Soul That these do move stir without controul To which Augurellus also attests in his first Book saying Ast Animae quoniam nil non est corporis expers Mundus at mundi partes quoque corpore constan Spiritus haec inter medius fit quem neque corpus Aut Animam dicas sed eum qui solus utroque Participans in idem simul haec extrema reducat Hic igitur Maria ac Terras atque Aera Ignem Vivereque augerique atque in se cuncta referre Semper Aves semper Stirpes Animantia semper Gignere perpetuamque sequi per secula prolem c But since a Soul is incorporeal And all the parts o' th' world we meet withaâ— Are bodies these two cannot be combin'd Without a mean betwixt Body and Mind Which is a Spirit wherewith the raging seas Fire air earth all plants fruitful tree With animals are acted so that they Do generate their like and live for aye c CHAP. 3. That all things which have Essence and Life are made by the Spirit of the World and of the first Matter ALL things are nourished by the same by which they were produced Now that all things breathe live augment and grow by this Mundane Spirit resolve and die without it is plain Whatsoever therefore subsists is made by it and this Spirit is nothing else but a simple and subtile essence which the Philosophers call a Quintessence because it may be separated from gross corporeity and the superfluities of the four Elements and so made of wonderful activity in its operations and it is now diffused over all the parts of the World and through it the Soul is dilated with all its vertues which vertues are communicated most to such Bodies as participate most of this Spirit for the Soul is infused by and transmitted from the superiour Bodies as from the Sun which acts most powerfully in this case for this Spirit being calefied by the heat of the Sun acquires abundance of Life which multiplies and enlivens the seeds of all things which thereby encrease and grow to a determinate magnitude according to the species and form of each thing upon which account Virgil saith Igneus est ill is vigor caelestis origo But fiery vigour and heat celestial Are to these Bodies their original Now this Spirit is by Philosopherâ— called Mercurius because it is of many or all forms producing all kindes oâ— Bodies giving to some things a faireâ— and more lasting to others a weakeâ— and more corruptible Life accordinâ— to the pre-disposition of the matter upon which account this fiery vigor proceeding from the Solar beams is nâ— alike in all subjects but diversified as there is more or less of it in the seeds All matters of purer pre-dispositions have a purer and more durable Life and Spirit for every thing delighting in that that 's likest to it it is more then Reason that this pure Celestial vigour should penetrate and sink deeper into purer Bodies and make them more durable and vital For the proof of which we need go no further then Gold which being purer then all other Terrestrial Bodies participates more of that Celestial Fire which penetrating the bowels of the Earth findes in Minerals the pre-disposed matter to wit the Mercury and Sulphur which Esdras calls The Earth of Gold prepared by the action and diligence of Nature and purged and separated from all inquinations of Terrestrial and adust Dregs which matter in the beginning is onely some Sperm or Water mix'd with that Sperm Powder or pure Sulphur which acted by the coagulative faculty thickens by little and little and in time by long and continued action of the heat hardens and so comes to its perfection which is naturally simple tincted with the colour of Fire for heat is the Progenitor and Parent of Tinctures If therefore it be certain that this heat comes from the Sun as it must needs be indubitable who can so much contradict Truth and Reason as to deny the Sun to be the Author and Parent of this perfection Let us then look higher and seek more accurately how this perfection may be caused by this mean CHAP. 4. How the Sun is by Hermes called The Father of the Mundane Spirit and of the Universal Matter BUt some may here say If all things proceed from one and the same matter how can the Sun be called the Parent of this matter when it self is procreated or produced out of this matter For answer whereunto we must consider That if we speak of the primaeve prejacent matter of all things it is altogether invisible and cannot be comprehended but by strong imagination out of whose vital light and natural heat this Celestial Sun was produced with equal light and fiery vigour which afterwards strengthening this internal and essential heat with natural displayed the beams of his Fire over the whole Universe illuminating the Stars above him and vivifying thâ— things below him But because the Earth is as it were the common Mother of all things the Sun acts most vigorously upon her she being the common Receptacle of all Influences in whose bowels the seeds of all things are absconded which being agitated and moved by the Suns heat come to light and for this cause in Winter when the Sun is furthest absent from us the Earth being destituted of that vigorous heat which his perpendicular Rayes brought with them she is we see barren and produces nothing Whereas in the Spring when the Sun again reviews our Climate then she rises from her sleep or death and receives Life and vigour The cause of which mutation must needs be the Universal Spirit full of Life inhabiting the Earth principally which before it can generate any thing must take up its Inn in some Body as in the Earth which is the Body of Bodies and because all things are nourished and sustained by that which produces them there must be great affinity and harmony betwixt this Spirit and the Sun And for this cause ancient Philosophers say That the Sun in the Spring-time calefies and enlivens his Parent loaden with old age and almost killed with Winter-cold Seeing then she is by the Sun fortified enlivened and impregnated Hermes had reason to say That the Sun was the Father of this matter for being otherwise barren and without off-spring she now conceives generates and multiplies her spirituous matter leading it from incorporality to corporality The Philosopher Hortulanus commenting on Hermes his Table leaves and omits the radical principles of Nature and taking his rise by the principles of Chymistry by the Sun understands the Philosophers Gold which he truely calls the Parent of the Philosophers Stone For all that are conversant in this Art learn from Experience and all good Authors That the true matter and subject of this Stone hath Gold and Silver in potency and Quicksilver naturally which Gold and Silver are much better then those men commonly see and handle because these are
