if it be true as it is most likely the reason is easie to be known 5 The Magneticall Medicine is very famous amongst Authours with which they do not cure the wound it selfe but the instrument wherewith he wound was given or the garment wood or earth besprinkled with the bloud of the wound is onely anointed and the wound closes and heals kindly Some deny that this is done naturally who do not sufficiently consider the secret strength of nature Yet examples shew that this kind of cure with an ointment made with most naturall things yea with nothing but the grease of the axeltree scraped off from a cart hath certain successe without using any superstition Wherefore it is credible that the spirit poured out of the body with the bloud that is shed adheres partly in the bloud partly to the instrument it self for it cannot abide without matter being forced thence with the fat that is applied returnes to its whole and supplies that and hereto perhaps that observation appertains concerning the venom of a snake viper or scorpion conveyed into a man with a bite For if the same beast or but the bloud or fat thereof be forthwith applied to the wound it sucks out the venom again because it returns to its own connaturall More of this kind might be observed by approved experiments 6 Last of all it is not unworthy of our observation that the animall spirit doth form living creatures of another kind rather then quite forsake the putrifying matter namely wormes and such like Now it is certain by experience that of living creatures that are dead and putrified those living creatures are especially bred on which they were wont to feed when they were alive For example of the flesh of storks serpents are bred of hens spiders of ducks frogs c. which that it will so come to passe if they be buried in dung John Poppus a distiller of Coburg hath taught after others It appears then that the animall spirit is every where and that very diligently busied about the animating of bodies CHAP. XI Of Man I A Man is a living creature endued with an immortall soule For the Creatour inspired a soul into him out of himselfe Gen. â— v. 7. which soul is called also the mind and reason in vvhich the image of God shineth II Therefore he is compounded of three things a body a spirit and a soule So the Apostle testifies 1 Thes. 5. 13. Let your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blamelesse And so 1 Cor 14. vers 14. He distinguisheth betwixt the spirit and the minde And indeed so it is vve have a body compounded of the Elements as vvell as bruits vve have a spirit from the spirit of the world as vvell as they but the soule or minde is from God The first vve bear about us mortall the second dissipable but the last enduring ever without the body as we are assured by faith Therefore when thou seest a man think that thou seest a King royally cloathed and sitting in his royall throne For the minde is a King his robe is the spirit his throne the body III The body is the Organ and habitation of the spirit but the spirit is the habitation and mansion of the soul. For as the spirit dwels in the body and guides it as the Pilot doth the ship so the soul dwels in the spirit and rules it And as body without a spirit neither moves it â—f nor hath any sense of any thing as it to be seen in a dead carcasse so the spirit vvithout the minde hath no reason nor understands any thing as we see in bruit beasts Therefore the soul useth the spirit for its chariot and instrument the spirit the body and the body the foresaid instruments IV As the spirit is affected by the body so is the minde by the spirit For as vvhen the body is diseased the spirit is presently sad or hindred from its action so vvhen the spirit is ill disposed the minde cannot performe its functions dextrously as vve may see in drunken melancholie mad-men c. Hence it is that the gifts of the minde follow the temperature of the body that one is more ingenious courteous chast courageous c then another Hence that fight within us which the Scripture so oft mentions and we our selves feel For the body and the soul being that they are extreams the one earthly the other heavenly the one bruit the other rational the one mortall the other immortall are alway contrary to one another in their inclinations Now the spirit which is placed betwixt them ought indeed to obey the superiour part and keep the lower part in order as its beck Yet neverthelesse it comes oft so to passe that is carried away of the flesh and becomes brutish V. Such a body was given to man as might fitly serve all the uses of his reasonable soule And therefore 1 Furnished with many Organs 2 Erect 3 Naked and unarmed that it might be free of it self and yet might be cloathed and armed any way as occasion required For the hand the instrument of instruments the most painful doer of all works vvas given to man only He only hath obteined an erect stature least he should live unmindful of his countrey Heaven Again he only was made naked and unarmed but both by the singular favours of God For living creatures whilest they always bear about them their garment haires feathers shels and their armes sharp prickles horns what do they bear about them but burdens and hindrances of divers actions The liberty granted to man and industry in providing fitting and laying up all things for his use and pleasure is something more divine VI. A more copious and pure spirit was given to man and therefore his inward operations are more excellent namely a quicker attention a stronger imagination a surer memory more vehement affections The first appears from the braine which is given in greater plenty to man then to any living creature considering the proportion of every ones body For all that round head and of so great capacity is filled up vvith brain to what end but that the spirit might have a more spacious vvorkhouse and palace The rest are known by experience as followeth VII Attention is a considerate receiving of the objects brought into the sensorie instruments We said in the former Chapter that it is commonly called the common sense This vvas given to man so much the quicker as it is destinated to more objects and more distinctly to be perceived VIII Imagination is the moving of things perceived by the sense within and an efformation of the like For the image of the thing seen heard or touched with attention presently gets into the brain which the spirit by contemplation judges of what it is and how it differs from this or that thing therefore it may well be called in this sense the judgment This imagination is stronger in a man then in any living creature
