AS to this Point, it is not only True in Part; to wit, during the First Ten Days of the 10th Month, as Some would have it, but rather (in my Opinion) Altogether, and at any time of it, as Legitimate as the 9th Month; according to Plautus the Comick Poet; Tunc illa quam compresserat, decimo post exacto Mense hanc peperit Filiam.
FOR altho’ Women commonly reckon their Births more frequent in the Ninth Month; yet many Learned Men have left it (as a doubtful Controversy) undecided whether That or This be the most proper natural Time: Whereas Some of the first Rank[126] have more positively determined a Legitimate BIRTH to happen in the Tenth Month Only, according also to Virgil’s excellent Poetical Computation—
MOREOVER, for a farther Proof of this Argument, I need only refer to Solomon, the wisest of Kings; who being the greatest Master of all ARTS, cannot be supposed to have been ignorant of This Truth: And whose express Decision of this Doubt, we have set down in the Beginning of the 7th Chapter of his Book of WISDOM; saying, “I myself also am a mortal Man, and the Offspring of him that was first made of the Earth, and in my Mother’s Womb was fashioned to be Flesh in the time of TEN MONTHS, &c.”
BUT farther yet, as to the Nature of this Month, MARS is presumed to succeed in it, who indulges the Infant by his amicable Qualities, or benign Influences: For He is deemed a Friend to LIFE, as he affords Vitality to the BIRTHS happening in it.
AND again, this Number Ten is reckoned a Compleat and Universal Number in all Sciences; because we cannot account beyond it, but by Replication, a Re-assumption of the Unit, or Repetition of the Nine Figures, to perfect the Progression. But farther still, to denote the Excellency and Perfection of this Month, there are Ten Singers of Psalms mentioned in Holy Scripture; namely, ADAM, ABRAHAM, MELCHISEDECH, MOSES, ASAPH, DAVID, SOLOMON, and the three Sons of CHORAH: Ten Musical Instruments: Ten Strings in the Psaltery: Ten Curtains in the Temple: Ten Commandments instituted and given directly by God himself: And, in fine, the Tenth Day after Ascension the HOLY GHOST came down, &c.
THERE are besides also Ten Parts, of which Man himself consists intrinsically; viz. the Spirit, Brain, Lungs, Heart, Liver, Gall, Spleen, Kidneys, Testicles, and Matrix: And likewise Ten Simple Integral Parts constituting the Man, to wit, Bone, Cartilage, Nerve, Fibre, Ligament, Artery, Vein, Membrane, Flesh, and Skin. In short just so, after this manner, there are Ten Months required to form and maturate the MAN, in the substantial Completion of These to Perfection.
BUT, after All, lest I should be thought, by this way of Reasoning on the Numbers of the MONTHS, to vend some fictitious Notions for mechanical Causes, or vain Fictions for the Laws of Nature, I shall in this Place, to avoid that Censure or Reproach, make a small Digression, and that upon NUMBERS in general.
FIRST then, I think it appears very Plain from the Three preceding Chapters, that NUMBERS are of a certain wonderful Efficacy and Virtue even in Supernaturals.
SECONDLY, In Natural Things also the Virtues of NUMBERS (so mystically constituted and mysteriously intended) are conspicuously manifest: As is evident in the Herb, call’d Pentaphyllon, which is said to resist Poisons by Virtue of Number FIVE; as one Leaf of it taken twice a day in Wine, cures the Quotidian; three, the Tertian; and four, the Quartan Fever. So likewise in the Herb Heliotropium Tricoccon[127], three Grains whereof cures the Tertian: and four, the Quartan Ague. In like manner, as a Serpent, if struck Once with a Spear, dies; but if Twice, is said to recover Strength. So much for the Curious.
HOWEVER, These and many other Things might be mentioned, both in Natural, and Supernatural Beings, upon the wonderful Power and Efficacy of NUMBERS: Which plausible Doctrine not only the most Eminent Philosophers, but also the most Learned Catholick DOCTORS, namely, St. Jerom, Austin, Origen, Ambrose, Athanasius, &c. All unanimously teach; as well as the most famous Dr. Rabanus (Archbishop of Mentz) who in his Time compos’d an excellent Book to this purpose chiefly upon the Virtues of Numbers.
BUT notwithstanding all This, I am far from believing that there is any peculiar Virtue in NUMBERS, considered abstractedly: Only, I would hereby demonstrate, that as the Omniscient CREATOR has appointed every thing a certain TIME for its Production, Augmentation, Perfection, Declension, and Duration; so in all probability, the same Decree or Good-Will of Divine Providence may have ordered NUMBERS, and Sett-Days or Times to concur with the apparent Necessity of Corporeal, Natural, and Mechanical Causes. For in Truth, at last, I cannot think that, unless there had been some great and distinct Mysterys of GOD and Nature comprehended in NUMBERS, the Great Divine[128] would otherwise have recommended That Search to the World of Understanding to count the NUMBER of the Beast: saying, It is the Number of a Man. But to proceed: