Enthusiasmus Triumphatus OR A DISCOURSE OF The Nature Causes Kinds and Cure OF ENTHUSIASME Written by Philophilus Parresiastes and prefixed to ALAZONOMASTIX HIS Observations and Reply Whereunto is added a Letter of his to a private Friend wherein certain passages in his Reply are vindicated and severall matters relating to Enthusiasme more fully cleared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by I. Flesher and are to be sold by W. Morden Bookseller in Cambridge MDCLVI Enthusiasmus Triumphatus OR A DISCOURSE OF The Nature Causes Kinds and Cure OF ENTHUSIASME Written by Philophilus Parresiastes and prefixed to ALAZONOMASTIX HIS Observations and Reply Whereunto is added a Letter of his to a private Friend wherein certain passages in his Reply are vindicated and severall matters relating to Enthusiasme more fully cleared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by I. Flesher and are to be sold by W. Morden Bookseller in Cambridge MDCLVI To the Reader Reader THou maist very well marvell what may be the meaning that I should publish the Writings of another the Authour being yet alive and at leisure to do it himself But I can inform thee though it perhaps may seem a Riddle to thee that he is alive and not alive For when I treated with him concerning this matter I found him quite dead to all such kind of businesses His Constitution is grown so unexpectedly and astonishingly grave or sower I know not whether to call it that there is now as I told him some small hopes that he may be brought off in time to put on a pair of Sattin eares or wear a silk cap with as many seams as there be streaks in the back of a Lute as himself expresses it in the Preface to his Reply Assuredly said I Mastix thou hast an ambition of being one of those venerable Idols or stalking peices of Gravity to whom little boyes smack the top of their fingers so loudly making long legges and young girls and women drop so demure courtsies to as they passe by in the street How strongly is my friend Mastix metamorphosed within this space of three or four yeares But Parresiastes said he is I perceive the same man still as merry and unluckie as ever and for my self I am not so much changed or sunk into thy present temper but that I can with the same patience bear with thy frolicks as I could with others sullennesse in the dayes of my jollitie But I know by certain and approved experience that there is nothing so safe and permanently pleasant as a staid mind and composed spirit not easily loosned into profuse mirth For such Jocantrie while we are in these earthly Tabernacles is but like the dancing of men and women in an unswept room it does but raise a dust and offend the eyes even of the Revellers themselves what ever it does to the Spectatours Wherefore what a vain thing were it in me to ruffle the calme composure of my own Spirit by perusing and republishing of that which proved so great an aggrievance to one to whom I never did nor yet do bear the least enmity I seeing Mastix so seriously set against Mirth presently conjectured for all his smooth speeches that it might happily fare with him after the usuall manner of other mortalls who commonly do not wholly quit themselves of their passions but change them and therefore did not much mistrust but that though I could not melt him into a merry temper yet I might heat him into a fit of Indignation and naturall sense of Revenge And to this purpose I set before his eyes the high Insolencies of Eugenius against the Universities his unpardonable Incivilities to that Miracle of Ages the noble Des-Cartes besides his outragious Barbaritics upon Mastix his own self where I exhibited to his view a whole Catalogue of those honourable Titles he so liberally bestows upon him throughout his writings being so many and so uncouth that they might stuff out a whole Dictionary with terms of scurrility These I spread before him like the bloud of Mulberries beforeâ— Elephants in battel to provoke his Irascible But to my amazement he seemed to me not at all moved but in a carelesse manner made this Answer The grosser these Revilements are the Greater Christianity not to be incensed Besides if either he or any others by his defamations think worse of me then I deserve the injury is theirs not mine as when one conceives a true Proposition to be false the Proposition saith Epictetus is not hurt but he that is mistaken in it When I saw these Engines levelled at his affections could make no breach upon him at last I betook me to more subtil weapons Well said I Mastix it should seem you are grown a man of strange Master-dome over your Passions or at least you are willing to appear so for the present but you have been as great a professor of Reason heretofore I pray you let me ask you one question whether do not you think your Observations and Reply very serviceable for that purpose you intended them viz. for the discountenancing and quelling of vain Fantastry and Enthusiasme Here he putting upon himself a ctosse and unexpected garb of Modesty told me that it was unfit for him to speak any thing that may seem to tend to the commendation of his own Writings but smilingly asked me what my opinion was thereof I professe said I I cannot but think them very serviceable for that end nor can imagine how that Fanatick spirit can be better met withall then by slighting and deriding it there being alwayes so much Pride at the root from whence these Follies and Vanities bloom For Fantasticks and Enthusiasts seek nothing more then the admiration of men wherefore there is no such soveraign Remedy as scorn and neglect to make them sober But anxiously to contend in a drie way of Reason with them that professe themselves above it is indeed to condescend below a mans self and use his sword there where he ought to have shown his whip whâ—ch was the mistake of the Scythians when they fought against their slaves and therefore it being not so rational to prefer a private humor before a publick good you ought not to be so shie in the matter I propound I know not what you mean said Mastix Your late laudable intentions said I have been as well against Enthusiasme as Atheisme what pretence then have you that those two Pamphlets against Enthusiasme may not march in one body I mean be bound up in one Volume with the rest of your Treatises for they would be then more in view and consequently do more service It may be so said Mastix if they would do any at all But you do not in the mean time consider what disservice they may do to the rest of my Writings which are so grave and serious and how they may cause the Reader through incogitancy to think me in good earnest no where having once found me so much in
