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Tumulus PESTIS. OR THE PLAGUE-GRAVE.

CHAP. I. Of what kind the Pest or Plague is.

AFTER a pensive lodging out all night, a dream befell me: and since night unto night sheweth knowledge, I have thought that a dream doth contein knowledge: Therefore I willingly submit my dreams unto the judgment of the Reader.

For I beheld my self to be in the vaults without the city (they call them Grotts) I saw Daedalian Labarinths; in some place, Arches threatning a cleft and ruine. I had called them the porches or galle∣ries of Pluto, wherein inveterate or long accustomed darknesse, and a thick aire, wearied with long rest, suffers not the light of a candle to shine a-far of: For the thicknesse of the air did so meet with the Gas of the earth, that the flame of a wax-candle would scarce shine but a few paces from thence: For the voice becomes so dumb with a duskish sound, that not far of from thence, an out-cry cannot be heard, and the more dull sound seemes to resemble, not a voic, but the shadow of a voyce. For nothing is there which is vital, except a company of Bats, their nests being adjoyned or knit fast in the Arches of the co-heaped rubbishes.

Alas! a sad spectacle, the Image of eternal death, where the seat of night-thieves is: Wherein, if thou shalt chance to hurt one of its cruel inhabitants, thou art depri∣ved of candles, and presently of life, unlesse, thy light being extinguished, thou pro∣stratest thy self as humble, and feign thy self as dead. For those lurkers, being the na∣tives of obscurities, do not endure to be obtained, or corrected by any; and much lesse, to be driven away from their seat: They call it an injury, to have the light brought against them; because with them, they neither have light, neither do they love it: under doctrine and correction, not issuing out of their nests, they cry out for revenge, and they gape for it with conjoyned votes.

For how strong are they because and when they are very many? How bold are they in the Age and Kingdome of darkness? and how unmild, where all things favour their own wishes and flyings? For our breath there smells of so great an hoary putrefaction, that de∣lay presently tingeth us with paleness. And indeed, it is familiar to the Mines of Me∣tals, that except the soil be frequently pounced, and new air do breath on it from the Sky, mountainous Inhabitants do certainly perish with a blind Gas: but if they shall not lodge out of their house all night, they at least, do contract a disease deplorable even for their life time: For therefore, they are wont, that they may preserve the life of moun∣tainous Inhabitants, to blow in new ayr, and to blow out the hurtful by Engines. But in the Roman Vaults they seek not for Minerals; therefore also, they want an Arsenical Gas: For there, frequent Sepulchres are found, which are thought to be those of Martyrs who glo∣riously died: Therefore, I dreaming, began to doubt, whether fled Truth, and not to be found at this day, had made its grave with the Martyrs in the same place? the question smiled on me sleeping; for the most High created the Physitian, as also, medicine out of the earth. I have therefore deemed the truth of medicine, and knowledge of a Physitian, to have hid it self in the stable Foundation of Nature, and the more hidden Sepulchre, from the unworthy and defiled beholding of Mortals, and to have forsaken our commer∣ces, and to have overwhelmed it self in many labyrinths and perplexities; so that, by reason of the smallness of light which is social unto us by nature, truth remains covered over with darkness, and hedged about with difficulties. And the worst thing which here at length offers it self, is, that this Grave of Truth is kept not by a good Genius, or Spirit, but by the unhappy Birds of the Night: therefore the spirits of darkness are to be sup∣planted: But whosoever he be, who strives the less to applaud those keepers, he presently experienceth the violent power or tyrannical rule of those, who under the shew of piety and quietness, keep these Kingdomes of Pluto as their own. But seeing they themselves come not into the light of truth, they also suffer not others to enter, unless they prostrate themselves as humble unto them. For any other person is straightway encompassed by the powers of darkness, the Enemies of the first Truth, who under the pretence of godliness; challenge the Legacies of their own Sepulchres to themselves; because they boast, that the Kingdome of Truth is in their possession: And therefore, that the command of Learning, Sciences, and the powers of great men, are assigned to them. For these, being neither Birds, nor Mice, have obtained a middle and hermaphroditical kind, and they go, as it is in the 20th of Luke, They pierce the houses and possessions of Widows; they lead away af∣ter them, poor silly women laden with sins, &c. Surely, every such business walketh in dark∣ness, and all their endeavour is with a Noon-day Devil.

Truly, I saw not a means of opening the Sepulchre of Truth, but with long leisure: but this thing, hateful spirits, even since the daies of Arias Montanus, have not permitted to good men: Wherefore, that I might seasonably, and with the profit of my Neigh∣bour, put that in frequent practise, I decreed to withdraw my self from the vulgar sort, and under the light, throughly to knock the Vaults of Nature full of holes: And least I should labour in vain, I disposed of my glassen basins under the light, that by a dumb sound, I might discern the Vault of Nature underneath. I endeavoured by the unweari∣ed pains and charges of forty years, to break the rocky stones asunder with the Axe, Crook, Fire, and sharp liquor, that light may flow in from heaven, and that the Night∣birds which presume to keep the Keys of Sciences, and the narrow passage of Truth, may vanish away, or betake themselves unto a corner, out of a Court-like conversation, and the pursuances of courtesies: or at least, that they may no longer hereafter hinder mor∣tals who are diligent searchers after truth. For this mixt kind of Monster noyseth a∣broad, that it is more excellent than all Birds; because they begin not from an Egge, af∣ter the custom of other Birds; but do nurse up their Young with a longer sucking at the Breast; and do cast those out of the Nest which they think are not sufficiently profitable unto them.

They boast, I say, that they are therefore the most quick-sighted of Birds; in this re∣spect, because they also see most clearly under darkness. Alas, thus is our Age deceived by darkness! But they feign, and perswade the vulgar, that Truth is in the shade, within their own vaults; who in the mean time, being alwayes learning, do never come unto the knowledge of Charity; because they endure not the light that is perfectly learned by alone and naked Charity; and therefore, they alwayes weave to themselves the Wiles and webs of darkness. Truly, it was necessary for me to rent the bowels of the Earth, and to break its Crown: For truly, Galen hath seemed to me, to have entred into the Vaults with a slender Lamp; who being presently affrighted, stumbled in the entry, and

at first almost fell over the Threshold: Therefore, his Oyl being lavishly spent, he re∣turned to his own, and told many things confusedly, concerning the Sepulchres, which he had not perceived, nor known, nor believed, although he had seen them. All from thence∣forth, boast rashly among their own people, that they know many things, who saluted not so much as the Threshold of Nature, except at a far distance, from the relation of Galen. In the next place, Avicen with his company, although he became more cautious by the viewing of Galen; yet he entred not much deeper, but looking behind, about, and above him, and being taken with giddiness, his foot being dashed against a stone, fell headlong down: but returning, he boasts in a Forraign Dialect, that he had seen far more than his Predecessors: The which, when his followers understood, and stuck to, they chose a certain one of them for a Standard-Defender; they all of them had rather fight for the glory of their sworn Prince, than that they would themselves enter the passages: as if the mind of man, that is free, being readily inclined like unto Clients, had forsworn liberty: Therefore none having afterwards endeavoured to enter, and being content with the first Boasters, they prefixed on their Centuries, that themselves were to fight for the glory and Trophy of a matter not yet known; but as many as came unto the entry, being as it were factiously addicted unto the first Patron, and insisting in the steps of Predecessors, presently fell down together.

They dreamed that they were entred; at leastwise, they were deprived of light and help for removing the darkness of so great an heap. Others also, afterwards hastened toward the Vaults, but they brought not the light with them, they perceived their Oyl to be extinguished, and snatcht away by the Enemies of the first Truth, and humane health, and Inhabitants of darkness. At length, Paracelsus having entred with a great Torch, fastened a small cord to the wall, about his first paces, which he might follow as a Compa∣nion, and Reducer of the wayes; he aspiring to pierce whither the footsteps of mortals had not yet taken their journey. The rout of Birds is presently amazed at so great a sight, it thinks that Prometheus had entred; it dares not, nor was able to extinguish the Torch, yet it secretly attempts to do it. This man seeth very many Monuments, he is long and freely enlarged, he fills the entries with smoak, and while he is intentive, as a greedy devourer of truth, his strength fails, his Torch falls, his light is extinguished in the middle of his course, and he is as it were choaked with fumes. I a poor miserable man, have at length entred with the least light of a Lanthorn; and that nothing might hinder, and that nothing might detain my hand from the work, I indeed refused a Rope, and hung my Lanthorn at my girdle, but a Crook followed at my back, making a path the rule of my return: Therefore I insisting only in my own footsteps, I there saw far other things than the foregoing company of Ancestors had described.

But because I was alone, strength was wanting for so difficult weights, and I having en∣deavoured many things, the rout of Bats being against me; at length, after the manner of the former, I departed without fruit; yea, far worse; because through long delay, the light was darkned unto me, and my eyes afterwards refused to bear any further light; for why, because they had now too much accustomed themselves to darkness: Even so, that unless I had wholly abstained from my stubborn intent, the heavenly light of the day had profited me nothing: at leastwise, this one only and most true thing I had learned; that we all having trusted only unto humane aids, did walk in thick darkness, through unknown ways, most difficult windings, and paths of the night, imitating the industry of a few, and those badly to be trusted in: neither that at length we did bring any fruits from thence, except the light badly consumed, be-darkned eyes cheeks looking pale with greyness, confu∣sions of mind, presumptions of vanity, and the image of the night at hand, full of terrour and despair.

Moreover, I discerned, that all sorts of Knaves and Harlots, Deceivers, Jews, and Tor∣menters, when as they had once intruded themselves by their own rashness, they were soon, by boldness, raised to a degree: For I have not found in any a greater liberty, more ample rashness, more cruel credulities, more thick darknesses, and more frequent confusi∣ons, than in the most noble of gifts; wherein, it is free for any one to kill, if the murder be involved in the Cloak of a succour, and the party slain be covered with earth. There∣fore I begged of God, that he would vouchsafe to set a bound in so wicked naughtinesses, which they committed against the Divine Image of his Majesty: But soon after, I dis∣cerned the vanity of my desire: For truly, as long as mens own profit holds the superiori∣ty, and medicine is exercised as a Plow, they contend in vain, who endeavour to compose my Christ the Father of the poor, with Mammon.

I praised those Cities in times past, wherein it was not lawful for an undiscreet Col∣ledge

of Physitians, to rage in a drunken manner, on the health of their Neighbour: But afterwards, I laughed at my own blockishness, because they were excepted who cured freely: Whence I learned, that the gain of Physitians had provided that Law for them∣selves, and that mans own gain would every where vitiate the Laws of Charity, that none would from a certain hope, be found for the future, unto whom that exception might square.

I saw therefore, that in the custome of Laws, defects grew over, and that Laws were rendred barren of juice or virtue: and surely my stupidity was by so much the greater in this, because more gross errours in curing are no where committed; than those which even Chair-Physitians do through a punishable ignorance commit; even as in my whole work I have endeavoured, and been ready to shew mechannically by the fire, practically, and by all kind of demonstrations. And indeed, but a few ages ago, arrogancy, sloath, and the extinguishment of Charity sequestred a Chyrurgion from a Physitian: where∣fore afterwards, servants handled manual instruments and operations; as if it unbeseem∣ed a Christian to help his Neighbour with his hands. In the mean time, some Noble Matrons healed many defects with their own hands, that were despaired of by Physi∣tians.

Truly, after that the Studies of ambition and gain were practised, Charity grew cold, Mercy was extinguished, Art perished, and the Giver of lights withdrew his gifts, the num∣ber of our calamities increased, and Physitians were made the Fable of the vulgar; Truth remained buried in the grave of Science, and instead thereof, a confused kind of brawl∣ings arose, being discursive, which was accounted for doctrine. For Physitians described, and drew to themselves the whole Army of Diseases, almost grieving, that the Catalogue of them was as yet so small: For they being allured with the facility of the Art of Ga∣len, promised to measure all diseases by the Geometrical demonstrations of degrees of heat, and cold, and to heal them all thereby. Chyrurgions also, as well the Modern as An∣tient, from an imitation and emulation of these, largely and widely treated promiscuously of all diseases, snatching the cures of them all under themselves, in the sight and de∣spight of their former Masters: Because, at first, and from the root of Medicinal Ordina∣tion, all things belonged to be cured only and alone by Physitians; but unto Chyrurgions afterwards, only by permission, and from favor. Both of them have remained under a confu∣sed strife, the which I cannot, nor do I intend to put an end unto, as being assured, * 1.1 That a Physitian chosen by God, his own signs shall follow, and wonders for the Schools: For he shall prepare, to the honour of God, his free gifts, to the comfort of his Neighbour; and therefore compassion shall be his Leader: For he shall possess truth in his heart, and knowledge in his understanding; Charity shall be his Sister, and the mercy of the Lord shall enlighten his ways: For he shall employ or bestow the grace or favour of the Lord, and the hope of gain shall not be in his thoughts: for the Lord is rich and liberal, and will give him an hundred∣fold, in an heaped up measure. He will fructifie his works, and anoint his hands with blessing: He will fill his mouth with consolations, and with the Trumpet his word, from which diseases shall flee: He will fill his life with length of daies, his house with riches, and his Children with the fear of the Lord: His footsteps shall bring felicity, and diseases shall be in his sight, as Snow in the Noon day of Summer, in an open Valley: Curse and punishment shall flee a∣way, and health shall follow him behind. These are the promises of the Lord, unto Physitians whom he hath chosen: These are the blessings of those, who walk in the path of mercy: Because the Lord loveth those that work mercy; and therefore will he enlighten them by his Spirit, the Comforter. For who is liberal as the Lord, who gives many things freely, and for some small matter, bestoweth all things. Blessed is the Lord, who saves only the merciful man, and who saves him that is to be saved, freely. But consolation shall meet the merciful man, in the way of hope; because he hath chosen a faithful Master. But indeed the Greeks, and soon after, the Arabians, instituted the cures of infirmities, without the distinction of the person of a Chyrurgion from a Physitian: And those Heathens rising again from the dead, shall at some time, confound Christian Physitians, for their sloath, covetousness, and pride: For God reserveth the choice of a Physitian to himself. But the Schools being willing to ease God of this work, have taken on themselves to instruct Schollars, any, and without difference, and have proposed unto them an Art placed in the daily reading of books, and in disputations: wherefore they have read the books of Galen, Avicen, and their Interprerers; and then they have rowled over Herbarists, the images of Herbs be∣ing deciphered to the life: And the which, if they have not yet therefore known from thence, the studious are dismissed to the shops, and to the gatherers of Simples, with a

command, that when they have well known the Effigies of Simples, they return unto their Lectures, which they by much and long study have collected out of divers Authors, that they may learn the powers or virtues of Simples and Compositions, and also their applications. In the mean time, perhaps ye shall see the dissections of dead carkasses, and ye shall hear (as they say) Galen's method of Healing, his use of the parts, and differences of the Pulses: Likewise out Commentaries on the ninth Book of Almanzor, accord∣ing to the common rule of Practitioners.

In the mean time, learn ye problematically to dispute subtilly upon any proposition; and so, within three years space, ye shall be transchanged into learned men. The Schools, in the mean time, being as it were ashamed, laying aside the name of Physitian, promise some higher thing unto their young beginners, when the three years are finished; which is that of a Doctor.

Therefore, after that Art was raised up into a Faculty, Religion, and Profession; pride crept in, covetousness intruded gain; whence also there was a mutual hatred betwixt Physitians; which things brought with them all inclemency on the sick. Moreover, at length, pride, for the most part, super-excelled covetousness in those that were blown up with the letter, and lucre: wherefore a Physitian, promoted his houshold servant, who had known how to comb and shave a Beard, into a Chyrurgion; accounting it a shameful thing for him who had rowled over so many books, to bind up an Ulcer, or repose a broken bone: For all vices have that, that they associate themselves with shame and fear, and cover the fault with the shadow of decency: And therefore also, pride hath by de∣grees chosen sloath for its companion, the coupling whereof hath soon bred ignorance: So that indeed, a Doctor being called unto the outward deformities of an Erisipelas, hath been ignorant of the kind and name of that affect; the which, when he had warily under∣stood by the Chyrurgion, he late at night rowls over some books, that on the morning following, he may declame many things concerning the affect: therefore, he bids a vein to be opened; he commands Whey, with Rose-Vinegar, or Soap, to be applyed, for mi∣tigating of the burning heats, and describeth a potion against the day following, for the drawing out of Choler. The Chyrurgion smiles as oft as the event answereth not his promises; and the Doctor, by degrees, shifting of external diseases (because he is igno∣rant thereof) as being content with his Super-eminent Title, that he had read most things in Chyrurgical writings, and could declame most exceeding ample things among the common people, the Chyrurgion conniving thereat. He in the mean time, who with∣out the advice of the Physitian, takes to him his own Disciples, who can sometimes pull out a Tooth, who have known how to open a Vein, to spread Basilicon and Diapalma, and have learned in three years time to bind up a wound, they are reckoned the Free-ma∣sters of Chyrurgery, against the will of the Schools. But the Doctors have too late learn∣ed the Fable of him who had endowed a Serpent, frozen with cold, with his own hosom, and being pierced thorow by the same, miserably perished: And that thing at this day is so far extended, that Chyrurgions henceforward, have their own Doctors or Teachers, Professors, and Writers, in their Mother Tongue, amongst themselves. Then I say the Schools, and that too late re-considered; so that they, who at first blushed to repose a broken or displaced bone, and afterwards knew not how to do it, are now glad to poure back the Urine, and to stir stinking dung with a stick, that they may divine their humours to have been chased thither: And that unless they shall do that, verily they know, that as idle at home, they ought to grow mouldy beside their books: For in the mean time, the ignorance of Chyrurgery is encreased among Physitians. Truly, God hath every where punished pride, by ignorance, or madness.

Galen indeed wrote books of the Therapeutick or practical part of heal∣ing, which they interpret to be a method of healing: But who is he that knows not that Therapeuta sounds as an houshold servant? and so, that they should serve Nature and the sick, with the humble Title of Family-service: and we will glory in the Lord, who ta∣king on him the nature of a servant, would that his own Physitians, should in this humble vocation, be made partakers of the most Noble Science of the whole Universe. And in∣deed I at sometime asked a Canonical man, why he would not sing together with the rest at the hours of singing, who from their Institution were the Singers of Divine Praises, the imitators of Angels, but not the Heads or Directors of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy? He answered, that would be an unbeseeming thing for great Canonists to sing; that they had their lesser Beneficiated ones, and Chaplains: For the one, through a possession of a lar∣ger alms, denieth unto God his praises, as a thing disgraceful unto him; but the other ac∣counts, that it would be uncomely for him to handle, cleanse, and bind up the torn Mem∣bers

of Christ. But I am assured, that within a few transitory daies, the Lord will say; Un∣less ye become as one of these little ones, I know not you Lamp-bearers without Oyl. Wherefore, I exhort you my Brethren, take away gain, and in the room thereof drink in charity; and ye shall feel, that every good work, which now seems to be base unto you, is not only laudable, honest, and Noble; but also, that it sanctifies and ennobles its Opera∣ter. Was not the great High-Priest of the Jews a Prince, a Butcher of Herds, a Killer of a Flock of Cattel, having bloudy hands? But it is far more decent to bind up the Ul∣cers of the poor, than it was in times past to offer Sacrifices: For no good work in chari∣ty, shall ever be able to detract any thing from the Reputation. Gain therefore and Pride, were introduced by Satan.

But thou wilt say, the Labourer is worthy of his reward: If thou art a Labourer, let it not therefore shame thee of thy work: The wise man saith, a Physitian shall receive a gift (not a stipend or reward) from a King, not from a poor man: Therefore, if the in∣tention of the Operater be pure, God shall provide according to his promise, who de∣ceiveth none, promising an hundred-fold in this time, and the life of another. Where∣fore I will describe by the way, an history of my own life, and the magnificences or sump∣tuous provisions of the Lord: imitate ye the same, if happily any good thing shall there∣in offer it self.

Truly, I was a Glutton of Books; I had collected all remarkable things into common places, so as that few exceeded me in diligence, but most in judgement. In the seventeenth year of my youth, I read Lectures of Chyrurgery before the Stu∣dents, in the Colledge of the Physitians of Lovain, being appointed thereunto by the Professors, Thomas Fienus, Gerardus de Villeers, and Stornius: Alas, I presumed to teach those things which I my self was ignorant of: I fitted together Holerius, Tagautius, Gui∣do, Vigo, Aegineta, and the whole Troop of Arabians; the which surely all together, un∣derstood not the perfection of Chyrurgery. Afterwards I desisted, having admired at my own rashnesses and inconsideratenesses, that I should presume, only by the reading of books, to teach those things which are not well learned but by sight, and the handling of the hands, by long use, and a sharp judgement: For an unconsiderate presumption blew me up, because I had been voluntarily by them chosen hereunto, and had my Professors, both my Auditors, and the Censurers of my readings: For I trusted to writings, as it hap∣pens to children reading from Baiardus and Malegigius. At length, being amazed with my self, I certainly found, that the event answered not the Doctrine, and that Professors gave me not more light in practising, than the writings of the Antients. In the mean time, it often came into my mind, what the Schools thunder forth out of Avicen; to wit, that confidence on the Physitian is of greater weight to the sick, than the Physitian is with all his instruments: I therefore suspected, that it was a feeble succour of the Physiti∣an, before which, an imaginary aid of confidence should be preferred: For if any one being glad or joyful, be cured by laughter; at leastwise, let the medicine be ridiculous, where the Physitian shall cure the sick party by laughing and confiding; for that is not the medicine which the Almighty hath created from the earth. Then also, that Maxim of the Schools appeared ridiculous, affirming, that the capital betokening of curing, is drawn from things helpful and hurtful; because that Maxim ordinarily presupposeth, that uncer∣tain, and hurtful medicines are wont for the most part to be sent afore: Helpful ones also, if any shall be given, that they are administred by chance, and without knowledge: which things surely do define medicine, against the will of the Schools, to be a conje∣ctural Art, and that the knowledges and cures of diseases, do begin a posteriori or from the effect, from errours, from the tryal and conjecture of that which is uncertain: yea, that that which should afterwards be searched out, should be alike uncertain. The Poet hath deservedly cursed that medicinal Maxim.

—Careat successibus opto, Quisquis ab eventu, facta notanda putat.

I wish that he, who e're he be, may want successes rare, Who from th' event, doth straightway think, deeds to be noted are.

I therefore grieved that I had learned that Art; and being angry with my self, grieved, who was Noble, that against the will of my Mother, and my Kindred on the Fathers side being ignorant thereof, I as the first in our Family, had dedicated my self to medicine: I long bewailed the sin of disobedience, and it grieued me of the years and pains bestowed

in a choise profession: And I ost-times humbly intreated the Lord with a sorrowful heare that he would vouchsafe to lead me unto a calling, not whither I was carried of my own free accord; but wherein I might well please him most: And I made a vow, that I would follow and obey him to the utmost of my power, whithersoever he should call me.

Then first, as having been fed with the forbidden fruit, I acknowledged my own nakednesse: Because I found neither truth, nor knowledge in my suppositional doct¦trine, supposing it especially, to be a cruel thing to heap up moneys by others mise∣ries: Also, that it was an unseemely thing, to translate an art founded in charity, and be∣stowed under the condition of exercising mercy, into gain; since the Noblenesse of charry is estranged by a stipend, which wants a price out of it self, because it is great∣er than all price: Wherefore, I presently entitled my inheritance on my sister a widow, and transferred it by a gift among the living; because she could scarce conveniently want it.

I therefore being a young man, altogether unprofitable in all things, an unthrifty man, and who had rashly applyed my self to studies, commended my self to God, with an intention of going far from home, of forsaking medicine, and of never returning into my Country: Because I cleerly then beheld my own innermost parts; I discovered, and divorced the vanities of my former presumption, and literal Learning; I therefore proceed on as uncertain, unto strangers, under hope, that the Lord would clemen∣tiously direct my course unto the end of his own good pleasure: But by how much the more I detested medicine, and cast it far from me as a juggling deciet, indeed, by so much the greater occasion of healing invaded me.

For an Idiot associated himself with me, who had known at least, the manual in∣struments of the art of the fire: I presently as soon as I beheld the inward part of some bodies, by the fire, percieved the seperations of many bodies, then not yet delivered in books, and at this day, some being unknown: Afterwards, an earnest desire of know∣ing and operating, dayly increased in me: For not much above two years after, I had gotten such houshould-stuffe to my self, whereby I was, though absent, in great esteem among the sick; also with Ernestus Bavarus the Electour of Collen, and he called me unto himself for help: But then it as yet more shamed me of my late, and learned igno∣rance: Wherefore I presently resigned up all books, and I percieved my self more to profit by the fire, in conceptions attained by praying, than in any kind of books, which sing always the same Cuckows note: And then I cleerly knew that I had vitiated the passage of true Phylosophy: Obstacles and dificulties of obscurities on every side appeared; the which, not labour, not time, not watching, lastly, nor the lavishments of moneys could from any worthinesse disperse: but the one only and meer goodnesse of God alone. For neither did carnal lust, nor drinking bouts withdraw even one only houre from me; but continual paines, and watching were the thieves of my time: For I willingly cured the poor, and those of a mean fortune, being more stirred up by humane compassion, and a moral affection of bestowing, than from a pure and universal charity or dear love reflexed on the Fountain of Life.

For it happened, that a Consul or Senatour being at somtime willingly about to make use of my endeavour, I denied to giue it him presentially, as being unwilling to for∣sake many that were poorer, least I should be accounted to have neglected many for one: Notwithstanding, God from the free grace of his own good pleasure, turned this pride into good: For it shamed me to receive moneys, but of the richer sort: So that a Confes∣sour constrained me to admit of the mony of a certain man that offered it, least by doing otherwise, I should bar up the dores against those, who being fore-stalled with shame, would not dare to aske further succours from my hands: For he said, The gifts which thou refusest, give to him that is in need: and the which, if thou shalt not receive, thou by thy pride, withdrawest from the poor that which was to be his own. I also gave willingly, the medicines prepared by me: but because I felt the greater joy while I was called by a Primate or rich man, I being angry with my self, and confounded, refisted long, and be∣stowed very much pains, that I might pluck up the growing branch of covetousnesse bred in me: Therefore I every where searcht out more of arrogancy and haughtinesse in my self, than of a Godly affection.

Finally, God cut of the means from me, as well in the Church as among civil Poten∣tates; and so also, ample fortunes seemed to be promised me by Radolph the Emperour but I had incurred the danger of my foul: In exchange whereof, he gave me a godly and Noble wife, with whom I withdrew my self to Vilvord; for seven years space, I of∣ferd up my self to the art of the fire, and succoured the calamities of the poor. I found,

and indeed I sound for certainty, that none should be forsaken of God, who with a pious affection, and fitme faith, performes the office of Physitian: For although I was the silliest of all, I seeingly discerned, that God is Charity it self towards the miserable, and therefore that from his own effluxing goodnesse of charity, he alwayes bore a care over me: For the inheritances of my wise were increased, and ample partimonies of my family befel me: for although I was subdued in suites of law, by the malice of men; yet I became a conquerer by some revisals; so as that the mercies of God openly appeared toward an unworthy person.

And moreover, he pressed down those that excelled in might, who persecuted me unto disgrace, and hidden death, under the cloak of piety: And the darts were reflect∣ed on their own strikers; so that now it more shameth, than repenteth them of their manifested crimes.

In the mean time, I desist not to cure some ten thousands of sick persons every year, by my remedies, neither are my medicines therefore diminished. I have learned there∣fore, that the treasure of wisdome is not to be exhausted, and I daily experience my yesterdays ignorance to be to day illustrated. But in returning from whence I have di∣gressed: I find that they have not yet been able to discerne what defects respect a Phy∣sitian, and what a Chyrurgion: Which things if I may determine of, I declare, that onely things suscepted or undergone do touch at Chyrurgery: The which in a section concerning a new rise of healing, I have sufficiently explained: But things suscepted, are a wound made by piercing, a cut or incision made by a fall, biting, bruise, burning or scorching, or congealing: Likewise, every swelling proceeding from a fall, stroak, &c. Also a rent, pulling asunder, burstnesse, breaking of a bone, and displacing there∣of: As also, contagions externally drawn, being those of scabbednesse, the kind of Anthonies fire called Herpes, &c. and no more: But unto Physitians, besides the in∣ternal defects of things retained, it belongs to cure any Ulcers, Apostemes, and whatsoever external affects do proceed from an internal Beginning; such as are the Can∣cer, Wolf, Leprousy, Gout, the disease Paneritium, the Sciatica; &c. But at this day, there is the more mild brawling between both Professions, because most Physitians are ignorant of a method, medicine, and succours, no otherwise than as Chyrurgions are: And therefore although they joyn hands, and so exhaust the purses of the sick party; yet at length they hasten to the bound of despair.

And in the proposed question concerning the Plague, they are unanimous enough: For the Physitian refuseth the Plague to be of the diseases placed under him, because it beares before it a Carbuncle, Kernelly Glandules, Sores about the groyne called Bubo's, an Escharre, bubbly Tumours, and Tokens: And at leastwise, he condescendeth with the Chyrurgion, because he promiseth that he will scrape together out of renowned and standard-defending Authours, any the best Antidotes, if not the curative medicines of external affects; at least, preservatives against the cruel poyson: Yea if the Triacle of Galen doth not suffice, which according to Andromachus, conteineth only 66. Simples, (that is the last part of the name of Antichrist) he promiseth to his herbarists, that he will super-add very many more, which are sufficient for the putting of the Plague to flight: and that if they are not prevalent in a sufficient power of faculty, they may at leastwise, be able to strive with the Plague, in multitude, by their number: But if the Doctour shall be hired from the City, with a stipend, least he should hurt or be wanting to his other sick patients, by causing a fear (thus he over-covers his own fear with anothers dread) he ingeniously promiseth, that he will shew by his pen, that the af∣fairs of the sick are cordial unto him: So that, he will also frame a book out of the most Fa∣mous Authors on every side, which he promiseth to dedicate to community, indeed under the hope of repaying a reward of his vain-spent labour, unto the writer: For in that trea∣tise, he promiseth, that he will so distinguish of diet, exercises to be performed, a∣voyded, and of meanes to be curiously examined, besides remedies and preservatives, out of all Authours, that the very Plague it self, shall upon the sight of that book, of ne∣cessity become diseasy.

In the next place, the Chyrurgion saith, that the Plague, as it is joyned with a Fe∣ver, stands not to be ruled by his will or judgment: But however successfully the matter shall sometimes prove unto him; at least wise, that for six weekes after, he should be profitable to none, with his sissers, file, knife, or rasour or launcet. What therefore shall he that is suddenly taken with the Plague, do, being left destitute by both forsakers? Or what will the Magistrate do, being deluded by his own stipendiaties? Because they are they which respect nothing but gain, the one only scope of their whole life.

The Physitian therefore will dismisse the sick unto the non-feared Pest-houses, wherein there is as unlawfull a pleasure for a Physitian to kill, as for a tormentor, and souldier. The Chyrurgion answers, That there is a Mate known unto him, who is without fear, af∣ter that he hath notably drunk; who although he hath not known how to open a vein, (for this is estemed the top among them) neither is worthy of his family-service; yet he hath of∣tentimes brought Simples out of a wood, or mountaines, and therefore that he is skillfull in some Simple, which whether it be an Herb, Shrub, or tree, or living Creature, he hath hitherto refused to declare; Yet he undoubtedly affirmeth, that it privailes against the Plague, and he willingly perswadeth him to commit the buisinesse of the infected unto him.

Master Doctour skipping for joy consenteth, and praiseth the subtile invention of the Barber, and his care for the Common-wealth: And so that companion being called unto them, a Lixivial medicine for an Eschare, Basilicon oyntment, and Diachyson gummed is given unto him, and also a magistral preservative confection described by the Physitian: Wherewith he being now furnished, becomes a stipendiary of the City, and the life of the common-people in misery, and the fail-yard of the Common-weath is committed unto him: yet under this condition, that if he suffer himself to be governed by Tenders, and under-Sisters, as super-intendents, who by a long possession, rage on the sick, he is to receive a yeerly reward. Surely miserable are the sick, more miserable the Magistrate, and most exceeding miserable the Doctour, unto whom the Magistrate hath committed his sheep, which they deliver to wolves: Because in this respect, man is truly a wolf to the poor, and infected man. But the strict judge, will at sometime, require at their hands, the lives, souls, and forsaken orphans.

For what would a King do, if a cowardly Captaine shall wipe away much money from himself and the people, and muster a great band of country-men in his enrowling book, but shall betake himself, with his Ensign-bearer, into a most fenced Tower or Castle: but shall write unto the Drummer, and some women-sellers of provision, that they cheerfully assault the Enemy with those fresh-water Souldiers? For will not the King re∣quire of his Captains, the Souldier that was rashly slain? And the town destroyed by the Enemy? Have regard therefore, ye Senatours, and Physitians, what cruel thing doth not hang over your heads? Because nothing is more certain than death and judgment. For I have written these things from a compassion on you, and the sick: I divine of you, let God be favourable unto me! At leastwise the Magistrate hath not hitherto known, of what kind the Plague should be.

CHAP. 2. The Pest or Plague, an Infant.

A Rtaxerxes, by an Epistle, commanded Petus, that he should come unto him, to cure a disease (as yet without a name) which killed his Citizens and Souldiers; for that, by gifts recieved, he was obliged hereunto. Petus answered him after the manner of Physitians at this day: That natural succours do not free from a popular slaughter: For those diseases, which are made by nature, those nature judging of, healeth. But Hippocrates cureth a malady from a popular destruction: Because this man is endow∣ed with a divine nature, and hath carried up medicine from a low estate, unto great atchieve∣ments.

Hippocrates therefore is a divine man, the ninth indeed from King Chrysamides, but the eighteenth from Aesculapius; but the twentieth from Jupiter: Being indeed of his mother Praxithia, of the family of the Heraclides: Wherefore, from both seedes, he hath his original from the Gods: He was initiated or entered as a young beginner in medicinal affairs by his great grandfathers, so far as it is to be believed, that these knew: But himself hath taught himself, having made use of a divine nature, the whole art: And in the industry of his minde, he hath as far exceeded his progenitours, as he hath also exceeded them in the excellency of art: But he takes away, not only the kind of bestial, but also of brutishly fierce and wild diseases, through a great part of the land, and sea, dispersing the succours of Aesculapius (even as Triptolemus, the seeds of Ceres): Therefore hath he most justly obtained divine honours, in many places of the earth, and is made worthy by the A∣thenians, of the same gifts or presents with Hercules and Aesculapius: Send thou for this man, and command, as much Gold as he shall he willing to receive, to be given unto him: For

this man hath not known one only manner of curing this disease: This man is the Father, the preserver of health, and the curer of griefs: In summe; this man is the Prince of di∣vine knowledge.

Artaxerxes therefore, writes unto Hystanes the Lievtenant of Hellespont. Let Hippocrates the Glory of Cods, who drew his original from Aesculapius, come unto me: and give him as much Gold as he will have, and other things in abundance, sparing no riches: For he shall be made equal to the Peers of Persia: For it is not an easie thing to find men that excel in counsail.

Moreover, Hystanes writes thus unto Hippocrrtes: The great King Artaxerxes hath need of thee: Commanding Gold, Silver, and whatsoever thou wilt have to be given unto thee; that thou shouldst be made equall unto the Nobles of Persia: Thou therefore, come quick••.

Hippocrates the Physitian, unto Hystanes the Lievtenant of Hellespont, joy.

SEnd thou back to the King, what I say; That we enjoy food, rayment, house, and all sufficient wealth for life: But that it is not lawfull for me to make use of the riches of the Persians; neither to free Barbarians from diseases, that are enemies to the Greeks-Farewel.

Hipocrates unto Demetrius, health.

THe King of the Persians hath sent for me; as not knowing that with me, there is a great∣er respect of wisdome, than of Gold. Farewel.

To the King of Kings, my great Lord Artaxerxes: Hystanes Leivtenant, joy. The Epistle which thou sents't unto Hippocrates of Coos, who sprang from Aeculapius, I sent a way: but I recieved an answer from him, which I transmit unto thee, with the bearer thereof Gymnasbes, Dieutyches. Farewel. Great Artaxerxes, King of Kings, saith these words unto the Co-ans: Render ye Hippocrates to my messengers, who is indued with evil manners, wantonizing over me and the Persians: But if not, ye shall know that ye shall pay the punishment of the offence: For I will convert your City, being laid wast and drawn into diverse parts of the Island, into the sea: that for the future none can know, whether there were an Island, or the City Cos in this place.

The Answer of the men of Coos.

IT hath seemed good unto the people, to answer the messengers of Artaxerxes: The Co-ans will do nothing unworthy of Merops, nor of Hercules, nor of Aesculapius: All the Cities will not yield up Hippocrates, although they were to dye the worst of deaths: The Earth, and Water which Darius and Xerxes required of our Fathers, the people gave not, since they saw those very Kings themselves, to be impotent mortals, as other men. They now answer the same thing: Depart ye from the Co-ans and return this message, that the Gods themselves will not be negligent of us; Because they deliver not Hippocrates into your hands.

I have thus described these things at large, whereby the truth of the fame of Hippocrates may be manifest, and that he had cured the Plague among the people throughout Greece: For indeed, that disease being as yet an Embryo, scarce known, scarce named, was now perfectly cured: but now, it being sufficiently and too well known, is left unto decievers of the lowest condition: Charity hath grown cold; therefore the light of knowledge, and understanding hath been snatched away from us, and the certainty of curing hath been buried with Hippocrates. Although a great volume be born about in his name: yet he suppressed this safety or assurance of curing (God so permitting it) for

fear of the Barbarians, or from a zeal of vanity to be observed, because he arose from the stock of Deasters or Starry Gods: or because through the successive interchange of days, his own monuments perished, suppositional ones being left: However it is, by the permission of God, the aforesaid amplenesse of knowledge, and safety of curing the Plague hath hitherto vanished.

I have read perhaps, an hundred Authours concerning the Pest or Plague, indeed all of them transcribers, writing a far of, and being unexperienced and conjectural ones, through a fear of death: That at leastwise is known, that in the dayes of Hippocrates the best remedies of diseases were not as yet made known: For then cures were instituted only by Simples, and those crude ones, the preparations of them being not yet de∣vsed.

But Galen his Juniour by more than five ages, endeavoured to write commentaries on Hippocrates, and he with drew from him at pleasure: For why, he had never seen Argent vive, never Rose water, or Aquavitae. And although the age of Hippocrates was homely; yet healings were obedient unto him, which do no wise obey Galen, not his followers at this day.

