are digged out of the Earth For the Astrum of every Element brings forth and bayes its fruits in a strange region or matrix By a singular Providence all things seem to tend to the Earth and to further its fruitfulnesse Thus the fruits of the Firmament are perfected in the Aire and from hence imparted to the lower Globe as Snow which is bred of Fire is found in the Aire and Earth The fruits of the Aire proceed from the Centre to the Circumference and there attaine to coagulation and perfection The Seeds of the Water doe bring forth in the inner part of the Earth and from thence tend to the superfices or outside For the Earth wherein we live and flourish bringeth forth its fruits into this Circumference for the corne that grows in the Earth is reaped upon the Earth in the Aire so the procreations of all the Elements doe voluntarily and earnestly bend toward Man-kind as to their desired limit and by a liberall supply of moysture doe cherish all the parts of Nature So also we see that by an imutable decree of Eternall Law it comes to passe and is so ordered that the Water doth not bring forth more then the Earth can bring up Astrers saith that the Aire was created befoâ—e any Creature All mâ—yst things â—tâ—râ—cted by the Sun from the Eâ—â—â—h are consumed in the Aire whose fruits are the likeness of the Tereâ—iâ—biâ— or far of Manna the Aire cherish and the Fire consume The Aire also is twofold for it hath its Element as an Inhabitant in it selfe It is the Balsam of all created things and the life of the other three Elements nor is there any Element that God created more subtle or thin which liveth of it selfe and giveth life to all without which neither Firmament nor Water nor Earth can bring forth their fruits the Fire cannot so much as burne without the Aire much lesse can the coales of Heaven those Crescences of Fire shine The Element of Fire according to Paracis the Firmament of Heaven The Firmament or Fire is likewise is twofold and hath its own Element as an Inhabitant in it selfe which Element hath in it all Astra's and Seeds The Element of Fire or the Corporeall Firmament sends the bodies of the Stars Sun Moon and Planets out of it selfe For as hearbs flowers trees did grow out of the Earth and yet remaine in the Earth so at the Creation did the bodies of the Stars grow out of Heaven and yet abide in the Firmament or Heaven swiming in their Orbs as birds fly in the Aire The twelve Caelestiall Signes in the Zodiak with the other Stars of Heaven are the fruits of Fire and come from the invisible Astra's of Fire By how much the Firmament is more subtle or thin then the Earth by so much the fruits thereof are more subtle and operative then the fruits of the other three Elements Thus the seven Rulers of the world are nothing else but the fruits of Fire As the flowers in earth shew the Colours of the Stars so the constellations in Heaven shew the field or meadow of the Earth which fruits are separated from the Element of Fire and by separation doe increase as flowers and hearbs in the Earth onely the flowers of the Earth abide immovable in their place but the Stars doe not so in the Firmament for they move up and down in the Firmament and those Sphaericall bodies doe by the Providence of God swim in their Orbs as fish in the water or a feather in the Aire and are nourished by the Heaven These like all other created things are twofold we see their visible body as a shining light the invisible Astrum or Sydereall Spirit in the Stars we cannot see so that not the body of the Sun but the Spirit in the body is the Sun properly the like also may be said of Man Moreover the four Astra's of the said Elements are the Seeds in the four matrices or wombs and always two are together and in one to wit the Body and Astrum the invisible and visible The Bodily growes out of the Spirituall and abideth in it and so the invisible vertues Seeds and Astra's are propagated into many Millions through the corporeall Visible body as fire increaseth in wood or in convenient and fit matter one Fire alwayes proceedeth from another Angels cannot increase themselves because they want a body but Man may because he hath a one All things that grow as hearbs trees fishes birds living creatures may augment themselves by the help of the body after this manner for the Seed or Astrum can doe nothing without the body so soon as ever the Seed or Astrum dies and rots in its matrix or womb the Astrum goes forward into a new body and multiplyeth it selfe as Christ himselfe sets it forth by a similitude and example in a graine of Wheat John 12.24 and afterward bringeth forth much fruit or many grains which in time come to have the same power or virtue that the former had out of which they grew Putrefaction consumeth and separateth the old Nature and bringeth new fruit Therefore Eternall life cannot be in any but where the body is first dead because death is the cause of the glorifying of the body in eternall Life as Corruption is the cause of the new generation of a Divine substance 'T is necessary that the first life of hearbs and medicines should die that the second life by the Chymists help may be attained through Putrefaction and Regeneration wherein the Three First discover themselves with their hidden vertues which are necessary for a Phisitian to know for without Regeneration no hid Secret of Physick can be attained to which is without all complexion of qualities When the externall World is known the Phylosophicall Physitian doth also understand the Physicall body of Man which is nourished from the Earth and Sydereall body which liveth by the Firmament he sees that the Physicall body is nothing else but Sulphur Salt and Mercury for all bodily things are contained in these Three as hath been said a little before and that the things that grow doe not spring from the four visible Bodies nor from the four humors but out of the invisible Seed as an hearb or tree groweth out of its seed The Anotomy of the diseases of the body is to be fercâ—â—c from the internall Astra's or impressions which cause the diseases and is more necessary for a Physitian them that Locall Anot of Carkasses It is not the Locall Anotomy of a man and dead corpses but the Essentiated and Elemented Anotomy of the World and man that discovereth the disease and cure The Members or parts of the great world are the Remedies of the members and parts of man by an agreement between the externall and internall Anotomy not setling one degree against another As there is but one Anotomy of a man and a woman so the Anotomy of the diseases and of the medicines
is but one As in Man Man is the Anotomy of the disease so also in Physick Man is the Anotomy of the Physick Anotomy is the Basis of true Phisitians Diseases and Things And though the hidden virtue of Hearbs or the Stars of that Physitian Heaven may be known to us yet the chiefest thing that the Physitian is also to consider is to know the Concordance of Nature viz. how he may make the Astrum of the Physick or of the magicall Heaven agree with the internall Astrum and Olimpus of Man because of the like Anotomy it is that Mummy will stop the bleeding in Man The Nightingale that is subject to the deseases of Spiders is cured by eating them The cause subject of diseases the externall leadeth to the internall as in the great so in the little world He therefore that knows the things that grow and the fruits of the Earth as of hearbs trees c. Viz. that all things proceed out of the seed or Astrum he likewise knoweth that there doe such various diseases lye hid and lurk in the Physicall body which diseases doe not proceed from the four fictitious humours or qualities but rather from the Seed by reason of the Analogy or proportion that is between the great and little world he that knoweth the diseases of the great world cannot be ignorant of the distempers of man As many kinds of Mineralls as are in the world Many diseases proceed out of the mineralls of man which Iliad containeth all things in it selfe so many there be in Man So many kinds of diseases are there as there be sorts bodies and seeds of things that grow No man knows the number of diseases but he that can tell the number of all things that grow The Seeds which the Caelestiall Airy Watry Earthy Astra's are succoured in the Element which agree with mans Nature which in fit and certaine seasons bring forth fruits