and Kill them that will not do it And what is it that must perswade us to all this Why meerly a Hoc est corpus meum as expounded by the Councils of Laterane and Trent And is not Davids I am a Worm and no Man Psal 22.6 as plain yea and that in a Prophecy of Christ Must we believe therefore that neither David nor Christ was a Man but a Worm Is not I am the Vine and ye are the Branches Joh. 15.1 2. as plain Must Sense be renounced and ordinary Miracles believed for such words as these And doth not Paul call it Bread after consecration three times in the three next verses And is not he as good an expositor of Christs Words as the Council of Trent And when did God work Miracles which were meer objects of belief against sense Miracles were done as sensible things thereby to confirm Faith and that which no sense perceived was not taken for a Miracle To conclude when the Apostle saith that Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God plainly speaking of them formally as now called and not as they signify Sin and consequently that Christs Body is now in Heaven a Spiritual Body and not formally Flesh and Blood yet must the Bread and Wine be turned into his Flesh and Blood on Earth when he hath none in Heaven And by their Doctrine no Baker nor Vintner is secured but that a Priest may come into his Shop or Celler and turn all the Bread and Wine in it into Christs Body and Blood yea the whole City or Garrison may thus be deprived of their Bread and Wine if the Priest intend it and yet it shall not be so in the Sacrament it self if the Priest intend it not But I have staid too long in this XIV Next to the Act of Cogitation and Volition itself and to the most certain Objects of Sence there is nothing in all the World so Certain that is so Evident to the Intellect as the Being of God He being that to the Mind which the Sun is to the Eye certainliest known though little of him be known and no Creature comprehend him XV. That God is True is part of our knowing him to be perfect and to be God and therefore is most certain XVI That Man is made by God and for God that we owe him all our Love Obedience and Praise that we have all from him and should please him in the use of all with many such like are Notitiae Communes Certain Verities received by Nature some as Principles and some as such evident conclusions as are not to be doubted of XVII That the Scripture is the Word of God is a certain Truth not sensible nor a Natural Principle but an Evident conclusion drawn from that Seal or Testimony of the Spirit Antecedent Concomitant Impressed and Consequent which I have oft opened in other Treatises XVIII That the Scripture is True is a Certain Conclusion drawn from the two last mentioned premises viz. That God is True Verax and that the Scripture is his Word XIX Those Doctrines or sayings which are parts of Scripture evidently perceived so to be by Sense and Intellective perception are known to be True by the same Certainty as the Scripture in general is known to be true XX. To conclude then there are two sorts of Certain Verities in Theology 1. Natural Principles with their certain consequents 2. Scripture in General with all those assertions which are Certainly known to be its parts And all the rest are to be numbred with uncertainties except Prophetical certainty of Inspiration which I pass by Chap. V. Of the several Degrees of Certainty 1. AS Certainty is taken for Truth of Being it admitteth of no Degrees All that is True is equally True. 2. But Certainty of Evidence hath various degrees none doubteth but there are various degrees of Evidence all the doubt is whether any but the highest may be called Certainty And here let the Reader first remember that the question is but de nomine of the name and not the thing And next the Evidence is called Certain because it is Certifying aptitudinally It is apt to certify us 3. And then the question will be devolved to subjective Certainty whether it have various degrees For if it have so then the Evidence must be said to have so because it is denominated respectively from the Apprehensive Certainty And here de re it must be taken as agreed 1. That Certainty is a certain Degree of apprehension 2. That there are various degrees of apprehension 3. That no Man on Earth hath a perfect Intellectual apprehension at least of things Moral and Spiritual For his apprehension may be still increased and those in Heaven have perfecter than we 4. That there are some degrees so low and doubtful as are not fit to be called Certainty 5. That even these lowest degrees with the greatest doubting are yet often True apprehensions and whenever they are True they are Infallible that is not deceived Therefore this Infallibility which is but not to be deceived is indeed one sort of Certainty which is so denominated Relatively from the natural Truth or Certainty of the object But it is not this sort of Certainty which we enquire after 6. Therefore it followeth that this subjective