of the Devil yet because it is not alwayes so and that it does very seldome plainly appear that there is any thing more of either Devil or Vitiosity in the Enthusiast then in others saving what his meer Complexion leads him to I think it is said he more safe to leave those Considerations out their causality being more lax and generall then to be appropriated to Enthusiasme and it being farre more laudable in my judgement and allowable to let the guilty go free especially in matters of this nature then to endanger the innocent Thus Reader thou seest how thou art beholden to Mastix as well for what is judiciously left out as what is fitly and usefully taken in to the following Discourse For I must confesse that in the unridling of this Riddle of Enthusiasme I have wholly plowed with his Heifer which having told thee I shall now dismisse thee being unwilling any longer to detain thee from the reaping of the harvest of my Labours Philophilus Parresiastes The Contents of the ensuing Discourse 1. THe great Vse and necessity of discovering the imposture of Enthusiasme 2. What Inspiration is and what Enthusiasme 3. A search of the Causes of Enthusiasme in the Faculties of the Soul 4. The severall Degrees and Natures of her Faculties 5. Why Dreams till we awake seem reall transactions 6. The enormous strength of Imagination the cause of Enthusiasme 7. Sundry naturall and corporeall causes that necessarily work on the Imaginaâ—ion 8. The power of meats to change the Imagination 9. Baptista his potion for the same purpose 10. The power of diseases upon the Fancy 11. Of the power of Melancholy and how it often sets on some one absurd conceit upon the minde the party in other things being sober 12. Severall Examples thereof 13. A seasonable application of these examples for the weakning of the authority of bold Enthusiasts 14. That the causality of Melancholy in this distemper of Enthusiasme is more easily traced then in other extravagancies 15. Melancholy apertinacious and religious complexion 16. That men are prone to suspect some speciall presence of God or of a Supernaturall power in whatever is Great or Vehement 17. The mistake of heated Melancholy for holy Zeal and the Spirit of God 18. The Ebbs and Flowes of Melancholy a further cause of Enthusiasme 19. The notorious mockery of Melancholy in reference to Divine love 20. That Melancholy partakes much of the Nature of Wine and from what complexion Poets Enthusiasts arise what the difference is betwixt them 21. That a certain Dosâ—s of Sanguine mixt with Melancholy is the Spirit that usually inspires Enthusiasts made good by a large Induction of Examples 22. More examples to the same purpose 23. Of Enthusiasticall Ioy. 24. Of the mysticall Allegories of Enthusiasts 25. Of Quaking and of the Quakers 26. That Melancholy disposes to Apoplexies and Epilepsies 27. Of the nature of Enthusiastick Revelations and Visions 28. Of Extasie The nature and causes thereof 29. Whether it be in mans power to cast himself into an Enthusiastick Apoplexie Epilepsie or Extasie 30. Of Entâ—usiastick Prophecy 31. Of the Presage of a mans own heart from a supernaturall impulse sensible to himself but unexplicable to others where it may take place and that it is not properly Enthusiasme 32. Severall examples of Politicall Enthusiasme 33. David George his prophecy of his rising again from the Dead and after what manner it was fulfilled 34. A description of his person manners doctrine 35. The evident causes of his power of speech 36. An account of those seeming graces in him 37. That he was a man of Sanguine complexion 38. Further and more sure proofs that he was of that temper 39. That it was a dark fulsome Sanguine that hid the truth of the great promises of the gospel from his eâ—es 40. The exact likenesse betwixt him and the Father of the moderne Nicolaitans and the Authours censure of them both 41. A seasonable Advertisement in the behalf of them that are unawares taken with such Writers as also a further confirmation that Enthusiastick madnesse may consist with sobriety in other matters 42. Of Philosophicall Enthusiasme 43. Sundry Chymists and Theosophists obnoxious to this disease 44. A promiscuous Collection of divers odd conceits out of severall Theosophists and Chymists 45. A particular Collection out of Paracelsus 46. That it is he that has given occasion to the wildest Philosophick Enthusiasmes that ever was yet on foot 47. That his Philosophy though himself intended it not is one of the safest sanctuaries for the Atheist and the very prop of ancient Paganisme 48. How it justifies the Heathens worshipping of the Starres derogates from the authority of the miracles of our Saviour makes the Gospel ineffectuall for the establishing of the belief of a God and a particular Providence gratifies that professed Atheist Vaninus in what he most of all triumphs in as serving his turn the best to elude all religion whatsoever 49. That Paracelsus and his followers are neither Atheisticall nor Diabolicall and what makes the Chymist ordinarily so pittifull a Philosopher 50. The writer of this Discourse no foe