Page  534

CHAP. LXVIII. I proceed unto the Knowledge of Diseases.

I Have already oftentimes, nor in vain asserted, that Arts and Sciences have hastened unto a pitch; but that the art of healing alone, if it hath not gone backwards, at least∣wise, [ 1] to have stood at a stay, and to have whirled round about the same deceitful point. Hence also I have conjectured, that the knowledge of Diseases, and a Medicine depend∣ing thereon, was to Man most difficult; On which, so many flourishing wits have for so many ages, vainly bestowed their endeavours: and that thing I do not hereby conjecture to be from a contingency, or events alone; to wit, because the knowledge of Diseases hath even hitherto stood neglected: But because, in respect of the Causes, it is wholly invisible and unpassable. Wherefore although I tax the ignorance of the Schooles, I will not have that to be done by me, for a little vain glories sake, as neither from an intent of reproaching the whole Body of the faculty: Because it is that which hath not transgressed against me; but only from a desire of teaching Mortals: Not indeed that I perswade my self, that the goodness of God doth envy this doctrine for the health of Man, while as even from the beginning of the World, he hath dispersed his gift, by some, throughout the ages of the World; the holy Scripture also do most greatly commend the Physitian: But that most, through a sluggishness of diligent searching, and a readiness of credulity, have stifled in themselves that endowed or gifted Light: And so the Devil being the builder, it hath alwayes been super-structed on the false Principles of the Hea∣thens.

Therefore Medicine, the most difficult of Sciences, by reason of the invisibility of Diseases, and deceit much increased by Heathenish Theorems, hath not been penetra∣ble [ 2] by any acuteness of Wits; which difficulties, the invention and knowledge of so ma∣ny Simples, and preparations, appropriations, and applications of remedies, fetcht from thence according to the varieties and speedinesses of sliding occasions, hath increased; in every of which, they are on both sides, the invisible actors of their own tragedy: The which Diseases unless any one shall perfectly know, or hath obtained a super-excelling re∣medy, truly he shall spend his weapons at the effects, but not at the roots themselves. Therefore the gate of healing, hath even from the Cradles or non-age of the World, re∣mained shut, which my Talent received, hath commanded me to open (for of boasting hereof, it hath notably shamed me, God is witness) wherefore, I ought first to free the Hinges, and Bars from rust, that I might set open the Doores to those that are willing to Page  535 enter: Therefore I ought to expose the one only and golden Key, hitherto hidden in the Arches of the Archeus, unto the Fire of the Art of the Fire, and Light of Truth: That any one may enter into the secrets of the Court, so far as shall be granted him from Above.

First of all, I do not name a Disease, a Diathesis or Disposition; but the very wander∣ing or erring Being, which is stamped by the vital Archeus himself: I do not therefore [ 3] behold a Disease as an abstracted quality. And that thing I thus perswaded my self of, in times past, that like Life, it is a Being proper unto the Life it self: It being the reason why a Disease doth with so swift a pace, pierce into the Life, by reason of its co-resem∣bling mark. Wherefore the Apoplexie, Leprosie, Dropsie, or Madness, as they are Qua∣lities in the abstract, with me, are not Diseases: But as the Apoplectical, Leprous, Mad∣dish, &c. Being, contains the very Scope and Causes of the Diseases in it.

Truly a Disease begun from Sin: For in the integrity, purity of our Nature, and vi∣gour [ 4] of Innocency, there was no Death, and much less a Disease: For Death was threat∣ned, not a Disease, but that they were understood concomitantly, as to future times. Therefore a Disease doth in its own Nature, oppose the Life, no otherwise than as Death it self, and the powers thereof, the which therefore we call vital: Because through the spending of those, a lingring, or sudden Death happens.

We believe by Faith therefore, that Death and every infirmity hath entred into Man by [ 5] Sin, and that through the concupisence of the Flesh of Sin, they were propagated on all posterity: Therefore that neither could the entrance of Diseases and Death, be learned by Heathenisme.