and the humour thereof being condensed by innate heat is turned into a certain kinde of Earth which contains Mercury and Sulphur in due proportions CHAP. 7. How the Earth nourishes this Universal Spirit THough this Spirit be infused into and dwells in superiour as well as inferiour Bodies yet it may be best known and discerned in Bodies most evident and neer to our view of which the Earth is neerest and most vegetable in it therefore is this Spirit generated and manifested more copiously for the Earth is a certain mark whereto all the Influences Rayes and Vertues of the superiour Bodies tend It is moreover the Fundament and Basis of the other Elements containing in it self the seeds and seminal vertues of all things for which cause it is rightly called the common Mother of all Animals Vegetables and Minerals It is therefore impregnated by the Heavens and produces all things out of its womb and though this Spirit were expelled washed away or separated from it by what way you please yet the Earth thus void of Spirit if left a while in the Air would again be impregnated by the Celestial vertues and influences so as to produce some Chystalline stones and lucent sparks and by this means the Spirit which was taken for separated would again regerminate in the Earth Impregnation then made by the action of the Heavens and of the first qualities doth continually render her generative for out of her womb come all things sublunary She produces all things endued with life preserves nourishes and at last resolves them into their own Nature When she is agitated by these actions she causes a twofold expiration one without her another within her which expirations egrede from this Terrene Spirit when moved and calefied by the Celestial heat The expiration elevated without or above the Earth if it be humid causes and produces dew and frost if dry winde thunder and other dry Aereal impressions but the expiration included in the Earth if it be humid generates liquable Metals and Minerals if dry stones and the like that are not liquable All things vegetable proceed from and are nourished by this Spirit whereof the Earth is Nurse for which cause the ancient Poets call the Earth the common Mother and Nurse of all Creatures CHAP. 8. That the Spirit of the World is the cause of perfection in all THe Universal Spirit is the general Genus and common to every Genus for if we cast our eyes into the inferiour or elementary World we see it divided into three subalternals to wit animal vegetable and mineral kindes and yet the same in all onely operating diversly according to the diversity of its forms And hence the infinite variety of Creatures arises for else there would be only one species in the Universe but if we perpend the superiour and Celestial World we shall also finde That the Spirit is one equal in all and differing in nothing but purity and subtilty for the Celestial Spirits are procreated of its pure igneous substance and differ from Terrene ones in corporal grosness and the Celestial Globes and Luminaries are made of its middle and Aereal substance it constitutes therefore all things because it hath in it both the faculties of superior and inferior Bodies and because it is of an exquisite temper for this Body is in all the beginning and end of perfection and if it were destituted of its faculties it could never perfect any thing and here we understand simple and natural perfection and although it be perfect onely according to the intent of Nature containing in it self the rule line action and power of perfection yet it acquires vertues and faculties above the sphere of natural things and can deduce things from potency to act This Spirit alters and penetrates all things though never so gross mollifies hard things hardens soft things and augments nourishes and conserves all things This Spirit also being in all Bodies the Author of Generation and Corruption hath necessarily a threefold operation for by its driness it must enliven and by its coldness congeal and by its moisture congregate and unite for which it hath a threefold name imposed on it desumed from the three kindes of Earth for they call it vitrifying salsuginous and Mercurial because of Salt Glass and Mercury all things are made though Paracelsuâ— reckons these principles otherwise to wit Salt Sulphur and Mercury adding Glass as a fourth As if he should say All things are made of these three first principles and reduced at last to the fourth as though neither Nature nor Art could produce any thing beyond Glass But I shall prove my own sentence by Examples and Reason The Bones of Animals are consolidated and hardened by vitrification the Fâ—â—â—h and Nerves concreted by Salt and united and congregated into one mâ—â—â— by the â—â—curial humour In Vegetables also the shells of Almonds Pine-Nuts Wall-Nuts and the like as also of Oysters and Snails in Land and Sea may be made by vitrification and the taste demonstrates That these Bodies are saltish for nothing wants Salt but what is insipid yea those things are very saltish whereof Glass is made as Fem Kali and the like Some may here object That it is not Glass but Salt that causes the induration of Bones Shells and the like which I have mentioned Whereunto I answer That Experience and Reason speak the contrary for Salt is resolved and melted by the least moisture of Air or Water but the Bones and Shells before mentioned resist liquefaction as they are more or less hardened by this Glass-making faculty for the ultimate confirmation of which my assertion I may adduce precious Stones Adamant and Chrystal which are nothing but Glass elaborated to perfection in the Furnace of Nature And now that all things are condensed by Mercury is so manifest that it needs no other Testimony but common Experience Minerals have enough of Salt Sulphur and Mercury in them Stones and such effoded things as acquire not extention and fusion by the Hammer and Fire have some Salt in them but this is superated by the adustion of corruptive Sulphur which comes upon their induration and vitrification Metals and all ductile things are concreted and condensed by Salt and Mercury and so much hardened by vitrification that they bid some râ—sistence to the Hammer which is indeeâ— more or less according to their implâ—cation with more or less impurity aâ— adust Earth which comes upon the câ—agulation of their Mercury And thâ—â— we may affirm that all things are madâ— of the ternal number of Glass Salt anâ— Mercury or Water where Glass is thâ— cause of hardness Salt affords matteâ— and Water causes unition and condeâ—sation CHAP. 9. Of the specification of the Universal Spirit to Bodies THe Soul of the World and its Action and Vertue is represented in 〈◊〉 things in which it is this bindes and â—njoyns the superiour things with the â—feriour for as many Idea's as the â—eaven contains so many seminal â—uses it
these influences which purgative separation is the cause why all things naturally reject their Excrements as not being of their substantial parts which is indeed very requisite seeing there is nothing in the World but its Excrements exceed its natural substance nay all that we see and touch is onely the excremental part of things that obumbrates their occult substance as we may observe in our Aliments whose greater Mass turns not into our substance but goes away by the passages destined for such egress Nature onely extracting the invisible and spiritual succe out of them which is apt to be converted into ourflesh and substance We may likewise affirm That this Mass of Earth we tread upon is nothing but the Excrement of that first substance which was united in the Chaos Now encompassing the Centre and so including it in a Spherical Equilibrial proportion that it cannot move or fall for seeing it is in the lowest of places it can tend no wayes further unless it should ascend which is repugnant to its Nature But in the mean while I do not say That the Body of the Earth is nothing but an Excrement for though it appear wholly excrementitious yet there lies under its Excrements a pure substance which being wholly spiritual could not become sensible without the administration of some Body as we see in all things produced their Seed and first Matter is invisible but as they are carried in a corporal Mass and excrementitious substance we can see them and no Body can be made without Excrements for which cause this substance is separated from the Body of Earth in Generations by the influence of Celestial heat retaining nothing of the said Earth but as much as may be for a sustentacle for it which from the beginning had no other use but to serve for a Receptacle and Shop or rather a Vessel wherein this spiritual Matter might