words into an ancient Discipline and to change the custom of an art and to desire to bind up the art to such terms rather let the words be retained which use hath approved which is to judg of the force and form of speaking Let us come to the new way of teaching and knowing which they propound Hitherto reason and experience were the original of all knowledg and whatsoever agreed with them was accounted true and what differed from them was rejected And therefore the Works of Hippocrates Aristotle and Galen are highly esteemed But Paracelsus and his followers propound all their opinions without foundation and begin a new way of knowing In Praef. admonit p. 3. of which Crollius speaks at large A Physitian saith he must have the light of Nature and grace from the internal and visible Man an internal Angel and light of Nature And if you ask what this light of Nature is he saith It is the Firmament that gives man all things naturally If it be asked again Why they who teach in the Universities have not the light of Nature alike He answers nothing clearly but flies to the light of grace and speaks of Paracelsus That he was undoubtedly by the favour of Heaven made the Prince and Monarch of all Physick but shews not how Therefore false Chymistry hath its peculiar Religion for because they think they have reformed or perfected all Philosophy Physick they stay not there but proceed to Divinity and mix prophane and holy things together and so they bring in any absurdity and dispute wonderfully of the Kingdom of the Blessed the Angels Miracles Faith and the Resurrection But to come to our purpose natural all knowledge is so far true as it agrees with things for things measure our knowledg but not on the cōtrary nor are things so because we think the so but because they are so we think them to be so when we know rightly and this being not naturally in us must come from without Before the Fall Adam had that knowledg but none hath it since Therefore whatsoever men know is either immediately revealed from God by revelation or learned another way Since therfore the words of Paracelsus cannot challeng to themselves a peculiar illumination nor can we grant it they must needs learn as other men did and do and learn knowledg from things There is a twofold faculty of knowing in man sense and understanding Things are presented by the external senses to the fancy and by that to the understanding And the soul while it is in the body understands not without a phantasm and the beginning of knowledg is from the senses and we make principles from those things that senses have comprehended without error From principles we go to things unknown which may be concluded from them This is the ordinary way of knowing and learning by which the unlearned learn from the wise and are instructed either by speech or books Thus were all the Paracelsians taught for this cause Paracelsus took such long journies Crollius writes that he got his Chymistry by long travel pains and watchings and observations This may be spoken of others of that gang Chap. 6. Of the Analogie of the great and little World THe whole Philosophy of Paracelsus is built upon the Analogie of the great and little World which they extend largely And they of Marpurg write the opinion of the Chymists thus The Chymists call Man a little World Disp 8. not from a superficial likeness but because he comprehends indeed and according to the species though invisibly all things in himself that are contained in a visible form in the three Kingdoms Vegetal Animal and Mineral and in the whole World This is gathered from divers places in Paracelsus his Works Crollius in his Preface writes thus A man is a circle that contains in it all creatures Man carries all things about him the whole Firmament and all the Stars and Planets Man hath the parts of all the world and there is nothing in it that is not really in him He communicates with God in his mind with Angels in his reasonable soul and his invisible star-like body and with the Stars with the same invisible body and with the Elements by his visible earthly body They say there are two bodies in every man the one physical elementary visible and to be touched made of earth which the first man had from the earth Another invisible insensible from the Stars Crollius pag. 36. calls this the Genius Houshold God shadow of Man the little Man that the wise knew Evester and I know not what Severinus speaks warier of this and dissents not from it On the contrary the Aristotelians and the Galenists use the same words with a divers meaning Disp 3. contra Paracel And though man be called often a Microcosm yet they render another reason why he is so called as saith Erastus He hath a visible Elementary body a Heavenly soul that hath power to grow and nourish as in Plants sensible as in Brutes and the mind is Angelical Also he is like the World in the position of his members and rise of them For there are three parts of the great World The Elementary Coelestial and Supercaelestial To these three man answers by the head breast and belly the last Religion answers the Elementary in which there is perpetual generation and corruption By the breast in which the fountain of vital heat he answers to the Heavens in which is the Sun the original of heat to the world In his head where the mind abides and from which all senses come he is not only like the Coelestial and Angelical world but in that particular the image of God Hence we may gather that the Analogie of the great and little World In labyrin med errant is extended too large by the Chymists because they make not an Analogie but an identity or the same thing For Paracelsus requires in a true Physitian that he say this is a Saphire in man this is Quicksilver this Cypress this a Walflower but no Paracelsian ever shewed this In this great world not only are the Heavens and Elements Metals and Minerals but Plants and Beasts Therefore Paracelsus and Severinus are out saying There is no flegm choler or melancholy in the great World therefore not in Man for humors are found in Beasts as in Men. Also I grant there are many hidden properties in man that agree with many natural things not only in general but with their species or kinds and also with their individuals and dissent also from them wonderfully Hence comes the Sympathy and Antipathy of many things with mans body The Astrologers affirm that peculiar Stars have agreement with the peculiar parts of our bodies But the sublunary things are better known Piony hung about the neck cures the Epilepsie Cantharides hurt the bladder and no other part the Saphire agrees with the heart also Bezoar and Pearl but the causes of this
qualities and powers as reason is in a man heat cold moisture driness come from the Elements and divers temperaments that arise from them also lightness and heaviness and what cannot be referr'd to these comes from another principle To this belong the intentional qualities as the visible species known to all and others like hence are many hidden consents and dissents of things which have their subjects in which they are and from whence they come as for example many cannot abide the presence of a Cat though she be in a Cupboard and they neither see nor hear her So there are many hidden influences of heavenly bodies which affect a man and yet they are not perceived either by sight hearing or scent or any other sense but only by the affect we confess that somthing doth flie out of the Load-stone to the Iron by which it comes to it but sense cannot comprehend it And this is the chief foundation of natural magick if there be any some say it is the perfection of Natural Philosophy which doth wonders by the fit application of Agents and Patients others deny it First because Physick is a Science but this Magick is an operation therefore it cannot be the end and perfection of Natural Philosophy Secondly what is delivered by Baptista Porta concerning Natural Magick are not above and besides the condition of Nature Prius Merand de rer praeuol lib. 7. c. 2. They think best of this that say some Magick is from the Devil by an open and express league another which is honoured of many as being Natural which comes from a silent bargain with the Devil and to this belongs that which Plato writes of in his Alcibiades thus the Magick of Zoraster is in the worship of Gods which were Devils It was famous among the Aegyptians and Chaldaeans and the Paracelsians at this day commend it highly We deny not that Magick Natural which goes beyond the bounds of Nature and which consists in a Sympathy of Natural things But to the business The conditions of Natural heat are different from those of the Elementary for in cold Animals and Plants cold in respect of their elementary temper the inbred Heat is the cause of all attraction excretion increase generation and life this is not in the Elementary and the heat there is not contrary to the cold for Plants and their seeds and roots in winter and frost keep their strength and often they grow under the Snow and if that heat were Elementary it would be easily overcome of the cold Moreover that Spirit and body like the Air is swifter and lighter then any Element and hath fit heat to perform all actions agreable to its kind from whence it hath its denomination in Animals v. 4. de mundo Also this body hath great piercing force and Aristotle calls it a Spirit Nor is it absurd for Spirits to pierce each other for the Animal Vital and Natural pass through each other without confusion as may be observed in the Eye which lives feels and fees which actions are performed by divers motions It is not hard to answer Zabarells argument concerning the heat like the Airy Element He thinks there are not two heats in a living creature one Elementary the other Vital because two accidents cannot be in one subject of the same species distinct in number First I deny that they are of the same species Secondly that they are in the same subject the Elementary heat hath fire for its subject the vital or coelestial hath the spirit or body like the Element of Stars and if the subjects be mixed there is nothing hinders that these two heats should be united To conclude In defensio Contra ano renum c. 23. Syntag. arca Chymi lib. 1. c. 22. To know the nature of Spirits read Quercetans History where he shews that a Rose or Marigold in a Glass sealed up by Hermas his Seal may revive by their Spirit like the Resurrection Libavius saith the same which the haters of Chymistry have not observed Chap. 11. Of the Principles of the Chymists ISaac Holland Basil Valentine and after them Paracelsus and Severinus make three Principles of Chymistry and also Quercetan they are Salt Sulphur and Mercury they give the names of the Species in which the faculties are most flourishing liquors of