there is not any bodily substance that is viod of a soul and that the world and every part thereof doth consist of a body therefore there is an intermediate spirit betwixt this soul and body which they neither call a soul or a body but a mean substance participating of them both to reduce both extreams together into one The wiser sort of Alchymists do make the Soul a certain infinite nature or power in all things which doth procreate like things of their like for this nature doth engender all things yea and multiplieth and nourisheth or sustaineth them and they also style it the Ligament or bond of the elements since by it they are fastned together with the Symphoniacal accords of peaceable harmony although of themselves that is in regard of their matter they are dissonant Also it is termed the true virtue that mingleth and proportionateth every thing in this sublunary world allotting unto each specifick creature a convenient and well agreeing form that thereby one thing might be distinguished and made to vary from another and in conclusion the mysticall Rabbies do averre that this occult fire is that Spirit of the Lord or fiery love which when it moved upon the waters did impart unto them a certain harmonious and hidden fiery vertue without whose lovely assistance and favorable heat nothing could be generated of them or multiplied in them Thus you may discern the manifold opinions as well of Christian as Heathen Philosophers touching this Anima mundi or soul of the world which will appear to vary little or nothing at all from the tenent of Holy Scripture in sense but in words onely Neither are these their opinions so hainous or abominable as some more superstitiously zealous than truly understanding Christians of this our Age will make them if they will scan the matter wisely and with moderation for then they shall really perceive that it doth concurre with the Bible of Truth And to confirm what I now say my purpose is in the first place to expresse unto each learned and well minded Reader the harmony of the Scriptures touching this point and then I will compare every one of the foresaid opinions with the sense and grounds of the said harmony that each wise man may thereby the better conjecture and guesse at the truth of the business before he shall rashly enter into the censuring of that deep and profound mystery which concerneth the Divine action in naturall effects I told you in my precedent discourse that the Eternall Unity which is the God of gods and Beginning of beginnings did cause by a double property in one essence two divers principles to issue out of himself whereof the one was potentiall and no way as yet inacted by the brightnesse of his emanation and in that respect is termed Darkness privation Nolunty opposit to Light and a friend unto death and rest The other was actuall and nothing else but a pure catholick form and brightness which is tearmed Light Position Volunty and in nature opposit to Darknesse and a friend unto life and action or motion And then I signified unto you that by the bright appearance of Eternity or the Eternall Spirit of Wisdom which I termed with the Scriptures the radiant emanation or effluxion from the Almighty which is all one with him in essence the deformed waters were inacted and made manifest out of this dark Principle or Chaos that is reduced from Potentia Divina or the Divine Puissance without form in which they abode into Actum Divinum the Divine Act and because all the humid and passive catholick nature of which both the heavens and the earth were framed did issue from this Mass of watery matter which the Poets call Pana or the second birth of Chaos we must imagine it to be that spirituall matter of the world which was made fertill and multiplicable by reason of that hidden active and formall Light or invisible fire which this increated emanation imparted unto it immediatly before the creation of the heavens and the earth Whereupon the holy Text hath it Spiritus Domini serebatur super aquas The Spirit of the Lord moved or was carried upon the waters And as St. Aâ—gustin addeth to it igneum illis vigorem impâ—râ—ieâ—s Bestowâ—ng upon thâ—m a fiery vigor or formall and actâ—ve vertue Now as we see that Man which is called the little-world is composed of soul and body whereof the soul is his heaven or spirituall part or as we may say the superiour and higher waters and the body with the humours thereof as it were the lower waters is the earth and gâ—osser humouâ—s and each of these two are informed united and vivified by the Spirit of life which God inspired into it even so we may observe that the heaven or spirituall humid nature of the great world is animated by the eternall emanation or spirit of the supernaturall wisdom of God to give life and figure unto the world And forasmuâ—h as it is eaâ—ie to discern that the macro cosmicall heavens are of two sorts namely composed of upper spirituall waters which are called Aeâ—her or heavenly and of the lower spirituall waters which are called Aer or elementary no otherwise than in the lesser world or man the receptacle of the heavenly spirit is known to be Aer so that Physitians distinguish by reason of