a septenary gradation For we have understood that whatsoever there is besides God it is either an Element or a Vapour or a Concrete or a Plant or an Anâ—â—all or a Man or an Angell and that the whole multitude of creatures is ranked into these seven Classes or great Tribes In every of which there is some eminent virtue flowing from the essence of the Creatour yet every latter including the former For In Elements Being is eminent Vapours Motion Concretes Figure or Quality Plants Life Living creatures Sense Men Reason Angels Understanding See the house which Wisdome hath built her having hewn out her seven pillars Prov. 9. 1. See the seven Stairs which the King of Heaven hath placed in the entry of his inner house Ezek. 40. 22. The six first degrees are of visible creatures the seventh of invisible Angels After the same manner as there were nine dayes wherein God wrought and rested the seventh six Planets in heaven of inferiour light the seventh of extraordinary brightnesse the Sun six baser metals on earth The seventh exceeding all in perfection gold c. And as Salomons Throne had six inferiour steps to every of which there were six inferiour Leoncels adjoyned after all in the seventh place stood the Throne and by it two Lions 1 King 10. 19 20. So the King of eternity when he built him a visible throne of glory erected six visible degrees of corporeous creatures to every of which he added their Leoncels that is their virtues and their powers and last of all about the throne on high he placed the strongest of the creatures the Angels mighty in power Psal. 103. 19 20. But now what mean the seven planets in heaven what mean the seven continents on earth the seven kinds of meteors seven kinds of metalls seven kinds of stones c the seven combinations of tangible qualities the seven differences of taste the seven vitall members in man the seven tones in musick and other things which we meet with throughout all nature yea and in the Scripture the number of seven is every where very much celebrated and sacred For what do the seven dayes of the week point at what are the seven weeks betwixt the Passeover and Pentecost what the seventh year of rest what the seven times seventh of Jubilee what do all these portend I say but that it is the expresse Image of that God whose seven eyes passe through the whole earth Zach. 4. 10. and whose seven spirits are before his Throne Apoc. 1. 4. yea who doth himselfe make a mysticall eighth with every degree of his creatures For in him all things live aud move and have their being which live and move and have a being Acts 17. 28. and he worketh all in all 1 Cor. 12. 6. and all these are as it were him himselfe Eccles. 43. 27. and yet none of them is he himselfe Job 12. 9. 10. but because all these have some effigies of the divine essence and operate that which they operate by virtue thereof hence it is that he being above all without all and beneath all is the true mysticall eighth of all Of whom that Syracides may conclude our meditation though we say much we shall not yet attain thereto The sum of the doctrine is that he is all For what ability have we to praise him For he is greater then all his works The Lord is terrible and very great marvellous is his power Extol the Lord in praise as much as you can For yet he wil be greater then all praise Eecl 43. 30. c. Therefore let every spirit praise the Lord Hallelujah Psal. 150. And thou my soul praise the Lord Psal. 103. 1. Holy holy holy Lord of Hosts Heaven and earth are full of his glory Isai. 6. 3 Hallelujah A Short APPENDIX TO PHYSICKS Touching the Diseases of the Body Mind and Soul and their generall Remedies I. A Disease is the corruption of an Entity in some part thereof and a disposition of it to totall perishing that is death Therefore both the Body Mind and Soul hath its diseases II The diseases of the body are various scarce to be numbred and oft-times mâ—â—t A disease added to a disease is called a ymptome of a disease III A disease of the body is either by solution of that which is continued or by distemper of humours IV Solution of that which is continued is either by a rupture or a wound A rupture is prevented by bewaring falls and violent motion A wound is avoided by shunning of those things which can cleave cut prick rent tear or bruise or hurt anyway and both are to be cured by the Chirurgion N. W. The cure of a Wound is desperate if any vitall member be hurt as the heart the brain the liver the entrals c. For then the vitall actions are hindred and soon after cease 2 If any member be quite lost it cannot be set on again because the spirit hath not wherewithall to passe into the part that is severed V The distempers of the humours and the diseases that come from thence always proceed from some of these 6 causes namely either from 1 Crudity 2 Inflation 3 Distillation 4 Obstruction 5 Putrefaction 6 Inflammation VI Crudity in the body is nutriment not sufficiently concocted namely either Chyle or bloud which comes I from the quality of meat and drink when they are taken too raw flegmatick unwholesome which the concoctive faculty cannot well subdue 2 from the quantity when more meat and drink is put in then it is able to alter and assimilate unto the body For hence undigested and not assimilated humours burthen the body like strangers and not pertaining thereunto 3 For want of exercise when the naturall heat is not stirred up nor strengthened to perform its office lustily in the concoction of meats From such like crudities diverse inconveniences follow For 1 if the crudity be in the stomack it causes loathing of food for so long as the first food is not digested there can be no appetite to any other Again children have an appetite to eat earth chalk coales c. according as the crudities are turned into the likenesse of any matter For like desireth like 2 If there be a viscous crudity adhering in the ventricle or in the guts being warmed it takes spirit and is turned into wormes which gnawing the bowels stir up evill vapours by their motion whence also come phartasies very hurtfull to the head Lastly ctudity under the skin in the bloud and flesh begets palenesse and when it is collected and putrified scabs ulcers c. Crudity is prevented by a temperate diet as to Food Sleep and daily exercises and cured 1 by violent expurgation 2 by strong exercises 3 by the use of tart meats and drinks 4 by comforting the stomack with such things as heat both within and without VII Inflation is much and grosse vapour exhaling from the crudities that are gathered together and stretching the members And
World was a Chaos of dispersed Atomes cohering in no part thereof This is proved 1 by reason for if they had cohered in any sort they had had form but they had not for it was Tohu vabohu a thing without form and void 2 by sense which satisfies that the Elements are turned unto Atomes for what is dust but earth reduced into Atomes what is vapour but water resolved into more subtile parts the air it self what is it but a most small comminution of drops of water and unperceiveable by sense yea all bodies are found to consist of most extream small parts as trees barke flesh skins and membranes of most slender strings or threds but bones stones metals of smal dust made up together into which they may be resolved again And this shews also that those threds or haires are of Atomes as it were glued together that when they are dried they may be pouldred wherefore the whole World is nothing but dust coagulated with various glutinous matters into such or such a form 3 by Scripture for the aeternall Wisdom it self testifies that the beginning of the World was dust Prov. 8. v. 26. out of which foundation many places of Scripture wil be better understood as Gen. 3. v. 14. dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return For behold man was made of the mud of the earth yet God being angry for sin threatens something more then returning to dust namely utmost resolution into the very utmost dust of which the mud of the earth it self was made and wee see it to be truly so that a man is dissolved not onely into earth but into all the elements especially those that perish by fire and is at last scattered into very Atomes Read and understand what