as messengers of health or sicknesse The Originall of all diseases is from the Three First upon which the Astra's câ—n make some impression as upon wood or Straw or Saf fron upon water So that the Three First are the cause of all diseases for in what body soever they are united that may be concluded to be a sound body but where they are not united there we may be sure that sicknesse and the root of the first death hath taken footing Hereditary diseases which proceed from the Seed or Astra's are partly Elementary because they are known by hot moyst or cold qualities There are other diseases whereof the most part are Astrall or Firmamentall Elementary diseases are cured by Elemental means and Astrall have Astrall remedies The Galenists doe know nothing of these Astral cures which the grave experienced Physitians do well understand which spring out of the Firmament of Man which is as integrally contained in Man as the Elements are And as the visible body hath its meat from the Earth so also the Syderiall spirit of Man or the invisible Man which is the In-mate of the body hath its food from the externall Aire and Fire or Firmament viz. from the Fire of the Firmament as all arts workmanships faculties of the tongue For Heaven is the Father and teacher of all Arts except Divinity and holy Righteousnesse which cannot be learned from the Stars but from the holy Spirit immediately for all Believers and Regenerate men are hid from and unknown to Astronomers as you may find in the Sage and deep Phylosophy of Paracelsus Iron sheweth that man is divided into the externall and internall in the externall dust and earth the matrer of the diseaseand that which afflicteth us doth lye hid therefore the cure is to be sought for in a medicine that is like it seperated from the dregs Spagyrically The internall and Astrallman also hath his proper medicines which the skillfull Physitian knows well As the Loadstone by drawing the Iron to it doth suck out the spirit thereof and leave it rusty so man in respect of the body hath a twofold Loadstone For partly he draws the Astra's to himselfe from which he sucks his food as Bees do hony from flowers and hearbs viz. wordly wisdome sence cogitation c. And partly by his attractive power he inticeth and allureth to him the daily nutriment of his flesh and blood from the Elements And as the Elementall body draweth the Elementary bodies to it by hunger and thirst so the syderiall spirit of Man attracteth all Arts sciences and faculties and all humane Wisdome from the Rayes or beams of the superiour Stars or constellations for the Firmament is the Light of Nature which naturally supplyeth man with all things Furthermore the Astra's or Elements which are Spirits are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without any quality neither hot nor cold nor dry nor moyst but the things that are produc'd out of them are indued with qualities That whereof any thing is bred of the same doth it live is fed nourished preserved cured made sick punished and â—â—stroyed For out of the Earth grow Poppy Opium cold Darnell the hearb Trinity or Heartsease hot biting Arsesmart thus contrary things grow out of the Elements From the Fire proceedeth Snow Raine Dew Winds Rainbow Thunder Haile Lightning all such Meteor-like impressions proceed from the supreame invisible Spirit of the Firmament out of the Three First i. e. Mercury Salt and Sulphur For as Paracelsus saith they are the fruits and egestions or disgorgings of the Stars of the Firmament the fruits of the invisible Astra's which are in the Stars and make that which is invisible to be visible for the Stars succour and supply their fruits as the Trees of the Earth doe theirs Hence it is plaine that diseases are not cured by contraries as if heat were to expell cold as though man were to have the Elements banished and driven out of him but by the secret things or Astra's which the Chymist can reduce out of the last matter into the first These Arcana or hid things are actually neither cold nor hot yet removeth all diseases as the Axe cutteth down the tree which is neither cold nor hot Of this sort are the Fift Essences Magisteryes and the like Now by Gods assistance I shall say something concerning the Generation Dignity Excelency OF THE MICROCOSM Or Little World MAN For a man to know God lightly esteem of his own selfe is the highest and profitable knowledge AS the most excellent Phylosophy is that which enlightens the mind to the right knowledge of it selfe so to be ignorant of that knowledge is the greatest shame and most pestilent disease of the mind Ignorance saith Trismegistus to his Son Tat is the greatest Enemy and principall Tormenter in every Man Woe be to thee ô Man Luke 16. who neglectest the large patrimony and Talent and the thing committed to thy charge 2 Cor. 4. who considerest not the Treasure that is
out of the MIND the Man that liveth in nothing but the Mind is as an Angel as I may so say conceiveth and apprehendeth God after a sort in his whole breast The scope and mark unto which all the most dear beloved holy and intimate Friends of God who live after the Image or inspiration of the most High and not after the Limus Terrae the Eearthy Mind doe bend who from Divine Love willingly cast themselves headlong into the fountaine of the Abysse and into the Sea of Nihilitude or Nothingnesse and enter into the Holies of Holies by the Life of Christ that in the Sabbath they may live with God in Rest and Blessednesse and so drink of the everlasting Ambrosian Nectar of Eternity By the Soul abiding and standing stedfast embracing its Image of Divinity or MIND united to GOD by Christ we enjoy actuall Blessednesse T is possible to extend a long life farther Therefore Porta reject the opinion of those that cast mens fortune from the day or houre of their nativity prefixing the bounds of life affirming that he that is wary of his infirmities and avoydeth those things that are hurtfull may live a longer life Parac chap. 7. of the Labyrinth of Physitians Though it may go for the discourse of Vaine men that the life may be lengthned yet it is repugnant neither to Nature nor Reason that a Man may prolong his life beyond the common ordinary age of Men even to a long time and that for two Reasons First Because in NATURALS there is no certaine appointed Terme apparent what day we shall die but it is in our own hand and power to put an end to our life if we will and to prolong it without offence to GOD if so be we may and have wisdome so to do I speak here Phylosophically of the Naturall death which is onely the wasting of the Naturall Moysture and Heat as may be seen in a burning lamp not Theologically of the Fatall death and utmost Terme which God hath prefixt to every one by which we are inforc'd not onely to pay the debt of Nature but are compel'd also to undergoe the punishment for sin Death is the bound which we cannot passe nor is there any day or hour for by the Grace of God we live the Terme without houres As God hath numbred our hairs so also doth he reckon our years leaving them in our power And because it was the good pleasure of God that Man should live for ever thence it is easie to discerne that for the lawfull matrimoniall propagation and augmentation of Mankind a long and lasting life of Man in this world is not displeasing to him especially if it be spent in the Fear and Service of his Creator yet alwayes short of that utmost and fixed Terme or determined poynt of DIVINE PREDESTINATION which is unknown to mortalls See Paracelsus of long life imposed on our first Parents and their heires for their Fall from Originall Righteousnesse beyond which bound no man can goe See Paracelsus in lib. 8. As Man many wayes may not attaine to the appointed Terme of life it being compassed about with diseases Archid. of the Elixirs It is the conservation of the Human body from all accidentall corruption Death Gods minister expecteth our intestine war There is a two fold death from the Iliad or first principle and from the Ens or Being The Soule of perpetuity or the Spirit of Light joyned to Nature with the light is perpetuall and will not suffer such a conjunction and such a life to be short and so his time may be shortned so may he prolong his life by removing these impediments so that at last he may attaine to the appointed Terme of the Nature of life Secondly Because God