MISCELLANEOUS PROPOSITIONS AND QUAERES: By John ROBINSON Doctor in physic, in Norwich.  
Fabricando Fabri Fimus  
LONDON. Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in ivy-lane, M. DC.XL.IX.   

To the candid Reader.  
HEre you have a handful of abrupt conceptions, or rather abortions of mine, their birth for some reasons being precipitated; And neither my Genius, nor my calling, will allow me a sequestered time, to dwell long upon any subject.  
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 pretermit: And then, that the Names of the Authors, are not set down; to which may be answered, that some are Anonimous,( 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 controversy, with all the strength, and main body of a Battle, but by excursions, in a velitary way, to skirmish with some, whom,( all due love and respect inviolated) I dissent from.  
My wished end is, by gentle concussion the Emulsion of Truth: which if I find to answer my desires, I shall think it an ample reward of these few unfiled lines.  
Farewell.   

The Contents.  

I. OF a Church. pag. 1.  
II. Of Ministers. 11.  
III. Of Sacraments. 14.  
IV. Of Adam. 15.  
V. Of Marriage. 17.  
VI. Of Sympathy. 20.  
VII. Of an egg. 22.  
VIII. Of Swimming, or Floating. 24.  
IX. Of Remedies. 26.  
X. Of Telesmes. 29.    

Miscellaneous Propositions.  

