Excellencie of their Law Difficile saith he est ei Nomen Congruum reperire cum ejus effectus sit Illuminare omnia Claritate perfundere unde Necessarium fuit eam appellare Kim ki ao h. e. Legem claram magnam That is It is a hard matter to find a fit name for their Law seeing the effect of it is to illuminat and fill all with Knowledge It was necessarie therefore to call it Kim ki ao that is the great Law of Light To be short Olo puen was admitted to the Court by Tai cum veu huamti King of China here his Doctrine was thoroughly searched examin'd and sifted by the King himself who having found it most true and solid caus'd it to be proclam'd thorough his Dominions Now upon what this Doctrine was founded and what aestimat the King had both of it and it's professor we may easily gather from the words of his Proclamation First then where he mentions Olo puen he calls him Magnae virtutis Hominem a man of great virtue or power it seems he did something more than prate and preach could confirme his Doctrine as the Apostles did theirs not with words only but with works Secondly the Proclamation speaking of his Doctrine runs thus Cujus intentum docendi nos a Fundamentis examinantes invenimus Doctrinam ejus admodum excellentem sine strepitu exteriori fundatam principaliter in Creatione Mundi That is The Drift of whose teaching we have examin'd from the very Fundamentals we find his Doctrine very excellent without any worldly noyse and principally grounded on the Creation of the world And againe in the same place Doctrina ejus non est multorum verborum nec supersicie tenus suam fundat Veritatem His Doctrine is but of few words not full of noyse and notions neither doth he build his Truth on superficial probabilities Thus we see the Incarnation and Birth of Christ Jesus which to the Common Philosopher are fables and Impossibilities but in the Booke of Nature plaine evident Truths were proved and demonstrated by the Primitive Apostles and Teachers out of the Creation of the world But instead of such Teachers we have in These our Dayes two Epidemical Goblins a Schoole-Man and a Saint forsooth The one swells with a Syllogistial pride the other wears a broad face of Revelation The first cannot tell me why Grasse is Green The second with all his Devotion knows not A. BC. yet praetends he to that Infinit Spirit which knows all in all and truly of them Both this last is the worst Surely the Devill hath been very busie to put out the Candle for had all written Truths been extant this false learning and Hypocrisie could never have praevailed Kim â—â—m mentions seven and Twenty Books which Christ Jesus left on Earth to further the Conversion of the world It may be we have not one of them for though the Books of the new Testament are just so many yet being all written at least some of them a long Time after Christ they may not well passe for those Scriptures which this Author attributes to our Saviour even at the time of his Ascension What should I speake of Those many Books cited in the old Testament but no where to be found which if they were now extant no doubt but they would prove so many reverend Invincible patrons of Magic But Ink and paper will perish for the hand of Man hath made nothing aeternall The Truth only is Incorruptible and when the Letter fails she shifts that Body and lives in the spirit I have not without some labour now traced this Science from the very Fall of Man to the Day of his Redepmtion Along and solitary Pilgrimage the paths being unfrequented because of the Briars and scruples of Antiquitie and in some places overgrown with the Poppie of Oblivion I will not deny but in the shades and Ivie of this Wildernesse there are some Birds of Night Owles and Bats of a different Feather from our Phoenix I meane some Conjurers whose dark indirect Affection to the Name of Magic made them invent Traditions more prodigious than their Practices These I have purposely avoyded lest they should Wormwood my stream and I seduce the Reader thorough all these Groves and Solitudâ—s to the Waters of Marah The next Stage I must move to is that whence I came out at first with the Israelites namely AEgypt here if Bookes faile me the stones will cry out Magic having been so inthron'd in this place it seems shee would bee buried here also So many Monuments did shee hide in this Earth which have been since digged up and serve now to prove that shee was sometimes above Ground To begin then I will first speak of the AEgyptian Theologie that you may see how far they have advanc'd having no Leader but the Light of Nature Trismegistus is so Orthodox and plain in the Mysterie of the Trinitie the Scripture it self exceeds him not but hee being a particular Author and one perhaps that knew more than those of his order in Generall I shall at this time dispense with his Authoritie Their Catholic Doctrine and wherein I find them all to agree is This Emepht whereby they expresse their Supreme God and verily they mind the true One signifies properly an Intelligence or Spirit converting all things into himself and himself into all Things This is very sound Divinitie and Philosophie if it be rightly understood Now say they Emepht produc'd an Egg out of his mouth which Tradition Kircher expounds imperfectly and withall Erroneously In the Production of this Egg was manifested another Deitie which they call Phtha and out of some other Natures and Substances inclos'd in the Egg this Phtha formed all Things But to deale a little more openly wee will describe unto you their Hieroglyphic wherein they have very handsomely but obscurely discovered most of their Mysteries First of all then they draw a Circle in the Circle a Serpent not folded but Diameter-wise and at length her head resembles that of a Hawke the Tayle is tyed in a Small Knot and a little below the head her wings are Volant The Cirele points at Emepht or God the Father being Infinite without Beginning without End Moreover it comprehends or Conteines in it self the Second Deitie Phtha and the Egg or Chaos out of which all Things were made The Hawke in the AEgyptian Symbols signifies Light and Spirit his head annexed here to the Serpent represents Phtha or the Second Person who is the first Light as wee have told you in our Anthroposophia Hee is said to forme all Things out of the Egg because in him as it were in a Glasse are certain Types or Images namely the Distinct Conceptions of the Paternall Deitie according to which by Cooperation of the Spirit namely the Holy Ghost the Creatures are formed The Inferiour part of this Figure signifies the Matter or Chaos which they call the Egg of Emepht That you may the better
Knowledge which made him sinfull and altogether unlike him For God if I may so expresse it knows the Evill onely speculatively in asmuch as nothing can escape his Knowledge and therefore is not guilty of Evill For as Tritemius hath well observed Scientia Mali non est Malum sed usus The knowledge of Evill is not Evill but the practice of it It remains then that this Speech concern'd the Second Adam Christ Jesus who knew the Evill but did not commit it and therefore was like one of us that is like One of the Trinitie knowing Good and Evill and yet no way guiltie of the Evill This primitive and Compendious Gospell was no sooner imparted to the Angels but they became Ministers of it the Law as St. Paul saith being ordained in their hands till Christ should take it into his own and their Administration to Man took Beginning with this Oracle Thus say the Cabalists Raziel the Angel was presently dispatch'd to communicat the Intelligence to Adam and to acquaint him with the Mysteries of both world AEternall and Temporall For as he could not obtain the Blessings of the AEternall World unless by a true faith hee apprehended the Three AEternall Principles of it so neither could he fully injoy the benefits of this Temporall World unless hee truly understood the Three Visible substances whereof it consists For there are Three above and Three beneath Three as St. John saith in Heaven and Three on Earth The Inferior bear witness of the Superior and are their only proper Receptacles They are Signatures and Created Books where wee may reade the Mysteries of the supernaturall Trinitie But to proceed in our former Discourse The Cabalists doe not onely attribute a Guardian to Adam but to every one of the Patriarchs allowing Them their Praesidents and Tutors both to assist and instruct Them in their wearisome and worldly Peregrinations A Doctrine in my Opinion not more Religious than Necessary how Prodigious soever it may seem to some Phantastic insiped Theologicians For Certainly it is impossible for us to find out Mysteries of our selves wee must either have the Spirit of God or the Instruction of his Ministers whereher they bee Men or Angels And thus wee see out of the Traditions and Doctrine of the Jewes how their Cabala and our Magic came first into the world I shall now examine the Scriptures and consult with them where if I am not much mistaken I shall find some Consequences which must needs depend on these Principles and thus I apply my self to the Task The first Harvest I read of was that of Cain and the first Flocks those of Abel A Shepheards life in those Early Dayes was no difficult Profession it being an Imployment of more Care than Art but how the Earth was plow'd up before the sound of Tubal's Hammers is a piece of Husbandrie unknown in these Dayes Howsoever it was a Labour perform'd and not without Retribution Cain hath his Sheaves as well as Abel his Lambs both of them receive and both acknowledge the Benefit I find established in these Two a certain Priesthood they attend both to the Altar and the first Bloud was shed by Sacrifice the Second by Murther Now so dull am I and so short of Syllogismes those strange Pumps and Hydragogues which lave the Truthex Puteo like Water that all my Reason cannot make these Men Levits without Revelation For I desire to know how came they first