effect its operations as we shall largely and plainly demonstrate in the sequel Chapter where I shall treat of Separation more largely But Separation were to little purpose if the things separated should remain without action Natures scope in Separation is to enliven and abandon Death which comes from no other cause but superabundance of Excrements suffocating the pure substance but here I mean natural not violent Death but if the Seeds of things should alwayes lie buried in this excrementitious Earth nothing would be produced or receive Life but the Celestial Vertue by its vital influence extracts them and these being full of Vertue dilate and promote themselves into all and each several species as their Nature and Composition require Life then proceeds from Purification which the Stars effect by their influences with which the augmentative and restorative faculties descend for the Stars being in continual motion they are continually occupied with action and consequently with vivification giving Life to Life which cannot be without Conservation and Restauration Conservation they give by sustaining Life indeficiently Restauration by restoring what the Generations of individuals consume and spend And this we may see manifestly in the first Matter incorporated for being impregnated by Celestial Influences it is of it self nourished multiplied and augmented continually And hence it is called a Dragon or Serpent that preys upon it self always regerminating which where-ever it be it takes such root that the place shall never be quite destitute of it though it be washed or burned which is a certain token by which this first Matter may be known These then are the principal Vertues which the Spirit of the World hath and will alwayes receive from the Celestial Influences which produce great and admirable effects in all the Members of the Universe But here some may enquire How that the first matter receiving such pure and potent Influences from Heaven comes to be conspurcated with so many vitious qualities and how it retains them when it hath received them seeing it is alwayes busied in the actions of vivification augmentation conservation and restauration for if it separate not it will die and if it augment conserve and restore not it will diminish perish and debilitate which it never does Whereunto I answer That the Stars have a twofold influence one natural the other accidental the natural was communicated to them in their first Creation and it is that Government of the Universe which Hermes speaks of whereby they keep it in its Being by defending and preserving it by their influences from destruction and annihilation wherewith the Spirit of the Universe is continually enriched which applies them to and manifests them in all things whereto it gives encrease and substance but the accidental Influence of the Stars is that which falls out preternaturally by reason of their different Situations and Aspects and this is alwayes subject to mutation and never remains equal and this hath only power upon the effects of Matter not upon the Matter it self for whatever influence happen though never so malign the Centre of the Earth intermits not its actions but absolves them as before and produces Animals Vegetables and Minerals as well as ever and if mortifications sometimes fall out from the malignity of some Aspect they onely touch the surface or excrementitious mass of Bodies and not the interiour substance and such an accident is often changed so that the influence sometimes operates one thing sometimes the quite contrary which the natural and principal influx never does Whence we may conclude That the first Matter as it is simple of it self receives nothing but those Celestial Vertues which it also retains and keeps in its Terrification But we must now declare how it retains them that we may make good that saying of Hermes That its Vertue remains entire when it is converted into Earth because all the Celestial Vertues descend and meet in the Centre of the Earth which in their course aim at nothing but the information of the Matter which is as it were the Receptacle of the supream Idea's The same Matter being full of Forms is diversified not indeed actually but potentially into innumerable specifications and so it is not properly a Body but as it were a Body or Companion of a Body whereunto it hath an Appetite and by information moves to that end and this motion it hath from the action of Celestial Fire which I before called The first Mover in the Chaos which the old Poets Orpheus and Hesiod describe under the Name of Love And Ronsardus ouâ— French Homer or Pindar thus delineates Le suis amour le grand maistre des dieux Le suis Celuy qui fait mouvoir les Cieux Le suis Celuy qui governe le monde Qui le premier hors de la masse eclos Donnay lumiere feudy le Cahos Dont fut basty cette machine ronde If any Rustick know not who I am Love is my name To whom themselves both Jove and all his train Subjects proclaim I am the hand that moves the heavens and th' reins That
alive and can encrease the other are dead and if this could not be effected the matter would never be brought to itâ— perfection which this Art promises 〈◊〉 which is indeed so efficacious as to perfect imperfect Metals But this same invisible Gold or Silver which by this Magistery is exalted to so sublime aâ— degree cannot communicate its perfection to imperfect Metals without the help and service of vulgar Gold and Silver Wherefore Alchymists alwayâ— adjoyn the one or the other and so make Gold the Father of the Elixir But such as would be further informed in this verity should diligently evolve good Authors for it is not my purpose to speak more of it For it is enough for me to shew that divine Hermes with one and the same finger touches both strings or under one and the same sentence locks a twofold meaning which himself declares when he asserts That he was called Hermes Trismegistus because he possessed three parts of the Worlds knowledge for having given the Anatomy of this Universal Spirit which is the material Author and principle of all the three chief kindes comprehending the whole of the world he had attained so much of knowledge and wisdom that nothing could lie hid from his eyes and this principle he makes one So that all things are produced from one by mediation of one and adaptation to one This One then of which he speaks is that general Spirit whereof I treat and that One by which he sayes Miracles may be wrought is the true Mineral matter of the Stone whereof we spoke even now which is produced from the first general matter or universal Spirit in the Earth by Nature which Spirit potentially containing all Celestial vertues in it self communicates so much to this Mineral matter as is requisite for the obtaining of its perfection But omitting Chymical Doctrines as much as we may in this Treatise we say That this general Spirit is a Stone or Elixir composed by Nature by mediation whereof she works all her Miracles which is much more admirable then the Alchymists Stone which is onely a grant of this universal Spirit that it may act and perfeâ—â— things like it self for being truely Mâ—tallical purified and compleated 〈◊〉 Art it purifies and digests Metals leâ—â— in their impurity for want of digestioâ— But this Physical or natural Stone peâ—petually restores such things as are produced by Nature and hourly prâ—creates new things as well in the kinde of Animals as of Vegetables and Mâ—nerals which yet it could not do without the help and influence of thâ— heavenly Bodies especially of the Suâ— which is the origine and principle of aâ— faculties and generations It hath theâ— the Sun for its Father and contains iâ— it