it Which if you do not hinder them and call them back they will by degrees go to bed again But when they do these things if you speak to them in a known voice or call them by their christian names You must not call night walkers by their proper names they will fall being frighted thus their spirits being dissipated and their natural force discussed whereby they perform these things Wherefore you must let them go as they will and to retire again at pleasure But they that are troubled with the night-mare The night mare and are toiled in their sleep which happens when smoky fuliginous grosse vapours offend the heart and brain they must be pulled and called by their proper names for they are presently wakened if you speak but low and they come to themselves the fumes being discussed and the blood sinking down which is diffused through the conduits of the veins But for the most part this disease comes at beginning of the spring upon those that have alwaies a crudity on their stomachs Ill to ly upon the back and that lie often on their backs Whence it comes that they ly with open eyes and mouths which is great inconvenience to their health For suddenly as if some great weight came upon them they feel that streightnesse that they cannot cry out but mourn and lament but so soon as one calls them by their names they will presently turn on their side and shake of those hags they thought oppressed them But our night walkers are clean contrary to these for they with their eyes shut walk in the dark and make a great noyse every where and sometimes they are silent and go upward and downward and clamber up to the tops of houses without any help which I believe is done by them by their swelling and frothing blood and by their hot fiery spirit which being carried into the seat of the mind drives on the force and faculties of the soul whereby she perfects her functions and the instrumental parts to these actions and moves them to these effects Hot spirits cause of motion in sleep Whence it comes that the body by the force of the animal spirit which contains the strength of the nervs and muscles that is the office of feeling and moving in the brain and maintains it is carried upwards and by the force thereof in sleep is provoked to such actions Such condition'd men are of fine and loose woven bodies and of little stature but full of active spirits and hot minds whence it is that if they lay hold of any thing with the outmost joynts of their hands or feet they will ballance and stay themselves and stick fast to the planks For it falls out with these bodies as it is with those boys A simile from vessels of boys the sea that are cast into the mouth of the Sea in the Low-countries whereby Marrieners know how to ride safely and sail to their Ports avoiding fords and rocks they cannot see For these though they be covered with plates of Iron and bound with chains and fastned to a mighty great stone yet they flote and swim in the Sea nor do they fall to the bottom unlesse they come asunder because they are filled with winds and blasts bellows being joyn'd to them for that purpose So they because they are swoln with wind and are full of aereal spirit are carried upward A simile from Snails with horns and with a slow pace like snails that want their eyes they try their way their horns thrust forth and creep upon all high places and walk in the night But they do this without danger or hurt to their bodies and fall not because they do it leasurely and without fear or respect unto danger which will sometimes drive men that are awake from earnest businesse dangerous attemps For they go about these things no otherwise than men that are drunk or mad who inconsiderately and with great rashnesse and boldnesse fear not to adventure upon any danger which if the next day or when they come to themselves they think upon and what danger they were in they will really professe they have forgot all and be much frighted at the relation they hear from others And if the humours be not so not in such kind of bodies and the spirits are not so much stirred and troubled they will onely cry out and leap a little but they will stay in their beds for the spirits are not so violent as to raise the body Lib. de Comit. morb For whosoever as Hippocrates saith hath a hot brain as cholerick and not flegmatick persons have these will cry and brawl in the night especially if they do unquietly perform their dayes labour and have care of their businesse having much to do As are some busie-bodies unquiet boasting people that thrust themselves into all businesses and run here and there and use strange gestures and you may know them by their eyes countenance gate cloathing and whole habit of their bodies all which they compose divers wayes and change them taking upon them another person as of a Player Fencer or Mountebank that runs up and down and calls the people together to see idle sports Men quiet in the day are clamorous in the night Hence it comes that they rise in their sleep and make a great noise and clapping of their hands by reason of phantasms that are represented to their sense and that agree with their wills and diurnal actions So all of us when we do any thing seriously in the day-time the species and representations of such things will trouble our minds in the night and make is cry out and tosse up and down Which Lucretius sets down in verse thus We see that many in their sleep will walk Will do what they did waking Lawyers talk And plead their causes strongly and Lawes write And Generals wage war and fiercely fight Saylers will strive with winds