ENDOXA, OR, Some probable Inquiries INTO TRUTH, BOTH Divine and Humane: Together with A STONE to the ALTAR: OR, Short Disquisitions on a few difficult places of SCRIPTURE; AS ALSO, A CALM VENTILATION OF PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA.  
By John Robinson, Dr. of Physic.  
Translated and augmented by the Author.  

Though divers Heads, Faces averse you see;  
Yet for Truth's sake, they all in Heart agree.   
London, Printed by J. Streater, for Francis Titan, 1658.   

The Contents of the Endoxa.  

Chap. 1. Of a Church. Pag. 1  
Chap. 2. Of Ministers. Pag. 20  
Chap. 3. Of Sacraments. Pag. 25  
Chap. 4. Of Adam. Pag. 28  
Chap. 5. Of Marriage. Pag. 33  
Chap. 6. Of Sympathy. Pag. 39  
Chap. 7. Of an Egg. Pag. 43  
Chap. 8. Of Floating or Swimming. Pag. 45  
Chap. 9 Of Remedies. Pag. 48  
Chap. 10. Of Telesmes. Pag. 52    

A Key to the Work.  
THe Pillars of this Universe are the Church, to which for guidance Ministers are sent, for solace Sacraments: It considereth man either innocent as was Adam; or fallen, as his Posterity: The due propagation whereof is by Matriage: This ushereth in love and Sympathy, being part of the Parents; The truth whereof is examined in an Egg, whence dissimilar parts arising, are best distinguished by Floating: These, in a right order, are preserved, in disorder rectified by lawful Remedies, not by Telesmes: Or thus, Man may he considered as a Subject of Morality, which taketh up the first four Chapters; or as a Political Subject, which is handled in the two middle ones; or as a Body Physical; which finisheth the rest of the Treatise.   

The Preface, To the candid Reader.  
TRuth, both divine and natural, hath two adversaries; one real, the other in a mask. The real is all obliqne, though not diametrically opposite, Error, The other, when, by our misconstruction, Verity seemeth combating with itself; as several places in Holy Writ. Now, to reconcile that which hath a semblance of repugnancy, and to rescue truth surrounded with falsehood, is a badge, both of charity and valour; and to an ingenuous mind its own sufficient recompense.  
Some upon a supine despondency procrastinate their searching into truth, because at our nearer union with God, which we shall enjoy at our solemn change, we shall know all things more perfectly: yet is it a more heroic spirit, to antedate heaven, to assay to add something unto eternity à priori, causing it to begin the sooner: That eternal beatitude consisting in knowledge and holiness, which differ from these our commenced and initiated first fruits, only in degree. He that hath not had a primitiall cast and prelibation of them here below, is like never to be satiated with a full harvest of them above.  
Here therefore you have a handful of abrupt 
Nec tamen sine calce arena.  conceptions, or rather, abortions of mine; their birth at first, for some reason, being precipitated; there hanging then over our heads the fear of a great cataract, swiftly running down, from the top of the highest Senate; by which the soil of superstition was not so much likely to be rinced off; as the tender sprouting grass of sincere godliness was in danger to be choked. Besides, neither my Genius, nor calling, will allow me a sequestered time, to dwell long upon any subject: Afterward, at more leisure, and, I hope, without being tedious, I have, in some measure, endeavoured their augmentation.  
It was with me, as with them that dwell near the coast, who, upon a Sea-breach, will cast in any thing that is next at hand; though but loosely compacted; which, the springtide being over, and waves calmed, they can more orderly dispose against a future inundation: Neither, in a public flame, would I have my bucket, though of a lesser size, to be wanting.  
The style and method is neither accurate, nor altogether neglected: yet one thing I must advertise the Reader, concerning the translation; that though I was conscious to my own weakness, in the English Tongue, becanse of my long abode out of my native Country; yet, because the drift of the Author is best known to myself, that would make some recompense for the barbarous andhobnail phrases, wherein are several word, for necessity more than affectation, which, in a vulgar ear, would sooner beget a wonder then satisfaction.  
If any thing be false, [for we are but men] do not carp at it; but teach better. I shall promise myself, though here and there be grey hairs, a willing and thankful disciple: If there be doubts, [as in untract paths it is hard to find the nearest way] let them be examined by the scales of the Sanctuary, and beam of right reason: What is true, embrace and lodge it. Let neither the meanness of the Superficies, nor dwarsnesse of the Bulk, prepossess your, otherwise unbiased, expectation. Among the rushes you may stumble upon 
Exod. 2. Esa. 65.  a Moses, and there may be a Blessing, even in a Cluster of Grapes.  
You may meet with two obstacles retarding your consent: First, that I take many Postulata for granted; which, because they are by others sufficiently proved, I do on purpose pass over: And then, that the names of the Authors are not set down; to which I answer, that some are Anonymi, though not to me: Besides, I have no quarrel with any man; but rather discuss the questions which many defend.  
My intention is not to enter into the field of controversy, with all the strength, and main body of a Battalie; but rather by excursions, in a velitary way, to skirmish with some, whom (all due love and respect unviolated) I descent from.  
My wished end is, by gentle concussion, the emulsion of truth, and so reduce the fruit of these exercitations into practice; that, by emelioration of Judgement, they may, in their proportion, be useful to the generation wherein we live: which if I find to answer my desires, I will acknowledge as an ample reward of these few unfiled lines.  
Farewell.   

ENDOXA. OR, Some profitable Inquiries into Truth, both Divine and Humane.  

CHAP. I.  
Of a Church.  
WHen by a figurative denomination, an Error, or, which is of affinity unto it, Confusion and Ambiguity is either begotten or fostered; then I think it safest, to reduce it to its primitive simplicity. Our Saviour citeth corrupt manners, to the Tribunal of first Institution: Mat. 19 8. Words are more flexible; When I call Tuesday the third day of the week, to a Jew or Turk, [its well, if not to many English,] I shall be a Barbarian. Mars-Hill, Castor and Pollux, were no idolatrous titles, in the mouth of the holy Scribe. An appellation of a brother, to a beleiver, is most rational, where there can fall no misconstruction: In religious actions, I commend it; but not in civil conversation; For than must I, except I infringe the rule of Jam. 2. call and write my Father, Son, and Servant, Brother; which is a confounding of Relations. Here would have been a specious excuse for Abraham's simulation: Gen. 12. & 20. So in this subject, the attributes belonging to the body of Christ, i. e. his Church, are conferred upon the place; as glory, holiness, etc. These titles did indeed in some measure, and for a certain time befit the Temple at Jerusalem: because this sole place God had assigned for his solemn Worship: But, the Veil being rend, any place of service, so it were in truth and spirit, was agreeable unto him, John 4. which hath of late made a just distinction between a meeting 
Templum quod teneat populum.  people and house. But to the thing.  
There being several opinions concerning a Church, both ancient and modern; I will endeavour, what may be, to build upon such general concessa, drawn from Sacred page or reason, as whereby the truth may be most manifest.  
That God had a Church, that is, a selected company out of the World, from Cain's time & shall have unto the end, is undeniable among all professing Christianity: First in Families, as in Noah, Melchizedeck, Abraham; afterward in the Nation of the jews; and now under the Gospel, dispersed throughout the face of the earth.  
This Church, as it is taken for an Universal Congregatum, or Collective, are all the believers, past, present, and, in some sense, to come. The Jews, Gods elder daughter, did not disdain, to call the Church of the Gentiles, their younger Sister; though without breasts, i. e. the sincere milk of the Word: yea, yet unborn, Cant. 8. 8. This may be called, as vulgarly it is, the Universal or Catholic Church, out of 
For which who prayeth, prayeth for the dead.  which there is no salvation: And of this many have been and are amongst the Pagaus, Turks, and remotest Heretics: saved by a way unknown to us: as little Children are said to believe: Math. 18. 6. i e. only passively; having the root, though not the form. These hidden things are beyond the reach of any Ecclesiastical Consistory.  
But that there are particular Churches, and joined into bodies, is past all controversy.  
Now, that the way of gathering of them, as well as ruling, is in a determinate manner unalterably set down, either in the heart of man, [which none can aver,] or in the holy word by God himself, [let them especially look to this who urge an uniform discipline upon all Churches,] might be gathered thus. A Prince demanding obedience of his Subjects, must needs set down positive Laws, unalterable, but by himself; and not leave it to their prudential change, Where, When, and How to obey: This is a clear dictate of reason which God doth not ordinarily contradict. Thus did Adam, Noah, Abraham, before the written-Scripture, teach their Families, by the primer of divine Traditions: Not that every one by Enthusiasm was immediately inspired; the teaching of their Children else had been frustraneous, which God and Nature abhorreth. Afterward, God himself gave Moses a perfect pattern of every particular thing in the Tabernacle, even unto the smallest bagatelloes, from the which he might not warp an Inch; which did bind the Children of Israel immutably unto the time of Solomon; who likewise did not in the least deviate from the express command of God in the meanest punctillo: Hereunto were the jews obliged until Christ's time. And what the Pharisees did in the worship of God, either omit, add, or alter, was listed among the traditions of men; and so rejected as spurious. And is it reason, that after Christ's coming, it should be left to prudence of man, either Prince or Church, to vary any way of worship of God, according to the mutability of their own discretion?  
The whole stream of both Testaments run irresistably this way: God menaceth judgements to the jews, because their fear towards him, was taught by the precepts of men, Isa. 29. 13. And the Temple [speaking of Christian Churches] is exactly measured by John, Revel. 11. which is far wide from any prudential way, or [which prudence importeth] any alteration upon occurrences.  
Moreover, the Author to the Hebrews doth expressly teach the faithfulness of Christ as a Son; above Moses as a Servant; in setting down every particular concerning the ordering of his House, which is the Church: which no earthly power can or aught to change, or silence the publishing of it: but every one is bound faithfully to submit unto, and in his place to divulge: He is bound, I mean in foro divino.  
That God did at any time change the external garb of his Church, was no mark of unadvisedness in the Guardian; but of weakness in his Ward. He would, in the twilight and morning of the Gospel, have his orphan put on her night-attire, that the Sun being risen, she might wear her Nuptial Garment; until it, [with all outward services] do set for ever.  
What Politicians distinguish between Law and Counsel, is granted between man and man; but the introduction of this distinction into divinity, doth look with the face of an encroachment. For to despise either of these, is sin, and that is the breach of the Law: The reason is clear; because all his Commandments aim at our good; and all his counsels, are, unquestionably, profitable for us; none of which quadrateth with those of men. That Christ, Mark 10. doth bid the young man sell all, must not be taken in an absolute sense, for a positive command, or standing rule to him, or any others; but by way of probation: If these things be true, give a Testimony, the selling of all thy goods.  
To wade a little further; the causes of a Church, [as being known] I do but mention.  
The Efficient; God, out of his love, through the word and spirit, persuading men's hearts to believe in his Son.  
The Material; are all the Saints, and members of his mystical body.  
The Pormal, Union with him, and one with another.  
The Final, his own honour; their revesting themselves into the formet, or rather, better image of Himself; the edifying one another, and their mutual eternal bliss.  
Now the way of gathering, and rule of governing is the same; namely the preaching of 
Ex quibus constamus, iisdem nutrimur.  the word of God.  
But because the manner of divulging the Gospel, is by some of our age controverted; and they would have nothing to be the word of God, but the very text of the Old and New Testament; because, say they, a concionatory way is not wholly, intrinsically, undoubtedly, and merely true; driving rather to content themselves, with a private conclave worship; by reading of the sole Scripture, as it is and layeth; than to be present at, an assembly publicly serving God.  
In a body Politic, it is no wise to be tolerated, much less in any Ecclesiastical corporation; that without mutual help, whilst every one sets up for himself, the external invasion of public adversaries, or the domestic pruning of rotten branches, should be neglected.  
Of these, I desire first to ask one questiou: Whether the Word in its original, not being understood, be able to convert souls? Or, Whether all to be converted, must be masters of the Hebrew and Greek Languages? Which both seem absurdities: Or, which necessarily must follow; they must be converted by the word translated; which, besides the various readings of the Originals, is not wholly, intrinsically, undoubtedly, and merely true.  
I shall point at a few reasons.  
1. God in writing his holy Will, would not give us bare husks of words; but by them the solid kernel of his intended mind: Neh. 8. 8. doth teach, that what by right reason can be concluded from authority of Scripture, is Scripture, though no text: we being endued with reason, as well as the Beroeaus, who for examining the truth, in its self authentic, were honoured with the Title of Nobility.  
2. The Holy Ghost frequently varieth the Text, in quoting the Septuagint, only keeping to the meaning of the Spirit.  
3. If private meetings be satisfactory, then are all admonitions, censures, etc. frustrated, Mat. 24. 26.  
4. Every first day of the week, when ye are met together, lay aside for the poor. The objection which the Antisynusians make, that this precept was but transient, to last but for a while, Christ meeteth withal; john 12. 8. That the poor, therefore Deacons, will be perpetuated.  
5. We may not withdraw from public assemblies, Heb. 10. 25.  
6. Faith cometh by hearing.  
By Hearing, is meant, any way of attaining knowledge and so is Reading. 
Object.   
If by hearing here be understood reading, 
Answ.  I marvel what construction they will make of the subsequent words, they must be sent: and how this sending is competent unto books, I cannot understand. Reading, I grant, is an informing and perfecting of the understanding; but that the will and affections, [the main wheels in faith] are thereby, as well as by a lively voice drawn into consent, I utterly deny: And because the clock of our love, by the weight of our terrestrials, runneth down from God continually, we need every day, by the cords of our affections, a new winding up of former truths.  
Against these premised things, there is a 
Object.  great and general Objection. That the external form of words in preaching, praying; the days and places instituted for fasting and thanksgiving, with other circumstances, are not distinctly set down in holy Scripture; but may in a prudential way, according to the exigence of occasions or persons, be changed.  
In the Worship of God two things are to 
Answ.  be considered; The Substance, and the necessary intervening Adjuncts: That the word of God must be preached, the Sacraments administered, in time of danger God's help must be implored, after deliverances praises must be returned; is an institution of God, and so a law unalterable: The intermixed adjuncts, crowding into all our actions, are natural and no part of God's worship: The manner of expression, the time is no more than the place; nor the public either time or place, more than a private, whiles I am with God in my closet-approaches, or Family-duties: they being such Circumstances, without which nothing can be done; A natural necessity of adjuncts will follow, without the spur of a command; nor need any curb of restraint: If there be any holiness in them, it is for the works sake, and so but Relative.  
The difference is worth observing, when the work is done for the day's sake, or the day is used for the works sake: If the Circumstance be determined by God, it becometh 
☜  a necessary part of his worship; which no man can extort out of his hand; it being a Prerogative Royal, belonging only to him, to make any time, place, or person holy.  
Besides, because these circumstances are fortuitous, they do overturn and interrupt the Celebration of anniversary-dayes: many times, to our long-prefixed humiliation, a sudden victory will run counter; and unexpected calamities will quench the feudejoy of a long-fore-set gratulation: But these accidents being various, we must from a general rule, draw forth the particulars.  
All God's dispensations are books of his appointment, which we may and must read; though in them there be many hard lessons: But to erect and keep any thing for a holy use, upon the authority of our own complacency, is to build too near the banks of Superstition.  
Neither do I mean by holiness, a sanctified use, as many cavil; for so is meat and drink; but separated unto an holy end. The Sabbath is excepted, which [give leave to a small digression] being first instituted in relation to Christ, Psal. 118. 22, 23, 24. was an ordinance of grace, and not of nature; nor competent to Adam in innocency; and is 
Geo. Walker, of the Sabbath.  holy for itself sake, though no body in the world should keep it. Let it be no hindrance to the truth of these words, that but little mention was made of it, before the Law written in stones, either in Marah or Alush; No more there is of other long-lived Laws, as that a man should marry his Brother's widow, or, that whoredom should be punished with death, and the like; which easily might be proved to be in force before; I speak of a civil Law, under which rank these  do march: not of the moral Law, engraven in the heart of all mankind.  
They object further; Many things are adiaphorous 
Object.  and indifferent, the choice whereof is within the command of our will.  
By what is said may be concluded, that in 
Answ.  God's worship there is nothing indifferent: In natural things most actions do contemn the voice of our command. To speak with the Schools, I add more presly; Though in actu signato, there may be; yet that there is no indifferency in actu exercito, I remember to have read with full satisfaction.  
But to close more near: Besides the Universal Church dispersed here on earth, God hath appointed some particular Congregations to join into bodies, for their mutual edification; which challenge right to all the ordinances, left by Christ, and his Apostles: as is, the receiving in, building up, casting out; which actions, not being competent to the Universal, do justly descend to the Ministerial 
Universalibus non competunt personalia.  or Economical Churches; whose duty it is, to see their inheritance not to lay waste.  
The Antisynagogians do object; that there 
Object.  is no crime in the Church, which the Christian Magistrate is not to take notice of.  
This title I understand in division, not in a 
Answ.  conjunction; Nor a Christian Physician, or Mathemematician, to prescribe pious rules of Health, or Angels: Morality, not faith, is requisite in a Prince; Caesar was as essential, and integral an Emperor, as was Joshua. But what if he fall into scandalous errors, or practices? by what means shall he be moved, or removed, not as a Magistrate, but as a commensall and fellow-commoner with the faithful? what if he neglect his duty? shall all run to wrack? Were there not in the Apostles and latter times, Churches, for their piety and purity, as famous as ever? But power being granted, abilities for discerning heresies, accomplishments for public and private duties, are neither allotted nor required, in a civil power, quà talis.  
That sentence, which goeth cheek by jowl with Scripture; that Moses, and thence all Magistrates, are the preservers of both tables, will hardly go down with me? By keepers they must understand [impertinency attends others interpretations] overseers, to look to the outward execution of the Ten commandments; which if it were granted unto Moses, it would prove but a lame argumentation, to derive it unto Princes under the Gospel; because their Church and Commonweal, were the same subjects. We are to pray and endeavour for the conversion of the Jews, which can hardly be conceived without conversation: But, upon their co-habitation with us, to compel them, against conscience, to a positive Celebration of our Lord's day, were 
Duci non trahi volunt.  a preposterous way to gain them to the true faith. The interdiction of public labour, for the not disturbance of the rest, is sufficient, Neh. 13. 19 The Sabbath being a lesson of grace, cannot be read by the letters of reason, as was mentioned before.  
But, as the injunction of all Divine worship upon an unbeliever hath little equity in it; so neither is it possible for the Supreme Power to take cognizance of the breach of every Commandment: For the last precept, Thou shalt not covet, etc. the new conceived motions, and infant-affections of the desire of our Neighbour's goods are forbidden; which because not apparent, they are as if they were not; [I speak ad hominem] according to that Maxim, Non entis & non apparentis eadem est ratio. When these concupiscences break forth into actions, they are to be ranked under the heads of Adultery or Theft; And the Dealogue doth not admit of Tautology: This concupiscence if it be hidden to ones own self, Rom. 7. 7. How shall it be manifest unto others? Thus God securerh both tables with a lock, which no key of reason can open.  
That place Esa. 65. I will create new Heavens, and new Earth, with the like consonant places, are meant of new-moulding the State; both in Church and Commonwealth, under the Gospel; when they shall be more remarkably distinguished: But these men labour for a monstrous prothusteron, that the Heavens should be ruled by the Earth, the Higher governed 
Gen verkeerde weerld.  by the Lower; and the greater by the lesser orbs. Let every Sphere enjoy its proper Intelligence.  
Neither can I so readily assent to those, who affirm, that two or three gathered together into a society, rise up to an Organical Church: For that, Mat. 18. speaking of such a Church, presupposeth more persons: For if thy brother offend thee, there are two persons; and after reproof will not hear thee, take one or two with thee, there are four perfons, and those males, whereas experience daily teacheth the contrary, Acts 16. 13. besides the Church: yet how small the embryo of a particular Congregation may be, is hard to depose definitively.  
As in all sensitive bodies, these three faculties are required; to attract, to nourish, and to expel; the same may be said of every congregational body: It must have power within itself, to admit and receive in, to nourish and foster those received, and to expel or decline that which is noxious.  
But the grand Quere will be, Whence this Power is derived? 
Doubt.   
They of the See of Rome lay claim of inheritance to it, by succession from Christ and 
Exam.  his Apostles; and so exclude, as Heretics, all those that usurp the title of a true Church or Ministry, without succession or ordination from them.  
Others, even of our brethren, in the Reformed Churches, do deny this to belong to a Church, without some succession or dependency on other Churches: Of whom I dedesire the solution of these two Questions.  
Whether a company of godly people, being by 
Quest. 1.  shipwreck cast into the a barbarous or empty Island, where they are like to live out their days, may not join into a spiritual body; and so raise up unto themselves, the exercises of all Ordinances revealed in God's word?  
If any one think, that, by stating the godly 
Sol.  out of the Church, it is a begging of the question: he must have recourse unto the former distinction, that they are indeed dispersed parts of the Universal Church: but not organised by union unto Ecclesiastical duties; A multitude but no people. Paul, when he assayed to join himself unto the Church of Jerusalem, Acts 9 26. was, as a private man, no actual member of any determinate Church: but, as an Apostle, virtually, of all, confined to no particular place; rather a Father then a Nurse to most of the Churches of the Gentiles.  
Lest any should deny this Demand, these things are tendered to their consideration.  
Whatsoever is Spiritually a living body, is Spiritually 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, perfecting itself: An Axiom grounded upon Reason: Aristotle applieth it to the Soul of Man: But all Believers are Spiritually living Bodies, and have an inward principle, to build up themselves and others, in their holy faith. So 1 Thes. 5. they are commanded to edify one another, and 1 Pet. 2. the Faithful are called living stones. Now presuppose, that a company of living stones, (it is lawful to dispute upon a false Hypothesis) meet and join together, who will doubt, but they may, and aught, to rear up from themselves a perfect Edifice? Ephes. 2. 21.  
From this ground arise all Politic Corporations, commonweals, and Kingdoms: since a man, for his well-being, hath need of several things; and one alone is not laid in with all kind of Handicraft, or Art; for a mutual good, there is a coalescency: So in the Church, every one is nor an eye or hand; some must act the ear, others the foot. Semblable is that of Solomon, Eccles. 4. woe to him that is alone; for if he fall who shall raise him up?  
Again, I ask, In time of Reformation from 
Quest. 2.  Idolatry or profaneness to an Orthodox Holiness; Whether there be not the same necessity, which there was in the case stated before?  
How shall they be reduced, where there is 
Exam.  no Church, will be the question. The Examples of the Disciples, that were sent out by Couples, will teach that: These Hewers of Stone and Timber did, by converting many, fit and square them for a Spiritual Edifice.  
If it be answered affirmatively, than they may unite together into a Church, without succession or dependency on other Churches. If not, either they must procure some Superltious or profane Minister, to receive-in Members, to ordain Officers in a true Church, which is absurd; or else they must stay, till they meet with another true Church, or Ministry; which, besides the difficulty, favoureth of a Prelatical Jurisdiction of one Church over another; of which, something in the subsequent Chapter; where the difference of Authority and benefit of one Church towards another, is more copiously examined.  
Some that meekly, yet earnestly, contend against this way, object two main Arguments: The first is, It is unlawful to withdraw, or separate from a true Church. The second is, concerning readd Prayer: A word to each.  
First, Cases might be stated, in which it is lawful to forsake a true Church; and so the Proposition shaketh: But I deny the assumption that there is, or hath been, since the divorce of the Jews (their Church and State being the same) any National Ministerial Church, in which none might abide, alien from their Religion, as far as concerneth the Moral Law; 
Proselytus aut domuns, aut Justitiae.  though some were exempted from the Ceremonial Obedience: As were the Gideonites, and Nethinims; and so it is the begging of the question.  
To the second, I answer, That there is a great difference of reading of a Prayer, and committing Heads thereof to memory: [the case is the same in Preaching] the latter being a means sanctified, and a gift required in every Minister: The former, there being no Example, or Rule for it; nor any Pastoral gift eminent in it.  
The Minister's Prayer is a stinting of the Spirit, and so of my Prayer. 
Ob.   
The Minister's Prayer is not my particular 
Sol.  prayer, nor properly his, but the Churches; and he, therein, the mouth only of the Church unto God: And if his Prayer be by the Spirit, [as it ought] mine, as a member, is no other; neither is mine more stinted than his. In Preaching, the case is inverted; for there he is the mouth of God unto the People. The Blessing is a mixed action: as he doth apprecate unto us God's favours, is his Vicegerent, Unto which Amen following, is the People's assent. No man properly can bless himself, but the lesser is blessed of the greater, Heb. 7. 7.  
To conclude this point, It seemeth more than probable, that a company of faithful, (the heart no man knoweth) uniting into a body, become a true Oeconomical Church, and, having Christ for their sole Head, may, with a pleniporent Octroy or Concession, claim privilege to all the Ordinances instituted in the Gospel, as by a Charter belonging to them; by virtue of their Pact and Covenant with the Lord their King; without any dependency upon any Foreign Authority, either Secular, or Ecclesiastical. The same case is of a Church released from Babylonish Bondage; who, by Writ of Recovery, may challenge her Pristine Inheritance.  
I must clear up one Objection; There are 
Ob.  Hypocrites in the Church; and Christ communicated with Judas.  
For Hypocrites, there is no Law against 
Sol.  them: Not Divine, because they are the worst of Atheists; Nor Humane, because they have the face or vizard of devout Penitents: The Church, therefore, taketh no cognizance of them: and what an encased or discovered Hypocrite is, I could never apprehend. Christ indeed, by His Theanthropy, searching the Inwards, knew Judas to be one; but, because he himself was beyond reach of Contagion, and Judas' dissimulation in secret, was not yet broken out into open profaneness, every one of the Disciples questioning, Who should be the Devil their Master spoke of, Christ did not refuse him: which is the mistake of many Learned men in our days; making his secure Example, a pattern of their perilous practice.  
Appositely do others observe, that Christ would not be both Witness and Judge, which no Court of Equity doth admit of.   