to either Theosophist or Chymist onely he excuses himself from being over credulous in regard of either 51. The cure of Enthusiasme by Temperance Humility and Reason 52. What is meant by Temperance 53. What by Humility and the great advantage thereof for Wisdome and Knowledge 54 What by Reason and what the danger is of leaving that Guide as also the mistake of them that expect the Spirit should not suggest such things as are rationall 55. Further Helps against Enthusiasme 56. Of the raised language of Enthusiasts and of what may extraordinarily fall from them 57. Of Enthusiastick prophecy that ordinarily happens to fools and madmen and the reason why as also why Extaticall men foresee things to come and of the uncertainty of such predictions 58. That if an Enthusiast should cure some diseases by touching or stroaking the party diseased that yet it might be no true miraâ—le 59. Of the remote Notions mysterious Stile and moving Eloquence of Enthusiasts 60. How we shall distinguish betwixt pure Religion and Complexion 61. That the devotional Enthusiasm of holy sincere souls has not at all been taxed in all this Discourse 62. That the fewell of devotion even in warrantable and sincere Enthusiasme is usually Melancholy 63. That there is a peculiar advantage in Melancholy for divine speculations and a prevention of the Atheists objection thereupon 64. How it comes to passe that men are so nimble and dexterous in finding the truth of some things and so slow and heavy in othersome and that the dulnesse of the Atheists perception in divine matters is no argument against the truth of Religion A short Discourse of the Nature Causes Kindes and Cure of Enthusiasme 1. HAving undertaken the republishing of the two following Books and reduced them both under one common Title of Enthusiasme I think it not amisse to speak
would skip like a Goat and brouze on trees as Goats use to do We might adde a fourth of one who by eating the brains of a Bear became of a Bear-like disposition but we will not insist upon smaller considerations 9. Baptista Porta drives on the matter much further professing that he had acquaintance with one that could when he pleased so alter the imagination of a man as he would make him fancie himself to be this or that Bird Beast or Fish and that in this madnesse the party thus deluded would move his body as near as it was capable so as such Creatures use to do and if they were vocall imitate also their voyce This intoxicating Potion is made of the extract of certain hearbs as Solanum manicum Mandrake and others together with the heart brain and some other parts of this or that Animal with whose image they would infect the fancie of the party And he doth affirm of his own experience that trying this feat upon some of his comrades when he was young one that had gormundized much beef upon the taking the potion strongly imagined himself to be surrounded with bulls that would be ever and anon running upon him with their horns 10. What happens here in these cases where we can trace the Causes sometimes falls out where we cannot so plainly and directly find out the reason For Physicians take notice of such kind of madnesses as make men confidently conceit themselves to be Doggs Wolves and Cats when they have neither eat the flesh nor drunk the blood of any Cat Dog or Wolf nor taken any such artificiall potion as we even now spake of to bring them into these diseases The causes of which cannot be better guessed at then has been by Sennertus in that of S. Vitus his dance For as there the body is conceived to be infested by some malignant humour near akin to the poyson of the Tarantula so in these distempers we may well conclude that such fumes or vapours arise into the brain from some foulnesse in the body though the particular causes we do not understand as have a very near analogie to the noxious humours or exhalations that move up and down and mount up into the imagination of those that have drunk the bloud of Cats or have been nourished with the milk of those Animals above named or taken such intoxicating potions as Baptista Porta has described 11. We have given severall instances of that mighty power there is in naturall causes to work upon and unavoidably to change our imagination We will name something now more generall whose nature notwithstanding is so various and Vertumnus-like that it will supply the place of almost all particulars and that is Melancholy of which Aristotle gives witnesse that according to the severall degrees and tempers thereof men vary wonderfully in their constitutions it making some slow and sottish others wild ingenious and amorous prone to wrath and lust others it makes more eloquent and full of discourse others it raises up even to madnesse and Enthusiasme and he gives an example of one Maracus a Poet of Syracuse who never versified so well as when he was in his distracted fits But it is most observable in Melancholy when it reaches to a disease that it sets on some one particular absurd imagination upon the mind so fast that all the evidence of reason to the contrary cannot remove it the parties thus affected in other things being as sober and rationall as other men And this is so notorious and frequent that Aretaeus Sennertus and other Physicians define Melancholy from this very effect of it 12. Aristotle affords us no examples of this kind Others do Democritus junior as he is pleased to style himself recites severall stories out of Authours to this purpose As out of Laurentius one concerning a French Poet who using in a feaverâ— Vnguentum populeum to anoint his temples to conciliate sleep took such a conceit against the smell of that ointment that for many yeares after he imagined every one that came near him to sent of it and therefore would let no man talk with him but aloof off nor would he wear any new clothes because he fancied they smelt of that ointment but in