and every man Useth the same profession that he can Or what he hath long used or that kind That is most pleasing to his troubled mind For what hath tryed us and employed us all the day when the day is at an end flies to the brain and causeth distempers in the night or at least holds the mind with Employments that the sleep is not sweet but interrupted by dreams CHAP. VI. Of those that are drown'd mens bodies will flote on their backs and womens will flote on their faces and if their lungs be taken forth they will not swim IT is found by experience in the Low-Countries L. 7. c. 17. which Pliny also testifies that mens bodies when they are drown'd lye on their backs with their faces upwards toward Heaven but women lye with their faces groveling downwards and flote with their faces toward the ground In which Nature is thought to take care of their chastity that their secrets may not be seen but be decently concealed But I think it
sweet consolation of the blessed comforter shall be suddenly discussed But God doth every where threaten the wicked and by an example taken from Childbearing that a sudden and unlooked-for destruction shall fall upon them Chap. 13. For so in Isaiah he frights them Howle because the day of the Lord is at hand as desolation the Hearts of men shal melt and their hands faint terrours and torments and griefs shall possesse their minds Chap. 4. and they shall be troubled and cry out as Women with Child So Jeremias describing the Israelites in the height of their sorrows and extreame calamities I heare saith he the noyse as of a Woman in travel the streights and pangs of one that beares her first Child which is wont to be the most bitter because they are unaccustomed to it and they never felt the like nor were they ever in Travell before So God is formidable to Kings and terrible when they lift up their heads against him Chap. 22. as it is said in the same Prophet concerning Joachin King of Judah whom he cast into those streights that he endured pain and sorrow Hier. 48. as a Woman in Travell Also he cast such fear on the hearts of the Souldiers of Moab though this kind of men be fierce and fearlesse as falls on the mind of a woman in labour that melts and dissolves unlesse she be solaced by those that stand by her Chap. 2â— and the Matrons neere her comfort her There is a very â—â—egant and consolatory speech in Isaiah that is set forth by an excellent comparison For the Prophet compares those who being afflicted and chastised repent and flie unto God by repentance to a woman in travel and is in danger of her life in her pangs crying for help to those that stand by her and turning her eyes every way with groans and sighs and lamentations intreats for comfort For so he proceeds in the order of his speech that I may touch upon some things by the way In the way of thy judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee with my Soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me I will seek thee early Isaiah explain'd in that place Hereby he testifies that he leanes upon God when any calamity comes and when the rod is nigh his hope depends fast upon him and his eyes are intent toward him lastly that the memory of God is printed upon his soul and that he waited on his commandments with all his will and mind and all times did meditate on his saving Truth not onely at noon day but also at midnight full of tempests and stormes and early in the morning and he presently after sets down what it is that makes forgetfull men so hot in their minds and extorts from them such firme confidence O Lord saith he Affliction maket men Godly the majesty and greatnesse of thy Name came into my mind in trouble and affliction when there was no hopes left and I remembred thee Troubles and adversities do lead us to repentance by the Secret influence of thy Spirit As she that is with Child when her time comes to be delivered she cryes out and calls for help so we have been in thy sight O Lord. So St. Paul exhorts sluggish and lazy people to be industrious and watchfull 2 Thes 4. and by the example of a woman in travell to be ready and prepared for the coming of God For he comes as a Thiefe that oppresseth men in the night and as the sudden pangs that fall upon a woman Studious Reader 1 Pet. 3. Apoc. 3.16 I thought good to add thus much because it is not altogerher from my purpose from whence every man may take some documents of life and may consider what clear and apt comparisons the holy Prophets used in their Sermons taken from the most known things in Nature which they observed the rather because they penetrate more effectually into the hearts of their Auditors whereby they taking up a purpose of a better life may with a ready minde return to serve God and to bring forth fruits worthy of amendment of life CHAP. XXIV At what age Maids desire to he marryed and are fit to conceive Againe when women in yeares grow barren and their courses ceasing they cease to be longer fruitfull In which narration the condition of man is axamined also THat parents may well take care for their Daughters chastity they ought exactly to observe when it is fit and seasonable for Maids that they have care of or for their daughters to marry and so to dispose and to provide husbands for them For that Sex is frail and subject to runine Suitors woing them on every side to undoe them But the propension and inclination of Maids to marriage may be discovered by many arguments For when their body grows hairy about the secrets and their terms flow at the time appointed as it useth to be in the 14 or 15 year of their age their