as well as Opinion And Philoponus expounding these words of his a Non solùm scientiam sed Principium Scientiae esse aliquod duimus Quo Terminos cognoscimus hath this excellent and Christian observation {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Taking indeca saith hee the mind to bee the Principle or first Cause of Knowledge not our own but that of God which is above us but taking the Termes to be Intellectual and Divine Formes Thus according to Aristotle if you trust the Commem the Divine mind is the first Cause of Knowledge for if this Mind once unfolds himself and sheds his light upon us wee shall apprehend the Intellectuall Formes or Types of all things that are within him These Formes hee very properly calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} because they terminat or end all Things For by them the Creature is defined and hath his Individuation or to speak with Scotus his Haecceitie by which he is This and not That This now is the Demonstration we should look after namely the Expansion or opening of the Divine Mind not a Syllogism that runns perhaps on all Foure If once wee be admitted to this Communion of Light wee shall be able with the Apostle to give a Reason for our Faith but never without it Now you are to understand that God unfolds not himself nisi magno Coelo priùs patefacto unlesse the Heaven of Man bee first unfolded Amovete ergo velamen Intellectus vestri Cast of the veile that is before your faces and you shall bee no more blind God is not God a far off but God at hand Behold saith he I stand at the Doore and knock Open your selves then for it is written If any man opens I will come in and Sup with Him This is the inward Mysticall not the outward Typicall Supper and this is the Spirituall Baptism with Fire not that Elemental one with water Truely I am much comforted when I consider two Things First that Magic did afford the first Professors of Christianity whose Knowledge and Devotion brought them from the East to Jerusalem Secondly that this Art should suffer as Religion doth and for the very same Reason The main Motives which have occasion'd the present Rents and Divisions of the Church are the Ceremonies and Types used in it For without Controversie the Apostles instituted and left behind them certaine Elements or Signes as Water Oile Salt and Lights by which they signisied unto us some great and reverend Mysteries But our Reformers mistaking these things for superstitious turn'd them all out of Doores But verily it was ill done for if the shadow of Saint Peter healed shall not these shadowes of Christ doe much more The Papist on the contrary knowing not the signification of these Types did place a certain Inhaerent holiness in them so fell into a very dangerous Idolatrie I omit many Things which he invented of his own as Images Holy Lambes and Reliques adding these dead Bones to the Primitive and beauteous Bodie of the Church Now to draw up the Paralell The Magicians they also instituted certain Signes as the Clavis to their Art and these were the same with the former Namely Water Oile Salt and Light by which they tacitly discovered unto us their Three Principles and the Light of Nature which fills and actuats all Things The common Man perusing their Books but not their Sense took Candles Common Water Oile and Salt and began to Consecrat and exorcise them to make up his damnable and Devilish Magic The Magicians had a Maxim amongst themselves Quod nulla vox operatur in Magiâ nisi prius Dei voce formetur That no word is efficacious in Magic unless it be first animated with the word of God Hence in their Books there was frequent mention made of Verbum and Sermo which the Common Man interpreting to his own Fansie invented his Charmes and Vocabula by which he promised to do wonders The Magicians in their writings did talk much of Triangles and Circles by which they intimated unto us their more secret Triplicitie with the Rotation of Nature from the Beginning of her Week to her Sabaoth By this Circle also or Rotation they affirmed that Spirits might be bound meaning that the Soul might be united to the Body Presently upon this the Common Man fansied his Triangles and characters with many strange Cobwebs or Figures and a Circle to Conjure in but knowing not what Spirit that was which the Magicians did bind he laboured and studied to bind the Devill Now if thou wilt question mee who these Magicians were I must tell thee They were Kings they were Priests they were Prophets Men that were acquainted with the Substantial Spiritual Mysteries of Religion and did deal or dispense the outward Typicall part of it to the People Here then wee may see how Magic came to be out of Request For the Lawyers and Common Divines who knew not these Secrets perusing the Ceremonial Superstitious Trash of some Scriblers who praetended to Magic praescribed against the Art it self as Impious and Antichristian so that it was a Capital sin to professe it and the Punishment no lesse than Death In the Interim those few who were Masters of the Science observing the first Monitories of it buried all in a deep Silence But God having suffered his Truth to be obscured for a great time did at last stirr up som resolute and active spirits who putting the Pen to paper expell'd this Cloud and in some measure discover'd the Light The Leaders of this brave Body were Cornelius Agrippa Libanius Gallus the Philosopher Johannes Tritemius Georgius Venetus Johannes Reuclin called in the Greek Capnion with severall others in their severall Dayes And after all These as an Vsher to the Traine and one borne out of due time Eugenius Philalethes Seeing then I have publickly undertaken a Province which I might have governed privatly with much more Content