TO give an account to the World why I attempt so difficult a Task as to treat of the Pest or Plague, that greatest of Contagions that ever was in the World, whereby God is pleased to permit multitudes of people to be swept away, and thereby, as it were, to thin the Earth: And not rather leave it to riper judgments and more mature understandings, whose grey-hair'd Experience, if nothing else, might be deem'd to set off these Arcana Naturae abstrusiora or more hidden secrets of Nature, with a better and more resplendent lustre. I say, the reasons why I set upon this Work, which some may (and [Page 2]that perhaps not enviously) think unproportionable to my shoulders, is;

First, Because I have not seen, as yet, another step forth with his Bow and his Sling against this great Goliah, which may probably (if not prevented by Divine Providence ei­ther raising up Instruments who may shew forth his Wonders that he has planted in Nature, or by a more immediate hand stay the Fu­ry thereof:) may, I say, knock down thousands of people ere the sting thereof be dinted; and there­fore calls for some to stand up whose Names are written in the Vo­lume of Nature as well as of Grace, to shew forth the Wonders of the Most High.

2. Because God has not left us destitute of means even in the most deplorable cases (unless he has de­termin'd the ruine of a Family, a Town, a City, Country, or People [Page 3]through the crying sins thereof) and for that purpose has planted in his wonder-works of Nature such a Treasury as therein to be found a Remedy for every Malady, which are not often handed forth to the unworthy, though otherwise never so industrious, upon selfish interest; who are like those that grope for light at noon-day, who in the midst of light are yet in darkness: but it pleaseth God the Primitive Author and Fountain of Nature to enligh­ten those in Him accepted persons with his gift of light and knowledg in the things of the outward Na­ture, so as they may be enabled through his inspiring light, from whom every good and perfect gift proceedeth, to single forth those Specifick Remedies as they lie in the bosom of Nature against every Ma­lady and Infirmity (to which Hu­mane Nature in its outward being is most prone) who likewise are [Page 4]taught to exalt those Medicinal pro­perties according to the intention of Nature to their highest energy and efficacy. We therefore who are Sons of Pyrotechny, and wait for our Diploma from the Most High, are, by the blessing of God succeeding our endeavors, in a better capacity of making our grand in­quests into the secrets of Nature, the Hand-maid of God, than those loiterers in the Vineyard; I mean the Galenists, who like the angry Wasps neither work themselves nor yet would willingly suffer others, lest by the fruits of their Labors, (which at length will overcome) the dronish Galenists in time be degra­ded, who now according to all pro­bability (seeing a better light to Physick springs up from the anato­mizing Art of Chymistry) are at the declining hand.

3. The third reason may be from the imminent danger and extraor­dinary [Page 5]urgency and necessity of the present time, whereby this Na­tion is threatned with one, if not more, of that trine of those epide­mical sweeping Judgments, which God permits to come upon the face of the Earth, when his wrath is stir­red up by the exorbitant vanities and crying wickednesses of a Peo­ple; so that many Moses's had need to stand in the Gap and cry, lest the Vials of wrath be poured forth af­ter an extraordinary manner upon a gainsaying People: And seeing, as the Wise man saith, that, of the Most High cometh healing, and that the Lord hath created Medicines out of the earth, and he that is wise Will not abhor them. And that God hath created the Physician: And there­fore the Wonders of God in his creation of Medicines out of the earth, ought not to become as Cy­phers through ignorance and un­worthiness, but, by the strength and [Page 6]enabling power of God, to improve our Abilities and Talents which he has bestowed upon us that we may not hide them in a Napkin, but im­prove them to the utmost every one in his capacity and order, in his ge­neration, to do what good he can; for we are here as Stewards every one intrusted with a Talent to im­prove, which who lays out to the best advantage and doth the most good in his place, receives the grea­test Reward of the Heavenly Do­nor.

4. The last reason, and that which as to my own particular was instar omnium, was, the bent of my own Genius, which I confess has been captivated amongst the rest of my Spagrrick Inquiries after a peculiar manner to search for an Antidote and Cure of some highly malignant Feaver, which I was apt to think might ere long appear upon the Stage of the World as an epidemi­cal [Page 7]Disease, and certainly the Plague is the highest and most malignant of Feavers. It was the current, I say, of my own inclination, prompted by an inward hand, that led me that way, that I could not but take notice of: It was that amongst the rest of my Fire-works that put an edg upon my desire of doing good in my generation, that I might not be found in idleness, drolling away my precious time either in vanities or in empty speculations, but in ex­perimental essays of those Medici­nal Vertues which otherwise lie dormant under their shells and husks; seeing God keeps his Jewels of hidden Energetical Vertues, such as are Healing Endowments of things, under Lock and Key, as I may say, and will not let them go unless the Artist have the Key from him, who thereby is let into the se­cret Meanders of beautiful Nature, and sees the many, and yet orderly [Page 8]windings and turnings in that great Labyrinth, where indeed Healing is seen to be the gift of God.