this difference between the vitall or aetheriall spirits and the naturall or elementary body So we ought to consider that this materiall humid spirit of the heavens in both worlds which are the subtlety of the waters are in themselves dead but in respect of the super-celestiall emanation into them which informeth and vivifieth them they live move and are thinner or thicker according unto that more or less formall grace which the all-informing Spirit doth allot them for the more the sacred Spirit of life doth abound or really act in this or that region of the universall aire the more that sphear is thin subtle active worthy and noble Doth not Scripture seem to verifie that Deus sapientia sua aptet pondus aeri appendat aquas in mensura fecerit terram in fortitudine sua preparaverit orbem in sapientia sua prudentia sua extenderit coelos appenderit aquilonem super inane suspenderit terram super nihilum In coelorum structura cum Deus stabiliret fundâ—menta terrae ipsa aderat cuncta componens And again Wisdom saith Ex ore altissimi prodii primogenita ante omnem creaturam in initio ante seculum creata sum usque ad futurum seculum non desinam habitatione sancta coram ipsum ministravi In coelis â—eci ut oriretur lumeninde ficiens sicut nebula texâ— omnem terram In altissimis habitavi thronus meus in columna nubis coeli gyrum circuivi sola profundum abyssi penetravi in fluctibus maris ambulavi in omni terra sâ—eti Feci Arcturum Orionem converti in
you say and there may be a microcosmicall Magnes or Load-stone which may be selected and gathered out of the living man without any detriment or prejudice unto his life whose vertues both in regard of its monstrous and unnaturall generation being composed of unlike parents and being compacted of two substances different in kinde as the Mule is namely of an earthly Mercury and cholerick sulphureous human spirits as also in his manner of attraction of the spirituall Mummy out of the living man yea and what is far more admirable by the transplantation of it either to the animal or vegetable kinds it worketh after a strange fashion either sympathetically or antipathetically I know that these newes will streight way be esteemed by some who are apter to judge amiss than rightly to scan to be diabolicall And why Marry because they passe the sphear of their capacities And yet I know this to be true and know them which have put it in execution not without the wonderment of many yea I know this Microcosmicall Magnet and the use thereof the which when it is tryed by wise-men and well pondered by them will appear as naturall as the effects thereof will seem strange and the reason abstruse But if that which I have said before be well understood and seriously pondered the cause hereof will not seem so hidden as that it should exceed the limits of nature Of this kind of magneticall action as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall I purpose by Gods grace to discourse more at large in the third or last Book of this Treatise or History CHAP. V. In this Chapter is expressed the secret cause why and manner how as well the Microcosmicall as Macrocosmicall Load-stone doth operate ad distans and thâ—â— unto an unknown dimension or unlimited intervall MR. Foster hath sufficiently expressed the shallowness of his Philosophy where he averreth That because the light of the Sun and Stars cannot penetrate the thick clowds and opake bodies Ergo the formall essence of a man is not able to pierce and penetrate directly in his course without being stopped or hindred by Castles Hills Woods and such like But had he been a little more profoundly seen or immersed in the bowels of true Philosophy he would have known that the Etheriall sperm or Astralicall influences are of a far subtiler condition than is the vehicle of visible light Yea verily they are so thin so mobile so penetrating and so lively that they are able and also do continually penetrate and that without any manifest obstacle or resistance even unto the center or inward bosom of the earth where they generate mettals of sundry kinds according unto the condition of the influence as the antient Philosophers do justifie The subtlety therefore of this spirit Plotinus according unto Plato's minde doth fully expresse in these words Tanta est Aetheris tenuitas ut omnia corpora penetret universi tam supera quam infera cum ipsis conjunctus aut implicitus ea major a minime reddat quia spiritus iste interior cuncta opera eorum mole minima nullum prorsus augmentum recipiente alit atque conservat The tenuity of the Aether is such that it doth penetrate all the bodies of the world as well above in heaven as below on earth and this heavenly substance being joyned and mixed with them it maketh them not a jot the bigger for all that because this inward spirit doth nourish and preserve all bodies without adding any thing unto their weight or encreasing of their substance And by reason of this heavenly natures purity or subtlety the heaven or coelum is called by the wiser Philosophers and mysticall Poets the Husband unto the earth which they tearm Vesta yea and the very stars of heaven among the which the Copernicans ranck the earth are