I. Of a Church.  
COncerning this subject( there being several Opinions, as well of foreign, as our Native Men) I will endeavour what may be, to build upon such general concessa, drawn from Sacred page., or reason, as the Truth may be most manifest.  
That God had a Church, that is, a select Company out of the World, from Caine's time; and shall have, unto the end, is undeniable by all, professing Christianity: First, in Families, as in Noah, Melchizedec, 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, and may be called( as vulgarly it is) the 
For which, who so prayeth, prayeth for the dead.  universal or catholic Church; out of this there is no salvation; and of this, many may be, and are, among the Pagans, Turks, and remotest heretics, saved by a way unknown to us. But that there are particular Churches, called by the Word of God, and joined unto bodies, is unquestionable.  
Now that the way of Gathering and Ruling of them, 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 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 way, where, when, and how to obey him: This is a clear dictate of reason, which God never( but extraordinarily) contradicts. Thus Adam, Noah, Abraham, did before the written Scripture, by traditions teach their Families: Not that every one by Enthysiasme, was immediately taught of God, else Teaching had been frustraneous, which God and Nature abhorreth: yea, God himself afterward, gave Moses a perfect pattern, of every particular thing, in the Tabernacle, even unto the smallest of all, from the which, he might not recede an inch; which did oblige the Children of Israel, unalterably unto the time of Solomon: who likewise did not in the least deviate from the express command of God, in all particulars; yea, the Jews were, until Christ coming, unchangeably tied thereunto: and what the Pharisees did in the worship of God, either omit, add, or alter, is listed among the Traditions of Men, and so rejected. And is it reason, that after Christs coming, it should be left to the prudence of Men, either Prince, or Church, to vary any way of worshipping of God, according to the discretion of Men?  
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 ought to change, nor silence the publishing of it: but obligeth every faithful one, to submit unto, and in his place to divulge.  
To wade a little further, and that in a methodical briefnesse, the Causes are considerable.  
The Efficient, God out of his love, through the Spirit, by his Word, persuading Mens hearts to believe in the son: that so they may be revested, with the former( or rather better) image of himself.  
The material, are the Saints& Members of his mystical Body.  
The formal, the union with him, and one with another.  
The final, his own honour, the edifying one another, and their mutual eternal happiness.  
Now the way of Governing, 
Ex quibus constamus, iisdem nutrimur.  is the same with Gathering; namely, the preaching of the Word of God.  
But because the manner of divulging the Gospel, by some of our time is 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.  
Of these, I desire to ask but one Quest: Whether the Word in its original, not being understood, be able to convert souls? or, whether all to be converted, must understand Hebrew and Greek? which both seem absurdities; or, which necessary must follow, they must be converted by the Word translated; which( besides the various reading of the original) is not wholly, intrinsically, undoubtedly, and merely true.  
Finally, the examples of our Fore-fathers converting, with the evidence of so many now converted, may evince the contrary.  
The general Objection against the premises is, that the external form of words in preaching, praying, the dayes, or places, instituted for Fasting, or Thanksgiving, with other circumstances, are not distinctly set down in the holy Scripture, but may in a prudential way, be changed, according to the exigency of occasions or persons.  
In the worship of God, two things are to be considered; the substance, and the necessary intervening, natural adjuncts.  
That the Word of God must be preached, the Sacraments administered, in time of danger, God must be called upon; after deliverances, praises must be returned, is an institution of God; and so a Law unalterable. The Intervening adjuncts, are natural, and no part of Gods worship. The manner of expression, the time, is no more holy, then the place is, nor the public either time or place, more then a private, whilst I am in my family worshipping of God: they being but natural circumstances, without which nothing can be done. If there be any holinesse in them, it is for the Works sake, and so but relative: The Sabbath onely excepted, which being at first instituted in relation to Christ, should be holy, for itself sake, though no body in the World did keep it.  
But to speak more home, besides the universal Church, dispersed here on earth, God hath appointed, for the mutual edification one of another, some particular Congregations, to join into bodies, which have right unto all the Ordinances left by Christ& his Apostles, as is the receiving in, building up, the casting out, which are actions not competent to the universal, and therefore may be called ministerial.  
I cannot so readily assent to those who say, that two or three gathered together into a society, make a ministerial Church: For that, Mat. 18. speaking of a ministerial 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 Persons besides the Church: yet, how small a number, the Embryo of a particular Church, 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 Congregation: It must have power within itself to admit, and receive in; to nourish and mutually edify those within; and to expel or decline that which is noxious.  
But the grand Quaere will be, whence it deriveth this power? For they of the See of Rome, lay claim to derive it successively, from Christ and his Apostles, and so exclude( as heretics) all those that usurp the title of a true Church or true 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 desire of these two Questions a resolution:  
Whether a company of Godly People, being by shipwreck, cast into a barbarous or empty iceland, where they are like to live out their daies, may not join into a spiritual body, and so raise up unto themselves, the exercise of all the Ordinances of Christ revealed in his Word?  
Lest any should deny it, these things are tenderd to their consideration: whatsoever is spiritually a living body, is spiritually {αβγδ}, a perfecting itself. This is an axiom grounded upon reason, Arist: applies to the soul of Man. But all Believers are spiritually living bodies, and have an inward principle, to build up themselves,& others in their holy faith. So 1 Thes. 5. they are commanded to edify one another: and 1 Peter, 2. the faithful are called living stones. Now who can doubt, but if a company of living stones meet and join together, 
Lord gather them all!  as they by inclination will, but they may, and ought, to rear up from themselves, a perfect edisice?  
Again, I ask, in time of Reformation from Idolatry, or profaneness, to a regular holinesse, Whether there be not the same necessity, which there was in the case stated before?  
If yea; then they may join together into a Church, without any succession, or dependency, on other Churches; if not, either they must require some superstitious or profane Minister, to receive in Members, ordain Officers, in a true Church, which is absurd: or else they must stay, till they meet with another true Church and ministry, which, besides the difficulty, savoreth of a prelatical Jurisdiction of one Church over another; of which, something anon.  
Some that meekly and earnestly contend against this way, ground upon two main Arguments: The first is, It is unlawful, to withdraw from a true Church. The second is, concerning red Prayer. A word to each. First, I deny that there is, or hath been, since the casting off of the Jews, any national ministerial Church; in which none might dwell, but of the same Religion with them: 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 of it, 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 for it, nor any Past or all gift eminent in it.  
To conclude this point, it seemeth more then probable, that a company of faithful, ( the Heart no Man knoweth) uniting themselves into a body, become a true ministerial Church; and having Christ for their sole head, may claim privilege, to all the Ordinances, instituted in the gospel, as by a Charter belonging to them; without any necessary dependency, upon any power, either Secular or ecclesiastical.  
Other things might be added, and objections answered, but, because I study brevity, and am loathe to plume myself with other Birds feathers, or to surfet the Reader with twice warmed cabbage; I proceed to another controvertable Question.   