and Advantage I think it not enough to have discover'd the Abuses and misfortunes this Science hath suffered unless I indeavour withall to demonstrate the Antiquitie of it For certainly it is with Arts as it is with Men their Age and Continuance are good Arguments of their strength and Integritie Most apposit then was that Check of the AEgyptian to Solon O Solon Solon Vos Graeci semper pueriestis nullam habentes antiquam Opinionem nullam Disciplinam tempore canam You Graecians said hee are ever childish having no Ancient opinion no Discipline of any long standing But as I confesse my self no Antiquarie so I wish some Seldon would stand in this Breach and make it up with those Fragments which are so neer Dust that Time may put them in his Glass I know for my own part it is an Enterprise I cannot sufficiently performe but since my hand is already in the Bag I will draw out those few Pebbles I have and thus I sting them at the Mark This Art or rather
a continual Coction the Volatil Essences ascending and descending till at last they are fix'd according to that excellent Prosopopaeia of the stone Non ego continuò morior dum spiritus exit Nam redit assiduè quamvis soepe recedat Et mihi nunc magna est Animae nunc nulla fa cultas Plus ego sustinui quam Corpus debuit unum Tres Animas habui quas omnes intus habebam Discessere duae sed Tertia poenè secuta est I am not dead although my spirit 's gon For it returns and is both off and on Now I have life enough now I have non I suffer'd more than one could justly doe Three soules I had and all my own but Two Are fled the Third had almost left mee too {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I have written what I have written And now give me leave to look about mee Is there no Powder-Plott or practice What 's become of Aristotel and Galen Where is the Scribe and Pharisee the Disputers of this world If they suffer all this and believe it too I shall think the General Conversion is come about and I may sing Jam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia Regna But come what will come I have once more spoken for the Truth and shall for Conclusion speak this much Again I have elsewhere call'd this Subject Limus coelestis and the middle Nature The Philosophers call it the Venerable Nature but amongst all the Praetenders I have not yet found one that could tell me why Hear me then that whensoever thou doest attempt this work it may be with reverence not like some proud ignorant Doctor but with lesse Confidence more Care This Chaos hath in it the foure Elements which of themselves are contrarie Natures but the wisdome of God hath so placed them that their very order reconciles them For Example Ayre and Earth are Adversaries for one is hot and moyst the other cold and drie Now to reconcile these two God placed the Water between them which is a middle Nature or of a mean Complexion between both Extremes For she is cold and moyst and as shee is cold shee partakes of the Nature of the Earth which is cold and drie but as shee is moyst she partakes in the Nature of the Ayre which is hot and moyst Hence it is that Ayre and Earth which are Contraries in Themselves agree and imbrace one another in the water as in a middle Nature which is proportionate to them both and tempers their Extremities But verely this Salvo makes not up the Breach for though the water reconciles two Elements like a friendly Third yet shee her self fights with a Fourth namely with the Fire For the Tire is hot and drie but the water is cold and moyst which are clear Contraries To prevent the Distempers of these two God placed the Ayre between them which is a Substance hot and moyst and as it is hot it agrees with the fire which is hot and drie but as it is moyst it agrees with the water which is cold and moyst so that by mediation of the Ayre the other two Extremes namely fire and water are made friends and reconciled Thus you see as I told you at first that Contrarie Elements are united by that Order and Textare wherein the Wise God hath placed them You must now give me leave to tell you that this Agreement or friendship is but parâ—il a very weak love cold and skiâ—tish for whereas these Principles agree in one qualitie they differ in two as your selves may easily compute Much need therefore have they of a more strong and able Mediator to confirme and preserve their weak Unitie for upon it depends the very aternitie and Incorruption of the Creature This blessed Caement and Balsam is the Spirit of the living God which some ignorant Scriblers have call'd a Quintessence for this very Spirit is in the Chaos and to speak plainly the fire is his Thrrne for in the Fire he is Sèated as wee have sufficiently told you elsewhere This was the Reason why the Magi call'd the first Matter their Venerable Nature and their blessed stone and in good earnest what think you is it not so This blessed Spirit fortifies and perfects that weak Disposition which the Elements already have to Union and Peace for God works with Nature not against her and brings them at last to a beauteous specificall Fabric Now iÌ„f you will aske me where is the Soul or as the Schoole-men abuse hwer the Form all this while what doth shee doe To this I answer that shee is as all Instrumentals ought to be subject and obedient to the will of God expecting the persection of her Body for it is God that unites her to the Body and the body to her Soule and Body are the work of God the one as well as the other the Soul is not the Artificer of her house for that which can make a Body can also repayre it and hinder death but the Soule cannot doe this it is the Power and Wisdome of God In a word to say that the Soule form'd the Body because shee is in the Body is to say that the