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CHAP. CVII. The Flux, or flowing unto Generation. (Book 107)

I Have seen the Beginnings of our Generation by way of Dream, and I will describe them with my Pen, so far as can be expressed by Words.

First of all, I saw a Womb contracted with Folds or Plates after an unimitable artifice, and in time of Conception, to open it self by a proper attractive Blas; and that suitably according to the extension of the Seed: To wit, which Extension or opening of the Folds, causeth a sucking, and attraction of the Seed, by reason of a Vacuum: And therein layeth a Rhombus (or Figure on all sides equal) of conception for the femal Sex: For truly, it contains the immediate Cause of complacency, and attraction of the Seed into the Womb. For neither otherwise in Copulations, however voluptuous they are, is there made any enlargment of the folded Womb, except in the very instant of Conception: For from hence it is, that the Conception of Bruits is almost infallible. For truly there is not any voluntary Extension of the Womb, as neither is it subjected unto Artifices or Crafts: But rather it after some sort, exceeding Nature, plainly sheweth that God is the president of humane Generation, continued on Posterity, according to the Word of blessed Propagation, Increase and Multiply: Because it is the Finger of God, which ex∣tendeth these Purses, without an organical Mean: The which is called in the holy Scrip∣tures, God opened the Womb of Sarah. Truly, the whole History of Generation should seem to exceed Nature, unless it had been received within Nature from the right of an attained Propagation, and a continued frequency of it self. Whosoever therefore meditates on the expectation of Off-springs, let him expect not the tickling or leacherous lust, not the abundance of Seed, yea, nor health; but altogether and primarily, the aforesaid Magne∣tisme or attraction of the Womb: And on behalfe of the Male Sex, that the Seed be not infamous through any Contagion: For otherwise, the Womb once receiving a Seed badly seasoned, doth reject that Seed, neither doth it thenceforth open it self, that it may suck the Seed of that Man, inward, for Life: For the Womb doth oft-times conceive in second Marriages, which in the first Marriage-bed, was Barren: But therefore the extensi∣on of the Womb ought to be suitable to the Seed, by reason of avoiding a Vacuun: And then, every strange thing, is a hostile impediment to Generation.

Then in the next place, after that the Seed of the Man is joyned with that of the Wo∣man, the sucking of that Load-stone in the aforesaid hollowness of the Womb, presently ceaseth, and the Door of the Womb is shut, nigh its Neck. But the Womb, doth by shut∣ting out all Air, on every side, and equally embrace its Content, with a bountiful Favour,

and a more exact co-mixture of them both, beginneth, by reason of an occult co-marri∣age unfolded in the Seeds on both sides. Presently after, although the conceived Seed, be at the first disturbed, and a thick or dark Liquor; yet two dayes after, it assumeth the likeness of the transparent white of an Egge.

But on the Sixth day (but not before) the Archeus the Inhabitant of the Seeds, appeared unto me, as it were a cloudy Vapour, the which on the thirteenth day after, was shadowi∣ly endowed with the Figure of a Man, together with a certain clarifying of its own thick∣ness: For then the Seed had increased, perhaps in the tenth part of it self, and had married the nourishable Liquor unto it self, being the original or first-born Li∣quor.

In the mean time, I wondered at the begun Self-love of Selfishness, which even in Seeds, should presently begin to meditate of their Increase: For as lukewarm Milk doth presently incrust it self in a thin Skin; so also the Seed, straightway after three dayes, arms it self with a Skin, the which notwithstanding becomes more manifest by Degrees; Yet both the Garments do differ in that, that the Milk over-spreds its Skin, only against the Air; but the Seed on every side: because the thin Skin is not extended over the Milk by a Spirit, the Former or Framer thereof; but by Heat, which separateth the Diversities of the Milk: For from hence it comes to pass, that the more slymie, and more Fat, and more Neighbourly parts of the Milk, are alwayes designed for the making of a skin, by a separation from the rest; and the which being consumed, the skinnifying of the Milk ceas∣eth. In Milk therefore that tendeth to Corruption, unlikenesses of matter are made; The which doth not happen in Seeds collected, and disposed to Generation.