is said Job 4. v. 19. Item 19. v. 9. Esay 26. v. 19. Psal. 104. v. 29. therefore Democritus erred not altogether in making Atomes the matter of the World but hee erred in that hee believed 1 that they were aeternall 2 that they went together into forms by adventure 3 that they cohere of themselves by reason that he was ignorant of that which the Wisdom of God hath revealed unto us that the Atomes were conglutinated into a mass by the infusion of the Spirit of life and began to be distinguished into forms by the comming in of the light III God produced so great a mass of this matter as might sussice to fill the created Abysse For with the beginning of the heaven and the earth that vast space was presently produced wherein the heaven and the earth were to be placed which place Moses cals the Abysse which no creature can passe through by reason of its depth and vastness Now the Aphorism tels us that all this was filled up with that confused fume lest wee should imagine any vacuum IV The matter is of it self invisible and therefore dark For darkness is seen after the same manner when the eyes are shut as when they are open that is they are not seen at all and this is it which Moses says and darkness was upon the face of the Abysse V The matter is of it self without form yet it is apt to be extended contracted divided united and to receive every form and figure as wax is to receive every seal For we have shewed that all the bodies of the World are made of these Atomes and are resolved into them therefore they are nothing else but the matter clothed with severall forms which the Chymicks demonstrate to the eye reducing some dust one while into liquour another while into a vapour another while into a stone c. VI The matter is aeternall in its duration through all forms so that nothing of it can perish For in very deed from the making of the World untill now not so much as one crum of matter hath perished nor one increased for in that bodies are generated and do perish that is nothing else but a transmutation of forms in the same matter as when vapour is made of water of that vapour a cloud of the cloud rain and of the rain drunk in by the roots of plants an hearb c. VII The principall virtue of the matter of the world is are indissoluble cohaerence every where so that it can endure to be discontinued in no part and a vacant space to be left Notwithstanding perhaps this virtue is not from the matter but from the spirit affused of which in the Chapter following VII From this matter the whole World is materiall and corporeall and is so called For all the bodies of the World even the most subtle and the most lightsome are nothing but form partly coagulated partly refined Now after what manner it is coagulated or refined shall appear in that which follows Of the nature of the Spirit or soule of the World THe spirit of the World is life it self infused into the World to operate all things in all for whatsoever any treature doth or suffers it doth or suffers it by virtue of this spirit for it is given to it I To inhabite the matter For as in the beginning it moved it self upon the waters so yet it is not extant but in the matter especially in a liquid and subtile matter Whence in the body of a living creature those most subtile sanguine vapours and as it were flames which are the charriot of life are called spirits And Chymicks extracting a spirit out of herbs metals stones like a little water call it the Quintessence because it is a more subtile substance than all the four elements But not water it self as it is water but that living virtue of the creature out of which it is extracted inhabiting in it which being that it cannot be altogether separated from the matter is preserved in that subtile form of matter For how fast the spirit inhaeres in the matter shall be taught about the end hap 9. 10. II To move or agitate it self through the whole matter to preserve it Hence it is 1 that no vacuum can be in the world For all bodies even the most subtile as water air the skie being indued with this spirit delight in contiguity and continuity For as a living creature will not be cut so also water air yea the world it self by reason of that universall spirit uniting all things in it which also when a separation is made as in the wounds of living creatures in the cutting of the water in the parting of the air may be seen makes the matter close again 2. that every creature putrifies when that spirit is taken away as if you extract the spirit of wine out of wine or suffer the spirit to evaporate out of an hearb c. but is preserved yea made better if the spirit be preserved For example wine kept in any solid vessel under the earth or water though it be an 100 years grows still the richer the spirit stirring and moving it self in it and by that meanes still moulding the matter more
motion bodies were to be framed which might performe a free motion and these are called Animalia or Animantia living creatures from the soul which powerfully evidences life in them 2 Therefore mobility is in all living creatures but after divers manners For some move only by opening and shutting not stirring out of their place as oisters and cockles Others creep by little and little as snailes earth-wormes and other wormes some have a long body which creeps with winding it selfe about as snakes some have feet given them as lizards beasts birds but these last have wings also to flie through the air Which fishes do imitate in the water performing their motion by swimming III The moving principle in a living creature is the vitall soul which is nothing else but the spirit of life thick and strong mightily filling and powerfully governing the bodies which it inhabiteth IV Now because a voluntary and a light motion cannot be performed but in a subtle matter living creatures have bodies given them far more tender then plants but far more compound For they consist of spirit flesh blood membranes veins nerves gristles and lastly bones as it were props and pillars lest the frame should fall Understand this in perfect living creatures For more imperfect living creatures in which we contemplate onely the rudiments of nature have neither bones nor flesh nor bloud nor veins but onely a white humour covered with a skin or crust as it were with a sheath which the spirit included doth stir or move as it appears in worms snails oisters c. But to perfect living creatures 1 That they might have a more subtle spirit bloud and brains were given 2 And that these might not be dissipated they had vessels and channels given them veines arteries nerves 3 That a living creature might be erected bones were given him 4 And left the bones as also the veins arteries nerves should easily be hurt all was covered either with fat or flesh 5 And that the members might move tendons and muscles were interwoven throughout 6 And least in moving the bone the bones should wear one against another cause pain in the living creature a gristle which is a softer substance being as it were halfe flesh was put between the joints 7 And lastly that the frame might hang firmly together in its composure it was compassed with a hide or skin as also all the members with their membranes Therefore a living creature consists of more similar parts then a plant but of far more dissimular parts or members of which it followes V The bodies of living creatures were furnished with many members as with diverse