certainty containeth this Infallible Truth of perception and addeth a degree which consisteth in the satisfaction of the mind 7. But if the mind should be never so confident and satisfied of a falshood this deserveth not the name of Certainty because it includeth not Truth For it is a Certain perception of Truth which we speak of and Confident erring is not Certainty of the Truth 8. As therefore the degrees of doubting are variously overcome so there must needs be various degrees of Certainty 9. When doubting is so far overcome as that the mind doth find rest and satisfaction in the Truth it may be called Certainty But when doubting is either prevalent and so troublesome as to leave us wavering it is not called Certainty 10. It is not the forgetting or neglect of a difficulty or doubt nor yet the wills rejecting it which is properly called Certainty This quieteth the mind indeed but not by the way of ascertaining Evidence Therefore ignorant people that stumble upon a truth by chance with confidence are not therefore Certain of it And those that take it upon trust from a Priest or their Parents or good peoples Opinion are not therefore Certain of it Nor they that say as some Papists Faith hath not evidence but is a Voluntary reception of the Churches Testimony and meritorious because it hath not Evidence Therefore though I see no cogent Evidence I will believe because it is my duty Whether this mans Faith may be saving or no I will not now dispute but certainly it is no Certainty of apprehension He is not Certain of what he so believeth This is but to cast away the doubt or difficulty and not at all
ordinary for self-conceited Persons to ruine their own Estates and Healths and Lives When they are rashly making ill Bargains or undertaking things which they understand not they rush on till they find their error too late and their Poverty Prisons or ruined Families must declare their sin For they have not humility enough to seek Counsel in time nor to take it when it is offered them What great numbers have I heard begging relief from others under the confession of this sin And far more even the most of Men and Women overthrow their Health and lose their Lives by it Experience doth not suffice to teach them what is hurtful to their Bodies and as they know not so you cannot convince them that they know not Most Persons by the excess in quantity of food do suffocate Nature and lay the Foundation of future Maladies And most of the Diseases that kill men untimely are but the effects of former Gluttony or Excess But as long as they feel not any present hurt no man can perswade them but their fulness is for their Health as well as for their Pleasure They will laugh perhaps at those that tell them what they do and what Diseases they are preparing for Let Physicians if they be so honest tell them It is the perfection of the nutritive Juices the Blood and nervous Oyl which are the causes of Health in man Perfect Concoction causeth that perfection Nature cannot perfectly concoct too much or that which is of too hard digestion While you feel no harm your Blood groweth dis-spirited and being but half concocted and half Blood doth perform its Office accordingly by the halves till crudities are heaped up and obstructions fixed and a Dunghil of Excrements or the dis-spirited humours are ready to take in any Disease which a small occasion offereth either Agues Feavers Coughs Consumptions Pleurisies Dropsies Colicks and Windiness Head-achs Convulsions c. or till the Inflammations or other Tumors of the inward Parts or the torment of the Stone in Reins or Bladder do sharply tell men what they have been doing A clean Body and perfect Concoction which are procured by Temperance and bodily Labours which suscitate the Spirits and purifie the Blood are the proper means which God in the course of nature hath appointed for a long and healthful Life This is all true and the reason is evident and yet this talk will be but despised and derided by the most and they will say I have so long eaten what I loved and lived by no such rules as these and I have found no harm by it Yea if Excess have brought Diseases on them if Abstinence do but make them more to feel them they will rather impute their illness to the Remedy than to the proper cause And so they do about the quality as well as the quantity Self-conceitedness maketh men uncureable Many a one have I known that daily lived in that fulness which I saw would shortly quench the Vital Spirits and fain I would have saved their Lives but I was not able to make them willing Had I seen another assault them I could have done somewhat for them but when I foresaw their death I could not save them from themselves They still said they found their measures of eating and drinking between Meals refresh them and they were the worse if they forbore it and they would not believe me against both Appetite Reason and Experience And thus have I seen abundance of my acquaintance wilfully