Hippocrates had lesse of prattle, but more of candour, science, and heavenly light: so that with homelinesse, ages have seemed to put of purity, and the gift of God: Wherefore out ages have been fruitful in most perverse manners, and wits: It hath therefore pleased God, that a true and exact curing, and prevention of the Plague, hath soundly slept together with Hippocrates: At leastwise, nothing is read among the Jews concerning a popular or general Plague among the ••••ople, from the age of Noah unto the offence of David: But among the Persians, and Greeks, besides the consumption mentioned to have been in the age of Hippocrates, the enemy of mankind, and Prince of this world, hath caused some Plagues to rage, by the permission of God, which Satan commanded to be expiated by sacrifices done unto himself: Perhaps, because that thing was not granted unto him, as to the Prince of darknesse, so much, as because he had the foreknowledge of a future Plague, and together also, of the term of its appeasment: Whence he violently, fabulously and deceitfully challenged the rise, decay, and power of appeasing thereof unto himself. A Plague is read to have seldom been among the Romans: And but a few ages ago, the memory of the Plague was almost worn out: At length, it returned for ages, and raged for seventy years; and soon after it de∣stroyed for fifty years; so that the year of Jubile was made cloudy, and terrible. Now, there is a third years Plague at Constantinople: The Turks are not wont to provide for themselves against the pestilent contagion: And therefore they scoff at the Christians, as resisters of the ordination of God, and as those that decline the Plague, for the most part with a vain endeavour: That the manner of divine revenge, is to be born, which happens of necessity, unto every one appointed thereunto. In Aegypt, the Plague va∣ries every seven year: It for the most part, endures unto a third year, after this manner, as Prince Radzvil the Polonian witnesseth. On the first year it lightly begins, when the Sun enters into Libra, and it rageth chiefly in December, even unto the month called March: At which time, the heats are milder: but when they have grown strong, when as in the year following, the Sun enters into Leo, the Plague presently ceaseth; and indeed so, that if any one shall have a Pestilential Apostem within, and shall survive unto the a∣foresaid hour of the aforesaid celestial sign, he escape all danger: Even as colds with us, so here, heats chase away the Plague, and for two months time they live securely: But after that the Sun hath entred into Libra, the Plague again begins by degrees, and continues until the entrance of the Sun into Leo: on the third year, it keeps the same fashion, but that it slakens somewhat more from its bitternesse: Afterward, if a contagion shall not be brought on the people from elsewhere, the four following years are free from the Plague: sometimes also, a longer truce is made: But the malady for the most part re∣turns in the space of seven years Their harvest begins about the end of [the first month called] March: Before the last days of [the second month called] April, it is finished: For the southern windes blow throughout [the third month called] May, which by burning, would reduced their fruits unto nothing. That Prince having been there thus perfectly instructed, wrote these things, and believing all: whereunto, I shall give sa∣tisfaction in its own place: At leastwise, the holy Scripture makes no mention, that these things happened unto Aegypt in times past; although the Sun and Heaven are now rowled about in the same circle, as in times past: For my speech is the memory of my Pa∣rents, concerning the Plague, as of a most rare monster: It hath of late flourished a∣mong us for fifteen years: Now it ceaseth: Houses were then built up at Bruxels, for the

infected poor, and the walls themselves were broken at the North-ditch; of which hou∣ses, our Country could long be without: But I lay the fault upon us; it was a command of Charity; draw thy Neighbours Oxe or Ass out of the mire, bring him to his Master, nei∣ther shalt thou pass by the way, doing otherwise. But now the Cattel of our Neighbour, is not only not freed, but we our selves press them down; yea, we forsake and flee from our Brother (the Temple of God) in his greatest necessities, and mortal diseases, and stop our ears at his lamentations: every one, like the Priest and Levite, passing by, excuseth himself from the work of charity, as though that to do a good work, were not belonging to his profession, and as if the Text were a lyar; Whatsoever thou shalt do unto the least of these, I will account it as done unto my self. Its no wonder therefore, that in these ulcerous rubbishes of our daies, God sorely threatens the destruction of a most perverse people; and that their Cities shall be ploughed as a field: For I have oft-times been affrighted within my self, at that eminent fore-going sign of the destruction of the Universe to come; There shall be Plagues: For I from thence despaired, as that none was to come after Hippocrates, who should any longer cure a popular Plague: But from elsewhere I ho∣ped, that as what we wish for, we easily hope for, and in hoping, do also believe; so also, that we might despair of what we are very much afraid. I therefore believed and hoped, that this safety of curing the Plague should hereafter be discovered, and that every succour before the last Tragedy of the world, would again be hidden: at leastwise, I suppose, that there will be other far more horrible Plagues than ever heretofore, and against which, all Antidotes will be vain: For truly, our Plague at this day, doth not affect bruit beasts: But in the last dreggishness 〈…〉〈…〉, they shall destroy wild beasts also; yea, fishes, and trees; and there shall be Plagues, but not an ordinary Plague; otherwise, this should be an uncertain sign of the future destruction: For there shall be Plagues from the hand of God, from the powring out of the Vials, as the Revelation hath it: But against, those Plagues there is not to be a Buckler in Nature. I promised therefore unto my self, before I attempted to write these things, that the Plague that was curable, even unto that face of times, and a true remedy thereof, was to be fetched out of the Grave of Hippocrates, or rather from above, from the Father of Lights. I will declare what I have learned, for the profit of Posterity.

CHAP. III. The Heaven is free from, as also innocent of our Contagion or Infection:

NOt the least comfort hath appeared unto the Soul that is earnestly desirous of know∣ledge, or unto the miserable and forsaken sick, from the writings of the Antients. First of all, it is of Faith, that the Stars are for signs, times or seasons, daies and years; nor that man can any way alienate the offices of the Stars, or decline them unto other scopes: That the Heavens are the works of the Lords hands; that God created not Death: and therefore, that neither doth the Heaven contain Death, a disease, poyson, dis∣cords, corruptions, or the effective cause of these: For truly, they are ordained, not for the cause, but for the signs of future things; and only for the changing of seasons, or Meteors, and for the succession of daies and years; The office therefore of the Hea∣vens, is not to generate evils, to cause poysons, to disperse, or influx them, to sow wars, and to stir up deaths: Because the heaven cannot exceed the bounds of its own appoint∣ment: the heavens declare the glory of God, for whose honour, and the uses of un∣grateful humanity, it was created: And therefore, it rather contains in it, life, light, joy, peace, and health, with an orderly and continued motion: no curse is read to have been communicated to the heaven after the transgression of Adam, nor execration to be in∣fused into it, as neither a spot to have been sprinkled thereon. The earth indeed brings forth thistles and thorns; because under the Moon is the Copy-hold of the Devil and Death (because of sinners) the Empire of discords, and interchanges: The earth hath be∣come a Step-mother unto us, she is therefore the vale of miseries, being great with∣child of the corruption and fardle of sinners; because it hath pleased God, that there should be no other way unto rest, but by tribulations: yea, it behoved Christ to suffer, and so to enter into glory; not indeed anothers, but his own, because he was willing to take

on him the form of a servant. I belive the Word of God, but in no wise the vanities of the Sooth-sayers of Heaven; and I judge, that they who write, that the Plague doth a∣rise from the heaven, do stumble, as being hitherto deceived with the errours of the Gen∣tiles.

The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth the handy-works of the Lord: The Heavens therefore, shew a sweet, or bitter thing to come, but they do not cause that sweet, or bitter: yea, neither is it lawful for us to call bitter things evils; for God hath directed all things to a good end: Therefore the heaven declares future things unto us, but doth not cause them; and the stars are only unto us for the signs of things to come; and therefore there shall be signs in the Sun, Moon, and Stars. The Stars also cause the successive alterations of seasons in the ayr, waters, and earth, only by a native Blas: From whence the changes and ripenesses, as well in fruits, as in the body of man, especially in a sick one, do consequently depend.

I understand also, that the stars are in this respect for times or seasons unto us, by their motive and alterative Blas: For neither therefore are the Heavens Sorcerers, or the Co∣cters of poysons, the incensers of wars, &c. I knowingly consider them to be altoge∣ther as the alterers of successive interchanges in Elementary qualities, as to the inter∣changeable courses of Stations: Wherefore it happens, that the sick a••e diversly altered in the promotion and maturity of seeds conceived in them; because our vital faculties do stir up every their own Blas, according to the rule or square of the most general motion of the stars; not indeed, as of violent leaders; but of foregoing, or accompanying ones. For the Book of the Revelation doth not attribute even any the least punishing power unto the Heavens; but the same to be distributed by God among the Angels: and the which therefore, are called smiting, and ministring spirits, performing the commands of the Judge; Therefore, I shall not easily believe, that the Plague owes its original unto the importunate or unseasonable changes of times; the which also, Eudoxus, according to Fernelius, perceived.

And I cannot be induced by any reason to believe, that the Heavens do give growth, form, figure, virtues, or any thing else, which proceedeth from the Be∣ing of seeds: For the Herb was potent in a flourishing seed, even before the stars were born; so that although there should be no stars, yet every seed, by the power of the Word, is of it self naturally for producing of its own constituted body, and against the will of the stars, and stations of the year, yea, and of climates: many seeds and for∣reign fruits are produced by Art: Wherefore, the Epidemicks of Hippocrates, illustrated with the Commentary of Galen, do also contain very many things, unworthy the name of the Author; not only, because it attributes diseases to the stations or seasons of the year, and not every one to their own seeds, and divers infirmities to one root (that is, unto the first qualities of the ayr) and so coupleth divers effects with unjust causes; but because they contain very many absurdities of trifles.

For I am wont in this thing, to compare Judiciary Astrologers unto Empericks, who having gotten an oyntment, powder, or any other medicine, extoll the same to be preva∣lent, well nigh for all diseases; and also, for many other: So, many of those being not content with the shewing or betokening message of the Stars, constrain them to be the workmen, Deasters, and absolute Patrons of all fortune and misfortune, to be conscious or witness-bearers, and the workers of life and death to come: Lastly, to be the Coun∣cellors and Judges of thoughts, and questions asked. If therefore, they do not contain death, wars, poysons, nor the Plague; verily, neither shall they be able to rain down such scourges upon us, seeing they cannot give those things which they have not, do not con∣tain, do not cause, nor generate: For a messenger, the Preacher of Wars, is not the Gene∣ral, or cause of these. For if Trigantius the Jesuite tell truth, the Plague is unaccustomed unto the most wide, and whole Empire of the Chinois, and never there seen; over which, notwithstanding, the same Saturn, and the same Mars, bears rule, and that alike powerfully as over us.

Again, if in some Lands the Plague rageth at a certain term of time, and returns at fore known stations, wherein notwithstanding, the Plague in times past was a very great stranger; surely it should follow, either that those Provinces do not lay under the influences of the Stars, or not under the same influences as in times past; or that those Plagues are adulterous ones, or at leastwise (as I deem) that they do not proceed from the heaven; to wit, since there are no consultations of Stars in the same place, which do yearly ob∣serve set daies of their assemblies: For what if the plague in one City, destroy the great∣est part of mortals; truly all providence of the Magistrate shall be in vain, if the Neigh∣bouring

places that are scituated under the same Meridian or corner of the heaven, can∣not be preserved untouched.

And seeing the influx, and in-beaming of the stars, is most universal; how mad soever others may be, yet it is not to be believed, that plagues can have an influence from the stars of heaven, unto designed places, Cities, and Villages: For if the Plague it self should be a pestilent influx of the stars, or a Gas sent down from above unto us, or a meer naked quality descending through the ayr, which comes unto us without that bo∣dy; it shall also be either conceived in the stars, or generated in the ayr Neighbouring on us.

If the first of these, it should of necessity be, that all the corners of the world should be infected at once, unless we suppose a Pipe or Trunk to be directed in the ayr, and tho∣row the ayr, from the heaven even unto us, and that an unmoved one; by which also, and not otherwise, the pestiferous ayr bringing down the smoakinesses and defilements of the stars, is conveyed unto us: For since the distance of the stars from the earth, is of many thousands of Diameters of the earth; it is not to be thought, that any smoaki∣ness of a star can reach safe unto this Center (and lesse unto some Province thereof) but that it can infect the whole compass of the Earth and Sea, with a universal gore at once, it supplying the space and room of one the least Center or Point. There∣fore, if the Earth be like unto the least point, hitherto have those things respect, which I have elsewhere spoken concerning the Region of the ayr, through which, neither winds, nor dew, or rain, do ever run down, nor Meteors do play their Tragedies: And much less doth any thing flow down perpendicularly out of the depth of the heaven: or if it should rain down; some Decades or ten-fold numbers of the age of Nestor, would not be sufficient before that it could come as a stranger unto us. But if the stars do at least dis∣misse from them a meet and naked quality, that quality shall even by so great an inter∣val of place and entertainments, degenerate and fail divers times, and through the journeying of some yeares, and so, before it can come unto us, it shall have nothing of its former likeness; neither could such a quality coming unto us from far, infect a certain place, unless it be brought by an Angel, as it were in a box: but if by an Angel, now the natural question ceaseth; and we vainly make the heavens to be the bringers of the Plague, and Sorcerers, if an Angel himself be the Plague-carrier; who otherwise can bring far more readily the pestilent poyson nigh the earth, or into us, than that he should bring that with him, from the pure and guiltlesse heavens.

In the next place, a pestiferous quality sliding down from heaven, if it shall not de∣scend at once in the enclosed air, it shall either pass from subject into subject (which the Peripateticks and modern Schools refuse) or through a thousand shapes of it self, and those so often degenerated, shall come down from its original unto us, as wholly a stran∣ger; and so the poyson of the heavens shall be frustrated. But if it be supposed to be generated in the Clouds nigh the earth; therefore the heaven being free and guiltless, is falsly accused: For truly, I have shewn elsewhere, that the heavens do operate only by a motive, local Blas, and an alterative one, of heat and cold, but in no wise by poy∣sons: because they are those thigns which are only formal properties of sublunary bo∣dies, and the fermental ones of some seed, I grant indeed willingly, that a fiery weapon is now and then seen, a fiery weapon to have fallen out of the ayr, being darted unto some certain place; and that the plague hath sometimes followed thereupon: But that prodigy, in the first place, slideth not out of the deep bosom of the heaven, but out of a more nigh Cloud: Perhaps Satan the companion of Thunder, lets fly such a weapon, where he knows the plague to be sorely threatned (from whence, he of old, snatcht the honours of God unto himself) but that weapon is not therefore the cause of the plague: otherwise surely, at every plague a weapon should from a like necessity, be darted forth; especially because it is the property of fire, to consume the plague, and poysons, but not to generate them: Therefore fire doth never naturally, signifie the plague, whose destru∣ction it containeth: and therefore, such a fiery weapon is a most rare monstrous sign; sent down by spirits for terrour unto him, who shall rest back that weapon for the amendment of his life: and truly, it is impertinent to our purpose, and an exceeding frivolous thing, if from thence we note the heaven to be the bringer of the plague: For any monstrous signs are uncertain, and unfit for the foundation of medicine. But if an age or length of time, should thrust this pestilent ware into our bosome (for so it hath been believed hi∣therto, and they have badly deceived our Gentile Schools with an Epidemical name) to what end are there so many writers? or what means have been hitherto devised against those importunate influences of the stars? For who hath hitherto hindred the marrow

from increasing in the bones, after the manner of the Menstrues? therefore they have falsly accused the heaven: Let it seem sufficient for the Schools, to have made the heaven the Author of the plague, and to have buried their own knowledge under the silence of despair, only from the perswasion of ignorance, and terrour of fear: Therefore the ac∣cusing of the heaven doth every where involve a manifest and necessary ignorance. But at length, after that they have contracted all the strength of their Studies, they perswade, that places are to be avoided, wherein the Plague-stroaks are vigorous; that meats full of good juice, must be used; that a good fire must be made, and that any kind of filths must be a∣voided; and that Triacle must often be used, whereinto, when enough simples have not yet been cast, every one may heapingly add new Genturies or Hundreds at pleasure, there∣unto, and so, that is reckoned the most excellent Antidote, which containeth the col∣lected heap of a thousand simples: and they hope, that one of a thousand may perhaps help, at leastwise, that it will not hurt: For those are Magistral Antidotes or medicines a∣gainst the poyson; so that if in the mean time, the matter shall the less luckily succeed according to desire, at leastwise, he who hath compiled so many the most select simples together, and those commended by Renowned Authors, is free from blame: they being badly mindful of their own lyes, prescribe also grateful suffumigations of vinegar, and Odours of Spices; as if such feeble remedies could prevail against their own principles; that is, against poysons diffused from the heaven, throughout the whole air: For if by reason of those odours, either the beard, or nail of the hand; or lastly, the marrow cea∣seth to grow, it might infuse some confidence of hope, that the pestilent seed might be overcome by the wan remedy. Therefore, if there were any causative reason of the plague in the heavens, that by a stronger right, should belong unto man over the heavens, if a wise man shall have dominion over the stars, but not the stars over a wise man: For a wise man is able in some respect, to change the significations of the stars, although not the motion of the stars. But that thing is as greatly impertinent in this place, as is the false accusation of the heavens: For truly, if the stars should causatively work their own effect on us; verily, a wise man, might be able to mitigate it, and Physitians do, by their accu∣sing of the heaven, falsly endeavour to excuse themselves for an impossibility: There is not I say, any action of the stars on us, besides that of a Meteor: for Astrologers feign many things which they have known to be false; yea, and impossible: the which, in the speculations of the Planets, are on either side easie to be seen: notwithstanding, neither Nature, nor therefore medicine, to admit of the rule of falshood, as neither of the sup∣positions of Science Mathematical. Therefore lastly, if a popular plague should slide out of the heaven, it should of necessity be, that the heaven should resist and hinder, also, ac∣cording to the same root, and not as to the latter product; and so the whole Art of Heal∣ing should prescribe nothing but altogether vain remedies for the prevention of the plague.

But the Schools commit not themselves unto so great wickedness, and they more wil∣lingly rush unto impossibilities, that they may make a Buckler for their own ignorance, and may send any ignorant drinkers, and Cup-shot tormentors of mortals against the plague. At leastwise it is manifest from hence, that they do not hitherto assault the causes of the plague before, but behind, and that they have had respect only unto the effects thereof: and so, that whatsoever hath been spoken concerning its prevention, hath in it the meer deceivings of their Neighbours: For they imitate the Countryman, endeavour∣ing to exhaust a Brook where it hastens into the Sea, nigh the shoar, but not by stopping up the Fountain: Therefore, either they do not believe the plague to arise from the heaven, or their remedies are full of despair and deceit.

Furthermore, if the heaven, as it were an angry Parent (as it pleased Paracelsus to dream) takes notice of our crimes, and is defiled with our impieties, and therefore as a Revenger wounds us with its darts, and so miserably kills us; Certainly, it shall either be some Deaster, or sensitive living creature, which arrogating the office of God unto it self, and envying the office of the smiting Angels, teacheth us, that envy is a Celestial thing, as also the revenge of the creature on man. But why doth it note our crimes, if in taking notice thereof, it be defiled? and how shall it be defiled, if sin be a meer non∣being? how shall that Archer perceive a meer non-being? how shall it judge of the de∣parture of mans will from God? for if it be angry with us, and inflamed for revenge, by reason of [that nothing] how shall it not rather be angry with us, when it shall perceive that we imitate its own actions, and do stop or prevent them? to wit, while the heaven being appeased, we form the plague in us by our own terrours: and it should far more harshly bear it, that man, against the will of the heaven, should heal the plague, that he o∣vercomes

his own wounds, and prevents or hinders its offices, in despite of the hea∣ven.

Again, if the Plague could by an orderly motion of the stars be declaratively, and as it were, yearly foretold (even as I have already before declared the informations of others concerning Aegypt) but our offences want a set orderly day, number, and measure: For sins depend on the heart of man, and a free will; therefore that cause is not beseeming for its effect, and a sign thereof. But Divines deny the future effects of free-will to be fore-known by the stars, and so, neither that knowledge, nor understanding dwells in the heavens, and inanimate bodies: Therefore neither indeed, do they denounce the plague, wars, &c. to come from sins fore-known unto them. Be it sufficient, that the plague is denounced, not as for an inciting cause, but because it hath so pleased the Eternal: That every guilty person may examine himself, and amend: neither is there need of feigning belyed naughtinesses, and ill wills, to be in Saturn, or Mars, if our sins are the effectual cause of contagion: and so Astrologers and medicinal Diviners contradict themselves: For neither otherwise, should it be of necessity, to feign an Executioner to be angry with the guilty person, although he kills the same. I pray, why shall our iniquities rather pro∣voke Saturn, and Mars, than the Moon which is neerer by some thousand miles? Why should Saturn who is most remote, be a more potent Revenger of our crimes, than the Moon? For if any star were pestilential, certainly it should chiefly be that which bears rule over the night, rest, and reducement into the first matter.

In the next place, if the plague doth invade us as a punishment, or be sent by Angels his messengers, the movers of the Orbs; Surely, none shall be natural, and the prescrip∣tions and rules of the Schools, as well for prevention, as for curing, shall voluntarily ac∣quiesce. The heaven therefore, is a presager of fore-shewing a thing to come, and it affords signs of the plague, which God reveals to his own: But the heaven is not the effective principle of a present plague, as neither the fore-knower thereof: For truly, otherwise, as well the heaven, as the directive Angelical intelligency should erre, as oft as it should punish a guiltless child with the plague, for a sinner; neither should the habita∣tions of the godly be ever subject to the plague; and God should appoint an unjust Depu∣ty, which should cruelly kill the good with the plague, which should not lay hold on the wicked: He should kill the good, I say, for sins that entred not into their thoughts: or at leastwise from hence it is manifest, that the plague hath its own cause in nature. At length, if the plague were the off-spring of Coelestial light; surely, that should alwayes rise up in an instant, seeing the aspects of the stars are by the minutes of a moment: Wherefore the plague, before that (its poyson being bred from elsewhere) it could come down unto us, it should first be dispersed with the wind, should be well washed with the first be-sprinkling of rain, and be appeasingly allayed with the colds of the night and Clouds, before it should descend unto us: and also, those Cities should be punished, which had least offended: and then that also in Paracelsus is ridiculous, that the Arching plague, and noter of our crimes, should inhabit in the Sun (wherein God hath placed his own Taber∣nacle) as it were, an angry and revenging parent, by reason of the contagion of impurity received; Yet that Saturn, and Mars (he being unconstant, so saith in another place) were the revengers of crimes. Therefore after what manner soever it be taken, provi∣dence suffers the injury of the punishing heaven; and God, blasphemy: and so a deceit of Paganisme is included, whether they shall say, that the pestilent poyson is stamped by the stars, or sent from them for the revenge of crimes: or also, that it is framed by the natural course of the stars, through yearly elementary qualities, or extraordinary, or indirect and monstrous ones, directed by Satan. They on both sides dash themselves on the Atheisme of Pagans: For neither hath the evil Spirit that power on us, which the Gentiles suppose; neither is there any other Guardian read to be in a plague sent from God, beside Angels of light; and so it is to have departed from the truth of the holy Scriptures, to have attributed a power of generating the plague, unto the stars, or the devil: especially where the dispute concerning a natural plague, and not that sent from the hand of God, comes in place, and where it is to be enquired concerning remedies, causes, and obstacles or preventions.

For first of all, oft-times the plague begins from one only individual, to wit, from a guitless child; and so, the heavens had for a purging satisfaction of this child, smitten the whole Family, Town, and at length the Province; to wit, the innocent for the wicked, after the manner of an Apothecary, that Substitutes [quid pro quo] that is, any thing in∣stead of any thing.

Again, while the plague creeps by its contagion, from one unto another; at leastwise,

the poyson shall be no longer handed forth by the heaven, or a wound inflicted by the hea∣ven, in the second, third, and tenth person; as if the whole anger or revenge of the heaven were stirred up through the fault of the first guiltless person. Again, the plague that is conceived only from the terrour of one that is fearful, since in the most special kind (for no other actually existeth in individuals) it differs not from any other which should be sent from heaven through the poyson of the stars: Therefore neither shall there be any natural plague at all, from the heaven, if it be conceived from elsewhere, by the naked image of terrour, nor that its original stands in need of the heaven: For after another manner, one individual is not constituted by parents differing in the whole predi∣cament: For if the most High created the Physitian and medicine from the earth, and the plague be formed by the stars; I at least fear, least all future medicine should be unfit for so great a poyson: But at leastwise, the Lord could not erre, in that he sent medicine from the earth, and not from the heaven. And moreover, the Books of the Kings, and Revelation, attribute the plague to holy Angels, which is the mark-pledge of Divine Revenge: neither is it lawful to go back unto the evil spirits, and stars, as the beginnings of pestilent poysons.

In the next place, Paracelsus writeth, that the plague is beamed forth from the heaven, as it were from an Archer, only into three places; to wit, behind the ears, under the arm-pits, and into the groyns: Wherefore the plague arisen in other members, shall ei∣ther not be the plague, or of another kind, and of unlike causes, than that which should be the wound of the heaven, is: or next, the heaven hath erred in its darting; or at least∣wise, Paracelsus hath rashly erred through boldness. Therefore, if other Forreign causes do frame the plague, without the help of the heavens, it must needs be, that these are deprived of their possession and estimation, and that the heaven ought hereafter, to at∣tempt the controversie by way of Petition.

If in the next place, the plague be a wound, therefore it is from external things sus∣cepted or undergone; not a Fever, or disease consisting of an appointed seed, and by consequence, whatsoever of Diaphoretick or transpirative medicines they have decreed for a succour of the plague, let it be false and deceitful; and Incarnative and Vulnerary medicines shall be more fit; and a Diaphoretick for prevention, is most exceeding vain, that any one may not be wounded by the Coelestial Archer: For there should be but a slug∣gish Buckler of a sudoriferous medicine, against an arrow so poysonsom, being darted so powerfully, from so far, in a straight line, and with so great leisure; and being most securely led, the weapon proceeding through so many thousand miles of Stages. For it became Paracelsus to have known, that the Carbuncle, Glandules or Kernels, Buboes, and bladdery swellings behind the ears, are not indeed, the Pest it self; yea, neither that they are any way wounds, but signs, the product, and effects of the Pest. For because that also, some signates of the Plague are frequently not seen, but after death: Wherefore, that heavenly Slinger should, as oft as he wounded, send in, not the plague, but the effect of the plague: and he had come too late, as to inflict the plague, or wound on those parts in him who had already before died by the plague.

For a certain one being continually provoked to vomit, with headach, dies under conti∣nual faintings, within seven hours from the invasion of the sickness: But presently; a∣bout the time of death, he is tinged above the Navil, even unto the throat-bones, with a frequent mark, or black print of the stroak. For curiosity sake, since an Anatomist was wanting, I dissected him, and found the mouth of his stomach, now cauterized with a black Escharre. Lastly, the black marks or tokens, are not wounds, even as neither are the Glandules, little bladders, Buboes, &c. Therefore at least, the heaven doth not wound in the plague; the which, if they are opened, thou Paracelsus, callest Ulcers, and distin∣guishest against wound, and thy own self. Too fabulously therefore, is the heaven defiled with out corruption, and is a revenger of these injuries, even as also, a Notary, and wounder of our crimes: That was an invention of Heathenism in times past, that it might blasphemously extol the heavens and starry Gods into a worship. Four Elements also, are blasphemously and foolishly brought in by Paracelsus, who was wont to laugh at the Relolleous quality of them; especially because, in the original of our medicine, a Quaternary or four-fold number of Elements is taken away, as well in the nature of the Universe, as in the constitution of mixt bodies: For how ignorantly is a Quaternary of Elements suited with the aforesaid Ternary of emunctory places? For Paracelsus ha∣ving obtained Arcanums plainly heroical for the supplanting of diseases, and being desti∣tute of medicinal Science descending from the Father of Lights, and of his own accord, assuming to himself the Title of the Monarch of secrets, and from this boldness, inva∣ding

the principality of healing, treated of the Plague as it were of an enemy unknown unto him: Therefore he ascribeth the Plague, sometimes to the heaven, at another time to the Sun, and sometimes to the elements alone, and oft times to Pythonisses or women of a prophecying spirit, witches, and to spirits, as well those infernal, as ele∣mentary Deasters; being for the most part forgetful of the doctrine of his own Paramire; where he proposeth plagues of the being of nature, of the being of poyson (as if any Plague could exist void of poyson, or as if some poyson were not natural) of the being of the Stars (as though the Stars were above nature, or without it) of the being of witches (these he attributes unto Incubi or devils in mens shapes, hobgoblins, sylphs, &c.) he distinguisheth them also against the being of the Stars, least peradventure witches may be the wise men which are said to bear rule over the Stars, and of a God-like being, and he there forgat his own and an imaginative being, the remembrance whereof not∣withstanding, he ought to have had before the rest: unlesse he had rather that an ima∣ginative being cannot cause disease, or that it is no where vigorous, but in the posses∣sion of Witches.

And moreover, as I judge a plague sent from the hand of God, to despise the re∣medies of nature; so also, if there were any proper unto devils, or witches (which is not a thing to be believed) yet at least it should in no wise owe its original unto the heaven: For otherwise, if there were a witch Plague, it would be far more cruel than accustomed ones are, by reason of an external poyson being adjoyned, and a readinesse of its acting, speedied and enlarged through the wrath of the evil spirit. P. Boucher a Minorite Frier, in his oriental or Eastern pilgrimages, tels as an eye-witnesse. That although Egypt be otherwise exceeding subject to the Plague; yet that every year, be∣fore the inundation of Nile, a singular dew falls down, which they call Elthalim, at the coming whereof, as many as lay sick of the Plague are readily and universally cured, and are preserved as healthy there from, by the same dew: For if this be true, neither hath it been sufficiently searched into by Prince Radzvil; yet not any thing can be drawn from thence, whereby we may know that the Plague is naturally caused by the heaven; since from thence at least it follows, that some meteors are healthy, but others hurtful to some, which none hath hitherto denied.

For although the Sun, the day before the inundation of Nile, returns every year, al∣most unto the same place; yet the same stars do not return as companions together with him: And then, that dew is not the off-spring of the heavens or stars, nor of a meteori∣cal Blas of the heaven: but the day before the inundation of Nile, the more high land of Aethiopia, being more hot and southern, was long since overflown, which sends forth a great vapour from it, filled with Nitre (for the whole water of Nilus is nitrous) which vapour is not only resolved into a dew (the dew elsewhere weepes Honies, Tereniabin or the fatnesse oftwood hony, found in good quantity in the summer months, with a manna-ie Being, and Laudanum, being as it were gummy things; and among us the May dew daily abounds with a sugary salt) and accompanies Nile running: but it well washeth the whole aire of Aegypt, even by moistening it, and refresheth the bodies of the sick, not much otherwise than as a shower doth the earth after long driths.

At leastwise, I being admonished by the holy scriptures, despise the sooth-sayers of heaven. Therefore if the heaven be the cause of a destroying or devouring Plague, it ought likewise to be the cause of every other Plague: Because the same Being, in the Species, obtaines the same constitutive causes, from which the Species it self recieveth its identity or samelinesse. Therefore I constantly deny, that a pestilent poyson is bred by the heaven, or dismissed from the stars: but all Plagues which are not singularly sent from God, for a scourge, are either endemical ones or proper to a Country, or framed by a certain terrour.

But those which are borrowed, as being drawn in from contagion, do follow their own seed and ferment: But an endemical Plague, although it be drawn in from with∣out, occasionally, yet it is not to be reckoned for the plague, unlesse the terrour of our Archeus do first frame a poysonous Idea of sore fear conceived from the endemical Be∣ing, even as shall by and by be manifested. I deny moreover, that any Plague is en∣demical: For although the aire may myire the bodies of many unto diverse confusions of putrefaction; yet it is in no wise the original cause of a Postilential poyson: For as all putrefaction differs from the Plague; so in like manner also, the poyson of the Plague differs from any corruption that is the daughter of a thereor: The which, un∣lesse it be rightly and perfectly known, the nature of the Plague also, shall not be able to be any way understood: and much lesse a radical healing of the same pro∣moted.

For a conclusion of this Chapter, I will adde an argument which is drawn from the bank of rivers: For I have seen those, who, that they might avoyd houses infected with the Plague, departed from Antwerp; others who fled from the Smalpocks, through which, two years before, they as yet carried about with them, a face he potted with the scats thereof, which were smitten in the river Scalds it self, with the diseases which they presumed they had avoyded, and had withdrawn themselves as healthy. I remember al∣so, that a certain girle was cured by me of the Leprousy at Ʋilvord, who when shew is now accounted to have been whole for the space of seven weeks, and returned to Ant∣werp, she presently felt in the River it self, the Leprousie to bud again upon her through∣out her whole body: Who at ••••••gth, returning to me, and being cured, staid with me at Ʋilvord for the space of half an year; neverthelesse on the same day (wherein she re∣turned home, the hidden Leprousie in Scalds, again re-budded. I have also known wo∣men who were readily inclined to a miscarriage, although they travelled the Country in a Coach, and the journy had prosperously succeeded; yet in the river they felt a commo∣tion in their womb, and being carried from the bank by a Coach, that thy slide into an excessive flux of menstruous blood.

And so the river strivingly imitating the heaven, steals away the believed honour from the Planets: I speak of Summer; and so neither is cold in the tive••, then somewhat suspected to be accused: Also the cold of Autumne, in travelling the country; with∣stood or hurt not so much, as in the month called August; the river; nor the shaking of the Coach; brought not so much hurt as a quiet saying: At length, not a watery va∣pour wandring about in the river:

For truly in journying the Countryon rainy days, the declared calamities happened not: As neither by living about fenny places: but in rivers fit for flowing and ebbing, a few hours hath brought on them these troubles of the Plague, Wheals, Leprousy, and smal Pox, which on lane did not arise: For the water twice every day, for sakes the ships and banks, and the bottom is of a strong smelling stink, through an hoary putrefaction: wherefore the river speakes in silence, and proves the hurts of its odour putrified by con∣tinuance, which I shall by and by shew: For that thing also, is therefore proper, not so much unto the sea shoat, as to the bank of rivers: For there is no hoary putrefaction at the falt Sea, and sand of its bottom, such as is in half-sweet or breachy rivers: wherefore their waters are scarce ever altogether clean, and they want an odour proper to themselves.

The Heaven therefore is free from our contagion, as also being innocent of the accusati∣ons of the ignorant, it wants the fault of revenge. They are the Reliques of Paganism, the which, unlesse the School of medicine shall shun, let it know, that the giver of lights will not reach forth his benefits unto them.

CHAP. IV. A forreign new Plague or contagion.

ALL diseases have not come at once into the place of exercise: surely the ages of our Ancestours were happy, wherein, but few infirmities had bent their sword a∣gainst man weaknesse: And the product following upon Adams transgression, hath by degrees adjoyned the principles of nature with us. For Astrologers do as yet to this day flee together unto the limited positions of the stars, unto the wraths and un-co-sufferable∣nesses of their oppositions, and the conjoyning combates of malignant lights: whereby the first Fever, first Apoplexy, or first was bred. For although I am not wont, diligently to search into things past, which may not profit, but hurt; and much lesse have I accustomed my self to enquire into those things, the demonstrations whereof I could not obtain, give, make, or hope for; yet I could not but deride the folly of Paganis∣me referred on the stars.

For I could the more easily assent unto Astrologers, if a Fever being once bred, and an Apoplexy having arisen, they had ceased when that constellation ceased: Also if they could demonstrate in what Inn, the while, they should inhabite, the displacing of severish stars being once divded or drawn into diverse parts. Wherefore in the book of long life, I first was constrained to describe the entrance of all diseases and death into humane

nature, from their original: And so I clearly understand, and seeingly behold, that they were the reliques of paganisme, whosoever hath dared to extend the offices and ordinati∣ons of the Stars beyond the text of the Holy Scriptures, which saith, that the stars are to us only for signes, seasons, days, and years: For if I should assent unto judiciary Astrolo∣gers, I should suppose a feverish, or Pestilent seed being once bred, to have afterwards entred into nature; not indeed, that its generation did continue thence-forward, as the off-spring of a certain curse, but of creation: But since most diseases do at length end into health, if at leastwise they do not die with the sick themselves, and for the most part without the raysing up of a new off-spring; it should of necessity be, that if they had at sometime begun by reason of unlucky lights (a ridiculous, or blasphemous word for a Christian) neither could then begin without them at this day, if those lights having thus con-joyntly encountred, are to be judged the efficient causes of di∣seases.

Therefore I beleived, after that I had more fully unfolded the re-solutions of hidden bodies by the fire, that there were from the beginning, the same principles and rootes of diseases, which there are also at this day: The which, I have cleerly enough demonstra∣ted in the section of the original of medicine, in the treatise concerning diseases in gene∣ral. I have also believed, that some diseases in the beginning, were as it were in their in∣fancy, more gentle, and that they had more swift progresses, and also more easy ex∣tinguishments, by reason of the former strength of humane nature; yet that some di∣seases were in their beginning more fierce, the which indeed, do not so adhere to the root of humane frailty; but are attained as companions with a Plague or contagion, as be∣ing forreign: For as natures were in times past, more strong, the which as they are the recievers, so also the Physitianesses of diseases; so now, I experience the seeds of di∣seases daily to profit, to make a more strong impression, and to wax very fierce; and that our nature, by how much the longer it goes on, and the more unseasonably pro∣ceedes; by so much the more negligently also, it hearkens unto remedies: For indeed in the days of our Fathers, the Lues venerea or foul disease, till that time hitherto unknown, arose, together with its chambermaids and lackeys: But the 1424. year, and the siege of Parthe∣nopolis or Magdeburg, and the age of that Lues, and the first nativity thereof, is taken no∣tice of. At length, whatsoever hath once grown tough in our possession, although it may perish in those individuals, yet it afterwards keeps its particular kind, and scarce knows how to dye, as long as the command of him remaines, who sendeth a spot into the flesh: As the Scurvy, Plague of Hungany, &c. unknown to our Ancestours: but our stripes in∣crease daily, because impieties also are multiplied.

Truly diseases are changed, are masked, are increased, and do degenerate through their coupling: therefore henceforward we must deliberate with a more earnest thought, concern∣ing more profound remedies: but from the growing worse of a disease, I have conjectured, that a more secure art of healing ought to arise, than that which hitherto by frequent blood-letting, and the poysonous resolving of laxative medicines, their bonds being con∣joyned, fore-timely draws mortals into the place of burial; For I guesse at it, because I see the Lues Venerea to change other griefs into its own obedience; and that the plague also will in this respect be degenerate; and indeed I have at sometime read in the revelations of St. Bridget, also in the lives of St. Dominicus, of Vincentius Farrerius, of Coletia, &c. that in an unanimous apparition, they saw the Saviour of the world to be angry at the impieties of mortals, and to threaten the destruction of mankind with three darts: by reason of which appa••ition, it was, that B. Vincent, as soon as in a super∣intellectual rapture at Valentid of Spain, he had seen Coletta the reformatresse of the Or∣der of St. Clara, prostrate on her knees, before the holy-sacred Trinity, he earnestly intreated the aid of the God-hearing Virgin, that Christ the Lord might divert that purging satisfaction which was threatned for a deserved punishment; and his country of Valentia being forsaken, he came to Gaunt to see Coletta, whom he presently knew to be the same woman which he had seen in the aforesaid tapture, and sought for. ••or covetousnesse there was a dart of Wars, whereby goods badly gotten, and badly reserved are taken away: for pride, there was in the hand of the Almighty, a dart of want and famine: But Ecclesiastical or Church-men, whom these kind of sins do for the most part touch, he threatens to chase with both launces from their possessions, they being heap∣ed up, and badly used, contrary to their vows: and at length against luxury, he bare a a dart of contagion or infection in his hand. Truly David, chose the plague instead of war, and famine, not by chance, but from a higher guidance; because the whole peo∣ple, after the Kings example, were fornicators: At leastwise, that is singular in the a∣foresaid

vision, that it appeared unto divers Saints, and in divers years, and indeed before the coming of the Lues or Pox; because there is not a word which the Lord hath not revealed unto his Prophets.