CHAP. II.  
Of Ministers.  
THere is a vulgar error, even among the best, concerning the Name; which if they mean, as they speak, is an open door unto Anarchy. They call their Pastors, as also their Magistrates, yea, Angels, Their, or, the Church's Ministers, which is false; especially, those whom they furnish with things necessary for this present life: Whereas it is grounded upon a triple Foundation. Natural, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox, that treadeth out the corn: Levitical, By the Law of Decimation: Evangelical, 1 Cor. 9 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter, if we reap your carnal things? Paying a Debt, doth induce no obligation. They are indeed God's Ministers, and to they are styled, 2 Cor. 6. 4. Rom. 13. 8. Psal. 104. 4. not man's: That 2 Cor. 4. 5. is a strain of holy courtesy.  
Not to speak here, of four things requisite to the constitution of a Pastor, 1. A faculty of administering the Sacraments and Keys, which is called Mandate. II. The applying of this Mandate to a certain person, named Ordination. 
Grotius.  3. The adjoining of the person to a certain company, and that is Election. 4. When the same exerciseth his Ministry by public Authority, which is with them Confirmation: The discussing the truth whereof, would take up time, and swell the Bulk, beyond my intention. Let the first question be,  
Whether a Minister may celebrate the Sacraments 
Quest.  out of his own Church?  
There may be considered in a Minister's 
Exam.  Office two things; his Power over his own, and his Duty of Benefit towards others. Now no act of power can he exercise out of his Church; but any grace of benefit he may; provided always, that by feeding of others, his own be not pinched.  
But, because his duty of benefit doth extend to all, whether of the same Profession, or not, that therefore his power should do the like, is no necessary consequence: This Key well turned, will unlock most of our Dissenters Arguments: The Sacraments, therefore, being no act of power, seem to may be, by him, administered out of his own Church; these considerations being balanced.  
1. The Levites, this way were tied, though to a Nation; yet not to any particular Tribe, Jud. 17. 9  
2. If he may not administer the Sacraments out of his own Church, than none upon a just absence from their own, might either themselves, or their children, be partakers of the Sister-Churches Sacraments; which is against the practice of the Apostles, and now best Reform Churches: The reason of the consequence is this; If he admit a stranger, either, by that act, he becometh one of them, or no: If not, than he administereth to some out of his Church; and why not then unto most, or unto all? Who shall set a certain bound or number? If he become one of that Society, then may he be a member of two or more Churches at once: which though in Civil Corporations, it may be admitted, is inconsisting with Ecclesiastical Constitutions.  
3. Deacons might, and aught sometime to administer out of their own Church, 2 Corinth. 8.  
4. It would redound unto the greater comfort to the Neighbour-Churches, in their building up, and Spiritual Hospitality, without any fear of ataxy.  
The Administration of the Sacraments is an 
Object.  act of Power and Authority.  
I confess it is an act of Place or Office, not 
Answ.  common to every one: So was the carrying out of the Ashes under the Altar, yet without any power; yea, all the Sacrifices, which went only through the Levites hands, ushered in no Authority with them: But if the giving of the Sacraments be an act of power, then, by the Rule of Relates, is the receiving of them an act of subjection: But none will say, that, by receiving the Sacrament, they become subject to that Church or Power, or have the privilege of choosing Officers, or a suffrage in censures.  
The Mayor is not, to exercise any power of his 
Instance.  Office, neither set the City Seal, to any person or thing, out of his Jurisdiction. So neither, etc.  
The Argumentation is from a Similitude, 
Answ. 1.  therefore not Apodictick, or of evident Demonstration.  
He may give advice, yea, as a Deputy, be 
2.  helpful out of his own Corporation, for some neighbour, or public good.  
The Simile differeth in the main; because every Corporation hath its several Seal: But 
3.  all the Churches throughout the World do make use of the same; which pleadeth, not weakly, for the question in hand; and withal resolveth, by a just Analogy, that Controversy perplexing many; Whether Baptism be an obligation to a particular Church? Those in Jordan were not Baptised into an individual Society, Math. 3. Neither the Gaoler, Act. 16. Nor the Eunuch, Act. 8. I know it was the Office of Apostle-ship, to continue till Churches were established; but that doth not enervate altogether our Argument. Neither doth it presently follow, that Sacraments may be administered out of the Church, either by wand'ring Itineraries, or fixed Fathers of Families to their Household; which controversy being handled by others, I pass over.  
Whether if a Popish Priest, reforming unto 
Quest. 2.  Protestantism; by virtue of his former Order, remain a Minister in a Reformed Church?  
The Negative is most likely, these Reasons considered: 
Answ.   
He must be chosen from among the Godly; yea, among his own Flock. Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1.  [after the conveying of gifts by Miracles, which like the Therapeutic Chrism, died with, or soon after the Apostles] is but the 
Denominatio visibilis.  demonstration or confirmation of his choice; the word being attributed to God Himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Act. 10. 4. This hath been proved by others 
* Grotiusde Imp: circa sacra, Lib. 10. Selden de Synod. Lib. 1. Cap. 14. , See Num. 8. 9 The Imposition of Names in Baptism is of the like nature, without which, some think that lavacre defective; but unadvisedly: It is not probable, that John did superadd any new names to his Disciples: neither was there an imposition of names, in the long differred Circumcision, Jos. 5. Of old, all Women should have been nameless; Personal forgotten; Patricious, if married, swallowed. Neither did conferring of gifts accompany always the laying on of Apostolical hands, Act. 6. 6. for, they were full of the Holy Ghost before, ver. 3. Sometime this Ceremony was repeated; as may be demonstrated, by comparing Act. 9 17. with Act. 13. 3.  
He shall have an Office of Pastorship before 
2.  he have a Flock, whereas the nature of Relates is, to live and die together: nay, perhaps before he be a member of a true Oeconomical Church, which is difficult to imagine.  
Concerning the difference of retaining Baptism, and not Ordination, I remit you to the satisfactory Treatises, of our worthy Predecessors.  
Other things might be added, and doubts cleared; but because I study brevity, and am loath to plume myself with other birds feathers, or to surfeit my Reader with twicewarmed cabbadge, I proceed to another controverted subject.   

CHAP. III.  
Of Sacraments.  
SAcraments are so near allied unto Ministers, that they might well have lodged under one roof; but, for breathing sake they are severed.  
Sacraments are visible words, differing from the audible, in that the latter serveth not only for food, but also for seed; the former only for nourishment: To tender nutriment, to not yet generated, is preposterous. But to the Problems.  
Whether Baptism received unworthily, that is, 
Quest. 1.  either on the exhibents or receivers part, so it be done to a religious use, the element and word always concurring, may be reiterated?  
It being on God's part a Seal of a federal Covenant, 
Exam.  Rom. 4. 11. [not of a civil one, as many urge; except justifying faith be reckoned among civil affairs] It is truthlike, that once administered, I afterward by faith applying the sign to myself, may have fruit and benefit thereby.  
Though in order the Covenant be before the Seal annexed; yet God, in mercy, doth often vary that course, which man may not, till he have proved the Sacraments to be a seed of faith: But he finding his Seal truly set to a blank, though unworthily, doth, of grace, susuperscribe his Covenant to it; though not for it. God always knowing and owing his vessels, though in Usurpers hands: which Belshazar abusing, did woefully rue, Dan. 5.  
So if at any times [alas too often] we sin, by rumination on the foregoing signs, we may draw fresh solace; without reiteration of the element. We have, for example, several of our Saviour's Disciples, recollecting the words after his death; which, in his life time, they had negligently, either overflipt or overslepr. The Spirit echoing over former either Precepts or Promises: Which practically applied, might turn to the great support of those who have misspent many ordinances fruitless: so also in the Lord's supper; the strength and signatum thereof, may, upon necessity, be oftener extracted by meditation and application, than it is elementally exhibited.  
This, for fear of mistake, I writ, somewhat to inform the dissenting Christians, for rebaptising themselves: What if they be baptised under the hood of hypocrisy being unmasked shall they renew their mark? As also, for the reforming of those, who, without the Lords Supper in their deathbed, [a viaticum in their journey] cannot die quietly: bread and wine denying nourishment; which is next to communicating without elements.  
Whether is the immersion of the whole body necessary? 
Quest. 2.   
Where an opportunity is, and no danger to 
Exam.  the party by cold, I should think it fitting: But in severer weather or region, as it was with the Jailor in the night, here taketh place that compassionate rule, Hos. 6. I had rather have mercy then sacrifice: And I see not but the hand, or other convenient part, might stand synecdochically for the whole; because by its immersion, and emersion, is better signified the burying and resurrection of Christ, as indeed it ought: See Rom. 6. 4. Col. 2. 12. which in the front-aspersion is more obscure.  
They who prefer this part, in regard of religious signification, before any other, are, at least, within the confines and suburbs of superstition.  
In the Lord's Supper, the elements must somewhat be regulated in quantity, according unto the measure of the appetite: a morsel will suffice a weaker stomach; when to the stronger a more liberal draught is agreeable: although spiritual nourishment dependeth not upon the proportion of the sign, but of faith.   

CHAP. FOUR  
Of Adam.  
I Am not purposed to digest this Treatise into common-places; but rather trace polemic and eristick discourse, and that in unbeaten paths.  
How was Adam made after God's Image, 
Quest. 1.  Gen. 1. 26.  
Every ens, in opposition to privation, is an 
Sol.  image of the Deity: every living thing is an expression of his life: Old age is a print of his eternity: Strength, riches, beauty, sculptures of his excellency: yea, every thing [sin and its fruit excepted] is an impress of its Creator: But it could not be as he was living; [for now there was a new thing a working] for so were other Creatures before him: Neither because of his righteousness, or immortality à posteriore; nor as the three faculties of the soul Intellect, Memory, and Will, resembling the Trinity; for so were the Angels.  
I rather think it was, to rule and govern, as God's deputy, all the Creatures below: which Imperial power was wanting to the Creation. This exposition seemeth most genuine, as having Moses in the same verse, totident verbis, for an Expositor.  
That the Image of God is expressed in superiority, is further manifest from 1 Cor. 13. where the man, in an antithesis to the woman, is said to be the Image of God: If it had been in righteousness, their portion was equilibrous, both in a complete degree.  
The difference is also not to be neglected, between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the image of superiority, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the similitude of qualities; though I read them confounded; Col. 3. 10.  
Gen. 3. 6. We may eat: Ergo, the woman, as 
Object.  being coloeir by joynt-issue, had power.  
All is hers for participation and use, not for 
Answ.  disposing: a prime token of the latter hath of old been a power of denomination. Thus Adam nominated his wife and the creatures: Joseph and Daniel, being captives, had their names changed, by their conquerors or owners: All the tenure the woman had, was in capite.  
Note here two things by the way. First, that meum and tuum, as they were natural relatives, were before the Creation: Before time was, was the Son the Father's Image; but Possessives came in since. Priority and causality is from eternity, and from thence being derived, may not be given away: I may pass away my right among my equals; not to my inferiors: because it is the Image of God: Ergo, Magistrates, Parents, Firstborn may not resign their power, because it is God's inheritance: And this was the sin of Esau.  
Secondly, That there was no subjection, i. e. ejusdem speciei, before sin; no not among the Angels: What the Scripture holdeth forth of an Archangel, a Michael, etc. doth very fitly suit with the Angel of the Covenant, Christ. Where there is no fear of enormity, there may be a secure seriation of supremacy. In Adam, yet entire, there was a priority and a prestancy, but no sovereignty; for that became afterward a part of the woman's curse; she being the first in the transgression: If the leader fall into the pit, he beareth his own, and the followers burden.  
Whether matter of propagation were concreated 
Quest. 2.  with Adam?  
Upon this question affirmed, seemeth to 
Exam.  depend Cain's exemption from Original sin: For every thing in innocency, executing, without let, the grand Fiat of his Maker, and nothing being unfruitful; it should seem, that Cain was privileged from that contagion; or else, that it is contracted by imitation, which some defend.  
Besides, why should not Man, master of multiplying creatures, enjoy the material principle of Generation, at his Creation; seeing inferior servants were entrusted with so noble a treasure, every thing being created in his fullest estate? For the forbidden fruit, with the rest, [and therefore the kernel] was certainly ripe: else neither would it have been so lovely, nor desirable to eat: especially by those, who, before the fall, could see further than paring deep.  
Not only the plastic virtue, but matter, though in potentia remota, was, as with all creatures so connate with Adam: his whole posterity else had been defective in one rib.  
Yet the contrary opinion hath its weight. Crescite et multiplicate was the first blessing that God delivered to our Primogenitours. Now the latter in nature being impossible without the former, [for propagation before adolescency, according to the Decrees of Philosophy, is imperfect] the former was not to be obtained without eating; yea, the extremest digestion: It being, as Physicians teach, the excrement of the last concoction.  
To the question than I answer, That the first conception is not properly man, nor the subject of sin; but a plant, in order unto man; whose conception is at the quickening: whereunto witnesseth the Law of Moses Exod. 21. If it be expounded as do the Septuagint: and, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that innocency continued so long, is not probable.  
As is the Seed, so is the Field, a Plantanimal, or rather an inmate, and, [mirandum] as that which is sown doth increase, so doth the field extend, not only in circumference, but also in thickness; For better distinction, let me insert a short Synopsis of excretions.  

