is the Couch of the first Conceptions ; The Excrements or things transchanged , which are made of its proper nourishment , are for the most part endowed with an imaginative Power ( such as occurs in many Simples , and which is most plainly to be seen in the Spittle of a mad Dog ) and the which therefore I call inebriating or be-drunkening , dreamifying or befooling Simples : For therefore , of one Wine , there is a many-form condition of drunken Men : That is , one only Wine doth stir up diverse Madnesses ; For a mad Poyson halts with the similitude of Wine : For a mad Poyson by reason of its excelling Power , doth not follow the conditions of the Man ; but the very Conditions of the Man are constrained to obey the Poyson : As is clearly seen in the Poyson of him that is bitten by a Mid-dog . Poysons therefore , which of a degenerate nourishment , are bred in the sixth Digestion , do follow their own Nature : For by how much the nearer they shall be unto assimilating , by so much the more powerfully do they infatuate : For by how much the nearer the Ferment of the Bowel , and an in-beaming of the implanted Spirit shall be present with it , by so much also the nearer , it calls unto it the Idea of a certain imaginative Power , which at length it transplanteth into a venemous Poyson , not indeed so destructive unto the Life , as unto the Power of that Bowel . But from what hath been before declared , any one shall be hereafter able to erect unto himself the Stages of Diseases . But it hath been sufficient for me to have shewn , that every primary Disease , doth objectively , and subjectively fall into the Archeus , and so into the Life it self ; whereof , to wit , it is immediately formed : But that a secondary Disease , fals objectively indeed into the Archeus , but subjectively into a Matter , either the solid one of the part containing , or the fluide one of that contained . And thus indeed to have shewn Diseases to be distributed in Nature , by their Causes , Roots and Essence , according to their Inns ; I repose my Pen. Barrenness also , seeing it is among Defects beside Nature , hath hither extended its Treatise . Wherefore Coldness , Heat , or moistness is not in either of the Sexes the cause of Barrenness , however lowdly others may sound out this thing . For truly first of all , there is no dryness possible in living Creatures , or the vitious moisture of the Womb , is not of the complexion , but a meer superfluity of Digestion , or Transmission . So in the next place , Heat , and Cold , are signs of Defects in Nature , but not Causes : Because these Qualities do want a Seed , vital Properties , and potestative Conditions : Therefore indeed Barrenness , and Fruitfulness is in every Climate of the World : Yet an Aethiopian Woman , is far hotter than the most hot Woman of Muscovia . But the excrementitious and superfluous Moistness of the Womb , is an Effect of Diseases : Yea , if it shall be a companion of Barrenness , yet not the containing Cause thereof : For an internal Cause differs not from the Being it self : So neither is the Defect of the Menstrues the cause of Barrenness ; if that Defect contains a denial , or proceeds as an Effect of a nearer Indisposition . Women of unripe Age have oft-times conceived , even also before their Menstrues ; and those of more ripe years , their Menstrues being silent . Also oft-times Women affected in their Womb , being trampled on by many Perplexities , do succesfully conceive , and accordingly bring forth . In the mean time , some Barren Women are in good health : Also many conceive while their Menstrues is urgently present ; As also the Menstrues being afterwards silent , hath deceived many of Conception . Some Women do take notice of their Menstrues all the time of their bearing ; but many for some months only : For indeed , although Barrenness may after some sort bespeak a privative respect ; yet it is meerly a positive , and diseasie Being ; for it ariseth from singular positive Defects : Because by it self , and in self , it is a Malady of Nature : Even as fruitfulness bespeaks an entire Cause : For in a Man which is not Gelded , not an Eunuch , not hindred or disturbed , not mischieved , Barrenness hath scarce place ; For from hence an Old-man doth as yet generate : Whence it follows , that there is not so much perfection to be attributed , as neither to be required in the Male , as in the Mother : But I call those hindered Males , who do labour with a Gonorrhea , or who have from thence retained a Vice : And likewise who do labour with the notable Vice of some Bowel . In a Woman the Menstrues abounding , being Deficient , Irregular , Watery , Yellow , looking Blackish , Slimy , Stinking , a Pain in her Loyns , Belly , Hips , and movings of the Womb upwards , downwards , to the Sides , are indeed Witnesses and Signs of the Sicknesses or Feeblenesses of the Womb ; and therefore also they fore-slow , overflow Conception , move Abortions , and gushings forth of the Courses ; yet they do not altogether take away the hope of Conception , nor are they the Disease which is called Barrenness : For indeed old Women are Barren without all those : For I find the one only suitable and co-equal Cause in Time and Age , to be described in the holy Scriptures for a positive Being ( which is called Barrenness ) in these Words ; God opened the Womb of Sarah : For it is the Gift of God derived into Nature , whereby the Parchment or Membrane of the Womb being most exactly shut in its Foldings , is opened and enlarged at the co-agreeing moment of Conjunction . There is I say , an attractive drawing Blas , whereby for fear of a Vacuum or Emptiness , an attraction of the Seeds , and a suitable filling up of the opened Wrinckles , follows that opening : To wit , the aforesaid opening causeth a sucking for fear of a Vacuum ; which if it be made at an undue moment , it now becomes Vain : For the Womb of a Virgin , doth scarce shew the largness of two Fingers ; because it is that which wrinckled into it self by the least foldings : but the opening of it doth not consist in the will of Man , as neither in the tickling , or luxurious desire of Pleasure ; but altogether in the good Pleasure of God ; from whence also Endowments are dispersed into nature , of opening and shutting : So that some Simples have obtained this Faculty . Neither is it sufficient for the Womb to be opened at the set Moment , unless the Guest which comes unto it be acceptable to the Place : For if it be defiled with a blemish , the hope of generating for the future is void with that Man ; because the Womb being wroth , doth conceive a fury of abhorrency , which is scarce appeasable . CHAP. LXXXVIII . A Preface . I Have already demonstrated elsewhere , that the Schooles have passed by the knowledge of Diseases , and Things , the neglect whereof is a Fault : Neither is it therefore a Wonder , if there be nothing hitherto of unheard of things : For it hath been an unwonted and difficult matter to be willing , to be wise in departing from the Opinions of the Schooles , while they should fall from those things which I substituted in the room of acknowledged Errours . There are few also , who Phylosophize only for the sake of Charity towards their Neighbour . Most of the more preferred ones refuse to learn , as if the Greeks , and Arabians had known all things ; and they despaire that more can be known : And therefore they have put on sluggishness as their Skin . But it is a frequent thing for him , who presently after Promotion , runs up and down from House to House , to be intent upon Gain only , and he prostitutes a saleable health for Visits : Therefore he is most rare who is admitted unto the privy Chamber : Many in the mean time , walking before the doores of Chymistry , do boast of great Matters , being deluded with vain hope . But indeed I first ( unless I am deceived ) have written the History of Life , and Death , hoping that thereby God his own Honour will redound unto him from his free gift of the Tree of Life , and a useful Fruit unto those whom he reserves unto long Life , after me : For Paracelsus , who before me , hath treated of long Life , hath indeeed given a Title , but hath been altogether ignorant of the Matter . In the mean time , unless the Lord shall avert it , I guess from a just fear , that the Life of Mortals will dayly be shortned , and at length to pass unto the Grave in its green eare , through the Offence of Cutting of a Vein , and Purgings : Unless I say God do make almost all things new : For the attainment of the Tree of Life is most difficult , of much Labour , and revealed unto few : for it behoveth that the innocent in Hands and Heart , doth ascend by the Mountain of the Lord ; Who hath not betaken his Soul to Vanity , nor hath prepared Deceit for his Neighbour : For he only shall receive this blessing from the Lord : Until at length in the extream confusions of times , Man shall dare to teach Man those things , which otherwise for the conserving of mutual Commerces of Men , do remain in secret . For most Physitians at this day , suppose that they know enough , , if they being initiated in the Paganish Doctrine of their Ancestors , wax rich only , and by the Rules of Writers are excused from Death among the common sort . Most of them also deride at long Life , because they are ignorant : But these Men will at sometime be at the full , and their Mocks shall fall on their own Authors : Because in the Age to come , it shall grieve God for so great neglect toward the Neighbour and Poor . Vices also succeed one another throughout Ages , in a Chain . It hath already been sometimes an honour to have drunk down many large Cups ; elfewhere , to have slain many in a single Duel . Fraud and Deceit flourisheth at this day under the Title of Quicksightedness ; and virtue doth lay hid as Rare among Few , although it be alwayes nominally esteemed : It shall again wax feeble , while the number of pernicious Wits shall depart from the delicate Idleness , and evil curiosities of Studies , unto Arts and Workmanships : For a tranquillity of times shall spring up , when the root of Worms living on idleness , and that which is other Mens , being covered with the cloak of Piety , shall be driven away . At length repentance to come , bids us hope for reformation : For which happy age I have decreed to write of long Life , praysing God , that my Pilgrimage is shortly to be devolved unto a period . But while I open unheard of things , if in any place I shall discover the Errours of Predecessors , I have constrainedly done that , that those who shall follow me may not dash themselves against rough places , and be deprived of the scope of Truth : For I my self by Degrees , beholding from my Youth , the empty Husks , wherewith the Beginnings of Nature did incrust themselves , I began to be accounted an Apostate from Galen ; and I exposed my self willingly unto the vile esteem of Physitians , supposing it a laudable thing to have my Stupidity to be derided by ignorant Men ; because throughout my whole Life , I have neglected the common Applause : For by Haters , I am called a Paracelsian , and a Forsaker of the Schooles ; and yet I am esteemed an Adeptist , the Obtainer of some Secrets . And although under this Title , I have been invited by two Emperours to Court , yet have I refused Honours , and a Courtiers Life , who all my life time have despised the Sents of Ambition : And now much more ( I being detained at the Ship of the Mote , by the Bank of old Age ) do I as careless , avoid and neglect whatsoever Posterity shall think of me alive or dead ; because I in dying , desire the tranquillity of my Soul. Therefore do I every where protest , that I have never taken notice of the Errors and Neglects of the Schooles , but that I might satisfie my calling , and profit credulous Mortals . CHAP. LXXXIX . Of Time. 1. Why the Author Treats first of Time. 2. The Proposition of the Treatise . 3. The Profession of the Author . 4. That Time hath nothing common with any Motion . 5. Negations of Time. 6. The Error of the Schooles . 7. Some Absurdities following from thence . 8. What hath deceived the Schooles . 9. The Consideration of Mathematical Science differs from the Truth of Nature . 10. A third Error . 11. A Fourth . 12. A Fifth . 13. A Sixth . 14. Some Absurdities spring from thence . 15. A Conclusion drawn from thence , doth unfold the true Properties of Time , against the will of the Schooles . 16. A Seventh Error is proved . 17. A false Definition of Time. 18. A continuance of Motions is essentially included in the Seeds of Things . 19. Time cannot be the internal measure of Motions . 20. An Eighth Error . 21. Some Absurd Errors following from thence . 22. The Praise of Unity . 23. The Schooles have been decieved by their sloathfulness of narrowly searching . 24. What hath deceived Augustine in Time. 35. Some Considerations of the Author about Time. 26. What it is to have said in Genesis , In the Beginning . 27. The Error of Aristotle concerning Place . 28. Duration is more intimate to a Thing than Place , or a Thing is to it self . 29. The true and essential property of Time. 30. Why Time is not of the Predicaments . 31. Men being badly initiated or instructed do also badly accustome themselves . 32. What hath deceived the Heroe's in the consideration of Time. 33. Some Demonstrations even from the holy Scriptures , in the Authors behalf . 34. Priority or Formerliness is difficultly abstracted from Time. 35. Duration doth not shew a respect to things . 36. The Suppositions are now solidly proved . 37. The Law of Fate or Destiny . 38. A Consequence upon the Positions of the Schooles . 39. Priority is in respect of Fate , But not of Time. 40. What Succession may be . 41. A Treatise of Eternity in respect of Time. 42. It is answered unto an Objection brought out of the holy Scriptures . 43. An Error is demonstrated by the Operations of Angels . 44. An Argument contradicting the Schooles . 45. The Author proves it many manner of wayes . 46. The Authors profession concerning Time. 47. A certain Dulness in the true Division and Measure of Motions , as to the Motion of the Day . 48. Clocks or Dyals . 49. The Error of Clocks or Dyals . 50. A Measure found out by the Author . 51. Concerning Critical or Judicial Daies . 52. Paracelsus is noted . 53. A Crisis or Judicial Sign brings forth Infamy to a Physitian . 54. Frivolousneses . 55. The Consideration of a Climaterical or Dangerous Year of ascent . 56. A stubborn privy shift of Astrologers . 57. They now cease from their asserted Climaterical number , for the half of it . 58. The Sabbatary Jubilean , and Ninteenth Numbers , &c. 59. A week is introduced , not so much by reason of Number , as by reason of Jewish Perfidiousnes . 60. A Treatise for Long Life is concluded . I Being about to write of Long Life , it hath seemed good unto me , to premise a Treatise concerning Time , because Long Life owes an unseparable respect unto Duration : Neither yet is that thus by me determined in the first place , as though I would measure Life by Time , but rather , in speaking properly , I compute the continuance of Life in relation unto Dayes , and Years , the which I will by and by demonstrate not to be Time. Paradoxes indeed , I confess , they are , but nevertheless true Doctrine . For Aristotle I have elsewhere shewn to be altogether ignorant of the Beginnings of Nature , and to be very scanty in the matter of Natural Phylosophy , and therefore he being wholly ridiculous hath exposed Time , Place , a Vacuum , Infinite , Fortune , and such like abstracted Considerations , and plainly forreign , in the order of Nature , as though they were the Institutions or First Lessons of Nature . But I have premised the speculation of Time , hitherto unknown , unto Long Life : Wherefore for the clearing up thereof , I state this Proposition . Time is no otherwise separated from Eternal Duration or Continuance , than the Light of the Day , the Sun not appearing , from the most lightsome or bright Light of the Body of the Sun. For I believe that God , most Glorious , is the Way , the Truth , the Life , and Essence of all Things : Likewise that he is the Principle or Beginning , in whom all things are Principiated , do Live , and are Mooved . I say therefore , that even a Body , or Motion not being granted ; yet Time , Place , on the other side , a Scitual Disposition , and Distance , should be the same which now they are : For truly without the Heavens , an unlimmited Place is believed to be , which is deprived of all Body and Motion ; yet filled with the Spirit , it being suited thereunto by its Infiniteness of Greatness . In like manner , I understand Time not to be tied up to Place , not to a Body , lastly , not to Motion ; but to be a Being separated from the same . Therefore neither do I beg Time from the circumscription of the Motion of the first moveable Heaven : For even as the motion of the Heaven is made in a Place , as if it were a certain Measure of a Place ; yet as Place is not Motion , although it be made in a Place ; So neither is Motion Time , although it happen in Time : For neither can Time be Generated by Motion , or in the Womb of Motion , if the thing Generated be in the particular kind like unto its Generater . For indeed a Year , a Day , a Moneth , and Night , are not Time ; but Measures , and Accidents of things happening in Time , plainly forreign and external unto Time : For so , our Day is anothers Night : In the mean while , Time is every where the same in the whole Universe . The Spring , Summer , Autumn , Winter , are not Time , but Alterations of the Air , ordained for the interchangable Course , and successive Changes of Things . Likewise Childhood , Young Age , Youth , Vigour of Years , and Old Age , are not Time ; but Names of the successive Alterations of the Body and Life . For the Schooles , besides that they teach Time , either to be the very Measure of the first Moveable , or at leastwise , that it is concluded under the same ( for that thing is not yet determined ; ) They will moreover , that every undividable natural point of Time , should actually and really have in it , infinite Mathematical points ; Seeing that there is a positive , real , infinite Being , even as also actually undividable , which in it self is not positively intelligible , and the which therefore , the Schools deny to be possible : They now of their own accord , in every the least point of Time , endow , that is bespatter the knowledge of Nature with meer Dreams . Therefore it necessarily follows from their Suppositions being granted , that every part of Time is not of Time , but a certain Mathematical point , undividable , and so without Duration , without and besides Time : Therefore that also Time should consist , either of undividable parts , or should be as it were a certain Product , from a connexion of undividable and infinite Points of continuance : So indeed , as that neither should they be the undividable Atomes or Points of Duration , if by their connexion they should co-arise into something that is to be divided . They mind not , I say , that an undividable negative thing can never grow together by connexion , into any present , actual , long , short , great , or little Thing ; because it in it self , comprehends a meer nothing , in a Natural , that is a Real Being . Therefore they contradict themselves in the Word [ undividable ] They have beheld indeed a Long , and a Short Time , and for this Cause they have reduced them under Quantity . In the next place they have constituted also the whole Essence and Circumscription of Time in succession , which should actually stand in infinite , and infinitely undividable Points of Duration , being connexed in every the least Point of an instant Natural Being . Truly they on both sides have too much addicted themselves unto Science Mathematical , while they have seemed to themselves to have Repaired Nature : Indeed Science Mathematical , supposeth infinite Points of Subdivision to be possible in every continued Body ; which Suppositions in the mean time , Nature knows not , and Natural Phylosophy denies : Because it is that which minds things even as they are , and not even as they are serviceable unto the Speculations of the Measures of Scituations . And then Schooles have separated the Consideration of Greatnesse or Magnitude from the Consideration of Number , and they will have Time to be more like unto Number , than unto that which is Continued or holding together : As if the Species of Apes , as they are like unto Men , were to be referred among Men , but not among Beasts . It is therefore a ridiculous thing , not to have Separated Time from Number in the whole Heaven or Sphere thereof . At length , they have thought that Numbers do cast out Unity , while as notwithstanding a connexion of Unities produceth all Numbers : Wherein also , that is a blockish thing , that they account the Gemms called Zero's for Unity , while as a thousand subscribed Zero's do not contain a Principle of Unity . Last of all , this also is frivolous , that a Binary or twofold Number , differs in Species from a Ternary or threefold Number , as also this from a Quaternary or fourfold Number , although two Binaries do make and are made a Quaternary : And that not indeed by a generating of a new Being , but by a co-melting of both the Binaries : Wherefore neither do I acknowledge Species in Numbers , but onely co-mixable and reducible interchangable courses : For Nature doth not suffer her self to be restrained under Rules at the pleasure of the Schooles , to wit , that Numbers should generate out of them specifical Species , every one whereof should be so many meer Individuals . Therefore I know those kind of Species , and Metaphors to be Strangers from Nature ; therefore they have from the Schooles reputed Time , ( because it consisteth in a point infinitely undividable ) for a Pillar of Natural Phylosophy : Wherefore I am the more confirmed , that whatsoever the Schooles draw from the Heathen , is the unprofitable unstability of Wisdom . For if otherwise , any the least thing infinitely corresponding with the points of Duration , undividable , and infinite in Act , should bind the points of Time with a proportioned Infinitenesse by a Succession or following of Duration , besides very many Absurdities , Time should of necessity have its own actual being before it were , that is , it should not indeed be in Being , but all at once in its being made : Yea , nor indeed should it be so made , be , or should it be able to be made , that it might be , but that it should perish before it were . Therefore Time ( contrary to the prescription of the Schooles ) is neither Long , nor Short , neither Before , nor After , neither a Measure , nor Measurable . Surely it have grieved me that it hath behoved me to discover , that I find nothing in the whole Natural auricular Discourse of Aristotle , but gross Ignorance , environed with Absurdities , and Impossibilities : Wherefore I have been compelled to write true things from a compassion on Youth , which hath been seduced through credulity . First of all therefore , the Schooles command , that the Time which is of their consideration , is the Measure of Motions , when as it is already manifest from the convicted Suppositions of falshood , that Time cannot measure nor judge of two Motions made ( so I may speak ) in the same term of continuance , whether of the two be the swifter : For according to the aforesaid Suppositions , Time should alwayes of necessity joyn nearer unto the swiftest Motion ; because it is more nigh and like unto that which is undividable . In the next place , If the Succession of Time should happen through a Concourse and Aid of an undividable infiniteness , and that all Motion should be enrouled in a term according to Duration , and that there is no suitableness or proportion of a Finite with an Infinite ; and least of all where both are considered by a sight of the same Duration ; it must needs be from the Doctrine of the Schooles , That Time should be an unequal Measurable Measure , a vain , lying , and incomprehensible Measure of the first Motion or Moveable : Because they define Time , that it is a Measure of Motions , in relation unto Duration , and that it is as it were appropriated unto Motion by Accident , and unto Succession by it Self , to wit , by reason of Duration . But indeed if Motion be thus made upon something that is unmovable , as from hence Aristotle hath ( although falsly ) conjectured the first Mover to be of necessity Unmovable : Why do they not also give Stability unto Duration ? To wit , under which , all Motions and Proportions of successive Motions ought to be co-measured . For in all Seeds , there is from the beginning , not onely a Principle of every Motion , but also their own limited Period of Durations proper unto every Motion : Seeing all variety of all Alterations whatsoever , depends on the slowness and swiftness of Motions . Therefore the continuance of Motions is essentially , intimately , and originally included in Seeds , as it were the formal , and directive Principle of the same ; but not that time is a certain outward or forreign Consideration of the measuring of Motions in respect of Duration ; seeing that such a Consideration or relation of Disposition is onely external and accidental unto things themselves , and so a meer Being of Reason ; but not Originally and Essentially implanted in the Seeds themselves , even as Duration is . In the next place , the Schools suppose natural Species to be in continued quantities ; when as notwithstanding continued , or disjoyned , are not Things , but naked Considerations of Things according to Measure . Things have indeed their own Species , in very deed ; but the Consideration of those , as a Being of Reason , wants Essential Species in Natural Things . Let it shame them therefore , that they have placed Time among Measures , and the Beings of Reason , or Non-Beings . Let it be a shame , I say , that the Schooles of Natural Phylosophy have more bestowed their Contemplation about Science Mathematical or Learning by Demonstration , than on Nature it self . It is a foolish thing therefore , to have acknowledged Species in Numbers , by which Species they should be distinguished in the nature of things , and yet not to have known a Unity to be a Number : Because a Unite , in its interchangable course , is no less distinguished by a Unity from any other Number , than is the Number of Ten : For neither is there any reason , for which two Unites should rather constitute a number than one alone . For truly in a Binary , both the Unites are as yet different and distinct , yea they are entire in their own Essence , neither have they ceased or departed into any third thing , by reason of their connexion : For a Binary , denotes nothing but two Unites : Therefore it is an Ulcerous thing , that two things being connexed , do remain in their former Being , and yet , that by reason of that connexion alone , a Species was generated divers from either of them . Wherefore Unity is most properly , all or every Number , because all Number flowes from that ; and therefore every Number is nothing but a connexion of Unites : From whence that very Unity is a Figure of the Divinity ; because from thence all Numbers are made , and again into the same are resolved . Indeed the Schooles , as often as they have conceived any thing by Science Mathematical , that thing they have presently wrested into Nature , under the generality of Rules : For so of Four imagined Elements , by confusedly suiting four Qualities , Complexions , and Humours , these Brawlings have been translated even into the Stars , and they have determined of all things co-agreeing with their own Fictions . By which method indeed , they have fitted a continual speculation in Science Mathematical , unto lineal points , and at length also unto Time. B. Augustine confesseth indeed , that Time is something , but that he was ignorant of the thingliness of Time ; to wit , because he was seasoned with false Positions from Paganisme . Wherefore I blush again and again , that I am willing to explain the Essence of Time : But this man I fear not to be my hater , who already beholds truth in the Heavens . For first of all , I have withdrawn all succession from Time , who from great Authorities had already shaken off the Yoak of the Heathenish Schools . For truly I meditated at first , that the Heavens stood still , yet that there was not any other Time while the Sun was at a stand , than now : Therefore I began to measure out that Duration without the succession of the Motion of the Heaven : And by consequence I by degrees learned , that all Time was sequestred from Succession , and that this Succession did fit or accommodate it self onely unto Motion . Then afterwards I began to repute it a mad thing , that the Sun should at some time stand still , and nevertheless even to this day to sink Time within the Motion of the Heavens . For although that detainment of the Sun was Miraculous , yet the Duration or term of continuance , was not therefore Miraculous . And then I beheld that Time was already from the Beginning , the Day not as yet existing , or before Light was born , and a separation thereof , from the darkness . Therefore the Heaven , Earth , Abysse of Waters , Darkness , and the Day it self , were before that the circular Path of the Heaven did determine of the Day . In the Beginning I say , of the Creatures , but not in the Beginning of Time : Because that Beginning of Things includeth some [ Dum ] or [ While ] that it may be of Sense : Although God appointed from Eternity to create Things : Yet while it pleaseth his infinite Goodness to issue into an Operation to without ; then , in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth : But that [ Dum ] or [ While ] was before a Creature , because God had no need of a Creature , or a created Duration ; neither had the things that were to be created , need of a created Duration , as a concurring Principle of an unlike Dignity , with the Creatour of an infinite Power : For if the Creature did not depend originally , totally , to wit , absolutely , and intimately on God , as on the Beginning and End of its Duration ; verily , neither should God also be the immediate and total Principle , as neither the immediate Life of things ; that is , he should not be their Alpha and Omega . Therefore I from thence understood , if Nature had at sometime stood rooted in Duration , flowing forth without a Mean , from Eternity it self ; that it ought also at this day so to stand , by reason of the same rules of necessity . For presently after , I knew that Duration which they name Time , was a real Being : And likewise that if Time hath been from the Beginning , before a Creature was made , verily it could not be reckoned among created things : For neither is there mention made of Time being created . I also thorowly weighed , that as a moveable Body is so in place , that the place doth not only outwardly encompass the moveable Body ( however Aristotle in the mean time so thought ) but place pierceth the very moveable Body on every Side ; so that every intimate part of a Body , is no less in place than the superficies thereof ; Yet place is not therefore on the other hand , comprehended by the moveable Body . So indeed , and also much more abstractedly , Duration is indeed intimate to things ; Yet it is not affected , shut up , or apprehended by things . Also place supposeth a certain and determined Position , indeed capable of being changed by that which is moveable ; yet wholly unseparable altogether from all place : But Duration it self , is so unseparable from things , that it doth in no wise ever wander , or is changed from these : Therefore seeing Duration is above , and within the Being of things , and unseparable from these ; Yea more intimate to things , than things themselves are unto their own selves . Hence therefore have I meditated of a Duration plainly divine , to be in Time , and so in that respect not to be distinguished from Eternity ; yet to be distributed unto things according to the Model of every Receiver : And so I have sufficiently proved the aforesaid Proposition . Wherefore Time hath neither parts , neither doth it admit of a division of it self , and by consequence , it knows not succession ; neither also doth it approve of Dreams : To wit , the which may receive into it Poynts actually Infinite , being coupled or dis-joyned : Yea , neither is . Time a Duration , great , or small , rather than plain , round , long , deep , short , or broad : Because in very deed , it is not within the compass of Predicaments ; because there is one only Infinite , existing in Act , to wit , God , who is all things : For if Goodness , Life , Truth , and Essence after an abstracted manner , are God himself , in created things ; it likewise cannot be denyed , but that in the same things , Duration it self represents God. I believe therefore , that true Time is unmixed , without the Spot of a Creature , every where , and alwayes unchangeable , nor to be after any manner successive : And that I might the more nearly conceive of this thing , I withdrew all Bodies from Time , and all coursariness of successive things , or the succeeding successive changes of Motions : And then first , I clearly understood , that Time in its own Essence , bears or ows no respect unto the Unstabilities , Varieties , or Measure of Motions : For truly , Time is that which it is , whether Motions and Mutations are made or not ; because I have not found Duration to be related unto Motion ; or on the other hand , Motion unto Duration , unless by accident , and by reason of a mental measuring of one thing unto another ; the which is altogether impertinent : For truly , Time not having succession , cannot be serviceable unto co-measuring . But because we being concluded in a sublunary place , and being rashly seasoned by the Heathenish Schooles , we have been wont in the Duration of Time , indefinitely to consider Priorities , and Swiftnesses , together with their Correlatives ; because through a frivolous Abuse , the limitation of attribution of Motions , and moveable Bodies , hath been accustomed to be measured according to space : Which Relations ( notwithstanding ) of Priofity , if they are weighed in the Ballance of Truth , they are onely the Atributes of Motions , but never of Time or Duration ; because Priority , Slowness , &c. do bespeak only an unseparable Relation unto the parts of Motions immediately following , and slowness compares the swiftness of Motions with each other ; and therefore Priority , Slownesses , &c. do not so much measure Time or Duration , but only in respect of a dayly Motion . For truly a humane and undistinct weakness , hath through a certain sluggishness and dulness , meted out all peculiar Motions with a diary or diurnal Motion : Because they do not regard , that the Priorities of Motions are not properly the duration of Time it self , but rather a universal distance of a general Motion : And although Duration it self of Time be , and be present in all things ; yet that this is altogether a Stranger from the succession of Motions . From hence therefore , Time hath begun to be considered as it were a successive and frail Being by every instant : Especially , because the Schooles having imitated the blockishnesses of the Vulgar , have at length accustomed themselves to confound Time with the Motion of the Heaven . It 's no wonder therefore , if the great Heroes or Worthies , considering the thingliness of Time by such Beginnings , have not been able to conceive of the same : Because , seeing it involveth an actual Infinite ( which one only thing is Eternal ) it is from it self of necessity , not to be comprehended by that which is Infinite . For Time is thought to succeed , and to have parts , because parts should follow themselves in Motions : Seeing Time and Motion are unlike things , and so far different from each other , as a Mortal and Finite thing is from an Infinite : For although Motion be made in Time , Motion can be no more co-measured by Man through Time , than Man is able to measure Man himself by God , who is , lives , and is moved in God. For if God would have the whole course of the Heaven for the future , to be so unequally inordinate , that no Motion could be made equal unto it ; should therefore Time also be in it self unequal ? Or should that cease to be , which now is ? Yea if the Motion of the Heavens should cease ( as at sometime it shall cease ) shall Time therefore cease likewise ? Shall [ Now ] it self be no longer [ Now ] for what doth that belong unto Time , which happeneth in Time ? For truly it hath its own free Being without Respect , Reflexion , or Reciprocation unto any other thing . Indeed Time is not given unto us for a measure , or that in it self it is to be measured ; but it hath a free Being in him from whence is all Essence . For Example : God is in every Creature : For God is Good as he is all Good , but not this or that Good ; but in as much as he is this or that Good , he is not all or every Good , and in such a respect , he hath a Being in created Things : For as God is one only Good in all things , so in like manner also , all Good is essentially this one true Good : Likewise God is every where present in all things , and his Continuance or Duration , is the Duration of all and every of things . In like manner also , the light of the Sun is a Being , and something in it self ( because it enlightneth and heates ) yet without and on this side the Sun , it is nothing : After the same manner , eternal Duration is Time in created things : Because without and besides an eternal Duration , it is a meer nothing privatively and negatively . Wherefore as long as there shall be any created things , Time shall never cease to be . The Lord hath said , Thou art my Son , this Day have I begotten Thee : Because Eternity is nothing but one only [ Now ] but one only [ To day ] I have begotten Thee from the Womb , before the Day-Star was : Christ was born from the Womb in Time , and yet before Lucifer or the Day-Star was : Because in Time , there is no Priority or Succession . [ Before ] therefore , denotes a Priority of the Succession of Motions , and an excellency of Dignity , but not a Priority of Time : Because from the Beginning even unto the finishing of Age , it is nothing but one only [ Now : ] For so , The Lamb was sacrificed from the Beginning of the World , and his death saves the dead before the Lords Incarnation ; as the Incarnation which makes blessed , hath respect unto Motion : Indeed it saves the Ancestours , which precede according to the course of Life , and in respect of Motions conferred among each other ; but not by the sight or beholding of Duration : That the Lyon may not snatch them , nor the infernal Pit devour them : For those Prayers are for the deceased long after Death , when as notwithstanding , Souls do for the most part , undergo their Judgment presently after expiration . Wherefore such kinde of Prayers should be in Vain , and made too late , if Time should be successive . The Church triumpheth in the Comforter her Guide ; therefore she hath known , that all future things are in the same [ Now ] of time , as if her Prayers had happened before the party died . For the Wise Man affirmeth , That God made all things at once ; but Genesis writing the History of the six dayes Work , saith also , that as many dayes were spent : Which sayings should therefore contradict each other , if Succession be granted unto Time : All things therefore were created in six dayes space ; yet one only point of time remaining : For so the Devil hath known future things in the succession of Motions ; as they being present in the one only [ Now ] of Time. The Stars indeed are for Times , that is for the successive changes of Times , or varieties of Motions ; but not for the continuance of our Life , the bound whereof is appointed by the Almighty . But indeed Priority or Formerliness is most difficulty sequestred from Time : For although we abstract Time from Place , Motion , and a Body ; Yet by reason of an opposite custom , and the novelty of the thing , it is very difficult to desist from Priority in Time , no otherwise than as any one who is wont to cut Bread with his left hand , that thing is troublesome for his right Hand to do , although he rightly performeth many other things by his right Hand : Yet therefore a difficulty and unwontedness of understanding , doth not change any thing in things , or oblige the Essence of Time , that it may accommodate it self to our Errours : For what doth a Priority it self of Motions in Bodies , belong to Time ? Or what doth Priority hurt Time , which is due to Motion alone ? If through ignorance it be translated into Time ? But because a Priority of Motions in order to Duration , bespeakes an immediate respect unto another Motion ( to wit , of dayes and years ) whereby we measure all other Motions , therefore Priority is abusively derived into duration : Otherwise surely it ought first to be manifested , that that Motion of the day , should therefore be Time , because it happens in time ; which being proved , then Priority might be referred unto Duration , and not otherwise ; therefore never . But it is sufficient for me , for the distinguishing of things , that Duration never depends on Motion in its own Essence , but that it carries in it self and before it self , a certain uniform constancy of the Divinity ; to wit , whereby it is so permanent , that it remains altogether free from all successive change , and succession of Priority , a Sranger , and plainly independent for things , and the successive Motions of things : Therefore Duration is to be placed in no Predicament . And seeing that , it after no manner pertains unto the order of Relatives , therefore by consequence , Duration shews no internal respect unto things , unless by accident ; and that also , not but according to the miserable , and deceived discourse of reason , making proportions between moveable things ; and as yet , only in as much as they are moveable , in order unto a local , or alterative Motion ; But not in order unto a real Being of those things . Indeed , certain Fluxes of formerlinesses and latternesses , have respect unto frail moveable things in their Motions , wherewith they hasten unto the appointed ends of their Period ; and so unto their own Death or Destruction : But what relation hath all that unto Time ? For therefore also ought Time to run with all and every Motion ? Verely , so there should be as many Times and Durations , as there are Motions ; or if one only Time doth universally run with all and every of Motions , and seeing such a very Time should most swiftly out-run other Motions , the slow course of the Life of the Crow shall flow in unequal Time , with the Circle of its roulable Wheel : Wherefore they could not flow at once , under one only Duration : Therefore Time hath its own Being or Essence , immoveable , unchangeable , undivideable , and unmixed with things , not successive , but simple and free from all intrinsecal respect of it self unto the Creature : Although Time be more intimate unto things , than things themselves are to themselves . I suppose therefore , Time to be in the thrice glorious God , Eminently and Essentially , but in the Creature , Dependently , Subjectively , and from an issuing forth to without , participatively . The Law of destiny indeed , permitteth the Motions of Life , immediately to follow according to a disposition inhering in moveable things , being affixed unto a certain and prescribed order of appointments : But those affixings , and orders , are not of Time it self ; indeed they obtain their own [ Before ] and [ After , ] their own [ seasonable , meet or convenient thing ] and [ Late ] for the following after , or succession of Motions , and the changes of the Same , but not of Time. For nothing can be thought to be more absurd , than that one only Time should be moved by a certain succession , should follow after , and make it self a Vassal unto infinite Points , undividable indeed in their Priority , and divided among themselves by supposionality ; and the which notwithstanding , in every the least instant , should be conjoyned ; and which , without any their extension , should successively perish before their connexion ; and that such a Chymaera should be a most sure measure of all Motions : Yea , that Time should by such an undivided and mutual coupling of Points , and uncessant succession thereof , be constrained to be moved , and successively to follow : And that at length , this Motion by the Infinites of an undivideable Point , should be the distinct rule , and temperament of all Motions : Yet these so blockish Opinions or Precepts they hand forth to Youth , under the first spring of its Age , for the natural auricular Document of Aristotle . Priority therefore , is never terminated in respect of Time , but of destiny , related in order unto Motions , without respect of one Motion unto another : For local Motion doth not touch the Essence of Place ; but a thing which is successively moved through place , sheweth only a respect by accident unto the scituation of Places . In the mean time , respects of Scituations , or of a Place unto a Place , do remain stable , unmoved , unchanged , neither do they in the least touch or concern Place , whether the thing be moved in its Scituation , or not ; seeing that succession of local Motion , in respect of Motion , is a Stranger unto Place . Truly , by a stronger right do I understand these things to be done with Time , because Time is not a Relative from any internal respect ; but it is a certain more abstracted thing , and nearer to Eternity in understanding , and in matter , than Place is . Time therefore knows , not Succession , neither in respect of Motion , nor of the thing moved ; because Succession is nothing else but a Proportion of successive things in order unto Motion : and although Duration it self be in Motion , yet this doth not therefore , put on the Nature of the Succession of Motions : But as many as have thought Time to be a successive and dividable Being ; that also the Rains being loosed , they have believed , is to fall and perish together with the destruction of the World , but that Eternity , or a new Creature , is to be substituted in its own Rooms , without a Medium of succession . Indeed this hath been thus supposed , through a not knowing of the Thingliness or Essence of Time : For while they say this of Time , they manifest , that they speak not of Time , and that they are ignorant of its Duration ; because they speak only concerning Motions , and the successive change of these , for the contingences or accidents of Duration . For truly , although Duration be in , and present with Things , yet it hath nothing common with Things , whether they are burnt up , are drowned , do putrifie , are moved , do sleep , do begin , or cease to be ; because Duration doth not look back unto things , but remains unbroken , and alwayes equal to it self . For perhaps the Text hath seduced them : Hereafter , Time shall be no more ; they not heeding , that Time is there taken for the dayes of an Year , for the successive change of Meteours , and an opportunity of Repenting ; to wit , according to the common manner of speaking : But not that Duration should cease together with the destruction of the World , which now is , alwayes hath been , and shall be : For Eternity which is deputed to the Angels , is no way made diverse from Duration , which they call that of Time : For think thou of a Soul the In-mate of the Body , to experience neither day , night , nor likewise old age , as neither to have succession : Yet it is in one only , and the same Duration , and in the same [ Now ] wherein another Soul separated from the Body , doth exist : Because the changing of the place and condition of Souls doth not any thing touch , affect Duration , or Oblige the same unto themselves , that it may therefore pass into their Essence : But the same Duration of Eternity , issuingly flowes into all things , and sustaineth all things ; yet it doth not therefore loose its own simplicity , although the things which do participate of it , receive the same after a diverse and different manner : For a thing subsisteth in , and under Duration , from the which if it shall fall or depart , it departs into nothing . For an Angel therefore , in his Substance and Being , enjoyes a continual Time without succession and parts , nothing whereof is great , little , long , short , former , latter , measure , and measurable . Seeing therefore , according to the Schools , there is such a Duration for Angels , which they call Eternity , and they distinguish from the Time of sublunary Things , and that , whether they exist in the Heavens , or in the Earth ; and do admit of the Works of the Angels , to be co-measured by a successive , and distinct Time ; I conclude , seeing an Angel cannot be in two Durations at once , differing in their whole Orbe and general Kinde , to wit , one whereof doth agree to himself , and another to his Works ; both whereof in the mean Time , contain one only [ Now ] of Duration , it should of necessity be , that both those Durations do wholly melt into one only Being , diverse only in the accident of Respects , that is in a feigned and mental [ non-Being : ] into one only Duration I say , through a necessary real Act of the existance of Number : And so that Time is in very deed , plainly the same with Eternity , and doth remain unchanged for ever . But it is sufficient for me , that the Schooles do acknowledge some continual Time , and not successive , which they call Eternity . I am not constrained , by reason of their mental Diversities , to disjoyn Time from Eternity . For if they separate Time , as being a successive change of Things , and Motions , from Eternity ; for that very Cause , they do more respect successive change it self , than Duration ; the Determination and Definition whereof , they do nevertheless think they do attend : For truly that convinceth , that the thingliness of Time being hitherto unknown , they in vain separate Time as distinct from that which is continual , or from the Eternity ; Seeing there is never any necessity of Succession in Duration , and so much the rather , because they assign unto both the aforesaid Durations , certain Respects , which in the whole Heaven ( as they say ) are banished from the Nature of Duration : Because they are those which do only produce a difference of reason , or of a [ non-being ] which is equivolent ; as though the diversity of both Durations were in very deed a meer device ; It being that which I thus convince of . Time is a Being : Therefore the Creator or a Creature : if it be a successive Being , therefore it is not the substance of the Creator , or of a Creature . But if they will have it to be an accident ( for of a nuetral Being between a substance and an accident , the Schools have not yet made mention ) at leastwise , it had behoved them to describe the Subject of inherency for Time. Therefore I may conjecture , that the Heaven shall not be the Subject of Time ; for so frail and sublunary things should not have a Duration of Time proper unto them ; Duration should be a forreign Stranger unto , and surmounting mortal things : And likewise if one sublunary thing should partake of Time , as of an accident proper unto it , another thing that is Neighbour unto it , should not therefore also rejoyce in Time. But if they had rather that every of frail things should partake of the Time of the Heaven : at leastwise , all created things should not have a different Duration , but every of them should remain in the same heavenly external Duration participatively : Yea , sublunary things should sooner have all the other manifest Qualities and Properties of the Heavens , than the Duration of the same : Therefore they do not participate of a borrowed Permanency of the Heavens in Duration . But if indeed , unto all particular things their own proper Duration doth belong , so that things themselves are the Subjects of inherency of Duration , not fetch'd from elsewhere , and the limitation of Duration should be as it were essentially included in seminal Beginnings , now the Light of divine providence appears in Time , that it may be the rule of that which is created , but not a created thing it self ; for in God we are , do live , and are moved . So also in Duration , which neither also was created : For otherwise , if Time doth inhere in all particular things , as an accident or concomitant ; truly besides innumerable Absurdities , there shall be even as many diverse Times , as there are atomes of things : And whosoever doth now subsist at once in the same Duration , shall have as many diverse Essences and Existences of Durations , and Time shall be actually divided into an Infinite : And every accident which is naturally the Object of some one of the Senses , shall not by any sense be perceivable in the Duration of Time. Wherefore I am constrained to acknowledge in Time a certain universality , and together also a singularity proper to all particular things , and more intimate unto things , than things are unto themselves : I likewise confess a proper rule and determination , which bestows a precise Duration on all particular things ; yet in like manner , unsufferable , unapprehensible , or unrestrainable by things : Wherefore I acknowledge Time to be a Being , which gives and distributes all things to all , according to an ordained participation of eternal Duration , and that for the confounding of Atheists . Therefore I consider of Time , as the issuing Splendour of Eternity ; and the which Splendour doth no more subsist beneath and without Eterniry , than the Splendour of the Light beneath the Light. Time therefore , ought to be unto us a manuduction or hand-leading unto the Super-intellectual , One , Eternal , Infinite , Intimate Being in every Thing ; yet in no wise Mixed , Concluded , Apprehensible , or Detainable therein ; in which Being , is the Thingliness or Essence of things ; to whom be praise and glory in its own Eternity . It is therefore a Paganish , barbarous and absurd Speech , that Time Consumes or Devoures us , because there is no action or passion of Time on us , or from us : We perish not through the Vice of Time , neither is Death made any more by Time , than by God : For the dispositions of Motions , are the second Causes of Death , but Time is not of the Nature of Motions : For the divine Judgments do dispose of all things , for reasons known to themselves . In the mean time , it is to be admired , that the Day is the measure of Motions , and yet that that they have prescribed no precise measure unto the day . They have indeed made subdivisions of hours , minutes , seconds , &c. by the number of sixty : But none hath hitherto shewn the precise space of one sixtieth part of a minute ; for they stuck in the practise . Yea , besides Noon there is no stable moment of the day : That also , doth almost every where vary , so that the certainty of the Meridional point , depends not so much on the Motion of the Sun and Heaven , as on respect of the scituation of the Sphere . None therefore hath perfectly taught a certain or defined [ Now ] or constant point , wherein any thing shall happen , unless a respect being had unto Ecclipses . They having imitated the Globe of the World , while they have divided the Sphere by the point of the Meridian , and the altitude or height of the Pole : But seeing the Sun is not alwayes , nor every where conspicuous according to their desire , they have found out Wheels to be for some turns circumvolved for a dayes space , the which because they could not be for moving of themselves , a Weight hath been hung on them , and so they have measured the day ; wherein an Errour hath straightway arisen , because the Weight increasing by reason of the length of the Ropes did cause an unequality . The measure of dayes by an unvoluntary wresting of the Steel , is as yet more uncertain ; because an exquisite proportion between the Strength of which in-writhed Steel resisting , and between the winding Staires , or for removing of the bending Rope from the Axle , is not as yet certainly manifest : For the north Wind blowing , it is more stubborn than it self , and than it was wont to be . There are not therefore as yet Proportions of the least Minutes in Motion : Musick halfe poured out or by Minums , is also uncertain , because it hath respect unto the pause of an entire sound , which is the more swift at pleasure . Therefore from the measuring of Motions in Duration ; I have first meted out the strength and goodness of Guns , and any sort of Gun-powder : For if the warlique Engine or Instrument be distant from the Wall that is to be demolished , 200 Paces , sending forth a Bullet of 22 pound weight , with 10 pound of Powder of known goodness : But let it be noted how much the stroak of the Bullet delays after the enflaming of the Powder ; but now in its being distant for the space of 250 , or 400 paces , with a Bullet of the same weight not made hollow , and with an equal weight of the same Powder ; let it be noted , whether the sluggishness of the stroak answers to the proportion of the distance : The same trial may be made in greater , and less Guns . Therefore the sluggishness or slowness of the stroak shall discover how much resistance of the Air the distance doth bring forth , and how much the goodness of the Powder doth hasten it , and how much the hollowness in the Iron-bullet takes away , or if it be filled with weighed Lead . But I have at sometime with delight , meted out those Swiftnesses , Powers , and Proportions of Motions , likewise to be uttered in a great minuts space : I did hang on a Nail , the weight of one Pound , by a slender Thred , of the length of one foot , and its weight hung free in the Air ; but I moved the weight that it might strike in the Air like the Clapper of a Bell. I say therefore , that all and every of the Beatings which do follow , even unto the last , shall in every place be equal to the first beating : For by how much the first . Thump is greater , by so much , those that follow are less , and therefore they may be so much the slower in their Motion , but not in the Beginning , or End of the same . Likewise , whether one only pound , or more , be hung on a Thred , yet they shall not therefore be unequal : But if the Thred be two-footed , all the knocks shall be percisely slower by twofold : therefore according to the length of the Thred , the Thumps or Pulses are hastened , or slackened : And so the delay of every Motion may precisely be known : But the Musitian shall note the equality of those Pulses . Lastly , seeing the motive Power is on both sides , the one only equal Beginning of motion , the moderative principle of swiftness according to the distance of place ; therefore it must needs be , that the beating of one Pound is as equal , as that of more . I suppose therefore , that the Pulse of a two-footed length , is of a middle or moderate Pause , therefore that Pulse or Beating may be sub-divided into sixteen distinct lesser Pulses , and it may be observed in the Pin of a Dial , how many Pulses or Knocks of the footed Thred , a quarter of an hour shall yield ; and so the year shall be precisely co-measured . But as to what pertains unto Critical or Judicary Dayes , Observation indeed hath a foundation in Nature , as our Archeus unfolds the harmony of the Heavens . Indeed the Moon doth alwayes on the fourteenth day , proceed unto a place opposite to her self , whither she was brought on the first day : Therefore the Nature of the Archeus , is reckoned to have obtained opposite Faculties . So likewise , the seventh day also hath the half of opposition , as also a quarter aspect of the Moon as to the point of her Beginning : For therefore the 7th and 14th dayes are evil in respect of the Disease ; but good in respect of Mans Archeus . Therefore , there is seldom a Critical day , out of sharpe or acute Diseases , however otherwise Paracelsus hath thought . Yet I have diligently noted , that there is never a Crisis or Judicial Sign , where the Physitian being skillful in his Art , hath taken away the Disease before the expectation of a Crisis . For as Nature rejoyceth in ordinary Motions , and is accustomed unto them , and is willingly governed by a Unity of the motive virtue ; So when the whole business of the Disease is incumbent only on its own Shoulders , Nature her self stirs up her set Crisis's , the which otherwise , the goodness of a Medicine doth prevent , and the naughtiness thereof doth foreslow or destroy . For so the 14th day of a Crisis , is protracted unto the fourtieth day : Therefore it is the part of a good and faithful Physitian to neglect Crisis's : And it should be better for the Sick to have wanted a Physitian , as many as do escape by a Crisis , and much more , whose Crisis is the slower . For let the Schooles boast of Crisis's , let them determine of a Crisis , let them teach , that for Nature to fight with the Disease , is unto them a Crisis ; without controversie or judge : At leastwise , the similitude of that Battle , and the name of a Crisis unfitly derived , hath seemed to me impertinent : For these kinde of Devises are delivered from hand to hand , whereby every Agent is believed to sustain a strife by reason of Contrarieties only : but one Absurdity being granted , many do presently follow after in a Chain : For I have taught elsewhere , that Nature knows no Contraries , nor that she fights with a Disease : Indeed that Nature doth more employ her self about the Disease , as about an Egge , than that she may be its contrary ; If Nature alone be the Physitianess of Diseases : and so it ripens all things , that it may come unto its end , and therefore also it intends the end of a Disease , by ripening the Means : So neither doth a Disease resist Nature while it is ripened , no more than an Egge while it is nourished , doth fight with the nourishing Hen : For unto the Seeds of Diseases is their Period appointed ; not indeed that which may be due unto the mystical numbers of Dayes , but only unto the necessary requirances of Maturities : For if ( according to Hippocrates ) things cocted , and not crude , are to be moved ; The quicksighted , and mitigated Governour of Nature , hath known his own Maturities at set moments , the which himself alone is compelled to perfect , not indeed by reason of a distinct animosity of Diseases , in contention ; But the Filths being ripened , they desist from adhering unto the solid Parts . But to what end is there so great a commentary of critical Dayes ( I being a Junior , wrote five Books concerning Critical dayes , the which I afterwards committed to the Fire ) if it behoves a Physitian to be instructed , that he may render a dangerous Disease harmless , and may abbreviate a long one ; that is , may cut it off , that it be not spun out into a Crisis . A Crisis therefore , as it sounds of Judgment , let it be the Judge and Accuser of Physitians , and a testimony of Nature alone bearing the burden ; because a Crisis only happens , where a slimie or tough Matter doth adhere , or a noysome or hurtful Matter is enclosed , and wisheth to be sequestred by an ultimate or final Maturity . But as to what respecteth a Climacterical year or year of gradual ascent , drawn from a production of the number of seven into nine , to wit , into the sixty third year of Life , it is a blockish invention : Because seventy Years are the Dayes of a Man , &c. Therefore among Christians , they accuse the holy Scriptures of the imposture of Falshood ; and so it is an invention of the Devil , who being an Enemy of our Life , doth procure through the fear of Death , to smite Old Men with astonishment before their appointed hour : For otherwise , what doth the production of a number into a number , make or tend unto the course of Life ? Years indeed do hasten , and run back into their own Harvests and Maturities . Wherefore also the revolutions of Years , and numbers of revolutions , do rather respect an identity or sameliness of recourses , than the Number , or Life directly , and they after no manner refer themselves unto a past number , because all particular years do end into their own precise singularity , neither do they reflect themselves upon a plurality of Years foregoing . Among the rest , some one doth sottishly betake himself unto the number numbering . Truly , as it is a pious and Christian-like thing , to acknowledge our Life from the hand of the Creatour , the Prince of Life ; So it is the part of Reprobates , to have borrowed Life from the Planets , and Numbers : For although God hath from his own Will and good Pleasure , disposed of all things in a certain space , yet let it be a foolish thing to attribute a causality to Numbers . If Plants had the Faculty of fructifying before the Stars were born , and do grow or flourish by virtue of the Word , it is a shameful thing for a Christian to have yielded the life of man , and the powers of his Duration and Existence unto Numbers numbering . Therefore a Clymacterical Year , whether we respect the Numbred Recourses of the Stars , or a recoursive Number , or next , the Number numbering , is a vain prattle , repugnant to the holy Scriptures , which call our wretched Life from seventy unto eighty Years , not by reason of Years past , as neither by reason of their Number numbering , but because necessities are increased in the Seeds , they being so appointed by the Prince of Life . But they boast of a Sabbathary Number , because it is the Seventh . Adde to this , that is repugnant to the Fiftieth Year , which is that of the Jubilee , and wholly Sabbathary ; and so the Seventieth Year , because it is seven times the Tenth , doth more Sabbatize or rest , than the Sixty third Year ; because the Ninth Year is the Nintieth , or the Ninth Tenth , which doth nothing belong unto a Sabbatisme or celebration of a Sabbath : For if the Seventh day be Critical by reason of the positions of the Moon , therefore not by reason of Number ; neither doth any thing of the Moon interpose , which is common with the Clymacterical Number of 63 Years . For Astrologers do will the 56 Year in Nativities of the Night , by reason of a doubled coldness of Saturn ; surely a shameful one : but the 63 Year in Births of the Day , by reason of the ridiculous drynesses of Mercury , and Mars , to be most exceeding dangerous : But these Men , besides that for one half of Births , at least , they bid farewel unto a Clymacterical Year , they contradict the Text : The Dayes of a Man are Seventy Years , &c. In the next place , they desist from Numbers , while they call the Qualities of Elements unto their help , and by doating , do transferre them on the Stars . If Death in the Vale of Miseries , be the end of Calamities , the Clymacterical Year ought to be the Fiftieth , which is the Sabbathary Year and that of Jubilee . God indeed hath distinguished the Week into Seven Dayes , not by reason of a Mystery or Dignities of the Number , but because he foreknew men would scarce be at leisure for him , unlesse he had commanded it : Wherefore he would have the seventh day at least to be due unto himself , that we might wholly be at leasure at least once in the Week ; But not that a Number did contain a Sacred thing or Mystery ; but he testified the Indulgency of his bounty , that of seven dayes he required even but one onely . Go to , if he hath consecrated the Seventh Number to himself , why dost thou adde also the Ninth , which is not consecrated unto him ? Why do ye marry a profane Number unto a sacred Number ( as thou sayest ) that thereby ye may frame a Clymacterical Year ? Is it lawful to have made Dayes sacred unto God when thou pleasest ? At length , after who manner , if Seven and Nine should have a Mistery in them , wilt thou make it , that the Number from the Product of Seven into Nine , shall be holy ? Seeing that according to you , nothing can be added to , or taken away from the Species of Numbers , but that the Species it self is continually changed ? God commanded ten days for unleavened bread , before and after the Feast ; But what authority doth that afford for a Denary or the number of Ten. The Lord commanded that Dayes were to be vacant for himself , wherein he had been bountiful unto them , yet are they not therefore to be observed by us : And therefore neither hath he addicted a holiness to Numbers : Therefore that Doctrine containeth the future perfidiousness of the Jewes , which things afterwards , from the foolish frivolousness of Astrologers , and melancholly or mad thoughts , they have fashioned into Arts and Rules fitted to their vain pleasure or desire ; and some of whom I have Cured by Remedies for madness , seeing such kind of obstinacy wants not its own madness . Finally therefore , it is manifest , that Long Life which I treat of , is not in respect of Duration or Time ; but of Motions issuing forth from the Beginning , even unto the End : to wit , the Measuring whereof in the constancy of Duration , is not Duration it self , but another Motion , such as is the Day , which by its plurality , onely measureth the longitudes or lengths of Life : Wherefore the holy Scriptures do speak dis-joyntly : In those Dayes . And likewise they describe the contingencies of things , by the Dayes of Men , but not by the Successions of Times , which Paganisme hath introduced by a speech altogether fabulous ; because of Time there is no Part , Succession , or interchangable Course . CHAP. XC . Life is Long , Art is Short. 1. The Life deservedly ought to be shortned . 2. The Consideration of Long Life issues from the gift of God. 3. Some Factions of the Schollars of Paracelsus , about Long Life . 4. An Objection for the despairing of Long Life . 5. How great the length of Life is , according to the Author . 6. Why the term of Long Life is so Diverse . 7. Long Life is proved . 8. The unsufficiency of Galen is noted . VVE all almost do complain of the shortness of Life ; but the space of Life is long enough , and the plurality of Dayes great enough , if the whole be well imployed : For thorowly weigh thou , how much sleep , leisure or idleness , vain imployments , Parents and Friends have divided with thee of the space of Life , and thou shalt presently discern , that ours is a lying complaint concerning the Shortness of Life . These things Seneca sometime judged : But Christians who hope Death to be an enterance unto Life , ought never to lament them of the shortness of their Life : For there is a certain number of Elect , and Reprobates , the which that it might be the sooner fulfilled , by reason of the Iniquities of many , the Day of Life ought to be cut short , as also the number to be speeded , for the hastening of the last Day : For else , although the World should be fruitful in its whole ampleness , yet it should not be sufficient for the nourishing of all that are brought forth , and to be brought forth , by reason of the aforesaid hastening , if every one of these should attain unto the term of Long Life . Furthermore , although the Righteous ought deservedly to rejoyce concerning the shortness of their Life , and in a contrary sense , the Unrighteous do most of them wish for a long continuance of Life ( for perhaps they shall be amended in old age ) yet seeing it is manifest to none , whether he be accounted Righteous in Gods sight , especially because , In his sight shall no man living be justified : I have therefore judged , that every one is to be seriously imployed for the obtainment of the antient blessing promised unto him that is obedient unto Parents . Therefore Long Life hath seemed unto me to be the top of all Phylosophy , because it ponders of a pleasant and most profitable Meditation . The Death of a Person is first of all most greatly to be lamented , which might be a Pillar unto mortals , to his country , or family , but that by the command or permission of God , he should dye for some better end : For therefore every one is of his own free accord carried into the love , desires , and wish of Long Life ; and onely a miserable loss of Health , or Fortunes , brings on a Desire of Death , and wearisomness of Life unto the desperate ; But a despairing onely of Long Life to be obtained , doth affright those who diligently search after it : Because that in the Ages preceding Paracelsus , the dumb silence of the Schooles teacheth , that they have meditated nothing concerning Long Life . Because Death crept in through the subtilty of Satan , therefore I conjecture also , that Long Life hath not undeservedly even hitherto been suppressed through the deceit of the same , seeing he is the sworn enemy of our kind : Which scope of Long Life , notwithstanding the Almighty hath of late vouchsafed to instill into the Mind of man , that after an army of new Diseases mustred against us , we may seriously consider of these things , as those things which are glorious to his Name , and necessary for us : Although the gift of the Tree of Life doth remain in the hand of the Lord , as long as he hath decreed to remain be the dispenser thereof . The late Adeptists despising the wedlocks of the first Qualities , the collections of Humours , their Prerogatives , and Decayings , or Cessations , have by little and little aspired unto a Unitone of Healing , under which , they at first supposing that they had found the entrance of Remedies , gloried that they were made partakers of their desire , whom those succeeded , who could find that the subtilties of things , or purities of Medicines , were not as yet sufficient for so great a Spire , to wit , that they could enter unto the length of Life ; because the Offices of our growth being finished , they could no longer pierce unto , and comix themselves with the first constitutives of us . The natural endowment , I say , which things have obtained in growing , if they do not put it off within at their first entrance ; at least-wise , they do not carry it far inwards towards the roots of the homogeneal parts ; but they are as yet far absent from detaining the vital powers from their flowing unto Death . For therefore the more learned from Paracelsus , have afterwards declined into divers factions of Opinions , and into a despaire of Long Life . Others also being allured with greater courage and hope , more by the Promises of Paracelsus , than as being supported by Experience , the Witness of things , have promised many things , whereunto the events have not afterwards answered ; because they together with Paracelsus , have not known the root of Long Life . The more sloathful also have despaired in matters of difficulty , in saying , The bound of our Life is set , the which none shall over-pass . They therefore thinking it to be vain , whatsoever those who were somewhat too rash have promised concerning Long Life . But they do not rightly well weigh that he who hath appointed the bound of Life , hath together also by the same endeavour , appointed all means requisite unto that term of Life : Otherwise , the Tree of Life had been in vain in Paradise , and in vain had the Creator created Medicine out of the Earth , from the Beginning , unless the natural terms or bounds of things might be prolonged by Healing or Medicine : For if I use not Remedies my bound is set , which I shall not pass over ; according to that saying , We is me , that my Pilgrimage is prolonged ! If Adam doth not eat of the Tree of Life , he had a bound of Life appointed him : But if he had eaten , verily neither had he been Dead . There is therefore a hope for Long Life , but the knowledge of the Mean onely hath been wanting : For neither do I speak of Long Life issuing out of the Scaiolae or four spiritual powers of the Mind ; such fables I leave to Paracelsus . Nor in the next place , am I he , who extend the Years of Long Life unto the days of Mathusalem : But I greatly esteem of the Age of Nestor , or of Johannes de Temporibus or John of the Times . But Paracelsus calls the Life of three hundred Years ( by a despised name ) a short , natural , and curtailed one ; yea if it be not prolonged unto the Year of Fire , he esteems it unworthy , and promiseth , that by the virtue of his Arcanums , the Life of Nestor should follow , as it were with no difficulty : But with me , a Long Life hath the term of one Hundred and Twenty Years , but the utmost of Three Hundred Years , because they are those which some living Creatures do daily of their own accord reach unto , but man very seldom , and that not but in some unwonted places . But why Long Life may be extended with so great a largness , it comes to pass , because it is on both sides received after the manner of the Receiver : For the Modern Tree of Life should now no longer render me capable of the least Dignity , or term , by reason of the light of my Life , being depraved by many storms , the thred whereof they have cut off while it was as yet in the Flax. He shall fullfil thy desire in good things , and thy Youth shall be renewed as the Eagle . For neither is it said , as of the Eagle ; because the former Youth of an Eagle is not restored : But the Eagle is renewed no otherwise than as the Serpent puts off his skin , and the Stag his hornes ; although in the mean time , they do not cease to wax old under that renovation : So that the Eagle hastens into grey Feathers . Therefore I thus speak of Long Life , not indeed which may be extended even unto the last day , according to the rashness of Paracelsus ; as neither do I speak of a sound Life , which is plainly free from Diseases : but of that which under some certain kind of Protection of the Faculties doth for some good while enlarge the bound of Life : Which meanes if they are administred unto a Child and strong Infant , are to bring the same unto the aforesaid term , if he proceed to use the same . What if at length certain Climates do protract the Life , shall that thing be denied unto a Medicine , unto which there is a natural endowment of Long Life ? For oft-times , he which is constrained to use Spectacles in the fiftieth Year , doth afterwards again of his own free accord , see clearly in the eightieth Year of his Age. Why shall not that therefore be done totally by Art , which happens in the Eyes from a voluntary vigour . But I have alwayes supposed , that whatsoever was once Natural ( to wit , in Nestor , doth not resist a possibility of Nature : Neither also doth it move me , that Arch-Physitians have found this place untouched and dumb , and therefore also have left it : Because the Schooles do long since despaire to be wise beyond Galen , who notwithstanding , like an Apothecary , doth substitute one thing for another ; and indeed hath set forth ridiculous Books of Preserving Health , as for Long Life : For he encloseth this , in straight , crooked , athwart , and circular rubbings : to wit , he acting great motion , and being a great Circulater in these things which are of his own Invention , even as an ignorant transcriber of others : For as oft as he faileth , from whence he may copy out serious things , he so discovereth the wonderful poverty of his wit , that he hath seemed to have doated throughout some Books , in a figural friction or rubbing : And therefore none of his successors hath hitherto counted the Books of Galen , of Defending Health , worthy of a Commentary , or hath attempted to lift them from the ground ; but rather by a successive Interpretation , every one hath bound that Doctrine of Galen unto the obedience of the huckstery of the Kitchin and Diet. For so through the craft of the Devil , Long Life hath wandered into defending of Health , and from thence into the Kitchins . The Art therefore of some Years is Short , and the Life Long ; if we must have respect unto the Hope of Life , which the loose Doctrine of the Heathens hath neglected . CHAP. XCII . The Enterance of Death into Humane Nature , is the Grace of Virgins . The Index of the Contents . 1. Why it is Treated of Death before of Life . 2. A final Cause is not in Natural Things , as neither is it the first of Causes . 3. Some Absurdities of Aristotle . 4. The Author prostrates this Treatise to the Censure of the Church . 5. God indeed made Death for bruit Beasts , but not for Man. 6. What may be denoted by the Etymology of Death . 7. The Devil could not make Death for Man. 8. Man prepared Death effectively for himself . 9. Of what sort the Immortality of our first Parents was . 10. By what means Immortallity did stand in Man. 11. Why the Mind is not capable of Suffering . 12. The necessity of the sensitive Soul : 13. The eating of the Apple did contain in it the second Causes for a necessity of Death . 14. The inward Properties of that Apple . 15. Man before the Fall wanted a sensitive Soul. 16. The Mind Imprints its Image in the Seed . 17. A chain flowing from the eating of the Apple . 18. To what end the Author hath written this Treatise . LIfe was indeed before that Death could be ; & therefore although Life be before Death in Nature , and Duration , yet for this Treatise , the Enterance of Death into Man's Life , doth precede Life , because I might not treat of Immortal Life ( such as it was from the intention of the Creator before the Sin of our first Parent ) but onely of the Length of Life , or of the prolonging of Life ; whose end , because it is closed , terminated , and defined or limitted by Death , Death ought to be first determined of by its Causes , as the remover of the bound of Life . Truly , I have not studied to imitate Aristotle in this thing , who teacheth , That the End is the first of Causes : For I have elsewhere plentifully demonstrated , that Aristotle was plainly ignorant of whole Nature : Wherefore that his Maxime , as well within , as out of Nature , is false . Because , if we speak of God the First Mover , the Arch-type of all things , and of the invisible World ; be it certain , that with him there is not any Priority of Causes , but that they all do co-unite into Unity , with whom all things are onely one . Likewise , seeing whatsoever is made or generated in Nature , is made or generated from a necessity of the Seeds , and so that Seeds are in this respect , the original Principles , and natural Causes of things , and do act for ends , not indeed known to themselves , but unto God alone : From a necessity of Christian Phylosophy , a Final Cause hath no place in Nature , but onely in artificial things : And therefore also from hence is verified what I have elsewhere sufficiently proved , That Aristotle hath understood nothing less than natural things , and that he hath deceived his Schools by artificial things : And he is wholly impertinent in this place , because he hath reduced artificial things under the catalogue of natural Causes . Yea in more fully looking into the matter , Aristotle remaines alike ridiculous : For truly a builder , before the bound or figure of Houses made out of Paper , doth presuppose a knowledge of the Place , an attainment of Meanes ; in the next place , of Lime , Bricks , Stones , Wooden , and Iron materials : a computation of which Meanes , doth go before a Figure of the Houses . And so neither also is the Final Cause ( if there be any ) the first of Artificial Causes , in the Mind of the Author . Therefore it is a foolish thing to reckon a Being of Reason , a Mental Being , or a Non-Being , among Natural Causes . Moreover I had willingly hastened unto the bound which I have proposed unto my self , concerning Long Life , unless Death should cut off the intended thred , interlacingly prefixing its priority as it were a Remora or stop : The Paradox also whereof , I had willingly detained among Secrets , but that the Treatise of Long Life did require its right after Death , whereby it hath naturally stablished an entrance into the Inne of Man. Surely this Mystery of God is an unheard of Paradox , and the which therefore I humbly prostrate unto the Censure of the Church . But let it be in stead of a Proposition : That God made not Death . But that thing I first understand to be denied for Man onely : For otherwise , for bruit Beasts , Death was already naturally ordained before Man was Created , and indeed from the same Root whereby Death entred into Man : For truly most Beasts live not but by the slaughter of each other . In the next place , Death doth not in this place , signifie a naked separation of the Soul from the Body , as it denoteth a meer privation , as if the sense were ; That God hath not made a Non-Being , which is called Death : For such a Declaration or Proposition , in the holy Scriptures , should be ridiculous . For the very Word , ( He hath made ) and a denial thereof is the same , and respecteth , that he made , and they were made : And so a denial thereof bespeaks the absence of a positive , and not of a privative Being , and is equivalent to this Proposition , God made Man without an Inclination unto Death , Neither made he Natural Causes in him whereby he should be Mortal . In the next place , neither hath the evil Spirit made Death ; Because there is not a kingdom of Infernal Spirits in the Earth , and much lesse was there in Paradise : Neither can Satan by any means change Essences instituted by the Creator , invert them , abolish or slay those Essences which God hath made void of Death . Death began in us from the evil Spirit indeed suggestively and excitingly , after a manner plainly by accident and external : Neither could he produce a Cause of Mortality , in a Subject , through the grace of the Creator uncapable thereof . Therefore if neither God nor the evil Spirit have made the Death of Man efficiently , therefore from a sufficient enumeration of parts , Man alone made Death for himself , and hath applyed Causes unto himself as a Positive Being ; From whence he hath become mortal , and Death hath been made natural : For what the Devil could not do , man having a possibility , but not a necessity of dying , could do . For he was in the possession of Immortality , and he was able not to dye if he would , because Death was unto him a free Contingent ; but indeed , because the Body of Adam had need of the Tree of Life , therefore in respect of his Body he was not absolutely Immortal , and therefore also he stood in need of nourishment : but he was to be Immortal from the free goodness of the Creator : And he who had preserved Adam from Death by Grace , and had given him the natural endowment of the Tree of Life , had therefore defended the same Adam from any kind of Injuries : Therefore Immortality in Man had been continued by the Tree of Life , and he was therefore banished out of Paradise , lest also after the Apple being eaten , He stretch forth his hand unto the Tree of Life , and eat , &c. For as the Apple included the Cause of Death , so the Tree of Life contained a superiority of Life over the Causes of Death . For it was not convenient for Man , who had eaten his own Death not to Dye , and to deride threatned Death , and therefore he ought to be bannished in Paradise . But Man was Immortal , as his Immortal Mind did immediately perform all the Offices of his Body , and give from it self an Immortal Life : For seeing it knows no Death , neither therefore is it subject unto the importunities of frail things ; it behoveth , if it was to govern the immediate family-administration of the Body , that it should after some sort communicate a like Immortality to its Body , at-least-wise as to an excellency of the ruling Powers : Although in respect of the nourishments of the Body , Man had by little and little failed , if he had not been supported by the Tree of Life . Yea , in speaking distinctly , all plurality of his Powers was supt up into the Unity of his Mind : And at this day , the Mind is not capable of suffering through Duration , and the Alterations of mortal Things ; because a mark of resemblance is wanting to these , whereby they may immediately touch at , or pierce the Mind . Therefore that Death might make an access and entrance into Man , it behoved that the Mind did first desist from its immediate and former Function of the Offices of the Body ; and that another Soul , to wit , a Mortal one , Sensitive and Seminal , being as it were the Band of the Body , should enter . The which indeed , being far different from the Mind , is begged in the course of Nature by the vital Air , from the Father of Lights , the giver of Life ( even as elsewhere concerning the birth of Forms ) and perisheth with the Death of Man. For if the Seed of a Dog doth voluntary issue even into a living Soul exclusively : Therefore it was meet that Man should be conceived without Seed , and a manly Copulation ; or at leastwise , that the Seed of Man should not be without the disposition of a seminal Life , but to be limited by the common guidance of created Nature , into a living Soul , exclusively : the manner whereof I will explain afterwards . Furthermore , that Death was placed in the eating of the Apple , that is , that the natural Cause of Death , the producer ( after a dispositive manner ) of the sensitive Soul , ( which otherwise Man had wanted ) was by the Seed , and that indeed , after the manner of Bruits , and that the Mind thereupon , hath forsaken the government of the Body , as it were abhorring the beast-like Impurity thereby contracted , shall be made manifest in following Treatises . For from what moment of Time , Man made a Seed within himself for the propagation of his own Species , he delineated ( at leastwise dipositively ) by the same endeavour , the Beginnings of a mortal Soul , occasionally , it being the covering and wrappery of the Mind , that it might receive on it self , the whole ministery of the Body . For truly the Creator had already obliged himself unto the Seeds of things in Nature , that as often as the Seeds of sensitive Cratures had come unto the bound of multiplying , the Parent himself of vital Lights , might infuse meet Souls into all particular Seeds ; the which I elsewhere in the birth of Formes , have profesly prosecuted . And therefore , there was in the Apple a Faculty of producing a fructifying Seed , and after a brutal manner , containing a seminal dispositive Archeus of the Young , and by request obtaining for it self a mortal Soul from the Giver of Life : For on the same day where in they should eat of the Fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil , they should die the Death : because by the approach of the sensitive Soul , there was made another , and a new Generation , by reason whereof the Mind being astonished , withdrew it self from the Sterne of Life . In this thing indeed , did the necessity of Death , and Immortality stand : For Man had wanted a mortal Soul , as long as he had wished to be immortal ; not only because one only immortal Mind was sufficient for the governing of the Body , neither was it convenient that the Body should serve two Masters at once . But moreover , because there was no need of a Seed , which might contain in it a Disposition unto a mortal Soul. Therefore the whole seminal Disposition to propagate Seed , was in our first Parent , Present● after the Apple was eaten , and before the sensitive Soul was born , as well in himself , and his Posterity . From thence indeed it is manifest , that the Mind , although it hath withdrawn its hand from the Stern of the Body ; Nevertheless that it is no less guilty in every production of a fructifying Seed , than it was in Times past , after the eating of the Apple . Indeed that thing , the words of the Text contain . In Sins my Mother hath conceived me . But after what manner , under the Mean of the disswaded Apple , the most chast innocency was defined , being free from the Concupiscence of the Flesh , and from the contagion of a brutal Impurity , I will profesly demonstrate afterward . But let it be sufficient to have now said by the way , that a vital Seed hath arisen , and was conceived through the lust of the Concupiscence of the Flesh , for the begging of a sensitive Soul after a brutal manner , on which Seed the Mind imprinteth its seal : And therefore neither with the similitude or determination of a specifical brutality : Without which Seal , every Seed is barren , otherwise ending into a lump of Flesh , or a Monster . Therefore from the Concupiscence of the Flesh , as the Seed , so also the Mortal Soul , and the Life thereof , and by consequence , the flesh of Sin have drawn their original ; and by consequence also , Death . But indeed Athiests and Libertines , do even at this day , take the Text of the disswaded Apple , together with that Original , for an Allegory : The which the Church hath long since banished for an Heresie , and hath long since condemned it . Therefore the History of the Deed , which Genesis describeth , is true . But why , and after what manner , that eating of the Apple hath naturally , unavoidably , unremissibly , and irrevocably caused Death to be equally continued on all Posterity ; so as that the one onely transgression of the Admonition , being among the most hainous of Sins , hath committed an original Crime , and afterwards should enclose in it the Reason of a second Cause by propagating , from an unexcusable necessity of Mortality , or after what manner , the withdrawing of Life , and Cause of Death are necessitated in the eating of one Apple , I desired not to have narrowly searched into the reason of the good pleasure of God , and the motion of his Decree , from a former Cause , or from a consequent Effect ; seeing it abundantly sufficeth me , that I know and believe , it was so appointed of God ; but that truly , I had hoped it might be for his Glory , the Splendor of Chastity , and Instruction of Libertines , to have more fully sifted this Par●●● , and therefore also to have applied it unto my Treatise of Long Life . For now is the hour come , wherein that Evil shall , from the North , be spread over all the Inhabitants of the Earth . CHAP. CXII . A Position . 1. The substance of the Position . 2. A summary Objection compacted of the Law , Sin , and the Curse . 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. are Arguments against the Objection . 8. A new Objection . 9. The Objection is solved . 10. The quality of the Sin in our first Parents . 11. Why the Serpent assaulted the Woman . 12. The Man is not cursed . 13. The Woman is not cursed . 14. The Text which is thought to contain a curse , confirms the Position . 15. The likenesse of Conception , and bringing forth after the Fall , and not before the Fall , doth strengthen the Position . 16. The Text proves the Position . 17. An eight Argument against the Curse . 18. A ninth . 19. A tenth . 20. An eleventh . 21. A twelfth . 22. A thirteenth . 23. A fourteenth . 24. It is shewn that Sin hath not caused Death , much less if there had been any Law. 25. What kind of knowledge was included in the Apple . 26. Two faults in arguing , of not the Cause , as of the Cause . 27. From what Causes the Corruption of Nature hath arose . 28. From whence is the continuation of the original of Sin. 29. Some Errours about the abuse of those faults in arguing . 30. The Corruption of Nature , from what immediate Cause it hath proceeded , from what occasional Cause , and from what mediate Cause . 31. A fifteenth Argument against the Curse . 32. A sixteenth . 33. A seventeenth . 34. An eighteenth . 35. A nineteenth . 36. A twentieth . 37. A twenty first . 38. A twenty second . 39. A twenty third . 40. A twenty fourth . 41. After what sort Death entred the Apple . 42. A conjecture from things going before . 43. The conjecture is proved . 44. Brawlings about Goats-wool . 45. A twenty fifth Argument . 46. It is concluded from the Truth of the Text. 47. Death doth not exspect an hec-ciety or this very momentnesse , as neither doth Sin. 48. The intention of the Creator placed in the Text is proved , because he hath no where admitted of incest between him that goes before , and him that follows after in generation . 49. The place of Mans corrupted Nature is narrowly searched into by eight Arguments . 50. A ninth is also added . 51. The chastity of the Text is celebrated . 52. The excellency of those that are regenerate , beyond the happiness of Adam . THe Almighty , out of his vast , and voluntary goodness of Love , hath loved , and raised up Man peculiar for this purpose , that he might intimately and as nearly as might be , express his own Image : Wherefore he adorned the same Image of himself , with so great a Grace of his own divine Majesty , and so prevented it with the bountiful beholding of his Love , that of his own good Pleasure , he created Eve , and ordained that she should be the future Mother of all Humanity ; and Adam after the Fall , called the name of his Wife Hevah , because she should be the Mother of all living ) who was to conceive her off-springs , not indeed from carnal Copulation , and after the manner of Bruits , nor from the concupiscence of the Flesh , or by the will of Man , but from God , or from the overshadowing of the holy Spirit alone , after the manner whereby the Humanity was conceived and born ; in which , and by which , all that are to be saved ought to be regenerated : That is , the Virginity of the Mother remaining entire , and her Womb being shut , she had brought forth without Pain ; Eva was constituted above the Man. This indeed is the great and new Paradox , which I have undertaken to demonstrate , in this Treatise . Wherefore in the entrance , obstacles that are obvious , and devious , are to be removed . And first of all , they object the Text : The Earth shall bring forth unto Thee , Thistles and Thornes . In the sweat of thy Face thou shalt eat thy Bread. I will multiply thy Miseries , and thy Conceptions . In pain thou shalt bring forth thy Sons , thy Husband shall rule over Thee . Thou shalt die the Death : And by consequence , ye shall be afflicted with the Calamities of Diseases and old Age. All which things issued forth on Posterity , from the curse of the Sin of Disobedience , even unto the destruction of the World , upon no account to be redeemed , and by no act of sanctity to be expiated : Because God had appointed a Law to Adam , that he should not eat of the Fruit of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil ; the transgression whereof hath defluxed as into original Sin ; So also it stirred it up into the perpetuity of a Curse , from our first Parents , equally on all their Posterity . These things have been thus diligently taught hitherto . Whereunto , under the peace and censure of the Church ; I will humbly sub joyn my own Conceptions . First therefore , I negatively affirme the contrary ; because the Words of the Text do not precisely containe any Curses , except on the Serpent , and Earth ; but not at all on Man : Whom , if he with whom there is no successive alteration or change , had cursed , he had truly , and alwayes cursed like the Evil Spirit . For it is a foolish thing to believe that God should now curse Man , whom presently after Sin , and without the intervening of contrition , or act of repentance , he forthwith blessed with much Fruitfulness , gave him the whole Earth , and placed all living Creatures under his Feet : Yea in the midst of the Curse uttered or brought upon the Serpent , he replenished the femal Sex with his blessing , saying : The Woman shall bruise thy Head : I will put Enmities between Tree and the Woman , and between thy Seed and her Seed . The which , seeing it is not understood of the Seed of Man , it promiseth the Messias the Saviour of the World , to come of the Seed of the Woman : So far is it , that he had there cursed Man. In the second place , I deny that a Law was given , and by consequence also , a contradiction or opposing of a Law : For it follows , wheresoever there is not a Law , Transgression nor Disobedience doth not interpose ; and by consequence , a Curse doth not there befall : But I prove that there was not a Law by the very Words of the Text : And he commanded him saying ; Of every Tree of the Garden eat Thou ; but of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil , Thou mayest not eat . The Word [ he commanded ] Seemes to include a Precept , and so also a Law ; Yet that one only Word obtains no more the force of a Law or Precept for the affirmative [ of every Tree of Paradise eat Thou ; than for the negative [ Thou mayest not eat : ] For it included not a Sin , although he had not eat of every Tree of Paradise : And therefore it did no more contain a Law , for the forbidding of one Tree , than for a Liberty of all the other Trees . Therefore the Text contained a fatherly Liberty for the affirmative , and likewise for the Grant ; as also a fatherly Admonition of Caution for the Negative : no otherwise than as if a Country-man being expert of the way , shall say to a Traveller ; If thou shalt go that way , thou wilt Perish and die the Death So the Admonition of the Creator [ thou mayest not eat ; and in whatsoever day thou shalt eat , thou shalt die the Death , ] do shew , not a Law , but a Persuasion , and Wish : But the transgression , and Act of the despised Admonition , doth indeed contain a Sin , but not of Disobedience ; and Disobedience , as much differs from a despised Admonition , as a Law doth from an Admonishment it self . The Prohibition therefore [ thou mayest not eat , ] sounds as an Admonition , to wit , least he should eat his own and posterities Death by an unextinguishable Guilt ; because that Death was placed in the Apple , but not in the opposition of eating : And therefore that Death from the eating of the Apple was natural , being admonished of , but not a Curse threatned by a Law : For the threatnings of Death , which was unknown to Adam , could not terrifie the same Adam : And therefore threatnings had been void , but not an admonition : For Adam had not as yet seen a dead Carcase , and the which , before he saw living Creatures , was ignorant of their Names : And much less could he know what Death should be : And least of all by far , could Eve know what it should be to die in Paradise . Therefore with our first Parents , Death was as yet a non-Being , and unknown ; but of a non-Being , and of that which is unknown , no Conception answereth , and there is no fear at all : Therefore , neither hath God foretold Death for the threats of Terrour , or a Law ; but from his meer goodness : That when they had eaten of the disswaded Apple , they might know that God had not made Death ; but themselves for themselves . Neither doth the Text in Chap. 3. hinder these things ; Because thou hast eaten of the Tree , whereof I had commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat , &c : For the Words do manifestly declare the goodness of the foregoing Admonition , but not a Law : For the Word [ I had commanded ] is the same which before in the second Chapter ; [ and he commanded him , saying ] signifies an Admonition only , and not a Law : Otherwise under an equal original Sin , they had been obliged from eating of every Tree of Paradise , which none of a sound mind will ever affirme . For the great Sin was in a suspition of deciet , falshood , and fallacy of God , and that they gave more credit to the Serpent , than unto God , and that they despised a fatherly and kinde Admonition : But there was not Disobedience , because a Law was not given : It was indeed an Act against Gratitude , Love towards God , and a due and rational Obligation . Therefore God cursed them not , because they by eating , had contracted the Penalties of Diseases , Death , and Miseries on themselves for a Punishment . But God speaketh not of Diseases after the Fall : Because it was sufficient once to have foretold Death to come , while he admonished them that they should not eat . In the next place , the crafty Serpent assaulted not the Woman as being the weaker ; but because the Admonition was given unto Adam from the Mouth of God , but signified unto the Woman , onely from the relation of the Man : And therefore God first requires an account of Adam . First of all , it doth not containe a cursing of the Man , that the Earth should be cursed in its Work , and should bring forth Cockle , and that he should in the sweat of his face eat his Bread all his Life : But they containe a remembrance of the loving Admonition that went before the Fall. Again , neither do these Words sound of a Curse , that the Woman should be thenceforth obedient and subject to her Husband , although therein , the intent of the Creator doth clearly appear , to wit , that he had appointed the Woman to be the head , top , and ultimate Creature above the Man ; But now , by reason of a double Sin , that she ought to be subject to her Husband : But that signifies rather a deserved Punishment , than a Curse ; Even as a Superiour is not cursed , who is laid aside for an Errour committed . But whereas it is said : In Pain shalt thou bring forth thy Sons ; the Text expresly confirmeth the mistery of the Paradoxal Position . For from thence it manifestly appears . 1. That Eve was not created , nor appointed , as that she had brought forth in Pain : Wherefore this Message is not decleared unto her for a Curse : But there is set before her eies , how much Calamity she had caused unto her self , that she should hereafter conceive and bring forth after the manner of Bruits , in Pain : For it is not to be doubted , but that Bruit-beasts are not guilty of Sin , yet do they bring forth in Pain : Not indeed that they have sinned in Adam , as their Father , or that they are partakers of his Sin ; because they had brought forth in Pain whether Adam had sinned or not . Neither also is it agreeable with divine goodness , that Bruit-beasts should bear an undeserved Punishment , while as they from a Faculty of Nature , and from an appointment of Creation , do bring forth in pain . 2. If Bruits bring forth in Pain , a likenesse of Conception , and bringing forth in Bruits , and in Woman after the Fall , is denoted ; which Likeness , seeing it was not before the Fall , therefore this Text strengthens the Position . 3. If Eve had not eaten the Apple , and consequently from the Apple , the concupiscence of the Flesh from the tickling of a corrupt Seed , verily she had brought forth without Pain . Where the Text promiseth a Virginity in conceiving , and bringing forth , and so a perpetual Virginity appointed in propagating : To wit , that she had conceived and brought forth , her Womb being shut : For what other thing is this , than that which others think to be the Curse of Eve , is in very deed , only a commemoration of the good lost through the copulation of Man , of Seed , and of the concupiscence of the Flesh , in the Flesh of Sin , after the manner of Bruits , henceforeward ? The hope I say , was lost of conceiving by the holy Spirit , after that she had conceived by the will of Man , as every Mother in Sins doth . For otherwise , if Death had been of the punishment of a broken Law , and not from the concupiscence of the Flesh , there should be every day as many new Deaths , as there are Transgressions ; or God should not make so much account of his Commands of the Decalogue , as of the Admonition of the caution or avoiding from the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil : For he would not have those Laws to be alike seriously observed , which he would not have to be chastised with an equal Punishment . Therefore it being as yet supposed , that there had been a Law concerning the denyed eating of the Apple , even as there is a Law of forbidden Worshipping of Idols , Adultery , &c. But these Laws are not punished with a continued unpurgeable Impurity on Posterity , in such a manner as the opposition of that eating is . From hence therefore , it most easily appeareth , that original Sin was not so much from the force of disobeying a command , as from the effect of a defiled divine Generation , being changed into a beast-like one : For else there is not an equality of distributive Justice , nor therefore a conformity in the goodness of God , whether we have respect unto the ingratitude of our first Parents , or next unto the disobedience against a Law : Because the first disobedience should pay a punishment derived on all , even on the innocent Posterity rather than any tenths or hundreths afterwards , and than innumerable , and far more great or haynous Sins . Indeed , I think that there is the same rule of Justice with the same Lawgiver , of every command preceptively , and defensively given and pronounced , that the breaking thereof ought alwayes to draw after it an equal Fault , neither therefore to be punished in all the Posterity , and those that are innocent : and then that none of Mortals , nor any one of them had been sufficient for the original punishments of their Ancestours , and a hundred-fold of Deaths , ( to wit , if Death had taken its original effectively , and immediately from the opposing of a Law ) or the unchangeable God had not appointed his future Commands to be alike observed as at first , if Death should not have its root in Nature , the application of which root had been onely from man. Therefore If Death should be immediately from God alone , from the curse of Sin ; Now God had made Death , and so by Faith we should believe a Falshood , In the next place , if Death had proceeded from a Curse , and had been from a supernatural Root ; So also , neither should our Death find natural Causes in us , or our Death should not be of the same kinde with the Death of Adam : Yea , which is far more absurd , our Death should not proceed from the same primitive Beginning , from which the Death of our first Parents began : And by consequence , our Death should not be the effect of original Sin : And so , unless Death do happen from elsewhere , than from the punishment of a Law , and the curse of Sin ; that is , unless the Adamical or Beast-like Generation of the Flesh from the Concupiscence of the Flesh , and its Copulation , doth naturally containe Death in it , like unto Beasts ; in very deed , Innocent Children should pay an undeserved Punishment . Again , if Death should be immediately caused from a Curse , or from Sin ; should not the Text unfitly say , On the same Day thou shalt die the Death ; while as it should not say : Presently in the same Moment thou shalt die : For a Curse doth not want twenty four hours that it may operate , as neither likewise doth Sin require an interval for the Guilt , and deserved Punishment of the same , which was expresly seen , while an impure Man endeavouring to vindicate the reeling Cart wherein the Arke of the Covenant was carried , from a fall , payed the Punishment of his boldness by sudden Death . But seeing Death consisted in the procreation of forbidden Seeds , and of the Concupiscence of the Flesh , it presupposeth the eating of the Apple , and its Digestion : And therefore those Words , [ On the same Day thou shalt die the Death , or shalt be made Mortal ; ] also thou shalt suffer punishment by Death , doubled in thee and thy Posterity , do strengthen the proposed Truth of our Position . But there is no original Sin accounted of from the first , afterwards or unremissibly derived on all Posterity , but that which from the eating of the Apple , thenceforth defiled the whole Nature ; because it tranferred the Propagation of mankinde on the Flesh of Sin , of which God saith : My Spirit shall not remain with Man , because he is Flesh . But that Sin , if it hath not been sufficiently searched into by Predecessours , I will add freely what I conceive . For indeed in this History of Genesis , do concurr together . 1. The Sin of Distrust or suspicion of an Evil Faith , of Deceit , Fallacie or Falshood in God. For Eve saith to the Divel : Least perhaps we die : And so she doubted that the Death admonished of , would of necessity come unto them . And likewise the Sin of a despised Admonition , and that they more trusted unto the Serpent than to God ; neither was there disobedience , where there was not yet a Law. 2. An act of eating of the Apple , not so much forbidden , as admonished of bewarying of it . 3. An effect of the Apple being eaten . For in the midst of Paradise , there was a Tree , whose Property is said to be of Life : Least he eat and live for ever ; and there was another Tree , whose Property was that of the knowledge of Good and Evil , unto whom there was not another like ; but the other Trees , except these two , served onely for nourishment . The property therefore and effect of this latter Tree , was to stir up an itching concupiscence of the Flesh , or madness of Luxurie : But it is called The Tree of the knowledge of Good Lost , and of Evil obtained : For they knew not that they were naked , and they were without shame , that is , without the Concupiscence of the Flesh , like Children , because they wanted Seed . 4. A carnal Copulation concurreth : From thence at length , a certain beastlike , frail , Mortal Generation , contrary to the intent of God , who was unwilling that Man should conceive in Sins ( in Sins hath my Mother conceived me ) not indeed that all Mothers afterwards should eat of that Apple , but because presently after the Apple was eaten , all Conception should not be made but by the will of Blood , Flesh , and Man : And so that from thence , should all Flesh of Sin necessarily proceed . Therefore while the immediate Cause of corrupt Nature , and Death is ascribed unto the Sin of disobedience ; Or while the immediate Cause of corrupt Flesh , is attributed unto the Sin of suspected deceit in God , they are faults in arguing , of not the Cause , as of the Cause . For in speaking properly , the very Corruption and Degeneration of the Flesh of our whole Nature , hath not issued from the Curse , as neither immediately from Sin accompanying it : but from these only occasionally , and as it were from the Cause without which it was not ; but our Nature is rendred wholly corrupted , and uncapable of Eternal Glory , by reason of the causalities of concupiscence and brutal Generation , effectively , and immediately causing a withdrawing of virgin Chastity , and all hope of generating from the holy Spirit afterwards , and from Eve as a Virgin. And therefore original Sin is defluxing altogether on all Posterity , because after the Virginity of Eve was taken away , the race of men is not possible to be generated but by the will of Man , Flesh , and Blood , the which otherwise , God had determined to be generated by the holy Spirit . It is therefore an undistinction of Causes , and its unapt application of Effects unto their proper Causes , which hath not heretofore heeded , 1. Why that Apple was with so loud a voice forewarned of , that they should not eat of it . 2. That they have esteemed that to be a Curse which was not . 3. That they have ascribed original Sin unto one Disobedience , as the most near and containing immediate Cause . 4. That they have thrown an unexcusable Death , on the Curse and Punishment of a broken Law. For although a grievous Sin hath concurred with an original declining of the Generation intended by God , together with an impurity of the Flesh , the corruption of Nature , by carnal copulation , Yet the corruption of Nature , the degeneration of Generation , as neither Death , have proceeded from the original Sins of our Parents their distrust , &c. as from an immediate Cause ; but from the effect of the Apple being eaten , as a new Product of necessity , Naturally depending thereon : that is , Death hath proceeded from its own second natural Causes existing in the Apple : Even as a total Corruption of Nature hath issued from thence , because both are supported by one and the same Root of necessity . But the Causes of these natural Causes , were by accident co-bound unto the Sins of Distrust , &c. in the Unison of eating . For the very guilt of the Sin of suspition of an evil Faith , or bad trusting of Deciet , and a Fallacy of God , remained expiable by our first Parents , after the manner of Sin , to wit ; by Contrition , and Acts of Repentance , after the manner of other Sins : But not that therefore , whole Nature ought to be depraved , that a Death and Misery of every Body ought to enter and perpetuate it self on all Posterity , even although they should have guiltless Souls : For God doth sometimes punish the Sins of Parents , upon one or a second Generation : But it is no where read , that he hath chastised the Sin of the Grand-father on all his Posterity afterwards , who had acted evilly for five thousand Years before : For that pain of Punishment exceedeth the love of God towards Man , whom he so greatly blessed , presently after Sin : It exceeds I say , the Rules of Justice , if the Punishment of him that is guiltless in that Sin , be refered unto his Ballance . And moreover I think , that if God out of his goodness , had not admonished our first Parent of Death , If he should eat of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil : But if the Devil from his proper and inbred Enmity , had translated the Apple from that Tree under any other Tree , and that both the Sexes of Men had eaten of the Apple , that the Concupiscence of the Flesh and Copulation had equally succeeded ; and so although that had happened without any Sin ; yet that the Generation following from thence , from the necessity and property of the Apple being eaten , had suspended the intent of the Creator , who would not that the Sons of God , and Posterity of Eve should be conceived from the holy Spirit , after her Virginity was corrupted : And so Death , a Disease , and the very Corruption of Nature , and Beast-like original Inversion thereof had been , and yet not from Sin : Because the Apple contained a natural efficient Cause of Luxury . For how unaptly do these agree together : Death proceedeth from the Sin of an infringed or broken Law , and so from a supernatural Curse : And those Words of the Text , uttered after the eating of the Apple , and before the banishment out of Paradise ; Least he stretch forth his Hand unto the Tree of Life , do eat of it , and live for ever . For against the Curse of God , no Creature is able to resist . From hence therefore it becomes evident , that the Apple contained the natural Cause of a defiled Generation , and of their own Death ; and that the Tree of Life , did likewise contain naturally a conserving of eternal Life ; that is , a Superiority over the necessities of Death . At length , if death had happened from a Law , from the Punishment and Curse of Sin , it should be false that God had not made Death ; because in very deed and immediately , Death had proceeded from God , and not from a natural Cause , or that of Nature corrupted : And by so much a stronger right , where the same Person , the Almighty Creator , is the Law-giver , like as also the Executer . Last of all , Sin is a mental Being , or a Non-Being , which cannot produce a real and actual Being . And therefore , Death at its Beginning had not proceeded from natural Causes , even as at this Day , Death doth arise in bruit Beasts equally as in us , and therefore Death in its Beginning had been different in the whole kind , from that at this day . And therefore the Text should speak that which is ridiculous , God made not Death ; if by reason of disobedience he had cursed Nature that it should die . It is therefore of necessity , that the Death of Man in its Beginning , began , and was made from second Causes altogether natural , whereby we die at this day . Also at this day , Death hath reciprocally invaded through the natural Causes of defiled Nature , even as in times past , in its Beginning . Indeed although Adam became Mortal from eating of the Apple , yet his Death happened not but naturally some Ages after , and from Old Age , as from second Causes : Far therefore be a Law , an opposing thereof , Sin , a Curse in the original of Death , appearing so many Ages after from second Causes , speaking as it were in our presence . Therefore every and the total Cause , whereby Man hath immediately framed Death for himself , is to be seen in the Position . For although we are now Mortal , yet we die not when we will , and when we desire : Because Death proceeded not from the Will , or from Sin ; but from the Apple : Neither indeed , because Death it self was in the Apple , as in a mortal Poyson , but there was in the Apple the Concupiscence of the Flesh , an incentive of Lust , a be-drunkening of Luxury for a Beast-like Generation in the Flesh of Sin , which Flesh carried with it the natural Causes of Defects , and necessities of Death . Wherefore it is likely to be true , if the Serpent had not been able to obtain of Man , that by Sinning he should eat of the Apple , that he had cast an Apple cropped from thence , unto the Root of some lawful Tree ; that by this means , the Enemy of our Life , might rejoyce to have introduced Death . And that thing is sufficiently gathered from the Text , which doth not say , If thou shalt eat of that Tree ; but he saith , In whatsoever day thou shalt eat , thou shalt die the Death : As if he should denounce , that that danger of Death to come , was fore-ordained . For , for this purpose the World was created , and the Instruments of Generation were given unto Man , because the Corruption of Nature , the necessity of regeneration in a Saviour , and the virgin Purity thereof , was foreseen . Let therefore , those brawlings cease , whether Eve ate an Apple , or indeed a Fig. For the Text calls an Apple , That which is pleasing to the Eye ; but a Fig doth not so allure by the sight of it : And that one only Tree was of that Property , whereof then there was not the like , nor at this day is there another read to exist among created Things . Finally , the Words of the Text ; I will multiply thy Miseries , and thy Conceptions : so far off is it , that they do signifie the Indignation of God , and much less his Curse ; Yea rather they denote his love toward the devoted Sex. For truly , there is none which knows not , that by how much the Life of the devoted Sex shall be the more miserable , by so much also that it is nearer to the Son of Man : for otherwise tribulations which God sendeth on his Saints , and Martyrdom it self , should by an equal right , be Curses . I will add last of all , that as the Works of the Flesh are devillish : So the Text , I will put Enmities between the Seed of the Woman , and thy Seed ; doth fully or plainly confirm this Position . For first of all , the Woman of whose Seed God there speaketh , is the God-bearing Virgin ; which as a Virgin , hath left no other Seed an Enemy to the Serpent , but the Sons of Light , the Sons of God , and those who are renewed by the holy Spirit , who have no Enmities with the Eggs of any creeping thing , but only with the Sons of the Devil , and Darkness , forasmuch as they keep the Seeds of Sin. Therefore the Text there promiseth a future Regeneration in the God-bearing Virgin , calling those that are not renewed , the Seed of the Devil ; because they are Adamical Flesh . Therefore those things being heeded which I have already above demonstrated ; original Sin doth not properly expect a quickning , or the moment of hecceity : For although the Soul cannot be guilty of Sin , before it be ; Yet seeing original Sin is in the Contagion of the Flesh , it self is presently in the supposition of the concrete or composed Body , after the manner of its receiver , and assoon as there is a sexual mixture of the Seeds ; according to that saying , For behold I was conceived in Iniquities ( before the coming of the Soul , ) because in Sins my Mother hath conceived me : For Sin is in the same point wherein Death consisteth ; the which indeed is in the very mixture of the Seeds : For Death is immediately in the Archeus , but not in the Soul ; which thing the sometimes mortal indisposition it self of the Archeus , proveth ; from whence the conception is made voide , which before now was in its whole hope , vital : And although the impurity of the material thing supposed , be before the Flesh thereby generated , and therefore also before the Soul ; yet there is not properly Sin , unless the Soul ●all put that on . There is therefore a far different infection of original Sin , than of any other Sins whatsoever , which require a consent of the Soul : For other Sins the Soul it self committeth : but original Sin defiles the Soul not consenting ; because the Thingliness or Essence of that original Sin , is the very Flesh of Sin : For neither therefore is it called the Soul of Sin , but the Flesh of Sin , because the Soul is defiled by the Flesh : But the Devil not from elsewhere than from himself : Therefore Man admires mercy , but not the Devil . Therefore from the good pleasure of the Creator , the Apple did carry in it not only the Concupiscence of the Flesh , but consequently also , the generation of Seed : but there was not therefore a Faculty in the Apple , of propagating the sensitive Soul. The Arbitrator of the World in creating , would oblige himself to create every living Soul in every soulified Body , when corporeal Dispositions had come unto the bound of enlivening : For therefore the Apple , presently after it was eaten , disposed the Arterial Blood unto a Seed , and from thence into a sensitive Soul : And that thing was proper unto no nourishment , which was unto that Apple , so that it not only begat Seed in our first Parents a few hours after , but also Dispositions to obtain by request a sensitive Soul from the Creator : And that which otherwise happens in the Young , in set Terms of Dayes , and is perfected by certain degrees of Digestions , that was presently compleated in the very vital Archeus of our first Parents . And the Text doth insinuate that peculiar thing to be in the Apple , because , In the same day wherein he should eate of the Apple , he should die the Death : Because the Apple , although it should anticipate or forestal the term of Dayes , yet it should require a certaine term of Motion , that after it should be turned into vital Blood , it should also be endowed with a sensitive Soul. For they who in the very point of Creation were formed into a Man , and a Woman , and not into Children , in a short space also , grew old or decayed on the same day , into the maturity of Seeds , and every necessity of Death , and properties of second Causes . For in a straight way , all this falls perpendicularly or point blank on the post of the foundation of my Position , on which the giddy or unconstant businesse of our Mortality , is whirled about even unto this Day . But at least-wise , seeing Eve was made of the Rib of the Man , that very thing doth insinuate a mark of Chastity , and forbidden Copulation of the Flesh : Because it is that which besides Whoredom , contained Incest ; which thing was not hid from Adam : Of which notwithstanding , the Almighty after the fall of sin , seemed to dispense withal , granting Matrimony . Therefore through occasion hereof , it remaines diligently to search into , whether the Act of Lust were compleated in Paradise ? Many will have Paradise to be free from filthiness , because the Text saith , Chap. 4. But Adam knew Eve his Wife , who conceived , and brought forth Cain ; saying , I have possessed a Man by God. But let these men pardon me ; For the contrary appeareth from the very Text. First of all , The Text cited , doth convince of nothing , but that the ravishment of true Virginity ( because it is bloody ) doth not admit of Conception as a Companion : And therefore Cain was not Conceived at the first turn , but out of Paradise . For otherwise , 1. On the same day ye shall dye the death ; according to the truth of the Position , denoteth , that in the same place the filthiness was committed . 2. The Woman is not called the Wife of Adam before the Fall , as she is immediately after : But the name of a Wife is not given , not indeed unto Matrimony confirmed , but onely unto it being finished . 3. It was said onely to the Man , Thou mayest not eat of this Tree : Therefore it is read , concerning the banishment of the Man , to be made in the singular number : Not indeed but that both Sexes sinned , but because the Man had singularly deserved to be banished for his Whoredom . 4. Therefore it is said ; Lest he stretch forth his hand unto the Tree of Life , do eat of it , and live for ever : But it is not said , least the Husband and Wife do eat . 5. Adam at the first sight of the Beasts , knew their Essences and Properties , and also put right Names upon them : But the Woman being seen , he at first called her Wo-man , because she was taken from Man : But after the Fall , he called her Hevah , or , The Mother of all living : Because he at the first sight of her , as yet knew not , neither as yet had she that property from the Man , and she learned it , because she put it not on , and stirred it not up but by sin : For why had he changed the Essential Name of the Woman , if she had not also changed her whole Nature ? 6. And next , He with-drew her unto the Shrubs , rather to commit his filthiness , than for a cover of his shame : For truly he might have covered his shame with Fig-leaves , and have neglected his hiding through the Shrubs , if he had not also had the signes of chastity corrupted . 7. For truly , if my Position be true ; That Death was caused onely through the Luxury of the Flesh ; His banishment followed not , but after the act of filthiness . 8. For he who but presently before , knew not that he was naked ; After what manner did he presently know his Wife to be the Mother of all living , unless he had committed something ? And Lastly , The Text which saith unto the Serpent , I will put enmities between the Seed of the Woman , and thy Seed ; doth clearly denote , that the Woman that before wanted Seed , and altogether all the tickling thereof , had now Seed . However it is , at least-wise , I cannot but remarkeably admire the excellency of the Text , which hath no where made even any deaf mention of the Concupiscence of the flesh : but it every where covers the fowlness of the Flesh , with the greatest silence , by the obtained knowledge of the shame , and involves an induced necessity of Death , and a necessary requirance of Regeneration in the highest Mystery : Determining , that at length , the fullness of dayes being compleated , evil shall be spread out of the North , over all the Inhabitants of the Earth . The which I will by and by manifest . Finally , Nature being now degenerate , it hath pleased the Almighty to raise up the Fall of Adam by Regeneration or a being born again : And although he hath not restored unto us , the antient clearness of Understanding , and exquisite speculative knowledge of the Mind , yet hath he raised up our dignity far higher : For truly the Understanding being reduced by Grace , into the obedience of Faith , proceedeth in a humble resignation , unto the victorious reward of Love , whereby we are supported and constrained . And the least abiding of that Love , is far more glorious , than the whole unoccupied life of Adam in Paradise : For before the Fall , Faith was unknown , the race of Virtues , especially also the superexcellency of Divine Love , and they lived onely in the happiness of the purity of Innocency : And therefore , God by the permission of his fore-knowledge and ordination , hath bound the unequality of blessednesse , issuing or springing up from the new Birth , with a certain excellency of Riches : Because the Tribulations of his Life , are not worthy to be compared unto the great or vast things , which the goodness of God hath prepared for us that are renewed . For I had rather know those things which God hath revealed by his onely begotten Son the Saviour of the World , than to have known the faculties of Living Creatures , and Herbs , with a clear Understanding : It being abundantly sufficient for me to have an Humanity in God , whereby he hath adopted us for the Sons of God , and made us far more like himself , than Adam was in his greatest felicity . CHAP. XCIII . The Position is Demonstrated . 1. A first Prooof of the Position . 2. A second . 3. The Divine manner of generating cannot be conceived by man. 4. A conjecture from a like thing . 5. A Repetition of Demonstrations . 6. An Argument for the Position . 7. Another Argument . 8. A third . 9. A fourth . 10. A fifth . 11. A sixth . 12. That the Mind doth not create the sensitive Soul , as neither that another Mind is drawn from the light of the Mind . 13. A seventh Argument . 14. The Mind imprints an Image on the seed of the Body , but not the Image of God , that is , it self . 15. It is proved . 16. An eighth Argument . 17. What is generated by the Parents , after sin . 18. Even unto the 74. Article or Content , a reasoning from the holy Scriptures . 75. That it resists Christianity , for Man to be called an Animal . 76. Some Agreements of Fathers with the Position . 77. An every way convincing Argument out of Augustine , for the Position . 78. A solid Argument for the Position . 79. From the rule of falshood . 80. The progress of Satan . 81. The birth of Faunes and Nymphs . 82. That there are Tudes-quills in the Canaries . 83. Objections against the Position unto the 88. Article . 89. An irregular race of Fishes . 90. There is no figure of the Water , neither doth it fall down circularly . 91. The fructifying of Trouts . 92. The unvalidity of the seed of the Male. 93. The prosperousness of Fishes strengthens the Position . 94. Worms are the admonishers of a Resurrection without a material seed of the Male. 95. The Chick is formed of the yolk , and the seed of the Cock doth materially remain without . 96. A seventh Objection unfolds the Causes of the Flood . 97. The common divulged explication of this Text confirms this Position . 98. An Interpretation about the motive Principle of the Flood . 99. Gyants were not from the first intent of Creation . 100. The proof of a Prophetess . NOw therefore the suspitions of a Law , Disobedience , and of a Curse , being removed , I proceed unto a Demonstration of the Position : For which , in the Frontispiece , the most glorious Incarnation of the son of God , by the most pure arterial blood of the alwaies unspotted Virgin his Mother , is premised . And then , the Text hath strewed the way for me : Except ye shall be born again of Water and of the holy Spirit ; That is , unless ye are co-partakers in the new regeneration of those that are to be saved , of the unspotted and most chast incarnation of the Lord Jesus , and are as it were Members of that Head , and as it were adopted Sons , ye shall not be branches of that Vine . For whatsoever is born of the flesh of sin , and of the concupiscence of the flesh , is flesh ; uncapable of eternal Life , and of the Kingdom of Heaven . And he which sowes in the flesh doth reap in corruption : And whatsoever he shall reap is flesh and corruption it self . For after what manner the holy Spirit had generated in Eve , all the posterity of men , that the mind of man is not able to attain unto , unless the sacred Text had manifested the way thereof , in the God-bearing-Virgin ; who indeed conceived not of , but from the holy Spirit , whom therefore Gabriel had foretold onely to overshadow the Virgin her self , who was perpetually unspotted . And therefore the Church calls the Eternal Father , The first person of the holy Trinity , The Father of the Eternal Son : Neither doth she suffer the holy Spirit to be called the Father of the humanity of Christ , because the material generation of Christ was drawn onely from his Mother : Wherefore neither doth his conception from the holy Spirit , include any Paternity or Fatherliness : But as that generation proceeded without a begetting of the holy Spirit ( the which indeed about the conception of Christ , was busied without begetting ) so it is safe for us to contemplate , that wholly after the same supernatural and divine manner of over-shadowing in Eve , had the generation of adoptive children , and of the divine Image been established . Therefore the Father of Lights , is the onely Creator of all Soules , as also supereminently of the Immortal Mind : Therefore the generation of Man , by the Father of Lights , the Giver of Life , in the creation of the Mind , had been finished or perfected from the substance of Eve , and from a co-operation of the holy Spirit in conceiving : For as that conception of men had been plainly supernatural ; so also there had been a supereminent chastity of the Mother in the state of Innocency , such as is now in the regeneration by Water and the holy Spirit . Wherefore I will endeavour to stablish the stated Position . First by a Reason from Nature . And afterwards to confirm it by Reason , and Authority fetched from the holy Scriptures . And Lastly , To fortifie it by the Opinions or Precepts of Fathers . First of all , it is agreeable to Reason ; that if God would make his own Image in flesh , and blesse it by Posterity , that that ought to be done in the Mother being a Virgin : but not in a Woman defiled by Adam , least God should have Man his competitor in the intended Incarnation of his own Image . Otherwise , if man should prevent , and by preventing , overthrow this holy and unpolluted production of mankind ( for whose sake he hath seemed to have framed the Universe ) afterwards also , every generation of men so to be produced , should happen after a bruital manner , and whatsoever should be born thereof , should be naturally uncapable of eternal glory . For it is agreeable unto Reason , that the Immortal Mind , before the Apple was eaten , had never made an off-spring Immortal in Duration , because nothing is able of or by it self , to produce that which is infinite in Duration , but God alone ; whom therefore as yet unto this day , in Adamical generation , the Church confesseth to be the one only Creator of the Immortal Soul. Else if the Mind should be able to produce any Infinite and Immortal Being , thenceforth of an Infinite Duration , out of it self , and the which therefore should be a Substance ; now it should of necessity cease to be a Creature , and should be a Creator . Therefore the Mind never could , nor never shall be able to produce an Immortal substance , and by consequence , it fights with the Divinity , that the Mind , which before the eating of the Apple , had immediately undertaken on it self , the whole government of the Body , had of it self generated the Image of the infinite God , and had generated a substance infinite in Duration : Wherefore there is altogether an unlike reason , whereby the mortal Lights of Life , or mortal Souls do issue forth , and whereby an immortal substance is created . So that it is unpossible to the whole Nature , that the Mind should generate a substance like unto it self ; Seeing that to produce a spiritual , and immortal , is reserved for God alone , even altogether by the consent of all : For truly such a Production presupposeth a creating of nothing : otherwise , if the Mind had intended before the Fall , to produce a substance like it self , of nothing ; seeing that thing is altogether impossible unto it , it ought to divide and separate it self into Parts . In the next place , neither had it ever been the intention of the Mind , to generate a mortal or sensitive Soul , because it is that which is besides and against the appointed government of its own Life . Wherefore from a sufficient account or enumeration , I conclude , that before the Apple was eaten , neither could the Mind have generated an immortal Soul , neither that it intended to generate a mortal one , nor indeed any seminal disposition , or substance of Seed : And therefore , neither had there for that Cause , been made any Generation by Man , neither had he felt in himself , any inclination to generate : And in this respect , the Cause of natural Death , of necessity , lay hid in the eating of the Apple , being unfolded by carnal Generation ; in which Generation , there is a seminal Disposition co-operating , for the obtaining of a mortal Soul by request ; and that Generation doth prevent and pervert the intention of the Creator , about the propagation of his own Image : So indeed the mortal Soul , hath through a brutal Concupiscence of the Flesh , produced for it self a Seed , dispositive unto a Soul , which is to perish after the manner of Bruit-beasts : To wit , the which Soul hath also introduced with it , a brutal condition of mortality : For Death was undoubtedly co-natural unto Bruits , from their Creation ; the which indeed have only mortal Souls . But it is lawful to confirm by the rule of a supposed falshood , that we are bound by Faith to believe , that indeed the Mind is created immediately by God ; but not to be kindled by the Soul of the Parents , even as Light being taken from Light : For if the Soul of the Person generated , be made of the Soul of the Generater , this shall be either from the Soul of the Father , or from the Soul of the Mother , or from both ; but none of these is true : Therefore the Soul of the Person generated , is in no wise made or derived from the Spirit of the Parents . It is proved as to the first : For truly , seeing the Speech is of the progress of Nature , the which therefore ought to be ordinary ; And therefore also , that thing should constantly happen in Bruit-beasts ; but this doth not happen ; therefore not from the progress of Nature . The subsumption is proved by a Young , from its Father being a Dormouse , and its Mother a Coney ; to wit , the which except that its Taile is like a Dormouse , is wholly a Coney , as well within , as without , also in its Skin , and Haires : But if any Faculty of its Soul should issue from the Father , it should of necessity have a fatherly , and not a motherly Faculty : But by the Example proposed , the contrary is manifest ; therefore not from the Father . Yet neither therefore , are the Souls of off-springs begged from the Mothers Soul : For otherwise , from that which the Soul proceedeth , from the same likewise , and at least , the formative Faculty also should proceed . And by consequence , off-springs should not only alwayes be made of the femal Sex , and alwayes like unto their Mother ; but also a Mola or Lump of Flesh , should never be made where the Faculty or Virtue of the Seed of the Male flows down as barren : As neither should the imagination of a Woman great with Child , transchange the Young , being already formed in its Mothers Womb , into a monstrous , strange , yea and bruital Figure : because the Seed now having a Soul borrowed from the Parent , could not be any longer subject unto the foolish imagination of the Mother , especially while as the Young is now nourished in its own Orbe and Kitchin. The same Argument also prevaileth in supposing , that the Soul was begotten from the Soul of both Parents ; for whatsoever is denyed disjunctively , may truly be denyed copulatively : Whither also this conclusion hath regard ; to wit , that that being granted , the Seed should now be actually soulified from its Beginning : And likewise , that of two Souls , a certain composed and mixt soulified and Spiritual Light should be made ; which resisteth a formal simplicity by reason of a composed duality . Therefore the single homogeniety of the Soul , is averse unto duality , and to a heterogeneal composition of Souls . Whence I conclude , That the Soul is not so much as in Bruits , derived from the Parents , and by so much the less , in Man. Wherefore all Souls are immediately created by the very Life it self , and Father of Lights , who will give his own honour of Creator unto no Creature : Wherefore from hence it is easie to be seen , that Man is not able to produce an immortal Mind , nor the divine Image : And so also , from hence it is manifest , that the first intention of the Creator , was not that Man had in any respect , immingled himself in generating ; but that the alone hand of the Creator had perfected every Young , which alone createth all Souls , but especially and singularly , that Soul which should thenceforth be eternal , the which he by an essential ordination had directed unto his own Image . Lastly , it must needs be , that a true Image or Likenesse can never naturally be made , but by a proper Engraver : But he is no proper Engraver , who hath not perfectly known him whose Image he intends to Engrave : But Man was created after the Image and Likeness of God ; yet he cannot know God , as neither express any Image of him in Mind or Word ; the which ignorance , every one ought to confess : Therefore he cannot be a proper Engraver of the divine Image : And therefore , whatsoever Image of him he should frame , it should be plainly Monstrous , and of a finite Duration : And by consequence , Man in the intention of the Creator , was not made that he should generate a man. In Nature indeed , every Spirit of generating Seed , doth comprehend ( because it doth contain ) the Idea of the thing to be generated : But Man , seeing he is the immediate and true Image of God , cannot by any means transfuse the divine Image into his own Seed , the which in himself , and out of himself , he is plainly ignorant of . But seeing that in Nature , a like thing generates its like , Man may imprint on his Seed the Image of a humane Body , made also after the Image of God. Therefore a Man which generates , may imprint on his Seed , the seal , or shadow of himself ; but not the Image of God , and substance of the immortal Mind : And moreover , I have demonstrated elsewhere , that all other Souls are only formal Lights , but not substances . Therefore if the Mind , ought or could be able to produce the Image of God , now the Mind should either dease to be the very Image of God it self , or God should not be the Creator of the Mind . Wherefore the pure Essence of the Image of God , did by all manner of means require in its conception of creating or generating , God himself , the immediate Creator and one only Father of it , who is in the Heavens , and besides whom there is no Paternity in the Heavens : Otherwise , there is a carnal Paternity or Fatherliness in Man , and Bruits ; and therefore the Text saith , Honour thy Father . And another Text , That there is no Paternity , but in the heavenly Father . Therefore it is denoted , that there is not for Man a fatherliness of his Mind , but in God alone ; and therefore his original Generation and Propagation was reserved in the Power of God the Creator : And especially , while as its knowledge of it self , is wanting to the Mind , which is immortal and infinite in Duration , whereby it may represent it self to it self , to wit , that it may decypher a sealed similitude of it self in the Seed . Therefore indeed , neither can the immortal Mind ever bring the Seed of Man unto that which it self shall never have in it self , to wit , out of it self to decypher the Image of God. For Man is so made the Image of God , that he is the cloathing of the Deity , the Sheath of the Kingdom of God , that is , The Temple of the holy Spirit . Man therefore being essentially created into the Image of God , after that he rashly presumed to generate the Image of God out of himself , not indeed by a certain Monster , but by something which was shadowily like himself , with the Whoredom or Ravishment of Eve , he indeed generated not the Image of God , like unto that which God would have therefore unimitable ( as being Divine ) but in the vital air of the Seed , he generated Dispositions careful at some time to obtain a sensitive , discursive , and motive Soul , from the Father of Lights , the Fountain of all Paternity , yet Mortal , and to Perish , into which nevertheless , he of his own goodness inspires ordinarily , the substantial Spirit of a Mind , shewing forth his own Image : And so that Man in this respect , endeavoured to generate his own Image , not but after the manner of Bruit-Beasts , by the copulation of Seeds , which at length should obtaine by request a soulified Light from the Creator , and the which they call a sensitive Soul. For from thence hath proceeded another Generation , conceived after a beast-like manner , mortal , and uncapable of eternal Life , after the manner of Beasts , a bringing forth with Pains , and subject to Diseases and Death , and so much the more sorrowful or full of misery , by how much that very Propagation in our first Parents , dared to invert the intent of God. Therefore the unutterable goodness forewarned them , That they should not tast of that Tree : And otherwise , he foretold , That the same Day they should die the Death , and should feel all the Root of Calamities which accompanies Death . Deservedly therefore , hath the Lord deprived both our Parents of the benefit , and seat of Immortality : To wit , Death succeeded from a conjugal and bruital Copulation : Neither remained the Spirit of the Lord with Man , after that he began to be Flesh . Furthermore , because that defilement of Eve shall thenceforth be continued in the propagating of Posterity , even unto the end of the World : From hence the Sin of the despised fatherly Admonition , and natural Deviation from the right way , is now among other Sins for an impurity , through an inverted , carnal , and well nigh bruital Generation , and is truly called Original Sin ; that is , Man being sowed in the Pleasure of the Concupiscence of the Flesh , shall therefore alwayes reap a necessary Death in the Flesh of Sin. But , The knowledge of Good and Evil , which God placed in the disswaded Apple , did contain the Concupiscence of the Flesh , that is , an occult forbidden Conjunction , diametrically opposite unto the State of Innocency ; which State was not a State of Stupidity , because he was he unto whom , before the Corruption of Nature , the Essences of all living Creatures whatsoever were now made known , according to which they were to be named from their Property , and at their first sight , to be essentially distinguished . And moreover , S. Hildegard unto the Moguntians or those of Mentz , saith , Adam was formed by the Finger of God , which is the holy Spirit ; in whose Voice , every sound before he sinned , was the sweetnesse of all Harmony , and of the whole musical Art : So that if he had remained in the State wherein he was formed , the weaknesse of mortal Man could not have been able to bear the virtue and shrilness of his Voice : But when the Deceiver of him had heard , that Man from the inspiration of God , had begun to sing so shrilly ; and that , hereby to repeat the sweetness of the Songs of the heavenly Country , he counterfeited ( behold how far now Man hath departed from thence with his hoarse Voice ) the Engines of Craft ; seeing his wrath against him was in vain , he was so affrighted , that he was not a very little tormented thereby : And he alwayes afterwards busily endeavoured , by the manifold Devises of his wickednesse , to invent and search out , that he may not only cease to interrupt or expel divine praises from the Heart of Man , but also from the mouth of the Church . These things she . It is a devoted Opinion of mystical Men , That Birds do sing Praises unto God. I under a humble correction , do think otherwise : For if that should be true , they should sing all the year , neither should they cease , assoon as the lust of generating is fulfilled ; which argument is serviceable unto our Position . For truly , seeing the Males only do sing , but not the Females ; That from a common Nature , Adam was the more leacherous , and incontinent , and from his Sex , more lustful than Eve ; whose Chastity therefore being beloved of God , seemeth proper to that Sex. Man therefore , through eating of the Apple , attained a knowledge that he had lost his radical innocency , and that instead thereof , he had made an empty exchange of the sordid Concupiscence of the Flesh : For neither before the eating of the Apple , was he so dull or stupified , that he knew not , or did not perceive himself naked ; but with the effect of shame , and brutal Concupiscence , he then first declared that he was naked . For the sacred Text is every where so chaste , that the most High would not name the Concupiscence of the Flesh it self , at least-wise , by a proper name ; yea , nor also accuse of it , while he forewarned of the eating of the Apple for a necessity of Death ; that that brutal Concupiscence might not be made known unto Man , even so much as by name : And therefore neither would he have Concupiscence to be named in Genesis , by reason of the prompt perfidiousness of that People ; but he called it innocency lost , from a gotten shame , the which he would afterwards have to be weighed in the Church , by its own circumstances . And so that therefore , he presently translated Adam after his Creation , from the Earth , into Paradise , and for that Cause also , he formed the Woman in Paradise , least she whom he had made and appointed to remaine a Virgin , should behold the copulation of Bruit-beasts in the Earth . For in the Beginning , God created the Heaven and the Earth , and every Creature contained therein : But he made , and formed those things materially , by the passive and commanding Word [ Let it be done , ] to wit , he spake that Word , and all things were created : But in six dayes space after , he made the Forms of things created , and all things were orderly made into the Life and Soul of soul●fied Creatures : For in that , those Words did differ , to say , Let it be made , and to make : For in the sixth or last day , Adam was formed : But on the seventh day , God rested . At length , he afterwards translated Adam from the Earth into Paradise , and deliberated to make Woman of the Rib of the Man , but not of his Reins , Thigh , or Belly : Therefore on the eighth day , that it might be the Beginning of a new week , for a new and super-natural Generation of an off-spring to come . Wherefore it may be collected , that Woman being wholly an Out-law , ascended into a new heap of Choiceness , as being a Vessel of Choiceness or Election . But we may after some sort conjecture of the quality of humane generation in Eve , a Virgin , before the Fall , by the most glorious Incarnation of our Lord : For indeed the Father , unto whom every name of Paternity is singularly and solely due , and whom his Son , as a Father doth alwayes adore , hath indeed alwayes generated his Son from Eternity ; who yet , is not read to be the Father of his Incarnation : The which thing , I even reverence for a vast mystery ; and the rather , after that I understood the insinite goodness of the same , as well from the first virginal conception of Creation , as in the restoration by the regeneration of Man. Indeed the Father Almighty would , that the glorious incarnation of Christ should be conceived of the Person of the holy Spirit ; the which it self , to wit , therefore was not generated , but proceeded from eternity , from the Father and the Son : For the Spirit of God had caused a humane conception of off-springs in the Arterial Blood of the Heart of the Virgin Eve , it being the Image of the Divinity , with all its free Gifts , without the pleasure of the Flesh : But the Mind being thus in the garment of Arterial Blood , conceived in the Womb of the Virgin , in a humane Shape , had took an increase , and full maturity from thence : For he , who the Womb being shut , and the Gates being closed , came into the World , and unto his own also , out of the Case of the Heart wherein he was conceived , was by a foregoing consent , brought unto the Womb of the Virgin , and kept even unto the maturity of his Body : For he piercing all Members , was brought into the Womb : For therefore our Lord's Incarnation happened altogether , besides the order of Nature now accustomed . For , 1. The Incarnation of the Lord , happened not first in the Womb , but in the very Sheath of the Heart of the Virgin. 2. Of the most pure , and most lively Blood of the Heart ; but not of the Seed of the Virgin : For truly , the God-bearing Virgin , in that singular respect , was not only cleansed from Original Sin , but was conceived altogether free from Sins ; to wit , that she might be so much the more void of all Seed , than a Child that is newly born : For Seed is composed of a mixture of Venal ; and Arterial Blood , or from a co-mixture of Bloods ; which mixture was no manner of way , not so much as materially , in the conception of the Son of God , who was conceived not of Bloods , nor of the Will of the Flesh , or of Man ; but of God alone , and born of a Virgin. 3. He had not a Man to his Father , nor a masculine Matter from whence he should be made ; which thing surely confirms , that a feminine Matter , was the more excellent governess or deputy , and alone fore-elected from the Beginning . 4. He fore-elected the most chast and unspotted Virginity of a Mother , which he formed with a divine Hand . 5. He was materially conceived , onely , and of most pure Arterial Blood ; To wit , whereinto the seal of the holy Spirit , inspired an humane Mind , and a most pure Image of it self , made or framed by his Father , God. 6. That conception was brought from the Heart , into the Womb of the Virgin , with a piercing of Dimensions . 7. Lastly . He exspected an increase and just maturity of Nativity , as it were in the celebration of a Sabbath . Furthermore , that the knowledge of Good and Evil signifies nothing but the Concupiscence of the Flesh , the Apostle doth manifestly testifie , calling it the Law and Desire of Sin. From whence , to wit , the first Bruital and Original Sin , the fewel of the other Sins , hath immediately issued , and is hereafter to endure for a continued Seed of Mortals . In the 8th . to the Romans : God sending his Son into the likeness of the Flesh of Sin , hath also , concerning Sin , condemned Sin in the Flesh , that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us . Original I say , because it is the Beginning of the original of a humane Generation , whereby all contagion of Impurity is derived on Posterity , and Death became natural unto Man , even as unto Beasts : So that , although the eating of the Apple did contain a note of distrust , and ingratitude ; and the which also , is a Companion unto every Sin ; Yet therefore , even every Sin afterwards , ought with the same Punishment of necessity also , to descend unto Posterity , unless the unwonted transgression of a loving Admonition should not so much consist in the disobedience of eating or abstaining , as in the horrid Distrust of doubting , and confidence of Faith given unto the Devil : And so that the generation of the Flesh of Sin ( which is an effect of the Concupiscence of the Flesh ) hath of necessity defluxed into Death , even unto all Posterity . For it pleased the Lord of things to insert in the Apple , an incentive of the Concupiscence of the Flesh ; to wit , from which he was able safely to abstain , by not eating the Apple , therefore diswaded from : For otherwise , he had never at any moment been tempted by the Flesh or his genital Members , the which I will hereafter shew , to be therefore called the North , in the holy Scriptures . Therefore the Apple being eaten , Man presently from a natural property of the Apple , conceived the lust of being luxurious , and from thence was made an Animal Seed , which hastening into the previous or foregoing Dispositions of a sensitive Soul , and undergoing the Law of other Causes , reflexed it self into the vital Spirit of Adam : which therefore like an ignis fatuus , or foolish fire , presently receiving an Archeus or ruling Spirit , and animal Air , I say , a houshold Thief , it conceived a Power of propagating an Animal and mortal Seed , ending into Life : At the arrival whereof , at length the immortal Mind , putting off the Rains of the Life , and government of the Body , substituted the sensitive Soul as its Chamber-maid . From hence therefore we are conceived , born , and do die after the manner of Beasts : For the day before , the immortal Mind acted all in all , and was the very immortal Life it self in the whole Body ; because it was solely and wholly immortal in the whole Body . But that very , so great Beauty of Nature , was presently vitiated in our first Parent , after that he was cloathed with the similitude of a bruital generation . For then the immortal Mind , being moved from its place , descends , that it may imprint a seal on the forbidden Seed , for a common destruction . Then , although the sensitive Soul was not yet born ; yet every natural Disposition requisite for the obtaining that sensitive Soul from the Creator , was forthwith present . And seeing two Souls at once , cannot perfectly preside in one only Plain or Region of the Body , without discord , no more than it is lawful to serve two Masters at once : Therefore the immortal Mind hath departed into the innermost Parts ; whether that was by the Command of the Creator , or grieving at the wearisomness of a bodily Impurity ; at leastwise , it afterwards delegated the government of its Body on the sensitive Soul , in which it is now bound , because it is involued in it as long as we live . For from hence we do afterwards , for the most part , wax of ripe years , and live after a bruital manner . But the Mind hath betaken it self into the Inn of a frail Soul , and doth thereby inspire hereinto its free gifts , although for the most part , otherwise it sleepeth ( perhaps even as Coral doth now and then loose its Colour , and again recover the same ) from whence the Body hath undergone every disorder of Impurity . But the Wedlock of the mortal Soul , being a forreign thing unto the ordination of the Mind , is for an occasion , why the Mind hath placed it self into the hidden Parts , so as that the Matter or Controversie is as yet before the Judge or in dispute , whether of the two hath chosen the principal Bride-bed : and a Mind is not believed to be among Atheists , because it by piercing , hath so sunk it self into the depth of the mortal Soul ; because the Notions of the Mind do appear as yet to this day to be subject to the imagination , do also so obey the Poysons of some Simples ; that the principality of the Mind , seems to be sore shaken at the Pleasure and Command of Diseases ; which thing , the Dotages of Fevers , Madness in affects of the Spleen , the Biting of a Mad-dog , and Pricking or Stinging of a Tarantula , have the more strongly perswaded in the behalf of Atheism : for in the former immortal Life , the Mind did by it self , and immediately frame immortality , and gave also a perfect knowledge of living Creatures and Herbs : But afterwards , in the brutal Filthinesse of generation , the Image of God remained indeed , safe in the Mind , and its external Figure in the Body : But so great a Corruption of it , hath constrained the Mind to retire unto the innermost Chamber of the mortal Soul : Therefore the Immortality thereof , lived under the happy government of the Mind : And therefore Diseases were banished with the declinings of Ages , and the threatnings of Death : And therefore before the Fall , Man was dinstinguished from Blessedness , in that he could Sin , Fall and Die : But in Glorification , the Mind shall again immediately quicken the Body , and transsume it into it self . The Mind indeed before the Fall , which did only shine upon the Body by its immediate Splendour , shall forthwith after the Resurrection , through a transchanging of it , clarifie it by way of supping it up : For therefore the state of the Faithful , although throughout their whole Life , also in Death it self , be far more miserable than the primitive State ; yet it is more happy than that , by how much it is a thing fuller of Majesty , to be more like the Son of God Incarnate , dead , and glorified , than to have lived with Adam free from Diseases , and at length to be taken away without Battle : because the retributions or repayings of Life are no way worthy of the Glory , or Expectation of the Age to come . Furthermore , the sacred Text hath in many Places compelled me unto a perfect Position , it making Eve an Helper like unto Adam ; not indeed that she should supply the name , and room of a Wife ; even as she is call straightway after Sin : For she was a Virgin in the intention of the Creator , and afterwards filled with Miseries : But not yet , as long as the state of Purity presided over innocency , did the will of Man overcome her . For the translation of Man into Paradise did foreslew another Condition of living , than that of a Beast . And therefore the eating of the Apple doth by a most chaste name , cover the Concupiscence of the Flesh , while it contains The knowledge of Good and Evil in this name , and cals the ignorance thereof alone , the State of Innocency : For truly the obtainment of that aforesaid knowledge did nourish a most hurtful Death , and an irrevocable depriving of eternal Life : For if Man had not tasted down the Apple , he had lived void of Concupiscence , and off-springs had appeared out of Eve a Virgin , from the holy Spirit . But the Apple being eaten , Presently their Eyes were opened , and Adam began lustfully to cover after the naked Virgin , and defiled her , the which God had appointed for a naked help for him , no otherwise than as a Prince is for a help unto his Servants : For so the Man prevented the Intention of God , by a strange generation in the Flesh of Sin ; whereupon therefore followed the Corruption of the former Nature , or the Flesh of Sin accompanied Concupiscence . Neither indeed doth the Text insinuate any other mark of the knowledge of Good and Evil , than that They knew themselves to be naked , and that it shamed them of that their nakedness , or ( in speaking properly ) of their Virginity being Corrupted . Indeed their whole knowledge of Good and Evil , is included about their Shame , and within their privy Parts alone : And therefore in the 8th . of Leviticus , and many Places elsewhere , the Privy Parts themselves are called by no other Etymologie than that of Shame : For from the Copulation of the Flesh , their Eyes were presently opened , because they had known that the Good being lost , had brought on them a degenerate Nature , Shamefulness , Fowlness , and an Intestine , and unevitable obligation of Death , sent also far away into their Posterity . Alass too late indeed , they understood by the unwonted Novelty and Shamefulness of that Concupiscence , why God had so lovingly forbidden the eating of the Apple : To wit , it shamed them more of their Chastity being Corrupted , and of the Warning transgressed , than of their nakedness . For Adam who had Judged of the Natures of the Beasts , by their beholdance alone ; neither is read to have lost the same Knowledge , could not be ignorant of the fowlness of his own corrupt Nature also : And so that through the Shame hereof , they had rather hide themselves , than for their Nakedness sake . Indeed so great was the confusion of so manifold a Shame , that it wanted but little , but that he should rush into madness ; the which is clearly enough to be known by the unfit answers of Adam : For God called him , and asked him where he was , and he answereth by accusing his Companion , and Help like unto him , that he might excuse himself , being not yet accused . And by altogether a foolish Endeavour , they offered their Nakedness , which was known to their Creator , in Leaves , hoping that the Corruption of their Chastity might be covered with Leaves , so they could but hide themselves : He accuseth his Nakedness , not daring to make mention of his lost Chastity : For it is the Part of the more gross stupidity , to believe that they could hide themselves from the Face of the Lord , than not to have known that they were naked ; Especially with him , who had created them Naked . Therefore , he being willing to lay hid , he accuseth the guilts , and effect of Concupiscence , by declining the thing committed : Otherwise , meer Nakedness is not Shameful before God , if he had not corrupted his Chastity , which he knew to be stained , and forbidden under the Apple . For in the last Judgment , there shall not be a Shame of Nakedness : And therefore the shame of Nakedness did involve rather the unrestorable Errour of Chastity committed , which was vailed in the Apple ; the Effect whereof , unless they should perfectly now feel , and acknowledge , they had rather convert themselves unto a Repentance of the eating , than unto a hiding , and covering of their privy Parts . The Shame therefore of Nakedness , involveth a chaste manner of speaking of the Text , before the People of Israel . For otherwise , it is sufficiently manifest from the Text , That that knowledge of Good and Evil , is Carnal , Earthly , and Devilish , a carnal , and certain meer folly of the Concupiscence alone , of corrupted Nature , in respect of the Knowledge , whereby but a little before , he had put proper Names on the Beasts , in the second Chapter of Genesis , v. 17. The Fruit of that Tree is forbidden unto the Man alone , and in the second Chap. of Gen. v. 25. They were both Naked , and without Shame . In the third of Gen. v. 7. The Apple being eaten , Their Eyes were opened : For although Eve had first tasted of the Apple , and had provoked the Man to eat ; Yet the Almighty speaks to the Man , not yet the Head of the Woman ; and this Man endeavours to excuse himself , because he had first stirred her up unto Copulation , and felt the Disobedience of his Members ; which is manifest : For he alone is accused , being not yet the Head of the Woman ; the which Fruit , he signified to the Woman , was disswaded unto them both : For Eve saith unto the Serpent , that the abstinence of that Tree , was equally enjoyned unto them both . This place in the Text signifying , that although the same Chance did respect both Sexes ; yet God had foreknown , a chastive Provocation to Lechery , and Itching of the Man ; and because the will of the Flesh was not properly in the Virgin , the which the Almighty had adorned with the Grace or Comliness of Chastity for himself : Therefore that Concupiscence is by an Antonomasia , or taking one name for another , called by John , The Will of Man , which is that of Flesh and Blood. Whence I have learned , that Eve was of the more firm Chastity ; yea , and created more perfect in her Body , and deflowred by the Man ; because the Apple , seeing it was the Mean unto the aforesaid end , and first tasted down by Eve , yet it was able to operate the more slowly on Eve : But that Adam was the first which offended ; but that Eve , as repenting of her Fact , the longer resisted , and a long while struggled , being deflowred by Adam by force ; the which from thence sufficiently appeareth : For truly , the will of the Man ( and not of the Woman ) is reputed for the occasion of an eternal loss : and that thing was not unknown unto the Heathens , who in the Silver Age , ascribed Shamefacedness unto Women , as a native Endowment ; by Men , being then long neglected . Levit. 3. and 4. The Lord commands a Beast to be offered with his Tail , that its Filthiness may be covered , or least any thing be offered , not being covered in its Shame . And therefore , there was alwayes , and every where , so great an Esteem of an offered Lamb. For Adam was created Young , without a Beard , flourishing , after which sort , Raphael is read to have Stood before the Doors of Tobiah . Wherefore that the first Infringer of Modesty , and deflowrer of a Virgin might be made known ; God would that Hairs should grow on the Chin , Cheeks , and Lips of Adam , that he might be a Compeere , Companion , and like unto many four-footed Beasts , might bear before him the Signature of the same ; after the manner of whom , as he was leacherous , so also , that he might shew a rough countenance by his Hairs . For God at first , signed a Murderer in the Forehead , that the Sign being beheld , he might presently become a horrid and infamous Fratricide or Brother-Killer . So also the Lover of Chastity would at first , sign the first Infringer of Chastity , and the first Workman of Original Sin , about the Mouth , Throat , Cheeks , &c. To wit , whereby he had spoke the first Words of Allurements , and afterwards Threatnings . But Eve who was the more constant in Bashfulness , and Chastity , he retained as graced with a polished Countenance . So also the Beard groweth on an in-humed dead Carcass , if he were lustful in his Life , and ceased to live through a sudden Death ; that is , the virtues or forces of his Chi● being as yet retained , the sign of Mortality groweth , even after Death . So also a hoarse Voice ariseth in Adam about his Youth , who immediately before his Chastity was lost , sang most sweetly . For among Signs wherein Angels are dinstinguished in Apparitions , one is Capital . If an Angel shall appear Bearded , let him be an evil one : For a good Angel hath never appeared Bearded , he being mindful of the Chance for which a Beard hath grown on a Man. Therefore a Beard which the Angels abhor , Men believe was given unto them for an Ornament , the which notwithstanding , they know not to be common unto them with the most stinking Goats . Neither therefore is a Beard bred on Man , but about the Years of incontinency ; that it may be certainly manifest , that it was brought on him , not but by reason of the Concupiscence of the Flesh , like as a Mask of Filthiness : So that he denotes nothing but his privy Parts , and broken Bashfulness in his Countenance : For therefore indeed Eunuchs also , are distitute of a Beard , as also Children , and Youths ; although Bruit-beasts , into whom a copulation of the Sexes was but by Nature , are presently Bearded in their first Dayes . In the next place , Bruit-beasts do bring forth at this day , no otherwise than as if Adam had not sinned : For they send forth their Young in Pain , because they conceive them with the Concupiscence of the Flesh ; except Fishes , the which are therefore designed for Foods for Monks who love Chastity . And Eve after Conception , brought forth the Flesh of Sin in Pain . My Spirit shall not remaine with Man , because he is Flesh : That is , Man is now the Flesh of Sin , but not any longer the Flesh of his first Creation . For a Woman 〈…〉 the most part , a good while after Conception , loath and is hurried about with divers M●●●ries , which Bruits do want ; which thing surely argueth , that Woman doth seminally conceive by Man , besides the first intent of Creation . Wherefore if Man were created , that ( at least-wise from a foreknowledge of the consequence ) he might supply the Place of the Evil Spirits in Heaven , he ought either to be created in a great Number at once , from the Beginning , or Successively . If therefore , They which are to be saved , cannot be born by the will of Man , of Flesh , or of Blood ; and there was one only Man created ; therefore all Posterity , ought by a successive Continuation , to be born in Paradise , of Women alone , to wit , the Birth-place of the Woman , and of necessity to be Conceived from God , and to be Born of a Woman a Virgin , unto whom he afterwards Gave Power to be called the Sons of God , and to be made with an exclusion of the Will of Blood , Flesh , and Man ; which Chastity alwayes pleased God , doth please him at this Day , and will please him alwayes : And whatsoever hath thus once pleased the fountain of Chastity , can never again displease him . And so that , Onely those that are of a clean Heart shall see God , and shall be called his Sons ; wherefore the Prophet singeth , Create in me a clean Heart ( Oh God! such as Adam had before the Fall ) And renew a right Spirit ( of the chaste , and antient Innocency , by the regeneration of the Spirit and Water ) in my Bowels : Because my Bowels being now impure , have contracted a Spirit of Concupiscence of the Flesh of Sin : For indeed Man , as long as he was Immortal and Pure , Saw thy Face oh Lord ! and thou talkedst with him ; which Face afterwards , Man shall not see and live . But after that Man defiled his Bowels through Concupiscence , thou casteth him from thy Face , out of Paradise . I pray thee therefore , that thou cast me not from thy Face , and that thou take not thy holy Spirit of Chastity from me . Restore unto me the Gladness ( of the Regeneration ) of thy Salvation ; and with thy principal Spirit ( the Comforter ) do thou confirm me ( against the inbred Impurity of the Flesh : ) For truly I shall teach the Unrighteous thy wayes ( of thy Regeneration ; the which among ) the hidden things of thy Wisdom , thou hast manifested unto me , and the Wicked shall be converted unto thee . At leastwise , free me from Bloods ( from the Concupiscence of the Sexes ) Thou who art the God ( of Chastity ) the God of Salvation ( as of new Regeneration ) and my Tongue shall exalt thy Righteousness ( and thy just Judgment , whereby thou hast condemned Man , who was born of Bloods , and by the will of Man , in the Concupiscente , and of the Flesh of Sin , as he hath made himself uncapable of thine Inheritance ) For loe , in Iniquities ( aforesaid ) I was conceived , and in Sins hath my Mother conceived me ( although under a lawful Marriage Bed. Therefore I confess , that besides the primitive scope of the Creator , an Adamical Generation hath arisen into natural Death , and is devolved into original Sin. The Woman therefore , as she hath conceived after a bruital manner , she also began to bring forth in Pain . The Male also in the Law , was only circumcised , as for a mystery of the deflowring of Eve : Yet both Sexes ought to expiate the Offence committed in their privy Parts , to wit , whereby they had offended ; which thing , although it be chastly insinuated in the Text ; Yet that was covered before Israel , who were otherwise most ready for all Perfidiousness ; to wit , that Godmight not seem a contemner of Matrimony instituted after the Fall. The Woman therefore was not circumcised , and yet she was saved : but not the Pain of Child-birth , or the Obedience of her Husband , had expiated Original Sin in her ; For both a single young Virgin dying , was saved , as also a barren Wife . Therefore from hence is manifested the mystery , to wit , that Eve , so much as she could , resisted the Insolencies of Adam , and was by force deflowred in Paradise . So that also , our first Parents were Murderers of all their Posterity through Concupiscenc . So also the eldest Son was a Brother-Killer : For the fore-skin being taken away , did of necessity cause a Brawniness of the Nut of the Yard , whereby indeed , he might be made a Partaker of the less Pleasure , Concupiscence , and Tickling , whosoever should desire to be ascribed or registred among the Catalogue of the beloved People of God. The Rabbins also confess , That Circumcision was instituted by reason of unclean Virtues , walking in a circuit : The which I interpret , that the diabolical , and primitive Enticements of Concupiscence unto Mortality were not hid to the Hebrews , and that at leastwise in an obscure sense , the Sin arisen from thence , was insinuated . Also illegitimate Persons , were in times past driven from the Temple , and Heaven , and those who should be born of an adulterous Conception , because they did wholly shew forth an Adamical Generation : but those who were born of a lawfull 〈…〉 Bed , were as yet Impure , until that the fore-skin being taken away , they might seem to renounce the Concupiscence of the Flesh : And in this respect , they represented in a shadow also , those that were to be renewed from far , by the Spirit of God , and the laver of Regeneration . Moreover , the very Word of Truth doth profesly confirm the Position , 1 John 3. Except any one be born again , he cannot see the Kingdom of God. B. Except any one be born again of Water , and of the Spirit , he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. C. That which is born of the Flesh , is Flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit , is Spirit . D. The Spirit breatheth where it listeth : Thou hearest the Voice thereof , but knowest not from whence it may come , or whither it may go : E. So is every Man who is born of the Spirit . F. If I shall speak unto you of Earthly Things , and ye believe not , how shall ye believe , if I tell you of Heavenly things : G. None hath ascended into Heaven , but he who descended from Heaven . H. And as Moyses exalted the Serpent in the Wilderness ; So it behoves the Son of Man to be exalt●d . Christ Jesus descending from Heaven , took not on him the Flesh of Sin by Adamical Generation , or by the will of Man ; but he receiving the form of a Servant , was made into the Likeness of the Sons of Adam , being found in Habit as a Man ; Yet being Adamical , was a true Man , such as Adam was , being newly created : But he being made into the similitude of an Adamical Man , emptied or humbled himself , taking on him the form of a Servant ; But he was not made a Servant or Impure : But in this glad tydings he denieth the Vision of God , or the sight of the Kingdom of God , and in b. an entrance into the Kingdom of God : For not that the Glory which makes blessed may be seen , without entring into Heaven , or the same thing is twice spoken in vain ; or that a. doth require another new birth than b. but a. contains a denyal of participating of the Heavens for the Souls of the Dead , before the Resurrection , which b. also denies for their Bodies , after the Resurrection . Therefore it behoves that we are Born again of Water , and of the holy Spirit : For as from the Beginning man was created , and had not proceeded from a being born of Flesh ; So whatsoever is afterwards born of the Flesh , is Flesh : But the Water , the Blood , and the Spirit , are one and the same in Christ . John 5. and these three do denote an indifferent , and one only Baptism , in valour or effect . Wherefore the only new Birth unto Life , Is by Water , and the Spirit , in the participation of the virginal Body of Christ alone . For truly it is alike impossible for Flesh to enter into , and see the Kingdom of God , as for to ascend into Heaven by a Motion of ones own : and that is granted to none , but to the Son of the Virgin , who for that end descended from Heaven , who was in Heaven , while the same Son spake these things to Nicodemus ; and the which , a little while after ought moreover for the same Cause , to be exalted in the Cross : The same therefore which descended from Heaven , that he might be incarnated of the Matter of the Virgin , is he in whom the Water , the Virginal Blood , and the holy Spirit are one . The Spirit therefore which maketh the Corrupted and Adamical Man to be renewed by Water , doth so regenerate the inward man from a new Generation in the Spirit , that it becomes a true Spirit to be glorified by rising again ; whose Voice the Sons of Adam shall hear ; yet shall they not know from whence it may come , or whither it may go : because the Spirit , the Regenerater , is the glorious God himself , who breatheth where he will , and thou now hearest his Voice by Faith , and the Sacrament : Thus every one , who is born again of the holy Spirit , is made Spirit , and united to him , who is not known from whence he may come , or whither he may go . I call these earthly things , although they touch at a spiritual Generation , and new Birth ; because they have some things like unto them , in a sublunary Nature , which things every one hath not indeed every where known ; and therefore neither doth he believe them : For the Generations of Bruits do happen from a watery Liquor , and a seminal Spirit . Notwithstanding , those things are not therefore plainly terrene or earthly , and naturally intelligible by the Vulgar , which the Lord speaks to Nicodemus ; because the reason of the Love of God is no more conceived in this New-Birth , than of his infinite goodness : To wit , it remains unpassable why he would adopt Man for a Son , and Co-heir of his Kingdom ; yea reduce him into a Spirit of a God-like Form , who shall materially be born again of Water : For that mystery of love exceedeth all the understanding of Angels : Yea to believe , and contemplate of the actual Person of Christ in an old Man , a Woman , a young Man , a poor diseased Man , a miserable and naked poor or little esteemed Man , or Woman , none can naturally understand it , unless he being compelled by Faith , hath subjected his understanding unto Faith : So neither are we able to conceive , what one thing all are made , by that new Birth of Baptism in Christ , without a difference of Sexes , or Nations , unless we are holpen by Faith. At length , it was not enough for the Love of Christ to be born in the form of a Servant , and so to be exposed unto Scorn : But moreover , he ought to suffer a most sharp , and most exceeding reproachful Death ; the which so cruel , and disgraceful Death , himself in the abounding goodness of his Love , cals his Exaltation . But he brings it into the similitude of the exaltation of the Serpent Nehushtan : Not indeed because the Serpent did any more represent the form of the Son of Man , than the Fork did the Cross ; but only the likeness of impure Man slidden into Death , through the perswasion of the Serpent , the likeness of whose Servant the Lord was to assume . Therefore the Son of Man ought to be exalted , not indeed , as being unhurtful in the Fork , or as it were an unsensible brazen Serpent , and the which otherwise , being a live one , was perceivable enough to be most fit to hang up : But the Son of Man must be exalted alive , he being full of Love , and also at length , to die in that Cross , that the deserved New-Birth or Regeneration , might be made effectual by his Death . For truly , else without the Death , and Exaltation of him Crucified , a Participation of the new Birth by Water and the Spirit , had not succeeded , neither had Death Perished : So that plainly from a deep mystery , the similitude of the Fork , Cross , and Saviour , was fetched for a similitude of an incarnated Servant , and him compared with the brazen Serpent . Neither also did Israel Worship God in the Serpent ; otherwise Moses , by the Command of God , had been the Author of Idolatry : Neither therefore is a live Serpent bound to the Fork ; as neither likewise his dead Carcass : but his brazen Image only , as being uncapable of Life ; that by this mystery it might be manifest , that the whole similitude in that the exaltation of the Fork or Pole and Cross , did manifest , and clearly hold forth unto us the Flesh of Sin , ( which the Son of Man by way of similitude represented ) was plainly uncapable of Life , and of the Kingdom of God , no otherwise than as the brazen Serpent was . Therefore it is simply , and absolutely true ; That unless Man be born again of God , and doth partake of the unspotted Virginity , which the Lord Jesus drew in his most glorious Incarnation , from the material substance of the Virgin his Mother , the hope of Salvation is for ever cut off . Wherefore also , from thence it is manifest , that from the intent of Creation , nothing but a Virginal Generation was afterwards required : And by consequence , that a Seminal , Impure , Beast-like , and Adamical Generation , was by the Craft of the Devil , drawn , and exhausted from the Apple , wherein the Fewel of Lust was : Therefore unless the Adamical Flesh doth again die , and an unspotted Virgin-Flesh be restored in us in its stead , by the favour of the holy Spirit ( who saveth those that are to be saved freely ) it is certain that the first intent of our Creator , should be frustrate , whatsoever may be otherwise done , or hoped for . For in the Beginning , it was sufficient to be born ; because also then they had been born of God : But after the Fall , it thenceforth behoveth the Adamical Flesh to die , and perish , and to be again renewed , or re-born of Virgin-Flesh , which the holy Spirit by Water stirs up in us , while we wish , or desire to be Members of that Head , and Branches of that Vine . We are therefore regenerated in the Lords Body , by Grace , unto the immortal Life of the Age to come ; and that we may be raised up again in the Participation of Virginity , Death must interpose , and whatsoever is Adamical in us , be blotted out . We all indeed shall rise , but we shall not all be changed : for those only shall rise again changed , who shall rise again glorified in the Virgin-Body of Regeneration : which change the Apostle understood , because that , He who is not born again , cannot enter into the Kingdom of God : And therefore , He that shall rise again , being not born again ; by consequence also , shall not be changed from his antient Being , if he shall rise again from Death ; neither therefore also , shall he have entrance unto Gods Kingdom ; because by the new Birth , the whole Man is made Spirit : And therefore , he which shall rise again from the new Birth , shall rise again in a spiritual Nature : Otherwise , He that is born of the Flesh , and not born again of the Spirit , shall hear indeed the Voice of him that is born of the Spirit ; but shall not know from whence it may come , or whither it may go . This indeed is the changing of Bodies into Spirit , and the change of Bodies in the Resurrection ; or it is the Glorification of those that are to be saved after the Resurrection : But other Sins were expiated indeed through Repentance , with the victory , and triumph of the Lamb : but the loss of that Virginity , and primitive Purity , doth without Regeneration , reserve an Eternal Spot of Impurity , and Uncapacity : No otherwise than as a virginal conservation , and Integrity of the re-born Faithful , gives unto Virgins that are born again , a Golden or Laurel Crown , equalized unto Martyrdom . Christ therefore , as he is the Father of this Virginity ; so also the Father of the Age to come : But those that are to be saved , are his own new Creature , and new Regeneratition : Who ( to wit ) hath given them Power to become the Sons of God , unto these who believe in his Name ; who are born not of Bloods , nor of the Will of the Flesh , nor by the Will of Man , but of God , after a most chast manner of the holy Spirit ; by whom , before the brutal Concupiscence of the Flesh arose , it was decreed , that altogether every Man ought to be born of his Mother , being a Virgin. Therefore Christ being the Top , and Lover of Chastity , doth distinguish Men as well in this Age , or Life , by Chastity , as in Heaven ; and will grace them with an unimitable , and eternal Priviledge . For a great Company followed the Lamb whithersoever he should go ; and Sang the Song which no other was able to Sing : But these are they who are not defiled with Women : For there are Virgins of both Sexes ; Because there shall not be there , Jew , or Greek ; But they are all one in Christ . For the Almighty hath chosen his Gelded Ones , who have Gelded themselves for the Kingdom of God its sake , of whom is the Kingdom of Heaven : Therefore married Persons , are reckoned to be defiled with Women , and Mothers to have conceived their off-springs in Sin ; and in this thing are far inferiour to Virgins : For indeed , because the Gospel promiseth unto Mortals , not only that the Son of God was Incarnate , and suffered for their Salvation : But that moreover , these two Mysteries ( least else they should be frustrate ) are to be applyed unto individual Persons . I indeed contemplate thus of this Application ; that as man through the Sin of lust , brake no less the Intent of God , than his Admonishment , and the humane Nature was therefore afterwards radically Corrupted , and that thereupon another , and almost brutal Generation thereof , followed : Therefore the joyful Message hath included as well an Abolishment of Original Sin , as of other Sins consecutively issuing from thence : Who by dying destroyed our Death , not his own ; because he had none : The which is not understood of temporal Death ( for the righteous Man as yet to this day , dyeth just even as before the Passion of the Lord ) but of Eternal Death . Therefore , seeing man since the Fall , ought to be Born , Increase , and Multiply no longer from God , but from the Bloods of the Sexes , by the Will of the Flesh , and of Man , nor from thence could ever be able to rise again of himself , and to re-assume his lost and antient purity , nor cease that he might again begin to be otherwise and better ; therefore the joyful message hath brought an assurance unto us , that Baptisme should be unto us for the remission of sins , through a new birth of Water and of the holy Spirit : That our mind as it were through a new Nativity of its Inne , by Regeneration , might be partakers of the unspotted Virginity and humanity of our Lord. Which New-birth , doth indeed repose the Soul into its former state ; to wit , by taking away the sin or debt , and the stinks or noisomenesses thereof : but by reason of the continuance of Adamical flesh , in which the Immortal Mind liveth , the antient possession , or inclination unto sin , is not taken away , nor is there a translation of the corruption drawn from the impure original of the blood of Adam . But that this is really so , we are perswaded to believe : For God doth manifestly , daily grant a testimony of that actual Grace and attained Purity , to be derived into the Body of those that are Baptized , through a true and substantiall Regeneration as well in Body as in Soul : For truly for this end , and in this respect alone Mahometans are Baptized , for a proper reproach , because . Baptisme from the fact or deed done , however unlawfully it be administred and received , takes away from them for the future , the noisomness inbred in them , otherwise to endure for their Life time : such as in all the Hebrews or Jewes , in many places up and down , we do daily observe to be with loathing and weariness . The true effect therefore of Regeneration , and its co-promised character , doth much shine in Baptisme , even outwardly also , in a defectuous Body : And the enemies of the Christian Name , do serve us for unvoluntary witnesses unto this thing : Yea the perpetuity of the same Effect , confirms the unobliterable Character or Impression of Baptisme , and the wickedness of it being repeated . But the New-birth by Baptisme doth not yet , for that Cause , take away a necessity of Death : For Baptisme forsaketh its own , with the fardle of a defiled and Adamical body , begotten by the Will of Man. And for that Cause also , the Soul as subject unto the Vices of the corrupted Body , and of a Will long agoe corrupted : Wherefore , by reason of the frailty of Impure Nature , also an easie inclination and frequency of Sinning , Baptisme hath been scarce sufficient for those of ripe years ; otherwise for the more younger sort , it is abundantly sufficient . Therefore the Sacrament of the Altar , is Wine which buddeth forth Virgins : Which is as much as to say , the end and scope of the Lords Incarnation , or of the instituted Sacrament of the Eucharist , should bud forth Virgins ; as demonstrating , that the intent of the Creator from the beginning , esteemed of , and reckoned upon Virginity alone , and of how great abhorrency ( Numb . 25. ) Luxury is in the sight of the Lord. For although Bigamy or a Plurality of Wives , and likewise , a dismissing of ones Wife , and much loosing of Matrimony , were in times past dissembled ; Yet Phinehas being neither a Judge nor a Prince , from his very own zeal , slew the Fornicator Zimri , and the Harlot Cosby ; and by that famous act , not onely diverted the wrath of the Lord from the whole People of Israel ; But also , although he were a Man-slayer , and Man-slayers were repulsed from Sacrifices ; Yet by reason of that simple Death , the Priesthood was given unto him , persevering in his off-spring . In the next place , the Potters field , Akeldama , called Acheldamah or The field of blood , as long as it retained the name of a Field , confirms the Position ; because indeed by a supernatural Miracle it so consumeth a dead Carcass inhumed in it , in one onely day ; that besides a Sceleton of Bones nothing remaineth surviving : which effect , that it was supernatural , I prove : For otherwise , if it should naturally happen , that thing without doubt , should be done by a corrosive force of the Earth , and the which therefore should be wholly a corrosive Salt , or at least-wise , a certain Mineral vein co-mixed with very much Salt. 1. But first of all , That corrosion of the flesh happened not onely at Jerusalem , as long as it was a Field , where there might be a suspition of some Mineral growing , but also its Earth being brought from thence , the same thing happened in the burying-place at Rome , ( for that cause called , The holy Field ) to wit , wherein that Earth scarce equalizeth the depth of one Foot. 2. But whether we may suppose a corrosive Salt , or next the Earth it self to be Salt ; yet seeing it is the property of Salt , and a thing unseparable from Salt , to melt through Water being poured on it : Therefore long ago , before so many Ages , that substance of the corrosive Salt , being melted by Raines , Snowes and Hailes , had wandred even unto the bottom of the sand , and the rather at Rome , where it found not its native place : Wherefore also that faculty of corroding should cease , nor should it continue safe until now . 3. And so much the rather , because the corrosion of Salts , is by little and little satisfied , and desisteth in gnawing . 4. Lastly , Such a corrosive of Earth is not any where found in the Earth , whether thou shalt respect a Vein of Arsenick , Orpiment , or any other : For all the activity of such Corrosives presently after a good while , waxeth mild and is satisfied : Therefore the property of that Field remaining after so many Ages , doth clearly shew withal ( against the will of Atheisme ) that the Field being purchased with the price of the Life , Blood , and Death of the Saviour , presently consumes the flesh of Adamical generation : Because that , for the consuming and renewing whereof , by the body of Christ , which was sold for thirty silver pieces paid for the price of that field , the coming of the most glorious incarnation , is believed to be directed from God as its onely scope . The unsufferableness therefore of that Earth with the flesh of sin , continually persevering now so many Ages ( however the Bowels of the Atheists may burst ) convinceth of an honour to be due to the Saviour or Son of God for ever . In the next place , a humane dead Carcass , was alwayes buried for honour and desert ; yet in the Law , it caused an impurity for a time : Because neither did it pollute the Soul , but the Body onely , for the meritorious fact : And that impurity did indifferently affect any one , not as the dead Carcass was deputed to the Wormes ( for the Wormes by their co-touching , are not read to have caused an impurity ) but because Adamical flesh is horrid in the sight of the Lord , who indeed promiseth , that he will raise them up at the last day , as many as shall reverently receive the Eucharist : For all indeed shall rise again by the finger of God , to wit , by a supernatural Virtue . Therefore , whosoever in rising again shall be changed , are reckoned onely to be raised up again by the Lord Jesus ; to wit , in as much as in a Body which they have attained by the Wine which buds forth Virgins , they shall rise again partakers of the unspotted Virginity of Jesus . I will raise them up again at the last Day . What other thing I pray you , doth that Promise denote , but that the Elect shall rise again changed and raised up by the Lord ; not indeed in the flesh of sin , but in the flesh of the Lord , which they have partaked of by Baptisme and the Eucharist . Therefore the horrid and damned flesh of sin , doth besprinckle its touchers with no undeserved spot of impurity . There is therefore a distinct diversity of Virginal purity : The First comes to hand before the Fall of Adam , and the which therefore did contain a certain Immortality from the suffrage or consent of the Tree of Life . But the Second is of them Who were sanctified in their Mothers Womb , the which in it self is also twofold : For such a sanctification , although it dismissed Original Sin , and did restore the integrity of withdrawn purity ; yet because they were conceived by the Will of Man , and by Bloods , or of the flesh of Sin , they were also Mortal . But the most holy Virgin Mother , presently after the seminal mixture of her Parents , was preserved from the knitting and blemish of Original Sin , before hec-ceity or the coming of her Soul. But Jeremy and John obtained the same , but after quickening : In these two indeed , there was a Remission of sin admitted ; but in the God-bearing-Virgin , there was a prevention before sin could touch her Soul , and therefore she was taken up with her body into Heaven : but not John , or Jeremy . Next , a Third Purity is in being born again of Water and of the holy Spirit , which also happens two manner of wayes , To wit , Unto Little Children , and Unto those of Ripe Years . For in these , Regeneration doth not onely remit Original Sin , but also every grievous Sin : But in little ones , it remitteth onely Original Sin , because it as yet finds no other . But on both sides it leave●● Death and Flesh hastening into a dead Carcass , because stirred up by 〈…〉 copulation . Fourthly , The purity of those is regarded , Who have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God its sake ; and that as yet in a two-way-journey : For they have either from a Child , devoted their Virginity to the Lamb , and have observed it ; and therefore also they follow the same whithersoever he may go , do sing the Hymn , &c. but all that after Death . For otherwise , they are of the flesh of sin , and therefore are of necessity also , guilty of Death and corruption . But they who have lost their Purity through a proper Error , and afterwards rising up again , have vowed or observed chastity : These , although they are chaste , yet are they not to be reckoned among Virgins . But moreover , after that a Matrimonial generation was constituted by the Lord , Regeneration by the holy Spirit and Water , doth not fore-require Virginity . Fifthly , The top of all Purity and Chastity , is the Lord Jesus himself , who was not conceived by a copulation of the Sexes , for he was truly Immortal , ( and the first who therefore arose from the Dead , by his own Power ) unless the amorous or loving Embassage , for which he had come , had made him electively to be born in the form of a Servant . Therefore now the Question hath seemed to me to be decided , which hath driven many that were in anguish about the unspotted Conception of the God-bearing-Virgin , into many brawlings . Furthermore , not onely Regeneration by Baptisme is enjoyned ; but also unless we shall eat of the super-substantial Bread , we are to have no Life in us : Which benefit of a vital Purity , is the supream pledge given for the Life of the World , or for the frail , Adamical , miserable and mortal Life : Because that Heavenly Bread which descends from heaven ( which is the Wine budding forth Virgins , and the same in supposition ) from its own free property , takes away the spot contracted from Adam , and the broken Virginity of Eve ; Because the Merits of the Passion being participated of in that Pledge , are communicated of from the unspotted Virginity of the Body of our Lord. The Communion therefore , of that most Chast Body uniteth us unto his Mystical Body , and makes us partakers of his Incomprehensible and Amorous Incarnation , as we participatively put on his Virginity , ( in which we ought to be saved ) by being born again : For Christ was born , that he might be crucified for us : Therefore his Death was , that it might give us Life , and that for the whole Species of men in general : But in the individual , as oft as of the Bread , the Body of the Lord is made , as if Christ is re-born again , not indeed , that he is crucified again : But that he may give the intended scope of his Incarnation unto that individual Body , which there eats the re-born Lamb , that is the Merits of his Passion . Indeed there are two principal Ends of the holy sacred Eucharist ; To wit , that the Virgin nature of Christ , and the Merits of his Passion may be unitively communicated unto us . Truly Children that are Baptized , shall rise again indeed in a glorified Body ; Yet by so much the lesse lightsome , by how much they were remote from the Union of the Beatifical Body . And although there do not now appear the visible signes of so great an effect , such as I have above related concerning Baptisme , yet they are in very deed communicated unto their immortal mind ; Because it is that which shall therefore at some time reduce their Body into the form of a Spirit : For otherwise , Regeneration doth not grow anew in the Resurrection , which hath not fore-existed in the Life-time , by being born again : Neither is Faith of feigned Non-Beings , but of things chiefly true , although not alwaies visible , because they do primarily operate on the Immortal mind which is invisible . Wherefore , although the mark of resemblance of Union with God by the Eucharist , be altogether unsearchable , and the fruits thereof are unto us invisible ; Yet a Mystical a●● real New-birth , is reckoned to be in the speech to Nicodemus , it being as yet earthly , and as it were natural : By which title indeed , I have transferred this free endowment of Purity among natural Considerations ; to wit , that under the Doctrine concerning Long Life , I may speak also of Immortal Life , as it is understood by true Christians , and actually derived into a true use . For I contemplate of the Regeneration of those that are to be saved and of the participation of Life in the Communion of the Eucharist , to happen and be reckoned among earthly things , because there is shewn something like unto it el●●where in Earthly things : Verily , almost even as in the Projection of the Stone which make ●●●old : For I have divers times handled that stone with my hands , and have seen a real transmutation of ●aleable Argent-vive or Quicksilver with my eyes , which in proportion did exceed the powder which made the gold in some thousand degrees . Indeed it was of the colour , such as is in Saffron , being weighty in its powder , and shining like bruised Glass , when it should be the less exactly beaten . But there was once given unto me , the fourth part of one grain . I call also a grain the six hundredth part of an ounce . This powder therefore I involved in Wax scraped off of a ce●●ain Letter , least in casting it into the Crucible , it should be dispersed through the smoakinesses of the coa●s : which pellet of wax , I afterwards cast into the three-corner'd Vessel of a Crucible , upon a pound of Quicksilver , hot , and newly bought ; and presently , the whole Quicksilver with some little noise , stood still from flowing , and resided like a Lump : But the heat of that Argent-vive , was as much as might forbid melted Lead from re-coagulating : The Fire being straightway after encreased under the Bellows , the Mettal was ●elted , the which , the Vessel of fusion being broken , I found to weigh eight ounces of the most pure gold . Therefore a computation being made , a grain of that powder doth convert nineteen thousand two hundred grains of impure and volatile Mettal , which is obliterable by the fire , into true gold . For that powder , by uniting the aforesaid Quicksilver unto it self , preserved the same at one instant , from an eternal rust , putrefaction , death , and torture of the fire , howsoever most violent it was , and made it as an Immortal thing , against any vigour and industry of Art and Fire , and transchanged it into the Virgin purity of Gold : At least-wise one onely fire of coals is required herein . So indeed , if so be a just heat of the faithful shall be present , a very little of this mystical and divine super-celestial Bread , doth regenerate , restore and renew , a huge number of the Elect : Which indeed was the one onely scope of so great a Sacrament . And therefore it is said , With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with yo● . Let the Divine pardon me , who being to write of the Life of the World , if by a similitude , I have drawn a demonstration from earthly things , in the perswasion of the Lord to Nicodemus , to confirm the real and Celestial Regeneration of Purity , and Restauration of mans Relapse ; because it is by an Argument drawn from Earthly things . But that person , who is so regenerated , and preserved against the Fire , and Death , the Lord will raise up the same in the last day , who gave his Life to the righteous eater , for the Adamical Life of the World : For so a uniting of the amorous Incarnation of the Lord , makes us partakers of his integrity , so far , as by Regeneration we participatively attain unto the Virginity of Christ , in which we ought to be saved . This indeed is the most proper Circum-locution or expression of the sense of those Words : The Wine which buds forth Virgins . And without this Remedy , some shall rise again being not changed in their former and ponderous Body of Adam , the wished for necessity of death , being onely taken away from them . I return unto the Priviledges of that purity , that it may be manifest , how most nearly a single Life doth come unto the Primitive state of Innocency : and so that also from thence we may learn , that the intention of the Creator was in a single Life . For now and then , that word of Truth comes into my mind , which requireth the state of little Children , in those that are to be saved , under the penalty of infernal punishment : and that we must despair of Salvation , unless we are made or become like unto them : In whom notwithstanding , I find a suddain , speedy , undiscreet , and frequent anger , stripes , kickings , lyes , disobediences , murmurings , reproaches , a ready deceit , and lying in play , an unsatiable Throat , impudence , disturbances , disdaines , unconstancy , and a stupid innocency ; lastly , no acts of devotion , attention , or contribution . But yet those are not the things in little ones , which are required for those that are to be saved , under pain of an Eternal loss . In the next place , neither do little Children want their pride of Life , and despising of others , and especially their hatred of the poor , also a frequent desire of revenge , cruelty , an itch of getting or attaining , the concupiscence of the Eyes , and are wholly and perpetually addicted to , and drowned in self-love . But neither are those the things required in them that are to besaved under Gods indignation : But they want the concupiscence of the Flesh alone . This indeed is the Mark which with so loud sounds , it required for those that are to be saved : Because it is that which was of a primitive intention in Creation : And therefore from an opposite sense , I argue ; That the chief fault of the Fall of the Apple being eaten , was convenant about the infringement of that chast bashfulness ; that is , that Original sin was scituated in the breaking of Virginity , in the act of Concupiscence , and propagation of feed : But not in the very act of disobedience , and despised Admonition , and distrust of the truth of the divine Word . For B. Hildegard also , in the Third Book of her Life , seemeth to have testified the same thing . The Author saith , She freed the Matron Sibylla of the City of Lausa●ium , beyond the Alpes ( who required her help by a Messenger ) from a daily Issue of Blood , by the subscribed Letters being sent unto her . Thou shalt put these words between thy Breast and 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of him who rightly disposeth all things . In the Blood of Adam arose Death , In the Bloo● of Christ Death is extinguished : In the same Blood of Christ , I command thee , Oh Blood , that thou contain or stop thy Flux . And the Matron was cured by these written Words ; the which others have many times experienced . Therefore Death was extinguished by the effusion of the Blood of Christ , and the partici●●●●on thereof , in being born again ; that is , by the offering up of Chastity to God the Father for those that are to be renewed in his Blood. And moreover , if we do well mind , it is acknowledged , that God hath loved women before Men , in their Sex , by reason of an inbred bashfulness : Unto which Sex therefore , he hath freely given Devotion as a gift of Nature , whereby ●ere should be some kind of natural faculty , and virtue proper to that Sex , a Medium unto Salvation . For the first Apostoless , before the coming of the Comforter , by one onely Sermon , converted Samaria , the head of the Israelitish Kingdom , otherwise most stubborn . Only the Women from Galilee , being constantly , although disgracefully serviceable , adered to Christ at his Death , and under all ignomi●●y , he being left by his disciples , the witesses of so many Miracles , and that at the first blast of adversity : For the poor Women rejoyced in their reproaches , so they might but follow Christ , carrying his Cross upon his back . Magdalen also , first preached the Gospel of his Resurrection , unto her own who did not believe , and confirmed them in Faith , who doubted , and deserved to be the first beholder of Christ after his Death , because she sought the same with the fervor of the greatest Devotion . God I say , hath heaped very many Diseases , Adversities , and Subjections on this Sex , that it should be by so much the more like , and nearer to his Son : But the World despiseth Women , and preferreth Men : But in most things , the Judgements of God are opposite unto the Judgements of the World ; so that also , the World despiseth the Poor , of whom Christ calleth himself the Father , but not of the Rich. Then in the next place , Christ calls himself in many places , The Son of Man ; But seeing he had not a Man unto his Father , therefore by an Antonom●sia , he calls the Woman the Virgin , Man , by an absolute dignity of Name , and worthy of , or beseeming the Femal Sex ; as if for that reason , the name [ Man ] ought thenceforth after sin , to be proportioned , and stands for the Woman in the more famous signification : Shewing at leastwise , that in thing the Mother-Virgin , was after the sin of Adam , the one onely Man , such as the Divinity had espoused unto it self in the Creation of the Universe , for the replenishing of the places laid waste by the Evil Spirit : And that what Eve ceased to be through an infringing of Chastity , that , Mary the most glorious Virgin , was ; to wit , The one only Mother of those that are to be saved , in the Regeneration of Purity . But neither 〈◊〉 I undertaken a laudatory Oration in behalf of that Sex : Only it is sufficient to have shewn , that God hath loved the Femal Sex , by reason of its love of Chastity . For a Virgin thin●● on the things of her God. The Apostle also Commands Widows , which are truly Widows , to be honoured . And in the old Law , those were reckoned impure , as many as ( even conjugally ) had known their Wives , if they were not seriously washed , and were to be driven from the Temple unless they were first duly rinsed . [ He ] also violently fell by a sudden Death , because such an impure Man ( although from a good zeal ) put his hand to the tottering Cart ; wherein the Ark of the Covenant , ( the Image of the God-bearing-Virgin ) was carried . Indeed on both sides , the Truth being agreeable to it self , doth detest and attest the filthyness of impure Adamical generation : For the Impurity which had conceived a contagion , from any natural Issue whatsoever , of Menstrues , or Seed ; and that by its touching alone , is reckoned to be equal to that which should by degrees creep on a person from a co-touching of dead Carcasses ; and to be expiated by the same ceremonious right : That the Text might agreeably denote , that Death began from the Concupiscence of the Flesh , lying hid in the fruit of the Apple : Therefore also , the one only healing Medicine of so great an impurity contracted by touching , consisted in washing ; under the likeness whereof , Faith and Hope which in Baptisme were poured into us , are strengthened . For as soon as Adam had known by Fratricide , that the first-born of Mortals whom he had begotten in the Concupiscence of the Flesh had slain his guiltless and righteous Brother , and fore-seeing the wicked Errors of Mortals that would come from thence , he then also well perceiving his own Miseries in himself , certainly knowing , that all these Calamities had happened unto him from the Concupiscence of the Flesh drawn from the Apple , which were unavoidably issuing on his Posterity ; he thought it a discreet thing for him , for hereafter , wholly to abstain from his Wife which he had violated , and therefore mourned in C●●stity and Sorrow a hundred full Years ; Foolishly hoping , that by the proper merit of that Abstinence , as by an opposite to the Concupiscence of the 〈◊〉 , that he should again return into his former Majesty of Purity : But the Repentance 〈…〉 Age being finished , probably the Mystery of the Lords Incarnation was revealed unto him ; Neither that Man ever could hope to return unto the brightness of his antient purity , by his own strength , and much less that himself could restore his Posterity from Death : And therefore that Matrimony or Marriage was well pleasing , and was presently after the Fall indulged unto him by God ; to wit , because he had determined thus to satisfie his Justice , at the fulness of times ; which should to the glory of his own Name , and the confusion of Satan ; carry up Mankind unto a more eminent blessedness . From that time therefore , Adam began to know his Wife , and to fill the earth by multiplying , according to the Blessing once given him , and a Law enjoyned him : Yet so , nevertheless , that although Matrimony , by reason of the great want of Propagation , and otherwise an impossible coursary succession of the primitive Divine Generation , be admitted as a Sacrament of the faithful : Yet because at length it seemed ; by reason of necessity , as it were by dissembling or connivance , to be indulged ; Therefore the Comforter dictating it , it was determined against the Greeks , by the Church , that the Priest ( by whose workmanship the Lords Body is incarnated in the Sacrifice , ought to be altogether estranged from the act ; whereby Death and the impurity of Nature were introduced . For the necessity of propagation , hath indeed thus in times past excused the offence of a coursary succession in Generating . For as Augustine witnesseth , If the propagation of Men could have been made after any other manner , the Conjugal Act had been unlawful . Wherefore Bigamy or a Duplicity of Wives , is not undeservedly expelled from the Bishoprick , even as actual Wedlock from the Sub-deaconship . For however it be a Sacrament , yet it is unbeseeming the Sacrament of the Altar , to wit , by which the chastity of the first constitution and intention of the Creator are recompensed : For God despised that blood should be offered unto him , even in burnt-offerings , and that Man should eat blood , being mindful that the blood ( in which the sensitive Soul is ) had proceeded from the eating of the Apple . But besides , bruit Beasts are indeed afraid , are angry , do flatter , do mourn , do condole , do lay in wait ; and those Passions , Man from the sensitive Soul possesseth , common with Bruits : Yea also , it shameth Elephants , if they are upbraided with any thing that hath the less generously been done by them : But no Animal or sensitive Creature perceiveth shame from a sexual copulation . From hence its manifest , that Concupiscence of the flesh , is Diabolical onely to Man ; which in Bruits , is Earthly and Natural . If therefore both our Parents presently after the eating of the Apple , were ashamed , if they therefore covered onely their privy parts ; therefore that shame doth presuppose , and accuse of something committed against Justice , against the intent of the Creator , and against their own proper Nature : By consequence , that Adamical generation was not of the primitive constitution of their nature , as neither of the original intent of the Creator : Therefore when God foretels that the earth shall bring forth Thistles and Thornes , and that Man in the sweat of his Face shall eat his Bread , even as was already proved above , they were not Execrations , but Admonitions that those sort of things should be obvious in the Earth ; and because Beasts should bring forth in pain , should plow in sweat , should eat their food with labour and fear , that the Earth also , should bring forth very many things besides the intent of the Husband-man , therefore also , that they ought to be nourished like unto Bruit-beasts , who had begun to generate after the manner of Bruit-beasts . And then , if the Text be more fully considered , it is told unto Eve after Transgression , that she should bring forth her off-springs in pain : For it undoubtedly followes from thence , that before sin , she had brought forth without pain , that is , as she had conceived , her Womb being shut , so also she had brought forth . Therefore , what hath the pain of bringing forth , common with the eating of the Apple , unless the Apple had operated about the conception or concupiscence of the flesh ? And by consequence , unless the Apple had stirred up copulation , and the Creator had intended to disswade it by dehorting from eating of the Apple : For why are the genital members of the Woman punished with paines of Child-birth , if the Eye in seeing the Apple , the Hands in cropping it , and the mouth in eating it , have offended ? For was it not sufficient to have chastised the Life with Death , and the Health with very many Diseases ? Moreover , why is the Womb ( which in eating is guiltless ) afflicted after the manner of Bruits with the pain of bringing forth , if the conception granted to Beasts were not forbidden to Man ? After the Fall therefore , their eyes were opened , and they were ashamed : It denoteth , that from the filthiness of Concupiscence , they knew that the copulation of the flesh was forbidden them in the most innocent chastity of Nature , and that they were over-spread with shame , when their eyes being opened , their understandings saw the committed filthyness . But on the Serpent and evil Spirit alone , was the top of the whole curse , even as the priviledge of the Woman , and the mysterious prerogative of the blessing upon the Earth : To wit , that the Woman ( but not the Man , although he was now constituted for the head of the Woman ) should at some time bruise the head of the Serpent ; And so that it is not possible , that to bring forth in pain , should be a Curse ; for truly with the same mouth of the Lord is pronounced the Blessing of the Woman , and Victory over the infernal Spirit . And moreover , to be subject to the Man , was not enjoyned unto the Woman in stead of an Execution : But it denoted in the mind of God , humility chosen in a new Law , and another method of living , appointed anew by the Son of Man : For the Son of Man humbled himself even unto death ; also to be extinguished by a reproachful death , he called it , to be exalted . Therefore , while the Lord depresseth the Woman under the power of the Man , he exalted the same Woman in his presence , and made her the more like unto himself . After another manner , because the Serpent should for the future , creep upon the Earth ; The name of Serpent proveth , that , that was not proper unto him from a Curse , but from his being made creeping ; and that thing was sufficiently manifest to Adam : For herein the Curse seized not so much on the Serpent , as on the evil Spirit , because the lying Impostor had hid himself in the most vile of creeping things ; on whose head therefore , and not on the head of any creeping thing , the Woman trod upon . But because all Bruits which do generate by a long continued copulation , were in times past reckoned impure , and also forbidden from Man's use in Kitchins ( among which creeping Animals are not in the last place ) &c. It containeth , and likewise confirmeth the mystery of our Position : To wit , That the impurity of our Nature , draws its rise from the Concupiscence of the Flesh : And therefore the copulation in Beasts seemeth to be taken notice of in Beasts , by God , which was distinct , and defiled with impurity . In the next place also , in the Law , a Menstruous Woman , and the person touching her , were accounted to bring an impurity on every thing : The which otherwise , being now , turned into a second and natural Cause , ought to be plainly guiltless , unlesse the Menstrues should by a Natural course , derive it self from the same Causes , from whence Death happened unto us : And therefore also , for this Cause , it being plainly impure in the Law , was reckoned a horrid thing with God. But for that , Woman alone doth suffer Menstrues before Bruits , surely it doth not attest any Prerogative of our kind , but rather every way a defect ; to wit , that it is reckoned for a punishment of frustrated Chastity , and referred into second Causes , plainly from a notable Mystery of our Position : neither doth it hinder these things , that chast Virgins obey the Menstrues , and that she is Monstrous , who an opportunity being given , is not Menstruous ; because Adamical Generation its self is constrained to carry , no less the importunities of its own Nature , than Death it self . Yea , seeing Chastity doth not excuse a Virgin from the Menstrues , it is for a token , that the Menstrues is not from a Curse , nor from the punishment of Sin , but altogether from Natural Causes ; no otherwise than as Death it self began from second Causes inserted in the disswaded Apple , although hitherto unknown , nor thorowly weighed . The Menstrues therefore onely in Woman alone , but not in Bruits , doth accuse that the Transgression of the despised fatherly Admonition happened in the very privy parts , therefore branded as it were with an unclean bloody Seal , for a perpetual sign : The which surely should not have place , if a Sexual Copulation for the Propagation of man , had not inverted the intention of the Creator , rather than in Bruit-Beasts . In this place , a Paradox and impertinent consideration doth occur , being interlaced as it were by a Parenthesis : that Adam seeing he was created in the possession of Immortality , God intended not that Man should be an Animal or Sensitive creature , nor should be born , conceive , or live as an Animal ; for truly , he was created into a living Soul , and that he might be the immediate Image of God : Therefore he as far differed from the Nature of an Animal , as an Immortal being from a Mortal , and as a God-like Creature from a Bruit ; The which is indeed more than in the whole Predicament . And it is exceedingly to be admired , and deservedly unworthy to be endured , that the Schools of Christ do believe and confess these things ; and yet that even until now , they draw the Essence of a Man Essentially from an Animal Nature ; because , although Man afterwards procured Death unto himself , and therefore may seem to be made nearer unto the Nature of Animal Creatures , yet it stood not in his Power to be able to pervert the Species of the Divine Image ; Even as , neither was the Evil Spirit , of a Spirit , made an Animal , although he became nearer unto an Animal by hatred and brutal vices . Therefore Man remained in his own Species wherein he was created ; For as oft as man is called an Animal or Sensitive living Creature , and is in earnest , thought to be such ; so many times , the Text is falsified , which saith , But also the Serpent was more crafty than all the living Creatures of the Earth , which the Lord God had made ; Because he speaks of the Natural craftiness of that Creeping Creature . Again , if the Position be true , Man was not directed into the Propagation of Seed , or Flesh , neither therefore did he Aspire into a Sensitive Soul : And therefore the Sensitive Soul of Adamical Generation , is not of a brutal Species , because it was raised up by a Seed which wanted the Original , Ordination , and Limitation of any Species ; And so that , as the Sensitive Soul in Man arose besides the intent of the Creator and Nature ; So it is of no brutal Species , neither can it subsist , unless it be continually tyed to the Mind , from whence it is supported in its Life . Wherefore while Man is of no Brutal Species , he cannot be an Animal in respect of his Mind , and much less in respect of his Soul , which is of no Species . For a woman great with Child , while by reason of sudden fear , she changeth the Humane Young into a certain Bruit ; the mind indeed doth not wander into a brutal Soul ; but the mind departs , and a Sensitive Soul , begged of the Creator , is substituted in its stead ; And seeing that it is promoted onely by the Idea of the Woman great with Child , without an Original appointment , therefore such kind of generated Creatures , do most speedily die : And the off-springs of Adam had likewise presently perished , unless God had granted Matrimony unto him . Wherefore in the Birth of Cain , she truly said ; I possesse a Man from the Lord. Far be it therefore , to have placed Man among Sensitive living Creatures . Truly , we must indulge Pagans who know not that thing ; but not equally Christians who too much adore Paganish Doctrine . At least wise the Schools confesse , that there is an ordinary Progress of Nature , from not a sensible Creature into a sensible Animal : but that the Life and Sense of Men is immediately iufsed by the hand of the Almighty . They confesse in the next place , that the Conditions of being , living , and feeling or perceiving in Man , differ in their whole Condition from an Animal Nature , because it follows the Faculty of the rational Form or Immortal mind : But they shamefully believe , that a Man aswel of the first Constitution , as being now Divinely Regenerated by the Sacraments , is an Essential Animal . Fie , let it shame man not to know that the Evil Spirit , and whole Nature also , are not able by any means , or any way to change the Essence given unto him from the foreknowledge of the Creator , but that he should continually remain such as he was created ; although in the mean time , he hath cloathed himself with strange properties , as Natural unto him from the vice of his own will : For as it wants not an absurdity , to reckonman glorified , among Animals , because he is not without a sense or feeling ; So , to be sensitive doth not shew the unseperable Essence of an Animal . And seeing otherwise , the definition of every thing is from the Essence of the thing ( as they will have it ) but man according to his Essence , was made in a full possession of Immortality , and henceforth of an Eternal Duration , according to his Soul ; the Schools could not believe , that man , by reason of a sensitive Soul alone , was essentially an Animal ; Especially while they believed his Essence to depend on an Eternal Duration , and an uncorruptible Soul or Form. All which absurdities , I acknowledge to have crept into , and to have remained in the Schools , by reason of the truth of our Position being unknown . Even hitherto , I have established the Position out of the holy Scriptures . Now again the same , by the Authorities of Fathers ; which matter B. Augustine hath seemed to have understood before others ; saying , After what manner had it shamed Man of the Transgression of a Law , when as his very Members had not known shame ? As if he should say , His Members were stirred up unto the Concupiscence of the Flesh , and acts of his Privie Parts , presently after the Eating of the Apple . Their Eyes were opened ; but for this they were not opened , that they might know , what might be performed by them , through the cloathing of Grace , when as their Members knew not how to resist their will. And dost thou not blush at that Disease , or that thou , although shamefac'd , dost confess , that that Lust entred into Paradise ? And to impute it unto Husbands and Wives before Sin ? He who was to be without Sin , would be born without the Concupiscence of the Flesh , not in that Flesh of Sin ; but in the likeness of sinful Flesh : As if he should say , whatsoever is born from Copulation , although it had been born in Paradise and before Sin , would have been , and is the Flesh of Sin ; Seeing that alone , which is not born of Copulation , is not the Flesh of Sin. Whatsoever off-spring is born from Concupiscence , or of the Flesh of Sin , is obliged unto Orignal Sin , unless it be born again in him , whom the Virgin conceived without Concupiscence . The Flesh of Christ drew a mortality from the mortality of his Mothers Body ; because she found not the Concupiscence of a Copulatresse . For indeed , as Original Sin is not derived on the Posterity any other way , than by the Concupiscence of the Flesh ; So it must needs be , that in the Apple was included the Concupiscence , from whence the humane stock degenerated , and was vitiated in generating : For truly if off-springs could have been generated any otherwise than by carnal Copulation , the Matrimonial act had been unlawful . Whereunto this every-way convincing Argument ; serveth , That act , before the Apple was eaten , was either unlawful , and not thought of ; or it was lawful . If it were unlawful , now our Position is proved . But if lawful , therefore whatsoever I have above described out of Augustine , is false . Seeing therefore they had now actually felt the effect of the eaten Apple , or the Concupiscence of the Flesh in their Members in Paradise , presently it shamed them , because their Members , which before they could rule at their pleasure , were afterwards moved by a proper incentive of lust . At length , how greatly Virginity hath alwayes pleased the Bridegroom of the Soul , doth clearly enough appear out of divers Histories of the Saints . And indeed , in Cana of Galilee , the Bridegroom having left his Bride , followed the Lord Jesus , and it is that Disciple whom Jesus therefore so greatly loved . The same thing was familiar unto Alexius , Aegidius , and to very many others , especially with poor Women-Virgins . For indeed the infinite goodness , from the proper motion of its good pleasure from Eternity , created Man and fore-loved him with so great a love , that he determined to co-knit his own Divinity unto him , and to enlighten him with the Light , which enlightneth every man that cometh into this World ; and to Adopt him for the Son of God , giving him Power to become the Son of God by the new Birth ; which new Birth , before Sin , was not necessary . Seeing therefore he requireth People to be re-born of God , therefore before Sin , they were all born of God ; which thing , Lucifer with his own Spirits , seeing , through a long-since Pride of his Beauty ( and since his fall , being wholly become Envious ) supposed that he was wiser than God , who had raised up a vile creature unto that height : wherefore he aspired to exceed God , whom he had not yet seen , and to throw him down from his Seat of Majesty : Presently afterwards , he , after that he had paid the punishment of his Sins , being more cruelly wroth , saw also , that Eve being a Virgin , was by the onely Goodness of God , without all desert , and freely now appointed for the aforesaid Instrument of that Adoption , and Mother of Men : Therefore he endeavoured to hinder the Love of God through the Eating of the Apple ; Because , as seeing that the Lasciviousness and Concupisence of the Flesh implanted in the same , was Diametrically opposite unto Gods intention : Therefore the Eating of the Apple was not forbidden unto man by a Law , but by a fatherly Admonition : neither is Original Sin from the Transgressions of a Law , from the Eating of the Apple , as being forbidden food ; but by Reason of the effect arising from the Apple , and the properties inserted in the Apple . After another manner , the Transgression or Eating , did offend onely in a Voluntary Act , but not for Posterity ; unless Naturally , and by the second Causes of a brutal Copulation following from thence ( otherwise in our first Parents impossible ) it had inverted the intention of Divine Generation ; Yea , Original Sin , fell not so properly on the guiltless Posterity , as the effect of Generation : the which indeed hath brought forth an Adulterous , Beast-like , Devilish Generation , and plainly uncapable of the Kingdom of God , and of Union with , and Enjoyment of God : By Reason of the Similitude whereof , those that were born in Adultery , were excluded from the Participation of Heaven . But let us feign the opposite thing ; to wit , that our Parents were conscious , that there was a Law declared by God the Creator of the Universe , touching the forbidden Apple , and that upon such an account Death was foretold unto him , and all his Posterity , and undoubtedly came unto them ; but at least-wise , an irregular Sin being so bold , and so ungodly and cruel a Wickedness on all their Posterity , could not be forgiven without a great note of Contrition : Neither had God , how Merciful , and Good soever , straightway , so suddenly made that man fruitful with so great a Blessing , and substituted the other living Creatures under his Feet ; he not being ignorant , that neither of them did Grieve , Repent , Pray ; but only it shamed them , and that they endeavoured as Fools to hide themselves from God , and to cover their privy Parts with Leaves . Therefore I collect from thence , that on the same day , not only Mortality entred through Concupiscence ; But moreover , that it presently after also , entred into a conceived Generation ; in which respect , the same day also they were driven out of Paradise : Therefore Original Sin was effectively bred from the Concupiscence of the Flesh ; but occasionally onely in the Apple being eaten , and the Admonition being despised : But the Poyson of the Concupiscence was placed in the Admonished ( or rather disswaded ) Tree , and that Property was radically inserted , and implanted in it . But when Satan ( besides his Hope , and the Deflowring of the Virgin , nothing hindred it ) saw that man was not taken out of the Way , according to the forewarning ( for he knew not that the Son of God had constituted himself a Surety before the Father for man ) he indeed looking into the Corrupted and Degenerated Nature of Man , and so that a Power was withdrawn from him , of Uniting himself to the God of infinite Majesty , he most greatly rejoyced ; but he grieved after that he knew , that Matrimony was now granted ; To wit , that the divine Goodness did as yet incline towards man ; and that Satans own Fallacies , Deceits , and Thoughts were thus Deceived : And so that also , from hence he conjecturing that the Son of God was to restore every Defect of Contagion , and therefore perhaps to be Incarnate ; He ruminated or searched , whether he should defile the Stock that was to be raised up by Matrymony , with a mortal Soul , that he might render every Conception of God , Vain : Therefore he stirred up not only his Fratricides , and notoriously wicked Persons , that there might be much Evil at all times ; but he procured that Atheism might arise , and that together with Heathenism , it might increase , and wax strong dayly ; whereby indeed , if he could not hinder the Co-knitting of the Immortal Mind with the sensitive Soul , he might at least , by destroying the Law of Nature , bring man with himself , under infernal Punishment : But especially he meditated , after what sort he might by Degrees expunge the immortal Mind out of the Stock of Posterity : Therefore he stirred up detestable Copulations in this Atheistical Libertines : But he saw that from thence nothing but brutish or savage Monsters Proceeded , to be abhorred by the Parents themselves ; and that the Copulation with Women , was far more Plausible unto Men ; and that by this Method , the Generation of Men should equally , and constantly continue . For neither was it sufficient for the infernal Enemy to have rendered man uncapable of Heaven ; but moreover , he endeavoured to prevent , that there should never be a hope of restoring a Remnant ; that is , to hinder the Incarnation of the Son of God ; therefore he attempted , whether he could by an Application of active things , frame the Seed of Man according to his own cursed Desire : The which , when he had found to be in vain , and impossible for him to do , he tryed again whether an Impe , a Witch , might not be fructifyed by Sodomy : And when as , neither thus did the event every way answer his Intention , and that he saw elsewhere , that of an Asse , and a Horse , a Mule was bred , which was nearer akin to his Mother , than to his Father : Likewise that of a Coney , and a Dormouse being the Father , a true Coney was bred , being disstinct from his Mother , only in his Taile like a Dormouse , he declined his Crafts : And indeed through a remembrance of these Things , the old Law also very much abhorring such co-mixtures of Species to be horrid unto God ; although at this day , they are among Christians so admitted , that the Primates or chief Men of the Church , do Ride on Monsters horrid in Gods sight . Therefore Satan instituted a Connexion of the Seed of Man ( being first for some while nourished with Warmth ) with the Seed , and in the Womb of a Juniour Witch or Sorceress , that he might exclude the Dispositions unto an immortal Mind ( which God , Matrimony being by him appointed , promised that he would create in the Word , be ye Multiplyed ) from such a new polished Conception : And afterwards came forth an adulterous Generation of Faunes , Satyrs , Sylphs , Gnomes , Nymphs , Driades , Nerides , and other Monsters , according to the Various Disposition which the Seed of Man did undergo . And seeing the Faunes , and Nymphs of the Woods were preferred before the other in Beauty , they afterwards generated their off-springs among themselves , and the Posterities again contracted their Copulations among themselves , and at length began Wedlocks with men , feigning that thus they did obtain an immortal Soul ( as credulous Paracelsus witnesseth ) for themselves , and their off-springs which should be born by that Conjuction : But they feigned that thing through the Perswasion of the Devil , that men as doing a pious Work , might admit those Monsters unto carnal Copulation : Which thing the Ignorant also were easily perswaded of , as if the Creation of the immortal Soul , and the knitting thereof unto the mortal Soul , did depend on the free Will , and Seed of Man : the which I will beneath teach to be false , as well from the holy Scriptures , as from the Relation of D. Antonius in the Life of Paul the first of Anchorets , described by Jerome : And therefore those Nymps were antiently named , Sccnbae : Although Satan afterwards , that he might commit a worse Wickedness , frequently transchangeth himself by dissembling the Persons of the Incubus and Succubus , in both Sexes : But they conceived not a true Young by the Males , except the Nymphs alone : the which indeed , seeing the Sons of God ( that is , Men ) had now without distinction , and in many places taken to be their Wives , God was constrained to blot out the whole race begotten by these detestable Marriages , through a deluge of Waters , that the intent of the Evil Spirit might be Frustrated . A Merchant of Aegina , our Country-man , an Honest-man , Sayling divers times unto the Canaries , or Fortunate Ilands ; was buisily asked by me , his Serious Judgment about certain Creatures , which Boys did there bring home from the Mountains , as oft as they would , and named them Tudesquils , or little Germans : for they were dryed dead Carcases , almost three-footed , which any Boy did easily carry in one of the Palms of his Hand , and they were of an humane Shape : But that whole dead Carcase was clearly like unto Parchment , and their Bones were Flexible as it were Gristles : Against the Sun also , their Bowels and Intestines were seen : Which things , when as afterwards , I by Spaniards there born knew to be true , I considered , that at this day , the destroyed Race of the Pygmies was there : For the Almighty would render the expectations of the evil Spirit , supported by Mankind , vain , and void : For he hath therefore manifoldly saved us from the Craft of the encompassing Lyon , unto whom Eternal Punishment is due in his extream , and perpetual Confusion , unto the everlasting sanctifying of the divine Name . But now I will propose some doubts against our Position . First therefore , that nothing withstands it , that the most due or worthy Work of Married-folkes is the very Copulation of the Flesh : Because from thence it doth not follow , that matrymony was lawful from the Beginning of Creation : Yea , neither is that true in any other Sense ; but that afterwards Children are not procreated without the Copulation of the Flesh : To wit , if any Married-folks shall live as they ought , and those that have Wives , be as they had none , and never using their Wives but for fructifying sake , unto the Honour of God : These indeed do deserve the Favour of Increase : But as yet do they far differ from those unto whom God , from the title of Gelded-persons or Eunuches alone , promiseth the Kingdom of Heaven : But it is said unto Married-persons , When ye have done all these things , ye shall be as yet , unprofitable Servants : But that is no where read to be spoken unto one abstaining from lawful things in Patients , and not in Agents ; and least of all , doth that touch at the Flour of Virginity : For abstinent , and chast Persons , seem by a certain fore-choice to be sanctified , also to be promoted unto a further Degree of Perfection : And therefore , They follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth . For those that do well , as they suppose a hope of reward ; So Virgins abstaining , and suffering , do contain themselves within Love , and Humility . Neither doth that argue on the contrarie , because it is said , Gen. Chap. 1. v. 27. God created them Man , and Woman . and Gen. Chap. 1. v. 28. that He blessed them , that they might increase , and be multiplyed , and replenish the Earth : As though Wedlock had been from the appointment , and first intention of the Creator : For the first Chapter of Genesis doth briefly finish the whole History of the Creation : But the second and third Chapters do prosecute the Creation of the Woman in Paradise ; likewise Sin , &c. And therefore the blessing of Generation was not described in Gen. 1. v. 28. For truly , not as though the blessing of Generation had been given in the Beginning of Creation , before the Woman was created ; the which was neither given in Paradise , after the Woman was framed ; but after Sin , and after their Banishment out of Paradise , into the Earth : For it is said , That they should fill the Earth with Off-springs , but not Paradise : And a full Dominion was given them over the Bruits of the Earth ; wherein is manifested the goodness of the Creator , that he blessed a guilty Creature ( nor as yet repenting ) in off-springs , being also Corrupt , and Impure . Indeed he foreknowing the Restauration for which his Son had appointed himself a Surety before the Justice of the Father : For otherwise , on the same day wherein they had tasted of the Apple , they had actually , and of necessity died , unless the Father had accepted of the Death of his Son , for the Remission of Sin. Thirdly , it might be objected ; God made nothing in vain ; but he framed the sexual Instruments of Generation from the Beginning , the which , while they did denote a necessity of appointment , God also from the Beginning sufficiently exposed his own intention , and modern manner of Generating in their Bodies . I answer , By granting that the Creator conferred on them Members , and a Freedom of Will ; otherwise , if they had wanted Instruments , a liberty of Sinning through the Concupiscence of the Flesh had been in vain conferred on them : As therefore the Intention of God for a future Regeneration , is not rightly turned unto a freedom of will of sinning ; So much less rightly , is the same Intention inserted by reason of the framing of Instruments : For this Argument is like as if it should be said ; God made Remedies against Diseases , and Death ; therefore God made also Death , and Diseases . The Consequence is false ; Therefore also the Antecedent . For the Almighty fore-saw from Eternity , the Fall of Adam : Neither therefore being content with Paradise alone ; he moreover , created the Earth , and from the Earth , Medicine against Death , and Diseases : So also , he made Genitals in our first Parents . It was sufficient for Adam , that he never felt any Spur in himself , either from his Members , or from the beheld nakedness of the Woman ; as neither the Woman likewise from the Society of the Man , which unsensibleness was called , The State of Innocency : Otherwise it might likewise be concluded ; God created Man , that he might live happy in Paradise : Therefore he in vain created the Earth before the Fall , or Corruption of Nature ; especially because Sin was from a free Contingency : For both of the aforesaid Arguments is from a non-premeditated end of Contingences or Things which happened ; and therefore it contains an Implicite Blasphemy : For God had not created the Earth for himself , and the Bruit-beasts ; So also the Instruments of the Sexes do denote indeed a foreknowledge of future things , but not a divine Intention in creating them . Next the Atheists strive , and will have the Text to be Fabulous , and Ridiculous , that the Effect , or Disobedience of the eaten Apple should go over all Posterity : The which Argument we have already sufficiently opposed . And likewise they Argue ; If Shame be from Original Sin , truly as Sin doth equally touch all : So also Shame should touch Children , those of full growth , the Blacks , Americans , Aegyptians , Aethiopians , &c. And neither indeed hath it hitherto shamed the Abyssine or Aethiopian Priests who are Christians : Therefore Shame is not from the Apple being eaten , not from the Sin of Disobedience , as neither from an unwonted newness of Generation , or Concupiscence of the Flesh . But Sophisters know not that Shame was forgotten in Barbarians by Degrees , and that the loss of Bashfulness grew up through a scurrilous accustomedness , and a foregoing Penury of Rayment : Which Shame that the People of Israel therefore might not loose ( they being for a great part of them Wicked ) God suffered not their Garments to be worn out for 40 years in the Wilderness . By that Miracle I say , God continually diverts the loss of Bashfulness , and by that Signe sheweth , that nothing could be alike hateful unto him , as is the loss of Shame . From whence it becomes conspicuous , That the Shame attained by the eating of the Apple , was not troublsome unto , nor forbidden by God ; but that under the Etymology of Shame , the chast Speech of the holy Scriptures , whereby it covered the forbidden Concupiscence of the Flesh , lay hid . In the next place , as many as do lay Barbarisme aside , do also likewise re-take their Shame that was at first lost . Yea neither is it a wonder , that People have lost their Shame through the perswasions of that Mocker , which teacheth Shame to be in the knowledge of evil . At length the Athiests do oppose , that it is a ridioulous fable , if it believed , that the Serpent spake with a Humane Voyce , and as perswading Adam , who had given unto Bruits their proper Names , and therefore neither could he be ignorant that Speech was wanting to the Serpent : for he ought to have been amazed , but not to believe such a perswader . But the miserable men are deceived . The Serpent dissembled the countenance of a Man , unto which wonder , if Adam had not yet given the name of a Monster , it is no wonder : And if he ought to give that Name from the Essence , as to other Bruite Beasts , he had called that Serpent a Scholastical and speaking rational Animal : The not unlike to which appeared to B. Anthony in the Wilderness . For first , there came to meet him a fourfooted Monster , the which , when it had begun to speak , it spake imperfectly , and avoided or ran away : And afterwards , another , which in the Form of a Satyr , did perfectly speak the Dialect of the Country : For neither must we judge , that Monster to have been the Devil ( because he is he , who never requires Prayers to be made unto God for him ) and therefore , by the Church , it is called an Animal or sensitive living Creature , from the same Authority whereby Paul the first of Hermites was Reckoned among the number of Saints : but it is not called , a Devil or Spirit ; and it is Decyphered by B. Jeroms by its tokens borrowed from B. Anthony : Therefore Adam might speak to the Serpent , no otherwise than as Anthony to the Satyr . The present Text therefore of Genesis , hath hitherto had no Arch-heretick since Origen , and Athiests , because it shews a true and literal History . Last of all , I will add some things , as it were by way of impertinency . For indeed , I have said that Fishes do Generate indeed , but not by way of Sexual Copulation , although they have Genital Instruments . First of all , I think that there is an Univocal or single Generation of Fishes bringing forth Eggs : Therefore , I shall say enough by the example of one Fish . For neither were it meet for me narrowly to search into Fishes which are under the Waters , by their species or particular kinds . There is a certain Fish in stony Waters , a devourer of Flesh , and easily the most swift of Fishes , called by our Country-men , a Trout ; For nigh a little River or Brook , where Tyber Perpendicularly falls from a high Rock , he is seen to ascend the whole height of the Rock in a straight line , five hundred foot at least : therefore he swimmeth threefold swifter against the Gulf , than the steep Water doth fall downwards . First of all , here the Opinion of the Schools is false , to wit , That the Water doth alwayes fall down in a Circular Figure : For there is seen a certain small drop of Water with a Spire or Point behind , and the Spire is the more sharp backwards , by how much the higher it falls : And that thing , the resistance of the Air convinceth of : For although they will have the Water to Imitate a Circle , because the Sphere is the most Capacious of Figures : for the same Reason of its greatness it most difficulty cleaveth the Air , the which therefore hinders the speed of its fall . Furthermore , the Female Trout , her Eggs growing big within her , feels the Membrane of her Secundine to be broken , and to cleave asunder by Degrees , wherein the Eggs are entertained as in a purse , and presently she voids her Eggs , and layes them up in the Sandy bottom ; yea the very Imagination of the Trout , destroyes her Eggs : For if the Water hath onely a Stony bottom ( as I have perceived in our Springs or Wells that are Cemented with Chalk ) the Eggs do not fructifie ; but if the bottom be strewed with Sand , the Eggs do bring forth : But the Male Trout besprinckles the Eggs ( being brought forth , with his Seed , and that Seed layes upon the Eggs without , like a Spiders Web : And at length , the Eggs being thus fenced , they passe over into little Fishes . In this Species therefore , there is not a Carnal Copulation , and the Copulation should be void , the which within indeed , should not touch at so much as the thousandth part of the Eggs. In the next place , neither is there an annexed Seed seen laying on the Eggs ; and therefore neither is the Seed of the Male of the Constitutive part of Fishes ; Although Eggs that are destitute of the covering of Seed , do never become Vital . For it is seen , that Fishes have in this thing almost kept the shadowy Image designed for Humane Generation , before the fall . But as there is an innumerable Fertility of Fishes bringing forth Eggs , so also a possession of long Life ; although the long Life be so easily attained , yet it doth most toughly adhere : And moreover , many seem to grow for their whole Life time : For by how much the farther , they depart from the Copulation of the Flesh , by so much the more fruitful they are , and of a longer Life . So in the Lake of Lemane , a Trout doth oft-times ascend unto an hundred pound . A Pike also , by a sign hung on him , is noted to have lived unto three hundred years , and to have grown unto an amazing bigness , and then neither as yet to have dyed , but by a violent Death . An Eele in the Rivers of Lire nigh the Village Rumst , being sent to Bruxells unto the Emperour Charls the fifth , is observed to have been 17 foot in length . Worms ( in the Silk-worm by a Famous Example ) after a Death or sleep of two Months , do Degenerate into Butter-flies . They Figure out a shadow of the Resurrection ( for because they never go together or Copulate before , they rise again changed ) neither hath the Female conceived besides an inspired Chaos , while as the Male being plainly without blood , and the whole Female is melted into her own Eggs. That Worm by its own will as by its own Funerall , co-weavingly encloseth it self in the Bombast , it represents the Image of the Death , and Resurrection of the Faithful , while as being a winged Bird , it flies out from thence , being before not instructed to flie , neither doth it afterwards stand in need of food ; For we are taught by the abject Creeping things , of how much esteem it is with God to have abstained from Copulation throughout our whole Youth and Man-hood . Moreover also , if thou shalt look more fully into the matter , that very wrapping being the Masculine Seed , doth adhere to the yolk without ( almost after the manner of Fishes ) notwithstanding , a Chick is Materially formed out of the yolke alone , however the Aristotelicks may grin to the contrary ; and that thing after 12. dayes from thence , it hath listed me to behold and prove against Idiots , by breaking the Egg daily . Truly the Curde of a Cock , adhering to the yolke , doth by Degrees melt , and is thorowly mixed with the putrifying white , the Chick in the mean time , forming it self of the yolke . For from thence I have learned , that the Curdy Seed of the Cock , doth breath indeed a Spirit , the stirrer up , but not the former or framer of Life ; And that thing a Coney with the Tail of a Dormouse , hath more plainly confirmed unto us . At least-wise , there is a fruitful multitude of Fishes , and a prosperous Benediction thereof , and a less necessity of things requisite for bringing forth , a long continuance of Life , and a constant and easie Endurance of Cold and Hunger : Nimbleness also and swiftness of Motion , lastly , they bring forth without Pain ; which thing , Beasts that do admit of a Copulation of the Male , do not likewise do ; and so they unfold something concerning the first Intent of God , in Man. At length in the last place , the Sophistical Atheists do oppose themselves by the Text of Genesis , That God overthrew the World by a Deluge : Because the Sons of God had chosen and taken Wives of the Daughters of Men , which were fair ; and because these had generated Gyants , being strong and famous Men in their Age : And that thing is there reckoned for much Wickedness ; the which notwithstanding , literally is seen to be none , in the Words of the Text , after that Matrimony was now established , and lawful : Yea , especially because Concubine-ship was a good while after dissembled in the Law , the which by reason of that Impurity especially , they named the Mosaical Law , but not the Law of God : For truly , the Text doth not mention the Sin of David , but in the Death of Uriah , the Adultery of Bathsheba , and the proud numbring of the People . Wherefore they are wont to refer this Text of Genesis , unto the religious Sons of God , and the free Daughters of Men. But it hath seemed a vain thing to me , to have fled unto a single Life , and monastick Vows , and Evangelical Counsels , while as a plurality of men was required from the Command , Increase ye , and be ye Multiplyed , and Replenish the Earth ; which Words indeed did excuse Concubine-ship . Then in the next place , seeing Virgins are far more prone unto a single Life , Bashfulness , likewise unto Chastity and Monastick Vows , than Men ; The Floud had rather happened from the Sex being inverted or turned on the opposite Part ; and it hath been Written , because the Daughters of God had taken the Sons of Men for their Husbands . And moreover , neither can there be any thought or project of keeping Chastity probably taught , which had then separated the Sons of God from Virgins , nor any Apostasie in those Ages , which had provoked the Indignation of God unto Floud . Yet if that be so ( the which I can in no wise through a Dream , perswade my self of ) at least-wise it is from thence proved in behalf of my Position , that Chastity alone doth distinguish the Sons of God from the Daughters of Men ; and that therefore , the deflowring of Virginity , hath procreated Original Sin. But seeing that before the Floud , there was no promise of a single Life or Chastity , and that a Monastick or Monkish Life came not as yet into their Mind so long as Multiplying stood in a Command and Blessing ; I have conjectured ( under a humble censure of the Church ) that the Sons of God were the Posterity , and begotten of a Man and a Woman , having the true Image of God ; but that the Daughters of Men , were Daughters procreated by the Sons of Adam , and Nymphs , the Satanical-birth whereof , God alwayes very much abhorred : But there was an incredible Multitude of these in the Desart , one whereof was sent unto B. Anthony . Also in the Dayes of Constantine , a live Satyr was carried about to be shewn , and afterwards was shewn being seasoned with Salt. So once , there were also diverse Monsters drawn out from the Ocean , which spake , were instructed in divers Arts , and therefore rational ; they also lived among our Country-men . Indeed rational living Creatures were conceived as well in the Waters , as in Wildernesses , from a detestable Copulation . Seeing therefore , the first Monsters had begotten Off-springs by the Sons of Adam of the Female Sex , they distinguished the Sons of Adam by the name of the Sons of God ; and these kind of Monsters , they name the Daughters of men : And these Nymphs , Heathenism , thence-forward after the Floud , named Dryades , Nereides , Naides , &c. The which seeing they were fair to look upon , and men had taken them to be their Wives ; God from so great a Filthiness , and destruction of the humane kind ( which the Text cals much Wickednesse in every Season or Age ) abhorring them , determined to wash away the World with a Deluge . From that Copulation of Monsters and Nymphs , they generated strong Gyants , and those famous men of their Age ; and the which therefore , Heathenism long worshipped as Gods and Heroes : For otherwise there seem to be frivolous reasons of the Floud , according to the Letter : To wit , because men were married with women , and these had generated Gyants that were strong and famous men of their Age. Therefore the Text ought to contain the Indignation of God , and a suitable Cause of the Floud . The monstrousness is not only in the Figure and Forming of their Body , even as in the beginning of Degenerations ; but their Deformity being by degrees withdrawn and diminished , the monstrousness stood in the sensitive Soul ; the which an immortal Mind did not accompany , however outwardly they were Animals using Reason . At least-wise , it is manifest from the aforesaid Text , that the true Posterity of Adam were not Gyants , but of the Stature of Christ the Lord , and framed by the same Statuary . But the Copulation of diverse Species , hath alwayes been execrable in the sight of the Lord , least Man should follow it by imitation . The Law therefore forbad , that many Seeds should not be sown in the same Field , nor that Webs of Linnen and Wollen should be combined : To wit , it being mindful of that most Ample and much Wickedness , for which God ought to destroy the World. But the co-mixture of those Men before the Floud , with Nymphs , was so usual and ordinary , and likewise the copulation of Faunes with Maids , that a few only being excepted , and saved into the Ark , the whole Stock of Adam was defiled , and therefore passed by in silent : Therefore God decreed to destroy every living Creature , that he might likewise extinguish the guilty rational Monster : For besides a few which the Ark shut up , there was not he who had not contracted a consanguinity with that devilish Progeny . For the B. Prophetess Hildegard , writeth ( for she is the Prophetess of this Book , which was canonized in the Synod of Trevirum or Triers ) unto the Clergy of Triers : For very many People arose from the Sons of Adam , who had a forgetfulnesse of God , so that they would not know themselves to be Men : From whence they by shamefully Sinning , lived according to the manners of Beasts , except the Sons of God , who separated themselves from those same Men , and their Loves , of whom Noah was born . These things she , who acknowledgeth the Sons of God in both Sexes , and clearly approveth of my Interpretation of this Text. For Satan had tried by this Mean , to overthrow Mankinde , and to hinder the immortal Soul , that there might not be He , from whence the Son of God should be born : Therefore there was need of the Floud , not only for the Correction of Sins ; but for the Salvation of the whole humane kind : For otherwise Cham had not been saved by the Ark ; for he was now wholly perverse from Atheism : Wherefore I interpret the Text ( yet under the humble Censure of the Church ) to wit , that the Sons of God ( who did bear the Image of God in their immortal Soul , and in their Body ) Took the Daughters of Men ( which only shewed forth a humane Image in the rationality of their sensitive Soul , and beautiful Fairness ) for their Wives , because they were Fair ; And from them they generated Gyants , strong and famous Men of their Age : For there was much Wickedness in every season , or at all times , so as that it repented God , that he had created Man ; according to that saying , All Flesh had corrupted its way ; that is , every Man had not only left the ways of the Lord ; but he had also corrupted the way which he had chosen to himself : For God had purposed to generate man by the overshadowing of the holy Spirit , which was his immediate Image , and to conjoyn himself intimately unto him : But Man perverted the Intent of God : Wherefore afterwards , God who is totally Good , permitted Wedlock . And then again , Man bespotted the Generation of Adam , and had almost proceeded unto the Destruction of the Species , unless the Miracle of the Floud had come . And at length , the Devil had again prevented the Intent of God by Paganism , unless in the fulness of times , the compassion of God had withstood him , he sending his Son from his own Heart or Bosom : To whom be all Sanctification . However God be no accepter of Persons ; therefore neither of Sexes : Yet it hath well pleased him to stuff the female Sex with a straight measure of tribulations , by reason of his unsearcheable Judgments : For the Hairs of our Head are numbred ; and a Leaf falls not from the Tree , but by Permission : And much less is a poor Woman or Maid born , whom the Finger of God hath not formed . Therefore I have many times enquired throughout the Parishes , after the knowledge of this Paradox ; and I have every where found in the Books of those that are yeerly Baptized , twice more Daughters at least , to be Born and Baptized , than Males . Also that twice more Males at least , are extinguished by Diseases , Travels , War , Duel , Shipwracks , &c. than Females : From whence it follows , that God doth every year create more Daughters , and that more do come to ripe Years ; And from hence , lastly it is manifest , that so compleat a number of Maids is not appointed by God , but for the choiceness of Virgins ; Seeing that he which hath forbidden Luxury , and Adultery , doth nevertheless create , and conserve a more plentiful Catalogue of Females , and a sparing Catalogue of Males ; and he therein denoteth , that the Constancy of a single Life in the Woman , is acceptable unto him : To wit , as she comes so much the nearer unto the Purity and Innocency of the first Intention in Creation . For a conclusion of this Treatise , I will adjoyn what S. Hildegard writeth unto the Grisean Monks , Page 186. Virginity signifieth the Sun , which enlightneth the whole World ; because God hath adjoyned Virginity unto himself , the which , Man being left , begat that Virginity , which a Ray or Beam of the Divinity plentifully poured forth ; and the which Ray doth govern all things : For the King which ruleth all things , is God , and Virginity was conjoyned unto him , when God and Man was born of a Virgin. Thus the Queen stood at his right hand in Rayment guilt with Gold , with an encompassed Variety ; because Virginity resisting the Devil , stood to the Virtue of the Divinity in its resplendent Work , being on every side encompassed with the Multitude of diverse Virtues : For the Divinity hath espowsed Virginity unto it self , when as the Angel at first fell on the left Hand ; and now also hath he elected a People of Salvation for himself , being in Adam ; which People , he hath named his right Hand ; concerning which People , he hath adjoyned Vriginity unto himself , which hath brought forth the greatest Work : Because as God created all things by his Word ; So also Virginity through the heat of the holy Divinity , begat the Son of God : Thus Virginity is not without Fruitfulness : Because a Virgin begat God and Man , by whom all things were made . But also by this means , all the Virtues of the Old and New Testament which God hath wrought in his Saints , are beguilded , being as it were a Garment beautified with Gold : And the Virgin shall freely collect these Virtues unto her self ; Because the Ligament of a man shall not constrain or knit her up . The Wheele also which Ezekiel saw , hath fore-signified Virginity ; because the same Virginity was pre-figured in the Law before the Incarnation of the Son of God : But after his Incarnation , she wonderfully worketh very many Miracles ; because God by her Purged all Offences , and rightly ordained every Institution . For Virginity supports old Things , and sustaineth new things , and is the very Root , and Foundation of all good things ; because alwayes and ever , it was with him who is without Beginning and without End : For the Nature of Man , which was destroyed by Sins , hath by Virginity revived in Salvation ; seeing that by another Nature she hath withdrawn Sins from Men. These things the Prophetess ; wherein indeed are confirmed , those things which I have hitherto spoken concerning the entrance of Death into humane Nature . CHAP. XCIV . A Supply , concerning the Fountains of the Spaw . The first Paradox . 1. Which are to be called Fountains . 2. Diverse Opinions about the exposition hereof . 3. The diversity of Soils in the Earth . 4. Incorporeal Seeds are Reasons entertained in the Elements . 5. The Root of Rocks is the Inn of Mettals . 6. The last Ground or Soyle , is the springing Womb of true Fountains . 7. The Virgin-Earth . 8. In the last Soyle the Waters do live . 9. When Waters do as it were undergo Death . 10. After what manner the last Soyle is in the highest Mountains . 11. A vital reason of Fountains from the similitude of the Microcosme . 12. What the Sea in Genesis is . 13. The External Sea is the Fruit of a greater Sea. 14. The boyling Sand is a thousand times bigger than the Sea it self . 15. A Paradoxal Explication of a Text of the holy Scripture . 16. The last Soyle is the internal Sea. 17. A Paradoxal Explication of a Text of Ecclesiastes . 18. A Regression of the Waters from the Internal Sea unto the External , and from this to that . 19. In this Regression , the benefits of Waters and Minerals are granted unto us . 20. Night , Darkness , Oromasis , Iliadus , are one and the same . 21. A Life of its own is attributed to the Internal Sea , from a Similitude or like Thing . VVE must needs before all , sharply touch at the Original of Fountains in general . Indeed I do not with the Vulgar , name any kinde of issuings forth of Waters , even those that are continual and unwearied Ones , Fountains : For although the decaying Snow , and repeated Rain , shall afford a dayly and continual issuing Defluxion of Waters through the blind Passages of Rocks , and intervening Places of great Stones , or steep Windings ; I do not therefore name them Fountains : For truly that heap of Waters is too casual , and accidentary , and so a dead one . Therefore whereby it may be manifest , that there is a certain vital Principle , and spring in Fountains : In the first place , the Testimony of Jesus Syrach , being hitherto an obscure one , yet a most true one , comes to be considered : Whereby he would have all Rivers ( by consequence also Fountains ) to proceed and issue from the Sea , and at last to finish their Courses into the Sea. Truly Syrach hath hitherto left a disquieted or dubious Posterity of Phylosophers ; to wit , in what manner the Waters do contend upwards from the Sea : Seeing that the Earth every where constituting a Lip of the Sea , hath retained the Victory ; because it hath restrained it by a Superiority of Scituation : But it is not yet therefore sufficiently manifest , how the Sea ( seeing there is an off-scouring of heaped-up waters into the lowest Valley of the Earth ) should besides , be able to ascend to the highest Rocks , and there to stir up Fountains . Certainly the Rules of the Art of drawing Water are here silent , if the Sctipture be to be observed , as it ought to be done : Therefore some neglect this place as un-touched ; but others undertake to explain it with a Moderation . To wit , that Rivers being indeed allured out of the Sea , in manner of a Vapour , should at length , by Rains , Snows , and Showrs , an interjected tragedy of a masked transmutation , require or return to the Sea : But this is to contend , that all Fountains have arose from Rain , or at least-wise from condensed or co-thickned air . And then they unjustly command , that not any Vapour is fetched from the Earth , but from the Sea alone , or the holy Scripture shall in vain affirm , that Rivers are begged only from the Sea ; and not likewise from the Face of the Earth , not to be separated in manner of a Vapour : Which Straits , when as they seemed to many to be irreconcileable , or not to be shaken off , they by chance drave and dashed a certain Author , of the Fountains of the Spaw , against the Rock : For although I shall dissemble any thing that is of Mans weakness in the same , yet Christian Piety in an honest man , doth not suffer publique Blasphemy to pass over un admonished of : The which Author therefore , I beseech to indulge my Liberty . Aristotle ( he saith ) would have all Fountains and Rivers to be bred of Air resolved into Water : He had not read , I believe , although he were Plato's Schollar , that those four River of Paradise , ( in Phaedo ) issued forth from the Command of God. Why I pray thee , if thou sayest , that great Rivers are even at this day also bred only by a constriction of the Air , have they not also ( Phaedo being read ) and Nature moreover , being a Virgin , issued from the same Constriction , forthwith after the Creation ? And he who believed the World to be from Eternity , to have left Phaedo neglected , nor to have expected any condensing of Air ; unless perhaps he doated before Goropius Becanus ; That those four Rivers were nothing else , but the Ocean sending forth Rivers into the four Coasts of the World : in which Sense also , the Syrachian Preacher saith , That all Waters do come from the Sea , and again , that having passed their Course , they render themselves unto the Sea : which Words do thus sound in the Schooles . Goropius doated , and Plato before him , if he said that the Ocean did disperse four Rivers into the Coasts of the World , without any co-thickning of Air ; in which same sense notwithstanding , the Preacher hath affirmed it : Therefore in the same sense Ecclesiastes or the Preacher , doated . But is not yet enough said , is not , I say , the Interpretation of the holy Scriptures as yet plain enough ? Therefore we must of necessity , first of all , set before our Eyes , the Diversity and Pavements of Soyles in the Earth : For elsewhere a Black-earth , abounding with Muds and Filths , a Clayie , White-clayie , Fat , Barren , Fenny , Metally , Sandy , Stony-Earth , and adorned with a various Comeliness , is presented to our Sight , according to the tempera ture of the Soyle and Heaven , the Influences of the Stars , and Suiting of Showrs , because indeed they are Fruits , but not an Elemenr . The which first Soyle of Nature , if thou shalt Pounce , thou shalt in most places discover great or rockie Stones , again , Mettals , or Mineral Iuices ; but in some places , a Sand , and that here yellow , elsewhere ashie , there skie-coulered , next a little greenish , according to the changeable and many-form dis-junction of the lurking Spirit ( for Nature is subject to the Soyle ) and the appointment of the subterraneous Archeus received from the creating Word . Indeed in the Cup and most rich Storehouse of the Elements , do lay hid Reasons or Respects , being entertained from the Beginning , durable for Ages , they being the knowledge of things that are afterwards to be in their time , they being instructed for the uses of ungrateful Man , and patiently expecting from the Creation of the World , the compleat Digestions of things , and the fulness or maturity of Times or Seasons ; and the which , an Architectonical or Master-working Chaos , being the impetuous or forcible Chaos , the Spirit I say , limited to our necessities , and filled with the Idea's of things which are to be in process of time , doth asist . Furthermore , of Soyls there is not every where a like depth : For in some places , much depth of Sand , but elsewhere , very much of Earth doth occur : But straightway under the Soyle or bottom of the Sand , there is another for the mostpart , rockie or stonie : For that is by our Country-men called [ Keybergh ] whereon a race of Rocks being supported , here the more wealthy ranks of Mettals , and in the next place , of Minerals , have their Inns : And at length under a long and much unlikeness of Sand , under the Rudiments of Rocks , that Sand , that Sand I say , being most bright , offers it self , being void of a metallick Quality , and a strange Defilement ; which Sand I say , is the last Soyle , and unpenetrable , yet oft-times plain to be seen in the superficies of the Earth : For therefore Nature indulging her own liberty , laughs at our Laws , and despiseth the Bolts of Predicaments , by an univocal or single Soyle . That last Ground or Soyle of Nature , our Country-men name the [ Quellem ] but the French [ Sable Bovillant ] the which a Spade or Mattock hath not hitherto passed thorow : Because how much Sand soever , and how much Water thou shalt empty out from thence , yet presently others do fly unto it with an uncessant and swift course , for the supplying of the former Defect : From thence therefore I conclude , That the aforesaid Soyle , as it is the last in order of Nature , doth so continue even unto the Center , unless perhaps the neathermost doth hold or possess some miles of the heart of the earth . It followes from thence , that that Sand is the matter of the earth , not subject unto successive change ; but is a perpetual and constant Sieve , whereby Nature doth strain thorow her uncessant Treasures of Waters , and most clear Fountains , for the communion of the Universe . In this Soyle I say , there is a vital Vigour of the boyling-up Water : For as long as the Waters are conversant in the same Ground or Soyle , they are lively , being not subject unto the respects of the Superiority or Inferiority of Places , nor in the next place , obeying the Laws of drawing Water : For because they are lively , they keep their vital Property no less than the Center it self , unhurt . Yet assoon as they run down from thence , they presently die , no otherwise than as out-hunted Blood , or a Hand that is cut off : for then they are at first constrained to obey the Laws of the more weighty Bodies , the importunate Positions of Places and Scituations : To wit , that they may not cease , thenceforth to rush through steep Places , into the Sea , requiring as it were the Inn of their Antient rest . In the fourth place it is to be noted : That even as this Soyle being exposed in the Air , in the superficies of the Earth , doth express its natural Properties , no less than that which lays hid some hundred of Ells from thence , beneath the Horizon of the Earth ; So also thou shalt remember , that the same Sand doth ascend unto the greatest heigth of Mountains , and now and then unto their very top through the Seams and broad intervening Passages of rockie Stones , and from thence do thrust forth daylie Fountains , not any thing diminished by summer Heats . For in Man , as long as the Blood doth flloat in the Veins , there is a like respect of Scituations , as well in the Forehead , as in the Feet , and it is ignorant as well of [ Above ] as [ Beneath : ] But beeing chased out of the Veins , it puts on the Condition of weighty Bodies : So also in the Macrocosm or great World , as long as the Water doth enjoy a common Life in the former Inn , it hastens upwards and downwards without labour , because it knows it not : But being once shaken from its vital Inn , it ceaseth not to hasten , until in its Iliad or Night , it recovereth its blessed Retirances or Receptacles of rest : Therefore the Spirit nourisheth the Waters within , also the swelling of the vast Sea , as the mind being diffused through the Joynts , doth stir the whole Lump . But from hence the Sea hath not yet sufficiently been made known , which watereth the Fountains , and vomiteth out Rivers , and whither the Scriptures saith , the same do at length unweariedly hasten . For that which the Scripture calleth the Sea , is a Collection of all Waters , into their Antient and continual Cup-board : Of which Collection this beholdable and external navigable Sea , is nothing but the Fruit disposed into its Sconce . Wherefore the Receptacle , congregating Root , and Collection altogether of all Waters , containeth that boyling Sand , which verily being a thousand times more wealthy , and bigger , doth also therefore contain as much more Water by a thousand times , as the Ocean : Because it is that which fills up almost the whole Diameter of the Earth ; for whose outmost Lip only , the External Sea doth fill up the depth of one or two Leagues at most . For the Arch-type or first Framer , separated the Waters from the Waters : Not indeed the Sea from the Rivers ( or the Sea should not be the Collection of all Waters ) or both these from the Clouds ; but the true and Internal Sea , from this External Navigable Sea , he disjoyned on the first dayes . This Internal , I say Invisible ( hitherto an Abyss ) and great Sea , are those waters , whereby the Prophet Sang , the The Foundations of the World were supported ; and the which , although they have hitherto stood neglected , are called in Genesis , The Sea , by the Creator of Things . From thence indeed also Ecclesiastes , hath likewise fetched Fountains and Rivers , which were to return thither . They run down therefore , out of this Soyle , and for fear of a Vacuum , the External Sea doth again pierce the same Sand , as it were by straining , and presently almost in its first Paces , sequesters or layes aside its Saltness . But because Fountains and Rivers have by a leasurely Decursion or Race , dispensed the seeds and matter of all Minerals ( which before they kept in their Bosom , and the commerces whereof , the Life of Man can scarce want ; ) therefore they swiftly hasten unto the External Sea , whereby they may again require fruitful Entertainments at the internal Sea , the Night of Orpheus , the Darkness of Pluto , according to Hippocrates , the Oromasis of the Persians , the Iliad of Paracelsus ( where Reasons , and Gifts , the Seeds of Minerals I say , being not as yet joyned unto Bodies , do lay ) for the Water which is again to be gotten with Child by the Seeds . Therefore there is not an idle sliding down of Waters into the Ocean : For they are governed by Intelligence , and as if they were strong in understanding , cease not to utter their Offices , the Testimonies of an infinite goodness and providence . Surely as many as shall behold the Cabalastical Science , shall admire at this in the fore-front ; yet most true : Because those that are ignorant of most things , must needs admire at most things . But the Ocean doth dayly hand forth some convenient thing to our sight , by a double ebbing and flowing : To wit , the Navil or Boss of the Water ascending contrary to the Art of drawing Water , and the Waves swelling according to the Conjunction of the Moon : For the Sea liveth almost by a certain right of its own ; to wit , the Wind being silent , it stirring up voluntary Ragings , curiously observing a proportionable Scituation of the Moon , and being swollen with Waves , it going to meet the same , lastly with a various successive change of Seasons , Light , and Motions , and a continued heap of Waters , lifting up its overflowings on high , sometimes here , sometimes elsewhere , at set Intervals . Therefore whosoever thou art , although thou seest dayly Wonders of Nature in the Ocean , the vital and fountainous Disturbances of the more inward , true , and lively Sea , and of the far more straight or narrow Abysse , which are dedicated unto humane uses ; cease thou to wonder . CHAP. XCV . Another Paradox . 1. No Fountaines are from Air thickened . 2. Elements are not changed , or perish . 3. Whatsoever is generated , is generated by a Seed , and whatsoever is made in Nature , is made from the necessity of a Seed . 4. There are onely two primitive Elements , and two secondary ones . 5. A Paradoxal Explication . 6. A proof by handicraft operation . 7. The Heaven and the Earth shall perish , not the Water and the Air. 8. The Art of Distilling unfolds Natural Phylosophy . 9. What a Vapour is . 10. A proof against Aristotle . 11. A second Mechanical Proof . 12. What , and of what sort the Magnal or Sheath of the Air is . 13. Why small drops do not fall down in a Vapour and Snows , and when they do fall . 14. A proof against Aristotle . 15. A proof . 16 , 17. A handicraft operation . VVE have treated concerning the Spring , concerning the immediate original and nativity of Fountaines , more briefly than a Paradox , and more tediously ( I confess ) than the Doctrine of those of the Spaw , did require ( for it is a most difficult thing to have kept a mean in all things ) to wit , as the Waters do proceed from a most rich Inn of Waters , unto their appointments : Although in the mean time , they do now and then assoon as may be reach the Air , but sometimes they run head-long down by long journeys and Pipes of Earth , and rockie Stones , before they yeild themselves to the Light : yet there was the same reason , necessity , and end of their Institution on both sides ; to wit , the will of him who created all things for our uses . But it remains to crave leave , that Aristotelical spirits may indulge my liberty , if I shall judge it a dream impossible to Nature , that Fountaines should be bred from a co-thickning of Air : For indeed that also is chiefly true , That Air was never , nor is it to be in any Age , Water ; even as , neither was Water to assume the Form of Air. For they are first-born Elements , and the constant Wombs of things , stable from the Creation of the World , and so remaining unto the end thereof : But whatsoever hath through the ranks of Generations , subscribed it self unto successive change , whether it may seem to be Earthly , Stony , or Liquory , it derives all that from the mass of three Principles , dedicated unto the Tragedy of Generation , but not from the first Elements , which rejoyce not but in a stable continuance , and the which do again lay up their deserved Youngs into their antient ●●ceptacles , until the seeds are ripe for the Generation of a new Off-spring ; which Seeds , the same Principles of Bodies being in the mean time thorowly changed by Digestions , do again cloath , and re-assume . For from an invisible and incorporeal seed , entertained in the Wombs of the Elements , and putting on the Principles of Bodies , all Generation in the Universe , which is called voluntary , is made . Others have called that thing a Flux , from a Non-being , unto a Being ; which things that they may become more perspicuous , it is to be noted , that unto the production of every thing , two onely Sexes , if not one promiscuous one at least , have concurred . Therefore also , by the same Law of a worldly harmony , there are Originally two onely Elements in the Universe , to wit , the Air , and the Water ; which are sufficiently insinuated from the sacred Text , by the Spirit swimming upon the Abysse or great Deep of Waters , in the first beginnings of the World. The Earth therefore , and the Fire or Heaven , if they are Elements , they are called secondary ones , proceeding from the former . For whatsoever of Earths , rocky Stones , Gemms , Sands , &c. doth exist , or flowes forth into a stinking Vapour , or is at first changed into Ashes , a Calx or Lime ; or at leastwise , through the Society of some Addittament , into a Salt ( the off-spring of Waters ) presently afterwards they all ( the volatile Summe , exceeding or over comming the fixed Summe ) are made aiery and vapoury Efluxes , rushing-into water with a hastened Violence : And so that , whatsoever is earthy , hard , solid , and compacted , seeing all that is reducible unto a more simple , thin , pure , and former remaining substance ( pardon the Novelty most resplendent Prince ) it must needs be , that it hath no Efficacy of an Element at all ; but that they are more latter things than Air , and Water . In like manner , we say of the Heaven , that the Heavens shall be changed , shall wax Old and Perish ; and so that the Heaven and the Earth shall at length Perish ; the like message of which Destruction thou shalt not find concerning the Air and Water . In the next place , the Water , or Air , could never in any Age be reduced into any other former Body , by Art , or Nature : This therefore is the Face , this the Ordination , this in the next place is the Office , Combination , Fate and End of the Elements ; to wit , that the unchanged Essence of two most simple Bodies , and their unmixed substance , may afford a vital Womb , or Prop , unto Seeds and Fruits , until at length the number of things to be generated , being accomplished , the heap of Principles , together with the Seeds , do constitute strange Families and Colonies , ( their Bride-bed being separated ) in a more blessed Seat : For the very many Dreams wherewith the World hath suffered it self to be hitherto circumvented , the handicraft Operation of the Fire doth deride with loud Laughter : Who indeed will deny but that the Water is easily changed into a Vapour ? But that Vapour or Exhaltation is so far from being Air , that the Powder of Marble or a Flint may sooner be Water , as we have shewn . For a Vapour is in very deed , materially , and formally , nothing else but a heap of the Atoms of Water lifted up on high : The which our School shews forth more clearly than the Light at Noon . The Air therefore , whether it be received in hot , or cold Glasses , and pressed together therein , shall never afford Water , but according to how much of a Vapour , that is , of an extenuated Water , it shall contain within it . But the Water is seperated into very small conspicuous Drops against the Sun , thorow the Glass , at the Beginning of Distillation , as long as the sides are cold ; to wit , while through the vigour of Heat , it flies away extenuated into a Vapour . And that thing indeed happens no otherwise , than by a proper Magnal ( which in things mixt , and so also in the Water it self , is the Skie , thinner than the Air , and dis-joynable from the same , and sustaining its compression , and enlargment , contending for a middle thing or Nature , between a Body and not a Body , receiving the Impressions of the External Stars of its native Soyle , being altogether intimate in all things , by reason of which alone , and not of Air , we draw our Breath ) a proper Magnal I say , and a spiritual Being in the Water , doth indeed lift the Water on high , it being lightned by Heat , procuring a divulsion or renting asunder of the Magnal ; which same rent Magnal , detains a quantity of Water proportioned unto it self , which is rent upwards as well in the Glasses , as in the Clouds , and doth preserve them from falling , until through the compression , perhaps of succeeding Atoms ( as it comes to pass in distillation ) the former do grow together into drops , and do enclose the former Magnal or vital Being within themselves : Or the same Magnal of the Water being rarified through Heat , and being straightway after condensed through help of External Cold , doth constrain and restrain those same its own Atoms of small Drops , within the Limits of its command . I return unto thee Stagyrian Aristotle . If Air be co-thickned into Water , seeing thou teachest Air more to excell in Moisture than Water ; I pray thee why shall Cold which is natural to the Air , change the Nature of the Air into a matter which is too moist of its own Nature ? In the next place , now Cold , and no longer Heat , shall possess the vital Principle of Generation . Wherefore , although a Vapour be Air generated of Water formally transchanged , and of the same again alike water doth grow together ; Now thou differest from thy own self , who admittest of so frequent and easie a return from a privation unto a habit . At length take thou also this handicraft Experiment : Air may be by force pressed together in an Iron-pipe of one Ell long , that it can scarce fill up the space of five fingers ; the which afterwards , in its enlargement , casts out a Bullet like a Hand-gun , it being driven with fire : which thing verily should not happen , if Air being pressed togethre , could through the coldness of the Iron , be made Water . CHAP. XCVI . A Third Paradox . 1. Concerning a Diet. 2. Seeds , from what things they are free . 3. A proof . 4. The best Fountaines , which , where , and of what sort they are . 5. Rivers from sharpish Springs . 6. A happy keeper of Fountaines . 7. Fountaines generating a Stone : From whence are Rocks in Banks . 8. Many Fountaines do make a plurality of Minerals . 9. From an invisible thing , is made a visible thing . 10. A hungry or eating Salt is an Hermophrodite . 11. A twofold Excrement in us . 12. What Tartar is . 13. A manifold hungry Salt. 14. How the best Vitriol is made . 15. Another best Vitriol . 16. Iron is not changed in Fountaines of Brass . 17. A third Vitriol . 18. A fourth Vitriol . 19. There is not a hungry sharpness of Vegetables . 20. The Salt of Sulphur is fixed . 21. That there is a hungry Salt of Fountaines . 22. Why a natural Salt is more noble than an artificial one . The Error of some . 23. The Manna of Alume . 24. From whence the matter of Vitriol is . 