HERMETICAL physic: OR, The right way to preserve, and to restore HEALTH. BY That famous and faithful chemist, HENRY Nollius. Englished by HENRY UAUGHAN, Gent. LONDON. Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Prince's arms in St. Paul's churchyard, 1655. THE TRANSLATOR To the ingenious READER. IF any will be offended with this hermetical theory, I shall but smile at his frettings, and pity his ignorance. Those are bad Spirits, that have the light; and such are all malicious despisers of true knowledge, who out of mere envy, scribble and rail at all endeavours; but such as submit to, and deify their rigid superstition, and twice sodden Colworts. For my own part, I honour the truth where ever I find it, whether in an old, or a new book, in Galen, or in Paracelsus; and Antiquity, (where I find it grey with errors) shall have as little reverence from me, as novelism. Veritatem tempus manu-ducit. There is no reason (if they bind not their own hands) but the discoveries of Survivers and Posterity, may and should be more perfect, than the superficial searches, and first attempts▪ or aims rather of their predecessors. I wish we were all unbiased and impartial learners, not the implicit, groundless proselytes of Authors and opinions, but the loyal friends and followers of truth. It would not then be impossible, but that we might in a short time attain to that perfection, which while it is envied in some, will never be found in all. As men are killed by fighting, so truth is lost by disputing; for while we study the figments and subtleties of Sophisters, we cannot search into the operations and virtues of nature. As many as will consider this, it is not improbable, but they may do well. But despisers, and such as hate to be quietly instructed, must be punished with silence, lest by seeking their peace, we lose our own. Plautus. Qui mali sunt, habeant mala; qui boni, bona; bonos quòd oderint mali, sunt mali; malos, quod oderint boni, bonos esse oportet. Hermetical physic &c. CHAP. I. Medicine or physic is an Art, laying down in certain Rules or Precepts, the right way of preserving and restoring the health of mankind. THe word Medicine, hath a manifold sense. First, It is taken for some receipt or medicament. So the philosophical Stone is termed a Medicine. The Lord hath created Medicines out of the Earth, and the wise man will not abhor them. Secondly, It is taken for the habit, or profession of the physician, and then it signifies the faculty of curing existent in some learned and expert Professor. This habit or faculty is delineated, or methodically described and laid down in the dogmatic Books of Physicians, that others may learn and practise thereby. Thirdly, It is taken for, and signifies a physical System or Treatise, and in this latter sense it is to be understood in this place. The Object of Medicine or physic in this latter sense is, Man, not in general, but that man only who desires to learn the Art of physic, and is to be informed or instructed by this present Treatise: but the Object of physic, as it is an habit in the mind of the Physician, is man in general, either for the preserving or the restoring of his health. The operation, use, and end of physic, is health; as the work and end of Physical books, is a rightly principled and instructed physician; so far as instruction goes: It is termed Hermetical physic, because it is grounded upon Principles of true Philosophy, as the physic of Hermes was. And for this very reason the true Philosophers applied themselves wholly to the Hermetic science, that they might thereby lay a true foundation of physic, for the Hermetic philosophy lays open the most private and abstruse closets of nature, it doth most exquisitely search and find out the natures of health and sickness, it provides most elaborate and effectual Medicines, teacheth the just Dose of them, and surpasseth by many degrees the vulgar Philosophy, and that faculty which is grounded upon the principles of the common, supposititious knowledge, that is to say, it doth much exceed and out do the Galenical physic. This appears most evidently, because the Hermetical physicians both can and frequently do cure those diseases, which the Galenists adjudge to be incurable, as the leprosy, the falling sickness, the Gout, &c. That the Principles of the Hermetists, are more certain than those of Galen, is sufficiently verified by their performances; besides, it is a truth which cannot be denied, that the Certainty and proof of the principles of all Arts, can by no other means be known and tried but by practice, as Paracelsus doth rightly urge In Praef●t. D fensionum, page 252. Now all the knowledge of the Hermetists, proceeds from a laborious manual disquisition and search into nature, but the Galenists insist wholly upon a bare received theory and prescribed receipts, giving all at adventure and will not be persuaded to inquire further than the mouth of their leader. I call not those Hermetists, who know only to distil a little water from this or that Herb; nor those, who seek to extract from other things by their sophistical operations a great treasure of Gold, which only nature can supply us with: for the most ignorant amongst the people, may make a very useful Distiller, and the other attempt is most commonly the task of Sophisters and Impostors: but I call them Hermetists, who observe nature in her works who imitate her, and use the same method that she doth, that out of nature, by the mediation of nature, and the assistance of their own judgements, they may produce and bring to light such rare effectual medicines, as will safely, speedily, and pleasantly cure, and utterly expel the most deplorable diseases. These are the true Hermetists: As therefore I do not approve of all those that would be called Hermetists, So neither do I condemn all those, who diligently and conscientiously practise the galenical physic: for some of them are precise and petulant, others are sober & modest: and these latter sort acknowledge the imperfection of their medicines, and therefore they endeavour and take delight to adorn, enlarge, and accomplish their profession with the secrets of Hermetical physic: but the other sort ascribe supreme perfection to that Ethnic, Antichristian writer, and his medicines, and will not for mere envy, or out of a childish depraved ignorance▪ look upon the eminency of Hermetic Philosophy, nor inquire into the secrets of it, but seek rather by reprehending and carping those things they do not understand, to magnify their own way, and with peevish and virulent language, rail at the Hermetic professors. Now as I prefer the Hermetical science to the medicines of these men: so (their errors being first laid aside,) I unite it with the physic of the more sober Galenists, that theirs by consoclation with ours, may become perfect and irreprehensible: This Joseph Quercetar, a most expert Physician, and a learned Philosopher, whom as my master in this science I worthily honour, (for I must confess, that by his instructions (God assisting me,) I benefited very much,) did most happily perform. And many learned men even in this Age design the same thing, especially the professors of physic in Marburg, who by an express and memorable decree of the most illustrious and mighty Prince William landgrave of Hassia, proceed in that very course. And who then can justly blame me, for walking in the same path with such eminent men? I shall conclude, and give my judgement with learned Crollius (a man who for the advancement of the true physic, was most worthy of a longer life) that whosoever desires to be eminent in the Art of physic, (and none can be so, that will study only the Placets of one man) must (above all things) be unbiased and addicted to no Sect, nor any one Author whatsoever, but pass through them all in pursuit of the sincere truth, and subscribe only unto that, being mindful ever to preserve the same freedom for himself, which Horace did. Quo me cunque rapit tempestas, deferor hospe●, Nullius addictus jurare in verba Magistri. Where-e'r my fancy calls, there I go still, Not sworn a slave to any Master's will. II. Health is an incorrupt integrity, and soundness of the body preserved by, and depending upon the strength and virtue of the radical balsam. WHence follows this Consequence, that the more strong and virtual the balsam is, so much the more vegetous and healthful is the body. III. The strength and virtue of the balsam, depends upon the equal and mutual conspiration of the Hypostatical Principles, that by their even and peaceful consistency, the balsam also may legitimately perform his functions, by which he may advantage and strengthen himself with the received aliment or food which is taken in, and may also (when separation is performed by the stomach,) cast out through his proper Emunctories what is not nutritive, and may further provide that the seeds of diseases (if any lurk in the flesh, or in the blood, in the disguise of that tincture,) break not out, and bring sudden destruction to the body, or else may cause that those ●ll seeds may by the balsams strength and vigour, be cast out of the body as superfluous impurities, which cannot consist with the health of man. IT is truth therefore which the most noble and learned Crollius speaks in his preface to his Basilica Chymica: In what body soever (saith he) the Hypostatical principles consist by union, that body may be judged to be truly sound. IV. Medicine or physic, treats either of the preservation, or of the restoration of health. CHAP. 2. Of the preservation of Health. THat part of physic which treats of the preserving of health, is an Art, which by certain cautionary Rules, or Precepts, teacheth and prescribeth a certain way and means to defend and save people from diseases. It is by the Grecians termed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: To effect what this Art promiseth, I give these following Precepts. I. Lead a pious and an holy life. FOr Piety (as the Apostle teacheth) is profitable for all things, having the promise of this present life, and of that which is to come. Now all piety consists in thi●, that we love God with all our souls, and our Neighbours as ourselves. Wonder not therefore, that so many in this age perish so suddenly and so soon. Impiety now bears the sway: true and unfeigned charity hath no place to abide in; Perjury, Treachery, Tyranny, Usury and Avarice, or (where these are not,) a vicious, lascivious, and loose life, are everywhere in request. The soul, which God made and ordained to be the nobler essence, and the mistress, is now the bondwoman, and the serviledrudge to the vile body. We daily see, that one Groom will serve to dress and look to many Horses, one shepherd will keep a thousand sheep, one Herdsman as many Kine or Oxen: but to dress and feed one voluptuous body There's need (betwixt his clothes, his bed and board,) Of all that Earth and Sea, and Air afford. And I would to God that all these would suffice! A most unhappy truth was that of the Stoic, He is a servant to many, that serves but one body: for do but imagine thyself placed in the Clouds, or near the stars, and from thence to look down and observe our actions upon earth, thou shalt not see one man quiet, they run all as busy as Ants over Sea and Land, through city and Country, by right and wrong, to become Lordly and rich. With restless cares they wast the night and day, To compass great Estates, and get the sway. What wouldst thou say at such a sight as this? wouldst not thou cry out with Seneca, Oh the faith of God and men! how many persons doth one ambitious stomach employ? If brutes and wild beasts devour or eat one another (unless they be compelled unto it by extreme famine) we presently cry out, it is a prodigy: but what thing (I beseech thee) amongst mankind, is more frequent than such prodigies? The satirist asks the question, — When ever did (I pray,) One lion take another's life away? Or in what forest did a wild Bore by The tusks of his own fellow wounded, die? Tigers with tigers never have debate, And bears amongst themselves abstain from hate. — Quando Leoni, Fortior eripuit vitam lo? quo nomore unquam, Expiravit Aper, &c. But men, whom God adorned with rational souls, kill one another, and those to whom nature, reason▪ and the faculty of speech, did (above any other creatures) commend love and unity, do by troops (as it were for spectacle and ostentation,) murder