Mercury oyls of Sulphur thicker bodies are called Salt not that they are the principles of things but because the differences of three substances of which all bodies are made with the properties and conditions are not explained more in any species of Nature And being there are three orders of the bodies of the lower world Animals Vegetables and Minerals Ideae Phil. c. 8. Severinus shews that these three principles are to be found in every individual of them And they say a Physitian must resolve all bodies into these principles and all the properties of all bodies are found either in the Salt Sulphur or Mercury nor do they plainly declare their offices in the constitution of things Severine saith Salt gives the consistence of solidity and coagulation Sulphur with his oyl tempers the congelation of the Salt And Mercury by dewing it with a fluid substance makes the mixture more easie Quercetan saith the divers tast is from Salts Lib. de intervis rerum li quaturis sent from Sulphur and colour from both especially from Mercury And Hermes called these three the Spirit Soul and Body Mercury the Spirit Sulphur the Soul Salt the Body Begwin saith Tyroci Chym. lib. 1. c. 2. falt is the bond of the other bodies that Mercury and Sulphur flie not away Sulphur is like the Sun digests concocts nourisheth generateth pleaseth the scent consumes superfluities in the body attracts That Mercury is the Spirit of the World from the great Mystery so they are not fixed in delivering their principle and explain not what they are nor distinguish them for they say they are in each other as Sulphur and Mercury in Salt in Mercury Salt and Sulphur in Sulphur Salt Mercury They call these Vital Principles because they give strength faculty and power to things and are the causes of actions They call them also formal Principles because they give power of action to things and open the hidden waies of action and supply the explication of occult qualities Now are there such principles How and of what things are they principles In labyrin med errant I reject their opinion because they say they were before the Elements and Heaven is made of them For they have not proved them to be the principles of things subject to generation and resolution The Learned modern Chymists dare not defend this but say the Elements were before these principles in order of natural bodies Therefore let us see whether there are other principles besides the Elements of natural sublunary bodies Metals Minerals Gemms Stones Flants and Animals I say Chymical principles were not before the Elements as simple bodies but either
in essence so they differ in operations and instruments For heat the instrument of a vegetative soul 2. de gene ann c. 1. only heats but chyle is made in the stomach not from heat but the chyle-making faculty So heat in the liver makes blood by sanguification but the soul never useth heat to cool or moisture to heat and dry or any thing to act beyond its strength And the first qualities by what unspeakable way soever mixed are not poyson in venemous beasts but the Nature of poyson is from another principle And as divers actions are from divers forms so Nature hath given divers instruments to divers forms for divers actions Therefore we must confess that the vertues in Natural things transcend the condition of the Elements and are to be ascribed not to the Elements or matter of things but to the forms and their qualities Chap. 9. Of the Forms Seeds or Stars of Things THey say the Seeds or Stars of all things that are Natural to be generated or corrupted are in the empty Elements Abyss Hippocrates Hells Night of Orpheus Ilias or Iliastrum of Paracelsus hence all things are bred and all actions of life and qualities came from them And these seeds lie invisibly in the Elements pure and are defiled by the mixture of bodies they call them Seeds Severinus c. 8. because they perpetually produce fruit in their season And Stars because they keep the laws of motion in all natural actions And Roots because in them all the fruitfulness of the Tree of the World is contained And they say every Element hath its seeds And though the inserior Elements have not such perfect individuals yet they have bodies to last for ever in their treasury by which the perpertuity of the seeds and species is kept from destruction They say the Starrie Bodies of the lower Elements are twofold some are purer like those coelestial and are not seen but by the industry of Artists and as the seeds differ in their offices and proprieties so do the bodies All these are not new but contain the vulgar Doctrine of forms therefore they only put new names to things known All famous Philosophers thought that the sorms of Natural things were a Divine and unchangeable principle Ideal Philos cap. 6. 8. and an instrument or hand of God the Creator Galen calls the wonderful works of generation a great Art or Wisdom and the Christian Philosophers say they have not their power from themselves but their Creator at first when he said Let Earth bring forth the herbs bearing seed and the tree in its kind bearing fruit which hath its seed The form or soul of things Star or Root is the act of a thing and the cause why the matter is actually what it is the perfection quiddity and the cause of all motion in a body and the image of a Divine essence Therefore the modern Chymists call the Souls Stars for as Stars end their motions at certain times so do the souls observe laws of motion Black Hellebore flourisheth in Winter the Daffodil in the beginning of the Spring Violets in March Roses in May the Elder in June the Vine and Hops in July then they are ripe at a set time and their motion ended they rest till the next year And if we knew more of the Soul we would declare it Though Severinus braggs he knows more saying I have laid the Rudiments of this Nature and it is not fit to deolare all But he was ignorant without doubt as all men are Moreover Severinus saies that qualities numbers conformation and other signatures come from these forms or seeds and right for while the inward form makes her body she makes also forms which Libavius needs not admire for they do not by their own force but as they are instruments in the hand of the Creator who gives them this force not immediately but from his first blessing Therefore Severinus was not the first that taught this but Sealiger before him saith That qualities quantities number and order and situation are from the Soul and she made the body for her Temple But for truth sake let us consider this opinion farther and speak of the Original of Forms Of the Original of Forms THe Philosopers did not only admire generation but labored to find out the forming cause which made the matter so perfect and and greatness number figure and order and other things in bodies that live Lib. de form foetus Some despaired Galen asketh all the Philosophers that if they have found any truth they should communicate it for nothing was yet known that could satisfie a learning Soul The inquirers have divers opinions For though neither the form nor the matter is generated properly asunder but the copound yet because generation cannot be without the form it is demanded whence that is Fernel saith the form is sent from without and shews that strength is sent to the seed with heat and spirit 1. de abditis ter causis which by force of the womb and a gentle heat prepare the matter that the form may be received which done perfectly the form comes from without by a natural mevitable necessity and from whence forms come he saith That Heaven brings forth many creatures and plants from no seed Cap. 10. and all the forms are contained in the form of Heaven in power and Heaven being as it were great with child of many forms begets al things But he brings no probability to establish this his opinion The Heavens help the producing of things and nourish them as a remote cause external but give not the species to things and if all forms should flow from Heaven there would be no univocal generation in inferior things and the Trees and Beasts were only the progeny of Heaven Secondly it is a common opinion of the Peripateticks that forms are raised from the power of the matter but if the matter should contain forms in it self and they came from it the matter would be the most noble being and a more noble principle then the form and forms would be scarce worthy of the name of a principle Some say the matter doth not actually contain the form but there is in it a disposition to a form which being compleated then it is actual what it was before in power And the Nature of seed is that when there is an adequate or fit efficient cause it comes from power to be in act or form and so this power is only a certain determination that this not that should be made of this matter As for Example a Chicken comes of an egg not a Horse But whence is this act or form or substance doth that power and disposition which is a quality turn into a substance or is the form made of nothing so that the agent gives nothing of its essence unto it Lib. de facult ann c. 11. besides action But both these are absurd and contrary to truth namely
the same course of Nature and power with the Heavens Concerning the Creation of Man Severinus saith Man is a quintessence extracted from the Firmament and Elements or a subtile Essence of the whole World extracted and concreted into one body And so is the compleat image of the Universe and he adds that God in creating the World plaid the Spagyrist or Chymist These things plainly taken are not to be endured because there are two parts that constitute man the soul and the body neither of which being alone can be called man There are also spirits in the body which are the principal instruments of the soul and the soul useth them immediately in the actions of life These spirits are invisible but corporeal if the Chymists take these for the invisible man they tell us no news onely they speak improperly when they give the name of the whole to a part of man If they mean any thing besides spirits to be the invisible man they multiply beings or they must prove that besides the body soul and spirit there is an other substance in man and I shall not yeild to them till they do Then in describing the Creation of man Crollius is very rash for God by his power created man of clay and gave him strength as he pleased nor had he need of the Spagyrick Art to give him strength and we read that man was made according to Gods image and we read not that that clay or dust of which he was made was the quintessence of the whole World therefore the Paracelsians are out What they say of generation nourishment and rule of mans body is according to Hippocrates and Galen only a little coloured with other fictions yet some things are false When they say