Now that I may buckle to the Point, and in short but compendi­ous discourse (waving prolixity) may signifie the essential nature of the Plague, its manner of surpri­zing and destroying the body: also the probable way of Antidote and Cure, if curable, that so we may not appear altogether barren in the Theory.

The Plague therefore is a certain virulent and contagious Ferment conceiv'd from without or within the body, seizing upon the vital Archeus, or spirit of life, with a kind of fear and terror, and boyls in the blood; and in its fermenting, impresseth its malignity upon all the principal parts and humors of the body, whereby the blood presently putrefies, and sends forth bubo's, sores, stigmata, &c. the immediate [Page 9]badges of its mortification, and so works in the blood and spirits til such time (which is speedy) as the vital Lamp burns dim and short­ly becomes extinct, much like a ma­lignant combustible halituous Mine­ral Sulphur which is sometimes found in Mines under the earth, which blows forth a Candle, and sometimes stifles the vital fire of the Laborators.

First, I say, it is a virulent and contagious Ferment, viz. A poy­sonous and infective operating pow­er: now Ferments are certain pow­ers in Nature whereby all things are put into a way of change either for good or bad; for, Ferments are the Parents of transmutation out of one form into another, or from one de­gree to another, whereby things are brought on to their highest energy either for good or bad; by Fer­ments fixed things are made vola­tile, and volatile fix'd; they are the [Page 10]keys of Nature whereby great chan­ges and alterations are made in bo­dies.

Now every thing that has a ve­getating life has also a ferment im­planted in it w^ch is a certain working power whereby the wheel of Na­ture becomes stirring and active in that beeing and demonstrates its self in the several gradations of the same thing both in its production, increase, (acmn) full growth, de­clining, and at length passing off the stage into another form.

Now as Ferments are indemon­strable à priori, inasmuch as they are certain original operative powers which God has implanted in every natural beeing, and therefore there is not any thing (prius, or) be­fore them by which they might be evidenc'd what they are; but they shew themselves sufficient­ly that they are, and what they are by their fruits, effects and symp­toms, [Page 11]which are demonstrations à posteriori, and sufficient to evince the truth of their existency; as for instance, that natural digestive pow­er which God has plac'd in the sto­mach of all creatures, whereby the Aliment that is taken in, though of several sorts of food, is all reduced by the analyzing vertue thereof into an acid cremor, (though taken in with other properties of sweet, bit­ter, &c.) and so turns all into a primitive prepared juyce for the nourishment of the body after its transits through other digestions, fitted for the same purpose to bring the nutriment on by several degrees to become a balsamick spi­rituous liquor fit for irrigating and nourishing the solid parts, which no solitary heat, though never so ar­tificially contrived, could without these innate digestions or ferments, ever bring to pass; therefore they demonstrate themselves to be and [Page 12]to do, what no other things can be or do besides themselves.

In like manner the Pest as also some other Diseases are entia realia, viz. real beeings, which have a be­ginning, an encrease, and growth, a fulness of stature, whereby they either conquer that which they rise up against, viz. the vital spirit, or they are conquered and begin to decline and are as other natural bee­ings transmuted into other forms. Now I say, the Pest is not demon­strable à priori, though the spirit o [...] the humane life as considered in its integrity and soundness is pre-exi­stent before the seizing of the viru­lency of the pestiferous ferment, yet then they are as two distinct beeings which at their encounter strive for masterhood, as two Antagonists or Champions striving to van­quish one another. Insultat ho­stem, &c.

And though the Pest have a real [Page 13]existency in its self, as for instance, its lying dormant in rags, vestments, flax, walls, &c. Wherein it has yet all the lineaments and proportions lurking within its own sphere, and as really the same beeing of the Plague or pestiferous ens, as if it came in combat with the vital spirit, yet I say, as to us and as to the ef­fect it would work, it is as nothing or a meer dormitant ens that lieth buried in its ashes, unless it be con­temper'd with our humane Mummy and then it becomes an actual and fermental pestiferous entity, pro­ducing its various effects, and symp­toms within the sphere of the Mi­crocosm, mostwhat to the ruine of the vital structure; and doth not as most other diseases which with the suine of the vital flame extinguish [...]lso themselves, but out-lives the [...]fe and skips into another body to [...]ct the same scene over again, after [...]s tyrannical a manner as ever, [Page 14] viresque acquirit eundo.

It is a poysonous ferment to the life, and therefore in its fermenting or working it inverts the whole frame of Nature, and what other diseases effect in a long time by, as it were, often biting and nibling and obscuring the vital flame, till at length they worm out the life: this like a nimble Arsenical combustible Mineral Sulphur, sets roughly upon the vital Taper, and with a quick malignant Blast extinguisheth it, and that, as it were, it devours ore o­perto.

2. This contagious Ferment is con­ceived either from within, or from without the body: from within, as when an Idea of fear impresseth it [...] character upon some more then or­dinary putrid excrementitious mat­ter residing in the Intestines or in the ultimate digestion, and the Idea clothes its self with corporiety in the putrid excrement of the body [Page 15]and the putrid matter becomes spi­ritful in the Idea, and both together become by irritating and invigora­ting one another, a fermental poy­son which makes its on-set upon the vital Archeus, entring the lists of contention therewith; and, by this virulency that they have one wrought the other into, it becomes contagious, so that every spark and vibration of this fermental fire re­tains the Idea and platform of the whole pestiferous contagion; Ʋnica prava pecus, &c.

