iis mala muâ—â—â— angustiae God for saketh the wicked and hideth his face from such as are impious thaâ— evill and necessiâ—y may encumber them But the speciall causes of life death and resurrection are expressed in these words of the Prophet David before mentioned O Lord how glorious are thy works in wisdom thou hast made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the wide sea and innumerable creeping things therein Thou givâ—st unto them and they gather it thou openest thine hand and they are filled with good things but if thou hide thy face they are troubled if thou takest away their breath they die and return unto dust Again if thou sendest out thy Spirit they are re-created and revive and thou renewest the face of the earth c. Psa. 104.20 Lo here the essentiall reason and centrall manner of Generation and Corruption is exactly described and set forth by the Psalmise namely that by the presence and benigne action of the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord life is continued and contrariwise by the absence or departing or by taking of it away from the creature it dieth and corrupteth for so long as the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord acteth and worketh in the creature it is not possible it should die or corrupt but when it departeth death and corruption must needs follow also when it abideth in the body but resteth from his action or as it were withdraweth his active beams from the circumference unto the center which the Prophet tearmeth The hiding of God's face then is the creature troubled which is as much to say as it is sick but if it be totally taken away then the creature is forced for want of it to expire and die To conclude if it return and shineth forth again unto the creature then it reviveth again as it did unto Lazarâ—s and unto the Widow's child which the Prophet raised Whereby it is apparent how death is nothing else but the absence of the essentiall form and consequently it is made evident that the vivificating form is immediately from God and not that imaginary one which the Peripateticks have groped after and I prove it evidently out of these places though the precedent Text doth expresse it plainly enough Non permanebit saith the Lord Spiritus meus in homine in aeternum quia caro est eruntque Dies ejus centum viginti annorum My Spirit shall not remain perpetually in man because he is flesh and his daies shall be a hundred years and twenty Whereby is argued that it is the Spirit of God which maketh man to live and that by the absence thereof death must needs ensue But because the curious will scarce approve of this translation of Jerom saying that the nature of the Hebrew Text is otherwise taken I will maintain and confirm it by the like and of the same condition in Job Si Deus apponens ad hominem animam suam Spiritum aut flatum ejus ad se reciperet vel traheret deficeret expiraret omnis care simul homo in cinerem râ—verteretur If God setting his minde upon man should receive or draw unto himself his spirit or breath of lifâ— all flesh would fail and die and man also together with him would return unto ashes So that we see it is the Spirit of God which giveth life not onely unto man but also to every other creature And that it is meant by the reall vivifying Spirit of God which giveth life unto man expresly we have it confirmed thus by Job in another place Spiritus Dei saith Job fecit me inspiratio Omnipotentis vivificavit me The Spirit of God made me and the inspiration of the Almighty hath vivified me or given me life And therefore it followeth that if the presence of this Spirit doth cause generation life and preservation of necessity the absence of it must cause corruption death and destruction for when the Spirit of the Lord is removed from the bodily masse of the creature it leaveth it deformed and as it were another chaos or terra inanis vacua being that it is destitute of the Spirit of life which did make it to act and exist in its specifick nature And forasmuch as this incorruptible Spirit doth preserve the corporeall masse from corruption by his incorruptible vertue and power it followeth therefore that when the Spirit is departed or absolutely contracted in it self without any externall act the masse must of necessity forthwith die and return unto a privative nothing Now the difference between the resurrection from death or rather deadly sleep unto a temporall life for the words of Christ were touching Lazarus that he was not dead but slept and that which is an eternall life is this for as there is nothing that hindereth death more than the presence of the incorruptible Spirit so also is there nothing which hindereth the perpetuity of living more then a corruptible body or a body subject unto death or corruption and therefore that body must die that it may put off corruption and endue incorruption namely by purification and separation of the corruptible additaments which is effected by a loosning of the tie of the alterable elements and a freeing of the spirituall part of the corporall composition from its long captivity that it may become pure and clean which being done then by the union of the incorruptible Spirit with it all will be made spirituall so that according unto the doctrine of St. Paul That which is sowed will not be quickened except it die And that which thou sowest is not the body that shall be but God giveth it a body at his pleasure And therefore as the body is sown in corruption so it riseth in incorruption as it is sown a naturall or elementary body so it is raised a heavenly and spirituall body So that the body must die that it may put off corruption that is the corruptible portion of the impure element that it being made spirituall may abide with the Spirit of life for evermore For this reason he affirmeth that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God because in their elementary nature they are subject unto corruption and therefore cannot inherit the land of incorruption but it is the pure spirit of the blood and flesh which rise after they have deposed their grosse tabernacle unto incorruption being animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord which onely causeth a temporall life in the naturall or compacted elementary masse and an eternall one unto the spirituall and refined body which is contrary in condition unto the naturall body as the Apostle doth justifie for by purification it is changed from an elementary body unto a heavenly and spirituall one Do we not see after the same example how the very grain of wheat is so exalted in vertue after it hath endured corruption and hath been freed from the grosse elementary tie that it
In this respect also the Prophet Baruch hath it Stellae dederunt lumen in custodiis suis laetatae sunt ad jussum Dei The stars gave light in their watches and dâ—d rejoice at the Commandement of God Hereupon it came to pass that when this Spirit did fight for Josuah he made the Sun stand still at his pleasure He turned the Sun from light unto darkness at the passion of Christ By it the stars in troops were stirred up to fight in their order by theâ—r influences against Sisera So that it is easy to discern that as the heavens and stars were first framed and animated by this Spirit to serve as Organs to administer unto the natural Fabrick of this world so also beyond the common course of the macrocosmicall nature they may by the self-same Spirit that commandeth them and acteth in them as the soul doth within the body operate what when and how it lists and be diverted from the usual order to effect his will as well by altering the motion of his body as action of his light and influentiall Spirit Again touching the fixt stars Job speaketh thus in the person of this Spirit Canst thou restrain the sweet influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazaroth in their time Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Knowest thou the course of the heavens or canst thou set the rule thereof upon the Earth c. As who should say that no man is able to know the courses of the stars or to discern the powers or vertue of their influences save only this divine Spirit and that man unto whom it shall reveal the true Art and rules of Astronomy or Astrology And therefore Salomon doth glory in that he knew the course of the year and dispositions of the stars and the change of the Solstices by wisdome Per Sapientiam saith he novi Solstitiorum mutationes anni cursum dispositiones stellarum c. If therefore the Astronomer wanteth this true Astrologicall foundation all will be faulty and fabulous as by the vulgar Astronomy which is for the most part erronious and uncertain it appeareth I proceed now downwards unto the Meteorologicall region to see how this Omnipotent Spirit worketh in the catholick sublunary Element for the producing of Meteors in divers shapes and natures As for the Act of this Eternal Actor or Operator in the ayre water and earth for the production of Meteors it is most evidently expressed in plain terms by holy Writ Saith Job Deus sapientia sua aptat pondus aëri appendit aquas in mensura facit pluviae statuta viam fulgetro tonitruum God by his Wisdome doth adapt a waight or pondero sity unto the ayre and hangeth up the waters in measure and giveth bounds or maketh a Law for the rain and prepareth a way for the lighting 's of the Thunders In which words he sheweth that this one Spirit of Wisdome in whom is the power as well of contraction or condensation as of dilatation or ratifaction can at his pleasure make the aire more thick and ponderous by condensation and so reduce it into a cloud or by rarifying it into a more thin and subtile consistence render it in the form of lightning and evermore the aire so altered receiveth his shape or figure from the Alterer according to the will of him who ordaineth all things And thus the clouds the lightenings the thunder the comets the frost hayl snow and ice are created daily by this operating Spirit But we have all this confirmed and acknowledged by many places of Scriptures Sapientiâ Dei eruperunt abyssi nubes rore concrescunt saith Salomon By the Wisdome of God the Abysse was broke open and the clouds were turned into dew or raine Again Ego sapientia sicut nebula texi omnem terram I Wisdome like a mist did cover the whose earth saith the son of Syrach in the person of this Spirit And again Ego in altissimis habitavi Thronus meus est columna nubis I saith Wisdome did dwell in the highest places and my throne was a pillar of clouds Deus nubes effecit sapientia saith Job God made the clouds by his Wisdome This Spirit maketh the clouds to asscend it causeth the lightnings with the raâ—n and it bringeth forth the wind out of his Treasury saith David And again Verbo suo quam celerrimè excurrente sermone suo in terra emisso edit Deus nivem sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit coram frigore ejus quis consistat God by his Word passing most swiftly and by his Voice being sent out upon the Earth doth bring forth snow like wool and spreadeth abroad the frost like ashes Who is able to consist before his cold There are many thousands of other places which I can produce out of the book of Verity to prove that all Meteorology is founded on this Spirit But because I will speak of this point more at large in my last Book of this present Treatise where I do express the true History of the Meteors and open the errors and falsities of the Aristotelian Meteorology I will only conclude with this confession of the wisest Philosopher Salomon Novi saith he virtutes elementorum varietates temporum sive tempestatum ventorum seu spirituum vires nam omnium artifex me docuit sapientia I know the power of the Elements and the varieties of times and tempests and strength of the winds for Wisdome the work-mistress of all things taught them me Whereby it is evident that shee who was the maker of the Meteors and was by Consequence the most skilfull and best acquainted with their natures did instruct him in them I will now speak a word or two of Physick Concerning the excellent Art of Phyâ—â—ck or Medecine the Wiseman saith A Deo est omnis medela From God cometh every kind of healing or curing which being so it is certaine that the only Actor in healing and curing is immediatly from this all-working Spirit and therefore the Kingly Prophet hath it He sendeth his Word and healeth them and delivereth them from their graves And Salomon But the teeth of the venemous dragons could not overcome thy children for thy Word came to help them and healed them even thy Word O Lord which healeth all things for thou hast the power of life and death c. Mark well Even thy Word saith the Text which healeth all things Now this divine Word is the root and fountain of this eternal Spirit of Wisdome and therefore the Basis or foundation of healing is in him and consequently from him all the mystery of healing doth proceed which also agreeth with this of the Apostle There are divers gifts but one and the same Spirit there are divers operations but God is the same which worketh all in all but unto
