riddles among them and thence downe to the Latines Of which beades the ingenious Ouid has made a curious and excellent chaine though perhaps hee vnderstood not their depth as our wisest Naturalists doubt not to affirme his other Contrey men I ucretius and that more learned Scholler I meane Imitater of Hesiod the singular Uirgil did and which are the sinewes and marrow no lesse than starres and ornaments of his incomparable Poems And still by them as by their masters before them preserued with equall care from the mischiefe of diuulgation or Prophanation a vice by the Auncients in generall no lesse than by Moses particularly in the deliuering of the Law according to the opinions of the most learned both Christian Diuines and Iewish Rabines with singular caution prouided against and auoided Write said the Angell to Esdras all these things that thou hast seene in a booke and hide them and teach them only to the wise of the people whose heartes thou knowest may comprehend and keep these secrets And since I late mentioned that great Secretary of God Mosâ—…s to whose sacred pen as we cannot attribute too much so that wee may giue the greater reuerence to him and consequently the greater credit to the authority of those Auncient followers and imitaters of his or that I may righter say and not vnreuerently those iointrunners with him in the same example of closenesse and care to conceale I will speake a word or two of him And vpon the warrant of greater vnderstandings than my owne auerre That it is the firme opinion of all ancient writers which as an indubitable troth they do all with one mouth confirmâ—… that the full and entire knowledge of all wisdome both diuine humane is included in the five bookes of the Mosaicke law dissimulata autem occultata as the excellent Io Picus in his learned exposition vpon him sayes sunt-But hidden and disguized euen in the letters themselues that forme the precepts of the Law And the same Picus in another discourse of his vpon the bookes of Moses more at large to the same purpose sayes Scribunt non modo celebres HebraeoruÌ„ doctores whom afterwards he names as reuelaret-the most renowned and autheÌ„tique not only among the Hebrew Doctors as Rabi Eliazar Rabi Moyses de Aegypto Rabi Symeon c. but among ours â—…lso Esdras Hillary and Origine doe write that Moses receiued from God vpon the mount not the Law only which he hath left in fiue bookes exactly deliuered to posteriâ—…y but the more hidden also and true explanation of the Law But with all was warned and commaunded by God that as he should publish the Law to the People so the interpretation thereof he should neither commit to letters nor diuulge but he to Iosua only and Iosua to the other succeeding primaries among the Priests and that vnder a great religion of secrecy and concludes Et merito quidem Nam satis erat vulgaribus per simplicem historiam nunc Dei potentiam nunc in improbos iram in bonos clementiam in omnes iustitiam agnoscere per diuina salutarià que praecepta ad bene beatèque viuendum cultum relligionis institui at misteria secretiora sub cortice legis rudique verborum praetextu latitantia altissimae diuinitatis arcana plebi palam facere quid erat aliud quà m dare sanctum canibus inter porcos spargere margaritas and not without great reason for it was enough for the multitude to be by meerely the simple story taught and made to know now the Power of God now his Wrath against the wicked Clemency towards the good and Iustice to all and by diuine and wholesome precepts instructed in the wayes of religion and holy life But those secreter Mysteries and abstrusities of most high diuinity hidden and concealed vnder the barke and rude couer of the words to haue diuulged and layd these open to the vulgar what had it been other than to giue holy things to dogs and cast pearles among swine So he And this little that I haue heere rehearsed for in a thing so knowne to all that are knowers mee thinkes I haue said rather too much than otherwise shall serue for instance of Moses his mysticall manner of writing Which I haue the rather done for instruction of some ignorant though stiffe opposers of this truth that I haue lately met with but chiefely in iustification of those other wise Auncients of his and succeeding times Poets and Philosophers that were no lesse carefull then Moses was not to giue Sanctum canibus as before said nor inter