organs for diverse actions The head indeed is the principall member of a living creature wherein the whole spirit hath its residence and shews all its force but because a living creature was intended for divers actions it had need of besides 1 Vivifying organs supplying the living creature with heat life and motion that is brains and heart 2 Moving organs that is feet wings feathers c. 3 And left one thing should run against another or fall into precipices it was necessary to furnish them with sight also with a quick hearing and touch Lastly because the earth was not to supply nutriment immediately to a living creature as to a plant fixed in the earth but it was left them to seek there was need of smelling and tasting that they might know what was convenient to their nature Hence eyes ears nostrils c. 4 Now because a living creature was not to be fixed in the ground with a root because of his free motion more perfect organs of nutrition were requisite for that cause there was given him a mouth teeth a stomack a liver a heart veins c. 5 And because they were not to spring out of the earth as plants by reason of the same motion to and fro Divers Sexes were given them to multiply themselves and distinct genitall members 6 And because living creatures were to be alwayes conversant with others of their own or of a divers kind they had need of some mutuall token even in the dark they had a tongue given them to form sounds 7 Lastly because it could not be but that a living creature should sometimes meet with contraries they had as it were shields and armes given them Hares bristles scales shels feathers likewise horns clawes teeth hoofs c. VI Therefore the whole treatise concerning a living creature is finished in the explication I Of the nutritive faculty II Of the vitall III Of the sensitive IV Of the loco-motive V Of the enuntiative VI Of the defensive VII And lastly of the generative For he that knoweth these seven knowes the whole mysterie of nature in living creatnres For whatsoever is in the body of a living creature serveth those faculties if it do not serve them it is in vain and maketh a monster It is to be observed also that the first three faculties are governed by so many spirits The nutritive faculty by the naturall spirit the vitall by the spirit of life the sensitive by the animall spirit the other four by those three spirits joyntly Of the nutritive Faculty VII Every living creature standeth in need of daily food to repair that which perisheth of the substance every day For life consists in heat And heat being that it is fire wants fuell which is moist spirituous and fat matter Heat in a living creature being destitute of this sets upon the solid parts and feeds on them And hence it is that a living creature as well as a plant without nourishment pines away and dies But if it be sparingly fed it therefore falls away because the heat feeds upon the very substance of the flesh VIII That nourishment is convenient for a living creature which supplies it with a spirit like its own spirit For seeing that life is from the spirit the matter of it selfe doth not nourish life but a spirituous matter And indeed the spirit of the nourishment must needs be like the spirit of the living creature Therefore we are not nourished with the elements as plants are for as much as they have only a naturall not a vitall spirit but we are nourished with plants or with the flesh of other â—iving creatures because those afford a vitall spirit Nay further there is a particular proportion of spirits by reason of which a â—orse chuseth oates a swine barley a wolfe flesh c. Nay an hog hath an appetite to mans excrements also because it yet findeth parts convenient for it IX Nourishment turneth into the substance â—f that which is nourished That appears 1 because he that feeds on dry meats is dry of complexion he that feeds on moist is flegmatick c. 2 because for the most part a man reteins the qualities of those living creatures on whose flesh he feeds as he that feeds on beefe is strong he that feeds on venison is nimble c. If any one have the brains
so that it feignes new formes of things namely by dividing or variously compounding things conceived And this is done with such quicknesse that upon every occasion we imagine any thing to our selves as vve find dreaming and waking and by how much the purer spirit any one hath he is so much the more prompt to think or imagine but dulnesse proceeds from a grosse spirit Observe this also That the animal spirit vvhen it speculates forward and drawes new images of things from the senses is said to learne vvhen backward resuming images from the memory it is said to remember When it is moved too and fro vvithin it self it is said to feigne somewhat Note also that from the evidence of sensation growes the degree of knowledge for if the sense perceive any thing a farre off or weakly and obscurely it is a generall conception If nearer distinctly and perspicuously it is a particular conception for example when I see something move a great vvay off I gather it to be a living creature vvhen I come near I know it to be a man and at length this or that man c. IX Memory remembrance is the imagination of a thing past arising from the sense of a thing present by reason of some likenesse For vve do not remember any thing otherwise then by a like object For example if I see a man that resembles my father in his face presently the memory of my father comes into my minde So by occasion of divers accidents as place time figure colour found c. divers things may come to minde where the like vvas seen heard c. vvhich occasion sometimes is so slight and suddain that it can scarce be marked for what is quicker then the spirit N. Now it may be demanded seeing that the animal spirit moveth it self so variously in the brain yea and other nevv spirit alwayes succeeding by nutrition how is it that the images of things do not perish but readily offer themselves to our remembrance Answ Look down from a bridge into the vvater gently gliding you shall see your face unvaried though the vvater passe away And vvhen you see any thing tossed vvith the vvind in a free aire the winde doth not carry away the image of the thing from thine eye What is the cause But that the impression of the image is not in the water nor in the aire but in the eye from the light reflected indeed from the water and penetrating the aire So then in like manner an inward impression is not really made in the brain but by a certaine resplendency in the spirit Which resplendency may be kindled again by any like object Otherwise if images vvere really imprinted in the brain we could not see any thing otherwise in our sleep then it had once imprinted it self in the brain being seen But being that they are variously changed it appears that notions are made not by reall impressions but by the bare motion of the spirit and the imagination of like by like X An affection is a motion of the minde comâ—ng from imaginations desiring good and shunning evill There are more affections and more vehement in a man For bruits scarce know shame envy and jealousie and are not so violently hurried into fury and despaire or again into excessive joyfulnesse thence laughter and weeping still belong to man only XI The minde of man is immediately from God For the Scripture saith That it was inspired by God Gen. 2. v. 7. and that after the death of the body it returnes to God that gave it Eccles. 