For though one who is infected with this pernicious and most-what mortal Disease doth infect another, yet doth it rage never awhit the less in the first, nor is it in the second, or he who is infected at the second hand any thing less, though but a spark of the first or original; so that every vibration (though as to conception never so little) of a fermental contagion retains the [Page 16]seed, and that the whole platform of the Disease it self, inasmuch as every ferment is as an Imp or Sci­on of a Fruit-tree which hides in it self the image of the whole Tree, and wants but time and the conspi­ring of seasons (Art having Na­ture for its ground-work) to shew forth the Idea of the same Tree it was taken from, both as to leaves, flowers, and fruit: so that seeds are small in bulk even scarce imaginable, and yet these, accord­ing to the appointment of God in Nature have ferments annexed to them, whereby the Idea's of things assume to themselves the elemental water for a body, wherein they dis­play the lively images of what lay dormant and not perceivable before in their minute corpuscles of Seed.

All which solves us this Medical Phaenomenon, viz. How it comes to pass that those who most fear ha­ving the small Pox, spotted Feaver, [Page 17]and such like diseases which have a degree of virulency in them, and therefore are a kind of Pest in an in­ferior manner; how such, I say, who are most afraid are the soonest infe­cted, as I knew a Physician who had such an inbred fear against the small Pox, that he would scarce, if at all, venture into a house where any was troubled with that disease; and yet, for all his curiosity of avoiding pla­tes, was snatch'd with it at length even in the flower of his years and [...]ied. I say, it appears to me from what is laid down afore, what may [...]asily loose this knot, and that is, The Idea of fear or terror may so work upon an excrement even of a­ny of the digestions (for every di­gestion has its way of separating the impure from the pure which is nu­trimental) as to cause that excre­ment yet to degenerate further, e­ven to a putredness, and in that [...]ntred matter the Idea becomes [Page 18]corporeal, and the putrid matter in the Idea becomes active and pestife­rous, and both become fermental, and so work upon the blood and spirits, defiling them with that inhe­rent inquination, and spreading Miasm, whereby the vital flame burns dimly, and at length becomes (through the prevalency of the fermental Miasm) quite extinct.

Hence it also appears that every Disease that has any thing of a ve­nenum or venome in it, as all manner of malignant Feavers, are also fer­mental, and therefore apt to pro­pagate themselves by contagion o [...] infection; some more, some less ac­cording to the degrees of the con­ceived virulency.

And as the noble Helmont saith (whom I confess to have given the greatest light to these conceptions) that every Disease, as other natural Beeings, are constituted of an effi­cient and a material cause, which [Page 19]two make up the complexion and es­sence of a Disease as well as of other positive Beeings: for every Disease (saving some casuall obstructions which may also fore-run other more complex Diseases) has a root or beginning either in the digestions, liquid juyces of the body (as blood and other nutritive humors) spirits or solid parts, and after that a growth or spreading into branches or symptoms which carry along with them the Idea of the efficient and procatarctick or irritating cause which was forg'd in the Minera morbi; so that the symptoms are proportionate to the efficient, and bears the badges thereof as recei­ving its signature therefrom: even as the fruit of a tree is answerable to the Idea lodging in the root, a Pear-tree bears the Idea of the whole both in the root and in every Scion, and the fruit thereof is Pears answerable to specifick diffe­rence [Page 20]of it from other trees and fruit. For the outward natural life of the body, if considered as in health and its integrity is as a flou­rishing Tree that puts forth, grows florid, and fruitful.

Which has all the digestions in right frame every one in their or­der, and all its organs depurated and free from obstructions and of­fending sordes; the blood freely circulating with its crimson hue in its own twisted Meanders of veins and arteries, the motion of all the parts brisk and lively, and all con­spiring in that one point of co-inci­dence, the health and flourishing of the body.

But if the seeds of Diseases (as commonly through the evil access in nature they do) become sown and grown up together with the life, then they break the former harmo­ny of health and life, and shoot forth branches or symptoms an­swerable [Page 21]to their seeds or roots which disturb the oeconomy of the natural digestions, and pervert the order and method of nature, and at length subvert the whole frame of the Microcosmick fabrick; and that much the sooner if the insemi­nated morbid seeds prove acute (as in all sorts of common Feavers;) venomous, fermental, and contagi­ous, as in small Pox, spotted and camp-Feaver, and all other malig­nant Feavers (the greatest of which the Plague:) these presently put to flight the vital forces, and strangle Nature with her own cords, by baffling the digestions and stifling the vital powers.