hath created the aforesaid Medicine for the preservation of life which may preserve our body as well from the corruption of our Parents as from the defect of our own government cure its infirmities and repaire what is wasted yea chase away from us all diseases which cause the naturall death untill ultimate death the most Terrible of all Terrible things which is the destruction of the Mummy which God the most high Creator hath ordained as the wages of sinners Therefore Paracelsus saith that the death which is from the resolution of the Iliad may be hindred by the industry of the Physitian but that which is from the Ens or Being cannot as we may preserve a little fire by laying on more wood so also may our life be prolonged by administring such Remedies and secrets as are derived from the fountaine of Gods gifts with which the Rayes or little beams the weaknesse of the Moysture and innate heat is nourished and cherished as the Fire with wood This at least is desired in us because we being destitute of wisdome know not that wood wherewith our life might be cherished and prolonged Adam who was full of wisdome and the perfect knowledge of all Naturall things and many more of his time who lived a more frugall life than we did attaine to so many ages not by Nature and property of Time for then all had been Long-liv'd but by the help of Secrets and by Wisdome which was revealed but to few and by speciall knowledge which God gave them in this particular whereby they lengthned out their life to so many years beyond the ordinary time that men lived Many holy men used this universall Medicine before the flood which Adam also had in his Family as Lactantius witnesseth which strengthneth the Internall Balsom and like Fire congregateth Homogeneous things and segregateth Heterogeneous which are of a contrary nature Nor are we to relie upon their judgements who being ignorant of the Mysteries of the Element of Water dream that the Deluge washed away the efficacy of fruits of growing things or that the power and strength of mens bodies was spoyled by the Water For all things that grow by the benefit of Water do yet sprout and spring forth in the same vigour and with the same efficacy as they did in Adams time When men multiplyed in the world wise men lived together in the Centre reserving wisdome among themselves but banished those that had it not into the circumference Paracels Wherefore we want nothing but the knowledge of Secrets and their use And thus the Flood did not wast the things that grow but wash'd away our wisdome of knowing them These most secret of secrets have ever been hid from the common sort of them that professe Phylosophy and especially sincemen began to abuse Wisdome using it to an ill end which God bestow'd upon them for their health and advantage But as few reach the Naturall Terme so also few have known the reason of prolonging the life And hereof there are many Causes For the life is broken off or shortned two manner of wayes MENS ENS abrumpunt nobis vitam First Either by the MIND whence arise mentall
grow Neverthelesse the fruits of those Astra's or Caelestiall Ayry Earthy Watry seeds doe indeavour and bend to one generall Good as Citizens of the same Anotmy and therefore doe mutually cherish and succour one another by a sweet felloship and vicissitude of actions Plato's Rings and Homers Chaines are nothing but a Divine Series and Order serving Providence a graduall and concatenate Sympathy of things This visible and invisible fellowship of Nature is that golden chaine so much commended this is the marriage of heaven and riches these are Plato's rings this is that dark and close Phylosophy so hard to be known in the most inward and secret parts of Natare for the gaining whereof Democritus Pythagoras Plato Apollonius c. have travelled to the Brachmans and Gymnosophists in the Indies and to Hermes his Pillars in Aegypt This was that which the most ancient Phylosophers studied which by the Light of Nature that singular inspiration of God they also obtained wherein the wonderfull and infinite power the incomprehensible Wisdome of our Creator so shineth that we canot sufficiently admire and extoll his inestimable goodnesse in the Creatures and the unutterable infinitnesse of his Mysteryes It is also to be considered that there are THREE Principles of all things which are found in every compound body For it is most certaine that those things into which every naturall body is resolved had their being from the beginning of their composition and also those parts of which they did consist No body compos'd by Nature can by any dissolving skill be parted into more or lesse then Three viz. Into Mercury or liquor Sulphur or Oyle and Salt every created thing is generated and preserved in these three For the Holy Triunity when it spake that Triune word FIAT created all things Triune as in a Spagiricall resolution is plainly to be seen i. e. A seperation of purity from impurity or truth from falshood By the word FIAT or Let there be God produced the first matter which is threefold in respect of the three Principles contained in the first and afterward these three Species are seperated into four divers bodies or Elements just as if a skillfull Artist should out of lead make red lead white lead Glasse and the Spirit of lead So the world with all created bodies in it is nothing else but a fume or smoak coagulated or curded together of the three substances Sulphur Salt Mercury which three are the matter out of which all bodily things are created The Spagyricks can make this plaine by visible experience and uncontroulable certainty In green wood also there are three kinds of moystures the first watry like fugitive Mercury or Quicksilver which preserveth the wood from burning Another very fat and oyly making it like brimstone to flame and burne these two are consumed by the fire The third viz. the Salt is unctuous very little thin and lasting and remains in the ashes Thus also the Earth as it is indued with that threefold substance of Salt Mercury and Sulphur is the cause of the materiall body of man The Salt by coagulation gives Solidity Colour and Tast to all bodies The Sulphur by a pleasant mixture tempereth the coagulation of the Salt and gives the Body Substance and Transmutation Mercury which like the Elixir giveth the vertues When the Salt or Mummy is spent things brâ—â—ed nothing but wormes Operations and Secrets by a diligent and constant supply of the vital and vegetative moysture doth cherish the two former which by frequent action continually grow dry and old making every mixture easily by a fluid and slippery substance These three Principles which are in all bodies are altogether distinct in use and properties by reason of the mixture of the vertue or operation although to sence they present but one simular substance of bodies Some Theophrastaeans who have more narrowly and exactly searched out the causes of hidden things doe add a Fourth The Spirit of God upon the face of the waters which they call the Spirit which though it may be got out of Mineralls and Vegetables yet in Animalls by reason of its subtility it is subjected unto nor can it be extracted or seperated by the skill of Art and therefore cannot be had thus Sulphur or brimstone may answer to Fire Salt to the earth Mercury to Water Spirit to Aire And seeing we have entred into a Discourse of the Elements we shall add a few things concerning them out of that short Treatise of Severinus The true and purely spirituall Elements are the keepers nurses places Mines wombs and receptacles of the whole Creation yea the very essence existence life and act of all Beings Places are not without Things but are filled with their properties which administer life and nourishment to the things that are in them to wit to the Seeds that they may produce out of themselves the things that were secretly treasured up in them These places are divided into two Globes viz. the superiour Fire or the Firmament and Aire much like the shell and white of an egge the inferiour Water and the Earth like the yolk of an egge In these four incorporeall empty voyd Natures the Creatour by vertue of the Word opening the united multitude Gen. 1. and of the Spirit moving upon the face of the Waters did plant the Light and Seminall causes of all things which he once filled by his heavenly Benediction and shall ever be