Jowell made the Cabinet because the Jewell is in the Cabinet or that the Sun made the world because the Sun is in the world and cherisheth every part thereof Learn therefore to distinguish between Agents and their Instruments for if you attribute that to the Creature which belongs to the Creator you bring your sleves in Danger of hell-fire for God is a jealous God and will not give his glorie to Another I advise my Doctors therefore both Divines and Physicians not to bee too rash in their Censures nor so Magisterial in their Discourse as I have known some Professors of Physic to be who would correct and undervalue the rest of their Brethren when in Truth they Themselves were most shamefully ignorant It is not ten or twelve years Experience in Druggs and Sopps can acquaint a man with the Mysteries of God's Creation Take this and make a world Take I know not what and make a Pill or Clyster are different Recepts Wee should therefore consult with our Judgements before wee venture our Tongues and never speake but when wee are sure wee understand I knew a Gentleman who meeting with a Philosopher Adept and receiving so much Courtesie as to be admitted to Discourse attended his first Instructions passing well But when this Magician quitted my friends known Roade and began to touch and drive round the great Wheele of Nature presently my Gentleman takes up the Cudgells and urging all the Authorities which in his vain judgement made for him opprest this noble Philosopher with a most clamorous insipid Ribaldrie A goodly sight it was and worthy our Imitation to see with what an admirable Patience the other received him But this Errant concluded at last That Lead or Quick-silver must be the Subject and that Nature work'd
whose lipps the Truth did breathe and knew no other Oracle Coelestium vires dum in se existunt à Datore Luminum per sanctas Intelligentias Coelos influuntur quousque ad Lunam pervenerint earum Influentia bona est tanquam in primo gradu deinde autem quando in Subjecto viliori suscipitur ipsa etiam vilescit That is The Heavenly powers or spirituall Essences whiles they are in themselves or before they are united to the Matter and are shower'd down from the Father of Lights thorough the holy Intelligences and the Heavens untill they come to the Moone Their Influence is good as in the first degree But when it is received in a corrupt Subject the Influence also is corrupted Thus He. Now the A stronomers pretend to a strange familiaritie with the starrs the Natural Philosophers talk as much and truly an Ignorant man might well think they had been in heaven and conversed like Lucians Menippus with Jove himself But in good Earnest these Men are no more Eagles than Sancho their fansies are like his flights in the Blanket and every way as short of the Skies Ask them but where the Influences are received and how bid them by faire Experience prove they are present in the Elements and you have undone them if you will trust the foure Corners of a Figure or the three Legs of a Syllogism you may this is all their Evidence Well fare the Magicians then whose Art can demonstrate these Things and put the very Influences in our hands Let it be thy studie to know their Region of Light and to enter into the Treasures thereof for then thou mayst converse with Spirits and understand the Nature of invisible Things Then will appear unto thee the Universal Subject and the two minerall Spermes White and Red of which I must speak somewhat before I make an end In the Pythagoricall Synod which consisted of Threescore and Ten Philosophers all Masters of the Art it is thus written I gnis Spissum in Aera cadit Aeris vero Spissum quod ex igne Spisso congregatur in Aquam incidit Aquae quoque Spissum quod ex I gnis Aeris Spisso coadunatur in Terrâ quiescit Ita istorum Trium spissuudo in Terrâ guiescit inque eâ conjuncta sunt Ipsa ergo Terra omnibus caeteris Elementis spissior est uti Palam apparet videre est That is The Thicknesse or Sperm of the Fire falls into the Ayre The Thickness or Spermatic part of the Ayre and in it the Sperm of the Fire falls into the Water The Thickness or spermatic Substance of the Water and in it the two Spermes of Fire and Ayre fall into the Earth and there they rest and are conjoyned Therefore the Earth it self is thicker than the other Elements as it openly appears and to the eye is manifest Remember now what I have told thee formerly concerning the Earth what a generall Hospitall it is how it receives all things not onely Beasts and Vegetables but proud and glorious Man when Death hath ruin'd him his courser parts stay here and know no other Home This Earth to Earth is just the Doctrine of the Magi Metalls say they and all things may bee reduc'd into that whereof they were made They speak the very Truth it is God's own Principle and he first taught it Ad. m. Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return But lest any man should be Deceived by us I think it just to informe you there are two reductions One is Violent and Destructive reducing Bodies to their Extremes and properly it is Death or the Calcination of the common Chimist The other is Vital and Generative resolving Bodies into their Sperm or middle Substance out of which Nature made them for Nature makes not Bodies immediatly of the Elements but of a Sperm which shee drawes out of the Elements I shall explain my self to you by Example An Egg is the Sperm or middle Substance out of which a Chick is ingendred and the moysture of it is viscous and slimie a water and no water for such a Sperme ought to bee Suppose Dr. Coale I mean some Broyler had a minde to generat something out of this Egg Questionlesse he would first distill it and that with a fire able to roast the Hen that