of those waters which are under the Firmament of which division Moses maketh mention and therefore every particular thereof doth correspond unto the whole and consequently the aire included in the glass of the Instrument is of the same nature as is that of the whole Catholick Aire and therefore by reason of their continuity as the excluded whole fareth so also doth the included part Again as the Spirit which walked upon the waters did animate vivify inform and dilate them giving them motion So also by his absence or by hiding its act or contracting its emanating beames into it self the waters are also contracted condensed and darkned as it appeareth by the Northern wind 's property which proceedeth from the privative or contractive action of this Spirit But as the waters do by their existence fill the vaulted cavity of the world So also doth the all-informing Spirit fill every corner of them insomuch as being it operateth all in all but in a diversity of property and therefore it is termed multiformis Sapientia so sometimes it operateth in its privative property in these lower waters as is already told you namely when it bloweth from the North and West and sometimes in his positive nature as when it breatheth from the South or East In the first by his cold action he contracteth from the circumference unto the center as is said by the last namely by his hot property he dilateth from the center to the circumference Seing then that it is water that is the Catholick passive out of the which as being the common Subject of all things the shape of the whole world and every thing therein was and is carved out and fashioned as St. Peter telleth us and that the eternall creating and all-inacting Spirit of the Lord is the universall actoâ— which moveth all in all in the waters as Moses doth intimate unto us and that in and by an infinity of Organs as Angels Sun Moon Starrs Winds fire c. as in many places of Scripture we find it it must needs follow that he is the agent as well in the contraction and dilatation generally without the Glasse as particularly within the Glasse Wherefore as the Sun the hot winds the fire or naturall heat of mans body have their dilative property from his emanating and inacting vertue and do alter by it the cold aire the winds and water from his privative disposition So it followeth that as well the dilatation of the aire in the Glasse as contraction is the immediate act of this Spirit 's positive or privative property for when this Spirit bloweth from the North or West the aire is contracted more or lesse into a narrower room within the Glasse and that is proved thus namely because the water is drawn up higher into the neck of the Glasse lest a corporall vacuity should be admitted in nature And again it is most apparent that the aire in the Glasse is by so much the more contracted by how much the Northern cold hath dominion in the outward aire because it is gathered into a more strait place oâ— passage then it was before the water was elevated up On the other side if the hot winds or Summer Sun do inflame the externall aire then the included aire will also dilate it self and in its dilation require a larger space That the aire is so dilated by heat it is plainly demonstrated in that the water is struck down by so many degrees lower than it was Again if one put his hand on the top of the ball of the Glasse the water will sinke for the aire will forthwith be dilated Now that the spirit of life which giveth this heat unto Man or Beast is from this eternall Spirit which as the Apostle saith doth vivifie all things Scriptures do in many places above and hereafter mentioned confirm Again the Prophet calleth this one Spirit from the four winds to breathe into the dead carcases that they might live again Thus you see it evidently confirmed by an ocular demonstration that cold doth contract inspissate and make gross the included aire which is argued by the drawing up of the water and straitning the aire And again that heat doth dilate and dissipate by the enlargement of the aire in hot weather or by laying of the hand on the bolts head which is made evident by the beating down of the waters Note I beseech you ye that will not be over-partiall on the Peripateticks behalfes the two notable errours of the Aristotelians whereof the first is manifested in that they hold for a Maxim that calidum doth congregare homogenea heat doth congregate and gather together things of one nature Now you see it here ocularly demonstrated that heat doth operate the contrary for it dissipateth and disperseth the aire which is of homogeneall parts and therefore it doth not congregate it But it is cold that doth congregate compact and gather homogeneall things together as well as heterogeneall For you see in our Instrument that it contracts and gathers together the aire yea and water in a straiter and narrower place And therefore their assertion also is not â—ound when they say that frigidum doth onely congregare heterogenea The other of their palpable errours is also described by this ocular experiment for whereas they say that the Sun starrs and Fire yea and all heat whatsoever doth attract and draw unto it the vapours and humidity of the earth waters c. we find the contrary by this our experimentall Glass for in onely laying the warm hand upon the Glass the aire dilates it self immediately and is so far from being attracted by the heat that contrariwise it flyeth away from the hand And that this is so it appeareth by the striking down or precipitation of the water as is said Thus have we sufficiently mentioned in this present Book the estate of the first and second Principles of all things and that but in brief tearms because my purpose is to touch them with a more large and copious style in the first Book of my Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall History I will now proceed unto the next Book wherein I purpose to handle the mystery of Rarefaction and Condensation with the manner of the variety in the heavenly Fabrick and the rotation of one catholick sublunary Element into a four-fold nature or existence And in the last place I will conclude with the radicall efficient cause of Creation Generation Corruption and Resurrection The fourth BOOK The Argument of this Book Herein is expressed the universall mystery of Rarefaction and Condensation where also it is proved that by them the World was made the Heavens established in due order and the catholick Element altered and changed after a quadruple manner and condition CHAP. I. Herein first the common or catholick subject of Condensation and Rarefaction is once again recited or repeated as also the two essentiall opposite properties or vertues which are derived from the eternall Principle in his privative
Ventus Nubes c. The Sun Moon Starrs Lightnings Winds Clouds c. do obey the Will and Command of God that is they are incited by his Word and of necessity provoked to effect his pleasure It followeth not therefore that he that commandeth must be constrained to do or act in that imperious manner being that he doth it as a first mover who hath not any other actor before it or co-eternall with it and consequently doth operate of a free will which is radically grounded in himself And hereupon the Apostle Voluntati Dei quis resistat Who is able to resist the will of God And the Prophet Consilium meum stabit omnis voluntas mea fiet My counsell shaâ—l stand and my will shall be accomplished And Job Deus quodcunque voluit hoc facit What God would have done that he effecteth And therefore he doth not act involuntarily or of necessity but voluntarily and according unto his free Will We conclude therefore that seeing what is Necessarium or necessary is that which cannot happen otherwise but must of necessity be so So that which is contingent may happen or be effected otherwise as is that thing which is either fortuit or voluntary Now that the Acts of God in this world are voluntary and therefore cannot be tied up with the bands of Necessity it is proved in this namely because it may happen otherwise then it is accustomed to be by the laws or rules of nature As when the will of God was that the Sun should stand still or move retrogradingly or that it should be eclipsed when the Moon was in none of the points of the animall intersection that is neither in the head or tayl of the Dragon c. The fifth BOOK of this present Section The Argument of this Book AFter that the Author had expressed the Originall nature of the two essentiall properties namely of Heat and Cold and had proved the main effects thereof to be Rarefaction and Condensation whereby the Heavens and Elements were framed He proceedeth now in this Book unto the mystery of Meteorologicall impressions being the first degree of Composition shewing that their Fabrick is the act of the Divine Spirit effected in the catholick Element of the world's lower region and consequently do not proceed from such accidentall and externall grounds or beginnings as the Peripateticks do fasly surmise For this reason therefore he hath compared the Meteorologicall doctrine of Aristotle with that of the holy Scripture And finally by producing the Pagan Philosophy touching these aiery impressions unto the Lidian tryall or touch-stone of Truth he findeth them to prove false spurious metal yea and meer dross in respect of the golden Truth CHAP. I. Herein you shall find in few words a Repetition of the precedent Discourse Also an Exposition upon the word Meteoron or Meteor And lastly the Method which the Author intendeth to observe in this Book is expressed IN my precedent discourse I have briefly pointed at first the Principles of things namely the Root of every thing that was viz. the Dark or potentiall unity from which sprung forth the Light or actuall unity And I told you that both of them were but one thing in essence forasmuch as Light was unto the eternall unity all one with darkness though unto our weak capacities they are opposite in property Then I signified that out of the first obscure unity by his other manifest property waters did appeare arguing thereby that of or from this unity by this unity and in this unity are all things After that I shewed how waters were the materiall or passive Principle of all things as the illuminating and formall Spirit was the actuall and informing beginning of every being both which issued as