self spiritual Gold and Silver because it is the first matter of Gold and Silveâ— corporal And because Air is the medium through which it receives these superiour influences Hermes saith Thaâ— the winde carries it in its belly foâ— which cause Raymundus Lullius calls iâ— Aereal Mercury but the Earth like at universal Parent nourishes it in her fruitful womb which appears by the production of all things proceeding from the Earth for if this Spirit were not included therein she would have no power nor vertue in generation and production seeing she is properly no more then the common vessel or matrix of these many and different generations for the general matter or Mercury of them being as Philosophers denote invisible and almost incorporeal cannot be made visible and corporeal but by some subtile artifice which matter if it can be extracted out of the Arms of its Nurse and purged from all accidental superfluities may notwithstanding any Reason I can see to the contrary in the things whereto it is applied separate things corruptive and heterogeneous and conserve and multiply things homogeneous and conformable to it It is without doubt That Authors are misunderstood when they seem to assert that Metals onely should be usurped to the production of Metals saying That the Seeds of Gold are in Gold for besides that which we have spoken of common Metals and of those which Philosophers assume to the confection of their Magistery we dare yet affirm That without this general Spirit which is in all things the sole cause oâ— vegetation the faculty innate in aâ— Metals of becoming Gold and Silveâ— can never be deduced to vegetation oâ— from potency to act because Nature produces not it self but in every operation there must be some agent and some matter subjacent to the action And this doubless is that fire which Pontanus speaks of which all Philosophers have concealed and kept under Lock and Key as the sole Stearn of their actions for want of which Fire Pontanus as himself confesses erred two hundred times in his practise though he had to do with the right matter This threefold Mercury then or sum total is the first Seed of all Metals as also of the other two kindes or Genus 's which is by little and little coagulated and by the continual action of heat lying in the Myne hardened and tincted when it is perfectly pure but it makes up several species and acquires divers forms and colours according to the variety of the place and adjacent matter producing Metals Minerals and Stones in the bowels Trees and Plants in the surface of the Earth as she is animated by the Solar Rayes without which she would be barren for Nature at first established this for a Law That the Sun should perpetually nourish and calefie the matter alwayes moving its threefold faculty Animal Vegetable and Mineral to its effect And this is the Cause why Hermes wrote the Sun its Father CHAP. 5. How the Moon is the Mother of the Spirit of the World and the Universal Matter LEst any might here be deceived he must consider That as one of us a Microcosm hath a Body a Spirit and a Soul even so hath the Macrocosm and seeing nothing exists that wants these three there must needs be great affinity amongst them so that no one of them can be found without the other and though two of them may seem sometimes to be separated from the subject yet they are onely hidden in the third that remains as a subtile and profound Artist may easily experience by the examination of Fire What therefore is Matter the same is Spirit and what is Spirit may and that not impertinently be called a Body If we consider That they are indivisible and by Natures Laws so generated that they are one and the same thing by which account it appears that the matter is not onely Matter or Soul or Spirit but refers and represents all because one is always generated and nourished with the other so that in the propagation and action of one the two other are always present When therefore we say That the Moon â—s the Mother of the Spirit and univerâ—al matter we speak not irrationally â—or assert any absurdity but here we must more intimously
be by somewhat stayed But seeing it tends infallibly to the Centre and there is stopped because there is no lower place whereto it may descend there it is compelled to subsist and collect it self Hence some have said That the Centre of the Earth is most precious because in it all the influences are united which meeting there have an infinite potency not onely because they continually flow thither but because they proceed from Bodies infinite incorruptible and indeficient in vertue The ancient Poets who involved their Conceits in Fables divide the Earth into three parts assigning the Heaven to Jupiter as first-born of Saturn though some attribute the primogeniture 's right to Neptune and the election of the superiour Kingdom to Jupiter for certain Sophistical Reasons impertinent to my purpose Neptune they make the Lord of the Sea and that by lot To Pluto as the youngest Son they assign the Earth for Heritage who is yet thought the richest of the three Brethren because in his Dominion all the Treasures of the World are contained yea he seems to make his two Brothers Tributaries in those things they possess as best This Son they call The King of Hell and to him they give the Elysian Fields as a delightful place where the blessed Souls shall follow his Court after death Divines also assert That Hell and the torture of Souls is in this place adduced by this Argument That seeing the Nature of the Stars is fiery and all their influences concur there must needs be incredible burnings there Again That place is infernal because none is more inferiour But that Souls should be here tormented and that the heat of this place should be so vehement as they say is a Solaecism in Reason and a Contradiction to Philosophical Axionis for besides that Souls possesse no place according to their own confessions and that being devested of the earthy part and corporeal prison they would naturally elevate themselves and ascend by vertue of their spiritual levity which participates more of a fiery then any other quality they cannot but with violence be detained in this subterraneous place seeing they are light nor yet being simple suffer under the action of Fire which cannot act on its like Why therefore they should assert That they descend to this place to be tormented I see no reason unless that the burthen of their sins wherewith they are implicated should detrude and depress them compelling and forcing them to the Centre of the Earth or else that sin hath got them under its Dominion and hath incorporated it self therewith by some unknown kinde of composition and so make them passible and subject not to the simple and natural action of Fire but to some other violent created one destined by God to that effect and perhaps the vertue of the Fire we speak of is by divine Power doubled for this action which may be proved by Holy Writ But I will not rashly cherish any particular Opinion or separate my self from the Orthodox Faith in the defence whereof I will not onely spend my Life but Industry by God's assistance yet I say in my Transient that I may further recede from my intended Discourse That they conclude strangely that say Vehement burnings arise in this place because the influences of the Stars concur there whereunto I would yet yield if they can evince That the heaâ—of the Stars burns and consumes like ouâ— Culinary Fire and doth not enlivenâ— conserve and nourish for if it were such as they imagine not onely the Earth but the whole Universe had been long since burnt to ashes Those influence indeed in old Demogorgon's bowels calefie but not with a