supplyed by an incomprehensible Magick out of the Eternall Treasures of Divine Wisdome knitting the Principles of bodies together wherewith they might be covered as with a house or garment and which are to last as long as this worldly frame The Seeds and Astra's those bonds of things lay hid in the invisible Treasures of the Elements from the beginning of the Creation as in a great deep springing up in their appointed times joyning visible things to invisible the highest to the lowest by whose advantage the Elements conspire and agree and the whole sympathy of Nature is preserved by their help the World is governed indeavoring to imitate Eternity by a continuall addition of fresh supply The knowledge of the Elements cannot be attained unto without these Seeds because they declare or open the use and services of the Elements and as the seeds are to the Elements so the Principles of bodies are to them which Principles being the inseperable companions of the Seeds cleaves to them as intermingled by an indissoluble tye and are furnisht with incomprehensible variety of gifts for the service of Generations For the Seeds and Principles of Things receive strength of Generation and Multiplication from the authority of His Word whose command all things obey Hippocr in lib. de Antiqua medic But as the Seeds and Elements can hardly be seperated one from the other by the sharpest wit All things proceeds from their powers so neither can the Elements and Principles of bodies the lawes of Nature scarce ever
Intellectuall Soul and earthy Body like two Extreams are knit glued and confederate together and in this third mean which partaketh of the other two they are coupled and united into one intire man Thus God and Man cannot be united but by a Mean even our Saviour who partaketh of two Natures the Caelestiall and Terrestriall the Divine Humane Paracelsus saith that the soul or breâ—tâ— of life is infused by God into the Elementary body through the Astra's as a Medium Through this Medium this middle Aetheriall little body the Intellectuall Soule by the command of God who is the Centre of the great world and by the imploying of his Intelligences or Spirits to that end is first poured and descendeth into the middle poynt of the Heart which is the Centre of the little world and from thence is spread into all the parts and members of his body as soon as it joyneth its vehicle to the naturall heat by which heat it joyneth to the Spirit begotten from the heart by the spirit it drencheth it selfe into the blood by the blood it cleaveth to all the members to all which it hath an equall nearnesse And because the said Aethereall body participateth of Heaven therefore it holds and keeps the same course with that of the Firmament whose operations it draweth to it selfe by a peculiar magnetick vertue just as the visible body doth the efficacy of the Elements and so remaineth one thing with the visible and invisible world John 10.30 as the Son with his Father as rednesse with wine as whitenesse with Snow The whole Firmament is in us with the Planets and Stars As heat pierceth an Iron Furnace and as the Sun doth glasse so doth the Stars with all their properties pierce into Man so that of the syderiall spirit of the Firmament we may learn all Naturall things The MIND Man hath an Intellectuall and immortal Soul Zach. 12.1 Gen. 2.7 Es 42.5 Wisd 2.23 or Spirit by the inbreathing of God created with the four foresaid inhabitants of the Elements which the bruit beasts have not after the Image of God and the Divine Triunity with the similitude also of Unity 1 John 2.27 Chap. 4.14 Acts 17.28 that so in all things he might be one with his Heavenly Father who is in us by his Spirit from which we learn sacred Divinity and all heavenly and earthly secrets without errour yea in him we are and live and are moved As God is One in Essence Trine or Three in persons so Man is One in Person Trine or Three in distinct Essence that is composed Triune of a Terrene Body an Aethereall Spirit of the Heavens and a living vivifying Soule which God breathed into him and is the house of God This the holy Scripture witnesseth Luke 1.47 1 Thes 5.23 Gen. 2.7 See the Amphiâ—halce of Rhunrad worthy of perpetuall memory Paul the greatest Phylosopher and Divine shewes three parts of Man Spirit Soule and Body There are two Souls or two Spirits in Man Mortall from the first matter which is the life of the body and Immortall from God The Spirit is the Life of the Soule the Spirit and Soule are the life of the body John 14. even the wonderfull Agreement between the Creator and the Creature in whom the great Creator would shew himselfe to be Unitrine or Triune One in Three or Three in One As also the unanimous consent of all that truly professed Phylosophy from the Light of Nature If happily there should be any that deny these three parts yet they must acknowledge that Man was created è Limo Terrae out of the clay or dust of the Earth by the word FIAT and that he received an eternall Spirit or breath of life from the mouth of God which is that Linum Caelorum or slime of the Heavens from the Lord. The Limus Terrae or dust of the Earth is two-fold visible and invisible He hath his Body or cottage from the Earth and Water but the life that dwells therein is from the Aire and Firmament of Fire which life is the Syderiall Spirit and is properly the Man not flesh and blood As the Syderiall Spirit is the life of the Body so the Spirit of the Lord is the life of the Intellectuall Soule And as the Sydereall Spirit dwells in the Body and works therein day and night for this invisible is himselfe the Firmament God created Man to be his Tabernacle as well in this as in the world to come and hath all things in him so the Spirit of the Lord the WORD of God the eternall man dwells in the Soule the house is the habitation of the Soule the Soule is the habitation and cottage of God Therefore when Man the most perfect compleatnèsse of all Gods works the most compleat figure of the world and expresse image of God in whom he rested from creating as having nothing before him more honorable to be created all the wisdome and power of the Creator being shut up and perfected in him as the supream artifice in that he containeth all things in himself that are in God when I say he was on the sixt day made up of all things the last of the Creatures and image not onely of the eternall God but also of the great world because with it he comprehendeth and containeth all things in himselfe it followeth that there are three worlds or Heavens in Man and that he is born about of three Worlds or rather is all the world and a most sure and undoubted Pattern of the whole Universe Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parvâ Manilus That which is Naturated savoureth of the Nature of that which did Naturate it God dwelleth in the Soul as in the Heaven of Man And therefore some have called him the Fourth World in whom are found all those things that are in the other three for which cause also he may be called by the name of every Creature He hath a Spirit or Mind from God for what else is the Spirit of Man which God breathed into him but God himselfe dwelling in us The invisible Body or true Internall Man consisting of Reason and an Astrall Spirit agreeth with the Angells and is their fellow And if he be a true Magician he is not inferiour to the Angells in all Magicall operation and is Lord and Possessor of all things His mortall Phisicall Body he hath from the frame of the world and all things created therein for all Externall things are nothing else but the Body of Man So that he partaketh of a threefold world of the Archetype or God-like world in God of the Intellible or Angellicall of the sensible Elementall or corporall world and hath a symbolicall operation and conversation with them all The Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the chaâ—ret driver or Stern-man of the Soul or Rationall Spirit like the eternall God concludeth all Beings Times and Places 1. He communicateth with