25. An error of neglect . Vitriol is in other Mettals . VVE now approaching nearer unto the Fountains of the Spaw , it is convenient first of all to re-assume what hath been spoken ; To wit , That Mettals , small Stones , Rocky-Stones , Sulphurs , Salts , and so the whole rank of Minerals , do find their Seeds in the Matrix or Womb of the Waters , which contain the Reasons , Gifts , Knowledges , Progresses , Appointments , Offices , and Durations of the same : The which , while they have expected the sufficiently digested seasons of their Original or Birth , they break forth under the Day , with the Waters their Wombs , which do lay up by little and little , their Youngs , accustomed to the Air , in the Earth . ; no otherwise than as the Earth doth also expose its own Family of Vegetables into the strange Womb of the Air. Therefore Seeds now issuing out of the dark Womb of the Water ( which the Voice of the Word hath there deposited as durable unto the end ) even as they are the more nigh in their beginning , therefore also the more noble . Indeed , Nature , Essence , Existence , Gift , Knowledge , Duration , Appointment ; were at first connexed in the root of the Seeds , which afterwards , by the unfolding of their Gifts , and necessity of their Functions , being by degrees drawn asunder into a plurality , do become subject unto disorder . From whence it is , that an Oracle containeth it self in the admirable testimony of Hippocrates : Numbers being increased , to wit , that ( in generating ) Proportions are diminished , and likewise that Proportions in decrease , being increased , Numbers are diminished . From whence it is undoubtedly manifest , that by how much a Body shall be nearer unto its first and seminal Beings , whether in Nature , or by Art , by so much it is more Powerfull , Noble , and Famous . Wherefore , Seeds entring into the World , are at the first free from the Dimensions of Colours , Savours , yea and from the dimensions of Quantities : For Example sake , The same Humane seed doth sometimes beget a simple , sometimes a manifold Young , received onely through a simplicity , numerousness of places ; and so it is not as yet , in its first Moments , subject unto the command of Numbers and Quantities . From hence indeed it comes to pass , that in the highest Rocks , far from dregs , and among rockie-stones and sand , sharp Fountaines do arise , which are more excellent than all others ; but being so called , not because they bear a tartness before them ( for they are without savour ) but because they are healers like unto sharp things , therefore they are more noble than sharpish things , by how much they are more grateful , and potent , containing the seed of an eating or hungry Salt , which is as yet free from the unfolding of Savours : For those Fountaines have joyned in a friendly league with our Nature , because they are drawn in with the sweetness of the pallate of the drinkers , and an intimate good will of the Stomack , although in the greatest quantity . But through the refreshment of Nature , they do so most nearly imitate that universal Medicine , Moly Homericum , to wit , by defending of health , and propagating of the vital Powers , that they have seemed to have ascended as it were unto the top of Medicine . Such a Fountain Paracelsus would have to spring up in Veltin a little Village of Helvetia , in his Book of Tartarous Diseases , as he believed that the whole compass of the World did scarce contain such another in a Valley , for in the highest Rocks there are many . For truly Danubius , the Rhene , the River Rhoan , Saw , Po , &c. do obtain such a Fountain in their first Spring . I will add more : What if the President of the Heavenly Host shall be appointed chief keeper of the Den of Garganus , it shall not be from the matter , to believe that there is a certain happy Keeper prefixed unto these kind of Fountains ; no otherwise than as Antiquity placed their Demie-gods , turning or tossing their Pots in the beginning of a River : However it be , those Fountains are nearest unto the Womb of darkness , and are well furnished with the first Beginning of hungry Salts . On the contrary , there are other Fountains , wherewith a stonifying juyce is co-mixed , the which , through the Waters sliding down by degrees , do here and there sow great Stones , and Flints , as well in their bottom , as in the sides of their Paunch , and through the blind conduits of Veins , rocks in their Banks : For the River Mose shall be for an Example ; for this River , doth from his rise , longly and largly , with his brim imbibing a stonifying juyce , strew the little Hills , from hence , even as far as Visetum : Which juice being now wasted , and having finished its appointment , Mose afterwards doth not behold Rocks : For it is not a simple Stone , but here it scatters Coals , there mines of Iron , and as yet nearer , sulphurous Fire-stones , according to the over-flowing of its banks : but elsewhere he shews forth Veins of Lead , either unmixt , or well mixt , with an Hermophroditical birth according to the original of his Fountains : Which dispensation of Mines by a Trival Line , Adeptists do distinguish into their soils of Peroledes or Pavements . Moreover , it is doubted , why Fountains may be called sharp , and from whence that tartness is to be derived : I will briefly shew it : For all the Seeds of Salts , as we have said , are scituated in the Waters ; Yet they have not as yet put on a Savour , but when they have found the convenient Principles of Bodies , and due Wombs of the Earth : For then , and not before , they express a Saltness , and cloath themselves with Salt : For here they break forth into an Alum , there into a Seay Fountainous Salt , but elsewhere into a Nitre , &c. Wherefore it is to be noted , That a certain Hermaphroditical Salt of Mettals doth exist , the which for want of a Name , began in Deed and in Name , to be called , An hungry or sharpish Salt. Indeed it is a general one , and accommodable unto all Mettals , and therefore if it pleaseth thee , not to account it the first , and as it were the remotest matter of the same ; at least-wise , it is the secondary matter of Mettals , and co-natural to all Mettals whatsoever . That Salt therefore being void of a strange co-mixture , is sharp , and acceptable to our Body in a due quantity , because it cleanseth away , and consumeth altogether every Humour which is not Vital , and which is Tartarous : For there is a two-fold Excrement in us ; One there is of ours , which is subject unto putrefaction and stink : But there is another of things , which being a Traitor , perfects its Tragedy by an hostile coagulation ; and by a general Etimology , is called Tartar. A sharpish Salt therefore , is now and then considered like an Embryo , in order to a Mettal : Also often times , as it were a solitary Individual , but not as yet compleated in its Ordination . I will explain the thing by the example of Vitriol or Chalcanthum . For the best for Medicine , is according to an imitation of Nature , artificially made of Copper ; and therefore that is by far the best , which is composed of Copper alone , without earthly filths , and a mixture of forreign things ; the whidh notwithstanding cannot flow together in the Wombs of Nature : But it is made after this manner . First , Sulphur is cast upon the melted Brass , until the flame hath consumed the whole ; but the Brass being straightway poured forth , is infused in Rain-water , from whence it waxeth green : And that thing is so often repeated , until all the brass shall pass , as being pierced , into the Water : At length , the Water being exhaled , thou hast thy Vitriol : For that which before was Copper , now moreover , from Sulphur , hath attained a Salt. Secondly , The most excellent Vitriol , growes naturally in Mines , wherein Nature hath brought forth that hungry Salt , corroding a fertile Vein of Brass , and being dissolved in the liquor of a licking Fountain , which 〈…〉 Cauldrons do boyl into Vitriol . The Cyprian , Hungarian , Romane , is praised 〈…〉 means that which in its examination hath contributed the most of Brass : 〈…〉 juyce of that Vitriol , is thought to change Iron into Brass ; Indeed Metall 〈…〉 ●carce acknowledging the delusion : because it consumes the place of Iron , the 〈…〉 Atomes of Brass should supply it . No● taking notice , that as Brasse , renders dissolved Silver beholdable , and corporeal , which else in Aqua Fortis is invisible : So that it is the property of Iron to manifest the Brass dissolved in the Vitriol , by snatching it unto it self , and also that by the same Act , the Iron it self is dissolved , and doth vanish away in the Fountain : Fountains are my Witnesses . For truly Vitriolated Waters do become far more poor than themselves , in Copper after that they have received the Iron , the benefit of the recovered Brass . Wherefore also ●eed out of the Fountain ( where , and as oft as a continual inundation of new Brass out of he Gulfe , faileth ) after another manner the supposed transmutation of the Iron doth not happen . Thirdly , in the next place , Vitriol is made by Art , of a Brassy-Fire-stone or Marcasite , being begot with childe by Sulphur . Indeed the Sulphur being abstracted from thence , a sharp or acide Salt , doth in a coursary number of daies , by degrees resolve the remaining Brassy-Body being exposed to the Air , in its marrowes or inmost parts , the which , 〈…〉 the same sharpness of resolution , doth dissolve a certain Brassy matter into it self 〈…〉 the which being through the help of Water drawn out from thence , being also presently boyled , is made Vitriol : And so that , whatsoever at the first turn , resisted the gnawing of the hungry Salt , the burning of the Sulphur being repeated , doth wholly at last yeild and becomes into a Vitriol . Lastly , in the Fourth place , the hungry Salt is co-bred , being grown together in the Fire-Stone , the which by a co-burning , and resolving , brings a certain Brassy matter with it from thence , and is made Vitriol . From whence it is manifest : First , That a hungry Salt , although it be sharp , yet doth very much differ from any other sharpness , as much as the Vitriol differs from the Rust or Verdigrease , which is made by the Air of Vinegar , and so also by the Salt of the Vinegar being conceived within . Secondly , That although the Sulphur be wholly fat , and inflamable , yet in the piercing of the Brass , it leaves a certain acide Salt , half fixed , which else flies away in time of burning , and by the Campane , is constrained into a juice . Thirdly , That the sharp hungry Salt of Fountaines born in the Bowels of the Earth , is the Salt of any Sulphur embryonated or not perfected : Yet that it is by so much the more noble than an Artificial Salt fetcht out of Sulphur , by how much it is nearer to its first Being , and unto the Seeds of the Illiad or Womb of Darkness : As is read above . Therefore thou shalt acknowledge , that they do far wander , who esteem of the natural endowments of the Fountains of the Spaw , from the properties of contained Minerals , even as they have now proceeded into their last matter : For truly it is manifest from what hath been said above , that the hungry Salts of Sulphur do most far differ from the property of Sulphur : And moreover , which is more , that the Artificial hungry Salt of Sulphur doth as much differ from that which is natural , as this embryonated Salt is nearer in its Root unto its first Seeds . They erre , I say , in the whole circumference , who compare the hungry Salts of Lead , with Lead , which is hugely distinct there from : For there is a very strange similitude of the perfect Salts , to wit , of Alume , Nitre , Vitriol , and of the same , not perfect . It is manifest by an Example : For the hungry Salt of Alume , which is sweeter than any Sugar ( it is called the Manna of Alume ) knowes no astriction , being like unto its first Being . Fourthly . Seeing therefore the most excellent Vitriol , is materially nothing else but the embryonated hungry Salt of Sulphur , which hath gnawn out a certain part of the Brass , but the Salt of the more base Vitriol , is drawn from a perfect Sulphur ; we being therefore led by the proportion of things , have passed over the same Etymology of Vitriol , unto all the co-like Dissolutions of Mettals , which by others who write of the Fountains of the Spaw , I do not find as yet recorded . For truly Vitriol is dayly made of any Mettal ( except Gold ) as well in the progress of Art , as of Nature : To wit , as a metallick Liquor , a coagulable Vitriol , I say , is effected from a Mettal , and the Wedlock of a 〈…〉 or eating Salt. CHAP. XCVII . A fourth Paradox . 1. Things contained in the Water of the Spaw , according to the Opinion of others . 2. The Falshood of their Positions is proved . 3. Ingredients of the Fountains of the Spaw . What the Vitriol of Mars may be . 4. Coagulation is never made without Dissolution , nor this without that . 5. Bodies do not act into each other . 6. Between an Action , there is the Odour of a dissolving Spirit . 7. The dissolving Spirit is Coagulated . 8. Why a vein of Iron is Invisible in the Waters . 9. Why Waters do smell of Sulphur . 10. Why Sharpnesse perisheth in the Waters , and when . 11. That which is manifest becomes hidden ; and that which is hidden is made manifest . 12. Why not the Iron but the Vein , may be said to be in Being . 13. The Salt of Fountains doth not grow in the vein of Iron . 14. Why one Fountain is stronger than another . 15. The difference of Things contained in Fountains . 16. Why the Fountain Savenirius is not translated elsewhere . 17. Why the Water of Savenirius is the Lighter . 18. The Spirit of Salt doth for some time operate upon a Vein . VVRiters do with one accord , affirm Water to be the continent of the Fountains of the Spaw : But we differ from them only in their Original ; because it is that which brings no small moment unto the Nobility of the same : But in respect of the thing contained in the Waters , they far disagree from us : For indeed they affirm , that Vitriol is in the Water of the Spaw , and that Calchitis or red Vitriol , Mysy , Sory , Melantera or Blacking , Salt , Nitre ( that Nitre I say , hath been found to be in them , by the examination of Distilling , which elsewhere they never saw , because they testifie it is that which since the Age of Hippocrates , had failed from thence ) Bitumen , or a liquid Amber , the pit Coal , Alume , Bole , Oker , Red-lead , the Mother of Iron , the Vein of Iron , Iron , Aerugo or Verdigrease , burnt Chalcanthum , Burnt Alume , also the Flour of Brass and Sulphur , have therein discovered themselves : These things I say , we read to be attributed by Authors , unto the Fountain of the Spaw , under their Mistris Uncertainty ; and so they doubting unto what Captain they may commit so great an Army , do conclude , that there are some Fountains , in which thou mayest most difficulty discern an eminent Subterraneous Matter . Elsewhere in the Fountains of the Spaw , that a Heat of Vitriol is tempered with the Cold of Red-lead and Brass , In another place , that the Fountains of the Spaw are actually cold and moist , but in Power or Virtue ( which one , Physitians do examine ) to be hot and dry ; and therefore especially because they extinguish Thirst . At length , they say that there is the Faculty of Iron , Sulphur , Vitriol , and of other mineral Things in these Fountains , yet an uncertain Proportion of the first Qualities remaining , whether thou dost consider the Variety of subterraneous Things , or the various Disposition of the Drinkers . And I also read that , that is to be noted ; That the Fountain Savonirius , puts on it , rather the Virtues of mineral Things , than their Substance ( that is , Faculties above , without , or not substantial ones : ) For elsewhere they say , that Fountains wax sharp by Vitriol alone , and that Vitriol is of a most sharp Savour ; but in another place , with Diascorides , they find in Vitriol , more of an ungrateful and earthy astriction , than of a sharpness . Lastly , even as nought but the extream torture of the Fires , doth allure forth a most sharpe Oyl out of Vitriol ( to wit , a hungry and sulphurous Salt elevating the brassy Spirits ; ) So from hence they suppose Fountains to wax sharp , and not otherwise ; to wit , that such an Heat in the Earth doth stir up the sharp Spirits of Vitriol , unto the Superficies of the Earth , which being there constrained by Cold , and changed into a sharp Matter , are co-mixed with the neighbouring . Fountain : Which Position , many Anguishes do accompany . First . Because there is no such voluntary Distillation in the Universe . And then , because at least the inward parts of the Earth , according to Hippocrates , are Cold in Summer ; to wit , when the Water of the Spaw is at best . Thirdly , Because the Spirit of Vitriol cannot but gnaw the Earth or Rockie-stones which it toucheth , and therefore put of all sharpness , which is vainly dedicated to Fountains . Fourthly , Because in Summer , the coldness of the Earth is not in its Superficies only , because it is more in condensing the Spirits , than the more inward Parts , from whence they imagine the Spirits to be chased , through the force of heat . Fifthly , Because the Spirits of Vitriol being immingled with the Water , although negligently locked up , do neither lay aside their sharpness , nor are they tinged with a ruddie colour ; the which notwithstanding , is altogether social unto Fountainous Waters . Hitherto the Opinion of others hath led me aside . I will confess my Blindness . I at sometime seriously distilled Savenirius , and Pouhontius ; and indeed , I found not so great a Catalogue of Minerals , yea not any thing in them , besides Fountain-water , and the Vitriol of Iron , by other Writers before me neglected : But the Vitriol of Mars consisteth of the hungry Salt of embryonated Sulphur , and of the Vein of Iron ( not of Iron ) which Vein , the hungry Salt being as yet volatile , hath by licking , corroded . In which Act of corroding , there is made a certain kind of Dissolution of the Vein it self , and a coagulation or fixation of the volatile Salt : The Salt I say , as long as it is volatile , that is , apt by being pressed by the Fire , to fly away , is reckoned among Spirits . But Bodies do not corrode Bodies , as such , ; neither do fixed things act on , or into each other ; but only as one of them is volatile , that is , a Spirit , whether it be grown together , or liquid . In the next place , in all solution ( as may be seen in the activity of Aqua Fortis , distilled Vinegar , &c. ) Some Exhalations are stirred up , being before at quiet , which as they are wild ones , they do not again obey coagulation ; therefore the Waters do of necessity fly away , or being restrained , do burst the Vessels . But besides that also is afterwards to be noted , that how much of the Spirits hath compleated the solution of the Body , so much also it hath assumed a corporality in the solved Body . From hence therefore , a reason plainly appeareth , why the Waters of the Spaw , in so great a clearness or perspicuity , do hide in them the dark Body of the Vein of Iron . Next , why in the activity of an hungry Salt , they do cast a smell of Sulphur , notwithstanding the corporal Sulphur be absent . At length , it is also easie to be seen , why the Waters about the end of their activity ( for that speediness of solution doth continue a longer or shorter time , in diverse Fountains ) do loose their Sharpness , and why the Vein being before transparent , doth then appear ruddy . To wit , the Spirits being now partly chased away , or the same being weakened , and coagulated at the end of Activity , the imbibed Vein settles , and is manifested , which before had remained hidden ; the Waters in the meantime , recovering their natural or proper Simplicity . Furthermore , it is not idly to be denyed , that Iron , or the Fragments of Iron are in the Fountains of the Spaw , but the Vein of Iron to be in them : For truly there doth more Virtue occur in the Vein , than in the Iron , to wit , of those subtile Parts , which the Furnace filched away in time of Fusion : Wherefore the Juice , Spirit , or hungry Salt ( call it as thou listest ) doth not grow within the Vein of the Iron , so that there may be a like co-melting of both in the Waters ; far be it : The Salt hath obtained other Wombs in the Earth , from whence the Water sliding by , melts that Salt , and snatcheth it away with it self , as it were a Cousin-germane , being once the Son of another Water . But if therefore , it be the longer detained in a notable hollowness about the Vein , it suppeth up more of the Vein into it self , as doth Pouhontius , and this the Fountain Geronster doth as yet more amply do : But Tonneletius being richer than the two foregoing Fountains , in a hungry Salt ; yet is poorer than the same in the Vein : For from hence it is Cold , and more troublesome to the Stomack : Therefore which-soever Fountain doth more provoke Stoole , is the more fertile in the Vein . Neither indeed was that thing unknown to the Antients , who used the Scale of Iron for the loosing of the Belly . Virgins also taking Stomoma or the Powder of Steel , are wont also to vomit on the first dayes . Geronster therefore hath received more of the Vein than Tonneletius ; but as much of Salt , but mitigated by reason of the Activity of the Vein received into it ; and therefore that Salt hath become more gross and corpulent : But Savenirius is far more washy in Waters , having the least of the Vein , and hungry Salt ; and therefore it sooner finisheth the Action of the hungry Salt , and Vein , and the Medicinal water sooner dyeth : And for the same Cause , it most easily passeth thorow the Stomack , is sooner concocted , and doth penetrate . The presence therefore of the Spirit acting into the Vein , enlargeth the Pores in the Water , and works up the Water of the Fountain unto a lighter weight . It is further to be noted , that even as in Wines , and unripe Oyl of Olives , there is a fermental boyling up ; So the Action of the hungry Salt it self , is made : And not only upon the Vein , while it gnaws and passeth thorow the same ; but also it operates for some time , upon the same , being snatched away with it : Pouhontius I say , far longer than Savenirius , &c. until that the Activities of the Spirits being worn out of exhausted , as well the Agent , as the Patient , the thing dissolving I say , like as also the thing to be dissolved , do decay or faile in the same endeavour . CHAP. XCVIII . A Fifth Paradox . 1. The virtues of a hungry Salt. 2. The effect of obstruction . 3. How far Fountains may act in a Man. 4. Whom they may not help . 5. An example of an effect by it self , and by accident . 6. A Woman is subject unto double Diseases . 7. The faculties of the Vein of Iron . 8. An objection . 9. A Solution . 10. After what manner Iron opens , and after what manner it doth binde . 11. A proof by an allied Example . 12. Whether they are convenient in the Stone , and how far . 13 That is a Cloakative Cure , which doth onely expell the Stones . 14. The Waters of the Spaw are for a Cause , that the Stone doth the more easily re-increase or grow again . 15. Wherein the true Cure of the Stone is placed . 16. From whence the remedy is to be fetched , and of what sort it is . 17. The first qualities are in Fountains . 18. Water , not Air is Internally moist . 19. The Virtues of Rellolleum and Cherto . 20. An objection . 21. A resolution thereof . WE being now about to Treat , in a brief Method , concerning the Virtues of the Fountains of the Spaw , and being to speak by the Rule of a supply , will resume , that no other Natural Endowments are to be found , than those which are drawn out of a hungry Salt , and the dissolved Vein of Iron . Wherefore , seeing a hungry Salt dissolves Muscilages , cleanseth them away , consumes them , and sends them forth ; therefore first of all , it helps Stomacks that are beset with Muckiness : also by the same endeavour , it dispatcheth the same preter-natural sliminess ( which we have called a Coagulable excrement of things in us ) being crept a little more deeply and inwards , as well into the innermost Chambers of the Veins , as into those of any Bowell , but by so much the slower , by how much farther it hath taken its Journey from the mouth : Hence , it doth not sluggishly succour the obstructions arisen in the Liver , Spleen , and Kidneys , and Fevers , the Dropsie , and Jaundise bred from thence : For the matter obstructing being consumed , the obstruction ceaseth ; which otherwise , seeing it is a hinderance whereby the Spirit of Life may spring the less freely throughout all Places , and perform its offices . Therefore it deprives the parts which are behind it in a future order , of a Vital Communion , and consequently calls for Putrefactions . Therefore the Waters of the Spaw being drunk , are convenient altogether in all Diseases which arise from the Enemy , Tartar being received and Coagulated within besides Nature ; So that a sufficient Root of Life be remaining , that is , if they are drunk seasonably enough . Yet with that adjoyned Limitation , that the Power of the Waters doth not Transcend the Hypochondrials or places about the short Ribs : For the Waters do not reach beyond the Reins , to wit , unto the Heart , Lungs , or Brain . Wherefore also , the Waters of the Spaw do not succour those affects which are Naturally or peculiarly from a property of Passion , unless by accident : The reason is , Because seeing Minerals are altogether unapt for nourishment , they are banished out of the Body with the Urine , the last excrement of Salts , to wit , the Commerce whereof , the lively Arterial blood doth no longer suffer . Therefore if they may seem to bring any help unto the Head , Heart , or Lungs , all that is to be reckoned to happen by a withdrawing of the affect , which causeth a distemperature therein , by a Secondary Passion and consent . In the next place , neither do the Waters of the Spaw profit in Epidemical , Endemical , and Astral Diseases , as are the Plague , Plurisie , burning Coal , &c. as neither do they very much profit in those Diseases wherein a Poison subsisteth , being either inwardly received , or bred , or participated of from contagion : As also , neither in Diseases of Tincture , such as are the Leprosie , Pox or Foul Disease , the Morphew , Cancer , Falling-Evil , &c. Wherefore , we do not well agree with those who commend the Water of the Spaw , for all Diseases altogether without Exception : And so that , they extoll the same , even unto blasphemy : To wit , There is no cause , that we , having obtained the Fountains of the Spaw , should now henceforeward be amazed at the Miracles of Ancient Waters , or of the Fish-Pool of Siloah , or of Jordan curing of Naaman : seeing , here also , we see those that labour with the astonished Disease , Convulsion , and Palsie , and Leprous Persons to be Cured . Fie , fie , Miracles are manifested by an Unimitable finger . Besides , it behooveth rightly to distinguish effects by Accident , from those which are due unto their Causes by themselves : As , if a Virgin , through the failing of her Menstrues , doth labour with a strangling , Epilepsie , or affect of the Palsie : but her Courses bewraying themselves , upon the drinking of the Water of the Spaw , she be freed from the annexed disposition , there is not cause , that therefore , we should commend the true Apoplexie , Asthma , falling Evil , or Palsie to have been Cured by the Fountains of the Spaw . For Diseases which proceed from the Womb , are , Uniuersally , the Client of another Monarchy and do consist of another Root , than those which break forth from the Condition of the Microcosme , as well in the one , as in the other Sex ; The which indeed , if any one shall not distinguish of , he procures loud laughter to himself from the more discreet Person . But besides it hath already been spoken , how much a hungry Salt may profit in Fountains : but hereafter we must shew , what the Co●roded and dissolved Mine of Iron may act . That therefore first of all , doth manifestly binde , and therefore it strengthens the Stomach , and any of its neighbouring parts . In loose therefore , and dissolute Diseases , the Waters of the Spaw do agree or are serviceable , to wit in those of the Lientery Flux , Caeliacke Passion , and Dysentery or bloody Flux , &c. Whereunto , I exspect that it will be objected , that whatsoever Irony matter is offered , it provokes the mouth Issues , and alwayes the breaches or enfeeblements of the Liver and Slpeen , and so that from hence it is agreeable to truth , that the Waters of the Spaw are rather opening than Astringent : By reason of which difficulties , some perhaps doubting , do rather flie for refuge , unto the unlike parts in Mars . I answer from the Adeptists ; That there doth oft-times wander up and down in us , a certain resolved Salt , and Mineral one , plainly Excrementitious , a resolved Tartar I say , existing either in the first , or in the last matter , whereof , whether the Womb , Liver , Slpeen , Kidney , the Mesentery , or Stomach be the Mine , we now reckon it all one ; So that it be manifest , that it brings forth remarkable troubles unto that labour with it . Stomoma therefore , that is , Steel or Iron Administred in Powder , being drunk down ; assoon as may be , that hurtful Salt ( which hearkens not to the commands of purging things ) runs headlong unto the Iron , and adheres unto it , that it may dissolve that , and display its own Faculty : and so is Coagulated nigh that , and together with the Iron , goes forth . But if the Iron or Steel be drunk , being dissolved in a sharp Liquour , yet not hostile unto us ( to wit the Spaw waters ) Nature , the same liquours being wasted , and more inwardly admitted within , presently separates the Iron ( because it is unapt for nourishment ) from that which was co-mixed with it , and sends it forth thorow the Bowels : As may be seen in the blackness of the dungs of the Fountains of the Spaw . In which Sequestration of the Iron , there is straightway made a Con-flux of Mineral Salts , no otherwise than as Silver dissolved in Chrysulca or Aqua Fortis , doth flie unto applyed Brasse , and dissolved Brasse , unto Iron : The received Iron therefore , freeth from obstruction , and openeth by accident , to wit , the vanquished obstructing matter being taken away with it : yet not that it therefore ceaseth by it self , to be constrictive . It opens I say , by a specifical and appropriated power , but it constrains or binds , by a second quality . Now moreover , seeing the drinking of the water hath increased a courage and hope in the miserable sick , especially in those that have the Stone I will declare my judgement . It is certain , that the Waters of the Spaw do wash or rince the region of the Urine , both because they do easily pass thorow , and also because they being many and abundantly drunk , and Mineral , their hungry Salt hinders , whereby the Spirit of the Urin ( the onely Architect of Stones in us ) may by a property inbred in it , the less Stonifie any thing : Because another more potent Salt doth now derive the same Spirit , being as it were bound , into its own Jurisdiction . But because that is onely a Cloakative or dissembled Cure , although the made Stones and Sands are expelled , as it were by the cleansing of the sliding water ; yea , as long as the waters shall be drunk , they hinder new Collections of the Stone : Yet because they do soon after grow again , we judge them to be unfaithful or untrusty Remedies for those that have the Stone : For by so much the more readily indeed , the Stone hastens to grow , by how much , that womb , the other parent of the Stone , shall be the cleaner : For shall not the Urine more easily glew a Stone unto a clean Urinal or Chamber-pot , than unto one that is besmeared with Oyl ? For from hence perhaps , the Kidneys of Bruit Beasts do abound with very much grease . We therefore know a perfect Cure of the Stone , and the desired rest , to be a far different thing : wherein , the lesser Stones being sweetly expelled ( which is the least thing ) the greater indeed may return into their former Juice , by a Retrograde resolving of their Concretion or Composure . But neither shall that be sufficient , unless the Stonifying inclination be taken away by restorers , to wit by the Collected harvest of a few remedies , nor is any one able to hope for an entire and wished for health , from the Stone , no less than from a Fever : concerning which , we have written in other places , and afforded Remedies : For the Virtue of healing , stands right under every weight , that is , all Diseases , are with it , of one value or esteem , and it can be diminished by no Disease . The more noble powers of remedies onely , are desired , which cry unto Heaven to the Creator , that they have come as it were in vain , neither that there is any one almost , who can loosen their bands : We must timely abstain from complaints , in an Ulcerous or corrupt age . Therefore as to what belongs unto the first qualities of the Fountains of the Spaw , although we are very little careful of those , because they are Momentary , and those which have not a Vital Anatomy , as often as they are not infamous in a very incensed degree ; yet we Decree , that their hungry Salt , is in the first Degree of heat and dryth : but that the dissolved Vein of Iron , hath reached to the second Degree of Cold and Dryth . But it hath been shewn with an indulgence of Aristotle , and by the above-said Inferences , that the water it self is moist in the highest degree , but remisly Cold. But because those qualities , as well of the water , as of the Minerals , are Relosteous ones , or those which have not a Seminal Being in them , they have not any thing of a Cure in them ; but they Preposterously or over-thwartly happen unto constituted things , like unto Colours : therefore we leave the Speculation of those , unto others , being content with the attainment of the Cherionial or occult quality . Last of all , notwithstanding , we must answer to an objection . To wit , wherefore is the Fountain Tonneletius , with the Plenty of its hungry and hot Salt , said rather to Cool and to be troublesome to the Stomack ? I will give Satisfaction . The hungry Salt , although it be hot in its first qualities , no otherwise than as Oyl of Vitriol , Sulphur , Aqua Fortis , &c. are : yet it Cooleth by a third and proper Cherionial quality , to wit , as either being hurtful through its super-abounding , it weakens our heat ; but especially , because through its sharpness , it dissolves the Secondary humour , or immediate nourishment of the Stomack , and makes it unfit for nourishing : through the scantiness of which lively Liquor , it is no wonder , if the inflowing and begged heat of the Stomack do suffer . CHAP. XCIX . A Sixth Paradox . 1. In what manner Foods are not for hurt . 2. A Paradox out of the Text of holy Scriptures , against the Dietary part . 3. It is proved also , 1 , by an Experiment . 2. From the destributive Justice of God. 3. From the indication or betokening of Remedies . 4. From a Rule . 4. From whence the necessity of a Diet came . 5. One Precept . 6. The praise of Sobriety . 7. How the Waters may pass speedily thorow the Midriffs . 8. A Purgation . 9. The manner and requisites of drinking . How much is to be drunk . 10. A commendation of Elecampane prepared . 11. The sick must drink speedily , an why . 12. Returning , after what manner . 13. When he must Dine . 14. Whether the Water of the Spaw , be to be mixed with pure Wine . 15. And indeed after dinner . 16. Three Digestions . 17. Why he must not sleep after his Dinner at the Spaw 18. The hour of Rest . I Will now subjoyn a few things concerning Diet , and the manner of using the Waters of the Spaw . That thing in the first place , through experience being our guide , we have seen in the Dietary part of Medicine : that the quality of Meats or Foods , as such , doth no where bring Dammage , unless where a weakened , bed-rid person , and a defectuous Remedy is present . ( For God saw , that whatsoever he had made , was good ; and consequently that whatsoever he had ordained for meat was a good food ) but that its quantity onely is able to hurt : For eat thou whatsoever meats thou wilt , for example sake , and be thou wounded , so thou shalt not exceed in quantity , and thou hast apt Balsames , and consolidating Potions of Wounds , thou shalt feel no pressure and no dammage from the Meats , no otherwise than as if thou wert nourished with their most delicate choice . A Testimony of which thing , Souldiers , and poor Folks shall give : Unto whom the Judge or Arbitrator of things had seemed to have been severe , if in Diseases they ought to be fed with Phesants , Partridges , and other huckstery of Kitchins : For Nature despiseth the Rules of curiosity , as being defended by that aid , that she were vainly to desire a Help and Succours against a Disease , by a Remedy which from a small quantity of Food is not able to satisfie the Defects which are to be prevented : For whatsoever ought to attempt the single combate of a Disease , surely by a stronger right , it ought to divert Symptomes which are to arise from Meats ; that I say , which is handed forth , or instituted for the brushing off of blemishes or hurts . Therefore the necessity of a Diet is believed to have been brought in from the penury of the more profound Medicines , and not from the dainty allurements of Foods . That one Precept of Diet is to be observed , I counsel him that drinks of the Waters of the Spaw , that he study Sobriety , and that he eat Sparingly , like his neighbours . For , what shall it profit to accuse the Health of our bordering neighbours , by the Waters of the Spaw , if we live the more deliciously , and with too much fullness . Therefore let the Supream defence of Long Life ( although it be a cruel thing to those that are unaccustomed ) be Sobriety : Otherwise , those things which savour , do nourish best ; and a hungry Man will easily concoct those Foods which do savour him most . By that onely rule of Diet , the Waters will pass thorow him , safely , speedily , and pleasantly : But besides it shall be profitable to brush off the filth from the Stomack , but the more crude and less sincere Chyle , from the Meseraick Veines : Which shall comodiously be done , if one dose of the Pills Rufi being duely prepared , and not from the perswasion of gain , be for the space of three daies continually taken , before the Waters : Or if he listeth not to wait the space of three daies , let him infuse an ounce and half of Conserve of Roses in eight ounces of the Water of Pouhontius , adding thereto a Scruple of Salt of Tartar . Let him drink the strained infusion . He that is to drink of the Water of the Spaw , let him endeavour first to unload his Belly betimes in the Morning , and about the Twilight let him drink twelve ounces of Pouhontius , and ascend the Mountain : From whence when he shall be come down , let him drink twenty or thirty ounces of Savenerius , at the first of the Morning : For he must passe by degrees unto things not accustomed : As also Pouhontius shall premeditatingly open the branching passages not with a loaded quantity : He must add to the quantity daily , even unto a sufferance , as every one is his own Judge : The which thereby shall be easily conjectured , because if they shall drink as much as it behoveth them , after the example of Hippocrates , they are in a good frame , and do easily bear it . But at the time of Drinking , in stead of Annise , Myva or Conserve of Elecampane being taken , the Water that is drunk is easily strained thorow the Midriffs . But let the appointed dose be speedily drunk , seeing the progress of the Fountain is hastened , and therefore let the first Water be cocted , ( if indeed that is to be said to be truly cocted , which doth not depart into nourishment ) and expelled before the last Water approach ; which renders the Action of the native Heat renewed or frustrated . He returning from the Fountain to the Village , let him slowly proceed , that not Sweat , but Urine , which is in his Desires , may be provoked . But let the hour of Dinner be , when the Stomack shall be dispatched of the Waters , least the remainder of the Water being almost concocted , should over-hastily bring the crude juyce into the Veines . It hath been doubted , whether the Water of the Spaw be with conveniency to be mixed with pure or unmixt Wine : I will say , That so Wines shall be made easily passable , and the passages shall be kept passable , and therefore with the borderes , I shall counsel to admix the Fountains with their Foods ( that is , with their Drinks . ) And therefore because he must eat sparingly about the tenth or eleventh hour , he is to go to Pouhontius at the third hour ; because we intend not a Fatting , but a Healing : Indeed if the Heaven permit , the Afternoon comes not to be enslaved to Cards , or Dice , not in the next place , unto Sleep ; but unto Walkings abroad . For truly three Concoctions are compleated in Man : To wit , the First in the Stomack ; Another in the Liver ; But a Third , in all particular Members . Seeing that every part ought to be nourished , the First and Second Decoction , do more prosperously succeed in Walking and Motion , and therefore there is a more plentiful expulsion of all Excrements , the which at the Spaw , we do especially attend . But let the Third concoction be in time of Sleep , to wit , while as the Vital light ought to inspire it self into the cocted Humour , for assimilating sake : The which also , restrains all avoidance of Excrements , except its own , which is that of Sweat. But of the hour of Sleep , the ripening of the precedent Morning , and hastening of the following Twilight , by Sleep it self , shall admonish him . Blessed ye the Lord , oh ye Fountaines , Praise ye and Super-exalt or Magnifie him for Ages . CHAP. C. A Paradox of Supplies , being of the number of Judiciary Paradoxes . 1. Two Causes of the Stone among the Antients . 2. In the Stone of the Bladder , much muscilage or sliminess comes forth . 3. The curing of the Antients consisteth in a threefold succour . 4. A solicitous or careful Cure of the Antients . 5. A various houshold-stuffe of Stone-breaking things . 6. Why Stone-breaking things are derided by most . 7. It is answered about the end , unto an absurd Objection . 8. Despair among the Antients . 9. Of what sort the Curing of the Antients was . 10. A Modern Paradoxal Opinion . 11. Why any one may decline from the Antients . 12. Why the Antients have erred in their Cure. 13. The matter of Stones . 14. The difference of Tartar and Phlegm . 15. A History of Tartar. 16. A Mechanical Example . 17. From whence the Name of Tartar is . 18. An Essential Reason in the Example . 19. Why coagulation is not from a slimyness . 20. Substantial Generations are finished by the limited Seeds ; not by a casual congress of the first qualities . 21. What , and where , the Seeds of Stones are . 22. The best Natural Philosophy is taught by an Analysis . 23. Another Reason against the Antients . 24. A third Reason . 25. A fourth Reason in the Macrocosme . 26. An Objection . 27. It maketh for us . 28. Gemms know no viscosity or slimyness . 29. Against the Efficient Cause of the Antients , a first and second Reason . 30. From whence the heat in a Stony-Kidney is . 31. An Example . 32. Why in the Stone of the Bladder they do not complain of heat . 33. Why there is a muckie snivel in the Stone of the Bladder . 34. A former Reason . Another . 35. Causes that are to be removed being unknown , Remedies have been unknown . 36. Safe Remedies which are meet in co-betokenings . 37. Of what worth the more external Remedies are . 38. A Paradox in the distinction of an Effect by it self and by accident . 39. How far they are profitable . 40. What an opening Medicine alone may be . 41. That there is not made an enlargement of the Urin-Vessels , by Drinks . 42. What can enlarge the Urin-Vessel . 43. A sounding Objection . 44. A distinguishing of Effects according to the pertinency of their Causes . 45. A Reason . 46. A Censure of the Remedies of the Antients . 47. A Curative Method . 48. In all Urine there is a Stone . Who may be called , one that hath the Stone . 49. What the inclination unto the Stone in the Kidney or Bladder may be . 50. What Hope hath afforded for Curing . 51. How the Inclination may be taken away . 52. The Quality of a Remedy which takes away the Inclination . 53. The Medicine Aroph or of Mandrake . 54. An adverse Barking . 55. Hermetical , and Pythagorical Phylosophy do agree . 56. The quality of a Remedy resolving the Stone . 57. An Answer to an absurd Objection . SEeing that the frequent Monster of the Affect of the Stone , doth call many unto the Waters of the Spaw , through the hope of a perfect Cure ; truly it shall profit , more liberally to explain this Paragraph or sentential summe , least a breviary should produce obscurity . I must shew therefore what the Antients , and what the more Modern Disciples of the School of Hermes do think of the Birth or rise and Cure of the Stones in Man. First of all , they have accused the matter of the Stone , to be a Phlegm , Snivel , Muscilage , or humane Excrement , but the efficient Cause thereof , to be actual Heat exceeding in the Member . What else ( say they ) seeing from a Stony Kidney , much Sediment , but from a Bladder besieged with Stones , a continual muckiness is violently disturbed or expelled : and although there be no Heat in the Bladder , at least-wise , it is sufficient that those that have the Stone do experience the same Heat to be manifested in their Loyns : Therefore , seeing that against things manifest and known by Sense , none but a blinde man makes resistance against the Sun , the Testimonies of the Causes of the Stone already given , ought to remain confirmed , they being approved by a number of Authorities , and Dayes . But these things being laid down , they go to the Cure , wherein moistening , opening , and cleansing things are their confided succours : By Clysters I say , by Baths , Fomentations , 〈◊〉 , and moistening , opening , and cleansing Potions , they have endeavoured 〈◊〉 their might : To wit , whereby the Stone already bred , might be expelled , and by the chance of Fortune , the Consultation of Coagulating may be taken away from the approaching Ballast . But for that which is hereafter to come , not any thing hath been provided . Indeed they have not sluggishly thought of the Oil of Almonds , or the supplying Medicines in the absence of this , to be given to drink for the enlargement of the Urine-Vessels , at the first entrance of the Cure , that there may afterwards be place for the following abstersives or cleansers , the more easily to expell the Stone . To wit , by these suppositions , not a little ( through the facility of the Art ) suspected , they have thought , that in so great a Discommodity and lavishment of Nature , they have abundantly satisfied our Calamity , and so a Curative indication or betokening : unless perhaps , some Stone-breaking Medicines , as well of Herbs , Roots , Wood , Seeds and Fruits , as of certain Stones beaten into a Powder , being fetch'd ( with a glorious Title received by the more chief Physitians ) into the Composition Lythontribon , may seem to have been annexed unto the former : But they have been so called , because some have believed that they do break the Stone ; others that they diminish it ; but most have believed neither . They indeed smile one us with a Beautiful name delivered by the Ancients : but they have been thus Administred hitherto , with an unfaithful event , and the Aid never answering their Promises . Therefore others farther declining , do judge , that the Stomack , Veins , and Kidneys shall sooner be pierced and bored thorow , or shall sooner yield to a notable Corrosion , or violent power of breaking to pieces , than that a Stone which is far more hard than those and in its Mine , more separated from the mouth , should refuse the inbred foot-step of dryness and a conceived hardness , and then that it shall give up its name for a Clientship unto those Remedies . And therefore , whatsoever thing resisting the second and third qualities , shall not obey a Medicine , that being as it were untamed , with the Elke , and as it were Monstrous , being harder than a Club , and Fatal , is Assigned to the Catalogue of uncurable Diseases . From whence we may understand , that the whole Method of curing the Stones , doth stand committed not unto a perfect but onely unto a dissembled healing : For truly they have earnestly laboured hitherto in nothing but in excluding the Stone already made ; but they have in no wise gone to prevent it in the making ; as neither hath any thing been consulted of , for the rooting out of the impression , or ready inclination to the Stone . Therefore , the curing of the relapses of the threatning stones , hath remained imperfect : As if by reason of that , other Diseases cryed Triumph , because that Providence being sufficient for all ends , should seem to have dealt more liberally with them : but that , for the one Treacherous Lurker , the Stone , as having Hostilely and Traiterously entred , it had refused Remedies . But now , I will give you the Decrees of Juniours , by their Ranks or Orders . And first , indeed , it shall not be for a Vice , to have declined from their appointed Rules , when as even hitherto , we observe their Aids to be for the most part uncertain , and do experience nothing but a feeble help , and seeing our purpose is concerning the Life and safety of our Neighbours . For if other Arts do profit dayly , there is no reason ( as if the Virtue of our Mind were barren in us ) why the Rules of Predecessours should deter us from a further search into the truth , and should thrust us into despair : For by the onely Decree of Aristotle , That we must not dispute against him that denies Principles , Phylosophy being brought into obscurity hath so remained . For if we ( following the Flock of those that went before us , not because we must go so , but because it hath been so gone ) must not command , likewise , neither must we be servants to the most free gifts of judgement . The Fire therefore , which is the finder out of Arts , doth perfectly teach those of Hermes School , by Mechanical and manifest workmanships , That the Original of the Stone doth not consist of the matter and efficient cause assigned . For neither for that reason is it a wonder , that , the causes being not sufficiently known , improvident and unlike counsels have been hitherto described for this grief . As to what therefore concerns its material Cause , that is a certain Stonifying juice ( for , for want of a true word of expression , it is so called by me ) so intimately besprinkled on very many Liquours , that it may seem to be well nigh Natural unto the same ; neither is it otherwise subject unto a Divorce , than for that Cause of Cala●●ties , that it may render us perpetually mindful of our thousand-fold frailty . Therefore it is not a muckie Snivel , not Phlegm : In the next place , we do not think that any Excrement or Putrifyable thing of ours , hath suggested a matter for the Stone ; but it is an Excrement of things , a Traytor ( we have called it Tartar ) perfecting its Tragedy within , by a Hostile Coagulation , the which , when it is not rightly separated in the Sheaths Dedicated unto the separation of an Excrement , surely it creeps inwards as being mixt with the Natural and Vital Juices : But it being at length , called back unto examination ( because it is plainly unfit and uneffectual for Assimilation , and the information of the Soul ) it either goes forth together with the Urine , as it were repenting of its conceived Treason ; or if it shall the more subtilly marry the Vital nourishment , it more inwardly or fully enters , and presently after the time of its Digestion , brings forth the dissociable affects of its own Family in us , and Monstrous Conditions , and Ensigns plainly Tyrannical , whereunto Nature being at length trodden under foot , is compelled to hearken : All which things , shall appear even by one onely , and that , not a Forreign Example . For it is easie to be seen , that every one of us , being also very well constituted or in a very good frame of Body , do send forth a Healthy , Yellow Coloured , clear Urine , void of Sediment and Muckiness , the which , if it doth also happen to be the longer kept even in a clear Glass , yet the space of some hours afterwards being passed , we from thenceforth call it a Stony Urine , because on every side , above and beneath , throughout the whole Jurisdiction of the Urine , the Urinal is infected with a thin sand adhering to its sides ( oh what more plainly than the Tartar of Wine , hath given the name of a Coagulable , otherwise a Forreign excrement in us ? ) notwithstanding , neither was there therefore any presence of a more grosse visible Lee , nor were there any Testimonies of heat present , especially while that Sand became Conspicuous : For truly the Urin had already long before , waxed cold , before it had consulted of Coagulating . But yet , there is on both sides the like Reason , Essence , Cause and Property of the Stone arisen in us , with that , which of the same Identity , and material subject , is Coagulated abroad in the Urine about the Urinal . I will add further , that some detain their Urine for honesties sake , for some hours , without any appearance of Sands : the which Urine notwithstanding , being received in a Glass , hath without all doubt , separated its Stone in an equal time . From hence therefore , at least-wise , it follows , that the sliminess of matter is not for the material Cause of the Stone : truly it consists in the Race or off-spring of a more hidden , and therefore of a deeper search in Nature , than that we should think its Natural Generation to be enclosed in sliminesses and the first qualities alone . For whatsoever things are made in Nature , we must reckon them to be made from a necessity , and Flux of a Seed . The Seeds therefore of Stones do lay hidden in the Juices , until at length , the Flux of the Seed being ripened , the last Ordination or end of the same , breaks forth into Act. Therefore we have taught above , that the Stone owes it Family unto nought but a Stonifiable Juice , after the Similitude of Fountains in the greater world ; And therefore they Err , who contend , that a Juice doth arise in the most clear and transparent Waters , being furnished with a Stonifying Power , as not seeing , so being ignorant , that a Stone doth arise in Phlegmatick Clayinesses and Muckinesses . For truly , that is not to savour any thing beyond Sense , nor beyond Rusticks . Wherefore an Analysis or solution by the fire , is to be undertaken , the which indeed , as it proposeth a disclosure of Bodies , so a certain Conjuncture of the same , before our Eyes , and promiseth a Man more certainty in his Study , than the vain Dreamed Doctrine which from Materia Prima or the First Matter , Privation , Fortune , Chance , an Infinite , and a Vacuum , doth as yet with a scanty or fasting mouth , consume the Spring of Young Men. What think you I pray , if any Phlegmatick thing should of necessity and by it self , give a Material being to the Stone , and an actual and excessive heat should Coct that matter into a Stone , verily we must think that is done , because the heat did dry the Phlegm into a Stone : But that thing in man , is impossible , who doth every where , and alwayes ( yea as yet somewhat more , in the Reins and Bladder ) exclude so great a drying , by his actual moisture : And so much the stronger , because in the sudden passage of the Urine thorow the Kidneys , it cannot at an instant dry up any Muckiness , which is mixt throughout Urine , into a Stone , and the which Muckiness , the succeeding Urine , doth not moreover , vindicate from Dryth . Truly it should grieve us or be tiresome unto us to stay any longer in these things , unless we also had been deluded by these Dreams . I will therefore re-assume : Let us therefore try , whether any muckie snivel being dryed by heat , doth depart into a hard Stone , or indeed , into a Tophus or soft Sandy Stone : For from the snivel of the Nostrils , to wit , the most tough of all , being dryed , a Brickle Tophus , but not a hard Stone , is at any time yielded . Besides , the Example lately given , concerning a very clear Urine , which is wholly freed from a visible sliminess , and yet affixing a Stone in manner of little Grains unto the Spondils or turning Joynts , forbiddeth to acknowledge such a Material Cause , also the single Progeny of Tartars , and likewise , the like Progeny of Stones in the Macrocosme , withstands the same . But if indeed , we say , that heat doth not dry up the muckie snivel , while it begetteth the Stone ; but that it constraineth or Coagulateth it by a property , not indeed , of drying , but of heating , or through a Concoction thereof ; to wit , by the command whereof alone , the matter being restrained , and excited by heat , puts on the power of a curd , which is internal unto it . But that is to have said something on our behalf , and is Voluntarily granted us ; To wit , to acknowledge a property ( subscribed unto Coagulation ) in the matter , whether that matter in the mean time , shall be slimy , or cleer and transparent . Because else Gems should exclaim , that they have stood in need of the sliminess of matter , whereby they may assume so great strength , and lustre ; yet neither therefore shalt thou avoid the Rocks : Because neither therefore , hath any actual heat Coagulated a Stone in the Urinal , but far after the Urine had lost its luke-warmth . In the next place , seeing that hateful sense of heat is wanting in the Stone of the Bladder , when as notwithstanding that Stone is for the most part , harder than that in the Kidneys ; it by all means follows , that the necessary efficient Cause of the Stone , is not heat , or else that the more powerful heat should preside , for framing of the Stone in the Bladder . Therefore the Studies of the more Modern Physitians do Decree , that heat in the Reins is not the Parent of the Stones ; but a Symptome , but an effect following upon the placing of the hateful guest , the Stone ; in the Bowel . For as a thorn heing thrust into the Finger , is neither hot , nor hardened by heat , nor by reason of heat thrust into the Flesh , yet heat follows the hurt , as a companion : So also , we must seriously take notice , that heat doth happen upon the hurting of the Bowel , made by the Stone existing in it , and being continually cherished thereby : For where Pain is , there ( according to Hyppocrates ) is a Disease , and heat doth also flow thither as a certain latter thingor effect . But that which happens in the hurt substance of the Kidneys , is not therefore made in like manner , in the Bladder , which hath it self in manner of a receptable , and sink of the Urine , which onely slideth by the Kidney , without delay . But if , as well the Reins , as Bladder , do , when the Stone is present , both of them , according to their own disposition , avoid a certain snivelly matter , cease thou to wonder , that the part being as it were , besieged by an Enemy , and suppressed in its Vegetative faculty , doth continually loose something of its nourishment , and ( like an eye that is beset with dust its Enemy ) as it were , weep forth its alimentary humour . For all particular parts in us do well perceive what things are so agreeable , and what are extream hateful and execrable ; and indeed , they do every where express no obscure tokens of that perceivance : For otherwise , the Stone of the Bladder being cut out , a continual issuing forth of muckie snivel should not yet cease , to wit , if that muck should have the Reason of a Cause , and not of an Effect of the Stones . But as to what belongs to the Cure thereof , we must diligently mark , that it ought hitherto to be un-compleated by those unto whom the true Causes of the Stone have not been made known ; to wit , if in a removal of the Causes , and not otherwise , a diseasie Disposition ought to depart . Indeed I admit first of all , that the Bowels lying upon the Urin-Vessels , being unburdened by Clysters , will afford by all means , a more easie Passage for the Stone to go forth : Fomentations also , likewise Anointings , and Baths , I promise to profit very much ; because our Body , as it is one only thing in an agreement of all Parts ; So according to Hippocrates , it is wholly as well within , as without , conspirable , and exspirable : Likewise within and without , above and beneath , day and night , Fire and Water , have made three Circuits in us , and so that they wander hither and thither , and that by course . For in very deed , the more external Aids are not perpendicular , but oblique or crooked Ones only . In the next place , seeing nothing immediately reacheth the Stone , but what doth Urin-wise lick the Kidney : therefore it is certain that Moistening , Slymie , and muscilaginous Medicines ( to wit , the Mallow , Marsh-mallow , Fleawort , &c. ) have put off those kinde of corporeal Qualities in the former Shops of Digestions , as being plainly unlike to Urinary Qualities . In the mean time , we grant that they so far succour those that have the Stone , as by their more sweet Juice , they do asswage , and temperate the Sharpness of the Urin ; or as the Muckinesses of their former Life being driven away , they do keep within , in the Root , something of an abstersive , or dissolutive Matter ( which one only Matter we admit of , as being opening ) which may be of use : Even as in the Juice of Lemmons , Quinces , Cicers , Pellitory , &c. But surely on both sides these are nought but even a feeble and sluggish Power for so great an Enemy . At length , neither do we sufficiently comprehend the things promised , How Oyl of Almonds may be able to enlarge or extend the Urin-pipes , whereof scarce one small Drop , and that not but through an Errour of the separating Faculty , doth reach to the Urin-pipes : The matter is thus . Surely the Urin-Vessels consist of a moist Membrane , whereinto , as nothing which is not of its own Nourishment , doth the more piercingly enter ; So the Oyle , although it should wholly washingly flow thither , it should not performe that in a living Membrane , which otherwise it might do in dry and dead Parchment : So far is it , that the Urin-Vessels being fore-occupied , and moistened with their own Nourishment and Urin , can receive or assume unto them any oylie Substance : For truly , there is not an easie Combination of Oyl with Water , and the too much swift Passage of the Oyl should come as slow , for the enlargment of the Urin-pipes . Let us therefore account them to be sent Dreams : because the Urin-Vessels are never enlarged or extended , but by a more gross compaction of a Body ; but that was not the Office of Oyl or Liquor : For indeed , a Urin-vessel is loosely and softly moist of it self , and being content with its own Urin , refuseth any further Liquors . Therefore it is enlarged only by the Stone , that is , by the diseasie Cause , and being once amplified , it doth not fall down , or contract again ; As may be seen , that Stones being by degrees increased , are more easily expelled , than when long before being the least Ones . But they will say , loosening Medicines being drunk up , that is , such as extend the Urin-pipes the miserable Diseased , are sometimes holpen ; Wherefore enlargments of the Urin-pipes , do also happen . I wish that he may want successes , whosoever he be , that thinks Deeds are to be taken notice of , in Phylosophy , from the event , which Deeds , an Effect by it self , is never wont to attribute unto Causes by accident : For any the more sweet Liquor , shall perhaps infect the Urin , and shall render it more washy , through its mixture ; these things indeed shall be for a delight and refreshment , in re-pressing the Cruelty of Symptomes ; but it is not therefore lawful to infer , that the more sweet Juice being drunk , the Stomack , Veins , or Urin-pipes , are either enlarged , or at least-wise , more apt for Enlargment . For if any thing that is drunk , should render the Urin-Pipes more extensive in their Latitude , Truly that shall dissolve , and enlarge the Stomack , because it being deputed for the sustaining of a greater weight of Foods , shall on every side suffer an Extension ; and as yet so much the rather , because that at the time of the head-long violence of the urgent Stone , much Vomiting doth excessively molest the Stomack , and therefore should pluck it abroad , even unto a tearing . Hitherto , nothing of Remedies hath been heard of in so great a Calamity : Wherefore we coming nearer unto a censure of those Medicines which have hitherto seemed by a gentle Abstersion , also those which by a certain Property , have seemed to drive out the Stone ; with leave , we will ingeniously declare . For although the Powders as well of Herbs , Seeds , Fruits , Liquors , and Waters , as of Stones and Minerals , the Cruelties of Symptoms being appeased , have at length brought forth the Stones , and Sands ; what ( I pray you ) more famous thing hath even there been done , besides a curing of the present Fit ? Surely , we have done no otherwise , than he who hath appeased a Fit of the Falling-sickness : I say , we have on both sides plucked off only some one particular Fruit of the Disease , the Tree being un-touched by the Axe , and the Root remaining safe : Therefore , whatsoever things we hope shall chiefly profit those that have the Stone , we will perfectly teach in two Heads . First , That an Expulsion of the Stone be not intended ( for something less cruel becomes a Physitian , than that which Nature her self almost failing under her weight , is voluntarily buised about , as being disturbed by the sting of Symptoms ) but it s one only Dissolution . The Bolts of coagulation , I say , being loosed , the Stone is by a solution , to be reduced into a Liquor , by a retrograde Conversion , to wit , into the matter from whence it grew together by a Composition or Conjunction . Let the second Head be , and that indeed a more famous one ; That the stonifying Inclination be taken away : To wit , the which even still persisting , nothing worthy of returning thanks is done . For indeed , it is manifest by the Example of the Urin abovesaid , that every Man hath a potential Stone in his Urin ( for that thing the Condition of the Microcosm or little World did require , if it ought on every side to express the Macrocosm or great World ) but that he is only miserable , to wit , in whose Urin a Power of stonifying lying hid , is actually unfolded within his Skin . Therefore it is altogether necessary , that there be in the Powers of the things or parts of that miserable Man , a certain Impression , I say , a sealing Gorgon-Mark , by reason whereof , the Powers themselves also , are too exactly , exquisitely , stickingly , and thorow searchingly incumbent about the separation , and examination of the Urin ; from whence there is then in that Shop , made an actuating of that Tartar , which before did grow as a watery Matter throughout the whole Urin. But seeing that the sealing Notes and Impressions of Diseases , do not co-here with Species , but with Individuals only , we must never despair , but that the Impression being brought in may , as vanquished , give place unto a certain more strong and bountiful Ascendent , it holding its Inn in manner of a Tyrant . An Inclination therefore unto the Stone shall be wholly taken away , if the Power it self doth no more hereafter labour in an actual Separation of the Tartar from the Urin. Therefore that over-exquisite separating Faculty is to be laid asleep : And that in no wise , surely , by an induced Drowsiness of Opium , or by the sloath , negligence , and rest of the like Stupefactives : Far be it ; But there is a Planetary Power in the Remedy of Casta Venus or Agnus Castus , by a specifical Property , so restraining all elaboration of Urin in the Reins , that the Kidneys being for the future , through a sweet idleness , as it were occupied in sleep , do give them to rest , indulging only their own Nourishment : This therefore is the golden Peace in us , which in Politicks , commands every one to attend only his own Offices , but not to be intent on the Offices of others , that he may obtain rest or quietness : Where it is to be noted , That the action , and permanent Operation is to be dispatched , not on the Powers of Bodies , but indeed , of Powers , if the vanquishing Faculty shall so overome the vanquished one , that it shall for the future yield it self into the Army of the Victress : Under which by-work , it is plainly enough to be seen , that the chief Crases or constitutive Mixtures of Medicines , are not but in the most refined Liquors ; because the Spermatick and first constituting things have not any commerce with the more gross compaction of Bodies . Furthermore , for the obtaining of that wished for peace in the Reins , we have succesfully hitherto used and enjoyed the Medicine of Aroph or Man-drake , by Paracelsus described , in his Books of the Faculties of the Members . I here , do hear Whisperers ( who are wont to swallow nothing but afore-chewed things ) accusing the unthought of darkness of Words : Those Coale-men ( they say ) do expose their Medicines unto us , hand to hand , and afford unto us ocular Demonstrations : But that is a new rule of learning the Phylosophy of Pythagoras . Let them first buy Coals , and Glasses , and let them first learn those things which watching successive Nights , and Expences of Moneys have afforded us : the Gods do sell Arts to Sweats , not to Readings alone : Therefore the Example of Ac●aeon affrighteth me , from daring indeed to expose Diana to an open view , being spoyled of her Garment : He that can apprehend it , let him apprehend it . Depart thou therefore from thine own self , and bid farwell to accustomed things , who presumest by an easie Compendium of readings , to search into the innermost Chambers of Nature : But besides whereby we may give satisfaction unto the former head of a full Cure ; a searching out of a Medicine , for the every way safe and secure Dissolution of the Stone , did remain . 1. Therefore it is fit , that it be changed into Urin , to wit , that it may touch the Place affected . 2. That it have in it a Power of loosing the Bolts of the Stone . For it is the Gift of God , which Art doth not provide , but only sequestreth and extracteth . 3. That it possess that thing in a specifical and appropriated Property , but not in second Qualities , because they are for the most part frail things , failing in time of Preparation , or Infamous , through the Cruelty of Qualities . 4. That it be subtile , that it pass on every side , and be able to demolish its Object at a far distance . 5. That it be friendly to Nature , least indeed it pervert all things : For not every Messenger approacheth unto the Mines of Stones ; but he alone , who being loosed from his Bands , hath known the wayes , being fited for his Journey , being a Friend to the Places , and which hath Virtues . They erre therefore , who ascribe this single Combate , only unto Corrosives ; to wit , they too much trusting unto second Qualities , as being badly secure , do sleep thereupon , and through a neglecting of specifical Properties , also appropriated ones , ( which are only extended on their proper Object ) being sleighted , they have gone into Obscurity . For the Oestrich doth not break or digest Iron ; or little Birds , Flints , Unions , small Stones , through an emulous quality of Corrosion : There is a Virtue of loosing the Bars and Bolts of Tartar. It is convenient , this Virtue to meditate of , and this to imitate . I have spoken . Blessed be ye God of Wonders , who at sometime converteth the Waters into Rocks , and at sometime , the Rocks into Pooles of Waters . CHAP. CI. The Understanding of Adam . ADam put right Names upon all living Creatures ; and therefore he had an intimate , or intuitive or clear speculative Knowledge of these , which is called the Attainment of Nature . Perhaps he had likewise a most full knowledge of Herbs , Minerals , yea and of the Stars : For truly an Object not before seen , being presented unto him , he had known the innermost Properties thereof . From hence therefore , many do conclude , that the same Knowledge is given to us by a natural Property , as to the successive Heirs of Adam ; but to be obscured through Sin : But others contend that it is wholly withdrawn , through eating of the Fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Of these things , I being long since badly perswaded ; alass , I also believed them ! For I left something untryed , that I might reach unto the promised Labour of Wisdom , the Paradise of Long Life , through the knowledge of Adam : But at length , I observed many things , which might subvert these very principles . For First of all , I could scarce perswade my self , that Adam in the State of Innocency knew those Things , and more , which afterwards he through eating of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil , was ignorant of : That indeed , was , when he had eaten of the Apple of Oblivion , Drowsiness , or Ignorance ; But not when he had eaten of the Apple of Knowledge . But if in Original Sin , the Original Transgressour , and Defiler of humane Nature , himself , as yet knew what he knew before ; after what manner indeed , by a super-attained new Knowledge , and that of another Disposition , being as it were laid up in the forbidden Fruit , had he withdrawn all knowledge from his Posterity ? And moreover , how had not he ( who from his Creation had all Knowledge , except that which by a hidden Paraphrase and Emphatical manner of speaking , is called by the holy Spirit , The knowledge of Good and Evil ) traduced this likewise on his Posterity ? For if through eating of the Apple , His Eyes were opened , the which was even made known to him before ( after some sort ) they were closed , and he became a knower of Good and Evil , and saw himself to be naked ; why was there not , at least-wise , in his Seed , as much knowledge as there was in the Apple ? Why , if through his Seed , Sin , be translated ; is not also Shame translated , that it might naturally Shame the Indians of their Nakedness ? That likewise a Child of three years old should be ashamed of its Nakedness ? no otherwise than Adam was , presently after the Apple was eaten . In the next place , if he were endowed from his Creation with the knowledge of the Natures , Societies , and Properties of Animals , and from hence it was pithily essential unto him ; How had God , who is so great a Lover of us , withdrawn our essential , intellectual , and natural Gifts , whereby he will be worshipped in the Spirit of Man , but hath left natural Gifts unto the evil Spirit , the most vile , despised , and worst of Creatures ? Had he so greatly impoverished our Spirit , and favoured the Devil more than the Sons of Men , with whom to be , he cals it his Delights ? I indeed , after that I conceived in my Soul , the Knowledge of long Life , and the Causes of Death , knew , that as long as Adam was Immortal , his Mind did immediately quicken his Body , and governed it ; Yea that for that Cause also , he perfectly understood whatsoever things are read to have been put under his Feet . But after that the sensitive Soul was seminally introduced as a Mean between the Mind and the Body , Adam afterwards lived in the Soul , and middle Life ; that is , after a modern or mean manner : And his Mind ( for the support of the sensitive Soul ) dispersed from it self , only a darksom Light , through the Mists of the Flesh , upon the Life of a new and impure Generation . But the former Knowledges which he had before the Fall , were in the sensitive Life , laid up though remembrance ; yet over-clouded with the Dim and wretched Discourse of Reason ▪ when as he had now generated after the manner of Bruit-beasts , and had seminally transferred a middle Life ; then all his Knowledge , as well former as latter , of Good and Evil ; to wit , the remembrance of the same were obliterated ; and Man thereby was born a vain or empty Table : From thence indeed arose a sensitive Power or Faculty in Posterity ; or the same Faculty of a middle Life , which arose in Adam ; the which , when through a just Maturity , it had waxed ripe in the Seed , it was at length brought through , into a true Light and vital Form , by the Creator ; on which afterwards , the Mind of Man transferred its Vicarship ; yet the Mind hath remained , being as it were reitired into its own bottom , as abhorring the Impurities of Nature , nor being any longer able ( unless by Grace ) immediately to diffuse it self into the sensitive Soul : God so disposing of it by reason of his good Pleasure , as shall be shewn hereafter . In Man therefore , there is actually a certain natural and formal Act , which is the Soul , or Sensitive Life , very much distinct from the mind : For as the Seed of a Dog tends into a living Dog , obscurely reasoning or discoursing ; so certainly the Seed of Man doth not aspire into a dead Carcass , but at least into a vital Soul ; and indeed flows into a sensitive , and discursive one , after a far more perfect manner , than in a Dog , Fox , &c. And that I might the more firmly attain this real Distinction of the sensitive Soul from the Mind in us ; I have feigned a Young-man to be utterly lost for a Maid : For this Man wisheth with a full sense , and consent of his Soul , that he could be freed from that disdainful Love : And likewise , he would not that he should Love so dearly , and would not be freed from his Love : Not indeed , that he by turns , sometimes earnestly wills one thing , but sometimes another : but at once , and in the same Motion , and violent aslault , he wisheth , and not wisheth to be freed from that Love : therefore he declares himself to be happy , and unhappy in one Love : And he suffers many Contradictories of that sort , at once : The which seeing they are not at once entertained in the same Subject and Respect ; I long doubted , from whence such Contradictories should happen on every side , in one only Man ; until at length the Apostle loosed this K not for me . I seeing another Law in our Members , opposite to the Law of our Mind ; which Laws surely , he understandeth to be guarded not only with an Inclination and Desire ; but also with Discourse and Consent . Then I clearly beheld the Affections of the sensitive Soul to be one , and those of the Mind to be another ; but these ( because the Operation of the Mind is well nigh obscured by the perturbations of the sensitive Soul ) therefore they are weak : For in this sense , the Apostle calls Anger , Envy , Grudgings , Worshipping of Idols , &c. the works of the Flesh : For although they may seem to be spiritual Conceptions ; yet because they are the Operations of the sensitive Soul , the which it self also is seminally stirred up in Nature by the will of Flesh and Blood ; therefore they are the meer works of the Flesh . We are therefore uncessantly affected through the importunate Allurements of the social Soul ; because we being forthwith after Sin , become degenerate , have lost Immortality . Wherefore God doth now require only a few things of us , that we may enter into Life : To wit , that he that is Baptized , do believe the whole History of the Creed , and that he keep the Commandements of God through the Mediation of his Grace . But whosoever will aspire unto a higher Degree of Charity , let him endeavour so far as according to his Talent he shall be able , in all Humility , and by continuing in Charity , through amorous Acts , to run forth unto abstracted Things believed by Faith ; until that through the Grace of a daily Continuance of Exercise , he shall feel his Mind to be overwhelmed by a supernatural Light : For the Meditation of natural Forms , doth much help in the entrance , for the understanding of the Thingliness of the sensitive Soul : For all Forms besides the Mind , seeing they are vital Lights which are to return into nothing ; I have certainly learned , that the Mind doth by a most long interval , differ from the sensitive Soul. Seeing that the immortal Mind , however it be retracted into it self , that it may not be defiled through the Wedlock of the sensitive Soul , its Companion ; Yet it is president in all Acts , as it is near at hand , and doth totally inhere in the whole sensitive Soul ; and so operates herewith after a deaf manner : But that this order of the Almighty , was on this manner , forthwith after the Fall of Adam ; I collected first , because he hath created some Men blind , and likewise mad , no● for their own , or Parents Sin , but according to his good Pleasure , for his own Glory ; for he made all things as he would , and most exceeding well . And then , because he would be worshipped in the Spirit . And lastly , because in his House there are many Mansions . Now , they should be in vain , if every Man should be equal in Grace in his Soul and Life . From whence I collect , that there ought to be a diversity of Spirits among Men , and the Worshippers of the Divinity to be diverse in the degree of Charity . For truly he created the Angels , that they might worship him in the Spirit of Intelligency , without the Turbulencies of Bodies : But Man he deminished a little less than the Angels ; yet he primarily chose him after the Image of his Divinity , for his own Glory and Worship , and for his adopted Sons , yet subject to an unhappy and calamitous kinde of living ; because he is he , who being 〈◊〉 sunk or drowned within the Body , scarce understands that he doth understand , having almost forgotten his Immortality , as being subjected unto the tyrannical Clientships of Diseases ; so that the Immortal Understanding , in distracted or foolish and mad People , appears to be almost extinct : For it was the Almighties good Pleasure , that those diverse Mansions should be inhabited , as it were by the Ladder of Deserts , and that Men being raised up by the Character or Impression of Grace , should come unto higher Dignities of understanding : To wit , according to that saying , The Learned shall shine as the Sun. The first thing therefore , is in the Simplicity of an operative Faith , to have lived in Abstinency from Evils , and to have done good . And then , that they Worship God in the Spirit of naked Truth , and that through an operative Faith , they proceed through an attainment of a fatherly Love , worthy Deeds or Deserts in Charity ( although we not intending it ) helping to be more and more illustrated in their Understanding . And so at length , the Mind is loosed in that dark Prison of Bloods , and intellectually beholds it self , and with Humility admires the not before seen Light ; and being led through unknown Paths , doth then without difficulty proceed by steps , unto the more abstracted Contemplations of a Kiss ; where , it being as it were raised up again out of a drow●●● Sleep , doth ( as happy ) adore God in Truth , Righteousness , and the Union of Virtues , under the Light of an abstracted Spirit : For neither , although God will have other Recognisances or knowing Considerations from Man , than from an Angel , ought he therefore less to rejoyce in the Divine good Pleasure ; but to proceed in praising him , in an humble Adoration , wherein all understanding of Wisdom , and clearness of all Spirits , are as it were supped up in a lively Center : Through this reward therefore of Degrees , the unutterable God hath since the Fall , Crowned Man with Glory and Honour , although degenerate , and hath put other things under his Feet ; for neither before the Fall , had Man ever aspired thither : Therefore Man ought neither to have the knowledge of all things which Adam knew in his Beginning , nor also of his own self , if it ought to be a Desert : For a Crown presupposeth a striving Desert , and Victory : For we cannot bring back an increase of Grace for Victory , but by fighting . Therefore I conclude , that as we are constituted in the middle and sensitive Life , we know , have , are , or are able to do nothing , but only by Grace ; Desert co-operating , and the which Merit , that God might confirm the Moments of Degrees , in the adoring Understanding were to be presupposed . Therefore he that is of innocent Hands , and of a clean Heart , worshippeth God in the Truth of Spirit ; and the State of that mortal Man , is far more happy , than was that of Adam being Immortal : For that poverty of Spirit , doth in truth know Wisely , knowes Knowingly , believes Confidently , perceives or feeles Truly , and confesseth Humbly , that he is a meer subject of all Defects , that is , an unprofitable and evil Servant . In this Journey , the unutterable Kingdom of God , meets Man , the Ocean of Light , which gives an un-asked-for clea●ness of Understanding , and much more royal things , than the Desires of the Angels do wish for . These things exceed the Phylosophy of the Heathens , and of Modern Atheists : So it is ; Understanding and Truth hath it self in this manner , wherein our Phylosophy doth place its Alpha or Beginning : The which if it shall not do , long Life is unprofitable , being unknown to so many Ages , being neglected by so many Wits , and even unto the end of the World , known unto none but Adeptists alone . CHAP. CII . The Image of God. THe Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom : But the Fear of the Lord begins from the Meditation of Death , and Life eternal : But many with the Stoicks , suppose the end of Wisdom to be the knowledge of ones self : But I call the ultimate End of Wisdom , and the reward of the whole course of our Life , Charity or dear Love , the which alone will accompany us ; when as other things have forsaken us : And although the knowledge of ones self , according to me , be only a Mean unto the Fear of the Lord ; yet from this , is the Treatise of long Life to be begun : Because the knowledge of Life doth presuppose a knowledge of the Soul ; Seeing the Life and Soul ( as I have the second time said ) are Synonymals . It is of Faith , that Man was created of nothing , after the Image of God , into a living Creature , and that his Mind is never to perish . Whereas in the mean time , the Souls of Bruit-beasts do perish into nothing , when they cease to live : The weights of which difference I have taught , concerning the birth or rise of Forms . But hitherto , it is not sufficiently manifest , wherein that Similitude with God our Arch-type , or first Example is placed : For most do place this lofty Image in the Soul alone . I will speake what I judge , yet under a humble Protestation , and Subjection to the Censure of the Church . It is thus : The original of Forms being already after some sort known , it is meet also exactly to enquire into the Mind of Man. But surely , there is no Knowledge more burdensome , than that whereby the Soul comprehends it self , yea and scarce is there any a more profitable one ; because the Faith doth stablish its Foundation upon the unperishable , and un-obliterable Substance of the Soul. I have found indeed many Demonstrations divulged in the Books , about this Truth ; But none of them at all , for what , in respect of Atheists , who deny the one only and constant Power or Deity from everlasting . Plato indeed , makes three sorts of Atheists . The first indeed , which believeth no Gods. A second Sort also , which indeed admitteth of Gods ; yet such as are un-careful of us , and ignorant Contemners of small Matters . Lastly , a third Sort , which although they believe that there are Gods , and those expert of the smallest Matters ; yet they think them to be flexible through the least Dead or cold Prayer . This sort is most frequent among Christians at this day ; even those who profess themselves to be the most Perfect , and therefore they dare do any thing , and believe Religion to be only for restraining People through the Fear of Laws , the Obligation of Faith , and Pain of infernal Punishment : For these impose grievous Burdens on the Shoulders of others , which they touch not so much as with their Finger , they wipe the Purses of their own People , they prostitute Heaven to sale to dying Men , they every where offer themselves to be employed in Secular Affairs , as if they would declare that Religion doth not subsist without the State : It should be my greatest wish , that they might taste , at least but for one only Moment , what it is intellectually to understand , that they may feel the immortality of the Mind as it were by touching . Truly , I have not invented Rules , or a Manner whereby I might be able to illustrate the understanding of another : Therefore I deservedly testifie , that they who alwayes study , as enquiring after the Truth , do notwithstanding never attain unto the knowledge thereof ; because they being blown up with the Letter , have no Charity , and do cherish hidden Atheism . But this one thing I have learned , That the mind doth now understand nothing by imagination , neither by figures , and likenesses , unless the wretched and miserable Discourse of Reason shall have access to it . But when as the Soul comprehends it self , Reason and its own Image faileth it , whereby it may represent it self to it self : Therefore the Soul it never able to apprehend it self through the discourse of Reason , as neither by Likenesses . For after I had known , that the Truth of Essence , and the truth of Uderstanding are one and the same thing ; I knew the Understanding to be a certain immortal thing , far separated from frail or mortal things . The Soul indeed is not felt , yet we believe it to be within , not to be idle , not to be tired , nor to be disturbed by Diseases : Therefore Sleep , Fury , and Drunkenness , are not the Symptoms of the Immortal Mind being hurt ; but only the Pages of Life , and Passions of the sensitive Soul ; Seeing that Bruits also undergo such Passions : For neither is it a meet thing for an immortal thing to suffer by mortal Ones : For as the Mind is in us , and yet is not felt or perceived by us ; So neither are the continual and unshaken Operations thereof to be perceived ; because , if they should be sensible , verily they should not be spiritual , and meerly abstracted : For indeed , although it may seem to us , that we understand nothing by a total sequestration of Discourses , and abstraction from all Things which may fall under Sense , under the Mind and Understanding , and that under the Beginning of Contemplations ; Yet the Soul in the mean time , acts after its own un-sensible manner , and spiritual Efficacy ; the which I have thus understood : For he that confesseth , doth oftentimes not feel the Effects of Contrition , and he greatly bewailes that his unsensibleness ; yet being asked , whether he would Sin ? Perhaps he would answer , he had rather die : The unsensible Operation therefore , of the Soul in confessing , is an Effect of a supernatural Faith : Because the Actions of the Understanding , are the Clients of another , and uncessant Magistrate . For therefore mystical Men do teach , That the Soul doth more operate in Faith alone , without Discourse , and Cogitation , and in operating , doth also more profit , than he that Prays with many Words , and by Discourse stirs up Compunctions in himself . But he is happy , unto whom it is granted to perceive those unsensible Operations of the Soul , and issuingly to reflect the same upon the Operations , or Powers of the sensitive Soul : Because they do for the most part , leave their Footsteps afterwards on the Life , and for the future , do stir up the Memory , operating with Grace , in Faith. The Libertines , of the Christians , and first Atheists , do deride the similitude of God in us , as feigned , or that we are framed after the Image of God. But the other Atheists of the second and third rank , do not only grant that we are created after the Image of God ; but do feign an Identity or Sameliness in us , with the vast uncreated Deity ; and that neither doth man differ any otherwise there-from , in his Substance , than as a Part from the whole , or that which had a Beginning , with that which was not Principiated ; but not in Essence and internal Property ; The which besides Blasphemy , hath very many Absurdities or blockishnesses : For truly , whatsoever began , for that very Cause , it is a Creature ; but it includes an Imperfection in God , that he could create any thing out of himself , coequal unto himself in Substance : Because it is manifest from Phylosophy , that all the Parts of an Infinite , are of necessity Infinite : Therefore a Creature cannot be more infinite in Substance , than as it was in Duration co-like to the Eternal : And much less is the Soul a part of the Substance of God , or essentially like unto him , the which , in Power , Greatness , Duration , Glory , Wisdom , &c. in it self , and of it self , is a meer nothing . If therefore it were not made from God , much less from it self ; but of nothing : Therefore they greatly erre , who believe that the Thingliness or Essence of the divine Image is seated in the Soul , by way of Identity of Substance : Seeing they differ from each other by way of an Infinite : yea , it should of its own free accord , be again dissolved into nothing , unless it were conserved in its Essence , by the divine goodness . Truly the Souls of the damned could wish to be dissolved into their former Nothing , which divine Justice , keeps in their Being . Indeed the Soul hath henceforeward , an eternal Permanency , from an internal Eternity , freely bestowed on it , and preserved in it . It is sufficient therefore , that the Mind is a spiritual , vital , and lightsome Substance . And seeing there are many kindes and species of vital Lights ; that Light of the Mind differs from other vital Lights in that , that it is a spiritual Substance ; but that other vital Lights are not formal Substances , although they are substantial Forms , and therefore also they are by Death , reduced into nothing , no otherwise than as the Flame of a Candle . But the Mind differs from the Angels , because it is after the Image and Similitude of the eternal God. The Soul therefore hath that Light , and Substance of Light , from the Gift of Creation ; Seeing that it self is that vital Light : But an Angel is not a Light it self ; neither hath he a natural or proper , and internal Light ; but is the Glass of an uncreated Light ; and so that , therein he fails of the perfection of a true Divine Image : Otherwise , an Angel , seeing he is an incorporeal Spirit ; if he should be lightsome of himself , he should more perfectly express the Image of God , than Man. Moreover , whatsoever God more loveth , that is more noble ; But God hath loved Man more than the Angel : For neither , for the redeeming of the Angelical nature , was he made the Figure of the evil Spirit , even as the thrice glorious Lamb , the Saviour of the World , took on him the Nature of a Servant : For neither doth that hinder these things , that the least in the Kigdom of Heaven is greater than John : For the Son of Man is not less than the Angel ; although he were diminished a little less than the Angel. For in his condition of living , while he was made Man , he was diminished a little less than the Angel. For therefore an Angel alwayes remains a ministring Spirit : but he is no where read to be the Friend or Son of the Father , the Delights of the Son , the Temple of the holy Spirit , wherein the Thrice-glorious Trinity , makes its aboad ; that indeed is the prerogative of the Divine Image , which the eternal Light doth imprint on every Man that cometh into this World. But moreover , in the year 1610 , after a long weariness of Contemplation , that I might obtain some knowledge of my Soul , by chance , sliding into a Sleep , and being snatched out of the use of Reason , I seemed to be in a Hall dark enough ; on my left Hand was a Table , whereon was a Bottle , wherein was a little Liquor , and the Voice of the Liquor said unto me ; Wilt thou have Honours and Riches ? I was amazed at the unwonted Voice ; I walked up and down , delibreating with my self , what that might denote . Straightway on my right hand there was a Chink in the Wall , through which a certain Light dazled mine Eyes , which made me unmindful of the Liquor , Voice , and former Counsel : because I saw that which exceeded a Cogitation expressible by Word ; that Chink forthwith dispersed ; I from thence returned sorrowful unto the Bottle , took this Bottle away with me : but I endeavoured to taste down the Liquor , and with much Labour , I opened the Vial , and being smitten with Horrour , I awaked out of my Sleep : But a great desire of knowing my Soul remained , in which desire , I breathed for 23 full years . At length , in the year 1633 , in the sorrowful or troublesome Afflictions of Fortunes , I saw my Soul in a Vision ; But there was somewhat a more Light , in a humane Shape , the whole whereof was homogeneal or simple in kinde , actively Seeing , being a spiritual , Chrystaline , and shining Substance : But it was contained in another cloudy Part , as it were the Husk of it self ; the which , whether it gave forth a Splendour from it Self , I could scarce discern , by reason of the superlative lustre , or brightness of the Christaline Spirit contained within it : Yet that I observe , that the Mark of the Sexes , was not but in the Husk , but not in the Chrystal : The Seal whereof was an unuttered Light , so reflexed in the Chrystal , that the Chrystal it self was made incomprehensible ; and that , not indeed by a Negation or Privation ( because they are those things which are in respect of our Weakness , so called ) but it represented a famous being , which cannot be expressed by Word . And it was said unto me ; This is that which thou once sawest thorow the Chink : But I intellectually saw those things in the Soul , which if the Eye should see , it should afterwards cease to see . The Dream therefore shewed unto me , that the Beauty of the Soul of Man doth exceed all Conception . At least-wise I comprehended the Vanity of my long desire , therefore I desisted from the wish of seeing my soul : For however beautiful that spiritual Chrystal was , yet my soul retained no perfection unto it self from that Vision , even as otherwise , after an intellectual Vision , the Mind is adorned with much Perfection of Knowledge . I knew therefore , that my Mind in that Dreaming Vision , had acted the Person of a third , and so that it was not worth the labour of so great a Wish : But as to what hath regard unto the Image of God in the Mind ; I according to my slenderness , confess , that I could never conceive any thing , whether it were a Spirit , or a Body , or in the Understanding ; or in the next place , in the Imagination , or in a meer intellectual Vision ; which through the same endeavour , may not represent some Figure of it self , under which it might stand in the considerer : Because surely , whether I conceive a thing by its Image or Likeness , or whether the Understanding transchangeth it self into the Thing understood : At least-wise , I cannot consider this thing to be done , unless it should wander from it self , into the thing understood , with an interchangable course of it self ; the which seeing it hath a certain actual Being , it hath alwayes stood with me under a certain Figure , or Shape : For indeed , although I conceived the Mind , to be an incorporeal and immortal Substance : Yet I could not assoon as I thought of its individual Existence , consider of the same , as deprived of all Figure ; Yea , nor indeed but that it would answer unto the Figure of a Man. For as oft as the Soul that is separated , seeth another Soul , Angel , or evil Spirit , that must needs know , that these things are present with it , that it may distinguish the Soul from the Angel , and likewise the Soul of Peter from the Soul of Judus : Which Distinction , cannot be made by Tasting , Smelling , Hearing , and touching ; but only by a proper Vision of the Soul : Which Vision or Sight , doth of necessity include an interchangeable course of Figure . For seeing an Angel is so in a Place , that he is not at once , in another Place : Therein also is of necessity included , a certain figural Circumscription , no less than a local one . And then , I have considered the mind of Man to be figured after this manner . For the Body of man as such , cannot give unto it self an humane Shape : For therefore it had need of an external Engrave , which should be enclosed within the Matter of the Seed , and which had descended into it from elsewhere : Yet for as much as that Engraver was of a material Condition , he was not able to draw a Virtue , as neither an Image of figuring , either out of himself , nor from the Masse of the Body : it behoves therefore , that something doth precede ; which was plainly immaterial , yet a real and effective Beginning , whereunto a Power should be due , of figuring by a sealing impression , on the Archeus of the Seed . The Soul of the Begetter therefore , while it slides downwards , and through natural Lust , doth lighten the Body of the Seed , it delineates the Figure of its Seal , and the Seal of its Figure there ( which is the one only Cause of the Fruitfulness of Seeds ) from whence therefore ariseth so lofty a Stature of a Young : For if the Soul it self , were in it self , not figured , but that the Figure of the Body , should arise as it were of its own accord ; a Trunk in any Member could not but generate a Trunk : Because the Body of the Generater not being entire , doth at least-wise faile in the implanted Spirit of that Member . If therefore a Figure be implanted in the Seed ; certainly it shall receive that Image from a more vital and former Beginning . But if the Soul doth imprint a certain Figure on the Seed , it shall not counterfeit a forreign or strange Face ; but shall decypher its own Likeness : For so also the Souls of Bruit-beasts do . And although our Soul , by reason of its Original , be above the Laws of Nature ; Yet by what foot it hath once entered the threshold of Nature , and is incorporated therein , it is afterwards also , constrained to stand to its own Laws : because there is a univocal or simple Progress , and end of vital Generations : For neither otherwise , doth it want Absurdities , that an Operation of so great a Moment ( as is the Generation of Man ) should happen without the consent and co-operation of the Mind ; which if it be so , it must needs be also , that fruitfulness is given to the Seed by the Soul , by a Participation of its Figure , and other vital Limitations . Indeed every Soul doth to this end , Seal the Image of it self in the Spirit of the Seed , that the matter being reduced unto a requisite Maturity , shewing a delineated Beauty , and also the similitude of the Begetter , may be able to beg a formal Light from the Creator , or a Soul of that Species whose similitude is expressed in the Figure . For we believe by Faith , that our mind is a true Substance , which is not to die ; but that the new Creation of a Substance out of nothing , doth belong to God alone : From whence there is not many , but one only spiritual Father of all Spirits , who is in the Heavens ; who if it hath well pleased him , to have adopted the mind only , into his own Image ; it seemeth also to follow , that the vast , and unutterable God , is also of a humane Shape ; and that from an Argument from the Effect ; Seeing that the Body is like wax , on which the Seal of the Image of the Mind is imprinted : but the mind hath its Image , and essential Perfection , from him , whose Image it beareth before it : But because the Body is now and then defectuous , and like unto a Monster ; Most have thought that the glorious Image of God , doth wholly consist in the rational Power or Power of Reason : They not considering that the Image of God , doth in the nearest , and more perfect manner , consist in the Soul , and from thence also in the Body , being formed after the exemplary Character of the Soul : In Operation of the Figuring , if there be an Errour , that this be not to be attributed unto the Image , but unto other Causes issuing from elsewhere . Furthermore , how much is to be granted unto the rational Faculty , for the denominating of the Image of God , I have taught in its own tract , concerning Reason : Yet the more learned Part of Christians , hold that the Soul doth most nearly express the Image of one , and a trine God , by a single simplicity of its Substance , and a ternary of its Powers ; to wit , of Understanding , Will and Memory : which Similitude hath alwayes seemed unto me Improper , that the Mind should be the Image of God , from an excelling , nigh and singular Ability : For truly , an Image involveth a Likeness of Figure , but not an equality of Numbers . And moreover , if the Soul doth in its Substance represent the holy sacred Trinity ; but understanding , Will , and Memory , a Ternary of Persons ; it must needs be , that the three Powers of the Soul , are not Properties or Accidents of the Soul : Yea , that those Powers , are the one only Substance of the Mind ; or such an Image doth badly square with the Type , whose Image it is believed to be . I therefore consider , that not indeed the Mind of Man alone ; but that the whole Man was framed into the Image of God. Wherefore , although the Soul in this sense , doth express a certain Ternary in its Powers ; yet in no wise , Personalities : And then , because no Person of the holy sacred Trinity doth represent the Will alone , or the Will a Person ; no Person doth resemble Memory , as neither any one being separated from the other two , the Understanding in Property . Then also , because the three Powers of the Mind , are considered for the most part , as it were Accidents of the Soul ; surely , these cannot in any wise express an Image , or any nearer supposed thing , besides a naked Ternary of Accidents collected into the Substance of the Soul : In which sense the Soul doth less denote the Image of God , than any piece of Wood : The which sheweth by its Analysis , only Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury ; but not three Powers only like the Mind , in the aforesaid similitude of the Vulgar . Three Substances I say , being concluded under the Unity of a composed Body , and diverse , the which notwithstanding , in their connexion , made one only Substance of Wood. Furthermore , Taulerus divides the Soul into two Parts : to wit , the Inferiour , or more outward Part , which he calls the Soul ; and the other the Superiour and Bottom , which he calls the Spirit : In which Part he saith , it doth specially represent and contain the Image of God : Because the Devil hath not access , thereunto the Kingdom of God being there : But unto both Parts he assigneth far different Acts and Properties , whereby he distinguisheth both . But at least-wise , that good Man blots out Homogeniety or Simplicity of kinde from the Soul , wherein notwithstanding , it ought chiefly to express the Image or Similitude of God : Yea , in this respect , he not only denies the Image of God to be propagated in the whole Man , but also in the whole Soul : Surely , I shall not easily believe a duality in the Soul , nor admit of the interchange of a Binary , if in its Essence , it ought to express the Image of the most Simple Divine Nature : But rather it behoves , that it stand in a most simple Unity , and an undivideable Homogeneity of Immortality , and mark of indissolution , out of all Connexion , or Interchange . I say therefore , that the glorious Image of God , is not only in the Soul ; but the very Mind it self , is essentially the glorious Image of God : And therefore the Image of God is as intimate to the Soul , as the Soul it self , is to it self : For I consider the mind as a Homogeneal , Simple , Immortal , Undivideable Spirit , to wit , one only Being , whereunto Death adds nothing , or takes nothing from it , which is natural unto it in its Essence of Simplicity . But next , as a Partaker of Blessedness ; because Damnation is unto it by accident , besides it appointment , and by reason of a future Defect . Such a Soul therefore being separated from the Body , makes no more use of Memory , nor of Remembrance , through a beholding of the Place where it was , or of Duration ; But the one only [ Now ] doth there contain all things : Therefore if any Memory should remain unto it , it should be in vain ; yea burdensome for ever . The same thing is to be judged of Remembrance or calling to Mind ; Because it is that which breaks forth into Act , only through a Discourse of Reason ; and therefore in Eternity it hath no longer Place , where the Soul , through the beholding of naked Truth without declining , Wearisomeness , and Defect , stands out of necessities of remembring . The blessed Soul therefore , should stand out of the aforesaid Ternary of Powers ; and therefore neither should it any longer represent the Image of God , for which Cause alone it was created : Yea , by a more full looking into the Matter , I do not find Memory to be a singular and separated Power of the Soul ; but a naked manner of Remembring : For therefore forgetful Persons , do by the help of Imagination ( which is the Vicaress of the Understanding ) frame an artificial Memory unto themselves , and they learn a far more strong one , than otherwise , their natural Memory would be . And moreover , Will departs from the Soul , together with the Life , because it came accidentally to the Soul : Seeing that God after the Creation , placed Man in the hand of his own free Will ; which thing surely denotes that the Will is not , after a proper manner , essential to the Mind ; but from a grant , that it may be instead of a Talent , and that he may follow the way which he had rather chuse : Otherwise , seeing nothing is more pernicious than Free Will ; beause it is that alone , which breedeth all discord between God and Man ; surely such a Fa●●lty cannot have place in the blessedness of Eternity : Because the freedom of willing being taken away , the very Will it self perisheth : For otherwise , what shall a power of willing avail , where there is no longer a liberty of being able to will ? But ( say they ) in Heaven , the Will is confirmed : That is , the heavenly Wights cannot will , but what God willeth : For they that are in Charity cannot but will those things which belong to Charity : Which is as much as to say , The heavenly Wights , can no longer will , but God alone doth there will and nill : Therefore the Will ceaseth , while as a liberty of willing is dissolved . For truly , the Will cannot be serviceable , or profitable unto a blessed Soul to Eternity , while as , neither is it able to be brought forth into Act : And such a Will should be onely a wishing : The which surely is not in Heaven , where there is a full satiety of all desirable things , with all abundance . The Will therefore , should be rather a burdensome Appendency of a blessed Soul : Let it be sufficient therefore , that in this Life , men by a Power of Willing , have well deserved , and have treasured up their Talents for advantage . Indeed I speak with a consideration , concerning the power of Willing , for after this Life , a substantial Will ariseth and manifesteth it self , which hath a distinct essence , from the power of that accidental freedom of Willing : For as the imaginative faculty dies with the Life , so also , that free power of Willing ceaseth : Therefore I have believed , that the very spiritual substance of the Soul , doth shew forth the Image of God , but not in its Powers : Namely , herein , most nearly , God is an un-created Being , one incomprehensible , eternal , infinite , omnipotent Good , a super-substantial Light and Spirit : But the Soul is a creature being one , undivided , dependent , immortal , simple , and thenceforth an eternal , spiritual , lightsome Substance . In the next place , in God , there are no accidents ; but every one of his Attributes are the very undistinct most simple Essence it self of the Divine Spirit : which thing also Plato his Parmenides , even after some sort understood : So the Soul , if it shews forth the Image of God , it shall admit of no accident in it self ; but the whole substance thereof shall be a simple Light and Understanding it self : For just even as Smoak being kindled by the Flame , is the same in figure and matter with the Flame ; so likewise , the Soul also is a naked , pure , and simple Understanding , the Light and Image of an uncreated Light : So that as the eye beholds nothing more truly or nearly than the Sun , but all other things by reason of the Sun it self : So a blessed Soul doth not understand any thing more nearly than the Light it self , from whence it totally and immediately dependeth . And as our eye doth not bear the sight of the Sun , so the Soul cannot understand God , and much less , as long as it makes use of the Medium's of Powers , as being bound thereunto : Otherwise , the Understanding being free , doth by understanding , attain the Figure of the thing understood , by a commigration or passing over it transforms it self unto Unity ( as I have taught concerning Reason . ) And so indeed the Soul by Understanding , doth principally and primarily contemplate of God , and is formed into the true Image of God. Yet there are others also , who conceive of the Image of God in the Soul after this manner . That seeing the Law is the Image of God ; but the Law is engraven on our Souls by Reason ; from hence they will have it , That the Soul is the Image of God as it is Rational : But that is plainly improper , yea and impertinent ; For so the Soul containing the Law , should indeed contain the Image of God , but the very substance thereof it self , should not therefore be framed into the very Image of God : Indeed no more than the Law and the Soul it self do differ in essence and supposionality . Surely I have hated Metaphorical Speeches in serious matters : As that , God created Man into his own Image , should denote , that God had given Man the use of Reason ; and that him that is born mad , and deformed , he therefore had not made into his own Image : And moreover , there was not as yet a Law , while the Soul was created . Furthermore , to attribute the Image of God to Reason , is to be injurious to God , and blasphemous , even as I have elsewhere taught concerning Reason : For there is no likenesse or suitableness of Reason with God , of a frail and uncertain Faculty , with an eternal Substance . The Opinions therefore of others being left , I will speak my own : The Understanding hath a Will coequal to it self , not indeed , that which is a power , or an accident , but an intellectual light it self , a spiritual substance , a simple and undivided essence , being separated from the Understanding onely by a supposionality of its Being , but never in its Essence . I find also besides , a third thing in the Soul , the which for want of an Etymology , I name a Love , or Desire , not indeed of having , possessing , or enjoying , but of well-pleasing ; it being equal to the other two , and equally simple in the Unity of Substance , and they are three Suppositions , under one onely , and that an undividable Substance of the Soul : But that Love is not any act of the Will , but it proceeds from the substantial Understanding and Will , as a distinct act : For it happens also in this Life , that we love those things which we understand are not to be loved , and those things which we would not love : We love also those things which exceed or overcome the Understanding and Will : For in an Extasie , the Understanding and Will perish , and are laid asleep , so long as they deliver up their Kingdom unto Love : For neither is that Love a Passion , but a ruling Essence , and a glorifying act . Therefore Will and Love in this place , exceed the circuit of Powers , neither have they any thing common with the Will of the Flesh , or of Man ; but they are essential Titles , whereby ( under a want of Names ) the Mind represents the Image of God ; because the Understanding doth then understand God , is intent on him , and loves him altogether with all the Mind , by one onely and undivided act of Love , by reason of the every way simplicity of its Substance . But as long as we live in the Flesh , we scarce make use of a substantial and purely intellectual Understanding , but rather of an imaginative Power , to wit , of that quality its Vicaress : For in an Extasie , Understanding , Will , and Memory do oftentimes sleep , the act of Love onely surviving ; but so distinct from those three , that notwithstanding , it stands not without the substantial Understanding and Will , and those equally suited unto it self : For truly seeing the Soul is wholly homogeneal in its substance , it should plainly loose that simplicity , if one of the three should be without or besides the other two . Love therefore , the other two being asleep , is then as it were in the Superficies , or rather the other two are imbibed , and supped up in the Love. In this World , Love is before Desire ; because it is a Passion of the amative or loving Faculty , which proceeds from that supposionality of the Soul , which is truly true Love , and representeth the Image of a corporeal Faculty in this Life ; no otherwise , than as Understanding , and Memory ; now , as long as there is a wedlock of the Body , whereinto the immortal Mind is sunk , constitutes a certain third thing : But after Death , Love makes not a priority , as neither a distinction from Desire ; neither hath it the nature of a Power , nor is it an habit , or act of Willing , nor doth it subsist out of the Understanding , neither doth Memory survive in a distinct habit from the Understanding : Therefore the Intellect is a formal Light , and substance of the Soul , which doth beholdingly Know , Discern , Will , and Desire in the Unity of it self , whatsoever it comprehendeth in it self , and in willing , judgeth : For it then remembers no longer by a repetition of the Species or particular kinds of a thing once known , neither is it any longer induced to know by circumstances : But then there is one onely knowledge of all things understood , and a speculative beholding within it self ; yet so , that the Understanding may know one thing more presentially then another , while it reflects it self upon things understood , to wit , because it is in truth it self , and in a distinct Unity . What if the same thing doth now daily stand in the artificiall Memory , because that recollecting Memory is not a distinct act from the inductive Judgement of the Intellect ? Shall not this thing therefore be more proper to the Mind , being once dispatched of the imaginative turbulencies of Understanding ? For neither doth that hinder these things , because in Wine , the Memory perisheth , the Judgement remaining safe , or on the contrary : For he that is drunk , or mad , doth oft-times remember all things before his drunkness , and in like manner , the other returning unto himself , remembers all things which were done in time of his madness . Indeed those things are heterogeneally distinct in the Body , according to the manner of the receiver . Unto Inanimate things also , I observe a certain deaf knowledge to belong , likewise a Sense , and Affection of their Object , which things began to be called Sympathetical ones : But such a deaf perceivance of Objects , is unto those things in stead of sight and understanding . There is moreover , a virtue in them , to wit , a certain vital natural endowment , of a certain goodness and valour , for ends appointed by the Creator : There is also a third Power resulting from both the foregoing ones ; which is that of Joy or Delight at the meeting of things helpful , and of turning away from things hurtful , wherein a certain affection toward their Objects is beheld . Likewise Fear , Flight , &c. which threefold degree of ascent , is more manifest in the more stupid Insects , even as in mad or furious Men , in whom no Understanding is President , and onely the governing Powers of a visual Light doth shine forth : Yet besides , there is present with these , the act of Virtues , and vital Functions , by reason of which , and by which , they are Insects . Thirdly , There is in them a far more manifest formal act of Joy , and averseness : The which again in other sensitive Creatures are as yet far more clearly unfolded . Unto these indeed , a certain sensitive imagination doth belong , with a certain kind of discourse of Reason , which is unto them in stead of Understanding , clearly appearing more or less in all ; so that Quick-sightedness , Will , Memory , and Remembrance , happens unto them under the apprehension of Understanding : Yet their Objects , and Functions being continually changed according to the matter which is inclined unto renting Divisions and singularities . There is also in them , an issuing Power of Goodness and Virtues , whereby their Souls do more or less incline unto the exercises of their Virtues , or Bruitishnesses : And there is at length also in them , their complacency , and wearisomness , and animosity on the considerations of Objects , things so co-united unto sensitive Souls , that it is scarce possible to behold two persons , but we are presently addicted to one more than another ; and these things being incorporeal things according to the manner of the receiver , they shall ( for that reason ) in man be more clarified . Nevertheless I will not that the Image of God be considered in man by reason of any ternary of faculties , which may thereto be found to belong unto other things in the Susteme of the World. Certainly the dignity of the Divine Image , is not in any wise participated of by other created things : For trul● 〈…〉 Divine Image is intimate onely to the Soul , and so proper unto it , as is its own essence unto its self : Yet any properties of the Soul whatsoever , are not the very Essence of the Mind , but the Products and Effects of Essences : For neither is it a thing beseeming the Majesty of the Divine Image , to be drawn out of Qualities : For the properties of other things do co-melt into the Essence of the Soul by virtue of the Divine Image : But if they are reckoned as Attributes ; that is by reason of the miserable manner of the vulgar Understanding ; for truly the Mind is one , pure , simple , homogeneal and undivided act , wherein the Image of God , doth immediately and essentially subsist ; so that , in that Image , even all Powers do not onely lay aside the nature of Attributes , but also , do collect their supposionalities into an undistinct Unity : Because the Soul is in it self , a certain substantial Light , and a substance so clear , that it is not distinctguished by suppositions , from the Light it self : And the Understanding thereof is so the Light of the Soul , that the Soul it self which is nothing but Light , is only meer Understanding . In which Light of its own self , the Soul being separated from the Body , seeth and understandeth it self wholly throughout the whole ; neither hath it need of a brain , or heart : In which organs indeed , its substance seemeth onely to assume the race of Properties : For in the Body , the abstracted Intellect it self , being drowned in corporeal Organs , and seeing it makes use of the same , it represents and assumes a qualitative faculty , which is called Imagination , the which , from the society of the Imaginative Power of the sensitive Soul it self , and splendor of the Understanding , degenerated in the Organs , doth by a certain combination , arise into a qualitative Power : For therefore that Faculty is wearied by Imagining , and failes , so as that it becomes mad , and the haires wax grey ; but the mind being once separated , is never wearied in understanding . And moreover , in living Persons , the Imagination is not onely wearied , but also , it hath not of it self , intellective species , but those which it draws from Objects : And therefore the faculty of Understanding , which in imagining concurreth with the imaginative Office of the sensitive Soul , followes the disposition of the organ , and will or arbiterment of the sensitive Life : Like as , regularly in Nature , the effect follows the weaker part of its Causes . But the Soul whatsoever it requireth for knowing , remembring , and willing , whether it be for once or for oftner times , all that , it hath from it self , and not from another : For neither in the Soul being abstracted or with-drawn , doth a Will arise from the thing understood : Yea , neither is there a Will in the Soul , unto the thing understood ; but it is the goodness of a formal love : The which indeed , is not a proper passion of the Soul , not a habit , not an inclination , nor any quality thereof : But a substantial act of goodness , whereby a blessed Soul , is substantially , simply , and homogenially good , but not qualitatively : And it hath this prerogative , whereby it is the typical Image of the Divinity . But Bodies , as well those which are believed to be compounded , as those that are meerly simple ones , do slide with a perpetual free accord , into the Attributes of Forms , they being readily inclined , into the successive changes of a diversity of kindes , and dissolution . Therefore , now it is manifest , from whence the state , dignity , condition of the Soul , and prerogative of the Divine Image in living Persons , may be over-clouded . But the Desire , or Love of which I here speak , is not a function of the appetitive power , nor the very qualitative power of desiring it self , but it is a substantial part of the mind , or rather the Mind it self , flowing from Understanding and Will : Because those three , are undividably conjoyned by the Creator , under Unity , in as great a simplicity as may be : Yet in live persons , or mortal men , it is separated from Understanding and Will , in its Functions , by reason of the condition of the Organ , and Nature of the sensitive Soul. For truly , now we desire , oftentimes , those things which the Understanding judgeth not to be desirable , and which the Will could wish were not desired : But it must needs be that things whose operations are different or dis-joyned , that the same things are dis-joyned in their root , according to the manner , whereby all particular things are separated : In the Soul indeed , onely by a relative supposionality ; but in the Body , according to a corporeal and qualitative Nature . And therefore , that substantial Desire or Love , is an intimate Essence of the Soul , being consubstantial , and co-equal in age with the same : So that , although , in Heaven , there be a full satiety of desirable things , and a perpetual enjoymens thereof , yet that desire in the Soul doth not therefore cease , the which is a study or ●●●eavour of complacency : Neither doth it therefore infer a passion of the Soul , any more than Charity it self : because they are conjoyned in their root , as one and the same thing : For an amarous desire ceasing , of necessity , either a fullness or glutting , or an unsensibleness of fruition or enjoyment should presently arise , which in the heavenly Wights , would be a shameful thing . That desire therefore of Love , is the fewel of an unterminable or endless delight ; under which consideration , the Mind resembles the Spirit the Comforter : For the unutterable Creator hath placed Man in the liberty of his own Desire , that he might live in the Spirit after the Image of God , in a holy Desire , and perfect Charity . It is manifest therefore , that Operations are distinct from the root of Faculties , while we understand those things which we do not desire , but while we desire those things which we do not plainly know , and which we would not desire . In the next place , we will ( as while a man goes willingly to Punishment ) those things which we do not desire ; and desire those things which we would not ( as while any one commands his Leg to be cut off : ) And likewise the Desire doth afterward , some-sometimes overcome the Will , or the Will doth oft-times compell the Desire , and they by turns draw each other under mutual Commands ; but wholly in Mortals , because the sensitive Soul draws the Understanding , and the Body the sensitive Soul into a manifold disorder of division : For so impossible things happen to be desired , and things past are wished for as present : For unlesse that Desire were from the root of the Mind , he should not sin , who should see a Woman to lust after her , before the consent of a full Will. Therefore very many things are desired , whose Causes are not willed ; and many things , whose Effects are refused by the Will and Judgement . The Desire also doth operate in one manner , and the Will in another . Also , in the motion of the Day , or in duration , the Desire doth oftentimes go before , and sometimes followes the Will , and one overcomes the other by course , that it may restrain something that is distinct from it self : And that wholly in mortal Bodies . But in Eternity , where Love , or Amorous Desire ariseth as the substance of the Soul , nothing is Desired which is not Willed ; and that as well in respect of Act , as Substance and Essence : Because by reason of the simplicity of Substance , they are collected into Unity : Although in the Root they have diverse Suppositions , which plainly exceed the manner ●f Understanding in mortal Men. In the next place , the Kingdom of God in man is unutterable ; that is , God himself , by whose perpetual splendour all things are gathered together into Truth . Therefore the Primary or chief Image of God is in his immortal Soul ; because the very Essence [ whereof ] it self , is also the [ veriest ] Image of God , which Image can neither be expressed by words , as neither thought by the heart , in this Life , because it resembles a certain similitude of God. But in the husk of the Mind , or in the sensitive Soul , and vital Form , there is the same Image re-shining , yet received after the manner of an inferior nature , and defiled through transgressions or Death , from whence at length , the Body also borroweth , not indeed the Image of God , but the Figure of him . But the Soul is devolved into utter darkness , even as it hath separated it self from the uncreated Light , and from the virtue of the Image , and therefore it hath ( by reason of appropriation ) so lost its native Light , as if it were proper unto it , as beseeming it , that thenceforth , it understands , wills , or loves , nothing besides it self , and for it self . For the damned shall rise , not changed ; because their Body rising again , shall receive its limitations from their Soul : The which , seeing now it is , with all depraved affections , reflexed onely on it self , after a corporeal manner : It shall not in rising again , delineate the Image of God ( which is as it were choaked in it ) in the Body , but after a corporeal manner : That is , by way of figure . Lastly , It being deprived through the flood-gate of death , of the helps of Imagination , Memory and Free-Will : It afterwards understands , wills , loves all things from a blind apprehension , as being onely addicted to it self : For it knows its Immortality , but feels Damnation , and complaines of it , as that Injustice is done unto it : Because the love of it self is onely to excuse its excuses in sins , as being committed in dayes of ignorance and innocency , with much frailty of Nature , lyings in wait of Enemies , and want of sufficient Grace : As neither that an eternal punishment is deservedly due , for a momentary transgression . For then it begins to be mad , and persists in hating of God ; Chiefly , because it knows the unviolable arrest of its loss , and an eternal impossibility of escaping . It being therefore cut off in its hope , passeth even from the very beginning of its entrance , into the utmost desperation , in a place where no piety , compassion , refreshment , or recantation is entertained . It happens also , that seeing the Understanding doth naturally transform it self into the Idea of the thing understood , and therefore into the similitude of evil Spirits its Objects : Therefore there is alwaies a present hatred of God , despair , cursing , damnation , and the furious torments of Hell. The Almighty of his goodness , vouchsafe to break the snares that are extended for us in our passage . Amen . CHAP. CIII . The Property of External Things . THe spiritual beginning of Life being now finished , before I descend unto corporeal and sensible Organs , and other supports of Life , I will propose something concerning Places . First of all , therefore , it is certain , That the Heaven hath received no other Law since Transgression , because the Earth alone hath undertaken all the Curse on it self : For from hence I have sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere , That the Heaven is free from our sins , neither that it playes the part of a revenger of iniquities : But if some places are subject unto Death and certain Diseases , that is not to be attributed unto the circulation or whirling of the Heavens , & blind influxes of the Stars : But it is altogether proper unto the dispositions of the Earth : For although Eastern Provinces may seem the more fruitful , or happy that is not to be attributed to the Heaven : Seeing that in a circle , every part subjected under the same circle is alike Oriental or Easterly : Otherwise a Circle should not want a Beginning , End , and Extremity of parts : Therefore there is an inbred goodness in the soil , and the fertility of the ground is holpen by the continual cherishment of the Stars , and a perpetual familiarity of visitation . Truly , under the circle of the Sun , Climates have an ordinary and equal heat ; and so , that as many fruits as by ripening , do ascend unto a degree of perfection , by reason of heat , are there , more happy ; the which otherwise , through want of heat , are not alike perfect : But the heat of the Sun hath respect unto Fruits , but not to Long Life , which is of no less length of continuance in Cold , Mountanous , and Northern places , than else where , under the Hot or Torrid Zone . Surely the favours of the Soyl do not depend on the Stars , as neither the prolongations of Life . The Stars are daily wheeled about , and do daily almost equally affect the Climates of the Earth , which are under them ; but they do every Year receive their Winter and Summer according to the access and recess of the Sun : In the mean time , the Tracts of the more adjoyning Lands , do far vary from each other . They are therefore the particular gifts of the Soyl , but not of the Heaven , which therefore keep a stable goodness , as it were Provincial to the same Tracts of Land. In the holy Scriptures indeed , The Land of Promise floweth with Milk and Honey , being fruitful in Wine , Corn , Pulse , and rich fruits of the Tree : And likewise scarce requiring dunging , and the toyles of Labour . And then I see other Coasts of the World , to owe and pay the Tribute of the Land of Promise : For from both the Poles , continual Rains do steep the Earth that the promised Soyl may without the trouble of Rains , take unto it self , its due Water , and that Aegypt may repay the favours of the Soyl of Heaven , with a double usury of fruits : For Seas and Rivers , strivingly hasten unto those places with a speedy course : Yea , and from beyond the Tropick of Capricorne , Nilus brings down his melted Snows through Aegypt , unto the Mediterranean Sea , as it were a Yearly Tribute of Nature , that may water the more fruitful Countries , if not with Rain , at leastwise with Dew , and the blackish cloudy Waters of Nile , and that the Vapours being lifted up from the Sea , throughout the Soyl , it may most plentifully repay a plentiful Dew round about : And so that the whole World seemeth readily to serve those more fruitful Regions . Under the Aequinoctial Line , it Rains many times every Day , because the Tributary Waters do not reach thither : But they are supped up in the Countries , which God in times past , appointed unto his own People , but now unto Barbarians , by reason of Transgressions , fore-monished of by the Prophets . He therefore blessed the Land of Promise for the People of Israel , from the beginning , but for Reasons foreknown to himself , from Eternity , and the which , he fixed stable into Nature : Yea , he not onely appointed the Tribute of the whole World unto these Lands , but unto most of them he added Reasons , Idea's , Seeds , and Gifts ; whereof the more intemperate Climate are destitute : Nor all that , for any other ends , than because it so well pleased him , for his hidden Judgements . But these things do not make for the consideration of long Life ; for in Is-land , Men are found to be of a Longer Continuance of Life , than in Palestina , Phaenicia , Aegypt , &c. Oftentimes also , in Mountainous , and rough Hills , Older Men are met withal , than in a pleasant Champion : To wit , that we may know , that the Prince of Life hath granted a long continuance of Life , unto so miserable places , and to a singular tract of Land , which he hath denied unto whatsoever the most pleasant , and wealthy Countries . Nature therefore is subject unto the Soyl , even for a stability of Life : For we measure a Diseasie and short Life from Endemicks : Doth happily an Endemical Being breath out of the Lands wherein Life is prolonged ? No surely : And it is sufficient , that a place doth want malignity , that a continuance of Life may be attained , so far as is from the nature of the Place . Lastly , Fountains are either without Savour , or Mineral , they not being those which may have , positively , a long continuance of Life ; But as being those which unsensibly mow down the daily Superfluities or growths of oily Dregs , and in this respect , Life is not untimely taken away , by and by : Neither also , doth much , and a sweet temperature of Air prevail hereunto : For truly , in the rough Hills of the Forrest of Arden , of Scotland , and Spain , in our Champion , a longer Life doth , for the most part occur , than in Aquitane . For Hieres is a Valley nigh Apulia , environed with Mountaines , being fruitful in the sweetest Fruits , where the most sweet Station of the Spring , is almost continued : Yet having Inhabitants of a shorter Life , being deformed with a pale Countenance , so that it hath crept into a Proverb of those that were Sick , and Recovering ; Thou seemest to us , to be a Stranger come from Hieres . For the pleasantnesse of Fruits takes up the suspition of a Mineral Endemick . Also , not onely Mountainous Colds do extend the Life ; but Old Age is frequent among the Aethiopians . Let therefore , those places be fit for Long Life , which being not polluted by any Endemicks , have moreover , not unwholsome Waters , nor the which are infamous for a stormy Wind. CHAP. CIV . The Radical Moisture . THe Schooles with one Voice , promote the Radical Moysture of Life : For they declame , That from it , and in it we live ; and that , that onely being consumed , we die . For they , who together with Aristotle , attribute all things to heat , as to an active Principle , do not say , That the Radical moisture is the Beginning , as neither the Inn of Life ; unless they derive the Primateship on Heat in the moisture : But the moisture hath more pleased others : From whence , they being sore afraid , through the sloath of a diligent search , least they should erre , they will have our Life to depend on , and be prolonged , as well by moisture as by heat , without distinction : And so they denominate it , not indeed heat , but composedly , Radical heat , or the first-born moisture : That indeed , the first-born or original moisture in us , and the radical heat , may be for synonymals . But moreover , all do with one consent presage , that our Vital heat would never fail us , if there might always be enough and to spare , of that moisture and fodder : Which moisture , because they believe to be hereafter wasted by a necessary action of heat , they finish the hope and Treatise of Long Life , by a denial . But alas ! with what pernicious blindness hath the Schoole of Medicine , through thinking stumbled in all things ! It had also seen the Flame of a Lamp to be nourished with Oyl , and that through defect hereof , that also failed , but that it was continued by the pouring on of Oyl : Wherefore a plausible Invention smiled on them , and therefore they drew that Invention into the History of Life : Especially because , they by sense took notice , that heat was no less in the four-footed Beast , and Bird , than in a Man : So greatly , with the Patronage of Aristotle , have they confounded heat under the Etymology of Life . And then , they presently drew out of heat , the token of true and presential Fire ; Yet the Question remained under Controversie . The Aristotelicks indeed , attribute this Fire unto the Element of the Stars , and contratrarily distinguish the sublunary Element of Fire , in its species : But others attribute it unto the Element of sublunary Fire : And have about this , and the other , their own Arguments of Brawlings . In the mean time , the Schoole hath been wholly dumb , about mute and cold Fishes , and although it confessed , that Fishes do live , are moved , and nourished no more unprosperously , than four-footed Beasts ; yea , although it knew that they are enriched with a far more fruitful race of Off-springs ; in the next place , that they live a more healthy Life , and notwithstanding , that Fires and heats are wanting under the Sea ( especially the frozen Sea ) wherein in the mean time there was the greatest and most populous Common-wealth ; neverthelesse it would not forsake the embers of the vital spark drawn in from its tender years , although it took notice that it was deluded through a Patronage of truth . Wherefore the miserable Schooles flee unto Decrees or Authorities : Therefore they would have Man , Birds , and also four-footed Beasts , to be indeed in a Trine Number , and that the Fish might be involved as a Fourth , and consocial thereunto , and be constrained under their large Doctrine : That they might determine of an equal right concerning the Fish , as absent , in the participation of Radical heat . But because the Soul comes as a Servant unto established pleasures , and doth also administer Reason even for a non-Being , at pleasure they have devised a privy shift ; and determine , to wit , That hot living Creatures are actually hot , with a palpable Fire ; but that Fishes are onely potentially hot . As if therefore Fishes , should onely potentially live , if the Effect doth not badly square with its granted Causes . The Schooles I say , do feign Heat to be the total Cause of an actual Life , to wit , they substitute an equivocal or doubtful Quality , like unto heat ; but an irregular , unnamed one , because an unknown , feigned , and dissembled one , to be received under the name of potential Heat : For the Schools by imagining , have abhorred to enter into the Depth of the Sea : wherefore the Speculation of Fishes being left as barren ( because it was resisted by a plausible Devise ) they have well pleased themselves ( as it were wandring in a Dream ) in hot Animals , with the Application of Lamps and Life : Shall the radical Moisture , thus , be no longer with Aristotle , Spermatick , Froathy , and Muscilaginous , but now to let it be Oylie , Fat , and Combustible ? Shall thus therefore a Fat Belly , which through much Grease , shall afford Fewel for the radical Moisture , be only of necessity , Long-lived ? A Capuchin in our Country , was Cold for almost an whole year , at least-wise in both his Legs and Arms : because he shall loose less of his Moisture , he shall of necessity retain his Oyl the longer in his Lamp. But at least-wise , here a certain wan Stupidity of the Schools , elsewhere by me demonstrated , is adjoyned : To wit , that the Action of Heat ( especially , if it shall not be kindled by a lively Flame ) doth indeed dry up all Moistures into a Sandy-stone and Coal ; but never consumeth them without the remainder of a residence , even as is easie to be seen in us ; so that it is even a wonder , that they have not hitherto observed , that Consuming is not made in us , by Heat alone . But at least-wise , there should be need of a torch in the Heart ( which thing also the Schools have not yet considered ) least otherwise , the feigned and vapo rous fatness of the Moisture ( because it is that which in the Heart , should be wholly Spiritual ) like Aqua Vitae , should in a small moment , and great breviary , burn up all at once , and cease to be : For else , without a torch ( neglected by the Schools ) the feigned History of Life , shall badly square unto Fires built from the first-born Liquor , which are on every side kindled at once . However they shall say , at least , from one Absurdity drawn out of the Latex or Liquor of Life , there are many Anguishes . But let us freely feign , that this idle Devise of the Schools might stand : To wit , that the Life is a certain Fire wasting the radical Moisture , because it is Fat , and doth thereby live , and that Lean Persons alone , are of a shorter Life . But from whence is that Moisture in us ? Is it not from the Nourishment materially , and from the vital Archeus efficiently ? Certainly our Lamp shall never be extinguished , if the Power of burning or blazing Heat ( as they will have it ) be for the making of Oyl out of the Bread and Drink , and if nothing of a Residence remaineth from the fatness in the Torch , which may stop up and stifle that Torch : To wit , even as nothing at length , remains from the Blood in Persons of ripe Years , which may have it self in manner of a superfluous Coal . And indeed , in a Feast , hath it not its abundance of Nourishments ? and heat the Workman of that fat Moisture , resulting within from thence ? Seeing that Light proceeds from Light , and an uncombustible Fire from Fire , with no difficulty ? Why therefore doth the Man die ? For I find from the Positions of the Schools , a perpetual Motion in the Theory , but not in the Practick : Therefore Fraud and Deceit do subsist in their Positions ; or at least-wise a shameful Rashness . But they will say , that after growth , nothing is any longer applyed from the radical Moisture , unto the solid Parts : Therefore it must needs be , that the true radical Moisture , seeing it doth now no longer co-here to the Root ; therefore also the sound Parts do by degrees wax dry ; and so that the Fodder of the Heat failing , the same Heat dyeth . But first of all , from hence is drawn , that the Death of Old Age doth not happen , but by reason of the dryness of the similar Parts : When as a Stag of one Year old , is dryer than a Man of eighty Year old , and yet he easily extends his Life , unto one or two Ages . In the next , if the Moisture ceaseth to be radical , because it reacheth not the end , or Application unto the Root ; That indeed is to the moisture by accident , and therefore it doth not change the Essence thereof : For neither doth the Heat of the Fire cease to be propagated in the Neighboriag Wood , although the burning Wood shall not receive a fewel of fatness from without . Neither in the next place , doth the aforesaid excuse subsist : For truly , for every Event , the solid Parts shall have themselves in manner of a Lamp or Torch , which is sufficiently able to burn , in what part Oyl is supplyed unto it , and so that Oyl being supplied from without , the Fire should be able to live for ever : For they teach , that the Heat of the solid Parts is from the Element of Fire , the which they think to be for the mixture of Bodies , and to be enflamed in the fatness of the radical moisture or humour . First of all , that Moisture is spermatick and muscilaginous , but not Oylie . And then , if the Fire passeth out of the solid Parts , unto the Moisture which it enflameth ; it shall be sufficient for the Moisture to be consumed , and alwayes to be applyed from without , nor to be incorporated in the Root throughout the whole : Because if it pass out of the solid Parts , unto the unsolid Parts applyed unto it , during the whole life time , it shall alwayes be able to pass thorow the un-solid Parts : applyed unto it : neither doth that excuse availe , that it ceaseth to be radical , while it is no longer United unto the innermost Root : Because then , prefently after growth , the vital Vigour should be extinguished , because the Moisture doth not then any longer receive a Union with the solid or sound Parts . But why do I stay any longer in refuting of Absurdities ? It hath been so sufficiently and over-shewn , that the Fire is not an Element , that the mixture of the same , for the Subsistence of all Bodies whatsoever , is false ; because those of mixt Bodies are meer and antient Fables . The Fire therefore , if there were any in us , should be primarily in the vital Spirit , for the which , enough Moisture doth alwayes supply it self out of the venal Blood. Wherefore indeed , I grieve that they have hitherto so sloathfully stumbled in the Subject of Life , and Doctrine of Integrity or Health : For I , after the time of my Youth , conjectured that there was an Errour altogether shamefully committed , and omitted , in the Consideration of Defects and Diseases : Because none truly knows that which is crooked , who hath not first known that which is right . This therefore is the feigned Doctrine of the Schools , concerning Life , which they endeavour to establish by the supposed Authority of a little Book ( feigned on Hippocrates ) concerning humane Nature : Which saith , That we on the first day of our Birth are most hot ; and likewise at length , on the last day , most Cold : As if there should be a different Condition of our Heat , from that of any other things ! For whatsoever things do arise from elsewhere , do presently after assume an increase , and that without ceasing , and at length decline and fail . Wherefore if according to the Mind of the Old-man , Heat should most greatly abound on the first day ; yet neither is the Life tied up to Heat : For truly I have demonstrated , that Heat is rather an Effect of Life in hot living Creatures , than the Life it self , or the Cause of Lise ; and therefore Fishes can most safely want Heat , and now for that very Cause , it commits an Errour in arguing of , not the Cause , as for the Cause . Truly , I am alwayes wont to behold , search into , believe , and measure Heat as Heat , and as a Quality , neither also to implore any other Witnesses or Judges , besides the Sense of Touching , and an Instrument of Glasse , which I have afore taught , for the searching out of Degrees and Moments of Heat in the encompassing Air : In which Sense , I have found a Man of thirty Years of Age , to be hotter than any Child , however in the mean time they may doat about the diverse particular Kinds of Heat : For let them dispute of Qualities known by Sense , as of Fables , and under potential Considerations ; but I have accustomed my self to divide , open , look into , and esteem of things even as they are in themselves . But moreover Paracelsus being ignorant of the radical Moisture of the Schools , doth now and then confound that with the Mummy of our Body ; but elsewhere he reputes it to be as it were the inward shadow of our Body , from whence he would have shadowie Flames to shine round about us ; To wit , that the radical Moisture is the Image of the Man , extended throughout the whole Man , and deferring or prolonging his Life . In another place also , he judgeth the radical Moisture to be the Mercury , or one of his three Beginnings ( not divideable in living Persons ) which is equally participated of throughout the whole : For the Life being extinguished by the Plague ( for Death takes away the Mummial Goodness ) the Mummy indeed hath very cunningly failed or forsaken the same Moisture in the Body . At length , although the Schools confess , that younger People are oft-times extinguished ; the radical Moisture being not yet consumed , as neither through Penury of Heat ; and in this respect , they are not very careful for their ; own Position , whereby they may equally measure the Life by Heat , and radical Moisture ; yet they remain in the Bounds of their Ancestours , by reason of a custom of Assenting ; a sloath of diligent . Searching ; and despair of Learning : For indeed they have been ignorant of lightsome Lights of : Life , but that they are indifferent , by reason of the distinction of the two greater Lights ; For that they may be hot , like as also cold : That is , they have not Learned that Forms and : Lives are Synonymals : But I have alwayes greatly pitied the confused Tradition of this Moisture , which is of so great Moment ( although in the Moisture of the Root , they confess both the Hinges of Medicine to be rouled ) : I bestowed much Iabout in my younger Years , by the Resolutions of Bodies , that I might find some certain Messenger of the radical Moisture . And at length , through the Favour of God , I was at last more assured , that not any of those things were in Nature , which with a lofty Brow , are promised by the Schooles in this respect . I acknowledge indeed , that there is a seminal Original Moisture , which is the constitutive Moisture of us ; but altogether of the same Species , Property , and Identity , with that whereby we grow , and are afterwards uncessantly nourished : And so that the Bones , Bowels , Nerves , Tendons of Children , do consist of an un-different , and do increase from a like Moisture , whereby young Folks , their Increase being now finished , are nourished : According to the Maxime of the Schools ; We are nourished by the same thing whereof we consist : But we consist of Original or first-born Moisture , therefore we are also nourished by it . Yet I have discerned , that the nourishable Moisture , as long as it is homogeneally admitted for Increase , within the Root of the Mixture , is wholly the same with that which is radical : But if afterwards by accident , it be no longer admitted into an unseperable Fellowship , because growth ceaseth ; Yet that this doth not in the least change , vitiate , alter , or alienate the Nature of the former Moisture : Because that abundance of it is in every part eminently cast forth by Dreams , it being of the same kind , with the original , and radical Moisture ; which two names are distinguished only in this , that of the original Moisture , the Young is formed : But the radical Moisture is that same , and moreover , that from whence we grow and are nourished : For as long as we are increased , there is made not only a solid Application of the moisture , but a solid Application and Assimilation of that which is applied ( for that thing happens daylie under every Nourishment ) but moreover , there is made a radical Union of the thing nourished , with the Nourishment , which is presently afterwards sealed by the Spirit of Life , and vitally illustrated by the Form : Therefore the sealing contains a Character , which fixeth and confirmeth that Moisture into the homogeneal Substance of the similar Part , to wit , from whose Archeus the Nourishment it self is converted and assimilated ; and so that by transchanging , it departs into the Family of the Part containing , which before was only contained ; under which Flux , a true Information of the Soul happens . From its lot only there , and happy success , the radical Moisture is distinguished from the Dew of the secondary Humours , but not in Nature : To wit , because the Dew being as it were a new and young Humour , is consumed as to a great part of it , in time of growth , and as to its whole after-growth , neither is it ever united into the Root of Mixture , that it may be made a partaker of the aforesaid sealing , and attain the Dignity of a part containing . For example ; Calx-vive , or Quick-lime , when it is quenched or appeased , becomes a Pluss , which most intimately couples the Water to the Calx : But if more Water than is meet be poured on it , the same Water abounding , is straightway rejected , and swims a top . In the mean time notwithstanding , in fulness of time , that Calx is dried and stonifies even under the middle of the Waters ; But that hardness being once attained , although it be afterwards most exactly beaten into the most fine Powder or Dust , yet for the future , it keeps the Shape of a Powder , and despiseth the intimate Wedlocks of Water , it assumeth not the Disposition of the former Pulss , neither is the Water thenceforth , radically co-mixed with it . Notwithstanding the Moisture of the Water it self , is individually the same , whether it be secluded from the co-mixture of the Calx , or be admitted unto it : And that , because it is contingently contingent to the Water , by accident , not so much through Defect of the Water , as of the Calx or root . But yet , the aforesaid Pulss of the Lime is plainly more slowly dryed , than the Powder of the Moisture is from without , on every side watered with the Waters . I therefore considered , that however the Schools do resound many things concerning the radical Moisture ; yet that the nourishable Humour doth not any way differ from the radical Humour it self , as long as it pulsifies , and is solidated within the Root of Mixture , being conjoyned unto the first constituting parts by a radical Union : Because that both the Liquors are the same in Matter , Virtue , Substance , Purity , formal Identity , and Participation of Life , the which , when our solid Parts do no longer pulsifie and admit of , they at least-wise for the future , hinder an intimate Connexion of the Root , so much as they can , and fore-slow the dryness of the solid containing Parts , by reason of their continual bedewing : For when that Pulss of the sound Parts hath obtained a just Solidity ; to wit , because the power of Increasing , defluxing from the Brain , is exhausted ; then the Moisture is only made nourishable , which before was made radical : For however Old Age cause dryness ; yet Death is not from a more dry Habit or State of Body : For truly , we may rather conjecture Dryness to be from a Defect of the vital Powers , than the aforesaid Defect from dryness : For the Moisture of the solid Parts , however in an Atrophia , and Diseases of long continuance , it be equally , and throughout the whole entire Body consumed ; yet it is easily restored by a due Nourishment , and the more bountifully by taking the milkie Element of Pearls : So also the Ulcers of the Lungs are solidated or made whole by the sweet Corollate of Mercurius Diaphoreticus ; to wit , by Virtue whereof , the Epitaph of Paracelsus publisheth , that the Tabes was often restored : For I remembered , that I in the great Heat of ( the 5th Month called ) July , bored the Head of a Toad with a sharpe Stick or Staffe , and that I fastened the Staffe at the other end , into the Ground , that the Toad being hung up , might be dryed . But it happened , that full four dayes after , I returned to the same place , found the Toad alive , contracting his Thighs , as if he had been there only the day before ; because the hole was not with a straight Line , in the middle of his Head , but inclined a little the more unto the left side : Wherefore I drave the Staffe into the middle of his Head , and returning about the evening , I found the Toad not only Dead , but to have been wholly dryed up . From whence I the more firmly perswaded my self , that a Defect or Failing of the Vital Powers , was not from the Dryness of the solid Parts ; but rather that Dryness was , and did Increase in us , according to the proportion of a Piece-meale extinguishment of the Vital Powers . Let therefore the Radical Ignorance of the Schools depart , whereby , by an unrepaitable Penury ( as they will have it ) of the Radical Moisture , they cover their Fault under the Ground of the Place of Burial : For the Diminishment of the Gifts and Vital Powers alone , sealed in the Family Administration of the implanted Spirit , bringeth on Old Age , as also the Extinguishment of Death , intestine Calamities : which is to say ; My Spirit shall be Diminished , and my Dayes shall be Shortned . Therefore let the Consideration of the Radical Moysture for the Study of Long Life , depart . For truly Hippocrates cals Natures themselves or , the Vital Powers , the Physitianesses of Diseases ; and the which therefore Languishing , dayly Miseries of Infirmities wax strong , and these departing , do proclaim with lofty Shoulders , a Despaire of Life , as oft as the Faculties or Powers fail , whether in the mean time plenty of Radical Moisture , or a scantiuess of the same be present : For they cease not to extend a Crow and a Stage , which are dryer than any toothless Old-man , unto some Ages , and to be Incumbent on the laboursome gain of Reverence : For because dryness begins from , the Bones , Quick-sighted and provident Nature , comes to meet or prevent this same Dryness , with a more large Nourishment of Marrow , and She would have it to be Fat , and less discussable , or dispersable by Heates , that it may vindicate the Old Age of the Bones from Dryness , by its Unctuous Moisture : For therefore there is a greater plenty or Marrow in four-footed Beasts that are Aged , than in the little Young Ones , because there is a greater necessity thereof . I therefore do no longer highly esteem of the irrepairable radical Moisture , for the Foundation of Life , as neither being astonished at Dryness , in as much as it is such , neither also am I wont to measure out the Life , according to the Pleasure of the first Qualities : Because I knew that the Life did not wax dry , as neither was it to be drawn from the Bosom of the Elements , after that I beheld the interchangeable Courses of a long and short Life , to be in the Center of Life . CHAP. CV . The Vital Air. THe Schools have not performed enough , in teaching that Nourishments are transchanged first into Chyle , and then from hence into the Digested Juice of Venal Blood , and so that in the Liver , a natural Spirit is made , which by a repeated Digestion in the Heart , is formed into vital Spirit , and at length , that in the Brain it is made animal ; So as that the natural Spirit should be fit for using the Parts , but the Vital for quickning and conserving the same , as also lastly , that the Animal Spirit should be appointed for the Functions of Sense , Motion , and of the Mind . But moreover , in my Judgment , it had behoved them more largely to discover the Thingliness and History of the Deed , in so long a race of Studies , and Repetition of Writers . Indeed they know that there is a certain Spirit , that Maker of the Assault , according to Hippocrates , which holds the Stern of Life in its Hand : It was to be sought for and pronounced in what Organs or Instruments that Spirit should be made , or what it should act , and also they ought to have explained , every Disposition , the Substance thereof , and the Properties of its Substance , and also the manner of its making . I therefore will declare , what I may meet with in this respect . That therefore we may be led into the Knowledge of the Vital Spirit , the Blas of Man should first of all be repeated in this place : but least I be tedious , I will here omit it , and refer the Reader elsewhere , unto the Volume of the rise of Medicine . I have elsewhere also , delivered a Mean or Manner , whereby through instilled Ferments , an Aqua Vitae may be made of every Plant and Fruit whatsoever : Which manner the vulgar Sort hath known , and doth exercise , while it frameth an Aqua Vitae or Liquor of Life out of Grains , Fruits , Ale or Beer , Hydromel or honied Water no less than out of Juice of the Vine . But an Aqua Vitae is a volatile Liquor , Oylie indeed ( as it is wholly enflamed ) and likewise wholly Salt , for as much as being an Air , it biteth , yea and being but a little while detained in the Mouth , it burns and embladders the upper skin of the Gums . I in this place , taking notice by the way , that two Beginnings of Chymistry are one only and an undivideable Simple thing . I have shewn also elsewhere , after what manner one Pound of Aqua Vitae being combibed in the dryed Salt of Tartar scarce half an Ounce of Salt can be made , but that the whole Body may be made an Elementary Water , as it was before : And so that from hence it is easie to be seen , that Water is by Nature a more formerly and simple Body that the Chymical Beginnings themselves . While as the Water , which at first was not in act , in the most expurging or refined Aqua Vitae , is nevertheless , by its reducement , thereby made its first Element of Water : The which handicraft Operation , moreover , by transferring unto the Speculation of Life , I find that the Wine in its winy Parts , containeth the Aqua Vitae the Water of Life ; and therefore that is easily , quickly , and without the digested Maturities of the Liver , and Gaul , snatched through the Arteries of the Stomack , unto the Heart , or to be called unto it immediately , for the supply , and defect of the vital Spirit ; and in this respect to delude the Opinion of the Schools , which presupposeth that the Spirit of the Liver ought to precede : For if there be more of the Spirit of Wine in the Stomack , than is meet , Drunkenness follows , to wit , as the Spirit of Wine is more largely attracted , than can in a fit Interval be changed into Vital Spirit : Which thing surely proveth first of all , a changing of , and also the Operations of a Digestion and Ferment . In the next place , that also is remarkable ; To wit , that there is a certain more mild Spirit in the Wine , a Partaker of another and more noble Quality , than that Spirit which is immediately drawn out by Distillation , and is called refined or expurged Aqua Vitae : The which is easily beheld by the Sight , in the simple Oyl of Olives : because Oyl being Distilled without the Additaments of Bricks or Tiles , and the which therefore , is called Oleum Philosophorum , differs much from its Oyliness , which is extracted , the simple Oyl being first reduced into unlike Parts , only by the Digestion , and Application of the circulated Salt of Paracelsus : For truly the circulated Salt is separated the same in weight , and antient Qualities from the Oyl , after that the Oyl of Olives is disposed into its diverse kinds of Parts : For then by this means , a sweet Oyl is separated from the Oyl of Olives , even as also a most sweet Spirit of Wine from the Wine , and that far distinct from the tartness of Aqua Vitae . But in us , although the meat together with the Drink do after some sort putrifie ( for that Purefaction is a manner and mean of transchanging a thing into a thing ) yet in our Digestions , the Spirit of Aqua Vitae is not , by such a Putrefaction , and action of the Ferment of the Spleen , drawn out of Potherbs , Pulses , Bread-Corns , or Apples : For truly it is not the Intention of our Nature , to procreate an Aqua Vitae for it self ; but there is a far different Ferment in us , whereby things are resolved into Chyle ; And a far different one , whereby things do putrifie , and are separated into an Aqua Vitae : For this Ferment is introduced by many Mediums ; but that is not attained but by a specifical fermental Property of any Species : For while Herbs , through a long steeping in Water , are made to putrifie by their Ferment or Vicar , for the extracting of an Aqua Vitae , the stalke branches , and entire Leaves remaine in their Figure and Hardness ; the which notwithstanding being chewed , swallowed and well concocted within , do in a few hours depart into Chyle , and loose the first Nature of Herbs . Wherefore I have also elsewhere pressed , to wit , that there are as many specifical digestive Ferments , as many Varieties of Putrefactions , and as many Dungs of one Bread , as there are particular Kindes of Animals nourished by Bread : Yea , and moreover , there are more Ferments for the Corruption of Bread ; because also , Bread doth putrifie after many manners , as well of its own accord , as through the Odour of Places , and Impressions of Agents : And that which is said of Bread , the same thing may be understood of other Foods . The Schooles taking notice also , that nothings will profit us , but that which in its Root containeth the Flourish of Life , therefore also they would , that the Spirit of the Liver being actually natural , should glisten in the Venal Blood like an Air : And they have thought it to be a Vapour , and therefore also , they have confounded it with an Exhalation : Not knowing that a Vapour is Water ; but that it is not a Gas , a wild Spirit , an uncoagulable Air and Skie : Therefore they have thought , that a Vapour exhaling out of the out-chased venal Blood ( even as elsewhere , it breaths out of any lukewarm Liquors , was that Spirit of the venal Blood , from whence the vital Spirit should afterwards be materially framed : Of which I have elsewhere profesly spoken . For indeed , whatsoever defcendeth into an healthy Stomack , if it be concocted by the Ferment of the Spleen , it waxeth sharp through the fermental and specifical Sharpness of our Species : And Superfluities being first sequestred from thence , it is at length turned into venal Blood : Which Blood after the Bound of its Digestion , is transferred into the Heart , and is made Arterial Blood , which in the holy Scriptures , is called A ruddy or red Spirit , wherein the Soul inhabiteth : For it is made fit to pass over into Vital Spirit , and the remainder thereof to undergo the last Digestion of the solid parts ; and at length , without that its residence , to exhale into the Air : Therefore also for that very Cause , it ought to be volatile , and to have assumed the Disposition of a Spirit in the Heart . Furthermore , that Sharpness of the Stomack , by Virtue of the ferment of the Gaul , is converted into a Salt , even as elsewhere concerning Digestions : And the Actual Saltness is separated with the Urin , and Sweats , because it became Excrementitious . But the Mass of the venal Blood it self , seeing it cannot pass over into Spirit , but by the Vital Ferment of the Heart ; I say there is made a substantial Derivation or Translation of the Venal Blood into Arterial Blood , and of the Arterial Blood into Spirit , wholly throughout the whole , without any residence and separation of heterogeneal Parts ; because the Excrements are first withdrawn from thence , and the Substance of the Heart is restless , being continually busied about this Office of Transmutation , that it may uncessantly effect Arterial Blood out of the Venal Blood , and of this vital Spirit : So that a certain natural Spirit , doth not fore-exist in the venal Blood , from whence as it were of the matter [ whereof ] vital Spirit may be made : But the whole venal Blood it self , if there shall be need , is made Arterial Blood , and from thence , ●ital Spirit . Therefore the making of Venal Blood in the Liver , and the making of Arterial Blood in the Heart do differ : For one is a true transmutation of the Chyle into venal Blood , and the generating of a new Being . But the other is an extenuating of the Venal Blood , into a volatile Arterial Blood , and into a Vital Air : For venal Blood is made with a thickning of it self , and with a Separation of the liquid Excrement , or Urin. But the Vital Spirit is made with a melting of that which is thickned , and an Aiery extenuation thereof , to wit , whereunto the Arterial Blood affords a Degree or Mean. I confess indeed , that the Spirit of Wine is snatched as a Spirit , into the Arteries , as a certain simple Symbolizing , and previously disposed thing , that it may easily passover into vital Spirit : but the Schooles do from hence conclude nothing for their Spirit of the Liver . Therefore let the venal Blood be the Spirit of the Liver it self coagulated , and the fore-existing Matter of the Vital Spirits : Which Spirit indeed hath the Nature , together with the Power of a Body , that it may be Spiritualized . Therefore , even as from the Ferment of the Heart , the venal Blood is made arterial Blood , and a volatile Spirit : So in the Arteries , as it were in the Stomack of the Heart , and the Ferment of the Heart being drawn , the Arterial Blood it self passeth over into the Common-wealth of Spirits . Yea the secondary Humours also , or the immediate Nourishments of the solid Parts , are by degrees made Volatile , least they should leave a remaining Residence behind them ; but they make an egress with a total transpitation of themselves . The Heart therefore by its Ferment , frameth arterial Blood out of venal Blood , the which by the same endeavour , it so fits and extenuates , that moreover , so much of vital Spirits is made out of the arterial Blood , in the Arteries , as it were in its Stomack , as the Grosness , and resisting Substance of the arterial Blood , in so small a space , wherein it is agitated or wrought in the Arteries , permits to be made : And there is well nigh a single Action , while the venal Blood passeth over into arterial Blood , and the Arterial Blood into Spirit : Because they differ not in their Shops , and likewise in the Degrees of Digestion , Extenuation , and Subtilizing : For as much of arterial Blood is bred of venal Blood , and as much of vital Spirits is made out of the arterial Blood , by the same Fe●ment of the Heart , as is needful for every one of them , and the Faculties of concocting are able to make . Neither is it sufficient also , to have known that the venal Blood doth ascend into arterial Blood ; but that the arterial Blood passeth over , partly into vital Spirit , and partly departeth into the Nourishment of the solid Parts : Also that at length of vital Spirit , it is made animal , and the which receiveth an ultimated or utmost Determination in its Nerves : so indeed , that it is made visive or visible Spirit in the optick Nerves or Sinews of Sight , but being exorbitant from thence , and being derived into the Tongue , it should be plainly unprofitable for tasting ; even as also the Aanimal Spirits , the Authors of touching , are unfit for Motion , and those of this , for them . But moreover , it behoves us to have known the Marrow of the vital Spirit : For indeed , of the Sharpe Chyle , partly venal Blood , and partly a Urin and sweat is made : But that excrementous Saltness of the Urin , is a volatile and Salt Spirit , the which being co-fermented with Earth , at length a Salta-peter is formed ; wherefore that Salt Spirit is excrementous . The venal Blood indeed by Distillation , shews unto us also a saltish Spirit , plainly volatile , not any thing distinguishable in Smell , as neither in Tast , from the Spirit of the Urin : Yet essentially different in this , that the Spirit of the Salt of Venal Blood cureth the Falling-sickness , but the Spirit of the Salt of Urin not so . From hence at leastwise it is manifest , that there is a Salt , and volatile Spirit in the venal Blood. But after what manner the whole venal Blood may be homogeneally transchanged by the Ferment of the Heart , cannot be explained by Words : because Natures themselves are not demonstrable from a former Cause : For the Operations of Ferments for the transmutation of things , are essential ; but not the accidentary Propagations of Accidents , for the causing of Dipositions only . The vital Spirit therefore is plainly Salt ; therefore Balsamical , and a Preserver from Corruption : That although the Aqua Vitae doth easily pass into vital Spirit ; yet this Spirit is not Oylie , or combustile , like the Aqua Vitae ; but the Spirit of Wine , only through a touching of the Ferment , is easily , wholly changed into a salt Spirit , and forthwith looseth its inflamable Disposition : Even as I have taught in the Book of the Stone in Man , after what manner Aqua Vitae may by the Spirit of Urin , be in one only instant coagulated into a subtile Gobbet or Lump : The which concerning the volatile Salt of the arterial Blood , may through the effective Ferment of the Heart , be much more evidently proved . Wherefore , they who for some good while , do undergo the beating of the Heart , although they shall then drink abundantly , and that , much of the more pure Wine , yet they are not easily made Drunk : Because that by reason of an urgent necessity , the Spirit of the Wine is most speedily attracted into the Heart , and Arteries , which are scanty in spirits , and is suddenly formed into vital Spirit . It restoreth I say , the Strength or Faculties ; neither yet doth it then make drunk ; because it is no longer a stranger ; but being drawn into the Heart , it easily becomes domestical , and then is on every side dispensed through the Arteries : For it doth not argue to the contrary , that the Spirit of Salt-peter is sharp , and that therefore the vital Spirit ought to be sharp : For neither was the Spirit from whence Salt-peter was made in the Earth , then sharp : And therefore the vital Spirit is Salt , and nearer to the Spirit of Urin , than of Salt-peter , the which by reason of Adustion , and Extraction , is alwayes a new Creature of its composed Body . That Foundation therefore , which is laid by the Ferment of the Gaul , in volatilizing and making Salt ; this afterwards is perfected in the Shop of the Heart : For the foregoing Digestions , are as so many Dispositions unto vital Functions , and Necessities : for a Member being once stupified , if Sense or Feeling shall return , that surely is made with sensible Spurs and Prickings , which are the tokens of true saltness . But that the whole venal Blood is a meer Salt , may not from elsewhere be more clearly deducted ; than that because in the Dropsy , Ascites , and in Ulcers , it is homogeneally through a most easie Degeneration , changed into a salt Liquor . But a salt , sharp Quality , and subtile Matter was suitable to the vital Spirit , if it ought to be sufficient for preserving of the Members . The redness also of the venal Blood , assumeth a yellowness , while it is made arterial Blood , because that which is Red through the tartness of Salt , waxeth Yellow in its dissolving : Neither yet hath the arterial Blood lost all its redness , for truly a Part thereof , ought to remain for the Nourishment of the solid Members . It is a dead or invalid thing , whatsoever I have hitherto said , that the Spirit of Life is a salt , sharp Vapour , and made of the arterial Blood , by the vital Members their own Ferments . I will therefore Speak of the Life of the Spirit : For seeing it ought to do its Duty with the Offices of Life , it was not required that it should be in the shew of a salt Liquor , or arterial Blood , or that it should befool us under the likeness of a salt Exhalation ; but because it ought primarily to live , and receive the Life , it was meet for it to be enlightned : not indeed with a burning , enflaming , or fiery Light ; but with a simple vital Light , of the Nature of soulified Formes , of the sensitive Life and Soul ; and that indeed of a humane Species : For , for the Understanding thereof , suppose thou , that Worm● named Glow-wormes , have by Night , a Light in their Belly , which not only shines like the Eyes of a Cat , but also pouers forth a thin Light round about ; that Light is extinguished with the Life of the Glow-worme . A like Light suppose thou to be , which enlightneth the vital Spirit ; as long as it liveth it shineth , and is propagated into Spirit newly made , being duly elabourated : And by how much the more impure , and the less elabourated it shall be , by so much shall that Light be the Darker : But that Light is extinguished in us , the Matter of the Spirit remaining , in the Plague , Poysons , &c. even as by Swooning and Beating of the Heart , the Light is extinguished , and the Spirit vanisheth away . In time of Death also , the Membrane of the Eye is destitute of a manifest Light , plainly to be seen ; Yet the Essence of that Light in Glow-worms , is not so alike to that which is in us , to wit , as they differ from us only in Degree : But there are as many Species of these Lights , as there are of vital Creatures : That is unto us a token of divine Bounty , that there are so many Species and vital Differences of Lights , which by us are comprehended under one only Notion ; because that those Lights , are the very Lives and Forms themselves of vital Creatures : So that the thrice most glorious Father of Lights doth recreate himself in the abundance of the kinds of Lights , with no less a Lavishment , than as in one only humane Countenance , he hath fashioned almost as many Varieties as Men : because there is in his Power a certain Common-wealth of vital Lights , and Band of innumerable Citizens ; a certain Similitude whereof he expresseth in vital soulified Creatures , by a Life , a Form , that is , by a vital Light. The vital Spirit therefore , Is Arterial Blood resolved by the force of the Ferment and Motion of the Heart , into a salt Air being vitally enlightned ; which Light in us , is hot , but in the Fish it is so actually cold , that it is never able to aspire unto a Power of Heat , as long as it liveth and subsisteth : Our Heat therefore is not a consumer of the Original Moisture ; as neither therefore , through want of Heat do Fishes hitherto escape Death , although their Moisture be not lifted up into an Exhalation ; and least of all , in the frozen Sea : For neither shall the Capuchin our Country-man , who is cold for the greatest part of the year , from his Feet , even unto his Belly , nor feeling himself to have Feet , therefore not undergo a dayly transpiration of the nourishable Moisture , or doth he refuse the Refreshment of Nourishments , or is the Capuchin changed in those parts into a Fish ; the which otherwise , should be necessary for him to be , if Heat should be the primary Foundation of Life , but not an adjacent and concomitant thereof . God forbid , that we should not know , that there is one Consumption of the Moisture by Heat ; but another which is promoted by an extenuating Ferment : For truly , this leaveth behind it no Lee or Dreg , or any Remainder ; but that leaves a sandy Stone , or Coal : And therefore the former tends unto a thickning , but the latter unto an extenuating . But if a great Heat doth sometimes arise in us , which scorcheth the Members with the Fire-coal or burning Fever , and Persian-fire , and doth gangreen them , move an Eschar , and sometimes gnaw the Flesh like a Dormouse ; For so are the Works of Corrosive Salts , the Acts of the Degenerations of Out-laws , banished from the vital Common-wealth : Truly that is even as by laxative Medicines , the whole venal Blood is resolved into Putrifaction ; for they are Errours to be ascribed unto the violences of strange kinds of Seeds , under which the vital Light doth degenerate , no otherwise than as the pressing together of Hay stirs up Fire . Moreover the vital Spirit climbe into the Head , through the principal Arteries : But there is one only Bosom in the very middle of the Brain , which being beheld from above , seemeth to be double ; but its Arch or Vault being lifted upwards , it sheweth a Unity . But in this Bosom , an Artery endeth into a wrinckled Vessel , and that of another weaving , than the other compaction of Arteries . Hereby therefore , vital Spirit flows forth into the Bosom of the Brain , for the service of the Imagination , Memory , and the spiritual Faculties their Chamber-maids ; all which are likewise founded in the implanted Spirit , an inhabitant of the Brain . But if the inflowing Spirit proceedeth from hence , into the Mouths of the Sinews , beginning from the Brain , or the Cerebellum ; it attaineth Properties fit for the Functions of the Parts there ordained . I have said elsewhere , that this Spirit doth not essentially differ from the vital Spirit ; but that in the latitude of its Essence , it is capable of very many Properties , according to the latitude of Idea's imprinted on it : for that which defluxeth to the Tongue , causeth tasting , the which notwithstanding in the Finger , doth not taste ; because it puts on a particular Limitation of the Organ , without the transchanging of its Nature , least there should be as many Sub-divisions of the Animal Spirit , as there are Services divided by pluralities of Offices . In the mean time , call the thing as it listeth thee . CHAP. CVI. The manifold Life in Man. I Have shewn elsewhere , that there is in the Womb a Monarch-ship , and therefore also a singular Life : To wit , whereby after the Death of a Woman , it as yet casts forth the Young. I have also seen a Woman , which was never taken with the Falling-evil , but when the Pain of Travel was urgent ; neither also did it cease , but after delivery . I have shewn also , that there doth live a certain piece of Flesh of a spleen-like Form , grown up indeed between the secundines , and hollow places of the Womb ; and that its Life is proper to it self , so as that it lives not by the Life of the Mother , or Young , but by a certain promiscuous Life , not indeed by a sensitive Life , although it flourisheth with a certain vital Power ; but not through favour of a certain herby or vegetative Soul. At length also , that the Veins have their own Life as yet remaining in them after the Death of a Man , whereby it preserveth the Blood detained in them , from coagulation , and in this respect , illustrates it with a certain Life for many dayes after the Death of the Persons . Wherefore that there is another Life of the Veins , whereby they not only live ; but do also conserve the Blood it self , in Life . Last of all , I have also demonstrated , that there is a certain peculiar Life in the Muscles , together with the sensitive and motive Faculties , whereby they all extend themselves with a fearful Convulsion , at the percievance of Death : As is manifest in a Tetanus , in Rigours or cold shaking Fits , and Convulsions , wherein as well in those that are alive , as after Death , the Muscles are moved with an unvoluntary will , even after the extinguishment of Life . And although these Lives are distinguished by their various Subjects , and are manifested by their diversity of Offices , yet they all arise originally from the Seed , they are furious or cruel ones , they are implanted in their own Subjects , and are in the whole or entire Life , as in the total Form of the Parts . Wherefore neither are they to be considered in the Treatise of Long Life ; because they are those which perish without the hope of Fewel , at least-wise presently after the Death of the Man : Yet are they memorable in the successive Alterations , and curative betokening of Diseases . CHAP. CVII . The Flux , or flowing unto Generation . I Have seen the Beginnings of our Generation by way of Dream , and I will describe them with my Pen , so far as can be expressed by Words . First of all , I saw a Womb contracted with Folds or Plates after an unimitable artifice , and in time of Conception , to open it self by a proper attractive Blas ; and that suitably according to the extension of the Seed : To wit , which Extension or opening of the Folds , causeth a sucking , and attraction of the Seed , by reason of a Vacuum : And therein layeth a Rhombus ( or Figure on all sides equal ) of conception for the femal Sex : For truly , it contains the immediate Cause of complacency , and attraction of the Seed into the Womb. For neither otherwise in Copulations , however voluptuous they are , is there made any enlargment of the folded Womb , except in the very instant of Conception : For from hence it is , that the Conception of Bruits is almost infallible . For truly there is not any voluntary Extension of the Womb , as neither is it subjected unto Artifices or Crafts : But rather it after some sort , exceeding Nature , plainly sheweth that God is the president of humane Generation , continued on Posterity , according to the Word of blessed Propagation , Increase and Multiply : Because it is the Finger of God , which extendeth these Purses , without an organical Mean : The which is called in the holy Scriptures , God opened the Womb of Sarah . Truly , the whole History of Generation should seem to exceed Nature , unless it had been received within Nature from the right of an attained Propagation , and a continued frequency of it self . Whosoever therefore meditates on the expectation of Off-springs , let him expect not the tickling or leacherous lust , not the abundance of Seed , yea , nor health ; but altogether and primarily , the aforesaid Magnetisme or attraction of the Womb : And on behalfe of the Male Sex , that the Seed be not infamous through any Contagion : For otherwise , the Womb once receiving a Seed badly seasoned , doth reject that Seed , neither doth it thenceforth open it self , that it may suck the Seed of that Man , inward , for Life : For the Womb doth oft-times conceive in second Marriages , which in the first Marriage-bed , was Barren : But therefore the extension of the Womb ought to be suitable to the Seed , by reason of avoiding a Vacuun : And then , every strange thing , is a hostile impediment to Generation . Then in the next place , after that the Seed of the Man is joyned with that of the Woman , the sucking of that Load-stone in the aforesaid hollowness of the Womb , presently ceaseth , and the Door of the Womb is shut , nigh its Neck . But the Womb , doth by shutting out all Air , on every side , and equally embrace its Content , with a bountiful Favour , and a more exact co-mixture of them both , beginneth , by reason of an occult co-marriage unfolded in the Seeds on both sides . Presently after , although the conceived Seed , be at the first disturbed , and a thick or dark Liquor ; yet two dayes after , it assumeth the likeness of the transparent white of an Egge . But on the Sixth day ( but not before ) the Archeus the Inhabitant of the Seeds , appeared unto me , as it were a cloudy Vapour , the which on the thirteenth day after , was shadowily endowed with the Figure of a Man , together with a certain clarifying of its own thickness : For then the Seed had increased , perhaps in the tenth part of it self , and had married the nourishable Liquor unto it self , being the original or first-born Liquor . In the mean time , I wondered at the begun Self-love of Selfishness , which even in Seeds , should presently begin to meditate of their Increase : For as lukewarm Milk doth presently incrust it self in a thin Skin ; so also the Seed , straightway after three dayes , arms it self with a Skin , the which notwithstanding becomes more manifest by Degrees ; Yet both the Garments do differ in that , that the Milk over-spreds its Skin , only against the Air ; but the Seed on every side : because the thin Skin is not extended over the Milk by a Spirit , the Former or Framer thereof ; but by Heat , which separateth the Diversities of the Milk : For from hence it comes to pass , that the more slymie , and more Fat , and more Neighbourly parts of the Milk , are alwayes designed for the making of a skin , by a separation from the rest ; and the which being consumed , the skinnifying of the Milk ceaseth . In Milk therefore that tendeth to Corruption , unlikenesses of matter are made ; The which doth not happen in Seeds collected , and disposed to Generation . Furthermore , although the Air was seen under the Figure of a Man ; Yet a sexual Character could not as yet be noted by me ( after some dayes from the Vision , I lighted on that place of the Apostle , There shall not be Greek or Hebrew , not Male , or Female , but they are all one in Christ . ) About the 17th day , I saw that this figured Air did sink , and plainly espouse it self within the White , and did as it were sleep for full three Days space and about 12 hours , and was again a certain dark Chaos in the Seed : In which interval , it covered it self with a visible Secundine , and the hardness of a Membrane which it found not in the Matter , it had made unto it self by a formative and transchangative Faculty : Indeed this forming Air , while it engraveth the Body , it useth not separation , neither therefore hath it need of a diversity of matter , whereby it may frame or fashion the Diversities of Alterations of Organs proposed unto it self in the Figure : Which three dayes being finished , that Spirit the Framer , then first appeared , being markable with the Signature of the Sexes , yet no longer undistinctly walking up and down throughout the whole Lump of the Seed , but under a certain confusion , proper unto that three dayes space , all that very Air had grown together , in every of his Parts , although they not yet appearing : For neither was there as yet so much another wandring and floating Spirit in that Mass ; but one only implanted Spirit continual unto it self , through the Rudiments of the Parts , did finish the whole distributive Divisions of Generation ; and that its own Pains was uncessant , yet without toyle , and grief or wearisomness : And although it was not wearied in its Work , yet it required a Vicar for it self : for a distinction of the Parts is more and more unfolded , and there is made a growth or increasing of the whole Lump , by the Mothers , and that more pure Blood , and it forms unto it self a Radical Moisture , the constituter of the solid Parts : Wherefore also , it draws an Increase , and Fewel to it self , from the vital Spirit of the Mothers arterial Blood , the which , to wit , it soon assimilates unto if self by a most perfect Union . Indeed the Spirit is nourished , and increaseth in the delineation of the Seed , no otherwise than as the corporeal Lump of the Embryo it self : Yet the inflowing Spirit was not seen by me , before the thirty second day after Conception . It was then indeed as yet thin , and drawn from the arterial Blood of the Mother , being translated into a neighbouring Species . But this Spirit , about the one and fourtieth day , had obtained a certain vital Light or Splendour ; and also it expressed the stature of a Man , but heaped round together ; yet deformed by reason of a disproportionated bigness of the Head ; which Light was as it were a shining or brightness from a flame , which Aqua Vitae sheweth in burning : And not much after some moments of time , this Light was on a sudden made more Lightsome than it self . The sensitive Soul , although it make a Species in Bruits , and therefore subsisteth by it self ; yet in Man , it contains not a Species , but only a subordinate Diversity of Light , or a Degree unto the Mind , therefore scarce subsisting without the Mind . And although in Man , there be a sensitive Life ; yet it is not a specifical Being by Creation ; but a seminal Being occasioned through the Lust of our first Parent , the Character whereof is wholly restrained by the Mind : The sensitive Life therefore , doth presently inform the Spirit of the Seed , under a skie-coloured and obscure Splendour , and is also informed by the Mind , and that with a clearer Light. Yet 4 , 5 , 6 , or 7 Points of the Cord of a Foot-length , do interpose ; because Seeds do differ in the Perfection of Dispositions ; and therefore the Spirits , the Formers of Seeds , do differ in their Perfection , and chearfulness of Acting . For from hence it is , that that which happens unto one Conception in one forty Dayes , that happens to another in the second forty , or in the third ; neither yet therefore are the more slow or sluggish Quicknings more imperfect than swift ones , no otherwise than as fore-ripe Wits are oft-times to be set behind , or less esteemed than the more slow ones . At leastwise , the whole race of our Generation breaths forth some famous thing : For although the Archeus the forming Work-man , containeth in it a humane Figure , and figureth the Body after its own likeness ; yet the Fabrick of Man , is not from the Begining , in an erected or upright Stature , as neither confusedly rouled into a circle , but bent or hooked , after which manner the Young is defective in the Womb : It is false therefore , that Nature is every where circular ; Because she is that which would every where give satisfaction to his ends , who is cloathed by the glorious Work-man of Nature , and not by Nature , For neither after another manner , is there a re-bent Reflexion put into the seminal erected Spirit , by the Generater ; but it proceeds from the Finger of him , who disposeth of all things sweetely from end even to end : Therefore the Seed being conceived , the Womb forthwith shuts its neather Gate , least any forreign thing should rush into it , which might disturb its Conception . In the next place , the Vessels of the Womb which are subject unto its command , as if a Door-keeper were added , are also shut above ; because then a new Common-wealth ariseth in the Womb , as a new family-administration of a future Young ; and therefore also a singular Kitchin is erected in the confining Vessels : Even so that the Embryo is a good while nourished and increaseth , not by the venal Blood of the Liver , but by pure , and fined arterial Blood : But presently after , as soon as this Kitchin is furnished for the Embryo , which is about to live in his own proper Orbe , the Womb prepars venal Blood , which it may hand-forth unto the Embryo , and therefore , whatsoever less profitable thing it meets withal , it is brushed out ; So that in that whole Motion , the Mother for the most part is ill at ease . For truly , seeing Filths can no longer be expurged through the emunctory of the Womb , and the which neither are able to expect the Maturity of Delivery ; the Filths go backward into the Veins , they obtain the condition of an Excrement , and are thrust forth by Vomit , and other Sinks : That which is not equally done in Bruits , seeing they want Menstrues , and do not admit of an unseasonable Copulation . Again , the Conception of Men was not from the first intention of the Creator , after the manner whereby we are conceived in Sins . At length also , because for Bruit-beasts , pure arterial Blood was not equally required for Nourishment : Therefore the teeming Woman alone , shall pay for the Itch of one Copulation , through a cruel expiation of many Punishments beyond Bruits . The Embryo therefore , or imperfect Young , is at first nourished by arterial Blood , prepared in the neighbour Kitchins of the Womb , until that after the first fourty dayes , he obtaining a living Soul , lives of his own right : But the preparatory Kitckin is exercised in the spleen-form Flesh , whereby the secundine cleaveth to the Womb : Therefore Succours for the Young are slow and oftentimes void , and also those that are administred to the Mother by way of the Mouth ; because that before their entrance unto the Embryo , all things are recocted ; And again in the Young it self , before they can augment the same . But the Infant being born , before he is fit for bearing of the more hard Meats , he is accustomed to the more gentle ones : For so he is a good while fed with arterial Blood , which leaves no Dungs be-hinde it : For those things which fall from a little Infant that is born , presently after his first Cry , are the Reliques of the Blood of the Liver , the which for the most part , is not first admitted into the aforesaid Kitchins , but after the third forty dayes : And these indeed , are the Excrements which do ripen and provoke the necessity of travail or delivery . But moreover , the Spirit that was once implanted in the Seed , being sunk into the Seeds , doth presently , if not fore-know the necessities of the Body , at least-wise perfectly learn them , and afterwards draws unto it self a Consanguineal or nearly allyed Spirit , or Nourishment , by a certain Harmony of Affinity . At length , the Womb feeling the Maturity of the Young , by co-wrinckling contracteth it self , which the Antients have called , Striving to expel the Young or Off-springs . For I have oft-times with-held Abortion threatned and begun : But sometimes I could not . But I have known that I have detained it , as oft as the abortion should be caused from a Symptomatical animosity , without a fore-ripe expulsive Faculty , to wit , from the digression of the Womb ; And the Remedy did operate by restraining , and sleepifying , appeasing and pacifying the aforesaid Furies of the Womb ; But I could not prevent Abortion or miscarying as oft as there was a fall of the Mother from an high Place , and much disturbance of Affrighting , Grief , Anger , &c. they being inordinate things . And likewise , if the Young had a remarkable Monstrousness , which adds no slugguish Spur unto Expulsion : Or if the Young die , or pines away or failes through a notable Weakness : And likewise if the Mother being strongly smitten with astonishment before the Young could live in its own Quarter , hath with-drawn the Arterial Spirit unto her self : The which , if it shall straightway return from thence , yet it finds the same Young as it were in a sound , whereunto as unto a Plant so tender , Life is scarce re-connexed . By this means , the semi-vital Conception is now and then wont to miscarry into a hard lump of Flesh , or a foolish Branch : But that thing scarce happens through a defect of the Fathers Seed ; because that a barren or foolish Seed , is either not attracted , and so neither is it conceived , or if it be attracted , it , through a foolish Lust of the Womb , soon fals out again , and frustrates Conception : But the Seed degenerates into a hard Lump of Flesh , by reason of external Incidencies lighting upon the Seed ; whereby Hippocrates saith , That Seeds are withdrawn whither they would not . Therefore a hard Lump or Moale is made , while as the Spirit is funk into the Body of the Seed , and is spoiled of a humane Figure , yet retaining its former growing Faculty . The drowning or sinking therefore alone , is able to command the Figure out of the forming Spirit , if being to long sleepifyed within , it becomes fast asleep , But although the dreaming Vision , did scarce fill up the space of halfe a quarter of an hour , yet it at once represented all the successive Periods of Generation , as it were in a Glass of the Thing : To wit , its Moments , Fluxes , Motions , Aspects , Diversities of interchanges , and also its Errours stood collected into Unity . But I being awaked , alass , how I sighed at the likeness of our modern propagation with that of Bruit-beasts ! And therefore Adam not undeservedly bewailed the Death of Abel , for the space of an Age : He grieving the while , at the hateful bruitish Generation , and knew not his Wife in all that time : As well weighing , that Nature being now defiled in its Root , was to suffer original , and of necessity , durable Miseries . CHAP. CVIII . A Lunar Tribute . SEing Woman onely among living Creatures ( the Ape perhaps excepted ) suffers Menstrues or monthly Issues , and seemeth for this cause to have experience of the operations of the Moon-star ; but since the Schools do prattle of very many things concerning the Menstrues , as if it were the ordinary nourishment of the Young : Surely it hath behoved me to discover their boastings , in the Treatise of Long Life . For first of all , the Moon doth not heap up or expel this venal Blood although the purgation of the Womb be co-incident with the course of the Moon : For that coincident is unto both terms or limits by accident ; for otherwise , if that purgation of the Woman should be from the Moon it self , verily all Women should be Menstruous on the same day , and at least-wise , those which should dwell in the same Climate : Or at least-wise all young Virgins , should likewise suffer the same with the new of the Moon ; which is false : For if some Ships do follow one Pretorian or chief leading Ship , which in a dark night , hath a Lanthorn in stead of a Flag : The Lanthorn indeed , affords onely a Sign of their following : but the Wind , Stern , and Governours of the Stern , shall be the immediate efficient Cause of their following . So the Moon like a Torch , finisheth the task of her circle , in four weeks and six hours : So also a Woman for Reasons straightway to be added : For the Woman ought to encrease and nourish her conceived generation from her own blood , unto a just stature of the Young , and to feed the Infant being brought forth , with her own blood being turned into milk . Therefore she had need of a greater plenty of venal Blood , and therefore while it should not be supt up for those ends , it should also become superfluous , and by consequence , be voided or expelled : Yea although a Woman eats and drinks much less then a Man ; yet she abounds with more blood : That is , the shop of the venal Blood makes more arterial Blood in the Woman , than in Men , even out of a more sparing meat and Drink . From whence it of necessity in the next place , follows , That in the Woman , more is turned into a profitable nourishment , and in the Man , that more is changed into excrements . But how it is manifest , what , or of what sort , that superfluous blood may be ; let all know , that the venal Blood of Man ought to be renewed in a space of daies , wherein the Moon measures all her particular courses through the Zodiack : For that is the space , wherein the venal Blood is kept in its Balsam , it being longer reserved , it is corrupted . For truly , he that aboundeth with Blood , it must needs be , that by nourishing , he spends the same on the family of Life , or that he transchangeth it into fatness , phlegms of the Latex , or other drosses ; as Sweat , or diseasie Excrements : For the Woman hath small pores , the fleshy Membrane under her upper skin , doth enrich her with much fat , neither therefore can she consume so much Blood superabounding in her , as she daily makes or concocts . The bound therefore of the course of the blood being finished , that which is barren becomes all superfluous , the which therefore Nature is busied in casting forth , and sequesters it unto the veins of the Womb , as unto its appointed emunctories : For the blood departs unto those proper places , nor those likewise strange ones , because for the ends already declared , the Menstrues is the superfluity of the Blood of the Woman alone : And it becomes burdersome , by the very title whereby it is superfluous : And as yet by so much the more , because then it puts off the vital Spirit ; no othewise than as some Wines , after the Years end , become strengthless . For these ends therefore , and by these means , the venal Blood is made an Excrement , afterwards a poyson , and attaines worse faculties in going . But at length it assumes the horrid properties of a new dead carcase : For therefore the Menstrues of the first dayes , is more infected than that which flows forth in the following dayes : For although the expulsion of the Menstrues be the proper office of the Veins : Yet the collection of the same , even as also its renewing , and sequestring , do belong unto the Monarchal Archeus of the Womb. Therefore indeed , that which is most hateful , is the more speedily cast out of doors , whereby it first separated it self from the good blood ; and for this cause , it being the longer detained about the Veins of the Womb , for that cause also , it is the more poyson some . In the next place , although this Poyson masks it self with the shew of venal Blood , yet the favour of the vital Balsam being by degrees laid aside , it ascending unto the malignity of a cadaverous or stinking Liquor , assumeth the disposition of a poyson , and hath degenerated from the former nature and properties of Blood : The which handy-craft operation proveth . For truly , a Towel that is dipped in the Menstrues , if it be plunged into boyling water , it contracts an un-obliterable spot for the future , and the which at least-wise in the third washing , falls out of the Towel , it being made full of holes , no otherwise than if it should be corroded by the sharp Spirit of Sulphur : That which after another manner , is a forreigner to the bloud of a Man , whether it shall flow forth through the Nostrils , Wounds , Hemerhoides , or Bloody-flux ; or next , if it shall fall out from Ulcers like a more wan clot . From whence also , it is manifest , that the Menstrues hath an aluminous tinging property , any besides , a cadaverous sharp poyson fit for gnawing or erosion . But as it once enjoyed the Seal of the Archeus of Life , whereof it being afterwards deprived , it obtains a fermental faculty , full of a powerful contagion , as also hostile sharpnesses : For that Blood through its divers degrees of malignity , stirs up diverse passions within , on the miserable Woman . For when as it being once sequestred from the other blood , unto the Inns of the Veins of the Womb , hath received the aforesaid sharpness of malignity , and from thence is supped back again into the branches of the hollow vein by a retrograde motion of revulsion ( which is made through large cuttings of a vein , or symptomatical wrothfulnesses which are the stirrers up of Fluxes of the Womb ) it causeth Swoonings , Heart-beatings , Convulsions , and oft-times horrible stranglings . But if the Menstruous Blood , being not yet derived unto the Veins of the Womb , or plainly severed from the rest , and so neither hath as yet had its utmost mischief or corruption ; It is detained with a certain inordinacy , and stirs up divers conspicuous Symptomes in many places . From what hath been said before therefore , it is manifest , That Women great with young , Nurses , weak or sick Persons , blood-less Women , those that are become Lean , those that are not of a ripe age , and swift or circular movers , do want Menstrues , because also Superfluities . It is also false , that all Menstruous Blood without distinction , is poysonsom or hurtful : And likewise that we are nourished and grow big in the Womb , by the Menstrues : For truly the venal Blood of the Woman hath not the condition of Menstrues , before that untill it being unfit for nourishment , is enfeebled , or deprived of Life , and brought bound unto the sink . For neither doth he who drinks Wine , drink Vinegar , although this be made of that : As neither is he fed with Excrements who eateth Meats : Yea , which is more ; The Blood which is avoided in or presently after delivery , is not Menstruous through the defect of its condition , because it is not superfluous , from a fore-going course of the Moon . And then also , because it is not heaped up , fleshy , not aluminous or tart , not staining linnen Cloathes , nor separated from the whole , nor banished unto the places of the Womb , for expulsion . For that bloud which is plentifully voided in time and after delivery , and the which being retained , a doating Fever doth soon after , threaten death , is indeed venal blood , yet not the Menstrues of the Mother : For it is left by the Young , who seeing from his quickening , he lived in his own Orbe , had a kitchin out of himself , in the Vessels of the Womb. Wherefore it hath taken to it self another property , than that of the Mother , and than that of the Menstrues : For that guest hath indeed the shape of Menstruous Blood ; Yet being an adoptive of another Family , and become a forreigner to the Mother , it is seriously to be expelled , surely no otherwise than as the Secundines themselves : But being omitted and left behind , it is corrupted , and brings on death . But seeing that in a Woman great with Child , there is no Menstrues at all ; by consequence neither is that Young nourished : but with the pure arterial blood of the Mother , and afterwards with pure venal blood , being also first refined in its kitchins . Therefore the Schools are deceived , who teach , That the small Pox , or Measels , are due almost to every mortal man , by reason of the tribute of Menstruous nourishment : For they observed , that there was seldom any smitten twice with that Disease , and perhaps seldom excused from it : Wherefore they searching into the common Cause from whence the Young should be nourished , in the beginning , have referred the Effect on the Menstrues : But in all things , they , without the knowledge of things , have mutually subscribed to each other , and have slidden into Fables , and Conjectures . For first of all , they have not considered , that it is almost impossible for any one to be made free from that Disease , if all are alike indifferently nourished with Menstrues . And then , because they should be afflicted as it were , at one certain and appointed term of the Crisis . I confess indeed , that the Measels do spring from a Poyson , and draw a Poyson with them , infect the blood with their ferment , and defile others that stand by , but especially Children , and that the internal essence of Poysons , is not demonstrable by a former Cause : and therefore we measure the Property of a Poyson by the Effects ; even as a Tree by his Fruits . 1. Therefore , The Poyson of the Measels , is proper onely to humane kind . 2. That Nature is prone to the framing of that Poyson . 3. But that it is kindled about the Stomack , and so in the Center of the Body . 4. That the parts being once besieged with this Poyson , do most swiftly repulse that Poyson from themselves , towards the superficies of the Body . 5. That the shops of that Poyson , after that they have once felt the tyranny thereof , being afterwards thorowly instructed with a hostile averseness and horror , do with great fore-caution prevent or hinder the generation thereof , even from the very beginning , least they should even at first , unwarily fall thereinto . Therefore the Poyson is made in Man , but not co-bred in him from the Menstrues . But of what quality that Poyson may be , cannot be described by name , because it hath not a proper name out of its effects . It is sufficient in this place , that the Menstrues cannot be drawn into a Cause for the Distempers aforesaid . At first therefore , The Menstrues offends in its matter , by reason of its abounding alone : And then it undergoes a degree , that the first may be , wherein that blood is superfluous , from the foregoing course of the Moon . But a Second degree , is as soon as it is separated from the rest of blood . But a Third degree is , while , as designed , it hath resided about the Vessels of the Womb. A Fourth is that which hath stuck some good while in the same place , and hath entered into the way of death . At length , the last degree is , while as it now hath slidden forth as a dead Carcass , and into the Air. Therefore the Schooles offend , while as by cutting of a Vein , they are busied in succouring of Virgins ( who in respect of their Menstrues do feel an heart-beating or trembling ) without distinction : For although the Menstrues of the first degree , appeaseth heart-beatings or pantings , by a revulsive blood-letting ; yet in the third degree of the Menstrues , I have fore-told it to our chief Physitians , to be a destructive Remedy : Because that the Veines of the Arme or Hams being emptied , I have observed the Menstrues to be drawn backwards from the neighbouring places , into the Veins : And truly those Veins which do not remain emptied , but which are filled again by a communion of continuation : So also , after great heart-beatings , and pauses of intermitted pulses , or after most sharp paines of the sides following from the Womb , to wit , by reason of an aluminous Poyson of the third degree , Virgins have suddenly died , by reason of Phlebotomy by me instituted at unawares . In the first degree indeed , the abundance of venal blood is taken away : But it is the less evil , although a part of the barren blood be left surviving . Truly I had rather to help Nature in her sequestration , and expulsion , than by drawing of undistinct blood , to have weakened Nature . Moreover , that is to be noted , That although I have distinguished Diseases by the Ranks of Digestions , yet I have scarce made mention of the Menstrues ; Because the Menstrues is neither digested , nor is it a superfluity of Digestion , and so is of another condition : For at first it offends with a good abundance , and then , with a burdensom superfluity ; presently after it is deprived of Life , and becomes a Poyson ; yet it cures Swine which are inclining into the Leprosie ; even as Horses , straightway , which were contracted or convulsive from unseasonable Drink , if they drink up but a small quantity of Menstrues . And likewise the poysonsom and true Menstrues of another Woman , being administred in a few drops , hath presently strangled a Woman labouring with a Flux of the Womb. But the blood which is at length avoided in plenty , in Fluxes of the Womb , being drunk in a few drops , stayeth those Fluxes . Furthermore , because Woman only , ( the Ape perhaps excepted ) doth suffer Menstrues ; and although the Menstrues do accuse of an abundance alone ; yet that the Cow , her Dug being dried , suffers not Menstrues , otherwise she flowes down with very much Milk , denoting that the abounding of venal blood , is indeed the material Cause , but not therefore the final , and the which therefore , I have not reduced among natural Causes : For that the Almighty alone encloseth all the final Causes of all things within himself , who sweetly disposeth of all things according to the unsearchable Abysse of his own Judgements . But if it listeth us to enquire into the cause hereof , It is certain , that Eve , after the eating of the forbidden Apple , made her self subject to the itch of Lust , stirred up , and admitted the Man unto copulations ; and from hence , that the conceived humane Nature was corrupted , and remaining degenerate thenceforward : Through the Cause of which corruption , Posterity are deprived of an incomparable purity . From whence there is place for conjecture , that Eve did by the Member through which she became subject unto many Miseries , testifie among posterity , a successive fault of her fall , and bloody defilement in Nature : For the part wherein the Image of God ought to be conceived by the holy Spirit , became a sink of filths , and testifies the abuse , and fault of an unobliterable sin , and therefore also suffers : Because , In sorrow shalt thou bring forth thy Sons , in manner of bruit beasts , because henceforward , thou shalt conceive after the manner of bruits : For so that Curse hath entred into Nature , and shall there remain . And by the same Law also , a necessity of Menstrues : For before sin , the Young going forth the Womb being shut , had not caused pain . Wherefore , it is lawful to argue from the Premises , That the incomparable Virgin-Mother of God , the Ark of the Covenant , never admitted into her any corruption , and by consequence , was never subject to Menstrues , as neither to have suffered womanish discomodities : Because she was she , who by the good pleasure of God , hath the Moon , and the Properties of the Moon subjected under her feet . Unto Whom , next unto God , be Honour and Praise . CHAP. CIX . Life . IF I must at length Phylosophize of Long Life , I must first look into , what Life is , and then , what the Life of Man , what immortal and Adamical Life is , afterwards what a Sensitive and Short Life is , what a Diseasie , what a Healthy Life , what the Life of the World , and what Eternal Life is . To which end , it is convenient to repeat some Lessons from my Premises . First of all therefore , Life is a Light and formal Beginning , whereby a thing acts what it is commanded to act : But this Light is given by the Creator , as being infused at one onely Instant , even as Fire is Struck out of a Flint ; it is enclosed under the Identity and Unity of a Form , and is distinguished by general Kindes , and Species : But it is not a fiery , combustive Light , a consumer of the radical moisture : It is as well Vital in the Fish , as in the Lyon , and as well in the Poppy , as in Pepper : Neither also doth heat fail in us , by reason of a consumption of the radical moisture : Neither on the other hand , doth moisture fail through a defect of heat , but onely through a diminishment and extinguishment alone , of the vital Powers , and also of the Light. The Fire , Light , Life , Forms , Magnal , Place , &c. are neither Creatures , not Substances , as neither comprehended in the Catalogue of Accidents : Neither therefore , do I distinguish the Form in vital things , from their Life , the mind of Man being on both sides , excepted : To wit , there is a certain Life which is mute or dumb , and scarce appeareth ; such as is met with in Minerals ; The which notwithstanding , do declare that they live , and perform their Offices , by their Marks and remarkable Signs of vital Faculties . And then , there is another Life , which is a little more unfolded or manifest : Such as is in the Seeds of things , tending to the period of their Species . In the next place , a Third Life is seen in Plants , increasing themselves , and bringing forth off-spring by a successive multiplying . Next , a Fourth Life is manifest in bruit Beasts by Motion , Sense , and a voluntary Choice , with some kind of Discourse of Imagination . At length , the Last Life is now obscured in the Immortal Mind and Substance , and is after some sort unfolded by the sensitive Soul its Vicaresse . The Life therefore is not the Balsam , not the Mummy , not , in the next place , the Spirit of the Arterial Blood , although this Spirit be the Conserver of the Body : Because the Life is not a Matter , yea nor a Substance ; but the very expresse Form of the Thing it self . Moreover , I being about to speak of the Immortal Life of Men , I will follow the Text : For indeed , because the punishment of the broken Precept was Death : For Death came not from God , but from the condition of a Law ; I say , the Almighty made not Death , as neither a Medicine of Destruction in the Earth : And that must be understood onely in respect of Men : For neither ought the whole Nature and Condition of the Universe to be bespattered for the Sin of Adam , so as that Bruits are made subject to Death through the corruption or deviation of our kind : For truly even before Sin , Bruits ought to dye ; to wit , some whereof , the Lord of things had substituted for meat and fodder to others : For they ought naturally to dye , every annihilable Life and Form whereof , were onely one and the same thing . Indeed it was of necessity , that those Forms should perish , whatsoever do obtain their first or chief antecedent and subsequent dispositions from a corporal wedlock of the Seeds . The Death therefore of Bruits , was not worthy of the word Death , which included an extinguishment and annihilating of a Light , but not a separation of the same , with a preservation of the Light separated . Therefore it was the great God his good pleasure , that he made Man into the nearest Image of the Divine Majesty , as a living Soul , nor subject unto death : Therefore neither is it said that God made Death . It is therefore believed that Adam before transgression , was Immortal , from the goodness of the Creator : Therefore I knew that Adam indeed was Immortal , before the transpression of a Law ; Yet that it was not natural unto him from the root of Life , but for the Tree of Life's sake : For otherwise , the planting of this Tree in Paradise had been vain , if Man could not have suffered the successive alterations and calamities of Ages . That Tree therefore , was created , for the powers and necessities of Renovation , renewing of Youth , yea and prevention of Old Age : For although the Body by Creation , was not capable of being wounded , nor subject unto Diseases ; yet it had by little and little , felt the successive changes of Ages , if its vigor had not been continued by the Tree of Life . For neither is it to be believed , that the Lord of things , the Saviour of the World , was of a worse constitution than our first Parent . But that the Redeemer of the World died , and so felt the Calamities of Ages , that in his thirty second year , he was reckoned fifty years of Age. That happened not from his Nature , nor from the root of his Life : For Death , as also the rottenness of Dayes , had no right over him ; but out of his infinite goodness , whereby he had appointed himself a Surety for our Sins , he would subject himself to miseries , and so also to Death , in his most glorious nativity , wherein the Lord took on him the Form of a Servant . But how much he departed from that former and proper or natural dignity of his humane nature , wherein he was conceived in the Womb , himself sheweth : Because he who came forth into the World , the Womb of the Virgin being shut , and the bolts of dimensions being contemned , presently prostrated himself to the ordained condition of Death , and willingly felt every necessity of a servile nature : For both Adams in their beginning , were immortal . For the first Adam ought to be preserved by the Tree of Life : But the second did wholly contain the Tree of Life in himself . Both of them indeed chose to dye , before a possibility to live : For the former chose it from a Vice ; but the second from Charity . The Tree of Life therefore , and wholsomness of the place of Eden had vindicated Adam in his antient vigor , from Death , until that a number of years being finished , he as happy had departed , translated , without death , unto the Country of Glory . Moreover , it is of Faith , that Adam never tasted of the Tree of Life ; and that lest he should eat of it , he was cast forth of Paradise , who ought to dye the death : Yea he being now banished out of the Garden of Pleasure , was of so perfect a constitution , that he had lived unto some thousands of Years ( who was immediately formed by the hand of the Almighty , without the commerce of Nature ) and had far exceeded the age of Mathusalem , from the voluntariness of his own nature ; but that through the continued mourning and grief of one Age , he had cut off the thred of a most Long Life from himself . The Death therefore of Adam is not to be bewailed ( as otherwise , Paracelsus badly perswaded himself ) because that the vital Spirit , and knowledge of Long Life , had fallen at once together with him . For those are contradictions , to enjoy Long Life from Knowledge ; and likewise to be Immortal from the forming of the hands of God , and the suffrage of the Tree of Life ; also after sin to have retained the gift of Long Life , by reason of his most perfect and noble constitution of Life and Body . From whence , the Spirit of a flourishing and abounding Life , being at length translated on Posterity , its vigor by degrees declining through a passing over of Generations , the injuries of Life , and Diseases , and through the rottenness of Years , the Curse co-operating , manifested it self as a Magnum Oportet or a thing of great necessity : The which having once entred into the Bowels of Mortals , presently took possession of the same . For the Life of those which at first , was by the Tree , without Death , presently also without that Tree , languisheth , as being enrouled in a short term of Time , and underwent an increase , state , or height , declining , and cessation , after the manner of other things . For so indeed , Death , through the perswasion of the Devil , stablished it self into its Empire : For Poysons that were harmless under the Tree of Life , were afterwards supported for a Medicine of Destruction : For I think that the Conditions , and presence of the Tree of Life , were hidden from Adam ; Else that he had extended his hand unto this , sooner than unto the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And although the Tree of Life , which the bounty of the Creator hath of late discovered , may be so prepared , that it may proceed unto the first constitutives of us , with a refreshment of the decaying faculties ; yet I do not understand it to be that which is read to have been implanted in the Paradise of Pleasure , whereunto no mortal man shall ever stretch forth his hand : But ours is a shadowy one , and the Vicaress of the other : To wit , the which hath nothing excellent and famous , unless that under a retainment of properties , it be reduced by Art , into such a juice , which may be able by its least parts , to co-mingle it self with the solid parts : Neither indeed doth our Tree , ( of which I as the first do treat ) contain a non-sufferance , unsensibleness of the pain of Diseases , and an uncapacity of Death , as the other did . And moreover , although the Tree of Life of Paradise , should at this day be present with us , yet it should not cause immortality : Because the condition of the receiver is changed : For indeed man is become composed by the bond of another generation , of corrupted Nature , and of another Long Life , wherein the immortal mind hath no longer immediately sustained in it all the actions of Life , but a frail or mortal sensitive Soul succeeded exercising the Vicarship of the mind , and providing for the necessities of Life , it self being like the flame , slidable and extinguishable every hour . CHAP. CX . Short Life . THe Air which is the former in the Seed , ascending by degrees unto its Maturity , at length conceives the Light , or essential Form of its own Species , which is made immediately by the Father of Lights , and is of a proper name , Life : For as many things as differ in their particular Kinds , which are involved in Darkness , so many also ought the Forms to be , under the species of Light : For if a thing is what it is , by reason of the Form , in diversity from any other things whatsoever : But the Form of living Things ( except the Mind ) and Life , are Sunonymals , there must needs be as many Lives , as there are vital Forms : Therefore the Light of Life , is by it self every where simple , and specifical , but not fiery ; because vital , formal , and essential . But that the Light of Life is hot , or cold , it denotes that the Life hath not married Heat , or Cold , but accidentally : so that Heat , or Cold proceeds from Life , but not Life from Heat , or Cold : Life therefore cannot be otherwise understood , than under the Conception of Light : And neither Light is more demonstrable from a former Cause , than the Forms of things themselves , and whatsoever issues immediately out of the Bosom of the Almighty . A vital Light therefore , by its species , wants a proper name . We may indeed make a fiery Light to be given unto us for great necessities ; but it is not in the Power of the Artificer , even immediately to produce a vital Light from himself : Which thing the Chymists say , The Artificer cannot introduce a substantial Form. The Generater indeed , is the begetter and producer of a vital Air , forasmuch as he contributes Matter after the likeness of himself , and Dispositions thereof , in order unto Life ; but is in no wise able to produce Life , or an ultimate perfect Art. In Diseases also , sometimes the Light of Life ascendeth unto the degree of Fire : Because the Archeus , from a threatned distinction or nothing of difference , strikes out a fiery Light : Not that the Archeus produceth this Light , as he that generates his Like : But the Archeus through Fury , presseth together the moist Hay , and it is enflamed ; the which being dry , comes not so to pass . After another manner also , Woods by a co-rubbing , and Iron by striking against it , do conceive the fire which they have not : For truly , the same effects in Specie cannot proceed from things which differ in the whole Genus or general Kind , unless by accident , or an equivocal Action : So indeed , the sensitive Spirit , by reason of Grief , or the Archeus by Poyson , doth by accident become fiery besides his own Nature , through a proper wrothfulness of Anger : For he hath a Blas , whereby he departing from a vital Light , declineth unto the other extream of Destruction , wherein the Beams of his Light do as it were strike Fire out of a Flint , from the corruptible Matter , where both Lights of the Archeus , and corruptible Matter do pierce each other , are united , and are promoted into a fiery Light ; because Fire is on both sides the Death of a Thing , which from a proper effect of deficiency , is capable to be stirred up in things consisting of a certain inflamable Fatness : For indeed , although there be one only Spirit in the Seed , which is plainly uniform , and the singular Architect of the Embryo , which is durable unto the end of the Tragedy ; yet that was the vice and destruction of a material Nature , that the Spirit being divided through a plurality of Offices , may by degrees decline unto the manifold diversities of kindes of Singularities : And it is in very deed a Vice , as it strews the way unto disorder . For otherwise , seeing the Spirit ought to serve the necessities of Ends , surely it were a noble thing for it to be severed into a number of Offices : For necessity hath made the Organs themselves servile unto it , the which therefore hath framed for it many and diverse Organs ; and in this respect , it hath drawn it self unto the same Law of necessity : To wit , it having imitated a monarchical State , wherein there is a certain Independent Prince , the moderatour of Laws and Government ; wherefore also it fashioning a certain Sunny issuing Life on the Heart , but as it were Independent on any other part , hath there placed the Fountain of Radical Life : But because a Common-wealth cannot long subsist , unless it be nourished ; therefore after Kings , Husband-men , and Fisher-men are chief , who bring forth unto us Grain , Herbs , Flocks , Fishes , Woolls , Flaxes , Wines , Woods , Honeys , Oyls , and Hides : Because also , before Kings were thought of , happy Shepherds and Husband-men , had now their Flocks : For for that Cause , Saturn is feigned to be the Parent of the Starry Gods , unto whom the Heathens have delivered a necessity of Nourishment in us , as a clear Life of vegetation , by a commutative or exchanging Ferment sliding from the Spleen . Next , they vote for Husband-men , who should prepare Grain for making of Bread , Woolls , also Flax , and Hides for Garments : Straightway , Jupiter being substituted in his Fathers place , succeeded by craft and force ; and therefore also another disposer of Nourishment , founding its Mansion in the Liver , is adjoyned unto the nourishing Life , and doth of necessity suitably answer from its place , for a Monarchy . In the next place , Mars removing the disagreeing Reliques in the former Digestions , being as a supply placed in the Gaul , is agreeable with the Souldier . There hath seemed to be a need only of these three , and those sufficient , to wit , of Sol , Saturn , and Jupiter , as long as all things or parts should agree in Harmony : But the life of Mars was afterwards subjoyned , not indeed that it might be a Common-wealth and State , simply ; but that all parts may keep Peace , and their mutual Offices among each other , nor a rout of Impurities growing up , that Unity may be ordained . Furthermore , to increase , follows to be present : For a thing first is , before it grow or increase : Yea , seeing it cannot be a nourished thing , unless it be nourished , to be nourished , goes before increasing : For the Moon being the last of the wandring Stars , in respect of things nourished , is nearest to the Earth : Therefore the immediate and unexcusable necessity thereof , hath dedicated this family-administration to the Brain , as being sacred to the Judge in the Monarchy : For we live from the Heart , but Nourishment is from the Spleen , and Liver ; the correction of Digestion from the Gaul ; but the growing Faculty is from the Brain : Therefore to be quickned , or refreshed , and to increase , do differ in their Beginnings , like as also in their Organs : And that indeed , not by accident , or by reason of a stubbornness of the Parts hereafter refusing to increase ; but by reason of each particular natural Endowments of the Bowels : For Indeed what I have said , is beheld even in the birth of the Embryo : For truly , because the increasing or growing Faculty flows from the Brain ( which thing , none hath hitherto supposed ) the head of the Embryo , and of the Young it self , is far bigger in Proportion , than the rest of the Members : For if the hand be dislocated or put out of joynt , it not only ceaseth to increase , but moreover it decreaseth even in Persons of ripe Age. Crump-backed Persons also do stop from growing , although their turning Joynts being by degrees writhen awry , do burgen or tumifie only outwards , or toward the Side : Not indeed that Feeling is withdrawn from , or diminished in Crump-backed-folks , who have no less feeling than any others : Wherefore the defect of Growth , dependeth not on any Dislocation of the Sinews , Veins , or Arteries ; but from the beholding of a Crookedness alone in the Marrow , the very right influx of the Brain , is a little incarnated . Neither is that humoural Flux , to wit , through the Veins and Arteries ( for truly , in the wreathen Branches of Trees , even as also in crooked Legs , a defect of growth is not seen ) but it is a Flux of the Light of the Brain ; even as concerning the Action of Government , elsewhere . Flesh growes in an hollow Ulcer , and Marrows increase after the manner of the Menstrues , although the other parts do cease from growing : The Ribs also increase in persons of ripe years , together with an enlargment of the Breast ; the Pores do overgrow in Fractures ; the Liver through a Disease , grows up after a wonderful manner : Teeth do oftentimes grow in Old-men : And all that , because the growing Faculty obeys the Brain . Astrologers attribute the growing Faculty to the Moon ; yet none to the Brain . The Bones of Old living Creatures ( as I have said ) by a singular Secret , contain more Marrow than those of younger Ones ; Because the Moon makes into the first matter for Transmutation , Rest , Death , and Reducement . Therefore the Moon being very powerful in old Animals , hinders not the Marrow from increasing . Furthermore , seeing every thing in Being , desires to grow or increase , and doth even from the Beginning , meditate of the Propagation of it self ; and seeing Nature is of no other thing , more solicitous , than of the Sex ; so that she hath marked Insects , which she stirs up from corrupt Excrements , with the difference of the Sexes : there was also need of Venus or carnal Lust ; to which end , the Schools think the Reins to serve : But I disagree , because I have observed those that were Stony in both Kidneys , to have been more wanton than was meet . For neither otherwise can I believe , that the fundamental Part of Venus being hurt , tickling lust is able to subsist : Because that this is the necessity of the Parts , that a proper Organ being hurt , the Function thereof is of necessity intercepted . I have sometimes spoken of the Venus of the Spleen : At least-wise , here it is sufficient , that the Femal kind is by a divine Testimony of praise , exceeding necessary , and most profitable for the subsistance of a Common-wealth : But at length , seeing every Land doth not bring forth all things ; in this respect , for a good and commodious way of Living , the custom of Mortals hath introduced co-bound Provinces , and Conspiracies of Merchandise : Therefore Profit hath made the Lungs to be its Mercury , and agreeable unto Merchandise with the forreign Parts ; that , after that the Young should be now increased , it should have the vital Vigour of breathing and voice : A participative and distribvtive Life , I say , throughout the whole , to be blown abroad in an equable Air : To wit , without which , all the Blood should be thickned through nourishing , into a Tophus or sandy Stone , and the Body should soon increase , either into a huge Monster , or presently from the Beginning , should be choaked : Even as elsewhere concerning the Blas of Man. But notwithstanding , I will not , that the Architect of the Seed shoud beg this Common-wealth and Harmony ( thus compared unto the wandring Stars ) for himself from far , to wit , from the Stars of Heaven , elsewhere : For the Archeus intimates the Stars through a proportionable Conjunction , because he hath a heaven-like Being in himself : For he , who by a small Word , made the Stars of nothing , hath constituted a co-like Power of the Word ( Increase and Multiply ) within the innermost Parts of Seeds , which is to endure throughout Ages . Therefore the Seed hath drawn that unto it self from a free gift , that it is able to stir up and imitate the proportionable Respects of the Stars in its own Blas : wherefore it happens , that more succesful Emulations of the Stars , than those that are inbred , do follow at set Periods , because they are the more powerful and famous Sealings . Neither in the mean time , is there that Power in the Stars , that they should be chief in the forming of the manners , health , calling or vocation , and fortunes of Mortals : For he who is all in all , and created all things for his own Glory , from an immediate end , would not that his own Image should be subjected to the Stars , least they should excuse themselves of their Fault , by the importunate revolutions of the Stars . But it is well , that there is a seminal Being , a proportionable thing , which may after some sort answer to the Stars , and to the whole Universe . Wherefore in Man , the Seed at first cloathes it self with the Secundines , straightway after it earnestly labours about its own family-administration ; in the next place , it meditates on the aforesaid Common-wealth , it variously disposeth of all particular Parts , and constrains them by the Laws of free Denizons ; then indeed also , it thinks of a Kingdome and Empires ; At length of the whole Earth ; and last of all , of the Heavens : And so , by virtue of the Word , he delineates the whole Universe in himself , as he is the Image of God : For he hath put under his Feet the flying Fowls of Heaven , the Fishes of the Sea , Sheep , Oxen , and Beasts of the Field : Because he hath set him over the works of his Hands : But the Heavens are the Works of the Hands of God : Which dignity of appointment surely , seeing otherwise it contains a command , it doth not indeed contain a certain feigned , or remote , and allegorical Power : Therefore it must needs be , that we do after some sort resemble the Heavens in the Image of the Arch-type : But the command , seeing it is already planted into Nature , Man shall have that his proper nobleness in him , from his original , but not from the Stars that are placed under him . But seeing that by the Schools and rustical Persons , the defects which shall be in deformities , and a vitiated forming , are more considered , than those which were to rise from erroneous Faculties : Hence they have given an occasion that Astrologers should at their pleasure , draw all things unto their own dances of the Stars : But after that a diversity of Offices was by the more refined Men , known to imply a diversity of kind of Faculties , and Organs , those Men therefore began to fetch , interchange , number , and deformity , from the Stars , and to refer them unto the Directions of the Seeds . For neither under Nature now once radically corrupted , could Seeds be long kept fruitful under Unity , neither by this Unity , could so many distinct Offices of the Organs be compleated , but that almost from the Beginning , an unlikeness of strength in the Bowels ; yea and an unequality of strength in all particular Parts , should under-creep and be sealed in those places : From whence there should at length , be a breaking asunder of the Thred , a dissolution , an off-spring of Infirmities , and much Destruction : All which things , the Soothsayers of Heaven ( the Schools not resisting it , but being astonished thereat ) have without punishment transferred unto their trippings of the Stars : Wherefore ( a standard-defending Goat , being as it were , taken by the Beard ) the whole following troop of Posterity have admired them : For there is so great a diversity of kind in the bosome of the Matter , that there is scarce a Golden thred made , which in some part of it , is not the more infirm , and doth not the sooner burst asunder : Therefore , neither is it a wonder , that in so great a distraction of Members and Functions , an unequal strength increaseth in the Members : Wherefore whole Families do perish with a Tabes , or Consumption , or Dropsie . In some Persons , their Going fails after the fiftieth Year of the Age , whose Sight persisteth unto their eightieth Year . But in others , their Sight is dull after their fourtieth Year , whose Going promiseth a Long Life : Because , from a simple and universal Spirit of the Seed , the Rulers of all particular Organs do increase : Which Rulers surely , being there alienated , either through a Vice of the Organs receiving , or through an errour of Dispensation , do oft-times depart from their aim : For the Spirit which hath distinguished the Parts from each other , and formed them , hath presently also received all its Limitations in those very Parts : For the optick Spirit seeth in the Eye , and tasteth in the Tongue ; because the inflowing Spirit is there limited by the implanted Spirit . As besides , there is a certain principiating Life in the Spleen , another in the Muscles , and lastly , another in the Womb of a Woman , even as I have often demonstrated elsewhere . All which , are by so much divided from the common Life , by how much they are those things which have diverse existences . Seeing therefore Plurality includes a certain Duality , it 's no wonder , that the Life being tossed by many diverse Governours , did easily rush into Dissolution , after that the immortal Mind suffered the Rains of the Life that was to be governed , to slide on the neck of the sensitive Soul. CHAP. CXI . Life Eternal . THe Gospel promiseth to mortal Men , not only that the Son of God was Incarnate , and suffered for the Salvation of Man ; but that these two Misteries are to be applyed unto Individuals , which else should be as it were in vain : But I have considered of that Application , after this manner . For indeed by Sin , Man brake no less the Intent , than the Decree of God , from whence humane Nature was corrupted in its Root ; because there followed another almost beast-like Generation thereupon , which of it self is uncapable of life Eternal : Wherefore the Gospel ought to include the abolishment of Original Sin and of all other things issuing from the Corruption of Nature : Therefore , seeing Man thenceforeward ought to be born no longer of God ; but naturally only of the Bloods of the Sexes , of the will of the Flesh , and of the will of Man : neither yet could his Body rise again ( through any Power of his own ) into its antient Dignity , and much less cease to be , that it might again , and otherwise begin to be : Therefore the joyful Message was brought unto us , that one Baptisme should be given for the Remission of Sins , whereby Man should be so renewed by Water and the Holy Spirit , that his Soul should be born again as it were by a new Nativity , and be made partaker of the unspotted Humanity of Christ the Saviour , being framed by the holy Spirit : Which new Birth also , reposeth the Soul into its antient State of Innocency , taking away Sin ; and we believe that thing altogether really thus to be ; but not as if we should embrace Allegories or Metaphors for truth ; but these things do so really and actually happen in Baptized Persons , that God doth grant a Testimony of that actual Grace , which is conferred by Baptisme , to be sensibly derived into the Body : In which respect indeed , Mahometans receive Baptism , as it takes away from them an inbred Stink , otherwise durable for Life , and the which , we observe to be otherwise in all Jews , at this day : And so the more inward effect of Baptisme doth even outwardly shine forth : Yea and that thing confirmes , that there is a perpetual and unobliterable effect of one only Baptisme . But that new Birth doth not take away Death , but leaves Christians with the Fardle of a corrupt Body , generated by the Will of Man : and in this respect , nevertheless , leaves the Soul subject to the Vices of a corrupted Body : Wherefore unto those that are of ripe Age , Baptisme was not sufficient , although unto those of younger Years , as long as they are innocent , it is abundantly sufficient . There is therefore , another Priviledge promulged , whereby Persons of ripe Years may have eternal Life : that he who shall not eat unworthily the Lords Body , Christ shall raise him up unto Life in the last Day ; but if he shall not eat , he is to have no Life in him : For this Mistery was given unto us for the Life of the World : For the Life of the World is Adamical , Frail or Mortal , and well nigh Brutal : For the transchanging whereof , a Pledge is given unto us , and likewise an actual and real Participation of Life eternal . Therefore the Merits of the Lords Passion are comunicated unto us , through a participation of the unspotted Virginity of Christ the Lord ; for the Communion of his most pure and chast Body , unites us to himself , and doth actually regenerate us in himself , and so gives us a Life conformable unto himself : The Body of the Lord is given for the Life of the World. And although the Body of Man , which was conceived of Bloods , doth not presently perish ; Yet in that very Moment , wherein we are united with the Lords Body , and his Humanity , it makes us partakers of his incomprehensible Incarnation , and restores us into the antient Integrity of humane Nature ; as we do partakingly attain the most pure Virginity of Christ , wherein we ought to be saved . And so by reason of his amorous Union , a participation of the Merits of his Passion is attributed unto us : Therefore the most principal effect of the holy sacred Eucharist , is a Participation of the Purity , and Virgin-uncorrupted Nature of the Lord Jesus : And so for this Cause , it is declared by a proper Circumlocution , to be Wine budding forth Virgins . Furthermore , that this Mistery of the unutterable Love of God , doth operate the aforesaid real effects of regeneration in the Nature of Man : The Apostle teacheth , We shall all indeed rise again ; but we shall not all be changed : As if he should say ; All Mortals shall at sometime rise again from Death : The Damned indeed shall rise again , being not any thing changed ; but in their former Adamical Body , being ponderous , not piercing , &c. to wit , only the wished for necessity of Death , being taken away from them . But Children being regenerated by the Laver of Baptisme , shall rise again in a Body , after some sort Glorified , but by so much the less perfect , by how much they were remote from so great an happiness . But they , who were united in the communion of the Lords Body , shall rise again , plainly glorious throughout their whole Nature ; because they were most perfectly regenerated in their life-time : of which Regeneration , although visible Signs appeared not ; yet they were in very deed within , for neither are they made anew in the Resurrection , unless they had first fore-existed in the Life-time , by an every-way regeneration . Our Faith is not of things not in Being , but of true things ; not Visible , because he will have us to profit by Faith : Wherefore , although this Mark of resemblance of Love , and Union with God , be altogether unsearchable , even as also its Effects are only invisible ; Yet the aforesaid mystical and real New-birth , is as yet reckoned earthly by Nicodemus , and from that Title , I have transferred it hither . I therefore contemplate of the New-birth or renewing of those that are to be saved , to be made in a sublunary and earthly Nature , just , even as in the Projection of the Stone which maketh Gold : For truly , I have divers times seen it , and handled it with my hands : but it was of colour , such as is in Saffron in its Powder , yet weighty , and shining like unto powdered Glass : There was once given unto me one fourth part of one Grain : But I call a Grain the six hundredth part of one Ounce : This quarter of one Grain therefore , being rouled up in Paper , I projected upon eight Ounces of Quick-silver made hot in a Crucible ; and straightway all the Quick-silver , with a certain degree of Noise , stood still from flowing , and being congealed , setled like unto a yellow Lump : but after pouring it out , the Bellows blowing , there were found eight Ounces , and a little less than eleven Grains of the purest Gold : Therefore one only Grain of that Powder , had transchanged 19186 Parts of Quick-silver , equal to it self , into the best Gold. The aforesaid Powder therefore , among earthly things , is found to be after some sort like them , the which transchangeth almost an infinite quantity of impure Mettal into the best Gold , and by uniting it to it self , doth defend it from cankering , rust , rottenness , and Death , and makes it to be as it were Immortal , against all the torture of the Fire , and Art , and translates it into the virgin-Purity of Gold ; only it requires Heat . The Soul therefore , and Body , are thus regenerated by Baptisme , and the communion of the unspotted Body of the Lord ; so that a just heat of Devotion of the Faithful shall be present . Let the Divine pardon me , if I as being beyond my Last , have spoken of Life eternal by way of a Parenthesis : For I willingly confess , that a regenerated Body is not belonging to my Employment : I treat only of prolonging the Life of the World. This only I have said , that Baptisme doth bring with it a real Effect of Purity perceivable by Sense , and that the holy-sacred Communion of the Eucharist , hath something like it in earthly things , whereby we may the more easily believe Regeneration . CHAP. CXI . The Occasions of Death . I Have compared the Fire and Light , unto Life , because it bears something before it , which seemeth to be vital : For vital Forms are either the Lives , or Lights of things : Therefore there shall likewise be as many occasions of Death , as there are withdrawings of Light. First therefore , the Light is blown out , and likewise the Flame perisheth by pressing together , which they call , through defect of Air. But I have demonstrated , that that happens through want of a new Magnal ; but not that the Fire is nourished by Air : So also by the constriction of a strange Smoak . So indeed in Vaults , and Burrows , Lamps are extinguished , but the Light is blown out by the Wind , or another Flame : For oftentimes Candles are extinguished by a filthy or deformed Flame , being stirred up by the Powder of Rosin , or Gun-powder . Lastly , Fires die through want of Nourishment . Death in like manner , doth many wayes rush on us : For either a live Body is suddenly dashed together , or sore shaken by weight . Also a speedy pouring forth of Blood from a large Wound , pours forth the Life , and blows out the Light of Life : So an inordinate Prodigality of corrupt Matter , Water , or Wind being abundantly made ; likewise Baths , Hunger , loosening Medicines , introduce an untimely Death . Also by the pressing together of the Breath in Burrows , of the Asthma , of a Cord , of drowning , of Smoak , and by the Symptoms of the Womb ; likewise by the Resolutions and Palseys of the Sinews subjected to breathing . In like manner , by Burnings , Destructions , Coalifyings , Gangrenes , and Congelations of Cold. Also by Poysons , Alculies , gnawing Things , Escharrers , Putrifiers , or Things that trample upon us by a fermental Contagion . Likewise by retained Excrements , Obstructions , and the denied Commerces of Parts . Likewise through Defect of some certain Digestion , an Atrophia and Consumptions of a Part , or of the whole Body . Also by over-pourings of the Blood within the Skull , Breast , bottom of the Belly , by corrupt mattery Impostumes , Pleurisies , affects of the Lungs , &c. Likewise by displacings of the turning Joynts , Contractures of the Parts apppointed for expurging of Filths . At length , by reason of a Feeble , Decrepit , and woren-out Death of the Seeds and Powers . And also by reason of the more grievous Passions of the Mind , and Enchantments . Death therefore , doth so many manner of wayes steal away Mortals , whose Life notwithstanding , is alwayes simple and single : For therefore , there is a diverse and differing Consideration of Life and Death ; for a Sword takes away Life ; Yet there is far different Speculation of preserving Life , than of healing of Diseases by the removals and hinderances of the Cause : For truly , Causes are partly external , as a Wound , the Plague , Scorching , &c. the healing whereof therefore , doth not depend on the removal of their Causes : For neither therefore is the Fire which had burned any one , to be extinguished from the Hearth , that he may be cured ; even as , neither is the Sword to be broken , that the Wound may be healed up . But for the preservation of Long Life , the contemplations and removals of external Causes do no less occur or come to hand , than those of a vital Fewel : For indeed , although no Infirmities should molest , yet Death should not for that Cause cease dayly to strew a way for its entrance : For although health hath respect to Life as its Foundation ; yet Life doth not include health : For a Blind , Lame , Gowty Person , &c. doth no less live , than a Healthy or Sound Person . What if Life ends through a Disease , that is forreign and by accident unto the Life ; as a Sword contains Death , but not but by Application . Otherwise , Death doth by it self respect Life ; but diseasifying Causes become Mortal only by accident , or by their Application unto the Spirit of Life : For from hence it is , that the Impediments of Long Life are seriously to be heeded , and diverted , if we expect length of Life . From the Beginning therefore , the meditation of Life consisteth not without , but in the Life it self : To wit , after what manner Life may be preserved in the Body . For the sensitive Soul , now forthwith after Sin ( as I have said ) drew the whole property of Life unto it self , and became the bond of Life with the Body : But seeing that very Soul is in it self Mortal ; it must needs be , first of all , that all the vital Powers co-aeval , or of a like Age with the Life , should be slideable and mortal : From hence at length , Death . For a long continuance of Life therefore , first , a curing of Diseases is required , as well of those which touch at the Life of the whole Body , as those which have regard unto the Dammages , or preservation of a Part and Functions , and which in this respect do lay in wait for the Life : For truly , seeing there is a single conspiracy of the Members , certain principal Powers cannot chuse but at length go to decay , also the subordinate ones being only diminished : Wherein I disagree from Paracelsus , because he thought that every Disease was of necessity to be taken away by a Medicine for long Life : Because that good Man was no less ignorant of a Medicine for Long Life , and the use thereof , than of the very Essence and Properties of Long Life : And therefore his Arcanums do very much conduce into a healthy or sound Life , or unto a removal of Impurities ; yet they do not any thing directly and primarily tend to long Life , as unto their ultimate end : Because that , as the Life ; So the Tree of Life chiefly concerns the preservation and renewing , or making young again of the vital Faculties implanted in the Arts. In this therefore the Arcanums , or Secrets which are for the taking away of Superfluities , differ from the Tree of Life : That those indeed do cure Diseases , even those which our parent Nature doth by her self , never Cure : To wit , the Leprosie , Stone , Palsy , Consumption of the Lungs , Dropsie , &c. but the Tree of Life doth not heal these Diseases being now admitted : For if Hippocrates hath dictated , that Natures themselves are the Physitianesses of Diseases ; that is , to be pardoned in his Age , and beginning Art. After another manner , Arcanums ( which had not then as yet been made known , and do at this day , lay in a manner hid ) do exceed the Powers of Nature , even as Art doth very often overcome Nature : And that is not only true in Secrets which heal Diseases ; but also in the Tree of Life , which restores defective Nature : Therefore the Ordination of that tree , is the Preservation of Life , with a certain kind of renewing of Youth ; but with the Remedy of the Tree , the Leprosie , Stone , &c. continues . Therefore , there is plainly one Consideration of the Secrets of Paracelsus , and another of the Tree of Life : The which I thus confirm . Let a young man be considered with some of the aforesaid Diseases : For his flourishing and lively youth doth not cure these Diseases , therefore neither also the Tree of Life ; Because this hath respect onely to the Fewel of that flourishing Life ; the which surely , is as yet received after the manner of the receiver : Therefore there always remains in the part receiving , a diseasie disproportion of strength in respect of the parts that are in good health , which was before the Medicine of the Tree of Life was taken : For although all particular parts should equally participate of that Medicine ; yet they should not be re-amended with an equal strength . First therefore , the impediments of Long Life are universally to be removed : But among impediments , some do shorten the Life actively , such as are Diseases , Inordinacies of living , &c. But other impediments do limit and curtail the Tree of Life in its goodness , that it cannot attain the ultimate end of its appointment . This indeed , concerning our Tree of Life , but not concerning that of Paradise ; and concerning a corrupted Life , not of the Life of Adam before the Fall. Those are therefore some Diseases ; and likewise much profound strong speculation , and that not pleasant , and perturbations , yea and enchantment : Even as in its place . Happy therefore are they , and for the most part long-lived , who being far from the cares , usuries , busie affaires , and stormes of their age , can Till their fathers lands with their own Oxen in peace , and live cheerfully . Whatsoever therefore is to be thought of for the obtainment of Long Life , is to be thought of in a peace void of care , with a full resignation unto the most pleasing will of God : For that cause we must think , how much ridiculous thoughts do weary in Fevers , how much serious studies do weaken the strength , and how much anguishes do overthrow the number of Daies : Because thus the Spirit is lessened , and the Dayes are abreviated . Furthermore , Venus or carnal Lust obtains its chiefdom among the impediments of Long Life ; because it doth abundantly exhaust the Life . Much , and unseasonable Gluttony or Drunkenness succeeds Venus ; and the rather if the Drink be hurtful . Also Tobacco , and Mushroomes do hurt , and what things by reason of a hidden poyson largely creeping , do prostrate the vital faculties : For Tobacco doth not allay hunger , as if it did satisfie the defect ; but inasmuch as it takes away the sence of the defect , and also the exercises of the functions . In the next place , the impediments of Life , are frequent Baths , Blood-lettings , Wounds , also the frequent use of loosening Medicines : To wit , which things make the generation of the begetter to be the less flourishing , and therefore also do hasten Old Age. Lastly , As Climates do make for Long Life , so also some do hinder it : For there are some with which an Old Man is rare : Others with whom Old Age is in honour . For Endemicks of Arsenick which are under the Earth , do mow down a flourishing Life , being as yet in its Flower . There are some Climates also , whereunto there is a nearness of overflowed Countries : For whatsoever hath of its own accord waxed hot , and was resolved in water from putrefaction , ought also to be brought to be brought to us together with the Vapour , and to be supped up by us . Therefore pernicious are the Vapours of the Fens which breath forth a putrified matter ; and then , those Vapours which puffe out a semi-putrified Salt , together with the filths of a dissolved Clay or Mud. For I have seen at Antwerp , after the Field of Austerweele conceived of Waters , the leaves of the Teil-Trees in the Walls , to be dryed from August , and that as it were with a gnawn rottenness ; the which , before the Inundation , were kept green in the Tree , even unto October . The same thing is seen at Amsterdam , whenas the leaves of the Trees of Leidon do as yet counterfeit the Moneth of May : For the leaves do suffer this destruction from a Semi-salt-Vapour . What at length is not to be thought to be done on the tender coat of the Lungs , and the sponge of its Substance ? Truly , so many Enemies do on every side lye in wait for our Life , that unless we shall depart far from the hurtful contagion of the Air , there will scarce under a full grant of the Tree of Life , be awished for participation of Long Life : For the original Tree of Life in Eden , was for its own Inhabitants ; but not for the Natives of the Vale of Miseries . Therefore whosoever will enjoy the Goodness of the Tree of Life , and profit by the labour of Wisdom ; let him make choice of a Region , which in all places nourisheth many Old Men ; and wherein Diseases do in all places seldome rage . Then Lastly , Let him begin to make use of the Tree of Life from a Child , ( the more rightly , if the Child begin first in both parents , presently afterwards also in the Nurse ) while the nourishment is snatched away for the increase of the solid stems . But those things which hinder and diminish the Medicine of the Tree of Life , that it cannot ascend unto its height , are hereditary and inbred weaknesses , total , or in part ; and in whom attained weaknesses drawn in through inordinacy , do succeed , and the which , have happened through the undue torments of the paines of Diseases and Labours : For whosoever hath suffered a notable injury of Life , let him despair to be fully renewed by the Tree of Life : But he who being a Child , hath admixed the Medicine with the first constitutives of Life , and hath thus waxed of ripe years ( for truly , the Tree of Life is not more perfect , as that it is able to restore decrepit Bodies into their former state ) let him hope that he shall attain that which the Court Physitians of Kings can scarce believe . CHAP. CXII . Of the Magnetick or Attractive Curing of Wounds . A Disputation concerning the Attractive , Natural , and Lawful Curing of Wounds ; against R. P. John Roberti , Doctor of Divinity , an Elder of the Society of Jesus ; no less than also against Rodolph Goclenius , Professor of Medicine . 1. Witchcraft , Sympathy or Co-suffering , and Magnetism or Attraction do differ . 2. One Ointment is called Sympathetical , another Magnetical . 3. What Mummy is . 4. Phylosophy is immediately reproved by Reasons onely . 5. The difference of Law , and Phylosophy . 6. From an ignorance of the Cause , Magnatism is accounted a Devil . 7. Who may be the Interpreters of Nature . 8. Why Alchymists onely can Interpret Nature . 9. He is proud , who from an ignorance of the Cause , believes a thing to be of the Devil . 10. Who are the Devils flatterers . 11. Magnetism is no new Invention . 12. The Armary or Weapon-unguent . 13. The intent , aim , remedies or ingredients , and manner in the Ointment , are good , 14. Why the Unguent is not unlawful . 15. Why it is not Superstitious . 16. What Superstition is . 17. Why the manner of the Unguent being unknown to the censurer , can nothing disprove it . 18. What Magnetism is . 19. Some Effects of the Load-stone . 20. The Magnetical Cure of incurable Diseases is perfect . 21. Milk being burned dries up the Dugs . 22. Vitriol dies through Magnetism or Attraction . 23. Mummy operates from Italy even to Bruxels . 24. The Carline Thistle , under the shade , draws wonderfully . 25. Likewise the same Disease in number changeth its Subjects . 26. That from Magnetism , Flowers are followers of the Sun. 27. Mummies which are Philtrous or pertaining to Love , how they are attractive . 28. That the Arcanum or secret of the Blood , is the Load-stone of Alchymists . 29. Herbs , why , and after what sort they are Attractive . 30. Asarabacca , and the Elder are Magnetical . 31. An implicite compact or covenant , is the Anchor of the Ignorant . 32. Sympathy presupposeth a sense or feeling . 33. The Mummy of a Dead Brother , being long since impressed on a seat , is as yet attractive . 43. The Saphire is an imitator of the Unguent in Magnetism . 35. The Saphire , by touching of one Carbuncle , cures others . 36. Why the Prelates of the Church wear skie-coloured Rings . 37. Man hath his Load-stone . 38. An Amulet for the Plague . 39. It is of necessity , that the same accident should pass from subject into subject . 40. Magnetism is an heavenly quality . 41. A Thief , Robber or Murderer , and an honest Man , or Woman , afford the same Mosse of their dead skull . 42. From whence , and what the seed of that Mosse is . 43. The fruit of the Air. 44. That Usnea or Mosse is a fruit of Fire . 45. In that Mosse also , is the Back of the Load-stone , the scope being changed . 46. God in Miracles , follows Nature . 47. God approves of the Magnetism of the Unguent by Reliques . 48. A supernatural Magnetism proves a natural one . 49. A lock of that Mosse being incarnate in the fore-head , is a defence against a sword , but a Thred or rag of the stole of S. Hubbert , against the tooth of a mad Dog. 50. A rag being incarnate in the fore-head , preserves from the biting of a mad Dog for ones whole life time ; an impression of blood doth the same in the Zinzilla . 51. Pepper degenerates into Ivy. 52. How we must judge of Persons . 53. Paracelsus the Monarch of Secrets . 54. Every thing hath its own particular Heaven . 55. From whence inclination is . 56. From whence a Disease is Astral in us . 57. Whence sick persons have a fore-feeling of the stormes of the times . 58. What may cause the flowing and ebbing in the Sea. 59. Whence Windes are stirred up . 60. The Heaven doth not cause , but pronounce things to come . 61. The Being of every seed hath the firmament and virtue of its own influence . 62. The Vine , not the Heaven , disturbs Wines . 63. Antimony observes an influence . 64. The Load-stone directs its self , but is not drawn . 65. Glass is Magnetical . 66. Rosin is Magnetical . 67. What Garlick acteth against the Load-stone , and why the same thing also concerning Mercury . 68. The virtue or power of operation on an Object at a distance , is natural , even in sublunary things , and it is Magnetical . 69. Every Creature liveth in its own mode , or after its own manner . 70. What the Unguent can draw from a Wound at a distance . 71. Every Satanical effect is imperfect . 72. Why Satan cannot co-operate with our Unguent . 73. What may be called the Will and Imagination of the Flesh , and of the outward Man. 74. A twofold Extasie . 75. The Ecstatical power of the Blood. 76. Corruption makes that lurking power manifest . 77. The Essences of things do not putrifie . 78. The putrefaction of Alchymy , to what end it is . 79. The Cause of Attraction in the Unguent . 80. The heart is drawn by the treasure magnetically , or after the manner of a Load-stone . 81. Necromancy or the Black-Art , from whence it is . 82. What Man is as a living Creature , and what Man is as being the Image of God. 83. After what manner the Eagle is allured by the Magnetisme of a dead Carcase . 84. How the venal Bloud is drawn in the Unguent , unto its own treasure . Why Eagles are allured to a dead Carcase , magnetically . 85. A natural feeling or perceivance , and an animal feeling , do differ . 86. The Effects of Witches are wicked ones . 87. The power of a Witch is natural , and of what sort that power may be . 88. Where the Magical power in man is seated . 89. Whether man bears command over all other Bodies . 90. Why a man may act per nutum or by his beck or pleasure . 91. What the Magical faculty may be . 92. The Magical power lyes hid in man after divers manners . 93. The inward man is the same with the outward fundamentally , but materially , diverse . 94. What the vital Spirit its knowledge and gift is . 95. In a Carcase which dies of its own accord , there is no implanted Spirit . 96. The divining of Spirits according to Physitians . 97. The Soul acts in the Body onely per nutum , Magically . 98. The Soul acts in the Body , onely by a drowsie beck , but out of the Body , by an excited beck . The knowledge of the Apple , hinders Science , Magical or Wise Knowledge . 99. The beginning of the Cabal is drawn from God in Dreams . 100. The defect of Understanding is in the outward man. 101. What Satan can do in Witches . 102. What are the true works of Satan alone . 103. Sin hath withdrawn the endowments of Grace , and hath obscured the gifts of Nature . 104. Whither the pious exercises of Catholicks tend . 105. The most powerful effect of the Cabal . 106. There are two subjects of any kind of things . 107. Man acts as well by his Spirit , as by his Body . 108. What kind of ray or beam is sent from a Witch into a bruit . 109. How a Witch may be bewrayed . 110. How a Witch may be bound up in the heart of a Horse . 111. The Intention depraves or vitiates a good Work. 112. The Seminal virtue is natural Magick . 113. Why blood issues out of the dead Carcase when the Murtherer is present . 114. Why the Plague is frequent in Sieges . 115. Works of Mercy are to be exercised at least in respect of avoiding the Plague . 116. Plagues from Revenge and execration , are detestable . 117. Why Bodies were to be removed from the Gibbet . 118. Why Excrements cannot cause the Plague . 119. Why the blood of a Bull is mortally venemous . 120. Why the fat of a Bull is in the Sympathetical Unguent , to wit , that it may be made an Oyntment of Weapons . 121. Why Satan cannot concurre unto the Unguent . 122. The Basis or Foundation of Magick . 123. From whence Vanities are accounted for Magick . 124. A good Magick in the holy Scriptures . 125. What may be called true Magick . 126. The cause of the Idolatry of Witches . 127. The Sirrers up of Magick . 128. Satan excites it imperfectly . 129. From whence beasts also are Magical . 130. The Kingdom of Spirits nourisheth strife , and love . 131. Why man is a Microcosm or little World. 132. The mind generates real Entities . 133. That Entity or Beingness is of a middle nature between a Body and a Spirit . 134. The descending of the Soul begets a conformed will. 135. The cause of the fruitfulness of Seeds . 136. Why Lust doth as it were estrange us from our Mind . 137. A Father by the Spirit of his Seed , generates out of himself , in an Object presently absenting it self . 138. What Spirit may be the Patron of Magnetism . 139. The Will sends a Spirit unto the Object . Unless the Will did produce some real thing , the Devil could not know of or acknowledge it ; and unless it did dismiss it out of it self , the Devil being absent , could not be provoked thereby . Where therefore the Treasure is , thither doth the Magical spirit of man tend . 140. Magnetism is made by sensation . 141. That there are many perceivances in one onely subject . 142. From the superiour Phantasie commanding it . 143. Why Glasse-makers use the Load-stone . 144. The Phantasie of attracting things is changed . 145. Inanimate things have their Phantasie . 146. Why some things by eating of them , induce madness . 147. Why a mad Dog by biting of a Man introduceth madness . 148. The Tarantula by his stroke or sting , causeth a madness . 149. Why other bruit beasts do not defend themselves against a mad Dog. 150. The Sympathy betwixt Objects at a distance , is made by means of a certain Spirit of the world , which Spirit also governing the Sun , and the Sunny Stars , is of a potent sense or feeling . 151. The Imagination in Creatures endowed with choice , is various at pleasure ; but in others , it is alwayes of a limited identity . 152. The first degree of power dwelleth Magically in the forms of the three Principles . 153. The second degree is by the phantasies of the Forms of the mixt Body , the which , to wit , being destroyed , the Principles do as yet remain . 154. The Third degree ariseth from the Phantasie or Imagination of the Soul. 155. What Bruits are Magical , and do act out of themselves , by beck alone . 156. The fourth degree of Magical Power , is from the Understanding of Men being stirred up . 157. The word Magick is a proportionable answering of many things , unto some one third thing . 158. Every Magical power or faculty rejoyceth in a stirring up . 159. What may be called a subject capable of Magnetism . 160. How Magnetism differs from other formal Properties . 161. Humours and Filths or Ex●rements have their Phantasie . 162. Why the Scripture attributes Life to the Blood , rather than to any other juyces of the Body . 163. The seed possesseth the Phantasie of the Father , by traduction or derivation ; from whence nobility ariseth . 164. The skins of the Wolf and Sheep have retained through impression , an hostile Imagination of their former Life . 165. What the Phantasie of the Blood being freshly brought into the Unguent , can effect . The manner of the Magnetism or attraction in the Ointment . 166. The difference between a Magnetical Cure which is done by the Unguent , and that which is done by a rotten Egg. 167. The notable Mystery of humane imagination , is the foundation of natural Magick . 168. The Understanding imprinteth the Beingnesse which was procreated or produced on the outward object , and there it really continues . 169. How efficacious Seals or Impressions may be made . 170. The Imagination holds fast the Spirit of a Witch , by a nail , as it were a Medium . 171. If Satan doth naturally move a Body without a corporeal touch or extreamity , why not also the more inward Man ? and why not rather also the Spirit of the Witch ? 172. The virtue of the Oyntment is not from the Imagination of the compounder , but from the Simples co-united into one . 