Because it was reasonable, that all the ranks of sicknesses should be rooted in the same concupiscence of the Flesh, whereby Sin entred: For as concupiscence in the concepti∣on, [ 6] doth not Sin before a consent, which fashions an Idea of plausibility; So it must needs be, that every Disease arising in the Flesh of Sin, doth consist in a strange Image, or seminal Idea of corrupt Nature. I have gathered also that it was suitable, that, the Being, which under a concupiscible pleasure, consented, and sinned, should primarily also be strucken with Diseases: So indeed that it should not only fail or faint through external violences, but should experience the revenges of Sin in the Flesh, by its own proper ex∣orbitances; to wit, that the Archeus himself, the governour of the Flesh of Sin, should by the same liberty of his own passions, frame erroneous Images to himself, which should be unto him as it were for a poyson: Indeed that from the delights of the concupis∣cible part, from passions which are the storms of the wrothful part, and likewise even through voluntary disturbances, he might stand subject unto his own Ruine, which he should stamp on himself.

Which Images or Likenesses indeed, as being the seeds of Diseasie Beings, should be thenceforth wholly marriageable unto him in the innermost Bride-bed of Life. This in∣deed [ 7] is an hard saying, in the ears which are not accustomed to hear beyond trifles, heats, and dirt.

Wherefore if any one doth admire at so great an efficacy of the Archeus being Ideated, and of seminal Idea's, as to produce Diseases, and Death it self: He doth not yet know [ 8] that the natural beginning of all things doth altogether depend on the Ideal part in every seed: Wherefore let him consider, that as the Light being united (for truly in subluna∣ry things, there is scarce any thing more spiritual than Light, because it is that which pierceth solid Glasse, yea also place it self) doth enflame Woods, and Houses: So also that every Idea is a Light, as well forasmuch as it is stamped by the Spirit the partaker of a vital Light, as in that it is lightsome from the property of its own essence.

Otherwise Idea's themselves, as they are conceived, are nothing besides the Lights [ 9] of a vital Soul reflexed on its own cogitations; and the which therefore are not con∣ceived, but in a lightsome Spirit, in which they receive the figure of the thing conceived. That is, they are there made an intellectual Idea it self: Therefore although cogitation it self be a meer [non-being] Yet every thing conceived, doth from the very right of its nativity, consist of a matter conceived, and of a vital Light intelligibly reflexed on it: And seeing the Imagination is the Ape of the Understanding, although it doth not transform it self into the thing conceived, after the manner of the Understanding; yet by conceiving, it transports this thing figurally into it self, and seales the conception there∣of, and decyphers a certain seminal Idea of the thing imagined, together with light, effi∣cacy, and every manner of operation: And that wholly under its greatest Unity, and Simplicity: So that if in fructifying seeds, and those continuing the perpetuity of the Page  536 universe, these things do appear to happen, and to operate by a Light, with great effi∣cacy; wherefore shall we be ignorant, that these do not otherwise come to pass in Diseases? Especially while the same things are engraven by a stronger apprehension. [ 10]

For things conceived do teach us, that from passions, or perturbations which are [non∣beings] true, real, actual Images do arise, no otherwise than as the thoughts of a Wo∣man with Child, do stamp a real Image, how strange, and forreign soever it be: Where∣fore thus indeed the Phantasie brings forth poysons, which do kill its own Man, and afflict him with diverse miseries: So that, as those Images do primarily proceed from the ima∣ginative power, whose immediate instruments, the Archeus himself is: So it is altoge∣ther necessary, that he which toucheth Pitch should be defiled by it: That is, it behoveth the Archeus himself, primarily, and immediately to conceive, and put on that new Image, to be affected with the same, and by virtue of a resembling mark or Symbole, other things depending on him, according to the properties of that hurtful Idea: And that Ferment being once decyphered in that aire which maketh the assault, is a Disease; which forthwith diffuseth it self into the venal Blood, the liquor that is to be immedi∣ately assimilated, and next into the similar parts, and into the very Superfluities of the Body, according to the property even of that its own Idea; for from hence the Diseases of distributions, and digestions: What if Idea's are formed in the implanted Spirit of the Braine, or inne of the Spleen by imagining, which also in Bruits are the principal Blas and Organ of all Motions: It nothing hinders, but that the Archeus himself im∣planted in the parts, may frame singular, and now and then, exorbitant Idea's, not un∣like to the imaginative power: for so the Spittle of a mad Dog, Tarantula, or Serpent, and likewise the juice of Wolfesbane, Monkshood, or Nightshade, do communicate their Image of fury on us against our wills: Wherefore likewise nothing hinders, the chief or primary instrument of imagination, from forming, in-mate, seminal, fermental, poysonous, &c. Images unto it self.