Furthermore, although the Air was seen under the Figure of a Man; Yet a sexual Cha∣racter could not as yet be noted by me (after some dayes from the Vision, I lighted on that place of the Apostle, There shall not be Greek or Hebrew, not Male, or Female, but they are all one in Christ.) About the 17th day, I saw that this figured Air did sink, and plainly espouse it self within the White, and did as it were sleep for full three Days space and about 12 hours, and was again a certain dark Chaos in the Seed: In which interval, it covered it self with a visible Secundine, and the hardness of a Membrane which it found not in the Matter, it had made unto it self by a formative and transchangative Faculty: Indeed this forming Air, while it engraveth the Body, it useth not separation, neither therefore hath it need of a diversity of matter, whereby it may frame or fashion the Diversities of Alterations of Organs proposed unto it self in the Figure: Which three dayes being finish∣ed, that Spirit the Framer, then first appeared, being markable with the Signature of the Sexes, yet no longer undistinctly walking up and down throughout the whole Lump of the Seed, but under a certain confusion, proper unto that three dayes space, all that very Air had grown together, in every of his Parts, although they not yet appearing: For neither was there as yet so much another wandring and floating Spirit in that Mass; but one only implanted Spirit continual unto it self, through the Rudiments of the Parts, did finish the whole distributive Divisions of Generation; and that its own Pains was unces∣sant, yet without toyle, and grief or wearisomness: And although it was not wearied in its Work, yet it required a Vicar for it self: for a distinction of the Parts is more and more unfolded, and there is made a growth or increasing of the whole Lump, by the Mo∣thers, and that more pure Blood, and it forms unto it self a Radical Moisture, the con∣stituter of the solid Parts: Wherefore also, it draws an Increase, and Fewel to it self, from the vital Spirit of the Mothers arterial Blood, the which, to wit, it soon assimilates unto if self by a most perfect Union.

Indeed the Spirit is nourished, and increaseth in the delineation of the Seed, no other∣wise than as the corporeal Lump of the Embryo it self: Yet the inflowing Spirit was not seen by me, before the thirty second day after Conception. It was then indeed as yet thin, and drawn from the arterial Blood of the Mother, being translated into a neigh∣bouring Species. But this Spirit, about the one and fourtieth day, had obtained a certain vital Light or Splendour; and also it expressed the stature of a Man, but heaped round together; yet deformed by reason of a disproportionated bigness of the Head; which Light was as it were a shining or brightness from a flame, which Aqua Vitae sheweth in burning: And not much after some moments of time, this Light was on a sudden made more Light∣some than it self.

The sensitive Soul, although it make a Species in Bruits, and therefore subsisteth by it self; yet in Man, it contains not a Species, but only a subordinate Diversity of Light, or a Degree unto the Mind, therefore scarce subsisting without the Mind. And although in Man, there be a sensitive Life; yet it is not a specifical Being by Creation; but a seminal

Being occasioned through the Lust of our first Parent, the Character whereof is wholly re∣strained by the Mind: The sensitive Life therefore, doth presently inform the Spirit of the Seed, under a skie-coloured and obscure Splendour, and is also informed by the Mind, and that with a clearer Light.

Yet 4, 5, 6, or 7 Points of the Cord of a Foot-length, do interpose; because Seeds do differ in the Perfection of Dispositions; and therefore the Spirits, the Formers of Seeds, do differ in their Perfection, and chearfulness of Acting. For from hence it is, that that which happens unto one Conception in one forty Dayes, that happens to another in the second forty, or in the third; neither yet therefore are the more slow or sluggish Quick∣nings more imperfect than swift ones, no otherwise than as fore-ripe Wits are oft-times to be set behind, or less esteemed than the more slow ones.

At leastwise, the whole race of our Generation breaths forth some famous thing: For although the Archeus the forming Work-man, containeth in it a humane Figure, and figureth the Body after its own likeness; yet the Fabrick of Man, is not from the Begin∣ing, in an erected or upright Stature, as neither confusedly rouled into a circle, but bent or hooked, after which manner the Young is defective in the Womb: It is false therefore, that Nature is every where circular; Because she is that which would eve∣ry where give satisfaction to his ends, who is cloathed by the glorious Work-man of Na∣ture, and not by Nature,

For neither after another manner, is there a re-bent Reflexion put into the seminal erected Spirit, by the Generater; but it proceeds from the Finger of him, who disposeth of all things sweetely from end even to end: Therefore the Seed being conceived, the Womb forthwith shuts its neather Gate, least any forreign thing should rush into it, which might disturb its Conception.

In the next place, the Vessels of the Womb which are subject unto its command, as if a Door-keeper were added, are also shut above; because then a new Common-wealth ariseth in the Womb, as a new family-administration of a future Young; and therefore also a singular Kitchin is erected in the confining Vessels: Even so that the Embryo is a good while nourished and increaseth, not by the venal Blood of the Liver, but by pure, and fined arterial Blood: But presently after, as soon as this Kitchin is furnished for the Embryo, which is about to live in his own proper Orbe, the Womb prepars venal Blood, which it may hand-forth unto the Embryo, and therefore, whatsoever less profitable thing it meets withal, it is brushed out; So that in that whole Motion, the Mother for the most part is ill at ease.