As from within the body, so likewise from without may that unwelcom guest take [...]nne, which appears by the many ways that contagious Disease may arrest the body; as for example, the pesti­lent odor may lurk in old rags, gar­ments, [Page 22]paper, sweepings of houses, stone-walls, or any other body whose texture renders it capable of retaining those contagious Effluvi­a's, which rebound either from in­fected places or persons, and, for ought I know, even in the body of common Salt it self may the pesti­lent odor reside, because that Salt in its coagulation acquires an im­pure halicuous sordes, whereby it exasperates the Scurvy, and may be retentive of a malignant fracedo or contagious hogoo.

Those bodies which will not ad­mit of the pestilent odor, amongst Metals Gold (though it may lurk in the sordes that casually may ad­here to Gold) and, it may be, po­lish'd Silver; amongst Minerals pos­sibly Mineral Cinnaber sulphur, and that also all Pearls, precious Stones, and Amber, which three last besides the politeness of their external sur­face (which will not easily, no [Page 23]more will other polish'd bodies ad­mit of that venomous vapor) their intrinsick specifick vertues may be a defence to them against that viru­lent odor, whose vertues also may probably make them become tute­lary to those who use them; as, for instance, a piece of red Amber which a Spanish Chirurgion (as Helmont relates) used as his only Zenexton or preservative for three years together being Master of the Pest-house, which he us'd to rub up­on the seven principal and Planeta­ry Pulses, viz. upon both temples, wrists, ancles, and left brest, where­with he was preserved, as Helmont observes, though the rest of his as­sistants taken away by the Plague.

Now as the Plague is (as by what is declared) a virulent and contagious Ferment conceived both from a pestilent Miasm arising from within or from without the body, so it seizeth upon the vital [Page 24]Archeus or spirit of life with a kind of fear and terror. For a noxious Ferment cannot work nor shew its propagating symptoms upon a ca­daverous body, inasmuch as a dead body cannot be infected nor can be stung with any Viper or Ser­pent, because it wants a vital prin­ciple (which we call an Archeus) for the venom or infection to work upon; so a potential or actual Cau­tery, the last whereof may stigma­tize and burn a dead body, but nei­ther of them is able to raise a bli­ster, swelling, or other vital symp­tom, and that because all blisters, swellings, pustul's, inflammations, pains, or other symptoms which a­rise from infection or from biting of venomous beasts are vital pro­ducts, whose spring is immediatly from the very fountain of life, the Archeus it self, which disgusting those virulent impressions, and ho­stile exotick Ferments, as also all [Page 25]outward casual perplexing accidents of bruises, bites, wounds, burn­ings, scaldings, dislocations, &c. doth shew its own vital strength in opposing the injury done to it by those vital symptoms of swellings, fieriness, frequent pulses, and pro­trusion of the adjacent latex to the injured part, as buckets to allay the scalefire.

The Archeus therefore is that in us which first feels and perceives the pestilent ens, and becomes in­fected therewith, shaping an I­dea of fear and terror upon the most degenerate excrement of the body, which is (as Helmont saith) the Tartar of the blood, which speedily contracts a pestilent frace­do, and becomes the seminary of this most-what mortal Enemy, by putting on the form of a Cadaver or dead body, whence the Archeus becomes more powerfully invigo­rated in its own primitive frightful [Page 26]Idea, which also gives entrance for the seminal pestilent character to lord it over all the digestions, by putting a stop thereto, and causing an inward putrefaction to over­spread the whole body; whence mortal symptoms and at length death it self ensue.

Now the Plague surprizeth the Archeus with an Idea of fear after a twofold manner, viz. both by an external fear, as I may call it, which comes from the hearing of such a mortal, unfrequent, tyrannous, in­fectious Disease stirring abroad, whence oftentimes a present horror shakes a man at the unexpectedness and uncothness of such news, and those who are most startled with the novelty thereof, are the soonest apprehended thereby; for Idea's of fear and terror are not meer empty nothings, nor yet meer entia ra­tionis, nor are idle, but become more active by induing forms, and assu­ming [Page 27]corporiety in the putrid ex­crements of the body, more readily I say, and more actually in some persons then others.

For we see there are some con­stitutions and tempers so far diffe­rent from others, that though they may have Idea's of sorrow, heavi­ness, melancholy by external cros­ses, and thwarting providences, yet those Idea's seize not upon the bo­dy, so as to put an anxiousness and restlesness upon the spirits, nor to become a Remora to the digesti­ons, and induce a tabes from a fret­ting nature, but are laid aside and they are cheerful even in the midst of otherwise grieving Idea's.

Whereas on the other hand, some are of such a fearful nature, that I­dea's are not only begot in their i­maginative part, as well from pri­vative as positive objects; but also these Idea's hew forth to themselves shapes and assume corporiety, so [Page 28]as to become real morbid Entities, to the prejudice of health, nay, ha­zard of the life it self; hence wa­stings, and consumptions from so­licitous, anxious, & careful thoughts or Idea's, which often accelerate old age, and make a man become gray and withered, before he be well arriv'd to the prime of his years. But I have not time to ex­spatiate.