seed increaseth in some sooner in some later according to their habits and constitutions and the blood which is no longer taken to augment their bodies abounding Maids are studious of adorning themselves makes their minds fasten upon venereous imaginations wherefore at that age they kemb and adorn themselves and they do not onely continually all most behold their eyes and cheeks in a Looking-glasse but they desire to be viewed by young men and to be made much of by Suitors Mayds must be married bâ—â—â— times and spoken kindly to casting their eyes obliquely for that purpose and looking sweetly on their Lovers Whence â—â—iseth a tickling delight and itching in their inward parts and â—hey begin to burn in love and are easily allured to copulation and hence it is that oft times setting all shame aside and disobeying their Parents who are frequently slow to give them portions or are unwilling to part with them they willingly offer themselves to their Suitors and much infringe their own chastity to the shame and disgrace of all their family and kindred Whence our Country-men have this proverb Mayds are frail A proverb of Mayds Riype Dochters zorgheliycke ende broosche waere Though for what belongs to Chastity in the Low-Countrys the condition of Mayds is more commendable than the condition of Widdows A proverb againt Widdows For such a Taunting speech is used against Widdows Mayds are stedfast and calm in their loves but Widdows are trouclesome slippery inconstant unquiet and never of one setled mind De Maechden hebben een zinen de weduwen hebben een duvel in I suppose because they have tasted the delight of love which sticking in their minds makes them more greedy after them When a woman becomes first fruitfull than Mayds are who never tasted those delights and are alltogether ignorant of the marriage bed But Mayds in the
the first moment of Conception are perfected the eighteenth day then till the fourty fourth day the other parts are perfected and the child begins to live and feel though it move not being weak or it moves so weakly that the Mother cannot perceive it At this time the rational soul is thought to enter and to add force to the natural faculties and to perfect the whole work which Augustine proves by the testimony of Moses Quaest 32. Exod. 20. If anyone saith he strike a woman great with child and she miscarry if the child were formed he shall pay life for life but if the child were not alive he shall pay a sum of money for it Whereby he proves that the soul is not in the child nor can it be called Man unlesse all the members be perfected that it have the perfect form of a man Since therefore it is infused into the body made no man may think it comes in with the seed For if the rational immortal Soul were in the seed or should flie out with it many souls saith he would vanish with the daily running forth of the Seed Wherefore it is not fit to think that the Soul was propagated by Adam or any of our progenitours but that God doth every moment create and infuse them Which I think may be confirmed by this saying of our Saviour John 5. My Father worketh unto this time and I do work Whereby he implyes that the great and good God the Father and the Son also that is equal to him and of the same essence are still working in creating and saving the souls of men and are busied in producing them and of other Creatures souls also whereby they live and have their being To which belongs that of the Psalmist God saves both man and beast and feeds and fills them with his plenty Psalm 35. Davids words explained Who being peculiarly affected toward man he hath bestowed more rare gifts on his soul For man is in a more excellent condition by far than the beasts are For God hath given to man reason and a mind which other creatures have not and hath taught him to know his maked and hath breathed into him a divine soul which bounty Job confesseth He teacheth us more than the beasts of the Earth Job 35. he instructeth us above the Fouls of the Ayre whereby he shews that men excell other creatures and that God hath given man better parts in abundance But imperfect births and Monsters want these singular gifts of God For though some of them panâ— and seem to be alive yet they have not that from a rational soul but from the forming faculty and the generative spirit that are in the seed and bloud An Embrio in the first Moneth deserves not a Mans name for these for the first fourty dayes nourish the conception and enliven it and form it like a man Also the other creatures have a vitall spirit and other powers of the soul to live and perceive which they have from the faculty of the soul and the flowing of bloud and by these they grow in the belly and receive life For which that of Leviticus may be alleadged Levit. c. 17. For the life of every Creature is in the blood thereof For the life and spirit of every living creature is in the blood and fed by it as the Lamp is by the oyle Which force of the soul as Galen knew very well so he ingenuously confesseth that he is ignorant what is the substance of Mans soul and whence it comes But had he been learned in better Philosophy What the Soul is he would not have doubted to say that the soul is a spark of the divine mind and a blast of God that distinguisheth man from beasts and makes us immortal But that every man hath a particular soul as it is proved by many things so especially the vast difference between the manners wits judgments opinions and affections of men doth confirm this So Horace writes So many Men so many minds L. 2. Ser. Satyr 1. Pers Sat. 5. As shapes