hasten to the Grave And all long of an unhumbled self-conceited understanding which would not be brought to suspect it self and know its error 2. And O how often have I seen the dearest Friends thus kill their Friends even Mothers kill their dearest Children and too oft their Husbands Kindred Servants and Neighbours by their self-conceit and confidence in their ignorance and error Alas what abundance empty their own Houses gratifie covetous Landlords that set their Lands by Lives and bring their dearest Relations to untimely ends and a wise man knoweth not how to hinder them How oft and oft have I heard ignorant Women confidently perswade even their own Children to eat as long as they have an Appetite and so they have vitiated their Blood and Humours in their Childhood that their Lives have been either soon ended or ever after miserable by Diseases How oft have I heard them perswade sick or weak diseased Persons to eat eat eat and take what they have a mind to when unless they would Poyson them or cut their Throats they could scarce more certainly dispatch them How oft have these good Women been perswading my self that eating and drinking more would make me better and that it is Abstinence that causeth all my illness when Excess in my Childhood caused it as if every wise Woman that doth but know me knew better what is good for me than my self after threescore years experience or than all the Physicians in the City And had I obeyed them how many years ago had I been dead How ordinary is it for such self-conceited Women to obtrude their skill and Medicines on their sick Neighbours with the greatest confidence when they know not what they do yea upon their Husbands and their Children One can scarce come about sick Persons but one Woman or other is perswading them to take that or do that which is like to kill them Many and many when they have brought their Children to the Grave have nothing to say but I thought this or that had been best for them But you 'l say They do it in love they meant no harm I answer so false Teachers deceive Souls in Love. But are you content your selves to be kill'd by Love If I must be kill'd I had rather an Enemy did it than a Friend I would not have such have the guilt or grief Love will not save mens lives if you give them that which tends to kill them But you 'l say We can be no wiser than we are If we do the best we can what can we do more I answer I would have you not think your selves wiser than you are I would write over this word five hundred times if that would cure you About matters of Diet and Medicines and Health this is it that I would have you do to save you from killing your selves and your Relations 1. Pretend not to know upon the report of such as your selves or in matters that are difficult and beyond your skill or where you have not had long consideration and experience Meddle with no Medicining but what in common easy cases the common judgment of Physicians and common Experience have taught you 2. If you have not Money to pay Physicians and Apothecaries tell them so and desire them to give you their counsel freely and take not on you to know more than they that have studied and practised it all their riper part of their lives 3. Suspect your understandings and consider how much there may be
unknown to you in the secresie and variety of Diseases difference of temperatures and the like which may make that hurtful which you conceit is good Therefore do nothing rashly and in self-conceited confidence but upon the best advice ask the Physician whether your Medicines and Rules are safe 4. And be sure that you do rather too little than too much What abundance are there especially in the small Pox and Feavers that would have scaped if Women yea and Physicians would have let them alone that die because that Nature had not leave to cure them being disturbed by mistaken Usages or Medicines Diseases are so various and secret and Remedies so uncertain that the wisest man alive that hath studied and practised it almost all his riper days were it an hundred years must confess that Physick is a hard a dark uncertain work and ordinary cases much more extraordinary have somewhat in them which doth surpass his skill And how then come so many Medicining Women to know more than they But you 'l say We see that many miscarry by Physicians and they speed worst that use them most I answer But would they not yet speed worse if they used you as much If they are too ignorant how come you to be wiser If you are teach them your Skill But I must add that even Physicians guilt of the sin which I am reproving doth cost many a hundred persons their lives as well as yours Even too many Physicians who have need of many daies enquiry and observations truly to discover a disease do kill men by rash and hasty judging I talk not of the Cheating sort that take on them to know all by the Urine alone but of honester and wiser men It is most certain that old Celsus saith that a