mortal and destructive but with a vital heat which there implants an uniform Vertue which by mediation of heat dilates it self through the whole Body of the Earth being the first moving cause of Generations But we must not here conceive That it is onely the external heat that comes from the Sun which calefies the Earth and causes Generation for in Winter-time when the Sun is furthest distant the Earth hath abundance of heat in it as experience shews in Fountains Cisterns and profound Cells so that in the coldest Winter-Season Metals are cocted and indurated yea it is credible that they are then most of all ingrossed because the heat of the Centre is kept in and retained because of the frigidity of the ambient Air. The Suns approach and more perpendicular Aspect is not the sole cause of vegetation in the Spring for if so then doubtless as its Ascent were more sublime Vegetations would augment more proportionably to the encrease of the heat of the Rayes but the contrary is observed But because every like attracts its like and the recess of the one causes the recess of the other The Sun by the magnetical Vertue of its Rayes attracts and revokes the heat of the Central Sun detruded by the rigid cold of the ambient into the interiour parts of the Earth which returning to the surface thereof affects all things with a vegetative faculty It is not therefore the external heat of the Celestial Sun but rather the innate heat of the Central Sun that calefies the profundity of the Earth for heat is twofold the one acts by reverberation which is external the other by influx and penetration which is internal whereof I now speak whose Nature is to enliven augment and conserve by the sustentation of radical moisture contained in this Fire which I made mention of in the precedent Chapter But that now we may prove this Central Fire not to be so intense as to torment and burn let us consider how the Stars do not by their influences cause heat solely but work other effects for Saturn is cold and dry Jupiter hot and moist the Sun hot and dry Mars hot and dry Venus cold and moist the Moon moist and cold and Mercury all in all participating of all qualities alike Whence we may gather That all the influences are temperate equally consisting of heat cold moisture and siccity which thus meeting in moderation cannot make the place where they meet immoderate The Vapour then or Spirit that comes from the Centre participates of these four and hence all the qualities of simples have their origine whereof some calefie because in them heat is predominant others dry because siccity superabounds others moisten or refrigerate according to the degree of their moisture or cold but on the other side Stars project many other qualities besides these into the Centre for they give Beings to those sapours colours and odours which we taste see and feel in sublunary things I say therefore That the Stars calefie the Centre of the Earth and that the Universal Spirit dwelling there participates of this heat and because it is natural to heat to separate that separative vertue which divides the pure from the impure the subtile from the gross and the light from the heavy and the sweet from the bitter descends with
detained as a guilty Malefactor in an obscure filthy Prison who being dubious betwixt death and hope of Life lies there obduced with moldiness infested with vermine and nourished with immund and corrupt meats for all Aliments are impure and carry with them an Executioner to wit hidden poyson whence we at length take our own death in our own hands and spontaneously kill our selves seeing our Aliments have so little of enlivening and nourishing vertue in them and that so closely enveloped with Excrements that the digestion of the stomack though strong can scarce attract it now we eating such meats do ingest poyson with the good substance which entring our Bodies ceases not to be augmented and accumulated till it obscure and extinguish the vital Light or rather Natures legitimate Action which is Vivification unless some Medicine or Separation retard or suspend it Corruption then is induced by Excrements and it may happen two ways either from the Parents Seed who being not well and by consequence corrupt produce corrupt Seed degenerating more from Generation to Generation but this is so far subject to Medicinal Corruption as that by help thereof the course of its activity towards Mortification may be stayed or retarded This Corruption may not improperly be called that Malevolent Satan who goes about continually seeking whom he may devour for which cause this wanders about the Terrestrial Globe or the Excrements of the World which have their principal seat on the Earth which also eructate their Corruption upon other Elements and thus Men living of them and in them are corrupted in them and by them and so they produce corrupt Seed which time renders more and more corrupt for our age being more vitious and dissolute then that of our Ancestors hath rendered us worse then they and the next its probable will be worse then us and the next more dissolute still The second rise of Corruption is from the continual use of too too excrementitious Aliments by which our Bodies are depraved so that this infection will pass from the Parent to the Son as we see in the Leprosie and other hereditary Diseases Now these Aliments deduce their Corruption from the place where they are generated for after the Almighty Creator had disposed the confus'd Chaos he so ordered that the superiour Bodies should remain pure and subtile but the inferiour gross and impure because it is the Nature of pure substances to ascend to the place of their origine but of Excrements to descend to the Centre And hence it is That that which is pure in Animals and Vegetables is elevated and ascends highest and makes them ascend increase with it till it be freed from the Excrementitious Mass which subjects it to mortal Corruption and that it may attain the place that is remotest from Excrements and live without alteration or spot for the same cause also more spiritual and subtile Creatures inhabit in higher places as being purer and finding their Aliments more convenient and like their natural substance but such as are coporal inhabit lower places where they are immerged in dregs and filth that have their place in lower parts whence they are corrupted by that of which they live which is mixed with mundane Dregs for whatever the Earth and other Elements which are the Receptacles of impurities can produce is corrupt and maculated and therefore induces corruption and defilement upon all Bodies that use it for Aliment And thus Blood acquires an ill disposition which afterwards beget ill humours but in some more in others less according to the inquinated state of the Parents and the abuse of the corruptive things which cause mortality and destruction for if the Earth and the Fruits thereof were as pure as the Heavens all Animals would live as long as the Celestial Incolists But Nature hath ordained this for a Law That that partakes more of corporeity should dwell about that that 's most corporeal and that which is more corruptible and inquinated about that that 's likest to it but the Earth is lowest of Bodies and therefore most gross and corruptible Nothing therefore can proceed from it but what is like it unless its corruption and impurity be stayed by the Art of Separation and all its pure substance extracted from its Body which a true Philosopher may by industry effect It never was nor yet is my intent to offend Physitians to whom I owe much honour yet I with many learned men admire they do not better instruct Apothecaries that they may be more curious in preparing