so thoughts are of all kinds Each Mans will 's his own Which I think proceeds onely from the divers conditions of their souls For God saith David Psalm 33.15 hath in particular fashioned the hearts and minds of all men and hath given to every one its proper being and a soul of its own nature Hence Solomon rejoyceth that God had given him a happy soul and a pure body agreeing with the manners of his soul Many of the Ancients question in what part of the body the soul hath its seat Philosophers say in the middle of the heart which the Wiseman seems to point at Keep thy heart with all diligence because life proceeds therefrom Prov. 4. But Physitians that have searched the works of nature more narrowly The house of the soul place the soul in the Brain from whence all the senses and faculties of the soul and the actions proceed Yet the force of it is diffused through all the parts of the body it fosters and enlivens all the parts with heat and gives them force But it doth give peculiar force to the heart the fountain of life Apoplectick-veins by the Arteries carotides or sleepy Arteries that pats upon the throat which being cut men grow barren or if they be stopt they become apoplectick for there must necessarily be some ways and passages of the veins and Arteries through which the humours and spirits animal and vital may passe to and fro receive native heat from the soul For as a Parlour though it be large grows hot with a good fire and a Dining room is warmed all over with a hot Stove A simile from a hot fire so the body receives effectually the forces of the soul spread all over and by the help thereof performs its operations For though the soul is said to reside in one place yet the force of it passeth far and near and is seen in every part of the body and exerciseth every member So the eyes ears nostrils tongue the joynts of hands and feet are the Souls Instruments that she useth The parts are the Soul's Instruments But if the Instruments and Organs that serve the Soul be unfit or out of tune or hindred they perform the operations of the Soul the more imperfectly As we see in fools old men children and mad-men in some of them the faculties of the Soul shew themselves after a long time and in others they are lost A Simile from fire rak't up For as fire under ashes doth not shine forth and the Sun under a thick cloud affords but little light so the Soul drown'd in moyst or faulty matter is darkned and reason is over-clouded by it The Soul in Children is imperfect by reason of the Organs And though reason shines lesse in Children than in grown people yet no man must think that the Soul is an
The sacred Scripture is not barren but he would shew that professours of the Gospel must not trust to Eloquence of words or to win mens minds by enticing speeches but by the spirit and vertue of God Wherefore the Apostle speaks Wisdome amongst such as are perfect yet not the Wisdome of this world or of the Princes of this world that is of Orators which shall be abolished and the smoaks and vapours of whose Oratory shall vanish but he speaks the Wisdome of God in a hidden mystery which works more effectually upon the minds of men and makes deeper impression than any humane learning set forth and adorned with the most Elegant words Heb. 4. The word of God is fiery For the word of God is quick and lively as he saith and more piercing than any two edged Sword penetrating into mens Souls and spirits and dividing between the joynts and the Marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and of the Intentions of the heart So God speaks in Jeremiah Jer. 13. Are not my words like to fire and as a Hammer that breaks the Rocks David acknowledged this Psalm 118. who felt the force and flames of Gods Word in his Soul Thy words are as hot as fire and Solomon saith Every word of God is as a fiery Buckler to all that trust in him Prov. 30. Wherefore such as are ignorant must not think that the Christian Religion is idle and unsavoury that replenisheth the minds of men with so heavenly and saving vertue The Prophets were learned But that the holy Prophets wanted no learning but had great skill in things and words this may serve for an argument to prove it because every where in the Bible there are so many excellent Parables Tropes Metaphors Collations Figurative speeches Similitudes taken from Animals and Plants and from the whole nature of things which is exceeding large wherewith the Sermons of the Prophets shine and are illustrated that you shall find no such thing in the learning of men nor is there any where so great Majesty of words and sentences to be observed that can affect the minds of men and stir them up to embrace such saving knowledge CHAP. XI Whence we must fetch Integrity of manners and the best Precepts of life The beginning of instruction must be fetcht from Christ YOu shall faithfully learn integrity of manners and a safe way to lead your life by from the decrees of Christ into whom we were Baptized and to whom we have given up our names whose doctrine doth the more effectually work upon the minds of men and transform them because being delivered by the inspiration of the divine spirit it hath no mixture of earthly dregs with it or tincture of old wives superstitions which are but a shadow and kind of counterfeit Religion and which is the chiefest of all it is the most remote from Idolatry that is that corrupt and pernicious worship that is given to any other besides the true God Wherefore to what course of life soever you addict your self and whatsoever study you take upon you in which you think to