I said before out of one Root which for that cause is rightly said to be all in all Then I expressed unto you how that Cold was an essentiall adherent unto privative rest and the stout of-spring and Champion unto darkness As contrariwise Heat was the immediate issue and companion unto essentiall action or motion and the inseparable Champion or Assistant of Light And then I told you how Humidity and Siccity had their Originall from the mutuall presence or absence of the foresaid two active vertues or essentiall properties Cold and Heat Lastly I declared unto you the reason and manner of Condensation and Rarefaction and that the main matter or Subject thereof was the waters but the catholick Actor was and is the Word or Spirit of God who acteth first in his Angelicall Organs by the Starrs and especially the Sun in Heaven above and winds beneath upon the generall sublunary Waters or Elements according unto his volunty altering of it after a four-fold manner through the formall properties of the four Winds and that either by Condensation or Subtiliation into divers shapes and dispositions Now in this Book I will open unto you after a true and infallible manner forasmuch as it shall in all points agree with the contents of the holy History how the blessed Word or sacred Spirit of the Lord doth by Condensation and Rarefaction produce and bring forth in this our catholick sublunary Element all Meteorologicall bodies But before I enter into this my discourse it is fit for me to tell you what the Antients do mean by this word Meteor Those Apparitions which are seen in the aire are by the Greeks called Meteora not in regard of their naturall essences but by reason of their sublimity in position Others tearm them more naturally Impressions forasmuch as they are shaped and imprinted above in the catholick element called Air. But in respect of their essentiall consistence they are properly called Corpora imperfectè mixta aut composita Bodies that are imperfectly mixed or compounded and that either because of their unexpected generation being that they are procreated and appear suddainly and at a short warning or else because their composition appeareth not to be according unto the mutation or change of substance or alteration of quality or else in regard they are not so exactly composed as other animated bodies which are perfectly mixed Or lastly these impressions are so called forasmuch as they have not attained unto any perfect form neither seems there to be in this kind of composition any great alteration of parts seeing that the members of the element so altered are confused with one another Howsoever it appeareth that such names are assigned unto this kind of impression after the fancy or conceit of this or that Philosopher when in verity they are magnalia Dei a mysticall body I say framed and fashioned by the finger of God out of the bowels of the catholick sublunary element to effect his will upon the earth either to judgment or mercy as shall be more at large expressed hereafter So that in this sense they may rightly be tearmed the characters or signes of Gods benignity and misericord or vengeance and severity upon the earth
lively expressed thus Ascendit fumus in ira ejus ignis à facie ejus exarsit carbones accensi sunt abeo c. Prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt grando carbones ignis intonuit de coelo Dominus altissimus dedit vocem suam A smoak did ascend in his anger and fire did flame out from his face coales of fire were kindled by him c. By the Lightning in his sight the clowds did move hail and coales of fire the Lord did thunder from heaven the most High did utter forth his voice By the which speech it appeareth evidently that it is onely God which doth essentially effect all these things and although we say in our common phrase of speech that the Lightnings do cause the Thunder or in speaking more mystically that the Angells inflame the aire by their fiery presence yet in verity it is God in his fiery Angells or flaming Ministers as also in the thick clowds and watry spirits who produceth all these things to accomplish his will and pleasure And therefore the Apostle Deus operatur omnia in omnibus God operateth all in all And elsewhere Deus omnium Pater à quo omnia God is the Father of all from whom are all things And again Ex eo per eum in eo sunt omnia Of him by him and in him are all things But all this in our Meteorologicall business is more plainly expressed in the precedent words continued thus at large in another place Ascendit fumus de naribus IEHOVAE ignis de ore ejus vâ—ravit carbones sâ—ccensi sunt ab eo inclinavit coelos descendit caligo sub pedibus ejus ascendit super Cherubin volavit seu lapsus est super alas venti posuit tenebras in ciâ—cuâ—tu suo latibulum cribrans aquas de nubibus coelorum prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes succensi sunt carbones ignis volabant tonabat de coelo Dominus excelsus dabat vocem suam misit sagittas suas disparuit eos fulgur Smoak ascended out of the nostrils of IEHOVA and fire flew out of his mouth coles of fire were kindled from him and he inclined or bowed down the heavens and did descend and darkness was under his feet and he mounted upon a Cherubin and flew or glided upon the wings of the wind made darkness round about him his hiding place sifting forth rain from the clowds of heaven The clowds were kindled at the brightness of his face coles of fire did flie the Lord did thunder from heaven and the most high did utter forth his voice he sent forth his arrows and the Lightning did disperse them By all which it is made evident that there is no essentiall efficient cause which is naturall but onely God in nature and beyond nature operateth all in all For in the precedent description it is not said that the clowds or winds sent out coruscations or that fire came from the Sun or other heavenly bodies but smoke went out of the nostrills of JEHOVA and fire out of his mouth neither that vapours and Exhalations did gather clowds in the middle region of the aire but JEHOVA bowed down the heavens or aire and collected them at his pleasure neither the coldnesse of the middle region did accumulate them into a dark mass or heap by condensation But JEHOVA collected and gathered together by his privative and condensing property that dark chaos or confused abysse neither was it any Angelicall efficient but JEHOVA mounting upon the Cherubin did animate it to move according to his pleasure Nor was it the winds that moved of themselves but the spirituall Cherubin being first animated by JEHOVA did excite the winds to move neither was that exceeding darknesse made for a secret Tabernacle unto JEHOVA meerly by the act of the Angelicall wind But JEHOVA moving on the Cherubin incited the Cherubin to cause the winds to collect and gather together the clowds neither was it the resolutive faculty of the Sun that melted the clowds into rain but JEHOVA that did sift or cribrate forth water or rain out of them neither was it the collision or dashing together of the clowds or antiperistasis which was between the hot exhalation and the coldness of the place which caused the actuall Lightnings or inflammation of the clowds but the brightnesse and inexplicable light of his presence did set the clowds on fire neither was it the contentious strivings which was made between the fire and water in the cleaving of the clowd which maketh the fearfull sound from heaven but it was JEHOVA that did thunder from heaven it was the most high I say that did utter his voice from heaven and sent forth his Lightning as arrows to destroy the wicked Which being so what have we Christians to do to look after any naturall efficient cause with the acute eies of Aristotle which forsooth must act and operate per se of themselves without any consideration when by the precedent Text it appeareth that St. Paul was no liar when he said that God operateth all in all And as for that Peripateticall distinction of causa principalis and secundaria or subalterna you see here that it is utterly disannulled by the Text before mentioned For the onely efficient cause as well in the first second third and fourth Organ or Instrument was God For it was he that inspired the Cherubin it was he in and upon the Cherubin which did animate the winds it was he in and upon the Cherubin by the winds that gathered the clowds together it was he that in and upon the Cherubin by the winds did sift out water and rain out of the clowds and did set them on fire by sending forth Lightnings from his Throne And in conclusion though he use many Organs yet the essentiall act which operateth in and by them all doth issue forth from one simple and sincere identity which comprehendeth no otherwise all things in himself then unity in Arithmetick is assuredly reckoned for the father of multitude Thus we see that the foresaid young-man was lost by his too too much presuming on the vain and prestigious doctrine of his Peripateticall Master For whereas he taught unto the honest Christians which were his Companions the false doctrine of his Ethnick Master in their greatest need namely when the angry hand of the Almighty was in the heavens ready to menace them if they called not out for grace from him who spake out of the clowds in time and did wish them to abolish all feare making them believe that the Lightnings were contingent things in nature and made as it were by hap-hazard and not indued with sense or reason as being framed and shaped out yea and informed by externall and superficiall Principles he with his companions should have remembred that saying so often repeated by the Wiseman Timor Domini est principium Sapientiae The feare of the
there is not any bodily substance that is viod of a soul and that the world and every part thereof doth consist of a body therefore there is an intermediate spirit betwixt this soul and body which they neither call a soul or a body but a mean substance participating of them both to reduce both extreams together into one The wiser sort of Alchymists do make the Soul a certain infinite nature or power in all things which doth procreate like things of their like for this nature doth engender all things yea and multiplieth and nourisheth or sustaineth them and they also style it the Ligament or bond of the elements since by it they are fastned together with the Symphoniacal accords of peaceable harmony although of themselves that is in regard of their matter they are dissonant Also it is termed the true virtue that mingleth and proportionateth every thing in this sublunary world allotting unto each specifick creature a convenient and well agreeing form that thereby one thing might be distinguished and made to vary from another and in conclusion the mysticall Rabbies do averre that this occult fire is that Spirit of the Lord or fiery love which when it moved upon the waters did impart unto them a certain harmonious and hidden fiery vertue without whose lovely assistance and favorable heat nothing could be generated of them or multiplied in them Thus you may discern the manifold opinions as well of Christian as Heathen Philosophers touching this Anima mundi or soul of the world which will appear to vary little or nothing at all from the tenent of Holy Scripture in sense but in words onely Neither are these their opinions so hainous or abominable as some more superstitiously zealous than truly understanding Christians of this our Age will make them if they will scan the matter wisely and with moderation for then they shall really perceive that it doth concurre with the Bible of Truth And to confirm what I now say my purpose is in the first place to expresse unto each learned and well minded Reader the harmony of