porcos spargere margaritas Now to go about to examine whither it appeares our Modernes Poets especially for I will exempt diuerse late prose-writers haue any the like closenesse as before mentioned were a worke sure as vaine and vnnecessary as it is a truth firme and vnquestionable that they possesse the knowledge of no such mysteries as deserue the vse of any art at all for their concealing 3. The last and greatest disparity and wherein aboue all others the grossest defect and maime appeares in our Modernes and especially Poets in respect of the Auncients is their generall ignoraÌ„ce euen throughout all of them in any the mysteries and hidden properties of Nature which as an vnconcerning Inquisition it appeares not in their writings they haue at all troubled their heads with Poets I said especially and indeed only for we haue many Prose men excellent naturall Philosophers in these late times and that obserue strictly that closenesse of their wise Masters the reuerend Auncients So as now a dayes our Philosophers are all our Poets or what our Poets should bee and our Poesies growne to bee little better than fardles of such small ware as those Marchants the French call pedlers carry vp and downe to sell whissles painted rattles and such like Bartholomew-babyes for what other are our common vninstructing fabulous rimes then amusements for fooles and children But our Rimes say they are full of Morall doctrine be it so But why not deliuered then in plaine prose and as openly to euery mans vnderstanding as it deserues to be taught and commonly knowne by euery one The Auncients say they were Authors of Fables which they sung in measured numbers as we in imitation of them do True but sure enough their meanings were of more high nature and more difficult to be found out then any booke of Manners wee shall readily meete withall affoordes else they had not writ them so obscurely or we should find them out more easily and make some vse of them whereas not vnderstanding nor seeking to vnderstand them we make none at all Wee liue in a myste blind and benighted and since our first fathers disobedience poysoned himselfe and his posterity Man is become the imperfectest and most deficient Animall of all the field for then he lost that Instinct that the Beast retaines though with him the beast and with it the whole
betweene the whining Heraclite and ouer-rigid Democritus as much as in me lyes comiter erranti monstrare viam Let such then as are to learne whither to conceale their knowledges was the intent and studied purpose of the Auncient Poets all and most of the auncient Philosophers also let such I say know that when in the worlds youth capabler estate those old wise Aegyptian Priests beganne to search out the Misteries of Nature which was at first the whole worlds only diuinity they deuized to the end to retaine among themselues what they had found lest it should be abused and vilefied by being deliuered to the vulgar certaine marks and characters of things vnder which all the precepts of their wisdome were contained which markes they called Hieroglyphicks or sacred grauings And more then thus they deliuered little or what euer it was yet alwaies dissimulanter and in Enigma's and mysticall riddles as their following disciples also did And this prouizo of theirs those Images of Sphynx they placed before all their Temples did insinuate and which they set for admonitions that high and Mysticall matters should by riddles and enigmaticall knotts be kept inuiolate from the prophane Multitude I will giue instance of one or two of them The authentike testimony late cited to other purpose by mee of Orpheus and his learning viz. That he was one of the priscae sapientiae patres and that the Secreta de numeris doctrina and what euer the Greeke Philosophy had in it Magnum sublime did from his Institutions vt a primo fonte manare hath these words immediately following fimas-but as it was the manner of the Auncient Philosophers so Orpheus within the foults and inuoluements of fables hid the misteries of his doctrine and dissembled thē vnder a poeticke maske so as who reades those hymnes of his will not beleeue any thing to bee included vnder them but meere tales and trifles Homer likewise by the same mouth positiuely auerred to haue included in his two Poems of Iliads and Odisses-all intellectuall contemplation and which are called the Sun and