173. The Author makes a profession of his Faith. IN the eighth year of this Age , there was brought unto me , an Oration Declamatory , made at Marpurg of the Catti , wherein Rodolph Goclenius ( to whom the profession of Phylosophy was lately comitted ) paying his first-fruits , endeavours to shew , That the curing of Wounds by the Sympathetical and Armary or Weapon Unguent , invented by Paracelsus , is meerly natural . Which Oration , I wholly read , and I sighed within my self , that the Histories of natural things had lighted into the hands of so weak a Patron . The Author nevertheless highly pleased himself with that Argument of Writing , and with a continued barrenness of proof , in the year 1613. published the same work , with some enlargement . There was very lately brought me a succinct Anatomy of the aforesaid Book , composed by a certain Divine , rather in the form of a fine or jocond censure , than of a disputation : my judgement therefore , however it should be , was desired , at least-wise in that respect , that the thing found out by Paracelsus , concerned himself , and me his follower . I shall therefore declare , what I think of the Physitian Goclenius , and what of the Divine the Censurer . First of all , the Physitian proposeth , and boasts , that he will prove the magnetick or attractive cure of Wounds to be natural : But I found the Promiser to be unfit for so great a business : Because that he no where , or at least but slenderly , makes good his Title or Promises : He collecting many patcheries here and there , whereby he thinks he hath sufficiently proved , that there are certain formal virtues in the nature of Things , which they call Sympathy and Antipathy ; and that from the granting of those , the Magnetical Cure is natural . Many things I say , out of the Aegyptians , Chaldeans , Persians , Conjurers , and Jugling Impostors , he gathers into one , whereby he might prove or evince the Magnetism which himself was ignorant of : Partly that by delighting mindes that are greedy of novelties of things , he may seduce them from the mark ; and partly that they may admire the Author , that he had rub'd over , not onely trivial Writers , but also any other the more rare ones . Wherefore the Physitian doth rashly confound Sympathy ( which he after divers manners , and fabulously , often alledgeth ) with Magnetism , and from that , concludes this to be natural . For I have seen also , that Vulnerary Oyntment to cure not onely Men , but also Horses , between whom and us , certainly there is not so great affinity ( unless we are Asses ) that therefore , the Sympathetical Unguent should deserve to be called common to Us and Horses . In like manner , the Physitian badly confounds Sympathy or Co-suffering with Witchcraft , and Ligation or Binding up , and both with Magnetism : To wit , he as in anguish , undistinctly alledgeth any the more abstruse or hidden effects whatsoever , whereby ( he being destitute of reasons ) might make good his own Mag●etism . I will by an Example distinguish Witchery from Sympathy , and both from Magnetism . A Dog hath an Antipathy ( for Sympathy and Antipathy are daughters of the same stock ) with a Hen : for he preys upon this Hen , and this Hen flees from the Dog ; but when she hath newly hatched her Chickens , this Hen chaseth the Dog , although a couragious one : to wit , the soul of the Hen by Fascination or Witchery , tying up the Soul of the Dog , the former Antipathy , unequal defence of Weapons , and unequality of Strength nothing hindring it ; Yet in these things , Magnetism is no where seen . Moreover , what Examples the Physitian brings concerning Seals or Impresses , Characters , Gamahen or magical Images , Ceremonies , and for the most part vain Observances , are altogether impertinent to this purpose , and do rather destroy Magnetism as rendring it suspitious , than build it up : my Genius or Wit carries me not to determine any thing of these things . And then , Goclenius Errs , and that indeed rashly , like as also ignorantly : dreaming from the Prescription of Paracelsus , that the Weapon which wounded , if it be involved in the Weapon Salve , doth cure the Wound : For the Weapon or Point of the Sword shall be in vain anointed with the Unguent by him prescribed , unless it be made Bloody ; and the same Blood shall be first dried on the said Sword. For with Paracelsus , the Sympathetical Ungent is one thing , in respect of the Blood fetch'd out of the Wound , and the Ungent wherewith the Weapons that were tinged with no Blood , ought to be Emplaistred , certainly another ; and therefore he calls the former , the Magnetick and Sympathetick Ungent , but the latter the Magnetick Armary or Weapon-Ungent : the which therefore receives ( nor that indeed in Vain ) Honey and Bulls Fat over and above , into its Composition . Last of all , Goclenius , that he might satisfie his own Genius , hath altered the Description of Paracelsus , affirming that the Usnea or Moss , is to be chosen only from the Skuls of hanged Persons ; of which his own and false Invention , he enquiring the Cause , blusheth not to dream , that in Strangling , the vital Spirits entred into the Skull , and there remain so long , as until that six years from that time being accomplished , the Moss shall under the open Air grow up thereon . Paracelsus hath taught the express contrary , and by practical Experiences it is confirmed , that the Moss of the Skuls of those that have been slain or broken on a Wheel , is no less commendable , than that of those who were strangled with an Halter . For truly , the Quintessence is not extracted out of living Creatures ( because the principal Essence perisheth together with the inflowing Spirit and Life ) but only the Mumial Virtue , that is , the implanted and co-fermented Spirit , which surviveth in Bodies slain by violence . What things Goclenius hath delivered concerning Remedies for repairing of the Memory , as we acknowledge them no way agreeable to the end intended ; so also , we not any thing doubt to prove them to be impertinent flourishes . There is no Question ( between our Divine and Physitian ) about the truth of the Fact ; for both of them grant , that a cure happens to the wounded Person : the controversie layes only in that , that the Physitian affirms such a Cure to be natural , but the Divine will have it to Satanical ; and that from a compact of the first Inventer : of which Censure , he brings not any positive reason in his Anatomy , as thinking it satisfactory , if he in his own judgment shall abolish it , although he shall openly produce no grounds of that abolishment ; to wit , he acquiescing in this , that he hath removed the feeble Reasons of the Affirmer , the which to do , is a matter of no labour , of no skill , nor also is it a matter of any authority : For , to what end tends it , to give judgment on the thing it self from the foolishness of the Reasons of some unskilful Brain ? and to declare it to be wicked , if he hath not so much as dreamed of one petty Reason of his Sentence ? What if I , who am a Laick , should commend Presbitery with untrimmed Reasons , and some one should reject them as unworthy ones , shall the Priesthood it self therefore be to be rejected ? What I pray you , doth the Unskilfulness or Rashness of any one touch at things themselves : Surely Phylosophy submits not it self to censures , unless a Considerable gravity of the Censurers , well confirmed by reasons , doth concur . I therefore who have undertaken to prove ( against the Divine ) that this Magnetick cure is even natural : First of all , have supposed Goclenius worthy of excuse , if he hath laboured in vain in the finding out of the immediate Cause of this unwonted effect . What wonder is it , when as the Divine consesseth that he is ignorant of the same : and therefore conjectures Satan to be the Author thereof : for such is our Infirmity , that we are destitute of the knowledge of the most , and most excellent things : For therefore we unwillingly wrest very many things aside unto the sacred Anchour of Ignorance , and refer them to the Catalogue of occult or hidden Causes . For who among Divines ever knew how to demonstrate to the full , the Cause of risibility or capacity of laughter , or of any other formal Property , to wit , of heat in the Fire ? Is not the Fallacy of Begging of the Principle , committed , if thou shall say , The highest degree of Heat belongs to the Fire , because it is of the Nature thereof ? Truly the Essences of Forms , because they are unknown to us from their Cause , therefore also the race of formal Properties is wholly scanty , and unknown ; and where we observe any formal Passion to lay under , the Mind as if it were tired in vain , presently ceaseth from a diligent search thereof , and reposeth it self , being contented with the name of occult Properties . Go to I pray you , hath the Anatomist the Censurer , haply known the Cause why a Dog that rejoyceth , swings his Tail ? But a Lyon in like manner , when he is Angry ? A Cat also making merry in token of Favour , lifts up the same ? What therefore , if himself hath not known so much as the reason of the moving of a Tail ; will he wonder that Goclenius hath given an unsolid Reason of Magnetism ? and from the refuting of that , presume that he hath more than sufficiently demonstrated the dure which belongs to Magnetisme , to be Satanical ? Far be so great a rashness of Judgment from him . Come on then , why dost thou call that Cure diabolical : Truly it had behoved thee , to have added a reason of thy Censure , unless thou expectest to have it denyed by others , with the same Facility wherewith thou declarest it to be of the Devil . Lawyers require only the affirmative Part to be confirmed ; but Phylosophers both parts , least either the Ignorance , or also the malepartness of the denyers should seem greater than that of the Affirmers . Dost thou perhaps , maintain it to be diabolical , because it cannot be understood by thee , that a natural Reason thereof doth subsist ? I will not believe that thou couldst utter so idle a Sentence , from thine own Infirmity , of its Virtue : For thou knowest that the weaknesse of Understanding is our Vice , not that of things . Make hast therefore ; From whence knowest thou , that God hath not directed such a magnetical Virtue unto the use or benefit of the Wounded . Shew thy Evidences : hath God chosen thee to be the Secretary of his Counsel ! Surely however thou mayest variously wander or waver , at length thou shalt find , that the Cure is accounted diabolical among you [ Divines ] for no other Reason , but because your Slenderness and Calling doth not comprehend it . What wonder is it , if no Divine hath smelt out these things ? For after that the Priest and the Levite had passed on to Jericho , a Samaritan , being a Lay Man , succeeded , who took away all right from the Priests of enquiring into the Causes of Things . Therefore Nature from thenceforth , called not Divines for to be her Interpreters : but desired Physitians only for her Sons ; and indeed , such only , who being instructed by the Art of the Fire , doe examine the Properties of things , by separating the impediments of their lurking Powers , to wit , their Crudity , Poysonousnesses , and Dregs , that is the Thistles and Thorns every where implanted into Virgin-Nature from the Curse : For seeing Nature doth dayly Distil , Sublime , Calcine , Ferment , Dissolve , Coagulate , Fix , &c. Certainly we also , who are the only faithful Interpreters of Nature , do by the same helps draw forth the Properties of things from Darkness into Light. But that the Divine may judge of that which is a Juggle , from that which is Natural ; he must needs first borrow the Definition from us ; to wit , least the Cobler shamefully slip beyond his Last . Let the Divine enquire concerning God , but the Naturalist concerning Nature . Certainly , much was the Goodness of the Creator every where extended , who made all created things for the use of ungrateful Man : Neither hath he admited any of the Theologists or Divines as an Assistant in Counsel , how many and how great Virtues he should endow things withal . I know not surely in the mean time , how he can be excused from the Sin of Pride , who because he perceiveth not the Natural Cause , as it were measuring all the Works of God by the sharpness of his own Wit , doth therefore boldly deny God to have given such Virtue to Things ; as though Man , a Worm , were a full Partaker of God , and his Counsel : He esteems of the Minds of all Men by his own , who thinks that cannot be done which he cannot Understand . Truly unto me , it seems no way a Wonder , if God had given unto things , besides a Body , a Virtue co-like to the Load-stone , and that to be unfolded by the name of Magnetism or Attraction alone : Ought it not to be sufficient for the affirming of Magnetism , that one only single natural Example be alleaged ( I shall anon declare it by more , and that , such as fit the purpose ) of that Stone , according to the square whereof , other Endowments also variously distributed in the Creatures , may be understood ? Because therefore the thing is a new Paradox and unknown to thee , shall it for that Cause , ought also to be Satanical ? Far be it from thee to think so unworthily of the divine Majesty of the Creator : Neither certainly ought we to flatter the Devil by conferring that Honour upon him : For what doth at any time more sweetly affect him , than if the Glory of Gods Work be so ascribed to him , as though himself had been the Author of the same . Ye grant that material Nature doth dayly draw down Forms by its Magnetism , from the Superior Orbs , and much desire the favour of the celestial Bodies , and that the Heavens do in exchange , invisibly allure something from the inferiour Bodies , that there may be a free and mutual passage , and an harmonious concord of the Members , with the whole Universe . Magnetism therefore , because it is every where vigorous , contains nothing of Novelty in it , but the Name : neither is it Paradoxical , but to those who deride all things , and banish into the Dominion of Satan , whatsoever they do not understand . Truly that knowledge doth never spring up to him that seeks Wisdom as a Derider . But I pray , what hath the Weapon Salve of Superstition in it ? Whether because it is composed of the Moss , Blood , Mummie , and Fat of Man ? but the Physitian useth these safely , and to this end the Apothecary sells them without a Penalty : Or perhaps , because the manner of using it is new to thee , unaccustomed to the Vulgar , but to be admired of both , shall the effect therefore be Satanical ? Subdue thy self , and rage not , thou shalt anon have better satisfaction . For the manner of using it , contains nothing of Evil therein . First of all the Intent is good and holy , and tends only unto a good End ; to wit , to cure our languishing or woful Neighbour , without Pain , Danger , and the Consumption of Charges : Dost thou call this diabolical ? In the next place , the Remedies themselves also , are natural things , whereunto , that that Faculty was granted by God , we shall by and by prove by Arguments . I wish , that thou also hadst thus confirmed to us thy negative ; to wit , that God the chiefest Good , hath not given unto the sympathetical Ungent , that natural Faculty , and Mumial Magnetism . This magnetical Remedy , can no way be rendred suspected , seeing it hath no Superstitious Rites , it requires no Words , no Characters or Impresses , no admixed Ceremonies , or vain Observances ; it presupposeth no Houres , it profanes not holy Things ; yea which is more , it doth not so much as fore-require the Imagination , Confidence , or Belief , nor leave to be required from the wounded Party ; all which Things are annexed to Superstitious Cures . For that is called Superstition , as oft as Men relie upon Faith or Imagination , or both , above any kinde of Virtue which is not such , or which is not directed by the Creator to that end : Therefore the magnetical Cure hath nothing of Superstition . Wherefore , do thou , O censuring Divine , that art ful of Taunting , make tryal of the Oyntment , at least-wise with a designe to deride Satan , whereby thou mayest overthrow that implicite compact : Nevertheless , will thou , nill thou , thou shalt find plainly the same Effect as there is with us , the which doth never happen to superstitious Causes . Whosoever he be that thinks the magnetical Cure of Wounds is diabolical , not because it consists from an unlawful End , and of unlawful Means ; but because it proceeds after a manner unknown to him : He also as convinced by the same Argument , shall render the essential Causes of all the Operations of the Load-stone , of which we are about to speak ; or shall confess that those Operations are the Juggles of Satan ; or at least-wise ( which will be more safe for him to do ) shall be constrained to acknowledge with us , that there is a Magnetism , that is , a certain hidden Property with this appellation ( by reason of the manifest Prerogative of that Stone ) divided or distinguished from other abstruse , and commonly unknown Qualities . A Load-stone being laid upon a thin trencher of Wood , and swimming on the Water , is forthwith on one , and that a certain side , turning towards the South , but on the other side , toward the North : The Austral or Southern Part thereof , if it shall touch Iron , it turns that towards the North , and the northern Part of the Load-stone , having touched Iron , will incline it to the South . By its Sepentrional or northerly Part , that is , its Belly , it allures Iron or Steel to it ; and by its Austral Part , or Back , it drives that Iron or Steel before it : The Northern side , by rubbing of the Point of a Compass-Needle , from the right Hand to the left , will direct the same to the South ; but if the rubbing be made from the left Hand unto the right , the direction of the Point will be contrary . In like manner also , the South side of the Load-stone is varied : Yea which is more , if a Load-stone , by its rubbing on a piece of Iron , doth make it to be Magnetical , that is , an attractive of other Iron , let the same Iron which is now Magnetical , be rubbed again , being turned upwards , and downwards upon the Load-stone , it will presently put off its attractive Power : Of which Effects if they relish thee , enquire thou of William Guilbert a Physitian of London , in his Treatise of the Load-stone ; than whom , none ever wrote better concerning this Subject ; and by whose Industry , the variation of the Compass may be restored . The Needle which now bends to the North , under the Aequinoctial Line , staggers to and fro ; but beyond it , bends it self unto the other Pole. I shall add this medicinal Faculty of it : The back of the Load-stone , as it repulseth Iron ; so also it drives back the Gut , cures Burstness , and every Catarrh or Rheum which is of the Nature of Iron : for all Magnetisms , are ordained for the use of Man. The Iron-attracting Faculty , if it shall be married to the Mummy of a Woman , then the back of the Load-stone being emplaistred within her Thigh , and the Belly thereof on her Loyns , doth safely prevent a Miscarrying already threatned : but the Belly of the Load-stone , being applyed within her Thigh , and its Back to her Loyns , doth wonderfully facilitate or dispatch her delivery . All which Effects of the Load-stone , our Anatomist shall illustrate by Reasons drawn from foregoing Causes , and explain to us the manner thereof , as made known unto him : Or I shall by a like Argument of Ignorance conclude , that these likewise are the Delusions of Satan , and not natural Effects . I will now produce some Examples of a co-like Magnetism , that we at length may come with the more seasoned Judgment , unto the positive Reason , and refuting of all Oppositions . What can I do more ? the Reasons which thou hast not brought in thy own behalf , I my self will devise . Every Effect ( thou wilt say ) proceeds either immediately from God the Work-man , and so is a Miracle : or from Satan , and so is Monstrous : or from natural and ordinary Causes , and then is natural : but Magnetisme is not a Miracle , neither is it a natural Effect ; therefore Satanical . I answer : Although I am able to shew this aforesaid rehearsal to be insufficient , in regard the inward Man acteth even after none of the fore-mentioned wayes ( the which hereafter , we are plainly enough to declare ) nevertheless , we now , with a dry Foot , pass over the Assumption , as being about to deny the Subsumption or Inference ; to wit , in that part wherein it is affirmed , that the effect is not natural : For that was first to be proved , least a begging of the Principle or Question should be committed : but herein our Censurer hath and will be defective , to say that it is not a natural Effect , unless he thought , that for him to say it , was all one as to prove it , and to have placed his own Authority in the room of Reason : For there are many Effects natural , which do not ordinarily happen ; to wit , those which are the more seldom incident : Therefore , in favour of our Anatomist , I shall every where not only defend the affirmative part ; but also , I will declare it by Reasons , and confirm it by Examples : For so the Argument now alleaged , shall violently fall with its own weight . There is a Book , imprinted at Frankford in the year 1611 , by Uldericus Balk a Dominican , concerning the Lampe of Life ; where thou shalt find out of Paracelsus , the true magnetical Cure of many Diseases ; namely , of the Dropsie , Gowt , Jaundise , &c. by enclosing the warm Blood of the Sick in the shell and white of an Egg , which is exposed to a nourishing Warmth ; and this Blood being admixed with a piece of Flesh , thou shalt give unto a hungry Dog , or Swine , and the grief is presently drawn , and departs from thee into the Dog , no otherwise , than as the Leprosie of Naaman passed over or was transplanted into Gehazi , through the Execration of the Prophet . What , wilt thou account this also to be diabolical , to have thus restored the sick Party by the Magnetisms of the Mumial Blood alone ? But yet he is wholly and undoubtedly restored . A Woman weaning her Infant , whereby her Breasts may the sooner grow barren , Milks out her Milk on hot burning Coals , and her Dugs soon grow Flaggy . Doth haply the Devil suck them ? If any one shall Foul at thy Door , and thou intendest to prevent that Beastliness for the future ; lay thou a red hot Iron upon the new laid Excrement , and by Magnetism , the voyder of that Ordure , shall soon grow Scabby on his Buttocks ; to wit , the Fire roasting the Excrement , and as it were by a Dorsal or rebounding Magnetism , driving the sharpness of the Roast , into his impudent Fundament . Perchance thou wilt say , that this is Satanical , because the end is a hurting of the Party : But surely the abuse of Powers is in the liberty of Man ; Yet it is not the less natural in its use . Make a small Table of the lightest , whitest , and bafest kinde of Lead , and at the one end hereof , put a piece of Amber , and three spans off , place a piece of green Vitriol ; this Vitriol will forthwith visibly loose its Colour and Tartness : Both which Effects are found in the Preparation of Amber . At least-wise , this very Experiment , shall be free from all Illusion of Satan . A certain Inhabitant of Bruxels , lost his Nose in fight , he comes to Tagliacozzus a Chyrurgion , living at Bononia , in expectation of another Nose : and when as he feared the Incision of his own Arm , he hired a Porter for his end , out of whose Arm , he having given him his Price , the Chyrurgion at length digged a Nose . About thirteen Months after his return into his own Country , presently on a sudden , the ingrafted Nose grew cold , and after some dayes fell off through Putrefaction : By the buisie enquirers of the unexpected chance of which thing , it was found that the Porter gave up the Ghost , perhaps at the same moment , wherein the Nose grew cold . There are those yet surviving at Bruxels , that were eye Witnesses of these Things . Is not that Magnetism of manifest affinity with Mummy , whereby the Nose , by the right of ingraftment , rejoycing for so many Months , in a common Life , Sense or Feeling , and vegetative Faculty , suddenly mortified on the further side of the Alpes ? What I pray , is there in this of Superstition ? What of a fond Imagination ? The Root of the Carline-thistle ( which is that of Chamileon ) being plucked up when full of Juice and Virtue , and co-tempered with the Mummy of Man , doth as it were by a Ferment , exhaust all the Powers and natural strength out of a Man , on whose shadow thou treadest , into thy self . But this thou wilt say , is full of deceit , because Paradoxical : as if the same Leprosie were not tranferred out of Naaman into Gehazi ; and the same numerical Jaundises transplanted into a Dog : for a Disease is not in the Predicament of Quality ; but all the Predicaments are in every particular Disease : For truly it shall not be lawful to accommodate or suite things to names , but names to things . The Solisequous , or Sun-following Flowers , are carried after the Sun by a certain Magnetism or Attraction ; not indeed by reason of his heat which they may desire ( for in a cloudy and more cold day , they also imitate the Meeter of the Sun ) nor also by reason of his Light , are they the Lackeys of the Sun : for in the dark night , when they have left the Sun , they incline from the West to the East . Thou wilt not account this to be diabolical , because there is another privie Shift at hand ; to wit , that there is a Harmony of superiour Bodies with Inferiour , and an attractive Faculty , plainly Celestial , in no wise to be communicated unto sublunary things : As if indeed , the Microcosme or little World , being unworthy of a heavenly Condition , could in his Blood , and Moss , take notice of no revolution of the Stars . I might speak of Amorous or Love-Medicines , which require a Mumial co-fermenting , that Love or Affection may be drawn unto a certain Object : But it is more Discretion to pass them by , when I shall first have mentioned this one only Example . I have known an Herb , in many Places easie to be seen ; the which , if it be rubbed , and cherished in thy Hand , until it shall wax warm , and thou presently shall hold fast the hand of another Person , until that also grow warm ; he shall continually burn , with a total Love of thee , for some dayes . I held in my hand , the Foot of a certain little Dog , and this Dog , presently so followed me , a stranger , that his Mistris being renounced , he howled in the night before my chamber Door , that I might open unto him . There are some present at Bruxels , who are my Witnesses of this deed : For the heat first heating the Herb , I say , not a bareheat , but being stir'd up by a certain Efflux of the natural Spirits , limits the Herb unto it , and individuates it to it self ; and this ferment being received , doth by Magnetism , draw the Spirit of that other Person , and subdue it into Love. I leave the Cures of many Sicknesses , which the secret of humane Blood doth magnetically perfect : For unless the Blood , yea the corrupt Pus or Matter [ of Wounds or Ulcers ] the Urin , and transpirable Efflux through the Pores of the Skin , shall continually mow down , or carry away with them something of the Vital Spirit ; and there were in these a certain Participation of the whole Body , when they are out of their natural composed Body ; surely the dayes of Man should not be so short : For this indeed hath been the cause of our intestine Calamity . The herbs Arsmart or Water-Pepper , Comfry , Flixweed or Luskewort , Dragon-Wort , Adders-Tongue , and many others , have that peculiar Endowment , that if being cold , they are steeped in Water ( for a felled Oake , when the North-Wind blows , will grow wormy , if not forthwith sunk under Water ) and if being for some time applyed on a Wound , or Ulcer , they grow warm , and are presently buried in a muddy place : When they begin to putrifie , they are also busie in drawing from the sick Party , whatsoever is hurtful unto him : And that thing the Herbs accomplish , not as long as they grew in the Earth , nor also as long as they remain in their antient Form ( for it behoves the Grain to die , that it may bring forth Fruit ) but in the Putrefaction of their Body , their Virtues being now as it were loosed from the Bolt of their Body , do freely uncloath themselves of that Magnetism , otherwise sleeping and hindered ; and according to the contagion and impression received from the wounded or ulcerated Place , do suck out much remainder of Evil , even at a far distance . If any one in gathering the Leaves of Asarabacca , shall pluck them upwards , they will purge another , that is , a third Person who is ignorant of that drawing , by Vomit only : but if in cropping , they are wrested downwards , they will expurge only by Stool . Here at least-wise , doth no Superstition subsist , or lurk : for why do I here make mention of Imagination ; seeing ye grant that nothing can thereby operate on a third Object , especially where that Object is ignorant of the manner of gathering which the Cropper used ? Wilt thou perhaps again accuse of an implicite compact , and lay hold on the sacred Anchor of ignorance ? But here lurks no vain observance , especially when as the gatherer shall pluck off the Leaves either upward , or downward , the receiver being ignorant thereof . Truly , besides Asarabacca , and the outmost parts of Elder , no other purging Medicines have that Endowment , the which after what manner soever they are gathered , do alwayes univocally or singly operate : But in Asarabacca , in the entire Plant , a magnetical Property shines forth , and so it variously endoweth its Leaves according to the sense of their gathering . But that , not only Plants , but also almost all created things have a certain delineation of sense , they do largely confirm , as well by Antipathy , as Sympathy ( which cannot consist without sense ) which thing , we shall by and by teach . Another new Fit of the Gout surprized a noble Matron of my acquaintance , after one Fit had departed , and that Gowt , by an unwonted recourse , molested her for many Months without remission : But she not knowing from whence so great and unexspected a relapse of the Disease befel her , at length , now rising from her Bed , as oft as the heat of the Fit was slackened , sate down in a seat , wherein her Brother being Gowty , and that in another City , had in times past , wont to sit , and indeed she forthwith found , that from thence the Disease did revive a-fresh . Verily the Effect is in no wise to be ascribed to Imagination or scrupulous Doubt ; because both these were such as were much more modern than the Effect . But if in the same Seat , another gowty Person happened to have sit , no renovation of the Disease happened unto him : Therefore the Mummy of her Brother already dead , deservedly rendred the Seat suspected of Contagion , which piercing , through all her Cloaths , stir'd up in the Sister , and not in any other gowty Person , those Fluxes of Fits , which otherwise would have been quiet : Indeed the Magnetism was to the Mummy of the Sisters Womb , and that a long five Years space after his burial . I pray , what implicite compact is here with the Enemy Satan ? A Saphire that is of a deep skie Colour , if it shall touch , and be for some time rub'd on a Carbuncle , whereby the Plague discovers it self , but by and by be removed , the absent Jewel now ceaseth not magnetically to attract all the Poyson from the defiled Party ; so that it be done before his strength be too much dejected : They are wont therefore ( which to us makes more for the Credit of Magnetism ) by degrees to enclose the place of the Aposteme with a Saphire extended into a Circle : To wit , least the departing Poyson , in that place where it unsensibly exhales , should be more largely expended , and thereupon , more largely infect some noble adjacent Part. For in what part the Poyson doth ( as it were through a Trunk ) magnetically exhale out of the wasted Body , the whole circle presently grows black , and being at length scorched into an Eschar , falls off ; the Heart in the mean time , being preserved from the deadly Contagion . Neither is there any place for a privy Evasion , as to say that the attracted Poyson , at the same moment wherein the place is touched by the Saphire , or also being at that time subdued within , doth figure it self , and not to attribute that thing unto the Magnetism of the absent Gem : But notwithstanding , the Sick will bear witness that they did not presently perceive relief , but a good while after ; to wit , by the Poyson by little and little departing through the magnetical attraction : Yea , the place it self will afford a more certain Testimony for Magnetisme ; the which , waxeth not black under the circular conveyance , or by that conveyance of the Saphire ; but it grows black a little while after , as being immediately scorched by the Pestiferous , that is , Arsenical air , going forth in that very Path or Part , and not in any other : For where the Poyson doth continually exhale , to wit , by the venemous Beams being recollected into a crest or pyramidal Point , the place doth there of necessity suffer violence , wax black , and is burnt or scorched : which Effects , as they happen in a succession of time , they perfectly instruct us , that the Poyson doth also successively flow forth according to the attraction of the absent Gem. Perhaps thou wilt answer , that every Agent requires a certain duration of its impression ; that the Saphire did not benefit this sick Party in an instant , but that it left an Impression behind it , which was to vanquish the remainder of the Malady by degrees ; but not that the Gem being absent from the Carbuncle , did afterwards attract any thing : Where thou shalt take notice , that every Agent of Nature doth act in an instant , unless there be some obstacle or hinderance in the Patient . But in the Body being infected , that there is no Impediment , because it is that which requires help with the greatest speed , and earnestly Paints after it , in all its Veins . It would be altogether another thing , if in the pained Place the Saphire were to be prepared , concocted , or altered ; that the imprisoned Agent which should afterwards be spread through the Body , might be drawn out thereby : But seeing it remains entire and uncorrupt , it requires only a certain time , to this end , that it may couple its own influential Ray ( through a touching of the Mummy ) unto the Ray or Beam of the pestilent Air , whereby it being forthwith absent , may require or command it forth : For the said copulation I say , that there may be made a fast binding of the Virtue of the Saphire to the Venom , there is required a certain time ( grant one eighth Part of an Hour ) wherein the Circle-Line is encompassing the Carbuncle ; for if there were a certain impression of the Saphire , which by degrees should subdue the Poyson within , and not a magnetical attraction of the absent Jewel , there could be no reason why that certain or particular place of the Circle should wax black and be scorched , nor also why the Poyson should not more largely range , than in the said Circle : And which is more , if the Carbuncle doth freshly shew it self in diverse Places at once ; yet that Carbuncle only , which was circumscribed with the Saphire , is burnt , the other setling , and vanishing away . Therefore , what attractive Impression ( I beseech thee ) shall the absent Saphire , leave behind it , if not a magnetical one ? especially , because the thing attracted , bespeaks an unseparable respect unto the thing attracting , and this likewise to that . Yea , if the Saphire had delivered any Virtue from it self into the sick Body , it ( after one or a second using ) should be weaker than it self was ( for so the hoof of the Elke , driving away Fits of the Falling-sickness , is by little and little , rendred barren or unefficacious ) the Faculty which it imprinted being lost , which plainly in the Saphire is truly unlike ; for it is commended as so much the more powerful , by how much the oftner it hath suckt out the Venom . Perhaps thou wilt say , that the Saphire generated a Quality in the sick Person , by reason whereof it began to attract , and pluck forth the Poyson that way ; and although the Saphire be then removed , yet nevertheless , Nature being once moved or provoked , perseveres in expulsion , and that through that passage where the Poyson began to be expelled . First we ask , whether the Saphire draws by its first quality ( suppose heat ) or by a formal and magnetick Property ? But this desires not a previous or foregoing Generation of a new Quality within the Body ; but only a coupling of its attractive Virtue , for to draw : Therefore that an attraction is made by the absent Gem : The Subsumption is proved ; because every natural attracter , draws unto it self ; for indeed , to this end only doth it attract . Wherefore a new Quality being generated within the Body , should draw the Poyson inwards to it self , and should never be allured outwards by attraction . Secondly we enquire , whether haply , the Saphire hath produced a Virtue from it self , and hath imprinted it only on the Skin ? But indeed , neither can that stand together , because then it should not be necessary for a Circle to be drawn by the Gem , about the Carbuncle ; but it should be sufficient , for any other remote , and more commodius part of the skin to be touched , which is false . Thirdly , whether the Saphire can perhaps , open the Pores of the Skin ? And whether Nature could not make use of the same expulsive Faculty , without the touch of the Saphire ? Which if not , then the Saphire shall not attract , but shall only strengthen the expulsive Faculty in the sick Party : But that contradicts this , because the place is not scorched either beyond , or on this side of the Circle ; and because those Carbuncles which begin to bud , being not touched also by the Saphire , do settle down , and perish . For truly , if the expulsive Faculty were only strengthened , it would expel the Venom every way round , and not be tied up unto a certain and elect place . Fourthly , Nature before the touching of the Saphire , had already denoted its own strong Ability in expelling of the Carbuncle . Whence also it is false , that Nature being once provoked to expulsion , doth afterwards continue it of her self , seeing otherwise , the Saphire came too slow for the Beginning of Expulsion : Therefore whatever thou shalt say , the Poyson must needs be magnetically attracted by the absent Gem. Wilt thou therefore , that the natural Magnetism of the weapon Salve , be more clearly manifested unto thee ? Or wilt thou reprorch the attraction of the Gem , and also write to the reproacher ? Thou wilt judge ( I suppose ) that it is better and far better to be of Opinion with us , that as Death , Wounds , a Disease , Slaughters , crept in by the Devil , from whom there is nought but Mischief ; So that every good Gift , descends down from the Father of Lights ; all Men judging that to be good , which neither the Subject , nor the Object , nor the Means , nor the intended End , dare to accuse of wickedness . For this Cause , the Prelates of the Church , were wont heretofore to wear Rings enricht with a Saphire , the use of that Gem being almost unknown amongst them : For unto whomsoever the charge of Souls is committed , it is also incumbent on the same from equity , and Office or Duty , to be assistant to those that are infected with the Plague : For the darkness of Ignorace , at this day , over-shadowing the most famous Knowledge of natural Things , instead whereof , a polished Grace or fineness of speaking , and a glistering of the windy and dead Letter , and a presumptuous Prattle , have succeeded ; which is greatly to be bawailed , and more to be admired , that mechanical Arts do dayly thrive ; but that the study of natural things alone , is affrighted and goes backward , through unjust Censures . I have been the more tedious about the Saphire , because it contains a Case or Condition , wholly like and equal to the Armary Unguent or weapon Salve . In this respect therefore , Man also hath his Load-stone or attractive Power , whereby in time of the Plague , he draws the Venom from abroad , out of the Infected , by an unsensible transpiration : For Nature , which at other times , is wont to admit only of a kind or wholesome Juice , and diligently to separate it from the Excrements , now yielding to its Magnet or attractive Virtue , allures unto it a hurtful Air , and invites Death into the Body : Against which Magnet , there is its contrary Magnet ( this is inserted , to wit , least our Dispute should become barren in any part of it ) namely the Saphire it self , or also a clear piece of Amber , being first rub'd upon the seven planetary Pulses ( but those are in the Throat , the Wrists of the Hands , nigh the Insteps , and on the Seat or Region of the Heart ) and being hung about the Neck instead of an Amulet or Pomander , excel the Magnet of Man , hinder it , and so are the most certain Amulets or counter Poysons against the cruel Contagion , otherwise plainly un-efficacious , if a co-rubbing of the Pulses hath not preceded : For those things which before , were a Saphire , and Amber , have from the rubbing on those Pulses , changed their Family , do first loose their name , and afterwards are called a Zenexton or preservatory Amulet against the Plague . Will any one account these Effects also to be diabolical , and attribute them to a Covenant struck with Satan ? It is sufficient , that we have brought a few , yet satisfactory Examples , and such as contain the like condition of the Armary Uguent : we shall now seasonably turn our selves unto thy Arguments . Thou reprovest Goclenius of Ignorance of the Doctrine of Aristotle , for that he insinuates the same accident to pass from Subject into Subject ( I wish thou hadst been as ready in proving , as thou art in refuting ) for as much as this also is a Mother of great Stubbornness , to think that a scar in a dead Carcass is not the same , which it was in the Man that was yesterday alive : For in vain do we reverence the Reliques of Saints , if only the impossible matter of the Aristotelicks remaineth , and there shall not remain certain accidents in the corrupted Body , whih were heretofore in the live one . Behold ! whither whither a Paganish errour doth hurle those that unadvisedly carpe at others : To imagine ( I say ) that to be impossible , which is altogether necessary , is the part of the grossest Ignorance . Indeed the Light from the Sun , even unto the Earth , doth even more swiftly than the twinckling of an Eye , also through the smallest Atomes of the Air , produce new Species , and Species of Species of Light : truly this is to wax blind in Sun-shine : for if we should not have the Light and Virtue of the Sun amongst us , but only the thousandth ( of thousands of Millions ) Species of its Light and Virtue , not any thing could grow , and Fire should never be produced by the re-bounding or union of its Beams : For the Species of Species of Light , seeing they are no more Light , than the Species of Colours are Colours , they should never cause Fire . Certainly , I rejoyce in the behalfe of the Ignorance of such a Doctrine , whereof Goclenius is accused as ignorant : Doth not the Needle of the Compass through a Glass that is sealed with scalding Sodder ( wherein no Pore is found ) incline it self to the northern Pole ? And is it not drawn unto a neighbouring piece of Iron , the Pole being the while neglected ? Therefore the same accident passeth thorow the Glass from the Load-stone into the Air , and perhaps reacheth to the Pole it self . And Magnetism also , is a celestial . Quality , very like to the Influences of the Stars , neither is it restrained unto distances of Place , even as neither the magnetical Ungent of which I dispute , is . Thou smilest , because Goclenius chooseth that hereby Mosse which is gathered from the Scul , of a Man of three Letters : Nor is there here , truly any ground for thee to think there lurks a Snake in the Bush , or the Vanity of Superstition : for although a Jesuite being put to Death by Hanging , or any other kinde of Martrydom , be left to be dryed according to the Influence and Obedience of the Stars , his Head will afford a springing Mosse , every way alike useful , and also alike in time for shaving it off , co-agreeable to the Skull of a Thief : for truly , the Seed of the Mosse falls from Heaven on Mount Calvary : For sometimes there rains a Froath , which is called Aurora ; and now and then a more tough Muscilage descends , which is called the Sperm or Seed of the Stars : Sometimes the Heavens showrs down Frogs , Spiders , &c. the which in falling , are made a tangible , and vital Substance . In Mountainous Places elsewhere , it rains Milk , no less than Blood : Oft-times also , there lyes upon Stones and Bones , a white and slimie Substance , let down from Heaven , which becomes Mosse : This Substance in other Places , where it putrifies or grows stony , induceth a Crust or Parget upon Stones , and elsewhere degenerates into a Mosse . Hitherto the Dew or Balsam of the Air Manna , Troni or the sweetest celestial dewie Manna's , Tereniabin or the Fatness of Wood-hony found in good quantity in the three Summer Months , Nostock or that which is called a falling Star , being a kinde of slimie or gelly found oft-times in Fields and Meadows , Nebulgea , or the Salt of the Moisture of a Cloud falling upon Stones in Meadows , and hardened with the heat of the Sun , Laudanum ( which in the place , may not be taken either for the Paracelfical preparation Laudanum , or for Laudanum which is the liquid Sweat of the shrub Cistus or Ledon , but for some Aereal Meteor or Production , arrsing from the Conjunction of some seminary celestial Influence , with the fatty evaporation of Plants ) and such like Aereal Productions have regard , although these partake more of the Substance of Air. Whereas in the mean time , Mosses growing on dead Skuls are of a higher pedegree , being the Excretions or Superfluities of the Stars , and are named celestial Flowers : By these , many things or rare effects have been atchieved ; because , seeing they are enriched with the continual favour and influence of the Heavens , they want not the Foundation of excellent Virtues : The Usnea therefore , or Mosse of the Skull , seeing it hath received its Seed from the Heavens , but its Womb and Increase , from the Mumial Marrows of the Skull of Man , and Tower of the Microcosm ; it s no wonder if it hath obtained notable Astral and magnetical Powers , and that beyond the common Condition of Vegetables , although Herbs , as they are Herbs , want not their own Magnetism . I will declare what I have seen . A certain , and that notable Souldier , bare a small Lock of the Moss of a Mans Skul artificially fastned between the Skin and Flesh of his Head ; who friendly interceding between two Brothers who were fighting a Duel with each other for their Life , was smitten with a Sword on his Head , that he fell to the ground , with which stroak , his Hat and Hair were cut through , as it were with an incision-knife , even to the Skin , yet he escaped with his Skin unhurt : Conjecture your selves , to what Cause the safe-guard of the Skin may be ascribed . I have not accustomed my self to perplex my Mind with uncertain Conjectures : for truly Lightning , which is more powerful than a Sword , if it shake or smite a Bay-tree , yet at leastwise , not a Sea-calfe , neither doth it touch upon a Horse , whose Snaffle is anointed with the Fat of a Sea-calfe ; neither doth it smite the Stable , whose Posts are besmeared with such Fat : the Experience is trivial or frequent ; Yet I pass by this Controversie , and leave it to others , when I shall have first put you in mind of a like Example . In Arduenna , St. Hubert is worshipped , whither all that are bitten by a mad Dog have address ( even as others flock unto the Chappels or Temples of St. Domine and Belline : ) there , a small lock of the Stole or upper Garment of St. Hubert is fastned within the Skin of the Forehead of him that was bitten by a mad Dog , and for the future , he can be smitten by no mad Beast whatsoever ; and that small Lock drives away or secures from their Teeth . Thou wilt answer , that that is a Miracle of God , by the way of Reliques : be it a Miracle ; Yet that God , doth for the most part , in Miracles , walk side by side with Nature , and observe the custom or rules hereof , those bitten Persons , by their smal Lock of the Garment , do shew : For He who can do all things by his Word alone , doth now and then also make use of Means . So let the Sweat in the Stoye of St. Paul , be a magnetical Unguent : But let the Sweat of the Sick , or also the unsensible Efflux issuing from them , be the Blood of the Wounded , put on a piece of Wood within the Box of the Unguent , forthwith all hurt is on every side , magnetically drawn out of the sick Party : And that is the more powerfully done , by how much that supernatural Magnet is of the greater efficacy . Indeed there is on both sides , a like reason , and a like manner of Operation : but that , in the material World , it happens through the Blood and the Unguent , as from corporeal Means ; but in the supernatural , through the Reliques of the Friends of God , which even in this respect , are much to be reverenced : which Reliques , that they may become of a nearer Affinity with the magnetical Unguent , our merciful God , hath out of some of them , raised up a Fountain of Oyl , uncessantly dropping Liquors of Balsam . Whereby we being indeed on both sides supported or relieved by a magnetical Remedy , may certainly know , that the magnetical or attractive Cure is received from God , and doth proceed in both Worlds , in a co-like order , in an equal space , and by one Guide or Directer . Hence indeed it is , that new Reliques work more , and more famous Miracles , even where they are carried about , applyed by touching , &c. because it is of necessity that the Magnet or Load-stone , be rubbed and stirred , if it must attract . I return unto thee Usnea , thou seminal Off-spring of Heaven : for he who hath recovered from his Hydrophobial Madness , by the small Lock of the Garment , and other pious Rites , is not only himself left free from a mad Dog for the future ; but which is more royal , he can grant unto another that hath been bitten by a mad Dog , a delay for the space of many Months , until the Patient can with his convenience come to St. Hubert ; the Poyson of the mad Dog being in the mean time , silent and suspended . Nature hath also afforded a magnetical Remedy Cozen-Germane to the other . The Zinzilla ( which is an Excrement of the Diaphragma or Midriffe , departing into an Inflamation ) when it hath like a Circle encompassed the same , kills the Party ; but it is safely and speedily cured , if the place be outwardly , and even but slenderly anointed with the Blood of any one who hath once laboured with that Disease : For he who hath once recovered of that Disease , hath obtained not only a Balsamical Blood , from whence for the future he is defended from the Disease ; but also he cures the same Effect in his Neighbour , and by a touching of his Skin with the same Blood , through the Power of Magnetism , transplants his blood into the like Balsam . Thou wilt say , if the Magnetism be in the Usnea or Moss , other Ingredients are in vain . Physitians answer , that some of them are principal Ones , but others less principal ; that some are as the hinderers of Contrarities , but some as spurs or exciting ones ; some also are Promoters by increasing the less active Magnetism : That this indeed was the necessity of a Composition in the Ungent . Wherefore as it was an impertinency to say ; if the Usnea contains the Magnetism , therefore Man is embowelled in vain , for other Ingredients ; so also , it would be an absurdity to press , if the Usnea hath not of it self a sufficient Magnetism , nor the Fat , nor the Blood , &c. Therefore , neither shall that Magnetism that is attributed to the Oyntment , enter into the whole composition , since single Ingredients cannot bring into a Composition , that which before they had not in their Simplicity . I shall now and then be constrained to supply thy Place , and to devise Cavils for thee ; notwithstanding thou oughst first to have learned from rustical Experiments , that in a Composition , a new and unwonted Quality doth frequently arise , which before was not at all couched in the single Simples : for it was convenient for thee to have known , that neither Vitriol , nor Gauls are black ; yet being joyned , that they make Ink. Thou wilt again object : If the Usnea preserves in it self a Magnetism from the Mumial Virtue of the Bones , and the circular Tract of the heavenly Bodies , then the same shall be to be gathered , not only from the Skuls , but also from the other Bones of a Sceleton : that Argument also is ridiculous ; because Nature also is subject to the Soile ; and therefore new Pepper being planted in Italy , begets or brings forth Ivy. Hellebour that grows in the Region of Trent , is deprived of a purging Faculty : And Poppies with us , are deprived of a deadly Quality , however our Country be tenfold colder than Thebes ( now called Stibes or Stiber ) it self : Therefore the Moss is various , as it grows in a various Soile of the Bones : For if Lightning melt Money without scorching the Purses , and often Companions sitting close together , takes one out of the Middle , and dashes him together or to Ashes , and that I say , happens , not casually , but by Permission of him , who would not have so much as a Leaf fall from the Tree without Command , and by whose Power alone , all Virtues are established ; It also shall be no Wonder , that one Magnetical Seed of Moss , distils from Heaven upon the Skul , and the Seed of another sort upon the rest of the Bones . Only the Bone of the Head , prevails again the Falling-evil ; the other Bone , not so . Then lastly , the whole Brain is consumed and melts in the S●ul ; through the continual bedewing of which Liquor I say , of the Bowel , the Skul attaines other Virtues , which we observe to be absent from the other Bones . I have sufficiently known the customs of Contradicters : For when they have nothing more of moment to say against the thing it self , they become the more reproachful , and fall foule upon the Man : Wherefore perhaps , some or other will say , that Magnetism is a certain novelty , invented only by Paracelsus ; but that he was a wicked and ignorant Man. And then , if there had ever been any such natural Virtue , it had not remained hidden to so many Ages , and its Revealment not have waited for the comming of Paracelsus . I answer , as to the Scoffes , and Mocks or Taunts of many showre'd down on a Man that was the Ornament of Germany , they are indeed not worth a Nut , or not at all to be regarded , and for that very Cause , render the asserter of them the more unworthy ; because he is such a one , who attempts to judge not only the living , but the dead also : For there is no reason , that I an unequal or unfit Person , who have undertaken the Song in Commendation of no Man , but do sift out things themselves , should enter upon the praise of those things which his Monuments hold forth concerning his Learning , Wisdom , and obtained Gifts . The Objection therefore is Barren through its Pride , the which indeed , besides the Living , and the Dead , takes upon it to judge even God himself ; to wit , that he ought not to have infused that Secret into Paracelsus , but into some other ( perhaps a Jesuite ) nor to have disclosed so great a Consonancy or Harmony of Nature in the Age of Theophrastus ; but much sooner : But I pray , why came Ignatius Loyola so late , for the establishment of a Society so profitable to the whole World ? Why sprang it not up many Ages before ? Alas ! whither dost thou wretched Man , hurry thy self through Presumption : Is not God the free-giver of his own benefit ? and is he not well pleased in an undeserved bestowing thereof ? He hath afforded us a Touch-stone , according to which we may judge of Persons ; namely , That by their Works we shall know them . But w●●t the Works of Paracelsus were , and how much greater than the expectation of Nature , and the biting of Tongues , his Epitaph , hung on that well-deserved Monument of his , by the most Illustrious , and most reverend Prince , the Bishop of Saltzburg , in the despire of Envie , sufficiently declares . The Epitaph of Paracelsus , which is seen Engraven in Stone at Saltzburg , in the Hospital of St. Sebastian , on the erect Wall of the Temple . Conditur hic Philippus Theophrastus , insignis Medicinae Doctor , qui dira illa vulnera , Lepram , Podagram , Hydropisim , aliaque insanabilia Corporis Contagia , mirifica Arte sustulit ; ac bona sua in Pauperes distribuenda collocandaque honeravit . Anno. 1541 , Die 24 Septem . Vitam cum Morte mutavit . Here lyes entombed Philippus Theophrastus , a famous Doctour of Medicine , who by a Wonder working Art , took away those cruel and mortal Wounds , the Leprosie , Gowt , Dropsy , and other uncurable Contagions of the Body ; and honoured his Goods so as to be distributed and disposed of to the Poor . In the Year 1541 on , the 24 Day of the Seventh Month , He made an exchange of Life for Death . Paracelsus therefore , is so far from having deserved his Ill , because he hath disclosed Magnetism , unknown to Antiquity , and in the room of that natural Study which is barrenly taught up and down in the Schooles , hath brought to us another real one ; which by the Resolution , and Composition of Bodies is made probable to our hands , and far more plentiful in Knowledge ; that from thence he hath rather by a just title , snatch'd away the Denomination of the Monarch of Secrets , from all that went before him unless with hateful Persons , we as ignorant Judges , dispraise all his good Actions , and those Benefits that were heaped up by him for pious Uses . I am thus a Man : All things are of vile esteem with me , whatsoever deserves Credit only by custom ; Seeing there is nothing that involves us in greater Darkness , than that we are conformed to custom , assenting as credulous , unto Rumour , and Dreams : We must therefore proceed to enjoy our Liberty , not to enslave the gifts or habilities of our Judgment . Thou wilt object ; that in sublunary things , there is not an influential . Virtue like to the Impression of the celestial Bodies : but if thou shalt stumble at this , thou wilt also reprove all that have rightly Phylosophized , who have rightly observed , that in inferior Bodies , there is a superiour Tribute paid after an Inferiour manner , and a proportionable resemblance of the Tribute of Inferiour Bodies in the Superiour . Do not Herbs , Animals , and Sick or Diseased Man , fore-feel and presage of future changes of Times or Seasions ? Is not the more cruel Winter to be expected , by how much the deeper , a Frog shall scrape his Inn in the Earth for harbour against the Winter at hand ? For from hence arise meteorical Divinations ; not indeed that those happen from a fore-timely Motion of celestial Bodies , and that as yet to come , because then it should cause that presagious feeling in Sublunary Bodies , before it be present : Far be it : For the Firmament doth only foreshew future Events , but not Cause them . But indeed , all particular created things have their own Heaven within them , and the Revolution of that Heaven depending on the Being of their Seed , in whose Spirit ( because it is that which contains the Idea or Engravement of the Universe ) is their own Heaven ; and there are moreover , their own Ascendents . Neither is there cause to think that we hereby trample upon Astrology ; but we illustrate or explain it ; because every thing contains its own Heaven , and for that Cause , a conjunctive relation of the Heavens ; yet the Motion of the Heavens , because the most known , because the most common , directs the Heavens of particular things ( I may so call them for want of a Name : according to it self . This indeed is the Cause of every natural Inclination : and where a Creature , by the perswasion of its own proper Heaven , wanders from that Motion of Heaven , as the most common rule , Sickness and Defect is forthwith present : For a Sheep without a guide , wanders into uncertainty : For therefore sick Persons do fore-feel the Seasons , and the future Mutations of Times , healthy Persons not so : For if the Sea did flow and ebb through the guidance of the Celestial , that is , the fiery signal Moon only , and not from the conduct of its own watry signal Moon : Winds also , if they were stirred up through the guidance of the celestial Mercury only , and not from their own Chaomantical or seminally signal Star , truly there could not be any provincial Winds in any Place , and ( because there is one only Mercury , and one single Moon in the Heavens ) a co-like Wind should blow throughout the whole World , and the Sea should every where flow , if not at the same time , at least-wise in the same harmonious Motion ; which modern navigation disproves . Sufficient it is therefore , here to have shown by the way , that there is a celestial and impulsive Nature in things themselves , the which notwithstanding , doth excite and govern it self according to the Harmony of a superiour tributary Motion , so long as it will not be accounted refractory : That the Firmament also doth not Cause future events , unless remotely , and that only by the first Qualities , playing the part of a certain Cook ; but otherwise doth largely or loudly proclaim the Handy-works of God. But that things themselves do contain a particular Firmament in their seminal Being , by reason whereof , Superiour Bodies do by the Law of Friend-ship and Self-love , bear a co-resemblance with inferiour ones : From all which , we may now at least collect , that there is a Magnetism , and Influential Virtues , every where implanted in , and proper to things ; the which he , who expels from Sublunary Bodies , seeks a vain Evasion . Thou wilt urge , that we must yet come nearer to the point , neither that it is yet sufficiently manifest , that in Sublunary Bodies , there is a Quality imitating the Heavens , and such a one indeed , which carries an Influx unto a far removed and absent Object ; the which notwithstanding , is presupposed in the Armary or Weapon Salve ; and so that Magnetism is indeed a celestial Virtue , yet in no wise to be attributed to Sublunary things , and much less to the feigned Weapon Salve . But what other thing is this ( I pray ) than to deny Magnetism , without , or besides Magnetism ? For if we universally call every Influence of Sublunaries on each other , Magnetism , and for want of a true Name , do name that Occult co-suitableness , whereby one absent thing acts on another absent one by way of Influence ( whither that be done by attracting , or impulsing ) a Magnetism ; truly whosoever denies an Influential Power of Sublunaries toward each other , to be by Magnetism , and requires an Instance to be given him to the contrary , he requires an Absurdity , to wit , a Magnetism , without Magnetism , and knows not what he may deny , or what demand . For truly I have alleaged Examples of the Fact , in Sublunary things , and brought very many and suitable Instances , namely concerning the ingrafted Nose , of the Saphire , of Water-Pepper , Asarabacca , and most Herbs : But ye deny ( I sufficiently know , because ye are ignorant thereof ) that either those Effects do not thus happen , or thou wilt affirm ( which thou art more ready to do ) that they come to pass through the assistance of the Devil . It is not suitable to the custom of Naturalists , to dispute from naked Authorities : we must come up to Handy-blows with those that contend with us , to wit , unto Experience . Make tryal therefore , and convince us of a Lie : if thou canst not , at least , believe us . Therefore it is an Action of insolent malepartnesse , for any to deny the Being of that Fact , which is every where frequent , because indeed he hath not searcht out the Truth thereof , nor hath endeavoured so to search : and much more insolent it is , indifferently to ascribe that to the Devil , which is every where consonant to Nature , as shall be hereafter taught : and that indeed for one only Fault , to wit , because the manner of its Operation by its Cause cannot be understood by our Censurer ; by a Censurer , who by the sharpness of his own Understanding , and the Study of Aristotles Physicks , presumes that he hath on every side exactly viewed the whole Circle of Nature : by a Censurer I say , who although he can discern nothing of Superstition in the Ungent , and nothing of unlawfulness ; yet by reason of the manner of its Application , being Paradoxical to him , he condemns , and detests it as Impious , and affirms that it contains , I know not what diabolical Juggle in it . But for what I beseech thee ? Indeed , because the Sword , or Splinter thereof besmeared with Blood , is emplaistred with the Mumial and Magnetical Unguent ; because the Blood which is once expelled out of the Veins , knowes not how to hold a correspondence with that which is as yet nourished within the Veins : and because he doth not believe that the Action of the Unguent is extended unto an Object scltuated at a far distance . But return to thy self ; because anon thou shalt both understand , and believe those things , unless thou art stubborn . We will now for thy sake , recal the Action of Magnetism in Sublunary things , unto the Bar of Light. For indeed , I will now shew , that there is without the Classis or order of things and Herbs , undeservedly suspected by thee , an influence of some things on each other , and that it is observedly between objects at a distance . The Vine which is in its Flower , disturbs Wines a far of . Thou wilt excuse , that the same Perturbation is made by the violence of the Heavens : We prove that it is not : For if the Heaven should cause the flowrings in the Vine , and the Turbulency of Wines in Hogs-heads , it would needs be , that both those Effects should be wrought every Year at a set , and as it were determinate moment , which is false : For sometimes the Vine sends forth her Flowers , and the wine is troubled before the Solstice or sunstead , and in the same Region , another Year , long after ; but the Sun and the fixed Stars ( some few minutes excepted ) return every year unto the same point : therefore the Vine should flower , and the Wines should be disturbed alwayes at the same time . But if thou seekest an Evasion , and shalt say , That other Planets besides the Sun , are the Cause of this thing , which have not every Year a like scituation at the time of the Solstice , but only that that Motion of the Heavens or superior Orbes is most common ; all Vines would for the most part ( the same Year ) flower every where at once ; which is false : For as there is an Astral Nature subsisting in the ground or soil ; So also there is the same Particular Nature in the Vine , which also it self , of it self ( no otherwise than as the Earth hath a Power given it of budding , by it self ) brings forth the Flower , Fruit , and Seed , and composeth and moveth it self according to the Meeter of the most general Motion of the Heavens . Hereunto they affirm , that Wines are never disturbed in those Countries , wherein no Vine grows ; therefore the Flower of the Vine , and not the Motion of the Heavens , troubles the Wines , and that many miles off , but indeed , so much the more powerfully , by how much the Wines are nearer to the Vine . I gratefully applaud publick Studies , and I bear good will to him , who first discerned , after what manner vulgar Antimony , in time of its preparation , continually directs it self unto an Influence . I am willing to have the same measure I mete , to be measured to me again : Therefore I shall satisfactorily prove , that there is a certain Influential Power , familiar unto sublunary things , which is not subject unto distances of place , and so much the more forcibly in favour of Magnetism , if I shall teach , that the Load-stone himself , doth direct himself of his own free accord unto the Pole , but to be in no wise drawn by the Pole : for one Load-stone declines unto three , another unto six , seven , and eleven Degrees from the Pole : but none ( that I know of ) doth in a direct line , point upon the Pole : therefore if the Load-stone should be drawn , it should be pulled either by the Pole , or by some neighbouring Star to the Pole ; but not by the Pole it self : because , whatsoever attracts , 〈…〉 it self by a direct or right , and not by an oblique or crooked line . Wherefore 〈◊〉 the Load-stone were drawn by the Pole , it would also point in a direct line upon the Pole : therefore Load-stones ( at least accord to what I have seen hitherto ) are not attracted by the Pole or North Star ; nor also , by any other neighbouring Star , for that very Star is never at rest , but is uncessantly carried in a circular Motion ? therefore if it should attract the Load-stone , it should also render it disquieted , by drawing it sometimes some Degrees towards the East , and anon , as many Degrees toward the West , but should sometimes pull it toward the Zenith or Vertical Point either above or beneath us ; which is false : Therefore the Load-stone is not drawn , but is carried thitherwards of its own free accord . But that otherwise , the Load-stone is of it self elevated upwards towards the Zenith , there is a certain Instrument invented by William Guilbert ( the glory of which Invention Lodowick Fo●seca lately endeavoured to arrogate to himself , in the presence of his Catholique Majesty ) this Instrument I say , by a voluntary elevation of the Load-stone , in a Brass-Ring hung up , shewes not only the latitude , but also the altitude or height of the Pole in all Places of the World. Thou viewing for a way of escape , wilt contend in behalf of the Pole , that the Pole indeed attracts the Load-stone , but that it puls the same Load-stones , not in a direct line towards it self ( for such is the condition and will of the Attracter ) but unto a neighbouring place : Which is to say ; The Pole or North Star drawes indeed the Load-stone unto it in a right line ; yet the Load-stone is not attracted in a right line to the Pole , by reason of a certain unknown Impediment ( which thou callest a certain Disposition thereof ) existing in the Load-stone , which resists the attraction of the Pole , and is more powerful and superiour than it ; although the same influential allurement reach safe and sound unto the Load-stone at so many thousand miles distance . Dost thou see , how much truth thou hast granted by thy Evasion ? And how that against thy will ; thou notwithstanding affirmest , that there inhabites in the Load-stone some certain motive Disposition ( thou callest it certain , yet feigned to thee , and to all others wholly uncertain ) which thou rejectest from being in the Load-stone ; besides and above the attraction of the Pole ? Which is as much as to say , that there is in the Load-stone a directive virtue unto some distinct Place ; but that it is not drawn by the Pole. Thou wilt retort in behalf of a neighbour to the Pole , by saying , that the Load-stone is drawn , and doth not direct it self ; not that it is drawn by any one point of Heaven , or Star , but by a certain whole Circle nigh the Pole. I answer , this Shift is far fetched ; for that Circle shall have a latitude even of eight Degrees at least , to wit , from three Degrees to eleven : Because I have seen Load-stones of so great a variation . Therefore if there were a Power of attracting , in the whole Circle , the same Load-stone should continually varie , and in the same hour , declien , sometimes to three , and anon , to eight , or eleven Degrees from the Pole ; which is false : Therefore , there shall in a Circle of so great latitude , be at least diverse lesser rounds , every one whereof shall allure its own Load-stone ; which being granted , thou wilt fall again into the same Gulfe ; to wit , that there is a certain disposition in the Load-stone , why it can rather be enticed by this , than by the other Circle ; and by consequence , thy fictions being stretched according to thy own desire , there will nevertheless be a motive Virtue in the Load-stone himself . We are not yet satisfied : if the Pole should draw the Load-stone , this should be done , either by reason of the Elementary and Material temper of the Stone , or by reason of the Form thereof : But a Glass , wherein the Magistery of a Load-stone hath been prepared , though it be most exactly washed , and however cleansed by often rubbings , doth also for the future observe its Poles ; to wit , by reason of an Impression communicated to the Glass without corporeal remainders . Steel also , after the touch of the Load-stone , though well washed and cleansed , doth nevertheless point at the Pole : which two Bodies , seeing they have neither a like co-temperament , or form between themselves , nor with the Load-stone , do demonstrate , that the Pole doth not attract Load-stones for either of those two ends . Thou wilt say , that by rubbing on them , there is a participation of the Load-stone made in the Pores of the Steel , or Spondils of the Glass . A miserable excuse ! For the Rosin of the Firr-Tree , is of it self coagulated into the hardness of the Stone ; the which , then allures Iron unto it , no otherwise than the Load-stone doth . Here at least-wise , thy feigned participation of the Load-stone sinks to the Ground . The Load-stone only by the affriction or rubbing of Garlick thereon , neglects the Pole , its Form , Matter , and Properties being the while preserved ; indeed because that spiritual sensation or feeling in the Load-stone , is by the Garlick laid asleep ; which sensation , we have already before avouched to be the one only Cause of the Act of formal Properties . Verily , that would be a weak attraction in the Pole , which could pass through so many Orbs of Heaven , and the vast Region of the Air , through Houses and Walls , but should not know how to pierce the Juice of Garlick alone ( or the fumousness of Mercury , the same material Root , and one only Form of the Stone remaining stedfast . A swimming Load-stone is carried in one certain part thereof , to the North , in its other part to the South : Therefore if that positional conversion should be made by the drawing Pole , the whole Northern side of the Stone would be alwayes drawn by the North Pole ; which is false : For if it shall touch a piece of Iron with its North side , it shall not incline that Iron according to its own Property , to the North , but to the South , although the dust of the Stone shall adhere to the Iron : but if it shall touch the Iron with its Southern side , it shall turn that Iron to the North. Likewise the Load-stone , in what part it hath alwayes inclined it self to the North beyond the Aequinoctial line , it tends to the South . As yet a little longer , let us prosecute this Argument . A Load-stone swimming in a Skiff of Cork , on a quiet Poole , if in its Northern Part it shall be violently turned to the South ; presently that that North side , as it were by a forcible conduct , re-addresseth it self to the North : Therefore if the Load-stone should by the Pole it self , be pull'd towards the Pole , and that direction of the Stone were not voluntary , the whole Skiff should of necessity , by the same drawing , float and be drawn or towed to the Northern Bank of the Poole ; which is false : for the direction of the North side being attained , both the Load-stones and Skiffe , stand unmovable upon the water . There is therefore in the Load-stone , an influential Virtue , which without respect had unto the nearness of its Object , is after the manner of Celestial Bodies , freely carried as far as the Pole it self ; seeing there is a voluntary eradiation or darting forth of the Rayes of the Load-stone unto the Pole or North Star : therefore , if there be now found , one only natural Virtue in Sublunaries ( to wit , in the Load-stone ) beaming forth it self unto an Object at a most remote distance , which is never , or in no wise , to be ascribed to Satan : It shall be also sufficiently proved , that there may be also many the like Virtues or Properties , wholly Natural , as in the Examples alleaged , and the Weapon Salve . The Load-stone therefore , or Iron touched by the Load-stone , seeing they voluntarily convert themselves to the Pole , a certain Quality is of necessity extended from the Load-stone to the Pole : the which , seeing we have known to be done without any corporeal Efflux , therefore we denominate the same to be a spiritual Quality , herein disagreeing from our Divine , who distinguisheth a Spirit in opposition to every corporeal Nature , as it were something besides Nature . But Physitians only in opposition to the more gross compact of a Body ; and in this respect , we say , that the Light of the Sun , and Influx of the Heavens , the ejaculation or stupefactive darting forth of the Cramp-Fish , the sight of the Basilisk , &c. are Qualities plainly Spiritual ; to wit , because they are not dispersed on an Object at a distance , by the Communion of a substantial Evaporation ; but as by the Medium of an unperceivable Light , they are beamed forth from their Subject into a fit Object . Which things being thus supposed and proved , it is sufficiently manifest , that our Divine not having as yet understood Goclenius , hath nevertheless many times undeservedly carped at him . First , because Goclenius would establish a Spiritual Quality in a Corporeal Unguent . Secondly , because He affirmed , that it being drawn or conveighed as through a Medium or Vehicle , is carried unto its appropriated Object , like as a radial or darting Light. Thirdly , inasmuch as such Qualities are derived unto a remote , and appointed Object , by a certain feeling of the Spirit of the World , the causative Faculty of all Sympathy . This Spirit , the Divine interprets to be a Cacodaemon or evil Spirit , but by his own , and I know not what Authority ; seeing it is the more pure and vital An of Heaven , which Spirit nourisheth the Sun , and the sunny Stars within , and being a mind or intelligence diffused through the Limbs of the Universe , acts the whole help thereof , and so governs the World by a certain Communion , Conspiracy of Parts and Faculties , according to the consent of all that have rightly Phylosophized . For Examples sake , the Sun-following Flowers , do feel the travall or journey of the Sun ; the Sea takes notice of both Lunestices or the full and change of the Moon . In Summ , every Creature doth by its self ( Let us worship the King to whom all things live ) Essence , Existence and Sensation or Perceivance , bear witness to the Majesty , Liberality or Bounty , and Presence of the Creator . Wherefore our Censurer is deservedly to be reproved , in that , before he understood the Physitian Writing in a Phylosophical Style , he hath plainly carped at him with an unsufferable boldness : For so hard a thing hath it been to have kept a Mean in all things . Thou askest us , what can be attracted out of the wounded Party ? and after what manner an attraction can be made by the absent Unguent ? But surely I should not answer injuriously , when thou thy self shall shew us , for what Cause the Load-stone shall attract Iron , and convert it self to the Pole : Then shall I also shew thee , after what manner Mummy can cure another Mummy being touched on by a third mediating Mummy : but because we have determined to repaire the insufficiency of Goclenius ; in this respect , we are also presently to shew by a doctrinal Argument from the Cause to the Effect , how a Magnetical attraction of the Unguent happens , yet provided that I shall first satisfie thee what can be drawn from the Wound . It is to be noted therefore , that in a Wound , there is made not only a Solution of Continuity or disunion of the part which held together , but also that a forreign quality is introduced , from whence the lips of the Wound being enraged , they by and by swel with heat are apostemized , yea and from thence , the whole Body is in a conflict through Fevers ; and a various concourse of Symptoms : For so an Egg whose shell is but even slenderly hurt or crackt , putrifies , whereas otherwise it might be preserved . The Magnetism therefore of this Unguent , draws that strange disposition out of the Wound , from whence its lips , being at length overburthened or oppressed by no accident , become without pain , and being no way hindred , suddenly hasten unto a growing together . Natures themselves are the Physitianesses of a Wound , the Physitian onely the Servant thereof ; Neither doth the Medicine beget flesh in a Wound , it hath enough to do , if it shall but remove impediments : Which impediments , the one onely Armary Unguent or Weapon Salve , doth otherwise , sufficiently , securely , and plentifully expel . Thou wilt Object , That the Weapon Salve ought not rather to allure forth the forementioned strange quality , than the natural strength and powers of the Veins ; and that the Blood , seeing it is sound or uncorrupt in the Unguent , ought to call to it the Health , but not the indisposition of the wounded party ; even as indeed was written of the Carline Thistle . I Answer , that there are divers Magnetisms ; for some attract iron , some chaffs and lead , some flesh , corrupt pus or matter , &c. but such is the favour of some Magnetisms , that they extract onely the Pestilential Air , &c. Yea , if thou shalt couple the effect of curing in our Ointment , with thy own Argument , thy own Weapon will wound thee . For from thence , that the Effect of the Unguent is to heal perfectly , speedily , without pain , costs , peril , and loss of strength : hence I say , it is manifest , that the Magnetical Virtue in the Unguent is from God , in a natural way , and not from Satan . Because , if this Satan should be a co-worker of the said Cure ( which thou affirmest ) the same Cure would be imperfect , together with loss of Strength , Weakness , Dammage , or hazard of Life , a difficult Recovery , or with a sensibility of some greater inconveniency , and relapse of misfortune : All which events , as they are annexed to Diabolical Cures , so they are far absent from the Cure of our Unguent . As many as ever have been cured by this Unguent , will give in their Testimony for us . Satan is never a teller of Truth , never a perswader unto Good , unless that he may deceive thereby ; yea , neither doth he long continue in the Truth : For alwayes , if he shall bring any thing of good to any one , this Enemy under-mixeth somewhat more of evil therewith . And surely he would ( according to his custome ) observe the same rule also in this Unguent , if he were the Author or Favourer thereof : At least-wise this Remedy would then fail , when the wounded Person is recalled as it were from the pit of death , who otherwise through the mortal contagion of Sin , had through his dangerous wound , soon poured forth his Life together with his Blood : unlesse haply thou shalt say , that Satan then takes compassion on us ; and that he hath now attained to himself a right or jurisdiction over such a wounded person , himself leaves it in doubt , to wit , in curing him by the Magnetical Unguent , whom he had rather should perish ; perhaps because Satan is now in your esteem a strict observer of his Word and Bargaine , and no longer wholly a turn-coat , fraudulent , impostor , and lyar . Besides , we deny the supposition also , That the out-chased blood , is perfectly sound or uncorrupt ; but rather , that it being now deprived of a common life , hath also entred into the beginnings of some degree of corruption ; onely that it obtains a Mumial Life . Hitherto conduceth the putrified , and yet Magnetical blood in an Egg. I therefore pass by the absurdity of thy Objection , in that it hath been so bold as to wrest the Magnet or Attractive faculty of the Unguent , according to thy own pleasure , and not to that end for which it was given of God. Positive Reasons of Magnetism , more nearly brought home unto us by Metaphysical and Magical Science . It is now seasonable to discover the immediate cause of Magnetism in the Unguent . First of all by the consent of Mystical Divines , we divide Man into the external , and internal Man , assigning to both the powers of a certain Mind or Intelligence : For so there doth a Will belong to flesh and blood , which may not be either the Will of Man , not the Will of God ; and the heavenly Father also reveales some things unto the more inward Man ; and some things flesh and blood reveales , that is , the outward and sensitive or animal Man. For how could the service of Idols , Envy , &c. he rightly numbred among the works of the flesh ( seeing they consist onely in the Imagination , if the flesh had not also it s own imagination and elective Will ? Forthermore , that there are miraculous Ecstasies belonging to the more inward man , is beyond dispute . That there are also Ecstasies in the Animal man , by reason of a intense or heightened Imagination , is without doubt : Yea Martin del Rio , an Elder of the society of Jesus , in his Magical disquisitions or inquiries , brings in a certain young Lad in the City Insulis , that was transported with so violent a cogitation of seeing his Mother , that through the same burning desire , as if being rapt up by an extasie , he saw her being many miles absent from thence , and returning to himself , being mindful of all that he had seen , gave also many signes of his true presence with his Mother . Many the like Examples daily come to hand , the which for brevities sake I omit . But that , that desire arose from the more outward man , to wit , from Blood , and Sense , or Flesh , is certain : For otherwise , the Soul being once disliged or loosed from the Body , is never but by a miracle re-united thereunto . There is therefore in the Blood , a certain ecstatical or transporting power , the which , if it shall at any time be stirred up by an ardent desire , is able to derive or conduct the Spirit of the more outward man , even unto some absent object : But that power lies hid in the more outward man , as it were in potentia , or by way of possibility ; neither is it brought into act , unless it be rouzed up by the imgination enflamed by a fervent desire , or some art like unto it . Moreover , when as the Blood is after some sort corrupted , then indeed all the Powers thereof , which without a fore-going excitation of the Imagination , were before in possibility , are of their own accord drawn forth into action ; for through corruption of the grain , the seminal virtue , otherwise drowsie and barren , breaks forth into act : Because that seeing the essences of things , and their vital Spirits , know not how to putrifie by the dissolution of the inferiour harmony , they spring up as surviving afresh . For from thence it is , that every occult property , the compact of their bodies being by fore-going digestions ( which we call putrefactions ) now dissolved , comes forth free to hand , dispatched , and manifest for action . Therefore when a Wound through the entrance of air , hath admitted of an adverse quality , from whence the blood forthwith swells with heat or rage in its lips , and otherwise becomes mattery ; it happens , that the blood in the Wound freshly made , by reason of the said forreign quality , doth now enter into the Beginnings of some kind of corruption ( which blood being also then received on the Weapon or Splinter thereof , is besmeared with the Magnetick Unguent ) the which entrance of corruption mediating , the ecstatical power lurking potentially in the blood , is brought forth into action ; which power , because it is an exiled returner unto its own body , by reason of the hidden extasie ; hence that blood bears an individual respect unto the blood of its whole body . Then indeed , the Magnet or attractive faculty is busied in operating in the Unguent ; and through the mediation of the ecstatical power ( for so I call it for want of an Etymologie ) sucks out the hurtful quality from the lips of the Wound , and at length through the Mumial , Balsamical , and attractive virtue attained in the Unguent , the Magnetism is perfected . Loe , thou hast now the positive reason of the Natural Magnetism in the Unguent , drawn from Natural Magick , whereunto the light of Truth assents ; saying , Where the Treasure is , there is the Heart also . For if the Treasure be in Heaven , then the Heart , that is , the Spirit of the Internal Man is in God , who is the Paradise , who alone is Eternal Life . But if the treasure be fixed or laid up in frail or mortal things ; then also , the Heart and Spirit of the more external Man is in Fading things : Neither is there any cause of bringing in a Mystical sense , by taking not the Spirit , but the Cogitation and naked Desire , for the Heart ; for that would contain a frivolous thing , that wheresoever a Man should place his Treasure in his Thought or Cogitation , there his Cogitation would be . Also Truth it self doth not interpret the present Text Mystically , and also by an Example adjoyned , shews a local and real presence of the Eagles with the dead Carcase : So also , that the Spirit of the Inward Man is locally in the kingdom of God in us , which is God himself ; and that the Heart or Spirit of the animal or outward sensitive man is locally about its Treasure . What wonder is it , that the astral Spirits of carnal or animal men , should as yet after their funerals , shew themselves as in a bravery , wandring about their buried Treasure , whereunto the whole Necromancy ( or art of Divination by the calling of Spirits ) of the Antients hath enslaved it self ? I say therefore , that the external Man is an Animal or living creature , making use of the reason and will of the Blood : But in the mean time not ba●ely an Animal , but moreover the Image of God. Logicians therefore may see , how defectively they define a man from the power of rational discourse . But of these things more elsewhere . I will therefore adjoyn the Magnetism of Eagles to Carcases ; for neither are flying Fowls endowed with such an acute smelling , that they can with a mutual consent , go from Italy into Affrica unto Carcases : For neither is an odour so largely and widely spread ; for the ample latitude of the interposed Sea hinders it , and also a certain Elementary property of consuming it : Nor is there any ground , that thou shouldest think these Birds do perceive the dead Carcases at so far a distance , with their sight , especially if those Birds shall lye Southwards behind a Mountain . But what need is there to enforce the Magnetism of Fowl by many Arguments , since God himself , who is the beginning and end of Phylosophy , doth expresly determine the same process to be , of the Heart and Treasure , with these Birds and the Carcase , and so interchangeably between these and them ? For if the Eagles were led to their food the Carcases , with the same appetite whereby four-sooted Beasts are brought on to their pastures ; certainly he had said in one word , That living Creatures flock to their Food , even as the Heart of a Man to his Treasure ; which would contain a falshood : For neither doth the Heart of Man proceed unto its Treasure , that he may be filled therewith , as living Creatures do to their Meat : And therefore the Comparison of the Heart of Man , and of the Eagle lyes not in the end , for which they tend or incline to a desire , but in the manner of tendency ; namely that they are allured and carried on by Magnetism , really and locally . Therefore the Spirit and will of the Blood fetch'd out of the Wound , having intruded it self into the Oyntment by the Weapons being anointed therewith , do tend towards their Treasure , that is ; the rest of the Blood as yet enjoying the Life of the more inward Man : But he saith by a peculiar Testimony , that the Eagle is drawn to the Carcass : Because she is called thereunto by an implanted and Mumial Spirit of the Carcass , but not by the odour of the putrifying Body : For indeed that Animal , in assimilating , appropriates to himself onely this Mumial Spirit : For from hence it is said of the Eagle in a peculiar manner : My youth shall be renewed as the Eagle . For truly , the renewing of her youth proceeds from an essential extraction of the Mumial Spirit , being well refined by a certain singular digestion proper to that Fowl , and not from a bare eating of the flesh of the Carcases : otherwise , Dogs also , and Pies would be renewed , which is false . Thou wilt say , that it is a reason far fetcht in behalf of Magnetism ; But what wilt thou then infer hereupon ? If that which thou confessest to be far remote for thy capacity of understanding , that shall also with thee be accounted to be fetcht from far . Truly the Book of Genesis , avoucheth , That in the blood of all living Creatures , doth their Soul exist . For there are in the blood certain vital powers , the which , as if they were soulified or enlivened , do demand revenge from Heaven ; yea and judicial punishment from earthly Judges , on the Murderer : which powers , seeing they cannot be denyed to inhabit naturally in the blood , I see not why they can reject the Magnetism of the blood , as accounting it among the ridiculous works of Satan . This I will say more , to wit , that those who walk in their sleep , do by no other guide than the Spirit of the blood , that is , of the outward man , walk up and down , perform business , climbe Walls , and mannage things that are otherwise impossible to those that are awake : I say by a Magical virtue , natural to the more outward man : That Saint Ambrose , although he were far distant in his Body , yet was visibly present at the funeral solemnities of Saint Martin ; Yet was he Spiritually present at those solemnities , in the visible Spirit of the external man , and no otherwise : for inasmuch as in that Exstacy which is of the more internal man , many of the Saints , have seen many and absent things ; this is done without time and place , through the superiour Powers of the Soul being collected in Unity , and by an intellectual vision , but not by a visible presence : Otherwise , the Soul is not seperated from the Body , but in good earnest or for altogether ; neither is it re-connexed thereunto : which re-connexion notwithstanding , is otherwise , natural or familiar to the Spirit of the more outward man. It is not sufficient in so great a Paradox , to have once or by one single reason toucht at the matter . It is to be further propagated , and we must explain , how a Magnetical attraction happens also between inanimate things , by a certain perceivance or feeling , not indeed animal or sensitive , but natural . Which thing that it may be the more seriously done , it behoves us first to shew , what Satan can of his own power contribute to , and after what manner he can co-operate in the meerly wicked and impious actions of Witches : for from thence it will appear , unto what cause every effect may come to be attributed . In the next place , what that Spiritual power may be , which tends to a far remote Object ; or what may be the action , passion , and skirmishing between natural Spirits ; or what may be the superiority of man as to other inferiour creatures ; and by consequence , why indeed our Unguent being compounded of humane Mummies , do thorowly cure Horses also : We will explain the matter by an Example . Let a Witch therefore be granted , who can strongly torment an absent Man by an Image of wax , by imprecation or cursing , by enchantment , or also by a fore-going touch alone ( for here we speak nothing of Sorceries , because they are those which kill onely by Poyson , inasmuch as every common Apothecary can imitate these things ) that this act is Diabolical , no man doubts : However it is profitable to discern , how much Satan , and how much the Witch can contribute hereunto . The First Supposition . First o●●●l , Thou shalt take notice , that Satan is the sworn and irreconcilable Enemy of Men , and to be so accounted by all , unless any one had rather have him to be his friend ; and therefore he most readily procures whatsoever mischief he is able to cause or wish unto us , and that without doubt and neglect . The Second Supposition . And then , Although he be an Enemy to Witches themselves , forasmuch as he is also a most malitious Enemy to all Mankind in general : yet in regard they are his bond-slaves , and those of his Kingdom , he never , unless against his will , betrays them , or discovers them to Judges , and exposeth them to scorn to other men , and that for three Reasons . First , Seeing he is the parent of Pride , he is not ignorant that hereby it much detracts from his Reputation , Authority and Dominion . Secondly , Seeing he is the unsatiable Persecuter of Souls , he hath known , that through certain punishments and flames of Justice , such as were otherwise ready and willing to slide into his Protection , are affrighted and plainly diverted . Thirdly , Because he hath many times seen a Witch , which this Tormenter could ( by wresting round of her neck , or stopping of her breath ) wish to destroy , sometimes repenting even before the Flames , and so to be snatcht out of his clutches . From the former Supposition I conclude , That if Satan were able of himself to kill a Man who is guilty of deadly sin , he would never delay it ; But he doth not kill him ; therefore he cannot . Notwithstanding , the Witch doth oftentimes kill ; hence also she can kill the same Man ; No otherwise than as a privy Murtherer at the Liberty of his own Will , slays any one with a Sword. There is therefore a certain power of the Witch in this action , which belongs not to Satan ; and consequently Satan is not the principal efficient and executer of that Murther : For otherwise , if he were the executioner thereof , he would in no wise stand in need of the Witch as his assistant ; but he alone had soon taken the greatest part of men out of the way . Surely most miserable were the condition of Mortals , which should be subject to such a Tyrant , and stand lyable to his command : we have too faithful a God , than that he should subject the work of his own hands to the arbitrary dominion of Satan . Therefore in this act , there is a certain power plainly proper and natural to the Witch , which belongs not to Satan . Moreover , of what nature , extent , and quality that power may be , we must more exactly fift out . In the first place , it is manifest , that it is no corporeal strength of the Male Sex ; for neither doth there concurre any strong touching of the extream parts of the Body , and Witches are for the most part , feeble , impotent , and malitious Old Women : Therefore there must needs be some other power , far superiour to a corporeal attempt , yet natural to Man. This power therefore , was to be seated in that part wherein we most nearly resemble the Image of God : And although , all things do also after some sort , represent that venerable Image ; Yet because Man doth most elegantly , properly , and nearly do that ; therefore the Image of God in Man doth far outshine , bear rule over , and command the Images of God in all other Creatures . For peradventure by this Prerogative , All things are put under his feet . Wherefore if God act per nutum or by a beck , namely by his Word ; so ought Man to act some things only by his beck or Will , if he ought to be called his true Image : For neither is that new , is that troublesome , is that proper to God alone : For Satan the most vile abject of Creatures , doth also locally move Bodies per nutum or by his beck alone , seeing he hath not extreamities or corporeal Organs , whereby to touch , move , or also to snatch a new Body to himself . That priviledge therefore ought no less to belong to the inward Man , as he is a Spirit , if he ought to represent the Image of God , and that indeed not an idle one : if we call this faculty Magical , and thou being badly instructed , art terrified at this Word , thou mayst for me , call it a spiritual strength or efficacy : For truly , we are nothing solicitous about Names , I alwayes as immediately as I can , cast an eye upon the thing it self . That Magical power therefore , is in the inward man , whether thou by this Etymology or true Word , understandest the Soul , or the vital Spirit thereof it is now indifferent to us ; since there is a certain proportion of the internal Man towards the external in all things , glowing or growing after its own manner , which is an appropriated disposition , and proportioned property . Wherefore this power or faculty must needs be dispersed throughout the whole Man ; in the Soul indeed more vigorous , but in the Flesh and Blood , far more remiss . The vital Spirit in the Flesh and Blood performes the office of the Soul ; that is , it is that same Spirit in the outward man , which in the seed formes the whole figure , that magnificent Structure , and perfect delineation of Man , and which hath known the ends of things to be done , because it contains them ; and the which as President , accompanies the now framed Young , even unto the period of its Life ; and the which , although it depart therewith , some smatch or small quantity at least thereof , remains in a Carcass slain by violence , being as it were most exactly co-fermented with the same . But from a dead Carcass that was extinct of its own accord and from nature failing , as well the implanted as inflowing Spirit , passed forth at once , For which reason , Physitians divide this Spirit , into the implanted or Mumial , and inflowing or acquired Spirit , which departs , to wit , with the former Life . And this influxing Spirit they afterwards sub-divide into the natural , vital , and animal Spirit : But we likewise , do here comprehend them all at once in one single Word . The soul therefore being wholly a Spirit , could never move or stir up the vital Spirit , ( being indeed corporeal ) much less flesh and bones , unless a certain natural power , yet Magical and Spiritual , did descend from the Soul into the Spirit and Body . After what sort I pray , could the corporeal Spirit obey the commands of the Soul , unless there should be a command from her for moving of the Spirit and afterwards the Body ? But against this Magical motive faculty , thou wilt forthwith Object , That that power is limited within her composed Body , and her own natural Inn : Therefore although we call this Soul a Magitianess , yet it shall be only a wresting and abuse of the Name ; for truly , the true , and superstitious Magick draws not its foundation from the Soul : Seeing this same Soul is not able to move alter , or excite any thing out of its own Body . I Answer , That this Power , and that natural Magick of the Soul , which she exerciseth out of her self , by virtue of the Image of God , doth now lye hid as obscure in Man , and as it were lay asleep since the Fall or corruption of Adam , and stands in need of stirring up ; all which particulars , we shall anon in their proper place prove , which same power , how drowsie , and as it were drunk soever it otherwise remains daily in us ; yet it is sufficient to perform its offices in its own Body . Therefore the knowledge and power Magical , and that faculty in Man which acteth only per nutum , sleeps since the knowledge of the Apple was eaten ; and as long as this knowledge ( which is of the flesh and blood , outward man , and darkness ) flourisheth , the more noble Magical power is trampled under foot . But because in sleep , the whole knowledge of the Apple doth sometimes sleep : Hence also it is , that our dreams are sometimes Prophetical , and God himself is thereofre the nearer unto Man in Dreams , through that effect : To wit , when as the more inward Magick of the Soul not being now interrupted by the knowledge of the Apple , doth even on every side diffuse it self in Understanding : to wit , even as when it sinks it self into the inferiour Powers thereof , it safely leads those that walk in their sleep , by moving or conducting them whither those that were awake could not climb . Therefore the chief Rabbies of the Cabal , affirm , that it was learnt or conceived in time of sleep , to wit , when the knowledge of the Apple was consopited or lull'd asleep . The intellectual act of the Soul , is alwayes clear and unshaken , and after some sort perpetual ; yet as long as the principal agent , hath not transferred its power so far as the limits of sense that kind of action is not yet propagated throughout the whole man : For we who are only conversant with the virtue or faculty of thinking , or of the senses , and with our carnal intelligence , are perpetually drawn away ( Alas for grief ! ) by the same , from the more superiour and Magical Science or Knowledge , and are retained in the shadow of Knowledge , rather than in the Light of Truth : For neither do we the Inhabitants of darkness observe that we do understand , but when there is made a certain mutual traduction or passing over of faculties , and till as it were the angles or corners of actions being prorogued or propagated by divers Agents , are folded together about the middle . Satan therefore stirs up this Magical power ( otherwise sleeping , and hindred by the knowledge of the more outward man ) in his bond-slaves : and the same readily serves them in stead of a sword in the hand of a potent Adversary , that is the Witch : Neither doth Satan contribute any thing to the murtherer at all , besides an exciting of the said drowsie power , and consent of the Will , which is for the most part compelled in Witches ; by reason of which , two contributions , the mocking Scurre , as if the whole office or performance were due to himself , requires by a compact , a continual , firm , and irrevocable submissive engagement , a perpetual homage , and devout worshipping of himself , if also nothing more . When as otherwise , that kind of power was freely conferred by God the workman , being plainly natural to Man : For indeed , juggling Impostures , bewitchings by the emission of the sight or eyes , and how falsely soever disguises of Witches may appear , and such like delusive acts , they are only from Satan , and are his proper acts : For therefore his works are onely ridiculous ones , and false apparitions , because our merciful God suffers not the same miscreant to have any longer power , but keeps him bound : When as otherwise the Witch displaies real and wicked acts from her own natural faculty . For truly through sin , not the gifts of Nature but those of Grace , were obliterated in Adam : And moreover , that the same natural gifts , although they were not taken away , yet that they have remained as it were restrained and benummed with sleep : For even as Man from that time became subject to mortality , after the manner of his fellow creatures ; so also were the Heroick or excelling powers in Man obscured , which therefore have need of a stirring up and drawing out of darkness . For hitherto have contemplations , continued prayers , watchings , fastings , and acts of mortifications regard , to wit , that the drowsiness of the flesh being vanquished , men may obtain that nimble , active , heavenly , and ready power toward God , and may sweetly confer with him in his presence , who importunately desires , not to be worshipped but in the Spirit , that is , in the profundity or bottom of the more inward man. Hitherto , I say , hath the art of the Cabal regard , which as it were by sleep shaken off , may restore that Natural and Magical power of the Soul. I will ( after the manner of Mathematicians ) yet further explain my self by Examples , and will assume the very works of Witches ; the which although they are wickedly mischievous and detestable , yet are supported by the same root , namely a Magical power , without difference as unto good , and also unto evil . For neither doth it blemish the Majesty of free Will , or the Treatise of the same ; although we now and then discourse of a Thief , Robber , or Murtherer , a Whoremonger , an Apostate , and Witch . Grant therefore that a Witch kills a Horse in an absent Stable ; there is a certain natural virtue derived from the Spirit of the Witch , and not from Satan , which can oppress or strangle the vital Spirit of the Horse . Suppose thou that there are two subjects of Diseases and Death , namely one of these , the Body wherein a Disease inhabits : And because all Beings act on this Body , as that which is the most passive subject , the other spiritual Dominion hath been thought to have been from Satan . But the other subject is the unperceivable and invisible Spirit , which of its own self is able to suffer all Diseases ; The Spirit suffering the Body also suffers , because its action is limited within the Body ( for the Mind after that it is fast tied to the Body , flowes alwayes downwards , even as when the palate is pained , the tongue continually tends thither ) but not on the contrary : For there are some material Diseases which are tinged onely materially : For so manifold is the occasion of Death , that there is no other ground from whence we may receive an ability for pride . The act therefore of the foregoing touch of the Witch , is plainly natural , although the stirring up of the virtue or power be made by the help of Satan : No less than if a Witch should slay a Horse with a Sword reach'd unto her by Satan ; that act of the Witch is natural and corporeal , even as the other fore-going act is Natural and Spiritual . For truly , Man naturally consists no lesse of a Spirit , than of a Body ; neither therefore is there any reason , why one act may be called the more natural one , or why the Body only may be said to act , but the Spirit to be idle , and to be made altogether destitute , at least of such action that is proper to it self , as it is the Image of God : Yea , the vital Spirits in speaking most properly are those which perceive , move , remember , &c. but in no wise the Body and dead Carcass it self : Every act therefore doth more properly respect its agent than the Body the Inn of the Agent . Therefore some certain Spiritual Ray , departs from the Witch into the Man , or bruit Beast , which she determineth to kill : According to that Maxim , That there is no Action made unless there be a due approximation or most near approach of the Agent to the Patient , and a mutual coup●ing of their Virtues , whether the same approximation be made Corporally , or also spiritually : Which thing is proved to our hand by a visible testimony . For if the fresh Heart of a Horse ( for that is the seat of the vital Spirits ) slain by a Witch be empaled upon a stick , and be roasted on a Broach , or broyled on a Gridiron : Presently the vital Spirit of the Witch , without the interposing of any other mean , and from thence the whole Witch her self ( for truly not the Body , but the Spirit alone is sensible ) suffers cruel torments and pains of the fire : The which surely could by no means happen , unless there had been made a coupling of the Spirit of the Witch with the Spirit of the Horse : For the Horse that was strangled retains a certain Mumial Faculty ( so I call it , whensoever the virtue of the vital Liquor is as yet co-fermented with the Flesh ) that is , the implanted Spirit , such as is not found in Bodies dying of their own accord , by reason of any sicknesse , and any other renting asunder of an inferiour order , whereunto the Spirit of the Witch being coupled unto it , is a companion . Therefore there is made in the fresh Heart , a binding up of the Spirit of the Witch , before that by a dissolution , the Witch her own Spirit return back to her again : which Spirit is retained by the Stick or Arrow being thrust into the Heart , and through a roasting of both Spirits together , from whence by Magnetism it happens , that the Witch in the utmost limit or gradual heat of the Fire , is sorely tossed or disturbed in her sensitive Spirit . That effect is changed from the intention , for if Reveng stir up the experimenter , then the effect is reprobate . But if tryal be made , that the Witch may thereby be constrained to bewray her self , to be subjected to Judges , or the Justice of the Magistrate , and that a benefit may be hereby procured to his Neighbour , and himself , and as by the taking away of so impious , blasphemous , and hurtful a Vassal of Satan , glory to God , and the greater peace and rest may arise amongst all Neighbours , then certainly the effect cannot be rejected as reprobate . We must not think , that the whole Spirit of the Witch departeth into the Heart of the Horse ( for so the Witch her self had departed from the living ) but that there was a certain univocal or single participation of the vital Spirit and Light , even as indeed a Spirit which is the Architect or Master-workman of the whole Man is propagated in the Seed at every turn or act of Generation , being sufficient even for many off-springs , the Spirit of the Father remaining entire notwithstanding . Indeed that Spiritual participation of Light is Magical , and a wealthy communication by Virtue of that Word : Let Animals and Herbs bring forth Seed ; and one Seed produceth ten times ten thousand of Seeds of equal Valour or Virtue , and as many entire seminal Spirits , as Light is kindled or inflamed by Light. But what a Magnetical Spirit may properly be , and the Entity or Beingness begotten by its Parent the Phantasie ; I will hereafter more largely write : I am now returned unto our Ends proposed . Neither is there any ground for any one to think , that this rebounding of the Heart into the Witch , is a meer Supposition , or plainly a superstitious and damnable Juggle and Mockery of Satan ; seeing she is infallibly discovered by this Sign , and is constrained , will she , nill she , to bewray her self openly , which is a thing opposite to the intent of Satan , as in the second of our suppositions , is above sufficiently shewn : for the Effect is perpetual , never deceiving , having its Foundation in reason , and the spiritual Nature , but not in the least supported by Superstitions . Hath not likewise a dead Carcass also that was murdered , be-bloodied it self before the Judges or Coroner and his Inquest , when the Murderer was present , and hath oft-times procured a certain Judgment of his Offence ? Although before , the Blood had already stood restrained ? Indeed in the Man dying by reason of his Wound , the Inferiour Virtues which are Mumial ( for those are unbridled ones , and are not in our Power ) have imprinted on themselves a Footstep of taking revenge : Hence it is , that the Murderer being present , the Blood of the Veins boiles up , and flowes forth , as if also being in wrath , it were disturbed or sorely disquieted by the imprinted Image of revenge : for indeed there is in the Blood , even after Death , its Sense of the Murderer that is present , and its revenge , because it hath also its own phantasie : Therefore not Abel himself , but his innocent Blood cries notwithstanding , unto Heaven for revenge . For which Cause in Sieges the Plague for the most part enters as a Companion : to wit , because the magical Spirit of the more outward Man , hath conceived in combates , an imprinted Character of revenge : but sometimes the Souldiers being through Poverty , reduced to desperation , and their Wives are almost adjoyned with them in dying , and many Misfortunes are by way of Imprecation , bequeathed to the more wealthy Souldiers or Officers , from whence most strong Impressions are left as Posthumes or Survivers after Death , on the Sidereal or Astral Spirit of the dying Man , ( especially of a Woman with Child ) which Spirit presently after Death , wandring about in the Air , deviseth meanes or wayes of its own verge , rank or order ( that is spiritual ones ) of hurting and revenging , and then readily commits it self to Execution . But such kind of Plagues are outragious , sparing none , and as it were immediately sent down from Heaven ; and because they being spiritual , do implore help from corporeal Remedies in vain ; I am silent as to that : For neither is it sufficiently safe to express the connexion , and agreement of Mummies betwixt each other : for from thence hath issued the whole Necromancy of the Antients . For that reason also , God , in the Law , forbad the Bodies of those that were hanged ( even of Heathens ) to be left on the Gibbet , and the Sun should not go down upon them . Thou wilt answer , that the Plague of Sieges ariseth , by reason of the manifold Filths of Excrements . But on the contrary , Curriers , Tanners , or Leather-dressers , Emptiers of Jakes's , and those who spend their time about Glew , to be made by the Putrefaction of Skins , are at hand : for all of them ( so far are they from being subject to the Plague ) for the most part , are long lived : wonderful is God in the Spirit of the Microcosm . Dost thou desire to know perhaps , why the Blood of a Bull is Poysonous , but not that of his Brother the Oxe ? Indeed the Bull in time of Killing , murmurs against his Executioner , and imprinteth on his Blood a Mark and potent Character of revenge : But if it happen , that in slaying of an Oxe , through one stroake , he hath become furious , and hath the longer continued in the same Fury ; he leaves his Flesh but unwholesom , unless first the disturbance being pacified , he as idle and shut up by himself , be left to return to himself by fasting . The Bull therefore dies more excelling in revenge than other Animals ; and therefore his Fat ( but not his Blood , unless the humane Blood in the Unguent be conquered by the forreign Tincture of the Bulls Blood ) is altogether necessary for the Weapon Salve , if the Weapons the Authors of the Wounds , shall not be besprinkled with the Blood of the Wounded : And if by the besmearing of the same Weapons a perfect or safe Cure be to be expected ; truly the Usnea or Moss , together with its fellow Ingredients , are not sufficient , that a Cure should be made without fresh Blood had out of the Wound , for a more violent Efficacious or taurine Impression is required , and an aereal Communication of the Honey of Flowers . From hence therefore , it is sufficiently manifest , that the Efficacy of the Unguent is not to be imputed to the Concurrence of Satan ( who also could Cure the Wound without Honey and Bulls Blood ) but to the communion of natural Qualities , with the derived Post-hume revenge , left in the concrete or composed Body of Blood , and Fat. Our Adversaries will prate , rejoycing , that the Power of the Magnetical Unguent could scarce have been proved , but by a Witch , by Satan , and the spiritual Magick of the invisible World , which is a suppositious or imaginary Science , plainly of no weight or worth , and a damnable Errour . Notwithstanding , not any sinister perverting of the matter in handling , but the gross Ignorance of others , and the miserable Condition of humane Frailty , hath required that thing ; which more promptly inclines to Evil , knowes Evil , and is more readily taught by Evil than by Good : But certainly , whatsoever we have here alleaged concerning Satan and Witches , it is not , that from thence , others should hope for a conformity or suitable resemblance of the Oyntment with Witches : for neither are the spiritual Virtues of the Unguent , and the Phantasie of the Blood , stirred up by Satan , as a Guider , or Enforcer . But this is that I aim'd at ; to wit , that there doth inhabit in the Soul , a certain Magical Virtue , given her of God , naturally proper and belonging unto her , inasmuch as we are his Image and Engravment ; that in this respect also , she acts after a peculiar manner , that is , spiritually on an Object at a distance , and that much more powerfully , than by any corporeal helps ; because , seeing the Soul is the more principal part of the Body ; therefore the Action belonging unto her , is spiritual , magcial , and of the greatest Validity : That the Soul doth by the same Virtue which was rendred as it were drowsie through the knowledge gotten by eating of the Apple , govern and stir her own Body : but that the same magical Faculty being somewhat awakened , is able to act also out of her Prison , on another distant Object , only by her Beck , conveighed thereunto by Mediums : for therein indeed is placed the whole Foundation of natural Magick ; but in no wise , in Blessings , Ceremonies , and vain Superstitions ; but that all these wicked observances were brought in by him , whose endeavour it hath alwayes been , every where to defile all good things with his Tares . But we do not tremble at the name of Magick , but with the Scripture , interpret it in a good-sense : Yet we have granted that it may be indifferently employed to a good or evil Intent , to wit , by the use or abuse of that Power . And so that , under that Word we understand the most profound inbred knowledge of things , and the most potent Power for acting , being alike natural to us with Adam , not exstinguished by Sin , not obliterated , but as it were become drowsie , therefore wanting an Excitement . Therefore we shew , that Magnetism is exercised , not indeed by Satan , but by that which belongs not to Satan ; and therefore that this Power which is co-natural unto us , hath stood abusively dedicated to Satan , as if he were the Patron thereof : that the Magical Power doth as it were sleep in us since Sin , and therefore that it hath need of a stirrer up . Whether that Exciter be the holy Spirit by Illumination , as the Church mentions to have happened in the Eastern Magi or Wise Men of the East , and which at this day sometimes happens in others : or Satan doth also for some foregoing submissive Engagement , stir up the same in Witches : And in such as these , the Excitation is as it were by a waking sleepiness , by a Catochus , and therefore is imperfect in regard of the manner , Evil in regard of the end , Obscure in regard of the Meanes , and Wicked in regard of the Author : Nor doth the Turn-coat-impostor suffer that the Witch should know this Power to be natural unto her self , whereby he may hold her the more fast bound to himself , or least the exercise of so noble a Power being stirred up , should incline otherwise than to Wickedness , therefore he commands the Rains himself ; neither hath the Witch known how to stir it up at her own pleasure , who hath wholly prostrated her self to the Will of another Tyrant . Also Man himself is able through the Art of the Cabal , to cause an excitement in himself , of so great a Power at his own Pleasure , and these are called Adeptists ; or Obtainers , whose Governour also , is the Spirit of God. That this same Magical Virtue is also in the more outward Man ; to wit , in the Flesh and Blood. Yet after its own , and far more feeble manner ; yea not only in the external Man ; but also proportionally in Bruits ( for so the Book of Genesis minds us , that the Soul of Bruit-Beasts is in their Blood , and upon this account , it deservedly enrouls the same out of the Bill of our Food ) and perhaps in all other things ; Seeing all particular things contain in them a delineation of the whole Universe , and upon that account at least , the Antients have seriously signified unto us that there is a God , that is , an All in All : that the Magick of the more outward Man hath need of exciting no less than that of the more inward Man ; neither that Satan doth stir up any other Magick in his Imps , than what belongs to the more outward Man : For in the more inward bottom of the Soul , is the Kingdom of God , whereto no Creature hath access . We have further taught , that there is a connexion between things spiritually acting , and that , Spirits , as they combate with Spirits , as in example of the Witch ; So also we have shewn by Magnetical Examples , and proper Reasons for the fascination and binding up of Soules , that they hold a friendly correspondence , even as concerning David and Jonathan , &c. Last of all , we have endeavoured to shew , that Man predominates over all other corporeal Creatures , and that by his natural Magick , he is able to tame the Magical Virtues of other things ; which predominacy others have falsly and abusively transferred on the authority of Verses or Charmes , and Enchantments : By which Hierarchy or holy Dominion , we have sufficiently , and over-sufficiently cleered up , that those Effects whatsoever they be , are wrought , which those ( who not but too rustically and corporeally Phylosophize ) have referred unto the dominion of Satan . It must needs be , that those who were ignorant of all things that have been spoken , should as yet doubt of many things ; therefore we determine to repeat all things . First of all , whereby those things may become the more clear , which we have spoken above , concerning the Duel of Spirits , or their mutual friendly Conspiracy ; It is worth our labour to define the Weapons of Spirits , and the Common-wealth of the same . Wherefore we must seriously note the Example of a Woman great with Child , who , if she hath with violence of desire , conceived a Cherry in her Mind , the Foot-step thereof is presently imprinted on her Young , in that Part whereon the great-bellied Woman shall lay her hand : Nor is it indeed only an idle Image or Spot of a Cherry , but that which flowers and grows to Maturity with the other Trees in their season ; to wit , the Signatures of Colours , and Figures being changed : Truly , high and sacred is the force of the Microcosmical Spirit , which without the Trunck of a Tree , brings forth a true Cherry , that is , Flesh ennobled with the Properties and Power of the more inward or real Cherry , by the Conception of Imagination alone : from whence we understand two necessary Consequences . The First is , that all the Spirits , and as it were the Essences of all things , do lay hid in us , and are born and brought forth only by the working Phantasie of the little World. The Second is , that the Soul in conceiving , generates a certain Idea of the thing conceived ; the which indeed , as it before lay hid unknown , and as it were , Fire in a Flint ; So by the stirring up of the Phantasie , there is produced a certain real Idea , and a quiddative , or some particular essential Limitation of a Cherry , which is not a naked quality , but something like unto a Substance , hanging in suspense between a Body and a Spirit , that is , the Soul. That middle Being is so spiritual , that it is not plainly exempted from a Corporeal Condition ; since the Actions of the Soul are limited on the Body , and the inferiour orders of Faculties depending on it ; nor yet so corporeal , that it may be enclosed by Dimensions , the which we have also related to be only proper to a seminal Being . This Ideal Entity therefore , when it fals out of the invisible and intellectual World of the Microcosme , it puts on a Body ; and then also it is first inclosed by the Limitations of Place and Numbers . The Object of the Understanding is in it self a naked and pure Essence , not an accident , by the consent of Practical , that is , mystical Divines : Therefore this Protheus or transformable Essence , the Understanding doth as it were put on , and cloath it self with this conceived Essence . But because every Body , whether External , or Internal , hath its making in its own proper Image ; The Understanding knowes or discerns not , the Will loves and wills not , the Memory recollects not , but by Images or Likenesses : The Understanding therefore , put on this same Image of its Object ; and because the Soul is the simple Form of the Body , which turns her self about to every Member ; therefore , neither can the acting . Understanding have two Images at once , but first one , and anon , another : Therefore the whole Soul descends upon the Intellect or Understanding , and the comprehended Image being as yet tender , and forms this Knowledge of the Essence into a persisting Image , or Ideal Entity or Beingness : The Mind being defiled , hath slidden into the Indignation of God ; and because the same mind was at once polluted , the nobleness of its former Condition being put off , Death found an entrance , not indeed by the command of the Creator , but from the degeneration of Man being slidden into filthiness , and degenerate from himself , by reason of the same Ideal Entity being now put on : which Filthiness seriously and diligently springing up , even in all particular Sins , it is conve●ient to extenuate or consume by Repentance here , or in the World to come . This Entity therefore , being as yet in the Understanding , is but lightly imprinted ; neither doth it find a consistence any where but in a Woman with Child , the which in us Men , it doth not obtain but by the Will , that is , the Understanding doth alwayes procreate an Entity , but it puts it not on but by the Will , except in Women with Child . Whether therefore we call Sin a nothing , or a something ; at least-wise , there is never made a Consent to Evil , without a real Procreation of this certain kind of Entity , and the assuming and putting on thereof : This hath been the Cause of the Fruitfulness of Seeds : for the Phantasie or Imagination being much moved by Lust , produceth a slender Entity ; the which , if the Soul puts on through the Will ( as the action of the Mind being imprisoned in the Body , doth alwayes tend downwards and outwards ) it disperseth this same Entity into the Liquor of the Seed , which otherwise would not be but barren : Which Action is made as it were by an estranging of the Mind ; to wit , the Will through the true Magick of the more outward Man , departing into a certain Ecstasie , in which there is made a communicating of a certain Light of the Mind , upon the Entity descending into the Body of the Seed . As oft soever therefore , as the Cogitation or Thought drawes the Sense and Will into a consent ; so often a filthy Skin is bred and put on , being a bastardly Ideal Entity , by which birth the Will is said to be confirmed : Also that Ideal Entity , whithersoever it is directed by the Will , thither it goes ; by this meanes the Will moves , sometimes the Arm , sometimes the Foot , &c. Furthermore , when the said Entity is spread upon the vital Spirit , for to love , help , or hurt any thing , it wants only a light Excitement , whether made from the asistance of God , of the Cabalistick Art , or of Satan , that indeed the small Portion of the Spirit which hath now put on that Entity , departs far off , and perform its Office enjoyned it by the Will. So the Male layes aside his Seed out of himself , which through the Entity which it hath drawn , is very fruitful , and performes its Office without the Trunck of its own Body . Truly Bodies scarce make up a moyity or halfe part of the World : But Spirits even by themselves have or possess their moyity , and indeed the whole World : Therefore in this whole Context or Composure of our Discourse , I call Spirits the Patrons of Magnetism ; not those which are sent down from Heaven , and much less is our Speech of infernal ones ; but of those which are made in Man himself : for as Fire is struck out of a Flint , so from the Will of Man , some small Portion of the inflowing vital Spirit is extracted , and that very thing or portion assumes an Ideal Entity , as it were its Form and Compleating : Which Perfection being obtained , the Spirit , which before was purer than the Aethe●eal Air , is sub●ilized or rarified like Light ; and assumes a middle Condition between Bodies , and not Bodies : But it is sent thither , whither the Will directs it , or at least , whither the inbred infallible Knowledge of the Spirits sends the same , according to the scopes of things to be done . The Ideal Entity therefore being now readily prepared for its journey , becomes after some sort , a Light , and as if it were no longer a Body , is tied up to no commands of Places , Times , or Dimensions ; neither is that Entity a Devil , nor any Effect thereof , nor any Conspiracy of his ; but it is a certain spiritual Action thereof , plainly natural and proper unto us . He who well receiveth this Wisdom , shall easily understand , that the Material World is on all sides governed and restrained by the Immaterial and Invisible : But that all other created Corporeal Beings are put under the Feet of Men : for indeed , this is the Cause , why also the Mummy , Fat , Mosse , and Blood of Man , to wit , the Phantasie existing in them in the Unguent , overswayes the Blood of a Dog , of a Horse , &c. being conveighed by a Stick , into the Box of the Unguent . There hath not been yet said enough concerning the Magnetism of the Unguent . I will therefore resume what I spake of before ; namely , that the Magnetisms of the Load-stone , and of inanimate things , are made by a natural Sensation or Feeling , which is the Author of all Sympathy , is a certain Truth . For if the Load-stone directs it self to the Pole , it ought of necessity to have known the fame , if it be not to commit an Errour in its Direction : And how I pray , shall it have that Knowledge , if it be not sensible where it is ? Likewise if it self to Iron placed aloof off , the Pole being neglected , it must needs have first been sensible of the Iron : Therefore one single Load-stone , hath diverse Senses and Images : Neither also-shall it be sufficient that it hath Sense , unless we add the Spurs of Friendship and Self-love ; and so that it is endowed with a certain natural Phantasie , and by reason of the Impression whereof , all Magnetisms are forged : For it is directed by another manner of Phantasie toward the Iron , than toward the Polo ; ●or then its Virtue is dispersed , only through a neighbouring Space . It s Phantasie is changed when it restraines the abortive Young , Catarrhs , or Rheumes , or the Bowel in a Rupture : Also by another Phantasie , doth the Load-stone draw any thing out of Glasse throughly boyled or melted by Fire ; for a very small Fragmen thereof , being cast into a Mass or good quantity of Gla●s , while it is in boyling , of Green , or Yellow ; makes it White . For although the Load-stone it self be filled with a red Colour , and be consumed by the Fire that dissolves the Glass ; Yet in the mean tim● , while it hath Life , it a●●racteth and consumeth the tinged Liquor out of the Fiery Glass ; and so its attraction is not only to Iron ; but moreover , unto that aiery Part which would with difficulty depart out of the Glass , and for this Cause it is of common use with Glass-make●s . The Phantasie of Amber drawes Chaffs and Moates , by an attraction indeed , slow enough , but yet with a sufficient perfect Signature of attraction : for it being married to our Mummy , is also stronger than our attractive Faculty , drawes in opposition thereunto , and becomes a Zenexton or preservatory Amul●t against pestilential Contagions : But Amber being mixed with Gumms , its imagination being now transplanted , draws the Poyson and Bullet out of a Wound , indeed its pleasure and desire of drawing , being on both sides varied . But what Wonder shall it be ( unless with those who being ignorant of all things , do also admire all things ) that inanimate things are strong in Phantasie : When as he , who is wholly the Life creates all things , and hath therefore promised that nothing is to be expected as dead out of his Hand ? Also no one thing at all shall come to our view , wherein himself also may not clarely appear as present ; The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole Globe of the Earth : Yea this Expression , That he containeth or comprehendeth all things , carries the force of the World. Do we not believe that there was much Knowledge in the Apple ? and that through the eating thereof , our first Parents both are it up , and together also conceived it within ? and doth not that Knowledge presuppose a Phantasie proper to its kinde ? for so some Simples induce an Alienation of the Mind , but some others , a Madness or maddish Fury , not indeed through a Destruction of the Brain , or a dispersing of its Spirits ( for then at least , the Strength and most strong Faculties of the mad or furious Person would not remain ) but by a strange kind of , and furious Phantasie of those Simples being introduced , which being victress , subdues , ours , and keeps the same a Servant it self for a time , as in Doatage , the Phrensie , &c. Sometimes also , perpetually , as in lunatick and mad or Bedlam-persons . Doth not the Madness of Dogs thus pass over into Man ? For the maddish Phantasie of Fury is transplanted into the Spittle of their Tongue , which as victress soon triumphs over the Blood of that Animal , which the Skin being opened , it shall never so slenderly touch : Then indeed the antient Phantasie of the whole Blood gives place , and will it , nill it , assumes an hydrophobial Phantasie , or an estranged Imagination of the fear of Water : From whence at length , comes a Binsical Death , that is , from the sole Sickness of the Mind , to wit , the magical Virtue of the Dog being exalted and excited , or stirred up above the non-excited , but drowsie Imagination of the Animals . Plainly after the same manner , is the Phantasie of the Tarantula imprinted by a slender stroak of his S●ing , and the Wounded or Stung Persons being presently alienated in their Mind , fall a dancing , and leap hugely ; yet the Venom of the Tarantula differs from that of a mad Dog , in this , that this acts by a Magical Power being stirred up , and so , by the Magick of a true name : But the other by a drowsie Magical Faculty ( even as the same difference is manifest in Wol●s-bane and other destructive Plants ▪ which kill with a very small quantity ; ) because no living Creature Secures or defends himself against a mad Dog ; because there is in him , a binding magical Power , against which , Teeth or Horns do not prevaile : which cannot be said of the Poyson of the Tarantula . In the External Man therefore , even as in his fellow Animals , the magical Power is as it were laid asleep , neither can it be stir'd up only in Man ( although indeed much more easily in him ) but in some living Creatures his Consorts . Yea , neither is it sufficient that Spirits do observe this Law of Concord and single Duel with Spirits ; but moreover , there lurks a certain Spirit in the whole Universe , which we call the great Magnal or Sheath , which being the Pander of Sympathy or Fellow Feeling , and Dyspathy or difficulty of suffering , doth exist as a Communicater and Promoter of Actions ; and by reason whereof , Magnetism or Attraction is by a Vehicle or Instrument of conveyance , extended to an Object at a distance . That thing is proved to our sight : For if thou shalt place a slender Straw upon the Cord or String of a Lute , hanging with a doubtful extremity , or with an equal weight in the Air , like a Ballance , and shalt strike the like string of another Lute that is aloof off , when the Tunes do co-agree in the eighth Note , thou shalt see the Chaff to tremble : but when the Tunes or Notes agree in a Unisone , then otherwise , the string of the quiet Lute being impatient of delay , quavets or hops a little , skips for joy , and shakes off the hated Straw by its jumping . Shall here also Satan be the Fidler in their esteem ? Which Straw doth not happen to leap , although all the Strings of the other Lut● be unanimously , strongly and near at hand struck upon : Nor also , doth the naked Tune constrain the other and quiet string to leap a little ; for then every Note would effect that : but it is only the Spirit which is the common Pander , inhabiting in the middle of the Universe , which being the faithful executer and assistant of natural Actions , derives , promotes , and also causeth the Sympathy . Why are we so sore afraid of the name of Magick ? Seeing that the whole action is Magical ; neither hath a thing any Power of Acting , which is not produced from the Phantasie of its Form , and that indeed Magically . But because this Phantasie is of a limited Identity or Sameliness , in Bodies devoid of choice , therefore the Effect hath ignorantly and indeed rustically stood ascribed , not to the Phantasie of that thing , but to a natural Property ; they indeed , through an Ignorance of Causes , substituting the Effect in the room of the Cause : When as after another manner , every Agent acts on its proper Object , to wit , by a fore-feeling of that Object , whereby it disperseth its Activity , not rashly , but on that Object only ; to wit , the Phantasie being stirred after a sense of the Object , by dispersing of an ideal Entity , and coupling it with the Ray of the passive Entity . This indeed hath been the magical Action of natural things , yet the Magick and Phantasie that is properly so named , is in Creatures enlarged or ennobled with a Power of choice . I will go thorow them according to their ranks . The formal Properties therefore , which issue from the Forms of the three Principles , Salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , or Salt , Fat , and Liquor , from whence every Body is composed , and again resolved into the same , and the Mercury or Liquor is so often diverse , as there are Species or particular kinds of things ; let the same Judgment be of the Salt , and Sulphur : Those Properties I say , flow from the Phantasies of these Forms , the which , because they are exceeding corporeal , and do as yet stick in the Bosom of the Elements ; therefore they are called formal and occult Properties , by reason of the Ignorance of the Forms , which otherwise , are magical Effects propagated from the Phantasie of the said Forms ; but they are ignoble and very corporeal ones , yet abundantly satisfying the ends which they have respect unto . Of this kind are the subductive or loosening Property of the Belly , the sleepifying Property , &c. in things . There are also besides these , other more noble Properties , arising from the Phantasie of the Forms of the mixt Body ; and those of this sort , are in the whole composed Body , by reason of its Form ; as the Magnetism of the Load-stone , the Virtue of Tinctures : Likewise , all specifical and appropriated Things or Medicines , which happen by reason of the whole homogeneal Mixture , or of the Form of any one entire part , but not of some one principle alone ; such as those are , which are seated in the Flesh or Trunck , Root , Leaves , and Fruit , and not in any one of the three Principles being separated there-from . Likewise Antimony , as long as it remaines in its Form , obtaineth most excellent Properties , the which , it never attaineth in its Principles , and these are also from a corporeal Bosom ; and therefore the spiritual Magick is also hidden in these , and is thought to be due only to Nature , by unfitly distinguishing this in opposition to Magick . So the Leaf of the Rose hath another kinde of Virtue , which the Stalk or mossie yellow tuft thereof , hath not : and that Virtue in the Leaf is not from the three first things , but from its native Life , which when it s destroyed , then it hath other Virtues ; as suppose thou a grain of Corn , which nourisheth in its first Life , the which , if it looseth , then it fructifies . And then thirdly , there is a magical Virtue , which proceedeth from the Phantasie of the Life of the whole entire composure ; that is in Bruites , and in the external Man , which being now spiritual , is more absolute than the former , nevertheless not yet advanced unto the highest pitch of Efficacy ; notwithstanding , now and then , through much exciting , by a strong Phantasie introduced by an Entity , it ascends unto a great height , and as near as may be , imitates the true Magick of the inward Man. But moreover , the Soul of every Bruit-beast , hath a Power of Creating a real Entity , or Beingness , and through the Will , of dismissing the same to a far distant Object : The Bruit of this sort , is Magical , as the Basilisk , the Dog , many Fishes described by Olaus , &c. Such also is the Virtue inhabiting in the Blood of many Animals : For from hence the holy Scripture saith , That the Soul is in the Blood though hunted out of the Veins , and although boyled by Fire ; perhaps also , being plainly putrified through a keeping warm . Last of all , there is a magical Virtue , being as it were abstracted from the Body , which is wrought by the stirring up of the more inward Power of the Soul , from whence there are made most potent Procreations , most famous Impressions , and most strong Effects : Indeed Nature is on every side a Magitianess , and acts by her own Phantasie : and because by how much the more Spiritual her Phantasie is , by so much the more powerful it is ; therefore also the Denomination of Magick is truly proportionable or concordant . Every magical Virtue almost stands in need of excitement ; for the lowest sort wants an excitement by a foregoing luke-warmth . Indeed a certain Vapour or spiritual Air is stirred up , by reason whereof , the Phantasie which profoundly sleeps , is awakened , and there begins a skirmishing of the corporeal Spirits as a Mean , which is that of Magnetism , and it is excited by a foregoing touch . But that of the highest sort , which is that of Bruits , and Men , is stirred up from an intellectual Conception : and indeed that of the inward Man is not excited but by the holy Spirit , and by his gift , the Cabal : but that of the External Man , is stirred up by a strong Imagination , by a dayly and heightned Speculation ; yea and in Witches , by Satan . But the magical Virtue of the out-chased Blood , wherein the Soul dwelleth , which is as yet made to lurk in Potentia , or by way of possibility only , is excited either by a more strong ascending Imagination , conceive it of the Magitian making use of the Blood as a Mean , and establishing his kindled Entity thereon ; or conceive it through the ascending Phantasie of the Weapon Salve , the excitress of the Property lurking in the Blood ; or by a foregoing Appointment or Disposition of the Blood unto Corruption , to wit , whereby the Elements are disposed unto Separation , and the Essences ( which know not how to putrifie ) and the essential Phantasies , which lay hid in the Power of the Properties , come forth into Action . The Phantasie therefore of any Subject whatsoever , hath obtained a strong Appetite to the Spirit of another thing , for the moving I say , some certain thing in place , for the attracting , expelling , or repulsing thereof : And there , and not elsewhere , we acknowledge Magnetism as the natural magical Endowment of that thing , firmly implanted in it by God. There is therefore in this respect , a certain formal Property , separated from Sympathetical , and abstruse or hidden Qualities : because the motive Phantasie of these Qualities doth not directly flow unto a local Motion ; but only unto an alterative Motion of the Object . Let every Magnetism therefore , be either Sympathetical , or Antipathetical ; yet every Sympathy shall not be Magnetical . We returning to our scope proposed : I think , ere this , that it is well understood , that there is not only in the Blood , a phantasie , and magical Appetite ; but also in the Humours , Meats and Excrements ; since the various off-spring of Diseases doth also make manifest that thing : For teeming Women desire strange Meats , and Virgins , through a natural sting or fury of the exorbitant Womb , do with paleness , and speediness digest what they desire ; not indeed by reason , not a near affinity of humane Nature requiring that particular Meat : but they being seduced by the forreign Phantasie of those Humours thus foolishly over-powering them : which Filths being expelled , we have oftentimes restored a sudden Health to their hurt or vitiated Appetites : Or also , we have restrained them by fully satisfying of the mad Phantasie of the same Humours : Therefore the Blood hath its own Phantasie in it , the which , because it there more powerfully flourisheth , than in other things ; therefore doth the Scriptnre , by a high Elogy or Publishment of praise , call the Blood , as yet boyled and ready to be eaten , an animated or soulified thing . And because this same Phantasie therein , is capable of Derivation ; for that reason indeed , the Manners , Gestures and Conditions of the Grand-father , shine forth in his posthume Nephew . Nobility drew its Original from well deserving Virtue : Hence Nobility should be suspected to be without desert , increased by a continued Propagation of the Stock or Family , unless the Manners and Virtues of the Ancestours should probably be hoped to shine forth in their modern Nephews . Doth not also the enmity conceived betwixt the Wolfe , and Sheep , remain in their Skins ? Wherefore the stubborn Phantasie of an Animal is imprinted not only on his Blood after Death ; But also , whosoever is covered with Bed-cloaths made of the Skin of a Gulo or Glutton ( it is a living Creature frequent in Swethland , and of a most devouring Nature ) is constrained to dream continually of Feasts , devouring , and laying Snares for , or catching living Creatures therein , to wit , according to the Disposition of that Animal while living ; and so that only by an external covering , the Phantasie of the Beast which when once alive , was entertained in his skin , is derived into a Man that sleeps under it : Therefore by the Ministery of the Phantasie of the Blood , it come to pass , that the out-chased Blood being received on the Weapon , is introduced into the magnetick Unguent . For then the Phantasie of the Bloods being otherwise , as yet drowsie , and slow as to Action , being stir'd up by the Virtue of the magnetical Unguent , and there finding the Balsamical and Medicinal Virtue of the Unguent , wisheth that the quality induced into it , might be bestowed on it self throughout , and from thence by a spiritual Magnetism to draw out all the strange Tincture of the Wound ; the which , seeing it cannot fitly enough effect by it self , it implores the aide of the Moss , Blood , Fat , and Mummy , which are conjoyned together into such a Balsam , which not but by its own Phantasie becomes also Medicinal , Magnetical , and is also an attractive of all the strange quality out of the Body ; whose fresh Blood I say , abounding with Spirit , is carried unto it , whether it shall be that of a Man , or of any other living Creature . The Phantasie therefore is a returner , or reducible and Ecstatical from part of the Blood that is freshly and most newly brought unto the Unguent ; but the magnetical Attraction begun in the Blood , is perfected by the medicinal Virtue of the Unguent : But the Unguent doth not draw the infirmity of the Wound unto it self , that it may be made a Pandora's Box ; but alters the Blood newly brought unto it , in its Spirit , makes it Medicinal , and stirs up the Power thereof : From thence it hath a certain medicinal and magnetical Virtue , which returns unto its whole Body to cure its Cousin German , the Spirit of the Blood throughout the whole Man : To wit , it sucks out the sorrowful Impression from the Wounded party , and expels it ( being ready to perish ) by its medicinal Power , and commands it forth : which medicinal Virtue being the conqueress of the Malady , is stir'd up partly in the Blood , and is partly also generated in the same by the Unguent ; to wit , by the Spirit hereof thus commanding over the Spirit of the Blood , by its own Phantasie , that is , by its created Endowment . Otherwise , the Blood putrifying with its entire Faculties or Vigours , under the enclosure of an Egg-shell , and the Spirit thereof being now as it were freed from its Fetters , through the foregoing Putrefaction , drawes by the mediation of the Mummy of a Dog , and really translates the Grief which sits in the Phantasie and astral Virtue of the Filths of the Sick , into the Dog himself that eats it . Indeed for no other Cause , than because the Magnetism is not perfected without the interposing of the Balsam of the Oyntment . We have also observed , that if a wounded Man happen to have received many Wounds at once , it is sufficient that Blood be had only out of one of his Wounds , and indeed , that by that one endeavour the rest of the Wounds are cured also ; because that Blood keeps a concordant Harmony with the Spirit of the whole , and draws forth from the same , the offensive quality communicated not only to the Lips of the Wound , but also to the whole Man : For from one Wound the whole Man is wont also to grow Feverish . I have hitherto deferred to make manifest a great Mistery ; namely , to shew to our hand , that in Man there is placed an essicacy , whereby he may be able only by his beck , and Phantasie , to act out of himself , and to imprint a virtue , a certain influence , which afterwards perseveres or constantly subsists by it self , and acts on an Object at a very far distance ; by which onely mystery , those things which have been spoken hitherto concerning the Ideal entity conveighed in a Spiritual fewel , and departing far from home for to execute its offices , concerning the Magnetism of all things begotten in the Imagination of man , as in that which is proper to every thing , and also concerning the Magical superiority of Men over other Bodies , will come to light . It is a clear truth , and manifest without controversie , that of Steel is to be made a Needle , which by the touch of a Load-stone , shews the Pole or North-Star to Sailers : but in vain is the Steel hammered into a Needle , and placed on the Marriners Compass to point out the Pole , if a due rubbing of the Loadstone upon it hath not gone before . Which things , seeing they are undoubtedly true , it is now convenient to frame a Marriners Needle onely by a Magnetical beck : On the Anvil therefore whereon the Needle is hammered out of Steel , let the North Point be marked out , and that in a straight Line ; then stand thou the Vulcan , with thy back towards the North , that when the Steel is drawn under the Hammer , for making of the Needle , thou mayest draw it towards thy self and the North. I say therefore , that such a Needle so made , shall without any other help observe or point out the Pole ; and that indeed , without any wonted variation , which is a great Mystery . Moreover , the Needle which is made upon the said Line , by chance , and without the knowledge or intent of the Workman , is void of that quality and doth not observe the Pole. From hence it consequently follows , that the Imagination of the man that frames it , doth as it were in that moment of the Needls Nativity , when as now indeed the greatest heat or glowing of the fire hath ceased , and as yet , under an obscure redness of the Steel , imprint this kind of Magnetical faculty , and that indeed on the Steel or an appropriated subject : But not that the Heaven doth then make that impression ; because then it also should influx it self into the Steel , without the intention of the Smith , which is false ; for if the Heaven should give forth its influence at a certain Hour and Position ; now might the Characteristical or Notary and Sigillary or sealing Science of the Stars triumph ; which we pass by . But the Constellation which flowes into the Steel , and perhaps every Seal or Impression , flowes from the Microcosmical Heaven , that is , from our Olympus , or the Heaven in us : Therefore , in vain have been those Seales , which were not stamped by the Magitian exalted in his Phantasie or Imagination ; for inferiour Entities and Phantasies are constrained to give place to ours : Whereby a wise Man shall bear rule over the Stars ; to the command of whom , the Parent of things hath subjected whatsoever is concluded in the Circle of Heaven . What things have been alledged concerning the Phantasie making this Impression on the Marriners Needle , I have learned from the Testimony of many , also from my own experience ; and shall be confirmed ten thousand times to be true , by the experience of every one that is willing to make trial thereof . So indeed Asarabacca , and the tops of Elder , hearken to the commanding Imagination of the Cropper , who imprinteh on the plant , but this Magnetically on the absent leaf : seeing otherwise , the leaf being boyled ( as the Needle that was re-heated in the fire ) and administred as a Potion , the virtue of the Phantasie imprinted on it , would perish , if the Magnetism were not cherished from the entire plant . That blood which is boyled , and ready to be eaten , doth as yet contain the Soul , is true : But that virtue consisteth not from the impression of the humane and external Phantasie , but from the proper endowment of its own Phantasie . After this manner also , a Nail , Dart , or Arrow that is thrust into the heart of the Horse , withholds the Spirit of the Witch , and conjoynes it with the Mumial Spirit of the Horse , whereby they may be roasted together , that by that torment , as by a sting , the Witch her self may be bewrayed ; and that at length , she that is offensive to God , destructive to mortal men , may by the Judge be taken away from the society of these , according to the Law of God. For if the Work be limitted unto any outward Object , that work the Magical Soul never attempts without a medium or mean : therefore it makes use of the Nail , or Arrow aforesaid . Now this being proved , that man hath a power of acting per nutum or by his beck , or of moving any Object remotely placed : It hath been also sufficiently confirmed by the same natural Example , that that efficacy was also given unto man by God , and that it naturally belongs unto him . It hath been hitherto an absurdity , to have thought that Satan hath moved , altered , and transported any thing , and to have applied Active things to Passive by local motion , onely per nutum ; since indeed they doubt not that he himself was the first moover in the said motions , that by those outmost parts or extreamities whereby he toucheth , he can snatch away , transferre , or any way move , at least an aiery body ( which they feign ) yet wanting a Soul. Absurd I say , it is to think that Satan since his Fall , hath retained a Magical dignity , whereby he acteth any subjects , by beck alone , because that was once his natural gift ; but that the same natural faculty was withdrawn from man , as denied unto him , and given unto the Devil , the most despicable of Creatures : But if there are any such effects proceeding from man , they have also attributed them at least to a suppliant or servile compact with him . Open your eyes , for Satan hath hitherto promiscuously gloried in your so great ignorance , as if thou didst make his Altar smoak , with the Incense of Glory and Dignity , and didst extract thy own natural Dignity , as pulling out thine own Eyes , and offering them up unto him . We have said , that happily every Magical faculty lyes dormant or asleep , and hath need of excitement , which is perpetually true , if the object whereon it is to act , be not most nearly disposed , if its internal phantasie doth not wholly conform to the impression of the agent , or also if the patient be equal in strength , or superiour to the agent therein . But on the contrary , where the Object is plainly and most nearly disposed , as Steel is for the receiving of a Magnetism : or plainly weak , and conscious to it self , ( as the Murderer , Adulterer , Thief , Witch , are ) then the Patient without much stirring up , the alone phantasie of the more outward Man being drawn out to the work , and bound up to any suitable mean , yeelds to the Magnetism . The Magitian I say , always makes use of a Medium : for so unless a Woman with child shall stretch forth her hand unto her Leg , Fore-head , or Buttocks , the Young will not be marked in the Leg , Fore-head , or Buttocks . For so the words or forms of Sacraments do alwayes operate ; Because from the work performed . But why Exorcisms or Charms do not alwayes operate , the defect is not in God ; but onely because the unexcited mind of the Exorcist or Charmer , renders the words dull or uneffectual . Therefore no man is a happy or succesful Exorcist , but he who hath known how to stir up the Magical virtue of his mind , or can do it practically without Science . Perhaps thou wilt say , That in the Armary Unguent or Weapon Salve , there was obtained no other Magnetical Virtue , than what was begotten by the Phantasie of the Compounder . Thou errest : Yet if that should be granted , thou wouldest be never the better thereby ; because the effect should thereupon happen not to be ascribed to Satan : For so the Unguent would be Magnetical or attractive , not from a Phantasie inbred in it , but from that which was imprinted on it from without , by the compounder ; since there can be no nearer Medium of the said Magnetism , than humane blood with humane blood . Truly the blood alone , as the most disposed subject , should be sufficient for the Oyntment , and the other Simples would be in vain : ( which is false ) especially Bulls blood , and honey , where there is a sufficient cure without the blood of a Bull , by the Weapons of the Wounder being bathed in the Unguent , without being distained by the blood of the Patient ; which is false . Lastly , the Magnetism of the Unguent should be plainly general , because the person compounding it , had intended by his Phantasie , to effect an impression , too liberal , wandering , uncertain , and unsold , for all Wounds of man , and also of all bruit Beasts . What if he shall not intend the Cure of a Dog : Shall therefore the Oyntment not be for Curing the Wound of a Dog ? Fie , What hath Bole Armeniack , what Lynseed-Oyle , what Honey , and lastly , what hath the blood of a Bull , of disposition to the Wound of a Horse , or Man , that on those as on a proper mean , and not on any other , the Phantasie of the compounder should be imprinted ? the which notwithstanding , if they shall be banished out of the composition , they will render unguent Barren , and void of Efficacy . The natural Phantasie therefore of the Unguent is the cause of the Magnetism , or attractive influence , and the proper cause of the Cure ; and not the Imagination of the Compounder . Behold ! Thou hast our , that is , a Christian Phylosophy , not the Dotages or idle Dreams of Heathens . Beware I beseech thee , that thou for this cause , cast not me also into censure , who hast been too ready in thy censures . I am thine , and a Roman Catholick , whose mind hath been to ponder of nothing which may be contrary to God , and that may be contrary to the Church . I know that I was not born for brawlings , or contentious debates , not to Write the Commentaries or Patronages of another : Therefore what I knew , I was willing to divulge abroad in the liberty of a Phylosopher . I shall as yet subjoyn this one Clause . Whosoever attributes a natural Effect , so created by God , so bestowed on the Creatures , unto the Devil , he estrangeth the honour due to the Creator , and reproachfully applies the same unto Satan : The which ( under thy favour I shall speak it ) if thou shalt well recal under thy Anatomy , thou wilt find to be express Idolatry . I beg of God our most Clementious Father , that he would be favourable or merciful to the Faults which from humane ( not stubborn ) ignorance , and frailty , we have contracted . Amen . There are three bear record in Heaven , the Father , the Word , and the holy Spirit ; and these three are onely one : ( and presently speaking of the humanity of Christ ) There are three that bear record in Earth , the Blood , the Spirit , and the Water ; and these three are onely one . We therefore who have the like humanity , it s no wonder if we contain Blood and a Spirit of a co-like Unity ; and that the action of the Blood is meerly spiritual : Yea therefore in Genesis , it is not called by the Etymology of Blood , but is made remarkable by the name of a Red Spirit . Depart thou therefore , whoever thou art , from thy stubbornness , and acknowledge thou another Spirit in the Blood , besides the evil Spirit , unlesse thou canst go on in opposition to the Scripture . CHAP. CXIII . The Tabernacle in the Sun. THe Schools deny the Sun to be fervently hot : For they will that they also should [ herein ] be believed without demonstration . Because they think that a man is generated by a man , and the Sun : And therefore that it becomes Nature , least if the Sun should be of a fervent heat , he should consume himself , his Inn , and all neighbouring things into hot Embers : For seeing he is of a huge bigness , and also heats afar of , why should he not commit a cruel outrage , if he should be fervently hot in himself ? For how should he generate a man and also all sublunary things ? As if first of all , the Sun being exceeding hot , the substance of the Heavens should therefore be burnable ! And that it should not be more meet to admit the Sun to be hot without nourishment , than to deny all the Senses ; to wit , that the effect doth exist , being produced by no proper Cause ! To deny I say , heat indeed , which makes hot with so great a force , and at so great a distance ! Chiefly , because according to the proportion whereby we do the more approach unto the direct beams of the Sun , by so much we meet with the greater heat . I believe this fear of the Schools to be vain , because the Light was made by the Word , which contracted the whole Light into two Globes : That the Sun should be the Light of the Day , and the Moon of the Night . The lightsome Globe of Sun is said to exceed the Diameter of the Earth and Water 160. times : Out of which Globe of the Sun , the beams of Light are dispersed , as well above as beneath himself , on the whole Universe : And they most thorowly enlighten all traseparent bodies but dark or thick bodies in their superficies onely . But I have shewn , that the beams of the Sun being united by a Glasse , are true fire shining in its properties : For whether the beams are united or not , that is to the Sun by accident . And therefore , if the beams of Light being connexed , are true fire , and do burn , the Sun also , as the very Center of the connexed beams , shall of necessity be most exceeding hot : For the Fire of the Sun persisteth without nourishment , by the command of God. Also seeing the fire in the middle of the crest , wherein the Sun-beams are united , subsisteth without nourishment : Kitchin fire only bears before it a Light subsisting by it self , without the intervening of the Sun : Yet in that thing , being different from the Sun , that it ought to be nourished that it may subsist . But the Sun because he is of a heavenly Nature , wants not food ; because he is void of Usuries and appointed of God that he may thus burn . The Sun therefore , is a most fervent fire , the principal Center in Nature , of created Lights . Peradventure , when at sometimes , dayes shall be at their full , and the harvest of things shall be ripe , the watery vision of the Heavens , the Waters I say , which are above the Heavens , through a divine virtue , shall assume a ferment , and the seed of a comb●●●ble matter , and it shall rain fire from Heaven , and the Stars shall fall . For the Sun by the command of God , breaking open the floodgates and bolts of his Globe , shall burn the Heavens , as well those which are nigh , as those which are very far of , and shall consume the World into hot embers . For the Heavens shall be changed , shall wax old , and shall at sometimes melt like wax : And the Stars shall fall down on the Earth , not indeed whole , ( because they are for the most part bigger than the Globe of the Earth ) but the parts of the Stars that are burnt , shall make an Abyss of fire upon the Center . Therefore , the Sun is a fire in himself , and being nigh ; but by how much further his beams are dispersed throughout the Universe , they shall give the more apt nourishing warmths unto the seeds of things ; because the Sun doth suggest onely a general and common Light , which is fit for exciting and promoting the seeds of things , and for this cause it is vital : But not that it conferreth Life , and that which gives Essence to the seeds of things . In Caire of Aegypt , Eggs are nourished by the fire of a furnace , and Chickens are abundantly bred without the nourishing of any Hen ; yet the fire of the furnace neither gives , nor hath a seminal virtue , neither doth it burn the Eggs ; nor because it nourisheth , doth it cease to be burningly hot in its Fountain . So the beams of the Sun being dispersed throughout the Universe , are no longer fire ; but a simple Light. Kitchin fire therefore , doth after some sort dispose it self according to an emulation of the Sun : To wit , it enflames , burns , and consumes things that are near it ; but from far , it onely heats , and at a very far distance , onely shines . Yea , neither is it reckoned true fire , unless it be hot in the highest degree , unless it centrically stick fast with its connexed beams , in the crest of Light. But it differs in nobleness from the Light of the Sun , that it is not of the first created things , not of an heavenly disposition , not subsisting without fewels , nor therefore is it universal . The Almighty therefore as he hath created the Sun a singular thing ; so he hath created as it were one only Sun in every species of sensitive Creatures , which should suffice even unto the end of the World , and should propagate them thenceforward , not indeed being hot in the highest degree ; but that it subsisting by the poynts of dispersed beams , may not cover to ascend unto further moments of degrees . Therefore in the smallestminutes of specifical Lights , a formal Light of species or particular kinds , is restrained by a Divine virtue , which hath tied up every species unto a particular moment of Lights , general indeed in respect of the Sun ; yet made individual by the co-ordination of my Lord : For the Sun of Species's shall endure for ever no otherwise than as the Species themselves shall . But because it doth not subsist but in individuals ; therefore the sun of Species is daily slidable in individuals , even at every Moment , unless it be nourished as it were by a continual fewel . Therefore the light of Life hath some similitude with the Sun , and a part agreeable unto Kitchin fire : To wit , in this , that our Sun ought to have vital Spirits for an uncessant Fewel , and those capable of an administring to a depending Light that is to follow : ●●ot indeed that the Spirits do in themselves , and of themselves , heat any more than the beams of the Sun ; the which the light of the Sun being withdrawn , do presently die from heat and light . Nevertheless they bear a mutual resemblance with the Sun , because they seem to propagate an enflaming , and subsist centrally in the heart . For when the Schools took notice that the heart did voluntarily and of it self , hasten into a cold dead Carcass , and that the Spirits being dissolved or spent , it indeed was presently cold , they thought that those in-blown Spirits , were the beginning Center , and primitive sunny point , and that of heat ; not regarding that the Spirits themselves are of themselves cold , and that their heat doth perish in an instant , as soon as they are snatcht away from the beam and aid of the heart . A very great wonder it is , that it hath been hitherto unknown and undetermined , unto what heats the whole Tragedy of things vital and not vital , is ascribed : Whether of the two may prevail over the other in the original and support of heat : For seeing neither the heart nor vital spirit of the same , are from their own nature and substance , originally hot ; for this cause , it hath not been so much as once thought , from whence our heat comes , or from what original it is in every one of us : For seeing the knowledge of ones self is the chief of Sciences , as well in Moral as Natural things , the Schools ought never to have been ashamed , to have enquired into the Fountain of Heat and Life in things . How great darkness hath from thence remained in Healing , and in preserving of the Life , God hath known . This controversie therefore , I have discussed with my self , from my youth , after this manner . First I knew , that fire ( even as in the Chapter of Forms ) was not an Accident , nor a Substance ; and much less , an Element : The which , I have elsewhere demonstrated with a full sail of Phylosophy . And then that the Sun was hot from a proper endowment , and that the fire of the Kitchin was likewise given , although for the workman , and a death subjected to the hands of Artificers : But when as both of them forsake us , that we have a Flint and a Steel , from whence we make a fire : To wit , we strike fire out of two cold or dead things . So also the waters of hot Baths under the earth , are enflamed by Salt and Sulphur , which are volatile things , and that the arterial blood is partly Salt , and partly fat and Sulphurous . Then in the next place , that there ought to be a smiting of Pulses together ; not indeed for a cooling refreshment ( as the Schools do otherwise dream ) but indeed , that as butter is made of Milk by charming or shaking of it together : So a vital Sulphur , of the arterial Blood : The which afterwards , by a smiting of the same endeavour , conceives a Light in the volatile Spirit , and a formal or vital Light is propagated , as it were Light being taken from Light : To wit , the salt Spirits , and Sulphur of the arterial Blood , do by the Pulse , rub themselves together in the Sheath of the Heart , and a formal Light together with Heat , is kindled in the vital Spirit ; from the Light I say , of the most inward , and implanted sunny Spirit , in which is the Tabernacle of the specifical Sun , even unto the Worlds end . In this Sun of Man , the Aimighty hath placed his Tabernacle , and his delights , his Kingdom , together with all his free gifts . But the Light which is conceived by smiting together , is not indeed , made a new , as from a Flint and Iron ; but it is propagated by the obtainment of matter from the sunny , specifical , and humane Light , or is kindled , and enlarged by it . It is there indeed universal , and vital , consisting in the points of a tempered Light ; and it is in Nature indeed specifical in respect of its production , and limited for the Life of Man ; but it is every way made individual by him , who hath placed his vital Tabernacle in the Sun of the Species : Out of which Tabernacle , he thereby enlightneth every Man that cometh into this World : Because the Lord Jesus is after an incomprehensible manner , the Light , Life , Beginning , Way , Truth , and the All of all Things : For as the Life cannot subsist for a moment , without the lightsome Spirit , by which it is enlightned and soulified in the habitation of the Sun ; So neither can the Soul , nor Life in any wise subsist for one only moment , without the Grace of the same eternal Light. But I have conceived of the quality and intension of Heat resulting from the Light , as a whole humane Body weighing perhaps 200 Pounds , is hot with an actual warmth , and the which , without that Light of Life , should presently be cold , and be a dead Carcass . There is therefore so much Heat in the Heart , as is sufficient for diffusing warmth through so many Pounds of Water , otherwise cold . The Life therefore of Species , as it consisteth in a simple , and ununited Light , containes a mystery of divine providence : For a fiery Light , however ( by reason of distance ) it be mitigated , and reduced into a nourishing luke-warmth ; Yet naturally it cannot stop , as that it cannot conspire for the top of a connexed Light , and so contend for its own ruine or destruction . Therefore the Father and dispenser of Lights hath provided , who sitting in the Tabernacle of the Sun , hath constrained or tied up Lights by Species or particular kindes , and bolts . Here it is sufficient to have shewn , that they are the Reliques , and plainly the Blasphemies of Paganish Errour , to have said ; A Man and the Sun doth generate a Man ; Seeing Life belongs not to the Sun ; but the Fewels , Excitements of sublunary Actions alone , as also the necessary supplies readily serviceable to the Life . CHAP. CXIV . The nourishing of an Infant for Long Life . IT is already manifest , that Life is not from the Stars : but that from a seminary Faculty of the Parents , Life is short , Diseasie , Healthy , and Growing : For it is limited according to the Disposition of the Seed , and Truncks of the Body , no less also according to the goodness of Nourishments and Climates . Among the Impediments of Long Life , is an infirm Constitution of the Young , and a bad nourishing of the Infant . The Young therefore being generated and brought forth , the quantity and quality of the Nourishment is to be regarded ; seeing its little Body ought to be nourished , and to wax great , and so to be setled or confirmed : And it is now chiefly known , that the nourishable Juice in a Child , is adopted into the Inheritance of the radical Moisture : For Nature hath appointed Milk in the Dugs , for the Meat and Drink of the little Infant ; which Nourishment hath rendred it self common unto him , with Bruit-beasts . It might be thought by some , that it would be injurious unto God , if we should think of any other Nourishment ; as if he had not alwayes chosen out of Means , that which should be most exceeding good : But surely , shall not the God of Nature be a Step-father , and Nature her self a Step-mother , because he made not Bread , not Wine , but Grain and Grapes only ? Nature is governed by the Finger of God. It is thus . Milk therefore , as an ordinary Nourishment , hath afforded a sufficiency for living ; but not that it should be serviceable for long Life : For Nature no longer meditated of long Life , after that she knew her Author had cut short the Life , nor would have every one to be long lived : But he hath given Milk for Food , unto every one alike : For he hath sent an Army of Diseases into Nature , that a thousand fore-ripenesses of Death might bend unto the Foundations of Life , for Ruine . Nature therefore by Milk , satisfies the ends of her Author , and hath afforded a beast-like Nourishment : But the Doctrine of long Life , is exceeding diverse ; in its unfolding and I know that it hath remained in secret , even among those that have been divinely chosen the Sons of Art. The present Doctrine therefore , hath not regard unto the ordinary course of Nature ; but unto a new mark . Therefore , I do not think that I am injurious to Nature , if I shall prefer an unwonted Nourishment before Milk : For truly in Milk , very many Discommodities do invade . First of all , Milk waxing clotty , very often produceth frequent Vomitings , Wormes , Wringings of the Bowels , Fevers , Fluxes , Falling-sicknesses , Convulsions , and contains many unthought of Occasions of Death : For Milk in the Stomack , obeying the proper Ferment of the place , doth of necessity wax sour before that it turn into Nourishment ; whereunto , if a new sucking of milk succeedeth , an hard clot of milk lays on the little tender Stomack , which becoming callous or brawny hard , into small clods , counterfeits tough Cheese ; not much otherwise , than as milk doth oft-times grow together within the Dugs , and breakes not forth but with an Apostem : the which , seeing it stubbornly resists Digestion , if it shall not also be exceeding hurtful , at least-wise , it presently putrifies , growes bitter , waxes yellow , becomes green , contracts a burntishness , and estrangeth the Pylorus or lower Mouth of the Stomack ; from whence the aforesaid Slaughters of Diseases are often stirred up : For an Infant sucks long , and frequently repeats it . The first Milk is curdled , another new milk is sent in the third and sixth time , and there is made a co-mixture of them all , and a strange one being sharp or four , besides Nature , is stirred up with howlings , and a common curd is made of them all : In which are the manifestations of Heterogeneity or diversity of kind , and a co-resemblance of a cheesed , burntish , and putrified matter follows the new Milk. These Vices are almost unavoidable , and they are the material offences of the milk , which the new Young being brought forth , begins from the beginning to expiate ; as though from the birth , the Mother doth frame snares , and the threatnings of Death for her little Infant . There are moreover , other faults of the milk , pernicious by a more hidden gore : For not only the Pox , Leprosie , Plagues , and Fevers ( infamous through contagion ) are sucked from the Nurses : but also , a diseasie Inclination of the Nurses , is stamped on the Child from his Cradle , no otherwise than as if it were hereditary . Surely , it is a Character to be bewailed from his Life time . I knew a certain Governour , blessed with a Sixth , and sound Off-spring , whose seventh ( because he was nourished by a Nurse who was subjected to the Stone of the Kidneys ) with a mournful Disease of the Stone , finished his Life on the 13th Year of his Age , under cutting for the Stone , at the third cutting . In the next place , it is not sufficient for the material Diseases of the Milk , the hidden Consumptions of Diseases , and their hereditary Roots , to be transplanted by the milk into the sucking Infant , and to be most stubbornly incorporated into the Life : But also the morral Seminaries of any kinde of Vices do pierce inwardly with the milk , and preseveres for the term of Life . So I have observed , that a leacherous , theevish , covetous , and wrothful Nurse , hath transferred her Frailty on the Children . So an unwonted blockishnesse , anger , madnesse , and many Passions of the Mind ( also beside moral Defects ) sleeping a long while , and at length , being under the maturity of Dayes , unfolded , do bewray themselves on Families , they being begged from Nurses , and propagated by the Milk. Then in the next place , the Milk being as yet in the Nurse , is in danger to be mortified or wax stinking , if the Nurse be privily gotten with Child , doth partake of Fevers and Maladies which are after some manner bred , for the infecting of the Milk. Lastly , the Milk undergoes diverse Impressions every hour , from all the disturbances of the Mind ; from whence it not only waxeth clotty , and putrifies or stinks : but also by an unsensible quality it puts on Deformities , which the guiltless Infant drinks , and is held to pay the punishment of : For the Nurse doth not alwayes bridle her Mind with one tenor ; but she failes , being sore smitten with a thousand Apprehensions of Anger , Sorrow , Agony , Envy , Wantonness , Theft , Covetousness , &c. all whereof , there is no doubt , but that they badly dispose the Milk , as well in respect of the Body , as the Soul : For they are most of them unavoidable , yet dangerous . Whosoever therefore would study long Life from the Birth , let him not expose his Children unto this sort of voluntary , unthought of , and certain Dangers . By how much the rather , because a Medicine for Long Life , as it is dayly ( from the Cradle ) extended for a long and healthy Life , by drops , cannot be digested , as neither Penetrate , if it be burred within the gross clots of Milk : Because so also , Poysons in the Milk , do well nigh become unhurtful , and being as it were gelded , become barren . I therefore have hated the oft extended nourishing of an Infant by Milk : For this Cause , I am not wont to eat milk , unless it be meer or unmixt , alone , without other Meat and Drink , until that it being fully digested , hath slidden out of the Stomack . I praise , for our Child , Nourishments which are made of Bread boyled so long in thin Ale , with clarified Honey , if not , with Sugar , until they shall come together into the likeness of a Museilage , or Glew or Jelly : Then as much thin Ale is mingled with , and washed on this Jelly , as is sufficient for it to serve instead of Drink . Nevertheless , he must abstain from Rye-bread , if he be nourished with Honey , because it breedeth Wormes : Yea , a piece of that Bread being cast into a Vessel of Honey , it passeth into Ants. After this manner , I bad ( among others ) the Son of an Earle to he nourished from his Birth , who far exceeded his three Brethren in Strength , Health , Stature , Wit , and all Valour , and so that , if he had not died in war , as being pierced thorow with a Bullet by a warlick Hand , he had been of great hope . For indeed , as the aforesaid Meat and Drink is harmless , not putrifying , not coagulable , not stubborn against Digestion ( for whatsoever things are fetch'd from living Creatures , do easily putrifie in the more tender Stomacks ) as neither a partaker of Malignity , or of a forreign unstable Disturbance , or the Heir of an induced vitious Impression : So it is alwayes equal , like , and constant to it self , becomes most familiar to Nature , not wormy , not sharp , not stinking , or of a burntish Savour ; in the next place , not tart , acute , feverish , yea , nor ever hurtful , although it shall exceed in quantity , for more , or less , may be washed off : So also , the Infant growes and waxeth of ripe Years without Diseases , and is made capable of a Remedy for a Life of long continuance . Therefore also according to the Letter , it is not badly read concerning the thrice glorious Messias being incarnated , That he shall eat Butter , and Honey : For truly , the one contains the Glory of a Dew , together with the extraction of Flowers : But the other is the Magistery almost of all Herbs : Therefore he shall eat Butter , but not Milk : From whence the discerning of the Good from the Evil , and the sharpness of Judgment is promised . But the strength of dayes increasing , let our Child accustom himself to the more vigorous and hard Meats ; yet I fitly praise a Mean or Moderation . But let him take twice every day , four Drops of the Tree of Life . CHAP. CXV . The Arcanums or Secrets of Paracelsus . BUt moreover , we believe by Faith , that the Life of men was by the divine Will , shortned ; but that the Sins of mortal Men gave an occasion hereunto . The Will or Command of the Lord hath entred into Nature , and the Reasons of Death , which it found not , it made before the Floud , as it were in a successive order , the Life was continually changed by Off-springs , at length it was extended unto the hundred and twentieth Year . And last of all , the Dayes of a Man were seventy Years ; which moreover , is a Misery ; except in the Powers which he would should attain unto eighty Years : This therefore is a short Life , an ordinary Life , unto which , Man ( necessary supplies being brought unto him ) doth by the free will of Nature , flow and come , the which , was ( by a divine Testimony out of the holy Scriptures ) appointed . The Roots therefore of short Life , have henceforward a place in Nature . First of all , the Mind , which knowes not how to die , waxeth not old . But the sensitive Soul , although it be at length extinguished like Light ; yet the Light it self doth not wax old , because it cometh not unto it by Parts or Degrees : For if the sensitive Soul , or the vital Light it self should wax old , seeing nothing can be added unto this , perishing , which may be of the Disposition thereof , I should meditate of long Life in vain . Therefore the vital Powers only , wax old , which are implanted in every Organ under the Beginnings of Generation : The which , I do not contemplate of , as naked Qualities ; but I behold them as Governours failing by degrees , in an aiery Body ; and therefore also , that the Powers of the Spirits do follow the Nature of that Body which is worn out by little and little : For Sorrow gnawes the Life , no otherwise than as the Moath doth a Garment : So also , the Inordinacies of Living , do violently overthrow the Life . In the next place , Man is a Wolfe to Man : Which things surely , do mow down the Life in many , being as yet in its flourishing estate : Neverthelese , these are not the natural Reasons of a short Life ; as neither the necessities of a connexed Species , or of an inbred shortness . Surely , besides accidentary Contingences , we do bear about with us the Cause of short Life , in the middle of our delights . For first of all , the memory decays ; and then , the sight , taste , hearing , and walking , wax dull : For to savour , doth not undeservedly signifie , as well tasting , as a judgment of the Mind without distinction ; because they oftentimes die together : but the Taste , first fails in the Stomack , by reason of the Spleen : Wherefore I have elsewhere sufficiently distinguished the tasting of the Tongue , and the tasting of the Stomack . Presently , by reason of the unequal strength of the Parts , the inbred Ferments of the Shops , do here and there , by degrees , fail : but the Ferment of the Spleen being astonied , the Power of the first Conceptions goes to decay ; And old Men are said to become Children . For the Schools grant a lively Memory to be in Children , by reason of the tenderness of their Brain , easily receiving any kinde of Seales : but that the Brain being the harder through dryness , the Impressions of the Seals should be by so much the harder , by how much the more stubborn they are from dryness , to retain the marks of Conceptions . But the Comparison of the Schools is frivolous , that the Brain should have it self after the manner of Wax ; as neither do the cogitations express the interchanges of a Seal . For first of all , there should scarce be a fit place for ten Seals : For if those kind of Seals should be so corporeal , as that they ought to follow the disposition and alterations of the Brain , they shall of necessity square themselves unto the extension of the place ; because Place is more difficulty sequestred from a Body , than to be hard , or moist : And therefore let the Schools shew , how great an extension all particular Seals of Conceptions in the Brain , may require . Doth the Memory for the seal of a Conception , require a bigger place in the Brain of an Horse , than that which is of a Mouse , or Flie ? Therefore also consequently , the extension of place in the Brain for a Horse , should be also ten thousand times bigger , than for a Mouse ; and so the whole Brain should scarce suffice for the remembring of two Horses : That since place should fail , I should rather remember the good things of the middle half , than of the whole ; Yea , I should far better remember things past for one Year agoe , than those things which at sometimes happened unto me in my Childhood : For I have seen a Boy , who at the second time , had learned the Aeneides of Virgil by way of Memory , who scarce understood the hundredth Verse : And so every particular Word did require as many Seales , and Places of these : But if the Seals of Conceptions should require no place , nor do occupy an Extension of themselves in the Brain ; Therefore nothing is sealed , and there is no Seal ; and also the Comparison of the Schools is dull : For the Schools are too muddy , who ascribe the Offices of the vital and principal Powers , unto the first , or second Qualities . But what will the miserable Schools do , if they scarce dare to withdraw their Finger from these accidents of Bodies . Therefore Scholastical Respects of hardness , dryness , and tenderness , being neglected , I descend unto the Cause of short Life . I have said indeed , that from a decaying Vigour of the vital Powers , the Life is of necessity and proportionably diminished : From whence I will truly repeat , that the Powers themselves wax old , as it were with a covered Rustiness , and do by little and little cease ; because the Arterial and Venal blood are at length , successively transchanged into the nourishment of the Parts to be nourished , and the growth of youth being finished , truly the Juice that is prepared from thence , is bedewed or besprinkled on all the solid Parts , and a certain muscilaginous and spermatick or seedy Liquor is glewed unto them : but it doth no more , long remain with them ; but being consumed , and concocted by the Ferment of the parts no longer coagulating ( even as otherwise under growth was wont to be done ) it wholly exhales without a residence , lee or dreg , or remainder of Reliques . That therefore , is the conclusion of the Venal blood ; that for the end of its Tragedy , it is at length wholly expelled by way of an Exhalation , through an unsensible transpiration , after that it hath undergone the Offices of moystening : Therefore , while as that Liquor being now co-mixed through the innermost Parts , and the Dgestion having thorowly performed its Office , doth by way of effluxing , exhale , it cannot but have assumed the disposition of an Excrement . From whence it alike unavoydably follows ; That the vital Spirit inhering in , and conjoyned to the Bowels ; and also the implanted Powers of the same , are by a continual , and necessitated Fumigation , blunted , alienated , and at length extinguished : This therefore is the containing , and natural Cause of short Life . Therefore the whole consideration of long Life , is conversant about the conserving of the vital Powers : For it is not sufficient , that venal Blood be present with all the Members , to be delightfully nourished with their desired venal Blood. Neither again doth it suffice , that the implanted Spirit be thus far sufficiently refreshed from the inflowing Spirit , by a continued substituting of Nourishment : For nothing is done in the Stage of Life , unless the seminal Powers , the vital Characters , I say , be preserved from the destruction already mentioned : For otherwise , the Spirits are reduced unto nakedness , and are lessened , from whence our dayes are of necessity abbreviated : For truly , it by degrees looseth the Character of the Powers , or Gifts of the Seed , and is made a Spirit like unto that which is not soulified , or like unto a Gas. For although in Figures , and Engines , a perpetual Motion doth not fail , because there is not required in the Powers moving , a subsequential proportion of a greater unto a less , that it may move some other thing ; Yet surely this hath not place in things which shall not move themselves , nor are of ability to grow , or be strengthed by moving : And therefore they are things unworthy to be considered in seminal things : For truly , natural Generations which are constant even unto the Worlds End , shall be sufficient ; to wit , that the Species and Strengths of these do continue entire , and that they do beget a Seed from them which is never diminished . By consequence also , if a Man of forty Years old , doth generate one in times past like unto himself ; his Life of forty Years shall be able to be continued , being co-equalized in Vigour , unto himself being a young Man ; if the vice of a broken Thred doth not from elsewhere , rush on it , as I have said . Therefore we must diligently search into , whether the Reliques of the Tree of Life , or its surrogated Substitutions are to be hoped for in Nature : to wit , by which , whatsoever doth at length vanish out of us , may be unto those Powers instead of a nourishing warmth , nor may any longer through its sorrowful Fumigation , bear before it the condition of an Excrement : But it listeth us to acknowledge the quality of our aforesaid Fumigation , not only in the Odours of some Sweats ; but especially , because Wall-Lice , Lice , Gnats , and the like Insects , proceed from thence ; indeed , the meer off-springs of filthiness and stink . First of all , it hath seemed to me , an unprofitable Question ; Whether the Garden of Eden , and the Tree of Life thereof , have ceased , or indeed , whether they do remain even unto this Day ? and in what place ? Whether Enoch , Elias , and John do there even till now , live happy under the fellowship of Angels , without the Discommodities of old Age and Infirmities ? It is sufficient for me , that the Tree of Life began from the Creation , that it was in Nature ; but not fabulous , or parabolical . It sufficeth , that that Tree was , and should be unknown to Mortals ; and so also that the impossible obtainment thereof , deprives us of hope . In the mean time , I search into a succeeding Plant , although inferiour by many numbers . Yea , there is no doubt , but that if there be any Plant in this Vale of Miseries , which resembles the Faculties of that primitive Tree , a Place may contribute its Parts unto long Life , as well in respect of the Plant , as of the Man using it : For that the same Plant is ennobled through the Variety of its native Soile , and that our Life is prolonged by places of the better nourishable Juice , and through the Drink of the more sweet Air , Climates themselves do afford me Credit : For neither is it to be believed , that that thing happens altogether from the favour of the Heaven , for that , in the same degree of distance from the Aequator , and altogether in the same Circuit of Heaven , the Parts subjacent to the East , do bring forth more noble Fruits , than those which decline more toward the West . And moreover , much Variety is oftentimes planted nigh , under the same Circle : both which Parts notwithstanding , the same aspect of Heaven doth sometimes dayly affect with the same Motion : For Paracelsus promoting it , a hope is raised up in some Physitians , for long Life : For every one promiseth himself to have been an obtainer of long Life by his Writings , if he had not described his Medicines in so great darkness of Words . Wherefore most do diligently search to have his obscure Novelties of Names signified unto them : Also others , deservedly suspecting his every where simple , and curtail'd Description , heartily wish for a more manifest method of operating : But none ( the Vaile being uncovered ) hath attempted to dig unto the bottom of the Matter , and Basis of the Truth promised : For every one either derides , or despairs , or being too credulous , admires all things with a bending Nose : Yet , if these are better than those , because they have not cut off the way of the hope from themselves ; None notwithstanding , hath chosen a middle way ; to wit , of doubting and diligently searching , how much of truth the things promised may contain : For indeed Paracelsus promiseth that he could attain extream Old Age by his Elixir of Propriety , and boasts , that it was granted him from heaven , to designe or chuse the Condition and Hour of his Death : but vain are his boastings of long Life , his knowledge , and choice of Death ; who the while , dies in the 47th . Year of his Age. In the mean time , his own followers are astonished , and wonder , by what Disease , or chance the true partaker or obtainer of that Stone which maketh Gold , was snatched away , being as yet in his flourishing Age ; and who , with Hercules Club , slew thousands of the more grievous Diseases up and down , as it were by mowing them down with a Sithe . Truly I make no Apology for any : I willingly confess , that I have profited much by his Writings ; and that he was able by Remedies ascending unto a resembling mark of Unity , to heale the Leprosie , Ast●hma , Consumption of the Lungs , Palsey , Falling-sicknesse , Stone , Dropsie , Gowt , Cancer , and such like ( commonly ) uncurable Diseases ; Yet I have gathered that Paracelsus was ignorant of the Root of long Life , as well from his Writings and Medicines , as by his Death : For truly , the renovations and restorations , whereof he deservedly in many Places , and much oft-times , glorieth in , are only the purgings of the Parts containing , with a correcting and banishing of those contained : and thus far he was the revenger , and healer of almost all Diseases ; yet his secret Medicines , do not so much respect a long Life ; as an healthy one , and the Commodities hereof : For the Haires , Nailes , and Teeth are renewed , and although these are most hard , yet they first feel the Flesh . And therefore it is not written in vain , That Moses had all his Teeth at the 120th . Year of his Age : For as they live obscurely , they have their Kitchin out of themselves , also they most easily putrifie . For perhaps Egypt and the neighbouring Places , have that thing unto themselves , from a Property : For truly I remember , that Prince Radzvil the Poloman , hath thus written of the Mummy of Aegypt : For those Bodies are preserved entire , with the least putrefaction of any Member , even unto this Day . But so great is the multitude of these dead Carcases , that there are few who are able to endure with Patience , the disdainfulness of seeing them all : They are so condensed with the Fat of Spices and Oyntments , that they shine as being hardened after the manner of Pitch . Especially , their Brain , Muscles , and Shoulder-blades , which are the more fleshy Parts : for the Breast , Hands , and Feet , seeing they have little Flesh , and are extended after the manner of a Membrane , they do not provide for with Mummy . It may be collected from the Judgment of their Nostrils , how much Myrrhe ought to have been admixed with these Unguents . Likewise , those Oyntments preserve a wonderful Whiteness in the Bones . About the Caues or Vaults without , a great Power of Bones layes cast aside , from which the Mummy was withdrawn : among which , we did not by the way , nor in a short time , contemplate of the Skuls , and the neather Cheek-bones , where the Teeth were fastened : we found none at all , which might have so much as one rotten Tooth , or any mark of plucking out ; So in all the Cheek-bones , they were full , sincere , and somewhat white : For among so many hundreds of Cheek-bones ; there were also those of old People , whose Teeth were short and worn ( such as are seen in old Folks ) but there was none , which had any putrified , hollow , holey Tooth , or sign of a Tooth slidden out . From whence I collect , first ; That Moses might naturally , have all his Teeth . 2. That as cold things do hurt the Teeth ; So also , the cold Air of our Country is hostile to the Teeth . 3. That therefore , the Aethiopian , and Spaniard have white Teeth . 4. I take comfort for the Dutch from the Words of the same Prince . In Caire , of those commonly reckoned up , they are reported to ascend to the number of seven Millions ; of the Jews unto the number of one Million , and six hundred thousand , Women and children being computed : But in so great a multitude of Men , scarce a third part of them have their full Sight : All do in many places , labour in their Eyes , from the eating of Fruits , and the Drink of Water being over-added . But , 5. Paracelsus put confidence in himself , not altogether in vain , touching his Elixir of Propriety , prepared of Saffron , Myrrhe , and Aloes , so he had not erred in the preparation of the same , but had composed that Medicine , after the manner of the Tree of Life : For as Myrrh keeps Mummy from an aptness of putrifying ; if a passage of Myrrhe unto our constitutive Parts , be granted , the authority of Myrrhe for long Life , shall not be vain . But as to a renovation so greatly praised by Paracelsus , which reneweth the Haires , Nailes , and Teeth , together with an excluding of all Diseases : Surely the Haires and Nailes , as they do sometimes fall off of their own accord : So also in any Age , they do easily grow , and their renewing is of little moment . I have seen also , an old Man and old Woman , whose Teeth having been once lost , were of their own accord renewed in the 63d . Year of their Age , also with childish Pains ; Yet it denoted no long continuance of Life , because both of them died the same Year : For the promise of Paracelsus concerning the renewing again of Child-hood , hath raised up many unto a hope of long Life : To wit , they have thought , that from a renewing of the Teeth , and Nailes , there would of necessity , be a renewing of Child-hood : Chiefly , because they should put off grayness , the token of Old Age , and the former colour of hairiness should return : But their errour was from an undistinction : For Alexander makes mention , that he saw a Man of eighty Years of Age , in whom , as many Teeth as failed , new ones grew up ; but he doth not therefore mention also his length of Life : And although he might also by accident , have been long lived ; Yet seeing one doth not contain another in the Root , or necessary Causes ; it was a faulty Argument , to derive from the one , the other , by a sequel : Because Nature hath often attempted such kind of Renovations , under which , in the mean time , she hath cut off the Thred of long Life : For it is not unlike , that the Pear-Tree is every year renewed with Leaves : Yet not , that therefore , that Tree is long lived : the Turpentine Tree , or Cedar , or Firr Tree , of a short Life : Yea , neither doth the Pear borrow any virtue of Long Life , because its Tree is renewed every Year . Therefore the renewing of Medicines , hath deceived Paracelsus ; because it is that , which proves health only , by reason of an intimate and supream cleansing of the similar Parts ; but not the renewing Root of Life , or a prolonging of Life thereupon : For they have been deceived , because the Stag puts off his Hornes , and the Snake his old Skin , and are long-lived Bruits : And therefore , they have abusively referred that Renovation unto the Cause of a Life of long continuance : For Crabs , Spiders , Grashoppers , and Insects of a shorter Life , do oftentimes happen to put off their Skin : But on the opposite Part , a gelded Stag changeth not his Horns , because neither doth he make new ones ; Yet he ceaseth not therefore , to be alike long-lived : For the Stag casts not away his Horns in time of Autumne , or Winter , while as great Beasts compose themselves unto a greater rest ; but while he is fed with a new bud of Branches , wherein a renewing Faculty of his Bud is : as also , it is transferred on Stags , but not on Oxen ; because the Stomack of the Stag , by a proper and specifical Ferment , preserves the budding Faculty or Virtue of young Sprouts , and derives it into the middle Life of the Stag : Which thing happens not unto a gelded one wanting Horns ; as a Beard is denyed to Eunuchs . This sort of renewing therefore , is an Effect indeed , of a more flourishing o● growing Life ; yet not an unseparable token , as neither a conjoyned Cause of long Life : For neither hath Renovation , long Life as a necessary Adjunct ; nor on the other h●●d is Renovation annexed to long Life : As is manifest in the Stag , Goose , &c. Be it therefore , that every of the Arcanums of Paracelsus , do take away almost all Sicknesses , renew the Nailes , Haires , and Teeth ; yet they cannot , first of all , make equal the unequal Strength of any failing part , much less vindicate the failing Powers from Death ; and least of all , restore the same into a youthful Vigour . Therefore those Arcanums or Secrets , do not respect the Powers of the Organs , as neither long Life depending thereupon ; but only the greatest cleansing or refining of all the Members , and Health sprung from thence . All Diseases indeed , which either issue from Filths , which lurk in the Fil●● themselves , or lastly , which do further propagate Filths by their Contagion , are cured by the aforesaid Arcanums ; but not those which do primarily concern the vital Powers : Not those I say , which contain a weakness inbred , or attained from a Disease , or Old Age , together with a diminishment of the Powers : For those of this sort , return not into their antient State , but by the Remedies of long Life ; neither yet , into their antient ●tate with a perfect and full restoration : For otherwise , this thing should conclude an absolute Immortality . For the Weaknesses which invade Men from Gluttony , or Drunkenness , Leachery , &c. are very little restored by the Secrets of Paracelsus ; but not unless an infirm Nature doth accompany them : For Madnesses which arise from an evil framing or composure , are not any thing restored ; but those which have arisen from a remarkable Animosity of Pride , stand alwayes in fear of a relapse : But otherwise , the Phtensie , Doatage , Falling-evil , Raging Madnesses of the Womb , of the Hypochondrials , and whatsoever Weaknesses are made from some off-springs of Impurity , are perfectly and compleatly healed by the Remedies of Paracelsus . Madnesses therefore , which proceed from a notable Arrogancy , are indeed presently cured , but with the fear of some less relapse ; because those do argue a meer Defect of the imaginative Power : and therefore they so defile the Seed , that they being thenceforth translated into some Generations , do oft-times shine forth . So also the Sons of Drunkards , do oftentimes retain the Tokens of vitiated Powers , as though the Sons , being Heires of their Fathers Crime , ought to pay the Punishments thereof : That is , strong or valiant Men , are generated by strong or valiant , and good Men. And on the other Hand , a bad Egg of an Evil Crow . For the Sons of Drunkards , are for the most part , drowsie in searching into things , stubborn or stedfast in their Conceits , Cup-shot or giddy in things to be done , and easily to be drawn aside into Vices . At least-wise , I doubt not , but that Paracelsus made use of his Arcanums , because he was he , who saw not only prosperous Cures to succeed ; but also , that some who the longer used them , were renewed in their Haires , Nailes , and Teeth : Notwithstanding , seeing he had not a long Life , his aforesaid Arcanums shall be for a Testimony unto us , concerning my Judgment delivered : For indeed a Will or Testament of Paracelsus is born about ; the which , because it contradicts the publick Authority drawn out of his Epitaph , which is seen in the Hospital of Saltzburge , in a Wall near the Altar of St. Sebastian ; and the which mentions , That he appointed his Goods to be distributed to the Poor , and to be honoured thereby ; Therefore that Testament , I believe , was feigned by the Haters of Paracelsus . Others therefore of that leaven , affirm that Paracelsus ( a limited term being compacted with Satan ) died in full Health : The which , contradicteth the aforesaid Testament , from the published Language of his Enemies : To wit , wherein it is said , that himself was some dayes before his death Diseasie : And that Act of so great Guilt , contradicteth , that he was so bountiful to the Poor . There are also others , who say that he was taken away by Poyson ; For which , seeing Remedies were no less known unto him , and in readiness , than for other Diseases , they supposed him to have been slain by the Powder of the Adamant eating out his Bowels : But I no way admire at the untimely Death of the Man , who was solicitous or carefully diligent from his Youth , about Chymical Secrets . Most especially , if a too much Curiosity of searching into Science day and night , hath vexed those who were careless of their Life . For which of Mortal Men , may not the Fumigations of live Coales infect ? those of Aquae Forte's , graduating or exalting , and Arsenical things : And likewise a new dayly examination of Antimonials : The which , we through the long tediousness of experiencing , being not yet experienced , draw in from the malignity of those things , as being not admonished but by late experience : For what can the somewhat curious , and undaunted Young Beginner , in an Art so abstruse , otherwise do , and he refusing any other Master , besides the torture of the Fire ? Where indeed the Speculations of Art , are obscured from his desire , not indeed , that they may be abruptly known ; but rather , that they may not be known ? For Understanding is given only unto those that are chosen through a long preparation of Dayes and Works , to those that are furnished with sufficient Health and Money , nor those that have deserved Indignity through the load of Crimes . I grant , that there are some Universal Medicines , which under a most exceeding grateful Unifon of Nature , do unsensibly lead forth the bound Enemy after them , together with a famous clarifying or refining of the Organs . I grant likewise that there are some appropriated ones , whereby they imitate the largeness of a Universal Medicine , in the Specifical directions of Diseases , take away the forreign Society of Impurities , and plainly lord it over the already contracted Vice ; no otherwise , than as an Axe plucks up a Tree with authority . An Index or Table of the Secrets of Paracelsus ; is , First of all , the Tincture of Lile , reduced into the Wine of Life , from an untimely mineral Electrum or general composure of Mettals ; one part whereof is the first Metallus , but the other , the Essence of the Members . And then follows Mercurius Vitae , the off-spring of entire Stibium , which wholly sups up every Sinew of a Disease . In the third place , is the Tincture of Lile , even that of Antimony , almost of the same efficacy with that going before , although of less efficacy . In the fourth place , is Mercurius Diaphoreticus , being sweeter than Honey , and being fixed at the Fire , hath all the Properties of the Horizon of Sol : for it perfects whatsoever a Physitian and Chyrurgion can wish for , in healing ; yet it doth not so powerfully renew , as those Arcanums aforegoing . His Liquor Alkahest is more eminent , being an immortal , unchangeable , and loosening or solving Water , and his circulated Salt , which reduceth every tangible Body into the Liquor of its concrete or composed Body . The Element of Fire of Copper succeedeth , and the Element or Milk of Pearls . But the Essences of Gems and Herbs , are far less Arcanums than those aforesaid . Lastly , the volatile Salts of Herbs , and Stones , do shew forth a precise particularity ; neither do they reach unto the efficacy of Universal Medicines . But his Corollate , the which one alone , is purgative by Stool , cures the Ulcers of the Lungs , Bladder , Wind-pipe , Kidneys , by purging ; so that it also utterly roots out the Gowt . Indeed it is the Mercury of the Vulgar , from which , the Liquor Alkahest hath been once distilled , and it resides in the bottom , coagulated and powderable , being not any thing in●reased , or diminished in its weight : From which Powder , the Water of the Whites of Eggs is to be cohobated , until it hath attained the colour of ●oral . I praise the Lord of things , in an Abject or lowly Spirit ; because he reveals his Secrets unto the little Ones of this World , and doth alwayes govern the Stern , least these his benefits should fall into the hands of the unworthy . I have therefore discerned , that the Secrets of Paracelsus do take away Diseases ; but that they reach not unto the Root of long Life . I have also discerned , that Mineral Remedies , unto whatsoever the highest degree they are brought , yet that they are unfit for yielding Nourishment unto the first constitutive Parts ; because they reserve the middle Life of the concrete Bodies from whence they were extracted : For , for that cause , they never wholly lay aside a mineral Disposition ; Yea , and therefore they depart from the tenour of long Life . Yea , neither shall I ever be easily induced to believe , that the Phylosophers Stone can vitally be united with us , by reason of its exceeding immutable substance , which is incredibly fixed against the tortures of the Fire , being undissolvably homogeneal or simple in kind ; that is , by reason of its every way impossibility of separation , destruction , and digestion ; so far is it from conducing to long Life : Histories subscribe unto me , that none who obtained that Stone , enjoyed a long Life ; but that a short Life hath befalle● many , by reason of the dangers undergone in labouring . But moreover , neither let Hucksters hope , that Meats which do mightily nourish , will perform long Life : For although they may afford strength unto those that are upon recovery ; yet they afterwards weaken them , being nourished : The which , Caesar also testifies : For the more tender Meats are easily consumed , breed tender Flesh , and suffumigate or smoaki●e the vital Powers through their more greatly adust savour . But the Studies of Physitians , are buisied about the delights of the Kitch●● , which they name the Dietary Part : for they have been misled into errour , by thinking ; that if Food of good Juice , and tender , being administred in a due dose , doth profit those upon recovery ; they have thought also , that the more strong Persons , being manifoldly nourished with the same Food , shall be raised up into the highest increase of strength : For there is not a process made in seeding , as in Arithmetick , where ten Pounds lift up nine ; and by donsequence , a hundred Pounds , ninety : But he that eats very much , and drinks abundantly , shall not therefore become stronger than he that shall live more moderately : For truly , Nature keeps no● so much the proportions of Numbers , as the proportions of the Powers of things alterable according to the Power of their own Blas . However it is , at least-wise , it succeeds with Physitians according to their desire : Because plenty of venal Blood breeds Excrements , Physitians are called for , and so they command the rules of Food at least-wise to profit themselves , and they shorten the Life in those that live medicinally , and miserably . CHAP. CXVI . The Mountain of the Lord. VVHo shall ascend into the Mountain of the Lord ? Or who shall stand in his holy Place ? He that is innocent in his Hands , and of a clean Heart , who hath not betaken his Soul to Vanity , nor hath sworn in deceit to his Neighbour : this Man shall receive the blessing from the Lord , and mercy from God his Saviour : The Words sound , Eternal blessedness . It is so . Notwithstanding , nothing hinders , but that that figural and typical Speech , may also unfold its Truth according to the Letter ; seeing it must needs be , that the Type doth co-answer to the thing signified by the Type . Truly , I have alwayes observed , that almost all the Mysteries of God were celebrated in mountains : For Abraham was commanded to ascend a Mountain , and there to sacrifice his only begotten Son , for a Figure of the Sacrifice that was to be offered in Mount Calvary . God commanded Moses to ascend up into a Mountain , that he might talk with him ; and he gave him the Law : And Moses talked with him face to face , for the space of forty dayes and nights . In Mount Horeb , the Lord was transfigured , &c. All which things might have been done in the Desart , and the God of Armies could have encompassed Moses with Lightning and Fire , as well in a Plain , as in a Mountain , that no Mortal might have approached thereunto : but a Mountain was alwayes chosen from a priviledge : And the blessing from the Lord is promised , in ascending unto the Mountain of the Lord : For the Lord could have signified his Precepts unto Moses in a shorter space ; neither was there need of forty continual Dayes and Nights , but that also , delay , might by its weight ( for delay in natural things , is required for a just or due Efficacy of the maturities of things ) denote some hidden Mystery : For naturally , I understand that in Mountaines wanting an endemical malignity , there is , not only a most pure Air , far remote from Dreg and Corruption , commonly seperated from Errours , and Defects , and by reason of Colds , most refined from all defilement : but also that there is the Place , from whence , through the continuation of its Magnal , there is a most dispatched in-beaming of the heavenly Bodies , or Influences ; because a drinking in of a most pure Skie : For I remembred , that one Morning , I being fasting , felt in the Alpes , the sweetness of an inbreathed Air , the which I never before nor after , felt in all my Life : For it is certain , that the Almighty hath not framed so great a Bunch in Nature , in vain : And it is certain , that all the Riches of the World are issued out of Mountains : And then , the best Fountains , and most famous Rivers are conversant with us out of Mountains , by reason of their steepness . In the next place , all Nations which are the inhabitants of Mountains , are of an hardier Body , and of a more vigorous or flourishing Life , than those who inhabit pleasant Fields : Which Effects do manifest their Causes , because a more sweet , and purer Air is there in-breathed , and every Gas being deprived of its Filths , returns into the pure matter of Water . But that God lifts up so great an Earth , or the very face of the Earth into an heap , or hath built so many great or rocky Stones upon the same , or hath conjoyned it into one rocky Stone , nor yet hath enriched it with any Mineral , in which respect he might seem to have collected so great an heap ; neither doth he rain down Fountains , nor lastly hath poured forth Fruits worthy of so great Borders ; but that he hath exalted it above all Turbulences of Air and Clouds , whirlings of Windes , and monstrous omens of Thunder-bolts , into a most pleasing rest of Air ; Surely , that thing seems to me , to be dedicated unto a famous Mystery : For the promised blessing did of old , for the most part , respect long Life , and the Commodities thereof , and the fruitfulness of off-springs ( that thou mayest be long lived upon the Earth , &c. ) Blessing therefore , unto those that ascend into the Mountain of the Lord , according to the Letter , seems in Nature , to have respect unto the Endowments of long Life : For he , who is alone , and wholly the Life , and Prince of Life , doth likewise , give long Life unto none , not so much as by natural Means , who hath betaken his Soul to Vanity . Therefore the blessing of ascending into the Mountain of the Lord , seemes to contain a long continuance of Life . Therefore those most high Mountains , which are read to be endowed by Nature for no Fruits sake , and the which pertain unto the sweetness of a not much disturbed Air , seem to promise a singular 〈…〉 or Likeness of the Mountain of the Lord and of a long Life : And that thing is from a certain singular prerogative before other Mountains , and that they may as it were by that right , have the surname of the Mountain of the Lord : for if it reach beyond all the incidencies of inferiour things , it after a singular manner , promiseth unto me , that God is there after a peculiar manner . For he that was not in the Whirle-wind , but in the sweet Air , was perceived by Elias : He , he I say , hath his Mansion in the same place ; that is , the Prince of Life doth there give his blessing : Not indeed , that which may be communicated in a few houres ; but being signified to Moses in Mount Sinai , in the revolution of forty dayes ( to wit , by two full Moons : ) For he who could every year continually stay for forty dayes in the Mountain of Rest , about the Feast of the building of Tabernacles , the Commodities of living being called unto him from elsewhere , I divine that he might much profit himself for long Life , especially if he were there daily refreshed with a Medicine prepared of the Tree of Life ; because that in such a Mountain , by reason of a notable Purity of the Air , there is a greater co-mixture of the Nourishment with the Body nourished , and a more piercing access unto the first constitutive parts . Lastly , although the highest Mountains do bear before them the priviledge of long Life ; Yet those that are less high , promise some singular thing , from the sense perceived in the Alpes . Nevertheless , I alwayes reject Mountains , which breath forth some Mineral Gas : For therefore , in Chymical things , Arsenick hath obtained the name of the fume of Mettals . But unto whom the Commidity of living in a healthy Mountain , should be granted , and that not great with Child with the Fruits of Minerals , they certainly should rejoyce in the benefit of long Life , so far as the Nature of the place hath bestowed . CHAP. CXVI . The Tree of Life . I Am constrained to believe that there is the Stone which makes Gold , and which makes Silver ; because I have at distinct turns , made projection with my hand , of one grain of the Powder , upon some thousand grains of hot Quick-silver ; and the buisiness succeeded in the Fire , even as Books do promise ; a Circle of many People standing by , together with a tickling Admiration of us all . But it was not a thing extracted out of Gold , because it should change as many weights of Quick-silver , as there were of Gold from whence it had been extracted . First of all , that being granted , as yet , at least-wise , a true transmutation of one thing into another , and that indeed , a manifold one , should stand . Secondly , those that work on Gold , and Money-makers , have known , that nothing which is not Mercurial , can enter ( by flowing ) into Mettals , or be co-melted with them ; but swims a-top in the flowing . Therefore thirdly , that Extraction should be fatter than any Mettal is , if it ought to tinge so many thousand Parts . Fourthly , that Extraction should be no longer a Mettal , seeing it should exceed the perfection of the purest Mettal , so many thousand times : For a Mettal doth not suffer so many degrees of largeness in its perfection , by how many times the Powder which maketh Gold , converts an inferiour Mettal into true Gold. Fifthly , He who first gave me the Gold-making Powder , had likewise also , at least as much of it , as might be sufficient for changing two hundred thousand Pounds of Gold : But there is none who may have more than a tenfold quantity of Gold ; and if he should have it , he should destroy it , that he might at length , make as much Gold from thence : For he gave me perhaps half a grain of that Powder , and nine ounces and three quarters of Quick-silver were thereby transchanged : But that Gold , a strange Man , being a Friend of one evenings acquaintance , gave me . However therefore the Phylosophers Stone be in the Nature of things ; yet I have alwayes supposed for the reasons aforesaid , that no Metallick Remedy contains the blessing of the Tree of Life . I willingly confess in the mean time , that that Stone is in its Beginnings , partaker of the Life of a Zoophyte or Plant-animal , and that it hath that Life , distinct from a vegetative , and sensitive Life ; the which , for this Cause , is an un-named Life : For according to the unanimous Writings of wise Men ; The Principles of the Stone being once conjoyned to a glassen Egg , if through the Vice of interrupted Warmth , it once happen , that they are even but a little while plainly cooled , they so die , that there is no remaining hope of a future Stone : the which likewise happens also in the nourishing warmth of Eggs : And therefore I have judged , that it is to be believed , that these do live also in a like Life , with the Beginnings of the Stone : And that is a true Life , which a true Death testifies ; because that that errour is never to be corrected by any Paines ; it being thus once dead , there is no hope of restitution left for the future . I know in the next place , that the Tree of Life is in vain to be ●ought from Animals , how long lived soever : In all which , I have found a voluntary Death , a frail Body , and slideable every hour , or the way of all Flesh : For how shall they give a long Life , the which they contain not in themselves ? Seeing , if they are long lived , at least-wise , they have put off their own Life , while they are taken into use . I have sometimes beheld Stones , that they did contain sometimes live Creatures within them , that they live for the space of five Years , and are preserved from Death without Nourishments . Paracelsus thinks that the whole heap of Stones , and the whole World , was at sometime , one only Stone , or at leastwise a single stony Liquor , the which being by degrees distinguished into Mettals , the fire-Stone , great or rocky Stones , small Stones , and Salts , afforded the beginnings of Vitality by many creeping things ; and so that , if they detain Toads , and Salamanders alive , perhaps for an Age , without Food , and as it were snorting with a deep drowsiness ; I doubted , whether the Stones , the Sheaths and Wombs of those living Creatures might be the partakers of long life . But the Scripture perswaded me , that the life of creeping things is horrid and hateful unto us : Wherefore I lookt back unto the more pretious Gems : Notwithstanding , neither have I found in those , the Foot-steps of long Life , whether they were Essences , or next , the magisteries of those ; because they cannot be immediately assimilated , or adjoyned unto our first constitutive Parts : or if at length , they are after some sort adjoyned unto them , and as long as we grow ; at least-wise , they are spoyled of their former length of Life , after the manner of other Nourishments , they nourishingly put on the Nature of Flesh , and are constrained to follow it . I have learned therefore , that Gems or pretious Stones , however they might be endowed with a medicinal Power , to make for long Life ; Yet that they never wholly put off a mineral disposition ; and so that neither are they co-mixable with the first constituting Parts : Yea , although they should be co-mingled with them , yet they should not be serviceable for a long Life : Because , whatsoever refresheth not the vital Powers , doth not also withstand the intestine necessities of Death , and much less , if it resist the Wedlock of our solid Members . But Aromatical or spicie Herbs , should snatch away this victory from their Companions , if the Tree of Life should be herby ; as they are the more grateful , and spiritual : But that which is the most refined Liquor , and whatsoever contains the whole Crasis of the Herb , doth notwithstanding , respect only Singularities , and Healing , for that the composed Body from whence it issued , is not it self , partaker in it self , of long Life : For the Liquor which knowes not how to preserve its concrete Body , the which , it from the Beginning , married through its least parts , from destruction ; after what sort shall it be able , being spoyled of its Virtues or Faculties , to defend our Flesh , which is soon flowing abroad with a hastening Corruption , from Death : And so from hence , the Tree of Life began to be accounted immortal with me , not subject to Old Age , not to the discommodities of Ages , and the which should contain , or admit of no Excrements , and much less should propagate the same : But rather , should by a certain excellency , if any had once , at sometime lighted on it , brush them off , by reason of the Virtue of its expelling and repulsing : But seeing it is the property of Poyson , by corrupting , to convert Good into Evil ; it hath seemed meet to me to search diligently into the Tree of Life , wherein the Poysons themselves might die , being overcome by the goodness of the Tree : Wherefore also , it should refuse them being not yet admitted , and which should correct and overcome those Poysons which were once admitted : For if it ought not to admit of Excrements , which are certain Poysons of the lowest degree ; much more shall it divert , drive back , and weaken those which are of a more profound , and manifest hostility or enmity : For unless it shall do that , it shall assume the name of the Tree of Life to it self , in vain . I have observed , that the Colts which were generated of a labouring Beast , and an old Horse , were soon enfeebled or barren , weak in the vigour of their Life , and that they had deeper Pits above their Eyes , than he which had sprang from a younger Horse : But that an old Willow , yields new Sprouts , nothing more barren if they are planted , than the Sprouts of a new stem : Therefore I have found , that together with the Seed of living Creatures , Old Age departs into their off-springs , but that thing is not so easily manifest in the Young of a Tree : Yea , if there be a Long Life in some Beasts , yet it is so enclosed , that it doth not depart from a singularity , and is not communicable out of the Species . In the next place , I have examined Dew , by a resolution of its Parts : For it afforded a sugary Salt , helping great Diseases , but surely not any thing profitable for long Life : For by reason of the unlimited generality of its goodness , it contained not so much Life , as the Properties of Nourishment . At length , I concluded with my self , that whatsoever it were that should supply the Place of the Tree of Life , it was the Young or Off-spring of a Tree : And then , that this Medicine was to be fetched out of a most wholesom , odoriferous , balsamical , and almost immortal Shrub : And the which , should be of the subtilest and purest Parts , from a proper Endowment , and native constitution of its composed Body ; and the which , should every way resist any kind of Corruptions , bred , or obtained through the Errour of Art , or Nature . At length , that by Art and labour , it should obtain the utmost bound of perfection , and a liberty of co-mixing with us : wherefore , it was chiefly necessary , that that manifold natural Endowment should not any thing be broken in time of its preparation , or be changed by the Fire ; and so that there is need of a not burning Fire , for the exaltation of its Faculties , and sequestration of Impediments ; to wit , that it may make any Mortals , partakers for the compleating of uncorruptibleness , or for the long continuance of Life , to take us by the hand ( so far as might be possible for the receiver , corrupted Nature ) by a communicating of its Faculties or Virtues : Surely , it cannot therefore feel any singular Property of passion of a Member , or obey partialities : But it is of necessity , that it be an entire Balsam of Life , reduced unto a seminal Being , remaining in its natural Endowments , grateful in its Odour , throughout all the diligent examinations of its middle Life , and Magnum Oportet : So that , when as the Nourishments , at length thorowly mingled therewith , are dead to their Office ; at least-wise , the smoakiness of the same , may by their fumigation , no longer batter and extenuate the implanted Spirits ; but rather , may refresh them ; and thus far it emulates a certain permanency of uncorruptibleness , and keeps it continued and propagated in the nourishable Humour , under our middle Life : The favour therefore , of its native Endowment , procures its Love with the sealed Powers of the implanted Spirits : its preparation therefore , refuseth an alteration of its native Virtue , and performeth a more full entrance , and application of Virtue ; So that , as it were an Out-law , and besides an accustomed wont , it is admited as conscious ; within the secret Chambers of Life , that it may there undergo an Information : For in some Climates , all things are produced more strong and excellent , by reason of the nobilities of a nourishable Juice ; and the which therefore , it is certain , do very much excel as for long Life : For so the Sweat of some Persons smells of the Goat or Rank ; but that of others , doth not far differ from a Fragrancy . That one thing , I say , in long Life , is only to be procured , least the nourishable Humor , after that it hath ceased from its Offices , being dismissed by transpiration , looseth its Grace , through defect whereof , I have described a short Life : For I have taught elsewhere , that a Sow , or a Goose being nourished only by Fishes , do yield Fleshes , which tastingly resemble the detestable Grease of Fishes . Wherefore , let the Medicine of the Tree of Life , be an odoriferous Balsam , Spicie , grateful to Nature , seasoning the Blood with an excelling goodness , and a nourishment now applyed after the manner of a Dew : Even so that , through the vigour of its uncorruptibleness , its balsamical Faculty may be continued even unto the utmost Limits of its exhalation out of the Body . Wherefore we must beware of this one only thing , that the fire do not alter this Fruit by a seperating distillation ; but that a proper division of that which is heterogeneal , be appointed , as being sequestred into its bottoms , for a greater subtilizing of Purity and Simplicity , and sealing of its Virtues : For in Eden , the Stomack subdued the Food from a proper vigour or force ; for all things willingly obeyed the Stomack , without the strife of a middle Life ; it being that , which they through the decision of the Stomack , kept after some sort sase , even until the deluge of Waters , till that , through a succession of Years and Propagations , all things by degrees , went to ruine : Then the seminal Being was no longer drawn out of Meats , after that the term of Life was restrained unto 120 , and afterwards , unto 80 Years : For the Being of Essence , which before , was fetcht out of Meats , bewrayed it self no longer ; because the Stomack had enough to do , only to draw forth the Being of Nourishment . From hence it is manifest , that although the Tree of Life was present with us from Eden , yet that it will not profit us as it did the first of the Fathers : By consequence also , that the Balsam of our vital Tree , is not so profitable unto Persons of ripe years , as unto Children : For he that hath almost run out the stage of Life , every such one perceives an help according to a Model , or after a small manner ; Seeing all things in Nature , are received after the manner of the Persons , and place receiving , and of circumstances : For the Friends of Job wept with him seven dayes and nights , without eating , drinking , and difference of health : The which , is now at this day , scarce possible for any mortal Man to do : Therefore the strengths of such a life , should more profit by our Tree , than I , an old Man , who almost worn out with the offences , and labours of Chymistry , and the injuries of Tribulations and Persecutions : So we Bees do not provide Honey for our selves . Whereunto is added , that Eden was of it self a preserver of Long Life , through the wholesomness of the place ; but that , but a few Paces from thence , there was the command of Death , Corruption , and Infirmities : For if Credit be to be given to Histories , there are also places at this day , whereunto a Life of three hindred years is ordinary : For where long-lived Persons are born , they are also nourished : But there are other places near at hand , where a renewed tyranny of interchanges , shortens the Life ; for so , some Provincial Diseases are accustomed . Therefore mountainous Places which have not the Gas of Minerals ( as the Forrest of Arden , Asturia , or the Pyrenean Mountains , &c. ) nor those subjected unto the natural Moisture of Lakes ; because the bountiful Communications of the Stars do reflect and breath a pure Air , and do make for Long Life : Even as also , a plain Field which knowes not the Incitements of the Throat , adds as much to long Life , as fulness is an enemy to long Life : for the stuffings of Meats do weary the miserable Powers , to wit , that they being as it were worn out with labour , die or go to ruine before their time : which things being thus revolved with my self for full three dayes space , from whence a Medicine for long Life was to be fetched ; Opobalsamum notably smiled on me ; not indeed that of Peru , or the Gums of Capaida of Brasile ; But the true Aegyptian opobalsamum noted in the Scriptures , and primitive , it being the Queen-tear of a low Shrub , scarce saleable to Kings : For I confess I have worthily attributed very much perfection to this Being : And although there were enough of it to be found ; yet it doth as yet decline from the perfection of the Tree of Life , because that Shrub is so frail or mortal . And while I variously wandred in Nature , that I might view the Tree of Life ; at length , without the day , and beyond the beginning of the night , I saw in a dream , the whole Face of the Earth , even as it stood forsaken , and empty or void at the beginning of the Creation ; then afterwards , how it was , while as it being fresh , waxed on every side green with its Plants : Again also , as it lay hid under the Floud : For I saw all the Species of Plants to be kept under the Waters ; Yet presently after the Floud , that they all did enter into the way of interchanges enjoyned to them , which was to be continued by their Species and Seeds : I saw , I say , in the top of Mount Libanus , the Cedars to have remained whole under the Deluge , by the Word of the most Glorious God , and that they , in a certain number , did as yet there remain : And presently afterwards , I returned to my self . But I afterwards considered at leisure , that the Ark which ought to save Mankind from destruction , was commanded to be framed of the incorrupitble Wood Cetim : For the World had endured , perhaps 1652 Years : but Noah proceeded slowly in its building , for an hundred solary years : And therefore he took Wood , and Rafters which were not to undergo any dammage in all that time . A leprous Person being separated from the People , coming to the Priest , bare the Wood Cetim in his hand , that he might be cleansed . In the feast of the building of Tabernacles , every Hebrew carried Cedar , and Branches of Myrrh , that God might be mindful in the rain of the whole Earth , that he appointed the manners of the Times , and the Stars : I therefore understood by the Cedar , long Life , likewise the blessings of the Times or Seasons , and of the Stars , and also , that in a mystical sense , cleansing was denoted ; but that in this Age it was also to be obtained : For other vital things , do soon wither with Old Age ; but the one only Cedar in number , by a famous mistery , through the uncorrupted substance of its Wood , and its vegetative Faculty surviving , promiseth long Life , because it containeth it : For the folding Doors of the Temple of Salomon , were commanded to be framed of the Wood Cetim , with Gold , as it were a more vile covering or involvement . Moreover , it is without controversie in the Church of God , that the Cedar in Libanus , in the Temple , in the Figure of the Ark , in the cleansing of the Leprosie , and in the feast of the building of Tabernacles , did represent the Mother of God , the Virgin Queen of Heaven , an incorruptible Vessel , a Tree which brought forth for us , Eternal Life in the Flesh : the Patroness I say , of the Poor , and Mine : But the place of the Cedar in Libanus , exceeding the coldest folding door of the Air , covered with Snowes , denotes the unspotted Integrity of the God-bearing Virgin : And so , if the Tree denotes the holy Virgin , especially , conjoyntly with so many mysteries , it s no wonder that the Cedar doth signifie the Tree of this Life also in the world : For indeed , there was in the dayes of David , an aged Cedar in Libanus , because it was that , which by reason of its excellent taleness , was from that time , worthy of a mystical sense : Wherefore , either it being there planted after the Floud , doth as yet hitherto continue the same in number , safe : or a good while before , and perhaps from the cradles of the World , according to the Vision of the Dream : Which thing , after what manner soever it may be taken ; at least-wise , it shews that the Cedar despiseth the discommodities of Old Age : But he is not from a Cedar his Parent , planted after the Floud ; because that Parent also of the Cedar , was preserved under the Deluge ; and much more easily afterwards , than that which remains from the daies of David , even until this time . Let those laugh that will , at that age of the Cedar in Libanus , and let them say , that Modern ones were raised up by a new Branch , or by Seed falling down : But that being supposed , at this day also , new ones had dayly come forth into a great Wood , where notwithstanding , no new Cedar growes . But moreover , from thence I gather , that the same Cedar in number doth now persist , which was even before the Floud , yea even from the Creation of the World : Because it was given for a Mark of resemblance to the blessed Virgin. But moreover , for our Magistery , the Fruit of the Cedar is not to be taken ; for that , the end thereof is not for a simple Being in the appointment of the Properties of the Cedar ; but only for a propagation of the Species , which contradicteth long Life from the Foundation : The Wood Cetim it self therefore , is to be taken , which is so much exalted in the holy Scripture : Therefore not the Bark , not the Fruit , not the Root , nor the Leaves , are the ultimate end whither Nature hath had respect for long Life : And so that the Cedar , perhaps also is herein distinct from the Tree of Life in Eden . A matter therefore , of a Tree which knowes not how to die , is found , whose unputrifiable Wood ( and by reason of its many Properties being in a mystical Sense designed to the holy Virgin ) is that which brings forth Life to the World , that it may redeem Death . But the preparation thereof , is the most exceeding difficult of all those things which fall under the Labour of Wisdom : For this Cause indeed , Monarchs want a long Life ; because there is none which hath known how to prepare it : For none who is truly a Phylosopher , is a Minstrel , neither doth he follow Princes , and flatter them ; for because he stands in need of nothing , he despiseth whatsoever a Prince can give . The Tree of Life therefore alone , refresheth the decayed Faculties , and for some time , detaineth the Life in its flowing : But the difficulty of preparing it , consisteth in this , that the Wood ought to be resolved without a dissolution of its Faculties , by a luke-warmth , such as is that of the Sun in March , even unto its first Being : In which Being only , is granted unto it , a fermental Power of preserving and seasoning , with an ingress unto the first constitutives of us , and of insinuaring it self into the familiarity of the Spirits implanted throughout all the Organs . But there is in the Juice of this kind of resolving , the entire Virtue of the Cedar ; to wit , a vital one , together with every seminal and formal Property of long Life : For the whole lump of the Wood is dissolved into a Juice , which being otherwise , distilled , is transchanged , and made a certain new Creature ; the which Aqua Vitae being distilled out of Graines , or Ales , doth also prove ; likewise the Oyl that is distilled out of Woods , yea out of the very Oyl of Olives it self . The practise thereof , is this ; Resolve the pieces of the Wood Cetim , with a like weight of the Liquor Alkahest , in a sealed Glass , under a nourishing luke-warmth ; and within seven dayes , thou shalt see the whole Wood to have passed over into a milky Liquor : But presently , about the fifteenth day , a twofold Oyl distinctly swims a top , the which , is increased even for a Month , and is more clearly separated : But then , let the Oyl be separated from the Water by manual Operation : Then distil thou the Water in a Bath , and the Liquor Alkahest remains in the bottom in its own original weight : but let the Oyl be nourished with the Water for full three months space , with a slow luke-warmth , and the whole Oyl assumes the Nature of a Salt , and shall thorowly mingle it self with the Water : and it is the first Being of the Cedar . But as yet , a few things concerning the length of Life ; because I being an old Man do pursue these things , and I my self am about to die . My Mind breathed some unheard of thing within : but I , as unprofitable for this Life , shall be buried : Because the Spirit the Porter , withdrew the Bottle by the command of him , before whom , the whole World is as a Mushrom . Let the praise be to him , who hath given , and who hath taken away that which was his own . The Schools therefore , may deservedly upbraid me : Thou miserable Man , a Man of small note , a Man of great ambition , an old Man , hast paradoxally come to late , that with thy Song in the commendation of Cedar , thou shouldst over-spread the World with mists : The Histories and Virtues of Plants are known to our Herbarists : But thou , that thou maiest vaunt of an unheard of devise concerning long Life , as a Paradoxal Man , proceedest to be mad with thy Cedar : Go to , if there be so great Power in the Cedar , for Life , why are not all Kings long-lived ? From whence dost thou as a new guest , come ? produce thy Learning , and experience whereby thou wilt be believed : For as a Lawier blusheth to speak without Law , so doth a Physitian without Experience : For thou canst not deny , but that the decoctions of the Leaves , Kernels , Wood , Bark , Root , or Rosin of Cedar , had long since produced a continued Life : But nothing of these things is manifest by our Herbarists : Thou there fore dost deter or fright us away , through an hidden manner of preparation , and by a crabbed Style of a smoak-selling Art , desirest to involve a feigned mistery of Cedar : Which thing ( the Alkahestical Mask being laid aside , it being taken up , only to hide thy improvident rashness ) almost all the learned will laugh at , who suffer not themselves to be led aside into new precepts , by Dreams , or feigned Exstasies . This Argument springs partly from an inv●terate hatred towards us , and partly from an antient Simplicity : For how much soever it concerns my person , of writing unwonted rashnesses ; God hath known that I write those things which I know to be true . I give him thanks , that when as he had conferred on me five Talents , and I had made my self unworthy , and for this Cause , had made a divorce before him , it pleased his divine goodness , to take from me three , and to leave me as yet two ; that so he might expect me for better Fruit : He had rather I say , impoverish me , and suffer me not to be profitable to very many , so he might but save me from the Perils of this World : Let eternal Sanctification be unto him . But as the argument of the Schools is supported with the appearances of Decoctions and Broaths , surely that had proceeded from a simple rudeness : For truly none hath hitherto , in acting , plowed up the Faculties of things : Therefore it is supposed , that although many things are made more acute by distilling , and so the more active ; yet by that very thing , that they depart and are estranged from the genuine Property of the Seeds ; because the Fire is an artificial Death , the which , if there be made an open Flame , happens through an extinguishment of the Seeds and the Archeus : But a natural Death of things , presupposeth a weariness of the Seeds : But an artificial Death , which is not made by a consuming of the Flame , separates indeed things volatile from things fixed , together with a dissolution and death of the last Life of the composed Body : But therefore also the former Faculties are altered and estranged by the Fire , and a new Creature riseth again out of the fire , from a material Disposition , from the antient Properties of the Being , through an inversion or turning in and out , which is easie to be seen in the artificial Death : So indeed , most volatile Salts , which by a co-melting , do make a conjunction with the Oyl of the thing , are fixed into a Coal , the which , at length , the fatness being burnt up , returns into ashes . There are also fugitive Salts , which do act by lurking within the fatnesses of Oyls , do attempt a new product : So that Oyls , otherwise sufficiently slowing , are changed through the combination of Salts : Some things therefore become soapy , some things lay up smoakinesses ; at least-wise , all adust things contract a Corruption of Matter , and are throughly changed into another thing ; for nothing of the old remaineth : Because that is the property of Fire , not indeed , simply to separate ; but by its own authority , to alter and change under it self . Therefore it is not lawful to weigh the Faculties or Virtues of distilled things , by the composed Body from whence they issue : neither is it lawful to believe , that although the Virtues of things are not abolished , not extinguished , or plainly killed by the fire , therefore the antient Virtues of things are not renewed within , by Adustion : But those things which are made new by the fire , are oftentimes made worse , but also they are oft-times , so distinct from themselves as they were before , that they are made an hundred-fold better . In the next place , there are Simples , which by seething , do melt their Muscilage or Gum , and in this respect , do transmit their Virtues into the Broath of the Decoction . First of all , they do not therefore notwithstanding , retain the same Faculty which they had in their entire composed Body ; but their Action is alwayes feeble . For first of all , they ought to be concocted in the Stomack , after the manner of Meats : Most of whom , although from the property of Magnum Oportet , they do in savour shew forth some thing of their former Virtues , yet these are either cast forth of doors together with Excrements , or being rashly concocted , and appropriated , do stir up nothing but the brawlings of an unaccustomed heterogeniety or diversity of kind , instead of a Remedy : Or at leastwise , if they affect the Blood and Flesh with their Odour , they promise nothing but a feeble help ; So that also , from hence , a Quartane the inhabitant of the Spleen , doth hitherto remain untouched , to the mockery of Physitians . But that something may be admitted into the Family-administration of the Spirits , and Family of the solid constituting Parts , it is not that that may any way be hoped for by Decoctions , as neither by Distillation , which through the intervening of an artificial Death , wholly puts off every perfect Act of long Life , which the Wood encloseth in it self . But the Juice , Powder , or Conserves fetched from the Cedar , are such strangers unto us , that unless it be subdued by the method of its first Being , it promiseth not any thing of Familiarity with us : Far off surely , that it should overcome our Nature , and endow it with its uncorruptibleness . Distilled things therefore , have nothing of moment , and crude Simples nothing of moment ( with whatever noble Faculty they may shine ) for long Life : For it behoves , that the uncorruptibleness of the Cedar being exactly preserved , as ignorant of Death , nor the bounty thereof toward us being in the least worsted or diminished , every forreign impediment be separated from it , the which , else through the much strife of our Archeus , is reflected into the Being of Nourishment , but not into the Being of Essence ; Yet so that a Penetration , Communication , and Conspiracy with the first constituting Parts of u●e and refreshment of the in-existing Faculties , be over and above added thereunto 〈◊〉 the Schools of Galen be in the mean time , amazed at the unwonted manner of prepa●●● and describing it , and let them laugh at my promises , let them believe them to be ●eer Dreams , let every Bird sing according to his own beak ; be it lawful for me to be vilely esteemed by them : For truly , I have long since covered my Ears with a thick covering , against aged Obloquies expressed for the sake of Gain alone . I have written concerning long Life , what I know to be true ; not indeed for Young Beginners , as neither to be comprehended by readings ; for God hath known why he hath given unto the Goat , a short Taile . There shall at sometime be an Adeptist ( in its own maturity of Dayes ) who shall understand that I have spoken Truth . But as to that which pertains to the Sentence attained in the Dream ; He may read the Dream of Nebuchadnezzar , which was known to Daniel alone ; Yet he had commanded all his wise Men to be limited to the Fire , unless they should shew the undoubted Explication of the Dream : surely such Dreams do promise a certain certainty within , neither that they are vain : He who oft-times gives the Dreams , may presently also unlock the same with so great a certainty of them , that Death nor Hell are able to bring in a doubt . But although I prefer the Cedar before all Woods ; yet perhaps India affords Woods not any thing inferior to the Cedar of the Shoar of Palaestina ; Yet I have alwayes given a Primate-ship unto the Authority of the holy Scriptures ; Yet not that therefore the hand of the Lord hath bound up it self to the Cedar : but what things I have written of the Cedar , I have offered for a memorial of honour towards God , who hath been propitious or favourable unto me . But other things which there are concerning the Cedar , shall be buried with me ; for the World is not capable thereof . But that which the Moderns do boast of the Elixi● of Propriety , that doth not succeed according to the Description of Paracelsus : For the three Simples being shut up together in a most large , and sealed glassen Vessel , afford at least , a few small dorps of a milkie Liquor , and some small drops of a somewhat palish Oyl , after two dayes space , and as many , not more , after two Months ; but scarce a third part of the matter suffers by the Fire , but that a collection of corrupt Matter is threatned : but if it be but a little more strongly urged , the Vessel , how most large soever , bursts asunder : But if the Ingredients be connexed with the middle Liquor , the thing it self is at length , of no worth . Indeed Paracelsus hath been silent ( even as in most of his other Descriptions ) as to the addition of the Liquor Alkahest , wherewith the whole matter is presently solved throughout its whole , and the Medicine succeeds according to his Description : For there is in this Elixir , a subtile Fragrancy , by reason whereof , it preserves the liquid matter of our Body from Corruption , as it were a Balsam : for with one only small drop being given to drink in Wine , I have oftentimes so refreshed those that were desperate through a contagious Fever , that they have as yet dined with me at noon , who at midnight had received the last or extream ●unction of holy Oyl . Truly through want of the Being of Cedar , the Elixir of Propriety doth relieve . But what shall I say ? The Alkahest is required ; which is not granted to thinkers , but only to knowers , and that indeed , to those on whom Knowledge is doubled . Wherefore I will declare a certain trivial thing for the use of the vulgar , for the preservation of long Life . In the Year 1600 , a certain Man serving in the accounts for military Provision , but being burdened with a numerous and small off-spring , complaines that he was in the 58th . Year of his Age ; but if he should fail , it would happen that his Children would beg their Bread from door to door : He begged of me some defence of Life : I being as yet a young Man , condoling his Condition , considered that the Odour of a Sulphurous Torch being enflamed , did preserve Wines from Corruption : Therefore I inferred in my mind , that the sharp distillation of Sulphur , did so necessarily contain this Fume of Sulphur , and plainly all the Odour thereof , that it self was nothing but the very Fume of Sulphur combibed into its Mercurial Salt. Then in the next place , I supposed , that our venal Blood was the Wine of our Life , and that being preserved , if it did not give a Long Life , at least-wise , it would defend from many Diseases of Corruptions , through the efficiency whereof , the Life would at least , be after some sort defended in Health , free from Diseases , and at rest from Pains : Wherefore I gave him a Bottle full of the distilled Liquor of Sulphur and I likewise taught him the art of preparing that Oyl from enflamed Sulphur . Moreover I bed him , that at every meal , he should take two small drops at least , of that Liquor , in his first draught of Ale or Beer , neither that as wanton , he should easily exceed that Dose ; I supposing that two small drops did contain much Fume of the Sulphur . That Man obeyed my admonitions , and he as yet walks through the Streets of Br●nels , in the Year 1641. And which is more famous , he never at all lay by it with any Diseas●● in all that forty Years ; although he once , through a fall upon the Ice , 〈◊〉 his Leg nigh the Ham ; Yet he alwayes remained free from a Fever , slender and lean , although the old Man lived in the penury of conveniencies : The name of the old Man , is John Mass , who served in the Bed-Chamber of Rythovius Bishop of Yper , when the Counts , Egmond , and Horn , were beheaded ; and then was he five and twenty Years of Age. FINIS . Opuscula Medica Inaudita : THAT IS , Unheard of little VVorks OF MEDICINE . BEING TREATISES 1. Of the Disease of the STONE . 2. Of FEVERS . 3. Of the HUMORS of Galen . 4. Of the PEST or PLAGUE . Written by John Baptista Van Helmont , Toparch or Governor , in Merode , Royenborch , Oorschot , Pellines , &c. And now faithfully rendred into English , for publick good , and increase of true Science ; By J. C. Sometime of M. H. Oxon. Col. 4. 14. Luke the Beloved Physitian greets you . Deut. 32. 39. See now that I , even I am he , and there is no God with me : I kill , and I make alive ; I wound , and I heal : neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand ▪ Res ardua est ignotis dare scientiam , obscuris lucem , obsoletis nitorem , in-speratis fidem , dubiis certitudinem , ac naturae suae omnia . Judiciorum desiderio , tribunitia potestas efflagitata est ; judiciorum lenitate , alius ordo ad res judicandas postulatur . LONDON , Printed for Lodowick Loyd , and are to be sold at his Shop next the Castle in Cornhill . 1662. TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS MAN THE LORD CASPAR ULDARICK , BARON of Hoensbroeck , COMMENDATOR of the Teutonick Order , of the sacred Romane Empire in Gemert ; A FAVOURER of good ARTS , and his singular FRIEND and PATRON . THou remembrest , that the Illustrious Lord , Lord Werner Spies of Bullensheim , Provincial Commendator of the Teutonick Order of the Confluence of Baillive , and Commendator of the House of Pitzenburg of Mecheline , Lord in Elsen and Herrn-Mulheim , &c. of late thy Uncle , the most favourable of my Friends , three dayes before his Death , sent his Horse-litter for me , because he lay sick of a cruel Tertian Ague ; and when I came unto him , that he as yet saluted me with his Head , and offered to embrace me in both his Arms : I was willing presently to succour the same man , because an intermitting pulse bad me to make haste ; but that his Friends deferred the promised help , till the afternoon , that the Physitians might be present : Who when they had explained their own endeavour , and that now in 13 dayes , they had cut a Vein twice , and as often purged him ; but that they had nourished him with Broaths and Whey ; Lastly , that they had strengthened him with the Confections , Alkermes , and De Hyacintho ; and therefore , that they must proceed in the same path , except , that at length , his Legs and Arms were to be Ulccrated by Cantharides : But that I answered ; Ye see , oh my men Friends , how much hope these same Remedies have afforded , increased , and left : Wherefore if ye proceed on in the same way , to morrow will yield horrors and the agony of Death , for a conclusion of the Tragedy . I pray you let five hours at least , be granted unto me , and it will as yet appear , whether that famous man commanded me , his most loving Friend , to be sent for yesterday in vain . They readily consented , except one Fonseca , perhaps , because he was a Portugal , who despised Chymical Remedies , as being fiery , and that they poured Oyl on the Fire . And so by the Vote of one Physitian , that Knight underwent Death . For although Priests , his Friends , stood by , also Noble Persons of his houshold ; yet they more hoped in the accustomed Remedies , and the Votes of many , than in , as yet , unknown Medicines . Therefore he began to be left by good ones , because thou wert absent , when these things happened : For as just Indignation brings forth a Song , so I being provoked by the unskilful , determined to set forth a Little Book of an Unheard of Doctrine concerning Fevers : And it fitly fell out , that Cardinal Ferdinandus , our Kings Brother , is killed by Portugals his chief Physitians , through an immoderate exhausting of his Blood , and inordinate cooling : But that that would so come to pass , I had foretold in my Writings , unto Carmelita his Confessor . But forthwith after his Death , that thing was disputed by a controversal right : Fortunatus Vopiscus Plempius , a Dutch-man , very well learned , and Professor at Lovaine , was Victor in the Controversie . But I have prefixed a Verse to my Book , whereby not so much the Malice , as the Bruitish and unpunished Blockishness of those Physitians might be manifested . Therefore I have added , that none was ever made free from a Fever by the method of Galen , as neither that he who otherwise laboured with a more grievous sickness , did escape , but whom the strength of Nature did the more timely snatch out of their hands : Because that in the Schools , as well Fevers essentially , as the Remedies of the same , were hitherto unknown . Therefore I set forth a Book which might confirm that thing ; but bespattered with so many faults on every side , that I blushed to acknowledge it for my own : But however it was such , yet by reason of the novelty of the matter , it began soon after its birth , to be desired , because it was wanting or not to be had . For I shew that a Fever is unknown : That its Remedies are unknown : And likewise , that a Quaternary or Fourfold number of Humors , are old Wives Trifles , whereby credulous mortals do as yet to this day , fat the places of Burial . Therefore let it be a Probleme ; to wit , that I have altogether erred therein , or not indeed I , but the Humorists have erred : And the whole School of the Huniourists hath gone to the Wall ; Because now , the Hinge whereupon the posts of Healing are supported , doth lye on the ground . That matter , since it toucheth the Life , the Common-wealth , and most Families ; I intreat the Christian World , that from Charity , it would take good heed to the deciding of a difficult Question , so unthought of , and of so great moment . I in like manner , adde a Book wherein I have demonstrated , That the Causes , Remedies and also the Manner of making the Stone in Man , have been constantly unknown hitherto . That the Pest also , Apoplexie , Palsie , Leprosie , Lethargy , Convulsion , and that sort of Diseases , are as yet alike unknown in the Schools . But I have written these Paradoxes , for a Pledge of a bigger Section promised ; wherein I will lay open the Beginnings of Natural Phylosophy , and new Maxims of Healing , for a publick good ; To wit , that the Schools may learn , and repent . Let them learn indeed , not of me ( who otherwise , have always despised all vain glory ) but from the Giver of all Good. But I have endeavoured so to manifest my Talent received , for the profit of my Neighbour , that hereafter any one of a sound mind , ought to confess whether he will or nay , that very darkness it self , hath hitherto banished Truth out of the Schools of the Gentiles . And since I wish my Labours may speak to the whole World ; therefore I decreed to dedicate the same unto thee , for a Pledge of Friendship ; because thou wert a Patron of the Muses , and a Favourer of the Art of the Fire . For I have never dedicated my Books unto chief men , that I might represent their famous deeds , and the pictures and pedigrees of their Ancestors : Indeed I would not seem , to have been willing by flattery , to corrupt their integrity . I know also , that whatsoever is of flatterers , doth no less displease thee than my self . Lastly , neither do I offer my Writings , that they may be fenced under thy authority : Far also , be such stupidity , which knows not , that Kings themselves are unfit for such Protection : Nor that any thing can subsist , which hath not obtained its Patronage from God. I give therefore , ( O Illustrious Man ) and dedicate these my Labours unto thee , with a naked title , that thou mayest proceed to love me , thy most loving Friend ; who intreateth God , that he would preserve thee in health ! In the mean time , Enjoy thou , Rejoyce , and Farewel , as thy Friend Bruxels , the 6th . of the Kalends of October , 1643. JOHN BAPTISTA Van HELMONT desireth . On the WORKS of the Noble and most Famous D. J. B. HELMONT . A Verse of the Noble and most Honourabl-Lord , Janus Walhorn . D. Counsellour to his Majesty . SHut up thy Schools , O Galen , for , enough of Men are slain , Ho , now it is Sufficient ; full Graves do ring again ! For Blood and Clyster are thy Medicines : nothing oftentimes Thou giv'st : but to a Critick day thy hope alone confines . In touching of a vein , the while , and eke of parched tongue , And in the Urine wholly th' art dismayed , and so in Dung. A Med'cine's to be got for him , this helps not the sick man : No need of tests of the Disease ; but of a Physitian . Yet thou expect'st a great reward , after the man 's enshrind . So doth the Dog look for and love , the Cattle sickly kind . Helmont is one , who able is by his Apollo's art To snatch from th' jaws of Death whom t'oher left to dye in smart . TO THE Medicine-Loving Reader , John Baptista Van Helmont of Bruxels , Toparch or Governor in Merode ; Royenborch , Oorschot , Pellines , &c. Being a Philosopher by the Fire ; wisheth Peace , Joy , and Knowledge . I Lately sent forth a new Doctrine concerning Fevers , wherein I have shown , That a Fever is unknown to the Schools , in its Essence , Root , Properties , and Remedy : That matter diversly affected Physitians , and especially it perplexed those that refuse to learn : For they who perswaded themselves to be wise enough , said ; Shall therefore the Universities sustain this Calumny without punishment ? and have so many famous Wits , and we our selves been Blockheads ? doth Helmont alone sit at the Table of the Sun , that from those Dainties , he hath dared to arrogate the Adeption or Obtainment of Healing to himself ? But although my ignorance doth most poorly accompany my Intention , and the Confession hereof , doth not blot out the Stain of Ignorance ; yet the Integrity and Sincerity of my Intention deserves pardon : For truly , in healing , the truth of every thing comes to be judged or esteemed , from the Work which it leaves behind it : For neither ought those to be accounted Calumnies , if the Errours of Predecessors are discovered , their names being suppressed . A publick humane affair is treated of by me , for the sake of Charity alone : If therefore I shall say , that the first of those , who fetch the Fundamentals of Medicine from the Heathens , who hath known , not only the root of Fevers , but also of any Diseases whatsoever , and their just Remedies , is as yet desired ; and I shall demonstrate that thing ; I am void of blame , neither shall I seem to be injurious : But if not , I pray let those who take pitty of my Ignorance , instruct me ; even as I suppose my self to have been moved only from a compassion on mankind , lest any one should hereafter entrust his Life in the hands of unfaithful Helpers , who hitherto have made none free from a Disease , from a certain knowledge ; but as many as have escaped , that they have recovered through the bounty of God alone , and the goodness of their Nature : For this is that Paradox , which I promise that I will demonstrate , and in promising , to stand to my Promises . But I had said , in the aforesaid Book of Fevers , that I owed to the Stone also , it s own Treatise ; because the Disease of the Stone , is like unto a Monster , and therefore that it was to be separated in a fold or section by it self : For other Diseases are no where bred but in our possession ; but the Stone alone , doth also grow together in the Urinal : It becomes stony indeed , as it were the product of Universal Nature ; but it growes , in-as-much as it is the product of Nature changed to another use ; and that it may be made a Stone in Man , but not a rockie Stone , it requires a matter disposed by Man. By this entrance therefore , the Universities will see , that they have not touched at the Causes of the Disease of the Stone , so much as in its utmost coasts : and they who grieve , that they are blamed for their Ignorance of Fevers , will acknowledge that they have more Companions of their Calamity : For I would never be injurious to all that went before me ; and it is sufficient for me to protest , that I want a mind of doing injury : For , far be it from me to be ignorant , that an unknown matter demonstrated for the uses of ones Neighbour , should want reproach ; especially , while the ignorance of Physitians hath it self in manner of a crime , and Man is at sometime to render Skin for Skin : No otherwise than as a Pre●or or judicial Officer , accusing any one of a Crime , is excused from Calumny . I have alwayes greatly grieved , that in the devout Profession of Medicine alone , it hath been subscribed to so 〈◊〉 , fluggish , and ●rivolous Principles ; But that in other Professions , they have so ingeniously laboured : For indeed , what of subtilty hath not been attempted , about the five Words of 〈…〉 , which they name Predicables ? and what subtile wiles , have they 〈…〉 about 〈◊〉 things ? Prattles I say , the witnesses of a discursive industry ? Raymand 〈…〉 not contented with these , invented nine other most Universal Words ; and afterwards added unto these same nine , twenty eight other Words , less Universal : and lastly , he at length subjoyned seventy two other Universal Words , whereby any things may seventeen thousand , four hundred , forty six times be described , predicated of , and distinguished . Those unprofitable pratlings are the great Husks of Sciences , without a Kernel . Surely , humane Wits , are of their own accord , prone to subtilties without Spurs , if the ends of those subtilties are vain : But in things that regard Life and Health , they have snorted with a continual Lethargy . The Law also , is so incumbent on subtilties , about the Explications of Decrees , as the Sublimities , wherewith the Wit of Man is snatch'd away with so wonderful an Admiration , and beholds it self in its own delight , that by a singular Prerogative , they are called the Subtilties of the Law : These indeed are less vain than talkative Faculties ; because that they are provided to attain and defend right . But in matters of Divinity , what famous things do not the Chairs hope for , by their accute discussings of Questions ? I would to God , that Mans necessity might want all these things ; that meum and tuum , or mine and thine , might be rendered to every one , without any false Paint ! that the Faith also ( as in Mahometism ) might stand without disputation ; that every subtilty may depart , whereof an account will not be required in the last day : for so Apostolical Sincerity should return ; So I have received , and so I have delivered unto you . At least-wise , they shall undergo the milder Judgment , who in their Life time have been most estranged from these Subtilties . But in Medicinal Affaires ( alass for grife ) where a diligent fe●rch is most necessary , profitable , and commended for charity , almost all things have remained untouched ; because careless sloath is on every side , readily inclined to subscribe unto the antient blockishnesses of the ignorant : it is also more damnable among those , who wander through the Streets , and run thorow them from house to house , that they may prostitute Health to Sale , and put a Disease unknown unto themselves , to flight : For it hath not been once by the way , doubted by the Universities hitherto , about the belief of the Speculations delivered by the heathens ; which otherwise , vail a folly , even with their facility alone , and at the first view , ought to stir up a suspition of themselves ; because nothing in humane Affaires hath been now for so many ages received , which is more hardened in shame , and blockishness , nothing more full of lying and deceit , nothing more wonderful in cruelty , and also in credulity , than a profession which maketh Experiments dayly , by the Deaths of Men , under a con-centrical subscription unto the Wills of the Heathens : For the Nations who live without a Physitian do confess that thing with me , by what a Life they lead . That thing I say , the more refined Physitians , also , do confess : For a godly and sober Man , but a very famous Physitian , Doctor Johannes Vander Wegen , being not so long since asked by me , Why ( for truly he dwelt at Lovain , and had Friends in the Court , and Potentates which he cured , and he was most fit for the Chair ) He did not desire some Lecture ? He ingeniously answered , It was not lawful to give a tast of any other kind of Doctrin unto Youth , besides that of Galen ; and so ( said he ) I should knowingly damn my Soul , I knowing better things , and teaching worse . Therefore others know what I discover that I know , but they dare not to discover what they know . Good Jesus , how long shall the drowsiness of Physitians remain ? and so great cruelty against the Works of thy Hands ? Grant , grant thou oh Infinite Goodness , that mortal mankind may know , that the Devil Moloch , envieth no Subtilties , but those which are sifted about Charity , and which regard and preserve the Life of thine own Image . For I grieved at the first , at so great rashness of belief of Principles , and at so great a sluggishness of Mortals about things of so great moment , and the pitty of this thing increased with me dayly . Hence at length , I having obtained a little Light , I knew with great grife , that the Errours of the Schools ought by me , plainly to appear : But indeed , in the entrance , that thing seemed to me to be full of untamed arrogancy , that I , the least of all , should brand all before me , with the ignorance of Phylosophical truth , but should attribute to my self only , the obtainment of healing : Therefore I oftentimes begged of the Lord , that he would re-take that his own Talent from me , and vouchsafe wholly to take it away , and to bestow it on another more worthy than my self : For I knew , that he who had well lay hid , had well lived , at least-wise , morally , and in this ulcerous age : Therefore I resisted , and a good while deferred to propose this ignorance of the Principles of Medicine , to its own World , until that now being an old Man , the last necessity constraining me , and being placed in an Agony of Death , I promised the Lord , that I would sincerely divulge his Talent , least I should at sometime be accounted in the strict Judgment of God , to have come into the world in vain , and to have departed as unprofitable from hence : For by a Vision in a Dream , I understood that I was more afraid of gainsayings , than of Gods Indignation ; that Nature was crafty , as long as she made a pretence for Pride , in purely obeying God , by reason of deceitful humane respects . Also I saw not , that my own Arrogancy , which was placed rather in fear , did make me less freely or generously to perform what was required against Judicious Men , that would rise up against me for so many ages past , than in purely obeying the most glorious Giver of Truth : Yea , that I did not commiserate my Neighbour , and that I buried my Talent in the Earth , in looking back on the uncertain Censures of the World concerning me : I knew indeed , the doores of Medicine to have been locked , and the Bars and Bolts thereof , to have been covered with rust , for so many ages ; but I doubted to open them ; as if I should presume the Office of a Porter to be meerly my own , and not to be given to any other : Therefore I resolved with my self , to do what Charity , not arrogancy perswaded to be done , as knowing that he is not injurious , who beholds a publick good , although it may make those blush , who have rashly subscribed to the trifles of Heathens , unto the dammage of mankind . At length therefore , I stood as a middle man , between the shame , and sore fear of the greatness of the thing , and many times reposed my Pen : And again , I seriously begged of the Lord , that he would vouchsafe to chose another more worthy than my self : Wherefore the Lord being deservedly wroth , suffered this Evil and unprofitable Servant to be sifted by Satan : For an Order , whose Zenith or vertical Point , is the house of Powers , and whose Nadir or Point under their Feet , are other Orders , began undeservedly to persecute me by unworthy Wiles : I knew presently , that the hand of the Lord had touched me : And therefore , in a full tempest of Persecutions , I wrote a Volume , whose Title is , the Rise or Original of Medicine ; that is , The unheard of Beginnings of natural Phylosophy ; wherein I have discovered the accustomed Errours of the Schools in healing : I have I say , afforded , and demonstrated new Principles ; as also hitherto , unheard of Speculations of Diseases , that the Universities leaving the Vanities of the Heathen , may for the future , accustom themselves to the Truth : For from thence , I found a rest in my Soul , such as I never found in the times of my Prosperity ; so that , I being full of suspition , grieved that so great Storms did not any thing disturb the rest of my Soul , or sleep of my Body : Wherein , O God , my Protectour , I am not able sufficiently to praise the abundance of thy bounty , which suffered not my Soul even in the least , to fall out of a full enjoyment of peace , under so great straits on every side : I fearing this one only thing , least as an unprofitable Servant , I should be buried with my small Talent . Whosoever therefore thou art , who interpretest my Zeal to be proud boasting , thou mayest do it for me , so thou shalt not hurt thy self : for I will rejoyce to bear back all confusion for the good of my Neighbour , and of Posterity ; and I shall enjoy my wish , whether in the mean time , my boldness shall turn unto me for rashness , or not : For God the Sower , will water what he would have to grow . And moreover , in the Book of Fevers , I have declared the Beginnings of my repentance , and in what manner I desisted from Galen and Avicen , to wit , by reason of the discerned falshood of the Pillars of Medicine ; from whence a singular boldness of confidence thenceforth increased in me , being as yet a young man , whereby , for my Neighbours sake , I willingly exposed my self to the infurious Censures of all ; and the number of dayes by degrees running on , the Lord beheld the Candor of my Zeal , and granted me , now a Man , to see , that whatsoever is taught in the Schools of Medicine , is full of Miseries and Ruine , and that it should be a laughing stock to Posterity . Good Jesus ! how greatly was I then amazed at the greatness of thy Clemency , which reveals those things unto little ones , which were denyed for so manyages , to men otherwise , most religious and ingenious . Moreover , although I was from thence more assured , that the manifestation of my Talent of truth received , lay heavy upon me ; yet Nature is ready to find out excuses , and deceives it self , and its own Sorrows , by the Props of Reason its Chamber-Maid : I presently therefore ( fie , it s●ames me of my own unconstancy ) shook off the undertaken burden again from my shoulders , and said ; who am I , oh Lord ? for the more solid things are defective unto me , which I should substitute in the room of those that are to be depressed : For what things I before believed , were commanded me , I again suspected to be suggested by the subtilty of Satan , because secret Remedies were wanting unto me ; to wit , the Letters Patents or Signes of my message : Wherefore , in my youth , I had a good while perswaded my self , that the very Art of healing , was nothing but a meer imposture , devised by the idle Greeks , being at first framed for the destruction of the Romanes their subduers , and afterwards confirmed for the Calamities of Men , whereunto humane Credulity , by reason of a conceived hope , had easily subscribed ; and so that that Profession of Medicine had brought forth its own authority ; because for the most part , we too readi●● believe those things which we too greedily desire . Indeed I knew from that time , that the ●●●icine of the Universities was a thing of no worth ; to which end , they afforded me their votes , since Diseases were incurable , and moreover , the vanity of Experiments ; and at length , succours abounded on every side ; because I saw Physitians every where exposed to a mock : and also the Phylosophy it self , afore chosen in my youth , assented unto this my Errour ; To wit , that the Logick , natural Phylosophy , and Metaphysicks of the Schooles , were not that Phylosophy , for which Pythagoras in times past , took unto himself only a few Schollars of the better towardness , to be instructed by him , they being bound by the silence of many years , and by a secret Oath , that they should never declare to any one , any of those things which they had there heard : for I supposed rather , that the Essayes of the Art of the Fire were there delivered , than of that Science , which Galen layes open by much Greek tattle : For truly also , long before Pythagoras , every one had accustomed , faithfully to note by Hieroglyphicks in Temples , whatsoever things had profited his own People : for that thing , so great a necessity , and so intestine a Calamity had convinced of , that they were thus delivered to Posterity without envy . When therefore the Art of Medicine fell into disesteem with me , I lighted on a Text of holy Scripture , having been often read , yet never understood ; To wit , That the most high had created the Physitian , and had commanded him to be honoured , by reason of the necessity there is of him . Wherein I presently discerned , 1. That he who created all things , doth notwithstanding , particularly glory , that he is the Creator of the Physitian . 2. That for his own glory sake , for the issuing forth of his goodness for the necessities , helping , and succours of the Sick , and so by the Physitian , the Almighty will be appeased , in restoring health that was taken away . 3. That he to whom all honour and glory is due , hath commanded , that Parents , and Physitians onely created by him , be honoured ; as if a Physitian had something of a fatherly , Nature . 4. And then , in my manhood , I not a little carefully inquired day and night , what happy Man he should be , whom the Almighty from Eternity ordained , chose , and created for a Physitian , and from hence also , commanded to be honoured . Whether happy it were he , who having read over Institutions , and some classical or renowned Authors , and having spent full three Years in the University ; and at length , who by disputations , and examinations by Professors , having laboured for . Preferment , was sent forth , being admitted as well by Secular , as Ecclesiastical authority ? Or indeed , whether it were he , who with the same Title of a Physitian , had waxed old under anothers mourning , being in the mean time , full of Years , Experiments , and Moneys ? Then straightway , I with pity considered , that the Sick stood in need of a Physitian , whom the Almighty hath created , he being furnished with full abilities ; and that an healthy Person wanted not a Physitian standing by him , who should be chief over the Kitchin , should number the Morsels , and prescribe rules of Diet. ( Thou shalt hereafter find more things concerning the honour due to Physitians , under the History of Duelech . ) I considered on the other hand ; That the Maker of sweet Oyles should compose the Varnishes of Sweetness ; neither that his Works should be consummated or come to an end : Neither that there should be a Medicine of destruction in the Earth : Which soundeth , that a true Physitian , should mow down all Diseases with an equal Sithe , nor that Diseases were with him uncurable : Surely , a notable difference between a Physitian , which the most high hath created , and him whom Universities have created by the Doctrine of the Heathen . A huge Catalogue of uncurable Diseases presently offered it self unto me ; as if the most high had been nothing careful for these ; or as if such sick Persons were not diseasie ; Because that , for the necessity of whom , he had neither created a Physitian , nor a Medicine in the Universities : For truly they not only cast such Sick folks into despair ; but also , as many Diseases as are not silent of their own accord , they reckon up for desperate ones : Yea , a Quartane Ague , and those which take fast roots for Years , and which are for the most part finished through a voluntary tiresomeness of Nature , they reckon to be uncurable : And but that other Diseases do at the last hasten to a bound or limit , truly all Diseases should be equally added to uncurable ones : For most Physitians know not how to take away the pain of a Tooth , but by pulling of it out : So perhaps , they would command the same thing for health , in an inveterate Head-ach ; to wit , a ●aking away of the Head , if the Life could remain safe . After the notable Labours of some Years therefore , it grieved me , that I knew , or had learned nothing else but that which was of no worth : For although I believed the Physitian to be created of God , even as also simple Medicines ; Yet I wholly stuck in the knowledge of that Physitian , and of the things subservient unto him : For I wished many times , Ah! I would to God , I might sometime , at length become the Disciple of such a Physiti●● . In the mean time , I knew clearly , that the Art of healing , garnished forth as well by the Greeks , as by the Arabians ; and that which the Jews feign to have been delivered unto themby hand ; from their Rabbins , under the Cabal , did very far differ from that which the sacred Text decyphereth . At length therefore , I inferred in my mind , That the Science of Medicine had a good beginning , from the mean , intention , and end thereof ; To wit , that it was a good gift descending from the Father of Lights ; and therefore , this gift had never , long since descended into the Heathens , and Jews , however they were blown up with our rashness of belief ; because they are those , whom the Lord hath not created Physitians , nor for our necessity ; as neither hath he commanded them to be honoured , but to be seriously avoided : For a Physitian created of God , is not defectuous , given to Gain , and an Enemy of Christians ; but full of Charity . But first , I have noted this rarity of that good Gift , from Diascorides , who from the dayes of Plato ( wherein he lived ) hath indeed described the Histories of Herbs ; yet unto this day , scarce any thing hath been added unto him , but very much detracted from him : And so , scarce any Light hath shined forth from above , into Herbarism , for two thousand and three hundred Years , although it be a most plain or easie , and necessary Science : Wherefore I have consectured that that Light from above hath soberly enough s●idden down into other orders of more abstruse Knowledges ; Yet least of all into Heathens , Atheists , and perfidious Jews , they being secluded from the Truth , and Charity , and for that Cause forsaken of God : And as the Nativities of things are banished into the fulnesse of times , covered from us ; so that the Gift of the truth of Healing doth not descend , but in the fullnesse of time appointed by God : For neither shall Light , which is freely given , shine at our pleasure : For he who made all things as he would , makes the same things when he will , and perfects them in whom he will : For I have waxed old , now , for forty years and more , in the rout of Physitians ; and at length , I being an old Man , have known , that the Speculations of the Schools ought by me to be subverted , that all things , in the Age that is soon to come , may fall into dung , as they being destitute of the Lime of truth , do not co-here together . There hath been so great a certainty with me , of that Gift being obtained , and so reverend an Authority thereof , that I perceived , that the Giver would together with his Gift , be also the interpreter thereof ; and that in this respect , I should exclude every doubt whatsoever : and such a knowledge is far more sure , than that which is formed by demonstration ; because there is not a Faculty in Words , to make this certainty common to others . I know also , that all who are to read my Beginnings of Medicine , will not carry back an equal Fruit from thence ; because God is still to remain the dispenser of his own Gift . I have spoken these things , that ye may also know , that my unworthiness will overspread the Gift with darkness , that he may compass the race of Nature who can : for I have hoped , that when he shall now increase the number and fierceness of Diseases , he will inspire the Gift of Healing into the little ones , and despised of this World. And since that in the aforepast Age , he sent Paracelsus , a rich forerunner in the resolutive knowledge of Bodies , and t●stre of Remedies ; it might be , that he would now over-add the knowledg of an Adeptist , which that other wanted . Furthermore , if it liketh thee without wickedness , to enquire into the reason of the pleasure of that Divine Decree , for which the Adeptical gift of Healing hath not descended unto Christians ; I suppose , that the Schools do resist it , as they stubb●rnly insist on the Principles of Heathens : And then also , because Medicine is wholly excercised for Gain , presently after its Beginning ; the which alone of Arts , is to be mercifully exspended from compassion ; But not as though Men were to live merrily and pompously , or to grow rich by the Miseries of the miserable Sick : Wherefore gain hath prevented a necessary Dsposition in Men , and the falshood of Paganish Doctrin hath diverted the Adeptical or obtained Gift of Healing : The searching out whereof , hath therefore seem●d to me , to consist in compassion towards the Sick , by un-learning of false Theoremes , and by putting on deep humility of Spirit ; The which , as it is not then blown up with the Letter , nor pressed down through inordinacy ; So in a humble beholding knowledge of ones own nothingness , the Mind empties it self of all Science or Knowledge introduced by the inducements of Reason : Then afterwards , then , I say , the Most High scarce suffers the Mind to be empty , but he replenisheth the same with a fruitful Beam of his own Light. I have already perhaps found some , who , because I say that the obtainment of Medicine descendeth down from above , will have Medicine to be perfectly learned , after the manner of other Arts : The Intellect or Vnderstanding , they say , is a natural Power ; but every natural Power is born to work a proper Effect ; but the proper Effect of the Intellect it self , is Understandingness : Therefore Man naturally understandeth all intelligible things , as the proper Object of the intellect . Moreover , the Faculty of healing is intelligible , and therefore it descends not from above . I answer ; The Soul and the Understanding thereof , are not the immediate Works of Nature , because they are those which arise from a supernatural Fountain : And so , although the intellect , as to its beginning , be a natural Faculty of the Soul , yet it is not altogether to be reckoned among natural Faculties . It is of Faith , that God hath created the Physitian , and so that the Art of healing be-speaks something b●yond the common rule of created things , so as that the obtainment thereof , doth not happen after the manner of other Arts : For Nebuchadnezzar will testifie a taking away , and a restoring of the understanding . Likewise , do not ye become as the Horse and Mule , which have no understanding ; the which had been spoken in vain , if understanding were equally given by Nature . Moreover , the Understanding given ( whereof they here declare ) exerciseth not its own natural , or intellectual Act , but as by discoursing , it drawes some Notions from Observations , which it received from the perceivance of the Senses ; when as it is altogether ignorant of the Causes from a former : But unto the Science of Medicine , a certain clearness of Light is required , which exceeds that knowledge by the Senses , yea and by the consequences of Causes to their Effects , according to suppositions brought on them by reason , for the most part deceitful ones : For it is of Faith , that the intell●ct , together with the totalness of humane Nature , and so from thence , howsoever cleer it be , doth not perceive Propositions firstly or chiefly true , which exceed sense , unless with the afflux or concurrence of a supernatural Light. Suppose thou , I often read a place in a Book attentively ; and although I understood the Words , yet I once only draw in the sense thereof , unlooked for , with an admiration of forepast readings : But such Knowledge , I call that of Grace : For so the Understanding , how clear soever it be , doth not alwayes assent to the truth ; because neither doth it naturally perceive this truth ( for from hence , are there Factions in Sciences and Religion : ) So in the gift of Medicine , there is something more noble and superiour , than that which is formed in the imagining Faculty , from a fore-existing knowledge of the Senses ; the which is true , solid , good , exceeding the authority of consequences ; yea , which can neither be properly taught , or demonstrated : Yet I would not be understood , that the obtainment of healing is such an infused Science , as in times past enlightned Bezaleel and Aholiab ; and much less , such a one as on the day of Pentecost , rained down with a large showre on the Apostles , so that they forthwith spake in diverse Dialects : Neither also , is the obtainment of healing therefore of things plainly sublunary : For the Eternal Wisdom , hath created its Physitian , after a singular manner , before other created things ; and so , some more famous thing seemeth to be required for him , than for other Professions ; the which therefore , neither hath he commanded to be honoured . After another manner , truly all our understanding in Nature , ariseth only by way of discourse , of the Observations of that which is supposed , of consequence , and of a diligent enquiry , and all that from the effect : Wherefore all such Knowledge is encompassed with uncertainty . Therefore , between an ordinary manner of understanding , and infused science of the first degrees , there are certain enlargements , every one being distinct in a particular degree , in an understanding supernaturally arising . Which I thus prove . Every good Gift descendeth from the Father of Lights : The obtainment of Healing is a good Gift ; Therefore it descendeth from the Father of Lights . The major Proposition is of Faith : But the minor is manifest , as a Physitian , as such , is created by the Father of Lights . They reply by a certain similitude , and nothing to the Syllogism , after this manner . The Knowledge of God is more difficult , than that of Medicine : But the Heathens have naturally found by the Operations of their understanding , the existence of the God-head . Therefore they far more easily obtained the natural Science of Healing . I answer , by granting the whole , if they shall not bring in four Terms . Therefore , even as by Nature , none can draw the Light of Faith ; but only a certain shadowie knowledge : So also , in the Gift of Medicine I grant , that a certain knowledge of healing is naturally attained by observations of what is helpful and hurtful : but surely , that knowledge is so shadowie , and blind , that it plainly resisteth the Text ; which should say in vain , That God created the Physitian , as such , and him to be honoured ; unless there did shine forth some Light in this created Physitian , above the vulgar , ordinary , and natural intellectual Power of the Soul. At length , that neither Atheists , nor Heathens , as neither Jews , ever received that Gift of healing , it is not elsewhere , nor farther to be drawn , than that , De facto or from the deed done , a Disease , Remedies , and every appropriation hereof , are as yet to this day unknown to Mortals : For it is an invincible argument ; The obtainment of Medicine hath been hitherto unknown : Therefore God hath not given that gift unto Paganism , in fore-past Ag●● , at neither to the Schools , they following 〈◊〉 Leaders : The correlative whereof is , That whosoever assents unto the Doctrins of the Paganish Schooles , is secluded from the true Principles of Healing . For I will demonstrate the Assumption , God favouring me , in an ample Volume : To wit , that the Principles of knowing the Causes , and Roots , in Diseases , Remedies , and Appropriations , have remained unknown . The Consequence is by it self clear , unless they shall shew , that every good gift is derived elsewhere than from God : For it ought to be sufficient for the establishment of the Gift of Medicine , that although the obtainment of Healing , be so near the Nature of the Understanding , that by reason of the nearnesse of natural Objects , and their necessities , it is accustomed to three natural Sciences , apprehended by a simple Intellect ; yet as at least , it includeth the Gifts of Prudence , Counsel , &c. which are the free Gifts of the holy-Spirit ; truly the Gift of Medicine ought to be brought , and expected from such a Beginning , which is plainly carried above the path of Nature : For oftentimes , some one being sunk into the middle of his Dreams , forthwith conceives a Knowledge , which being awake , he had never attained : For Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge . So oftentimes , some one reads a place that was many times read without Fruit , from whence at length , he begins a more reformed Life . For do not those things des●end from the Father of Lights ? Therefore , such Knowledges are indeed infused , although not ●● the more excellent order : They are I say , Talents , upon which , the Understanding being we●● formed , doth afterwards build profitable Dostrins : For the Learned , as such , shall shine before the unlearned ) in the Kingdom of Heaven , if for the sake of learning , their Soules have fitted themselves for the greater free Gifts : For the Almighty hath pleased himself in the diversity of Mansions , Quires , Clearness , and Understanding of Angels , and of Men accompanying these . At least-wise , in favour of the obtainment of Healing , he causeth , that among the seven Spirits that are next to the Throne of God , the name of one is , the Medicine of God : For he is above Principalities , Thrones , Powers , and Dominions . Nevertheless , the heavenly Wights are not sick , nor stand they in need of Medicine : Neither is that Medicine of God , to be taken metaphorically , which well knew the Properties , even in the Gawl of a Fish . But in this place , I have undertook the Birth or Original of the Disease of the Stone , which I promised , as the Stone contains a Metamorphosis or Transformation , which in no wise can draw its beginning from Humours , but from the meer excrement of the Urin. And therefore this Treatise , might easily want a Treatise concerning the fiction of Humours and Complexions . AN EXPLICATION OF SOME Words of Art. 1. THe Liquor Alkahest of Paracelsus , it resolves every visible Body into its first matter , the power of the Seeds being reserved . Concerning this Liquor Chymists do say ; The common People do burn by Fire , we by Water . 2. The Archeus of Paracelsus , it is the vital Air of Seeds , and the directress of Life , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates , that is , the Spirit that maketh the assault . 3. Blas , for want of an Etimology , I call it the power of Motion , as well alterative as local . 4. Bur , it is the juyce of Minerals , or Mettals , 5. The Duelech of Paracelsus , it is the proper name of the Stone of man : For Calculus or a pebble stone , is a Metaphor . 6. Gas is a Spirit not coagulable , such as is from fermenting Wine ; and also that red one , which through the operation of Aqua Fortis , is belched forth , &c. 7. The Magnal , is the Sheath in the Air , being a middle Creature between a Body , and not a Body . 8. Magnum Oportet , it is the Thistle and Thorn of the Earth in the middle Life of man : whereof in a particular Treatise . 9. The Leffas of Paracelsus , is the juyce of the Earth , newly drawn into the Root , as it were the Kitchin of a Vegetable . 10. The Zenexton of Paracelsus , is an Amulet or Preservative Pomander against the Plague . 11. The Powder of Vigo , it is known to Barbers . 12. The Element of the Fire of Venus , is the Oyl of the Sulphur of Copper . 13. Aqua Chrysulca , and Regis , it is Aqua Fortis ; and this same being married or joyned with somewhat less than a fourfold quantity of Sal Armoniack . 14. Horizontal Gold , it is Gold in its Weight , but not yet sufficiently Yellow . 15. Diaceltatesson of Paracelsus , it is the Quicksilver of the Vulgar , being coagulated in the Alkahest , and tinged with the water of Eggs : And it is made the Coralline Secret , of the Essence and condition of Aureity or goldiness ; because it is also Horizontal . 16. The Relolleum of Paracelsus , is a Quality not having in it a seminal Being ; even as are the Elementary Qualities ; likewise the Colour and Signature of Simple things . But the other Words less usual , are either Medicinal ones , or at least described and cleared up in the present Text of the Author , and so are obvious to , or easie to be understood by the Reader . An unheard of DOCTRINE Concerning the manner of making , the Contents , Roots , and dissolving of the Disease of the STONE . And likewise of sence or feeling , Sensation , pain , unsensibility , benummednesse , motion , unmoveablenesse . Even as of Diseases of this sort : the Leprosie , Falling-Evil , Apoplexy , Palsie , Convulsion , Coma , &c. All things being new and paradoxal hitherto . A Treatise profitable , as well for a natural Philosopher , and Physitian , as for an Alchymist : but most profitable for the Sick. John Baptista van Helmont of Bruxels , being the Author . A TREATISE Of the Disease of the STONE . PETRIFICATION , Or the Making of a STONE . CHAP. I. 1. THe Schooles of Medicine did already doubt before Paracelsus . 2. The opininion of the Antients concerning the causes of making of a Stone . 3. A sounder doctrine of Paracelsus . 4 , The flux of seeds for a Stone . 5. The disposition of Minerals from the Creation of the World. 6. What the Trival-line is . 7. What the Flinty Mountain is . 8. From whence the diversity of Stones is . 9. The powder of the Adamant is alwayes yellow . 10. Great or rocky stones , and small stones , how they differ . 11. The seed of a stone , wherein it exceeds a vegetable seed . 12. Stonifying in a man , and why a stone growes to the Tooth . 13. Some remarkable things . 14. Why some Insects do not become a stone , but the more perfect Animals , sometimes , altogether . 15. That the form is not introduced from the power of the matter . 16. After what manner a man is made a stone . 17. Nothing of a rocky stone is common with the stone in a man. 18. The Duelech of Paracelsus . 19. The praise of wild Carrot-seed , &c. THe more refined Physitians of the late past age , were silently astonished at the Doctrine of the Schooles , concerning the Elements , Temperaments and Humours , which was so unfortunate and un-obedient to their own positions . For neither could they satisfie themselves with a quaternary of humours for all Diseases . Wherefore , it was most exceeding easie for Paracelsus ( who by a most excelling testimony of Medicines , had drawn all Germany into the admiration of himself ) to perswade those that already doubted of the fiction of his Tartar ; that Tartar traiteroufly entring out of meates and drinkes , was the true cause of any disease whatsoever ; which thought of his begat Credit , and hath now fixed so stable a Root , that there is not almost any one , who doth not flee unto the Tartar of Parabelsus . I did owe indeed a singular Treatise unto Tartar , who was readily prepared for the History of the Stone , but that , I had abundantly written thereof among the Beginnings of Naturall Philosophy , and therefore I had left that Volume maimed , if I had from thence transferred the Treatise of Tartar hither . For truly , the Original integrity of Nature being there placed within the matter , the Archeus , and the Life , or Form , together with seminal Beginnings , hitherto unheard of , the Ferments also , the Authors of any kind of transmutations whatsoever , being newly discovered : but the Elements , Qualities , Complexions , and the fight , strife , contrarieties , and victories of these being rejected : Also the fictions of Humours and Catarrhs , being banished out of Nature , and Medicinal consideration : At length , Flatus's , Tartars , and the three first principles of the Chymists , being excepted out of the place of exercise of Diseases : and then I by degrees declining from things Speculative unto Discourses , handling Affects , have explained the defects , and successive alterations of Nature : and have pithily manifested to the World , the true cause of Diseases , hitherto unheard of . Therefore , the Stone being as a Monster bred at home in our own House , I have named this Book as it were on Outlaw , and now the errour of Tartar borrowed from Paracelsus , being forsaken , I now come unto Petrification , or the making of a Stone , unknown to the Schooles . For indeed , the Antients giving vp their Names to Aristotle , do ( according to the principles of this man ) as yet think , that all Stones and Minerals , without distinction , are made most especially of earth , by the mediation of heat and cold , as external workmen , yet with some additament of the three other Elements . Notwithstanding , since the weight of the rocky Stone exceeded the weight of Water : they from thence conjectured that the Earth might be the proper matter of all Minerals , And although they doubted in the weight of Gold , and knew neverthelesse , that a Mathematical demonstration , which is stronger than any Syllogism , was to be fetcht from its weight : yet , in the mean time they could not believe , having neglected their own dimensions , that Gold was Earth , many times piercing it self . And now they distrusted their owne positions much more ; seeing they determined Gold to be composed not of Earth alone , which is more ponderous than the other three Elements : but of the other more light ones , being mixed in a just or equal measure and proportion . Therefore , as destitute of counsel , they hung the diligent search of its weight upon the nail ; and Controversies being laid aside , they being as it were oppressed with drowsinesse , were content with saying , that mettals being as it were frozen with cold ( because they did again flow through the torture of the fire ) and the superfluity of water being dryed up , but the ayr and fire being well nigh excluded , remained as it were withered . Thus the dry Phylosophy of Aristotle hath reported hereof ; But they proved their position as I have said : For Mettals ( as they imagine ) flow all abroad through a contrary heat . As if indeed , a frozen work could not melt , but by the service of the Bellows ! Or that earth should be capable of melting by fire ; And again , at its pleasure , could require the countenance of earth , as oft as it should feel cold ! Are the Schooles so unmindfull of themselves , in that they not so long since said , that the Element of water is of it self vehemently cold , and slackly moist ? and so that Mettals ought to be congealed not from earth , but from Water ? But that the earth of it self is vehemently dry , and slackly cold ? and so ignorant of congealing ; so that from hence it followes : if Mettals in their chief part , are earth : they shall never be able to flow or be frozen up , seeing that they shall be able to be at the most , but remisly cold . Neither by a heightned heat , shall earth be ever able to be converted into water , or a watery substance , while it melted in the mettal . For truly , they grant unto the earth an intense or heightned dryth , which cannot but be fortified by the fire , but not destroyed thereby . In like manner , neither can the remiss or slack cold of the most strong earth , convert this earth ( while by the force of the fire it should be dissolved into water ) again into earth ; Because they believe the remiss qualities of the Elements , not to have so much activity , as that they can break the intense qualities of another Element . For with the same foot of stupidity , wherewith they began , they proceed to say , that great and small stones , are earth hardned , and as it were withered , with heat . The which they prove by Potters earth , which by heat alone , becomes a stone , as they will themselves . For , because a stone melts not by fire , even as otherwise , mettals do ; therefore they conjecturing of Nature from a Negative , have supposed they have untyed every knot . And this grosse wit ought to have been suspected by every one long since , if they all did not sleep a diseased drowsie sleep . For what will they say of Sulphur , which flowes or melts with the fire ? Hath frozen water or earth given a beginning to Sulphur , because it melts ? Or what will they say of the condensing or co-thickning of Glass , which is again dissolved by the same heat whereby it is made ? And what lastly concerning Salt , which by one degree of heat , is coagulated and waxeth dry , and by another degree thereof , is melted , and a gain is dissolved by moist things ? Surely it is a shame to stay any longer in Aristotelical trifles , and the Fables of Elementary qualities , while we must diligently search into the causes and original of things . Wherefore , Paracelsus first taught our Ancestors , that all Minerals ( which he believed to be materially made of the conjunction of the four Elements , and elsewhere , onely of the three Beginnings ) consisted chiefly of water , and so , that they are the fruits of the Element of water , no otherwise , than as Vegetables are the fruits of the earth . But it hath not been alway unknown to me , that all Bodies which are believed to be mixt , are materially , onely of water , none excepted . But that their Body is constrained , or coagulated by the necessity of a certain proper and specifical seed , for Ends known onely to the Creator , from their cause ; which proposition , I have proved to the full in the beginning of Natural Philosophy . It hath also been hitherto neglected , after what manner these seeds of things may come to light , may cover themselves with the wrapperies of Bodies , and dispose the same , and how those very seeds may at length , of necessity hearken to the importunities of Bodies . Wherefore , neither shall it be unacceptable , in this place , briefly to repeat the progress and flux of Seeds to their form , and their maturities , in Minerals , out of the Doctrine by me elsewhere more largely delivered . For indeed , if a Stone be not made of a Stone , it must needs be , that stonifying includes the Generation of some certain new Being : but every Generation presupposeth some kind of seed , which may dispose the matter to a Being , in potentia , or possibility : seeing nothing which is not vital , is able to promote it self to perfection . And therefore it would be a foolish and accidental perfection , which should proceed from a Body without an internal Guide , and an end appointed unto it . Therefore , if a Body be dispositively distinguished from the internal Efficient , and doth issue in its production , unto ends proposed unto it in Nature ; then also the Etymologie of a seed , doth of right belong unto it : because it proceedeth wholly from an incorporeal Beginning . But this Beginning , shall easily be granted by me , to issue forth in vital things from the Image , or according to the Idea framed by the Conception or cogitation of the Generater , which therefore is called the imaginative power , or faculty , But that inanimate things have seminal Gifts implanted in their first Beings , which after the manner of the Receiver , do also proportionably after some sort , answer to the Imagination , the Sympathy and Antipathy of inanimate things do teach . For a non-sensitive Body ( namely the Loadstone ) must needs after some sort feel the Scituation of the Pole or North star ; if it direct it self of its own accord unto it , but is not drawn by the Pole ( even as in the Book of the Plague , I teach by manifest Arguments ) Likewise that it feels or perceives Iron , if , neglecting the Pole , it by a Choice , inclines it self to the Iron ; which particulars , least they should be here , after a tedious manner repeated by me , it is sufficient thus to have supposed them by the way . Moreover , This very Idea and perfect act of a new Being , to wit , the seminal efficient cause , doth even in unsensitive things perform its office , no otherwise than if it were strong in Life and Sense ; which Idea or imaginous likenesse , cloathes it selfe with the Ayr of its own Archeus , and by meanes thereof , doth afterwards perfect the dispositions and Organs of the Body , and at length compleateth those things , which in the delineation of its own seminal Image , are designed it for Ends known to God alone . And in this respect also , every Creature depends originally on God. For this God hath freely put into living Creatures and plants , a seminal faculty of framing such an Idea : that is , a fruitfulnesse of multiplying and raising up Of-spring , by vertue of the Word ( Encrease and multiply ) to endure for Ages . The which , under the correction of the Church , I thus borrow from the Scriptures . In the Beginning , the Earth was empty and voyd : For surely , it was beset with a double emptinesse or vacuity . The which , notwithstanding , is not so said of the Element of water . For the earth had not as yet minerals in its Bosom , if it were void . Indeed the earth was a meer and pure Sand , not yet distinguished by a numerous variety and ranks of minerals . But the Spirit of the Lord was carried upon the Great Deep of the Waters . Not indeed , that that carrying , was not an empty idleness wanting a mysterie , or a voluptuous ease of swimming : but it contained the mysterie of a Blessing , whereby the water might replenish the vacuity of the earth in one of its emptinesses , with Fruits : But on the other hand , might satisfie the vacuity of the earth , and fill up its emptinesse by Vegetables and living Creatures . Therefore , before the Light sprang up ; all mettals and minerals began at once , in the floating of the divine Spirit . Of which thing , first of all , the hidden lights of mettals , imitating the Stars , and the foregoing Testimonies , which are wont to shine by Night , in Mine-making Mountains , do perswade me . At leastwise , the Spirit of the Lord , which filled the whole earth , being now earnestly desirous of Creating , sealed by its Word the fruitfull Idea of its desire , in the Spondill or Marrow of the Abysse of the Waters , which in an instant , brought forth the whole wealthy diversity of Stones , Minerals , and Mettals , whereby it replenished the emptinesse of the earth with much usury : which vaculty indeed , living Creatures and plants were not able sufficiently , as neither suitable to fulfill . But the Pavement , or Pantafle of the earth , which this most rich of-Spring of waters was entrusted with for the filling up of its vacuity , is called by Paracelsus , the Trival-line , the Womb that was great with Child with the seeds of minerals , wherein the Lord implanted Reasons or Respects , Endowments , and seeds that were to be sufficient for Ages . For so indeed , the wealthy seed of Rocky stones and minerals is implanted in the Water , that it may receive its determination and Ferment in the womb of the Earth . But what the Virgin Earth may be , without , and besides minerals , I have demonstrated in my Treatises of Natural Philosophy . But the most rich seed of this Store-house and Treasury , seemes to be profesly neglected by Moses , least Israel , by attributing divine and immortal Powers to Fountains and Mountains , should sacrifice unto them . But besides , the sand or earth being on every side , con-tinual to its self , having received a seed , arose into Hills and Rocks , and divided the Pavements of Stones . For , as the Rise of things began from a Miracle ; so now it adhereth to its second Causes , that the invisible Archeus's of things , and the hidden seeds thereof may testifie , that they are likewise Governed by the intelligible World. For from hence it is , that the waters have remained gotten with Child through the desire of the seeds , and the Almighty hath disposed the Idea's of his pleasure , or Precept , through the Water . Yet these seminal desires of the water , do not fructifie through a successive propagation of one thing by another , after the manner of plants : but a seminal vertue lurking in the Treasures of the water , doth peculiarly stir up its own Of-springs from it self , and successively perfect them . For a seed or seminal and mineral Idea , is included in the water , which never goes out of it : but locks up and incloseth it self in that matter , until at length , under the maturity of dayes , that be made thereof , which was born to be made of it . The operative Image therefore , in the waters , doth receive a sensible , and presently a fermentaceous odour from the flinty Mountain . But the flinty Mountain is a Plantafle , Pavement , or space of earth : wherein great stones , small stones , and all minerals , draw their original out of the water ; even as elsewhere concerning the original of Fountains . And moreover , that Odour is the Ferment , from whence a complete mineral seed doth at length , issue . From thence also , is every Rocky stone . But this seed is not in minerals by way of a Metaphor , a certain Equivocal thing , or proportionable resemblance , under the licentious allusion of Similitude . For new flints and stones do grow in Fountains and Rivers . But whatsoever is made , and so long as it is in making , neither is as yet in its perfection intended by the Archeus , hath a seed in it self : so as that I may understand an Univocal or simple Nature to be in its own constituted parts . For the water being purely clear , having in it the seed and Ferment of a stone , becomes the Crystal of all Gemes . But if besides , the pure colour of a certain mettal , or Fire-stone shall concur ; it is made a Gemme , following the hardnesse and properties of its owne coagulated Body . For just even as Tinne ( which affords to Painters a yellow colour , which they call Masticot ) makes every mettall ( its lead being taken away ) brickle : So also it tingeth the hardnesse of Gemmes , or precious Stones . Therefore the Adamant or Diamond alone , affords a yellow powder or dust ; and the powder of other Gemmes , is white . But if water not being purely transparent , doth incorporate it self with a mettalick colour , there is made a thick or dark stone ; a Jasper , Agate , Flint , red Marble , Marble , &c. and that according to the rerequirance of the mixed seed . In the mean time , Rocky stones are more easily dissolved than small flinty-stones ; and do again of their own accord , or by Art , return into water ( who converteth Rocks into pooles of waters . ) But I say , that Rocky stones are convertible into a lime , and they sometimes perish of their own accord , into the nourishing juyce of Fields , and into Corny Beings or substances . In Quarries of stones also , a nitrous salt doth oftentimes voluntarily drop , with a perpetual distillation : to wit , that Rocky stones may return into their first matter . Even as , on the other hand , through a Rocky odour of the Ferment , the whole water passeth into a Rocky stone ; or at least , as to a part thereof , wherein that odour , radically grew together in it : And that , as well in time of flowing , as of standing still in a pool . But it was not as yet , sufficient for the Divine Bounty , to have made from the Beginning , Rocks , great stones and small stones , and to have conferred a seed for propagating a new Of-spring : whereby small or flinty , and rocky stones should afterwards , be made of waters : But moreover , he would have it , that a stonifying seed , should in many things exceed their own vegetables , and should testifie that those seeds were more powerfull in these , than themselves . For neither doth the seed stonifie only , with the water subjected unto it : but moreover , through the odour of the stonifying seed , it makes the Body that co-toucheth with it , become a rocky stone , onely by touching upon it . For so the Glove of Frederick the Emperour , was stonified in one part thereof , to wit , in that part which he had for some time moistened beneath the water : but in the other half or moity , being fenced by a graven Impression , it remained leather . So that , not onely Herbs , Woods , Breads , Iron , Egges , Fishes , Birds , and four-footed Beasts , are by a wonderfull Metamorphosis , made a Rocky stone ; But also , as Ambrose Pareus witnesseth , there was at Paris , a humane Young cut out of the Womb , of a mature bignesse , that was turned into a Rocky stone . His Toe was broken , and the Tendons , and joynts of his . Bones appeared within . And likewise , his Gum being broken ( for he was of a gaping , and as it were howling mouth ) shewed a Tooth underneath in the sheath of the Cheek-bone . The which , a Friend testified to me , who for the sharpening of Instruments , in preparing Instruments designed for Mathematical demonstration , is wont oftentimes to make a Whetstone in the back of this Young. So likewise , Histories makes mention , that in Vaults nigh the City Pergamum ( now called Pergamo , or Bargamo ) there were some dead Carcasses found , to wit , of those whom the fear of War had forced into hidden places ; that they were I say stonified from their superficies , even to their Center . From whence , many particulars worthy of note , do arise . 