the direction for the horse knoweth his manger the birds their nest the Eagle the carkas and every medicine striveth to get to its place and seeketh after that member that is like unto it by anâ—mbred magnetick vertue which may well be called the inexpressible property 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to like domestieks to domesticks naturally apply themselves as the true Phylosophicall Phisitians have diligently observed by long Experience the most undouted Rule of all Wherefore Celsus the Roman Physitian confesseth of all Arts Experiment as also judgement without knowledge is but fallacious difficult and fortuitous but with Science it is true and infallible where by many good old country women have gone beyond great learned Physitians The same may be sayd of the other six principall members and parts of mans body The external Macrocosmicall Braine is the Oyle of Silver Water of the Sophire Emerold Mosse Vitrioll c. cherishing and strengthening the internall Braine of man The flower or CHIBUR or Brimstone are a Balsam for the lungs and the whole breast There is no cause to complaine of the want of medicines but onely of our ignorance of them There are two sorts of Physitians one cure miraculously the other naturally by means So there are two originalls of every disease the one naturall the other caelestiall the Caelestiall is cured by the Word of the Lord the Naturall is recovered by naturall means After this manner not only ordinary diseases are cured by every Dunce but also those Chronicall Astrall and fixed diseases which by many are accounted desperate by reason of their long continuance and the common sort of Physitians who know not the seat seeds nativities roots and centres of diseases judge to be incurable For there is no disease as it is a disease but there is a medicine for it unlesse such as prodeth onely from the anger of the Divine Majesty by secret predestination which cannot be found out by man the cure whereof was never given to Physitians but to the Apostles who by true faith in Christ healed all Diseases unlesse with Pliny we should belye Nature in its perfections as an unjust Step-mother whereas indeed she is the benigne Parent of all Things provident and wise Nature hath by naturall instinct bestowed upon poor bruite creatures the knowledge of their Remedies It were therefore great folly and sottishnesse to think that the great Creator would hide these things from men in vaine had he created these things especially seeing he would make them known onely to such creatures as have no understanding Every Creature knoweth his proper remedy The Stork having eaten a Serpent is cured with Organy The Sow stung with a Serpent is cured by eating Turnsole or Waterwort The Bore with Ivy. The Crane with Bullrushes The Tortuise and Snaile with Organy The Toad when stung or poysoned with any other venomous creature eateth Rue Sage or Plantin or rubs the wounded part therewith and is recovered therefore it is not good to eat Sage before it be washed The Weasill eateth Rue when it is to fight with the Basilisk The Pye when sick carryeth a Bay-leafe into her nest and is well The Lapwing sick with grapes is made well with Maidenhaire The Bear eateth Pismires to expell the distemper of Mandrakes Geese Ducks and other water fowle are cured by Pelâ—itory of the wall Pigeons by Vervin Swallows with Celandine Hawks with Sow-thistles And other living creatures have found out other innumerable Hearbs No Mâ—n therefore that is in his right wits will question that the Caelestial Father as becoms the pious and sacred Parent of all things would in this particular neglect his own children which he created after his own Image and prefer the Beasts before them for whose sake all things were created For he that gave us his Son and commanded us to pray for his Holy Spirit how much rather will he subject the whole Creature both things visible and invisible The most High Author of Nature at h created Medicines out of the Earth Eccl. 38. not defectives but perfect he hath commanded the Physitians to search them out and seasonably administer them to every distemper being by due faith prepared and made up It is also diligently to be observed that all medicines which are appled to mans body become efficacious and obtaine their wholesome effect not of it selfe but by the gift of God For unlesse God be present and infuse virtue into the Hearbs what good can Dittany doe or any other soveraigne medicine All these inferiour things as living creatures hearbs stones mettalls have their force by subministration from the Heaven and the Heaven from the Intelligences and these from the great Worker in whom all things praeexist in the greatest vertue The Naturall life is from God the fountaine of the Universall life For the Elements live by the Firmament the Firmament from the Intelligible World and this onely in God or his Eternall Word For he is all In all the things of the God of Nature not Nature but tâ—e Will of the Lord is earnestly to be implored and the onely life of all and in all yet variously sprouting forth according to the subject into which it flows Wherefore if we intend to doe any good with hearbs we must not trust so much to them as to God and so we shall obtaine a desired and happy successe in recovering our health otherwise all our endeavours will be to no purpose if we forget the Worker and have no faith in him from and by whom all our undertakings become prosperous 2 Chro. 16.12 Asa dyed because he trusted more to the Physitians then to God The Caelestiall Medicine onely or the WORD of God which is the Firmament of all Physick Psal 33. 107.20 Eccl. 38.9 10 11 12. without which no drug will doe good is that which healeth all things and by the efficacy of the WORD in which lyeth hid and from which proceedeth all force beyond any naturall actions all Medicines become powerfull As the bark is not the kernell so hearbs are not the medicines but a signe onely of the Word signified Physick is two-fold in the Earth Visible which the Father hath created ought not to be administred before there be a separation of the pure from the impure Invisible from the Son by the Word and is but one the Physitian cureth by means which are the Hearbs in which the medicine is the Hearb is not the medicine for that is invisibly hid in God himselfe These things wisely and rightly considered we shall not wonder that Almighty God could and can make men whole by the Prophets and True Cabalists with a word onely Acts 3.6 God is a living God the NAME also of the living God is lively and so the Letters of the living Name are also lively God liveth for himselfe his Name liveth because of him the Letters live by reason of the Name as God hath life in himselfe
was in his life and cost him nothing contrary to the determinate assertion of Physitians Aphorismes and shortly after he was marryed Likewise in the year 1606. at Prague a certaine Silesian to get mony did in the presence of many swallow six and forty white flints which he gathered at banck side weighing almost three Physick pounds the least of which was about the bignesse of a Pigeons egge all of them being almost four of my handfulls by this bold adventure without impairing his health he went up and down getting his living for many years together c. CHAP. V. The Duty of Natures Minister the Physitian ALL common Philosophy was not bound up in Aaistotle as P. Ramus hath soundly proved nor was the whole Light of Nature drawne into Galen and limited in him only witnesse Paracelsus No man ought to deprive another of the liberty of human ingenuity that Light of Nature the power to discern and judge as well as himselfe the Grecian Monarchy is at an end Therefore he that would be an Excellent Physitian he must be free from every kind of Sect. for no man can be said to be truly and throughly learned who is bound up to the rudiments of any one faculty only not to be tyed to the opinion of any one Author but to follow the naked Truth and subscribe to it alone alwayes remembring that of Horace Quo me cunque rapit tempestas deferor hospes-Nutlius addictus jurare in verba magistri I think and judge as cause I finde My rule is not anothers minde Not that other mens inventions are altogether to be slighted by stickling onely for one sect for all sects be they never so many may well be admitted because in every one of them there is some thing excellent which is not common to another as said that most noble and wise Picus Mirandula the Phaenix of Phylosophers the inimitable patterne of most profound ingenuity and variety of learning There is no book so base and bad but hath some good in it which the best Authors have somtimes let slip without taking notice