Last of all, under the fulnesse of daies, under the maturity and compleated number of sinners, the long-suffering God sent one of the three darts into the middle of the flesh, and forthwith the Lues Venerea appeared, being plainly cruel, poysonous, and killing with a poysonous putrefaction. But afterwards, other sicknesses; yea, and the plague it self, contracteth a blethish thereof: neither do ancient diseases any longer an∣swer unto the descriptions of our ancestors, neither do they shew forth the accustomed obedience of a league with remedies ••t for in times past great armies were led up and down, and beyond Europe, into Asia and Africa, without any notable conta∣gion, and on both sides almost, the same numbring account of souldiers was found; but now presently after a ••iege is begun, they within the Garrisons die, and also the be∣sieging camps, and straightway a popular plague succe••ds a speedied vanquishment: for scarce one onely band of the souldiers of a garrison goes forth abroad, the which waggons laden with sick men do not follow, although it laded the hospitals behind it. The chief Chirurgions do bewaile with admiration, that but so lately, any the lesser wounds do scarce any longer obey the wonted medicines. Moreover that Lues or Pox, is read to have been first seen in the siege of Naples, in the year 1494. Physitians also attempt the rise or original thereof by conjectures: for it hath pleased some to attribute the nati∣vity of the Lues unto the West Indies, and that there it was natural and accustomed: but others have been pleased to accuse the Eastern climate; notwithstanding, that the West Indies were free, Ferdinandus Cortesius himself witnesseth, who was the vanquish∣er of the same; and that after his coming, he had not yet taken notice of it there to be; but that the Pox was brought thither with an Ethiopian, a bondslave of Pamph••lus of Narvaez; for perhaps he had newly brought it thither, and brought it with him from the siege of Naples: for seeing the Lues began there at first to be seen, it hath been disputed among Nations, whether it ought to be ascribed for a triumph, to the French, Spa∣niard, or indeed to the Neapolitan. In the mean time, none ever accused the Portugal, and by consequence the East Indies were free: for the Portugal was not in the siege of Naples, who from an ancient hatred, willingly promoted the wars of Castile: yet the Portugal alone, with an excluding of the Spaniards, had viewed the East, and subdu∣ed it to himself. Neither doth it hinder these things, that the Lues or Pox was for a long time since accustomed to the Chinoys: for none came from thence unto the War of Naples: therefore, if it be true, that the Lues excels in antiquity in China; it might there have begun from the same Beginnings, even as they had Guns, and Printing before us: At leastwise, the venereal plague or Pox is no where from Endemicks, nor from an infection of the aire; from hence also, it is not every where popular: but that the Lues was not brought from the Chinoys unto us, is manifest from Guaiacum, the use whereof among the Europeans, is eighty years elder then that of the root of China: And then, because the entrance into China, is forbidden unto all forraigners, upon pain of their head: the Pox was then never seen in the coasts without China, whither notwith∣standing, the Chinoys yearly ran out of their own borders for commerces sake: But Guai∣acum came from the Western lands. Others perhaps, therefore contend, that this plague of luxury began, because the dearness of victual had perswaded, the fleshes of dead carcasses that were slain, to be filthed away, and being privily boyled, to be sold; but since with the men eating Indians, this Lues, before the coming of Pamphilus had been unknown, the alledgement of these is not received. Astrologers also with whom the causes of all accidents al•• referred unto the aspects and revolutions of the Stars, that they might not grant any thing to come to passe without a co-operation of the Stars, say that a strange scituation of the Stars had then an influence onely upon Naples; the which they seeking with much perplexity, have not yet found: as if the same scituation of the Stars had never been before; for the holy Scriptu••as gain-say this opinion of the Astrologers, as I have already proved above.

At length, Paracelsus unconstantly searching with earnestnesse, in many books and additaments, accuseth and detesteth the copulation of a leprous Harlot with a scabbed French souldier: As if indeed no leprous whore had been before co-mixed with a for∣did French-man? But it is sufficient for a refuting of this; that Paracelsus herein also is unconstant to himself, who denieth in many books, that the Lues Venerea is by it self a disease, but he permits it to be onely a page unto other diseases; notwithstanding e∣very contagion, whether it be contracted from the Leprousie, or from the Pest, or else∣where,

is truly and actually a disease in it self: neither is it a wonder also, that the cause of the Pox is hitherto unknown by those who have had respect only unto the contin∣gencies of nature: I rather believe that so many apparitions to Saints were not in vain, and shewn unto them without their scope or purpose. I therefore believe, that the beginnings of the venereal plague was drawn and planted into nature from a dart of divine anger, violently cast, and no otherwise than as at the pouring out of the phials, the third person of mortals shall at some time perish: Not indeed that I will have the plague of lust to be accounted altogether miraculous in its beginning, because it began from a hainous offence: For I know, as in nature, it now hath, so also that in its begin∣ning, it found a ferment and root therein. And moreover, a certain Layick and holy man, being wont at some hard questions, to receive dreaming visions, and oft-times al∣so, through the abstraction of his minde, intellectual notions or knowledges, perhaps from too much curiosity, narrowly searched into these questions. 1. Why that venereal plague had broke out in the fore-past age, and not before; since that in the fore-past daies of Pagans, any wicked impudent wantonnesse was never wanting? 2. From whence, if not from the Indians, it came into Europe? 3. What may be the cause of its continuation, and mitigation, and changing, if it were come from God? For Miracles do seldome pass over by way of contagion, and unlesse a command be delivered, ob∣tain their cause in nature: But neither is God wont to punish the guiltlesse, even as the Lues veneris oft-times infecteth the innocent. The Layick said, that he saw in an intel∣lectual vision, an horse, which flowed almost all abroad with a stinking ulcer; which dis∣ease being proper to the horse kinde, our countrey-men call, Den-worm; but the French Le Farein; whence horses do by degrees perish with a corrupt mattery rottennesse: but he saw this horse as it were designed for meat to dogs, having his whole back vitiated, also about the vessel of nature: neither had he any other answer, besides that vision; where∣fore he said, that he supposed, that at the siege of Naples (where this cursed contagion at first arose) some one through an horrible sin, had carnal copulation with such a horse-beast. At leastwise, from thence I conjecture the rarity of a disease not before seen; because I cannot easily believe that ever such a sin was in the like terms committed from the beginning of the world: and it is a disease like unto the Lues Venerea, and a∣kin and familiar unto the nature of the horse: And therefore it might (God the aven∣ger so permitting it) have naturally transplanted its own ferment into the family of man, although it was before divinely threatned: That the Mares contagion, I say, might have mixed in the act of lust not to be spoken of, it then propagating the Gonorrhea or running of the Reines, the Cancer, and venereous Baboes, &c. even so as at this day, the Pox it self is attracted from a filthy whore, even into the testicles of a man: But I cease to be the more curious, as oft as a thing being known, is of no use; unlesse happi∣ly thou hadst rather meditate from hence, that horses thus ulcerous, are cured by the remedy of the Pox; and on the other hand, this by Quicksilver most exactly prepared: At least wise the consideration of the Lues serveth for a degenerate, and at this day multi∣tiplyed plague, and many of which are threatned in the holy Scriptures under the coming of Antichrist.

I adde, That it is infamous, and hath infected every corner of the world; it h••••h also manifestly shewn by the effect, that it is a common satisfactory punishment of the flesh, and creeping unto a further, and as yet a commonly unknown mark: For indeed at its first beginning, it not only stood a good while unknown, but also its healing was unsuccessefully att••mpted, and at this day is commonly unknown: whence it follows that the life of mortals being enraged by uncertain and cruel medicines, •••• now humbled, even before the youth of every one; which weaknesse promiseth a cert•••••• lasting conti∣nuance of perpetuity, and in abstinent persons, unto the fourth period of generation at least; yea, although a large company of men have never contracted the Pox: Never∣thelesse, since the Lues is scarce ever well cured, and the reliques therof have remained; surely there do those survive, who having experienced the rashnesse o•• Physitians, are made far more weak then themselves were: For there is a radical part o•• poyson, which hath remained in their possession, besides the horrid tortures of oyntments, perfumes, and salivations; and it must needs be, that in that respect their successors are dimi∣nished with a notable weaknesse; For the Lues is not indeed a disease, consisting of a matter [whereof]; but onely a poysonous ferment is affixed to the solid, or liquid parts of our body, like an odour; And so (the which is singular to the Pox) it incor∣porates it self, not onely with the constitutive parts, but also with the excrements, or with the matters of other diseases, which it toucheth at; because it affecteth them, and

is co-mixed with them: and since it is easier to defile a matter with poyson, which is newly appointed for an excrement, then a part as yet alive, and so also for this cause resisting:

Hence it comes to passe, that whosoever have the manifest, or hidden beginnings of any diseases whatsoever, they do easily contract the Foul disease, and therefore also it transplants it self into various masks of diseases by an association: for in many it produceth ulcers, and wheals; in others, it gnaws rottenesses in the bones, it stirs up hard swellings, also it causeth Buboes about the groyn, phlegmones or inflamed a∣postemes, and corrupt mattery apostemes, as also wounds stubborne in curing: else∣where also it hath brought forth palsies, gowty fits, the jaundise, or dropsie, &c. For that thing deceived Paracelsus, he thinking that the Pox was not a disease in it self, because it adhered to other diseases; For a curse now coming upon nature, impure from its original, doth not proceed by an accustomed generation, but it findes its own body pre-disposed in the body of other diseases; so that the likenesse of conception, nativity, subsistence, and effects in a strange body (to wit, that of man) do produce a likenesse of the rise of the Pox, as of other diseases, because they in a like manner issue from the fall. Diseases therefore, that from the rise of the Pox are become degenerate for the future, those do for the most part imitate the right or customary manner of some poy∣son: neither hath any one sufficiently searched into the causes of these, wherefore in∣deed, most diseases have become contagious, more cruel, more frequent, and more slow and difficult of flight, than in times past. For the Pest is undoubtedly more fre∣quent then it was wont to be, it catcheth hold on us upon the least occasion, it cru∣elly infects us, and is the more readily dispersed, because it is joyned unto a new poyson: For many, as it were dispairing, have thought that the strength of our nature doth thus run down unto its end in a short space: But the Word of God hath a stable Govern∣ment: there is not any defect of these incorporated with the humane species; but adhe∣ring onely unto individuals by accident; and seeing every forreign adhering matter is subject to a separation, and no strange thing is fit to be conjoyned pithily to the image of God, in constitutive principles: Therefore every forreign matter doth of necessity receive its birth, increase, ascent, state, declining, and death, and at length also, of its own accord, expecteth a restoration by further propagations: For the seeds and species of the word are durable for ever. Hence it follows, that a forreign guest ought at length to depart from the fold, whereinto it hath theevishly crept, through a privy error: Because the power of the Word-suffers a prescription by no seasons, length of motions, or daies, as neither by the wiles of the enemy. The flood indeed over-covered the earth, because man had corrupted his way: And therefore at this day also, by rea∣son of sins, an infirmity hath made it self roome amongst us, it groweth new daily, and besides, another is about to threaten us. In the year 1540. under Paul 3. about Au∣tumne, a Tarantula first appeared in Apulid, nigh Tarentum, being a monster, so cal∣led by the City, like unto a spider, but twice bigger: The which afterwards remained in the species, and from the land of Tarentum was now also transplanted into the Roman land: For according to Daniel, every monster growing up on the Common∣wealth, comes from the sea: new flatterers are confirmed by this monster, who befool or make men mad that are bitten by them, and they trippingly dance with exceeding gladnesse, as if they had done well in believing flatterers.

In the year 1550. in the sixth moneth called August, the French first saw wheat, which they call bedewed or honyed wheat, it representing in its ear, being as yet green, a smoaked or red-herring in its smell; but in its ripe ear, nothing but a stink∣ing black powder: I wish, not the cause of any popular diseases. It is a stroak or punish∣ment which steals from us a great part of victual; for cockle or tares is sown against the more mighty Prelates: the which I wish they knew, and did foresee.

In the year 1556. The Scurvy first appeared in our sea-coasts, being unknown to the ancients; the which infects the gums, and breath, and legs; because it ••l••o be∣siegeth the most inward parts. In the same year there are men remarkably noted, being admitted of in the Low countries, subverting within and without, those that rashly believe on them, with a sweet contagion. Not so long ago a camp-••ever assaulted our countrey-men, with a deep contagion, killing without thirst and heat; and they are denoted, who under a shew of Piety, spread new and suspected opinions among people in families. But at leastwise, nothing which is once hostile, doth afterwards kill in its own kind; because it is sent into us for a scourge, and we being blind, do not diligently search into the occasional cause, deadly mean, end, and remedy: For they at

this day accuse the impuri••ies of Camps, Fens, houses, together with the poverty of souldiers, as the causes of unwonted sicknesses, and among Physitians, the whole pre∣servative is conversant about this occasion: As if indeed Camps were in times past purer, whilst Plagues, and unwonted Fevers not as yet were: For I know, that as oft as a Fever falls on the body, from the pedigree of antient ones, which actually suffers the Lues venerea, or which at sometime had it, and being badly taken away, that that Fever forthwith associates it self with the poysonous sweepings or reliques of the Lues, from whence it borrows poysons, which began to be called a malignant and Camp-Fever: and that it propagates it self by its contagion, even on those that are free from the Pox:

And it is indeed, of the Fever its father, and the Lues its mother, being a third mon∣ster divers from both parents, as being from diseases distinct in kind: From hence surely, as well a Fever, as the Plague, have become masked and unknown: For so the Lues proceeds to be dispersed in a feverish Chaos, and is made to be of a common right: For the unluckie monster of the Lues, being unlike unto both parents, is a trea∣cherous poyson, and becomes a striving imitater of the plague: And by a new ferment of putrefaction, it produceth the Plague it self to be more cruel then it was wont to be. It is not therefore an absurdity, that Camps at this day do stir up many sick souldiers, more frequent deaths, and those Fevers more malignant in contagion: Neither do more ready infections undeservedly follow Camps, than otherwise, the more populous Cities; because the souldier is a nigher object of the Pox, than Citizens. The Plague there∣fore finding a fewel for its spark, doth easily return.

CHAP. 5. The Opinions of the Ancients.

THe Pest is in every age reputed for a punishment sent from the angry Gods. Therefore Hippocrates names every blemish of contagion, wholly, in diseases, Divine. The Heathen do as yet to this day flee over to their Idols: The gods of the Nations are devils. But we Christians have recourse unto the one onely eternal Power, and do implore the aid of Saints, because God is glorious and wonderful in his Saints, who by request obtain those things which our unworthinesses do deny us. For there are Cities in the Neatherlands, wherein the fellowship of Saints, Patrons in the Plague, hath for a long time hitherto, kept the Citizens free, as many of them as were sent for the succour and service of those that were defiled with the Plague: For none that was sent by a head-fellow-Citizen, and companion, although he readily ser∣ved him that was infected by the Plague, was ever laid hold of by the Plague. So it is: The hairs of every ones head are numbred: A leaf falls not from the tree, with∣out the permission of God: much lesse doth any thing happen unto us, besides the per∣mission and fore-knowledge of God. So it is true; a certain Plague cometh from the hands of the Lord, the which to avoid, is impossible: because it comes from him who cannot erre in arching. Therefore I have decreed not to write any thing at all concerning this Plague, as neither of the curing of a miraculous one: For if a natural Plague be healed by a miracle, that belongs not to a Physitian: very ma∣ny of us also are of opinion, that the Plague is nor sent but from God, without the con∣currence of a second cause. The Mahometans also, with the Calvinists, believe the Plague to be the lot of an unavoidable Predestination: Neither therefore do they avoid infected places, or bodies, as neither any hurtful things: being badly constant to themselves: for truly a wild beast cannot hurt without the consent of the Lord; and so in this respect he is not more hurtful then the Plague; yet they beware of and defend themselves from wild beasts. England also hath hitherto wanted the proper name of the [P••st] and the which, from times past, it nameth [Plaga] the Plague or stroake. As to what pertains to the causes thereof, the Greeks first, and afterwards the Arabians, and whosoever have dedicated themselves to either of these two, do collect the Pest or Plague into two causes.

The first whereof, they name Catarctical or fore-going causes; but the latter, con∣nexed, conjoyned, containing, and immediately accompanying ones: and indeed, when they saw the body of man, by its individuals, and places of its habitations, to differ in great variety, they devised a universal cause for the plague; to wit, they being seduced by Astrologers, blamed the heaven, that by its hurtful light and motion, it be sprinkles the air with a cruel gore; the poyson whereof, they have therefore named an Epidemical or universal one: and al••••hugh they saw diseases infamous in contagion, to arise through occasion of Pools or Lakes, Caves, poysonous soils, Minerals, Filths, Mountains, the na∣tural moistnesses of the earth, of a valley, or sink, or privy, from whence divers pu••refactions sprang; yet they never esteemed the disposition of these diseases •••• be the Pestilence; but by a separated name, they called them Endemical ones: which distincti∣on, presently laid every doubt asleep, and they themselv•• have snorted in this deep sleep, being glad that they had banished their own ignorance unto the heavens, for a uni∣versal ••ault: and they thought themselves secure, not any thing distrusting, that the hea∣ven could vindicate it self from blame, but them of ignorance. They likewise separated the dead, and those that were about to die, in detesting their obediences, that it might not be heard of, neither that they might accuse the carelesness and ignorance of Physiti∣ans: Especially, when as the chief Physitian always runs away, forsaking his own sick Patient i•• his despairing of life. Wherefore they call the Diviners of the stars together for their aid, that seeing the world defends the errours of these men, they may defame the heaven with a conjoyned accusation of a fault, that it defiles the air and water with the consumptive poyson of an abstracted light.

But Paracelsus being much more bold than his Predecessors, would have the heaven to be really infected with our contagion; to note our sins with a pen of iron, and unwil∣lingly to receive them; therefore, to be a revenger, and to stir up deaths: But that the Plague is a meer wound, that it is darted from heaven; that the stars, by wounding, and in running, do us hurt; and that these wounds are made only in three places, and not in more (as not knowing, that these are our emunctory places) to wit, behind the ears, un∣der the arm-pits, and in the groyn.

In another place also, he appoints, not three, bu•• four plagues, according to the num∣ber of the Elements, that every one of them are to be vanquished by a four-fold and much different remedy: But elsewhere, he also deviseth a fifth plague, being sent into us by Gnomes, Sylphs, Nymphs, Satyrs, Hobgoblins, Gyants, or Faunes, because perhaps, he supposed these to be a fifth Element. Moreover, he being entreated by the City of Stert∣zing, for a choice Antidote against the poyson of the Pest, forsaking his former sta••ry and Elementated remedies, in the end, wholly trusted to a drink of Triacle, Myrrhe, But∣ter but root, Terra Sigillata, Sperma ceti, the herb Asclepias, Pimpernell, Valerian, and Camphor, with the best Aqua vitae; to wit, through inconsiderateness, he as unmind∣ful, being snatcht away into a hundred confusions of simples, by him many times and seriously detested but a little before.

In the next place, neither do those things agree together, that he elsewhere, hath of∣ten, not any thing distinguished the Element of fire from the heaven: and nevertheless, that he hath delivered four plagues, distinct in their original, cause, and remedies, the which he had dedicated unto one heaven, which in another place, he would have to be the only Author of the Pestilence. He willeth also, that Christal, A••••es, and likewise Gemms, are bred in the air, and do fall down from heaven, the which he, as unmindful of himself, nameth the f••••its of the water, as willing Christal to be nothing but meer ice constrained by cold. At length, the Pest, seeing it is a malady of the heaven, and of the fourth degree; yet he saith, that the tincture of Gemms is the best solidative medicine of that wound; and so also, that a remedy of the second degree, should cure the plague of the fourth degree.

I also pity the vain ••iresomeness about remedies, which among a thousand Alchymists, scarce one prepares: For it is a frivolous thing to compose so many books, and at length to have run back unto remedies which are scarce to be gotten, in a popular disease, and every where obvious: For it is a frivolous thing in a wandring plague, to nourish a whole Country with the fleshes of the Stork, which flies away about Autumn; or with a Lyons Tongue, hung on the body: For all such things discover ignorant boasting, but not a common charity, in so miserable a grief: For neither hath Hippocrates chased away the plague out of Greece, by such remedies: For otherwise, the poor man (if the plague should be put to flight by precious remedies and victuals) should with the despairing of his life, the unequality of Fortune, much bewailing, and just grief, ponder, God to be a respecter of persons, and

remedies to be denied unto him. I therefore shall never believe, that God, in Nature, was less careful in curing the poor man, than the rich: For the history of Lazarus, and the rich Glutton, doth wonderfully comfort the poor. Lastly, Paracelsus hath set forth books of a plague generated by Pythonesses, and Hobgoblins: By Hobgoblins, I say, Satyrs, &c. which he denieth to b•• evil spirits, which he maketh coequal unto Witches in generating of the plague: Yet hath he neglected to add remedies for such a pestilence; as though the title of the Monarch of Secrets, being presumptuous on himself, it had been sufficient for him, not to have ••rod in the footsteps of those that went before him, and to have stirred up very much smoak, and little fire, and to have exposed the memory of himself ••nto laughter. For his books of the Plague, of Tartars, of Minerals, &c. do contain much of prattle, but little of trusty aid.

CHAP. VI. The Pest divided.

THe Paramire of Paracelsus is totally employed in perswading, that every disease without exception, and by name, the Pestilence, is in its whole species five-fold; to wit, being distinct in its causes, original, properties, and remedies. But the first kind, he calls a Natural Being, originally proceeding from elementated fruits; and this plague, he hath described in his books of the plague and pestilentialness, wherein he is there his own Interpreter. But since it is manifest that the fruits which the Schools have believed to be of mixed Elements, are of water alone (even as I have elsewhere clearly demonstrated concerning the rise of medicine) of necessity also, the doctrine of the Elements, at least for the Pest, now falls to the ground: and then, another predicament of diseases, he calls an Astral or Starry Being, as it were raining down from the starry heaven; and in many books of the Pest, he prosecutes only this kind of Being, others being omitted: and so, seeing he elsewhere confounds the heaven, and the fruits of the heavens, with the Element of fire, an Astral plague shall also again be co-incident with a Natural and Elemental fiery one: and then, a third most general kind of diseases, he calls the Being of poyson; as if there should elsewhere be a certain plague void of a poyson; and as though a plague could have its poyson, without, above, or besides a Natural Being. Thus therefore he distinguisheth, as being fore-stalled by an Idiotism, the stars, against the Being of Nature: But at least, as if a natural, and Astral plague, were not of a poysonsom nature? At length, the fourth kind of diseases, he calls a Spirital Being; to wit, the evil spirit co-operating, together with his bondslaves.

Hitherto also, he refers the execrations, and desperations of men: But first of all, he omits his Faunes, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, Satyrs, &c. unless happily, he will have these to be the companions of Cacodemons: at leastwise, he neglects the chief hinge, to wit, his own phantasie, when as terrour or affrighting fear alone, generates no seldome plague.

And moreover, he supposeth a spirital external Being to be the essential cause of the Pest; to wit, whereby the species are only to be divided: and so, he distinguisheth of two effects diuers in kind, only by external occasional, and accidental causes: For it is cer∣tain, whether the Witch as a Sorceress, should connex a pestiferous contagion unto any one, or that be done by any other means, and by a proper vice of nature; at leastwise, the plague issuing from thence, is on both sides one and the same. Last of all, he calls the fifth kind of diseases, a God-like Being, or that of the faithful, stupidly enough, in not distinguishing God from diseases themselves; even as otherwise, it is a free thing, in no wise to have separated Nature from her own effect. But he hath no where made men∣tion, even in his largest writings, of a Deal or God-like plague. But as to what belongs to my self, I do nor adnit of an Astral Being, although Paracelsus hath made that com∣mon, not only to one of the five; but being unconstant to himself, unto all pestilences universally.

I likewise, in the next place, confound the Being of poyson with the Being of Nature: For if it doth not contain a poyson; neither also, for that cause, the plague. But since the Pest hath a separated birth, and progress distinct from other diseases, being not a little

tyed up unto imaginations and terrours: In this respect, I make every plague to be spiri∣tual: not indeed, therefore to be of a Witch, but to be tributary, and meerly natural to the disturbances of the Arche••s: But if indeed, the Cacodemon or evil spirit co-laboureth for the destruction of man; it shall indeed, be the more fiercely transplanted, and wax cruel; yet there is not (although his Paramire thinks otherwise) need of superstition for this thing, nor is that plague devious from that of nature, because a spirital Being, doth evidently, whether he will or no, always war under Nature. Therefore, I acknow∣ledge two only plagues different in kind; to wit, one which is sent immediately from the hand of the Almighty, by the smiting Angel, for the execution of the hidden judgement of his own Deity: For this, although I acknowledge it to be a pestilence; yet I wholly commit the same unto my Lord, and say with a resigned mind, Let thy will be done, O Lord: For truly, neither do I wish for a remedy, but according to thy own good pleasure. Finally therefore, I will every where touch only at the pestilence of Na∣ture, as a Phylosopher; and I call that, the other plague.

CHAP. VII. The conjoyned cause of the Antients.

IN diseases universally and without exception, I at sometime, in discoursing of a disease in general, have acknowledged no efficient and external cause, besides an oc∣casional one only. Now moreover, I have shewn, that I have justly denied to give the heaven passage unto the plague; although in the mean time, the Blas of a Meteor may be able to dispose the suffering subject unto a more ready impression of receiving. There∣fore I will first apply my self unto the connexed causes of the Pest, which we read to be referred by the Antients, into the corruption of humours, and inflammation of heat; and therefore their preservatives written down, are supposed to be adjudged only by way of resisting the putrefaction of humours. But the Schools have not yet ex••lained, what that vitiated humour enflamed with heat may be, or with what name to be endowed, which may be the fire-brand of the plague, in the veins, bowels, or habit of the body: and they have not yet known, that in Aegypt a destructive plague is rather extinguish∣ed than incensed by great heats: Even as among us, that the ••e••tilence is for the most part, rather in Autumn, than in Summer: For sometimes the Schools run back unto E••∣demicks, as well those domestical, as forraign, the which are believed to incite and heap up putrefaction after any manner whatsoever.

In the next place, for preservatives, they scrape together any simples, although hot ones, so they are but commended by the faith of He••barists: But the doub••ing of the Schools, as also the unprosperous uncertainty of remedies, is every where covered with the ridiculous event of divers complexions; the whi••h surely hath been hitherto a com∣mon and thred-bare aptness or fitness for excusing their excuses in death: and at length, through the great fear of Doctors, of the plague, the distrust of the Schools is discovered to be beyond the Laws, and promises of books: at leastwise, they asswage the unlucky obediences of the sick, by one only saying, It so stood in the Destini••••: Therefore, that they must patiently bear it, because that, or the other miserable man, was referred into the Catalogue of those that were to die.

In the mean time, the work of the plague is cruel, but more cruel is he who brags of help, and brings it not: The progress of the plague is swift, by reason of so great slug∣gishness of Physitians: The venom in the plague, at leastwise, is not quieted at one only moment; neither doth that admit of peace, which despiseth Tr••ce. If therefore there were any humours corrupted in the Pest, in th••••r being made, through putrefaction, see∣ing they cannot return, and be reduced into their antient b••i••htness of integrity, and the first, and chiefest natural betokening of diseases in the Schools, is most speedily to pluck up the hurtful humour, and that all succours are vain, but those which do readily and fully sequester the offending filth; It should follow, that their universal succours (to wi••, pur∣gings, and cuttings of a vein) are the most potent helps of the plague: The which notwithstanding, are already many times found to hasten on death. That supposition also of necessity falls down together, which introduceth corrupt humours for the immediate

cause of the plague: For in very deed, the Pest, doth rather infect the nourishable hu∣mours, than that these are the cause of the Pest: Otherwise, I have elsewhere made it sufficiently manifest, that nature doth not acknowledge, nor ever had humours in the constitution of the bloud: Wherefore, neither are these able to cause any thing, because they are non-beings.

Again, if humours in the making of their putrefaction, should be the connexed cause of the Pest: at leastwise, the Schools ought to have set forth the name of that humour, and likewise to have expounded the manner and process, whereby those humours are cor∣rupted, and how, they being now corrupted, are the conjoyned cause of the plague: and also, after what sort they may be speedily sequestred, together with the hinderance of their impression on the vital parts. It had behoved them in the next place, to point out the place wherein the assembly of the foregoing pestilent corruption, as it were in a Nest, was held. For if this center be the veins, or bowels (to wit, where the first seque∣stration of excrements happeneth) all sweat should be altogether hurtful; because it is that which should bring the poyson from the stomach, or liver, through the vital bowels, and not pour it forth neerer, thorow the accustomed sinks: For so the Lues Venerea, only by a Gonorrhea, chusing its mansion in the Testicles, if by solutive medicines, it be drawn back from the shops of the urine, that it may go back through the veins into the paunch, It spreads a necessary Lues, only by that passage, into the whole body. Much more therefore should the Pest, if it had defiled the humours in their own shops, and should be b••ought sorth, in passing thorow by sweats, infallibly defile all of whatsoever is vital within. But if indeed, the habit of the body be the place of the putrefaction of pestilential humours; now the Diet of Physitians shall be ridiculous, which is believed to hinder the generating of putrifiable humours.

In the next place, from what, and from whence, putrefaction in good juicy blood, should arise in the habit, or also in the center of the body, before the plague, not any thing hath been determined by the Schools concerning all thes•• things; as thinking it suf∣ficient to have said by the way, that the corruption of humours is the conjoyned cause of the plague, because run away Doctors have never beheld this, but asquint: For when they observed, that a laxative medicine being drunk up, the flesh and blood being consu∣med by that venom, and a yellow humour, or pale snivel, or the more dark blood, not yet fully transchanged, did flow forth; they affirmed that, not only the venal blood, but the whole body, did consist of four humours differing in kind, and that they were again resolved into them: Even so, that they have supposed this putrefaction for the Pest, to be begun in yellow Choler, being compared to fire, or in black Choler, and therefore call∣ed melancholly, as being neerer to earth, Saturn, and malignity.

Truly, although I have elsewhere abundantly demonstrated four humours as a frivolous and hurtful invention; yet let us now grant, by way of supposition of a false∣hood, that the blood did consist of a commixture of those four humours; yet when the blood hath now ceased to be, and is by a formal transmutation, changed into a nourishable and vital liquor, which immediately nourish∣eth, increaseth, and cherisheth every member; it at leastwise fights with the truth of Phy∣lo••ophy, that that nourishable liquor being degenerated from blood, by a formal trans∣changing, had not yet forgotten its former condition, and compacture. Suppose thou, if Wine, Ale, the liquor of flesh, with the juice of po••herbs, be drunk at one meal, and changed into blood; certainly that constitution of the blood is not one, as long as it con∣sisteth of those four divers things being as yet co-mixed: but those four are made only one, while as by a formal transmutation, they are made a new product, which is blood. In like manner therefore, although the blood should consist of a connexion of four hu∣mours; yet seeing they are now one, and no longer four; that one thing constituted shall be no longer that thing connexed of the four original liquors granted: Neither can the diseases resulting from thence, either insist or be accounted as humorous in healing; they not b••ing any more able to return back into those four feigned humours (although they are granted to have been real ones) than the blood that is once made, can return into the former Wine, Ale, Broath of fleshes, and juice of potherbs. It is manifest there∣fore, that the Schools, contrary to all Phylosophy, are ignorant, that there is a formal transmutation, while blood is made of meats; and while of blood a nourishable liquor is made.

And it is manifest from the aforesaid blindnesses, that the greatest part of diseases hath been committed upon trust, unto the ignorance of principles in the Schools. But I inge∣niously protest, that I have never found even the least tittle of assisting aid in any books

of Ancestours: For although many being as it were holpen, did recover; nevertheless, I have seen ten-fold more, who from the beginning of the invasion of the plague, had made use of the fame remedies, to have unhappily perished: For Triacle for a long time ago, hath always promised help, and the water thereof is now accounted every where more excellent, although they know, who have known the properties of the Pest, that they contain a vain help: For Antidotes which restrain poyson, have nothing of certainty against the plague: and therefore University-Physitians da••e not expose themselves to the contagion of the plague, under the unfaithful safegu•••• of Triacle; because the poyson of the Pest is a far secret one from any other. But some Religious persons in a City, leaving nothing unattempted, whereby they might obtain moneys, or esteem, profess to sell the most choice Triacle at a great price: But since none going to warfare in Christ, infolds himself in secular affairs; I exhort every one chiefly to be••are of such pompous Boasters: For why, they enter not in by the door, but above, by the roof; being not call∣ed, they intrude themselves into medicine: For these will almost say with Tully, We have deceived the people, and have seemed most famous Apothecaries: For Triacle was as yet un∣known unto Hippocrates, the subduer of the plague: It receiveth a three-fold quantity of honey, according to the plenty of all simples: Also sixty simples being at discord, be∣ing dry, hard, shut up, crude, excrementous, and for the most part inveterate from the age of two years: These Simples I say, are rendred much barren from the mixture of ••oil∣ed honey: They require also a mixture and digestion from the feeble Feverish person, ••e∣specially from the stomach being vitiated by poyson, and from the Archeus being in∣wardly prostrated, and confusedly tumulting: Wherefore they perform little of help, and the least of comfort: For the cocted Trochies of the Viper, since by the ad∣monition of Galen, they are the Capital Simple of Triacle, do easily teach, that the wa∣ter of Triacle is plainly ridiculous: For if the Viper stated the Triacle water with virtue, in distilling; why have the Trochies of the Viper, in its first and Galenical cocture, put off all that prerogative of healing? What therefore shall I do with those who are always learning, and never coming unto the knowledge which they profess to teach? For most men (as Seneca witnesseth) have not attained unto that Science; because they thought that they had attained it. At length, neither hath it been sufficient to have concealed the names of those humours, which they have imagined to putrifie before the plague, and to be the accompanying cause hereof: But moreover, in skipping over that, they pass over the very thingliness of the corruption, which now and then, finisheth its Tragedy in a few hours.

For Physitians seem to have rested on a soft pillow, while their Neighbours house is on fire; and their head being once elevated on their elbow, to have declared the Ar∣rest:

The plague is a contagious disease, from putrified humours, being connexed to a Fe∣ver, most sharp, and exceeding dangerous: which being said, they having very well fed, to have bent down their head again for their afternoon sleep; which sleep, under so great light, hath again closed their eyes. The world in the mean time, bewails its condition, seeing the effects, not the causes, as neither in the next place, the remedies to be noted by this judgement: Wherefore the Country people with both hands, scratching their hair on their Temples, pronounce another Arrest. There is no need (say they) of much stu∣dy, nor of so many books, that any may say, the Plague is mortal and contagious, the which, every one hath learned by his own malady: Therefore it shall be better to ask coun∣sel of faithful helpers, no longer of drowsie ones, who are Fugitives from the Plague, and ignorant of remedies.

CHAP. VIII. The Seat prepared.

IT is not sufficient to have demonstrated, that the causes of the Pest are unknown to the Schools, unless I shall declare my own experiences, the cause of the plague, its di∣vers progresses in the making, its strange properties in its being made, its preservations, and cure. At first therefore, I will repeat what I have demonstrated elsewhere; to wit, that in Nature, there are at least two causes, and no more: Indeed the matter, and effici∣ents which efficient in the plague, I call the Archeus, Vulcan, or Seed: at leastwise, for the matter, there is not a certain undistinct hyle or matter, which never existed, nor will be in nature: and it serves for Science Mathematical, and not to a contemplater of Na∣ture: Therefore, I behold the matter of the pestilence, with relation unto its internal efficient. The matter therefore of the plague, is a wild spirit tinged with a poyson: But that matter tends unto the end proposed to it self, after a three-fold manner; because it either comes to us from without, and being totally and perfectly pestiferous, exhaling from a pestilent sick person, or dead carkass, or place, or Utensile being defiled; or it is drawn inwards, being as yet crude, from a Gas of the earth putrified by continuance, which afterwards receives an appropriative ferment within; and at length, by degrees, attains a pestilent poyson in us: Or also a total destruction of us, is now and then materially, and formally finished within, without an external assistance. But that there are not more man∣ners, whereby the plague is made, is manifest from the division: For either it is wholly generated within, without a forraign aid; or it happens on us from without; and that is either perfect in the matter, and form of a poyson, wanting only appropriation, and ap∣plication; or it is as yet crude, imperfect, and as it were an Embryo. Whence at least∣wise, first of all, it becomes easie to be seen, that the Pest doth not always first invade the heart: For I have seen him, who in touching pestilent papers, at that very moment felt a pain, as it were of a pricking Needle, and straightway he shewed a pestilent Carbuncle in his fore-finger, and after two daies died.

Furthermore, the aforesaid three-fold matter, however plainly venemous the first is; yet on both sides, it holds it self within the number of an antecedent cause: For no o∣therwise than as poyson taken in at the mouth, is not the disease it self, or death, but on∣ly the occasional cause thereof: For not any thing that is corporeal, acteth immediately on the li••e o•• vital powers (because they are those which are of the nature of Coelessial lights) but first it is received, and made as it were domestical: and when some poyson is now made a Citizen of our Inn, to wit, it being swallowed or attracted; notwithstanding al∣so, it cannot as yet enter, or be admitted unto the hidden Seminaries of the vital pow∣ers (because it is in its whole essence external) but first, the poysonous quality, by acting on the life, stirs up the Archeus (otherwise the Author and workman of all other things to be done under his own government) into its own defence: For otherwise, a pestilen•• poyson acteth not like a sword, which equally wounds all it toucheth at, in the same mo∣ment of it self; but the pestilent poyson is not able to strike any. The Archeus therefore, since from his own disposition, he hath animal perturbations, passions, confusions, and interchangeable courses, he suddenly brings forth the image of his own alteration con∣ceived, and decyphers that Idea in the particle or small portion of his own proper sub∣stance wherein it is conceived; which Image of Death being thus furnished, is the Pest or Plague it self. For truly, I do not judge the plague to be a certain naked quality, al∣though it existeth not elsewhere than in a body, as it were accidents in a subject of inhe∣rency: but the plague is a Being, a poyson of Nature, subsisting by it self in us, and con∣sisting of its own matter, form, and properties; the which I have elsewhere most fully demonstrated in the Treatise of Diseases.

But here it is sufficient to have admonished, that the life operates nothing by conquer∣ing, or destroying, unless by the vital motions of the sensitive Soul, which is not wont but to operate by Idea's on the Archeus the Executer of any motions whatsoever; even as, neither doth the Archeus operate after any other manner on the body. Wherefore, it is to be noted by the way, in this place, that the inward material and immediate cause

of a disease, is the disease it self, 〈…〉〈…〉 wise, than as the material cause in a man, is his very body, persevering from the 〈…〉〈…〉 unto old age; but not that there is any con∣joyned material cause of a man, besides his body it self, which is the very product of generation; to wit, from a material cause, and seminal internal efficient: which things have hitherto been vailed from the Schools, and so they have reputed the internal occasi∣onal causes of diseases, to be the immediate and conjoyned ones, being as yet plainly distinct from the disease produced: Wherefore that is also, next to be repeated in this place, which I have taught in my discourses of Natural Phylosophy; to wit, that there are six digestions in us: For in the three former, that there are their own Retents, and their own excrements; the which, seeing every one of them are in themselves; and in their own Regions, troublesom; yea, by a co-in••olding, and extravagancy, they have be∣come hateful, they degenerate into things transmitted, and transchanged, and do from thence induce divers diseases occasionally.

But in the fourth and fifth digestion, I have shewn, that not any perceiveable excre∣ment is admitted: But in the sixth digession, which is that of things transchanged, that very many voluntary dungs do through the errour of the vegetative faculty, offer themselves. Moreover, that some are transmitted from some other place, as also that not a few do degenerate through a violent command of things suscepted or undergone: which things have been hitherto unknown by the Schools; and therefore also, have been neglected: and the which therefore, have wanted a proper name, and the diseasie effects of these have been ridiculously translated, and adjudged unto the four feigned humours of the Liver. Wherefore, although I as the first, have expelled the diseasifying causes of Tartar; yet least I should seem to make new all things from animosity, I will here call these filths, the Tartar of the blood; although by an improper Etymology; because for want of a true name. Such excrements therefore, whether they are brought into the ha∣bit of the body from elsewhere: or next, made under transchanging, by a proper errour of the faculties; or lastly, through a violent command of external things being there degenerated; I name them the Tartar of the blood 〈…〉〈…〉 that in very deed they are Tartars, in the matter and manner of the Tartar of Wine; but because of good nourishment being now defiled, that which before was fruitful and vital, hath afterwards become hostile.

And these things I have therefore fore-admonished of, that ye may know, that the Tartar of the blood is the product of the plague, and that that is easily made from effici∣ent pestilential causes. And moreover, it is not yet sufficient to have said, that the Tar∣tar of the blood, is the product of the Pest; but besides, I ought to prefix the place there∣of: For I will by and by teach, that the Plague is a poyson of terrour; and therefore I have noted, that the Seat or primitive Nest thereof, is in the Hypochondrial or Midriffs; to wit, where the first conception of humane terrour is, whether it happen from exter∣nal disturbances, or next, of its own accord, from the motions of things conceived: Wherefore there are present in the plague, vomiting, doatage, headach, &c. the which in its own place, I have decyphered in the Commonwealth of the Spleen. Therefore if the Schools had put this Tartar of the blood for a conjoyned cause, we had as yet notwith∣standing, been differing from each other, as that which with them had been a connexed cause, is with me a product of the plague: for the Pestinvades us after an irregular man∣ner; neither is its conjoyned matter a certain solid body, or visible liquor, as neither therefore any putrefaction plainly to be seen; but only a Gas, separated and degenerated from the substance of the Archeus. But whatsoever visible thing offers it self as vitiated in the Plague, is not of the matter of the plague it self, nor of the matter [whereof] but it is either the occasional matter, of which before, or it is the product or off-spring wherein the plague sits, as it were in a nest. Wherefore the Carbunole, Bubo, or Es∣charre, are not the original matter of the Pest, but the effect and product which the Pest ••ath prepared to it self: For the plague is for the most part so cruel and swift, that as soon as it is introduced into the Archeus, it cannot omit, but that it subjecteth some part of the nourishable humour unto its tyranny, and dwells therein: Wherefore, if the putrified humour should be the immediate cause of the plague, truly it had been putri∣fied before it had putrified; To wit, seeing the Pest it self, prepares that vitious product for it self, which the Schools call humours, they being as yet undefined. For Fernelius would be a little more quick-sighted than the Schools; and therefore he knew that the plague was not bred, or did con••ist of the putrefaction of four seigned humours; as nei∣ther of the heat of the air, or of the cold thereof; but of a certain poyson, the Foster∣child of hidden causes.