2. v. 7. For it returnes to be judged for those things which it did in the body whether good or evill 2 Câ—r 5. v. 10. But we are not to thinke that the soul is inspired out of the essence of God as though it were any part of the deity For God is not divisible into parts neither can he enter into one essence with the creature And Moses vvords sound thus And God breathed into the face of Adam the breath of life and man became a living soule See he doth not say that that breath or inspiration became a living soule but man became a living soul Nor yet are we to think that the soul was created out of nothing as though it were a new entitie but only that a new perfection is put into the animall spirit in a man so that it becomes one degree superiour to the soul of a beast that appears out of Zach. 1â— v. 1. Where God testifies that he formes the spirit of man in the midst of him Behold he forms and not creates it It is the same vvord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jatzar vvhich is used of the body also Gen. 2. v. 7. As therefore the body is formed of the prae-existent matter so is the soul of the prae-existent spirit of the vvorld Aud by cousequent even as the earth vvater air and skie are all one matter of the world differing only in the degree of their density so the naturall vitall animall and this mentall spirit are all one spirit of the world differing only in the degree of their purity and perfection Therefore it is credible that the divine inspiration conferred no more upon man but this that he 1 refined the inmost part of his spirit that in subtility of actions he might come nearest to God of all visible creatures 2 Fixed it that it might subsist both in the body and out of the body Therefore the Scripture makes no other difference betwixt the spirit of a man and of a beast then that the one ascends upwards the other goes downwards that is the one flees out of the matter the other slides back into the matter Eccles. 3. v. 21. Hence also that question Whether the soul be propagated by generation may be determined The root of the soul which is the vitall and animall spirit is certainly by generation but the formation thereof that the inmost parts thereof should become the mentall spirit or the minde God attributes to himself Zach. 12. 1. Yet not concurring extraordinarily or miraculously but because he hath ordained that it shall be so in the nature of man It appears also why man is commonly said to consist of a body and a soule only namely because the rationall soule is of the spirit and in the spirit For as our body is made of a four-fold matter that is of the four Elements so our soule to speak generally and contradistinguish it from the body consists of a fourfold spirit Naturall Vitall Animall and Mentall XII There are three faculties of the mind of man the Understanding the Will and the Conscience These answer to the three functions of the animall spirit or to the inward senses out of which also they result For we have said that as the spirit useth the body for its Organ so the soule useth the spirit Therefore the three inward Senses Attention Judgement and Memory are instruments by which the soule useth the Understanding
NATURALL PHILOSOPHIE REFORMED BY DIVINE LIGHT OR A SYNOPSIS of Physicks BY J. A. COMENIUS Exposed To the censure of those that are lovers of LEARNING and desire to be taught of GOD. Being a view of the WORLD in generall and of the particular Creatures therein conteined grounded upon Scripture Principles With a briefe APPENDIX touching the Diseases of the Body Mind and Soul with their generall Remedies By the same AUTHOR LONDON Printed by Robert and William Leybourn for Thomas Pierrepont at the Sun in Pauls Church-yard MDCLI To the truly studious of wisdome from Christ the fountain of wisdome greeting JAcobus Acontius a most excellent man offended at the evill disposition of our scribling age wished that it might be provided that none should write and publish any thing unless it were some new thing which should both be of his own observation and might make for the glory of God and the aedification of the Church and from whence so much fruit might be hoped that what time is bestowed on the reading of it the readers could not bestow it better elswhere that so nothing might be done which was already done but what was yet to be done For few Writers says hee bring any thing of their own but onely steal things and words of which they make Books c. Which they know to be most truly spoken who are to peruse that farrago of Books wherewith we are yearly little less then overwhelmed For if you look on the titles you shall have them always new and very specious if on the thing it is always the same boiled over and over above a thousand times and Coleworts crammed in even to nauseating And though something of new observation be offered yet to what purpose is it that whole Books should therefore be written and those new things found out so buried in things ordinary that either a man hath no mind to enquire what of new observation is in them or cannot do it without tediousness of spirit and loss of time But it is not my business to inveigh against this disorder in many words I come now to declare why I my self come out in publick And I wil lay it open in a word I bring something new and different from the common way of Philosophie And I bring it so as that I hope it will be without any ones hinderance or molestation as conteining in a very few leaves matters of very great moment And I bring it to satisfie the desires of others this way For whereas I had the year last past given a proof of my Philologicall endeavours Janua Linguarum reserata or a seminary of Arts and Languages which was courteously received and that with applause and approved almost by all mens verdict as severall letters dated either to my self or my friends touching that matter do testifie some of the number of those who at this time bend their desires thoughts and dedevours to rectifie the method of studies began to solicit mee to put out my philosophicall Works or at least to desire a communication of my conceptions especially in Physicks Having no other minde therefore but to bring something for mine owne part that may be profitable if it may be or else that others may have occasion by me to bring better matters I purposed with my self to expose to the light this same Synopsis of Physicks lately dictated in this Schoole that publick censure might be made of this also as well as of my former Work Which that it might be it seemed meet to give some further intimation of the occasion and scope of our undertaking to those that wil offer themselves to be our censors After that the calamitous lot of exile had thrust mee who was by calling a Divine back to the services of the School wherein I was desirous to beare my self not slightly but so as that I might discharg the trust committed to me it chanced that I hapned among other things upon Ludovicus Vives his Books detradendis disciplinis In these when I had found most wholesome counsels for the repairing of Philosophie and the whole course of studies I began extreamly to grieve that a man of so piercing a wit after he noted so many most evident errours had not put to his hand to make those rough things smooth but the judgment of one touching this excellent Writer that Vives saw better what was not then what was made mee to consider that it