all other things he was wise and discreet and would talk as sensibly as other men Another he has of â— Gentleman of Limosen out of Anthony Verduer who was perswaded he had but one leg affrighted into that conceit by having that part struck by a wild Boar otherwise a man well in his wits A third he hath out of Platerus concerning a Countreyman of his who by chance having fallen into a pit where Frogs and Frogs-spawn was and having swallowed down a little of the water was afterward so fully perswaded that there were young frogs in his belly that for many yeares following he could not rectifie his conceit He betook himself to the study of Physick for seven yeares together to find a cure for his disease He travelled also in Italy France and Germany to confer with Physicians about it and meeting with Platerus consulted him with the rest He fancied the crying of his guts to be the croaking of the frogs and when Platerus would have deceived him by putting live frogs into his excrements that he might think he had voided them and was cured his skill in Physick made that trick ineffectuall For saving this one vain conceit the man was as he reports a learned and prudent man We will adde onely a fourth out of Laurentius which is of a Nobleman of his time a man of reason and discretion in all other things saving that he did conceit himself made of glasse and though he loved to be visited by his friends yet had a speciall care that they should not come too near him for fear they should break him Not much unlike to this is that of a Baker of Ferrara that thought he was compos'd of butter and therefore would not sit in the sun nor come near a fire for fear he should be melted It would be an infinite task to set down all at large Sennertus has given some hints of the variety of this distemper remitting us to Schenkius Marcellus Donatus Forestus and others for more full Narrations Some saith he are vexed and tormented with the fear of death as thinking they have committed some crime they never did commit some fancy they are eternally damned nay they complain that they are already tormented with hell fire others take themselves to be a dying others imagine themselves quite dead and therefore will not eat others fear that the heavens will fall upon them others dare not clinch their hands for fear of bruising the world betwixt their fists some fancy themselves Cocks some Nightingales some one Animal some another some entertain conference with God or his Angels others conceit themselves bewitched or that a black man or Devil perpetually accompanies them some complain of their poverty others fancie
zeal and eloquence that he fancyed himself the Holy-Ghost 17. And when men talk so much of the Spirit if they take notice what they ordinarily mean by it it is nothing else but a strong and impetuous motion whereby they are zealously and fervently carried in matters of Religion so that Fervour Zeal and Spirit is in effect all one Now no Complexion is so hot as Melâ—â—â—oly when it is heated being like boiling water as Aristotle observs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it transcends the flame of fire or it is 〈◊〉 heated stone or iron when they are red hot for they are then more hot by far then a burning Coal We shall omit here to play the Grammarian and to take notice how well Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suites with the very word zeale of which we speake but shall cast our eyes more carefully upon the things themselves and parallel out of the same Philosopher what they call Spirit to what he affirmes to be contained in Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The spirit then that wings the Enthusiast in such a wonderful â—anner is nothing else but that flatulency which is in the melancholy complexion rises out of the Hypochondriacal humour upon some occasionall heat as winde out of an AEolipila applied to the fire Which fume mounting into the head being first actuated and spirited and somewhat refined by the warmth of the heart fills the mind with variety of imaginations and so quickens and inlarges invention that it makes the Enthusiast to admiration fluent and eloquent he being as it were drunk with new wine drawn from that Cellar of his own that lies in the lowest region of his body though he be not aware of it but takes it to be pure Nectar and those waters of life that spring from above Aristotle makes a long Parallelisme betwixt the nature and effects of wine and Melancholy to which both Fernelius and Sennertus do referre 18. But this is not all the advantage that Melancholy affords towards Enthusiasme thus unexpectedly and suddenly to surprise the minde with such vehement fits of zeal such streams torents of Eloquence in either exhorting others to piety or in devotions towards God but it addes a greater weight of beliefe that there is something supernatural in the business in that the same complexion discovers it selfe to them that lie under it in such contrary effects For as it is thus vehemently hot so it is as stupidly cold whence the Melancholist becomes faithlesse hopelesse heartlesse and almost witlesse Which Ebbs of his constitution must needs make the overflowing of it seem more miraculous and supernatural But those cold and abject fits of his make him also very sensibly and winningly Rhetorical when he speaks of disconsolation desertion humilitie mortification and the like as if he were truely and voluntarily carried through such things when as onely the fatal necessity of his complexion has violently drag'd him thorow the meer shadows and resemblances of them But he finding himselfe afterwards beyond all hope or any sense or presage of any power in himselfe lifted aloft again he does not doubt that any thing less was the cause of this unexspected joy and triumph then the immediate arme of God from heaven that has thus exalted him when it is nothing indeed but