and butcher themselves. Add to this, that (as Seneca saith) a dog will bite before he barks; storms will threaten us before they dissolve upon our heads; buildings will crack before they fall, and smoke will give us warning that fire is at hand: but the destruction of man by man is sudden, and without the least notice: nay, the nearer it is, it is by so much the more diligently concealed. And what then is one man to another? who smiles, when he hates, salutes and embraceth, when he intends destruction, who under a serene smooth countenance hides poison, violence and bloodshed▪ Certainly thou wilt err, and err grievously, if thou wilt trust to those faces, that meet thee civilly, and salute thee fairly: they have (indeed) the complexions of men, but the conditions of Devils. Nay, thou wilt meet with some, who (as the same satirist hath observed,) Esteem it no point of revenge to kill, Unless they may drink up the blood they spill; Who do believe that hands, & hearts, and heads, Are but a kind of moat, &c. — Quorum non sufficit irae, Occid●sse aliquem, sed pectora, brachia, vultus Crediderint genus esse cibi, &c. But thou wilt reply, that savages, Barbarians, and cannibals, may (perhaps) commit such villainies. Art thou no better acquainted with our Saints of Europe? that human society and commerce, that godliness and sanctity, which we so much celebrate and commend ourselves for, is nothing else but mere monopolising, mere deceit, and a mutual imposture. And amongst us Saints, who (in our own opinion) are mighty righteous, tender-hearted and brotherly, there is nothing more usual, then to have store of Anthropophagi, or Men-eaters: for the rich, and the great amongst us, not only feed upon and live by the sweat, the slaughter, and the blood of the poor and oppressed, but esteem them (of all others) their choicest dainties, for they are swallowed without much chewing, and there is none to deliver them: Insomuch that those shepherds, who were said to flay their sheep, robbing them of their Wool their skins, and their flesh, and leaving them only their bare bones, may be truly said to be more merciful than those men. So that man to man, is no more a God, but a wolf and a Devil. Wonder not then (as I said before,) that so many amongst us die so suddenly, and so soon for they had rather die sooner, yea and die for ever, then become sober▪ charitable▪ and truly pious. II. Follow after Sobriety. FOr as drunkenness and immoderate feeding oppress and weaken the virtue of the radical balsam: so sobriety preserves from sickness●, and diseases. Sober above most Kings was Massinissa the Numidiar, who standing always, and at his Tentdoore, would in the open field eat his meat without sauce, being contented with dry bread, and military Commons. For which very reason he was so vegetous in old age, that at the years of fourscore and six, he begat a son, and after ninety two, did in a pitched field overthrow the Carthaginians, who had broken their league made with him; in which battle he did not only supply the place of an active, and expert Leader, but performed all the duties of a common soldier. By the benefit of this virtue of temperance, did M. Valerius Corvinus live to be an hundred years old▪ and retained at that age a sound mind in a sound body. And Socrates continued all his life long in a perfect undisturbed health: yea, sobriety (if we should fall sick,) will restore us to health. There are some who think, that Caesar used no other remedy to cure his falling sickness, which took him first at Corduba in Spain, so that by a mere spare diet, hard labours, and tedious watchings, he escaped, and overcame that dangerous and most commonly fatal in disposition. III. Eat not greedily, and drink not immoderately. NAture in Vegetables, doth not swallow down her nutriment, nor take it in ravenously, and all at a time. She doth all things leisurely, and by degrees, that her motion may be convenient and useful, or assisting to her Preservation. It is thy concernment to imitate Nature, and to do as she doth, when thou dost eat, and when thou dost drink. It is a most foul blemish upon the memory of Alexander, that after most of his Victories, he used to riot it with his Officers, inviting them to delicious and sumptuous feasts, in which he used always to drink Prizes, and he that could tun in more than all the rest, was rewarded with a talon: But this intemperate eating and drinking, did cast him into such a violent, sudden disease, that within three days he died of it. IV. Let thy meat be simple and unarted. FOr such victuals (saith the most industrious Pliny,) are the most wholesome and agreeable: Nature is but one, therefore she doth most delight in one kind of meat and drink. Whence follows this consequence, Thou shouldest never at one meal feed upon divers sorts of meats & drinks. For they are of an Heterogeneous nature, and the fire of Nature, which is but one and the same cannot work equally upon them all, and prepare (legitimately) a nutriment for his own body, out of divers and differing cibations. Every thing the nearer it is to unity, is by so much the more perfect and durable. There are infinite sorts of Trees which live very long, but they use all of them (without change) only one kind of nutriment: But if it be so, that thou canst not abstain from variety of meats, yet be sure (if possibly thou canst) that they have some agreement and correlation amongst themselves: For Contraries, (as Hippocrates affirms) will move sedition and differences, while some of them are sooner, some latter digested and communicated to the body. Octavius Augustus, would never have above three dishes of meat to his supper: Imitate him, and use not too much indulgence towards thyself, so shalt thou live the longer and the better. V. Accustom not thyself suddenly to meats and drinks, which formerly thou hast not been used to feed upon, unless they be prescribed thee by some expert and learned Physician for thy health's sake. FOr every Change is dangerous. Nature is simple and always the same: Other manner of operation is simple too, and without change, and she delights altogether in constancy, and simple nutriments: but if thou dost change, she also will suffer the like change. We see daily, that those birds which are taken, and put into Cages, by changing their natural diet, fall into divers diseases, and die frequently. A Lamb that is nourished with the milk of a Cow, seldom comes to any improvement, but most commonly dies. VI. Use Antidotes frequently, to preserve thee from poisons, and private or accidental mischiefs. LEst thou perish by venomous meats or drinks, or by the air thou livest in, which may be poisoned as well as thy food. Mithridates by the frequent use of an Antidote, which from him is still called Mithridate, did so strengthen nature, that no poison could hurt him: And when he took a venomous, deadly confection of purpose to kill himself, it could not so much as make him sick: So that being overthrown in battle by his Enemies, and not being able to poison himself, he was forced to command his Armour-bearer to thrust him through, and so died. There be divers kinds of Antidotes. I shall only mention the most effectual. The first is Quercetanus, his confection of iuniper and Vipers, described by him in his private dispensatory, page 349. The second is his blessed Theriac: the third, his celestial Theriac, called so by way of Eminency, and described both in the same Book. The fourth is (rollius his Theriac of mummy, with another very sovereign, one described by him in his Bafilica Chymica. Use these Antidotes according to the philosopher's prescriptions, and (God assisting) no poison shall be able to hurt thee. VII. Fly contagious airs, and if the air thou livest in, be infected, change thy habitation. VIII. Take physic in the spring-time, and in the autumn. LEt us consider the nature of Serpents and Vipers: these in our stated seasons of Spring & Fall, cast off their old skins, and are clothed with new. That Medicine or course of physic, which in all its circumstances answers to the great world, will work the more easily, the more prosperously, and will have the greatest effect. Seeing therefore that Trees, and all Roots, which in the Winter time seem dead, do about the entrance of the Spring break forth and bud, putting on greenness, and a renewed youthfulness and fresh vivacity as it were, therefore the wise Ancients did at the very same time (by observing them) take their purging and restorative physic, and by that means (God cooperating with them) did mightily strengthen nature, and multiply their days upon earth. Such physic as this, is the star of man imprognated with the physical tincture. Others use only the philosophical stone These glorious medicines (whomsoever God shall reveal them to,) may in their just Dose be taken once in every week to the singular comfort, and incredible improvement of nature: So the Philosophers tell me. The dose of the universal medicine, is the weight of one grain. Ix.. use not too freqnently, the permissions of Marriage. MAn for procreations' sake, should not abhor the Concessions and privileges of lawful love, but let him eschew all wantonness, and confine his desires to natural▪ and legitimate, and that too within the bounds of Wedlock: But in this also there must be moderation. Solon's Law was thrice in the month. Emission of seed weakens all bodies: This experience tells us, for men that are addicted to this intemperance, have the most nice and tender constitutions, easily offended, and seldom fruitful▪ like Trees, which bearing too much in one year, yield nothing but leaves in the next. You are to understand from this Paragraph, that seed is twofold, Radical, and Prolific. The Radical seed, is the innate balsam of the body, which if it be advantaged with perfect digestion, will yield effusion, and a balsam of the same nature as itself. In this balsam the body lives as in his proper seed. Hence Anonymus Leschus, Tract. 7. instructs us, that so long as there is seed in the body it lives; but the seed being consumed▪ the body dies. It is no wonder then, that so many have perished by the intemperance, who * It was not long before the publishing of this piece, that I was told by a very noble Gentleman, that in his late travails in France, he was acquainted with a young French Physician, who for a long time had been suitor to a very handsome Lady, and having at length gained her consent, was married to her, but his Nuptial bed proved his Grave, for on the next morning he was found dead. It was the gentleman's opinion, that this sad accident might be caused by an excessive joy, and for my part I subscribe to it; for a violent joy hath oftentimes done the work of death: this comes to pass by an extreme attenuation, and diffusion of the animal spirits, which passing all into the exterior parts, leave the heart destitute, whence follows suffocation and death. Scaliger Exercit. 