1. That rocky stones are generated of their owne and proper seed : and that they afterwards consist also , of another stonifying seed : that is , such kind of seeds do not onely transchange the water , as it were their proper and immediate Object : but and also other strange Bodies , which have drawn in the aforesaid seed onely in way of an Odour . 2. And that therefore , those strange Bodies ought at the least , to bear a co-resemblance in something , even in their remote matter . Seeing they have nothing common at all , besides that principating matter , which in rocky stones , is meer water . For neither otherwise could the Fruits of divers Elements , differing at least , in the whole kind , light together into one . 3. But that rocky stones are not composed of a coagulable Tartar , as of their proper and near matter : but that they arise from a proper seed , which was bred to stonifie any thing ( even of a matter not disposed unto a rocky stone . ) 4. That the stonifying seed , from whence Herbs , Birds , a nest , Leather , &c. do become a rocky stone , is of a greater efficacy , than otherwise the seeds of Vegetables are , which do fore-require a matter disposed by the Generater . Therefore every Land doth not bring forth all things . But a rocky seed , snatcheth to it any bodies , even those that are far estranged from it self . And then the other seeds require , that the matter subjected unto them be reduced unto a tough or slimy Liquor , and such as is for receiving of the seed ; which Liquor , they have called the first matter of Generation ; and they require , that every figure and comelinesse of the foregoing composed Body , be also destroyed . But a stonifying seed doth with a Reservation of the humane figure , stonifie the man wholly throughout the whole , to wit , as well his bones as his skin , without an intermediating putrefaction , or dissolution of the matter . 5. That a stonifying seed consists in a stony odour alone , which is an incorporeal and invisible Ferment . 6. That the matter of a Tooth , is not meerly bony : but a middle or neutral matter between a Bone and a Rocky stone . And therefore also a Tooth doth by its co-touching , at length stonifie whatsoever shall the more stubbornly adhere unto it , whether that pulse shall be of that which is made of Bread , Flesh , Potherbs , Fish , Apple , or Pease , &c. That is , although in it self , nor of it self , it hath not any disposition unto the making of a rocky stone . This seed I say , hath notably deceived Paracelsus and his followers with the name of Tartar. For the stone of a Tooth is not dissolved in boyling water , like Tartar : Neither is the Generation thereof of , most near akinne unto the Tartar of Wine ; but it is a neutral Animal stonification , made indeed from a stone-like odour and seed , which the pulse adhering to the Tooth , drawes to it , by touching . 7. Hitherto hath the speculation of Hornes regard ; For the horne of a Cow , as also the pantafles or hoofes of Herds , and of the flock of lesser Cattel , are by a proper and simple name , of an horny matter . But the horne of a Stag , is partly of a bony matter , and partly of a wooden matter : and so that also therefore it intimates Thornes and Branches , and falls off yearly , by reason of a retained property of leaves , and of a wooden part . Ivory also hath a great part of bone , and another of a stone , or of a Tooth-like form . 8. That although many Bodies do become rocky stones , in Fountains : yet that comes not to passe , without a remarkable stonifying odour . For therefore , as many things as are stonified , are transchanged by the odour of the place : But not that the rocky stone sends forth from it self , a seed like a Generater . 9. And that therefore , the original seed of the rocky stone , was immediately sown by the Creator , and constituted in places , being sufficient for a sufficiency , unto the end of the World. 10. That if stonifying stands not in need of the device of Tartar , much lesse surely doth the Generations of Diseases . 11. That some Insects ( especially the Toade ) although they are bred in rocky stones themselves : yet they do not become a rocky stone , even as otherwise , almost all other things do : For that , they have received a viral Archeus by way of a separation from the stones themselves : no otherwise , than as the Fire-stone , or mettal , is separated from the stony veines wherein they are bred , and do keep their unspotted matter , dissolveable . Therefore that separated Archeus remaines unconquerable by a rocky seed . 12. That it is a false Maxime , that there is not made an introducing of any form , unlesse from a fore-existing disposition of the matter . For truly , a rocky stone is immediately made of subjects , even diuers in kind , without a co-melting of the matter . For indeed the Magitians of Pharaoh , when they had seen the Gnats to proceed immediately from the dust of the earth , which they had known to be the immediate Ofsprings of the water , they cryed out : Here is the finger of God ; because they could not imitate this effect . For since there is a most difficult return of earth into water , they knew , that it was a far more famous thing for Gnats to be made of the dust of the earth , than for a Serpent to be made of the Rod , and this of that : or for Frogs and Blood to be made of water . Which difficulty Satan well knowing , said not : Say or command thou , that bread be made a stone ( for this happens in Nature immediately ) but , that those stones be made bread . From whence indeed , he had divined of the Omnipotency of Christ. For as through a stonifying seed , having arisen from an hoary putrifaction of the bottome , shell-fishes are fenced with a stony crust : whose seed is not so much propagated by a sexual wedlock , as by the very fermental putrefaction it self , of the bottome ; and therefore a posterity growes to their shells from without . So also , there are other Insects , whose Archeus could not be incrusted , nor vanquished by a stony seed . From a like cause , as the Toad drives away from him all troublesome stonification from without . Yet such kind of wormes are not sufficient for curing of the Stone ; Because the last Life of these ( under which , a resistance against the rocky seed layes hid ) hath vanished away before it be received into the use of Medicine . Also , a hoary putrified stony odour ; if it shall light on the vegetal juyce of the earth ( which Paracelsus calls Leffas ) stony Pavements arise under the earth . A man also being shut up in a fermental putrified place , is first choaked with a stony odour ; which odour afterwards passing through his Arteries and solid parts , transchangeth the dead Carkase , before it can putrifie into a rocky stone . For so the earth pierceth the vegetal juyce with a rocky odour , and a stony plant ariseth , as it were out of a transplanted vegetable seed . As is manifest in Coral , and the mosse thereof . But from whence had the Young , according to Pareus , drawn the odour of a stony seed ? but that happened not at first , by vertue of a rocky seed : but there was made a transplantation , through the force of the teeming Mother , who the more attentively admited a stony Engravement ; otherwise , the Young being framed and transchanged into a rocky stone , a stony odour afterwards issued from thence : whereby it came to passe , that almost the whole womb of the Mother , together with that Young , became stonified . For as smoak pierceth and tingeth fleshes that are moist and compacted with Salt , from their Circumference even to their Center : so also doth a stony Odour , Flesh ; To wit , that of a dead Carkase there may be made a true mineral Rock , having nothing common with the stone of man : and the which therefore I will hereafter with Paracelsus , name Duelech , by reason of its singular nature and properties from all other rocky stones . But fume or smoak , although it may tinge fleshes : yet it transchangeth them not . Wherefore , frem thence it is sufficiently manifest , that , not every odour is for the transchanging of a thing ; but that onely , whereunto a Ferment cometh : from whence the odour becomes wholly great with Child of the seed . Bodies therefore are stonified , indeed naturally , by their own seed , but plainly after a monstrous manner ; they being supposed , to be strangers in kind , because they are stonified by a forreign seed of the place . Standing pooles of water do thus incrust shell fishes , which co-toueh with the bottome , by reason of the putrified hoary odour of the bottome : Insects swimming on the water , not so . Therefore waters that swiftly run , do for the most part , want such little Beasts . Crabs also , are not found but in stony places : because other places are destitute of the Ferment of a rocky stone . About the Year 1320 , between Russia and Tartaria , in the Altitude of 64 degrees , not far from the Fen of Kitaya , a Hoorde or Village of the Baschirdians , is read to have been transchanged wholly into rocky stones , together with all its Herd of Cattel , Waggons , and Furniture or Armory . And Men , Camels , Horses , Flocks , and all the concomitant kind of Waggons , and Armory provisions being grown together , even at this day are with a horrid Spectacle , said to stand as yet stonified under the open Element . But if a miracle be absent from thence ; surely that whole Country is nothing but a continued Rock , passable or holie with chinks : the which ( the Wind being silent for many dayes , and the Ayr from above , pressed down ) a strong stony putrified hoary odour ( such a killing odour as is beheld to be in some Burrowes or Mines of the Earth ) might have breathed forth , and killed its walking Inhabitants in one night : which at length , by reason of the cold of the place , restraining putrefaction , transchanged those Creatures which but lately before it had killed , into a rocky stone . No otherwise than as those of Bargamo , in the Vanlts , and the Glove in the Fountain . And therefore , the drink of such Springs is exceeding unwholsome ; Because it disposeth the Archeus into a stony disposition ; molests with gripings or wringings of the Bowels , shortens the Life ; and therefore kills the Midriffs , before that in drinking , they are transchanged into a stone . In the red Monastery of Zonia , nigh Bruxels , and in the Vestry of the Temple , some Springs breath forth , which apply or fastens stones to the Wall , contrary to the Proverbe ; A drop by often falling , hollowes stones . For the stones that are grown to the Wall , do oftentimes shake off by a Crook and Hatchet . But the Monks complain , that they suffer frettings or wringings in their Bowels , unless they daily use Daucus or wild Carrot-seed boyled in their Ales. As the Odour of wild - Carrot , tames and represseth a stony odour , Therefore let young Beginners learn , that the rocky stone hath its seeds , no lesse than other things , in its middle life , under the Cloak of a Fermental odour , but not in a Tartarous coagulation of the matter . CHAP. II. The Causes of Duelech , or the stone in man , according to the Antients . 1. The rashnesse of the Schooles . 2. The supposed matter of Duelech , and the effects of the same . 3. Those causes of the Antients are rejected . 4. Thinking hath deceived the Schooles , whereby they supposed the effect to be the cause it self . 5. The progresse of humane nature is every where alike . 6. The errour of the Schooles , in the causes of Duelech , is proved . 7. Some Rashnesses , disclemencies and sluggishnesses of the Schooles . 8. A faulty Argument of the Schooles in the efficient cause of Duelech it self . 9. Arguments drawn from sense . 10. That Duelech is made of the Vrin it self ; but not of the contents thereof , distinguished in opposition to the Vrine . 11. Consequences upon the ignorance of causes . 12. the wearisomenesse or grief of the Author . 13. An handicraft operation of the Author , rejecting the causes of the Schooles assigned to Duelech . 14. A Maxime opposite to the Schooles . 15. The vanity of Tartar in the Stone . 16. Pray ye , and it shall be given unto you . THe hoard of Tartars being already long since cast out and re-cleansed elsewhere , which through the Captain Paracelsus had invaded Diseases . I must now in this place , wage War with the Precepts of Galen , in the causes of Duelech or the stone in Man. For indeed , the Schooles having forgotten a quaternary or fourfold number of natural Causes , have made mention of two causes onely , for the Generation of Duelech . And so that likewise , they agree with me , in the name and number of Causes onely ; but not in the thing it self . For truly , they teach , that the matter , and efficient , are the parents of the stone . And so , their own conscience urging them , they deny its Form and End , or Causes ; or do either insufficiently treat of the stone , or at length , exclude Duelech out of the Race of natural things . Yea , seeing they will have every efficient cause to be external , they leave it to be concluded by their young Beginners , that Duelech is naturally constituted , and doth depend onely from an external efficient Cause . The Schooles therefore call the matter of the stone , a certain Muscilage , which they call a slimy or snivelly phlegme : but they will have the efficient cause of the stone , to be Heat , as well that external Heat of the Bed , &c. as that of the Bowels it self being badly affected . Wherein , at the very entrance , they forsake their own Patron ; who denies the efficient cause in natural things , to be internal . Duelech therefore , shall be caused onely by heat . I am of a contrary judgement . I have shewed by handicraft Operation , that no muscilage , as such , ever is , hath been , or can be , the matter [ ex qua ] or [ whereof ] of the Stone . But if the muckinesse it self , be sometimes laid hold of by the true matter of the stone , and be shut up under the same : it stonifies indeed , from the seed of Duelech , together , otherwise , with the proper matter of Duelech , but not by reason of its being a muscilage , or as it is tough and slimy . For first of all the undistinct observance of the Schooles their experience , hath deceived them . For they beheld the snivelly urine of those , who now carried a stone in their Bladder : and they presently thereupon , suspending a further diligent search , cryed out , Victory ; and bare in hand , that they had found the immediate and containing cause of the Stone . Truly , first the Schooles are miserable : but much more miserable are the infirm or sick . For if they had once looked behind them , they had easily seen , that the stone being rightly cut out , that and before accustomed balast of muckinesse or snivel , doth also presently cease in the urine of that infirm person . For from hence the Schooles might have been able certainly to know , that if , that muckinesse , which is voided before , while the Stone was present , were any kind of cause and matter of the same , that should surely be made , either from the Bladder it self , or from the stone , or should be sent unto the Bladder from elsewhere . If therefore it was sent from elsewhere , verily when Duelech was cut out , it ought as yet to be bred , sent thither , and daily voided forth : since the cutting and taking away of the stone , hath respect onely to the Bladder : but in no wise , unto the part which is otherwise remotely distant , the bringer forth , and sender of continual snivels . But if such a muckinesse proceeded from the stone , or next from the Bladder , it shall not any way , be a cause ; but rather an effect of the stone , presupposing the stone to be present . For the Bladder is hurt in its digestion , by so cruel and troublesome a Guest as the stone is ; wherefore as impatient thereof , it continually weepes out the undigested part of its owne nourishment , because it cannot perfect and promote it : and therefore it successively sends for new . Therefore that snivel is not the matter [ whereof ] of the stone : but the mournfull effect hereof . And therefore they badly accuse that muscilage for the matter of the stone : For they see , and do not know what they have seen . They call phlegme , one , and indeed a separated humour of the four first humours arising in sanguification or blood-making , which is the last nourishment in digestion , and the immediate and spermatick or seedy nourishment of the solid members proceeding from the venal Blood , being totally digested , it being degenerated in its passage , by reason of the indisposition of the part to be nourished . For the stone hath nothing which is vital in it self , nor hath it any thing vital out of it self , which may afford , or stir up a muscilage from its seed ; And much lesse is Nature solicitous of , or doth intend the increase of the stone , that from its owne continual nourishing warmth , it should think of procreating that , whereby it may intend and confirm its enemy , and own destruction within ; especially , if the direction of the same doth depend on an un-erring intelligence or understanding . For the Schooles , if ever they made trial from Charity towards their Neighbour , or a care of knowing , they ought at least , to have run over unto some such like things . To wit , that a web , or moat in the eye , doth against ones will , stir up continual teares . That the Bone Ethmoides , or straining bone being stopped with snivel , doth continually provoke the liquor Latex , and powres forth snivel , in a Pose . That the Squinancy also , thus froaths up an uncessant and mucky spittle : even as also , that the bloody flux drops down the proper snivel of the Bowel , together with blood . For then , they had easily seen , that snivel is made , and doth continually issue from the Bladder , being thus besieged by Duelech : but not that the Tear is the cause of the web in the Eye , or that the watery Latex being largely powred out , doth stop up the spongy bone in the forehead : or that mucky spittle doth procreate the Squinancy . For such is the perpetual commerce of the whole Body , that a member being hurt , or the power thereof , its Inhabitant : the functions of the same do go astray , and its digestion is forthwith vitiated , and the nourishment thereof , being otherwise lively , doth for the most part , degenerate , that if it declines not into a spermatick disposition ; at leastwise , it doth into a mucky or snivelly one . For so , the Bladder weepes out the continual muck of its owne defiled nourishment , while the stone is present : and ceaseth so to do , when it is absent . Therefore by such a muck being granted , they endeavour too frivolously to prove , to wit , that the material cause of the stone , is that , which , the stone being there placed , is by accident , and occasionally , effectually made . In the next place , if such a mucky snivel , being bred in the urine , were the matter [ whereof ] of the stone , and heat were the proper efficient cause thereof : and that both these causes being present , were sufficient ; truly seeing the effect , when sufficient causes are granted , doth unexcusably , of necessity succeed : therefore , all such mucky snivel , would of necessity , become a stone is the Bladder : No otherwise than as the whole milk simply , is coagulated at once by the Runnet . And so , the Bladder , should presently be filled up with one onely stone , or it should be false , that the causes being granted , which are requisite for the constituting of a thing , the thing it self must needs be made , or be . Neverthelesse , in the tearmes proposed , that muckinesse being continually present ( at leastwise successively ) under the heat of the Bladder , doth not wholly passe over ( as otherwise should be required ) into a stone , according to the similar , simple , and homogeneal unity of it self : but is wholly voided out . Therefore the two constitutive causes of the Stone , assigned by the Schooles , can neither be true , nor sufficient ones . Wherefore , I greatly admire at so great a sluggishnesse of diligently searching , nor that in so many fore-past Ages , there hath been any one of that curiosity , who hath once hitherto dryed that Snivel voyded out of the Bladder , with any degree of heat . For he had learned and certainly known , whether a stone would ever be made thereby ; or indeed , any brickle sand-stone even as if he did dry the snivel of the Nostrils in a plate of mettal . It is therefore an intolerable thing , that none of the Schooles their Professours , hath hitherto cherished the Urine , together with the aforesaid Muscilage , with a due lukewarmth , that he might have learned , that the stone grew together in Urinals or Chamberpots , not from the snivel : but well or successfully in respect of the Urine . I am deservedly angry , that in things of so great moment , from whence , notwithstanding an infernal sentence of punishment hangs almost over the head of the Schooles : the extinguishment of Charity , yea , and the very denial of Knowledge are manifestly proved : yet that they have never hitherto considered , that as long as they live , nothing can ever be dryed up or wither in the Bladder : or that ever the action of heat is required for the hardening of the stone , that the watery parts should be consumed ; but that the more grosse parts , should at once , by the same endeavour , be more toughly co-thickned . For otherwise , if they suppose the necessity of their efficient heat to be such , that like Lime , in its maturity , the stone being cherished by heat , doth grow together ; Now the Universities confound themselves , while they see , that clear and transparent urine , layes aside its sandy or stony crusts in the cold , and in Urinals or Chamberpots . They behold ( I say ) Stones to be brought to maturity , without heat ; and also that the Urine of healthy persons , doth affix sands and scaly plates on Urinals . Neither likewise , doth this very thing thus come to passe , if the Vessel being close shut , the urine be all the day long , most grosly cherished by heat : therefore it is the part of ignorance , that by all the clear-sightednesse of Phisitians , the difference hath not yet been discerned between the coagulation of a flint , in a Spring or River , and the drying of Clay that is made by heat . Learn ye therefore , oh ye Schooles , of me an unprofitable and the least of young Beginners : that heat is through occasion of the loines : but not the occasion of the stone , or of the adhering sand . That is , the stone is not from heat , but heat from the stone : even as heat ariseth in the finger , from a Thorne being thrust into it ; but the Thorne is not there made by heat . For ye have heard the wailings of the Strangury or pi●sing by drops , but not of heat in the stone of the Bladder : even as otherwise , ye have heard complaints of heat in the Disease of the stone of the Kidnies ; wherefore , if heat were the efficient cause of the stone : there would be far greater complaints in the stone of the Bladder ; Because this stone , by reason of its greater hardnesse , should also be the of-spring of a greater heat and drying , than that of the Reines . And the rather , because that , doth almost continually swim in the Latex or urinal Liquor : whereas the Kidney , doth not any thing detain the trans-sliding u●ine . Surely the stone of the Bladder should have need of a violent heat . For the diseased complain of a sharpnesse , burning heat , and pain . But these things are not felt in the nest of the Stone , even as in the Nut of the Yard . Therefore Children have known how to distinguish of the sense and place of sharpnesse and pain : but not the Schooles . But moreover , although the urine may seem biting and sharp as if there were the burning of fire , as in the Strangury : yet being voided , it is not any thing more hot , or sharper to the tast , or more salt than it was wont , or is meet to be . There is an apparent burning and tartnesse of the urine : not indeed , from a true heat , or any sharpnesse of the urine : but onely , by reason of the forreignnesse of some certain small quantity of sharpnesse , through a Ferment being co-mixed therewith : which thing , the Strangury teacheth , being contracted by new Ales , and those as yet fermenting from a sharpnesse . Therefore Macc , or Saffron being taken ( for they must be sharp and hot Medicines , yea reaching to the very place , if they ought to help ; and therefore , by their odour testifying their presence in the urine ) the aforesaid burning heat for the most part , ceaseth . For it is a Philosophical truth , that the stone increaseth by the same causes , whereby it ariseth , and so on the other hand : But stones being joined to our Chamber-pots , do confirm that the stone is naturally made , and at leastwise , without an actual heat of the Chamber-pot and encompassing Ayr : or that heat is not required unto its constitution : therefore the stone is made and increased materially of the urine ; but not of a vital muscilage : nor that it doth require heat for its efficient cause ; and much lesse , an excesse of the same heat . For the mucky snivel doth not appear rejected or cast forth , unlesse the stone be first present in the Bladder : and so , the cause , as slow , should have come after its effect . For I have observed , that if any one did pisse through a thick Towel , and found not a muscilage herein : yet but a few houres after that time , his urine being strained thorow , and filtred into a clean Glass , had yielded a thin and red sand , equally adhering thereunto ; neither also , had it fallen down more plentifully about the bottome , than it stuck about the sides of the Glasse . And that thing had thus happened in a cold encompassing Ayr. Wherefore , even from thence , any one ought to be more assured , that that sand had not gone forth with the urine , in the beginning of his making water ( because it was not yet bred ) neither that it was actually in the urine , For otherwise , it had stood detained in the Towel , however thin it had been , like the atomes of Potters earth . Or if the Towel being not thick enough , had deceived him : yet at least , it had presently rushed unto the bottome , in the likenesse of sand , or a settlement : neither had it affixed it self in its making , in so great a grain , and with so great a distance of equality , to the sides of the Vessel : Because it had wanted a glew , whereby it might have been able to glew it self thereunto . In the next place , seeing that sand wants a glew throughout its whole Superficies , except in that part ; wherein it adheres to the Chamberpot or Urinal : it is sufficiently manifest , that at one and the same instant , wherein that sand was made , it was likewise also glewed thereunto . For from thence , any one ought to be the more assured ( if he had ever toughly laboured in a diligent searching out of the truth ) that since that sand applyed it self to the Glasse of its owne free accord , that it was also generated , far after the making water , to wit , in the immediate instant before its affixing : but that , it being affixed , however the most small it was in it self , it afterwards encreased by additions . Which effects , indeed , as they are wrought by a common nature growing or glistening in the urine , and not from a particular atome of sand , which affixed it self to the Vessel ; Hence also , it equally departed , and that , at once , out of the whole urine . For from this so ordinary and daily handicraft Operation , if the love of Health were cordially seated in the Schooles ; they ought for some Ages before now , to have known ( nor indeed from an argument drawn from a Similitude , and far fetcht ; but altogether from the Identity or same linesse of the urine and stony sand it self ) that for as much as that sand had grown together from the matter of the urine , to wit , of the same matter , from whence the stone also was : and that indeed though a muscilage of the matter , and heat of the place were absent ( for the pewter Chamberpot stands in the cold encompassing ayr ) and likewise without the suspition of the affect of the stone , or an infirmity of the pisser ( for also any the unblamed urine of healthy persons , generates this sand and applyes it self to the urine ) therefore the sand and stone in us , proceeds from stony causes ; to wit : the same , from which the urine becomes of a sandy grain in the Glasse without us , being also healthy persons . Which thing , being by me seen , I seriously sighed , and certainly knew , that the Schooles had erred in the knowledge of the cause , and that they do even to this day stumble in curing of the Stone ; the which , notwithstanding , they rashly assume to themselves , and presume of . I greatly bewailed the stupidities and false devices of so many Ages ; and more , that the unhappy Obediences , strict Clientships , paines , and deaths of the sick ; the untimely destructions of Families ; and lastly , the spoyles of Widows and Orphans , had happened under unfaithful an ignorant helpers , who deceived the World with the name of Phisitians . For then I knew in good earnest , that I knew nothing , who had learned my princiciples from such as knew nothing . I therefore disdaining the long since blinde ignorance of my presumption , cast away Books , and bestowed perhaps two hundred Crownes in Books , as a Gift upon studious persons ( I wish I had burned them ) being altogether resolved with my self , to forsake a Profession that was so ignorant , if not also , full of deceit . At length in a certain night , being awaked out of my sleep , I meditated , that no Schollat was above his Master ; yet I resolved in my mind , that many of my School-fellowes had exceeded their Teachers : but the truth of that Text was brought unto me , namely , That a man did watch and build in vain , unlesse the Lord did co-operate . I knew therefore , likewise , that we do teach any one in vain , unlesse the Master of all Truth shall also teach us within , whom none of his Disciples hath ever surpassed , Therefore I long and seriously searched , after what manner I might attain the knowledge of the Stone , from this Master . For truly , I most perfectly knew , that Authors had not so much as the least light , and that therefore , neither could they give me that Knowledge : But I confessed my self to be a great Sea of ignorance , and an Abysse of manifold darknesses , and to want all light ; unless it were one onely Spark , that so , piercing my self , I might acknowledge , that nothing was left unto me . And so , although I frequently prayed , yet presently after , I despaired in my mind . At length , making a thorow search of my own self ; I found , that I was my self , free from the stone . For I had never felt any pain of my Reines , or had taken notice of one onely sand therein : Yet I had now and then beheld that sand adhering in the Urinal , yet without any sliminess , or disturbance of heat , or local pain . For I wondered , that having powred out my urine , a sand should stick to the sides of the Urinal , and be so fastened thereto , at so great a distance of equality , that it denyed all fore-existence of matter falling down . It once happened , that I was conversant with some noble Women , the Wives of Noblemen , and so also with the Queen her self , from the third hour after noon , even to the third hour after midnight , at London in the Court of Whitehall ; For they were the Holy-day-Evens of Feastings in the Twelfdayes . But I made water , when those Women first drew me along with them to the Kings Palace : wherefore , for civility sake , I with-held my urine for at least 12 houres space . And then , having returned home , I could not , even by the most exact viewing , find so much as the least mote of sand in my urine . For I feared , least , my urine having been long detained , and cocted beyond measure , would now be of a sandy grain . Wherefore I made water the more curiously through a Napkin ; but my urine was free from all sand . Therefore the next day after , in the morning , I pissed new urine through a Towel , and detained it in a Glass-Vrinal as many houres ( to wit , twelve ) : And at length , I manifestly saw the adhering sand , to be equally dispersed round about where the urine had stood : lastly , pouring forth the urine , I touched that sand with my finger . And being perfectly instructed by my owne experience , I concluded with my self ; That forasmuch as the urine was by me the pisser , detained for 12 houres space , and yet it contained no sand , neither that I had cast it forth : and that otherwise , in the lesser space of a day , sand had been condensed in my urine , and fastened to the Glazen-shell , in the encompassing ayr of [ the Month called J January : I knew more certainly than certainty it self , that a sliminess of matter was no way required for that sand , and that the heat of the member did in no wise effect the coagulation of the Stone . I thereupon taking my progress home , cast from me , the Doctrine of the Schooles , and presently the Truth took hold of me . For I being confirmed , and no longer staggering by reason of doubt , believed , as being certainly confirmed , that the internal and seminal cause of the stones in men was unknown to Mortals . With a great courage therefore , I again disdaining all the Books of Writers , cast them away , and expelled them far from me . Neither determined I to expect the ayd of my Calling from any other way than from the Father of Lights , the one onely Master of Truth . And presently I gave a divorce to all accidental occasions and mockeries of Tartar : and also to any whatsoever Artifices , more than those which more shew forth the course of Nature . Because I knew that Nature doth no where , primarily work out seminal transmutations by heat or cold , as such ; although she be oft-times constrained to make use of those , for the excitements , or impediments of inward Agents . I knew therefore that vain were the devices of Paracelsus , concerning Tartar ; to this end at least , invented by him , that he , as the first , might be reckoned to have thrust in the Generation of the Stone into the universal nature of Bodies and Diseases , by the history of stones feigned from the Similitude of the Tartar of Wine . For although he perfectly cured Duelech ( as his Epitaph doth premonish ) yet he obtained not the speculative knowledge thereof in the like measure , as he did the most powerfull use of an Arcanum . For so , very many experiments , wander about amongst Idiots : the causes whereof they notwithstanding know not . Therefore the help of Books forsook me , and the voyce of the living forsook me , which might teach me , while present ; yet I knew , that wo was to the man , that trusted in man. Good God , the Comforter of the poor in spirit , who art nearer to none , than to him who with a full freedome , resignes up himself and his Endowments into thy most pleasing Will ; and seeing thou enlightnest none more bountifully , Oh Father of Lights , than him , who acknowledging the lowliness of his owne nothingness , puts confidence onely in the good pleasure of thy Clemency . Grant thou , Oh thou profound Master of Sciences , that I may rather be poor in spirit , than great with Child or swollen through knowledge . Grant me freely an understanding that may purely seek thee , and a will that may purely adhere unto thee . Enlighten thou my nothing-darknesses as much as thou wilt ; and no more , than that I may suffer my self to be directed according to length , breadth , and Depth , unto the Reward of the Race proposed be thee unto me ; nor that I may ever in any thing decline from thee to my self . Because I am in very deed , evil ; Neither of my self , have I , am I , can I be , know I , or am I able to do any thing else . Unto thee be the glory , which hath taught me to acknowledge my owne nothingness . CHAP. III. The Con-tent of Urine . 1. The Art of the Fire is commended . 2. An Analysis or resolution of the Vrine . 3. The Author disappointed of his hope . 4. A second handicraft Operation . 5. A third , which hath taught the coagulum or Runnet of the Stone , and some other remarkable things . 6. Some wayes or manners of condensing . 7. In the lime of rocky stones , there are two divers salts : for neither could it otherwise ever become a stone . 8. The errour of Galen concerning Ashes . 9. The Author , when he had learned nothing from coagulated Bodies , at length , examined divers spirits . 10. The errour of Paracelsus concerning Tartar. 11. An examination of salts . 12. The highest vertue of Vegetables . 13. From whence a salt ariseth in urine . 14. Duelech doth not stonifie after the manner of lime . 15. What the Sunovia is , 16. An examination of fermental savours . 17. Paracelsus is taken notice of concerning Mercuries . 18. An abuse , in forbidding the use of salt . 19. The handicraft Operation of the salt of urine . 20. The vanity of Turnheisser , his signifyng by the urine . 21. Two the more fixed salts in urine . 22. The differences of both those salts . 23. The difference of the Volatile from the fixed salt of the urine . 24. The ferment of the stomach is not any kind of sharpnesse whatsoever . 25. Burnt vrine yielded not an Alcali to the Author . 26 , The Vulnerary drink of a certain Country man. 27. That an Alcali doth not fore-exist , but is made in burning . 28. A digression Unto some ranks of Simples . 29. The calcining of Harts-horn is a thing of notable blockishnesse . 30. Sea-salt , whether it hurt those that labour with the stone . 31. That salt is not to be forbidden for its owne sake , as neither for its spirit-sake . 32. The fittest salt for eating . 33. A wonderfull handicraft Operation in the distillation of urine . 34. The judiciary part in Vrines , why hitherto , false . 35. What the stone being distilled may teach . 36. Earth , together with the spirit of Vrine , never makes Duelech . 37. The constituting principles of Duelech . 38. How sands are made in the Vrinal or Chamberpot . 39. The Confirmation of the stone , is fabulous . 40. A stone of a wonderful bignesse . 41. Paracelsus is ridiculous in the stone of a Thunderbolt . 42. Duelech is made of meer volatile things . 43. Three spirits concurre in the Vrine , for the nativity of Duelech . 44. Volatile Bodies , are oft-times through their concourse , presently fixed together at once . WEE read in our Furnaces , that there is not a more certain kind of Science in Nature , for the knowing of things by their radical and constitutive causes ; than while it is known , what , and how much is contained in any thing . So indeed , that the knowledge , and connexion of causes are not more clearly manifest , than when thou shalt so disclose things themselves , that they bewray themselves in thy presence ; and do as it were talk with thee . For truly , real Beings , standing onely in their owne Original , and succeeding principles of seeds ; and so , in a true substantial entity , do afford the Knowledge , and produce the cause of knowing the nature of Bodies , their middle parts , and extremities or utmost parts . Because they are the cause of the Generation , existence , and thorow changing of them according to their Root ; Because ( as Raymund testifies ) * However , a Logitian may have a profound wit , discourseable , or natural , concerning things without : Yet he shall never , by any reason , which comes unto sense , be able directly to know , nor judge , with what kind of nature , or vertue , through a fortitude or strength within , the multiplication of grain possesseth it self , so as to grow or increase upon the earth , unless by reason of a similitudinary example drawn from observation . Neither shall he ever know , after what manner a seed buds , growes , and collects fruits in the earth , unless he shall with an experimental Doctrine , first enter into our natural Philosophy , and not that Sophistical , discursive one , which is bred in Logitians by divers phantastical presumptions : who with the Prognostications of Sequels , contrary to the power of Nature , make many stubbornly to erre in the sophistication of their mind . Because by our handicraft knowledge , the understanding is rectified by the force of experience , in respect of the sight , and of a true mental Knowledge . Yea , our experiences stand over the head of the phantestical or imaginative proofs of Conclusions , and therefore , neither do they endure them : But they shew that all other Sciences do livelily enter into the understanding : From whence we afterwards understand that thing within , what it is , and of what sort it is . Because by such knowledge , the Intellect stands uncloathed of superfluities and errours , which do ordinarily remove it from the Truth , by reason of presumptions , and prejudiced or fore-judged things , believed in the conclusions . For from hence it is , that our Philosophers or followers , have directed themselves to enter through any kind of Science , into all experience , by Art , according to the course of Nature in its Univocal or single Principles . For Alchymie alone , is the Glass of true understanding ; and shews how to touch , and see the truths of those things in the clear Light. Neither doth it bring Logical arguments : because they are too remote and far off from the clear Light. And therefore , the Smaragdine Table hath it ; By this kind of demonstration , all obscurity will free from thee ; and all the strong fortitude of strength , which vanquisheth subtile things , and pierceth all solid things , will be attained by thee , Wherefore , I am called Hermes Trimegistus , as having the three ( that is , all the ) parts of Philosophy , and the perfection of the whole world . Thus he . Between praying therefore and knocking , a mean , in naturals ; namely , of seeking by the fire , is supposed . I indeed hoped , by searching into the Contents of urine , visibly to know it ; no otherwise surely , than by a true solving or resolution of urine . Therefore first of all , I distilled my own urine , being first kept in a wooden Vessel , untill that at length , it voluntarily conceived a ferment , and boyled up ; no otherwise than as Wines do : so that my ear could perceive the boyling . About the end whereof , there was a little burning water distilled from thence . But of the remainder , I collected a most white salt , of a sharp and uriny , stinking odour . But I know not , whether there be any thing more subtile in the whole nature of things . It being a noble Remedy against the Jaundise , and other Diseases . I endeavoured , by this Salt , to dissolve Duelech in a Glass : But the event answered not my attempt . Again , my own urine was putrified anew in Horse-dung . That the unlike part thereof might incline to a separation of its last life . Then I distilled it , by cohobating it four times according to the prescription of Paracellus : and I found frequent Crystals therein , being yellow and of a sharp top . The which , although they might be of conducement against the old obstructions of Excrements ; yet of none , against the affect of the Stone . Thirdly , I mixed the spirit of my Urine , with Aqua vitae dephlegmed or refined : and in a moment , both of them were coagulated together into a white lump or gobbet : yet wondrous swift or volatile , and subtile . My Eye , in the first place , there taught me ; That the spirit of Urine was an unparallel'd and great Runnet ; because it was that , which was for coagulating of Aqua vitae . 2. That in coagulating , it had separated the sluggish and watery part , which swum upon the aforesaid white lump , perhaps , no otherwise , than as in coagulation of Duelech from the rest of the body of the urine , and so , that it perfected its coagulation in the middle of the waters . 3. That the curdy Runnet or spirit of Urine , had undissolveably knit it self to the spirit of Wine . 4. That it is not a perpetual truth ( the which notwithstanding , the Schooles hand forth instead of a Chymicall Maxime ) that every sharp coagulating Body , did by the same endeavour dissolve its own Compeere . 5. That the spirit of Urine had not coagulated it self in the Glass , according to the powder of a beaten Duelech : but onely , that it had mingled and coagulated it self together with another thing ; namely , with the spirit of Wine . 6. That if therefore it had met with an earthly spirit , it had also contracted wedlock with the same ; so as that , of both spirits , it had made a stony Body . 7. I likewise learned , after what manner the spirit of urine might coagulate another spirit within the urine . 8. That such an association , is not a certain naked co-mixture of parts ; but an undissolvable wedlock of unity , a certain substantial transmutation , a production of a new Being ( by an Agent and a Patient ) into a neither Body . This experiment gave me an entrance , for a diligent search into the Disease of the Stone . Yet , I as yet remained wandring about . For after giving of thanks , I transferr'd my self into a meditation how many ways a thing might be condensed or coagulated in the Universe . For Ice first presently offered it self unto me ; wherein , the water incrusts it self for fear of cold , and from a primitive action : but is not actively congealed by cold . Even as elsewhere , concerning the Elements . But other Bodies , which are believed to be mixt , as they bewray themselves to be the true Fruits of water by the same Zeal and Tenour , are they congealed by cold , occasionally . For so , Bones and a Sword , are more easily broken in time of cold Seasons , than in time of heat or Summer . 2. Any kind of Salts ( according to their Species and inbred property ) while their brine , being not sufficientts dryed up , is left in the cold , are separated from their water and become corny . 3. If Salts shall subdue any thing , by gnawing it , they pass over from their native condition , into a neither Body , and are coagulated . For so the Tartar of Wine , Sope , Borace , &c. are coagulated . 4. And then , Muscilages being thickned by the wedlock of their seeds , and resolved from their own Body , become Glews , Gums , Solder , &c. 5. But if a muscilage or slimy juyce carries a co-mixed fat with it , it is coagulated in both respects . So are Aloes , a Chibal , Pitch , Rosin , Gum Ammoniacum , Frankinsence , Myrrh , Mastich , the Gum Opopanax , Sarcocolla , Assa , Elemi , &c. 6. Earth converting into a salt or muscilage , if it be dryed , is condensed and waxeth hard . 7. A mineral Salt that was bred in the earth , by burning , stonifies into stones , shells or sheards , and earthen Pots . 8. The which , if they are urged by a stronger degree of heat , they at length vitrifie or become Glass . 9. The watery Leffas or planty juyce of the Earth , by vertue of the seeds , is hatdened into Woods , Herbs , &c. 10. So Water , by vertue of a seed is made a rocky stone . 11. A muscilage being joyned to a powder or dust , makes sand-stones : but with dust and lime , it now dissembles divers Marbles . 12. Whatsoever lime dissolved comprehends or encloseth in it self , that thing coagulates with it ; Because there are in Lime , two salts , the one a lixivial Alcali salt , and the other , an acide or sharp one ; which two salts , while they demolish each other , are coagulated together . 13. Mettals , Fire-stones , Sulphurs , etc. do by vertue of their seeds , obtain their own and proper coagulations . 14. Also , most things through an inbred Glew , do voluntarily grow together ; which afterwards by drying , do harden : As Blood , Cheese , the white of an Egg , Varnish , &c. 15. Glass is an earthen stone , consisting of an Alcali salt ; The which , while being fired , it is dissolved , makes the sand , or powder of stone that is not calcinable , nor otherwise capable of powring abroad , to melt by corroding ; and so they are both together , turned into a transparent lump . Therefore , the Lime-stone , or rocky stone , by reason of its sharp salt is unfit for Glass ; because the lime thereof destroyes the Glassifying Alcali , and there is made a certain neutral thick or dark Body . Lime therefore , against the will of Galen , very much differs from ashes . To wit , because this separates the Lixivium or lye , from it self ; but the other containes a sharpnesse that is not separable from the whole : Whereby it being at length burnt by too much fire , is Glassified throughout its Lixivial part , being unfit , for Building : According to Geber . Because all fixed Bodies are at length Glassified with Glassifying things . Cheese also , as it is curdled by moderate sharpnesse , so it is resolved with an eminent sharpness . For the pating of Cheese dissolves with dry Calx vive or quick-Lime : but not with the Alcali or Lixivial salt of Ashes . From all the aforesaid particulars , I have collected , that the coagulation of Duelech is singular and irregular . Lime also doth by degrees stonifie in the middle of the waters , as its aforesaid salts do coagulate each other . But the body of Man , as it doth not coagulate a rocky stone , so neither doth it endure a Calx or Lime-stone in the Bladder . For indeed that admirable Coagulum or Runnet , alwayes stuck before mine eyes , whereby more swiftly than in the twinkling of an Eye , the spirit of urine had condensed the spirit of Wine into a lump . Therefore I discerned that all other Coagulations had nothing common with Duelech . Wherefore I determined to examine Spirits . Therefore first I distilled Horse-pisse ; But surely the spirit thereof wanted that Runnet . Wherefore I noted with the highest admiration , the singularity of mans Urine . Afterwards , I observed that the spirit of Sulphurs , or of Salts , being sharp , would with an Alcalized body , be made earthly . For so , with Iron , is made drosse , rust , a cankered rust , Ceruss , &c. And these Paracelsus rashly judgeth to be Tartars , or the separated impurities of things over-covered with their own , and that an inward Runnet : when as otherwise , they are nothing else , but the astonishment of two mutual Agents : to wit , when both their strengths are spent . Afterwards , I long examined Salts , throughout every of their Analysis or Re-solution : and I discerned , that the spirits of all salts were sharp , except Alcalized ones , and those of essential Sulphurs in Vegetables . Whose saltish tartnesses indeed , are fat and sulphurous , neither readily reducible into a salt , unlesse by a tedious inversion or turning in and out of the principles ; which salts , being then , as it were elixirated , do represent the true and highest Crasis or constitutive temperature of the seeds of their composed Bodies . But the spirit of mans urine , is neither sharp , nor Alcalized : but meerly salt , even as also that of Horses is . And that , for this cause ; because the Volatile sharp matter of the Chyle of the stomach , is by vertue of another ferment , transchanged into a Volatile salt . Even as elsewhere , concerning the digestions of Animals . I here give thee to observe by the way , that in things transchanged , there is not an immediate regresse or return unto that from whence they were transchanged , no more than from a privation to a habit : For that , in transchanging , the last life of the thing perisheth , because the whole disposition of the middle life of the former Being , is at once taken away , by reason of the extinguishment of its former seed : For therefore things transchanged do keep the essence of a new Being , with a neglect of their former composed Body . Therefore have I found any Remedy whatsoever , unprofitable , which I otherwise had believed to be very likely a dissolver of the Stone , from its former composed Body . Yet that is a truth , that the spirit of Urine , in the fundamental point of its nativity , is salt : and that by reason of that salt , it doth more readily coagulate other Spirits , than any sour or sharp spirit doth Milk. Neverthelesse , the spirit of urine doth not coagulate milk , or the venal Blood : Because the spirit of the venal blood ; yea , and our vital Spirit , is salt , after the manner of Urines . From hence indeed , the spirit of the urine , hath it self after the manner of an excrementitious spirit , cut off from the blood ; and so by reason of a co-resemblance , it is its Chamber-fellow ; neither do they act on each other . And then also , I observed , that the spirit of Urine , doth not more strongly coagulate those things which were already before coagulated . For Bole , Clay , or the rocky or Chalk-stone , do by degrees degenerate by the spirit of urine , into a nitrous Salt , and are rather dissolved . Since therefore , the spirit of Urine doth not coagulate Bodies already coagulated ; such as are Bole , Clay , &c. As neither Bodies coagulable , such as are Milk and the venal blood : but it coagulates the spirit of Wine , or the like thing which is entertained with it in the urine ( for as was shewn above : after the fermenting of urine that urine containes , also a spirit of Wine , or Aqua vitae ) I desisted not seriously to enquire , after what manner , the stone is coagulated in us , and in our urine . 1. First of all , it is an undoubted truth , that Duelech is not of a calcinous or limy condition , however Paracelsus may be carried on the contrary . 1. Because a calcining degree of heat is wanting in us . 2. And then , because every Alcali , is rather that which is destructive to a rocky stone , than a Coagulater thereof . 3. Because a Calx or Lime presupposeth a Chalky-stone , and therefore Duelech should be calcined before it were a stone , 4. From the composing parts of Duelech it shall by and by be made manifest , that it is not possible for Lime to be in it ; yea , nor that Duelech himself is calcined , or doth send forth a Lixivium or Lye. Likewise , neither is Duelech of the nature of a gowty Chalk : because he growes together in the midst of the urine : but that Chalk is coagulated from the Sunovia . But the Sunovie is a living seedy muscilage , which degenerated in the journey of nourishment , and from a transparent and Crystaline matter , hath passed over into a thick , white , and slimy matter ( as of Gouty persons elsewhere ) from a matter without savour , I say , it is transplanted into a sharp one , though the tartnesse whereof indeed , it hath attained a thickness or grossness : For then also it is unfit for a total diflation or transpirative dispersing of it self : To wit , whereby the nourishable Liquor is wholly consumed without any remainder : But the Sunovie being once infected with a tartness , its watery parts are pufft away ; but the gross remainder waxeth dry by degrees , into the utmost dryth and hardnesse of a Sand-stone . But Duelech attaines to the utmost hardness of it self in one onely instant of time . The Gouty Chalk therefore , differs from Duelech in its whole matter and efficient cause . For therefore such a Chalk is hardned out of the water , because indeed by drying . Neither for that cause doth it imitate the hardness of a rocky stone : but onely of a sandy stone . I have spoken these things to that end , that it may be manifested , that Duelech differs from any other coaguted Bodies whatsoever , in its different kind of Agent and matter . And seeing notwithstanding , I as yet knew not the manner or process of the birth of Duelech ; but I knew in the mean time , that Bodies do nor receive the limitation of their hardning , but by the actions , appointments , and properties of their own seeds . Lastly , Since I knew , that whatsoever things do act corporally , are altogether sluggish , slow , and idle , as for the coagulation of Duelech : therefore I enquired into fermental savours and Odours , as the Authors of many seeds . Therefore I found the savours and actions of Salts , to be indeed famous ones : but not any thing reaching the vertue of the salt of Urine . And then also , I beheld the more weak or feeble Salts , which might follow the Race of Sulphurs . But Mercury , although it alone according to Paracelsus , did contain the whole perfection of the thing , yet I found it to be slow and feeble . For as oft as I distinguished Salts and Sulphurs from their Mercuries , I admired at their sluggishnesse , and indeed at the dignities of these two Principles . Wherefore , I stuck in Salts , for the searching out of the nativity of Duelech . I confess indeed , that Mercury being a flowing mettal , in its nature and properties , is never sufficiently known . But that body hath deceived Paracelsus through a similitude of proportion : he thinking , because his Device had pleased him , because he had endowed the watery matter of things with the name of Mercury ; that therefore the properties of Quick-silver , and its natures , without a peere , being never to be sufficiently searcht into , did agree as suitable to all Liquors which may be drawn out of Simples . For all the Philosophers of former Ages , confess , that nothing in the Universe , is not so much as by far , to be likened to Argent Vive : Yet it hath not been hitherto sufficiently unfolded , that Argent-Vive or Quick-silver is a Simple , actually existing body : but not a constitutive part of things : And so , that there hath been nothing but a meer abusive passing over of a Name . For this cause , I as yet perswaded my self , that seeing a non-Duelech was made of Duelech , that ought to be done by the action of an Agent on a disposed matter . And although I knew these and many the like things : yet I discerned , that I therefore , knew nothing the more . Wherefore I as yet more detested a wording or discursive Philosophy : because it was that , which stayed me before the Threshold of Nature , and together with it self my Conductress , I was shut out of doors . I again returned to my self , and after a homely manner I considered , that Duelech was not bred but out of the principles of the Urine : and since I knew the urine to be salt , I again had recourse to the varieties of Salts . And I stood amazed , that the use of Salt should every where be forbidden , as well by the Schooles as by Physitians , to those that have the stone . Yet I discerned , that the foundation of that prohibition was unknown amongst them . Especially , because the use of Sea-salt , though much and often , never from real experience , hurt any one that had the stone : But rather , I have exactly noted that many , who by the plentiful use of salt , have cut off the relapse of a new and growing stone from them . For I had seen the Rocks , as also the rocky stones of the Sea to be gnawn or wasted in the Haven . In the mean time it had alwayes a recourse unto my mind with admiration , that the spirit of Urine had at one instant , coagulated the spirit of Wine , together with a separation of its watery part . Therefore I consulted first , to anatomize the salt of urine unto the utmost veines thereof . Wherefore , in the strong smelling or stinking body of my urine , after its putrefaction under dung , I began that dissection : and presently by distilling it , I found in it , besides the aforesaid spirit of urine , two the more fixed salts also , and no more : However Turnheisser doth variously triflle at pleasure , of as many species of Salts found by him in Urine , as there are , almost , of Simples in the Vniverse : He being willing , that man should not onely be a Microcosme or little World : but also , that his urine should rejoyce in the same prerogative . For on this distillatory Vessel , he according to his own boldnesse , distinguisheth it into 24 parts , and marks it outwardly with his Lines , and divides the body of man into as many soyles . At length , he will have it , that the vapors lifted up from the urine in distilling , ought to strike especially , the Region of the Glass , and in that part , to grow together into drops , whereby , the businesse of a Disease in man , whose urine it is , is finished . He likewise feigneth as many diversities of vapours to arise out of the urine as there can be diversities of a disease on the whole body : That we may thereby visibly , perfectly learn , not onely the places affected : but the diseasie matter ; for as he thus excuseth his urine Inspections , suspected of the wickedness and vanity of Magick ; he hath busied himself by his water-divining distillatories , to deceive the World. That is , in sportings , he would seem to be altogether serious : but I have never distilled that I might befool others , with my self . The unprofitable invention therefore , of Turnehisser , is at least of a trifling value : if not also wickedly introduced into Medicine . Therefore in the lee of my urine , I distinguished of two salts : one indeed a Sea-ee salt ; being not so long agoe assumed , and as yet remaining safe , and unchanged ( as elsewhere I have shewn concerning the boyling of Salt-peter ) . But the other is of the Urine it self , being bred in our digestion , and from not a salt , transchanged into one : but it differs from the Sea-ee salt . 1. If for some days there shall be no use or need of any Sea-ee-salt ; yet the urine failes not of its own salt . 2. The Sea-salt coagulates it self into graines of a point-like sharpnesse : but the salt of urine growes together into Gemmie Dyes and square Cubes . 3. The Sea-salt alwayes shewes forth its antient tast , even when it is digested out of Jakes's with Salt-peter ; but the salt of urine , savours alwayes of urine . 4. The Sea-salt in its cooling , adheres to a wooden Vessel , even as while it is separated from Salt-peter ; But the salt of urine growes together in the bottome of the Liquor . Furthermore , the fixed salt of urine distinguisheth it self from the Volatile salt thereof . 1. By fire and flight . For the one flyes away , the other remaining . 2. The fixed salt , is separated from the lees , by an extraction , in moisture : but the Volatile salt , is sequestred by fire . For although meats and drinks wax universally alike sowr in the stomach : yet the salts sprung from thence , are not alike volatile ; Because that ferment of the stomach is received after the manner of the Receiver ; and so it varies . Even as neither is Chrysulca dissolving the whole and homogeneal mettall , therefore made totally alike volatile . And this diversity doth not break forth from essential properties ; but by reason of a partic pation of the properties of the middle life of things . Neither finally , is that ferment of the stomach , a naked sharpness or sowrness ; but a vital and specifical Endowment ; whose end indeed is for transchanging of the food into the Chyle of mans digestion . For truly many the more fixed Beings are received with the meats : which notwithstanding , ought to undergoe the like condition with volatile Juyces , if they ought the more fully to passe unto the root of Life . In which point especially , the efficacy of Nature shines forth : the which , of a lump that is altogether similar or alike , frameth bones and the fibers of flesh , &c. In the next place , it reduceth bones in the stomach of a Dog , unto Chyle , that blood may again from thence be made . The two aforesaid Salts therefore , are the more fixed . But one is exceeding volatile in urine ; but an Alcali , or any thing like to a Lixivium ot Lye , never appeared unto me from urine . For if but any Lixivial matter shall be received inwardly ; that is presently filled with sharpnesses , so that it layes aside its Lixivial disposition . For I have seen a Country-man , who cured great Wounds , with the drink of a Lixivium prepared out of the Teile-tree : Yet the urine of those so cured shewed nothing at all of a Lixivium . Therefore have I taught elsewhere , that every Alcali lixivial , is made by a dissolvative expression of the fire ; Neither that it was before in the composed Bodies . But if indeed any volatile spirit doth shew forth the property of an Alcali ; ( such as is the vulnerary matter of any Herbs whatsoever ) that indeed is abstersive or cleansing , and a provoker of urine : yet of its own faculty , under the second digestion , it puts on the nature of the salt of urine , restraines sour corruptions which would otherwise voluntatarily afterwards arise in the wounded . Since therefore there is no Alcali in the urine , I have held it an errour , to give an Alcali to drink for breaking of the Stone ; seeing it cannot reach to the places of the urine . For neither doth the Ludus of Paracelsus or his Medicine for dissolving of the stone , prepare a Lixivium : but a bitter salt of a sharp one . Wherefore he calls his Ludus , the Gall of the Earth . For it is a flinty stone , yet the more tender one ; and the which , almost wholly flyes away through a continual fire of two dayes . But with Salt-peter , much more speedily . Moreover , Stones , Gemmes , Sands , Marbles , Flints , &c. through an Alcali being joyned unto them , are glassified : but if they are boyled with the more Alcali , they are indeed resolved into moisture : and being resolved , they by an easie labour of their acide spirits , are separated from the Alcali , in the weight of their former powder of stones . But these never come to the urine ; as neither are they profitable for breaking of the stone . But Rocky or Chalky stones which have an inflamed Sulphur in them , are calcined indeed , but are not easily made Glass ; for that the residing and sharp salt of the Sulphur , consumes the Glassifying Alcali . Mettals also , by reason of the every way and unconquered simplicity of their Mercury , and unpossible penetration , either as being unchanged , they delude the work of the fire , or wholly flye away : yet so , as that although they flye away in manner of a smoak : yet that fume may be reduced into the nature of its antient Mettal , Wherefore Mettals never yielded any Alcali : and much less , do they reach unto the Innes of the urine . But Fire-stones , though they have a burnable sulphur , which is a devourer of Alcalies : yet their mercuries do resist ; whereby they the lesse come down unto the Innes of the urine . The blood also , although it hath an admirable salt for healing , as well fugitive as fixed : yet I have observed it not to be profitable in the Disease of the Stone : But moreover , the shells of Snailes , of Animals of the Earth , or of shell-fishes of the water , as to that part wherein they carry an acide and Limy-salt , they profit indeed , persons having the stone , that want cleansing ; but they contain a resistance in respect of their Lixivium , to wit , as they never reach to the urine . The burnt bones of living Creatures , retain no fixed salt in them : but onely a residing Earth without sauour . It is therefore a part of notable Blockishnesse , for Ivory and Harts-horn to be calcined for succours against Diseases ; because they bid the powder thereof being deprived of its vertues , to be sold : and so also they deceive the Purse and hope of the sick ; they passe by the occasion of well-doing , and make themselves ridiculous . But Quiners do freely promise for me . For truly their Prooving-pots ( which they call Cap●lls ) ought to consist of ashes , deprived of all salt : Wherefore those are the best that are made of the ashes of Bones , and do far excel those that consist of Ivory , and Harts-horn . For indeed , in my first yeares , the Traditions of the Schooles , were as so many Oracles in my account : But I being perfectly instructed by the fire , all the Speculations of the Schooles were blotted out with the fire . They had perswaded me ( amongst other things ) that the salt of the Sea was hurtfull for those that were diseased with the Stone ; as well in regard , that it afforded matter for the salt of urine ; as that , it hurryed down a muckie phlegme for Duelech . The examination of salt by the fire , taught me otherwise . First of all , I preserved a man of sixty yeares old ( belonging to my Distillations ) sixteen yeares free from the stone of the Kidneys ( whereunto otherwise , he had been subject ) through a large use of Sea-salt . The which , afterwards , I confirmed in many . For the Schooles , when they saw , that in the sharp brine of salt being cooled , every salt was coagulated after its own manner ; and that , that brine was not made pure without mixture , but by an exhalation of the watery part : they presently thought , that the stone was coagulated from a salt and drying heat : and so they supposed , that indeed neither were salts corned in the said brine , but by the heat of the inbred salt : the which therefore is not able to unfold it self into effect , as long as there is very much water present with it . Therefore when they tasted their own snivel to be salt : and that indeed , with the savour of a Sea-salt , but not with the saltnesse of Urine : and they would connex the efficient cause in the matter ; they supposed that in the same snivel , there was a slimy and tough matter joyned to the salt : and that , the salt also , was of it self salt : at length they establishd by a perpetual Decree , that the stone was generated from a salt phlegme , and therefore also being actually hot : and by consequence , that salt things were hurtfull for those that were troubled with the stone . Yea and that phlegme remaining such , its qualities and proper passions being changed , did passe over into a stone , through heat and a slimy dryth ; just even as Glew and solder , their watery part by degrees departing , do induce a thick toughnesse of themselves . Good God , how unsavoury are the Schooles , and how unsavoury do they bid us to be ? as if thou that dost every where bear a care over Mortals , and art provident for salts ; hadst invented by thy study , that they might become stony . How great is their sluggishnesse : that they have never attempted to sprinkle one only pugill or small handfull of salt upon the Urinal of those that have the stone , that they might try whether Sea-salt would coagulate the future sands , which otherwise would stick fast to the urinals ; Whether I say , there be so great a saltnesse of the urine , that it cannot dissolve any more of salt in it . For the Urine , if it be for the dissolving of salt : now that salt shall not be the cause of Corning . In the next place , they had easily found , that Sea-salt being cast into the urine , doth hinder its coagulation ; but not likewise cause it . That Sea-salt , Isay , doth resolve the prepared matter of the Coagulum or Runnet , and doth not it self receive a curdling . But whatsoever meditates on the destruction of that Runnet , shall of necessity also disturbe the coagulation proceeding from thence . For as the Schooles do deride our Coagulum's in things : so likewise I deride their unsavoury Follies ; that they think the pebble-stone or flint to grow together , or wax dry in the bottom of the water , through heat . For Fountaines and Rivers do contend for a stony curdling , whose bottome hisseth out heat and the Rules of dryth . In the next place , for the curdling of Liquors , our flesh , and likewise the blood ; milk , and snivel promiseth : For if it were supposed , that phlegme be the matter [ whereof ] of the stone , and that the recocted brine of salt , shaved off , and with it self dissolved the mucky filths of salted fleshes : and at length by boyling up , rejected them being thickned , into a froth ; verily they had known that the use of Salt is in no wise to be avoided or forbidden . But so great a sluggishnesse of searching , hath beset the Schooles , that they being content with a little infamous Gain , have neglected all things where they might profit their Neighbour , if not also themselves . For if the stone were dissolved in the urine , although being boyled therein , or that , urine were not for dissolving of salt cast into it : they might indeed ( at the sight of that ) have wholly banished salt out of the use of men . But the common people deride the Schooles , and the use of Salt hath grown frequent , in despight of their Rules : So that the Authority of the Schooles being despised , Food is not onely unpleasant , but also unwholsome , without salt : But if the seasoning of salt smile on the Palate ; that is not any otherwise favoured , than as salt resolves the Excrements which burden the stomach with their muckinesse . For if salt be put into the mouth of those that are Catechised or instructed in the Principles of Religion , in the first houres of their Nativity , as a resembling token of Wisdome ; But the Schooles have with much endeavour , forbidden all eating of salt ; Truly what other thing is to be presaged from thence , but that the Heathenish Schooles do not admit of Wisdome ; to wit , the resembling Mark whereof they advise to be excluded ? And that the Church doth from the Beginning , intend the destruction of Infants ? For salt is sequestred out of Jakes's , by the Boylers of Salt-peter ; such as was once received into the Body together with the meats . Therefore it ought likewise , to remain in Duelech it self . But there is not so much as the least of Sea-salt , found to proceed from Duelech by Art. And that thing the Schooles might have learned with no charge , if any earnest desire of learning , and Charity towards their Neighbour had acted them . At leastwise , the Boylers of Salt-peter have been more curious or carefull than so many ten thousands of Phisitians . The reproach therefore re-bounds on themselves , as every one of the vulgar sort , doth now know , how unpolished the Decrees of the Schooles are : Since they know not in the Dietary part of Medicine , to what end they forbid salted things . Nor indeed , had it been to be feared , if not salt it self , but onely the spirit thereof should hurt the Diseased with the stone . 1. Because salt is forbidden by the Schooles ; Ages and the Schooles being hitherto ignorant , whether there be any spirit to be found in salt , or of what condition it might be , 2. That power in acting , is in vain , which is never brought forth into act . For it is sufficiently manifest , that out of Sea-salt received into the Body , there is never any possible drawing forth of its spirit in us . For it is most sharp , neither hath it a Remedy like unto it self , for extinguishing of the burning heats of the urine , even while the stone is present in the Bladder ; also , in the Stranguries of old people , it hinders putrefactions , dissolveth mucky filths , and expelleth sands . Therefore salt is profitable for those that have the stone , as well in its body , as in its spirit . For indeed , Fountain-salt , was given by the providence of divine Bounty , for the necessities of mortal men : That where the Continent departs from the Sea , by a long Tract of Land , saltish Springs or Fountaines might supply that defect of the Sea. But the Schooles are so far from repaying thanks to God for his Benefit ; that they accuse God to have given salt , not onely in vain , but also for the destruction of men : It is to be noted in the mean time , that salt flowes down into the Sea from many and plentifull Fountaines ; yet that the saltnesse of the Sea is not increased thereby ; because something of salt ascends by degrees from the Sea , in manner of a vapour : and however it may be converted into its first matter of water , at leastwise in the Clouds it hath some kind of constancy or perseverance in it . From whence , it is no wonder , that Rain-water by it self , is not to be corrupted in any Ages . But in the more hot Zone , that salt doth exhale even out of the Sea , is manifest : for there is none but smells out whether fleshes are boyled in a pot , with salt , or without it . But the Sea-salt , seeing it makes for the preservation of the Element , doth difficultly exhale . Therefore the Spanish Sea well nigh wants a vapoury salt , is stronger , and the more expels putrefaction , and Duelech . On the contrary , the Seas of Lorraine , abound with a vapoury salt , and it in part , waxeth sower in the stomach . Also , that vapoury spirit of salt ( which is sublimed , being as it were the flowre of salt ) differs from the distilled spirit of salt ; just even as Oyl of Olives doth from Oyl of Bricks . For the spirit of Oyl of Olives which departs in its first moity , with me doth at length dissolve a silver thred in a Bottle : But Oyl of Olives preserves Iron from rust . And far more powerfully , doth that remaind of Oyl , from whence the aforesaid half or moity was withdrawn , preserve 〈…〉 rustinesse . Therefore it is to be noted , that there is not a more pure and 〈…〉 , than that which is re-cocted or re-boyled from the brine of Swines-flesh . For 〈…〉 seasoning , or operating on the Swines-flesh its object , it lost its more vapoury spirit by coagulation . And so the residing salt being almost fixed and freed from its earthlinesse , is found to be clear and most fit for Sawces . It being also cast into an Hogshead of sowring Ale or Beer , preserves the same , which other salt doth not so do . Wherefore it drinks up into its self , and transchangeth the superfluous sharp spirits in us , which are the Authours of all Corruption , if they shall be out of the shops of the first digestion . It being thus re-boyled with Spanish-salt , it is almost equal in goodnesse , with that which was at first dissolved in the bright burning-pot : Since therefore Sea-salt is not of the composition of urine , but is wholly a forreigner unto it , and so remaines : yea , since Sea-salt being detained in the urine , keeps its nature unmixed and unchanged , even until the last extraction of things , and separation of the Salt-peter ; it is certain , that it hath not any businesse with Duelech . And therefore , that neither is the least of Sea-salt ever found in the composition hereof ; seeing it more destroyes the native birth of Duelech , than it doth promote it . Therefore Sea-salt is forbidden by the Schooles unto those that have the stone without a foundation . Thus much of Salts . But I had hitherto learned , that Duelech was an irregular coagulated matter , bred from the salt of Urine , which had not its peere in the whole Universe : for that Mans urine is never found , out of man ; For therefore it irked me not , many times to distill Urine . Therefore I decreed to putrifie my own urine for full 40 days in a Horses belly , that by a foregoing ferment of putrefaction , the unlike parts thereof might dis-unite . Then I distilled abovt a half part thereof : But being called away from the work by reason of business of my Family , and afterwards being letted through the Feasts of Pentecost , I ceased from it for fifteen dayes . But the Vessel receiving it , was exceeding great , clear , Crystalline , and precious : the which I had now sequestred from the long snout of an Alembick , all that interval of time : when as therefore I returned to the Work ; first I powred forth that which had been distilled , into another Bottle : because I saw that the distilled Liquor of the Urine had on every side touched the receiving Vessel ( otherwise easily capable of containing three Gallons ) it being over-covered with a duskish whitenesse . I was grieved that a Glass so precious , was stained about so sordid a matter . And then I was the more angry , when I saw that the blemish contracted was not to be taken away by any ashes . For it repented me of my wastfull , and so often repeated curiosity . Therefore I powred that that was distilled , out of doores . But presently I had this prick of sloath and unwonted indignation , suspected by me . I admired within my self , that man who before spared no paines and Costs , should now be wroth at the destruction of one Vessel . Therefore I well weighed with my self , that receiving Vessel , whether its blemish were of a forreign tincture , or whether any thing had perished from its concavous superficies being corroded . At length , I certainly knew , that out of the most clear watery distillation , , a true dusky Duelech was adjoyned to the Vessel . But then , I being full of admiration , praised the Lord , who had undertook the care of me : for those things which I judged I had committed through my own carelesnesse , I knew had come to pass by divine Goodnesse so disposing it . For unto whom he will , he converts all things into good . Indeed , I had already long since beheld in my urine , a Coagulater of so great a moment , to inhabite . And now at length , I had also learned ; that that most clear Liquor that was separated from the urine , putrified in the Vat , did containe a true Duelech , which it had applyed to the receiving Vessel . From whence , first of all , it became an undoubted truth unto me , that there did in no wise concur a slimy matter unto the Composition of Duelech . That Vessel therefore , although pretious , and now condemned for its blemish , was dear unto me , because it had paid a Reward of Teaching to its Master . Therefore I again put it in the place of a Receiver , as thinking , that I should at sometime shave of that Duelech by Aqua Regis . Therefore I proceeded in distilling the residue that had remained unto me after the fifteen dayes respite . And behold , I being astonished through a new favour of divine Bounty , saw all the particular drops to dissolve the adhering duskish Duelech , where they ran down , and the Vessel presently restored to its former brightnesse . Also , that this second Liquor , although it had the odour of the former , yet being poured on Aqua vitae , did not likewise , coagulate this any longer . And so I being led by a divine beck ( which others suppose to be an Event by Chance ) found part of that , which with care or anguish I had long since sought with many charges , Therefore I praised the Lord , that he had given understanding to the little one and poor . For if he had not commanded me to be called away from my work ; and if those Feasts had not detained me untill Duelech had grown together in the Receiver , and unless the Vessel had been so clear and pretious ; And moreover , if I had finished the operation with one thred : Surely I had wrought and attempted all things in vain . The Lord therefore had respect unto the necessities of mortals ; neither despised he the prayers of the dejected in spirit . Wherefore , he gave me knowledge of the divers parts of a healthy Urine : that is , my own . One indeed was after some sort the lighter and more swift , part having Duelech hidden under a clear distillatory Liquor , without a dreg , snivel , and sediment ; But in a most clear distillation , and cold of the encompassing Ayr. But the other part , was alike admirable , which in cold also , again dissolved Duelech that took its rise in cold , and supt it up into its self . For I seriously admired so opposite faculties in one onely volatile salt of urine : afterwards indeed , I considered , that whose urine had more of the former spirit , he was subject to the stone : and the other was free , whose urine contained more of the other spirit ; and that first conception smiled on me : but that discursive knowledge was vain , and especially unprofitable for the managing of Affaires : For truly , the urine doth not undergoe in us those foregoing marks of putrefaction ; without which notwithstanding , those Beings would sleep for ever . And then , neither was there a mean made manifest from that Speculation , whereby more of that latter spirit should alwayes be made , or by what method a composure of the former spirit might be restrained . And much lesse , after what manner , Duelech being now composed , there might be given a relief against him . Notwithstanding , least that Speculation should depart without fruit ; I considered , whether that latter spirit ( the Urine being first evacuated ) might be granted to be cast into a stony Bladder , by a Syringe . Therefore the knowledge of mortals offers it self to me as barren ; which rejoycing in Speculation alone , withdrawes their hand from the Art of the fire . For urine being duly putrified , yields spirit a Coagulater , which coagulates Aqua vitae : And likewise afterwards such a spirit , which being wholly transparent and volatile , containes a Duelech [ potential ] or in possibility , because it brings him forth , and at length such a spirit , which presently sups up Duelech ( being once bred ) into it self : Notwithstanding , the Devil straightway disswading me , I as doubtfull , began to stagger , and considered , that those things were vain , which being found by me , I so greatly esteemed . Especially , seeing the urine putrifies not in us unto that limit or degree , whereby it had afforded these spirits . Therefore I detested my own Curiosities : For although they after some sort suggested a Remedy , yet they left the former ignorance behind them , concerning the causes and manner of making Duelech . Wherefore I began to neglect all things lately seen , as if they had not been done , and I left a sleepy drowsinesse to be stir'd up in me ; From whence I was confirmed ( the which , I have explained in many particulars in my Preface ) that no labour is more tedious or wearisome , and no kind of knowledge ( through the disswasion of the Devil ) more to be disregarded , than that , from whence mankind may at sometime receive fruit . Therefore it becomes a Christian , to be of a constant mind in a good work . At length therefore , my distillations being repeated , and that with a more exact delay , I by prayer attained the causes , manner of making , and dissolving of Duelech . Good God , I admire thy great Bounty , which hath led the most unmeet of Physitians unto the disclosing of so great a thing , which hath been neglected for so many Ages , and by so many great Wits . I therefore return thanks unto thy infinitely Glorious Name ; not because thou hast led me on unto these Secrets before others ( for can the Earth boast it self , and say to the other small Vessels [ Vah ] or [ Fie ] as a note of disdaining ? because it is brought under the Potters-Wheel , into a Vessel of a more choyce form ? ) But because thou hast done thy will , which alone is good : I therefore ascribe unto thee all the Glory , who hast in this Age , disclosed this knowledge by the basest and little Ones of this World : For that is according to thy accustomed manner ; and that , for the greater Glory of thy Name . For I knew , that the one onely sluggishnesse of those , who being deceived by the sweetnesse of the Odour of Gain , have despised to distill a matter so stinking and base , hath hindred both the Antient and Modern Physitians . For Wisdom despiseth those , who have refused perfectly to learn the matter [ whereof ] Dispositions , Contents , Properties , Progress , and Significations of the Urine , by the Fire . For neither have they lesse stumbled in the matter , Content , and Judgements of Urines , than hitherto they have done in the stonifying of the same : wherefore both the diagnostical or discernable Knowledge , and also the judicial fore-knowledge of urines hath remained hidden : even as we have from a Foundiation , demonstrated in our Vronoscopia or Inspection of the Vrine : the which , I heartily wish , that the more fervent Judgements would hereafter practise . For truly , I prepare my self for my Grave , under hope , that my Labours will not be unprofitable for humane miseries . I will now proceed to reckon up my blockishnesses , and the wearinesses of experiences . For first of all , from Duelech being dissected , and distilled all alone by himself : and also from the shavings of the Urinal : Thirdly also , from the urine being distilled unto the thicknesse of an Ecligma or Lohoch , altogether the same Oyl , and the same Crystals of liquid dung do arise : For from Duelech there is left an earthy Lee , being black , brickle , and burnt , no longer rocky , and scarce reserving any thing of the more fixed salt of urine : Because the volatile Spirit is wholly throughout its whole , changed into Duelech , and at length into an earth , with other parts of the composition being adjoyned unto it . Verily , for a sure signe , that the fixed salt of Urine hath not the faculty of an active Runnet : but is onely coagulated passively . Furthermore , That earth that was left of the distilled Duelech , never lately descended unto the Bladder in the shew of a Pouder or Clay : but it was a Liquor while it was in the urine , which there afterwards thus hardened by the spirit of the urine . For I long meditated , that an Earth or Pouder , however most Artificially it should be connexed to the spirit of Urine ; yet it would never grow together into Duelech ; and by consequence , that the invention of Tartar for Duelech was also vaine : For truly , I had already beheld in the Glass , that Duelech was made of the same spirits ( to wit , distilled and clear Liquors ) matter , and efficient cause whereof it ariseth in us . Therefore I concluded from my proofes now mechanically made ; That if the urine , together with its spirit of salt , hath in it the spirit of a volatile Earth , Duelech shall of necessity be generated from those two , unlesse by the Dross ( which in the Book of Fevers , I call the liquid Dung ) the salt of the urine be filled or glutted ; and for that cause , be disturbed from coagulating : For I have often observed , that any one that had the stone , being afterwards afflicted with the Jaundice , hath beene free from the stone as long as the Jaundice bare sway . And so , Neither hath it been undeservedly asserted by me in the Treatise of Fevers ; that the aforesaid Dross being a stranger to Urines , is mixed with them , as it were a profitable Excrement . But the Sands are corned or grainified as well in us , as in Urinals , at the very moment of Corning , and being once Corned , they also obtain the ultimate hardnesse of themselves : but not that they are more and more hardened by degrees . Therefore it is fabulous , whatsoever the Schooles do devise concerning the stone , being confirmed , and not yet confirmed , for the excuses of their confirmed ignorance and sloath . For the sand that is newly voided from us , or wiped off from Urinals , is as hard as it will be for ten yeares after . Let the same Judgement be also of Duelech . I have also , said above , that unlesse the sand which is affixed to the Urinal or Chamberpot , were coagulated in an instant , it had wholly fallen headlong to the bottome , neither would it be fastened to the sides , and so proportionably distinct . An heretical Preacher nigh Barclay , in England , being safe and sound in health , in the Year 1629. striving after Dinner to draw a Book unto him from a high place was sorely smitten with a great weight and pain in the bottome of his belly ; and four dayes after he by certaine signes knew that he was burthened with the stone . And eight dayes after that , he dyed at London under the Knife of the Stone-Cutter . But that stone weighed an English pound , and two drammes beside : Neither do I remember , that ever I saw the like stone : But an hundred pounds at Antwerp weigh at London 104. But Paracelsus admiring this appearance of the stone , least a fiction should be wanting to his Microcosm , calls it the stone of Thunder , and thinks that it grew together in falling : But that errour of his is manifold . 1. For there is no place granted for its falling . For truly , the Bladder containes urine , or no urine : if no urine , it is folded together like a wet Towel : But if it be extended by urine , seeing this is beneath , Duelech cannot be formed out of the urine , or without urine , that it should be made without matter , and fall downwards into the urine , that it may be made in falling . 2. He erres , believing that the stone which is cast down in Thunder , is generated by ordinary and wonted Causes : but not by monstrous ones . Otherwise , if the matter that is natural to Thunder , should be naturally coagulated in an instant , such stones ought to be accustomed to all particular Thunders . Neither should there be a Cause , why a small stone of about three pound weight , should pierce into the earth unto the depth of nine foot , by its onely and naked fall : unless it were thrust down with a stronger force , even as concerning an irregular Meteor elsewhere . 3. In the next place , Duelech bewraying it self by a sudden Tyrannie , proves that its generation is in a moment ; For nothing hinders , but that he adhered to the Bladder with his foot , and that being broken off through the steepnesse of his passage ; he fell down into the widenesse of the Bladder . 4. Whatsoever is at any time condensed into a true Duelech , whether it be a Central Kernel descending from the Kidney ; or in the next place , growing in manner of a Bark ; every Generation thereof , is alwayes made in an instant . For indeed , I have learned by my Mechanical Operations , that Duelech , and what quantity there is in him , is wholly constituted of meer volatile Beings : yet , not that of a urine of three or four ounces ( of which quantity that of him that made water might be ) a Duelech of one pound could be generated . Moreover , although I knew mans urine to be onely in our species : and that the spirit of mans urine alone was in the possession of man ; Yet I examined Horse-pisse , in the name of the bigger Cattel ; as being carefull , whether perhaps , there might not be another like coagulating spirit , which by reason of Impediments co-bred with it , could not every where obtain the command of coagulating . But however I laboured , I found not that spirit the Coagulater in Horse-pisse ; As neither the spirit of a ferment , or of Aqua vitae . Therefore I found a potential Aqua vitae intimate with mans urine , and that a pliable one , between that spirit the Coagulater , and the putrified spirit the Receiver of the aforesaid Runnet or Coagulum . And it is chiefly to be noted , that the spirit of urine doth not coagulate , but by the Wedlock of Aqua vitae : the which I have often approved by distilling . There are therefore , three things in the urine of man , which must of necessity concur : and by so much the more powerfully , by how much every person troubled with the stone , doth now bear no light or small principle of corruption in his urine ( as presently in its place ) from whence indeed , a ferment is swiftly stirred up in the urine for the aforesaid Aqua vitae that is capable of Coagulation . For neither doth it withstand these things , that as well the spirit of Life , as the Aqua vitae it self , are exceeding swift of flight , and so , scarce fit for the stubbornnesse of Duelech : for it is certain , that the spirit of Vitriol , doth most swiftly flye from its volatile Companion , yea and that it is presently fixed by the swift Sal Armoniack : So that it undergoes a fusion or liquidnesse of substance : whereby our followers being perfectly instructed , do presently cease to wonder ; which things , otherwise , affect the ignorant with amazement . CHAP. IV. A processe of Duelech . 1. The manner of making Duelech . 2. It is a singular Being , nor having its like . 3. A mechanick or handicraft Operation of the Fountaines of the Spaw . 4. Oker in the Fountaines of the Spaw , might have scared Paracelsus from his device of Tartar. 5. A dissection in the actions of Spirits . 6. The Fire-water , that hath not an homogeneal Being like unto its self . 7. The difference of the aforesaid dissolving liquor with all others of the whole Universe . 8. Some Oyl of Gold is of a Pomegranate or light-red colour . 10. What the generation of Duelech may bespeak . 11. The action of Bodyes on Bodyes , of what sort it is . 12. The Doctrine concerning the action of Bodyes and Spirits . 13. The participations of faculties out of mettals without a metalick matter . 14. The delusion of the Alchymist . 15. Diseases are appointed for a punishment and Reward . 16. Some exercises , beginning from salts . 17. The spirit of salt is made earthly . 18. A trivial Question . 19. The device of frosty Tartar. 20. From whence the Strangury of old people is . 21. Four remarkable things issuing from thence . 22. A second Question . 23. A third . 24. A fourth . 25. Catarrhs or defluxions of the Bladder , are ridiculous . 26. A fifth Question . 27. A sixth . 28. Astrologers are taken notice of . 29. Paracelsus is noted , like as also Galen . 30. The solving of a question proposed . 31. The heedlessnesse or rashnesse of Galen . THe spirit of the Urine laying hold of the volatile earth that was procreated by a seed , and a hoary and putrifying ferment , stirs up the spirit of Wine , the inhabitant of the Urine , as yet laying hid in [ Potentia ] or possibility : by the which , as it were , by two Sexes concurring , the certain aforesaid earthly spirit , drinks in the one onely aforesaid Coagulater ; by reason of which reciprocation or mutual return , a most thorow connexion of them both ariseth in acting : because they conjoyn in manner of spirits , throughout their very least parts : And so the Coagulater doth at one instant , coagulate the spirit of Wine , that was potentially stirred up in the putrifying ferment , whereunto , when the hoary or fermental putrified Masse hath applyed its matter , they are condensed or co-thickned together into a true Duelech ; surely , a Monster , this new something coagulated in the middle of the urine ; Nor therefore capable of being again resolved into water . For it is a rocky Animal Being , like unto no other , and the which therefore , Paracelsus names Duelech : And that Being , will the more easily enter into the mind , by a daily example which the Fountaines of the Spaw present unto us . For they have a sulphureous spirit , manifestly tart ( from whence they are called the sharp Fountaines ) and also a vein of Iron . For both being of an imperfect and immature shape , are contained as dissolved , in the simple water . Therefore they both begin mutually to joyn their reciprocal forces against each other : And at length , when as their strength being tyred , they have desisted from their action , they are condensed into a stony body , which affixeth it self to bottles in the form of Oker : and so the water returns into its antient Element , as uncloathed of every strange quality . Which Sharpish Fountaines , if Paracelsus had sufficiently contemplated of , or he had neglected the history of the Tartar of Wine , borrowed from Basilius Valentine ; for he had known that there is not the like birth of Oker and of Tartar of Wine . At leastwise , he might have been with the more difficulty convinced : Because Tartar is resolved into water ; but Oker is not , as neither is the stone : For neither have I ever attempted to deny , that solid bodyes are constituted of Liquors : But I refuse tartarous liquors , they being forcibly brought into the Causes of Diseases ( as in the Treatise concerning Tartars ) but on the contrary , I have reverently admired the activities of spirits on spirits . Truly , since Oker growes out of the waters of the Spaw ; or since a stony crust is spread over bottles throughout their whole hollownesse ; let it first of all be wickednesse to give the water of the Spaw to drink ; if we believe that Tartars are made just as Oker is in the Spaw-water : That is , if we believe , that there is Tartar in the water of the Spaw , which is presently to be coagulated in the Drinker , he commits wickednesse , who gives the Spaw-water to drink . For while the acide or tart salt of Wine corroded the Lee : that salt indeed , which before was tart and not coagulated , remaines tart , and is coagulated ; Neither doth it change the essence of Salt , although that salt which before was fluide , be constrained or bound fast together . In like manner also , although the Lee hath supt up the acide spirits , and coagulated them into it self : yet a solid body remaineth , while the spirit of the acide salt is coagulated into the solid body of Tartar of Wine : Yea , before that it be fully coagulated , it affixeth it self to the Vessel . For in the Generation of Tartar of Wine , the spirit acteth on a body ; and there is altogether a far different action , while two spirits act on each other : For in this action ( even as in the water of the Spaw , in Duelech , &c. ) a new and neutral Being is constituted , such as is Oker , of the spirit of Sulphur , and the volatile vein of Iron : But in the Tartar of Wine , onely the tart spirit , or sour liquor of the Wine , is changed into a Salt , and the Lee remaineth such as it was before : And therefore the matter constituted thereby , is again dissolvable . For a metal , stone or solid Body is not unbodyed , changed or volatilized , by reason of the corroding of spirits : That is manifest : For Silver , Pearls , Cor●als , Spongy-stones , Crabstones , Snails-stones , &c. although , by Aqua fortis , ( and other sharp Liquors , they vanish out of our fight ; yet they are stones , as before even as concerning Fevers ) indeed the spirit did what it could : but it operated as it wore in vain upon the body , while in corroding that body , it coagulated it self . For indeed , there is in the whole nature of the Universe , one onely fire , the burning Vulcan ; So also , there is none but one onely Liquor , which dissolveth all solid bodyes into their first matter , without any changing or diminishment of their faculties : which thing , Adeptists have known , and will testifie : but in all other faculties of Liquors , a body can never radically co-mingle it self with the solving Liquor : And therefore it is corroded indeed , but is not intimately solved or loosened , even as otherwise is required for a formal transmutation : For every sharp gnawing spirit , in gnawing of another body , is coagulated , and well nigh fixed , and passeth over into the form of a thickned salt : yet the body that hath suffered the wil of the gnawing spirit to be done upon it , doth not act any thing on that spirit ; which in gnawing & by its own proper action coagulated it self : the which indeed comes to passe , while two active spirits run together on each other : For then there is a double action , whereby both of them do mutually act on both . For therefore , such an action of theirs , is made with a thorow radical mixture , and there is constituted of them both , an of-spring of unseparable mixture ; and this transchanged body , is a neutral product from them both . But if Paracelsus bad timely of fitly contemplated , instead of his Tartar of Wine he had taken the Oker of the water of the Spaw , and had spoken something more probable , than that there were Liquors in all things , which were coagulated after the manner of Tartar in Wine ; and that they were the common mother and matter of any Diseases whatsoever . Oker indeed , the daughter of the Spaw , is not again resolved , like as Tartar of Wine is : and yet it differs from Duelech , as much as a Mineral stonifying , doth from the stone in man. For in this , the Spirit the Coagulater existing in the urine , operates by vertue of its own and of a different salt , upon a hoary and putrifying spirit of earth , without the boyling up , or belching forth of a wild Gas : and so , it finisheth its operation , and coagulates it self with the spirit of Wine that is proper to the urine , in a moment , even as I have above declared in the handicraft Operation of the spirit of urine , and Wine , or of a burning water . But the acide spirit of the water of the Spaw , having sprung up from an Embryonated or non-shaped Sulphur , do operate , first in a long Tract , do stir up bubbles , and a wild Gas , and at length affix themselves to the Vessel . For otherwise , if that Gas cannot be belched forth , the waters of the Spaw remain safe , being fit for healing . For if the Gas be hindered from going forth , it hinders , whereby the subsequent effect cannot follow , and the spirits are rendred feeble and barren in acting . But the lee of Wine , seeing it hath its own coagulation , and that which is proper to it self , it hath no need to attain it from elsewhere : But since the sharpish spirit of Wine hath gnawn the lee , there is no reason that it should give that in gnawing , which it self hath not in it self . Therefore in the generation of the Tartar of Wine , that sharpish , saltish spirit , shall be coagulated indeed , by reason of the earth of dreg : but it shall remain in the shape of a dissolvable salt , and not in the form of a rocky stone ; By reason of that Rule ; that a transmutation of the essence presupposeth a transmutation of the matter . Therefore the earthy body , whether it be dissolved by a Corrosive , or not , keeps its own antient Being : Because , that Dissolver doth not pierce the matter dissolved , in the radical bond of connexion : The which notwithstanding , in things that are essentially to be transchanged , is exceeding necessary to be done . Therefore let the young beginners in Chymistry learn , that bodies are not resolved by the calcinations of Corrosives , although they are also , often repeated ; unlesse a fermental impression through putrifaction , whichgoes before every radical dissolution , doth interpose . Camphor indeed , in Aqua fortis , assumeth the nature of a swimming Oyl : but that Corrosive being washed away by common water , the Camphor is presently what it was before , whether that be once done , or lastly , a thousand times . For in my young beginnings , I rejoyced , that by a Retort , at the seventh Repetition , I had dispatched Gold into the shape of a Pomegranate-coloured Oyle ; As being mindfull , that he who knew how to destroy Gold , hath known likewise how to make or build it up . But the Corrosive its Companion being taken away , the Gold returned into its self , and my vain joy ceased : He labouring in vain to extract that which is not in it . They also labour in vain , who do not operate by due meanes . The generation of Duelech therefore , is not the imaginary stonifying of a cocted muscilage , or of a feigned phlegme dryed by the heat of the place , or confirmed , or hardened by drying ( for so a Bole or clod onely should be resolvable , but not Duelech ) but there is a passing over of three spirits at once , into Duelech , by a true & essential transmutation . Truly , Bodyes do not act on Bodyes by a natural action of Composition ; but whatsoever Bodyes do perform on each other , that is done by reason of weight , greatnesse or magnitude , hardnesse , figures , and motions : And truly , those are serviceable for Science Mathematical , but scarce for Science Natural . But if corporeal salts do operate , it comes to pass either because they after some sort , contain a volatile spirit , or do find that spirit in a Body . Let young Beginners at least , remember , that Bodyes , after whatsoever manner they shall be once intermingled by co-melting , do notwithstanding , remain in their antient essence , unlesse they are transchanged by the fire , or a ferment . Lastly , that Bodies do operate nothing on Spirits , but do onely limit these by suffering : Which operation of Bodyes therefore , is not a true re-acting : but father a meet effect of spirits , resulting from the proper activity of the same . For therefore , Spirits , when their faculties are woren out and exhausted , do voluntarily decay in the end of their motion . And although that action of spirits be made with the suffering and losse of their own powers ; yet they do not therefore , transchange Bodyes into their own nature ; For they onely gnaw them , and grind them into pouder : the which also , they interpret to be a calcining by water . By way of example , joyn thou a pound of Crocus martis , to a sixfold quantity of Oyl of Vitriol , then distill thou whatsoever shall be watery : Thou shalt find the Vitriol of Iron or Mars : Take from thence the Iron , and thou hast the Vitriol of Iron . A Salt I say , like Vitriol , whose tast is of Iron ; Yet retaining nothing of the Mars or Iron : For thou hast a limitation from the Mars , as to its efficacy , but not in respect of its matter : And the former spirit of Vitriol , or Oyl of the vitriol of Copper , shall be fixed into a certain salt , onely by the odour of the Iron . Again , Take the same and more clear example . Conjoyn thou a pound of running Mercury or Quick-silver unto a four fold quantity of Oyl of Vitriol ; Take away its flegme by distilling , and a white precipitate shall remain in the bottom like snow : Likewise , If thou shalt pour on it more Oyl than is meet , the Mercury will unsensibly surmount , together with the Oyl . Furthermore , If by a Liver , thou shalt take away the tartnesse from the aforesaid snow , there will be a pouder of a Citron colour in the bottom ; which being revived or unto Life recovered , shall be of equal weight with the former Mercury : But the water , which in washing off the salt , drinks it up into it self , affords a true Alum . For so one onely pound of Quick-silver , onely by its touch , should be able by degrees to change many thousands of pounds of the sharpest Oyl of Vitriol into an Alum , without any losse of its substance : which same Oyl , by the touch of the Iron , is in like manner changed into the vitriolated salt of Mars , being a noble Medicine for healing . Let the action of the Mercury without an essential ●● suffering of its substance , be taken notice of : And it is a Contemplation of great moment . For truly , a great rout of Alchymists , are deluded by their own hope , thinking that fixed Bodyes being solved in Corrosives , gave unto these Corrosives their properties ; at leastwise , if those dissolving Corrosives , have from a voluntary motion of activity , coagulated in their possession . They know not , I say , that Spirits being wearied by acting , do degenerate into a new Being . To wit , while they descend unto the limit of their power in acting . And then , we must know , that every operation , which tendeth unto a transmutation of both ( namely , the Agent and Patient ) consisteth onely between meer Spirits : But that the operation of a Body with a spirit of things without Life , begins from the spiritual odour of a certain putrifaction by continuance ; because seeds and fermental dispositions depend thereupon , and according to their own will or arbitration , do command Liquors appointed for Generation . Wherefore the Antients have not unfitly advertised us ; That the rise and continuation of the visible world , is from an invisible and incorporeal Essence ( such as are Odours and Ferments . ) And in our own borders , Duelech growes together from an incredible Spirit , the Coagulater , and from an invisible Beginning . For neither hath it stood in need for its nativity , of Tartar brought from without , of the Son of a more inward muckinesse , or of the feigned curdlings of drying . It is a far more calamitous thing , that we carry the very vulcan of the Stone about us , in our urine , unto the importunate command whereof , the properties of a volatile spirit do hearken . For God had seemed to have loved Bruits before us , if he had not directed Diseases unto a Reward , and so unto good , whereof a temporal punishment is not worthy . But besides , where a fore-seen end of punishment is present ; he hath from the Gift of his Bounty erected the powers of Medicines . In Beasts also , stones are bred , but not given for a punishment , nor for a Reward , which grow in them for Medicines to us . And therefore , they also arise from a far different Root . Moreover , before that I proceed unto the History of the Stone , I will premise some exercises . First therefore , In the Salt-pits of Burgundy , there are at this day , no more than two pits , the pit of Brine , and the pit of Gray . But if indeed , an hundred measures of both pits are boyled apart , they yield far lesse salt , than if they are boyled in the same quantity , being conjoyned . The Inhabitants admire at the Experiment , and therefore they henceforward confound both Brines together . For indeed , the one of them , containes more of a vapory or volatile salt , which being boyled apart by it self , with a flaming fire , flyes away before its coagulation . Notwithstanding , meeting with another more fixed salt , it is imbibed and constrained into a solid salt . The example teacheth this , That Bodyes of Salts do drink up their own Spirits , and that their spirits in like manner , do gnaw their Bodyes : For truly , the Brine of Burgundy being clearer than Crystal , doth notwithstanding , through its vapory salt spirit , drink up into it self , a great part of a rocky stone ; which therefore , in time of boyling , To wit , while the spirits are coagulated in the more solid body of the salt , settles , and is scummed off with difficulty . Therefore , that spirit of salt , although it dissolved the stone , yet it therefore contracted not wedlock with the earth ; as that , either this should stonifie , or the other be made salt . Yea , it even from thence is manifest , that although the Sea-salt had vapory or volatile parts ; yet it could not come unto the stone , as neither to the spirit of urine for an increase : Because it is that which consists of far different principles : ( even as elsewhere concerning Digestions ) but the Sea-salt , by how much it is a stranger with the Urine , by so much it shall stir up consultations of dissolving Duelech . For whatsoever dissolveth the stone of a Rock , and doth hide it invisibly in it self ; that at least , shall not perswade the original of the stone . Thus far concerning a fixed Earth , dissolved by the spirit of salt , and of the vapory and coagulated spirit of Salt. Now concerning a volatile salt decaying into a solid body . Sublime thou Stibium with an equal part of Sal Armoniack , by a gentle or indifferent fire ; thou shalt see the salt to arise tinged with divers colours : Separate the colour from the salt , by water , and thou shalt have a pouder , which with Salt-peter , flyes away almost wholly into a flame . But if that which is left with the Sal Armoniac , be as yet twice sublimed by it self , and freed from its salt : thou shalt have a pouder of Stibium , voyd of salt ; wherewith , if thou shalt then mix Salt-peter , it shall be no longer inflamed : but as much Salt-peter as thou shalt mix with it , is changed into an earth , and neglects the nature of a salt : For the odour of the Sulphur pierceth the Salt-peter . So the odour of the salt of urine , and its volatile spirit , presently changes the earthly spirit in the urine , that was stirred up by a certain kind of putrefaction , into the stone . And therefore , the urine is not corned or grainified presently after making water : but after it hath assumed the beginnings of putrefaction . Hitherto tends that question : Why children and old men , are more stony , than themselves being men of a ripe or middle age ? Is it because they are hotter ? What if the Schooles do in this place , without blushing accuse the coldnesse of Children and old men , as having forgotten shame ; because according to their will , the affect of the stone doth coagulate or grow together through heat alone : what shall it help to have invoked a more plentifull quantity of phlegme , if heat the one onely efficient cause , be wanting ? If I say , phlegme ( which as such , doth stonifie ) be wanting in Nature ? Neither can they devise the same Temperature or Complexion to be in Children and old Men , without the disgrace and confusion of their own received Opinions : As neither shall they find a likenesse in the urine of them both . For the urines of those of an unripe age , are grosser ; but those of old people , watery and washy : the urines also of such as have the stone , are watery . I have in time past , seen old men molested with a continual strangury or pissing by drops , even until Death , unto whom Diuretical ( that is urine provoking ) Remedies of Saffron , Mace , &c. And likewise Lenitives or slippery Asswagers of the Mallow , Marsh-mallow , &c. were vain and of no effect ; and the which , Physitians had now pronounced to be besieged with the stone : But Cutting testified that they were free from the stone ; ( Michael Des Montaignes saith , that the Bishop of Paris his Vncle , was cut in vain ) and so they also learned , not to divine of the presence of the stone , from the urine . For these very stranguries , Paracelsus devised his own frosty fiction of Tartar , which hath not as yet been found in dissected persons . Indeed afterwards I knew , that as oft as the Gawl was more weak than was meet ( as in old people ) it could not change the sour Chyle of the stomach into a salt Salt : Wherefore , that from a very small and daily quantity of sharpnesse being left , the strangury of old folks , although the stone be not granted to be present , doth continue : So new Ales do stir up the strangury in many , by reason of the residing and inherent tartness of a more new Ferment . By this Title , namely , through defect of a Gawly ferment , the urines of aged people and Children are the lesse tinged . From whence these remarkable things do follow . 1. That the affect of the stone doth the more easily grow together , through a scarcity of the dross or liquid dung in urine . 2. That it is a Remedy from the Cause , to have comforted the ferment of the Gawl . 3. That urines do seem the sharper in the strangury and pissings by drops , as they contain something of a sharp matter in them . 4. There clearly appears to be a profitable use of the Dross , and of the connexion thereof in the urine . And then it is asked , Why the stone in the Reines is frequent , but that of the Bladder , more rare ? I have answered elsewhere : That as long as the urine is in the Veines , it is not yet perfect : For neither doth it as yet cast the smell of urine , or hath it the properties of urine ; as neither is it convenient for the venal Blood to be seasoned with the odour of an Excrement . The limitation therefore of the urine , is from the Kidney ; but the odour thereof belongs to a putrefactive Ferment ; because to an excrement : and therefore it volatilizeth the earth of the urine . But moreover , although the Fermental putrefaction of the urine may render the earth of a strong and putrifying smell ; yet it stayes not in man as long as it putrifies . Therefore the hoary or rank earth hereof , hath need of the spirit of the urine , that it may become stony . For in the Kidney ( where a fermental putrefaction of the urine ariseth ) a new and volatile earth doth easily associate it self with the spirit of the urine , and is corned , especially while as the Dross , the preservative from the stone , hath not as yet come thither : But it becomes a Citron or light-red colour , even no lesse from the place , than from the aforesaid Dross . The Kidney therefore payes the punishment of those things whereof it is the first or chief Author . I will elsewhere teach concerning the Womb of Duelech , that there goes before the Kidney , a disposition unto Duelech : which disposition , because it is vital , and not a meer excrementitious one , even as in the Bladder ; it is also , more plentifully coagulated in the Kidney , than in the Bladder . For this , because it is a meer sink , is wholly destitute of every Ferment : But the Bowels , as they are the stomach of the Gawl ( even as elsewhere concerning Digestions ) are a vital and cocting Receptacle : But the Bladder is a meer Reteiner of the excrement alone . It is asked , in the next place : Why the stone of the Kidneys is for the most part , yellow , and that of the Bladder somwhat whitish ? Truly , the Kidney hath a Ferment for the making of an excrement ; and therefore it hath need of a liquid and tinging dross . And then also , the Kidney hath venal blood as a neighbour unto it , and a tinged substance of its own ; But the Bladder couples of the Glew of its own immediate nourishment , unto the hoary earth , and to the Spirit the Coagulater , in the body of the Urine . Consequently , from hence , it is manifest , why Duelech that is bred in the Bladder , is the harder . It is , because a great part of the nourishment of the Bladder , departs into a mucky snivel , which together with the rocky Beginnings of Coagulation , the more hardly and toughly prepares Duelech ; Even as Lime with Meal , renders the morter fat more tough . The Reines also , being by Duelech their Companion , at length hurt even unto their solid fibers : do afterwards cast forth white , and sufficiently hard stones . I have taught elsewhere , that the nourishment of the Bladder , by reason of the stone , or some other importunity , is , before its full digestion , separated from its solid part , and is wept from it like a mucky tear , and co-mixed with the urines : That there is , I say , an excrement of the last digestion , which goes astray and is letted in the Bladder ; being sometimes indeed , an occasioned effect of the stone , but not the Cause [ per se ] or [ by it self ] thereof , although it now and then be occasionally and by accident , assumed . For some Physitians admiring at so great and so continued a plenty of pissed snivel ; and knowing that it was not purulent or proceeding from corrupt matter , seeing they knew not from what an Ulcer so great a plenty of pus or snotty matter could drop ; at length , they being as it were constrained by a sufficient enumeration of Causes ; surely through miserable stupidities , they brought Catarrhs or Rheumes ( so ridiculous a thing ! ) into the Bladder . But others , while they durst not implore vain Accusations on the healthy Brain , and are in great doubt corrupt matter , they denounce the Ulcers of the Reines , to be the Fountaines of so great a Glut. So that without a foregoing Aposteme , that mucky snivel doth oft-times divide the half part with the urine , in the Urinal , yet thy suppose , that from the Kidney being without pain , so much snotty pus doth daily showre down . First of all , I have taken notice , that many have been cured at the Spaw , whom the shamefull debates of Physitians about the purulent Ulcer , Comsumption of the Kidneys , and Catarrhs , had banished thither to dye : Who , when as they had beyond the hope of those Physitians returned sound , they boasted that those sick were cured by them , from the profitable Councell of Travelling thither . But why hath my urine that was healthy , applyed a sand unto the Urinal in the cold : but not , being detained so long within , in heat ? I have said , That urine was from an inbred Balsame , alike easily preserved , both from stonifying , and from putrifying . And then , that the Urinal was a vessel fit for affixing of that sand : but not the Bladder . And lastly , that the earth is volatilized by putrefaction . It is also a doubt , why of Twins that are nourished by the same milk , the one of them onely is sometimes diseased with the stone ? In which doubt , the Schooles , Women , Idiots , and rustical persons , think that by one alike Answer they have sufficiently satisfied themselves : if they have named the cause thereof , an evil distemper or inclination of indisposition , and have alleadged humours . Which inclination , Astrologers , although they distinguish not in the Conception , or Quickning ; yet they put a difference betwixt it , in the birth : and in this respect , they confound Twins , into divers Conditions . But at leastwise , the Etymologie of an [ inclination unto the stone ] doth even in the entrance , render Paracelsus suspected concerning his Tartar. Yea , and thus far Galen's own Schooles have have forsaken him without light : Who being contented with an unequal distemperature in Seminal ( although Homogeneal ) Constituters , yet so it were now turned into nature , he thinks that he hath abundantly satisfied the question : and he prosecutes it with desperation , that for this Cause , that unequal distemperature , is unseparable from him that is born . He takes away indeed , the common name of Inclination ; but the former if not more gross Darknesses remain : While as he resolves a Controversie by a Controversie , and with desperation cuts off the endeavour of enquiring . It is certain in the mean time , that the duplicity of the question is not to be drawn but from a disorder of the matter : The which , seeing it is not found under so simple an Homogeniety of the seed : it must of necessity be limited in the Magnum Oportet or necessary remainder of the middle Life of the place or Climate of the Womb. For the sides of Women do so differ , that we are every one of us , as it were a pair of men distinguished side-wayes : and our other inward Bowels do border side-wayes upon the Womb. For from the first Constituting parts , there are indeed hereditary defilements drawn , which are equally distempered on the whole Conception , if they were derived from the Parent the Begetter : but those blemishes which are found in the place , are adjacent unto those places , and invade us as more immediate unto us . A Wonder it is ! to consider , How easily our most tender Beginnings do hearken unto forreign impressions ; and how easily things once received , do wax ripe ; and finally , how stubbornly they persevere : Also those Seminaries of Diseases , which are soon gotten by a proper errour of Living ; how friendlily they are entertained in , and do bear sway over the same powers wherein , and over which the hereditaries of Diseases are entertained and bear Rule . And by so much the more powerfully they enter , and are the more insolently imprinted or stamped on us , by how much their wedlock doth defile the Archeus in us , being as yet the more young . For as long as we receive an increase ; the seeds of Diseases , although they are drawn in , in manner of an Odour , they are also incorporated in our radical Beginnings : and in some one such Beginning , do the stony perfect acts of seeds wax ripe with us : The which also , even by the Odour being drawn in , the Ferments of the seeds have more largely constituted elsewhere . For from an entire nature , every man ought to be healthy , and of one inclination ; but that , by reason of the properties of the middle Life , nourishments , perturbations , and Climates , disorders had crept into the Sons of Adam . But those disorders which do privily enter with the Mothers blood , and Nurses milk , do as Houshold Thieves , possesse the Treasures of Life ; neither do they easily depart , but under the aydes of Renovation . But I coming nearer to the Knot , do say , That in the Kidney , there is a dungy ferment , being a putrefactive of the urine ; the which wandring , and the mark of its going astray , being once imprinted , the urine doth from thenceforth , proceede by a voluntary flux , and by degrees tendeth unto the utmost putrefaction of it self , under which lurketh a power of making the earth volatile . Since therefore , there is in the Kidney , this power of fermenting : The question , Why one of the Twins hath his Kidneys the more strong in a dungy Ferment , is resolved , by the Chapter of the unequal strength of the parts : To wit , so as the stomach of one hath an aversness , and another more strong stomach , not so . For so the Kidney that is the more rich in a putrifying Ferment , is more prone to the framing of the stone . The Begetter also , if in time of generating , he hath his Bladder filled with urine , is wont to raise up an off-spring subject to the calamity of Duelech ; Because the fermental putrefaction of his urine being the longer detained , doth fermentally increase it self in the neighbouring seed sliding thorow . Galen indeed erres by so much the more ridiculously , as that he will have something of urine , to be naturally in every seed , and to be alwayes added thereto , by reason of the tickling . As being ignorant , To wit , that not so much as a forreign hair is mixed with the Beginnings of Generation , without a total destruction thereof . But how the afore-tasted particulars do serve our intention ; take notice , That an unequal strength of the parts , is as it were necessary to the most intimate nature . For neither shalt thou draw a thred of Homogeneal Gold , which may not be sooner broken in one part of it than another . And so , that it is weaker than it self : Disorder , unlikenesse or inequality , and diversity of kind , are onely from the innermost essence of things ; although unto their essences , they are altogether Forreigners . For from hence it is , That Twins which sprang from one onely and a single seed cannot escape an Heterogeniety or diversity of kind ; especially being that which is by so easie a Contagion , brought into the Beginnings of Things . CHAP. V. The History of Duelech is Continued . 1. From whence there is hope for those that have the stone . 2. Who is a Physitian given of God. 3. What kind of honour is due to the Physitian . 4. A fourfold ignorance of Physitians . 5. A phylosophical history of the stone . 6. The errour of Paracelsus and the Galenists , concerning the foregoing matter of Tartar , and of the Stone . 7. An errour of Paracelsus . 8. An earth in the urine and venal blood . 9. What may be found in Duelech being distilled . 10. The simplicity of Physitians . 11. The miserable simplicity of Galen . 12. An Argument for the first matter of the Stone . 13. An examination of Diureticks or urine provoking Medicines . 14. Some most wretched Histories . 15. A resolving of a question of Diureticks . 16. From whence there is danger in Diureticks , and a happy fore-caution or prevention hereof . 17. A numerical account of Diureticks . 18. That a distemperature being converted into Nature , is to be corrected . 19. Whether a laying along on the sides , doth promote the affect of the Stone . 20. A various action of the spirit of Vrine . 22. Vain are the fore-cautions of the Schooles . 22. A faulty Argument of the Schooles 23. The inconsiderate rashnesse of the Schooles . 24. Why the touching may deceive him that hath the Stone in the Reines . GOd made not Death , neither is there Medicine of Destruction , nor a Kingdome of the Infernals in the Earth : Wherefore , I have believed , that no defect that is obvious in healing , hath issued out of the Treasures of Him , who made not Death , but Remedies : as neither was it from the errour of his foreknowledge , that him whom he had chosen and Created for a Physitian , he had every where left scanty , in many degrees or particulars . He is not a Physitian therefore , that as an Impostour , he should thrust onely a Cloakative and vain Remedy on the diseased with the stone . For the sick hath stood in need of a Physitian , who might testifie by his good works , that he was so created of God. But after that Medicine was erected into a profession , through the itching desire of Gain , any wicked kind of men intruded themselves for Physitians : for the withstanding of which Errour , the Magistrate ought of right , to be severely fierce against these men . The Schooles therefore , drew the choyce of Physitians to themselves , and accounted them worthy ones , as many as would subscribe to the Ignorances of the Heathen ; that the Chaires and Life of man might be committed unto themselves . This hath now passed over through their hands , for a possession amongst the Europeans , for some Ages past ; Charity hath grown cold , and sloath being introduced under a safer Zeal ; long use hath also confirmed their obtained Ignorance , pretending a right of prescription . Wherefore God hath withdrawn his Gifts , and hath continued those , which he had bestowed elsewhere : Truly , Saint Paul will have Widowes to be honoured , which should be truly Widowes in good works : As for imitation of that Command , which hath appointed the Physitian to be honoured , who should be truly a Physitian in good works , and should testifie that he was so created and chosen of God : And whom indeed , the worthy Works , Commissions , Signes of his Calling , and deserts of his Honour , do follow . Of which place , I meditating with my self , do find Honour to be denounced to the Physitian by reason of necessity : which necessity presupposeth a proceeding Fruit ; otherwise in vain : Not indeed , that the force of the Precept hath such an influence on necessity , as that , when a healthy person stands in no need of a Physitian , this Physitian is not then to be honoured : For a Judge , Major . Lawyer , Souldier , Serjeant , Executioner , Potter , Weaver , &c. should by the same right of necessity , be appointed to be honoured . Notwithstanding , in things mental or pertaining to the mind , the whole contexture of Words , is alwayes nothing else but as it were the conception of one word . But they will bear testimony to that thing , who have at sometime , perhaps intellectually and after an abstracted manner , tasted down something . And that thing also , may after some sort be demonstrated : For in the same Conception , whereby I consider a Sword , I conceive ; first of all , a long , plain , cleansed , sharp figure , also a hard metallick matter , not flexible in the thred of straightnesse ; lastly its end , which is not to cut bread , or woods , &c. but to wound : For all those things are in one onely mental Conception of a Sword , at once represented unto me . But in mental Abstractions , not onely accompanying conditions ; But moreover , whatsoever may be spoken in many houres ( yea , nor can be expressed ) is in one onely Conception , as it were of one word , infused in an intellectual Rapture . But Honour is prescribed for the Physitian created by the Goodnesse of the most High , by reason of the necessity of the sick , for the healing of them . The which surely , in mental Conceptions , hath a simple signification . But the necessities of the Souldier , Judge , Executioner , Weaver , &c. are not perfectly considered , as chosen by the most High : but as being promoted by men for the performing of Offices required from the malice of men . Therefore I have elsewhere considered , that a fourfold darknesse of Ignorance , hath under a covetous desire of possessing , entred together therewith , into the profession of Medicine , and that they have left it without honour ; To wit , the ignorance of Causes , manner of making , of the Remedy , and suitable application thereof . Truly , as the art of the fire , unlocks Bodyes before our eyes ; so it opens the Gate unto Natural Philosophy . The true Medicine therefore hath layen hid , as depressed under the Ignorance and sluggishnesse of the Schooles : and that preparation of Medicine which ought to bring Light unto a Physitian , is wholly accounted mechanical , and conferred on the Apo●hecary and his Wife . Indulge my liberty , Reader , as oft as I dispute concerning God , of the Life , of Diseases , of the Common-weale , of my Neighbour , of my own Calling , of that which is True , Good , of that which is hurtfull , and of things that are so serious , and of so great moment , in favour of mortal men . For I propose the allurement of no mans favour unto my self . I have hitherto shewn that blind descriptions have arisen from an ignorance of the Causes and Remedies , or from the sloath of diligent searches , and from the facility of assenting to false principles : Wherefore also , we consequently divine of the unprosperous Cures , deceitfull Healings , and desperate succours of the Stone ; as also of the miserable obediences of the sick . I will now proceed , For indeed , whatsoever ariseth anew in Nature , that is made of something , and so of another thing or Being ; To wit , as their immediate matters being changed , it must needs be that the essences of those things are changed , And therefore this something hath ceased to be , that this new something may co-arise from thence ; And that is not done by a voluntary Resignation , or by a tyring of the former Raines : but by the necessity of a new seed being brought in upon it , and by a ripened impression , or from an actual disposition of ●n Archeus , as a new Being in possibility . But seeing that which not as yet is , is not able as yet to act ; it behoved , that that Being should after some sort fore-exist in possibility or power , that it may fit or suit the lump of the former Being subjected unto it self , for a future Being : But the fore-existence of that same Being , subsisteth in a certain seminal spirit , wherein the Types and shadowy foreknowledges of things that are to be performed in its Tragedy , do inhabit . But this spirit , I name the Archeus or Master-workman ; call thou it as thou wilt . Be it sufficient to know , that nothing doth arise anew in Nature , without a seed . In the next place , Every seed operates by dispositions its Handmaids , which it propagates in the matter for its intended desires . But the mediating Instruments , whereby seeds do dispose of their matters , I call Ferments : For even as the sour odour of an earthen Vessel constraines the milk , the odour of Leaven infects the Meal , and the hoary odour of a Hogshead , converts the Wine into a losse of it● strength , &c. So in the urine there is its own seed for Duelech ( for I distinguish the stone from sand , onely in quantity , and signifie it by the one onely name of Duelech ) also it s own dispositive Ferment , which is sometimes scituated in a naked smell or odour . For truly , in an old and strong smelling Urinal or Chamberpot , the urine doth sooner stonifie than otherwise , in a ●eat one . Yet that fermental odour is not proper to the Urin● , but a forreign stranger , which sometimes also , so increaseth it self in the Kidney ; that like Gorgon , it alwayes and uncessantly labours in the framing of Duelech , as if it laboured for its own perfection . For so the Archeus of the parts is unvoluntarily drawn unto a strange scope or aym , and through the importunities of a strange Ferment , is led aside whither he would not . Paracelsus therefore erres , who sets down a certain Tartarous muscilage , being dispersed through the veines , to be as it were the first and espoused matter of the stone : and exhorts that it be withdrawn by certain laxative Medicines . But I have given satisfaction unto these Trifles , as well in the Treatise concerning the causes of Duelech of the Antients , as in that of Tartar. For it is sufficiently manifest , that in mans urine ( even in that of healthy Folk ) there is alwayes an immediate , invisible matter and seed ; For Duelech , whether the while , Duelech break forth into act , as long as the urine is ripened in our possession , or after that it hath flowed out of us : The urine indeed , containes essential beginnings for Duelech ; but it is unto it by accident , that they are ripened or not : and although the urine hath in it self the seed and matter of the stone , yet it is not the womb of the stone , but onely the matrix of a stone-seed , which seeks and findes a womb for its self , either within or without . For as the Being in act , ought to perish , if the Being which is in possibility , and after some sort seminally fore-existing , ought from thence to arise : it is of necessity , that the essence and matter of the urine whereof Duelech is made , should first decay , if Duelech be made from thence : wherein notwithstanding , a small space of delay doth interpose . There is indeed in the urine a fit matter , and there is in it a seed for Duelech : yet it likewise stands in need of an actuating and exciting Ferment , which may procure the seed to bud ; Because the transmigration or passing over of a thing , argues a decay of it self , by a neutral state , through a proper mediating Ferment : Therefore the corruptive Ferment of the urine is the exciter or stirrer up of the seed . Therefore I have shewn by handicraft Operation , that the urine is longer preserved undefiled , under the Balsame of our Family Administration , and under an illsmatch'd heat , than that which else , in a cold Urinal , hearkens to corruption a few houres after , and therefore also defiles the Urinal with sand . For the Kidneys being after any manner polluted , have now conceived a corruptive Ferment of the urine . There is indeed , in the Kidney it s own excrementitious Ferment , from Nature : but that is not yet sufficient for the propagation of the stone . There is therefore a Duelech in the urine , as a Being in possibility , which breaks forth into act , while the corruption of the urine , or of the former Being , hovers over it . In the mean time , it is true , that some Provinces do bring no sluggish ayd unto the frequency of the stone . For Illyricum was once populous ; but at this day , almost a Desart : because it cuts off the life by a cruel exhalation . For there are some places , as it were subject to the Scurvey , Asthma or difficulty of breathing , or to the Falling-Evil : Not indeed ( as Paracelsus supposeth ) because such places are fruitfull in Tartars : Because that , since those of Europe , who are carried in the same ship , and have used the meats of our Country , are afflicted with forreign and local Diseases . For truly , there are some seeds of Diseases in places , and they forge fit matters for themselves , if they do not find them obedient or espoused to themselves . Let those Trifles depart , which suppose and require a naked allusion of a tartarous fore-existidg matter , and so , a muckinesse for Duelech , and do found them on a feigned Allegory of Artificial things : As if there were no other consistency of the stone , than what might answer to a dryed muscilage ? As if a snivelly Spittle cannot be generated of drink that is not slimy . As though the generation and hardening of every rocky stone , ought to be enrouled in snivel and heat ? For if the heart , as it is hotter than the bones , so also should be harder , perhaps their Positions might deserve credit : But Nature despiseth similitudes that are fetch'd from Artificial things . Therefore I understand that a dungy Ferment of the Kidney being too much exalted , doth afterwards dispose the Coagulater , the Spirit of urine , and the matter of the volatile earth , that they may grow together into the seed of Duelech : For there is not a transchangative principle in Nature , out of the Ferments that are inbred , or obtained ( even as elsewhere of Ferments ) except in Artificial things constituted by the fire . From whence also , every similitude drawn from the same , is unfitly applyed . For Potters earth is after one manner burnt into a stone without a seed ; and every stonification that is derived from a seminal Beginning , happens after another . But that there is an earth in urine , first the mechanical distillation of urine , proveth : And then , of the blood of distilled blood , there at length remaines much earth , which otherwise in time of nourishment , as being wholly volatile , exhales , is consumed , neither doth it leave any dreg of it self behind : But the earth becomes volatile in the urine from the putrified Ferment . A dungy putrefaction therefore growing in the urine : to wit , in the drosse or liquid dung that was brought thither , it sometimes obeyeth the Spirit the Coagulater : namely , as oft as a mutual action of them both is stirred up from the ferment of putrefaction . I have distilled a Duelech that was cut out of a man , by himself ; neither have I extracted any thing from thence , besides a stinking spirit of urine , and a yellow Crystal , and also an Oyl , such as is drawn out of dryed urine : But that which remained unto me in the bottom , was a black , scorched , brickle , and un-savoury earth . Therefore the Writers of the first Beginnings of Chymical Medicine , deceive their Readers , as many as from the distillations of the stone of man , and its preparations , do boast of the Ludus of Paracelsus , or of the Prince of stone-breaking Medicines : For they have a desire to write meer , and a great many lyes . Neither am I sufficiently angry at the Impudence and rashnesse of these men , in a matter of so easie an Experiment ; especially , when as any one might have fitly known that thing from the shavings of the Urinal . Surely , there is not so much as the least of those things extracted out of the stone of man , which those Instructers of Children do rashly write . It is certain in the mean time , that by the means of putrefaction , not a few things are made volatile , which before , their Closets being not unloosed , were more straightly bound up : For so also , Vegetables afford the more unmixt or meer waters to the Stiller , than themselves yet being not putrified . We perish not therefore by the stroak of one onely Weapon , since all particular ones which are mild , if they grow but a little exorbitant , do fashion new Calamities in us . For the substance of the Kidneys , being the hardest of all the Bowels , and destitute of finewes and Arteries , was the fittest for a dungy Ferment of the urine : whereunto , if the Ferment even but of a fore-threatned putrefaction in the urine , shall have accesse , a speedy inclination into the Disease of the stone , is imprinted on the trans-sliding urine . For truly , the odour onely of the fore-named putrefaction in the urine , stirs up a heterogeniety or diversity of kind , which was before hidden therein . For presently , the urine which lighted into a foul Urinal , becomes of a very stinking smell , and far sooner bewrayes the sand that was hidden in it , than that which otherwise was received in a clean Glass . For I have shewn by an undoubted experiment , that even the urine of healthy persons affixeth Duelech on Urinals , in the form of graines , or scales : And that not presently after making water , that they do forthwith settle ; but they are affixed some houres after : To wit , while the urine now unfolding the Ferment conceived in the Kidney , enters into the way of corruption . In those that have the stone of the Reines indeed , the urine receiveth a putrefactive Ferment , which otherwise is not communicated to the urine of healthy Folk , a dungy Ferment being otherwise sufficient for it . Furthermore , it is not necessary that an actual putrefaction be in the Kidney , that it may stir up a sand within . Even as neither doth the urine in Urinals , as yet stink , while it now freed it self from the sand : but a sore-threatned or beginning putrefaction is sufficient , that the spirits may freely enjoy their right , and mutually ( their Bolts being cast off ) act on each other . But I suppose that to be a sore-threatned putrefaction , which is onely seminally in the Archeus of the Reines , although not unfolded : For otherwise , if there were but the least actual putrefaction in the Kidney , a slow Fever would accompany that putrefaction : but of how small a quantity soever it shall be , it easily takes root within the urine , whereinto indeed a uriny-Ferment hath already pierced ; the which , as it is in it self a dungy one , so also it is a putrified one . For there is an easie association of putrefaction , and of an excrement in a Fermental co-resemblance : Whosoever therefore shall endeavour , that his urine may not stonifie within : let him seasonably provide , that it do not unseasonably wax stony within him . For therefore , there are some Medicines , which tinge the urine and Kidneys with a gratefull odour , and for this cause are kind to their Organs . For as they are Diureticks or provokers of urine , they obtain a passage unto the Kidneys , and immingle themselves with the urine . For whatsoever things , through an ocult , or manifest quality , have deserved the surname of Stone-break ; do indeed cleanse and wipe off , and for this cause do comfort the Kidneys being threatned with putrefaction : but surely , they do not melt , or resolve any thing of the sand : Such as are sharpish Fountaines , Diuretical stones and herbs , which by washing off , and wiping away , do banish the sands and thinner clots : but do not dissolve them , and much lesse do they restrain the new Beginnings of the stone ; Because they being destitute of a Balsame , and the seasoning of a gratefull Odour , do notwithstanding not appease the filthinesses of the putrefactive Ferment , however dull they as yet may be . For even as the re-budding of a plant , is not taken away by the lopping off its branches , but by rooting of it up : so neither is the stone of the Kidneys cured , by thrusting out of the stone . There is not any thing done that is worthy of Reward . If a person that hath the Falling-sicknesse be raised up from his fall , if he be not also freed from a Relapse for the future . Yet this top of perfection or healing , the Schooles have not any thing touched at : yea they have rather despaired thereof ; because they saw that the contracted blemish of the affect of the stone , did oft-times Tyrannize on the posterity , as being translated by an hereditary right . For when Physitians had seen one that was cut for the stone of the Bladder , to have been afterwards free there-from , all his life-time : they promising to themselves , that the same thing would happen for the future in the stone of the Reines , concerning a Relapse : they being not any thing carefull of to morrow , perswaded the sick to hope well , they themselves at least , well hoping that they should receive money at the next Markets of its return . For they supporting themselves by blockish principles , must now and then use onely the more mild Laxatives , that they may brush off the foregoing lump or rubbish of the stone . For indeed they think , that they do wipe away all matter of the stone , out of the stomach : and in speaking seriously , They boast that by their blessed Looseners , they have provided for a Cloakative Cure , if the sick party were but readily obedient in a repeated going to stool , and the observed Rules of Dyet . But unto these Trifles I have abundantly given satisfaction in the Book of Fevers . For we are nourished of the same things whereof we consist . Neither are the solid parts nourished , but by a spermatick slimy Liquor that is akinne unto them . Therefore the simplicity of Galen is the more to be laughed at , which forbad Membranes , Sinews , Cords or Tendons , and so , parts of the first Constitution , in Food , least a muscilage or phlegme should thereby grow : as being unmindfull indeed , that the similar parts in us , are immediately nourished onely by that vitall muscilage . Nor in the mean time , do the Schooles heed , that one of the Kidneys , and that one onely side , doth oftentimes breed stones , and sometimes waxeth totally brawny ; when as the other doth in the mean time rightly perform its office for the whole life-time . From whence at least , it must be confessed ; that the urine doth not stonifie in its Foundation or bottom , from its own vice , or by reason of a muscilage ; ( the which , be it already sufficiently suppressed before ) in the next place , that it doth not wax stony from Dyet , and from the imaginous Tartar of meats and drinks : but that the Kidneys do through their own defect stir up a vitious Ferment , and at length bring forth this insolent Monster . For oft-times , one of the Kidneys hath a good while flowed with much sand , and afterwards is wholly stopped up with the stone . It well perceives indeed , a blunt pain of that side ; but no sand afterwards throughout the life-time . Lastly , the Schooles indeed , take notice of that by Anatomy ; yet , they do not as yet therefore cease to condemn the guiltlesse stomach , as bringing forth a rocky phlegme for the one , and not for the other of the Kidneys . Therefore it is beaten for the fault of bringing forth the Disease of the stone , it is sweeped with Besomes , it suffers the lesser and familiar Evacuations of three dayes : but the more rough punishments of solutive Medicines , it undergoes at the set interchanging seasons of the Year : Yea the stomach endures punishment , because Cauteries are imprinted under the shoulders and hammes of the legs , for the preventions , wrestings aside , and revulsions of a distilling phlegme , and other old Wives fictions of that sort : And the Tormenters do so much the more cruelly rage on the not-committed fault of the stomach , because this stomach suffers their Cautery to be over-covered with a Scar , but Physitians do keep it open . As if a feigned phlegme , rushing down from the plaine of the Head , and remaining unchanged in the stomach , should slide through the Bowels , and should be again supt up by the Meseraick veines without any discerning of a hurt received , but should from thence again be carried unto the Liver and Kidneys : unlesse , through the skin being opened beneath the shoulder and Knee , it were revulsed outwards from its appointed Journey . Good Jesus ! Thou Wisdome of the Father ! Are these thy Schooles , which propose such kind of Toyes unto silly credulous poor people ? and which circumvent them with meer Trifles ? Which torment Mortals with so many Butcheries ? Far be it ! far be it from us to believe this to be a Doctrine of Truth : that is , Thine . But the Enemy of the first Truth , the Enemy of Men , hath brought forth these trifling Discourses , and doth even still defend them . But moreover , some prescribe Diureticks , and others in the mean time , being affraid of or driven from them : to wit , least the stone being driven forwards out of the Kidneys , shall stick in the way : For so an Abbatesse being oppressed with a descending stone , by the perswasion of a Circle of Physitians , abstained from a Urine provoking Remedy in the Dog-dayes , least happily , through the heat of that season , and of the Diuretick Remedy , the stone should wax big and harden . Therefore she waited for four dayes space without sleep , with a cruel howling , untill the stone had of its own accord , arrived into the Bladder . And then the Councel of the Physitians was triumphed in ; and that unlesse she had observed that Rule , surely she had not kept life . A certain Noble Woman being sorely troubled with the stone , and a Fever ; after blood-letting being four times repeated , after Clysters , the lesser Evacuaters , Laxatives , Vesicatories , and other Remedies of that sort , survived full ten dayes with out-cryes for a Spectacle of Physitians ; because they found not an hour that was free from the Fever , wherein they might give a purging Medicine to drink against the stone ; neither otherwise would her strength be sufficient to undergoe a new tormenting Cruelty : For what things I have seen committed by Physitians in time of curing , under the Title or pretence of Heat , I could scarce with horrour and Compassion , describe in a whole Volume . For I remember that a Jesuit at Antwerp , in the Year 1606. both whose Kidneyes being beset with the stone , denyed the passage of his urine ; at length , after two dayes Combate of Physitians , breathed out his Soul : For they debated about the shadow of an Apulean asse ; to wit , whether a Suppository Glans , or a Clyster were to be administred unto him : They all abhorring Diuretick Medicines or drivers forward of the stone . In the mean time , John Vermierden a certain Merchant , having suffered a standing pool of urine for eight dayes space , and being now near death , took a Urine-provoking Medicine , of the juyce of Palmer-wormes , and of the juyce of black shell-fishes , wherein he had boyled one grain of Cantharides , to be drunk up at one entire draught . I let these things pass . But I thus decide the Controversie of Diureticks . Every stone is either bigger than its Vreter or urine-pipe , or lesse , or equal . If it be lesse , urine-provokers shall be seasonable , and not to be feared : But if it be bigger than is meet ; Diureticks shall be plainly unfruitfull and vain : But if it shall answer in equality to the Urine-pipe , it is better that the same be more speedily expelled , least it be encreased by delay . Notwithstanding , because in the trans-passage of the stone , the Ureter being contracted by reason of pain , is for the most part crisped or frizled , Diuretick Remedies , are in the fit , to be given with a fore-Caution : To wit , those things that are to be given to drink , are to be Restrainers of pain , and of the Contracture sprung from thence . Through the carelessnesse or ignorance of which onely poynt ; it sometimes happens that stones have stuck in the middle of their passage , and have kill'd the Patient with miserable howlings . And that not so much through the insolency of the Diuretick Medicines , as through the errour of Physitians . For neither must we think , that the Channel or Pipe of the Vreter is of an unequal straightnesse , that the stone , which at the first onset descends through the Vreter , doth at length stick fast , as being pressed with the straightnesse of its Journey : But the future Compressions , are diseasie and convulsive frizlings , arising from pain , even as elsewhere concerning Sense and Sensation . And so , Fomentations or asswaging Applications , as well those that are external , as internal , which appease those convulsive motions , I chiefly exhort unto , and judge necessary . Why shall I not therefore distinguish of Diuretical Medicines , the Appointments , as well as the choyce whereof they have scarce been heretofore known . 1. For truly , some do sharpen or exasperate the urine with a Corrosive poyson : as Cantharides . 2. Others provoke and leave a tartnesse in the urine , and stir up the strangury : such as are new Ales. 3. There are some which render the urine abstersive or of a cleansing faculty : as sharpish Fountaines , the vitriol of Mars , the stone of Crabs ; and likewise Herbs which in many places rejoyce in the Etymologie of Diureticks . And they all of them contain a volatile Alcali or Lixivial salt , or at leastwise attain that Alcali in time of their digestion . For , for this cause , prouokers of urine , do for the most part conduce unto a vulnerary drink : Because that in every Wound , a Tartnesse or Acidity , the Betokener and Companion of all putrefaction in the flesh , doth arise : the which Alcalies do easily sup up into themselves , and consume . Wherefore there was a Country man , who healed wounded persons with the Lixiviuns of Teile-tree . So the stone of Crabs being boyled or steeped in Wine , doth notably represent the savour of a Lixivium or Lye. 4. There are also some which provoke urine , and stir up the expulsive faculty thereof , as they do generate a putrefaction of the urine : Of which sort , are the Radish , Asparagus , &c : For I have seen a Lawyer , who was not afflicted with the Disease of the stone , but after he had returned home from a more large eating of Asparagus : and afterwards ; that he lay along under most cruel pain , not so much from stones , as from most subtile sands , through the returns thereof , perhaps every fifteen dayes , for some years . From whence I learned , that the errour of one evening had brought an ill habit on his Reines , which could scarce be taken away for the future . I also , from hence , knew the pronenesse of our nature , which so quickly hearkens unto its own ruine , and that it having once fallen or slipt aside , doth Slowly and difficultly rise againe , even by the Favour of medicines . Lastly , that such a kind of habit , now for some years persevering , hath neverthelesse been corrected ; and so that those inclinations which they call distempers converted into nature , are moveable , and seperable , contrarie to the dispaires of the Schooles . 5. There are also diureticks , which refresh the urine and kidneys with a gratefull odour : As Mace , Nutmeg , Terpentine , Mastick , Juniper , &c. As though the kidneys being comforted with their odour , were made mindfull of their office . 6. And then , there are some also , which from a Lixivial Alcali , do in time of digestion , passe over into a tartnesse , cleansing the passages of the urine like sope , do stir up the expurging faculty , and do cut the filths grown thereunto : of which sort , are those medicines which are collected from the shells , and stones , and ashes of appropriated things ; and the which alone , seem to be worthy of the name of stone-breakes , especially if they are drawn up unto a degree of volatility . 7. In the next place , there is a sort of Diureticks , which being taken in a smal quantity , do powre forth plenty of urine out of the whole body : as Palmer wormes , the species's of Brookelime , and likewise the juice of Sea shell-fishes , black and long : and whatsoever things do conteine a volatile nitre , and which do by property , rowse up the sleepy reines . 8. There is also another sort , which by way of sticking , comforts the reines , being profitable for the allaying of their paine , : Such as is in Saffron , Rhubarb , and Cassia being inverted , that is , being first deprived of their solutive virtue . 9. The spirit of Sea salt , is not only a provoker of urine , and doth not also , only asswage the strangury in those in whose bladder the stone is rowled : but besides , it diminisheth the stones of the kidneys , if it be distilled with the utmost heate or fire of a Reverbery . Therefore it is not sufficient to say , that Diureticks do create urine : but moreover , it must also be determined whether they act that from an excitement of the attractive faculty whether by a dissolving of the urine , whether by an exa●perating thereof , whether by a speedying of putrefaction , or lastly from any other title : neither is it sufficient for whey of milk to conteine some thing of a nitrous matter in it : but also it hath some certaine remainder of its former blood , from whence it is cadaverous or stinking , and so keeps the tenour of Asparagus . For truly , many things do , by comforting of the reines , provoke urine , and other things overspread the urine with a gratefull odour , and others are the more troublesome , through a sharpnesse , as also those things which hasten a stinking ferment of the urine , the which are hurtfull unto the diseased with the stone , in their whole root : and therefore with the great errour of Physitians , is Asparagus boyled almost in any Apozemes whatsoever . Moreover , I was at sometime afraid of an ordinary laying down on one side : because the upper kidney would be stopped up by the incumbent weight of the bowels , and the urine standing like a poole therein , would become sandy , if it should dayly be there shut up for many houres : Especially , because the upper kidney is distant from the Vena Cava or hollow veine , at least ten fingers in breadth : and because the bladder is of a middle scituation between both kidneys . Therefore I perswaded my self , that the upper kidney could not unloade it self upwards into the bladder : But afterwards I knew this my fear to be vaine , and that nothing was beneath , in respect of the Archeus : neither was it sufficient to have speculatively searched thereinto . Therefore there was fitly one made known unto me , who had never layen on his left side from a boy ; Also that he being now an old man , had not yet suffered the disease of the stone . I observed also another , who had never slept but on his loynes and right side : yet he became stony in his left and declining kidney . I repeat hear , that the clear and distilled liquour of my own urine , carried its own earth up with it , through the Alembick , which it conformed and affixed to the sides of the vessel , into a true Duelech : and that , that hardening was made by the Spirit of the urine , which coagulates any thing , and many things after a diverse manner . For it condensed the spirit of wine into a volatile lump . But if it findes a fixed object , of the nature of a Salt , it is turned into a Salt , even as it happens unto spirit of wine , from the salt of Tartar : or while the spirit of fountaine salt being drunk up by salt its kinseman , is made salt . But if the spirit of urine find a fixed earth which it may gnaw , seeing it wants a coagulable object , it is imbibed by the earth , and subdued hereby : and it being otherwise the Authour of coagulation is there coagulated passively . But where the spirit of urine findes a volatile object that is not coagulated ; yet coagulable ( because of an earthly disposition ) it uncloathing it s own Coagulum or runnet , constraines the same vapour into an earth ; and both their forces being conjoyned , a new creature is made , which is the nativity of Duelech . But moreover , the Schooles insisting on their own principles of heates , prescribe , that the Patient must not lay on his back , also that his loynes are to be anoynted with cooling oyntments : yea that a plate of lead is to be locally borne upon them . They command a bed of wool , instead of a bed of feathers , least his reines should wax hot : And moreover , between the bed cloathes and the bed , they spread a hide of leather : For indeed the Schooles are busied only about subduing of the effect , and have respect only unto the product , or effect ; but in no wise unto the cause , not so much as to the occasional one . For by watching diligently over trifles , they successiuely subscribe unto each other , without any observance of help : And so they seriously dream waking , that they may flatter the sick . For neither are stones bred , because the loynes are hot ; but the loynes are hot , because stones are bred . They therefore chuse wool or flocks before feathers , by reason ( they say ) of the heat of these : As being ignorantt that feathers do lesse heat , than wool , by reason of their exact exclusion of aire ; which thing the sense of touching may judge of . In the next place , it being granted , that the feather should more heat the body laying upon it , and that is wrapped in feathers , than wool ; Yet all that ceaseth , if a sheet interpose between the feathers or wool . For truly , the heat which issues out of the feathers or wool , is not the very heat of these simple substances : but the reflex heat of the party laying thereon , and being received in the feathers , or wool . For it being from thence layd aside in the middle of the bed , returnes through the sheet , not indeed stronger than it self was before , but being almost suitably co-tempered with the same importance of heat , wherein the body it self is prevalent . But the very glassen instrument that was framed for the measuring of the temperature of the encompassing aire , visibly determineth this controversy : whereof in our elementary principles . Neither doth it argue to the contrary , that he that hath the stone in his reines , feels himself hotter in a feather bed , than in a flock bed . For that happens not by reason of the greater heat of the feathers : but fitly , because the patient is sunk deeper in the feather bed : but he layes only on the top of the flock bed , and the cooling aire blowes on him from the sides . Will the Schooles thus never distinguish of any thing from its foundation , Cause , and Roote ? And ( with rustick wits ) will they alwayes savour of the heathenish opinion of heat and cold ? I intreat you for the love of God , wherein , every one , when this life is finished with him , can desire that he may be beheld , cast away stubbornesse , presumption , and sloath , and do not despise a better doctrine . CHAP. VI. The Womb of Duelech . 1. Why the womb of the stone is to be sought into . 2. The bladder also , generates a stone of another condition , than the kidney . 3. Prognosticks or presages . 4. Heate doth not coagulate any thing in urines . 5. Another necessity of the womb . 6. The scituation of this womb . 7. A handicraft operation . 8. Observations had from thence . 9. The extension of this womb is conjectured of . 10. The reason of wonderfull events in those that have the stone in their reines . 11. From whence there is a relapse in the stone of the reines . 12. The stone of the reines hearkens unto meteours . 13. The manner in making thereof . 14. The urine , why it is troublous or foule . 15. The paine of the stone of the reines is from a contracture . 16. They are deceived in the cause , who bring the straightnesse of the Ureter , as for the fiercenesse of paine . 17. The ignorance of the womb hath caused a neglect of the cure . 18. A fabulous perswasion of the Schooles . 19. Another necessity of relapses . 20. The cleering up of a certaine doubt . 21 A history of a mad man. 22. The seperation of the urine from the venall blood . 23. The disorderly generation of a strange stone . THe seed , matter , and processe of making the stone in man being already made manifest , and the urine being known in its contents , as it is the seminary vessel bringing down the seed of the stone ; yet , there hath not as yet been enough spoken : For truly , one kidney being safe and sound , the other only , is oftentimes stony . It is not sufficient therefore , to have accused the common Beginning of the urine ; and therefore this is the more powerfully to be imagined , that every generated Being presupposeth a certaine womb , from whence , to wit , the product it self doth now and then obtaine no sluggish disposition . For it is of necessity that there be places , wherein things may be made , before they are bred , and that , as well from the priority of places , as of motions . For the urine is already materially in the liver , yea and in the mesentery veines , before it be in the kindeys : Nether could the reines by a seperation , sequester the urine from the venall blood , unlesse the urine and the blood where now the while , really distinct . But if it be urine before it come down to the kidney , or unto the sucking veines , it must needs be also , that the stone is after some sort prepared before it come unto the Innes of the reines . For if the dung begins to be prepared , even from the beginning of the gut Duodenum ; why shall not the same thing happen to the urine ? Wherefore it hath seemed to me , that neither also could the urine performe the reason or office of the womb of the stone , and much lesse the Reines themselves , so great is the hasty passage of the urine thorow them , as it were through Syringes : wherefore it hath behoved me , first to give heed unto the womb of this monstrous ofspring : especially , because the Schooles have even hitherto , skipt over this top of knowledge , as being content with the judgment of the vulgar , nor being wise beyond the country folk , who behold only the reines and bladder : But surely the mine or womb doth euery way cause a great diversity of the thing that is to be born , if it for the most part , conteines the fruitfullnesses and barrennesses of generation . For if nature be subject to the Soyle : certainly nature cannot but be in a womb , especially , if she stonify in one of the kidneys , the other remaining safe . And that thing is chiefly to be contemplated of , from the same , and in the same matter of the stone , and urine of one seed . From the womb therefore and not from elsewhere , is the cause of the far fetcht infirmity , to be required . For the bladder also , and the same urine in number , procreates a Duelech of another condition , than that which is made in the kidney , or at leastwise , which was never made before . For indeed , I am not wont to subscribe to the naked pleasures of Predecessors , as neither to their Judgements , because I am the more assured , that the very power of healing , languisheth under their unaptness : Therefore I ought to search out the womb of Duelech . First of all , I have espied , that those that had the Stone in the Reins , were wont , for the most part , before their future pains , to presage their malady to be at hand , from their watery , untinged urine : But that afterwards , when their pain was present , the same urine was abundantly much , and troubled , like yellow Ale not yet refined . And that , when afterwards , a more subtile or thin urine , well mixt with sand , flowed forth , they testified , their pain to be manifestly slackned ; or almost none at all : Yea , although for some days there remaineth a continual urine , sometimes bigger than both kidneys : Then also , I beheld a continual and plenteous Bole or lump , to be dayly cast forth with their urines , in shew of a powder unperceiveable by the touch . A certain one also I beheld , which would dissolve only with heat ; ( so far is it that heat should be the author of curdling ) yet oft-times that lump being seperated from the urine , was not again afterwards founded in hot water ; but that , by rest , it at length setled to the bottom , which before , was solved in the salt of urine . For I alwayes believed , that seminal Generations were made from a disposition of the matter ; and that the perfection hereof , was by little and little introduced through the labour of the Archeus . I knew therefore , that the generation of Duelech , doth follow the laws of other natural generations : and so also , that it is made at an instant ; and by consequence , that the preparative disposition , or the dispositive preparation thereof , is indeed introduced by degrees : Therefore I concluded with my self , that this whole Nativity of the monster , and the preparation thereof , is not finished in so hastned a passage through the kidneyes ; especially , wheresoever that lump doth sometimes occupie a third part of the urinal : Yea , the sand that is cast out at one only making water , doth now and then equalize the half part of the kidney : That , in the mean time , I call not to mind the slenderness of the bosomes of the kidney . Therefore I have deservedly suspected , that the reins only , are not the womb of the sands , of the Bolus or lump , and of the Stones ; but that these do prepare their own products by foregoing vessels , wherein the urine is disposed , and that the full essence of Duelech is there obtained : To wit , that the fundamentals of those things are stamped , which anon appear to be . But that I might expel all scruple from me , or that I might not believe , that the urine doth by a momentary passage through the kidneys , being as it were , more swift than the glance of an eye , act it self into a lump , sand , or greater Stones , and then afterwards be cast head-long through the urine pipes : I collected the urine of him who was grieved in one only kidney , and which had voyded both sand and lump ; and then I strained the urine from the sand through a Towel ; yet I discerned , that of the same urine , no less sand and scales had afterwards adhered to the urinal , than if it had come forth without a lump or sand . On the contrary , I also found , that the urine which had once applied its sand to the urinal , had laid aside no more sand in a new urinal for thirty hours after , but only a sediment that was to be washed away : Therefore I was assured , that all that sand was cast out with the urine of him that had the Stone , neither that it had belonged to that sand , and to the same urine , the ground whereof it had now required to be . Consequently also , that the sand that was afterwards pissed at successive and continual turns , was not the product of that urine alone , nor made , or begotten through the delay of collection of that urine : yea , seeing otherwise the kidney , being four times bigger than it self , should now and then not be sufficient for entertaining of the sand flowing down by that sit : Therefore I have learned , that the watery and untinged urine was the fore-shewer of the future sands and fit , and the presager of the future pain ; or that , from that very time , it laid aside the foundations of dispositions in a certain hollowness , perhaps bigger than the bosomes of one kidney : Werefore I conjectured , that the womb was more capable of the sands , lump and stone , than both the bosomes of the kidneys were : For one is a central borderer on the urine-pipe ; and the other , is a winding one , circumflexed , or bending about throughout the body of the kidney . For I greatly wondred , that the urine waxed not yellow on the first days , yet that abundance flowed forth ; nor that the dross being the tincture of the urine , should then according to its wonted custome , be attracted : as if all the tincture thereof , being for the framing of the urine , were wasted ; or , as though the sands were made of the meer tincture of the dross ; and so that the mixture of the liquid dung with the urine , was a diseasie one besides nature , although ordinary : which meditation indeed , at my first entrance therein , afflicted me : At leastwise from thence I more cleerly knew , , that the material cause of Duelech , assigned by the Schools , was altogether vain and stupid : seeing that if there were any whitish and phlegmie muckiness cocted from the heat of the kidneys , into a stone ; Now the sand of the reines should not be of a more citron colour than the stone of the bladdet ; but both stones should be alike pale ; because the cocting and drying of that mucky snivel , cannot citrinize the pale colour of the same ; or in the bladder , under a longer delay , it should be wholly yellow , unless pethaps , the Schools shall demonstrate , that the Muscilage of the kidneys is yellow , and that of the bladder white ; Else surely , they teach old wives fictions concerning the muscilaginous matter of the stone . Furthermore it hath seemed to me , that the urine is cleer , plenteous , nor tinged before the fit ; and troublous , and sandy , after the pains ; because that while the sand is in making , that happens in the vena cava , and in the sucking veins themselves ; it not being indeed , as yet in the form of sand , or of a stone , but like a lump , like a more thin clay , and like a sediment . And so the urine is not then duly concocted in that kitchin ; wherefore it is watery , and the Archeus of those parts is primarily , ill affected . But I understand the coction or digestion of the urine , to be the promotion thereof unto a urinous perfection : for there is not yet in that very place a sand , but the most small atome of a Bolus or lump : Because a corruptive ferment is there established , besides nature , and the requirance of the place : but by how much the farther it departs from thence toward the kidney , or unto the last sink of the urine ; it is also more and more burdened with its own uriny ferment ; and Duelech receives an increase almost at every moment , and is by degrees confirmed into bigger grains ; For I did argue , if a vein even after death , preserves the blood from curdling , contrary to corruption , it should not be unmeet for a certain preservation from a stonie coagulation , likewise to exist in the wombs or veins of the urine ; but that this preservation is very strongly trampled upon by a vitious ferment of the neighboring-kidney : The which , when it hath once seriously happened , so as that the veins have but a little departed from their native goodness , it befalls these , as to any kind of impure vessels , and those molested with a neighbouring stinking , or strong smelling ferment , whereunto something of the residing impure contagion , doth stubbornly adheres for such is the continued succession of relapses in those that have the stone in the reins , that all the dreggy filth adhering unto them , is not fully wiped off ; and that there is the same neighbour character of the bad disposition , which forged the former calamities . After the same manner , whereby a hen carries mature eggs , and those less mature , and others , like grains , in her loynes , which are the pledges of a birth successively to follow for some moneths . This indeed hath been the necessity whereby those that have the stone in the Reins , do for the most part , obey the importunities of a Meteour , do also presage future tempests , and the pains of these do ascend from the loynes into the back ; Because while somewhat more of those filths is now affixed to those veins or wombs , they are grieved and contracted , at least , on that side whereon they are molested ; or on both fides throughout their loynes , in a like manner : Under which contracture , and wrinkled frizling of the veins , a pricking , lancing , and , as it were , renting pain ariseth . And the more gross atomes which were collected in the sucking veins , fall down in that frizling , unto the kidneys : a lump in the mean time , remaining for a pledge , being as it were the seminary or seed-plot of the next fit , even untill the mature ripeness of its age . In which painful convulsion of the veins , the liquor latex , doth at length , speedily run from far , out of the veins unto the kidneys for help ; or is drawn thither , and being obedient , flowes thereunto : from whence there is a disturbed urine . But what that latex is , which seeing it is not urine , yet it is mixed herewith , hath been largely enough declared by me in its own Treatise . But after that , the small pieces of sand and stones are cast forth , and the pain ceaseth , because the contracture of the veins ceaseth . That cruel pain therefore of the diseased with the stone of the kidney , ariseth from the contracture or drawing together of the veins : but not from the passage of the Bolus , or sand . For oft-times a great stone is afterwards less painful , which at first being but of a small bigness , was exceeding painful : not indeed that the Ureter is become larger than it self was ( even as the Schools , otherwise think ) but the convulsion was greater while the malady was unaccustomed . For otherwise , if the Urine-pipe should undergo so great a largenesse , they contradict themselves , while Diuretick Medicines forbid the straightness of the Vessels . And then , I have further considered , that about the beginning the urine is voyded clear , watery , and abundantly : For since the urine is tinged by the dross or liquid dung : but since that dross is not drawn forth , but nigh the end of the Gut Ileos , and night to the fewel of the Ferment of the dung ; From thence it comes to pass , that that dross is not allured from so far a distance under the confusion of the fit at hand : for that the Family-administration of that Kitchin , is confusedly troubled and interrupted : Because the stomach , together with the whole Abdomen or neather-belly is disturbed , and in a guess or fear , fore-feeles the storme at hand , no lesse than it co-suffers with the same , and undergoes it , being present . For it seems to fore-feel the sand , not yet seen : but surely , it is then present in its own womb , and while it is fore-felt , from that very time , the beginning of that contracture is present . The Archeus therefore being willing to wash off the enemy , and excuse the fit at hand , calls to him from on every side all the Latex , and sends it down to rince the Kidneys . Therefore the veines are contracted in the stony Reines , and the Bowels consent ; and therefore by reason of their consent , they dissemble the pain of the Colick . For which cause , the pain of the stone in the Kidney , is not yet sufficiently distinguished by the Schooles . Neither is it a wonder , that at the convulsion of the veines , the Bowels themselves are also convulsed or pull'd together : seeing contractures of the Joynts ( by reason of the near affinity of consent ) do follow as well the cruel paines of the Colick , as those of the stone in the Kidneys . Far therefore do the Schooles wander from the Truth , as that the dross is drawn or sent , for the framing of the stone : but rather the tincture thereof comes upon the urine by accident , while the Spirit the Coagulater uncloathes his power on the volatile earth : Because other things being agreeable , the stone that is tinged , is alwayes more brickle than pale ones . And that thing clearly argues , that the tincture of the urine , if it could , would totally hinder the composition of Duelech . And therefore those that have the Jaundice , although they are otherwise subject to the stone ; yet in time of the Jaundise , they are scarce seen to be stony ; For therefore in time of the generation of the affect of the stone , the urine , at the first conception of sands , waxeth yellow , and looks pale about the beginning of the fit : Because then it is as yet , Latex , and not yet meet urine . Therefore , I have certainly known , that if all the sand which is voyded should be made onely in the bosome of the Kidney , the pain would be greater while it is voyded , than while the sand doth not yet appear : The which notwithstanding , contradicteth experience . Moreover , because the sand being once bred , the urine is troubled more than it was wont , and becomes thicker ; seeing otherwise , a troubled confusion perswades , that it containes more of a pouderish matter ( for in a more gross consistence , there is more pouder than in that urine which is at first clear and watery : ) That plainly convinceth , that the womb of the affect of the stone , is already filled up ; neither that it can entertain that more gross balast . Therefore the variety of the Womb being unknown , hath neglected not onely the curing of the stone in the Reines , but hath also , introduced interchangeable alterations of its causes and curing . Indeed it is one thing for the sand floating from the Kidney , to be thrust down by a succeeding drop of the urine : and a far different thing , to shake off the adhering sand , not indeed through the water washing it off , but from a conspired convulsion and frizling of the parts . For they perswade , by the Marsh-mallow , Mallow , Oyl of Almonds , and the like , to asswage paines , to moisten , enlarge , and besmear the passages : and so in this , as also in all other things every where , the Schooles are either intent onely on the effect , or propose that which is ridiculous : while , as they ought by a cleansing faculty , to brush off the sands and lump , from the whole Womb , they totally employ themselves in loosening the passages , and in moistening the membranes , which are alwayes most moist in themselves . For truly , although the sand be expelled , yet the womb thereof is not therefore safe : but at leastwise the sides of the veines , remain defiled with the Bolus or lump , for a future punishment of the stone ; whither the Schooles hitherto have had no regard . For I sometimes wondred , that he that a good while before had the stone in his Reines , after he hath dismissed that stone into his bladder , doth the more seldom stir up new stones in his Kidney , as long as the other molests his Bladder : yet that he that hath the stone in his Reines , if together also therewith , he be gouty , doth notwithstanding admit of the Gout as a Companion with the fit of the Nephritical affect or stone in the Reines . For from thence I have learned , that as pain in a Wound , stirs up a sandy or gleary water , so also , that it can change the urine it self , which may hinder stoni●ying in the antient womb of the Loynes . Wherefore also , there is a troubled urine ( and that without sand ) seen in persons that have the stone : For the pain is the Trumpet , which occasionally cals to it , the Latex from on every side , which inflames , yea and disturbs the urine with a strange Guest being admixed with it . But in so great a confusion of Offices , nothing is thought of the confusion itself : For the pain hath oftentimes set before mine eyes , the Image of feruent heat . For water , after the boyling up of heat , is for the most part troubled and confused : For so , because there is a Bolus made of the volatile earth of the urine that is not yet sufficiently seasoned with a salt , by reason of the want of an Urinary Ferment stablish'd in the Reines : therefore also , that Bolus or lump melts with the fiery heat ; neither is it constrained into the more hard and great sands , as long as it doth not experience the force of the Ferment of the Kidneys : But the Bolus is sufficiently tinged , not indeed from the dross , the more lately coming thereon , which tingeth the Sands ( for that red lump is beyond the yellownesse of the dross ) but from the washy venal blood , which is erroneously translated in the veines ( the womb of the Bolus ) for uses , being the ends of Turbulency . And for this cause , in the signification of urine , the Bolus testifies of the Liver and venal Blood ; but the sand nothing of these . It is manifest therefore , that the urine is by it self salt , although a man be not fed with salt , and thou shalt find the cause thereof concerning Digestions . A certain Curate in our City , being beside himself , passed over 17 whole dayes without any meat and drink before his death ; but he never wholly wanted a daily urine , although a more sparing one , and by degrees , a more red one departed from him . From whence I conjecture , that there is in the Kidney an exchangeative faculty of the blood into urine ( and the which faculty , I elswhere , in the Treatise of the Dropsie , do studiously prosecute ) no otherwise than as a Wound doth of the blood , prepate a speedy and plentifull Sunovie or gleary water . Therefore the urine , for the last limitation of it self , requires and borrowes a virtue from the Ferment , which the Kidneys do inspire into the womb of the urine : No otherwise , than as the Liver inspires the faculty of blood-making into the veines of the Porta , and knittings of the Mesentery : Wherefore the whole Chyle of the stomach doth in the same place presently dissemble blood in its colour . But the plainly Lord-like power of the Kidneys over the veines , I elsewhere prosecute concerning the Dropsie . But although the Ferment of the Kidney , serving for the ministery of the whole entire urine , be as it were the digestion of a certain Bowel ; yet it is not reckoned amongst the number of digestions , because it concerns the concoction of a superfluity , but not of a nourishment . For since every transmutation which proceedeth by digestions , hath its own Medium's or proper Ferments , which are fit for a new Generation ; also the Kidney begins to imprint its own Ferment on the Creame , presently assoon as it is stayed at the ports of the Liver : Through the vigour of which Ferment , the urine sequesters it self from the venal blood , in its native properties ; And although that blood be not yet coagulable : yet the liquid from the liquid do there separate themselves . The Mysterie of Sanguification or Blood-making , is indeed homogeneal , simple , and altogether single , and so included in Sanguisication alone ; yet a separable unlikeness ought to be bred in the Cream , presently in its entrance of the Port-veine : For else , the blood , while it attained a vital condition in the Liver , would undecently be defiled with the blast of the Ferment of the Kidneys : But that the urine is naturally salt , and from whence that saltnesse is unto it , thou shalt find elsewhere concerning Digestions . But here , let it be sufficient to have given notice , that as much of an acide salt as is bred in the Chyle under the first digestion ; so much passeth over into a salt salt , by a substantial Transmutation in the second . I have now pointed out the womb of the Urine and Stone , beginning : I have also declared the wonderfull property of the Spirit of Urine , in coagulating , and stonifying : From thence also , it now is sufficiently manifest , that if the spirit of urine happens to flow by a Retrograde motion , through the Liver , into the Port-veine , and from thence to be expelled , as an unaccustomed stranger , through the Mesentery into the Bowels : that it shall there also easily coagulate unwonted stones ; and the which Paracelsus calls congeoled ; but not coagulated ones ; because they ascend not unto the hardnesse of the Duelech of Urines : the which are confirmed from their mother-matter , a muscilage . But if indeed , the spirit of urine be carried upwards or downwards through the hollow veine ; it by a faculty proper unto it self , estrangeth the spermatick and muscilaginous nourishment of the similar parts into a more hard compaction : from whence at length , Scirrhus's , quartane Agues , and also divers obstructions do arise : the which surely , they do vainly endeavour to brush away by Jeleps , or Apozemes . Lastly , the Gaul is nourished by the venal blood its Neighbour ; whereinto , if the spirit of urine shall wander out of its own womb , stones are presently bred also in the Gaul , For whatsoever enters into anothers harvest , becomes forreign and hostile , and so , extraordinary affects do arise from co-like Causes . For neither have I unfitly taught , that , that wheyish matter which is carried , as being throughly mixed with the blood , and is by sweat or otherwise , unsensibly dispersed , is not urine , as neither that it hath the properties of the same ; nor that it is a whey , the imitater of Milk , and much lesse that it is Gaul , or yellow Choler : but a part of the Liquor Latex ; of which , in its own Treatise . CHAP. VII . Duelech Dissolved . 1. The inconsiderate rashnesse of the Schooles is accused . 2. An account or reckoning up of Knaves , over whom the Magistrate ought to be intentive . 3. The Author excuseth himself . 4. Every Disease in its own kind , is curable . 5. How much is to be hoped for from the Shops . 6. Or what may there be found for the Disease of the Stone . 7. A double Indication or betokening . 8. A somewhat deaf intention of the Schooles . 9. The vanity of this kind of intention . 10. Why the Marsh-mallow , Mallow , juyce of Citron , &c. may profit . 11. A frivolous objection against Vrine-provoking Remedies . 12. The imposibilities of the Schooles . 13. The Reasons of the Schooles for an impossible Remedy . 14. The Reasons of the Alchymists . 15. The testimony of Cardanus . 16. The writ or Charter of the Prince of Saltzburge . 17. The delusion of the Schooles from a ridiculous enquiring into Remedies . 18. Ridiculous privy shifts . 19. That the Stone is not confirmed . 20. The stones of Animals and Vegetables , after what sort they may be profitable unto us . 21. The manner of preparing them . 22. From whence Ludus took its Name , and the preparation thereof . 23. Ludus , where it is to be found . 24. A blockish beasting . 25. An errour of Paracelsus . 26. The rashnesse of the Schooles . 27. Paracelsus prattles no lesse unsavourily concerning the matter of the Stone , than the Humourists . 28. A declaratory confession of things un-soulified : and of the Balsame of Salt. 29. The manner of administring a Remedy . 30. The Bladder of the Bul-Cal● being an Embryo . 31. Observations about the stone of Crabs . 32. An Errour of Paracelsus . 33. A wondrous Antipathy . 34. A new Catheter . I Have spoken of the Womb of the Affect or Disease of the Stone : But now I must seriously consider of its Remedies . For indeed , the common people laugh at the Schooles , who are become a Reproach , because there hath not been any thing hitherto , diligently searched into , concerning the true Causes or Curing thereof . I have indeed elsewhere rehearsed , that the power of the mind being as it were barren or feeble , hath acted the original of Medicine : & that Medicine , being also in its ripe Yeares , even unto this very day brought into a Circle without any progress : because they have been willing rather to abide in forreign , Grecian , Barbarous and Heathenish Inventions , and have held it an Honour to have polished other mens Principles . While as in the mean time , new Diseases arise : also those : that were once spent or grown stale , do rise again masked ; and therefore do they appear illegitimate , nor any longer answering to the descriptions of the first . For indeed , Medicine stands without any progress , while as our health stands in the greatest need of the increase of healing : As a slow and ungenerous kind of Physitians hinders the same , because they would be wise only by anothers commentary , and deny Art to increase above what they have known : And therefore also , whatsoever they are ignorant of , they by a certain despair , drive away into the Catalogue of uncurable Diseases . As if the invention of Ancestours , had stopt up the way of our industry , had shut up the treasures of wisdom , and as if all the modern force of the mind were barren , and the power of divine wisdome exhausted , that there were nothing any longer , which may demonstrate unto us a further truth . Truly the cup of sloath hath even from the very beginning , befooled the world with a Lethargy ; for therefore , every one , had rather to assent , than diligently to search : For so great is the sweetness of gain ; that every one doth with love , admire his own societies or confusions , and Miscellanies of Medicines ( they call them received Magistrals ) and those Medicines which being in times past the more secret ones , have rendred Physitians that were Lovers of labour , famous : old women , by reason of the drowsiness of Physitians , have at this day , spread abroad into the hands of Apothecraies . From whence , every Barber , Bather , Nun , Tormenter , or Bawd that was chased out of the Stewes of harlots , boasts of medicine ; the number whereof I will here describe . For those first come to hand , who will heal , being indeed not instructed for this purpose ; but being prompt by nature , and daring to do any thing , hand forth those things to the sick , which they have heard to have profited others , without the knowledge and difference of causes ; and so they drive them head-long into danger . For from thence , almost all the experiments of the Schools have issued : The which also , Galen after the example of his Master Quintius , hath confirmed : For the Schools making experiments by the deaths of men , presently call their Graduates , most expert Physicians . Others being vulgar ones , had rather heal only the vulgar ; and unto these they give their Counsels : Some also , from favour alone , and being entreated . Many also , by reason of the ambition of honour , and that they may seem as wise men , have this kind of vice bred in them ; for such kind of Deceivers will seem to be rich , and therefore they perform all services for death , or a chanced health , freely . Of this sort are those first of all , who at Rome , thrust a Triacle on the Cardinals and Peers , as composed of better Simples than God hath created in nature : For so we have deceived the people in the City , and have seemed to be holy Apothecaries . There succeed these , such as require rewards indeed , but in no wise money , lest they should be known to have put off the condition of Noble persons , and likewise their promised poverty : And therefore they are those , who say , they earn or merit nothing for themselves , but only for a poor Community . There are Apostates like to these , who confess indeed , that they are not Physitians ; but that they have their secrets from a Queen , or an Emperor : For these are wont to interpose as middle persons , which extol the price of their medicine . And then there follow these , who wear garments and a purse bored full of holes like a sieve ; neither , in the mean time , are they slow to exercise , of their own imposture : As that they were sometimes very rich , but now impoverished ( in a hogs-head of wine ) by the Art of Chymistry , by Wars , and by the constancy of Religion . There are also those , who at sometime were valiant in a troop of Souldiers ; but in War ( for the conflicting for moneys ) they bestowed all their wealth ; they shew their scars in a bravery , perhaps being received as a due reward . Some also have left wives and children , houses , and Altars , and the pleasant fields of their Countrey , for the worship of Religion . Many also are poor of their own accord , because no body will give them any thing : neither are those wanting , who feign their Religions , change their garment , walk in wodden begging shooes ; they by a lurking hypocrisie , counterseit an Hermite , into whom God hath inspired the vertues of Simples . There are some also , who everywhere intermix Astronomy and Palmestry . In the next place , there are others who wander about the countrey , who received their Art in the Mountain of Venus : from hence they have known to cure bruit beasts , no less than men , from diseases : Likewise , they know also how to foretell things to come , and to dig treasures out of the earth : And there are some , who being destitute of books , write on paper the unharmless words of Solomon , whereby diseases no otherwise than as Devils are chased away ; they carry crosses before and behind them , lest the Devil should carry away him that writes those powerful words . There are some who understand divers Dialects ; they feign among the Dutch , that they can speak the Chaldean , Arabick , and Dalmatian or Sclavonian tongue , and being laden with many Arts , they at length , brag of Science Mathematical , or Histories : Many of these have known how to make , no less then the stone which makes gold , they carry about with them Mines of Mettals , that are propagable by a perpetual ferment . There are also Saracens ; and there are baptized Jews ( for the most part , wickeder than those that are not baptized ) who have learned out of the Cabal , divers wayes to morrifie Mercury ; and likewise diversly to prepare poysons : the which , they deliver , to be prevalent against all diseases , and many other . They boast , that the Hebrew tongue doth contain the foundations of all Sciences , and the great Secrets of Common-wealths ; and that they are great with child of the fore-knowledge of future things . They oftentimes cite their Rabbins , their book Nebolohu , together , with the little Key of Solomon : from whence they are able to read as well things past , as things to come . Others also affirm , that the medicinal Art is to be inherited only in their own progeny or succession of blood ; although they are all foolish , or wicked persons . But if they are not received by men , at leastwise , among women they boast with a Grace : for they are covered with the same hide , both Greeks and Jewes , although the one doth interchangeably deride the other ; for they being prompt by nature , perfectly learn to Lie , of themselves . There is also a fugitive sort of the family of Chymists ; the which , while they boast of the more choice remedies , set to sale nothing but poysons to Apothecaries : for they usurp all liberty of lying among the ignorant ; lying increasing with them through daily use : For they are Idiots , being fugitive Apostates from Chymical furnaces . But the Schools , do with a greater security , and by a most free authority of all , deceive Mortals : for when as I do by the unavoidable decree of truth , demonstrate , that they are altogether ignorant of the essences , causes , and remedies of Diseases , and do confirm that thing by a great Volumn , and Reasons drawn from the cause : they in the mean time , promote their own Schollars ; this man , because he is a Latinist , and hath his father a Chyrurgion , or an Apothecary ; or another , because he was made Master of Arts , and hath heard some Lectures of Professours ; another lastly , because he in part , brags of Enclide , or or hath learned to dispute , from Aristotle . But I pity mankind , which is subject to so many inward Calamities , and exposed to so many external assailants : who , when under the unlucky rules of the Schools , they have slain any one of those in chief Place , do assume the priviledge of calling upon the uncurableness of the disease , and have everywhere their patrons and complices . And so , they alone , do without punishment , make an assault on the lives of Princes , even as I have shewed in the book of Fevers . But by so much themore miserably , do mortals entrust themselves in their hands , because they cover their ignorance among the common people , by promotion , and an oath . For they swear that they will faithfully cure infirmities , the which , I have shewn , that they are altogether ignorant of . Yea , their Prince , Galen , hath not shewn them so much as one Medicine , which was not borrowed from Empericks , however he may triumph in his pastime Theory of Complexions and Degrees , as well according to their kinds , as places . For Quintius , the Master of Galen , and wholly an Emperick , is everywhere called on for help , by his Schollar . Princes and Magistrates ought to divert this unpunished liberty of killing , from their Subjects , and they are held from Conscience so to do . But I do not think , that this hath been neglected through carelesness : but that it hath hitherto been dis-regarded , by reason of the ignorance of the remedy . But I judge this to be the remedy thereof : If they appoint every Physician to be so obliged , as that he ought to go to see every sick person , by whom he shall be required , three times at least , under the penalty of banishment , and deprivement of his office . For otherwise , the number of Physitians , hath sufficiently increased . And then , that there be no pay due to a Physitian , if he shall not heal the sick . By this double decree , indeed , Physitians would become the more watchful , and the business would more rightly succeed with the sick , and the Prince would preserve his Subjects . But those Statutes are to be seriously kept ; for they are equivalent to the Law of Cornelius , concerning privy murderers . I now return from whence I have digressed . There are also some , who while they feign themselves to have read my Book of Fevers , object , that I boast only of Chymical Remedies , and unwonted Arcanum's or Secrets , that I might call every sick person unto my self , by despising the most safe doctrine of the Antients . Far be it ! Because I neither go to visit the sick , not do I heal for hope of gain : The which , all good men of our whole Countrey are witnesses of . Surely , I call none , to prostitute or set my Medicines to sale unto them . I willingly live a retired life , being sought unto only by the poor . This one thing , I openly and freely profess : to wit , that the conquests of difficult diseases , do require other Physitians than Humourists , and far different remedies from those which the Apothecary sels : Because they do most desirously require the endowed powers of the most perfect bodies , that their poysons , from their balsames , may be separated in us . Yea where poysons are not manifest , the confusions of the Archeus are overcome , impurities are privily expelled , the Dimensions of remedies are turned in and out , that they may disclose their properties , of whose endeavour , the Archeus hath need . And moreover , the impressions of remedies may be turned inward , whose Tyranny our nature cannot bear without destruction . For in this offence , and in this penury , many ages have already departed , as being unhappily passed over ; because the causes which make diseases , being unknown , the powers of Remedies being not known , and the more ptofound preparations being despised , whatsoever disease did not pass under heathenish beginnings , hath stood dedicated unto desperate ones . Truly , no Disease is , in its kind , uncurable : For God , as he made not death , so neither doth he rejoyce in the destruction of the living . He hath made the Nations of the earth curable : neither is there a Medicine of destruction , nor a kingdome of infernals in the earth . Wherefore , I before God , who is everywhere present , do from my very soul , exhort a sluggish kind of men , who are ready in subscribing to the ignorant , that they contemtemplate with me , that by the remedies of the Shops , some diseases alimentary or pertaing to nourishment , are sometimes by accident , cured ; to wit , such as do admit of voluntary consumptions , and easie resolutions : But that in the more grievous ones , in whom there are fixed , or Chronical roots , the use of those have more hurted than profited . Hippocrates indeed , without envy , left the enquiries into the more profound remedies , unto posterity : because our Ancestours lived in more happy ages . But the Schools have not had respect unto the greater necessities of Mortals , of nature sitting and laying ; but being content with Galen , and his Master Quintius , they have not perceived the defects of mortal men , seeing they have beheld gain to sway them in any event whatsoever . For they have not so much as once earnestly considered , how to hinder the returnes of the stone in the kidneys , and much less , how to dissolve the stone ; because they had yielded up their names to deceived Authors , and false causes . For therefore there hath nothing been heard hitherto , of the true cause of stones , and of a true cure , and therefore also , nothing of true remedies . For truly , such a remedy was desired , which might hinder the Off-spring of a growing Duelech to come , by a preparation of the very urine it self : Then also , which might restore the Gorgonous declining of the stone-breeding womb , the power of a stonifying ferment ; and at length , which might also dissolve whatsoever the spirit , the Coagulater had committed . Of all which particulars , there hath nothing been hitherto heard : Only the Schools have been intent in driving the stone foreward , and in loosening of the urine passages . Therefore , in curing of the disease of the Stone , a two-fold industry is obvious to our sight : To wit , one , which takes away the inclination and fear of a Relapse : But the other which may demolish Duelech being generated . I will shew , that it hath not been dreamed of either intention , in the Schools ; but only , that they have attempted the driving forth of sands & stones ; but that they have not consideted of the pacifying of so cruel a pain , from the root . They praise indeed , and exalt to the highest pitch , Mallowes , the Marsh-Mallow , Oyl of Almonds , and whatsoever things they name moisteners for mollifying : and then , they con-joyn divers fomentations , as well those , mostening , as abstersive or cleansing , and likewise cooling ones , lest the pains should be heightned , or the stones increase . Yea , they commend also , the Oyl of Scorpions ; as though , that being anoinced on the out-side , would break the stones ! as if I say , they would loosen the fat , fleshy membrane , and Peritoneum or filme enclosing the bowels ; to wit , at the enlargement whereof , the urine-pipe should presently be mollified , and extended in breath or wideness . Truly the common people have found out , and brought forth these succours for themselves , some old woman at first perswading them . Afterwards , the Schools , at the beginning , admired these succours , and then , straightway embraced them : To wit , least ( since they have no other medicine ) they should become unprofitable by despising them . But these things are not received for the sake of pain alone ; but they lightly searching into the cause of help , and being only solicitous about the journey of the stone , have decreed with a final arrest ; that the urine vessels are not to be enlarged but by moistening things ; neither that there could be any other hope of healing : But for the enlargement of the urine-pipe , not indeed according to its length ; but only , whereby they might hope , to wit , for its widening : as if nature were obliged to conform her self to the endeavours of Physitians : And so they have judged the remedies of pains to be by accident ; whereunto they have adjoyned Clysters , lest the urine-pipe being pressed together by the dung lying upon it , should spread a floud-gate for the sliding stone , and so , should stop up its passage ; And so that the capital remedy of the Schools hath been intent about dungs , the effect , and latter symptomes ; but no way on the causes , rootes and foundations : From whence that Satyrical verse arose . Stercus & Vrina , Medicorum fercula prima . Excrementitious Dung and Vrine-piss , Are of Physitians , the chief dainty dish . But how vain and childish these aids of the Schools are , the very afflicted themselves , and the widows and off-spring of these , do testifie . First of all , the Muscilages of the Mallow , do not pass thorow , from the mouth unto the Ureter , in the form of an asswaging , loosening and mollifying Medicine but that , they do first receive some formal transmutations in their passage : For neither doth any thing descend thither , unless it hath first assumed the nature of urine : Yea , and if the urine-pipe being now stopped up by the stone , ( for as long as it is not stopped up , it hath not as yet filled up the whole wideness of the Ureter , and therefore an enlargement of the same should be in vain required ) doth sustain the urine lying behind it ; after what sort , I pray , shall this same excrement give place in so straight a passage , that it may rise up , and make room for the urine prepared of the Mallow , comming unto it ? I , at leastwise , confess , that I do not understand any thing of these promises . And then , put the case , that old wive's fiction were granted , and that , that moistening Muscilage could come down safe unto that straight angiport or narrow lane of the urine : yet it shall not therefore extend the pipe of the Ureter , which was already before , moist ; the which , besides the already actual mostening of it self , doth now require or expect to be enlarged by a forreign muckiness : as neither , being once ever enlarged , should it afterwards wish for , or admit of a further repeated extension of it self , in relapses ; And so , that supposed , and dissembled remedy of the Schools , would be profitable but at only turn : Unless they had rather , that the Ureter should be enlarged by the sliding and comming of the aforesaid Muscilages thereto , and through their casual absence to be again narrowed into its former state ; which is to grant a power of enlarging according to the desire of the Physitian , besides the accustomedness and nature of a solid passage , and that of the first constitution : Because they should naturally , afterwards again return into their former and native narrowness . For the Schools , if they speak seriously in these things , they befool or deride the sick , and do wantonize by applauding of themselves . I pray you , if they suppose these things to be true , why do they forbid Diureticks , if they are of validity for driving forth of the stone , and by adminstring moisteners , do enlarge the narrow passages ? Why do they not couple moisteners with provokers of urine , that they may satisfie both betokenings at once ? For I have already taught before , that if death shall come upon the Patient , from the stone sticking in the passage , that doth not happen from the guilt of Diuretick Medicines ; as neither because the urine vessel ( unless perhaps , it shall be a monstrous one ) is in some other place , straighter than it self in its beginning : and therefore that the stone once departing out of the kidney , if it be stayed in the sliding down by reason of the strickness of the passages ; that happens from the cruelty of pain which hath convulsively contracted the urine-pipe : And therefore , that comes not to pass through the offence of the Diureticks , but of the Physitian , who hath never scarce heard of this Convulsion , in the Schools ; and therefore , neither hath he sought into a remedy for it . Where surely the incongruity , and faulty arguing of the Schools , from not the cause , as for the cause , comes to be taken notice of . Because the aforesaid moysteners , the Marsh-mallow , mallow , and oyle of Almonds , &c. Do profit , not as they do enlarge the urine-pipes ( which is in it self ridiculous ) but forasmuch as they aswage the convulsion of frizling , even as some external somentations do . And likewise , the juice of Citron , doth not helpe by the abstersive , and incisive or cutting force of its sharpnesse ( for otherwise , vinegar , and other sharp things should perform the same ) because the juice of Citron , layes aside its tartnesse in the first digestion of heat , and therefore , neither is it admixed with victualls , now waxing hot : but there remaines in it a residing faculty , convenient for asswaging of the Cramp or convulsion : To wit , while it being converted into urine , doth as yet retaine a certaine kind of marke of its former middle life . What if the Schooles do fear the use of Diureticks , least happily , many stones in descending , should light at once within the Ureter , and that he which as being the more grosse one , was the hindermost , should as it were a wedge , stop up the passage : But , neither so indeed , is there a casual vice to be ascribed to the Diuretik medicine : Because , besides , a fiction is also set to sale for a truth ; For whatsoever doth at the beginning , happen to fall into the urine-pipe ( unlesse it shall be a certaine hook ) that doth thus procede , and is carried downwards : For smal stones do not play and wantonize in so famous a passage : not one stone , or many at once that are bigger than the passage , do passe out of the kidney : as neither do they once fall down from thence , which sustain the weight of urine behind them . That thing indeed , were to be suspected , if the Ureter were not a soft and loose membrane , but a dry and unflexible reed : For that , a moist membrane , for fear of a Vacuum or emptinesse , doth of necessity alwayes fall down on the sides , unlesse it be enlarged from behind , by the urine falling : But the urine provoking medicine , is not yet therefore hurtfull . For the falling of many and badly formed little stones by chance into the Ureter , hath not drawn its faults from the diuretick remedy ; but from the fatal urine rushing on it , which without that Diuretick , had equally fallen : wherefore a Diuretical remedy is neither to be feared , or turned away from , for fear of an irregular and monstrous chance : to wit , that , that wich is ordinary , by it self profitable , should be forbidden , from the fear of an unwonted and most seldome accident . But if they say , that many smal stones being glewed together with a slimy matter , do fall out : First of all , that destroies the material cause of Duelech which is diligently taught by the Schooles . For truly that phlegmy glew ought already to have been stonified : but those stones neither found , nor took to them , that glew in the urine-pipe : wherefore if one only stone , or many co-glewed ones , do slide out of the kidney , it is all one : because in their sliding forth , they were not bigger than the passage of the kidney . Therefore if urine-provokers do not dissolve that glew , nor disjoyne those little stones : it shall atleast be very profitable , so much as may be , to have driven forth that offensive fardle of the stone , a more plentifull and provoked urine laying on it , by the urine it s own weight . For the urine-pipe is not naturally moist with any muscilage within ; The which , the urines of healthy persons doe testifie : Therefore , if any muscilage of medicines should come down thither , that could not but be unto the Ureter besides nature , and its usual wont . What if the urine pipe , being beset with a stone cast into it , be said to beget a muscilage . First of all , the urines of those that have the stone in the reines , do contradict that chance : And then also , the Schooles shall be heedlesse , which derive phlegme , or the material cause of the stone , from above , yea , out of the stomach , for stones : because it is that which should be found at hand , and in the sick urter . And foolish muscilages of forreign simples are given to drink , if a muscilage should be the native cause of the malady . And then , the Schooles speak , as if Diureticks did drive foreward the stone , yea and also the urine as with a hammer , or as if they did thrust them forward behind their back , as by a staffe : for so , by artificial things , after the manner of the vulgar , they plunge themselves into a labarinth for a spectacle : Not considering , that in urine-provoking remedies , there is a specifical property left from the middle life of the simple , or got in the transchanging of digestion ; from which property , Diureticks do emunge or wipe out the urine . But no Diureticks do by themselves respect the progeny of the stone ; As neither doth an honest or true Physitian give heed to effects that rush on the sick acidentally by accident , that therefore , he should neglect effects , perse , or by themselves ; the which notwithstanding is otherwise done , by forbidding of a urine-provoking medicine . Because that a sanative indication , or healing betokening , commands a most ready removal of that which is hurtfull , and the rather , of that which doth afterwards wax more great by delay . Therefore I prayse Diuretical remedies in the stone of the kidneys , so that they do also aswage and lull asleep the convulsion . A certain Countesse , and likewise another Nun , closed their day with huge pain : For both of them shewed as it were , a hook , wlth one sharp top of its Triangle ending in the kidney ; but with its other , into the Vreter : and both of them dyed with a cruel Convulsion . They dye not indeed by reason of the suppressing of their urine , when as the other of their Kidneys , yielded a sufficiency of urine : but they dye onely through a cruel Convulsion ; which Cramp is again loosened about the time of Death : Wherefore the Dissection presented nothing besides a small stone of a Hook-like form , which brought death upon them . I said at the beginning , that the curing of Duelech did consist as well in the abolishment of the inclination , as in the melting or dissolving of the stone ; both whereof , the Schooles deny to be possible : and so we stand in opposite termes . Therefore we must come unto Reasons , unto Witnesses or Deeds , and unto Charters or Letters Patents ; and that , my Right being proved , the ignorances of the Schooles also may be made manifest . First of all , Seeing that of a Non-being , or of that which is impossible to be , there is not any positive Conception , and so , neither is there any knowledge thereof ; Therefore the Schooles confess , that there can be no Science or knowledge unto them : and that they do deny those things to be possible , which they confesse themselves to be ignorant of . But the Reasons , which have dasht the Schooles unto an impossibility , are these ; but frivolous enough . Our Experience , the Mistress of things , hath not yet made it manifest unto us , that the evil inclination can be taken away ; since that according to Galen , a Distemper being turn'd into a Nature , cannot be cured , according to the Proverbe . Naturam expellas furca , tamen usque recurret Though Nature with a Fork thou dost expell , Yet still she will return into her Cell . But most especially , in the part that is filled with a continual Excrement , to take away the confirmed distemper , is altogether impossible . But as to the Stone being confirmed , however great a noyse the specious boasting of Stone-breaks may make , yet it is nothing but the vain Boasting of Empericks ; The braggings of Idiotisme , and nothing else . For the Physitian can onely stir and drive forth the stone by Urine-provokers , and loosen the passages by moystening Emollients : Yea , since Diuretick Medicines are full of danger , nothing is more meet for a Physitian to do in the Disease of the stone , than to enlarge the Urine-pipes by moystening them , and to take away the incumbent filths by Clysters , from the Bowels : but the smoak-selling Chymists , boast that they will dissolve the stone being confirmed in the Bladder , by a Retrograde Resolution ; and so they procure nothing but disgrace to themselves from their own mouth : But our Philosophy promiseth nothing beyond the strength of Nature , and therefore it remaines Reverenced among Learned men , and hath taken firm Root for so many Ages already past . For who sees not , that the stomach it self ought of necessity to be sooner broken to pieces and dissolved , than the stone which is an hundred times harder than the stomach , being so far remote from the mouth ? But because the Chymist is for the most part ignorant of Philosophy , he boldly promiseth any thing , that he may wipe Moneys from the miserable and credulous sick ; The which , he knows not how to provide by his Gold-making Art. For if there could be any thing in Nature , which would dissolve a confirmed Duelech , so many Princes and Peers , and so many various Wits of Physitians , had not hitherto wanted so happy a Remedy . These are the lofty Looks , Decrees , and Calumnies of the Schooles : The which notwithstanding being well weighed , are found to be the true priviledges of opposite men . For first of all , if any one by offending , may contract a Disease ; Why , by a well-healing , may he not take away the same radically ? and wholly Root out the Characters that were once imprinted on the part ? For I have freed many from the Disease of the stone , to the which they had for some yeares been obedient , so as that they lived for the future , plainly free there-from . The Remedies of whom , thou shalt by and by find , under the penalty of my infamy or disgrace . For I easily indulge the Schooles , because they speak according to their own experiences , and ignorances of the Causes , and deny that the Impression translated on the powers of the Members , is to be taken away : To wit , seeing they hitherto acknowledge , nothing but raw and sluggish Remedies : But in the mean time , they are wallowed in an unexcusable Errour , who despair that any one should be wise beyond themselves : When as in the mean time , they cease diligently to search , and all their life long , addict themselves onely to Gain . The Judgements of the Schooles have regard unto the Writings of Ancestours who were subscribers to Heathenism : but our Judgements have respect unto the first Being of Bodyes they being freed or dispatched from their Wrapperies , whereby they are hindered from proceeding unto the first Constitutives of us : wherein they are able to strangle the hurtfull Impressions which are introduced into the middle Life ; and for that cause to take away those Impressions which seem to be converted into a Nature . As to the taking away of the inclination ; first of all the Medicine Aroph of Paracelsus ( which sounds , as the Aroma or sweet Spice of the Philosophers ; so called by reason of its Golden Tincture ) being prepared under Dung , with the mixture of Rye-bread , and afterwards extracted with spirit of Wine , cures an antient inclination unto the stone of the Kidneys . A certain man called Baio , our Countryman , while as he had for some yeares in his Embassage into England , been many times molested with the stone in his Kidneys , with the greatest pain , and through my perswasion , making use of the aforesaid Liquor Aroph twice every week , was afterwards free from that affect of the stone for the space of eighteen yeares : and at length dyes in the 83 year of his age ; and his dead Carkase being dissected , shewed not so much as a small sand or little stone ; who before , while he was stony , whether he were carried in a Coach , or soberly walking , had alwayes pissed bloudy urine : His Heires do now as yet survive , who are witnesses hereof . I remember also the Counsellour , of whom I before made mention , concerning his eating of Asparagus ; For he , when he was wont miserably to lay down at every fifteen dayes , having afterwards used Ale wherein Daucus or wild Carrot-seed was boyled , hath lived now , for some yeares , free from the Disease of the stone . The Experiments and Testimonies of whom , do make the Schooles to blush : Since there is Truth in their mouth . Paracelsus also called the Beings of Gemms and Stone-breaks unto his ayd ; and at length , by the one onely Remedy of Ludus , promiseth , and attained both the ends of Curing . The Schooles Deny that to be possible , which they cannot perform : their Testimony is full of arrogancy and blockishnesse : For truly , as oft as they admire at the feeble help of Stone-breaking things , attempted with their crude Remedies , and also their vain effect thereof , they bend their Brows , lift up their Shoulders as astonished , being asked , are silent ; but being constrained , s●ye back to an impossibility , and had rather accuse God , as having forgotten Mercy and Goodnesse , than that he had afforded Remedies in Nature against the stone ; being ( as they say ) confirmed , and against most Diseases : Yea , they do more willingly accuse God of forgetfulnesse , than they themselves can admit of the mark of any ignorance in their own Paganish Doctrine . But Princes being circumvented by the Schooles , have subscribed to the juggling deceits of these ; and they being seduced by the Impostures of the Schooles , the liberality of their Piety hath erected Hospitals of uncurable sick : which Impostures have reproved that Text of Wisdome of a Lye ; God hath made all Nations of the earth curable : neither is there a Medicine of destruction . For the Schooles have made their own and too gross ignorance , reciprocal and convertible with the impotency of Nature , as if they knew every thing that is possible , and were ignorant onely of that which were impossible : and that not onely Negatively , but altogether privatively : As though their ignorance did not depend on the de●ect of Universities ; but rather on the scantinesse of Divine Goodnesse , or Providence . Wherefore since a denial of possibility in healing , seemed to me to contain a hidden wickednesse , I alwayes hoping well even from my youth , did argue on the contrary , after this manner . If it be of Faith , that every Disease began from the Fall or departing out of the Right way ; but that every sin may be wholly remitted : we must by all meanes hope , that every Disease may in its own kind be taken away , if the punishment be equalized with the sin , in Remission : Especially , because the same God who forgiveth sins , doth also heal Diseases , hath afforded Remedies , and hath created the Physitian through the abundance of his Goodnesse , which exceedeth all his Actions : and is infinitely greater in his Indulgence , than all the sins of men . For could he not perhaps , create a suitable and victorious Remedy for every Disease ? Or knew he nor how to do it ? Or was he unwilling so to do ? Who hath afforded the Remedy of Eternal Death . For he rejoyceth not in the destruction of the living , who hath made all Nations of the Earth curable . But as to the authorities of Writers : For Cardanus writeth , that in his Age , there wandred a man about among the Lombards , who in a few dayes , by a certain Cup , cured in many places safely , certainly , and briefly , as many as had the stone in their Bladder : and he adds his Judgement , that he doubted not , but that this man was in Hell ; because dying , he envied his Art unto mortals . In so great a Paradox , one onely witnesse is not sufficient against the Clamours of the Schooles . The Epiaph of Theophrastus Paracelsus , which is seen in a wall in an Hospitall , nigh Saint Sebastians Temple , being erected by the Prelate of Saltzburge , doth represent the same wonder to have many times happened , however the Guts of the scoffing Momus may crack . His words run thus ; Here layes Entombed , Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus , a famous Doctor of Medicine , who by his Wonder-working Art , took away those cruel wounds , the Leprosie , Gout , Dropsie , and other uncurable contagions of the Body , and honoured his Goods , so as to be distributed and disposed of to the Poor . In the Year of our Lord , 1541 ; on the 24th , day of September , he changed Life for Death . But that under uncurable Diseases , the Tabes or Consumption of the Lungs , Asthma , Stone , and all such like Diseases were understood by the Prince of Salizburge , the Schooles themselves do teach . Because they are those who do alwayes Thunder out , That such Diseases are every where , chiefly uncurable : And then , the indefinite phrase of the Epitaph hath respect unto the Books published by Paracelsus concerning the Stone ; and that with a far more acurate Quil , than concerning other Diseases . At leastwise therefore , whatsoever is once and the oftner done in Nature , it is not impossible that this should be done again : And by Consequence , whosoever affirmeth that to be impossible , which by divine Goodnesse was at sometime done in Nature , according to the desire of the Physitian , he lyes before God the Workman of Nature : For in the Right , which is of the deed done , those very Witnesses do disclose it ; and those are reckoned , unprofitable brawlings , which are brought in against Witnesses . The Schooles therefore , which call us Deceivers , do mock mankind with an Elenchus or faulty Argument : saying , The stone that is far remote from the mouth , is far harder than the membrane of the stomach : whatsoever therefore should corrode or lessen the stone , being at a far distance , had now a good while before consumed the stomach it self , whereinto it had newly fallen . Therefore the stone is of necessity , an uncurable evil . But if the holy Scriptures write otherwise , a way is to be sought , whereby with moderation , they may be excused of falshood . But surely , the Keyes of Wisdome are by a certain force , so detained in the Schooles , that seeing themselves enter not in , they also endeavour to drive away others that are willing to enter . For it is not in the intent of the Chymist , to take away Duelech by Corrosives , but by proper and specifical Dissolvers . For neither doth the stomach of a Pigeon dissolve Pearls , or that of an Oestrich , Iron , or Flints , by Corrosives , but by an appropriated Ferment of Digestion : Or if thou shalt grant Corrosives unto the stomach of Animals : at leastwise they are such , which bring not any dammage to the stomach ; And moreover , if thou hast regard unto the highest Corrosives , Aqua fortis dissolves indeed Iron , Brass , and Silver ; but Wax , it doth not so much as pierce . Through the inconsiderateness of which thing , the Schooles have affrighted their young Beginners , the unlearned vulgar ; yea , and great men from diligent searching into things , their own ignorance , the drowsiness of diligent searching , and hope of Gain , perswading them hereunto . Therefore for the stone , and diseases in the Bladder , as if Physitians did intend a Derivation or drawing them another way , they being ridiculously converted unto the Fundament , have attempted the matter by Clysters ; as if to have unloaded the Fundament , were to have purged out the stone . For they saw , that the juyce of Citron did diminish a humane Duelech in a glass , and they hoped , that the same thing ought to be done in us : But if not , that they could boast , that by administring the juyce of Citron , they had performed as much as was possible for nature to do . As being ignorant in the first place , that the sharpness of the Citron doth wax sweet under heat , like an unripe apple , which in it self , is at first , sharp , and afterwards , being ripened by heat , becomes sweet . In the next place , if one only drop of the more tart wine be sent inwardly unto the bladder , it brings more pain thereunto , than a great stone . They therefore imagine a ridiculous thing , who boast , that by administring the sharp juyce of Citron at the mouth , they have done some profitable thing for the diminishment of the stone . They likewise erre , who also hand forth liquors that are distilled with salts , for the dissolving of the stone in the bladder : for a sharp matter , as such , cannot pass thorow into the veins , without a notable hurt or dammage . And although , in the juyce of Citron , and much more in the spirit of Sea-salt , there are succours for those that have the stone ; yet these do not happen unto them , unless they have first bid sarewell to their rartness : Because in very deed , the curing or dissolving of Duelech , is not perfected by sharp , as neither by corrosive things . Neither do sharp cups ever pierce unto the bladder , not are suffered to be derived thither . But while the Schools have been intentive on the summary or content of stone-breaking Medicines , although as astonished , they were at first , fearful of the issue of what they promised , and afterwards being more assured , they saw themselves to be frustrated of their hope ; yet sporting with mans skin , they gave him the beaten powders of fruits and stones . They knew , I say , that they were destitute of a remedy ; yet they desisted not to give those things to drink , which they knew to be vain , wherein they deceived the sick , while they skipt over the occasion of healing , with vain and pastime remedies , that they might excuse themselves of their death , among posterity : as though they had faithfully administred whatsoever was possible in nature , and those things which are extolled by true Physitians . Of the more hard seeds ( as while they gave credit to Grummel seed , so it is by a ridiculous name , called [ Lithospermen ] or stonie seed , by the Schools ) they straight-way made to themselves a presage from their name . And then , they joyned the stones of Crabs , Snails , Fishes , also the burnt shells of shelfishes , yea , the hardest gemmes , being beaten in Aurichalcum or Copper . At length , they gave Chrystal , being fired , quenched , and beaten , to drink , from a pastime invention , and with a deluding event . Last of all , as soon as they beheld themselves to have come into derision and despite , or least they might seem to expect a reward , and their repeated frequencies of visits to be undeservedly paid them , but to have done something , although they being perfectly instructed by manifold experiences , despaired within their own breasts : They said , that a succouring remedie , which was denied in Europe and Asia , was to be fetched out of the Indies ; at leastwise , that the Councel of the Physitian by the knowledge of so fotreign Simples , might be drawn into an admiration by those that stand by : As if God were not the Creator of remedies , the merciful helper of the sick , and had for so many thousand years , refused remedies to the European and Asian sick ? But in the mean time , the stone doth of its own accord , rush head-long out of the kidney ( for of that of the bladder , they have long since despaired ) oh , of what great esteem are their stone-breaks so administred , then , made ! and as somewhat too bold , they feign , that their powders do command the kidneys , no otherwise then as bondslaves , and break the stones , as it were , under a hammer . But if the business succeed the less prosperously , they grieve that they were called late , that the passages might have been more seasonably loosened by a Bath and a Clyster . They bewail that an offence was committed in the fewness of Clysters and Simples , and accuse their Cousin Physitians . They grieve most especially , that they were called , the stone being already confirmed ; although for this cause , by reason of a charter or commission sent them from the Schools , which time between the stone being confirmed and not confirmed , might proceed , perhaps not indeed from the negligence of the Schools : but because that Charter being written in parchment , was devoured by the mice . Truly , a privy shift of the Schools it is , being a like ridiculous ! For truly , Duelech doth not obtain his hardness by degrees ; because he is hardened by his own Coagulum or runnet , in the middle of the waters . And therefore the Schools have been deluded , who thought , that the stone was hardened and dried by degrees . Surely he is as hard in his yesterdays bark , as in his innermost kernel ; and as hard , being newly cut out and wet , as he will be , being kept for a whole age after . And the sand is as hard , which but newly adheres to the urinal , as it will be within a year , being scraped of . A flint , I say , is as hard in the bottome of a river , as it will be within an hundred years . Who is there therefore , who may not admire with me , the everywhere gross ignorance of the Schools ? They have not only deceived themselves by their own thinking , for that they have said , the stone in the bladder is generated , dryed , and by degrees more hardened and confirmed through heat ; but they have not so much as considered by the way , that urine doth apply sands in the glass , and in the cold of the encompassing air , without the help of heat , dryth , or cocture ; it being as hard to day , as it will be after that it is dryed in a paper . These indeed are the Studies , Decrees , and Remedies of the Schools ; by the worthy deeds whereof , they deny a help to be possible in nature , for those that have the stone : And therefore they decree , that the stone in the bladder , which is bigger than the passage , hath not a remedie in nature , from the divine goodness , besides the knife . For the bladder of women may be enlarged by operation with the womb-glass , and send forth its stone ; but we now treat of the bladder of a man. Horatius Augenius a chief Paduan , rejoyceth , that the cruelty of the knife was also increased by his own brain ; to wit , because he first had dictated that wickedness to be done by a fired knife : But Paracelsus his junior , although he had also referred the whole hope of Duelech on the knife ; yet afterwards having silenced his errour , repaired by his Ludus , his marble and flinty Tartars , equally , with other shellie or brickie bodies , resolving them by that one only remedie . Truly I know that divine goodness hath created stones in the Vegetal and Animal Family , which should be unprofitable and vain in their own particular kinds , almost monstrous , yea otherwise burdensome to their own individuals , unless they were created for some good unto us . Therefore since all things were created for the use of ungrateful man , and many things do scarce profit their own individuals , they shall also scarce profit mortal men , unless being resolved into a milky juyce , or into their first Being ; certainly they have received their appointments unto a strange stonification of a rocky form , from their use : for neither is a stone bred in an Animal or Plant , for a punishment , but it shews the signature of its gift , even in the hardness of its coagulation : But although a Mineral stone that is a stone-break , be fit for dissolving of Duelech , if it be so prepared , that it may come thorow unto the kidneys without the hurting of its faculties ; yet the stone of the Animal or Vegetable , in their rocky nature , are for the most part , the more civil ones , and so being as , it were houshold Citizens , they are the more easily admitted into our Common-wealth : for their countenance do cause a hope of their Signate : that as oft as they depart from their stony disposition , they also obtain a power of executing the natural endowments promised in their Signate , they enter into Wedlock with us , and communicate their intimately espoused , promised vertues unto us . The which cannot happen , but by a full resolving of them into their first Being : For I have made the stones of fruits , to wit , of Medlars , Dates , Peaches , &c. Volatile , without any Caput mortuum or dead head , after that they had returned into a milkie juyce : And that indeed , without a separative distillation : For I have found , that this kind of remedy doth restore , no otherwise than as Aroph doth preserve : Of which two , I make this difference ; that restauration is the cutting off of the received inclination : but preservation is a prevention of that which is to come through a hinderance of the disposeable matter : But in a true cure , both are included . Furthermore , for the true resolution and melting of Duelech being generated , the Ludus of Paracelsus obtaineth the Chiefdom , not that it is a flint , and that children do play with it ; even as some have interpreted the Etymologie thereof : But because Ludus is alwayes extracted in the form of the ancle , of a die , or square cube : of the preparation whereof , this is the description according to the Author . Ludus being exactly beaten or pounded , calcined , and boyled even into the form of an oyl ; the which , he by almost one only word , calleth the Gawl of the earth , and a corrected Altholizoi , which soundeth al. tho . oli . gesotten . or that which is wholly converted into an oyl by boyling . Which most eminent preparation of Ludus , hath hitherto been made known but to a few Mortals , under that brief Tract of words . And although the world be worthy of Compassion , and that its preparation may in a more manifest sense be described ; yet the manifold Contemners of secret things are unworthy , that those things should be manifested now , which God for most weighty reasons , would have to remain among a few , and the little ones of this world , in the possession of the treasures of his own dispensation , until that nothing be hidden , which shall not be revealed in its own fulness of dayes : in which fulness of time , Wo to the world , and to its confusion ! Yet will I speak a little plainer , that those only , who are skilful in the Phylosophy of the art of the fire , may comprehend me . Let Ludus be beaten into a powder , in a Morter , and under a Pestil : And then again under a Whetstone , in a stonie or marble morter : Then afterwards let it be calcined ; not indeed with a roasting fire ; but let there be added unto it , the Circulated salt , whereof Paracelsus speaks in his book of renewing and restoring , and the salt being distilled from thence , is called Ludns Calcined : Because with the small labour of two houres , it will be wholly converted into a slat . Let Ludus therefore , being thus calcined , and reduced into a salt , and being of equal weight with it self , run down of its own free accord into a moist place . But let that salt being resolved , be shut up with Hermes Seal , in an Egg with a long neck , and let it continually boyl in Sand , with a fire of the second degree , untill that all the Ludus , shall in its own equal weight , stand like a more gross Oyl upon the water , which it drew from the ayr of the Cellar : For then all the Ludus is a volatile salt , in the form of an oylie salt dissolved , and it hath a certain kind of tast of urine ; and therefore it goeth through the urine with the drink , in its entire vertues , and dissolves every stone wheresoever it shall lurk in the Body ; because it is a volatile salt , it is resolved in moysture , neither is separated in the shops of Digestions : But because it doth after some sort represent the tast of urine , and in the mean time , hath properties that are friendly to our nature , it is willingly received , and is also dismissed to the Kidneys . The dose thereof , is of 14 grains unto 20. with a small quantity of simple distilled-water : And the stone of an indifferent or reasonable bignesse in the Bladder , is resolved into the bignesse of a Pine-kernel , especially in two weeks . The liquor of Ludus being thus prepared , is called by Paracelsus , the Gaul of the Earth : because , if it be extended in paper , it is of a dark Citron-colour , not a little declining to green : For it is a stone , exceeding wonderfull , it onely answering to the descriptions of Paracelsus ; to wit , being bred of the salt of the urine of the Liquors of the Earth : In the bottom of the earth , according to the depth of the bladder in the Body of man. But I have found it at the bank of the River Scalds , nigh Antwerp , where Bricks are boyled , and it is scituated more or lesse than 40 soot under the Horizon , according to the depth of the River : For I compare , the bottom of the River unto the bottom of the Bladder : But it is not in the bottom of the River ; but it is extended in one onely and simple roof or story , under the ground or bottom of the brim , in a neighbouring field , nigh to the sides of the Banks , and that for some miles . And that Vault or story of Ludus , doth scarce exceed the thicknesse of a foot . Neither also , is it any further extended above or beneath the aforesaid Vault ; nor is it elsewhere round about to be found . There is also in the aforesaid Field , a frequent Fire-stone , being rich in sulphur and vitriol . The which , although it be very hard under the earth , yet it soon becomes brickle under the ayr ; to wit , through its vitriol decaying by degrees : But Ludas is a palish stone , now and then covered with a clear crust throughout its seams , being as to a great part of it , volatile in the Potters Furnace : For this stone is the top of Stone-breaks , and the desire of those that have the stone . Happy is he who can calcine the same as I have now admonished : But the labour thereof , requires not onely reading and thinking , but a full knowledge , being also doubly confirmed : Because it is the labour of Wisdome , the hope of Adeptists : Therefore he is most Rare , whom God , in this Age that is full of misery , hath throughly brought unto this Scope . It is not sufficient to have known the Ludus or Cevilla of Paracelsus , and the native birth thereof , and that it ought to be reduced into an oylie volatile Salt , without the loss or destruction of its natural Endowments : But since there is not a more laboursome part in all Chymistry ( which Paracelsus doth often declare in the preparation of the Tincture of Sulphur , which graduates or heightens the native colour of Gemms : to wit , the same circulated Salt , is on both sides silently suppressed : ) I will-perswade a few things , so far as Brother may communicate to Brother . For although out of humane compassion and Charity , a Remedy against Duelech ought to be divulged before the World , by Trumpets : Yet it ought , for Reasons known to God , to be kept amongst Secrets , whereof he himself would remain the Dispenser , Take of Ludus being poudered : one pound , and as much of the Liquor Alkahest ; distill this Liquor from thence ; and at the first turn , all the Ludus will be changed into a salt , which , in a Glassen-dish in a moist place , runs down or abroad , without any residing earthlinesse , and this defluxing Liquor , is of a yellow colour , and being closed up with a Hermes seal , in boyling , it swims wholly atop , as it were a froth , in the form of a green metled grease . And it is the corrected Altholizoim and gawl of the earth of Paracelsus . But he that thinks , by the additament of Salt-peter , or of the like Artifices , to atain this Medicine ; let him know , that such kind of salts , however exactly and repeatingly they are co-mixed with the Ludus , yet that the salts only will be defluxive , the earth being left , as it were a Lee or dreg in the dish : But the Ludus ought to be totally transchanged into a volatile tinged salt , without reserving any thing of the adjoyned Alkahest : Because that as well this liquor , as the Ludus , do keep their former weight : And the Ludus it self , keeps the Mineral natural endowments which the Almighty goodness hath afforded it . But this work is most exceeding difficult , not indeed in respect of the preparation of the Ludus , but of the Alkahest it self . I know that I speak the truth , and the proof thereof in our Adeptists , is that which exceeds all demonstration : For Aristotle acknowledged no other Science , than that which springs from a fore-existing knowledge of the Senses : But there is another undemonstrable one , wherein the Giver himself remains the Interpreter of his own Light , beyond all the Ambush of a Syllogism ; yet so certain is it , that the whole world cannot stir up the least doubt in the Knower : which thing I have professly confirmed , and made manifest in the Treatise of the Searching after Sciences . I have made manifest the while , after what sort a spirit may be drawn out of putrified urine , which being sent into the bladder by an unpainful Catheter , dissolueth Duelech . The Schools in the mean time commend their own Herbarists , and these their own stone breaks ; yet they are in doubt , and being without hope , contend with each other , That if not for the dissolved stone , at least , for the hope cast into the miserable diseased , they may desire a reward to be paid them . There are some in the mean time , who promise composed Magistrals , whereby the stone being beaten , as it were under an hammer or mill , is broken into a sand or meal : But if in the mean time , any sand doth perhaps appear , they require , that all that should be attributed to their stone-breaking remedy : but the event hath hitherto deluded their rashness , whom the knowledge of the root hath even hitherto deceived . For truly , Duelech consists of a matter altogether similar or alike , being fetched from the one only and constant liquor of the urine . For indeed the stone is everywhere , and in every part thereof , a stone ; neither doth the sand differ from the stone , by way of matter ; neither is the Stone a manifold sand , collected by a glew or Muscilage ; so that there is only required a resolution of the Glew , the sands in the mean time leaping asunder from each other : Therefore it is a frivolous thing , that the stone doth leap asunder into sands which are the more stubborn to dissolve . For Paracelsus , although having obtained a remedy , he was succesful in curing the stone ; yet in this , he manifests , with the Humourists , that he was ignorant of the nater of Duelech ; because he promiseth , that his remedy of Ludus being taken , it should be cast forth in the form of sands ; Then again , because he teacheth , that the bigness of Dueleh is to be divined of , and weighed , by the boyling and drying up of all the urines , being kept together throughout all the interval of the cure : Both whereof notwithstanding , is a meer dream of rashness : For truly , whatsoever remedy dissolved Duelech , that should chiefly , and far more easily be for the dissolving of sands , and very small fragments , if any should fall down : For whatsoever is coagulated from a similar urine , that also in it self , must needs be similar or alike : And then , if , when Duelech is dissolved by Ludus , all the urines being collected , and kept together in the whole interval of the cure , should be dryed up ; perhaps they would forty times exceed the weight of the stone : For who knows not , that even the urines of healthy folk , being dryed , do leave a Caput mortuum behind them . Therefore I have discerned that Paracelsus indeed had often , by offering of his Ludus , dissolved the stone of the bladder ; but that he kept not the strong smelling urines , nor likewise that he dryed them ; Because it had been too tedious a thing for him to do : For it hath pleased the most High to send before the Elias of Arts , a fore-runner , teaching the Crasis or constitutive temperature and preparation of medicines : unto whom , that the world might give credit , signes were given , establishing his doctrine : For he hath a famous preparation of great Arcanums , which was not to be confirmed but by an obtainment of healing : And then there have some followed after , who adding to the inventions of , or things found out by Paracelsus , were Illustraters of the Speculative truth being found . That at length there may one succeed , who hath obtained the obtainment of healing , teaching both by word and work , those things which God hath denounced by the former . Last of all , the Schools distrusting themselves , have by a new deceit obtained credit among those that are rash of belief ; and have boasted , that by the rules of dyet , they have known so to dispose the body of him that is stony , that all the fore-going phlegmatick heap of the stone , and that which otherwise , without those their institutions , would presently and of its own accord , make for the branches of stone may by a continual successive repetition , be taken away : that is , they promise , that they can fore-snatch away all phlegm , which doth after any manner whatsoever , form the stone : Yea , that phlegm ; which ( according to the heathens ) is required for a necessary elementary composition of the venal blood , should be so sparing and small , that it should scarce suffice for that its necessity , and much , less for an abundance , to create the stone . To which end they promise , to wit , certain Magistrals , and repeated small Purges , and therefore they name them Familiar , and minorative ones or those of the lesser sort . They promise moreover , that they will shew to the eye , that truly dejected phlegm , ( to wit , their Drawers out of phlegm or Phlegmagogalls being received to this purpose ) hence also , they will ban themselves as for a speedy prosperous health ( at leastwise a cloakative or dissembled one ) to the sick , by reason of the foregoing matter of the stone being cast out : Nevertheless thus are the weak , by degrees , more weakened ; they proceed to live medicinally and miserably , so long as they subject themselves as obedient unto such helpers But it hath already befor been sufficiently answered to such trifles , when as I removed phlegm and a muscilage from the number of the causes of Duelech . Paracelsus in like manner , doth alike unsavourily trifle about the first matter of Tartar , and of the stone , and being unmindful of his own Doctrine lately delivered , flees over unto the phlegmie muscilage of the Humourists , whom he first , notwithstanding , so named by a mocking name : But I , that very name being now everywhere received , do so name them from pity , but not from an Ironie or Scoff . But Paracelsus being else where unwary , doth again oppose these things , promising , that within the fifteenth day of the curing of Duelech , it may be seen of what a bigness it was , if all the urine be daily dryed up : which thing cleerly infolds it self with the foregoing matter of Tartar , and such a drying of urine would be a meer deceit and juggle , if together with the dissolved Duelech , the foregoing matter of a stonie Tartar should be expurged . For truly he promiseth , that whatsoever dissolveth Duelech , that very thing doth much more briefly dissolve the foregoing matter of Tartar , which daily increaseth for the stone . I surely , have hated sluggishness and blockishness in healing , stubbornness in a learned man , ignorance in a Professor , a lye in a Writer , as also a contradiction in one seeking to compass the Chiefdome : For truly , all those things include a deceit and unskilfulness in the Teacher , if not malice besides , and an ignorant rashness in such a Prince ; and so , they render all that religion or conscientious profession , suspected of much defilement . I at leastwise , even from my youth , have even unto tears , grieved at the condition of the weak or sick , who under uncertain hope , did as credulous , entrust their life , family , wife and children , yea their fortune and goods , to be governed by him that is a bold Boaster of any thing . Therefore at first , I ran through the Monarchy of Vegetables : but I found not that which could dissolve Duelech in the Bladder ; But whatsoever of those would make Duelech to melt in a Glass , was either hostile , or at leastwise it came not with those qualities unto the Bladder ; but if it might seem to be cast in by a Syringe , it was not by the Bladder to be endured . Therefore Vegetables being distilled and decocted ; and likewise their ashes , Calx's or Limes , pouders , and all things being extracted , I learned but vain and slender Remedies against so great an Enemy . The more sharp ones indeed did diminish Duelech in his entireness ; but being taken in at the mouth , they entred not under that power unto the Bladder ; but being cast in from without , however they seemed mild , like unto Wine , yet they imitated bright burning Iron in the sense of pain . Therefore I wondered at Parcelsus and others , that they commended Liquors distilled out of Honey , Sugar , Dew , &c. Since no mortal man ever endured those , being injected by a Syringe . Indeed , I have observed by experiment , that a Pigeon did dissolve Duelech being cut out of man , into a juyce , by the sharp Ferment of her stomach , even as also the fragments of Bricks : Therefore the more inward membrane of the stomach of Pigeons and Hens was given to drink by Seniour Physitians , but surely with much deceitfull hope : As well , because the fermental power of the Bowels is extinguished together with the life of the Bruit ; as also it being granted , that that pouder did preserve its primitive and antient faculty after death which in life it obtained ; yet that it should come unto the Bladder wholly spoiled of those virtues in the Kitchins of our Digestions : although in very deed , Pouders are scarce turned into a Uriny-Latex ; Although many things of that sort , are with a constant ignorance on both sides , prescribed to the sick . Yet this I have learned , that the spirit of Spanish salt , being distilled with the utmost fire of a R●verbery , together with Potters-earth , and being drunk every morning with white Wine , which was the day before drawn out of the Vessel ; takes away not onely the mortal stranguries of old people , and that it being wholly Diuretical , hath cured some : But moreover , in whom the Stone which is bigger than is meet , falling down out of the Kidney , had stayed for some months in the Bladder , that it hath been at length diminished , and voyded out by pissing : the which notwithstanding , in its oftentimes repeated entrance into the neck of the Bladder , had been needfull to be before as often repulsed backwards by a Catheter . But it is prepared of that salt being first poured forth or spread abroad , and freed by the fire from its extra●agant filth , and presently , the salt being bruised , and dissolved between thin plates of Radish ; and at length being again dryed , and distilled with a like quantity of Potters earth , and at length with the sharp fire of on Reverbery , and that after a due manner , that nothing expire or breath out of it , even as I will teach below concerning Vitriol . For thou hast the Balsame of Salt , which thou shalt never sufficiently esteem . But in my Young Beginning , I had seen the old pieces of rubbish of ●uious Houses , to pour out Salt-Peter : and that the pouder of Bricks being once freed from the Salt-peter ; and afterwards , being for some yeares kept under a Roof or Covering , did put 〈◊〉 through continuance , and yielded Salt-peter afresh , and soot that the whole pouder , except the sand , might at length be turned into a salt . I had seen also , a 〈◊〉 Brick , inclosed in the middle of a more broad Wall , to bring forth its own Salt-peter outwards , beyond all its neighbour stones , on both sides ; and so that it was the destroyer of its neighbour stones and Bricks . I therefore being mindfull of the name of ( Salt-peter ) knew , that that very salt was the Brick or stone it self being resolved : Especially her also it doth voluntarily drop down in the Caves of Rocks : but elsewhere , because it hangs forth in long drops or Sycles . Wherefore I divers wayes prepared Salt-peter for the Disease of the stone , but in vain ; Because I was then , as yet ignorant , that Duelech consuled of far other principles , than Mineralstones did . I saw likewise Palmer wormed and Infects that were bred in nitrous places , and which there abode , to be applyed for use against the stone of the Bladder ; but in vain : But after that , I knew that so many Ages had dreamed in the knowledge of the Causes of the Disease of the stone , I confidently believed , that all the errour stood in the possession of our sluggishness . At length , God taking pity on the anguishes of the Complainer , gave me the knowledge of the Ludus , together with the preparation of Paracelsus : they who understand me , do gratifie my publick studies ; because they have known that I write the Truth . Seek ye , my brethren , and huge joy shall meet your diligent Soul. For first , learn ye to dissolve Duelech in a Glass , with a lukewarm Liquor that is not troublesome to the stomach , nor in the next place , unto the Bladder : so as that Duelech may be by degrees lessened , without Buubles and disturbance : Reioyce ye , because ye are near . Then learn to turn Ludus into a salt , without any remainder of the Transchanger . But let Remedies against Duelech , be drunk on a fasting stomach , without a yesterday nights Supper ; But if thou artfrustrated of a happy Remedy , let an external one be injected every hour by a Catheter , yet the urine being first diminished . But while I examine that dropping of urine , the history of the Daughter of a Neighbour Baker returns into my mind . For he had a little Daughter , who would oftentimes piss bloudy urine , and her urine was suspended by a middle thred : But it was pale , with much and a glewy sediment ; and thus she had lived the seventh year of her age . A certain Woman of the Village , tels the Baker , that the same thing had in times past , befallen her . I had at length , the bladder of a Bull Calf , being an Embryo , not yet born , to be brought unto me : ( for Cowes that are not begotten with young , are scarce fattened ) That little Bladder is for the most part , filled with the Liquor , of the savour , not indeed of Urine , but of a strange savour , whereof she drinks every morning , about two ounces , with as much of white wine . She was afterwards married in the 19th . year of her age , and in this year 1643 , she is surviving and in health , being ignorant of the stone . The same Remedy afterwards helped some poor Girles . And when as this had been now divers times tryed , the some thing was tryed of the Embryo of an Hee-Goat , and it as yet more prosperously succeeded . I will in this place , subjoyn my own Observations concerning the stones of Crabs , which I never saw registred by any other . First of all , they are unfitly called their eyes , seeing they do not perform the office of eyes , neither do they hang forth , nor do they continue a full year : Neither lastly , are these stones an essence extracted from the whole shell of the Bruit ( although Paracelsus hath thus commanded it ) for truly , by very many , and uniform dissections of Crabs , have I for certainty found , those things which follow . First of all , that the stomach of the Crab , is in his Head , nigh the Crown or top thereor . For the male-Crabs do every year begin to be sick , from the middle of ( the 14th . Month called ) June : and then the females ; in ( the 5th . Month called ) July , before the putting off of their shels : For they are for nine dayes space , and more , as it were half without life and unmoved : In which season , their stomack is outwardly over-covered with a new little Membrane or him : between which , and their old stomach , there is a certain milky Liquor , which by degrees outwardly , on the boughty Globe of the stomach , in what part it toucheth on , and over-covereth the old stomach , is contracted in both sides into a hollownesse , and presently becomes stony . In the mean time , neither then , nor a long while after , doth the Crab eat up any thing : And therefore ( it is almost incredible ) his true , or more inward stomach is by degrees wasted away into a nourishable muscilage , and the other more outward and new stomach , succeedeth in the room of the consumed one . For truly , there is presently extended over that milk , grown unto the bought of the old stomach , a thin skin , after the manner that is wont to be over luke warm milk , and that milk groweth between both the aforesaid Membranes ; To wit , of both the stomachs . All which things , I have daily observed , by dissecting of perhaps two hundred Crabs , with a pleasant admiration ! At length the remaining part of the milk turns to the Crab for a nourishment . Last of all , also , both the stones on both sides , are again by degrees dissolved , and by little and little depart into nourishment : But the Crab eates nothing , nor is any thing found in his stomach , as long as those stones are in his stomach , and he liveth about 27 dayes , as well by his old stomach being wasted by degrees , as from the use of the stones being afterwards resolved . I add , that a most Rare Diuretical or Vrine-provoking Remedy is collected from this stone ; also a vulnerary one , and a chaser away of Fevers , so it be resolved into the form of its former milk : The which , how excellent it is and powerfull , scarce any one but a skilfull person can be perswaded of : And there is nothing more fit for those that are wounded , or form others after Child-birth , than the Remedy of these little stones . For it hath a Remedy against the disclemencies of many Vegetables , that are infamous through a loosening faculty ; so it be so resolved , that both of them may be mixed throughout their least parts . Lastly , in the Marquesdome of Brandeburge , there is a most plentifull fishing of Crabs : But the Carriers are constrained to watch by night ; least happily some Swine do even but lightly run through under the Waggons : For if that shall happen , in the morning , as many Crabs as were in the Wain , are found dead : so destructive is the Hog to the Crab. But that any thing may be cast into the Bladder without pain , I have invented a new Catheter or Squirt ; Because the little silvered Horn , wherewith Chirurgians do with the greatest Torments , fetch out the urine , is cruel and bloudy ; and therefore it hath altogether displeased me : But among many which I have tried , that hath offer'd it self as the most fit , and as harmless , which was made of a thin hide of leather : for I bepainted this hide or dressed leather within , with a white colour of Cerusse and Lineseed oyl : and when it was now almost dry , forthwith I commanded a pipe to be composed by sowing , whereinto a brazen thred was driven throughout its length , and its seam was plaine , that it might not any thing stick out : But that at one end of this pipe , ( the pipe it self being large enough ) the pipe of a Syringe might be put into it as oft as one listed , and that both might fitly answer , that this way the Liquor might be cast into the Bladder . Moreover , the whole Leathern pipe is confirmed with washy glew , that this being afterwards dryed , it may be painted with a certain colour , and with Oyl of Line-seed ; And that indeed , as well for the greater firmnesse of the pipe , as also , least it should be wet thorow , and wax flaggy through the Liquor that is to be injected . The Brazen thred therefore being drawn out , let another as its vicar , enter into its place , being prepared of Whale-bone . Thus therefore thou hast a thin flexible pipe , which doth not any thing pain in sending of it in , although it be forty times thrust forward into the Bladder , and in one only day . At the first turnes indeed , it pains about the muscle of the Bladder , as being unaccustomed thereunto : but the sore fear of the Contraction thereof soon ceaseth ; but the urine is drawn away as oft as one listeth : And the Bladder being emptied , there is at length , cast even into the Bladder by a Syringe , being equally suited unto the pipe behind , whatsoever one will. Onely let the Liquor that is to be sent in , be unpainfull , nor unacceptable . But it is a Syringe unto whose pipe , I have said , that utmost end of the Catheter that hangs out , is to be fitly suited . Let praise Eternal be unto God in the Highest , and let it please him , to bedew , and make my services and desires fruitfull , which are offered for the help of mortals . CHAP. VIII . The Author offers a dainty Dish to young Beginners . 1. Questions of most learned men . 2. The Author's Answers . 3. The Author despiseth Judgements had , or to be had concerning him . 4. A satisfaction concerning Horizontal Gold. 5. Things of a different kind concernnig the Sulphur of Venus or Copper . 6. That the Sulphur of Venus is not the innermost essence of a perfect mettal . 7. A proof of a remaining external Sulphur . 8. The dignity of the Sulphur of Venus . 9. The Indistinction of thr Authors of the Young Beginning of Chymistry . 10. The Authors Answers unto their Objections 11. Some unknown things hitherto concerning Vitriol . 12. The name of Vitriol , whence it is . 13. The nativity of Vitriol . 14. The difference of the goodness of Vitriol . 15. The Greeks yield the Victory to the Germanes , concerning Minerals . 16. The errour of Paracelsus about the estimation of Vitriol . 17. A demonstration of the aforesaid errour . 18. What kind of Vitriol is the best for healing . 19. The best and unusual manner of distilling of Vitriol .. 20. The wonderful properties of this spirit of Vitriol . 21. Some remarkable things redounding from thence . 22. The distillation of salts . 23. The commendation of Daucus or wild Carret seed . 24. Our Country wood for the stone of the reins , and the choice , and preparation thereof . 25. The use of the Birch-tree . THrough occasion of my Book , concerning Fevers , men of great note , wrote unto me from divers coasts of Europe , desiring a clearing Comment about the remedies there delivered . They confess indeed , that they acknowledge , in the boldness of my promise , the true remedies of any fevers whatsoever to subsist ; but that they grieve at the too much obscurity of my writing . First therefore , they enquire , what Horizontal gold may be ? Secondly , They desire the making or composing of the Element of the fire of Venus or Copper ? Thirdly , Whether or no that may not perhaps be the spirit of Vitriol rectifie ? Some also add threatnings , that unless I shall publickly satisfie their wished desire , my book will be hereafter forbidden , as another Prince of Matchi●vil : Because that , otherwise , my Book standing , the Universities of Medicine do consider , that they shall soon be , of necessity , as rubbish ; and that Galen should soon beg his bread from door to door . Good men indeed do consult , that what things I have brought into publick , concerning the unheard-of Doctrine of Fevers , and concerning the detestable abuses of Blood-letting , Purges , and Remedies , were out of compassion to my neighbours ; but the explications are wanting , and a more manifest speaking ; as I being silent , as it were , under a sealed Charter , all things may be for the future , confirmed by the experiences of any whatsoever , and the out-cries of the miserable sick . First of all , I have answered , that the secret of the liquour Alkahest of Paracelsus , doth hinder ; to wit , the teacher and also the dispenser whereof , the Almighty hath decreed to remaine , even untill the confusion of the world , for reasons , in part known to Adeptists . And therefore , that I shall leave the manifestation of that Arcanum , to the treasures of the good pleasures of God. But as to the judgments , in the meane time , to be had concerning me ; I little dwel upon , or esteem them . For neither am I the first , as neither shall I be the last rebuker of those men ; who never have had regard unto the censures of the world that have been made of me ; nor do I with choise ( the which , notwithstanding , many others do ) esteem of my esteemers : Because , in God , I love alike ; but no man therefore , at all , because he flatters me : For I know that I have God for my Protectour , who forsaketh none that calleth on him . For snares of tribulations have rained down upon my head : I stood firme , for neither have they in any wise opressed my soul : They have fallen down on the earth , I have trampled on them with despite ; and presently , as dung , they have putrified of their own accord : But the authours hereof being confounded , have blushed . I wish that God may pardon them ! I know in the next place , that God will cherish the seeds which he hath planted , and the which he would have to grow , with his dew from above . Neither hath he suffered me to be carefull , for the good will of the world , for the consent of the Schooles , or shouting out-cry of the vulgar : For he can , and will do all things whatsoever he will , according to his good pleasure , when the world shall deserve to be comforted by true medicine , in their sicknesses . Ah , how swollen a Bubble is Ambition , which always dependeth as hung up on other mens wills or judgments ? How boldly last of all , do the judgments of other men , alwayes judge ? Especially those which are ruled by a continual prejudice ? But I speak to the questions proposed . That as Sol or Gold is reckoned to be bred in the Horizon of the Hemisphere : So Mercury , when it is made Diaphoretical or transpirative , sweet as hony , and fixed like Gold , is Gold in its own Horizon : and it is as much more Noble than Gold , in medicinal affaires , as an Oriental Pearle is more Noble than a Sco●●●h one . For Mercury , as long as it is metallick Mercury , is like unto the first Being of mettals , and exceeding near unto it : But when it is co-melted with Gold , all its medic nal virtue is shut up and sealed : yea it is so turned inward , that it denies the natural endowment which it owes to mans nature , for its sicknesse . For the sulphur of Venus , after its seperation from its own body , and rising againe , is made as it were a glorious Sulphur , and therefore tingeth the sulphur of Mercury ( the which , in the powder of Iohannes De Vigo , is turned outward by mineral Corrosive Sulphurs ) immediately , and they do mutually embrace each other in an unseparable bride-bed : and therefore the virtue of faculty of both those sulphurs , doth then stand most outwardly . For , from hence , through a co-planting or conjoyning of their faculties , the Mercurius Diaphoreticus resulting from thence , doth perfect the Unisone of healing , in all things , which as well a Physitian as Chyrurgion can wish for : whether it be administred in respect of acute or sharp diseases , or next with relation to Chronical ones or those of long continuance . The Fire of Venus therefore , is not the spirit of Vitriol , however exactly it be rectified : but that fire , is the Volatile Sulphur of Copper , in the forme of a green oyle , being sweeter than hony , and plainly seperated from the Mercurial body of its own Copper . But the residing Copper , remaines white , nor ever waxing green through rust , as neither is it any longer of the number of the seven mettalls : Because it hath become a new and unnamed mettal . But the fire of Venus cannot be had but with a full destruction of the copper , and Volatilizing of the Mercurial body of the Copper it self . The which , how ever volatile it may be , in the forme of an oyle : yet it is afterwards , by an easie buisinesse , reduced into a white unknown mettal , and extendible under the hammer . But the fire , or Sulphur of Copper , is not likewise any longer reduced into a mettal by it self : Because , even as no Sulphur is a mettal ; so every mettallick Mercury is a true mettal . But Adeptists do teach , that the sulphurous part of a mettal , cannot be seperated from its own Mercurial and metallick body , unlesse by a total destruction of the same , and the which therefore ( although abusively ) they call an elementary one : To wit , because there are in mettalls , two Sulphurs : And the one therefore , they deservedly call the externall Sulphur , and the other , the internal . But in the termes of Copper , proposed , Contemplate of that internall Sulphur , which fixeth or coagulateth the body in the white , unnamed , and Mercurial mettal , and makes it easie to be beaten into thin plates under the hammer : Since that otherwise , the Mercury without the Sulphur , can never be coagulated into a mettal . But let the external Sulphur of Venus , be that green , sweet oyle , and that which can never be againe constrained into a mettal , as being in it self , an abstract . Therefore the privy counsellours of this Phylosophy , do with one accord testifie , that the external Sulphur cannot be seperated from its own body , no not by fire , in imperfect mettalls , but that the Mercurial part thereof doth likewise , together perish thereby . For I have seen Lead that was thrice sublimed , to have returned into the same Lead in number , which it was before : Therefore since that external Sulphur ( such as is drawn out of Copper ) is not necessary for a perfect mettal : But that Sulphur in Copper is added to the Venus , by God : Therefore that Sulphur of Venus must needs have its own ends , conducing to the necessities of ungrateful man , to wit , for mans infirmities , beyond every dignity of a metallick perfection : For the use of whom , to wit , the Stoicks themselves have conjectured , that all created things of the world were directed : Therefore the Writers of the young Beginning of Chymistry , erre , as many as do feign by divers fables , a Metamorphosis or transforming of Mercury into salt , water and oyl , for divers uses of Medicines , and dare to have their own inventions established by this argument : for if gold , which is the most constant of bodies , can fly away into a Vitriol , and so also , into a smoak ; why shall not Mercury do the same thing , much more lawfully ? But I in answering , will in the entrance , propose two most exceeding true sentences of Phylosophers , yet for the shaming of these very Argumentaters ; that from hence also , those that are expert in Chymistry , may be able to point with the finger at the vanity of that argument , and that the Authors of Chymical young Beginnings , may repent . The first whereof is , That it is far more easie to make or compose gold , of that which is not gold , than to destroy natural gold . Let it therefore first of all shame them , to teach the destruction of gold , who being poor , do testifie , that they know not its construction or how to make it ! Therefore , either Adeptical Philosophers do lye , and are deceived , or the first Writers of Beginning of Chymistry themselves . The second is , if I had not seen Quicksilver to delude any endeavour of Artificers whatsoever ; so as that , it either wholly flyes away , as yet entire , or that it doth wholly remain in the fire , and after either manner , keeps the unchangeable and primitive sameliness of it self , and an undissolvable homogeneity of Identity ; I should say , That that Art was not true , which is true , without a lye , and most exceeding true ; so that , that which is above , is as that which is beneath ; and this as that . They therefore bewray themselves to be ignorant of the matter of Mettals , as many as do teach the aforesaid Metamorphosis of Mercury and Gold : For however those mettals may be some Minerals , being adjoyned unto them , be sometimes driven by a Retort , into the shew of an Oyl , Salt , or Sulphur , and dissemble the mask hereof : yet those adjuncts being taken away , they alwayes remain the same gold , and the same Mercury which they were before , and return into their ancient bodies : Yea , although gold might suffer it self to be radically sequestred into different kind of parts , to wit , into Salt , Sulphur and Mercury , ( which is no way possible to nature , unless by one only liquor that is to be framed or composed ) yet that thing , in the simplicity of Mercury its kind , is impossible for nature and art to do ; because it is that which is more simple than gold , and is composed with a greater and undissolvable identity ; because there is not a diversity to be found in Mercury , such as is otherwise to be found in the tincture of gold , and in the whiteness hereof : The which I have already before distinguished in the Sulphur and Mercury of Copper : for although the Mercury of Copper be wholly made volatile , yet because it is not for that cause spoyled of its internal Sulphur , therefore it is again reduced in to a white and malleable mettal . Moreover , as to the question , wherein they ask , whether the fire of Venus be the spirit of Vitriol rectified ? I will make somethings manifest concerning the nature of Vitriol , and the distillation thereof which before have been delivered by none : For indeed , nature hath produced a certain acide or tart Mineral salt , which the Greeks do name Calcanthum ; and the Latines ( by an unfit name , Atramentum Sutorium , or shooemakers ink . But the Chymists call it Vitriol , because it is transparent like vitrum or glass : But that salt is the unripe birth of embryonated or imperfect Sulphur , the which , while it licks the vein of Copper , it eats into the vein , and therefore it is called Coperous , or gnawn Copper : But if it shall gnaw a vein of iron , or of other Mettals , it produceth sharp fountains , and those divets , according to the disposition of the vein that is gnawn ; which things I have profesly , and at large prosecuted in a little book concerning the fountains of the Spaw . Furthermore , whether that water , which contains in it the salt of Embryonated Sulphur , and keeps with it the gnawn vein of Copper doth distill or drop by it self , or be boyled by fire into the consistence of Vitriol ; or in the next place be elsewhere coagulated of its own accord ; that no way distinguisheth of its kind or goodness : for truly it looseth nothing hereof in boyling : For when the watery liquor hath in boyiing sufficiently exhaled , the residue is at length , afterwards , of its own accord , coagulated in the cold . But the diversity of veins alone varies the price of Vitriol ; for nigh Antwerp , while the Sulphur is melted out of the fire-stone , the rest is exposed under the open air , and as to the greater part of it , doth by little and little melt : for by the scorching and smoaky fumes of the Sulphur , it conceiveth a rust , which is known by the residing salt , and through rain , flowes down into the ditches . So also , the neighbouring Eburians do prepare their Vitriol from a richer vein . Elsewhere indeed , there is a vein of the very Copper it self , being rich in the coagulated salt of Sulphur , and it drops , flowes abroad , and is coagulated of its own accord , which otherwise is washed off or dissolved by the moistness of the neighbouring fountain . The difference therefore of the goodness , consists in the purity of the salt : but not in the wealthiness and plenteousness of the Copper ; ( for I speak not as a Merchant , but as a Physitian ) it differs also , by reason of the co-mixture of a certain forreigner ; to wit , if in the fire-stone , or vein of Copper , a vein of Lead be co-mixed ( which is frequently obvious ) or perhaps there be present a malignant participation of Arsenick ; ( for Arsenick , because it for the most part ensnares and accompanies mettals , hence by a usual name , it is called the Fume of mettals ) And so , that which otherwise would be a lawful Vitriol , is made hurtful in healing : But the Azure or sky-colour of Vitriol is for the most part preferred before the green colour ; perhaps , because that more pleaseth the eyes : at leastwise , by a most easie business , the Be-juglers of Simples do of green Vitriol , dissemble an Azure colour therein . But moreover , the Chalcitis or red Vitriol , the Mysy , Sory , and Black of the Greeks have at this day perished , as unprofitable distinctions of the veins of Copper ; For the Greeks are only Alphabetaties , and in respect of the Germanes , a sluggish generation , whatsoever the antient ones have published to posterity concerning the matter of mettals . But there are some , who with Paracelsus commend and extol that Vitriol in healing , which is accounted the most rich in the plenty of Copper ; and so they prefer that before all , which is composed out of the Copper it self . Some therefore sprinkle Sulphur on bright-burning or melted Copper , and so by great labour procure the green rust thereof , &c. But Paracelsus prepares the best Vitriol in healing , by plates of Copper , being spread abroad , through cementing them with common Salt and Sulphur . The more modern ones being from hence seduced , do repeatingly distill the thin plates of Copper , by the spirit of common Sulphur , or Vitriol , until they are plainly black and brickle , the which , at length they melt in water , and it becomes of a sky-colour ; the which , in boyling , is thickned , and a Vitriol growes together in the cold : For so indeed , that is at this day adulterated , which is set to sale for Cyprus Vitriol . By the leave of Paracelsus I know , and certainly find , that Vitriol made of Copper , is far more sluggish in healing , than the common Vitriol , which wants the suspition of Miscellanie or Hotch-Potch things : And so , that the spirit thereof , is nothing but a meer Mineral Vinegar deprived of the vapour of Coppery Sulphur . For I have certainly found , that the Vitriol made of Copper , is far more poor , than that which is dig'd out of its Mineral vein : Likewise that digged Vitriol , wherein there is very much Copper , is slower than the common sort , in healing and distilling . For I have distilled Vitriol that was prepared by art , being of an Azure colour , and in no wise to be distinguished by the sight , from Cyprus Vitriol ; and it yielded a little sluggish acide spirit , and all its spirit by and by ceased within a few hours ; and all its remaining body , abode condensed into a black Feces or dreg , and restored its Copper unto me , according to my wish . For truly , Copper is a compleat metral , not easily to be destroyed , or returning back unto its own Principles : So that although it be diminished through the cruelty of sire ; yet whatsoever thereof shall fly away , is as yet a true mettal , for the reasons above alledged . Truly , among Metallick veins , there is none with the like difficulty brought unto the perfection of a Mettal , as is Copper it self ( the which , George Agricola testifieth ) for truly , it requires to be re-cocted at least nine times , before Copper issue from thence : whereas the while , the veins of other Mettals pour out their treasure at the first melting . The vein of Copper therefore attains its perfection by a sequestration of the parts mixed with it from its nativity : But these parts are those , which are as yet fast bound unto their own first Being : from whence , it therefore , the Copper being now perfect ; refuseth , and as stubbornly as it can , resists a dissolution of its body ; and by consequence , neither can there a perfect Medicinal Vitriol be had from thence , which may have a vertue from the Sulphur of Venus , because this is not separable from the Copper , unless by an every way destruction of the Metallick Body , even as I have before taught . Those parts therefore of the Copper vein , which are far remote from a Metallick nature , and which are the nearer to their first Being , do afford a medicinal vertue unto Vitriol , which is denied unto Calcanthuns or Vitriol artificially made : For the common and base or cheap Vitriol , doth breath forth its exhalation , but in a full eight days space at least , However it may be urged with the most ardent flames of a Reverbery . By how much therefore freer the vein is from a forreign Malignity , and shall be nearer to the first Being of Venus , to wit , the farther off from the Metallick constitution of Copper ; by so much the salt thereof , which is bred in it of its own free accord , and co-melted with it , doth produce the more unblamable Vitriol , and affords the richer spirits , and those most fit for healing . But the unusual manner of distilling it , is this : Take of common Vitriol , that is not suspected of a forreign Malignity , let it melt , by boyling it in a large earthen Pot , and let it be boyled even to a dryness : The Pot being broken , let the Vitriol that is now hardened like a stone , be beaten into a pouder : But let the distillation be made by at least six Retorts at once ; and let those Retorts be of glass : For all stonie ones are Porous ; because all earth retains pores ; For that , after its drying , something that is not fixed , doth of necessity puff out : Moreover , let the Retorts be senced with a crust or parger , which may neither cleave asunder , nor contract chaps , or fall down of its own accord , or be too much glassified : Let also the neck of the Retort which hangs out , be most exactly connexed unto the large receiving vessel , that not so much as the least thing may expire : But let the Receiver be placed in moist sand ; likewise , let the boughty part thereof , be covered in a Sack , being filled half full with moist sand : Which Sack , let it be divers times renewed , being tinged in the coldest water : But let half of the Retort be filled with poudered Vitriol : But distill it by degrees , and at length let it be urged with coal , as much as is possible for the furnace of wind , which is blown by its own iron grate . But when the furnace of wind shall cease to dismiss the spirit into the receiving vessel , let the porch be opened on the side , by which way the Reverbery of the flame of the wood , may pierce under the Retort ; and let it so continue for five or six nights , with the highest fire , possible to nature . The Retort perhaps , in so great a storm of the fire , will seem to thee to melt ; but nevertheless , it will endure constant throughout ; because the outward coat of male or fence of earth , with-holds and sucks the glass ; and so it is englassened , as much as shall be sufficient for the work . At length , remember thou to sequester the receiving vessel from the neck of the Retort , the fire being as yet most ardent ; otherwise , thou shalt see , in a more cold station , the spirits to return into the Lee or Dreg which spewed them our . Then lastly , take the Colcotar or Lee remaining of the distillation , which thou hast reserved from true Cyprus , Hungarian , or at leastwise , Goslarian Vitriol : Let that residing dreg being co-mixed with Sulphur , be again burnt , unto the every way confuming of the Sulphur : But afterwards , thou shalt bedew and moisten this feces with the aforesaid spirit : For that spirit , as it is presently imbibed in the glassen dish or gourd : so being fetcht again from thence , it returns nothing but a watery and unprofitable phlegm , the spirit having remained imbibed in the Colcotar : And repeatingly renew thou that operation six or seven times , until at length , the spirit that is poured thereon , wax red , which will swim upon the Colcotar , which is a sign , that we must cease from the plenteousness of imbibing : And so let this rich Colcotar , being well dryed , be put into a Retort ; and let this rich Colcotar be distilled even unto its utmost spirits now waxing yellow , and casting the smelling odour of grateful honey . Yet remember thou to draw away the receiving vessel from the Retort being as yet of a bright burning heat , and that this spirit must be kept , by the mouth of a more strong bottle being close stopped with wax ; Whereinto lastly , if thou shalt cast water , the vessel it self presently breaks asunder : Therefore , by the only spirit of the former distillation , this second spirit is bridled or restrained ; whereof scarce one pound is poured over from bottle into bottle , but there is made a loss of one ounce at least : And likewise , unless the Receiver be seasonably taken away from the Retort , as I have said : thou shalt see the Furnance being cooled , that most potent spirit to have returned into Colcotas , from whence it was struck out by fire . Moreover , the Lee of Colcotar which is left of the second distillation , is as yet wholly Coppery , and waxeth green after many fashions : From whence 1. That is manifest , which I taught before : Namely , that the fire of Venus , is not to be drawn out and had , but by an every way destruction and separation of the mettal . 2. That this therefore must be done by a far more hidden way . 3. That the Vitriol which is rich in Copper , is less fit for distillation than otherwise , the common Vitriol is . 