Moone of the Earth for the light they beare as one well notes before all Learning and of which Democritus speaking as Farra the Alexandrian obserues sayes it was impossible but Homer to haue composed so wonderfull workes must haue been indued with a diuine and inspired nature who vnder a curious and pleasing vaile of fable hath taught the world how great and excellent the beauty of true wisdome is no lesse then Ang Politianus who sayes Omnia in his ab his sunt omnia yet what appeares I say in these workes of Homer to the meere or ignorant reader at all of doctrine or document or more than two fictious impossible tales or lyes of many men that neuer were and thousands of deedes that neuer were done Nor lesse cautious than these were most of the Auncient Philosophers also The diuine Plato writing to a friend of his de supremis substantijs-Per aenigmata sayes he intelligantur-we must write in enigma's and riddles lest if it come to other hands what wee write to thee be vnderstood by others Aristotle of those his books wherein he treates of Supernaturall things sayes as Aulus Gellius testifies that they wereediti non editi as much as to say Mystically or enigmatically written adding farther audiunt-they shall be only knowne to our hearers or disciples and this closenesse Pythagoras also hauing learned of those his Masters and taught it his disciples he was made the Master of Silence And who as all the doctrines hee deliuered were after the manner of the Hebrewes Aegyptians and most auncient Poets layd downe in enigmaticall and figuratiue notions so one among other of his is this Giue not readily thy right hand to euery one by which Precept sayes the profound Iamblicus that great Master aduertiseth that wee ought not to communicate to vnworthy mindes and not yet practized in the vnderstanding of occulte doctrines those misterious instructions that are only to bee opened sayes he and taught to sacred and sublime wits and such as haue beene a◅ long time exercised and versed in them Now from this meanes that the first auncients vsed of deliuering their knowledges thus among themselues by word of mouth and by successiue reception from them downe to after ages That Art of mysticall writing by Numbers wherein they couched vnder a fabulous attire those their verball Instructions was after called Scientia Cabalae or the Science of reception Cabala among the Hebrews signifying no other than the Latine receptio A learning by the auncients held in high estimation and reuerence and not without great reason for if God as the excellent Io Picus rehearses nihil casu sed omnia per suam sapientiam vt in pondere mensura ita in numero disposuit did nothing by chance but through his wisdome disposed all things as in weight and measure so likewise in number and which taught the ingenious Saluste to say that Sacred harmony And law of Number did accompany Th'allmighty most when first his ordināce Appointed Earth to rest and Heauen to daunce Well might Plato consequently affirme that among all liberall Arts and contemplatiue Sciences the chiefest and most diuine was the-Scientia numerandi and who likewise questioning why Man was the wisest of Animalls answers himselfe againe as Aristotle in his Problemes obserues nouit-because hee could number no lesse than Auenzoar the Babylonian whose frequent word by Albumazars report as Picus Mirandula notes was numerare-that hee knowes all things that knowes number But howsoeuer an Art thus highly cried vp by the Auncients Yet a Learning I say now more than halfe lost or at least by such as possesse any limbe of it rather talked of thau taught Rabanus a great Doctor of the Christian Church only excepted who hath writ a particular booke de Numerorum virtutibus by diuerse others as Ambrose Nazianzen Origine Augustine and many more as the learned Io Picus at large in his Apology showes reuerendly mentioned but neuer published in their writings And I am fully of opinion which till I find reason to recant I will not bee ashamed to owne that the Ignorance of this Art and the worlds mayme in the want or not vnderstanding of it is insinuated in the Poets generally-sung fable of Orpheus whom they faigne to haue recouered his Euridice from Hell with his Musick that is Truth and Equity from darkenesse of Barbarisme and Ignorance with his profound and excellent Doctrines but that in the thicke caliginous way to the vpper-earth she was lost againe and remaines lost to vs that read and vnderstand him not for want meerely of the knowledge of that Art of Numbers that should vnlocke and explane his Mysticall meanings to vs. This Learning of the Aegyptians thus concealed by them as I haue shewed being transferred from them to the Greekes was by them from hand to hand deliuered still in fabulous