the Scriptures touching this point and then I will compare every one of the foresaid opinions with the sense and grounds of the said harmony that each wise man may thereby the better conjecture and guesse at the truth of the business before he shall rashly enter into the censuring of that deep and profound mystery which concerneth the Divine action in naturall effects I told you in my precedent discourse that the Eternall Unity which is the God of gods and Beginning of beginnings did cause by a double property in one essence two divers principles to issue out of himself whereof the one was potentiall and no way as yet inacted by the brightnesse of his emanation and in that respect is termed Darkness privation Nolunty opposit to Light and a friend unto death and rest The other was actuall and nothing else but a pure catholick form and brightness which is tearmed Light Position Volunty and in nature opposit to Darknesse and a friend unto life and action or motion And then I signified unto you that by the bright appearance of Eternity or the Eternall Spirit of Wisdom which I termed with the Scriptures the radiant emanation or effluxion from the Almighty which is all one with him in essence the deformed waters were inacted and made manifest out of this dark Principle or Chaos that is reduced from Potentia Divina or the Divine Puissance without form in which they abode into Actum Divinum the Divine Act and because all the humid and passive catholick nature of which both the heavens and the earth were framed did issue from this Mass of watery matter which the Poets call Pana or the second birth of Chaos we must imagine it to be that spirituall matter of the world which was made fertill and multiplicable by reason of that hidden active and formall Light or invisible fire which this increated emanation imparted unto it immediatly before the creation of the heavens and the earth Whereupon the holy Text hath it Spiritus Domini serebatur super aquas The Spirit of the Lord moved or was carried upon the waters And as St. Aâ—gustin addeth to it igneum illis vigorem impâ—râ—ieâ—s Bestowâ—ng upon thâ—m a fiery vigor or formall and actâ—ve vertue Now as we see that Man which is called the little-world is composed of soul and body whereof the soul is his heaven or spirituall part or as we may say the superiour and higher waters and the body with the humours thereof as it were the lower waters is the earth and gâ—osser humouâ—s and each of these two are informed united and vivified by the Spirit of life which God inspired into it even so we may observe that the heaven or spirituall humid nature of the great world is animated by the eternall emanation or spirit of the supernaturall wisdom of God to give life and figure unto the world And forasmuâ—h as it is eaâ—ie to discern that the macro cosmicall heavens are of two sorts namely composed of upper spirituall waters which are called Aeâ—her or heavenly and of the lower spirituall waters which are called Aer or elementary no otherwise than in the lesser world or man the receptacle of the heavenly spirit is known to be Aer so that Physitians distinguish by reason of this difference between the vitall or aetheriall spirits and the naturall or elementary body So we ought to consider that this materiall humid spirit of the heavens in both worlds which are the subtlety of the waters are in themselves dead but in respect of the super-celestiall emanation into them which informeth and vivifieth them they live move and are thinner or thicker according unto that more or less formall grace which the all-informing Spirit doth allot them for the more the sacred Spirit of life doth abound or really act in this or that region of the universall aire the more that sphear is thin subtle active worthy and noble Doth not Scripture seem to verifie that Deus sapientia sua aptet pondus aeri appendat aquas in mensura fecerit terram in fortitudine sua preparaverit orbem in sapientia sua prudentia sua extenderit coelos appenderit aquilonem super inane suspenderit terram super nihilum In coelorum structura cum Deus stabiliret fundâ—menta terrae ipsa aderat cuncta componens And again Wisdom saith Ex ore altissimi prodii primogenita ante omnem creaturam in initio ante seculum creata sum usque ad futurum seculum non desinam habitatione sancta coram ipsum ministravi In coelis â—eci ut oriretur lumeninde ficiens sicut nebula texâ— omnem terram In altissimis habitavi thronus meus in columna nubis coeli gyrum circuivi sola profundum abyssi penetravi in fluctibus maris ambulavi in omni terra sâ—eti Feci Arcturum Orionem converti in
spirits forcibly because vis unita est fortior But when the Iron is planted at a further distance namely in C the greatest portion of the basis of the spirituall triangular-emission passeth by the Iron without any streight encounter and so his effect or vertue is made too weak to draw so ponderous a thing at so far a distance But because his celestiall star doth meet and embrace his emissions and doth fortifie them therefore it is evident that the pole-star doth act in the Load-stone to stir up and animate his like vigour in it and the Load-stone being so vivified doth correspond unto the action of the star penetrating by all one sympatheticall and symphoniacall consent even to the center of his fountain which is easily effected being they are all of one essence Do we not perceive this by an externall apprehension to be true when we observe the northern pole of the Load-stone in a kind of naturall duty to regard and behold with a stedfast constancy the pole-star which is so far off from the body of the Load-stone though near and conjoyned in the beamy affection of one essentiall spirit That this is so we may perceive by the needle touched Do we not gather by Astronomicall practise that the distance of these two bodies I mean the celestiall star and the terrestriall stone is so great as there cannot be esteemed a greater extension in our regard namely seeing that the space is between the starry heaven or eighth sphear in which the pole-star is and the earth And yet we find them to concur and meet in aspect and to operate and sympathize with each other What! and must this abstruse spirits action be limited by any phantasticall and imaginary sphear of activity figured out by persons little skilled and too too superficiall in the occult treasure and arcane or centrall actions of God in nature In like manner there must needs be a sympatheticall concurrence of occult beamy light betwixt the Iron and the Load-stone because they have both centrall stars or beamy influences of one nature and from one and the same fountaine whose occult emanations pass God knoweth at how far a distance although the effects do accidentally appear unto our sense no more than the celestiall influences which descend from heaven upon the Minerals Vegetables and Animals Nevertheless if we will believe the relations of History we are told by Serapio O aus Magnus and the Moors that as well in the Indies as towards the northern pole there are Rocks of this Stone which suck and draw ships unto them at a far distance and pull the iron nailes out of them which is a cause as they say that they fasten together the plancks and boards of their boats and ships with wooden pins And again what shall we say unto the opinion of Fracastoâ—ius a learned Physitian and a well grounded Philosopher who blusheth not after a tedious enquiry made by him in the Load-stones secret disposition to conclude that the reason why the Load-stone directeth his pole unto the north is because that in that angle of the terrestriall world there are mountaines of Load-stone which do draw Iron unto it Verily it is a great distance that this magnetick Rock is able to operate upon the Iron if that were true namely from the Aequinoctiall unto the frozen point of the North-pole for unto the Aequinoctiall line the Mariners make use of the Needle to find out what altitude they are in And although some do think this strange yet for all that many learned men seen as well in Geography and composing of Sea-Maps as delineating the description of the world do firmly adhere unto this opinion Whereby we see that wise and learned men do confirm that the limited sphear of activity ascribed unto the Load-stone by the Peripatetick Philosophers and Christian School-men of his sect is vain and frivolous But to come and ascend from the Minerall unto the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms we observe that there is an admirable relation between the fixed stars and the planets and by the same reason also between plant and plant yea and between the plant and the mineral and between the animal and the plant As for example Touching thâ— sympatheticall relation we find in the first place that the beams of the herb and flower Heliotropium and that of Succory do sympathetically meet and joyne themselves and embrace lovingly the beams and influences of the Sun for they are observed to turn and winde about even in the most clowdy day at the diurnall motion of him And contrariwise in the night time by reason of his absence they contract their flowers as being enemies unto the dark and cold night as Mizaldus affirmeth Also the Oynion as Plutarch doth testifie waxeth green and groweth when the Moon decreaseth and again it withereth when she encreaseth There is also a great sympatheticall reference between the Crab and Oyster and the Moon for when the Moon encreaseth they encrease in their succe or juice again when she decreaseth they also do decrease in their substance Moreover touching the eradiation of one plant unto another it is noted that the Rue otherwise tearmed Herbâ—gâ—ace doth entertain with exceeding great friendship the Fig-tree insomuch that it never groweth or prospereth better than under that tree and that there is a notable sympathy betwixt their natures it is evident because they smell and taste much alike Also if the Myrtle be planted near the Pomgranat-tree it maketh him more fertill and fruitfull and it self more odoriferous and each of them rejoyce at one anothers presence and society and indeed both of them agree in a nature being cold dry and astringent Moreover to express the exceeding sympatheticall relation which is between the Vegetable nature and the Mineral let us but mark diligently the occult property of the Hazel-tree For if at certain times there be forked twigs cut from it and each twig of the forked branch be held in each hand so that the forked place where they joyne stand directly upward and as it were perpendicularly And with this kind of posture of the stick the party that holdeth it pass over a mountain that hath in its bowells some riâ—h minerall or mettalline veine when as the man walketh right over the place of the mine the perpendicular twist will forcibly and that whether the bearer will or no bow downward towards the earth but if there be no mine or veine it will not move That this is true my self can witness and more than a thousand which have seen the effect and will justifie thus much for even among us certain Germaines performed the like fear in the Silver-mines at Wales and in Germany it is a thing commonly exercsied in those mountains of Saxony and Hungary where there are mines of Silver and Gold Besides lest my assertion should be of little faith among the incredulous I would have them know that George Agricola and Munster do avow