4. That the Vitriol of Copper , poures forth the spirit of the Vinegar of a mineral salt , but not the volatile Liquor of Copper . 5. And therefore that the sulphur of Copper , is rightly called the sulphur of the Philosophers , being fit for long life : Being sweet , I say , in tast , but not tart or sharp . 6. That the spirit of Vitriol which is above perfectly taught , cures some Chronical Diseases . 7. And that therefore , the spirits of Vitriol , hitherto sold and in use , are nothing but a mineral Vinegar , being also adulterated in it self . 8. That the residing Colcotar , is most rich in a Medicinal Virtue . 9. That the preparation of Vitriol prescribed by Isaac Holland , and other Moderns , hath not sent the Arrows unto the true mark . 10. That our spirit above described , and thus rectified , as it is , volatile and salt , proceedes even into the fourth Digestion , and reolves diseasie Excrements that are met withall in its journey ; And by consequence also , takes away the occasional cause of many Chronical or lingring Diseases . I have therefore already delivered the like Form or manner of distilling the spirit of Sea-salt , of Salt-peter and the like ; Yet thou shalt remember , that Vitriol hath in it self the earth of Colcotar : wherefore the other salts do desire dryed Potters earth , and that being exactly admixed with them . But besides , I have already delivered the manner of preserving from the Disease of the Stone , by Aroph ; and likewise , by Ale boyled with the seed of Daucus or the yellow wild Carrot . I might therefore desist , and repose my Quill , and leave the matter to others , more successefull than my self ; by wishing , that every one may henceforward add what things he shall find out to be farre better . For since Duelech besiegeth onely mankind , and is produced from Excrements themselves , after an irregular manner , but doth not arise after the manner accustomed to other infirmities : Therefore it seems to be singularly bred , for a revenge of sin , even before other Diseases , and to be permitted by God , in Children , being as yet Innocent , for the averting of a greater evil : For although some Bruits do generate small stones in themselves , yet those stones are not bred in them from the Causes of Duelech , nor appointed for a punishment , or tribulations unto them : but rather produced for the profit of man. But if therefore Duelech doth relate to the fault of sin ; but since sin hath drawn its rise from a Wood or Tree ; it hath seemed also to me , that preservation of health , in the disease of the stone , is not onely to be expected from the seed of Daucus , and some such like Herb , but from some certain Wood : Wherefore it is indeed true , that a Wood against the stone of the Kidneys , hath been of late brought unto us out of the Indies : but I have not ever therefore perswaded my self , that divine Goodnesse had so long denyed unto the Europeans , that it might succour even the poor man that had the stone , untill that , through many expences , a Remedy should after three thousand yeares , at length flye unto us from the Indians : which otherwise had been slow enough in it self . The wild Carrot seed indeed preserves , under a continual and strict obligation ; even as Aroph comforts the Kidneys by much cost . I therefore have seriously enquired , whether there were not a certain Wood familiar to our Countrymen , which might supply the room of that Nephritical One , at length sent us by the Barbariaus ? For truly , the wood of Sin , and the wood of Life , were Trees , but not shrubs , and much lesse Herbs . Wherefore I heretofore observed , that it was a familiar or natural thing with the Princes of Germany , that every Year in [ the third month called ] May , they would , against the affect of the stone , drink daily , a draught of the Liquor issuing out of the Bark of a wounded Birch-tree : which Liquor they preserved from the corruption of the Ayr , by pouring on it Oyle of Olives . The Tree is wounded : The Tree is called by the Germanes Bircken-Bawm ; but by our Countrymen Bircken-Boom : For the Birk of the Birch-tree is wounded nigh the earth , in the Trunk of the Tree in [ the first month called . ] March , about the time wherein the Vine being wounded , is went to weep out a very young or tender Liquor drawn out of the earth . But that Liquor of the Birch-tree is wholly watery and almost without savour : But if any branch of bough of the thicknesse of three fingers , be wounded unto its Semi-diameter , and be filled up with Wool put into the place , there presently weeps out a Liquor , not ungratefull , but somewhat sharpish : which also in the very Torment of the Disease of the stone , comforts the afflicted , three or four spoonfulls thereof being taken . That therefore , is more meer or pure , which flowes from above , from the bought , than that which flowes forth from beneath out of the Trunk : But that is plainly watery , which flowes forth nigh the earth . For I presently considered , that that happens , as in ascending , it might passe through a somewhat reddish Bark , which was as it were the liver of the Tree : But since that Bark was all the Year without any notable tast ; But the ourmost Bark being white , and as it were membrany , had a savour and perfume as it were of the best Turpentine ; I rent off the more outward Bark round , from the Trunk , about the space of half a foot ; and I observed , that neverthelesse , the Liquor which distilled from the Branches , was of the same tast as before : Therefore I wondered , from whence that diversity of Liquors of one and the same Tree , should spring . In the next place I wondered , that some one small bough , should in one onely day , easily weep out eight or ten pounds of Liquor , which otherwise hath not need of so much nourishment , for a whole Summer , nor room wherein so much Liquor could be kept : and much lesse doth the Root bestow so much Liquor by about tenfold , on any of the other Branches : yet neither therefore , was there sufficient nourishment wanting to the other Branches , although the Root had otherwise attracted that much quantity of that Liquor , and had poured it forth through some other Branches . I therefore considered , that that Liquor was like unto the Sunovia or gleary water , issuing out of a Wound ; Yea , I began to detest it , as if it contained in it the Contagion of Death or putrefaction : neither that it could give Health , if it did now bear it in a blemish of integrity : Yet I certainly found , that as well the wood it self of the Birch-tree , as the red Bark thereof , were spoyled of the faculty of Healing , but that the white Bark or Rind , outwardly growing to the more young Branches like Parchment , being easily inflameable , and marked with the ●avour of Turpentine , did scarce disperse a vertue from it self ; into a decoction : Therefore I considered , that the aforesaid vertue of the Liquor , did not proceed from the Root , not from the Wood ; next not from the somewhat red Bark ; as neither lastly , from the white Rind ; because it was that which in many places was not con-tinual to it self , in the Stem . Therefore I tryed to distill that Bark , both by it self , and also with an addition of the Lixivium of Tartar : but surely , the Liquor that was dropt out of the Wound of the Bough or Branch , did far excell the Oyle and distillation of the Barks . Therefore I am reduced to acknowledge , that that Liquor voluntarily flowing out of the wounded Branches so abundantly , is the meer Balsam of the Disease of the stone ; neither doth that hinder it , because through my wantonnesse , I compared that Liquor unto water flowing out of a Wound or Ulcer : For truly , the Wound and Ulcer , which in us , brings or promiseth death , brings or promiseth to the Birch-tree , no such thing . That Liquor therefore of the Birch-tree , is a Medicine promised from Nature , but procured by the Wounds : and so , it is to urge Nature to bring forth a Balsam naturally unto her , the which else , she will never bring forth . Wherefore I commanded the young , tender , and somewhat blackish small Branches ( from whence the Brooms and Rods of our Country Folk are made ) which had swelling , not yet leavie Buds , being dashed with a Hammer upon a stone or Anvil , to be boyled together in Water , ordained for the making of Ale or Beer : unto which Ale or Beer , if afterwards I adjoyned the seed of Daucus , or Brook-lime , I obtained desireable effects for the prevention of the disease of the stone , and those as yet more powerfull ones , if that Liquor of March , being collected from the upper Branches or Boughs , had been poured into the Ale , after the greatest settlement of its boyling or working , which Wines and Ales do voluntarily undergo in Hogs-heads . For first of all , I have certainly found , that that drink of the Birch-tree , did take away the fear of Diureticks or Vrine-provokers ; Because it loosens the paines and Contractures of the disease of the stone , as well in the Loines as in the Bowels : ( for from hence the one onely disease of the stone , stirs up even Colick paines , no lesse than if the fewel thereof were in the Bowels ) and therefore also it heals Dysuries or difficulties of pissing , and Stranguries or pissing by drops , even in old Folks . It likewise at first , mitigates the heat of the Liver , having arisen as it were from a Thorne thrust into it , and afterwards , takes it away . Lastly , A certain Bridegroom being bound up for five months that he could not reach to his Bride ; in the mean time begat his Chamber-maid with Child : Afterwards , chidings having arisen between the betrothed Couple ; the Bride said , that she had dissembled that wickednesse with the Chamber-maid , that she might perfectly espy , whether he were cold , ●● indeed mischiev'd , and by what title , she might attempt a divorce . At length , the Enchantment of that binding up , was loosed by the drink of the aforesaid Ale , and he was found to be mischiev'd , but not to be cold . Last of all , A certain man making water according to his custom , in the corner of a Floor , presently lay down , as being afflicted with a bloudy and cruel strangury ; but any Remedies of Physitians were in vain ; except that , as oft as he drank of the aforesaid Ale , he perceived a notable ease : but as oft as he arising out of the Bed-cloathes , walked up and down , and pissed in his wonted place , he presently suffered Relapses . At length , there was seen , a pin made of old and black Oaken wood , fastened or thrust into the place whereat his accustomed urine issued out . That pin therefore being pulled out and burnt , by the drinking of that Ale , he remained altogether free from that bloudy strangury . And then I remember , that Karichterus writeth , that he had loosed the like sort of Enchantments , onely by pissing through Birch●●●●oomes . CHAP. IX . Sensation or feeling , unsensiblenesse , pain , lack of pain , motion , and unmooveablenesse , through diseases of their own rank , the Leprosie , Falling-evil , Apoplexy , Palsey , Convulsion , Coma or Sleeping-evil , &c. 1. Grating or fretting only is reputed the cause of the pain of him that hath the Stone in the Reines . 2. The opposite is prooved . 3. For so the Urine-pipes should want a feeling . 4. The definition of pain , according to the Schooles . 5. The opinion of the Antients and Moderns concerning the first or cheif organ of the senses . 6. But it teacheth nothing besides vain words . 7. The implicite Blasphemies of the Schooles . 8. That the braine is not the immediate organ of sense and motion . 9. What hath deceived the Schooles about these things . 10. A better attention or heed of some . 11. From whence they have so perswaded themselves . 12. The Authours meditation about sense and motion . 13. A speculation about the solution in a wound of that which held together . 14. A solide part doth not feel , of it self . 15. Three organs subordinate to motion . 16. The Schooles go back from their former supposition . 17. That the sinew is not the proper instrument of all sense . 18. A consideration of tho Leprousie . ●9 . All sinewes dedicated to motion , are also sensible . 20. The errours of the Schooles about the Leprousie . 21. The errour of Paracelsus . 22. The unconstancy of Paracelsus . 23. The unsensiblenesse of the Leprosie , from whence it is . 24. Manginesse , and the Pox or fowle disease , how they differ from the Leprosie . 25. Scabbednesse requires not internal remedies . 26. The Reader is admonished . 27. Wherein the difficulty of curing the Leprousie , is seated 28. Hipocrates had not as yet known the immediate subject of sence . 29. Life , what it is . 30. A nearer Doctrine concerning sense . 31. The immediate subject of sense . 32. A deaf or dull definition concerning the Sensitive soul . 33. How Sensation or the act of feeling happens . 34. Why for sensation , there is no need of recourse unto the Braine . 35. The seate of the Mind . 36. What pain is . 37. In what sense , paine may be action and passion . 38. Paine and a disease , by what Beginning , they may be made . 39. Of what sort , anger and fury are , in this place . 40. Pain , what sort of passion it is . 41. Concerning the Apoplexy . 42. The manner delivered , of making the Apoplexy , is ridiculous . 43. Paracelsus , about this place , is a like frivolous and unconstant to himself . 44. The meditation of the Authour . 45. Some absurdities accompanying the Schooles . 46. A new distinction of causes . 47. A stopping up of the arteries in the throate , what it may argue . 48. That a positive Apoplexy is hitherto unknown by the Schooles , and practitioners . 49. That the Apoplexy and Palsie are not made from the afflux or flowing of phlegm into the bosome of the Braine . 50. Galen is ridiculous in the ne●like contexture of the brain . 51. An examination of some remedies . 52. That an Apoplexy is not the primary affect of the braine . 53. That there is a tasting in the midriffs . 54. A secondary passion is prooved to be from below . 55. The properties of the head , how far they may ascend in themselves . 56. A true Apoplexy is positive , not privitive , and that the Schooles are ignorant of . 57. The astonishment or unsensiblenesse of the Schooles , is noted by the astonishment of the fingers . 58. The manifold impossibility of the Schooles , which followes upon a privative Apoplexy . 59. The Schooles are astonished in the astonishment of the touching . 60. A history of the astonishment of the hands from a Quartane Ague . 61. The rise or original of a positive Apoplexy . 62. The Palsie is a contracture or convulsion of the sinewy marrow . 63. The Palsie is oftentimes without the Apoplexy . 64. The shortnesse of the neck what it may argue . 65. From whence frictions or rubbings in an Apoplexy , were instituted . 66. Why they are ridiculous . 67. The anguishes of the Schooles . 68. The rubbing of the skinne contradicts the phlegme of the Cerebellum or little brain of the hinder part of the head . 69. The generation of the stupefactive or sleepifying matter of an Apoplexy . 70. Why the Apoplexy , is called by the Germans , a stroak . 71. The place of an Apoplexy , is proved to be in the Duumvirate . 72. The stumbling of the Schooles , about the examination of the property of simples . 73. Against the position of the Schooles , concerning the phlegme of the fourth bosome of the braine . 74. The perplexities of the Schooles concerning the hurting of the sense , motion remayning safe , and on the other hand . 75. It is explained by some positions , why sense may be hurt , motion remayning safe . 76. The Apoplexy , after the manner of hereditary diseases lurks in the formative faculty of the seed . 77 : Against the cause of the Schooles for an Apoplexy . 78. Against the cause of the Schooles for a Palsey . 79. The causes of the Apoplexy . 80. That the Apoplexy doth not consist of a privative cause . 81. The definition of an Apoplexy . 82. What a true Palsie is . 83. Diverse stupefactive remedies . 84. That sleepifying medicines , as such , do not cure madnesses . 85. What hath deceived the Schooles herein . 86. A sweet Anodine orpain-ceasing medicine is harmlesse . 87. Why Anodines as such , do not presuppose cold . 88. What a sleepifying medicine is . 89. An Anodine pertaining to the Falling-sicknesse , differs from that of the Apoplexy . 90. A returne unto paine . 91. There is a forreigne consent for paine . 92. From whence paines are con-centrall with the stars . 93. Whether the venal blood be informed by the soul . 94. Sense and pain , wherein the may subsist . 95. What may cause paine , and after what sort . 96. Whether sense or seeling be made passively . 97. The primary cause of paine and sense . 98. The Schooles stay behind . 99. The consideration of life , hath regard hitherto . 100. A vainprivy shift of the Schooles . 101. A demonstration of the fire , that pain and sensation may from thence cleerly appear . 102. That these things have layen hid to the Schooles . 103. What is to be considered for searching into the proper agent of paine . 104. The rules of the Schooles concerning the activity of simples , is reproved by the way . 105. From whence the Schooles have been deluded . 106. A paradox is prooved against the Schooles . 107. Sensible agents act on the sense only occasionally , whether they are medicines , or not , fire excepted . 108. An application of virtues , by what meanes it may be made . 109. Sensation consists in the vitall judgment , and so also , in that of the Soul. 110. Some consequences for the demonstrations of things before passed . 111. From whence the faculties of medicines have been estranged in the Schooles . 112. How differently the fire can act . 113. The unconsiderate rashnesse of the Schooles . 114. Some sequels drawn from the foregoing particulars . 115. The differences of paines . 116. A convulsion is the companion of paine . 117. The paine of the disease of the stone . 118. The blockish opinion of the Schooles , concerning the convulsion or Cramp . 119. It s falshood is manifested . 120. Errours meeting us . 121. Some negligencies of Galen . 122. Galen looseth the name of a Physitian from the censure of his own mouth . 123. Galen hath taught only childish devises . 124. Arguments on the contrary . 125. The errour of the Schooles concerning the Convulsion is concluded . 126. Ridiculous similitudes made use of by the Schooles . 127. Some remarkable things . 128. After what manner the Convulsion is made . 129. A twofold motion of the muscles , is proved . 130. The Convulsion is not properly , an affect of the head . 131. Example of parts convulsed . 132. A sight of a colicall contraction in a child . 133. An Artery , from whence it waxeth hard . 134. Divers contractures . 135. That the causes of the Cramp have layen hid . 136. The neglects of the Schooles . 137. The degrees of paines . THe pain of the Stone in the kidneys , being one of the chief and most troublesome of paines , is very great and cruel . For the Schooles are at rest in accusing the cause of so great a pain , to be a fretting or grating made by the Sand or Stone . But I have perswaded my self , that there was nothing at all of satisfaction from that answer : And therefore I have made a further search : Because some one very small Stone sliding out of the kidney , doth at the first turnes , cause more cruel pain , than any the more big one afterwards : the which notwithstanding is undoubtedly , more than by its freting , to wrest or wring , to excoriate or pluck of the skin of , and extend the urine-pipe . For truly in persons grown to ripe years , the spermatick parts of the first constitution , do no longer dayly grow , and so neither is their Ureter enlarged afterwards , by the descending of the stones . In the next place , the slender sand hath been oftentimes very troublesome through its paine , and hath cast down the howling man on his bed , before it proceeded out of the kidney , and the which therefore , was never as yet injurious by its rubbing on it or grating , of it : neither also , is it sufficient , to have spoken of fretting or grating , for the proper and total cause of so bitter a paine . For the Ureter , throughout its whole passage , hath not the commerce of a sinew implanted in it ; the which therefore , ought even to want sense or feeling , and by consequence , also pain . For truly , the Schooles define pain to be a sorrowfull sensation , made by a hurtfull thing rushing on the part : If therefore the slender and un-savoury sand , be voide of all tartnesse , and fretting or grating , or the smal clot is not guiltlesse , because neither without pain : certainly , to have toucht upon the causes and race of sense and pain , together wit hs it circumstances , shall not be disagreeable to the treatise of the disease of the Stone . First therefore , and in the entrance of sense the , Touching of pain comes to be considered . For therefore , the Schooles teach , that the Braine is the first and principal organ of all the senses and of all motions , and by consequence also , of pain and unsensibility : To wit , the which should discerne the objects of the senses , by the animal spirits , being on every side dismissed from it self , into all the propagations or Sprouts of the sinewes , and therefore , as into the patrons of all sensations , so also , as into the interposing messengers and discerners thereof . They presume to themselves , that they have spoken some great matter in this thing . I will speak more distinctly . And moreover , I shall say nothing , or at least wise I will declare a matter , which is of no worth . For indeed , the Schooles confesse : that the Braine doth in it self , feel nothing , or scarce any thing : and that therein , it is like the first universal Mover , which the moderns ( alio Catholiques ) do with Aristotle , command that he ought to be unmoveable , if he ought to move all other things ( as if the unutterable first mover , cannot move himself , or that he ought to be unmoved , and wholly unmoveable , yea , that he acts and perfecteth by his own touch of local motion , all things in a moment : ) who in very deed , moveth not any thing but by an absolute and most abstracted beck of Omnipotency ( and let this be an absurdity of the Schooles , by good men , accounted for blasphemy , by a Parenthesis here noted by the way . ) Notwithstanding , the Brain is not the primary , or adequate Organ of sense and motion : seeing that in it self , it is unmoved and deprived of sense . For the Schooles beholding , that a turning joynt of the back , being displaced ; for that very cause , whatsoever was subjected to the Nerves and Sinewes beneath that turning joynt , was also , without sense and motion : therefore they straightway determined , the Brain it self , and the marrow of the Thorne of the Back , the Vicaresse hereof , to be the adequate or fuitable Organ or Instrument of sense and motion . But other Writers being willing to give a nearer attention , since they acknowledged and confessed the substance of the Brain to be deprived of touching , nor to be voluntarily moved , but that the twofold membrane or filme , endowed with the name of Menynx , was of a most acute touching , although unmoved ; They decreed that every sinew , how slender soever , was over-covered with such a double membrane , and did borrow it from both the Menynx's of the Brain ; that this very membrane of the sinewes was ( to wit consequently ) formed under the one onely endeavour of Formation , and labour of the seed of Fabrication : Even so that also , these would have it , That every Nerve should draw its own feeling from the little filme that covered it , which did not any way answer from its substance , unto the marrowie substance of the Brain . Perhaps they took notice , that in the stomach and womb , so great and so excellent vertue were inmates in the naked membranes thereof : and therefore that neither was it a wonder , that something very like unto those , had happened unto the filmes of the Brain , from a prerogative of the same Right . I have altogether proceeded something otherwise , for the searching out of sense and pain , and the Organ , objects , and causes of motion and feeling . I considered first , that while a wound is as yet fresh , it scarce paineth ; but anon , while the lips of the Wound do swell and rage with heat , that the wound causeth a sharp pain . And again , while its lips grow flaggy and do pitch or settle , that though the wound be also open , yet it is almost without pain . From whence , I collected , That the solution or loosing of the con-tinual or that which held together , causeth pain indeed in the time of its making ; but that , in its being made , if that which is inconvenient , shall not have access to it , the thing solved doth scarce pain the party : Therefore I supposed with my self , that the solution doth not pain , as it is a separation of the con-tinual : and much lesse doth the heat cause pain , which arose in the wound the third day after ; whose property indeed it is , onely to heat , but not to cause pain : But if any external or forreign heat , being extended into a degree , doth burn ; it causeth pain indeed , but not as heat , but as it is that which stirs up , and at least , which nourisheth the solution of the Con-tinual : And besides , the indispositions of Acrimony or sharpnesse , and as proceeding from another Root , which vitiates our Family administration . Truly , because a body , or solid part doth not feel of it self ; Because it is rather a dead Carkase ; Sensation or the act of feeling therefore , hath regard indeed unto the Life alone . And since the Schooles knew that the Brain had none , or atleastwise , scarce an obscure Sensation : They therefore had rather believe , the sinew to be the primary subject of sence , motion , and pain : To wit , that the Brain was indeed the Fountainous Beginning of sense and motion : yet they made the Nerve the immediate subject of pain and sense . But notwithstanding , they would have motion , although something a more material thing , to depend on a deeper arbitration of the Will , and to be subjected thereunto : To wit , so , as that , the Will is the Commandative principle of motion , but the sinew to be the derivative Organ of the command of the Will : And lastly , the muscle to be the executive Instrument of the Will : But they understand Sensation in the sinew , as in its subject , to be made through the mediation of the animal spirit , which they call Animal , being drawn indeed from the Arteries , but re-cocted in the Brain , for its own uses . They therefore acknowledged , that the Nerve is by it self , indeed without feeling , even as the Brain and other solid members are : wherefore they will have the animal Spirits to be the primitive Feelers , and effective Movers of Sense and Motion it self : With whom ; I do not as yet agree , as neither in this , That the sinew is the Organ and chief Subject of all Sensation : For who knows not , that in a healthy person , every part of his skin is sensible , yet that it carries not a sinew under it ? For I do not grant , that a sensible object being conceived in the parts without a Nerve , the Spirit doth by a Retrograde motion , run back into the sinew , that it may communicate that sensible Conception unto the Brain , as unto the original of the Senses ; that by returning from thence , a sense of pain , or well-pleasing , may then at length be effected in the part that is hurt or touched on . For the Urine-pipe causeth exceeding pain in the Borders , without the implanting of any sinew : So also hollow Ulcers , are oftentimes filled with sensitive flesh , neither yet do Nerves grow anew therein ; seeing the parts of the first Constitution , being once taken away , do not grow again ; as neither are those parts which are of the first Constitution , being consumed by rottennesse , any more restored . But the stupidity and unsensiblenesse of the Leprosie , do fitly offer themselves in this place . For truly , they at all feel not a Bodkin or Needle , being thrust into their flesh . Must we therefore believe , that Leprous persons are deprived of sinews ? Or that in those the Nerves cut off from the fleshy membrane ? That they are deprived of Animal Spirit , and bereft of Life ? and that they are stopped , even as they are said to be in those that have the Palsie ? Shall therefore the sinews of touching be stopped up throughout their whole Body , and shall their sinews be serviceable onely for a free motion ? Shall , I say , the motive sinews be now destitute of sense alone ? I confesse indeed , that from the formost part of the Brain , there are sinews dispersed unto the eyes , eares , Pallat and Tongue , which serve onely for feeling ; neither that they do decline unto the muscles , which are as it were the proper Instruments of motion ; But none can also deny , but that the sinews dedicated unto motion , and the which go out through both the turning joynts , do also bestow sense or feeling . For what if in the Leprosie , a sinew that is the effecter of motion , be now moved by the Animal spirit , neither yet hath the faculty of sence ? Why therefore in the Palsie , under a hurting of the same sinew , is as well motion as sense , taken away ; but in the Leprosie , is sense onely taken away ? First of all , The Schooles hold the Leprosie to be uncurable , and also a universal Cancer of the Body : For while they suppose a particular Cancer to be uncurable , much more , a universal one : Which prattle of Galen was to this purpose framed , That by the impossibilities of healing , he might excuse his own Ignorances , and the sloathfulnesses and dis-clemency of taking paines . For a Cancer in the flesh , is of a most sharp pain , and of a continual devouting ; But a Leprosie in the flesh is without pain . I see not therefore , after what manner the Leprosie among the Galenists , shall be a Cancer . In the next place , Paracelsus errs , who thinks the Leprosie to be deprived of all salt : and for this cause , that an unsensible astonishment is proper unto it ; As if the very sense of touching , were onely in Salt. For the Leprosie hath its own ulcers : and according to the same Paracelsus , there are as many Species of Ulcers , as there are of Salts : Therefore according to that his own Doctrine , the Leprosie flowes from a Salt abounding . Let us grant to Paracelsus ( yet without a diligent search of the Truth ) that the Excrement of the paunch in a Leprous person , doth abound with small graines of Salt ; and that the urine of the same person doth no longer dissolve any thing of Sea-salt : ( both whereof , not withstanding , are dreamed by Paracelsus ) Yet that would not prove , that the flesh and bloud of a Leprous person , do fail of their own salt : And much lesse also , that their flesh doth therefore fail of the sense of Touching . For first , This his opinion concerning the Leprosie , utterly overthrowes his own Doctrine concerning the three first principles of Bodies . And then , even as there are of un-savoury , and unsalt things , manifest salts daily concocted in us , from the Law of humane Digestion ; so , although the excrements of Digestions were nothing but a meer salt , yet should not the venal bloud therefore be deprived of its own salt : Because it is that , which borrowes not its salt , and the necessaries of its own Constitution , from excrements : Yea , it should rather follow , that seeing the Leprosie is such an abundant productress of salt in the excrements , the venal Bloud also shall not want its own salt : Even as , while there flowes a continual Sunovie or gleary water , and that plainly a salt one out of ulcers ; the remaining bloud doth not therefore want its salt , or sense is not diminished in the flesh , but rather encreaseth the pain and sharpness : So also in the Dropsie , a salt water doth sometimes forthwith extend the Abdomen or neather Belly , yet do not dropsical persons want the sence of Touching . For Paracelsus elsewhere , defineth the venal Bloud to be the meer Mercury of man , from which those excrements are sequestred in the shew of a putrified sulphur ; and likewise , of a Whey-ie , unprofitable , and superfluous salt . Elsewhere again , as being unmindfull of himself , he defines the Bloud to be the salt of the Rubie : As though salt were the Tincture of the Rubie , or that the Tincture of the Bloud were from a salt : For he makes his three first things , mutable at pleasure ; no otherwise than as the Humourists do accuse their Humours and Heats , at pleasure : and which more is , do say , that the same are the causes of Diseases , and Death ; and also the Authors of sensation and motion . Fye ! must we thus sport at pleasure with Nature , Diseases , the Bloud , and Death of our Neighbour ? For Medicine is plainly a serious thing ; and man shall at sometime render skin for skin . For salt doth not appear in the Bloud , flesh , solid parts , &c. except in the last and Artificial separation of those Beginnings , after Death , and that indeed by the fire : To wit , after that the sense of Touching hath been a good while extinct . Those Dreams of the principles do not serve for the Speculation of motion and sense . A mark imprinted by the Devil on Witches , is wont to bewray these , because the place of the Brand is voyd of feeling for their whole life : and that mark being once impressed , hath its own natural Causes of unsensiblenesse , after the manner of the Leprosie ; yet enrouled in a certain and slender Center . For the Witch , her eyes being covered ; if a Pin be in that place of the Brand , thrust in even to the head , that prick is made without feeling . At leastwise , that place should by a wonderful priviledge be preserved all her life time , without salt and putrefaction , seeing that otherwise , the life according to Paracelsus , is a Mummy , with a comixture of the Liquor of Salts . Far more sound therefore is the doctrine of Hippocrates , which decreeth the Spirit , or aiery and animal flatus or blast , to be the immediate instrument of Sense , Pain , Motion , Pleasures , Agreement , Co-resemblance , Attraction , Repulsing , Convulsions or Contractures , Releasement also of any successive alterations whatsoever : so that it appropriates to self , sensible Objects , and from thence frameth unto it self Sensations themselves : For it happens , that if by chance that Spirit be busied by reason of profound speculations , or madness , that the body doth not perceive Pains , Hunger , Cold , Thirst , &c. For I remember , that a Robber deluded the torture of torment , by a draught of Aqua vitae , and a piece of Garlick ; the which , he at length wanting , confessed his crimes . But the astonishment and unsensibleness of the Leprosie , is in the habit of the flesh and sinewes , subjectively , or as in their Subject ; but not in the compass of imagination ; but effectively and occasionally in a certain poyson : But that bloody Anodynous or stupefactive ice , and well nigh mortifying poyson , is communicable and effluxive through a horrid and stinking Contagion ; whence the holy Scriptures command the Leprousie to be severed from the company of men : But this icie poyson begins from without , and therefore they feel inward pains , and likewise external cold and heat ; yet not wounds or a stroak . The Mange and Scab is manifold , and the Pox or soul Disease infamous through a defiling poyson : But they differ in kind , as well through the nature of the poyson , as the diversity of Subjects : For indeed , the Scab infects only the skin ; so as that the skin cannot turn the nourishment designed for it self , into a proper nourishment ; but it translates the most part thereof , into a salt and contagious liquor ; to wit , the which , is of the property of an itchive and nettlie or hot stinging salt , &c. Therefore scabbedness doth not require internal remedies , but only local ones , which are for killing of that itchive salt . But the Pox doth chiefly affect the venal blood , with a biting , mattery , and putrifying poyson . But the Leprosie doth chiefly infect the inflowing spirit , with an Anodinous icie poyson . Indulge me Reader , that through the scanty furniture of words , I am constrained to use an illusion unto names : Because , as the essences of things are unknown to us from a former cause , and therefore proper names do fail those essences , we are constrained to bo●●ow and describe the conditions of poysons in diseases , from the similitude of their properties : that if not , [ by reason whereof it is ] yet at least [ because it is ] the definition may proceed from Cousin-Germane Adjuncts or Properties . So , I say , that the Poyson of the Falling Evil , is a be-drunkenning , sleepifying , and also a swooning one , together with an astringency , neither therefore is it contagious , because intrinsecal , and not fermental : so the Leprosie hath an anodynous or stupefactive Poyson ; not indeed a sleepifying one , but an icie or freezing poyson , well nigh mortifying , together with an infection of the sensitive spirit , and therefore mightily contagious , especially in a hot and sudoriferous or sweaty Region : For even as cold takes away the sense of touching , by congealing and driving the faculties inward ; so also the Leprosie hath chosen to it self , and prepared an anodynous or benumming poyson , not a coolifying and sleepifying , but by another title , a Freezing one ; no otherwise than as Kibes or Chilblanes , are bored with Ulcers , as if they were scorched with fire : the which notwithstanding , do oftentimes happen unto those before or after winter , who all the winter in the Chimneys , felt no cold . The poyson of the Leprosie therefore , doth in this respect , co-agree with cold , effectually , although not in the first Elementary quality thereof : neither therefore doth it also totally mortifie after the manner of a Gangreen ; but only the part which it sealeth with the Ulcer : Yea , neither also doth it straightway extend it self far from thence , because it is from a con●stringent icie poyson , the Author of unsensibleness . But it is of a difficult curing , by reason of its freezing , and almost mortifying Contagion , and that an oppressive one of the sensitive : spirit ; because as it is intimately co-fermented with the sensitive spirit , while it hath issued forth unto the utmost parts ; therefore it is difficultly taken away , unless by remedies which have access unto the first closets or privy Chambers of us : to wit , that so they may confirm the spirit of life ; whereby it may overcome the aforesaid poyson , and also confound or dissolve the ice of the foregoing , winter with a new Spring . And although that poyson be fermental in respect of the poyson ; and therefore also from a formal quantity of it self , it endeavours to creep into all places afterwards ; yet it is not apt , as to be co-fermented equally with the spirit , by reason of the force and fighting nobleness of the Subject into which it is received , and the drowsie sluggishness of its icie disposition . For such is the difference in contagious things , that the poysons of some things do voluntarily , or by art , depart , and are separated from , and forsake the bodies infected by them : But of others , that there is no voluntary division to be hoped for : for the ice of the Leprousie doth the rather besiege the more outward parts , because it is an icie malady , and is thrust forth abroad by the in-bred heat : for therefore it more defiles the Standers by towards their outward parts , than their more inward bowels which are co-touching with them in the root , in the unity of life . But no Physitian ever cured the Leprosie , which obtained not the Liquor Alkahest . The which , since it is of a most tedious preparation , none , although skilful in art , shall come unto the obtainment thereof , whom the most High shall not by a special gift conduct thither : For he must needs be chosen and endowed by a particular priviledge , if he ought to obtain that Medium or Mean : To wit , whereby as well sensitive as unsensitive sublunary bodies , are equally pierced even into the seminal and intrinsecal root of their first Being ; therefore also it subdueth and changeth all things under it , without a re-acting of the Patient and impoverishing of the Agent : For otherwise it is vain , whatsoever hope the Leprosie shall perswade it self of from elsewhere . Therefore in times past , the curing of those that had the Leprosie , was granted for a sign unto the Messias alone . My first born daughter being now five years old , became leprous , and that more and more ; and at length , wan Ulcers , and horny white scales grew throughout her whole body . But then the image of the Virgin Lady newly shewed it self by many Miracles in our City , famous for the Hospital of St. James : The Girle therefore , being now seven years of age , desired to go to the place , and the Grandmother with her Nephew , hasten thither , and she returns after an hour , sound , and forthwith the scales fall off . Presently after a year , the same Leprosie suddenly returned ; And I confessed my self guilty , that I had concealed the honour of the Lady Virgin : Therefore my little daughter returnes with her Grandmother unto the sacred Image , and she again returned healed , and so afterwards remained . But I fearing the return of the Leprosie , divulged the Miracle , and by a publick Writing , confessed the favour and clemency of God : unto whom be all praise and glory , with the sanctifying of his name for ever ! I have already said , that sensation or the act of feeling , ( according to the mind of Hippocrates ) doth as well effectively , as susceptively or receivingly , consist in the Animal spirit : But because all such spirit is dead , and a dead Carcass , unless it be illustrated from the life it self : And because life it self in that spirit is not proper unto it , and unseparable from it , but life is from the vital or animal spirit , ( I now confound them both in name ) it being distinct in the whole subject ; ( the which elsewhere more manifestly , concerning long life ) therefore first of all , it is manifest , that that vital spirit doth not immediately feel ; but that it is the very life it self , which doth the more nearly and immediately feel , and grieve or pain in that spirit . For indeed , I have demonstrated in the Treatise Concerning the Forms of Things , that the life or form of things , is a certain light , a special Creature shining in its own Inne , throughout all the Guardians of the parts ; yet that it is not a substance , nor an accident , however , by reason of the so great Novelty of the thing , the School of the Peripateticks may crack : Which Paradox , I have demonstrated by Mathematical demonstration , and Mechanically in the book of the Elements : And so I here assume it , as being elsewhere sufficiently proved . I will therefore speak much more nearly than Hipprocrates , concerning Sensation and Sense ; That if Sensation or the act of Feeling were in times past , said to be made with a passion of the body , wherein the spirit making the assault , receiveth the impression of the thing to be felt , and the which therefore is abusively called the very Sensible Species it self : We now understand , that this impression is in one only moment , and in the same point ●sinuated into the life existing in it : To wit , under which Insinuation , Application , and Suiting , Sensation doth then first arise , being made in the life it self , and by the life ; Of which life indeed , Sense it self is an unseparable property . And seeing Life is not of a body , nor proper to a body , nor lastly , of the Off-spring of corporeal properties ; but is a light comming into it by the gift of the Creator , beyond the condition of the Elements and Heavens ; Hence also , Sensation is not of bodies , nor of matter , nor of a solution of the Con-tinual , &c. But plainly , a vital property proceeding from the very trunk of life . As also , it is not sufficient , that there be an Eye , a Mean , a vital Spirit , that Seeing may be made ; but moreover , there is required an application of the visual spirit unto the Life , and therefore , the effect of seeing , however altogether ordinary , doth exceed the whole Elementary nature ; because it contains the image and co-resemblance of the Life it self : for that , Seeing , Tasting , Smelling , Touching , &c. are the immediate effects of the Life sporting it self or playing thorow its own Organs : For in all sense , it must needs be , that the allurements of the spirits , and the Species of things perceived , are fitted immediately to the life , if sensible acts do at any time happen . But indeed , in a matter so difficult , and so far separated from the common Doctrine , grant me Reader , that I may as yet talk more nearly with thee ; For thou hast perceived , that it is not sufficient unto Sense and Sensation , to have have said , that the Brain , and likewise , the Sinew , is the immediate Organ of Sense ; nor also , that it is enough to have implored for this purpose , the inflowing spirit , yea , or the spirit it self implanted in the parts , as it is cherished from the influxing vertue of the brain or nerves , unless unto all these , the life shall concurre ; For Sensation it self is of so great a weight , that it easily exceeds the compass of all Sublunary things , together with the whole power of the Heavens and Elements . Therefore since thou hast already perceived that , I will speak further : For what things I have now spoken concerning the Life , I have shewen in my whole book Of long Life , ( whereunto I dismiss thee for speedy recourse ) how variously the Life glistens in nature : to wit , as it is seminally in the very vital spirits ; but as it were fountainously , in the sensitive soul it self . Therefore in speaking properly of Sense and Sensation , the Sensitive Soul it self , is the primary , and also the immediate Being , which acteth all Sensations , and in acting , undergoes them in it self : And therefore the spirit of the Brain is only the immediated Organ ; but the life is the Organ or Medium , whereby the Sensitive Soul perceiveth external Objects rushing on it : For Sensation is not immediately in the thing contained , nor in the things containing , nor also in the spirit diffused through the Sinews into the vital parts ; Because that spirit which makes the assault , differs from the Sensitive Soul , no otherwise than as a fat material smoak doth from the flame by which it is enflamed ; But the Soul , the immortal Mind , is wholly unpassable by humane conceptions , as it is the Image of the very incomprehensible God himself . But the Sensitive Soul , although it begins in nature from an occasional seed , that is , dispositively ; yet seeing it is the nearest Image of that Image , it is also after the manner of men , unknown , and altogether scanty : For therefore indeed , neither can it be defined by its causes , but only is described by an absurb or incongruous Circle of reflexions own its own actions and properties : To wit , that the Sensitive Soul is a formal light whereunto the properties of a Sensitive life do chiefly agree ; but in man , that it is the Prop and Inn of the immortal Soul , and its immediate bond with other created corporeal Bodies , besides it self : Therefore there is as yet a more remote aspect or beholding of the Soul , as being related to the life : Seeing life and the Soul are distinct things , as it were the abstract and the Concrete ; or rather as the property of a Being , and a Being it self . This same Soul therefore , through life , perceiveth in the animal Spirits , and seeth immediately , in the Optick or visual spirit which inhabits in the apple of the eye , the visible Species conceived : For the Optick Spirit there , is a transprrent glass , the light whereof is the very Sensitive Soul it self , present in the same place , being the Seat and Chamber-maide of the immortal mind : Therefore there is no need of a recourse of the received Species , that are to be perceived thorow the Sinews , to the Brain ; But the Soul being immediately present , and bestowing all vertue from it self upon the visual Spirit , she her self sees and discerns . But the Brain is only the Shop and Cup of those spirits : wherefore the sinews do not serve for the conveighing of the Specie's drawn unto the Brain in the act feeling or perceiving ; But for bedewing of the spirits illustrated in the Brain , for the refreshing and confirming of the parts wherein themselves are implanted : Neither is there also altogether a like reason of the external Senses , with the imaginative power and its Sisters : For the sensible Specie's , outwardly perceived by the Soul , are abstracted by sensibility , and then at length , as it were of the matter [ whereof ] Specie's or shapes are from thence forged into the Image of the thing to be perceived . After another manner , Sensitive Objects entring from without , are conceived after a Concrete or conjoyned manner , in the Organs of the senses , and therefore they do not only displease , but moreover , do now also pain . But concerning the seat of the Soul , it is variously disputed for the Heart and the Brain : But I may suppose , that the Sensitive Soul is conformable to its own seeds , and by a real Act , distinguished from the immortal mind , the image of the Divinity : Yet that the Sensitive Soul ( which is the carnal , old , Adamical man , and Law of the flesh ) is not on both sides distinguished from a formal and vital light , neither that it sirs immediately in the inflowing Spirit , the which indeed , is wholly slideable and flowing : But the Spirit which increased in the Organs , presently after their first constitution , although it live in the last life of the seeds ; yet it doth not as yet truly live in the middle animal life ( which is the Sensitive life ) until that a vital light comming upon it , shall actually shine . The dispositions whereof , are indeed gradually premised : But notwithstanding they are in one only instant , enlightned by the divine goodness of the Creator ; Even as in the Book of long life : For that happens no otherwise than as in the co-rubbing of the flint against the Steel : Therefore an undeclarable light is kindled by the Creator in the spirit of the more noble Bowels : and first indeed in the heart , which light , as it attaineth strength by degrees , is more powerfully enlarged , no otherwise , than as the smoak of a lower Candle doth visibly receive the dismissed flame from the upper Candle : So that although the Organs are divided in diversity of Offices , yet by a mutual conspiracy , they readily serve for the necessities and ends prefixed by the Lord the Creator : Notwithstanding , there is one only Harmony , and continued Homogenial Life , and Sensitive Soul of all the Bowels and Members , which in every one of them receiveth , and presently after cloatheth it self with certain limitations or properties which it had prepared for it self by the seeds . For as the flame of a Candle is not extended above or without its own Sphear , nor perisheth as long as it lives within that Sphear , although the smoaky fumes arising from thence , being void of flame , did fly far away out of that Spheare : so likewise , the inflowing spirits , although they are illustrated by a participation of life , are pufft away , do wander far , and therefore are materially diminished in their Cup or Buttery ; yea , and for this cause , the liveliness of a vital Light growes feeble ; yet nothing of the essence of the Sensitive Soul perisheth , because Life is not attained by parts and degrees , as neither doth it subsist like accidents , but is alwayes life ; although more or less liveliness may appear in that light : For no otherwise than as a fire , where it is never so small , is as well fire , as another that is heightned : In like manner also , whatsoever exhaleth from the body , which before rejoyced in the participation of Life , yet looseth life , so soon as it departs out of its own limits : So also Excrements do not indeed keep Life , but a co-participation of the vital spirits : Wherefore also from thence , the order of the inferiour Harmony slides into disorder , according to that saying , My spirit shall be diminshed , and ( therefore ) my dayes shall be shortned : Therefore a more immoderate evacuation of corrupt Pus , and the like , brings sudden death : As indeed they do not contain the Soul , but only the last seminal life of vital spirits . For as concerning the immediate existence of the immortal Mind or Divine Image , the matter is as yet in controversie between the Heart and the Brain : For I , who know , that even Quickning is made at the very instant , wherein the Sensitive Soul is present ; that is , while that formal , Animal and Sensitive Light is kindled , ( even as elsewhere , concerning the Birth of Formes ) believe also , that the immortal mind is present , and that it doth wholly sit immediately in the Sensitive Soul , as being associated or joyned thereunto ; Not indeed , that it sits in a certain corner bowel , prison of the Body , or shop of the spirits . But I conceive , that the mind is throughout the whole Sensitive Soul , and that it pierceth this Soul , nor that it doth exceed the Sphear thereof , as long as it lives : and in this respect , that it is subject unto many importunities of circumstances : But in death the mind is separated ; because the Sensitive Soul it self departs into nothing as it were , the light of a Candle ; which things surely were here to be fore-tasted of , before the explication of Sensation . Pain therefore , as that which is chiefly to be felt , shall open unto us the way : For it is a hurtful and sorrowful Sensation or act of feeling conceived in the vital Spirit , being by life implanted in the sensitive soul . And in speaking most nearly , Sense or Feeling is a Possion of the sensitive soul , conceived in the spirit of Life , For nothing can be glad , sorrowful or in pain , besides the soul it self : And so that Sense , seeing it is the first conception of Pain , or well-pleasing , it is by all means made primarily in the Soul : And therefore Sense represents unto me , nothing besides that power of the Soul of conceiving and judging passively of external Objects rushing on it . Therefore seeing that these Acts do depend on the Soul , the whole History whereof is blind unto us ; it is no wonder , that it hath been hitherto , nought but carelesly treated by the Schools concerning the Soul and Sensation ; Because they are those who have skipt over the Enquiries of far more manifest things , as untouched ; yea through sloath they have neglected them , by subscribing to the dreams of Heathens . In Pain therefore , the irrational Sensitive Soul , is first or chiefly sorrowful , is mad , is angry , is perplexed , doth itch , or fear ; and as it is in the fountainous root of all vital , actions , it naturally moves , and contracts not only the Muscles , but also any of the parts , unto the tone of its own passions . Sense therefore is the action of external Objects that are to be perceived ; the which , while they are conceived in the Soul , it self also suffers , no less than life its companion , than the animal spirit , and the rest of the guard . But the immortal mind suffers not any of these things in its own substance , but only in its Subject , Seat , Inn , to wit , the Sensitive Soul : Otherwise , all voluntary things at once , are too invalid , so as to be able to affect an immortal Being , which is Eternal in its future duration . But it is as yet a very small matter , that the Sensitive Soul doth suffer by sensible Objects , unless it self be made as it were hostile to it self , while , a● impatient , it is exorbitant or disorderly : For it begins to act , while it is provoked , and doth suffer by sensible Objects : For truly it shakes the vital Spirit , and the whole body , and at length , as prodigal , it disperseth the vital furniture , and breeds diseases on it self , and hastens its own death . That even from hence also , the Proverb may be verified , That none is more hurt , than by himself , ( as the Sensitive soul is a meer act : ) And so that it being once spurred up by sensible conceptions , ( for it is wholly irrational , brutal , wrongful , and greedy of desire ) it leaps over into furies , and symptomatically or furiously shakes all things . Therefore sensible Objects are the occasions of hurts and diseases : But the sensitive Soul well perceiving the same occasions , nor being willing to suffer them , diversly stirs up its own Ministers , and by Idea's imprinted on them , estrangeth them from their Scope or Purpose : From whence afterwards proceed various seeds and Off-springs of Diseases . The Soul therefore undergoes and suffers the aforesaid affects from the Object that is to be felt , from whence it being disturbed or tossed by the pricks of Sensations , doth act , and suffer , lastly , as being prodigal , it in a rage , disperseth its own family-order of Administration : And while it perceiveth sweet , plausible , helpful Objects , and those things which are grateful unto it self , it is not in this its acts of feeling , differing from the Judgement whereby it feeleth hurtful , corrosive , pricking , rending , brusing Objects , not but by accident , which is plainly external to the life it self : From whence , it is easily discerned , that Sense is made by the Judgement of the sensitive Soul , being brought upon a conceived sensible object , it altering at first by it self , according to the Sensation conceived , and then it conveigheth it further unto another imaginative Judgement , which is separated from the sensitive Judgement , no otherwise than as Sense , and Phantasie or Imagination do disagree in their Faculties , but not in their Subject . Spare me , ye Readers , if I attribute all material perturbations and affections immediately to the sensitive soul , and to the spirits its guardians ; but not unto the organs of those : For there are some tickling things , which by their itching , and itch-gumme , do stir up laughter , and a small leaping in some , which in others do not move the least of these : For oft-times the Soul is inwardly overclouded with a natural Sensation , and is also sadned , the Subject thereof being scarce known ; yea , it elsewhere , doates : And elsewhere the sensitive soul becomes unsensitive , as in those that have the Falling Sicknesse , for a time : but in the Palsey , oft-times , for Life , at leastwise in Organs that are hurt , although as yet alive : But in many , without Sense , Judgement , and Reason , although the animal spirits do issue forth , and being diffused into the habit of the body , do move , and in the mean time , do otherwise draw hurtful impressions . So the life , and that sensitive soul have their own drowsinesse , madnesse , and trouble within , although nothing shake and burden them from without : because seeing that in sleep also , there is its own foolish Lust or Desire , Hunger , Thirst , Fear , Agony , and a wondrous dissolute liberty of irrational vain dreams . And moreover , friendly things are presently changed into mixt , neutral or hostile ones , as the Archeus which never keeps Holiday or is idle , doth of sweet things make bitter , and corroding ones : For the Soul ( as I have said ) conceiveth of sensible things by the means of a Guard and Clients , unto whom she her self as present , is an an Assistant , and by applying those objects unto her self , stirs up Sorrow , Love , Fear , &c. To wit , of which Idea's , she sealingly forms the Characters or Impressions in her own Archeus , whereby she changeth all things acording to the Image seminally proposed unto her self : Which Character , being through a bedewing of the Sensitive Soul , made partakers of Life and Sense , do first cloath the seminal body of the Archeus , from whence at length , most prompt faculties or abilities for action , do spring : And there is sometimes made in these , so ready and stubborn a perseverance of affection , that it presents a Spectacle of Admiration to the Beholder , especially , if any one doth examine the attributes of the Life and spiritual Seed : For how most suddenly are Children , Women , and improvident people , angry , do weep and laugh ? For the sensitive Souls of those , do freshly , as it were immediately even adhere unto sensible things . It is therefore a natural thing , that the sensitive Spirit is voluntarily and easily carried into these kinds of overflowings ; because that Soul being easily received by its own sensual judgement , slides into the voluntary passions of material Spirits ; and , as even from a Child , these same exorbitances have encreased , so afterwards , that Soul growes to ripeness , as wrothful , furious , and wholly symptomatical ; the which otherwise would far more safely perform all things under meeknesse or mildnesse , than as by reason of furies to aspire into Diseases , and now and then unto its own death ; which is frequent and most manifest in Exorbitances of the Womb , and in the Symptomes of some Wounds , and of other Diseases . Anger therefore and Fury in this place , are not of the man , but of that Sensitive Soul brought into the Life , which begetteth the animosities of a natural Sensation , and the which therefore doth oftentimes ascend unto a great height , that it burns to an Eschar , and blasts the part with a Sphacelus or mortifying Inflammation , like fire . Pain therefore is an undoubted Passion of the Sense of Touching , wherein the sensitive Soul expresseth a displeasure with the Object , according to the differences of the conceived Injury brought on the parts . Furthermore , Whether that Passion be the Office or Performance of a judicial power , from whence the Soul is by a proper Etymology , named Sensitive , no otherwise than as the motive faculty moveth only by the beck of the Soul , without an external or forreign Exciter : Or indeed , whether pain be a Passion immediately produced from a sensible paining cause , the Schools might have sifted out , if as great a care of diligent searching into the truth , as of receiving a Salary from the sick , had ever touched them : But with me , that thing hath long since wanted a doubt . For truly , Seeing the Sense of Pain , is the Judgement of the Soul , expressed by the act of feeling in the Sensible Faculty , whereby the Soul bewails it self of the sensible , hurtful , and paining Object : Therefore both of them being connexed together , do almost every way concur ; and both also stand related after each its own manner , unto pain . For indeed , the cause being a sensible injury , is the motive of pain : But the sensitive Soul it self , gives judgement of the painful Object with a certain wrothfulnesse and impatiencie of Passion : The which indeed , in a wound , Contusion or Bruise , Extension or Straining , Burning and Cold , as being external Causes , is altogether easie to be seen . But while the motive Causes of Pain are neither applied from the aforesaid impression of external Objects , or from a proper Exorbitancy within , and the Sensitive Spirit is from thence made wholly sharp , gnawing , biting , degenerate , and forms the blood like it self : Then indeed , the Sensitive Soul , in paining , doth not only give a simple judgement concerning Pain ; But moreover , she in her self being wholly disturbed , brings forth from her self a newly painful product , no otherwise , than if that Product proceeded from an external occasional Cause . And although both these do in a greater Passion , and more grievous Sensation , for the most part concur ; yet in speaking properly , Pain doth more intimately respect the Censure brought from the Sensitive Soul , the Patient : Or Pain doth more nearly reflect it self on the property of the Soul , than on the paining cause ; Because many are grievously wounded without manifest pain : even as also a furious man shewes , that he scarce feeleth Paines from hurtfull Causes . Some things also do oftentimes delude the paines of Torture , and Unctions do also deceive paines , although the parts are beaten with injury . Wherefore Sense , doth more intimately and properly respect the Censure of the power of the sensitive Soul , than the injury of the painfull Cause . But truly , I am diverted elsewhere as for the cause of the aforesaid unpainfulnesse in the Leprosie , and unmoveablenesse in the Apoplexy , &c. The Schooles indeed , contending for the Brain as the chief Organ of Sensation and pain , do therefore take notice , that the Brain being by its own property of passion immediately , and as it were by one stroak touched , doth lose even both sense and motion at once : yea that it doth contract either of the sides . But the manner of making they thus expresse : The fourth bosom of the Brain ( it being a very small little bosom ) beginning from the Cerebellum , the beginning of the Thorny marrow is stopped up by phlegme : from whence ariseth an Apoplexy in an instant . For Nature being unwilling , or not able to draw back or reduce that phlegme once slidden down thither , being diligent , is at leastwise busie in laying aside that phlegme into either side of that pipe : from whence consequently , a Palsie of that side begins . These things indeed we read concerning the Apoplexyand Palsie : yet nothing of the contracture arising through the stroak of the Head. Paracelsus also , not being content with this drowsie Doctrine of three Diseases , is also tumbled in unconstancy . For sometimes he saith , That the Apoplexy and Palsie following thereupon , is bred , for that the sensitive Spirit in the Nerves or Sinews , hath from the Law of the Microcosme , after the manner of sulphurous Mines , contracted like Aqua vitae , a flame from the fire of Aetna : Through which inflammation , the Sinewes and Tendons being afterwards at it were adust , burnt , and as it were half dead , are dryed up together with the muscles : and therefore they do thenceforth remain deprived of sense and motion ; To wit , he Constitutes these two Diseases ( considering nothing the while , of the Contracture or Convulsion from the stroak ) not indeed in the Case of the Brain , but in the utmost Branches of the Nerves : as though , they were affects hastening from without to within . But in another place , he judgeth not a certain sulphurous or inflamed matter to be the cause of the Apoplexy : but he accuseth Mercury onely ( to wit , one of the three things , which he calls His own Beginnings of Nature ) as being too exactly Circulated ; and affirmes , that through its abounding subtility or finenesse , it is the conteining Cause of every sudden Death . Elsewhere , he recals the Apoplexy unto the Stars of Heaven : And in another place again , being unconstant , he teacheth , That every Apoplexy is made of gross vapors stopping up the Arteries and restlesse beating Pipes of the Throat ; and that there is also an Eclipse of the Lunaries or Moon-lights of the Brain in us , from a Microcosmicall necessity . Therefore hath he in like manner , whirl'd about the causes of the Vertigo or giddinesse of the Head unto uncertainties : To wit , himself being wholly Vertiginous . But I have otherwise proceeded : Whatsoever doth primarily feel , that very thing is the first Receiver , and efficiently effecter of pain : But a Sword , stroak , bruise , Corrosives , &c. are indeed the occasional , or effective Instrumentals , but not the chief efficients of pain . And then , seeing pain is for the most part bred in an instant , Also that which is stir'd up by external objects : Therefore for pain , there is no need of recourse to the Brain , that by reflextion it should have need as it were of a Counsellour . Wherefore , the Schooles going back a little from the Brain , had rather receive the sinew for the chief Organ which is to perceive of the objects of Sense , as they are besprinkled either with a Beam , of Light , or with a material bedewing of Spirits ( for they have not yet resolved themselves in most things ) continually dismissed from the Brain : And so , that the Brain doth deny sense and motion to the inferiour parts , unlesse it doth uncessantly inspire its own favour , by the Spirits its Mediatours . But herein also I find many perplexities . First of all , I spy out divers Touchings in man : To wit , almost particular Touchings to be in all particular members : yea in the Bowels and other parts that are almost destitute of all fellowship with sinews . Such as are the Teeth themselves : the Root whereof although a small Nerve toucheth , yet not the Teeth themselves , more outwardly ; The which notwithstanding , to have a feeling , many against their wills will testifie : So the Urine-pipes want a sinew , and the Scull it self , under the boring of the Chirurgians wimble , resounds a wonderfull sense , even into the Toes . I have believed therefore , that there could not be so great a latitude of one Touching , distributed from one onely and common Fountain , the Brain , or from the Nerve of a simple Texture or Composure . Therefore have I supposed that which I have before already proved ; That Sense doth chiefly reside in the sensitive Soul , which is every where present ; and for that cause also , immediately in the implanted Spirit of the parts : And that thing I have the more boldly asserted , because the Brain itself , which is the shop of the in-flowing Spirit , doth excell in so dull and irregular a Touching , as that it hath been thought to be without feeling . Therefore , either that Maxime falls to the ground : For the which things sake , every thing is such , that thing it self , is more such : or the Brain is not the primary seat and fountain of Touching . In the next place , all pain is made in the place , and is felt as it were out of hand . Therefore also , Touching is made in the place , and not after an afore-made signification to the Head. And moreover , in Nature , or at leastwise in a round figure , there is not right and left : and so that , neither can there be a side kept for phlegme in the Palsie , by its fliding down , except there are in the one onely Thorny Marrow , especially in its Beginning , two pipes throughout its length , conteining the necessity of a side : which is ridiculous even to have thought , especially in the slender hollownesse of the fourth Bosom . For truly , Motion and Sense are in one and the same muscle , which receiveth a simple and flender sinew : Yet in fingers that are affected with benummednesse , the feeling only is oftentimes suspended , Motion being in the mean time safe and free : Therefore , either it must needs be , that Sense and Motion do not depend on the same Nerve , on the in-flowing Spirit , and the common principle of these : or it is of necessity , that from the same one onely small Nerve , Motion onely , and not Sense , or Sense onely , and not Motion , hath its dependance ; or that there are other forreign things hitherto unknown , which take away or hurt Sense onely , and not Motion : but other things which stop Motion alone , and some things which affect both . Wherefore , in a more thorow attention , I have beheld that the astonishment of Touching , unsensiblenesse , want , or defect in Motion , were passions that sometimes arose from a primitive mean : and that those passions were then also , of necessity privative : As in the straining of a turning joynt , in strangling , &c. For I have known an honest Citizen , to have been thrice hung up by Robbers , for the wiping him of his money's sake ; and that he told me , that at that very moment , wherein the three-legged stool was withdrawn from his feet , he had lost motion , sense , and every operation of his mind . At leastwise , the fourth little Bosome of his Brain was not then filled up , nor the Thorny marrow pressed together , which lived safe within the turning joynts : and the Cord being cut , the stopping phlegme was not again taken away out of that fourth Bosome , that those Functions of his Soul and Body might return into their antient state . A certain Astrologer being willing to try whether the death of hanging was a painfull death , cast a Rope about his Neck , and bad his Son , a Youth , that he should give heed , when he moved his Thumb , after the stool was withdrawn from under his feet , so as presently to cut the Cord. The Lad therefore fixing his eyes on his Fathers fingers , and not beholding motion in them , and looking up vards , he saw his Father black and blew , and his Tongue thrust forth . Therefore the Cord being cut , the Astrologer falls on the ground , and scarce recovered after a month . Almost after the same manner doth drowning proceed : Wherein , assoon as at the first drawing , the water is drawn through the mouth into the Lungs , the use of the mental faculties is lost ; and by a repeated draught of water , the former effects are confirmed : Yet neither do they so quickly dye , but that if they lay on their Face , that the water may flow forth , even those who appear to have been a good while dead , do for the most part , revive or live again . The pipes of the Lungs therefore being filled up with a forreign Guest , the vital Beam prepetually shining from the Midriffs into the Head , is intercepted ; From whence consequently , as it were a privative Apoplexy straightway ariseth . Surely , it is a wonder , that the Functions of the mind should on both sides so quickly fail ; And so that also , a continued importunity and dependance of necessity , from the aspiring and vital favour of inferiour parts , not yet acknowledged in the Schooles , is conjectured : wherefore I have promoted a Treatise , concerning the Duum Virate . I considered therefore , if the Brain be the chief Fountain and Seat of the Immortall Soul , understanding , and memory : at least , as long as the Soul was in the Brain , those faculties ought to remain untouched : Seeing that for Cogitation , there is neither need of the Leg , nor of the Arm , nor of Breathing . Notwithstanding , hanging doth as it were at one stroak , totally take away the faculties of the mind . For while the jugular Arteries did deny a community with the inferiour parts , or the Lungs were filled up with water : presently , not onely the faculties do stumble , but also such a stoppage did act by way of an universal Apoplexy , and suspended motion not in one side only , even as in the Palsie : For from thence , I confirmed my self , that the influences and communion of the inferiour Bowels were taken away from the Brain , by the interception of a Bond or Obstacle : From whence also , I consequently supposed , that the first Conceptions were formed elsewhere than in the Head , according to that saying of Truth ; Out of the heart proceed adulteries , murders , &c. I found moreover , that the Apoplexy , astonishment or unsensiblenesse , Palsie , giddinesse of the Head , Falling-Evil , Convulsion , &c. were passions arising from a positive occasional Cause , and much differing from privative ones , the Constrictives or fast binders together of the sinews , passages , and Spirits ; which Causes have been hitherto neglected by the Schooles , by subscribing in the aforesaid Diseases , to wit , unto Heathenish Doatages , stablishing phlegme in the fourth little bosome of the Brain : When as in the mean time , the like and positive faculties do every where occur in Opiates , and likewise in sleepy and Epileptical Diseases . I remember also , that I at sometime in my young Beginnings , distilled some poysonous things : the which , if at any time the junctures of the Vessels being not well stopped , there expired an odour from them ; or that afterwards , in separating the vessels from each other , they struck me at unawares ; I was at one onely instant , ready for a fall , together with a giddinesse of the Head , and a benummednesse of my right side : So that , if the Odour had once onely again smitten me , without doubt I had fallen , as being Apoplectical . Indeed , an ardent desire of knowledge in times past , constrained me into so great rashnesse , that a thousand times , I have not spared my own life . Therefore in the tearms proposed , truly that Odour did not stir up phlegme threatning to slide down , and a new and fresh blast of ayr again removed it not out of the bosome of the Brain . Therefore , if some Simples do bring a drowsie Evil , giddinesse of the Head , a cessation of Motion , and an obscuring of Sense : it is not unlikely , that the like things to these , do also suddenly spring up within : Neither is it seemly , alwayes to dedicate all these effects to the depriving stoppage of one phlegme . For I remember , that a person being smitten with an Apoplexy , dyed in two hours : and seeing there was a suspition of poyson offered him , a Dissection was appointed . His Scull therefore being taken away , thirteen studious men pleasantly took away the Menynx's or Coates of the Brain ; and then the Cerebellum or little Brain being modestly opened , not any thing of phlegme was found in the fourth Bosome ; as neither was there any thing found to have fallen downwards into the Thorny Marrow , by those diligently narrow Enquirers . Therefore I shall never be induced to believe with the Schooles , that the Apoplexy is a phlegmy stoppage of the fourth bosome of the Brain : as neither can I believe , the Palsie to be an obstruction of either side of the Thorny marrow . First of all , the unprosperous healing of these Diseases , do bewray the sluggish Enquiries into Causes . And then , the Apoplexy hath so negligently and ignorantly been handled hitherto , that it is as yet , in the Schooles , destitute of a proper word : For truly , it hath retained its Name , from a folding , or small Net of Arteries , dreamed by Galen , or being delivered to him , being credulous , from some other ; which small Net , Anato●y hath not as yet hitherto seen . But Galen his feigned fine Net hath forsaken him , as a rash Asserter of Trifles , and a ridiculous Dissecter . So that , it is now clearly manifested by Andrew Vesalius being the Author , That Galen never saw a humane dead Carcase dissected : and that he described his Doctrine of Anatomy word for word out of some other , no otherwise than as he did his Herbarisme out of Diascorides . Therefore I have easily learned , that of necessity , not onely the place and manner of making , but also that the whole Tragedy , and due Remedies of an Apoplexy are wholly unknown in the Galenical Schooles : For the method of curing it , hath confirmed that thing unto me : For I have often seen in a new Apoplexy , by Vomitive Medicines , but otherwise , comforting ones being afterwards added , the Speech , Sense , and Motion to be restored : But all , either side of whom had failed , I have seen cured by the Mercurius Diaphoreticus of Paracelsus , elsewhere by me described . For that Sudoriferous Mercury , as it cures without any Evacuation : so also , it hath brought desired help without the Revulsion of phlegme out of the fourth bosome of the Brain . For , I having followed the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures ( by their fruits ye shall know them ) Have learned , To wit , from the latter , and from the effect , That the original of the Apoplexy is positive , but not privative , or by a stopping up of the bosome of the Cerebellum , lum made by phlegme suddenly falling down thither : Especially , because that from affects of the Womb , Apoplexies and Palsies do oftentimes arise ; They ceasing , Remedies being administred to the Womb : and those being neglected , they are either choaked , as being truly Apoplectical , or do also languish with a Palsie for their life-time . Finally , I have known , that the entry of an Apoplexy is in the Midriffs ; but in the Brain , not but by a secondary passion , whereby the Brain doth successively hearken unto the Government of inferiour parts : For neither do vomitive Medicines , as neither also the aforesaid sudoriferous one , withdraw any thing from the hinder little Bosome , and much lesse , from the hollownesse of the Thorny marrow . And that thing , they have known , as many as have ever been present at the Dissection of those parts . And likewise , Odoriferous and succouring Essences being drunk , should never be derived unto the Head , if it were stopped or beset : yet they do presently , sensibly help ; Because there is in the Midriffs their own tasts , and their own proper smelling : And moreover , their own touching also , is from hence communicated to the body , by meanes of the sensitive soul being every where present : Which thing , although I have elsewhere , sufficiently proved concerning long Life ; yet it shall here be profitable to have confirmed it , at least by one Example : Therefore , if any one shall drink a Scammoneated poyson masked with sugar and spice , the Tongue and Pallat do indeed commend it for the first turn : but at a repeated one , the horrour of the Midriff , and aversnesse of drinking , will discover the errour of the masked tast : And that which otherwise is sweet to the Tongue , is made horrid to the Midriffs . It s no wonder therefore , that there is a singular Tast and Touching in the same place , and that it is from thence diffused into the members : and that those Senses of the Midriffs are presently refreshed by the Essences of the Odour : but slowly and never , if they are applyed unto the Nostrils , Pallat , and seames of the Scull . For I have taken notice of some things , which cause not onely the drowsie Evil , or Catalepsie , but also foolish madnesse , and which prostrate the most potent or chief Dignities of the mind , yet the Sense and Motion being unhurt : But after that the understanding returns , indeed as well Sense as Motion are abolished . Some things also , being outwardly anoynted on the Body , do take away the feeling , so as that there is a liberty for the Chyrurgion in cutting : and the Oyntments being afterwards withdrawn , the expelled feeling returneth . From hence indeed , I have believed , that the Apoplexy , drowsie Evils , Falling-sicknesse , and likewise stranglings of the Womb , and any Swoonings , are Diseases arising from a secondary passion , and action of Government : but not from a corporall confluence of humouts and vapours bred in the bottles of the Brain . Truly , the Womb never ascends above the Diaphragma , but it causeth Apoplectical Affects . There is not therefore , a material Touching of the Womb and Head : For I have known a Perfume , whereby a Woman suddenly falls down as Apoplectical , together with the Palsie of her side , and she remaines such , unlesse she be restored by the Fume of a Horse-fig sent thorow by a Funnel to the Womb. For I have seen also , the Circle of the neck in a Woman to have suddenly ascended above the height of her Chin , the which is subject neither to humours nor vapours : For truly there is an aspect of the Womb , as it were of its own Basilisk : whereby the parts , by the afflux of the Latex ( but what that Latex is shall be taught elsewhere ) do swell ; even as is otherwise , proper to many poysons : Even so as the waters do ascend and swell , at both stations of the Moon , from the aspect of that Star alone . I will decipher my own self in this respect . While I was in the 65 Year of my age , and was greatly occupied about the consideration of the Apoplexy , I discerned , To wit , that a positive one which should be made by a freezing poyson , had it self in such a manner , as that it could be known from another which afflicts by the stopping of a sinew : Even so that he , who sitting with his Leg Retorted or writhen back , loseth feeling in that Leg , by reason of a pressing together of the sinew : and while as Sense is restored unto it , that Lancings or prickings are felt from the vital or animal Spirit ; ( which is Salt , as I have shewn in the Book of long Life ) but from an astonishment , which proceeds from a freezing poyson , if the feeling shall return , no pain of lancing or pricking offers it self . For I contemplated in my study , under the cold of the Calends of [ the 11th . Month called ] January : and an earthen Pan laden with a few live Coals , stood aloof off , whereby the most chilly cold season of the Winter might at least be a little mitigated . One of my Daughters seasonably coming to the place , sented the stink of the smoak , and presently withdrew the Pan ; But I forthwith perceived a fainting to be sorely threatned about the Orifice of my stomach : I arising therefore , and going forth in one instant , I fell with a straight body , on a stony ground : therefore , as well by reason of the swooning , as of the stroak of the hinder part of my head , I was brought away for a dead carcase . I returned indeed after a quarter of an houre , unto the signes of life , but together with a swelling of the hinder part of my head , I felt the seames or futures of my scul notably to paine me , and that more and more : My tast also , and smelling to have been wholly taken away , and my eares continually to tingle . Moreover , at every of my conceptions , my head presently whirled round with a giddinesse , even my eyes being shut : straightway after , all my sinewes even unto the calfes of my legs ached , so as that one only sneezing cruelly launced the whole body : indeed an appetite of eating returned , but a whirling round excercised me for some months . But I learned first , that in the evening before supper , the giddinesse of my head increased , to wit , about the bound of digestion . 2. That my judgment remayning , the giddinesse notwithstanding , was prevalent . 3. That from any kind of pot-herbs , and unsalted fishes , the whirling did the more cruelly assault me . 4. I noted the Gem Turcois , to have remayned entire or neutral with me , having fallen , nor to have preserved me from the peril of falling : And that the Turcois doth not help any but those , whom a sudden fear in falling , surpriseth : The which happens not in those wherein a swooning precedes , and frameth the fall . 5. That my giddinesse was from meates subject to corruption . 6. And I seriously noted , that the Apoplexy , Vertigo , &c. do depend on the midriffe , although from the shaking of the stroake , my head alone seemed to be affected , and the vertigo did sensibly whirle about in my head . Yet seeing the giddinesse had respect unto meates , and a plenty of meates , I remarkeably perceived , that presently after the aforsaid swooning , a guest besides nature remayned about the stomach , being the occasional cause of the aforesaid giddinesse or vertigo , and that thing , I the more strongly confirmed , because as oft as I had in times past , sayled over the sea , I indeed , at the beginning of stormes , grew nauseous ; but I never vomited , or desisted from eating : but after that I wandred about on Land , I always perceived an unconstant giddinesse , night and day resembling the motion of sayling upwards and downwards : Untill that I was alwayes at length freed by a vomite of white Vitriol . For at least wise , in sayling , there was no offence brought unto my head : yet , as if I had been drunk , I threatned a fall with a continuall giddinesse , the operation of my judgment notwithstanding , remayning constant and unhurt . But I was always freed from that giddinesse , by one onely vomite . But now , in the aforesaid fall , the stroake indeed produced a tumour in the hinder part of my head , and in the seames of my scull , bewraying its effects in the organs of the senses and nerves . But all these did least of all cause a wheeling about of my head , the which I observed to be chiefely stirred up or exasperated from the choice of meates ; Most especially , because that whirling was restrained according to its custome , by one only vomite . From whence I experienced in my self , that the giddinesse of my head , although my head was hurt , was stirred up and nourished by the stomach , and so from the Duumvirate : But that the swooning it self gave a cause of the stroak , and also left a sealing mark in a forreigne guest there detained . Again , that that whirling was not from a vapour lifted upwards from beneath : but from the corporeal occasion of a sealed excrement , as oft as something offered it self which was the lesse pleasing unto those inferiour shops , the force and impressive Idea of the same , redounded into the braine . From thence therefore I discerned , that be-drunkening things being derived from the stomach into the arteries , and co-mixed with vital spirit , did confound the family-administration of the spirit in the little cells of the Braine , and also disturb the imaginative power , because they actually proceeded through the arteries upwards , as forreigners and strangers : to wit , by be-giddyng things , whereby indeed , whirlines only , how cruel ones soever , were presented , the understanding remayning fafe : For the occasional causes also of these whirlings do remaine in the places about the short ribs : from whence , they by the power of government , vitiate the Brain it self : but not the abstracted faculties of the mind which are immediatly sealed in the spirits . Even so as the Elf's hoofe being bound to the finger , restraines the same rigour of the Duumvirate in those that have the falling sicknesse . I also well weighed , as it were by an Optical inspection , after what manner the first conceptions , might be formed the midriffs , and from thence being sent unto the head polished . And at length , after what sort these midriffs might be diversly tossed in dotages , and Hypochondriacal madnesses , without any running round of the head . And , how in drunken persons , a whirling might accompany their foolish madnesse . But elsewhere , after what sort a whirling 〈…〉 of the head might induce no stumbling of the minde : Even as otherwise , how the memory might stumble , the man remayning safe and sound . Truly as I seriously , and with much leisure , weighed these things with my self , I found , that qualities do follow their own Idea's , and by course act their own tragedies in the excrement themselves : to wit , which diverse properties of qualities I then at first cleerly apprehended , to be as it were seminal endowments , and true formal Idea's : whereby indeed , the strength of the sensitive soul ( for why , they are companions of the same formal order ) was vitiated , and variously subdued , and yielded to the importunities of active Idea's . Alasse for grief ! then the bottome of the soul ( so called by Taulerus ) manifested it self unto me , which was nothing else but the immortal minde it self ; to wit , in what great utter darknesses , it might be involved , as it were in coates of skin , as it was fast tied to , and entertained in the Inne of the very sensitive soul , while the terme of life endures . And so from hence I clearly knew him , whom I have also therefore ( concerning Long Life ) by an unheard word explained , to the honour of God , the contempt of Satan , and the Magnificence or great Atchievement of the whole Perigrination of man. I have also taught concerning Long Life , that the Head is the fountain of the growth of the parts placed under it , ( which thing Crump-backed persons do also confirm , ) and so that from the head , the State and Duration of Growth is limited : That bounds also are described by the hairs , and therefore that heads void of care , do scarce wax gray . I profess therefore with the Schools , That a vital Light is indeed diffused from the Brain , as from a fountain , and dispersed through the sinews ; and that , that Light being absent , the faculties that are silent in their proper Inns , are also straightway silent through a pri●ative occasion : For although Sense and Motion do after some sort , depend as well perceptively as executively on the implanted spirit of the parts : yet because all particular parts are vitally nourished by a besprinkled light of the Brain ; The Thred also , or Beam of this Light being intercepted , Sense and Motion likewise are as soon as may be , intercepted . But these things do shew only a privative Apoplexie , not indeed so truly a Disease , as an accidental one , even as I have shewn above , in the Strayning of the Turning-Joyuts : But not that therefore , the fountainons cause of the Senses and Motions in the spirit , dieth with that privation , although the functions thereof be suspended , while that Light from above is suspended : For a Fly doth sometimes frequently flie , when his head is taken off : Also the Head of a man being cut off , his joynts do oftentimes , for a good while , leap a little , and are contracted , and do as yet afford the signes of an in-bred motion . But of a positive and diseasie Apoplexie , there is a far different cause and property : For now and then a depriving of Sense and Astonishment straightway lights into the palm of the hand , or into the one only finger ; the motion thereof , notwithstanding , remaining safe . Doth therefore Phlegm , a forreigner to that finger , fall into the middle or pith of the sinew ? To wit , by a pipe , wherewith the small Nerve is throughout bored thorow , and conspirable with the Brain ? Or perhaps , doth an unwonted Vapour of Phlegm run down thither ? and the which otherwise was wont , or ought to climb upwards , the nature of Vapours so determining and by a vital violent force , obeying . But at leastwise , one only Nerve extended into the Tendon of the Palm , bestowes Sense and Motion on the four fingers alike : Why therefore is the Feeling alone stupified in one finger only ? Again , What Vapour being ever lifted up even from the most tough snivel , was grosser , or not equal to that which ascends from the water ? Let as many as have been Distillers in the Universe , answer . Why therefore shall a gross Vapour of Phlegm ( the which I have sufficiently demonstrated elsewhere to be a non-being ) be required for an astonishment , and not that of simple water , or of the blood ? But if indeed a Vapour of the latex or blood , shall effect that thing , then also there shall be a necessary , ordinary , and continual general stupefaction of all parts without intermission . And then , if some forreign or exerementous humour or vapour be the ocasional cause of such an astonishment , to wit , the privative , and stoppifying one of a nerve , surely it is sent , o● runs down thither of its own accord : If it be sent , yet at least , not from the Brain , or the marrow its Vicaress ; For so it should not straightway affect , as neither , at leastwise , strike at one only finger , and the utmost part of the finger , which was but presently before , healthy : Neither is that Vapour sent from the spirit , the Family-administrater of Life , because it is that which should more willingly and readily go forth , as being banished by transpiration : Therefore that thing manifestly contradicteth providence , and a natural care of diligence , which alwayes dispenseth all things fo● the best end : Because nature as too injurious to her self , should dash against the sinewes , those things which she according to her wonted manner , had more easily , better , and more nearly commanded away unto the natural and ordinary emunctory of the skin . And so that vaporal Fable of the Schools , which is to be scourged , contains a manifold impossibility : For the Pipe of the Sinews ends into the thorny marrow with a straight thred , and a continued passage ; neither hath it any transverse trunks , through which it should transmit that phlegmatish vapour sidewayes ( for otherwise , there would be made a total loss of the spirits , before they could come down unto the Muscle , the Executer of Motion ) so far is it , that it should suck the same vapour that way . That Humour or Vapour therefore cannot be transmitted or descend unto one only finger ( and much less suddenly leap on it ) unless through a passage of the sinewes , common with the thorny marrow . But it is like to a dream , that in a sound body , but not in a complaining one , the sense of a finger doth forthwith fail through phlegm , which was no● before perceived in the more nigh sinews ; or otherwise , by a Vapour bred after an irregular manner , being not dismissed , or descending thither , as neither presently bred in the part ; when as otherwise , all hospitality of a forreigner , is even from the beginning manifestly troublesome to nature . But hath that Phlegm , or that Vapour perhaps , crept sideways into the utmost nerve of the finger ? But then the Maxim of of the Schools should perish , which ascribeth the dispensations of any Humours unto the Spirit making the assault : For those Humours are not in us , or in the nature of things , and if there were any , an ambulatory or walking power should no● therefore belong unto them ; and much less , in those being now excrementitious ; because all natural motions in us , hearken unto the faculties of vital things : For if Phlegm , and the gross Vapour thereof were in nature , at leastwise in this place ( as they are diseasie ) they are reputed by the Schools to be Excrements , whereof there is not a going , no● voluntary Motion or Progress : Therefore they should of necessity be driven away by some other : Not indeed , by the Archeus , who seeing he acts all things , and that well , should not therefore drive that unto the sinews , which he was otherwise accustomed regularly to drive unto the skin . Doth therefore Phlegm , perhaps being extenuated into a Vapour by heat proceed upwards ; But then , not downwards into the steep finger : At leastwise , according to the Theoreme of the Schools concerning Catarrhs , That Vapour should presently again grow together into drops ; but it should not wonder about in the shew of a Vapour unto the utmost parts of the Nerves , as neither should it hasten through the Palm of the Hand , unto one only finger . But why should it rush on a sudden , like a weight , into a small nerve more flender than a thred ? Into one I say , and not into another ? But if the Vapour doth enter sidewayes , why in one only instant is it imbibed , without a foregoing trouble ? Why is it not rather dashed into the flesh , than into the extream part of a small nerve , which is encompassed with its own membrane ? Why doth the cause which begat one only Atome of Phlegm , or of a gross vapour , continuall produce no other besides that one only Atome ? For that sudden stupefaction doth oft-times begin from the little finger , and ceaseth at length in that , when it hath reached to the third or fourth . Now and then also , all the fingers do suddenly assume the paleness of death , unto the half of their length , or beyond , even when it is without astonishment , a drowsie motion , &c. If therefore that were from a vapourie matter , at least , that matter shall not be made in the brain or thorny marrow : For truly , then also it should portend an universal passion ; Therefore that Vapour shall be bred in the sinew or tendon ; but then they would be all stupified at once , but not successively . Neither am I perswaded , why that Vapour existing without the sinew in the tranquility of health , should be pressed inwards unto the sinew or tendon , when as after another manner , there is in us an uncessant transpiration outwards : At leastwise , why this should not continue , seeing it hath the same Workman , Matter and shop within it ? Wherefore doth that astonishment presently cease , if a matter should subsist , such as should be one of the four Humours everywhere swimming together with the venal blood ? If the cause now defluxeth from the common Nerve of the Palm of the hand , into one finger already vanquished ; Why therefore doth it afterwards flow down unto another healthy finger , and not stay in the first ? Why if it be ptopagated from one only little Nerve into all of them , doth it not also molest all of them at once ; but subsequently , and a good while after ? Wherefore is the feeling hurt , and not the motion , if they are from one only and a like cause , if it be brought down through one only small sinew , the Author as well of Motion as Sense ? The cold of the hands alone causeth an astonishment from without , and a pain within , without any falling of vapours or humours thereinto . At length , the sinews are not inserted into the fingers , but into the tendons : Why therefore is the feeling hurt , and not the motion ? Why is not the Stupefaction extended throughout the whole palm of the hand at once , which is covered with one tendon ? If the Tendons suffer this threatned Palsey , now that is to have departed from the communion of the Nerves unto the thick , not bored , nor pip-i● trunks of the Tendons : Not passable ones , I say , if therefore not subject to the Incidencies of Phlegme . A certain man had retained his Spleen affected from a Quartan Ague , and likewise a stupefaction of his left hand , together with a mortal paleness frequently returning in hast : But what community of passages doth the Spleen hold with the Nerves of the fingers ? to wit , that it may transmit Phlegm and gross Vapours unto the fingers alone ? For doth the Milt send vapours into the Brain , which with the substitution of authority , and action , it will have to be from thence assigned unto the fingers of its own side , or unto those opposite thereunto ? Shall therefore a stopped Spleen evaporate more unto the Brain and Marrow of the back , than an healthy one not being hindred and burdened with continual black Choler ? Certainly I have prosecuted the unsensibleness and astonishments of particular members , that we might the more rightly understand a total Apoplexie . In the mean time I pity the Schools , that they have not more exactly examined their own fictions of Humours and Vapours , and the so speedyed and ridiculous falling down of these ; neither that they have once considered , that as the cold of the encompassing Air is stupefactive ; so that they have not distinguished the nature of the Palsey , and the colike positive passions of the sinewes , from co-like privative ones : That from thence they might have learned , that positive effects can in no wise consist without a stupefying dead matter and quality : The which if it be sufficient for crea●ing an astonishment , when it shall have touched at the Sensitive parts from without ; what may it not be for effecting , if it locally stir the sinew it self . Truly , if that which toucheth thereat in manner of a Vapour ( according to the Schools ) shall presently afford an effect about to perish the Senses ; Why have they not likewise once considered , that through a more tough matter , it shall be able to stir up a stubborn and durable Palsey ? Moreover , Wheresoever such an anodynous matter is enclosed in the Duumvirate . of the body ( I understand the Stomack and Spleen ) it shall stir up a sudden swooning , and positive Apoplexie . But the Palsie is for the most part , only of one side , and a defect invades as it were with the one only stroak of a dart : But the swistness of the unexpected chance produceth a terrour in the brain and marrows ; that is , in the spirit the inhabitant of these , and the Author of that act of feeling : Therefore by reason of its Terrour , the weaker side of the marrow is contracted : but surely , the Palsey is the Product of the Contracture : And in all , one side is always weaker than the other . Therefore women , who as they are for the most part of a timorous mind , they by terrour do frequently rush also into a Palsey , without an Apoplexie : For Terrour or Affrightment hath that Property , that it straightway closeth the pores , if it shall be sudden ; And the hairs hath stood an end , and the voice hath cleaved to the Jawes : Because it is natural for the gate to be shut against an approaching enemy : For in a stroak of the Scul , the side placed under it is resolved , and the opposite side is contracted : To wit , the Supposite one is resolved , because it is more terrified ; and the Opposite one is drawn together , because provoked . And indeed the Vulgar are wont to sore-divine an Apoplexie from the shortness of the neck : For the shortness of the neck doth not argue the fewer turning joynts to be , but a less depth of every one of them : But what hath that Common with Phlegm ? or with a sometimes future stoppage of the fourth bosome of the Brain ? To wit , that one ought to be casualy presaged by the other : For the shortness of the neck containeth not a naked sign , or prediction of Physiognomy : But besides , a certain ocasional cause : For oft-times , after yesterdayes gluttony or drunkenness , a giddiness of the head , a dizzie dimness of sight , vomiting , astonishment of the fingers , &c. do happen ; the which threaten and presage an Apoplexy , not indeed through occasion of a fit Organ ( as concerning the shortness of the neck ) but because they have their beginning from an Apopoplexy , differing only in degree and intensness . If therefore that giddinesse and astonishment ( after ●urfeiting ) be from the Midriffes , as the occasional matter is as yet nourished by the Archeus in an inferiour degree : Therefore , wheresoever that Anodynous or stupifying poyson is carried up into a degree , it causeth an Apoplexy natively arising from the same seats , where through an errour of the sixth digestion , that Anodynous poyson is made of the nourishment , from whence at length , there also is occasionally a Palsey . The shortness therefore of the neck affordeth a brevity and readiness of passage from the Midriffes into the head , requisite for an Apoplexy , that is , a more ready aptness of the Organ . And also the Schools affirm , that in little and threatned Apoplexies , instituted rubbings of the utmost parts have sometimes profited , and they from thence conjecturing a revulsion of Phlegm , and Vapours of out the head , do command frictions or rubbings , even unto a cruel pilling off of the skin , and sharp Clysters : To wit , they excoriate the skin , that Sense or Feel●ng may not fail in the same place . They being in the mean time forgetful of their own rule , that Sense depends wholly on the Brain ; and that it is in vain to pill the legs , that they may revulse Phlegm out of the fourth bosome of the Brain ; For they know not whither they may pull it back ; whether they ought to allure it out of the bosome of the Cerebellum into the fundament , by Clysters : or indeed , whether they may by rubbing , require the same out of the bosome of the Cerebellum through the skin : All being ridiculous , because themselves also are ridiculous . In the mean time , let those that stand by me , testifie , whether they can detract rather the skin , than vapours : Yet I certainly know , that though any one be wholly flead , the Apoplexy , or true Palsey , is notwithstanding , never in anywise to be removed . Neither do I see , after what manner they can defend their own Theoreme : To wit , that Phlegm in the fourth bosome of the brain , is the containing and adquate cause of both these evils : For I confidently deliver , that frictions have little profited , where that stupefactive and deadly poyson was only in the habit of the body : but what will those cruel frictions do , if that Anodynous poyson be primarily seated in the Midriffs ? and after what manner do they prove , that by rubbings , Phlegm is drawn out of the bosome of the Cerebellum ? I know therefore , that frictions , as they were instituted without the discerning and knowledge of causes , and distinguishing of places ; so also that they have been , and will be alwayes in vain : For it is a ridiculous and cruel thing to have rubbed the skin unto a fleaing thereof , and to have assigned the cause , to be a stoppage in the middle of the thorny marrow : Because how much rubbing soever there shal be , if there were any Phlegm in the world , and that slidden into the aforesaid bosome of the little Brain , it shall never take that phlegm away in one only grain : But rather those superstitions being granted , it should continually increase the same : Because Revulsion ( if there be any truth in it ) shall draw the matter rather downwards , and dash it into the pipe of the thorny marrow in what part it is alwayes made narrower than it self ; and so much the rather , because there is ordinarly a dispensing of the greater vessels into the inferiour and lesser branches of them : Then also , because that Phlegm being sequestred from the rest of the blood , should be a meer excrement , nor therefore discussable without a dead head , or residence , far harder : And therefore rubbing , if it do draw , and revulse after any kind of manner , it shall feel also that ordinary endeavour of nature , that that stopping Phlegm should be drawn , not from the hinder and lower bosome upwards to the brain , by a retrograde motion : but unto the more straight and lower trunks of the Nucha or marrow of the back : Especially , while as in the Palsey , the sensitive spirits flow down sparingly , or plainly nothing at all , the which might otherwise be able to drive that Phlegm forth . Rubbing therefore , as it exhausts it shall rather encrease a want of the sensitive spirits . But the Anodynous poyson of an Apoplexy , is generated after the manner of other natural ones ; to wit , a certain excrement occasionally growes in the proper Conduit of the matter , But the Archeus perceiving that excrement , and abhorting it , flees from it , and conceiving the deadly Idea of the Excrement , impertinently imprints it on himself : From whence an Apoplexy is forthwith stirred up , as it were with the stroke of a dart : But some previous dispositions do for the most part go before the nativity of this stupifying poyson . The which therefore , if it should happen in the Brain , the place should cease from complaint , to wit , because the Apoplexy is made in an instant , wherefore we call it [ Den Schlag ] or a stroak , indeed because it suddenly comes as at unawares after the manner of a stroak . The place therefore of the nativity of an Apoplexy is in the Midriffs , and therefore it hath also the foreshewing signs of giddiness of the head , of benummedness , nauseousness , &c. The place therefore of an Apoplexy is in the Arch●us of the Midriffs : but in every of the parts , for a particular astonishment : because through the errour of Digestion , the Liquor that is immediately to be affimilated , by reason of the defect of the Archeus , degenerates into an Anodynous poyson , and is made the occasional matter of so great a malady ; an excrement , I say , being sealed by an Idea of the abhorring Archeus , is sealed on the dreg , who is to shew forth an equally aged memory of his own hostility . But that it doth not depart from thence , nor obey Remedies known by the Apothecary , the very Quartan-ague teacheth ; the which , hitherto repeates its Tragedy at pleasure , to the disgrace of Physitians . If a Quartan-ague be uncurable by the Schooles , much more an Apoplexy . For the stupefactive poyson of an Apoplexy , is milder indeed in it self , than that of the Falling-sickness : but it far more cruelly molesteth with its invasion . For besides astonishment , it strikes the mind , begets a deep drowsinesse , and a Catochus or unsensible detainment . But if besides , it also attaines a sharpnesse , it produceth malignant Ulcers , according to the mortifying of the Anodynous poyson . But because that poyson is brackish , therefore it threatens Atrophia's or Consumptions for lack of nourishment . For I have observed a Chymist , who had been a good while occupied about R●gis's , to have fallen into terrible beatings of the Heart , at length into paines of his armes , and his mouth was pulled on the right side ; he suffered also restless nights , and deep paines of his armes : the which notwithstanding , were not exasperated by touching . He had also consumed with a notable leanness , by reason of the conceived brackishnesses of the waters : in the mean time any the more external Remedies were attempted in vain ( for neither did I spare costs , or service for him ) but he being fully restored by a Laudanum onely , for thirteen dayes administred , soon after recovered the habit of his body , and former strength . For because the harsh brackishness of the Liquors had defiled the sensitive Spirit , the product whereof pierced the Archeus , his mouth being pulled together unto one side , and his fingers being w●ithed side-wayes , resembled a certain Apoplectical Being ; But because it ascended not from the Governour of the Midriffs ; but only the Odours of the waters had immingled themselves with the inflowing sensitive Spirit , there was not a perfect Apoplexy of that man , although otherwise , one giddie enough . But because I call that a brackish Anodynal or stupefactive , which in Opium is a bitter one , but not in Henbane , or Mandrake ; and a very sweet one in Vitriol and Sulphur : This first of all discovers the Errours of the Schooles , while as from commonly known Savours , they divine of the faculties of Simples : But indeed I know , that the interchanges of things , or the maturities of days are not yet digested : nor likewise , That Truth instead of falshood , will please every one : therefore I will subjoyn some Anguishes , which the Apoplectical Rules of the Schooles have brought forth unto me . For while I insisted more than was meet , in the examination of Minerals , I felt from the Fume of some of them , an Apoplexy to be at hand , with a defect of my left side , and so that I had fallen headlong down , if I had as yet but one onely turn , breathed in the ayr of that place . Wherefore I learned first of all , that the Palsie is not more latter that an Apoplexy , in duration . Then again , that there is no stoppage in the bosomes of the Brain : For I was already almost prostrated , and unlesse I had turned away my head , from whence the stinking , cruel blast breathed , I , as Apoplectical , had rushed down ; and I was ready to fall . And then , my arm did already decay , and my leg being stupified , failed of sense and motion . But the Schooles will never answer to these particulars : if nothing of ph●egme had ever fallen into the fourth bosome of the Brain , how was the effect in me before its Cause ? But if any thing thereof had fallen down , which had at least , stopt up the half of its Bosome , which way retired that phlegme so speedily ? Or why is not every Apoplexy likewise , by the same endeavour , voluntarily cured , the phlegme which is the Effectresse thereof , vanishing ? but if they had rather privily to escape , that my Apoplexy came from the mischievous vapour , and not that to be from phlegme . At leastwise , why was that cruel Fume brought sooner unto the fourth Bosome , than unto the former ones , and those nearer and more obedient unto the Nostrils ? unlesse perhaps the former were Leprous , and sluggish , and without Sense ? Yea , all the sinews which are deputed unto the Senses alone , receive their sensitive spirits from the former Bosomes : But in the former Ventricles of the Brain ; there was no sign of the hurting of Sense : yet there is no coming from without , unto the fourth Bosom , but through all the foremost ones . Sense likewise ( except that it was the more dull on one side ) and motion remained , and also a Judgement perswading a departure . Therefore had the phlegme waited now for some years at the coast of the fourth Bosome : that the Odour of that Fume being once repeated , it ( the signe as it were of a Trumpet being given ) might rush headlong into the pit ? Why therefore fell not the phlegme down in me a leaping Run-away ? For in the Falling-sicknesse , the chief powers of the Soul , and Senses on both sides go to ruine , motion onely surviving , when as notwithstanding every sinew , even that which is dedicated to motion , feeleth : Therefore the Brain , and all its Bosoms ought to be affected on both sides , where the more internal senses , together with the more external ones , are laid asleep as if they were extinguished ; How therefore doth motion alone remain ? After what manner , in the Falling-Evil , Apoplexy , and Palsie are the senses laid asleep ; when as in the Apoplexy and Palsie , the Organ of motion onely is besieged , for one half ? They will say , that in the Epilepsie the foremost parts of the Brain do suffer , but the hinder ones remain safe . First of all , Why therefore are the joynts contracted , if the Organs of motion are free ? The memory is especially hurt in the Falling-sickness : shall therefore that also ●e onely in the forepart of the Head ? But that which is required being granted : why therefore hath every sinew designed for motion , leaping through the Thorny marrow , from the hinder part of the Brain , lost Sense , but not Motion ? Therefore the Brain in the Falling-Evil is sore smitten , as well behind as before , by Midriff-Causes . Fo● oft-times some one that is about to dye , doth as yet feel or perceive , speak , and hear , motion in his lower parts being taken away a good while before , by the displayed sinewes of the Thorny marrow . The Brain being in good health , a sudden swooning oft-times rusheth on one from the lower parts , and as well Sense as Motion , failes in one onely instant . If that be made by Fumes , Sense ought first to fail , and afterwards motion , by degrees : Because the foremost Bosomes of the Brain are nearer to the mouth of the stomach , than that last very slender one is : And that thing should happen altogether most slowly , if the Apoplexy were from a stoppage . Again , In most sharp gripings or wringings of the Bowels , the Joynts are drawn together , with an integrity of the Functions of the Mind , yea and without a pain in the Head ; the which presently after , in the Palsie , are for the most part , at rest . Doth therefore the pain of the Belly stop up the Beginning of the Thorny marrow , without an Apoplexy ? To wit , so as that often-times , both the hands and feet are resolved , and deprived of motion . Is now therefore the fourth bosome of the Brain stopped on both sides ? Why are the Joynts onely deprived of Motion and Sense , not likewise the intermediating Organs , begging their own Sense and Motion from the same Journey , mean , and middle space ? For what affinity is there of a Bowel , with that last bosome of the Cerebellum ? Or what agreement of this bosome , with the utmost Joynts ? To wit , that these should pay the punishment deserved from elsewhere ? For it is not yet sufficiently manifest , seeing Sense and Motion are made in one onely Nerve , yet how in most , either of the two may be hurt , the other being safe . Wherefore I as the first , ought to clear up this Question by Positions . 1. The Brain doth not feel or perceive by it self , scarce in it self : But it is covered with two membranes , of a most sharp sense : so that there is every where a very sharp sense , and a majesty of great Authority in the stomach , womb , Coats of the Brain , Intestines ; To wit , in naked membranes , &c. 2. The Correlative thereof is ; the Animal Spirit , as long as it is formed within the bosomes of the Brain , or wanders , it feeleth not , neither is the Brain made a partaker of Sense thereby . 3. That Spirit receives not Sense from the Brain , seeing the Brain it self wants sense . And by Consequence , neither doth the spirit receive the last power of its perfection and Sensation , in the bosomes of the Brain . 4. The Thorny Marrow in its inward kernel , is the continued substance of the Brain , and is therefore cloathed with a membrane , con-tinual with the Menynx's or Coats thereof . 5. Every sinew is therefore marrowie within : but without , it is covered with its own little membrane . 6. The Thorny Marrow is believed to be passable through its middle as long as we live ; whereby the motive Spirit is dispensed , and equally extended throughout the length of that Marrow and the Nerves . For that its own vital light beaming forth , brings down the command of the Will , or its beck , unto the Muscles , the executive Organ of that motion which the Soul voluntarily proposeth to it self . 7. The Command of the Soul is instantous ; not indeed , that the Spirits , as being ennobled with the Characters of a Command , do run down ( suppose thou in one that playes on the Harp ) at all particular moments of motions . For although motions may happen to the administring Spirits , yet the obediences of these should be too slow . Wherefore the command or beck of the Soul is brought down in an instant , onely by a beam of Light : Even so as the Objects of sight are even at a far distance , perceived in a moment . 8. Seeing there is no Sense , or at leastwise a dull one , unto the Brain , but a most acute one unto the Coates thereof : therefore the light of Sense defluxeth not through the marrow and central substance of a sinew , and its Trunk : but the sensitive Soul beams forth Sense , and is especially communicated from the Coates of the Brain through the membranes , the coverings of the sinews , unto the parts co-touching with , and being the annexed Clients of the Nerve . 9. Therefore the light which beames forth unto the Guardians of Sense and Motion , is formed in a double substance , and by a double beck , sensitively . From hence it comes to pass , that Sense is hurt , Motion being safe ; or on the contrary , by reason of a diversity of participated light brought down through divers Organs . Wherefore the most High is never sufficiently to be praised , who hath placed so Noble Faculties in the Membranes of the Brain , Stomach , and Womb , conteining the Life , Soul , and the whole Government of man in them ! For if there be a fundamental verity of Palmestry and Physiognomy , there are Lines , as well in the forehead as in the hand , which do sometimes portend an Apoplexy to come : But such a Signate is from the thing signifying , which naturally constitutes us : But the Archeus of the Seed cannot fore-know those effects ; especially those which are to arise from a contingent Chance ( to wit , if anger , an inordinate life , and the too much use of Tobacco , shall afford the Beginnings of an Apoplexy ) Therefore at least , it must needs be , that the Beginnings of an Apoplexy , are not from a privative cause , if they are concealed in the Seminal Beginnings themselves , and are at sometime to break forth at the time of their own maturity : which is to say , that the Apoplexy doth actually lay hid in the Archeus , or Seed , after the manner of Hereditary Diseases : and so also , that it thus makes an assault through whole Families . At leastwise , be it known , that an Apoplexy is not a stopping up of the little Bosome , made by phlegme , as neither a privative effect : but that it consists of true and Seminal Beginnings : But the stopping phlegme ( if there were any in man ) or the stoppage depending thereupon , doth not fore-exist in the Seed ; and much lesse should it be fit to delineate in the Young , so late monstrous effects . And so , they most remotely exclude phlegme sliding into the fourth Bosome of the Brain : And by Consequence also , the Universities , who have been hitherto ignorant of the Disease and Remedy thereof . In the next place , Neither is it to be understood , by what meanes , or middle distance , Nature could so detain the phlegme ( a disobedient and not vital excrement ) on the one side onely of that small and most narrow Bosome , that it should never issue unto the opposite side , through its own heap , and fluidnesse of moisture : Yea , when the Palsie is in the right side , the laying down , is then alwayes on the left side : therefore it should be impossible , but that , that phlegme should soon fall down into the left side , and extinguish the sick party himself , or at least , beget an Ambulatory or shaking Palsie . Why at length should that little bosome expell that phlegme alwayes unto the right or left side , but never forwards or backwards ? Especially , because in Nature , there is not right or left : but all things , in respect of the whole Body , are round : whence it is manifest , that in the very Organs , to wit , in the vital Archeus , but not in the feigned phlegme of that bosome , there is hid an effective reason , why the Archeus being Apoplectical , doth alwayes bend the Palsey its Lackey , unto the side : but it is a mockery , whatsoever the Schooles have dreamed of the fourth little bosome . The whole reason of Truth therefore depends in these same Diseases , as the Archeus forms and perfects a Seminal Idea ; the which he for the most part , finds somewhat cadaverous or mortified in meats , and the transmutations of these . For then he causeth giddinesses of the head , and the more tough ones , if the same thing happens in the excrements , in the passage from Food into nourishment : and that Apoplexy is most exceeding readily inclined , which forms it sealing Idea in the very Archeus of the Du●mvirate ; Because the whole Archeus in the Bowels , is straightway as it were mortified . At length from sundry particulars laid down , I conclude , That an Apoplexy is in no wise a privative Disease , and that the stoppages of the sinews do far differ here-from , as in the writhing or wresting aside of the turning Joynts , in hanging , &c. Also that neither of them doth arise from an obstruction of the fourth bosome in the Cerebellum , at the beginning of the Thorny marrow : But the Apoplexy is generated occasionally from a poysonous stupefactive and mortified beginning of matter fore-conceived in the Midriffs : The which , when it hath in the same place attained its perfection , and requisite maturity , it infects the Archeus of the place , which presently , for that very cause vanquisheth , and sore troubleth the powers of the Brain : but not that the Brain doth primarily labour , and draw the parts put under it , into the conspiracy of its own Death . But that the Palsie is a Contracture of the sensitive parts , caused by Terrour alone . But that thing is manifest in particular resolvings of the members ; To wit , wherein the local Generations of the aforesaid Apoplectical poyson are made . Furthermore , the Schooles have made mention of one onely Anodynous poyson , which is sleepisying , stupefactive , and distinguished onely in degree , between Opium , Mandrake , and Henbane ; not that they therefore deny , although they pass by many others in Simples . For there are some , which in a small space of duration , do take away Sense , and the health of the Mind , Motion being left , even as in affects of the Falling sicknesse . Some do overshadow or Eclipse the Motion onely , others both , and very many also do befool , Sense and Motion being left : Neither therefore are they to be named : even as , neither others , which are bedrunkening ones . But besides , the humour that is to be assimilated unto us , is easily infected from the Image of a mortal Anodynous poyson of the Archeus conceived in the Midriffs , wherewith a various condition of poyson is co-bred for Company , and is frequently beheld in the Plague : But elsewhere , it strikes not the head , but is sealed in the habit of the body ; where also now and then , the freezing poyson of the Leprosie , is bred by the same priviledge of degenerating ; But a stupefactive poyson in the Duumvirate , violently dejects the Brain , and according to its difference , generates giddiness , the Falling-Evil , Heart-beatings , Swoonings , Catochus's , and the Apoplexy ; and as fears of the parts , so also Palseys accompany this Apoplexy . But out of the Duumvirate , it mortisies its Seat with an astonishment , and a cold Gangreen , &c. They therefore notably err , who are busied in restraining madness by Opiates : seeing every Opiate , is in it self mad , because madness is nothing besides a waking Dream . For truly scarce a ten-fold Dose of Opium , procures sleep to a mad person , but in a lesser Dose , nothing is effected : But if indeed through increasing of the Dose , sleep creepes on the mad person , it shall now increase the waking sleep , and divers unlike vanities of vain Dreames . But sleep coming on a mad man of its own free accord , hath deceived the Schooles : For that , as it proceedes from a good cause , so also as a fore-running Betokener of health , it promiseth that the madnesse will be solved . Add thou , that in Opium , besides a sleepifying , there is another poyson connexed : whence deadly Poppies for sleep , are much sung of by Poets . But in the sulphur of Vitriol , there is a Sugary sleepifying Being , which brings on sweet sleep , together with a restoring of the principal Faculties . There is the like in Sulphur , for which things sake , it is commended in affects of the Lungs , if it be so prepared , as that it may be able to play together with us . Sleep that brings labour or trouble ( such as is from Opiates ) is evil : Which poyson denotas sore disturbances and Tempests : Therefore sweet sleep creeping on the party , is to be dedicated unto favourable Causes . Therefore ( I will say it again ) the Apoplexy , Falling-sickness , Coma or sleeping-Evil , giddiness of the Head , trembling of the Heart , &c. have their own singular , and those anodynous poysons . The Ve●tigo indeed doth sometimes prostrate a man , like the Apoplexy , but without a Palsie : Because it hath not a Cadaverous stupefactive poyson , but a be drunkening one , such as is in Tobacco : But if it shall become the more hurtfull in degree , number , or quantity , it is also made apoplectical . But moreover , concerning Garlick and Aqua vitae , I have spoken , and of the unsensibleness thereof : yet it is not apoplectical , because a poyson , and constant Root is absent . At least , by way of impertinency , I will add to this : That Anodynous things , although they stupifie like cold ; yet that they are erroneously placed by the Schooles among things that are cold in the highest degree . And moreover , neither is the sleepifying sulphur in Opium , cold : but it is exceeding bitter , and the salt thereof is sharp and Sudoriferous : But bitter things in the Schooles , are notably Hot. Therefore the sleepifying matter as well in Opium , as elsewhere , is a power and specifical Gift of the Creatour , but not an effect of Cold : Even as I have elsewhere profesly manifested concerning sleep . But the stupefactive poyson in the Epilepsie , differs from an Apoplectical one : because , in the chief part of it , it is a be-drunkening one . Spare me Reader , for that I denominate the faculties of things from the similitude of Simples , for truly , proper Names are waning ; as also the knowledge of Properties from a former Cause , which ought to dictate Names . After the Treatises of unsensibility , of Anodinous things , and of some poysons , pain is to be re-sumed by me . I repeat therefore , That pain and sense are made immediately in an injured place , or Center , a consent of the Brain being not required . For it is sufficient that the vital Light of the sensitive Soul it self is diffused into all parts on every side , according to the requirance of necessity : For any Ruler of parts , ought also to be a Noter and Discerner of Objects : Because it hath the Soul on every side present with , and President over it . For after what sort shall the Soul manifest , that it feeles things hurtfull , unlesse it shall stir up a pain or averseness , from thence conceived in its injured Center ? The Spirits therefore , inserted in the Joynts , ought readily to serve the necessities of the Members , without consultation , and recourse had unto the Brain : seeing not the Brain , but the Soul it self , being every where present , doth immediately feel . For there was need of excessive swiftness for the averting and preventing of hurtfull things : therefore to send a Messenger unto the Br●in , had been inconvenient . I grant indeed , that the pain of the Intestine drawes other parts into a consent , and resolves them either with a stubborn Palsie , or contracts the parts serving for voluntary motion , that the Kidney being pained , the stomach is nauseous , and begins to vomit , the Bowels are writhed , and the Thigh placed under it , is astonied : That the Nail of ones Hand paining , stirs up a remote kernel . For truly , the presence of the Soul confirmeth , but doth not take away a consent of parts . Therefore that consent in paines , is forreign unto pain , and by accident : neither therefore doth it touch at , or estrange the essence or cause of pain ; Because that Consent is latter unto pain , and therefore also separable from it . Therefore all the particular Spirits of the parts , do feel , without the commerce of the inflowing Spirit ; As in the Teeth , and in new flesh being restored in a hollow Ulcer . For because the parts do on both sides live in their own quarter , Sense is according to the diversities of the Organ ; and therefore there are many paines con-centred in Seasons , and they answer unto the unequalities of the Moon , because they are centrally received in the Spirit which is Astral unto us . Again , Neither the venal bloud , nor the very bloud of the Arteries , are strong in Sense and an animal Touching , although they being even hunted out of the Vessels , do Sympathetically feel ; because they flourish onely with influous Spirit . Therefore it hath been hitherto questioned by Divines , whether the venal bloud be informed by the Soul ? I suppose therefore , under the Correction of a better Judgement , That nothing is informed by the Soulof a living Creature , which doth not partake of the sensitive Soul ; that is , that nothing is informed by the Soul which doth not feel by the Spirit implanted and quickned in the parts : Because informing argues of necessity , life in the living Creature : as also Life argues a sense or feeling , at least a dull one , such as is in the Bones and Brain . But if indeed , meates in the stomach , an abounding of Seed in the seedy Kernels , Hunger , yea and the Urine , do produce their own dreams in the Soul , and stir up the Soul under sleep , according to their pleasure : Yet it followes not from thence , on the other hand , That therefore the Soul informeth the food or the urine : For although the Soul shall feel urine abounding and pressing it ; yet this urine doth not feel its own Objects . For the Soul also , feels a pricking Knife , the which notwithstanding , it doth not inform . That therefore any thing may be informed by the Soul , it is necessary , that it lives and feels as it were the subject of the life it self . Sense therefore , and pain are in the parts or things conteining , subjectively : but in those conteined , objectively onely . Yea , although things conteined are intimate with us , and after a most near manner , vital ; yet in respect of their being things conteined , and of the sensitive Soul , they are as it were external . Notwithstanding , it is not sufficient to have said with the vulgar , That a hurtful cause is painful ; yea , nor is it sufficient to know , that the Sensitive Li●e doth primarily feel , and from thence the spirit implanted in the parts , and at length the stable Organs : and so indeed that the Sense testifies of the presence of that which is hurtful ; seeing these things , the Schools and the common people have after some sort known : But it ought more manifestly to appear , what may immediately cause pain , and after what sort Pain may be made in feeling . As to the first , a Needle pricks , and from thence is pain . A litte Bee stings , and wounds like a Needle ; But both of them do pain after a far different manner : Therefore the solution or dividing of that which held together , it self , ( otherwise common in both prickings ) doth not primarily cause pain : For truly , the dividing or that which held together , effects no other thing , in respect of it self , than a Non-solution : The which in leprous affects and in the Palsey , is without Sense and Pain : But if indeed the solution of the Con-tinual , causeth pain , or doth not , that is to the knife by accident , neither doth this touch at the Solution primarily , except in the condition of an occasion , without which it is not : therefore because the stinging of a Bee causeth another manner of pain than an equal solution that is made by a Needle , surely it dependeth on a more piercing judgement of Sense or Feeling : And so it is even from thence , presently manifest , that the Sensitive Soul it self doth immediately feel , censure and judge of the Object of Pain . But Sense in the Schools , is said to be made passively , even as motion , actively . But I have already shewn , that Sense is made by a power , or by a primary sensitive Being , through action ; Although the Members do suffer subjectively , through the application of sensible Objects : Therefore Sense or Feeling is made actively , because the Act of feeling it self , is an active censure of the Soul. But in as much , in the mean time , as the members do suffer , seeing that is unto the act of feeling by accident , it cannot hinder , but that feeling is made sensitively . There is indeed the same proper agent in that sensitive action of Sense and Pain , because the Agent it self , is the Soul : And Sense or Feeling differs from pain , by the judgement of the Soul concerning sensible Objects : And so Sense is of the Soul it self ; to wit , its action , but not its passion . The Schools indeed have known with the common people , that violent causes do bring on Pain , even as also that the water is liquid ; But to have shewn the internal animosity or courage of the sensitive faculty , and to have manifested pain in the root , that they have not yet hitherto been intent upon . To which end , the following consideration doth conduce . Live flesh is most easily scorched , and is excoriated or flead by boyling water . But dead flesh is the more slowly burnt : And there is a different scorching , if a live hand , and that of a dead Carcase be burnt : For truly the former burning stirrs up bladders with the least fervency of heat , so as that the same happens even under the Sun ; But the latter burning parcheth the flesh , no otherwise than if it were roasted : namely , without little bladders and excoriation . The Schools also have not yet registred that difference , because neither have they heeded it . And perhaps they will say , that it is more easie to make hot , things already heated , and that therefore , live flesh is the more readily burnt . But let us suppose dead flesh to be first made lukewarm , and to be in the same degree of heat , no otherwise than if it did live ; yet it is not therefore easily scorched or burnt , nor after the same manner wherein live-flesh is : Therefore the aforesaid evasion hath no place : Wherefore seeing that from the agent of a single degree of heat , divers operations do happen in the same subject of flesh , being distinct only in life : Therefore it must needs be , that the life is the only cause of that diversity : which is to say , that the life is the proper agent of Sennsation in Sesitive Creatures ; and that the life is such a cause , which besides , hath a power of making burnings or scorchings in live bodies , and in the matter of Medicine , yea also of resisting , or not ; Wherefore I find Life to be the first or chief , and immediate Efficient of Sense and pain . For truly , the force of fire being received and introduced into a dead Carcase , is not to be felt ; yea , neither properly is it a Scorching or burning one , such as is in live bodies , but rather a roasting and parching one : For in live bodies , the liquor of flesh , is through an indignation of the Sensitive Soul , most speedily converted into a sharp liquor , and substantially transchanged : the which in dead bodies is not subject unto a vital transmutation : And so , by boyling and frying , it parcheth and roasteth fleshes between the Fibers . For flesh that is dead suffers by degrees , the which , other bodies not sensitive , do suffer after a single manner from the fire : But in live bodies , even boyling water presently produceth bladders , and then the solid part is swiftly cont●acted and burns . Therefore that action of scorching or burning in live and and sensitive bodies , is made efficiently by the Life it self , but by the fire , effectively , by way of an active , occasional , and external mean : To wit , the life it self , feeling the rigour of the fire , sharpens its own liquor , and transchangeth it into a bladdering one , and afterwards into an Escharrotick liquor . And as much indeed as is snatched by the fire , so much afterwards is by a disposition that is left , corrupted , because it is dead : But because of sensible things known by Sense , touching is the chief Judge , therefore a demonstration hath scarce place , and the history and root of pain by its causes , hath hitherto remained neglected : Therefore I will repeat some things , which in so great a Paradox , I wrote before in a more contracted speech . Wherefore for the searching into the proper agent in pain , I have considered , that Frogwort , Smallage , Scarwort . &c. do not embladder in a dead Carcase , yet they embladder live flesh ; I judged therefore , that in the very sensitive soul the difference of this act consisted , and not primasily in the Scarwort : Because it is that which embladders only so far as by a biting more sharp than is meet , it thus molests the Sensitive spirits , the which , that they may mitigate , blunt , or extinguish the perceived sharpness , the soul rageth in them , and therefore resolveth the proper vital substance of the members into a corrosive liquor : ( even as elsewhere concerning the Plague ) wherefore the sensitive Soul it self , as it is the immediate sensitive substance , so it is the efficiently effective cause of the bladder : But the Scarwort which operates nothing in a dead Carcase , is the effective , occasional , external , and excitative cause . By reason whereof the Schools being astonished , have taught , that Medicines are wholly sluggish , and as it were dead , unless they are first prepared by our heat , as it were by a Cook , and being stirred up , are sharpned thereby : The which thing surely , wants not its own perplexities : For they have determined of that very thing , as Medicines being assumed or applied , should not forthwith display their faculties on us like fire ; but as they should have need of a certain space of time wherein they might produce their own effects by foregoing dispositions ; notwithstanding , if a space be required , that an altetation may made , which is the effect of the medicine ; Surely , that not any thing proves the action of a Medicine otherwise necessary , to be from our heat , that the Medicine may obtain the gift of its own nativity , or a liberty of acting , the which it obtained safe , full , and free to it self by Creation . But ( as I have said ) it operates after another manner , yea oft-times , a far other thing in live bodies , than otherwise in dead , or unsensitive ones : And so the effects of Medicines are not wrought , unless they are first duly applied , and afterwards by a more exact appropriation , they do imprint their power on us , to wit , that from thence a disposition may arise , which the sensitive soul stirs up by its own judgement , and afterwards also unfolds , and perfects . For the Schools have erred in Medicinal affairs , because they have beheld external and occasional causes for principal , and vital ones : Therefore they have neglected to connex in live bodies , and in cures themselves , things effected , unto their proper efficients , by the due journeys of degrees : Wherefore be it a foolish thing , that Pepper , Vinegar , &c. ought to borrow their activities and gifts received for acting , from our heat : As if one only heat should be the primary cause of so many-form effects : Because in very deed , that a thing may act on us , it hath no need of another forreign thing out of it self for this purpose ; but as primarily , so it without delay presently uncloaths its faculties by the moments of dispositions , if it be duly applyed , ( even as I have demonstrated at large , as well concerning the action of Government , as in the Treatise , that heat doth not digest in sensitive Creatutes . ) But because the sensitive Soul ( which the Schools shamefully confound with heat ) applyeth the received faculties , and from thence frameth a certain new action proper to it self , and wholly vital : Therefore the faculties which the Sensitive soul receiveth from the medicine , are the effective and occasional causes only , and it might if it would , pass by , and neglect the same . The which is manifest in the more strong persons , who digest laxative medicines , even violent ones , without trouble , and drink being in vain , as if they were foods : And likewise in dying persons , unto whom indeed , there is an application of Medicines , but not an appropriation , to wit , by reason of a neglect and defect of the sensitive power : For in the more strong folks , an exciting heat is not wanting , and yet th●re is no effect : For otherwise , the vertues of a Medicine are presently received , and do p●oceed : by degrees more and more , and then those powers being received into the sensitive Soul , this sensitive Soul presently behaves it self well or ill toward them : If well , then it useth its own Objects for the cherishment of their powers , or for the vanquishment of that which is hurtful : But if amiss , now the sensitive life carries it self foolishly , furiously , angrily , vexingly , &c. And it spreads the seminal Idea's of these Passions on the assaulting spirit , on the blood , and on the Organs affected by the Medi●ines , and effects remain agreeable unto the aforesaid Idea's . The which , in the Treatise of Diseases , and likewise concerning the Plague , I have evidently demonstrated . And so if a delay interposeth between a Medicine being applied , and the effect of the same : that never happens by reason of a defect , or requirance of an activity of the things ; but it happens by reason of the necessity of a vital activity , issuing , and following from the impression made by the Medicine : For a poysonous power is not wanting in the stroak of a Serpent , although it sometimes doth not operate , by reason of an impediment : For an Agent , that it may act on us , stands in need of an application , of an appropriated impression , and of a sensitive power , as it were the receiver of another acting power : And that , that it may bring forth a Product , which in very deed , and immediately , is a new , or vital fruit , as a testimony of the sensation or feeling act of the soul . For thus many do so accustom themselves to laxative medicines , that at length they operate nothing at all ; not indeed , that heat failed in the man , or that the laxatives have lost their former faculties ; but the soul hath contracted a familiarity from the frequent use of them , so that it is at length the more mildly wroth with those poysons , than at their first turnes . For truly , in this respect , it is true and perpetual , that all sensation consisteth rather in a vital action and judgment , than in passion : whether in the meane time , that sensation shall happen in the more external sense , or in any passion of the mind ; or in the next place , in the natural or Sympathetical sense of inanimate things . At least wise it is mani●est , that medicines do not want a foregoing heat of ours , that they may simply act : but the sensitive power which is the principal actresse , hath need of acting and sensible objects that it m●y feel , and in feeling , may act : And therefore the action of sensible things , hath it self on both sides after the manner of an occasional cause in respect of the sensitive soul ; neither therefore do medicines operate in a dead carcase , by reason of a want of the principal and immediate agent which is the life , or soul . Whence also it is sufficiently manifest , how disorderly the faculties of medicines have been hitherto attributed unto the agent , or vital , and principal efficient , and how neglected the principall agent hath stood , as well in the healing as in the effecting of diseases . Truly if otherwise , a medicine ought to be actuated by our heat as such every medicine should equally act always , and every where on every humane object that is actuall hot ; no otherwise then as a certain weight is always , uniformly , of equal weight with it self : But a laxative medicine being administred in the same dose , looseneth in one , terribly , but in another , nothing at all : Yet it is on both sides sufficiently stirred up by heat : Yea , the same medicine for the most part rageth on the weaker sort , which in the more strong is without an effect . But that which I have said concerning Coloquintida , Scarwort , frogwort , &c. Is also to be drawn promiscuously , unto other agents . Yea , bright burning iron burnes a dead carcase , although not after an equal manner as it doth a live one : For in live bodies it primarily hurts the sensitive soul , the which therefore being impatient , rageth after a wonderfull manner , doth by degrees resolve and exasperate its own and vital liquours into a sharp poyson , and then contracts the fibers of the flesh , and turns them into an escharre , yea into the way of a coale : But a dead carcase is burnt by bright burning iron , no other wise than if wood , or any other unsensitive thing should be : That is , it burnes by a proper action of the fire , but not of the life . For this prerogative the Schooles have not heeded , the which one only prerogative notwithstanding , is considerable in the Entrance of healing : But they according to their own manner , have considered only the proper action of the fire , even as also the abstracted powers of medicines . Calx Vive , as long as it remaineth dry , it gnawes not a dead carcase : but it presently gnawes live flesh , and moves an escharre . A dead carcase is by lime wholly resolved into a liquour , and is combibed , except the bone & gristle thereof : But it doth not consume live slesh into a liquour , but translates it into an escharre . In general therefore , the sensitive vital power , is first affected by a sensible object : and from thence it at length frames an effect , or a new , that is , a proper Being , According to the passion concieved after the manner of the hurt or injury figured to it self : And this effect is proper to the sensitive soul , but mediate , in respect of the occasion exciting . Consequently also , seeing pain consisteth subjectively in the injured and provoked part , but in the life , as in the first feeler , being troubled , judging , and displeased , as the primary agent ; I have accounted the essential divers●y of paines to consist immediately in the affect of the motion of the soul : To wit , that pricking , lancing , and walking paines , are bred from mixt affects , which proceeded from wrath and fear , or from agony . Truly , I took diligent notice , that there was a contracture almost in every pain ; So that , a hurting occasional matter being offered , the hurt part , being as it were presently drawn together , and co-wrinckled by a cramp , manifesteth its own pain : For nature is every where so prone to a Cramp , that no man is about to do his easement , whose cod , how loose soever it was , is not crisped and co-wrinckled . For by reason of the natural aversnesse of the implanted spirit , from a payning object , pain hath continually a crisping of its own member , as it were a companion . There is also moreover , a stable pain in a part , even as in an ulcer , wound , impostume , &c. But this rageth from an only and meere in ignation : For this doth not so properly contract it self , even as in convulsive paines : but it melts its own nourishable liquour , and changeth it into a sharp salt , a poysonsome one , and at length through an induced naughtinesse , translates it into an embladdering or escharring one . There are besides , some blunt , deep paines , modestly gnawing , and the more stupide ones , and the which are exorbitant through an errour of the digestions , having followed rather a foolish wrothfullnesse , than the fury of the life . Therefore all paine is caused occasionally from a sorrowfull affection of objects : But it proceedes immediately , from the life it self , as it were a testimony of sense . Yea , pain doth often denote the passions of the sensitive soul for a proper destruction of organs : Because that soul laies hold on those parts being badly affected , rising up as it were from a proper ●ice of themselves , and as if they murmuring , it endeavours to correct , chastise these parts , and oft-times also , to destroy them . Therefore in the termes proposed concerning the disease of the stone , the womb of Duelech moves at first , great paines only by a convulsion of it self : the which at length , become more mild unto those that are accustomed thereunto , to wit , by reason of a less indignation of the soul . For from hence , children make water afar of , but old folkes , nigh ; Because the bladder of children being impatient of the pain conceived from the retained urine , naturally contracts and presseth it self together : But the bladder of old men being now the lesse sorely smitten with the accustomed chance , suffers the urine of its own free accord to slide forth ; otherwise , the muscle of the bladder being loosed , there is no reason why children do pisse far of , and old folks nigh , unless the already said childish contracture of the bladder , and painfull , and voluntary pressing together thereof behind , were as yet unaccustomed . Through occasion of pain , the Cramp or convulsion is not to be neglected . First of all ( I will not repeate what I have taught concerning gripings or w●ingings of the bowells , in the treatise concerning windes ) the part that is contracted , doth not grieve by reason of the contracture ( as is manifest concerning the cod , it being contracted without pain ) but by reason of an offence brought on the spirit and life : For the contracture is an effect of sensa●ion or pain , although it happens , that the pain is also increased by the comming of the contracture . My age , because it is fruitfull in perverse wits , will laugh at this paradox , with many others : The which notwithstanding following posterity , will willingly embrace . The Schooles indeed have thought that a convulsion is made by the execu●ive instruments of voluntary motion , in that respect , because they say , that there are the healthy , and diseasie functions of the same faculty , although they are stirred up from diverse occasional causes . A Muscle therefore , seeing it is the only executive member of voluntary motion , and a sinew the derivative organ of the command of the will ; it followes ( as they teach ) that a Muscle , although it be acted in the Cramp , against our will , yet that it is never drawn together , unless by the very same voluntary motive faculty it self , which moveth that muscle while it is in health ; wherein the Schools do erroneoosly contradict themselves ; while as they define a Convulsion to be indeed the symptome of a voluntary motion ; yet to arise from a fulness , or emptiness , as it were its immediate and containing causes . Yet it is sufficiently known , that fulness and emptiness are natural causes , but not arbitral or voluntary ones ; which natural causes , if they shorten , or contract a sinew ( as they manifestly teach ) at leastwise the attraction of the sinews shall not be made by an arbitrary motion . I admire also , the hitherto famous stupidities of the Schools in this respect . For first of all , a sinew differs from a Muscle , no otherwise than as a vein doth : This indeeed , carries blood unto the Muscle , and that motion : And then , besides the two causes of a Convulsion , perhaps invented by Hyppocrates , Galen hath moreover added a third , which is admitted in the Schools , to wit , a poysonous quality : For Galen had seen the Convulsion to follow from the stroak of Serpents ; neither yet could he as yet believe , although the strucken member was swollen , that fulness caused the Convulsion . He being defectuous , first of all , because he was ignorant , whether a nerve ought to be smitten , that it may be pull'd together , or indeed a Muscle . Then , because mortal Convulsions are made in gripings or wringings of the bowels , and Hellebour being taken , without any hurting , emptying , fulness of the sinews , or a colical poyson . Thirdly , He is also defective , because that seeing in a Convulsion , there is made a drawing back of the member , and a shortning of the Muscle , he hath not discerned ( as it otherwise beseemed the Prince of Medicine to do ) why a poyson doth contract or shorten the Muscle , thus leaving the former obscurity : For truly Galen saith , That the name of a Physitian , is the finder out of the occasion ; which name he hath not lost in this place . Again , In the fourth place , if a Convulsion happens from an empried , and filled nerve , that is , from a proper Passion of the nerve : Ought therefore a poysonous qualiry to be imprinted on a sinew , or on a Muscle , that a Convulsion may from thence happen ? Fifthly , Galen hath remained defective , and together with him , the Schools his followers , why the stroak of a Serpent , the poysonous quality of a Medicine , &c. are made the proper Passion of a voluntary motion , and of its own Organs : For if the poyson ought to be imprinted on the Muscle , therefore the sinew shall cease to be the proper subject of the Cramp , and by consequence , the emptiness , or fulness thereof is vainly supposed and required . But if the poyson dasheth against the nerve it self , after what manner shall Hellebour wandring through the bowels , primarily affect the sinew ? After what manner shall a Medicine , being as yet detained in the stomack , cause a Convulsion , and give a freedom therefrom , by the vomiting thereof ? At leastwise it is ridiculous , that the successive alteration of the affected Muscles shall effect the shew of the Malady , if the essence of the malady dependeth on the affected sinews . And it is a foolish thing , That an Emprostotonos or a Convulsive Extension of the neck forwards , a Tetanos or straight Extension , and an Opistotonos or an Extension thereof backwards , should differ specifically , by reason of a changing of the Muscle : For a Muscle draws its tail always after the same manner , to wit , towards the head . Truly such childishnesses do of necessity proceed from the ignorance of a Disease , and the rashness of a childish judgement ; wherefore nature hath distinguished of the Specie's of Diseases , according to the Specie's of occasional causes , but not by reason of the difference of scituations . And so , seeing emptiness and fulness are terms plainly opposite , they could not produce one only kind of Convulsion : And it is a hard matter to believe , that the emptiness of a sinew being wholly privative , is as equally occasional to the Cramp , as a fulness of the same sinew : Even as it is alike blockish , that a nerve is filled for so long a time , until it shortens that nerve , and that from a small nerve being extended in its breath by repletion or filling , the Muscle is shortened : As if all the sinews could be suddenly emptied , and likewise filled , and extended unto a hugeness , in every fit of the Falling sickness , to wit , by feigned humours ? as if the Convulsion were only a shortning of the Muscle , following upon the abbreviating of a dried , or moistened sinew ? and indeed , as if in regard that the unaccustomed repletion of a sinew did shorten that sinew , even as the other , which by its drying of the sinews , did diminish the sinews no less in their length , than in their breadth , the nerves did suffer an unexcusable Palsey to be from the errour of a convulsive Retraction , and not rather from that of both the supposed causes ? To wit , as well through a stoppage of the netve from Phlegm filling it , as they say , as by a pressing together of the dryed sinew ? and as if so great a sudden drying up thereof , were credible , or possible to be in a live body ? Yea , after what manner doth a nerve being now once withered , ( suppose thou by too much insolency , as they say , of laxative Hellebour ) presently again admit of a restauration of its own radical moisture being dryed up ? Why hath it been necessary to feign , and admit of a filling , or emptying of a sinew , if a poysonous quality can afford the Convulsion without either of them ? The received opinion therefore of the Schooles concerning the causes of the Convulsion or Cramp , registred to be from the emptinesse , and fulnesse of the sinewes , is ridiculous . For although , they with Galen , acknowledge also a third Cause , which is that of a malignant quality : Neverthelesse , they stick as convicted , in the two former Causes : For they err in the Matter , Object , Efficient , and manner of making ; That is , in the whole . As if a small Nerve being extended unto a Muscle , which oft-times scarce equalizeth the grossenesse of a threefold thred , being moistened more than is meet , and drye● than is fit to be , should be made by so much shorter than it self , by how much a muscle drawes the members together , perhaps to to the length of a span ? Yea , as though , as well the be dashing of an hostile Humour , as the emptying of a Nerve , should cause the paines of a Convulsion ! They bring hither the ridiculous Example of dryed Clay : when as in live Bodies drynesses are impossible ; and they also afford impossible Restaurations : While as notwithstanding , those Cramps do oft-times cease of their own accord . The Schooles have thought , that those feigned Moistnesses and Drynesses of a little sinew ( which could scarce effect the latitude of a straw ) do contract the Muscle , even into the Convulsion of a foot-length . Neither likewise is that Example of value , That the string of a Lute , being wet with the Rain of Heaven , leaps assunder as broken , in regard that it is cut short by the imbibed Liquor . For first of all it might have been extended longer by twofold , than the feigned extension thereof in its breadth had shortened the same . The Schooles do not take notice , that a moist membrane is brickle , as also a dry one : and therefore also that Lute-strings are kept fat in oyl , lest they should become wet , or wax dry . Away with their examples , which have no place in a live body ! For in a living body the sinews cannot be so dryed , that their witheredness can cause any abbreviation . 2. They being once dryed , can never afterwards receive a moistening any more , than drie old age it self . 3. They deny a Convulsion arisen from a laxat●ve medicine to be made by a poyson : For if they should acknowledge a poyson to be in a solutive medicine , they should cut off their own purse . A Convulsion therefore arising from a solutive Medicine , as from only an emptying , but not from a poysonous Medicine , should be indeed from an emptiness , or dryness of the sinews : But a Convulsion or Cramp arisen from a loosening Medicine , is oft-times restored : Therefore it is not bred from a dryness of the sinews . 4. Every lean old person should be drawn back by a perpetual and universal Convulsion . 5. Seeing a sinew is not the executive member of motion , therefore the shortening of at sinew , proves not a Convulsion of the joynts as though an arm or leg ought to follow upon the cutting short of a sinew . 6. Seeing that a nerve being moistened , ( so that it were made by so much the shorter , by how much , through a forreign humour being imbibed , it should be extended on its breadth ) such a humour should be plainly contrary to nature , it should effect a Palsey rather then a Convulsion : But a Palsey is Diametrically opposite to a Convulsion it self , as well in Sense as in Motion . 7. How could a stroak of the Scull presently at one moment , dry up the sinews of one side , but by moistening the other sinews opposite unto them , forthwith enlarge them on their breadth , that they may cause the Convulsion and Palsey at once ? And seeing as well Emptying as Filling are feigned for the cause of the Convulsion , the stroak of the Scul ought to produce the Cramp on both sides . 8. It is no wonder therefore , that so unsuccesful remedies have been applied to the Convulsion , if the Universities are hitherto ignorant of all the Requisites of Diseases . For they ought to have known , that every Convulsion is a vital Blas of the Muscles stirred up from the in bred Archeus ; The occasion whereof , is a certain Malignant matter rushing on the Archeus , as laying in wait for the life of the Muscles . What if Hippocrates hath referred the cause of a Convulsion unto emptiness , and fulness ? he hath had respect unto the occasions of the foregoing life : To wit , that there was a frequent Convulsion to riotous persons , and likewise through much emptying of the Veins . And Galen not apprehending the mind of the old man , hath waxed lean at the humoural filling , and emptying of the sinews , by a succeeding , and that his own device . Such old wives fictions therefore ( which have been perswaded by the Schools unto credulous youth ) being despised ; I say , that there is in the Muscles , a twofold motion , to wit , one as it is the Organ of a voluntary motion ; and another , as being proper to it self ; whereby , although it draw back it self towards its head , yet it nothing hinders , but that the spirit implanted in those motive parts , doth retract or draw back , and move those parts ; even as was already said before concerning the ●od . For neither is it repugnant to nature , for the parts to leap a little by a local motion of their own , the soul being absent : to wit , for the parts which are moveable by another Commander , to be furiously contracted through a sorrowful sensation , seeing that another conspicuous motion is singularly wanting to the Muscles , whereby it may denote the hurt brought on them , besides that whereby it executes the voluntary motion of the Soul. And moreover , it is altogether natural to all the members , and proper to the common endeavour of the parts , for those to be drawn together by reason of the sorrowfull sense of an injury brought on them ; which place the Schooles have left untouched . Wherefore I have accounted it an erroneous thing , to believe with the Schooles , That the Convulsion is an affection of the Head. For now they depart herein from their own Positions , whereby they suppose the Cramp to be from filling , or emptying , or from a poysonous quality of the Nerves , unlesse they had rather , the Case being now altered , that the Convulsion should arise from the filling , or emptying of the Head : But the Cramp is an accident of the sensitive Spirit ; Which thing , first of all , the prickings of the Sinewes or Tendons , and likewise Fevers , Laxative poysons being taken , the stroaks or stings of Serpents , and other things like unto these , do manifest . Neither in the mean time doth it argue on the contrary , that a stroak of the Head doth also bring on a Convulsion : since there is no lesse Athourity to the Head , than to the Intestine , in Torments , for the framing of a Convulsion . Indeed , as well a Convulsion arising from the head , as that which is bred from the sensitive Soul much abhorring poyson , belongs to the muscles its Clients . In a stroak of the Head , what hath presently defiled the contracted side with a poyson ? Or what hath straightway emptied , or filled all the sinewes of that side ? Doth not the Brain shake in sneezing ? Is not the membrane which compasseth the Lungs , drawn together in a dry Asthma ? Is not the Pleura or Skin girding the Ribs , co-wrinkled , and contracted in a Pleurisie ; and doth it not for this cause voluntarily pull it self away from the Ribs ? And is not the Mediastinum or membrane of the middle Belly not unfrequently contracted ? Also the Diaphragma or Midriffmuscle through a notable anguish of pressure , straightned ? whereunto a Name is hitherto wanting ; although that affect be frequent in the beating of the Heart . The sometimes dull paines of the Spleen also , are the Betokeners of that Bowel its being convulsed ; The stomach also is drawn together in the Hicket , vomiting , and stomach paines . Indeed Contractures are renewed in these membranes , as oft as the molesting occasional Cause is stirred , or returneth . Also in the beginning of a Dropsie , or Jaundice , yea even before water or wind be bred , the Abdomen is oft-times drawn together , and waxeth hard on one side . Lastly , The Bowels shew forth intermitting gripes , not onely through an extension of winds ( which brings forth no paines if the Belly be not stopped ) but rather through a Convulsion of themselves . The which , I have elsewhere written that I have contemplated of beyond the Navil of an Infant . For I beheld , that as often as wringings or gripings of the Guts were exceeding urgent , fits of the Falling-sicknesse were stirred up : but the Intestines , according to the measure of pain , were as it were by walking or moving hither and thither , diversly rouled together and contracted ; otherwise , the Intestines being appeased , and plainly at rest : For a sharp and brackish Excrement in Colicks , pricks the sensitive Soul , and this produceth pain , and as it were by intervals , drawes the Bowel together , and the wind being then shut up therein by the chance of Fortune , stretcheth out the Bowels . Therefore the Wind-Colick ( so called in distinction from Duelech descending ) hath not its name from the Cause , but from a latter and accidental Symptome . So likewise from Laxatives , the pain of gripes or wringings of the Bowels doth oft-times return with a Convulsion , and it is cured by things mitigating the Convulsion : For Wind-Colicks are scarce discerned from the Stone-Colick : because the same Symptome of pain , through a crisping and contracting of the Bowels , appeares alike in both : For so the Oyl of Almonds being drunk , asswageth paines , because it pacifieth the contracted Intestines by besmearing them . Therefore seeing pain produceth a Convulsion , and this likewise , a new pain ; we see that pain doth oft-times beget pain , and that which is like it self . And then , as oft as an injury happens to the skin , veines , arteries , or nerves , they contract themselves into wrinckles through the power of the sensitive Soul : For how notably hard doth an Artery presently become , under any pain ? The hardness whereof doth not argue the dryness of an Artery ( as the Schooles judge ) : but a singular extension or convulsion thereof ; and the which therefore , Sweat being at hand , doth again produce a re-loosening of the Contraction , together with a softness : Otherwise , there is as equal a possibility of re-moistening a dryed and hardened Artery , as there is hope of taking away old age . Hath not also a contracted Bladder oft-times deceived expert Cutters for the Stone ; So the Kernels that are the vessels of the Seed , are draw● together in the Gonorrhea or Running of the Reines ; they being stirred up by a spur of the Seed . The privy part also , being drawn together inwards , doth now and then so vanish out of sight , that nothing stands out beside the Nut of the Yard : So also , the muscles have their own Cramps : And so a Travelling Woman suffers by intervals , her own and cruel Contractures , as oft as the Womb co-wrinkles it self behind , that it may expel the lurking Fardle . The bone of the Groyn also , unto the share , doth by a voluntary contracture of it self , open a passage for the coming Young , with cruel pain . I have seen also in Women suffering a strangling of the Womb , the Tendons in the native place of a Ligament , voluntarily to have burst asunder , and to have been contracted with cruel pain , and likewise to have returned to their former place : and the which , when they had the oftner suffered that thing , I have noted them to have complained of the more mild pain : ( do happily , the Schooles , in that leaping , and wand●ing digression of the sinewes , acknowledge a sudden emptying , filling , or entertainment of a poysonous quality ? and the sudden banishments of these ? ) It is also familiar to the stone of the Kidneys , for the Urine-pipes to be drawn together with most cruel pain , nothing peradventure being urgent beside ; the more ten●e●sand . I have alwayes judged it the part of bold ignorance , that winds ( according to the Schooles ) should arise in the Sinews and Tendons , or be conceived in the sinewes from without , as the authors of a Cramp ( for , for that cause , a flatulent one ) yea , and to be taken away from thence almost at pleasure : For the sensitive Spirit abhorring pain , furiously contracteth the Veines , Arteries , Tendons , and Membranes : And while as under such Furies it finds not its hoped for succour , it stirs up an increase thereof : For so a Thorn being thrust into the finger , as it causeth pain , it crispeth and hardens the Artery , and it hardens the pulse thereof which before was not there easily to be discerned , by reason of an extension onely of the contracted Artery . For it is the property of pain , to pull together and to contract , so indeed , that the bone above the share , and in the loyns , is voluntarily contracted in a Travelling Woman , although no Muscle , being the Guider or mover : For why , pain is in its own nature a contractive of the members , and that by a natural motion , and in no wise an arbitral or voluntary one : the which is especially seen in the lips of Wounds : Because they are those which are without pain , as long as they have their lips flaggy , and not contracted . But the Schooles have passed by the contractures of pain in Nature , as also the sensitive Soul , by running over unto winds , to the falling down of excrementitious humours , unto their sharpness , unto the agreement , and secondary passion of parts : the which notwithstanding , are altogether divers from the scope of pain ; Because they are onely abstracted Names , and for the most part , not in the least point conteining the cause thereof , even as I have demonstrated in the Treatise concerning Diseasifying Causes , as it were in the combating place of exercise . For in the Urine-pipes ( for an Example in the tearms of the Disease of the Stone ) there is no necessity , dependency of Dominion , Clients-ship , Usurpation , Possession , Custome , and no community of the Pipes , and Excrements with the bowels , or stomach . For if when the left side of the Throat is in pain , not so much as the right side thereof , in such an angiport or narrow passage , be now and then , afflicted : why shall we not deservedly suspect the nearness and dependency of parts which are unlike , and differing in the Ordination of their Offices , and Scituation ? It is therefore sufficient hitherto that all pain , the author of a Convulsion or Contracture , presupposeth a hatefull Guest : For there are also unpainfull Contractures ( as before , concerning the Cod ) and the which , draw their original , not so much from pain , as from meer trouble : But painfull Convulsions are made from Hostile Causes : For so , Those things cause paine which smite the Spirit called ( for the Soul ) Sensitive , with sharpness , brackishness , or degrees of heat , or cold : But the most intense pain is from fire , and then from Alcalies , and corroding things , because they are the nearest to fire ; after that , from austere or harsh , brackish and four things , because they are the nearest to Contracture ; Presently after , from salt things , then next , from sharp things , and lastly from some bitter things . But from poysons , as such , cruel pain ariseth , the which , in the Plague is ordinary , and because so great pain oft-times ariseth without sharpness ; a Truth is denoted : To wit , That pain issues from the judgement of the Sensitive Soul. For Corrosives , since they gnaw the sensitive Soul it self , they wast the parts themselves like fire . But Alume , Vitriol , Aqua Fortes's , next the juyce of un●ipe Grapes , and also any sharp things , as they do by themselves crisp , and pull together the Fibers of the Organs , therefore such Excrements are Convulsory and painfull . There are also Alcalies , which sleepifie paines : To wit , in Cases where they break the greatest sharpnesses of Putrefactions : For under the Dog-star , while as Fleshes threaten corruption at hand , the Broaths of fleshes are made sharp with an ungratefull savour ; whence in the Gout , Colick , and gnawing , and putrifying Ulcers . I conceived paines to proceed at first from a sharpness . Likewise the sensitive Soul , at first feeles pain , the which being at length accustomed , waxeth the less wroth : even so as an accustomed Horse refuseth S●urs ; For Nature in her self , is wholly furious and Sumptomatical , and being by degrees accustomed to paines , waxeth mild : Wherefore , Self-love , and Revenge , are before or more antient than sense or feeling : because they are intimately in Seeds , in the bosome of Nature , before Sense . For the Characters or Images of anger , agony , fear , revenge , and sorrow , do bring forth Convulsions like to those their own Idea's . For from the knowledge whereby , a Mouse abhors a Cat not before seen , the Spirit being provoked , is stirred up into anger , fear , &c. The which , by its own Idea uttereth its fury on the members , as it were by a Brand. 1. The hand waxeth cold , because the heat there cherished by the Life , is extinguished by cold : but not that the vital Spirit retires inward , as having left the arterial bloud whch it had married : and much less , that heat as a naked quality passeth , departeth , and returneth inward , as it were in a Comedy . 2. The heat being now diminished , cold also persisting , the cold waxeth strong , and then Sense in the hand is stupified : For the sensitive abstracted Spirits are pressed together , To wit , those which are in the sinewes , but not those which are in the Arteries ; because the Spirit hath the more firmly married the arterial Bloud , and it is the property of the Veines , even after death , to preserve the Bloud from Con-cretion or Coagulation : For the vital Spirit is sustained from behind , by the fewel or cherishing warmth of the heart as much as may be ; and therefore in that stupefaction , Life is as yet deteined . 3. Motion languisheth in the Hand , because the Spirits being grown together in the flesh , seeing they are not sufficiently nourished from behind , by the heart , they by degrees perish , and by degrees are altered . 4. And then , together with the perishing of Motion , Sense also is extinguished ; To wit , while the Bloud being chased out of the Veines , threatens a clotting , Life as yet remaining . 5. And so at length the joynts are by cold totally deprived of Life ; To wit , when as the venal bloud hath now departed into Clots , and dyed : Therefore in the third and fourth degree aforesaid , pain springs up in the Hand being heated : For as the Heart inspires a new sensitive Spirit from behind , the which , while it takes notice of death to be readily at hand , it being as it were enraged in the same place , presently frames the Idea of its own indignation , and so puts off its native sweetness , or Complacency : Even as in the Treatise concerning diseasie Idea's , in the work concerning the Rise or Original of Medicine , I will more clearly demonstrate . So the sensitive Spirit which was not trampled on by cold , but repulsed by pressing together , in its return stirs up another Idea of its own indignation , and another pain as it were like that of the pricking of a pin . Let the Reader in the mean time pardon me , in that I ought to borrow the Name of an Icy or freezing Poyson , without the necessity of fore-going Cold : For I call not that an Icy poyson , as if it were made cold , as I have already spoken concerning the stupefying astonishment of the Hands : but I call it a cooling , and also a stupefying poyson , and that which takes away sense and motion . Therefore the similitude of the Name draws its Original , not from the Root , but from the Effect : And last of all , in this By-work , for a Conclusion of this Work , and Sensation : Let us meditate at least , of the Remedies of Physitians in the Apoplexy , in astonishment or be●ummedness , giddiness of the Head , in the Catalepsie , Catochus , Coma , Convulsions , plucking of the Eyelids , Eyes , Tongue , and Lips : For thou shalt find , that presently cutting of a vein , and a Clyster are prescribed : They doubting in the mean time , Whether the dung of the Fundament may pluck the Tongue and Lips in the mouth , may likewise stamp drowsinesses , and astonishment in the sick ; As it hath brought forth blockishnesses and neglect in the Physitian : Or indeed , whether these arise from the venal bloud : therefore they are presently intent upon both at once . And then on the day following , they administer purging things : And thirdly , as being full of uncertainty , after Rubbings , they provoke Sweats . For their Succours are universal , because others are wanting , and they are ignorant of such : And therefore their total , usual Medicines are general ones : Through defect of the knowledge of efficient Causes , they wander onely about the Products : they not being solicitous of the Radical Framer and Cause , are onely busied about removing of the Effect : Not that they hope for a return of the Disease , by leaving the Roots , that they may thereby crop Fruit ; ( for I will not suspect that of a good or honest man ) but they being too earnestly bent upon Gain , nothing hath hitherto been considered by the Schooles concerning the Framer of Diseases : For as much as Medicine ( as I have said it from the Beginning : so I again end therewith ) is the Gift of God. But this God hath withdrawn his Gifts from those that are intent upon Gain , nor those once thinking of his Command ; Be yee mercifull as your Father which is in the Heavens , is mercifull , from whom every good and lightsome Gift descendeth . This therefore is the mournfull modern Tragedy of unsensiblenesse and pain , which I have spoken of , with an event altogether Tragical to the Sick. AN UNHEARD-OF DOCTRINE OF FEVERS . JOHN BAPTISTA VAN HELMONT Toparch in Royenborgh , Pellines , &c. being the Author . Whereunto is added , A TREATISE AGAINST The four Humours OF THE SCHOOLES . To the Reader , John Baptista van Helmont , Toparch in Royenborgh , Pellines , &c , P. L. wisheth Science , Health , and Joy. An Index of the Contents of the Preface . 1. This Treatise is rent out of the great Volume , which is inscribed , The new and unheard of Beginnings of natural Philosophy . 2. The Authour's Testimonies of Dispraise against Physitians that refuse to learn. I Have seen perhaps two hundred Authours concerning Fevers : therefore it hath shamed me of the Title : but when I more thorowly considered of the matter it self , I saw , that one and all of others , sung the Cuckow 's Note , and that they have alwayes subscribed the same thing to themselves from others words . For from thence I discerned , that since the dayes of Hippocrates , Medicine hath stood at a stand , if it hath not gone back ; at leastwise that it hath not profited , because by new Centuries daily , it hath gone into a Circle . They have gone , not whither they ought to go , but whither they have followed blind Leaders which the most High hath not Created , or chosen for Physitians ; but who have entred into Nature through the toren windowes of Heathenisme and Atheisme . Surely , it hath shamed me , yea and grieved me , that a Fever , the most known or remarkeable of Diseases , is as yet to this day altogether unknown in the whole course of its Tragedy . Wherefore I seem to be the First who may determine of any thing of certainty concerning the knowledge and Remedy of a Fever . For I have written a great Volume , concerning the knowings and curings of Diseases : surely great and unheard of , from the very first Beginnings of true Philosophy : indeed , I have demonstrated unwonted Principles to be true , and that by any kind of Demonstrations . Out of this work I have rent this Treatise concerning Fevers ; and since I dayly saw abuses to increase in curing , and I divined of no small destruction of mortals from thence : Therefore I have set forth this Treatise without the Doctrines of Diseases akinne thereunto , because I know that Paradoxall principles will offend very many , who have studied more in assenting than in diligently searching : although this kind of study attesteth a certain sloath and penurie of judgement . In the mean time , I hope , that there will not be Lovers of the Truth wanting , who earnestly breathing after the health of their Neighbour , will hear even from now the most antient Physitian of the Dutch , those things which they never heard from any other . For it ought not to be burdensome to any , to be able to learn by others labours : although it be a tedious thing to those that are old , to swallow this Testimony of Dispraise : None hath hitherto known Fevers from their essence : none hath begun the curing of them from Art , because all , in passing by the true knowledge of the Causes , and manner of their making , have neglected to seek out their Remedies . They have shot forth their Arrowes against Heats , and have passed by the true mark of the thing . But since there is so great a malepartnesse , and a certain singular insolency of the judgements of this Age , indeed I have feared , that this Vlcerous Age will not admit of my Work. This small Treatise will shew as it were a cast Lot , what the Lord hath determined concerning my Labours . In the mean time , they who have already grown old in their diminishments of the Veines and strength , peradventure it will be hard for them to have departed from things accustomed . I intreat them at least , that they would see in What manner they sh●ll preserve their own Souls , and the cause of Widowes , and Orphans , which is committed unto all . Farewell . A Treatise OF FEVERS . CHAP. I. The definition of the Fever of the Antients , is examined . 1. A ●ever hath been hitherto , radically unknown . 2. The definition of a Fever according to the Schooles . 3. The chief clause cast forth even from the requisites of the Antients . 4. A second defect of the definition . 5. A vain privie shift of the Schooles . 6. Some perplexities following from thence . 7. Other hiding places . 8. Others contradict things known by sense . 9. A wan argument of these men . 10. The thirst of feverish persons is examined . 11. An argument from the remedy of thirst . 12. An argument from a like thing , taken from the drowsie evil . 13. Another argument from thirst in the vigour of Fevers . 14. It is the part of deadly ignorance , badly to define a Fever . 15. An argument against the Schooles concerning feverish heat . 16. A second . 17. A third . 18. A fourth . 19. A fifth . 20. Feverish heat is not from the matter offending . 21. Another argument . 22. Athird . 23. A fourth . 24. A fifth . 25. That a feverish heat is not of the peccant matter . 26. The matter of a Fever heates occasionly only . 27. Who is the workman of feverish heat . 28. The original of heat besides nature . 29. To make hot , and to be hot , how they differ . 30. Heat is a latter accident unto the essence of a Fever . 31. From whence a feverish heat is . 32. A Fever is not heat , essentially . AFever , goes before , accompanies , or followes most diseases ; Therefore I have owed a peculiar treatise unto a Fever , no lesse than to the disease of the Stone . Because although it be that which is most familiar , yet it most especially fats our burying places , and depopulates camps . The disease is known indeed , even from its entrance or beginning : but not any thing hath been hitherto known by Psiyfitians , in its causes , manner of making , seates , as neither in its remedies , even as in reading this little book shall be clearly made manifest unto any one that is seasoned with the studies of Phylosophy . For indeed , the Schooles define a Fever ; that it is a heat besides nature , being kindled first in the heart , and then derived throughout the whole body : I will add according to their mind , hurting most actions . The top of the matter is , that they call the Genus or general kind of the thing defined , or the essence of a Fever ; not any kind of heat whatsoever : but that which shall be besides nature , and which shall hurt in its own degree . And so , seeing that heat is essential to a Fever , that it ought chiefly to be so unseperable from a Fever , that a Fever cannot be mentally conceived , but that , that heat is an individual companion thereunto . First of all , Camp Fevers have newly objected themselves , the which happen without thirst , and a manifest heat : That is , they finish their tragedy without heat , from the beginning even unto the end of life . If they say , that these Fevers were unknown to the Antients , nor therefore to be comprehended under the definition ; I at least conclude from thence , that neither can these Fevers therefore be Fevers , or that the essence of Fevers are not of necessity tied up to heat , but only by accident . And then again , that the definition of Fevers from of old delivered , and even till this day observed in the Schooles , is not suitable to the nature of a Fever . And thirdly , that whosoever shall at the beginnings of Fevers , feel cold pithily to pierce him for some houres , may notwithstanding , not perswade himself that a Fever is begun or present with him , but some other affect hitherto unnamed . For although he be shaken with vehement cold , his teeth do shake , and his lips look wan by reason of cold , yet that he may perswade himself by those deformities , that those beginnings of Fevers are not the beginnings of Fevers : for neither is he extinct by a true Fever , who dies in such beginnings , the which for the most part , comes to passe in intermitting Fevers . Let him believe it that will ; for I am not wont to call to me any other judge concerning contingent things known by sense , besides touching : For I am so stupide , that I stand to nought but the judgment of the senses , concerning sensible objects . But Physitians which are the more tough in the opinion of the Antients , privily escape into lurking places , that they may defend those things which are perceived by Galen : for some will have it , that cold or rigour are not the beginnings of Fevers , but the beginnings of the fit . But Galen himself casts down these men ; saying , We understand first by the name of a Paroxismus or fit , the worst part of the whole fit ; which soundeth , that the fit and the Fever are Sunonymalls . But come on then , if cold bespeak the beginning of the fit , and not of the Fever , at leastwise , the fit shewes the Fever approaching : and so , the beginning of a fit shall of necessity be the beginning of a Fever . Others therefore had rather , their eyes being opened , not to see , not to perceive ; wherefore they say , that in very deed , no true , but a dissembling cold , and a deceitfull allurement of the senses is felt in the beginning of a Fever ; and while they are externally cold , they will have it , that they are internally in a raging heat , and are burnt with true heat , although they perceive otherwise . But such doatages any one will easily hisse out of the middle of the Country : For a most intense or heightned cold besigeth their innermost parts for some houres . For in so manifest , and undoubted an History of cold ( which is that of the deed , and sense ) they produce an argument wan enough : there is ( they say ) a great heat within , although not to be perceived ; because they are pressed with continual thirst , the which , as it is chiefly the betokener of drynesse , yet this thirst in live bodies presupposeth an heat equal to it self : And so , thirst deserveth more Authourity than sense or feeling . But they know not that this thirst proceeds not from heat , as neither from drynesse , even as it otherwise happens in natural thirst : For therefore that neither is it appeased by drink being administred ; The which ought regularly to be done , if that thirst did arise from drynesse or heat . The thirst therefore is deceitfull , but not the cold : For the thirst ariseth from an excrement which badly affecteth that sensitive faculty , and the organ thereof , and deludes it , no otherwise than as if great drynesse had suddenly come unto it . For the sharp distillation of Sulphur ( which in it self , is most dry and a corrosive ) is wont to mitigate that deceitfull thirst , no otherwise than as water quencheth fire : But at least wise our adversaries will not grant , that dryth is taken away by the most dry remedies ; but not rather , by the drinking of moist and cold things : But why is it not lawfull , by a like reason to divine , that cold in the beginning of Fevers is from an unconquered drowsie affect ? Since the Schooles determine that the drowsie evil doth no lesse proceed from unvanquished cold , than thirst from drynesse . Neither doth that hinder , that the drowsie evil is not present with all that have a Fever : For it is suficient , and brings the greater confusion , that in some that have Fevers , there is a frequent drowsinesse . But at length , whither will they escape , if in the vigour of Fevers ( which is the hottest station of Fevers ) they grant not so great thirst to be , as in the beginning thereof ; yet that the more inward parts do then according to sense , especially burn with much perplexity : wherefore if thirst bewray heat , and the betokening hereof be unseperable from heat , so as that those who tremble by reason of cold are neverthelesse said to burn , the greatest thirst ought to presse under the hottest season of Fevers : But they deny that ; what therefore will they do , being taken in their own net ? Therefore they largely erre , as many as give their judgments concerning the native roots of things from accidents following by accident . It is therefore the part of deadly ignorance , badly to have defined a Fever , if they shall cure a Fever according to its definition . Yea we must treat against them by the Law of Cornelius , concerning privie Murtherers , who obstinately , badly cure those who have committed their life unto them : because that through the guilt of whom , so many ten thousands of millions are so unhappily killed . And indeed , if a Fever , or Feverish heat ( for these two are in the Schooles , Sunonymalls or of one and the same name ) ought to be kindled first in the heart , nor yet that the matter of Fevers ( which they say doth proceed from one of the four humours being putrified ) consisteth in the bosomes of the heart : therefore the heat , or F●ver , is not kindled at first , in a Feverish matter ; and putrefaction is vainely enquired into , that they may finde out the intimate , and immediate cause of heat besides nature : And by consequence , the definition of a Fever from thence , falls to the ground . Yea it followes from thence , that a Fever doth not primarily , intimately , and immediatly exist in its own matter from whence it is caused ( as they will have it ) materially , and originally : but in some other place , namely , in the heart alone . Again , from the same position , it followes , that , that there may be a Fever , it is not-required that the offending and feverish matter be enflamed : but some other inflameable thing primarily residing in the heart , and from thence slideable throughout the whole body : For this inflameable body , I ( together with Hippocrates ) call the spirit which maketh the assault . But this last matter , I have brought hither , not from the minde of the Antients ; but it is extorted , and by force I have commanded it to be granted me : Whereof in its own place , when I shall discourse of the efficient cause of Fevers : At least wise that being now violently begged , it followes , that the peccant matter of Fevers is not properly enflamed , neither that it is in it self , primarily , or efficiently hot , nor indeed , that it makes hot besides nature , if the first inflameable body ought to be kindled in the heart . Therefore neither is the peccant or offensive matter in a Fever hot beyond , or besides the degree of nature . But that which is kindled in the heart , was not kindled before the comming of the Fever : and so it every way differs from the peccant matter in Fevers . At length it is also from hence fitly concluded , that in whomsoever they intend to slay a Fever by cooling things , as such , they do not intend to cure by a removal of the causes , by a cutting up of the Root , and a plucking out of the fountaine , and fewel of the Fever : but only they intend to take away , and correct the heat , which is a certaine latter product entertained with-out the feverish matter : To wit , they apply their remedies unto the effect , but not unto the cause . For truly the heat of Fevers is kindled in the Archeus which maketh the assault , and the root of Fevers is the peccant matter it self . They have regard therefore , only unto the taking away of the effect following upon , and resulting from the placing of that root , for the sake whereof , the Archeus is enflamed not indeed by the root , but by heat drawn from elsewhere , while as indeed he enflames himself by a proper animosity , and by his own heat being beyond a requirance extended unto a degree , wherein he is wholly troublesome , as he is enlarged beyond the amplenesse of his own necessity . Fo● neither must we think that any heat is so in a hateful feverish matter , which with me they name the offensive one , that it afterwards makes feverishly hot the whole entire body : For truly , that for which every thing is such , that very thing , they will have to be more such . And then also , because every calefactive or heating agent doth throughout its own specie's , more strongly act on a near object , than on an object at a distance ; wherefore if a feverish matter should make the other parts hot by its own heat , it should of necessity be , that the center or nest wherein that peccant matter of a Fever is received , should be first roasted into a fryed substance , before that any distant object should be made hot thereby . Yea , if the peccant matter should be hot of its own free accord , and the Fever should be that meer heat besides nature , every Fever as such , ought to be continual , nor should it have intermission , until that all the offensive matter were wholly consumed into ashes . Neither therefore should there be any reason of a repetition , or relapse , seeing the peccant matter should even from a general property , always make hot , for the consuming of it self . And moreover a dead carcase also should be hot as well after death , and be more ardently tortured or writhed with a Fever , than while it lived , because the same matter in number from the obedience whereof death happens , even still persisteth in the dead carcasse : and seeing they suppose it to be hot by a proper heat of putrefaction , and since it is more putrified after death , as also after death more powerfully putrifying , and affecteth more parts co-bordering upon it , than while it lived , therefore also it should be more actually hot after death , than in the life time : But surely this errour is bewrayed : For a Fever which made a live body hot , ceaseth presently after death , and all heat exspires with the life . The which ought to instruct us , that the heat of a Fever is not proper unto the peccant matter , or its inmate : and that the heat of the offensive matter doth not efficiently , and effectively make hot in Fevers : Therefore it is perpetually true that the peccant matter makes hot occasionally only ; but that the Archeus is the workman of every alteration , and so by this title , that which efficiently , primarily , immediatly , always , every where , maketh the assault , and that he alone doth not make hot according to the maxime : Whatsoever utters healthy actions in healthy bodies , that very thing utters vitiated ones in diseases : For that spirit heats man naturally in health , it being the same which in Fevers rageth with heat . For example : The thorne or splinter of an oake being thrust into the finger , and actually , and potentially cold , presently stirs up a heat besides nature in the finger . Not indeed , that hot humours do flow thither , as if they being called together thither by the thorne , had exspected the wound of the splinter , and the which otherwise as moderate , had resided in their own seates : For truly the blood next to the wound , first runs to it , and preventeth the passage for other blood coming thither : And that blood also , by it self is not hot ; but for the sake of the vital spirit : Therefore the inflamation , and swelling , together with an hard pulse , pain , and heat , do proceed from the spirit alone causally ; but from the infixed thorn , occasionally only . Surely it is an example sufficient for the position , manner , knowledg , and cure of a Fever : To wit the cause offending in a Fever is not hot of it self , but it makes hot only occasionally , and upon the pulling out of the thorne or occasional cause , health followes : The Archeus alone every where effectively stirs up the Fever , and the which departing by death , the Fever ceaseth with it : Therefore heat is a latter accident , and subsequent upon the essence of a Fever . For indeed the Archeus enflames himself in his endeavour , whereby he could earnestly desire to expel the occasional matter , as it were a thorne thrust into himself . But whosoever takes away this thorne , whether that be done by hot meanes , or by temperate ones , or at length , by cold ones , he takes away the disease by the Root , and it is unto nature as it were indifferent : Because for that very cause the animosity of the Archeus is appeased , and ceaseth : Wherefore heat , however it being besides nature increased , may be a token of Fevers ; yet it is not the Fever it self , neither therefore must we greatly labour about it in time of healing : For from hence Hippocrates hath seriously admonished , that heat and cold are not diseases , as neither the causes of these : but that the causes ( to wit , the occasional ones ) of diseases , are bitter , sharp , salt , brackish , &c. But that the spirit is he that maketh all assaults . Galen , Juniour unto Hippocrates by five hundred years , afterwards easily stained much paper , and by his prate allured followers unto himself : But posterity having admired this prattle , followed the same : it hath always had that in the greatest esteem which was of the least worth : And then the world every where grew aged in frivolous judgments , always esteeming that to be of great weight , which was most like unto its own unconstancy . CHAP. II. The Schools Nodding or Doubting , have introduced Putrefaction . 1. The Schools have been constrained to devise another thing in Fevers beside heat . 2. Another defect in the definition of a Fever . 3. The Schools contradict the principles laid down by themselves . 4. That the essence of Fevers is not from heat . 5. They by degrees are forgetful of their own positions . 6. The spiciness of Roses is most hot . 7. Whether a Feverish heat be rightly judged by the Schools , to arise from Putrefaction . 8. A malignant Fever , wherein it differs from other Fevers . 9. A Crisis of Fevers by sweat , is most wholesome . 10. Why the Schools have fled back unto Putrefaction . 11. A blockish comparison of heat in horse-dung . 12. Why horse-dung is hot . 13. A degree of the heat of a putrifying matter is not sufficient for heating the whole man in a Fever . 14. Putrefaction is no where the cause of heat . 15. Dung waxeth not hot from Putrefaction . 16. Why they have not drawn a feverish heat from hot Baths . 17. The ignorance of the Roots hath wrested the Schools aside unto the considerations , and remedies of effects 18. Dung looseth its heat , while it begins to putrefie . 19. The great blindness of the Schools . 20. Galen convicted of error 21. That the blood doth never putrefie in the veins , and so whatsoever they trifle concerning a Sunochus or putrefied Fever , is erroneous . 22. The foregoing particulars are proved . 23. The natural endowments of the veins . 24. Either Nature goes to ruine , or the Doctrine of the Schools . 25. An example from the variety of blood . 26. A ridiculous table of blood let out of the veins . 27. An argument from the Plague , against the Vse of the Schools . 28. Again , from the Pleurifie . 29. The heats , and turbulencies of the blood do not testifie the vices thereof . 30. A wan deceit of the Schools . 31. To suppose putrefied humours in Fevers , is ridiculous . 32. Against the definition of Fevers of the foregoing Chapter , some absurdities are alledged . 33. A frivolous excuse by a Diary . 34. The foregoing definition of Fevers is again resisted . 35. The unconstancy of the Schools . 36. That the blood doth not putrefie in the veins . 37. Corruption , from whence it is . 38. That the blood of the Hemeroides is not putrefied . 39. A wonderful remedy against the Hemeroides or Piles , by a ring : And likewise for other Diseases . THE Schools meditated , that an heat did oft-times spring up through exercises , not unlike to the heat of feverish persons ; the which notwithstanding , seeing it was not a feverish one , they indeed judged heat to be , of necessity , in Fevers ; not any one in differently , but that which should be stirred up by putrefaction . Now they are no longer careful concerning heat , as neither concerning the degrees , or distemperature thereof ; but rather concerning the containing cause thereof ; For neither hath a heat graduated besides nature , seemed to be sufficient for a Fever , unless that heat also spring up from putrefaction ; which particle surely , hath been dully omitted in the aforesaid definition of Fevers . Therefore the essence of a Fever , is now no longer a naked heat , neither shall this heat distinguish Fevers from the diversity of heat , ( although a Species doth result from thence , whence the essence is ) but from the varieties of the putrefied , or at leastwise from the putrefying humours . It was finely indeed begun , thus to wander from the terms proposed , that when as they before respected nothing but heat which should exceed the accustomed temper of nature , they afterwards require heat , and a subject of putrefaction , which heat they will have to be kindled in an offensive putrified matter ; but not any longer , first in the heart . But seeing that of heat , there is not but only Species in degree , but very many moments , or extensions of the same ; and there are very many particular kinds of Fevers ; neither that the specifical multitude of Fevers can proceed from one only Species of heat besides nature : Therefore in the Essence or Being of heat , another thing is beheld besides the degree of the same . Heat therefore shall not constitute the Essence of a Fever , but that other thing , by reason whereof the diversity of Fevers breaks forth . If therefore putrefying of divers matters be the efficient cause of the diversity of Fevers , heat shall be thing as well caused from putrefaction , as the Fever it self ; and so seeing the action of causality of the putrisied matter involveth some other thing in it besides heat it self , a Fever shall not be heat Now the Schools do confusedly adjoyn very many things on both sides , that if one thing do not help , at leastwise , another may help them : So that although they toughly maintain the aforesaid definition , and adore it ; yet they by degrees decline from the naked distemper of heat , unto the putrefaction of Humours . Neither do they stay in these trifles , but moreover , they flee back unto hot remedies , as having forgotten their own Positions : And that , whether they attempt Purgations , or next , whether they shall convert themselves unto the proper specifical Rdmedies of Fevers . For what is now more solemn in healing , than to have given Apozemes of Hop , Asparagus , &c. and to have seasoned the same with Sugar ? For what is more hot , than the spiceness included in Roses , whether thou respectest its savour , or application ; without which notwithstanding , the Rose it self is a meer dead carcase ? what doth every where more frequently offer it self , than to have mingled the corrosive liquor of Sulphur , or Vitriol ( being through the perswasion of gain , manifoldly adulterated ) with Juleps , for Fevers ? In the next place , to have drawn forth those which they feign to be guilty humours , by Rhubarb , and Scammoneated Medicines ? Therefore before all , we must profesly examine , whether the heat of a Fever owes its Original to Putrefaction : Wherefore first of all I have plainly taught , That a feverish heat doth in no wise causally depend on the peecant matter . And then I have learned , that a malignant Fever alone , differs from other Fevers in this , that its own offensive matter hath a beginning-putrefaction adjoyned unto it : The which , if it shall afterwards creep unto its height , until the putrefaction be actually made , and shall remain within , it straightway brings death of necessity : But if it be driven forth in the making of the Putrefaction , ( as in the Measills , an Erisipelas , &c. ) it is for the most part cured ; Because health for the most part accompanies a motion to without . From hence it is , that Fevers do about their end , provoke voluntary sweats . And a Crisis or judicial sign which is terminated by sweats , is most exceeding wholesome , and by consequence also , sudoriferous Remedies : But they fled together unto Putrefaction , that they might find the cause from whence they might confirm , first , cold , and presently afterwards , heat . They therefore assume , that Horse-dung which is actually cold , doth voluntarily wax hot by reason of putrefaction : But how blockishly do they on both sides deceive the credulous world ! For Cowes-dung of the same nourishments , hath better putrified , and been digested than Horse-dung , yet it waxeth not hot : Also the dung of an Horse which is fed with grass , or Fetches , waxeth not hot , even as while he is fed with grain ; yet that hath putrefied no less than this . They have not known therefore , that heat follows the eaten grain , but not the nature of Putrefaction : Therefore they foolishly transfer a feverish heat unto humours putrified in a Fever , from the heat of the dung not yet putrefying . The Schools thefore have not known , that by how much the nearer Horse-dung is unto a beginning-putrefaction , by so much the more it is deprived of all heat : And neither therefore shall the same dung ever putrifie , if it be spread broad ; But only while as be ing moist , it is contracted into an heap , no otherwise than as Hay , or Flowers , if they are pressed together being moist , are inflamed before putrefaction : They have been ignorant I say , that dung waxeth hot by its own spirits of salt being pressed together . Again , although dung do wax hot in the making of Putrefaction , yet all heat ceaseth before the Putrefaction begun is in its [ being made : ] And so the heat of the dung squares not with a feverish matter , if the putrefied matter ( as they say ) layes hid long before in Receptacles , and indeed , in a Quartane , always , and very long . Yea , neither is the degree of the heat of dung suitable , that it may be dispersed from its putrefied center , even unto the soals of the feet ; but that it should first burn up the center of the body , where that putrefied humour should overflow : Therefore the example of dung is plainly impertinent to Fevers , and so much the rather , because they do not teach , that Cold is before Heat in time . And moreover in nature , Putrefaction no where causeth heat , and much less in vital things : For in a putrefying body , Cold must needs be , if it be spoyled of life ; which life in us , is the fountain of heat : For in the interposing dayes of intermitting Fevers , we complain not of heat , or Cold molests us ; when as notwithstanding , they suppose the humours to be putrefied : Therefore if Heat , and Cold do causally succeed in that which is putrefied , and Cold be always before Heat , in the comming of Fevers , Cold is more native to a putrefied matter than Heat : For therefore we measure the long continuance of the Disease , by the duration of cold in an Ague or Fever , but not by heat . At length , I have shewn that all feverish heat is wholly from the Archeus , and therefore that it ceaseth before death ; when as notwithstanding , Cold , and Putrefaction do the more prevail . It implies also , that the heat of a Fever should be from a putrefied matter , and that it should be first kindled in the heart it self , from whence the Putrefaction is banished . In the next place , Heat is not kindled in dung from the Putrefaction it self ; For if it be daily be-sprinkled with the new urine of a horse , it will not so much as wax hot in a years time : But it is certain , that urine doth not preserve from putrefaction , but more truly , that it should increase it : For they should more truly have drawn heats out of Baths , or Lime : But they were rather ignorant of the Causes of these Heats : Wherefore they have judged it a more easie matter to have accused the putrefaction of one horse-dung : Neither was there any reason why they should horrow the essence of a Fever , rather from heat than from cold , and other symptomes ; Seeing they are the alike , and fellow accidents of Fevers : Therefore they have alwayes endeavoured to beat down the accidents of the Product ; because they have been ignorant of the roots : But since it is now manifest , that material things are the matter it self , after what manner will they cure , who convert the whole hinge of healing only unto heats ? At leastwise , the similitude of horse-dung , and of a feverish heat ascribed unto putrefaction , hath fallen : For dung when it begins never so little to putrifie , it puts off heat : And as long as it can be hot , Artificers extract Salt-peter from thence : But if it shall wax cold , they leave it to Countrey Folks , as unprofitable for themselves . But the Schools accuse the Putrefaction or Corruption of Humours ; and indeed of one and the same Humour , as well for Cold , as for Heat , and both in a heightned degree ; And by consequence , that one and the same thing should immediately effect two Opposites out of it self : Therefore it must needs be , that either of these two , is by it self , but the other by accident . If therefore Cold be the Off-spring of Putrefaction by it self , it cannot in any wise essentially include heat , but only by accident . But if Heat be the son of Putrefaction by it self , verily , neither then should a Fever begin from Cold. Nevertheless , it is clear enough from the aforesaid particulars , that the Schools do suppose Putrefaction to be the essence of Fevers ; But Heat , and Cold to be accidents accompanying the Putrefaction : Wherefore Galen saith , When blood putrifies , Choler is made : which Text if they shall admit of , that Choler shall be putrified in its own birth , or not : If putrified , it should cause a Tertian ; but not a Sunochus or putrified burning Fever . Let the Schools therefore know , that the blood is never putrified in the veins , but that the vein it self also putrifies , as in a Gangrene , and in Mortifications : And so they beg the principle , who let forth the blood , lest it should putrifie in the veins . Like-wise they who affirm a Sunochus to arise from the blood of the veins being putrified : And also they who say , that the blood while it purrifies , is turned into Choler : The which particulars I thus prove . The veins retain their blood fluid , even in a dead carcase , by the consent of all Anatomy ; but the blood being chased out of the veins , straightway grows together into a clot : But the coagulation of the blood , is only a beginning of Corruption , and way of separation of the whole : Therefore if a vein preserves its blood from corruption in a dead carcase , much more doth it do that in live bodies ; It being an argument from the less to the greater . Forreign excrements indeed putrifie in the veins ; to wit , they being the Retents as well of their own , as of another digestion , ( as concerning digestions elsewhere ) but the blood never ; Because it is that which according to the Scriptures , is the seat and treasure of life . If therefore the life it self cannot preserve its own seat , and treasure from corruption , as long as it is in the veins , when shall it preserve it ? and how shall it ever be free from corruption ? And likewise , if the life doth not preserve the blood from corruption wherein it glistens , after what manner shall the bones be preserved ? The veins therefore are ordained by the Creator , that they may preserve the blood from corruption , because the life is co-fermented with the blood of the veins : Therefore under this Question , the ornament , and appointment of nature goes to ruine ; or the whole order of healing hitherto adored by Physicians , falls to the ground : But be it so , by what sign do Physicians judge of putrified blood ? Is it not from the more white , black , yellow , somewhat green , or duskish colour ? Is it not from a slimy , gross , watery , thin matter ? And lastly , Is it not from a consistence not threddy or fibrous , scarce cleaving together , &c. But I declare under the penalty of a convicted lye , if any one will make tryal , that I have examined the bloods of two hundred wanton countrey and healthy people in one only day , and many of them were exceeding unlike in their aspect , colour , matter , and consistence ; many whereof I distilled , and found them to be alike profitable in healing : For our Countrey Boores are wont at every Whitsontide to let out their blood , whereby they might drink the more largely : For although many of them seemed to be putrefied , others cankery , or black chole-ry ; yet especially , the Countrymen from whence they had issued , were very healthy : Therefore they confirmed by the cause , the tokens of corruption not withstanding them , that their bloods were not any thing estranged from the nature of a Balsame : Wherefore I have laughed at the Table of judgements , from the beholding of blood let out of the veins ; and so I confirmed it with my self , that the venal blood is commanded by Physicians to be kept , that at least in his regard , they may reckon one visit to the sick : For if the corruption of the blood hath any where place , and betokeneth the letting forth of it self from that Title ; surely that must be in the Plague : But in the Plague , the cutting of a vein is destructive ; Therefore there is no where putrefaction in the blood of the veins ; and a fear , lest the putrefaction of that blood should prevail , and by consequence , the scope of letting out the blood , is in this respect , erroneous . I suppose also thirty men to be oppressed with an equal Pleurisie ; but ten of them to pour forth blood out of a vein apparently vitiated , ( for the blood of those that have the Pleurisie , is like red wine , whereunto clots of Milk have a Conflux ) but the remaining twenty , I will cure without shedding of their blood . It is certain in the mean time , that those twenty have their blood no otherwise affected , than the ten whose vein was cut . And again , That if in those twenty that were cured , a vein be opened , their blood shall be found rectified , restored into its former state , and far estranged from a pleuritical errour : Therefore the blood of him that hath a Pleurisie , is not corrupted , although it may seem to be such : The which I prove , Because from that which is corrupted , or deprived of life , there is not granted a return unto life , health , or an habit : Therefore black , blew , or wan , green , &c. blood , do not testifie of its corruption , but they afford signes of its fermental angry heat , or turbulency alone . For first of all , if the more waterish , and yellow blood should betoken a vice , the arterial blood should be far worse than the blood of the veins ; which thing is erroneous : For the blood of the veins is no otherwise distinguished by the aforesaid signs , than as wine is troubled while the Vine floureth ; for it is not therefore corrupted , because the tempest being withdrawn , it voluntarily cleers up again : So likewise a Fever doth variformly disturb the blood , and discolour it with strange faces : But these masks cease , the Fever being taken away . Truly I am wont to compare the Lookers into the blood , unto those who give their judgement concerning Spanish Wine , and who give their thoughts in beholding of the urine . But they will say , If putrefaction be not in the blood , why then doth purely red blood leap out of a vein at the third , and not at the first turn ; or at the first , and not at the third turn ? But that argument at least convinceth , that one part of the blood is more , and sooner disturbed than another ; not the whole , or all at once : For it is certain , that nature tends by degrees in a lineal path , unto the perfection appointed for her : Therefore that the blood nigh the heart is more pure than that which is about the first shop thereof : Therefore they say , ( and err therein ) That a Tertian , as well as that which is Continual , as that which is renewed by Intervals , consisteth of yellow Choler , a Quartan of black Choler , as also a Quotidian of phlegm , but putrified ones . For why was it of necessity to suppose these Humours ( the which I have elsewhere demonstrated to be feigned ones ) to be putrefied , seeing they confess a non-putrefied Sunochus to be continual , and more cruel than the three aforesaid Fevers : Which particulars surely , if they are compared with the definition of Fevers proposed , now of necessity the blood in every Sunochus or continual Fever , and the vital spirit in a diary Fever shall putrifie , the life remaining ; to wit , they shall attain the bound of putrefaction : And then , seeing the Schools confess that such putrified humours do not consist in the sheath of the heart , and that therefore they are not primarily inflamed in a Fever , and so by consequence , that putrefaction is in vain required for a feverish heat to be kindled in the heart . If therefore putrefied Humours do enflame the spirit in the heart from far , that thing shall by every law of nature be made nigh , before afar off , and they shall the rather , or more fully enflame all the blood that lyes between the heart , and themselves , with the heat of Putrefaction , and so all Fevers shall of necessity afford a putrefied continual Fever ; Wherefore neither shall a Quartan Ague stop its course , and repeat its return , if the same putrefied matter thereof waiteth safe in the Spleen for a years space . Gangrens certainly teach me , that nothing of a putrefied matter ( for every putrefied matter is dead ) can long persist without a further Conragion of it self : Neither do I apprehend how the Archeus of life it self shall putrefie , that it may give satisfaction to Galen for a diary Fever ? But if they understand a diary Fever to be the daughter of that Putrefaction , which at length is implanted in the spirit of life ; But thus all Fevers in the Schools , should be Diaries . Again , If a diary or one dayes Fever be the daughter of Putrefaction ; therefore Putrefaction is presupposed to be fermented to the spirit of life : From whence there is a relapse unto the same straights . But if they understand Putrefaction beginning onely , or a Disposition unto Putrefaction , and that the Heat is an Effect of Putrefaction , therefore it followes , that a diarie Fever shall have onely a Disposit on unto Heat ; but not a true heat , even as , that neither therefore shall it be a true Fever . But the Schools require a formal , and absolute putrefaction , that they may find out the cause of a feverish Heat ; Having forgotten , that then heat shall be an effect of the Putrefaction , and not of the Fever ; and so they shall constrainedly distinguish Heat from a Fever : For why ; seeing a non-putrefied continual Fever , is a true Fever , without putrefaction , and by consequence ought to be without Heat . In the mean time , they by little and little lay aside the fear of heat ; neither must we in healing employ our selves thereabout , while as a greater dammage is to be feared from the contagion of putrefaction in those things which have a co-resemblance : And therefore it would be better to divert the putrefaction , than vainly to have smeared over a Fever with cooling things . But surely , whatsoever things resist putrefaction , are hot : For Myrrhe preserveth the dead Carcases of Aegypt for now two thousand years ; The which otherwise , with Succory , Plantain , and their Coolers had putrified long since : Therefore the putrefactions of putrefied Humours , likewise of the blood , and spirit , are so like unto Fables , that I should scarce believe that the Schools spake in earnest , unless they did fatally even unto this day , confirm those Positions by the practical part . For a Conclusion , I will as yet add one thing : Whatsoever hath been once corrupted in the body , never returns again into favour ; but the blood of the veins , however corrupted it may seem to be , returns again into favour : Therefore it was not once corrupted . The Major proposition is proved , because Corruption in us is an effect of the sequestration of vital dispositions , and so it presupposeth a privation , and death of the corrupted body , or matter it self . The Minor proposition is proved , by those who are cured of the Plague , Pleurifie , and a Fever , without the drawing out of blood . And likewise , if the blood be ever to be reckoned putrefied or corrupted while existing in the veins , that blood shall especially be that of the Hemeroides ; but this is not corrupted , although it be as it were almost hunted out of the veins : Therefore the blood is never to be reckoned putrefied in the veins . Whole Chyrurgery proves the Major proposition concerning Ulcers bred from an accidental happenning of the Hemeroides or Piles : But I prove the Minor , because I compound or compose a mettal : A Ring made whereof , if it be carried about one , the pain of the Hemeroides is taken away in the very space of the Lords Prayer : and the Piles , as well those within , as without , vanish away in twenty four hours space , how greatly soever those veins may tumefie or burgen ; Therefore that blood is received into favour , and they have themselves well at ease . That Ring also prevails in the strangling , and motions of the womb , and very many Diseases : The Description , and manner of composing whereof , I deliver in the Treatise upon those words ; In Words , Herbs , and Stones , there is great vertue , where I speak of the great vertue of things . CHAP. III. The Doctrine of the Antients concerning Circuits , is examined . 1. The causes of Feverish Circuites in the Schools . 2. The first errour . 3. Galen is accused of errour . 4. A quaternary of humours , why suspected . 5. The great and stubborn blindnesse of the Schools . 6. Galen is hissed out of the place of intermitting Fevers , by many perplexities issuing from thence . 7. An account of Choler necessary for the Fit or comming of a Tertian Ague according to the Schools . 8. He is refuted . 9. From their Suppositions it is concluded , that there cannot be a Plethora in a Fever or Ague on every other day . 10. A begging of the principle in the Galenists . 11. Galen being ignorant of Anatomy , hath copied out many books concerning Anatomy . 12. Unhappy Speculations of healing invented by the Devil to the destruction of Mortals . 13. An argument on the contrary drawn from Cases or Receptacles . 14. That yellow , and black Choler are not entertained in the Spleen , and little bag of the Gawl . 15. Against Astrologers who derive the Circle of a Fever on the Stars . 16. The similitudes aforeread in the Schools , do not suqare : 17. Some arguments against the Doctrine of the Schools . 18. The desert of Fernelius . 19. The rashness and unconstancy of Paracelsus . 10. That man is not a Microcosm or little world , if the holy Scriptures are to be obeyed . 21. Paracelsus deceived . THE Shools say , the causes of set Circuits are , to wit , because as much Phlegm is [ daily ] generated , as there is of Choler every other day , and as there is of black Choler every third day . I gratulate the language of our Countrey , which would willingly want these same names drawn from a Grecisme : But the Schools do not thus teach the effective cause , but only the remote cause , which they call that of [ Sine qua non ] or that without which it is not : Therefore I am deservedly angry , that the Schools have not feigned a fifth Humour for a Quintan Ague , nor an half , and a one and a half humour for the Fever Epialos , and for Semite-tians . Likewise , that they have neglected a doubled yellow Choler for a double Tertian , nor that they have made mention of a doubled black Choler for a double Quartan : That they have not invented a wandring , and uncertain humour for a wandring Fever ; or Humours continuing , and uncessantly substituted for continual Fevers , exasperating themselves every day , every other day , or every third day : And lastly , a slow humour for a slow Fever . At leastwise , they ought to have explained , if putrifying blood be changed into yellow Choler , why it is wholly converted into corrupt Pus : Why doth not purulent , thick , or mattery blood cause a burning Fever in a Consumption of the Lungs ; and why do not yellow expectorations or spittings out of the breast , produce a Tertian , but an Hectick Fever ; and that presently after meat : Wherefore a Quaternary of Humours for so great a Catalogue of Fevers , and other diseases , being as yet daily increased , ought to be suspected of every one . But as to what belongs unto the seat of the putrified humours of Fevers , Galen is so alike stupid herein , that it had shamed me to lay open his errour , if the Schools did not as yet to this day stifly defend the same unto the destruction of Mortals : they craving respect rather from Antiquity than from the Truth : as if the fountain of Wisdome were drawn out in Galen , who that he might find the causes of a set trembling in Fevers , , hath writ nothing but old wives Fables ; the which as oft as I call to mind , I ingeniously admire that so many wits could subscribe thereunto ever since the dayes of Galen : wherein surely I am amazed at the great sluggishness of wits as to a diligent search , they assenting unto false principles lest the right of disputing against denyers should be forestalled from them . I will therefore no longer speak to Galen , but unto the Schooles : I wish therefore that they may explain to me , by what Conducter , manner , and passage , a putrified humour may at every fit , come from the shops of the humours unto the utmost parts of the veines which are terminated into the habit of the Body , or into the flesh and skin ? For if it were putrified before it came unto the slender , and utmost extremities of the veines ; why is one alone ( to wit , Choler , or Phlegm ) separated from its three fellowes , that as a banished humour , it may putrifie far from its own Cottages ? Or who is that silly Separater , which plucks the harmless humour from its own composed body for so absurd ends ? Why therefore , the same Separater remaining for Life , doth not the same Fever continue for Life ? What School-master admonisheth this Separater of his Errour , that he may seasonably repent ? At leastwise , if the utmost parts of the veines do not corrupt that putrified humour , the veines themselves shall be more putrified , and so they shall labour with an unexcusable Gangreen . But if the Cause which calleth the guiltless humour unto it self , subsisteth in the very extremities of the veines , that it may putrifie the same in its own possession : Yet by a greater breviary , it should execute that in the Bloud nigh to it self , over which it hath a stronger Right , and from whence it hath as well a liberty to separate Choler , or phlegm , as the same thing is otherwise proper unto a solutive Medicine . Again , If it listeth it to have prepared a putrified humour out of the nigh bloud , it shall in vain expect an agreeable quantity of Choler for full two dayes space : But if that humour shall putrifie before it could reach to the utmost parts of the veines , then the Schooles contradict themselves , and the seat of intermitting Fevers shall not be in the habit of the Body , but in the first shops of the Humours . In the next place , If at one onely turn of a fit , the whole putrified humour be dispersed out of the veines into the habit of the Body , even for the consumption of it self , why at least , shall that Separater or Driver ( seeing nothing is moved by it self which is not vital ) be less generous in the Bowels , than he that is placed in the utmost parts of the veins ? At length , for what end of Doatage , shall there be this passage of the putrified Humour from the Mesentery , through the Liver , and Heart , even unto the extremities of the veines ? It is a matter full of danger ; and it is to be feared , but that by its frequent passage it may soon defile the whole blood with its corruptions , and deadly gore : For let it either be a great lye of Galen ; or humane nature voluntarily meditates of its own ruine . And by this meanes , the necessity of Revulsion boasted of , by cutting of a veine , falls to the ground . For truly , the putrified humour is by the voluntary force of intermitting Fevers , at set hours Revulsed , or pulled back from the Nest of its Generation ; Yea it issues of its own accord unto the utmost parts of the veines : unless perhaps , that Revulsion be accounted dangerous , which wholly ought to be made by the Heart through the hollow vein , as well in intermitting Fevers , as by the cutting of a vein . And then , either the feverish matter is at every fit wholly drawn out of the Nest of its nativity , or not wholly ; if totally , there shall be no cause of return ; if not totally , it is exhausted . Why shall a new humour which putrifies at every future fit , no more move an Aguish fit by its putrefaction , than by its expulsion ? For truly , there is greater labour and pain while corrupt pus is in making , that when the pus is made . Why in that case , shall not the seat of Fevers be rather in the place of putrefaction , than in places through which it passeth while it is expelled ? Why , I say , the appetite returning , Thirst and Watchings being absent ( To wit , in the resting dayes of intermitting Fevers ) shall Choler , or phlegm putrifie in the Bowels ? And why doth not the putrefaction thereof disturb the Family administration of the shops of the Humours ? Why shall black Choler , which should be made on the second day of the week , putrifie in two dayes space into a ripe putrifaction ; and that which should be made on the followng day , putrifie as much in one onely day , as the former putrified in two dayes ? If that which was joyned of them both , causeth the fit of a Quartane on the fourth day of the week ? Why doth not that which is made on the second day , stir up its own fit on the fourth day ; and that which is made on the third day , not likewise stir up its own Tumult on the fifth day ? And consequently , if any be made on the fourth day of the week ; why doth it not frame a fit on the sixth day ? The shoulders of Physitians are lifted up , their Browes are bent , and hidden properties are accused , while as they are constrained to answer unto things known by Sense , by believed , and supposed madnesses . Why at length in the rigours or shaking fits of a Tertian , will they have that which is vomited up about their Beginnings , to be Gaul : and say , that Nature bends that same way , if on the contrary , the guidance of Nature doth in the same interval of time , proceed from the Center unto the utmost parts of the Veines ? because Nature doth not at one onely instant , stir up two opposite motions within , and without , especially from the cause of one Excrement , which is accounted the Gawl : Why doth not that vomiting take away as much from the sharpness of the fit , as there is a plentifull expulsion of that excrement which they suppose to be the very matter of a Tertian ? But if in a Tertian , a residing Choler remaineth in its own shops after the fit , why doth it rather putrifie new Choler , than the humours radically annexed to it self ? After what manner do bitter Vomiting , Thirst , and so great Tokens of hurts molest the stomach , while as most of the Balast of the malady shall passe over unto the extream parts of the veines that it may provoke Rigours . But those who carry the marks of a Cautery , do see , that two dayes after Fevers , a spare quantity of , or no excrements are wiped off : the which surely , should be many , if so many feverish filths should at every fit slide unto the utmost parts of the veines and habit of the Body . The Schooles triumph in the Causes of Rigour , they being as prettily feigned , as blockishly believed . But why doth Galen give more heed unto the quantity of an humour , than to the ready obedience of the same ? Should not Choler , although lesse in quantity , by reason of its heat , and flowing , be more inclinably obedient unto the Clientship of a putrefactive humour , than phlegm otherwise was ? But why doth not Choler move a fit daily , if a lesse moiety thereof be sufficient for a Tertian ? To wit , while as the greater moiety thereof is rejected by Vomit ? Lastly , They ought to have told , how many ounces of a putrified humour should be required for every fit : whether six , or seven ? Truly , oft-times a double quantity thereof is rejected by vomit about the beginning of a Tertian , and the fit is nothing the lesse : Therefore if as yet , seven ounces have proceeded unto the mouthes of the Veines , and twelve ounces were voided by vomit , Therefore 19 ounces are requisite for a Tertian : Whereof , if thou shalt take the half : To wit , 8 ounces of yellow Choler every day ; and by consequence , a double quantity of phlegm , there shall be 17 ounces thereof , and at least 4 ounces of black Choler every day , and at least as much of Bloud every day , as there is of phlegme ; That is , 17 ounces , which being joyned together , 46 ounces shall be daily made , even in an abstinentious Feverish person ; Let him give credit to these Fables that will , and let the Musitian make an Harmony of these pipes , that can . I at least conclude , from the supposed dreams of the Schooles , That there ought in no wise to be the cutting of a Veine ; as neither a laxative Medicine for those that have a Fever , if so much of humours be bred in him ; seeing as much is consumed in an abstinent Feverish person ; because his appetite , digestion , and Food failing ; Yet it is of necessity , that this weight be recompenced out of the Masse of the Bloud . Therefore an emptying is not to be instituted in a Feverish or Aguish person , who abstaineth for the space of two dayes . But I pray , from whence hath Galen known , That as much of yellow Choler is made every other day , as there is of phlegm daily , and of black Choler every third day : Especially , who is proved by Andrew Vesalius of Bruxels , and the Prince of Anatomists , in 106 places , never to have pryed into a humane dead Carcase ? For if Galen writeth this without proof , at leastwise , the Schooles were not bound to subscribe to his Doatage . But if he learned this , as being perfectly instructed by Fevers themselves : Verily , he could not refer this same thing into the effect , and also into the cause of one thing . For it must needs contein an absurd and blockish begging of the Principle , to produce the same thing to be for a cause , and effect for it self : Namely , That a Tertian happens from yellow Choler putrified every other day , and a Quartane from black Choler putrified every third day , because as much of yellow Choler is made every other day , as there is of black Choler in full three dayes space . And again , Let him prove the truth of this matter , That a Tertian assaults us every other day , and a Quartane in the space of three dayes , because as much yellow Choler is made every other day , as there is of black Choler in three dayes space . Surely , miserable are the Speculations of Healing , which are handed forth in the spring of young men , being commanded to serve the sick , and hitherto adored by the Schooles : To wit , From whence unprosperous curings of Diseases daily succeed , to the destruction of the Christian World , and salvation of Souls . But at leastwise , if yellow Choler should exceed Melancholly or black Choler in one part and an half of its proportion , the Spleen exceeds the little bag of the Gawl sit times at least : If therefore it be supposed , that the Schooles do teach with Galen , That as much of Gaul or yellow Choler is made every other day , as there is of black Choler every three dayes ; and the Spleen be the Case or Receptacle of black Choler , and the little bag of the Gaul be the sheath of yellow Choler ; the Creatour hath either erred in his Ends , in framing the very Receptacles of those otherwise than Galen hath determined : or the Gaul , and Spleen were not the Butteries of the Fables of the School of Medicine . Therefore others whom the devices of Galen concerning the Circuit of Fevers did not satisfie , have begged Astrology for their ayd : because a Fever doth sometimes return at set hours . But these also are dashed against other straits , while as Fevers begin at all houres : and likewise , do delay , or forestall for some houres , yea are silent , and sleep for some turns . Whence they have not sufficiently confirmed , That mans nature is constrained at the pleasure of the Stars : as neither that there is a wedlock of the matter of a Fever , with the Stars : They are Rubbish and vain Tincklings poured over credulous eares . Others also , at length suppose , that they have given themselves satisfaction to the Question by Similitudes , if they shall say , that Fevers have themselves after the manner of other Seeds : To wit , some whereof do quickly bud , as the Water-cresse , but that of Parsly far more slow ; But the example availes not , because it resolves one doubt by another : For Seeds which are the more slowly resolved in moisture by reason of their Gummy oyliness , do also more slowly bud , as also others more readily , which obtain a muscilage nearer to the juyce of the earth : wherefore such a Similitude hath no way regard unto Fevers , wherein , they will not have fits to be made by reason of an easie or difficult resolving , but by reason of a scanty , or plentifull afflux of putrified humours . Otherwise surely , phllegm being the most estranged from putrefaction , should scarce afflict on the seventh day : whereas in the mean time , black Choler ( which is reckoned to be most like unto a dead Carcase , or flesh ) should far sooner putrifie . But at leastwise , the Doctrine of the Schooles concerning the cold fit and circuit of Fevers , standing , it must needs be , That a Tertian is cured by exhausting of the matter in the fit , and by a defect of new Choler requisite for a future fit , if the Patient shall abstain from meat and drink for full two dayes space ; But the Consequence is false , therefore also the position of Galen . But if the Schooles do teach and say , that then new Choler is dissolved out of the venal bloud ; Yet this is to feign Nature to be more solicitous , that she may preserve the Fever , than otherwise the Life , and Bloud the Treasure of Life . Again , That Choler being separated or made out of the Bloud if it be putrified , why is it not banished by the veines , together with the Choler of the foregoing fit , the which was already before deteined in the veines with the Bloud ? or hath perhaps that remaining and putrified Choler , fore-known that there would happen an abstinence of two days : To wit , that it might reserve it self for this defect , for a continuance of the Fever or Ague , which otherwise should perish through want of Choler ? Or hath Nature well pleased her self in the preserving of putrified Choler ? But if indeed that Choler issuing out of the veines be not putrified ; truly , now Nature is mad and outragious , because she rather dissolves the Bloud , that she may have that which may putrifie for the continuation of a future Fever . But the Schooles of Galen confess that Choler to be putrified , and that a putrified humour is poured out through the veines at every fit , and brought into the slender extremities of the veines , and that is the cause of the trembling of the fit , and great cold ; To wit , the putrefaction of which humour , when it is the more intense or heightened in the same place , that it straightway after causeth so great a heat . I have accounted these Doctrines to be dry stubbles , unworthy Fables , miserable old Wives Fictious , and ignorances most pernicious unto mankind . But surely , Fernelius first discovered this Ignorance of the Schooles : Wherefore , Rondeletius and the followers of Galen , inveigh against Fernelius as a forsaker of , and an Apostate from the School of Medicine . Fernelius therefore first smelt out the Nest of intermitting Fevers to be about the stomach , Duodenum , and Crow , and indeed he fixed the seat of continual Fevers about the heart : but he durst not to decline from the ancient Rule of curing Feuers : For he had begun openly to dispute against the foregoing Schooles , for the Nest of Fevers ; but afterwards he hid himself among retired places : for he not being able to rid himself of the strawy Bonds of putrified Humours , suffered the essence and knowledge of Fevers to be snatched away from him . But Paracelsus being affrighted with the Rigour of Fevers , perswading himself that he held the knowledge of a Fever by the eares , and pleasing himself with his own Allegorical invention of a Microcosme , defines a Fever to be a Disease of Sulphur and Niter : and elsewhere again , to be the Earth-quake of the Microcosme : As if Sulphur and Nitre were made far more cold than themselves , while they are separated from the mud ( or Limbus as he saith ) of the Microcosme ; and moreover , after some hours , were of their own accord inflamed with the fire of Aetna . For as Galen every where stumbled in the searching into Causes , and so therein bewrayed himself not to be a Physitian ; ( the Name of whom he saith , is the Finder out of the occasion ) So Paracelsus by a wonderfull Liberty , slid into the Similitudes or Allusions of a Microcosme or little World , unworthy a Physitian : Because that was a hard Law , which had violently thrust man into the miserable necessities of all Diseases , nakedly , that he might resemble the Microcosme or great World. I certainly gratifie my Soul , that I shew forth the Figure of the living God , but nor of the World. This good man was deceived , because he knew not that fire doth no where kindle , unless it be first inflamed ; neither however he hath feigned , that there is a Flint and Steel in us , and also a Smiter in the point of rubbing of the Flint . Surely , there was no need of these things , as neither of Gun-pouder , for a feverish heat , unless we are burnt at the first stroak , and cleave asunder in the middle . An actuall matter therefore of Sulphur and Salt-peter is wanting in us , a connexion of them both is wanting , an actual fire is wanting : And lastly , a Body is wanting which may undergo that kindling at one onely moment . Therefore , let the Causes and originals of Fevers in the Schooles , be Trifles and Fables . CHAP. IV. Phlebotomy or Bloud-letting in Fevers , is examined . 1. One onely reason against humours , others elsewhere . 2. A universal proposition for Bloud-letting , Galen being the Author . 3. A Syllogisme against the same Galen . 4. A Logistical or rational proof . 5. That a Plethora or abounding fulnesse of good bloud , is impossible . 6. That corrupted bloud doth never subsist in the veines . 7. That there cannot be said to be a Plethora , in a neutral state of the bloud . 8. That cutting of a vein is never betokened by the Positions of the Schooles . 9. What a Cachochymia or state of bad juyce in the veines may properly be . 10. That co-indications instead of a proper indication , and those opposite to a contrary indication or betokening , do square amisse . 11. A proposition of the Author against cutting of a veine in a Fever . 12. The Schooles disgrace their own laxative Medicines , by their tryals of the cutting of a veine . 13. The ends of co-betokenings . 14. A fore-warning of the Author . 15. After what manner , the letting out of bloud cooleth . 16. A miserable History of a Cardinal Infanto . 17. We must take special notice against Physitians that are greedy of bloud . 18. A guilty mind , is a thousand witnesses . 19. An argument drawn from thence . 20. The essential state of Fevers . 21. An explaining of the foregoing argument , concerning cooling , and the privy shifts of the Schooles . 22. That there is not a proceeding from one extream unto another , is badly drawn from Science Mathematical into Medicine . 23. It is a faulty argument in healing . 24. The argument from the position of the Schooles is opposed . 25. The false paint of the Schooles , from stubborn ignorance . 26. The faculties obtain the chiefdom of betokening . 27. Hippocrates , concerning great Wrestlers or Champions , is opposed : but being badly understood . 28. The differences of emptyings . 29. A Fever hurts lesse than the cutting of a veine . 30. The obligement of Physitians . 31. A general intention in Fevers , and the cutting of a veine opposite thereunto . 32. Science Mathematical proveth , that cutting of a veine , doth alwayes hurt . 33. The uncertainty of Physitians proves a defect of Principles . 34. Cutting of a veine cannot diminish the cause of Fevers . 35. An argument from a sufficient enumeration : 36. Another from the quality of the bloud . 37. Whither the Schooles are driven . 38. Vain hope in the changes of bloud let out . 39. That the co-indication of Phlebotomy for Revulsion , is vain , as well in a Fever , as in the menstrues . 40. Derivation in local Diseases is sometimes profitable : but in Fevers impertinent . 41. Cutting of a vein is hurtfull in a Pleurisie . 42. The Schooles may learn from the Country Folk , that their Maximes are false . 43. Revulsion a Rule in Fevers . 44. What Physitians ought to learn by this Chapter . BEfore I proceed unto further Scopes , I ought to repeat what things I have elsewhere demonstrated in a large Treatise : To wit , That there are not two Cholers , and phlegme in Nature , as the constitutive parts of the venal blood ; but that the Treatise of Fevers required me to be more brief : especially , because those very things do of themselves go to ruine in this place ; where there is no mention made of Humours , except putrified ones , since an Animal or living Creature that is putrified , is no longer an Animal . I will therefore examine onely the two universal Succours : To wit , Bloud-letting and Purging , as the two pillars of Medicine ; and the which being dashed in pieces , the whole Edifice falls down of its own accord , as it were into Rubbish : and these Succours being taken away , Physitians may forsake the sick , they not having Remedies , besides the Diminishers of the body and strength ; all which I will peculiarly touch at . For indeed according to the consent of Galen , in every Fever ( a Hectick one excepted ) cutting of a vein is required . Therefore for the Schooles , and custome of this destructive Age , I state this Syllogisme . Phlebotomy or Bloud-letting , is unprofitable wherefoever it is not shewn to be necessary : or where a proper Indication is wanting unto it ; But in Fevers it is not signified to be necessary : Therefore Bloud letting in Fevers is unprofitable . The Major proposition is proved , because the end is the chief Directress of Causes , and the Disposer of the meanes unto it . Wheresoever therefore the end sheweth not a necessity of the meanes , things not requisite are in vain provided for that end , especially where from a contrary betokening , it is manifest that the bloud is not let out without a losse of the strength : such meanes therefore are rashly instituted , which the end shews to be vain , unprofitable , and to be done with a diminishment of the strength . But the Minor proposition , Horatius Augenius de monte Sancto , profesly proveth in three Books ; Teaching with the consent of the Vniversities , That a Plethora or a too much fullnesse of the veines alone , that is , the too much abounding of Bloud is the betokener of Phlebotomy ; nor that indeed directly for the curing of Fevers , but for the Evacuation of a fullnesse : But a Plethora never subsisteth in Fevers , therefore Bloud-letting is never betokened in Fevers ; and by consequence this is altogether unprofitable . The Conclusion is indeed new and Paradoxal , yet true , Which thing therefore for that cause shall be therefore to be proved by many Arguments . Galen himself proves the Subsumption : Teaching , That at every fit of Fevers , more Choler is pufft away than is generated in two dayes . In the mean time , the other members do not cease to be nourished with accustomed bloud : That is , besides the consuming Caused by the Fever , they also consume their own allotted quantity of wonted Bloud : The which , in the foregoing Chapter , from the humour cast up by vomit , I have reduced into a Computation . But now that very thing is to be pressed with a greater connivance : Wherefore , if in him that is in good health , eight ounces of bloud are daily made , it must needs be , that as many also are daily spent for nourishment : or otherwise , that a man should soon swell up into an huge heap . What if therefore eight ounces of bloud do daily depart from him that is in good health : certainly , the Fever shall consume no less . Therefore , seeing there is none , or but a little appetite and digestion of meats , and sanguification , of necessity also , too much abundance of blood , if there were any at the beginning , shall fail presently after two dayes , and the betokening thereof shall cease for the letting forth of bloud in him that hath a Fever . But that presently in Fevers , there is no longer a Plethora ; as many do see this , as do undergo ulcers by a Cautery : To wit , the which presently after Fevers are dryed up , nor do they afford their wonted pus . But first of all we must take notice , that the Strength or Faculties can never offend through abundance , not so much as in Mathuselah : so neither doth good bloud offend through a too much abounding ; because the vital Faculties , and Bloud are Correlatives : Because according to the Scripture , the Soul or vital Spirit is in the blood . By Consequence therefore , there can never be a Plethora in good blood . But on the other extream , I have demonstrated in a foregoing Chapter , That corrupt blood is never conteined in the veines : therefore if there be ever any possible plethora of the veines , that ought to consist in a middle state of the bloud , between a corrupted and very healthy one : whether we consider the same state of decay , and neutrality , or next , as it is mixed of both : at leastwise the Galenists may remember , that good proceeds from an entire cause , but evil from every defect . And so that this state of the blood is not called a Plethorical or abounding one , but a Cacochymical one or state of a bad juyce : Nor that it desires the cutting of a vein , but rather a Purgation , which may selectively draw forth the bad , but leave the good . And so , that by their Positions it is not yet proved , That the cutting of a vein is in any wise betokened : For according to the truth of the matter , I have already shewn before , That a state of ill juyce doth not consist in the veins , the which indeed is onely a disturbing of the Bloud : for the easing whereof , an exhausting of the troubled bloud is not so much signified , as a taking away of the affect of the Disturber : Especially , because it is the more pure bloud , which passing through the Center of the heart , hath obtained its own refinement : and therefore , that which is drawn out of the Elbow , and is first brought forth , shall be the more pure , but the more impure bloud shal be left within . Furthermore , since it is now manifest , that a Plethora is wanting in Fevers , which may a require a letting out of blood , and that thing the Schools have after some sort smelt out ; they have instead of an indication or betokening sign , substituted some co-indications or mutual betokenings , as if they were of an equal weight with a sutable indication in nature , and out-weighing a contrary indication ; the which , after another manner , surely , seeing it is drawn from a conserving of the strength , ought wholly to obtain the Chief-dome altogether by that Title , that every Fever is quickly , safely , and perfectly curable without cutting of a vein ; For indeed , for all so divers putrefactions of retaining Humours , and Fevers issuing from thence , they presently make use of the one only succour of cutting of a vein , because it abundantly ( as they say ) succours , and is stopped at pleasure : By which distinction at least , they after some sort defame their own laxative medicines : For they say , although the cutting of a vein by a natural , and one only indication of it self , seems to be required by reason of a Plethora : yea nor that it doth properly take away putrified humours ; yet it cooleth , it unloads the Fardle of the veins , reneweth , or refresheth the strength , takes away part of the bad Humour together with the good , and by derivation , and revulsion , stops , pacifies , and calls away the flux of humours made unto the nest of putrefaction : wherefore nature feeling refreshment , is the more prosperously , and easily busied about the rest . They are good words ( saith the Sow ) while she eats up the penitential Psalms , but they do not profit a hunger-starved swine . Such indeed are co-indications , whereby they perswade the destruction of Mortals to be continued , and whereunto I will give satisfaction in order . But before all , I will have it to be fore-admonished , that although in a more strong and full body , there is not a notable hurt by letting out the blood , yea although the sick may oft-times seem presently to be eased , and also to be cured : yet cutting of a vein cannot but be disallowed , seeing that Feverish persons are more successfully cured without the same : For however at the first , or repeated cuttings of a vein , the cruelty of Fevers shall oft-times slacken : Surely that doth no otherwise happen , than because the Archeus much abhorreth a sudden emptying of the strength , and an undue cooling , and so neglects to expell the Feverish matter , and to perform his office : But they who seem to be cured by blood-letting , surely they suffer a relapse , at least they obtain a more lingering , and less firm health : which Assertion the Turks do prove , and a great part of the world , who with me are ignotant of the opening of a vein , because it is that which God is no where read to have instituted , or approved of , yea not so much as to have made mention thereof . But as to what belongs unto the first scope of a co-betokeming sign , which is called , Cooling ; Truly the letting out of the blood , cooleth by no other title , than as it filcheth from the vital heat : But not that it obtains a coolifying , and positive power : In which respect at least , such a cooling ought to be hurtful . Why I pray in a Hectick Fever do they not open a vein ? Doth not that Fever want cooling ? or doth it cease to be a Fever ? But blood is wanting in Hecttick Fevers ; wherefore through defect of blood , and strength , there is an easie Judgement of hurt brought by Phlebotomy , which otherwise the more strong faculties do cover . In the year 1641. Novemb. 8. the body of Prince Ferdinand , brother to the King of Spain , and Cardinal of ●oledo , was dissected , who being molested with a Tertian ague for 89 dayes , dyed at 32. years of age : For his heart , liver , and lungs being lifted up , and so the veins , and arteries being dissected , scarce a spoonful of blood flowed into the hollow of his breast : Indeed he shewed a liver plainly bloodless , but a heart flaggy like a purse : For but two dayes before his death , he had eaten more if it had been granted unto him . He was indeed , by the cuttings of a vein , purges , and leeches so exhausted , as I have said , yet the Tertian ceased not to observe the order of its intention , and remission . What therefore hath so great an evacuation of blood profited ? or what hath that cooling plainly done , unless that those evacuaters were vain , which could not take away so much as a point of the Fevers . Is that the method of healing which makes a Physitian , whom the Almighty hath created , and commanded to be honoured , by reason of the necessity of him ? If that method knows not how to cure a Tertian ague in a young man , to what end shall it conduce ? Is that the art whereof the infirm and unhealthy person stands in need ? I wish , and wish again , that that good Prince had not made use of it ! who when the returning from Cortracum , was saluted by the Senate of Bruxells , recovering from the agony of death , by reason of the diminishments of his blood , and strength , then walked in good health about his Chamber . Physitians therefore abhor to expose their feverish persons to the encountring of cold things , to wit , whereby they might presently , and abundantly experience the vertue of cooling things by a manifest token , because they put not much trust in their own rules of Heats and Coolers : For since it is already manifest , that the whole heat in a Fever is that of the very vital spirit it self ; it follows also , that the cooling which is made by cutting of a vein , is meerly that of the vital spirit , and together also an exhausting of the blood , and an impoverishment thereof : For if a Fever be to be cured as a distemper , by cutting of a vein as a cooling remedy : Alas , the contrary is manifest ! by the exhausting of all the blood out of the Prince the Infanto of Spain : In whom as yet , but the day before his death , the Tertian Ague kept its fits : ( ●o great cooling not hindering it ) and if others intens a curing even in a Quotidian , only by cold ( which they writ to be kindled of putrified Phlegm ) at leastwise that cooling should be far more easily obtained by exposing the sick half naked unto the blowing of the North , or West wind , or by hanging him up in water , or a deep well , until he should testifie that he were sufficiently cooled : For so they should prefently , and abundantly perfect a cure , if their conscious ignorance did not within condemn their own feverish essence of heat : Therefore a Fever is not a naked Tempest of heat , but an occasional vitiated matter is present ; for the expelling whereof , the Archeus being as it were wroth , doth by accident inflame himself : The which as long as it shall be neglected in the Schools , the curings of Fevers will be rash , destructive , and conj●ctural , therefore none shall owe any thing worthy of giving thanks unto Physitians , seeing they are cured by the voluntary goodness of nature : and I wish they were not put back by Physitians . But unto the argument of curing by sudden cold , the Schools will answer , that there is a perilous departure from one extream unto another : By which excuse of their ignorance they stop the mouth of the people , as if , they spake something worthy of credit : not taking notice , that they therein contradict themselves , while as they praise , and prefer the cutting of a vein before laxative medicines , chiefly for that end , because it presently and abundantly succours by cooling , and therefore they have given it the surname of a speedy and universal succour : For they constrain their own impotency founded in ignorance , unto the will of a Maxim badly understood , and worse applied . For truly , it is not be doubted but that it is lawful presently to cut the halter of him that is hanged , that he who was deprived of air , may enjoy it as soon as may be : Likewise that it is lawful presently to place him that is drowned , in a steep scituation , that he may cast back the water out of his lungs : That it is lawful , I say , to draw any one presently to the bank : and that it is lawful presently to free a wound from its indisposition , and to close it with a scar : For so very many wounds are closed in one only day , because a solution of that which held together , wants nothing besides a re-uniting of it self : That it is lawful presently to repose a broken , or diplaced bone : Likewise that it is lawful in the Falling Sickness , Swooning , Fainting , Cramp , to recall the weak as soon as one can , presently to loosen the detainments of excrements , and presently to stop the excessive flux of womens issues : For neither must we think , that nature rejoyceth in her own destruction , and that from an healthy state , she indeed le ts in sudden death , but refuseth a remedy , which may suddenly repell a disease ; otherwise she should not do that which in things possible , is most exceeding good to be done , as neither should every thing desire to be , and be preserved . In Science Mathematical indeed , it is determined as impossible to proceed from extream to extream without a mean , and that Medium wholly denyes all interruption : the which , if we shall grant in natural things with a certain latitude , we shall as yet be accounted to have done it out of hand , and that in the best manner : And so that neither is it lawful to wrest that of Science Máthematical unto curings . I confess indeed , that it is not lawful to draw out a dropfie abundantly by an incision of the Navil , at one only turn ; as neither to allure forth all the corrupt pus out of a great Aposteme , nor to bring one that is frozen by reason of cold immediately to the Chimney , nor abundantly to nourish him that is almost dead with hunger : Yet surely a slow and necessary progress of Mediocrity , as such , or a proceeding from one extream unto another , doth not conclude that thing , as if nature were averse unto a speedy help : Since this betokening is natural , nearly allyed , pithy , and intimately proper unto her self : But those things are forbidden , because a faintness of the strength depending thereupon , would not bear those speedy motions . The Schools therefore by a faulty argument , of the cause , as not of the cause , drive the sick from a sudden aid which they have not , that they may vail their ignorance among the vulgar , with a certain Maxim being badly directed : For as often as a Cure can be had without the loss of strength ( for the faculties do always obtain a chiefdome in indications ) by how much the more speedily that is done , it is also snatched with the greater Jubily or joy of nature : Even as also in Fevers , I have with a profitable admiration observed it to be done with much delight : Therefore ( in the terms proposed ) if a Fever be a meer heat besides nature , and all curing ought to be perfected by contrary subduers ; Therefore it requires a cooling besides nature , to wit , that contraries may stand under the same general kind ; That is , every Fever should of necessity be cured by much cold of the encompassing air , & especially , because the cold of the encompassing air collects the faculties , but doth not disperse them : But the consequence is false ; Therefore also the Antecedent . Therefore the Schools do not intend by cutting of a vein , the cooling or heat , but chiefly a taking away of the blood it self , and a mitigation of accidents which follows the weakened powers , or they primarily intend a diminishment of the strength , and blood : It being that which with a large false paint , they call a more free breathing of the Arteries . But I do alwayes greatly esteem of an indication which concerns a preserving of the strength , and which is opposite unto any emptying of the veins whatsoever , because the strength or powers being diminished , and prostrated , the Disease cannot neither be put to flight , neither doth any thing remain to be done by the Physitian : Therefore Hippocrates decreeth , That Natures themselves are the Physitianesses of Diseases ; because the indication or betokening sign which is drawn from a preserving of the faculties , governs the whole scope of curing : As therefore Reason perswades , that the strength is to be preserved ; so also the blood , because this containeth that . Hippocrates indeed in a Plethora of great Wrestlers or Champions , hath commanded blood to be presently , and heapingly let out ; and that saying the Schools do every were thunder out in the behalf of the cutting of a vein : But that is ridiculously alledged for the curing of Diseases , and Fevers : For he bad not that thing to be done for fear of a Plethora , however their veins may sufficiently abound with blood : but only , lest the vessels being filled , they should burst , and cleave asunder in the exercises of strength : otherwise , what interposeth as common between healthy Champions , and the curing of Fevers : For there is no fear of a Plethora in him that hath a Fever , neither that a vein should be broken through exercises ; and moreover we must note , that the emptyings of the blood are on this wise : That the exhausting of the strength or faculties which is made by carnal lust , is unrepairable , because it takes away from the in-bred spirit of the heart : But the exhausting which is made by the cuttings of a vein , is nigh to this , because it readily filcheth away the inflowing Archeus , and that abundantly . But a Disease , although it also directly oppose the strength , yet because it doth not effect that thing abundantly , but by degrees , therefore it rather shakes , and wears out the strength , than that it truly exhausteth it : Therefore the restoring of the faculties which are worn or battered by a Disease , is more easie than that of those which are exhausted by cutting of a vein . For they who in Diseases are weakened by the cutting of a vein , are for the most part destitute of a Crisis ; and if they do revive from the disease , they recover by little and little , and being subject to be sick with many anguishes , in a long course of dayes , and not without the fear of Relapses . But they who lay by it with a Disease , without cutting of a vein , are easily restored , and recovering , they soon attain unto their former state : But if they being destitute of remedies , shall also sometimes come unto an extremity ; yet Nature attempts a Crisis , and refresheth them , because their strength , although it was sore shaken by the Disease , yet it perished not , as not being abundantly exhausted by the lettings out of blood . Wherefore a Physitian is out of conscience , and in charity bound to heal , not by a sudden lavishment of the faculties , as neither by dangers following from thence , nor also by a necessary abbreviation of life ; according to the Psalm , My spirit shall be lessened , therefore my days shall be shortened . And seeing that according to the Holy Scriptures , the life glistens in the blood ; however plentifully thou shalt dismiss this , thou shalt not let it forth but with the prejudice of life : For the perpetual intent of nature in curing of Fevers , is by sweats ; And therefore the fits are for the most part ended by sweats : But the cutting of a vein is Diametrically opposed unto this intention . For truly , this pulls the blood inwards , for to replenish the vessels that were emptied of blood ; hut the motion of nature that is requisite for the curing of Fevers , proceeds from the Center to without , from the noble parts , and bowels unto the skin : But that the cutting of a vein doth of necessity weaken , although the more strong and plethorick persons may seem to experience , and witness that thing to be otherwise . If the sacred Text , which admonisheth us , That the life inhabiteth in the blood ; hath not sufficient weight in it ; at leastwise that shall be made manifest , if thou shalt offend in a more liberal emission of blood : For the strength and sick person do presently faint ot go to ruine : Therefore in Science Mathematical , if six do notably hurt , three cannot but hurt , although not so sensibly . But it is not permitted him to hurt nature , who ought to heal and restore the same , if nature her self ought to be the Physitianesse to her self , and by so much the more prosperous , by how much the more strong : For it is sufficient for a Physitian that the sick doth otherwise decay through the disease , with hungers , lack of appetites , disquietnesses , pains , anguishes , watchings , sweats , and with an unexcusable weakness ; Neither therefore ought a faithful helper to add weakness unto weakness . It is a deceitful succour which the cutting of a vein brings , and the remedy thereof is so uncertain , that no Physitian hath hitherto dared to promise a future cure from thence . Every Artificer doth what he promiseth : For a Statuary undoubtedly prepares an Image , and a Shoomaker shooes : But the Physitian alone dares to promise nothing from his Art , because he is supported with uncertain foundations , being only by accident now and then , and painfully profitable ; Because however thou shalt interpret the matter , that is full of ignorance which would cure by procured weakness : For by a sudden emptying out of the blood made by heaps , nature for the most part neglects the expulsion of her enemy ; which expulsion notwithstanding , I have demonstrated to contain the whole Tragedy of Fevers , and Nature : Besides it is confessed , That the matter . of a Fever doth not consist in a vein above the heart ; and by consequence , that neither doth the cutting of a vein any way exhaust the occasional matter , or effectively cure by a direct intention of healing . Again , If blood be to be let forth for a more easie transpiration of the Arteries , That al leastwise shall be in vain in the beginnings , and increases of Fevers , whenas the heat is not yet vigorous . And seeing that blood is not to be let out in the state , as neither in the declining thereof ; Therefore never : But that , not in their state or height it is proved , because a Crisis or judicial sign is hindered ; seeing Nature ( as they write ) being very greatly letted or cumbred , strives with the disease , and being for the most part the Conqueresse , doth then least of all endure the loss of strength , and a calling away from the Duel : But if nature be conquered in the state of the Fever , what other thing shall the cutting of a vein then be besides meer Murder ? If therefore it is not convenient to open a vein in the height of Fevers , while as there is the greatest heat , perplexity , and a most especial breathing of the arteries is required : Surely much less shall it be convenient in their beginnings , and increases ; especially , because presently after the first days , the fear of a Plethora or too much fulness departs , and so there is a sufficiently easie Transpiration of the Arteries : But that diseases in their declining , do neither require , nor endure the cutting of a vein , it is so cleer , and testified by the voice of all ; That none ever attemps the cutting of a vein at the declining of a Disease . Let us consider further , That in Fevers the blood in the veins is either good , or evil , or neutral : If it be good , it shall be good to have the good detained , because it addeth to the strength . For as I have shewn elsewhere , the fear of a Plethora , if there were any , hath ceased , even presently after the beginning : But for that they will have good blood to be let out for cooling , and discussing of putrefaction ; Truly both of them hath already been sufficiently taken away , and the imaginary good which they suppose , brings a real and necessary loss of the strength or faculties . But moreover , the Schools teach , That the cutting of a vein is not commanded in a Fever , by reason of the goodness of the blood , the which indeed , they suppose to be evil , and putrefaction . But I have sufficiently taught , That corrupted blood is not afforded in the veins as long as we live ; and by consequence , that this scope of the Schools in cutting of a vein , falls to the ground : It behooves thererefore that they demonstrate unto me a naughtiness of the blood , which may be without the corruption of the same : And then , that that blood is detained in a vein from the heart unto the hand , if they will have the cutting of a vein to be confirmed in as much as it is such , or as to revulsion : Let them teach I say , That bad blood is not in the first shops , and that blood being drawn out through the vein of the elbow , worse blood is not drawn to the heart , where the vena cava or hollow vein makes the right bosome of the heart . Let them likewise instruct me , that the upper veines being emptyed , there is not a greater liberty , and impunity , whereby the hurtfull , and feverish matter may reach unto the heart , than before : So that instead of a discussing of the putrefaction ( which in the truth of the matter , I have proved to be none ) a free passage of putrified ayr unto the heart , is not rather occasioned : whither indeed the vacuity of the emptied veines attracteth the bloud from beneath . Let them shew I say , by what reason an afflux of bloud , and diminishment of the strength through the Elbow , may hinder putrefaction , or may import a Correction , and renewing of that which is putrified . Let them also explain themselves what they will have meant , that cutting of a vein should be made , whereby the Arteries may the more freely breath ; since putrefaction ( if there were any possible to be in the veines ) doth not affect the arterial bloud , the Buttery of whole Nature . And moreover , Let them prove , that the good bloud being diminished , and the strength proportionally , that there is a greater power in the impure bloud that is left , and which is defiled by corruption ( as they suppose ) of preserving it self from putrefaction hanging over its head . Let them likewise teach , contrary to the sacred Text : That the Life and Soul are rather , and more willingly in the remaining defiled bloud , than in the more pure bloud which was taken away by the cutting of a vein . Otherwise regularly the drawing out of good bloud includes an increased proportion , and unbridled liberty of the bad bloud remaining . What if at length in a Fever , and in the veines there be bad bloud , and they say it is good ( as a sign , or effect ) which in the letting out of bloud flowes forth as evil ; and they think that so much bad bloud at least , is taken away : First let them prove the bloud which they account hurtfull to be truly hurtfull , even as I have already before proved it to be harmlesse . And then , let them teach , that by such an hasty and full emission of bad bloud , nothing that is of prejudice is taken from the strength , and that the remaining bloud being defiled , and the Faculties being now diminished , the emptying out of bloud that is made , shall be for a cause ; why a putrifying of the remaining bloud is the less able to proceed ; and whether they hope that bloud being at sometime , after what manner soever once putrified in the veines , there is aforded in Nature , a going back or return : To wit , from such a privation ? For let them shew that it is not a contradiction , that it is proper to a Fever to defile the bloud it self , and for this property to be taken away by the effect , to wit , by a removal of that which is putrified ? For if the more impure bloud be at first drawn out of the vein , and they repeatingly open a vein , in the mean time they prostrate and disturb the Faculties : hence also they take away the hope of a Crisis : what if then the more red bloud shall flow forth ; Surely they cry out as if the whole Troop of the Malady were taken away at the first turn , and as if the Seat of Fevers had been extended onely from the Heart unto the Elbow ; but that the good bloud resided about the Liver . But I have alwayes discerned evacuations of the last excrements to be fearfull in the Dropsie ; and therefore , much more in a naked snatching away of the bloud , which withdrawes in a direct passage , the vital spirits from the Heart through the Wound , whether that bloud be accounted bad , or good , or neutral . First of all , I have proved , that as well those things offend in begging of the principle , which are supposed concerning a putrified continual , and burning Fever , as those which are supposed concerning the emissions of putrified bloud . Wherefore , in speaking according to Numbers , I have alwayes found Succours that are made for the snatching away of the strength , to be full of deceit , as that for a very little ease , the Faculties the Porters of Diseases , are weakened : For even so as drink at the beginning of Fevers seemeth to comfort Thirst for a little space : but who is so mad that he would then drink , if he knew that the drink would filch away his necessary powers ? Therefore the ayd of cooling by cutting of a vein , is unfaithfull , deceitfull , and momentany . At length , concerning neutral bloud , which in respect of cutting of a vein , is neither good , nor evil , it is not worth ones labour to speak any thing : seeing that which is denyed under a disjoyning , may also be denyed copulatively . For whether that be neutral bloud which consisteth of a co-mixture of the good with that which is depraved ( by supposing that to be depraved which is not ) or that wherein a neutral alteration is introduced , for both events , the particulars aforesaid do satisfie . Lastly , That I may cut off the hope that is in Revulsion , and so equally take away all co-indications , as the wretched privy shifts of obstinacy . It is a mad ayd to have cut a vein ( for this end , they for the most part require a plenteous one ) whether in Fevers , or next in the Menstrues for Revulsion : because a Feverish matter swims not in the bloud , or floats in the veins as a Fish doth in the water : but it adheres or sticks fast within , to the vessel , even as in its own place , concerning the occasionall matter , I will declare : But for the Menstrues in like manner , because a separation thereof is made from the whole , and that , not but by a separating hand of the Archeus . But Bloud-letting separates nothing of the separable things : because it acts without a foreknowledge of the end , and so without choyce : But presently after the vessel is opened , the more nigh and harmless bloud alway flowes forth : the which , because other afterwards followes by a continual thred for fear of a vacuum : therefore the Menstrues otherwise by the endeavour of Nature collected about the Womb , are by cutting of a vein drawn away from thence ; and go back into the whole Body . But if Phlebotomy shall sometimes well succeed in a Woman that is plethorick , and full of juyce ; yet surely in many others it hath given a miserable overthrow . For if the Menstrues should offend onely in its quantity ( while as it is now collected , and separated in the veins about the Womb ) I shall willingly admit of an individual betokening of Phlebotomy , and onely in the Case supposed . But the Menstrues , if it shall flow in a well-constituted Womb , it abundantly satisfies its own ends , and in this respect Revulsion is in vain , although the Supposition supposeth it to be even an impossible thing . For Bloud-letting is nothing but a meer , and undistinct emptying out of the bloud : But the veins being emptyed , they out of hand recall unto themselves any kind of bloud whatsoever from on every side : Because as they are the greedy sheaths of bloud , so also are they impatient of Vacuity or emptiness : And therefore the veins that are emptyed do allure the Menstrues designed for utterance ; That is , being in this respect once enrouled by Nature in the Catalogue of Excrements , But Derivation , because it is a sparing effusion of bloud , so it be made out of veines convenient , it hath often profited in many locall Diseases , and so in Fevers it is impertinent . But they urge , that the cutting of a vein is so necessary in a Pleurisie , that it is enjoyned under a Capital punishment . For truly they say , that unlesse the bloud flowing together unto the Ribs , be pulle● back by the effusion of much bloud , there is danger least the Pleurisie do soon kill the man by choaking of him . Surely , I let out the bloud of no person that hath a Pleurisie , and such a cure is safe , certain , profitable , and sound : None of them perisheth : whereas in the mean time , under Phlebotomy many do at length perish with a long or lingring Consumption , and experience a Relapse every Year : For according to Galen : Whosoever they be that are not perfectly cured on the fortieth day , become Consumptious : But I perfectly cure them within few dayes : neither do they feel a Relapse . Neither indeed have I alone my secrets for this purpose : But moreover , I have seen a Country man curing all Pleuritical persons at the third draught . For he used the dung of an Horse for a man , and of a Nag for a woman , which he dissolved in Ale , and gave the expressed strayning to drink . Such indeed is the ignorance of Physitians , and so great the obstinacy of the Schooles ; That God gives knowledge to Rusticks , and Little ones , which he denyes to those that are blown up with Heathenish Learning . We must now see , if there be any use of Revulsion in Fevers . For indeed , since the work of Revulsion is not primarily any other thing than the cutting of a vein , whereunto the succeeding bloud is by accident hoped to come , and that by the benefit of that thing , it should not flow unto the place affected : Upon this Position it followes : That by such an Euacuation , the offensive Feverish bloud ( so I connivingly speak ) shall be drawn as dispersed into the veines , which otherwise lurking in its own Nest far from the Heart , could not so cruelly communicate the Ferment of its own hurt unto the Heart : which is to say , that it should be drawn from a more ignoble part , unto a more noble one . For the more crude , and dreggish bloud is in the Meseraick veins : but the more refined bloud is that which hath the more nearly approached unto the Court of the Heart . For otherwise , Nature as undiscreet , had placed the chief Weapons of Parricide nigh the Fountain of Life . Seeing therefore the matter of a Fever , floats not in the veins , nor sits nigh the Heart : Fat be it to believe , that that is fetch'd out , or moved from its place by the cuttings of a vein ; however , divers coloured blood be sometimes wiped out by the repeated emissions of bloud , It is therefore a cruel Remedy , if unto the place of the bloud let forth , other bloud shall come from remote parts : For so the contagion of one place should be dispersed into the whole body , and unto the more noble parts ; and otherwise there is an easie co-defilement in things or parts that have a co-resemblance . Lastly , if the Errours of the Heathens being once renounced , Modern Physitians would have respect unto the Life of their Neighbour ; verily they should know that the devices of Revulsion are vain , that it is a pernicious wasting of the Treasure of bloud and strength ; that no hurt doth insult from the bloud within the veins , but onely from hostile , and forreign excrements : that God also hath made sufficient Emunctories or avoyding places of any filths whatsoever , neither that there is need of a renting of the veins for a victory over Fevers . CHAP. V. Purging is Examined . 1. The first confession of the Schooles concerning their purging Medicines . 2. The deceits of Corrections . 3. Another confession . 4. A third . 5. Shamefull excuses . 6. A fourth confession . 7. A frequent History . 8. Deceit in the name . 9. It is explained , what it is for a laxative medicine to be given , while the humours do swell or are disturbed , and how full of deceit it is . 10. A History of the repentance of the Author . 11. A conclusion drawn from thence . 12. Nine remarkable things for the destruction of the Schools . 13. A History of a certain chief man. 14. A fifth confession . 15. An examination of the aforesaid particulars . 16. A sixth confession . 17. Vain and foul privy shifts . 18. Weapons retorted from a seventh confession . 19. An argument of poyson from stink . 20. A mechanical proof . 21. The same out of Galen . 22. A proof from the effect . 23. The Schooles oppose their own Theoremes . 24. The suppositions of the Schooles being granted , none could dye of a Fever , and it should be false , that purging things are not to be given in the beginning of Fevers . 25. That this Aphorisme includes a deceit , and an unadvisednesse of Hippocrates . 26. Coction in Diseases is the abuse of a Name . THE Schooles acknowledge that their Purgers , even unto Agarick , have need of Correction , because they enforce Nature . And I wish those Corrections were not sluggish , nor blockish , and that they did rather serve for obtaining the innocency of a Medicine , than for a gelding thereof . For truly , a gelding of the Faculties in a Medicine includes a deceit : To wit , least the sick should understand that a poyson subsisteth therein . For the Tamed Remedies of the shops are like an Houshold Wolf ; who when an occasion is given him , while he is trusted in , returns unto the wonted cruelty of his own Nature . For from hence , neither dare they to call their corrected purging Medicines by their proper Etymologie ; To wit , They vail Scammony with the name of Diagridium ; as also they mask Coloquintida with the name of Alhandal . In the next place , Laxative Compounds in Dispensatories , war under the dissembled Title of a Captain or Leader . In the mean time , They cannot deny , but that in every solutive , Scammony and Coloquintida are the two pillars , whereby the whole Edifice of Purging is supported : and the which being dashed in pieces , all of whatsoever was superstructed thereon falls to the ground . Next , The more mild Solutives : as Manna , Cassia , Senna , Rhubarb , &c. have given up their names unto those two Standard-defending Leaders . The Schooles confess , I say , That a laxative Medicine being administred , it is no longer in the power of the Physitian : and so , they hereby defame their Laxatives , and therefore put them behind Phlebotomy . For if a laxative Medicine shall commit any the more cruel thing , They accuse either the Dose , or the Correction , or the fluid nature of the sick , or the Apothecary , or his Wife , least otherwise the name should perish from a Solutive Medicine . Yet in the mean time , will they , nill they , they confess , that all Solutives do enclose in them a consuming poyson : and they in the Proverb , call Aloes alone , harmlesse . But the others are to be administred with an additament , Correction , and Circumspection , as neither rashly , nor force-timely . For of late , a judicious man of the privy Councel of Brabant , that he might preserve his health , had taken a usual Pill of washed Aloes ( To wit , gelded or Corrected ) wherof , while he found not the effect : he declares it to a Physitian passing by , who blames the sluggishnesse of the Aloes , and so turns [ picron ] or bitter , into [ pigrum ] or slow . I will prescribe , saith he , corrected pils of greater vertue : The which being taken , he miserably perished ; because it was in vain endeavoured by him for a whole week , that he might restrain the unbridled effect of the Laxative Remedy : For he , that he might free himself from a future Disease , perished by the deceit of the Physitian , and left eleven Children , From whence it is first manifest , That it is as well free for a loosening Medicine to Tyrannize on him that is in good health , as otherwise on a sick person : To wit , it is lawfull under the name of a Physitian , and deceit of a purging Medicine , to prey even upon the life of Princes without punishment ; Because the earth covers the cruel ignorance of Physitians .. A Purgation or purifying is indeed a Specious Title , but full of deceit . And I wish that the purgatory of the Physitian were able to expiace Diseases ! I wish in as much as this is not done , that the sick would not expect a purgatory Medicine from the Hand of Physitians ! Surely it is a thing most worthy of lamentation , what they say , That a Laxative Medicine being administred before the Coction of a Disease , the same humours indeed are drawn forth ( for they will have loosening things to draw out one humour , and not another by Selection or Choyce ) which otherwise , after the aforesaid Concoction of the Disease , is notwithstanding unprofitable , yea and hurtfull . Neither yet do they from thence hitherto learn , That the humours brought forth by Laxative things , are not Humours , nor offensive ones ; ( for otherwise at both stations of the Disease , and from the things supposed by one onely Laxative , they ought of necessity equally to profit , if they detract from the same offensive matter ) but a meer putrefaction , and a meer Liquor corruptively dissolved through the poyson of the Laxatives : And by so much the more unhappily is this Enemy drunk in , that it may exercise this bruitish Butchery within , in the flesh , and bloud . For by an History of the Fact , I will declare the Beginnings of my own Repentance and Knowledge in Healing . For indeed , I was scarce past my striplings , but that I had took hold of the Glove of a Gentlewoman infected with a dry Scab : From whence , I contracted a Scab , first on that Hand , and afterwards on the other Hand , being infamous with corrupt pus , and wheals . The Seniour Physitians of our City being called unto me : They first commanded the cutting of a vein for the cooling of the Liver : And then , they prepared an Apozeme of three dayes continuance , for the bringing of yellow torride Choler , and salt phlegm out of the Body . And at length they began the purging of the aforesaid Humours by the Pils of Fumitory , and provoked many stools abundantly . I was glad , because I had voyded an heap of stinking Liquor : They therefore admonished , that the same Medicine was to be taken next day after the morrow ; and likewise again , after three dayes , with the like success : and in my judgement , if the putrified , and stinking matter had all been joyned together , it had easily filled two buckets ; which I thought to be Humours : For I who before was healthy , chearfull , of entire strength , light in leaping , and running , was now reduced into leanness , my Knees trembled , my Cheeks were slid together , and my voyce was hoarse . I said therefore , and too late , in what place were those Humours entertained in me ? For neither did I find Room for so great a Hotch-potch mixture in my Head , Breast , or in my Belly : For although I had been deprived of all my Bowels , yet the whole hollowness could scarce have conteined the half part thereof : Therefore I concluded with my self , that those Humours had not fore-existed in me , but were made in me . And I clearly knew , that that putrified Liquor was made by the received Laxative Medicine ; That the same thing was to be done as oft as I should take it : in the mean time the same scabbedness assailed mea● before . Whence 1. I knew , That scabbedness is a contagion of the skin , but not a distemper of the Liver . 2. That the vice of those Humours in the Scab , was feigned : The which was gotten only by a co-touching of the Glove . 3. That purging Medicines did not purge or cleanse , but putrifie . 4. That they had melted the lively substance of my Body , and had resolved it into putrefaction . 5. That they did indifferently defile whatsoever they did any way touch at , whether it were bloud , or next , the lively flesh it self : but that they did not selectively draw out , and separate one thing instead of another . 6. That the matter defiled did denote its Defiler to be a meer liquefactive or melting , and putrifying poyson of the Body . 7. That the defiled matter flowed forth , Nature expelling it , until that the force of the purging Medicine was spent . 8. That this was done no otherwise in an healthy , than as in a sick person . 