likened unto his wife being that they are extracted out of the aetheriall substance no otherwise than Eve was out of the side of Adam for they are defined to be the thickest portions of their orbs by reason whereof they are accounted as the members of heaven and consequently there is nothing so thin subtle and piercing as is that spirit from whence by condensation they are derived This is the cause that the true Alchymists do tell such wonders of their Coelum which they call their Quintessence arguing that by reason of its purity and subtlety it is able to penetrate all things And the Philosophers say that it is their nature which they define to be Vis quaedam rebus infinita omnia permeans entia cunctas generans res easque augens alensque ex similibus similia procreans A certain infinite power in things which penetrateth and passeth through all things ingendring every thing and augmenting and nourishing them and procreating like things of their like And verily if you will be pleased to consider really what I have spoken before you will remember how I told you that the angelicall vertue proceeded from the archetypicall emanations and are the types of the divine Idea Again that the aetheriall spirit was filled with the angelicall influences which had their essentiall root from God So that in verity it is not the starry light which penetrateth so deeply or operateth so universally but that eternall centrall spirit with which his divine and unresistable essence penetrateth all things both in heaven above and in the earth and waters beneath And all this the mysticall Philosophers seemed to verifie though darkly when they called Saturn which was the father also of Jupiter or the head of the catholick emanation the father of Coelum or Heaven arguing thereby that in the emission of the spirit of wisdom he produced created or informed the heavens according to that of Job Coelum ornasti Spiritu tuo Thou didst adorn the heavens by thy Spirit And David Verbo Domini fimati sunt coeli Spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by his Spirit each vertue thereof And St. Peter Coeli erant prius terra ex aquis per aquas existentes verbo Dei The heavens were first and the earth of water and by the waters existing by the word of God It is certain therefore that the whole essentiall act of the aetheriall spirit is the divine emanation or the bright incorruptible Spirit of the Lord and therefore of necessity that spirit which is worthy to be the immediate vehicle of so unresistible and emanating influence must be conformable to it in purity and subtility which is the informer who is said by the wise Solomon to be Omni re mobilior subtilior attingere ubique propter suam munditiam innovare omnia implere orbem terrarum To be the most active and moveable and subtill of all things and to penetrate and pass everywhere by reason of his purity in essence and to renew and refresh all things and to fill the
in natura causae proferri pâ—ssiâ—t tamen prodest videre quousque humanaratio progredi pâ—ssit Sacrae quidem literae dicut Deum ventos producere de thesauris suis unâ—â— ipsorum â—latus and 〈◊〉 sed unde venâ—um aut quo vadunt nescimus Although the whole disputation concerning the Winds as also touching the other 〈◊〉 be full of the marvells of God of the cause whereof there can be rendâ—ed no sufficient reason in nature yet it will be necessary to enquire into the cause of them so far as 〈◊〉 reason wilâ— permâ—t The holy Scriptures say that God doth produce the winds out of his treasury from whence we hear the noise of their breath but aâ—e ignorant of the place from whence they come and whither they will Again on the other side Margarita Philosophia a work I say that hath been highly esteemed of the Peripateticks themselves by reason of the Aristotelicall suck or sap that it containeth besides an epitomy of many other Arts after a strict search made into the nature of Thunder in the Physicks of her Master Aristotle and being put as it were to a nonplus through the want of skill which it observed in her Master to reveal such a secret which none is able really to effect but by the true wisdom for by it Solomon confessed That he knew the force or power of the winds and mutations of the elements And Job That it is the divine wisdom which giveth weight unto the aire and ordaineâ—h statutes unto the rain and maketh way unto the lightnings of the thunders That Philosophy I say so much respected of the Peripateticks is found in conclusion to utter these words Quidam philosophorum saith it considerantes mirabilem fulminis operationem ipsum non opus naturae sed summ Dei effectum immediatum arbitrati sunt Some of the philosophers considerâ—ng the marvellous operation of the lightning and thunder did imagine it to be no work of nature but the immediate effect of the highest God Again touching the beginning and originall of Fountains Johannes Velcurius who hath spent much time and labour in the Peripatetick doctrine and writ a Commentary upon Aristotles physicks groweth somewhat cold in his confidence which he had in his Master's doctrine concerning the true cause of fountaines which issue out of the earth Non consentiunt plane