Of excretions some are 

Mere & pure as 

Ordure,  
Sweat, 

and become by a new 

Putrefaction 

Worms,  
Lice.    
Petrification, Stone        
Urine,  
Mixed intheir end for 

Lubrification, as phleghm in several parts of the body.  
Covering, or Ornament, as hair, nails, etc.  
Exclusion or irritation, as 

Choler,  
Melancholy    
Part of the body and either 

Artificial, as Venesection.  
Critical, several ways.  
Natural, either for 

Generation, as seed in both sexes.  
Preservation, 

within, Menses.  
without, Milk.             
Of the first sort, I think, none were concreated; the rest, save Phlebotomy, and Crises, were coexisting with their first Being; or, upon the least Wink of Opportunity, pressed to be drawn forth. Sweat, and Thistles, came in Twins into the World together.   

CHAP. V.  
Of Marriage.  
A Dam had the liberty of all Trees, but one; A man is forbidden all Women, but one: both, for preservation of Mankind. If in Food, he had been confined to one standing dish, it might have bred a nauseousness: If man were not limited within the Bounds of one Woman, his exhausted Spirits would produce but a weak Progeny. Marriage, therefore, doth not owe Homage of its being, solely to the Civil Law; there is some Ingredient of Nature in it. Among several Birds, one may read a conjugal love, and see Footsteps of a Nuptial-Bed, which maketh them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In the Ark, the Nursery of the future World, there was an undoubted Testimony of Combination: and what if I should fetch it as fare as the Creation? But in Mankind, I shall inquire into two Questions.  
By whom the Parties are to be joined?  
Marriage is the first Foundation of a Family, 
Quest. 1. Sol. Mr. Hobbs  out of a principle of love; not of mutual fear, as some, too narrowly, derive all Societies from: For the end of the first Society, is rather the preservation of the Universe, than a defence of some Individuals; and therefore no pact equipollent to the Conjugal contract: the perpetuation of the Creation is a more noble end, than the continuation of others, or himself: so that if man were alone, as was Adam, the first companion he could in Wisdom wish, would be a Woman.  
Out of the conjunction of Families, arising a Political Body, which being common to the whole Earth, Matrimony, its ground, may rather be ranked under a Civil, than any Religious, or Ecclesiastical Constitution: the Administration whereof, we never read in Holy Scripture, was done by any in Priestly Office; but by Judges, and that in places of Civil Judicature. That Duty did, of old, belong to the Father of the Family, by the Example of Laban, Gen. 29. 19 quoting their Municipal Statutes, ver. 26. Neither is there any Precept or Precedent, directly, or analogically, either in the Old or New Testament, tying it to the Office of a Priest, or Minister: yea, the Jews would not suffer it to be celebrated on a Sabbath, or Festival Day.  
It might be questioned, whether marriage were instituted in innocency; seeing the end of marriage is to flee fornication, which they were uncapable of. Propagation is the proper end of the conjunction of male and female, which is natural; and to make a natural end of a civil cause, seemeth to me difficult.  
But those that would make an Evangelicall Sacrament of it, or a Sacramental signification, at least, and yet to be instituted in pararadise, shoot wider: because, as there was no need, so there was no thought of Christ. That which the modern have borrowed from the Ancient Fathers, as they style them, that the tree of life was a Sacrament before the Fall; must not be taken in a strict, but Metaphorical sense.  
Further, as far as my prospective of enquiry could reach, among the Heathen, out of a principle, of nature, [not corrupted by perverted reason; for then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they become sottish, Rom. 11. 2. but regulated by its own light, they do by nature, those things contained in the Law] the King joineth them together, and not the Priest, where the offices are distinct. The confarreation, where the Highpriest and Flamen were precedent, was, because of its incongruity, but-shortlived.  
Mal. 2. 14. A wife of thy Covenant, where the Lord hath been witness. Ergo, the Covenant is religious.  
Distinction must be made between an act, and the confirmation of it: The one may be civil, the other religious. Abraham's sending his servant, Gen. 24. for a wife to his Son, was no spiritual transaction, though obsigned with a Religious Oath: Nor can the bargain between joshua and the Gibeonites, though strengthened by an Oath, be marshaled in the band of sacred proceed; Paul's enemies did bind their unwarrantable determination, with a solemn curse, Act. 23.  
Prayers for a blessing on matrimony, maketh it no more a spiritual thing; then apprecation to peace, war, bodily labour, make them holy and of a religious nature.  
Whether Incest be a sin against the moral Law? 
Quest. 1.   
Matrimony among consanguinity, doth 
Exam.  hinder the extension of affinity and society: which man, being a sociable Creature, is bound to enlarge: But, as we take incest, a pollution of them, that are allied by birth, it seemeth doubtful; except it be between Parents and Children; Uncle and Niece; Grandfather and Grandchild, in which are the footsteps of descent; but we speak of Homotimous persons, levelly in the same degree of honour; where a former tye of reverence doth not prevent it, by the Law of Nature. First, God would never have put such a Law in the heart of Adam, the executing whereof in the two succeeding generations, He was necessitated to dispense withal: For Cain and Abel were Husbands to their Sisters, [though not to their twins, according to the Rabbins] and, among their Children, marriage was reciprocal; there being no natural obligation or tye, of reverence, before; except God had created another stock, which is more likely, then to bring them to that indigency, and that without their own delinquency, that, without this sin, the whole species of mankind must have perished.  
Further, it did consist neither with the wisdom nor justice of God, to command any thing in the Judicial or Ceremonial law of the Jews, that should be diametrically countermanded in the Moral Law: But, not to take his Brother's wife, after his decease, was sometime punished with death: always with public shame, by pulling off the shoe, and spitting in the face; Deut. 25. 9 or rather in his presence; for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is generally else where expounded; and afterward the same phrase did descend into a Grecisme, Luke 9 52. Yea this law may be fetched from before Moses time, Gen. 38.  
That Theft had a remisser punishment among the Jews, was, because they enjoyed a kind of community, both in Religion and Politics: That Adultery had so severe a punishment annexed unto it, was to keep their tribes unmixed, to verify the stremme of Christ: Semblable to which was the examen of pucellage, the waters of jealously, etc. very strict; and, to the same end, municipal.  
Levit. 18. 24. For in all these the Nations 
Obj.  were defiled, that I cast out before you.  
These Nations had, besides Noah's precepts, 
Sol.  the law of nature, which prohibiteth a conjugal familiarity, where there is a natural obligation to superiority; as several of the foregoing precepts do forbid. It may also have a respect unto the three immediate preceding verses, where sins are mentioned worse than bestial.  
Lest any hereby should be encouraged unto 
He that diggeth a pit must cover it  licentiousness, I add; Where conjunction of consanguinity, and how fare it is for bidden, by the supreme signory, there the committing of it, is formally, as well as materially, against the Moral Law; both against the fifth and seventh Commandment: Though, in a strict sense, sin hath no matter, being void of entity, but modus entis, an obliquity from the right line: But not finding a word more suitable to its object, I beg it a pass.  
Besides, that the Sovereign Authority may enlarge contract, or alter these bounds, & their punishments, according to variety of occurrences, I sec no enormity in it; Since the determination, and so the alteration of whatsoever is meum and tuum, resteth in the breast of the Legis-lative Power, whether Person or Senate.  
That the paternal relation is civil, I do incline to believe, till the marks of the issue of blind born women do envince the contrary: yet if gratitude be within the tables of reason, the obligation is moral.  
These, and the like truths, are to be pondered by those, who would make the Laws of this Land run parallel with the Judicial of the Jews.   

CHAP. VI  
Of Sympathy.  
SYmpathy is a hidden love; Love a desire of Union: but, being scanted in words, we take the effect for the affect.  
To refer most of the strange events to Sympathy, without studying of the causes, is a mark of supine oscitancy. The Lawyers, when they are at a stand, take their refuge to a special case, or verdict: The Divines to a particular warrant: The Philosophers to the hidden quality. But rational men, upon narrower scrutiny, will often find out a manifest reason, which former predecessors, or present yonger-heads take for an occult cause: and herein consisteth not the smallest part of an industrious mind.  
There is an error on both hands; either, when every new-discovered truth, is laid upon the ass' packsaddle the occult Synerasy; or, when impertinent and ridiculous reasons are derived from the Elements to produce an effect, transcending their nature. For these properties are a mystery to modest minds; and to the curious, an imposture. The mean is the safest.  
So in Scripture, an allowable reason may be given excusing Abraham from Pilicide; The Egyptian Jews from theft, and Samson from Suicide; the two latter whereof, here below, are vindicated from crime, and prove acquitted.  
If there be an hostile exercise between two Creatures, for the conservation either of its species, or individual, i. e. for propagation, as between Cocks; or livelihood, as Kite and Chicken; the last whereof is more durable, the former more violent: [in the latter kind, to speak justly, there is no hatred; but a love unto, and a necessity of its own preservation: Rats, though friends at their setting out; put into a great vial, a spectacle worthy of a second Nero, will make a banquet one of another; yea to kill a homebred beast, to furnish a dish, will cause a regret.] This latter I can hardly call an Antipathy, except I involve man into an Antipathy with almost the whole nether-world, whose beasts, fouls, fishes, he doth destroy, and they him again: yea the same species, as so many Cadmean teeth, will stand in Antipathy to its own kind. But to survey two untouched examples.  
That a man helpeth a woman to breed; that 
Doubt. 1.  is, is sick in the time of her gestation, is a currant opinion with many; and among our Commeres applauded, as an infallible token of kindness.  
That sickness, unto both, at the same time, 
Exam.  may often concur, casually, though not causally, I confess. But that an excretion, or part of man, being separated, should affect, at a distance its former remainder, cannot to me be made out, either by digitall experience, or solid reason: though much of late hath been written, both learnedly and largely, concerning such subjects.  
But touching this point: That the retention of the Lunary evacuations, may, [as it doth the woman] by a diaphoretical way, cloud and stain the spirits of an accompanying man, which soon will produce a dyscrasy in natural actions, I can, without difficulty, conceive. As also, that a strict continence [which some otherwise, after their wives known impregnation, do scrupulously and unadvisedly vow to themselves] where use hath met with fit temperature to the contrary, may often sensibly annoy the male, our daily experience teacheth.  
Some indeed, are like the Hebrew women, who can pass it over with a groan or two; which the Husband tender and pusillanimous hearing, falleth into pangs of fears and contristation: But, that this should be an abatement to the wife, were, to invert the curse laid upon the woman; as my unmatched fellow-Practitioner showeth in another case of the Viper. But if it were true, it would, with the 
Dr. Browni  spurious Father, of the doubtful issue, bewray the disloyalty of suspected women.  
There are Writers that speak concerning 
Doubt. 2.  Sympathy of a woman newly engravidated and a Bear: and, for experimtnt, remit us into England; which yet I could never see, nor fully be satisfied in.  
But upon supposition of its truth, it is 
Exam.  worth the inquiry, whether it be out of lust towards the woman, through salaciousnesse; which would produce a strange Paradox. A Serpentine malice in the Bear, to superaddde such an inmate unto the fruit, despoiling it of its allotted aliment: Or, whether by a cruel and immature mid-wiving of the embryo, to satiate the immensity of its hunger, which would betray a dainty tooth in the Bear's head.  
Howsoever, if it were certainly true, one might, without danger, use it in discovery of impregnation; and, by that means, often save the lives of two at once.  
It is the most provident husbandry of man, to turn the stream of impetuous enormities, in brute Beasts, into the Channel of humane accommodation.   

CHAP. VII.  
Of an Egg.  
SEveral Creatures continue the Lineage of their Descent, by Eggs; as Fowls, Fishes, Infects. The Tortoise I take for a mixed kind of the two latter: But here I speak of our ordinary Eggs; which, if not addle, are in proximâ potentiâ, but once removed from flesh; and being eaten, become the lightest, purest, and fullest nutriment, and soon converted into our substance, because we see a moderate heat, either Natural, or Artificial, will produce Incarnation.  
Now though the yoalk seemeth the nobler part, according unto Analogy of other natural Situations; for it is seated in the inner-Room and Abditory, for its defence enveloped with the white, which rather were in order to the food of man, (Adam, in Innocency, eating Milk and Eggs; because all things were exempted from Death, and nothing frustraneous) than for propagation: Seeing a Hen, without the inition of a Cock, will not lessen her daily task, and that almost the whole year through: For even yet, (Sin having impaired Fertility) more Eggs are excluded, than the Hen, (yea, add the Cock into the bargain, for in coupled Fowls that is not unusual) is able to set: yet that the tread of the Cock cannot reach the yoalk; but that the White is nourished by it, as having its Menstruum within itself, is both wonderful, and by daily autopsy uncontrollable.  
But here layeth the knot, which is not so 
Doubt.  easily dissolved. By what Vessels the nourishment is attracted, and where they are inserted?  
I know, after two or three days incubation, 
Exam.  that there is a Sanguine-like string, from the treading or Cock-sperm; but that that should be the Umbilicality of the Chicken, is not by sight demonstrable; neither is there any Mark, or least Vestigium thereof remaining, in a new-hatched deplumed Chicken. Neither is it like, it should be inserted at the Bill; for then the Bill, as the deferring Organ, should be form first: Nor doth any perfect creature attract nourishment mouth-wise, before its eruption into the World: though Hypocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, be very plain for it; affirming, That both Breath and Nutriment within the Womb, are sucked in by the Lips: but this place is suspected to be spurious.  
And if aliment should be conveyed by the vent, besides the preposterousness in Nature, the Entrails must suffer a great perturbation, before the turning of the wonred peristaltic motion: then is there likewise no place assigned to the Exrements: or, to speak ad amussim, rather remainders of the thickest and impurest blood, than the superfluous dregs of the first concoction.  
Or if by a Diaphoresis, or Transpiration; it would encourage us, to administer such Aliments topically, as might afford solid nourishment, and so become the easiest and safest remedy, in many deplorable Diseases.  
At last, upon second review, (neither is it a shame to recant an error) I found the Navel with some part of the yoalk, adhering to the belly.   

CHAP. VIII.  
Of Swimming.  
HEre give me leave to write an ocular Experiment of mine own.  
Being in the Canicular days, with some friends, about Noon-tide, in a high Chamber, at Catwick up Zee, near to the Arx-Britannica, (founded, as some say, by Julius Caesar) we espied a young man going to bathe himself in the main; and falling into a hole, which a ship, newly launched, by the incoming Flood, had made, being unexpert in swimming, was drowned. Two or three hours after, we also run down into Sea, and found this imprudent man floating, the Nucha, with the hair of his Neck, was all we could discern; we brought him to shore, but without either hope or trial of recovery.  
That this sudden Fluctuation doth not befall all men, is certain. But upon this Testimony, the truth whereof, I hope, is beyond the reach of suspicion, a more sedulous encouragement may be taken, for the enquiring of the causes, which are somewhat abstruse.  
In Man there be divers parts to be examined, in relation to gravity of Water: There are Bones, Flesh, Brain, Liver, and other Entrails heavier; some of which, the Water, if fully impregnated with Salt, shall contend with for Victory in weight. There are the Lungs and Fat lighter, besides many concavities, where, upon Anatomy, we can see nothing but the empty Cells of the newly removed Spirits.  
Now the body of man, as in its several parts, it differeth in gravity; so doth also one body, in its totum, from another: that in some, there need but a small moment to make them equilibrous with the Water.  
Some ridiculously ascribe it to the breaking of the Gall, which, as in reality, so in reason, is false. The bilious vesicle remaineth entire and full: Choler, though it produce an incalescency in the Spirits, and by it an agility in the members; yet doth it afford no levity to the body. I doubt not, though I never tried it, but icteritions bodies, which they give out to proceed from the Gall, being suffocated, will sink.  
The supine resting on Water, without motion, only by retention of Air within the Spongy Lungs, doth digitate a reason.  
A culinary Experiment hath in some part given me satisfaction: the boiling of Lights in a Pot, it is worth our observation to see, what a weight it will bear up. So, if there can be conceived, (as I know nothing to the contrary) an allien heat, which the Lungs may acquire, either while all the warmth, at the point of death, doth retreat to the Heart; or its heat, (the refrigerating motion of the Lungs ceasing) is derived into their cavernous Vessels, and so rarify the contained Air; the reason may, without difficulty, be conjectured.  
Finally besides that the Sea, by all probabilities, is salter, and so more apt to bear up any body, at the flowing, then at the ebb; because every Ebb the River-Waters do more freely intermix themselves with the saltness of the Sea; and the middle Ocean, because of its gravity moveth slowest; I speak in relation to this individual instance; some men's bodies, sometimes of the year, are proner to a suddainer put refaction; which being a new fermentation, is accompanied with a further dilating expanse, and so advanceth their Fluctuation.   