blood which is sucked into the iron or other weapon and retained in it for so pure worthy and subtle is the spirit of man's life that every creature doth by a naturall instinct affect to participate with it yea the very devills are said to affect a dwelling place in mans body by reason of the excellent temper thereof Neither would I have any man to scorn this saying of mine for there is a concupiscible passion even in the very stones and minerals themselves as in the Load-stone and Iron it is made manifest and the spirit of the Iron though it be minerall is of the same condition in his catholick nature that all other spirits are And therefore marvell not though I say that the universall spirit affecteth the animal being that for the same reason there hath been noted to be both a sympatheticall and antipatheticall condition between as well the mineral and vegetable and the mineral and animal as between the animal and vegetable But I will produce unto you a probable demonstration There was an Earl of whom in my Book intituled The squeesing of Parson Foster's Spunge I made mention that had his Gardiner cruelly wounded in his hand with a syth as he was mowing of grass the wound bled shrewdly and could not be stenched They went up unto his Lord and signified so much unto him and implored his assistance and desired to have some of his weapon-salve He commanded that forth-with the syth should be knocked off from his wooden handle and conveyed unto him The wounded fellow hearing so much took a hammer himself and holding it with one hand he struck hard upon the weapon or syth with the other and immediately a wondrous thing to tell and yet far from any suspition of diabolicall art the blood stenched and he bled not one drop after it as if the mineral spirit which retained that of the animal were terrified and as it were in awe of the animal spirit that struck it and thereby lost all the faculty of attraction or that the spirits included in it which did consent in harmony with the spirits of the bleeding man had rejoyced in a kind of revenge which was taken on the weapon For know that there is a sympatheticall and antipatheticall irradiation as well between the animal and the minerall as between the animal and animal or mineral and mineral But mark I pray you a second notable observation touching this point Sir Bevis Thelwell told me that for triall upon a Wheelers ax that had wounded him grievously on his leg after it was anointed and wrapped up the wounded person that could not sleep for pain in five nights before did sleep immediately after the oyntment and was at rest which when Sir Bevis Thelwell espied he would needs make triall of a thing which he had heard confirmed by many He opened the anointed Ax and scraped off the oyntment at one corner of it and forthwith he was advertised that the party complained of a grievous pain which he felt just about that part of the wound where the ax was bare by scraping whereupon also he anointed that protion over again and suddainly the party felt ease The same experiment was made and found true by the said Lord Captain Stiles and Sir Nicholas Gilbourn I can also say upon mine own knowledge that in the Church-yard on Bred-street-hill a widow-Gentlewoman having a box of this oyntment cured many of the Tooth-ake by pricking the pained tooth with a sharp stick till it bled and putting that stick into her box of oyntment Among the rest one of her neighbours a contentious woman having the tooth-ake made means unto her for her cure or to have ease Her teeth were pricked and the stick put into the oyntment and she grew well But within three or four daies after she fell out with the Gentlewomans maid and gave her Mistress but bad language all which the maid did certifie her Mistress of The Gentlewoman being merrily disposed said She would make her repent it and went unto the box and took away the stick belonging to this woman out of the pot and put it into a bason of cold water and immediately the woman had such pain as she was forced to sue to the Gentlewoman and she receiving another stick which had pricked her teeth anew it gave her immediate ease Which accidents when I had well contemplated I thought with my self that the included spirit had his chiefest comfort from the oyntment by keeping them warm and that if the oyntment was removed the cold aire which is an enemy to the activity of the bloody spirits was potent over it and did congeal them and so by consent of the beamy influence of life emitted from the wound unto the included spirits and continuated ever unto them as inseparable for it was one and the same spirit according unto Ezekiel's testimony in two severall properties that blowed from the north-wind and the south what distemper befalleth the included and congealed spirits in the weapon happeneth by effect of remission of evoked beams and as it were by a report unto the wound of the patient Again we must consider that the separated blood hath in it each respect of the Microcosm no otherwise than a portion of a whole Loadstone being divided from the whole hath in it all the proportions of the World namely the Poles Aequinoctial and so forth as well as the whole in it so that the Idea of the wounded member is in the spirits of the emitted blood and maketh his relation to every part thereof no otherwise than the poles of a piece of the Loadstone do unto the whole As also there is the like occult attraction and emission of beams between the little blood emitted and the whole bulk of blood retained in the veines as is between the small amputated Load-stone and the whole I conclude therefore that as the congealed bloody spirits in the weapon or amputated blood do by vertue of the homogeniall heat and unctuosity of the salve or oyntment ripen and exspire out by little and little unto his fountain no otherwise than the spark in the grain of corn being kept and preserved in the earthly matrix from the cold crude aire doth aspire upward to the heavenly Sun so also by little and little doth the wound heal and mend in the wounded creature And thus much for the manner of action between the wound and weapon-salve Now a word or two touching the intervall or longitude of distance between the wound and the oyntment The distance betwixt the Pole star and the Load-stone is unknown and yet the one doth operate in the other by sending out their reciprocall beams upward and downward therefore here can no certain limited sphear of activity be assigned unto their action The Sun and the spirit in the grain of wheat do operate in like manner by a continuation of one and the same nature Lo here is the limited sphear of activity also
transplanting of it into a vegetable plant herb or tree as in the progress of this Book shall be more amply declared But because the order of these things in our demonstration à posteriori or by progression from the effect unto the originall cause of these things will be most convenient for the common and vulgar capacity I will begin to ascend in this mine explication from grosser elements unto more subtle intricate and abstruce things as if by proportionate degrees I should mount from the earth into heaven I purpose therefore first to express and demonstrate unto you those things magnetically which are onely wrought by the corporall contact of two severall bodies of the same naturall condition But before I will begin with the Mummy which is taken out of mans dead body I think it in the first place most necessary to entreat of the dead carcase his mystery that we may proceed the more methodically in our intent CHAP. II. That there are four sorts of corporall Mummy whereof one onely is usefull and necessary for salutary purposes In this Chapter also is set down an experiment with certain ocular Demonstrations confirming the magneticall or a tractive vertue of the Basamick spirits which are in the usefull Mummy SUch as have profoundly considered and deeply respected as well the externall as internall nature of man have perceived that the microcosmicall Mummy is of two conditions namely corporall or spirituall of the first I purpose to speak in this present Chapter the second shall be handled hereafter and that at large Touching the corporall Mummy it is either naturally sympatheticall or unnaturally antipatheticall We find therefore by experience that the naturall Mummy is onely medicinable and salutiferous after his due preparation which is effected chiefly by his own magnetick property the rest are apter to breed diseases and to infect such persons as are in health than to afford them any salutary relief or consolation for as according unto the nature of the four elements there are four kinds of corporall and substantiall Mummyes so also are they distinguished according unto those elements whose natures they have endued of the which three of these are corruptible and inducers of death and sickness namely the earthly the watery and the fiery and onely that which is airy is util to mans life and amicable unto his nature Concerning those three kinds of Mummy which breed corruption the reason why they prove corruptible is this We must hold it first for a generall axiom in Philosophy Quod corruptum corrumpentis naturam in se induit That the thing corrupted doth endue the nature of the thing corrupting As for example If the dead carcase of a man be corrupted in the earth it is changed and passeth into the nature of the earth and becommeth inutil for mans health and indeed rather destructive then constructive or wholsome Again if the corruption be made in the water then the corrupted flesh or dead body will acquire or endue a waterish and masseluginous disposition which also will prove very incommodious or unprofitable for the conservation of the vitall spirits And lastly by the inordinate violence of fire the spirits in the Mummiall body will be consumed wasted or expired Now the reason why these said corporall Mummie's in those estates are inconvenient for the conservation of health is Because the foresaid three do so destroy and corrupt the body of them that they make and constrain his earth his water and his fire to return unto their first matter so that whereas the earth and the water are ordained to be the receptaâ—les of two vivifying elements namely of fire and aire which onely can be conserved in a body that is incorrupted it must of necessity follow that in the three foresaid Mummies those vivifying spirits must needs vanish and fly away for want of a naturall body which is now become corrupted and destroyed and therefore unnaturall Seeing therefore nothing is required in the true Mummy more then that which is apt and proper for the conservation of life yea for life it self which is the aire which is banished and expelled from the three forsaid Mummies therefore nothing can be extracted out of them but sickness death and destruction and consequently antipatheticall effects so that if a sound murthered oâ— strangled body do rot under the earth or in the water it is not fit or proper for the wholsome use of mans body The very self-same regard is to be had unto such bodies as die through infirmityes and diseases and although they are not visibly corrupted by the three foresaid externall elements yet nevertheless it happeneth so that a certain invisible corruptible influence and impression is made or caused from the externall elements into the internall From hence therefore proceedeth that intestine war in mans body whereby the elements do kill and corrupt one another but after a divers fashion namely otherwise in one body than in another according as one element or elementall alteration is said to have dominion or rule over the other And this is the reason that such variety of diseases do haunt mans body as for example The Dropsie commeth of the strong impression of water the Hectick or burning Feavor of fiery insultations and the Leprosie of the dominion of earth c. And therefore also where any such elementary corruption happeneth unto the body there the wholsome spirit of the corporall Mummy with his habitacle or dwelling mansion is utterly overthrown and the spirit is forced to depart and consequently contrary Mummiall spirits do dominere and are ready to operate antipathetically as shall be expressed in the second member of this Book But if the sound body that is not haveing any infirmity be killed onely by and in the Element of aire that is to say through strangling or by hanging then there will be found no impression of the foresaid Elements in the corporall Mass of mans carcass And for that reason it will remain incorrupted and will not suffer any Elementall resolution so long as it is conserved in the aire If therefore the body or tabernacle of the spirits and vital Balsom remaineth entire then that aereall vitall Balsom is not compelled to depart from his lodging so long as the body is not resolved by nature or art But if it be resolved then it will forsake the body as the soul doth as also the animal astral spirit which did reconcile the one with the other But the vitall vegetable and Balsamick spirit remaineth in the incorrupted body It followeth therefore that this airy kind of Microcosmicall Mummy is most proper for the conservation of vitall spirits in the living man being extracted prepared and rightly after preparation to be applied I will therefore come briefly unto our Magneticall Experiences touching this Mummiall Subject The Proposition If this salutary kind of airy Mummy with his vehicle or Magneticall instrument be taken or chosen or selected rightly it will indue by reason of the