charus dis inferis A much higher and nobler meaning then any of these before deliuered is by excellent Authors giuen to this Fable wherein we must know that as all the first wise Auncients in generall vnder characters figures and simboles of things layd downe the precepts of their wisdome to Posterity so in particular did Pythagoras who as the most autentick Iamblicus the Caldaean tells vs deliuered also the most parte of his doctrines in figuratiue tipick and symbolick Notions among which one of his documents is this While the winds breathe adore Ecco This Winde is as the before-mencioned Iamblicus by consent of his other fellow Cabalists sayes the Symbole of the Breath of God and Ecco the Reflection of this diuine breath or Spirit vpon vs or as they interpret it the daughter of the diuine voice which through the beatifying splendor it shedds diffuses through the Soule is justly worthy to be reuerenced and adored by vs. This Ecco descending vpon a Narcissus or such a Soule as impurely and vitiously affected slights and stops his eares to the Diuine voice or shutts his harte froÌ„ diuine Inspirations through his being enamour'd of not himselfe but his owne shadow meerely â—…d buried in the ordures of the Sence followes corporall shadowes and flyes the light and purity of Intellectuall Beauty he becoms thence being dispoyled as the great Iamblicus speakes of his propper natiue and celestiall vertue and ability an earthy weake worthlesse thing and fit sacrifize for only eternall obliuion and the dij inferi to whom the Auncients as is before noted bequeathed and dedicated this their lazy stupid and for-euer-famelesse Narcissus FINIS Errata FOl 2. lin 7. for than read then and so throughout the booke fol 3. lin 12 for hotheaded reade hot-headed fol 20. lin 13. for-it it hath r. it hath fol 21. lin 7. for-intiger r. integer in the marginall note ibid for Baroaldus r. Beroalaus and for write his praises r. writ his praises fo 22. lin 20. for and and graces r. and graces fo 23. lin 12. for whither r. whether fo 24. lin vltim for are held in the. Poet espetially r. are held in the Poet espeâ—…ially fo 26. lin 7. for-prefession r. profession and 5. lines after for fawning r. fawnings ibid lin 22. for publicam r. pudicam fo 31. lin 4. for Homer likewise r. In Homer likewise fo 33. lin 20. for a liaue bin as r. as haue bin a. fo 36. lin 2. for than r. then fo 40. lin vltim for Rabi Moyses r. Rabi Moysiâ—… fo 43. lin 4. for knowledge r. knowledge fo 55. lin 11. for of them made r. of them madâ—… fo 61. lin 1. for digniâ—… r. dignities * Fâ—…r 〈◊〉 world 〈◊〉 lâ—…st 〈◊〉 yâ—…th aâ—… the times bâ—…in to wâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…d 〈◊〉 14. â—…ortney made him stand and speake Greeke vpon his head with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Hâ—…m in Odiss * 〈◊〉 Repub. lib. 〈◊〉 * In Phaedâ—… * In Iöne * In Iöne Fol. 507. * In Iâ—…ne Nataâ—… Comes * Angâ—… Politianus who likewise calls him Doctiorum omnium doctissimus Pau Iouius Baroaldus and our Sir Thoâ—… Moore who among infinite many others hath voluminously write his praises * In Apolog. fol. 83. * In Lyside * In 〈◊〉 * In Phaedro * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 32. fol. 322. * In Settena fol. 259. * In Ambra * In Nect Attic * In lib 〈◊〉 Mister * In Apolog. fol. 115. * Sigâ—… du Bertas in his Columnes * In Epimenide * In Apolog * Lib 2. ca â—…2 ver 37. In Heptap * In Apolog fo 81. * Fo 116. * La Sig â—…a vitto Colonna * Rom cap 1. ver 20. * In Apolog so 112. * Ibid sâ—… 80. * In Conclus * Ibid. * In Conclu * In Settena foâ—… 57. * In Dialog de Astrol * In Boeotiâ—… * In Iâ—…b de verbo sacrâ—… * Lib 13. de Praep Euangel * Meaning 〈◊〉 Moses who the holy 〈◊〉 saies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnlesse with Eusebius we will haue him meane the Patriarke Abraham * In Confess Lib 1. Oper dier Ilia lib 19. * In Noc Attic. * In Conclus * In Sermon * In Setteâ—…r the Geographick sence the Physick sence the Morall sence the Diuine sence