Again, we must take notice, that when the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the blood, or dross of the last digestion being vitiated, hath received a pestile•••• ••••ment, it hath a priviledge of exha∣ling through the pores, no less than other transchanged excrements, without any resi∣dence left behind it, or remaining dead-head (So the Chymists call the dreg which re∣mains after distillation) to wit, if the humours shall be alimentary; but not, if the sub∣stance it self of the solid parts be scorched into an Escharre, or Carbuncle: for so the much more hard dungs of the Lues Venerea, being as it were equal to bones, the counsel of resolving being snatched to them, do wholly vanish.

But although the Tartar of the blood, doth also rejoyce in the aforesaid prerogative, as oft as it is banished as infamous, out of the family-administration of life; yet while it is transchanged into a corrupt mattery, or thin sanious poyson, it gnaws the skin into the shape of an Escharre, before that it can sweat thorow the pores in manner of a vapour: And that indeed, by reason of the imprinted blemish of a strange ferment, whereby it degenerated into a formal transmutation: But if indeed, the Tartar of the blood shall draw the odour of the ferment, but is not yet transchanged, Glandules, Buboes, &c. are made, which are oftentimes ended by a plentiful Flux of sweat, without opening of the skin: whereas the other aforesaid products cannot obtain that: and almost all these, are by the Schools banished into Catarrhs. The whole Tartar of the blood therefore, is in∣deed bred at home; but it is a Bastard, which is intruded by force, destruction, and er∣rour.

But since the remedies of Nature are subject unto so many Courts of digestions, and bodies of so eminent an excellency, do possess a violence and strength of acting, and likewise have filths admixed with them, or difficult bolts; truly, the art of the fire is ne∣ver sufficiently esteemed, which now and then graduates one Simple to that height, that it persecutes with revenge all the excrementitious filths of the digestions, even into the uttermost coasts of the body: otherwise, in the last digestion, very many griefs do offer themselves, they being referred by the Schools, among incurable ones, by reason of one only fault of a remedy alone, which accompanies, and accuseth the defect; no o∣therwise than as they are destitute of curing, in the work of witches, because remedies are neglected, which may go into the root of the malady: For truly, those devilish dis∣commodities do not lay hold so much on the body, or the filths thereof, as on the Ar∣cheus himself; the which, since he is as it were the clear image of the man, it follows, that while that Spirit is wrested, aside in any Organ of its body, the same member suffers the sumptoms of the Archeus: And so, whatsoever the Spirit suffers, which is the Ruler of life and sense, it must needs be, that the body suffers; but not on the contrary: For neither doth he that is maimed in one leg, therefore generate a maimed off-spring, be∣cause the spirit is not defectuous: For whatsoever the body suffers, although the Spirit feels this same thing; yet this is not drawn together, unless the passion incline unto ex∣tremity; that is, that it is co-fermented within the root of life, or implanted spirit; e∣ven as I have elsewhere shewn concerning the convulsion in the Colick. Its no wonder therefore, if a Tartar of the blood be stirred up by the state, or insisting urgency of the Archeus: For who is he that knows not, that indignation, confusion, a sorrowful mes∣sage, affrightful fear, &c. do presently take away an appetite of eating, do stir-up sighs, or tears, and extend an unwonted fardle under the Midriffs; to wit, as the nourishment of the sixth digestion degenerates in the stomach, namely, where such passions are imme∣diately framed. This Tartar of the blood therefore, being once become degenerate, doth presently molest in manner of an Enemy. And even as a dog being once mad, pays the punishment of his madness with his own death; So that Tartar being once banished, and referred into the number of excrementitious filths, doth never afterwards return into favour; because, whatsoever the Archeus once forsaketh, straightway dieth, and that which is dead doth no more revive, nor strike a peace with the Enemy: Therefore an earnest desire of revenge, and indignation of self-love, are radically co-bred in the first Fountain of Nature: They do also more manifestly rise up in the more perfect subject, and so in sensitive creatures, do challenge to themselves the animosity and glory of a wrathful power. Wherefore that Tartar of the blood, being subdued by the plague, doth no longer obey the Laws of Life, but repenting of its former obedience, arrogates to it self an unbridled liberty of fury, and by so much the more cruelly molesteth us, by how much the more confidently it hath once received the hidden counsels of the Archeus within; which thing, the Schools name, to symbolize or co-resemble: For then it is an houshold-Thief, unto which the ways to the treasure, and privy store-houses are known: For how speedily do a few drops of corrupt matter under the scull, kill? and what cruelty

doth not the blood chased out of the veins, threaten? how cruel, is even but one only thorn in an Aposteme? Its no wonder therefore, that the Pest, the most fierce of diseases, doth presently bring forth its own product, and if it shall not find •• sea••, that it present∣ly makes one for it self: notwithstanding, a hope of curing the plagu•• remaineth, because that Tartar, and the Pest its own Inn, may be puf•• away or dis••••ssed by a due banishment of swea••: The which understand thou, as long as it shall remain in the shape of dissol∣vable Tartar: For otherwise, if it shall catch hold of a solid part, the hope of life fails, unless the part it self which is catcht hold of can forthwith be sequestred: But Wheals, black strakes, or black and blew spo••s or tokens, denote the Archeus to be affected; for they are the superficial tinctures of the skin, the which, if they shall the more deeply lay hold of, they do also cauterixe it: and since they do immediately pierce the Archeus be∣fore others, they stand in need of a most speedy remedy.

It is also worthy to be noted, th••t an unsensible transpiration in the plague, differs from sweat; because Diaphaeresis or unsensible transpiration is the matter of the nourish∣ment, and so also of the Tartar of the blood, being defiled; but sweat is of the substance of the Latex: But transpiration, seeing it is continual, it is also without sweat. Hence it comes to pass, that sweat doth most especially wash off, and for that cause, a dry tran∣spiration is seldom sufficient for curing of the plague: and therefore a plentiful rincing sweat is to be provoked; that while the Pestilent Tartar breatheth the naughtiness of its poyson thorow the pores, it may be partly washed off by the sweat, and the delay of its departure be partly speedied. Here a difficulty is manifest to be noted, and not deci∣ded by the Schools; to wit, why some defects of the stomach are cured not by vomiting, or stool, but only by sweat; because they consist in the Retents of the stomach being transchanged in the sixth digestion, but not in the remainders of the Cream. The Plague therefore, for the most part begins in the stomach, and there begets and infects the Tartar, whereon, as soon as the perturbations of the Archeus have made their assaults: For every imagination of the desirable faculty hath its seat in the same place, and there frames its Idea; and chiefly, about the orifice of the stomach, the vital powers are concealed, as I have elsewhere many times profe••ly demonstrated. But because the Tartar of the blood is in the form of a mucky sliminess; Hence the Idea of the Pest willingly buds forth into Glandules: for the stomach, and the Archeus thereof, because it sends a continual society of imagining into the brain; hence are Parotides or tumors behind the ears: But it pierceth thorow the Diaphragma into the lungs, and arm-pits, and a perplexity of breathing doth arise. But pestiferous odours being prepared in the stomach, frequent vomitings do accompany them, together with a pain in the head, the which, we having often experienced from the odours of burning coals, to have vomited with headach, and a dejected appetite: But if they proceed unto the Liver; Now there is a Bubo in the groyn.

CHAP. IX. Minerals and herbs do imagine after their ownirregular manner.

VVHatsoever subsisteth by a real essence, doth after some sort love it self: Where∣fore also, it hath the sense of a friend, or enemies; that is, of its own commo∣dities, and troubles: wherefore, a self-love resteth in the bosome of Nature: But things do scarce ever remain in the same state, without interchange: Therefore they undergo somewhat: but if they suffer, and walk in the way of destruction, verily it must needs be, that they have a cause from whence they are grieved: Wherefore, sympathy and antipa∣thy are observed to be even in stones; but in the Load-stone, most manifestly; the which notwithstanding cannot consist without a sense or feeling: But wheresoever that sense is, although it be dull, it happens also, that some shew of imagination agreeable to its sub∣ject, doth accompany it: For otherwise, it is altogether impossible for any thing to love; desire, attract, and apply that which is consonant to it self, or to shun any thing adverse to it self, unless a certain sense, knowledge, desire of, and aver••eness from the object are reciprocally present.

All which things do enclose in them an obscure act of feeling, imagination, and

certain image of choice: For else, by what means shall a thing be moved, or altered at the presence of its object, unlesse it feel or percieve that very object to be present with it self: If it perceive, how shall it be altered, except under a conception of the passion felt by it self? And unlesse that felt conception doth include some certain imagination in it self? Take notice Reader, that in this corner, all the abstruse knowledge of oc∣cult or hidden properties layeth, which the Schools have banished from their diligent search: they desisting from whence they were to begin, according to that Maxim; A Phylosopher must begin where nature ends: I have therefore deliberated more exactly to demonstrate, that in inanimate things ••here inhabiteth a kind of sense, phantasie, yea, and of choice, yet in a proportionable respect, according to the capacity and degree of every one.

I do not in the mean time make mention of Zoophytes or Plant-Animals, which re∣mote absence of proving, might unto many seem to be ridiculous: But our paradox will offend none who moderatly understands it.

First of all, it is not to be doubted, but that some flowers do accompany the Sun, as well in cleer days, in those wherein the Sun doth not shine, as in nights themselves; they attesting that they have a motion, sense, and love of the Sun: because, without which it is impossible for them to accompany the hidden Sun. For even as late in the even∣ing they loose the Sun in the West (the which, while he hastens towards the East, doth not operate amongst us who abide in the shadow of the earth) yet in the mean time, whether the night be hot, be cold, be cleer, or rainy., the flowers notwithstanding do not cease equally to bend themselves towards the east: Which thing first of all, poynts out that there is in them a knowledge of the rising, and circuite of the Sun, in what part he is to set, and in what to rise; cal thou it the instinct of nature, or as it listeth thee: For names will not change the matter: the matter it self is of a deed done, but the deed hath its cause in the flower: But that these things do thus happen in plants vegetatively enlivened, it is the lesse wonder: But that they have place also in Minerals, I thus prove: There is al∣most nothing made in nature, without a proper motion: and nothing is moved volunta∣rily or by it self, but by reason of the property put into it by the Creator, which proper∣ty, the Antients name a proper love, and for this cause they will have self-love to be the first born daughter of nature, given unto it, and bred in it for its own preservation: And when this is present, there is of necessity, also a Sympathy, and Antipathy, in re∣spect of the diversity of objects: For so the feathers of other birds are said to undergo rottennesse by the feathers or wings of an Eagle: and cloath made of the wools of sheep that died of their own accord, is soon of its own accord, in the holes which are beaten thorow it, resolved as it were with rottennesse, in what places the threds of the dead wool run down: So a drum made of a sheep and asses skin, is dumb, if a neighbouring drum made of the hide of a wolf, be beaten.

The skin of a Gulo (it is a most devouring creature in Swethland) stirs up in a man, however sober he be, and not a hunter, the ordinary sleeps from hunting and eating: if the party sleeping be covered with the same. But what are these things to miner∣als? Truly I proceed from the vegetable kingdom, through dead things, by degrees, un∣to stones, whereunto the holy Scriptures attribute great virtue: For indeed, stones could neither move, nor alter, if they had not an act of feeling of their own object: For nei∣ther could red Coral wax pale, if being born about, it shall touch the flesh of a men∣struous woman, unlesse it self felt the defects thereof: For the Load-stone bewrays it self, as the most manifest of stones, which by a proper local motion inclines it self to the North, as if it were vital: But not that it is drawn by the north: Because if a Load-stone be placed toward the north in a woodden box, in the averse part of it, upon the face of a standing pool of water, the box, with the other and opposite corner of the stone, speedily as may be, rowls it self to the North: Therefore, if that should be done, by a drawing of the north, and not by a voluntary impulsive motion of the Load-stone it self; the box should in like manner, presently also, by the same attraction, yield it self unto the north bank: The which notwithstanding, comes not to passe: but the box, together with its stone, remains unmoved, after that the stone together with the box, hath retorted it self on the requisite side, and by a requisite motion. It is clear therefore, that the Load-stone doth of its own free accord, rowl it self to the North: From whence afterwards it followes, that there is in it a sense, knowledge, and desire unto the north, and also the beginning of a conformable motion.

Furthermore, if any one doth hold a polished piece of steel nigh•• the aforesaid box, toward the South-side, the Load-stone then forthwith neglects the north, and turns it self to the steel; so that the box not only turns it self to the steel, but that it wholly

also, swims toward the north: whence also it is plain to be seen, that the Load-stone is carried with a stronger appetite to the iron, than to the North; and that the steel hath lesse of a successive alteration in it, than the North: Consequently also it is manifest, that it is strong in a manifest choice of objects. Some have moved a frivolous doubt a∣bout this matter; To wit, whether the Load stone draws the iron, or indeed the iron drawes the Load-stone it self? As not knowing that there is a mutual attraction on both sides, which comes not by little and little, by reason of much familiarity, neither doth it keep respects, not observe the ends of its own gain, fruition, circumstances, or conse∣quence:

Neither is that drawing subject to a flatterer, o•• defamer: out it is a gift originally in∣bred by nature, in the Archeusses on either part, and marked with a proprietary character by him who made all things; so that indeed, if the steel be lighter than the Load-stone, it is drawn to the Loadstone; but otherwise, if the stone be lighter than the steel: Be∣cause the drawing is not in the one, and the obedience of the drawing in the other; but there is one only mutual inclinative drawing, and not of the drawer with a skirmishing of the resister: And so, from hence it is manifest, that a desire is in nature before the drawing, and that the drawing followes the desire as some latter thing, as the effect doth its cause. If therefore, according to the testimony of truth, all things are to be discerned by their works, and the fruits do bewray their own tree; truly such attractive inclinations cannot subsist without the testimony of a certain co-participated life, sensati∣on, knowledge, and election.

Moreover, neither is the life of minerals lesse than the life of vegetables, distinguish∣ed from the animal life, by their own life, and their generations among themselves: Because that which is vegetable, and that which is mineral, do not operate but one, or a few proper things; and the same things as yet, with a precisenesse, interchangeable course, property, inclination, and necessity, as oft as a proper object is present with them: but a living creature operates many things, and those neither constrainedly, as neither by accident of the object; but altogether by desire, well pleasing, appetite, will, and choice of some certain deliberation; Seeing the first operation of the same is life; but the second, a proper appetite, desire or love, or delight. At length, thirdly, there is a deliberative and distinctive choice of objects: So I have seen a Bull that was filled with lust, to have d••spised an old Cow; but an heifer being offered him, to have again presently after, want••nized.

But the first operation of things obscurely living, is a power unto a seminal essenti∣alnesse.

Next, the second, is an exercise of powers, and properties.

At length, the third operation, is a greater, and lesse inclination, motion, and know∣ledge: The which indeed, flow not from a deliberative election or choice; but from a potestative interchangeable course, strangenesse, likenesse, appropriation, purity, or unaptnesse of objects: wherefore it was a right opinion of the Antients, that all things are in all after the manner of the receiver: But those powers by reason of their undiscerned obscurity, and the sloath of diligent searchers, have been scarce believed; but by pre∣decessours, and moderns, were not considered: and by reason of the difficulties of ac∣cesse, they have circumvented the world with a wandring despaire, and with the name of occult properties have hood-winkt themselves by their own sluggishnesse: But my scope in this place hath been; that if in Herbs and Minerals, there are such kind of no∣tions, the Authoresses and moderatresses of hidden properties; the same, by a far more potent reason, and after a more plentiful manner do inhabite in flesh and blood; To wit, excellently, with a particular and affected notion, motion, inclination, appe∣tite, love, interchangeable course, hostility and resistance; as with that which occurs in us through the service of the five senses: Even so that in flesh and blood, there is a certain seminal notion, distinction, imagination, of love, conveniency, likenesse, and also of fear, terror, sorrow, resistance, &c. with a beholding of gain, and losse, offence, and complacency, of superiority I say, and inferiority, and so of the agent, and the pa∣tient.

Because those necessary dependances of a consequent necessity, do flow from, and accompany the aforesaid sensations or acts of feeling: The which surely in the vital blood are characterized in a higher degree, by reason of the inbred Archeus the Author and workman of any of these passions whatsoever, than otherwise, in the whole kind that is not soulified or quickned: For a tooth from a dead carcase, that dyed by the extinguish∣ment of its powers, constraineth any tooth of a living man to wither and fall out, only

by its touching, because it compels it to be despised by the life: The which, a tooth from a dead carcase slain by a violent death, or presently extinguished by a sharp disease, doth not likewise perform. In like manner, the hair of a dead carcass whose life was taken away by degrees, by a voluntary death, makes persons bauld only by its touching: Watts, and brands brought on the Young by the perturbation of a woman great with child, through the touching of a dead carcase that died of its own accord, and by degrees, untill part of the branded mark shall wax more inwardly cold; the mark also doth by de∣grees, voluntarily vanish away. Observe well with me, whether these are not the testimonies of another act of feeling than that of cold.

Moreover, whether in that same sensation, there be not a natural knowledge, and fear of death connexed, which things are as yet also in the dead carcass: For truly a Tetanus or straight extension of a dead carcase, or stiffnesse thereof, is not a certain congelation of cold; But a mear convulsion of the muscles, abhorring death, and living even after the departure of the soul: For from hence the dead carcases of those who die by a violent death, because they die, the faculties of their flesh being not altogether extinguished, they feel not the aforesaid Tetanus but a good while after.

CHAP. X. A living creature imaginative.

I Have said that Herbs and Minerals do imagine by a certain instinct of nature, that is, after their own manner: so in the next place, that the blood and mummie have certain na∣tive conceptions, in order, and likenesse unto man: which things, that they may be directed unto our purpose concerning the Plague; thou mayest remember, after what sort the perturbations of a woman great with child, her hand being applied unto some cer∣tain member, although unadvisedly, rashly, and without a concurrence of the will, do de∣cipher the member in the Young co-agreeing in co-touching, with the image of the object of that perturbation: with the image I say, but not with an idle signature. But suppose thou that her desire was to a cherry; verily a cherry is deciphered in the young, and in a co-like member, such as the child-bearing woman shall touch with her hand, which cherry waxeth green, yellow, and red every year, at the same stations wherein the cher∣ries of a tree do attain those interchanges of colours: And which is far more wonder∣ful, it hath happened that the Young so marked, hath suffered these signatures of co∣lours in the Low-countries, in [the moneths called] May and June; which after∣wards expressed the same in Spain, in [those called] March and April. And at length the Young returning into his countrie, shewed them again in a bravery, in [those cal∣led] May and June: Also under a strong impression of a woman great with child, not onely a new generation of a cherry is brought in thereupon; but it also happens that the old one is to be changed, and it constrains a seminal generation to give place; yea, and the image of God being now lively or in the readinesse its coming, not to come, and that a strange-born creature and monster is substituted in its place: Of the contin∣gencies whereof, daily, and unvoluntary experiences are full: which power is granted to be given to a woman great with child: yet not that therefore in other women, the i∣mages of conceipts are not likewise brought unto the womb wherein an embryo doth not inhabite: For I have taught in a particular treatise, that the disturbances of men are framed in the midriffs, about the mouth of the stomach, to wit, that in men, they from thence ascend unto the heart; but in a woman that they are more readily sent unto the womb: because a woman doth naturally appoint vital inspirations for her Young: And so, every commotion of the midriffs in a woman, hath continually respect unto the womb, whether a Young be present or not. Whosoever therefore much disturbs a woman with grief, &c. from a deliberate minde: he willingly sends into her, a disease: And he that molests a woman great with young, let him know that he hurts the mother, and off-spring: Hence maides, about the years of maturity, if they are vexed with the conceipts of difficulties, they are wont continually to decypher the sides of their womb with the vain Idea's of conceptions, and for the most part they are made unto them∣selves

the A••••horesses of various sumptoms, for inordinate lusting: Because the womb doth not suffer its tranquility to be taken away by forreign images, without punishment. But a man formes his images in his mid••iffs, as well those of the desirable, as of the wrothful faculty, so that madnesse is therefore not undeservedly called, hypochondri∣al; and that thing happens no otherwise than as in a woman: but he transmitts the Idea's of conceipts, more freely unto the heart, and brain: For a certain man exspecting that on the morrow morning, a Major would be sent for his houshold goods, sitting sorrow∣ful all the night with his head leaned on the palm of his hand, in the morning had that side of his head grey, in what part his temples had touched his hand: And so the hand of a woman with child translates her own exorbitances unto her womb, and the hand of a man his feares, even into the skin of his head.

At leastwise, from hence it is manifest that there is a true growth and nourishment of the haires, and not a vain signature of colours; but that they are not in-bred by an ap∣plication expelling from behind: and then, that the perturbation in men, is much ak•••• to that of a woman, although far more infirme. I have taught also elsewhere, that the efficacy of disturbances consisteth in the spleen: Wherefore antiquity hath accounted Saturn the principle and parent of the starry gods, also the highest of the wandring stars, to wit, the which should cast his influence downwards on the rest, but that the rest should in no wise reflect upwards, because the stars are believed to conspire for the commodi∣ties of sublunary things, but not upwards: Therefore they called Saturn the origina of life, and the beginning of conceptions, or generations; yea and they named him the de∣vourer of a young child; poynting out hereby, that the images framed by the desirable faculty, do make seeds fruitful, and also the Inns of digestions in us; even as when they are exorbitant they consume the new or tender blood, and enforce very many di∣seases on us.

Therefore the imagination of the spleen hath the first violent assaults, which are g••a••t∣ted not to be in our power: Saturn therefore was feigned to be as it were without a be∣ginning: but Jupiter the chief off-spring thereof, casting down his father from his seat, signified the brightnesse of reason subduing the first assault of imagination: But an image formed by imagination, is presently in the spleen, cloathed with the vital spirit, and assumeth it, whence an Idea is fortified for the execution of works: for what per∣son is he who hath not sometimes felt disturbances, anguishes, and the occasions of sigh∣ing about the orifice of his stomach, in which part the spleen is most sensitive, even as also the touching in the fingers ends? Is not the appetite taken away from an hungry man, by a sorrowful message? Be it observeable in this place, that although the essential disposition of things aprehended in time of the perturbation, be plainly unknown unto the woman with child, yet she wholly formeth and figureth the same in her young, while as without the trunk of the trees, she frameth a cherry in the flesh, in an instant, contein∣ing the internal essence, and the knowledges of a seminal cherry. Its no wonder there∣fore, if that a terrour from the plague, frameth an Idea of the plague, from whence the plague it self doth presently bud, although the sensitive soul of man be ignorant of the es∣sence of the plague.

Heer an open field is made manifest, to prove that the knowledges or Idea's of all things, are formed in us by the power of the sensitive soul; yet that they lay obscured in the immortal mind, which we believe to have been present with Adam, while as he put right names on the bruit beasts: For if the conceipt of a woman being allured by the over∣flowing of some certain perturbation, can decypher the inward dispositions of plants, or animals (yea sometimes, with a total transmutation of her young) it must needs be, that in the mind it self, as in the essential engravement of the divine image, an essential notion at least of sublunary things doth inhabite, only being depressed and deformed in the impurity of nature, and spot of original sin: otherwise, the sensitive soul can∣not do strange things which it knows not, and hath not; and so there is need for the immortal mind to have a conflux hereunto, it being stirred up by perturbations: It is a very obscure and difficult way, whereby Adeptists, by no help of books, do strive by seeking to obtain some former light of sciences: And therefore also, they call it the labour of wisdom: and Paracelsus esteems it to be ten-fold easier than to have learn∣ed Grammer:

Yet Picus is of opinion, that unlesse the operater makes use of a mean, he will soon die of a Binsica, or drynesse of the brain: That the spirit of life will be diminish∣ed by reason of a daily continuance of speculations. Whatsoever that may be, at leastwise, the ignorance of causes hath neglected most things, and the helpings of

the sick have been exspected in vain. But I have discussed in this place of images or likenesses bred in the imagination, whereby it may be manifest, after what man∣ner every corporeal body proceeds from an invisible and incorporeal Beginning (the which, they of old affirmed to be fetcht from the intelligible world) by the imagination of the foregoing parent, in imitating after a certain similitude, the creation of the world, being from the command of the incomprehensible word, [Fiat] once made of the infinitenesse of a nothing: The which afterwards, ob∣tained its continuation from the gift of the word; Let seeds be brought forth; To wit, by a fore deduced imagination as well of plants, as of animals: Nature there∣fore, in following the power infused into her, brings forth every seed by the image of a certain conception. There is indeed, as well in living creatures, as in plants, yea and in minerals themselves, every one their own imagination, after their own improper manner; yet on both sides the productresse of the fruitfullnesse of seeds, as well for a natural Being, as for that of super-incidents and monstrous ones:

Because the imagination frames an image of the thing conceived, which by its gifts given it of God, it converts into a Mean, which is called a seed; To wit, with∣out which image, every seed is only an empty husk: No otherwise, than as the blossom of a pippin, not having a promised pippin behind it, is a vain braggery: That image, and seminal one, even as it bears in it self a perfect similitude of its own image to be conceived; so also, a free and uncorrupted knowledg of things to be done by it self under the race of generation: Yet this is remarkeable in generati∣ons; that as a woman with Child doth not operate the wonders proposed, unlesse she be sore smitten with perturbations, and the flint be struck against the steel; so the seeds of living creatures cease to be fruitful, unlesse a disturbance of ••ust be con∣joyned, making the soul to descend into the seed, that it may enlighten that seed: Wherefore herbs languish presently after their product, the scope of their imagina∣tion or property being compleated: But minerals, because they are not ordained to stir up a race out of their own bodies, by so much also they have the ends of their own imagination far more obscure.

Since therefore, all generation presupposeth an image, according to which it ex∣ecutes its own dispositions: Hence it cannot come to passe, that an imagination of terrour should generate an Idea of love, nor that a phantasy of fear from an enemy, should produce a phant••sie of terrour from the plague. Also places infected with the Pest, are not undeservedly to be avoided; and not only by reason of the air being already vi••iated and defiled; but also, that objects may be avoyded, which conduce unto the imagination of terrour. Now the shoare whither we f••••l appears afar of, and after what sort terrour may be the Father of the plague. It al••o happens that children do most speedily imagine, and are disturbed; yet their perturbations do not carry seeds in their images, or cause the plague unto themselves by terror: For it is with these even so as with a young musitian, who in his first lessons, doth not transmit his cogitation conceived unto his fingers, but with difficulty: But after that he is skil∣ful in his art, and fingers are now accustomed unto the images of tunes, and motions; they undoubtfully perform the command of the phantasie, and perfectly sound out the whole hymn, although now and then, through an attentive discourse, he shall divert his minde from the musick: For neither do his fingers cease to proceed unto the end of the well apprehended song.

CHAP. XI. Things requisite for the Idea of an imagined Plague.

EXperience hath oft-times caused a belief, that some one hath prepared the ab∣sent Plague in himself and his, through terrour alone: which truth sheweth, that the image of the phantasie, doth from the incorporeal essence of its own nakednesse and simplicity of cogitation, cloath it self by little and little, and put on the Spirit of Life, and leaves therein its own seminal product: a Being surely, most ready for great and terrible enterprizes. But moreover, that it is not yet sufficient for the execution of its appointment (for it is found, that the Image arriving at the Bowels, doth never∣thelesse oft-times wax feeble) Therefore, I have declared, that in a Woman great with Child, the hand is moreover required, it being the Instrument of Instruments, as an ex∣ternal Instrument and sign of the determined member whereon the Image is to be en∣graven: For the Soul alwayes useth meanes, upon which the Image is carried, for Being and Operation. But I therefore ought to delinea••e after what manner the Soul after the example of a Musitian dismisseth the operative Images of its own conceptions unto the hand, but in no wise unto the foot: and after what sort, through custom, that presently transmitteth its Images, which otherwise, besides custom, would most trouble∣somly reach thither. Wherefore it is to be noted, that if the Woman with Child shall be right-handed, and yet shall, under the onset of disturbance, touch some one of her members with her left-hand, nothing will be marked upon her Young thereby: Whence it appeareth, that that hand, which is the common ordinary and daily executress of cogitati∣ons, is also the Directtress of Images unto places, and operations. Therefore a man doth not operate alike strongly by imagination, as doth a Woman: nor any other Wo∣man alike strongly, as doth a Woman with Child: neither also doth every terrour gene∣rate the Plague: For the affrightment by a Wolf, Snake, or mad Dog, doth not pro∣duce in us the operative Images of a Wolfe, or Snake: yea, nor indeed, where the Wolfe is visibly present: even as notwithstanding, the Plague is bred in us by an Image of ter∣rour. A doubt therefore subsisteth, whether an affrightful imagination of the Soul from the Plague, or the Image thereof, be a sufficient and suitable cause of the Plague? First of all, it is seriously to be heeded, that the imagination is sufficient of it self for to ope∣rate, unlesse other things beside do concur. For first of all, wholly in ordinary and ac∣customed works proceeding from a deliberation of the elective Soul, the will must needs be present: For a Baker shall vainly, and that intentively imagine many things about ma∣king of Bread, unlesse his will shall move his hand, not indeed to some member, but unto the Dough. I in like manner, writing of the Plague without terour, in a full will, and conceipt of the thinking Soul, do meditate many things concerning the Plague; Yet I do not therefore contract this Plague to my self. No man also, unlesse happily he be foolishly des••era••e, intends a generating of the Pestilence in the consent of his will. An unfolded will therefore, is required, in a daily and natural course of operative actions, wherein the will draws forth conceived Images in deliberating, for the execution of the work: But there is in no wise required a consent of the will, for the generation of a Be∣ing, or the transmutation of one Being into another: For truly, every transmutation, al∣though it be monstrous, yet it attempts the priviledges of a true Generation; Since there is a re-ideaing in the Archeus, from the Victory of the new Image, translated upon the seminal one, which was first conceived in the Archeus. Therefore the consideration of transmutation doth not consider a consent of the will. Again, neither a naked imagina∣tion, or production of an Image, nor a touch of the hands, do suffice together for trans∣changing: But (mark well) every work of imagination, which of necessity produceth in us a new generation, or transmutation of one thing into another, requireth the con∣currence of a certain faith, co-bound in the same point of the Subject, the phantasie it self: For truly, an affrightment from a hurtful Animal, doth not produce in us that hurt∣ful Animal, nor even the poyson thereof; Even so also, as my attentive imagination, me∣ditating of the wonderful poyson of the Plague, doth not therefore generate the Plague in me. The reason therefore, why a terrour from the Plague, doth rather cause the Plague, than a terrour from living Creatures, causeth the poyson of the same; consisteth in this; that the poyson of the Pest is made not only from an apprehension, and con∣ceipt of terrible effects; but because there concurreth together with those, a certain unseperable belief whereby any one being affrighted, and fore affraid, in fearing, doth imagine, and slenderly believe that he hath now contracted something of the pestilen∣tial

poyson: From whence (but not before) the Image of the Plague being conceived by this kind of terrour, becomes operative and fruitful. For that terrour, with a credulous suspition, applyeth the Soul thus affrighted, unto the Archeus, that it may cloath this Archeus with the Image of the conceived Terrour: Through want also of which Be∣lief, although Animals should conceive great terrour, yet they never snatch to them the humane Pestilence, although they sometimes draw in their own consumption, as also na∣tural poyson, from whence also they dye. For it is a fermental poyson, the which, how speedily soever it may dispatch them; yet it is not the true Psague. But whosoever shall see a mad Dog leaping on him, and how much soever affrighted he shall be from thence; yea, though he conceive a Fever and dye; yet no man doth ever even slenderly believe that he drew the poyson of the mad Dog, without biting: Wherefore also, all his sore fear is onely least he should be bitten; which rather includes a prevention of a poyson to come, than a belief of a poyson bred. The terrour therefore, the occasion of the plague, carries a certain belief and fear in the Imagination, that he hath actually drawn some∣thing of contagion vnder-such an uncertainty and Agony: Because the poyson of the Plague is onely visible, but not the biting of a mad Dog: which particle of faith, together with the disturbance of Terrour, perfecteth an actual Image in the Archeus, the seed of the Plague that is to be generated: Because that which is imagined, apprehended with perturbation, and believed, doth stand actually in the same point of the phantasie, which brings forth an Image on the Archeus, as it were a seminal Being. Otherwise also, neither is any faith sufficient for this thing; because, there is none who doth not firmly believe the Plague can-kill, infect, happen unto one, &c. But such a belief as that, is feeble, and as it were dead; neither therefore is it operative, that is, not hurtful; unlesse that in the same point of Identity, it be essentially connexed unto terrour apprehended with disturbance, from a drawing in of the actual poyson. Eor Camps and Castles do very often snatch to them a panick fear and deadly terrour, assoon as with the fear of pertur∣bations, they believe that the Enemy hath treacherously, or privily crept in, or obtained an unexpected aid, &c. All which things do rather prevail under a dark night, wherein all things are made invisible, and more horrid and fearful. Pollutions in Dreams, although they have a strong Imagination without the motion or enticements of fornications, which is sufficient for expulsion; yet for want of that belief, they cast forth onely barren seed: For although the Imagination operates in sleeping; yet a Faith or Belief doth not operate in Dreaming; because it is that which is not the Daughter of the Imagination, but of the will alone: For indeed, sleep peculiarly conduceth to this, that the liquor of nourish∣ment being transchanged by the application and information of the mind, may be alto∣gether assimilated: wherefore, in youthfull yeares, people sleep more, and more soundly than in those succeeding. And since vital matters have their own natural Imaginations, even those which are not intellectual Imaginations; Surely, the Imagination of the blood it self, shall most powerfully operate under sleep. But Faith or Belief, seeing it is a seperated power fast tyed to the Soul and Will, it is of necessity also stupifyed in time of sleep. There is therefore, well nigh, an unshaken and uncessant act of the Imagina∣tion of the Spleen: But the Soul once believing some one thing, afterwards ceaseth and is at rest from the consideration of believing o•• confiding, untill that an Object be again rub'd on it anew. Neither do I speak in this place concerning Christian faith, and a supernatural Gift of God; but I behold a confidence, to wit, as well aa delusion in believing, as the supposing of a true thing. For a certain young Bitch, and not yet lascivi∣ous, having gotten a whelp of fifteen dayes old, licks it, loves it, and puts it to her dugs; and then being befooled, believed that it was her own Young; who was a yet uncor∣rupted, her dugs presently swell, and I saw them to have po••red forth plenty of milk. Also, if thou desirest Chicken in the midst of Winter, make the Eggs lukewarm with a hot Towel, and in the mean time unfeather the breast of a Capon, put him upon the Eggs that he may cherish them, and there shut him up: who in rising up, feeling the lukewarmth of the Eggs, and the unwonted coldnesse of his breast, begins to cherish the Eggs: But in sitting on them, he conceiveth a false belief, and believes that he is the mother of the Eggs, he brings forth all the Chickens, even unto the last, and cals them together by Clucking like a cherishing Hen, and fighting for the Chickens; chaseth the Cock; and at length being forsaken by the Chicken, is very sorrowful. If therefore a false belief operates so much; what shall not any the more grounded one do, that is conjoyned with the terrour of the Plague. There is therefore, a certain native Imagi∣nation in the blood, in the parts of an Animal; yea and in the diseasie excrements; so that, magnetical or attractive Remedies have already begun with benefit to be applyed

unto the blood let out of the veines. Let us consider also, the excrementitious musci∣lage of the sixth digestion to stick fast within the Reeds or Pipes (I thus by one onely Etymology, call the Veines, Atteries, Bowels, and any kind of Channels) to be at first in its owne quality, guiltlesse, but violating the right of its ••nne, as it is undirectly a stranger; And therefore by it self, laying in wait for the part. Presently after, a desire of expelling that excrementitious muscilage, is conceived by the Archeus implanted in the part: the Idea of which conception, is imprinted on the hated muscilage; The which, seeing it is seminal, it obtains a form, being a certain life; and likewise for hence also, a power of acting, and afterwards it governs its own matter for the Ends proposed and obtained by it self. But the member not being able to subdue the guest, connexed unto it against its will, burns with a greater endeavour and appetite of expelling; For, neither is that desire any longer a Being of Reason, or imagined Being; but it hath arisen into a certain seminal Being, by reason of the Idea conceived by the Archeus being imprinted on himself, and it transforms the forreign matter into every perfection of a diseasie Seed: no otherwise than as in the spittle of a mad Dog, there is a seminal madnesse it self: and the conceipt of a Woman great with child, in the deciphered cherry of her young. For so the matter being enriched with a power of acting, according to the Image of the passion put on, begins to act on the entertaining member. There is indeed now in it, a disease it self, having obtained an efficient Seed; the which, at length, being more stub∣bornly connexed, and oftentimes the Conquerer, subdues the vital faculty of that mem¦ber, into its own jurisdiction. To wit, it mortifies, and renders the part wherein it sits, conformable unto its own contagion. But the part; seeing it is subject unto wearinesse, and the bound hereof: but on the contrary, the Character or Seminal Idea now con∣ceived, is unwearied; it must needs be, that the forces of the Archeus, being as it were collected, that disease is banished by a Crisis, or the strength of the disease being volun∣tarily worn out, that it be deprived of the power of acting, and that stoppages and Schirrhus's are made: or that being overcome, it be driven from the place, and an Imposthume be made: or that it be expelled by the strong prevailing force of a Medi∣cine. For otherwise, Nature forsaking the Raines, delivers its hands bound to the dis∣ease, To wit, as the part containing, being conquered by the Enemy contained, makes all the rest like unto its self, no otherwise, than as small Gangrene soon mortifies the whole Body: So also, the matter of a disease sticking fast and infecting the part whereto it adheres, presently infects the whole intire Body. For, neither are the Seeds of a diseasie matter alwayes inbred from the beginning: the which therefore, in the mean time, is onely the occasional matter. And moreover, for the most part, a foolish and unhurtful race of qualities do dissemble the innocency of a diseasie Thorn. Otherwise, hurtful things should never be admitted within, because they are wont before their ad∣mission, to be intimately and finely examined by the Archeus. For, whatsoever things are uncapable of the necessity of life, are presently prostrated in their entrance. If therefore excrementitious filths being inwardly admitted through a treacherous er∣rour, or having arisen through degeneration, do receive enmities within, and exercise them on us, while as they shall by an Idea received, be qualified with a strength of acting: it is no wonder also, if they do now and then attain the ferment of a poyson, and that Ferment being obtained, that they lay ready hands upon us. This is the brief original, progresse, and History of the Tatrar of the blood, and of diseasie Images. Furthermore, the Images of poyson, are on this wise: for in poysonous Beasts, that a poyson is made from the Image of Anger, we are taught by the Proverbe; Morta La bestia, morto il veleno. The deadly Beast hath his deadly poyson. The which hath place onely in the proper poysons of a Species, but not in the dead Carcasses of those that dyed of the Plague; which thing we daily experience, as well in men as in the Falcon: Because the Plague is not bred from anger after the manner of poysonous Serpents: For a sporting Dog, if he shall smite with his Tooth, he inflicts a wound that is quickly healable: but if he shall bite with an angry Tooth, although not more deeply than the foregoing Dog, now he hath made a wound partaking of the poyson of anger. But if he shall be mad, he now communicates a poyson, not exceeding that of anger, but such a one as is a Com∣peere of his deadly and senslesse madnesse. For a will of hurting, being through wrath or anger kindled, the Beast otherwise harmlesse, produceth a poysonous Image, and by his Tooth transmits or communicates the same. That thing is much more apparent in hurtfull wild Beasts. Therefore Sorcerers are careful, that they may borrow a deadly poy∣son from Serpents, being first enraged and provoked. A wantonizing young Bitch, if she lick the hand of a Child, she embladders the same; But a wantonizing Mare, seasons

the hornes of her feet or hoofes with a poyson: to wit, so that they are for a present poyson to those that have the bloody flux: the which otherwise, of one that is not wan∣ton or lustful, if they being powdred, are fryed with Butter, they forthwith cure the bloody flux: But things proper to the poyson of plants, are not from anger or dread: but a corruptive ferment is by the Creatour of the World, put into a Seminal native I∣magination, for the continuing of their Seeds. For neither is there an enmity in plants, or a will of hurting of us. And so, neither doth the poyson dye away together with plants, being dryed: For there is a poysonous ferment, co-fermented with plants, from the beginning of the World, for a seminal propagation, for ends known to the thrice glorious Creatour alone. But a mad Dog, communicates a poyson by his spittle, and so by his Tooth. For the Tooth serves to a mad Dog, as much as the hand to a Woman great with Child. Lastly, The Imagination of plants; although it be the Formatresse of their owne seeds: yet it self is not free, or arbitrary, but rather a seminal Endowment; for propagating its like: and that with the total property of it self, wherein it resteth, not being alterable by forraign disturbances or enticements. Wherefore, in it self it conceiveth not a monster, nor doth ever make it of its own accord, unlesse it be provoked from without. Such therefore is the diffe∣rence, original, progresse, product, and manner of the hurting, of poysons. And these things I have drawn out for that end: to wit, that it may be understood, that if a mortal poyson be forthwith made from the anger of poysonsome wild Beasts, the terri∣fying poyson of the Plague, may also be made through terrour in the Archeus of man. For, if sorrow begets a foolish madnesse, the Dropsie, or Falling-sicknesse; but anger the Colick, Apoplexy, Convulsion: and a plenteous anguish, or a lesse intense cogitation, a Furious or Lunatick person: Neither is it derogatory from Reason, that the Image of the Pest is framed within from a perturbation of that Vulcan, wherein the first assaults are made. The fits whereof, as those of mad persons, are oft-times taken away by succours for the Spleen. There is a small living Creature like unto a Spider, and is called by Solin••••, Solifuga, because he shuns the day being frequent in the Silver-Mines of Sardinia; and it creeps in secret, and through imprudency, causeth the Plague to those that sit upon it; which poyson indeed is not the true Pestilence, but a poysonous pustule or wheal: for he subjoyneth, that there are hot Fountains near, which presently abolish the poyson implanted by the Solifuga; So indeed, the deadly vapours of Mines, are oftentimes called Pestilent ones, because they kill the Diggers that ••arry the longer therein. But they are wont to make tryal of this danger: if a burning Candle being let down into the burrowes of the Mines, it be forthwith extinguished; neither is it a wonder, if besides their poyson they also choak the light of Life, if they do extinguish the fiery light of a Candle.