a Paroxysme of Melancholy which is like the breaking out of a flame after a long smoaking and reeking of new rubbish laid upon the fire But because such returnes as these come not at set times nor make men sick but rather delight them they think there is something divine therein and that it is not from natural causes 19. There is also another notorious Mockery in this Complexion Nature confidently avouching her self to be God whom the Apostle calls Love as if it were his very essence when as indeed it is here nothing else but Melancholy that has put on the garments of an Angel of light There is nothing more true then that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the highest perfection that is competible to the soul of man and that this also is so plain and unavoidable that a man may be in a very high degree mad and yet not fail to assent unto it Nay I dare say Melancholy it self would be his monitour to reminde him of it if there were any possibility that he should forget so manifest and palpable a Truth For the sense of Love at large is eminently comprehended in the temper of the Melancholist Melancholy and wine being of so near a nature one to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But wine makes men amorous which the Philosopher proves in that a man in wine will kisse such persons as a sober man would scarce touch with a pair of tongs by reason of their age and uglinesse And assuredly it was the fumes of Melancholy that infatuated the fancie of a late new fangled Religionist when he sat so kindly by a Gipsie under an hedge and put his hand into her bosome in a fit of devotion and vaunted afterwards of it as if it had been a very pious and meritorious action 20. But now that Melancholy partakes much of the nature of Wine he evinces from that it is so spiritous and that it is so spiritous from that it is so spumeous and that Melancholy is flatuous or spiritous he appeals to the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore the Philosopher assignes another companion to Venus besides the plump youth Bacchus which the Poets bestow upon her who though more seemingly sad yet will prove as faithfull an attendant as that other and this is Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now besides this Flatulencie that solicits to lust there may be such a due dash of Sanguine in the Melancholy that the complexion may prove stupendiously enravishing For that more sluggish Duâ—cour of the blood will be sometime so quickned and actuated by the fiercenesse and sharpnesse of the Melancholy humour as the fulsomnesse of sugar is by the acrimony of Lemons that it will afford farre more sensible pleasure and all the imaginations of love of what kind soever will be â—arre more lively and vigorous more piercing and rapturous then they can be in pure Sanguine it self From this complexion are Poets and the more highly pretending Enthusiasts Betwixt whom this is the great difference that a Poet is an Enthusiast in jest and an Enthusiast is a Poet in good earnest Melancholy prevailing so much with him that he takes his no better then Poeticall fits and figments for divine inspiration and reall truth 21. But that it is a meer naturall flatuous and spiritous temper with a proportionable Dosis of Sanguine added to their Melancholy not the pure Spirit of God that thus inacts them is plainly to be discovered not onely in their language which is very sweet and melting as if sugar plums lay under their tongue but from notorious circumstances of their lives And in my apprehension it will be
and real union wâ—th him that every fine thought or fancy that steals into their mind they may look upon as a pledge of the Divine savor and a siâ—gular illumination from God imitating in this the madness of Elionora Meliorina a Gentlewoman of Mantua who being fully perswaded she was married to a king would kneel down and talk with him as if he had been there present with his retinue and if she had by chance found a piece of glasse in a muck-hill light upon an oyster shell piece of tin or any such like thing that would glister in the Sun-shine she would say it was a jewel sent from her Lord and husband and upon this account fild her cabinet full of such trash In like manner those inspired Melancholists stuff their heads and writings with every flaring fancy that Melancholy suggests to them as if it were a precious Truth bestowed upon them by the holy Spirit and with a devotional reverence they entertain the unexpected Paroxysmes of their own natural distemper as if it were the power and presence of God himself in their Souls 43. This disease many of your Chymists and several Theosophists in my judgement seem very obnoxious to who dictate their own conceits and fancies so magisterially and imperiously as if they were indeed Authentick messengers from God Almighty But that they are but Counterfeits that is Enthusiasts no infallible illuminated men the gross fopperies they let drop in their writings will sufficiently demonstrate to all that are not smitten in some measure with the like Lunacy with themselves I shall instance in some few things concealing the names of the Authors because they are so sacred to some 44. Listen therefore attentively for I shall relate very great mysteries The vertues of the Planets doe not ascend but descend Experience teaches as much viz. That of Venus or Copper is not made Mars or Iron but of Mars is made Venus as being an inferior sphere So also Iupiter or Tinne is easily changed into Mercury or Quick-silver because Iupiter is the second from the firmament and Mercury the second from the Earth Saturn is the first from the heaven and Luna the first from the Earth Sol mixeth it self with all but is never bettered by his Inferiours Now know that there is a great agreement betwixt Saturn or Lead and Luna or Silver Iupiter and Mercury Mars and Venus because in the midst of these