that generation is from mechanical spirits and that after generation the body being compleat all natural actions are administred they say true but it is no news But they erre in two points First for rejecting the temperament to be from the first qualities as though it availed not for actions for an animated part having its temper and full of natural heat and spirits is the adequate or fit organ for every action therefore none of these must be wanting Then they erre in that they give knowledg to act simply to the spirits for they act not by their own strength but are directed by the soul and this knowledg is belonging to the soul which is the first cause of all actions in a living body Fourthly they think not right concerning blood when they deny it to be the nourishment of the body and place it above the dignity of the parts for experience teacheth that the chyle is turned into blood as the meat into chyle for no other end but that the whole body should be nourished with blood Therefore since Severinus hath questioned so plainly a matter and brought no reasons against it we may with as much ease deny what he saies Fiftly when he saith the spirits are hungry and filled it is absurd for it is the creatures properly but the spirits are refreshed and restored it is one thing to indicate and another to defire Consumed spirits indicate restauration but the appetite desires to be preserved by its like and to have what is troublesom removed Sixthly they make blood one of the parts and and it may be allowed but let them understand parts as Hippocrates did when he divided the body into parts cōtaining contained and such as do force otherwise blood is no part but nourishment They do ill to give the government of the body to blood because it is only for nourishmēt but the spirits govern the body under the soul Seventhly they do ill to accuse the Galenists of idleness Nor are they ignorant of that of Hippocrates of places in men which Severinus quored nor are they ignorant that the diseases in the joynts are worst when humors flow from other parts under them This they call by a new name Synovia and they know not what to determine about it But Hippocrates only attributes that humor to the joynts that they may move better Paracelsus thought otherwise of Synovia when he said It is a nourishment of its part Lib. 7. paragr par 7 And they since say it is an internal vertue and agility or a sweet Milk which nourisheth the parts all these hang not well together Eightly Severinus doth undeservedly accuse Galen because he reckoned not the gall among the parts of the body for it ought to be cast out as an excrement it is so far from being a part that constitutes a body Ninthly when Severinus makes a stomach in the liver and other parts it is simple to quible so upon the word Stomach as Paracelsus did when he said the pleurisie was in the head The 10. Chapter of Severinus is Galen in other words Lib. 3. de morb tartareis c. 4. The Paracelsians toss the humors strangely and say they are but bare words and call the Galenists Humorists because saith Paracelsus Neither Heaven nor Earth knows flegm choler or melancholy therefore they are not in man And why should we prove the humors from the Analogy between the great and little World It is foolish without sense or experience to flie to such Analogical proofs For as in other creatures so in man there is blood which nourisheth now sense teacheth that blood is made of meats received but not Salt Sulphur or Mercury and when a vein is opened blood is let out not Salt Sulphur or Mercury and in all bodies in all times ages places and countries blood is found But Paracelsus differs in this from himself and mentions blood and humors in many of his Books But they will answer that it is manifest to the senses that blood is in the veins but they will shew by an artificial dissolving of it that it hath three Principles as they shew from what fountain actions proceed but here they seem wise for while we speak of blood and humors the question is not touching the first Principles of things but of the immediate in mans body and perfect animals Suppose we grant that blood and humors are made of Salt Sulphur and Mercury therefore must the ancient names of choler blood flegm and melancholy be rejected by the same reason you may reject the appellations of bones membranes flesh and of all parts for by the principles of Chymists these are made of their three principles as well as blood Therefore it is fit that ancient should be kept to which Galen Hippocrates Aristotle Avicen Mefue and the rest have agreed both Chymists and others For it is not for every one to give names to things nor was Paracelsus so great a man that he ought so to do The names of the humors are not insignificant without essence and properties Seed Flesh and Bone are made of Blood as the rest but because they have a new form they take new names And that which was before called Bread may be called
mixed The modern Chymists follow Severinus and Crollius saith they are lighter but they are more dark Thus he writes In praefat admonit Our visible Elements are only the bodies and houses of others and keep off their force The Earth is twofold the outward visible the inward invisible The outward is not an Element but the body of the Element and is Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Element of the Earth is Life and Spirit in which the Stars of the Earth lie which by the body of the Earth produce all growing things and so of the rest In which he follows the Doctrine of Paracelsus but differs from Severinus and other Chymists But many things here cannot be proved First they abuse the word Element contrary to the custom of all ages for it properly signifies the least part of that from which the thing is made as from its matter But their Elements are only places matrices receptacles And the place differs much from the matter The wiser Chymists have three principles that come from the Elements or are joyned in the composing of natural bodies But Paracelsus puts his principles before the Elements and from one mixture of Salt Sulphur and Mercury and makes Fire In labyr med err from another Air another Water and Earth which no Philosophy can allow Others make the Elements vile and servile Bodies in disgrace of God and Nature who made all very good They serve God and man and all sublunary creatures and so are to be commended nor are they by that of no value or relolling as they say For the Chymists know their actions who can do nothing with heat and cold They erre also in making the Elements gross Bodies though the Earth be Also they erre in calling them visible they may see Earth and Water but when they will see air or fire I know not They foolishly say they are dead because they never were alive And it is worse that they say The Earth is cursed As for their invisible Elements Inexam philoso we shal believe it when they prove any such hidden under these for their affirmations only cannot creat new beings Libavius writes well of Severinus The good man saith he speaks well as if he came from the treasure of Nature and saw all open but he proves nothing Severinus his Eloments being without bodies and dimensions are not to be allowed for all learned men say the principles of bodies are corporeal He saies they are not infinite therefore they have dimensions and bounds Nor doth it hang together when he calls these incorporeal Elements empty and void and allows to them contrariety and resistence and explains their invisible Nature It may be that Paracelsus put one Element within another for the form and beginning of action and original of all qualities for when the external visible Elements which are inferior to their internal have noble qualities their Elements must have more noble qualities and actions but they never shewed us any yet They say in general only that they are vital and strong to nourish the seed of generation Nor do they prove that seeds are without their species in the Elements as they say Nor did God put seeds in the Elements in the Creation but into the species of natural things in the Elements Nor are seeds seen out of the individuals in the Elements but only in the individuals of their species Nor did God say in the Creation Let the seeds of Plants be in the Elements the same reason is in Animals All things have their seed in themselves and multiply by force of the Divine Word and so the species are preserved And to that they say from Orpheus and Hippocrates We know they spake often from the opinion of the Vulgar and themselves and many things are attributed to Hippocrates which were not his And many absurdities are among the Ancients most from ignorance of the Creation Erastus examines their Doctrine at large As for the first qualities which they value not but call relolling and dead It is foolish to fight against the experience of fense by which it is plain that the first qualities have great force for generation and corruption of natural things and are as considerable as scent savor and colour While we desend the Elements we must not adhere to them alone as some Aristotle knew above the Elemēts as in his Books of the Soul And when he saith 2. de generat anim c. 3. The vertue and power of every soul partakes of another body which is more Divine then the Elements and as the souls are more or less noble so is the Nature of that body For there is in all seeds which makes them fruitful which is heat not a fire but a Spirit which is contained in the seed or froathy body And the Nature in that Spirit is like the Element of the Stars c. Alexander Aphrodisaeus saith many things are in Nature that are known only by experience In proemio probl and are called by Physitians secret proprieties and accuseth them that say the causes of such effects come from the Elements or their qualities Galen accuseth Pelops his Master Lib. 11. de simpl facult Exercit. 101. sect 14. because he would bring all things to manifest qualities and Scaliger saith it is great impudency to Cardan thus What evil genius hath lead thee to say that iron may draw the Loadstone only by mixture of Elements Hence we see that Galenists and Aristotelians are not drowned in the qualities of the Elements Also they knew the Sympathy and Antipathy of things and we defend not them that know nothing but the first qualities For alteration or hurt from manifest qualities cannot kill a man so soon as poyson Secondly the first qualities have not very great force in a smal quantity but poyson hath a little spittle of a mad Dog lyeth somtimes above six months in the body and then offends grievously 3. delo art c. 7. which elementary qualities cannot do and so of other things as the Loadstone and Purgers and Antidotes Nor do occult qualities arise from a singular temper of things mixed unknown to us Lib. 1. de plantis called Idiosynorasia for occult qualities cannot arise from the first qualities For as Scaliger saith There is no savor or tast in any Element as it is an Element nor can it be in a compound from the Elements And if occult qualities are from a singular mixture of Elements may not life laughter sense and voluntary motion and the soul come from the same And to what they say the strange actions come from the form though the qualities are the instruments of forms and are directed by them yet they never loose their strength or Nature but only exercise them If any more noble action be done it is from other faculties and qualities meeting And while they are directed by their forms they act not beyond the strength of their species As things differ