to Sacrifise and by whom were they initiated If you will say by Adam The Question indeed is deferr'd but not satisfied For I would know further In what Schoole was Adam instructed Now that it was impossible for him to invent these Shadowes and Sacraments of himself I will undertake to Demonstrate and that by invincible Reason which no Adversarie shall dare to contradict It is most certain that the Hope and Expectation of Man in Matters of Sacrifices consist in the Thing signisied and not in the Signe it self For the Material Corruptible shadow is not the Object of Faith but the Spiritual aeternall Prototype which answers to it and makes the dead figure Effectual The Sacrifices of the Old Testament and the Elements of the New can be no way acceptable with God but inafmuch as they have a Relation to Christ Jesus who is the great perfect Sacrifice offered up once for all It is plain then that Sacrifices were first instituted upon supernatural grounds for in Nature there is no reason to be found why God should be pleased with the Death of his Creatures Nay the very Contrary is written in that Book for Death both Natural and Violent proceeds not from the pleasure but from the displeasure of the Creator I know the learned Alkind builds the efficacie of Sacrifices on a Sympathie of parts with the great world for there is in every Animal a portion of the star-fire which fire upon the Dissolution of the Compound is united to the General fire from whence it first came and produceth a sense or Motion in the Limbus to which it is united This indeed is true but that Motion causeth no Joy there and by Consequence no Reward to the Sacrificer for I shall make it to appeare elsewhere that the Astral Mother doth mourn and not rejoyce at the Death of her Children Now if wee look back on these two first Sacrificers we shall find Abel and his Oblation accepted which could not be had he not offerr'd it up as a Symbol or Figure of his Saviour To drive home my Argument then I say that this knowledge of the Type in whom all offerings were acceptable could not bee obtained by any humane Industrie but by sole Revelation For the Passion of Christ Jesus was an Ordinance wrapt up in the secret will of God and he that would know it must of Necessitie bee of his Councell Hence it is called in Scripture the Hidden Mysterie for the Truth and Certainty of it was not to bee received from any but onely from him who had both the Will and the Power to ordain it But if you will tell mee like the Author of the Praedicables that men sacrifised at first by the Instinct of Nature and without any Respect to the Type I shal indeed thank you for my mirth whensoever you give mee so just a Reason to laugh It remains then a most firme infallible Foundation that Adam was first instructed concerning the Passion and in order to that he was taught further to Sacrifise and offer up the Blouds of Beasts as Types and Prodroms of the Bloud of Christ Jesus the Altars of the Law being but steps to the Cross of the Gospell Now if it be objected that severall Nations have sacrifised who did not know God at all much less the Son of God who is the Prototype and perfection of all Oblations To this I answer that the Custome of Sacrificing was communicated to Heathens by Tradition from the first Man who having instructed his own Children they also
Dreame which his own Sorcerers and Wizards could not interpret but Joseph alone expounded it Verily it cannot be denyed but some Branches of this Art though extremely corrupted were dispers'd among all Nations by Tradition from the first man and this appeares by more Testimonies than one For in the Land of Canaan before ever Israel possest it Debir which Athniel the son of Kenaz conquered was an Universitie at least had in it a famous Librarie wherefore the Jewes call'd it Kiriath-Sepharim I might speak in this place of the Universalitie of Religion for never yet was there a people but had some confused Notion of a Deitie though accompanied with Lamentable Ceremonies and Super stitions Besides the Religious of all Nations have alwaies praetended to Powers Extraordinarie even to the performance of Miracles and the healing of all Diseases and this by some secret meanes not known to the common Man and verily if wee examine all Religions whether false or true wee shall not find one but it praetends to something that is Mysticall Certainly if men be not resolved against Reason they must grant these Obliquities in matters of Faith proceeded from the Corruption of some Principles received as we see that Heretics are but so many false Interpreters but not withstanding in those very Errors there remained some Marks and Imitations of the first Truth Hence comes it to passe that all parties agree in the Action but not in the Object For Example Israel did Sacrifise and the Heathen did Sacrifise but the One to God the other to his Idol Neither were they onely Conformable in some Rites and Solemnities of Divinitie but the Heathens also