Sol is placed What can it be but the heaving of the Hypochondria that lifts up the mind to such high comparisons from a supposition so false and foolish But I have observed generally of Chymists and Theosophists as of severall other men more palpably mad that their thoughts are carryed much to Astrology it being a fancyfull study built upon very sleight grounds and indeed I do not question but a relique of the ancient superstition and Idolatry amongst the rude Heathens which either their own Melancholy or something worse instructed them in There are other pretty conceits in these Writers concerning those heavenly Bodies as That the Starres and Planets the Moon not excepted are of the same quality with precious stones that glister here on the earth and that though they act nothing yet they are of that nature as that the wandring Spirits of the air see in them as in a looking-glasse things to come and thereby are inabled to prophecy That the Starres are made of the Sun and yet that the Sun enlightens them That our eyes have their originall from the Starres and that that is the reason why we can see the Starres That our eyes work or act upon all they see as well as what they see acts on them That also is a very speciall mysterie for an inspired man to utter That there is onely Evening and Morning under the Sun That the Starres kindle heat in this world every where for generation and that the difference of Starres makes the difference of Creatures That were the heat of the Sun taken away he were one light with God That all is Gods self That a mans self is God if he live holily That God is nothing but an hearty Loving friendly Seeing good Smelling well Tâ—sting kindly Feeling amorous Kissing c. Nor the Spirit say I that inspires this mystery any thing but Melancholy and Sanguine That God the Father is of himself a dale of darknesse were it not for the light of his Sonne That God could not quell Lucifers rebellion because the battle was not betwixt God and a beast or God and a man but betwixt God and God Lucifer being so great a share of his own essence That Nature is the Body of God nay God the Father who is also the World and whatsoever is any way sensible or perceptible That the Starre-powers are Nature and the Starre-circle the mother of all things from which all is subsists and moves That the Waters of this world are mad which makes them rave and run up and down so as they do in the channels of the Earth That the blew Orb is the waters above the Firmament That there be two kinds of Fires the one cold and the other hot and that Death is a cold fire That Adam was an Hermaphrodite That the Fire would not burn nor there have been any darknesse but for Adams fall That it is a very suspicable matter that Saturn before the fall was where Mercury and Mercury where Saturn is That there are Three souls in a man Animall Angelicall and Divine and that after Death the Animal Soul is in the grave the Angelicall in Abrahams bosome and the Divine soul in Paradise That God has eyes eares nose and other corporeall parts That every thing has sense imagination and a fiduciall Knowledge of God in it Metals Meteors and Plants not excepted That this earth at last shall be calcined into Crystall That at the center of the earth is the Fire of hell which is caused and kindled by the Primum mobile and influences of the Starres That the Artick pole draws waters by the Axeltree which after they are entered in break forth again by the Axeltree of the Antartick That the Moon as well as the Starres are made of a lesse pure kind of fire mixed with air That the pure Blood in man answers to the Element of fire in the great world his heart to the Earth his Mouth to the Artick pole and the opposite Orifice to the Antartick pole That the proper seat of the Mind or Understanding is in the mouth of the Stomack or about the Splene That Earthquakes and Thunders are not from naturall causes but made by Angels or Devils That there were no Rain-bowes before Noahs flood That the Moon is of a conglaciated substance having a cold light of her own whereby the light of the Sun which she receives and casts on us becomes so cool 45. Hitherto our Collections have been promiscuous what follows is out of Paracelsus onely as for example That the variety of the
and hazard the soiling of the highest and most delicate truths by your rude and unskilfull handling of them And now the good breath that guided you for these four pages together is spent you begin to rave again after the old manner and call Galen Antichrist in the fiftieth page Observation 41. Pag. 50. And quarrel again with the Peripateticks and provoke the School-divines And then you fancie that you have so swinged them that in revenge they 'l all fall upon you at once and so twerilug you when as they good men feel not your strokes and find themselves something else to do then to refute such crazy Discourses as this It is I onely it is I your brother Philalethes that am moved with piâ—ie towards youâ— and would if I could by carefully correcting you in your distempers bring you to a sober mind and set you in your right senses again And I beseech you brother Philalethesâ— forbear this swearing An honest mans word is as good as his Oath No body will believe you more for swearing then he would without it but think you more melancholick and distracted Observation 42. Lin. 21. Whiles they contemn mysteries c. In this heat all that Philalethes writes must be termed Holy mysteries His project certainly is now neither Episcopacie nor Presbyterie can be setled to get his book established jure divino A crafty colt Ha ha he Philalethes Are you there with your Bears Observation 43. Lin. 29. Next to God I owe all I have to Agrippa What more then to the Prophets and Apostles Anthroposophus The businesse is for your fame-sake you have more desire to be thought a Conjurer then a Christian. Observation 44. Pag. 