multiply it self For it is most certain that the Veins of Allum Vitriol and Metals being exhausted after some time have been filled again In ex trac quaest Chymi de la. Philo. of which see John Conradus Gerhard Doctor of Physick Nor is it absurd in Minerals to say that the Spirit that makes gold or silver wil grow with a sit matter and being gold or silver and this gold and silver before it grow solid and be boyled out can send from it self gold and silver-making spirits which may turn a fit matter into gold or silver and so the Mines are kept still full But the doubt is Lib. 1. de plantis whether they grow properly Scaliger denies Stones to grow yet some allow a seed to Metals and Minerals if not univocal or proper yet Analogical or like This I take to be certain that these forms or seeds were first created of God to be the principles of their kinds And this seminal principle or spirit that formeth Lib. de lapid gen c. 1. is in an hidden manner in Metals and Stones see Anselme Boetius concerning this Chap. 10. Of the Spirit and inbred Heat SEverinus and other modern Chymists mention a Natural Balsom a vital Sulphur a vital Mummy and they mean nothing but the inbred Spirit and natural heat mentioned by Galen and the Peripateticks For this natural heat the question is not concerning the bare heat or quality but the body for Aristotle calls it a Body others a Spirit And Galen saith that the natural heat is the active Spirit 3. de sympt med fac c. 9. and it is better with Aristotle to call this substance a Spirit then with the Physitians a Natural Heat although it signifies not only a naked quality but a substance Yet this appellation came frō the perfectest animals which are hot when touched and act by a heat that may be felt for in plants there is the same spirit but it is not to be felt though it is in the coldest weather in them The word Spirit is used diversly but here for a substance thin and subtile that belongs to the constitution of animals vegetables and other things which the form or soul useth as a principle instrument to act by But whether is this Spirit of Aristoles of an elementary Nature We deny not that it is joyned with elementary heat so that it can scarce be found without it as the animal faculty is not found without the natural But if you ask if that Spirit have nothing in it but what is elementary we answer with Fernel Variola Schenkius and others that there is somthing spiritual in natural things besides the Elements To prove this take Scaligers arguments Exercit. 307. saying Every form of a perfect mixture though it be not a soul as in a Diamond hath a fifth Nature distinct far from the four Elements From whence there is a strong argument against Alexander that made the soul to be composed of the four Elements There is in the powers of the soul which never was in the powers of any Elements But there is nothing contained in any thing that was not actual in its principles for the principles are the acts of those things of which they are principles But in the soul there is faculty to move forward backward to the right or left which is not in any Element also there are many powers in the soul which are not in the Elements This strong argument we apply thus to our purpose There is that in the powers of this Spirit or heat which never was in the powers of any Elements and the powers are more excellent Therefore this Spirit is not only from the Elements Another is from Aristotle though he only applies it to Seeds 2. De gen ani c. 3. That which partakes of a Spirit in which there is a Nature that answers in a certain proportion to the heavenly heat hath a body better then the Elements But every soul hath such a Spirit therfore it partakes of a body better then the Elements For certainly there is a more divine vertue then the Elements in a body that is better then the Elements For the vertue and the subject must answer each other hence it is that according to the noblenss and ignobleness of the soul the begetter of those vertues and the subject body are different And because this Spirit makes fruitful seeds like the coelestial heat in proportion I thus argue A heat like the caelestial is more divine then an elementary heat but the heat of the seed is such therefore it is more divine I prove the major from the efficacy of both heats That heat is more like coelestial heat whose operation comes nearer to the efficacy of a coeleitial heat but the heat of the seed comes nearer the acting to the coelestial heat then the heat of the Elements and therefore is more like the coelestial heat Alchy triumph c. 9. for the heat of the fire is not so sweet and benigne as that of the Heavens Therefore Libavius writes that neither the common Elements nor the vertue of them all nor any conjunction of them can effect that Rhubarb should purge or that a flie should not be bred The heat of Animals is from the Elements as it is heat but as it is fruitful it is from a nobler cause As for examples the hammer makes a pot not as it is iron but as it hath a power from the Artificer If they say this heat is elementary but it acts more powerfully in a mixt body then when it is simple we say that it cannot act beyond its strength in a mixt body and nothing can do what is not in its own nor in the Elements power with which it is mixed And if these noble actions may be from the mixture of Elements temper of the first qualities why may not life voluntary motion sight and all animal actions and the Soul it self as Alexander saith be fetcht from the same mixture We grant that heat doth much as it is the instrument of the Soul which alone it cannot do as it hath divers effects as to make chyle in the Stomach blood in the Liver but these actions are not to be attributed to heat alone but to the Soul that useth the heat Yet it followeth not hence that all actions which are nobler then those of the Elements come from the Soul for the dead parts of beasts have some operations and force which cannot be reduced to the Elements Why then may there not be actions in living creatures and accidents which come not from the Soul what is common to the Soul with Scents Savors Colours Therefore do they that deny this heat to be like that of the Element of the Stars in vain flie to the Soul For the divers distinct qualities affections and actions in natural things are to be refer'd to the distinct principles from whence they flow for every species hath its proper
mixed or peculiar natures made at the first Creation with other kinds of natural things as the principles of their kind which among themselves and mixed with the Elements give convenient matter to other natural things subject to generation and corruption as Metals Minerals Gems Stones Plants and Animals When I say they were mixed I deny not the concurrence of other Elements to their constitution as resolving of them doth prove to the Chymists Moreover I suppose that they have their peculiar forms from God in the first Creation as was given to other kinds of natural things as Scaliger saith Exercit. 138. s 20. The form of every perfectly mixed body though it be not a Soul as in a Diamond is of a fifth Nature and far differing from the four Elements And I suppose that from these diversly mixed by concurrence of the Elements the divers bodies of natural things are made and that the divers qualities and accidents come immediately from the same as from their first and proper subjects which others in vain bring from the Elements only for there is no force in the Elements to produce scents savors and colours And if there be any it is that Spirit which Aristotle saith is like the Element of the Stars And let none think that there is a matter required for mixture from the regions of the four Elements for when God created the Elements he mixed them by his Word and gave them their peculiar forms and seminal and essential reasons like those of Heaven and so he keeps on still the course of Nature by propagation of the species in the Individuals And now since the Creation those principles are to be seen in the Water and the Earth from divers corruptions For as the order in Nature is that inferior things should serve the superior so it is in bodies the Elements are first thence Salt Sulphur and Mercury or the first mixture by what Name soever termed which though made of Elements yet have they forms by which they differ that arise not from the forms of the Elements mixed together but from the first Creation Then from these being diversly mixed by concurrence of the Elements Minerals Metals Stones and Gemms Plants and Animals receive their matter and bodies in which by the form of every species they are diversly bounded as we see Salt drawn from the Earth may be taken out of the Plants that drew it and Creatures feeding upon plants are changed but never plainly change their Nature And this is not against the Ancients though these names are not mentioned it is sufficient that the thing is stil extant and we may put new names to things newly known because words are at mens disposing Hippocrates saith Lib. de nathuma That Plants drew not only heat and cold moisture and driness or that which was mixed of them but whatsoever was in the Earth agreeable to their Nature whether four or bitter sweet or salt And man is nourished of them and every living creature also and therefore they are in man and them and natural bodies are made of them being mixed and when they are well tempered together they cannot be seen nor be troublesom to man But when they are not well tempered they offend he writes thus Heat alone is not the cause of a disease Hippocr lib de veceri medici but heat and bitterness or heat and sharpness or heat and saltness and many more are the causes of diseases Hence the cure of pestilent malignant and venemous diseases is divers and hence are the divers Symptomes in malignant and pestilent Feavers and constitutions which cannot be from only putrefaction or distemper And though Hippocrates names not plainly Salt Sulphur and Mercury yet the