CHAP. XI. The Ferment of the Pestilence.

COnsider thou how sorrowful a Dog walketh, how he refuseth meat, and abhorreth drink; how many spurs of hatred, and conceptions of envy he nourisheth before madnesse. Again, how that a full force of his conceipt being translated not only into his spittle, but into his tooth, which is cleanly wiped thorow the garments, as it were by its odour alone, and by the simple suffumigation of one smell or odour, is sufficient to stir up a late and serious madnesse in him that is bitten, for the least touch of the tooth, in what part the skin layes open, and gapeth only in the Epidermis or upper skin, howe∣ver clean the blood leaping forth, be washed off: neverthelesse, it so deriveth the I∣mage of its own madnesse, that as the hand of a Woman with Child paints the mem∣ber of her young; so a Dog by the touch of his tooth, within the fortieth day will bring madnesse. But neither doth it proceed for death onely, however the wound be onely in the Epidermis: but before death, the chief faculties of the mind perish, and as Lackeys, do presently follow whither they are led aside by the imaginative poyson. For that odour of the tooth, is as it were a m••er nothing, an incorporeal Being: no other∣wise than as the smell of an hoary putrifyed Hogshead, or the smell of a foot put into a new shooe, that makes a foots-step. For a Dog hath known his master a good while by his imprinted footstep, and distinguisheth that he passed that way. So the odour of a garment, or paper, being infamous through a pestilential corrupt matter, defiles us with a most subtile, unperceiv••able, and most thin poyson: And it not onely seasons and kils

us with a deadly poyson; but it also casts down the mind from its seat, no otherwise than as the touching of the tooth of a mad Dog under the skin, thrusts down the Reason from its majesty, and constrains it to follow according to the determined Rule of its own madnesse. For the party bitten, at a set period of time, is sore afraid at the be∣holding of all liquid things,: he conceiveth a dog-like envy, and wisheth that he could destroy all living, and multiply his own madnesse. Writers declare, that wormes do grow in a Wound in the hea•• of a Dog. At leastwise, I deny no••, but that a Ferment is to be supposed to be in this poyson, respecting and affecting the spirits of Imagi∣nations: into which, the least co-participation of an odour, introduceth the Idea of its own Image, whereunto our phantasie is constrained to yield, yea, rather is fully trans∣changed into that horrid apparition. For it is a wonder, that a hunting Dog, which is the first-born of all the whelps of his D••m, doth alone assault and overcome a mad Dog. There is in him the natural endowment of an unconquered Imagination; even so, that if he be bitten by a mad Dog, yet he doth not become mad: whereas, in the mean time, all the rest, do by biting contract madnesse, do fle•• from a mad Dog, neither dare they to defend themselves against this Dog. That poyson therefore, is the Inne of the mad∣nesse, also, the forreign guest of Imagination, which is overcome by the Imagina∣tion of an opposing Soul. Therefore, from hence we have known that all poysons are in themselves, fermental; for, some destroy the matter onely, and together with it the Imaginative Spirit, from whence are diseases that have a foolish madnesse connexed unto them; but others affect the Spirit onely; Such as are those, which bring a dog-like madnesse, and which bring on foolish madnesses and Catalepses's or sudden st••pefactive congelations: to wit, The which do not notably melt, or alter the body: but they draw only the sensitive Spirit into destruction: for indeed the Taran••••ta is scarce ever at rest, and therefore also he disturbs the man whom he hath stung, with a restlesse trouble. dFor behold, with what an horrid effigies he transpl••nteth his Imaginations into the man whose skin he hath pierced, but even with a slender sting. For, the vile, small, and weak creeping Animal, by an unperceivable quantity of his poyson, infects the whole ••an, and presently snatcheth the powers of his mind under his own protection. Also, surely the odour of a footstep doth fitly square with the Plague, being likened unto it: For although the Houses are opened in a high place, and that well-fa••ned with the Wind, and the infected Ayr of the House doth yield to the Winds: yet the Plague doth not therefore cease the third day after, but that it is sufficient for taking away the wholecommon people; for neither doth the odour of a footstep in the way being exposed to the Winds cease (though nothing in quantity) unlesse it be washed with Rain, or covered with earth: for it alwayes represents unto the Dog his own master. I remember also, that in the Plague at Ostend, the very pestilent hoary putrefaction it self, is ••wont a little to smell of the soales of shooes burnt, and I was wont by that odour, to bewray one to be infected with the Plague. Furthermore: before the Fall, every living Creature was subject to man, as to its master, and its middle life melted, and perished in eating, before the sight of our Archeus. But now, even a Whelp hath a predominacy over our life, and constrains the free powers of the Soul of mortals, under his own infirmities of madnesse. For, it is a miserable thing, for the Image of God thenceforth to be subject to the biting of Insects, and that it ought to follow the various Images of the poysonous Ferment of e∣very one: And it is a degenerate thing, for servile Bruits to season their biting with the I∣mage of Anger, with a mad and deadly poyson. Alas, how piercingly and strongly is the Image of anger sealed? And with what a snatching speedinesse doth it passe over unto the spittle? Unto how great infirmities is a Woman subject, from the hidden O∣dour of her Womb? For, with what Exorbitances not to be spoken of, is her under∣standing vexed? For truly, oftentimes a hoary putrified Odour being communicated from the soales of the feet, casteth down our lofty Stature, and deprives those that have the Falling-sicknesse, of sence, memory and understanding. For, how readily doth the contagion of an Hypochondriacal excrement under the Midriff, alienate the mind, and seduce it with sorrow, horrour, fury, madnesse, feverish dotages, and the differences of a Lethargye, while as they estrange us according to the Image bred in their owne Fe••∣ment? For, how terrible a poyson of terrour, is at one onely moment, imprinted by a stroak of Thunder, on a Beast which it hath smitten, so that with the eating of his flesh the Plague is swallowed? Which thing at least, is for a sign, that a Thunderbolt is darted from a monstrous sign full of terrour; to wit, from whence the Archeus being extin∣guished in a moment, in discovering the Image of his Terrour, perisheth almost in a moment. For sleep, yea, a deep dr••wsie evil is oftentimes in a man, where there is

a great disturbance of the Pest in his Archeus. Oft-times: on the other hand, the Ar∣cheus lives free and safe from perturbations: when as the man is in a mi••erable conflict with his owne disturbances. In Wars, and out of Wars, there are now more cruel Plagues than in Ages past: Because Wars are more cruel in dreadful fear, and have more of great dread, and lesse of angers: when man being moved against man with the vio∣lence of Wrath, studyed Revenge: Neither is it a Wonder therefore, that the drinking of ones own Urine should restrain the Plague before the accesse thereof; not as an An tidote: but because it contained a hope and perswasion, before it was taken. For I remember, that in the Year 1635. while the French men besieged our Neighbour City Lovain, a very great Plague, ••rom thence, soon after invaded the fearfull Bruxellians, and the poor Women who were terrified with fear; and the which, being dispersed into all the Villages, brought every where a great destruction. For a co-participation of life in meats also, causeth, that they are soon made vital: and they presently snatch hold of our Archeus, being otherwise lyable to indignation, fury, and a manifold misery or dammage of Symptomes: so, in Magnum oportet, a necessity and transplantation of much contagion is inclosed in us. But if the properties of the middle life of things eaten, ought after some sort to remain in the blood: and for that cause also, the fleshes of the Eaters do vary their savour according to the diversity of the meats: it must needs be, that we are affected by those things which leave their mark of resem∣blance in us. Indeed savours, the witnesses of properties, have stricken a covenant, as well with the external, as internal fellowships of putrefactions, which therefore, are easily made the partakers of injuries in us. For the middle life of mears remaineth in our fleshes: hence it is, that Fish-devouring Nations, and Carthusians are not trou∣bled with flyes of wormes. For fleshes that are not well preserved, from the co-resem∣blance of the middle life residing in us, do easily stamp any putrefaction on us. From whence also, formal corruptions do arise in us, from an unthought of Beginning. And then, fleshes and fishes, although they are seasonably killed, yet they conteined in them the purulent matters of diseases, wherewith, when we are ••ed (especially if they have before contracted a burntish odour) we readily yield unto the fellowships of their symbolizing mark, and they presently stir up in us, adustodours, and mumial putrefactions by con∣tinuance, in us. For, neither do Oxen or Sheep eat men, nor contract our Plague into themselves: but we ••at Oxen, and draw a brutal Pest, like as also our own; Because the pestilences of many bruit Beasts do play their part in man alone. Wherefore, neither are meats, no•• being rightly concocted, guiltlesse, while they scorn at the Ferment of the stomach, because they easily passe over into the forreign colonies and various cor∣ruptions of their own con••agion. Truly, this successive alteration of new calamities in the Plague, shall at sometime, be a future betokening cause of the last times: At least∣wise, the Ferments of poy••ons and venomes, have never been throughly weighed in the Schooles. But the action of these hath therefore been supposed to be equivocal or of doubtful interpretation, and prepared by an impression of the Heaven. For alwayes, when as they slide into Ignorance, they implore the too far distant aid of the deaf Hea∣vens, and blame guiltlesse Saturn. For they call that an equivocal action, while the A∣gent doth not generate its like. As happens in Celestial Impressions and Meteours. But how improperly they have recourse unto the Heavens and their equivocal actions, for poysons, every one shall easily know, who hath beheld poysons as Agents meerly natu∣ral and domestical, they being not onely alterative after the manner of Meteours; but transchanging, and spermatical or seedy ones. For, what can be more like to a seminal generation, than if the slender poyson of a Scorpion kills the whole man, and propagates the property of its own seed into the whole body? For neither do Ferments any where operate Equivocally or doubly, but plainly Univocally or singly: Because, if the Pest should bud forth by an equivocal action: verily it should not be contagious, seeing it should not produce its like. Therefore it is manifest, that the diligent search of Fer∣ments being neglected (in the commerce whereof notwithstanding, every transmutati∣on of things to be generated, is enrowled) Poysons have been hitherto unknown, as well in their making as in their Being and operation: Especially, because the property of a poyson, is, by the destruct on of the Archeus of man, to imprint its own seminal Image in the room of the other: Wherefore also, the Organ of this poyson is the Ferment it self. But u••derstand thou this thing concerning poysons which attempt a transmutation by way of a seminal Image, but not of meer Corrosives: because they are those which do not fermentally corrupt the Archeus, or his Image; but they stir up the same Archeus into fury, who afterwards destroyes his own matter, or Inne: under the alteration or de∣struction

whereof, the Archeus himself also gives place, together with the integrity and retainment of his Image: For the greatnesse, vehemency, strength, and swiftnesse o•• poysons have deceived the Schools, who, the consideration of ferments being neglected, have passed by the one only dispositive instrument of generations, which goes before the introducement of a seminal Image: For the Schools are wont to measure the works of nature according to the square of artificial things; and so, if at any time there ••ere any thing which would not seem to them, to square with this measure, they by a verbal ex∣cuse, have had recourse unto the heavens, and hidden causes, that they might cover their sluggishnesse and ignorances with an impossibility of sifting it out.

CHAP. XIII. The form, and matter of the Pest.

SInce a disease ought to perfect its own title, and misfortune in us, as it were in its own mansion, and its own proper essential causes do remain in its product; it must needs be, as long as any thing wanders in the air, water, or earth, that that can neither be a disease in it self, nor the containing cause thereof: Yea, whatsoever is marked with the name of antecedent causes, is nothing but the occasional cause, causing nothing by it self, but by accident, nor any thing without an appropriation received in us. Wherefore they neither betoken nor desire, nor prescribe a cure, but only a caution or flight. The occasions therefore of the Plague, are to be considered, as the occasions of diseases being sometime entertained, do passe into the order of causes. First of all therefore, I have already sufficiently taught that the Pest is not sent down from the Hea∣vens: And seeing every effect is the fruit or product of its own, and not of an∣others tree; therefore every cause produceth its own, and not anothers effect: therefore the Pest hath a specifical, proper, and not a forreign cause: For neither may we distinguish of Plagues by their accidents, concomitants, or signates; because they are those which flow immediately from the diversity of subjects, because they diversly vary af∣ter the manner and nature of the receiver, according to the custom of the Beings of nature.

Wherefore also the Pest consisting of matter, form, essence, a seed, and properties, requires also to have its own, and one onely species; seeing the very essence it self of things or defects is most near to individuals: But if it either happen from without, or be generated within, that is all one, seeing from thence the Plague is now constituted. Again, if it do the more swiftly, or slowly defile, its issue be the more violent and speedy, do in∣vade diverse parts, or diversly disquiet the body; yet that doth not therefore change the species of the poyson.

For they are only the signs of quantiry, co-mixture of a ferment, appropriation, and incidency on the parts receiving. Otherwise, the internal and formal poyson of the Pest, and that which conteins the thingliness thereof, is 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ••ys singular in every individual: Because the essence or Being of things consisteth in the simplicity of their own species; as there is the same essence of fire on both sides, whether it be great, or little, whether quiet, or driven with the bellows; or lastly, whether the flame shall be red, yellow, green, or sky-coloured. Therefore the remote, crude, and first occasional matter of the pesti∣lence, is an air putrified through continuance, or rather a hoary putrified Gas; which putrefaction of the air, according to the experience of the fire which Adeptists promise, hath not as yet the 8200. part of its own seminal body: The which thou shalt the more easily comprehend, if thou considerest a hoary putrified vessel and hogs-head of wine now exhausted, without any weight of it self, to corrupt new, and old wines infused in the hogs-head: For I have treated in my discourses of natural Phylosophy, concerning the na∣ture of a ferment putrifying by contmuance, and after what sort vegetables do arise from an incorporeal and putrified seed, that from hence the progeny of the Pest may be the more distinctly made manifest.

Moreover, I have shewn that the earth is the mother of putrefaction through continu∣ance; that we may know, that popular Plagues do draw their first occasional matter from an earthquake, and from the consequences of camps and siedges: For therefore, as

much as the earth differs from the heaven, so much also is the occasional matter of the P••st, remote from the Heaven. But I call this first matter, that incorporeal hoary pu∣••rified poyson existing in the Gas of the earth: And so I substitute this poyson as there∣mo••e matter, under another more near poyson, which disposeth the matter of the Archeus, whereby he may the more easily assent, and conceive in himself a pestilent terrour, that at length a formal pestilential essence may suddenly come upon the previous dispositions hereof.

But besides, if I must duely Phylosophize concerning the infections of the Air; I ought of necessity, to repeate the Anatomy thereof, from the fore assayed doctrine of the ele∣ments, in my treatise of natural of Phylosophy. The air therefore in it self is one of the first-born elements, being transparent, and void as well of lightnesse, as weight, un∣changeable, and perpetual, being endowed with natural cold, unlesse it be hindered by the strength of scituations, and things co mixed with it: but being every where filled with pores; and for this cause suffering an extension, or pressing together of it self: The po∣rosities whereof, are either filled with vapours, and forreign exhalations; or remayning in their integrity, they plainly gape, being void of a body (the which I have elsewhere demonstrated in the treatise of a necessary Vacuum): For in very deed, if the air were without pores that are empty of every body, vapours could not be lifted up without a penetration of bodies: But since a most manifest enlargement and com-pression of the air is granted (as I have elsewhere fully demonstrated) an emptinesse also, is of neces∣sity granted: For such porosities in the air, are as it were wombs wherein the vapours the fruits of the water, are again resolved into the last simplicity of waters from whence they proceeded, and are spoyled of any signatures of their former seeds whatsoever: But those effluxes in the air are forreign, ••y accident, and various, according to the disposition of the concrete body from whence they exhaled.

First of all, they are the vapours of pure and simple water; and then of the waters of the salt sea, which season the rain with their vaporous brine, and for that cause preser••e it from corruption: For otherwise, by reason of the societies of diverse exhalations being admixed with it, rain waters would of necessity putrifie and stink, no lesse than clouds in mountains, and most mi••••s.

The poysons therefore, of the air being drawn in, are partly entertained in manner of a vapour, in its porosities, and do partly defile the very body of the air, without a cor∣poreal mixture, even as glasse conceiveth odours: which defilement hath of right, the name of an impression. I have an house in a plain field, being rich on its South-side; in a wood of oakes: but on the north it respecteth pleasant meadows: moreover, toward both the mansions of the Sun, it hath hils that are fruitful in corn: But linnen cloaths being there washed and ••••nced in the fountain, being hung up in the loft, look most neatly white while the North wind blows, and here and there also, from east to west, or on the other hand from west to east: But the south-winde only blowing, and the sou∣therly windowes being opened, they are notably yellow with a clayie colour: For from the numerous oakes, a tinging vapour is belched forth into the air, and I have learned that this vapour is breathed in by us, as also drunk up by the linnen: And also, thus from Groves of oakes, after the Summer solstice, an hidden vapour doth exhale, which in••ecteth an unwonted countenance and neck, with a frequent itching pustule or wheale, and afterwards they beco•••• plainly visible in the legs and elsewhere: For there are somethings in the air which are perceived by the smelling of the nostrils: in the next place, there are other things, which are distinguished by dogs only: And lastly there are also other things, which are voyd of all odour, although not void of con∣tagion.

For truly the serment of a poyson, as such, may be free from smel: Therefore every country produceth and suffereth its own sicknesses: For why, nature is subject to the soile, neither doth every Land bring-forth all things; Because diverse vapours are brought forth in the air, according to the variety of the soile: Which things I more fully sifting with my self, have often admired, that our life is extended unto so many years: since we are environed on every side, with so manifold a guard of most potent enemies, since we admit the same so deeply within us, and are constrained to attract them against our will: And that not only by breathing; but also by a magnet or attraction, which sports aftes its own manner through the habit of the flesh. For I who have been often and long present without-fear, among the fumes of live coals, and the odours of other things, have rea••ly felt those odours and fumes not only to be derived in a straight line into my breast: but also from thence into my stomach, and therefore that our belchings

do express those smoaky fumes conceived: For so the breath blown out of the lungs, re∣sembleth the smells of Garlick and Onyons that are eaten, although collected thorow the Nostrils; but the plague is drawn in on both sides: But a voluntary Pest, which is be∣gotten not from without, but within, bewrays it self in the arm-pits, and groyn, but sel∣dom behind the ears: For this Pest for the most part, issues forth from drawn-in odours: But that which is infamous in spots, proceeds from an internal poyson, being first smo∣thered within, and therefore the worst of all, as it is for the most part intended or in∣creased with the fermental putrefaction of suffocation: But that which shews forth Car∣buncles, is either a strong expulsion which casteth farther than into the next ••munctory, or which ariseth from the touch of a contagious matter, or from an in-breathed poyson of the plague.

For that Pest which hath invaded from a co-touching, although it be more slow than that which otherwise insulteth from an universal cause; yet for the most part it is more deadly: Because the Archeus implanted in the member, is slain by this plague; and from thence the part draws a pestilential Gangren; for succouring whereof, the whole Archeus is the more negligent; he meditating of defending the bowels, as fleeing, be∣takes himself inwards, and that mortal Gangren proceeds to creep. Also, remedies and their intention are for the most part idle for escharring of the outward parts, and that af∣terwards the Escharre may quickly fall off: For in this respect, all Emplaisters, and at∣tracting things are administred; but they are seldom administred, as that they overcome the poyson it self: But a plague from without, as it is chiefly to be feared in the joynts; so on the other hand, that which is darted from within to without, involveth the less danger.

And indeed, that which is bred within, doth primarily terrifie the Archeus; and therefore it is sudden, and very powerful: But the poyson of a plague that is caught by touching, after it hath insinuated it self into the Archeus (because he is that which is the first living, and the last dying) and the only Ruler of things inwardly to be done) being at length confirmed, after the manner of poyson, it easily infecteth the rest: For truly, the Archeus himself being once infected, presently conceiveth a pestife∣rous image of terrour, and the raines of governing the body being forsaken, he communi∣cates it to his Associates.

In the next place, although sweat be profitable in every plague; yet less in that which hath privily entred by an external co-touching; at least, it is in no wise therefore to be neglected. Moreover, in the plague of a particular individual person (by whom the whole people in common are now and then afflicted) there a fermental putrefaction doth for the most part begin within, which being once suddenly laid hold of, the poyson∣ous image of an Archeal terrour is from thence the more easily committed. That Pest is the more swift, which is drawn inwards from the external putrefaction of an odour; be∣cause it presently associates unto it two degrees, to wit, a putrefaction through continu∣ance, and a mumial and co-marriageable ferment: But there is no need, that that hoary putrefaction should be perceiveable by the nostrils, with an aversness: For if dogs, which exceed us in smelling, do sent an hoary putrefaction, or the foot-step of their Master in the way; our Archeus himself doth as yet far more easily smell out-those things which are within, and therefore, a putrified odour cannot hurt, unless it shall find a mumial serment within, whereunto it may couple it self: Then indeed there is now forthwith a forreign matter, nevertheless, as yet wanting a contagion: Therefore it be∣hoveth, that the matter be furnished with full conditions, and with a formality of acting: For these two are as yet, as it were the occasional and provoking causes. Again, as con∣cerning the Tartar of the blood, there hath been enough spoken, that it is a product of the Pest, and that it waits for this, or is made out of hand at the coming of the plague. The first term therefore of making the Pest, is an hoary putrified Gas, the which, seeing it cannot infect without a co-resemblance of appropriation, it requires another correla∣tive term, which is a mumial ferment (without which there is not an appropriation) to wit, the Archeus the receiver of the Pest: For truly the poysonous matter of the plague being by contagion derived into us, defiles not any one, unless the Archeus shall lay hold of it, and appropriate it to himself; wherein surely, the Archeus labours impro∣vidently: For from thenceforth, the Pest conceiveth a terrour, by his own phantasie, but not from the sore fear of the man; to wit, in which phantasie of Archeal terrour, the Archeus brings forth a pestilential poyson, which is the very Idea of the conceived ter∣rour, being cloathed with the proper coat of the Archeus: Alas, then the Pest is present within, and doth soon easily disturb the whole man. The image of the Pestilence there∣fore,

consisteth of an Archeal air, as of the matter containing, whereon the poyson of the terrour of the Archeus is imprinted, as the immediate efficient cause: For nei∣ther therefore doth the poyson of the plague, always defile any one whatsoever, al∣though it shall presently find an odour in us agreeable to it self; because the mumial ferment, although it be internal, yet nevertheless, it is only an occasional mean, in re∣spect of the contagious application, or of the infection applied; which appropriation immediately consisteth in a real and actual congress of the image bred by terrour, which the Archeus conceiveth from the aforesaid application, as thinking in this respect, that now there is a potent Enemy entertained within the Cottages of his own house; which panick fear of the Archeus, is the immediate cause of the image bred by imagination: (therefore I have proved, that there is an imagination in the Archeus, besides that which is decyphered by the conceptions of the mind, as well in the Midriffs, as in the Heart, and Brain) which image is the suitable cause of the Pest; I say, the veriest Pest it self, no otherwise than as a Chick is nothing besides the Egg it self ripened by a cherishing warmth: For Purple or spotted Fevers have therefore indeed, a poyson and contagi∣on, besides putrefaction, and a fermenr of appropriation (to wit, from whence they defile men alone, not likewise beasts) yet they want an Idea of terrour, whereby the Archeus being full of confusion and desperation, neglects his government, and frames the deadly and seminal image of a pestilent poyson.

In the next place, he easily insinuates this his confusion into his own transchanged nourishable liquours, over which before he carefully watched, and now degenerates them into the hostile Tartar of the blood: For the Archeus forsaking the Stern of Go∣vernment, like a man that is sore afraid, rashly turns all things upside down, and himself being a run-away, proclaims that an Enemy is received within, darknesses are made, the the appetite is prostrated, and every digestion of the shops begun, ceaseth, and that which is almost, or half digested, is corrupted, because it abhorreth the sorrowful image of a mortal poyson. There is therefore a sedition and noise within throughout the mem∣bers, because the implanted spirits of these, do well perceive the confusion of the in∣flowing spirit, but are not able to restrain it: For if the nourishment being half dig••sted, were fresh and mild in the stomach, a drowsie evil ariseth, and likewise vomiting and loathing; but if it be now dry or stiff through digesting, the headach possesseth the man: But if it be well nigh digested, it putrifies with a stinking burntish savour, from whence there are continual vomitings: For all things go astray, and do putrifie under the image of the poyson, and the nourishment of the stomach it self, degenerates into a filthy muckiness, the which also, doth oft-times put on a caustical or burning sharpness, and there is for the most part, a murmuring noyse about the stomach: For why, where the first and inordinate conceipts and violent assaults of men are, in the same place also of necessity, the first confusion of the terrour of the Archeus ariseth, and there is made a most filthy image of the plague. For I have noted, that the Pest hath for the most part, placed its first seats about the stomach. For a certain man being dejected with a continu∣al vomiting, felt a great pain of his head, and by and by a doating delusion; and then he also having suffered a deep drowsiness by intervals, died in sixteen hours space, many fainting fits having gone before.

But I desired to know, from whence he had so speedily died, and with so great a fury of sumptoms; neither did a Chyrurgion desire to be present: at length, I began the dis∣fection with a knife, and I found his Stomach now pierced with a three-fold perfect Es∣charre, in such a manner as I had once seen the stomach of a Servant-Maid to be pierced, who had willingly drunk Arsenick. In the mean time, in every Plague, a Fever ariseth from the beginning, because also a sore threatned corruption hath begun in the Archeus: Surely all vital things are affrighted in the natural directions of images scattered through a dreadful discord, confusion, and desperation. The Tartar of the blood also, being now freed from its Laws, in so great a confusion of the whole body, snatcheth to it a fury, it struggles in the conceived borders of its own part whereunto it adhereth, and through the confusion of terrour, increaseth all the tumult.

This is the Tragedy of the Pest, which I at sometime through divine clemency saw in an intellectual dream: But the great fear, flight, desperation, &c. of the Archeus, is not the poyson it self; even as neither is the wrath of a living creature the poyson thereof: But the poyson of the plague, is a Being produced from the image of dread, and cloathed with the substance of the Archeus; as the anger of a Serpent, lays aside the image of his anger in a part of the Archeus, and lays up that image in his Spittle, &c. at the exe∣cutive Organs of anger.

But the poyson of the Pest is in it self horrid, and far more cruel than the mortal con∣tagion of Serpents; to wit, that which is produced in beasts by a vital perturbation, such as is the anger of Serpents: For the contagion of the Pest creeps into the standers by; neither doth it perish with the life of the Animal, as otherwise, the poysons of beasts are wont to do: For that the poyson of the Pest doth not inhere in the life, but there is an image in the air effuming from thence, and that indeed cloathed with the infected Ar∣cheus; as thin sanies, blood, corrupt pus, vitriol being sprinkled on them, have as yet re∣tained a life and vital actions on the whole body from whence they issued, the which, the magnetick curing of wounds, ulcers, and broken bones at this day hath taught us.

But moreover, the Pest rather drives from it the fugitive life, the fearful and fleeing Archeus; and as the madness of a Dog assumes his product in his spittle, so the poyson of terrour is sealed in the Tartar of the blood, even as also it is dispersed into the air, and an odour departing afar off: For therefore beasts are the free beholders of our calamity, because they want the defect of an univocal or self-same Archeus, and therefore also an appropriation: Yet any subject whatsoever, whether it shall be air, a garment, or any o∣ther more solid body (although ignorant of dread) which may be seasoned with an o∣dour, may in like manner be the subject on which the product of a dreadful imagination may be imprinted, no otherwise than as the earth resembles the odour of a swift foot∣step.

Furthermore, although the Pest or Plague be only one in the species, yet it invades af∣ter divers manners: For at one time, a popular plague assaults, which ariseth from a di∣vulged hoary putrefaction, after an Earth-quake, out of Caves, Clefts, Pools, Mines, and dead carkasses, as wel those of beasts as of men, which belch forth a poyson putrified through continuance: The which notwithstanding, is not as yet pestilential, until that it being re∣ceived within, shall then at length be app••opriated to a ferment: From whence indeed, the Archeus being affrighted, creates that cruel image of his own confusion and terrour. It invades also, only by a pestilent odour drawn in from a sick person, or from a dead car∣kass, or from a place, or from an infected matter; the which odour, by how much the more subtil subject of its inherency it shall have, by so much also the more speedily it in∣fecteth, and the more speedily approacheth to the Archeus, by reason of a mark of resemblance: For neither therefore doth the exhalation of sweat so speedily infect, as a pestilential Gas that is not perceiveable in its odour: For just even as the Gas of coals disturbs the stomach, provokes vomit, headachs, yea and also, swooning; so I have noted plagues, which by a subtil exhalation, do infect the immediate nourishment of the sto∣mach, that they brought on continual vomitings, hicketings, frequent swoonings, and doating delusions, and most speedy death: and that vomiting refuseth remedies to be swallowed down, the Swooning-fits do cast down the strength, as also the doatage is averse to food, and remedies. But the matter that is now infected, if it be to be taken away by sweat, in passing thorow, it defiles the whole house even to the skin, unless the malig∣nity thereof be restrained by remedies: For although a remedy may readily touch at that infected matter, yet it doth not easily bring forth that matter which doth not willingly follow: For truly, any Antidote, doth never restore the party that is once infected, into his former state; and therefore all the care of an Antidote is only about the preservati∣on of those that are not yet infected, and the mitigation and speedy expulsion of these. Also the occasion of a popular plague is difficult, because infected places and bodies can∣not be avoided; which thing, in Camps, and besieged Cities, clearly appeareth: For we read, that in the East, a plague began from three Souldiers who violated a Sepulchre, that it defiled the Roman Camps, and killed a third part of mortal men, throughout the known Coasts of the world: For such a plague is most swift, and most cruel; the which indeed brings into the body along with it, almost all concomitants needful for it self: For since the poysonous matter hath already obtained a ferment, it ought not to parley with out Archeus concerning its reception, the which it easily obtains by request, from the disturbed Host: for truly, it brings with it an Idea already in it self, from a former cause, and attains from the Archeus a new Idea within, co-like to it, for its compa∣nion.

But the Pest which begins, and perfects the whole generation of it self in us, without an external help, is made from a fore-existing fermentally putrified Tartar of the blood, which doth soon of its own accord, most readily put on the odour of a dead carkass: From whence, the Archeus being sore terrified, stirs up an Idea of the conceived terrour, and so a pesti∣lent poyson is stirred up, and the seminal, and hurtful image hereof is incorporated in

that excrement, the which therefore proceeds in raging and infecting: For the Plague is communicated unto us by an unsensible air, which Flies, Pies, Ravens, Crows, Eagles, Dogs, Wolves, &c. do for the most part distinguish: For it is very well known, that the houshold Animal a dog, discerneth every one by his odour, or that he doth even a good while after distinguish the footsteps of any one thereby, however lightly imprinted; and a pestilential Gas is alike subtil, and odourable: Therefore there are different man∣ners of attaining the plague; to which end, it is meet to repeat, that a pestilent poyson is only of one particular kind, nor that there be many parents of the same thing, distinct in their species and seed; that is, that its seeds cannot be divers: So that a Scorpion bred from the herb Bazil, and from a Parent, differs not in kind; as neither doth a Louse which proceedeth from Nits, and which sprang immediately from a man, lay aside a∣specifical identity: for Nits, or the Eggs of Lice, are in the sameliness of the Archeus, with the matter from whence a man doth immediately generate Lice: Because if two ••eeds divided in species, should constitute one and the same thing in the species, specifical dispositions in the matter for the generation of things, should be in vain, but all things from all, and every thing from every thing, should promiscuously proceed: Agents therefore that are divers in kind, although they may constitute something under a specifi∣cal sameliness; yet the same seed, and that of the same Archeus, must be understood to be formed from them both: So a man maketh a vital excrement, from whence pro∣ceeds a Louse, a Worm, &c. and he so disposeth that matter by his cherishing warmth, that it attaineth a co-like Archeus, which the Louse generating, originally implanted in his Eggs: and so the Louse that generateth, is the univocal agent, which extendeth from himself sufficient matter for Generation: But the man is the equivocal agent, which afforded from himself an excrementitious matter, which matter sliding on, doth at length, in the cherishing warmth, attain a co-like Archeus: So a dead carkass generates into worms, and these do again sexually generate: and so Mice are generated of excrementi∣tious filths, and again by parents; and that wholly in Insects, whose seeds are issued from bodies purifying as it were of their own accord: at leastwise, the immediate matter of these, and agent of these Generations, is on both sides simple, uniform, and of a specifical ident••ty or sameliness: Therefore also, both constituted bodies are of the same species, generating afterwards their own like, without choice: So that Lice which proceed from our exhalations, do admit of copulations with those which through a cherishing warmth, came forth out of Nits.

The immediate matter therefore, and immediate agent in the Pest, are on both sides of the same seminal Archeus, and specifical identity: For whether the matter be made within by degrees, or on a sudden, or being drawn in from without, be actuated in us; at leastwise the poyson of the plague is never made, but a terrour of the Archeus hath brought forth that poysonous image. But I call terrour, as well that of a man fore smit∣ten by the first assault, as that of the Archeus of man it self, and of the blood, received from an antipathy.

After this sort, a bold and stout man is oft-times before or in presence of the plague, fearful; yea, he who scarce fears the plague, hath his Archeus within, subject to aff••ight∣ments. For so, an Infant that is uncapable of fear, and ignorant of apprehension, is not more slowly laid hold of by the plague, than a poor timorous woman: For although a sturdiness of mind may prevail as to prevention, yet it doth not kill the poyson already conceived. And there are divers boldnesses of Magnanimity: for some one man is un∣daunted in a single combate, who in the conflicts of war, is fearful: another is not affright∣ed in fighting, who is notably afraid of Hobgoblin Furies: Lastly, a third feareth not E∣nemies, but he is afraid of armed Countrymen, &c. Galen thinks that a good complexion ad pondus or according to an equal weight of the Elements, would give strength to resist the plàgue: He I say, who would have all particular parts and bowels in man, to differ only in the unequality of the temperament of the Elements, now granteth an equali∣ty of the Elements flowing together according to an equal weight, in the one humane kind: when as otherwise, if the heart were the most temperate part, now the whole man ought, according to any of his parts, of necessity, to have the consistence and hardness of the heart. But I as the first, have rejected the opinion of Elements, co-mixtures, and temperaments, as foolish and totally false, by firm demonstrations, in the Volume set forth concerning the original of medicine. This co-mixture of Elements therefore, I willingly yield to the Galenists, and am willingly ignorant, after what manner air, or fire can be weighed, that being weighed together according to the weight of water, and earth, they may compose from themselves, flesh, sinews, bones, brain, heart, marrows, &c.

Ah, vain fiction, cruel wickednesse, hissing it self forth against our neighbours. More∣over, the animosity or stoutnesse of mind which I praise, is not affrighted by death, or the plague, it adorns the Archeus, that he may resist the poyson, and expel that poyson re∣ceived by accident (but otherwise, he cannot overcome or kill it) no otherwise then as terrour shuts the pores by the motion of nature being obedient unto it: Wherefore they who have recovered from the plague, are scarce alike easily infected with the plague the same year: The contrary is seen in other diseases and poysons: For truly these do not onely leave behind them weaknesses from whence there is a more easie relapse; but also other poysons do operate, by changing the parts wherein they are entertained. But a pestilent terrifying poyson primarily invades the Archeus alone, and sorely affrights him: The which, when he hath once known, and overcome his enemy, he afterwards presumeth and is made more confidently bold, that he shall not so easily fail under him: neither is he thenceforth so easily affrighted through occasion of the poyson brought unto him: neither doth the weaknesse which the Pest leaves on him, hinder; because it is sufficient that he is not alike easily terrified, and that he doth not decypher the pestilent image of terrour in his own proper substance: And therefore other poysons of diseases are far more grosse than the image of a drawn-in terrour: For some hurt not, but under on open skin; but others require to be eaten, or drunk.