53 54. Great glorious penman A piping hot paper of verseâ—â—ndeed Anthroposophus But say truly What can you do in or out of this heat more then other men Can you cure the sick Rule and counsell States and Kingdomes more prudently for the common good Can you find bread for the Poor Give a rationall account of the Phoenomena of Nature more now then at another time or more then other men can do Can you tell me the nature of Light the causes of the Rainbow what makes the flux and reflux of the Sea the operations of the Loadstone and such like Can you tell us in a rationall dependent and coherent way the nature of such things as these or foretell to us what will be hereafter as certainly and evidently as the Prophets of old But if there be neither the evidence of Reason nor the testimony of notable effect you can give us you must give me leave Anthroposophus to conjecture That all this is but a frisk and dance of your agitated spirits and firinesse of your fancie of which you will find no fruit but a palsied unsteddy apprehension and unsound judgement Observation 45. Pag. 55. From this page to the 62. your Theomagicall Nag has been prettie sure-footed Philalethes And it is a good long lucidum intervallum you have ambled out Nay and you have done very well and soberly in not plainly pretending any new thing there For they are both old and well seasoned if the Church be so pleased to esteem of them But what you have toward the latter end of the 62 page that is a word of your self and another oâ— the common Philosophie has in it a spice of the old maladie pride and conâ—â—itâ—dnesse as if you had now finished so famous a piece of work as that all the world would stand amazed and be inquisitive after you asking who is this Philalethes and what is he Presbyterian or Independent Sir may it please you He is neither Papist though he bid fair enough for Purgatorie in his Exposition of St. Peter in the foregoing page nor Sectarie though he had rather style himself a Protestant then a Christian but be he what he will be he is so great in his own conceit that though you have not the opportunitie to ask his judgment yet he thinks it fit unasked to set himself on the seat of Judicature and disgorge his sentence on our ordinary Philosophie He means you may be sure the Aristotelean in use for so many hundred years in all the Universities of Europe And he pronounces of it that it is An inconsistent Hotch-potch of rash conclusions built on meer imagination without the light of Experience You must suppose he means Chymicall experiments for you see no small pretensions to that in all his Treatise And this very Title page the first of the book has the priviledge to be first adorned with this magnificent term of Art Protochymistry But tell me Mr. Alchymist in all your skill and observation in your Experiments if you have hit on any thing that will settle any considerable point controverted amongst Philosophers which may not be done as effectually at lesse charges Nay whether you may not lose Nature sooner then find her by your industrious vexing of her and make her appear something else then what she really is Like men on the rack or overwatched witches that are forced many times to confesse that which they were never guiltie of But it being so unsatisfactorie to talk in generall and of so tedious purpose to descend to particulars I will break off this discourse Onely let me tell you thus much Mr. Philalethes that you are a very unnaturall son to your mother Oxenford and to her sister Universitie for if they were no wiser then you would make them you would hazard them and all their children to be begg'd for fools And there would be a sad consequent of that But your zeal and heated melancholie considers no such things Anthroposophus Observation 46. Pag. 65. Lin. 3. I have now done Reader but how much to my own prejudice I cannot tell Verily nothing at all Philalethes For you have met with a friend that hath impartially set out to you your own follies and faults And has distorted himself often into the deformities of your postures that you may the better see your â—elf in another and so for â—hame amend Observation 47. Lin. 8. Paint and trim of Rhetorick How modest are you grown Philalethes Why this affectation of humour and Rhetorick is the most conspicuous thing in your book And shines as oriently as false gold and silver lace on a linsie-woolsie coat Observation 48. Lin. 22. Of a brothers death Some young man certainly that killed himself by unmercifull studying of Aristotle And Philalethes writ this book to revenge his Death Observation 49. Lin. 18. I â—xpose it not to the mercy of man but to God See the man affects an absolute Tyranny in Philosophie He 'll be accountable to none but God You no Papist Philalethes Why you would be a very Pope in Philosophie if you would not have your Dictates subject to the canvase of mans reason Observations upon his Advertisement to the Reader THe first thing you require is that he that attempts your Book should make a plain