9. And that therefore a Solutive Medicine was dangerous , before that Nature was the Conqueresse in Diseases : but afterwards , that the hurt thereof did not so manifestly appear . Which things I having long , and seriously weighed with my self , I desisted from Galen , who was wholly so incumbred about those Humours , that he affirms all Diseases to consist thereof . But seeing better things were as yet wanting unto me , which I might substitute in the room of Humours , and Laxatives ; I was willing with an admiration , and compassion of mankind , at length to suspend the study of Healing , untill the most High of his own good pleasure , after much expence of Monyes , and Yeares , vouchsafed to grant understanding unto me that sought it ; The which , I wish the World might by my works apply unto it self for profit . Boldnesse increased in me in proceeding , and I was daily the more confirmed by the daily observations of the Errours of Physitians . Among other things , I remember , that chief Physitians had administred to a Prince , a purging Medicine with Scammony , whence in one onely day , forty and one stools had succeeded : The which , being by my Command weighed together with the urine of that day , weighed eighteen pounds , and seven ounces of yellow and putrified Liquor , I therefore said unto him , and to his Physitians : Truly , if that Liquor be yellow Choler , and one of the four Humours , now the phlegm remaining from thence in the Body ( it according to Galen exceeding Choler , in one third part ) shall weigh twenty and seven pound , and ten ounces , and by the same account nine pound and three ounces of meer black Choler remained : That is , thirty six pound , and thirteen ounces of phlegm , and melancholly , unmixt with yellow Choler . Therefore they ought to confesse , That a Purgation is not a purifying of the Body , but rather a distempering of the Humours left behind , if there were any such . And then , that the aforesaid loosening was not an Elective cleansing out of yellow Choler , or a freeing of the Body from superfluous Choler ; but a meer putrefactive melting of the Bloud . For truly the Bloud did not stink before , while it was in the veines , it presently stinketh in the Bowel at the same instant wherein it falls out of the veines . But I pray , In what vessell shall thirty seven pounds or pints of remaining phlegm , and black Choler be now conteined ? Especially while as after the purging , the veins which were before swollen , have now fallen down , and no longer appear ? For on the morning following , that miserable man who committed himself to your judgements or wills , and supposed that he was purified , speaks with a feeble , sharp , and hoarse voyce , he trembles with his Hands , and staggers with his Knees , his eyes being hollow , his veines exhausted , his Countenance being dejected , and being pressed with an importunate Thirst , and a dejected appetite , affirms that he suffered many thing a the day before , through so deceitfull and vexatious an experience of purifying , and doubteth that he shall again return the same way . Yet he certainly believeth , if the Dose of the Laxative Medicine had been more encreased , the buisinesse had succeeded ill with him . For from that strong Purgation in the Prince , the poysonous property of Solutive Medicines ought presently clearly to appear . The Physitians answered , That the ready nature of the Prince had too much hearkened to the purging Medicine , and for eschewing of the aforesaid filth of the humours that were left , and also for the disproportion of the same : which Choler that that Scammony , not onely by its property draws forth : but that of the bloud it self , or of a composition of the four Humours , it made one onely Liquor , being rejected by stool . Whence I again concluded , that it was an Imposture , and Deceit , which supposeth Choler , or phlegm to be drawn out , and the which avoucheth one Humour to be selectively avoyded before another , while as now they confesse , that all of them are melted together . And according to Galen , when the Bloud putrifies , yellow Choler is made : and that it is false , that a Cholagogal or Extracter of Choler ( for examples sake ) cures Cholerick Diseases , and that it is a deceit in those who say , Choler is drawn out , if the other three also being first corrupted , are ejected together with it . Certainly there is none studious of the Truth , who may not from hence presently understand , That the Foundation of Healing of the Antients goes to ruine , as well in respect of Humours , as of the Selection of solutive Medicines . Truly I admire even to amazement , That the World hath not yet taken notice of the destructive danger of Laxative things : The which otherwise , so suddenly well perceives any wiles or subtle crafts extended over their purse . For truly , it is not to be doubted , but that Laxative Medicines do carry a hidden poyson in them , which hath made so many thousands of Widowes , and Orphans . For neither do they draw forth a singular Humour after them : The which I have demonstrated in a singular Treatise , never to have been in Nature , except in the Books of Physitians . For increase thou the Dose of a Laxative Remedy , and a deady poyson will bewray it self . Come on then , Why doth that your Choler following with so swift an efflux , stink so horribly , which but for one quarter of an hour before did not stink ? For the speedinesse of flowing forth takes away the occasion of putrefaction , as also of stink : For it smells of a dead Carcase , and not of Dung. Neither also should it so suddenly borrow such a smell of stinking dung from the Intestines . Therefore the stink shewes an efficient poyson , and a mortified matter drawn out of the live Body : The which I prove by way of Handicraft-Operation . If any one shall drink a dram of white Vitriol dissolved in Wine , it presently provokes Vomit : But if presently after drinking it , he shall drink thereupon a draught of Ale or Beer , Water , &c. he indeed shall suffer many stools , yet wholly without stink . Scammony therefore , and Vitriol do alike dissolve the bloud of the Meseraick veines : This indeed by its violent brackishnesse ; But that by the putrefactive , and strong smelling poyson of Laxatives . From the consideration whereof alone , purging ought to be suspected by every one as a cruell , and stupide Invention . For if according to Galen ; the bloud when it putrifies , is made yellow Choler : therefore the stinking and yellow Liquor that is cast out by Laxative Medicines , and which dissembles Choler , is generated of putrefied bloud : And by consequence , that Laxative Medicines themselves are the putrefactives of the Bloud : The which is easily collected out of Galen , against the will of the Schooles . For he chiefly commends Triacle , because it most especially resisteth poysons . He also affirms also a discernable sign of the best Triacle to be , that if together with Laxative Medicines , Triacle be taken , undoubtedly stools shall not follow . Do not these words of Galen convince , that Laxatives are meer poysons ? To wit , all the operation whereof is evaded by Triacle , the Tamer of poysons ? unto which suspition the effects do agree : Because a Purging Medicine being taken , the sick , and healthy do equally cast forth Liquors of the same colour , odour , and condition : Wherefore , it requires not a offending Humour , before an unoffensive one ; but it indifferently defiles whatsoever it toucheth upon . Moreover , the Schooles also oppose the selective Liberty which they attribute unto solutive Medicines : For if any humour of the four be putrified in Fevers , and naturally betokeneth a removall of it self : But if Laxatives do selectively draw out a humour from the Bloud , yea in healthy persons ( as they will have it ) do cause sound flesh to melt , that they may thereby obtain their scope , which is to pour forth a putrified ot stinking Liquor , which the paunch casts out . At leastwise , Laxatives shall not have the like Liberty in Fevers , for drawing forth of the offending , and putrified excrement : For that which is corrupted , hath no longer the former essence , and properties which it had before its putrefaction . For if the Loadstone attracteth Iron , it shall not therefore draw rust unto it : And therefore if a purging Medicine resolves the flesh , and bloud , that it may thereby extract Choler which it drawes bound unto it self by a specifical property ; it doth not therefore likewise draw stinking , and putrified excrements included in the veines , which should be the cause of Fevers . Surely none should ever dye by Fevers , if the two Maxims of the Schooles were supported with Truth ; To wit , if putrified humours are the cause of Fevers . And likewise , if they depart selectively , through purging things . Besides , it should be a mad Caution , That purging Medicines be not given in the beginning of Fevers , before the matter be troubled or rise high ; To wit , before the maturity , and Coction of the peccant matter : From whence it is sufficiently manifest , that loosening things should otherwise be hurtfull . But if they are given after that the matter of the Disease be now well subdued , the aforesaid Caution conteines a Deceit : Because it attributes the effect procured voluntarily , and by the benefit of Nature unto the loosening Medicine . From which surely , an honest Physitian doth then also more justly abstain ; Because it then disturbs the Crisis , induceth the danger of confusion , and of a Relapse . For a loosening Medicine doth alwayes , and by it self draw out things not cocted , no otherwise than those which are afterwards called cocted ones : because it is on both sides alike cruel , and poy sonsome . But after that Nature hath overcome the Disease it brings on lesse dammage , neither is the deceit of a Laxative Medicine then so apparently manifest : And so , if then a loosening Medicine be given , the Physitian shall seem to have conquered the Disease by his own Art. But besides , if all particular Laxatives should extract their own Humours by a Choyce , they should of necessity also , be of concernment at every station of the Disease , because they are those which alwayes draw out the same Liquor , and that alike stinking : but they disturb as much as may be , as long as Nature shall not become the Superiour : Which victory of that Disease , the Schooles have called Concoction : Not indeed that Nature attempts to digest or Coct any thing which is vitious , orwhich fals not out for her own use or profit : because she is that which is governed by an un-erring Intelligence . Let these Admonitions suffice concerning both the Universal Succours in Fevers . I concluding with Hippocrates unto Democritus ; That every Solutive Medicine , robs us of the strength , and substance of our Body . CHAP. VI. The Consideration of a Quartane Ague . 1. A Quartane hath deluded the Rules of the Schooles . 2. Why they know not how to cure a Quartane . 3. That the wonted excuses in other events of Diseases do fail . 4. A presage from a Quartane , in other Fevers . 5. The examination of a Quartane according to the account of the Schooles . 6. The weaknesses of Galen himself . 7. Failings noted in Physitians . 8. Constrained words in the confession of Physitians . 9. An argument against black Choler in the Spleen , and the privy shifts of Physitians . 10. The true reason whence the Spleen waxeth hard about the end of a Quartane Ague , and the errour of the Schooles is discovered . 11. Some remarkable things in a Quartane . 12. The manner of be-drunkenning , and the Organs thereof . 13. A notable thing concerning a Vegetable Spirit of VVine out of Juniper-berries 14. VVhy VVines are ordinarily gratefull to Mortals . 15. After what manner the Arteries draw their Remedles . 16. An impediment in abstracted Oyles , which is not in the Salts of the same . 17. The manner of making of the Cardiack or Heart-passion , which they also call the Royal Passion . 18. Divers Chronical Diseases are from the Stomach . 19. The ignorance , and sincerity of the age of Hippocrates . 20. There is no Seat for a Quartane left in the Schooles . 21. A few remarkable things concerning Madnesses , are declared . 22. The Seat of foolish Madnesses . SUrely I have demonstrated in an entire Treatise , that there never were Humours in Nature , which the Schooles of Medicine presuppose for the Foundation of their Art ; and that Treatise should profesly have respect hitherto , unless it had been erelong to be repeated in a work of other Diseases : Because they have every where named all Diseases by those Humours . But it shall be sufficient in this place , to have demonstrated by the way , That Fevers do in no wise owe their original unto those Humours , whether they are entire , or putrified ones . Now I will speak something concerning a Quartane Ague : but not that it differs from its Cousin-German Fevers in its matter , and efficient cause , or is cured otherwise than after one and the same manner , and by the same meanes , whereby other Fevers are overcome : but because a Quartane hath never been vanquished by the broken forces of the Schooles : and so it hath made mocks at the Commentaries of Physitians and their vain Speeches concerning black Choler , concerning the Spleen as the sink of black , and burnt Choler , and of loosening Medicines bringing forth black Choler by a Choyce . A Quartane Ague therefore , hath long since exposed the Doctrine of the Universities , and the promises of these unto Laughter , as being vain Trifles and wan Fables without strength : For truly a desperate curing by Arts , hath made manifest the feeble help of Medicines , the vain promises of Dispensatories , and the undoubted ignorance of the causes of Fevers . Good God! it is now manifest , that Physitians cannot onely not cure the Leprosie , Gout , Palsey , Asthma , Stone , Falling-sicknesse , and other Diseases conteined under the large Catalogue of uncurable ones , which are never cured of their own accord : but they have not known how to take away so much as a Quartane Ague , which patiently expects , and deludes every endeavour of Physitians : The which notwithstanding Nature cures by her own power , to the disgrace of the Schooles ! For they who attempt their Cures onely by the cuttings of a vein , Sarrifyings , Leeches , Vesicatories , and purgings of the Belly ; and so by diminishments of the Body , and Strength , and stick wholly in Heathenish Doctrines , are even excluded by Nature from the true knowledge of Causes , and Remedies . Because first of all , None of their Medicines reacheth unto the Seat of a Quartane , but it first paying Tribute through the Toles or Customes of every Digestion , is stript of every Faculty requisite unto so great a malady . For neither ought I to draw out that thing from elsewhere , or to prove it by many Arguments : Be it sufficient , That the Succours of Physitians have been hitherto unprosperous : For they purge and cut a vein , and then they leave the rest to be boren by Nature ; And in the mean time , they certainly know that they shall profit nothing by Remedies of that sort , nor that they ever have profited thereby : I wish at least , that they had not done hurt . They ought therefore to confess , that Remedies , and also all the suppositions of Art faileth them in this Disease ; Yea , neither that the wonted privy evasion of uncurableness in other Diseases is of value unto them : For all the powers of the Universities being conjoyned , cannot perform so much as Nature can , and doth do without them of her own free accord . But moreover , The same shamefulnesse of ignorance , and every way impotency which a Quartane hath discovered in the Schooles , They should be compelled to confesse in the other curings of Fevers also ; if those did not hasten to an end of their own accord . Wherefore I now conjecture , That the out-law a Quartane , in the Age that is forthwith to come , shall distinguish false Physitians from true ones , whom the Almighty hath Chosen , Created , and Commanded to be Honoured . The Schools therefore define a Quartane according to the account of other Fevers , by a heat kindled besides nature , first in the heart from the humour of black Choler being putrified , and diffused by the utmost small brances of the veins into the habit of the body : The seat of which putrified Choler , they nevertheless acknowledge to be in the Spleen . I importunately crave at your hands , I beseech you let the profession of Medicine tell me , what harmony they can ever utter from so great dumness ? And whether it be not to have blinded the minds as well of the sick , as of young beginners with prattle ? Let them explain , why that heat is not first kindled in the Spleen , where the cause , or humour sitteth , which by its putrefaction ( as they say ) is the cause of an unnatural heat ? even as while a Thorn being thrust into the finger , sticking fast therein , the finger it self first rageth with heat , and that long before the putrefaction of inflammation ? Why is a Quartane so stubborn , if at every fit nature opens a passage for it self , whereby it may disperse the putrified black Choler thorow the veins into the habit of the body , even in the very rigour of cold , and straightness of the veins ? After what manner shall the same black Choler in number be as yet putrified after a year and an halfs space , and afford an hard Spleen , if at every fit it be dispersed into the habit of the body ? How , if it was from the beginning in the Spleen , with so daily a fornication of putrified matter , hath it not long since putrified the Spleen ? The which ( especially ) is accounted by the Schools to be nothing but a sink of the worst excrement ? After what manner doth a Quartane after so many moneths retire as better , of its own accord , to the disgrace of Physitians , while as notwithstanding , it shall of necessity be more dry , gross , and shall more putrifie than at its first fits ? Again , What humour which from its rise is evil and putrified , can be at length digested ? Doth nature become foolish , that she at length , after a divorce , and a year an a halfs time begins to digest the humour which in the beginning she had refused to digest , it being already before of necessity plainly putrified ? What reason is there of the change of her will ? Hath it then first repented Nature of her deed ? How shall she not weary her self , which hath almost worn her self out in striving so many months with a putrified , and the worst of Humours , That she might exclude that which hath now hardened in her possession , and which was offensive in so many respects ? For if in three days space , as much of black choler be kept as is sufficient for a fit , what is this to the Spleen ? or what shall it make to the digestion of the primitive , and putrified black Choler ? If black choler be daily of necessity made a new , be laid up into the spleen , and from thence be brought into the stomack its emunctory ? How shall nature so many months be forgetful of the passages , expulsions , and rites of that Emunctory ? and shall not be mindful of these , but nigh the end , which is so tiresome ? What if Senna , Epithymam , and the Arsenick which is entertained in the stones of Armenia , and Lazulus , do fetch out black Choler on every side ( especially out of its natural Iun ) and this be the total , undoubted cause of a Quartane , and accused by so many Rules , Authors , and consent of ages : Why therefore do they not take away , diminish , or any way shorten a Quartane ? But Physitians after so many torments , forsake their sick , being weakened under the custody of despair , and commended to the government of the Kitchin. At length , what will that much and stinking balast of liquor avail them , which these Medicines being drunk , the credulous sick person casts forth without profit , and perceives his strength to be diminished hereby ? Is not that saying of Hippocrates true ? If those things which are convenient are drawn out , the sick feel themselves the better , and easily bear such purgings of the belly . For why although such solutive medicines are immoderately taken even unto the last breath of life , yet doth the Quartane Ague slacken nothing of its power ? Learn ye therefore ye younger Physitians , of me an old man , That your Humours , and laxative Medicines are nothing but meer delusive doatages , whereby in subscribing to each other , ye have been deluded by Heathens , unto whom the gift of healing was not given : Because Galen never saw so much as Anatomy , however magnificently he triumphs concerning it , and of the use of parts ; He never saw Argent-vive or Quick-silver , and all Simples he borrowed word for word out of Diascorides , the name of this man being suppressed : He never I say , knew even Rose-water . Is it not a shame that ye should wipe away some moneys , that ye hand forth the cuttings of a vein , and now and then the more gentle purgers without hope of amendment ? And ye mutter many things among your selves even to a loathing , concerning the digestion of black Choler , concerning the little cloud or that which swimmeth in the urine , when as notwithstanding , ye being full of distrust , must confess That these words lay hid in your breast from the beginning : Against a Quartane Ague we have nothing , we let out blood , and purge , and afterwards know nothing : The sick party must expect the term or end thereof with patience : Because against a Quartane there is no remedy in our Cabinets : Nature ought to help her self . In the mean time , the Spleen swells harder , and oft-times the Ancles also together with it : If therefore black Choler should be the containing cause of a Quartane , and should afford an hard Spleen , how at length doth the Ague cease , the total cause thereof remaining in the Spleen ? After what manner it being now hardened in the Spleen , shall it be better evacuated , than while nature attempted the banishment thereof by the Fever . At length , after what sort shall it better depart , being hardened , than being fluide in the beginning ? Hath it , the Ague ceasing , lost its putrefaction ? To wit , while it threatens a Dropsie , and the Spleen being harder , swelleth ? The which notwithstaning are tokens of its former naughtiness . But whether black Choler alone among natural things shall return from the putrefaction of it self into its former state ? But if the Ague ceaseth , because the black Choler was consumed by so many Circuites , Why now doth it more obey the Physitian than while there was no extension of the bowel ? Why now at length do you hope for aids from Capers , Tamarisk , and Ammoniacum , the which while the Ague remained were sluggish ? If the same black Choler surviveth , why doth that cease , the Fever being safe ? But if the black Choler hath departed with the Fever , why do ye prescribe remedies for the more fluide black Choler ? But if ye feign black Choler to be brought unto the Splee by an Imposthume , what is that bowel more noble than the Spleen , which without sense or feeling , Complaint , and contagion hath so long endured black Choler besides nature ? And which had suffered so many fits of Fevers ? Why was not that imposthume made while the faculties were as yet entire , they being the more fit for expelling of the enemy ? Why not , while the matter was the more fluide ? How wil ye salve this , That the Spleen is the Emunctory of black Choler , if it hath behooved this Choler to be at length brought to the Spleen from elsewhere , after so many labours and anguishes ? Why therefore have the hardness , and swelling of the Spleen at length increased unto a proportion , with labours ? Surely it is a wonder that it hath hitherto been unknown , that the Spleen under the tortures of a Quartane hath suffered many things ; from all the particular digestions whereof , that ballast is left for the swelling of the Spleen , without the errour of local humours : And that therefore the hardness of the Spleen is from those erroneous transchanged superfluities , and therefore the greater , by how much the foregoing affliction of the Spleen was the more grievous ; To wit ; That the Spleen swels from what was produced by the Quartane , but that it is not the very occasional matter of the Quartane and much less , any black Choler , because it is that which was never in nature ; Wherefore also it happens , that such a hardness vanisheth from the Spleen of its own accord , that the strength being retaken , nature perfects her own digestions ; Wherefore the cure of a hard Spleen is not seated so much in the moystening , softening , and purging of black Choler , as in refreshing of the faculties of Digestion . For the Confirmation whereof , we must know , That the Spleen is bespangled with perhaps four hundred arteries ; neither that any bowel at all is enriched with so frequent a propagation of Arteries as the Spleen is : And then we must know , That the Seat of a Quartane is not only in the very body of the Spleen , but in the very Arteries thereof themselves ; if not in them all , at least in some of them : Which one only point , hath made the cure of a Quartane difficult . Thirdly , at length we must know , That an Artery draws no juyce to it self out of the stomack , intestines , or from elsewhere : For to what end should it draw that juyce unto it self , since it shall not produce any good to it self thereby ? For that Chyle or juyce being attracted , doth as yet want foregoing means whereby it can ever be brought unto the perfection of arterial blood : Otherwise , the Arteries had drawn unto themselves more vexation but by a little sucking of a forreign liquor , than they are able to wear out by long pains for the future . I grant indeed , that the Arteries do ordinarily , and immediately attract a be-drunkening spirit of the stomack , which is bred almost in every vegetable , which is disobliged from the composed body through art , only by vertue of a serment , and at length is drawn out by the fire . For example , If the berries of Juniper are boyled in water under an Alembick , an essential oyl , and water do presently after rise up , and are collected : At length if those berries are then in the next place , steeped by a ferment , the distillation being afterwards repeated , a water most gently burning , or an Aquavitae is extracted ; yet less , than if from the same berries an oyl were not first withdrawn . Thirdly , at last , if the remaining berries being strained thorow a searse , are boyled into an Electuary , thou hast now obtained solutive Medicine excelling all the compositions of the shops . An Artery therefore willingly snatcheth to it self the burning spirit of life , a guest of the vegetable nature , out of the stomack ( which the Grecism of the Schools never saw , or knew ) the which otherwise nature by her first instruction prepares out of the digested Chyle : surely she rejoyceth , that she hath found a liquor with much brevity , from whence she may make vital spirit for her self . For in this respect Wines are regularly pleasing to Mortals , they exhilarate the heart , and do make drunk , if they are drunk down in more than a just quantity : For the spirit of Wine is not yet our vital spirit , because it is as yet wanting of an individual limitation , that the vital inflowing Archeus the Executer of our functions may from thence be framed : Wherefore since neither the Mesentery , nor Liver are ordained for the framing of vital spirit , the heart rejoyceth immediately and readily to suck to it that spirit ( being already before prepared ) through the arteries , out of the stomack . Whence it follows , If the arteries attract unto themselves the Spirit of Wine like unto vapours , they shall also draw the odours of Essences : For from hence are faintings , yea and on the other hand , restaurations : But the arteries draw not Oils , although essential , and grateful ones , because they suck not the substance of liquor , and much less oils : Therefore that a Medicine may be received by the heart , and by this heart attracted inwards , it ought to be that which yields a good smell , and to be unseparably married to the spirit of wine . Wherefore Wines that are odoriferous , do more readily bedrunken than others , because the odours which are married to the spirit of wine are most easily admitted unto the heart , head , womb , &c. But oylie odours being abstracted from their Concrete bodies , do rather affect by defiling , than materially enter into the Arteries : For therefore through the immoderateness of Wine , and the errours of life , not only a meer spirit of Wine is allured into the arteries , but also something of juyces together with it : Whence at length difficult heart-beatings grow up in the gluttons of Wine , and the meer or pure spirit of Wine by an importunate daily continuance , strikes the reed of the artery within , disturbs the local , and proper digestions thereof ; wherefore also a part of the arterial nourishment degenerating , stirs up divers miseries , even durable for life . For it happens in the Artery of the stomack , that the spirit of wine joyning it self by its own importunity to the spermatick nourishment of the artery , in the course of dayes stirs up un-obliterable Vertigo's or giddinesses of the head , continual head-aches , the Falling-sickness , I say Swoonings , Drowsie Evils , Apoplexies , &c. For in the family-administration of this member , as it were that of the heart , it obtains its own animosities durable for life , which are not to be extirpated but by the greater Secrets . The same way also sudden or unexpected death hath oft-times made an entrance for it self ; because such a vitiated matter is never of its own free accord drawn out from thence : For although the Archeus be apt at length to consume his own nourishment ; yet he doth not obtain this authority over excrements degenerated by a forreign coagulation , and so for that cause not hearkening to the vital power or vertue : For therefore that part hath assumed the title of the heart , stirs up swoonings from an easie occasion , Falling-sicknesses also after the twenty fourth year ; and likewise such affects as are attributed to the heart , are accounted uncurable by those who have not much laboured in extracting the more potent faculties of medicine . Hippocrates ( by leave of so great a man , and of such an age , I speak it ) was ignorant of this seat of the falling evil ; because he was he who being constituted in the entrance of Medicine , faithfully delivered unto posterity , at least , his own observations , and Medicinal administrations sprung from these : For he said , If Melancholy passeth into the body , it breeds the Falling Sickness ; But foolish madness , if it peirce the soul . If therefore black Choler passing over into the body , and soul , causeth the Falling-sickness and Madness : Whither therefore shall it proceed , that it may generate a Quartane Ague ? The Schools especially rejoyce in so great an Author for their humour of black Choler ; But they are forgetful of a Quartane , which far departs from the Falling-sickness , and Madness : For after whatsoever manner they shall regard it , a Quartane shall either not be made from black Choler , or this shall not be in the body , nor in the soul while it makes a Quartane . But as to what pertains to Madness , and the Falling-sickness , as if they were separated only in the diversity of passages ; or that the same humours did sometimes evaporate , or were materially entertained in the Inns of the principal faculties : Surely it is a ridiculous , although a dull , and plausible devise , to have found out the cause of all diseases in so narrow a quaternary of humours . For first of all , The Falling Evil doth much more strictly bedrowsie , and alienate the powers of the soul , although Madnesses do that far more stubbornly or constantly : Wherefore the aforesaid diseases are far otherwise distinguished ( let the Genius's of Hippocrates spare me ) than in the changing of their wayes , and bounds : And which more is , the general kind of foolish Madness , shall differ by its species in its proper matter , and proper efficient : as is to be seen in madness from the biting of a mad dog , or stroak , or sting of the Tarantula : For the cause of things had not as yet been made known in the age of Hippocrates ; the knowledge whereof , the Prattle of the Greeks hath hitherto suppressed : Neither also are wrothful doatages made from yellow Choler , bruitish ones from black Choler , and jesting or merry ones from blood : Surely otherwise we should all of us be daily jocound doaters , or deprived of blood : For feverish doarages are especially fetcht out of a feverish matter , creeping into the shops of dreams , and not from elsewhere ; But not that it forsakes the body , that it may enter into the mind . And likewise a doating delusion should never happen in a burning Fever , in a Synochus , or continual Fevers : but alwayes in Quartanes , and black Cholery Diseases . Truly , a Doatage is already from the very Beginning of Fevers : To wit , where the Fever and the Cause of the Doatage are jointy in the Root . For the malice being encreased , and the Organs weakened by little and little , the Doatage or Delusion ascends unto the maturity of its own perfection . So in Wine , and also in some Simples , yea and likewise in feverish Excrements , a hidden Doatage is covered : neither doth it bewray it self , unlesse the power thereof shall ascend into a Constitutive mixture . At leastwise , all things do by the same Royal wax , according to the Genius of their own malice , Rage on the Organs of the Phantasie , even as elsewhere concerning Madnesses . The Seed therefore of the doating Delusion lurked from the Beginning in the feverish matter , which at length is promoted unto its due malignity . If therefore Madnesses differ in their matter , and efficient cause , That is , in their whole Species , and Being : Surely the Falling-sicknesse , and Madnesse , do much farther differ from each other , and do more differ in a forreign Seed , than that one onely black Choler being exorbitant in its Seats , should bring forth both . Even as elsewhere concerning the Dunmvirate . Madnesses ( I will say in one word ) are all nourished by the arteries , and in the Inn of the Hypochondrial or Midriffes : According to that saying , In whom a vein beats strongly in the Midriffs , those are estranged in their mind : Therefore also they oft-times want an exciting disturbance before they relapse into a Mania or bruitish madness ; Because this is bred by a perturbation very like unto that . CHAP. VII . The Succours of Physitians are weighed . 1. Of what sort the Succours of Physitians are . 2. The vanity of the same . 3. The hurt of local Medicines , and their feigned derivation . 4. The water in Vesicatories was meer venal blood . 5. An Objection solved . 6. A Vesicatory or embladdering Medicine is more cruel than the letting forth of blood . 7. To what end Vesicatories were devised . 8. A Clyster , why hostile to the bowels . 9. A Clyster never reacheth unto the gut Ileon . 10. Laxatives in a Clyster are the more sharp , being hurtful , as purging things are , but less hurtful . 11. A poyson hurts to have taken it inwards , by whatsoever title , and entrance 12. That Fevers are never drawn out by Clysters . 13. They therefore hinder long life 14. A Clyster , how it names Physitians . 15. A fore-knowledge from the use of Clysters . 16. It is a blockish thing to nourish by Clysters . 17. A conjecture . 18. The common sort of Physitians are taken notice of . I have determined to examine the common Succours , before I determine of the nature of Fevers : But those are Scarifications , openings of the Fundament-Veins , Vesicatories , and others of that sort ; and they all concut unto the diminishments of the blood , strength , and body : And the which therefore have already been sufficiently condemned under universal Succours . They are indeed foolish aids about the superficies of the body , when as the Central parts labour , and are besieged , and the which not being freed from the enemy , it is vain , and hurtful , whatsoever is attempted by the gestures of such Apes . Surely it is a vain rudiment of hope , to be willing by consequence to remove the root out of its place , by taking away the guiltless blood from the skin ; which thing Prince Infanto the Cardinal , by his exhausted veins ( the Circuite of his Tertian Ague nevertheless remaining ) hath confirmed to Anatomists with a mournful spectacle . And likewise a Paracenthesis or opening of the belly nigh the navil in the dropsie , ought long since to have extinguished the like kind of hope . For there it is plainly an easie thing to draw out waters from the nigh Center , and daily to draw from the fruit a part of the water at pleasure : But in vain , because not any thing of the root departs : And so incision nigh the navil , doth only protract life for a few dayes . But let Vesicatories or embladdering Medicines be alwayes exceeding hurtful , and devised by the wicked spirit Moloch : For the water dropping continually from thence , is nothing but venal blood transchanged . For while any one scorcheth his hand , or leg , the fire calls not the whey of the blood unto the burned place ; Neither doth that water lurk in any other place , and waiting to run to it with loosened rains , while the skin should be at sometimes scorched . The water should be deaf at the call of the fire , neither should nature obey a commander from without . What if a water swims on the blood , which they call Choler ; surely that floats not as being separated from the blood , except after its Coagulation or Corruption . Embladderers therefore intend this , but not Preservation , and Healing : That salt water therefore is not , but is made ; it is not separated I say , from the Blood , but the Blood thereof is transchanged into water very like unto the Dropsie , Flux , and the like defects . By so much therefore are Vesicatories fuller of danger than the cutting of a vein ; Because this is stopped at pleasure , but that not : the which after the cuttings of a vein , and vain Butcheries of the body is at length dreamed of for the hinderances of a Feverish Coma , and so for the adulterating of a latter effect : For they rejoyce to awaken the sleepy or deep drowsie sick , by reason of the pain of so many Ulcers : And however thou considerest of the matter , it is a cruel torture of Butchers : For neither is the drowsie sick ill at ease because he sleepeth ; But he sleepeth because he is ill at ease : And so , to hinder the sleep is not profitable ; But that only prevaileth , to take away the root of drowsiness . They therefore who suspend the sleep only by pains , do cruelly drive the sick headlong into death : For they flatter the people in being cruel toward the sick party : In the mean time , they persevere in the office of a cruel , and unfaithful Mercenary Helper : For if the drowsie feverish person sleep , or being pulled , be daily awakened , such stupid allurements perform not the least thing in Fevers : Wherefore I am wont to give my remedies in at the mouth , and food at set hours , nor to regard whether he shall sleep , or not . I say that antient saying with the Apostles ; If Laxarus sleep , therefore he shall be healed : For the tortures brought on him that hath a Fever , have never profited any one . But as to what pertains to Clysters , it is a frequent , and shameful aid of Physitians : I at leastwise in times past , never perswaded , and described Clysters but with shame : But after that I obtained faithful remedies , I wholly abhorred Clysters , as it were a beast-like remedy , being declared by a Bird , as they say : For that every Clyster is naturally hostile to the bowels , is from thence easily manifest : Because all particular things are received after the manner , and in respect of the Receiver : The which I thus more largely explain . The tear of the eye , although it be salt , yet it is without pain , because familiar , and nearly allied to the eye : But simple water is painful in the eye , and any other thing . The urine also , although it be salt , bites not the Bladder ; But any kind of decoction whatsoever being sent in by a Catheter , although most sweet , causeth pain within : But if the urine shall draw but even the least sharpness from new Ales , or from elsewhere , presently there is a great strangury , and distilling of the urine by drops . The dung therefore since it is a nearly allied , and houshould-content of the bowels , bites not , nor is not felt until it hath come down unto the fleshy parts of the strait gut , which do as it were perform the office of a Porter , and therefore do feel , and urge it : Whence I conclude , that every Clyster since it is a forreigner to the intestine , it cannot but be troublesome , and ungrateful thereunto . Again , A Clyster never ascends unto the gut Ileon : For if thou castest in eighteen ounces , now a great part thereof remaineth in the pipe , or slides forth in its injecting , and so it reacheth only into the beginnings of the gut Colon. In the next place , if loosenig Medicines are in a Clyster ( for the sick party that very much abhorreth laxative things , is for the most part thus deceived ) as I have already hissed out the poyson of purgative things , so also the use of a laxative Clyster by a like right . I confess that a Clyster is of less danger , as the mouth of the stomack doth alwayes perform the most noble office of life , and as the life is hurt by the loosening poyson : But at least wise , none can deny but that it is a hateful thing to have admitted poysons within , by whatsoever title , and entrance : Because purgative clysters resolve the blood in the Mesentery . And at least wise , in speaking in the termes of Fevers : Non ever drew forth Fevers by clysters ; because they have never come unto the places beset with a feverish matter , nor do ever comfort those places : Neither the while , do they cease to defile , and wipe out the blood from the veines which are co-bordering on the bowel . For that thing I have learned from old men , that whosoever loveth a long , and healthy life , let him abstain from purging things taken into the body under what deceitful pretence soever : A clyster at this day , is so familiar unto the more wanton people , that it is called a cleansing , and succour : As if they would cleanse the natural excrement . Surely , however thou mayst look upon those wiles of Physitians ; they are not but from evil , from deceit , and a lye : and do stir up shame in pious eares : And so they are now the correcters , the rincers of dungs , that is the inventers of evil arts . But there are some who have introduced a sluggishnesse in the intestine , by a clyster or some other vice , and therefore they afterwards perswade themselves that thence-forward they must accustome themselves to clysters : Surely the vice of binding of the body , as it springs from , and dependeth on a different Root , it is easily succoured by the proper terme of curing : For as he who hath the lesse loose belly , is sicke : So also he that suffers a slow one , laboureth . The malady is to be cured ; but not by cloaking by a clyster is the paunch to be dayly provoked and loosened : For there is an easie prognostication , that by thus proceeding , the last things will be always the worst , and that the life which is committed unto such helpers , is of necessity cut short . Nations will subscribe to these things , as many as have laxative medicines in abhorrency : As the Campanians , Arduennians , and likewise the Asturians , &c. Unto whom , as a clyster is unwonted , and also unheard of ; so there is a strong , and most frequent old age . But besides , the last scope of a clyster is , that they cast in the broaths of dissolved fleshes from an hope of nourishing ; the which truly is an argument of unfufferable stupidity . For those injected liquours do at first mingle themselves with the dung there found , and then they are poured into the parts , whose property it is to change all things into dung : and thirdly , it is manifest by experience , that such broaths , if they are cast back two houres after , they smel not only of the dung , but after somesort of a dead carcase : For seeing there is not a proceeding unto the second , or third digestion , but through the first : but that blood cannot in any wise be made of meates undigested in the stomach , and not changed into true , and laudable chyle or juice ; it also followes , that broaths being cast in at the fundament , can never passe over into nourishment : Neither doth that prove any thing , that those broaths do carry dissolved flesh in them after the manner of chyle ; for nothing is done , unlesse they shall first recieve the fermental properties of the first digestion , the preparatories unto life , which are not any where to be found out of the stomach : For whatsoever slides undigested out of the stomack , is troublesome , stirs up Fluxes , wringings or gripings of the guts , and also burntish or stinking belchings , and breeds the little wormes Ascarides . But those things which are injected from beneath , because they have not any thing of the benefit of the first digestion , are of necessity mortified : Because they experience indeed , the heat of the place ; but are deprived of the true ferment of a vital digestion . Surely I commiserate the paultry Physitians , that they have wrested clysters aside unto such abuses , nor that they have once had regard unto the aforesaid reasons ; and I fear , lest they who so greatly flatter great men , after that they bid any one to take food , and three hours after do constrain him to vomite ; that what he vomited up they should cast in through the fundament , into those who were pined with much leannesse , and consumption for lack of nourishment . Surely the ignorant flatterer , is a slavish kind of cattel , acting the part of a Physitian , yet not having any thing besides the diminishments of the body , and strength , refusing to learne , because he hath grown old in ill doing , neither hath he ever diligently searched into any thing worthy of praise , as being wholly intent upon gain , and assoon as he is dismissed from the Schooles , alwayes insisting in their steps , excusing the deaths of men , because he hath cured according to art , as having followed the flock of predecessours : Unto these men Senca saith , many have not attained unto wisdome ; because they thought that they had attained it . They esteem it to be a thing full of disgrace , that himself being once a Doctour or Teacher , ought as yet to learn of others . A nourishing clyster therefore , is an old wives invention : For I have seen broaths in the more strong persons to have been rejected as horride , through the stink of a dead carcase ; but in the more tender persons , to have provoked swoonings : when as in the mean time clysters of Mallow , and Brans , cherished a lesse discomodity . Vain therefore are the common helps taught by Physitians , for the intentions , or betokenings of Fevers ; Because they take not away , subdue , or reach to any thing of the roote of Fevers . CHAP. VIII . The usual Remedies are weighed . 1. A censure of distilled waters . 2. Of what condition essential waters may be . 3. A censure of decoctions . 4. The comforting remedies of Gold , and pretious stones are examined . 5. A mechanical demonstration of abuses . 6. Gems are not any thing dissolved in us , hewever they are pawdred . 7. Pearles that are beaten , and dissolved in a sharp spirit , are examined by the way . 8. The Authour testifies his own bashfullnesse . 9. The Pearles which are dissolved in the shops , are not Pearles . 10. Pearles , or Coralls being disssolved in some sharp liquour , remaine what they were before . 11. Five remarkeable things taken from thence . 12. The help of an old Cock , an old wives invention . 13. Alkermes is examined . 14. Comforting remedies are in vain , when as the enemy within tramples even on the strongest sick . THe internall remedies used by Physitians in Fevers , if they are look't into , will be found to be of the same leaven with the other of their succours : For except that they are brought into one heat , as it were the scope , and hinge of the matter , they are as yet of no worth in themselves , neither do they any way answer unto a putrified matter . For first of all , distilled waters , as well those which are called cooling ones , such as are those of Succhory , Lettice , Purslane , and Plantaine , as those which are of the order of the greater alterers , such as are those of Grasse , Dodder , Maidenhair , Carduus-Benedictus , Scorcionera , &c. Or those also which are fetcht from cordial plants , are in very deed , nothing but the sweates of herbs , but not their blood ; and I wish they were not adulterated for the perswasion of gain . For they are the rain waters of green and fresh herbs , but not the essential liquors of the herbs which shew forth the whole Crasis or constitutive temperature , and savour of the thing . Therefore they cover an imposture in their name , and in the mean time the occasion of well doing slips away . Moreover , the decoctions of plants , since they conteine the gums , and muscilages of simples , they provide pain or cumbrance for a feverish stomach , loathings , overthrows , and other troubles ; therefore also , they joyn themselves with the excrements , and are sequestred , after that they have procured all those perplexities : nor at least wise , is any thing of them carried inwards unto the places affected , and vitall soiles . Physitians also , are wont to brag of their exhilarating Cordials ; and restoring remedies prepared of Gold , and gems or pretious stones , surely from a like stupidity with the rest : For although they are broken into a fine powder , they undergo nothing from the fire , and much lesse do they suffer by the digestive virtue . For they are first made into a light powder in a brassen morter , and the gems shave of a part of the brasse with them , because they are harder than any file . And that thing I have at some time demonstrated to the shops , while as I steeped that powder of gems in aqua fortis : For a green colour presently bewrayed it self , and the Apothecary confessed that his fortyfying remedies acted most especially , by communicating verdigrease or the rust of brasse unto the sick . And then , if gems are afterwards the more curiously beaten in a grindstone or marble , which is far more soft than themselves , they increase in weight , and become comforting marbles , and stones , beyond the original gems . For at length , gems that are made into a light powder , do no more profit than if flints , or glasse powdered are taken : And that thing , as many as have ever been diligent in examining the resolution of bodies , will subscribe to with me , and with me will pity the empty blockishnesses of Physitians , and the unhappy clientships of the sick . Yea they administer Pearles , and Corrals being beaten to dust or dissolved in distilled vinegar , orthe juice of limons , and again dryed , and solvable in any potable liquour : But Pearles are not of the same hardnesse with Christalline gems , but of the Animal kingdome , and they conreine most pretious natural endowments ; they cannot but bestow a famous help . For Pearles are of their own accord resolved indeed in the stomack of a Pigeon , but in ours they do not undergo any thing , whether they are drunk being beaten into a powder , or being dissolved as before . For first of all it is to be noted , that I before my repentance , had learned by some pounds of Pearles being so prepared , that it was only vaine boasting whatsoever Physitians promise concerning them : And then , that a true Pearle hath not within it a mealy powder , and that of a different likenesse from its own bark : but that the whole body of the Pearle even unto its center , is meere little skins , laying on each other as it were the rhines of onyons spread under each other ; which thing , they know with me , as many as have known how to reduce Pearles of an egg-like figure unto a circular Pearle : But the aforesaid barks of Pearles are in no wise dissolved by the aforesaid sharp things ; therefore they shall dissolve only the meale of false Pearles . Yea although the aforesaid barks were dissolved , ( which they are not ) the Pearles should as yet be the same powder which they were before : To wit , wherewith the salt of the sharp dissolver is now combined , and so it happens , that that salt of the dissolvent being dissolved , the powder of Pearles , or Corrals which that salt drinkes up , is also solved together with it . Which powder , however it may be reckoned to be dissolved by the judgment of the eyes , and the substance of the Pearle thought to be changed ; yet it is nothing but a meer deciet , and delusion of the sight . For Pearles , or Corrals do as yet remaine no otherwise in their own former nature , than otherwise , Silver remaines safe being dissolved in Chrysulca or aqua fortis , it been plainly unchanged in all its former qualities : For otherwise , the same silver could not be fetch 't again from thence , seeing there is not granted a return from a privation to an habit . They therefore that drink Pearles thus solved , so far is it that they enjoy the milky substance of Pearles , that they drink unto themselves nothing but the dssolved salt of the vinegar : The which I thus prove by handicraft operation : If thou shalt poure some drops of the salt of Tartar on dissolved Pearles , or Corrals , the hidden pouder of the Pearles presently falls to the bottome ; which is a demonstration of the deed . First therefore , the pearles of the shops are not true ones , but a certain abortion of those sowed within through the middle substance of the Pearle . Secondly , the powder of Pearles , or Corrals dissolved , although it may delude the eyes : yet it is not truly solved , it remayning the powder which it was before . Thirdly instead of comforting remedies , they substitute nothing but the acide salt of the things dissolving . Fourthly , that powder being thus solved , cannot be made bloud , and therefore neither can it enter into the veines . Fifthly , what if it had entred unto the Liver , hollow veine , and so by the power of digestion , that sharp salt adhering thereunto had at length been wasted into a transmutation : What other thing should such Comfortatives performe , besides to besmeare the veines within , with a forreign powder ? And at length to load an un-obliterable malady with a● forreign guest ? This is the harvest that is to be exspected from Gems . It is an alike doating monstrous thing , which they promise concerning the broath of an old Cock being joyned with herbs : For first of all ; there is more of life , and strength in the more young birds , than in decrepite ones : Let the judgment be brought unto Hens . And also medicinal broaths are ungratefull , and troublesome to the stomack , and so they are easily dismissed unto excrements : Therefore after this manner , under a changed maske , they again dissemble their Apozemes under the broath of an old Cock. Last of all , there is the Antidote Alkermes , which although , as it consisteth of the Syrupe of the grain that dieth Scarlet ( I wish it were not adulterated by roses ) it be laudable ; neverthelesse , inasmuch as it being scorched and roasted , is impregnated with the more crude silk untill that it can be powdered , the whole power of the dying grain is vitiated : which silk being thus roasted , is nothing else but the wool of silke wormes depraved or vitiated by burning . For the invention of some covetous old man brought up that thing , as thinking that nature is exhilarated or rejoyced with things that delight the eyes . Far be it , for neither Gold , gems , not pretious stones as such , shall refresh the vital spirits , and much lesse crude silk roasted , and that if it were tinged with a Purple Colour ; unlesse the vitall spirits shall well perceive restaurations to themselves by the additions of strength . But moreover , vaine are comforting , and cordiall things which are wished for ; the fewel of Fevers remayning , and the blood , and strength being diminished . For if a Fever prostrateth a strong person , and one that is in good health , how shall it suffer him to be strengthened being now dejected ? Especially by things which are forreigners in the whole general kinde , nor agreeing with the spirits in the union of co-resemblance ? How shall a Citizen fortifie himself , who hath received an houshold enemy stronger than himself , into his possession ? The wan therefore , and vain promises of Physitians concerning fortifiers and strengtheners , are full of deceite . For he that exhausteth the strength or faculties together with the blood , and withdrawes them by evacuating medicines , but forbids wine , and things that do immediately restore the strength ; also who continually prosecures after cooling things as enemies to the vitall heat ; how shall he procure strength by such electuaries . CHAP. IX . The true cause of Rigour or the shaking fit , in Fevers . 1. Rigour or extreame cold ; and trembling , is from the spirit making the assault , but not efficiently from the diseasifying cause . 2. Why he intends Rigours . 3. Why he stirs up cold and heat . 4. Why he begins with cold . 5. The Authour runs not back unto the lawes of the microcosme . 6. There are intermittences almost in all agents . 7. The manner of making cold . 8. The manner , and cause of rigour . 9. A marke of ignorance in Galen concerning the tossing of a member . 10. The burning cause of a Fever . 11. That every motion , as well an healthy , as a sick one , is made efficiently by the Archeus . 12. How the Authour learned that thing . 13. The turbulency of the Archeus disturbs the urine . 14. The ordinary office of the Gaule is troubled , and makes the Chyle bitter . 15. VVherefore also the bitter vomitings thereof diminisheth nothing of a Fever . 16. VVhence is burning heat , and sweat in a Fever . 17. VVhat sweat may betoken . 18. Sharpnesse increaseth cold , the which an Erisipelas proveth . 19. A Gangrene , how it may undoubtedly be stopped . 20. VVhy the beginning of a continval Fever is from horrour . 21. Paracelsus is noted . 22. The errours of Galen , especially concerning the putrefaction of the blood , and spirit . 23. The true seat of a diary , and hectick Fever . 24. The fabulous similitude of Galen for the parching heat of an hectick Fever . 25. VVhy lime is enflamed by water . 26. A mechanical proof . 27. The blockish cause of gaping . 28. The true cause , and the organ of the same . 29. Sleep , the drowsie evil , giddinesse of the head , Apoplexy , &c. are from the mouth of the stomach . 30. Gaping is not in the muscles of the cheekes , or jaw . HIppocrates first put a name on the Spirit of life , to wit , that it is that which maketh the assault , and the guider of all things which happen in us : which prerogative surely , none hath at length , called into question : In the mean time , the Schooles that succeeded , being as it were giddy with the vice of whirling about , have wrested aside the causes of trembling into old wives fictions . The Spirit therefore being the Prince of the world in us , hath alone obtained a motive beginning in us , as well local , as alterative ; to wit , conteyning the cause of Rigour or extremity of cold , as well in respect of locall motion , as of the alterations of cold , and succeeding heat . For the Archeus intends by trembling rigours , to shake of the excrement adhering to the similar part : Even so as a spider also , shakes her cobwebs , and joggs them with rigour , that she may shake of a forreigne thing which lighteth into them . But the Aroheus taking notice , that he can little profit by rigours or shaking extremityes , stirs up an alterative Blas : All which I have elsewhere taught , to consist naturally , in Winter , and Summer , cold I say , and heat : To wit , through the successive interchange whereof , all sublunary things do decay in the coursary number of dayes . From Winter therefore , in the very universe it self , the beginning of the year proceedeth , through a spring , and Summer , into Autumne , wherein the fruites are at length ripened : For whatsoever things are made by nature , undergo this beginning , increase , state , and declining : So the Archeus himself ( as all seeds , and vital things do imitate the nature of general ones ) stirs up feverish rigours , colds , and heats : But not the offensive matter of the Fever , even as hath already been sufficiently , and over-proved at the beginning : For so also , in disjoynting of the bones , the teeth presently shake , and rigours spring up : And likewise while a woman with child untimely expels the not vital abortive young . For neither do I speak these things , as if I fled unto the devise of the Microcosme of Paracelsus , although I give notice that the nature of the Universe doth observe a single manner in every thing : For truly nature is on both sides co-agreeable , and like to her self , which the sense of feverish persons complaineth of in Fevers happenning unto them in winter , as in summer . For he who in wrestling being short winded , hath failed , is for some time at quiet , and recovers his breathing , and by leisure repaires his strength , whereby he can shake off the Conqueror laying on him : so by a natural single Conduct , the Archeus in Fevers commands rests to himself by intervals , and afterwards his strength , and successive labours being re-assumed , endeavours to shake off the Fever his enemy . Wherein surely the part wherein the feverish matter sits or sticks fast , doth first contract it self into wrinckles , which is easily perceived in the Midriffs : But the whole veinie generation by a certain consent , co-labours with the besieged part , and the oblique Fibers being drawn together , it strictly straightens it self : For from thence , a seldome , hard , and lessened pulse is the betokener , and work-man of cold : For every one that hath a Fever , if he mark it in himself , shall easily discern this co-wrinckled straitness of the veins , and that it is altogether natural even unto him that is in good health : For although the Cod may hang down as loose , yet presently assoon as the drossie dung of man slides down to the muscle of the straight gut , the Cod is co-wrinkled of its own accord . It is therefore a natural thing to the veins , and parts that are chiefly affected , to have contracted themselves into wrinckles : since therefore that the arteries are for the most part everywhere adjoyned with the veins , it must needs be , that these together with the veins , are contracted by an oblique or crooked Convulsion : which thing surely , feverish persons shall easily perceive , if they being mindful of these things , do give serious heed unto those things which they feel : This therefore is the cause of cold in Fevers . But that trembling , seeing it is in the Muscles themselves , it is to be noted that the Muscles have two motions : One indeed as they are the Clients of the Will , that they may utter a voluntary motion : But another , inasmuch as they are carried with a motion of their own against the consent of the Will : And this again is two fold , to wit , the former which is contracted by one only violent drawing , even as in the Convulsion , Cramp , &c. But the other which suffers intervals , such as is an aguish , or feverish trembling , the tossing , and trembling of some one member ( to wit , of the head , or hands , &c. ) being familiar unto old age , and Drinkers . Truly Galen passeth it not by without observation , but he is received with laughter : For he teacheth , That such a trembling of old age is made from the striving of weight with the voluntary motive faculty : And that this faculty indeed endeavours to lift up the member ; but by reason of weakness , that it stops the motion begun , being hindered by reason of the weight of the member : As if indeed , the voluntary motive faculty should endeavour against the consent of the will , to lift up a laying , and quiet member , that it might continually leap a little . ? I return unto the terms concerning Fevers . Since therefore , not only the skin ( as in the Cod ) but also all the particular membranes are by a motion proper , and natural unto themselves , crisped , wrinkled , and contracted , it is no absurdity to give also unto a Muscle it s own motion : For so also after death in a Tetanus or straight extension of the neck , the Muscles on both sides are extended a good while after the death of all will : For so the poysonous quality of purging things doth oft-times pull the Musclely parts together ; and in Fevers that are mortal , there are unvoluntary Convulsions , with an interposing slackness : Of which motions , seeing I have largely treated in the Treatise concerning the Convulsion , It shall be sufficient to have admonished in this place , that those two motive faculties do naturally belong to a Muscle : One whereof is idle , and at rest , as long as the Muscles are in a good state ; but it is moved as it were an auxilliary or assisting one in the encountring of things troublesome unto them . At length therefore when the Archeus hath observed , that he profited nothing by an oblique convulsion of the veins , and arteries , and by the trembling of the Muscles ; as Wroth , he frequently moves any thing , that he may shake off from himself the forreign enemy . Wherefore I repeat that which I have divers times spoken ; to wit , that all motion as well in healthy , as in sick persons , doth immediately proceed constitutively , and efficiently from the Archeus which maketh the assault ; but occasionally from occasional causes . The which I at first mechanically discerned by some remedies of Fevers ; Because if they are given to drink on the very day of the fit , and at a seasonable hour , they do oft-times take away many Fevers at one only turn : For that opportunity is in a small hours space before the fit ; to wit , as much as the actuating of the Medicine doth require , and with an empty stomack : For if it be given in the dayes of rest of intermitting Fevers , or a good while from the beginning of the fit , while the Medicine fore-feels not nature to be an assistant unto her , as well to actuate or quicken , as to expell the occasional matter of the Fever , it is handed forth in vain : Yea then the Medicine vexeth rather than helpeth , as it spurs up nature unto a banishment , while she had rather be at rest . But in the Plague , Malignant , and other continual Fevers , if it be reached forth to a fasting stomack , nor the action thereof be disturbed between while by drink , it for the most part supplies the whole office of curing at one only turn ; else surely while the veins are strained , and grieved , or otherwise , nature is called away from her work begun , or is made to awake in the middle of her rest , the indignations of the Archeus are the more provoked : Neither hath it been sufficient here nakedly to have said , That the Archeus in Fevers first stirs up a Blas of cold , and afterwards of heat , as seeds do imitate , and bear in themselves a figure of the world : For truly nothing is naturally moved by it self , except the Archeus , who is the first mover of the living Creature . For I know that a vigour is granted unto every seed , that this vigour being once stirred up , it is afterwards fit for moving of it self by its own vertue , and all other things thence-forth , besides it self , which are contained under the sphear of its own activity : Therefore troublesome , and confused urines are voided forth , sharp , and undigested vapours , and also bruitish ones are stirred up , which go into improper places , increasing the cause of the cold . But the Gaul which regularly changeth the sharp Chyle of the stomack into a juycie salt , ( as may be seen in the urine ) doth by a rash endeavour now convert the juyce inserted in the gut Duodenum into a bitter juyce . The Archeus in the mean time , being then wholly intent upon expulsion , doth oft-times under the aguish cold , shake out this bitter superfluity , otherwise painfully thirsty : notwithstanding neither doth a feverish person profit any thing thereby , because he forthwith casts out that which which was newly defiled : Because it is an excrement produced in Fevers , but not the occasional root of the malady . At length therefore the Archeus being as it were angry , enflames himself by his own animosity , ( but not by heat drawn from putrefaction ) and assaults his enemy , is in a raging heat , and at length pours forth a strong smelling sweat ; For no other end than that he may expel the enemy , under which expulsion he makes manifest that this same feverish matter is naturally to be driven away , and sheweth to the Physitian that nature it to be led whither she of her own accord inclines : That is , That Diaphoreticks or transpiratives alone are the appropriated , and specifical remedies of Fevers : For in the beginning of an Erisipelas there is an unwonted small cold , yet not rigour , because the vapoury sharpness is as yet little : The which when it shall reach unto the superficies of the body , it proceeds out of its own proper Inn , there to wax sharp , and putrifie : And therefore a soapy , and lixivial Medicine quenches an Erisipelas : as also a strong Lixivium or lye , mightily stops Gangrenes that are deeply scarrified ; Because in Lixivials all sharpness dies together . Continual Fevers do likewise from a sharpness detained within , at first cause rigour or a shaking extremity , and afterwards even unto their end or consumption , burn with heat . The heart-beating also exerciseth idle persons , and the Gluttons of Wine , even as also Artists who are long , and much busied about aquae fortes's ; Because a vaporeal sharpness doth everywhere pass thorow our innermost parts , yet without a Fever : For an occasional matter is wanting . For Paracelsus from the one only fire of Aetna , of Sulphur , and Nitre , divines of above sixty particular kinds of Fevers : Neither as being on either side void of a method , discovered he any seat for Fevers . But Galen as he disposed of the seat of intermitting Fevers in the little mouths , or extremities of the veins : so he appointed the nest of continual Fevers beneath or beyond the liver . But a Suno chus or a Fever of daily continuation , as well that which is putrified , as that which is not , he placeth through the hollow vein about the heart . A diary Fever also , or that of one dayes continuance , he constitutes in the very vital spirit , and so also in the heart it self ; Than which never any thing could be more blockishly supposed , than to decree the vital spirit to putrifie , life remaining . For seeing that it is the only Balsame which vindicates us from corruption , what at length shall be left , which may balsamize the Balsame it self , if this shall putrifie ? Or what shall season salt , if it be corrupted ? For if it should be putrified but in some small portion of it self , the whole shall of necessity presently be defiled ; seeing there is a most potent constitutive mixture of spirits into spirits , and a proper or natural co-resemblance betwixt them . For the life is scarce protracted for a quarter of an hour in the Plague , while as the contagion invades the spirit : In like manner , if Putrefaction layes hold on the blood , presently , as if a Gangrene were continued in the blood , a necessitated death ariseth . I will therefore shew both the seat , and matter of a Fever in such a manner , as experience , and a long diligent search of things have made manifest unto me . My speech is of Fevers which are by themselves alone ; but not from those that are bred from a strange passion . First of all therefore , a Diary , and that which is called an Ephemeral Fever from the duration of one day , sits in the hollow of the stomack , and is for the most part from vitiated food : Wherefore also after vomiting , or the finishing of digestion , it ceaseth of its own accord : Likewise a Consumptional or Hectick Fever , is a certain Quotidian or daily Diary , returning soon after food is taken , from a part of the meat being corrupted : For although the appetite remaineth safe , and they eat as it listeth them , at leastwise the Corrupter in the lungs ceaseth not , or is idle , but he continually transchangeth the venal blood into yellow , hard , thick , and sometimes ashie phlegms : Under which labour of Corrupting he calls away the spirit from the offices of digestion , and a certain kind of Corruption is made of the food that is half digested . And it is a shameful Fable of the Schools in this place , which they devise unto themselves for this slow Fever ; For whereas it might especially accuse Putrefaction for heat , it dared not to bestow it ; To wit , because Lime is enflamed by the sprinckling of water thereon , that it happens after the self same manner in a Consumptional Fever ; To wit , That that Fever growes strong , and seems to assault after one hour , or an hour and an half after meat , as the solid parts are then be-sprinckled with the nourishment prepared from the meats received . First of all , That withstands these things , because the concoction of the Chyle is not yet finished in an healthy stomack within two hours , and much less is sangufication compleated ; and least of all is there a transchanging of the blood into a secondary , and spermatick nourishment ; because it is that which they say is dispersed into the innermost places of the solid parts in manner of a dew ; and most longly , and slowly doth the Lungs borrow this new nourishment from the liver : Therefore the solid parts cannot be be-sprinckled like lime , and from thence be enflamed , as long as there is buisiness with the Chyle in the stomack . And then that similitude of lime is of meer ignorance : Because it is that which is not enflamed by reason of the be-sprinckling , by it self , but by accident ; In regard that no salts do season , or act as long as they are dry , that is , unless they are dissolved : But in Calx vive there is a two-fold Alcalized salt : One indeed Lixivial , and the other sharp , and both of them distinguished by the sense of tasting ; which two salts being dissolved by water , while they act on each other they are inflamed ; which same thing happens in hot baths , in the sharp salt of fountains acting on the lixivial first matter of fire-stones : That very thing by handicraft operation , and from the effect , not indeed by reason of what ; but because it is so , I thus prove . For if thou shall pour the sharp liquor of Vitriol upon the salt of Tartar , straightway both of them being actually cold , do burn with heat : And therefore if out of Lead being calcined in the spirit of vinegar , thou shalt abstract all this spirit ; assoon as the Alcali thereof shall drink in a moisture out of the air , it really conceives fire even in the Scrip. Wherefore the Schools have not known , that if Lime were not enflamed by a mutual agitation of the spirits of its salts , it could never become a stone . Again , What is there in live bodies which may resemble the dryness of Lime ? What I say , which is actually dry ? Is limie ? and not throughly wet with a daily , and continual dew ? Is not the digestion of the solid parts continual , and un-interrupted ? Surely however I consider it , they hand forth trifles for the Elements of nature , and the similitude of Lime with an Hectick Fever is full of blockish ignorance . And as gaping accompanies many Fevers ; so surely they have gapingly , and feverishly delivered all things . For the sake whereof we must note also , that there is a foolish cause rendered by Galen for Gaping ; To wit , That smoaky vapours being heaped together , do stir up the Muscles of the Jaw that they may be expelled : First of all , very many smoakinesses should blow up those Muscles , in whom there is much necessity , and frequency of Gaping . And then seeing those smoaks should be the unsensible superfluities of the last digestion ; Why should such a kind of superfluities rather stir up an expulsion of themselves , than those of other parts ? Why should they not daily be diligent in that ? and why do we not sometimes gape for forty dayes together ? why are those smoaky vapours more obvious in Fevers , than in the Gout , and Apoplexy ? Certainly there is no function of our body , which is more moved by example than gaping is : For we easily follow even unwillingly , and against our wills , him that gapes , Gaping therefore is not from a smoaky vapour , but from that faculty , and part which obeys the imagination : For the Schools admit with me , that the mouth of the stomack is most readily moved from a beholding ; Because very many do most aptly loath , and vomit , filths being beheld , or imagined : And the eating of a sour Apple being seen , the mouth in many waxeth liquid with spittle : The mouth of the stomack therefore is especially moved at imagination . Indeed sleep , likewise a deep drowsiness , the Coma , the Catochus , Catalepsie , Vertigo or Giddiness , and accidents of that sort , do issue from the mouth of the stomack ( even as elsewhere concerning the Duumvirate : ) But Gaping is a fore-shewer of , and Chamber-maid of sleep , therefore I attribute Gaping unto the same part . For the Phantasie the inhabitant of the first sudden invasions or violent affections dwells in the same place , and therefore it hath received the surname of the heart : So also from a sorrowful message , frequent sighs are drawn , that they may lighten the mouth of the stomack being sensibly burdened . Thus therefore from a dull or sloathful stomack requiring slumbring , a desire of gaping strikes , and extends the Muscles that are restless , about the time of sleep , wherein it calls the Muscles of the cheeks , and rough Artery into its protection , no otherwise than as the straining bone about the organ of smelling , calls the Muscles of the breast unto its aid for sneezing ; For even as the cause of sneezing is not to be sought for in the Muscles wherein it is made ; surely much less doth gaping belong to the Muscles of the jaw . Since otherwise , one may also gape , the teeth being pressed together , that is , by a contrary motion of the jaw . For the Schools should more rightly have had respect in gaping , unto the rough Artery , which is drawn for two fingers downwards by a heteroclital or irregular motion . In the mean time they never dreamed any thing of a smoaky vapour of that Artery , because it is that which alwayes sufficiently layes open , and is passable fot air , otherwise it ought not to gape : For such is the compacture of the body , that even in things not necessary , the members do set to their mutual hands , and as if strange Organs did strive for their own right . CHAP. X. The Seat of Fevers . 1. The one only Seat of Continual , and Intermitting Fevers . 2. Fevers do vary from their occasional matter only . 3. The nest of Fevers , in what bounds it may be enclosed . 4. A burning Fever , and the Fevers Sunochi are nigh the mouth of the Stomack . 5. It is proved from the action that is hurt . 6. A Quartane is an Out-law in its seat . 7. The matter , and seat of malignant Fevers . 8. The Plague , how it is separated from other Fevers . THe seat of continual Fevers differs not from that of intermitting ones : For this cause therefore continual Fevers offer themselves , which end into intermitting ones , and one the contrary . Those Fevers therefore vary not in the flitting of places , or from the nature of their Inn ; but for the sake of their occasional matter alone . In this regard also I am repugnant not only to Galen , but also to Fernelius , concerning the Essential difference of the places of Fevers . The nest therefore of Fevers is in the first shops ; to wit , it is extended from the Pylorus or lower mouth of the stomack thorow the Duodenum , and the manifold vessels there ; likewise thorow the greater bowels or intestines , the veins of the Mesentery , Spleen even unto the Liver . But those that are the nearer unto the upper mouth or orifice of the stomack , are by so much the more troublesome , and the more formidable in their perplexities . A loathing , especially a great abhorrency of fleshes , fishes , and those things which readily smell like a dead Carcase presently after the entrance of Fevers , do confirm my Doctrine concerning the seat of Fevers : Likewise thirst , want of appetite , pain of the fore-part of the head , the Megrim of the left side of the head , Doatges , a deep drowsiness , Watching , local anguishes about the mouth of the stomack , burntish or stinking belchings , a prostrated digestion , vomiting , also a bitterness , dryness , chappings , blackness of the tongue , &c. Which things surely are the tokens of the Duumvirate its being hurt in the action of Government : hitherto have a supervening sharp or sour belchings , the little cloud of the urine access , and those things which prove the coction of the stomack to have returned , even as in the Treatise concerning The signification of the Urine elsewhere . But a Quartane Ague alone hath chosen its Inn in the Spleen it self , and in the veins co-touching with it : But a malignant Fever alone , peculiarly challengeth something to it self of a matter putrified about the Orifice of the stomack . But they are by so much the worse Fevers which shall not sit in the hollowness thereof , but in its boughtiness ; because nothing but an extraordinary Arcanum can reach unto those places : For therefore Camp , and all Endemical Fevers are more stubborn than others , and for the most part without thirst ; wherein the heat is scarce perceiveable , and a continual perplexity alone , brings the sick unto their Coffin : For these sort of Fevers desile only from without , and affect the last nourishment of the stomack ; Because in very deed , the whole body as long as we live is transpirable , and exspirable , according to Hippocrates . For I have elsewhere demonstrated , that the Lungs , and Diaphragma or Middriffe , are on every side passable with pores in live bodies ; The which , while Endemicks pass thorow , and smite the Bought of the stomack , they oft-times infect the last nourishment of the stomack . I have said that a Diary Fever , together with a Hectick Fever , do sit in the stomack : But the Plague differs from other malignant Fevers in this , that since it doth not sit in feverish filths , as neither in the blood of the veins , it affects only the vital spirit it self with its odour , for that cause also it of necessity enters in , and goes out with the air through the pores of the Diaphragma , and so that it tends thus primarily unto the stomack ; not being able to proceed further by a local motion , it there makes its own impression to stick in the nourishment of the stomack : From whence there are presently Vomiting , Head-ach , Drowsinesses , Doatages , Swoonings , and those things which obtain a Dominion over the mouth of the stomack being vitiated . CHAP. XI . The Occasional Causes of Fevers . 1. The occasional cause of Fevers , is not the true containing cause thereof , 2. Why an occasional cause is divers in its self . 3. A two-fold occasional cause . 4. The venal blood is a composed and simple natural thing ; and therefore not made up of unlike parts . 5. The first occasional and material cause of Fevers . 6. A second matter . 7. The ignorance of the Schools concerning the tincture of the urine . 8. Why the urine is the more slowly tinged . 9. The false Judgements of the Schools concerning Vrines . 10. A Fable of the Schools concerning the gauly tincture of the Vrine . 11. An Argument of the Schools from the ignorance of Galen . 12. VVhat should more rightly be collected from thence . 13. The Archer of a doating delusion , where he inhabites . 14. VVhy in a doatage a remedy is not to be applied to the head . 15. From whence all Apostemes are bred . 16. The injury of the Schools . 17. VVhence the cloud that swimmeth in the Vrine is . 18. A good Physitian why he neglects a Crisis . 19. VVhat coction in Fevers may be . THE Schools shew forth a foul and miserable , yea and mournful spectacle every-where easie to be seen : That since a Fever openly talks with us , yet they have known it nothing the more for so many Ages , as neither do they know radically to expel it : Because Fevers are now not any thing more successfully cured after two thousand years experiments , and dissections , than in times past from the first . For indeed , whatsoever is the cause of the cause , that very thing also is the cause of the thing caused ; Wherefore the occasional cause being uncessantly present , and entertained within ( which others call the conteining one ) is the cause of the internal cause of Fevers , ( which I will by and by declare ) of the Fever it self , and of accidents sprung from thence . For if the occasional cause were the true containing cause , and matter of the Fever it self ; truly there would never be any intermitting Fever : For the essential causes being supposed which are requisite to a Fever , the Fever also is of necessity present ; But the occasional cause is present from the beginning even to the end ; the which , if it were the containing cause , and did effectively contain the essence of a Fever in its own bosome , the Fever also should be present as long as that containing cause is : But the Consequence is false , therefore also is the Antecedent ; That is , that cause is not the containing one , and of the intimate Essence of Fevers , but external unto it , and therefore occasional . And seeing in the variety of the occasional cause , a reason consisteth , whereby it is either continual , or intermitting ; Also why it is more or less troublesome , swifter or slower , according to its expulsion : It must needs be , that not one only seminal occasion of one corruption is to be granted . Since therefore the definition of things is most fitly setched from their constituting and essential causes ( even as elsewhere concerning logical matters ) I have therefore appointed a two fold matter of the occasionall cause : both indeed new , and hitherto unheard of . Unheard of I say , because I am he who do not acknowledge both the Cholers , phlegm , and venal blood , as the constitutives of the blood , neither do I admit of them in nature ( Even as I have demonstrated by many arguments , in a peculiar treatise concerning humours ) neither especially do I grant the blood to be made up of many unlike parts . As neither if it were constituted from thence , that it could ever immediately returne back into its own constitutive parts , neither that it could shew those in the blood let out of the veines , and give an occasion of errour to the Schooles ; Since there is not granted an immediate return from a privation unto the former habite : Wherefore it is a frivolous thing to argue that there are four humours in the blood , that sometimes three , and sometimes four are seperated from thence by the corruption of it self : which question , as I have elsewhere described , as sufficiently sifted , it is sufficient here to have touched at by the way . For truly , I have judged , that no aide is to be fetched from those humours , in this place : But in the last digestion of the nourishment , while the solide parts endeavour to assimilate nourishment to themselves out of the blood , it happens that degenerate alterations , and as it were wrong or rash abortions are very often made : This degenerate nourishment therefore , undergoing various abusive marks of its changing , doth also beget diverse Fevers . And those first and supposed humours prepared out of the Chyle , and Chyme or cream , do far differ from the true nourishment of the solide parts degenerating through the transchanging of the blood : Therefore Fevers arise , not from both the cholers , phlegme , venal blood , and spirit being putrified , but from secondary juices , not indeed putrifying , but degenerated in time of assimilation . But they degenerate through the admixture of a forreign matter , or from a forreign impression , or next , through the errour of the Archeus , being wrothfull , or called aside . Moreover , another occasional cause of Fevers , I derive from elsewhere : To wit , that because we undoutedly believe by Anatomy , that the Meseraick veines being dispersed through the whole conduite of the intestines , do suck whatsoever liquid thing the Archeus also hath known would be familiar unto him : The aforesaid veines therefore , draw a certain juyce out of the utmost parts of the gut Ileon , and the more grosse bowells nigh adjoyning to these : But when there is no longer any nourishment in the same place , but rather a certaine dung ; they suck unto them a Being hitherto unnamed ; wherefore I ought to give it a new name : Therefore I call it Drosse , or liquide dung , being profitable in nature for its own ends : Because it resisting the discommodities of the urine , therefore also urines being tinged , do not so soon stonify as the more waterish ones do . Whatsoever therefore hath hitherto tinged or died the urine , is the drosse , but not the gaule ; even as otherwise , the Galenists being deluded , have seduced their young beginners ( which thing elsewhere , more largely in the inspection of urine ) and so their judgments concerning the tincture of urines , brought downe unto gawly and Cholerick humours , have respect to nothing but the drosse or liquide dung : For if but as even the least small drop of gaule should be in the urine ( by how much lesse , so much as is required for a sufficient tincture of the whole ) it should be wholly made bitter ; but it doth not wax bitter ; therefore there is no gaul in it : The major proposition is manifest from the breaking of the gawle in a fish , however exactly thou washest the fish from the gaule , yet he is bitter in tast : But that the tincture of the urine is the drosse , is manifest by distillation : And the demonstrations hereof ( in the treatise of Duelech ) I have offered as obvious , to every one that is willing to make tryal . In the last place therefore , the tincture passeth thorow unto the urine ; because the comming of the Chyle that is changed into drosse , unto the gut Colon , is the slower , because this Colon is the more latter in its scituation . Therefore the judgment of the Schooles concerning the Colours , and content of urines have been hitherto false , and the divinations drawne from thence . It is therefore a fine fable of ignorance in Galen , who saith : In the morning I see my urine to be watery , wherefore I repose my self to rest , and after some space , I see it to be tinged , because Choler comes in the last place , and so my urine receiveth the last maturity of its digestion . As if the urine in the bladder , if it be not let out , should be cocted by its own maturity , or by an additament of the tinging Gawle ? Surely Choler ( if there were any ) should arise conjoyntly with the other humours , and with the urine the whey of blood : to wit , by the same labour of the sanguifying Liver , the choler powred on it should tinge that urine , and not some houres after , unlesse thy can shew that it would be profitable for that excremental Choler to be kept for some time , and that seperated without the urine . But they thus argue on the opposite part , from an eventual conjecture , and from causes being badly understood . For they say that it is of experience , that in continual Fevers , if after yellow urines , watery ones do suddenly appear , doating delusions are signified , by reason of Choler ( according to Galen ) crept up into the head : But it had behoved this man to have shewn , who the sender of that choler should be , who its conducter thorow the veines , and what the receptacle of that Choler : Whether the bosome of the braine ( for there is no other hollownesse in the head ) could bear that Choler without present death ? and for what end nature should do these things , that from the sinks of the humours being nigh to an emunctory , she should bring feverish Choler , and that totally excrementitious , directly on the opposite part , unto a most noble bowel ? But I in my signification of Urines , have gathered from the same signs of the Urine , that the liquid dung is not brought through the veins after a due manner , unto the Urine : therefore it is certain , that it is detained elsewhere besides Nature ; but that it is not brought unto the head , but unto the veins of the midriffe : that is , unto the seat of the Fever is that very other feverish excrement brought ; whence I divine , the Fever to be hereafter increased , and from thence a doatage . But that the Archer of doating delusions and of madnesses dwells in the Midriffs , is as well manifest from Hippocrates : In whom a vein strongly beats in the place about the short-ribs , he is by and by estranged in his mind : as from the property of the name received in the Schools , whereby they denominate the hypocondriacal passion from its seat : But because the mark of the Archer is the Brain , that he may stir up doatages and drowsie evils ; that ought not to move the Physitian , that therefore he should apply a remedy to the head : For truly , that thing is alwayes to have applyed a medicine unto the effect , unto the shaken weapons , but not unto the Archer . Wherefore as long as the dross or liquid dung is carried in a straight line unto the Urine , as its natural emunctory , it is well ; but if it be crookedly brought unto some other place , there is a continual Fever , as well because it is an excrement in its own nature , as because it departs to an undue Inne : otherwise , the nourishment being degenerate in the way of the last digestion , is for the most part , the more mild , and without savour ; and therefore it affords intermitting Fevers , and those the longer ones , as their matter is the more glewie : But the liquid dung is more sharp or cruel , and therefore it stirs up the more cruel continual Fevers , and those aspiring sooner unto a period . But these two excrements , or both occasional causes , where they shall conspire in one , they bring forth Bastard-Fevers , Epiala's , Semiteritans , those consisting of one and an half , and wandring Fevers ; therefore intermitting Fevers stand in need of more powerful incisives or cutting remedies , then continual ones , because they have a more stubborn , and a more glewie occasional matter , which cleaves or grows to the vessels within . But if that nourishment degenerates beyond the liver , it stirs up divers Apostemes , but not Primary Fevers . For because also in a Phlegmone or inflamed Aposteme , the bloud , or nourishment of the solid parts , degenerates into corrupt Pus , it brings with it also a Fever , of necessity : And when it shall come unto the utmost , there is the less labour and pain ; even as also by continual Fevers there is then a Crisis even like unto an Aposteme . For why do not the Schools rather conclude of phlegme from the little cloud of the Urine , then of a sign of perfect concoction , if one only yellow choller tingeth the Urine ? Surely that little cloud denotes chiefly , that the stomach hath recovered the ferment of its own sharpness : Whence the old man saith ; That sour belchings suddenly comming upon burntish ones , is a good sign : and so denotes a declining of Fevers to be present , or a Crisis : But a good Physitian ought to neglect Crises's , because he ought to prevent them : For nature causeth not a Crisis or time of judgement , unless when she alone carries the whole burden on set daies . A true Physitian therefore , ought to overcome the disease before a Crisis ; and therefore neither doth he wait , nor wish for a Crisis : but an unfaithful one , the intention of nature being disregarded , either hinders , or enlargeth a Crisis . But the Coction which is expected in Fevers , is a cutting , and cleansing away of the tough matter ; but not that otherwise , nature attempts the digestion of the thing besides nature , nor cocteth any thing , except she pretend alwayes to assimilate it to her self , by a similar or alike and simple digestion : For oft-times therefore , a little cloud appearing in a Quartane , vanisheth away ; because Coction , which the small Cloud signifies , is not a true subduing of the matter from a Primary intention , but only of the digestive ferment of the stomach : otherwise , the Feverish matter being once made the more fluide , a new Crudity happens not thereupon . CHAP. XII . The Diet of Fevers . 1. What is the most slender food of acute or sharp Fevers . 2. Herbie medicines are not to be mixed with meates . 3. Feverish persons may drink . 4. They must abstaine from fleshy foodes . 5. The madnesse of Physitians . 6. What sort of meat and drink is fit for those that have a Fever . 7. A debate concerning the use of wine in Fevers . 8. That a Fever , and heat are radically distinguished . 9. It is of little concernment , whether a remedy for a Fever be hot , or temperate . 10. An objection is refuted . 11. How great the inflamation of the Archeus is . FRom that one only precept of Hippocrates ; that in acute or sharp diseases ( he hath commanded ) we must presently use a most slender food : But I do not interpret a most slender diet to be a strict fasting , or severe abstinence ; nor likewise to be the broaths of fleshes , by whatsoever favour of herbs they are altered . Truly those medicines are not to be mixed with meates ; but all things are to be introduced by their own Stages . First of all I detest in Fevers , an abstinence from drink : For if the Fever be hot and thirsty , but is deprived of moistening drink , it robs of blood , and of the nourishments of the solide parts , together with the strength : For as it is lawfull to unload the bladder even as oft as an importunate necessity urgeth , it craves not leave of the Physitian to this end : likewise also we must drink as oft as necessity admonisheth , seeing the one is not more agreeable to nature , than the other : Otherwise , the strict law of thirst , and obedience of its command being broken , hath already , a thousand times brought disgrace on the Physitian . I also abhorre the broaths of fleshes in a Fever ; for nature forthwith detesteth the same , and by how much the more meer or unmixt they are , by so much the more to be condemned according to the mind of Hippocrates : Impure bodies ( so he calls those of feverish persons , whose stomach is burntishly stinking ) by how much the more thou nourishest them , by so much the more thou hurtest them : For they hurt feverish persons ; because Flesh , Eggs , Fishes , and fleshy broaths , are then easily mortified or corrupted , and do least of all nourish . For it is like unto madnesse , to empty the veins , and again to be willing to nourish those whose digestive faculty is prostrated : To be willing to comfort I say where the enemy is within . For then thin ales being joyned with wine , wherewith bread , being first boyled in water apart , even unto a glew or mucilage , it admixed , do most especially satisfie ; And these being taken crude , and not boyled : For truly , by boyling , the vertue of those Drinks looseth , but not increase : For so that vertue being unsensibly mixed with the drink , satisfies both indications ; neither is it to be feared least the sick party under this diet should perish through want : Especially since he is unworthy the name of a Physitian , who restoreth not the person that hath a Fever before the space of four dayes . But moreover all the Galenists inveigh against the use of wine ( although wines being secretly drunk , have a thousand times brought Reproach on the Galenical Art ) because a Fever is nothing but a meer heat , being called by Hippocrates a Fire , , and wine shall be to him that hath a Fever , such as oyl is for the extinguishing of fire . But this Argument hath already before perished as an old Wives Fable , under the definition of a Fever : And by so much the rather , because it is contrary to daily experience : For as many as use Wine moderately in Fevers , do the more easily recover , preserve their strength , and are the sooner restored unto their former state : But they who after the diminishments of the body , and abstinence from Wine , do peradventure escape through the benefit of nature alone , they remain sickly for a long course of weeks . For truly , none doubteth , but that the Plague is the most cruel , sharp , and swift Fever ; but that it is loosed without the cutting of a vein , and purging , and only by sweats , and the drinking of the more pure wine . None also doubteth but that Triacle , and other sudoriserous Medicines are hot , may be given to drink in Wine , yea and in Aqua vitae . And since these things as such , do not hurt , but profit in the sharpest of Fevers ; much less shall Wine be taken away in the more mild ones ; Especially , Because it is manifest , that heat is not the Constituter of Fevers , but a consequent thereof by accident . Neither is there place for arguing the difference of the Plague from other Fevers : For in very deed , the Plague floats in the Archeus as a poyson : But Fevers have a stubborn occasional matter , and that adhering to the veins : Therefore transpirative Medicines are required on both sides : in the Plague indeed Medicines that cause sweat , together with an Antidote against the Contagion of the poyson : But in other Fevers , Diaphoreticks which cut , dissolve , and cleanse : And truly on both sides , this buisiness is perfected by hot things . But Wine hath a peculiar betokening , not only because it addeth strength , whereby nature subdueth the hateful matter ; but moreover , because it is a convenient Chariot of Medicines : For indeed it is a Messenger that hath known the wayes , being fitted for the journey , being near to the inner most parts , and admitted into the inner Chambers of the body : For in a young , and strong man with a small Fever , there is great heat ; when as in the mean time , in old men there is a mortal , and difficult Fever : yet it hath an heat scarce troublesome . If therefore heat be encreased after wine is administred , the feverish malignity is not therefore encreased ; Because a Fever , and Heat are radically distinct ; The which I have already shewn by the Fevers of young , and old people . It makes no matter , Although the trouble of heat shall a little increase through the drinking of Wine ; For that is recompenced with usury ; Because the faculties ( the only Physitianesses of diseases ) are increased by moderate Wine . This very thing , if it be more fully , and radically sifted , thou shalt find that heat doth not properly accompany a Fever , but the valour or strength of the faculties . Therefore that which the Schools do so greatly abhor in Wine , is the mark of a good sign : For deadly , and the worst of Fevers are scarce hot ; and every Fever about the time of death is without heat . If therefore the motion of heat be that of the Archeus himself , for the expelling of the enemy , and wine add heat ; therefore he who proceeds by Wine , heals according to the conformity of nature : Notwithstanding let us grant , that Heat , Wine being administred , is the greater , yea also that the Fever is the sharper : For what other thing follows from thence , than that the Wine shall increase the vital constitution ? And that that state is nearer to the constitution of young folks , than that which proceeds by cooling things , or without the administration of Wine ? for cooling means are more like to death , to cessation from motion , and to defect ; But heat from moderate Wine , is a mean like unto life , and a means which the Archeus himself useth : For the Constitution of heat increased by Wine , is nearer to the Vigour , State , and Crisis , than if the strength being weak , there shall be the more feeble heat by abstaining therefrom : These things concerning the drinking of Wine . But concerning the drinking of water ; Let the decision be , that feverish persons desire not hot water , nor do they thirst after that which is luke-warm ; but cold water is to be admitted in a slack degree , in the highest heat of the state of the Fever ; Neither must we be afraid as I have said , of a co-mixture of the extreames ; Because experience hath long since successfully shooke off this fear . But in other stations of Fevers , neither is cold water , as neither is abundance to be drunk ; yet thirst is never to be endured , not indeed under sweat ; But then let the drink be hot : If thirst be urgent , and the Fever hath not the fodder of drink , the in-bred moisture is wasted . But moreover , That which they accuse concerning the crudity of water , take thou thus : Water springing out of sand is simple , and the best , and it is to be taken from the fountain it self ; But that which runs thorow Pipes , or issues out of a clayie spring , is now partaker of a mixt malignity : But this water I call not so much crude , as infected : For water by it self , deserves neither to be called crude , nor cocted , as neither is it ripened by heat , nor doth it attain any thing thereby ; for it is sufficient , so that its highest cold be blunted : but none may use infected waters , as neither any cold drink in the Plague , and malignant Fevers . But there is a larger reason for an hot remedy : But neither do I ever perswade a remedy which may moderate Fevers only by heat ; but as Wine profits by comforting , and by more throughly introducing succours coupled unto it ; So do remedies by cutting , resolving , and cleansing , and in that respect the more prosperousty , because they have the Archeus in operating , agreeable to themselves ; For thus far he co-mingles his own powers with the powers of remedies , that the occasional cause may be put to flight , and that the more firm health may not presently receive its strength prostrated . At length perhaps they will object against these things : That since heat in a Fever is the effect of the spirit that maketh the aassult his being wroth ; It also followes , that from the measure of heat , the wrothfulness of the Archeus is to be measured , and by consequence , that whatsoever increaseth a feverish heat , doth also increase a Fever . I have answered before , that there are many branches , effects , or various Symptomes of one root : And that oft-times , doating delusions , Coma's or sleeping Evils , intermittencies of pulses , to wit , things denoting an increased Fever , do happen under the more mild heat ; Even as from a tender branch of an Acorn there is a greater leaf than from an old Oak . There is therefore an Elenchus or fault in the argument , to say [ the Fever is the greater in the man ] for I abhor that encreased Fever , the which mortal increased symptomes do follow : But I in no wise fear the Fever to have increased , because the Archeus doth the more strongly rise up for the expulsion of the root of the Fever : And if they in conclusion call that thing an increased Fever , I little dwell upon it . For so also the Schools perswade , that we are not greatly to be afraid of accidents unexpectedly happening besides reason . It is therefore to be noted , That the Archeus is never enflamed in his whole : For otherwise , about the end of the fit , the whole Archeus being dissolved or wasted , should be the cause of fainting . The Archeus therefore is enflamed in much , or a little portion of himself : And therefore the Archeus being encreased by Wine , if more thereof be enflamed , yet more of him is not lost ( and yet he more strongly strained the occasional cause ) than if the Archeus be not strengthened , and encreased , and a less part of him be enflamed . CHAP. XIII . The Essence of a Fever . 1. Of what sort an Essential , and Natural Definition is . 2. Diseases are Beings subsisting by themselves , and not accidents . 3. Why Diseases inhabite in a strange Inn. 4. A Disease is not only a Travel , nor a Motion , nor a Distemper , nor a Disposition . 5. The Essence of a Fever , which the Schools are hitherto ignorant of . 6. There is therefore another Scope of healing than what hath hitherto been ▪ 7. That the occasional Cause alone distinguisheth Fevers . 8. The cure of a Physitian is made easie . THE definition of a thing is not to be framed from the general kind of the thing defined , and from the constitutive difference of the Species's or particular kinds , even as I have elsewhere demonstrated in Logicks : Because besides rational and irrational , ( if so be they are as yet the constitutive differences of living Creatures ) no differences of like sort appear in the Schools : But a natural definition ought to consist of the material , and internal efficient , or seminal Causes : Because those two are those which constitute the thing it self , and that the whole , and they remain unseparably essential in it as long as it self is ; and so they explain a thing by its causes , and the properties of these . Truly Fevers have a matter , and an internal efficient cause after the manner of other Beings subsisting in them ; although all diseases inhabite in a living body ; because they are not Beings of the first Creation , but begun from the curse of the departure out of the right way ; And therefore neither have they properly their own seminal Being which constitutes , and nourishes them ; But they have an occasional Being from whence they are stirred up instead of a seed ; The which ceasing , the Disease ceaseth . As oft therefore as that which is not vital is inserted into a vital soil , the Archeus is angry and becomes wroth , that he may exclude that forreign thing out of his Anatomy : The which I have perfectly taught in the entrance of this Treatise , by a thorn thrust into the finger : Therefore a Fever is not only an expulsive endeavour , or alterative motion , ( and much less the alteration and disposition it self , as the Schools have otherwise thought ) but a Fever is a material part it self of the Archeus defiled through indignation : For a part of the Archeus is defiled through anger , and receives an image or Idea of indignation , ( the which is clearly expressed in a woman great with Child , fearing , or desiring any thing , while she conveighs the seal of the thing desired on her young ) and whatsoever of the Archeus is defiled by that forreign Idea , this ought to have been rooted out by the fit : so that that is the cause of wearisomness in Fevers , because the spirit being marked with a forreign likeness , or hateful image , as unapt for the performance of the wonted Offices of its government , totally vanisheth : For so those that profoundly contemplate , are tired with much weariness : For the Archeus , if he hath an image brought into him , is unfit for governing of the body : For therefore persons void of care , the more healthy , more strong ones , and those of a longer life , do slowly wax grey : The endeavour therefore of a Physitian is not to direct unto the effect , or unto the alterations naturally received in the Archeus : For ( as I have said ) in Diseases , all things depend on the occasional cause implanted into the field of Life ; because Diseases have not in them an essential root of permanency and stability , as other Beings have which consist and subsist by their own seeds ; Because in very deed , all do immediatly consist in the life ; ( therefore in a dead Carcase there is no disease ) and therefore all the destruction , and cessation of these , depends on the removal of the occasional cause . The Scope therefore of healing cannot turn it self unto the cooling of heat , or to the' stupefying of alterative motions , as neither unto the expectation of Concomitant accidents , and produced effects : For the Physitian shall labour in vain , shall loose his labour , time , and occasions , as long as he shall not be intent on the withdrawing of the occasional cause : yea by how much the more he shall do that , by so much the more delightfully , and acceptably there will be help . In all Fevers there is one only inflaming , or indignation of the Archeus , whence also they agree in the Essence , and name of a Fever , being distinguished only by their occasional cause . Indeed the Matter , and Inne distinguisheth Fevers : yea it is of no great moment with a good Physitian , to have curiously searched into the diversities of Fevers according to the properties of the matter , and places , since it is neither granted him to have prevented them , neither can it be said to a remedy , Go thou unto such a vein , or unto that place ; For it is sufficient to have known what things I have already before in general concluded : And let the whole study of a Physitian be , to have found out remedies , with whom all Fevers are of the same value and weight , as I shall presently declare . CHAP. XIV . A perfect Curing of all Fevers . 1. The property of the occasional cause . 2. Why it becomes not putrified . 3. Vomitory and laxative Medicines cure only by accident . 4. The Schools why they have not had meet remedies . 5. None cured of Fevers by the Physitians . 6. The Authors excuse . 7. Of what sort the Remedy of a Fever is . 8. The successfulness , and unadvisedness of Paracelsus are noted . 9. The Description of an Vniversal Remedy . 10. A Remedy purging Fevers , and the sick , but not the healthy , is described . 11. The most rare property of the Liquor Alkahest . 12. Particular Remedies of Fevers . THerefore it is now manifest , and be it sufficient , that the occasional matter of a Fever is to be vanquished , and that that matter if it be not food corrupted ( as in a Diary ) at least , that it is an excrement , not indeed a putrified one , ( unless in malignat Fevers wherein putrefaction is as yet in its making ) but a strange forreign one , not vital , being deteined against nature , and so brought into anothers harvest : And by this title altogether hostile to the Archeus . For if it were putrified , it should not be tough , neither should it adhere as stubborn , ( for by putrefaction the stedfast Fibers decay ) and so neither should it afford daily Fevers , but it should presently make to putrifie , and mortifie the vessel containing it , together with it self , whence death would be necessitated . The occasional matter of Fevers therefore , is detained besides the desires of nature , in undue places , wherein there is not any sink of the body : therefore vomitory , and laxative remedies , if ever they have performed any profitable thing , another prone & neighbouring matter is thrust out together with it : for otherwise , the occasional matter of Fevers doth ordinarily reside in the hollow of the stomack , or bowels , because they are sinks , and places appropriated for expulsion , unless perhaps in a Diary Fever , the disease called Choler , the Flux , bloody Flux , and other Fevers of these pipes stirred up from a matter adhering unto them : For I speak especially of the primary or chief Fevers . First of all , the Schools could not seek meet remedies for Fevers , they being seasoned with First of all , the Schools could not seek meet remedies for Fevers , they being seasoned with bad and false Principles : But they not seeking after remedies , neither also could they find them : Therefore Physitians being hitherto destitute of a true remedy , have endeavoured to cure Fevers , going into a Circle : But if any have been cured under them , that hath been by accident . Let them give God thanks who hath bestowed strength on the sick , whereby they have tesisted the Fever , and their succours . Physitians therefore instead of curing Fevers , have neglected them by exhaustings of the strength , and blood . Far be envy from what is spoken : for not boasting , or the vain desire of a little glory , I call God the Judge to witness ; but mans necessity , and the compassion of Mortals hath constrained me to write , and make manifest these things . I have bestowed my Talent , let him believe me , and follow me that will : It shall no longer lay upon me , if Mortals being rash of belief , perish by Fevers . Indeed the occasional cause of Fevers is cut off by one only hook : That remedy is sudoriferous or a causer of sweat , which cuts , extenuates , dissolves , melts , shaves off , and also cleanseth away the occasional cause in whatsoever place it at length shall exist ; And it is a Universal Medicine of Fevers , Diaphoretical or transpirative indeed , causing the aforesaid effects unsensibly , and without sweat . For indeed Paracelsus , although he had Arcanum's or Secret Medicines , whereby at one only draught he alike successively cured the Quartane Ague , and all Fevers ; yet the knowledge of their causes was not granted unto him : He being contented to have introduced into us all the particular Creatures of the Microcosm , and so under a rashness of belief , to have applied the Species , Numbers , and Properties of all Simples , and Stars unto the Medicinal Art ; and that not indeed by similitudes , but he would have them to be so precisely known by a simple identity under the penalty of convicted Idiotism : Therefore I distinguish not a Fever , if there be the greatest goodness of a remedy : For that remedy is the Diaphoretick Precipitate of Paracelsus , which cures every Fever at one only potion : But an Hectick Fever within the course of the Moon or in a months space : For it being taken in at the mouth , cures the Cancer , Wolf , and any eating malignant Ulcer , whether external , or internal ; and likewise the Dropsie , Asthma , and any Chronical disease : For it alone perfects the desires of Physitians , as well in Physical , as Chyrurgical defects . The description thereof is as well in his book of the Death of things , as in his great Chyrurgery , and I will somewhat more manifestly declare it : Take of the powder of Johannes de Vigo being prepared with thy own hand : for otherwise it is adulterated by Minium being admixed with it , even as also any sort of Chymical Medicine whatsoever which is set to sale , is full of deceit . This Powder , the Element of fire extracted from the Vitriol of Venus or Copper being poured on it , is to be five times cohobated with Aqua Regis , by increasing the fire about the end ; for it is plainly fixed ; And it is a powder exceeding Corrosive : The which afterwards let it be ten times cohobated with Aqua vitae most exactly refined , and renewed at every turn , until it hath brought away with it all the Corrosion : And then that powder is sweet like Sugar : And therefore the spirit of Wine is there called Saltaberi , or Tabarzet , which sounds , Sugar : Not because it is sweet in it self , but it takes away the cortosive spirits with it self ; so that the remaining powder shines in its own sweetness , and not borrowed from elsewhere . For besides that the fire of Vitriol is sweet , the very Sulphur of the Mercury being then turned inside out , is of the greatest sweetness . That powder is fixed , and it is called Horizontal gold : For I have delivered a Secret unto a few , which ennobles a Physitian : But to have prepared that Secret , is for the first turn of great labour , and the direction thereof depends on the hand of him unto whom all honour is due ; because he reveals such Secrets unto his little ones , which the world knows not , and therefore hath a low esteem of them . There is also the Purging Remedy Diuceltatesson , which radically cures the Gout , no less than Fevers : And it is called his Corralline Secret , which is prepared of the Essence of Horizontal gold after this manner . From the common Mercury sold in Shops , abstract thou the Liquor Alkahest , whereof he makes mention in his second Book of the strength or faculties of the Members , in the Chap. Concerning the Liver : The which is done in a quarter of an hour : For saith Raymund , my friends standing about me , and the King being present , I coagulated Quicksilver , and none besides the King knew the manner how . In which Coagulation that is singular , that the liquor Alkahest being the same in number , weight , and activity , prevails as much in the thousandth action , as it did at the first ; because it acteth without a re-acting of the Patient . The Mercury therefore being thus coagulated without any remainder of the Coagulater , make thereof a fine powder , and distill thou five times from that powder , the water distilled from the whites of eggs ; and the Sulphur of the Mercury , which by its aforesaid coagulation was drawn outwards , will be made red like Coral : And although the water of the Whites of Eggs may stirk ; yet that powder is sweet , fixed , enduring all the fire of the bellowes ; neither doth it perish in the examination of Lead ; yet it is spoiled of its medicinal vertue , while it is reduced into a white mettal . But it is for the most part given in the quantity of eight grains ; because it purgeth the body of man as long as it is defective , and not perfectly sound : It heals also the Ulcers of the Bladder , Wind-pipe , and Throat . But since it belongs not to every Physitian to go to Corinth , neither is it lawfull to prophane the Secrets of God , who would remain the Dispenser hereof ; it hath been sufficient for me to have manifested the Theorie of Medicine : That by praying , seeking , and knocking , they may attain knowledge , from whence every good gift descendeth . Notwithstanding there are some particular Remedies of Fevers , which although they ascend not unto the universal ampleness of general kinds ; yet they for the most part give satisfaction in Fevers . Of which sort are the salts of Cephalical things or things for the head , and likewise of Marioram , Rosemary , Sage , Rue , and the like : not thinking that these salts are the Alcalies or Lixivial ones of their ashes ; but volatile salts , and those which contain the whole Crasis or constitutive temperature of the Simples : For they are famous Diaphoreticks , and somewhat temperate ones : The which if they are drunk in Wine , or Vinegar at a due station , to wit , upon a fasting stomack : and before the fit of intermitting Fevers , or at any time of continual Fevers , and sweat be procured , they shall never expose a faithful Physitian to a mock . Cease thou also to wonder , that I propose Fevers to be cured without all evacuation , if I perswade transpiration , and sweats : For I have also seen Fevers to be frequently cured by Simples bound on the body , with the great disgrace of Physitians . Lastly , I will also say this , that I have safely cured an hundred Quartanes by an Emplaster , without a Relapse , although Aurumnal ones . Therefore in the Family of feverish Species's , such particular remedies do oft-times reach to the top of an universal remedy . Seek and ye shall find , so that Medicine be not for gain : For if your intention be Mercy , from Charity ; Truth , and Light descending from the Father of Lights shall meet you in the journey : To whom be a rendering of Honour for ever . CHAP. XV. An Answer unto Reproaches . 1. An Argument against the Contemners of Sciences . 2. Answers unto the Reproaches of the Galenists . 3. The Chymical Medicines of the shops are adalterated . 4. Corrosives wax mild by the fire . 5. An Objection concerning the smaleness of the Dose . 6. The dignity of Mercury , and Stibium or Antimony . 7. A most rare Arcanum of Volatile Salt. 8. All things cry for revenge against the Galenist , the Despiser of Chymistry . 9. The Original of the Apothecaries shop . 10. An Objection concerning the solving of Pearls and Coralls . 11. After what manner things dissolving are separated from things dissolved in the stomack . 12. What to [ Precipitate ] may signifie in Chymical preparations . 13. A censure of some Writers of Chymistry . 14. A repeated Objection , privy escapes unto the more soft Tophus's or small stones of living Creatures . 15. Of what sort the action of Gemms on us may be . 16. What there may be in a more tender stone which operates , its powder remaining safe . 17. Mechanical proofs . 18. Proofs from their own weapons . 19. A certain wonderful , and almost infinite re-acting of the Patient without a transchangeative passion of its Essence . 20. An explaining it by handicraft operation . 21. What Bodies being apparently dissolved , may suffer in us . 22. A danger unknown to the Schools . 23. A Secret involved first by ungrateful dissolved bodies , and afterwards a superlative one by grateful Dissolvents . 24. A general kind of Medicine . 25. A conclusion unto Physitians . 26. The praise of the volatile salt of Tartar. This ulcerous or corrupt age of most perverse Wits , will not suffer those that are admonished to repent : For so far are they as yet from that , that most Practitioners refuse to enquire into these greater Secrets , because they every where inveigh against Sciences which they are ignorant of . But because they are altogether ignorant of the same , they both almost triumph , and also gratifie each other concerning their ignorance ; neither is it manifest , that they have spent their time in those things unprofitably , because it shameth them not ; to have a vile esteem of Chymical Science , by Writings and Taunts , as a smoak-selling , and delusive or false Art : But they know not , that since of a Non-being there is no knowledge , and no conception in the mind answering thereunto : Therefore also , in that whereby they deny the truth of science , they manifest that they are ignorant of the same : that is , vilely to esteem of that which they are wholy ignorant of : And there are others , who more mildly , but alike blockishly say : 1. Those things belong not to our judgment or employment , they no way touch at medicinal affaires : for we follow things approved from of old . 2. Chymical medicines cast a smel of corruption , being hot , violent , and not common . 3. We have Servants who faithfully prepare those medicines which are for use : And it is unseemly for a learned man to excercise the composition or preparation of medicine . 4. The smoak-selling Experimentators institute all horrid evacuations , being full of terrour , because they are supported only by Mercury , and Antimony , they being manifest poysons : And so , they are to be reputed among Mountebanks or Juglers . These are those things which they by reason of their ignorance , thrust upon the unwary vulgar : whereunto I in order thus give satisfaction . We treate of medicines , but not of things , which concern a corriar , or potter : They therefore suppose a shamefull evasion , that they are ignorant of what it had behoved them to learn : Neither also is there a trusty foundation from antiquity , it being always ruinous ; they going where it hath been gone , not where they were to go , they alwayes following the flock of predecessours , and mutually subscribing to each other through the blind judgments of their mind : our fugitive servants also will answer , I being silent , from whom they borrow the corrosive powder of Precipitate , and of another more sweet , or lesse poysonsome , and likewise the vitrum or glasse of Antimony , and the floures thereof , Cinabrium , and in summe ; nothing but poysons , for the transplantings , and cloaking of great diseases : But all things notably adulterated for the desire of gain . For it is easie to deceive the ignorant in things which they professe themselves to be ignorant of : For there are essential oiles set to sale , and the which are valued at a great price , they being all and every of them adulterated : whether nine parts of oyle of Almonds were co-mixed with one part of essential oyle , is a matter of easie experiment : For cast it on a sponefull of Aqua vitae , and whatsoever shall swim atop ; let it be the essential oyle ; but the rest , oyle of Almonds : And that thing thou shalt the more certainly know , if thou shalt make tryal in a Bath : The oyle of Sulphur is for one half of it raine water , but the distillation of Vitriol is brought wholly into deceit , and is more frivolous dayly : The which will presently be manifest through a simple examination by a Bath : That scarce a sixth part thereof is the pure distillation , and that as yet loaded with the tincture of oaken bark . In the next place , unto the second particular I will by and by answer : Now it is sufficient to have said , that the more choice Physitians at this day , do not despise Chimical remedies , the which , their bookes do lately testifie : And so the Fox dispraiseth Grapes , and Hens , that are sequestred from him in the Tree : But how much they can performe , the experienced sick do speak though we be silent . Unto the third : It is no disgrace or uncomelinesse , to have prepared some the more choice remedies with ones own hand , and to have bequeathed and delivered those medicines unto his posterity , by his hands : For neither was it an unbeseeming thing for the High Priest of the Hebrewes to have struck down Oxen , and to have played the butcher for the salvation of the people : Is it happily a more glorious thing for the Galenical rout to have viewed stinking dung , and to have stirred it with a stick , than for us to have handled Furnaces , vessells , and coales ? surely if they had the weight of truth , they would knowthat the works of charity do not defame any one : But they who have not charity , account all things disgracefull besides gaine and Lucre. Depart ye from this pride , and be ye mercifull , as your Father which is in heaven is mercifull : For else he will say , I know you not that live for gaine and deceite : But indeed disgrace hinders not these somewhat ambitious ones , but ignorance , and the covetous desire of Lucre : For they make more account of the number of visits , than of the glory of curing , which wholly buries it self in having done well . For as soon as they are dismissed from the Schooles with the title of Doctour , they enquire through the Streets and Inns , with the eyes of a Lamprey , whether there are not sick folks which may entrust them with their life : But stop your proceedings , Medicine is not to be excercised after the manner of Mechanick arts . And because Physitians err in this point , the Father of Lights withdrawes his gifts , after that Medicine is managed as a Plow . Possess ye Charity , and gain Will voluntarily , follow you with Honour and Glory , the which take hold of a Physitian that shuns them , whom the most High hath commanded to be honoured . Unto the fourth I grant , that all kind of Knaves have most licentiously thrust themselves into Chymistry , no less than into Medicinal Affairs , and that a various destruction doth thereby daily arise unto mankind ; on whom surely the Magistrate ought of right to be severe in punishment : But these things do not defame honest men . It is certain , that deceit , and the adulterating of Medicines have always been annexed to gain . But as to what pertains to the reproach of Remedies , & Chymists , that is to be sifted by a larger Discourse . First of all , it is suitable in this place , That Science or Knowledge hath no enemy but the ignorant person ; Not any such one , but him that is proud , and refuseth to learn : The which is manifest by the already mentioned Corrosives , and indeed manifest poysons , that they become sweeter than Sugar : The same thing is also more easily manifest , and to our hand ; For truly Scarwort , Frogwort , Apium risus , &c. do forthwith in distilling lay aside their embladderring power , even as the juyce of Citron doth its sharpness , Water-Pepper its Acrimony , &c. Neither is that of concernment , that Chymical Medicines are to be administred in a small Dose : For that accuseth them not of poysonsomness , but of the higest perfection of acting : For so there is one dose of meates , and another of Scammony , Spurge , and Coloquintida : Therefore an undiscreet Physitian is like a Tormenter . The virtues of a Chymical remedy are narrowed in a smal quantity , under which they are pleasing while as all things have regard in their own proportions , unto the strength and necessities of the sick . Hitherto perhaps that saying of Jeremy 15. doth not unfitly square : If thou shalt seperate the pretious from the vile , thou shalt be as my mouth : But that which they upbraid us with concerning Quicksilver , and Antimony , it conteins a meer ignorance of things , and a blockish reproach : For Antimony , as long as it provoketh vomite and stooles , and Mercury may be revived , they are poysons , nor the remedies of a good man : But when they have have come unto the top of perfection for which they are ordained of God , no mortal man can search out their virtues , or illustrate them with due praises , however the guts of the scoffing Momus may crack . For neither do we boast , that we have known the purgative force of Mercury and Stibium , and to have given them to the sick to drink , who detest purging things , especially those which alike equally dissolve an healthy , as a sick person , by causing putrefiction . Lay aside Choler , and remember that in your shops , dispensatories Eccho forth nothing besides Scammony , Coloquintida , Elaterium , Esula or spurge , that is , meer poysons : And then , although the essences of vegetables and spices are hot ; yet their volatile salts ( which thou hast never seen ) are temperate . So that , if thou shalt know how to transchange the oyle of Cinnamon , Cloves , Lavender , &c. into a volatile salt , thou hast obtained a temperate medicine effecting as much as can be hoped for from those simples , in an old Vertigo , Bearing of the heart , Apoplexy , and the like diseases : Therefore they who at this day keep the keyes of medicine , seeing themselves do not enter the passages , they drive mortals from the usefull fruite of those gifts which the most high hath dispersed in nature . Therefore the powers of the most exellent things cry to heaven , that they have come as it were in vain , that there is scarce any one who can loosen their bonds , that they may bestow the benevolence which is due to mortal men ; but rather , that they have become the rewards of whoredomes and adulteries : That science therefore which teacheth how to look , into bodies shut up , by a re-solution of themselves , and to extract their hidden virtues , is not the servant of the practick preparatory part of medicine ( as the reproaches of the ignorant do sound ) but it is the chief interpretation of the history of nature . For the Apothecaries shop began at first , from Merchants , the collectours of simples and herbs : but afterwards when Physitians saw that it was not meet for every one to boyle , season , and prepare simples , that buisinesse was also comitted to the sellers of simples . In the mean time , Physitians kept the more choyce and secret remedies to themselves , whereby they might procure honour with their posterity : But at length the sluggishness of Physitians increasing , they were contented to run through the streets from house to house , to have made gain by the frequency of visits ; at length Dispensatories succeeded thereupon , for the compiling of formes of medicines here and there selected according to the pleasure of ignorance , that they might be kept in the shops , and in a bravery set to sale , rather for expedition than for their property . Whence at length , Physitians joyning compositions to compositions , give sometimes the hotch-potch of a thousand simples to the sick , to drink , that if one thing help not , at least wise another may help ; or at least , that they may excuse themselves that they have managed the cure of the sick according to the common rule . This is the preparation of medicine at this day , from which , how far the Philosophy of Chymistry differs , they indeed have known , who even but from the entrance , have saluted the same ; but unskilfull haters only , are ignorant thereof . The Galenists surely will take it haynously , that I have answered unto their ignorninies and reproaches by meer light , and that I have rent the Houshold-stuffe of their chiefest remedies , wherefore they will pursue ( I know well enough ) after this manner : Thou urgest that Pearles , Corrals , &c. Are not disolved in sharpish liquors ; but that they are only calcined , and powdered by the salts of the dissolvers , also that they are hidden , and made invisible onely to the sight : And that thing thou provest by Silver being dissolved in Aqua fortis , that it is from thence reduced safe , therefore that it hath not lost its former essence , and thou wrestest that aside unto the aforesaid Stones , and provest it , because by the Alcali salt of Tartar , the same stone is again precipitated to the bottom , which before was an invisible powder , as the Alcali salt drinks up the sharp or soul salt which contained the powder of the stones in it self : But thou seest not , that first of all your young Beginnings do teach , and greatly esteem of these sort of dissolutions : Then also , that the stomach wants the salt of Tartar , that it may precipitate the dissolved powders , and separate them from their dissolvent , and therefore thou proposest a mockery ; and by consequence , the matter of Pearls , Corals ; &c. being once after this manner dissolved , remains dissolved , and is admitted inwardly unto the veins , with the liquors of the Cream , and so is transchanged into urine , or bloud , and performs as much as we promise . I answer , That Nature hath no need of the salt of Tartar , to separate that powder from its dissolver : Because she is well instructed , as well in respect of the meats , as of a proper digestion , to sequester this powder . For there are very many things among meats which produce this effect ; such as are pot-herbs , and likewise vulnerary herbs , &c. wherein there is for the most part , a volatile lixivial salt : And also wines with the white of eggs , do not only separate such coagulated dissoluents from the powders dissolved , but they do also revive precipitated Mercury . Again , the very digestion of the stomach it self doth ordinarily , substantially transchange the sharp spirits of vegetables , into the salt and volatile salt of urine ; the which when it hath no longer the former faculties of dissolving , which it at first had in its sharpness , it presently utterly leaves ( that is precipitates ) a powder , which before it hid as dissolved in its own sharpness ; and therefore it precipitates of thrusts down , and puts off from it the aforesaid powder , before the doors of the meseraick veins . And so , let the Galenists know , that the writers of the young Beginnings of Chymistry are as yet young beginners ; they triumph , that they propose to others what they have tasted down with the tip of their lips ; and so they have nor yet had access unto the inner Chambers of Phylosophy . But again , the Galenists will urge , saying , that the stones of Bezoar , Crabs , Snails , &c. being taken as well by way of a powder , as being dissolved in a sharp dissolving liquor , do notably profit in the Plague , Fevets , the disease of the Stone , wounded persons , and in those that are thrown down from an high place : wherefore that the same thing is blockishly denied by me in Pearls , Corals , &c. whereto I answer ; That gems , small or flinty stones , and rockie stones , have much latitude , and that they differ very much among themselves . For first of all , Gems , Flints , Marbles , and whatsoever things have a Christalline hardness , do not any thing act , or suffer on us , or from us , unless by way of a remedy hung on , and bound about the body , and that so long , as from the mouth they pass thorow the superfluities of the Body : The virtue therefore of these is feeble , because it layes hid , as being shut up in a too thick body : But Pearls and Corals , and whatsoever stones have the rocky hardness of Shell-fishes , do indeed yield to Gems in hardness , yet they are not therefore concocted in the stomach of man , as they are well , in some birds : But the stones of Bezoar , Crabs , &c. being as yet less hard then Pearls , are not of a rocky nature , but they are made rather of a milky juice , half cheesed , and half stonified , and they have the nature of a Tophus or sandy stone , being neutral between a gristle and a stone ; even as the shells of stones in medlars , peaches , &c. do keep a neutral and middle kind between woods , and a sandy stone . These things being for the truth of the matter , and the better understanding thereof , thus supposed , I say , That although the stone of Bezoar , of Crabs , &c. as to the solide matter of their powder , are in no wise digested by mans stomach ; yet there is in them a certain milkie and muscilaginous juice of great virtue , yet of small quantity : Such as also happens to be extracted out of the shaving of Harts-horn , by seething . If therefore thou dost a good while boil the powder of the aforesaid stones in rain , or distilled water , if thou separatest the decoction from the powder by straining it through a Filter , but dost in distilling this decoction by a bath , draw it forth , thou shalt at length find some small quantity of the aforesaid Muscilage : But the remaining powder as it is unconquered by boyling , so also it remains undigested by our stomack : And so from the small quantity of the aforesaid liquor there dependeth a reason why one only dram of that stone being powdered , and taken in some liquor , effecteth more then otherwise one scruple of the same doth : when as in the mean time , the Wine , or Vinegar being drunk up at the same draught with the aforesaid powders , do not dissolve the sixth part of the powder ; but the rest they forsake entire , not changed ; which is manifest , if thou shalt drink the stone of crabs , being not beaten into powder , but into pieces , and after voiding them forth , shalt wash them clean , thou shalt find the same weight thereof which there was before , and so nothing thereof to be subdued by the stomack , nor any thing of those stones to be participated of by the digestion . Come on then , I will also press the Galenists with their own weapon : for if the aforesaid Stones , or Pearls being taken by way of a powder , should melt in us , ye attempt in vain to dissolve them : Therefore it is already manifest by handicraft operation , that the more tender Stones of living creatures do contain a Muscilage , which Pearls , Corals , and rocky Stones do want : yet the bodies of somethings remaining in their pouder , and homogeneal and unseparable solidity , as they suffer in their dissolution an action from the dissolver ; so also , in like manner , the dissolver suffers by the body dissolved , without any participation in the mean time , of the unchangeable body : for from the Chymical Maxim , The dissolvent is by the same endeavour coagulated , whereby the body dissolved is dissolved : And therefore if the body dissolving be taken away from the body dissolved , nothing is ordinarily recovered from thence , besides a water without savour , being without actimony and sharpness : the which surely as they are the Clients of Salts , they are coagulated in the thing dissolved , and stand by it as Companions . Thou shalt know the same thing more clearly , if thou distillest the Oyl of Vitriol from running Mercury , the Oyl is coagulated with the Mercury , and they both remain in the bottom , in the form of snow . And whatsoever is distilled from thence , is meet water : but that snow , if it be washed , is made a citron coloured powder , which is easily reduced into the former running Mercury , being altogether of the same weight as it was before : but if thou shalt distil the water of the washing off , thou hast in the bottom a meer Alum , from the sharp salt of Vitriol . For so dissoluents are changed , although the bodies dissolved have not lost any thing of their own matter , or substance : And such dissolvers act on us , by way of an alteration attained in their own sufferingness ; but not from a property partaked of from the dissolved bodies being unchanged : Therefore to the argument proposed . The salts of vinegar , wine , juice of Lemons , or of the Oak , and likewise of the sharp chyle of the stomach , as they are vegetables , and alterable by our digestion , by digesting indeed are changed in us , into a urinary salt ; notwithstanding , by reason of the diversity of the thing dissolved , those dissolutives suffer something from the aptness of their own convertibility ; yet they transfer not any thing on us of the thing dissolved that is not digestible , unless it contain the digestible part of it self ; even as I have said concerning the milky muscilage of the stones of soulified creatures : But if indeed otherwise , such a dissolved body should proceed inwards into the veins ( which it never doth ) that it might communicate its endowments unto us ( to wit , pearls , or the aforesaid stones ) very many anguishes would follow from thence , instead of succours . For first , since they are not digested in the stomach ( even as I have already proved ) neither in the next place , shall they be able to be cocted in the second digestion ; because there is no passage unto the second , but through the first . Secondly , therefore they shall never be converted into bloud , but into some other superfluity of the veins . Thirdly , powders shall be bred in the veins , and kidneys , and they shall be stopped up with the powder being a forreign guest , never to be drawn out by any remedy for the future . These things are spoken concerning thigs dissolved by a dissolving vegetable , and therefore digestible in us . Notwithstanding , if things are dissolved by dissolvers that are not digestible , those shall either be ungrateful to the nature of the stomach ; and therefore they stir up vomit and stools : So that only the incongruity , malignity , and ingratitude of things taken into the body , are the cause why they move vomiting and stool , and are forthwith expelled with those things which they threw down into their own Faction : Therefore they procure perplexities and troubles . But if the things dissolving are acceptable to Nature , they are willingly admitted inwards ; yet the composed body suffers not any thing thereby , as well in respect of the thing dissolving , as of that which is dissolved : For truly , both of them are undigestible : Therefore that composure remains safe as before , it passeth through all the shops of the veins , and at length ( for truly , it cannot be changed ; nor by consequence , pass over into the Family of Life ) is expelled with the sweat , by transpiration . In which journey , whatsoever of filths those famous Secrets do touch at , they dissolve them , and snatch them away with themselves , and so they heal Fevers , and most Chronical diseases . Whosoever therefore ye be , who in healing , have cordial charity towards your neighbour , learn ye a certain Dissolver , which may be homogeneal or simple in kind , unchangeable , dissolving its Objects into their first liquid matter ; and thou shalt obtain the innermost Essences of things , and shalt be able to look into the natural endowments of these . But if ye cannot reach unto that Secret of the Fire , learn ye at leastwise to render the Salt of Tartar volatile , that by means hereof ye may perfect your dissolutions : The which although as being digested in us , it forsaketh its dissolved bodies that are safely or unharmedly homogeneal ; yet it hath borrowed some of their vertues which it conveighs inward as the subduers of most diseases : But for the obtainment of these things , it is not sufficient to rub over Books ; but moreover it behooves you to buy coals and vessels , and to spend watching nights in order : So have I done , thus have I spoken , let the praise be unto God. Because the Universities in their eighth Potion forbid , to wit the Cutting of a vein , except in the fulness of blood , but they admit of it only in this , because then the vice of Blood-letting cannot be sufficiently manifest ; and because in their tenth Position , they now implicitely grant a Fever not to be a meer heat , but that it is to be cured by heating , and corroborating remedies , they being all hot things : Surely one of the two must of necessity be true ; To wit , either that a Fever is not heat in its root ; or that they must not heal by contraries any longer . Out of the Positions of Lovaine , disputed at Lovaine , under the most discreet Sir D. Vopiscus Fortunatus Plempius , on the 26. of November , in the year 1641. CHAP. XVI . The Essence of Fevers is discovered . 1. The life of Mortals is the efficient cause of Diseases . 2. Herein is the raging Errour of the life . 3. A proof of the foregoing particulars . 4. The Authour , wherein he disagreeth from the Antients . 5. The internal efficient , and its matter are proved . 6. In what sort the Thingliness or Essence of Fevers may be formed 7. A Proposition . 8. That Immortality once consisted from a natural cause . 9. The Original of diseasie Idea's . 10. What hath deceived the Antients . 11. That the Archeus in his own Idea's of perturbations , imitates the Imagination . 12. The aforesaid Proposition is proved . 13. A two-fold fountain of the Beginning of Idea's . 14. A necessity of Idea's in a Fever is proved . 15. The same thing by a numbring up of parts . 16. An examination of the occasional cause . HItherto I have disputed against the Schools , as if I dared not to teach the Essence of Fevers : Therefore since the fruit discovers its tree , I am compelled for the sake of the Lovers of Medicine , to add a supply , whereby the Essence of Fevers being hitherto unknown , may be the more illustrated , and a manner of distinguishing between Judgement and Judgement , and Remedy from Remedy , may be granted to the young Beginner . First of all , I have shewn ably enough , that the definition of Fevers have been hitherto unknown , and therefore that the Essence , and essential causes of those are as yet unknown : And seeing the knowledge of things is not granted unto us from a former cause ; at leastwise it is strongly to be admired at , that nothing hath been devised for the Essence of a Fever , besides heat ; while as notwithstanding , the History it self of Fevers might have been able sufficiently to have opened the Necessities , Agreement , and Constancy of Causes : and at leastwise to have reduced Mortals from the ridiculous errour of heat , unless a sluggishness it self of Mortals had been allured through the tediousness of a diligent search , and the easiness of subscribing . First of all , I speak of the nature of man being corrupted , such as it continues since transgression successively . For a Disease was as yet an Exile , as long as death was absent ; So indeed that a disease had not yet any hope for it self in possibility : But after that death entred into the life , every disease stood in a powerful army directed against the life it self : so as that a disease intended to establish its nest in the vital Beginning ; not indeed by fighting as a certain external thing on and against the life : But the forreign Guest drew his sword in the very life it self , whereby he might cut off the Life , his Inne , and the Patron of his Essence : For such was the corruption of mans immortality , that he afterwards drew his own death out of the life it self : For neither do I speak in jest ; far be it , when I write of preserving the life of Mortals . For indeed every Disease perisheth presently together with the life : For neither do matters however hostile they may be feigned to be , combate , or wax hot any longer after death : Wherefore every direction of the internal efficient cause ought to depend on the life it self : For that which the Ancients have even hitherto before me called the Duel of nature , also the lot of an Elementary complexion with solitary qualities , or with the very offensive matter of supposed humours among each other : All that I affirm to proceed effectively , efficiently , and immediately from the principle of life ; that is , from the inordinacy , indignation , tumult , terrour , and abhorrency of the vital spirits . But the excrementous matter , and that which they have thought to be , and called the offending or diseasie matter , I call that which is produced , detained , or introduced besides nature from an erring , or forreign occasional cause : And so I call all such matter only the occasional matter : indeed the inciting one , and plainly external to a Disease ; because the presence of which matter as yet remaining , the whole Fever doth oft-times cease , and utterly perisheth : Therefore the internal , efficient , and immediate formal Being is the very life it self ; and the immediate matter thereof is drawn , and departs from the vital air as to a part of it , wherein the life it self is entertained , and sits : and so it hath an immediate , and plenipotentiary power on the life , which is con-nexed unto it in the resembling mark of uniformity ; for otherwise it should be an inconvenient thing for the mad or raging life of a Fever to bring forth a disease , or to conceive , effect , and nourish a formal , and essential Beginning , foundation , and seed out of it self : For the life is not able to establish a disease which is a seminal Being , in the forreign , and external subject of excrements : For if the life ought to suffer by a disease , to be vexed , and killed thereby , surely it being now defiled , ought to suffer all the injury from its own self ; according to the Proverb , None is hurt , but from himself . Hippocrates in times past after a rustical manner perceived that thing , the first called that vital spirit ; The maker of the Assault , as well for life as for death : For God made not death for man , the which began from sin . But I do not deny that the life is provoked into its own injury by occasional causes : yet at leastwise I could wish , that the Antients had divided , as is meet to be , the internal cause essentially from the external occasional ones : But I take not the internal , and external matter for a respect of the body ; but that which is radically , and essentially proper to the disease , that I call the Internal , and unseparable matter : But otherwise , if if it be only accidentally adjacent thereunto . Therefore before all , it is seriously , and only to be noted , in what manner the very essential thingliness of Fevers may be formed by the Essence of the efficient life : That not only the very local thingliness of principiating a Disease may be hereby conceived ; but that moreover an essential limitation thereof essentially issuing from the life it self , may be known : Which things therefore are more deeply to be peirced . Wherefore let it be instead of a Proposition ; that Mortality , Death , and a Disease , seeing they entered with sin , they corrupted the life , and defiled the whole humanity with impurity : Not indeed that the entrance of all particular Fevers is therefore from a new sin , as neither immediately from original sin , although they have originally defluxed from thence . But in the state of Purity there was Immortality , no Death , no Disease , because then the immortal mind immediately governed the body , and therefore it suffered not any thing by frail , things which are altogether inferiour to it self : therefore it deserveedly freed its own Mansion united unto it self from death , and corruption : But after the departure out of the right way , the mind delivered up its government to the sensitive soul , whence the life became subject to a thousand inconvenient necessities of death . The Sensitive soul therefore afterwards stirred up the Vital air , which after that , began to be called by Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or the Maker of the Assault , and the chief Work-man of Diseases : But the power of the same was badly understood by his followers ; and that Maker of the Assault remained neglected by Successours , it being also unknown that the differences of diseases did issue immediately from the life ; And therefore the whole buisiness of Diseases was falsely committed unto occasional , and never existing Humours ; For I have concerning the Original and Principles of Healing , delivered the manner whereby that Maker of the Assault produceth an Ideal Being : from whence Fevers , and all Diseases borrow their Original : The which generation of Idea's or shapie likenesses being there professly handled , I will only touch at by the way . First therefore it is confessed , that the madness of a dog is stirred up by or in his conception through the effective Idea of that mad poyson : The which is not in any healthy dog , even as in a mad one . And from thence it is manifest , that that poyson ( which strikes our imagination after the biting ) is framed by an Idea caused by the conception of the mad dog . The same thing ptoffers it self in the Tarantula , in Serpents , and things sore moved with fury : So in the Plague-grave I have demonstrated , that this Idea is made not only by the fear of the man , but also of the vital air : Wherefore also it is very equally necessary , that for a Fever ( which is stirred up from the assaulting spirit , and vital Beginning , not which ariseth , is moved , or increaseth of its own accord , or of nothing ) a motive Idea , or effective cause springs up in the same vital Beginning , being indeed poysonsome in it self , and varying according to the signatures or impressions which this tree of a feverish Idea utters for its fruits : For since of nothing , nothing is made ; but of something , alwayes something : As well the Antients as the Moderns have supposed , that any Fevers whatsoever do of necessity arise from the strife of the Elements , or at least of feigned Humours : Neither have they till now cleerly defined of which of these two the texture of Fevers might be . But since the Elements are but three in number , neither do these flow together unto the constitution of bodies ( because I shall elsewhere shew the connexion of these to be impossible ) they cannot produce any strange Beginning from themselves : But Humours since they never have hitherto any where been , and since Fevers are of a more aiery , and abstracted body than that which a liquid excrement is thought to be : I have discerned that from nothing , nothing is indeed materially made , but that most things are efficiently effectively , and formally made from a conceived Idea , which do forthwith after cloath themselves with bodies . Indeed by the conception active Ideas are made , and the formal Beginnings of seeds , which presently cloath themselves with the coat of the vital spirit , wherewith they then in the next place come upon the stage , and are made that Maker of the Assault , which is known by the Schools only by its name alone , and therefore neglected by practical Physitians : For that Fevers do now and then arise from the disturbances of the mind , that is very well known to persons of no reputation , and Barbers . But that the Archeus or the spirit which violently assaileth , doth suffer its own perturbations , and conceive the Off-springs of these , the Idea's stirred up in it self , hath indeed been even hitherto unthought of , and unheard of in the Schools : Notwithstanding , nothing is more certaine , than that the spittle of a mad dog doth a good while after the death of the dog , produce its madness in whom he bit , it being plainly very like to its own dog from whence it issued . Wherefore there was in the spittle a forming seminal Idea of that madness produced , being like unto that from whence the first infection flowed : For such an infection presupposeth an active , vital , and potent propagative power of its seed , because it can cause death , and madness in us : But that power never acteth as a naked accident , but as it inhabites in a formal subject of inhesion : Neither also that the visible matter , or Inn of its inherency is the very same power , nor the exciter or spur of its own self , or that that power subsisteth alone without a root which stirred it up ; But every power hath a nourishing , causing , and directing Being of it self , far more spiritual , and abstracted than is the Case of its inhesion : More abstracted I say , than is the mean it self whereinto the motive power is received ; yea more formal than the very quality of the power it self is . Truly there is a master-work man-like image of evil , or good , the Effecters of effects , as well in diseases , as in other seminal Beings : But that image takes its Original beginning from the cogitation of man , or from the conception of the Archeal spirit surrogated in its absence : ( I now speak of Diseases ) For the Sensitive Soul is in the spirit or Archeal air , after the manner of the Receiver : And although the Archeus be not vexed after the usual , and humane manner of the soul ; yet the Inn of the sensitive soul ( which is the Archeus himself ) arising , enjoyes the Idea's as well from his own conceptions , as from the exorbitances of his conceptions , after the manner proper to his receiving . For neither doth the Archeus alwayes fish those passions out of his own conception , but also from things undigested , badly digested , and transchanged : Even so also from excrements not being rightly subdued , or separated : And so also , not only from our faculties being estranged , or erting , but besides , from the in-bred endowment of things ; Even as in the spittle of a mad dog there is a poysonous Ideal property which alienates the imaginations of the sensitive soul in us at its own pleasure : There is therefore in things a certain accidental power , which if it can perfect its own contagion , and propagation , it wants a formal , and seminal power which may be the Governess of the action : For seeds , as they utter the figure and similitude of themselves in their products , of necessity , they have this Image engraven on them , if they ought to act out of themselves , or to erect another thing like to themselves in the thing produced ; seeing such a likeness presupposeth a forming Idea . In the next place , the occasional matter of Fevers , if it were of the essence of Fevers , or if it should not precede ; at leastwise it should alwayes accompany the proper effect to it self . Wherefore since a quaternary of Humours , and the existence of these are feigned , things ; it must needs be that the feigned humoural cause doth neither fore-exist , nor follow the Essence of a Fever , neither that there is any respect of Humours unto a Fever , nor likewise of a Fever unto feigned Humours . Again , neither can the blood ( the treasure of life ) after any manner be the constitutive cause of Fevers ; yea nor indeed the occasional cause thereof , except it be hunted out of the veins ; and first corrupted ; that is , unless it first cease to be blood : For truly there is no other reflexion of the out-chased blood , than that it is a dead Carcase in a living sheath , & that in the mean time , it undergoes divers transmutations according to the variety of the Idea of the Archeus , governour of the stern of the family-administration in the nearest kitchins : For this vitiated blood is now a cadaverous excrement , and an occasional cause , whereby the Archeus being excited , frames an Idea of fury . Lastly , any other excrement whatsoever being defiled by a succeeding digestion , transfers the right of an occasional cause it self , and occasionally brings forth a Fever , no otherwise than as I have already said concerning the blood : And such an excrement is heaped up by a vice , digestively , and distributively , or by degrees , or at length is produced by a Fever , or by forreign things breathed into the body : However it shall be , at leastwise in respect of Fevers , it alwayes remains external ; neither doth it ever enter into the Essence hereof : They are indeed only accidental considerations which do most nearly respect the degree of Fevers : for if the action of diseases proceedeth immediately into the life , and takes its beginning from the life ; verily it is necessary that the essence of diseases do also wholly pierce the very essential marrow of life ; But other external things of what sort , and how great soever , do only regard whether the occasional matter be greater or less in quantity ; Whether the efficient cause in a young man be stronger than in an old man , in the beginning of the disease than in the end thereof , in a malignant Fever than in a more mild one , &c. But such degrees of powers are only the Correlatives of the efficient , being compared unto the strength . And they teach indeed , how much it is to be feared from an accident occasionally rushing on the sick : But I here have regard unto the formal essence of a Fever : Therefore the essential power of the internal efficient , or of the life it self , is alway present , and remaineth ; and the denomination thereof drawn from a term of Relation , although it may change the hope of the Physitian , may vary the superiority of life , and the proportion of the Agent ; yet the life it self is alwayes the intimate , principal , formal , and essential efficient of Fevers , and the occasional matter every where remains without the true , and internal material cause : For a Fever is oft-times taken away , or ceaseth , a remnant of its occasional matter , and efficient as yet remaining : For a Quartane oftentimes ceaseth of its own accord , and perhaps returns again a month after : and so it keeps its occasional matter in the mean time untouched , and without action , as it were sleeping : And the same occasional Being is elsewhere of its own accord wholly consumed the storme of the Archeus being first appeased : Oft-times also , Fevers leave weaknesses , and local diminishments of the faculties behind them , being durable for life : as the life of the implanted Archeus was curtailed , and suffered his own too many tribulations . CHAP. XVII . A narrow search into the Essential thinglinesse of a Fever . 1. An erroneous speculation of the Schooles . 2. The Authour differs from the Schooles . 3. The manner of making a Fever is enlarged for betokenings . 4. The center of a Fever . 5. An examination of thirst , and cold . 6. The Doctrine of its center is confirmed . 7. Why a Fever is sometimes terminated by the appetite of unwonted things . 8. The family government of a Fever in the Pylorus . 9. The Quartane ague is an outlaw ; and the unheard of seat of strange Fevers . 10. Why vomiting looseth not these strange Fevers . 11. The definition of a Fever is rent . 12. An examination of remedies . 13. The vanity of hope , from whence it is introduced . HItherto as well the modern , as more antient Physitians have considered the nature and essential thinglinesse of Fevers , from the speculation of heat , as well internal , as that of the encompassing heat of Summer : And also they have measured that essence by the sharpnesse , cruelty , multiplicity of the occasional matter , or from the malignity of one , or more of the four feigned humours : For so they have shut up the gate before their own judgments , whereby they ought to have entred : For truly the manner of making in Fevers , and its internal efficient , and seminal matter , have remained neglected ; they have contemplated of a Fever only in its being made ; and so , thus they have withdrawn from themselves the knowledge of its essence ; whereas otherwise , the manner of making above distinguished , uncloathes the internal thinglinesse of a Fever , which the Fever that is made includeth , the understanding of man not being able to pierce things by its own power , which it hath on purpose shut up from it self . I have therefore taught above , from what active and vital beginning a Fever ariseth seminally , and materially in us ; that is , entirely : For the essential thinglinesse of Fevers being perfectly taught by their manner of making , makes manifest the thinglinesse of the efficient whereby it is formed : Because it begs all its determination from the life . For therefore the true Ental and essential thinglinesse differs in the whole circumference from the Antients their suposed thinglinesse ( to wit , the accidental one ) of Fevers : For the accidental Being it self ( which is the very supposed Fever of the Antients ) differs in the whole predicament from the substantial and vital Being of Fevers , and from their seminal Beginning , progresse , co-fitting , action , sequestration , defilement , and immediate property , being drawn , to wit , as well from the motherly part of the internal and vital matter , as from the fatherly part ; to wit , from the thinglinesse of the vital efficient principle . For truly Physitians hitherto , place every disease among naked qualities : But I have demonstrated , that heat is not the essence , or of the essence of Fevers ; but a meer accident , seperable from a Fever , and that which is accidentally , and by intervals adjacent to a Fever . Now it remaines for the knowledge of a Fever , and its remedies , to contemplate of the manner of its making , while it is in making that the tree may be bewrayed by its fruites : Therefore almost every Fever , presently after its beginning , abhorrs and is averse to fleshes , fishes , meat-broths , eggs , and whatsoever things may soon be corrupted within the stomach : For fleshes and fishes only by a lukewarmth do voluntarily depart into corruptions proper unto them , and would hasten stinks as it were to the bound of a dead carcase . And these , when they slide down into a stomach that is deprived of its accustomed due and digesting ferment , do through the lukewarmth of that place alone , hasten into the corruption of themselves . For feverish belchings do from hence become of a strong savour , and therefore for soure belchings to happen upon burntish or stinking ones , Hippocrates will have it to portend a good Omen or presage ; because that the digestive ferment of the stomach ( which constraines all things to wax soure ) testifies by soure belching , that it hath returned : The which otherwise , being absent , sleeping being hindered , or suppressed , fleshes , and those things which are ready easily to putrifie are presently corrupted : Whence afterwards yeellow , leeky , and bitter vomiting is stirred up , from the pottage of the Steward being corrupted : This is the cause why whatsoever things do easily putrifie , are presently made hatefull in Fevers . But at least wise , from hence it is manifest , that the stomach is the stage of a Feverish combate : And then thirst presently gives its voice for this conception , accompanying most Fevers . Yea and in the great , and dayly cold of intermitting Fevers , thirst is more cruel , and the vomiting of that yellow dreg more abundant , than otherwise , in the sharpest heates of continual Fevers : For neither therefore , must we make an escape unto the wonted hiding places , as if only the outward parts were cold , but that the inward bowells were hot , and did most mightily burn with heat : To wit , from whence , under cold , so great importunity of heat did molest : Far be it from being willing to impose by so manifest trifles , on the truth ! For truly in the beginnings of intermitting Fevers , horrours and colds are felt , no lesse within than in the joynts : Therefore indeed the inward dens are shaken by reason of Cold , even so , that the teeth & joynts bewray nothing but inward cold . But Feverish rigours are appeased as soon as the fury of the internal cold hath become milder : But that thirst is decietfull ; Because it is that which not only drink doth not quench , and which doth miserably delude the drinker ; but also it teacheth that it was not caused by a defect of moisture : But if a fervent heat within ( otherwise worthy to be laughed at ) be supposed to be , as long as it stirs up a cruel cold out of its inner chamber : At least wise , doth not that heat , the houshould guest of Fevers , ( although it be not yet complayning , or hitherto felt ) while it is dispersed , and the cold is driven away , doth it not I say get it self strength in going ? And unfold it self ? Not indeed after the manner of a substance extenuated by enlarging , but by acting after the manner of heat increasing : Even so as the hand being made cold by snow , if it recover heat , it waxeth hot more and more , and far more powerfully than that which is made hot by the fires side . Why therefore if thirst be made by inward heat , at least , is it not quenched by drink : Why also , heat being now increased , and by occasion of the Fever , enlarged unto its state , doth not thirst likewise increase ; but rather is for the most part , mittigated ? Is it not manifest from hence , that thirst doth not spring from heat ; but from a far different root ? Especially , when as oft-times the sharp distillation of Sulphur , either quenches the thirst , or at leastwise , mightily allayes it . Therefore the sudden aversnesse of appetite , and abhorrency of meates , and a disdainfull choice of drinks in Fevers , a thirst almost unsatiable , vomiting , loathing , anguish , together with sighs , sometimes continual watching , lastly frequent drowsinesse , or doating delusions , discover and accuse the stomach , and the neighbouring places thereof to be the place or sink of a Fever . For therefore a slow and more stubborn Fever is frequently loosed by the appetite of unwonted things ( to wit , of a herring and smoaked things ) it hoping by such an unthought of matter , to subdue the guest its enemy : For such unwonted things do please , not indeed because they are fit for digestion , or nourishment ( because it is that , which then is nothing in the same place : ) but because they blot out the impressional Idea of the Archeus , and feverish seal , no otherwise than as after another manner , inordinate foods do occasionally stir up forreign , or silent Idea's of fits in the Archeus : For if a Fever had appointed its nest far from thence , all food ought also to be first transchanged in the stomach . And therefore , by how much the farther it deviates from thence , by so much the more , the vigour of meates , and quality of their former life is prostrated : Wherefore , if a Fever , otherwise of long continuance , be vanquished by the appetite , and enjoyment of that unaccustomed food ; it denotes , that a Fever is not far remote from the member desiring it . Indeed , elsewhere soure belching also , returnes with an appetite : But at least wise it is manifest from the premises , that the veines of the stomach draw not unto the liver , as the meseraick veines do ; but rather that they are designed for nourishing of the stomach : The which I have elsewhere , concerning digestions , diligently and advisedly explained : For truly oft-times , things that were taken for two days before are rejected by vomit , thirst not hindering it . Therefore the Pylorus ( the lower porter of the stomach ) as long as the Fever bears command , doth not rightly performe his office ; and the thirst which ariseth in that two dayes space , doth diverse times return , vex , and again wax mild : And the Pylorus knows not for what end he so stubornly shuts himself , and so greatly deteineth that drink within the stomach , the sink of Fevers : Wherein then especially the goodnesse of digestion is not hoped for : but rather a long delay , and consequent corruption of that which was cast in : He knowes not I say , to what end he utters so mad effects , while as from such deteinments , he procreates yellow and bitter excrements , which hitherto have deluded the unwary with an image of the Gaul , and that he dasheth forth those excrements abundantly , in vain , and without easement . For from thence I conjecture , that the appetitive faculty of meates and drinkes implanted in the orifice or upper mouth of the stomach , hath declined into the Pylorus , all things being confused above and beneath , and therefore that a mad thirst doth equally molest ; because the Chaos of the feverish confusion is tossed immediately in the forreign fold of the Pylorus . For neither is that thirst allayed by drink , which is not in its own place , to wit , in the orifice of the stomach , whose office alone it is to denounce the defects of nourishment . A Fever therefore hath a poyson , and it is a manifold serpent , which is entertained about the Pylorus , and a little beneath it , or which sits in the hollow bought of the stomach : For there are oft-times ridiculous doatages , elsewhere also furious ones , according to the condition of that poyson : But that serpent oftentimes stirs up thirst , oft-times also anguishes , faintings , and soundings or frequent bitter vomitings , or also those that are impatient and unsufferable of nourishment alone ; or continual watchings , and at another time drowsie evils supply the roome of these . At leastwise at its first entrance , the ferment of the stomack , together with a desire of eating do presently faile : Neither therefore doth Anatomy vainly complain , that the difficulties of dissections next under the Pylorus , do exceed any other of the whole body , by reason of a multitude of vessels in-writhed with glandules . For hence the exorbitances of the nourishment that is badly digested , and badly distributed , and liekwise of the drosse or liquid dung , being alienated out of its circle , or the degeneration of the nourishable and spermatick humour , do concur or run together , whence the family-administration of the stomach is overthrown : For truly all of them concur in the manifold texture or weaving of those vessells , and also a comixture of excrements : For which causes poyson ariseth , and the nourishments are estranged from their scope ; they undergoing also , various alterations through delay . The which while the Archeus of the same place , well percieveth to be in his jurisdiction , be being vexed , troubled , and as it were mad , doth as yet diversly more alter those excrements , and according to the perswasion of their poysons , formes together diverse Idea's of his own preturbations , that he may expresse the Protheus of the Poets , and represent a various tragedy of Fevers : Yet the Metamorphyzings , and ends of this poysonous contagion , are not therefore the objects of Physitians : For neither is the variety of the poysons , or sumptomes to be so much regarded , as the dignity of the place , and disturbance of the Archeus , and afterwards , by what means the poyson may be restrained , and the aversenesse , and stird up confusion of the Archeus may be reduced : For these being appeased , the Fever straightway ceaseth , and those things which do there materially offend , are easily tamed by nature , and retire it self as rightly subdued : This way indeed , Fevers do presently depart at the arrival of some one Arcanum , but the remainder of expulsion is committed to the shoulders of nature , that Hippocrates his dignity may be preserved ; That natures themselves are the Physitiannesses of diseases : These things , of continual , like as also of intermitting Fevers , and the birth-place thereof . But the Quartane Ague alone being an Out-law , hath seemed to have more inwardly , or piercingly entred , or to have extended it self to the Spleen , without the Cottages of the stomack : Nevertheless it keeps its equal progress , and unfolding , upon the Archeus of the place ; while as it committing the errours of digestion within its own Cottages , stirs up its furies at set periods . Again , there is altogether a strange , and very unwonted Seat , Propagation , and unaccustomed perplexity of healing of malignant , camp , and purple or spotted Fevers , &c. to wit , while as stinks , &c. are drawn into the body by the inbreathed Endemicks of places , Fens , , Minerals , Fumes , Hospitals , sick Folks , and stinking odours : The which while they pierce through the lungs into the breast through the Midriff , do strike the connexed superficies of the stomack , and decypher the idea of their own poysonsomness in the nourishment that is immediatedly to be assimilated : The which being therefore degenerate , stayes it self there , and invites the Archeus of the place into its own furies : whence the unwonted Tragedies of Fevers do issue , to wit , very cruel , stubborn , and deceitful ones : Because they stir up the more dangerous drowsie evils , watchings , and madnesses , and anguishes , according to the spur of every poyson there bred , diversly stirring up the perturbations of the Archeus of life : So of late , Fevers have arose without thirst , heat , and tempest , for the confoundings of Physitians ; because indeed they stir up Fevers in nothing more secure than the other : for some do swiftly , or slowly kill with some small beginning of cold , and that quickly ending ; yet no less cruelly than those which molest with a great fierceness of Sympromes . At leastwise now it is manifest , why vomitory Medicines do not any thing help that Fever of the stomack , and there uttering the signs of its Mansion : For although vomitory remedies may seem to tame the product of a Fever , yet they take not away the occasional producer planted in the Bought , and external part of the stomack . We may therefore be led by the hand from the Fever it self , and presently the indications fetcht from thence , will teach , that all those anguishes do begin , and are stirred about the stomack . A wonder it is surely , that the Schools do nevertheless as yet accuse the Liver , and Choler , or Phlegm , to wit , putrified ones : since they observed that dejections or purgings by stool being promoted by Art , or the violence of nature , have nothing profited ! For sleep brings labour in a Fever , but not in healthy persons ; because sleep ariseth from the stomack , but not from the Liver , ( the which more largely elsewhere ; ) But the original vice of a Fever , and its occasional matter is of that which is changed , and therefore also the changing action of the thing changing , and of those nourishments changed , is manifestly felt about the stomack : And therefore the solemn definition of the Schools is ruinous , which decreeth a Fever to be first kindled , and begun from the heart : But the occasional matter of Fevers is changed nourishment , immediately to be assimilated , that perhaps will be admitted for the stomack ; but it will not be alike easie to conceive the dross or liquid dung to be retrograde or to go back from the Mesentery . But surely although that thing doth regularly offer it self in healthy persons , yet not in Fevers , whereunto therefore any exorbitancy is singular , and proper : For so the liquid dung passeth from the womb of the urine , and seats of the stone , through an undirect departure , unto the Pleura , unto the veins of the stomack , and vessels of the gut Duodenum : Of which deviation there is no reason , but the very liberty of the confusion of the Archeus . In the nex place ( I will rehearse it ) neither doth a Fever it self alwayes flow from , and is directed by a former occasional cause : For truly the Archeus himself , although he be not solicited by an external error ; yet from the offence of his own incontinency , he now and then of his own accord taketh to him furies , and is luxurious through a proper insolency of liberty : For he tumulteth , and from a light errour frameth the Idea's of his own indignation no otherwise then he is oft-times stirred up from a ridiculous cause : And the which is less wonder in the universal Archeus , if he stumble ; seeing he only is chief for the governing of so divers functions of faculties . For because the Center of the malady hath placed the place of its exercise about the stomack , vain are the emptyings of the veins , and theevings of the strength : For truly the blood is void of fault : The which I have above sufficiently demonstrated . And it is alike ridiculous , to be willing to strengthen , or comfort by Alkermes , Gems , and Pearls beaten ; I say to be willing to corroborate where the enemy bears rule within , and drives the life it self head-long into all disorder , and confusion of dissolution : For the Enemy who was able to prostrate the health being entire , and strength being strong , will despise whatsoever shall be objected for comfort , while himself is present . In vain therefore do they intend the helping of Symptomes , if a conquering Medicine be not present , and the which may restrain the confusion of the vital Archeus : The which indeed is the essential , and principal Effectresse of cures . And it is matter of grief to intend the corroborating of the faculties with one hand , which the other hand dejecteth by solutive Medicines , and blood-letting . A plausible remedy therefore is measured from the effect , if it appeaseth the tumult of the Archeus , and extinguisheth the Idea of the Fever : For the place of the Fever being pacified , or the prison opened , the Archeus who before beat down all things , because confused , being now quiet , expels the enemy , and the occasional matters , the prison being opened , do suddenly flow forth : And that thing we contemplate of in a most difficult , and desperate case : For truly the contagion of the Pox or fowl disease being taken away , the bonie , and hard bunches vanish away of their own accord : Elsewhere also desperate Imposthumes happen oft-times from the guidance of nature alone : so unwonted declinings , dissolvings , resolvings , and departures are acknowledged even by the Humourists : And therefore I hope they will be the more readily inclining about the voluntary expulsion of the occasional matter of a Fever : At leastwise that help is not to be sought from solutive medicines , as neither from the theevish remedies of the vital faculties . Surely the fury of the Archeus being first appeased , which forms feverish Ideas , what , and what sort of things ought to be , are easily afterwards sequestred : And that thing the sick do easily bear , and they find themselves the better thereby , as they are eased of a loading weight , and the confusion of perturbations sprung up in them : Therefore the knowledge of the essential thingliness of a Fever banisheth the hope which Physitians move from the cutting of a vein , solutive medicines , Scarrification , and Cantharides , to wit by reason of one fault , lest they should seem to have made their Visits in vain , and to ask a reward from deceit . But seeing that the Fever being well nigh overcome , the Archeus composeth himself to tranquillity or rest , as by Crises's , Sweats , or by bleeding at the nose , or also by the Hemethoides or Piles , as it were the remaining wresiling of furies , he hath oft-times brought quietness , and health ; That indeed hath deceived Physitians , and they have placed all their hope in the Horsleech , and Blood-letting : neither have they considered that a meet remedy being administred , presently even the most swollen veins of the fundament do disperse without the effusion of blood ; neither that they do hinder the attainment , or preservation of health , which otherwise should be impossible , if the blood of the Hemethoides were infamous with so foul a Character as it is decyphered to be . The choice therefore of Remedies in Fevers , is to be drawn from Secrets , whereof as there is a famous variety , so also a hidden , or unknown preparation : For the chief are those which pacifie the tumult stirred up in the life : Those which follow , are such as overcome the poyson of a Fever : But those are more famous which contain both together . Lastly , There are some which are serviceable expulsively , to wit by a plausible cleansing , and resolving : Wherein the liberality of the Almighty is wonderful , which hath directed crude Simples for Fevers , and the which being moderately prepared , do mow down a Fever like a Sithe . Surely I should rejoyce to make these manifest , but events experienced by my hurt , have affrighted me from it : For about the end of the last past age , I had begun to cure by the distillation of Sulphur , and Vitriol : I also told what those unaccustomed , and unknown Remedies were : But at first Physitians shewed their Glove corroded , and resolved by the aforesaid Remedies , that they might affright the sick , that his stomack could not endure the same . But when as afterwards , the false paint of the Physitians their dispraising nothing hindering , they saw those that were cured by me to be in good health , they bad some things to be distilled by my fugitive servants , which they had seen , and learned : Hence indeed Chymical Medicines passed over into the hands of Merchants and Apothecaries . Neither indeed should I envy it , but that all things would be set to sale , as adulterated , as long as Gain , and Covetousness shall prevail : Surely it is to be grieved at , that nothing of these remedies is handed forth to Mortals , which is not most miserably adulterated . At leastwise I will declare for those that are ingenious , That the spirit of the salt of Tartar , if it shall dissolve Unicorns-horn , Silver , Quick-silver , the stones of Crabs , or some one of those Simples , it cures not only a Fever , but also many diseases sufficiently . But not that I hope that Silver , Quick-silver , or others of like sort are to pass thorow into the veins : It is sufficient for me , that that spirit of the Alcali salt being by these bodies reduced into a volatile , and coagulable salt , and reduced in the shop of the stomack unto the rule of the meats , passeth thorow it into the Meseraick veins , at least being carried that way by the Urine , and by passing thorow them , licketh , and resolveth the filths there grown , through a forreign power assumed to themselves . Surely I could willingly communicate many , and more easie remedies of like sort , if the drowsiness and sluggishness of Physitians had not affrighted my pen , who gape only after gain , and expose the life of mortal men under the trustiness , and desire of lucre of the Apothecary , and his wife . But as to a Quartane Ague , I am wont to drive that away by an Emplaster composed of a few resolving , and cleansing Simples ; neither hath it ever deceived me , except that in fat or gross persons , the obediences thereof are the slower . An Impertinency . The Authour desires to see that Humourist , who had equalized Air unto Water in weighing , that he might connex the Galenists their equal temperature [ ad pondus ] or according to weight : to wit , how much air is to be taken for a pound of water , that they may be equalized in weight ? Another . The Air is neither light , nor heavy , because it is without weight ; and therefore neither can it be weighed , nor equalized : Therefore the Doctrine of Galen is destitute of the greatest , and chiefest hope of complexions , because it hath a liberty of lying boastings . A PASSIVE DECEIVING AND IGNORANCE OF THE SCHOOLES THE HUMOURISTS . The which if they shall henceforth defend , shall cover with a stubborn malice , God also being wroth , will discover the same in the now imminent age , for the profit of the Christian World , and the Confusion of the obstinat . The PREFACE to the READER . I Had written in an unwonted Style , concerning Fevers , and when the little Book returned unto me , I scarce understood the same by reason of its gross , and innumerable faults : yet presently afterwards , however plainly vitious it was for that Cause , within a few weeks it began to be desired : Whence I judged , if a faulty Book had been worthy the Press , and much desired , that by a stronger right it earnestly required another Edition ; not only that it might come forth amended , which would bewray the blemishes , and ignorances committed against me , and so by a singular Doctrine would as nearly , and intimately as might be , weigh the life of Mortals , whereunto none as yet hitherto had attempted to answer : but more peculiarly , that the Unheard-of Doctrine thereof , chiefly true , although unexpected , might the more strongly be confirmed : Therefore I was constrained to over-add the Commission of my own Coyn , whereby it might on every side be firmly defended from the Humourists , the Pages of the Schools of Galen , and my Haters , and might not suffer the truth delivered , to be troden under foot : wherefore I have added Reasons , whereby I have shewn the vanity and falsehood of the device of Humours , whereby Physitians from a destructive foundation have circumvented the whole world , have fatted the places of burial , have destroyed Families , have made Widdows and Orphans by many ten thousands , and so have brought themselves into the merriments of Kitchins , and Comedies . Paracelsus indeed attempted to hiss out the Fallacies of Humours , and he hath at this day , his Followers almost every where , amongst the most learned men ; yet never any before me ( that I know of ) hath professly attempted to untie this Knot : Therefore if any one hath heretofore threatned to bend his Quill against my Book of Fevers , because he took it injurionsly , that I have not only overthrown the two Universal Bulwarks of Medicine ; but especially that I have demonstrated , That no laxative Medicine hath ever hitherto drawn out electively , this Humour before that ; yea that all and every of Purging Medicines were an hostile poyson to the Life : Perhaps he will now lay aside his Pen , when he shall see the same Opinion to be more strongly confirmed : To wit , That the existence of both Cholers , and of Phlegm is impossible in nature ; that the trifling Complexions , and Diseases diligently taught , and believed to arise from thence , are supported by false Principles : And by consequence , that the method of Healing instituted according to the distemperatures of Humours , is deceitful , meer dreams , old wives Fables , and trifling toyes . For I ought to treat roundly , sincerely , and candidly , as oft as I have determined to write of God , Truth , the Life , and publick Good of Mortals . I implore him for my witness , as also my Judge herein , Who is the Way , the Truth , and veriest Life it self of mortal men . I have therefore willingly exposed this diligent search of Truth , and attained victory under his Protection , and Bedewing . Fare ye well my mortal Companions : I wish ill to all your prosperous affairs , Because I persectly teach the Truth . A PASSIVE DECEIVING AND IGNORANCE OF THE SCHOOLES THE HUMOURISTS . CHAP. I. That the four Humours of the Galenists , are feigned . 1. IT is answered by going to meet those who shall be willing to begin to write against the book of Fevers . 2. The received opinion of the Schools is supposed . 3. That it is false , whatsoever hath been hitherto diligently taught concerning the Elements , degrees , mixtures , discords , and diseases hitherto . 4. That heat it no where but from light , motion , life , and an altering Blas . 5. The limitations of moisturds and drynesses . 6. The relation of a disease unto health , of what sort it is . 7. The remedies of diseases , from whence . 8. The unconstancy of Paracelsus , even as also of Galen . 9. That a return from a privation is not granted according to the Schools : the which notwithstanding do every where dash against this rule . 10. They fail in proving a quaternary of humours . 11. The two pillars of humours are broken . 12. Many things among simples have only two diversities . 13. A miserable reasoning from a similitude , for the number of humours . 14. The Schooles stumble in the light . 15. The maske of a sophistical argument is discovered . 16. The similitude from herbs , is opposed to the similitude from milk . 17. In like manner , the urine ought to be put for a fifth humour . 18. The perplexity of the Schools . 19. A conuincing argument against humours . 20. An argument from a position supposed . 21. From a sufficient enumeration of shops . 22. From an imposibility . 23. From an absurdity . 24. Reasons , sixteen in number . 25. Against the positition concerning phlegm . 26. From in●plicite blasphemy . 27. From its shop . 28. From the impertinencie of the supposed position . 29. From a convenient or agreeing thing . 30. From the Gowt , and wringings of the bowells . 31. From an Erisepelas . 32. From Causticks . 33. From an Evangelical word . 34. From a defect of the seperater . 35. From the nourishing of the similar parts . 36. From an impertinency . 37. The deformity of a formed argument of the Schools . 38. From a like thing . 39. From the nature of an Element . 40. From the simplicity of its end . 41. A denyal of a position . 42. From a Phylosophical maxim 43. From tast , and properties . 44. Who was the inventer of humours . 45. What a diversity of Soiles may argue . 46. From the blood of an Aethiopian . 47. Whence the venal blood is the more red in its superficies . 48. From a like thing . 49. Whence there is a change of colours in things . 50. From a shew of the deed , in many things . 51. The childish in inspection of the Schools of out-issuing blood . 52. Miserable impostures . 53. A ridiculous omission of the Schools . 54. The judgment of Physitians fights against it self . 55. Privy shifts sliding from unvoluntary cheeks . 56. A cruel or hurtfull little book concerning the nature of man. 57. From effects , and fear . 58. From the confession of Physitians . 59. Dunghill Physitians distinguish not men but by dungs , 60. A ridiculous argument of the Schooles . 61. An argument on the contrary , from a maxim of naturall Phylosophy . 62. A convincing argument . 63. Galen ridiculous about the cause of the variety of humours . 64. The perplexities of Galen . 65. Refutations by the Beginnings of natural Phylosophy . 66. An errour of Paracelsus . 67. The Schools are ignorant of the venal blood . 68. An argument against the position . 69. A false and ridiculous supposition of the Schools concerning the supplying office of the Spleen . 70. Absurdities . 71. A handicraft demonstration . 72. Against the position concerning black Choler . 73. Many absurdities follow . 74. The Schools do most miserably prove their position for black choler . 75. Some defects following thereupon . 76. A convincing argument . 77. An Idiotisme of Paracelsus . 78. Sharpnesse doth not ferment Earth . 79. From an impertinency . 80. A convincing argument . 81. From an impossibility . 82. A ridiculous supposition of the Schools , and four absurdities thereof . 83. Some absurdities accompanying the opinion concerning the hony of Galen . 84. From things implying . 85. By a convincing argument from the supposition of a falshood concerning the Elements . 86. From a number of the Elements . 87 A bruitish objection . 88. If we must not proceed by humours how therefore must we cure ? 89. The praise of the valatile salt of , Tartar. I Have sent forth an unheard of Doctrine of Fevers , that I might hear what the more fruitful wits might teach me : For there were some who had promised that they would be arbitrators or judges in the Case , whom notwithstanding I conjecture , so long to be silent , untill I had set forth a treatise of humours , which I had promised to gather out of my great works . For truly they could not be ignorant , that if I could sufficiently demonstrate , that the humours accustomed in the Schools ( besides blood ) were never , or never to be in nature : they also were to have no contention with me , concerning Fevers : And that thing I now promise ingeniously to performe : not indeed as that I may be glorious by the name of a Paradox , but altogether from compassion towards young beginners that are badly instructed , and toward the sick that are badly handled under the device of humours . Therefore I will state the forme of the matter : For indeed , the Chyle or juice of the stomach being supt up into the veines of the mesentery , they affirme the same chyle to be conveighed unto the Port-vein of the Liver , to wit , a trunk arising out of the small branches distributed through the mesentery into the intestines or bowels ; And that , that Chyle in the time of its passage through the slender trunks of the veins extended into the liver , is by the power of the Liver converted into blood , and also into phlegm , and a twofold choler . And that this choler is afterwards seperated , partly into the spleen , and partly into the litle bag of the gawl : To wit , that they may be the keepers of both their own superfluous choler ; but that the two natural Cholers , as the entire and constitutive parts of the blood are co-mingled together with the blood , for the necessities of the parts to be nourished : in the due proportion of the quaternary of which humours , that as health doth consist ; So on the other hand , that in an undue proportion thereof , all diseases are entertained : But that an undue proportion thereof proceedeth , as well from the perpetual strife , and hostile , and unwearied contrariety of the four repugnant Elements , as from the voluntary distemperature , and inbred fight stirred up , of things received into the body . Truly I have already , in the Beginnings of natural Phylosophy , and rise of medicine , sufficiently removed the foregoing cause of so great a fiction : To wit , where I have sufficiently demonstrated , that there are not four Elements in nature , and by consequence , if there are only three , that four cannot go together or encounter : Therefore that the squadron being broken , cannot cause four unlike Elementary combates , temperatures , mixtures , contrarieties , hatreds , strifes , &c. For I have taught cleerly enough , that the fruites which antiquity hath believed to be mixt bodies , and those composed from a concurrence of four Elements , are materially of one onely Element . In the next place also , that those three Elements are naturally cold , nor that native heat is any where in things , except from light , life , motion , and an altering Blas : And so that heat in the Elements , is a meer Relolleum . In like manner also , that all actual moisture is of water ; but all virtual moisture from the property of the seeds ; Likewise that drynesse is by it self , in the aire , and earth : But in fruites , by reason of the seeds , and coagulations : Therefore that it is a false doctrine , which is celebrated concerning the Elements , mixtures , qualities , temperaments , discords , degrees in order unto diseases , and the curings of these . I have also profesly demonstrated , that there are not contraries in nature : That health is opposed to a disease with relation of that which is entire , unto that which is defectuous . To wit , that remedies do take away a disease , not by the force of contrariety , as neither by reason of a naked similtude or likenesse ; but by reason of a meer gift of goodnesse , restoring nature by helping her ; the which otherwise , is the Physitiannesse of her own self . These things surely were sufficient , and might be able to take humours out of the way , unlesse an opposite custome had as it were tied up the mind , least it should hasten unto the knowledge of the truth : For it is a very difficult thing to disaccustome those who are confident in themselves , that by those humours they have long since compendiously viewed every catalogue of a disease : Wherefore unto those that are desirous to learn , I will willingly reach forth my hand . For Paracelsus as the first , so laughed at humours after an Helvetian manner , that he mocked the Galenical , also the Arabian Physitians with the surname of Humourists : Notwithstanding , he himself being oftimes unconstant , slides unto humours , and complexions , as not being as yet sufficiently grounded in his own positions . In the mean time , the Galenical Schools would now and then , have the four granted qualities of Elements to be opposed , as solitary distempers : and for the most part again , they have feigned distempers to be banished with the abundance of the like humours : And whenas they gloried that they held the Hare by the ears , they being deluded with the easiness of the fiction , first became a laughing stock ; because they defiled the faculty of healing with absurdities . Being first of all , unmindfull of their own discipline that there is not granted ; an immediate return from the privation of a Forme , unto an habite ; yet have they through a rash perswasion affirmed , that flesh is constituted of four humours , and that this flesh is again to be resolved into the same four : For they decree , that the Chyle is framed of the meats , being indeed homogeneal or simple in kind , in the stomach , the which notwithstanding , the excrements of the belly being seperated , should alwayes be made four humours besides the urine , by the one only action of sanguification ; but never one only , two , three , five , or more : And that thing they have thus determined of , as being rashly misled by a quaternary of Elements : From whence at least wise it followes , that this fourfould re-dividing of one Chyle , doth not derive it self from the diverse varieties of meats ; but that it altogether essentially dependeth on the very proper perfect act of sanguification : Which thing wants not its own absurdity ; To wit , that of one natural act , there should be a fourfold scope essentially differing . But the Quaternion of Elements being already elsewhere cast out , with the combating concourse of the same , that fourfoldnesse of Humours hath indeed been supposed and subscribed unto ; but not yet proved hitherto : For , for the furnishing of so great , and so pernicious fables , the Schools have been snatcht away by two swelling arguments , the which , if thou shalt but a little presse , they will pour forth a stinking vapour , but not the juice of truth . The first whereof , is fetcht from four Elements , that they may constraine the blood against its will , under a quaternary or fourfold number of Humours , unto the obedience of three only Elements existing ; although the blood it self be materially made of one of them only . As if every one of them which they believe to arise from the wedlock of the Elements , ought therefore of necessity , to have four Heterogeneal or different kind of parts agreeable to as many their own Elements : ( Surely I have elsewhere every way shewn , that some bodies have nothing of a diversity , not so much as in salt , Sulphur , and Mercury , but that others do at length produce only two diversities of kinds ) for neither is there a stronger reason , why a flint may be reduced into one only , and at at least , a similar salt , than the blood can of necessity be seperated into four Humours : For from hence it is made manifest , that the reason of a feigned Quaternary of Elements is from a former cause , in respect of a Quaternery of Humours in the blood , and no where else . But the second and chief argument of the Schools for a Quaternary of Humours , is not a certain formall reasoning ; but a naked and miserable inference , established by a similitude or like thing : For they say ; In Milk there is found Whey , Cheese , and Butter : That is , three distinct things : Therefore of necessity , in the blood , there shall be alwayes , and constitutively four , because they observe four diverse things or parts in the venal blood of some persons : the which indeed , the soul , the Chambermaide of the desires , hath by much labour , and the helpes of fiction , divided into four diversities : For they oft-times take notice of the water swimming upon the blood , and because it is yellow , and somewhat pale , they therefore name it yellow choler , or gaul ( although it be not bitter and wanteth the essential property of the gaul . ) But the sediment thereof about the bottom , being sometimes the more weighty , and black , they cal black choler ; but in the midle space they note red blood , wherein while they observe white fibers or threds , the Mothers of a gellyie coagulation , they have called those Phlegm : For the vein of the ham of maides being cut , those fibers appear in lukewarm water , like unto spiders webs , which they have called Phlegm . But first it had behoved them to have discerned , that the unfit similitude of Milk and blood , doth teach , or urge nothing : Because the water swimming one the blood , is not the fatnesse of Cream swimming on the Milk : wherefore either the agent , or matter is unlike , or both : And therefore in so great an unlikeness of both , that a necessity of Humours in the blood is not rightly founded . For the carelesse Schools do not take notice , that a diversity of kind is bred in the blood , after that it hath disposed it self unto corruption that is soon to come thereunto : Therefore that Hetrogeneity accuseth indeed , an unlikenesse of contents made in death , but in no wise therefore , a necessary connexion of lively Humours : For what will they say of that blood which wholly wants all whey ? Or the which being uniformly coagulated throughout its whole , is red ? Which is a frequent thing after many sweats , and abstinence from drink : Shall therefore the Whey swimming upon the blood , the urine and sweat left in the blood , be Sunonymals with choler and gaule ? And something that is one with the very essence of the blood ? I indeed have hitherto seen in herbs , on only clarified juice ; as likewise I acknowledge one onely blood , the constitutive Humour of us : To wit , I professe a simple sanguification , and one only action of one Liver , and a single Chyme or concocted juice to be made of an undistinct Creame or Chyle , and by one onely ferment of the stomach ; which sanguification or making of blood I know to be a meer formal transchanging of nourishments , but in no wise , only an applying together of Heterogeneal parts alone . For neither , although part of the chyle be turned into urine is an unlikenesse of the agent the Liver , to be blamed ; but only the uncapacity of the receiver : For neither therefore , have they dared to embrace the urine for a fifth Humour : For although a part of the urine materially remaineth in the blood ; yet it is not of the nature of the blood , even as Whey in Milk , is after another manner , an essential part of the Milk. The water therefore , swimming above ( which they confesse to be sweat , Whey , and a remainder of the urine , and so believe it to be wholly excrementous ) they shamefully compare sometimes to the Buttery part , and that which swims on the Milk , being suited to the Element of fire ; and at another time , to the Whey of the Milk ; And far more shamefully do they undistinctly liken both of these to the Gaul . Therefore four Humours shall equally be made of any meat under one act , and the same shop of sanguification , because they are immediatly , principally , and simply , and always intended by the Liver ; or they are made in unlike places and moments : Not indeed , in unlike ones ; because so there should not be constitutive parts of one and the same blood : But if in like places , and moments ; Why , while urine and choler are made at once , is not one individually mixed with the other , even as also gaul with the urine : Why in the next place , is the urine never bitter , if gaul be always comixed with it , whereby it is tinged as they say ? Why , when the gaul is broken in a fish , can none however the more exact washing , take away that bitternesse ? And after another manner , one onely smal drop of gaul , should defile a whole bucker of urine with bitternesse ? Who in the next place is that so exact Seperater , which was able to seperate the watery Choler from the urine , but could not materially seperate all the urine from the blood ? Wherefore at length , is not that Choler or gaul of the blood snatcht together with the urine to the kidneys ( which a total absence of its bitternesse proveth ) if Choler be believed to be throwly mixed with the blood above the Liver . Let us therefore consider how choler being made by the Liver , in the Liver , shall come down unto the little bag of the gaul : In what place sanguification is wrought ? Whether about the Port-vein , and hollow of the Liver ? Or indeed in the very body of the Liver ? Or lastly in the very hollow vein above the Liver ? But in whichsoever of these places that choler is made : at leastwise there is not from thence a vein of return for choler , unto the little blader of the Gaul . For it ought to proceed from the Liver unto the Gaul , by a retrograde motion , and uncertaine passages of conveighance : Why at least wise have both those choler 's remayning in the masse of the blood , their own excrements , and seperated Innes ? But phlegme , and the blood want excrments ? For if both of them are made beneath the Liver what seperater therefore seperates them ? And which why ? Since they being generated at once in the same place , are perfectly mixed with the urine : But if the Gawl , and also black choler be made together with the act of sanguification , in a most swift passage thorow the smal and slender little branches of the veines extended into the Liver ; I pray let young beginners be mindfull of the flendernesse of those little branches , or veines , which is scarce sufficient for the transmitting of the vrine , and so that they should require a momentary transmutation of the urine blood , and the other three humours , to be made by the Creame . This matter I have elsewhere profesly explained in a full treatise , concerning a sixfold digestion . And in the 16. brief head in particular : That Choler is not made of meates . And in the 17. That the Gawl is a bowel in forme of a liquour , and the necessary balsame of life ; but in no wise an excrement . In the 25. The curious opinion of the Schooles concerning the Gaul , is unfolded . In the 26. That nature had been more carefull for the Gaul , than for phlegme . In the 27. That the seperation of the urine , and of the wheyinesse of blood , differs in the whole essence from the seperation of the wheyinesse out of Mil● . In the 30. How much Gaul imports , beyond every disposition of an excrement . In the 31. Why birds might want urine and a kidney , but not a Gaul . In the 35. That the excrements of the kidneys , and belly , have indeed the colour of Gaul , but not that they are therefore tinged with the Gaul , and much lesse with choler . In the 36. After what manner the dung excludes a comixture of the Gaul . In the 37. That excrements may seem Gauly , which are no way Gauly , and therefore that these things have been rashly passed by , by the Schooles : Also that a leeky liquour is not of the Gaul , the history of a Cock proveth , and some following experiments , in the Chap. of the Pylorus , Sec. 24. The which , that I may not here with a tediousnesse repeate , the curious Reader shall enquire , and he shall finde them in the places cited : For if the Liver generateth both Cholers , and Phlegm , together with the blood , why doth it despise , and lay aside a great part of them for an excrement ? but reserve the rest in the blood ? when as otherwise , of simple and homogeneal blood , there either ought to be no duality of any of its particular parts , or there should be the same necessary duality no less of Phlegm , and Blood , than of both the cholers . Neither doth reason otherwise suffer , that the same singular Cream of the meats should be daily , and alwayes , and equally divided into six parts ; to wit into blood , both Choler 's retained in the blood , and again into both the excrementitious Cholers , and ( those shut up within their own entertaining places ) & at length into phlegm ; especially when as the gaul differs from the liquor swimming on the blood let out of the veins , in its whole property . Unto which six humours if thou shalt add the Urine ; now seven humours shall ordinarily be framed of one only Cream , and the supposed device of a quaternary of Elements , and the necessity of that fiction perisheth . Therefore if these are made by one only act of one liver , in a direct , and ordinary course of Ordination at once , why doth it generate those things as necessary out of the homogeneal liquor of the Cream , whereof there is no way a need for a Being , as neither for a Well-Being ? But if they are for nourishing , why doth it rather sequester both Cholers into their own sheaths , and the chief Mansions of Constitution , than Phlegm ? to wit , the which , they blush not to confess , to be a defectuous liquor , cold , and so a partaker of death , errour , and a vital want ? But they will have Phlegm to be laid up in the vein , and to be re-cocted into blood : Therefore it is not as yet [ This Something ] being as yet crude , undigested , and uncocted , not yet a true , particular Humour , and not yet a constitutive one of the bloud ; seeing it is as yet deficient , no otherwise then as the juyce of unripe Grapes cannot be called Wine : For if Phlegm answer to water , even as they also liken the blood unto air ; one ought to be as perfect in it self as the other , and as equally necessary , if there are four Elementary Humours equally necessary for the composition , and successive Alteration of us . Surely that thing contains a Mockery , that a Humour failing of its appointment , should be ordinarily changed into another Humour : As if the Water had not its own Perfection , Ordination , Order , and Constitution , but were naturally brought into air , from the scope proposed by the Creator . But I have elsewhere shewn in our Physicks , that Water can never by Art , or Nature be changed into Air , nor likewise this into Water . If therefore Phlegm resemble Water because it containeth it , and Blood , Air ; the adopting of any Phlegm into blood shall never be able to subsist : And by consequence , it is a feigned thing , whatsoever hath hitherto been diligently caught concerning the union of Humours , and Elements , their Likeness , Commixture , Complexion , and Necessity : yea , if phlegme be not as yet mature , and through an over-hasty swiftness of time , it be only in the way unto bloud , and therefore left in the veins , and mixed with the blood that it may be perfected , and at length may nourish ; now not only the Liver shall be the shop of the blood , but any Pipe of the veins shall have the nature of a bowel ; and because it containeth its properties , and offices , it should be preferred before the Liver in sanguifying , and in the perfecting of the blood . Yea neither should Phlegm be essentially a separated Humour from the blood , no otherwise than as a sour grape differs not essentially from a ripe one : Therefore by the same title , the whole Chyle of the stomack shall be Phlegm . Again , since Phlegm is attributed unto old age , defect , and imperfection ; therefore also nearer to death then Choler , and hence also , more an enemy to nature ; the workman of things had seemed to be the more severe , who had left such an enemy to be suitaably mixed with the bloud , throughout all the veins , and had not designed a receptacle for it . He I say , who mad● not death , had from the beginning coupled the necessities of a defect unto humane nature . In the next place , since that being granted , Sanguification should not be the proper office of the Liver ; and the Liver shall be able to operate more perfectly , and more at a far distance in the windings of the hollow Vein than near in its own house ; unless the Schools had rather to attribute Sanguification independently to the veins . Finally , if Phlegm differs not but only in maturity , it is not an Humour essentially distinct from the blood : and by consequence , the Quaternary of Humours passeth into a Ternary . And then , as Galen witnesseth , more of phlegm by two-fold , is daily made ( which he proveth by a Tertian Ague ) than of Choler : How much Phlegm therefore shall not be made in healthy persons , and those perfectly digesting ? And how much of phlegm shall not be daily generated in the more cold bodies , if Humours are made according to the dispositions of Complexions ? Yea from thence it follows ; that every digestion is alwayes of necessity , and naturally defectuous , and vitious : Because nature shall never attain the end , and purpose of nature , If phlegm be naturally generated as a fourth Humour of the blood . After another manner , phlegm ought to fail in temperate bodies , together with both the Cholers . Why I pray , is blood abounding turned into Fat , since it is far more easily ( as they say concerning the Drawers forth of Choler ) changed into Choler , and loads nature with a less weight than Choler , which so obediently obeys a calling Solutive Medicine . But why doth he that lives soberly in a temperate complexion ( as they call it ) daily lay up both the Cholers into their own Receptacles ? Doth it not rather from thence plainly appear that the Gaul , and Spleen are nourished by some other thing , and by a vital liquour , than that which being banished from the blood , hath attained the conditions of an excrement ? But go to yet , what is that Humour in the Gout which is troublesome with so cruel a pain ? I indeed have elsewhere on purpose proved , That it is a sharpness ; Wherefore also according to the institutions of the Schools , it is cold , and therefore different from Choler , and Fire : Yet in the Gout which they call the Hot one , ( for by how much the sharper it is , by so much also the more cruel ) they complain of most sharp pain , and heat : Therefore Choler either shall be sharp , nor any longer bitter , or the Schools have forgotten a fifth Humour . Let the same equal Judgement be in the Colick , and wringing of the bowels . In the Erisipelas also or Anthonies fire , the Humour is sharp ; because it is that which waxeth mild by soapie Remedies : Therefore Choler or Gaul is not bitter . And then in Caustical , and Escarrhotical affects , ( namely in the burning Coal , Persian fire , &c. ) there is a Caustick or burning Salt of the condition of Alcalies , but not a bitter one : Even as neither in the Cancer , Wolf , all running cancrous Ulcers , and those causing the greatest pains . For the salt which gnawes , is no way bitter : Wherefore effects that are most fiery in us , deride the vain device of Choler ; Especially seeing they who imitate the nature of Fire , are not the Clients of a Cholerick Humour . Therefore if according to the admonishment of the Word of Truth , The Tree be to be judged of by his fruits , but every thing by its Works , and Properties ; I see not from what Use , End , Necessity , or Rashness , they have feigned yellow Choler to be fiery : For there was no necessity , like a Fable , to feign three daily , and domestick constitutive Humours of us , that is , without which we cannot live ; which never were in the nature of a thing , or do suggest any necessity of themselves . But what , or what sort of bowel shall separate both the superfluous Cholers from the choice blood of the veins ? The Reins indeed separate the Urine for the Bladder ; Shall therefore both Cholers want their own Separater ? Or shall excrementous Choler go of its own accord unto its own sinks ? For there is not so great a necessity of the Urine , as well in its Being , as in its Separater , as there is of both Cholers , if both the Cholers are simply necessary as to their Being : For truly Birds could commodiously want Urine . Why therefore was nature less careful that she might make a bowel for the expurging of Choler , than she was for the ejecting of Urine ? Shall therefore the Chest of the Gaul , and Spleen , perhaps strongly attract both the Cholers unto themselves without the aid of a Separater ? Yea seeing Sanguification is a Simple , single action , and of a natural scope , surely one only Liver could not produce four Humours at once , out of an Homogeneal liquor , diverse from each other in their whole Element , and separate two only as hurtful far off from each other : Otherwise if the Liver should be sufficient for the separating of its own Liquors , it had separated the Urine by a stronger right , and had made the necessity of the Kidneys altogether vain . In the next place , if it doth not sequester all the Choler out of the blood , not so much as in the most temperate strength , nature shall alwayes of necessity offend even in the abounding of both Cholers , in the excess of heat for the forming of Choler , and of Cold also for Phlegm ; and likewise shall contiaually offend in separating . And so , seeing both Cholers accuse of a necessary access in a just temperament ( as they call it ) these could never be made fit for nourishment . Since moreover , we are daily nourished by the same things whereof we consist : to wit of a temperate , and lively seed refusing both Cholers : And there shall be the like reason for both Cholers , which there is of Phlegm : That if this be perfected into the blood within the veins , Choler shall no less be made blood in the Arteries : For if Phlegm be changed into blood out of a natural , proper , and requisite shop , much more shall yellow Choller be fit , that in the heart it may degenerate into the more yellow blood of the Artery and into the spirit of life , and the heart shall be the restorative shop of a gawly excrement . But alas , how miserable an Argument is it ! while as the blood let out of the veins disposeth it self to corruption , sometimes two , three , or more liquors are seen ; therefore there are as many constitutive Humours of us . For blood is wholly changed into milk , and then after its corruption , it hath only three subordinate parts , to wit Whey , Cheese , and Butter ; nor ever more : For sometimes it is totally coagulated in the Dug , into a hard swelling , in the form of Cheese ; now and then it wholly passeth over into a white , yellow , somewhat green , &c. corrupt Pus : Sometimes into a pricking , gnawing , watery liquor , as in the Disease called Choler , Ulcers , &c. Elsewhere also it totally departs into a salt Wheyish liquor , as in the Dropsie , and many Hydragogal or water-extracting Medicines : Oft-times also it waxeth wholly black like pitch , as in blood that is chased out of the veins in a Gangreen , &c. but frequently into an ashie and stinking clay , of slime , as in Fluxes : At another time also it wholly passing over into a yellow poyson , shews or spreads forth the Jaundise , in which manner also it boasts it self in those that are bitten with a Serpent : Elsewhere also the blood is without the separation of an Heterogeneal matter , wholly changed into sores issuing forth matter like honey called Melicerides , into swellings of the Neck , or Arm-holes , conteining a matter in them like Pulse , &c. And in the P●ssing-Evil , the blood is totally changed into a milky liquor ; Even as under a Tabes or Consumption of the Lungs , it wholly passeth into a yellowish spittle . Are therefore perhaps as many Humours to be constituted in the blood , as there are beheld degenerations thereof ? And shall there be as many Liquors in Rain-water , as there are things growing out of the Earth ? For the blood is in us like unto water ; neither had it need of divers seeds in the Liver , that it may be one only equally nourishable Humour : But in the last Kitchins it attaineth its own requisite diversities , whereby it performeth the office of nourishing : And so it should in its beginning in vain exceed in divers seeds , and diversities of kind , the which at length ought totally to be Homogeneally reduced into one only glewie , white , and transparent nourishable Sperm or Seed , for the support of the similar parts , or to remain red for the flesh of the Muscles , and substance of the bowels . Wherefore I stedfastly deny , That the blood as long as it liveth , or is detained in the veins , ( although after the death of a man ) is coagulated ; and by consequence , that it bath integral , unlike parts , with any Heterogeniety of it self ; But that all diversity in the blood , is made only by the death or destruction of the same : Therefore the diversity of Humours is the daughter only of death , but not of life . Neither is that of concernment , that Excrements do now and then occur in the body , which dissemble the countenance of blood ; To wit , from whence they are made by degeneration : For Urine is no longer wine , even as neither are corrupt Pus , or Snivel ; or spittles , as yet parts of the blood ; Because Excrements are no longer that which they were before their corruption ; Because every thing assumes its Essence , and name from the bound of transmutation . For what doth it prove , if blood by Phlebotomy separates water , or other soils in time of its corruption , if the same water be thereupon , neither Gaul , nor Choler , nor bitter , and wants the properties of Gaul ? Or what a rash belief is that ; Water swims on dead blood ; Therefore it it is gauly Choler , which under a false taste , dissembles the bitterness of Choler ? For that Water swimming on the blood , is not an entire part thereof , nor of its Essence , or Contents , or more near akin to the Blood , than a Chariot in respect of a man sitting therein . It is therefore to be grieved at , that for so many ages , none hath ever tasted down that water ; but that they all have engraven their names on the trifles of their Ancestors ; that I say , under a shew of healing , the Schools have delivered the destructions of the sick under false Principles . For truly Humours are destructive Ignorances , sluggishnesses , and shamefulnesses introduced by the Father of lies , and celebrated by the loose credulity of his followers . For although the bottom of the blood doth sometimes look the less red , it shall not therefore be black Choler : Even as neither is the sediment of the Urine Phlegm : But while the life of the blood departed , it s no wonder if all particular things which were kept in the unity of life , do re-take the material conditions whereto they are obliged . For the variety of soils in liquid bodies , depends on a preheminency of weights ; Because they have a latitude in weight , which after death , become Heterogeneal or of a different hind , and by degrees do hasten into a disorder of confusion . For will a man that is of a sound judgement believe , that Wine , Ale , and the juyces of herbs do lay aside their own black Choler at the bottom , together with their sediment : For what hath black Choler common with the heterogeneal substance of a sediment ? But as to the Colour ; every Aethiopian hath his Blood almost black , but for the most part without whey ; yet none of them is Melancholy , but all wrathful : For the blood which by the encompassing air is presently cooled in the Basin , waxeth more red than that which being sunk unto the bottom , hath the longer continued lukewarm . For this also is ordinary , that any blood being chased out of the veins , presently waxeth black in the body : For whatsoever things do readily putrifie , do easily admit of the companions of putrefaction , and that part of blood doth sooner putrifie which hath the longer continued warm after its death . Therefore neither is it a wonder , that the part of the lower ground thereof becomes more intensly black : But that black blood is not a separation of weight in the Blood , and much less black Choler . I have separated nine ounces of fresh Blood , and that as yet liquide , into Por●ingers : One whereof I exposed to swim in cold water ; but the other part being equal to the former , I longer detained in a gentle lukewarmth : And this shewed very much of black blood , but the other not any thing . A diversity of kind therefore in a dead liquour presently putrifying , and putrifiable , is a suitable sign of corruption : And the which therefore neither hath a vital or seminal Beginning , a sign , as neither an Argument of its primitive composition : For we are Originally composed of a vital seed ; and are resolued into a putrified and cadaverous watery Liquor : The which also oft-times happens in part , in living bodies . What if the Blood , of pale , becomes red , shall that therefore be ascribed to Phlegm ? Shall red Apples be more sanguine than pale ones ? Blackish plumms be more melancholy than whitish ones ? For Colours do not denote feigned Humours , or Elements : But they imitate the properties of the middle life , and appointments of the seeds . Thus is it ; Colours , and Thicknesses in the matter , are works of the seminal Archeus ; But not the confused testimonies of Humours being put or applyed together . Have thou recourse unto the Book of the Vnheard-of Doctrine of Fevers : That I have lookt into the Bloods of two-hundred Countrey healthy persons in one only morning , which were remarkable in the aspect of colours and diversities of grounds : For some of them resembled a blackish , and constrained jelly , being oft-times also throughly mixed with a greenish liquor , and sometimes only lightly besprinkled therewith : Also another Blood was watery throughout its whole ; Another was snivelly ; another was red in the bottom , another rather in the top-part thereof ; a water swimmed upon another , being cleer , pale , somewhat yellow , the which elsewhere lay hid as shut up in the middle of the Blood ; Another Blood was poyntingly speckled , and another of red , became pale throughout its whole ; another was inclinable into a Pomegranate , and another into a black Colour : Even as lastly , another was somewhat green throughout it pavements . I take pity on the deceiveable inspection of Blood issuing out of the body , and the accustomed Judgements from blood let out of the veins , the fictions of Humours , and the readie credulities of the sick . For a divining beholder of the blood is presently busie to fore-tell from the conjecture of an Humour , the name , and properties of the peccant and super-abounding Humour , and also the manners , complexion , inclination of the man ; the particular kind , greatness , and event of the lurking disease , and moreover the kind of death , yea and the dependency of fortunes . But whichsoever of the Humours shall offend in the Table of the inspection of Blood flowing forth , that is presently banished with a diminishment of the head ; and unless it shall forthwith after obey , it is to be put to flight by an an infamous stool ; Because the Physitian hath the peculiar Guardians of their own Humours ready at hand , which may bring them forth all severally bound , and putrified ; For thus they mock the ignorant , and in the mean time thus also the frequency of Visits is confirmed : Because they have known from a fore-judging , of what sort the white of an egg will be , which by receiving of their solutive Medicine shall return putrified : For even the most phlegmatick person amongst them , if he hath used Rhubarb , will void a yellow excrement , and less tinged , if he shall take Scammoneated Medicines ; but not a slimie or snivelly liquor , such as is voided from the receiving of the Magistrals of Coloquintida ; ( for all the compositions of the shops are supported with Scammony , or Coloquintida , or both , as it were with two Pillars : ) Oft-times also , whom this man judgeth to be Cholery , another calls Sanguine ; but if they shall see one whom they esteem to be Phlegmatick , to be once angry , others also will presently contend that he is in a raging heat through Choler . And Scammony being drunk , one derides another , if they be called apart , because he hath drawn Choler so plentifully from a sanguine man , and he secretly insinuates by that very thing , that the greater reward is due unto him , as being skilful in his art ; For in the truth of the matter , fraud , & fruit connexed with deceit do flourish , as oft as vain complexions , and Humours being neglected , and the betokening , and aspect of the blood let out being disregarded , it is fore-known from the poysonous property of the solutive Medicine received , what kind of dreg every one is to cast forth . Indeed a solutive Medicine with them , is an asistant to the function of the Liver : Because it frames the Humours which they will have it to do , and shews them in a bravery brought forth at pleasure , and that according to the fore-knowledge of an Imposture : And they boast as it were from a three-legged stool , that they have fore-told to the sick the colours , and properties of the offending Humours to be brought forth , and that those sick having gone to stool , have answered in the divination , unto their foreknown Sooth-saings . Surely a wretched Doctrine it is , and ignorance to be expiated by punishment : because that person is most miserable , who having taken a consumptive medicine , hath suffered his blood to be exhausted under the mask of putrefaction . But at leastwise it is a wonder , that the Schools have passed by the excrementitious filths of the Ears : For they are those which being yellow , and bitter , might afford a fresher remembrance , and firmer belief of yellow and bitter Choler , than the water which swimmes on the venal Blood : There is now therefore in the Brain a little bag of Choler : But these filths appear not for the nourishment of the brain , but when the blood is consumed : but the Gaul cannot remain in its former Being or Essence when the Blood is spent , whereof it had been an entire part : An aid therefore for Choler was fetcht from an excrement formally transchanged , especially because it alone exhales through the ears in the shape of a smoaky vapour : For by how much the deeper an Ear-picker is sent into the ear , the less of those filths is shaved of : They are therefore ridiculous , and weak arguments , as many as beget an hope for Humours . The colours also of an excrement cast forth , are the effects of a purgative medicine being drunk , but not testimonies of the abounding , or conformity of an elected , and rejected humour . These things are described at large , concerning the Doctrine of Fevers , in the Chapter of Solutives . Sufficient for me is the testimony from the mouth of the Schools , that among all loosening medicines , Aloes is only unhurtful . They are not innocent therefore who profess this , and in the mean time cease not daily to make use of other hurtful Medicines ; not because they find those things which they teach to be hurtful , to be healthful to the sick , but because they find them to be profitable to themselves . What do we , and shall we do , will some say , for unless we now and then open a vein , and provoke the Belly , we stay at home , and are made the scorn of the vulgar , and the Fable of Stages ? For a little Book is fore-read in the Schools , concerning the nature of man , being reproachfully ascribed to Hippocrates : Teaching , that one solutive Medicine being administred , and that in a like quantity , at divers stations of the year , will wipe out divers Humours , and that always after Convulsions , together with the blood thus masked , it will take away the life : which soundeth , that under the specious pretence of purging , an authority is granted of putrefying the blood , of co-melting the flesh , and that under the deceit of the Humours of any colour , according to the will of the Physitian , and at length , that unless the Dose covers the deceit , and poyson , the blood which is to flow forth thus changed , will bring death on the sick party : so that although it be said in the aforesaid little Book , That one and the same laxative at different stations of the year , doth at first draw out different humours ; yet it is constantly true , that every loosening medicine taken beyond a due dose , kills its receiver : So that frequently the consuming power thereof remains so stubbornly tinged in the veins , that it cannot be restrained , and death follows after by a comelting : Although the solutive potion it self , and patron of death shall first almost wholly fall out of the body : And in vain are restringent remedies administred in this case ; where the retentive faculty is not hurt , but the imprinted poyson continually consumeth : Wherefore rather an Antidote is required , than an astringent medicine : For that which a deadly flux by offending , causeth ; that very thing doth laxative Medicines perform under the cunning craft of Physitians , involved in the false position of Humours . At length the guilty , and accused guiltless Humour being drawn out , yet the disease for the most part is not any thing the mildet thereby . Are not therefore Mockeries to be conjectured from thence ? and whatsoever hath been pratled concerning Humours , their excess , choice , and separation ? For it is daily seen , that the events do frustrate the hope of the sick , and promises of Physitians : And therefore neither dare they certainly to promise health by a with-drawing of Humours by their laxatives ; the which alone , they notwithstanding , seriously accuse for the containing cause of diseases ; Because indeed they are badly instructed , and too much at the perswasions of false Maxims : Yet Hippocrates saith , If those things are extracted which ought to be extracted , the sick feel themselves the better , and do easily bear it . And moreover neither dare they to trouble bodies with Purgers in good earnest , before the Disease hath caused an hope of its digestion , but nature an hope of her victory , ( and that without the endeavour of Physitians ) to wit , of a future Crisis . But this is done , lest the Schools their solutive Medicines , and also their own Maxims should be defamed amongst the vulgar , if laxative potions being fore-timely drunk before the bodies are in a chafe , that is , before a prostrating of the disease , a cure should not succeed : Therefore seeing little of a remedy remains among Physitians , besides cutting of a vein , and purges : yet least Physitians should be made of no esteem , they now and then hand forth the lesser laxatives , that they may seem to have done something . They confess indeed , and openly declare , that those lesser purgatives will not cut off a disease at the root ( as if otherwise the greater laxatives would mow down diseases like a sithe ) but that they are diminishers of the peccant Humour , and for this cause to aid and assist : Suppose thou , if not unto the health , at least , unto the death of the sick , or th● kitchin of the Physitian . For Physitians do privily confess , that little aid is drawn from the pulse , beholding of the Urine , and the Blood ; but that they have viewed the Urine , and Blood under Gordonius's Rules or deceitful Juggles , to wit , least they should seem to be less wise than their Predecessours ; The which surely contein deceit , and pride covered with deceit : At leastwise , impure Physitians have taken up an invention for a man to be called , and distinguished by the name of Dungs . To wit , a chole-rick , melancholy , phelgmatick person , which things they believe to be meer excrements : For it is certain , that by loosening Medicines the venal Blood and flesh are resolved into that yellow , and stinking putrefaction , without a separation of a diversity of kind . And it is a dull argument to infer from thence , If the blood , and flesh depart dissolved thorow the fundament , and they are made a yellow liquor , or muckie excrement ; therefore the flesh , and blood do consist , and are composed of the same matters ; which are true Choler , and Phlegm : For truly except that the blood were not a true natural composed body , but essentially made up of many unlike parts , it could not also return again into Choler ; from whence they say , the blood is composed , or otherwise there should be an immediate return from a privation to an habite : Therefore the Blood was never made even of Choler , and much less flesh ; the which shall differ in the species from Choler : And by consequence , if the whole blood and flesh are sometimes transchanged into that putrefaction , ( which they name Choler ) and are ejected , and so the whole flesh melteth as well by art , as through a disease : One of the two must needs be true ; either that that putrified Choler is formally , and actually as yet blood , and flesh , or that that Choler being once dead , and transchanged in the birth of blood , hath again revived by an immediate return , as well from the melting of the flesh , as of the blood . It must needs be I say , either that those four Humours do alwayes persist in their own proper forms , yet under the shape , and covering as well of flesh , as blood : or next , that those four Humours have put off their own Essence , and forms under their entrance of the form of blood , and flesh . If thou shalt say the first ; Now the blood is not a natural composition , but made up of many things : But if thou wilt say the latter ; an immediate return of blood , and flesh into Choler , or other their constitutive humours is impossible . Whence again it follows ; That those things which are cast forth of the body by a laxative draught , are not Choler ; but a stinking cadaverous or mortified liquor , being thus defiled by the force of the Medicine . For Galen seems to reject both the Cholers , and Phlegm for the natural complexions of man , even so also to refer them into a meer distemper : For truly he saith , that one only hony in sanguine persons , is wholly turned into blood , the which in cholerick persons is totally changed into Choler : wherefore he banisheth the nativities of these kind of Humours , as without difference , not so much into an inclination of the matter , as into a vitious distemper of the Liver . Whence it followes , that three distempers at least do alwayes ; and at once flow together ; every one of which do bring forth their own particular humours : Yea it is to be feared least Galen be dashed against the rocks , and being drowned , that he perisheth , while he teacheth , that blood being putrified , is wholly turned into Choler : For from thence he will be constrained to grant , that part of the blood is daily putrified in its constitution ; Yea and that Hony in Cholerick persons , wholly putrifies within few hours ; but not in sanguine ones : And that as well a Cholerick complexion , as the Choler thereof , are meer corruptions : At leastwise , as much of Choler as is daily made in sanguification ; So much according to that precept of Galen , putrifies ; And by consequence , Choler is not a constitutive Humour of sound and healthy blood ; but a vitious adjacent thereof . For while the blood being putrified ( as Galen witnesseth ) is turned into Choler , that Choler is understood to be true Choler , but not a putrified Being ; seeing otherwise , putrified Choler is no more to be accounted Choler , than a putrified man , a man. But after that I seeingly knew , that no Being existing in its perfection , testifies to the unlike parts of its own seminal root , if any should remaine ; but that the seed disposeth of its own matter , that thereof , this some one thing may be made , and not by an apposition or adjoyning , but by a true formal transmutation ; I afterwards perfectly knew also , that the diversity which sometimes shines forth in the corruption of the blood , can never attest , and much lesse shew forth the constitutive parts of the matter [ whereof ] no more , then a strangled Calf , although it be changed into Bees , is therefore composed of Bees ; or hony , if together with May dew , it shall suffer a full moon in the grasse by night , is changed into Eeles ; but with Rie bread , if it passeth over into Ants : But a womans Shift , being shut up with wheat , departs into Mice , within few days : Yet hony doth not therefore draw its matter from Eeles or Ants , a calf , his from Bees , or Mice their matter from flax and menstruous blood : And the Eele , Ant , &c. shall be so composed of hony , as again the Eele being dead , doth the second time exclude hony out of his body . Therefore Paracelsus errs , who saith that a roasted Stork departs into a Serpent , and Ducks into Frogs , in fifteen daies space ; because those birds were wont to be fed with those meates , and therefore that they ought feminally to conteine those beasts in them : But that thing is altogether repugnant to the experience of the deed , and unto Phylosophy : Truly the original of things , is not from those things whereinto things being resolved , are changed : Because that in natural generation , the constitutive parts ought so to be made some one thing , that they may be fully actuated by the one only form of the thing generated : And therefore , whatsoever under the relation of generation , is not changed from its former essence , that remains plainly excluded and unoccupied : For all natural things are constituted , almost after a single manner , and by a simple seed : so that although entire parts are composed , such as are bones and finewes ; yet those being bound together , not only in the method of connexion , but in the vital bond of a specificall union , do passe over into another family , and are a Being it self , from whence to fetch back the parts of the former seed , is altogether unpossible to nature . The venal blood therefore is not a part co-weaved of four Humours , differing in an elementary species ; and much lesse is the blood resolveable into those Humours from whence it is believed to have arisen : But by consequence , whatsoever is produced out of the blood , or through the paunch , by corrupting , that it is not one of those four feigned Humours ; but a putrified excrement of the blood : Much lesse is there a ground of founding an argument for a possible existence of Humours . Therefore it is cleerly manifest , that the Schools have not understood the blood , as a natural , single , and composed Being of nature ; but for an artificial Being patcht together and connexed of many Beings : Under which ignorance it is certain that properties , requisites , health , diseases , and remedies also , have as one , remained hitherto unknown , and that by conjecture only , they have healed from false principles of healing . But go to yet , one only faculty of the Liver in sanguification shall regularly , directly and ordinarily produce four Humours at once , and the variety of these ( from the example of hony mentioned by Galen ) depends on a fourefold variety of one efficient . Therefore it must needs , be that in one only Liver , a fourfold expresse complexional distemper is regularly and daily prevalent : to wit , every one whereof , against the will of its companion , is fit to frame its own Humour : And since he writes that more of Phlegm is ordinarily generated , and therefore also he determineth of a more aboundding cause of a Quotidian ague ; It followes , that the Phlegmatick complexion even of the most intemperate Cholerick person shall as yet be the more prevalent one : But seeing the fiction of Elements do long since cease , and have been suppressed , from whence the reflexion of a Quaternary of qualities , and Humours was to be hoped for ; Now no reason shall henceforth remain , why it should rather incline to four Humours than to three , or unto ten , of whatsoever disposition that matter shall at length remain the heir ; Because the fundamentall stem being taken away ; to wit , that there are not , nor ever were four Elements in the universe , nor that our body is in any wise materially or efficiently constituted of the same ; A fourfold generation of Humours in the Liver , doth also totally fall to the ground together with it : Because it is that which hath alwayes had respect unto the Elements , and the supposed and feigned qualities , and connexed strifes of these . In the next place , how inconsiderate is this device of the Schools , that they will have the Spleen to be the sink of black , and the worst of Choler , yet the Spleen to yield its asistance to the Liver , as indeed the Spleen doth administer the vicar-ship , as the Liver doth in making of blood , to wit , while the Liver is ill affected : As if in us , from a right of substitution , the vital faculty of the Liver should glister or grow in some other part , and especially on a sordid sheath , which they say is that of the worst calamities . Good and most Holy Jesus , wilt thou as yet long admit of confusions of so great moment in healing ? Have respect unto thy people groaning under so grosse falsities , and remember thy natural bounty . For the Schools see in artificial things , a chest that was compacted of diverse pieces , to be again dissolved into its parts ; and they from a childish stupidity have thought , that the same thing hath happened in nature through thy humanity : namely that Choler is fetcht out of the blood , yea , and out of the flesh also ; and that Choler hath therefore always persisted under transchanged formal Beginnings ; and that therefore out of Choler , the blood doth again materially arise , and re-arise . But another hath seen salt to be resolved into water , nor to be then any longer seen , and presently by the boyling up of the water , that the salt doth again appear ; They have therefore supposed the same thing , to happen in their own feigned Humours : As if Choler being essentially unchanged , should be changed sometimes into blood , and at length into flesh , and at the pleasure of the Physitian , should by his solutive medicines , return safe from thence . But let us come to the hand : Let the supposed yellow Choler be taken , that swims on the blood let out of the veines , let it be boyled in whatsoever degree of warmth or heat thou wilt : yet there shall never be burnt , cankered , or leeky Choler made from thence , and much lesse , that sharp black Choler which they say doth Ferment earth : The which , if it be made in the Spleen ; therefore it is not a part of sanguification , or of the blood : But if it be made in the Liver , with the other three , of the same similar matter of the Chyle , yet by diverse agents : for seeing that there are in the Liver , slender and most thin smal branches of veines , buisied in a continual transmission of urine , neither that the veines of the Liver have respect directly on the spleen ; I see not how black Choler being seperated from the Liver , can be brought to the Spleen : Especially where great plenty of urine , and abundance of blood is carried upwards . But both the Cholers ought with an opposite confusion to be carried downwards unto their own Colledges apart , in so slender veines of the shop of sanguification : The Black Choler therefore which they call excrementitious , cannot be brought from the Liver ; but rather the spleen is nourished by splenetick veines and arteries , according to the accustomed manner of other members : Neither doth the Spleen live by a banished excrement , neither is it a sink of the body , and of the worst Humour : For if the Spleen ought to draw black Choler from the Liver ; why is it not near to the Liver ? Why shall the Spleen alone among bowells , be nourished with an horride excrement ? And whither at length shall it drive this superfluous , pernicious superfluity ? Shall now the sink of the last excrement be thorow the stomach , and the orifice thereof , which is so noble and sensible ? Shall this malignant liquour thus suggest an appetite to the stomach ? For to what end shall a drosse be re-cocted , having been already rejected in its whole kinde by banishment , and its properties ? The stomach is granted to imitate the office of the heart ; was it therefore convenient , that the stomach , and the enclosed food thereof , and thereby the whole family-administration of the whole body , should be daily defiled with the contagion of a malignant excrement ? For were not that to have accused nature , and the Creatour , of unexcusable rashnesse from the beginning of the Creation ? Had not some little bag been fitter for seperating of those dregs , if there were any Black Choler , than that the Noble Bowel of the Spleen bearing so many arteries , and the Noble Bowel of the stomach , should be made the refuges of the worst excrement ? But with what weapon do the Schools defend so great doatages ? Truly they say ; That sometimes a black sharp juice is seen to be cast forth by vomite , the which falling on the earth , would lift up the same in manner of a ferment or leaven : Whence they have consequently gathered many absurdities . 1. That that sharp or four excrement ought from its Colour , to be called Melancholy or Black Choler . 2. That it is sometimes made from its own proper matter ; yet oftentimes from Yellow Choler being re-cocted . 3. But it is not as yet known of whether matter , as neither the cook-rome of that dish ; Since otherwise , Yellow Choler could not without confusion , be derived unto the strange Inn of the spleen . 4. That Choler which they will have to be the hottest of humours , and fiery , they say , is by cocture reduced into an earthy , cold , and dry Humour . 5. From a Watery and Yellow Humour , into a black one . 6. From most bitter Gaul , into a sharp and fermenting one . 7. Why therefore is Yellow Choler ( Gaul I say ) never recocted into black Choler , in its own little bag ? Why doth it beg another port for this coction ? Was there daily need of the re-cocting of Yellow Choler , if by re-cocting it hastens into a worse state ? Why doth not nature , which alwayes of possible things makes that which is best , expel that Choler with the excrementitious filths of the Belly , which it changeth into worse by recoction ? But if the Spleen be the shop of Black Choler ; it hath not daily so great heat , which may be sufficient for the roasting of Choler : or if it be hot how , of Yellow Choler which is hot ; shall a cold humour be made ? Especially since Galen will have hony , hearkening unto diverse distempers , to be changed into diverse Humours agreeable to those distempers ? As though a liquid decoction should loose the virtues of sugar , and should put on opposite ones , because it is thickned into a syrupe or Lohoch . Wherefore hath Gaul hitherto , by what artifice soever it hath been recocted , never assumed a sharpnesse ? For by wat way , or by what conducter , or enforcer , shall Yellow Choler , being exactly mixt with the blood , and Homogeneally co-arisen with it in the shop of the Liver , be brought unto the forreign vessel of the Spleen , that by roasting it may be made Black Choler in the same place , if it be proper to the Spleen to lay up a Black , and thick , cold , Earthy liquour ? For is the spleen for this end rich in so many Arteries , that it hath not a Bowel like unto itself , in so great a livelinesse of pulses ; to wit that it may coct Yellow Choler into Black , by defiling in ? How shall Black Choler differ from Yellow , if be made [ this something ] by one poynt of heat ? Is not that to commit the whole buisinesse of nature unto cocting heat , the formal properties being excluded ? Shall there be room in the Spleen for forreign Choler sliding to it , if it hath elsewhere supplied its own necessities from the veines , and arteries ? Where therefore shall the Choler comming unto it , be waited for in the entry and doores of the Spleen , if a gratefull guest hath already beset the house ? Shall the Spleen bid farewell to the inbred blood of the veines , and arteries , that it may receive Choler comming unto it , into it self , to excoct it into a Black filth ? What if Choler be said to be roasted in the veines themselves ; seeing the heat of all the veines is only a moderate lukewarmth , shall there not of the fiery liquour of Choler , another cold one be made ? Neither is there any reason why the veines shall theeve away the services of fanguification from the Liver ; Nor also , why it being first decocted Black in the veines , it should afterwards be brought unto the Spleen , as seeking for it self a new place of entertainment . Neither at length , can the veines for this cause be concluded to be the Cocters of Yellow Choler into black . Lastly what is that fewel , which without a necessity may roast Yellow Choler , into another and worse excrement ? For while I speak of the shops of nature , I know that nothing is moved by it self , nor that there are foolish heates , intended for no good end , as neither digestions proposed by nature her self , for ridiculous objects : For if there be a smal vein , whereby the spleen inspireth a digestive ferment , and vital vigour into the stomach , I see not why therefore so many fictions of Black Choler are convenient , from whence so many troops of calamaties have followed in a chaine . For how silly a thing is it , to have feigned the worst drosse of nature ( as they confess it to be ) and a divorced and abhorred excrement , to be to the stomach for a delight ? To cure its appetite ? To render so Noble a part subject to the defiling as well of the powers of the meates as of the vital functions ? For Black Choler which originally is prepared of the Chyle , is of the same particular kinde with that which is generated of burnt Choler ( unlesse they had rather now also , to admit of a fifth Humour ) or it is diverse from it . If of the same species ; Now the same [ this something ] shall be sharp , cold , and earthy , and shall be fiery bitter , and shall be made immediately out of diverse matters disposed unto their own diverse ends : And that by one only Elementary , simple , and not seminal agent : And Galen with his hony , shall be in a straight : And likewise , Yellow Choler from its own disposition , shall be subordinate unto Black Choler , as to a more perfect Being , by Elabouration ; and so Yellow Choler shall not be one of the four , but a Semi or half-Humour . But at least wise , I perceive not why a superfluous drosse should be dayly made , and ought to be of the constitutives of us ; Or what dullnesse it is , which hath constrained them to feign so many fables ? Truly however that page of healing be considered of , it is wholly without necessity rowled among dungs . There is indeed a sharp , vital , and spiritual Ferment in the Spleen , whereby the stomach cocteth : the which to wit , fayling , the appetite also goes to ruine : And therefore the old man saith ; That in Fevers , soure belchings comming suddenly upon burntish or stinking ones , is a good sign : For it is the Ferment inspired by the Spleen , being the subject of a great title , and of a general use ; in no wise to be dedicated unto a black balast , and melancholy excrement . Paracelsus writeth , that man could have more commodiously wanted kidneys and a Spleen ; which besides his own Idiotisme , conteins implicite blasphemy : For whatsoever God hath made , was and shall be always the best by far or most exceoding good . 1. But if the Schools had ever poured forth Aqua fortis , they had easily found that sharpnesse dissolves earth , but not ferments it . 2. That the action of Ferments is one things having a co-resemblance . 3. That the earth is not Fermentable , because an Element is not to be Fermented by the Ferments of fruites , by reason of the constancy , and simplicity of it self : For if the leaven of bread-making doth not Ferment woods , or stones , what Ferment for the earth shall therefore be found ? For truly such is the condition of Ferments ( not considered by the Schools ) that a Ferment from the time that it is once recieved , it continually fermenteth further , neither doth it cease as long a it findeth an Object co-like unto it self : Wherefore the Elements indeed , do conceive the strange Ferments of fruits ; but are in no wise therefore , fermented by the same ; Because all Ferments are unsuitable to the Elements ; Because they want transmutation , and seeds suited to themselves . Otherwise , if the Earth were fermentable , dead carcases could not be in-humed , but that presently the Globe of the Earth would be made destructive unto us with a deadly Gore . 4. Therefore Galen never knew those things , he never knew Aqua fortis , yea not so much as Rose water , he never smelt out formal Ferments . 5. Neither doth Black Choler any way Ferment Earth , if it no where , and never were : Although dungs may boyle up through a dissolution made by sharp things . Furthermore of one only Bread and Water , Chyle is made . If therefore in Bread and Water , a fourefold Humour in nature should lay hid ; by the same right , every juice of Herbs ought always to be fourefold : which thing be it dreame . Let us grant therefore , that only of Bread and simple Water , the foure feigned Humours are made . First of all , these Humours are not made seminally , and dispositively , of simple Elementary Water ; therefore the Chyle shall be made of the bread being resolved , and of this only ; and this Chyle shall be afterwards changed into four Humours , by the priviledge of the acting Liver . And therefore now an exorbitant and irregular Liver : For truly of every natural agent , there is only a single and simple action : It must needs be therefore , that either in the Liver there are foure agents of sanguification at once , or that the quaternary of Humours rusheth into feigned dungs . For if four Humours are not made out of the simplicity of the aforesaid Chyle , of natures own accord , neither from the power of a fourfold agent co-labouring in the Liver ; or if the supposed Quadruplicity of feigned Humours , be not made by a power or faculty of the agent , or patient ; Truly whatsoever is denied under a disjunction may be denyed copulatively , by reason of the largenesse of a negative . Therefore I conclude ; if from the connexion of a simple agent , and single matter , a vital action of sanguification proceedeth ; Surely that action , as it shall be simple , so also it shall not be able to be the Mother of above one onely Humour . But if we feign varieties of Humours to be in the blood , by reason of a diversity of Meates ; Now an hundred Humours at least , shall be to be granted in the blood , from as many Meats being taken at once . But the Schools will have it , that under the degree of one only digesting heat , many meates are changed into Chyle , and that through the government of the same heat , four Humours are always produced in the Liver : And that as well in the Swede , as in the Aethiopian . At length , they confesse sanguification to be the proper workmanship of the Liver : But of the Spleen , only through inordinacy , and aide ; although in the mean time , the Spleen be letted , and involved in dungs , about the coction of Yellow , Choler into Black. 1. First of all , Galen goes to ruin with his Hony , the which he writeth to be wholly turned either into Blood or into Choler . 2. The generation of Humours proceeds not from an Elementary power . 3. We must not run back unto a vaine Quaternary of Humours . 4. Otherwise Bilification or making of Choler should be as naturall to the Liver , as its Sanguification or making of blood is . 5. The blood shall be nothing but a confused connexion of Humours , an irregular generation ; but not a natural composure , but deprived of the necessities of agents , and ends : Truly on both sides , great trifles do involve great cares , and great absurdities : The which , if they put on obstinacy , they now nourish madnesse , if not also malice : The trifles of Humours therefore being invented by the evil spirit , were derived into Pagans , and hitherto subscribed by the Schools . For they were fit for the Devil , because they contein confusions in healing , fallacies and lyes ; and therefore they produce dayly deaths , they obscure the light of nature , they presuppose plausible fictions , and are destitute of all examples from their like ; and by so much the more dry , stupid , dangerous , and rash , those fables are , by how much they are the more toughly believed for the destruction of Mortals . Galen therefore is wholly giddy , who affirmes Hony to be totally turned , sometimes into blood , and sometimes into Choler . 1. First a messenger hath been wanting unto this rash asserter , which might the more surely certifie him , what and how much was made from the totalnesse of Hony : And so he is wholly suspected of rashnesse and a fiction . 2. Truth is wanting to the affirmer : For truly in nature , Choler failes , and therefore also a Cholerick complexion . 3. For he who throughout his great volumes , attributes the properties of the members unto Elementary qualities alone , constantly writes that a quaternary or fourfold number of Humours are framed onely by the actual heat of one Liver , in one onely action of Sanguification ; When as notwithstanding actual heat cannot but be simple in one onely member , at one and the same time . Let Galen therefore learn to dream more truly concerning Hony , and Sanguification : Neither let him depart unto childish principles , by believing , that four conquering and contrary complexions of Elements do remaine at once in the Liver , every one whereof formeth to it self its own Humour out of the single or simple Chyle , which is connexible into the one only Subject of blood , and falling down from thence at the pleasure of a loosening medicine : Let him therefore desist from believing , that Humours are made to vary out of one only Hony or Chyle , by reason of heat alone , and that a simple one ; seeing that wretched Prince of medicine doth not consider , that hereby there is required in a temperate heat of the Liver , as many heats at once ( for so many Humours ) diverse in making warm , from the supposition of their Being . Take notice my Companions , that we are in no wise constrained unto the fiction of four Humours : For those things which are voided forth in the Flux , the disease called Choler , and dreggishnesses of vomits , are not Humours boasted of by the Schooles ; but they are excrements which the revenging disease frameth , and expelleth ; even as those which laxative medicines do eject , are the corruptions of sound or entire blood : And that which the revenging disease there acteth ; That the Laxative medicine here executes , indeed with much brevity : For neither is the gate of diseases shut by the feigned perswasions of Humours ; Since that , according to Phlosophy , Those things are never drawn out of a transchanged Being , from whence it is naturally constituted in its making . Moreover , although I have sufficiently proved elsewhere , that there are not four Elements , nor the combating congresse of the same for the framing of bodies which are believed to be mixt : And that it followes from thence , that there is not an unlike action of the Liver , in the alway procreation of four Humours : Yet whereby the Schools may see , with what a prop their whole foundation in healing is supported , I will treat from their own meer granted and delivered doctrine . For truly , if the Elements do not with their Formes , remain in the mixt body ; neither also could their properties remain therein ; seeing the forms themselves are the immediate subject of inherency of their own properties : But if they had rather have the Elements to remaine with their formes , in the mixt body ; Now even the formes of those Elements shall not be substantial acts , but only the bonds of the Elements : For they shall alway return entire , from every sore shaking of the supposed mixt bodies : To wit , the formes of the Elements shall soundly sleep so long as they shall have rule over the forme of the mixt body : Since therefore the Form of a mixt body is of necessity , a pure and simple ultimate act ; it cannot be fourfold ( yea although the material and remote principler of that matter should be the very actuall Elements ) and by consequence there is no reason of feigning a Quaternary of Humours , in respect of the agent : Because the action of sanguification is in no wise Elementary ; but vital , and of the Ferment of the Liver ; The every way simplicity whereof , could not finally respect a quaternion of Humours to arise out of an uniform , and most exactly united Chyle : So that although there were in a mixt body , twenty Elements , there should not therefore be as many necessary productions of Humours . It is therefore a blockish speculation , and of a divelish perswasion , which saith , that of three Elements never concurring unto the mixture of bodies , four Humours in number , ought always and ordinarily to proceed , and that from thence , one only venal blood is regularly constituted : To wit , that from thence , the necessities of curing and of diseases , are dictated . Perhaps they will object , thou admittest that the hurtfull cause is to be driven away , thou forbiddest laxative medicines , because they are poysonous , and indeed do withdraw the blood and vital strength : But from a Hungarian horse , they have learned the cuttings of a vein , from a bird , Clysters , &c. Therefore I may say truly with the Prophet : Do not ye become as the horse and mule , which have no understanding : Do not ye learn of such Masters : For the half part of the Continent will subscribe to my desire : Because under the Ottoman , Abyssine or Aethiopian Empires , and the chief part of the Indies , the cutting of a vein is unusual : Yet the strengths , nimblenesses , readinesse , v●g●ancy of these nations , and constancy of their labours as well to do as to suffer , learn ye out of Histories : And ye will deservedly lament with me , that the Nations which in times past , were formidable in war , have at this day by degrees , under Physitians , become ready to dye , at every turning of the wind . For the North , and West , which were wont to disperse their warriours into the whole world ; do henceforth , by reason of these follies of the Schools , dye , as soon as the army is marched far from home . Lastly they will object : If thou takest away universal succours , neither directest thy self unto the withdrawing of Humours ; by what meanes therefore wilt thou overcome diseases ? I answer with the aforesaid Nations , that Nature is the Physitianesse of diseases , therefore that she is to be comforted , and not dejected : That there is need of a promotion of ends . For if excrementitious filths shall adhere unto the first dens or privy places of the Body ; we must insist on resolving and cleansing medicines , nature being safely buisied about the rest : But if something shall the more stubbornly and hiddenly remain in a more inward place of retirance ; volatile Alcali salts are to be recieved , which cleanse away all things like Soap . Surely it is a wonder , how much the Salt even of Tartar alone being made volatile , will not performe : For it scours all dregginesse , and stubbornnesse of obstructing filths , out of the veines , and disperseth the recieved assemblies or collectitions of Apostemes : Concerning this spirit of Salt ( and not of the Oile ) that saying of Paracelsus is true , that whithersoever it shall not reach , scarce any other spirit of salt shall more powerfully come . But external affects are cured as well by local applications , as by the internal aids of the vital powers : So that ye apply your selves unto a clarifying of the blood , and the tinctures and renewings of a new balsam by transpiration . But the greater Arcanum's do after some sort , ascend unto the top of an universal Remedy . Learn ye ; For God selleth Arts to Sweats . CHAP. II. A second Supplementary Conception against the fallacy of Humours . 1. The carelessnesse of Physitians is to be bewayled . 2. The mixture of Elements is rejected by the way . 3. Paganish ignorances are not to be winked at in Christians . 4. The doating delusions of a Catarrhe or rheume have sprung from Humours . 5. The wandering Keepers being unknown , Catarrhs were at length consirmed . 6. A quaternary of Humours is infringed by the contusion of a member . 7. Yellow Choler is battered mith an Engine . 8. An unknown use of the Gaul is proved . 9. That Choler is not Gaul . 10. An absurdity of the Schools . 11. A Galenical errour . 12. Pastime consequences of the argument of the Schools . 13. That the Schools through the sluggishnesse of a dililigent search have been ignorant of the contents of the urine , and have neglected the signification of the urine . 14. The manifold errours of the Antients . 15. An argument from the rule of falshood . 16. A defect of the Schools . 17. The Choler shewn by the Schools is unto the blood by accident , but not of its essence . 18. Again by the supposition of falshood . 19. The Schools ought will they , nill they , to swallow down two Maxims of the Authour . 20. An errour of the Schooles is again connivingly supposed . 21. It is again supposed . 22. Some absurd and shamefull particulars are proposed . 23. The covered blasphemy of the Schools . 24. The Gaul , a vital bowel . 25. That the Pagans were not enlightned with the gift of healing . 26. That snivel is neither phlegm , as neither an excrement of the Brain . BUt indeed the number of Humours is so deeply rooted , that it is not suficient , once to have refuted the same : And so , seeing that is not sufficiently taught which is not suficiently learned , I am constrained to repeat by way of a second conception , what things I have already above attempted to demonstrate at large : For truly , the whole square of healing is conversant in this thing . For I have very often wondred , that the fight of the Elements , the fictions of mixtures and complexions , have befooled the Christian world for so may ages hitherto , and that none hath taken notice of the falshood of these : When as notwithstanding , thy own affairs are concerned , while every ones special friend , or near neighbour his house is on fire : And by so much the more destructively hath this blindnesse continued , Since Physitians introduced all their own things into medicinal affairs : For by these devices , they have transferred the whole family of diseases , and the curings of these , into their own trifles ; the credulity of Mortals assenting hereunto : In themselves indeed they were plainly ridiculous , and Comedial , but that they daily filled the people of Christ by whole streets and villages , with tears , mourning , wailing , and compassion on the miserahle , destroyed families , and produced Widowes and Orphans without punishment . In the next place , unto these aforsaid and blind rashnesses of Physitians , they have feigned as many Humours ; to wit , according to a Quaternary number of Elements : Indeed that in a disproportion of these , perhaps all diseases did consist ; as also , consequently , their cure , from the abundance of those supposed Humours being sequestred : at length , that the renewing and preserving of health ( however shortnesse of life , the aforesaid sequestration of Humours and blood should cause ) was recovered . A cruel received opinion , and ungracious wickednesse of the Schools of Physitians ! Therefore I have not always seriously enough detested the passive deceits of the credulous , and pernicious inventions of the Schools , and next the continued sluggishnesses in subscribing , even unto amazement , and frequent sighs , and complained to my Lord Jesus , that mankind hath under the fraudulent wiles of the Divel , with so great rashnesse of belief , prostrated it self unto so stubborn and barbarous cruelty , and that it doth alike constantly subject it self even unto this day : Especially , when as in the more external things , these kind of trifles could find no fewel : I therefore begged of the clementious Parent of nature , that he would vouchsafe to raise up some one , whose gift might be , to refell so great dulnesse of mortals and of the Schools : For first of all it was certainly manifested unto me , from so great and so constant blindnesse , that we mortals are plainly not wise as to any thing of worth , nor that we do savour any thing , not so much as in natural things , unlesse the hand of the Almighty doth enlighten us from above , by his pillar of fire , in so great a night of darknesse . For truly , first of all , the existence of Elementary fire nigh the Globe of the Moon , exceeding the Region of the Aire in its Sphere by many degrees , conteins altogether achildish fiction in it : and by so much the more impossible a one , because fire , to wit , being called or sent for , or voluntarily descending contrary to the proper rule of its own supposed lightnesse , should from thence uncessantly pierce through so many hundred miles ; and through the most cold climate of the aire , and so is violently co-mixed with the aire , and a peace being entred into , and covenants stricken with each other , that fire , and Aire should violently descend downwards together , from a far distance , at the commands of all particular seeds , and constitutions of mixtures , being new , and also unwonted , at every moment . Surely it is to be grieved at , and exceedingly to be pitied , that such diabolical lyes , which in Aristotle were to be smiled and connived at , do for so many ages , even to this day persevere , and that they have not yet ceased , and that not any one hath as yet risen up , who is not a patron unto so great blindnesse : The which notwithstanding , cannot be covered with any conception , with any belief , nor with any garment of truth ; Especially , because that from these leading fables of the Schools , four Humours might seem of their own nature to be devised , yea and also constrained to obey , and consent to the offices , and likewise to the properties of mixtures , and skirmishes , and to contein the intestine or inward hope , and rules of death , diseases , as also of health : Which things notwithstanding , have not stood believed ( God the Creatour so permitting it ) as the ordained principles of nature , but by the inbred hatred and suggestion of the Divel , and through a continued sluggishnesse of the schooles in subscribing : Against all which one only argument ought to suffice ; to wit , that I have removed the fire out of the number of Elements , yea and the account of substances , and have demonstred a co-mixture of Elements requisite for the constitution of bodies ( which are believed to be mixt ) to be impossible ; So as that , none of a sound mind can , or ought henceforward to admit of a necessitated equality of Humours with the Elements : For the fallacy of Humours as well as of Elements , hath been the more hidden or obscure , and lesse passable in the people ; but that it hath been consented to by Learned and judicious men , is to be had in compassion due to ones neighbour ; the which , as it blowes away the credulities of the people , so it accuseth the dulnesse of the Schools and their constant sluggishnesse or carelessnesse of diligently searching . But because the mad toy of a Catarrhe , hath likewise wondrously afflicted the world , and I having often searched with my self into the occasions , to wit , from what fountain so great an hereditary blindnesse of the Schools , and so inveterate an obstinacy in affirming , might proceed ; at length I knew that the Ignorance of both the erring or wandring Ceepers had given an occasion of sliding into the miserabled , and subscribed a confession of Humours falling down . For truly , any one being oft-times by the more cold aire , suddenly stricken in his throat , neck , teeth , or shoulders , he also as credulous supposeth , according to the assertions of Physitians , that believed Humours do flow down unto the places smitten with cold : When as otherwise , cold , as in its own nature it is repercussive , should rather divert the fall of Humours from it self , which are thought to be subservient to a Catarrh or rheum : But much blood-letting , and frequency of a solutive medicine at this day , as they diminish the strength of the parts , and dismisse it being diminished , on posterity ; so it s no wonder indeed , that the parts being smitten by the indrawing of an unjust aire , or otherwise with an excelling injury of cold , and being before weakened do easily suffer in the proper functions of their offices and digestions : to wit , that they do make manifest degenerate products , as the cause of the malady bred in the same place , but not defluxing thither from elswhere : Although in the mean time , those strange products have nothing common with the four supposed Humours : and much lesse do they convince of a future flowing down of these : The falshood whereof notwithstanding , is of so great moment , that the position of : the asserted Humours cannot but include a dullnesse and unconsiderateness of the Schools in their own principles of healing , with a most destructive abuse unto mortals , of necessity : Because that from thence , the art of healing , adisease , health , the necessity of life , and at length of death , do follow : The which therefore , I in this place , for the benefit of my decieved neighbours , will the second time more cleely explain : But at first , I will retake the position of the Schools , wherein they feign the blood to be composed of four diverse , and con-nexed Humours . For we see , after the contusion or bruising of a member , first a swelling followes , which presently , for the most part looks red , and afterward is changed of an Azure colour , straightway after it looks black and blew , afterwards it is black , and last of all it waxeth yellow , and is largly dispersed into Circles : Therefore according to the Humourists , that blood first passeth over into black Choler , and this at length into yellow Choler : And so the more liquid Humour should the more stubbornly resist , and black Choler should be of a far more easie dispersing than yellow Choler : And so black Choler should not be made of Yellow : but plainly a after retrograde manner , this should be changed into yellow Choler ; which is against the will of Galen , who never knew black Choler to be returned into yellow . But rather ( he writeth ) that all the blood doth by its alienations , immediately and naturally contend into yellow Choler : Hitherto hath the unheard of doctrine of Fevers , in the Chap. of solutive medicines , regard : To wit , where I have shewn , that the blood of the veins is through its corruption , diversly transchanged according to the poyson of the solutive medicines : For truly that thing happeneth in bruises ; and blood being chased out of the veins , and by degrees made destitute of the fellowship of life , doth by little and little also hearken as well to the affects of the parts , as to the various corruptions of the blood : But not that the variety of dead excrements , or unlikenesse of corruption , can , or ought to testifie a composition of the blood . Yea truly , the Schools suppose for the institutions of medicine , that yellow Choler is one of the four constitutive Humours of the blood , to wit , a gawly and bitter one : and therefore , that that Yellow and bitterish Humour which is sometimes rejected by vomit , is Choler it selfe , yea Gaul it self , and essentially co-incident in identity or samelinesse with the aforesaid Choler , and original Gaul ; both which they contend to be daily framed out of the meats at the constitution of the blood : To wit , Choler for the composition of the blood ; but Gawl to be banished as an excrement , under the Liver , into its own sheath , that it may from thence go forth through the filths of the paunch : But that which is rejected by vomit , is yellow , bitter , sometimes Leeky , and of a cankered colour . From hence indeed they prove , that that very original Choler which swims on the blood that is let out of the veins , ought ( will they , nill they ) to be naturally bitter , and Gauly ; and again on the other hand , with a scantinesse of truth , that the constitutive Choler of the blood ought of necessity to be bitter : And moreover , although that bitter excrement , and which is rejected by vomit , doth altogether differ from the Choler left in the blood after its separation from thence , by reason ( as they say ) of its abundance , excesse , and meernesse , attained in seperating ; yet in the essential and actual truth of the thing , they will have it to be the same ; to wit , as well that which is rejected by vomit , and that which is as yet left for the composition , and requisite integrity of the blood , as that third , which redounding from the daily food , is brought unto the little bag of the Gaul , and from thence ( they say ) to be carried forth , for the tinging of the excrements , as well of the belly as bladder : The which to wit , they seriously affirm to be one and the same Choler , and meer single yellow Choler ; and Choler I say , to be one only Humour in its root , of the four constitutive Humours of us : In which recieved opinion of the Schools , that a destructive decieving of mortals is conteined , I thus prove . For first , it is manifest , that that which is conteined in the chest of the Gaul , is not an excrement of man , bred from the errour of the Liver , and ordained instead of a spur , for the pricking of the bowels : but that it is a Noble bowel resembling the condition of a balsame , and so exceeding necessary , that it is not lawfull so much as for fishes to live without a Gaul , although living sparingly of meer water ; when as notwithstanding birds which drink , do live happily without kidneys , bladder , and the emunctories of urine : The which I have elsewhere profesly in the treatise concerning digessions , and likewise concerning the commands of the Spleen , and Gaul , sufficiently , and unto the full satisfaction of opposers , demonstrated ; whither let the Reader have recourse . In the next place , that that which the stomach re-gorgeth by vomit , is not Gaul , shall be elsewhere profesly demonstrated : Be it sufficient here that the stomach is an Inne unaccustomed to , and impossible for the sequestration of the Gaul ; since the Gaul is not recalled unto the stomach , from the Liver , and much lesse from its own chest : Which thing indeed fights with the Schools , who will , that the Gaul doth by a direct , and appointed motion , and pipe , dismisse its own exorbitancy through the Bowels , and that from thence the liquid dung of the same is tinged . And then , there is not a passage , whereby the Gaul may by a retrograde motion , be drawn from the Liver into the stomach : If it being made by the Liver , be naturally brought unto the Chest of the Gaul , it be now separated , and rejected as unprofitable , and from thence at length be driven foreward through the intestines , to be mixt with the dungs : For the stomach draws not unto it self , the excrement from the intestines : Therefore if that bitter and yellow matter which vomiting casts up through the stomach , should be Gaul , after that ( I suppose according to the traditions of the Schools ) it had been generated in the Liver , and dismissed unto the little bag of the Gaul , and from thence become banished into the Bowel , it should be again attracted upwards unto the Stomach : And the Stomach should erre from its natural due , and wonted end ; Which thing profesly more at large elsewhere . Now I will sift another equal impertinency . The Schools will have the Gaul to be ordinarily , as it were an unprofitable excrement , and because it is not co-mixed with the blood as an entire part , that it is by the Liver , not presently indeed , but for some houres after that the Gaul is mixed into its own little bag , and also admixed with the dung in the Bowels , drawn upwards through the veins of the Mesentery , that it may be mixed with the urine : For saith Galen , I behold the body of my urine late in the morning , to be plainly watery and not tinged ; wherefore I sleep upon it , and I see my urine to be then tinged : Therefore either the urine is of its own accord tinged only by a continued luke-warmth ; or ( even as the Schools reach ) the tinging Gaul is at length co-mixed with it after some hours : Therefore from hence it is manifest ; that they will have the Gaul to be presently again laid aside by its own little bag , through the Bowels , about the end of digestions , and that comming down about the utmost part of Ileon , it is attracted into the veins of the Mesentery , is sucked through the port-vein of the Liver , is sent inwards within the Liver , and hollow vein , and that it slides through the sucking veins into the kidneys with the urine ; which circle of the Gaul , from the Liver into the Liver , is so full of infamous ignorance , that nothing is alike infamous . For truly , 1. It is manifest ; That the yellownesse of the urine is not from the Gaul , nor bitter . 2. That if Gaul should be made in the Liver , and not in the very Bowel of its own little bag , it might more readily depart from the Liver into the kidneys , than that , contrary to all comelinesse of nature , that should be fetcht back from dungs which had been once rejected and banished : For there was never Gaul , or Choler in the nature of things , or in the Inne of the kidneys : And that which is made by an erring stomach , and rejected bitter , was never Gaul , or Choler ; but the meer superfluity or excrement thereof : And therefore the bitterness of Choler is in no wise rightly inferred from the bitternesse of forreign filths . 