saith he Sacrae literae cum Physicis de ortu fontium et fluminum quae ex mari per varios alveos meatusque fluere ac ad suos fontes restuere Ecclesiastes 1. testatuâ— dicens Omnia flumina intrant in mare mare non redundat ad locum unde exeunt flumina revertuntur ut iterum fluant Coeterum Aristoteles et Physici Peripatetici dicunt materiam istorum esse pariter vaporem resolutum in aquam liquefactum à frigore calore simul intra terram The holy scriptures do not consent with the Naturalists concerning the originall of fountains and rivers which do come out of the Sea through divers Channells or passages and flow or runne againe into their fountaines as Ecclesiastes 1. dâ—th testifie saying all Rivers do go into the Sea and the Sea is not the fuller And they return again unto the place from whence they came that they might flow from thence again But Aristotle and his Peripatetick Schollars affirm that the matter or substance of them is a vapour resolved into water and melted or liquified by cold and heat together wâ—thin the earth Thus judicious Reader you may discern out of the confession of Aristotle's own pupills how contradictory and opposite is the mind of their Master in his philosophy unto the wisdom of holy Writ and therefore mark the sentence that the Apostle pronounceth against it The wisdom saith he which contradâ—cteth the truth is not from above nameâ—y from the Father of light but terrene animal and diabolicall And the other Apostle speaketh thus If any man preach otherwise then that ye have received let him be accursed Now that this Prince of Peripateticks is most erroneous and averse unto the opinion of the holy Scriptures touching the generation or primary cause of Meteors I will most lively and at large demonstrate unto you in the last Book of this present Treatise where I will prove him a deceiver of the Christian world by such prestigious things as seem probable but in verity and by effect will prove nothing else in respect of the fruits which the true wisdom doth bring forth but deceit vain fallacy and an apparent kind of jugling which being rightly pondered it may seem very strange to such judicious persons as are unpartiall that the Christian world should be deluded thus long yea and in these latter daies with such Peripateticall figments and fables and be so addicted unto Aristotle's idle shadowes since that in conclusion they appear without true substance and reality Nay it may seem strange indeed unto every wise or understanding man that such as are devoted unto Christian zeal should all this while forsake the main fountain of wisdom and verity to seek of Pagans and Gentiles arts science and understanding as did the Agarens of whom the Prophet maketh mention and those which were in Theman who for that errour of theirs never attained unto the knowledge of true wisdom Of this main folly of Christians in future ages and of these our latter ages me-thinks the Apostle doth seem to prophesy in these words Erit tempus cum sanam doctrinam non sustinebunt sed ad sua desideria coacervaebunt sibi magistros prurientes auribus à veritate quidem auditum averient ad fabulas autem convertentur The time will come that they will not endure wholsome doctrine but having their ears itching after their own lusts get them a company of teachers or masters and shall turn their ears from the truth and shall be given unto fables Where he understandeth by a company of masters all erroneous teachers and especially the sputious Philosophers namely of the Epicureall Stoicall and Peripateticall doctrine which as they are framed out after the imaginations traditions and inventions of men and according unto the elements of this world and not after the true wisdom which is Christ Jesus are esteemed as foolishnesse vanity and fabulous before God and his Saints And therefore the Apostle in the foresaid speech doth point at such Christians in future ages as will leave the true wisdom or doctrine of Christ the Prophets and the Apostles and betake themselves to false Masters and such Philosophy which contradicteth the truth Again the said excellent and sacred Philosopher foretelleth that there will be many in future ages so puffed up in their own conceipts that they will contemn and scorn all counsell be it never so good if it be any way dissonant from their grounded opinion His words are these In novâ—ssimis diebus saith he instabunt tempora periculosa erunt homines seipsos amantes