II. Of Ministers.  
WHether a Minister, may administer the Sacrament out of his own Church?  
There may be considered, in a Ministers Office, two things; his power over his own, and his duty of benefit towards others: Now, no act of power, can he exercise unto any out of his Church, but any act of benefit he may: The Sacraments therefore, being no act of power, seem to may be administered without his own Church: These considerations being balanced,  
The Levites, this way, were tied, though to a Nation, yet not to any particular Tribe, Jud. 17.9.  
If he may not administer the Sacraments out of his own Church, then none, upon any occasion,( being absent from their own) might either themselves, or their Children, be Partakers of the Sister Churches Sacraments; which is against the practise of the Churches apostolical, and now best Reformed. The reason of the consequence is this, If he admit a Stranger, either he becomes by that act, one of them, or not: If not, then he administers to some, out of his own Church;( and why not then unto most, or unto all?) If he become one of them, then he may be a Member of two, or several Churches, at once, which is absurd.  
Deacons might, and ought sometimes, to administer out of their own Church, 2 Cor. 8.  
It would redound to the more comfort unto the Churches, and for their further building up, and mutual society, without any Ataxy.  
The administration of the Sacraments is an act of Power and Authority.  
I confess it is an act of Place or Office, so was the carrying out of Ashes, from the Altar; but if the Giving the Sacraments be an act of Authority, then is the Receiving of them an act of Subjection, by the rule of Relatives: But none will say, that, by receiving the Sacraments, they are subject to that Church or power.  
The Mayor is not to exercise any power of his office, neither set the City seal, to any thing out of his Jurisdiction.  
He may give advice, yea be helpful as a Deputy, out of his own Corporation, for some Neighbour or public good.  
The simile differs in the main, because every Corporation hath its several Seal; but all the Churches have the same, throughout the World: Which rather proveth the Question in hand.  
Whether, if a Popish Priest reforming unto protestantism, remain a Minister by his former Orders in that Reformed Church?  
The negative is most like, these reasons considered:  
He must be chosen from among the Godly: Now {αβγδ},( after the conveying of gifts by Miracle, which like the therapeutic chrism, died with, or soon after the Apostles) is must the demonstration or confirmation of his choice; 
Digito monstrari& dicitur bic est.  as others have proved sufficiently.  
He shall have an office of Ministry, or Pastorship, before he have a Flock; or, perhaps, before he be a Member of a true ministerial Church; which none can imagine.  
Concerning the difference, or retaining baptism, and not Ordination, others have ploughed the field enough.   

III. Of Sacraments.  
WHether baptism received unworthily may be reiterated?  
It being a seal of a soederall Covenant on Gods part, its truth like, that once administered, I afterward, by faith, applying the sign to myself, may have the fruit and benefit thereof: And so after any sin, by ruminating thereon, may draw fresh solace, without reiteration of the Element; God always owning his Vessels, though in Usurpers hands.  
So also in the Supper of the Lord, the fruit, and signatum thereof, may be upon necessity, oftener extracted, by meditation and application, then it is clementally exhibited.  
This,( for fear of mistake) I writ, somewhat to satisfy the dissenting Christians for wrong themselves; as also those, who cannot die quietly, without the Lords Supper administered to them, on their death-beds.   