of it This latter age saith Fabius hath endeavored to make the former more compleat and because knowledge thriveth as ingenuity is improved therefore many loathsome errours of the Heathen have been as by a second song All Secret are by divine Ordination to be discovered wip'd away by men of greater wisdome coming after them Doubtlesse there are more secrets yet concealed in the Treasures of Wisdome and Nature then we perceive which being ordained for Times and Nations by an immutable decree to the end of the world are to be sought out by wise-hearted men For Nature certainly being Circularly can hardly be wholly comprehended by any mortall man by reason of the shortnesse of his life The case so standing neither the Physick of the Ancients nor that of Theophrastus is totally to be rejected Many errours of the Ancients are discovered by dayly experience which yet hath not attained its end neither nor yet so to be imbraced but that if there be a better found out it also is to be received for one day teacheth another to morrow may be master to this day both should be compared together what is best in both let that be cetained For being but men they have their failings in some places they mistake in other they write one thing contrary to another and thwart each other sometimes they differ from themselves in many things they are deceived nor doth every man see all things The holy Spirit alone hath the plenary or full knowledge of all things who distributeth to every man according to his particular measure blowing where it listeth and reserving many things to himselfe that we might alway acknowledge him to be our only teacher A true Phisitian should be the minister not a master to Nature and a Philosopher skilfull to cure acording to the conclusion of Hippocrates Galen But since there are severall sects of Phylosophers some after the Vulgar manner will be looking below the Moon after the Elementary Nature of things others far more excellent and more truly deserving the name of Philosophers investigate the Arcana and more secret things of Nature they go into the very inner roomes and Sanctuary of Nature and have the true knowledge and Expeeience of Nature's Light which maketh a true Physitian indeed A Physitian is compleated by 3 things the Naturall innate vertue of things that grow of the Earth the Celestiall influence causing that vertue the uniting of it by Chymistry with the Constellation of the firmament the dexteriâ—y of the Phisitian mediating the same In Chirurgia magna But first as Paracelsus saith let him be the legetimate INTERPRETER of NATURE who alone searcheth out its oeconomy and the universall latitude thereof prying into all the Species and kinds of all the Creatures that may by themselves be known and then comes to consider and looke into man A true Phylosopher haâ—h the originall from the knowledge of Heaven and Earth whose Nature and quality he doth perfectly understand Phylosophy hath iâ—s Rise and Râ—â—t in Admiration Phylosophy teacheth the vertues and qualityes of the Earth and Water as Astronomy doth of the fire and Ayre Phylosophy and Astronomy make a perfect Phylosopher not onely in the great but also in the little world A Physitian should have the knowledge of Phylosophy and Astronomy Chyromancy Pyromancy and Geomancy are the Elements of Astronomy and Phylosophy Theophrasteans contemplate and admire the workmanship of Nature throughout this mighty frame of the whole Creation who give themselves to a vary examination and a wise inquisition into the qualities affections motions courses and recourses of the Heavens and fiery bodies as also into their rise fall antecessions consecutions progresses digressions stops and sudden passionate motions and lastly into the seeds principles dimensions and instincts of all sublunary bodies all which they doe with great observations and no lesse diligence by which industry and that perpetuall thirst which they have of meditation and cogitation By this meditation which is a frequent cogitation the manner cause reason of every manner of thing is found out together with their praâ—ers and earnest desires they doe at last attaine not onely to understand but also really to imitate the greatest mysteries and secrets of Nature and that which is more then all they can tell how to improve and imploy them When the Phylosopher comes to a stand in the Naturall Light of the Macrocosm then the Physitian begins to move and proceed in the Analogicall Concordance of the Naturall Light of the Microcosm with that of the great world Secondly a Physitian must be a good SPAGIRUS A Philosopher and Physitian spring one out of another are the root of each other the onely Spagyrick cook of all things Phylosophy is the mother of Physitians â—â—d the exâ—laiâ—er of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—eâ— theiâ—â—â—â—â—â—dyeâ— one that can seperate the pure
Spring which brake out this yeare in the coasts of Misnia and Bohemia unto which almost an incredible number of sick and weake people dayly resort For which there can be no other reason given but the constant excessive affection of them that use it which power is in the very soul of him that takes the medicine when without any feare or sinister imaginations it is carryed to some great excesse of its desire For the rational soul rouzed up and inflamed with a vehement imagination overcometh even Nature it selfe and by her strong affections renueth many things in her own body and causeth sicknesse or health not only in her own body but in others also He that falls mad by the biting of a mad dogg will have the shape of doggs appearing in his urine Thus the lust and longing of a pregnant woman worketh upon another body when through oblivion of her selfe she imprints the marke of the thing longed for upon the child in her womb as saffron coloureth water For by her Imagination she formeth the infant as a Potter doth the clay Fear trembling and appetite are the chiefe cause of the fancy estimation and imagination of women with child Therefore when she begins to imagine There are impressions of the inferior 〈◊〉 Astrâ—â—â— then the Astra's of the microcosmicall Firmament or the Astra's of the humane Mind are moved with the phantâ—cy estimation and imagination just as the externall Astra's of the microcosmicall Firmament where the Astra's ascend and descend every moment till the impression be made in which impression the Astra's of the Imagination of the great bellied women doe print an Influence and impression upon the child as Engravers mark their work with an iron stamp Therefore it is better the body be sick than the soul good words are the Physitians of a sick Soul In lib. de Anima The body is corrupted by the passions of the Soulâ— the mind is nor impassible of the â—â—â—tions of the body This Naturaâ—â— Faith 〈◊〉 the Wiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 the Creator bestowed upon thâ— Creature thaâ— was made after his likenesse although it can do all things yet ought it to keep and observe the property of the Image All things are possible to him that believeth and is willing All things are impossible to the unbeliever and rebellious as he thinketh and imagineâ—h the thing to be so it must be Unbeliefe is the greatest and most powerfull enemy of Faith For the Imagination joyned with Faith can do all things The Fares also make diseases incurable when we perceive by the deny all of such help which we expected from the ministring of fiâ— medicines Thus it is manifest that the affections of Mind when tâ—ey are most vehement are able to deprive of Life as in histories we read And this is well known to every man that many through overmuch joy or too much sorrow by too much love or hatred have dyed and many times by the like passions have been cured of long diseases because as Avicen saith Nature obeyeth the cogitations and vehement desires of the Soul and when the spirit is affected the body in which the spirit lies hid is affected also Againe the aforesaid Naturall Faith its efficacy manifested it selfe in the woman that had the bloody issue and in the Centurion Man who was created after the likenesse and image of God and savouring as it were of a Celestiall Majesty hath great things in his hands and power Gen. 32.25 26. It is well known to all what great matters a constant Credulity in an elevated or raised Mind can doe by a strong imagination even so great that in false intense opinions and operations it worketh miracles But haesitation of Credulity and diffidence doe not onely shatter and break the vertue or force of the operating mind which is the mean between both extreams but do also weaken every work as well in Superstition as in true Religion and enervate the desired effect even of the most powerfull Experiments And that which is here diligently to be observed Mar. 13.58 Marke 6.