is usuall with the wisdome of God to communicate things by degrees Yet I thought with my self that others should take this as an occasion to labour to designe one certain and infallible way among so many deviations discovered unto them which I wondred that men were so backward to essay for full a hundred years For I knew not whether any one had gone about it But it hapned that a certain learned man to whom I communicated these complaints of mine in a more familiar manner shew'd mee a Book call'd Prodromus philosophiae instaurandae by Thomas Campanella an Italian which I read over with incredible joy and being inflamed with an exceeding great hope of new Light I greedily turn'd through his Realis philosophia epilogistica for so hee calls it set forth in foure Books as also the Books de rerum sensu where ever I could get them Whereby I found my desires in some sort satisfied but not throughout For his very foundation that all things were made up of two contrary principles onely offended me For I was already most fully perswaded of the number of three principles out of the divine Book of Genesis and and I remember out of Hugo Grotius disputing against the Manichees That of two things fighting one with the other destruction might follow but an ordinate construction could never follow And besides I observed that Campanella himself was not very certaine of his own hypotheses as one that began to waver in his assertions towards the positions of Galilaeus touching the earths mobility and yet to call them in doubt himself as it is evident â—enough in his Apologie for Galilaeus But when I chanced afterwards upon a piece of Sir Francis Bacon Baron of Verulam Chancellour of England entituled inst aur atio magna an admirable work and which I look upon no otherwise then as a most bright beam of a new age of Philosophers now arising I understood that in some particulars also of Campanella such solid Demonstrations as the truth of things requires were wanting Yet it grieved me again that I saw most noble Verulam present us indeed with a true key of Nature but not open the secrets of Nature onely shewing us by a few examples how they were to be opened and leave the rest to depend on observations and inductions continued for severall ages Yet I saw nevertheless that my hopes were not quite left in suspense in as much as I perceived my minde so enlightned by the light which it received from those severall sparks now grown welnigh to a
which Aristotle would have to be the four Elements the Syagyricks Salt Sulfur and ☿ Nay more that by this means a gate is opened in a new kinde of way not onely to the understanding of Arts and humane inventions but also to multiply them which could never be unless the foundations of truth were found Perhaps I speak more then the Reader will think he finds in my Writings But if he saw but the streams the delineation of that Pansophia Christiana which wee have in hand that are derived from this fountain as also from that of our Didacticks and Metaphysicks hee would not hold it vainly spoken But because those are not yet brought to light I set down this as a law for these that are If any thing be not sufficiently deduced from Sense Reason and Scripture If any thing cohere not harmoniously enough with the rest If any thing be not evident enough with its own perspicuity let it be taken as not said at all Which law standing in force it may be lawful for my self all others both to doubt always and every where whether every thing be so as it is delivered to be and also to enquire why it is as it is found to be by which two courses that the lowest foundations of truth will in time be discovered no body needs to doubt Therefore let none of vs seeke after any thing else but how the truth may best be maintained on all hands which if it happen not to be on our side and that we are deceived with appearances of truth as it is very usuall in humane affaires I beseech all those that are more sharp-sighted for the love of truth courteously to shew us our way which we have lost and where our demonstrations come not together But if these savour of truth something neer that then they would not disdain to joyn their endevours with ours for the illustration thereof that all of us being the children of truth may compose and sing Hymnes of prayse together to God the Father of Truth Thou therefore O Christ the Fathers glory bright Of this great World the onely light On us some beams of light bestow That are thy servants thee to know Amen Lord make me to see here indeed thy externall light shining upon and internall informing thy creatures but there in in heaven aeternall and uncreated Amen Amen And so Christian Readers farewel J. A. C. March the 12th 1650. Imprimatur John Downame A Table of the Heads of this BOOK Prolegomena of the nature and use of Physick I AN Idea of the World to be created and created pag. 9 II Of the principles of the World Matter Spirit and Light 20 III Of the motion of things 38 IV Of the qualities of things 49 V Of the mutation of things 69 VI Of the Elements 78 VII Of Vapours 96 VIII Of Concretes 114 IX Of Plants 148 X Of living creatures 159 XI Of Man 210 XII Of Angels 228 An Appendix to Physicks of the diseases of the Body Mind and Soul aad their remedies 243 Errata Page 53. for softness read saltness p. 63. for softness r. saltness p. 247. line 12. for run r. noisome p. 250. l. 4. for veins r. reins ibid. l. 28 dele by PROLEGOMENA Touching the nature foundation and use of Physick I Physick is the Scientiall Knowledge of naturall things II That thing is naturall which is by Nature not by Art FOr whatsoever this visible World hath comes all either from Nature or from Art those things are from Nature which God brought forth in the beginning or w ch are to this very time begotten by a virtue implanted in things as the Heavens the Earth the Sea Rivers Mountains Stones Metals Hearbs living Creatures c. those things are from art which men have shaped by putting a new form upon natural things as Cities Houses Ponds Channels Statues Coines Garments Books c. that is by the work of mans ingenuity and hands Physicks have nothing to do with these things these are put over to the arts Now seeing that nature is before art ye that art imitates nothing but nature for as much as it doth nothing but by the strength of nature it necessarily follows that nature is to be laid for a foundation to arts and that nature must first be knowne by those that are studious of arts what things and by what vertue it operates every where for when this is known the secrets of all arts open of their own accord without this in arts and prudentials all wil be blinde dumbe and maimed therefore Physick is so necessary to be premised before the Mathematical and Logical and also the prudentiall Arts that they who do otherwise may be thought to build castles in the air III The nature of things is the law of being born and of dying of operating and of ceasing which God the Workmaster hath laid upon all things that are For all things are born and die all things operate somewhat and all things cease again in an order and manner proper to every creature which order and manner being that it is with most excellent reason could not be disposed but by the supream wisdome inasmuch as it is found constantly to be imposed by way of a law upon things now it took the name of nature from the first degree of mutation of every thing which is to be borne IV The knowledge of nature is to be obtein'd by searching into Nature it self By searching I say For no one should spend his time in Physicks to that end that he might have his mind taken up with anothers conceits but that he may put forward himself to the through and intimate knowledg of things otherwise the intellect will not be illustrated with the nature of things but obumbrated with the speculation of phantasms in naturall things therefore we are to seek for guides who may make us scholers not of themselves but of nature and exhibite unto us not their own fond reasons but nature V To search Nature is to contemplate how and wherefore every thing in nature is done To contemplate I say For as we do not see the Sun but by looking on the Sun so we do not learn nature but by looking into nature which is that the Scripture counsels us Ask the beasts and they shall teach thee and the fouls of the aire and they shall tell thee or talk with the earth and it shall answer thee and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee Job 12. 