Physitian is not able faithfully to do his Office for very many Patients A few will take up all his time But they that gape most after money must venture upon a short sight and a few words and presently resolve before they know and write down their directions while they are ignorant of one half which if they knew would change their Counsels And such is mans body and its diseases that the oversight or ignorance of one thing among twenty is like enough to be the patients death And how wise expedient and vigilant must he be that will commit no such killing oversight And as too many medicine a man whom they know not and an unknown disease for want of just deliberation so too many venture upon uncertain and untryed medicines or rashly give that to one in another case which hath profited others In a word even rash Physicians have cause to fear lest by prefidence and hasty judging more should die by their mistakes than do by murderers that I say not by Souldiers in the world And lest their dearest friends should speed worse by them than by their greatest Enemies For as Seamen and Souldiers do boldly follow the trade when they find that in several Voyages and Battels they have escaped but yet most or very many of them are drowned or killed at the last So he that is tampering over-much with medicines may scape well and boast of the Success a while But at last one blood-letting one Vomit one Purge or other medicine may miscarry by a small mistake or accident and he is gone And there are some persons so Civil that if a rash or unexperienced Physician be their Kinsman Friend or Neighbour they will not go to an abler man lest they be accounted unfriendly and disoblige him And if such scape long with their lives they may thank Gods mercy and not their own wisdom Souldiers kill enemies and unskilful rash Physicians kill their friends But you 'l say They do their best and they can do no more I answer as before 1. Let them not think that they know what they do not know but sufficiently suspect their own understandings 2. Let them not go beyond their knowledge How little of our kind of Physick did the old Physicians Hypocrates Galius Celsus c. give Do not too much 3. Venture not rashly without full search deliberation Counsel and Experience O how many die by hasty judging and rash mistakes Physicians must pardon my free speaking or endure it for I conceive it necessary It hath not been the least part of the Calamity of my Life to see my Friends and other worthy persons killed by the Ignorance or Hastiness of Physicians I greatly reverence and honour those few that are men 1. Of clear searching judicious heads 2. Of great reading especially of other mens Experiences 3. Of great and long Experience of their own 4. Of present Sagacity and ready memory to use their own experiments 5. Of Conscience and cautelousness to suspect and know before they hastily Judge and Practice I would I could say that such are not too few But I must say to the people as you love your lives take heed of all the rest A high-way Robber you may avoid or resist with greater probability of safety than such men How few are they that are kill'd by Thieves or in Duels in comparison of those that are kill'd by Physicians especially confident young men that account themselves wits and think they have hit on such Philosophical principles as will better secure both their Practice and Reputation than old Physicians Doctrine and Experiences could do Confident young men of unhumbled understandings presently trust their undigested thoughts and rashly use their poor short experiments and trust to their new conceptions of the Reasons of all Operations and then they take all others for meer Empyricks in comparison of them And when all is done their pretended Reason for want of full Experience and Judgment to improve it doth but enable them to talk and boast and not to heal and when they have kill'd men they can justify it and prove that they did it Rationally or rather that it was something else and not their error that was the cause They are wits and men of rare inventions and therefore are not such fools as to confess the Fact. How oft have I seen men of great worth such as few in an age arise too who having a high esteem of an injudicious unexperienced Physician have sealed their erroneous kindness with their blood How oft have I seen worthy persons destroyed by a pernicious medicine clear contrary to what the nature of the disease required who without a Physician might have done well Such sorrows just now upon me make me the more plain and copious in the Case And yet alas I see no hope of amendment probable For 1. Many hundred Ministers being forbidden to Preach the Gospel and cast out of all their livelyhood for not Promising Asserting Swearing and doing all that is required of them many of these think that necessity alloweth them to turn Physicians which they venture on upon seven years study when Seven and Seven and Seven is not enough though