ociosaque ad nihil respiciens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Nihil dicitur in quo statu Aleph tenebrosum dictitatur When the divine sapience was retracted in the abysse of darknesse resting still and quiet and respecting nothing it was esteemed as nothing and in that eâ—tate it was called dark Aleph In this contracted or rather sequestred or private estate therefore of the divine unity it operateth according unto this its negative pâ—operty or condition by his essentiall agent Cold which is proved therefore not to be an accident as the vain doctrine of the Peripateticks would perswade us being it is apparent unto each wise-man that no accidentall qualities are in or can be from God being that the divine Nature is meerly a simple essentiall and formall purity existing in himself and of himself and therefore he being but one essence is able to produce out of himself what essentiall property he pleaseth And for this reason the divine wisdom is said to be spiritus unicus multiplex one simple spirit in essence but manifold in respect of his essentiall properties Now that this essentiall property or nature of Cold is the formall instrument or instrumentall vertue whereby God doth operate in his hidden and potentiall estate for the resistance of heat and action or motion and for the deformity and destroying of that which he in his patent nature did effect by his Heat or active property it is made evident by effect for what the spirit of wisdom in its patent nature did operate by its hot spirit or blast from the south or easterly winde namely in subtiliating and raâ—ifying of the waters into thin aire making that which was gross subtle and making that which was opake and dark diaphan and invisible the self-same spirit again enduing his latent and cold property doth deform and undo For in blowing or breathing from the North the same thin and ratified aire is made thick dense and visible which was through raâ—ifaction made invisible and that which by dissipating of parts was made transparent light and diaphan is now by the Northern properties contractive vertue reduced into an opake or dark substance and no way perspicuous That which was active movable and lively by an addition of heat is now become stupid still and deadly by the invasion of cold That which was light and of no sensible weight is framed into an heavy and ponderous body or consistence as we see when the aire by the northern blast is turned into snow hail ice frost c. Now that it is but one and the same spirit in essence which bloweth from the four winds the Prophet Ezekiel doth testifie when he said Veni spiritus à quatuor veniis insuffla interfectos istos Come O Spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain persons c. Whereby he argueth that it is but one spirit though it endueth at his pleasure a four-fold property And now to confirm all this which is said to be true do but mark the words of the royall Psalmist Jehovah emittit nives sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit deâ—icit gelu tanquam frusta coram frigore ejus quis conâ—istat Emittens verbum liquefacit ista simul ac efflat ventum suum effluunt aquae God sendeth forth the snow as wooll and scattereth the frost like ashes casteth out the ice like as gobbits who is able to withstand his cold He sending forth his word liquefieth all these northern effects So soon as he bloweth or breatheth forth his wind the waters do flow again that is the snow frost and ice do melt and are turned into water Out of which words we may observe many notable things namely first that God in his hidden or latent property doth by his essentiall action of cold contract unto the center those things which were before dilated towards the circumference Secondly that the property of cold is attributed or ascribed unto God in his northern action and therefore it is said Who is able to resist his cold For which reason it is evident that it is an essentiall vertue in the divine puissance Thirdly That it must be the act of unity in his dark hidden and privative property both because it darkeneth things that are diaphan transparent and light and then because it depriveth of life and motion that which did act move and live through essentiall heat And lastly because it is an utter enemy unto the action of heat which at tendeth on the revealed emanating and vivifying divinity Fourthly that the effects of cold are undone by the act of the revealed nature of God which is the word for the Text saith He sendeth out his word and resolveth or melteth all these namely the snow frost and ice Fifthly that all this is effected by one and the same spirit in essence but of divers and opposite conditions to perform the will of the Father which sendeth it forth Again that the cold property of the winde is the essentiall depriving vertue or stupifying and contracting act of God it appeareth by this of Job Deus fortis edit glacâ—em flatu suo flante Deo concrescit gelu The strong God bringeth forth the ice by his breath God blowing the ice is ingendered I conclude therefore that cold is the essentiall act of the divine puissance or eternall sapience shrowding it self in its mantle of darkness and therefore doth manifest the divine volunty in that estate of his by the effects namely in that it draweth from the circumference unto the center and therefore is the occasion of congregating of things as well hetero-as homo-geniall and by consequence the onely essentiall agent or efficient cause of inspissation contraction constriction fixation immobility ponderosity rest obteneration or darkness of mortification privation stupefaction and such like In the contrary divine property namely in this spirit's patent manifest and positive nature or as he is termed light Aleph wherein he moveth or sendeth out his emanation from the center towards the circumference and revealing himself upon the dark face of the Abysse maketh the