For truly, seeing Filths can no longer be expurged through the emunctory of the Womb, and the which neither are able to expect the Maturity of Delivery; the Filths go back∣ward into the Veins, they obtain the condition of an Excrement, and are thrust forth by Vomit, and other Sinks: That which is not equally done in Bruits, seeing they want Menstrues, and do not admit of an unseasonable Copulation.

Again, the Conception of Men was not from the first intention of the Creator, after the manner whereby we are conceived in Sins.

At length also, because for Bruit-beasts, pure arterial Blood was not equally required for Nourishment: Therefore the teeming Woman alone, shall pay for the Itch of one Copulation, through a cruel expiation of many Punishments beyond Bruits. The Embryo therefore, or imperfect Young, is at first nourished by arterial Blood, prepared in the neighbour Kitchins of the Womb, until that after the first fourty dayes, he obtaining a living Soul, lives of his own right: But the preparatory Kitckin is exercised in the spleen-form Flesh, whereby the secundine cleaveth to the Womb: Therefore Succours for the Young are slow and oftentimes void, and also those that are administred to the Mo∣ther by way of the Mouth; because that before their entrance unto the Embryo, all things are recocted; And again in the Young it self, before they can augment the same.

But the Infant being born, before he is fit for bearing of the more hard Meats, he is ac∣customed to the more gentle ones: For so he is a good while fed with arterial Blood, which leaves no Dungs be-hinde it: For those things which fall from a little Infant that is born, presently after his first Cry, are the Reliques of the Blood of the Liver, the which for the most part, is not first admitted into the aforesaid Kitchins, but after the third for∣ty dayes: And these indeed, are the Excrements which do ripen and provoke the necessity of travail or delivery.

But moreover, the Spirit that was once implanted in the Seed, being sunk into the Seeds, doth presently, if not fore-know the necessities of the Body, at least-wise perfectly

learn them, and afterwards draws unto it self a Consanguineal or nearly allyed Spi∣rit, or Nourishment, by a certain Harmony of Affinity.

At length, the Womb feeling the Maturity of the Young, by co-wrinckling con∣tracteth it self, which the Antients have called, Striving to expel the Young or Off∣springs. For I have oft-times with-held Abortion threatned and begun: But some∣times I could not. But I have known that I have detained it, as oft as the abor∣tion should be caused from a Symptomatical animosity, without a fore-ripe expulsive Faculty, to wit, from the digression of the Womb; And the Remedy did operate by restraining, and sleepifying, appeasing and pacifying the aforesaid Furies of the Womb; But I could not prevent Abortion or miscarying as oft as there was a fall of the Mother from an high Place, and much disturbance of Affrighting, Grief, Anger, &c. they being inordinate things.

And likewise, if the Young had a remarkable Monstrousness, which adds no slug∣guish Spur unto Expulsion: Or if the Young die, or pines away or failes through a notable Weakness: And likewise if the Mother being strongly smitten with asto∣nishment before the Young could live in its own Quarter, hath with-drawn the Arterial Spirit unto her self: The which, if it shall straightway return from thence, yet it finds the same Young as it were in a sound, whereunto as unto a Plant so tender, Life is scarce re-connexed.

By this means, the semi-vital Conception is now and then wont to miscarry into a hard lump of Flesh, or a foolish Branch: But that thing scarce happens through a de∣fect of the Fathers Seed; because that a barren or foolish Seed, is either not at∣tracted, and so neither is it conceived, or if it be attracted, it, through a foolish Lust of the Womb, soon fals out again, and frustrates Conception: But the Seed degenerates into a hard Lump of Flesh, by reason of external Incidencies lighting upon the Seed; whereby Hippocrates saith, That Seeds are withdrawn whither they would not.

Therefore a hard Lump or Moale is made, while as the Spirit is funk into the Body of the Seed, and is spoiled of a humane Figure, yet retaining its former grow∣ing Faculty.

The drowning or sinking therefore alone, is able to command the Figure out of the forming Spirit, if being to long sleepifyed within, it becomes fast asleep,

But although the dreaming Vision, did scarce fill up the space of halfe a quarter of an hour, yet it at once represented all the successive Periods of Generation, as it were in a Glass of the Thing: To wit, its Moments, Fluxes, Motions, Aspects, Diversities of interchanges, and also its Errours stood collected into Unity.

But I being awaked, alass, how I sighed at the likeness of our modern propagation with that of Bruit-beasts! And therefore Adam not undeservedly bewailed the Death of Abel, for the space of an Age: He grieving the while, at the hateful bruitish Gene∣ration, and knew not his Wife in all that time: As well weighing, that Nature being now defiled in its Root, was to suffer original, and of necessity, durable Miseries.