had some Hints left of the Secret Learning and Philosophie of the Patriarchs as wee may see in their false Magic which consisted for the most part in Astrologicall Observations Images Charmes and Characters But it is my Designe to keep in the Rode not to follow these Deviations and misfortunes of the Art which notwithstanding want not the weight of Argument the Existence of Things being proved as well by their Miscariage as by their Successe To proceed then I say that during the Pilgrimage of the Patriarchs this Knowledge was delivered by tradition from the Father to his Child and indeed it could be no otherwise for what was Israel in those Dayes but a privat Familie Notwithstanding when God appointed them their Possession and that this private house was multiplied to a Nation then these secrets remained with the Elders of the Tribes as they did formerly with the Father of the Familie These Elders no doubt were the Moysaicall Septuagint who made up the Sanhedrim God having Selected some from the rest to be the stewards and Dispensers of his Mysteries Now that Moses was acquainted with all the abstruse Operations and Principles of Nature is a Truth I suppose which no man will resist That the Sanhedrim also participated of the same Instruction and Knowledge with him is plain out of Scripture where wee read That God took of the spirit that was in Moses and gave it to the Seventy But lest any Man should deny that which wee take for granted namely the Philosophie of Moses I shall demonstrate out of his own Books both by reason as also by his practice that hee was a Natural Magician First of all then it is most absurd and therefore improbable that hee should write of the Creation who was no way skill'd in the Secrets of God and Nature both which must of necessitie be known before wee should undertake to write of the Creation But Moses did write of it Ergo Now I desire to know what hee hath written Truth or a Lie if Truth how dare you denie his Knowledge if a Lie which God forbid why will you believe him You will tell mee perhaps he hath done it onely in general Termes and I could tell you that Aristotle hath done no otherwise but think you in good earnest that hee knew no more than what hee did write There is nothing you can say in this point but wee can disprove it for in Genesis he hath discovered many particulars and especially those Secrets which have most Relation to this Art For Instance hee hath Discovered the Minera of Man or that Substance out of which Man and all his fellow-Creatures were made This is the first matter of the Philosophers stone Moses calls it sometimes Water sometimes Earth for in a certain place I read thus And God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and Fowle that may fly above the Earth in the open Firmament But elsewhere wee read otherwise And out of the Ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowle of the Aire In this later Text hee tels us that God made every fowle of the Ayre out of the Ground but in the former it is written hee made them out of the Water Certainly Aristotle and his Organ can never reconcile these two places but a little skill in Magic will mak them kisse and be friends without a Philtre This substance then is both Earth and Water yet neither of them in their Common Complexions but it is a thick water and a subtil Earth In plain termes it is a slimie spermatic viscous Masse impraegnated with all powers Coelestiall and terrestriall The Philosophers call it Water and no Water Earth and no Earth and why may not Moses speak as they doe or why may not they write as Moses did This is the true Damascen Earth out of which God made man you then that would be Chimists seem not to be wiser than God but use that subiect in your Art which God himself makes use of in Nature He is the best workman and knowes what matter is most fit for his work hee that will imitate him in the Effect must first imitate him in the Subject Talk not then of Flint-stones and Antimonie they are the Poets Pin-dust and Egshells Seek this Earth this Water But this is not all that Moses hath written to this purpose I could cite many more Magicall and mysticall places but in so doing I should be too open wherefore I must forbeare I shall now speak of his Practice and truly this is it which no Distinction nor any other Logicall Quibble can wave nothing but Experience can refell this Argument and thus it runs And Moses took the Calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire and grinded it to powder and strewed it vpon the water and made the Children of Israel drink of it Certainly here was a strange kind of Spice and an Art as strange as the Spice it self This Calf was pure gold the Israelites having contributed their Eare-rings to the Fabric Now would I gladly know by what meanes so solid and heavie a Body as Gold may bee brought to such a light powder that it may bee sprinkl'd on the face of the water and afterwards drunk up I am sure