Chymists cal them four bitter and salt But by what arguments we may prove there are such Principles First wheresoever the same affects and qualities are in many they must be in them by some common principle as all things are heavy by reason of the earth and hot by reason of the fire but colours scents savors and the like are in Minerals Metals Stones Jewels and Plants Therefore they are in them by some common principle and subject but the Elements are not such a principle because they have no power to produce such qualities Therefore we must search for some other principles And they are deceived who think to prove colours scents and savors to come from the Elements The next is the argument of Galen and Aristotle Arist 3. de coel c. 3. Gal. lib. 2. de ele c 3. Natural bodies are made of such things as they are resolved into but they are resolved into those three principles therefore they are made of them It is evident that Salt is in all things and may be drawn from them as from Plants and Animals And though Chymists say that Metals are made only of Sulphur and Mercury yet they speak of the next principles as Physitians when they say that seed and blood are the principles of mans body deny not the four Elements And he that knows Metals right and can make Crystals of thē may easily find Salt in them And though all mixed bodies tast not Salt yet it doth not thence follow that there is no salt in them nor can we deny fire to be in all mixtures though all things are not felt to be hot nor is this Salt to be accounted earth because Salt is hot and dry and clensing but earth is cold and dry What I have said of Salt may be said of Sulphur it is plain to be found not only in Plants In praesat in Georg. Agricolam but Metals and Minerals and as Cornelius Martin writes Sulphur is in all Metals except gold I mean combustible Sulphur that will flame and smell as the ordinary Brimstone Nor are they bound to shew the pure principles it is enough to shew the bodies in which they excel The forms of Chymical Elements or Principles do not their duty then Zabarel de generat interm c. 2. but since forms are made for a more active composition the superiors are made subject and are instead of matter and are called hot or dry as they are mixed by the predominate Element So from these principles are four salt combustible and scented things and when a mixed body is corrupted some parts turn to fire earth and air others into Salt others into Sulphur and to be plain and short the Chymical principles are in other mixtures as the Elements are in them and are so brought forth now in the next Chapter we shal shew how Elements are in mixed bodies but for the matter in hand I am of their side that hold the Elements are whole in mixed bodies according to their forms and when a mixed body is resolved again into the Elements the Elements return not again in specie or kind but in number I shal stand to this till I am convinced by solid reason Nor is the same quantity of Salt or
the air Let the Earth produce Creatures after their kinds beasts and creeping things and it was so And that God blessed the Creation saying Increase and multiply Hence it appears that God by his power created the kinds of all natural things and gave them their forms and bodies He that made the Elements mixed them according to his Wisedom and joyned them with those close Principles Thus all things are multiplied by the divine blessing and preserved to this time so that the species of Plants and all living Creatures are only in their Individuals God at the Creation gave forms to all things and made them not of the Elements as some modern Writers say that know nothing but the Elements Therefore the forms of things come not from an abyss and take fit bodies by their Mechanick spirits but God in the Creation gave every thing its form In examine Philo. vit part 2. contra Paracel which multiply by his blessing The other opinions are bawbles like the gate by which Aeneas came from Hell Libavius and Erastus have written at large against them What they say of the superior Globe and its fruits and generations is absurd and ridiculous against both reason and experience the Stories of Lucian are more probable and Erastus saith right of Paracelsus The Principle upon which all his Doctrine of Meteors stands besides its prophaneness against Scriptures is so foolish and simple absurd and ridiculous and false that a man cannot without fear of disgrace rehearse them or speak of the confutation of them among wise men What they say of the generation of Plants and Animals may agree with Aristotle if they would allow that the species came not from an abyss or Hippocrates his Hell but the propagation came from seeds as that corporal things are made of incorporeal and incorporeal of corporal For they differ rather in words then sense from Aristotle and Galen because spirits somtimes are condensed into bodies and bodies are turned into spirits when vital and animal spirits are made of blood Their Doctrine of Transplantation is not to be disallowed altogether for it is probable by many things in Nature that the same form may be in a divers body or many forms may be in one seed but subordinate so that one be chief the other servants as appears in the silk-worm but every worm doth not breed from every plant and the forms of such worms are subordinate to the forms of the Plants and other Animals Exercit. 59. sect 2. exer 195. Scaliger and others shew what worms are from such and such Plants I spake in my Hypomnema Chap. 5.8 of Scotch Geese and also of the degenerating of Plants into other for it is certain that they are changed but not every one into any if that be observed there may be a cause given of many generations Some flie to an equivocal generation and putrefaction therefore it is questionable whether there be any generation truly equivocal without any seed Therefore consider that for the propagation of all Plants and Animals there is requisite an inbred matter rightly disposed by which the form may propagate it self but this preparation of matter is greater in some then others Most of the perfect Animals are generated from the womb by the mixture of the male and female seed Others lay eggs from which by heat external the chickens are hatched In ignobler Creatures and Plants generation is not tied to such straight conditions Some Plants onely by seeds sown in the earth do grow others by the roots onely planted others both waies others by slips and siences In some the seminal humor is throughout the whole plant so that any branch or root being taken off and set in the earth they will grow as Willows and Vines I heard from a credible person that from the foam of a mad Dog cleaving to a garment there arose little creatures like Dogs For this seminal principle of ignoble things lies long hidden in a tough clammy matter and resists external injuries and impressions and at length gets up and acteth Let this seed be called Analogical if not Univocal so long as the thing generated be not from putrefaction only Moreover it is not against reason and experience altogether that some seeds are ambiguous and have many forms so that one be chief the other subservient or that some seeds are disposed to divers forms as appears in silk-worms Therefore Averroes and his Disciples speak against reason saying that Animals from putrefaction are different in species from those that are from seed for they are not wholly destitute of seed nor can putrefaction alone produce any creature Since then no generation is without mixture things do not arise from a contention between the Elements but in the first Creation every thing receaved from God not only its proper form but also a body fitted thereunto and they keep this their Nature by the wil and blessing of the Creator to the last Therefore in the propagation of things a specifick form is required which the concourse of Elements and that rash mixture cannot make Therefore the form and soul is the architect and the first mover of every thing in mixture is that soul and form The common operator and instrument of Nature to nourish the vertues of things is the innate and imbred heat and spirit but the operator of mixture is the Divine command which was given to the Elements in the Creation namely that they should agree exactly among themselves for the generation of every particular as Erastus saith but he had said better if he had said that convenient matter had been attracted from the Divine commād by the vegetative soul of every creature for since natural things are not onely first produced in the Creation but stil mixed by the vicissitudes of generation and corruption he should have added that still in generation of things all things are directed by the form not by the mixture of Elements that agree for the constitution of every thing For the forms are the Divine and unchangeable Principle that determines all the actions and passions of natural things and they are as the instrument or hand of the wise Creator that gave them that efficacy at the first Creation then which nothing can be more wonderful The next thing to be considered is whether alwaies in the generation of things there be a resolution to the first Elements so that nothing is mixed but the Elements And whether no sour salt or bitter things be mixed Lib. de prisca medicina Hippocrates writes That a salt and sharp humor is made thick by concoction and mixture And this is so certain that even Vegetables partake of the Nature of Minerals as you may see in the Leaves of Oak and Bayberries Pomegranate peels green which dye a black colour from the Vitriol that is in them so that the Chymists offer to draw Vitriol from green Walnut-shells Lastly it may be doubted whether the first qualities are