Medicaments whilst themselves may observe how oft they have been frustrated in success when they proceed after the vulgar manner for they will cure and restore sick and weak Bodies by offering them a great deal of Pottage wherein there is yet so much impurities and gross dregs that very little pure substance wherein the curative faculty consists remains which is so immerged in their Poyson that they have no power against the Disease neither can Nature help their operation for she is subdued in this conflict by the impurity of the Remedy on the one side and the cause of the Disease on another which is all one as if a Man should drive away Corruption by corrupted corrupting means which is impossible for Rain never dries up Rivers nor Fire extinguish a Flame nor yet Corruption expel Corruption They also attempt the Restauration of their Patients debilitated strength by Aliments of easie digestion which they think partake of little impurity and so are not subject to Corruption never considering That this way cannot much profit them for though they use very choise Aliments yet are they not of much advantage because they are indued with no action or power that can either exterminate or lessen the morbifical causes but onely refulciate their miserable lives almost ruined by weakness never freeing them from death unless that Nature spontaneously arise and oppose the mortal Machinations of her Enemies or else the Patient seek help from some exquisite Medicament brought by some perite Artificers industry to supernatural purity and perfection which being free from Corruption may restore the pristine vigour and by this means eradicate the cause of the Disease for every true Medicament should effect two operations to wit purge from Corruption and restore lost Strength and in this the whole Basis and Art of Medicine consists though the lesser of the two parts is onely in use to wit Purgation the more excellent to wit Restauration being wholly abolished or through sloath or avarice neglected And that these things are thus carried is apparent from certain Potions introsumed which have no other effect but onely to make the Belly laxative or purge out not that matter that causes the Disease but some other Excrement that hath nothing to do with the Disease or else through the ill preparation dispensation or impertinent adaptation of simples cause superfluous evacuations to the ruine of Nature too weak before but now more
of our earthly Parent introduced so Water dissolves and purges away those excrementitious impurities which corrupt all substances The Fire of the Holy Spirit consumes and separates the excrementitious impurity of sins and so the vulgar Fire blots out the impurity of Bodies which should therefore be mortified that it may be regenerated and this Mortification is that Putrefaction and Digestion which fits it to receive Separation and this Mortification is then wrought in us when the Sun of the Holy Spirit rises upon our Hearts and warms our Centre consuming by little and little the corrupt affections of old Adam After the same manner the Chymical Fire reverberating its flame about the Body that is to be purged burns and annihilates that that is of an extraneous Nature and that more or less as the impurity is more or less obstinate to Separation which is effected by Distillation This then is the right way which Nature observes in the Regeneration of all things which will have no laudable effect in Medicine unless they be gegenerated by Water and Fire But the same things after this second Nativity are most free in their vertues and actions whereas before their vital functions were buried in an excrementitious Mass and though the benign influences of Heaven had given them much vertue yet could not they exert it even so a Man whilst he is detained in the impure Prison of old Adam he can produce no good and laudable action But before I proceed further in the practical explication of these things I must return to my begun-order to wit that after I have given the definition of Separation and declared of how many kindes it is that now I may shew what these kindes are whence things proceed to be separated and whence this separative vertue arises And I have sufficiently demonstrated That there are in Bodies two parts the one is an Excrement the other substance the one accidental and the other substantial for substance simply considered is wholly pure and without Corruption but an Excrement wholly impure mixing it self with the substance and contaminating and subverting its purity The Generation and Formation of substance is sufficiently detected in the two first Chapters of this Book it now rests that I explain the Nature and Qualities of Excrements where I infer from the aforesaid Narration that nothing but Excrements should be separated supposing this for undeniable That amongst passible things in this sublunary World nothing is void and free from Excrements for when God separated the parts of the World he commanded That some should descend to the lowest Region as partaking of the grosness of the first matter and that they should there congregate amongst themselves and of this feculent Mass the Earth was formed which is nevertheless indued with some part of pure substance though diffused through its thick crassitude after that Phoebus had slain the monstrous Python swelled up with poysonous humours which was generated of the mud of the Earth that is when the innate siccity had imbibed the superfluous humidity by the operation of natural heat the Earth begun to feel the actions of this substance included in its brest which substance is that spirituous matter which is never idle but alwayes imployed about Generations and Vivifications which may here be properly called the Earth because the proper and vertuous substance of the Earth is that alone that by proper corporation generates all Bodies according to individual Idea's as I have described it in this Ode out of which I shall take what is convenient for my purpose L' esprit porte sur la face De ceste indigeste masse L' aen virounant tout auâ—our Feit separer la matiere Pesante de la legiere Et la noire nuict du jour Puis de l'humour a masse Le corps plus pesant fâ—oid Feit la roundeur compasse Que d'un serrement estroit L'eau ou l'air contrebalance D'un poids si ferme egal Que sans souffrir mesme mal Ne peur choir en decadence Puis versant l'ame an dedans Et les semences du monde La feit nurisse fâ—conde Du ciel des feux ardens When yet the world did in a Chaos lie The Spirit full of fiery heat did flie About the surface of this shapeless Mass And so fomented it that what erst was One lump without all form did now begin By Separation which was wrought therein By this same Spirit a multitude to make Of Bodies and likewise of forms to take A number almost numberless and now Light things ascend and heavy things below The centre seek to pass the day breaks out And all the ponderous reliques press about The centre where staying themselves they make Around terraqueous Globe which nought can shake Out of its place for 't is on every side Equally balanced and cannot slide Seeing no over-weight presses one part More then another hereto the Stars impart Their influences which by life and seed Make this great Nurse all things to keep and breed And seeing in this Universal Separaâ—ion that which is more fiery and subâ—ile chuses the higher Seat and â—hat which is gross and massy the â—owest it follows that Celestial Bodies â—re immortal as being most remote â—nd separate from all immund Dregs â—nd that they are crooked or excavated â—â—to rotundity because they flew up at â—nce for which cause also Nature desires a round form for eternal things