CHAP. IX.  
Of Remedies.  
IN the disquisition of Therapeuticks, I would look first into the home-born shop of Nature; the sedulous culture whereof, would abridge the number of exotic simples: most of which are either adulterared, by the avarice of the Merchant, or come to our hands corrupted, by the long and torrid space of the Voyage.  
In Prophylacticks we see, where the pinchingest cold is, there the wise Creator hath stored up abundance of Fur and Fuel, either Wood, Turf, or Coal. Where an Endemicall Disease doth tyrannize, look there for an adequate Alexiterium: as the Guajacum, where the Venereous scourge had its Commencement: The Irish Slat giveth succour to their particular Flux: So we shall find Scorbutical Plants to luxuriate, where the Scurvy is predominant. The Sedum Minus in Sweden: The Chamerubus in Norway: The Cochlearia in Germany and England, and will not abide the French Air, (which is immune from it,) either by Seed or Plant; as the Physic Professors there did credibly relate unto me. Nature is the best Druggist.  
She seemeth also to observe Seasons and Times; For when Fevers and Pleurisies are most rife, which is about the Summer-Solstice, then are Papaver, Rhea's, Lettuce, Purslain, with other proper Herbs, in their fullest vigour: yea, as some make it out, every Month produceth 
Mersennus.  its seasonable Fruit, respondent to the various disposition of the Body.  
The like might, by industry, be elaborated, in Domestic Purgative, and Sudorific Medicines; the use of the former, with Phleboromy, some Renegadoes of Philosophy, which I read a regret, have given a Bill of defiance unto, and endeavoured, with weak Engines, to demolish: substituting, instead of them nothing, but their own frothy Fame; a thing of as eminent a consequence, as absurdity.  
Art is a Servant, or Ape of Nature, especially in internal Diseases: (Chirurgery, indeed, standeth more in want of the help of Man: Bones broken, or dislocated, being left to the sole hand of Nature, will never be rightly restored:) and where it seethe Nature to cure by such means, there Art must imitate it. Thus, in little ones, where natural counsel doth work a Cure by vomiting, there a circumspect Physician may, upon due consideration, supply the place, and be Lieutenant to its Leader.  
Neither doth the Purging Medicine corrupt good Humours, as they pretend; most of the Purges being bitter, and so Preservatives against Putrefaction. This appeareth in the Embalming of Dead Bodies, which preserveth them entire, unto many Generations.  
Behold the Dogs and Rats, exhibiting unto themselves a dose of Speargrass, for their evacuation, either by Vomit, or Siege, which they never learned from the corruption of Pagan Universities; which, as a Bone to knaw on, thief Mis-academicks do, upon every occasion, cast unto us: which grass, (I note by the way) doth it rather by its external form, with its pricking irritating the Stomach, then by any inward offensive quality: The same effect, not being common to them, that have their dentes molares, and use rumination.  
Daily experience doth teach besides that warm Water, which in so short a time, cannot be conceived to corrupt, doth, as an emetic vehicle, often educe superfluous and putrid humours, salt or acide Phlegm, yellow or black Choler, etc. with a great alleviation of the Patient. As well they may imagine, that a Glister of Milk, doth, in so quick a space, breed those Worms, which are alured to it, and excluded with it.  
Moreover, we see in most acute Diseases, that by spontaneous Bleeding, and that several ways, either in Man or Woman, sometime also in Children, there is, by the sole help of Nature a critical Solution: Several of Hypocrates Aphorisms, which alone are left in credit with these men, do astipulate the same.  
But, because in Living Bodies, we cannot so well demonstrate the industry of Nature within; while, by its Natural Heat, it separateth, digesteth, and, by its unsearchable paths, doth banish to its utmost Borders, whatsoever it findeth refractory to its Laws; let us examine a contusion without; where the Blood, being provoked out of its proper Vessels, is of all hands necessarily granted to be corrupted: yet we see, that by unperceptible Pores, Nature doth evacuate this; First, in blue, then green: Last, a yellow colour, till she hath expelled whatsoever is noxious, and restored the part to its former Crasis. Doubtless, Nature's operation within, though of less sense, yet is of greater subtlety: Whence may be concluded, that, though nature never entereth into league with any thing corrupted, (which they urge continually upon us, that never denied it) yet after the exile of her Enemy, reneweth amity with its rescued remainder.  
Finally, the long Experiment of the concording Practitioners, with the confirmation of Myriad of Patients, confessing the sudden refreshment by bleeding, (often before the Chirurgeon getteth to the door) when the Blood is peccant, either in quantity, quality, or motion, may confirm the usefulness, yea, necessity of Phlebotomy.  
If Empirical practice doth agree with rational and Methodical Art, He who will not believe these two faithful Witnesses, is not worthy to be believed himself.   

CHAP. X.  
Of Telesmes.  
Whether Averruncation of Epidemical Diseases, by Telesmes, be faisable and lawful? 
Quest.   
THat this hath been effected, and that lawfully, upon the Warrant of God's Edict, is 
Exam.  evident; in the curing of the biting of Serpents, by erecting a Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness: Which, together with their Sacrifices, the mimic Heathens have translated into Superstition: the Aspect whereof, I confess, did cure at a distance. Here was no mummy of the Wound, nor Mundane Soul required; as being transcendent, beyond the Effects of Nature: Though the Rabbins do contend that the matter of the Telesme must not be contrary to the Disease; as they imagine Brass to be, against the biting of Serpents. Yielding some Latitude to the Word, I shall commit no Solecism, if I say, That the Rainbow hath a Telesmetical signification, for the preservation of the Universe, from Inundation: which Rainbow, I see not, why it should be the first, much less a miracle, seeing it depended upon manifest secundary causes: Morning and Evening every Eye, opposite to the Sun's Beams, will receive a proper Rainbow, when a Horse pranceth in the Water. What if it were granted never to have been seen before? Were, therefore, the first Discoveries of Loadstones, Prospectives, Gunpowder, etc. to be canonised for Miracles?  
That the Ekronites did make their eight Golden Mice. and five emrod's, and put them in a Coffer by the Ark, 1 Sam. 6. 5. for averting Apotelesmatically their Epidemical Diseases, is clear. As also those blind and lame, 2 Sam. 5. 
Jo. Gregory, A. M. on the place.  6, 8. were the Jebusites Telesmes, erected in their Idol-Temples: And Humane Writers do often concentre in this truth: In which Art Apollonius Thyaneus, by the testimony of several Authors, of all the rest, did obtain the Laurel: Insomuch that Justine, with others, can afford him a laudable Encomium.  
But, how lawfully this was done, or the like now might be practised, is not obvious to my capacity.  
I am not afraid to exhibit many simples, the effects where of I cannot so readily reduce to manifest causes: Else were I to abandon, and utterly divorce all Magnetic, Electrick, and Antimonial Medicines; especially being ignorant, by what faculty, the purging Simples do electively attract their adequate humours: yea Light and Fire, the Effects whereof are in view of every vulgar Eye; their proper forms à priori, being retired from the acquaintance of most judicious men.  
But that the Forms of these sublunary things, are answered with the like Celestial Figurations; and that the Ideas of all terrestrial Being's, are, as in a Copy, in the fixed Heavens, by man to be distinguished, I cannot be easily persuaded to believe, no more than the Rabbinical Letters in the Firmament, or the too occult Gamahes of our new Philosophers: 
Gaffarel.  Some phantastics, especially if there be a tincture of Melancholy mixed with it, will imagine upon an old Wall, Flame, Grass, &c more Regular Forms, and better-shaped Letters. But I will lay down some grounds.  
1 The Signs within the Zodiac, or beyond the Tropics, were made in an arbitrary or fortuitous way: because such a Sidus, whether animal or artificial, would best contain the most eminent Stars of that Constellation. For the Hebrews, Originally, did decifre them by their Alphabetical Letters; the lying Grecians did afterward reduce them into Figures.  
2 There be many glorious Sidera, which can have no response with things here on Earth; neither are they to be ranked among natural things: as Lyra, Crater, etc.  
3 Some are duplicated; as Corona, Triangulum, Canis and that within the same Hemisphere; as Vrsa.  
4 There seemeth a defect; at least, it is hidden from us of Stars, adequating the Vegetables in the surface of this our Habitable Earth.  
5 There is a gross mistake in the placing of them: For Nature, enduring no leaps, proceedeth by steps: When the Sun is soaked with the moist and cold temper of Cancer, then to leap into Leo, the hottest and driest Sign, is too subitaneous an alteration of extreme.  
6 The lascivious Aries, and the fiery Taurus, whose Eye with them is Martial, are so near together, that there would be a fear of the conflagration of the Heavens: a quotannuall Phaetontick combustion; but that our March Winds, and April Showers do prevent it. They neither agree together, nor asunder.  
7 The slow proreption of every Sidus, out of his proper Sign almost unto the subsequent, (whether in the eighth or ninth Sphere, it mattereth not) doth overturn the grand Pillar of Stochelomatical Art: So that, if I were to cure the biting of a Scorpion this way, I should rather take the time, when the Moon is in Sagittarius, and make the Sign or Figure of a Centaur, than a Scorpion, which hath crept 28 degrees out of his own Sign.  
The reason of parcelling these Signs, to the several parts of Humane Body, is no less ridiculous: Because Aries excelleth in Horns, and Taurus in Neck: The one, they make superintendent to the Head: The other, to the Throat: The Shoulders being branched into two, must have the Gemini for their tutelary Angels. Because the Crab creepeth upon his Breast, to him is committed the charge of the Chest, etc. But the sole reciting of them would endanger a smile, from dumpish Democritus.  
When the Sun is in Leo, because of the fierceness of the Beast, it is very hot: and on the contrary, 
Object.  when it passeth Aquarius. and Pisces, their Nature being cold the Sun doth symbolise with them: the like of the rest.  
Leo is coldest, Aquarius and Pisces hottest, to them which live beyond the Southern Tropic, 
Answ. 1.  and yet the same Signs with us. They that dwell between the Arctic and Tropic Circles, have, on each side, the same temper both of Sun and Soil, yet under divers Constellations, which never can arise mutually one to another.  
Cancer, which coopeth in our Summer Tropic, is a cold Creature; and Capricorn, the describer 
2.  of the Winter Tropic, hot.  
The conjecture taken from Planets, is more uncertain; for their Light, the Sun excepted, being borrowed, daily changeth Horns, which the Ancients never understood. I doubt much, whether all those Celestial Lights were made for the use of man; since many are, of late, discovered; which, without an adventitious telescope the quickest sight on Earth could never have perceived.  
So that if any effect of removing Epidemical Diseases by Telesmes be produced, I should rather ascribe it unto the Prince of the Air, (it being the fittest medium to propagate, and so to cure all Topical Missances) who will servilly obey such demands, that he might perpetually captivate the Soul, in a false persuasion of his Omnipotency. We are not ignorant of his devices, 2 Cor. 2. 11. It is an old Stratagem, and, An Enemy's kindness is a dear Bargain.   
FINIS.   

A STONE TO THE ALTAR OR, Some short Disquisitions, ON A few difficult Places OF SCRIPTURE  
By JOHN ROBINSON, M. D.  
LONDON: Printed by J. Streater, for Francis Titan 1658.   

The INDEX.  

GEn. 2. 24. Pag. 65  
Gen. 8. 10, 12. Pag. 67  
Gen 48. 22. Pag. 68  
Levit. 13. 13. Pag. 69  
Levit. 16. Pag. 71  
Numb. 36. 7. Pag. 72  
Deut. 21. ult. Pag. 73  
Deut. 25. 3. Pag. 75  
2 Sam. 6. 3, 4. Pag. 79  
2 King. 2. 20. Pag. 80  
Job 3. 3. Pag. 81  
Psal. 25. 11. Pag. 82  
Prov. 24. 16. Pag. 83  
Esa. 50. 8. Pag. 84  
Esa. 63. 1. Pag. 86  
Esa. 66. 7. Ibid.  
Jer. 31. 22. Pag. 87  
Dan. 12. 3. Pag. 88  
Math. 3. 14. Pag. 89  
Math. 8. 6. Pag. 90  
Math. 9 22. Pag. 91  
Math. 27. 37. Pag. 92  
Math. 27. 44. Pag. 93  
Joh. 20. 17. Pag. 94  
1 Cor. 11. 7. Pag. 95  
1 Tim. 1. 13. Pag. 97  
Heb. 12. 24. Pag. 98  
1 Pet. 3. 19 Pag. 100  
Revel. 12. 11. Pag. 102    

TO THE Understanding Christian.  
SEeing God hath left Man no better Rule, for the guidance of his Belief and Obedience then his Holy Writ; and, in the same, hath on purpose inserted some knotty places for to make Man more frequent in examination and exercise of his Industry: for which cause the Jews had their Oracles delivered unto them without Vowels; (for it is not a bare word but sense, which he intends we should take notice of) and every Christian, within his sphere, aught to promote his truth. with modest reverence unto former men's labours, I thought it not disadvantageous to the Well wishers of Zion, to offer unto them these small Meditations of mine; especially having found very few of them, and those short, in our worthy Predecessors Expositions.  
Neither in the building of the Temple, were the laudable endeavours of Inferiors, that brought Stone or Mortar, to be discouraged, since it was not given to every one, to be a Masterbuilder, a Bezaliel, an Aholiab: So neither do I fear any disgust, at least, from the best sort of men, because I have, in small measure, endeavoured to reach the native sense of these ensuing places, wherein I follow no bare Authority of Man, the large numerosity whereof, together with the uncertainty, after pursuit of many tedious Harangues, leaveth their Reader in an unsatisfied Resolution; the spots of their maintained errors, obnubilating the lustre of their asserted truths) but rather by the scope of the Text and consonant places, I seek to evince the meaning of the words: By which, if man may have any light, and the Father of light have glory; it will be a copious return to him, that wisheth you all happiness.  
J. R.   