invisible non Ens or potentiall Nihil to appeare in Act being first animated by his bright presence in the form of waters He is said by the Wiseman to be omnibus mobilibus mobilior ubique penetrans seu attingens propter munditiam ejus The most agile and movable of all movable things piercing through all things by reason of his purity So that as the other privative or Northern property did produce rest and vacancy from operation by attraction or contraction from the circumference unto the center so in this his positive or Southern and Orient property by dilating himself or sending out his active beam brightness or emanation from the center towards the circumference he doth beget and procreate motion being accompanied by the essentiall Act of Heat or calidity which operateth continually upon the effects of cold in resisting dissolving and
the better gather and understand the truth of this business and find out whether Aristotle be a true or a false Prophet in this his description Let us here consider what the Book or Bible of verity shall teach us concerning the Generation of a cloud and how the members or clauses of this our definition do agree with the intention of it which that we may more distinctly and with the exacter method effect we purpose in this place to compare their minds and senses together that each person though but meanly literated may easily judge and determine of the case as truly it standeth In the precedent Definition he maketh the efficient and procreating cause the heat or act of the Sun saying that by the attractive vertue thereof the vapour which is the matter or substance of the clowd is drawn out of the earth and water and sublimed into the middle region of the aire averring also that partly by the motion of the Sun and partly by the winds it is moved this way and that way Again he surmiseth that the cause of the contraction or condensation of the vapour into the consistence of a cloud is the coldness of the middle region of the aire So that unto the consistence of the clowd he faineth that two Agents quite contrary in nature and condition unto one another do concur and meet together namely the heat of the Sun and coldness of the middle region of the aire but he assigneth no internall cause of motion unto the clowd esteeming it as a thing dead and without an active spirit For this cause therefore there do offer themselves unto each wise-man's consideration sundry doubts in this Definition to be throughly resolved and determined of before he will be able rightly to judge the verity thereof namely first whether the heat of the Sun do draw and attract vapours out of the earth and waters into the middle region of the aire for the composing and shaping out of a clowdy Meteor Secondly whether the coldness of the middle region of the aire be the occasion of the condensation or thickning of a thin vaporous substance into the consistence of a well compacted clowd Thirdly whether the clowds be only moved by externall efficient Agents namely by the winds and Sun as being destitute of any internall active principle or centrall Agent or else if it be moved and animated by an internall Spirit Unto either of these three questions or doubts I purpose here to answer in order as they are proposed Unto the first Objection therefore I say That it is a most false and erroneous Tenent of the Peripateticks that the Sun Starrs or fire do draw unto them any vapours or exhalations For it is proved by experience that they rather expell and dissipate from them such things as are rarified by them than draw and allure them unto them neither is it true as most men falsly dream and surmise that the Sun draweth fumes upward or that the fire sucketh the vaporous substance of the attenuated water unto it but their office is to rarify and subtiliate the waters and to reduce the moister part of the earth into vapour And then it is naturally incident unto those light Substances of their own inclinations to ascend and mount upwards without any other externall agent But all this we have plainly demonstrated by our experimentall Instrument For if you set your hand upon the bolts head or round glasse on the top the aire will dilate it self and presently fly away from the rarifying agent that dilateth it and therefore much less will that agent suck or draw it unto it self By which it is evident that whereas it seemed in the eies of worldly wise-men that because a vapour or fume ascendeth upwards therfore that motion from the Earth must needs proceed from the attractive vertue of the Summer heat now in the conclusion it is proved to be stark false and erroneous being that the nature of Heat and Light are clean contrary unto the attraction forasmuch as they expell by dilatation and do dissipate and enlarge which is contrary unto the condition of attraction gathering together and condensation which are the properties of cold as is mainfested by our experimentall Machin But now to prove that Aristotle's grounds are most extravagant unto the Truth who affirmeth that the clowds are made of a vapour drawn or elevated up into the middle region of the aire we must understand that the Opinion of the holy Scriptures is flatly