3. The bitternesse of Choler in the urine is not sufficiently proved , not the least thing whereof was ever true : None of the Physitians of so many ages , hath hitherto found the urine to be bitter in tast ; or durst to assert it ; unlesse in subscribing to paganish fictions ; neither hath any of them ever dared to tast down any drop of the liquour swimming on the blood let out the of veins ; but they had all of them rather universally to subscribe unto paganish fables : Neither have they in the least doubted , but that , that super-swimming liquor , was meer Gauly , yellow , and bitter Choler : Neither have they attempted to know whether there were any bitternesse of Gaul or feigned Choler in the urine , no not so much as in the vrine of those that have the Iaundise : The which notwithstanding should be most true and unexcusable , if but even one only drop of Gaul should be mixed with three pints of urine : But if any one hath ever by chance , or willingly , tasted down urine , or the aforesaid liquour swimming on the blood , and hath not repented him of the mixture of Choler , and necessity of Gaul : Now he hath given a testimony of his own obstinacy , and ignorance : For every Gauly Humour is always naturally bitter : but neither is that super-swimming liquour , as neither the urine , bitter : Therefore they are not Gauly Humours : Therefore from the carelesseness of tryall , they have been rather willing to subscribe to fables , and to believe falshoods for truths , and stifly to defend them , than to forsake that accustomed opinion : But all posterity lamenteth the effects proceeding from thence , and the whole Christian world with me , bewayleth them even to this day : Therefore let one at least make tryal of what things I have spoken , and the which he shall presently be able to experience without discommodity or danger , and every good or honest man will grieve at the so great ignorance , and sluggishnesse of so many ages , and the cruel passive decieving of the people of Christ . That therefore , which the Schools call yellow Choler , as well in the urine , as in the composition of the blood , is neither Choler , nor bitter , nor Gaul , nor therefore one of the four feigned Humours , nor answering to the Element of fire ; seeing that fire is no way an Element : And it hath not hitherto been known , what tast one of those four supposed Humours might have : Yea as oft as they accuse Cholerick Humours , the bloody flux , Anthonies fire , &c , although the mouth might sometimes be bitter ; yet the liquour issuing from an Erisipelas , is not bitter , but plainly of sharp , is become salt : That Humour I say , of whose burning heat , the Schools complain in an Erisipelas , is called a most sharp one ; when as in the mean time , it bears neither any sharpnesse , nor bitternesse before it : And they are unconstant in this ; when as notwithstanding , the sharpness of Humours , ought to differ as much from their bitterness , as Pepper doth from Coloquintida , or from wild Cucumber . And so the Schools have treated thus carelessely and unconstantly , concerning the properties of their own Choler ; Because in Law , a varying witness is unworthy of any credit , he is accounted for an unsavoury or foolish , or false witnesse , and he is constrained to restitution , by how much hurt he hath brought unto another by his testimony . But come on then , let us suppose ( but not believe ) that the liquour swimming on the blood , is Gauly Choler , and of the natural composition thereof ; At leastwise , that blood on which that Choler now swims should be no longer blood , if one of its four constitutive parts hath failed it , and there be made a seperation of the Marriage bed ; to wit , a real seperation of things composing : for Cheese , from which the Wheyinesse is withdrawn , is no longer Milk : For neither do I deny that the whole entire body subsisteth from an union of Heterogeneal parts : but the integrity of the former composed body ceaseth assoon as one of its constitutive parts hath retired . The Schools indeed suppose a permanency , and co-knitting of four Humours for the constitution of the blood : Yea besides this simple and vain supposition , nothing hath been hitherto proved by the Schools , which may not be more worthy of pity than credit : Therefore I deny their blockish supposition , not proved , to proceed unto the false derivations of Choler , and embassages of these , into the diverse parts , and passions of the body : If they shall not first make it manifest concerning the question , whether there be any Choler requisite for the constitution of the blood . Therefore Choler hath not place in the constitution of the blood , although a uriny wheyishnesse swim upon blood let out of the veines : For that whyishnesse is unto the blood by accident : which thing the blood of those who have drunk little , and laboured and sweat much , doth sufficiently prove : For oft-times the blood of such being taken away by Phlebotomy , wholly wants all Wheyishnesse : And by consequence , it should be deprived of Choler : And likewise , neither doth that blood cease to be blood , the which doth not admit of Wheyishnesse , but by accident : The which I have in the Chap. of the Liquour Latex ( hitherto unknown to the Schools ) concerning the rise of medicine , elsewhere demonstrated : For the Latex is left in the blood for its own ends ; the ignorance whereof therefore , hath hitherto secluded Physitians from the signification of the urine , and the knowledge of many diseases . I will therefore re-sume by supposing ; That yellow Choler is naturally a watery liquor swimming on the blood : Let the Schooles therefore , at least reach , if Choler be an Humour most fiery , representing fire , and conteining it in substance and properties , how fire can glister in a meer salt water ? How is it , that it is not stifled in that water ? After what manner do fire , and water co-suffer with each other under the famlinesse of unity , as also the air immediately under Phlegm ? What have they any where found in nature , which may constraine fire to conjoyn in salt water ? They will finde at length , that they are driven to believe these trifles , by reason of a Quaternary of Elements , and a necessity of mixed bodies : Both which , after they have been oppressed by demonstrations [ propter quid ] or for what cause , the world will Sue for my writings : The very Schools themselves and all posterity will laugh at the blockishnesses of Ancestours , which have hitherto been so stubornly defended , they being so pernicious in healing , and false in instructing . Because , will they , nill they , they ought to swallow two Maxims of mine , elsewhere demonstrated : One whereof is : That there is no Element of fire , and that kitchin or artificial fire , is not a substance : And consequently , that if more things than one should concurre unto the composition of the blood : at least wise that four Elements could not flow together thereunto : And therefore , that the fiction of four Humours doth badly square for our blood , for mixture , tempering , strife , and likewise for the truth , existence , actuality , diversity , and healing of diseases and cures : But the other of my Maxims is elsewhere sufficiently proved : That every sublunary visible Body , is not materially composed of four , as neither of three co-mixed Elements . They must therefore seriously repent : Because the fire , is neither an Element , as neither a substance , neither is a salt watery liquour to be called into the composition of us , for the feigned comparison of a Microcosme or little world , that it may represent the form of fire . Again , I by way of connivance suppose : That nature scarce makes enough blood of all the food , dayly ( even as in the book of the unheard of doctrine of Fevers ) ; At least wise , nature approves of that , since she hath hitherto appoynted no place of entertainment for superabounding blood : Yet she alwayes prepares out of all food , both Cholers , abundantly and super-fluously ( which the Schools prove by the tincture of the urine , and filths of the belly ) therefore at least wise the nature of the Liver daily erreth , and is founded in errour , and offends also in abstinent persons , fishes , and Nations that are satisfied with the drinking of water only ; Because indeed , it generates the least of a super-abounding fiery , and earthy humour , and yet more than it hath need of for its own nourishments : Why therefore , doth not nature offend rather in quality , even as she daily without distinction , offends in quantity ? Why also in the place of blood ( to wit , the fourth ordinary Humour ) doth she not likewise in offending , produce a certain abortive excrementitious blood , to be sent away into banishment , as she daily , actually banisheth the two excessive Cholers out of the composition of the blood , and fellowship of life ? Why also doth she daily bring forth more of malignant humours ( and those to be expelled ) out of good and much juicy meats moderately taken , than out of the best blood ? Since , as Galen is witnesse , in hot natures , hony ( which otherwise , in temperate , and therefore in Sanguine persons is totally turned into blood ) is wholly turned into yellow Choler ? To wit , it s other three companional Humours being excluded ? Whence it followes : That the framing of Humours proceeds not from the complexion of the food , but altogether from the condition of the Liver . From whence consequently , if more of both Cholers than is meet , be daily made , that all that is to be attributed unto the offence and vice of nature : And therefore that every naturall complexion of the Liver is vitious and erronous in all and in every thing . In abstinent , and likewise in dry parched persons , as also in bloodless , and in Feverish ones , there is daily an offence committed in the excess of either Choler , as also , in the penury of blood : Whence it follows , that the primary and principal scope of nature is conuersant about the framing of both the aforesaid excrementous Cholers . Who therefore from so many absurdities , shall not see and discern the falshood of the supposed position ? I therefore supposed further , that the Schooles teach black Choler to be sharp : But they prove that , because it being rejected by vomit , and falling on the earth , if it be over-covered with Earth , it ferments it : The foundation of this blockish argument I have already above oppressed . Secondly they reach , that black Choler is now and then made of yellow Choler being re-cocted , or abundantly cocted ; as if yellow Choler did at length , of its own free accord , flow down into black , as it were its ultimate end : which positions of the Schools , many absurdities do accompany . For first of all , the Schools contradict themselves in this , that they determine four Humours , and also those to be bred or made by the same motion of digestion ; to wit , if the composition of the blood doth happen from four Humours being conjoyned . Secondly , they struggle with themselves , while they teach , that yellow Choler in cocting , is terminated into a Leeky and Cankery Choler : That is , to put on a green Colour , and in the mean time , to increase in bitterness . Therefore black Choler is not sharp from an overcocting of yellow Choler , neither doth that arise from this : else , either the coction of nature is not single in the same body , and promoted by the same ruler of digestion ; or surely , that which is rejected , being sometimes sharp and black , is not black Choler : Unlesse that perhaps both may be alike deservedly denied : And then , where , and after what manner , shall yellow Choler be overcocted ? For not in the Liver , where the slender little veins do not undergo the delay of cocting ; to wit , they being filled with continual blood , and urine passing thorow them . Neither in the next place , shall black Choler be made of yellow Choler re-cocted in the veins of the mesentry ; seeing these are continually extended with sucking of the meats , and with the passing of drinks thorow them ; and the recoction of yellow Choler should not only be for an impediment , but moreover , for a contagion to the fresh Chyle tending unto the shop of Sanguification : But if indeed yellow Choler be recocted neither beneath , nor above the Liver , nor at length in the little branches themselves of the Liver , that from thence it may be made black Choler ; but yellow Choler be brought to the Spleen , that in that Bowel , a transmutation of yellow Choler into black , and of bitter into sharp , may happen ; then at leastwise , they ought to have remembred , that that being granted , now black Choler , or a fourth Humour should fail for the Composition the blood , and that the blood should be only composed of the other three : Which thing utterly overthrows the position of the sanguification of the Schools . At length , to what end shall the recocting of yellow Choler into black serve ? If an hostile , Element and earthy , sayling in the blood , should a while after arise from thence ? Is nature so greatly buisied in preparing of Humours that are forthwith to be banished ? And the which a little after , I shall shew to be Non-beings ? Meer fictions designed to no end ? Next , by what means shall yellow Choler draw that sharpnesse to it self , from bitternesse , they being hostile qualities unto all bowels , out of stomach ? If it directly passeth over into an ordinary and natural Humour ? How shall a fiery Humour , through a delay of coction , assume the heat of cankered rust , especially under the same slow and vital luke-warmth ? And shall be made a black , sharp , and Earthy dreg ? Is therefore perhaps . Earth materially bred of a fiery Water being re-cocted ? In what part of the world also doth a sharp thing proceed from a bitter thing being thickned ? And from whence have the Schools learned this feigned Metamorphosis ? Is happily that sharp , black , and earthy Humour , a certain singular Humour , one of the four Elementary humours of the three Elements ? But therefore it is false , that they have affirmed the same to be made of re-cocted , and burnt Choler . Yea moreover , it is to be feared , least it be to be called a fifth Humour ; which as yet hath not had another like unto it self , and that this shall be no lesse necessary than the other four , if they as yet dare to devise four other Humours : For truly this is a sharp one , unworthy of the family of Choler ; The which is wholly spoiled of every property hereof , to wit , which is a sharp , grosse , black , thickned , re-cocted , cold , Earthy , and leaden Humour : But where have the Schools learned , to call Earth a black , sharp , cold , and dry fire , that they may begin a fourth and Elementary Humour requisite for the integrity and consistence of the blood ? Consider Reader with pity whither the enfolded absurdity of a fiction hath driven the Schools , that through the penury or scantiness of names , and truth , they have made two Elements , and feigned Humours from thence , a cold Earth , and also , a bitter , sharp , soure , and fiery liquour ? And that they have called it yellow Choler , and also , the same , presently , black , sharp , bitter and foure Choler ? Alas ! they may fear a deadly chance will befall them , since they have now proceeded in stumbling for so many ages , and in running away , so miserable lyed : But at leastwise , I conjecture , that this new branch of black Choler , hath not a sure assertion in the constant dulnesse of the Schools ( the which I at first demonstrated to have been the nourishable blood of the Spleen , sometimes becoming degenerate through a sinister event ) nor to be requisite from the beginning , and for the constitution of the blood : but that it is said to be produced from degenerate Choler , by re-coction , in stead of a privy shift ; to wit , that they may after some sort , free themselves from so many perplexities of absurdities : At least wise , they are compelled rather to grant , that that black sour liquour ; being now and then rejected through the vice of the Spleen , is an excrementious , unprofitable dreg , and not an Humour made from the intent of nature . However otherwise it is , if they say it issues forth from the intent of nature , ( although that be the more rarely beheld ) and not likewise from yellow Cholet being first re-cocted ; at least wise , it hath attained the underserved name , and property ( for neither do the Schools sufficiently explaine themselves , they wandring in an unconstancy of their own recieved opinion ) of Choler , which is of a fiery and Gawly property : Now earth shall sometimes be nothing besides fire being thickned , if the feigned Humours do fitly square with the Elements attributed unto them : Also yellow , and black Choler shall be made at once , and by the same agent of lukewarmth , that both Cholers may answer to one earth : Especially , seeing now it is manifest , that fire can no more be , than it is of the number of Elements . But if indeed , three Humours are sufficient for three only Elements , why have they invented four ? For that is to have been willing to compel nature according to the imagined errours of dreams ; and through rashnesse already accustomed , to have confirmed heathenish follies , without the gift of the light of healing : But how will four square to three ? The which if they do not square , let not , likewise , the Schools proceed henceforward , stubbornly to defend the paganisme of the Antients : For truly , to be willing to cure by such lyes of pagans , is to have introduced a destructive and erroneous practise , unto ones own damnation , and the calamities of ones neighbour . If therefore black Choler appeareth not in the Liver to be remarkable by its properties ; nor in the spleen , from yellow Choler being recocted , or from roasted Gaul ; yea nor from a proper intention of nature , nor likewise , is a secondary nourishable Humour ; certainly , there is no yellow , as neither any black Choler : Yea , if both Cholers be a daily Humour , and the constitutive parts of the blood ; and likewise , if both Cholers are a daily superfluity designed unto their own sinkes : Therefore also , the dung shall by a like priviledge , be an excrement , not indeed of the meats , but of the blood , because it is tinged by yellow Choler . But truly the offices of either Choler appointed by the Schools are too stupid : To wit , that nature shall of necessity , be alwaies diligently carefull for the generating of yellow Choler , for the tincture and bitternesse of the dung and urine ( although this tast be wanting to them both ) as also , for a spur of the avoyding or expulsive faculty . Again , to what end ought the stomack to have been spurred up by yesterdays black Choler , being first defiled with sharpness ? For truly , the stomach is endowed nolesse with a proper expulsive faculty , than with an attractive , or retentive one : Why likewise doth black Choler ( which from its own , buttery is not only feigned to be bitter and sharp ; but to be also perniciously soure ) degenerate into soure , that it may inject a spur into the stomach ? Since that which is soure , according to the Schools , rather bindes or restraines . Let it therefore shame judicious men to tell of yellow Choler and Gauly , and that it is required to be bitter for the tincture of the urine ; seeing that in urine , there is never any bitternesse found . And let it shame them , in a matter of so great moment , as is the Temple of the Holy spirit , to maintain these Cholers for the composing parts of the blood ; And so , to have directed the government , and doctrine of non-beings , unto ends impossible to be true : For if as well the Gaul as the Spleen , are receptacles defigned only for excrementitious filths ; let them blush , while as they behold the Spleen alone , to have more arteries than all the Bowels together : And let them consider why there was need of so many Arteries for the sink of a most disgracefull superfluity . And whether that be not to have accused the most glorious Authour of life , of errour , who had given more of internal life unto one sink of filths , than to all the palaces of life being put together : And who hath commanded the heart continually and without ceasing to labour , that it may transmit sufficient spirits of life unto the Spleen , by perhaps four hundred Arteries : Had not otherwise , the Arbitrator of nature , better placed the life for more worthy uses ? And therefore , he had commanded a little of black Choler to be bred and made ( while as according to Galen concerning hony , these or those Humours do become few , or many , not from the complexion , and goodnesse of the meats , but from the endeavour of the Liver alone ) and had endowed pernicious filths with a far more ample passage , and that far remote from a Noble bowel ( For the Creator seemes to be accused by the Schools , as forgetfull of his ends ) That as the Bowels do together , and at once , empty out their whole yesterdays fardle ; so also that the Spleen might at one only turn , empty out its stuff , and preserve our body free from so great an enemy . For if black Choler be an excrement ; truly by how much the sooner and cleaner it is evacuated , by so much also , the better : Even as the bladder is not delighted with reteined urine , as neither is the long gut delighted with excrementitious filths reteined in it for a treasure : But they rejoyce to be freed from their fardle , at one only turn , and that with speed : Therefore the Schools by consequence , do wickedly accuse the Creatour to be guilty , as that he was either ignorant of the aforesaid ends , or as passing them by that he was unmindfull of them : Because he was he , who would have an hurtfull excrement daily to increase in abundance , to be plentifully brought from far , through the slender veins , by a retrograde motion , unto the opposite Spleen , and by a strict channel to be unloaded into the stomach ; and least happily , the sink thereof should be hurt by its guest , he had appointed so many Arteries as chief over it , that the whole Spleen might shew forth nothing besides a folding together of Arteries . Fie ! let so great rashnesse of men depart . And indeed they alike equally doate concerning the Gaul ; While they know not , that the very liquor of the Gaul is a vital bowel , no lesse than the membrane of the stomach , the very sustance of the heart , or the marrowy substance of the brain are : And that thing , at least they ought to have learned out of Tobiah , as having long since perfectly taught it : For Raphael ( which name of a spirit , sounds , the medicine of God ) commanded the Gaul to be transported , but not the fish , which otherwise had readily putrified ; But not the balsamical Gaul : The Gaul therefore , supplyed the room of a balsam beyond the condition of the blood , flesh , carcase , bones of an ordinary bowel ; Because it holds the stern of life in us : Even as elsewhere concerning digestions , and the use of the Gaul . Lastly they affirme a childish thing : That since a sufficient quantity , yea too much of Gaul for its own uses , is generated , neverthelesse they bid that the very little bag of the Gaul do remain the treasural buttery of that excrement , to be always filled with that banished dreg : Whereas otherwise , if that should have the appearance of truth , the Gaul ought daily and speedily to be unloaded after the manner of the bladder , because it should rejoyce in its expulsion , but not always to swel by deteining it , unlesse it were a bowel . Which due hastening of expulsion , and unburdening , since otherwise , it is not seen in the Gaul , as neither in the Spleen ; it is for an undoubted sign , that the Gentiles have exposed their own fictions to sale , unto the credulous , and that they were not illuminated by the Giver of lights : And likewise that the Schools of the Gentiles do even unto this day , by their own followers , teach and believe hurtfull fables for the institutions of healing , and therefore that they do cruelly slip in their practise according to the deceitfull agreements of ages , after the same tenour as in times past : To wit , that four Humours , and meer non-beings , were never true , necessary , and existing : indeed , that the dreams of Ancestours , and their diligently taught fictions have remained subscribed unto , from the carelessnesse of a diligent search : Because the Schools in their doctrine concerning Humours , fail in the causes , original , tast , effect , end , sequestration , appropriation , as to the Elements , temperament , co-mixture , Elementary qualities , peculiar properties , and the whole necessities of nature and Phylosophy . Surely in teaching a false art of healing , they have walked with a most damnable dullnesse , and do walk with the like shamefull blindnesse at this day . I have said little of Phlegm , for if I shall speak what they write of that , that it is daily most plentifully made , being mixed with the blood , and that at length it is changed into blood . First , it is sufficient , that I have demonstrated the same to be the fibers of the blood , or the blood it self speedily hastening unto the bound of the digestion of the solid parts , and so that it hath now somewhat entred the threshold of a secondary nourishable Humour : Then next , that I have shewn , that trifles do voluntarily rush down with their own weight , while as now for that very cause , they take away their own quaternary of Humours , if Phlegm be blood beginning , or not yet sufficiently digested : But because the Schools for the most part , prove Phlegm by snivel , I will here speak something of this excrement ; To wit , I will shew , that the Scholes are altogether ignorant of what the muck or Snivel is , while they define the same to be a Phlegmatick excrement of the brain , and a superfluous excrement of nature , and as if a superfluity , perhaps of somany ounces in one only day , were a necessary remainder from the blood received into the digestion of the brain : which particulars I have elsewhere profesly touched at , in the treatise concerning the Latex , and also of the erring keeper : So here I will only demonstrate them by the way . For truly I have stood by , when as Hellebor , Turbith , Tobacco , &c. Were beaten , and presently I have sneezed diverse times , and my nostrils did not only drop down plenty of waterish snivel , but also , of snotty snivel . Any old woman might presently think , that that snivel had not bewrayed it self , if I had not drawn up the flying dust of those things : Therefore it was not in the head before , but was made there ; To wit , If the pipe were open , and yet it did not flow forth : If therefore ; that salt snivel be the proper excrement of the Brain , it is the remainder of its secondary nourishment , being there left after the finished digestion of that part : But not that ; For it had flown forth of its own accord , and without the odour of things , which it did not : Therefore it was made , not from the superfluity of the nourishment , but from the nourishment degenerating , or degenerated : After another manner , the brain hath an excrement after the manner of other solid parts , to wit , the which is dispersed into the encompassing aire , by an unperceivable transpiration : But the snivel allured forth by Tobacco , or other sneezing things , is plainly like to ordinary snivel ; but that snivel which is violently stirred up , is not the excrement of the digestion of the brain ; therefore neither is it the ordinary snivel : But it is speedily made , and that in very much quantity ; yea and without a presently manifest hurting of the brain : otherwise , if it should degenerate through a defect of the digestive faculty , the head should of necessity also be ill at ease : But the consequence is false ; therefore also the supposed antecedent . Therefore , there is another certain faculty , besides the ordinary and principal nourishing one of the Brain , which produceth such snivel at the meeting of the forreign and troublesome odour , powder , air , or obstruction internal unto it : The which surely differs very much , according to the varieties of that forreign thing meeting with the faculty : For a sign , that that faculty ( which I name the keeper , being prefixed as well before the wind-pipe as the nostrills ) being diversly affected by things encountering , it doth presently bring forth diverse snivels in its own Cabinets , out of the Masse of the Latex . But I admire , that none hath hitherto taken notice of these faculties , extended as well in the windepipe , as in the passage even unto the organ of smelling : but that by rudely passing over the whole , it is referred unto the phlegm of the Brain . The Schools therefore bravely shew an hurtfull excrement of the Brain , begotten indeed by they know not what Parents : but they have not yet made manifest the essence , existence , or appearing thinglinesse of phlegm , and of a fourth Humour , which they together with the rest , have erected for a pillar of medicinal affaires . I wish there may be another Sampson , who may desh the two pillars of Choler , and the one of phlegm , in pieces , and overthrow the appearing Palace , which the Evil spirit hath even hitherto prolonged , to the deciet of mortals . CHAP. III. The dissembled or feigned vomiting of Choler . 1. The neat invention of four Humours . 2. They shew afalse phlegm . 3. Choler hath remained undistinct . 4. An absurdity in black choler . 5. How they prove yellow choler . 6. What that bitter and yellow matter may be , which is cast forth by vomit . 7. From the handicraft operation of a calf . 8. That it is not Gaul which is cast out . 9. This bitter supersluity is bred from a fore-fold errour . 10. A faulty argument of the Schools . 11. An objection , with a begging of the principle . 12. It is proved by a manifold argument , that it is not Gaul which a Tertian Ague casts up about its beginning . 13. That an hungry stomach drawes not choler from the Gaul . 14. The chest of the Gaul wants an upper entrance . 15. The Gaul should not suffice all the fictions of the Schools . 16. That the reason of choler is not to be fecht from fire . 17. The absurd fiction whereunto they are compelled . 18. That fire cannot subsist without an actuall burning . 19. A priviledged Humour for the air , is fegned . 20. Some absurdities accompanying both the cholers . 21. Some absurdities accompanying phlegm . 22. VVhat that may be , which they imagine to be phlegm in the blood . 23. After what sort the Authour departs from the Schools herein . THe doctrine of Humours is too Antient , and firmly rooted , than that it can fall to the ground by Engines lightly assaulting it : Because men depart with difficulty from what they have been accustomed unto : The wart , the root of the evil , which hath been once pluckt off , it is to be feared least it spring again ; especially that which hath already every where obtained a sprout : Because there will be those who knowing no better , shall see themselves as it were excluded from medicine , and through indignation , will shut the doores against truth knocking : Others , who have grown old in sluggishnesse , being unapt to learn better things , will despise others before themselves . I will go against them : For indeed , when Physitians had seen the blood ofthe of the veins to be thickned into clots , they considered that there was a certain red liquour , and running , and also another , which in the beginning indeed flowed with the red liquour , but that it soon setled and clotted into a jelly , of its own accord : For such was the primitive inspection and Anatomy of the blood : It hath also been believed hitherto , that the blood is at least , that red and fluid liquour ; And it hath been unknown , that although in the Meseraick veins , fibers , and the beginnings and rudiments of sperm or seedinesse were not yet obtained , yet that true obtained , not yet fibrous , was in the same place ; because they might see the blood in the veins under the Liver , not to differ by way of colour , from the blood of the hollow vein above the Liver . As soon therefore , as the ham of a virgin being let down into water , they let blood from her ; they with joy observed , that the blood immediately tinged the water , and moreover , certain threddy fibers resembling as it were the liknesse of a cobweb ; whence the Schools without delay , pronounced , that phlegm was now manifestly to be seen : And also our doctrine might be judged a brawling about a name , if a fiber did not appear after the death of the blood onely : For in a dead carcase also , long after the colds of death , the blood notwithstanding , remaines un-coagulated in the veins , and therefore , so long is alive . For milk hath not this phlegm , because in the seperation of its heterogeneal parts , it hath Cheese and clots wherewith it is constrained : For I speak of milk , and blood , even as they are Beings existing entire in act , they being not seperated through corruption : But the Schools behold the blood while it is now a dead carcase , being coagulated , neither properly while it is that any longer , the Etymology whereof , it hath as long as it floweth ; No more then a dead man , is a man with an estranging particular . They also presently added a third Humour to the blood , which should be the Gaul , nor that as yet , different from the Wheyie urine and sweat , and the Water accidentally swimming on the blood ; neither have they heeded whether it were bitter , and whether from a deserved title , it possessed the properties of the Gaul or not : It hath been sufficient and pleasing to them , that it should be a watery liquour , or barely of a clayie colour . For the law of founding the Gaul was in the pleasure of the Prince of Physitians ; but not any longer of nature : He fell into the meditation of four Elements , yet a fourth Humour was wanting ; wherefore , that their number might answer to the Elements , which were thought to be four , and to flow together , well nigh , unto every constitution of a body , a fourth Humour was seasonably devised , being therefore like unto earth , and black , the which while they long , in vain enquired into , they at length , by a proper and rash boldnesse , commanded it to proceed from a re-cocted fiery and Gauly liquour , so as that Choler , the name being retained , was commanded to degenerate from yellow into black , and from an invented fiery liquour , an earthy one proceeded . And its bitternesse ( for in live bodies they have commanded it to be presently scorched , roasted and fried at pleasure , with an equal importunity ) being roasted into an adust Gaul , they have willed to assume a sharpness under the Lukewarmth of life ; and so , of a fiery matter , a cold and earthy product to be immediatly made by an act of the fire , and lukewarmth . The modern Schools in the mean time , kick against it at unawares , while as they accuse any distilled things of an heat borrowed from corruption of matter : For as the former feigned black Choler , which might fill up the number of Elements , they at length prosecuted it with all conjectures , although ridiculous ones . For so , they introduced yellow Choler by the jaundise and bitter vomitings , for a foundation of nature , and art : Truly the liquour swimming on the blood let out of the veins , since it shewed forth no bitternesse at all , young beginners might even from thence have doubted of the nature of Gaul , if they had but once only lightly tasted a finger dipped therein : Wherefore when the Schools observed , that by vomit , yellow , and also bitter excrements were frequently cast out ; yea that now and then they dissembled the juice of a Leek , of disolved Verdigrease , or the infusion of an Azure stone , they determined of Choler more certainly than certainty it self . Neither was it any longer to be disputed concerning it , as neither against him that denied such principles ( but of the Choler of the Urine , I will by and by speak under the inspection of urine ) and afterwards they boldly also affirmed , that Choler to be in the urine , in any dungs whatsoever , and also in the filths of the ears , and eyes : But the jaundise hath more fully confirmed this doctrine , because it is that , which overspreads the mouth and spittle with bitternesse , and stirs up the itching of a Citron-coloured skin . Therefore it hath easily been believed , that all these same effects are borrowed from the Gaul : Yea , they have affirmed that all such diseases of the skin are from adust Gaul , and offending as wel in quantity as in quality , and from the vice of the Liver , in bringing forth more Gaul than is meet ; To wit , by which circumstances , they have supposed , that they have sufficiently and over proved the existence , and necessary association of Choler : From hence afterwards , arose a dream which conjoyned those four Humours together , they remayning in their essence , and that from a co-heaping thereof , one only blood did from thence proceed , and that every humour did again rebound from the connexion and composure of the blood as oft as it should please an Elementary strife , to wit , a distemper , or at the pleasures of Laxative medicines . I will now willingly declare , openly mine own , and those , daily observations : For first of all , if the more plentifull , hard , and scarce sufficiently chewed meat be taken at supper ; on the morning following , yellow vomiting , and bitter , in the shew of yolk of eggs , or otherwise , like Oyl pressed out of the seed of Rape roots , frequently succeedeth : From thence therefore , first , I conjectured , that that was through an errour of the digestion of the Stomach ; but not from a vice of the Liver , from a defect of Sanguification , or the making of an abundance of Choler : For truly oftimes , meats badly digested and chewed , being partly turned into an yellow balast , are beheld to be cast up together with the same vomit . And then , I conjectured , that the rules of Sanguification standing , those yellow and bitter excrements , were neither Choler , nor Gaul , and much lesse a constitutive part of the blood : Because they were neither as yet slidden of the Stomach , nor therefore experienced in the Sanguification of the Liver , but through a long delay , and the smal veins of those of the mesentery . Wherefore likewise , that neither was there a passage from the Liver unto the Stomack , but by the same passages , being very remote , and impossible to be believed : Especially , while as the badly withdrawn meats are seen to come forth whole , togethe with the yellow and bitter vomiting . Furthermore , I learned by the example of a Calf , and ocular inspection , that this yellow rubbish was generated in a Stomach being badly disposed ; and more regularly in the gut Duodenum , in temperate bruit beasts : Seeing also , that the suckings of Milk recieved , do wax yellow in the gut Ileon : For a Calf drinking only his mothers Milk , sheweth , presently after death , that the Milk presently clots into a sharpish curd , and watery acide liquor ; both of them being much desired for the making of Cheeses : This curdy runnet I say , presently after , layes aside the whitenesse of Milk in the Stomach , becomes brown , and in the Duodenum , and beginning of the Ileon , waxeth yellowish ; afterwards in its progresse it is more fully yellow , but further , it is plainly made of a Citron colour ; but about the blind gut it waxeth greenish : Last of all it becomes dungy . Let the Schooles therefore shew , whether those colours are made from a yellow and Leeky Choler ? While as in the mean time , they are so changed before their coming into the Liver ? Or whether indeed , these colours are made from the property of the Bowels ? In like manner , infants having sucked Milk , do presently cackya Citron coloured excrement , and thou wouldst call it meer Gaul , and the Schools are constrained to confesse , that all little infants are at their first beginning , more cholerick than men themselves ; whom notwithstanding , their age , food of milk , smal heat , continual sleeping , and want of excercise , do excuse from the suspition of Choler : But if the infant suffers gripes , or the sumptomes of sharpnesses , by and by after , the same dung becomes greenish , and so much the more , by how much it shall depart the farther from health . Whence it is made manifest , that the Milk , as well in us as in braits , is made of a Citron or deep yellow colour , by a digestion of its own ; to wit , that all Cream , in sliding by the voluntary thred of nature , and corruption , unto an excrement , and by its own motion , waxeth yellow , through the proper endeavour of the Stomach and intestine● . And that it is most easily estranged , looks yellow , green , and obtains diverse savours or tasts , under the digestive faculty going astray : But not that therefore it is , or is made Gaul . For these excrements are made in the Bowels , out of the shop of the Liver , and by strange faculties , nor in a Fold committed unto the making of blood : For truly , if the Gaul be a constitutive part of the blood , for that very cause , it is made also , in the place , and matter wherein , and whereof the blood is generated , but not in the intestine : For the first change of the milk should be into yellow , or green Gaul , and that naturally , and from thence into blood . That yellow Cream therefore , doth presently , of its own accord , profit in the Duodenum . and puts on those colours , not of feigned Humours , but of a natural excrement : Wherefore , neither is it a wonder , that the same thing happens in the Stomach , being hard-bound or distressed under any guilt of offence whatsoever ; To wit , that the whole Cream conteined therein , is presently translated into a vitious bitter , and yellow Chyle , the which in the Jaundise presently happens . In the mean time , in the running of the Chyle downwards thorow the gut Ileon , it is sucked into the veins , whatsoever the Archeus hath judged to be not only most nearly allyed to nature , and meet for the preparing of blood ; but moreover also , the whole Whey ascends towards the Liver , together with it . But if therefore , the Chyle doth fore-timely assume the countenance of an excrement about the hedges of the Stomach , as being prevented by the errour of the digestive faculty ; either an offence of the Pylorus , or an errour of the digestive faculty , or a vice of the food or Cream , or too much delay is signified : And therefore that it hath felt the vital ferment of the Gaul to be amiffe or badly applyed : For so oft-times , it happens unto him that is in good health , that good Cream being offered , and rightly subdued in the Stomach , is ( a Laxative cup being offered ) estranged from the scope of nature , and through that tyranny , is wholly made a bitter , and yellow putrefaction in the bowels . And the which , although it be cadaverous or stinking , and being newly produced from the blood ; yet by reason of its bitternesse , and the poyson of the solutive medicine , it is not tasted down by dogs , as neither by a swine ; they otherwise , lesse abhorring the eating of dungs : For they percieve a bitter poyson of the purging medicine to subsist , being far different from the goodnesse of Meats , blood , and flesh . Be it therefore a faulty argument ; The poysonous medicine hath caused a bitter juice from the Meats , drink , and blood ; therefore it is Gaul and Choler : And likewise , the Stomach being ill at ease , hath caused a bitter excrement ; therefore it is Gaul and Choler procreated in the Liver , and poured out into the Stomach , through indirect trunks : It is plainly an undiscreet fiction , that Choler is a part intended by nature , and that it should be framed by the Liver , which from the corrupting of a solutive medicine , and vice of the digestive faculty , in the disease called Choler , the bloody flux , &c. is commonly bred by proper causes : As if the off-spring , effects , fruits , and products of errours , were a constitutive part of our blood . Therefore , that which the Schools name a native part of the blood , a compeer with putrifying Chyle , and Choler or Gaul ; That is wholly a meer excrement , alienated and degenerate , from a natural agent being badly disposed : So also , the filths of the eares shall be Gaul , if yellownesse and bitternesse be sufficient for it to be called Gaul : which being granted , now that yellow excrement which is rejected by vomit , as dung , shall be near skin to , and of the family of the blood . But at leastwise , the Schools will have the yellow and bitter excrement which is rejected at the beginnings of a Tertian Ague , to denounce gaul infallibly : for they prove gaul from a Tertian ; and this again , they prove to be gauly , from gaul being cast up . First of all , they consider not , whether such vomiting shall succeed from an aguish fit , or next , in one that is in good health , from an inordinate supper , &c. That notwithstanding , the property or nature of that excrement is not therefore changed , otherwise , so great an ejection of meer Choler , should import a trampling of the Tertian under foot , if this were caused from choler ; wherefore it is neither choler , nor gaul , but the meer excrement of the stomach , and Jejunum or empty gut : Because that yellow excrement which is ejected at the beginning of a Tertian , comes not from the liver , or gaul , and so , from the shop of Choler ; but it comes not far off from the orifice of the stomach , to wit , where its birth is ; but not from the Liver ; seeing it neither takes away the ague , nor even diminish it . And likewise , it ought to be derived from the liver unto the stomach , through unknown thwarting passages : wherefore , neither could it come thither easily , nor readily ( even as otherwise , it is quickly present in the like vomiting , and choler ) nor safely , nor unmixt , and it should sail over far more safely from the gaul into the intestines ; and from the liver backwards , through the veins of the Mesentery , than unto the sensible orifice of the stomach . Indeed , as well the feigned shop of choler , as the very seat of a Tertian it self , is placed too far from the stomach , that this may be the ordinary Emunctory or avoiding place , in these maladies : Why therefore is gaul brought rather unto the stomach , than to the bowels , which are far more prone and apt : For if that bitter excrement be bred elsewhere than in the stomach , it is altogether impertinently , and through a guilty passage derived unto the stomach . And likewise , there is oft-times sixfold more of this yellow and bitter Balast rejected at one only vomiting , than the largeness of the little bag of the gaul can receive : The which therefore , could not be the Inn of that gaul , as neither could it obtain a capacity in the liver for its generation , nor be entertained between the liver and the stomach , without a mortal hurt , full of confusion . But if indeed it be gaul , and the product of the stomach it self ; now the stomach hath stoln the faculty of making gaul , from the liver : and now , choler and gaul shall be made out of the liver , in a different Inn , by a different Guide , and equivalent workman , from that whereby the simple bloud is prepared with it self ; or certainly there is no Choler of the essential composute of the bloud . Is peradventure therefore , this choler and this gaul , which is rejected by vomit , made in an irregular place , and by an erring workman ? Therefore also , of necessity , it shall be neither choler , nor gaul . But there is nothing as yet manifested concerning another choler , that of the bloud : It is therefore an injurious thing to the bloud , and to the inbred choler of this , if there were any , to be founded and proved by an excrement which is never prepared by the princiciples , or in the shops of choler . Yea , from thence there is an equal right and liberty for whatsoever is supposed to be cholery , to be compared in essence , colour , savour , and in its efficient cause , unto this poysonous excrement voided by vomit in a Tertian Ague , and other nauseous effects ; and likewise , for that which in the disease called choler , is expelled as well upwards , as downwards , and in solutive medicines , through a continual framing thereof . And so now , from hence it clearly appeareth , that the Standard-defending inventers of choler , have by a rash and undiscreet boldness , introduced choler for an elementary apposition or making up of the bloud ( which they call its composition ) and have falsly affirmed , that yellow and bitter vomited-up excrement to be gaul and choler , from the efficiency of the liver , and of the constitution of the bloud . For how uncertain and stupid is the begetter , separater , sender , conducter , way and channel , by which that choler should be designed from the liver unto the stomach , by a retrograde motion ? unless they had rather that the obediences and necessities of these should be foolish . But the Schools have never examined these things , but with a swift foot they have skipped over the bridge and clay , from whence they feared perplexities from absurdities , as if they gaped only after gain ; the which , notwithstanding , they might have diligently searched into , to their greater profit , than to have daily over-added their own centuries unto the writings of Galen . For neither doth an excrement less differ from the bloud , than the dead carkass of a swine from a man : For that carkass was at sometime alive , but that excrement never lived . But it hath been already proved , that no choler is formed in the liver . But if choler also , be made elsewhere than in the liver , from this supposition of the Schools also , it was not true choler ; and much less from the essence of that ( to wit , of an excrement ) shall the essence of Choler be capable of proof : but if indeed Choler shall with any foot , originally enter into the family of an excrement ; now , for that very cause , it shall be an Humour different from Choler ; the which notwithstanding , the Schools do with a serious intention , will to be intended , caused , and desired by our nature , as if they were advertized by an Elementary necessity . At leastwise , none of a sound mind is able to understand , why the veins of the stomach ( which I have demonstrated elsewhere , never to be able to sup any chyle at all ) shall allure unto themselves as a freind , that which the Liver , and which the veins , and the whole family-administration of the body have been once seriously averse unto , as worthy of banishment : which indeed so naughty a Fardle being begotten in some other place , being a Bastard and Forreigner , should be brought unto the stomack , which possesseth the Sense , Nobilities , passions , and tenderness of the heart . Surely in an inverted and confused order of things , should filths be thrust down unto a bowel expressing the harmonies of the heart , if they should be adopted , being as forreigners comming from elsewhere . Who is that mad and straying guide , which may thrust down such excrements to the stomach . For no● the term of Choler ceaseth , while as the reliques of yesterdays supper are supposed to be badly digested , and to be cast back again as yet whole , with an unchewing tooth , yet yellow , and bitter : For neither are they correlative things , that much Choler should flow forth into the stomach , as oft as any notable vice hereof is present : For after a liberal and troublesome supper , even as also , after the fit of a Fever , loss of appetite , sufferance of hunger , bitter , burntish belchings , loathings , weight , giddinesse of the head , &c. are alike present : wherefore it is easily to be believed , that those sumptoms have also sprung from a like mother : So that ( which I promised in the title ) it is nothing but a dissembled vomiting of Choler , whereby the first inventers of Humours have credulously perswaded Choler . They also say , that therefore Choler is also drawn out of the little bladder of the Gaul , unto an hungry stomach : But by how sluggish a judgment that is confirmed , and that filths are by a retrograde driving motion fetcht back unto the stomach , let Phylosophers speak : For hunger desires not iron , or ice ; but is only carried forth unto objects that are to be eaten , from whence nature hopes for nourishment to her self : But it is not carried promiscuously towards any objects : So neither doth nature desire , that which she had once cast out as reprobate ; As knowing , that any thing cannot be made out of every thing : neither therefore doth she hope for or look for nourishment from an excrement ; The which , she therefore neither desires nor allures to her self : And I wish the Schools had considered that thing , before their rash doctrine of Choler . I grant indeed , that through inordinacies , inordinate and confused obediences do now and then follow : But I shall not therefore admit , that a sixfold quantity is drawn out of the little bag of the Gaul , for vomit , as neither that any thing is rashly drawn to the stomach ; Seeing the very Gaul it self is a Nobie and vital Bowel , even as elsewhere . Wherefore , I now and then , in the more curiously searching , have lookt into the chest of the Gaul ; and yet I have found no passage to lay open a-top , out of the Liver unto the Gaul ; and that I suppose in right , for the deed done : Wherefore I have also judged , the Gaul not to be made by the Liver ; but to be prepared materially of the pure blood of the Liver , and efficiently by the proper Archeus of the Gaul , in its own case or Chest . At leastwise , if there were any unpercievable pore , ( which there is not ) that might inspire Choler from the Liver unto the chest of the Gaul ; why therefore doth the mouth at the utterance of the Gaul , lay open fifty times more at least , for the ejecting , than for the entring of Gaul ? For truly , no entrance could as yet be discerningly viewed by the eye , for so many ages . Is there not also , from hence an easy confirmation , that the orifice of the Gaul tends into the empty gut , only for an in-breathing of its own vital and necessary ferment ? For the Gaul in a Tertian , should never be sufficient for tinging of the urine , the drosses of the paunch , also for tinging of the daily nourishment , and the which they require for the substance of the blood : Moreover , as neither for the abundance , which even sober persons vomit up , every other day , about the beginnings of their fits : For had it not behoved them from hence to have learned , that whatsoever they call Choler is a meer excrement , procreated from a diseasie constitution ? and that , what is so engendred , cannot repaire the essence of the blood , Choler or Gaul ? Because it is that which hath no right of judging of the necessities of a quaternary , for the integrity of the blood , and an apposition instead of a composition : For as soon as sour belchings are made in the stomach , the presence of that unhappy and bitter excrement made in the stomach of the Chyle being defiled , ceaseth : And therefore from that time , burntish stinking belches depart . It is therefore feigned Choler in the stomach , whereby the Schools contend originaly to stablish the Choler of the Liver alike feigned : it ariseth from the inordinacy of the stomach , but not from the intention of nature for the constitution of the blood . It is therefore wholly an excrement , and badly squares with another Choler feigned to be in the composition of the blood : Because it is that which will never be proved to be within the bounds of nature , since no necessity of its presence presseth the same : For the Gaul is a vital bowel , and exceeding necessary ; Wherefore neither is it rashly to be reckoned sunonymal or of the same name with an Humour , or an excrement , as neither to be accounted for a part of the blood . For they say , that the Elements do repeatingly destroy and devour each other ; But they have hitherto failed in the proof : But they alleadge onely artificial fire , which they think , doth convert water , and air into each other , as oft as those are no longer beheld : But they fail in their own position ; For they teach that fire converteth water into it self , and not into air : And it should be a foolish action of the fire , which should labour not for it self , but for the air : Yea although water quencheth fire , yet it was never seen , that on the other hand fire was made water : For they have thought it sufficient to have stated , and not to have proved their own positions . But among Humours , that which they will have to be made like unto fire , they shew a water , not sharp , biting , as neither salt-bitter , but modestly salt ; and the which , they elsewhere call the Whey of the blood , its Etymologie being drawn from the watery part of Milk : They call I say , Choler an Humour answering to fire : For they command that , that the Elements ought to obey their dreams : For the Schools being seriously asked , say that Choler is an Humour meerly fiery and Gauly , because it is actually composed of fire predominating : But I being silent , as to these trifles , am amazed , while as I behold a waterish whey swimming on the blood . They add also , that true fire is suppressed in Choler , as being masked , and bridled by the form of the mixt body : But let them believe that will , that the form of Choler being received from the meer dominion of fire , that it might produce the effects of that Element in us , should so restrain its own product , wherein it should actually lay hid , that it should be altogether Cold in act , and be a wheyie and meerly a watery Being . I therefore suppose and know , that if but a very smal quantity of actual fire were in a mixt body , that it would presently perish , as being suppressed by adjuncts a Yea , if fire should neverthelesse , persist safe by an irregular power ; at leastwise , it should not any thing worship the form or body of that mixture , but should according to its own disposition , wholly burn and consume it , without reflection , or connivance : Therefore either the fire should cease , or the mixt body of necessity perish : neither could the form of Choler hinder either of the two : For it hath not hitherto been seen , that an artificer who prepares glass , earthen pots , tiles or bricks , Aurichalcum or Latten , &c. by the fire , can in any place , or at any time couple fire unto earth , water , and air , that he may from thence constitute any mixt body , and much lesse that he can allure fire to flow down from Heaven , and shall connex it with air , water , and earth . It s a wonder therefore that the whole faculty of medicine doth hitherto establish its Basis in an impossibility : And so much the more wonderful , that the whole world hath as it were snorted in a deep sleep , at these deaf dreams , and hath befooled all with a credulity ; And so much the more to be admired , that they have believed the fire to be suppressed under other Elements in mixtures , and neverthelesse , as yet to remain safe ; when as notwithstanding , they have sufficiently known and taken notice , that all fire presently as soon as it ceaseth from burning , or is joyned to water , perisheth and is reduced into nothing ; For if the Schools had brought the vital spirit , or sky-le air instead of fire , they might have seemed worthy of pardon : But they had rather become foolish in the dream of Epimenides , than not to have found an Humour like unto fire , that according to lying conceptions , a quaternary of Humours might arise . For , for air , they have feigned a priviledged Humour , which should not be excrementitious , after the manner of its two companions : And therefore they now and then call these , nourishing ones , yet for the most part superfluous ones , if not also liquid dungs : But profitable ones , especially in that respect ; not indeed as if they do nourish the spermatick parts , besides the Cases of the Gaul-chest , and Spleen ; ( but at least , they are most miserable members , which are constrained to be fed only with excrements , and to yield to the priviledge of the kidneys : ) But they note a ridiculous profit of yellow Choler , that it spurs up the fundament , and urine , when as , in the mean time , pale urines are more incontinent than tinged ones : Yea the belly of those that have the jaundise ( which they say , is deprived of Choler by reason of a thy excrements ) is ordinarily , loose enough : But seeing the three Humours which are feigned to be in the blood , differ not from themselves being rejected , but only in the infamy of supersluity ; the radical moisture it self could not but be nourished by excrements , if both the Cholers , and phlegm were for nourishing . But that a plenty of Choler ( which they say is daily ) may after some sort be supposed ; There is at least , every other day , in a Tertian ague , a large quantity cast up by vomit , also besides its daily consuming , which they say , is necessary for nourishing : Yea the plenty of this feigned Choler more cleerly appears in the jaundise , which they define , only from a stoppage of the Chest of the Gaul : So that then th● urine is nothing but meer Gaul , and the whole habit of the body ▪ and also the internal parts , the most inward and the most outward , to be Gauly : The which , since they are accounted nothing besides Gaul , it being no longer ejected through the paunch ; Hence it is discerned , that threefold more of Choler at least , is daily generated , than of blood being connexed of the three other Humours together : They being badly mindful , that sixfold more of tincture departs through a jaundisie urine alone , than otherwise , in an healthy person , the belly and urine do utter together : whence at least , it followes , that the jaundise is not the obstruction of the Gaul alone as they think : For the orifice of the Gaul being shut , presently , the Gaul ( say they ) exceeds the whole blood in quantity : For neither is a leeky and cankery tincture ( such as frequently proceedeth out of the stomach ) very frequent in the jaundise . Moreover they say that phlegm is carried with the blood , thorow the veins , and at length changed into blood : So that they constitute the proper shop of the blood , and its promiscuous efficient , as well in the veins as in the Liver : But at leastwise , a quaternary of Humours fagleth , if yellow Choler differs out from black that only in the thickning of re-coction , and if phlegm differs not from blood , but but 〈◊〉 in a lukewarmth and cherishing : For roasted flesh is not wont to be distinguished from raw in kind ; wherefore neither should phlegm dissagree from blood , but only in its maturity , as unripe Apples do from ripe ones : But they could never shew phlegm in the veins , except fibers , which seperate themselves in warm water , by cutting of a vein ; and so , neither do they begin to be , or to be seen , before the death of the blood : For as long as the blood is profitable for nourishing of the parts , the more solid part thereof was undistinct from the rest of its body ; Because it was a true and entire composure : For that thing is one every side obvious in the frame of nature : For since nature acteth for ends known unto her Authour ; one-part always more readily receiveth the impressions of the Archeus , than another : For the end of the venal blood was a nourishing of the solid members ; And therefore it by little and little , breaths after , and attaines the degrees of solidity : The blood therefore , as soon as it is perfected in the Liver , it assumeth in its more mature , and more spermatick part , white fibers or threds , and the beginnings of a desired homogeneal curd , which at first , it had not in the veins of the mesentery , as is manifest in those have the bloody flux . Indeed it is therefore , the best and most-perfect part of the blood which the Schools call phlegm , and the which I know to be akin to a more solid and spermatick constitution : The Schools ( I say ) name phlegm the daughter of crudity ; old age , and defects , even in a child , a youth , and a man : For I dissent also in this , from the Schools : because for the proving of phlegm , they offer nothing but snivel , meer filths , and liquid dungs to be beheld ; such as is oftentimes cast forth by vomit , the kitchin of the belly being defective : For oft-times , that which is shaved of by a cruel draught , as also the snivel of the nostrils , and that which is spit out by reaching from any vice of the lungs whatsoever , are the meer phlegm of the Schools : which filths indeed , are prepared by diseasifying causes , through the errours of the last digestion . And so great is the dulness of the Schools , that with their own Galen , they condemn the food of sinewes , membranes , tendons , &c. Because they think them to be the mothers of phlegm : Neither do they heed , that the similar parts , and those of the first constitution , are of a spermatick or seedy nature , and those altogether by an undistinct confusion , they call phlegmatick ones : As being ignorant , or at leastwise unmindfull , that we are most nearly or immediately nourished by the same things whereof we consist : And so , if the homogeneral , similar parts , and those of the first constitution , are condemned by the Humourists as phlegmy ; Surely one of these two must needs be true : Either that the Schools know not now to distinguish phlegm from a secondary and spermatick Humour : or plainly that there is no phlegm at all in the blood : And that that which they have supposed to be phlegm in the blood , is the beginning and foundation of the secondary and immediate nourishment of the solid members . Now I must speak of yellow Choler which is supposed to be in urines , with the admiration and grosse ignorance of fore-past ages . CHAP. IV. The signification of the urine according to the Antients . 1. The division of Urines . 2. No unfit observation of Paracelsus . 3. The Authours aime . 4. It hath been erred hitherto in judgment , concerning the circle of the urine . 5. From whence the circle in the urine is . 6. A childish opinion of Galen . 7. It is proved that Gaul is not in the urine . 8. The unconsiderateness of the Schools . 9. VVhat the yellownesse of the urine may betoken . 10. That nothing of Choler or Gaul is in the urine . 11. A threefold errour in this thing . 12. A begging of the principle . 13. That Choler is not snatched out of the urine unto the brain . 14. Some accompanying absurdities . 15. From Anatomy . 16. From the Jaundise . 17. VVhat watery urines suddenly after tinged ones in Fevers , may fundamentally denote . 18. That the prognostications of the urine have been meer dreames hitherto . 19. A channel is wanting . 20. Under the division of motions . 21. The little cloud of the urine , whether it denoteth phlegm . 22. All things are cocted in us for one only end ; to wit , that they may nourish . 23. VVhy the spleen hath a double ferment . 24. VVhat that may be , which the spleen doth sometimes belch forth into the stomach . 25. That any effect is not taken away , the cause being removed . 26. VVhat a confused or troubled urine may be speak . 27. VVhence erudity in the urine is . 28. VVhy the strangury is scarce cured in old folks . 29. Whence the lumpy sediment or ground is . 30. Errours about contents , as well those proper as forreign , elsewhere concerning Duelech . 31. As yet a new method of judging of the urine by the weight thereof . ANd moreover , the Schools for the divination of urine , presuppose a washy of watery matter ; on the opposite part to this , a thick one , and then a moderate one : And likewise , confused , turbulent , dark , even as also cleer and perspicuous urines : But some , of confused ones , do by heating , return into their former transparency ; others remain troubled . Lastly , some urines being made cleer , are presently again disturbed ; but others with difficulty . Secondly , they consider almost all colour , from the watery , white , milky , and dull ; and also from the cleer watery , even unto the blackish colour . Thirdly , its proper , and forreign contents are viewed : Forreign ones indeed , I call , slimy , bloody shavings , sands , and stones : And those either soon affixed to the urinals , or freely setling : But proper contents are those , which are almost ordinarily thrust down out of confused urines , or which swim in cleer ones , in their superficies , a little under it , in the middle about the bottom , or laying on the bottom it self ; and those either cleaving together , or rent asunder . Fourthly , they consider the froath , and bubbles . Fifthly , they at length consider of the circle . But Paracelsus moreover , distinguisheth the body of the urine , into the urine of the drink , and mixt of both : He cals it that of the blood , if he that makes water in the morning hath not as yet drunk , the day before , in the evening , and in the night : But the urine of the drink is that which is collected from much , and little waterish drink : Also he calls that a mixt urine , which is that of sober or temperate persons . Furthermore , what he feigneth concerning an Alcooled , and tartarous urine , shall be manifested in the treatise of Tartars . First of all , I protest , that I do not any where strive to reckon up those things that have been well written by Ancestours , and much lesse to chastize them , nor to handle the precepts of the judgments of urine , nor to explain the inventions of others , as neither to make an Apology for them : But I only desire to discover the Antient errours of the Schools that have arisen from feigned humours , that juniours may not hereafter be led aside according to rash beliefs of dreams . First therefore I will reckon up the errours concerning the circle of the urine ; and then those committed in its colour ; thirdly , those which happen in the little cloud or swim thereof ; and fourthly , I will make manifest those which have happened in the judgments of its coagulations , or contents : From whence , any one may easily understand , that the judgments and prognostications of the urine have hitherto stood without judgment , and a foundation : To wit , that the wonderfull impostures of Gordon have been set to sale unto ignorant poor people , under the false title of a Diviner . First of all therefore , they have stumbled in the circle of the urine , since it hath hitherto been unknown , why the circle is oftentimes , of another colour than the rest of the body of the urine : Indeed it hath been supposed , that the circle is separated from the rest of the body of the urine , as the fat from the watery part , or as it were the cream from the Milk whereon it swims : In the mean time , although the urine be stirred , yet the same circle which was before , forthwith appeareth , and not any thing hath been further searched diligently into , concerning the circle out of its supposed bounds : They see indeed the circle to be oft-times more red , and more full than the colour in the remayning body of the urine : yea , that a more ruddy , and more deep yellowness doth for the most part want a circle distinct from the colour of the urine : Yet have they not diligently enquired , from whence there should be that variety of the the circle and urine : Notwithstanding , neither therefore is the circle a certain colour falsly appearing , and deluding the eyes with a false shew of it self : For neither otherwise , could a somewhat yellow urine , yield a more red , and heightned colour by a naked reflexion of it self ; but should rather paint out a more pale colour , than a yellowish one , if the colour of the circle were only appearing from a reflexion : Therefore the reason of the altered colour in the circle of the urine , dependeth in very deed , on the very body of the urine it self ; And so , the circle alone , shewes the whole consistence , colour , and transparency of the urine , because it conteineth them : which thing the wood Nephritical or for the stone of the kidneys , teacheth by a notable example : For this wood being steeped in rain water , if thou shalt afterwards behold its infusion sideways , it is wholly red in its body ; but that decocted , or infused steepage hath an Azure or Sky-coloured circle , however disturbingly thou shalt shake it at thy pleasure : For so the colour of the blood being beheld thorow a vein , appears of an Azure colour : So also , the sky-colour in the circle of the decoction of the Nephritical wood , is indeed Azury ; but being multiplied , it lookes more black , and of an obscure colour , tends more to white , than a red one , being diametrically seen thorow a glasse , or vein : After the same manner , in the body of the urine a red colour appears simply such , as it doth in the circle ; which being re-bounded or weakned from a crosse the urine , is not of so citron a colour in the circle . The circle therefore , is a true token of colour in transparent urines ; but in dark or thick and troubled ones , a circle doth not apear . But as to what pertains unto the colour of urine ; the Schools say , that a watery , thin , pale urine , is a sign of digestion being deficient , even as that which is tinged with a manifest yellownesse is a token of good digestion . It is a saying of Galen ; I make water after midnight , the which while I see it not yet to be tinged with a due yellowness , I return to sleep : And awaking two or three hours after , I again make water , and I find my urine filled with a due colour : Whence I conjecture that a perfect digestion , and yellow Choler of the Gaul , is now poured on my urine : This is also the moderne doctrine of the Schools : Yet I , as yet doubt , whether the yellownesse of the urine may be always attributed to one cause ; Since they unconstantly attribute it , sometimes unto digestion being finished , but sometimes , unto yellow Choler being mixt therewith : But least they should erre , they have joyned both . I therefore , since I found none who hath distinguished himself herein , am constrained to explain both : For the urine of him that is feverish , is yellower than that of him who is in good health ; yet the digestion of this is far more lively , which thing is without controversy : Therefore let the yellownesse of urine only without a laudable swim , be a deceitfull sign of a good digestion . And then , if but one only drop of Gaul , shall be in two points of urine , the whole becomes bitter : but the urine although of a Citron , and Saffron Colour , is never bitter : Therefore it receives not Gaul admixed with it , nor is the tincture thereof , of Gaul . Truly , if the Schools do judge of things by savors or tasts , why are they so little carefull , as that they have never made tryal of that thing concerning urines ? For doth yellownesse only suffice , that Gaul may be judged to be in urine ? Or is it a more beseeming thing for a Physitian to teach falshoods , and to affirme lyes to the destruction of the sick , than to have once tasted down his own urine ? seeing that not so much as the most full yellow urine of the jaundise , bears any thing of bitternesse before it . Pride therefore hath justly discovered the errour of the Schools : At least wise , it is not to be doubted from the words of these Schools , but that a tincture is added to the urine about the end of digestion . The which , if it be so , why at leastwise , have they not from thence acknowledged the yellownesse of the urine to happen not from Choler or Gaul , but from elsewhere ? Because if Choler were made in sanguification , together with the blood and urine , and being co-bred together with , and sprinckled on the urine from the beginning , should ting the urine ; Choler should neither be the last thing constituted in the Liver , if it were a constitutive part of the blood , and its superfluity should be straightway wiped forth with the urine , neither should it make a seperated Inn for it self , for a time : Or if that be supposed , at least that Inn ought to be named , and by Anatomy to offer it self and to be found . But seeing yellownesse in the urine of Galen , is more late than the body of the urine , a place of the utmost part of the gut Ileon is denoted , where , when as now the cream begins to wax dungy , something of the liquid dung is drawn from thence through the veins of the mesentery , in the end of the Ileon , which is besprinckled on the urine , as profitable for its own ends ( even as before concerning Fevers , and elsewhere concerning the disease of the Stone . ) But that the yellownesse of the urine is of that liquide dung , and in no wise of the Gaul , not only the tast of the urine , but also its distillation do manifestly approve : For truly , the stink therof riseth up in distilling : But for what end , the liquid dung may be conuenient in urine , is taught tin he places cited . Now it is sufficient , that the Gaul of a bird , or fish , being even but slenderly burst , however most exactly they may be washed , yet a bitternesse remains : Therefore if there were but the least of Gaul in the urine , or liquour Latex which swimmeth on the blood let out of the veins , it should be of an unexcusable bitternesse : But the consequence is false , therefore also the antecedent . The Schools therefore , have trebbly erred in this matter . First , while as they being ignorant , that yellow and liquid dung is mixed with the urine , suppose it to be Choler . Secondly , Because from yellownesse alone , and a custome of subscribing , they have conjectured of Choler : As if nothing were of a saffron Colour in us , which ought not also to be Gauly . They indeed prove the same thing by it self : To wit , that Choler is in nature , because it is manifest in the urine : And again , that what is yellow in the urine , that ought to be Choler : Because , with us , nought else but yellow Choler should be of a yellow colour . Thirdly at length : For the judgment erring concerning the ordinary colour , and so concerning the very content of the urine , it must needs be , that prognostications of the urine do fall to the ground , as many as have hitherto been supported by Colours , and contents : But at least wise , since it is now manifest , that the yellownesse of urine is not Choler , but a dungy excrement ; it is no wonder , that another yellow excrement is bred in the stomach , which also is bitter , by a far different , and proper errour of its own ferment , which therefore ought not to be of the family of the Gaul . Furthermore , seeing that in Fevers , yellow urines do suddenly wax pale , and a future doatage is signified , and since that thing is interpreted by the Schools , to come to passe , as Choler is snatched into the brain ; It is a faulty argument , of not the cause , as for the cause . For it is sufficient , that it hath been already demonstrated , that that doating delusion is not bred from Choler snatch't up into the brain ; but because the liquid dung which was wont to go with the urine , is now detained in the Hypochondrial or place about the short ribs ; neither is it mixed with the urine , as it was wont to be : That doatage therefore , draws its original from that seat from whence all madnesses derive theirs , as I teach in its own treatise : For by this title also alone , some madnesses are therefore named Hypochondriacal ones . For otherwise , who should that snatcher of Choler be , which should bring this unmixt , into the brain , and being seperated from the blood of the veins through which it should be brought , or from the urine ? For to what end should it snatch that Choler , since nothing is done without an object , at leastwise appearingly good ? How should he bring it thorow the blood unto the brain , without contagion ? After what manner should it be rightly seperated from the blood : for truly , the supposed Choler swims not on the blood let out of the veins , unlesse the blood be first dead and coagulated in the veins , not so much as in those of a dead carcase ? Again , into which bosome of the brain , at length should that uriny Choler be powred sorth , wherein it should work a speedy death ? Who in the next place , shall that seperater be , who should now wrest aside that Choler that was wont to incline to the urine , out of the little bag of the Gaul , unto the head ? And which way should that be done ? Shall the diseasie matter it self , voluntarily ascend to the brain , and shall it be the mover of its own self ? Then at least wise , besides great absurdities , it should of necessity be , that every such Fever should not consist out of the little bag of the Gaul , which none hath as yet hitherto supposed . But to what end should a Fever ( which they account a meer accident ) stir up Choler to the head ? Shall it be judged best in nature , to have now at length banished the matter of the disease which a good while lurked in the midriffs , into the head ? Or what if it wandringly floateth in the veins , as being seperated from the blood , and of its own accord shall climbe upwards , why is it not rather banished out of doores thorow an accustomed passage ? Shall mans nature , now procure its own death , contrary to the universal endeavour of things ? Shall such a fury at length , be fit for the sequestring of Choler , which was not seperable but by an appeased vigour ? Doth happily , the Gaul being defirous of a wandring state , of its own accord and voluntarily seperate it self , and ascend to the head ? At length , in what bottle doth Gaul lurk in the head , that it may stir up a Feverish madnesse ? Is it in the bosoms of the brain ? Is it in the feigned arterial weaving of Galen ? But on both sides it should presently be mortal ; and Gaul would drop down thorow the doating nostrils . Again , if watery urins in Fevers , after yellow ones , do afford safe doatages , with laughter ; Yet surely , according to Hippocrates , then these kind of doating delusions shall not be from Gaul : And so neither shall the urine being now spoiled of its yellow Colour , have that for which it may be deprived of Choler , nor whereby it may lay aside snatched Choler into the brain : For truly , doatages with laughter exclude all Choler . At length in the Jaundise , the brain it self is yellow : But if the Jaundise be from Choler , why is it without doatage ? Without an Erisipelas , or great inflammation of all the bowels ? But if not Gaul it self , but the vapour thereof ( an unconsiderate evasion ) ascending into the brain , stirs up these doatages of Fevers : why therefore , will the Schools have the Gaul , materially , and according to its tincture , to fail in the urine ? A waterish urine therefore , after yellow ones , in Fevers , denoteth , that the tincture of the urine or liquid dung ( it is the liquour of meats in the bowels , immediatly before they become dung ) is without mixture deteined in the midriffs : For a vein strongly beating in the places about the short ribs , denotes madnesse to come , according to Hippocrates : As the Liquid dung being not rightly purged , tumulteth in the Hypochondrials . Therefore they are meer dreams , which the Schools do hitherto , as it were from a three-legged stool , foretel concerning the colour of the urine . They have indeed learned by the effect and observance , that things are wont mutually to follow each other : To wit , that doatage in a Fever , is from a cleer urine after a yellow one : Rightly indeed , if they had stuck in a naked observation : but when they came unto the causes , and disposed of those causes according to the rite or custome of Theoremes , and command of feigned principles , they all of them rashly subscribed unto each other hitherto : For there is no Choler in nature , never any Gaul in the urine ; and much lesse , that which may be seperated from thence , and carried unto the head : There is no Choler in the whole body , because there never was any in nature : Neither is Gaul Choler , but the very liquour of the Gaul is a vital bowel , of great moment , between which , and the kidney , and brain , nothing interposeth as common : Neither is there any passage , nor fit society of the Gaul with the urine : Neither doth it appertaine unto the Gaul , whether the urine be watery , or yellow , and thick : The chest of the Gaul hath not a vein unto the head . But if they will have Gaul to be brought thorow the hollow vein , how should not Gaul mix it self with the blood ? Should not the whole blood of those feverish persons be bitter ? By what channel therefore , shall it hasten unto the head ? What conducter shall lead Gaul unto the head : What shall seperate it from the blood , that it may not be deteined in its journy ? To what end should nature attempt such impertinencies ? How shall the blood remain without contagton from the forreign Gaul ? That ascent shall be a voluntary motion , or a sending , or a drawing . A dreaming old woman said so long ago , and the Schools have followed her : For if Gauly Choler climb by its own motion , now every man shall have a continual doatage . But to what end shall the hollow vein send Gaul unto the brain ? Shall it thus cure the Fever ? Shall it diminish the burning heat ? But surely the feverish matter remaines shut up , whether Choler be snatcht from the urine , or Gaul out of the little bag , into the brain , or not . To what end also , should the brain allure Choler unto it self , being moist with a lively juice , and that a far better , and nearer ? And that thing also fights with the ordination of the Liver : For nothing is sent , or drawn , at least without the choice , end and appoyntment of the Archeus : Is therefore Choler carried into the brain , from the wedlock of the other three Humours , or is it drawn by this ? Surely the brain was thus already before , befooled , and not after the comming of Choler , neither had it need of Choler , for to doate . At length , why doth a watery urine rather argue a doating delusion , in a continual Fever , than in a intermitting one ; than in a drinker ? Than in the disease of the stone ? Than in a vitiated concoction of the Stomach ? But because death is in the midriff , where the Fever then also is . Vain therefore is the fiction of the Schools , concerning yellow Choler in the urine , and of its journy unto the brain . But besides , when as a little cloud appeareth in urines , straightway the Physitian cries out , and as if himself had overcome the disease , saing with the consent and observance of the Schools , that the diseasifying Humour is concocted , and that it is safely to be purged for the future . I will shew first , what that little cloud may be ; And from thence any one shall at length judge , that in the aforesaid particulars , nothing but meer mockeries are conteined : For indeed that little cloud or swim is a sign of the digestion of the stomach ; but not of a diseasifying matter . But be it a sign of digestion , because the ferments of the stomach , Gaul , and Liver have returned , which before were hindred , shut up , &c. Whence there is hope , that the strength will be recovered : otherwise , the matter , which they call that which maketh the disease , is never attempted to be concocted : Because nature intends not to coct , neither doth coct any thing , but for a single end , and after a single manner , to wit , that she may reduce it into her own noruishment , and for no other end : but the ferments ( to whom only it belongs to transchange things ) being now restored , will subdue the matter of the disease under the Ferule , in the Inns of digestion , and root it out at pleasure : For I have taught concerning digestions , that sharpnesse in the stomach , is not from the brackishnesse of things being recieved into the body , but from the sharp or sout specifical ferment of the stomach it self : But even as it is the property of sharpnesse to coagulate milky substances ; therefore , whatsoever of the Cream of the stomach is in it self milky , cannot be so exactly seperated in the Liver , as that a smal quantity thereof is not snatched with the urine , and there doth not make a little cloud . The little cloud therefore is a signe of the ferment its returning into the stomach : For neither is that swim in the urine , from the nature or matter of the Fever , neither doth it accuse , or excuse the same : Neither at length , is that little cloud a sign of the proper Ferment of the Gaul ( for this is not sharp , but salt , and of the tast of the vital spirit ; even as elsewhere , concerning long life ) but of the Ferment of the spleen ; to wit that which the spleen breaths into the stomach the patronage whereof it undertaketh : For therefore in a Quartan ague , that smal cloud , oft-times appeareth , and again , oft-times dispesreth : while as , the appetite and digestion are restored , and again departeth , the same Quartan in the mean time , always remayning : otherwise , if that little cloud should signify the mater of the disease , as its object , or efficient , certainly , it should constantly persevcte , being once bred ; Since the matter being once cocted , doth not regularly wax crude again . Therefore for its own family-administration , and the proper digestion of that bowel ; the spleen hath obtained a vital ferment , from a spirit implanted in , and proper to it self : For therefore , it is of the property , odour , and cast of the vital spirit ; The which , seeing it is saltish , and balsamical ( even as concerning long life ) it ought also , to subdue and overcome the matter of a Quartan : But a care of the stomach is committed to this bowel , and for this cause it sits president over the digestion thereof ; and therefore it hath obtained another acide Ferment to this end ; the which , unlesse it be inspired into the stomach , in a due dose , lack of appetites , crudities , yea and an inordinate hunger or appetite it self , do arise . Therefore if this comely ferment of the defence of the stomach be exorbitant in the spleen , there are made , bloody and black spittings out into the stomach , which the Schools have judged to be black Choler : when as otherwise it is nothing but an expurging , and renewing of nourishable blood from the spleen it self : Therefore the sharp ferment of the stomach , although it be the cause of the little cloud , and the whole soure cream , be ordinarily turned into salt , under the dominion of the Gaul ( as concerning digestions elsewhere ) yet the little cloud remayneth , being bred from sharpnesse . By reason whereof , we must note , that the cause being removed , the effect is taken away for time to come , but not for the time past : Because the effect for the time past , is a product now subsisting by it self ; oftentimes also , having no longer need of the accompanying of former causes : It being that which hath never been hitherto considered , as neither distinguished of in the Schools . Therefore a confused urine is oftentimes pissed forth by those that have the stone and likewise in the beating of the heart , and otherwise : But another urine , although it be cleer , yet it is of its own accord , voluntarily disturbed in the air : And indeed , every troubled urine conteineth an hidden sharpnesse , and the lesse thereof , if it hath been once cleered at the fire , and is not troubled afterwards : At leastwise , it betokeneth a defect of the ferment of the Gaul : Because there is denoted , that a very smal quantity of lukewarmth shall coct and overcome the sharpnesse that is left : For so , apples not yet ripe , wax sweet with the Sun. As oft also , as the ferment of the little bag or bowel of the Gawl , tramples one the ferment of the stomach , and vitiateth the Pylorus , so often there is a crudity of digestion , and so also the urine is without a swim . In the stomach also , there is now and then a bitternesse , from its digestion erring , which brings forth such a superfluity . But if the ferment of that bowel be supplanted , there is a grosse and white sediment of the urine , nor ever without the strangury or pissing by drops , the which therefore in old people , is difficult to be cured : But that sharpnesse of the urine in stranguries , although it be not manifest to the tast ; yet in how smal a quantity soever it be , it is sufficient for the aforesaid effects of pain ; which is manifest in the urine of new Ale , as yet unpercieveably participating of the brackishnesse of its Ale : But while the ferment of the Liver doth too much exceed the activities of the stomach and Gaul , there is a Bolar orlump-like sediment , in a troubled and red-yellow urine : As if that did wish to be made blood , which is unfit for that appoyntment . But a red sediment in a yellow urine , and that which easily melteth through the heat of the fire , denots the ferment of the Liver to be exasperated by a forreign impediment : Which historie of ferments is inserted in the treatise of digestions . There are also last of all , manifold errours & sluggishnesses about the original contents ; which in the treatise concerning the disease of the stone , I have profesly weighed . There is in the mean time , a safe method of examining urines by their weight ; To wit , anounce weigheth 600. grains . But I had a glassen vessel of a narow neck , weighing 1354. grains : But it was filled with rain water , weighing besides , 4670. grains : the urine of an old man , was found to weigh in the same vessel , 4720. grains ; or to exceed the weight of the rain water , 50. grains : But the urine of an healthy woman of 55. years old , weighed 4745. grains : The urine of an healthy young man of 19. years old , weighed 4766. grains ; But that of another young man of a like age , being abstinentious from drink , weighed 4800. grains : The urine a young man of 36. years old , undergoing a tertian ague with a cough , weighed 4763. grains : But the aforesaid youth of 19. years old , with a double Tertian , had drunk little in the night aforegoing : but his urine weighed 4848. grains ; which was 82. grains more than while he was healthy . A maid having suffered the beating or passion of the heart , made a water like unto rain water , and the which therefore , was of equal weight with rain water : A luke-warm urine is alwayes a few graines lighter , as also more extended than it self being cold : And therefore , let the vessel be of a short neck and sharp pointed , that it may measure the urine almost in a poynt . Another shall add and meditate of more things : And it is a far more easy method , than that which is reduced into Aphorisms by weighing of the whole man : I have always breathed about the essences , remedies , and applications , or for the curing of a disease : and who am one that have hated the common applause : I have hated also the prognostication , prediction and fore knowledge which was familiar to divinations : I have rather rejoyced to heal the sick party , than by speaking doubtfully , to have foretold many things . CHAP. V. That the Jaundise is not from yellow Choler . 1. The supposition of the Schools in this case . 2. A fit answer . 3. An ordinary , and ridiculous privy shift . 4. Another evasion . 5. The cause of the Jaundise is taught by Anatomy . 6. The Schools intangle themselves . 7. From an impertinency . 8. A double vice in the jaundise . 9. The forgetfulnesse of the Schools . 10. Absurdities upon the causes of the Jaundise of the Humourists . 11. Four absurdities . 12. That the bitternesse of the mouth doth not argue Choler . 13. That the Jaundise is not from the Gaul being stopped . 14. There is always some poyson in the Jaundise . 15. That colours , if they are inordinate in an excrement , are not made from causes ordained in nature . 16. It is proved by proper remedies . 17. That curative betokenings are not drawn from things helpful and hurtful . 18. The adequate or suitable cause of the Jaundise . 19. That the Jaundise is not bred but from single causes . 20. That the Jaundise is not cured by yellow remedies , as such . 21. A History in the strangury of an old man. 22. The Oxe scoffs at the causes of the Jaundise delivered by the Humourists , and at the use of grasse-roots . 23. That Choler is not dismissed for tinging of the excrements of the belly . 24. The pale dung of the bowels doth not so much accuse of the absence of the Gaul , as of the errour of its transchanging . 25. Against the possibility of the Gaul being obstructed in the Iaundise , by reason of the essential thinglinesse of the disease being unknown . 26. Another argument . 27. A third . 28. From an impertinency . 29. From the impossibility of tincture . 30. From bitternesse . 31. From the disproportion of the thing tinging , and of the thing tinged . 32. The generating of an unnamed poyson in the Iaundise . 33. Some absurdities are proposed , to be seriously considered by the Humourists . 34. A conclusion from the premises . 35. The nest of the Iaundise . 36. An errour of Physitians about the passing of Choler into a fish . THe standard-defending argument , whereby the Humourists believe that from a full necessity , they have confirmed the existence , and generation of yellow Choler , and that which supplyeth the room of an Anchour , is the Jaundise : In favour whereof , they contend , that the Chest of the Gaul is stopped up in its passage towards the empty gut : Therefore that the Choler daily generated , is presently also after its birth , regorged and dispersed into the whole body ; wherefore as they supose , an ordinary and necesary generation of Choler or gaul , so also a daily banishment , and seperation thereof . But they prove the Lower passage of the Gaul to be stopped ; because the excrements of the belly are destitute of Gaul , therefore also of an ashy colour and not yellow : Wherefore the urine offers it self twenty-times more tinged than is meet ; and daily , more meerly or purely so : Therefore as well the excrements of the bladder , as paunch , draw their tincture from the Gaul . First , They have not yet proved any upper entrance of the Gaul unto the little bag , as neither hath it hitherto , by exact Anatomy , been found : Therefore the excrementous Gaul should either daily enter through the lower passage , or unsensibly : not in this manner , where there should be so great abundance of gaul daily ; nor also after the former manner ; Seeing it should vainly enter that way , through which it ought presently to go forth : And also , if it should enter that way , it ought to enter through the bowel upward ; neither thus , should the gauly tincture of the dungs , ever fail although the lower passage were shut up : The Humourists therefore stick in the entrance , in proving of the question , whether the thing be : And then , they fail in the passage and seperation of Gaul from the Liver . Thirdly , At leastwise from the disproportion , they might easily collect , that they were decieved : For if one that hath the jaundise , shall drink eight pints in one day , he is to make well nigh , as much of most yellow urine , whereof four pints at least should be of meer Gaul , and by how much the weaker the sick shall be , and nearer to death , by so much the deeper , their urin shall be also in yellownesse , yet not any thing bitter . It was therefore to be measured , how much of yellow Choler may be daily expelled by urine , and through the skin , in those that have the jaundise ; to wit , whether there be daily as much of Gaul , expelled through the paunch in healthy persons , especially , in whom there is a seldom going to stool : But if not ; therefore , it is not Gaul , not Choler , or of the natural Humours , which is made in the jaundise ; but plainly an excrementitious poyson : And by consequence , the jaundise doth not prove it self to arise from Gaul . At length , the argument of the Humourists being granted by way of supposition , at leastwise , for that very cause , they confesse , that no Choler in nature , not so much as that which is believed to float together with the blood in the veins , is made from the intent of nature , or for nourishment : but that alwayes , however it may be taken , it is excrementitious , and a certain product , which as well in its quantity , as quality , is besides nature , and the scope of sanguification : By consequence also , that Choler is neither of the composition of the blood , as neither of the intention of nature , which it hath in generating of the blood : That is , that Choler is not a constitutive Humour of us , or an entire part of the blood . But if they shall answer ; that Choler in the jaundise , is indeed a diseasy Humour , and therefore also excrementitious ; but not therefore also ordinary Choler : But that I might believe them , it had behoved them , first to prove a radical difference of both Cholers : When as otherwise , only the obstruction of the Gaul is the cause of the jaundise in the Schools , which cannot change the species of Choler ; since obstuction it self , hath respect unto passage , but not unto Choler , or Gaul . Again , if the cause of the jaundise be a diseasy excrement , and a far different thing from the constitutive Choler of the blood ; and not otherwise , ordinary and natural Choler ; Therefore at least , it is an impertinent argument of the Schools , to be willing , by a feigned and excrementous Humour , to intrude the necessity of a natural Humour , and to confirm a necessary Choler : Even as a gleary or gravelly water also , doth not prove the nourishment of a bone , or the making of a bone in the callous matter growing in fractures ; As neither doth corrupt pus prove a generating of flesh . What if they say , that the Gaul is not troublesom in quality , in the jaundise , but only in quantity ; I pray , let them look back : Because , even on the first day , and before a manifest jaundise , those that are jaundous are ill at ease : In the next place , the quantity alone , doth then not only molest and hinder : but also the quality it self doth far more strictly hurt : For jaundous persons are straightned and short-winded , from the first day they complain of anguish in the orifice of their stomach , of an appetite as much as may be dejected , they are sad or pensive , being as it were shaken with a perpetual smal Ague or Fever , and truly diseasy , with an hard and unequal pulse ; whereby a hurtful quality rather than quantity , is denoted . Truly I remember , that two jaundous dead carcases were dissected , I being present : Yet neither orifice of their Gaul was stopped ( for I curiously , throughly viewed the whole ) ; but the veins of the Mesentery ( to wit , beneath the Liver , and far remote from the Gaul ) abounded with a yellow and dungy blood . For Gaul was thought to be present , before it could be made by the Liver : And the excrements of the belly might thereby , have been abundantly tinged , if the liquid and yellow dung , which ought to have descended beneath , had not by an inverted order , been detained in the mesentery , and if another poyson , had not been bred above from forreign causes : For that liquid dung , is the off-spring of the second digestion , and is frequently snatcht upwards ; and although the mouth of those that have the jaundise , be now and then bitter , yet their urine is not bitter . But it hath already been sufficiently declared , concerning the dissembled vomiting of Choler , that there is a strange efficient , which generates a strange poyson , originally in the stomach , with much perplexity , and not Gaul fetch back from the Liver : neither is there I say , any bitternesse in the yellow and liquid dung ; Since that , neither doth the urine which is from thence yellow , acknowledge bittternesse . Sorrow hath oftentimes given a beginning to the jaundise : But the Humourists dedicate sorrow to the Spleen : Sorrow therefore shall not be the foregoing immediate , and conteining cause of the stoppage of the Gaul : The liquid dung also multiplies the jaundise , not only through the errour of the digestive faculty : but also , through the vice of the dispensative faculty , it is snatcht into the veins by a retrograde motion ; and that which ought to be purged downwards , is called or sent up wards . Moreover on the the other hand , the very efficient of the jaundise produceth a poyson , by a homebred vice , no otherwise , than as I have demonstrated , that through the digestion of the stomach being decayed , a poyson is bred , which is expelled by vomite . For in the jaundise , the excrements of the fundament do frequently look pale , and are almost white , and then on the morrow , they again look yellow ; and again , soon after they are pale as ashes , as on the day before ; which thing succeeding thus by course , least of all belongs to the obstructions of the Gaul ; For those being once loosed and opened , there is not a re-stoppage , or closure , so easie , or imminent , and renewed afresh . Two things therefore concur together in the jaundise : One is an estranging of the second digestion , whereby the Chyle is perverted , as well that which should be regularly good , and to be changed into blood , as that which otherwise naturally departs into liquid dung , within the intestines : But the other is an alienation of the distributive , and digestive faculty of the stomach : For oft-times after gluttony , there is a plentifull yellow vomiting , even as such a dejection by stool from a solutive potion : For it hath been already shewn in the Chapter above , that digestion erring , such a bitter exerement is bred in the stomack , and likewise also in the bowels of children ; calfes , &c. For the stomach , and intestine have their proper yellownesse , which sometimes also waxeth bitter from the digestive faculty erring . But when as , with the errour of the digestive faculty , a vice of the distributive is present , now the jaundise concurs : because that which is bred besides nature , is besides nature dispersed into the veins and body ; which otherwise ought , neither to be bred , nor carried that way , but to be forced through its own emunctory places : which distributive faculty hath been hitherto neglected by the Schools : Through the errour whereof notwithstanding , diverse diseases are made ; to wit , sumptomatical Fluxes Apostemes , witherdnesses of the parts , Oedema's , &c. especially the jaundise , in the limits of the body : For the liquid dung , which otherwise is naturally generated after a seperation of the more pure chyle , about the end of the Ileon , last of all , also before the meer dung , in the gut Colon , doth now fore-timely begin , from the empty gut , and is besides nature , turned into that yellow excrement ( yet not bitter , such as is bred in the stomach ) whence a right is ingendred in it , of climbing into the veins of the mesentety : Therefore the excrements of the belly are of an ashy colour , they being deprived of the liquid dung , and tinging yellownesse naturall unto them . 1. For the Schools understand the Gaul and Choler to be Sunonymass . 2. That the chest of the Gaul is shut in the jaundise , where it inclines unto the gut Duodenum . 3. Therefore , that the filths of the belly being deprived of a due portion of Gaul , do wax pale . 4. Therefore that the Gaul , which ought to depart through the fundament , is over-proportionably and immoderately co-mixed with the urine , through the errour of its passage alone : which blockishnesses of credulity , have caused the fundamentals of healing to be turned aside , and have brought great destruction on mortal men , no lesse than they have manifested inconsiderate rashnesses . For first of all , it is manifest ( the which I have elsewhere proved concerning digestions ) that the dung of man , although it be little , or much yellow , yet it is not therefore bitter , as neither is a jaundisy urine : For dogs eate the yellow dung of Infants , as if it did as yet represent unto them the favour of milk ; yet if but some small drops of any Gaul be co-mixed with this yellow dung , not any thing thereof is licked by a dog : Therefore the Schools confesse Choler which is ordinary and necessary , to be a natural excrement of the blood : The generation whereof , notwithstanding , is not intended by nature , but is diseasy beside the instincts of a vital nature , and by accident . What if the mouth of him that hath the jaundise tasteth bitter , doth it therefore , argue Choler ? In the jaundise , a most yellow urine tasteth not bitter ; therefore it is deprived of Gaul and Choler . The mouth , in fear , waxeth presently bitter , with a saltnesse ; But fear hath not obtained any command over the Gaul , that a dread being concieved , it can be powred forth into the mouth : For if in the jaundise , the Chest of the Gaul be so shut beneath , that no Choler can flow unto the Duodenum : therefore , neither is the mouth bitter in the jaundise , from Gaul being drawn upwards from the Duodenum , or empty gut , seeing there is not another passage any other way , whereby Gaul could ascend into the mouth . Oftentimes also in the jaundise , after ash-coloured excrements of the belly , they void yellow ones : why therefore doth not the jaundise cease , if the cause thereof now desisteth ? What if in the jaundise , Rhubarb , or any other drawer forth of Choler being received , whatsoever is cast forth shall yeild the testimonies of yellow Choler ; why therefore , a Cholagogal medicine being taken , is not the jaundise ended , if Choler slide down thorow the bowels at the will of the Physitian ? What if a forreign ferment , or poyson doth oft-times transchange and cast forth the whole blood , and flesh it self , by a flux , into a stinking and yellow liquour , and the which , the Schools say without controversy to be Choler : If ( I say ) also , from the stinging or biting of some Serpent , any one suddenly falls under the jaundise ; shall therefore the little bag of the Gaul be forthwith shut ? Who rather from hence , shall not judge , that a certaine co-like poyson lurketh in every jaundise as the causer thereof , which estrangeth the digestive and distributive faculty ? And so that Choler is not naturally from fire , as neither from a right digestion , and much lesse , from the fruitfullnesse of native heat : but that it is made in nature , plainly from a disgracefull title : And therefore , that the excrements do wax pale , yellow , red , and black , no otherwise than from a vice , as well of the digestive , as of the distributive faculty ? For the dung of Infants is yellower than that of those of ripe years , yet they are not therefore reckoned in the Schools , to be more Cholerick . The yellownesse of an excrement therefore , is that which ariseth from the vice of its own putrefaction . What if therefore , the jaundise be not from a stoppage of the Gaul ; shall not consesequently , medicines for the unstopping of the Gaul , be in vain ? For so , as some Serpents , do from a property , cause the jaundise ; so also some Insects do likewise cure the jaundise , as also some Simples being only bound on the outside of the body : To wit , as they take away the poyson which estrangeth the aforesaid faculties ; but not that those wormes , or simples , do presently stop , or unstop the chest of the Gaul . Let them therefore remember , that curative betokenings are not fitly drawn from things helpfull , and hurtfull ; but more fitly , diagnostical or discerning ones : And the which I have elsewhere , more fully , profesly manifested . The efficient cause therefore of the jaundise , is a poysonous ferment besides nature , which so badly affecteth the Pylorus , that the digestive and also the distributive faculty are alienated : And that poyson sits either in the Duodenum , or is communicated farther of from the Ileon : so now and then , one that is bitten by a serpent , is straightway afflicted with the jaundise : But not that that stroak in the skin hath presently stopt up the passage of the gaul into the empty gut . Therefore the jaundise is cured , by the floures of Marigold , Dandelyon , and of many other the like things being applyed : oft-times also , by some Antidotes agreeable to the Pylorus ; Such as are Palmer-wormes , earth-wormes , yellow-wormes between planks , and those things which do powerfully cleanse the first region of the body . For neither doth Rhubarb , Saffron , Gourd , the sharp leaved Dock , &c. Cure the jaundise as they are yellow : but their yellownesse rather shewes their ordination to be for the wiping away of the poyson : For Signatures bewray the internal Crasis or constitutive temperature of a thing ; but the Grasis it self doth not discover the thing . A certain man of eighty years old , and father in law to a Physitian of Bruxels , for two years space continually dropped with a Strangury : He was therefore thought to have the stone in his bladder : At length his dead Carcase being dissected , it was found to be free from the stone : That Physitian presently boasted , that he had broken away the stone from his father in law , by offering him stone-breaking things : But he had not freed him from the dropping strangury : But his gaul was filled with some clots , without the jaundise : but a defect of the Spleen causeth the strangury of old men , As I have elsewhere proved concerning digestions . For the Jewes complain very much of black Choler , and grief : But they make use of the stone which is sometimes found in an Oxe his Gaul , it is somewhat yellow , and swims now and then in water , although sometimes , it be the more hard and black : But the Oxe perisheth not by the jaundise , but by the hammer ; neither is he ill at ease from yellow Choler , although the chest of his gaul be stopped up with a stone large enough . Lastly , the Oxe that is fed with continual grass , is stopped in his gaul : Therefore so great a use of grasse roots , in all Apozemes , is wholly ridiculous . 1. Before therefore , I shall grant the gaul to be daily sent down for tinging of the excrements of the paunch , it ought first to be manifest , that there was Choler in the nature of things . 2. And then , that the excrements of man are endued with a notable bitternesse : The which notwithstanding , is elsewhere proved false , concerning digestions . 3. It ought to be manifest , that the same paint which tingeth the urine and filths of the belly , is not naturally generated in the very passage of the membranees , which is called the intestine ; even as I have made manifest above concerning a Calf . 4. If therefore the urine , and dungs are ordinarily , and naturally yellow , and yet are not bitter ; therefore not from gaul , or Choler : Therefore it is no wonder , if such an Efficient of nature erring , such a tincture becomes the more plentifull , and so that in the more heightned jaundise , the urine waxeth also , more intensly yellow daily in a jaundous person : neither is it a wonder also , if from the efficient and distributing cause erring , such yellow excrements are derived throughout the whole body , and that the jaundise , and at length also , death do arise : For if in a gluttonous stomach there be made a bitter yellownesse , from its digestion erring : and that , as well with-out as with-in the the jaundise , as well in an healthy as feverish person , and as well in an obstructed , as open gaul ; In the next place , if in stopped up gaul , stones clots , &c. do appear without the jaundise ; If in the jaundise , the urine be most intensly yellow , and tinging , without bitternesse and gaul , and all these things under the errour of the digestive faculty alone , and the distributive offending ; It is no wonder , that the excrements of the belly look pale through a vice of both faculties : Because , it is the part of same faculty , being in good health , to beget [ this something ] and of the same being ill at ease , to make [ this something vitiated ] . At length , a pale excrement of the belly , and urine of a yellow ruddy colour , in the jaundise , do not indeed accuse of a co-mixture of gaul , as neither of Choler ; but of errours committed in transchanging , and distributing : For specifical remedies of the jaundise being given , especially in a small quantity ( as they are wont to be ) should not profit , if the lower ( that is the one only ) orifice of the gaul ( which is supposed ) were suitably and totally shut ( for whatsoever is not totally shut ; layes open sufficiently to the gaul flowing thorow ) : For an emunctory place being so shut , as it is no way an expulsive of its own superfluities , furely much lesse shall it be an atractive , or admissive of a forreign remedy , and that being first transchanged in the stomach : And therefore also plainly in vain . Again , if there were any upper mouth in the chest ( which there is none : for a passage is not found to be but beneath ) surely that should be least of all fit for drawing of of Choler ; and much lesse , in so great a plenty of Choler , as is supposed in the jaundise : Therefore Choler ought to be drawn through the Liver , neither could so great a quantity of excrements be dismissed through the little bag of the gaul it self , which is judged to be void of pores above ; and so , there should not be that , from whence the lower pipe might be stopped . Then again , from hence it followes ; if there were any Choler , and that Choler were not sent from above , through the chest of the gaul ; that a remedy also , against the jaundise , cannot slide from above into the chest , nor likewise to be admitted from beneath ( because it is supposed to be exactly shut ) and of necessity , any jaundise shall always be without hope of during , because without a remedy . Then at length it is manifest from elsewhere , that the liquour of the gaul is a meer vital bowel , but not the Choler , or daily excrements of the Liver : Therefore , if there be not yet found a passage conspicuous , and not yet proved to be from the Liver , thorugh the chest : why therefore , the passage of the little bag beneath , bein stopt up , should the whole body presently re-gorge it self with gaul : for truly , this presupposeth as much gaul to have been first prepared by the Liver . Furthermore , if yellow Choler , which they imagine to swim on the blood let out of the veins , doth as well tinge the excrements of the belly , as of the bladder , and that Choler be scarce palishly yellow ; certainly , that shall never be able to tinge or dye a jaundous urine , into so thick and full yellownesse of colour : Seeing that for which every thing is such , that ought as yet , to be more such : And far is it , that meer Choler , which ye say is ordinarily generated together with the blood its cousin German Humour , should be more coloured than the urine of him that hath the jaundise , which not only , is not Choler , but scarce one part of Choler is reckoned to be added unto fifty parts of the Whey . Neither in the mean time , doth the urine of a jaundous person , therefore , ascend scarce in its fiftieth part , unto the tincture of meer Choler : Therefore if the urine ( which in its own body every where , and always materially representeth drink ) doth as yet borrow its colour from gaul and Choler : the tincture of a jaundous urine it self , ought ' in its body to exceed the tincture of gaul , yea and of saffron , at leasts by thirty fold , and the gaul should be thick like the yolk of eggs ; The which , seeing it is not of the nature of Choler , or gaul , therefore neither shall the tincture of a jaundous urine be able ever to be from gaul : And this argumentation , is from number , extension , measure , and thicknesse . The Schools therefore ought to have regard unto their own positions concerning the obstructions of the gaul ; and they should easily finde , that there is not about the hundreth proportion of gaul or Choler daily bred , ( although it be granted , that the little bag of the gaul be stopped , and that gaul is not thrust down unto the excements of the fundament ) unto that which is voyded by the urine alone : And then , that there is not a reason why the jaundise growing great , the urine , and colour of the habite of the body should wax great and be increased , when as otherwise , sanguification , and the generating of gaul happens to be lesse , daily , death being urgent . And which is more ; the urine of the jaundise is not bitter ( which thing , even one only smal drop on the top of the tongue , may cleerely enough fignify ) : but it should be far more bitter than gaul , if it should derive its tincture from this , or the gaul ought in every urine , to loose its own natural bitternesse ; Both whereof are alike absurd : and seeing otherwise , all bitternesse is banished from all other urines , ( but it is a most absurd thing , to beg all yellownesse of the whole urine , from gaul or Choler alone , and yet that in the mean time no urine is bitter ) at leastwise , bitternesse in a jaundous urine , should be a very forreign quality , nor to arise from Choler : Which is to say ; to arise from a forreign excrement , bitter in it self ( such as is that , which is now and then rejected by vomite , as well in healthy as in sick persons ) but not from natural Choler . But in conflraining the Schools to measure ; A yellow heart , whereby in one only day atleast , the urine is tinged in the jaundise , might infect as much dung with a full colour , as is cast forth through the belly in fourty days : But it should be sufficient , for so much colour to abound in the urine daily , as Choler doth infect of the dung , every day : Therefore the obstruction of the gaul , cannot be for a cause , why more of tincture and gaul is generated by fourty fold , if the tincture of the urine , and yellownesse of the whole body are beheld at once . Yea , when the other troop of absurdities might be excused , yet by the jaundise more of yellow Choler ( so I now by a liberty , call that dreg ) is daily dispersed throughout the habite of the body , and also through the urine , and more of gaul by tenfold is daily thus expelled , than there is of blood bred . Therefore , it had at leastwise behoved the Schools to teach , why a detainment , and obstruction of the gaul doth multiply the generation of gaul , if they will not at once grant , that that generation of such gaul and of all feigned Choler , is otherwise , excrementous . And so , that Choler , and a'quaternary of Humours is feigned ; But whatsoever of these excrements is generated , that it is partly of an unnamed poyson , which they have falsely believed to be Choler , being deluded by the jaundise , and the chances of the foregoing Chapters . Therefore they have accounted a narrow search into the poyson of the jaundise , to be in vain , seeing they thought that Choler to be that which did abound only in quantity , and otherwise , to be a natural co-partner of the venal blood . Ah , I wish they had first examined , that yellow Choler ( such as they shew to swim on the blood let out o● the veins ) cannot more deeply tinge the urine ( which otherwise , is watery , from the nature of its own Whey ) than Choler it self is tinged , and as yet far lesse : And that an ordinary urine , of a mean and temperate yellownesse , is notwithstanding more deeply tinged , than the aforesaid supper-swimming Choler it self is : That in the jaundise , its colour is fourtytimes more full , and ringed , than that it can be hoped to be dyed by the aforesaid Choler : And that by how much the more diseasie and nearer to death the jaundise is , by so much the urine also is more filled with a deep or yellow yellownesse . Neither yet , is there a reason why more of Choler should be daily generated , while as there is a lesse necessity thereof , and the natural heat in the Liver lesse : Why there should I say , be more of Elementary fire , by how much death is nearer , and why that fire , if there should be any , should be nearer to its own choaking ; And that while they rashly say , hony to be wholly turned into Choler or gaul , in a Cholerick , strong , fiery , manly and valiant constitution , which otherwise , in a sanguine person , is made totally blood . And so also , that they being constrained by their own and unvoluntary confession , do not see that the generation of their feigned Choler proceedeth on both sides , from some poysonous indisposition of the body , and the which being at length increased , produceth much more plenty of those excrementitious filths , than of blood , yea than it is wont to do a little before . Since , as in the mean time , there is no necessity of such Choler , but very much necessity of blood in the jaundise ; May they not seem from thence , to conclude . 1. That nature in its greatest health , alwayes erred in its own ends . 2. And so also , that the Creatour thereof had erred . 3. And that she should not cease , to make a most plentifull quantity of gaul , while as she most greatly abhorreth that , and should have the least need thereof : That the making of Choler in the Schools , is from a diseasifying cause ; but not from the integrity of nature : That whatsoever they call Choler , is neither Choler nor gaul , nor one of the four feigned constitutive Humours of us ; but , the gaul being excepted , that Choler is alwayes a meer dungy excrement , if not also , together therewith , defectuous and poysonsom . Therefore Choler never existed in nature : But the gaul is a prevalent bowel , in the nature of an original or first-born liquor , greatly vital , and most exceeding necessary . Choler therefore , is wanting in whole nature , therefore also for the jaundise : But the disease called Choler , whatsoever it toucheth with its poysonous ferment , it de●●es it , and transchangeth it into a poyson , without ceasing . The whole invention therefore , of Choler , is frivolous , false , and pernicious . But the nest or shop of the jaundise , is from the Pylorus even unto the end of the Duodenum . For I remember , that a Pike-fish , being at sometime opened alive in the back , from the head to the tail , and bound a-crosse , upon the region of the stomach , within a few hours , his putrified carcase stank , and all his flesh which before was most white , became yellow . The comon sort of Physitions supposed , that he had drawn Choler from the jaundous person : But I suppose , that the live fish had putrified with the heat of him that had the jaundise , and that he had borrowed his yellownesse from corruption : That the excrement tinged on the skin , in the jaundous person , was a mortified poyson , no other wise than as the flesh of the fish was : For the fish was so stinking , that it was despised by a Cat : I therefore healed the man by some calcined Alcali salts . Let it be sufficient to have spoken these things , concerning the falshood of Humours , and the miserable snare of the Humourists : But other things which concerning the falling down of Humour , having regard hither , might offer themselves , I will elsewhere perfectly explain in a particular treatise , concerning the toyes of a Catarrhe . But last of all , that for black Choler they are wont to accuse the Hemerhoides or piles ; in the next place , the Menstrues , and Cancer of the Dugs ; Surely that I despise under silence , as unworthy of an answer , and as unprofitable trifles , in a great compassion of the rash belief of my neighbours , and also of the blindnesse of the Schools : For truly , herein they retire from the terms proposed by themselves , as well in making of blood , and sliding down to the spleen , as in passing from yellow Choler into black : Because the fundament veins , and veins of the womb , not always , daily , or in any place , but only about the utmost passages of those veins , blood , being otherwise good , is made malignant , and defiled in those places , and not before : but not that it was already before degenerated in the Spleen , and sent into the utmost end of the Fundament . Even so as also , whatsoever the Schools devise for the establishment of phlegm , concerning the Pose , Cough , Asthma , Shortnesse of Breath , Pleurisie , Toothach , &c. All that , I will demonstrate in its own place in the treatise of the toyes of a catarrhe , for ridiculous dreames of Paganisme : But now it hath seemed sufficient unme to have shewn , that no phlegm is conteined in the fellowship of four humours : and that which is dashed forth from diseasie causes , which is snivelly , and the which they have hitherto perswaded themselves to be ejected like phlegm , it is sufficient now to have shewn , that that very thing hath undergone the title of an excrement , nor that it is in any wise to be ascribed unto the family of a vital Humour . Let the Lord Jesus be between me , and the interpreters of these things . FOR AN ARGUMENT Of the book , a Poet hath thus sung against the Humourists , thirsting after Christian blood . MOst famous Captain , why in many Doctours doth thou trust , It 's much thou can'st confide in one ; the other rout [ unjust ] Do hurt , dost thou not see the veins throughout the body empted , This cut 's , that burn's , and so by Art , the maladie's incensed : Who ere of daubing Galen doth in ought the counsel take , They all against one body fight , and B' Art a slaughter make . A rout of Medicine professors slew an Emperour , Dost thou believe that Physick Doctours have a healing pow'r ? He was a Belgian Prince by blood , but Phisick't by that rable After the Spanish mode : to th' Dutch that mode's unprofitable . I 'le adde a little to his Tomb : here lays a Captain best , O're whom Mars could not ought prevail while blood was in his breast : What bloody war could not perform , Physitians could by lance , Thus less than Hippocrat's himself , Mavors is made [ by chance . ] TUMULUS PESTIS . OR THE PLAGUE-GRAVE . JOHN BAPTISTA VAN HELMONT Tobarch in ROYENBORCH , Pellines , &c. being the Author . THE PEST Reader , the Title which thou Readest , is a mournfull Terrour , affixed to the doors , within it shews death , the kind of death , and scourge of men : stand still and enquire what this may betoken ? What the Epigraph of the Plague-Grave will have it self to be . I have departed under the Anatomy , not dyed , as long as the ill-Counselling envy of the scoffer , and ignorant lust of men shall cherish me . THEREFORE HERE IS No Funeral , no dead Carkase , no Death , no Sceleton , no Mourning , no Contagion . GIVE GLORY TO THE ETERNAL , That the Pest hath now fayled under the proper punishment of an Anatomy . JOHN BAPTIST A VAN HELMONT Of BRUXELS A Phylosopher by the fire , Toparch in Royenborgh , Pellines , &c. Wisheth health and joy to CHRISTIANS . Dear Reader . I Have always , even from a Child , sought after the truth , above every delightful thing ; because I every where found every man a Lyar ; and so that from the impiety of the world , all false , ignorant , devised , deceitful things , and things ful of impostures have been invented : And when I had fitly searched into all States , Religions , and Conditions by their individuals , I saw indeed the certain and unchangeable truth , in numbers , and measures : In the next place , in created things , I found indeed the essence and properties of things to be true and good ; but the truth it self , however I in quired amongst men , I no where found : I greatly grieved that truth had hid it self from my capacity , as not knowing , that that was my own vice , but not the fault of things . At length , when I had considered that God himself was the naked truth , I took the Gospel-book in my hand ; wherein although I every where noted singular verity , yet I found the interpretations thereof to be according to the will of the flesh ; Yea , at this day , I have noted some to be diligently studious to excuses excuses in sins , especially in those of gre●●men : And so , the truth of the Gospel is reckoned to be professed ; but not consented unto as it ought to be : For there is none who having two Coats , puts of one , that out of meer love , he may cloath the poor man as if Christ were present , therewith : None turns the other cheek to him that strikes him : And so , Evangelical truth , through the endeavour of some , is at this day grown out of use , among Christians . In which consideration , when I once had tarried out almost all night , after the studies of some years , and very many anguishes , I resolved with my self , that I would every where assault the Plague freely , which had then invaded our Country-men , and the which all fled from : And although I had on every side contracted the most choiseremedies out of books , into a breviary and also had remedies described by others , at hand ; yet I experienced them all to be void , feeble , and vain : For the forsaken sick , and poor , did oft-times utter their vomitings and belchings upon me , and breathed out their soul between my armes , to my grief : but God preserved this ignorant and unprositable servant . And at length , I comprehended the nature , progresse , and properties of the Pest , to be far different from what the Schools had hitherto understood them to be : Because Doctours and writers themselves , do first run away : and what things they have here and there compiled out of diverse Authors , they do equally extol and commend to the ignorant , as most exceeding good , and the which , from their own ignorance , they so judge to be : And so , all their doctrine is supported by the foundation of supposition . In the mean time notwithstanding the knowledge of a Pestilent poyson , hitherto scanty , is desired ; and remedies are required , which their gift being unchanged in the first shops , can overcome the contagion of the poyson ; whereof nothing hath hitherto been dreamed by the Schools . Tumulus PESTIS . OR THE PLAGUE-GRAVE . CHAP. I. Of what kind the Pest or Plague is . AFTER a pensive lodging out all night , a dream befell me : and since night unto night sheweth knowledge , I have thought that a dream doth contein knowledge : Therefore I willingly submit my dreams unto the judgment of the Reader . For I beheld my self to be in the vaults without the city ( they call them Grotts ) I saw Daedalian Labarinths ; in some place , Arches threatning a cleft and ruine . I had called them the porches or galleries of Pluto , wherein inveterate or long accustomed darknesse , and a thick aire , wearied with long rest , suffers not the light of a candle to shine a-far of : For the thicknesse of the air did so meet with the Gas of the earth , that the flame of a wax-candle would scarce shine but a few paces from thence : For the voice becomes so dumb with a duskish sound , that not far of from thence , an out-cry cannot be heard , and the more dull sound seemes to resemble , not a voic , but the shadow of a voyce . For nothing is there which is vital , except a company of Bats , their nests being adjoyned or knit fast in the Arches of the co-heaped rubbishes . Alas ! a sad spectacle , the Image of eternal death , where the seat of night-thieves is : Wherein , if thou shalt chance to hurt one of its cruel inhabitants , thou art deprived of candles , and presently of life , unlesse , thy light being extinguished , thou prostratest thy self as humble , and feign thy self as dead . For those lurkers , being the natives of obscurities , do not endure to be obtained , or corrected by any ; and much lesse , to be driven away from their seat : They call it an injury , to have the light brought against them ; because with them , they neither have light , neither do they love it : under doctrine and correction , not issuing out of their nests , they cry out for revenge , and they gape for it with conjoyned votes . For how strong are they because and when they are very many ? How bold are they in the Age and Kingdome of darkness ? and how unmild , where all things favour their own wishes and flyings ? For our breath there smells of so great an hoary putrefaction , that delay presently tingeth us with paleness . And indeed , it is familiar to the Mines of Metals , that except the soil be frequently pounced , and new air do breath on it from the Sky , mountainous Inhabitants do certainly perish with a blind Gas : but if they shall not lodge out of their house all night , they at least , do contract a disease deplorable even for their life time : For therefore , they are wont , that they may preserve the life of mountainous Inhabitants , to blow in new ayr , and to blow out the hurtful by Engines . But in the Roman Vaults they seek not for Minerals ; therefore also , they want an Arsenical Gas : For there , frequent Sepulchres are found , which are thought to be those of Martyrs who gloriously died : Therefore , I dreaming , began to doubt , whether fled Truth , and not to be found at this day , had made its grave with the Martyrs in the same place ? the question smiled on me sleeping ; for the most High created the Physitian , as also , medicine out of the earth . I have therefore deemed the truth of medicine , and knowledge of a Physitian , to have hid it self in the stable Foundation of Nature , and the more hidden Sepulchre , from the unworthy and defiled beholding of Mortals , and to have forsaken our commerces , and to have overwhelmed it self in many labyrinths and perplexities ; so that , by reason of the smallness of light which is social unto us by nature , truth remains covered over with darkness , and hedged about with difficulties . And the worst thing which here at length offers it self , is , that this Grave of Truth is kept not by a good Genius , or Spirit , but by the unhappy Birds of the Night : therefore the spirits of darkness are to be supplanted : But whosoever he be , who strives the less to applaud those keepers , he presently experienceth the violent power or tyrannical rule of those , who under the shew of piety and quietness , keep these Kingdomes of Pluto as their own . But seeing they themselves come not into the light of truth , they also suffer not others to enter , unless they prostrate themselves as humble unto them . For any other person is straightway encompassed by the powers of darkness , the Enemies of the first Truth , who under the pretence of godliness ; challenge the Legacies of their own Sepulchres to themselves ; because they boast , that the Kingdome of Truth is in their possession : And therefore , that the command of Learning , Sciences , and the powers of great men , are assigned to them . For these , being neither Birds , nor Mice , have obtained a middle and hermaphroditical kind , and they go , as it is in the 20th of Luke , They pierce the houses and possessions of Widows ; they lead away after them , poor silly women laden with sins , &c. Surely , every such business walketh in darkness , and all their endeavour is with a Noon-day Devil . Truly , I saw not a means of opening the Sepulchre of Truth , but with long leisure : but this thing , hateful spirits , even since the daies of Arias Montanus , have not permitted to good men : Wherefore , that I might seasonably , and with the profit of my Neighbour , put that in frequent practise , I decreed to withdraw my self from the vulgar sort , and under the light , throughly to knock the Vaults of Nature full of holes : And least I should labour in vain , I disposed of my glassen basins under the light , that by a dumb sound , I might discern the Vault of Nature underneath . I endeavoured by the unwearied pains and charges of forty years , to break the rocky stones asunder with the Axe , Crook , Fire , and sharp liquor , that light may flow in from heaven , and that the Night-birds which presume to keep the Keys of Sciences , and the narrow passage of Truth , may vanish away , or betake themselves unto a corner , out of a Court-like conversation , and the pursuances of courtesies : or at least , that they may no longer hereafter hinder mortals who are diligent searchers after truth . For this mixt kind of Monster noyseth abroad , that it is more excellent than all Birds ; because they begin not from an Egge , after the custom of other Birds ; but do nurse up their Young with a longer sucking at the Breast ; and do cast those out of the Nest which they think are not sufficiently profitable unto them . They boast , I say , that they are therefore the most quick-sighted of Birds ; in this respect , because they also see most clearly under darkness . Alas , thus is our Age deceived by darkness ! But they feign , and perswade the vulgar , that Truth is in the shade , within their own vaults ; who in the mean time , being alwayes learning , do never come unto the knowledge of Charity ; because they endure not the light that is perfectly learned by alone and naked Charity ; and therefore , they alwayes weave to themselves the Wiles and webs of darkness . Truly , it was necessary for me to rent the bowels of the Earth , and to break its Crown : For truly , Galen hath seemed to me , to have entred into the Vaults with a slender Lamp ; who being presently affrighted , stumbled in the entry , and at first almost fell over the Threshold : Therefore , his Oyl being lavishly spent , he returned to his own , and told many things confusedly , concerning the Sepulchres , which he had not perceived , nor known , nor believed , although he had seen them . All from thenceforth , boast rashly among their own people , that they know many things , who saluted not so much as the Threshold of Nature , except at a far distance , from the relation of Galen . In the next place , Avicen with his company , although he became more cautious by the viewing of Galen ; yet he entred not much deeper , but looking behind , about , and above him , and being taken with giddiness , his foot being dashed against a stone , fell headlong down : but returning , he boasts in a Forraign Dialect , that he had seen far more than his Predecessors : The which , when his followers understood , and stuck to , they chose a certain one of them for a Standard-Defender ; they all of them had rather fight for the glory of their sworn Prince , than that they would themselves enter the passages : as if the mind of man , that is free , being readily inclined like unto Clients , had forsworn liberty : Therefore none having afterwards endeavoured to enter , and being content with the first Boasters , they prefixed on their Centuries , that themselves were to fight for the glory and Trophy of a matter not yet known ; but as many as came unto the entry , being as it were factiously addicted unto the first Patron , and insisting in the steps of Predecessors , presently fell down together . They dreamed that they were entred ; at leastwise , they were deprived of light and help for removing the darkness of so great an heap . Others also , afterwards hastened toward the Vaults , but they brought not the light with them , they perceived their Oyl to be extinguished , and snatcht away by the Enemies of the first Truth , and humane health , and Inhabitants of darkness . At length , Paracelsus having entred with a great Torch , fastened a small cord to the wall , about his first paces , which he might follow as a Companion , and Reducer of the wayes ; he aspiring to pierce whither the footsteps of mortals had not yet taken their journey . The rout of Birds is presently amazed at so great a sight , it thinks that Prometheus had entred ; it dares not , nor was able to extinguish the Torch , yet it secretly attempts to do it . This man seeth very many Monuments , he is long and freely enlarged , he fills the entries with smoak , and while he is intentive , as a greedy devourer of truth , his strength fails , his Torch falls , his light is extinguished in the middle of his course , and he is as it were choaked with fumes . I a poor miserable man , have at length entred with the least light of a Lanthorn ; and that nothing might hinder , and that nothing might detain my hand from the work , I indeed refused a Rope , and hung my Lanthorn at my girdle , but a Crook followed at my back , making a path the rule of my return : Therefore I insisting only in my own footsteps , I there saw far other things than the foregoing company of Ancestors had described . But because I was alone , strength was wanting for so difficult weights , and I having endeavoured many things , the rout of Bats being against me ; at length , after the manner of the former , I departed without fruit ; yea , far worse ; because through long delay , the light was darkned unto me , and my eyes afterwards refused to bear any further light ; for why , because they had now too much accustomed themselves to darkness : Even so , that unless I had wholly abstained from my stubborn intent , the heavenly light of the day had profited me nothing : at leastwise , this one only and most true thing I had learned ; that we all having trusted only unto humane aids , did walk in thick darkness , through unknown ways , most difficult windings , and paths of the night , imitating the industry of a few , and those badly to be trusted in : neither that at length we did bring any fruits from thence , except the light badly consumed , be-darkned eyes cheeks looking pale with greyness , confusions of mind , presumptions of vanity , and the image of the night at hand , full of terrour and despair . Moreover , I discerned , that all sorts of Knaves and Harlots , Deceivers , Jews , and Tormenters , when as they had once intruded themselves by their own rashness , they were soon , by boldness , raised to a degree : For I have not found in any a greater liberty , more ample rashness , more cruel credulities , more thick darknesses , and more frequent confusions , than in the most noble of gifts ; wherein , it is free for any one to kill , if the murder be involved in the Cloak of a succour , and the party slain be covered with earth . Therefore I begged of God , that he would vouchsafe to set a bound in so wicked naughtinesses , which they committed against the Divine Image of his Majesty : But soon after , I discerned the vanity of my desire : For truly , as long as mens own profit holds the superiority , and medicine is exercised as a Plow , they contend in vain , who endeavour to compose my Christ the Father of the poor , with Mammon . I praised those Cities in times past , wherein it was not lawful for an undiscreet Colledge of Physitians , to rage in a drunken manner , on the health of their Neighbour : But afterwards , I laughed at my own blockishness , because they were excepted who cured freely : Whence I learned , that the gain of Physitians had provided that Law for themselves , and that mans own gain would every where vitiate the Laws of Charity , that none would from a certain hope , be found for the future , unto whom that exception might square . I saw therefore , that in the custome of Laws , defects grew over , and that Laws were rendred barren of juice or virtue : and surely my stupidity was by so much the greater in this , because more gross errours in curing are no where committed ; than those which even Chair-Physitians do through a punishable ignorance commit ; even as in my whole work I have endeavoured , and been ready to shew mechannically by the fire , practically , and by all kind of demonstrations . And indeed , but a few ages ago , arrogancy , sloath , and the extinguishment of Charity sequestred a Chyrurgion from a Physitian : wherefore afterwards , servants handled manual instruments and operations ; as if it unbeseemed a Christian to help his Neighbour with his hands . In the mean time , some Noble Matrons healed many defects with their own hands , that were despaired of by Physitians . Truly , after that the Studies of ambition and gain were practised , Charity grew cold , Mercy was extinguished , Art perished , and the Giver of lights withdrew his gifts , the number of our calamities increased , and Physitians were made the Fable of the vulgar ; Truth remained buried in the grave of Science , and instead thereof , a confused kind of brawlings arose , being discursive , which was accounted for doctrine . For Physitians described , and drew to themselves the whole Army of Diseases , almost grieving , that the Catalogue of them was as yet so small : For they being allured with the facility of the Art of Galen , promised to measure all diseases by the Geometrical demonstrations of degrees of heat , and cold , and to heal them all thereby . Chyrurgions also , as well the Modern as Antient , from an imitation and emulation of these , largely and widely treated promiscuously of all diseases , snatching the cures of them all under themselves , in the sight and despight of their former Masters : Because , at first , and from the root of Medicinal Ordination , all things belonged to be cured only and alone by Physitians ; but unto Chyrurgions afterwards , only by permission , and from favor . Both of them have remained under a confused strife , the which I cannot , nor do I intend to put an end unto , as being assured , * That a Physitian chosen by God , his own signs shall follow , and wonders for the Schools : For he shall prepare , to the honour of God , his free gifts , to the comfort of his Neighbour ; and therefore compassion shall be his Leader : For he shall possess truth in his heart , and knowledge in his understanding ; Charity shall be his Sister , and the mercy of the Lord shall enlighten his ways : For he shall employ or bestow the grace or favour of the Lord , and the hope of gain shall not be in his thoughts : for the Lord is rich and liberal , and will give him an hundred-fold , in an heaped up measure . He will fructifie his works , and anoint his hands with blessing : He will fill his mouth with consolations , and with the Trumpet his word , from which diseases shall flee : He will fill his life with length of daies , his house with riches , and his Children with the fear of the Lord : His footsteps shall bring felicity , and diseases shall be in his sight , as Snow in the Noon day of Summer , in an open Valley : Curse and punishment shall flee away , and health shall follow him behind . These are the promises of the Lord , unto Physitians whom he hath chosen : These are the blessings of those , who walk in the path of mercy : Because the Lord loveth those that work mercy ; and therefore will he enlighten them by his Spirit , the Comforter . For who is liberal as the Lord , who gives many things freely , and for some small matter , bestoweth all things . Blessed is the Lord , who saves only the merciful man , and who saves him that is to be saved , freely . But consolation shall meet the merciful man , in the way of hope ; because he hath chosen a faithful Master . But indeed the Greeks , and soon after , the Arabians , instituted the cures of infirmities , without the distinction of the person of a Chyrurgion from a Physitian : And those Heathens rising again from the dead , shall at some time , confound Christian Physitians , for their sloath , covetousness , and pride : For God reserveth the choice of a Physitian to himself . But the Schools being willing to ease God of this work , have taken on themselves to instruct Schollars , any , and without difference , and have proposed unto them an Art placed in the daily reading of books , and in disputations : wherefore they have read the books of Galen , Avicen , and their Interprerers ; and then they have rowled over Herbarists , the images of Herbs being deciphered to the life : And the which , if they have not yet therefore known from thence , the studious are dismissed to the shops , and to the gatherers of Simples , with a command , that when they have well known the Effigies of Simples , they return unto their Lectures , which they by much and long study have collected out of divers Authors , that they may learn the powers or virtues of Simples and Compositions , and also their applications . In the mean time , perhaps ye shall see the dissections of dead carkasses , and ye shall hear ( as they say ) Galen's method of Healing , his use of the parts , and differences of the Pulses : Likewise out Commentaries on the ninth Book of Almanzor , according to the common rule of Practitioners . In the mean time , learn ye problematically to dispute subtilly upon any proposition ; and so , within three years space , ye shall be transchanged into learned men . The Schools , in the mean time , being as it were ashamed , laying aside the name of Physitian , promise some higher thing unto their young beginners , when the three years are finished ; which is that of a Doctor . Therefore , after that Art was raised up into a Faculty , Religion , and Profession ; pride crept in , covetousness intruded gain ; whence also there was a mutual hatred betwixt Physitians ; which things brought with them all inclemency on the sick . Moreover , at length , pride , for the most part , super-excelled covetousness in those that were blown up with the letter , and lucre : wherefore a Physitian , promoted his houshold servant , who had known how to comb and shave a Beard , into a Chyrurgion ; accounting it a shameful thing for him who had rowled over so many books , to bind up an Ulcer , or repose a broken bone : For all vices have that , that they associate themselves with shame and fear , and cover the fault with the shadow of decency : And therefore also , pride hath by degrees chosen sloath for its companion , the coupling whereof hath soon bred ignorance : So that indeed , a Doctor being called unto the outward deformities of an Erisipelas , hath been ignorant of the kind and name of that affect ; the which , when he had warily understood by the Chyrurgion , he late at night rowls over some books , that on the morning following , he may declame many things concerning the affect : therefore , he bids a vein to be opened ; he commands Whey , with Rose-Vinegar , or Soap , to be applyed , for mitigating of the burning heats , and describeth a potion against the day following , for the drawing out of Choler . The Chyrurgion smiles as oft as the event answereth not his promises ; and the Doctor , by degrees , shifting of external diseases ( because he is ignorant thereof ) as being content with his Super-eminent Title , that he had read most things in Chyrurgical writings , and could declame most exceeding ample things among the common people , the Chyrurgion conniving thereat . He in the mean time , who without the advice of the Physitian , takes to him his own Disciples , who can sometimes pull out a Tooth , who have known how to open a Vein , to spread Basilicon and Diapalma , and have learned in three years time to bind up a wound , they are reckoned the Free-masters of Chyrurgery , against the will of the Schools . But the Doctors have too late learned the Fable of him who had endowed a Serpent , frozen with cold , with his own hosom , and being pierced thorow by the same , miserably perished : And that thing at this day is so far extended , that Chyrurgions henceforward , have their own Doctors or Teachers , Professors , and Writers , in their Mother Tongue , amongst themselves . Then I say the Schools , and that too late re-considered ; so that they , who at first blushed to repose a broken or displaced bone , and afterwards knew not how to do it , are now glad to poure back the Urine , and to stir stinking dung with a stick , that they may divine their humours to have been chased thither : And that unless they shall do that , verily they know , that as idle at home , they ought to grow mouldy beside their books : For in the mean time , the ignorance of Chyrurgery is encreased among Physitians . Truly , God hath every where punished pride , by ignorance , or madness . Galen indeed wrote books of the Therapeutick or practical part of healing , which they interpret to be a method of healing : But who is he that knows not that Therapeuta sounds as an houshold servant ? and so , that they should serve Nature and the sick , with the humble Title of Family-service : and we will glory in the Lord , who taking on him the nature of a servant , would that his own Physitians , should in this humble vocation , be made partakers of the most Noble Science of the whole Universe . And indeed I at sometime asked a Canonical man , why he would not sing together with the rest at the hours of singing , who from their Institution were the Singers of Divine Praises , the imitators of Angels , but not the Heads or Directors of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ? He answered , that would be an unbeseeming thing for great Canonists to sing ; that they had their lesser Beneficiated ones , and Chaplains : For the one , through a possession of a larger alms , denieth unto God his praises , as a thing disgraceful unto him ; but the other accounts , that it would be uncomely for him to handle , cleanse , and bind up the torn Members of Christ . But I am assured , that within a few transitory daies , the Lord will say ; Unless ye become as one of these little ones , I know not you Lamp-bearers without Oyl . Wherefore , I exhort you my Brethren , take away gain , and in the room thereof drink in charity ; and ye shall feel , that every good work , which now seems to be base unto you , is not only laudable , honest , and Noble ; but also , that it sanctifies and ennobles its Operater . Was not the great High-Priest of the Jews a Prince , a Butcher of Herds , a Killer of a Flock of Cattel , having bloudy hands ? But it is far more decent to bind up the Ulcers of the poor , than it was in times past to offer Sacrifices : For no good work in charity , shall ever be able to detract any thing from the Reputation . Gain therefore and Pride , were introduced by Satan . But thou wilt say , the Labourer is worthy of his reward : If thou art a Labourer , let it not therefore shame thee of thy work : The wise man saith , a Physitian shall receive a gift ( not a stipend or reward ) from a King , not from a poor man : Therefore , if the intention of the Operater be pure , God shall provide according to his promise , who deceiveth none , promising an hundred-fold in this time , and the life of another . Wherefore I will describe by the way , an history of my own life , and the magnificences or sumptuous provisions of the Lord : imitate ye the same , if happily any good thing shall therein offer it self . Truly , I was a Glutton of Books ; I had collected all remarkable things into common places , so as that few exceeded me in diligence , but most in judgement . In the seventeenth year of my youth , I read Lectures of Chyrurgery before the Students , in the Colledge of the Physitians of Lovain , being appointed thereunto by the Professors , Thomas Fienus , Gerardus de Villeers , and Stornius : Alas , I presumed to teach those things which I my self was ignorant of : I fitted together Holerius , Tagautius , Guido , Vigo , Aegineta , and the whole Troop of Arabians ; the which surely all together , understood not the perfection of Chyrurgery . Afterwards I desisted , having admired at my own rashnesses and inconsideratenesses , that I should presume , only by the reading of books , to teach those things which are not well learned but by sight , and the handling of the hands , by long use , and a sharp judgement : For an unconsiderate presumption blew me up , because I had been voluntarily by them chosen hereunto , and had my Professors , both my Auditors , and the Censurers of my readings : For I trusted to writings , as it happens to children reading from Baiardus and Malegigius . At length , being amazed with my self , I certainly found , that the event answered not the Doctrine , and that Professors gave me not more light in practising , than the writings of the Antients . In the mean time , it often came into my mind , what the Schools thunder forth out of Avicen ; to wit , that confidence on the Physitian is of greater weight to the sick , than the Physitian is with all his instruments : I therefore suspected , that it was a feeble succour of the Physitian , before which , an imaginary aid of confidence should be preferred : For if any one being glad or joyful , be cured by laughter ; at leastwise , let the medicine be ridiculous , where the Physitian shall cure the sick party by laughing and confiding ; for that is not the medicine which the Almighty hath created from the earth . Then also , that Maxim of the Schools appeared ridiculous , affirming , that the capital betokening of curing , is drawn from things helpful and hurtful ; because that Maxim ordinarily presupposeth , that uncertain , and hurtful medicines are wont for the most part to be sent afore : Helpful ones also , if any shall be given , that they are administred by chance , and without knowledge : which things surely do define medicine , against the will of the Schools , to be a conjectural Art , and that the knowledges and cures of diseases , do begin a posteriori or from the effect , from errours , from the tryal and conjecture of that which is uncertain : yea , that that which should afterwards be searched out , should be alike uncertain . The Poet hath deservedly cursed that medicinal Maxim. — Careat successibus opto , Quisquis ab eventu , facta notanda putat . I wish that he , who e're he be , may want successes rare , Who from th' event , doth straightway think , deeds to be noted are . I therefore grieved that I had learned that Art ; and being angry with my self , grieved , who was Noble , that against the will of my Mother , and my Kindred on the Fathers side being ignorant thereof , I as the first in our Family , had dedicated my self to medicine : I long bewailed the sin of disobedience , and it grieued me of the years and pains bestowed in a choise profession : And I ost-times humbly intreated the Lord with a sorrowful heare that he would vouchsafe to lead me unto a calling , not whither I was carried of my own free accord ; but wherein I might well please him most : And I made a vow , that I would follow and obey him to the utmost of my power , whithersoever he should call me . Then first , as having been fed with the forbidden fruit , I acknowledged my own nakednesse : Because I found neither truth , nor knowledge in my suppositional docttrine , supposing it especially , to be a cruel thing to heap up moneys by others miseries : Also , that it was an unseemely thing , to translate an art founded in charity , and bestowed under the condition of exercising mercy , into gain ; since the Noblenesse of charry is estranged by a stipend , which wants a price out of it self , because it is greater than all price : Wherefore , I presently entitled my inheritance on my sister a widow , and transferred it by a gift among the living ; because she could scarce conveniently want it . I therefore being a young man , altogether unprofitable in all things , an unthrifty man , and who had rashly applyed my self to studies , commended my self to God , with an intention of going far from home , of forsaking medicine , and of never returning into my Country : Because I cleerly then beheld my own innermost parts ; I discovered , and divorced the vanities of my former presumption , and literal Learning ; I therefore proceed on as uncertain , unto strangers , under hope , that the Lord would clementiously direct my course unto the end of his own good pleasure : But by how much the more I detested medicine , and cast it far from me as a juggling deciet , indeed , by so much the greater occasion of healing invaded me . For an Idiot associated himself with me , who had known at least , the manual instruments of the art of the fire : I presently as soon as I beheld the inward part of some bodies , by the fire , percieved the seperations of many bodies , then not yet delivered in books , and at this day , some being unknown : Afterwards , an earnest desire of knowing and operating , dayly increased in me : For not much above two years after , I had gotten such houshould-stuffe to my self , whereby I was , though absent , in great esteem among the sick ; also with Ernestus Bavarus the Electour of Collen , and he called me unto himself for help : But then it as yet more shamed me of my late , and learned ignorance : Wherefore I presently resigned up all books , and I percieved my self more to profit by the fire , in conceptions attained by praying , than in any kind of books , which sing always the same Cuckows note : And then I cleerly knew that I had vitiated the passage of true Phylosophy : Obstacles and dificulties of obscurities on every side appeared ; the which , not labour , not time , not watching , lastly , nor the lavishments of moneys could from any worthinesse disperse : but the one only and meer goodnesse of God alone . For neither did carnal lust , nor drinking bouts withdraw even one only houre from me ; but continual paines , and watching were the thieves of my time : For I willingly cured the poor , and those of a mean fortune , being more stirred up by humane compassion , and a moral affection of bestowing , than from a pure and universal charity or dear love reflexed on the Fountain of Life . For it happened , that a Consul or Senatour being at somtime willingly about to make use of my endeavour , I denied to giue it him presentially , as being unwilling to forsake many that were poorer , least I should be accounted to have neglected many for one : Notwithstanding , God from the free grace of his own good pleasure , turned this pride into good : For it shamed me to receive moneys , but of the richer sort : So that a Confessour constrained me to admit of the mony of a certain man that offered it , least by doing otherwise , I should bar up the dores against those , who being fore-stalled with shame , would not dare to aske further succours from my hands : For he said , The gifts which thou refusest , give to him that is in need : and the which , if thou shalt not receive , thou by thy pride , withdrawest from the poor that which was to be his own . I also gave willingly , the medicines prepared by me : but because I felt the greater joy while I was called by a Primate or rich man , I being angry with my self , and confounded , refisted long , and bestowed very much pains , that I might pluck up the growing branch of covetousnesse bred in me : Therefore I every where searcht out more of arrogancy and haughtinesse in my self , than of a Godly affection . Finally , God cut of the means from me , as well in the Church as among civil Potentates ; and so also , ample fortunes seemed to be promised me by Radolph the Emperour but I had incurred the danger of my foul : In exchange whereof , he gave me a godly and Noble wife , with whom I withdrew my self to Vilvord ; for seven years space , I offerd up my self to the art of the fire , and succoured the calamities of the poor . I found , and indeed I sound for certainty , that none should be forsaken of God , who with a pious affection , and fitme faith , performes the office of Physitian : For although I was the silliest of all , I seeingly discerned , that God is Charity it self towards the miserable , and therefore that from his own effluxing goodnesse of charity , he alwayes bore a care over me : For the inheritances of my wise were increased , and ample partimonies of my family befel me : for although I was subdued in suites of law , by the malice of men ; yet I became a conquerer by some revisals ; so as that the mercies of God openly appeared toward an unworthy person . And moreover , he pressed down those that excelled in might , who persecuted me unto disgrace , and hidden death , under the cloak of piety : And the darts were reflected on their own strikers ; so that now it more shameth , than repenteth them of their manifested crimes . In the mean time , I desist not to cure some ten thousands of sick persons every year , by my remedies , neither are my medicines therefore diminished . I have learned therefore , that the treasure of wisdome is not to be exhausted , and I daily experience my yesterdays ignorance to be to day illustrated . But in returning from whence I have digressed : I find that they have not yet been able to discerne what defects respect a Physitian , and what a Chyrurgion : Which things if I may determine of , I declare , that onely things suscepted or undergone do touch at Chyrurgery : The which in a section concerning a new rise of healing , I have sufficiently explained : But things suscepted , are a wound made by piercing , a cut or incision made by a fall , biting , bruise , burning or scorching , or congealing : Likewise , every swelling proceeding from a fall , stroak , &c. Also a rent , pulling asunder , burstnesse , breaking of a bone , and displacing thereof : As also , contagions externally drawn , being those of scabbednesse , the kind of Anthonies fire called Herpes , &c. and no more : But unto Physitians , besides the internal defects of things retained , it belongs to cure any Ulcers , Apostemes , and whatsoever external affects do proceed from an internal Beginning ; such as are the Cancer , Wolf , Leprousy , Gout , the disease Paneritium , the Sciatica ; &c. But at this day , there is the more mild brawling between both Professions , because most Physitians are ignorant of a method , medicine , and succours , no otherwise than as Chyrurgions are : And therefore although they joyn hands , and so exhaust the purses of the sick party ; yet at length they hasten to the bound of despair . And in the proposed question concerning the Plague , they are unanimous enough : For the Physitian refuseth the Plague to be of the diseases placed under him , because it beares before it a Carbuncle , Kernelly Glandules , Sores about the groyne called Bubo's , an Escharre , bubbly Tumours , and Tokens : And at leastwise , he condescendeth with the Chyrurgion , because he promiseth that he will scrape together out of renowned and standard-defending Authours , any the best Antidotes , if not the curative medicines of external affects ; at least , preservatives against the cruel poyson : Yea if the Triacle of Galen doth not suffice , which according to Andromachus , conteineth only 66. Simples , ( that is the last part of the name of Antichrist ) he promiseth to his herbarists , that he will super-add very many more , which are sufficient for the putting of the Plague to flight : and that if they are not prevalent in a sufficient power of faculty , they may at leastwise , be able to strive with the Plague , in multitude , by their number : But if the Doctour shall be hired from the City , with a stipend , least he should hurt or be wanting to his other sick patients , by causing a fear ( thus he over-covers his own fear with anothers dread ) he ingeniously promiseth , that he will shew by his pen , that the affairs of the sick are cordial unto him : So that , he will also frame a book out of the most Famous Authors on every side , which he promiseth to dedicate to community , indeed under the hope of repaying a reward of his vain-spent labour , unto the writer : For in that treatise , he promiseth , that he will so distinguish of diet , exercises to be performed , avoyded , and of meanes to be curiously examined , besides remedies and preservatives , out of all Authours , that the very Plague it self , shall upon the sight of that book , of necessity become diseasy . In the next place , the Chyrurgion saith , that the Plague , as it is joyned with a Fever , stands not to be ruled by his will or judgment : But however successfully the matter shall sometimes prove unto him ; at least wise , that for six weekes after , he should be profitable to none , with his sissers , file , knife , or rasour or launcet . What therefore shall he that is suddenly taken with the Plague , do , being left destitute by both forsakers ? Or what will the Magistrate do , being deluded by his own stipendiaties ? Because they are they which respect nothing but gain , the one only scope of their whole life . The Physitian therefore will dismisse the sick unto the non-feared Pest-houses , wherein there is as unlawfull a pleasure for a Physitian to kill , as for a tormentor , and souldier . The Chyrurgion answers , That there is a Mate known unto him , who is without fear , after that he hath notably drunk ; who although he hath not known how to open a vein , ( for this is estemed the top among them ) neither is worthy of his family-service ; yet he hath oftentimes brought Simples out of a wood , or mountaines , and therefore that he is skillfull in some Simple , which whether it be an Herb , Shrub , or tree , or living Creature , he hath hitherto refused to declare ; Yet he undoubtedly affirmeth , that it privailes against the Plague , and he willingly perswadeth him to commit the buisinesse of the infected unto him . Master Doctour skipping for joy consenteth , and praiseth the subtile invention of the Barber , and his care for the Common-wealth : And so that companion being called unto them , a Lixivial medicine for an Eschare , Basilicon oyntment , and Diachyson gummed is given unto him , and also a magistral preservative confection described by the Physitian : Wherewith he being now furnished , becomes a stipendiary of the City , and the life of the common-people in misery , and the fail-yard of the Common-weath is committed unto him : yet under this condition , that if he suffer himself to be governed by Tenders , and under-Sisters , as super-intendents , who by a long possession , rage on the sick , he is to receive a yeerly reward . Surely miserable are the sick , more miserable the Magistrate , and most exceeding miserable the Doctour , unto whom the Magistrate hath committed his sheep , which they deliver to wolves : Because in this respect , man is truly a wolf to the poor , and infected man. But the strict judge , will at sometime , require at their hands , the lives , souls , and forsaken orphans . For what would a King do , if a cowardly Captaine shall wipe away much money from himself and the people , and muster a great band of country-men in his enrowling book , but shall betake himself , with his Ensign-bearer , into a most fenced Tower or Castle : but shall write unto the Drummer , and some women-sellers of provision , that they cheerfully assault the Enemy with those fresh-water Souldiers ? For will not the King require of his Captains , the Souldier that was rashly slain ? And the town destroyed by the Enemy ? Have regard therefore , ye Senatours , and Physitians , what cruel thing doth not hang over your heads ? Because nothing is more certain than death and judgment . For I have written these things from a compassion on you , and the sick : I divine of you , let God be favourable unto me ! At leastwise the Magistrate hath not hitherto known , of what kind the Plague should be . CHAP. 2. The Pest or Plague , an Infant . A Rtaxerxes , by an Epistle , commanded Petus , that he should come unto him , to cure a disease ( as yet without a name ) which killed his Citizens and Souldiers ; for that , by gifts recieved , he was obliged hereunto . Petus answered him after the manner of Physitians at this day : That natural succours do not free from a popular slaughter : For those diseases , which are made by nature , those nature judging of , healeth . But Hippocrates cureth a malady from a popular destruction : Because this man is endowed with a divine nature , and hath carried up medicine from a low estate , unto great atchievements . Hippocrates therefore is a divine man , the ninth indeed from King Chrysamides , but the eighteenth from Aesculapius ; but the twentieth from Jupiter : Being indeed of his mother Praxithia , of the family of the Heraclides : Wherefore , from both seedes , he hath his original from the Gods : He was initiated or entered as a young beginner in medicinal affairs by his great grandfathers , so far as it is to be believed , that these knew : But himself hath taught himself , having made use of a divine nature , the whole art : And in the industry of his minde , he hath as far exceeded his progenitours , as he hath also exceeded them in the excellency of art : But he takes away , not only the kind of bestial , but also of brutishly fierce and wild diseases , through a great part of the land , and sea , dispersing the succours of Aesculapius ( even as Triptolemus , the seeds of Ceres ) : Therefore hath he most justly obtained divine honours , in many places of the earth , and is made worthy by the Athenians , of the same gifts or presents with Hercules and Aesculapius : Send thou for this man , and command , as much Gold as he shall he willing to receive , to be given unto him : For this man hath not known one only manner of curing this disease : This man is the Father , the preserver of health , and the curer of griefs : In summe ; this man is the Prince of divine knowledge . Artaxerxes therefore , writes unto Hystanes the Lievtenant of Hellespont . Let Hippocrates the Glory of Cods , who drew his original from Aesculapius , come unto me : and give him as much Gold as he will have , and other things in abundance , sparing no riches : For he shall be made equal to the Peers of Persia : For it is not an easie thing to find men that excel in counsail . Moreover , Hystanes writes thus unto Hippocrrtes : The great King Artaxerxes hath need of thee : Commanding Gold , Silver , and whatsoever thou wilt have to be given unto thee ; that thou shouldst be made equall unto the Nobles of Persia : Thou therefore , come quick● . Hippocrates the Physitian , unto Hystanes the Lievtenant of Hellespont , joy . SEnd thou back to the King , what I say ; That we enjoy food , rayment , house , and all sufficient wealth for life : But that it is not lawfull for me to make use of the riches of the Persians ; neither to free Barbarians from diseases , that are enemies to the Greeks-Farewel . Hipocrates unto Demetrius , health . THe King of the Persians hath sent for me ; as not knowing that with me , there is a greater respect of wisdome , than of Gold. Farewel . To the King of Kings , my great Lord Artaxerxes : Hystanes Leivtenant , joy . The Epistle which thou sents't unto Hippocrates of Coos , who sprang from Aeculapius , I sent a way : but I recieved an answer from him , which I transmit unto thee , with the bearer thereof Gymnasbes , Dieutyches . Farewel . Great Artaxerxes , King of Kings , saith these words unto the Co-ans : Render ye Hippocrates to my messengers , who is indued with evil manners , wantonizing over me and the Persians : But if not , ye shall know that ye shall pay the punishment of the offence : For I will convert your City , being laid wast and drawn into diverse parts of the Island , into the sea : that for the future none can know , whether there were an Island , or the City Cos in this place . The Answer of the men of Coos . IT hath seemed good unto the people , to answer the messengers of Artaxerxes : The Co-ans will do nothing unworthy of Merops , nor of Hercules , nor of Aesculapius : All the Cities will not yield up Hippocrates , although they were to dye the worst of deaths : The Earth , and Water which Darius and Xerxes required of our Fathers , the people gave not , since they saw those very Kings themselves , to be impotent mortals , as other men . They now answer the same thing : Depart ye from the Co-ans and return this message , that the Gods themselves will not be negligent of us ; Because they deliver not Hippocrates into your hands . I have thus described these things at large , whereby the truth of the fame of Hippocrates may be manifest , and that he had cured the Plague among the people throughout Greece : For indeed , that disease being as yet an Embryo , scarce known , scarce named , was now perfectly cured : but now , it being sufficiently and too well known , is left unto decievers of the lowest condition : Charity hath grown cold ; therefore the light of knowledge , and understanding hath been snatched away from us , and the certainty of curing hath been buried with Hippocrates . Although a great volume be born about in his name : yet he suppressed this safety or assurance of curing ( God so permitting it ) for fear of the Barbarians , or from a zeal of vanity to be observed , because he arose from the stock of Deasters or Starry Gods : or because through the successive interchange of days , his own monuments perished , suppositional ones being left : However it is , by the permission of God , the aforesaid amplenesse of knowledge , and safety of curing the Plague hath hitherto vanished . I have read perhaps , an hundred Authours concerning the Pest or Plague , indeed all of them transcribers , writing a far of , and being unexperienced and conjectural ones , through a fear of death : That at leastwise is known , that in the dayes of Hippocrates the best remedies of diseases were not as yet made known : For then cures were instituted only by Simples , and those crude ones , the preparations of them being not yet devsed . But Galen his Juniour by more than five ages , endeavoured to write commentaries on Hippocrates , and he with drew from him at pleasure : For why , he had never seen Argent vive , never Rose water , or Aquavitae . And although the age of Hippocrates was homely ; yet healings were obedient unto him , which do no wise obey Galen , not his followers at this day . Hippocrates had lesse of prattle , but more of candour , science , and heavenly light : so that with homelinesse , ages have seemed to put of purity , and the gift of God : Wherefore out ages have been fruitful in most perverse manners , and wits : It hath therefore pleased God , that a true and exact curing , and prevention of the Plague , hath soundly slept together with Hippocrates : At leastwise , nothing is read among the Jews concerning a popular or general Plague among the ●●ople , from the age of Noah unto the offence of David : But among the Persians , and Greeks , besides the consumption mentioned to have been in the age of Hippocrates , the enemy of mankind , and Prince of this world , hath caused some Plagues to rage , by the permission of God , which Satan commanded to be expiated by sacrifices done unto himself : Perhaps , because that thing was not granted unto him , as to the Prince of darknesse , so much , as because he had the foreknowledge of a future Plague , and together also , of the term of its appeasment : Whence he violently , fabulously and deceitfully challenged the rise , decay , and power of appeasing thereof unto himself . A Plague is read to have seldom been among the Romans : And but a few ages ago , the memory of the Plague was almost worn out : At length , it returned for ages , and raged for seventy years ; and soon after it destroyed for fifty years ; so that the year of Jubile was made cloudy , and terrible . Now , there is a third years Plague at Constantinople : The Turks are not wont to provide for themselves against the pestilent contagion : And therefore they scoff at the Christians , as resisters of the ordination of God , and as those that decline the Plague , for the most part with a vain endeavour : That the manner of divine revenge , is to be born , which happens of necessity , unto every one appointed thereunto . In Aegypt , the Plague varies every seven year : It for the most part , endures unto a third year , after this manner , as Prince Radzvil the Polonian witnesseth . On the first year it lightly begins , when the Sun enters into Libra , and it rageth chiefly in December , even unto the month called March : At which time , the heats are milder : but when they have grown strong , when as in the year following , the Sun enters into Leo , the Plague presently ceaseth ; and indeed so , that if any one shall have a Pestilential Apostem within , and shall survive unto the aforesaid hour of the aforesaid celestial sign , he escape all danger : Even as colds with us , so here , heats chase away the Plague , and for two months time they live securely : But after that the Sun hath entred into Libra , the Plague again begins by degrees , and continues until the entrance of the Sun into Leo : on the third year , it keeps the same fashion , but that it slakens somewhat more from its bitternesse : Afterward , if a contagion shall not be brought on the people from elsewhere , the four following years are free from the Plague : sometimes also , a longer truce is made : But the malady for the most part returns in the space of seven years Their harvest begins about the end of [ the first month called ] March : Before the last days of [ the second month called ] April , it is finished : For the southern windes blow throughout [ the third month called ] May , which by burning , would reduced their fruits unto nothing . That Prince having been there thus perfectly instructed , wrote these things , and believing all : whereunto , I shall give satisfaction in its own place : At leastwise , the holy Scripture makes no mention , that these things happened unto Aegypt in times past ; although the Sun and Heaven are now rowled about in the same circle , as in times past : For my speech is the memory of my Parents , concerning the Plague , as of a most rare monster : It hath of late flourished among us for fifteen years : Now it ceaseth : Houses were then built up at Bruxels , for the infected poor , and the walls themselves were broken at the North-ditch ; of which houses , our Country could long be without : But I lay the fault upon us ; it was a command of Charity ; draw thy Neighbours Oxe or Ass out of the mire , bring him to his Master , neither shalt thou pass by the way , doing otherwise . But now the Cattel of our Neighbour , is not only not freed , but we our selves press them down ; yea , we forsake and flee from our Brother ( the Temple of God ) in his greatest necessities , and mortal diseases , and stop our ears at his lamentations : every one , like the Priest and Levite , passing by , excuseth himself from the work of charity , as though that to do a good work , were not belonging to his profession , and as if the Text were a lyar ; Whatsoever thou shalt do unto the least of these , I will account it as done unto my self . It s no wonder therefore , that in these ulcerous rubbishes of our daies , God sorely threatens the destruction of a most perverse people ; and that their Cities shall be ploughed as a field : For I have oft-times been affrighted within my self , at that eminent fore-going sign of the destruction of the Universe to come ; There shall be Plagues : For I from thence despaired , as that none was to come after Hippocrates , who should any longer cure a popular Plague : But from elsewhere I hoped , that as what we wish for , we easily hope for , and in hoping , do also believe ; so also , that we might despair of what we are very much afraid . I therefore believed and hoped , that this safety of curing the Plague should hereafter be discovered , and that every succour before the last Tragedy of the world , would again be hidden : at leastwise , I suppose , that there will be other far more horrible Plagues than ever heretofore , and against which , all Antidotes will be vain : For truly , our Plague at this day , doth not affect bruit beasts : But in the last dreggishness 〈…〉 , they shall destroy wild beasts also ; yea , fishes , and trees ; and there shall be Plagues , but not an ordinary Plague ; otherwise , this should be an uncertain sign of the future destruction : For there shall be Plagues from the hand of God , from the powring out of the Vials , as the Revelation hath it : But against , those Plagues there is not to be a Buckler in Nature . I promised therefore unto my self , before I attempted to write these things , that the Plague that was curable , even unto that face of times , and a true remedy thereof , was to be fetched out of the Grave of Hippocrates , or rather from above , from the Father of Lights . I will declare what I have learned , for the profit of Posterity . CHAP. III. The Heaven is free from , as also innocent of our Contagion or Infection : NOt the least comfort hath appeared unto the Soul that is earnestly desirous of knowledge , or unto the miserable and forsaken sick , from the writings of the Antients . First of all , it is of Faith , that the Stars are for signs , times or seasons , daies and years ; nor that man can any way alienate the offices of the Stars , or decline them unto other scopes : That the Heavens are the works of the Lords hands ; that God created not Death : and therefore , that neither doth the Heaven contain Death , a disease , poyson , discords , corruptions , or the effective cause of these : For truly , they are ordained , not for the cause , but for the signs of future things ; and only for the changing of seasons , or Meteors , and for the succession of daies and years ; The office therefore of the Heavens , is not to generate evils , to cause poysons , to disperse , or influx them , to sow wars , and to stir up deaths : Because the heaven cannot exceed the bounds of its own appointment : the heavens declare the glory of God , for whose honour , and the uses of ungrateful humanity , it was created : And therefore , it rather contains in it , life , light , joy , peace , and health , with an orderly and continued motion : no curse is read to have been communicated to the heaven after the transgression of Adam , nor execration to be infused into it , as neither a spot to have been sprinkled thereon . The earth indeed brings forth thistles and thorns ; because under the Moon is the Copy-hold of the Devil and Death ( because of sinners ) the Empire of discords , and interchanges : The earth hath become a Step-mother unto us , she is therefore the vale of miseries , being great with-child of the corruption and fardle of sinners ; because it hath pleased God , that there should be no other way unto rest , but by tribulations : yea , it behoved Christ to suffer , and so to enter into glory ; not indeed anothers , but his own , because he was willing to take on him the form of a servant . I belive the Word of God , but in no wise the vanities of the Sooth-sayers of Heaven ; and I judge , that they who write , that the Plague doth arise from the heaven , do stumble , as being hitherto deceived with the errours of the Gentiles . The Heavens declare the glory of God , and the Firmament sheweth the handy-works of the Lord : The Heavens therefore , shew a sweet , or bitter thing to come , but they do not cause that sweet , or bitter : yea , neither is it lawful for us to call bitter things evils ; for God hath directed all things to a good end : Therefore the heaven declares future things unto us , but doth not cause them ; and the stars are only unto us for the signs of things to come ; and therefore there shall be signs in the Sun , Moon , and Stars . The Stars also cause the successive alterations of seasons in the ayr , waters , and earth , only by a native Blas : From whence the changes and ripenesses , as well in fruits , as in the body of man , especially in a sick one , do consequently depend . I understand also , that the stars are in this respect for times or seasons unto us , by their motive and alterative Blas : For neither therefore are the Heavens Sorcerers , or the Cocters of poysons , the incensers of wars , &c. I knowingly consider them to be altogether as the alterers of successive interchanges in Elementary qualities , as to the interchangeable courses of Stations : Wherefore it happens , that the sick a●e diversly altered in the promotion and maturity of seeds conceived in them ; because our vital faculties do stir up every their own Blas , according to the rule or square of the most general motion of the stars ; not indeed , as of violent leaders ; but of foregoing , or accompanying ones . For the Book of the Revelation doth not attribute even any the least punishing power unto the Heavens ; but the same to be distributed by God among the Angels : and the which therefore , are called smiting , and ministring spirits , performing the commands of the Judge ; Therefore , I shall not easily believe , that the Plague owes its original unto the importunate or unseasonable changes of times ; the which also , Eudoxus , according to Fernelius , perceived . And I cannot be induced by any reason to believe , that the Heavens do give growth , form , figure , virtues , or any thing else , which proceedeth from the Being of seeds : For the Herb was potent in a flourishing seed , even before the stars were born ; so that although there should be no stars , yet every seed , by the power of the Word , is of it self naturally for producing of its own constituted body , and against the will of the stars , and stations of the year , yea , and of climates : many seeds and forreign fruits are produced by Art : Wherefore , the Epidemicks of Hippocrates , illustrated with the Commentary of Galen , do also contain very many things , unworthy the name of the Author ; not only , because it attributes diseases to the stations or seasons of the year , and not every one to their own seeds , and divers infirmities to one root ( that is , unto the first qualities of the ayr ) and so coupleth divers effects with unjust causes ; but because they contain very many absurdities of trifles . For I am wont in this thing , to compare Judiciary Astrologers unto Empericks , who having gotten an oyntment , powder , or any other medicine , extoll the same to be prevalent , well nigh for all diseases ; and also , for many other : So , many of those being not content with the shewing or betokening message of the Stars , constrain them to be the workmen , Deasters , and absolute Patrons of all fortune and misfortune , to be conscious or witness-bearers , and the workers of life and death to come : Lastly , to be the Councellors and Judges of thoughts , and questions asked . If therefore , they do not contain death , wars , poysons , nor the Plague ; verily , neither shall they be able to rain down such scourges upon us , seeing they cannot give those things which they have not , do not contain , do not cause , nor generate : For a messenger , the Preacher of Wars , is not the General , or cause of these . For if Trigantius the Jesuite tell truth , the Plague is unaccustomed unto the most wide , and whole Empire of the Chinois , and never there seen ; over which , notwithstanding , the same Saturn , and the same Mars , bears rule , and that alike powerfully as over us . Again , if in some Lands the Plague rageth at a certain term of time , and returns at fore known stations , wherein notwithstanding , the Plague in times past was a very great stranger ; surely it should follow , either that those Provinces do not lay under the influences of the Stars , or not under the same influences as in times past ; or that those Plagues are adulterous ones , or at leastwise ( as I deem ) that they do not proceed from the heaven ; to wit , since there are no consultations of Stars in the same place , which do yearly observe set daies of their assemblies : For what if the plague in one City , destroy the greatest part of mortals ; truly all providence of the Magistrate shall be in vain , if the Neighbouring places that are scituated under the same Meridian or corner of the heaven , cannot be preserved untouched . And seeing the influx , and in-beaming of the stars , is most universal ; how mad soever others may be , yet it is not to be believed , that plagues can have an influence from the stars of heaven , unto designed places , Cities , and Villages : For if the Plague it self should be a pestilent influx of the stars , or a Gas sent down from above unto us , or a meer naked quality descending through the ayr , which comes unto us without that body ; it shall also be either conceived in the stars , or generated in the ayr Neighbouring on us . If the first of these , it should of necessity be , that all the corners of the world should be infected at once , unless we suppose a Pipe or Trunk to be directed in the ayr , and thorow the ayr , from the heaven even unto us , and that an unmoved one ; by which also , and not otherwise , the pestiferous ayr bringing down the smoakinesses and defilements of the stars , is conveyed unto us : For since the distance of the stars from the earth , is of many thousands of Diameters of the earth ; it is not to be thought , that any smoakiness of a star can reach safe unto this Center ( and lesse unto some Province thereof ) but that it can infect the whole compass of the Earth and Sea , with a universal gore at once , it supplying the space and room of one the least Center or Point . Therefore , if the Earth be like unto the least point , hitherto have those things respect , which I have elsewhere spoken concerning the Region of the ayr , through which , neither winds , nor dew , or rain , do ever run down , nor Meteors do play their Tragedies : And much less doth any thing flow down perpendicularly out of the depth of the heaven : or if it should rain down ; some Decades or ten-fold numbers of the age of Nestor , would not be sufficient before that it could come as a stranger unto us . But if the stars do at least dismisse from them a meet and naked quality , that quality shall even by so great an interval of place and entertainments , degenerate and fail divers times , and through the journeying of some yeares , and so , before it can come unto us , it shall have nothing of its former likeness ; neither could such a quality coming unto us from far , infect a certain place , unless it be brought by an Angel , as it were in a box : but if by an Angel , now the natural question ceaseth ; and we vainly make the heavens to be the bringers of the Plague , and Sorcerers , if an Angel himself be the Plague-carrier ; who otherwise can bring far more readily the pestilent poyson nigh the earth , or into us , than that he should bring that with him , from the pure and guiltlesse heavens . In the next place , a pestiferous quality sliding down from heaven , if it shall not descend at once in the enclosed air , it shall either pass from subject into subject ( which the Peripateticks and modern Schools refuse ) or through a thousand shapes of it self , and those so often degenerated , shall come down from its original unto us , as wholly a stranger ; and so the poyson of the heavens shall be frustrated . But if it be supposed to be generated in the Clouds nigh the earth ; therefore the heaven being free and guiltless , is falsly accused : For truly , I have shewn elsewhere , that the heavens do operate only by a motive , local Blas , and an alterative one , of heat and cold , but in no wise by poysons : because they are those thigns which are only formal properties of sublunary bodies , and the fermental ones of some seed , I grant indeed willingly , that a fiery weapon is now and then seen , a fiery weapon to have fallen out of the ayr , being darted unto some certain place ; and that the plague hath sometimes followed thereupon : But that prodigy , in the first place , slideth not out of the deep bosom of the heaven , but out of a more nigh Cloud : Perhaps Satan the companion of Thunder , le ts fly such a weapon , where he knows the plague to be sorely threatned ( from whence , he of old , snatcht the honours of God unto himself ) but that weapon is not therefore the cause of the plague : otherwise surely , at every plague a weapon should from a like necessity , be darted forth ; especially because it is the property of fire , to consume the plague , and poysons , but not to generate them : Therefore fire doth never naturally , signifie the plague , whose destruction it containeth : and therefore , such a fiery weapon is a most rare monstrous sign ; sent down by spirits for terrour unto him , who shall rest back that weapon for the amendment of his life : and truly , it is impertinent to our purpose , and an exceeding frivolous thing , if from thence we note the heaven to be the bringer of the plague : For any monstrous signs are uncertain , and unfit for the foundation of medicine . But if an age or length of time , should thrust this pestilent ware into our bosome ( for so it hath been believed hitherto , and they have badly deceived our Gentile Schools with an Epidemical name ) to what end are there so many writers ? or what means have been hitherto devised against those importunate influences of the stars ? For who hath hitherto hindred the marrow from increasing in the bones , after the manner of the Menstrues ? therefore they have falsly accused the heaven : Let it seem sufficient for the Schools , to have made the heaven the Author of the plague , and to have buried their own knowledge under the silence of despair , only from the perswasion of ignorance , and terrour of fear : Therefore the accusing of the heaven doth every where involve a manifest and necessary ignorance . But at length , after that they have contracted all the strength of their Studies , they perswade , that places are to be avoided , wherein the Plague-stroaks are vigorous ; that meats full of good juice , must be used ; that a good fire must be made , and that any kind of filths must be avoided ; and that Triacle must often be used , whereinto , when enough simples have not yet been cast , every one may heapingly add new Genturies or Hundreds at pleasure , thereunto , and so , that is reckoned the most excellent Antidote , which containeth the collected heap of a thousand simples : and they hope , that one of a thousand may perhaps help , at leastwise , that it will not hurt : For those are Magistral Antidotes or medicines against the poyson ; so that if in the mean time , the matter shall the less luckily succeed according to desire , at leastwise , he who hath compiled so many the most select simples together , and those commended by Renowned Authors , is free from blame : they being badly mindful of their own lyes , prescribe also grateful suffumigations of vinegar , and Odours of Spices ; as if such feeble remedies could prevail against their own principles ; that is , against poysons diffused from the heaven , throughout the whole air : For if by reason of those odours , either the beard , or nail of the hand ; or lastly , the marrow ceaseth to grow , it might infuse some confidence of hope , that the pestilent seed might be overcome by the wan remedy . Therefore , if there were any causative reason of the plague in the heavens , that by a stronger right , should belong unto man over the heavens , if a wise man shall have dominion over the stars , but not the stars over a wise man : For a wise man is able in some respect , to change the significations of the stars , although not the motion of the stars . But that thing is as greatly impertinent in this place , as is the false accusation of the heavens : For truly , if the stars should causatively work their own effect on us ; verily , a wise man , might be able to mitigate it , and Physitians do , by their accusing of the heaven , falsly endeavour to excuse themselves for an impossibility : There is not I say , any action of the stars on us , besides that of a Meteor : for Astrologers feign many things which they have known to be false ; yea , and impossible : the which , in the speculations of the Planets , are on either side easie to be seen : notwithstanding , neither Nature , nor therefore medicine , to admit of the rule of falshood , as neither of the suppositions of Science Mathematical . Therefore lastly , if a popular plague should slide out of the heaven , it should of necessity be , that the heaven should resist and hinder , also , according to the same root , and not as to the latter product ; and so the whole Art of Healing should prescribe nothing but altogether vain remedies for the prevention of the plague . But the Schools commit not themselves unto so great wickedness , and they more willingly rush unto impossibilities , that they may make a Buckler for their own ignorance , and may send any ignorant drinkers , and Cup-shot tormentors of mortals against the plague . At leastwise it is manifest from hence , that they do not hitherto assault the causes of the plague before , but behind , and that they have had respect only unto the effects thereof : and so , that whatsoever hath been spoken concerning its prevention , hath in it the meer deceivings of their Neighbours : For they imitate the Countryman , endeavouring to exhaust a Brook where it hastens into the Sea , nigh the shoar , but not by stopping up the Fountain : Therefore , either they do not believe the plague to arise from the heaven , or their remedies are full of despair and deceit . Furthermore , if the heaven , as it were an angry Parent ( as it pleased Paracelsus to dream ) takes notice of our crimes , and is defiled with our impieties , and therefore as a Revenger wounds us with its darts , and so miserably kills us ; Certainly , it shall either be some Deaster , or sensitive living creature , which arrogating the office of God unto it self , and envying the office of the smiting Angels , teacheth us , that envy is a Celestial thing , as also the revenge of the creature on man. But why doth it note our crimes , if in taking notice thereof , it be defiled ? and how shall it be defiled , if sin be a meer non-being ? how shall that Archer perceive a meer non-being ? how shall it judge of the departure of mans will from God ? for if it be angry with us , and inflamed for revenge , by reason of [ that nothing ] how shall it not rather be angry with us , when it shall perceive that we imitate its own actions , and do stop or prevent them ? to wit , while the heaven being appeased , we form the plague in us by our own terrours : and it should far more harshly bear it , that man , against the will of the heaven , should heal the plague , that he overcomes his own wounds , and prevents or hinders its offices , in despite of the heaven . Again , if the Plague could by an orderly motion of the stars be declaratively , and as it were , yearly foretold ( even as I have already before declared the informations of others concerning Aegypt ) but our offences want a set orderly day , number , and measure : For sins depend on the heart of man , and a free will ; therefore that cause is not beseeming for its effect , and a sign thereof . But Divines deny the future effects of free-will to be fore-known by the stars , and so , neither that knowledge , nor understanding dwells in the heavens , and inanimate bodies : Therefore neither indeed , do they denounce the plague , wars , &c. to come from sins fore-known unto them . Be it sufficient , that the plague is denounced , not as for an inciting cause , but because it hath so pleased the Eternal : That every guilty person may examine himself , and amend : neither is there need of feigning belyed naughtinesses , and ill wills , to be in Saturn , or Mars , if our sins are the effectual cause of contagion : and so Astrologers and medicinal Diviners contradict themselves : For neither otherwise , should it be of necessity , to feign an Executioner to be angry with the guilty person , although he kills the same . I pray , why shall our iniquities rather provoke Saturn , and Mars , than the Moon which is neerer by some thousand miles ? Why should Saturn who is most remote , be a more potent Revenger of our crimes , than the Moon ? For if any star were pestilential , certainly it should chiefly be that which bears rule over the night , rest , and reducement into the first matter . In the next place , if the plague doth invade us as a punishment , or be sent by Angels his messengers , the movers of the Orbs ; Surely , none shall be natural , and the prescriptions and rules of the Schools , as well for prevention , as for curing , shall voluntarily acquiesce . The heaven therefore , is a presager of fore-shewing a thing to come , and it affords signs of the plague , which God reveals to his own : But the heaven is not the effective principle of a present plague , as neither the fore-knower thereof : For truly , otherwise , as well the heaven , as the directive Angelical intelligency should erre , as oft as it should punish a guiltless child with the plague , for a sinner ; neither should the habitations of the godly be ever subject to the plague ; and God should appoint an unjust Deputy , which should cruelly kill the good with the plague , which should not lay hold on the wicked : He should kill the good , I say , for sins that entred not into their thoughts : or at leastwise from hence it is manifest , that the plague hath its own cause in nature . At length , if the plague were the off-spring of Coelestial light ; surely , that should alwayes rise up in an instant , seeing the aspects of the stars are by the minutes of a moment : Wherefore the plague , before that ( its poyson being bred from elsewhere ) it could come down unto us , it should first be dispersed with the wind , should be well washed with the first be-sprinkling of rain , and be appeasingly allayed with the colds of the night and Clouds , before it should descend unto us : and also , those Cities should be punished , which had least offended : and then that also in Paracelsus is ridiculous , that the Arching plague , and noter of our crimes , should inhabit in the Sun ( wherein God hath placed his own Tabernacle ) as it were , an angry and revenging parent , by reason of the contagion of impurity received ; Yet that Saturn , and Mars ( he being unconstant , so saith in another place ) were the revengers of crimes . Therefore after what manner soever it be taken , providence suffers the injury of the punishing heaven ; and God , blasphemy : and so a deceit of Paganisme is included , whether they shall say , that the pestilent poyson is stamped by the stars , or sent from them for the revenge of crimes : or also , that it is framed by the natural course of the stars , through yearly elementary qualities , or extraordinary , or indirect and monstrous ones , directed by Satan . They on both sides dash themselves on the Atheisme of Pagans : For neither hath the evil Spirit that power on us , which the Gentiles suppose ; neither is there any other Guardian read to be in a plague sent from God , beside Angels of light ; and so it is to have departed from the truth of the holy Scriptures , to have attributed a power of generating the plague , unto the stars , or the devil : especially where the dispute concerning a natural plague , and not that sent from the hand of God , comes in place , and where it is to be enquired concerning remedies , causes , and obstacles or preventions . For first of all , oft-times the plague begins from one only individual , to wit , from a guitless child ; and so , the heavens had for a purging satisfaction of this child , smitten the whole Family , Town , and at length the Province ; to wit , the innocent for the wicked , after the manner of an Apothecary , that Substitutes [ quid pro quo ] that is , any thing instead of any thing . Again , while the plague creeps by its contagion , from one unto another ; at leastwise , the poyson shall be no longer handed forth by the heaven , or a wound inflicted by the heaven , in the second , third , and tenth person ; as if the whole anger or revenge of the heaven were stirred up through the fault of the first guiltless person . Again , the plague that is conceived only from the terrour of one that is fearful , since in the most special kind ( for no other actually existeth in individuals ) it differs not from any other which should be sent from heaven through the poyson of the stars : Therefore neither shall there be any natural plague at all , from the heaven , if it be conceived from elsewhere , by the naked image of terrour , nor that its original stands in need of the heaven : For after another manner , one individual is not constituted by parents differing in the whole predicament : For if the most High created the Physitian and medicine from the earth , and the plague be formed by the stars ; I at least fear , least all future medicine should be unfit for so great a poyson : But at leastwise , the Lord could not erre , in that he sent medicine from the earth , and not from the heaven . And moreover , the Books of the Kings , and Revelation , attribute the plague to holy Angels , which is the mark-pledge of Divine Revenge : neither is it lawful to go back unto the evil spirits , and stars , as the beginnings of pestilent poysons . In the next place , Paracelsus writeth , that the plague is beamed forth from the heaven , as it were from an Archer , only into three places ; to wit , behind the ears , under the arm-pits , and into the groyns : Wherefore the plague arisen in other members , shall either not be the plague , or of another kind , and of unlike causes , than that which should be the wound of the heaven , is : or next , the heaven hath erred in its darting ; or at leastwise , Paracelsus hath rashly erred through boldness . Therefore , if other Forreign causes do frame the plague , without the help of the heavens , it must needs be , that these are deprived of their possession and estimation , and that the heaven ought hereafter , to attempt the controversie by way of Petition . If in the next place , the plague be a wound , therefore it is from external things suscepted or undergone ; not a Fever , or disease consisting of an appointed seed , and by consequence , whatsoever of Diaphoretick or transpirative medicines they have decreed for a succour of the plague , let it be false and deceitful ; and Incarnative and Vulnerary medicines shall be more fit ; and a Diaphoretick for prevention , is most exceeding vain , that any one may not be wounded by the Coelestial Archer : For there should be but a sluggish Buckler of a sudoriferous medicine , against an arrow so poysonsom , being darted so powerfully , from so far , in a straight line , and with so great leisure ; and being most securely led , the weapon proceeding through so many thousand miles of Stages . For it became Paracelsus to have known , that the Carbuncle , Glandules or Kernels , Buboes , and bladdery swellings behind the ears , are not indeed , the Pest it self ; yea , neither that they are any way wounds , but signs , the product , and effects of the Pest . For because that also , some signates of the Plague are frequently not seen , but after death : Wherefore , that heavenly Slinger should , as oft as he wounded , send in , not the plague , but the effect of the plague : and he had come too late , as to inflict the plague , or wound on those parts in him who had already before died by the plague . For a certain one being continually provoked to vomit , with headach , dies under continual faintings , within seven hours from the invasion of the sickness : But presently ; about the time of death , he is tinged above the Navil , even unto the throat-bones , with a frequent mark , or black print of the stroak . For curiosity sake , since an Anatomist was wanting , I dissected him , and found the mouth of his stomach , now cauterized with a black Escharre . Lastly , the black marks or tokens , are not wounds , even as neither are the Glandules , little bladders , Buboes , &c. Therefore at least , the heaven doth not wound in the plague ; the which , if they are opened , thou Paracelsus , callest Ulcers , and distinguishest against wound , and thy own self . Too fabulously therefore , is the heaven defiled with out corruption , and is a revenger of these injuries , even as also , a Notary , and wounder of our crimes : That was an invention of Heathenism in times past , that it might blasphemously extol the heavens and starry Gods into a worship . Four Elements also , are blasphemously and foolishly brought in by Paracelsus , who was wont to laugh at the Relolleous quality of them ; especially because , in the original of our medicine , a Quaternary or four-fold number of Elements is taken away , as well in the nature of the Universe , as in the constitution of mixt bodies : For how ignorantly is a Quaternary of Elements suited with the aforesaid Ternary of emunctory places ? For Paracelsus having obtained Arcanums plainly heroical for the supplanting of diseases , and being destitute of medicinal Science descending from the Father of Lights , and of his own accord , assuming to himself the Title of the Monarch of secrets , and from this boldness , invading the principality of healing , treated of the Plague as it were of an enemy unknown unto him : Therefore he ascribeth the Plague , sometimes to the heaven , at another time to the Sun , and sometimes to the elements alone , and oft times to Pythonisses or women of a prophecying spirit , witches , and to spirits , as well those infernal , as elementary Deasters ; being for the most part forgetful of the doctrine of his own Paramire ; where he proposeth plagues of the being of nature , of the being of poyson ( as if any Plague could exist void of poyson , or as if some poyson were not natural ) of the being of the Stars ( as though the Stars were above nature , or without it ) of the being of witches ( these he attributes unto Incubi or devils in mens shapes , hobgoblins , sylphs , &c. ) he distinguisheth them also against the being of the Stars , least peradventure witches may be the wise men which are said to bear rule over the Stars , and of a God-like being , and he there forgat his own and an imaginative being , the remembrance whereof notwithstanding , he ought to have had before the rest : unlesse he had rather that an imaginative being cannot cause disease , or that it is no where vigorous , but in the possession of Witches . And moreover , as I judge a plague sent from the hand of God , to despise the remedies of nature ; so also , if there were any proper unto devils , or witches ( which is not a thing to be believed ) yet at least it should in no wise owe its original unto the heaven : For otherwise , if there were a witch Plague , it would be far more cruel than accustomed ones are , by reason of an external poyson being adjoyned , and a readinesse of its acting , speedied and enlarged through the wrath of the evil spirit . P. Boucher a Minorite Frier , in his oriental or Eastern pilgrimages , tels as an eye-witnesse . That although Egypt be otherwise exceeding subject to the Plague ; yet that every year , before the inundation of Nile , a singular dew falls down , which they call Elthalim , at the coming whereof , as many as lay sick of the Plague are readily and universally cured , and are preserved as healthy there from , by the same dew : For if this be true , neither hath it been sufficiently searched into by Prince Radzvil ; yet not any thing can be drawn from thence , whereby we may know that the Plague is naturally caused by the heaven ; since from thence at least it follows , that some meteors are healthy , but others hurtful to some , which none hath hitherto denied . For although the Sun , the day before the inundation of Nile , returns every year , almost unto the same place ; yet the same stars do not return as companions together with him : And then , that dew is not the off-spring of the heavens or stars , nor of a meteorical Blas of the heaven : but the day before the inundation of Nile , the more high land of Aethiopia , being more hot and southern , was long since overflown , which sends forth a great vapour from it , filled with Nitre ( for the whole water of Nilus is nitrous ) which vapour is not only resolved into a dew ( the dew elsewhere weepes Honies , Tereniabin or the fatnesse oftwood hony , found in good quantity in the summer months , with a manna-ie Being , and Laudanum , being as it were gummy things ; and among us the May dew daily abounds with a sugary salt ) and accompanies Nile running : but it well washeth the whole aire of Aegypt , even by moistening it , and refresheth the bodies of the sick , not much otherwise than as a shower doth the earth after long driths . At leastwise , I being admonished by the holy scriptures , despise the sooth-sayers of heaven . Therefore if the heaven be the cause of a destroying or devouring Plague , it ought likewise to be the cause of every other Plague : Because the same Being , in the Species , obtaines the same constitutive causes , from which the Species it self recieveth its identity or samelinesse . Therefore I constantly deny , that a pestilent poyson is bred by the heaven , or dismissed from the stars : but all Plagues which are not singularly sent from God , for a scourge , are either endemical ones or proper to a Country , or framed by a certain terrour . But those which are borrowed , as being drawn in from contagion , do follow their own seed and ferment : But an endemical Plague , although it be drawn in from without , occasionally , yet it is not to be reckoned for the plague , unlesse the terrour of our Archeus do first frame a poysonous Idea of sore fear conceived from the endemical Being , even as shall by and by be manifested . I deny moreover , that any Plague is endemical : For although the aire may myire the bodies of many unto diverse confusions of putrefaction ; yet it is in no wise the original cause of a Postilential poyson : For as all putrefaction differs from the Plague ; so in like manner also , the poyson of the Plague differs from any corruption that is the daughter of a thereor : The which , unlesse it be rightly and perfectly known , the nature of the Plague also , shall not be able to be any way understood : and much lesse a radical healing of the same promoted . For a conclusion of this Chapter , I will adde an argument which is drawn from the bank of rivers : For I have seen those , who , that they might avoyd houses infected with the Plague , departed from Antwerp ; others who fled from the Smalpocks , through which , two years before , they as yet carried about with them , a face he potted with the scats thereof , which were smitten in the river Scalds it self , with the diseases which they presumed they had avoyded , and had withdrawn themselves as healthy . I remember also , that a certain girle was cured by me of the Leprousy at Vilvord , who when shew is now accounted to have been whole for the space of seven weeks , and returned to Antwerp , she presently felt in the River it self , the Leprousie to bud again upon her throughout her whole body : Who at ●●●gth , returning to me , and being cured , staid with me at Vilvord for the space of half an year ; neverthelesse on the same day ( wherein she returned home , the hidden Leprousie in Scalds , again re-budded . I have also known women who were readily inclined to a miscarriage , although they travelled the Country in a Coach , and the journy had prosperously succeeded ; yet in the river they felt a commotion in their womb , and being carried from the bank by a Coach , that thy slide into an excessive flux of menstruous blood . And so the river strivingly imitating the heaven , steals away the believed honour from the Planets : I speak of Summer ; and so neither is cold in the tive● , then somewhat suspected to be accused : Also the cold of Autumne , in travelling the country ; withstood or hurt not so much , as in the month called August ; the river ; nor the shaking of the Coach ; brought not so much hurt as a quiet saying : At length , not a watery vapour wandring about in the river : For truly in journying the Countryon rainy days , the declared calamities happened not : As neither by living about fenny places : but in rivers fit for flowing and ebbing , a few hours hath brought on them these troubles of the Plague , Wheals , Leprousy , and smal Pox , which on lane did not arise : For the water twice every day , for sakes the ships and banks , and the bottom is of a strong smelling stink , through an hoary putrefaction : wherefore the river speakes in silence , and proves the hurts of its odour putrified by continuance , which I shall by and by shew : For that thing also , is therefore proper , not so much unto the sea shoat , as to the bank of rivers : For there is no hoary putrefaction at the falt Sea , and sand of its bottom , such as is in half-sweet or breachy rivers : wherefore their waters are scarce ever altogether clean , and they want an odour proper to themselves . The Heaven therefore is free from our contagion , as also being innocent of the accusations of the ignorant , it wants the fault of revenge . They are the Reliques of Paganism , the which , unlesse the School of medicine shall shun , let it know , that the giver of lights will not reach forth his benefits unto them . CHAP. IV. A forreign new Plague or contagion . ALL diseases have not come at once into the place of exercise : surely the ages of our Ancestours were happy , wherein , but few infirmities had bent their sword against man weaknesse : And the product following upon Adams transgression , hath by degrees adjoyned the principles of nature with us . For Astrologers do as yet to this day flee together unto the limited positions of the stars , unto the wraths and un-co-sufferablenesses of their oppositions , and the conjoyning combates of malignant lights : whereby the first Fever , first Apoplexy , or first was bred . For although I am not wont , diligently to search into things past , which may not profit , but hurt ; and much lesse have I accustomed my self to enquire into those things , the demonstrations whereof I could not obtain , give , make , or hope for ; yet I could not but deride the folly of Paganisme referred on the stars . For I could the more easily assent unto Astrologers , if a Fever being once bred , and an Apoplexy having arisen , they had ceased when that constellation ceased : Also if they could demonstrate in what Inn , the while , they should inhabite , the displacing of severish stars being once divded or drawn into diverse parts . Wherefore in the book of long life , I first was constrained to describe the entrance of all diseases and death into humane nature , from their original : And so I clearly understand , and seeingly behold , that they were the reliques of paganisme , whosoever hath dared to extend the offices and ordinations of the Stars beyond the text of the Holy Scriptures , which saith , that the stars are to us only for signes , seasons , days , and years : For if I should assent unto judiciary Astrologers , I should suppose a feverish , or Pestilent seed being once bred , to have afterwards entred into nature ; not indeed , that its generation did continue thence-forward , as the off-spring of a certain curse , but of creation : But since most diseases do at length end into health , if at leastwise they do not die with the sick themselves , and for the most part without the raysing up of a new off-spring ; it should of necessity be , that if they had at sometime begun by reason of unlucky lights ( a ridiculous , or blasphemous word for a Christian ) neither could then begin without them at this day , if those lights having thus con-joyntly encountred , are to be judged the efficient causes of diseases . Therefore I beleived , after that I had more fully unfolded the re-solutions of hidden bodies by the fire , that there were from the beginning , the same principles and rootes of diseases , which there are also at this day : The which , I have cleerly enough demonstrated in the section of the original of medicine , in the treatise concerning diseases in general . I have also believed , that some diseases in the beginning , were as it were in their infancy , more gentle , and that they had more swift progresses , and also more easy extinguishments , by reason of the former strength of humane nature ; yet that some diseases were in their beginning more fierce , the which indeed , do not so adhere to the root of humane frailty ; but are attained as companions with a Plague or contagion , as being forreign : For as natures were in times past , more strong , the which as they are the recievers , so also the Physitianesses of diseases ; so now , I experience the seeds of diseases daily to profit , to make a more strong impression , and to wax very fierce ; and that our nature , by how much the longer it goes on , and the more unseasonably proceedes ; by so much the more negligently also , it hearkens unto remedies : For indeed in the days of our Fathers , the Lues venerea or foul disease , till that time hitherto unknown , arose , together with its chambermaids and lackeys : But the 1424. year , and the siege of Parthenopolis or Magdeburg , and the age of that Lues , and the first nativity thereof , is taken notice of . At length , whatsoever hath once grown tough in our possession , although it may perish in those individuals , yet it afterwards keeps its particular kind , and scarce knows how to dye , as long as the command of him remaines , who sendeth a spot into the flesh : As the Scurvy , Plague of Hungany , &c. unknown to our Ancestours : but our stripes increase daily , because impieties also are multiplied . Truly diseases are changed , are masked , are increased , and do degenerate through their coupling : therefore henceforward we must deliberate with a more earnest thought , concerning more profound remedies : but from the growing worse of a disease , I have conjectured , that a more secure art of healing ought to arise , than that which hitherto by frequent blood-letting , and the poysonous resolving of laxative medicines , their bonds being conjoyned , fore-timely draws mortals into the place of burial ; For I guesse at it , because I see the Lues Venerea to change other griefs into its own obedience ; and that the plague also will in this respect be degenerate ; and indeed I have at sometime read in the revelations of St. Bridget , also in the lives of St. Dominicus , of Vincentius Farrerius , of Coletia , &c. that in an unanimous apparition , they saw the Saviour of the world to be angry at the impieties of mortals , and to threaten the destruction of mankind with three darts : by reason of which appa●ition , it was , that B. Vincent , as soon as in a superintellectual rapture at Valentid of Spain , he had seen Coletta the reformatresse of the Order of St. Clara , prostrate on her knees , before the holy-sacred Trinity , he earnestly intreated the aid of the God-hearing Virgin , that Christ the Lord might divert that purging satisfaction which was threatned for a deserved punishment ; and his country of Valentia being forsaken , he came to Gaunt to see Coletta , whom he presently knew to be the same woman which he had seen in the aforesaid tapture , and sought for . ●or covetousnesse there was a dart of Wars , whereby goods badly gotten , and badly reserved are taken away : for pride , there was in the hand of the Almighty , a dart of want and famine : But Ecclesiastical or Church-men , whom these kind of sins do for the most part touch , he threatens to chase with both launces from their possessions , they being heaped up , and badly used , contrary to their vows : and at length against luxury , he bare a a dart of contagion or infection in his hand . Truly David , chose the plague instead of war , and famine , not by chance , but from a higher guidance ; because the whole people , after the Kings example , were fornicators : At leastwise , that is singular in the aforesaid vision , that it appeared unto divers Saints , and in divers years , and indeed before the coming of the Lues or Pox ; because there is not a word which the Lord hath not revealed unto his Prophets . Last of all , under the fulnesse of daies , under the maturity and compleated number of sinners , the long-suffering God sent one of the three darts into the middle of the flesh , and forthwith the Lues Venerea appeared , being plainly cruel , poysonous , and killing with a poysonous putrefaction . But afterwards , other sicknesses ; yea , and the plague it self , contracteth a blethish thereof : neither do ancient diseases any longer answer unto the descriptions of our ancestors , neither do they shew forth the accustomed obedience of a league with remedies ●t for in times past great armies were led up and down , and beyond Europe , into Asia and Africa , without any notable contagion , and on both sides almost , the same numbring account of souldiers was found ; but now presently after a ●iege is begun , they within the Garrisons die , and also the besieging camps , and straightway a popular plague succe●ds a speedied vanquishment : for scarce one onely band of the souldiers of a garrison goes forth abroad , the which waggons laden with sick men do not follow , although it laded the hospitals behind it . The chief Chirurgions do bewaile with admiration , that but so lately , any the lesser wounds do scarce any longer obey the wonted medicines . Moreover that Lues or Pox , is read to have been first seen in the siege of Naples , in the year 1494. Physitians also attempt the rise or original thereof by conjectures : for it hath pleased some to attribute the nativity of the Lues unto the West Indies , and that there it was natural and accustomed : but others have been pleased to accuse the Eastern climate ; notwithstanding , that the West Indies were free , Ferdinandus Cortesius himself witnesseth , who was the vanquisher of the same ; and that after his coming , he had not yet taken notice of it there to be ; but that the Pox was brought thither with an Ethiopian , a bondslave of Pamph●lus of Narvaez ; for perhaps he had newly brought it thither , and brought it with him from the siege of Naples : for seeing the Lues began there at first to be seen , it hath been disputed among Nations , whether it ought to be ascribed for a triumph , to the French , Spaniard , or indeed to the Neapolitan . In the mean time , none ever accused the Portugal , and by consequence the East Indies were free : for the Portugal was not in the siege of Naples , who from an ancient hatred , willingly promoted the wars of Castile : yet the Portugal alone , with an excluding of the Spaniards , had viewed the East , and subdued it to himself . Neither doth it hinder these things , that the Lues or Pox was for a long time since accustomed to the Chinoys : for none came from thence unto the War of Naples : therefore , if it be true , that the Lues excels in antiquity in China ; it might there have begun from the same Beginnings , even as they had Guns , and Printing before us : At leastwise , the venereal plague or Pox is no where from Endemicks , nor from an infection of the aire ; from hence also , it is not every where popular : but that the Lues was not brought from the Chinoys unto us , is manifest from Guaiacum , the use whereof among the Europeans , is eighty years elder then that of the root of China : And then , because the entrance into China , is forbidden unto all forraigners , upon pain of their head : the Pox was then never seen in the coasts without China , whither notwithstanding , the Chinoys yearly ran out of their own borders for commerces sake : But Guaiacum came from the Western lands . Others perhaps , therefore contend , that this plague of luxury began , because the dearness of victual had perswaded , the fleshes of dead carcasses that were slain , to be filthed away , and being privily boyled , to be sold ; but since with the men eating Indians , this Lues , before the coming of Pamphilus had been unknown , the alledgement of these is not received . Astrologers also with whom the causes of all accidents al● referred unto the aspects and revolutions of the Stars , that they might not grant any thing to come to passe without a co-operation of the Stars , say that a strange scituation of the Stars had then an influence onely upon Naples ; the which they seeking with much perplexity , have not yet found : as if the same scituation of the Stars had never been before ; for the holy Scriptu●as gain-say this opinion of the Astrologers , as I have already proved above . At length , Paracelsus unconstantly searching with earnestnesse , in many books and additaments , accuseth and detesteth the copulation of a leprous Harlot with a scabbed French souldier : As if indeed no leprous whore had been before co-mixed with a fordid French-man ? But it is sufficient for a refuting of this ; that Paracelsus herein also is unconstant to himself , who denieth in many books , that the Lues Venerea is by it self a disease , but he permits it to be onely a page unto other diseases ; notwithstanding every contagion , whether it be contracted from the Leprousie , or from the Pest , or elsewhere , is truly and actually a disease in it self : neither is it a wonder also , that the cause of the Pox is hitherto unknown by those who have had respect only unto the contingencies of nature : I rather believe that so many apparitions to Saints were not in vain , and shewn unto them without their scope or purpose . I therefore believe , that the beginnings of the venereal plague was drawn and planted into nature from a dart of divine anger , violently cast , and no otherwise than as at the pouring out of the phials , the third person of mortals shall at some time perish : Not indeed that I will have the plague of lust to be accounted altogether miraculous in its beginning , because it began from a hainous offence : For I know , as in nature , it now hath , so also that in its beginning , it found a ferment and root therein . And moreover , a certain Layick and holy man , being wont at some hard questions , to receive dreaming visions , and oft-times also , through the abstraction of his minde , intellectual notions or knowledges , perhaps from too much curiosity , narrowly searched into these questions . 1. Why that venereal plague had broke out in the fore-past age , and not before ; since that in the fore-past daies of Pagans , any wicked impudent wantonnesse was never wanting ? 2. From whence , if not from the Indians , it came into Europe ? 3. What may be the cause of its continuation , and mitigation , and changing , if it were come from God ? For Miracles do seldome pass over by way of contagion , and unlesse a command be delivered , obtain their cause in nature : But neither is God wont to punish the guiltlesse , even as the Lues veneris oft-times infecteth the innocent . The Layick said , that he saw in an intellectual vision , an horse , which flowed almost all abroad with a stinking ulcer ; which disease being proper to the horse kinde , our countrey-men call , Den-worm ; but the French Le Farein ; whence horses do by degrees perish with a corrupt mattery rottennesse : but he saw this horse as it were designed for meat to dogs , having his whole back vitiated , also about the vessel of nature : neither had he any other answer , besides that vision ; wherefore he said , that he supposed , that at the siege of Naples ( where this cursed contagion at first arose ) some one through an horrible sin , had carnal copulation with such a horse-beast . At leastwise , from thence I conjecture the rarity of a disease not before seen ; because I cannot easily believe that ever such a sin was in the like terms committed from the beginning of the world : and it is a disease like unto the Lues Venerea , and akin and familiar unto the nature of the horse : And therefore it might ( God the avenger so permitting it ) have naturally transplanted its own ferment into the family of man , although it was before divinely threatned : That the Mares contagion , I say , might have mixed in the act of lust not to be spoken of , it then propagating the Gonorrhea or running of the Reines , the Cancer , and venereous Baboes , &c. even so as at this day , the Pox it self is attracted from a filthy whore , even into the testicles of a man : But I cease to be the more curious , as oft as a thing being known , is of no use ; unlesse happily thou hadst rather meditate from hence , that horses thus ulcerous , are cured by the remedy of the Pox ; and on the other hand , this by Quicksilver most exactly prepared : At least wise the consideration of the Lues serveth for a degenerate , and at this day multitiplyed plague , and many of which are threatned in the holy Scriptures under the coming of Antichrist . I adde , That it is infamous , and hath infected every corner of the world ; it h●●h also manifestly shewn by the effect , that it is a common satisfactory punishment of the flesh , and creeping unto a further , and as yet a commonly unknown mark : For indeed at its first beginning , it not only stood a good while unknown , but also its healing was unsuccessefully att●mpted , and at this day is commonly unknown : whence it follows that the life of mortals being enraged by uncertain and cruel medicines , ●● now humbled , even before the youth of every one ; which weaknesse promiseth a cert●●● lasting continuance of perpetuity , and in abstinent persons , unto the fourth period of generation at least ; yea , although a large company of men have never contracted the Pox : Neverthelesse , since the Lues is scarce ever well cured , and the reliques therof have remained ; surely there do those survive , who having experienced the rashnesse o● Physitians , are made far more weak then themselves were : For there is a radical part o● poyson , which hath remained in their possession , besides the horrid tortures of oyntments , perfumes , and salivations ; and it must needs be , that in that respect their successors are diminished with a notable weaknesse ; For the Lues is not indeed a disease , consisting of a matter [ whereof ] ; but onely a poysonous ferment is affixed to the solid , or liquid parts of our body , like an odour ; And so ( the which is singular to the Pox ) it incorporates it self , not onely with the constitutive parts , but also with the excrements , or with the matters of other diseases , which it toucheth at ; because it affecteth them , and is co-mixed with them : and since it is easier to defile a matter with poyson , which is newly appointed for an excrement , then a part as yet alive , and so also for this cause resisting : Hence it comes to passe , that whosoever have the manifest , or hidden beginnings of any diseases whatsoever , they do easily contract the Foul disease , and therefore also it transplants it self into various masks of diseases by an association : for in many it produceth ulcers , and wheals ; in others , it gnaws rottenesses in the bones , it stirs up hard swellings , also it causeth Buboes about the groyn , phlegmones or inflamed apostemes , and corrupt mattery apostemes , as also wounds stubborne in curing : elsewhere also it hath brought forth palsies , gowty fits , the jaundise , or dropsie , &c. For that thing deceived Paracelsus , he thinking that the Pox was not a disease in it self , because it adhered to other diseases ; For a curse now coming upon nature , impure from its original , doth not proceed by an accustomed generation , but it findes its own body pre-disposed in the body of other diseases ; so that the likenesse of conception , nativity , subsistence , and effects in a strange body ( to wit , that of man ) do produce a likenesse of the rise of the Pox , as of other diseases , because they in a like manner issue from the fall . Diseases therefore , that from the rise of the Pox are become degenerate for the future , those do for the most part imitate the right or customary manner of some poyson : neither hath any one sufficiently searched into the causes of these , wherefore indeed , most diseases have become contagious , more cruel , more frequent , and more slow and difficult of flight , than in times past . For the Pest is undoubtedly more frequent then it was wont to be , it catcheth hold on us upon the least occasion , it cruelly infects us , and is the more readily dispersed , because it is joyned unto a new poyson : For many , as it were dispairing , have thought that the strength of our nature doth thus run down unto its end in a short space : But the Word of God hath a stable Government : there is not any defect of these incorporated with the humane species ; but adhering onely unto individuals by accident ; and seeing every forreign adhering matter is subject to a separation , and no strange thing is fit to be conjoyned pithily to the image of God , in constitutive principles : Therefore every forreign matter doth of necessity receive its birth , increase , ascent , state , declining , and death , and at length also , of its own accord , expecteth a restoration by further propagations : For the seeds and species of the word are durable for ever . Hence it follows , that a forreign guest ought at length to depart from the fold , whereinto it hath theevishly crept , through a privy error : Because the power of the Word-suffers a prescription by no seasons , length of motions , or daies , as neither by the wiles of the enemy . The flood indeed over-covered the earth , because man had corrupted his way : And therefore at this day also , by reason of sins , an infirmity hath made it self roome amongst us , it groweth new daily , and besides , another is about to threaten us . In the year 1540. under Paul 3. about Autumne , a Tarantula first appeared in Apulid , nigh Tarentum , being a monster , so called by the City , like unto a spider , but twice bigger : The which afterwards remained in the species , and from the land of Tarentum was now also transplanted into the Roman land : For according to Daniel , every monster growing up on the Common-wealth , comes from the sea : new flatterers are confirmed by this monster , who befool or make men mad that are bitten by them , and they trippingly dance with exceeding gladnesse , as if they had done well in believing flatterers . In the year 1550. in the sixth moneth called August , the French first saw wheat , which they call bedewed or honyed wheat , it representing in its ear , being as yet green , a smoaked or red-herring in its smell ; but in its ripe ear , nothing but a stinking black powder : I wish , not the cause of any popular diseases . It is a stroak or punishment which steals from us a great part of victual ; for cockle or tares is sown against the more mighty Prelates : the which I wish they knew , and did foresee . In the year 1556. The Scurvy first appeared in our sea-coasts , being unknown to the ancients ; the which infects the gums , and breath , and legs ; because it ●l●o besiegeth the most inward parts . In the same year there are men remarkably noted , being admitted of in the Low countries , subverting within and without , those that rashly believe on them , with a sweet contagion . Not so long ago a camp-●ever assaulted our countrey-men , with a deep contagion , killing without thirst and heat ; and they are denoted , who under a shew of Piety , spread new and suspected opinions among people in families . But at leastwise , nothing which is once hostile , doth afterwards kill in its own kind ; because it is sent into us for a scourge , and we being blind , do not diligently search into the occasional cause , deadly mean , end , and remedy : For they at this day accuse the impuri●ies of Camps , Fens , houses , together with the poverty of souldiers , as the causes of unwonted sicknesses , and among Physitians , the whole preservative is conversant about this occasion : As if indeed Camps were in times past purer , whilst Plagues , and unwonted Fevers not as yet were : For I know , that as oft as a Fever falls on the body , from the pedigree of antient ones , which actually suffers the Lues venerea , or which at sometime had it , and being badly taken away , that that Fever forthwith associates it self with the poysonous sweepings or reliques of the Lues , from whence it borrows poysons , which began to be called a malignant and Camp-Fever : and that it propagates it self by its contagion , even on those that are free from the Pox : And it is indeed , of the Fever its father , and the Lues its mother , being a third monster divers from both parents , as being from diseases distinct in kind : From hence surely , as well a Fever , as the Plague , have become masked and unknown : For so the Lues proceeds to be dispersed in a feverish Chaos , and is made to be of a common right : For the unluckie monster of the Lues , being unlike unto both parents , is a treacherous poyson , and becomes a striving imitater of the plague : And by a new ferment of putrefaction , it produceth the Plague it self to be more cruel then it was wont to be . It is not therefore an absurdity , that Camps at this day do stir up many sick souldiers , more frequent deaths , and those Fevers more malignant in contagion : Neither do more ready infections undeservedly follow Camps , than otherwise , the more populous Cities ; because the souldier is a nigher object of the Pox , than Citizens . The Plague therefore finding a fewel for its spark , doth easily return . CHAP. 5. The Opinions of the Ancients . THe Pest is in every age reputed for a punishment sent from the angry Gods. Therefore Hippocrates names every blemish of contagion , wholly , in diseases , Divine . The Heathen do as yet to this day flee over to their Idols : The gods of the Nations are devils . But we Christians have recourse unto the one onely eternal Power , and do implore the aid of Saints , because God is glorious and wonderful in his Saints , who by request obtain those things which our unworthinesses do deny us . For there are Cities in the Neatherlands , wherein the fellowship of Saints , Patrons in the Plague , hath for a long time hitherto , kept the Citizens free , as many of them as were sent for the succour and service of those that were defiled with the Plague : For none that was sent by a head-fellow-Citizen , and companion , although he readily served him that was infected by the Plague , was ever laid hold of by the Plague . So it is : The hairs of every ones head are numbred : A leaf falls not from the tree , without the permission of God : much lesse doth any thing happen unto us , besides the permission and fore-knowledge of God. So it is true ; a certain Plague cometh from the hands of the Lord , the which to avoid , is impossible : because it comes from him who cannot erre in arching . Therefore I have decreed not to write any thing at all concerning this Plague , as neither of the curing of a miraculous one : For if a natural Plague be healed by a miracle , that belongs not to a Physitian : very many of us also are of opinion , that the Plague is nor sent but from God , without the concurrence of a second cause . The Mahometans also , with the Calvinists , believe the Plague to be the lot of an unavoidable Predestination : Neither therefore do they avoid infected places , or bodies , as neither any hurtful things : being badly constant to themselves : for truly a wild beast cannot hurt without the consent of the Lord ; and so in this respect he is not more hurtful then the Plague ; yet they beware of and defend themselves from wild beasts . England also hath hitherto wanted the proper name of the [ P●st ] and the which , from times past , it nameth [ Plaga ] the Plague or stroake . As to what pertains to the causes thereof , the Greeks first , and afterwards the Arabians , and whosoever have dedicated themselves to either of these two , do collect the Pest or Plague into two causes . The first whereof , they name Catarctical or fore-going causes ; but the latter , connexed , conjoyned , containing , and immediately accompanying ones : and indeed , when they saw the body of man , by its individuals , and places of its habitations , to differ in great variety , they devised a universal cause for the plague ; to wit , they being seduced by Astrologers , blamed the heaven , that by its hurtful light and motion , it be sprinkles the air with a cruel gore ; the poyson whereof , they have therefore named an Epidemical or universal one : and al●●hugh they saw diseases infamous in contagion , to arise through occasion of Pools or Lakes , Caves , poysonous soils , Minerals , Filths , Mountains , the natural moistnesses of the earth , of a valley , or sink , or privy , from whence divers pu●refactions sprang ; yet they never esteemed the disposition of these diseases ●● be the Pestilence ; but by a separated name , they called them Endemical ones : which distinction , presently laid every doubt asleep , and they themselv● have snorted in this deep sleep , being glad that they had banished their own ignorance unto the heavens , for a universal ●ault : and they thought themselves secure , not any thing distrusting , that the heaven could vindicate it self from blame , but them of ignorance . They likewise separated the dead , and those that were about to die , in detesting their obediences , that it might not be heard of , neither that they might accuse the carelesness and ignorance of Physitians : Especially , when as the chief Physitian always runs away , forsaking his own sick Patient i● his despairing of life . Wherefore they call the Diviners of the stars together for their aid , that seeing the world defends the errours of these men , they may defame the heaven with a conjoyned accusation of a fault , that it defiles the air and water with the consumptive poyson of an abstracted light . But Paracelsus being much more bold than his Predecessors , would have the heaven to be really infected with our contagion ; to note our sins with a pen of iron , and unwillingly to receive them ; therefore , to be a revenger , and to stir up deaths : But that the Plague is a meer wound , that it is darted from heaven ; that the stars , by wounding , and in running , do us hurt ; and that these wounds are made only in three places , and not in more ( as not knowing , that these are our emunctory places ) to wit , behind the ears , under the arm-pits , and in the groyn . In another place also , he appoints , not three , bu● four plagues , according to the number of the Elements , that every one of them are to be vanquished by a four-fold and much different remedy : But elsewhere , he also deviseth a fifth plague , being sent into us by Gnomes , Sylphs , Nymphs , Satyrs , Hobgoblins , Gyants , or Faunes , because perhaps , he supposed these to be a fifth Element . Moreover , he being entreated by the City of Stertzing , for a choice Antidote against the poyson of the Pest , forsaking his former sta●ry and Elementated remedies , in the end , wholly trusted to a drink of Triacle , Myrrhe , Butter but root , Terra Sigillata , Sperma ceti , the herb Asclepias , Pimpernell , Valerian , and Camphor , with the best Aqua vitae ; to wit , through inconsiderateness , he as unmindful , being snatcht away into a hundred confusions of simples , by him many times and seriously detested but a little before . In the next place , neither do those things agree together , that he elsewhere , hath often , not any thing distinguished the Element of fire from the heaven : and nevertheless , that he hath delivered four plagues , distinct in their original , cause , and remedies , the which he had dedicated unto one heaven , which in another place , he would have to be the only Author of the Pestilence . He willeth also , that Christal , A●●es , and likewise Gemms , are bred in the air , and do fall down from heaven , the which he , as unmindful of himself , nameth the f●●its of the water , as willing Christal to be nothing but meer ice constrained by cold . At length , the Pest , seeing it is a malady of the heaven , and of the fourth degree ; yet he saith , that the tincture of Gemms is the best solidative medicine of that wound ; and so also , that a remedy of the second degree , should cure the plague of the fourth degree . I also pity the vain ●iresomeness about remedies , which among a thousand Alchymists , scarce one prepares : For it is a frivolous thing to compose so many books , and at length to have run back unto remedies which are scarce to be gotten , in a popular disease , and every where obvious : For it is a frivolous thing in a wandring plague , to nourish a whole Country with the fleshes of the Stork , which flies away about Autumn ; or with a Lyons Tongue , hung on the body : For all such things discover ignorant boasting , but not a common charity , in so miserable a grief : For neither hath Hippocrates chased away the plague out of Greece , by such remedies : For otherwise , the poor man ( if the plague should be put to flight by precious remedies and victuals ) should with the despairing of his life , the unequality of Fortune , much bewailing , and just grief , ponder , God to be a respecter of persons , and remedies to be denied unto him . I therefore shall never believe , that God , in Nature , was less careful in curing the poor man , than the rich : For the history of Lazarus , and the rich Glutton , doth wonderfully comfort the poor . Lastly , Paracelsus hath set forth books of a plague generated by Pythonesses , and Hobgoblins : By Hobgoblins , I say , Satyrs , &c. which he denieth to b● evil spirits , which he maketh coequal unto Witches in generating of the plague : Yet hath he neglected to add remedies for such a pestilence ; as though the title of the Monarch of Secrets , being presumptuous on himself , it had been sufficient for him , not to have ●rod in the footsteps of those that went before him , and to have stirred up very much smoak , and little fire , and to have exposed the memory of himself ●nto laughter . For his books of the Plague , of Tartars , of Minerals , &c. do contain much of prattle , but little of trusty aid . CHAP. VI. The Pest divided . THe Paramire of Paracelsus is totally employed in perswading , that every disease without exception , and by name , the Pestilence , is in its whole species five-fold ; to wit , being distinct in its causes , original , properties , and remedies . But the first kind , he calls a Natural Being , originally proceeding from elementated fruits ; and this plague , he hath described in his books of the plague and pestilentialness , wherein he is there his own Interpreter . But since it is manifest that the fruits which the Schools have believed to be of mixed Elements , are of water alone ( even as I have elsewhere clearly demonstrated concerning the rise of medicine ) of necessity also , the doctrine of the Elements , at least for the Pest , now falls to the ground : and then , another predicament of diseases , he calls an Astral or Starry Being , as it were raining down from the starry heaven ; and in many books of the Pest , he prosecutes only this kind of Being , others being omitted : and so , seeing he elsewhere confounds the heaven , and the fruits of the heavens , with the Element of fire , an Astral plague shall also again be co-incident with a Natural and Elemental fiery one : and then , a third most general kind of diseases , he calls the Being of poyson ; as if there should elsewhere be a certain plague void of a poyson ; and as though a plague could have its poyson , without , above , or besides a Natural Being . Thus therefore he distinguisheth , as being fore-stalled by an Idiotism , the stars , against the Being of Nature : But at least , as if a natural , and Astral plague , were not of a poysonsom nature ? At length , the fourth kind of diseases , he calls a Spirital Being ; to wit , the evil spirit co-operating , together with his bondslaves . Hitherto also , he refers the execrations , and desperations of men : But first of all , he omits his Faunes , Hobgoblins , Nymphs , Satyrs , &c. unless happily , he will have these to be the companions of Cacodemons : at leastwise , he neglects the chief hinge , to wit , his own phantasie , when as terrour or affrighting fear alone , generates no seldome plague . And moreover , he supposeth a spirital external Being to be the essential cause of the Pest ; to wit , whereby the species are only to be divided : and so , he distinguisheth of two effects diuers in kind , only by external occasional , and accidental causes : For it is certain , whether the Witch as a Sorceress , should connex a pestiferous contagion unto any one , or that be done by any other means , and by a proper vice of nature ; at leastwise , the plague issuing from thence , is on both sides one and the same . Last of all , he calls the fifth kind of diseases , a God-like Being , or that of the faithful , stupidly enough , in not distinguishing God from diseases themselves ; even as otherwise , it is a free thing , in no wise to have separated Nature from her own effect . But he hath no where made mention , even in his largest writings , of a Deal or God-like plague . But as to what belongs to my self , I do nor adnit of an Astral Being , although Paracelsus hath made that common , not only to one of the five ; but being unconstant to himself , unto all pestilences universally . I likewise , in the next place , confound the Being of poyson with the Being of Nature : For if it doth not contain a poyson ; neither also , for that cause , the plague . But since the Pest hath a separated birth , and progress distinct from other diseases , being not a little tyed up unto imaginations and terrours : In this respect , I make every plague to be spiritual : not indeed , therefore to be of a Witch , but to be tributary , and meerly natural to the disturbances of the Arche●s : But if indeed , the Cacodemon or evil spirit co-laboureth for the destruction of man ; it shall indeed , be the more fiercely transplanted , and wax cruel ; yet there is not ( although his Paramire thinks otherwise ) need of superstition for this thing , nor is that plague devious from that of nature , because a spirital Being , doth evidently , whether he will or no , always war under Nature . Therefore , I acknowledge two only plagues different in kind ; to wit , one which is sent immediately from the hand of the Almighty , by the smiting Angel , for the execution of the hidden judgement of his own Deity : For this , although I acknowledge it to be a pestilence ; yet I wholly commit the same unto my Lord , and say with a resigned mind , Let thy will be done , O Lord : For truly , neither do I wish for a remedy , but according to thy own good pleasure . Finally therefore , I will every where touch only at the pestilence of Nature , as a Phylosopher ; and I call that , the other plague . CHAP. VII . The conjoyned cause of the Antients . IN diseases universally and without exception , I at sometime , in discoursing of a disease in general , have acknowledged no efficient and external cause , besides an occasional one only . Now moreover , I have shewn , that I have justly denied to give the heaven passage unto the plague ; although in the mean time , the Blas of a Meteor may be able to dispose the suffering subject unto a more ready impression of receiving . Therefore I will first apply my self unto the connexed causes of the Pest , which we read to be referred by the Antients , into the corruption of humours , and inflammation of heat ; and therefore their preservatives written down , are supposed to be adjudged only by way of resisting the putrefaction of humours . But the Schools have not yet ex●lained , what that vitiated humour enflamed with heat may be , or with what name to be endowed , which may be the fire-brand of the plague , in the veins , bowels , or habit of the body : and they have not yet known , that in Aegypt a destructive plague is rather extinguished than incensed by great heats : Even as among us , that the ●e●tilence is for the most part , rather in Autumn , than in Summer : For sometimes the Schools run back unto E●demicks , as well those domestical , as forraign , the which are believed to incite and heap up putrefaction after any manner whatsoever . In the next place , for preservatives , they scrape together any simples , although hot ones , so they are but commended by the faith of He●barists : But the doub●ing of the Schools , as also the unprosperous uncertainty of remedies , is every where covered with the ridiculous event of divers complexions ; the whi●h surely hath been hitherto a common and thred-bare aptness or fitness for excusing their excuses in death : and at length , through the great fear of Doctors , of the plague , the distrust of the Schools is discovered to be beyond the Laws , and promises of books : at leastwise , they asswage the unlucky obediences of the sick , by one only saying , It so stood in the Destini●● : Therefore , that they must patiently bear it , because that , or the other miserable man , was referred into the Catalogue of those that were to die . In the mean time , the work of the plague is cruel , but more cruel is he who brags of help , and brings it not : The progress of the plague is swift , by reason of so great sluggishness of Physitians : The venom in the plague , at leastwise , is not quieted at one only moment ; neither doth that admit of peace , which despiseth Tr●ce . If therefore there were any humours corrupted in the Pest , in th●●r being made , through putrefaction , seeing they cannot return , and be reduced into their antient b●i●htness of integrity , and the first , and chiefest natural betokening of diseases in the Schools , is most speedily to pluck up the hurtful humour , and that all succours are vain , but those which do readily and fully sequester the offending filth ; It should follow , that their universal succours ( to wi● , purgings , and cuttings of a vein ) are the most potent helps of the plague : The which notwithstanding , are already many times found to hasten on death . That supposition also of necessity falls down together , which introduceth corrupt humours for the immediate cause of the plague : For in very deed , the Pest , doth rather infect the nourishable humours , than that these are the cause of the Pest : Otherwise , I have elsewhere made it sufficiently manifest , that nature doth not acknowledge , nor ever had humours in the constitution of the bloud : Wherefore , neither are these able to cause any thing , because they are non-beings . Again , if humours in the making of their putrefaction , should be the connexed cause of the Pest : at leastwise , the Schools ought to have set forth the name of that humour , and likewise to have expounded the manner and process , whereby those humours are corrupted , and how , they being now corrupted , are the conjoyned cause of the plague : and also , after what sort they may be speedily sequestred , together with the hinderance of their impression on the vital parts . It had behoved them in the next place , to point out the place wherein the assembly of the foregoing pestilent corruption , as it were in a Nest , was held . For if this center be the veins , or bowels ( to wit , where the first sequestration of excrements happeneth ) all sweat should be altogether hurtful ; because it is that which should bring the poyson from the stomach , or liver , through the vital bowels , and not pour it forth neerer , thorow the accustomed sinks : For so the Lues Venerea , only by a Gonorrhea , chusing its mansion in the Testicles , if by solutive medicines , it be drawn back from the shops of the urine , that it may go back through the veins into the paunch , It spreads a necessary Lues , only by that passage , into the whole body . Much more therefore should the Pest , if it had defiled the humours in their own shops , and should be b●ought sorth , in passing thorow by sweats , infallibly defile all of whatsoever is vital within . But if indeed , the habit of the body be the place of the putrefaction of pestilential humours ; now the Diet of Physitians shall be ridiculous , which is believed to hinder the generating of putrifiable humours . In the next place , from what , and from whence , putrefaction in good juicy blood , should arise in the habit , or also in the center of the body , before the plague , not any thing hath been determined by the Schools concerning all thes● things ; as thinking it sufficient to have said by the way , that the corruption of humours is the conjoyned cause of the plague , because run away Doctors have never beheld this , but asquint : For when they observed , that a laxative medicine being drunk up , the flesh and blood being consumed by that venom , and a yellow humour , or pale snivel , or the more dark blood , not yet fully transchanged , did flow forth ; they affirmed that , not only the venal blood , but the whole body , did consist of four humours differing in kind , and that they were again resolved into them : Even so , that they have supposed this putrefaction for the Pest , to be begun in yellow Choler , being compared to fire , or in black Choler , and therefore called melancholly , as being neerer to earth , Saturn , and malignity . Truly , although I have elsewhere abundantly demonstrated four humours as a frivolous and hurtful invention ; yet let us now grant , by way of supposition of a falsehood , that the blood did consist of a commixture of those four humours ; yet when the blood hath now ceased to be , and is by a formal transmutation , changed into a nourishable and vital liquor , which immediately nourisheth , increaseth , and cherisheth every member ; it at leastwise fights with the truth of Phylo●ophy , that that nourishable liquor being degenerated from blood , by a formal transchanging , had not yet forgotten its former condition , and compacture . Suppose thou , if Wine , Ale , the liquor of flesh , with the juice of po●herbs , be drunk at one meal , and changed into blood ; certainly that constitution of the blood is not one , as long as it consisteth of those four divers things being as yet co-mixed : but those four are made only one , while as by a formal transmutation , they are made a new product , which is blood . In like manner therefore , although the blood should consist of a connexion of four humours ; yet seeing they are now one , and no longer four ; that one thing constituted shall be no longer that thing connexed of the four original liquors granted : Neither can the diseases resulting from thence , either insist or be accounted as humorous in healing ; they not b●ing any more able to return back into those four feigned humours ( although they are granted to have been real ones ) than the blood that is once made , can return into the former Wine , Ale , Broath of fleshes , and juice of potherbs . It is manifest therefore , that the Schools , contrary to all Phylosophy , are ignorant , that there is a formal transmutation , while blood is made of meats ; and while of blood a nourishable liquor is made . And it is manifest from the aforesaid blindnesses , that the greatest part of diseases hath been committed upon trust , unto the ignorance of principles in the Schools . But I ingeniously protest , that I have never found even the least tittle of assisting aid in any books of Ancestours : For although many being as it were holpen , did recover ; nevertheless , I have seen ten-fold more , who from the beginning of the invasion of the plague , had made use of the fame remedies , to have unhappily perished : For Triacle for a long time ago , hath always promised help , and the water thereof is now accounted every where more excellent , although they know , who have known the properties of the Pest , that they contain a vain help : For Antidotes which restrain poyson , have nothing of certainty against the plague : and therefore University-Physitians da●e not expose themselves to the contagion of the plague , under the unfaithful safegu●● of Triacle ; because the poyson of the Pest is a far secret one from any other . But some Religious persons in a City , leaving nothing unattempted , whereby they might obtain moneys , or esteem , profess to sell the most choice Triacle at a great price : But since none going to warfare in Christ , infolds himself in secular affairs ; I exhort every one chiefly to be●are of such pompous Boasters : For why , they enter not in by the door , but above , by the roof ; being not called , they intrude themselves into medicine : For these will almost say with Tully , We have deceived the people , and have seemed most famous Apothecaries : For Triacle was as yet unknown unto Hippocrates , the subduer of the plague : It receiveth a three-fold quantity of honey , according to the plenty of all simples : Also sixty simples being at discord , being dry , hard , shut up , crude , excrementous , and for the most part inveterate from the age of two years : These Simples I say , are rendred much barren from the mixture of ●oiled honey : They require also a mixture and digestion from the feeble Feverish person , ●especially from the stomach being vitiated by poyson , and from the Archeus being inwardly prostrated , and confusedly tumulting : Wherefore they perform little of help , and the least of comfort : For the cocted Trochies of the Viper , since by the admonition of Galen , they are the Capital Simple of Triacle , do easily teach , that the water of Triacle is plainly ridiculous : For if the Viper stated the Triacle water with virtue , in distilling ; why have the Trochies of the Viper , in its first and Galenical cocture , put off all that prerogative of healing ? What therefore shall I do with those who are always learning , and never coming unto the knowledge which they profess to teach ? For most men ( as Seneca witnesseth ) have not attained unto that Science ; because they thought that they had attained it . At length , neither hath it been sufficient to have concealed the names of those humours , which they have imagined to putrifie before the plague , and to be the accompanying cause hereof : But moreover , in skipping over that , they pass over the very thingliness of the corruption , which now and then , finisheth its Tragedy in a few hours . For Physitians seem to have rested on a soft pillow , while their Neighbours house is on fire ; and their head being once elevated on their elbow , to have declared the Arrest : The plague is a contagious disease , from putrified humours , being connexed to a Fever , most sharp , and exceeding dangerous : which being said , they having very well fed , to have bent down their head again for their afternoon sleep ; which sleep , under so great light , hath again closed their eyes . The world in the mean time , bewails its condition , seeing the effects , not the causes , as neither in the next place , the remedies to be noted by this judgement : Wherefore the Country people with both hands , scratching their hair on their Temples , pronounce another Arrest . There is no need ( say they ) of much study , nor of so many books , that any may say , the Plague is mortal and contagious , the which , every one hath learned by his own malady : Therefore it shall be better to ask counsel of faithful helpers , no longer of drowsie ones , who are Fugitives from the Plague , and ignorant of remedies . CHAP. VIII . The Seat prepared . IT is not sufficient to have demonstrated , that the causes of the Pest are unknown to the Schools , unless I shall declare my own experiences , the cause of the plague , its divers progresses in the making , its strange properties in its being made , its preservations , and cure . At first therefore , I will repeat what I have demonstrated elsewhere ; to wit , that in Nature , there are at least two causes , and no more : Indeed the matter , and efficients which efficient in the plague , I call the Archeus , Vulcan , or Seed : at leastwise , for the matter , there is not a certain undistinct hyle or matter , which never existed , nor will be in nature : and it serves for Science Mathematical , and not to a contemplater of Nature : Therefore , I behold the matter of the pestilence , with relation unto its internal efficient . The matter therefore of the plague , is a wild spirit tinged with a poyson : But that matter tends unto the end proposed to it self , after a three-fold manner ; because it either comes to us from without , and being totally and perfectly pestiferous , exhaling from a pestilent sick person , or dead carkass , or place , or Utensile being defiled ; or it is drawn inwards , being as yet crude , from a Gas of the earth putrified by continuance , which afterwards receives an appropriative ferment within ; and at length , by degrees , attains a pestilent poyson in us : Or also a total destruction of us , is now and then materially , and formally finished within , without an external assistance . But that there are not more manners , whereby the plague is made , is manifest from the division : For either it is wholly generated within , without a forraign aid ; or it happens on us from without ; and that is either perfect in the matter , and form of a poyson , wanting only appropriation , and application ; or it is as yet crude , imperfect , and as it were an Embryo . Whence at leastwise , first of all , it becomes easie to be seen , that the Pest doth not always first invade the heart : For I have seen him , who in touching pestilent papers , at that very moment felt a pain , as it were of a pricking Needle , and straightway he shewed a pestilent Carbuncle in his fore-finger , and after two daies died . Furthermore , the aforesaid three-fold matter , however plainly venemous the first is ; yet on both sides , it holds it self within the number of an antecedent cause : For no otherwise than as poyson taken in at the mouth , is not the disease it self , or death , but only the occasional cause thereof : For not any thing that is corporeal , acteth immediately on the li●e o● vital powers ( because they are those which are of the nature of Coelessial lights ) but first it is received , and made as it were domestical : and when some poyson is now made a Citizen of our Inn , to wit , it being swallowed or attracted ; notwithstanding also , it cannot as yet enter , or be admitted unto the hidden Seminaries of the vital powers ( because it is in its whole essence external ) but first , the poysonous quality , by acting on the life , stirs up the Archeus ( otherwise the Author and workman of all other things to be done under his own government ) into its own defence : For otherwise , a pestilen● poyson acteth not like a sword , which equally wounds all it toucheth at , in the same moment of it self ; but the pestilent poyson is not able to strike any . The Archeus therefore , since from his own disposition , he hath animal perturbations , passions , confusions , and interchangeable courses , he suddenly brings forth the image of his own alteration conceived , and decyphers that Idea in the particle or small portion of his own proper substance wherein it is conceived ; which Image of Death being thus furnished , is the Pest or Plague it self . For truly , I do not judge the plague to be a certain naked quality , although it existeth not elsewhere than in a body , as it were accidents in a subject of inherency : but the plague is a Being , a poyson of Nature , subsisting by it self in us , and consisting of its own matter , form , and properties ; the which I have elsewhere most fully demonstrated in the Treatise of Diseases . But here it is sufficient to have admonished , that the life operates nothing by conquering , or destroying , unless by the vital motions of the sensitive Soul , which is not wont but to operate by Idea's on the Archeus the Executer of any motions whatsoever ; even as , neither doth the Archeus operate after any other manner on the body . Wherefore , it is to be noted by the way , in this place , that the inward material and immediate cause of a disease , is the disease it self , 〈…〉 wise , than as the material cause in a man , is his very body , persevering from the 〈…〉 unto old age ; but not that there is any conjoyned material cause of a man , besides his body it self , which is the very product of generation ; to wit , from a material cause , and seminal internal efficient : which things have hitherto been vailed from the Schools , and so they have reputed the internal occasional causes of diseases , to be the immediate and conjoyned ones , being as yet plainly distinct from the disease produced : Wherefore that is also , next to be repeated in this place , which I have taught in my discourses of Natural Phylosophy ; to wit , that there are six digestions in us : For in the three former , that there are their own Retents , and their own excrements ; the which , seeing every one of them are in themselves ; and in their own Regions , troublesom ; yea , by a co-in●olding , and extravagancy , they have become hateful , they degenerate into things transmitted , and transchanged , and do from thence induce divers diseases occasionally . But in the fourth and fifth digestion , I have shewn , that not any perceiveable excrement is admitted : But in the sixth digession , which is that of things transchanged , that very many voluntary dungs do through the errour of the vegetative faculty , offer themselves . Moreover , that some are transmitted from some other place , as also that not a few do degenerate through a violent command of things suscepted or undergone : which things have been hitherto unknown by the Schools ; and therefore also , have been neglected : and the which therefore , have wanted a proper name , and the diseasie effects of these have been ridiculously translated , and adjudged unto the four feigned humours of the Liver . Wherefore , although I as the first , have expelled the diseasifying causes of Tartar ; yet least I should seem to make new all things from animosity , I will here call these filths , the Tartar of the blood ; although by an improper Etymology ; because for want of a true name . Such excrements therefore , whether they are brought into the habit of the body from elsewhere : or next , made under transchanging , by a proper errour of the faculties ; or lastly , through a violent command of external things being there degenerated ; I name them the Tartar of the blood 〈…〉 that in very deed they are Tartars , in the matter and manner of the Tartar of Wine ; but because of good nourishment being now defiled , that which before was fruitful and vital , hath afterwards become hostile . And these things I have therefore fore-admonished of , that ye may know , that the Tartar of the blood is the product of the plague , and that that is easily made from efficient pestilential causes . And moreover , it is not yet sufficient to have said , that the Tartar of the blood , is the product of the Pest ; but besides , I ought to prefix the place thereof : For I will by and by teach , that the Plague is a poyson of terrour ; and therefore I have noted , that the Seat or primitive Nest thereof , is in the Hypochondrial or Midriffs ; to wit , where the first conception of humane terrour is , whether it happen from external disturbances , or next , of its own accord , from the motions of things conceived : Wherefore there are present in the plague , vomiting , doatage , headach , &c. the which in its own place , I have decyphered in the Commonwealth of the Spleen . Therefore if the Schools had put this Tartar of the blood for a conjoyned cause , we had as yet notwithstanding , been differing from each other , as that which with them had been a connexed cause , is with me a product of the plague : for the Pestinvades us after an irregular manner ; neither is it s conjoyned matter a certain solid body , or visible liquor , as neither therefore any putrefaction plainly to be seen ; but only a Gas , separated and degenerated from the substance of the Archeus . But whatsoever visible thing offers it self as vitiated in the Plague , is not of the matter of the plague it self , nor of the matter [ whereof ] but it is either the occasional matter , of which before , or it is the product or off-spring wherein the plague sits , as it were in a nest . Wherefore the Carbunole , Bubo , or Escharre , are not the original matter of the Pest , but the effect and product which the Pest ●ath prepared to it self : For the plague is for the most part so cruel and swift , that as soon as it is introduced into the Archeus , it cannot omit , but that it subjecteth some part of the nourishable humour unto its tyranny , and dwells therein : Wherefore , if the putrified humour should be the immediate cause of the plague , truly it had been putrified before it had putrified ; To wit , seeing the Pest it self , prepares that vitious product for it self , which the Schools call humours , they being as yet undefined . For Fernelius would be a little more quick-sighted than the Schools ; and therefore he knew that the plague was not bred , or did con●ist of the putrefaction of four seigned humours ; as neither of the heat of the air , or of the cold thereof ; but of a certain poyson , the Foster-child of hidden causes . Again , we must take notice , that when the 〈◊〉 of the blood , or dross of the last digestion being vitiated , hath received a pestile●●●●ment , it hath a priviledge of exhaling through the pores , no less than other transchanged excrements , without any residence left behind it , or remaining dead-head ( So the Chymists call the dreg which remains after distillation ) to wit , if the humours shall be alimentary ; but not , if the substance it self of the solid parts be scorched into an Escharre , or Carbuncle : for so the much more hard dungs of the Lues Venerea , being as it were equal to bones , the counsel of resolving being snatched to them , do wholly vanish . But although the Tartar of the blood , doth also rejoyce in the aforesaid prerogative , as oft as it is banished as infamous , out of the family-administration of life ; yet while it is transchanged into a corrupt mattery , or thin sanious poyson , it gnaws the skin into the shape of an Escharre , before that it can sweat thorow the pores in manner of a vapour : And that indeed , by reason of the imprinted blemish of a strange ferment , whereby it degenerated into a formal transmutation : But if indeed , the Tartar of the blood shall draw the odour of the ferment , but is not yet transchanged , Glandules , Buboes , &c. are made , which are oftentimes ended by a plentiful Flux of sweat , without opening of the skin : whereas the other aforesaid products cannot obtain that : and almost all these , are by the Schools banished into Catarrhs . The whole Tartar of the blood therefore , is indeed bred at home ; but it is a Bastard , which is intruded by force , destruction , and errour . But since the remedies of Nature are subject unto so many Courts of digestions , and bodies of so eminent an excellency , do possess a violence and strength of acting , and likewise have filths admixed with them , or difficult bolts ; truly , the art of the fire is never sufficiently esteemed , which now and then graduates one Simple to that height , that it persecutes with revenge all the excrementitious filths of the digestions , even into the uttermost coasts of the body : otherwise , in the last digestion , very many griefs do offer themselves , they being referred by the Schools , among incurable ones , by reason of one only fault of a remedy alone , which accompanies , and accuseth the defect ; no otherwise than as they are destitute of curing , in the work of witches , because remedies are neglected , which may go into the root of the malady : For truly , those devilish discommodities do not lay hold so much on the body , or the filths thereof , as on the Archeus himself ; the which , since he is as it were the clear image of the man , it follows , that while that Spirit is wrested , aside in any Organ of its body , the same member suffers the sumptoms of the Archeus : And so , whatsoever the Spirit suffers , which is the Ruler of life and sense , it must needs be , that the body suffers ; but not on the contrary : For neither doth he that is maimed in one leg , therefore generate a maimed off-spring , because the spirit is not defectuous : For whatsoever the body suffers , although the Spirit feels this same thing ; yet this is not drawn together , unless the passion incline unto extremity ; that is , that it is co-fermented within the root of life , or implanted spirit ; even as I have elsewhere shewn concerning the convulsion in the Colick . It s no wonder therefore , if a Tartar of the blood be stirred up by the state , or insisting urgency of the Archeus : For who is he that knows not , that indignation , confusion , a sorrowful message , affrightful fear , &c. do presently take away an appetite of eating , do stir-up sighs , or tears , and extend an unwonted fardle under the Midriffs ; to wit , as the nourishment of the sixth digestion degenerates in the stomach , namely , where such passions are immediately framed . This Tartar of the blood therefore , being once become degenerate , doth presently molest in manner of an Enemy . And even as a dog being once mad , pays the punishment of his madness with his own death ; So that Tartar being once banished , and referred into the number of excrementitious filths , doth never afterwards return into favour ; because , whatsoever the Archeus once forsaketh , straightway dieth , and that which is dead doth no more revive , nor strike a peace with the Enemy : Therefore an earnest desire of revenge , and indignation of self-love , are radically co-bred in the first Fountain of Nature : They do also more manifestly rise up in the more perfect subject , and so in sensitive creatures , do challenge to themselves the animosity and glory of a wrathful power . Wherefore that Tartar of the blood , being subdued by the plague , doth no longer obey the Laws of Life , but repenting of its former obedience , arrogates to it self an unbridled liberty of fury , and by so much the more cruelly molesteth us , by how much the more confidently it hath once received the hidden counsels of the Archeus within ; which thing , the Schools name , to symbolize or co-resemble : For then it is an houshold-Thief , unto which the ways to the treasure , and privy store-houses are known : For how speedily do a few drops of corrupt matter under the scull , kill ? and what cruelty doth not the blood chased out of the veins , threaten ? how cruel , is even but one only thorn in an Aposteme ? It s no wonder therefore , that the Pest , the most fierce of diseases , doth presently bring forth its own product , and if it shall not find ● sea● , that it presently makes one for it self : notwithstanding , a hope of curing the plagu● remaineth , because that Tartar , and the Pest it s own Inn , may be puf● away or dis●●ssed by a due banishment of swea● : The which understand thou , as long as it shall remain in the shape of dissolvable Tartar : For otherwise , if it shall catch hold of a solid part , the hope of life fails , unless the part it self which is catcht hold of can forthwith be sequestred : But Wheals , black strakes , or black and blew spo●s or tokens , denote the Archeus to be affected ; for they are the superficial tinctures of the skin , the which , if they shall the more deeply lay hold of , they do also cauterixe it : and since they do immediately pierce the Archeus before others , they stand in need of a most speedy remedy . It is also worthy to be noted , th●t an unsensible transpiration in the plague , differs from sweat ; because Diaphaeresis or unsensible transpiration is the matter of the nourishment , and so also of the Tartar of the blood , being defiled ; but sweat is of the substance of the Latex : But transpiration , seeing it is continual , it is also without sweat . Hence it comes to pass , that sweat doth most especially wash off , and for that cause , a dry transpiration is seldom sufficient for curing of the plague : and therefore a plentiful rincing sweat is to be provoked ; that while the Pestilent Tartar breatheth the naughtiness of its poyson thorow the pores , it may be partly washed off by the sweat , and the delay of its departure be partly speedied . Here a difficulty is manifest to be noted , and not decided by the Schools ; to wit , why some defects of the stomach are cured not by vomiting , or stool , but only by sweat ; because they consist in the Retents of the stomach being transchanged in the sixth digestion , but not in the remainders of the Cream . The Plague therefore , for the most part begins in the stomach , and there begets and infects the Tartar , whereon , as soon as the perturbations of the Archeus have made their assaults : For every imagination of the desirable faculty hath its seat in the same place , and there frames its Idea ; and chiefly , about the orifice of the stomach , the vital powers are concealed , as I have elsewhere many times profe●ly demonstrated . But because the Tartar of the blood is in the form of a mucky sliminess ; Hence the Idea of the Pest willingly buds forth into Glandules : for the stomach , and the Archeus thereof , because it sends a continual society of imagining into the brain ; hence are Parotides or tumors behind the ears : But it pierceth thorow the Diaphragma into the lungs , and arm-pits , and a perplexity of breathing doth arise . But pestiferous odours being prepared in the stomach , frequent vomitings do accompany them , together with a pain in the head , the which , we having often experienced from the odours of burning coals , to have vomited with headach , and a dejected appetite : But if they proceed unto the Liver ; Now there is a Bubo in the groyn . CHAP. IX . Minerals and herbs do imagine after their ownirregular manner . VVHatsoever subsisteth by a real essence , doth after some sort love it self : Wherefore also , it hath the sense of a friend , or enemies ; that is , of its own commodities , and troubles : wherefore , a self-love resteth in the bosome of Nature : But things do scarce ever remain in the same state , without interchange : Therefore they undergo somewhat : but if they suffer , and walk in the way of destruction , verily it must needs be , that they have a cause from whence they are grieved : Wherefore , sympathy and antipathy are observed to be even in stones ; but in the Load-stone , most manifestly ; the which notwithstanding cannot consist without a sense or feeling : But wheresoever that sense is , although it be dull , it happens also , that some shew of imagination agreeable to its subject , doth accompany it : For otherwise , it is altogether impossible for any thing to love ; desire , attract , and apply that which is consonant to it self , or to shun any thing adverse to it self , unless a certain sense , knowledge , desire of , and aver●eness from the object are reciprocally present . All which things do enclose in them an obscure act of feeling , imagination , and certain image of choice : For else , by what means shall a thing be moved , or altered at the presence of its object , unlesse it feel or percieve that very object to be present with it self : If it perceive , how shall it be altered , except under a conception of the passion felt by it self ? And unlesse that felt conception doth include some certain imagination in it self ? Take notice Reader , that in this corner , all the abstruse knowledge of occult or hidden properties layeth , which the Schools have banished from their diligent search : they desisting from whence they were to begin , according to that Maxim ; A Phylosopher must begin where nature ends : I have therefore deliberated more exactly to demonstrate , that in inanimate things ●here inhabiteth a kind of sense , phantasie , yea , and of choice , yet in a proportionable respect , according to the capacity and degree of every one . I do not in the mean time make mention of Zoophytes or Plant-Animals , which remote absence of proving , might unto many seem to be ridiculous : But our paradox will offend none who moderatly understands it . First of all , it is not to be doubted , but that some flowers do accompany the Sun , as well in cleer days , in those wherein the Sun doth not shine , as in nights themselves ; they attesting that they have a motion , sense , and love of the Sun : because , without which it is impossible for them to accompany the hidden Sun. For even as late in the evening they loose the Sun in the West ( the which , while he hastens towards the East , doth not operate amongst us who abide in the shadow of the earth ) yet in the mean time , whether the night be hot , be cold , be cleer , or rainy . , the flowers notwithstanding do not cease equally to bend themselves towards the east : Which thing first of all , poynts out that there is in them a knowledge of the rising , and circuite of the Sun , in what part he is to set , and in what to rise ; cal thou it the instinct of nature , or as it listeth thee : For names will not change the matter : the matter it self is of a deed done , but the deed hath its cause in the flower : But that these things do thus happen in plants vegetatively enlivened , it is the lesse wonder : But that they have place also in Minerals , I thus prove : There is almost nothing made in nature , without a proper motion : and nothing is moved voluntarily or by it self , but by reason of the property put into it by the Creator , which property , the Antients name a proper love , and for this cause they will have self-love to be the first born daughter of nature , given unto it , and bred in it for its own preservation : And when this is present , there is of necessity , also a Sympathy , and Antipathy , in respect of the diversity of objects : For so the feathers of other birds are said to undergo rottennesse by the feathers or wings of an Eagle : and cloath made of the wools of sheep that died of their own accord , is soon of its own accord , in the holes which are beaten thorow it , resolved as it were with rottennesse , in what places the threds of the dead wool run down : So a drum made of a sheep and asses skin , is dumb , if a neighbouring drum made of the hide of a wolf , be beaten . The skin of a Gulo ( it is a most devouring creature in Swethland ) stirs up in a man , however sober he be , and not a hunter , the ordinary sleeps from hunting and eating : if the party sleeping be covered with the same . But what are these things to minerals ? Truly I proceed from the vegetable kingdom , through dead things , by degrees , unto stones , whereunto the holy Scriptures attribute great virtue : For indeed , stones could neither move , nor alter , if they had not an act of feeling of their own object : For neither could red Coral wax pale , if being born about , it shall touch the flesh of a menstruous woman , unlesse it self felt the defects thereof : For the Load-stone bewrays it self , as the most manifest of stones , which by a proper local motion inclines it self to the North , as if it were vital : But not that it is drawn by the north : Because if a Load-stone be placed toward the north in a woodden box , in the averse part of it , upon the face of a standing pool of water , the box , with the other and opposite corner of the stone , speedily as may be , rowls it self to the North : Therefore , if that should be done , by a drawing of the north , and not by a voluntary impulsive motion of the Load-stone it self ; the box should in like manner , presently also , by the same attraction , yield it self unto the north bank : The which notwithstanding , comes not to passe : but the box , together with its stone , remains unmoved , after that the stone together with the box , hath retorted it self on the requisite side , and by a requisite motion . It is clear therefore , that the Load-stone doth of its own free accord , rowl it self to the North : From whence afterwards it followes , that there is in it a sense , knowledge , and desire unto the north , and also the beginning of a conformable motion . Furthermore , if any one doth hold a polished piece of steel nigh● the aforesaid box , toward the South-side , the Load-stone then forthwith neglects the north , and turns it self to the steel ; so that the box not only turns it self to the steel , but that it wholly also , swims toward the north : whence also it is plain to be seen , that the Load-stone is carried with a stronger appetite to the iron , than to the North ; and that the steel hath lesse of a successive alteration in it , than the North : Consequently also it is manifest , that it is strong in a manifest choice of objects . Some have moved a frivolous doubt about this matter ; To wit , whether the Load stone draws the iron , or indeed the iron drawes the Load-stone it self ? As not knowing that there is a mutual attraction on both sides , which comes not by little and little , by reason of much familiarity , neither doth it keep respects , not observe the ends of its own gain , fruition , circumstances , or consequence : Neither is that drawing subject to a flatterer , o● defamer : out it is a gift originally inbred by nature , in the Archeusses on either part , and marked with a proprietary character by him who made all things ; so that indeed , if the steel be lighter than the Load-stone , it is drawn to the Loadstone ; but otherwise , if the stone be lighter than the steel : Because the drawing is not in the one , and the obedience of the drawing in the other ; but there is one only mutual inclinative drawing , and not of the drawer with a skirmishing of the resister : And so , from hence it is manifest , that a desire is in nature before the drawing , and that the drawing followes the desire as some latter thing , as the effect doth its cause . If therefore , according to the testimony of truth , all things are to be discerned by their works , and the fruits do bewray their own tree ; truly such attractive inclinations cannot subsist without the testimony of a certain co-participated life , sensation , knowledge , and election . Moreover , neither is the life of minerals lesse than the life of vegetables , distinguished from the animal life , by their own life , and their generations among themselves : Because that which is vegetable , and that which is mineral , do not operate but one , or a few proper things ; and the same things as yet , with a precisenesse , interchangeable course , property , inclination , and necessity , as oft as a proper object is present with them : but a living creature operates many things , and those neither constrainedly , as neither by accident of the object ; but altogether by desire , well pleasing , appetite , will , and choice of some certain deliberation ; Seeing the first operation of the same is life ; but the second , a proper appetite , desire or love , or delight . At length , thirdly , there is a deliberative and distinctive choice of objects : So I have seen a Bull that was filled with lust , to have d●spised an old Cow ; but an heifer being offered him , to have again presently after , want●nized . But the first operation of things obscurely living , is a power unto a seminal essentialnesse . Next , the second , is an exercise of powers , and properties . At length , the third operation , is a greater , and lesse inclination , motion , and knowledge : The which indeed , flow not from a deliberative election or choice ; but from a potestative interchangeable course , strangenesse , likenesse , appropriation , purity , or unaptnesse of objects : wherefore it was a right opinion of the Antients , that all things are in all after the manner of the receiver : But those powers by reason of their undiscerned obscurity , and the sloath of diligent searchers , have been scarce believed ; but by predecessours , and moderns , were not considered : and by reason of the difficulties of accesse , they have circumvented the world with a wandring despaire , and with the name of occult properties have hood-winkt themselves by their own sluggishnesse : But my scope in this place hath been ; that if in Herbs and Minerals , there are such kind of notions , the Authoresses and moderatresses of hidden properties ; the same , by a far more potent reason , and after a more plentiful manner do inhabite in flesh and blood ; To wit , excellently , with a particular and affected notion , motion , inclination , appetite , love , interchangeable course , hostility and resistance ; as with that which occurs in us through the service of the five senses : Even so that in flesh and blood , there is a certain seminal notion , distinction , imagination , of love , conveniency , likenesse , and also of fear , terror , sorrow , resistance , &c. with a beholding of gain , and losse , offence , and complacency , of superiority I say , and inferiority , and so of the agent , and the patient . Because those necessary dependances of a consequent necessity , do flow from , and accompany the aforesaid sensations or acts of feeling : The which surely in the vital blood are characterized in a higher degree , by reason of the inbred Archeus the Author and workman of any of these passions whatsoever , than otherwise , in the whole kind that is not soulified or quickned : For a tooth from a dead carcase , that dyed by the extinguishment of its powers , constraineth any tooth of a living man to wither and fall out , only by its touching , because it compels it to be despised by the life : The which , a tooth from a dead carcase slain by a violent death , or presently extinguished by a sharp disease , doth not likewise perform . In like manner , the hair of a dead carcass whose life was taken away by degrees , by a voluntary death , makes persons bauld only by its touching : Watts , and brands brought on the Young by the perturbation of a woman great with child , through the touching of a dead carcase that died of its own accord , and by degrees , untill part of the branded mark shall wax more inwardly cold ; the mark also doth by degrees , voluntarily vanish away . Observe well with me , whether these are not the testimonies of another act of feeling than that of cold . Moreover , whether in that same sensation , there be not a natural knowledge , and fear of death connexed , which things are as yet also in the dead carcass : For truly a Tetanus or straight extension of a dead carcase , or stiffnesse thereof , is not a certain congelation of cold ; But a mear convulsion of the muscles , abhorring death , and living even after the departure of the soul : For from hence the dead carcases of those who die by a violent death , because they die , the faculties of their flesh being not altogether extinguished , they feel not the aforesaid Tetanus but a good while after . CHAP. X. A living creature imaginative . I Have said that Herbs and Minerals do imagine by a certain instinct of nature , that is , after their own manner : so in the next place , that the blood and mummie have certain native conceptions , in order , and likenesse unto man : which things , that they may be directed unto our purpose concerning the Plague ; thou mayest remember , after what sort the perturbations of a woman great with child , her hand being applied unto some certain member , although unadvisedly , rashly , and without a concurrence of the will , do decipher the member in the Young co-agreeing in co-touching , with the image of the object of that perturbation : with the image I say , but not with an idle signature . But suppose thou that her desire was to a cherry ; verily a cherry is deciphered in the young , and in a co-like member , such as the child-bearing woman shall touch with her hand , which cherry waxeth green , yellow , and red every year , at the same stations wherein the cherries of a tree do attain those interchanges of colours : And which is far more wonderful , it hath happened that the Young so marked , hath suffered these signatures of colours in the Low-countries , in [ the moneths called ] May and June ; which afterwards expressed the same in Spain , in [ those called ] March and April . And at length the Young returning into his countrie , shewed them again in a bravery , in [ those called ] May and June : Also under a strong impression of a woman great with child , not onely a new generation of a cherry is brought in thereupon ; but it also happens that the old one is to be changed , and it constrains a seminal generation to give place ; yea , and the image of God being now lively or in the readinesse its coming , not to come , and that a strange-born creature and monster is substituted in its place : Of the contingencies