310. gives the reason of this violent effusion and dissipation of the Spirits: Quia similia maxime cuprint inter se uniri, ideo spiritus, veluti exire conantur ad objectum illud ex●ernum● atum ac jucundum, ut videlicet cum eo uniantur, Illudque sibi maxime simile reddant. If any will suspect, that together with this excessive joy, there was a concurrency of the other excess mentioned by my Author, I permit him his lib●rty, but certainly I think he will be deceived. going to bed in a vegetous, perfect health, were found dead next morning. If you excite a Tree to bear fruit by violent and unnatural means, or by artificial, as by kindling fire under his branches in an unseasonable time, you will but kill the Tree, and manifest your own indiscretion. CHAP. 3. Of Diseases in general. HItherto we have spoken only of that part of physic, which teacheth us to preserve health; It remains now, that we consider the other part, which treats of the restitution of health. I. That part of physic which teacheth us the restoration of health, is an Art laying down in certain precepts or rules, a sure & safe way to redeem or free sick persons from diseases. It is termed by th●Grecians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. II. In this we are to consider, first, the disease, and all its circumstances: secondly, the cure of it. For the true method consists in knowing, first the disease, and afterwards the cure. The Doctrine of diseases, is termed by the Grecians, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}. III. Disease or sickness, is a privation, or the loss of health. IV. Therefore; because health depends upon the strength and vigour of the radical balsam, sickness must needs proceed from the weakness and indisposition of it. V. But when the strength of the balsam follows the conspiration of the Hypostatical principles, as his proper {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ●r inclinatior, then or in that cause the insirmity of the balsam proceeds from the ind●sposition of the principles. Whence follows this consequence. THat those bodies, whose principles agree not amongst themselves, may be truly judged to be sickly and ill disposed. VI. Touching the disease, there are two things to be considered. First, The conjoined and apparent cause of the disease, which we shall term Extrarious. Secondly, the cause of that Extrarious or conjoined cause. CHAP. 4. Of the Extrarious or conjoined and apparent Cause of the Disease. I. The conjoined' apparent cause of the disease, I term * Extrarious signifies such a substance, that is quite another thing, and of another disposition than ours is. by reason it is a Cause most remote from, and altogether a stranger to, our nature. II. This Extrarious Cause is twofold, Substantial and Accidental. THe substantial is so termed, because it is the substantial Essence, or matter of the disease. The other is termed accidental, by reason that the conjoined cause signified by it, is an accident, not a substance. III. The substantial extrarious Cause, is either an impure tincture, or a Meteor. IV. An impure tincture, is an impure spiritual nature, so exactly mixed with the most inward parts of our substance, that at the time of its commixtion, it doth not presently and manifestly hinder nor prejudice the functions of the balsam, but remaining quiet and inoffensive at first, and for a time, doth afterwards by degrees, discover its enmity and force, and so infects the body. TO this place must be referred; first, those impure seminal tinctures▪ by which the prolific seed is tainted, and the child that is borne of it, comes to be Hereditarily infected with the Diseases of his parents. Secondly, the impurity of the body, that proceeds from the blood, with which the child is fed and nourished in the womb: from which last impurity, if the substance of the child were not vindicated, and freed by frequent breakings out, by the measles, and divers other extrusions, and petty and indispositions, besides the daily discharge of it through the proper Emunctories of the body, it were not absurd to conclude, that his whole nature must needs be depraved and overcome by it. Purgations of this kind happen sometimes sooner, sometimes later, according to the strength of the radical balsam▪ which in some is slower, in others quicker and more vigorous; as we see it exemplified in our very fields, of which some are more barren, some more fruitful, according to their situation, and the aspect of the sunbeams, shining directly and favourably upon some, upon others glancingly, and for a short time, which makes some places more forward, some more backward, and their productions, whether flowers, or hay, or corn, to differ accordingly, some being very good, some very bad. V. A Meteor is either volatile or coagulated, both kinds are Extrarious. I Call it a Meteor, because I would have the Reader to inquire, how the * I promise my English Reader, that (if God will bless me with health, and his performing assistance) I will shortly communicate to him, (according to the Hermetic principles) a most accurate Treatise of Meteors, their Generation, Causes, qualities, peculiar Regions and Forms: what spirits govern them, and what they signify or foreshow. Meteors of the greater world are generated, and by their Generation, to learn and find out the true Doctrine of the Microcosmical Meteors. VI. The volatile Meteor, is commonly called an Exhalation, and that is either dry or moist. THe dry Exhalation is termed a Fume, and the humid a Vapour: the fumid Exhalation, because it is a fume arising from a dry body or Principle, is hot, dry, light and subtle, always tending upwards, and is near to a sulphureous fiery nature, which will easily inflame and kindle, and so is set on fire▪ and burns. Contrarily, a vapour is an humid flux, which if it be deprived by any exterior heat of its own cold quality and so carried up into the Region of the Air, and there condensed by cold, is presently (because of its thin, Mercurial and aqueous nature,) forced to resume its former state, and is turned again into the nature of water. For as we see in the greater world, that tho●e vapours and Exhalations, which by the heat of the Sun, the influence of the Stars, and by their own proper internal calidity, are excited and stirred up, do afterwards afford matter for various, miraculous Meteors, and bodies imperfectly mixed both in the Region of the Air, and in the bowels of the Earth; and that those which are of a Mercurial, cold, moist, and watery nature, do always produce Clouds, rain, hailstones, Snow, Frost and winds; but those which are sulphureous, hot and dry generate Coruscations, Lightnings, Fire-drakes, thunderbolts, and other burning Meteors: so in the lesser world, that is in the body of man, the like, and the very same vapours and Exhalations, afford matter for the generation of many and different kinds of Meteors. Hence it is, that so many and such various sorts of Diseases afflict mankind. Some of them being Mercurial, cold and moist; others sulphureous, hot and dry: Nor are they so in mere form and accident, but in substance, that is to say, they are such in their essential virtue, and are generated as well in the inferior Region, the breast, the stomach, and the belly; as in the superior, the head and the brain, which parts do exactly quadrate and correspond with the airy Region, and the subterraneous Concavities of the earth. See Quercetanus, Tetr. page 45. 46. VII. The Coagulated Meteor, is termed Tartar, of which we shall treat in the following Chapter. CHAP. 5. Of Tartar. I. Tartar is an acrimonious, pricking and corroding, or an aluminous, acid and styptic mucilage, which is bred in the body, and being separated from its proper juice, is by the supervenient spirit of Salt, according to the various inclination of nature, at a set time, and in those places which are most apt to receive it, collected together, and coagulated; or if that juice be not separated from it, it putrifies: from whence come worms and other innumerable symptoms. QUercetanus in his advice against the joint-gout, and the Stone, describes it thus. Salsugirous substances, because they have always mixed in them some portion of earth (though the predominant part in them be Liquefactive,) are in the body of man termed Tartar; a most apt (in truth) and most significant term, which was first given them from the Analogy, or similitude that was found betwixt the humours in man's body, yea betwixt his very blood and the substance of wine: which of all the fruits of vegetables, doth most abound with Tartar. I do not mean by Tartar in this place that substance which is dissolved, and flows in new Wines, while they are thick and turbid, which being afterwards separated, or (as the common phrase is) settled, doth as the grosser, earthy, and more impure part subside into a feculent substance, found always in the bottom, and called Dregs. Neither do I mean that Tartar only, whose separation is performed by a long Tract of time, and sticks to the Dregs or Lees of old Wine-pipes. But I mean that Tartar also, which is in perpetual liquefaction and commixture with the most refined wines, and which gives them their tincture either red or any other. This true Tartar, either by Evaporation, or simple distillation, or a Balneum Maris, is easily discerned to be moderately hot, for the more liquid part of the humour (which was the Vehiculum, in which the Tartar in its dissolution was contained) being separated from it, the Tartar alone remain in the bottom. This liquid humour, though of red wine, distils all bright and limpid, but the heauler red substance, which I call Tartar, stays all behind: a solid substance, and the more you fetch out of the substantifical humour, it becomes by so much the more hard and the drier. Nor is this Tartar only in red, or white Wines, but in any other though decocted and also in the humours of man's body. Nor is it there only in the Chylus, or nutriment, which answers in proportion to wine newly made (for from the Chylus, as from new win●, divers impure and tartareous dregs are separated,) but also in the very blood, yea in the most pure, and after the very same manner, as we described it to be in wine. And as the Art of distilling (even that which is performed by the most gentle fire) discovers and manifests unto us this kind of Tartar: so nature also by her natural fury both ran and daily doth perform such separations of Tartar, by a consumption of the humoural parts of our bodies▪ out of which the Dogmatical Writers of physic, suppose the stone to be generated. And it is wonderful to consider, how many sorts of Diseases by the intervening of obstructions or ●ppilations, arise out of this mere separation, particularly the joint-gout, and the stone: which diseases according to the sentiment of these Dogmatists themselves, happen most frequently to those, who have the hottest Livers▪ and consequently the coldest stomachs: Who ingenerate much crudities and mucous matters, which for want of a through-digestion, may be compared to raw fruits, that failing of their due and perfect maturity, (which is performed by a contemperate heat that is all concocting and digesting,) remain acid, bitter, sour and green. These being mixed with, and in the whole mass of blood, are there by the natural heat again concocted, and a separation is made of the more crude and tartareous portion, which sticks afterwards to the inward parts, and causing divers obstructions, is at length forcibly carried into the joints, where it stays and lodgeth. For every part of the body of man doth naturally delight in, and attract to it, that which is most like to itself: the fleshy parts are nourished by that portion of the blood, which is most thinly moist, and mercurial: the fat and marrowish parts, by that which is most oily, or sulphureous, but the joints which are parts that be naturally glutinous and mucilaginous, love that portion which hath most likeness and affinity with their nature; whence it comes to pass, that this Salsuginous and Tartareous matter is taken in by them. Now, when it happens that these parts in some bodies, either for their weakness, or an innate hereditary disposition, or some such cause cannot by a proper and particular digestion, inoffensively digest, nor expel this crude and indigested Tartareous matter, than is this matter, being of a saltish, viscous nature coagulated in them, and the ligaments of the joints come to be stuffed up and stiffened with it, whence proceed those acute intolerable pains which attend this Disease. And this is the true and genuine conjoined cause of the pains and knottiness of the joint-gout. The same cause is sometimes less acute, sometimes more, according to the nature and condition of the Tartar. For as we see that there is in the greater world, a great diversity of Salts, for the Earth yields first salt-gem, which answers in proportion to Sea-salt, that is only saltish in taste; then Salt-nitre which is bitter in taste, and Salt-alum which is austere and Astringent: afterwards Salt of Vitriol, and Salt Armoniac which are acid and hot: and lastly▪ those corrosive sharp Salts which are termed Alkal●, with others that are sweet and pleasant as Sugar: so in the lesser world, that is in the body of man, there is generated a Tartar or Salt, which being dissolved, causeth only a saltish humour, which the Dogmatical Physicians term saltish phegme, in plain terms, a salt water or humour. There is also generated, a nitrous or bitter Salt, which mixeth with the Urine, and causeth bitter Choler; and a vitriolated acid salt which predominates in acid phlegm and melancholy. In like manner there be also aluminous and austere kinds of Tartar, and other sorts which resemble the acrimony of Salt, as it is manifestly seen by the various affections of contractures and astrictions of the sinews, and the many perilous troubles of acrimonious humours