absence of actuall life and the dominion of cold the condition of the Northern pole and consequently by that reason those airy included spirits which were whilst the body was living of an hot aequinoctiall nature and therefore more dilative from the Center of the Circumference than attractive are now by death made to act from the Circumference to the Center if they be excited by their like spirits which are aequinoctiall and lively and then they become attractive of the aequinoctiall Mummy namely by contracting themselves into the Center and consequently this airy microcosmicall Mummy must be indued with the Magneticall property of the Northern pole and therefore by a contactuall application of it to his like the living man it will suck and attract greedily his like nature and having drawn it in will retain it So that it may by a due preparation be made sympatheticall and reduced into a singular medicine for mans health and conservation Or it may be so contaminated and made antipatheticall with the impure and infectious Mummy of the infirm living creature that it may free the infirm by extracting out the poyson which did infect it and infect a wholsome and sound body unto the which it shall be given inwardly An Experiment upon this I collected a portion of this Northern Mummy namely of the flesh of a man strangled in the aire in which the spritual Mummy was Centrally contracted by cold and I applied it typically unto the part of my body which was nearest unto it in naturall position I found it in the contact passing cold and as it were ice and Northern After it had remained on a certain time I found that in the exciting of his frozen and Northernly contracted spirits by the aequinoctiall heat of my body they drew off my Mummiall and vivifying spirits greedily and at some times and as it were by fits I felt them in their Magnetick operation sensibly and after a kind of dolorous fashion to tug and pull some adjacent parts close about it in conclusion after a certain time I took it off and found it much altered in smell and view by reason of the quantity of my spirits which they attracted unto them both which Mummiall spirits so Magnetically congregated together I extracted and prepared after my manner for the use of mine own body But because my assertion will perchance be of little credit I will prove the feisibility of it and probability of every particle or member hereof by many and sundry examples or Demonstrations I. Demonstration or Proof made by a Relation unto the Microcosmicall nature To prove and demonstrate that the airy spirit of the Microcosme is apt to take any polar impression as well as the aire of the Macrocosm and by consequence is more Magneticall or attractive in his Northern or cold property than in his aequinoctiall or Southern habit Look considerately upon the aire included in the Wether-glass which served as a catholick demonstration unto my precedent Philosophy and you shall see that when the aequinoctiall namely the Eastern and Southern winds do blow in the aire the particular included aire and therefore the universall Element of air excluded is less Magnetick or attractive than when the Northern winds do blow The proof is made evident because that when those winds do blow the externall aire and therefore the internall is more apt to be dilated by reason of the Emanation of the Sulphureous or celestiall spirits which are included in each airy spirit from the Center unto the Circumference making thereby a certain expulsion or rather expansion of airy parts by ratifying of the body of it And therefore it is observed in the Instrument not to draw the water higher then the figure 1. but to repell it down lower Contrariwise when the North winds blow the dilated and mobil aire is by attraction or condensation contracted into immobil snow that is to say into an earthly condition So that we see that the aire in this estate is admirably contractive as it is expressed to the life in the demonstrative Instrument or Wether-glass For the included spirit attracteth the ponderous water upward and contracteth it self out of a large room or place into a narrow Angle or space as it appeareth when the Northern Snow and Frosts have had long dominion in the Macrocosmicall world by a Northern breath at which time we shall find the water against his nature to be sucked up unto the upper figure 7. The reason whereof I have shewed you before namely because the occult Sulphurous nature or spirit which is the Sun of light and the actor in life being carried in his airy vehicle flieth from the persecuting cold which is his adversary and armeth it self about in the Center with a condensed aire to hinder or break the universall assault of cold which is the impe of darknesse and therefore hath his seat at the pole which is furthest off from the presence of the Sun In like manner the dead and cold Mummial spirits being for this reason Centrally contracted and as it were mortified and congealed by application of it to the lively Spirits as the cold Northern aire or spirit unto the aequinoctiall or Southern Sun then reviving and incited by the living man's contactuall or contiguous presence do greedily draw them in as imploring their aid against their cold adversary and having the possession of them seemeth better satisfied I will prove this to be so by this demonstrative Example taken from the Load-stone II. Demonstration That the dead spirits in a body will not attract unto them dead spirits nor that lively spirits in a body will not suck unto them Magnetically lively spirits but very moderatly it is argued by the operation of the Load-stone in this manner Problem 1. The Southern pole of one Load-stone doth with a certain hatred flie from and eschew the Southern pole of another and will by no means be joyned together in friendship but avoideth by a naturall antipathy the contact of one another But if the Northern pole of the one be applied unto the Southern pole of the other they will sticke and cleave together by a strong attraction As for Example Take a Load-stone with his distinct poles namely his Australl and Boreall pole being marked out put it into a little vessell or boat to flote in a basin or cestern or tub of water in such a manner that the two poles thereof be disposed unto the plain of the Horizon then hold in your hand another Load-stone whose poles are well known unto you So that the South-pole of that in your hand be directed to the North of that which floteth the two not being far from one another and you shall find that the boat will follow your hand whither soever it moveth and will not leave untill it cleaveth unto it But if contrariwise you shall offer or apply the North-pole of that in your hand unto the North-pole of that in the boat or the south-pole of
left in the open cold aire then will it happen that the wound will also be distempered and vexed with cold Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to prove the foresaid Proposition to be true in every point and consequently to manifest this manner of Magical cure to be effected Naturally and therefore not Cacomagically The particulars of the foresaid Proposition are easily proved and maintained by such ocular demonstrations as may be produced from the vertuous operation of the minerall Load-stone unto the which we may rightly compare all magneticall bodies with their actions because they have their denominations from the mineral magnet and therefore this weapon-salve is tearmed by some men Unâ—uentum magnetâ—cum and the cure is also called Magneticall I proceed therefore in my purpose after this fashion to prove the Proposition punctually and therefore I divide it into members or portions The first member of those Propositions with certain experimentall Conclusions from the Load-stone to confirm it First therefore we gather by the said precedent Proposition that two magneticall bodies of a like nature may spiritually meet and conjoyne together by a like naturall inclination And that the weapon wounding or other materiall penetrating doth imbibe the spirits and is made magneticall 1 Problematicall Demonstration taken from the Load-stone Take two Loadstones and place them in small wooden vessells or boats of cork or wood and set them upon a basin or tub or cistern of water so that each of the Magnets may aspect one another within the visible orb of his vertue you shal perceive them sensibly to move and as it were to incite each other to mutual embracement so that at the contrary poles unto one another they will meet and unite themselves which is an argument that dissevered spirits of an identity of nature do sympathetically operate and act one upon the other at a distance 2 Demonstration from the same In the like manner if we shall place a piece of Iron in one little boat and a Load-stone in another you will find that the Iron will hasten with the like celerity unto the Load-stone being also in his small barck for you shall perceive that each of them will be carried unto the other and will the one stick and adhere unto the other in the mid-way and after that the desire of each of them is accomplished that is after coition and union they will stand still and rest in their consents 3 Demonstration 1 Problem One vein of Iron being rightly disposed will draw unto it another if the vein be rich and of the colour of Iron As for example put one peece of the vein in his little cup or small boat or bark as is said before of the Load-stone and hold in your hand another piece of the same Mine somewhat near the other and you shall find the other in his bark to move unto it but nothing so swiftly as will the Iron unto the Loadstone 2 Problem You shall find it also for a most true experiment that if Iron be taken nakedly of it self that is not being excited by the Load-stone or any thing else it will draw another Iron unto it though not so swiftly as the Load stone that is vigorous A tryall is made thus Make a piece of cork round and as big as a hazel-nut and pierce it through the center with a reasonable big piece of wier till the middle of the iron be in the center of the corck put it into a quiet water to swim in and apply it unto its other end very near but so that it toucheth it not the end