gladness at what is pleasant and sorrow at what is unpleasant these passions have great power to alter the body But phansie doth not immediately alter the body by the appetite but as the appetite moves the natural moving faculties in the members and chiefly in the heart these being moved do move the humors and spirits and the spirits comming and going to the part do change them Therefore the remote cause of alteration is the phansie and so it affects its own body and causeth divers diseases in it but of it self it causeth none And if it should the disease would be but imaginary not real So some melancholick people have thought they had great noses or bodies and yet were not so And though some fall into diseases by imagination yet the phansie doth not of it self but by accident by reason of fear which moves the malignant humors lurking in the body and these being moved cause the plague One Vincent thought his body so big that he could not pass through the door and when the Physitian commanded him to be carried through he complained that he was very much bruised and soon after died But this is not because the patient imagineth but because he is diseased And if imagination doth any thing it is by accident from sorrow or fear and the like passions Many diseases come by accident by means of the spirits and humors as they are different in nature and motion And imagination being the cause of divers passions as anger sorrow much joy they have such force to corrupt and change humors that we need not prove it Moreover strong imagination draws the spirits and humors strongly to the head and the heat is taken from the parts ordained for nourishment Thus imagination may cure diseases namely by accident not of it self for confidence makes the patient obey orders because imagination brings passions by which the humors and spirits are moved by which motion they oppose the disease Therefore confidence begets chearfulness and this stirs up the natural heat and spirits and so there is better concoction and the bad humors are overcome and the disease opposed Hence it is that they who are alwaies sad have many crudities and soul humors from the constant loss of heat and spirits From the same cause if patients have some meats they longed for they recover though they be not wholsom And Hippocrates saith that the best meats 2. Aphoris 38. if not affected cause loathing and the stomach doth not rightly embrace and concoct them hence come wind and crudities and the disease increaseth or the patient is longer sick 〈◊〉 â—â—at taken in with pleasure somtimes curethe because either by the joy the spirits which were dull by the disease are raised and refreshed which are the fittest instrument to conquer soul humors and the disease or because when then the patient hath his desire ceaseth from that imagination and the disease which was falsly supposed There are many Histories of this in Thomas á Vega and Alexander Trallian Com. in art med Galeni c. 48. Tralia lib. 2. c. 17. who speaks of a Woman that thought she had swallowed a Serpent Therefore if imagination of it self cannot afflict its own body it cannot change or hurt any other body For the soul cannot act upon externals but by means of the body because the phansie is an immanent action not transient But by accident it may do somwhat for what is said of Witchcraft is not to be wholly despised They say the Baselisk kils a man by the poysonous beams from his eyes These come from spirits and vapors by which the occult Sympathies and contracts of things are And the imagination may somwhat direct these spirits as we said by moving the natural faculties or stirring up the passions so in envy hatred anger venemous humors which are moved in the body are carried to the eyes and flow from thence But a certain distance is required and it is absurd to think that any can be afflicted at many miles distance and it is worse to ascribe to imagination things beyond its force and to which it no waies concurs as when they say a man may fall from a horse by imagination or corn be carried from one field into another Lastly let us consider what imagination can do in child-bearing Hipp 1. de supert Gal dether ad pis Avic fen 2. lib 1. doctr 2. c. 14. gen c. 30. of which there are many Observations so that it is simple to doubt them Hippocrates Galen and Avicen and many other Authors prove it and that of the Patriach Jacob is well known But it is hard to know how imagination could change a child It is certain that the phansie being known and an immanent power doth not of it self change the child and the forming faculty is the immediate cause of quantity figure number position and heat and not the imagination Nor is the child changed by a species of the phansie because of it self it cannot produce any real quality nor hath it any force but to move imagination and to represent to its object and if this species had any force there would be more changes in children It is therefore more probable to reason that the child is changed by the phansie either through the passions and motions of the spirits and humors or by directing the forming faculty The changes and hurts in children are of two sorts common and determinate The common are abortion death inward sickness and weakness smalness or greatness of some part defect or abundance in number The determinate are changes and signatures which have a determinate similitude to some outward thing as for Example when they long for Cherries the impression of a Cherry will be upon the child The first changes may be from phansie by means of the passions and motion of the humors and spirits but the determinate signatures which answer to external things that are offered to the imagination cannot be by motion of the humors and spirits by the imagination For the passions stirs the spirits and humors which stirred are carried with force or in plenty to the child which troubles it and cause abortion by stirring up of the expulsive faculty of the womb Somtimes the forming faculty is disturbed from the same cause in its operation or is overwhelmed or the spirits and humors being sent another way the parts are not rightly formed or they are greater or less But these are not determinate faults nor have they any resemblance with external things because they are made by an accidental motion of the humors onely stirred by the passions and they are not determinated by a peculiar manner according to the species received in the imagination Therefore these errors are to be attributed rather to the passions of the mind â—hen to imagination nor doth the phansie truly and effectually conduce to them nor otherwise then as it stirs up the appetite But when these signatures are determinated and peculiar according to
the species received by the imagination they are ascribed to the phansie nor can the passions of the mind of themselves produce them as when Mulberries Warts and the like come from the imagination upon the child And it may fall out that the same signature may be upon the child from divers passions and a woman may bear a child somwhat like an Ape if she either loved an Ape and plaid with it or was frighted by one which is a sign that somthing else goes with determinate signatures namely the imagination which directs the conformation For the forming faculty alone immediately makes the whole child whether well or ill fashioned But the phansie somtimes seduceth the forming faculty and directs it to make such a thing as is not conformable to the nature of the seed but like that which is imagined And so it is said to be the cause of these marks concurring to determine them but this is hard to be explained and some are of another mind It is safest to conclude that the forming faculty is directed by the imagination by the species exemplarily or objectively as they say by objecting the species conceived to which as to an example or rule the forming faculty doth her work But if any wonder that the forming faculty which belongs to the vegetative should know this exemplary species let him understand that all the faculties in a man are powers of the same soul and have some communication among themselves although the manner how is not known plainly Then let him know that the soul doth not this by its own power but a power given by the Creator And though the knowing faculty differs from the forming yet they are in some things agreable for so all parts know and attract the nourishment But how the species being conceived in the brain should be carried to the womb is hard to be understood We may say that while the child grows to the mother and partakes of her life those things that move the powers of the soul in the mother may stir up the faculties in the seed also and more affect the child then the mother because her body is so perfect that it needs nothing but nourishment but the soul is still busie in forming the body of the insant therefore any external thing may easily be admitted to direct it or seduce it to do this or that Many arguments are for this so as the passions of the soul are not alwaies necessary but a fixed intention and imagination is sufficient to mark the child The Queen of Aethiopia conceived of a white child by only viewing the picture of Andromeda So Jacobs sheep marked their lambs by beholding and imagining the party-coloured rods and we see the same in other beasts These changes are in the time of conception and child-bearing but more usually when they are gone some time in which time the forming faculty is at work and busie to make the parts after conception But all marks are not made at all times at the end of the colours may change and the whole figure the foot may be like that of a Horse the head like a Dog or Hog in the last month this cannot because all parts are fashioned For when Nature hath once fashioned the child she cannot alter the figure divide or change the number of parts Nor can the imagination make impression of any changes but only such as the matter of the body is disposed to and the forming faculty is apt to make by Natures order she cannot produce true feathers scales or horns and the reason why these are rather stamped upon the child then the womb is because the forming faculty is not busie about the womb but the child Hence it appears that the phansie cannot act upon a strange body and although the imagination of the mother affects the child yet is it so joyned to her that it seems as a part of her Avicen Alchirus Crolâ—ius Therefore they all are out that think the fancy can affect strange bodies and they that would shew causes disagree among themselves Paracelsus is of their opinion and heaps one absurdity upon another and give reasons as weak as the rest They should have shewed that Phantasmes move another way then by representation nor doth the phansie do any thing but receive the species of things from the senses to judge and bring them to the understanding And how can the species and representation that onely are to represent the thing from which they came change or move any thing without a man Especially seeing the action of the phansie is immanent And as for the imagination of women with child and the marks upon their children by the fancy they only prove that the soul any way moved by the imagination may be the cause of peculiar motions in its own body Therefore what Paracelsus and Crollius have written concerning the imagination is not worth the refuting and to speak short the foundation of all Magical operations and the great Wheel of all Crollius his Magick is false and it is this opinion of the strength of imagination and sew modern Writers follow them This Magick is old nor is it better for that because it came from Plato Lib 3 de vit caelitus comparanda and the Aegyptians given to Idolatry the foundation of this was laid by Marcus Ficinus when he writes that by the application of our spirit to the spirit of the world by the Art of Physick and affection that deeds are cast upon the soul and heavenly good upon our affection But this union of the soul of man with the Angels and Spirits which is by imagination and the calling upon Spirits to do man service is the work and invention of Conjurers Chap. 15. of the Physiological part of Physick THough Severinus and the Chymists seem in many things to dissent from the Galenists yet they disser not much but teach almost the same things only they deliver themselves in other language First Contra Anonimum they make three Principles in man and Quercetan placeth theÌ„ in the three principle parts of the body He saith that the natural faculty which is seated in the liver hath its conservation and nourishment from salt which is the first radical Principle and the foundation of the rest That the vital faculty in the heart is sustained by a sulphurous liquor And the animal faculty is preserved by Mercury which is altogether aetherial and spiritual Then they make a twofold body in man the one visible of the four Elements and blood the other invisible This last is called by them The Starlick Man within incorporeal a kind of Gabal man a houshold God a visible shadow of the body a familiar a shade a little wise man a Demon or good genius The internal Adech of Paracelsus A ghost the Euestrum or presaging light of Nature which is a Prophet also the imagination which contains all the Stars in it self and knows all Stars and keeps