aâ— being most perfect and indeficient anâ— on the contrary it follows that Terrestrial things must be obnoxious 〈◊〉 corruption and death because contrâ—ries are conjoyned in their compositioâ— to wit Elements of contrary qualitieâ— wherewith the impurities or dregs 〈◊〉 the first matter were mixed which weâ—â— not created pure as some imagine sâ—â—â— then all that proceeded from theâ— would be immortal nay more theâ— could have been no Generation in 〈◊〉 World for without contrariety 〈◊〉 qualities and impurities there 〈◊〉 been no alteration nor mutation 〈◊〉 forms but all would have had one faâ—â— without distinction all things wouâ—â—â— have remained equally pure and subtile and consequently without all ornamenâ— yea that I may speak freely there hâ—â—â— been neither matter nor World createâ—â— It was therefore necessary That the suâ—tile substance should be mixed with groâ—â— dregs for where nothing but purity 〈◊〉 there is no action because there can 〈◊〉 no action where there is no patieâ—â— seeing what is pure hath no power oâ— what is as pure nor impure over as impure But Nature being always occupied in separating the pure from the impure for the preservation of its essence and vital encrease hath this substance mixed with impurity for its sole subject which retaining the state and Nature of its Creation is not nourished multiplied or augmented save with the nutrition multiplication and accretion of Excrements which are not consubstantial with it but onely Companions and Sisters of its nativity And that these things are so such have experienced who by Divine Inspiration have
infinite This Substance or first Matter in every species of compounded Bodies is one in essence vertue and quality and in one and the same subject one part cannot be of one species and another of another but in Excrements it is otherwise for the better understanding whereof I will lay the following Rule That there are but two means or mediums for the compleating of all Separations to wit Fire and Water and there are but two things separable in Bodies the one whereof is separated by Fire the other by Water In the first place it is indubitable That the Nature of Fire is such as it destroyes and consumes all that is combustible and of Water such as it washes and cleanses all substance from its impurity that commaculates it Fire devours all that 's volatile and of an Airy quality because it is its proper nutriment but Water divides all that 's Terrestrial and gross Betwixt these two extremes then there must be some intermediate disposition which should be kept and conserved containing nothing that 's combustible or impure in it which may be subjected to these two Warriers And it is manifest That Adustion and Dregs are the two Corrupters and Destroyers of all things which Divine Hippocrates was not ignorant of when he said That all Diseases proceed either from the Air or Aliments insinuating that the excess of excrementitious Aliments are apt to receive corruption and Excrements by Fire exceeding natural heat are the inflaming and corrupting causes of each Disease for the Excrements of Aliments fill Bodies with Terrestrial impurities and inflammable Air generates sulphureous and adust matter which easily conceiving hot ardours consumes and dissipates what is radical and vital with it self carrying it away because the greater part of it is volatile the less adustive Dregs then and Adustion are the two Authors of corruption and those that hinder the vigour of substantial actions in all things And if we require any Arguments to prove this the stink of Digestion and Excrements demonstrates it for that same sented in things that are burned speaks little of good to be there The same is also evident in the fumes of Excrements which stinking Bodies emit for those suppose corruption and besides the corruption they generate they also cause these two inconveniences the one is the hindrance of Penetration the other of Fixation which two actions are absolutely necessary for the conservation of life for that which nourishes and supports life must needs be subtile that it may by its subtile parts penetrate Bodies and like a secret Balsam roborate and augment the light of life in the centre of the Body for if it were gross it would rather obstruct suffocate and extinguish then penetrate and pass through such narrow ways and because on the other side it conserves life in its state it should in reason be a stable and no fluxible thing for if it were volatile we might every moment expect death lest it should be introduced by the corruption generated by feculent adustion which continually layes wait for our life Grosness then hinders Ingress and Adustion Stability Hence we may take a good admonition for Medicine to wit that every true Medicament introsumed for the restoring of strength and profligating the cause of instant death should have two properties to wit to pierce to the centre of sanity and preserve the centre by dilating and deducing it through the whole Body which the Ancients with good success revoked to practise and not many yeers ago the too much hated Paracelsus who explained their operations to posterity which were so long kept secret and let him that will affirm the contrary I doubt not to aver That nothing without the operation of Fire can be brought to purity and stability which two parts must be chiefly observed in making Medicaments to which Assertion this valid Reason draws me That no body in its first original and form can be truely Medicinal as immerged in the corruption of its excrementitious Dregs because it cannot attain the place fear of sanity nor yet preserve sanity because it wants subtilty to penetrate and fixedness requisite to the Restauration of what is corrupt and lost and the conservation of what is restored which cannot possibly be attained by the common way of preparation neither in substance nor in infusion the impossibilty hereof in substance appears in that such do not purge without violence which causes rather perilous weakness then salutary Restauration and as to infusions nothing can thereby be extracted out of simples but a little introsity which is innate in all Bodies with a little of their excrementitious Dregs Hence infusion attracts not the internal vertue but onely the external sapour of things which in their centre is quite different from that in their superficial matter for commonly we see all infusions are bitter which we are forced to obdulcorate with Sugar or Honey because most Apothecaries are not so industrious as to extract the natural sweetness wherein the Nature of the things consists from the things they infuse for all bitterness proceeds from Salt which hath sweetness at the bottom which cannot be extracted by simple infusions but by Fire onely and ingenious Artifice this sweetness being the very perfection of the Medicine Hence Arnoldus de villa nova saith That if you know how to dulcorate what is bitter you have the whole mystery Which Brucestus was not ignorant of as appears by his Dialogue entituled Demogorgon But this occult sweetness can never be manifested unless it be quite freed from Terrestrial Excrements and volatile and Aereal Adustion for the earthiness thereof gives it its extraneous sapour arising from the Excrements of Salt from whose variety according to the species and place wherein they are generated the diversity of sapours doth arise for all sapour comes from Salt and by how much there is more Salt by so much is the sapour more intense And on the other side that which is volatile and Aery begets ill and non-natural odours which send out a stinch which we perceive in their burning because of the combustion and inflammation of the unctuous Sulphur and that volatile matter is an Excrement is apparent from the stinking fumes of Bodies that are burning whence smoak proceeds that adhering to the Chimney or other part which afterward retain the odour of the burnt Bodies and the bitterness of the Excrements of Salt And this is yet more manifest by that blackness and obscurity which this fume impresses on all things it touches which greatly hinders the light and splendor of Nature which always desires purity and freedom from darkness as appears by that intense splendor in perfect Bodies a token of their purity seeing others more immerged in impurity are more obscure as Metals perfect and imperfect precious Stones demonstrate But if we would avoid long peregrinations and according to the oracles advice terminate our curious journeys in our selves by seeking out the causes of our Diseases