continue allwaies be sure to exercise your self in the Commandements of God and in his Word Let youth be accustomed to the best things and from your youth embrace this saving knowledge For the mind of man instructed in Gods Word from ones infancy and being fenced about with it as with a Bulwark doth subsist and defend it self cheerfully and undauntedly against all the monstrous desires of lust and other vices Hence Ieremias speaks wholesome words Lament 5. It is good for a man to bear the yoke of the Lord from his youth For a young man as Solomon saith will not forsake that way in his age Prov. 21. that he learned in his youth To which agrees that of Cyprian A sentence of Cyprian That is not suddenly and quickly left that is an old custome and is grown up with us for what we used from our infancy can hardly be shaken of in our age Hence it is that from ancient custome there are so many drunken lascivious wanton old men that as Iob saith Job 20. Job's words explained their bones are full of the sins of their youth that is they are lascivious beyond decency or discretion that they cannot forsake their antient sins they have used so long There are some who when their youthfull bloud is grown cold and the heat of their manhood is extinguished flye from the vices that age is subject to and turn to lead an unblameable and good life So Cicero speaks in his Oration for Caelius There were in our and our Fore-fathers memories many excellent and most famous men who when the lusts of their youth were over became most rare men for their vertues in their elder years But as it is certain that it hath so hapned to some men who either by the loathing of their past life or by Gods inspiration or else by good advice and admonition of friends have been recalled to a more sound mind yet many carryed swiftly away by opinion have failed in their purpose to amend their lives so that delaying hath been hurtfull unto them and the occasion of Repentance slipt away from them before they could lay hold of a good life by detesting their vices Wherefore it is best setting all delay aside to employ our labour to rectify our lives and from our young years rather to accustome our selves to what is best rather than to defer the occasion of it till we grow old The Apostle Paul inculcates as much Ephes 5. Coloss 4. and that very often in many places and he counsels men to walk wisely and circumspectly in the course of this world not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the dayes are evill The Apostles place explain'd In which words he warns every man that in the race of this life they do not suffer the opportunity of attaining salvation to overslip them but that every moment they should catch it as it is offered and that they should redeem it and hazard all things for it lest whilst they linger and regard it not they be destroyed when they think not of it Galat. 6. Math. 13. Luk. 11. Christ bids us watch Also Christ in many places exhorts such as are sluggish and sleepy to watch and to stand upon their guard and he exhorts men by many examples that they should watch for their Salvation as valiant and experienced Souldiers who being placed in a strong Garrison alwaies stand upon their watch and they never neglect to keep guards and sentinels least any man unawares should break into the Fort. Habbakuk useth this metaphor Hab. 2. I will stand upon my watch or watch-Tower and I will fasten myself on my place of defence and I will see what he saith unto me He takes upon him the person of a watchman who silently observes the approach and snares of
world even your faith For the trust whereby we rely on Christ and wholly commit our selves to such a Protector By confidence in Christ we must drive away the devills gets us the Victory against the Divels and the Princes of this world so that we can win and carry from him being cast under us rich spoils When therefore we would do any thing against this adversary and would resist his charms and witchcrafts the Dutch call that Toverye or would cast ill spirits out of mens mind it must be done by confidence in Jesus Christ contemning all old wives superstition and heathenish vanity and other Magical execrations For God by his Son who is the brightnesse of his glory Heb. 1. All things are attributed unto Christ and expresse Image of his person doth do all things in all men ruling all things by the word of his power He hath merited this prerogative by his singular obedience humility and meeknesse toward the Father For when he was in the form of God that is Philip. 2. Christ is equall with God like and equal unto him he thought it no robbery to be equal with God but he humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant being made obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse so ignominious and execrable wherefore God hath highly exalted him and hath given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven things on earth and things under the earth and all tongues should acknowledg and confesse that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father upon whom redounds all the glory of the Son The amplitude of the name of Jesus High matters are done by the name of Christ and so of the Father to the Son If therefore any man purposeth to go about any businesse to ease minds afflicted or dispossesse devills out of mens bodies let him attempt to do it by calling on God the Father in confidence of the name of Christ For so shall he obtain all his desires and shall not fail of what he seeks for By the force and power of this Majestical name so a man do not