of another piece of wier and you shall see that the piece you hold in your hand shall draw the other in the cork so that as you move the one the other shall slowly follow And this must be effected by the application of such of their ends as shall agree in their pole The Demonstration is this Application By these examples therefore it is made evident how the two spirits of like disposition or rather of one identity of nature are apt and prone by a naturall inclination to covet and embrace their like and that at a distance or space between each body and consequently that it is not the bodies that acteth For they are divided and distant from one another but the formall spirits which by an astrall emanation do sympathetically and lovingly first aspect one another and then by an equall attraction do as it were kiss and hug together And therefore it cannot seem strange or impossible unto wise men that the bloody spirits in the oyntment and those in the wounded person should at a far distance meet and apply together by a sympatheticall aspect being that they are but one continued and indivisible quintessentiall spirit though altered in elementary property even as the northern aire is by the north wind made to differ from the south though all is but one essentiall and indivisible aire Touching the last branch of this Member it argueth that spirits may be nay are imbibed by the weapon that woundeth which by this axiom of Paracelsus maketh the place of the weapon which woundeth a magnet or magneticall The Problem is this 3. Problem Every Body after that it hath imbibed the Mummy which issueth from man is forthwith made a Magnet unto him And this is proved Magnetically by this Problem 4. Problem Iron incited or touched by the Load-stone at the Pole doth draw unto him the like of the Load-stone that toucheth it Application Now that the vitall spirits of the wounded animal do penetrate in the very moment of the stroak into the weapon and that the weapon doth greedily suck them in it is proved by this following observation Some Country Chirurgions not daring to search some deep wounds with a Probe do use to take the weapon that made the wound be it sword dagger knife and such like and put it into the fire and though before you saw no difference in the colour of the weapon yet after it cometh out of the fire you shall see the place of it that wounded altered in colour from the other by reason of such spirits as it did imbibe This is commonly found true by experience Another proof to maintain this is that if a Viper or Adder be cut with a sword or knife in peeces the venomous odious and irascible spirit of the Serpent will penetrate into the substance of the steel which is confirmed by this namely because that if a man be afterward wounded by this weapon that did cut and divide the Adder or Viper it will so invenome the wound that it will be made incurable except an Antidote made of Adder or Viper be applied So also the Scorpion being bruised and applied unto the wound that is made by the Scorpion will cure it as also an Oyle made of the same The second member of the Proposition with the proofs Secondly that if a Magneticall body be it animal vegetable or
so that as the vertue of the plant with the Saffron do kill and poison the infection in the urine so also by the mutuall consent which is betwixt the two infecting extreams namely the blood and the urine the infection also in the blood is observed by little and little to dye wither and decay But I will produce unto you a magneticall Problem to confirm the possibility of this Proposition 2 Problem Two Load-stones rightly cohering at opposite poles by the comming of a stronger Load-stone or Iron incited do make an abort and the new commer will easily drive away the other which is with a contrary face and will command him and so the coherence or union of the other two will cease or end Application So that union which was made between the spirit infected with the corrupting humour and the corrupted blood is separated and the unnaturall is forced to fly and depart from the naturall by the help of another which is more potent then the unnaturall which is less homogeneall and proper to rectifie and purifie by the union of his spirit the impurity in the naturall blood and to kill and mortifie the corrupter in the urine I need not to say much more for the proof hereof being that the precedent Chapter doth fully confirm and that by relation had unto the Load-stone and Weather-glass in every particle of this Proposition being that as blood is transplanted from the wounded parties fountain of blood and as it were grafted on the oyntment so also is the urine with bloody spirits transferred from the bloody fountain in the icteritious person and is planted or placed in a bed of salutary ashes from whence it operateth no otherwise in the living blood then the blood or spirits in the oyntment do in the veins of the wounded person I will now proceed unto the microcosmicall Magnet which is taken out of the living man and I purpose to describe unto you briefly and in generall tearms the wonderfull effects in sympathy which it produceth by his extraction of the spirituall Mummy out of mans body and by the transplantation and right application thereof CHAP. VIII Wherein the secret Magnet which is extracted out of the Microcosm or Man yet living is in generall terms mentioned with the manner of his attraction or extraction of the spirituall Mummy out of Man and the application and as well the Antipatheticall as Sympatheticall operation thereof I Will now in few words relate unto you a History of the abstruce manner of healing by Transplantation which if it be rightly considered it doth farre surpass that of the Weapon-salve For it doth not onely cure at distance as that doth but it operateth that feat by the vegetative spirit of the plant And yet I hope that my Story shall no way sound unto Wisemens eares as Cacomagicall but onely naturally Magicall and therefore ordained by God to be wrought upon in the right use thereof for man's good and salutary benefit For unto that end did the Spirit of Wisdom teach those which were inclined unto wisdom as Solomon witnesseth as well those things which are occult and hidden as such as are manifest and apparent unto man's sense And because that good things may by abuse be converted unto evill and unlawfull purposes as a sword to kill as well as to save as shall â—e told you hereafter Therefore is it God's will that these mysteries should be hid from the unlearned or at least-wise from such of the vulgar as are wickedly minded and ordained them to be laid open unto such as are honest wise and discreet But leaving all preambles I will come to the point and proceed with that style and method in which I began The Generall Proposition There may be extracted out of a living man without any prejudice unto his health a Magnet which by a several application of it unto convenient parts of the body will draw or suck out according unto the pleasure of the Applier the animal vitall or naturall spirituall Mummy out of one and the same living Man and that without any detriment unto his person the which being rightly with the Magnet that imbibed it transplanted and made vegetative will operate as well by an internall administration as at a far distance or by a spirituall emanating relatition after it be duly ordered and adapted both to the health and preservation and infection and damage and destruction of mankind An Explication of every Member of this Proposition This Proposition doth consist of many Members whereof the first toucheth the generation condition and preparation of the Magnet The second the manner of application for the extraction of the spirituall Mummy The third openeth the fashion of a manifold Transplantation of that Mummy being so extracted and lastly as well the usages as the abuses thereof Of all which Particles or Members thus in order Of the Microcosmicall Magnet We term this the Microcosmicall Magnet because it hath the properties of the Minerall Load-stone And it may therefore easily be conjectured and guessed by such as are wise in their apprehension what it is by comparing the animal Magnet with that of the Minerall For as the Minerall Magnet is not of a naturall but monstrous birth for it is not engendred of like and equall Genitors but is begotten after the manner of the Mule being that her mother or passive corporeal mass is a common Saturnine and stony Mercury but his Father or active Form is a Metalline Sulphurous Martial spirit So also this our Microcosmicall Magnet doth consist of a Sulphurous Martial spirit being as it were his Formal Father and of a strange or forrein Mercury which is nevertheless a near neighbour in position and condition unto the Microcosmicall Mercury as his passive or Mercuriall matter As for the Mine of which it is extracted it is the living Man and it is taken or derived from him without any prejudice unto his health and after a certain preparation of it it is made a fit Magnet to suck or draw unto it the spirituall Mummy out of the living Man and that without any detriment unto his health The Manner of this Magnet's application for the extraction of the Spirituall Mummy As for the manner of its application it is this We take the Magnet so prepared and if we would extract the Animal's Mummiall spirits we must apply it unto those places which are aptest for their evacuation As for example If we desire the Mummy of the vitall parts then we must adapt our Magnet to suck at that place which nature hath ordained to purge the vitall region Lastly if we would have the naturall spirituall Mummy we must apply it unto that place of the body out of which nature is accustomed to send forth the spirituall fumes or sweaty evacuations from that member namely from the Liver To conclude if you would make a generall Medicine which should respect the animal vitall and naturall parts all at once then must your Magnet
be applied unto them all and after that it hath sucked a sufficient proportion then ought you to reserve it for to make your Transplantation The Act of Transplantation of the Spirituall Mummy Touching the act or manner of Transplantation Paracelsus saith that the extracted spirituall Mummy doth not ooperate unto health and preservation but by mineral vegetable and animal means And therefore it is necessary that the spirituall Mummy attracted or extracted out of the body by the virtue of the Animal Magnet must be introduced into a vegetative nature whereby the said Mummy not being of it self vegetative may by adoption as it were be introduced into and be indued with a vegetative nature or condition We ought therefore to mingle a proportion of this imbibed Magnet with a certain proportion of his mother-earth and sow in this composition the seeds of such herbs as are proper for thi◠or that disease and this or that ill affected principall part of man's body or this or that infirm member which is contained in his region As for example For the Lungs in the vitall region when the disease is the Ptifick sow Line-seed or Juniper in the naturall region when it is Dropsy Pimpnel or wormwood in the bruising or contusion of parts Hypericon or Plantain in tumour or wounds Persecaria or the great or lesser Cumfry in Salt diseases as are the tooth-ach pain in the eies and flowing Menstrues Persecaria maculata and so forth The herbs must grow in this compounded earth and that in the open aire and as the herb or plant groweth it will sympathetically and Magnetically extract the imbibed Mummiall spirits out of the Magnet and will by that means cause the Mummy extracted out of every particular member according unto his condition to be fit to cure the infirmity of his proper