in Dysenteries and, divers Ulcers as well inward as outward, all which are caused by the many and different kinds of Salts, which are generated in the body. For why should not this be done by those things which are most like to do it and most significant, and which do most properly and fully express the natures and diversities of Causes, having their derivation and appositenes from the very fountains of nature, who is the best Interpretress of her own concernments. These Salts (believe me) do better express and discover unto us the essences and distinctions of Tartareous or saltish diseases, than those four humours which are commonly termed the Sanguine, the Phlegmatic, the Bilious, and the Melancholy, both because that these latter terms, signify nothing unto us of the essence or matter of the Disease, and also because that those Dogmatists themselves, Hallucinate and stagger very much both in the formation or aptness, and in the application of their said terms. II. Tartar is twofold, Adventitious and Innate. III. Adventitious Tartar, proceeds from meat and drink, and the Impressions of the Firmament. EVery thing that we eat and drink, hath in it a Mucilaginous, reddish and sandy Tartar, very noxious to the health of man. Nature receives nothing for her own use, but what is pure. The stomach, which is an instrument of the Archaeus of man, or an internal, innate chemist, and implanted there by God, presently upon the reception of that which is chewed and swallowed down separates the impure▪ Tartareous part from the pure nutriment: If the stomach be vigorous, especially in its faculty of separation, the pure portion passeth presently into all the members to nourish and preserve the body, and the impure goes forth into the Draught: if the stomach be weak, the impure portion is through the M●saraic veins conveyed to the Liver, where a second digestion or separation is made. Here the Liver separates again the pure from the impure, the ruby from the crystal, that is to say, the Red from the White: The Red is the nutriment of all the members the heart, the brain, &c. The white ●or that which is no nutriment, is driven by the Liver to the reins and it is Urine, which is nothing else but Salt, which being expressed from the mercurial portions, by the violence of the separation, is forced to a dissolution: It is dissolved into water by the Liven & so cast forth. If the Liver, by reason of its debility, makes no perfect separation, it casts that Mucilaginous and Calculous impurity upon the reins, where for want of a ●ight and through separation it is (according to the concurrency and Method of nature) by the mediation of the spirit of Salt coagulated into Sand, or Tartar, either massy and Solid, or Mucilaginous. This Tartar therefore is the Excretion of meat and drink, which is coagulated in all men's bodies by the spirit of Salt, unless the expulsive faculty by its own peculiar vigour or virtue, can command it into the Excrements, and so cast it out by dejection. IV. There are four kinds of this AdventitiousTartar, which proceed originally from the four distinct fruits or Cibations which we receive from the four Elements. THe first kind proceeds from the use of those things that grow out of the Earth, as from all sorts of Pulse, Grains, Fruits, Herbs and Roots, upon which we feed. The second proceeds from those nutriments which we take out of the Element of Water, as from fish, shellfish, &c. The third is from the flesh of Birds and beasts, &c. The fourth comes from the Firmament, which the spirit of Wine, in respect of its subtlety, doth most resemble. This kind of Tartar is of a most forcible impression, while the Air being primarily infected with the vapours of the Earth, the water and the firmament doth afterwards annoy us: as we frequently see in those acute and pernicious Astral Diseases, the pleurisy, the Plague, the Prunella, &c. V. Tartar innate, is that which is cogenerated with man in his mother's womb. VI. Besides these impure Tinctures and Meteors, there is another substantial Extrarious cause, which cannot be reduced to a certa●ne kind. TO this must be referred, those Insecta's or quick Creatures which sometimes (though rarely) are generated in the body, as Snakes, divers worms, &c. Secondly, those things must be referred hither, which by enchantment and the mediation of evil spirits, are invisibly and insensibly conveyed into the bodies of men and Women. Thirdly, We are to reduce to this aphorism or Canon all Splinters, Bullets, or other weapons, which being violently thrust or shot into the body, lie deeply in the flesh, or under the skin. VII. We have now done with the Substantial Extrarious Cause. To the Accidental, I shall refer all disproportions of Limbs, Gibbosities, Luxations, Wounds, and fractures of bones. CHAP. 6. Of God, the first and supreme Cause of the Extrarious Cause. HAving now done with the Extrarious or conjoined and apparent cause of the disease. I shall consider the cause of that Extrarious Cause. I. This Cause I shall divide into six heads or branches. The first of which is God. 2. Excess and defect of Necessaries. 3. Fire. 4. Hereditary impurity. 5. Imagination. 6. Violent Illation. Of these I shall treat in their order; and first of GOD. MAn, because he is made in the Image of God, is bound also to live according to his Will. I mean his will revealed and laid down in the Ten commandments, and the holy Scriptures, namely in those books only which were left unto us, and which (without scruple) we have received from the holy Prophets, and the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour: but when we transgress and violate this Law and will of our maker, than doth God send upon us condign punishments, amongst which Diseases are numbered in the very book of the Law. For thus saith the Lord: If ye shall despise my statutes, or if your souls abhor my judgements, so that ye will not do my commandments, but that ye break my Covenants: I also will do this unto you, I will even appoint over your terror, consumption and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart. I will also smite thee in the knees and the legs with a sore botch, that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of the Head. I will make the Pestilence cleave unto thee, until it hath consumed thee from off the Land which thou possessest. And in another place, The Lord shall smite thee with a Consumption, with a fever, and with an inflammation and extreme burning, and with the Sword, and with Blasting, and with Mildew: and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. And the Heaven that is over thy head, shall be brass, and the Earth that is under thee shall be Iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy Land powder and dust, from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. Leviti●. Cap. 29. 16. Deuteron. 28. And in the new Testament, that everlasting and blessed physician, the Holy JESUS, who came not to destroy, but to save the world; after he had healed the impotent man, who had been sick of his infirmity eight and thirty years he dismissed him not without this loving and gracious caution: Behold, thou art made whole sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. S. John Chap. 5. 14. and S. Paul also in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, rebuking that new and sinful custom (which had crept then into that Church) of profaning the Lord's holy Supper, with their own intemperate feasts, objects to them, that sharp visitation by Diseases, which (for that very abuse) God had punished them with: For this cause (saith he) many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep: for some of them had been punished with death. Thus is the just and all-seeing God, the first and supreme cause of the Extrarious cause. CHAP. 7. Of the excess and the defect of necessaries, which is the second cause of the Extrarious cause. FXcess of Necessaries, is to be considered, first in Victuals, where the offence is threefold. 1. In superfluousness. 2. In vairety. 3. In our manner of receiving them. We offend in superfluousness, when that which is to nourish us is taken in too great a quantity: whence follow frequent and unwholesome evaporations and belchings, which so fill and oppress the vessels and Organs of the spirits, that they are hindered in their functions; or the meat with its weight and quantity so indisposeth us, that the inordinate operation and digestion is retarded. Innumerable are the Diseases and molestations which proceed from this particular intemperance. We offend in variety, when at one dinner or supper, we eat many and divers kinds of Meats and drinks, for these having a great dissimilitude and enmity amongst themselves, cause divers inconveniences by their various dissents and unequal digestion. We offend in the manner of receiving, when we eat hastily, or swallow our meat before it be well chewed and devour our drink like Whales, as those are accustomed who drink healths (as they term them) at meals, taking off whole bowls and Tankards {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, without so much as breathing time, and think the excess very fashionable & praiseworthy. Another Excess in Necessaries, happens about taking of rest and watching: When the Animal spirits by too much sleep, are by degrees habitnated into a certain dulness, so that they perform their functions sluggishly, remitting still something of their due vigour, until at length they lose all their activity, and are naturalised (as it were) into an incurable stupidity. Contrariwise by too much watching they are easily inflamed, so that oftentimes they cause Maniacal fits and frenzies, with divers others most desperate consequences. A third excess of Necessaries, happens from cold and heat. Excess of heat happens, either when the body is over exercised, or when any other Extraneous heat hath too free an access to it, and the innate fire of nature is beyond measure excited thereby, so that inordinate exhalations are caused in the body, which produce an excessive and dangerous resolution and weakness of parts. Excess of cold happens either by a sudden Refrigeration or cooling after Exercise, or when we expose ourselves too much to cold weather, which hinders the evaporation of Excrementitious Exhalations by stopping the Pores, and beating them back into the body, where they lodge and remain. Whence it comes to pass, that being of an Extrarious malignant disposition, they afford matter and foment for many and several kinds of diseases. A like excess to this, proceeds frequently from the hardness and thick Callousness of some people's skins, by which fault (because little or no perspiration is performed) the secret, and the Ambient air of their bodies is intercepted, so that there is no liberty for inspiration or expiration. Defect of Necessaries is first, the want of meat and drink in their due time and proportion. This is either famine or thirst. Secondly The want of natural rest, according to the Verse, Quod caret alterna requ●e, durabile non est. The strongest body, and the best Cannot subsist, without due rest. Thirdly, The want of Refrigeration or coolness of air, which by its needful community and permeation, allays and tempers the inward heat of the heart. Fourthly, and lastly, the want of due and requisite heat, by which the Excrementitious Exhalations of the body are vented forth, and the animal spirits incited to their peculiar functions. CHAP. 7. Of Fire, the third Cause of the Extrarious Cause. BY Fire in this place, I understand not only kitchen-fire, or any other fire that burns, but also the celestial fire of the Sun, and the Sun and the native implanted fire of all the parts of ●●ns body. I. External fire is the producent of Extrarious Causes by its separative power or faculty, by which it separates & extracts them from other bodies, & communicates them afterwards to our nature. II. The Internal, innate fire, produceth Extrarious causes, when by digestion it separates the impure part, from that food or matter in which it first resided, whence our natural substance comes to be infected. SO the natural heat digests our meat, and by the assistance of the innnate Salt dissolves it, that man may retain or keep in his body, that which is agreeable to his nature, and join it to his essence: but that which is contrariant, he segregates from the other, and casts forth at his proper Emunctories. This Segregated