IV. Of Adam.  
WHether matter of propagation were concreated with Adam?  
Upon this Question affirmed, seems to depend, Caine's exemption from original sin.  
For every thing in innocency, without let, executing the great Fiat of his Maker, and nothing being unfruitful; It should seem, that either cain was excepted from that sin; or else that it is contracted by imitation; which some defend. Besides, why should not Man, the perfectest of these mundane multiplying Creatures, have the material principle of generation, at his Creation? seeing this perfection did adorn inferior Creatures: every thing being created in its perfect estate. For the forbidden fruit with the rest,( and therefore the kernel) was certainly ripe; else would it neither have been so lovely, or desirable to eat, by those, who could, before the Fall, see further then paring deep.  
Yet, the contrary Opinion hath its weight: Crescite& Multiplicate, was the first blessing God delivered to our Primogenitors; now the latter in course of Nature being impossible without the former, and the former not to be attained without eating, yea the extremest digestion, it being the excrement according to Physitians of the last concoction: It is most probable, that Adam had no excrement, concreated with him; or that he stood not so long in innocency, till his food was concocted in his stomach, chilified, and afterward elaborated in the seminary vessels.   

V. Of Marriage.  
COncerning this subject, I will inquire into two Questions:  
By whom the Parties are to be joined?  
Marriage being the first foundation of a Family, out of a principle of love, not of mutual fear,( as some derive all Societies from) and the conjunction of Families making a political body, being common to the whole World; may rather be ranked, under a Civill, than any Religious or ecclesiastical Institution. So in the holy Scriptures, we never red, that it was done by any in a Priestly Office; but by Judges, and that in a place of Civill Judicature.  
Neither is there any precept, directly or Analogically, either in the Old or New Testament, tying it unto the Office of a Priest or Minister.  
Further, as far as my inquisition can reach, among the Heathen, out of a principle of Nature, the King joineth them together, and not the Priest.  
Prayers for a blessing on it, maketh it no more a spiritual thing, than praying for a blessing upon Peace, war, Treaties, or worldly labour, maketh them of a holy and religious nature.  
Whether Incest be a sin against the moral Law?  
As we take Incest a pollution among those of consanguinity, it seemeth doubtf●●: Because God would never have put such a Law in the heart of Adam, the first execution whereof, in the two succeeding Generations, he was necessitated to dispense withall. For Cain and Abel were to mary their Sisters, except God had created another stock; which is more likely, than to bring them to that indigency,( and that without their own delinquency) that without this sin, the whole species of Mankind, must have perished with them.  
Further, if it had been a part of the moral Law, the contrary would never have been permitted, yea commanded upon pain of death, unto the Jews, in their judicial Law: yea, it appeareth to have been instituted long before Moses, by Gen. 38.  
Lest any hereby should be encouraged unto licentiousness, I add; where conjunction of Consanguinity is forbidden by the Supreme power, there the committing of it, becometh formally, though not materially, a sin against the moral Law, and not against the seventh Commandement, but against the fifth. Besides, that the Supreme power may enlarge, contract, or alter these bounds, and their punishments, as also that of theft, according unto the variety of urgent necessities, I see no enormity in it.  
These, and the like things, are duly to be pondered, by those, who will determine, how far our laws must run parallel, with the judicial of the Jews.   