Whatsoever doth of its own Nature, by it self and immediately, afflict the vital powers, ought for that very Cause, to be of the race and condition of those Powers: For other∣wise, [ 11] they should not have a Symbole, Passage, Agreement, Virtues, or Piercing into each other; as neither by consequence, an application, and activity: For seeing the pow∣ers or faculties, are the invisible, and untangible seals of the Archeus, who is himself in∣visible and untangible, those powers cannot be reached, and much less pierced, or van∣quished by the Body; because those powers however vital they are, yet they want extremities whereby they may be touched; whence it follows (which hath been hitherto unknown) that every Disease (for it glistens in the Life) because it is of the disposition of the vital powers, it ought immediately to be stamped, and to arise from a Being which was bred to produce seminal Idea's.

And seeing nothing among constituted things is made of it self originally, of necessity [ 12] the powers as well of Diseasie, as vital things, do depend either on the Idea's of the gene∣rater himself (whence hereditary Diseases) or of the generated Archeus: But that that thing may the more clearly appear, in the seed of Bruites, and Man, there is a power for∣mative after the similitude of the generater: Because it is that which seeing it is disposi∣tive, and distributive of the whole government in figuring, its activity is contested by none: The seed therefore hath a knowledge infused by the generater, fitted for the ends to be performed by it self; for the seed which in its own substance is otherwise barren, is made fruitful by an Image stirred up in the lust: To wit, the imaginative power of the generater, doth first bring forth an Idea, which at its beginning is wholly a [non∣being;] but by arraying it self with the cloathing of the Archeus, it becomes a real and seminal Being: And that as well in Plants, as in sensible Creatures: For in vegetables, a seed proceeds from an invisible Beginning (for truly there is a virtue given to a plant of fructifying by a seed, and so it hath an analogical or proportionable conception, which formeth a seminal Idea in propagating) borrows its fruitfulness, and principles of Life from it, but not Life it self; (even as elswhere concerning Formes) therefore a seed bor∣rows knowledge, gifts, roots, and dispositions of the matter espoused unto it for Life, from a seminal Idea, to wit, the cause of all fruitfulness: And they who a little smelt out that thing, in times past have said, that every generation doth draw its original from an invi∣sible World.

The thrice glorious Almighty, by the naked, and pure command of his own cogitation, [ 13] and conceived Word [Fiat] or let it be done, made the whole Creature of nothing; and put seminal virtues into it, durable throughout ages: But the Creature afterwards, pro∣pagates Page  537 its gift received, not indeed of nothing, as neither by its own command; but it hath received a power of Creating its own seminal Image from God, of tranferring, or decyphering the same on its own Archeus: This indeed is the seminal virtue of Man, Bruits, and Plants: But not this beast-like conception is in plants, nor is stirred up from lust: for it is sufficient that it happen after an analogical manner, where∣by the Antients have agreed all things to be in all, which manner, by a similitude drawn from us, the Sympathy, and Antipathy of things do shew; for they feel a mutual presence, and are presently stirred up by that sense, unto the unfolding of their natural endowments: Because they are those things which else would remain unmoved; but a sense or feeling cannot but after some sort have an equal force with an imaginative virtue: The which I have elsewhere profesly treated more at large concerning the Plague: But now my aim is not to Phylosophize concerning Plants; but only of Diseases: It sufficeth therefore that the imagination it self, so called from the forming of an Image, doth stampe an Idea, for whose sake every seed is fruitful: And seeing that in us, that imaginative power is as it were brutal, earthly, and devillish (according to the Apostle) therefore it is sub∣ject unto its own Diseases, and can stampe an Image in the Archeus its own immediate instrument. Hence it happens unto us, that every Disease is materially, and efficiently in us.