7. therefore the learners of naturall Philosophy cannot be more happily and easily instructed then if they be taught by ocular demonstration wheresoever it is to be had I say to contemplate every thing that so we may sift out the reasons and causes of all things every where For it is certain that nature doth nothing in vain even in things of least moment yea sometimes in the very least things much wisdome lies stored up And which is more we cannot attain to
Wil◠and Conscience For by diligent attention it begets understanding of things by imagination or judging choise that is to will or nill by remembrance conscience XIII The understanding is a faculty of the reasonable soule gathering things unknown out of things known and out of things uncertain compared together drawing things certain by reasoning XIV To reason is to enquire the reasons and causes why any thing is or is not by thinking thereon For the mind or reason doth from the experiments of the senses gathered together first form to it selfe certain generall notions as when it seeth that the fire scorcheth all things it formes to it selfe this rule as it were All fire burneth c. Such kind of experimentall notions they call principles from which the understanding as occasion is offered frames discourse For example if gold melt with fire then it is hot also and burns when it is melted Whence follows this conclusion therefore if the Workman pour gold into his hand he is burnt therewith See here is understanding and that of a thing never seen to which a bruite cannot attain For they do not reason but stay simply upon experiments As if a dog be beaten with a staffe he runs away afterward at the sight of a staffe because his late suffering comes into his memory but that he should reason for example a staffe is hard and pain was caused me with a staffe therefore every hard thing struck against the body causeth pain this he cannot do therefore intelligere to understand is inter legere that is amongst many things to chuse and determine what is truly and what is not XV When ratiocination doth cohere with it selfe every way it begets verity if it gape any where errour XVI Promptnesse of reasoning is called Ingenuity solidity Judgement defect Dulnesse For he is Ingenious who perceives and discourseth readily he Judicious that with a certain naturall celerity giveth heed whether the reasoning cohere sufficiently every way He is dull that hath neither of them The two first are from the temperature of bloud and melancholy the last comes from abundance of flegme For melancholy understand not grosse and full of dregs but pure tempered with much bloud giveth a nimble wit but moistned with lesse a piercing and constant judgement which is made plaine by this similitude A glasse receiving and rendring shapes excellently is compounded of three exceedings exceeding hardnesse exceeding smoothnesse exceeding blacknesse for the smoothnesse receives shapes hardnesse reteins them the blacknesse underneath clears them Hence the best sort of glasses are of steel those of silver worse and of glasse better by reason of their greater smoothnesse and hardnesse under which some black thing is put or cast that it may adhere immediately For instance lead If it could be iron or steel it is certain that the images would be the brighter for blackness So the animall spirits receiving agility from pure bloud strength and constancy from Melancholy make men ingenious and when the prevailing melancholy clarifies the imagination Judicious too much flegme overflowing both makes men stupid Yellow choler conferreth nothing but mobility to the affections whence it is not without cause called the whetstone of wits XVII The understanding begins with universals but ends in singulars We have observed the same touching the senses upon the eighth Aphorisme For there is a like reason for both in as much as the intellect considering any object first knows that it is something and afterwards enquires by discoursing what it is and how it differs from other things and that alwayes more and more subtilely For universals are confused singulars distinct Therefore the understanding of God is most perfect because he knowes all singularities by most speciall differences Therefore he alone truly knoweth all things But a man by how many the more particulars he knows and sees how they depend upon their generals by so much the wiser he is Therefore Aristotle said not rightly That sense is of singulars but understanding of universals XVIII The will is a faculty of the reasonable soul inclining it to good fore-known and turning it away from evill fore-seen For the soule works that whereunto the will enclines and the will enclines whither the understanding leads it It follows this for its guides every where and erres not unlesse it erre As when a Christian chuseth drunkennesse rather then sobriety though he be taught otherwise he doth it because the intellect deceived by the sense judgeth it better to please the palate then to be tormented with thirst though perverse Therefore we must have a speciall care least the intellect should erre or be carried away with the inferiour appetite It appears also from thence that if all men understood alike they would also will and nill alike but the diversity of wils argues a diversity of understanding XIX If the will prudently follow things that are truly good and prudently avoid things that are truly bad it begets virtue if it do the contrary vice For virtue is nothing else but a prudent and constant and ardent shunning of evill and embracing of good vice on the contrary is nothing but a neglecting of good and embracing of evill XX The conscience of man is an intellectuall memory of those things which reason dictates either to be done or avoided and what the will hath done or not done according to this rule and what God hath denounced to those that doe them or doe them not Therefore the function of it in the soule is three-fold to warn testifie and judge of all things that are done or to be done See by the Wisdome of God an inward Monitor Witnesse and Judge and always standing by given to man woe be to him that neglects this Monitor contemnes this Witnesse throwes off the reverence of this Judge XXI It appears out of that which hath been said that man is well termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world Because 1 He is compounded of the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the great World is matter spirit light 2 He resembles the universe in the site of his members for as that is divided into three parts the Elementary the Coelestiall and the Supercoelestiall so a man hath three ventres or bellies the lowest which serves for nutrition the middle-most or the breast wherein is the work-house of life and the fountain of heat the highest or the head in which the animall spirits and in them reason the image of God inhabits 3 There is an analogy betwixt the parts of the world and the parts of the body For example Flesh represents the Earth Bones the Stones Bloud and other humours Waters Vapours of which the body is full the air the vitall spirit the Heaven and Stars the Haires Plants but the seven Planets are the seven vitall Members in our body for the Heart is in the place of the Sun the Brain of the Moon the Spleen of Saturn the Liver of Jupiter the Bag of Gall Mars