that is when it assumes a Terrestrial Body God also willed his own Son and our Redeemer in his assumed Humanity be as it were regenerated by and with the Water of Baptism and Fire of the Holy Spirit not that he needed any such purgation but because he was to converse with Men contaminated with corruption that he might in all things yield himself an example of Renovation and Purification giving Men a visible and ample Testimony That according to the Flesh he was of the same Nature with them not contaminated or corrupted but obnoxious to passion and equally mortal as they In like manner our fecund Mother Nature willed her first-born though pure in his Centre That he should be regenerated by Water and Fire that is by Separation of the Terrestrial from the fiery part the spisse from the subtile and the impure from the pure which Hermes also aimed at when he said That the Earth should be separated from Fire for what God hath conjoyned Man should not separate but onely the impure and gross from the subtile and pure by Fire And besides this Sense which first offers it self to our Intellects there is yet another more occult meaning for seeing by the Separation of Earth from Fire he means that that 's gross from that that 's subtile he seems to hint that we should separate the natural qualities of these two Elements by detracting the moist frigidity mixt with heavy Terrestrial things without which that cold cannot subsist and by putting on hot siccity which is of the Nature of Fire and consequently light and spiritual For which cause he adds That it must ascend from Earth to Heaven that is from imperfection to perfection for Paracelsus calls Fire the Firmament and as nothing can attain perfection unless it first depose its imperfect gross and mortal bark wherein this cold quality abounds the cause of all mortification as heat is of life so also prudent Nature observes this Rule That each subject should sustain and pass the obsure blackness of death and expect the cleer and candid renovation of life and immortality that is impassible essence whereon neither Fire nor corruption hath any power And assuredly the acquisition of this life by death is naturally exercised by all Creatures continually for all Sperm or Seed of Animals is mortified in some Matrix and of Vegetables in the Earth before any specification can be made But if this rule takes place in the members by how much may we more exactly observe and directly imitate it in the head and if the life acquired by mortification be of any duration how much more shall that be perpetual which is principal Jesus Christ taught these things by similitude of a Grain which he says cannot fructifie unless it first die signifying the mystery of his Resurrection which his Death should precede for he willed Death that he might rise to a glorious and perpetual Life therein not onely giving example to men but expressing the whole Idea of Nature That divine and learned Ermite Morienus Romanus who is often quoted by modern and natural Philosophers avers the same of the fixed Grain whereto Nature hath given power to perfect Metals for he saith Unless it putrefie and grow black it cannot be perfected and compleated but returns to nought I have taken liberty to say thus much that I may teach the younger sort how the Creator should be acknowledged by simple Creatures and because the vulgarity of Men begs this knowledge from remoter things acting as they do who seek the perfection of Sciences from the Scholars of the lowest Form whereas they should require it from the best Directors and Doctors I would excite them by these natural coneeptions that they would convert the principal endowments of their Souls to the search of the general principle and that in more exquisite things such as impart life and preservation to all mortal Creatures Mortification then necessarily precedes all entrance into life and principally in this Spirit the first-born of Nature when it assumed a Body for else no Man could separate it from Body which hinders its Regeneration to Life and Pacification of its Essence not as though by combustion and destruction it lost its Body in Death nor yet by Putrefaction but so that in Germination the Putrefaction of Seeds annihilates not that which is corporified in them for which cause in the Exaltion of Mercury or the Universal Spirit after the first degree which is made by Separation all that 's corporeal and spiritual becomes volatile because the sublimatory vertue therein overcomes the fixing faculty but the fixed part afterwards retains the volatile with it being helped by the action of heat which augmenting the power of the two nobler Elements destroyes the power of the two weaker which Hermes hints at in a certain Treatise by a plumous Bird detained with a Bird without Feathers And Nicholaus Flumellus by two Dragons one with and another without Wings But that I may not longer fold my self in these Daedalean Labyrinths see we not all Vegetables encrease and elevate themselves upwards by vertue of this volatile Spirit which as I said before would carry them higher towards the place whence it came whereto it hath an appetite but that it is detained by its proper Earth and corporal Mass wherein some fixed matter resides But lest some not sufficiently accustomed to Philosophical terms should think we contradict our selves I will here explicate my self I say then That I mean not by this volatile Spirit that which I before called volatile and separable Sulphur for that is rather the Author of Corruption then Growth but that most simple part of the primaeve vapour which never loses it s subtily whose Nature is to be elevated and tend to perfection for to sublimate is properly and Philosophically no more then to perfect and exalt matters from imperfection to perfection As therefore this Mercury hath an elevable so hath it a stable substance the first is naturally innate in it the second is in its centre or power yet it cannot compass its effect without the help of Art And that I may shew more plainly in what ways Nature proceeds in her operations I think it convenient to add a little about the causes and manner of Fixation Repeating therefore that indubitable Axiome I alledged in the beginning of this Book as perpetually observed in the Worlds Constitution to wit That all that hath life hath also some duration and that nothing is produced under the cope of Heaven which hath not some kinde of life in it I say that this Duration must be wrought by Conservation to Perpetuity for Perpetuation is the scope of Nature seeing it is the endeavour of every good Opificer to preserve the work of his hands till it be corrupted by the injury of time or the light of its life extinguished by the cold ashes of death to whose feet all things necessarily prostrate themselves by this inevitable law That whatsoever hath