member Of the Use and Virtue of the Transplanted Mummy Lastly as concerning the manner how to use this Transplanted Mummy now that it is changed into a vegetable nature or condition If the disease be dry and of a combust nature as is the yellow Jaunders the Ptisick c. and you would cure it or expell it out of the body then take the herb with his Magnetick earth and cast them into the running water and the disease will fade and die by little and little But if the disease be moist then you must burn the herb with the Magneticall earth Again if the disease be more temperate namely between the extremities of water and fire then hang up the herb in the aire or smoak to dry and the disease will languish by little and little as the herb doth fade If you shall give the herb or fruit unto the beast that is of a stronger nature than the sick then the beast will be infected with that disease and the sick will be free Also if the spirituall Mummy so extracted out of some peculiar member of a sound Man be conserved in his continuall vegetation if you take of his fruit and transplant it into a sound oken tree by that means the member out of which the Mummy was extracted will grow continually and continue in his naturall and robust proportion of vegetation without defect After this manner also are the Willow trees but that they increase so suddenly and by reason thereof they are not so fit for this purpose lest the member should grow too hastily for by that means many inconveniences may follow As for example If after that manner the hair of a person be shut up into a willow-tree they will grow so suddenly and so copiously that unless they be removed thence or the Willow be burned the eyes and brains will indure dammage and detriment as dolours fluxes c. namely by the suddain increase or too much humidity of the Tree And therefore according unto the proportion of the person there must be a proportionate tree found out into the which the Mummy is to be transplanted but the Oke is to be elected before all others because it increaseth and groweth but temperately and strongly and a mans life will not easily exceed the daies of an Oke By this mysticall kind of attraction the true and wise naturall Magician for so I may call the true Philosopher that operateth as Solomon did by the properties of naturall things may bring to pass such things which in wonder will excell as I said by many degrees the power or act of the weapon-salve for by it wise men have procured friendship love between such as have been utter enemies again by the use of it grace and affection may be recovered from another whose favour is desired Paracelsus speaking darkly of this Mummiall faculty doth shew how the Ape and the Snake betwixt the which a naturall antipathy or strife and hatred is ever observed to be may be made friends and familiar unto one another But to our purpose If the members out of the which the second Mummy is extracted are to be corroborated then you must make the extracted Mummy to vegetate as before by transplantation temperately and according unto the naturall proportion in the Oke or other such like sound tree But if the members be too dry then let their extracted Mummy vegetate in the Willow tree and from thence again be transplanted into some other temperate Tree So also in a humid complexion it may for a time be transplanted into a hot and slowly growing tree as is the Juniper onely observing that the fruit in which the Mummy is transplanted be preserved from all externall dammage Demonstration I need not waste the time in further demonstration of the possibility and feazibility of these acts in the spirituall transplanted Mummy when by the very self-same proofs whereby I have confirmed the manner of curing by the weapon-salve and by transplantation which is set down in one of the Chapters of this present Book I have fully demonstrated the reasons of these occult and abstruse actions in this kind of cure unto such as will not with St. Thomas believe any thing but what is confirmed by sense And therefore for the manifestation of this hidden action by a relation of natures I refer you unto that very place also where the salve is compared unto the vegetable and Magnet the bloody spirits unto the spirituall Mummy the manner of application of beams from the Mummy to the sick member unto the application of the transplanted bloody spirits to the wounded member the keeping the spiritually-growing spirit in the oyntment from cold unto the preserving the vegetable fruit in which the Mummy is planted from externall damage So that eadem est ratio utriusque and by consequence eadem est demonstrationis via in ambobus It is too tedious in this place to express the efficacious operations of this secret mysticall Mummy and I am assured that some ignorant Momus or Cynicall ignorant will either laugh or bark at what is said already touching it for Quis major scientiae inimicus quà m
of man be mingled with venomous things and so be suffered to rot or else be mingled with the Mummies of infirm or infected persons or with the poysonsome menstrues of a woman and then a herb be planted or the magnet so imbibed and be conserved in a continuall vegetation it may be a cause that the disease should be of continuance Also if one give the herb or fruit which savoureth of a sick man's Mummy unto a beast that is of a stronger nature then the sick then the beast will be infected with that disease and the sick will be free From this experiment many egregious abuses may and would be effected by wicked men if this manner of diverting the creatures vertue from good to bad were known unto them for by it they may disseminate agues and the pestilence over a whole Country for the plant will suck out the spirituall Mummy of such persons as are infected with such venomous diseases by reason of its vegetating activity Also if the spirituall Mummy be extracted by means of this microcosmicall Magnet out of a body infected with the Leprosie and be applyed or any way administred inwardly unto another that is healthfull and sound it will infect the sound person and free the infected as it hath been proved by some 2 Proposition The antipatheticall Mummy of the sick may be extracted and infected or infused into another that is sound A demonstrative Example This is confirmed by the precedent proofs and is further maintained thus If one do sow seeds or herbs pertaining unto the three principal members in the Mummy of a dead carcase or in the Mummy extracted out of a sick or infected person and the fruit of these vegetables be given or administred unto man or beast then the disease will be transplanted upon the said man or beast By this means also naughty men may infect and poyson But because these mischiefs are horrible to a religious spirit I dare not farther express the effects of antipathy in spirits which may be brought to pass by the abusing of Gods blessings I will therefore enter into another kind of antipatheticall practice which shall rather tend unto the conservation of man then the destruction of it 3 Proposition If two lively fleshes that are wounded be applied to each other they will sympathize and be united assimilated and made one continued flesh so that as the one prospereth the other will do the like also conditionally that the party from whom the added flesh is borrowed continue in his lively and vegetable disposition but if the animal tree from which the graff was taken I mean the body out of which the flesh was lent or cut do wither or die that is doth leave to vegetate and act then will that borrowed flesh also be at jarr and discord with the flesh of the borrower that liveth and vegetateth and consequently antipa hy will spring out from that union which was sympatheticall before so that except the dying flesh be amputated or taken off from the lively flesh upon the which it was grafted or transplanted it will cause the living flesh also to gangrenate and corrupt with it self An experiment to confirm this This is well proved and maintained by that experiment in Italy before mentioned for when a certain noble personage had lost his nose by a wound and had by the Physitians advice made a wound in one of his slaves armes and clapped it unto his wounded nose and so the flesh of the one was bound fast unto the flesh of the other continuing after that manner untill by a sympatheticall agglutination and union both fleshes became one flesh Then a gobbit of the slave's flesh was cut out of the arm and was framed into the shape of a nose on the Noble-man and the slave was manumitted with mony in his purse for his paines It befell thaâ— on a certain time after the slave did die and though he departed this life being far distant from his master yet the borrowed flesh on the masters nose withered and gangrenated insomuch that the antipathy between these two fleshes though united into one substance became so great that if immediately that dead flesh had not been cut off it would have corrupted and destroyed the rest A Problematicall Demonstration from the Load-stone One Load-stone doth draw another in his naturall position but being unnaturally ordered it driveth away or resisteth the other The demonstration of this Problem hath been expressed as well by a Load-stone divided in Boats as by two Irons swimming on corks 2 Problem If a plant be cut off as for example a willow-wand and if it be regularly planted or grafted on the same stick it will grow but if irregularly it will die For the proof of this Problem look the 2 Proposition of the 5 Chapter in the Application unto the Vegetable The Application So if the spirits of the two fleshes be unnaturally disposed unto one another and turned from their sympatheticall union unto an antipatheticall duality or disunion or discord in natures then will it after unequall jars follow a generall corruption for as is said before Corruptum corrumpentis naturam facillime induit 4 Probâ—em If a spiritual Mummy be corrupted by some alien or strange infectious nature yet in respect of the naturall Mummy of the sound and wholsom body which is so infected the sound and wholsom Mummy of a body not infected will magnetically attact it though not so affectionately but more slowly by reason of the union or adhering of the strange venom unto it which causeth a mixtion of antipathy with that of sympathy and the reason of that slowness in the repelling of the antipatheticall insult is because the sound and homogeniall Mummy doth partly by his concupiscible act attract unto it his sympatheticall like and partly expell his contaminating unlike by his irascible property But for that this antipatheticall unlike cleaveth so fast unto his infected like therefore it happeneth that the expulsive resistance is but slow and so the sound spirituall Mummy becommeth as well corrupted and infected as the other and by that means Sympathy is turned into Antipathy An Experiment to confirm this There are many proofs to maintain this for when a corrupted spirituall Mummy is carried in the aire from one infected with a pestilent Feavour or small Pox the Mummy so infected doth unite it self being homogeniall unto the sound man's spirit and in that regard the one embraceth the other but the sound Mummiall spirit perceiving and tasting of the heterogeniall or infected nature which adhereth unto his like doth slowly expell or resist it by reason that it doth covet his like and therefore sympathetically attracteth and again hateth his unlike and therefore antipathetically expelleth which is for that reason but slowly performed and this is the cause that the expulsive crisis is not made suddenly after the poysonsome infection is received neither will sweats or fluxes or eruption of blood out of the nose which