else but the image of the whole plant gathered together into a very small part of the matter from whence if need be the same plant may be produced again as we see done N. W. That herbs are bread neverthelesse without seed by virtue of the spirit infused into the elements 1 The command of God proves Gen. 1. v. 11. Let the earth bring forth c. which is yet in force 2 Experience For if you uncover the earth beneath all roots and seeds yet in the years following vvhen it hath been somewhat oft watered vvith rain vvater you shall see it bud forth vvhich is a notable argument of the spirits being diffused every where but especially descending with the Sun and raine VIII The outer and inner bark leaves shells downe flowres prickles c. are integrating parts of plants serving to defend them and preserve their seeds from the injurie of heat and cold IX The kernels are for the most part encompassed with a pulp for their thinner nourishment and to defend them from injury but yet this pulp when it is come to ripenesse serves for food to living creatures as it is to be seen in Apples Peares Cherries Plummes c. X. The proprieties of plants are varietie heat and tenacity of their spirit XI The variety of plants is so great that the number can scarce be counted by any means The natural spirit in meteors and minerals makes certain species and those easie to be counted as we see but the vitall spirit doth so diffuse it self that the industrie of no man is yet sufficient to collect the the species of herbs and trees XII The cheif kinds of plants are herbs trees shrubs XIII An herb is that which growes and dies every year XIV A tree is that which rising up on high growes to wood and continues many years XV. A shrub is of a middle nature as the alder the vine N. W. 1. Some trees live for many ages to wit such as have a compacted and glutinous substance as the oak the pine c. vvatery and thin plants do soon grow and soon vvither as the sallow c. 2 Some lose their leaves every year namely those that have a vvatery juice others keep them as trees of a rozenous nature 3 Trees are either fruitful or barren the first bear either Apples or Nuts or fruit like unto Pine Apples or Berries 4 Porositie and airynesse is given to the vvood of trees by reason of which they do not sinke and that 1 That they might take fire 2 That they might the more easily be transported any vvhither through rivers 3 That ships might be made of them Also clamminesse or indissipability vvas given them that they might serve for the building of houses for vvhich end also their talnesse serves Other differences of plants may be seen else vvhere XVI All plants are hot by nature but in proportion to our heat some are called cold For generation is not done but by heat but that vvhich is below the degree of our heat seemes cold to us As for Hemlock Opium c. they do not kill vvith cold but vvith the viscosity of their vapours vvhich fill up the cavities of the brains stop the Nerves and so suffocate the spirit the same may be said of all poisonous things XVII Vitall spirit as also naturall holds so fast to its matter that it scarce ever forsakes it This is demonstrated besides that we see the spirit every year to be driven by the cold of winter out of the stocks and to be hidden in the root and to put forth it selfe again at the beginning of the spring by four examples 1 That how ever the matter of fruits or herbs be vexed yet the spirit conteins it selfe as it is to be seen in things smoaked tosted roasted soaked pulverized c. which retein their virtue 2 That being driven out of the better part of the matter by the force of fire yet it sticks in the portion that is left and there it is congregated and inspissated so that it suffers it selfe to be thrust together into a drop or a little poulder rather then forsake the matter as it appears in distilled waters which therefore they call spirits 3 That when its matter is somewhat oft distilled and transfused into divers formes through divers Alembicks yet it doth uot fly away For example when a goat or a cow eats a purging herb and the nurse drinks her milk or the whey of her milk it comes so to pass that the infant that sucks her will be purged 4 And which is more it doth not onely retein a virtue of operating but also of augmenting it selfe and forming a creature of its kind which may be shewn by two examples Sennertus relates that Hieremy Cornarius caused a water to be distilled in June Anno 1608. and that in the moneth of November a little plant of that kind was found at the bottome of the glasse in all points perfect But Quercetanus writes that he knew A Polonian Physician that knew how to pulverise plants so artificially that the poulder as oft as he listed would produce the plant For if any one desired to have a rose or a poppy shewed him he held the poulder of a rose or a poppy inclosed in a glasse over the candle that it might grow hot at the bottome which done the poulder by little little raised it self up into the shape of that plant and grew represented the shape of the plant so that one would have thought that it had been corporeall but when the vessell was cold sunk again into poulder Who sees not here that the spirits are the formers of plants who sees not that they inhere so fast in their matter that they can as it were raise it again after it is dead who sees not that the spirit of a minerall or a plant is really preserved in the forme of a little water oile or poulder Thus the eternall truth of that saying is mainteined And the Spirit of God moved it selfe upon the waters As for the spirit of a living creature whither it may be preserved after that manner and raised up to inform a new body we leave it to be thought of purposing neverthelesse to speak something of it towards the end of the next Chapter CHAP. X. Of living creatures THus much of plants here follow living creatures I A living creature is a moving plant endued with sense as a worm a fish a bird a beast For if a stone or an oak could move it self freely or had sence it would be a living creature also II The principall difference betwixt a living creature and a plant is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a free moving of it selfe to and fro For the better to expresse the power of the spirit of life Gods Vicar in creatures it was needfull that such bodies should be produced which that spirit inhabiting might have obedient unto all actions Now seeing that the ground of action is