And as from an external fear, so also from an internal fear, the Ar­cheus may be surprized with a ve­nomous and pestilent ens; as when from some infectious air, conta­minated with unwholesom smells, the Archeus secretly and inwardly (and, that it may be, without the expectation or supposition of the party) is seized upon with a strange kind of fear and terror, which it keeps lurking within its own bo­som, and so hatcheth its own Cock­atrice-eggs, which at length be­come [Page 29]a lethal poyson to it self: With this Panick fear, the Archeus of the wisest and the soberest of men may be insensibly taken, so as not only to shape and foster a Morbid Idea, but also, that that sickly Idea should incorporate it self into an excrementitious matter, and be­come at length determin'd in a com­mon and more inferior Disease, or else in a virulent Ferment, which works retrogradely upon the whole frame of Nature, and hastens the terror of terrors, Death.

Of the like nature with this fear of the Archeus, which begets the Pest in the vital part, is also those fears (though seizing after ano­ther manner) which surprize the Archeus of those who have a secret antipathy against any particular thing, who can give no rational ac­count why they have such a fear or horror upon them at the presence of such an object, nor why they [Page 30]disgust such or such a thing with an utter detestation; as for instance, that some will sweat, tremble, and fear at the sight of Cheese; another will have dread at the sight of a Cat; a third will have an Idea of horror at the sight of a Toad; ano­ther will sweat, tremble, and be in a kind of Agony at the pre­sence of a Paper put under the bot­tom of a Pye, which though not seen by the eye, yet the Archeus is such an acute discerner of things, that can by an intuitive kind of in­spection, presently discover what is friendly, but chiefly what is inimici­cious to it; not that the object is re­ally so as it is apprehended by the Archeus, for then it would be so to all, which jet, we see daily expe­rience saith to the contrary.

Therefore these disgusts are cer­tain irregular Idea's wherewith the Archeus has been either originally from the conception tainted, which [Page 31]Idea's become so familiar, as that they co-incide with the very essen­tial and constitutive principles of the Archeus, and so are naturaliz'd therewith, as that they seem to hang both upon one root, or basis; or else in time through customs or ca­suall accidents, they become im­planted into the very initials of the Archeus, and so become natural: As for instance: when a man takes a disgust at a thing, he has either eaten too much of, or that has had some nauseating quality therein, where­at the Archeus has been offended, and rouz'd up the natural forces in the stomach and intestines, to expel it, either upwards or downwards, then presently it shapes an Idea of hatred and utter detestation there­against, insomuch that though it was very well pleased therewith be­fore the Surfet, yet after it utterly hates and rejects; yea, and though the same should under a disguise be [Page 32]so palliated as to be taken into the stomach, yet then the Archeus see­ing, and, as it were, sensibly feeling it, sets it self strenuously against it, by conceiving of Antipathetical or discording Idea's, whence to execute its commands (at whose beck all the powers, faculties, and humors of the whole body are) it rallies up its forces, makes its on-set upon the deceitful enemy that took him unawares, and is not quiet till he have thrust him out by head and shoulders.

If then these ordinary and fre­quent Idea's work thus powerfully upon the Archeus of persons, even in the common transactions be­tween meats with other objects, and the stomach with its legislator the Archeus, so as to cause sometimes strange and antick gestures, as in the biting of a Tarantula, that Spi­der of Apulia, whose strange and heteroclite venenal Idea doth take [Page 33]such impression upon the Archeus of the bitten or infected person, as that (sub jugum trahitur Arche­us) it brings the Archeus under its hatches, signs it with its own chara­cter, which is so fermental, as that it presently insinuates into the whole Archeus, and so consequently into all its clyents, that it rests not, put­ting the body into antick postures of dancing, till by the suitableness of some peculiar tone of musick which pleaseth the Tarantula (that impress'd the Ideal-venom) he falls into such a fit of dancing, as that together with the motion of the bo­dy, the virulent matter which it has got in the body, is wrought out by sweat and transspiration, and the poysonous antick-Idea becomes worn out by the access of the other pleasant Idea, that the Archeus is brought into from the consonancy and harmony of the Nusick which at length worms out the other.

So likewise that strange fermen­tal venomous Idea, that is commu­nicated to a man from the biting of a mad Dog, which causeth a hydro­phobia, which is very plain, that what is done, more then what would have been from the bites of another Dog, is purely Idea; for we see that a common wound from a Dog or other beast (unless it self be venenous) has no such symptoms as accompany the wound of a mad Dog, or other venomous creature, but is only a solitary wound, cura­ble by ordinary Balsoms; but from the venom of the biting of a mad Dog comes a kind of madling I­dea, which has its dimensions and lineaments almost exactly from the madling Idea of the Dog; so that it is plainly Ideal, and also Fermen­tal both in the mad Dog, as also in the bitten Person; insomuch that the madling Idea of the [...]og by the medium of the bite, insinuates its [Page 35]self through the Mummial Ferment into the Archeus, and becomes so prevalent, as that it shapes its own [...]dea therein, and works the imagi­native part into a likeness with its self: whence most-what the same [...]oving madling symptoms arise in the one, as in the other. And also we see that in the giving of Opium crudely prepared, what strange I­dea's, phantasms, wheeling mo­tions are represented, much like those Idea's & labyrinthal thoughts which are impress'd upon those who are sometimes in the begin­nings of Feavers, Agues, &c. with­out any using of Opium, as if the Archeus in such Diseases had shap'd [...] its self such a stupifying and floa­ [...]ing wheeling Idea, as is in Opium it self; which appears plainly to me, as if the Archeus had a power of forming in it most kind of Idea's that are wrapt up in the bosom of Plants, and Animals, either from its [Page 36]own exorbitant power, shaping them in its own Forge, by its own Vulcan; or by propagation from the Plants and Animals themselves Opium given well prepared, we se [...] how it allays the fretting, fumings boiling, and painful Idea's in Fea­vers, and other Diseases, by the re­freshing Idea whereof, the (other­wise disturb'd, fretful, and incens'd) Archeus becomes quieted, lays aside its fury, and is as a meek Lamb plea­santly repos'd by the charming I­dea of that well-prepared vegeta­ble juyce.