layd it then would hee calcine the Caput mortuum and finally produce his Nothing Here you are to observe that Bodies are nothing els but Sperm coagulated and he that Destroyes the Body by consequence destroyes the Sperm Now to reduce Bodies into Elements of earth and water as wee have instanc'd in the Egg is to reduce them into Extremes beyond their Sperm for Elements are not the Sperm but the Sperm is a Compound made of the Elements and containing in it self all that is requisit to the frame of the Body Wherefore be well advis'd before you distill and Quarter any particular Bodies for having once separated their Elements you may never generat unless you can make a Sperm of those Elements but that is impossible for man to doe it is the Power of God and Nature Labour then you that would be accounted wise to find out our Mercurie so shall you reduce things to their mean spermaticall Chaos but avoyd the broyling Destruction This Doctrine will spare you the vain Task of Distillations if you will but remember this Truth That Spâ—rmes are not made by Separation but by Composition of Elements and to bring a Body into Sperm is not to distill it but to reduce the whole into one thick water keeping all the parts thereof in their first naturall union But that I may return at last to my former Citation of the Synod All those Influences of the Elements being united in one Mass make our Sperm or our Earth which is Earth and no Earth Take it if thou doest know it and divide the Essences thereof not by violence but by naturall putrefaction such as may occasion a genuine Dissolution of the Compound Here thou shalt find a miraculous white Water an Influence of the Moone which is the Mother of our Chaos It rules in two Elements Earth and Water After this appears the Sperm or influx of the Sun which is the father of it It is a quick Coelestiall fire incorporated in a thin oleous Aereall Moysture It is incombustible for it is fire it self and feeds upon fire and the longer it stayes in the fire the more glorious it growes These are the two mineral Spermes Masculine and Foeminine if thou doest place them both on their Chrystalline Basis thou hast the Philosopher's flying Fire-drake which at the first sight of the Sun breathes such a poyson that nothing can stand before him I know not what to tell thee more unlesse in the Vogue of some Authors I should give thee a flegmatic Description of the whole process and that I can dispatch in two words It is nothing els but
Aristotel to AEelohim and condemn the Truth of God to justifie the Opinions of Man Now for my part I dare not be so irreligious as to think God so vain and improvident in his workes that he should plant in Man a Desire to know and yet deny him Knowledge it self This in plain termes were to give me Eyes and afterwards shutt mee up in Darkness lest I should see with those eyes This earnest Longing and busie Inquisition wherein Men tyre themselves to attain to the Truth made a certain Master of Truth speak in this fashion Ergo liquidò apparet in hac Mundi structurâ quam cernimus aliquam triumphare Veritatem quae toties rationem nostram commovet agitat implicat explicat toties inquietam toties insomnem miris modis sollicitat non fortuitis aut aliunde adventitiis sed suis propiis originariis Naturae Illicibus quae omnia cum non fiunt frustra utique contingit ut Veritatem Eorum quae sunt aliquo tandem opportuno tempore amplexemur It is clear therefore saith he that in this Fabric of the world which we behold there is some Truth that rules which Truth so often stirrs up puzzles and helps our Reason so often sollicites her when shee is restless so often when shee is watchfull and this by strange meanes not casual and adventitious but by genuine provocations and pleasures of nature All which Motions being not to no purpose it falls out at last that in some good time wee attain to the true Knowledge of those things that are But because I would not have you build your Philosophie on Coralls and whistles which are the Objects of little Children of whom we have spoken formerly I will speak som what of those Elements in whose Contemplation a Man ought to employ himself and this Discourse may serve as a Preface to our whole Philosophie Man according to Trismegistus hath but two Elements in his power namely Earth and Water To which Doctrine I adde this and I have it from a Greater than Hermes That God hath made Man absolute Lord of the first Matter and from the first matter and the Dispensation thereof all the fortunes of man both good and bad doe proceed According to the Rule and Measure of this Substance all the world are rich or poore and hee that knows it truly and withall the true use thereof he can make his fortunes constant but hee that knowes it not though his Estate be never so great stands on a slipperie Foundation Look about thee then and consider how thou art compassed with infinite Treasures and miracles but thou art so blind thou doest not see them nay thou art so mad thou doest think there is no use to be made of them for thou doest believe that Knowledge is a meere Peripateticall Chatt and that the Fruits of it are not Works but words If this were true I would never advise thee to spend one Minute of thy life upon Learning I would first be one of those should ruine all Libraries and Vniversities in the world which God forbid any good Christian should desire Look up then to Heaven and when thou seest the Coelestiall fires move in their swift and glorious Circles think also there are here below some cold Natures which they over-look and about which they move incessantly to heat and concoct them Consider again that the Middle spirit I mean the Ayre is interpos'd as a Refrigeratorie to temper and qualifie that