A STONE TO THE ALTAR.  
Gen. 2. 24. They shall be one Flesh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
INto one Flesh, is the Original. Some think that this should have an Aspect to their Production; because Eve, in the Rib, was an Off-set of Adam: But to be Flesh of our Flesh, and Bone of our Bone, is also common to our Progeny; though the manner of the latter, by propagation; and the former, by division, be different; yet doth it not impede an Homogeneousness in the derivation of the matter.  
Others take one flesh for one species, or kind; as if it had been said: You shall not mix man's Flesh with the Flesh of Beasts: But how that can be, as a ground of Marriage, I cannot see. Many expound that one flesh; Ye two shall so join, that one flesh, i. e. your Offspring may proceed from you; having reference to their Posterity: which neither doth fit all Marriages; for those that are past hope of children should thereby be debarred. Then neither, in regard of the cause, not kind, nor effect.  
The words were not adam's but the Spirits, by Moses, as appeareth by the citation of them, by our Saviour, Math. 9 5. To show, that it is the nearest Union, (except that of Soul and Body, which maketh but one person) in all the World: They two making properly not a Plural, but a Dual: to speak accurately, As one maketh no paucity so no two can amount to a Plurality: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, glued together, very significantly the Greeks expound it 
† This is the true Sarcocolla. .  
It might seem strange, that God's Command should make a Civil Tie surpass all Natural Obligation, but that I love to acquiesce in Ipse dixit.  
Two things though, I add; 1. That whether Parental Relation be Natural or Civil, is questionable, 2. There may, nay there ought to be a separation from a Father's house; Psal. 45. never from a Nuptial bed. The one for distribution of humane society.   
Gen. 8. 10, 12. And Noah stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove, v. 12. and he stayed yet other seven days, etc. 
THis man wearied of his prison, though he had the whole world in a lively Map before him did often look out for fair weather: rather desiring to set his subjects into their Liberty, than to hear their groans, arising from abridgement of their due freedom, and pristine enlargement.  
But some enquiring the reason of the Seventh day, [to omit all Pythagorean and Kabbalistical Chimeras, whose studies are to magnify abstracted, especially the seventh, number] would infer from hence, that Noah kept the Sabbath: the truth whereof, seeing it was instituted in Paradise, I can readily embrace; but not the reason. I think he did it in an Astronomical respect; he by long-lived experience, knowing that the Moon, every seventh day, changing its quadra, was, if not predominant, at least concomitant unto the aestuation of the Sea: The good old man measuring perhaps too straightly this cataclysm, within the zone and girdle of nature; it being, likely, the first miracle, [with leave of severer brows] that he had seen.   
Gen. 48. 22. I give thee a portion above thy brethren, which I took from the hand of the Amorite, with my sword and bow. 
To wave the natural reason, given by some, why the soul should prophecy towards its departure; because, its standing, as on tiptoes, at the threshall of the body, can take a surer and further survey, then being close immured; [that the separated soul doth understand more, then being united to the body; I take it to be not from a quicker apprehension; but from more glorious objects.] Some refer this [which I took] unto the spoilo gotten from the Sichemites, by the sons of Jacob: but that seemeth very harsh: For their Father, Gen. 34. 30. reproved them for their perfidious dealing with them; and Gen. 49. 6. he curseth them for it. Now that goods treacherously gotten, should be their portion, is somewhat absurd.  
It will run more smooth, prophetically, [that I have taken] for, [that I shall take] besides the trope of the Father for the Sons: And so, by faith, he triumphs before the victory. Such a spirit there was in David, who blazoned the trophies, before the conquest: Gilead is mine, and Manassch is mine, etc. Psal. 60.  
But why Joseph should have that of the Amorite, taken by sword and bow, more than the rest my conjecture is; he doth, for the preservativation of his Brethren in Egypt, assign him this surplus, above his Brethren; among whom he had, besides, his portion equally divided by lot, Ezek. 47. 13. For to none of his remaining Sons, did he bequeath a determinate residence. That he doth confine the Sea-coast unto Zebulon, Gen. 49. 13. is rather a presage of his nautick profession, than a supernumerary grant above his equals.   
Levit. 13. 13. Then the Priest shall consider, and behold, if the Leprosy hath covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean, that hath the plague; it is turned white, he is clean. 
FOr the clearing of this, because vulgar reason would conclude the contrary, I must premise a few words.  
The Ceremonies of the Jews, were either typical, having reference to Christ; or Symbolical, by which, as God's Hieroglyplicks, they were tutored in some moral homages: Or more plainly thus, They were either of Privileges, and so Evangelical; or of duties: Of which latter sort were, Not to assimilate the mselves according to the superstitious fashions, of the Sabeans or Ghaldeans, their Neighbours. Of the like nature, was seething the kid in the milk of the dam; the cutting of corners in the hair; which with them were appurtenances unto fascination.  
In several of these Laws, the thing itself was no sin; though there did cleave a legal uncleanness unto it. Sometime it was commanded, as laying forth, and burying of the dead; yea the interring of corpses, the Politicians 
Grotius.  make a law of nature; being a preservation of the living. Sometime natural, as sickness and issues: Now and then defective, as Eunuches. Note, by the way, God took away in an advantagous' substitute, in the Gospel, their barrenness, by baptising the Eunuch, according to his promise, Esa. 56. 3.  
Now for the explaining of this text, Why, being spread over, he should be clean; two reasons may be given: Physical, and Ceremonial: Physical when a disease is spread all over the body, as in that soon cured kind of Dropsy called Leucophlegmatia, Nature will easily recover that; because every part hath an innate heat to preserve itself; and expel that which is noxious: and so the discrimen certaminis, the main body of the enemy, doth not lay upon one part; except it be in a raw crisis, where, after a battle, conquering nature doth ablegate its adversary, to the vilest and remotest emunctories.  
The Ceremonial reason I take, from the several Laws, given to the Jews forbidding mixture; either of themselves with others; or of things of several kinds; as of making linsey-wolsey; ploughing with an ox and an ass; sowing of mesling, etc. [into which primitive institution, the Rabbins have shuffled burdensome and ridiculous devices, of their own] whereas either of these, without any tesellation or checker-work, single, were lawful. So this Symbolising with the former, if it were all over of one colour, viz. white, because void of heterogeneous mixture, it was pronounced clean.  
If the Allegory were not strained, the overspread Leprosy, an Emblem of our sins; and the whiteness of righteousness; might have an aspect unto Christ.   
Levit. 16. How could the Scape-goat be a type of Christ's Resurrection, as generally it is expounded, since 
Quest.  it never died? 
BEcause its fellow, which was chosen by 
Answ.  lot, did die; And for that Resurrection was not competent unto beasts, that one offering was sown up and patched of two individuals; whereof one died, and the other escaped: and being one continued act, did, conjunctim, resemble the death and resurrection of Christ. The uncapableness of the Subject in one, distributed this type into two: and because no remission of sin without blood, the latter died in the former; and the former revived in the latter: So the escape of one of the represented, was an adumbration of the Resurrection; since it was reprieved from death, by the immediate oracle of God in the lot.   
Numb. 36. 7. None were to marry out of their own Family. 
TWo sorts of persons were exempted; First, the Levites; and that upon good ground: because they had no inheritance among their brothers. And secondly, the Royal family was not obliged thereunto: their portion being assigned them out of the King's Exchequer: I And this well considered, answereth many objections; and without this Latitude, several difficulties, and Remora's will arise in the Old Testament, casting, as it were, a suspicion of levity, by a transgression of this precept, among the most eminent of the Jews. But the poor, though they had passed away their inheritance, were not exempted from this law; because either their near kinsman might redeem it, or at the year of Jubilee, it was restored gratis.  
The accomplishing of the presage of the lineage of the Messiah, was a Cardinal cause of this edict. As far as it is grounded upon equity, it bindeth us, analogically; though not in eodem puncto.   
Deut. 21. ult. He that is hanged on a tree, is accursed of God. 
BOth former and latter Expositors run for the nativity of this back unto Paradise, to the first sin which was brought forth between the knees of a tree; and therefore hanging on a tree is become a malediction: But that I think is too far fetched: for a Gibbet is, and may be made variously, of any other substance.  
This sentence is not to be taken in a moral signification, reaching any sorts of people; but in a Judicial sense, proper to the Jews: and therefore the reasons must not be common, to all the Universe of mankind; but drawn from their Political constitution.  
This capital punishment was no curse of itself; no more than the lapidation, precipitation, sword, or fire was. Two probable reasons may be given. First, that this kind of death, was without effusion of blood; which strangulation, even in beasts, and that otherwise clean-ones, was an abhorred thing among the Jews and so Ceremonially accursed. Many both godly and wise Expositors hold this reason to be moral.  
But 2dly, [as in some creatures their own entrails prove the properest sauce: so in this place] the reason which Moses giveth in the text, well pondered will be most genuine, That the Land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee. In all Israel, no unclean thing was to be left uncovered. Ch. 23. 19 In all capital punishments, there was a removing of the offenders dead body out of sight; in this there was a continued and public show of that which nature itself doth shrink at. See Gen. 23. 4. All dead corpses were Legally unclean: Their defilement was prevented by burying; which is over and over commanded in this verse: lest, by hanging on a tree, there be a curse, or rather an execration of God: then would strangers have exprobrated God's people; Lo there hangeth an Israelite: So that the sense may be, He that remaineth hanging on a tree, is ceremonially an execration unto the Lord.  
God in the death of Christ, to show his displeasure against sin, did, by this Judicial proceeding, point at the Moral curse, due unto us, translated upon his Son. An Evangelical malediction. His elevation above the earth, prefigured, by lifting up of the Serpent in the wilderness, was rather an emblem of his obvious and expanse conspicuousness, then of eminent detestation: The Holy Ghost seemeth to point at this, Heb. 6. 6.   
Deut. 25. 3. Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed. 
THe Rabbins are here as uncertain as various. Let us see, what can be drawn from text or equity.  
God might have commanded man several duties, without alleging any cause for them; yet in most, where nature is silent, as in the Sabbath; which not having any dependency upon the Law of Nature, God doth annex more than one reason for the observation of it: the rest of the commandments, are bare and naked, because their justice may be readd by the Lamp of reason. Where God accosteth a reason to his precept, there he doth persuade rather then compel.  
First then, that this was a particular Law proper unto the Jews, may be evinced from the last words of this verse, lest thy brother should seem vile unto thee; strengthened by the example of Paul, 2 Cor. 11. 24. Forty save one stripes did I suffer, five times of the Jews. Neither actively nor passively, binding the stranger.  
That, there should no cruelty be used, among God's people, is certain: yet doth not answer the reason of the exact and defined number, The Text saith, lest he be contemned. Either it may be, as forty years are the full strength of man; the third year being the prime of Infancy, of Childhood the 14th: the 21 of Adolescency; of Youth the 30th, and of Virility the fourtieth: so the highest degree of punishment should not exceed forty stripes: But that, because Natural, is common to all Humane kind.  
Or, rather alluding to the forty years' travel in the Wilderness, lest now being in Canaan, your promised Rest, you use him harder, than you were entertained in the contemptible Wilderness; and, by the number of stripes, do renew the memory of his pristine equal years servitude.  
The Feast of Tabernacles, that God instituted, was with rejoicing for deliverance.  
Just forty stripes, was too near the extreme, and, so far, Moral.  
The Whip of three Cords, in Maimonides, by whose 13 blows, there amounted 39 stripes, seemeth a Rabbinical Legend.   
Judg. 16. 30. The dead that he slew at his death, were more than those that he slew in his life. 
I Love not to act over Origen; or the Venetian, who, beyond the intention of the Holy Ghost, do, by force, press an Allegorical, and that often not very decent, to bear the genuine sense of the Scripture.  
But where there are so manifest Lineaments of the prefiguration of Christ, no man can deny a type.  
In the beginning of this Chapter, Samson was compassed about with his enemies; he arose at Midnight, carried away their Gates and Bars, unto the top of the Hill: Every circumstance doth quadrate with his and our Saviour.  
The Question will be, Whether his death, by 
Quest.  conquering more at it then in his life time, may not as aptly resemble the death of Christ?  
Some make a stand here; because an evil 
Answ.  act (say they) as is self-assassine, cannot be any type of good.  
But I question, whether the act were condemnable; that is, either whether this fact were not rather a laying down of his life, than a destroying of it; or, this being granted whether rebus sic stantibus, it were not lawful.  
The general Reasons are these: He, before his death, prayed the Lord to renew his strength: This was accepted and answered: yea, He is registered, by the Test of God's Approbation, to die in Faith, Heb. 11. 32, 39  
But more particularly, to justify his end; We must have Recourse unto the Custom, (which in time became a Law) of the Zelotes among the Jews; where a private man, kindled by Zeal, for Blasphemy, or Adultery, if it were public, (in the sight of ten say the ancient Masters] might beat or slay the Offender, taken in the Fact.  
The first Example we have in Phineas, who appeased the wrath of Gods, Psal. 106. 31. by kill Zimri and Cozbi. Upon the same ground of zeal, Christ was suffered to purge the Temple: Neither did the Jews so much question this, though it be generally so interpreted; as the Miracle in the Figtree, and his Teaching. See Mark 11. 27. As He walked in the Temple, and Luc. 22. 1. As He taught the People, etc. Of this Rank was Simon the Zealot, Luc. 6. 15. not the Cananite, as our Translation hath it, Math. 10. 4. Mark 3. 18. being deceived 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  by the affinity of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a Zealot, as our, far and near honoured, Mr. Selden observeth.  
Now Samson, being no man's subject, might, without injustice, in open Blaspheny, take vengeance of the Offenders: without a Warrant from the Magistrate: For he himself, by right, was Judge of Israel: and had power, as of others, so of himself, in this case. Neither was he a subject of the Philistines, his life depending on the Will of the Conquerors. Whosoevers body is bound in chains, is discharged from all civil obligation: and thus he may be acquitted from the crime of murder, or sui-cide. The Antitype, Joh. 10. 18. is very significant, No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.   
2 Sam. 6. 3, 4. And they brought the Ark of God out of the house of Abinadab, that was in Gibeah. 
THE ordinary Translations have it, as if Gibeah had been a City; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, were a proper name, which cannot conveniently here have a place: But appellatively, it signifieth a Hill: and so it is used, Jerem. 2. 20. 1 Sam. 10. 5. Sometime, indeed, it signifieth a City of Benjamin; and so is the right Interpretation of Judg. 19 16. 1 Sam. 22. 6. 7. Hos. 5. 8. But at this time the Ark was in a City, afterward called Kiriathjeharim, in the Tribe of Judah, Jos. 15. 60. 1 Sam. 7. 2. Besides Abinadab was of the Tribe of Judah, and dwelled there not in Benjamin.  
It is not unusual in cognomination, to turn a part of the Commons into a private Fee-Simple: but the frequent peculation of Appellatives in the same place, is a hastening unto a generical ataxy.   
2 King. 2. 20. Bring me a new Cruse, and put Salt therein, 
GOD, in working of Miracles, as being a free Agent, doth often vary and change the manner and dispensation of them: Sometimes He useth vatural and proper causes, extending the quantity; as feeding many thousands with a Lads burden, a few loaves, and small fishes: or, intending the quality; as the plaster of figs upon Hezekiah ' s sore: Many times he worketh without secundary causes; as in the Creation, raising of the dead, (in raising of the Shunamite's son, 2 King. 4. there were some natural means, which that invisible finger of the Lord did work by) calming of the sea, etc. Now and then the Miracle was contrary to the means; as in the Sacrifice of Eliah, 1 King. 18. where, to make the wood burn, water was three times poured on it: So generally Expositors do paraphrase upon the clay laid on the blind man's eyes. But that is very questionable; for, besides the nitre which is in the Earth and Spittle, the Angularity of Sand is a regular Seif, or methodical colliery, (not to extenuate the Miracle) for the wasting and lessening of the Scaly Films, the cause of blindness.  
The question will be concerning this place. Some utterly condemn Salt, as a cause of barrenness; and so tropically expound Jud. 9 45. where Abimelech having destroyed Shechem, did be sprinkle it with Salt. Others commend it for the best enrichment of ground, advancing fertility; and that common Salt, as this was, doth, by symbolisation, easily turn into nitre.  
I think it will bear a double construction: either as some small secondary cause of emelioration of the ground and water, [the extent was, I am sure, beyond the power and limits of Nature.] or, as the Text intimateth, for the continuation and perpetuity of the effect: For Salt, in Scripture-Language, is a Metaphor of duration; and so a Covenant of Salt, Numb. 18. 19 the Holy Ghost expoundeth it an Everlasting Covenant.   
JOB. 3. 3. 
SOme, both ancient and modern, have drawn this Book, beginning from this Verse, unto the sixth of the last Chapter, into question, denying it to be a History, but rather a Discourse and Treatise, concerning a Moral Question; Why the Wicked of this world prosper, and the godly are afflicted. Their Reason is, because all that Discourse is, in the Original, in Hexameter Verse, which is no style of sadness: the edge of which Argument is too dull, to pierce my yieldinger apprehension: for we find profane Authors in the same style, which bemoan their Tragical misfortunes: Ovid writes five Books de Tristibus; the better half are in that Meeter: Virgil, in the same strain, singeth very sad lines. But I rather incline to believe, that it was a real Discourse, or interlocution, between God out of the Whirlwind (Chap. 38. 1.) Job, and his friends. First, in Prose; after by himself, or some godly man, run into Meter; either for the help of Memory, as all Poetry is, or for the use of the Church, in singing of them publicly; which, without a Harmony of numerical syllables, will make a confused Discord.  
By the same reason, they may reject several of the Psalms of David, denying them to be Prayers; which, without contradiction, at first being poured out in Prose, afterward, for the forenamed Reasons, were, by himself, or some other Master-Musitian, measured into Verse.   
Psal. 25. 11. Thou wilt pardon my sin, because it is great. 
THE pitiful mistake my Ears and Eyes have been Witness of, and that in learned men, of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I pass over: they render it a causality, [for] Whereas indeed it should be an adversative [although] or notwithstanding: and so it cannot but be readd, Hab. 3. 17. Although the Figtree should not blossom. The same mistake is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Act. 1. 17. For he was numbered with us; instead of although. If it might have the power of a cause, yet the adversative aught, as most proper, to be taken, in the first place.   
Prov. 24. 16. The just man falleth seven times, [in a day] is not in the Text. 
THE general Comment hereon is; The just sinneth often, yet he riseth again: Whereas the word used here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, never, in this whole Book, doth signify to fall into sin: Enumeration of places will evince it, Chap. 11. ver. 5, 14. & 13. 17. & 17. 20. & 26. 27. & 20. 10, 14. 18. In all these places it can bear no other sense then of Affliction. Now the safest way, to attain the scope of an Author, whether Divine or Humane, is, to trace the Age Place, Dialect, or Genius he writeth in: And if between the weight of two equal Senses, there be an undistinguishable Equipoise, the number of consonant places must cast the Scales.   
Esa. 50. 8. He is near that justifieth me. 
CAndace's Eunuch need no Interpreter for this place: Every Line being a Graphical Portrait of Christ.  
But how Christ was justified, is not so evident; Justification not being here taken for making one just: in which sense it is but twice used by the Holy Ghost, Dan. 12. 3. Rev. 22. 11. (though that were true: he being the express and eternal Image of his Father, as a pure River derived from a pure Fountain) but for a judicial acquittance, in opposition to condemnation, ver. 9 And because Justification is by Faith, its Nature in Christ is worth our disquisition.  
None will say, that Christ was justified by Faith, but by Works: He could not be both the Object and Subject: I speak now of Evangelical, not Legal Faith: which latter is, to believe that God is true, wise, keeping promise; decisered, Heb. 11. 6. For this Christ had, and so had the Angels, and Adam in innocency, only differing in mutability. This kind of Faith will not cease in Heaven, but there will be a full recumbency of the Soul, upon the Divine Goodness, for its perpetuation unto Eternity. The Son did believe, that the Father would perform his Eternal Pact with him, to give him the utmost ends of the Earth, as the fruit of his travel: And because it became him to fulfil all Righteousness, Math. 3. 15. he did submit to the Sacraments as they were good Works; whereto he was bound, by virtue of the second Commandment, but not as they were Relative and Organical Signs.  
In a word, Christ the Head did believe Legally, that all his members should believe Evangelically: The former is a mark of perfection; the latter, of defection.  
Neither doth Justification, as some will urge, presuppose always guilt; but sometime a Declaration of Innocency. There was, indeed, a Debt and Bond, which the Law did challenge against Christ, but no Forfeiture; for, that, He had discharged unto the full.   
Esa. 63. 1. Who is he that cometh from Edom, with died garments from Bozrah? 
THis literally is not meant of the sufferings of Christ as many think; but the redness of his blood is rather of his enemies than his own. Bozrah and Edom did belong to the adversaries of the Church: He speaketh of his anger and fury: v. 3. in the day of vengeance, v. 4. So I gather that the red wine of the press, as also that, Rev. 19 15. is not of his passion but of his victory: Though the former were the way to the latter; and they as the effect upon the cause, succeeded one another; yet, in conception of reason, can and aught to be distinguished.   
Esa. 66. 7. Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child. 
NOt only Papists, to maintain the virginity of our Saviour's mother, in, ante, & post partum; but some of our Orthodox Expositors, hold this Text to describe Christ's birth: But, in my judgement, fare wide: For, neither in the antecedent, or consequent, is there any shadow pointing toward the Virgin Mary. Yea, v. 10. Jerusalem is mentioned, and, v. 8. Zion is said to travel. Besides, here the Earth is described to bring forth, and that many Children: So that necessarily it must be understood of the sudden and unexpected fruitfulness of the Church. The same exposition doth suit the like words, Mich. 5. 3. Esa. 49. 20.   
Jer. 31. 22. A Woman shall compass a Man. 
COngeneous unto the former, is this mistake: neither will the Original, a strong man, nor the sense of the sequel v. 32. bear it concerning the Incarnation of Christ. But it is spoken of the Church under the Gospel; and of the New Covenant: And so the Author to the Hebrues expoundeth it at large, Chap. 8. 8.  
Many places, in holy writ, design a state, company, or order; which fastened upon singularities, and individuals, openeth no small gap unto errors. The same must be understood of Antichrist; which must have its termination in a profession, not in a personality: He is Antichrist, that, [either in word or deed] denieth the Father and the Son, 1 John 2. 21.   
Daniel 12. 3. They that turn many, shall shine, as Stars, for ever. 
HEnce some conclude, that the converter must necessarily be saved; which notwithstanding, in the absoluteness of its truth, I question. Christ did add to his word the gift of miracles, to beget faith in the hearers; and the Disciples returning, did rejoice that the Devils were subjected unto them: among these, was the son of perdition. Hereupon is grounded Paul's watchword, 1 Cor. 9 ult. Lest, while I preach to others, I myself become a castway.  
It were a notable shaking to my faith, if the messenger, by whom it was conveyed, should turn to heresy, or worldly vanity. By the power of his word, God calleth some, though through the mouth of a wicked one, a child, yea, [I scorn the suspicion of coinage or forgery] a stage-player. A weak or leprous hand may sow good seed: the treasure is more to be valued, than the earthen vessel.  
This then, with other places, which by the holy Ghost are delivered universally, for fear of corruption, must be taken with limitation; and seasoned with the salt of restrained sense; a communiter, an ut plurimùm, etc. So, Heb. 9 27. It is appointed for all men once to die: This cannot be reaching every individual: for some never tasted deaths cup: Others, who had their lives reiterated have twice undergone it. At the day of judgement, instead of death, there will be a momentaneous change, 1 Cor. 15. 51.  
Several things are set down absolutely, which must have a comparative interpretation, Prov. 8. 10. Receive instruction, and not silver: and knowledge, rather than gold: Luk. 14. 26. Whosoever cometh unto me, and hateth not his Father and Mother, cannot be my Disciple, Rom. 9 19 Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. These positives must have their exposition gradual.   
Mat. 3. 14. 
IOhn, in a godly courtesy, excused to baptise Christ, saying; I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? compared with Math. 11. v. 4. Art thou He, that should come, or do we look for another? seemeth, as if John at first knew him to be the Saviour of the World; and afterward doubted of him: which would have been but a slow progress in such a ones faith, when he had heard and seen so much of him, and from him.  
But the probablest reconcilement, I conceive, is, that he sent his Disciples, rather to confirm their faith, then to inform his judgement: In him it was rather a work of charity, then of doubt: yet I think his knowledge was confused and overclouded, till he saw the spirit descend on him, Joh. 1. 33.  
It is very unlikely, that upon the temptation of a prison, his faith should be shaken, who was more than a Prophet, 11. 9 The messenger to prepare the way, v. 10. The greatest of them that are born of women, v. 11. The Elias to come, v. 14. These encomiums would have been very unseasonable, at such a time, by him, who did all things in season: when his affiance was a staggering, and his confidence a wavering.   
Mat. 8. 6. My servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 
WHat if a medical notion should correct his Torments? For a palsy is a resoluon of the sinews, without any pain; a deprivation, no depravation of sense, might it not better be rendered for a trial of his faith, and exploration of his patience? Since the word in its Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, doth denote a touchstone, by which silver and gold are brought to their due examen. The same word is predicated of things void of sense, and feeling: Mat. 14. 24.   
Mat. 9 22. Thy faith hath made thee whole. 
BY this, and other parallel places, some conclude a general notion: That Christ or his Disciples did never work miracles, but upon believing persons; Faith being fore-seen either in themselves, or in their friends. But this will not hold touch: For what faith there could be in the dead bodies of the Saints, or in their souls, that were raised from the grace; Mat. 27. 52. I cannot understand. The last miracles Christ wrought in his life time, faith was far to seek in the subject, Malchus, Joh. 18. 10. or in his kinsman, v. 26. See, Acts 28. 8. In several there was a foregoing belief; not all.  
That Christ saith, Thy faith hath made thee whole, we must understand, as we are said to be justified by works, jam. 2. 21. i e. declaratively, not instrumentally: Be it unto thee, according to thy faith, v. 29. is not, for, or by thy faith: Else the lustre of miracles would have been divided. Saving faith was the end, not the means of miracles; not the seed, but the fruit.   
Mat. 27. 37. This is the King of the Jews. 
IN the whole Volume of the N. T. nothing is more harmoniously recorded, by the four Evangelists; then the supper scription of the Cross of Christ: and yet not one of them literally agreeing with another: Some make a strange paraphrase upon it. My thoughts are, that the Holy Ghost setteth down nothing a la vole, at random: but there is a reason of every iota in that incorruptible System: And he, foreseeing that the Antichristian brood would idolise that title, [I. N. R. I.] hath on purpose varied the expression in the Elements, holding all to the same sense: that so there might be no ground left, for the canonisation of that devised tetragram.  
The same prevention did God of old use with the Jews, in the secret burying of the body of Moses; which, if that people, prone to idolatry, had discovered; would have turned his tomb into superstition.  
The like I conceive of the birth day of our Saviour. All the records we have, is, In the days of Herod: Whereas other acts, of inferior concernment, have the year of the reign of the King, the month and day registered unto posterity. This, me-thinketh, might in sober-minded men, take off the edge, of that eager pursuit, in the celebration of the Nativity of our Redeemer: Though the Grandees in Mathematics, would have the conjunction of the eightht and ninth sphere to have been that day, A. M. 3967; in ♈; yet, that this account doth differ, one, two, three, four, or more years, and upward, many grave Authors have probably concluded. Better is a modest sitting down under a dutiful ignorance, than the extolling of an uncertain error.   
Mat. 27. 44. The Thiefs also, that were crucified with Him, cast the same things in his teeth. 
IT is certain, by the harmony of the Evangelists, that one of these Sufferers was a convert; and, having faith in Christ, did rebuke his fellow. It is obvious for the Holy Ghost, to put a plural for a singular, or the whole for a part: and vice versà.  
In this there is something more. The denomination is from the most eminent: For this was a notorious valliane. His unbelief did overtop the remorse of the believer; not in worth, but in degree.  
Practically it denoteth the contagion of sin: that a guiltless person, in company, should be branded, with the infamy of the malefactor. See, Josh. 7. 11. Mat. 26. 8. Here it is a happiness to keep aloof.   
Joh. 20. 17. jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father. 
THese words do not import a natural or moral absurdity, of the touching of Christ. Not natural; For, by his tangible quality, he proveth himself to be no spirit; Luke 24. 39 and layeth it in, against suspicion of imposture or delusion. Nor moral, For he biddeth his disciples handle and see him, both in a verse; one sense being as lawful as the other; vers. 27. He biddeth Thomas reach his finger, and his hand, and touching him thrust it into his side.  
But knowing the strength of Mary's faith, he would have her live higher than sense: On the other side, he did condescend to meet with the weakness of Thomas' belief, and make his outward feeling, subservient to the strengthening of his inward faith.  
As leight meat in a robust stomach, or stronger viands in a feeble body; both are subject to corruption: So doth our wise and indulgent Houshoulder, bring forth suitable dishes of dispensations, according to every one's spiritual digestion.  
The hardest knot remaineth yet undissolved, viz. the coherence of the words; Why his not yet being ascended, could be a reason of his interdiction, of her touching him?  
My conjecture is, because at heaven's door, faith leaveth us; or rather is swallowed up, by the real fruition of that beatitude, which we in this life did but hope for. He bid her delay the highest degree of perfection, till they should meet in heaven. It was enough here, that she, by her worshipping and Rabboni-ing of him, did own his Resurrection.  
Though, to live by faith, doth argue more fortitude; yet to live by sense, is more certain and more happy: The former most fit for a Soldier Militant: the latter proper to a triumphant Victor.  
Whereas it is said, Faith is of things nor seen, sight is not synecdochically taken for any sense: It was a strong evidence of her faith to believe not feeling; And thus expounded, it may be, unto her particular, a sufficient reason of her interdiction. But from hence to derive a standing rule, that Our Saviour's raised body was either Physically or morally intangible; showeth a defect of natural Logic.   
1 Cor. 11. 7. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head. 
THe senseof this place, to us, is contrary to the Letter; which seemeth harsh to them, who being slaves to syllables, do not consider, the scope and place, where this was written. For the intention of Paul was, to prefer the man above the woman; the subjection of woman being signified by their covering; and that natural, v. 15, [by natural must be meant, the custom of the place, not an internal cause; for that is also common to a man: I question not, but most males, would, Absolon-like, if sciffers were abandoned, vye with many women for length of hair,] as it was a token of superiority, to be uncovered; which custom pleaseth several Nations, unto this day: In the Eastern Countries, a servant is not permitted, to enter bareheaded into the presence of his Master: And the French protestants do, upon the same ground, justify their preaching, having their heads covered.  
So some of Hipocrates Aphorisms, though with them unfallible oracles, transplanted into our nations, by losing their lustre, contract a suspectednesse: and, without subscribing to a Protagorean Sceptism, That which is true in one place, may be false in another.   
1 Tim. 1. 8. I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief. 
FRom hence most Divines conclude, Paul to have been an unbeliever; before Christ appeared unto him: yet this may be questioned. For he was zealous for the Jewish Religion, not yet fully buried; brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; and according to the rule of charity (as we are, if judgement will permit, bound to construe all things, in the most favourable sense) he did trust in the seed of the woman, Shiloh, the Messiah, the individuum vagum; though, through ignorance, he wots it not to be the Son of Mary. Else I know not how to construe, 2 Tim. 1. 3. And, Acts 23. 1. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers, with a good conscience. I doubt not but the Eunuch, Acts 8. before Jesus was preached unto him by Philip, was a believer. Apollo no less; Acts 18. Conversion after conversion, you find in as eminent an Apostle, Luk. 22. 32. Mat. 18. 3. I know that the habits of all graces are infused together; yet the emanation of them by degrees, in Scripture-idiom is a new conversion; or conversion renewed, as well in the extense, as in the intense.  
Finally, for in-measure, they were his own aggravating depressing words, to extol Freegrace the higher.   
Heb. 12. 24. The Blood of sprinkling, speaking better things then that of Abel. 
OUr general Translation is, than the Blood of Abel: I should rather read it, than Abel, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: but I find the Originals to differ.  
The Question is concerning the sense, which will carry it probably, against the stream of former Commentators; better for the active effusion of the Blood of Sacrifice, then for the passive blood of Martyrdom, which he suffered.  
For the scope of the whole Chapter, yea Book, is, to compare the Priesthood of old, and their Sacrifices, with that of Christ's, showing the transcendency of the latter beyond the former. Now, to bring in the Blood of Martyrdom, and compare it with the Blood of Sacrifices, is an infringing of the Rule of Reason: Comparata debent esse sub eodem, quantum fieri potest proximo, genere. It's more rational to confer the first acceptable Sacrifice, set down by Moses, with the last of Christ's: Or rather the Type, Abel's offering the first-fruit of his Flock, with the Antitype, Christ's offering the last fruit of his obedience.  
It hath a reference unto Gen. 4. 10. Thy Brother's blood cryeth.  
That word cryeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifieth either a present misery, or denunciation of future Judgement: But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, [speaketh] is of a soft and still nature. As in our, so in al-Languages, there is a palpable difference between Vociferation, and Speaking. I add Chap. 11. ver. 14. of this Book, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, where the same word is used, may better have reference unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, then unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; because Relatives respect ordinarily, the immediate antecedent: So that the sense should be; and by that, i. e. his Sacrifice, He, being dead, yet speaketh; which concenteth with the Exposition of the former Text.   
1 Pet. 3. 19 By which also he went, and preached to Spirits in Prison. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Being sent, which agreeth best, both with word and sense: I see not how this proveth, Christ's descent into Hell, any ways: neither in Soul nor Body; but only, that he was preached by his Spirit, by which He was quickened from the Dead, ver. 18. whereunto this relative [which] doth look; unto the Generation of Noah that are now in Prison.  
Concerning that Article, Descended into Hell, though great Volumes have been written about it: yet, with me, the uncertainty of the Author, (not the Amanuensis, else I must question the Authority of the Acts of the Apostles, of the Epistle to the Hebrews▪ and in the Old Testament more) of the Symbol, doth justly slack the eager enquiry into its truth. Only we find it first in the Syriack Tongue; and many of the Eastern Church, either by negligence lost this Article, or else on purpose left it out: which latter, because of its Senses ambiguity, I am prone to embrace. Severally it is expounded, and few agree, which I will not mention. What I have beaten out upon the Anvil of mine own Conceptions, you shall have.  
First, that, in a public Epitome of our Faith, should be neither Tautology, nor defect, not a preposterous order; I think none will deny: Of each, a word.  
If for Hell you take the Grave, as it is frequent with the Originals, then is it a vain repetition; his Burying before included so much.  
If you will have it the Passion of Hell fire, i. e. the wrath of his Father, for all the sins of the world, it must precede his Death: here would be an absurd preposterousness: For no passion after the consummatum est.  
If for local or virtual descent, it is either a part of his exaltation, or humiliation: Not the latter; for it is not by us imitable, as all his sufferings, (Miracles excepted) since his Incarnation, stand as well for our Ensamples, at least habitually, as for our comfort: But in this, none, I hope, mean to tread in his steps. If, as a part of his exaltation; it must be, either in his Body, or in his Soul, or according to his Deity. Not according to the last; for that was Omnipresent: Neither according to the first; for than could he not be in the grave, three days and three nights: nor in his Soul; for that he recommended into his Father's hands, concording with his Promise, made to the Thief, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.  
What some imagine, that this should be an Exegetick Explanation of the foregoing Burial, is inconsistent with sound reason: since every Exposition ought by right, to be clearer than the precedent subject.  
The whole Earth, indeed, in regard as well of its dignity, as distance, may, in respect of Heaven, be called Hell, or Inferi: from whence descending, to reassume his Body, this Article, if it had any fore going Type, or Promise, might be expounded.  
It is the dullest and sordidst piece of Pedantry, to an ingenuous Spirit, to believe, with the Catholics, what the Church believeth, and to be ignorant of the thing believed.  
It remaineth then, to know what to hold to, (if I give something more than humane credit to this Article) that his three days and nights resting in the Grave; opposite whereunto is his sitting at the right hand of his Father, which Prophets foretell, and he himself had gloried in, Joh. 2. 19 Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again: his forerunner being Ionas in the Whale's belly, is not mentioned in the Symbol; except you have it here: And all that while, being in the Bonds of Satan, was a further humiliation, than to go to Prison, and presently be let out again. Thus, with much ado, it will make a proper Article in its due rank; and so I can make shift to believe, that Christ descended into Hell.  
A step or two out of the Road, concerning the Systeme of the Apostles Creed, where I observe some things inserted, not absolutely necessary to the substance of our Belief; as his suffering under Pontius Pilate, the Catholic Church, there being thousands now in Heaven, past all Believing, which were here altogether ignorant of these points. Some things must be taken warily, with a great caution, as that the Father was the Creator of Heaven and Earth; whereas it is ascribed also unto the Son, Joh. 1. 3. Col. 1. 16. and to the Spirit, job 33. 4. according to the true and common rule in Divinity, That all the Works, ad extra, are indivisible.  
But a greater oversight there is, in the omission of two principal Heads, the Basis of all our comfort.  
1 No mention there is of his actual obedience, by which he purchased Eternal Bliss for us: as by His Passion, He freed us from the wrath of His Father. For they are in an error, who deny any fruit to redound to us, by the perfection of His Works: because, say they, He being made Man, was, by it, subject to the Law; forgetting that He put on Humanity, for our, not His own sake. Et quicquid est causa causae, etc. If for us He became Man, He did also for us fulfil the Law.  
2 His Intercession, by which our Persons and Prayers are made acceptable to Him, that sitteth on the Throne, is altogether forgotten. Without the apprehension of either of these, a Soul shall find but small solace in the highest pitch of his own performances, and slow Returns of his humblest Addresses.   
Rev. 12. 11. The Woman having the Moon under her feet. 
THis is generally expounded of the Church trampling upon sublunary and unconstant things. Later Writers take it for the Church under the Gospel, which is promoted a form higher, than the School of the Law, that is, than the Jewish Ceremonies, and Festivals, which were commonly regulated by the course of the Moon.  
None of these Expositions are Heterodox, or strangers from the Text, but may have their secundary place, still reserving the most honourable Seat, for the principal firstborn signification.  
The most genuine sense to me, is, (if a tender Forehead may have a place, among more composed Brows) to synchronize with the History of that time wherein John lived, to signify the Churches treading down all Idolatry, which was generally all Asia over, to Diana of Ephesus, whose Emblem among the Heathen the Moon Crescent was, and is given in the Arms, unto this day, of the most puissant Idolater of the whole Earth; An encouraging Omen for all Christians, to wage War with the Grand Turk. 
Aquilae augurium.   
Though they had other several Gods, yet this, exceeding in Universality and Magnificence, is, Synecdochically, put for all the rest.   
FINIS.   