to the Devil In Actis Apost But Paracelsus saith therefore that the patient be forsaken and lie without help when remedies that work by nature cannot cure him being inchanted We say first that it is false that diseases brought by Magick cannot be cured by natural means of which we have many examples For such diseases are often produced by natural means and when such things are removed as causes they are cured by natural means by a strong faith in God So Medicines that purge melancholy have been given with good success to such as have been possessed of the Devil See in Rulands Centuries for a melancholy humor is the Devils bath Also by purges and vomits hair needles wood iron and other strange things have been voided that have caused suspicion of Witchcraft and the patients have recovered Therefore we must never flie to the help of the Devil because it is deceitful he cures the body to get the soul and any disease or death it self ought to be more desired then health from the Devil To this is like the magnetick cure by amulets for many things work naturally by a vertual contract as Galen confesseth 6. Templ when he writes that Piony hung about the neck cures the Epilepsie and the best Physitians confirm it This force is called Magnetick from the Load-stone that draws iron and turns to the Pole without a corporal contract Part 1. disâ—â—t contra Para. He that denies such things is to be accounted very unskil'd in natural things or rash to deny what is proved by experience Though Erastus thinks otherwise Now if any cure be done by these occult consents and dissents of natural things I allow them such are given in the Plague and approved by experience as the great Dukes Oyl the Oyl of Scorpions of Mathiolus So Feavers are somtimes cured by Amulets and Vesicatories Only take heed that no superstitions nor Magick by an explicite or implicite bargain with the Devil be sold to you for Seals and Characters cannot be referr'd to Magnetick operations nor what Paracelsus allows of Images nor can all effects in nature be palliated by the example of magnetick operations There is another question here Part. 1. dsput contra parac Whether ought Plants to be gathered at a certain time according to the aspects of the Stars for Physick Erastus and others deny it and think the Scripture forbids it but where I know not Trees to build with are hewen down rather at the increase then decrease of the Moon In praefat In diosc Therefore I think with Mathiolus and many learned men that the Aspects of Stars are to be observed in gathering some Plants for these inferior things are governed by the superior and consent with them and many learned men think that Piony so famous against the Epilepsie doth not please all men for no other reason then because it was not gathered at the due time and it were good in Physick to observe this The Chymists also differ from the Galenists because the Chymists make nothing of the first qualities against experience by which it appears that the body is distempered by the excess in the first qualities and by the contrary is cured yet they do little good who are so intent on the first qualities regard not the occult moreover many Chymists proclaim all Apothecaries medicines as malignant and venemous and willh ave none but such as have bin clensed and prepared by Chymistry This they labor to prove in all Physick First for Purgers Com. 2. de rat vict in accut nor Pills nor Potions nor Electuaries but they tax as poyson from the consent of Galen the Greeks and Arabians and Galen saith The Nature of Purges ought to be contrary to the nature of our bodies Lib. 6. c. 6. They say our Alterers are as bad so they say from Dioscorides that Saffron is deadly Also Poppy Henbane Hemlock and many others Some are more moderate and say all our medicines are not poyson but have much impurity that hinders their profitable force and they who give whole medicines do like them that boyl the birds in their nests and eat Oyster-shels and all But Alchymy is that only Instrument by which the malignant quality given by God for sin is taken away Let the impurities which hinder the force of the vital spirit and break it be cast away Here they inveigh against the vulgar way of preparing of medicines and first they argue that there are too many simples in a medicine because one disease hath but one nature and requires but one proper remedy And as simple diet is best for a man and variety hurteth much more doth a compound medicine offend a sick person And to contract all in a word that they alleadg against Galenists they disallow the ordinary way of cure and making medicines saying that borh Purgers and Altererers are poysonous corrosives impure unpleasant unefficacious confused and strange Hence they cast off the ordinary Dispensatory they inveigh against forreign medicines and say they are Arabian fooleries and inventions of Apothecaries Then they carp at the Galenists because they use not Stones Metals or Minerals or very seldom being as they say the best of medicines and vegetables are not sufficient to root out diseases because they have a fugitive spirit and make not a fixed Balsom and preserve not from putrefaction as Metals do which last long therfore the Galenists send patients to the Spaw waters which have all their power from the spirits of minerals and metals Therefore the Chymists having a better physical matter and better prepared they say they cure diseases by the Galenists uncurable These accusations are not a few nor weak and if they could clearly prove them the medicines we use were to be totally rejected But it is not hard to vindicate the Galenists for what they say of poyson put into creatures by the curse is without reason and is refuted Chap 16. and the Chymists themselves think otherwise as Rulandus observes Progymnau Alkin qu. 25. Moreover it is foolish to say that all purges have the nature of poyson we grant some that are vehement are adverse in nature to our bodies But what is that against the Galenists or for the Chymists They have their Cauteries and Sections and Vomits that are adverse and yet they are not alwaies to be rejected So if the strong purgers molest in some way the patient yet the profit they bring by purging bad humors is greater Albeit the hurt they bring is from the want of right preparation and administration But no Chymical preparation or separation takes away the poyson from a venemous body or can make it a good Medicine nor do purgers prepare them how you please lay aside their nature wholly Nor have the Chymists given any purge that hath not some way disturbed the patient therefore purging extracts are to be given with as much caution as others What they bring against the vulgar composition of
by nature were concreted and made fluid by heat and then concreted again by cold But in regard many things congeal in moisture and grow together hard whose cause is neither heat nor cold nor driness we must think of another internal cause Two kinds of concretion are to be here considered which are when no part of the matter is taken away or any other added but the whole taking its consistence and concrescence from moisture which we want fit words to distinguish The Chymists call one of these by the High-dutch word Schiessen this coagulation is properly of Salts as Vitriol Allum Niter Salts of Herbs come from a moisture to a consistence This is of Salt properly and they by nature tend to this by their form But being there is one form by nature of Niter another of Vitriol another of Allum another of common Salt Every Salt according to its form and proper spirit coagulateth and grows together in this or that figure so do Gemms concrete in certain figures Lib. 2. demasc prima v. 9. for every form makes bounds to the bigness and quantity and sigure as Zabarel shews Another sort of concretion is called Lapidescentia or turning to stone the next and adequate cause of this is not the Elements nor the principles of Chymistry only but a stone making juyce or spirit which is not without Salt and contains more then Salt as the order of nature is to go from simples to things more compound This is in all Jewels and Stones but according to their special forms We said it was a spirit and a juyce but the chief force is in the spirit and the juyce hath it from the spirit because that stone-makeing force is found in the spirit without the juice As for the differences of Salts they are altered in divers Plants and Animals as in corruption of humors there are divers differences There is Salt in Vitriol Allum Sal Armoniack Iron There is a volatile Salt in a Nettle Arsmart Cokow-pints smal Celandine Mustard There is a salt in humors that causeth the Itch Scab Cancer and other corroding Ulcers There are made Salts as Borax Sal Armoniack and the like Sulphur is another Principle of the Chymists which is properly to burn and nothing burns without it The Elements of themselves are not inflamed and if they seem to burn it is from the sulphurous vapors in them Therefore Sulphur is the first scented thing and other things are smelt by their Sulphur many things that are very sweet being whole scent not but when they are burnt or bruised Hence it is that Sulphur and Fat 's scent not much but when they are burnt or smoak Some joyn scents and savors