Heat which otherwise might be too violent If thou doest descend lower and fix thy Thoughts where thy feet are that thy wings may be like those of Mercurie at thy Heeles thou wilt find the Earth surrounded with the Water and that Water heated and stirr'd by the Sun and his starrs abstracts from the Earth the pure subtil saltish parts by which means the water is thickened and coagulated as with a Rennet out of these two Nature generates all things Gold and Silver Pearles and Diamonds are nothing els but water and salt of the Earth concocted Behold I have in a few words discovered unto thee the whole system of Nature and her Royal High-way of Generation It is thy Duty now to improve the Truth and in my Booke thou mayst if thou art wise find thy Advantages The foure Elements are the Objects and implicitly the Subjects of Man but the Earth is invisible I know the common Man will stare at this and judge me not very sober when I affirme the Earth which of all substances is most gross and palpable to be invisible But on my soule it is so and which is more the Eye of Man never saw the Earth nor can it be seen without Art To make this Element visible is the greatest secret in Magic for it is a miraculous Nature and of all others the most holy according to that Computation of Trismegistus Coelum AEther Aer sacratissima Terra As for this Faeculent gross Body upon which we walk it is a Compost and no Earth but it hath Earth in it and even that also is not our Magicall Earth In a word all the Elements are visible but one namely the Earth and when thou hast attained to so much perfection as to know why God hath placed the Earth in Obscondito thou hast an Excellent Figure whereby to know God himself and how he is visible how invisible Hermes affirmeth that in the Beginning the Earth was a Quakemire or quivering kind of Jelly it being nothing els but water congealed by the Incubation and heat of the Divine spirit Cum adhuc sayth hee Terra tremula esset Lucente sole compacta est When as yet the Earth was a Quivering shaking substance the Sun afterwards shining upon it did compact it or make it Solid The same Author introduceth God speaking to the Earth and impregnating her with all sorts of seeds in these words Cumque manus aquè validas implesset rebus quae in Naturâ Ambienteque erant pugnos validè constringens Sume inquit ô Sacra Terra quae Genitrix omnium es futura nè ullâ re egena videaris manus quales oportet Deum habere expandens demisit Omnia ad rerum Constitutionem necessaria When God saith he had filled his powerfull hands with those things which are in Nature and in that which compasseth Nature then shutting them close again hee said Receive from me O holy Earth that art ordained to be the Mother of all lest thou shouldst want any thing when presently opening such hands as it becomes a God to have hee powr'd down All that was Necessary to the Constitution of things Now the meaning of it is this The Holy Spirit moving upon the Chaos which Action some Divines compare to the Incubation of a Hen upon her Eggs did together with his Heat communicat other manifold Influences to the Matter For as wee know the Sun doth not onely dispense heat but som other secret Influx so did God also
full Harmonie between Moses and the Cabalists But to omit their Depositions though great and high we are not to seek in this point for the Testimonie of an Angel For the Tutor of Esdras amongst his other Mysterious Instructions hath also this Doctrine When Adam transgressed my Statutes then was that decreed which now is done Then were the Entrances of this World made Narrow full of sorrow and Travell They are but few and Evill full of perils and very painfull But the Entrances of the Elder World were wide and sure and brought forth Immortal Fruit Thus much for the Curse it self Now for the Latitude of it It is true that it was intended Chiefely for Man who was the only Cause of it but Extended to the Elements in Order to him and for his sake For if God had excluded him from Eden and Continued the Earth in her Primitive Glories he had but turned him out of one Paradise into Another wherefore he fits the Dungeon to the Slave and sends a Corruptible Man into a Corruptible World But in Truth it was not Man nor the Earth alone that suffered in this Curse but all other Creatures also For saith God to the Serpent Thou art Cursed above all Cattel and above every Beast of the Field so that Cattel and Beasts also were cursed in some measure but this Serpent above Them all To this also agrees the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans where he hath these words For the Creature was made subject to Vanitie not willingly but by Reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope Because the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God Here by the Creature he understands not Man but the inferior species which he distinguisheth from the Children of God though he allows them both the same Liberty But this is more plaine out of the subsequent Texts where he makes a clear Difference between Man and the whole Creation For we know saith he that the whole Creation groaneth and travaileth together in paine untill now And not only They but our selves also which have the first fruits of the spirit even we our selves groane within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body Here we see the first Fruits of the spirit referred to Man and why not some second subordinat fruits of it to the Creatures in General for as they were cursed in the Fall of Man for Man's sake so it seems in his Restitution they shall be also blessed for his sake But of this enough Let us now summe up and consider the several inconveniences our first Parent was Subject to for they will be