A Calm Ventilation, OF Pseudodoxia Epidemica; OR, Doctrine of Vulgar Errors, Set forth by the hand of the most sedulous THOMAS BROWN, Dr. in Physic, By the still GALE OF JOHN ROBINSON, His Fellow-Citizen and Collegian.  Pro captu Lectoris, habent sua fata libelli. 
LONDON, Printed by J. Streater, for Francis Titon, at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet, 1658.   

The Contents.  

BOOK 1.  
CHap. 1. In the first Fall, whether the stronger were deceived by the weaker? 113  
Chap. 2. Whether Adam and Eve were the greatest sinners? 114  
Ibid. Whether Satan tempting, knew Christ's Deity? Ib.  
Ibid. Whether the Devil's Despair be sin? Ib.  
Chap. 3. Error defined. 115  
Ibid. Whether all things be known by their causes? Ib.  
Ibid. Whether the Egyptian Earrings were stolen? 116  
Chap. 4. Of Pythagoras' Bean. 117  
Chap. 6. Whether whole Nations be indisposed to Learning? Ib.   

BOOK II.  
CHap. 1. Of warmth of Springs. 120  
Ibid. Of freezing of Eggs. Ib.  
Of the Spirit of cold. Ib.  
Whether sparks be the accension of Air? 121  
Chap. 2. Of the variation of the Needle by submarine Earth. Ib.  
Of its rest in the midst of Water. Ib.  
Chap. 3. Of the Terrestrial Pole. 122  
Of the Wound-Salve. Ib.  
Of revealing of Secrets. Ib.  
Chap. 4. Of Electricks. 123  
Chap. 5. Of Daniel, and the Dragon. 124  
Of boiled Gold. 125  
Of Coral. Ib.  
Chap. 6. Of Generation by Putrefaction. 126  
Of Cloves. Ib.  
Chap. 7. Of Cats. 127   

BOOK 3.  
CHap. 1. Of Elephants. 128  
Of the site of Musculs, 129  
Chap. 2. Of Horses dunging. Ib.  
Chap. 9 Whether propagation be from every part? Ib.  
Chap. 12. Of the Soul of Adam's Rib. Ib.  
Chap. 13. Of Frogs. 130  
Chap. 16. Of Vipers. Ib.  
Chap. 17. Of Silkworms. Ib.  
Chap. 18. Of Moles. Ib.  
Chap. 21. Of the use of Nostrils. 131  
Of Aliments taste. Ib.  
Chap. 22. Of Chilification. 132  
Chap. 23. Of Unicorn. Ib.  
Chap. 24. Whether Terrestrial Creatures were first named? 133  
Chap. 26. Of the Glow-worm. Id.  
Of the Pigmire. Ib.  
Of singing of Birds. 134  
Of the Spider and Toad. Ib.  
Chap. 27. Of the yellowness of the Stomach. 235   

BOOK IU.  
CHap. 1. Whether Man alone sit? 136  
Of the Generation of Males. Ib.  
Chap. 6. Of Fat floating. 137  
Chap. 7. Of the weight of a Blown-Blather. Ib.  
Chap. 10. Of the cause of the Pox. 138  
Chap. 12. Of time. Ib.  
Chap. 13. Of the Dogg-stars rising. 139   

BOOK V  
CHap. 4. Whether any thing in Paradise were hurtful? 140  
Whether Eve could kill her Husband? Ib.  
Chap. 5. Of Adam's Navel. 141  
Chap. 6. Of the Jews Ceremonies. 142  
Chap. 14. Of Jephthe. 143  
Chap. 19 Of Long-tailed Bears. Ib.  
Chap. 21. Of sitting crosslegged. Ib.  
Chap. 22. Of Palmistry. 144   

BOOK VI  
CHap. 2. The World created in Autumn. 145  
Chap. 5. Of the motion of the Sun in the Equator. Ib.  
Chap. 7. In Paradise were the principles of all things. 146  
Ibid. Of the advantage of the East. Ib.  
Chap. 10. Of the Moors blackness. 147  
Ibid. Of Sight. Ib.  
Chap. 11. Of cold fire. Ib.   

BOOK VII.  
CHap. 1. Of the forbidden Fruit. 148  
Ibid. Of the word Pomum. Ib.  
Chap. 4. Of the Rainbow. 149  
Chap. 5. The Printers faults. Ib.  
Chap. 7. The ancient Hyssop. Ib.  
Chap. 13. Whether the Moon be the cause of flowing and ebbing. Ib.  
Chap. 17. Of Poisons. 150    

Preface.  
THE enchaining of Knowledge, within the Fetters of Humane Authority, surpasseth the Turkish Thraldom. Set the understanding free and disengaged from the usurpation and tyranny of precedent opinion, it will sore into a serene height. Nay, as further disquisition and experience of man doth promote clearness of mind; so is it no shame, upon second review, to lay Battery to ones own former weakness; and, upon the demantling of it, to cast up a stronger Breast-work; still allowing the full weight of reverence unto Antiquity if it be right.  
This candour I have found in my honoured Friend and Author; who, in his maturer years, is willing to rectify, what himself, and others, in their younger days, were falsely seasoned withal. It is the freedom, besides, of a Philosopher, to cite any thing doubtful and suspicious to the Assizes of Rational Inquisition.  
There need but little care concerning the choice of a Language: For I am sure, whose art cannot afford him more Tongues, than Nature doth Eyes, he will never attain, to the full understanding of his elaborated exercitations: which, I confess, require a more subtle Reader and Judge, than myself; my cold Brain would Snail-like be contented to cousin the Winter with a three Month's sleep. But zeal unto truth the spark of labour, hath almost awakened me from my wont drow siness: not that I desire to reciprocate the Saw of Contention.  
Here I do but more regularly examine, what we have in private, without infringing the limits of Amity more loosely discussed: We both being loyal Subjects to Truth, agreeing on that third, cannot disagree from ourselves, nor from any that subscribeth with me, to be  
Her faithful Follower, John Robinson.   