VI. Of Sympathy.  
THat a Man helpeth a Woman to breed, that is, is sick in the time of her Gestation, is a received opinion among many.  
That sickness unto both, at the same time may often concur casually, not causally, I confess: For that an excretion, or part of a Man, being separated, should affect at distance its former remainder, cannot to me be made out, either by evident experience or convincing reason: Though many of late, have written both learnedly and largely, concerning such subjects.  
But touching this instance, that the retention of the Lunary evacuations, may,( as it doth the Woman) by a diaphoreticall way, affect and stain the spirits of an accompanying Man, which soon will procure a dyscrasie in natural actions, I can conceive: As also that a strict ꝯtinence,( where use hath met with a fit temperature to the contrary) may oft sensibly affect the Male, our daily experience doth teach.  
Some indeed, are like the Hebrew Women, who can deliver with a groan, or two, which the Husband tender and pusillanimous, hearing of, falls into pains of fear and grief: But, that this should be an abatement to the Wife, were to invert the curse laid upon the Woman: as my learned Brother before me sheweth in the case of a Viper.  
There are Writers, that speak concerning Sympathy, of a Woman newly ingravidated, and a bear, and remit us for experiment into England: Which yet I could never see, nor fully be satisfied in.  
But, upon supposition, it is worth the enquiry, whether it be out of love to the Woman through lasciviousness? which would produce a strange paradox; or, Whether by a cruel and immature Midwiving the fruit, to satisfy the immensity of its hunger? Howsoever, if it were certainly true, one might, without danger, use it in the discovery of impregnation, and so often save the lives of two at once.   

VII. Of an egg.  
THat the White is nourished by the yolk, as having its Menstruum within itself, is, though wonderful, yet by daily Autopsy, uncontrollable.  
But here lieth the knot which is not so easily dissolved; by what vessels this nourishment is attracted, and where they are inserted.  
I know, after 2 or 3 daies incubation, there is a sanguine-like string, from the treading, or Cock sperm, but that that should be the umbilicality of the Chicken, is not demonstrable. Neither is there any cicatrice, or least vestigium thereof remaining in any new-hatcht deplumed Chicken. Neither is it like it should be inserted at the bill; for then the bill, as the deferring organ, should be made first: nor doth any perfect feature attract nourishment mouth-wise, before its eruption into the world: And if by the vent aliment should be conveyed, besides the preposterousnesse in nature, the entrails must suffer a great perturbation, before the turning of the wonted peristaltic motion. Or if by a diaphoresis or transpiration, it would encourage us to administer topically such aliment, as might afford solid nourishment, and so become the easiest and safest remedy in many deplorable diseases.   

VIII. Of Swimming, or Floating.  
HEre give me leave to recite an ocular experiment of mine own; Being with some Friends, in the Canicular daies, about noon time, in a Chamber, at Catwick of see, near to the Arx Britannica that Julius Caesar founded, we saw a young Man go to bathe him in the Sea, and falling into a hole, which a Ship new launched, by the incomming flood, had made, being un-expert in swimming, was drowned: two or three hours after we went into the Sea, and spied the drowned Man floating( the nucha and the hair of his neck was all we could see) we brought him to shore, but without either hope, or trial of recovery.  
Now the reason hereof is somewhat abstruse: In Man there be divers parts to be examined, in relation to the gravity of water; there are bones, flesh, brains, liver, and other entrails, heavier; there are the lungs, and fat, lighter; beside several concavities, where, upon Anatomy, we can see nothing but the empty cells of the removed spirits. Now, the body of Man, as it differeth in gravity in its several parts, so doth also one body from another; that in some, there needeth but a small moment to make them aequilibrous with the water.  
Some ridiculously ascribe it to the breaking of the gull; which as in reality, so in reason is false. Others introduce with more judgement the fermentation of the body; which, making an extension, doth acquire levity.  
The supine resting on water, without motion, onely by retention of air, keeping the lungs full, doth digitate a reason.  
A culinary experiment hath, in part, given me some satisfaction: the boiling of Lights in a pot, to see, what a weight it will bear up: Now if there can be conceived( as I see nothing to the contrary) an after heat, which the lungs may acquire several ways, and so sacrify the contained air, the reason may without difficulty be conjectured.   