matter, or Excrement, doth oftentimes mightily afflict the body, and that it doth two manner of ways. The first by being retained in the body, or for want of evacuation. The second, by a noisome f●tid Exhalation, and sent ascending from it to the nobler parts, when it is so retained. It offends by retention first, when it is carried (indeed) to the natural Emunctories, or deijcient parts; but the weakness of the expulsive faculty is so great, that it cannot drive it out. Secondly, When it is left in the very stomach without farther Exclusion. Thirdly, when some subtle poison, in and together with the nutritive portion or Chylus, doth convey and insinuate itself into the most inward parts of the body: which poison was first taken in with meat and drink. It happens often (saith the most learned and expert Quercetanus) that when the natural balsam is tainted by some impurity proceeding from food or nutriment, it doth afterwards give way and occasion for many dangerous symptoms and diseases. This Paracelsus, the great Father and leader of the German Philosophers, in his Treatise of the Being, and naturn of poison doth most learnedly expound. The Stars also do frequently pour down into the air, and upon the Earth, certain Astral Emunctions, and Arsenical vapours, with other noxious Excretions and Exudations. See his Treatise of the Being, and the power of the Stars over inferior Bodies. Hence proceed Distraction, frenzies, pleurisies, the Plague, and frequent, sudden Dysenteries. Putrified things grow to be noisome and hurtful, by the means of those corrosive Salts and fuliginous Exhalations, which partly by an external, partly by their own internal heat, are excited out of them and dispersed. Moreover the Excrements of man, when they happen to be retained in the body, are subject to a reputrifaction, and frequently do so, and worms are generated out of them: In this Case, the fuliginous, malignant spirits of that foul mass, ascend to the brain, whence proceed sudden madness, the Vertigo, the Falling-sickness, and divers other lamentable diseases. There are also certain living Creatures, which (if they be applied to man) will by their natnrall heat, suddenly indispose him, by emission of that which is most remote from, and inconsistent with his nature. Cantharides are so full of this virulency, that being only externally applied, they prove oftentimes pernicious. Bartholomew Montagnana reports, that a certain Citizen of Padua, applying them only to one of his knees, did bleed at the Urinary passage, five quarts of blood. He affirms also, that the like inconvenience happened to another, who applied them to his great Toe, to take off the Leprous scurf of his nails. The Basilisk hath such a subtle and violent poison in his eyes, that his very looks infect and kill. How hurtful Minerals are, when elevated into mercurial vapours, may be read at large in Paracelsus his books, Von den Bergfrancfhe●ten. III. That Extrarious Causes, and divers indispositions, are introduced by common fire, none is ignorant. alchemists, Goldsmiths, and Colliers, can sufficiently prove this point, who are oftentimes so offended with vehement searching, Sulphureous, Arsenical and Mercurial smokes, that they fall into desperate and most painful Diseases. The smoke of Galbanum, and Hartshorne will induce the Lethargy. CHAP. 8. Of Hereditary impurity, which is the fourth Cause of the Extrarious Cause. I. Hereditary infection, is a transplantation of extrarious Causes, performed by impressing a fixed tincture, springing from another fixed salt into the prol●fic seed, which Parents contribute to the Generation of Children. salted alone and only, is of all the three Principles fixed and f●●●e. Therefore those Diseases which proceed from the indisposition of the Salt, are radically fixed, and for the most part Hereditary, as the leprosy, the Stone, the joint-gout, and the like. But those Diseases which spring from any infirmity of the fluxible and volatile principles, that is to say, from Mercury and Sulphur (as all manner of Cathars and fevers do,) cannot so easily infect posterity: for these Diseases neither fix their seeds firmly, nor deeply, because they have not their tinctures so tenaciously impressed. The nature of this kind of fixed Salt or Sulphur, may be perfectly discerned in the seeds and the roots of Plants: for if you take but some particles of them, and transplant them▪ those very pieces will take root and grow, and bear fruit: But neither the leaves, nor the flowers in which the volatile Mercury & Sulphur have their seat, will do so. Now the fixed Salt is always conserved in the root, and in some pithy stalks & scions or graffs: but the fixed Sulphur is in the seed. And this is the reason that the transplantation of all Vegetals, is performed by these only: but by the mercurial parts, which easily fade and wither, it cannot be done; nor by those parts, which have only in them a volatile Sulphur, as the flowers, and the leaves of some Vegetables. See Quercetan, in his advice against the joint-gout, and the stone. Therefore (saith the same Quercetanus) whatever lodgeth in the body of the parents, that with a firm, spiritual, impure, and malignant tincture can affect or infect the radical balsam, the vital seed, and the very root or fundamental of human nature: that same impurity (whatever it be) doth by an Hereditary transplantation pass into, and infect the Children. But if these impure seeds of Diseases, have not taken such a deep root, nor so far corrupted the radical balsam: or if by the help of nature, and her internal balsam, there is a separation made of them; or if by the ministry of Art, and external, specifical balsams of physic, they are effectually allayed and weakened, or are come to their proper term and utmost duration, so that their virulency and force is quite spent and broken: in any of these Causes, Gouty and Leprous persons, do not always beget Gouty and Leprous Children. For by these means, the roots of Diseases, even the most fixed and malignant are eradicated, impure seeds are purified, and the morbid tincture by long traduction becomes quite extinct. This Eradication of hereditary Diseases, and Purification of diseased seed comes to pass by the benefit and assistance of good Seed-plots, that is, by the excellent, wholesome temperament of the Matrix, in vegetous and healthy women: whence it happens, that the father's seed, though tainted with some morbific indisposition, is by the laudable vigour of the mother's radical balsam amended, so that Arthritical and Calculous Fathers beget Children, which all their life-time continue healthy and unattempted by such Diseases. Yea, they beget such Children▪ as are not obnoxious or liable to such indispositions▪ In like manner also it happens, that a vegetous, healthy Father, contributing good seed, may have a sickly, impure issue, troubled with hereditary infirmities, the father's seed attracting to it the malignant propriety of those Diseases which possessed the Mother. Thus good corn, if it be cast into a bad soil, will degenerate into Tares, or yield a very bad and a thin Crop: but sow it again in good ground, and it will recover its former goodness and perfection. CHAP. 9 Of Imagination, the fifth Cause of the Extrarious Cause▪ I. Imagination is a Star, excited in the firmament of man, by some external Object. II. When the Imagination is inflamed, or at the height, then strange passions and defections follow. III. It is inflamed first, when it feigns some object to itself, and longs for it, but cannot enjoy it. HEnce it comes to pass, that pregnant or breeding women (whose imagination is most vehement, because of the star of the Child, which upon some singular longing, doth most powerfully move them,) do by the force of an inflamed or exalted imagination (when they fail to come by that Object they long for) impress into the very child, the perfect form or figure of it; yea, it oftentimes causeth miscarriage, and the death of the Child, as may be seen in this following History. A certain woman great with child, seeing a Baker carrying Bread into the Oven with his Doublet off, longed for a piece of the baker's shoulder, and when any other meat was offered unto her▪ or brought in to her sight, she would presently fall to vomit. Her Husband distressed betwixt love and pity, offered such a large sum of money to the Baker, that he consented, & suffered her to bite off two morsels of his flesh, but being not able to endure the pain the third time, the woman presently fell in Labour, and was delivered of three boys, whereof two were alive, and the third dead. Mizaldus in his first Century, relates it out of Langius. To this first Division, must be referred those unfortunate Aspirers, who affecting some great knowledge or science, and missing to attain to it, by reason of a blockish stupidity, or imbecility of apprehension, come to be distracted and stark mad. IV Secondly, The Imagination comes tomes to be inflamed, when by some unexpected Object or Accident, a man or woman is suddenly frighted. SUch Accidents prove oftentimes very pernicious. A causeless, imaginary fear in times of infection, hath cast many into the Plague, and the Plague hath been their death. There lives at Gueilburg, a certain baker's wife, who being young with Child, went into the adjoining Woods or forest, to gather sticks, and being very intent in gathering with her face towards the ground a Citizen of that place coming suddenly at her, did so fright her, that (not knowing well what to do▪) she struck one hand into the other, and continued rubbing them together with a very strong compression for a good while. This woman was shortly after delivered of a Son with one hand only, which child I myself saw, and taught there in the public free-school. In the like manner, some men that have been frighted by Phantasms, and spiritual Apparition in the night time, have instantly fallen into grievous diseases, and some have died. Others by the excess and violence of the horror had the hairs of their heads changed from the native colour, into a quite contrary, especially that part which they chanced to touch at the time they were so frighted. I myself have known two, who affirmed, that such a change did happen to them upon the like occasion: the one had half his Beard turned grey, the other had part of the hairs of his head turned perfect white, the rest retaining still their first colour. V. Thirdly, The imagination is inflamed, when the stomach is offended by some object of sense. SUch perturbations happen often, and men are frequently inclined to vomit, when they look earnestly upon those Ejectments which another hath cast up. VI. Fourthly, The imaginationis in flamed, when any person imagines or fancies, that pain or trouble he is in, to be intolerable for him, and incurable. HEnce it comes to pass, that men despairing of their health or redemption, contrive their own death, and make themselves away. CHAP. 10. Of violent Illation, which is the sixth and last cause of the extrarious Cause. VIolent Illation is performed two ways, Corporally, and Spiritually. I. Corporally, when a man or woman is wounded, thrust, or shot, or fallen, or their bones broken. II. Spiritually, when by the means and ministry of evil spirits, a man or woman is either blinded, or maimed, or any extraneous visible matter, is invisibly and without manifest violence, conveyed into, and lodged in their bodies, or when they are by any other preternatural ways and means set upon and af●licted. THat such things may and have been done, we shall prove by the truth of this following relation. In the year of our Lord, 1539. there lived in the village of Fugesta, within the bishopric of E●steter, a certain Husbandman, named Ulrich Neusesser▪ who was grievously pained in the Hypochondriacal Region, with most violent and sharp stitches; whose fury and persistence made him send for a chirurgeon, and (incision being made) there was found, and taken out of his side, an Iron Naile, which lay under the skin, without the least external symptom▪ or discolouration of the part. This, notwithstanding the pain ceased not but was daily exasperated▪ and did more and more increase: whereupon this miserable man resolving with himself, that there could be no cure for him but death, snatched a knife out of the hand of his attendant, and did therewith cut his own own throat. Upon the third day after, when his body was to be dressed for burial, there were present, Eucherius, Rosenbader of Weisenburg▪ and John of Ettenstet▪ (a Town in the dukedom of Bavaria,) both chirurgeons who in the presence of as many persons as came to the Funeral did cut up the Body, and in the fore part of his belly, betwixt the Cartilages and the navel, towards the side-region there were found, and taken out, and seen by them all (a prodigious and wonderful ●ight ●) a round and long piece of wood, four knives of steel made partly with edges, and partly with teeth like a saw, and two pieces of sharp and rough Iron▪ each of them being more than a span in length, and underneath all these, a great lock of hair wrapped close together and made up in the form of a Ball. Mizaldus in his sixth Century, relates this sad History out of Langius. CHAP. II. Of the cure of Diseases. HItherto we have known the Diseases by his Causes: It remains now that we teach the Cure of it; and this we shall do only by certain genernall Rules or Precepts. But lest we should proceed without method, we shall divide this Chapter concerning the Cure, into seven Sections. We shall teach, 1. What, and how manifold the Cure is. 2. How a Physician ought to be qualified. 