BOOK. I.  
CHap. 1. In the first fall the strongest was not deceived by the weakest: For Satan in the Serpent, as being created a Sphere higher than man, was the stronger: We must not think that the edge of his intellect was dulled by sin: this line not being defective in length, but straightness: Neither are a regenerate man's thoughts subtler, but sublimer. The experience of Eves sense, v. z. not dying immediately, did give the foil to her husband's faith.  
Ib. Whether were Adam and Eve the greatest sinners in the world? If the world be taken for the whole Universe, it comprehendeth the Angels, which sinned from inward principles, and that irrecoverably: Neither of which is quadrating with the fall of man. But take the world stricter, for Mankind; certainly they escaped the experience of the fruit of sin, which is its aggravation; nor were warned by the examples of others. Neither sinned they against Evangelical mercy; nor that pardonless sin, the remission whereof we may not deprecate. Their sin, indeed, was, by contagion, the greatest, extensiuè, as being the source of all; not in their persons, intensiuè.  
Ch. 2. That Satan knew the Deity of Christ at his temptation, I would rather incline to believe: he having seen the completing of all the prophecies: not being ignorant, at his conception of the congratulation of his Mother: at the birth of the hymn of Angels, and the testimony of shepherds; and at his baptism seeing the Dove and hearing the witness, both of heaven and earth, God and John. Add unto these, their number and nimbleness of communication; he himself is afterward brought in, to give a subtle or extorted testimony of his Deity. Luke 4. 41. Either when the weaker was overcome by the stronger: or, that with more ease he might delude, when he should be called, forsooth, a Christian. Neither is it safe to extenuate his sin, or to be his Advocate in pleading his ignorance.  
Ib. I think it a sin in Devils to despair: the like I hold of reprobates; I mean of the same Oeconomy. If you object, they have no commandment or overture to hope; I answer, they had a commandment: The former, to trust God's mercy, in the confirmation of their estate. The other, have had, if not Evangelical faith, at least the Law of Nature, which because ill employed, God justly denyeth them hope of grace, Rom. 1. 21. Besides, as their abilities, are uncapable, so is their will averse: the continuation whereof doth justly eternize their exile. Neither can I condemn their opinion, who make the linked chain of their continued crimes the reason of the perpetuation of the wrath of their Judge. For if after the day of Judgement, the Mediatorship of Christ shall cease, (as the Schools teach) and the perputuation of bliss is Angellike, by a congruity of holiness; then, by analogy, the duration of punishment, doth answer their everlasting unbelief. Nor must we think that obdurate souls, in that fire, are melted into remorse, or softened into repentance.  
Ch. 3. Error is defined a firm assent unto falsity. The understanding often suspendeth its judgement, concerning the truth of an assertion: And so the Author himself, with most wiser men, doth acquiesce frequently in a sceptical likelihood and probability. Sometime there is an inclination rather unto this side, than the other; which is an Opinion. In all these there may be one or more falsities. A determination is not always requisite, to the completing of an error. Besides, there is one falsehood in notion, another in the speech: this is an incongruity to the heart; that to the thing. All lies are Errors; yet some without the suffrage of the mind. Finally, Oblivion itself is a lie, for either it is of things past, or to come: the forgetting either 
Ab oblivione eximuntur impossibilia, illicita, impertinentia.  of them, is a denying either of what hath been or should be, and yet without any firm consent.  
Ib. That nothing is truly known but by its causes, though Aristotle's seemeth too general an enuntiation. In transnatural things, the Trinity, Election, Resurrection, etc. We must trust to bare authority; without searching causes. Properly, I believe no more than I know: See Job 19 25. Yea, in Physical 
Ne credas quod nescias.  things, cannot comprehend the formal causes, why fire burneth; the Loadstone or Carabe attracteth: It is well we know them à posteriore. To reduce the difference of individuals to a manifest cause were a fruitless labour. See chap. 10. of this his Book. To speak truly, as sense is dazzled at the excess of objects, or puzzled at the exiguity of particular moats: so the understanding cannot attain to the highest cause, because of Its transcendency; Nor the lowest atoms of individuality, because of its renuity. To be contented with the ignorance of some things, is a part of modest wisdom. 
Scaliger,   
Ib. It is too uncharitable a thought, that the earrings of the Egyptians were stolen. For by Gods Express they were borrowed; in which sole reason, most acquiesce: But to flee to an exorbitant precept, when firm and solid arguments may be drawn from a standing rule, is a mark of a weak and shallow judgement. Upon demand, they were ready to restore them again: But when they were pursued for their lives, what should they have done with them? In a distinct order to return every one their own, they had no possibility: to throw them down promiscuously, would not have been satisfactory to the particular borrowing.  
Moreover, in equity there was as much due unto them in arrearage, for their sapernumerary brick: in the Chancery of Alexander the Great: Since this Pharaoh would not stand to the pact, made with Joseph for his Father's family.  
Without making God accessary to it, I see not how it can be registered among the great benefits bestowed upon them, Psa, 105. 37. He brought them forth with silver and gold, foretold Gen. 15. 14. which, without angariation or a press, cannot but have reference to these medals: And to list their felonious riches, within the Catalogue of God's mercies, in my ears, soundeth harsh.  
Ch. 4. Pythagoras' bean may elegantly prohibit Venery: Since in it, at the several ends, there are the manifest signatures of the Genitals in both Sexes. Our Masters teach us, that all leguminaes or pulse, as also bulbous roots, do, by their flatulency, blow up this spark of Venus. Neither do I, hereby, abandon its use, in Political suffrages. Nor was Pythagoras' Genius altogether a stranger to these abstruse Characters.  
Ch. 6. If there be some whole Nations indisposed unto learning it dependeth either upon a Celestial or Terestial Cause: Not Celestial, for every thousand years, the Longitude changeth its situation, above five degrees; which, in this case, is of some moment: so that the Land, which in the Creation, lay under the middle of Aries is now ruled by the influence, to phrase it with them of Taurus.  
But, what will the Astrologers say, to see so continued a malignity of Aspects; that none should have ☿ or ♃ Ascendent in their Nativity? Never a Promissor or Significator strong or sure enough for to cause a benevolent inclination?  
If terrestrial, it is either external or internal: not the former, as air, water, diet, etc. for often Nature, always Art, can correct those: by which Moor and Boggs are turned into fragrant Meadows. If internal, either the unaptness is of the Souls part, or of the Bodies. Not the souls, for all men's Souls are always alike; though their emaning beams be either brighter or duller, according to the clearness or dimness of the Lantern of the organised body. If on the body's side, that might have a medical hand: yea many times in individuals, one disease, by accident, becometh the cure of another: And I see not but one Epidemical distemper might remedy an Endemical malady. The Plague of the Ekronites is a preservation and cure of a maniack passion: semblable to which are many occurrences 
Barclay,  in quotidian practice.  
Further, it is observed by rational Historians, that, after revolutions of a few Centuries, learning taketh its transmigration: so that those people, which about Christ's time, were, for humane letters, the only mirror of the world, did, not long after, and now are become the most Boetish of the whole earth; et vice versa.  
The like doom is befallen unto Christianity: Canaan and Jury is degenerated into Barbarism; The seven Churches of Asia unto Turcism: We, the untamed West, are grown up more then into civility.  
As for the Genius of man, I take it not to be connate; but a retained propension to observed and approved passages, an inclinable and ready way to a habit. The Demons of Plato, appropriated to every Country, are inconsisting with the profession of Gospel-light.   

BOOK II.  
CHap. 1. That many springs do not freeze, their motion may be one cause: which is swifter, at their narrow eruption, then at their enlarged diffusion. A violent motion of water, is a preservative against glaciation; yet doth not altogether prohibit it: Drops squeezed from the clouds, in their swiftest fall, are precipitated into frozen hailstones. Moreover, many springs have a sensible warmth, at their first ebullition, whose refrigeratedstreams are subject to the chains of congelation.  
Ib. Eggs will freeze in the albuginous parts. That point in the Chalaza, the spark of vivisication, I wish it might freeze; it would rid my trees from Caterpillars, which continue their noxious species, by their hybernating Eggs.  
Ib. Salt peter doth excite the spirit of cold. So doth Sugar decayed Mustard: which for affinity of elements in the letter, and aliment in the platter, I merrily use to call in Latin Sal-charum. This spirit is manifest in snow; where, if, by the clemency of the air, it be leisurely dissolved, the spirit fixed will preserve it from putrefaction: whereas, if by fire, you suddenly put it to flight, a strange heir, making an unlawful entry, doth, with a debauchment of its new inheritance, hasten its corruption.  
Ib. If Scintillations are not the accensions of the air, upon the collision of two hard bodies, what inflammable effluence is there in sand, or a wet grindstone? yea, I have seen a horse in the rain, strike fire on the flint. Chalkcoale blown maketh a flame, yet no more smoke than in kindled iron or stone.  
Chap. 2. What Kircherus observeth, that the submarine earth doth cause the variation of the needle, is not to be swallowed without chewing: For the Loadstone doth not so freely send forth its effluviums, through heterogeneal mediums, especially an Iron plate; this experiment will illustrate it.  
Put a needle into a beer-glasse, half full of water: hold a vigorous loadstone at the edge of the glass; the drowsy needle lieth dormant: Fill the glass up to the brim; which touch with the stone; the awakened needle, with joy, leapeth towards its allicient: Besides, that the heavier the medium is, the drowned body is the lighter; as in the weighing of anchor, or drawing up of a bucket, every inferior hand can witness, [in quicksilver it is most evident] the effluvium of the loadstone, if it be not contiguous with the water, doth upon its superficies, suffer a reflection; and by that means is debilitated. The surest way were, to lay a needle upon the surface of the Sea itself.  
Ib. A needle run through corck, may swim in the midst of the water, and not sink. It he speak of liquours heterogeneal, it is a thing so vulgar, that it falleth below the worth of his disquisition, who breatheth nothing but excellencies. If it be understood of homogenerall liquours, that, by its gravity, it should be permanent in the midst, the rule of motion proveth it false; for the self same weight, that brought it to the midst, will depress it to the bottom; si catera sint paria.  
One thing may be tried, by the brain rather than the hand. If you have a body equilibrous with the water, it may be thrust, but will never sink into the middle: But to attempt this, because the upholding substance, whether wood or Cork, inebriated with the 
Dalinea detto all fatto, vi è un gran tratto.  liquor, loseth the memory of its proportion, I have no mind to try.  
Chap. 3. From the non-variation of the needle, in the I'll of Elba, in the Tuscan-Sea, is no firm argument against the terrestrial pole. For all magnetic bodies, have their attraction and variations more strenuous about the pole; then towards their Aequator; whereunto this place is inclining.  
Ib. The Sympathetic Unguent may best be refuted, by daring, [neither is there great fortitude or patience required hereunto] to fire and quench the instrument wounding, or any thing folded therein. For these sublime Surgeons do give out, that a cloth or stick dipped in the wound or ulcer, and that refreshed by their panacean Balsam, will solace and heal the part affected; if kept from extremity of weather: otherwise it proveth painful and noxious. Let the same jury of experience try the calcined, and, in praise, sublimed vitriol. If kept from extremity of weather; otherwise it proveth prejudicial and noxious: let it either help or hurt, or be an Idol, Isa. 41. 23.  
Ib. To discover to another in a several room my intention, may easier and surer be done, with the hand alone; then to rely upon the uncertainty of the dubious loadstone. Frustra fit per plura, etc.  
Chap. 4. Neither Cabaeus gyration of atoms, nor Sr. Kellem Digbies syrop-like contraction into a rope, can handsomely stand before the least gale of wind, in Electrick bodies, drawing up festuceous fragments: For, by a small breath, both their ways are overturned: Neither would the body attracted rise perpendicularly; but, by an obliqne angle, miss the middle of the Electrum: The contact us being less virtual, and more gross, then that of the loadstone.  
Three things I observe, 1. That these bodies are attractive, though but weakly, not being excited by heat: which hath also not escaped the industry of our Author. 2. That, upon a sudden approach of the warmed Electrick, the stramineous bodies will, at first, a little recede. 3. That, where the reverberation of the effluvium is stronger, [as it is on a lookingglass, beyond on carminated wool; because of its polilshed superficies, the points are more compact, and at equaller distance; It's concavity doth also promote the attraction, as it's convexity, though resting on fewer points, doth retard it] there is the love hotter; which giveth a hint to a true cause. But the reason, and superstructure thereon, is not for this place.  
Chap. 5. To shore up the esteem of the Apocrypha, like an old house, it calleth for many supporting props: If Daniel had the Dragon at that command, to put his immune hand into his throat; he, upon deliberation, as this exploit was, had, (bearing sword or staff,) twenty opportunities of victory, both surer and readier than this. The same Canon, that bindeth Physicians in the cure of a disease, that it be citò and tutò; the same rule will every circumspect man take, in the conquering of his adversary. Neither is it likely, that Daniel, the wisest of Sages, was ignorant of that Rule in reason, Entiae citra necessitatem non multiplicanda.  
But let us examine the toxicum: Hair, pitch, and fat. That hair, is not poison, though taken in a great quantity, is proved, by the excrements of voracious dogs, which is seen to be very pilous; by their swallowing hair with the hide. If any one object the the heat of their stomach, by which hard bones are ground into powder; the fleece coming away whole, and indigested, doth enervate that. Pitch after it hath laid a while in the stomach, is turned into a chilus, where it deposeth its viscosity: as we see in Terpentine rejected. Fat things, are so far from causing adhesion, that, by me, they are counted the Soveraignest Alexiteriums, besides the dissolution of the pitch, because of the lubrification.  
Ib. That gold boiled should communicate any virtue to the broth, no man can gather a solid argument, from a possibility, unto a reality; where both the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is wanting. If the effects were as evident, as that of Stibium or load stone, without abatement of weight; then were it beyond all controversy. That the quenching of it, doth induce a stiplicity into the liquor, I willingly admit. But by the same reason [torrefying the terrestrial moats, which also produceth its suddainer glaciation] will, besides steel or stones, bread toasted hard, and dipped in hot, imprint an astrictive quality on the drink; whereof I use, in case of costiveness, to admonish my patient's keepers.  
Ib. Concerning Coral, whether it grow while it is petrified, as doth the silver-tree; or, whether it be not, in its younger age, an herb, resembling our Sampire, hardened afterward in its perfect stature, may justly be questioned. For first, in every branch there is a hollowness, which may not be admitted; if it have its accretion by external lapidificall juices: neither could it so decently ascend into a methodical form. Let us look into all salts, whether vitriol or alum, whose increase is by apposition of forinsecal matter; their substance is more solid; and their form, if within their proper matrix, lesse expanse. Besides, then would the lowest and thickest part, as being the ancientest, exceed in hardness; and not be so stipulous as we find it.  
Chap. 6. That putrefactive generations are correspondent unto seminal productions, in vegetables, is clear, by the Author's assertion, and obvious experience. Calcination I take to surpass all putrefaction, and to be the extremest limits of corruption; yet men, of approved integrity, do affirm that, hereby, generation is not extinguished Unto sensitives it cannot be altogether denied, especially in Testaceous Fishes, and Eels; where the muria of the one, and slime of the other, falling into a convenient womb, will produce a specifical progeny; yea it is common to all Creatures, which for want of discrimination in sexes, are denied copulation. For recreation and admiration, I add; In my garden I have an herb, much like, in figure and taste, to the Cardamine, with a sumptuous double flower; the leaves whereof being chopped small, and committed to the earth, every particle will take sudden root. Though here be no putrefaction; yet doth the mincing of it destroy its extern herbal form.  
Ib. Cloves are no rudiments; but a perfect fruit, which I can show completely fastened to the Vmbella. It is no kind of Medler, which, after reaping, must receive a new fermentation. By the same standard, all our corn should but prove initiated rudiments: which like to the cloves, for their preservation, have nothing, but their superfluous humidity, exhaled from them.  
Chap. 7. Whether for Medicament or aliment, I know not; but several, besides me, have seen Cats eat mint and nipped. It's most probable for some correctory: as Bears will lick aunts; infects, in quantity, too inferior, to allay their voracious appetite. In the time of satiating their former hunger, there would rise up a second, which should prove more eager.   