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Saviour as Holy Writ saith was not able to work miracles in Capernaum because they believed not but with their incredulity and false faith resisted him For as man can done nothing without God Mat. 9.1 2. so likewise God will doe nothing without Man as his Organ or Instument God and the Creature both together neither without the other Therefore no Man ought to will without God because no Man can Be without God in whom we are and live and are moved Eightly Least the sick party recovering should commit greater sins against God his neighbor and himselfe to the losse of his Soul for every sicknesse is as it were an expiation or propitiatory of sacrifice either the just Judge by this Divine innate revenge pennance and scourge doth call him to amendment of life for the time to come or that by this Fatherly visitation and imposition of the crosse which he ought patiently to indure he may be a pattern to himsefe and his neighbour for the more fervent Fear and Worship of God for God many times permitteth some men to fall into many and great sicknesses whose minds have been greivously infected distempered by the gladsome and pleasant health of the flesh together with the continuation of their sins to the losse of their Eternall health For health is nothing worth seeing it is but condemnation to us if our sins be not forgiven Moreover sins weaken the powers of the Soul and make it impotent to the Naturall Government of the body Therefore the powers of the body are enfeebled and hasten to death Job 33.19 20 Or else the sick is held under this yoke and bridle of infirmity as by a wholsome Purgatory though few are reformed by their sicknesse to the duty of Piety at least whilst that loose licentiousness of sinning is lopt and cut off which he would abuse if he should live and be well any longer In these diseases that arise from the resisting Astrall impression and wrath of God A Physitian beginneth in appeasing Gods wrath Job 33.26 no Corporall medicine because God hath shut the doors of Nature can do any good but onely Celestiall and spirituall viz. by serious repentance heartily to bewaile the sins that we have committed to allay the provoked wrath of God by Amendment of life and Reconciliation to our neighbor to be reconciled to God through our Saviour the Celestiall Physitian of our Soules and to submit our Will to the most righteous pleasure of the Divine Will devoutly patiently and humbly in all things with a most assured perticipation of Divine Mercy Paracelsus calleth them Deal diseases which are from the Ens of God who inflicteth all such diseases and who alone worketh by good and bad men the Cure saith he is by Faith or when the purging is perfected the Physitian may then try his skill The Causes of those diseases that
Tob. 12.7 nor doe I thinke their miserable life is to be desired whose felicity is their ruine and who loose by that that should advantage them and who in the height of fortune do yet desire fortune for the chains and fetters sake even when the indulgents of Fools could scarce add any greater happinesse and on whom God bestoweth somethings as a punishment when he is angry which he denies as a blessing when he is pleased Yet since the works of God are to be published and celebrated and that by this monument here left it may hereafter appear that that Divine Benificence hath not been denyed to men of our age also who did not begrudge posterity their felicity I cannot but in attestation and confirmation of the Truth here remember that singular Divine Clemency to me which not without the clear favour of God was shewed to me as an eye-witnesse in my travells which was denyed to many others who earnestly desired it that I should see and taste it at some Great mans house Cui in aeternum bene sIt Cumprimis egregium Helioch Antharum bor EaLem nunc in Christo quiescentem cujuSmodi lENtis DenIque consueVerunt latitare tempOrum currIcVlis Which I forbear to English The Physophycall Basilisk like Lightning suddenly and unawares burneth up any imperfect mettall whatsoever and on a sudden Produceth another new forme Therefore the searching it out is most to be commended to all that are studious of the Truth Whence being a long time astonished and amazed at the greatest miracle of Nature wrought by Art among the various and manifold metamorphosis of the Inferior Astronomy made in the cold the Moyst way of the Ancients not as yet intensly exalted to the eye of the Basilisk this one prodigie passing the admiration of all wonders seemed strange and most worthy to be seen that by giving one onely drop of that Latex or liquor in which as in a storehouse the dispersed vertues of all Celestiall and Terrestriall bodies were by a wonderfull artifice invisibly gathered together in an heap nay in which the whole world was centred a man desperately sick and at the point of death was recovered by its Fiery Astrall and Celestiall Invisible Nature conveying to the Heart a beam of the Naturall Life and renewing the organs of Life and repairing Nature which by an accidentall sicknesse causing a remotion was spent and wasted restoring him to firme and perfect health in one night For this Kingly medicine and the Empresse of all other causeth Humane Bodies immediately and as it were miraculously to rise againe from what desperate diseases soever There is no Physitian can cure death but Christ if God hath not otherwise decreed for many diseases are a Divine innate punishment for which there is no cure in Nature For surely this whole new regenerate world is able by vertue of its Regeneration to renew the little old corruptible world Man to restore whatsoever is amisse in Mans body to consume what is superfluous to mend what is defective and reduce the whole Microcosm into a true Temperament and preserve it therein till the appointed Terme of death imposed on mortalls for their sin Imperfect and impure mettalls are cleansed from their infirmities and accidents by the same spirit of the world by the same Heat of Sun and Moon as mens bodies are they are restored to their True Health which is aureity or goldness without a new motion of generation and corruption by way of alteration onely and remotion of accidents which are the cause of the sicknesse and distemper for mettals doe not differ in specie but onely in accidents This incredulous doubtfulnesse will fall out to the gaine rather than to the losse as heretofore to our ancestors so hereafter to all posterity because there are few that believe that this Art is true and with 〈◊〉 stedfast confidence are perswaded of it for upon that account God provideth for the security of those that give themselves truly to the study of Phylosophy Exod. 32.20 Job 14.19 No marvell if this secret by reason of the proclaimed uncertainty of so great mysteries shall seem incredible and justly not to be made known though it be truer then true to our Vulgar sort though Athenians of a clean nose as being ignorant because they never heard any thing in all their life of the Heat of the Sun and Moon who know not these Vulcanean metamorphoses and this Power of GOD joyned to Nature but admire the Heathenish Physick who to excuse their own ignorance doe foolishly enough account the sayings of Prudent men but as fables and fictions no marvell I say when the understanding of the intelligent clouded with no precepts or traditions of foolish men can hardly apprehend it much lesse that the Element of EARTH should by the help of Mechanick Magick swim upon the water To know this Phylosophicall Secret truly is principally necessary to an Astrall Physitian none of which Physitians can come to any operation or knowledge of wonderfull effects nor be certaine in his Art except he cleave to this Science especially in the cure of desperate diseases in our body to wit the four Monarchs of all diseases the Epilepsie Gout Dropsie Leprosie These