doubt and distrust Gods promises diseases abate affections and perturbations of the mind are allayed tempests and Seas are calmed the divells as Christ promised Mark 16. By trust in Christ all kind of diseases are driven away when he was to ascend into heaven fly away poysons grow dull serpents are charmed and grow harmlesse the clouds of the mind are dispelled fear and terrour and horrour of death are discussed all ill thoughts are dissipated and vanish away the mind obtains a quiet and peaceable conscience so that nothing can come which may make us afraid because God the Father through Christ Jesus supports us by his spirit Wherefore we must raise up our minds unto the living God by the Conduct of his Son and whatsoever thou determinest to go about remember to do it in the vertue of that wonderfull name Jesus For to him is given all power in heaven and in earth Math. 28. Mark 16. Acts 2. and there is no other name given under heaven wherein we may look forsalvation which is so terrible to wicked men and to devils but to those that trust in him is he power and Wisedome Salvation Act. 4. 1 Cor. 1. Revel 2. Life and Resurrection He even Jesus Christ is appointed by God to be the judge of the quick and the dead he is the faithfull Witnesse and Prince of the kings of the earth who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud To him as the Apostle Peter saith in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 10. all the Prophets give testimony that every one who believeth in him might receive remission of sins through his name John 17. In Christ is remission of sins This is life eternal which Testimony Christ ascribes to the Father that they may know thee to be the onely true God and whom thou haste sent Jesus Christ unto whom is referred and from whom is derived all the force of divinity and all the Wisedome and Vertue of God may be ascribed unto him Since therefore this name is so renowned and Sacred and of so great Majesty and power we must be exceeding carefull that we use it not in vain or upon light respects and irreverently as those ridiculous exorcists did Acts. 16. who when they strove with certain rites and words conceived for gain and oftentation to drive forth the evil spirit in the name of Jesus by vertue whereof Saint Paul wrought so many miracles by this abuse they fall into great danger and their admiration or rather ridiculous practice was very hurtfull unto them The exorcists wounded For he that was possessed with the Devil leaped forth upon them and cruelly tore them so that they were forced to save themselves by flight There were also in our memory some Popish Priests The exorcists of these times are furnished with foolish and idle doctrine who having no faith in the name of Christ nor any sanctity of life attempted to do the like but they were so mocked and made ashamed by the evil spirit that they were forced to depart with quaking and leave the businesse undone Yet if any man would go about to do any such matter and to cast forth Divels out of mens bodies let him imitate the example of Saint Peter and Saint Iohn The miracle of St. Peter and Saint John Act. 3. who used no ambitious words yet raised up the lame man thus In the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth Arise and walk and he presently his legs and ankle bones receiving strength leapt up and stood on his feet and walked and entred into the Temple with them leaping and walking and praysing God Since therefore Jesus Christ the onely Son of God is equal and coeternal with the Father All glory is given to Christ Colos 1. Heb. 1. in whom also are hidden all the treasures of Wisedome and knowledg ruling all things by the word of his power it is fit that placing all our confidence on God by Jesus Christ by his vertue and defence we should resist Satan sin and hell and all other enemies of mankind For great and excellent is the strength and force which God hath set forth in Christ Ephes 1. as Saint Paul saith when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in heavenly places above all power principality and dominion and above all that is named not onely in this world but in that also which is to come And he hath put all things under his feet and he hath made him the head over all Christ is head of the Church Christ doth all things in all men that is the Church which is his body the fulnesse of him who filleth all things in all men that is Christ
with divine gifts CHAP. LVIII Whether hearbs and pretious stones have any force to drive away Devills and to put to flight things hurtfull THough plants have principally that use and those forces given them by the Authour of nature Plants profitable for many things that they serve for nutriment and Physick for mens bodies yet in antient writings some plants are honoured for that they resist witchcraft and drive away all charms and fascinations whatsoever These are called Amulets and remedies against witchcrafts because they drive away from man all hurtfull things Jewels have a secret vertue This vertue is ascribed to Jewels and pretious stones also which they have not from their first qualities that is their temperament of heat cold moysture drinesse but by a specifique vertue and hidden quality and secret property the cause whereof cannot at all be explained So the Loadstone draws iron to it Jet and Amber draw chaff and straws the Saphir which is of a blew heavenly colour defends chastity The Jacinth and Chrysolite worn upon the ring-finger resist the Plague The Emrauld and Prasius being green stones refresheth the Heart Erranos that is a blew