BOOK. III.  
CHap. 1. That Elephants have no joints, though, by some, it be delivered in general terms; yet was not their Minerva so dull, to except all; but did intent the suffragineous or knee joints only: without which there may be a progression in man; as upon stilts; by the sole motion of the hip: in quadrupedes, as in a full gallop. But of the Elk consult with Caesar. Alces crura sine nodis articulisque habent: neque quietis causa procumbunt; 
Lib. 6.  neque, si quo afflictae casu conciderint, erigere se possunt, etc. Neither can I deny absolutely rest to standing: since, in that posture, many fouls, [especially carnivorous or rapacious ones, whom nature for fight hath furnished with the strongest thighs and talons; A cock doth by the same gesture, obtain his victory, that he doth his food by striking backward,] yea horses do take their ordinary repose. I could relate strange things seen in man.  
A favourable construction of the Ancient's tenants, if it can consist without infringing Authority of truth, is more piety; and it savoreth of reverence, to cover our Father's nakedness.  
Ib. How every muscule hath its free site, may best be discovered, where all the muscles are alike affected: and that is, in those that are drowned: which is not a right, but an inclining posture. Some advantage to an exquisite Anatomist.  
Chap. 2. The cause of the often dunging in the horse, I should rather ascribe it to the moisture of his meat, then to his gall: since, if grooms have any credit, his going to grass, doth acquire a frequency in excretion: his standing in, with dry meat, which is more bilious, doth contract a rareness. I leave the decision to the farrier's.  
Chap. 9 If propagation be by a real transmission from every part; then would those, who have supernumerous or mutilated joints; produce their like. Soon would arise whole families of deformity: Nay, all Adam's posterity should have been defective in one rib; as is granted 7 Book Chap. 2.  
Chap. 12. toward the end. That God animated the rib of Adam's apart, is not so evident: but, by traduction, its soul might proceed from the soul of Adam. There is no mention, in Scripture, of inspiration into the woman: Neither, for perfect propagation, is there requisite a distinction of souls into sexes. There must be a soul of the female; but no female soul: As one man was generated without a man; so one woman without a woman: both, most like in sleep.  
Chap. 13. In frogs, with some few other creatures, I find a riddle: that, all their life time, they delight in their womb, which is the water. For, after exclusion from the spawn, in it are all the joints articulated, and metamorphosed into another shape: from apodes to quadrupedes, from tailed to bobbed.  
Chap. 16. Caterpillars and silkworms are left to their own shift, without a maternal tuition: I marvel, what privilege the accursed viper should have got, to be exempted from the same hardship; why nature should be a Germane to this, and to the other, but a Stepmother. Though the one be viviparous, the other oviparous: yet doth it not amount to a necessity of discrimination, in one above another, of a parental fostering: both being equally able, to shift for themselves, and live at their own hands: This therefore can be no argument against the mother's death.  
Chap. 17. Others with me, that have brought up silkworms, will testify, that in them; both of magnitude, wherein, ordinarily, the female surpasseth twice the male; and genitals, there is a manifest distinction. Three small pricks, ending like a pyramid, in one point, is the tegument of his virisity.  
Chap. 18. The cause of a Mole's dimness, is a thick and hard tunicle covering their eyes: which, if it were thin and tender, would continually be molested, and soon worn out, by the angularity of sand: they seeking their food, by loosening the earth, upward.  
When they are said to be blind, it is not to be understood in their lowest species; but in the next above it: in the catalogue of of quadrupedes. They have skill, though not to use, yet to refuse light.  
Chap. 21. I doubt whether smelling be the principal end of nostrils: Although Fishes have no lungs, yet their gifts, are an analogical substitute for respiration. I should count that the principal function of a part, without which, the creature cannot sublist. What if respiration be not presently abolished, upon the stopping or loosening of the nostrils? no more is smelling; in both there is a diminution. The mammillary teats in the brain, are the proper receptacles of odours: the passage unto them, is the external cartilege. But of all senses, Smelling would be least miss: and deprivation of that sense, is reckoned among the leves jacturae. While I was thus scribbling, I had a patiented, who, probably, by the loss of his smell, did redeem his endangered life. There may be a mercy in a privation: and the night hath its pleasure, saith Seneca, in solacing of the blind.  
Ib. If in all aliments there be a sapidity: the more sapid, the more alimentitious: but spiced and salted dishes, are counted among least nourishing diets. Again, the more alimentitious, the more sapid: yet no food in nutriment can hold pace, with the insipid egg. But all senses delight in a mediocrity.  
Chap. 22. Whether Chilification be not a corrosion, by some sharp ferment, I question: when I see dogs devour hard bones, and, not long after, reject them in a friable album graecum: which, if rare, were as wonderful, as that an Ostrich should digest Iron: Not unlike to that acid phlegm, expelled by vomiting, which, in corrosion, is not inferior to the sharpest vinegar. The sour rennets of beasts come under this notion; which being familiar and pleasant to domestics, within doors; breaking forth, prove troublesomeguests to their neighbours: which is proper also unto gall.  
Chap. 23. It were a rational labour, and would correct, not only Vulgar, but also medical Errors, to search the reason, why Unicorn should cure poison. Some poisons [I speak not of outward, which are cured by ligatures, attractives, etc.] are dulled, by exhibition of great quantity of drink, as livium: Others, by obtunding or blunting the corroding teeth of its arsenic; and that is by fat things: many by manifest contraryeties, as Opium by Costoreum; the latter, by its heat, conquering the former's coldness, and that within the nearest genus of ill-savoured Medicines. Others attain an help by sudorificks, and that in venomous and pestilential air, intermingled with our spirits. Not a few, by hindering its venom, from spreading to the vitals; by their stipticity and dryness, intercepting or exsiccating the effluvium. So doth Bezoar, Bole, Coraell, as Ivory in the Jaundice; And this way Unicorn or Hartshorn may become a tolerable remedy. But whosoever looketh for an effect proportionable to the height of its renown or price; I am more than afraid, he shall be frustrated of his expectation.  
Chap. 24. In strict reason, Terrestrial animals should have their praenomination, above all Marine creatures. The former Adam did name, according to their nature; to the other [as is confessed] men must fain an analogical denomination. The one were preserved in the Ark, to have a name among the living; The other, if they were not, by the confused coition of fresh and salted water, destroyed, were mainly damnifyed: For few fishes, and those of the delicater kind, will endure, especially so long a time, both pure, or commixture of water. But I see no absurdity to say, that the Sea, [as at the first so] after the separation of that grand conflux, might produce junior fishes, out of its emptied womb. And according to this Epoch, in my Heraldry, the creatures of the earth, should have the prerogative of the ancienter house.  
Chap. 26. The contracting of a glow-worm extended, is no argument of life. For this doth befall most dead infects, moving by annnular fibres. In artificial things it is very obvious; the experiment may be seen in a quail pipe.  
Ib. In the centre of the kernel of grain, as the safest abditory, is the scource of germination; which may and doth escape the amputation of the extremes, by a knife; but not the terebration of the pis-mire; though very small: The latter hindereth it from sprouting; so doth not the former. Neither is it a shame to learn from beasts; we owing the invention of most mechanic arts, to the instinct of unreasonable creatures.  
Ib. That no lati-rostrous animal doth sing, is not easily gainsaid: But that a flat bill, is an open disadvantage unto singing, may be doubted; seeing many modulations are upon flat winde-instruments; and man, without a beck, can tune any kind of voice. The reason of circular extremes, in pneumatical pipes, is, that the sound the easier might be prompted into its proper form, a globe. As, from the conversion of a triangle, the product is a cone; so, from the circumvolution of a circle, ariseth the voice's natural figure, a Sphere. In strict ratiocination, the proper forge of Music, is not the bill, but the throat.  
Ib. Though a spider should vanquish a toad, it were, [to speak gently] temerity, to prescribe the one, as an anti dote to the other. Let, by the same law, a chicken be an antidote against spiders. Oil, which killeth all vegetables, will preserve man against the most deletory Granum Nob. The same dangers are not to be looked for, in the dead bodies of venomous animals; which were feared in their life; as the learned Author doth rationally deliver, §. 12. of this Chapter. And if their poison cease, I should scarce trust their antipoison: yet the plague, after many years sleep in linen or , will awaken and rage; by the testimony of our predecessors, backed with our own experience.  
Chap. 27. The yellowness of the stomach, and guts in the chicken, doth not necessarily argue its nourishment on the yolk; though I believe the thing, yet not the reason: For the same colour is apparent, in all newborn babes; except, with some, Omnia ex ovo, which, in a Metaphorical and florid sense, may be admitted, with a Rhetorical strain; but in a Physical demonstration in strict terms, is hard to be understood.   

BOOK FOUR  
CH. 1. That sitting is not proper to Man only, the several kinds of Apes, by their untaught Mimics, and Dogs, by teaching, will draw it into question; If sitting upon the ground or flat, may come under that denomination. Man can do no more than these beasts; and will make a cute Angles, between Back, Thigh, and Leg bone, [though inverted] as do irrational animals: And beasts will, upon seats, make as right Angles, [two lines to an Angle] as doth man.  
Ch. 5. The uncertainty of generating males by a ligature, of the left testicle, may more solidly be refuted, because in congress, the males right, is the females left; which left side, is not thought the proper place for masculine conception: so that this conceit falleth by its own weight: Neither was this arrow full drawn home to the head. Some probability there might be in those creatures, which engender by infilition.  
There are three kinds of Being, Real, Rational, and Modal: the latter is neither of the former, but more than Rational, yet less than Real. Such is this relative site. The want of which accurate distinction, bringeth one into a maze of confusion.  
Ch. 6. That fat bodies do soon float, there is an error, à non causâ ad causam. The true reason is, that they have less proportionable weight depressing them, then lean bodies. If the whole body were fat, it would never sink. Not that fat is, under water, more prone unto fermentation, which is the cause alleged; We besprinkle our almonds, in beating, with Rose-water, to preserve them from restiness. To speak properly, Oily or fat bodies scarce grow rotten, but rancid. Neither doth fat, so readily symbolise with air, as the Schools teach. Let oil, grease, or tallow be boiled unto vapours, and I will believe: superinfused it will preserve liquours fresh, excluding all allien air: By the same reason, it defendeth iron from rust, and locketh up, faithfully, whatsoever it is entrusted withal. To say, it will soon conceive a flame, is no satisfactory argument; for the same happeneth unto chalk-coal, which yieldeth no smoke, the product of kindled fatness. Besides, when the acme of fermentation is over, except there be, at the very height of it, a fixation, from some external cause, the subject will fall into a more compacted gravity.  
Ch. 7. There may be a mistake in a blown bladder, about the weight of it; if, either the bladder be moist, and then, with extension, it drieth: or if it be blown up with the breath of man, which containeth some water.  
Further, Gold foliated, and feathers expansed, will not weigh so much, nor fall so swiftly, as the same will, being contracted. Smoak rarified doth ascend; but being condensated into soot, its nature is to descend. The common road of conception and production of rain, is an ancient and sufficient testimony.  
Ch. 10. If the Smallpox have their Original from some quality in the Menstruum, imprinted upon the child in time of gestation; It must needs follow that this disease is endemical to the whole world; because of the universality of its cause: The truth whereof is worthy examination; and unto mine as far as travellers report is to be credited, the assertion is seconded. That others undergo them never, others often, is according to the disposition of the receiver.  
Ch. 12. The measuring of the motion of bodies doth teach us their duration. No duration then to the centre either of earth or heavens; because destitute of motion. If it be replied, the motion need not to be in the thing but either in the Sun or Earth; neither is that absolutely true: For a motion of either up-upon its own axis, if the body be homogeneous, which is questioned concerning the Sun, will be no rule of measure. A loco-motion will be requisite. How far shall Saturn out-dure the Moon? A step higher: There may be a time of duration without motion, as were the three first days, before the Creation of Sun or Stars. There was a flux of time in the days of Joshua, when the Sun stood still: This Philosophers call interval time.  
Ch. 13. If since the world began Syrius, arose in ♉, and before its end may have its ascent in ♍ by that compute, the world's glass should run yet 12000 years: And where are then the last times, wherein the Apostles lived? Sed meliora spero.   

BOOK V.  
CH. 4. Might not these words have been spared, In Paradise there was no creature hurtful? Since there was none, the Devil excepted, all the world over. It might with better reason have been questioned, Whether there were any Medical Plants? I think, to say, any Therapeutic Medicines were existent, before a disease be in nature, is frustraneous: But that they had then a Prophylactick virtue, to prevent all seminaries of maladies, may easily be understood.  
The Botanics comprehend corn, trees, and fruit, within the tome of their Herbals. Rosins' might be a preservation against rain and darkness. As other Physical Plants, so Rhubarb might serve for food to some creature. Many things stand for symmetry and compliment of the Universe.  
But, to speak with the Schools, there were remedies in Innocency, radically and potentially; but not actually, and formally: So was repentance and commiseration in sinless Adam.  
Ib. There was a natural ability in Eve, after impregnation with a boy, without imperfecting the Creation, as she had killed the soul, so to destroy the body of Adam; without the abolishment of a Species: But this would, I confess, have ushered in many moral absurdities.  
Ch. 5. That Adam should be created without a Navel, because he was not nourished that way▪ I see no necessary consequence. For it is of all sides granted, that, to the same part of the body, do appertain several offices. Now if, for the Navel be taken the outside only, it serveth to the Umbo of the belly, for a Centre in way of ornament; or for an emunctory. Nature many times curing Dropsies that way. Of like use are Paps to men. If, for the Navel, be understood the Vasa umbilicalia, the inward Ligaments; Adam could not spare them, they serving to hold up the Liver and Blather; the excision of them bringeth sudden death: which kind of punishment is, according to the Historians, in use with the Egyptians.  
A Skar is a defect in the skin: But the outward vessels of the Navel, never deserved the title of humane part: rather an antecretion, for forty week's nourishment in the dark: which, since it precedeth man's being, and doth forsake him being born; the amputation thereof can be no defect.  
Lastly, the commonness and universality of this part, to all sorts and sexes of people, doth take away the reproach of deformity, and suppress the tongue from a shameful upbraid.  
Ch. 6. That the Jews did omit the standing or loin-girding, or staff-handling, in eating of the Passeover, and that without sin, is not likely: they being essential significant Ceremonies, instituted by God, to show their sudden departure out of Egypt. The Traditions of the Rabbins are not unknown: But their authority, as being repugnant to reason or Scripture, is often suspected. Christ indeed was Lord as of the Sabbath, so of the Ceremonies: & he, being the body, come, the shadows were shortened; especially, he then instituting a Sacrament of a dissonant posture.  
A Digression by a Parenthesis, concerning those, who fear to approach too near to the Artolatry. They dare not seem to worship the bread, by kneeling before it; yet will they reverence it with their head bare; which is no gesture befitting familiar accumbency, and fraternal communion. Who can think that the Jews did eat the Passeover uncovered, it keeping no decorum, with the rest of the itinerary postures? They say, we ought herein to show all reverence; But, to enterweave humane devices, and those incongruous, with divine institutions, is more than irreverence.  
Ch. 14. To the rational defence of Jephthe, I add one argument, by others also omitted, from Heb. 11. All these died in faith: and Jepththe is inserted within the Catalogue of believers. That one unquestionable testimony, is of more validity with me, than many disputable arguments, of frail humanity: and when, without pondering, we follow the steps of dubious guides, we may soon aberre from the way of truth.  
Ch. 19 Bears with long tails, need not be a Poetical fiction; nor a black Swan a monstrosity. In Egypt there are sheep of incredible tails, weighing 80 li. White Bears, Hares, Partridges, are common to Greenland. The race of Moors, and that by a regular production, is no anomalous monstrosity. White Thrushes, are not rare in England. It is not the change of accidents; but the commixture of foreign forms, that breedeth a prodigious spectacle.  
Ch. 21. To sit cross-legged, or have our fingers pectinated, doth really induce a numbness, and retarding the circulation of the blood, doth affect the heart: and, by compression or distortion of the sinews, is an impeachment to motion and sense. That which Ligatures do on set purpose, these postures will perform without advice.  
Ch. 22. The line of life, and of Liver, in Man or Monkey, which generally are taken for Nature's Manuscripts, are but the folds of the skin; when the hand or thumb is bend inwardly. Neither proper to any who have their feet always extended. By the same reason we have not those now, which we had in our infancy; but by accidents, diseases, labour, changeable. The variety and numerosity of these Characters, and Lineaments, are both more legible and certain, in spelling out ones profession: A Book fit for Justices to study, how to discover idleness.   

BOOK VI.  
CH. 2. What Land was out of Paradise, was Terra Incognita: But, to the Inhabitants the world seemeth to be created in Autumn: For the fruit of all trees was ripe, except we affirm, that, before sin, every month had fresh fruit, glancing unto Rev. 22. 2. Ezek. 47. 12. Or, that some of the fruit was ripe, while other were but in blostome. The name of Thirst signifying originally beginning which fell on Autumn, being October, doth persuade the same: But the month Nisan, which fell on the Spring, became the new year of the Jews, not upon any natural ground; but upon the institution of God, in remembrance of their delivery out of Egypt: And that Abraham did begin the calculation of years, from the Autumn, as having received it, by tradition, from the Patriarch Enoch, witness both Josephus and Eusebius. But man and beast drew their first breath in their spring; because their flowering years did precede their fruitbearing harvest.  
Ch. 5. If the Sun should move constantly, in the Equator, it would be, unto both poles, continual day; because of the refraction of the beams, through the air, contrary to chap. 14. of this Book. But those, who have the Poles vertical, do, for above half a year, in every month, new-Moon excepted, enjoy the benefit of both Luminaries, 14 days together.  
Ch. 7. It is most consonant to the order, which God kept in the Creation, and to reason of man, that the principles of all things were wisely disposed, in a convenient Matrix, within Paradise, seeing there was a compendium of the Universe: For as unto all creatures Adam gave suitable names; so he must have within it, the epitome of the whole world: or else he could not have known it. To the Proverb,  Non omnis fert omnia tellus; I oppose, Non fuit sic à principio. 
Ib. The emolument of the East is not to be despised, by them, who have any Sea, or Lake adjacent unto them. There is no small influence from the ascending rays of the morning; dispersing the exhaled vapours of the night: Whereas in Occidental coasts, the damps of the Sea enter into the room of the departed Sun: The Oriental is famous for its dryness; the Occidental mansions, are by their moisture, rafty. Hence is the frequency of evening thunders; which in a morning is a rarity. The like I say of rain-bows.  
Ch. 10. All things are seen under the varnish of colour: How this consisteth with the fight of Moles, I see not: For Book 3. Chap. 8. they are allowed the sight of light; and that of colours is denied them. Yet to speak with the Schools, colour is light, terminated in the superfices of a solid body.  
Ib. Concerning the blackness of Negroes, there seemeth some promotion of it, either from the climate, or soil, which being situated between four great Rivers, whose banks are often overflown; the heat having thereby a thicker medium to work upon, than upon pure air [hence, after rain, the new beams of the Sun become most scalding] doth exhale and fix more vapours, especially towards the head; which maketh their skulls, to exceed triple in thickness, ours of Europe: So that their proud depth doth contemn the force of the sharpest sword, as several times, with admiration, I have seen.  
Ch. 11. If denigration proceed from mortification, it presupposeth a cold fire: as in an extreme marasm of age, or by frost, in Russia is evident: Of which subject, I remember to have read a rational treatise in the Teutonick. But I love no logomachy.   

BOOK. VII.  
CHap. 1. It is said, that the forbidden fruit was never produced since. If it be meant that it should be obscured, and retired into the closet of perpetual latency, I see no reason for it: because man is now disobliged from that Commandment. No man might imitate that holy perfume, Exod. 30. or transfer it into a domestic use: But that it should over-awe us, hitherto, morally, savoureth too much of Judaisme. By the same Law, we shall be forbidden the smell of Frankincense. yea, Bread and Wine being once instituted for a Sacrament, must not be exposed to a natural and common profanation. If the whole Species were annihilated, though it were but in one individual, [as that happeneth unto some creatures] it mutilateth the Creation, and bringeth a lameness into the beauty of the Universe.  
Ib. A Peach, though with a hard kernel, is named Pomum by the learned: And so are jugulandes and siliqua by Pliny.  
Ch. 4. The Galaxia or Milk-way, if it had a natural signature, of both rain and fair weather, might be as comfortable, I dare say, more frequent than the Rainbow. Besides, the former is not imitable by the industry of man; the latter every plebeian hand can at pleasure command: yea, a Horse trotting through shallow water, if the Sun approach near the Horizon shall unwittingly raise the colours in the Bow, as hath been mentioned before. The constancy in duration, and situation, might challenge a preeminency; but it is safe, to acquisce, humbly, in the wisdom of the Maker.  
Ch. 5. Abraham and Ishmael, instead of Isaac, So Ch. 15. Gold will swim in quick silver, wherein iron and other metals sink; I dare not but lay the slip upon the oscitant Printer.  
Ch. 7. The Hyssop upon the Wall, I would rather take for our Parietaria, or Pellitory, which is used for cleansing and polishing of Vessels and Glasses; This for site and virtue, will best suit which the Herb, which the Priest used in sacrifice, and the Botanics of Solomon. Dioscorides is dubious.  
Chap. 13. If the Moon, by exciting the nitro-sulphurous spirits, at the bottom of the Sea, cause high-water; It is either in regard of its vicinity, or by virtue of her body, or her lihgt. The first cause is vain: For the periodical estuation would be at the time of the perigaeum. The body of the Moon is unchangeable: Neither can we confer this effect to its light; because, at new-Moon, the springtide is not inferior.  
Galileus' subtle device, concerning the motion of the earth, hath its scruple. It is true, that the water will rise to the sides of the Vessel, being swiftly moved; but, that the same befalleth the Sea, arrested by the shore, is a doubtful consequence: because the motion of the one is natural, the other violent.  
In water, as in all liquid things, I acknowledge a double natural motion: by the one, in regard of its gravity, it descendeth; by the other, because of its tenacity, it runneth into the form of a Globe. Reiterated drops upon a true level, (if there be any Physical plane) will evince this; which, swelling in the midst, cast themselves into a circle. That doleful deluge, which did compass the whole earth, was a sad example. The latter propriety is the product of the former.  
Chap. 17. That God made all things double, one against another, and that poison is not without antipoyson, I desire to have my assent excused. Not to speak of moral things, where one contrary hath several contraries, and one vice as adverse to another, as virtue to them both; I think God made no Poison, but all things in the world were made for the use of man. Their chiefest deleterium is, either in the quantity, or some other circumstance, as in Lettuce, Lecks, Casservi, etc. whose integra are aliments; though juices mortiferous. Those things that are pernicious by their external form, as beaten Glass, Sponges, etc. have not deserved the brand of poison. Those that are really lethiferous, are but peccatorum sudores, excrescences of sin, & came in with the thorns. The Serpent was destructive rather to the soul, than the body.  
Besides, some Vincetoricks are general, and will be contrary to several kinds. Finally, in divers creatures, one part is alexipharmacal to the other, as is confessed in the subsequent Section, by our Judicious Author, to whom be peace.  
FINIS.