here was Aurum potabile and Moses could never have brought the Calf to this passe had he not plowed with our Heyfer But of this enough if any man think hee did it by common fire let him also doe the like and when he hath performed hee may sell his powder to the Apothecaries If I should insist in this place on the Moysaicall Ceremoniall Law with its severall Reverend shadows and their Significations I might lose my self in a Wilderness of Mysteries both Divine and Naturall For verily that whole System is but one vast Skreen or a certain Majestic Umbrage drawne over two Worlds Visible and Invisible But these are things of a higher speculation than the Scope of our present Discourse will admit of I onely informe the Reader that the Law hath both a shell and a Kernell it is the Letter speaks but the spirit in erprets To this agrees Gregorie Nazianzen who makes a twofold Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one literal another spirituall And elsewhere hee mentions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the hidden and the manifest part of the Law the manifest part saith he being appointed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for many men and such whose thoughts were fixed here below but the hidden {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for few onely whose Mindes aspired upwards to heavenly Things Now that the Law being given might benefit the people in both parts spiritual and literal therefore did the Law-giver institute the Sanhedrim a Councell of Seventy Elders upon whom hee had poured his Spirit that they might discerne as Esdras did the Deep Things of the Night in plain Termes the hidden things of his Law From these Elders the Cabala I believe had its Originall for they imparted their Knowledge by word of Mouth to their Successors and hence it came to passe that the Science it self was styl'd Cabala that is a Reception This continued so long as Israel held together but when their Frame began to discompose and the Dilapidations of that House proved desperat then Esdras a Prophet Incomparable notwithstanding the brand of Apocrypha writ that Law in Tables of Box which God himself had sometimes written in Tables of stone As for the more secret and mysterious part thereof it was written at the same time in Seventy Secret Bookes according to the Number of the Elders in whose hearts it had been sometimes written And this was the very first time the Spirit married the Letter for these Sacraments were not trusted formerly to Corruptible Volumes but to the aeternall Tables of the Soul But it may bee there is a blind Generation who will believe nothing but what they see at hand and therefore will deny that Esdras compos'd any such Bookes To these Owles though an unaequal Match I shall oppose the Honour of Picus who himself affirmes that in his time hee met with the Secret Bookes of Esdras and bought them with a great Price Nor was this all for Eugenius Bishop of Rome order'd their Translation but hee dying the Translators also fell asleep It is true indeed something may be objected to mee in this place concerning the Cabala An Art which I no way approve of neither doe I condemne it as our Adversaries condemne Magic before I understand it for I have spent some yeares in the S̄earch and Contemplation thereof But why then should I propose that for a Truth to others which I accompt for an Error my self To this I answer that I condemne not the true Cabala but the Inventions of some dispersed wandring Rabbies whose braines had more of Distraction than their fortunes of this thirteenth Tribe I understand the Satyrist when hee promiseth so largely Qualiacunque voles Judaei Somnia vendunt These I say have produc'd a certain up-start bastard Cabala which consists altogether in Alphabeticall knacks ends alwayes in the Letter where it begins and the Vanities of it are grown Voluminous As for the more Ancient and Physicall Traditions of the Cabala I embrace them for so many Sacred Truths but verily those Truths were unknown to most of those Rabbins whom I have seen even to Rambam himself I mean Rabbi Moses AEgyptius whom the Jewes have so magnified with their famous Hyperbole A Mose ad Mosen non surrexit sicut Moses But to deale ingenuously with my Readers I say the Cabala I admit of consists of two parts {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Name and Thing The former part is meerly Typicall in reference to the later Serving only as the shadow to the substance I will give you some instances The Literal Cabala which is but a Veile cast over the Secrets of the Physicall hath Three Principles commonly styl'd Tres Matres or the Three Mothers In the Masculine Complexion the Jewes call them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes in the Foeminine {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Asam and they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} aleph {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} mem {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} schin