coloured stone commonly called a Turcois preserves a man from falling down and from ruine or if any such thing happen it keeps the body from hurt Corall bound to the neck takes off turbulent dreams and allays the nightly fears of Children The Carbuncle and stone called Sardius commonly called the Corncel having this name from the red berry of the Tree called the Cornel-Tree makes a mans heart merry and his countenance lively diffusing the bloud into the body So other Jewels have other vertues and drive away Hobgoblins Witches Night-mares and other evill spirits if we will believe the Monuments of the Antients So amongst hearbs there are some that resist diseases Strange diseases driven away by the help of plants which have much assinity with the vexations and tortures of the Devils As Melancholly Frezy Madnesse Epilepsie and most cruel diseases that befall maids and widows from the affection of the Matrix or when their courses are long before they come or they stay long unmarried For by these fumes and black thick vapours their mind is so affected that they seem to be tormented by some hurtfull spirit and they are perswaded that the Devil possesseth their minds and drives them to conceive many absurd imaginations Against this evil first opening a vein in the ankle it is good to apply such wholesome plants that can free them from these accidents as are Mugwort Savory wild Marjoram wild Thyme Pennitoyal Origanum Clary But amongst hearbs which relieve afflicted minds and keep them free from venemous vapours that offend the brain or from the Devil or an imagination that some have of him are Rue Squils of the juice whereof there is made both an Oxymel and Vinegar Masterwort Angelica which is a kind of Ferula or Laserpitium Alysson or Rubia Minor which cures the Madnesse of Dogs and such as are bit by them which disease is not much different from theirs who rage and are tormented by the Devil Rosemary purgeth houses and a branch of this hung at the entrance of howses drives away devills and contagions of the Plague as also Ricinus commonly called Palma Christi because the leaves are like a hand opened wide So Coral Piony Misseltoe Contrary to the Epilepsy drive away the falling sicknesse either hung about the neck or drank with Wine Some of these if any man think they may be given to drive away devills let heathenish superstition and vanity be laid aside let there be no foolish prayers and strange words used whereby such as professe Magical Arts are use to effect their Incantations if there be any force in plants as we find by experience there is Plants have their effects from God you must remember they had it from God For all Medicaments and hearbs that are applyed to mens bodies become effectual not from themselves but by the blessing of God and so they procure some safe operation Wherefore if thou determine to do any thing by the help of hearbs trust not so much to hearbs as unto God For so in curing of diseases you shall come to a happy end with good successe otherwise all your endeavours are vain and the Artist fails of the event when there is no thought of God from whom all things have their being and effects and we do not rely upon him Hence it was that Asa king of Judah Why King Asa was not cured 3 Kings 15.2 Chron. 16. when he was afflicted with most sharp pains in his feet and asked no Counsel of God but onely trusted to the Physicians found no help by all their fomentations but died as the History saith of the Gowt in his Joynts God doth not forbid to use the Physitians assistance but onely that we should not rely on them too much and not to regard him who makes men whole and whose gift it is that all things become effectual Psalm 3. Yet they do superstitiously and they attempt a thing not far from Idolatry who apply hearbs that are consecrated with some fained prayers to cure witchorafts or go about to conjure away discases by them So they prepare Fern gathered in the Summer Solstice pulled up in a tempestuous night Rue Trisoly Vervain against Magicall impostures and thus they gull the rude and ignorant people and dazel their eyes that they may cheat them of some moneys and wipe their noses of what they have Yet those vain Artists never grow rich Hearbs must not be used for Magical inchantments Studious Reader I thought fit to insert these things to this argument that so every man may abstain from Magical inchantments and observe from whom we ought to ask aid against diseases too and how despising heathenish superstition we may use ready and obvious remedies which God hath given us abundantly of his munificence CHAP. LIX Of the Majesty and Power of the Supream Deity and how various appellations the one Essence of God distinguished into three Persons hath by the contemplation whereof the mind of man receives comfort and tranquillity and conceives the highest confidence in God BEcause that excellent and Almighty Power God and that eternal Mind is free from all mortall concretion The nature of God is Inserutable and is immense filling all places governing all things and ruling them by his power for these reasons that one God is distinguished by many names by reason of the vertues and excellency of his works John â— and he is illustrated by many famous titles both amongst the Hebrewes and other Nations that had any knowledg of a God So in the holy Scripture he is called Iehovah El Elohim Adonai God hath many names Emanuel whereof every one siguifies a peculiar power and vertue and ascribes great force unto God which he exerciseth upon inferiour creatures Whence when he propounds the precepts of