in a subject and say the scent is of the savory part but experience shews otherwise for there are many most savory and sharp things which have little or no scent as Arsenick Sublimate Mercury and other corroding Minerals that have little or no scent Some impute colours to Sulphur and more probably then to Salt but in colours the matter is more difficult Aristotles Interpreters that bring colours from the mixture of the Elements proye nothing Therefore let the principle of colours be Sulphur or as Anshelme Boetius saith God himself who gives colours as well as shape to Jewels and the like for they come from the proper seminary of every thing Common Sulphur Petroleum or Naphtha Amber and Sea-coal have much Sulphur Gums and Rosins of fat Trees as Pine Fir tree Pitch Oyl and the like Fat 's of Beasts of which see Libavius Parte 3. singular He useth the word Bitumen generally as the Chymists use Sulphur The third Principle is Mercury somtimes taken for Quicksilver Ide Philos c. 8. somtimes for a Principle Salt and Sulphur Severinus saith it is added to the other Principles that by daily moistning of them to nourish them from decay by often action In defens contra an̄o c. 14. In Tyrocin Chymico Quercetan saith it is a liquor sharp and penetrable pure and aetherial and so saith Beguin But they agree not therefore Libavius writes that the modern Chymists describe Salt Sulphur and Mercury by Notes but when we ask what it is they consound all and say that Salt is in Sulphur and Mercury In exami Philoso vit and Sulphur and Mercury in Salt and Mercury and Salt in Sulphur and then he gives this definition Mercury is an essential Liquor drawn by the Chymists from a mixed body after the elementary impurities are separated opposite to the Sulphur and Salt of the same mixed body To speak my mind if there be any such Mercury it is a spiriful Liquor or Spirit which can scarce be separated from subtile Sulphur and volatile Salt to be seen by it self and though it be not seen it is no matter for pure fire is not seen nor air nor the spirit in Animals which are true parts of the Nature of things and the best Such things saith Scaliger deceive the vulgar eyes but wise men see them But I appeal to the Learned whether I be absurd in making these principles mixed with the Elements the common matter for the habitation of forms of the Natural bodies To conclude Metals Minerals Stones and Gemms and Plants are not simply mixed and have not only their forms from the forms of the Elements much less from a double exhalation which maketh the next matter of Meteors because they have better actions then are from Elementary qualities and a double exhalation But the Elements give them matter with the chymical Principles and may hence be better by the causes of many things then from the doctrine of Meteors We can clearly shew Salt and Sulphur from a Chymical separation though they are not manifest before We desire to know more of Mercury not of the Metal but of the Principle Aristotle attributes all to a Spirit which the Chymists do to Mercury for Quercetan and Beguin call it a substance or body to be passed through penetrated aethereal pure subtile quickning and the next instrument of the form and call it the Spirit of ancient Hermes The Chymists call that vital Sulphur which Aristotle calls the Natural heat and describe their Mercury as that it is in the Natural heat And this Sulphur and Mercury are so united in Nature that they cannot wel be separated but when the Sulphur is on fire Mercury flies away Also the actions from the whole substance and the hidden qualities are attributed to this Spirit as to the proper subject this in poysons is a venemous spirit in purges a purging spirit As for the original of these Principles some think them to be the first mixtures others to be peculiar natures in the first Creation concreted with other species of natural things to be of the Nature of the Elements He that will embrace the first opinion must hold that these bodies have nobler forms by which they are more noble then the Elements and from which other qualities
flow that are not in the Elements Exercit. 307. sect 20. so that is true of Scaliger Every form of any perfect mixture though it be not a soul is of a fifth Nature far different from the four Elements For God created forms and substances like that of Heaven put them into natutal bodies These opinions whether they be mine or other learned men do no whit diminish the splendor of Aristotelean Philosophy and Galenical Physick for he that supplies a defect overthrows not the former Chap. 12. Of Generation and Mixture THe former Principles being granted the modern Chymists lay down Generation Mixture thus They place the groud of generation in seeds and define generation thus It is the progression of seeds from their fountains and abysse and vital Principles into this scene of the world by which from invisible things they become visible and produce all the ornaments of all bodies and by this renovation of individuals they preserve the perpetuity of all species or kinds Ideae Philos cap. 8. And they add many things out of Severinus as that seeds have this power that they acquire to themselves things consentaneous or agreeable and that they are not in every subject but in such a hot cold moist or dry body or this or that Salt Sulphur or Mercury For the confirmation of which they quote Hippocrates Lib. 1. de diaetta saying That nothing wholly perisheth nor doth any thing arise that was not before c. And after he saith thus Light goes and is transmuted into Jupiter darkness into hell and light into hell and darkness into Jupiter c. For say they bodies being adorned with the signatures of seeds and clothed with comeliness represent the image of light but when they wither and loose the vigor of their seeds they are covered with darkness and therefore are called dark And Severinus saith That Operations are by mechanick Spirits which being not armed with knowledg are dispersed into naked vapors and smoak They assign three kinds of generation to the inferior globe namely of Animals Vegetables and Minerals They say that in Animals there is a seminal matter in the animal Balsom the vital Sulphur in the vital Spirit and Mummy which is alwaies in man Perfect creatures beget and are begotten onely of their own proper seeds Others from seed and putrefaction as Mice But Plants have a thicker body more slimy in respect of the seed of Animals and in them some parts resemble the testicles or stones by which the seed is prepared more perfect and more safely kept and such parts by that do propagate the seminal matter Hence it is that some plants propagate by their seed others by their roots others by other waies They make the generation of Minerals much different from the former Their seeds and speciesflourish in the seminal reasons of the matter and are kept in the Night of Orpheus and the Hell of Hippocrates or the Iliastrum of Paracelsus and there they expect their fate which is destinated and at times appointed they enter into the world with vital Principles and mechanick Spirits They deny not life to be in Minerals but prove it to be from the times of maturity from the fixed Periods of Paroxisms by orderly running of the veins from the agreeable compositions of their bodies from their tast and colour Also they acknowledg no greater art in living forms then what is in the variety of their colour scent and tast and that the colour of a Saphire and hardness of a Diamond are as wonderful as the organs of a Bat. As for the upper Globe there are in it certain distinct generations For in the Celestial Elements they say there are perfect Individuals that last with admirable vigor And that they flourish with aboundance of vital spirit which being fermented to a due exaltation and maturity go into the air with a spiritual invisible but abundant fertility and having acquired bodies as fit garments they produce their fruits They say some Stars are made to produce winds some Eastern some Western some Southern some Northern And these Stars have not only the first qualities but other vertues and properties And that there are Stars for rain hail snow lightning fair weather and for other Meteors That every month the Moon by a new generation produceth fruits and that there are vital principles of generation in the air that at appointed times are hot with the dispensation of their fruits They deny that the change of times are from the lower or higher position of the Sun or from the obliquity of its beams or from the direct influence of them but they say some Stars are for Summer others for Winter The Sun is the chief Summer star but if it should be without the rest there would be a perpetual Winter That the Moon is the chief Winter-star and that the Summer-stars do spring up as plants in the Spring and die again And that as Trees are not every year alike fruitful In lib. Meteo so those Stars are somtimes barren somtimes fertile Paracelsus makes the like generation of Winds Rain Snow Lightning Thunder the Rain-bow and the Morning c. This is their opinion of generation and they make a mixture accordingly they say the mover of mixture is a vital Principle adorned with Knowledg by the power of which the Divine offices of mixture are performed Severinus They say that Transplantation is an accident of generation as the faculty of the seed is strong or weak and as the spirits of seeds are subject That transplantations are seldom in perfect creatures and not in any but such as are alike in seed and Nature as Wolves and Dogs may mingle Horses and Asses but in such as the difference of Sexes is not apparent there are usual Transplantations They say that in Vegetables and Minerals Transplantations are companions of generation so Calamints turns into Mints because the seed is equivocal so there is the form of Darnel in Wheat but as a servant or companion which if it get outward aid will turn Master and bring in its own signatures See Severinus for more of this Of all these we thus think When they say that generation is the progression of seeds from their fountain and abyss into the stage of the World they tell us no news for it is the opinion of the most ancient Greeks not only of Hippocrates but of Hermes Tresmegistus Dionysius Aropagita Apollonius Thyaneus And this error came from their ignorance of the Worlds Creation from which every thing hath its Nature and Being Therefore they supposed that all things came forth into light from night hell and an invisible abyss and returned thither again But the Scripture teacheth otherwise Gen. 1. for God said Let the Earth bring forth fruit The herb that brings seed and the Tree fruit after their kind and it was so Let the Water bring forth living creeping things and let the Birds flie over the Earth in