Now I will shew you how the Physical Cabala expounds the Literall Tres Matres {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes saith the great Abraham or as some think Rabbi Akiba id est Aer Aqua I gnis Aqua Quieta I gnis sibilans Aer spiritus medius That is the Three Mothers Emes or Aleph Mem and Schin are Aire Water and Fire a still Water mark that a hissing Fire and Aire the middle Spirit Again sayth the same Rabbi Tres Matres {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Emes in Mundo Aer Aqua Ignis Coeli ex Igne Creati sunt Terra ex Aquá Aer egressus est ex spiritu qui stat medius The Three Mother Emes in this world are Ayre Water and Fire The Heavens were made of the Fire The Earth was made of the Water mark well this Cabalism and the Ayre proceeded from a middle spirit Now when the Cabalist speaks of the Generation of the Three Mothers he brings in Ten secret Principles which I think ten men have not understood since the Sanhedrim such Non-sence doe I find in most Authors when they undertake to discourse of them The first Principle is a Spirit which sits in Retrocessu suo fontano in his primitive Incomprehensible Retreats like Water in its Subterraneous Chanel before it springs The Second Principle is the Voice of that first Spirit this breaks forth like a Well-spring where the Water flowes out of the Earth and is discovered to the eye They call it Spiritus ex Spiritu The third Principle is Spiritus ex Spiritibus a Spirit which proceeds both from the first Spirit and from his Voice The Fourth Principle is Aqua de Spiritu a Certain Water
which proceeded from the Third Spirit and out of that Water went Aire and Fire But God forbid that I should speak any more of them publickly it is enough that wee Know the Original of the Creature and to whom wee ought to ascribe it The Cabalist when hee would tell us what God did with the Three Mothers useth no other phrase than this Ponderavit Aleph cum omnibus omnia cum Aleph sic de Singulis He weighed saith he Aleph with All and All with Aleph and so he did with the other Mothers This is very plain if you consider the various mixtures of the Elements and their Secret Proportions And so much for the Physicall part of the Cabala I will now shew you the Metaphysicall It is strange to Consider what Unitie of Spirit and Doctrine there is amongst all the Children of Wisdom This proves infallibly that there is an Universall Schoole-master who is Present with all Flesh and whose Principles are ever Uniforme namely the Spirit of God The Cabalists agree with all the world of Magicians That Man in spirituall Mysteries is both Agent and Patient This is plain For Jacobs Ladder is the greatest Mysterie in the Cabala Here wee find two Extreams Jacob is one at the Foot of the Ladder and God is the other who stands above it immittens saith the Jew Formas Influxus in Jacob sive Subjectum Hominem shedding some secret Influx of Spirit upon Jacob who in this place Typifies Man in general The Rounds or steps in the Ladder signifie the middle Natures by which Jacob is united to God Inferiors united to Superiors As for the Angels of whom it is sayd that they ascended Descended by the Ladder their Motion proves they were not of the superior Hierarchie but some other secret Essences for they Ascended first and Descended afterwards but if they had been from above they had Descended first which is Contrarie to the Text And here Reader I would have thee studie Now to return to Jacob it is written of him that he was asleep but this is a Mysticall Speech for it signifies Death namely that Death which the Cabalist calls Mors Osculi or the Death of the Kiss of which I must not speake one Syllable To bee short they agree with us in Arcano Theologiae That no word is efficacious in Magic unlesse it be first quickened by the Word of God This appears out of their Semhamaphores for they hold not the names of Angls effectuall unlesse some name of God as {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} be united to them then say they in the power and vertue of those names they may worke An Example hereof wee have in all Extracted names as Vehu-Iah Elem-Iah Jeli-El Sita-El Now this Practice in the Letter was a most subtil Adumbration of the Conjunction of the Substantiall Word or Spirit with the Water See that you understand me rightly for I meane with the Elements and so much for the Truth To Conclude I would have the Reader observe that the false Grammaticall Cabala consists onely in Râ—â—â—â—â—tions of the Alphabet and a Metathesis of Letters in the Text by which means the Scripture hath suffered many Racks and Excoriations As for the true Cabala it useth the Letter onely for Artifice whereby to obscure and hide her Pâ—â—â—â—sicall Secrets as the Egyptians heretofore did use their Hieroglyphics In this Sense the Primitive Professors of this Art had a literal Cabala as it appeares by that wonderfull and most ancient Inscription in the Rock in Mount