whereof , daily , and unvoluntary experiences are full : which power is granted to be given to a woman great with child : yet not that therefore in other women , the images of conceipts are not likewise brought unto the womb wherein an embryo doth not inhabite : For I have taught in a particular treatise , that the disturbances of men are framed in the midriffs , about the mouth of the stomach , to wit , that in men , they from thence ascend unto the heart ; but in a woman that they are more readily sent unto the womb : because a woman doth naturally appoint vital inspirations for her Young : And so , every commotion of the midriffs in a woman , hath continually respect unto the womb , whether a Young be present or not . Whosoever therefore much disturbs a woman with grief , &c. from a deliberate minde : he willingly sends into her , a disease : And he that molests a woman great with young , let him know that he hurts the mother , and off-spring : Hence maides , about the years of maturity , if they are vexed with the conceipts of difficulties , they are wont continually to decypher the sides of their womb with the vain Idea's of conceptions , and for the most part they are made unto themselves the A●●horesses of various sumptoms , for inordinate lusting : Because the womb doth not suffer its tranquility to be taken away by forreign images , without punishment . But a man formes his images in his mid●iffs , as well those of the desirable , as of the wrothful faculty , so that madnesse is therefore not undeservedly called , hypochondrial ; and that thing happens no otherwise than as in a woman : but he transmitts the Idea's of conceipts , more freely unto the heart , and brain : For a certain man exspecting that on the morrow morning , a Major would be sent for his houshold goods , sitting sorrowful all the night with his head leaned on the palm of his hand , in the morning had that side of his head grey , in what part his temples had touched his hand : And so the hand of a woman with child translates her own exorbitances unto her womb , and the hand of a man his feares , even into the skin of his head . At leastwise , from hence it is manifest that there is a true growth and nourishment of the haires , and not a vain signature of colours ; but that they are not in-bred by an application expelling from behind : and then , that the perturbation in men , is much ak●● to that of a woman , although far more infirme . I have taught also elsewhere , that the efficacy of disturbances consisteth in the spleen : Wherefore antiquity hath accounted Saturn the principle and parent of the starry gods , also the highest of the wandring stars , to wit , the which should cast his influence downwards on the rest , but that the rest should in no wise reflect upwards , because the stars are believed to conspire for the commodities of sublunary things , but not upwards : Therefore they called Saturn the origina of life , and the beginning of conceptions , or generations ; yea and they named him the devourer of a young child ; poynting out hereby , that the images framed by the desirable faculty , do make seeds fruitful , and also the Inns of digestions in us ; even as when they are exorbitant they consume the new or tender blood , and enforce very many diseases on us . Therefore the imagination of the spleen hath the first violent assaults , which are g●a●tted not to be in our power : Saturn therefore was feigned to be as it were without a beginning : but Jupiter the chief off-spring thereof , casting down his father from his seat , signified the brightnesse of reason subduing the first assault of imagination : But an image formed by imagination , is presently in the spleen , cloathed with the vital spirit , and assumeth it , whence an Idea is fortified for the execution of works : for what person is he who hath not sometimes felt disturbances , anguishes , and the occasions of sighing about the orifice of his stomach , in which part the spleen is most sensitive , even as also the touching in the fingers ends ? Is not the appetite taken away from an hungry man , by a sorrowful message ? Be it observeable in this place , that although the essential disposition of things aprehended in time of the perturbation , be plainly unknown unto the woman with child , yet she wholly formeth and figureth the same in her young , while as without the trunk of the trees , she frameth a cherry in the flesh , in an instant , conteining the internal essence , and the knowledges of a seminal cherry . It s no wonder therefore , if that a terrour from the plague , frameth an Idea of the plague , from whence the plague it self doth presently bud , although the sensitive soul of man be ignorant of the essence of the plague . Heer an open field is made manifest , to prove that the knowledges or Idea's of all things , are formed in us by the power of the sensitive soul ; yet that they lay obscured in the immortal mind , which we believe to have been present with Adam , while as he put right names on the bruit beasts : For if the conceipt of a woman being allured by the overflowing of some certain perturbation , can decypher the inward dispositions of plants , or animals ( yea sometimes , with a total transmutation of her young ) it must needs be , that in the mind it self , as in the essential engravement of the divine image , an essential notion at least of sublunary things doth inhabite , only being depressed and deformed in the impurity of nature , and spot of original sin : otherwise , the sensitive soul cannot do strange things which it knows not , and hath not ; and so there is need for the immortal mind to have a conflux hereunto , it being stirred up by perturbations : It is a very obscure and difficult way , whereby Adeptists , by no help of books , do strive by seeking to obtain some former light of sciences : And therefore also , they call it the labour of wisdom : and Paracelsus esteems it to be ten-fold easier than to have learned Grammer : Yet Picus is of opinion , that unlesse the operater makes use of a mean , he will soon die of a Binsica , or drynesse of the brain : That the spirit of life will be diminished by reason of a daily continuance of speculations . Whatsoever that may be , at leastwise , the ignorance of causes hath neglected most things , and the helpings of the sick have been exspected in vain . But I have discussed in this place of images or likenesses bred in the imagination , whereby it may be manifest , after what manner every corporeal body proceeds from an invisible and incorporeal Beginning ( the which , they of old affirmed to be fetcht from the intelligible world ) by the imagination of the foregoing parent , in imitating after a certain similitude , the creation of the world , being from the command of the incomprehensible word , [ Fiat ] once made of the infinitenesse of a nothing : The which afterwards , obtained its continuation from the gift of the word ; Let seeds be brought forth ; To wit , by a fore deduced imagination as well of plants , as of animals : Nature therefore , in following the power infused into her , brings forth every seed by the image of a certain conception . There is indeed , as well in living creatures , as in plants , yea and in minerals themselves , every one their own imagination , after their own improper manner ; yet on both sides the productresse of the fruitfullnesse of seeds , as well for a natural Being , as for that of super-incidents and monstrous ones : Because the imagination frames an image of the thing conceived , which by its gifts given it of God , it converts into a Mean , which is called a seed ; To wit , without which image , every seed is only an empty husk : No otherwise , than as the blossom of a pippin , not having a promised pippin behind it , is a vain braggery : That image , and seminal one , even as it bears in it self a perfect similitude of its own image to be conceived ; so also , a free and uncorrupted knowledg of things to be done by it self under the race of generation : Yet this is remarkeable in generations ; that as a woman with Child doth not operate the wonders proposed , unlesse she be sore smitten with perturbations , and the flint be struck against the steel ; so the seeds of living creatures cease to be fruitful , unlesse a disturbance of ●ust be conjoyned , making the soul to descend into the seed , that it may enlighten that seed : Wherefore herbs languish presently after their product , the scope of their imagination or property being compleated : But minerals , because they are not ordained to stir up a race out of their own bodies , by so much also they have the ends of their own imagination far more obscure . Since therefore , all generation presupposeth an image , according to which it executes its own dispositions : Hence it cannot come to passe , that an imagination of terrour should generate an Idea of love , nor that a phantasy of fear from an enemy , should produce a phant●sie of terrour from the plague . Also places infected with the Pest , are not undeservedly to be avoided ; and not only by reason of the air being already vi●iated and defiled ; but also , that objects may be avoyded , which conduce unto the imagination of terrour . Now the shoare whither we f●●l appears afar of , and after what sort terrour may be the Father of the plague . It al●o happens that children do most speedily imagine , and are disturbed ; yet their perturbations do not carry seeds in their images , or cause the plague unto themselves by terror : For it is with these even so as with a young musitian , who in his first lessons , doth not transmit his cogitation conceived unto his fingers , but with difficulty : But after that he is skilful in his art , and fingers are now accustomed unto the images of tunes , and motions ; they undoubtfully perform the command of the phantasie , and perfectly sound out the whole hymn , although now and then , through an attentive discourse , he shall divert his minde from the musick : For neither do his fingers cease to proceed unto the end of the well apprehended song . CHAP. XI . Things requisite for the Idea of an imagined Plague . EXperience hath oft-times caused a belief , that some one hath prepared the absent Plague in himself and his , through terrour alone : which truth sheweth , that the image of the phantasie , doth from the incorporeal essence of its own nakednesse and simplicity of cogitation , cloath it self by little and little , and put on the Spirit of Life , and leaves therein it s own seminal product : a Being surely , most ready for great and terrible enterprizes . But moreover , that it is not yet sufficient for the execution of its appointment ( for it is found , that the Image arriving at the Bowels , doth neverthelesse oft-times wax feeble ) Therefore , I have declared , that in a Woman great with Child , the hand is moreover required , it being the Instrument of Instruments , as an external Instrument and sign of the determined member whereon the Image is to be engraven : For the Soul alwayes useth meanes , upon which the Image is carried , for Being and Operation . But I therefore ought to delinea●e after what manner the Soul after the example of a Musitian dismisseth the operative Images of its own conceptions unto the hand , but in no wise unto the foot : and after what sort , through custom , that presently transmitteth its Images , which otherwise , besides custom , would most troublesomly reach thither . Wherefore it is to be noted , that if the Woman with Child shall be right-handed , and yet shall , under the onset of disturbance , touch some one of her members with her left-hand , nothing will be marked upon her Young thereby : Whence it appeareth , that that hand , which is the common ordinary and daily executress of cogitations , is also the Directtress of Images unto places , and operations . Therefore a man doth not operate alike strongly by imagination , as doth a Woman : nor any other Woman alike strongly , as doth a Woman with Child : neither also doth every terrour generate the Plague : For the affrightment by a Wolf , Snake , or mad Dog , doth not produce in us the operative Images of a Wolfe , or Snake : yea , nor indeed , where the Wolfe is visibly present : even as notwithstanding , the Plague is bred in us by an Image of terrour . A doubt therefore subsisteth , whether an affrightful imagination of the Soul from the Plague , or the Image thereof , be a sufficient and suitable cause of the Plague ? First of all , it is seriously to be heeded , that the imagination is sufficient of it self for to operate , unlesse other things beside do concur . For first of all , wholly in ordinary and accustomed works proceeding from a deliberation of the elective Soul , the will must needs be present : For a Baker shall vainly , and that intentively imagine many things about making of Bread , unlesse his will shall move his hand , not indeed to some member , but unto the Dough. I in like manner , writing of the Plague without terour , in a full will , and conceipt of the thinking Soul , do meditate many things concerning the Plague ; Yet I do not therefore contract this Plague to my self . No man also , unlesse happily he be foolishly des●era●e , intends a generating of the Pestilence in the consent of his will. An unfolded will therefore , is required , in a daily and natural course of operative actions , wherein the will draws forth conceived Images in deliberating , for the execution of the work : But there is in no wise required a consent of the will , for the generation of a Being , or the transmutation of one Being into another : For truly , every transmutation , although it be monstrous , yet it attempts the priviledges of a true Generation ; Since there is a re-ideaing in the Archeus , from the Victory of the new Image , translated upon the seminal one , which was first conceived in the Archeus . Therefore the consideration of transmutation doth not consider a consent of the will. Again , neither a naked imagination , or production of an Image , nor a touch of the hands , do suffice together for transchanging : But ( mark well ) every work of imagination , which of necessity produceth in us a new generation , or transmutation of one thing into another , requireth the concurrence of a certain faith , co-bound in the same point of the Subject , the phantasie it self : For truly , an affrightment from a hurtful Animal , doth not produce in us that hurtful Animal , nor even the poyson thereof ; Even so also , as my attentive imagination , meditating of the wonderful poyson of the Plague , doth not therefore generate the Plague in me . The reason therefore , why a terrour from the Plague , doth rather cause the Plague , than a terrour from living Creatures , causeth the poyson of the same ; consisteth in this ; that the poyson of the Pest is made not only from an apprehension , and conceipt of terrible effects ; but because there concurreth together with those , a certain unseperable belief whereby any one being affrighted , and fore affraid , in fearing , doth imagine , and slenderly believe that he hath now contracted something of the pestilential poyson : From whence ( but not before ) the Image of the Plague being conceived by this kind of terrour , becomes operative and fruitful . For that terrour , with a credulous suspition , applyeth the Soul thus affrighted , unto the Archeus , that it may cloath this Archeus with the Image of the conceived Terrour : Through want also of which Belief , although Animals should conceive great terrour , yet they never snatch to them the humane Pestilence , although they sometimes draw in their own consumption , as also natural poyson , from whence also they dye . For it is a fermental poyson , the which , how speedily soever it may dispatch them ; yet it is not the true Psague . But whosoever shall see a mad Dog leaping on him , and how much soever affrighted he shall be from thence ; yea , though he conceive a Fever and dye ; yet no man doth ever even slenderly believe that he drew the poyson of the mad Dog , without biting : Wherefore also , all his sore fear is onely least he should be bitten ; which rather includes a prevention of a poyson to come , than a belief of a poyson bred . The terrour therefore , the occasion of the plague , carries a certain belief and fear in the Imagination , that he hath actually drawn something of contagion vnder-such an uncertainty and Agony : Because the poyson of the Plague is onely visible , but not the biting of a mad Dog : which particle of faith , together with the disturbance of Terrour , perfecteth an actual Image in the Archeus , the seed of the Plague that is to be generated : Because that which is imagined , apprehended with perturbation , and believed , doth stand actually in the same point of the phantasie , which brings forth an Image on the Archeus , as it were a seminal Being . Otherwise also , neither is any faith sufficient for this thing ; because , there is none who doth not firmly believe the Plague can-kill , infect , happen unto one , &c. But such a belief as that , is feeble , and as it were dead ; neither therefore is it operative , that is , not hurtful ; unlesse that in the same point of Identity , it be essentially connexed unto terrour apprehended with disturbance , from a drawing in of the actual poyson . Eor Camps and Castles do very often snatch to them a panick fear and deadly terrour , assoon as with the fear of perturbations , they believe that the Enemy hath treacherously , or privily crept in , or obtained an unexpected aid , &c. All which things do rather prevail under a dark night , wherein all things are made invisible , and more horrid and fearful . Pollutions in Dreams , although they have a strong Imagination without the motion or enticements of fornications , which is sufficient for expulsion ; yet for want of that belief , they cast forth onely barren seed : For although the Imagination operates in sleeping ; yet a Faith or Belief doth not operate in Dreaming ; because it is that which is not the Daughter of the Imagination , but of the will alone : For indeed , sleep peculiarly conduceth to this , that the liquor of nourishment being transchanged by the application and information of the mind , may be altogether assimilated : wherefore , in youthfull yeares , people sleep more , and more soundly than in those succeeding . And since vital matters have their own natural Imaginations , even those which are not intellectual Imaginations ; Surely , the Imagination of the blood it self , shall most powerfully operate under sleep . But Faith or Belief , seeing it is a seperated power fast tyed to the Soul and Will , it is of necessity also stupifyed in time of sleep . There is therefore , well nigh , an unshaken and uncessant act of the Imagination of the Spleen : But the Soul once believing some one thing , afterwards ceaseth and is at rest from the consideration of believing o● confiding , untill that an Object be again rub'd on it anew . Neither do I speak in this place concerning Christian faith , and a supernatural Gift of God ; but I behold a confidence , to wit , as well aa delusion in believing , as the supposing of a true thing . For a certain young Bitch , and not yet lascivious , having gotten a whelp of fifteen dayes old , licks it , loves it , and puts it to her dugs ; and then being befooled , believed that it was her own Young ; who was a yet uncorrupted , her dugs presently swell , and I saw them to have po●red forth plenty of milk . Also , if thou desirest Chicken in the midst of Winter , make the Eggs lukewarm with a hot Towel , and in the mean time unfeather the breast of a Capon , put him upon the Eggs that he may cherish them , and there shut him up : who in rising up , feeling the lukewarmth of the Eggs , and the unwonted coldnesse of his breast , begins to cherish the Eggs : But in sitting on them , he conceiveth a false belief , and believes that he is the mother of the Eggs , he brings forth all the Chickens , even unto the last , and cals them together by Clucking like a cherishing Hen , and fighting for the Chickens ; chaseth the Cock ; and at length being forsaken by the Chicken , is very sorrowful . If therefore a false belief operates so much ; what shall not any the more grounded one do , that is conjoyned with the terrour of the Plague . There is therefore , a certain native Imagination in the blood , in the parts of an Animal ; yea and in the diseasie excrements ; so that , magnetical or attractive Remedies have already begun with benefit to be applyed unto the blood let out of the veines . Let us consider also , the excrementitious muscilage of the sixth digestion to stick fast within the Reeds or Pipes ( I thus by one onely Etymology , call the Veines , Atteries , Bowels , and any kind of Channels ) to be at first in its owne quality , guiltlesse , but violating the right of its ●nne , as it is undirectly a stranger ; And therefore by it self , laying in wait for the part . Presently after , a desire of expelling that excrementitious muscilage , is conceived by the Archeus implanted in the part : the Idea of which conception , is imprinted on the hated muscilage ; The which , seeing it is seminal , it obtains a form , being a certain life ; and likewise for hence also , a power of acting , and afterwards it governs its own matter for the Ends proposed and obtained by it self . But the member not being able to subdue the guest , connexed unto it against its will , burns with a greater endeavour and appetite of expelling ; For , neither is that desire any longer a Being of Reason , or imagined Being ; but it hath arisen into a certain seminal Being , by reason of the Idea conceived by the Archeus being imprinted on himself , and it transforms the forreign matter into every perfection of a diseasie Seed : no otherwise than as in the spittle of a mad Dog , there is a seminal madnesse it self : and the conceipt of a Woman great with child , in the deciphered cherry of her young . For so the matter being enriched with a power of acting , according to the Image of the passion put on , begins to act on the entertaining member . There is indeed now in it , a disease it self , having obtained an efficient Seed ; the which , at length , being more stubbornly connexed , and oftentimes the Conquerer , subdues the vital faculty of that member , into its own jurisdiction . To wit , it mortifies , and renders the part wherein it sits , conformable unto its own contagion . But the part ; seeing it is subject unto wearinesse , and the bound hereof : but on the contrary , the Character or Seminal Idea now conceived , is unwearied ; it must needs be , that the forces of the Archeus , being as it were collected , that disease is banished by a Crisis , or the strength of the disease being voluntarily worn out , that it be deprived of the power of acting , and that stoppages and Schirrhus's are made : or that being overcome , it be driven from the place , and an Imposthume be made : or that it be expelled by the strong prevailing force of a Medicine . For otherwise , Nature forsaking the Raines , delivers its hands bound to the disease , To wit , as the part containing , being conquered by the Enemy contained , makes all the rest like unto its self , no otherwise , than as small Gangrene soon mortifies the whole Body : So also , the matter of a disease sticking fast and infecting the part whereto it adheres , presently infects the whole intire Body . For , neither are the Seeds of a diseasie matter alwayes inbred from the beginning : the which therefore , in the mean time , is onely the occasional matter . And moreover , for the most part , a foolish and unhurtful race of qualities do dissemble the innocency of a diseasie Thorn. Otherwise , hurtful things should never be admitted within , because they are wont before their admission , to be intimately and finely examined by the Archeus . For , whatsoever things are uncapable of the necessity of life , are presently prostrated in their entrance . If therefore excrementitious filths being inwardly admitted through a treacherous errour , or having arisen through degeneration , do receive enmities within , and exercise them on us , while as they shall by an Idea received , be qualified with a strength of acting : it is no wonder also , if they do now and then attain the ferment of a poyson , and that Ferment being obtained , that they lay ready hands upon us . This is the brief original , progresse , and History of the Tatrar of the blood , and of diseasie Images . Furthermore , the Images of poyson , are on this wise : for in poysonous Beasts , that a poyson is made from the Image of Anger , we are taught by the Proverbe ; Morta La bestia , morto il veleno . The deadly Beast hath his deadly poyson . The which hath place onely in the proper poysons of a Species , but not in the dead Carcasses of those that dyed of the Plague ; which thing we daily experience , as well in men as in the Falcon : Because the Plague is not bred from anger after the manner of poysonous Serpents : For a sporting Dog , if he shall smite with his Tooth , he inflicts a wound that is quickly healable : but if he shall bite with an angry Tooth , although not more deeply than the foregoing Dog , now he hath made a wound partaking of the poyson of anger . But if he shall be mad , he now communicates a poyson , not exceeding that of anger , but such a one as is a Compeere of his deadly and senslesse madnesse . For a will of hurting , being through wrath or anger kindled , the Beast otherwise harmlesse , produceth a poysonous Image , and by his Tooth transmits or communicates the same . That thing is much more apparent in hurtfull wild Beasts . Therefore Sorcerers are careful , that they may borrow a deadly poyson from Serpents , being first enraged and provoked . A wantonizing young Bitch , if she lick the hand of a Child , she embladders the same ; But a wantonizing Mare , seasons the hornes of her feet or hoofes with a poyson : to wit , so that they are for a present poyson to those that have the bloody flux : the which otherwise , of one that is not wanton or lustful , if they being powdred , are fryed with Butter , they forthwith cure the bloody flux : But things proper to the poyson of plants , are not from anger or dread : but a corruptive ferment is by the Creatour of the World , put into a Seminal native Imagination , for the continuing of their Seeds . For neither is there an enmity in plants , or a will of hurting of us . And so , neither doth the poyson dye away together with plants , being dryed : For there is a poysonous ferment , co-fermented with plants , from the beginning of the World , for a seminal propagation , for ends known to the thrice glorious Creatour alone . But a mad Dog , communicates a poyson by his spittle , and so by his Tooth . For the Tooth serves to a mad Dog , as much as the hand to a Woman great with Child . Lastly , The Imagination of plants ; although it be the Formatresse of their owne seeds : yet it self is not free , or arbitrary , but rather a seminal Endowment ; for propagating its like : and that with the total property of it self , wherein it resteth , not being alterable by forraign disturbances or enticements . Wherefore , in it self it conceiveth not a monster , nor doth ever make it of its own accord , unlesse it be provoked from without . Such therefore is the difference , original , progresse , product , and manner of the hurting , of poysons . And these things I have drawn out for that end : to wit , that it may be understood , that if a mortal poyson be forthwith made from the anger of poysonsome wild Beasts , the terrifying poyson of the Plague , may also be made through terrour in the Archeus of man. For , if sorrow begets a foolish madnesse , the Dropsie , or Falling-sicknesse ; but anger the Colick , Apoplexy , Convulsion : and a plenteous anguish , or a lesse intense cogitation , a Furious or Lunatick person : Neither is it derogatory from Reason , that the Image of the Pest is framed within from a perturbation of that Vulcan , wherein the first assaults are made . The fits whereof , as those of mad persons , are oft-times taken away by succours for the Spleen . There is a small living Creature like unto a Spider , and is called by Solin●● , Solifuga , because he shuns the day being frequent in the Silver-Mines of Sardinia ; and it creeps in secret , and through imprudency , causeth the Plague to those that sit upon it ; which poyson indeed is not the true Pestilence , but a poysonous pustule or wheal : for he subjoyneth , that there are hot Fountains near , which presently abolish the poyson implanted by the Solifuga ; So indeed , the deadly vapours of Mines , are oftentimes called Pestilent ones , because they kill the Diggers that ●arry the longer therein . But they are wont to make tryal of this danger : if a burning Candle being let down into the burrowes of the Mines , it be forthwith extinguished ; neither is it a wonder , if besides their poyson they also choak the light of Life , if they do extinguish the fiery light of a Candle . CHAP. XI . The Ferment of the Pestilence . COnsider thou how sorrowful a Dog walketh , how he refuseth meat , and abhorreth drink ; how many spurs of hatred , and conceptions of envy he nourisheth before madnesse . Again , how that a full force of his conceipt being translated not only into his spittle , but into his tooth , which is cleanly wiped thorow the garments , as it were by its odour alone , and by the simple suffumigation of one smell or odour , is sufficient to stir up a late and serious madnesse in him that is bitten , for the least touch of the tooth , in what part the skin layes open , and gapeth only in the Epidermis or upper skin , however clean the blood leaping forth , be washed off : neverthelesse , it so deriveth the Image of its own madnesse , that as the hand of a Woman with Child paints the member of her young ; so a Dog by the touch of his tooth , within the fortieth day will bring madnesse . But neither doth it proceed for death onely , however the wound be onely in the Epidermis : but before death , the chief faculties of the mind perish , and as Lackeys , do presently follow whither they are led aside by the imaginative poyson . For that odour of the tooth , is as it were a m●er nothing , an incorporeal Being : no otherwise than as the smell of an hoary putrifyed Hogshead , or the smell of a foot put into a new shooe , that makes a foots-step . For a Dog hath known his master a good while by his imprinted footstep , and distinguisheth that he passed that way . So the odour of a garment , or paper , being infamous through a pestilential corrupt matter , defiles us with a most subtile , unperceiv●able , and most thin poyson : And it not onely seasons and kils us with a deadly poyson ; but it also casts down the mind from its seat , no otherwise than as the touching of the tooth of a mad Dog under the skin , thrusts down the Reason from its majesty , and constrains it to follow according to the determined Rule of its own madnesse . For the party bitten , at a set period of time , is sore afraid at the beholding of all liquid things , : he conceiveth a dog-like envy , and wisheth that he could destroy all living , and multiply his own madnesse . Writers declare , that wormes do grow in a Wound in the hea● of a Dog. At leastwise , I deny no● , but that a Ferment is to be supposed to be in this poyson , respecting and affecting the spirits of Imaginations : into which , the least co-participation of an odour , introduceth the Idea of its own Image , whereunto our phantasie is constrained to yield , yea , rather is fully transchanged into that horrid apparition . For it is a wonder , that a hunting Dog , which is the first-born of all the whelps of his D●m , doth alone assault and overcome a mad Dog. There is in him the natural endowment of an unconquered Imagination ; even so , that if he be bitten by a mad Dog , yet he doth not become mad : whereas , in the mean time , all the rest , do by biting contract madnesse , do fle● from a mad Dog , neither dare they to defend themselves against this Dog. That poyson therefore , is the Inne of the madnesse , also , the forreign guest of Imagination , which is overcome by the Imagination of an opposing Soul. Therefore , from hence we have known that all poysons are in themselves , fermental ; for , some destroy the matter onely , and together with it the Imaginative Spirit , from whence are diseases that have a foolish madnesse connexed unto them ; but others affect the Spirit onely ; Such as are those , which bring a dog-like madnesse , and which bring on foolish madnesses and Catalepses 's or sudden st●pefactive congelations : to wit , The which do not notably melt , or alter the body : but they draw only the sensitive Spirit into destruction : for indeed the Taran●●ta is scarce ever at rest , and therefore also he disturbs the man whom he hath stung , with a restlesse trouble . dFor behold , with what an horrid effigies he transpl●nteth his Imaginations into the man whose skin he hath pierced , but even with a slender sting . For , the vile , small , and weak creeping Animal , by an unperceivable quantity of his poyson , infects the whole ●an , and presently snatcheth the powers of his mind under his own protection . Also , surely the odour of a footstep doth fitly square with the Plague , being likened unto it : For although the Houses are opened in a high place , and that well-fa●ned with the Wind , and the infected Ayr of the House doth yield to the Winds : yet the Plague doth not therefore cease the third day after , but that it is sufficient for taking away the wholecommon people ; for neither doth the odour of a footstep in the way being exposed to the Winds cease ( though nothing in quantity ) unlesse it be washed with Rain , or covered with earth : for it alwayes represents unto the Dog his own master . I remember also , that in the Plague at Ostend , the very pestilent hoary putrefaction it self , is ●wont a little to smell of the soales of shooes burnt , and I was wont by that odour , to bewray one to be infected with the Plague . Furthermore : before the Fall , every living Creature was subject to man , as to its master , and its middle life melted , and perished in eating , before the sight of our Archeus . But now , even a Whelp hath a predominacy over our life , and constrains the free powers of the Soul of mortals , under his own infirmities of madnesse . For , it is a miserable thing , for the Image of God thenceforth to be subject to the biting of Insects , and that it ought to follow the various Images of the poysonous Ferment of every one : And it is a degenerate thing , for servile Bruits to season their biting with the Image of Anger , with a mad and deadly poyson . Alas , how piercingly and strongly is the Image of anger sealed ? And with what a snatching speedinesse doth it passe over unto the spittle ? Unto how great infirmities is a Woman subject , from the hidden Odour of her Womb ? For , with what Exorbitances not to be spoken of , is her understanding vexed ? For truly , oftentimes a hoary putrified Odour being communicated from the soales of the feet , casteth down our lofty Stature , and deprives those that have the Falling-sicknesse , of sence , memory and understanding . For , how readily doth the contagion of an Hypochondriacal excrement under the Midriff , alienate the mind , and seduce it with sorrow , horrour , fury , madnesse , feverish dotages , and the differences of a Lethargye , while as they estrange us according to the Image bred in their owne Fe●ment ? For , how terrible a poyson of terrour , is at one onely moment , imprinted by a stroak of Thunder , on a Beast which it hath smitten , so that with the eating of his flesh the Plague is swallowed ? Which thing at least , is for a sign , that a Thunderbolt is darted from a monstrous sign full of terrour ; to wit , from whence the Archeus being extinguished in a moment , in discovering the Image of his Terrour , perisheth almost in a moment . For sleep , yea , a deep dr●wsie evil is oftentimes in a man , where there is a great disturbance of the Pest in his Archeus . Oft-times : on the other hand , the Archeus lives free and safe from perturbations : when as the man is in a mi●erable conflict with his owne disturbances . In Wars , and out of Wars , there are now more cruel Plagues than in Ages past : Because Wars are more cruel in dreadful fear , and have more of great dread , and lesse of angers : when man being moved against man with the violence of Wrath , studyed Revenge : Neither is it a Wonder therefore , that the drinking of ones own Urine should restrain the Plague before the accesse thereof ; not as an An tidote : but because it contained a hope and perswasion , before it was taken . For I remember , that in the Year 1635. while the French men besieged our Neighbour City Lovain , a very great Plague , ●rom thence , soon after invaded the fearfull Bruxellians , and the poor Women who were terrified with fear ; and the which , being dispersed into all the Villages , brought every where a great destruction . For a co-participation of life in meats also , causeth , that they are soon made vital : and they presently snatch hold of our Archeus , being otherwise lyable to indignation , fury , and a manifold misery or dammage of Symptomes : so , in Magnum oportet , a necessity and transplantation of much contagion is inclosed in us . But if the properties of the middle life of things eaten , ought after some sort to remain in the blood : and for that cause also , the fleshes of the Eaters do vary their savour according to the diversity of the meats : it must needs be , that we are affected by those things which leave their mark of resemblance in us . Indeed savours , the witnesses of properties , have stricken a covenant , as well with the external , as internal fellowships of putrefactions , which therefore , are easily made the partakers of injuries in us . For the middle life of mears remaineth in our fleshes : hence it is , that Fish-devouring Nations , and Carthusians are not troubled with flyes of wormes . For fleshes that are not well preserved , from the co-resemblance of the middle life residing in us , do easily stamp any putrefaction on us . From whence also , formal corruptions do arise in us , from an unthought of Beginning . And then , fleshes and fishes , although they are seasonably killed , yet they conteined in them the purulent matters of diseases , wherewith , when we are ●ed ( especially if they have before contracted a burntish odour ) we readily yield unto the fellowships of their symbolizing mark , and they presently stir up in us , adustodours , and mumial putrefactions by continuance , in us . For , neither do Oxen or Sheep eat men , nor contract our Plague into themselves : but we ●at Oxen , and draw a brutal Pest , like as also our own ; Because the pestilences of many bruit Beasts do play their part in man alone . Wherefore , neither are meats , no● being rightly concocted , guiltlesse , while they scorn at the Ferment of the stomach , because they easily passe over into the forreign colonies and various corruptions of their own con●agion . Truly , this successive alteration of new calamities in the Plague , shall at sometime , be a future betokening cause of the last times : At leastwise , the Ferments of poy●ons and venomes , have never been throughly weighed in the Schooles . But the action of these hath therefore been supposed to be equivocal or of doubtful interpretation , and prepared by an impression of the Heaven . For alwayes , when as they slide into Ignorance , they implore the too far distant aid of the deaf Heavens , and blame guiltlesse Saturn . For they call that an equivocal action , while the Agent doth not generate its like . As happens in Celestial Impressions and Meteours . But how improperly they have recourse unto the Heavens and their equivocal actions , for poysons , every one shall easily know , who hath beheld poysons as Agents meerly natural and domestical , they being not onely alterative after the manner of Meteours ; but transchanging , and spermatical or seedy ones . For , what can be more like to a seminal generation , than if the slender poyson of a Scorpion kills the whole man , and propagates the property of its own seed into the whole body ? For neither do Ferments any where operate Equivocally or doubly , but plainly Univocally or singly : Because , if the Pest should bud forth by an equivocal action : verily it should not be contagious , seeing it should not produce its like . Therefore it is manifest , that the diligent search of Ferments being neglected ( in the commerce whereof notwithstanding , every transmutation of things to be generated , is enrowled ) Poysons have been hitherto unknown , as well in their making as in their Being and operation : Especially , because the property of a poyson , is , by the destruct on of the Archeus of man , to imprint its own seminal Image in the room of the other : Wherefore also , the Organ of this poyson is the Ferment it self . But u●derstand thou this thing concerning poysons which attempt a transmutation by way of a seminal Image , but not of meer Corrosives : because they are those which do not fermentally corrupt the Archeus , or his Image ; but they stir up the same Archeus into fury , who afterwards destroyes his own matter , or Inne : under the alteration or destruction whereof , the Archeus himself also gives place , together with the integrity and retainment of his Image : For the greatnesse , vehemency , strength , and swiftnesse o● poysons have deceived the Schools , who , the consideration of ferments being neglected , have passed by the one only dispositive instrument of generations , which goes before the introducement of a seminal Image : For the Schools are wont to measure the works of nature according to the square of artificial things ; and so , if at any time there ●ere any thing which would not seem to them , to square with this measure , they by a verbal excuse , have had recourse unto the heavens , and hidden causes , that they might cover their sluggishnesse and ignorances with an impossibility of sifting it out . CHAP. XIII . The form , and matter of the Pest. SInce a disease ought to perfect its own title , and misfortune in us , as it were in its own mansion , and its own proper essential causes do remain in its product ; it must needs be , as long as any thing wanders in the air , water , or earth , that that can neither be a disease in it self , nor the containing cause thereof : Yea , whatsoever is marked with the name of antecedent causes , is nothing but the occasional cause , causing nothing by it self , but by accident , nor any thing without an appropriation received in us . Wherefore they neither betoken nor desire , nor prescribe a cure , but only a caution or flight . The occasions therefore of the Plague , are to be considered , as the occasions of diseases being sometime entertained , do passe into the order of causes . First of all therefore , I have already sufficiently taught that the Pest is not sent down from the Heavens : And seeing every effect is the fruit or product of its own , and not of anothers tree ; therefore every cause produceth its own , and not anothers effect : therefore the Pest hath a specifical , proper , and not a forreign cause : For neither may we distinguish of Plagues by their accidents , concomitants , or signates ; because they are those which flow immediately from the diversity of subjects , because they diversly vary after the manner and nature of the receiver , according to the custom of the Beings of nature . Wherefore also the Pest consisting of matter , form , essence , a seed , and properties , requires also to have its own , and one onely species ; seeing the very essence it self of things or defects is most near to individuals : But if it either happen from without , or be generated within , that is all one , seeing from thence the Plague is now constituted . Again , if it do the more swiftly , or slowly defile , its issue be the more violent and speedy , do invade diverse parts , or diversly disquiet the body ; yet that doth not therefore change the species of the poyson . For they are only the signs of quantiry , co-mixture of a ferment , appropriation , and incidency on the parts receiving . Otherwise , the internal and formal poyson of the Pest , and that which conteins the thingliness thereof , is 〈◊〉 ●ys singular in every individual : Because the essence or Being of things consisteth in the simplicity of their own species ; as there is the same essence of fire on both sides , whether it be great , or little , whether quiet , or driven with the bellows ; or lastly , whether the flame shall be red , yellow , green , or sky-coloured . Therefore the remote , crude , and first occasional matter of the pestilence , is an air putrified through continuance , or rather a hoary putrified Gas ; which putrefaction of the air , according to the experience of the fire which Adeptists promise , hath not as yet the 8200. part of its own seminal body : The which thou shalt the more easily comprehend , if thou considerest a hoary putrified vessel and hogs-head of wine now exhausted , without any weight of it self , to corrupt new , and old wines infused in the hogs-head : For I have treated in my discourses of natural Phylosophy , concerning the nature of a ferment putrifying by contmuance , and after what sort vegetables do arise from an incorporeal and putrified seed , that from hence the progeny of the Pest may be the more distinctly made manifest . Moreover , I have shewn that the earth is the mother of putrefaction through continuance ; that we may know , that popular Plagues do draw their first occasional matter from an earthquake , and from the consequences of camps and siedges : For therefore , as much as the earth differs from the heaven , so much also is the occasional matter of the P●st , remote from the Heaven . But I call this first matter , that incorporeal hoary pu●rified poyson existing in the Gas of the earth : And so I substitute this poyson as theremo●e matter , under another more near poyson , which disposeth the matter of the Archeus , whereby he may the more easily assent , and conceive in himself a pestilent terrour , that at length a formal pestilential essence may suddenly come upon the previous dispositions hereof . But besides , if I must duely Phylosophize concerning the infections of the Air ; I ought of necessity , to repeate the Anatomy thereof , from the fore assayed doctrine of the elements , in my treatise of natural of Phylosophy . The air therefore in it self is one of the first-born elements , being transparent , and void as well of lightnesse , as weight , unchangeable , and perpetual , being endowed with natural cold , unlesse it be hindered by the strength of scituations , and things co mixed with it : but being every where filled with pores ; and for this cause suffering an extension , or pressing together of it self : The porosities whereof , are either filled with vapours , and forreign exhalations ; or remayning in their integrity , they plainly gape , being void of a body ( the which I have elsewhere demonstrated in the treatise of a necessary Vacuum ) : For in very deed , if the air were without pores that are empty of every body , vapours could not be lifted up without a penetration of bodies : But since a most manifest enlargement and com-pression of the air is granted ( as I have elsewhere fully demonstrated ) an emptinesse also , is of necessity granted : For such porosities in the air , are as it were wombs wherein the vapours the fruits of the water , are again resolved into the last simplicity of waters from whence they proceeded , and are spoyled of any signatures of their former seeds whatsoever : But those effluxes in the air are forreign , ●y accident , and various , according to the disposition of the concrete body from whence they exhaled . First of all , they are the vapours of pure and simple water ; and then of the waters of the salt sea , which season the rain with their vaporous brine , and for that cause preser●e it from corruption : For otherwise , by reason of the societies of diverse exhalations being admixed with it , rain waters would of necessity putrifie and stink , no lesse than clouds in mountains , and most mi●●s . The poysons therefore , of the air being drawn in , are partly entertained in manner of a vapour , in its porosities , and do partly defile the very body of the air , without a corporeal mixture , even as glasse conceiveth odours : which defilement hath of right , the name of an impression . I have an house in a plain field , being rich on its South-side ; in a wood of oakes : but on the north it respecteth pleasant meadows : moreover , toward both the mansions of the Sun , it hath hils that are fruitful in corn : But linnen cloaths being there washed and ●●nced in the fountain , being hung up in the loft , look most neatly white while the North wind blows , and here and there also , from east to west , or on the other hand from west to east : But the south-winde only blowing , and the southerly windowes being opened , they are notably yellow with a clayie colour : For from the numerous oakes , a tinging vapour is belched forth into the air , and I have learned that this vapour is breathed in by us , as also drunk up by the linnen : And also , thus from Groves of oakes , after the Summer solstice , an hidden vapour doth exhale , which in●ecteth an unwonted countenance and neck , with a frequent itching pustule or wheale , and afterwards they beco●● plainly visible in the legs and elsewhere : For there are somethings in the air which are perceived by the smelling of the nostrils : in the next place , there are other things , which are distinguished by dogs only : And lastly there are also other things , which are voyd of all odour , although not void of contagion . For truly the serment of a poyson , as such , may be free from smel : Therefore every country produceth and suffereth its own sicknesses : For why , nature is subject to the soile , neither doth every Land bring-forth all things ; Because diverse vapours are brought forth in the air , according to the variety of the soile : Which things I more fully sifting with my self , have often admired , that our life is extended unto so many years : since we are environed on every side , with so manifold a guard of most potent enemies , since we admit the same so deeply within us , and are constrained to attract them against our will : And that not only by breathing ; but also by a magnet or attraction , which sports aftes its own manner through the habit of the flesh . For I who have been often and long present without-fear , among the fumes of live coals , and the odours of other things , have rea●ly felt those odours and fumes not only to be derived in a straight line into my breast : but also from thence into my stomach , and therefore that our belchings do express those smoaky fumes conceived : For so the breath blown out of the lungs , resembleth the smells of Garlick and Onyons that are eaten , although collected thorow the Nostrils ; but the plague is drawn in on both sides : But a voluntary Pest , which is begotten not from without , but within , bewrays it self in the arm-pits , and groyn , but seldom behind the ears : For this Pest for the most part , issues forth from drawn-in odours : But that which is infamous in spots , proceeds from an internal poyson , being first smothered within , and therefore the worst of all , as it is for the most part intended or increased with the fermental putrefaction of suffocation : But that which shews forth Carbuncles , is either a strong expulsion which casteth farther than into the next ●munctory , or which ariseth from the touch of a contagious matter , or from an in-breathed poyson of the plague . For that Pest which hath invaded from a co-touching , although it be more slow than that which otherwise insulteth from an universal cause ; yet for the most part it is more deadly : Because the Archeus implanted in the member , is slain by this plague ; and from thence the part draws a pestilential Gangren ; for succouring whereof , the whole Archeus is the more negligent ; he meditating of defending the bowels , as fleeing , betakes himself inwards , and that mortal Gangren proceeds to creep . Also , remedies and their intention are for the most part idle for escharring of the outward parts , and that afterwards the Escharre may quickly fall off : For in this respect , all Emplaisters , and attracting things are administred ; but they are seldom administred , as that they overcome the poyson it self : But a plague from without , as it is chiefly to be feared in the joynts ; so on the other hand , that which is darted from within to without , involveth the less danger . And indeed , that which is bred within , doth primarily terrifie the Archeus ; and therefore it is sudden , and very powerful : But the poyson of a plague that is caught by touching , after it hath insinuated it self into the Archeus ( because he is that which is the first living , and the last dying ) and the only Ruler of things inwardly to be done ) being at length confirmed , after the manner of poyson , it easily infecteth the rest : For truly , the Archeus himself being once infected , presently conceiveth a pestiferous image of terrour , and the raines of governing the body being forsaken , he communicates it to his Associates . In the next place , although sweat be profitable in every plague ; yet less in that which hath privily entred by an external co-touching ; at least , it is in no wise therefore to be neglected . Moreover , in the plague of a particular individual person ( by whom the whole people in common are now and then afflicted ) there a fermental putrefaction doth for the most part begin within , which being once suddenly laid hold of , the poysonous image of an Archeal terrour is from thence the more easily committed . That Pest is the more swift , which is drawn inwards from the external putrefaction of an odour ; because it presently associates unto it two degrees , to wit , a putrefaction through continuance , and a mumial and co-marriageable ferment : But there is no need , that that hoary putrefaction should be perceiveable by the nostrils , with an aversness : For if dogs , which exceed us in smelling , do sent an hoary putrefaction , or the foot-step of their Master in the way ; our Archeus himself doth as yet far more easily smell out-those things which are within , and therefore , a putrified odour cannot hurt , unless it shall find a mumial serment within , whereunto it may couple it self : Then indeed there is now forthwith a forreign matter , nevertheless , as yet wanting a contagion : Therefore it behoveth , that the matter be furnished with full conditions , and with a formality of acting : For these two are as yet , as it were the occasional and provoking causes . Again , as concerning the Tartar of the blood , there hath been enough spoken , that it is a product of the Pest , and that it waits for this , or is made out of hand at the coming of the plague . The first term therefore of making the Pest , is an hoary putrified Gas , the which , seeing it cannot infect without a co-resemblance of appropriation , it requires another correlative term , which is a mumial ferment ( without which there is not an appropriation ) to wit , the Archeus the receiver of the Pest : For truly the poysonous matter of the plague being by contagion derived into us , defiles not any one , unless the Archeus shall lay hold of it , and appropriate it to himself ; wherein surely , the Archeus labours improvidently : For from thenceforth , the Pest conceiveth a terrour , by his own phantasie , but not from the sore fear of the man ; to wit , in which phantasie of Archeal terrour , the Archeus brings forth a pestilential poyson , which is the very Idea of the conceived terrour , being cloathed with the proper coat of the Archeus : Alas , then the Pest is present within , and doth soon easily disturb the whole man. The image of the Pestilence therefore , consisteth of an Archeal air , as of the matter containing , whereon the poyson of the terrour of the Archeus is imprinted , as the immediate efficient cause : For neither therefore doth the poyson of the plague , always defile any one whatsoever , although it shall presently find an odour in us agreeable to it self ; because the mumial ferment , although it be internal , yet nevertheless , it is only an occasional mean , in respect of the contagious application , or of the infection applied ; which appropriation immediately consisteth in a real and actual congress of the image bred by terrour , which the Archeus conceiveth from the aforesaid application , as thinking in this respect , that now there is a potent Enemy entertained within the Cottages of his own house ; which panick fear of the Archeus , is the immediate cause of the image bred by imagination : ( therefore I have proved , that there is an imagination in the Archeus , besides that which is decyphered by the conceptions of the mind , as well in the Midriffs , as in the Heart , and Brain ) which image is the suitable cause of the Pest ; I say , the veriest Pest it self , no otherwise than as a Chick is nothing besides the Egg it self ripened by a cherishing warmth : For Purple or spotted Fevers have therefore indeed , a poyson and contagion , besides putrefaction , and a fermenr of appropriation ( to wit , from whence they defile men alone , not likewise beasts ) yet they want an Idea of terrour , whereby the Archeus being full of confusion and desperation , neglects his government , and frames the deadly and seminal image of a pestilent poyson . In the next place , he easily insinuates this his confusion into his own transchanged nourishable liquours , over which before he carefully watched , and now degenerates them into the hostile Tartar of the blood : For the Archeus forsaking the Stern of Government , like a man that is sore afraid , rashly turns all things upside down , and himself being a run-away , proclaims that an Enemy is received within , darknesses are made , the the appetite is prostrated , and every digestion of the shops begun , ceaseth , and that which is almost , or half digested , is corrupted , because it abhorreth the sorrowful image of a mortal poyson . There is therefore a sedition and noise within throughout the members , because the implanted spirits of these , do well perceive the confusion of the inflowing spirit , but are not able to restrain it : For if the nourishment being half dig●sted , were fresh and mild in the stomach , a drowsie evil ariseth , and likewise vomiting and loathing ; but if it be now dry or stiff through digesting , the headach possesseth the man : But if it be well nigh digested , it putrifies with a stinking burntish savour , from whence there are continual vomitings : For all things go astray , and do putrifie under the image of the poyson , and the nourishment of the stomach it self , degenerates into a filthy muckiness , the which also , doth oft-times put on a caustical or burning sharpness , and there is for the most part , a murmuring noyse about the stomach : For why , where the first and inordinate conceipts and violent assaults of men are , in the same place also of necessity , the first confusion of the terrour of the Archeus ariseth , and there is made a most filthy image of the plague . For I have noted , that the Pest hath for the most part , placed its first seats about the stomach . For a certain man being dejected with a continual vomiting , felt a great pain of his head , and by and by a doating delusion ; and then he also having suffered a deep drowsiness by intervals , died in sixteen hours space , many fainting fits having gone before . But I desired to know , from whence he had so speedily died , and with so great a fury of sumptoms ; neither did a Chyrurgion desire to be present : at length , I began the disfection with a knife , and I found his Stomach now pierced with a three-fold perfect Escharre , in such a manner as I had once seen the stomach of a Servant-Maid to be pierced , who had willingly drunk Arsenick . In the mean time , in every Plague , a Fever ariseth from the beginning , because also a sore threatned corruption hath begun in the Archeus : Surely all vital things are affrighted in the natural directions of images scattered through a dreadful discord , confusion , and desperation . The Tartar of the blood also , being now freed from its Laws , in so great a confusion of the whole body , snatcheth to it a fury , it struggles in the conceived borders of its own part whereunto it adhereth , and through the confusion of terrour , increaseth all the tumult . This is the Tragedy of the Pest , which I at sometime through divine clemency saw in an intellectual dream : But the great fear , flight , desperation , &c. of the Archeus , is not the poyson it self ; even as neither is the wrath of a living creature the poyson thereof : But the poyson of the plague , is a Being produced from the image of dread , and cloathed with the substance of the Archeus ; as the anger of a Serpent , lays aside the image of his anger in a part of the Archeus , and lays up that image in his Spittle , &c. at the executive Organs of anger . But the poyson of the Pest is in it self horrid , and far more cruel than the mortal contagion of Serpents ; to wit , that which is produced in beasts by a vital perturbation , such as is the anger of Serpents : For the contagion of the Pest creeps into the standers by ; neither doth it perish with the life of the Animal , as otherwise , the poysons of beasts are wont to do : For that the poyson of the Pest doth not inhere in the life , but there is an image in the air effuming from thence , and that indeed cloathed with the infected Archeus ; as thin sanies , blood , corrupt pus , vitriol being sprinkled on them , have as yet retained a life and vital actions on the whole body from whence they issued , the which , the magnetick curing of wounds , ulcers , and broken bones at this day hath taught us . But moreover , the Pest rather drives from it the fugitive life , the fearful and fleeing Archeus ; and as the madness of a Dog assumes his product in his spittle , so the poyson of terrour is sealed in the Tartar of the blood , even as also it is dispersed into the air , and an odour departing afar off : For therefore beasts are the free beholders of our calamity , because they want the defect of an univocal or self-same Archeus , and therefore also an appropriation : Yet any subject whatsoever , whether it shall be air , a garment , or any other more solid body ( although ignorant of dread ) which may be seasoned with an odour , may in like manner be the subject on which the product of a dreadful imagination may be imprinted , no otherwise than as the earth resembles the odour of a swift footstep . Furthermore , although the Pest or Plague be only one in the species , yet it invades after divers manners : For at one time , a popular plague assaults , which ariseth from a divulged hoary putrefaction , after an Earth-quake , out of Caves , Clefts , Pools , Mines , and dead carkasses , as wel those of beasts as of men , which belch forth a poyson putrified through continuance : The which notwithstanding , is not as yet pestilential , until that it being received within , shall then at length be app●opriated to a ferment : From whence indeed , the Archeus being affrighted , creates that cruel image of his own confusion and terrour . It invades also , only by a pestilent odour drawn in from a sick person , or from a dead carkass , or from a place , or from an infected matter ; the which odour , by how much the more subtil subject of its inherency it shall have , by so much also the more speedily it infecteth , and the more speedily approacheth to the Archeus , by reason of a mark of resemblance : For neither therefore doth the exhalation of sweat so speedily infect , as a pestilential Gas that is not perceiveable in its odour : For just even as the Gas of coals disturbs the stomach , provokes vomit , headachs , yea and also , swooning ; so I have noted plagues , which by a subtil exhalation , do infect the immediate nourishment of the stomach , that they brought on continual vomitings , hicketings , frequent swoonings , and doating delusions , and most speedy death : and that vomiting refuseth remedies to be swallowed down , the Swooning-fits do cast down the strength , as also the doatage is averse to food , and remedies . But the matter that is now infected , if it be to be taken away by sweat , in passing thorow , it defiles the whole house even to the skin , unless the malignity thereof be restrained by remedies : For although a remedy may readily touch at that infected matter , yet it doth not easily bring forth that matter which doth not willingly follow : For truly , any Antidote , doth never restore the party that is once infected , into his former state ; and therefore all the care of an Antidote is only about the preservation of those that are not yet infected , and the mitigation and speedy expulsion of these . Also the occasion of a popular plague is difficult , because infected places and bodies cannot be avoided ; which thing , in Camps , and besieged Cities , clearly appeareth : For we read , that in the East , a plague began from three Souldiers who violated a Sepulchre , that it defiled the Roman Camps , and killed a third part of mortal men , throughout the known Coasts of the world : For such a plague is most swift , and most cruel ; the which indeed brings into the body along with it , almost all concomitants needful for it self : For since the poysonous matter hath already obtained a ferment , it ought not to parley with out Archeus concerning its reception , the which it easily obtains by request , from the disturbed Host : for truly , it brings with it an Idea already in it self , from a former cause , and attains from the Archeus a new Idea within , co-like to it , for its companion . But the Pest which begins , and perfects the whole generation of it self in us , without an external help , is made from a fore-existing fermentally putrified Tartar of the blood , which doth soon of its own accord , most readily put on the odour of a dead carkass : From whence , the Archeus being sore terrified , stirs up an Idea of the conceived terrour , and so a pestilent poyson is stirred up , and the seminal , and hurtful image hereof is incorporated in that excrement , the which therefore proceeds in raging and infecting : For the Plague is communicated unto us by an unsensible air , which Flies , Pies , Ravens , Crows , Eagles , Dogs , Wolves , &c. do for the most part distinguish : For it is very well known , that the houshold Animal a dog , discerneth every one by his odour , or that he doth even a good while after distinguish the footsteps of any one thereby , however lightly imprinted ; and a pestilential Gas is alike subtil , and odourable : Therefore there are different manners of attaining the plague ; to which end , it is meet to repeat , that a pestilent poyson is only of one particular kind , nor that there be many parents of the same thing , distinct in their species and seed ; that is , that its seeds cannot be divers : So that a Scorpion bred from the herb Bazil , and from a Parent , differs not in kind ; as neither doth a Louse which proceedeth from Nits , and which sprang immediately from a man , lay aside aspecifical identity : for Nits , or the Eggs of Lice , are in the sameliness of the Archeus , with the matter from whence a man doth immediately generate Lice : Because if two ●eeds divided in species , should constitute one and the same thing in the species , specifical dispositions in the matter for the generation of things , should be in vain , but all things from all , and every thing from every thing , should promiscuously proceed : Agents therefore that are divers in kind , although they may constitute something under a specifical sameliness ; yet the same seed , and that of the same Archeus , must be understood to be formed from them both : So a man maketh a vital excrement , from whence proceeds a Louse , a Worm , &c. and he so disposeth that matter by his cherishing warmth , that it attaineth a co-like Archeus , which the Louse generating , originally implanted in his Eggs : and so the Louse that generateth , is the univocal agent , which extendeth from himself sufficient matter for Generation : But the man is the equivocal agent , which afforded from himself an excrementitious matter , which matter sliding on , doth at length , in the cherishing warmth , attain a co-like Archeus : So a dead carkass generates into worms , and these do again sexually generate : and so Mice are generated of excrementitious filths , and again by parents ; and that wholly in Insects , whose seeds are issued from bodies purifying as it were of their own accord : at leastwise , the immediate matter of these , and agent of these Generations , is on both sides simple , uniform , and of a specifical ident●ty or sameliness : Therefore also , both constituted bodies are of the same species , generating afterwards their own like , without choice : So that Lice which proceed from our exhalations , do admit of copulations with those which through a cherishing warmth , came forth out of Nits . The immediate matter therefore , and immediate agent in the Pest , are on both sides of the same seminal Archeus , and specifical identity : For whether the matter be made within by degrees , or on a sudden , or being drawn in from without , be actuated in us ; at leastwise the poyson of the plague is never made , but a terrour of the Archeus hath brought forth that poysonous image . But I call terrour , as well that of a man fore smitten by the first assault , as that of the Archeus of man it self , and of the blood , received from an antipathy . After this sort , a bold and stout man is oft-times before or in presence of the plague , fearful ; yea , he who scarce fears the plague , hath his Archeus within , subject to aff●ightments . For so , an Infant that is uncapable of fear , and ignorant of apprehension , is not more slowly laid hold of by the plague , than a poor timorous woman : For although a sturdiness of mind may prevail as to prevention , yet it doth not kill the poyson already conceived . And there are divers boldnesses of Magnanimity : for some one man is undaunted in a single combate , who in the conflicts of war , is fearful : another is not affrighted in fighting , who is notably afraid of Hobgoblin Furies : Lastly , a third feareth not Enemies , but he is afraid of armed Countrymen , &c. Galen thinks that a good complexion ad pondus or according to an equal weight of the Elements , would give strength to resist the plàgue : He I say , who would have all particular parts and bowels in man , to differ only in the unequality of the temperament of the Elements , now granteth an equality of the Elements flowing together according to an equal weight , in the one humane kind : when as otherwise , if the heart were the most temperate part , now the whole man ought , according to any of his parts , of necessity , to have the consistence and hardness of the heart . But I as the first , have rejected the opinion of Elements , co-mixtures , and temperaments , as foolish and totally false , by firm demonstrations , in the Volume set forth concerning the original of medicine . This co-mixture of Elements therefore , I willingly yield to the Galenists , and am willingly ignorant , after what manner air , or fire can be weighed , that being weighed together according to the weight of water , and earth , they may compose from themselves , flesh , sinews , bones , brain , heart , marrows , &c. Ah , vain fiction , cruel wickednesse , hissing it self forth against our neighbours . Moreover , the animosity or stoutnesse of mind which I praise , is not affrighted by death , or the plague , it adorns the Archeus , that he may resist the poyson , and expel that poyson received by accident ( but otherwise , he cannot overcome or kill it ) no otherwise then as terrour shuts the pores by the motion of nature being obedient unto it : Wherefore they who have recovered from the plague , are scarce alike easily infected with the plague the same year : The contrary is seen in other diseases and poysons : For truly these do not onely leave behind them weaknesses from whence there is a more easie relapse ; but also other poysons do operate , by changing the parts wherein they are entertained . But a pestilent terrifying poyson primarily invades the Archeus alone , and sorely affrights him : The which , when he hath once known , and overcome his enemy , he afterwards presumeth and is made more confidently bold , that he shall not so easily fail under him : neither is he thenceforth so easily affrighted through occasion of the poyson brought unto him : neither doth the weaknesse which the Pest leaves on him , hinder ; because it is sufficient that he is not alike easily terrified , and that he doth not decypher the pestilent image of terrour in his own proper substance : And therefore other poysons of diseases are far more grosse than the image of a drawn-in terrour : For some hurt not , but under on open skin ; but others require to be eaten , or drunk . But the most rare poyson of the Basilisk or beholding Cockatrice , is sent forth by imagination directing the sight : But a pestilential poyson is framed within , by the proper conception of the Archeus . Other poysons are bewrayed by some sensible signe : But the Pest alone is communicated by an unsensible contagion , even so as the foot-step of a man keeps its odour . Behold how the image of sudden sorrow prostrates the appetite , how the image of a nauseous matter c●eates vomiting , the image of condolency produceth tears , the image of slow sorrow or lingting grief stirs up sighs , the image of fear generates the Falling Sicknesse , and now and then the Palsie : Therefore I elsewhere writing of Diseases , have not in vain demonstrated that joy , fear , anger , hatred , and other passions and perturbations , do generate in us , their own proper and singular actual image , no otherwise than as terrour doth the Plague : But the generations of these are the domestical and more ordinary off-springs in us . But the image of a pestilent terrour , brings forth a poyson immediately existing in the Archeus , and draws its own matter from the same : And therefore the Senses cannot conceive that image . The Archeus therefore , having beheld a mortal enemy nigh at hand , being bred within , or brought to him from far , admits this enemy through his own terrour , and an image decyphered anew , and confirms him with his own character and substance : For our hand being moved to a Carcass that died of its own accord , soon waxeth so cold through the flight of the Archeus , that it at length scarce waxeth hot again at a long fire : Yet Dogs perceive not that cold , while they devour such a dead Carcass , even as the dead Carcass of a Beast doth not much cool us : Therefore the cold of an humane dead Carcase is fraudulent and accidental , and doth more cool , than it hath of cold : And the Carcass that died by little and little doth more cool us than the Carcass of a person that died of the Gowt , or of a sharp Fever . Yet since we discern by an engine whereby we measure the degrees of the encompassing air , that the cold of both these Carcasses are equal ; To wit , the Archeus being sorely affraid of death ( which the hand applyed to the dead Carcass extinct by a long infirmity , perceiveth ) flieth , forsaketh the hand , neither ( because mindful thereof ) doth he easily return : Therefore it is manifest , that the Archeus doth perceive and shun death , even that which is before and out of himself . And as yet more , the ferments of putrefaction ( as in the cold fit of an Ague ) being conceived or bred within ; And most especially those , which being received within his family-administration in manner of an image , do tend unto a formal transmutation of his own essence : Because the poyson bred through an Idea of terrour , is of the highest actual power : And the image of fear and also of dread , differs from the image of terrour , by reason of the formal activity of faith concurring , even as before I have noted . And moreover , although the Archeus doth well perceive death , and poysons , yet he doth not well perceive the poysonous terrour , because he thinks it to be his own terrour , and a vain passion , until that by the fore-gone ferment of appropriation , he hath certainly known that that poyson was a forreigner unto him , which he had lain up in a part of himself , while he formed that forreign Idea ; and so , with a certain destruction of himself , he presently expels the poyson from him : And I wish , that the power now inbred in him , were not communicated throughout the whole body , by what way it proceedeth . For so the poyson of a mad dog is in no wise throughly perceived by a man , as neither by his Archeus , except after that it hath established a ferment for it self in the Archeus : In the which then image of doglike madnesse , sin● there is presently an estrangement of the mind connexed ; Hence the Archeus conceiveth no terrour to himself in fury : For the stumbling in imagination , rather shakes off terrour , is rashly mad , and by the poyson of the mad dog is directed into an Hydrophohia for the disease causing a fear of water . Lastly therefore , the one onely poyson of the Pest hath also the one onely beholding of terrour , and one way unto the grave , or unto recovery , by good , or unfit remedies . But whatsoever things I have hitherto spoken concerning the pestilent Idea of terrour , I will not have to be interpreted at liberty : For a fear from enemies , from a thief , from a disease , from an hurtful Animal , from a Sword , do indeed generate an image of dread , but not a pestilent one : which image I have therefore denoted with the name of terrour , as distinct from an image of conceived fear , whereby a living creature is affraid . A pestilent terrour therefore , doth not here denote any terrour , or the dread of any calamity ; but onely a pestilent horrid poyson conceived in terrour , as well by the man , as by the Archeus of the same . In this Idea therefore , is scituated the essence of the Pest , and the thinglinesse of this whole Book . I confesse indeed that the images of any fear are easily changed into the Idea of a pestilent terrour , even so as a woman great with child , deriveth the image of a mouse on the undefiled flesh of her Young , yea hath sometimes transplanted the whole Embryo into an horrid animal or monster : Because , as I have elsewhere taught concerning formes , formal images do mutually pierce each other , and the latter doth readily draw the former into the obedience of it self , which Hipocrates calls a leading of seeds whither they would not . Truly to convocate a diversity of elements , and a combating assembly thereof for a mixt body , and likewise of complexions , humors , and conditions , inclinations , and studies sprung from thence : Lastly , the divisions of climates , angles or quarters , ages , proportions , strengths , bignesse , and interchangeable courses , for a succour of ignorance , that hereby we may make the more , greater , and more difficult calamities , may increase uncertainties , may rule ignorances , may beget doubts , may patronize impostures , and promote despairs of life , is nothing else but to have laboured in vain . For the perfect light of Sciences , is like fire , which burns up every combustible matter without exception . Such a Science Hipocrates had in times past obtained . CHAP. XIV . The property of the Pest . I Have demonstrated that the passions of the mind do destroy the appe●i●e , as also prostrate digestion : In the next place , that the first motions of cogitations do obtain their own assemblies in the midriffs : Therefore also I have dedicated the mouth of the stomach unto Mercury , whereunto the Heathens have attributed the sharpnesse of wit , as also the sleepifying white wand of truce : I have also said that the plague is originally conceived from the terrour of man , and that the air which being brought out of a pestiferous body , is carried into us , doth at its first assault rush into the spleen , which presently shakes out the same , and delivers it as it were by hand , unto the O●ifice of the Stomach : From hence are dejection of appetite , vomiting , head-ach , dotages , faintings , thirst , the drowsie evil , &c. But the Plague which is made in us , even as that which is drawn in from without , have their own Inns wherein every one begins to rage : But as long as the Idea of sorrow and fear do besiedge the Tartar of the bloud in the Stomach , and as long as the image of the terrour of the Archeus is absent , the Plague is not yet present . In the mean time indeed , it comes to passe , if they shall keep themselves the lesse exactly , that the Tartar of the bloud being more and more malicious , doth at length terrifie the Archeus ; and he stamps a pestilent poyson on himself . For Plagues which are bred onely through terrour , are more swift , and much more terrible than those which proceed from an infected air : for this perhaps strikes many to the heart ; because the stomach , seeing at least it is a membrane ; yet I have placed the perturbations and first assaults , even in the Orifice thereof , or in the spleen , at least wise , in that extream or utmost part of it self which lays on the orifice or upper mouth of the stomach ; and from hence a ferment is bestowed that is requisite for the necessities of digestion : But the Schools themselves call the mouth of the stomach by the Ftymology of the heart ; For a wound of that place , and a wound o● the heart , do kill with the same sumptom , and alike speedily : For I have seen many , whose head a strong Apoplexie had made plainly unsensible and dead ; yet that were hot in the midriffs many hours after : For a Bride in a Coach nigh Scalds , is saluted by Country Musqueteers , and the bullet or a Musquet smites thorow the temples of her head , not a little of her brain is dashed out , and her head presently dies : But she being being brought to Vilvord four leagues distant from thence , her pulse as yet afforded testimonies of li●e . Is not also the vital spirit , being a certain ruler of the whole body , in the womb ? and the which is onely a membrane , after the manner of the stomach ? and the seat of far greater disturbances than the liver , lungs , and kidneys . Truly the members in themselves are nothing but dead Carcasses , but the spirit is the Governour which quickens those members ; which spirit , and after what sort , God hath planted where he would . Indeed I remember that I have often seen , that those who had the Tartar of their bloud corrupted by some kind of fear of the Plague , but without belief , or presumption of a contracted infection , di● undergoe an uncessant anguish and combating day and night , yea although they were wise , and laughed at their own perplexities ; yet they were not able , but that as restlesse , they would present the image of fear conceived , before their eyes : For they were like unto those who were bitten by a mad dog , who will they , nill they , have their imagination readily p●yable at the pleasure of the poyson . At length , in the very Tartar of the bloud sticking about the midriffs , I have found a proper natural phantasie , which the image of fear conceived in the spleen , had feigned to it self : So , lascivious dreams do not always follow from the imagination of the fore-past day ; but for the most part also , from the matter it self predominating in the Testicles ; no otherwise also , than as one that hath a desire ●o make water , dreameth that he doth continually make water : Therefore the terrour of the man is the occasion of the Pest , and the terrour of the Archeus is the efficient cause of the pestiferous image and poyson : For it is as it were the Father of the Plague , the which , the poysonous image being once bred , although it may cease , at least wise , the Plague conceived is in its own image : For if the terrour of the man were a sufficient cause of the Plague , of necessity also the Plague should always follow a pestilential terrour , which is false : even as also , in an in●ant , who is void of all terrour , the Plague is received at pleasure : From whence it is sufficiently manifest , that the Archeus himself being affrighted , is the primitive efficient cause of the image of the pestilence . The plague therefore consisteth of a defilement , to wit , of a contagion , in the swiftnesse of its course , in the singula●ity of its poyson , in the terribleness of its concomitants , lastly , in a difficulty of preservation , and curing . But indeed , I leave behind me the inquisition of that plague which is sent for a punishment by reason of the hidden judgments of God : The which although it be plainly above nature , yet in the mean time , the matter thereof is not a creature lately made of nothing : because it after some sort , enters the borders of nature : For the smiting Angel stood not on a mountain , which the continual water of the air flowing over it , well washeth by licking thereof : Neither stood he also on an high Tower , and where notwithstanding , the sin of David in the lust of concupiscence , had took its beginning : but he stood on the hoary putrified threshing floor of Araunah . So the Angels in the Revelation , pour out their Vials , from whence the third part of men shall at sometime perish . The word , yea the beck of the Lord can do all things , without a floor , a scabbard , a sword , Vials , the effusion of Poyson , &c. But such is the bounty of his piety , that he inflicts not such punishments nakedly by his word ; perhaps by reason of the perpetual constancy and irrevocable firmnesse of his word , nor also by evil spirits doth he send a supernatural plague , lest he should deliver the living into the hands of their enemies . At length , the plague produced by enchantments ( if there be any ) follows nature : For truly , the Devil is not able of himself even to make one gnat , unlesse he assume the seminal Beginnings thereof ; even as his magicians could not make gnats , the off-springs of the waters , of dust : wherefore also , they confessing the impotency of the Devil , then cryed out , truly here is the singer of God! If therefore it shall at sometime be granted to the Devil to form the plague , surely he drew that from the principles of nature : And the diabolical plague should differ from the natural ordinary one , in its application and appropriation : For he should more toughly apply the actuation and impression of the poyson , no otherwise , than as the bellowes doth at leastwise promote and heighten the fire which it made not : but he should appropriate it with a fore-going preparation , by the image of terrour drawn in and borrowed from his ●ond-slaves : And although such plagues should be more cruel , yet they should yield unto the same natural remedies . But I call them more cruel ones , by reason of their swiftness , to wit , the image of cruel envy had from witches , being over added : notwithstanding , such permissions should as yet be limited unto persons and number ; yea should be more easily expiated by prayer and alms-deeds , than ordinary plagues : To wit , whereby God taking pity on mankind , may the rather hate diabolical arts , and make the Devil grieve at div●ne mercy soon shewn . But that good spirits are the framers of the Pest , surely that is from great compassion , that we may not be beaten but under the command of obedience , by the rod of the Lord , and not of Angels : For God every where keeps a Decorum : He takes Sergeants and Guardians , who have a native goodness , who keep friendship , nor can aslume a divellish disposition , for which they know there is no place in Heaven . But before he would deliver Sodom to the Devil , he first deprived it of a few innocent persons . But the plague which ariseth from a curse , by reason of the extream anguish of mad poverty , by reason of a teeming woman that is forsaken , by reason of a wounded person , &c. is a plague of divine punishment , which surely is scarce supported by the Beginnings of nature , and is easily discerned ; because it invadeth onely such places and persons cursed : And likewise the rich who sit in Ivory Seats , who drink out of guilded plate , who eat the Calf from the Herd , and the fat Sheep from the Flock , and do not remember their imprisoned brother Jos●ph : Because the Lord adjures or earnestly swears the destruction of these , that others may as it were in a looking-glass behold , what it is to have pleased , and displeased God. But Plagues which follow Camps , and rage for the most part some moneths after a siedge , are not to be ascribed to the slovenliness of the Souldiers ; especially if they shall begin a good while after the City is taken , as for the most part it comes to pass : For Camps had also in times past their own , and the same impurities of Souldiers ; but the occasion is that of the smell of dead Carcasses putrified through continuance , which is infected with a mumial ferment : because that at this day , the slain are not buried as in times past , nor deep enough in the earth : In the next place , because they are hurt by an invisible bullet from far , which moves a greater terrour in the Archeus than while spear to spear , and sword to sword were stoutly opposed : For neither was it in vain commanded in the Law : That whosoever should touch a dead Carcasse , should be impure , and that he was to be clean washed , together with his garment : And that the Sun was not to go down upon the bodies of hanged persons : Which things surely in a literal sence , are thus prescribed by God for the good of a Common-wealth , least the mumial ferment should putrifie by continuance . Therefore it is the part of blindness and rashness to be bewailed , for the bodies of those that are hanged to be shewn in a bravery for a spectacle , until they fall off of their own accord ( indeed a small profit accrues from thence for so great evils ) and it is all one as if the Judge should say ; God indeed hath so appointed it ; but the Magistrate hath corrected for the better : As if it had been unknown to God that the Spectacle of an hanged person would be more affrightful to evil persons or offenders : Therefore if God hath known this , and neverthelesse hath given an express command for burial , it it no wonder that punishment follows transgression as a Companion : But God follows the guilty eternally as a revenger behind , and I wish the punishment were turned onely upon the transgressours : for to bury is a work of mercy ; but to shew the guilty hanged in a bravery is not that work ; according to which it shall at sometime be pronounced , Go ye Cursed , or Come ye Blessed . For truly , to bury the dead Carcass of a condemned person , is a work of no less mercy , than to bury a Prince : And this mercy is not so much exercised toward the dead party , as toward our neighbours , least the following stink should infect them : For neither to be buryed , doth profit him that is buryed , but the living : Therefore the Scope of Divine Goodness consisteth not onely in burying , but in inhuming deep enough : which particulars will be made more cleer by an example : For a dead Falcon being cast behind the hedges , and half putrified , is devoured by a live one ; but presently he is taken with a most contagious plague of his own kind ; Because the poyson of terrour being received within , smites on his Archeus , by reason of a mumial co-resemblance infected with a putrified fermental hoariness . And the Pest of the Falcon is so great , that the pestilent Falcon being brought through a Street , insecteth all other Falcons which are brought that way for three dayes after : Whence thou shalt conjecture , what the dead Carcasses of men , as well of those that are hanged , as of those that are carelessely buryed , may do by their odour ? For a Dog eats not a Dog , unless he be dried in the smoak , to wit , while the mummy hath lost the horror of death , through the estrangement of its tast , in preserving from corruption : but a Wolf eats a Wolf newly killed , but not a putrified Wolf : Whence there is a suspition , that there is something in a Wolf which is superiour to a mumial appropriation : Perhaps Paracelsus supposed , that that was it , wherein the first act of feeling of an applyed object sitteth : Peradventure also , for that cause , they have thought the Tongue of a Wolf hung up , to be adverse to the plague . And moreover , the dead carkasses of souldiers , are at this day to be buried deeper than in times past ; because the Bullet of a great Gun , or Musquet makes a contusion , and then , it takes away some part with it ; wherefore , it produceth an open hole , and at length also , it begets a poysonous impression of smoak ; from whence , the flesh round about , presently looks black with a certain Gangren , and it readily receives a poyson into it , if not in life , as leastwise soon after death ; to wit , while as through a speedy putrefaction of the flesh being combibed into the earth , a cadaverous , hoary or fermental putrefaction doth arise ; unto all which is joyned in the Archeus of the dying-souldier , an Idea of revenge , which is prone to putrefaction : From thence into the air , a monstrous Gas , I say , is pouted out into the air , which smires the Archeusses of the living with terrour : For it is with a dead carkass , just even as with horse-dung , which doth not putrifie so long as it is hot : But when it grows dry , and the Salt-Peter thereof hath departed from thence , the dung also inclines to be transchanged into the liquor of the earth : For otherwise , if the dung be restrained from putrefaction , through the be-sprinkling and stirring of horse-piss on it , and into it , it produceth much Salt-Peter . For behold thou how powerful a nourishment the mushrome of one night is ( for indeed a Mushrome is the fruit of the juice Leffas or of plants being coagulated , and near to its first Being ; the which I have elsewhere shewn ) but after it hath assumed the putrefaction of the earth through continuance , how cruel a poyson for choaking doth it bring forth : We must therefore have a diligent care , that a fermental putrefaction doth not arise in the reliques of the last digestion : For indeed , the plague privily entred my own house , through a Chamber-Maid ; she forthwith recovered : Both my Eldest Sons being sore troubled in their mind , shew an undaunted courage , and concealed , that they were vexed with a continual combat of sighing at the mouth of their stomach : and when as through the wiles and framed deceits of my prevalent Enemies , I was detained at my own house under prevention of an Arrest ; both my Sons also , would not by forsaking me , go into the Country : and since they had observed at other times , that they were refreshed by swimming , in the midst of Summer , they swam thrice without my knowledge ; whence transpiration through the po●es being stopped up , both of them being forthwith devolved into a Fever , together with a dejected appetite , pain of the head , and a Catochus or unsensible detainment of the Soul , with a pricking of the whole body , they died among the Nuns , swearing that they would admit of my remedies : but after that they had received my Sons , they refused forraign remedies : The Eldest indeed , perished without any mark or signal token , even after death ; because his skin being cooled by swimming , nothing outwardly appeared : But the other shewed only a small black and blew Pustule in his loyns : and the loss of these my Sons , I frequently behold , as if it were present ; and thou mayest suppose that it gave a beginning unto this Treatise . I leave vengeance unto my Lord , whom I humbly beseech , that he would spare my Enemies , and bestow upon them the light of Repentance . CHAP. XV. The Signs . I Have hitherto written unwonted Paradoxes : my understanding being without the Moon , was drowned in tribulations : there was a matter most full of terrour , horrour , and of difficulties present ; a great Reader uncapable of the best things , a darksom brevity of beginning , and a hateful novelty , although a very necessary one . But that which chiefly blinds us in the Pest , is the want of an exquisite and unseparable sign ; to wit , through the admonition whereof , we may be able timely enough to prevent or withstand it by remedies . Nevertheless , whatsoever created thing is in any place , it hath its own discernable signs , by which it may be fitly distinguished from other things : and these , those which do precede the plague , do accompany it , or soon follow after it . But those signs which go before it , do make for its prevention : but whatsoever signs do afterwards follow , serve more for others , than for the miserable sick : But the accompanying signs alone , do discern of the cure . And moreover , the signs of a plague to come , are decyphered in the heavens , if the Firmament sheweth the handy-works of the Lord in the earth . That the signs thereof are badly referred by Astrologers , unto twelve divisions of causes , I have already before sufficiently manifested : But Gaffarel hath lately described an Hebrew Alphabet , from the scituation of the stars , and authority of the Rabbins , by an argument ridiculous enough , whereby the Hebrews devise such wan signs : as if God had now , the Rabbins only as his servants , unto whom he may communicate his secret counsels : For Christians do not consider the shamefulness of those positions , who suffer such kind of books to be printed : For neither do the fixed stars change their places , that they may sometime describe these , and sometime other things to come ; the which , in the first place , is contrary to all Astrology . Comets also , the Meteors Trabes , Dragons , Darts , and other monstrous signs of that sort , being oft-times popular , have foreshewn popular plagues ; but not by a rational discourse , or Theories of the Planets , and much less by the Alphabet of the Hebrews : for irregular lights do not obey set rules : For the Astrologers of Jerusalem , although most skilful in their art , yet they were altogether ignorant of the signification , as also of the apparition of the star of Bethlehem . For the Lord will not do a word , which he will not reveal to his Servants and Prophets . Amos 3. But of these things Artificers have no knowledge ; because new lights have been oftentimes mortal , and oft-times have directly signified prosperous things : For monstrous signs do in the hand of the Lord , make manifest his secret judgements , neither doth he manifest those but to whom he will : For truly , the Conjunctions , Oppositions , and Quadrants of the Stars ; likewise their Eclipses , Retrogradations , Banishments , Combustions , Receptions , and other impediments , are supposed to be so regular , that they are sometimes described in Ephemeres's for an age : But the Pest is of things extraordinarily increasing , and those not necessary : But a regular mean is not a meetly suitable sign for an effect from a contingency by chance : Neither therefore could the Ephemeres's or Planetary daies-books of Brabu , foretel the plague in Lumbardy , of the year 1632. which was conceived from an unjust war , and the fear of horrour : Wherefore , I attribute extraordinary contingencies or accidents , unto extraordinary contingent causes . I believe indeed , that the fore-shewing signs of the same are decyphered in the Firmament , but not in the directions of the courses of the Planets : Wherefore I account those signs to be irregular , nor to be subject to Astrology ; because the significations of those signs are granted by an extraordinary priviledge : Therefore the signs of such a plague , are for the most part declared only to the servants of God ; as is read concerning Jonas : But the signs that went before the destruction of Jerusalem , were messages of the Word long before prophesied of ; and so neither could the fore-told destruction be hindered , and they were directed only to the meer glory of God , the admonishment of the godly , and the flight of these . And moreover , Israel ought to die , and to be renewed by Generation in the Wilderness , except Joshuah and Cal●b : neither could that thing be any way prevented : for the Word of the Lord stands unchangeable , with whom there is no changeableness , because he is not like unto man herein . Monstrous signs therefore , if they do not prescribe a condition in declaring ( unless Niniveh be converted ) they by nature promise an unavoidable effect . It hath also pleased others , to draw the births of Monsters into the fore-shewing signs of the plague ; even as Cornelius Gemma , concerning his Cosmocriticks or Divine Characters , doth by trifling , patch them together without a foundation . But who is he , who shall either know , or interpret the denoted fore-tokens of Monsters ? For the plague being present , then indeed , and too late , every one draws significations at his own pleasure . And there are some who therefore abhor the coming of unwonted Birds : but that sign either ceaseth to be natural , or that of the Quails fore-going the plague of Israel in the Wilderness , shall cease to be a Miracle : And let this be impious and blasphemous ; but the other impertinent to my purpose . Others interpret this sign for flesh-devouring Birds , for a future plague ; as if they were sent to devour the dead carkasses that were to be inhumed ; according to that saying , Where the carkasses are , thither are the Eagles gathered together . But the Text is not read to be for future dead carkasses , neither to have swallowed them down , seeing they are wont to be most carefully buried before others : For the River Rhoan at sometime carried away the dead carkasses of the plague at Lyons ; but it infected the Citizens beneath them : at leastwise , the Clergy of Lyons declared hereby , that the burial of the dead was to be observed , not so much for the health of the soul , as for the purse . The coming of Birds therefore , living by prey , denotes rather a future defect of their prey in their own Native Provinces , and they should rather denounce by a monstrous sign , a destruction of war , than an imminent plague . But others divine the plague to be from the meeting with unwonted fishes ; to wit , they suppose the waters to be infected with a corrupt defilement , and for this cause , that Sea-monsters do ascend into the waves : surely a ridiculous thing : For if the Sea putrifieth through continuance in its saltness ; what water at length , shall wash away the defilement of the Sea ? or why shall one only Whale wandring out of his road , feel the hurtful poyson of the Sea ? not all in a Shoal , or many together ? Truly , I know that the Sea is not subject to a natural contagion of the Pest , and that the monstrous signs of the Heaven , and Sea , are directed by the same finger , of whose unsearchable judgement they are the Preachers , being declared unto his servants only : For the same Lord is present , as well in the center of the earth , and in the bottom of the Sea , as in the highest top of heaven . Indeed all things do alike equally obey him , except the most ungrateful sinner . But surely , I do rather fear the unwonted raines of blood , of spots , or sparks , and likewise Funerals brought down through the Clouds , mournful sounds heard in the air , as also noises in burying places , &c. which things , seeing they are the admonitions of Divine goodness ; therefore they are to be referred out of Nature , that every one may seasonably look to the Oyl in their own Lamps : For neither therefore do I esteem those monstrous signs to be the works of the Evil Spirit , but against his will. Truly they are freely given , and above Nature ; neither therefore do they belong to my purpose . But Paracelsus , as he had known a singular remedy of the Plague to be in the Toad , and Frogs ; so also he writes , that this is presaged as oft as a great heap of Frogs ariseth into a heap , which is to choak some weak or infirm one ; which being killed , it afterwards assaulteth another , until the number being thus diminished by degrees , every one at length particularly runs away : which things , if they thus naturally happen ; as they prepare a remedy for the plague to come , so also they denote it : For out of a Gaul , even as also from an apple drawn out of Oaken leaves , they write , that for the most part , three small living creatures are drawn ; to wit , if it contain a Spider , th●● will have it portend the Pest ; if a Fly , War : but if a creeping Animal , that it fore-sheweth Famine . But seeing one of the three at least , is found every year enclosed therein , if not two , or all of them and yet , one of those punishments doth not continually follow ; therefore I refer such predictions among old Wives Fables . I therefore judge , that these kind of Insects do denounce the difference of the Leffas in the Oak ( Leffas is the nourishable juice of plants ) so as that a worm denotes the aforesaid nourishment to be putrified through continuance ; but a Spider , a poyson to be moreover adjoyned to that putrefaction : and therefore , as it were a connexed and co-touching Spider is every where almost in the whole compass of the earth ; the which being in the Oak , portends not any thing out of the tree ; especially because in the neighbouring and co-planted trees , nor also seldom in the fruits of the same Oak , those divers Insects are beheld at once , in the same Summer : Yet I do not remember that I have found a Spider and also a Fly , at once , in the same Oak : although a Fly indeed , and a Worm , also a Worm and a Spider : But far be it from a Christian to prophesie from Oak , and Terpentine , for that is read to be forbidden by the Lo●d , with cruel threatnings . But as oft as a new and rare stink of Caves accompanies an Earthquake , or an unaccustomed stink happens in L●kes , then endemi●al signs have occasional powers . These things of a future plague . But as to what concerns a plague being present , truly I could never by the pulse or urine , even although it were distilled , know the plague to be present . Paracelsus indeed , ridiculously enough , numbers it among the diseases of the Liver , and among Tartarous ones , even as elsewhere in a Treatise , and in overthrowing the fiction of Tartars , I have profesly prosecuted . This man attributes an unnamed pulse to the Pest , which he calls a fourth : But I , although I have seriously and often heeded ; yet I acknowledge my own unaptness , that I never found such a pulse : But I have well noted about the end of life , an unequally inordinate creeping , and at length , an intermitting pulse : But I have never found a fourth , or a sixth pulse diverse from the rest , from a peculiar bewraying of the plague , but a pestilent pulse different from continual malignant Fevers , hath never offered it self unto me . The urine therefore , and the pulse , have never , according to my unskilfulness , discovered the plague : yea , while I more narrowly rowled over the writings of Paracelsus , I knew that he was never present with one infected with , or about to die of the plague . In the mean time , the judgement of the plague , loads the conscience , as well in respect of the party afflicted , as of the family of the same ; because the Pest doth by a certain similitude , resemble a Pretor or chief Officer in a crime , who requires a loss both of life and go●ds : and so , a rash judgement of the Pest contains a crime : For to have known the plague by the shape of an unwonted Fever , may be easie to another ; surely unto me , it hath been very difficult . Thou wilt say , the Pest is with a Fever and headach ; but that is f●miliar unto other Fevers : Vomiting , and the drowsie evil doth oft-times accompany the plague ; but that is not altogether unwonted elsewhere : There are in the Pest , Buboes in the groyn , Parotides or little Bladders behind the ears ; those signs are not unfrequently proper to Fevers that are free from the plague : There are also black spots in the plague , the which I have seen in women that have been strangled by their womb : There is also a Purple Fever , and likewise leaden Pustules or Wheals , without the Pest : as also a Carbuncle doth oftentimes happen without the plague : But as oft as many of those signs do concur , there is no difficult judgement concerning the Pest : for a Bubo in the groyn , little bladders , or spots , from the beginning , before much cruelty of the plague , do denounce the plague : So also a Carbuncle , or Bubo , and a very small tumour , is far more painful in the pest , than any where else , and they are present almost before the increase of the Fever , and they prevent the suspition that they sprang from the Fever ; so that those miseries of the skin , do go before in the Pest , which in other Fevers happen more late , as it were , the products thereof : a pestilent Bubo , being as yet small , persently and out of hand , existeth as cruel , without pain of the member , and lessening of the Fever , and paineth greatly . But if a Bubo issue forth after a fore-going pain of the member , it carries the judgement of an unfit remedy : Therefore , they are the ordinary signs of the Pest , being already entertained , if before , or presently after the beginning of the Fever , a Glandule , Parotis behind the ear , Carbuncle , Bladder , Pustule , or spot , shall suddenly invade , and that with the greatest pain : For in other Fevers they do not so notably pain : the place indeed is red , and swells before the malady be bred , which hath not it self in such a manner in the plague : And the Pest is confirmed by vomiting , by an excelling pain of the head , by a deep drowsiness , by a doating delusion , and by a dejected appetite , if they shall suddenly invade . For the Pest that comes unto one from far , being drawn in through a contracting of the poyson , enters as it were the pain of a pricking Bodkin , and presently , with the greatest pain , marks the part which it strikes , with a swelling , with a wheal , with a little bladder , or with a spot : Even as also , that which enters in by an odour , strikes the stomach and head with a suddain pain , or sleepi●ying anguish ; or stirs up the stomach it self , as it were a spur , unto vomiting : But if it springs from an internal poyson , it hath a fore-going Fever , upon which some of the aforesaid signs do straightway succeed : But that Pest which invades from a snatched terrour , is speedy , and is discerned by the testimony of the sick : But that which hath arisen from some k●nd of terrour of the Archeus , but not of the man , and which lurks in the Tartar of the blood , is indeed , in a deg●ee unto the plague , and breaks forth more slowly than is wont , and is easily overcome unlesse the negligence of the sick shall hinder ; yet its delay is the longer in the journey : for , for the most part , the accompanying signs of the Pest are known timely enough , that the remedy which shall be prompt , and which shall be peremptory , may rightly perform its office . Nevertheless it should be my wish , to know the Pest in its making : For that which produceth its signates only after death , takes away a great number from amongst us , and destroys many families ; because it hath already become mortal , before it makes it self manifest , or be known ; because it hath first finished its task , with the hicket , fainting , and an Escharre in some Noble place : For they call this , the Tragedy of one day ; therefore a Diary or Ephemeral Fever : Not that the Pest hath the Spirit of Life for its proper seat , although there was never any plague which hath not also infected the Archeus ; and so also , by that title , every plague ought always to be a Diary Fever : But whatsoever of the Archeus is conquered by the Pest , that consequently is by and by separated by that vital Archeus . At length , that also brings most speedy death , which besieged the Archeus of some bowel ; because the birds of death do continually fly from thence , which trample the rest of the Archeus under their feet : For I wish , and wish again , that we may not know the Pest too late , nor from the event : For a speedy death , although it may produce its own signs , yet it rather profits for the future , but nothing , those that are gone and past . For some , to this end , anoint the soals of the feet with fresh Lard , they apply a Puppy , which if he lick , they perswade themselves , that the chance is free from the plague : But others heat a piece of Lard at the feet of the sick party , and cherish it for sometime under his arm-pits , or in his groyn , and they say , that this will not be devoured by a dog , if the plague be present , which thing deserves no credit : for the plague of man shakes not dogs , nor makes them nauseous : For truly as well dogs , as Wolves , do without punishment , devoure the dead carkasses that are not wel enough buried ; as also Pies , and likewise Ravens . Perhaps indeed , an hungry dog will not eat that La●d which was rub'd on the feet of his Master , because it smells of his Master , whom he dares not bite . But the Germans call the root of the herb Butterburre , or the g●eater Colts-foot , the Pestilential root ; because as the Pest displays it self before a fore-shewing sign ; so the Butterburre sends forth its flowres before its leaves . The Pest also propagates it self , not so much by a seed , as by an Archeal root . They also relate , that a Saphire of a deep Sky-colour , or Citron-coloured Jacinth , if it abide upon the painful member for a quarter of an hours space , so as that the light from the opposite part of the Gem , strikes the infected place , and there collects its beams , that the place touched on , will wax black and blew within a quarter of an hour , and that it is an infallible token of the plague : But if the place shall in no wise assume a more wan colour , that the sick person is free from the plague . But I have always in doubtful cases , made use of a powdered Toad , and that boiled in a very small quantity of simple water , in the form of a Poultess ; whereby , if presently after , the pain in the Escharre , Carbuncle , or Bubo in the groyn , waxed mild , I safely conjectured that the plague was present . For I sometimes beholding a [ Mass ] of Prelates and Abbots , and their fingers to be adorned with precious stones , I conjectured , that they were in times past , obliged to visit those that were infected with the plague : But that now also , the Gems of Gems are born about , their use being neglected and unknown , the which I do conjecture . CHAP. XVI . The Preservation . PReservatives according to the Ancients , are two-fold : For some ought to hinder the plague to come ; others also the plague being present , that it proceed not to cut down : But for the former , they have devised as well Amulets or Pomanders without , as Antidotes within . But since the Schools have been ignorant of the very essential thinglinesse of the poyson ; and indeed , that every Pest whether it shall be brought to us from without , or next , shall be bred within , presupposeth the image of a poysonsom terrour ; therefore proper preservatives have never been known from a foundation . Therefore among preservatives , I consider , 1. Least the spirit of the Archeus do conceive a terrour in us , or that from a terrour he do not produce a terrifying poyson on himself , or one brought on him within from else-where . 2. That a fermental and co-resembling mummie being brought to us from without , doth not infect the Archeus the internal ruler of our mummie . 3. That whatsoever hath already in contagion become a partaker of the mummie , be killed , and departeth : Therefore the least co-resemblance which it hath common with us , is to be taken away : Wherefore some light poyson is alwayes wont to admix it self with every Antidote ; to wit , that hereby the application and approximation may be taken away , that the Archeus may be preserved free from contagion , or that he fall not down into the mumial nourishment , and from thence frame a Tartar of the bloud to himself . In this last patronage of safeguard , antiquity hath been wholly vigilant , but it hath not been incumbent about others , because they were unknown : Although this last preservation hath therefore become uncertain and without fruit ; because it hath rather respected the latter product , or seat , than the root or chief cause : when as in the mean time , a preservation from the effect , fore-going conditions being supposed , is fore-stalled as being in vain . Therefore if we must treat of preservatives and antidotes to expel the poyson , as is meet , what things I have already explained concerning the causes , processe , and manner of making the plague , ought to be firmly fixed in our mind . The Pest therefore either enters from without , and marks the place of its entrance from without , because it primarily affecteth it , or is attracted with the breath , and there passeth thorow the Diaphragma or midriff , and causeth a pressure and perplexities upon the very bought of the stomach ; and in the same place cloaths the matter , which soon exhales from thence , and becomes infamous in contagion : And seeing that in nature every agent hath its beginning , increase , state , declining , and at length death , it must needs be likewise , that by how much the longer of continuance , and powerful , the corruption shall be , by so much also the more dangerous or destructive it be rendred : For the Pest beginning , is increased with the diminishment and death of the man. For I a good while believed that every curative remedy of the plague was also of necessity the preservative of the same , because it is accounted a more easie thing to be preserved , than to be cured ; Or whatsoever it performeth in the same kind , which is the more difficult , that it should also willingly do that which is more easie : Wherefore I was greatly occupied in times past , with the care of diligently searching into medicines for expelling of the poyson , to wit , whereon the whole satisfaction of my desire then depended . But afterwards I diverted my mind to another belief , and considered that healing remedies had rather regard unto the extraction , or expulsion of the malady ; and that such remedies had not place in preservatives for the future ; To wit , seeing that which as yet is not , cannot also as yet be expelled , or extracted , yea not so much as extinguished : For truly , first of all , a remedy against the terrour of the man imagining , or of the Archeus , is not in it self so much positive as negative ; and so the drinking of pure wine , even unto mirth , preserveth for the future ; because it so rules the imagination not onely of the man , but of the Archeus , that the power of forming images perisheth : For so no man is poor or defectuous , as long as he is cheerful from a drinking of wine : And therefore the holy Scriptures declare , that wine was made for cheerfulnesse , but not for drunkennesse ; because it is a powerful preservative : So that although the sturdinesse of a man excludeth the terrours from the imaginaion of the man ; yet a manly animosity cannot take away the terrour of the imagining Archeus : for the aforesaid animosity or sturdinesse of mind , admits of a combate from a contrary opinion of the Archeus : but mirth or cheerfulnesse introduced by such drink , neither admits of , nor acknowledgeth an enemy , as neither doth it undergo a strife , but excludeth them : But an exhilerating draught is more fit for the Pest to come , than for it being present : Therefore I grant also , that the preservative , and curative remedies for the plague as being present , are of the same company and intention , but not for a future one ; yet so , that preservatives of the plague as being present , do not serve , but in the making of its increase , but not in its product being made ; because of that which is corrupted , there are no longer preservatives , but onely healing remedies by extirpation . We must not therefore believe that bad Antidotes , although they were the most potent poysons , could drive away the terrour , as neither the pestilent effect of the terrour ; For truly the poyson of the pestilence is irregular and different from other poysons in this , that it issues from the terrour of the Archeus , as it were fire out of a flint : For if the Archeus being terrified , yield up the field , verily the body ( which being considered in it self , is a meer dead Carcasse ) cannot receive comfort . Furthermore , if the Archeus be so considered to retire , that a poyson enters in his place , and in this respect shall supplant the Archeus himself ; how shall sweet odours and incenses prevent the poyson , especially if the very excellentest of sweet smels , are also capable of receiving a pestilent contagion ? Therefore let it be a part of Christian piety and compassion , studiously to contemplate with me , how blockishly and unexactly so many Simples have been heaped up together for preserving , and curing ; and how much their unfaithful succours have deluded ten thousands of men , and their expectations ; because they have every where mocked mankind in a true remedy , by reason of the grosse ignorance of causes : For indeed a curative remedy of the plague being present , presupposeth that which a preservative remedy prevents for the future : Therefore a proper curative remedy is convenient onely , as by slaying of the product ( which is the pestilent poyson it self ) it annihilates it in the matter wherein it resides : In the next place also , another curative remedy being conjoyned with it , is employed in expelling the subject of the poyson it self , which is to be attempted by-sweat : Moreover , a third is that which takes away and lessens the co-suiting of causes unto their products , the which also hath in it the nature of a preservative . The Pest therefore which is drawn in from without , from an infected body , garment , or place , hath indeed in it , an absolute and formal pestilent poyson , which presupposeth not a fore-existing fermental putrefaction , and therefore it suddenly invadeth with no fore-going complaints , and it utters future signes , but onely it hath need of an appropriation ; which kind of preserving in making of the Pest , a rectifying of the air , familiar to Hipocrates , conteineth ( of which in its own place ) no otherwise than as in a popular plague ; To wit , that the poyson it self in the air may be killed , and the air also , originally so disposed , that it suffers not the nourishable humour to be mumially corrupted , or to snatch unto it a fermental putrefaction . These things of a remedy for the future . Otherwise , when as the pestilent poyson is now received within , it lurketh , and is unknown , and also is fitted and sealed in the Archeus ; and that by reason of the singular swiftnesse of its poyson : But then , defensive remedies alone do come too late , unlesse they are also healing ones . First therefore every cure of preserving , is busied , that the body may be always actually hot , and kept in transpiration , and that the mind may be disposed unto a cheerfulnesse opposite to terrour ; even as I have already before cited concerning wine out of the holy Scriptures : But what thou readest concerning the rectifying of the infected air , it hath respect not so much unto the air , as to the points thereof , to wit , in whose vacuities or hollow empty spaces , the vapour of contagion sits or floats . Furthermore , those remedies which take away a putrefaction through continuance , and poyson out of the air , but terrour out of the mind , and lastly , mumial co-fittings or suitable coniunctions out of the body , these are preservatives : For the perfumes or suffumigations of Hipocrates , freeth not onely the encompassing air , but also the air that is attracted inwards , yea , and the co-agulated vapour from the poyson , and together also from a fermental putrefaction , no lesse then as it hinders the mumi●l ferment from being applyed ; to which ends also , Antidotes , Zenextons or external preservative Pomanders do conduce , which are able to kill the image of terrour , and pestilent poyson , in the proper subject of the vapour , or Tartar of the bloud ; and in this respect also , to divert and hinder the terrour of the Archeus . But if indeed the Pest be conceived by a proper errour within , other preservatives are required , than when as we must live about infected places , or persons : But the plague being formed , moves the same to go with a speedy course in a retrograde order , from a poyson formed , unto a corruptive vapour : Therefore also neither are amulets or preservative pomanders occupied about an inferiour and remote preparation of the pestilent matter that is to be averted ; but for the overcoming of the formal and ultimate poyson , and suiting of the Archeus with the Tartar of the bloud , in the one extream , and in the other , with the poyson drawn in : And so an amulet keeps a curative betokening in preserving ; yet it is excedeed by a curative remedy in this , that healing remedies ought not onely to kill the poyson ; but also to thrust it out by sweat : Indeed both betokenings ought to concut in curative remedies : For othe●wise , in vain doth the body flow down with much moisture of sweat , if the Tartar of the bloud be not resolved , but is rather continued by the continued terrour of the Archeus . Truly the causes , as well the constitutive , as the occasional one , being known , afterwards the indication o● betokening of things to be done , coariseth onely by the conduct of reason : For if a fermental putrefaction hath given a beginning unto , and caused the first disposition of the matter , places putrified through continuance , as also nourishments easily putrifying , are to be avoided . An open air is healthful to healthy persons , because it hath the power of an elementary consuming ; but the air as it is such , doth no lesse obey contagion , than other bodies , and it conteineth in its own Magnal of the air , as it hath hollow po●es , the whole conta●ion ; the which at length by pining away in the same place , doth for the most part die , not but of its own accord , in the space of 40 dayes ; and by an elementary power is spoyled of the poysonous seed of a ferment : For the seeds of things conceived , do by little and little decay in the air , as they being shut up in the hollow places of the air , as it were in wombs , do return to the last disposition of corruption , and the first generation of watery matters . All sorrowful things also , are to be removed , not onely because they are near unto fear and terrour , but especially because they do forthwith produce a sensible fermental putrefaction ( the mother of sighs ) about the mouth of the stomach . The places therefore , and objects of a sorrowful remembrance , as also such fellowships , are to be avoided , no lesse than sorrowful messages , and discourses of History : Exhilerating Wines are to be drunk , as also the more strong Ales or Beers ; because that by causing carelessenesses and animosities , they shake off grief , and terrours : But the cold air and winds hurt those that are infected , yea that are fearful and sorrowful after any manner , or whatsoever is opposite to exhalation and sweat : A washed house doth now and then indeed take away the fermental put●efaction and contagion ; and the wa●ery vapour hurts those that are infected ; therefore it were first to be dried . Forty dayes shutting up , although they may increase the fermental putrefaction ; yet they take away the pestilent poyson , as it perisheth of its own accord in that space of time : Perhaps therefore custom hath brought over those Quarentanies or forty dayes enclosures , for any renovation whatsoever : For although swimming , or cutting of a vein , may seem to diminish the fermental putrefaction ; yet seeing nature hath laid up the bloud for her treasure ; it follows , that as oft as she shall perceive the bloud of the veins to be taken away , the Archeus as it were fearing treachery , is disposed unto terrour , and draws the rest of the bloud inward to himself , and by consequence also , it calls the pestilent poyson together with it , into the inner chamber ; which motion is diamentral with , or directly opposite to sweat : And therefore , let as well the cutting of a vein , as swimming , be destructiue ; also all loose solving of the belly is to be avoided ; because so , the more crude bloud of the meseraick veins is made to putrifie through the ferment of the solutive m●dicine ( even as elsewhere in the book of Fevers ) to wit , at the evacuation whereof , the meseraick veins do ●etch back bloud out of the hollow vein , and this out of the small branching veins of the body ; which motion is diametrically opposite to the curing of the plague . Those things which I have ●i●herto spoken , are of the number of negative preservations , or they are admonitory rules of things to be avoided , which rules do not , yet , contain health . But among positive preservatiues , Amulets challenge the first place to themselves , which obtain a proper faculty , whether it be for killing of the poyson , or else for preventing of the mumial appropriation of the Archeus : Both of them indeed are curative in the making of the Pest . Next a sudoriferous one follows , which is a rooter out of the plague , and of its seat , by washing off . Again , the Archeus being grieved and affrighted , straightway betakes himself inwards , fleeth as it were to his Castle , begets sorrow and sighings , and the enemy being received within , increaseth venemous perplexities : Therefore he is to be called forth unto delights , and by sudotiferous medicines : For sudoriferous or sweat-provoking remedies , are all of the same intention , and almost of the same weight , but at leastwise they differ in the degree of goodnesse . In the next place , in an Antidote being adjoyned , I praise the potion of Hyppocrates , whereunto I adde Ginger , and the black berries of Ivy ; because they are Diaphoreticks which are acceptable to the stomach . Also antidotes are to be given in generous or rich wine , and that presently after food , not indeed so much that the sick party may sweat , as that his body may be kept in transpiration : But let the food be light , and little ; for in every fever , and rather in the plague , digesti on faileth ; therefore let the more pure drink supply the room of the more large food : For pure or unmixt wine excludeth fear , cares , sorrow , and terrour ; And therefore also the chief preservative is establ●shed in confidence . Indeed I do not here speak of Christian faith or confidence ( although in Spirituals , there is every where matter of great moment ) for they also who lay down their life for the sheep , do now and then die of the plague , other carelesse persons remaining safe : For their confidence hath either a defective rottennesse within , or some other obstacle ; The Lord not working miracles , but for his hidden Judgments . The faith or confidence therefore , of which I speak in this place , is the natural mean of animosiry or stoutnesse of mind , fighting against , and strongly resi●ting terrour ; neither is that faith positive I believe , but altogether negative , not abhorring , not fearing , yea neither therefore believing that he shall be infected : For as a pestiferous terrour hath a suspitious and fearful faith annexed unto it , that they have lately conceived something of contagion , or do feel a murmuring about the mouth of their stomach ; so the preservation thereof is a a belief that they have conceived nothing : neither therefore is it sufficient that the confidence be not terrifying ( which is a mean between terrour and animosity ) but it is required that it be operative , by not believing that they shall be insected : And that not by an inducement of reason , but altogether by a free power of animosity , and the meer mother of confidence : otherwise , children and mad-folks , although they have conceived no terrour , yet they oftentimes perish by the plague , for want of an operating confidence , which frames a preservative ot it self : For not to believe that one shall be infected , works far more strongly than the presumption of fear , not onely because a negative destroys more strongly than an affirmative builds up ; but because it together therewith , contains a privation , which is stronger than every positive : For we are those who proceed from an infinite nothing , and therefore our nature doth more strongly apprehend nothing , than something itself , from whence also it obtaineth rest to it self ; even as is to be seen in negative Syllogisms , wherein the conclusion follows the negative , and forsakes also a particular affirmative connexed with it , that it may bring it self into quietnesse by a denial . For truly , the understanding being now degenerate , and naturally distrusting it self , in understanding [ this something ] of things , had always rather lay down in not knowing , or not being able to know : And that is the cause of fluggishness in Sciences : Therefore the belief requisite in terrour , for preserving , is positive , and therefore it ought effectively , actually , and ●fficiently to stand ; although with hope it concludeth negatively from the weaker part . A good man , in readily serving those that are infected with contagion , if by reason of the piety of his work , he hopeth and trusteth more in the goodnesse of the work , or of desert , than in a free valiant confidence on God , he hath a faith con-joyned with hope , and it includes an agony of fear and terrour : Therefore he naturally undergoes an infection , unless he be preserved from elsewhere . But the confidence of this place is drawn , not so much from Saff●on , or the exhilarating things of boasters , as from the cheerful drink of the more pure wine . Women with child , also women in child-bed , or menstruous women , because they are then more restrained under the command of their womb , than under the conduct of the universal Archeus , therefore they are the more dangerously oppressed with the Pest : For truly , the Archeus of the womb doth no way obey reason , or confidence , which is wholly vexed with confusion , and a sorrowful troop of disturbances : Therefore the womb is to be comforted with the oyl of Amber , and with Amber dissolved in the best spirit of wine , and with the suffumigation of the warts of the shanks of a horse , being beaten to powder in a mortar . CHAP. XVII . Zenexton , that is a preservative pomander against the Pest. VVHich confidence , as it were the principal pledge of animosity , and mean of preservation , that the Schools might stir up , the succours of idols , purging sacrifices , and exceeding mad Idolatries have been Antiently devised : Things also were hung on the body , and carried about from without , which afterwards , in every religion were accounted for holy things , and the which , were even falsly believed by an hidden ( because an unknown ) goodness , to repel terrour , and sorrow . A Zenexton therefore , seeing it hath for the most part , been devised for prevention of the plague , and doth also compleate a part of the cure ; therefore it deserves a singular consideration . For Physitians have described diverse such preservatives , according to the desire of every one , that they might readily serve for a comfort to the sick , while themselves were fugitive helpers : They decree also , that Amulets are to be hung on the body , the which , although for the most part , they could have nothing of virtues , at leastwise that they may from a ruinous foundation , perswade others unto animosity ; to wit , unto a be lief , hope , or some kind of confidence : For the Pagans at first commanded the Images and Statues of their Deasters or starry Gods , to be carried about the sick : and then they came unto characters , words . seals or tokens , and to the Talismanicks of Gamah●u . Afterwards the first Monks of the Christians , offered labels , and things to be hung about the neck , against the plague : and from that foundation , they perswaded the vulgar , to believe that the Pest was a stroak immediately sent from God. I meditate therefore , that every natural work ought in nature , to follow its own means , as oft as all things requisite for operation are present : Therefore I enquire in this place , into the fixed , firm roots , into the necessary and ordinary causes , for the obtayning of the effects correlative to such causes . Others therefore interpreting the Plague to be a punishment , have proposed unto people , unutterable names , writings , signates guarded with meer vanities , also polluted with unsignificant words , in bearing them about ; whereunto perhaps , they have joyned a verse of David , of Salomon , or of some Prophet . But Paracelsus laughing at these vanities , devised other greater ones , especially those adorned with two characterisms ; yea and with lying seales ; and he again consents to those , which elsewhere , he derided with much Taunting : But I have at sometime frequently noted , a sometimes ready sliding into hypochondrial madnesse , from these superstitions : Besides these , there are some who forsaking divine names , do commend figures , lines , characters , words , the figures of numbers , and according to the pleasure of Astronomers , the feigned seals of the planets ( to wit , the errours of the wandring stars ) under the name of Pythagoras , of Salomon the Jew , or some other , they hitherto attributing more to the toyes of the heathen than to any sacred imprecations : For if happily any one who had saluted him that had the Pestilence afar of , and had remained free from contagion , he now being the Authour of trifles , had made it his priviledg of deceiving two thousand people afterwards by his toyes : For truly , I have taught there is no Astral thing that in the Pest , as well in the manner of its making , as of its curing : For I alwayes reject unfaithful , triflous means , and especially those which are unlawful ; because none that leans upon a Staffe half broken , is preserved from falling , unlesse it be by chance : For although the terrour of the man be put off by vain remedies ) which otherwise infants want ) yet they are not therefore deprived of the terrour of the Archeus : Indeed they exclude onely the effect of faith privatively , when very much , and that onely for a little space , and they oft-times forsake their own confiders : for why , since they are known to be of no power . For Paracelsus always made an heightned imagination , and strong confidence of great account ; the which when as he floating as loose and frivolous , I found to be founded on the sand , I could dot approve of , and that follies do contain a succour of preserving from the plague . Paracelsus scarce trusting in mental trifles , converts himself unto a Zenexton , which would undoubtedly preserve him that carried it about him , from the Pest : But since he describeth not that preservative Pomander for the City of Stertzing that had been bountiful unto him , right would make us to conjecture , whether as ungrateful , he deceived that City , or whether indeed , he were ignorant of that Zenexton . Surely a remedy is in no wise to be hidden from mortals , in so great a destruction ; especially , from whence he might hope to deserve honour to himself among those that are present , and all posterity . Men have been diversly mad about this thing ; for every one hath pers●aded himself that he hath catched the boasted of Zenexton of Paracelsus , by the ears ; and that thing hath so greatly pleased mortal men , that thenceforth they have exchanged names , the Amulet of the Greeks , with the barbarous name of Zenexton : for very many have carried Arsenick , Orpiment , Quick-silver , yea and Mercury sublimate , and such like poysons of the veins about their neck , or the pulses of their veins ; no otherwise than as if the Plague , and Lice were chased away by one and the same remedy , But these kind of inventions being brought unto us out of Italy , which is fruitful in presumption , jugling deceits , and subtilties , we strangers do adore and follow : For as p●sterity willingly boasteth , that it hath drawn the first rudiments of discursive Sciences from the Greeks ; So also , it hath hoped to learn the properties of poysons more readily from none , for the varieties , enlargements , and maskings of death , than from a Nation frequently imploring the help of poysons ; for it hath believed , and falsly perswaded it self , that to hand forth poysons , and to cure the Pest , had a neer affini●y : Therefore our Physitians returning from Padua , with worship and reverence toward their Professors there , some opinionating these men for their great learning , have hung Quick-silver enclosed in the shell of a Filberd Nut , about their neck , and they supposed that they were safe , whom , when others saw to die , they married the former Quick-silver unto Arsenick , a Spider or Scorpion being added thereunto ; some whereof , inscribed sacred words on Tro●hies prepared thereof ; that if one should the less successfully profit , the other at least might help . But I have seen in the Camps of Ostend , nigh the shoar , many thousands of men with such a Zenexton , the plague being removed ; yea , and those who for every fifteen daies , embladdered their ribs by Trochies of Arsenick enclosed in fine ●●nnen bags ; and those are the medicinal Tragedies , the final periods of an Italian Imposture . Moreover , the Jews and Heathens , to wit , these from ignorance , but the other from a sworn enmity against us , do sell roots at a dear rate , to be born about by us that are rash of belief , as being deluded by a hope ; and they feign that first Moses , and afterwards Solomon , successively delivered those secrets by the Cabal , delivered unto their Fathers the Rabbi●s : As wicked Josephus himself , in his eighth book of the Jewish Antiquities , Chap. 2. notably feigneth , concerning so many thousand books of Enchantments described by Solomon , no otherwise than as he malignantly concealeth the death of the little innocent Babes under Herod . Lastly , our Physitians , after that they beholding the disproportion of events , and promises , described sweet perfumes , and grateful odours , in apples , powders , and bolsters , and sponges continually smelling before their nostrils , they hoped that they should strain the air of the Pest as it were thorow a Sieve , from the exhalation of the Spices , and so should kill or correct the poyson with the odour that was plausible unto them : as if the poyson should cease to be filled with the Spic●ness , and should not enter the more fully , with the grateful odour its companion , and as if sweet smelling things themselves were not subject to contagion ; as though Arserick , or Wolfs-bane , being married to Ambergrease , should cease to hurt ! as if the most odoriferous wines should not be presently defiled with a hoary putrified Hogshead ! at leastwise I gratulate my own soul , that it hath never been ensnared with such childish delusions . Wherefore , an Amulet is founded not indeed in an excited imagination , or belief ( because they are those , which are the expert souldiers of another Monatchy ) but altogether in an actual endowment conferred on things by the Creator . First of all therefore , it is manifest from the premises , that sweet smelling things , gold , gems , Christal , and whatsoever things are able to draw an odour , are able also , by the same Law , to be defiled with the Pest : Not indeed , that I do altogether despise the medicines of the same not being infected ; far be it : For it is one thing to dispute , whether any thing be capable of receiving contagion ; and a far different thing , whether any thing can help those that are infected : for I have taught , that wine doth preserve from a future contagion , which otherwise , is in it self so defileable , that it brings the plague only by its touching , and drinking : But in a Zenexton , there is altogether another method , condition , and property required : for a preservative Amulet requires , that in it self it be wholly undefileable , if it ought to preserve for the future : and it is distinguished from other preservatives by that condition , from whence indeed it is known , what sort of Zenexton is to be chosen , and what kind thereof is unfaithful ; the which I desire that thou thus understand : The Pest of Oxen is not that of dogs , or of falcons , and none of these is that of men ; Yet the skins , or fleshes of bruits may be defiled with our Plague , as that they may be pestiferous contagions unto us , although not unto them ; Because the pest infecteth in an appropriation , or mumial co-resemblance : Although the plagues of the last times shall take away from amongst us , not onely men , four-footed beasts , birds , and fishes , but also trees ; and therefore they shall be of another and more cruel disposition than modern plagues , which issue out of the bosome of nature : and likewise we are instructed by the aforesaid particulars , that the Archeus of man , and of all bruits , have now and then alike dreadful fears , and that the characters or impressions of these , are formed into a pestilent poyson , or poysonous idea ; whence it manifestly enough appeareth , that the plague is not a poyson alike with others ; For truly wolfs-bane , the viper , &c. do kill oxen as well as men . Therefore in beginning our Zenexton or preservative pomander from stones ; The Saphyre of a deep skie colour , and the Jacynth full of a yellow golden colour , if it be leisurely rouled into a circle about a Bubo in the groyn , and a pestilent Eschar , by drawingly bringing it about from the region of the Sun , or light , it causeth , that the same circle do afterwards become black , and that the rest of the poyson doth exhale out that way , as it were through a chymney . Also if there are more glandulous knobs elsewhere , yet these do settle down , and perish together , and do follow at the departure of the drawn poyson : but I prefer the saphyr before the jacynth ; For neither is a saphyre in vain read to have been in the breast-plate of the Priest , and the jacynth to have been excluded : For a Zenexton was anciently , alwaies attributed to precious stones , and heathenism soon ingraved figures , numbers , and characters thereon : but since gems were not for the poor , for whom notwithstanding the vast goodnesse foreseeth with a large showre before the rich , and hath offered himself freely to be the father of the poore , I am not easily induced to believe , that these Gems are the true Zenexton of the plague . A Chirurgion of Spain , whose Sir-name was Guardiola , being chief Chirurgion of the Hospital of those that were infected in the siege of Ostend , shewed me a piece of red Amber , which he said had been his one onely preservative amulet for full three years space : The secret whereof was , to wit , that it had been rubbed on the seven principal pulses , even unto a heat , namely , on both the Temples of his head , on his wrists , ancles , and on his left pap : At leastwise , I saw him to have been alwaies preserved , his other co-assistants being taken out of the way : But the Pest was on a sandy shoare , and that for the most part molested with a windy skie , and with colds being exceeding destructive and cruel : But that which I find to be in amber , is not altogether to be despised : first of all there is in it an attractive faculty manifested and stirred up by rubbing on the place : and then , amber , although it be in it self transparent and gummy , yet it is the lesse strictly closed , and therefore is the more easily moved and altered by our heat . Again , neither hath amber a limited power of drawing , such as the loadstone hath , which allureth iron , and not copper unto it self ; but a general one , and that without choice , so that which is drawn be light : Indeed it is sufficient for drawing of the pestilent air , and poyson , if it shall draw any light bodies whatsoever unto it self . The signate or token therefore of this attraction , denoteth a preservative external remedy founded in nature ; and so much the more strongly , if it hath obtained an appropriation with a mumial ferment : For so I have oftentimes seen , that by amber dissolved in the spirit of wine , cures of poysoned wounds have been wrought , they being otherwise altogether desperate ; Yea , even as amber dissolveth not , being co-melted with other rosins , or fat ( which denotes some singular thing to be homebred in it ) surely it demonstrates that the strange fable , and tumult of Phaeton , and that the name of Electrum or choice remedy , hath not vainly been co-incident unto it . Let him laugh who will at the rubbings of amber on our pulses ; let him run back unto magnum oportet , and at least he shall admire at the rubbings of apples for the abolishment of warts , not without fruit : For truly , if a towel being rub'd on a pestilent Bubo , doth snatch to it , and propagate the contagion ; why may not also frictions or rubbings for a good end , bring a mumial co-suiting of disposition ? who , I pray you , may not suspect amber that is rub'd on a pestilential emunctory : and if the poyson , why also by a like processe , is he not , at least in doubt , that it hath contracted a mumial co-resemblance ? For I remember that cheese being carried about under the a●mpit , and swallowed by a dog , it served instead of a snare or bait , and that he so left his own Master , that he believed him to be carr●ed away by a stranger in a ship . Truly if brui● beasts , will they , nill they , do feel this limitation of the mummy , and do obey it , yet they enjoy a much more free choice , than those things which from an Archeal conception , fall under a Zenexton ; I see not why it shall be wickednesse , to have attributed the same limitation unto Amber : For it is a thing that grows unto admiration , being in times past brought unto us for the rosin of a tree ; at length being believed by others to be a mineral : yet is it sweat out of the Danish sea : At leastwise nothing is more acceptable to the stomach , bowels , sinews , yea , and to the brain , than amber being dissolved in the spirit of wine . Cease thou therefore to wonder , that so singular an increaser , being also endowed with so singular a comfortative and preservative faculty , and signed with so singular and attractive a faculty , is able to root out the Pest from our places and members , for the comforting whereof , it grows by a singular goodnesse of divine providence : For neither doth it favour of all unlikelihood of truth , that amber doth by rubbing , attract an odour , by reason whereof , it is rather appropriated to this individual than the other : For it is plainly a porous and volatile Gum , and therefore the receiver of a mumial odour , which ●t received by rubbing : For I have known a method , whereby the virtue of an herb , and animal , is imprinted on precious stones ; and so that however exactly they are washed afterwards , yet the imprinted faculty remains resident and safe : For a yellow Topaz , as through a moderate heat of ashe● , it loos●th its yellownesse ; so by the heat of the Sun it recovereth the yellownesse which it had lost in the ashes , through the same degree of heat . Red Co●al , by rubbing it on a woman that is sick of her womb , contracteth a remaining paleness ; but if it be rubbed on the flesh of a healthy woman , it recovers the ancient rednesse of its brightness . In the next place , glasses ( the most closed or shut up of solid bodies ) wherein the essences or Magisteries of Civet , &c. had been ; I have seen to have kept those forreign odours after repeated and tedious washings ; yea , and a glasse , so to have kept the attractive power of a loadstone , because a magistery of the loadstone had been framed in it . If therefore such things are wrought in a glasse , why not also in amber ? which by reason of its porous and volatile matter , hath it self in manner of a hogshead , which being new , reserves the odour that once seasoned it . Therefore it 's no wonder if amber retain seasoning odours , especially if it be born about by the same person , whose mumial exhalations it received by friction . Nor also is it of much concernment , if it divorceth the testimonies of the nostrils : For we also do not discern by a footstep , whose footstep it may be . For if the holy Scripture do commend a great virtue in stones ; they do not understand that , of dissolved stones ( for the art of resolving them was not as yet then commonly made known ) not of the powders of Stones being drunk ; the virtue whereof , being not co-mixed with the dungs , but for a little while , slides away in passing thorow the body . Therefore the speech is of entire stones , which ought to be as well the attractives , as the expulsives of the malady , and therefore their virtue is commendable for a Zenexton . If therefore a stone hath great virtue for the use of man , and the hardest of precious stones themselves , are by the testimony of the wise man , fruitful in virtue ; that must needs happen , by beaming into the body , which they touch at , well nigh , like unto the stars : and therefore also , amber , through its irradiating transparency , and a more inclining obedience of effluxing , shall in no wise be more sluggish than gems : and the faculty thereof , which otherwise sleeps , as it were bedrowsied , no wonder if it be stirred up by rubbings and heats ; especially because an Adamant or Diamond , although it lose nothing of it self , yet by rubbing , it also allureth chaffs : For neither doth amber draw chaffs or moats , unlesse it be first rubbed : For it is a signate , teaching , that frictions ought to go before , if the bedrowfied power thereof ought to be stirred up by a●akening it out of its sleep , and to influx it s ordained office of succour into us . At leastwise I testifie , that a piece of amber , as it resembles a gem or precious stone , yet can be much more easily attained by the poor man , than precious stones . And moreover , Paracelsus highly boasteth of the invention of the magnet or loadstone of man , whereby he supposeth , that the Pestiferous air is uncessantly introduced and so he promiseth more powerful virtues to be in his Zenexton , of drawing outwards , than there are belonging to our feigned magnet of drawing inwards : But surely , that man hath seemed to me , to be ●ittle constant unto , and little expert in his own doctrine concerning the Plague divulged in so many books , to wit , while he maketh the heaven to be the Archer of the plague , and that this plague is nought but a wound of the heaven , as an angry parent ; which thing , if he judgeth to be true , that poyson at least is not drawn by our Magnet , which is darted into us from so many thousand miles space : and either the Magnet is undeservedly accused , while as it is without fault , and his Zenexton is in vain directed , and hung on the out-side of the body , against the drawing of a feigned Load-stone ; or he understood not the causes of the appropriation of a Zenexton , or at leastwise , he might think that he had dictated but dull causes of the Pest . To what end therefore , doth the remembrance of that Magnet condu●e in this place ? the praise of that invention ? For truly , a Zenexton hath nothing common with that Magnet , nor against the same : Be it so ; for let there be a Magnet ( let us grant it by supposing a falshood ) in the heart and arteries , which without distinction drinks in the pestiferous poyson mutually co-mixed with the air : But if a Zenexton takes away , or hinders this Magnet , now the man is of necessity choaked , as being deprived of his accustomed expiring , for the necessities whereof , they will have the heart and arteries to be uncessantly tired or urged : But if indeed we had rather have a Zenexton to be a separater of the pestilent air from the pure , that word containeth something beseeming a Fable : because the Zenexton should at least undergo the office of a Sieve , and Seperater , and supply the room of the Archeus : But if a Zenexton causeth , that our Magnet draw nought but what is lawful ; then the Zenexton should be the Tutor and School-master of the Archeus , to wit , that he may rightly perform his office ; unless happily , thou hadst rather have a Zenexton to be distinguished by the name of an office alone , and so it should be equally infected with the Archeus , and equally feel the contagion of the Pest ; yea an external thing , forraign to the life , and perhaps containing a poyson , is now assumed with the Etymology of a due Archeus . Alas Paracelsus , the matter is far otherwise : For it grieveth the Archeus of his own government : for neither is he intent upon fighting , or separation , in the Pest , who himself is the only object , and one only workman of the poyson : But he prepares himself for flight , casts away the rains , as being full of a panick fear , and as being mindful of his own weakness , that he is wholly subdued by poysons , or the least infection of an odour , by the bi●ing of a Viper , or stinging of a Scorpion in the top of the finger : Therefore he refuseth discretion , and being affrighted at the beholding of his Enemy , opens the doors , and casts away the keys behind him , and presently admits of any one to govern : and so , whatsoever things do happen in a dead carkass , after death , are in their making at the coming of the Pest . A Zenexton therefore , only serves , not indeed for admonishing the Archeus of his duty , and appointment , nor for dividing of the poyson from that which is harmless in the objects , much less for restraining of the natural attraction of refreshment ; but that it may kill , and annihilate the specifical poyson , which is conceived as well in the external air , as within in the Archeus : But surely none of these hath need of a Magnet , nor doth any way respect a Load-stone . The invention , and end of a Magnet , in a Zenexton , was unknown by Paracelsus : For a preservative Amulet , for every event , if it should respect a Magnet , it should not be of value , but in the case wherein the pestilent air is drawn inward through the arteries ( which I have elsewhere demonstrated to be frivolous in the Treatise of the Blas of man ) but not , if at any time it be brought by the breath , as neither where the pestilent poyson ariseth within : Therefore the unknown Zenexton of Paracelsus , doth in no wise satisfie the necessities of Nature , or ends of healing . But Hippocrates hath seemed to have more neerly beheld the causes of necessity for a Zenexton : He willing , that the heaven should make three local motions in us , to wit , within , without , and circle-wise ; he then naming the heaven , as yet by an undistinct Grecisme , for the vital faculty : From whence Successors thought , that the heaven is contained in us in a motion outwards , by a transpiration , that a forraign Pest by that which is breathed in , may be hindered : For they say something , and from an unmindfulness , that the bodies of the infected are preserved in transpiration : But the same doubt , and antient perplexity , remaineth about breathing , and the framing of an internal plague : and in my judgement , a Zenexton ought not to lock up the pores , nor to shut the doors of breathing , least the Enemy enter ; nor to strive with the Archeus : for strifes , discords , and brawlings , if ever before , at leastwise while the plague kindleth or rageth , is unseasonable ; especially , while the Archeus failing in his courage , casts away his ●eapons . In the next place , neither must a Zenexton be intent in the more outwardly separating , cocting , or preparing of the pure from the impure . But that it be wholly , after the manner of an Antidote , contrary to the poyson already received : not indeed properly against the poyson it self : But seeing that its principal use is in preserving , rather than in curing ; Therefore the virtue required in a Zenexton , most properly consisteth in this , that it takes away the mumial appropriation and suiting , without which there is no contagion made : neither yet should it be a strange thing , if besides , it hath obtained the powers of a medicine to expel the poyson . And moreover , Paracelsus relates many things concerning frogs , and toads , for the Pest , yet all of them confused ones . In the mean time , he hath opened the earnest desires and eyes of many : For he asfirmeth that toads are convenient for women , even as frogs for men , and indeed he would have them to be hung up and dryed , and a stick being thrust thorow their head : He hath chosen no month for this act . At length , he promiseth that a Toad thus dried ( but having prosecuted nothing of Frogs ) being applyed to a Bubo in the groyn , will so draw all the poyson of the Pest into it self , that successively , even unto the fourth or fifth Toad , they do all wonderfully swell : and so he conjectureth at the quantity of the venom by the number of the Toads . He wil also have the dryed Toad to be first steeped and mo●ified in Rose-water : Notwithstanding , either Paracelsus is unconstant to himself , or he chose some other Zenexton to himself besides the Toad : For truly , he writes , that the Toad is prevalent only in the Pest of the groyns , and of women : But for other plagues , he useth other attracters ; and he saith , that the chief Incarnative of the Coelestial wound ( for so he calleth the Pest ) is gold , and precious stones . First of all , I confess , that I have applyed Toads unto Buboes , and Eschars , as well in the breast , head , paps , as elsewhere , as well in men , as in women ; and every where , not without a ready succour , and mitigation of the pain : But first of all , I never saw an applyed Toad to have swoln in the least ; the which also , I therefore afterwards held to be ridiculous . And then , that of Paracelsus is alike frivolous ; to wit , that the Pest doth no where otherwise offer it self , than behind the ears , under the arm-pits , and in the groyn ; because the heavenly Archer doth not smite in any other place : For truly , I have seen a true and mortal plague to have shewn it self every where in the whole body , not only by Eschars , little bladders , Pustules , and swellings , but also by spots and marks : Therefore Paracelsus supposed the same thing to happen unto a dryed Toad , which befalls a live creature that hath taken poysons , and that is stung by Serpents , or that is killed by the poysons of plants , and animals : as if the plague of man should be a poyson to the Toad ; and if this should happen , the Toad should not command the Pest , but the Pest the Toad : Neither also , doth a dryed dead carkass feel what were poysons unto it , while it was alive ; Nor doth a dead carkass swell , being smitten by a Serpent : For a dead carkass , if it shall not be sensible , neither hath it retained the efficacy of tumefying . Therefore Paracelsus was ignorant , that to swell up , is the property of the vital Archeus , and that swelling proceeds not but occasionally , from poysons . I admired at the insolent boldness of Paracelsus writing this thing : for a Toad that is dryed , however he may be six hours steeped , yet he always is uncapable of tumefaction or swelling : For the delay of steeping in a swift disease , is full of danger and loss : I therefore have steeped him in a small quantity of warm water , who being applyed unto the paining place , hath presently asswaged the pain . Truly , if any thing should exspire out of us into the dead carkass of a Toad , which was there materially detained , it had breathed out the same way whereby it had entred into the Toad : therefore swollenness is the action of the Archeus of life efficiently , and effectively ; but it is the occasional action of the poyson , and the which therefore , can be none on the Archeus of a dead and dryed Toad : The Archeus therefore , since he is wanting to a dryed Toad , cannot be the cause of swollenness in that Toad : For poyson ceaseth to be poyson in respect of a dead thing ; seeing poyson be-speaks a relation unto something that hath life . I know that Paracelsus had no actual practise of the plague ; indeed , that he hath written many things , and those little suitable thereunto , he having promised most things from a rashness of belief drawn from the relation of others . Butler the Irishman , to my knowledge , had cured some thousands at London , of the plague , and afterwards , through the accusations of enemies he being deteined in the Castle of Vilvord , by my asistance obtained his liberty : For he had commanded a great Toad to be taken after noon-tide , in the month [ called ] June : I hung him up by the legs nigh the chimney , and set a dish of yellow wax under him : Atlength , after three days hanging , the toad vomited up earth , and some Insects , to wit , walking flies , their wings shining with a greenish colour , as though they had been guilded : But presently after vomiting , the Toad dyed : neither vomited he up any thing before three days space , although he hung with his head downward . But he said unto me , that I had remedy enough for the curing of forty thousand that were violently taken with the Plague , and promised that he would shew me the hinge of the matter : But being suddenly banished , he depar●ed . At leastwise , I commanded these excrementitions filths cast up by vomit , and likewise the dead carcase of the toad being dryed , to be beaten apart , into powder , and with Gum dragon , I formed Trochies , which I have successefully used , as well for the prevention of the plague , as for curing of the same . Afterwards in the month [ called ] July , in the decrease of the Moon , I took old Toads , whose eyes abounded with white worms , and hanging forth with black heads , so that both their eyes were wholly transformed into worm ; perhaps there were fifty worms in number , thickly compacted together in every hole of their eyes , whose heads hung out ; and as oft as any one endeavoured to go out , or to hang over , the Toad presently , by applying of his fore-foot , forbad his utterance : But these Toads being constrayned to vomit ( as I have said ) by hanging them up by the legs , I found to afford a most excellent Zenexton or preservative● amulet against the Pest : But I reduced the wormes falling down in the waxen dish , and together with that which he rejected by vomit , into smal Trochies , the dead carcase of the Toad and waxen dish being added thereunto : But the Trochies being born about at the left pap , drave away the contagion , and being fast bound to the place infected , presently drew out the poyson : And the Trochies were more ready , and of more validity if they had returned diverse times into use , than when more new : But I found them to be a most exceeding powerfull Amulet or pomander for the plague : For if the Serpent eateth earth all the days of his life , because he was the instrument of sinning ; the toad eats Earth which he vomits up , all the days of his life : But according to the testimony of Adeptical Phylosophy , the Toad bears an hatred against man , so that he infects some Herbs that are usual with man , with his corruption , and that in hope of his death : But he differs from the serpent in this , that at the sight of a man , he from a natural gift conceives a great terrour or affrightment ; which terrour from man , attains for , and imprints on himself , a natural efficacy against the images of the affrighted Archeus in man. For truly , the terrour of the Toad kils and annihilates the Idea's of the affrighted Archeus of man , because the terrour in the Toad is natural , and therefore radically , and throughout his whole body incorporated in him , even when dead : but the Idea of terrour in the Pest is only accidental and flowing . The Toad therefore , being in his own nature , afraid of man , increaseth the image of hatred , and heightens his powers , that at leastwise he may privily hurt , and that like the Pest : But this sealed property of hatred , and also of terrour , he carries in his head , eyes , and in the place of the power of concupiscence : therefore his head , and eyes , while he is as yet a living creature , are transchanged into live and true wormes ( such as are bred in cheese ) but that the extream part of their head looks somewhat black : For at length , together with his life , so great a multitude of worms fals out , because while he was as yet a living creature , the whole sheath of his brain seems to have been wormy : Surely a terrible , and sealy signate , dedicated to the most terrible and of deaths ; Health or safety from our enemies , and from the hand of those that hated us ( to wit ) a remedy . For truly , the hatred and terrour of the Toad towards us , prepares a medicine of health for us : For therefore an hatred of us is proper to , and naturally incorporated in the Toad , that he carries an Idea of hatred wholly throughout his whole ; even so as the spittle of a mad dog , doth by accident the fear of an Hydrophobia . But besides , whereby the terrour of us , and inbred hatred towards us , in the Toad , may the higher ascend , and the more strongly imprint their images , the Toad is hung up aloof , nigh the chymney , in our sight ; and therefore even his hatred and terrour increaseth unto death . But that the Toad doth by his ownconceptions , generate Idea's , I will by and by shew , by the sudden death of the Toad himself : Now at least , I will say that I have cast a Toad into a Lake encompassed with a wall , which on the morning following had dyed , swimming swollen , upon the water : But he had his back besprinkled with a frequent black mark : From which signal spots I conjectured , that he bears a remedy against the Plague even the most cruel one ; to wit , the which after a speedy death , utters its own signs : And it addeth an hope , if he promise a remedy for the most fierce and speedy death , that he shall afford a much more excellent one for any the more slow death . But that young Beginners may acknowledg with me , how much the image of hatred can work in this secret : It is before all things to be noted , that the Pest of man reacheth not bruits , as neither that of them , him ; Because no poyson operates without a ferment of the mummy of man , or the agreement of a co-resemblance : For whether that ferment shall flow out of an infected body , garment , paper , and pestilent air , or in the next place , ariseth out of us , and is shut up under the Tartar of the bloud ; at least-wise , however it be taken , the plague cannot infect any one without the communion of a ferment . This poysonous image therefore , and operating image of hatred , in the next place , this seminal image of terrour in the Toad , kills the mumial ferment , without which indeed the pestilent poyson cannot consist , enter , as neither be appropriated by us : This I say , is the manner of operating in a Zenexton ; to w●t , whereby the communion of the pestilential air is hindered , as it deprives the excrementitious and evapourating Tartar of the bloud of a mumial ferment : And it brings in the room thereof , a ferment , the taker away of the pestilent poyson , or an image which kills the pestilent ferment ; Because it as it were in a moment , slayeth the mumial ferment , the fountain of contagion , or at least , the fewel thereof , to wit , if it be already present , and hinders it for the future , whereby it waxeth not strong , and it so kils the immediate subject of inherency , that it be not co-suited with our mummy . The ferment therefore , easily dies , if the Seat of the Pest be dis-enabled that it grow not ; when as otherwise , every ferment is the meer tincture of a certain odour : For neither is the poyson of the Pest , wasted by the poyson of the Toad , by an action primarily destructive and subduing ; but by a secondary action , as the pestilent Idea of hatred , or terrour , extinguisheth the ferment , by whose mediation the poyson of the Pest subsisteth , and proceedeth to infect : For seeing the poyson of the plague is the product of the image of the terrour of the Archeus , stablished in a fermental putrified odour , and mumial air , this coupling ferment , the appropriative mean , and immediate subject of the poyson , is also taken away , and there afterwards remains onely a fermental putrified subject , as before , which is to be put to flight by way of sweat : whence it is manifest , that a Zenexton doth at least prevent the appropriation in the first place , and also takes away the seat or essential thinglinesse of the poysonous Idea of terrour . And indeed the Lady of Rommerswal Toparchesse in Ecchove , a noble , affined , and honest Matron , related to me in candour of spirit , that she once beheld a duel between a Spider , and a Toad , for a whole afternoon : For this , when he felt himself to be stricken by the Spider descending from above , and that he was presently swollen in his head , he runs to an herb which he licked , and being most speedily cured , his swelling asswaged ; from whence he setting upon a repeated fight , was again also smitten in his head , and hastened unto the same herb ; And when as the thing had now the third time happened , the Spectatrese being tired , cut off the Plant with her knife ( but it was the Plantain with a narrow leaf ) and when as the Toad returned thither the fourth time , and found not the herb , he most speedily swelled all over , and being sore sn●itten with terrour , presently died : But he betook not himself unto the neighbouring plants of the same Plantain , and those frequently growing ( for the image of the conception of fear , and sorrow , produceth a speedy death , the hope of a most speedy remedy perisheth in a most furious disease ) for when he found not his own Plantain , he who before encountred from a hope of presently recovering , forthwith despairing through fear and an idea of terrour , died . For from hence the great fear of this little beast is manifest , the greanesse and violence of the Idea of dread is conjectured from the speedinesse of his death : For to be straightway healed , swell up , and presently die , do manifest that in this Insect there would be a momentary and present remedy in the plague ; as also , that in the poyson , there would be every one his own conception of terrour , formed into an idea ; Because such an idea keeps a duality or distinction with the life , and therefore also that supplants this . Neither also hath a live Toad according to my experience , afforded a Zenexto● of any great moment : For the grain ought to die if we expect the fruit thereof : and it is convenient that the terrour of us be increased in the Toad : for as our Pest is not mortal , or contagious to the Toad , so the terrour of the Toad doth not any thing increase the terrour of the Pest of our Archeus : And unlesse the terrour ceaseth to be a certain conception , and be reduced into an active Idea ; as it produceth not the poyson of the Pest in the Archeus , so neither doth it cause a remedy in the Toad : For to this purpose it is required , not onely that the Toad do die by reason of the fear of poyson , or of Plantain failing him , and that he be slain by the terrifying Idea of his own conceit ; but it is of necessity , that the Toad perisheth by languishing , by reason of the ter●our of us , he being hung up nigh the chimney , &c. For then that deadly terrour being inferior unto , and co-fermentable with ou● Archeus , brings forth an Idea mortal to the Toad , but profitable unto us : For it beats a co-resemblance with the terrour of our Archeus , forasmuch as terrours do participate in a terrifying image . But because the terrour of the Toad is not belonging to us , therefore it frameth a poyson against the poyson of a pestilent terrour formed by the Archeus into the poysonous Idea of the Pest : For there is a most excellent preservative amulet in the Toad , ordained for man by the Father of the poor . Consider I pray thee of the Toad with me , in what manner he ariseth out of muck or filth putrified through continuance , between the chinks of stones , and there liveth without food , and grows to maturity for very many years : for a Toad is not seldom times drawn out of the broken stones of Paris , which was deteined there perhaps for the space of an age ; For neither doth he eat before he breaths : And the air being once drunk in , he at length undergoes the laws of death and diminishment : For before he breathed , he lived onely , and that by his own Archeus . Almost all other created things do putrifie in a rock : But the Toad is nourished and grows to maturity in a fermental putrified liquour , within a rock or great stone . From hence also it is conjectured , that he is an Animal ordained of God , that the Idea of his terrour being poysonous indeed to himself , should be unto us and to our Pest , a poyson in terrour : For as it is sufficiently manifest from the aforesaid particulars , that the Toad is most disagreeable unto our co-tempering and suiting ; so the Idea of terrour in the Toad is exceeding pestilential to the pestiferous terrour it self in us . Since therefore the Toad is an Insect , most fearful at the beholding of man , which in himself notwithstanding , forms the terrour conceived from man , and also the hatred against man , into an image , or active real Being , and not subsisting in an only , and con●used apprehension ( even as hath already before been nakedly demonstrated concerning the Idea's of a woman great with child , and likewise of a mad dog , &c. ) Hence it happens , that a poyson ariseth from a Toad , which kills the pestilent poyson of terrour in man ; to wit , from whence the Archeus waxeth strong , he not onely perceiving the pestilent Idea to be extinguished in himself ; but moreover , because he knoweth that something inferiour to himself , is terrified , is sore affraid , and doth flie : For so , in every war and duel , from an evident dread of the enemy , a hostile courage is strengthened . But so great is the fear of the Toad , that if he being placed with a direct beholding before thee , thou dost behold him with intent eyes or an earnest look , for some time , for the space of a quarter of an hour , that he cannot avoid it , he dies through terrour . The Toad therefore , being slain after the manner of Paracelsus , he dying without terrour , is an unworthy Zenexton . The Archeus therefore , his courage being re-assumed , casts away dread , most especially when as he well perceives the bred poyson of his own terrour to be killed : For a Zenex●on acts not after the manner of other agents , no otherwise then as the poyson of the plague is altogether an unwonted poyson : Neither doth a Zenexton act materially ; but the action of the same is spiritual and altogether sympathetical : For truly , the co-resemblance of activity , wherein the reason of founding a Sympathy consisteth , is in the poyson of terrour conceived as well in the Pest , as in the Toad . But even as the poyson of the Plague is irregular , having nothing common with other poysons ; so also a Zenexton being exorbitant or rising high in the activity of a strange and forreign terrour , is a manifest poyson to the pestilent image of our terrour , together with a refreshment , confirmation , strength , and resurrection of the Archeus : which activity of a preservative amule● , surely the Schools could not contemplate of , because they have not been able to contemplate , that that of Aristotle , not onely in the plague , but also in other poysons , is false . Indeed the action of a Zenexton is from the victory of the Patient over the agent : for thou shalt remember that the terrour and hatred in the Toad , from man the agent , overcomming indeed , but in no wise operating , are made , imprinted , actuated agents , and those brought into a degree , by the proper conception of the Toad ; which in the aforesaid Idea are as it were fugitive living creatures ; and therefore they restore the terrified Archeus of man , and kill the image of the poysonous terrour . Truly in single combats that are spiritual , there is altogether a far different contention , from that which is wont to be by appropriated corporal agents : The which I have elsewhere demonstrated , in removing the activities of contrarieties from the properties of nature . A Zenexton therefore , is of a magnetick or attractive nature , to wit , acting onely on a proper object , while it meets with it within the sphere of its own activity . It might seem a doubt to some why the image of hatred in the Toad is a remedy ; but why the image of hatred in a mad dog is a poyson : the reason is in the adjoyned Idea of terrour in the Toad , which brings forth an inferiority of poyson : For the one exceeds the other in the sturdinesse of conceptions , and therefore also of images : For a mad dog is bold , rash , and his sealed image enforceth its obedience : For neither is he mad , forasmuch as he feareth ; but he feareth water , as he hates living creatures : But the Toad is an Animal that is most afraid of us , and as from his inbred hatred towards us , he is badly conscious to himself ( divine clemency so disposing it ) ; So the images of those conceptions mutually piercing each other , and accompanying each other , do confer a mark of the greatest pusillanimity or cowardise dipt in the venome of hatred : Hence indeed the image of the pestilent terrour is killed by the image of the deadly hatred , and our Archeus is beheld by the image of the cowardly terrour , through the application of the preservative Pomander , as it were in a glasse , and doth well nigh reassume the superiority which before he had lost : And therefore the Idea of terrour in the Toad , hates , and also the image of hatred terrifies the Toad , from whence he puts on a poyson for our terror ; To wit , by both means , he kills the image of pestilent terrour in the Archeus . There is indeed in spiritual things a primitive self-love , seeing that every original single duel of sensitive creatures , issueth not but from premediated conceptions ; but the Idea of every ones conceipt , is formed in the imagination , and puts on an Entity or Beingnesse for to do somewhat for the future ; For as the images of motions to be made , do end into motions ; so also the images of the Senses are carried , first inwards , for further deliberations of counsels , and they soon there degenerate into the images or likenesses of apprehensions , passions , or disturbances , and from thence they are carried to do something in the body , or out of it , and they slide and grow according to the directions and inclinations of passions : In this respect indeed , such images do limit the vital spirits , or the very operative part of the bowels ; according to an impression proper to themselves : which thing most cleerly manifests it self in the poyson of a mad dog , who if he were afraid of us , as he is afraid of water , would not do us violence , neither would his biting be venemous unto us . For the Spider , Scorption , &c. are wrathful little Animals , and the which , if the strike us , they lay up they anger of their own poyson in us , or rather the poyson of their anger . A certain hand-maid now and then are spiders , not only the party-coloured ones of the Vine , but also those black ones out of Caves and moist places , and lived in health thereupon : Wherefore I have considered that the Spider is a fearful Animal , while he is laid hold of with our hand , and therefore that he doth not bring forth a poyson , even as otherwise he doth , while he stings us in anger . From hence indeed , a Scorpion being laid hold of and afraid , heals a wound that was inflicted by himslef . Two things therefore in the Toad , do offer themselves in the highest degree ; To wit , the image of hatred , by its poysonous quality , extinguisheth and blunteth the appropriative ferment , that the Archeus doth not put on and drink in the Idea of terrour that is bred : but the image of terrour in the Toad recals our Archeus , being sore afrighted , and adds courage unto him , that of a fleeing Archeus , he may be made a putter to flight . There are besides a Zenexton , some attractive remedies , such as is the Water-cresse , with the juice of the leaves of the greater raddish , and likewise of red winter cherries , and figs , of each a like ●uantity ; The which being bruised , are applyed , and the skin is opened in manner of a ci●●le : Also the herb Napellus , a kind of Wolfs-bane so called , the Grape turned inside out or stript of his skin , Monks-hood or Woolfs-bane , being first boyled in Vinegar , and then with a bruised fig , applyed to the place , do draw powerfully , and open the skin , of which kind of attractives , there are many sorts . CHAP. XVII . Hippocrates Revived . ACertain man being familiar with a happy Angel his keeper , intreated him , that he would beg of God , the remedy whereby Hippocrates cured the popular plague of the Grecians ; hoping that it would not be denyed unto the miserable Christians , the which the Almighty in times past granted to the Heathens : The good Angel said , Hiprocrates , used Sulphur , Salt , and Pitch : which answer left behind it the former obscurities : Hence it came to passe , that that man afterwards said , there was enough spoken for these times . Wherefore after a careful diligent search , at length I resolved with my self that Sulphur in the age of Hyppocrates was called Phlogiston , that is , inflameable : By which Etymology , Diascorides soon after said , the best Sulphur was denoted , from its own property , to wit , because it was wholly consumed by the fire . But because Hippocrates named the hidden poyson of any diseases whatsoever , a divine thing , in diseases , and because he cured the poyson of the pestilence ( which is the chief and standard-defender of poysons , and ●● contagious diseases ) therefore he began to call Sulphur [ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ] that is , a divine thing ; so that from hence even unto this day , Sulphur is no otherwise written or named , than with the name of Divine ; because it heals the Pest : The which , as it was antiently believed to be sent onely from the Gods , so also it was antiently supposed to contain a divine succour in it . For all bodies universally , even of remedies against poyson , and the air it self , are subject to a fermental putrefaction , and to the poyson of the plague ; and therefore they are a fit occasional matter for the Plague . Truly Authors do batter themselves with a tedious disputation , whether Salt be capable of a pestilent poyson ? whether a Letter that is closed with a linnen thred , be a partaker of contagion , but not that which is tyed with a metallick thred ? I have bewailed the ridiculous Fable of the Italians , and their Study of brawling : For truly , paper is no lesse capable of contagion , than flax , from whence it is made . Silver also , Gold , and the most cleansed glasse , and an Antidote it self , may drink in the forreign poyson of the plague : But Sulphur alone , among created bodies , resisteth a fermental putrifaction , and the contagion of the plague ; Because Sulphur alone being like unto fire , drives away all putrefaction through continuance , as well in Hogssheads , as in places themselves , and blots out the foot-steps of any touch and odour : For so Sulphur also takes away well nigh every scabbednesse of the skin , because it is an enemy to contagion : Wherefore neither is it a wonder , if the Pest being derived into the skin from an internal Beginning , be also drawn out by Sulphur . For since that in the whole Universe , nothing doth more readily conceive fire than Sulphur , because it is as it were a meer fire ; no wonder that Sulphur demonstrates the properties of fire , which are to burn up all things , nor it self to be infected with contagion . Truly I have seen in the watery tract of Gaunt , a whole legion of Neopolitans to have died of the plague , but there was in the same place a Company of Germans which ●inged their shirts with Gun-powder , that they might excuse their Laundresses , and also the lice : If any of these perished , it was by reason of the bloudy Flux , but not of the plague : Therefore Hippocrates separated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ( that soundeth Sulphur , or a divine unexpert or crude fire ) which is named in the Shops Sulphur Vive , from the superfluous earth , onely by fusion . But it is yellow , which being once enflamed , burns moreover even unto the end , neither doth it contract a skin in its superficies , as neither doth it leave a dreg behind it worthy of note ; but being once enflamed , it wholly flies away ; and therefore was it named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or inflameable . For in the age of Hipocrates , the manner of extracting Sulphur out of the Fire-stone and Marcasites , was not yet made known : Wherefore the Sulphur of Italy is better than our Country Sulphur bred at Leydon . For the Fire-stone exspires forth some Arsenical matter in the boyling ; for why , the●efore Arsenick is commonly called the fume of metals . Hippocrates therefore , at first commanded the houses that were infected with the plague , to be perfumed with Sulphur : For indeed Sulphur while it is burned , and its heterogeneal parts are separated , it affords a black smoak , and belcheth forth a watery and acide o● sharp Salt , which is constrained into a liquor , and is called the distillation or oyl of Sulphur . In the next place , out of enflamed Sulphur , the homogeneal part of the Sulphur doth exhale , it arising indeed , by reason of heat , but being not yet enflamed ; and therefore it flyes away with the fume or smoak , before it can be snatched hold of by the flame ; For so , o●t of woods , oyls being not yet enflamed , do ascend together with the smoak , and affix a smoakiness or soot as yet combustible , unto the sides of the Chimney : But Sulphur thus flying away , together with its smoak , as it is in its former disposition , so neither in this place , is it of any valour . But since every seed of burnt Sulphur is destroyed by the flame , for that very cause it is transchanged into a Gas or wild spirit , which by reason of the properties of its own concrete or composed body , is an An●idote against the Pest : For seeing that a medicine ought suitably to answer to the disease , the water , salt , smoakiness , or volatile floure of Sulphur , cannot be the true remedy of the plague ; but only that subtile and almost incorporeal Gas , which is therefore straightway comixable with our Archeus : Therefore that Gas refresheth those that are affected in their womb , with its smell , but not the oyl , not the tincture , milk , or floure of Sulphur . But after what sort thou mayest know that Gas of Sulphur to be distinct from the watery vapour thereof ; kindle a sulphurated torch or candle in a glass bottle , thou shalt forthwith see the whole bottle to be filled with a white fume , and at length the flame to be stifled by the fume : Afterwards , keep thou the bottle most exactly stopt with a cork , and thou shalt see a sulphur to be affixed unto the sides of the vessel , and in the superficies of the water , if there were any in the bottom : But if indeed , after some daies , thou shalt put the same enflamed torch or bottle into the neck of the candle , the flame is forthwith extinguished by reason of the condensable Gas of the Sulphur ; no otherwise than as the odour of an Hogshead putrified through continuance , stifles the flame of a sulphurated candle . But Hippocrates perfumed all the wine which he gave in the plague , after this manner : He perfumed the pot or cup of a narrow neck , with a candle of burning sulphur , he powred in wine , to the filling of the pot a third part full , and stirred the pot being exactly shut , by shaking it a good while together , upwards , and downwards , until the wine had drunk up all the Gas of the sulphur into it self : For medicines to be hung on the body , and Amulets or preservative Pomanders had not yet been made known : But he supplyed external medicines that take away weariness or faintness , in the room thereof , by anointing the body with Greek Wine wherein he had boiled the most fine powder of Sulphur : But he besprinkled the same fine powder being dryed in the Sun , on those that were in a sweat , and commanded it to be applyed with rubbings . But the Pest , since it never wants a Fever , and that the Grecans saw the remedies of Hippocrates , they began first , to call the Pest , and then every Fever , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or a fire ; Not indeed , by reason of a remarkable , and necessary burning heat of Fevers ( although it so pleased Galen ) : For truly , they called the beginning , cold , rigours and horrours , Py● or a fire , as well as a burning Causon . For Hipp●crates lightly ground Sulphur with water , on a Grind-stone , and being again dried , he kept it for his uses : But he gave twenty four grains of Sulphur with salted , and hot wine , that he might provoke sweats : But he first made the salt to crack in a glassen pot , and presently afterwards , he melted it , by increasing the fire ; for else , salt containeth in it excrementitious filths , which at the first cracking , fly away , the salt cleaving asunder and leaping a little : These Spirits do easily putrifie through continuance , and subject the salt to a fear of contagion ; for they are very forraign to the salt ; the which although they fled away a good while before the fusion of the salt , yet he made a melting of the salt , that whatsoever forreign thing was contained in the salt , might be consumed by the fire : For indeed , he saw that presently after the invasion of the Pest , the appetite was prostrated , and then also , that fermentally putrified and burntish impurities grew in the stomach , from whence arose the headach , vomitings , loathings , doatage , the drowsie evil , &c. which would hinder the cure of the plague : Therefore he took the common balsam of the salt of fleshes , which might overthrow the fermental putrified poyson , and putrefactions , by cleansing them away , together with a con●●●ing of the strength ; and he gave the wine being salted , hot , but not luke-warm 〈…〉 restrain the loathings of the stomach , and mightily provoke sweats ; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sulphur , that it might kill the plague as it were with its odour ; because salt clean●●●h , preserveth from corruption , and Sulphur restrains poyson : But he prescribed this sweat for three daies space at least , yet oft-times he extended it unto a weeks space : but they did sweat twice every day , and at every tur● , for the sixth part of a day , if they were able ; on the first daies more , and on the after succeeding daies , less : For in time of sweating , he took away all drink ; but the term of sweating being finished , he fed them with Barley-Cream , and for drink , they had Greek Wine pitcht , wherein were a few grains of the aforesaid salt , and Sulphur : But he laid the leaves of Assara Bacca , being steeped in vinegar , upon the Bubo , unto the soals of the feet , and palms of the hands , which after every twelve hours , he commanded to be buried , because they stink greatly . It came to pass afterwards , that Greece be sprinkled their grapes , divers times , with the Brine of the Sea , before they were carried to the Press : For Hippocrates perswaded that thing , that so , together with it , In●ects might be driven from the grapes : Hence it is , that the Wines of Greece are salted even unto this day , the reason of this use being unknown . Unto great Buboes in the groyn , and marks , he applyed hot Towels tinged in rich wine , wherein , as I have said , he had boiled Sulphur . Furthermore , he reserved a secret to himself , through the sight whereof , he attained to himself , divine honours : But it was the flesh of a Viper , or or Snake , which he cleansed : for the utmost part of the tail , and the head , being cut off , he stript off their skin , casting away the bowels , together with the gawl , he reserved only the Heart , and Liver ; but he drew out all their blood , with the vein running down the back-bone : But he boiled not their flesh after the manner wherein it is put into Triacle ; but he exactly bruised the same , together with the bones , and aforesaid bowels , and dryed them in a warm Oven , until they could be powdered ; which powder he sprinkled on hony being sufficiently clarified and boiled , until he knew that fleshes in boiling , had laid aside their virtue as well in the broath , as in the vapours : But he added unto this Electuary , the Spice of his Country for to cloak the secret ; and therefore , neither was it made manifest by the Angel. But the cure contains a mystery ; that as Death crept in by the Serpent , it self also , ought to be vindicated by the death of the Serpent : For Adam being skilful in the properties of all Beasts , was not ignorant also , that the Serpent was more crafty than the other living Creatures ; and that the aforesaid balsam , the remedy of death , lay hid in the Serpent : Wherefore the Spirit of Darkness could not more safely deceive our first parents , than under the Serpents skin : For perhaps they hoped that they should escape the death sorely threatned by God , by the aid of the Serpent . Hippocrates used also wine that was pitched : Wherefore it is worthy our consideration , that Spain is seldom afflicted with the plague ; not because sins , or filths are wanting , where there are almost no Jakes's : It s a Country , I say , raging with heats , imitating of , and co-bordering on Africa : Nor also , because their great men do cool their drink with snow : because , at least the Rusticks and Citizens should pay the punishment of their own sins , with the plague : But Aegypt useth waters and fruits , from whence there is a fermental putrefaction in their flesh : but Spain useth wine , and indeed that which is pitcht , because , seeing for the most part , they want Hogsheads , they keep their wines in pitched Hides or Leathern Jacks : Italy hath wooden vessels ; therefore it doth not , as constrained , make use of pitch , and it is more frequently , violently taken with the Pest : For pitch being applyed to Carbuncles , is for an ease or comfort , and they are quickly opened ; for pitch imitates the blackness of an Eschar . Among known trees , the pitch-tree alone is made a torch , and by reason of its fatness , it presently dies , if but a little earth be added to its Trunk : for God is liberal in his remedies , and that is proper to his goodness : For death happening by a tree , it hath seemed to be ordained for a remedy against death , unto man that was made mortal by a tree . The smell of pitch is familiar for a suffumigation unto very many Provinces infected with the Plague : For so Petus affirmeth , that Hippocrates had not one only remedy against the Pest ; and that he was sacrificed unto by the Athenians , as it were unto a protecting starry God. When as therefore , the Greeks saw Hipocrates to use a remedy known only to himself , unto whom therefore they attributed their life , health , and whole preservation ; they by degrees despairing , the use of salt , and sulphur went more and more into oblivion , especially if some years that were free from the plague , interposed : And afterwards , every Physitian began to select divers medicines , hoping that his own was the Antidote of Hippocrates : From whence there was afterwards a standing crop of remedies collected , without number , for the most part , with empty ears . At length , from a slender senting of the praise of the Viper , the composition of Triacle arose , it being partly loaded with a confounding of simples , and their odours being partly dispersed in time of preparation , and they cast away the better properties of the Viper in the broaths . At this day , the Antidote of Orvietanus is made of great account for thplague ; because he first dated to swallow any poyson unknown unto him , in the open market place ; which thing , the Germans at this day perform only by the use of the Snake : For they little distinguish the Pest from other poysons , and have ●aken little notice , that against the will of the Electuary of Orvicta●●s , the plague notwithstanding , hath lately raged throughout all Lumbardy : For I omit , that the Pest doth radically differ from other poysons . Quercetanus , and the Writers of this sort , in their Caco-Alexiteries or bad medicines against poyson , and in their young beginnings , do dicta●e very many remedies ( whether boldly , or sottishly , let others judge from the roots of the Pest supposed ) every one whereof is framed , not indeed from knowledge , but from thinking alone , and the Author of them is worthy of pity , if not of punishment : For Ranzovius concerning defending health , describes a Saxenian Antidote for his Son , it being tryed divers times by me , but always in vain , because the poyson consisting in a spiritual image of terrour , hath nothing in the aforesaid Antidote , which can radically overcome the same image : and therefore by reason of the ignorance of the causes of the Pest● , any one hath devised many remedies ; and also , hath connexed many things unharmoniously together , against the poyson forreignly entring : Indeed , all of them confused , without a method , experience , reason , and knowledge of the causes : And nothing having been at all devised against the Pest arisen from the foolish image of terrour , and the perswa●ion of fear●ulness , afterwards , from the age of Hipocrates , every Physitian began at pleasure to select divers remedies , and to connex many things together , and much more than many , hoping that his own invention was that of Hippocrates . In the mean time , the number of compositions increased , and by degrees , uncertainty supplanted the antient truth : And although an Antidote which operateth about the effects of the poyson produced in the body , be to be greatly esteemed ; yet while it operateth not on the terrours of the Archeus , and the image produced from thence , truly , neither can it bring help to the pestilent contagion ; or if any one do revive from the plague with those Antidotes , that is not done but with an unfaithful succour : For in the plague , the Archeus himself is well nigh bewi●ched with terrour and grief , and stamps a pernicious image on himself , which is the true Pest ; from which , neither doth he voluntarily re-arise , unless by a singular power of nature , and divine grace . Moreover , as I have elsewhere demonstrated in a particular Treatise , that the first assaults of conceptions , do not stand in a free disposition of the will , but that they are framed in the midriffs ; So by arguments drawn from thence , I have fitly or exactly beheld , that the image of terrour , and indeed the plague it self , is formed about the Jurisdiction of the stomach and spleen : and that thing , I seriously and by long leisure discerned , and have exactly confirmed from observation , by very many histories ; one or two whereof , to have repeated , shall not be besides our purpose . A certain young man , beholding his little Sister to be be-spotted with a black mark , and to be dead , being sore smitten with terrour , presently felt a load about the mouth of his stomach , the admonitress of continual sighing : He daily used Triacle , Myrrhe , and the root of Butterbur being adjoyned thereunto : he ate and drank even unto merriment : At length , on the twelfth day after the death of his Sister , a Fever , and deep drowsiness laid hold on him , and on the third day after , he died . A Noble Virgin , having suffered a colike burden , and anguish of terrour , at length , passed over restless nights with a dejected appetite , with sighs , and oppressions of her stomach , and a panting heart , a slow and continual Fever took hold on her , with an uncessant strugling of fear , and hope : For as many deliberations of animosity or courage , and of free resignation , as she could make with her self , were in vain : Meats also being despised , there at length , remained place fo● strong wine ; and that also she soon disdained ; neither also was she so greatly afraid of death , as of future doating delusions : In the mean time , she laughed at her foolish perplexities , or mournful vanities , and it grieved her self of her own ●olly : But the Physitians had sent their own Antidotes unto her , under which , the Duel of her mind increased , no otherwise than as in those that are bitten by a mad dog , with their disease of the fear of water ; and at length , through the mortal ●orrow of the pestiferous terrour , she now plainly despaired in mind ; because she was she , who for three weeks space , had admitted of no sleep , with a perpetuak Agony , and despairing of life , and yet was vexed with her self , through la full remembrance or knowledge of her own foolish strugling ; and Opiates being administred , she found her self worse . At length , between the fear , and desiring of death , she plainly recovered by the remedy of Hippocrates , in six hours space . In the mean time , I confess , and admonish by way of protestation , that I have plainly enough manifested the bosom of the remedy of Hippocrates , that it may be sufficiently plain only unto the Sons of Art , and true Physitians , and covered for the future , only to sloathful Physitians , that are enslaved to gain , and to the envious haters of the truth . But I have declared , 1. The aforesaid histories , that plagues beginning , may be manifest not to be as yet seasoned with the pestilent poyson , and not yet to be accompanyed with a sufficient image of terrour , 2. And that the virtue of the remedy of Hippocrates may from thence be made manifest . 3. That the first violent motions of confusion , terrour , and imagination , do happen in the midriff , about the mouth of the stomach ; To wit , in the Spleen , whose emunctory is nigh the mouth of the stomach , and so that it is the mark of that Archer : For in a healthy young man , whom the plague had snatched away in seven hours time , a dissection of his body being begun , I found a long eschar now made , to be , as at first the mover of vomit , and afterwards the Authour of continual swoonings ; so also , to have given an occasion of sudden death ; even as in others , I have noted a threefold eschar to have been made in the stomach , ●n sixteen hours space . 4. That the master of Animal subtilty , hath with his white wand of sleep , chosen the Inn of drowsie sleep , and watchings in the same place . 5. And that the seat of all madnesse and doatage , is in the same place : And that thing I have elswhere profesly founded by a long demonstration . 6. That purging likewise , as also myrr●ed Antidotes for the Pest , are not safe enough , or worthy of confidence . 7. And that all reason , deliberation , animosity , resignation , consolation , argumentation , and all the subtilty of man on the contrary , do but wash the Ae●hiopian , in the Pest , even as also in the disease Hydrophobia . 8. That the endeavour of preservatives is sluggish , as oft , and as long as the seal of the image framed by terrour , remayneth . 9. That such an image stirs up from it self , continual sorrows , and spurns at the phantasie it self , and drawes it captive to it self , no lesse than the biting of a mad dog , brings forth an unwilling fear of water , or the sting of a Tarantula , the do●tage of a tripping dance . 10. That the comfort of sweating alone , is loose in such terrours . 11. That the Idea of fear not being vanquished in the bowel , nor the dreg wherein that image sits , banished , it is in vain , whatsoever the magistrals , or compositions of the shops do attempt : For Hydrophobial persons , although now and then between while , they speak discreetly , fore-feel , and fore-tel a madnesse coming upon them , yet they cannot but be driven into the madnesse of their own image . 12. That swimming is destructive , and whatsoever restraineth sweat . 13. That Barley broaths , pulses , syrupes , and Juleps , are loose and frivolous remedies for so great a malady . 14. That it comes from a bastard plague unto a true or Legitimate one ; yet that the sick do often fail under the beginning thereof , before it sends forth its tokens : The which traiterous signes do notwithstanding , presently after death issue forth . 15. That grateful odours , the perfumes of spices , feathers , or shooes , do bring no defence or succour for the plague : For by way of example ; if thou seasonest an hogshead of wine putrified through continuance , with the odour of spices , or with any other odour , except that of Sulphur , it remaines fermentally putrified , and it soon defiles the new wine which thou shalt pour in , as the former . Wherefore sweet-smelling things do in no wise take away the terrour , and the poysonous Idea of terrour , from the Archeus being once terrified ; Because they take not away the ma●ter of the poyson ; and much lesse do they kill that poyson , or remove the terrour from the Archeus , as neither do they refresh the seat thereof , or comfort the part affected . For Paracelsus commends unto the City of Stertzing that was bountiful unto him , myrrhe being by degrees melted under the tongue , before any other remedies ; and boldly promiseth it unto the younger sort , for a preservation for 24. houres space : which doctrine notwithstanding , I have experienced to be false : For I have seen young folks , with the much use of myrrhe , to have been killed by the plague . Myrrhe indeed , although it may preserved dead cracases from putrefaction , instead of a blasam ; yet the Pest far differs from putrefaction ; No otherwise than as the eschar of a bright burning iron differs from putrified blood : And although corruption succeedeth in a carcass now dead , yet the poysonous image of terrour doth not properly putrify , as it doth most properly slay the vital Archeus , and tranchange him into a poyson , with it self : For he bids that myrrhe be held in the mouth : As if the plague knew not how to to enter but by way of the mouth : Therefore far more advisedly to have shut up the mouth in silence . Truly the Pest will abhor myrrhe , nor will it da●e to enter in through the nostrils , if myrrhe being detained in the mouth , doth dissolve : shall perhaps , the odour of myrrhe hinder , whereby the poysonous image is the lesse poysonsom , is not poysonsom ? Is not hurtful ? For shall myrrhe in the mouth , repulse the plague from the Archeus ? The same reason is alike frivolous and foolish for Triacle , vinegar , &c. perfumed with odours . At length , let mortals know , that in healing , nothing is alike hurtful , as a rash belief given without a pledge , and truth . Truly , the accusations of the sick , will at sometime thunder against the negligence , falshood , decietful juggles , rashnesses , and false wares of Physitians , whereby people have been spoyled of their life . But I have discerned by the books of Paracelsus , that he was a man rash in promising , unexpert in the plague , unconstant in its remedies , ignorant in its causes , as also ungrateful toward the bountiful City of Stertzing . Let his honourers spare me , that I am constrained to speak candidly or plainly for the truth , in a matter of so great moment , least any one in the plague , should put confidence in his succours . CHAP. XVIII . The image of terrour sifted . I Have hitherto produced the unheard , of poyson of the Pest : To wit , that the soul , and the vital Archeus thereof , are powerful in an imagination proper to themselves : But that that power of the a foresaid imagination , is to form Idea's ; not indeed , those which may be any longer a Being of Reason , or a non-being ; but that they have altogether actually , the true Entity of a subsisting image : which imagination surely , seeing it is a work of the flesh , and also common to bruits , as to us ; hence indeed , it is framed in the outward man , from which , nothing but [ this somethings ] being far different from a spiritual conception , proceedeth : But for-the obtainment of which subsisting entity , the Archeus himself so cloaths his own conception ( which as yet , is a meer and abstracted mental Idea ) in his own wrappery , or in a particle of his own air , that what he conceived in himself by an abstracted conception of imagination , that very thing the Archeus presently arraieth and cloatheth with the vital air ; So as that afterwards , it is a subsisting Being , to wit , an image framed from imagination . Moreover , as there are diverse unlikenesses of conceptions and passions , according to the liberty of that Protheus ; so undoubtedly there are also , manifold varieties of those same images , far seperated from each other , and the Idea's of these , being cloathed with , engraven in , and having made use of the vital spirits , do diametrically utter forth unlike operations in us : And therefore the images of terrour are very poysonsom , and potent to defile the vital spirit bearing a co-resemblance with them , which unhabites as well in the heart and arteries , as in the very family of the solid parts it self ; To wit , the which image , and most powerfull efficacy thereof , I have already before , and many times elsewhere demonstrated as much as I could : I have said also , and demonstrated , that the same image is the essential , formal , and immediate essential thinglinesse of the Pest : Because that the plague is not unfrequently framed , from a terrour of the plague only , although there fore-existed not a material cause from whence it might be drawn . I have afterwards treated by the way , of the preservation , and curing of the Pest by a Zenexton , and remedies in times past used in Hipocrates his time ; yet ●here hath not as yet been enough spoken for the present age , in order to a cure : For truly , very many difficulties offer themselves , which have not been sufficiently cleered up . First of all , the image of terrour is only one indeed , in its own kind , and therefore it may be difficulty understood , that the Pest should be able by the one only and uniforme Idea of affrightment , to afflict so diverse things , and not only in distinct emunctories , but equally , so distinct parts throughout the whole body , at its pleasure . Secondly , And then , that the same image of terrour should be able only by its beck , to stamp products so different from each other : Such as are Carbuncles , Buboes , Escha●s , little bladders , Pustu●es , Tumours , Tokens , &c. Thirdly , in that the one only Idea of terrour should invade and besiege , not only the external parts , but also the stomach , and likewise the head , &c. Fourthly , that a unity of that Idea , should sometimes produce a most sharp disease ; at another time , a disease that is slow , and twinkling by degrees ; elsewhere , a disease by degrees decaying of its own accord ; since such effects may seem to accuse , rather a diversity of the poyson , than an identity or sameliness thereof . Fifthly , that the Archeus of man being sore afraid of the poysonous Idea of terrour , and as it were , a run-away , should have the power and courage of producing an Eschar in the skin , like unto a bright-burning iron . Sixthly , because doatage , I say , and watching , seem not to bud from the same Beginning , with a deep sleepy drowsiness . But one only answer , easily blots out every such kind of perplexity : For indeed , every first conception , and the first assaults or violent motions of conceptions , do happen beneath the Di●phrag●a or midriff-partition , which therefore are denied to be subject to reason , or to be in our power : Wherefore that Hypochondriacal passions do grow in the same place , every age hath already granted : and then , that the pest or plague is oftentimes immediately introduced from a pestilent terrour , none doubteth ; which terrour , as it is framed by the imagination of that place ; So also , the image of terrour is stamped , from whence the imagination hath drawn an Etymology to it self : But such an image is not idle , or without a faculty of operating ; seeing none is ignorant , that most diseases have took their beginning from naked perturbations or disturbances . In the next place , terrour is not only the dread of the Soul of man , and of Reason alone ; but also the Archeus himself is terrified , and wroth , with a certain natural fervency , and the illurements of passions . Furthermore , terrour stamps indeed an image , the Effectress of the plague , the Mother of confusion and terrour ; but that image assumes not a poyson from an undistinct confusion of terrour , from a confused terrour , and from the fear or flight of the forsaking Archeus : But as every Serpent , and mad dog , produceth a poyson , by the conception of a furious anger ; So also , the terrour of the Archeus is not sufficient for the producement of a pestilent image , unless the fury of the Archeus shall bring forth a poysonous image , which also pi●rceth and is married to the image of terrour . Hence indeed it comes to pass , that the Pest is for the most part bred about the stomach , and doth there manifest it self by loathings , vomiting , lack of appetite , pain of the head , a Fever , drowsie evils , and at length Deliriums or doating delusions : For truly , I have amply enough demonstrated elsewhere , concerning Fevers , and in the Treatise of the Duumvirate , that this houshold-stuff is conversant about the stomach : For an Eschar is not made in a dead body , but only in live ones ; and so , from the life , and Archeus himself ( even as concerning sensations elsewhere ) who being wroth , brings forth the image of fury , which was bred to change its self , and the whole spirit of the Archeus , and the inflowing spirit of the Arterial blood it self , into a corroding Alcali : For the vital spirit , which in its first rise , was in the digestion of the stomach , materially sharp , and which in the succeeding digestions , is made salt , and volatile , doth formally degenerate , and is made a corrosive salt , and a volatile Alcali , the efficient of the Corrosion and Eschar : For , for the madness of so strange and forreign a transmutation ( to wit , produced from a strange and forreign image ) whatsoever is vital in the very solid substance of the parts it self , all that , through the wrothful vital principle being angry and enraged , is enflamed , and brings forth divers diseases ( which are plain to be seen in the burning coal , in the Persick fire , in a Gangren , in an Erisipelas , &c. ) It is manifest therefore , that from the same Beginning of the Archeus being sore affrighted , and enraged into a dog-like madness , it happens , that the plague is ●iversly stirred up , sometimes in the stomach , sometimes in the skin , Glandules , Emunctory places , and also , now and then , in the very solid family it self , of ●e similar parts , or bowels ; from whence mortal spots , Eschars , and combustions do happen , according to the diversity of the parts , whereunto the Archeus being full of fury ; and full of terrour , shall divert himself : But that the Archeus being terrified , and a run-away , and returning as half in a rage , is made so hostile unto the parts his Clients , over which he alone is president , the confirmation thereof is not elsewhere to be fetched , than that a thorn is thrust into the finger , which by the fat or grease of an Ha●e , is safely expelled without discommodities , as that remedy asswageth the fury of the Archeus : which thorn doth otherwise , stir up a great Tragedy of fury : For the Archeus brings forth a poyson in his Clients , by his own fury , the which otherwise , a simple small wound would willingly be ignorant of . Conceive thou , how unlike is the wound of phlebotomy , and the sting of a Bee : And likewise the stroak of phlebotomy that is clean , how far doth it differ from the prick of unclean phlebotomy . It s no wonder therefore that the seat where the image of the conceived terrour , and piercing of the combined image of fury shall first happen , is hostilely disturbed , is furiously scorched ; yet oftentimes poysonous , tempests , are transmitted and chased unto the more outward habit of the body , by the implanted spirit of life , unto places I say , whither the Latex or liquor of the veins tendeth of its own free accord , in time of health , or they are dismissed unto the external habit of the body : And therefore , whatsoever is to be done in the Pest , that is to be cured with speed : For sometimes the image of the Pest , is cloathed only with the inflowing spirit , and then medicines that provoke sweat do readily succour : But where the inhering and in-bred Archeus conceiveth the image of his terrour , and fury in the solid parts , unless he presently resign up and lay aside the conceived image , unto and in the spermatick nourishment ( I have called that corrupt nourishment the Tartar of the blood ) and produce a tumour , there is danger least it presently pass over into the very substance of the solid parts , which contains an unexcusable detriment of death : And therefore , that the plague may not take up for it self a tough Inn within the body , we must procure , that the pestilent image do not long float within ; but that the whole houshold-stuff be allured forth , and fall out by sweat : For the Carline Thistle , is said to have been in times past , shewn unto an Emperour , by an Angel , for the plague of his Army ( perhaps therefore called Angel-Thistle ) because the first rise of the image of the Pest , stirs up drowsie evils , loathings , a Fever , vomiting , and head-aches about the stomach ; but the herb Ixia or Chamilion , drives away sleep , and much more deep drowsinesses against Nature ; and therefore they hope , that the extraction of fresh Carline Thistle , should not be unfruitful for the plague that is newly begun . The End. A TABLE Of many of the Chief things contained in this Book : The rest being referred to the Contents of the CHAPTERS . A. WHat Accidents properly are , & to what serving , &c. 131 , 9. &c. Acheldamah consumes a d●ad carcasse in one day . 671. 54. Adam not cursed . 654. A demonstration of his fall . 659. What he generated after sin . 663. 17. Why he and his posterity Bearded . 666. Adam's lust arose from a natural property of the apple . 668. No motion of lust in Adam before his fall . 682. 85. Of Adam's understanding . 711. The Praise of Agnus Castus . 707. 52. What kind of knowledge in the apple . 665. Air not reducible into water . 60. 12 , 76 , 41. Air the reducer of bodies into water . 68. 26. Air the seperater of the waters . 71. 4 , 152 , 19. Air is exceeding cold and dry . Ibid. 76. 40. 1120. Air acts on the water without a reaction . 76. 41. A vacuity in the air , proved by a manual . 82. 4 , 7 , 1126. It s magnal or sheath . 85. 20 , 692 , 12. It is imprinted with the seal of formes . &c. 133 , 18. &c. What office it bears in minerals . Ibid. 20. How it joyns to the vital spirit . 183. 37. Air seperates sulphurs . 184. 45. It Vola●izeth the blood . 186. 187 , 56. Air not capable of a vital light . 189. It doth not nourish the vital spirit . 190. 9. How the Alkahest of Paracelsus operates on bodies . 65 , 7 , 105 , 6 , 104 , 27 , 479 , 43 , 787. it is compared to the fire mentioned in Macchabes . 108. 28. It s operation on a Coal . Ibid. It s Aenigmatical description . 115 , 28. The Revealer of the proportion of light &c. 146. 89. The operation of the liquor Alkahest one the Cedar . 811. Aloes hurt by washing . 463. 39. Alcalies reduced into a meer simple water . 106. 12. How alcalies are made . 183. 38. The Common-wealth of Alcalies . 184. 40. Alcalies why fit for wound drinkes . 186. 53 294 , 21. Amber drawes the virtue from vitriol without touching it . 764. 22. Amber becomes a Zenexton against the Plague . 767. 37 , 787 , 1146. Amulets act by influence . 330 , 19. 481 An Amulet against the Plague . 767. 37. Antimony in its form better than in its principles . 788. 153 Antimony observes an Influence . 773. 63. How a sweet Anodine workes . 918. No Animal spirit in nature . 187. 58. A good Angel never appears Bearded . 661. 37. Anasarcha by what produced . 513. It s cure . 521. The Apoplexy hitherto unknown . 906 , 998 Its rise . 917 Its seat . 915 Apple takes away warts . 154 Apostemes how made . 186. 52 , 290 , 6 Aqua Fortis , &c. 96. 14 Aqua Vitae , see spirit of wine .   How Arcanum's do operate . 473. 15 , 164 , 15 Arcanum'● cure all Diseases . 524 Arcanum's never go into nourishment . 577 Arcanum's i● some sort exceed the powers of nature . 753 Arsenick though never so well prepar●● is not to be inwardly administred . 466. 52. It is fixed by co-melting with salt-peter . 105. 10 The Arterial spirit of life is of the nature of a Gas. 110. 40 Arterial blood exhales without a Cap●t mortuum . 182. 34 By what . 185. 40 How an Arterie becomes hard . 185. 48 The Arteries do not atract air . 190 Arteries attract spirit of wine , but no juicy things . 203. 41 The Archeus its constitutive parts . 35. 4   110 , 41 Its seat . 430 287 , 28 What it is in the beginning of Generation . 133   18 , 142 , 60 The manner of its operating . 142 , 61 &c. Its defects . 549 Archeus sensible of death . 553 Archeus receiving of evils the cause of our hurt . 1127 Archeus hath an imagin●tion of its own differing from the mind . 1128 Aroph of Paracelsus . 709. 53 , 878 , 879 Aristotles four constitutive causes of things condemned . 18. 3 Astrology natural why preferred before the stellar astrology . 26. 9 Its supports or props vain . 126. 46 &c. Condemned by an experiment . 127. 48 By a review of the attributes they give to the Planets . Ibid. 50 Astronomy slighted . 12. 5 Ascites what . 508. 524 Asarum by boyling lays down its vomitive force . 172. 45 The difference of Ascarides from worms . 221   83 Its cure . Ibid. Asthmawhat . 260. 40 , 356 What the Asthma consists of . 360. 27 Fro● whence the Ashma ariseth . 261. 42 ● twofold Asthma . 357. 9 , 358. 368. 68 The Asthma is a falling sicknesse of the lungs . 361. 29 , 368. Common Remedies for the Asthma vain . 3623637. The seat of the Asthma in the Duumvirate 361. 28 The Asthma not cured but by an Arcanu●● . 362. 40 A moist Asthma from Endemical things drawn in . 363. 45 The reasons of the Schools concerning the Asthma rejected . 364 , 53 The grounds thereof . 365 , 366 , 367 , 58 A dry Asthma is the Falling-sickness of the Lungs . 368. 60 Remedies for Coughs vain in the dry Asthma . ibid. VVhat remedies are fit for both kind of Asthma's . ibid. 370 , 68 The ●ume of Sulphur profitable in drinks for the Asthma . 372 , 77 The Authours intent to have burnt this book . 10. 13 His breeding . 11. 1078 He Read about 600 Physical Authors . 13. 15 How stird up to be a Physitian . 14. 20 The way he took to attain knowledg : 22. 43 Why he brake down the old received doctrines . 37. 3 , 433 , 18. His persecution . 470. 2 His dream . Ibid. 3. 1073 His challenge . 526 The Authors observations on his stomach being loaded . 123. 41. His visions . 265. 13 , 716 His vision of generation . 736 His medicines never Exhausted though he cured thousands yearly . 1080 What happened to the Author upon the rasting of Wolfsbane . 274. 12 The Author understood wholly in his heart , but not at all in his head . 275. 13 The Authors search into the cause of Madnesses . 277. 25 The Authors di●●inctions of the office of a Physitian and a Chyrurgion . 1080 How the Author was hurt with the smoak of Char-coale . 300. 20 How two of the Authors sons died of the Plague . 1135 Of the search of the Author after the Tree of life . 808. Of his dream . 810 How the Author cured himself of a Pleuri●ie . 399. 35 , 400 B. BAlsams &c. made with hony . 467. 56 Barrenness from what . 630 The Beard bred from the stones . 333 , 38 , 334 , 41 , 335 , 47. Concerning Bezoar . 991 The great vertue of its milkie juice . 992 Be●s generated from a strangled calf and dew . 478. 1026 , 65 Of the virtues of the Birch tree . 892 The Blas of the heart the fewel of the vita● spirit . 180 Blas of Government hitherto unknown . 330. 19 , 20 , 21 , 22. The Binsica of the Rabbins . 24. 51. The Blas of man voluntary . 177. Blas twofold . Ibid. What Blas is . 78. 1. Defluxions of the Bladder Ridiculus . 856 The venal blood exhales without any dead head . 404. 21 , 112 , 5 , 182 , 34. It s salt made by a mumial ferment . 473. 19. What operation precedes blood-making . 479. 49. How it nourisheth . 112. 4. Out-chased blood the occasional cause of the dropsie . 517. Blood never putrifies in the veins . 941. Blood-making not hindred in the dropsie . 517. Blood of the hemeroyds not putrified . 943. Blood of a Bull why poysonable . 174 49 , 783. 19. Of the difference between Arterial and venal blood . 179. The spirit of the blood not in the liver . 181. 32. The Arterial blood exhales without any Caput mortuum . 182. 34. By what . 185. 40. The making of venal and Arterial blood are different . 732 In what time the Bloud of man is renewed . 640 The best part of the Bloud the Schools cal● Phlegm . 1050 , 23 An e●statial power in the Bloud . 777 , 75 Bloudy Flux cured by Horse-hoof fried . 334 , 41 Of things cast into the Body . 597 With the manner thereof . 604 Of things breathed into the Body . 617 A solid B●dy not changed into another Body , without reducement into its first matter . 241 , 6 Bones broken cured by Comfry . 457 , 5● 461 , 26 Of the Stone for broken bones . 564 Bone of the Head profitable against the Falling-sickness . 770 , 51 The Emunctories of the Brain . 435 , 13 The defects of the Brain ●ise from the Midriff . 276 , 19 Of Bread. 451 , 14 White Briony resolves congealed bloud , and profits in the Dropsie . 519 Butler . 557 His wonderful Stone . 558 Butler cured the Plague . 1149 And by what . 1151 Buboes and Glandules terminated by sweat . 1104 Burial of Malefactors why n●cessary . 1134 Why slain Souldiers ought to be buried deeper than usually they are . 1135 C. IN what respect Camphor is said to cool . 471 , 4 The Cabal first manifest in sleep . 781 , 98 , 99 What each mans Calling properly is . 124 , 36 A new Catheter . 886 Of the operation of Cantharides in th● living and the dead . 480 , 60 The original of a Cancer . 544. its progress and Cure. 545. 546. 158 A Canker in the Stomach cured by a fragrant Emplaister . 115 , 22 A Cancer curable by a reduced Frog . 141   56 , &c. Of a Country mans curing the Cancer . 546 Catarrhs or rheums proved ridiculous . 429 430. &c. Cauteries what . 380. 1 The promises of a Cautery childish . 381. 6 Nine conclusions against the appointment of Cauteries . 382 , 10 A Cautery prevents not a Catarrhe . 384   14 The benefit of Cauteries accidental . 384 , 20 Whom a Cautery may profit . 383 , 28 , 29 Causticks act not on the dead as on the living . 499 , 170 No nutriment from Clysters . 479 , 49 Cli●●ers unprofitable . 969 The prayse due to Chastity . 682 Why Cheese loathsom to many . 115 , 25 Chewing food well , necessary . 4●3 , ●1 Child-birth hastened by a Potion . 127 , 49 Black Choler according to Hippocrates subsisting in the Midriff , if dispersed thorow the Body , begetteth the Falling-Evil ; if into the Soul madnesses . 29● , 15 What the Choler of the Schools is . 454 , 22 How it is made . 1045 Choler wholly an Excrement . 1048 , 16 The bitterness of the mouth not from Choler : 1060 The Seat of Choler not be found . 1053 No Choler in Nature . 1054 The Incarnation of Christ not according to the order of Nature . 665 Chymistry commended . 462 , 32 It creates things which not before were , &c.   477. 36 , 486 What one of its chiefest endeavours is . 115. 17 It prepares a universal Dissolver . 482 Chymical Medicines adulterated by the cavetous . 990 The degrees of Chymical heat . 202 , 35 Of that Cinnabar whereof half an ounce Impregnates a Barrel of Wine . 578 Whence the yellowish Spittle of Consumptive Persons proceeds . 440 , 39 What a Consumption is . 449 , 63 The remedies thereof . 441. 43 Of diseasie Conceptions . 608 Thirteen conclusions from fire , pepper , and causticks proved by Handicraft-operation , 500 The power of Cold as to reduction of Bodies into water . 108 , 29 , 109 , 38 Coughs whence . 430 , 5 , 259 , ●3 Purging in Coughs condemned . 431 , 9 No true Remedies found for Coughs . 260   37 Pose the fore-runner of a Cough . 569 , 67 Remedies for a Cough the same with a Pleurisi● . 570 , 68 Concerning Coral . 991 , 719 The virtue of its Tincture 605 Coral by what it changeth its colour , and is restored by . 1143 Coraline Secret what . 390 , 25 , 805 Its preparation . Ibid Crabs Eyes . 991 Their milkie juyce . 992 Observations on Crabs . 886 Their virtues in wounded persons . 294 , 295 The ashes of burnt Crabs against the madness occasioned by a Dog. 297 , 15 Cramps cured by mans fat . 480 , 58 What the Crasis of a thing is . 415 , 82 The right way of curing . 473 , 14 D. THe virtues of Daucus . 837 Of desperate Diseases . 307 , 53 A description of desire . 270 Contemplation of Diseases . 530 Difference between death and a disease . 537 Death began from carnal lust . 550 , 676 In divine things the Senses are to be cast off . 310 , 13 What a Disease is . 452 The difficulty of curing Diseases concluded from the Seat of the Soul. 455 Of Diseases according to their occasional cause . 565 Their division . 566 How Diseases enter the Body . 567 Most Diseases are centrally in the Stomach . 261 , 10 Diseases concentred in the vital Spirit proved by dissection . 485. Of the essence of Diseases . 488 , 558 Hitherto unknown . 489 , 171 , 145 A Disease is a real Being . 947 Hunger no Disease . 494 Diseases pierce the formal Light. 496 A Disease begins from the matter of the Archeus . 502 The product of a Disease differs from a Symptom : 999 How a diseasie occasion augmenteth it self . 521 Cure of Diseases not furthered by Anatomy . 524 Diseases varie in respect of a six-fold digestion . 620 What the ground of Diseases is . 404 , 15 , 407 , 40 , &c. 430 , 3 : 448 , 60 , 238 , 21 , 269 Lunar Diseases their Symptoms . 140 , 148 Diseases Produced by concupiscence . 524 Cure of Diseases . 446 The roots of Diseases from the beginning . 1092 What the Dew is . 68 , 23. What it abounds with . 117 , 33 Decoctions censured . 970 Defluxions of the Bladder ridiculous . 856 Distilling without any Caput Mortuum remaining . 404 , 18 Distilled waters of small force . 970 Distillation of Vitriol . 891 Distillation of Urine . 847 Observations thereon . ibid. Distillation unfolds natural Philosophy . 692   8 Of Diet , its uselesness as to curing . 451 , 9 &c. Of the nature of Diuretick● . 862 , 863 Of the dispensatories of the Schools . 461 , 24 Th●ir hurtfulness . ibid. 28 Illustrated by two Examples . 464 , 43 Things externally applyed , operate under the sixth digestion . 479 , 48 A six fold Digeston . 480 , 57 : 206 What a depraved digestion produceth . 1104 Of the Retents of digestions , 625 , 626 , 1003 The digestive Ferment what . 201 , 206 What things help digestion . ibid Of the threefold digestion of the Schools . 203 , 703 , 16 There is as many suitable Ferments as digestions . 206 , 2. From whence the force of digestion springs 207 , 21 Wh●t helps it . 703 , 17. The first digestion . 207 The second digestion . 209 , 21 , 22 The second and third digestion are begun at once . 210 , 28 The third digestion where it begins . 212 Digestion in the stomach not a formal transmutation of meats . 215 , 48 When digestion may be said to be finished . ibid. The fourth digestion its Seat. 218 , 60 The fifth digestion . ibid. The sixth digestion . 219 , 67 Our digestions why attributed to the Planets . 748 Supream of all digestions in the stomach . 290 , 4 Death how it comes to ●e . 649 , 8 After what sort death entred the Apple . 657 , 41 Death followed sin . 664 , 19 Death comes not from a dry habit of the Body . 729 Death is from a decay of vital powers . 730 Several occasions of Death . 752 , 753 Drif what it is , and what required thereto . 595 Manner of making it . 596 D●atages observed . 278 , 33 What drinks best in sharp sicknesses . 454 , 22 , 24 The actions of the phansie from the Duumvirate . 303 , 31 The power of desire in the Duumvirate . 304 , 37 The Harmony of life from the Duumvirate , 306 , 52 Fatness from the Duumvirate . 308 , 59 The Duumvirate . 337 Its Power , Seat , and Works . 340 , 341 , 364 , 49 Vnderstanding is formed in the Duumvirate . 275 Why the Spleen and Stomach are called the Duumvirate . 287 , 26 Authority of the Duumvirate . 296 The Dropsie Anasarcha , whence . 449 , 62 Its seat . 515 Dropsie unknown . 507 Not seated in the Liver . 509 How stirred up . 512 What the efficient matter thereof is . 513 The Cure. 521 A Bastard Dropsie . ibid What abstinence from drink may effect in the Dropsie . 519 Of Dungs and Toads in the Dropsie . 519 , 520 Why drowned Bodies swim after a season . 427 , 73 Drowsiness as well artificial as natural helped by Lixiviums . 303 , 31 The vanity of drying up superfluities , 440 , 42 Of drunkenness . 449 , 63 Of being drunk with new Wine . 122 , 23 Duelech of Paracelsus . 833 Duelech is made of the Urine . 836 , 837 Three Spirits concur for the nativity of Duelech . 850 Its manner of making with an observation of the Fountains of the Spaw . 851 What may be found in Duelech . 861 Of the savour of Dungs . 212 , 26 VVhere the Forment of Dung resideth . 221 , 811 E. EArth , why not reckoned among the primary Elements . 49 , 16 , 11● , 44 What the Oxiginal Earth is . ●0 , 3. 'T is Called the foundation of nature . 4. ibid. It breaks forth to light in some places . 51 , 5 The Earth is a fruit of the water . 66 , 23 The various distinct Pavements of the Earth . 94 , 5 The diversity of Soils in the Earth . 688 , 3 In the last Soil the wa●ers live . 689 Of Earth-quakes . 93 , 2 , &c. It is alwayes a threatner of punishments . 102 , 33 Ear-wax good for pricking of the sinews . 247 Eels bred by Honey and Dew , &c. 478 , 37 , 1026 , 65 Of the virtue of the Liver and Gaul of an Eele . 304 , 46 An informative Simil● of an Eg. 45 , 12 , 113 , 10 The prayse of Elecampane . 703 , 10 Of the Elements . 48 The two Elements Water and Air untransmutable . 65 , 7 , 69 , 1 Their co-mixture no constitutive principles of bodies . 134 , 24 Elements do not fight nor have contrariety . 168 They Cannot destroy each other . 1048 , 16 Electrum of Paracelsus against Inchantments . 65 Elixir proprietatis and its pr●paration . 574. Elixir proprietatis not made without the Liquor Alkahest . 813 Of the Embrio of a Bull-Calf its use . 883 Of Endemicks . 188 Endemical things are drawn in by breathing . 189 , 7 The Progress of Endemical things . 191 , 13 The Epitaph of an Emperour . 528 Of the Ephialtes or night-Mare from what stirred up . 299 , 15 Epilepsie whence stirred up . 114 , 17 Erisipelas its Cure. 475 , 29 , 114 , 17 Essence what it is . 414 , 76 , 81 And in some things not so effectual when separated . ibid. 78 Eve not cursed . 654 , 13 Eve not appointed to bring forth in pain . 654 , 14 Eve destowred in Paradice . 666 , 33 Excrementitiousness whence caused . 430 , 4 Extracts their invalidity . 459 , 12 F. OF the infection of a dead Falcon. 1134 Fasting when easily brooked . 24 , 51 Fever not cured by Phlebotomy . 953 A Fever hitherto unknown . 935 Thirst in Fevers examined . 936 , Drink allowed in Fevers . 453 , ●9 , 902 Caution about their food . 454 , 24 Flesh to be shun'd . ibid. Whence Cold and then hot . 471 , 4 : 973 VVhat the Sunochus Diary and Hectick Fever are . 978 Seat of a p●trid Fever . 978 The occassional cause of Fevers twofold . 979 , 980 , 986 The Cure. 987 A Diary and Hectick affect onely the vital Spirit . 973 Essence of Fevers discovered . 1002 Feverish matter swims not in the Blood. 956 The essence of Fevers not from heat . 940 The seat of intermitting Fevers . 948 The original of Camp-Fevers . 1096 The poysonous Excrement in Fevers included in the Midriff . 331 , 25 VVhat a Ferment is . 31 , 24 , &c. By what continued . 1124 Ferments being different , do cause different operations . 479 , 48 , 115 , 26 No transmutation without it . 111 , 1207 , 2 Why commanded not to be used . 111 , 1 Its properties , &c. 112 , 3 , &c. The Ferment of the Plague . 11 , 22 There are double Ferments in nature . 112 , 8 Ferments the causes of transmutation . 207 , 8 The Ferment of the Stomach not from it self . ibid. Ferment of th● Spleen turns the Spirit of wine wholly into a Salt. 733 Fishes made of water proved . 115 , 29 Fishes helpful to Chastity . 667 , 38 Fishes why long lived . 684 , 93 Fishes bring forth without pain . 685 , 95 Fire no Element . 48 , 9 , 50 , 1 , 134 , 24 , 138 , 35 It receives not its nourishment from the Air. 84 , 16 , 134 , 24 It generates nothing . 109 , 34 VVhat its appointed ends are . 129 , 26 Its divers Inclinations taught by Positions . 136 , 31 Its being no substantial Body , proved by demonstration . 137 , 33 It is the Vulcan of Arts. 138 , 38 Actual fire cannot subsist in a mixt Body without consuming it . 1049 , 18 What a Flatus is , and its kind , 421 , 34. &c. Two irregular ones in us . 424. 50 Whence they arise . 425 61 Where made . 428. 78 A Flint capable of retaining the solar light . 147 , 95 , 155 , 35 The Bloody Flux how cured . 475 , 29 The quality of food doth not hurt , except where medicines are wanting . 702 What a Fog is . 68 , 24 VVhat a Form is , and whence . 130 , 2●3 , &c. The distinction 'twixt an Essential and substantial form . 130 , 7 , 133 , 22 , 143 , 67 A four-fold form . 143 , 67 Fox lungs censured . 260 , 38 Of the original of Fountains . 6●● Fountains dispense the seeds of Minerals and Metals . 690 , 19 Fountains not thickned by the air . 691 From whence the best fountains do arise . 694 Of the Keeper of Fountains . ibid VVhy they are called sharp . ibid VVhat the sharpness of Fountains proceeds from . 695 , 22 Of the fountains of the Spaw . 696 , 1 VVhat they contain . 697 , 5 VVhy a vein of Iron is invisible in fountains . 698 , 8. VVhy fountains are different in strength . 698 , 14 Of the virtues of the hungry salt of the Fountains , and how far they act . 699. VVhom they do not h●lp . ibid How they profit in the stone . 700 , 12 The qualities of fountains are Relolleous and Cherionial . ●01 , 19 Advice to those that drink of Spaw waters . 702 How the waters may pass to the midriff quickly . ibid How much he ought to drink , and what he is to take with it . 703 , 10 A Frog how reducible to its first matter . 141 , 56 G. GAs , what it is . 69 , 29 , 71 , 10 , 106 , 14 VVhat it retains . 109 , 34 Galen ignorant of the causes of Ulcers , 321 , 25 Galen no Anatomist . 423 , 43 , 303 , 3● Galen never knew Rose-water , Aqua vitae , nor Quick-silver . 10●● Galens errors about Ulcers . 319 , 14 , 1● Galen ignorant of the Latax . 378 , 33 VVhat the Ga●l's use is in the body . 427 , 74 The Gaul a vital Bowel . 211 , 34 , 1061 It performs its digestion by a fermental Blas . 214 , 46 The Gaul hath the nature of a Balsam . 216 , 53 It is taken so in Scripture . ibid. 1041 , 24 From what the Gaul receives a ferment . 1048 , 14 The Generation of Fauns , Satyrs , Nymphs , &c. 681 , 81 Generation of Tro●ts . 684 , 91 Generation of man described . 736 , 737 , 738. Ginger produceth sweat . 250 , ● . Glas turns into water under the earth , &c. 116 , 33 , 151 , 15 The Globe is Oval . 35 , ●2 The best manner of drawing forth Goats blood . 210 , 75 Its wonderful virtue . ibid God made not Death . 337 , 572 , 157 , 58 , 649 How it came to be . 649 , ● , 650 , 651 The Essential Image of God is in the mind . 718 Gold distilled over the Helm . 64 , 6 Its ponderosity is from its seminality compressing the water . 67 , 18 Though reduced into the form of Butter , R●zin , or vitriol yet useless . 478 , 42 VVhat it is rendred efficacious by . ibid Gold and precious stones examined . 970 Purging medicines hurtful in the Go●errhea . Of the original of the Gout . 291 , 9 , 842 , 292 The Gout sometimes driven away by fear . 293 , 15 Gout not from a defluxing Catarrh , nor helped by Cauteries . 385 , 23 , 386 , 1 Gout distinguished not by heat or cold , but by a seminal Essence . ●87 , 8 The original of the Gout and its progress . 388 , 13 The Seat of the Gout . 389 Of the curt , with an Epitom● of the Gout . 390 , 25 Ca●teries and drying drinks ●ain in the Gout . 391 , 32 , 35 The action of Government unknown produceth many errours . 333 , 36 Grapes immediately eaten hurtful . 107 , 16 Grass roots cannot cool the Liver . 319 , 1 Of Gunpowder . 107 , 21 H. HAres fat puls out a ●horn . 521. 1160 Being dryed cures the bloody flux 4●3 To what end the motion of the heart is . 179 24 Herbs and ●●rbarists why disesteemed . 1● 10 The Schoolmen's way of judging of the elementary degrees of herbs , erroneous . 69. 28 , 459 , 1● Their sloath and errour in the search of their virtues . 15● . 3. &c. Why their preparation requirs much wariness . 458. 11 , 1● . &c. Their properties distinguishable by their specifick savour . 460. 17 , 472 12 Their time of gathering when . 460. 17 468 19 , 142 , 60 The Heaven gives neither life nor form 129 1 , 132 , 14 , 108● It doth not cause diseases . 1084 , 1086 , 1087 1091 What is required for healing . 17● , 44 Heat not the first 〈◊〉 of life . 196. 26 Heat not the proper 〈◊〉 of diges●ion . 199. ●●2 Heat consumes not radic at moisture . ●17 Heat is not the life . 718 Heat fails not for want of moisture . 744 H●●●rhoids . 943 Their cure . 944 From whence the pain in the head may arise . 339. 1● What ought to be minded in applying remedies to the head . 276. 20 Of the effect of Remedies applied to the head . 292. 12 Hellebor commended for the heal . 368. 63 Also for madnesse . 302. 26 The defects that manifest themselves in the head cured by stomack Remedies . 302. 26 Memory placed in the head . 304. 3● A History of a woman infected with the pox . 34 40 Of Count Destaires being opened . 509 Of Cardinal Ferdinand . 951 Of a Hydropical man. 406. 33 , 510 , 520 Of a boy troubled with the Iliack passion . 422 38 Of a Gas stird up by Sal Armoniack and Aqua ●ortis . 426 , 62. Of a bursten man. 428. 75 Of a noble woman strangled by affects of the womb , 428. 76 Of a Sonatours wife in child birth . 443. Of a merchant's ascending the high mountain of the Canaries . 73. ●● Of an earth-quake at Fa●●agusts . 79. 13 Of thunder . 91. 20 Of an earth-quak● . 93. 3 Of predictions deciphered in the Stars . 122. 27 Of the Authors Chamber-fellows walking by night . 141. 53 Of Butler . 563 Of several wonderful things . 597 Of the Author . 958 Of a man with a Quart an Ague . 91● History of Crabs . 886 Of a preacher in England . 846 Of a Duke being diffected . 627 Of a woman whose Liver weighed 21. pounds . Ibid. Of a boy that a●e this own dung . 211. 36● Of a Printer of Bru●els that lived 23. days of his own dung . 212 Of a Chymist that made vi●●gar yearly by the odour of the vessel . 217 Several Histories of the distasted 〈◊〉 . 228 , 28 History of Paracel●us his Birth and life . 230 28 History of Groynland fishing . 232 History of a speaking Satyr . 683. 685 , 88 Of the bignesse and long life of Fishes . 684 93 History of a young 〈◊〉 that cat much and ●●ded litle . 243.15 Of the Egyptians dead bodies . 245.20 , 802 Two Histories of children troubled with the stone . 251 History of a Toad . 730 History of an old man dying of the strangury . 1060 History of a man that lost his nose . 764.22 History of the Authors examining of poysons . 274.12 Severall Histories of drowned persons . 281.47 48 , 49 , 50 Several Histories of Asthmatick persons . 359.360 History of amatron that could not swallow . 361.31 History of an Elder whose lungs were like a stone . 362.42 History of a man suddenly strangled by an Asthma . 363.46 History of a man of sixty years of age troubled with an asthma , withdivers observations thereon . 364.50 , 365 , 366 , 367 History of a Maid cured of the Leprosie and how it budded again . 1091 History of a Bursten man. 301.21 Of a Lawyer that took Henban seeds for dill . 302.21 History of the Authors getting the Itch. 317 2 History of a snorting old man. 370.70 History of one dying of the Plague . 1157 Hony yields no ashes . 404.18 , 583 , 38 They that eate Hony must abstain from Rye bread . 798 A quaternary of humors why suspected . 945 Of the weights of Humours in diseased bodies . 946 Of the deceits of Humours . 1041 , 1042 , 1045 It is rashness to suppose separation of Humours the ground of health . 133 Hippocrates distinction of diseases . 530 Hippocrates described in a Letter to Artaxerxes . 1081 Artaxerxes Lievtenants Letter to Hipocrates , with his Answer thereto . 1081 His Letter to the men of Coo● , and their Answer thereunto . ibid Hippocrates compared with Galen . 1083 Hippocrates potion commended 1143 Hippocrates revived . Of his remedies against the Plague . 1154 The several kinds thereof . 1155 , 1156 I. OF the occasional matter of the Jaundice . 217 The Jaundice not from yellow choler . 1057 Jaundice demonstrated by Anatomy . 1058 A double vice in the Jaundice . 1059 , ● The Jaundice i● not from the Gaul being stopped . 1060 The efficient cause of the Jaundice and the cure . ibid There is an unnamed poyson in the Jaundice . 1062 , 33 The se●● of the Jaundice . 1063 , 35 The Jaundice by a venom proper to it , produceth a dry Asthma .   I●e , how caused . 72 , 13 , 75 , 33 It is lighter then when resolved into water . ibid. 35 Of the Idea's of diseases . 539 Their piercing . 541 Eight Propositions concerning Idea's of the Archeus . ibid Silent Idea's do prove an Archeal Idea . 550 Regular Idea's are planted in the seed by the corruption of the Generater . 548 The birth and original of a diseasie Image . 552 Idea's brought into the venal blood . 554 The powerful Idea's of diseases are framed in the Duumvirate . 563 Of Soulifi'd Idea's . 607 Exorbitancies imprint lasting Idea's : 608 The original of diseasie Idea's . 1004 The necessity of Idea's in a fever proved . 1005 Of the different effect of Idea's . 608 , 12 , 1121 Idea's of the soul pierce the womb . 609 , 18 The progress of Idea's . 611 Of several Idea's the cure . 612 Archeal Idea's cured by Opiates . 621 What Idea's are most lasting . ibid Of a mad Idea . 278 , 35 The force of mad Idea's is from the spirit of the midriff . 279 , 37 The extinction of mad Idea's . 280 , 45 , 46 , 281 Of the Iliack passion . 421 , 30 Cured . 31 The Illiad of Paracelsus what . 690 , 20 , 695 , 22 The Image of terrour sifted . 1159 The Image of the mind . 262 The Image of God. 714 Of the immortality of Adam . 745 Imagination how it comes to be . 270 To what to be attributed . 341 And where seated . ibid The distinction of Incli●ations . 124 , 36 , &c. Remedies against Inchantmens . 605 The Intellect is a formal light . 269.34 The nourishing of an Infant for long life . 797 799 The property of Irish Oak . 150.5 . The faculties of a vein of Iron and what it performs . 700.7 How it profits in the stone . 701.12 Issues how they sometimes profit . 372.74 How the Author got the Itch with his practise on himself . 317.3 , 319 , 9 Thirteen conclusions from the same . 318.7 Iuyces how preserved uncorrupt . 461.21 , 15● 172 , 45 K. OF the wandring Keeper . 254 Why so called . 257.10 What he performs . 256.6 , 258 , 24 259.27 How he Erreth . 260 His Restoring di●●icult . 261.43 How the Kings-evil is bred 251.24 A Remedy for the same . 252.26 Kidney Judge of the Dropsie . 512 It conceives the dropsie . 514 Kidneys differ the urine from the Latex , alone . 558 What it is brings peace to the Kidneys . 709 52 Kermes Examined . 972 L. LAtex is not the urine . 509 Latex seperated from the venal blood Receives the disposition of an excrement . 512 Its ordination . 518 Latex what it is . 373 , 2 The distinction of the Latex from urine and sweat . 374.5 The absurdities that follow the Ignorance of the Latex . ●bid . 9 , 370 Of the several uses of the Latex . 375.12 , 14 18 The necessity of the Latex . 377.28 The vices of the Latex . Ibid. 31 Latex easily receives a Forreign guest . 378 36 Diseases arising sometimes from the Latex , how cured . 448.61 Laudanum without Opium cures several distempers . 543 Why the Land of promise hot . 86 , 27 Lead , how reducible into Gas. 102.23 Leprosie what . 895 What the L●prosie infects by . 900 Difficulty of its cure . 901 Of the bu●ding of the Leprosie after curation . 1091 What Leff as is . 116.31 Of the manifold life of man. 735 Of the middle life of things , &c. 150.8 . &c. Impediments of life . 754 How the life of things is changed . 154.28 The middle life of things abides with us . 150 158.53 , 379 , 43 , 1124 Of the spirit of life . 191 What life is . 740 What Resembles life . 752 Of light , &c. 135.24 Its beams being united is true and actual fire , Ibid. 26 T is to be understood of the Suns light . 139 , 40 , 130 , 36 It is No element . Ibid. 37 The difference 'twixt it and the formal light . 144.73 Of its being retained in a flint . 147.95 , 155 35 Of the extinction of life . 159.59 What places most conduce to long life . 723.806 810 Light in us is hot in fishes cold . 734.747 Of short Life . 747 What may occasion it . 754 Harmony of life from the Duumvirate . 306 52 The Liver never hotter than needfull . 438.27 Liver not the seat of the Dropsie . 510 The shop of sanguification is not in the Liver . 214.42 It performs its digestion by a fermental Blas . Ibid. Of the different operation of the Loadstone . 762 The Medicinal faculty of the Loadstone . 763.19 Loadstone dir●cts it self but is not drawn . 773 64 , 774 , 67 , 775 , 68 The properties of the Loadstone laid asleep by Garlick . 774 67 The same performed by Mercury . Ibid Why glassmakers use the Loadstone . 787 143 Logick deciphered and Condemned . 32.5 , &c. 67 Long life Impeded by Milk. 797 What Love is . 719 , 722 Love is before desire . 720 The excellency of love-desire . 314.19 , 21 , 23 A Lunar Tribute . 7●0 Ludus its preparation and where to be found . 881 , 882 The original of the Lues venerea . 1092. 1903 1094 Lues venerea consists not of matter but of a ferm●ntal odour . 1094 Carnal Lust not from the Reines . 305.42 But from the stomach . Ibid. 43 The diseases of the Lungs whence they a rise . 440.39 With what their Ulcers are cured . 441 , 43 Why they disburden themselves by spitting . ibid. 45 They are unmoveable . ibid. 442. &c. Their use . 444 , 49 The vanity of Ecligmaes in these distempers 445 , 54. Burdened by perfumes . 446 , 55 A corrupt Imposthume in them broken attended on by death . 449 , 63 Their difficulty of cure . 260 , 41 Remedies applyed to the head for the Diseases of the lungs unprofitable . 357. 3 , 4 M. Sign of madness . 297 , 1054 , 11 Concerning madnesses . 966 , 287 The first and second degrees of madness . 278 , 30 , 279 , 38 The occasion of madness in the Midriff . 981 , 273 , 5 , 276 , 287 , 29 , 297 , 2 , 307 Madness not cured by Opiates . 629 , 307 , 56 Madness difficult to be understood . 277 , 24 VVhy a mad man feels no cold . 280 , 43 How madness is propagated by biting , &c. 144   76 'T is not proper to the mind . 145 , 70 Of the cure . 281 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 282 , 52 Maiden hair good against Inchantments . 605 VVhere the Magical power in man is seated . 780 The Magick of man when most powerful . 781 The first degree of power dwelleth Magically in the forms of the three principles 788 , 152 Of the Magick of Bruits . 789 , 155 Humane imagination the foundation of Natural Magick . 791 , 168 Magisteries commended . 480 , 54 Of the Magnetick faculty . 614 Marrow more in old creatures then young . 748 VVhat Magnum Oportet is . 153 The power of Magnetism . 762 , 11 , 763 , 21 Magnetism not superstitious . ibid. 14 VVhat diseases have been cured by Magnetism . 763 , 20 Vitriol dies through Magnetism . 764 , 21 The Magnetism of Mummy proved to reach from Italy to Bruxels . ibid. 23 Of the Magnetism of the ●●●line Thistle ibid. 24 The Magnetism of Philtrous Mummies . 27 The magnetick force of Arsmart , Comfrey , &c. in curing Vlcers . 765 , 29 Asarabacca and Elder are magnetical . ibid. 30 Of the Mumial magnetism impressed on a Chair . ibid. 33 The Saphir an Imitater of the magnetick Unguent . 766 , 34 Magnetism is a heavenly quality . 768 , 40 God approves of the Magnetism of the unguent by Reliques . 769 , 47 How glass becomes magnetical . 774 , 65 Rosin magnetical . ibid. 66 The cause of Magnetism in the Unguent . 776 , 71 VVhen the Magnetick Unguent is brought into action . 777 , 78 The Magnetism of the Eagle . 778 , 82 By what the power of the Magnetick unguent becomes efficacious . 784 , 121 Magnetism not exercised by Satan . ibid. Spirits the Patrons of Magnetism . 786 , 138 , 788 , 150 The Magnetism of things are made by a natural sensation . 787 How Magnetism differs from other properties . 789 , 159 The virtue of the Magnetick unguent from the composition , not the phansie of the Composer . 792 , 172 The Magnetism of Red Coral . 1147 The definition of a Man. 21 Man in his whole substance the Image of God. 718 How he hath a likeness of the Heavens . 749 The medicines of the shops vain . 431 , 10 The property of a true one . 451 , 5 Its extent . 460 , 20 Medicine the most ●ccult and intricate of Sciences . 538 Purging deceives the unwary . 556 Force of medicines in their odour . 593 In what the virtue of a medicine is seated . 177 , 42 Metals , why hard to be reduced , &c. 49 , 12 VVhen reduced , they have in them Planetary virtues . 478 , 41 Of the internal Mercury of metals , and its property , &c. 65 , 8 Mercury's wonderful property the outward Sulphur being severed from it . 66 , 14 , 410 , 58 It hath an internal preservative sulphur . 67 , 17 The simplicity of the Mercury of a Metal . 410 , 53 , &c. Why Mercury is immortal . 410 , 59 , 60 The mouth of the stomach dedicated to Mercury . 1132 Of Mercurius vitae . 479 , 44 Memory why placed in the head . 304 , 35 Memory what . 718 Menstrues their description , use , &c. 740 , 741 , 742 , 743 What the material cause of a Meteor is . 74 , 27 Mettallus massculus described . 514 Metals exceed plants and minerals in healing . 579 Metals have the Internal faculty of glasse . 580 Metalline glasses appease the Archeus . 583 The original and progresse of Metals . 155   156 Mercurius Diaphoreticus though undigested by the stomach stirs up the Duumvirate to the expelling diseases . 884 Its description . 987 The dignity of Mercury . 991. 576 It cures somethings by glance . Ibid. The first conceits of disturbance in the midriff 299. 13 , 302 , 23 , 304 , 34 The veins of the midriff the s●eath of sanguification . 299. 13 Sleep stirred up in the midriff . 304. 39 Of the corrosive spirits of minerals . 476. 32 The property of minerals when changed into a Saline nature . 478. 39 They contain in themselves seminal beginnings . 142. 63 They proceed from water . 149. 2 Mineral Electrum of Paracelsus exptls sorceries . ●05 Of the stifling in the mine-pits . &c. 84. 17 The mind is conjoyned to the sensitive soul . 352. 353 , 11 , 354 , 13 Sharpnesse of wit not an operation of the mind . 311. 4 Milk of asses why the best . 220. 761 The defects of Milk. 797 The mind not seated in the heart nor head . 277   27 But in the Duumvirate proved . Ibid. 28 The mind knowes nothing by imagination . 714   263. 4 Passions are not from the mind but the sensitive soul . 264. 6 The mind differs from Angels . 265 12 The mind not sick . 306. 51 What the mind is . 270. 38 A Ternary in the mind unfolded . 269. 36 Why Monarchs want a long life . 811 What the trival Line and flinty . Mountaine is . 830 Of the purity of Air on mountains . 806 How a mola comes to be . 739 Of the cure of Moals and markes made by a woman with child on her young . 1117 Of the stink of the mouth how it comes to be . 246. 22 Mosse of dead mens skuls how it comes to be so vertnous . 768 , 41 How it answers to the back of the Loadstone . Ibid. 45 The seed of mosse distills from Heaven . 770   51 The light of the Moon cold . 139. 40 She hath a Light of her own . Ibid. 44 Capable of changing the hot light into a Contrary property . 140. 46. &c. Her office . Ibid. 47 A caus●r of putrefaction . 141. 54 A reducer to a first matter . 142. 58 The difference between generating creatures subject to its light and the Solar light . 146. 93 Of moistnesse and drying . 471. 4 Radical moisture of the Schools . 726 What muck or snivel is and how generated . 255. 256 , 6 Not made of venal blood . 257 Nor by a natural digestion . 258. 21 What it serves for . 260 N. NAtivities no discov●rers of mans inclinations . 125 , 43 Its point uncertain . 126 , 48 Nature ignorant of contraries . 161 , 164 , 165 , 19 How she acts . 169 , 37 , 170 , 38 What Nature is . 171 , 39 Nature not every where circular demonstrated . 738 Nature solicitous of Generation . 784 , 749 Nature understood chiefly by the Alchymist . 761 , 8 God in miracles follows Nature . 769 , 46 What the torture of the Night is . 449 , 64 By what property some creatures see in the night , &c. 140 , 49 What the running at the Nose is . 439 , 37 The running at the Nose not healthful . 259 , 32 The best nourishment for children . 798 Nurses communicate their vices to children that suck them . 7●8 O. OF the insect found in the ●ake apple . 1137 For obstructions .   What property opening remedies must have . 476 , 31 Fermental odours produce seminal effects . 330   19 , The great power of odours in healing . 110 , 44 , 114 , 16 , 19 , &c , 593 Odours of Spices refresh fainting spirits by aspect . ●85 The odour of Quick-silver turns oyl of Vitriol into Alum . 576 , 1002 Odours beget ferments . 149 Odours work on the Archeus . 1●3 Putrid odours do not hurt , unless married to a mumial ferment . 1127 , 1129 Old age only from a decay of vital powers 799 , 800. How Opium is said to cool . 471 , 4 Of its operation . 218. 170 , 337 , 338 , 309 In what Opium may profit . 308. 62 A true preparing of Opium of great benefit to the sick . 309. 64 The drowsie evil , sleep , watching , all made in one and the same organ . 297. 3 Orifice of the stomach the centre of the body . 305. ●4 Oyle easily redu●ible into water . 408. 49 , 105 , 3 , 109 , 31 Why Chymical oyles are such weak h●lpers . 415. 83 , 480 , 51 Reducible into volatile salts . 415. 84 Their operativeness wh●n so . 480 , 53 By what ferment oylinesses are made volatile . 423 , 46 Oyl , though of Spices , nourish not . 583 Oyl olive preserves iron from rust . 846 A twofold oyl separable in oyl olive . 193 , 6 , 732 Oyl of Sulphur per Campanam commended for preservation of health . 813 P. Palsey what it is . 918 Pain where seated . 895 Pain of the head from what . 339 , 340 , 14 Paracelsus his doctrine of separation of Elements rejected . 69 , 403 , 13 His life . 230 , 3 His cures . 802 , 771 The nature and use of his Arcanums . 803 Their names . 804 His diligent search commended . 402 , 2 His errour about the salt in man. 405 , 30. 413 , 74 His errours concerning Tartar. 234 , 236 Paracelsus his doctrine of Tartar sum'd up . 231 , 8 Paracelsus the Monarch of secrets . 770 , 51 His Epitaph . 771 , 53 His errours concerning the plague . 1089 The secrets of Paracelsus takes away diseases , but reach not the root of life . 805 Objections against the solving of Pearls . 992 , 971 The Milk of Pearls ; its efficacy . 479 , 4● Pepper degenerates into Iuy . 770 , 51 What meant by a Perolede . 74 , 24 Their division , &c. 75 , 31 Physitians reproved . 7 , 3. 431 , 10. 439. 35 What his property is , or ought to be . 430 , 1. 455 , 26 Their success imputed to natures goodness . 450 , 1 Their vanity as to prescriptions of diet . 450 , 2 , &c. 455 , 26 Wherein deridable . 457 , 1 The signs of a true Physitian . 107 , 1076 The Author grieved that he learned Physick . 1078 Plague begins always about the stomack . 600 , 262 Of what kind the Plague is . 1073 The Plague an Infant . 1081 The true curing the Plague died with Hippocrates . 1082 , 1083 How the Plague in Egypt varies every seventh year . ibid. The Heavens do not produce the Plague . 1084 Some Symptomes of the Plague not seen till after death . 1089 Plague not Endemieal . 1090 Plague not helped by Diaphoreticks . 1089 A Plague sent from God despiseth the help of natural remedies . 1090 , 1099 1133 Of a forreign new Plague . 1091 Plague collected into two causes . 1097 The division of the Plague . 1098 , 1099 The conjoyned causes of the Antients . ibid Putrefaction of humours not the cause of the Plague . 1100 Triacle , and other Antidotes that resist poyson , profit little in the Plague . 1101 The matter of the Plague what , with its progress . 1102 , 1132 The seat of the Plague . 1103 Why the Plague is frequent in signes . 783 , 114 , 1134 Excrements do not cause the Plague . ibid. Sweating is profitable in the Plague . 1113 , 1127 Things requisite for the Idea of an imagined Plague . 1119 What the fear of the Plague carries with it . 1120 The ferment of the Plague . 1122 Plague sometime discerned by an O●uor . 1123 Of the form and matter of the Plague . 1125 The first matter of the Plague , a hoary putrified poyson , existing in the Gas of the earth . 1126 , 1127 Plague sometimes riseth from within ; sometimes from without . 1127 , 1138 , 1140 The image of the Plague consists in an Archeal air . 1128 Why the Symptomes of the Plague are different . ibid. The poyson of the Plague more cruel than that of Serpents . 1129 What Antidotes against the Plague serve for . 1129 The matter and agent of the Plague have the same specifical I●entity . 1130 The Plague comunicated by an unsensible contagion . 1131 The property of the Plague . 1132 The signs of the Plague . 1136 Doubtful signs of the Plague removed . 1139 The quality of a preservative against the Plague . 1141 , 114● Amulets attain preheminence as well in the cure , as preserving from the Plague . 1142. Toad profitable against the Plague . 1149 Toad a Zenexton against the Plague . 1150 How he comes to cure the Plague . 1152 , 1153 Hippocrates his manner of curing the Plague . 1155 , 1156 Hippocrates his remedy against the Plague , recovered one in six hours . 1157 Several observations about the Plague . 1158 Carline T●●stle profitable in the Plague . 1160 Phlegm made of the Latex . 1042 Phlegm not in the blood . 1043 Phlegm not at all rightly distinguished by the Schools . 1050 Pimples and swellings in the face , their cure . 252 , 16 Pleurisie its seat . 437 , 25 Specificks for it . 458 , 5 Phlebotomy hurtful in a Pleurisie . 956 , 394 , 8. 396 , 16 Pleuri●ie suddenly cured by sweat . 378 , 39 A definition of a Pleurisie according to the Schools . 392 , 1 The Schools defects in the Pleurisie . 393 Of the Original and progress of a Pleurisie . 395 , 13 A Remedy for a Pleuri●ie how it ought to be gifted . 396 , 17 Peripneumonia and Pleuri●ie differ neither in their occasional cause , nor remedy . 397 , 27 The Thorn in the Pleurisie chiefly to be minded . 398 , 31 The Cure. 399 , 32 Poisons . Why the body swells when poisoned . 427 , 72 Their great vertue when pr●pared . 465 , 46 What poisons chiefest for medicine when prepared . 474. 28 The variety of poisons as to their preperty and operativeness . 475 , 30 What they operate by . 479 , 47. 158 , 159 , 1123 Of the poison of the Meazels . 742 The Ferments of poisons never duly weighed by the Schools . 1124 , 1125 The Snake a Remedy against poison . 1157 Prayer of silence what it demonstrates . 311 , 6. 313 , 1● The preparation of the Praecipiolum of Paracelsus . 521 Two Principles and no more . 31 , 23 What the Principles of nature , and the principles of bodies of are . 44 , 7. 409 , 51 The first rise of the Doctrine of three principles . 403 , 6 A principle of the Schools cond●mned . 45 , 8 152 , 20 Of the different properties of places . 724 Measuring of pulses . 178 , 13 , 16 The framer of pulses . 179 , 23 Pulsation how made . 180 , 28 The ends of the pulses . 181 , 29 , 185 The necessity of pulses hitherto unknown . 182 , 33 What a h●rdened pulse doth betoken . 185 , 50 What the use of pulses are . 187 , 57 Purges condemned . 3 , 9. 961 What property they op●rate by . 477 , 33 What the property of a true one is . 466 , 50. 477. 33 , 525 Putrefaction promotes the odours of some things . 414 , 18 It destroyes others . 161 , 16 Why all things soon putrifie under the Equinoctial . 141 , 54 What preserves against putrefaction . 152 16 , 19 What solely promotes it . 152 , 192 Pyrotechny commended . 45. 11 What the Pylorus is . 222 Of his Government . 223 Of his Blas . ibid. Of the diseases he stirs up . 224 , 10 Of his shu●ting and opening . 225 , 16 A sense of appetite in the Pylorus demonstrated . 226 , 20 His rage and restauration . ibid. The use of the Pylorus . 228 With observations thereon . ibid. The vice of the Pylorus cured . 227 , 22 The four hot seeds usually pacifie the Pylorus . 301 , 21 Q QVartans cured by odorous oyntments . 114 , 17 By an Emplaister . 988 , 1011 Seat of a Quartane : 778 Examination of a Quartane . 963 Quartane not cured by Physitians . 307 , 57 , 812 Quick-silver truly prepared , cures the Pox. 1094 What the Quellem is . And where . 94 , 5689 , 6 Its greatness . 690 , 14 A Question propounded to all the learned . 167,32 No such thing as a Quint-Essence . 407 , 44. 414 , 79 R. WHat rain is . 71 , 10 , 73 , 21 , 79 , 12 Of the Rain-bow . 87 , 1. &c. Of the radical moisture of the Schools . 726 Radical moisture explained . 729 Reason condemned . 15. &c. It is in bruit beasts . 20 , 34 It makes a man unstable . 21 , 40 VVhen reason faileth . 715 Reason not ●t he Image of God. 268 , 30 , 79 The Rel●llum of Paracelsus . 75 , 36 What it is . 66 , 25 Powerful remedies are not of a foody substance 582 Remedies against Inchantments . 605 The Reins do not stir up lust . 305 , 42 How the Reins change the colour of the stone . 248 , 28 Of the Revelation of several persons . 1092 The Reins do not cause fatness . 308 , 59 The errours of Physitians as touching rheums . 432 , 15 Rie meal makes durable morter . 247 Roses preserve their fragrant putrefaction . 414 , 79 S. SAlt of Tartar volatilized perfects dissolutions . 1002 , 1011 It absterg●th . 1032 From whence is the first beginning of Salts . 694 The vital Being is Salt. 193 , 19 The various properties of Salts . 473 , 22 Salt of venal blood cures the Falling Sickness . 195 , 16 What the chiefest of all is . 473 , 24 How Salt ariseth in Urine . 842 The operations of Simple Salts , 476 31. 480 , The Gas of Salts is nothing but water . 109 , 37 Volatile Salts , their vertues . 991 Hermaphroditical Salt of Metals , 694 Sand not transmutable , save only by the artificial hellish fire . 52 , 14 The Sea less than the boyling Sand , 690 , 14 What the true Sea is . ibid It hath its motion in it self . ibid. Saphire , its power in the Plague . 765 , 34 Why Church-men wear Saphirs . 766 , 36 Why Saturns kingdoms are wished for . 303 , 32 The Mercury of Saturn , &c. 478 , 40 Its distillation . ibid. Against the Contemners of Science . 989 The Schools ignorant of the diseases that arise in the sixth digestion . 219 The Schools condemned of ignorance and sloath . 474 , 28 , &c. Of blasphemy . 145 , 78 The errour of the Schools about the first Mover . 176 Scorpions produced from Bazil . 13 , 113 Scurvy unknown to the Antients . 109 When it first appeared . 1092 How seeds issue from the invisible world . 935 Seminal beginnings are from an Idea . 436 Seeds act as appointed . 164 , 16 No seminal disposition in the soul of man b●fore the fall . 662 , 11 The four lesser hot seeds commended . 427 , 75 The proportion of seed in a body is the 8200. th . part . 106 , 12 , 1125 How seeds are made . 13 , 12 The difference betwixt a seed and ferment . ibid. Hot seeds are of an easie conception . 143 , 66 Seeds in their Original void of savour and colour . 693. 2 Of Sense and Sensation . 895 The Sensitive soul not generated by the mind . 662 , 10 It differs from the mind . 334 The knitting of the sensitive soul with the mind . 251 The seat of the sensitive soul . 283 , 284 , 285 It remains always in the vital Archeus of the stomack . 286 , 18. 288 , 32 The sensitive soul is a vital light . ibid. 20 Of the power of the sensitive soul when impregnated with the mind . 354 , 13 , 14 In simples there is a perfect cure of all diseases . 467 , 5 The natural power of some simples 307 , 54 The quality of the first sin . 654 , 8 Sin hath n●● immediately caused death . 655   656 Whence the continuation of original sin . ibid. 28 Of the difference between actual and original sin . 658 , 47 Why sleep was sent in before sin . 563 Sleep not from a defect . 337 , 1 When sleep is made . 339 , 12 Snow on the mountains melts not . 73 , 15 Soul of man not generated from his parent , 662 , 12 Soul created by God. 663 Its retreat in our first parents . 664 A Treatise of the soul . 342 Of the immortality of the soul . 346 The seat of the soul not in the heart . 292 , 13 Some defects of the stomack cured by sweat . 1113 The ferment of the stomack to be regarded . 453 , 22 , &c. Why though still moist , yet putrifies not . 479   48 Twelve properties of the stomack . 560 Some diseases inhabit in the life of the stomack . 561 The stomack hath not its ferment in it self . 267 , 11 Sharpness not the vital Ferment of the stostomack 208 , 131 What it is . 210 , 29 The stomach doth not coct first for it self . 216 , 52 The stomach first sensible of any defect . 285 ; 13 , 14 , 287 , 26 The stomach of the liver . 20● , 20 The stomach of the gaul . ibid Sobriety commended . 452 , 16 Seat of diseases in the sensitive soul confirmed . 559 The seat of the sensitive soul . 555 Of specifical savours . 473 , 25 Two savours , one of the tongue , the other of the stomach . 474 , 27 Spleen the maker of seed . 305 , 42 The scituation of the Spleen . 540 It is the fountain of Idea's . 606 Against black choler in the spleen . 964 , 1056 The defect of the spleen is the cause of the Strangury in old people . 1061 A double ferment in the spleen . 1055 The spleen inspires a digestive ferment into the stomack . 298 The spleen most enriched with Arteries . ibid. Of the stomack of the spleen . 299 , 13 Of the external spleen of an Infant . 306 , 49 How the soul thinks intellectualy . 23 , 48 It is substantial . 144 , 70 Its power when freed from corporeal contagion . 144 , 75 What the sensitive soul is . 145 , 82 Soul acts in the body per nutum , 780 , 97 , 784 , The soul generates Entities . 785 , 131 Soul sits in the Duumvirate . 301 , 22 Sharpness is the specifical mean in the stomack . 115 , 34 It d●ffers from all other sharpnesses . 193 , 10 Stones and Rocks reducible into their equal weight of Salt. 411 , 65 Whence the Strangury in old people is . 855 , 624 What the Stars shew forth , &c. 122 , 21 How they operate . 121 , 14 How they necessitate . 123 , 30 The difference betwixt the Planets and the fixed Stars . 125 , 40 How a wise man rules over them . 126 , 46 The Stone in man not made by the intention of nature . 250 , 5 Of the causes of the stone , according to the Antients . 705 , 1 Of their Intentions to cure , and by what . ibid. Their despair . ibid. Why they have erred in the cure . 706 , 12 , 708 Heat of the reins , not the cause of the stone . 707 An example . ibid How the Antients remedies may profit , though not cure the stone . 708 Why an expulsion of the stone is not to be intended . 709 The quality of a remedy resolving the stone . 710 , 56 Why stones are sometimes white . 248 , 28 Whence a three-fold stone is made . 249 , 3 Of the Stone . 828 The flux of seeds for a stone . 829 , 706 , 20 After what manner a man is made a stone . 833 Of the Coagulum and Runnet of the stone by handicraft operation . 840 Salt profitable in the stone . 843 Of the occasion of the stone . 857 Of the womb of the stone . 866 Its Scituation . 867 The pain of the stone from a contracture ▪ 86 Of the intention to cure the stone . 701 , 15 , 874 Its cure . 878 , 879 With testimonies thereof . ibid. Of the manner of ministring a remedy for the stone . 883 Of the stone that maketh gold , & its projection . 674 , 58 , 751 , 807 The stone that maketh gold , hath not the blessings of the tree of life . 807 Sulphur only resists a fermental poyson . 1158 In Sulphur is the life and death of bodies . 66 , 14 Sulphur boiled in Linseed oyl . 427 , 70 In oyl of Turpentine . 515 The whole band of diseases hearken to some Sulphurs . 577 , 260 , 39 The Sulphur of Copper , hot , stupefactive , yet sweeter then honey . 304 , 39 How floures of Sulphur profit those that have a Cough . 309 , 94 Sulphur commended against the Plague . 1154 Of the Gas of Sulphur . 1155 The Sun scorcheth without pain . 72 , 14 Is hot . 74 , 23 , 139 , 41 , 794 The gifts of the Almighty are placed in the Sun. 796 Sugar hurtful in most diseases . 462 , 30 Loaf-Sugar not so good as the common . 467 , 57 Swooning from the Stomack . 302 , 303 , 27 What that Sweat is that accompanies death and Swoonings . 42 What the Synovia is . 842 , 389 , 20 Of Sympathetical Mediums . 616 The cause of Sympathy . 775 , 68 Of the Sympathy and Antipathy of things . 1114 T. TAst in the midriff . 909 Tartar , its distillation . 412 , 68 , 427 , 68 , 183 , 39 Why salt of Tartar dissolves crude Tartar. 234 , 19 How Tartar is made . 233 No disease ariseth from Tartar. 235 , 1 Tartar not in foods . 241 , 8 Tartar af●●● digestion in the stomach ceaseth to be a Tartar. 242 , 243 Tartar not in drinks . 250 , 7 Of the Tartar of the blood . 1103 Of the original of the Tarantual . 1509 The poyson of the Tarantula . 787 , 148 What thirst is , and whence . 471 , 8 Thorn in the flesh how cured . 521 Of thunder . 90 , 17 A preservation against its effects on Beer , &c. 91 , 21 The seat of the Timpany and by what it is made . 520 Why Tin is lighter than other Metals . 107 , 20 The Toad commended against the Plague . 1149 How prepared for that use . 1150 How it kils the Ferment of the Plague . 1151 How quickly he dies with fear . Ibid. The Toad given by God as a Remedy for the poor against the Plague . 1152 The bone of a Toad cures the tooth ach Tooth-ach whence caused . 438. 30 , 247 Of the original of the tooth-stone . 246 Of the flourishing and decaying of teeth . 247 25 How the Transmutation of bodies is effected . 115. 23 The tree of good and evil why forbidden . 656 664 , 665 , 666 , 680 Of the tree of life . 745 , 753 , 754 , 755 Tree of life what qualities it ought to have . 808 The Cedar tree doth signifie the tree of life in this world . 810 Of the preparation of the Cedar tree . 811 V. VAlerian good against Inchantments . 605 All Vegetables not woody , contain a winie spirit . 413. 73 Their Archeus hath no anatomical affinity with man. 458 , 5 Their whole property from their seed , and not from the heaven . Ibid. 7 Their degrees whence different . 146 , 88 Why vegetables unprofitable to the sick . 578 Vervain commended . 605 Venal blood wholly turned into nourishment . 257 , 13 Venal blood never putrifies in its place . 941 The natural endowment of the veins . 942 An example . Ibid. Vesicatories more hurtful then Phlebotomy . 968 Vital spirit is salt . 195. 19 , 733 , 734 Made of Arterial blood . 196 24 , 732 By the ferment of the heart . 733 Actuated by a vital light . 734 The virgin earth . 689 The Author instructed by visions . 22 , 42 His vision of the soul . 726 A vision of a Layick concerning the Lues venerea . 1904 The spirit of vitriol reduced into an Alum by its dissolution of Mercury . 473. 21 The dignity of the sulphur of venus and the nativity of vitriol . 889 The best vitriol where to be had . 891. 695 , 15 How vitriol may be made . Ibid. The preparation of the Sulphur of vitriol . 339. 9 Unguents how applicable . 47 , 58 Ulcers their principal vice where seated . 〈◊〉 18 , 21 , 23 Of the Difference of Ulcers . 321. 29 The cure of Ulcers . 322. 31 , 323 , 35 Volatile things fixed by fixed things .   Volatiolation caused by ferments . 117. 33 To provoke Urine in lingring fevers . 465. 46 VVhat true provokers are . 473. 19 , 476 , 31 Urinary salt made by the kidnyes . 473. 19 Observations on distilled urine . 847 Of the various actions of the spirit of urine . 864 Urine-vessels not enlarged by drink , but by the stone . 708. 41 , 42 Urine not an excrement of the Kidneys . 257 11 Of the division of vrines . 1051. 1 Of the errours in the circle of urine . 1052. 4 What the circle in the urine is , demonstrated . 1052. 5 What the yellownesse in urine may signifie . 1053. 9 Watery urines after yellow ones signifie dotages . 1054 VVhat a troubled urine signifies . 1056. 26 VVhat the litle cloud in the urine may signifie . 1054. 20 Of the several sediments of urine . 1056 Examinations of urine by weight . Ibid W. WArts how cured . 141 55 , 154 VVater the material cause of things . 32. 31 , 105 , 3. Proved so by an experiment . 48. 11 , 109 , 30 Likened to the internal Mercury of Metals . 65. 8 Never radically conjoyned with the earth . 10 &c. The parts of the water . 71 , 8 , 410 , 54 What its unrestable appointment is . 74. 28 Easily putrefiable under the Equinoctial . 116 30 All bodies thereinto reducible . 116. 33 The great use of that which comes from the Quellem . 117 , 33 Water doth not always fal in a circular Figure . 684. 50 When waters loose their life . 689. 9 Waters the womb of seeds . 693. 1 Why some waters hurt those that have the stone . 251 Wheat changed into mice . &c. 113. 9 Winds whence generated . 730 , 18 , 80 , 14 , 771 , 59 What the wind is . 78 , 4 The vanity of the Schools defining it . 85. 23 Violent ones how allayed . 79. 13 Remedies for windinesse . 4●0 . 28 What causeth it . 422. 41 Only in defective persons . 424. 54 Some wind in the Ilcon , &c. Natural and necessary . &c. 428. 76 Spirit of Wine how reducible into water . 69 , 27 105 , 9 , 106 , 11 VVines hurt by keeping in their Gas. 107. 16 Wines profitable to our natures . 966 Spirit of wine passeth into the Arteries without digestion . 194. 12 , 731 Cold preserveth wines . 232 VVhy wines wax soure . 234 15 , 21 How wines become troubled . 773 62 The labor of wisdome . 184. 45 Of witches and witchcraft : 568 The Devil how concerned therein . 569. 1 Of the power of witches . 779. 86 Of the nature and extent thereof . 780 How a witch may be bound up in the heart of a horse . 782 , 109 , 110 Witchcraft , Simpathy , and Magnetism do differ . 759. 1 VVomen why monthly purged . 405 24 VVomen are subject to double disieases . 609 358. 17 VVomen consume not so much Blood as men . 740 Yet they make more . Ibid. VVhy they have so many conceits when with child . 306 , 50 VVomb its overslowings cured by odorus ointments . 114. 17 Remedy for a woman in travel . 306. 46 VVomb a peculiar monarchy . 575 A Twofold monarchy of a woman . 609. 15 VVomb governs its self . Ibid. 334. 43 VVomb brings forth an alterative Blas . Ibid. Disseases of the womb differ from products . 610. 19 The progresse of the wombs defects . 612. 358 Its cure . 612. 325 , 48 Sugar stirs up the sleeping fury of the womb . 612 Wherein the fruitfulness of the womb consists . 630 Where the womb of the urine beginneth . 209 23 Womb warreth under its own banners . 306. 52 Of the force of Imagination in women with Child 1117. 1118 The monarchy of the womb distingisheth a woman from a man. 335. 48 In words herbs and stones there is great vertue . 575 Silk-worms figure out a shadow of the Resurrection . 684. 94 VVounds asswaged by odours , &c. 114 , 17 Hurt by the Moon-beams : 141. 55 Z. ZEnexton against the plague . 1144 Of the uselessness of some Zenextons . 1145 Pretious stones not true Zenextons . 1146 Amber a Zenexton and how so made . Ibid. The qualities a Zenexton ought to have . 1148 1149. Toad a Zenexton . Ibid How the Toad is prepared for a Zenexton . 1150 VVhy he is a true Zenexton . 1152 A Poetical Soliloquie of the Translatour , Harmonizing and Sympathizing with the Author's Genius . WHen first my Friend did ask me to translate , Van Helmonts Works wrapt up in hidden state , Of Roman dialect ; that 't was a Book Of Med'cine and Phylosophy , I took It in good part enough , and did not doubt But to perform what I should set about , By Gods asistance ; for I willing stood Much pains to take about a publick good . I forth with entred on it and did see , More than my friend , thereof , could tel to me : For why , since something was begot within My inward parts which loved truth , but sin And selfish errour hated , I began To feel and love the spirit of the man , Whom I perceived like a gratious Son , To build his knowledg on the Corner Stone ; And out of self to sink in humble wise , As his Confession in me testifies . The light of understanding was his guide , From heath'nish Books and Authors he did slide , And cast them of , that so he might be free , Singly to stand , O Lord , and wait on thee , And in the pray'r of silence on thee call ; Because he knew thee to be All in All. And thou didst teach him that which will conduce To th' profit of his Neighbour , be of use , Both unto soul and body , as inclin'd To read with lowly and impartial mind : But as for lofty and and self-seeking ones , Thou scatter wilt their wisdom , wealth , and bones : Because thou art not honour'd in a lye Whether of Nature or Divinity : But in the truth of knowledge of thy Life , And of thy wondrous works which men of strife , And alienated , can no whit attain , Till from the fall they do return again . Helmont , that thou returned'st I believe , Thy testimony of it thou dost give , When by the light thou saist ( entring thy dore ) Thou changed wast from what thou wert before : And cause thou suffredst by a wicked sort For being good , and once wast poyson'd for 't : That 't was unjustly , I am doubting past , ' Cause th' Enemies conscience prickt him at the last . And truely'n many places of thy Ream Words slow forth from thee like a silver stream ; And so , that I at sundry times have found , Sweet op'nings from the un'ty in the ground . But did thy life in words alone consist , Or art thou to be enrowl'd among the list Of Stoical Notionists , which only spend Their time in contemplation , and so end Their days ; or were good actions wrought by thee , Which ( as the fruits discover do the tree ) Did shew that healing virtue forth did start From thy fire-furnace , as love from thy hart . If not , how is it that thou dost us tel Thou ceased'st not Annually to heal Some Myriades or ten thousands , yed Thy medicines were not diminished : Or that thou wert so tender of the poor , ( What if I say that bagd from door to door That thou retiredly didst live at home , And cure them out of Charity , not ro●● And gape for gain for visits as do most Physitians who unto rich houses post ; Floating about even as in a floud , Of poysoned purged filths and venal blood ; And so the peoples wealth , health , life do soa● , Through the s●ay vi●ard of a Doctors cloak : But Helmonts hand-pen asit plain appears : Their false-paint coverings a funder tears : In room whereof , such Practic● , Theory , It doth insert , that they as standers by , ( Like Bibels Merchants ) will ven , we●p and wa●● When they shall see their trade begin to fail , And upright Artists held up by the ●an Of him who owns the good Samaritan . Yet such School-Doctors shall not thus relent , Whom Grace and goodnesse shall move to repent . This is not utter'd out of spleen but pity , Unto the sick in Country and in City : No just cause given by these words to hate ; But to be owned by the Magistrate . And I my self in former silly times , Through School-tradition , and Galenick lines , Have wrong'd my body , weaken'd my nature , Clipping my vitals in their strength and Stature ? And though , through Grace , to soul and body to , T' was turned to good , yet that 's no thank to you . Help Chymists help to pul their Babel down , Builtby the pride of Academicks Gown ; Let Theophrastus Azoth , Helmonts Lore , Erect an Engine such as ne're before . Hark Chymists , hark , attend Baptista's law , He speaks to h's Sons , as th' Lyon by the Paw ; And why as th' eye is opened to look , May y' not discern Hercules by his foot ? Be it sufficient that he gives a tast , Least pretious peat is he unto swine should east . Be 't no dishonour to the Ghymick School , That some mistakes thereof he doth contro●● : Rather a praise unto the Masters eye , Houshold disorders for to rectifie . Strike Chymists strike , strike fire out of your 〈◊〉 , And force the fire unto the highest stint Of a Reverb'ratory , such a heat , As Galen back out of the field may beat ; And fetch th' Archeal Crasis Seminum , To keep the field gainst a Rololleum . Srrive not not by reason if you 'd win the day , P●ice your Athanar , as he , another way : Aime not at lucre in what ye undertake , Your motive love , the spirit your guider make : That day to day in you the Word may preach , And night to night unto you knowledge teach : That so Elias th' Artist , if he come , Ye as prepar'd , may bid him welcome home . And all well-wishers unto Science , true , Unto whose hands't shall come this Book to view : See that your hearts are simple to the pure , No filthinesse true wisdom can endure : The milky way must be the paper here , And th'Inke Nectar from th' Olympick sphere : And then 't may open unto you a path , For finding that which long been hiden hath : For there 's a way by Simples for to cure , Unto Simplicity the nearest sure ; If not Antiquity , at Scriptures note ; Solomon for ' n example may be brought . The Author opes a gate in that Divine Chapter , that treats ●'th power of medicine . And not a little of Moses C●●●lism He hinteth at that in of Magnetism : So truly doth the Saviour report , That to the carkas● Eagles do resort . In former time , thy younger learning years , Thou as a tender heart , yet void of fears ; People that had the plagues infection , Didst visit , and by them wert spew'd upon : Some breathing forth their life within thy arms , Unto thy grief , because thou then their harms Wert not so able to repair , untill Thou hadst attain'd a great Adeptist skill : For thou by Revelation dost show , What Co-us us'd two thousand years ago . All which supposed , I can freely wink , At some mistakes whereby thine eye did blink , As to Religion , because thou wert Honest , upright , sincere , and sound in heart : For if the folly of them thou hadst seen , As other things de●y'd by thee , they 'd been . And if in Nature thou art ought mistaken , Thy many truths are not to be forsaken ; For why ye Schools , ye cannot , neither dare ye Deny , but that humanum est errare , Until the minds perfection in the Light , Which he believ'd , yet would not claim it quite : And so his candour is to be commended , In not assuming what God had not ended . Yet know that where one truth is you among , In Helmonts breast there lodged ten for one ; And that not taken up by hear-say trust , As ye are wont , but stamped by the Iust : For Reason Dialectical , he saith , Must vail the Bonnet unto light in faith ; Sith Reason savours of an earthly soil , Dies with the sense , our Parents did beguil : And therefore Logick may no longer center Within mens minds as Sciences Inventer . And Nat'ralists must needs go to the wall , As those of Ath●●s in the daies of Paul ; Since that four El'ments , Humors , and Complexions , Are proved plain to be but childish fictions : Which Ethnicans by phansie blind misled , Have rashly plac'd in seeds and ferments sted . This is some liquor pour'd out of his bottle , A deadly draught for those of Aristotle . Astrol'gers also will be soon undon , Since Herm's and Venus circle with the Sun : And since the Planets common Ordination , Was to stir up a Blas for seasons station : And since the Heavens can no forms bestow , To th' Prince of life all creatures do them owe. Ye Theologians , look what will befal ye , Since man is not defin'd by [ Rationale ] But by a Spirit and Intellectual light : Now every one may see by his own sight ; And living waters out 's own Cistern drink , Need not ●ew Cisterns that do leak and chink : Nor tug with pains to dig for earthly Wells , The Spring 's within him as Christ in him dwells : Nor run to Temples that are made with hands , Himself 's the Temple , if he contrite stands . And cause a New-birth is requir'd of all , Since brutal coupling entred by the fall ; And so your follow'rs can't be reputed Christians by birth , nay , but must be transmuted . And since the mind of man may be comp●eated In this lifes time , as sin and self 's defeated . Since Char'ty not to dwell , by many's known , In those that with the letter up are blown : For as from mud or dung ascends a stink , So Pride from Leathing sents up like a sink . He did refuse to be a Canon great , Least ( as saith * B. ) he peoples sins should eat . What will protracting crafty Lawyers doe , Since Christ against them hath denounc'd a woe He would not b● a Professor of the Law , Enough for man to keep 's own self in awe : And what will come of Atheists , since 't is true , That there 's a Power Eternal ( who in ●●e Of fallen Angels ) did mans Soul ereate ( In mortal body an immortal state , ) To live in h's hand in weal or woe , as they His call of Grace shall or shall not obey . What of curst Hypocrites who in deceit , Take up Profession for a Cloak and Cheat ; Better for Sodom and Gomorrah than For such , when Christ doth come the world to fan . But stop my Genius , run not out too far , Although thy shackles much unloosed are , And vitals subtil , while thou tell'st the story , Of what concerns mans good and God his glory ; Least Prince of th' Air like Poets Pegasus , Prevail to make thy wit ridiculous , By mounting thee too high upon his wing Of fleshly pride , and Aeolus thee fling Down from the quiet Region of his skie , In the Icarian waters for to die , Or whirl thee higher in his stormy hail , And sting thy conscience with the Dragons tail : For if an inch be given ( so they tell ) It is not safe for one to take an ell . Wherefore retreat in time of thy accord , Least thou incur the anger of the Lord : And throw thy self along down at his feet , After the Author thou shalt once more greet . I b'lieve thou wert a Medel-master made , By the Creator of the Root and Blade Of healing virt's , the Father of lights ( I sing ) Whence every good gift doth descend and spring . Thou livedst well , and in the Belgick Nation , Wert a tall Cedar in thy Generation : A good memorial thou hast left behind , Of what in daies now coming , men shall find Writ in Christ's Bosom , and in Natures spread , As they are worthy in those books to read . Thou diedst in peace in Anno forty four , I doubt not but thou liv'st for evermore . My friend is also gone , yet I survive , Lord grant that to thine honour I may live : And as my life thou gay●st me for a prey , When in a gloomy and despairing day , I thought I should have died without the fight Of thy Love-tokens , and thy face so bright ; So I intre●r upon my prostrare knee , That I thy way and Cross may never flee : Than turn a new unto Apostasie . Or thee dishonour , ra●ker let me die . Than to depart again out of thy fear , Better wild horses me in pieces tear : If the remembrance dwell not in me rife , Of thy great goodness , pity of my life . But as large mercy is to me extended ; So what is faulty may be fully mended ; That perfect righteousness may cloath my back ; And I to sound thy praises will not slack , In life , or death , or suffering by the world , Who in transgression up and down are hurl'd ; And Tophe●s pit shall surely help to fill , If they in time repent not of their ill . But as he did for 's en'mies pardon cry . So do all Chrictian hearts , and so do I. O holy , holy , holy , holy , God! Whos 's Name 's exalted in th' Ascendant Jod ; My self doth tremble , and my flesh doth quake , While I the King of Saints my Subject make : I dread thee Lord , I dread thy Sov'raign fame ; I love thee so , I can't express the same ; My Spirit 's on site , and my heart doth flame , With a desire to sanctifie thy Name : My Soul is melted , and my heart is broke , In feeling of the force of thy Love-stroke . Father I thank thee that thou didst enable Me to convey the dish from Helmont● Table : And if some crums or drops have fell beside , 'T was what a careful servant might be tide : It being weighty , full of divers fare , If none should over-fall or flow 't were rare . A Corydon I h'd rather some me deem , Than t' use dark-phrases that would not be-seem Rather a Tautologian be dained , Than to the meanest , leave words unexplained : Rather a home-spun Patcher wanting Art , Than th' Authors meaning willingly pervert : And if his tongue could speak out of the dust , Hee 'd justifie this Translate all almost : For though his learned Art I don't comprize , Yet in the Root our Spirits harmonize . The Dish lest somewhat of its crums and drops , As it was carried through the Printing Shops ; Yet what the Press hath nipt off by the way , It here returns again by this survey . ERRATA . IN the Authors Dedication to the Word . Pag. 2 lin . 6 read except . In the Translators premonition . P 2 l 35 r and is . p 3 l 19 dele other . In the Preface to the Reader . P 11 l 46 r Eternally . p 12 l 28 r the work . p 13 l 35 r world . In the Poeticall Prophesie . P 1 l 4 r spiting . P 14 of the Book l 10 r knowingly . ibid. l 28 r vain . ibid. r give . p 17 l 37 r it with . p 7 l 32 r Nuns . p 34 l 55 r first 〈…〉 . p 57 l 25 〈◊〉 as r is . p 295 l 2 r 〈◊〉 . p 298 l 60 r Watchman . p 407 l 28 r whereof they are said to have been the : p 477 l 26 r vital . p 504 l 31 r it is . p 518 l 50 r this [ is ] ●oheaped . p 535 l 41 r efficacy . p 537 l 38 r Plato p 519 l 28 r 〈◊〉 p 575 l 5 r [ But ] be sides . p 577 l 61 r Lile . p 515 l 18 r anothers cherry . p 621 l 53 r 〈…〉 710 l 30 r the God. p 739. l 28 r Mols . p 741 l 22 for any r and. p 825 in the Title of the disease of the Stone , r root . p 838 l 55 r by p. 1073 l 13 r voice . p 1150 l 12 r worms . ibid. l 44 after terrible , dele and. p 1157 l 1 r the plague . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A43285-e8090 Medicine . Aesculapius . Hippocrates . Pandora . Latine , Er Greek , Ro Hebr. Res Errours . Notes for div A43285-e13040 Eccles . 1. 11. Notes for div A43285-e18910 On Psal . 140. & 143. Notes for div A43285-e39830 1. The essentiall Form. 2. The Vitall Form. 3. The substantial Form. 4. The formall substance . Notes for div A43285-e128800 N Notes for div A43285-e142980 Lib. 14. De Civitate Dei , Cap. 17. Lib. 4. Contra Jul cap. 10. Lib. of Marriages , 12. Flesh of Sin. cap. 24. Lib. 5. Cont Jul. cap. 15. Lib. 5. Cont. Jul. cap. 12. Notes for div A43285-e177740 * Of his Testament , Chap. 26. Notes for div A43285-e234610 * The signs of a true Physitian . Notes for div A43285-e300730 * Bernard .