somewhat by way of Preface concerning the nature of that Disease partly because it may be the better discerned of what good use the Authour's pains are against this distemper of Fantastrie and Enthusiasme and partly because by a more punctuall discovery of this distemper the distemper it self or at least the ill influence of it upon the credulous inconsiderate may be prevented For where the naturall causes of things are laid open there that stupid reverence and admiration which surprises the ignorant will assuredly cease Which is a thing of no lesse consequence then the preserving of that honest and rationall way of the education of youth in liberall Arts and Sciences and upholding of Christian Religion it self from being supplanted and overturned from the very foundations by the dazeling and glorious plausibilities of bold Enthusiasts who speaking great swelling words of vanity bear down the weak and unskilfull multitude into such a belief of Supernaturall graces and inspirations in their admired Prophet that they will not stâ—ck to listen to him though he dictate to them what is contrary not onely to solid Reason and the judgement of the most learned and pious in all ages but even to the undoubted Oracles of the holy Scriptures themselves Wherefore for the detecting of this mysterious Imposture we shall briefly and yet I hope plainly enough set out the Nature Causes Kinds and Cure of this mischievous Disease 2. The Etymologie and varietie of the significations of this word Enthusiasme I leave to Criticks and Grammarians but what we mean by it here you shall fully understand after we have defined what Inspiration is For Enthusiasme is nothing else but a misconceit of being inspired Now to be inspired is to be moved in an extraordinary manner by the power or Spirit of God to act speak or think what is holy just and true From hence it will be easily understood what Enthusiasme is viz. A full but false perswasion in a man that he is inspired 3. We shall now enquire into the Causes of this Distemperâ— how it comes to passe that a man should be thus befooled in his own conceit And truly unlesse we should offer lesse satisfaction then the thing is capable of we must not onely treat here of Melancholy but of the Faculties of the Soul of man whereby it may the better be understood how she may become obnoxious to such disturbances of Melancholy in which she has quite lost her own judgement and freedome and can neither keep out nor distinguish betwixt her own fancies and reall truths 4. We are therefore to take notice of the severall Degrees and Natures of the faculties of the Soul the lowest whereof she exercises without so much as any perception of what she does and these operations are fatall and naturall to her so long as she is in the body and a man differs in them little from a Plant which therefore you may call the Vegetative or Plantall faculties of the Soul The lowest of those Faculties of whose present operations we have any perception are the outward Senses which upon the pertingencie of the Object to the Sensitive Organ cannot fail to act that is the Soul cannot fail to be affected thereby nor is it in her power to suspend her perception or at least very hardly in her power From whence it is plain that the Soul is of that nature that she sometimes may awake fatally and necessarily into Phantasmes and Perceptions without any will or consent of her own Which is found true also in Imagination though that Facultie be freer then the former For what are Dreams but the Imaginations and perceptions of one asleep which notwithstanding steal upon the Soul or rise out of her without any consent of hers as is most manifest in such as torment us and put us to extreme pain till we awake out of them And the like obreptions or unavoydable importunities of Thoughts which offer or force themselves upon the mind may be observed even in the day time according to the nature or strength of the complexion of our Bodies though how the Body doth engage the mind in Thoughts or Imaginations is most manifest in Sleep For according as Choler Sanguine Phlegme or Melancholy are predominant will the Scene of our dreams be and that without any check or curb of dubitation concerning the truth and existence of the things that then appear Of which we can conceive no other reason then this That the inmost seat of Sense is very fully and vigourously affected as it is by objects in the day of whose reall existence the ordinary assurance is that they so strongly strike or affect our sensitive Facultie which resides not in the externall Organs no more then the Artificers skill in his instruments but in some more inward Recesses of the brain and therefore the true and reall seat of Sense being affected in our sleep as well as when we are awake 't is the lesse marvell the Soul conceits her dreams while she is a dreaming to be no dreams but reall transactions 5. Now that the inward sense is so vigoroufly affected in these dreams proceeds as I conceive from hence because the Brains Animall spirits or what ever the Soul works upon within in her imaginative operations are not considerably moved altered or agitated from any externall motion but keep intirely and fully that figuration or modification which the Soul necessarily naturally moulds them into in our sleep so that the opinion of the truth of what is represented to us in our dreams is from hence that Imagination then that is the inward figuration of our brain or spirits into this or that representation is far stronger then any motion or agitation from without which to them that are awake dimmes and obscures their inward imagination as the light of the Sun doth the light of a candle in a room and yet in this case also according to Aristotle Fancy is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of sense though weak But if it were so strong as to bear it self against all the occursions and impulses of outward objects so as not to be broken but to keep it self entire and in equall splendour and vigour with what is represented from without and this not arbitrariously but necessarily and unavoydably as has been already intimated the Party thus affected would not fail to take his own imagination for a reall object of sense as it fell out in one that Cartesius mentions and there are several other examples of that kind that had his arm cut off who being hoodwinkt complained of a pain in this and the other finger when he had lost his whole arm And a further instance may be in mad or Melancholy men who have confidently affirmed that they have met with the Devil or conversed with Angels when it has been nothing but an encounter with their own fancie 6. Wherefore it is the enormous strength of Imagination which is yet the Soul's weaknesse or unweildinesse