Horeb. It conteines a Prophecie of the Virgin Mother and her Son Christ Jesus ingraven in Hieroglyphic fram'd by Combination of the Hebrew letters but by whom God onely knows it may be by Moses or Eliâ—ah This is most certain it is to be seen there this day and wee have for it the Testimonies of Thomas Obecinus a most learned Franciscan and Petrus a Valle a Gentleman who travailed both of them into those parts Now that the learning of the Jewes I mean their Cabala was Chimicall and ended in true Physicall performances cannot be better proved than by the Booke of Abraham the Jew wherein hee layd down the Secrets of this Art in Indifferent plaine Termes and Figures and that for the Benefit of his unhappy Country-men when by the wrath of God they were scattered over all the World This Book was accidentally found by Nicholas Flammel a French-man and with the help of it hee attained at last to that miraculous Medicine which Men call the Philosophers stone But let us hear the Monsieur himself describe it There fell into my hands saith he for the Summ of two Florens a gilded Book very old and large It was not of Paper nor Parchment as other books bee but it was made of delicate rindes as it seemed to mee of Tender young Trees The Cover of it was of Brasse well bound all ingraven with Letters or strange figures and for my part I think they might well bee Greek Characters or some such ancient language Sure I am I could not read them and I know well they were not Notes nor Letters of the Latine nor of the Gaule for of them I understood a little As for that which was within it the Bark leaves were ingraven and with admirable diligence written with a point of Jron in faire and neat Latin letters coloured It contained thrice Seven leaves for so were the leaves counted at the top and alwayes every Seventh leafe was without any writing but instead thereof upon the first seventh leaf there was painted a Virgin and Serpents swallowing her up In the Second Seventh a Crosse where a Serpent was Crucified and in the last Seventh there were painted Deserts or Wildernesses in the middest whereof ran many faire Fountains from whence there issued forth a Number of Serpents which ran up and down here and there Upon the first of the Leaves was written in great Capitall letters of gold ABRAHAM THE JEW PRINCE PRIEST LEVIT ASTROLOGER AND PHILOSOPHER TO THE NATION OF THE JEWES BY THE WRATH OF GOD DISPERSED AMONG THE GAULES SENDETH HEALTH After this it was filled with great Execrations and Curses with this word Maranatha which was often repeated there against every person that should cast his eyes upon it if hee were not Sacrificer or Scribe Hee that sold me this Booke knew not what it was worth no more than I when I bought it I believe it had been stolne or taken by violence from the miserable Jewes or found hid in some part of the Ancient place of their Habitation Within the Booke in the Second leafe hee comforted his Nation counselling them to fly Vices and above all Idolatrie attending with sweet patience the Comming of the Messiah who should vanquish all the Kings of the Earth and should reigne with his people in glorie aeternally Without doubt this had been some wise and understanding Man In the third
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
is written That he spake with God face to face as one Man speaks with another After This he gives us a short Character or Description of the Deitie not in the Recesse and Abstract but in reference to the Incubation of his spirit upon Nature Lastly he acquaints us with the Originall of his Doctrine from whence it first came and verily he derives it from the Well-head Priscorum nos haec docuerunt Omnia Vates Quae Binis Tabulis Deus olim tradidit Illis The Priests saith he or Prophets of the Ancient Fathers taught us all These things which God delivered to them heretofore in two Tables Thanks be to that God who made a Heathen speak so plainly I need not tell you to whom these Tables were delivered Cavallero De epistola can informe you I cited this place that it might appeare though the Philosophie of Greece came generally out of AEgypt yet some Graecians have been disciplined by the Jews and this is proved by no contemptible Testimonies Aristobulus who lived in the Dayes of the Machabies and was himself a Jew writes to Ptolomie Philometor King of AEgypt and affirmes that the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses were translated into Greek before the Time of Alexander the Great and that they came to the hands of Pythagoras and Plato Indeed Numenius the Pythagorean cals Plato Mosen Atticâ linguâ loquentem Moses speaking in the Greek Dialect by which he minded not a similitude of style but a Conformitie of principles There is a storie of Clearchus the Peripatetic in his first de somno how true I know not but the Substance of it is this He brings in his Master Aristotle relating how he met with a very reverend and learned Jew with whom he had much Discourse about