3. Of what sort, kind or quality, the medicines or means of the Cure ought to be. 4. Out of what things those Remedies must be sought and taken. 5. Why Medicines sometimes cannot restore and introduce health. 6. How the Remedies or Medicaments ought to be administered. 7. How the sick man must carry or dispose of himself, while he is in a course of physic. Section 1. What▪ and how manifold the Cure is. I. The cure of Diseases, is an operation by which a sick person is restored to his former health, and his sickness (what ever it be) quite expelled, and radically extirpated. II. The cure or healing of all Diseases, (that I may in this place make use of the most apposite, significant terms of Severinus, out of Crollius) is two fold. 1. Universal, which is an absolute Extirpation of every radical morbid impurity, whether hereditary, or from the sinister use of food, or by the force of external impression. THis universal Cure is performed by a natural medicinal balsam, consentaneous to the nature of man, which resolves, discusseth and consumes the Seminary tinctures of all impurities and diseases: but corroborates, confirms, and conserves the innate human balsam; for (as Paracelsus teacheth) so long as the radical humour keeps in its due quantity and proportion, no Disease or indisposition can be perceived. And in this way of Cure, the pluralities, particularities, and orderly Rules of Symptoms and prognostics, have no place▪ for all Diseases (what ever they be) are universally & perfectly cured by this one universal medicine. It is not without reason then that Raymund Lull●e affirms, that this only one, supreme, universal medicine (to which, and in which the virtues of all other particular and specifical medicines are reduced and included) may be safely administered unto all sick persons, without inquiring what Dis●ase they are sick of For wise nature, by an instinct from herself, hath given unto this her favourite medicine▪ the prerogative and power to cure, and absolutely to exterminate all natural infirmities whatsoever; yea, and to rectify and restore her own self when disordered and weakened. There be four chief kinds of Diseases which if once confirmed, or inveterate, can be expelled by no medicine, but the universal, namely the falling-sickness, the Gout, the dropsy, and the leprosy. To these Paramount Diseases, all other inferior sicknesses, as to their proper fountains and originals, have relation and affinity. This universal medicine, is a Jewel much to be wished for and worthy the looking after; but few are they whom God blesseth with his favourite-secret. Lullius adviseth all Physicians, that diligently and faithfully labour for to search and look after it: because it is the infallible remedy against all infirmities, and the greatest and most proper restorative and comforter of the spirits in their functions: For in this medicine (as in their only and proper subject) there is ●●●all and universal collection and conjunction of all the operative, effectual virtues of general physic, coacted and united together by a natural method, consent and design: which virtues are otherwise, (according to the ordinary course and dispensation of nature) confusedly dispersed and distributed amongst and through her * animals, Vegetals, and Minerals. three great Families; and he that hath such an Antidote against all bodily Diseases, hath the gift of God, which is an incorrupt, incomparable, and invaluable treasure in this life: What ever infirmity cannot be healed by this competent, natural medicine, we may boldly and safely conclude, that the finger of the great God of nature is in the Cause. But the pain (when we find it to proceed from his righteous hand,) is by much the more tolerable, and we ought to bear it patiently, and thankfully, until the Almighty Physician himself will be pleased to heal us, by those ways and means which his divine and unerring wisdom shall judge the best. III. 2. Next to the universal, is the particular cure, by which the roots of diseases, and the Seminal tinctures themselves, are not always taken away; but the bitter fruits of them, the Symptoms, Paro●is●es; and pains, are oftentimes prevented, mitigated, and so suppressed, that they cannot come to their exaltat●on, or the worst pass, as the common phrase is. By this Cure, the physical evacuation of Excrements is instituted, and some considerable succours are communicated to oppressed nature by the friendly, consentaneous spirits of those medicines that are administered; which spirits can only rightly know, and penetrate into the secret lodges and topical residencies of the radical mor●ifie impurity. NOw, though this particular Cure performs no more, than we have told you in the definition of it, yet is it not therefore to be slighted, nor rejected; for it doth oftentimes in the most desperate diseases, do the work of the universal, because the most merciful God hath discovered unto us certain secret-natural universals, ☞ of which some contain in them the nature of the whole Heaven, others of the whole Air, and some again of the whole earth, by whose help most Diseases are easily known and cured. Moreover specifical, appropriate medicines, when they are rightly refined and spiritualised, will emulate the virtue of the universal, by consuming radical impurities & strengthening the virtue of the innate human balsam. Seeing then that we want the universal, it will be happy for us, if we may attain to the any knowledge of (at least) the particular, subordinate, specifical and individual kinds and means of cures. Section 2. How a Physician ought to be qualified. I. Every Physician that desires to cure sick persons well and happily, must be a sound Christian, and truly religious and holy. FOr true and perfect medicines, and the knowledge of them, can nowhere be had, but from God, whom we can serve by no other means in this life, but only by piety, and piety hath included in it fervent and incessant supplications unto God, hearty and frequent thanksgivings for his gracious and free benefits, with sincere and actual love towards our Neighbours. God is so infinitely good and kind, that he doth daily give, and offer both to the good and to the bad, all those things which are necessary both for their sustenance and their health: but that we use those gifts to the glory of God, and the good of our Neighbours, piety alone is the only cause. Therefore, if thou desirest to select, and extract convenient and effectual Medicines out of those Myriads of Creatures, which by the secret power of their Creator, daily flow upon thee, & appear about thee, Fear God, and love thy Neighbour as thyself. This being done, I affirm it to thee, thou shalt find those things, which will fill thee with joy. Thou Mayst easily apprehend by what I say, that he is unworthily permitted to be a Physician, whose practice hath no other aim then Covetousness and Usury, and abuseth the gifts of God (I mean his medicinal favours and discoveries▪) to hoard up for himself the riches of this world. They are all impostors, and faithless Mountebanks, who profess physic, and its great ornament chemistry, out of such a sordid, uncharitable, and unjust design. II. He must be the servant, not the Master of nature, and according to the sentiment of Hippocratesand Calen, he must be a profound Philosopher, and expert, or well versed in the Art of healing. HE must be throughly seen in Philosophy, because there be two sorts of Philosophers. The one (who are in truth but Philosophers by name,) after the common Doctrine of the schools, inquire only into the Elementary qualities of sublunary bodies: but the other sort (who are the true Philosophers indeed) search into the most secret operations, proprieties, and performances of nature: her most private Closers, and Sanctuaries, are ever open unto these; whence it comes to pass, that they have a perfect experimental knowledge by the light of Nature▪ and are indeed true Physicians: For the innate natural faculty of all productions of the earth, is, by the chemical dexterity of these latter sort of Philosophers, vindicated from the drossy adherencies of the matter, and united with the firmamental virtue, or occult quality, which is caused and communicated to them, by the influence of the Stars. This Art of refining, and uniting inferiors to their superiors, makes a complete and a successful Physician. III. He must be an alchemist skilful in all spagirical operations, to separate the pure from the impure, the drossy and venomous parts of his medicinal Ingredients, from the useful and sanative, and one that knows exactly how to prepare, and when to administer chemical medicines for the restoration of his Patients. FOr as Gold is seven times purified, so a Physician ought to try and refine all his physical Materials by the ministry of fire, which separates the good from the bad. Also he ought to have in some things, a certain and confirmed knowledge acquired by long experience, and a diligent daily inspection into the works of nature; for true Philosophy is nothing else, but a physical practice or trial, communicating daily to industrious and learned operators, most useful and various conclusions and medicines. And after all the coil of Academical licenciated Doctors, he only is the true Physician, created so by the light of Nature▪ to whom Nature herself hath taught and manifested her proper and genuine operations by Experience. Section 3. Of Medicines, what their qualities should be, and how prepared. I. physical Remedies or Medicines, should both expel the disease, and strengthen natu 〈…〉. HEnce came that infallible Rule of Physicians, Contraries are cured by their Contraries. For Contraries, by the consent of all Philosophers, expel and drive out one another, therefore it is necessary, that those Medicines which take away the Disease, be repugnant and contrary to the Disease: and for the same reason▪ they must be auxiliaries and consentaneous to our nature. Upon which very consideration, that famous principle of the Hermetists is grounded: Every like is cured by its like. Therefore Medicines, as they respect, or look to the Hypostatical principles, ought also to have some correspondence with the nature of the disease, but in their energy and effect, they must be adversant and quite opposite. Thus the stone which proceeds from Tartar, or coagulated Salt, is cured by Salt, but it must be Analyticalor resolvent salt. The joint-gout also which proceeds from Tartareous, sharp and corrosive Salts, is cured by lenitive and consolidating Salts. In like manner, sulphureous Diseases must be cured by their proper and specifical sulpheres: but to inflammatory sulphur that causeth fevers, we must oppose acid, Vitriolated sulphur, which is a most effectual cooler, and will coagulate and allay those incensed sulphureous spirits. Whence follows this Consequence. That some Medicines may be corrosive, without any danger or prejudice. But with this Caution, that they be so qualified, as not to work upon the innate, radical balsam, but only upon that Extrarious malignant matter, which is the conjoined and apparent cause of the Disease. II. It is requisite, that of Medicines, some be Spagyrically prepared, and some otherwise. FOr