For whatsoever is bred or made, that wholly happens through the necessity of a certain seed, and every seed hath its [this something] from an Idea put into its spirit; but a Disease is a real Being, and is made in a live Creature only: Whence it follows, that although a Disease doth oppose the Life, as the forerunner of Death; yet it is bred from a vital Beginning, and the same in the Life, to wit from the flesh of Sin: Notwithstand∣ing Death, and all dead things, do want rootes whereby they may produce: And so seeing Death bespeaks a destruction or privation, it wants a seminal Image, wherein it is distinguished from Diseases: Life indeed is from the Soul, and therefore also the pre∣mised character of the first constitution: But a Disease hath proceeded from the confusi∣ons and disturbances of an impure Archeus, and being radically implanted in him, hath so remained thenceforth unseparable, to wit, as to a formative power of infirm Idea's: A Disease therefore growing together from Idea's, as from its seminal efficient Begin∣ning, cloathes it self with a fit matter borrowed from the Archeus, and ariseth into a real Being, after the manner of other natural Beings: And seeing the Idea is now formed in the Archeus, he presently also begins to act these things, neither is he idle, but defiles a part of the Archeus: In which part, a ferment, as the means of the efficient Cause, is forth∣with stirred up through an aversion from the integrity of Life; and at length by assistance hereof, he either defiles the more gross masse of the Body, or at least-wise disturbs the family-administration of the digestions.

The Schooles I well know will deride the doctrin of Ptato, because I have assigned se∣minal Idea's, Ideal powers, and formal activities unto Diseases; for they will rather [ 15] acknowledge four qualities environed with feigned Humours, and do grin that these trifles are trampled on by me, as not knowing whereunto the Causes, Essences, and Me∣dicines of Diseases should be due: Being ignorant I say, that a more powerful, near, and more domestical Being, hath mustred an army against the life of Man, of whom also it was divinely said; That a Mans Enemies are those of his House; for they do every where notably accuse obstructions occasionally induced by the injuries of filthinesses, as Di∣seases; which obstructions do notably argue not so much the obstructer, or also the thing obstructed it self, as they have alwayes noted with a losty brow, the majesty of an action, passion, and relation, sound in the obstructer; as if the obstruction it self, or a relation it self, should be a Disease; but that the foundation of that relation, should include the reason of a Diseasifying Cause: Indeed the whole errour of the Schooles, ariseth from the ignorance of a Disease, which consisteth immediately in the life it self; but not in dregs, and filthynesses which are erroneous forreigners, and strangers to the Life:

For truly while they have consecra∣ted the Stone of the Bladder, in the next place, all the filths, mixtures, powers, proper∣ties, effects, and liberties of effects, activities, and interchangeable courses, unto the combates, and wars of the Elements alone, they have signified by the same method, that they will not, and cannot be wise beyond heats, and colds.

For so they have hitherto taught without shame and judgment, that the Stone doth wax dry, is dryed, and hardned in the midst of the Urine, by heat, and by the same [ 16] Page  538 priviledge of rashness or boldness, they have neglected every thing, the whole history of Nature, and nativity of things, and have made themselves miserable, because ridicu∣lous in the age to come: Wherefore I have often complained with thee good Jesus, O thou Prince of Life, how difficult it would be for the Schooles, who have been constantly nourished from their childhood with so great an harlotry of trifles, and juggle of mists, to have assumed the true Principles of things: Unless thou hold the stern of the Ship, and inspire a prosperous wind on the Sailes, I guesse that the envious man will be ready to deliver up my Writings for Volusian, Unlearned, or wast Papers.

Help O God, for the good of thine own Image, that Seeds themselves may testifie the Archeus to be present with them, who unless he be fructified by the onely conceived Idea of the Generater, they do return into a Lump, and dis-shaped Monster, unto which a vigor is wanting, no lesse of figuring, than of unfolding of Properties. Let Diseases witnesse, I say, although I am silent, that they are Active Beings, admit∣ted into Nature by natural Principles: Let them confesse, according to Trismegi∣stus, that things superiour and inferiour, are carried by the same Law of proportion, and co-like Principles: That by the meditation of one Thing, Archeus or Princi∣ple, all things do even to this day subsist, and are continued: That by the Meditation, and Idea of that one, they do receive the perfect Act of Superiour or Inferiour Be∣ings: What he spake is Truth, and that Truth shall vanquish every strong For∣tresse, and pierce through all Solidities or Difficulties.