false and pagan positions, prophane stoical paradoxes, wicked examples: it boots not what heathen philosophers determine in this kind: they are impious, abominable, and upon a wrong ground. No evil is to be done, that good may come of it; reclamat Christus, reclamat scriptura; God, and all good men are a against it. He that stabs another, can kill his body; but he that stabs himself, kills his own soul. b Male meretur, qui dat mendico, quod edat; nam et illud quod dat, perit; et illi producit vitam ad miseriam: he that gives, a beggar an almes (as that comical poet said) doth ill, because he doth but prolong his miseries. But Lactantius (7. 6. c. 7. de vero cultu) calls it a detestable opinion, and fully confutes it (lib. 3. de sap. cap. 18); and S. Austin (ep. 52. ad Macedonium, cap. 61. ad Dulcitium Tribunum): so doth Hierom, to Marcella of Blæsillas death: non recipio tales animas, &c. he calls such men martyres stultæ philosophie: so doth Cyprian (de duplici martyrio): si qui sic moriantur, aut infirmitas, aut ambitio, aut dementia, cogit eos: 'tis meer madness so to do; furor est, ne moriare, mori. To this effect writes Arist. 3. Ethic. Lipsius, Manuduc. ad Stoicam Philosophiam, lib. 3. dissertat. 23: but it needs no confutation. This only let me add, that, in some cases, those dhard censures of such as offer violence to their own persons, or in some desperate fit to others, which sometimes they do by stabbing, slashing, &c. are to be mitigated, as in such as are mad, beside themselves for the time, or found to have been long melancholy, and that in extremity: they know not what they do, deprived of reason, judgement, all, e as a ship, that is void of a pilot, must needs impinge upon the next rock, or sands, and suffer shipwrack. P. Forestus hath a story of two melancholy brethren, that made away themselves, and, for so foul a fact, were accordingly censured to be infamously buried, as in such cases they use, to terrifie others (as it did the Milesian virgins of old: but, upon farther examination of their misery and madness, the censure was revoked, and they were solemnly interred, as Saul was by David (2 Sam. 2. 4), and Seneca well adviseth, irascere interfectori, sed miserere interfecti; be justly offended with a See Lipsius, Manuduc. ad Stoïcam philosophiam, lib. 3. dissert. 22. D. Kings 14 Lect. on Jonas. D. Abbots 6 Lect. on the same prophet. b Plautus. c Martial. d As to be buried out of Christian burial, with a stake. Idem Plato (9. de legibus) vult separatim sepeliri, qui sibi ipsis mortem conciscunt, &c. lose their goods, &c. Navis, destituta nauclero, in terribilem aliquem scopulum impingit. f Observat. Seneca, tract. 1. 1. 8. c. 4. Lex, homicida insepultus abjiciatur: contradicitur, eo quod afferre sibi manus coactus sit assiduis malis; summam infelicitatem suam in hoc removit, quod existimabat licere misero mori. him, as he was a murderer, but pity him now, as a dead man. Thus of their goods and bodies we can dispose; but what shall become of their souls, God alone can tell; his mercy may come inter pontem et fontem, inter gladium et jugulum, betwixt the bridge and the brook, the knife and the throat. Quod cuiquam contigit, cuivis potest: who knows how he may be tempted? It is his case; it may be thine: a Quæ sua sors hodie est, cras fore vestra potest. We ought not to be so rash and rigorous in our censures, as some are: charity will judge best: God be merciful unto us all! THE SYNOPSIS OF THE SECOND PARTITION. Mem. 1. From the devil, magicians, witches, &c. by charms, spels, incantations, images, &c. Quest. 1. Whether they can cure this, or other such like diseases? Quest. 2. Whether, if they can so cure, it be lawful to seek to them for help? 2. Immediately from God, a Jove principium, by prayer, &c. 3. Quest. 1. Whether Saints and their reliques can help this infirmity? Quest. 2. Whether it be lawful in this case to sue to them for aid? or 4. Medi atly by Nature, which Subsect. 1. Physician, in whom is required science, confidence, honesty, &c. 2. Patient, in whom is required obedience, constancy, willingness,patience,confidence,bounty, &c. not to practise on himself. Diætetical Y 3. Physick, Pharmaceutical 8 concerns and works by which con sists of Chirurgical II 1 Particular to the three distinct species me. VOL. I. G G Sect. 2. Diætetical, which con sists in re forming those six non-natural things, as in Memb. 6. and per- 2. Quan Fruits and roots Mountain birds, partridge, phea sant, quails, &c. Hen, capon, mutton, veal, kid, That live in gravelly waters, as cory, endive, violets, in broth, Raisins of the sun, apples corrected for wind, oranges, &c. parsnips, potatoes, &c. At seasonable and usual times of repast, in good order, not before the first be concoct. ed, sparing, not overmuch of one dish. 2. Rectification of retention and evacuation, as costiveness, venery, bleeding at nose, months stopped, baths, &c. 3. Air, recti- 4. Exercise. Naturally in the choice and site of our countrey, Artificially, by often change of air, avoiding winds, fogs, Of mind, as chess, cards, tables, &c. to see plays, masks, 5. Rectification of waking and terrible dreams, &c. |