chemical remedies must not be used at all times, nor in all Causes, but only then, when our internal natural alchemist is insufficient of himself to separate the pure from the impure, and perfectly to extract out of compound Medicines, that noble Essence in which the force and virtue, or spirit of the medicament, is chiefly resident: or when there is a necessity in fixed and rooted Diseases, to use mineral remedies, that confirmed and obstinate Maladies may be set upon, and brought under by such powerful and active Medicines that will not be baffled. It is otherwise a foolish and needless employment, to separate that by chemistry, which nature herself will perform with more ease and dexterity. And Nature knows better what is most convenient for her, than any Physician: for she makes use of her own proper fire, and Magnet, which attracts both from physic and food, that which is congeneous, and most like to herself: whereas an Artist on the contrary, doth not at all times use the like fire, nor exactly in the same degree to perform his operations. For which cause, the true Hermetical Physicians, do not at all times administer Minerals; but most commonly when they exhibit Minerals, they make use also of Medicines extracted out of Vegetables, or to quicken the operation of these latter, they give a competent and safe quantity of the former. III. All Medicines must be specifical and a●propriated to the Disease. THat is to say, they must have in them by the gift of God, such a virtue, that is peculiarly proper, and designed (as it were) to remove those diseases against which they are administered. Whether they be universally so gifted, or particularly for some one sort of disease. That body, or subject in nature, which will be easily corrupted▪ cannot be medicinal for all diseases: and this is the reason, that out of such bodies, the true Philosophers extract only specifical Antidotes, whose power or virtue is effectual only against some particular kind of disease. That thou Mayst have some knowledge of those materials or ingredients which are requisite and proper to make such sp●cifical Medicaments, thou must diligently read the books of the Hermetists, De signaturis rerum, That is to say, Of those impressions and Characters, which God hath communicated to, and marked (as I may say) all his Creatures with. These books thou● must carefully peruse and all others which teach us the true and solid practice of physic. But if it would please God to bless thee with the universal Medicine, these studies, and all other cures whatsoever, might be safely pretermitted. This glorious universal Medicine (without all doubt) is to be extracted out of such a subject, whose innate balsam preserves both it self, and the Body in which it exists from all corruption. This body is so adequate, and temperated with such a just and even proportion of all the four Elements, that the qualities of no one of them, can ever possibly corrupt it. If thou conceivest it may be bad in another kind of subject, thou dost but play the fool and deceive thyself. What ever Nature hath, that she can give us; what she hath not, she neither will, nor can afford. To the wise man one word is enough. I speak out of the true light of nature: My Studies also hitherto cannot find any other Fu●damental of an universal Medicine. Section 4. Out of what things Medicines must be sought. I. They must be sought. 1. Out of the Word of God. 2. Out of Nature: and in nature, out of Vegetals, Animals, and Minerals. I In this search, we must first pray for God's assistance; and in the next place, we must attend to the instructions of the wise Ancients. If thou couldst find out such a thing as would purge and rectify nature in the great world so effectually that ever after she would remain sound and unimpaired, so that nothing of her Homogeneous essence and perfection, could be saved from her by any Extraneous fire, than (without doubt) both the way to, and the miraculous energy of this only true and undeceiving medicine were in thy hands. Section 5. Why Medicines cannot always restore sick Persons to their former health. O●waldus ●roll●us, a cruly learned and expert Physician, in his Preface to his Basilica Chymica, doth most fully and judiciously handle this point. His words are these. It is observed sometimes, that sick persons by the most convenient and effectual Medicines, cannot be healed for some one or more of these eight subsequent reasons. The first is, because their appointed time or term of life is come, which by no human wit or Medicine can be prolonged. For there is no remedy upon earth, by which our corruptible bodies can be freed from death, the decreed penalty, and the wages of our sins: But there is one thing, which (if we add holiness to it,) will keep back and restrain corruption, renew youth, and lengthen our short life as heretofore in the patriarchs. Now though our life may be shortened and * The term of life is movable, not fixed: conditional, not positive, as appears by that commandment, which S. Paul observed to be the first with a promise; and by many other reasons, which cannot be inserted in this place. prolonged; yet because of the punishment for sin, we must by the immutable decree of the eternal Law, unavoidably die: for a conjunction of different Natures, and things (suppose a Spirit and a Body) must necessarily induce a dissolution, else we should state a Pythagorical metempsychosis, or a revertency in ages as Plato did. And in this Case the use of our universal and supreme Medicine, will prove as vain and ineffectual, as an old woman's Recipe● because the Marriage of souls and bodies, ordained by an inevitable necessity for divorcement and separation, can by no industry of Artists, nor aids of nature be rendered perpetual; for the statute laws of the present things, and their great lawgiver, are inviolable. It is impious therefore to seek, and impossible to find out such a Medicine, that will carry us alive beyond those bounds, which the very Father of life will not have us to transpasse. The second reason is, Because that sick persons are too too often brought to such a lamentable pass by the ignorance of unlearned Physicians, and their pernicious recipes, that the best and most virtual medicines can do them no good, their bodies being utterly poisoned, and made immedicable by those fatal Tormentors and Executioners of mankind. In this desperate ●ase (most commonly) is the chemical Physician called upon; but than would I have him to call to mind, that saying of Trophilus in Plutarch, which affirms that man only to be the complete Physician, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: and not to cast away (but of vainglory,) their sovereign and undeserved medicines, to ●alve the credit of such detestable villains, whose infamy is past cure: {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: Let them beware also, that they suffer not their Medicaments to be mingled with the sluttish and venomous compositions of others, lest the ill consequence of such doings be laid to their charge, and the success or good event (if any comes to pass▪) be arrogated by, and ascribed unto those impudent and clamorous impostors; for such a perverse and execrable envy possesseth these Medicasters, that to disgrace those that are more learned and expert than themselves, and to keep up their own decaying repute, they will (if they can have that opportunity) cast those Patients which are curable and towards recovery, into an incurable and hopeless condition. Hence it comes to pass, that amongst the common sort of people, (who suffer most by them) they are publicly saluted by the most apposite▪ Title of professed poisoners. The third reason is, Because the Physician is called upon too late, when nature is quite Mastered or o'ercome, and the disease hath got his full sway; otherwise if convenient or proper medines were seasonable, (that is to say, in a time of prevention, by resisting the beginnings and first attempts of diseases) administered, no doubt but (with God's blessing and assent) the consequence and effect would be happiness and health. The fourth reason is, because the sick person will not punctually observe the Physicians prescriptions: for it happens too often, that Diseased people charge the Physician or his Medicines, with those ill events which by some omission or irregularity (contrary to that golden Law of the Locrenses in Ael●anu●,) they have drawn upon themselves. The fifth reason is, because the nature or peculiar propriety of some persons, are not inclinable or adapted to health, as we see some timber to be so tough and knotty, and out of a certain natural defect, to degenerate into such an untowardness, that by no force or Art it can be cleft or wrought: And it happens very frequently, that the time chosen for healing, together with the indisposition of the Stars, oppose the Cure: for what ever Disease is unseasonably, that is to say, immaturely healed, the party will be ever after subject to a relapse, because it is the seasonableness or fullness of time, that (like harvest) gives a firm and a fixed health. A ripe Pear will fall off the Tree spontaneously, but if we seek to have it off, while it is green, we must either bruise the tree by shaking it, or with more violence break off the bough. Therefore, if these considerations be neglected, especially in the Cure of Astral diseases, we shall but lose our labour, and come off with prejudice. Physicians also must religiously provide, that the remedies they give, prove not worse than the Disease, therefore let them never advise their Patients to any impious course, nor consent to do those things, which by salving the sore, destroy the soul and the body too: let it be their chief care not to hurt, if they cannot help. By doing so, they will keep a good conscience, which is a continual ●east, but for a bad one there is no medicine. The sixth reason is, because the disease is come to that pitch or confirmation, from whence there can be no regress by the Laws of nature, as in perfect, absolute, and confirmed bituminous, massy, sandy, and stony coagulations: for in such consummated Diseases, no medicines can avail: nor in a native deafness or blindness: for what nature herself hath once deprived us off, that cannot be restored by any Artists, no more than corporal disproportions and birthmaimes, or transpositions can be amended. The seventh Cause or Reason is▪ the sordid, tenacious parsimony of some rich Patients, which makes the Physician (for no Money is better disbursed, nor more honestly gotten) discontented and careless: sometimes also the diffidence, incredulity, and suspicion of Patients, (though the Physician be never so faithful and diligent,) hinders the operation of the Medicine, and is a great impediment to the Physician himself. The eighth and last reason is, the wisdom and the goodness of God, who (without further toleration) takes away the Patient, lest being recovered, he should commit more, and more heinous offences against his Maker, his Neighbour, and himself, to the utter misery and perdition of his soul. For every disease is an expiatory penance, and by this divine affliction, correction and rod of judgement is the patient called upon, and required to amend his life: or else by this fatherly visitation and imposition of the cross, which every child of God (in imitation of his blessed son) must patiently bear, he is purposely exercised to be an example of piety, submission, and perfection unto others; for God doth oftentimes permit some particular persons to be afflicted with many and grievous Diseases, whom the cheerefulness and health of the flesh▪ with their daily continuation in sins (if left without rebuke,) had cast at length into some desperate spiritual malady, to the manifest hazard of their eternal welfare: for health▪ without holiness, and a penitent resentment of of our frequent infirmities, is no token of God's mercy, but rather of damnation, and the portion of this life. Moreover, sins by weakening the forces and activities of the soul, make her impotent and unfit to govern the body; so that the principal part being sick and unapt to rule, the bodily faculties are profusely wasted and abused, and so death is hastened on, and with it a total and a final destruction. At least by this yoke and bridle of sickness, as by a wholesome kind of purgatory, men will be retained in the ordinary offices of piety, and (though they be but few, who are effectually reclaimed or converted by it,) yet this detainment of their health (which i● still left to them, they had still abused,) will in some measure restrain and cut off from them, both the liberty and the power of sinning. Hitherto the most learned Crollius. Thou wilt now (perhaps) object, that seeing all Diseases are not curable, it is consequently absurd, to term any Medicine universal I answer, That is termed universal, not because it takes away all diseases at all times & in all Causes, for that it cannot do; but because it being but one, can expel and cure all those diseases, which by all other particular or specifical Medicines whatsoever can, or have been healed and eradicated; yea, and some diseases which by no appropriated particular medicine can be healed, as the Gout, the Falling sickness, the dropsy, the leprosy, &c. Therefore it is termed universal, because it hath in it real and effectually, all the manifest and occult virtues of all other specifical medicines & that eminently, or by way of transcendency, so that all other medicines are subordinate and accountable unto this. Section 6. How Medicines ought to be administered to the sick, and after what manner the Physician must behave himself in their administration, and generally in his practice. I. Every professor of physic, when he is furnished with convenient, effectual, and rightly prepared medicines, before he enters into practice, must be conversant with, and acquire the friendship of some learned and well experienced Physiciar, whose advice and assistance in his first attempts, he must make use of, not omitting his own observations. FOr in the multitude of counsellors there is safety, and a more exact judgement is given of the Patients present condition, and the ways and means to restore him are better and surer laid. By this Course, that opprobrious German Proverb, which sticks too fast to some young Adventurers (Ein newer Arkt, Ein newer Kirch-hoff: A new Physician must have a new churchyard,) would be easily refuted and quite abolished. This very Course (after serious and needful considerations) I did heretofore propose to myself, and to effect it throughly, I procured and entered into mutual and friendly Covenants with a certain Doctor of physic, who was not unlearned: and that I might by this means proceed farther in my chemical discoveries, I conversed with him by frequent Letters, and other more familiar ways: And this I did, because I supposed him (at that time) to be a true Philososopher, but I could never receive one line from him, that was not wholly dictated by the spirit of pride and arrogancy. At length, when it fortuned, that (after a most loving invitation, I could not for very moving, and extraordinary reasons, attend upon him) he railed at me (though altogether innocent,) with most horrid imprecations, and virulent language, terming me an unsanctified villain, and laboured by all means to vilify my studies and person, that by such clamorous and public discouragements, he might force me to desist, and give over my profession. But none of these things shall move me: for God will yet give me such friends, with whom I may freely deliberate, and advise about Physical operations, and the healing of the sick: too much knowledge is oftentimes foolishness. True Philosophers walk wholly in the plain path of nature. What profits learning, where pride bears the sway, and blinds the owner? I have ever judged, the modest knowledge to be the most divine. It is true indeed, we are not all equals: but let him that hath more of the light, walk in that shining path with modesty. I confess indeed, and it is true, that he was my superior by many degrees, but had he been moved to this harsh dealing, by a mere conceit of his superiority in learning, perhaps he would not have cast me off so as he hath done. God resisteth the proud, and gives grace even to the humble. Yea, the most wise, and the blessed JESUS, did humble himself in the very form of a servant, that he might familiarly live and converse with the most obscure and inferior sort of people: and he was not ashamed, nor disdained to teach those poor spirits, not a sublunary, transient knowledge, but the glorious and permanent mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. I love still the learning of so eminent a person because others whom I love, commend it unto me: But that great knowledge, which he abuseth to an injurious scorn and undervaluing of me, I heartily hate. God Almighty (it may be) for some secret respects, which his all discerning spirit only knows, would not suffer me to impart any longer, (as we were mutually bound) my private affairs unto him. Therefore from henceforth let him live to himself, only I would have him understand by this which is published, that his vehement and bitter Letters made me very sad. But to return to what we have proposed in the Contents of this Section; A Physician that would practise successfully, must First and before all things find out the disease, and what the cause of it is. For in vain wilt thou either seek or apply remedies, if the cause of the disease be not perfectly known unto thee: the beginning of the Cure, is a right knowledge of the Disease: but the disease cannot be known, without knowing the cause: For then are we confident, that we know the matter and effect, when we have discovered the cause or efficient of it. II. He must apply and appropriate his remedies to the root and original apparent cause of the d●sease, and not otherwise. III. He must administer no Med●cine●, whose forces or operative virtues in taking away the disease, he is not throughly acquainted with, unless he be well assured that they cannot endanger nor prejudice a person that is in health: by such trials he may safely and profitably discern what his Medicines can and what they cannot effect. IV. He must administer nothing that hath in it a manifest poison, unless the venom be first wholly and actually separated or taken out. V. He must before the administration of his Medicines, remove all impediments that are likely to oppose or weaken their virtues; and this must be done either by himself, or by another, viz. by a Surgeon. HE must let blood, take away all luxations, set broken bones, &c. And afterwards apply his Medicines inwardly or outwardly, or both ways, as need requires. VI. He must prescribe such a diet both of Meat and drink, as will be agreeable to his Patients present exigency, and for the furtherance or assistance of nature, and the restoration of health. VII. He must carefully observe a just Dose in all his Medicines, with respect had to their operations, and to the strength of the Patient. VIII. He must never administer any of his Medicines, without sanctifying them in, and with the blessed name of JESUS CHRIST. Whatsoever ye do (saith the Apostle of the Gentiles) in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord JESUS, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colos. 3. 17. Section. 7. How the sick man should behave himself, while he is in a course of physic. I. Let the sick person acknowledge, that he hath deserved, and drawn upon himself, the just anger of God by his frequent sins: and that it is by his righteous permission, that he is visited with sickness. II. Let him by an unfeigned penitence, and a godly sorrow reconcile himhimselfe unto God through the merits of his Saviour, putting on an holy resolution to become a new man; and afterwards let him draw near to the throne of Grace, and entreat God for mercy, and his healing assistance. III. After reconciliation and invocation of the divine aid, let him send for the Physician, and physic being taken, let him not doubt of God's mercy, and his own recovery. THat is to say, let him certainly believe that there is communicated and infused (by the gift of God) into the medicine which he hath taken, such an innate virtue▪ as is effectual and proper to expel his Disease. If he doth this, the event will be answerable to his faith, and the Medicine will in all circumstances work successfully. A firm credulity, cheerful hope and true love and confidence towards the Physician, and the Medicine, (saith that great Philosopher Oswaldus Crollius,) conduce as much to the health of the Patient, yea sometimes more, then either the remedy▪ or the Physician. Natural faith (I mean not the faith of Grace which is from Christ, but the imaginative ●aith, which in the day that the first man was created, was then infused and planted in him by God the Father, and is still communicated to his posterity,) is so powerful, that it can both expel and introduce Diseases: as it manifestly appears in times of infection, when man by his own private imagination, out of mere fear and horror, generates a Basiliscum Coeli, which infects the Microcosmical Firmament by means of the imaginants' superstition according as the patient's faith assists, or resists. To the faithful all things are possible, for faith ascertaines all those things which are uncertain: God can by no means be reached and enjoyed of us, but only by faith: whosoever therefore believes in God, he operates by the power of God, and to God all things are possible. But how this is performed, no human wit can find out: This only we can say, that ●aith is an operation or work not of the Bel●ever but of him in whom he believes. Cogitations or thoughts, surpass the operations of all Elements and Stars: for while we imagine and believe, such a thing shall come to pass, that faith brings the work about, and without it is nothing done Our faith that it will be so, makes us imagine so: imagination excites a Star, that Star (by conjunction with Imagination) gives the effect or perfect operation. To believe that there is a medicine which can cure us, gives the spirit of Medicine: that spirit gives the knowledge of it and the Medicine being known, gives health. Hence it appears, that a true Physician, whose operations are natural, is born of this faith, and the spirit (I mean this spirit of nature, or star of medicine,) furthers and assists him, according to his faith. It happens oftentimes, that an illiterate man performs those cures by this imaginative faith, which the best Physicians cannot do with the most sovereign medicines. Sometimes also, this bare persuasion or imaginative faith heals more and more effectually, than any virtue in the exhibited Medicine, as it was manifestly found of late years, in that famous Panacea, or All-heal of Amwaldus, and since his time, in that new medicinal spring, which broke out this present year in the Confines of Misnia and Bohemia, to which an incredible number of sick persons do daily resort. No other cause can be rendered of these Magnalia, or rare Physical operations, than the firm and excessive affection of the Patient; for the power, which worketh thus, is in the Spirit of the receiver, when taking the medicine without any fear or hesitation, he is wholly possessed and inspired (as it were) with an actual desire and belief of health: for the rational soul, when stirred up, and enkindled by a vehement imagination, overcomes nature, and by her own effectual affections, renews many things in her own body or mansion, causing either health or sickness, and that not only in her own body, but Extraneously, or in other bodies. The efficacy of this natural faith, manifested itself in that woman with the bloody Issue, and in the Centurion. Hitherto are the words of Crollius. IV. When the Patient is del●vered from his disease, and restored to his former health, let him heartily and solemnly give all the glory to the Supreme, almighty Physician: let him offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and acknowledge the goodness and the tender mercies of the Lord. And let not the physician forget to perform his duty, by a thankful and solemn acknowledgement of God's gracious concessions, by choosing and enabling him to be his unworthy instrument to restore the sick. And this he must do, not only because it is his duty, and a most deserved and obliged gratitude, but also out of a wise Christian caution, to avoid those judgements which are poured upon the negligent and ungrateful, by the most just jealousy of the irresistible and everlasting GOD; unto whom alone be rendered by Angels and Men, and by all his creatures, All Praise and Glory, and perpetual thanks in this the temporal, and in the eternal Being. Amen. FINIS.