of some use with us hereafter First of all he was ejected from the presence of God and exposed to the Malice and Tentations of the Devill He was altered from Good to Bad from Incorruptible to Corruptible In the Day saith the Scripture Thou eatest thereof Thou shalt dye the Death He was excluded from a glorious Paradyse and confin'd to a base world whose sickly infected Elements conspiring with his own Nature did assist and hasten that Death which already began to reign in his Body Heaven did mourn over him The Earth and all her Generations about him He look'd upon himself as a Felon and a Murtherer being guilty of that Curse and Corruption which succeeded in the world because of his fall as we have sufficiently proved out of the Mosaicall and Cabalisticall Traditions He was Ignorant and therefore hopeles of Life aeternal and for this Temporal present Life he was not acquainted with the Provisions of it The Elements of Husbandrie were not as yet known there was neither House nor Plow nor any of those manuall Arts which make up a worldly providence He was exposed to the Violence of Rains and Winds Frosts and Snows and in a word deprived of all Comforts Spiritual and Natural What should I say more He was a meer stranger in this World could not distinguish Medicines from Poysons neither was he skill'd in the ordinarie praeparations of Meate and Drink He had no Victuals ready to his hands but the crude unseasoned Herbage of the Earth so that he must either starve or feed as Nebuchadnezar did with the Beasts of the Field He heard indeed sometimes of a Tree of Life in Eden but the Vegetables of this world for ought he knew might be so many Trees of Death I conclude therefore that he had some Instructor to initiat him in the wayes of Life and to shew him the intricate and narrow paths of that wilderness For without question his outward Miseries and his inward Despaire were Motives whereupon God did reveale a certaine Art unto Him by which he might relieve his present Necessities and imbrace a firme Hope of a future and glorious Restitution For God having ordained a second aeternal Adam did by some mysterious Experience manifest the possibilitie of his comming to the First Who being now full of Despaire and overcharged with the Guilt of his own sin was a very fit Patient for so Divine and mercifull a Physician But omitting our own Reasons which we might produce to this purpose let us repayre to the Cabalists who indeed are very high in the Point and thus they deliver themselves God say they having made fast the Doores of his Paradyse and turn'd out Adam sometimes the Dearest of his Creatures did notwithstanding the Present Punishment retaine his former Affection towards him still For God is said to love his Creatures not that there is any thing lovely in Them without their Creator but in that hee desires their perfection That is to say he would have them Conformable to himself and fitt to receive his Image or Similitude which is a spiritual Impress of his Beauty Now to restore this Similitude in Adam was impossible unlesse God should reassume that to himself which was now fallen from him So transcendent and almost incredible a Mercie had God treasur'd up in his secret Will being resolved to unite the Nature of Man to his Own and so vindicat him from Death by taking him into the Deitie which is the true Fountain and Center of Life This Will say the Cabalists was first revealed to the Angels and that by God himself in these words Ecce Adam sicut unus ex Nobis Behold an Adam like one of us knowing Good and Euill This speech they call Orationem occultissimam à Creatore Mundi cum beatis Angelis in suae Divinitatis Penetralibus habitam A most secret Conference which God had with the blessed Angels in the Inner-Chambers of Heaven Now that the same Scripture should speak one thing in the Letter and another in the Mysterie is not strange to mee how difficult soever it may seem to another For verily this Text may not concern the first Adam who knowing Evill by Committing it could not be like God in respect of that
leafe and in all the other writings that followed to help his Captive Nation to pay their Tributes to the Roman Emperours and to doe other things which I will not speak of hee taught them in Common words the Transmutation of Mettals hee painted the Vessels by the sides and hee informed them of the Colours and of all the rest except the first Agent of the which he spake not a word but onely as he said in the fourth and fifth leaves he had iutirely painted it and figured it with very great Cunning and Workmanship for though it was well and Intelligibly figured and painted yet no man could ever have been able to understand it without being well skill'd in their Cabala which goeth by Tradition and without having well studied their Bookes The Fourth and fifth leafe therefore was without any writing all full of faire Figures inlightned or as it were inlightned for the work was very Exquisit First hee painted a young man with wings at his Ancles having in his hand a Caducean Rod writhen about with two Serpents wherewith hee strooke upon a Helmet which covered his head hee seemed to my small judgement to be Mercurie the Pagan Gad. Against him there came running and flying with open wings a great old man who upon his head had an Houre-glasse fastned and in his hands a Hooke or Sithe like Death with the which in terrible and furicus Maner he would have cut off the feet of Mercurie On the other side of the fourth Leafe hee painted a faire Flower on the top of a very high Mountaine which was sore shaken with the North wind it had the Root blew the Flowers white and red the leaves shining like fine Gold And round about it the Dragons and Grisfons of the North made