four chiefest kinds of Diseases Paracelsus It is not Christian-like to ascribe to the Devill a greater possibility and power than to the Infinite divine Wisdome omnipotence The chiefe Foundation Scope of true Physitians because it is not the first but second birth that produceth it through the help of Christ not of the Devill cured by a wonderfull Art proving in some of his works that God taught him the medicine for he did it not by our common ordinary medicines but by Restoring or regenerating ones which are known to very few by which Nature being renewed afterward of her own accord she expelleth all things that offend her as his Epitaph at Salisburg doth truly and sufficiently witnesse to posterity All diseases proceeding from the corruption of humors how great and desperate soever their cures be are healed by this universall medicine as a Carpenter that squareth all kind of timber except the party be at the utmost Terme appointed him by the supream Being or the disease be inflicted by God besides Nature as a punishment and speciall affliction But no man as hath been said can make use of this peculiar and celestiall Gift but he on whom God himselfe hath bestowed it who onely both inlightneth the obscurity and darkneth the clearnesse of these mysteries so that none can understand the plainest things except he enlighten them nor be ignorant of the darkest if he illustrate them for so great a faculty is there given by the rich and peculiar Grace of the most high Creator Therefore Lullius that Divine and most perfect Phylosopher rightly concluded that between the Artist and God the first cause there ought to be an agreement without contrariety that the first mover as the principall Forme
that which is mortall According to what hath been said the mortall and eternall are joyn'd together Understand that which is mortal prepareth an essence in the stomack and upholdeth the default of the body The onely cause whereof is that that of man which is eternal might live for ever and that which is mortall might die according to its frailty Such as the body such is the eternall that comes from that body This is that which confounds all Philosophy that the mortall should domineer and as it were beare sway as it listeth over that which is eternall and that this also should depend on man Who thereby is made more a companion of that which is eternall than if his mortall and eternall both floweth from himselfe Whence we moy conclude that all creatures should live together the reasonable and unreasonable one being serviceable to another the eternall planted into the mortal and these two dwelling together Hence Philosophy teacheth Destruction is from contraries that all those things cannot be destroyed and confumed that live together without squabling and fighting without guile and deceit without good and evill Which otherwise would be if one should oppose another Those have no knowledge or judgement in whom the eternall dwelleth not But those things in whom the eternall is cannot be destitute of understanding When things so fell at odds as to clash one with another one eternall was forc'd to give an account and make satisfaction of wrongs to another And whereas recompence belongs to the eternall What things are subject to destruction it must not be repay'd by that which is mortall And though bodies may pacifie and bear with one another yet if any thing be left here that is eternall Therefore that onely is judged that is eternall in us And though one exact upon or judge another yet all mortall things which have the eternall in them must die whether they will or no so that the eternall onely shall stay behind here without company of the body Thus the judgement is finished For that onely is eternall nor is there any more of it to come in the last destruction of every mortall thing Now if those things that had the eternall in them have so perished nothing now remaineth but what was eternall of it selfe and did nourish and increase that which was mortall That which is good for nothing doth not tarry in the creature All other things are only for the sake of that which is eternall Hence also it is that which hath the erernall in it selfe and with it all things that maintain'd it may die and perish together That only remaineth that is eternall Whence the end of all bodily things is evident even nothing to which they all revolt For they are separated from their ownessence into nothing that is from something into nothing But man desireth a perfect separation i. e. of the eternall from the mortall Now is the judgement when the ficklenesse of all things under heaven is proclaimed If there were no reason why a thing should be fragill the creature should never die no death should be in it but all things would be eternall The onely reason whereof is this because we mortalls live not in righteousnesse we judge not right judgement among our selves one toward another nor have we received the power of the eternall to judge These things belong to the eternall Which seeing it ought to be so all we must of necessity be brought and come together Thus have we found the dissolution of all things TEXT 24. Seeing then all things were created and have their end also out of the first great mysterie as hath been said it is evident by consequence that there is some great mystery Which is no other than as if a house should be built by the command of a word Understand it thus that the mysterie it applyed it selfe to the sole supream so it is possible that a man may bring fire out of that which is not fire where no fire is A flint hath no fire in it selfe though fire come out of it Know therefore that all the first mysteries lay hid and did exist in the great mysterie in a threefold manner The dignity of the great mystery Three sorts out of the Mysterie in respect of things vegetable elementary sensible The vegetables were many hundreds many thousands Every thing had its own special kind in the great mysterie To the Elements did there but four belong for they had but 4 principles But men had six hundred The infinity of mysteries Crump-feeted men had one the Ciclopes another Gyants another the Mechili another So had they that dwell on the earth in the aire in the water and in the fire Things also that grow had every one it s own proper mysterie in the great mysterie whence came out many kinds of creatures So many trees so many men so many mysteries too But the eternall onely doth bear rule in man and in his whole mysterie and no more in one than in another In the great mysterie there was not any kind but might infinitly be formed and digested one different from another All which must perish What more might have been made from thence we forbear to mention But that there should be a New great mysterie is impossible unles that could be made more miraculous which by reason of its wonderfull nature we cannot sufficiently search out THE Second Book TEXT 1. The difference of the creating Gods SEing then there was something by which when it was separated all things were created first we must conclude that there is some difference of the Gods which it this Sith the things created are divided into eternall and mortall the reason whereof is because there was another creator of the mysteries besides the chiefest and most high For the most high Creator ought to be the Judge and corrector of all the creatures who should know how much was bestowed on them whereby they might do either good or evill though they had it not immediately from him Moreover the creatures are alway egged on and provoked rather to evill Mans inclination is to evill compeld thereto by the fates stars and by the infernall one which by no means could have bin if they had proceeded out of the most high himself that we should be forced into those properties of good and evill but should in all things have had free will without any such violent instigation yet neverthelesse the creature hath not so much wisdome as to know good or evill to understand the eternall and mortall For there are many fonles and mad men scarce a wise man of a thousand most are false Prophets Teachers of lies Masters of folly and ignorance who are accounted for the most eminent though they be nothing so And the reason is plaine for such creatures are we whose Masters teach us no perfect good but are rather seasoned by the mortall God who had some power in the