But the most rare poyson of the Basilisk or beholding Cockatrice, is sent forth by ima∣gination directing the sight: But a pestilential poyson is framed within, by the proper con∣ception of the Archeus. Other poysons are bewrayed by some sensible signe: But the Pest alone is communicated by an unsensible contagion, even so as the foot-step of a man keeps its odour. Behold how the image of sudden sorrow prostrates the appetite, how the image of a nauseous matter c••eates vomiting, the image of condolency produceth tears, the image of slow sorrow or lingting grief stirs up sighs, the image of fear gene∣rates the Falling Sicknesse, and now and then the Palsie: Therefore I elsewhere writing of Diseases, have not in vain demonstrated that joy, fear, anger, hatred, and other passi∣ons and perturbations, do generate in us, their own proper and singular actual image, no otherwise than as terrour doth the Plague: But the generations of these are the domestical and more ordinary off-springs in us. But the image of a pestilent terrour, brings forth a poyson immediately existing in the Archeus, and draws its own matter from the same: And therefore the Senses cannot conceive that image. The Archeus therefore, having beheld a mortal enemy nigh at hand, being bred within, or brought to him from far, admits this enemy through his own terrour, and an image decyphered anew, and confirms him with his own character and substance: For our hand being moved to a Carcass that died of its own accord, soon waxeth so cold through the flight of the Archeus, that it at length scarce waxeth hot again at a long fire: Yet Dogs perceive not that cold, while they devour such a dead Carcass, even as the dead Carcass of a Beast doth not much cool us: Therefore the cold of an humane dead Carcase is fraudulent and accidental, and doth more cool, than it hath of cold: And the Carcass that died by little and little doth more cool us than the Carcass of a person that died of the Gowt, or of a sharp Fever. Yet since we discern by an engine whereby we measure the degrees of the encompassing air, that the cold of both these Carcasses are equal; To wit, the Archeus being sorely affraid of death (which the hand applyed to the dead Carcass extinct by a long infirmity, per∣ceiveth) flieth, forsaketh the hand, neither (because mindful thereof) doth he easily re∣turn: Therefore it is manifest, that the Archeus doth perceive and shun death, even that which is before and out of himself. And as yet more, the ferments of putrefaction (as in the cold fit of an Ague) being conceived or bred within; And most especially those, which being received within his family-administration in manner of an image, do tend unto a formal transmutation of his own essence: Because the poyson bred through an Idea of terrour, is of the highest actual power: And the image of fear and also of dread, differs from the image of terrour, by reason of the formal activity of faith con∣curring, even as before I have noted. And moreover, although the Archeus doth well perceive death, and poysons, yet he doth not well perceive the poysonous terrour, because he thinks it to be his own terrour, and a vain passion, until that by the fore-gone fer∣ment of appropriation, he hath certainly known that that poyson was a forreigner unto him, which he had lain up in a part of himself, while he formed that forreign Idea; and so, with a certain destruction of himself, he presently expels the poyson from him: And I wish, that the power now inbred in him, were not communicated throughout the whole body, by what way it proceedeth. For so the poyson of a mad dog is in no wise through∣ly perceived by a man, as neither by his Archeus, except after that it hath established a

ferment for it self in the Archeus: In the which then image of doglike madnesse, sin•• there is presently an estrangement of the mind connexed; Hence the Archeus concei∣veth no terrour to himself in fury: For the stumbling in imagination, rather shakes off terrour, is rashly mad, and by the poyson of the mad dog is directed into an Hydrophohia for the disease causing a fear of water.

Lastly therefore, the one onely poyson of the Pest hath also the one onely beholding of terrour, and one way unto the grave, or unto recovery, by good, or unfit remedies. But whatsoever things I have hitherto spoken concerning the pestilent Idea of terrour, I will not have to be interpreted at liberty: For a fear from enemies, from a thief, from a disease, from an hurtful Animal, from a Sword, do indeed generate an image of dread, but not a pestilent one: which image I have therefore denoted with the name of terrour, as distinct from an image of conceived fear, whereby a living creature is affraid. A pe∣stilent terrour therefore, doth not here denote any terrour, or the dread of any calamity; but onely a pestilent horrid poyson conceived in terrour, as well by the man, as by the Archeus of the same. In this Idea therefore, is scituated the essence of the Pest, and the thinglinesse of this whole Book. I confesse indeed that the images of any fear are easily changed into the Idea of a pestilent terrour, even so as a woman great with child, deri∣veth the image of a mouse on the undefiled flesh of her Young, yea hath sometimes transplanted the whole Embryo into an horrid animal or monster: Because, as I have elsewhere taught concerning formes, formal images do mutually pierce each other, and the latter doth readily draw the former into the obedience of it self, which Hipocrates calls a leading of seeds whither they would not. Truly to convocate a diversity of ele∣ments, and a combating assembly thereof for a mixt body, and likewise of complexions, humors, and conditions, inclinations, and studies sprung from thence: Lastly, the divi∣sions of climates, angles or quarters, ages, proportions, strengths, bignesse, and inter∣changeable courses, for a succour of ignorance, that hereby we may make the more, greater, and more difficult calamities, may increase uncertainties, may rule ignorances, may beget doubts, may patronize impostures, and promote despairs of life, is nothing else but to have laboured in vain. For the perfect light of Sciences, is like fire, which burns up every combustible matter without exception. Such a Science Hipocrates had in times past obtained.

CHAP. XIV. The property of the Pest.

I Have demonstrated that the passions of the mind do destroy the appe••i••e, as also pro∣strate digestion: In the next place, that the first motions of cogitations do obtain their own assemblies in the midriffs: Therefore also I have dedicated the mouth of the stomach unto Mercury, whereunto the Heathens have attributed the sharpnesse of wit, as also the sleepifying white wand of truce: I have also said that the plague is originally conceived from the terrour of man, and that the air which being brought out of a pestiferous body, is carried into us, doth at its first assault rush into the spleen, which presently shakes out the same, and delivers it as it were by hand, unto the O••ifice of the Stomach: From hence are dejection of appetite, vomiting, head-ach, dotages, faintings, thirst, the drowsie evil, &c. But the Plague which is made in us, even as that which is drawn in from without, have their own Inns wherein every one begins to rage: But as long as the Idea of sorrow and fear do besiedge the Tartar of the bloud in the Stomach, and as long as the image of the terrour of the Archeus is absent, the Plague is not yet present. In the mean time indeed, it comes to passe, if they shall keep themselves the lesse exactly, that the Tartar of the bloud being more and more malicious, doth at length terrifie the Ar∣cheus; and he stamps a pestilent poyson on himself.

For Plagues which are bred onely through terrour, are more swift, and much more terri∣ble than those which proceed from an infected air: for this perhaps strikes many to the heart; because the stomach, seeing at least it is a membrane; yet I have placed the per∣turbations and first assaults, even in the Orifice thereof, or in the spleen, at least wise, in that extream or utmost part of it self which lays on the orifice or upper mouth of the

stomach; and from hence a ferment is bestowed that is requisite for the necessities of digestion: But the Schools themselves call the mouth of the stomach by the Ftymology of the heart; For a wound of that place, and a wound o•• the heart, do kill with the same sumptom, and alike speedily: For I have seen many, whose head a strong Apoplexie had made plainly unsensible and dead; yet that were hot in the midriffs many hours after: For a Bride in a Coach nigh Scalds, is saluted by Country Musqueteers, and the bullet or a Musquet smites thorow the temples of her head, not a little of her brain is dashed out, and her head presently dies: But she being being brought to Vilvord four leagues distant from thence, her pulse as yet afforded testimonies of li••e. Is not also the vital spirit, be∣ing a certain ruler of the whole body, in the womb? and the which is onely a membrane, after the manner of the stomach? and the seat of far greater disturbances than the liver, lungs, and kidneys. Truly the members in themselves are nothing but dead Carcasses, but the spirit is the Governour which quickens those members; which spirit, and after what sort, God hath planted where he would. Indeed I remember that I have often seen, that those who had the Tartar of their bloud corrupted by some kind of fear of the Plague, but without belief, or presumption of a contracted infection, di•• undergoe an uncessant anguish and combating day and night, yea although they were wise, and laughed at their own perplexities; yet they were not able, but that as restlesse, they would present the image of fear conceived, before their eyes: For they were like unto those who were bit∣ten by a mad dog, who will they, nill they, have their imagination readily p••yable at the pleasure of the poyson. At length, in the very Tartar of the bloud sticking about the midriffs, I have found a proper natural phantasie, which the image of fear conceived in the spleen, had feigned to it self: So, lascivious dreams do not always follow from the imagination of the fore-past day; but for the most part also, from the matter it self pre∣dominating in the Testicles; no otherwise also, than as one that hath a desire ••o make water, dreameth that he doth continually make water: Therefore the terrour of the man is the occasion of the Pest, and the terrour of the Archeus is the efficient cause of the pestiferous image and poyson: For it is as it were the Father of the Plague, the which, the poysonous image being once bred, although it may cease, at least wise, the Plague con∣ceived is in its own image: For if the terrour of the man were a sufficient cause of the Plague, of necessity also the Plague should always follow a pestilential terrour, which is false: even as also, in an in••ant, who is void of all terrour, the Plague is received at pleasure: From whence it is sufficiently manifest, that the Archeus himself being af∣frighted, is the primitive efficient cause of the image of the pestilence. The plague therefore consisteth of a defilement, to wit, of a contagion, in the swiftnesse of its course, in the singula••ity of its poyson, in the terribleness of its concomitants, lastly, in a difficulty of preservation, and curing.

But indeed, I leave behind me the inquisition of that plague which is sent for a pu∣nishment by reason of the hidden judgments of God: The which although it be plainly above nature, yet in the mean time, the matter thereof is not a creature lately made of nothing: because it after some sort, enters the borders of nature: For the smiting An∣gel stood not on a mountain, which the continual water of the air flowing over it, well washeth by licking thereof: Neither stood he also on an high Tower, and where not∣withstanding, the sin of David in the lust of concupiscence, had took its beginning: but he stood on the hoary putrified threshing floor of Araunah. So the Angels in the Reve∣lation, pour out their Vials, from whence the third part of men shall at sometime pe∣rish. The word, yea the beck of the Lord can do all things, without a floor, a scabbard, a sword, Vials, the effusion of Poyson, &c. But such is the bounty of his piety, that he inflicts not such punishments nakedly by his word; perhaps by reason of the perpetual constancy and irrevocable firmnesse of his word, nor also by evil spirits doth he send a supernatural plague, lest he should deliver the living into the hands of their enemies. At length, the plague produced by enchantments (if there be any) follows nature: For tru∣ly, the Devil is not able of himself even to make one gnat, unlesse he assume the seminal Beginnings thereof; even as his magicians could not make gnats, the off-springs of the waters, of dust: wherefore also, they confessing the impotency of the Devil, then cryed out, truly here is the singer of God! If therefore it shall at sometime be granted to the Devil to form the plague, surely he drew that from the principles of nature:

And the diabolical plague should differ from the natural ordinary one, in its applica∣tion and appropriation: For he should more toughly apply the actuation and impression of the poyson, no otherwise, than as the bellowes doth at leastwise promote and heighten the fire which it made not: but he should appropriate it with a fore-going preparation, by

the image of terrour drawn in and borrowed from his ••ond-slaves: And although such plagues should be more cruel, yet they should yield unto the same natural remedies. But I call them more cruel ones, by reason of their swiftness, to wit, the image of cruel en∣vy had from witches, being over added: notwithstanding, such permissions should as yet be limited unto persons and number; yea should be more easily expiated by prayer and alms-deeds, than ordinary plagues: To wit, whereby God taking pity on mankind, may the rather hate diabolical arts, and make the Devil grieve at div••ne mercy soon shewn. But that good spirits are the framers of the Pest, surely that is from great com∣passion, that we may not be beaten but under the command of obedience, by the rod of the Lord, and not of Angels: For God every where keeps a Decorum: He takes Sergeants and Guardians, who have a native goodness, who keep friendship, nor can aslume a divellish disposition, for which they know there is no place in Heaven. But before he would deliver Sodom to the Devil, he first deprived it of a few innocent persons.

But the plague which ariseth from a curse, by reason of the extream anguish of mad poverty, by reason of a teeming woman that is forsaken, by reason of a wounded per∣son, &c. is a plague of divine punishment, which surely is scarce supported by the Begin∣nings of nature, and is easily discerned; because it invadeth onely such places and per∣sons cursed: And likewise the rich who sit in Ivory Seats, who drink out of guilded plate, who eat the Calf from the Herd, and the fat Sheep from the Flock, and do not remem∣ber their imprisoned brother Jos••ph: Because the Lord adjures or earnestly swears the de∣struction of these, that others may as it were in a looking-glass behold, what it is to have pleased, and displeased God.

But Plagues which follow Camps, and rage for the most part some moneths after a siedge, are not to be ascribed to the slovenliness of the Souldiers; especially if they shall begin a good while after the City is taken, as for the most part it comes to pass: For Camps had also in times past their own, and the same impurities of Souldiers; but the oc∣casion is that of the smell of dead Carcasses putrified through continuance, which is infected with a mumial ferment: because that at this day, the slain are not buried as in times past, nor deep enough in the earth: In the next place, because they are hurt by an invisible bullet from far, which moves a greater terrour in the Archeus than while spear to spear, and sword to sword were stoutly opposed: For neither was it in vain comman∣ded in the Law: That whosoever should touch a dead Carcasse, should be impure, and that he was to be clean washed, together with his garment: And that the Sun was not to go down upon the bodies of hanged persons: Which things surely in a literal sence, are thus prescri∣bed by God for the good of a Common-wealth, least the mumial ferment should putri∣fie by continuance. Therefore it is the part of blindness and rashness to be bewailed, for the bodies of those that are hanged to be shewn in a bravery for a spectacle, until they fall off of their own accord (indeed a small profit accrues from thence for so great evils) and it is all one as if the Judge should say; God indeed hath so appointed it; but the Magi∣strate hath corrected for the better: As if it had been unknown to God that the Spectacle of an hanged person would be more affrightful to evil persons or offenders: Therefore if God hath known this, and neverthelesse hath given an express command for burial, it it no wonder that punishment follows transgression as a Companion:

But God follows the guilty eternally as a revenger behind, and I wish the punishment were turned onely upon the transgressours: for to bury is a work of mercy; but to shew the guilty hanged in a bravery is not that work; according to which it shall at sometime be pronounced, Go ye Cursed, or Come ye Blessed. For truly, to bury the dead Carcass of a condemned person, is a work of no less mercy, than to bury a Prince: And this mercy is not so much exercised toward the dead party, as toward our neighbours, least the follow∣ing stink should infect them: For neither to be buryed, doth profit him that is buryed, but the living: Therefore the Scope of Divine Goodness consisteth not onely in burying, but in inhuming deep enough: which particulars will be made more cleer by an exam∣ple: For a dead Falcon being cast behind the hedges, and half putrified, is devoured by a live one; but presently he is taken with a most contagious plague of his own kind; Be∣cause the poyson of terrour being received within, smites on his Archeus, by reason of a mumial co-resemblance infected with a putrified fermental hoariness. And the Pest of the Falcon is so great, that the pestilent Falcon being brought through a Street, insect∣eth all other Falcons which are brought that way for three dayes after: Whence thou shalt conjecture, what the dead Carcasses of men, as well of those that are hanged, as of those that are carelessely buryed, may do by their odour? For a Dog eats not a Dog, unless he be dried in the smoak, to wit, while the mummy hath lost the horror of death,

through the estrangement of its tast, in preserving from corruption: but a Wolf eats a Wolf newly killed, but not a putrified Wolf: Whence there is a suspition, that there is something in a Wolf which is superiour to a mumial appropriation: Perhaps Paracelsus supposed, that that was it, wherein the first act of feeling of an applyed object sitteth: Peradventure also, for that cause, they have thought the Tongue of a Wolf hung up, to be adverse to the plague.

And moreover, the dead carkasses of souldiers, are at this day to be buried deeper than in times past; because the Bullet of a great Gun, or Musquet makes a contusion, and then, it takes away some part with it; wherefore, it produceth an open hole, and at length al∣so, it begets a poysonous impression of smoak; from whence, the flesh round about, pre∣sently looks black with a certain Gangren, and it readily receives a poyson into it, if not in life, as leastwise soon after death; to wit, while as through a speedy putrefaction of the flesh being combibed into the earth, a cadaverous, hoary or fermental putrefaction doth arise; unto all which is joyned in the Archeus of the dying-souldier, an Idea of re∣venge, which is prone to putrefaction:

From thence into the air, a monstrous Gas, I say, is pouted out into the air, which smires the Archeusses of the living with terrour: For it is with a dead carkass, just even as with horse-dung, which doth not putrifie so long as it is hot: But when it grows dry, and the Salt-Peter thereof hath departed from thence, the dung also inclines to be trans∣changed into the liquor of the earth: For otherwise, if the dung be restrained from putre∣faction, through the be-sprinkling and stirring of horse-piss on it, and into it, it produceth much Salt-Peter. For behold thou how powerful a nourishment the mushrome of one night is (for indeed a Mushrome is the fruit of the juice Leffas or of plants being coagulated, and near to its first Being; the which I have elsewhere shewn) but after it hath assumed the putrefaction of the earth through continuance, how cruel a poyson for choaking doth it bring forth: We must therefore have a diligent care, that a fermental pu∣trefaction doth not arise in the reliques of the last digestion: For indeed, the plague pri∣vily entred my own house, through a Chamber-Maid; she forthwith recovered: Both my Eldest Sons being sore troubled in their mind, shew an undaunted courage, and conceal∣ed, that they were vexed with a continual combat of sighing at the mouth of their sto∣mach: and when as through the wiles and framed deceits of my prevalent Enemies, I was detained at my own house under prevention of an Arrest; both my Sons also, would not by forsaking me, go into the Country: and since they had observed at other times, that they were refreshed by swimming, in the midst of Summer, they swam thrice with∣out my knowledge; whence transpiration through the po••es being stopped up, both of them being forthwith devolved into a Fever, together with a dejected appetite, pain of the head, and a Catochus or unsensible detainment of the Soul, with a pricking of the whole body, they died among the Nuns, swearing that they would admit of my remedies: but after that they had received my Sons, they refused forraign remedies: The Eldest in∣deed, perished without any mark or signal token, even after death; because his skin be∣ing cooled by swimming, nothing outwardly appeared: But the other shewed only a small black and blew Pustule in his loyns: and the loss of these my Sons, I frequently be∣hold, as if it were present; and thou mayest suppose that it gave a beginning unto this Treatise. I leave vengeance unto my Lord, whom I humbly beseech, that he would spare my Enemies, and bestow upon them the light of Repentance.

CHAP. XV. The Signs.

I Have hitherto written unwonted Paradoxes: my understanding being without the Moon, was drowned in tribulations: there was a matter most full of terrour, horrour, and of difficulties present; a great Reader uncapable of the best things, a darksom bre∣vity of beginning, and a hateful novelty, although a very necessary one. But that which chiefly blinds us in the Pest, is the want of an exquisite and unseparable sign; to wit, through the admonition whereof, we may be able timely enough to prevent or withstand it by remedies. Nevertheless, whatsoever created thing is in any place, it hath its own discernable signs, by which it may be fitly distinguished from other things: and these, those which do precede the plague, do accompany it, or soon follow after it. But those signs which go before it, do make for its prevention: but whatsoever signs do after∣wards follow, serve more for others, than for the miserable sick: But the accompanying signs alone, do discern of the cure.

And moreover, the signs of a plague to come, are decyphered in the heavens, if the Fir∣mament sheweth the handy-works of the Lord in the earth. That the signs thereof are badly referred by Astrologers, unto twelve divisions of causes, I have already before suf∣ficiently manifested: But Gaffarel hath lately described an Hebrew Alphabet, from the scituation of the stars, and authority of the Rabbins, by an argument ridiculous enough, whereby the Hebrews devise such wan signs: as if God had now, the Rabbins only as his servants, unto whom he may communicate his secret counsels: For Christians do not consider the shamefulness of those positions, who suffer such kind of books to be printed: For neither do the fixed stars change their places, that they may sometime describe these, and sometime other things to come; the which, in the first place, is contrary to all Astro∣logy. Comets also, the Meteors Trabes, Dragons, Darts, and other monstrous signs of that sort, being oft-times popular, have foreshewn popular plagues; but not by a rational discourse, or Theories of the Planets, and much less by the Alphabet of the Hebrews: for irregular lights do not obey set rules: For the Astrologers of Jerusalem, although most skilful in their art, yet they were altogether ignorant of the signification, as also of the apparition of the star of Bethlehem. For the Lord will not do a word, which he will not reveal to his Servants and Prophets. Amos 3. But of these things Artificers have no knowledge; because new lights have been oftentimes mortal, and oft-times have directly signified prosperous things: For monstrous signs do in the hand of the Lord, make mani∣fest his secret judgements, neither doth he manifest those but to whom he will: For truly, the Conjunctions, Oppositions, and Quadrants of the Stars; likewise their Eclip∣ses, Retrogradations, Banishments, Combustions, Receptions, and other impediments, are supposed to be so regular, that they are sometimes described in Ephemeres's for an age: But the Pest is of things extraordinarily increasing, and those not necessary: But a regular mean is not a meetly suitable sign for an effect from a contingency by chance: Neither therefore could the Ephemeres's or Planetary daies-books of Brabu, foretel the plague in Lumbardy, of the year 1632. which was conceived from an unjust war, and the fear of horrour: Wherefore, I attribute extraordinary contingencies or accidents, unto extraordinary contingent causes. I believe indeed, that the fore-shewing signs of the same are decyphered in the Firmament, but not in the directions of the courses of the Planets: Wherefore I account those signs to be irregular, nor to be subject to Astro∣logy; because the significations of those signs are granted by an extraordinary privi∣ledge: Therefore the signs of such a plague, are for the most part declared only to the servants of God; as is read concerning Jonas: But the signs that went before the destru∣ction of Jerusalem, were messages of the Word long before prophesied of; and so nei∣ther could the fore-told destruction be hindered, and they were directed only to the meer glory of God, the admonishment of the godly, and the flight of these. And more∣over, Israel ought to die, and to be renewed by Generation in the Wilderness, except Joshuah and Cal••b: neither could that thing be any way prevented: for the Word of the Lord stands unchangeable, with whom there is no changeableness, because he is not like

unto man herein. Monstrous signs therefore, if they do not prescribe a condition in decla∣ring (unless Niniveh be converted) they by nature promise an unavoidable effect. It hath also pleased others, to draw the births of Monsters into the fore-shewing signs of the plague; even as Cornelius Gemma, concerning his Cosmocriticks or Divine Chara∣cters, doth by trifling, patch them together without a foundation. But who is he, who shall either know, or interpret the denoted fore-tokens of Monsters? For the plague be∣ing present, then indeed, and too late, every one draws significations at his own pleasure. And there are some who therefore abhor the coming of unwonted Birds: but that sign either ceaseth to be natural, or that of the Quails fore-going the plague of Israel in the Wilderness, shall cease to be a Miracle: And let this be impious and blasphemous; but the other impertinent to my purpose. Others interpret this sign for flesh-devouring Birds, for a future plague; as if they were sent to devour the dead carkasses that were to be inhu∣med; according to that saying, Where the carkasses are, thither are the Eagles gathered to∣gether.

But the Text is not read to be for future dead carkasses, neither to have swallowed them down, seeing they are wont to be most carefully buried before others: For the River Rhoan at sometime carried away the dead carkasses of the plague at Lyons; but it infect∣ed the Citizens beneath them: at leastwise, the Clergy of Lyons declared hereby, that the burial of the dead was to be observed, not so much for the health of the soul, as for the purse.

The coming of Birds therefore, living by prey, denotes rather a future defect of their prey in their own Native Provinces, and they should rather denounce by a mon∣strous sign, a destruction of war, than an imminent plague. But others divine the plague to be from the meeting with unwonted fishes; to wit, they suppose the waters to be in∣fected with a corrupt defilement, and for this cause, that Sea-monsters do ascend into the waves: surely a ridiculous thing: For if the Sea putrifieth through continuance in its saltness; what water at length, shall wash away the defilement of the Sea? or why shall one only Whale wandring out of his road, feel the hurtful poyson of the Sea? not all in a Shoal, or many together? Truly, I know that the Sea is not subject to a natural conta∣gion of the Pest, and that the monstrous signs of the Heaven, and Sea, are directed by the same finger, of whose unsearchable judgement they are the Preachers, being declared unto his servants only: For the same Lord is present, as well in the center of the earth, and in the bottom of the Sea, as in the highest top of heaven. Indeed all things do a∣like equally obey him, except the most ungrateful sinner. But surely, I do rather fear the unwonted raines of blood, of spots, or sparks, and likewise Funerals brought down through the Clouds, mournful sounds heard in the air, as also noises in burying places, &c. which things, seeing they are the admonitions of Divine goodness; therefore they are to be re∣ferred out of Nature, that every one may seasonably look to the Oyl in their own Lamps: For neither therefore do I esteem those monstrous signs to be the works of the Evil Spi∣rit, but against his will. Truly they are freely given, and above Nature; neither there∣fore do they belong to my purpose.

But Paracelsus, as he had known a singular remedy of the Plague to be in the Toad, and Frogs; so also he writes, that this is presaged as oft as a great heap of Frogs ariseth in∣to a heap, which is to choak some weak or infirm one; which being killed, it afterwards assaulteth another, until the number being thus diminished by degrees, every one at length particularly runs away: which things, if they thus naturally happen; as they pre∣pare a remedy for the plague to come, so also they denote it: For out of a Gaul, even as also from an apple drawn out of Oaken leaves, they write, that for the most part, three small living creatures are drawn; to wit, if it contain a Spider, th•••• will have it portend the Pest; if a Fly, War: but if a creeping Animal, that it fore-sheweth Famine. But seeing one of the three at least, is found every year enclosed therein, if not two, or all of them and yet, one of those punishments doth not continually follow; therefore I re∣fer such predictions among old Wives Fables. I therefore judge, that these kind of Insects do denounce the difference of the Leffas in the Oak (Leffas is the nourishable juice of plants) so as that a worm denotes the aforesaid nourishment to be putrified through con∣tinuance; but a Spider, a poyson to be moreover adjoyned to that putrefaction: and therefore, as it were a connexed and co-touching Spider is every where almost in the whole compass of the earth; the which being in the Oak, portends not any thing out of the tree; especially because in the neighbouring and co-planted trees, nor also seldom in the fruits of the same Oak, those divers Insects are beheld at once, in the same Sum∣mer: Yet I do not remember that I have found a Spider and also a Fly, at once, in the

same Oak: although a Fly indeed, and a Worm, also a Worm and a Spider: But far be it from a Christian to prophesie from Oak, and Terpentine, for that is read to be forbid∣den by the Lo••d, with cruel threatnings. But as oft as a new and rare stink of Caves ac∣companies an Earthquake, or an unaccustomed stink happens in L••kes, then endemi••al signs have occasional powers. These things of a future plague. But as to what concerns a plague being present, truly I could never by the pulse or urine, even although it were distilled, know the plague to be present. Paracelsus indeed, ridiculously enough, num∣bers it among the diseases of the Liver, and among Tartarous ones, even as elsewhere in a Treatise, and in overthrowing the fiction of Tartars, I have profesly prosecuted. This man attributes an unnamed pulse to the Pest, which he calls a fourth: But I, although I have seriously and often heeded; yet I acknowledge my own unaptness, that I never found such a pulse: But I have well noted about the end of life, an unequally inordinate creeping, and at length, an intermitting pulse: But I have never found a fourth, or a sixth pulse diverse from the rest, from a peculiar bewraying of the plague, but a pestilent pulse different from continual malignant Fevers, hath never offered it self unto me.

The urine therefore, and the pulse, have never, according to my unskilfulness, disco∣vered the plague: yea, while I more narrowly rowled over the writings of Paracelsus, I knew that he was never present with one infected with, or about to die of the plague. In the mean time, the judgement of the plague, loads the conscience, as well in respect of the party afflicted, as of the family of the same; because the Pest doth by a certain si∣militude, resemble a Pretor or chief Officer in a crime, who requires a loss both of life and go••ds: and so, a rash judgement of the Pest contains a crime: For to have known the plague by the shape of an unwonted Fever, may be easie to another; surely unto me, it hath been very difficult. Thou wilt say, the Pest is with a Fever and headach; but that is f••miliar unto other Fevers: Vomiting, and the drowsie evil doth oft-times accompany the plague; but that is not altogether unwonted elsewhere: There are in the Pest, Bu∣boes in the groyn, Parotides or little Bladders behind the ears; those signs are not unfre∣quently proper to Fevers that are free from the plague: There are also black spots in the plague, the which I have seen in women that have been strangled by their womb: There is also a Purple Fever, and likewise leaden Pustules or Wheals, without the Pest: as also a Carbuncle doth oftentimes happen without the plague: But as oft as many of those signs do concur, there is no difficult judgement concerning the Pest: for a Bubo in the groyn, little bladders, or spots, from the beginning, before much cruelty of the plague, do de∣nounce the plague: So also a Carbuncle, or Bubo, and a very small tumour, is far more painful in the pest, than any where else, and they are present almost before the increase of the Fever, and they prevent the suspition that they sprang from the Fever; so that those miseries of the skin, do go before in the Pest, which in other Fevers happen more late, as it were, the products thereof: a pestilent Bubo, being as yet small, persently and out of hand, existeth as cruel, without pain of the member, and lessening of the Fever, and paineth greatly.

But if a Bubo issue forth after a fore-going pain of the member, it carries the judge∣ment of an unfit remedy: Therefore, they are the ordinary signs of the Pest, being al∣ready entertained, if before, or presently after the beginning of the Fever, a Glandule, Parotis behind the ear, Carbuncle, Bladder, Pustule, or spot, shall suddenly invade, and that with the greatest pain: For in other Fevers they do not so notably pain: the place indeed is red, and swells before the malady be bred, which hath not it self in such a man∣ner in the plague: And the Pest is confirmed by vomiting, by an excelling pain of the head, by a deep drowsiness, by a doating delusion, and by a dejected appetite, if they shall suddenly invade.

For the Pest that comes unto one from far, being drawn in through a contracting of the poyson, enters as it were the pain of a pricking Bodkin, and presently, with the greatest pain, marks the part which it strikes, with a swelling, with a wheal, with a little bladder, or with a spot: Even as also, that which enters in by an odour, strikes the sto∣mach and head with a suddain pain, or sleepi••ying anguish; or stirs up the stomach it self, as it were a spur, unto vomiting: But if it springs from an internal poyson, it hath a fore-going Fever, upon which some of the aforesaid signs do straightway succeed: But that Pest which invades from a snatched terrour, is speedy, and is discerned by the testi∣mony of the sick: But that which hath arisen from some k••nd of terrour of the Archeus, but not of the man, and which lurks in the Tartar of the blood, is indeed, in a deg••ee unto the plague, and breaks forth more slowly than is wont, and is easily overcome un∣lesse

the negligence of the sick shall hinder; yet its delay is the longer in the journey: for, for the most part, the accompanying signs of the Pest are known timely enough, that the remedy which shall be prompt, and which shall be peremptory, may rightly perform its office. Nevertheless it should be my wish, to know the Pest in its making: For that which produceth its signates only after death, takes away a great number from amongst us, and destroys many families; because it hath already become mortal, before it makes it self manifest, or be known; because it hath first finished its task, with the hicket, faint∣ing, and an Escharre in some Noble place: For they call this, the Tragedy of one day; therefore a Diary or Ephemeral Fever: Not that the Pest hath the Spirit of Life for its proper seat, although there was never any plague which hath not also infected the Arche∣us; and so also, by that title, every plague ought always to be a Diary Fever: But whatso∣ever of the Archeus is conquered by the Pest, that consequently is by and by separated by that vital Archeus.

At length, that also brings most speedy death, which besieged the Archeus of some bowel; because the birds of death do continually fly from thence, which trample the rest of the Archeus under their feet: For I wish, and wish again, that we may not know the Pest too late, nor from the event: For a speedy death, although it may pro∣duce its own signs, yet it rather profits for the future, but nothing, those that are gone and past. For some, to this end, anoint the soals of the feet with fresh Lard, they apply a Puppy, which if he lick, they perswade themselves, that the chance is free from the plague: But others heat a piece of Lard at the feet of the sick party, and cherish it for sometime under his arm-pits, or in his groyn, and they say, that this will not be devou∣red by a dog, if the plague be present, which thing deserves no credit: for the plague of man shakes not dogs, nor makes them nauseous: For truly as well dogs, as Wolves, do without punishment, devoure the dead carkasses that are not wel enough buried; as also Pies, and likewise Ravens. Perhaps indeed, an hungry dog will not eat that La••d which was rub'd on the feet of his Master, because it smells of his Master, whom he dares not bite. But the Germans call the root of the herb Butterburre, or the g••eater Colts-foot, the Pesti∣lential root; because as the Pest displays it self before a fore-shewing sign; so the But∣terburre sends forth its flowres before its leaves. The Pest also propagates it self, not so much by a seed, as by an Archeal root. They also relate, that a Saphire of a deep Sky-colour, or Citron-coloured Jacinth, if it abide upon the painful member for a quarter of an hours space, so as that the light from the opposite part of the Gem, strikes the in∣fected place, and there collects its beams, that the place touched on, will wax black and blew within a quarter of an hour, and that it is an infallible token of the plague: But if the place shall in no wise assume a more wan colour, that the sick person is free from the plague.

But I have always in doubtful cases, made use of a powdered Toad, and that boil∣ed in a very small quantity of simple water, in the form of a Poultess; whereby, if presently after, the pain in the Escharre, Carbuncle, or Bubo in the groyn, waxed mild, I safely conjectured that the plague was present. For I sometimes beholding a [Mass] of Prelates and Abbots, and their fingers to be adorned with precious stones, I conjectured, that they were in times past, obliged to visit those that were infected with the plague: But that now also, the Gems of Gems are born about, their use being neglected and un∣known, the which I do conjecture.

CHAP. XVI. The Preservation.

PReservatives according to the Ancients, are two-fold: For some ought to hinder the plague to come; others also the plague being present, that it proceed not to cut down: But for the former, they have devised as well Amulets or Pomanders without, as Antidotes within. But since the Schools have been ignorant of the very essential thing∣linesse of the poyson; and indeed, that every Pest whether it shall be brought to us from without, or next, shall be bred within, presupposeth the image of a poysonsom terrour; therefore proper preservatives have never been known from a foundation. Therefore among preservatives, I consider,

1. Least the spirit of the Archeus do conceive a terrour in us, or that from a terrour he do not produce a terrifying poyson on himself, or one brought on him within from else-where.

2. That a fermental and co-resembling mummie being brought to us from without, doth not infect the Archeus the internal ruler of our mummie.

3. That whatsoever hath already in contagion become a partaker of the mummie, be killed, and departeth: Therefore the least co-resemblance which it hath common with us, is to be taken away: Wherefore some light poyson is alwayes wont to admix it self with every Antidote; to wit, that hereby the application and approximation may be taken away, that the Archeus may be preserved free from contagion, or that he fall not down into the mumial nourishment, and from thence frame a Tartar of the bloud to himself. In this last patronage of safeguard, antiquity hath been wholly vigilant, but it hath not been in∣cumbent about others, because they were unknown:

Although this last preservation hath therefore become uncertain and without fruit; because it hath rather respected the latter product, or seat, than the root or chief cause: when as in the mean time, a preservation from the effect, fore-going conditions being sup∣posed, is fore-stalled as being in vain. Therefore if we must treat of preservatives and antidotes to expel the poyson, as is meet, what things I have already explained concern∣ing the causes, processe, and manner of making the plague, ought to be firmly fixed in our mind.

The Pest therefore either enters from without, and marks the place of its entrance from without, because it primarily affecteth it, or is attracted with the breath, and there passeth thorow the Diaphragma or midriff, and causeth a pressure and perplexities upon the very bought of the stomach; and in the same place cloaths the matter, which soon ex∣hales from thence, and becomes infamous in contagion: And seeing that in nature every agent hath its beginning, increase, state, declining, and at length death, it must needs be likewise, that by how much the longer of continuance, and powerful, the corruption shall be, by so much also the more dangerous or destructive it be rendred: For the Pest beginning, is increased with the diminishment and death of the man.

For I a good while believed that every curative remedy of the plague was also of necessi∣ty the preservative of the same, because it is accounted a more easie thing to be preser∣ved, than to be cured; Or whatsoever it performeth in the same kind, which is the more difficult, that it should also willingly do that which is more easie: Wherefore I was great∣ly occupied in times past, with the care of diligently searching into medicines for expel∣ling of the poyson, to wit, whereon the whole satisfaction of my desire then depended. But afterwards I diverted my mind to another belief, and considered that healing reme∣dies had rather regard unto the extraction, or expulsion of the malady; and that such re∣medies had not place in preservatives for the future; To wit, seeing that which as yet is not, cannot also as yet be expelled, or extracted, yea not so much as extinguished: For truly, first of all, a remedy against the terrour of the man imagining, or of the Archeus, is not in it self so much positive as negative; and so the drinking of pure wine, even unto mirth, preserveth for the future; because it so rules the imagination not onely of the man, but of the Archeus, that the power of forming images perisheth: For so no man is

poor or defectuous, as long as he is cheerful from a drinking of wine: And therefore the holy Scriptures declare, that wine was made for cheerfulnesse, but not for drunkennesse; because it is a powerful preservative: So that although the sturdinesse of a man excludeth the terrours from the imaginaion of the man; yet a manly animosity cannot take away the terrour of the imagining Archeus: for the aforesaid animosity or sturdinesse of mind, ad∣mits of a combate from a contrary opinion of the Archeus: but mirth or cheerfulnesse introduced by such drink, neither admits of, nor acknowledgeth an enemy, as neither doth it undergo a strife, but excludeth them: But an exhilerating draught is more fit for the Pest to come, than for it being present: Therefore I grant also, that the preservative, and curative remedies for the plague as being present, are of the same company and in∣tention, but not for a future one; yet so, that preservatives of the plague as being pre∣sent, do not serve, but in the making of its increase, but not in its product being made; because of that which is corrupted, there are no longer preservatives, but onely healing remedies by extirpation.

We must not therefore believe that bad Antidotes, although they were the most potent poysons, could drive away the terrour, as neither the pestilent effect of the terrour; For truly the poyson of the pestilence is irregular and different from other poysons in this, that it issues from the terrour of the Archeus, as it were fire out of a flint: For if the Ar∣cheus being terrified, yield up the field, verily the body (which being considered in it self, is a meer dead Carcasse) cannot receive comfort. Furthermore, if the Archeus be so con∣sidered to retire, that a poyson enters in his place, and in this respect shall supplant the Archeus himself; how shall sweet odours and incenses prevent the poyson, especially if the very excellentest of sweet smels, are also capable of receiving a pestilent contagion? Therefore let it be a part of Christian piety and compassion, studiously to contemplate with me, how blockishly and unexactly so many Simples have been heaped up together for preserving, and curing; and how much their unfaithful succours have deluded ten thousands of men, and their expectations; because they have every where mocked mankind in a true remedy, by reason of the grosse ignorance of causes: For indeed a curative remedy of the plague being present, presupposeth that which a preservative remedy prevents for the future: Therefore a proper curative remedy is convenient onely, as by slaying of the product (which is the pestilent poyson it self) it annihilates it in the matter wherein it re∣sides: In the next place also, another curative remedy being conjoyned with it, is employ∣ed in expelling the subject of the poyson it self, which is to be attempted by-sweat: Moreover, a third is that which takes away and lessens the co-suiting of causes unto their products, the which also hath in it the nature of a preservative. The Pest therefore which is drawn in from without, from an infected body, garment, or place, hath indeed in it, an absolute and formal pestilent poyson, which presupposeth not a fore-existing fer∣mental putrefaction, and therefore it suddenly invadeth with no fore-going complaints, and it utters future signes, but onely it hath need of an appropriation; which kind of preserving in making of the Pest, a rectifying of the air, familiar to Hipocrates, contein∣eth (of which in its own place) no otherwise than as in a popular plague; To wit, that the poyson it self in the air may be killed, and the air also, originally so disposed, that it suffers not the nourishable humour to be mumially corrupted, or to snatch unto it a fermental putrefaction.

These things of a remedy for the future. Otherwise, when as the pestilent poyson is now received within, it lurketh, and is unknown, and also is fitted and sealed in the Archeus; and that by reason of the singular swiftnesse of its poyson: But then, defensive remedies alone do come too late, unlesse they are also healing ones. First therefore eve∣ry cure of preserving, is busied, that the body may be always actually hot, and kept in transpiration, and that the mind may be disposed unto a cheerfulnesse opposite to terrour; even as I have already before cited concerning wine out of the holy Scriptures: But what thou readest concerning the rectifying of the infected air, it hath respect not so much unto the air, as to the points thereof, to wit, in whose vacuities or hollow empty spaces, the vapour of contagion sits or floats. Furthermore, those remedies which take away a putrefaction through continuance, and poyson out of the air, but terrour out of the mind, and lastly, mumial co-fittings or suitable coniunctions out of the body, these are preservatives: For the perfumes or suffumigations of Hipocrates, freeth not onely the encompassing air, but also the air that is attracted inwards, yea, and the co-agulated va∣pour from the poyson, and together also from a fermental putrefaction, no lesse then as it hinders the mumi••l ferment from being applyed; to which ends also, Antidotes, Ze∣nextons or external preservative Pomanders do conduce, which are able to kill the

image of terrour, and pestilent poyson, in the proper subject of the vapour, or Tartar of the bloud; and in this respect also, to divert and hinder the terrour of the Archeus.