All which instances (and many more I might urge if I had time) do clearly evince the truth of what I assert, viz. that there is an Archeus which sits at the stern of all the di­gestions, in which also are repre­sented various kinds of Idea's, or shapings in the imaginative part, which being rouz'd up by an exe­cutive power, or Archeal fiat, be­come [Page 37]such real Entities, as are able [...]ough both to disturb the order [...]nd frame of Nature, and to be [...]etermin'd in Diseases: And fur­ther, that of those Idea's some are [...]rulent, others not, and amongst [...]ysons, those who consist in a vi­ [...]ent Idea, are the most noxious [...] humane life; such are all malig­nant and pestilent odors, which [...]rce the Archeus to fabricate an [...]ea of fear; which Idea is invigo­rated, by acuating it self upon the [...]acedinous odor of the Tartar of [...]e blood, which is an excrement [...]f the fourth digestion, and there­fore the most susceptible of viru­ [...]nt impressions.

This Idea therefore of Fear, which [...]prizeth the Archeus of some ti­ [...]erous and low-spirited people, [...]oner then others, when it indues [...]orporiety from a virulent Conta­ [...]ion, it begins to boyl in the blood, which is the receptaculum vitae, the [Page 38]very seat of life, and red-sea where­in our Archeus navigates, tacks to and fro for the safeguard of the Mi­crocosm: when it espieth any ene­mies, especially of a poysonful pro­perty, it either lowreth its top-sails in obedience thereto, or else it sets upon it with all its might and force; in which combat the one masters the other.

The blood is the Scene, in which both the vital Archeus, and morbid Entities act their parts vicissim, and if any corrupting Acidity enters its Confines, it becomes presently ho­stile thereto, either coagulating the same, whereby the Viscera become obstructed, and diseases thence ari­sing; or putrefieth the same, cau­sing it to contract a fracedinous o­dor, whence it affords a putredi­nous Aporrhoea, that gives the Ma­teria substracta for a venenous I­dea of fear to work upon, whence also from the one, acting upon the [Page 39]other, are begot all malignant Dis­eases, and especially the Disease I [...]m now treating of, viz. the Pest.

In which Disease, the putrefying [...]erment is so great, that if any of [...]he Archeus his forts be safe, I mean, if any part of the blood be free from putrefaction, the Archeus flieth thither, as to his safest Port, and there sculks awhile in ambush, [...]till the malignity either over­spreads the whole blood and Ar­cheus, or else that the Archeus gains by retreating the more for­ces, whereby it makes more con­querable assaults upon the vital e­nemy.

Hence it is, that if the blood be [...]t forth by opening a Vein, it [...]roves mortal, both in this and all other malignant Diseases, because the most pure and untainted part of the blood, and where the Arche­us chiefly lodgeth (which is the Pillar of life) is thereby exhausted, [Page 40]and the putrefied part only les [...] which is become a meer Cadave [...] and hasteneth all the rest of the parts into a likeness with its sel [...] whence death inevitably. Where fore in all sorts of Feavers, the Physician should seriously consider and weigh, whether there may no [...] be somewhat of malignity in the Disease, whose Diagnosticks h [...] propounds to himself, as the rule [...] proceeds by in the Therapeutick o [...] Curative part, lest he order a Phle­botomy where there is a degree o [...] malignity and virulency, that an [...] ­guis sub herbis in all infectiou [...] Feavers.

Therefore not only in the Plagu [...] but also in the small Pox, camp-Fea­vers, spotted Feavers, putrid and other malignant Feavers, the let­ting of blood is most dangerous, if not presently mortal; for it takes away not only the weapon Nature has to contend with, but also her [Page 41]very Champion, the Archeus, and [...]aves her destitute of help to strug­ [...]e with a potent enemy; there­fore she must needs flag and fall be­fore his fury.