their nests On the Fifth leafe shere was a faire Rose tree flowred in the middest of a Sweet Garden climbing up against a hollow Oake at the foot whereof boyled a fountain of most white water which ran headlong down into the Depths notwithstanding it passed first among the hands of infinite people who digged in the Earth seeking for it but because they were blind none of them knew it except here and there One which considered the weight On the last side of the fife leafe was painted a King with a great Faucheon who caused to bee kill'd in his presence by some Souldiours a great Multitude of little Infants whose Mothers wept at the Feet of the mercilesse Souldiours The Bloud of these Infants was afterwards gathered up by other Souldiours and put in a great vessell whereto the Sun and the Moone came to bathe themselves And thus you see that which was in the first five leaves I will not represent unto you that which was writien in good and Intelligible Latin in all the other written leaves for God would punish mee because I should commit a greater wickednesse than he who as it is sayd wished that all the men of thn world had but one head that hee might cut it off at one Blow Thus farre Nicholas Flammel I could now passe from Moses to Christ from the Old Testament to the New not that I would interpret there but request the Sense or the Illuminated I desire to know what my Saviour means by the Key of Knowledge which the Lawyers as he tells mee and them too had taken away Questionlesse it cannot signifie the Law it self for that was not taken away being read in the Synagogue every Sabaoth But to let go this I am certain and I could prove it all along from his Birth to his Passion that the Doctrine of Christ Jesus is not onely agreeable to the Laws of Nature but is verified and established thereby When I speak of the Laws of Nature I mind not her Excessive irregular Appetites and Inclinations to which shee hath bin subject since her Corruption for even Galen looked on those obliquities as Diseases but studied Nature her self as their Cure We know by experience that too much of any thing weakens and destroyes our Nature but if wee live Temperately and according to Law wee are well because our Course of life accords with Nature Hence Diet is a prime Rule in Physic far better indeed than the Pharmacopaea for those sluttish Recepts doe but oppresse the stomach being no fit fuell for a Coelestiall fire Believe it then these excessive bestiall Appetites proceeded from our Fall for Nature of her self is no lavish insatiable Glut but a most nice delicat essence This appears by those fits and pangs she is subject to whensoever she is overcharg'd In common customarie Excesses there is not any but knows this Truth by Experience indeed in spiritual sins the Body is not immediatly troubled but the Conscience is terrified and surely the body cannot be very well when the soule it self is sick We see then that Corruption and sin do not so much agree with us as they doe disturb us for in what sense can our Enemies be our friends or those things that destroy Nature be agreeable to Nature How then shall we judge of the Gospel Shall we say that the praeservation of Man is contrarie to Man and that the Doctrine of Life agrees not with Life it self God forbid The Laws of the Resurrection are founded upon those of the Creation and those of Regeneration upon those of Generation for in all these God works upon one and the same Matter by one and the same spirit Now that it is so I meane that there is a Harmonie between Nature and the Gospel I will prove out of the Sinic Monument of Kim Cim priest of Judaea In the yeare of Redemption 1625. there was digg'd up in a Village of China call'd Sanxuen a square stone being neer Ten measures of an hand-breadth long five broad In the uppermost part of this stone was figur'd a Crosse and underneath it an Inscription in Sinic Characters being the Title to the Monument which I find thus render'd in the Latine Lapis in Laudem memoriam aeternam Legis Lucis veritatis portatae de Judaea in China promulgatae Erectus That is A stone erected to the praise and aeternal Remembrance of the Law of Light and Truth brought out of Judaea and published in China After this followed the body of the Monument being a Relation how the Gospel of Christ Jesus was brought by one Olo puen out of Judaea and afterwards by the assistance of God planted in China This happened in the yeare of our Lord six hundred and thirtie six Kim Cim the Author of this Historie in the very beginning of it speaks mysteriously of the Creation Then he mentions three hundred sixty five sorts of Sectaries who succeeded one another all of them striving who should get most Proselyts Some of their vaine Opinions he recites which indeed are very suitable with the Rudiments and Vagari's of the Heathen Philosophers Lastly he describes the professors of Christianitie with their Habit of Life and the