But if indeed the Pest be conceived by a proper errour within, other preservatives are required, than when as we must live about infected places, or persons: But the plague being formed, moves the same to go with a speedy course in a retrograde order, from a poyson formed, unto a corruptive vapour: Therefore also neither are amulets or preservative pomanders occupied about an inferiour and remote preparation of the pestilent matter that is to be averted; but for the overcoming of the formal and ultimate poyson, and suiting of the Archeus with the Tartar of the bloud, in the one extream, and in the other, with the poyson drawn in: And so an amulet keeps a curative betokening in preserving; yet it is excedeed by a curative remedy in this, that healing remedies ought not onely to kill the poyson; but also to thrust it out by sweat: Indeed both betokenings ought to concut in curative remedies: For othe••wise, in vain doth the body flow down with much moisture of sweat, if the Tartar of the bloud be not resolved, but is rather continued by the con∣tinued terrour of the Archeus. Truly the causes, as well the constitutive, as the occasional one, being known, afterwards the indication o•• betokening of things to be done, co∣ariseth onely by the conduct of reason: For if a fermental putrefaction hath given a be∣ginning unto, and caused the first disposition of the matter, places putrified through continuance, as also nourishments easily putrifying, are to be avoided.

An open air is healthful to healthy persons, because it hath the power of an elementa∣ry consuming; but the air as it is such, doth no lesse obey contagion, than other bodies, and it conteineth in its own Magnal of the air, as it hath hollow po••es, the whole conta••ion; the which at length by pining away in the same place, doth for the most part die, not but of its own accord, in the space of 40 dayes; and by an elemen∣tary power is spoyled of the poysonous seed of a ferment: For the seeds of things con∣ceived, do by little and little decay in the air, as they being shut up in the hollow places of the air, as it were in wombs, do return to the last disposition of corruption, and the first generation of watery matters. All sorrowful things also, are to be removed, not onely because they are near unto fear and terrour, but especially because they do forthwith produce a sensible fermental putrefaction (the mother of sighs) about the mouth of the stomach. The places therefore, and objects of a sorrowful remem∣brance, as also such fellowships, are to be avoided, no lesse than sorrowful messages, and discourses of History: Exhilerating Wines are to be drunk, as also the more strong Ales or Beers; because that by causing carelessenesses and animosities, they shake off grief, and terrours: But the cold air and winds hurt those that are infect∣ed, yea that are fearful and sorrowful after any manner, or whatsoever is opposite to exhalation and sweat: A washed house doth now and then indeed take away the fermental put••efaction and contagion; and the wa••ery vapour hurts those that are infected; there∣fore it were first to be dried. Forty dayes shutting up, although they may increase the fer∣mental putrefaction; yet they take away the pestilent poyson, as it perisheth of its own accord in that space of time: Perhaps therefore custom hath brought over those Quaren∣tanies or forty dayes enclosures, for any renovation whatsoever: For although swimming, or cutting of a vein, may seem to diminish the fermental putrefaction; yet seeing nature hath laid up the bloud for her treasure; it follows, that as oft as she shall perceive the bloud of the veins to be taken away, the Archeus as it were fearing treachery, is dispo∣sed unto terrour, and draws the rest of the bloud inward to himself, and by consequence also, it calls the pestilent poyson together with it, into the inner chamber; which motion is diamentral with, or directly opposite to sweat: And therefore, let as well the cutting of a vein, as swimming, be destructiue; also all loose solving of the belly is to be avoided; because so, the more crude bloud of the meseraick veins is made to putrifie through the ferment of the solutive m••dicine (even as elsewhere in the book of Fevers) to wit, at the evacuation whereof, the meseraick veins do ••etch back bloud out of the hollow vein, and this out of the small branching veins of the body; which motion is diametrically opposite to the curing of the plague.

Those things which I have ••i••herto spoken, are of the number of negative preserva∣tions, or they are admonitory rules of things to be avoided, which rules do not, yet, contain health. But among positive preservatiues, Amulets challenge the first place to them∣selves, which obtain a proper faculty, whether it be for killing of the poyson, or else for preventing of the mumial appropriation of the Archeus: Both of them indeed are curative in the making of the Pest. Next a sudoriferous one follows, which is a rooter out of the plague, and of its seat, by washing off. Again, the Archeus being grieved and

affrighted, straightway betakes himself inwards, fleeth as it were to his Castle, begets sor∣row and sighings, and the enemy being received within, increaseth venemous perplexi∣ties: Therefore he is to be called forth unto delights, and by sudotiferous medicines: For sudoriferous or sweat-provoking remedies, are all of the same intention, and almost of the same weight, but at leastwise they differ in the degree of goodnesse. In the next place, in an Antidote being adjoyned, I praise the potion of Hyppocrates, whereunto I adde Ginger, and the black berries of Ivy; because they are Diaphoreticks which are ac∣ceptable to the stomach. Also antidotes are to be given in generous or rich wine, and that presently after food, not indeed so much that the sick party may sweat, as that his body may be kept in transpiration: But let the food be light, and little; for in every fever, and rather in the plague, digesti on faileth; therefore let the more pure drink supply the room of the more large food: For pure or unmixt wine excludeth fear, cares, sorrow, and ter∣rour; And therefore also the chief preservative is establ••shed in confidence.

Indeed I do not here speak of Christian faith or confidence (although in Spirituals, there is every where matter of great moment) for they also who lay down their life for the sheep, do now and then die of the plague, other carelesse persons remaining safe: For their confidence hath either a defective rottennesse within, or some other obstacle; The Lord not working miracles, but for his hidden Judgments. The faith or confidence therefore, of which I speak in this place, is the natural mean of animosiry or stoutnesse of mind, fighting against, and strongly resi••ting terrour; neither is that faith positive I believe, but altogether negative, not abhorring, not fearing, yea neither therefore be∣lieving that he shall be infected: For as a pestiferous terrour hath a suspitious and fearful faith annexed unto it, that they have lately conceived something of contagion, or do feel a murmuring about the mouth of their stomach; so the preservation thereof is a a belief that they have conceived nothing: neither therefore is it sufficient that the con∣fidence be not terrifying (which is a mean between terrour and animosity) but it is requi∣red that it be operative, by not believing that they shall be insected: And that not by an inducement of reason, but altogether by a free power of animosity, and the meer mo∣ther of confidence: otherwise, children and mad-folks, although they have conceived no terrour, yet they oftentimes perish by the plague, for want of an operating confidence, which frames a preservative ot it self: For not to believe that one shall be infected, works far more strongly than the presumption of fear, not onely because a negative destroys more strongly than an affirmative builds up; but because it together therewith, contains a privation, which is stronger than every positive: For we are those who pro∣ceed from an infinite nothing, and therefore our nature doth more strongly apprehend nothing, than something itself, from whence also it obtaineth rest to it self; even as is to be seen in negative Syllogisms, wherein the conclusion follows the negative, and forsakes also a particular affirmative connexed with it, that it may bring it self into quiet∣nesse by a denial.

For truly, the understanding being now degenerate, and naturally distrusting it self, in understanding [this something] of things, had always rather lay down in not know∣ing, or not being able to know: And that is the cause of fluggishness in Sciences: There∣fore the belief requisite in terrour, for preserving, is positive, and therefore it ought ef∣fectively, actually, and ••fficiently to stand; although with hope it concludeth negatively from the weaker part. A good man, in readily serving those that are infected with con∣tagion, if by reason of the piety of his work, he hopeth and trusteth more in the good∣nesse of the work, or of desert, than in a free valiant confidence on God, he hath a faith con-joyned with hope, and it includes an agony of fear and terrour: Therefore he naturally undergoes an infection, unless he be preserved from elsewhere. But the confi∣dence of this place is drawn, not so much from Saff••on, or the exhilarating things of boasters, as from the cheerful drink of the more pure wine. Women with child, also women in child-bed, or menstruous women, because they are then more restrained under the command of their womb, than under the conduct of the universal Archeus, therefore they are the more dangerously oppressed with the Pest: For truly, the Archeus of the womb doth no way obey reason, or confidence, which is wholly vexed with con∣fusion, and a sorrowful troop of disturbances: Therefore the womb is to be comforted with the oyl of Amber, and with Amber dissolved in the best spirit of wine, and with the suffumigation of the warts of the shanks of a horse, being beaten to powder in a mortar.

CHAP. XVII. Zenexton, that is a preservative pomander against the Pest.

VVHich confidence, as it were the principal pledge of animosity, and mean of pre∣servation, that the Schools might stir up, the succours of idols, purging sacri∣fices, and exceeding mad Idolatries have been Antiently devised: Things also were hung on the body, and carried about from without, which afterwards, in every religi∣on were accounted for holy things, and the which, were even falsly believed by an hid∣den (because an unknown) goodness, to repel terrour, and sorrow. A Zenexton there∣fore, seeing it hath for the most part, been devised for prevention of the plague, and doth also compleate a part of the cure; therefore it deserves a singular consideration.

For Physitians have described diverse such preservatives, according to the desire of every one, that they might readily serve for a comfort to the sick, while themselves were fugitive helpers: They decree also, that Amulets are to be hung on the body, the which, although for the most part, they could have nothing of virtues, at leastwise that they may from a ruinous foundation, perswade others unto animosity; to wit, unto a be lief, hope, or some kind of confidence: For the Pagans at first commanded the Images and Statues of their Deasters or starry Gods, to be carried about the sick: and then they came unto characters, words. seals or tokens, and to the Talismanicks of Ga∣mah••u.

Afterwards the first Monks of the Christians, offered labels, and things to be hung a∣bout the neck, against the plague: and from that foundation, they perswaded the vulgar, to believe that the Pest was a stroak immediately sent from God. I meditate therefore, that every natural work ought in nature, to follow its own means, as oft as all things requisite for operation are present: Therefore I enquire in this place, into the fixed, firm roots, into the necessary and ordinary causes, for the obtayning of the effects correlative to such causes. Others therefore interpreting the Plague to be a punishment, have pro∣posed unto people, unutterable names, writings, signates guarded with meer vanities, also polluted with unsignificant words, in bearing them about; whereunto perhaps, they have joyned a verse of David, of Salomon, or of some Prophet. But Paracelsus laugh∣ing at these vanities, devised other greater ones, especially those adorned with two characterisms; yea and with lying seales; and he again consents to those, which else∣where, he derided with much Taunting: But I have at sometime frequently noted, a sometimes ready sliding into hypochondrial madnesse, from these superstitions: Besides these, there are some who forsaking divine names, do commend figures, lines, charac∣ters, words, the figures of numbers, and according to the pleasure of Astronomers, the feigned seals of the planets (to wit, the errours of the wandring stars) under the name of Pythagoras, of Salomon the Jew, or some other, they hitherto attributing more to the toyes of the heathen than to any sacred imprecations: For if happily any one who had saluted him that had the Pestilence afar of, and had remained free from con∣tagion, he now being the Authour of trifles, had made it his priviledg of deceiving two thousand people afterwards by his toyes: For truly, I have taught there is no Astral thing that in the Pest, as well in the manner of its making, as of its curing: For I alwayes reject unfaithful, triflous means, and especially those which are unlawful; because none that leans upon a Staffe half broken, is preserved from falling, unlesse it be by chance: For although the terrour of the man be put off by vain remedies) which otherwise infants want) yet they are not therefore deprived of the terrour of the Archeus: Indeed they exclude onely the effect of faith privatively, when very much, and that onely for a little space, and they oft-times forsake their own confiders: for why, since they are known to be of no power. For Paracelsus always made an heightned imagination, and strong con∣fidence of great account; the which when as he floating as loose and frivolous, I found to be founded on the sand, I could dot approve of, and that follies do contain a succour of preserving from the plague. Paracelsus scarce trusting in mental trifles, converts him∣self unto a Zenexton, which would undoubtedly preserve him that carried it about him, from the Pest:

But since he describeth not that preservative Pomander for the City of Stertzing that had been bountiful unto him, right would make us to conjecture, whether as ungrateful, he deceived that City, or whether indeed, he were ignorant of that Zenexton. Surely a remedy is in no wise to be hidden from mortals, in so great a destruction; especially, from whence he might hope to deserve honour to himself among those that are present, and all posterity. Men have been diversly mad about this thing; for every one hath pers••aded himself that he hath catched the boasted of Zenexton of Paracelsus, by the ears; and that thing hath so greatly pleased mortal men, that thenceforth they have exchanged names, the Amulet of the Greeks, with the barbarous name of Zenexton: for very many have carried Arsenick, Orpiment, Quick-silver, yea and Mercury sublimate, and such like poysons of the veins about their neck, or the pulses of their veins; no otherwise than as if the Plague, and Lice were chased away by one and the same remedy, But these kind of inventions being brought unto us out of Italy, which is fruitful in presumption, jugling deceits, and subtilties, we strangers do adore and follow: For as p••sterity willing∣ly boasteth, that it hath drawn the first rudiments of discursive Sciences from the Greeks; So also, it hath hoped to learn the properties of poysons more readily from none, for the varieties, enlargements, and maskings of death, than from a Nation frequently im∣ploring the help of poysons; for it hath believed, and falsly perswaded it self, that to hand forth poysons, and to cure the Pest, had a neer affini••y: Therefore our Physitians returning from Padua, with worship and reverence toward their Professors there, some opinionating these men for their great learning, have hung Quick-silver enclosed in the shell of a Filberd Nut, about their neck, and they supposed that they were safe, whom, when others saw to die, they married the former Quick-silver unto Arsenick, a Spider or Scorpion being added thereunto; some whereof, inscribed sacred words on Tro••hies pre∣pared thereof; that if one should the less successfully profit, the other at least might help.

But I have seen in the Camps of Ostend, nigh the shoar, many thousands of men with such a Zenexton, the plague being removed; yea, and those who for every fifteen daies, embladdered their ribs by Trochies of Arsenick enclosed in fine ••••nnen bags; and those are the medicinal Tragedies, the final periods of an Italian Imposture. Moreover, the Jews and Heathens, to wit, these from ignorance, but the other from a sworn enmity against us, do sell roots at a dear rate, to be born about by us that are rash of belief, as being deluded by a hope; and they feign that first Moses, and afterwards Solomon, succes∣sively delivered those secrets by the Cabal, delivered unto their Fathers the Rabbi••s: As wicked Josephus himself, in his eighth book of the Jewish Antiquities, Chap. 2. notably feigneth, concerning so many thousand books of Enchantments described by Solomon, no otherwise than as he malignantly concealeth the death of the little innocent Babes under Herod.

Lastly, our Physitians, after that they beholding the disproportion of events, and pro∣mises, described sweet perfumes, and grateful odours, in apples, powders, and bolsters, and sponges continually smelling before their nostrils, they hoped that they should strain the air of the Pest as it were thorow a Sieve, from the exhalation of the Spices, and so should kill or correct the poyson with the odour that was plausible unto them: as if the poyson should cease to be filled with the Spic••ness, and should not enter the more fully, with the grateful odour its companion, and as if sweet smelling things themselves were not subject to contagion; as though Arserick, or Wolfs-bane, being married to Amber∣grease, should cease to hurt! as if the most odoriferous wines should not be presently de∣filed with a hoary putrified Hogshead! at leastwise I gratulate my own soul, that it hath never been ensnared with such childish delusions. Wherefore, an Amulet is founded not indeed in an excited imagination, or belief (because they are those, which are the expert souldiers of another Monatchy) but altogether in an actual endowment conferred on things by the Creator.

First of all therefore, it is manifest from the premises, that sweet smelling things, gold, gems, Christal, and whatsoever things are able to draw an odour, are able also, by the same Law, to be defiled with the Pest: Not indeed, that I do altogether despise the me∣dicines of the same not being infected; far be it: For it is one thing to dispute, whether any thing be capable of receiving contagion; and a far different thing, whether any thing can help those that are infected: for I have taught, that wine doth preserve from a future contagion, which otherwise, is in it self so defileable, that it brings the plague only by its touching, and drinking: But in a Zenexton, there is altogether another method, condition, and property required: for a preservative Amulet requires, that in it self it be wholly

undefileable, if it ought to preserve for the future: and it is distinguished from other preservatives by that condition, from whence indeed it is known, what sort of Zene∣xton is to be chosen, and what kind thereof is unfaithful; the which I desire that thou thus understand: The Pest of Oxen is not that of dogs, or of falcons, and none of these is that of men; Yet the skins, or fleshes of bruits may be defiled with our Plague, as that they may be pestiferous contagions unto us, although not unto them; Because the pest infecteth in an appropriation, or mumial co-resemblance: Although the plagues of the last times shall take away from amongst us, not onely men, four-footed beasts, birds, and fishes, but also trees; and therefore they shall be of another and more cruel disposition than modern plagues, which issue out of the bosome of na∣ture: and likewise we are instructed by the aforesaid particulars, that the Archeus of man, and of all bruits, have now and then alike dreadful fears, and that the characters or impressions of these, are formed into a pestilent poyson, or poysonous idea; whence it manifestly enough appeareth, that the plague is not a poyson alike with o∣thers; For truly wolfs-bane, the viper, &c. do kill oxen as well as men. Therefore in beginning our Zenexton or preservative pomander from stones; The Saphyre of a deep skie colour, and the Jacynth full of a yellow golden colour, if it be leisurely rouled into a circle about a Bubo in the groyn, and a pestilent Eschar, by drawingly bringing it about from the region of the Sun, or light, it causeth, that the same circle do after∣wards become black, and that the rest of the poyson doth exhale out that way, as it were through a chymney. Also if there are more glandulous knobs elsewhere, yet these do settle down, and perish together, and do follow at the departure of the drawn poyson: but I prefer the saphyr before the jacynth; For neither is a saphyre in vain read to have been in the breast-plate of the Priest, and the jacynth to have been excluded: For a Zenexton was anciently, alwaies attributed to precious stones, and heathenism soon ingraved figures, numbers, and characters thereon: but since gems were not for the poor, for whom notwithstanding the vast goodnesse foreseeth with a large showre before the rich, and hath offered himself freely to be the father of the poore, I am not easily induced to believe, that these Gems are the true Zenexton of the plague.

A Chirurgion of Spain, whose Sir-name was Guardiola, being chief Chirurgion of the Hospital of those that were infected in the siege of Ostend, shewed me a piece of red Amber, which he said had been his one onely preservative amulet for full three years space: The secret whereof was, to wit, that it had been rubbed on the seven principal pulses, even unto a heat, namely, on both the Temples of his head, on his wrists, ancles, and on his left pap: At leastwise, I saw him to have been alwaies preserved, his other co-assistants being taken out of the way: But the Pest was on a sandy shoare, and that for the most part molested with a windy skie, and with colds being exceeding destructive and cruel: But that which I find to be in amber, is not altogether to be despised: first of all there is in it an attractive faculty manifested and stirred up by rubbing on the place: and then, amber, although it be in it self transparent and gummy, yet it is the lesse strictly closed, and therefore is the more easily moved and altered by our heat. Again, neither hath amber a limited power of drawing, such as the loadstone hath, which allureth iron, and not copper unto it self; but a general one, and that without choice, so that which is drawn be light: Indeed it is sufficient for drawing of the pestilent air, and poyson, if it shall draw any light bodies whatsoever unto it self. The signate or token therefore of this attraction, denoteth a preservative external remedy founded in nature; and so much the more strongly, if it hath obtained an appropriation with a mumial ferment: For so I have oftentimes seen, that by amber dissolved in the spirit of wine, cures of poysoned wounds have been wrought, they being otherwise altoge∣ther desperate; Yea, even as amber dissolveth not, being co-melted with other rosins, or fat (which denotes some singular thing to be homebred in it) surely it demonstrates that the strange fable, and tumult of Phaeton, and that the name of Electrum or choice remedy, hath not vainly been co-incident unto it. Let him laugh who will at the rub∣bings of amber on our pulses; let him run back unto magnum oportet, and at least he shall admire at the rubbings of apples for the abolishment of warts, not without fruit: For truly, if a towel being rub'd on a pestilent Bubo, doth snatch to it, and propagate the contagion; why may not also frictions or rubbings for a good end, bring a mumial co-suiting of disposition? who, I pray you, may not suspect amber that is rub'd on a pestilential emunctory: and if the poyson, why also by a like processe, is he not, at least in doubt, that it hath contracted a mumial co-resemblance? For I remember that

cheese being carried about under the a••mpit, and swallowed by a dog, it served instead of a snare or bait, and that he so left his own Master, that he believed him to be carr••∣ed away by a stranger in a ship. Truly if brui•• beasts, will they, nill they, do feel this limitation of the mummy, and do obey it, yet they enjoy a much more free choice, than those things which from an Archeal conception, fall under a Zenexton; I see not why it shall be wickednesse, to have attributed the same limitation unto Amber: For it is a thing that grows unto admiration, being in times past brought unto us for the rosin of a tree; at length being believed by others to be a mineral: yet is it sweat out of the Danish sea: At leastwise nothing is more acceptable to the stomach, bowels, sinews, yea, and to the brain, than amber being dissolved in the spirit of wine. Cease thou therefore to wonder, that so singular an increaser, being also endowed with so singular a comfortative and preservative faculty, and signed with so singular and attra∣ctive a faculty, is able to root out the Pest from our places and members, for the com∣forting whereof, it grows by a singular goodnesse of divine providence: For neither doth it favour of all unlikelihood of truth, that amber doth by rubbing, attract an odour, by reason whereof, it is rather appropriated to this individual than the other: For it is plainly a porous and volatile Gum, and therefore the receiver of a mumial odour, which ••t received by rubbing: For I have known a method, whereby the virtue of an herb, and animal, is imprinted on precious stones; and so that however exactly they are washed afterwards, yet the imprinted faculty remains resident and safe: For a yellow Topaz, as through a moderate heat of ashe••, it loos••th its yellownesse; so by the heat of the Sun it recovereth the yellownesse which it had lost in the ashes, through the same degree of heat.

Red Co••al, by rubbing it on a woman that is sick of her womb, contracteth a re∣maining paleness; but if it be rubbed on the flesh of a healthy woman, it recovers the ancient rednesse of its brightness.

In the next place, glasses (the most closed or shut up of solid bodies) wherein the essences or Magisteries of Civet, &c. had been; I have seen to have kept those forreign odours after repeated and tedious washings; yea, and a glasse, so to have kept the at∣tractive power of a loadstone, because a magistery of the loadstone had been framed in it. If therefore such things are wrought in a glasse, why not also in amber? which by reason of its porous and volatile matter, hath it self in manner of a hogshead, which being new, reserves the odour that once seasoned it. Therefore it's no wonder if amber retain seasoning odours, especially if it be born about by the same person, whose mumial exhalations it received by friction. Nor also is it of much concernment, if it divorceth the testimonies of the nostrils: For we also do not discern by a footstep, whose footstep it may be. For if the holy Scripture do commend a great virtue in stones; they do not understand that, of dissolved stones (for the art of resolving them was not as yet then commonly made known) not of the powders of Stones being drunk; the virtue whereof, being not co-mixed with the dungs, but for a little while, slides away in passing thorow the body. Therefore the speech is of entire stones, which ought to be as well the attractives, as the expulsives of the malady, and therefore their virtue is commendable for a Zenexton. If therefore a stone hath great virtue for the use of man, and the hardest of precious stones themselves, are by the testimony of the wise man, fruitful in virtue; that must needs happen, by beaming into the body, which they touch at, well nigh, like unto the stars: and therefore also, amber, through its irradiating transparency, and a more inclining obedience of effluxing, shall in no wise be more sluggish than gems: and the fa∣culty thereof, which otherwise sleeps, as it were bedrowsied, no wonder if it be stirred up by rubbings and heats; especially because an Adamant or Diamond, although it lose nothing of it self, yet by rubbing, it also allureth chaffs: For neither doth amber draw chaffs or moats, unlesse it be first rubbed: For it is a signate, teaching, that frictions ought to go before, if the bedrowfied power thereof ought to be stirred up by a••akening it out of its sleep, and to influx its ordained office of succour into us. At leastwise I testifie, that a piece of amber, as it resembles a gem or precious stone, yet can be much more easily attained by the poor man, than precious stones.

And moreover, Paracelsus highly boasteth of the invention of the magnet or loadstone of man, whereby he supposeth, that the Pestiferous air is uncessantly introduced and so he promiseth more powerful virtues to be in his Zenexton, of drawing outwards, than there are belonging to our feigned magnet of drawing inwards: But surely, that man hath seemed to me, to be ••ittle constant unto, and little expert in his own doctrine concern∣ing the Plague divulged in so many books, to wit, while he maketh the heaven to be the

Archer of the plague, and that this plague is nought but a wound of the heaven, as an angry parent; which thing, if he judgeth to be true, that poyson at least is not drawn by our Magnet, which is darted into us from so many thousand miles space: and either the Magnet is undeservedly accused, while as it is without fault, and his Zenexton is in vain directed, and hung on the out-side of the body, against the drawing of a feigned Load-stone; or he understood not the causes of the appropriation of a Zenexton, or at leastwise, he might think that he had dictated but dull causes of the Pest. To what end therefore, doth the remembrance of that Magnet condu••e in this place? the praise of that invention? For truly, a Zenexton hath nothing common with that Magnet, nor against the same: Be it so; for let there be a Magnet (let us grant it by supposing a falshood) in the heart and arteries, which without distinction drinks in the pestiferous poyson mutually co-mixed with the air: But if a Zenexton takes away, or hinders this Magnet, now the man is of necessity choaked, as being deprived of his accustomed expiring, for the necessities where∣of, they will have the heart and arteries to be uncessantly tired or urged: But if indeed we had rather have a Zenexton to be a separater of the pestilent air from the pure, that word containeth something beseeming a Fable: because the Zenexton should at least un∣dergo the office of a Sieve, and Seperater, and supply the room of the Archeus: But if a Zenexton causeth, that our Magnet draw nought but what is lawful; then the Zenexton should be the Tutor and School-master of the Archeus, to wit, that he may rightly per∣form his office; unless happily, thou hadst rather have a Zenexton to be distinguished by the name of an office alone, and so it should be equally infected with the Archeus, and equal∣ly feel the contagion of the Pest; yea an external thing, forraign to the life, and per∣haps containing a poyson, is now assumed with the Etymology of a due Ar∣cheus.

Alas Paracelsus, the matter is far otherwise: For it grieveth the Archeus of his own government: for neither is he intent upon fighting, or separation, in the Pest, who him∣self is the only object, and one only workman of the poyson: But he prepares himself for flight, casts away the rains, as being full of a panick fear, and as being mindful of his own weakness, that he is wholly subdued by poysons, or the least infection of an odour, by the bi••ing of a Viper, or stinging of a Scorpion in the top of the finger: Therefore he refuseth discretion, and being affrighted at the beholding of his Enemy, opens the doors, and casts away the keys behind him, and presently admits of any one to govern: and so, whatsoever things do happen in a dead carkass, after death, are in their making at the coming of the Pest. A Zenexton therefore, only serves, not indeed for admonish∣ing the Archeus of his duty, and appointment, nor for dividing of the poyson from that which is harmless in the objects, much less for restraining of the natural attraction of re∣freshment; but that it may kill, and annihilate the specifical poyson, which is conceived as well in the external air, as within in the Archeus: But surely none of these hath need of a Magnet, nor doth any way respect a Load-stone. The invention, and end of a Mag∣net, in a Zenexton, was unknown by Paracelsus: For a preservative Amulet, for every event, if it should respect a Magnet, it should not be of value, but in the case wherein the pestilent air is drawn inward through the arteries (which I have elsewhere demon∣strated to be frivolous in the Treatise of the Blas of man) but not, if at any time it be brought by the breath, as neither where the pestilent poyson ariseth within: Therefore the unknown Zenexton of Paracelsus, doth in no wise satisfie the necessities of Nature, or ends of healing.

But Hippocrates hath seemed to have more neerly beheld the causes of necessity for a Zenexton: He willing, that the heaven should make three local motions in us, to wit, within, without, and circle-wise; he then naming the heaven, as yet by an undistinct Grecisme, for the vital faculty: From whence Successors thought, that the heaven is contained in us in a motion outwards, by a transpiration, that a forraign Pest by that which is breathed in, may be hindered: For they say something, and from an unmindful∣ness, that the bodies of the infected are preserved in transpiration: But the same doubt, and antient perplexity, remaineth about breathing, and the framing of an internal plague: and in my judgement, a Zenexton ought not to lock up the pores, nor to shut the doors of breathing, least the Enemy enter; nor to strive with the Archeus: for strifes, dis∣cords, and brawlings, if ever before, at leastwise while the plague kindleth or rageth, is un∣seasonable; especially, while the Archeus failing in his courage, casts away his ••ea∣pons.

In the next place, neither must a Zenexton be intent in the more outwardly separating, cocting, or preparing of the pure from the impure. But that it be wholly, after the man∣ner

of an Antidote, contrary to the poyson already received: not indeed properly a∣gainst the poyson it self: But seeing that its principal use is in preserving, rather than in curing; Therefore the virtue required in a Zenexton, most properly consisteth in this, that it takes away the mumial appropriation and suiting, without which there is no contagion made: neither yet should it be a strange thing, if besides, it hath obtained the powers of a medicine to expel the poyson. And moreover, Paracelsus relates many things con∣cerning frogs, and toads, for the Pest, yet all of them confused ones. In the mean time, he hath opened the earnest desires and eyes of many: For he asfirmeth that toads are con∣venient for women, even as frogs for men, and indeed he would have them to be hung up and dryed, and a stick being thrust thorow their head: He hath chosen no month for this act.

At length, he promiseth that a Toad thus dried (but having prosecuted nothing of Frogs) being applyed to a Bubo in the groyn, will so draw all the poyson of the Pest into it self, that successively, even unto the fourth or fifth Toad, they do all wonderfully swell: and so he conjectureth at the quantity of the venom by the number of the Toads. He wil also have the dryed Toad to be first steeped and mo••ified in Rose-water: Notwithstand∣ing, either Paracelsus is unconstant to himself, or he chose some other Zenexton to himself besides the Toad: For truly, he writes, that the Toad is prevalent only in the Pest of the groyns, and of women: But for other plagues, he useth other attracters; and he saith, that the chief Incarnative of the Coelestial wound (for so he calleth the Pest) is gold, and precious stones.

First of all, I confess, that I have applyed Toads unto Buboes, and Eschars, as well in the breast, head, paps, as elsewhere, as well in men, as in women; and every where, not without a ready succour, and mitigation of the pain: But first of all, I never saw an applyed Toad to have swoln in the least; the which also, I therefore afterwards held to be ridiculous. And then, that of Paracelsus is alike frivolous; to wit, that the Pest doth no where otherwise offer it self, than behind the ears, under the arm-pits, and in the groyn; because the heavenly Archer doth not smite in any other place: For truly, I have seen a true and mortal plague to have shewn it self every where in the whole body, not only by Eschars, little bladders, Pustules, and swellings, but also by spots and marks: Therefore Paracelsus supposed the same thing to happen unto a dryed Toad, which be∣falls a live creature that hath taken poysons, and that is stung by Serpents, or that is kill∣ed by the poysons of plants, and animals: as if the plague of man should be a poyson to the Toad; and if this should happen, the Toad should not command the Pest, but the Pest the Toad: Neither also, doth a dryed dead carkass feel what were poysons unto it, while it was alive; Nor doth a dead carkass swell, being smitten by a Serpent: For a dead car∣kass, if it shall not be sensible, neither hath it retained the efficacy of tumefying. There∣fore Paracelsus was ignorant, that to swell up, is the property of the vital Archeus, and that swelling proceeds not but occasionally, from poysons. I admired at the insolent boldness of Paracelsus writing this thing: for a Toad that is dryed, however he may be six hours steeped, yet he always is uncapable of tumefaction or swelling: For the delay of steeping in a swift disease, is full of danger and loss: I therefore have steeped him in a small quantity of warm water, who being applyed unto the paining place, hath presently asswaged the pain. Truly, if any thing should exspire out of us into the dead carkass of a Toad, which was there materially detained, it had breathed out the same way whereby it had entred into the Toad: therefore swollenness is the action of the Archeus of life ef∣ficiently, and effectively; but it is the occasional action of the poyson, and the which therefore, can be none on the Archeus of a dead and dryed Toad: The Archeus there∣fore, since he is wanting to a dryed Toad, cannot be the cause of swollenness in that Toad: For poyson ceaseth to be poyson in respect of a dead thing; seeing poyson be-speaks a relation unto something that hath life. I know that Paracelsus had no actual practise of the plague; indeed, that he hath written many things, and those little suitable thereunto, he having promised most things from a rashness of belief drawn from the re∣lation of others.

Butler the Irishman, to my knowledge, had cured some thousands at London, of the plague, and afterwards, through the accusations of enemies he being deteined in the Castle of Vilvord, by my asistance obtained his liberty: For he had commanded a great Toad to be taken after noon-tide, in the month [called] June: I hung him up by the legs nigh the chimney, and set a dish of yellow wax under him: Atlength, after three days hanging, the toad vomited up earth, and some Insects, to wit, walking flies, their wings shining with a greenish colour, as though they had been guilded: But presently after

vomiting, the Toad dyed: neither vomited he up any thing before three days space, al∣though he hung with his head downward. But he said unto me, that I had remedy enough for the curing of forty thousand that were violently taken with the Plague, and promised that he would shew me the hinge of the matter: But being suddenly banished, he de∣par••ed.

At leastwise, I commanded these excrementitions filths cast up by vomit, and likewise the dead carcase of the toad being dryed, to be beaten apart, into powder, and with Gum dragon, I formed Trochies, which I have successefully used, as well for the pre∣vention of the plague, as for curing of the same. Afterwards in the month [called] July, in the decrease of the Moon, I took old Toads, whose eyes abounded with white worms, and hanging forth with black heads, so that both their eyes were wholly transformed into worm; perhaps there were fifty worms in number, thickly compacted together in eve∣ry hole of their eyes, whose heads hung out; and as oft as any one endeavoured to go out, or to hang over, the Toad presently, by applying of his fore-foot, forbad his utter∣ance: But these Toads being constrayned to vomit (as I have said) by hanging them up by the legs, I found to afford a most excellent Zenexton or preservative•• amulet a∣gainst the Pest: But I reduced the wormes falling down in the waxen dish, and together with that which he rejected by vomit, into smal Trochies, the dead carcase of the Toad and waxen dish being added thereunto: But the Trochies being born about at the left pap, drave away the contagion, and being fast bound to the place in∣fected, presently drew out the poyson: And the Trochies were more ready, and of more validity if they had returned diverse times into use, than when more new: But I found them to be a most exceeding powerfull Amulet or pomander for the plague: For if the Serpent eateth earth all the days of his life, because he was the instrument of sinning; the toad eats Earth which he vomits up, all the days of his life: But according to the testimony of Adeptical Phylosophy, the Toad bears an hatred against man, so that he infects some Herbs that are usual with man, with his corruption, and that in hope of his death: But he differs from the serpent in this, that at the sight of a man, he from a na∣tural gift conceives a great terrour or affrightment; which terrour from man, attains for, and imprints on himself, a natural efficacy against the images of the affrighted Archeus in man.

For truly, the terrour of the Toad kils and annihilates the Idea's of the affrighted Archeus of man, because the terrour in the Toad is natural, and therefore radically, and through∣out his whole body incorporated in him, even when dead: but the Idea of terrour in the Pest is only accidental and flowing. The Toad therefore, being in his own nature, afraid of man, increaseth the image of hatred, and heightens his powers, that at least∣wise he may privily hurt, and that like the Pest: But this sealed property of hatred, and also of terrour, he carries in his head, eyes, and in the place of the power of concupi∣scence: therefore his head, and eyes, while he is as yet a living creature, are transchang∣ed into live and true wormes (such as are bred in cheese) but that the extream part of their head looks somewhat black: For at length, together with his life, so great a mul∣titude of worms fals out, because while he was as yet a living creature, the whole sheath of his brain seems to have been wormy: Surely a terrible, and sealy signate, dedicated to the most terrible and of deaths; Health or safety from our enemies, and from the hand of those that hated us (to wit) a remedy.

For truly, the hatred and terrour of the Toad towards us, prepares a medicine of health for us: For therefore an hatred of us is proper to, and naturally incorporated in the Toad, that he carries an Idea of hatred wholly throughout his whole; even so as the spit∣tle of a mad dog, doth by accident the fear of an Hydrophobia. But besides, whereby the terrour of us, and inbred hatred towards us, in the Toad, may the higher ascend, and the more strongly imprint their images, the Toad is hung up aloof, nigh the chymney, in our sight; and therefore even his hatred and terrour increaseth unto death. But that the Toad doth by his ownconceptions, generate Idea's, I will by and by shew, by the sud∣den death of the Toad himself: Now at least, I will say that I have cast a Toad into a Lake encompassed with a wall, which on the morning following had dyed, swimming swollen, upon the water: But he had his back besprinkled with a frequent black mark: From which signal spots I conjectured, that he bears a remedy against the Plague even the most cruel one; to wit, the which after a speedy death, utters its own signs: And it ad∣deth an hope, if he promise a remedy for the most fierce and speedy death, that he shall afford a much more excellent one for any the more slow death. But that young Beginners may acknowledg with me, how much the image of hatred can work in this se∣cret:

It is before all things to be noted, that the Pest of man reacheth not bruits, as neither that of them, him; Because no poyson operates without a ferment of the mummy of man, or the agreement of a co-resemblance: For whether that ferment shall flow out of an infected body, garment, paper, and pestilent air, or in the next place, ariseth out of us, and is shut up under the Tartar of the bloud; at least-wise, however it be taken, the plague cannot infect any one without the communion of a ferment.

This poysonous image therefore, and operating image of hatred, in the next place, this se∣minal image of terrour in the Toad, kills the mumial ferment, without which indeed the pestilent poyson cannot consist, enter, as neither be appropriated by us: This I say, is the man∣ner of operating in a Zenexton; to w••t, whereby the communion of the pestilential air is hindered, as it deprives the excrementitious and evapourating Tartar of the bloud of a mumial ferment: And it brings in the room thereof, a ferment, the taker away of the pestilent poyson, or an image which kills the pestilent ferment; Because it as it were in a moment, slayeth the mumial ferment, the fountain of contagion, or at least, the fewel thereof, to wit, if it be already present, and hinders it for the future, whereby it waxeth not strong, and it so kils the immediate subject of inherency, that it be not co-suited with our mummy. The ferment therefore, easily dies, if the Seat of the Pest be dis-enabled that it grow not; when as otherwise, every ferment is the meer tincture of a certain odour: For neither is the poyson of the Pest, wasted by the poyson of the Toad, by an action primarily destructive and subduing; but by a secondary action, as the pestilent Idea of hatred, or terrour, extinguisheth the ferment, by whose mediation the poyson of the Pest subsisteth, and proceedeth to infect: For seeing the poyson of the plague is the product of the image of the terrour of the Archeus, stablished in a fer∣mental putrified odour, and mumial air, this coupling ferment, the appropriative mean, and immediate subject of the poyson, is also taken away, and there afterwards remains onely a fermental putrified subject, as before, which is to be put to flight by way of sweat: whence it is manifest, that a Zenexton doth at least prevent the appropriation in the first place, and also takes away the seat or essential thinglinesse of the poysonous Idea of terrour.

And indeed the Lady of Rommerswal Toparchesse in Ecchove, a noble, affined, and honest Matron, related to me in candour of spirit, that she once beheld a duel between a Spider, and a Toad, for a whole afternoon: For this, when he felt himself to be stricken by the Spider descending from above, and that he was presently swollen in his head, he runs to an herb which he licked, and being most speedily cured, his swelling asswaged; from whence he setting upon a repeated fight, was again also smitten in his head, and hastened unto the same herb; And when as the thing had now the third time happened, the Spectatrese being tired, cut off the Plant with her knife (but it was the Plantain with a narrow leaf) and when as the Toad returned thither the fourth time, and found not the herb, he most speedily swelled all over, and being sore sn••itten with terrour, presently died: But he betook not himself unto the neighbouring plants of the same Plantain, and those frequently growing (for the image of the conception of fear, and sorrow, produceth a speedy death, the hope of a most speedy remedy perisheth in a most furious disease) for when he found not his own Plantain, he who before encountred from a hope of presently recovering, forthwith despairing through fear and an idea of terrour, died.