And indeed to tell you the summ [...]f my thoughts, I must needs say, that bloodding is not only dange­ [...]us and mortal in malignant Fea­ [...]ers, but unnecessary in all other [...]eavers; though, if any, the Pleu­ [...]sie may seem to plead a necessity, [...]ut to whom? Only to the Gale­ [...]sts, who know no better remedy through their poverty in Chymical [...]reparations of noble Medicines: [...]ea, it is impertinent in most Chro­ [...]ick Diseases, and also dangerous, where the Ferments or Digestions [...]f the body are weak, the blood im­ [...]overished for want of due circula­tion (restagnating in the parts) and a through-want of illumina­tion from the aura vitalis, or vital [...]last. And lastly, where all the [Page 42]powers and faculties are at the d [...] ­clining hand, as in all lingering wasting, and consumptive Disease where to let blood is to pump Na­ture of her very best Treasury.

I must confess I have found [...] experience, that some persons have found sensible good in some disease giving them a temporary ease, but if their disease be Feavers, they li [...] ­ger long before they come to the [...] full strength, especially if blood w [...] drawn, when Nature was brought to a low ebb, for then it cannot regai [...] strength nothing neer so soon, a [...] when without blooding, by a pow­erful Medicine, Nature is helpe [...] and returns to its strength. Als [...] I have found, that if Nature b [...] strong, and some exotick pains, o [...] some other slight Disease, that aris [...] from the too great repletion of the Veins, as sometimes Megrims, and Vertigo's, pains in the head, &c. w^ch arise from the intumescence of [Page 43]the bloody vessels of those parts, or else from a pungent acidity either in the blood, latex, or aqua lymphatica, which may prick the Nervous and Membranous part of the Brain, I mean, the Pia-mater, where in defect of other Medicines (which may correct that spurious acidity, and transpire the superfluous lat ex which swell'd the vessels:) blood­ing may be a little indulg'd, but not with too prodigal a hand. Al­so those whose sanguinious spring­source is of a vegetating and strong­ly encreasing property, may in some cases have a little indulgence herein, though with moderation.

For if the spring of the fourth Digestion which is the Port to san­guification be veget, the water, I mean, blood, may be exhausted bet­ter and with less loss then where this spring is faint, therefore those who according to the common Di­alect say, their Liver is strong, and [Page 44]begets great store of blood (ta­king for granted the common noti­on of sanguification in the Liver) may a great deal the better bear the loss of blood by Phleboto­my, and perhaps too, may finde some present REMEDY for their MALADY, especially if they have been accustomed to be blooded in the like cases, because custom habituats the Archeus to an expectation of the same again, and repeated actions become a se­cond nature. But to return; but before I leave this subject, let me add one thing, and that is this, That by blooding, Nature oftentimes be­comes so languid, that if a Disease follow after, she is not so able as with its wonted strength to give a strong repulse to the invading ene­my, which watches the slips and de­fects of Nature to trip her up at her weakest point, for hereby her weapon the blood, which is the seat [Page 45]of life, is surreptitiously taken from her.

Now to the point in hand, The blood boyling in the vessels from a virulent ens impressed therein, fer­ments, and like an evil leaven (from which, as also from the working of Eiquor, hath the name Ferment had its original) works till it have moulded all the principal parts and humors of the body into its own likeness, in manner of a gangrena­ted Ulcer, which feeds upon all near it, and by its venomous Ferments, turns all, as far as it goes, into its own likeness of mortified flesh: For the blood has in this Disease got such a poysonful Ferment, or leaven in it, as that it ceaseth not in­wardly to putrefie, till it either mor­tifies the whole, or a stop be put to its venomous progress.

In this inward putrefaction of the blood, the outward parts are not long free from the Contagion, [Page 46]but breaks forth in one place or o­ther, or all over, in its own chara­cters, viz. Spots, Bubo's, swellings, Sores, intolerable pains, &c. which are outward badges of the inward mortification; for no Ferment can rest till it either have a stop put thereto from some other more pow­erful supervening Ferment, or have over-run the whole, so that the outward is signed by the inward in respect of that concatenation of in­ward and outward parts.

Now if this pestilent Ferment pu­trefying the blood, and in its ma­king its issue forth, contracts and centers its self in one place, if within twenty four hours after the Con­tagion has not universally over­spread the whole, whence death in­evitably; then it is an argument that a stop is put to its spreading in­ward Gangrene, and the outward issue is a Magnet which attracts, or at least, by which other proper [Page 47] Magnets may attract the virulency and poyson from the whole.

But if the contagious Ferment acts furiously within, and that there is an obstipation or locking up of the Pores, (those little Portals through which sometimes the infe­ctious odor is let in, as also some­times lets forth the same poysonful Gasi) then it commonly kills, be­fore any greatly manifest symptoms of the outward parts break forth, till after an expiring of the vital spi­rit, the virulent Ferment goes on to over-spread the vegetative life in the last digestion, which it doth af­ter death; and so, I say, the last digestion, viz. of the solid parts, be­comes also infected and breaks forth, even after death, into spots, pustul's, and swellings: for in these malignant Diseases where the ve­nome first seizeth upon the vital parts or center, and so spreads to the outward parts or circumfe­rence, [Page 48]the vegetative or growing life or property which lodgeth in the ultimat digestion, viz. of the solid parts, is the last that's wrought upon and slain, whose badges do betray the Serpent that lurkt in the blood.