Things Natural and Divine but his special Confession is That he was much rectified by him in his Opinion of the Deitie This perhaps night be but certainly it was after he writ the Organon and his other lame Discourses that move by the Logical Crutch Now if you will aske me what Greek did ever prosesse any Magicall Principles To this I answer that if you bate Aristotle and his Ushers who are borne like the Insecta ex putredine out of their Masters Corruptions Greece yeelded not a Philosopher who was not in some Positions Magicall If any man will challenge my Demonstration herein I doe now promise him my performance To give you some particular Instances Hippocrates was altogether Chemicall and this I could prove out of his owne Mouth but at this Time his works are not by me Democritus who lived in the same Age with him writ his {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is Physicall and Mysticall Things in plaine English Naturall Secrets To this mysticall peece Synesius added the Light of his Comments and dedicated them to Dioscorus Priest of Serapis Of this Democritus Seneca reports in his Epistles That he knew a secret Coction of Pebles by which be turned them into Emeralds Theophrastus a most ancient Greek Author in his Book de lapidibus mentions another mineral work of his own wherein he had written something of Metals True indeed that Discourse of his is lost but notwithstanding his opinion is upon Record namely that he referred the Originall of metalls to water This is confirm'd by his owne words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as I find them cited by Picus in his Book De auro But that the Art of Transmutation was in Request in his Dayes and no late Invention or Imposture as some think appears by the Attempts and practice of that Age out of the same Theophrastus For he mentions one Callias an Atheman who indeavouring to make gold brought his Materials into Cinnabar It were an endles labour for me to recite all the Particulars that Greece can affoord in order to my present Designe I will Therefore close up all in this short Summarie There is no wisdome in Nature but what proceeded from God for he made Nature he first found out and afterwards ordained the very wayes and method how to corrupt and how to generate This his own wisdome and Knowledge he communicated in some Measure to the first Man from him his Children received it and they taught it their postcritie but the Jewes having the spiritual Birthright This Mysterie was their Inheritance and they possest it intirely being the Annointed Nation vpon whom God had powred forth his spirit By Tradition of the Jewes The AEgyptians came to be instructed From the AEgyptians these secrets descended to the Graecians and from the Graecians as we all know the Romanes received their Learning and amongst other common Arts this Magicall mysterious one This is confirm'd by some proper genuine Effects and Monuments thereof namely that flexible malleable Glasse produced in the dayes of Tiberius and the miraculous Olybian Lamp But these Times wherein I am now and those thorough which I have past are like some Tempestuous Day they have more clouds than Light I will therefore enter Christendome and here I shall find the Art in her Infancie True indeed The Cradle is but in some private hands few know where and many believe there is no such Thing The Schoole-men are high in point of Noyse and condemne all but what Themselves professe It is Aristotet's Almodena they expose his Errors to the sale and this continnes for a long time But every Thing as the Spaniard saith hath its Quando Many years are past over and now the Child begins to lisp and peeps abroad in the fustian of Arnold and Lullie I need not tell you how he hath thrived since doe but look upon his Traine for at this Day who praetends not to Magic and that so magisterially as if the Regalos of the Art were in his powers I know not any Refragans except some sickly Galenists whose pale tallow faces speak more Disease than Physic These indeed complaine their Lives are too short Philosophie too taedious and so fill their Mouths with Ars longa Vita brevis This is true saith the Spanish Picaro for they cure either late or never which makes their Art long but they kill quickly which makes life short and so the Riddle is expounded I have now Reader performed my promise and according to my Posse proved the Antiquitie of Magic I am not so much a foole as to expect a generall subscription to my endeavours every man's Placet is not the same with mine but Jacta est Alea I have done this much and he that will overthrow it must know in the first place it is his Task to do more There is one point I can justly bind an Adversarie too That he shall not oppose Man to God Heathen Romances to Divine Scriptures He that would foyle me must use such weapons as I doe for I have not fed my Readers with straw neither will I be confuted with stubble In the next place it is my Designe to speake something of the