For from hence the great fear of this little beast is manifest, the greanesse and vio∣lence of the Idea of dread is conjectured from the speedinesse of his death: For to be straightway healed, swell up, and presently die, do manifest that in this Insect there would be a momentary and present remedy in the plague; as also, that in the poyson, there would be every one his own conception of terrour, formed into an idea; Be∣cause such an idea keeps a duality or distinction with the life, and therefore also that sup∣plants this. Neither also hath a live Toad according to my experience, afforded a Zenex∣to•• of any great moment: For the grain ought to die if we expect the fruit thereof: and it is convenient that the terrour of us be increased in the Toad: for as our Pest is not mortal, or contagious to the Toad, so the terrour of the Toad doth not any thing in∣crease the terrour of the Pest of our Archeus: And unlesse the terrour ceaseth to be a certain conception, and be reduced into an active Idea; as it produceth not the poyson of the Pest in the Archeus, so neither doth it cause a remedy in the Toad: For to this purpose it is required, not onely that the Toad do die by reason of the fear of poyson, or of Plantain failing him, and that he be slain by the terrifying Idea of his own con∣ceit; but it is of necessity, that the Toad perisheth by languishing, by reason of the ter∣••our

of us, he being hung up nigh the chimney, &c. For then that deadly terrour being inferior unto, and co-fermentable with ou•• Archeus, brings forth an Idea mortal to the Toad, but profitable unto us: For it beats a co-resemblance with the terrour of our Archeus, forasmuch as terrours do participate in a terrifying image.

But because the terrour of the Toad is not belonging to us, therefore it frameth a poyson against the poyson of a pestilent terrour formed by the Archeus into the poyso∣nous Idea of the Pest: For there is a most excellent preservative amulet in the Toad, or∣dained for man by the Father of the poor. Consider I pray thee of the Toad with me, in what manner he ariseth out of muck or filth putrified through continuance, between the chinks of stones, and there liveth without food, and grows to maturity for very many years: for a Toad is not seldom times drawn out of the broken stones of Paris, which was deteined there perhaps for the space of an age; For neither doth he eat before he breaths: And the air being once drunk in, he at length undergoes the laws of death and diminishment: For before he breathed, he lived onely, and that by his own Archeus. Almost all other created things do putrifie in a rock: But the Toad is nourished and grows to maturity in a fermental putrified liquour, within a rock or great stone.

From hence also it is conjectured, that he is an Animal ordained of God, that the Idea of his terrour being poysonous indeed to himself, should be unto us and to our Pest, a poyson in terrour: For as it is sufficiently manifest from the aforesaid particulars, that the Toad is most disagreeable unto our co-tempering and suiting; so the Idea of terrour in the Toad is exceeding pestilential to the pestiferous terrour it self in us. Since therefore the Toad is an Insect, most fearful at the beholding of man, which in himself notwith∣standing, forms the terrour conceived from man, and also the hatred against man, into an image, or active real Being, and not subsisting in an only, and con••used apprehension (even as hath already before been nakedly demonstrated concerning the Idea's of a wo∣man great with child, and likewise of a mad dog, &c.) Hence it happens, that a poyson ariseth from a Toad, which kills the pestilent poyson of terrour in man; to wit, from whence the Archeus waxeth strong, he not onely perceiving the pestilent Idea to be ex∣tinguished in himself; but moreover, because he knoweth that something inferiour to him∣self, is terrified, is sore affraid, and doth flie: For so, in every war and duel, from an evident dread of the enemy, a hostile courage is strengthened. But so great is the fear of the Toad, that if he being placed with a direct beholding before thee, thou dost behold him with intent eyes or an earnest look, for some time, for the space of a quarter of an hour, that he cannot avoid it, he dies through terrour. The Toad therefore, being slain after the manner of Paracelsus, he dying without terrour, is an unworthy Zenexton. The Archeus therefore, his courage being re-assumed, casts away dread, most especially when as he well perceives the bred poyson of his own terrour to be killed: For a Zenex••on acts not after the manner of other agents, no otherwise then as the poyson of the plague is alto∣gether an unwonted poyson: Neither doth a Zenexton act materially; but the action of the same is spiritual and altogether sympathetical: For truly, the co-resemblance of acti∣vity, wherein the reason of founding a Sympathy consisteth, is in the poyson of terrour conceived as well in the Pest, as in the Toad.

But even as the poyson of the Plague is irregular, having nothing common with other poysons; so also a Zenexton being exorbitant or rising high in the activity of a strange and forreign terrour, is a manifest poyson to the pestilent image of our terrour, together with a refreshment, confirmation, strength, and resurrection of the Archeus: which acti∣vity of a preservative amule••, surely the Schools could not contemplate of, because they have not been able to contemplate, that that of Aristotle, not onely in the plague, but also in other poysons, is false. Indeed the action of a Zenexton is from the victory of the Patient over the agent: for thou shalt remember that the terrour and hatred in the Toad, from man the agent, overcomming indeed, but in no wise operating, are made, imprinted, actuated agents, and those brought into a degree, by the proper conception of the Toad; which in the aforesaid Idea are as it were fugitive living creatures; and therefore they restore the terrified Archeus of man, and kill the image of the poysonous terrour.

Truly in single combats that are spiritual, there is altogether a far different conten∣tion, from that which is wont to be by appropriated corporal agents: The which I have elsewhere demonstrated, in removing the activities of contrarieties from the proper∣ties of nature. A Zenexton therefore, is of a magnetick or attractive nature, to wit, acting onely on a proper object, while it meets with it within the sphere of its own activity. It might seem a doubt to some why the image of hatred in the Toad is a reme∣dy;

but why the image of hatred in a mad dog is a poyson: the reason is in the adjoyn∣ed Idea of terrour in the Toad, which brings forth an inferiority of poyson: For the one exceeds the other in the sturdinesse of conceptions, and therefore also of images: For a mad dog is bold, rash, and his sealed image enforceth its obedience: For neither is he mad, forasmuch as he feareth; but he feareth water, as he hates living creatures: But the Toad is an Animal that is most afraid of us, and as from his inbred hatred to∣wards us, he is badly conscious to himself (divine clemency so disposing it); So the ima∣ges of those conceptions mutually piercing each other, and accompanying each other, do confer a mark of the greatest pusillanimity or cowardise dipt in the venome of ha∣tred: Hence indeed the image of the pestilent terrour is killed by the image of the deadly hatred, and our Archeus is beheld by the image of the cowardly terrour, through the application of the preservative Pomander, as it were in a glasse, and doth well nigh re∣assume the superiority which before he had lost: And therefore the Idea of terrour in the Toad, hates, and also the image of hatred terrifies the Toad, from whence he puts on a poyson for our terror; To wit, by both means, he kills the image of pestilent terrour in the Archeus. There is indeed in spiritual things a primitive self-love, seeing that every original single duel of sensitive creatures, issueth not but from premediated conceptions; but the Idea of every ones conceipt, is formed in the imagination, and puts on an Enti∣ty or Beingnesse for to do somewhat for the future; For as the images of motions to be made, do end into motions; so also the images of the Senses are carried, first inwards, for further deliberations of counsels, and they soon there degenerate into the images or likenesses of apprehensions, passions, or disturbances, and from thence they are carried to do something in the body, or out of it, and they slide and grow according to the di∣rections and inclinations of passions: In this respect indeed, such images do limit the vital spirits, or the very operative part of the bowels; according to an impression proper to themselves: which thing most cleerly manifests it self in the poyson of a mad dog, who if he were afraid of us, as he is afraid of water, would not do us violence, neither would his biting be venemous unto us. For the Spider, Scorption, &c. are wrathful little Ani∣mals, and the which, if the strike us, they lay up they anger of their own poyson in us, or ra∣ther the poyson of their anger.

A certain hand-maid now and then are spiders, not only the party-coloured ones of the Vine, but also those black ones out of Caves and moist places, and lived in health there∣upon: Wherefore I have considered that the Spider is a fearful Animal, while he is laid hold of with our hand, and therefore that he doth not bring forth a poyson, even as otherwise he doth, while he stings us in anger. From hence indeed, a Scorpion being laid hold of and afraid, heals a wound that was inflicted by himslef. Two things therefore in the Toad, do offer themselves in the highest degree; To wit, the image of hatred, by its poysonous quality, extinguisheth and blunteth the appropriative ferment, that the Ar∣cheus doth not put on and drink in the Idea of terrour that is bred: but the image of ter∣rour in the Toad recals our Archeus, being sore afrighted, and adds courage unto him, that of a fleeing Archeus, he may be made a putter to flight. There are besides a Zenexton, some attractive remedies, such as is the Water-cresse, with the juice of the leaves of the greater raddish, and likewise of red winter cherries, and figs, of each a like ••uantity; The which being bruised, are applyed, and the skin is opened in manner of a ci••••le: Also the herb Napellus, a kind of Wolfs-bane so called, the Grape turned inside out or stript of his skin, Monks-hood or Woolfs-bane, being first boyled in Vinegar, and then with a bruised fig, applyed to the place, do draw powerfully, and open the skin, of which kind of attractives, there are many sorts.

CHAP. XVII. Hippocrates Revived.

ACertain man being familiar with a happy Angel his keeper, intreated him, that he would beg of God, the remedy whereby Hippocrates cured the popular plague of the Grecians; hoping that it would not be denyed unto the miserable Christians, the which the Almighty in times past granted to the Heathens: The good Angel said, Hiprocrates, used Sulphur, Salt, and Pitch: which answer left behind it the former obscurities: Hence it came to passe, that that man afterwards said, there was enough spoken for these times. Wherefore after a careful diligent search, at length I resolved with my self that Sulphur in the age of Hyppocrates was called Phlogiston, that is, inflameable: By which Etymology, Diascorides soon after said, the best Sulphur was denoted, from its own pro∣perty, to wit, because it was wholly consumed by the fire. But because Hippocrates named the hidden poyson of any diseases whatsoever, a divine thing, in diseases, and because he cured the poyson of the pestilence (which is the chief and standard-defender of poysons, and •••• contagious diseases) therefore he began to call Sulphur [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] that is, a divine thing; so that from hence even unto this day, Sulphur is no otherwise written or named, than with the name of Divine; because it heals the Pest: The which, as it was antiently believed to be sent onely from the Gods, so also it was antiently sup∣posed to contain a divine succour in it.

For all bodies universally, even of remedies against poyson, and the air it self, are subject to a fermental putrefaction, and to the poyson of the plague; and therefore they are a fit occasional matter for the Plague. Truly Authors do batter themselves with a tedi∣ous disputation, whether Salt be capable of a pestilent poyson? whether a Letter that is closed with a linnen thred, be a partaker of contagion, but not that which is tyed with a metallick thred? I have bewailed the ridiculous Fable of the Italians, and their Study of brawling: For truly, paper is no lesse capable of contagion, than flax, from whence it is made. Silver also, Gold, and the most cleansed glasse, and an Antidote it self, may drink in the forreign poyson of the plague: But Sulphur alone, among created bodies, resisteth a fermental putrifaction, and the contagion of the plague; Because Sulphur alone being like unto fire, drives away all putrefaction through continuance, as well in Hogssheads, as in places themselves, and blots out the foot-steps of any touch and odour: For so Sulphur also takes away well nigh every scabbednesse of the skin, because it is an enemy to contagion: Wherefore neither is it a wonder, if the Pest being derived into the skin from an internal Beginning, be also drawn out by Sulphur. For since that in the whole Universe, nothing doth more readily conceive fire than Sulphur, because it is as it were a meer fire; no wonder that Sulphur demonstrates the properties of fire, which are to burn up all things, nor it self to be infected with contagion.

Truly I have seen in the watery tract of Gaunt, a whole legion of Neopolitans to have died of the plague, but there was in the same place a Company of Germans which ••inged their shirts with Gun-powder, that they might excuse their Laundresses, and also the lice: If any of these perished, it was by reason of the bloudy Flux, but not of the plague: Therefore Hippocrates separated 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (that soundeth Sulphur, or a divine unexpert or crude fire) which is named in the Shops Sulphur Vive, from the su∣perfluous earth, onely by fusion. But it is yellow, which being once enflamed, burns moreover even unto the end, neither doth it contract a skin in its superficies, as neither doth it leave a dreg behind it worthy of note; but being once enflamed, it wholly flies away; and therefore was it named 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or inflameable. For in the age of Hipocra∣tes, the manner of extracting Sulphur out of the Fire-stone and Marcasites, was not yet made known: Wherefore the Sulphur of Italy is better than our Country Sulphur bred at Leydon. For the Fire-stone exspires forth some Arsenical matter in the boyling; for why, the••efore Arsenick is commonly called the fume of metals. Hippocrates there∣fore, at first commanded the houses that were infected with the plague, to be perfumed with Sulphur: For indeed Sulphur while it is burned, and its heterogeneal parts are

separated, it affords a black smoak, and belcheth forth a watery and acide o•• sharp Salt, which is constrained into a liquor, and is called the distillation or oyl of Sul∣phur.

In the next place, out of enflamed Sulphur, the homogeneal part of the Sulphur doth exhale, it arising indeed, by reason of heat, but being not yet enflamed; and therefore it flyes away with the fume or smoak, before it can be snatched hold of by the flame; For so, o••t of woods, oyls being not yet enflamed, do ascend together with the smoak, and affix a smoakiness or soot as yet combustible, unto the sides of the Chimney: But Sul∣phur thus flying away, together with its smoak, as it is in its former disposition, so nei∣ther in this place, is it of any valour.

But since every seed of burnt Sulphur is destroyed by the flame, for that very cause it is transchanged into a Gas or wild spirit, which by reason of the properties of its own concrete or composed body, is an An••idote against the Pest: For seeing that a medicine ought suitably to answer to the disease, the water, salt, smoakiness, or volatile floure of Sulphur, cannot be the true remedy of the plague; but only that subtile and almost incor∣poreal Gas, which is therefore straightway comixable with our Archeus: Therefore that Gas refresheth those that are affected in their womb, with its smell, but not the oyl, not the tincture, milk, or floure of Sulphur.

But after what sort thou mayest know that Gas of Sulphur to be distinct from the wate∣ry vapour thereof; kindle a sulphurated torch or candle in a glass bottle, thou shalt forth∣with see the whole bottle to be filled with a white fume, and at length the flame to be stifled by the fume: Afterwards, keep thou the bottle most exactly stopt with a cork, and thou shalt see a sulphur to be affixed unto the sides of the vessel, and in the superficies of the water, if there were any in the bottom: But if indeed, after some daies, thou shalt put the same enflamed torch or bottle into the neck of the candle, the flame is forthwith extinguished by reason of the condensable Gas of the Sulphur; no otherwise than as the odour of an Hogshead putrified through continuance, stifles the flame of a sulphurated candle.

But Hippocrates perfumed all the wine which he gave in the plague, after this manner: He perfumed the pot or cup of a narrow neck, with a candle of burning sulphur, he powred in wine, to the filling of the pot a third part full, and stirred the pot being exact∣ly shut, by shaking it a good while together, upwards, and downwards, until the wine had drunk up all the Gas of the sulphur into it self: For medicines to be hung on the body, and Amulets or preservative Pomanders had not yet been made known: But he supplyed external medicines that take away weariness or faintness, in the room thereof, by a∣nointing the body with Greek Wine wherein he had boiled the most fine powder of Sul∣phur: But he besprinkled the same fine powder being dryed in the Sun, on those that were in a sweat, and commanded it to be applyed with rubbings. But the Pest, since it never wants a Fever, and that the Grecans saw the remedies of Hippocrates, they began first, to call the Pest, and then every Fever, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or a fire; Not indeed, by reason of a re∣markable, and necessary burning heat of Fevers (although it so pleased Galen): For truly, they called the beginning, cold, rigours and horrours, Py•• or a fire, as well as a burning Causon.

For Hipp••crates lightly ground Sulphur with water, on a Grind-stone, and being again dried, he kept it for his uses: But he gave twenty four grains of Sulphur with salted, and hot wine, that he might provoke sweats: But he first made the salt to crack in a glassen pot, and presently afterwards, he melted it, by increasing the fire; for else, salt con∣taineth in it excrementitious filths, which at the first cracking, fly away, the salt clea∣ving asunder and leaping a little: These Spirits do easily putrifie through continuance, and subject the salt to a fear of contagion; for they are very forraign to the salt; the which although they fled away a good while before the fusion of the salt, yet he made a melting of the salt, that whatsoever forreign thing was contained in the salt, might be consumed by the fire: For indeed, he saw that presently after the invasion of the Pest, the appetite was prostrated, and then also, that fermentally putrified and burntish impu∣rities grew in the stomach, from whence arose the headach, vomitings, loathings, doat∣age, the drowsie evil, &c. which would hinder the cure of the plague: Therefore he took the common balsam of the salt of fleshes, which might overthrow the fermental pu∣trified poyson, and putrefactions, by cleansing them away, together with a con••••••ing of the strength; and he gave the wine being salted, hot, but not luke-warm 〈…〉〈…〉 restrain the loathings of the stomach, and mightily provoke sweats; and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Sul∣phur, that it might kill the plague as it were with its odour; because salt clean••••••h, pre∣serveth

from corruption, and Sulphur restrains poyson: But he prescribed this sweat for three daies space at least, yet oft-times he extended it unto a weeks space: but they did sweat twice every day, and at every tur••, for the sixth part of a day, if they were able; on the first daies more, and on the after succeeding daies, less: For in time of sweating, he took away all drink; but the term of sweating being finished, he fed them with Barley-Cream, and for drink, they had Greek Wine pitcht, wherein were a few grains of the aforesaid salt, and Sulphur: But he laid the leaves of Assara Bacca, being steeped in vi∣negar, upon the Bubo, unto the soals of the feet, and palms of the hands, which after every twelve hours, he commanded to be buried, because they stink greatly. It came to pass afterwards, that Greece be sprinkled their grapes, divers times, with the Brine of the Sea, before they were carried to the Press: For Hippocrates perswaded that thing, that so, together with it, In••ects might be driven from the grapes: Hence it is, that the Wines of Greece are salted even unto this day, the reason of this use being unknown. Unto great Buboes in the groyn, and marks, he applyed hot Towels tinged in rich wine, wherein, as I have said, he had boiled Sulphur. Furthermore, he reserved a secret to himself, through the sight whereof, he attained to himself, divine honours: But it was the flesh of a Viper, or or Snake, which he cleansed: for the utmost part of the tail, and the head, being cut off, he stript off their skin, casting away the bowels, together with the gawl, he reserved only the Heart, and Liver; but he drew out all their blood, with the vein running down the back-bone: But he boiled not their flesh after the manner wherein it is put into Triacle; but he exactly bruised the same, together with the bones, and aforesaid bowels, and dryed them in a warm Oven, until they could be powdered; which powder he sprinkled on ho∣ny being sufficiently clarified and boiled, until he knew that fleshes in boiling, had laid aside their virtue as well in the broath, as in the vapours: But he added unto this Elec∣tuary, the Spice of his Country for to cloak the secret; and therefore, neither was it made manifest by the Angel. But the cure contains a mystery; that as Death crept in by the Serpent, it self also, ought to be vindicated by the death of the Serpent: For Adam being skilful in the properties of all Beasts, was not ignorant also, that the Serpent was more crafty than the other living Creatures; and that the aforesaid balsam, the remedy of death, lay hid in the Serpent: Wherefore the Spirit of Darkness could not more safely deceive our first parents, than under the Serpents skin: For perhaps they hoped that they should escape the death sorely threatned by God, by the aid of the Serpent.

Hippocrates used also wine that was pitched: Wherefore it is worthy our consideration, that Spain is seldom afflicted with the plague; not because sins, or filths are wanting, where there are almost no Jakes's: Its a Country, I say, raging with heats, imitating of, and co∣bordering on Africa: Nor also, because their great men do cool their drink with snow: because, at least the Rusticks and Citizens should pay the punishment of their own sins, with the plague: But Aegypt useth waters and fruits, from whence there is a fermental putrefaction in their flesh: but Spain useth wine, and indeed that which is pitcht, be∣cause, seeing for the most part, they want Hogsheads, they keep their wines in pitched Hides or Leathern Jacks: Italy hath wooden vessels; therefore it doth not, as constrain¦ed, make use of pitch, and it is more frequently, violently taken with the Pest: For pitch being applyed to Carbuncles, is for an ease or comfort, and they are quickly opened; for pitch imitates the blackness of an Eschar. Among known trees, the pitch-tree a∣lone is made a torch, and by reason of its fatness, it presently dies, if but a little earth be added to its Trunk: for God is liberal in his remedies, and that is proper to his good∣ness: For death happening by a tree, it hath seemed to be ordained for a remedy against death, unto man that was made mortal by a tree. The smell of pitch is familiar for a suf∣fumigation unto very many Provinces infected with the Plague: For so Petus affirmeth, that Hippocrates had not one only remedy against the Pest; and that he was sacrificed unto by the Athenians, as it were unto a protecting starry God. When as therefore, the Greeks saw Hipocrates to use a remedy known only to himself, unto whom therefore they at∣tributed their life, health, and whole preservation; they by degrees despairing, the use of salt, and sulphur went more and more into oblivion, especially if some years that were free from the plague, interposed: And afterwards, every Physitian began to select divers medicines, hoping that his own was the Antidote of Hippocrates: From whence there was afterwards a standing crop of remedies collected, without number, for the most part, with empty ears. At length, from a slender senting of the praise of the Viper, the com∣position of Triacle arose, it being partly loaded with a confounding of simples, and their odours being partly dispersed in time of preparation, and they cast away the better properties of the Viper in the broaths. At this day, the Antidote of Orvietanus is made

of great account for thplague; because he first dated to swallow any poyson unknown unto him, in the open market place; which thing, the Germans at this day perform only by the use of the Snake: For they little distinguish the Pest from other poysons, and have ••aken little notice, that against the will of the Electuary of Orvicta••••s, the plague not∣withstanding, hath lately raged throughout all Lumbardy: For I omit, that the Pest doth radically differ from other poysons.

Quercetanus, and the Writers of this sort, in their Caco-Alexiteries or bad medicines against poyson, and in their young beginnings, do dicta••e very many remedies (whether boldly, or sottishly, let others judge from the roots of the Pest supposed) every one whereof is framed, not indeed from knowledge, but from thinking alone, and the Au∣thor of them is worthy of pity, if not of punishment: For Ranzovius concerning de∣fending health, describes a Saxenian Antidote for his Son, it being tryed divers times by me, but always in vain, because the poyson consisting in a spiritual image of terrour, hath nothing in the aforesaid Antidote, which can radically overcome the same image: and therefore by reason of the ignorance of the causes of the Pest••, any one hath devised many remedies; and also, hath connexed many things unharmoniously together, against the poyson forreignly entring: Indeed, all of them confused, without a method, experience, reason, and knowledge of the causes: And nothing having been at all devised against the Pest arisen from the foolish image of terrour, and the perswa••ion of fear••ulness, afterwards, from the age of Hipocrates, every Physitian began at pleasure to select divers remedies, and to connex many things together, and much more than many, hoping that his own invention was that of Hippocrates.

In the mean time, the number of compositions increased, and by degrees, uncer∣tainty supplanted the antient truth: And although an Antidote which operateth about the effects of the poyson produced in the body, be to be greatly esteemed; yet while it o∣perateth not on the terrours of the Archeus, and the image produced from thence, truly, neither can it bring help to the pestilent contagion; or if any one do revive from the plague with those Antidotes, that is not done but with an unfaithful succour: For in the plague, the Archeus himself is well nigh bewi••ched with terrour and grief, and stamps a pernicious image on himself, which is the true Pest; from which, neither doth he vo∣luntarily re-arise, unless by a singular power of nature, and divine grace. Moreover, as I have elsewhere demonstrated in a particular Treatise, that the first assaults of concepti∣ons, do not stand in a free disposition of the will, but that they are framed in the midriffs; So by arguments drawn from thence, I have fitly or exactly beheld, that the image of ter∣rour, and indeed the plague it self, is formed about the Jurisdiction of the stomach and spleen: and that thing, I seriously and by long leisure discerned, and have exactly con∣firmed from observation, by very many histories; one or two whereof, to have repeated, shall not be besides our purpose.

A certain young man, beholding his little Sister to be be-spotted with a black mark, and to be dead, being sore smitten with terrour, presently felt a load about the mouth of his sto∣mach, the admonitress of continual sighing: He daily used Triacle, Myrrhe, and the root of Butterbur being adjoyned thereunto: he ate and drank even unto merriment: At length, on the twelfth day after the death of his Sister, a Fever, and deep drowsiness laid hold on him, and on the third day after, he died. A Noble Virgin, having suffered a co∣like burden, and anguish of terrour, at length, passed over restless nights with a dejected appetite, with sighs, and oppressions of her stomach, and a panting heart, a slow and continual Fever took hold on her, with an uncessant strugling of fear, and hope: For as many deliberations of animosity or courage, and of free resignation, as she could make with her self, were in vain: Meats also being despised, there at length, remained place fo•• strong wine; and that also she soon disdained; neither also was she so greatly afraid of death, as of future doating delusions:

In the mean time, she laughed at her foolish perplexities, or mournful vanities, and it grieved her self of her own ••olly: But the Physitians had sent their own Antidotes unto her, under which, the Duel of her mind increased, no otherwise than as in those that are bitten by a mad dog, with their disease of the fear of water; and at length, through the mortal ••orrow of the pestiferous terrour, she now plainly despaired in mind; because she was she, who for three weeks space, had admitted of no sleep, with a perpetuak Agony, and despairing of life, and yet was vexed with her self, through la full remembrance or knowledge of her own foolish strugling; and Opiates being administred, she found her self worse. At length, between the fear, and desiring of death, she plainly recovered by the remedy of Hippocrates, in six hours space. In the mean time, I confess, and admo∣nish

by way of protestation, that I have plainly enough manifested the bosom of the re∣medy of Hippocrates, that it may be sufficiently plain only unto the Sons of Art, and true Physitians, and covered for the future, only to sloathful Physitians, that are enslaved to gain, and to the envious haters of the truth.

But I have declared, 1. The aforesaid histories, that plagues beginning, may be mani∣fest not to be as yet seasoned with the pestilent poyson, and not yet to be accompany∣ed with a sufficient image of terrour,

2. And that the virtue of the remedy of Hippocrates may from thence be made manifest.

3. That the first violent motions of confusion, terrour, and imagination, do hap∣pen in the midriff, about the mouth of the stomach; To wit, in the Spleen, whose emunctory is nigh the mouth of the stomach, and so that it is the mark of that Archer: For in a healthy young man, whom the plague had snatched away in seven hours time, a dissection of his body being begun, I found a long eschar now made, to be, as at first the mover of vomit, and afterwards the Authour of continual swoonings; so also, to have given an occasion of sudden death; even as in others, I have noted a three∣fold eschar to have been made in the stomach, ••n sixteen hours space.

4. That the master of Animal subtilty, hath with his white wand of sleep, chosen the Inn of drowsie sleep, and watchings in the same place.

5. And that the seat of all madnesse and doatage, is in the same place: And that thing I have elswhere profesly founded by a long demonstration.

6. That purging likewise, as also myrr••ed Antidotes for the Pest, are not safe enough, or worthy of confidence.

7. And that all reason, deliberation, animosity, resignation, consolation, argu∣mentation, and all the subtilty of man on the contrary, do but wash the Ae••hiopian, in the Pest, even as also in the disease Hydrophobia.

8. That the endeavour of preservatives is sluggish, as oft, and as long as the seal of the image framed by terrour, remayneth.

9. That such an image stirs up from it self, continual sorrows, and spurns at the phantasie it self, and drawes it captive to it self, no lesse than the biting of a mad dog, brings forth an unwilling fear of water, or the sting of a Tarantula, the do••tage of a tripping dance.

10. That the comfort of sweating alone, is loose in such terrours.

11. That the Idea of fear not being vanquished in the bowel, nor the dreg wherein that image sits, banished, it is in vain, whatsoever the magistrals, or compositions of the shops do attempt: For Hydrophobial persons, although now and then between while, they speak discreetly, fore-feel, and fore-tel a madnesse coming upon them, yet they cannot but be driven into the madnesse of their own image.

12. That swimming is destructive, and whatsoever restraineth sweat.

13. That Barley broaths, pulses, syrupes, and Juleps, are loose and frivolous reme∣dies for so great a malady.

14. That it comes from a bastard plague unto a true or Legitimate one; yet that the sick do often fail under the beginning thereof, before it sends forth its tokens: The which traiterous signes do notwithstanding, presently after death issue forth.

15. That grateful odours, the perfumes of spices, feathers, or shooes, do bring no de∣fence or succour for the plague: For by way of example; if thou seasonest an hogshead of wine putrified through continuance, with the odour of spices, or with any other odour, except that of Sulphur, it remaines fermentally putrified, and it soon defiles the new wine which thou shalt pour in, as the former. Wherefore sweet-smelling things do in no wise take away the terrour, and the poysonous Idea of terrour, from the Archeus being once terrified; Because they take not away the ma••ter of the poyson; and much lesse do they kill that poyson, or remove the terrour from the Archeus, as neither do they refresh the seat thereof, or comfort the part affected.

For Paracelsus commends unto the City of Stertzing that was bountiful unto him, myrrhe being by degrees melted under the tongue, before any other remedies; and boldly promiseth it unto the younger sort, for a preservation for 24. houres space: which doctrine notwithstanding, I have experienced to be false: For I have seen young folks, with the much use of myrrhe, to have been killed by the plague. Myrrhe indeed, although it may preserved dead cracases from putrefaction, instead of a blasam; yet the Pest far differs from putrefaction; No otherwise than as the eschar of a bright burning iron differs from putrified blood: And although corruption succeedeth in a carcass now dead, yet the poysonous image of terrour doth not properly putrify, as it doth most proper∣ly slay the vital Archeus, and tranchange him into a poyson, with it self: For he bids that

myrrhe be held in the mouth: As if the plague knew not how to to enter but by way of the mouth: Therefore far more advisedly to have shut up the mouth in silence. Truly the Pest will abhor myrrhe, nor will it da••e to enter in through the nostrils, if myrrhe being de∣tained in the mouth, doth dissolve: shall perhaps, the odour of myrrhe hinder, where∣by the poysonous image is the lesse poysonsom, is not poysonsom? Is not hurtful? For shall myrrhe in the mouth, repulse the plague from the Archeus? The same reason is alike frivolous and foolish for Triacle, vinegar, &c. perfumed with odours.

At length, let mortals know, that in healing, nothing is alike hurtful, as a rash belief given without a pledge, and truth. Truly, the accusations of the sick, will at sometime thunder against the negligence, falshood, decietful juggles, rashnesses, and false wares of Physitians, whereby people have been spoyled of their life. But I have discern∣ed by the books of Paracelsus, that he was a man rash in promising, unexpert in the plague, unconstant in its remedies, ignorant in its causes, as also ungrateful toward the bountiful City of Stertzing. Let his honourers spare me, that I am constrained to speak candidly or plainly for the truth, in a matter of so great moment, least any one in the plague, should put confidence in his succours.

CHAP. XVIII. The image of terrour sifted.

I Have hitherto produced the unheard, of poyson of the Pest: To wit, that the soul, and the vital Archeus thereof, are powerful in an imagination proper to themselves: But that that power of the a foresaid imagination, is to form Idea's; not indeed, those which may be any longer a Being of Reason, or a non-being; but that they have alto∣gether actually, the true Entity of a subsisting image: which imagination surely, see∣ing it is a work of the flesh, and also common to bruits, as to us; hence indeed, it is framed in the outward man, from which, nothing but [this somethings] being far dif∣ferent from a spiritual conception, proceedeth: But for-the obtainment of which subsisting entity, the Archeus himself so cloaths his own conception (which as yet, is a meer and abstracted mental Idea) in his own wrappery, or in a particle of his own air, that what he conceived in himself by an abstracted conception of imagination, that very thing the Archeus presently arraieth and cloatheth with the vital air; So as that afterwards, it is a subsisting Being, to wit, an image framed from imagination.

Moreover, as there are diverse unlikenesses of conceptions and passions, according to the liberty of that Protheus; so undoubtedly there are also, manifold varieties of those same images, far seperated from each other, and the Idea's of these, being cloathed with, engraven in, and having made use of the vital spirits, do diametrically utter forth unlike operations in us: And therefore the images of terrour are very poysonsom, and potent to defile the vital spirit bearing a co-resemblance with them, which unhabites as well in the heart and arteries, as in the very family of the solid parts it self; To wit, the which image, and most powerfull efficacy thereof, I have already before, and many times elsewhere demonstrated as much as I could: I have said also, and demonstrated, that the same image is the essential, formal, and immediate essential thinglinesse of the Pest: Because that the plague is not unfrequently framed, from a terrour of the plague only, although there fore-existed not a material cause from whence it might be drawn. I have afterwards treated by the way, of the preservation, and curing of the Pest by a Zenexton, and remedies in times past used in Hipocrates his time; yet ••here hath not as yet been enough spoken for the present age, in order to a cure: For truly, very many difficulties of∣fer themselves, which have not been sufficiently cleered up.

First of all, the image of terrour is only one indeed, in its own kind, and therefore it may be difficulty understood, that the Pest should be able by the one only and uniforme I∣dea of affrightment, to afflict so diverse things, and not only in distinct emunctories, but equally, so distinct parts throughout the whole body, at its pleasure.

Secondly, And then, that the same image of terrour should be able only by its beck,

to stamp products so different from each other: Such as are Carbuncles, Buboes, Escha••s, little bladders, Pustu••es, Tumours, Tokens, &c.

Thirdly, in that the one only Idea of terrour should invade and besiege, not only the external parts, but also the stomach, and likewise the head, &c.

Fourthly, that a unity of that Idea, should sometimes produce a most sharp disease; at another time, a disease that is slow, and twinkling by degrees; elsewhere, a disease by de∣grees decaying of its own accord; since such effects may seem to accuse, rather a diversity of the poyson, than an identity or sameliness thereof.

Fifthly, that the Archeus of man being sore afraid of the poysonous Idea of terrour, and as it were, a run-away, should have the power and courage of producing an Eschar in the skin, like unto a bright-burning iron.

Sixthly, because doatage, I say, and watching, seem not to bud from the same Beginning, with a deep sleepy drowsiness. But one only answer, easily blots out every such kind of perplexity: For indeed, every first conception, and the first assaults or violent motions of conceptions, do happen beneath the Di••phrag••a or midriff-partition, which there∣fore are denied to be subject to reason, or to be in our power: Wherefore that Hypo∣chondriacal passions do grow in the same place, every age hath already granted: and then, that the pest or plague is oftentimes immediately introduced from a pestilent ter∣rour, none doubteth; which terrour, as it is framed by the imagination of that place; So also, the image of terrour is stamped, from whence the imagination hath drawn an Ety∣mology to it self: But such an image is not idle, or without a faculty of operating; see∣ing none is ignorant, that most diseases have took their beginning from naked perturbati∣ons or disturbances.

In the next place, terrour is not only the dread of the Soul of man, and of Reason a∣lone; but also the Archeus himself is terrified, and wroth, with a certain natural ferven∣cy, and the illurements of passions. Furthermore, terrour stamps indeed an image, the Ef∣fectress of the plague, the Mother of confusion and terrour; but that image assumes not a poyson from an undistinct confusion of terrour, from a confused terrour, and from the fear or flight of the forsaking Archeus: But as every Serpent, and mad dog, produceth a poyson, by the conception of a furious anger; So also, the terrour of the Archeus is not sufficient for the producement of a pestilent image, unless the fury of the Archeus shall bring forth a poysonous image, which also pi••rceth and is married to the image of ter∣rour.

Hence indeed it comes to pass, that the Pest is for the most part bred about the sto∣mach, and doth there manifest it self by loathings, vomiting, lack of appetite, pain of the head, a Fever, drowsie evils, and at length Deliriums or doating delusions: For truly, I have amply enough demonstrated elsewhere, concerning Fevers, and in the Treatise of the Duumvirate, that this houshold-stuff is conversant about the stomach: For an Eschar is not made in a dead body, but only in live ones; and so, from the life, and Archeus himself (even as concerning sensations elsewhere) who being wroth, brings forth the i∣mage of fury, which was bred to change its self, and the whole spirit of the Archeus, and the inflowing spirit of the Arterial blood it self, into a corroding Alcali: For the vi∣tal spirit, which in its first rise, was in the digestion of the stomach, materially sharp, and which in the succeeding digestions, is made salt, and volatile, doth formally degenerate, and is made a corrosive salt, and a volatile Alcali, the efficient of the Corrosion and Eschar: For, for the madness of so strange and forreign a transmutation (to wit, produ∣ced from a strange and forreign image) whatsoever is vital in the very solid substance of the parts it self, all that, through the wrothful vital principle being angry and enra∣ged, is enflamed, and brings forth divers diseases (which are plain to be seen in the burn∣ing coal, in the Persick fire, in a Gangren, in an Erisipelas, &c.) It is manifest therefore, that from the same Beginning of the Archeus being sore affrighted, and enraged into a dog-like madness, it happens, that the plague is ••iversly stirred up, sometimes in the sto∣mach, sometimes in the skin, Glandules, Emunctory places, and also, now and then, in the very solid family it self, of ••e similar parts, or bowels; from whence mortal spots, Es∣chars, and combustions do happen, according to the diversity of the parts, whereunto the Archeus being full of fury; and full of terrour, shall divert himself: But that the Archeus being terrified, and a run-away, and returning as half in a rage, is made so ho∣stile unto the parts his Clients, over which he alone is president, the confirmation thereof is not elsewhere to be fetched, than that a thorn is thrust into the finger, which by the fat or grease of an Ha••e, is safely expelled without discommodities, as that remedy as∣swageth the fury of the Archeus: which thorn doth otherwise, stir up a great Tragedy of

fury: For the Archeus brings forth a poyson in his Clients, by his own fury, the which otherwise, a simple small wound would willingly be ignorant of. Conceive thou, how unlike is the wound of phlebotomy, and the sting of a Bee: And likewise the stroak of phlebotomy that is clean, how far doth it differ from the prick of unclean phlebotomy. Its no wonder therefore that the seat where the image of the conceived terrour, and piercing of the combined image of fury shall first happen, is hostilely disturbed, is furi∣ously scorched; yet oftentimes poysonous, tempests, are transmitted and chased unto the more outward habit of the body, by the implanted spirit of life, unto places I say, whi∣ther the Latex or liquor of the veins tendeth of its own free accord, in time of health, or they are dismissed unto the external habit of the body: And therefore, whatsoever is to be done in the Pest, that is to be cured with speed: For sometimes the image of the Pest, is cloathed only with the inflowing spirit, and then medicines that provoke sweat do readily succour: But where the inhering and in-bred Archeus conceiveth the image of his terrour, and fury in the solid parts, unless he presently resign up and lay aside the con∣ceived image, unto and in the spermatick nourishment (I have called that corrupt nou∣rishment the Tartar of the blood) and produce a tumour, there is danger least it pre∣sently pass over into the very substance of the solid parts, which contains an unexcusable detriment of death: And therefore, that the plague may not take up for it self a tough Inn within the body, we must procure, that the pestilent image do not long float within; but that the whole houshold-stuff be allured forth, and fall out by sweat: For the Carline Thistle, is said to have been in times past, shewn unto an Emperour, by an Angel, for the plague of his Army (perhaps therefore called Angel-Thistle) because the first rise of the image of the Pest, stirs up drowsie evils, loathings, a Fever, vomiting, and head-aches a∣bout the stomach; but the herb Ixia or Chamilion, drives away sleep, and much more deep drowsinesses against Nature; and therefore they hope, that the extraction of fresh Carline Thistle, should not be unfruitful for the plague that is newly begun.

The End.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The signs of a true Physitian.