the Death of the Compound Hence they wisely gathered that to minister Vegetables Animals or Minerals for Physic was a meer madness for even these also had their own Impurities and Diseases and required some Medicine to cleanse them Upon this Adviso they resolved God without all Question being their Guide to practise on the Chaos it self they opened it purified it united what they had formerly separated and fed it with a twofold Fire Thick and Thin till they brought it to the immortal Extreme and made it a spirituall heavenly Body This was their Physic this was their Magic In this performance they saw the Image of that face which Zoroaster calls Triadis Vultus ante Essentiam c. They perfectly knew the Secundea which contains all things in her naturally as God contains all things in himself spiritually They saw that the Life of all things here below was a Thick Fire or fire imprisoned and incorporated in a certaine incombustible Aereall moysture They found moreover that this fire was originally derived from Heaven and in this sense Heaven is styl'd in the Oracles Ignis Ignis Derivatio Ignis Penu In a word they saw with their Eyes that Nature was Male and Female Ignis ruber super Dorsum Ignis Candidi as the Cabalists expresse it A certain Fire of a most deep red Colour working on a most white heavy salacious Water which Water also is Fire inwardly but outwardly very cold By this practice it was manifested unto them that God himself was Fire according to that of Eximidius in Turba Omnium rerum Initium esse Naturam quandam eamque perpetuam infinitam omnia foventem Coquentemque The Beginning of all things sayth he is a Certain Nature and that eternall and infinite cherishing and heating all Things The truth is Life which is nothing else but Light and heat proceeded originally from God and did apply to the Chaos which is elegantly call'd by Zoroaster Fons fontium fontium cunctorum Matrix continens cuncta The Fountain of fountains and of all fountains The Matrix containing all Things Wee see by Experience that all Individuals live not onely by their own heat but they are preserved by the outward universal heat which is the life of the great world Even so truly the great world it self lives not altogether by that heat which God hath inclosed in the parts thereof but it is praeserved by the circumfused influent heat of the Deitie For above the Heavens God is manifested like an infinite burning world of Light and Fire so that hee overlooks all that he hath made and the whole Fabric stands in his heat and Light as a man stands here on Earth in the Sun-shine I say then that the God of Nature employes himself in a perpetuall Coction and this not onely to generate but to preserve that which hath been generated for his spirit and heat coagulat that which is Thin rarifie that which is too grosse quicken the dead parts and cherish the cold There is indeed one operation of heat whose method is vitall and far more mysterious than the rest they that have use for it must studie it I have for my part spoken all that I intend to speak and though my Book may prove fruitless to many because not understood yet some few may be of that Spirit as to comprehend it Amplae mentis ampla flamma sayd the great Chaldaean But because I will not leave thee without some Satisfaction I advise thee to take the Moone of the firmament which is a middle nature and place her so that every part of her may be in two Elements at one and the same time these Elements also must equally attend her Body not one further off not one neerer than the other In the regulating of these two there is a twofold Geometrie to be observed Natural and Aâ—tâ—ficial But I may speak no more The true Furnace is a little simple shell thou mayst easily carry it in one of thy hands The Glasse is one and no more but some Philosophers have used two and so mayst thou As for the work it self it is no way troublesome a Lady may reade the Arcadia and at the same time attend this Philosophie without disturbing her fansie For my part I think women are fitter for it than men for in such things they are more neat and patient being used to a small Chimistrie of Sack-possets and other finicall sugar-sops Concerning the Effects of this Medicine I shall not speak any thing at this time hee that desires to know them let him reade the Revelation of Paracelsus a Discourse altogether incomparable and in very truth miraculous And here without any partialitie I shall give my Judgement of honest Hohenheim I find in the rest of his workes and especially where hee falls on the stone a great many false Processes but his Doctrine of it in Generall is very sound The truth is hee had some Pride to the Justice of his Spleen and in many places hee hath err'd of purpose not caring what Bones hee threw before the Schoole-men for hee was a Pylot of Guadalcana and sayl'd sometimes in his Rio de la recriation But I had almost forgot to tell thee that which is all in all and it is the greatest Difficultie in all the Art namely the fire It is a close ayrie circular bright fire the Philosophers call it their Sun and the glasse must stand in the shade It makes not the matter to vapour no not so much as to sweat it digests onely with a still piercing vitall heat It is continuall and therefore at last alters the Chaos and corrupts it The Proportion and Regiment of it is very Scrupulous but the best rule to know it by is that of the Synod facite ne Easianus volet ante Insequentem Let not the Bird fly before the Fowler make it sit whiles you give fire and then you are sure of your Prey For a Cloze I must tell thee the Philosophers call'd this Fire their Balneum but it is Balneum Naturae a Naturall Bath not an Artificiall one for it is not any kind of Water but a certain subtill temperate moysture which compasseth the Glasse and feeds their Sun or Fire In a word without this Bath nothing in the world is generated Now that thou mayst the better understand what Degree of fire is requisit for the work consider the Generation of Man or any other Creature whatsoever It is not Kitchin fire nor feaver that works upon the Sperm in the Womb but a most temperate moyst natural heat which proceeds from the very life of the Mother It is just so here Our Matter is a most delicate Substance and tender like the Animal sperme for it is almost a living thing nay in very truth it hath some small portion of life for Nature doth produce some Animals out of it For this very reason the least violence destroyes it and prevents all generation for if it be over-heated but for