The intolerable pains that hap­pen in these outward swellings, come from the anxiety of the vital and animal spirits, I mean, the Ar­cheus (for those divisions of spirits are but different vibrations of one and the same Archeus) which is sadly opprest with the close dog­ging of this virulent Ferment that has got footing in the Cottage of life: The Virulency in respect of its great corrupting property, has an acute acidity annexed thereto, which pricking the nervous and membra­nous parts of the body, especially of the part where the Contagion works to a head in the swelled place; somewhat like to the prick­ing [Page 49]pains of the Pleurisie (though more eminent in degree) which pro­ceeds from a punging acidity in the blood, whereby it becomes (Na­ture abhorring its hostile enemy, & therefore where it hath strength thrusts it forth) hostile to the Ar­cheus, and is therefore extravasated out of the azugal Vein into the Plura, and there by reason of its acidity (which yet has not arriv'd to any virulency) which is hostile to the Veins and Membranous parts, lacerates, and, as it were, by pricking, tears the Membrain of the Plura, which is a most sensible part, thence comes those smart pains and stitches frequent in that kind of Feaver.

But in the Plague the corrupt­ing acidity differs from others, in that it has a contagious Ferment adjoyning to it, and what the aci­dity, causing pains and boylings in [Page 50]the blood, and what the virulency causing a gangrenating property through the whole; this Disease becomes determin'd into the most deadly enemy to the mortal life: And from the boyling of this ve­nomous leaven in the blood pro­ceeds those direful symptoms which accompany this Disease, as an in­quenchable thirst, which would drink all before it, because of the fermental fire that centers in the bosom of the blood, which boyls up continually in an anxious dark fire­source, darkens the vital beams which should be irradiated through the whole, and makes the lamp of life burn dimly.

For this outward temporary life of ours, which at the best since the fall is caduce, is truly and really a vital lamp or a luminous ens, of a middle nature, between the immor­tal Soul, and the Elemental Body, and is (as the acute Helmont well [Page 51]calls it) pedissequa, or receptacu­lum animae immortalis, not only the Hand-maid, but Cottage of the immortal Soul; or (if I might call it) the lowest Sphere to which the Soul is banish'd, since it fell from the upper Sphere of Paradise, where now its conversant amongst those Spinae & tribuli, those Briers and Thorns of Morbid Entities, or Diseases and passions which disturb the otherwise pure and serene oeco­nomy of the generous Soul, as it is born in the divine light.

The lives of all Creatures (as Hel­mont saith) are entia luminosa & Dei dona, Beeings of light, and gifts of God, implanted in every Crea­ture for the governing the structure of the body, with both the signa­tures of the life and inward spirit, and also the stage wherein the Ma­gia thereof produceth its wonders: this spark of fire or light which quickens every body, gives life, mo­tion, [Page 52]sense, capability of accepting or eschewing what is either of a like nature, or what is of a different from its self, and gives all the con­comitant products of life, is yet but a little in bulk, and yet puts an activity into great bodies, which o­therwise would fall of their own weight, ruit & ipsa mole.

This is that Plastick principle that shapes every thing in the Embrio, puts on the watery Element for an outward garment, and appears in most delicate forms, sporting it self (according to the appointment of God in Nature) in great variety, to the wonderment of the great Spectator, Man; who if he be born with eyes, cannot but admire the wisdom of the great Creator, who has plac'd a vegetative spark in e­very Plant, Praesentem (que) refert, quae­libet herba Deum. If these lights are darkened the Creature falls into disorder, deficiencies and weaknes­ses, [Page 53]if it be extinct, the body falls like a cadaverous bulk.

That which I would aim at here­in, is, That seeing the outward fra­gil life of man consists in a spark of light, which is a warming, nourish­ing, and inlightning lamp to the body, is therefore exposed to all those many dangers which may ha­zard not only the dim, dull, and ob­scure burning ef the lamp of life, but also the extinction of the same, amongst those many puffs and blasts that hazard the extinguishing this vital flame, that malignant blast of the Pest, as also of other contagious fermental Diseases, doth the soonest stifle the same, and that because such infective odors are ve­ry active and nimble, and therefore insinuate with their venom the more intimately, reaching to the very root of life.

These pestilential Odors or Ho­goo's surprize the vital flame of in­sected [Page 54]persons, not much unlike the malignant Mineral Arsenical sul­phur which is found in Mines, that first darkens a Candle, and at length blows it out, w^ch also they in effect do the same to the workers in the Mine, by sometimes stifling their vital flame, by the poysonful Arse­nical vapor that comes out from the Caverns of the earth, where there is as well unwholsom, nay, poyson­ous breaths as well as healthful.

Thus you see I have (as succinct­ly as I could) run through the description of the cause, essence, manner, and symptoms of this de­vouring Disease the Plague, toge­ther with some transient hints of o­ther malignant Diseases; so that Ex ungue leonem, from one you may learn to measure another, and them all, in their own proportions and dimentions: you may espy (i [...] you observe) a secret concatena­tion or cementing together of the [Page 55]notions laid down, in order to the through discovery of this Monster, though I confess, much shorter then I might have done if I had time.