IX. Of Remedies.  
IN the disquisition of Therapeuticks, I would first look into the Pharmacopeia Universalis of Nature: the sedulous culture whereof, would abridge the number of exotic simples.  
In Prophylacticks we see, where the pinching'st could is, there the wise Creator hath recompensed it with abundance of fuel and skins. Where there is any Endemicall disease, there you shall find the adequate Alexiferium: As the Guajacum, where the venereous disease had its commencement; the Irish Slat, for their particular Flux: so we see Scorbutiall herbs to luxuriate where the Skurvie predominates; as the Sedum minus in Sweden; the Chamernbus in Norway; the Cochlearia in Germany and England; and will not grow either by seed, or plant, in France; which is exempted from this disease, as the physic professors  told me there.  
Furthermore, Nature seemeth to observe time; for when fevers and pleurisies are most frequent, which is about the Summer solstice, then are Papaver Rheas, lettuce, with other proper herbs, in their fullest vigour.  
The like might be elaborated by industry in domestic purgative and sudorific Medicines; the use of the former, with phlebotomy some of late have with great applause, though with weak engines, gone about to batter down; a thing of eminent consequence, these reasons considered:  
Art is the servant or ape of Nature, and where it seeth Nature to cure by such means, therein Art must imitate it.  
Thus on little ones, where Nature doth cure by vomiting, there a physician may upon due consideration supply the place of Nature. Neither do the purging Medicines corrupt the good humors, as they pretend, most of the purges being bitter, and so preservatives against putrefaction.  
Besides, daily experience doth teach, that warm water( which in so short a time, cannot be conceived to corrupt) doth, as a vehicle, often educe putrid and superfluous humours, with a great alteration of the Patient. As well they may imagine, that a glister of milk, doth in so short a time breed those worms which are alured to it, and excreted 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.  
Finally, the long experiment of the concording Practitioners, with the confirmation of myriades of Patients, confessing the sudden refreshment by bleeding, when the blood is peccant, either in quantity, quality, or motion, may confirm the usefulness, yea necessity of Phlebotomy.   

X. Of Telesmes.  
WHether averruncation of epidemical diseases, by Telesmes, be feisable and lawful?  
That this hath been effected, and that lawfully upon the warrant of Gods edict is evident, in the curing of the bitings of Serpents, by erecting a brazen Serpent in the wilderness, the aspect whereof I confess did cure at a distance.  
yielding some latitude to the word, I shall commit no solecism, if I say, that the Rainbow hath a Telesmaticall signification for the preservation of the Universe, from inundation.  
That the Ekronites did make their eight golden Mice and five Emrods, and put them in a coffer by the ark, for averting Apotelesmatically their epidemical diseases, is evident by the sacred Word; and human 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. But, how lawfully this was done, or might be done, is not obvious to my capacity.  
I am not afraid to exhibit many simples, the effect whereof I cannot so readily reduce to manifest causes: else I were to abandon all, magnetical, Electricall, or Antimoniall Medicines; yea, light and fire, the effects whereof every vulgar eye doth sensibly perceive, their proper forms are abstruse from most judicious men.  
But, that the forms of these sublunary things are answered with the like celestial Figurations, and the ideas of all terrestrial things, are in the fixed Heavens by Man to be distinguished, I can hardly be induced to believe; and that upon these grounds:  
1. The signs within the zodiac, or beyond the tropics, were made in an arbitrary or fortuitous way; because such a Sidus, whether artificial or animal, would best contain the most eminent stars of that constellation.  
2. There be many glorious Sidera, which can have no respouse with things here on earth: neither are they to be ranked among natural things, as Lyra, Crater, &c.  
3. Some are duplicated, as Coron●, Triangulum, Canis, and that within the same Hemisphere, as Ursa.  
4. There seemeth a defect, at least it is unknown to us, of Stars, answering the vegetables, in the surface of this our habitable earth.  
5. 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 overthrow the grand pillar of Stoicheiomaticall Art: So that if I were to cure the bitings of Scorpions, this way; I should rather take the time when the moon is in Sagittarius, and make the figure of a centaur than a Scorpion, which hath crept 28. degrees out of his own sign.  
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 all epidemical nuisances) who will servilely obey such demands, that he might perpetually captivated the soul in a false persuasion of his Omnipotency.  
FINIS.