adverse and contrary unto this clause or member of his definition or description being that first it is easily to be gathered by this Text of St. Paul That we ought to believe by Faith that things visible were first made of such things which were not seen and therefore it is neither the visible earth nor water that can be the Originall of the clowds but rather the invisible aire And this is also maintained by divers plain Testimonies of Scriptures Deus sapienti◠su◠aptat pondus aëri appendit aquas in mensura Ligat eas in densis nubibus facit pluviae statuta viam fulgetro tonitruum God by his Spirit of Wisdome doth give a weight and proportion unto the aire and hangeth or ballanceth the waters by measure tieth them in the thick clowds giveth laws unto the rain and assigneth a way unto the Lightning of the Thunder In which speech the wise and patient Job doth seem to confirm First that God is the Father and Head from whence this work and all other doth radically proceed and the eternall efficient instrument by which he acteth is his Spirit of Wisdome which also accordeth with this of the Apostle Nobis est unus Deus Pater à quo omnia unus Dominus Jesus Christus per quem omnia To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and one onely Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things Secondly That the aire is the main Subject as well of the watery as fiery Meteors for by thickning or condensing of it it giveth a consistence unto the clowds and such-like Meteors which are easily afterward resolved into water and rain and then by attenuating it extreamly it becometh lightning Not that I say that the act of Lightning is of the Substance of the aire but is rather an admirable Light clothed with the aire as with a vestiment And in the very same sense the Text saith Indutus lumine quasi vestimento He is endued with light as with a vestiment And again the wise Philosopher In lumine numen in numine lumen So that the thinner the aire is the hotter it is and consequently the richer in coelestiall fire whose centrall act is divinity Now that the aire is the substance or materiall subject of the watry Meteors the precedent Text beareth it in these words God by his Wisdom assigneth or setteth by proportion a weight unto the aire that is he thickeneth it into clowds
lively expressed thus Ascendit fumus in ira ejus ignis à facie ejus exarsit carbones accensi sunt abeo c. Prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt grando carbones ignis intonuit de coelo Dominus altissimus dedit vocem suam A smoak did ascend in his anger and fire did flame out from his face coales of fire were kindled by him c. By the Lightning in his sight the clowds did move hail and coales of fire the Lord did thunder from heaven the most High did utter forth his voice By the which speech it appeareth evidently that it is onely God which doth essentially effect all these things and although we say in our common phrase of speech that the Lightnings do cause the Thunder or in speaking more mystically that the Angells inflame the aire by their fiery presence yet in verity it is God in his fiery Angells or flaming Ministers as also in the thick clowds and watry spirits who produceth all these things to accomplish his will and pleasure And therefore the Apostle Deus operatur omnia in omnibus God operateth all in all And elsewhere Deus omnium Pater à quo omnia God is the Father of all from whom are all things And again Ex eo per eum in eo sunt omnia Of him by him and in him are all things But all this in our Meteorologicall business is more plainly expressed in the precedent words continued thus at large in another place Ascendit fumus de naribus IEHOVAE ignis de ore ejus vâ—ravit carbones sâ—ccensi sunt ab eo inclinavit coelos descendit caligo sub pedibus ejus ascendit super Cherubin volavit seu lapsus est super alas venti posuit tenebras in ciâ—cuâ—tu suo latibulum cribrans aquas de nubibus coelorum prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes succensi sunt carbones ignis volabant tonabat de coelo Dominus excelsus dabat vocem suam misit sagittas suas disparuit eos fulgur Smoak ascended out of the nostrils of IEHOVA and fire flew out of his mouth coles of fire were kindled from him and he inclined or bowed down the heavens and did descend and darkness was under his feet and he mounted upon a Cherubin and flew or glided upon the wings of the wind made darkness round about him his hiding place sifting forth rain from the clowds of heaven The clowds were kindled at the brightness of his face coles of fire did flie the Lord did thunder from heaven and the most high did utter forth his voice he sent forth his arrows and the Lightning did disperse them By all which it is made evident that there is no essentiall efficient cause which is naturall but onely God in nature and beyond nature operateth all in all For in the precedent description it is not said that the clowds or winds sent out coruscations or that fire came from the Sun or other heavenly bodies but smoke went out of the nostrills of JEHOVA and fire out of his mouth neither that vapours and Exhalations did gather clowds in the middle region of the aire but JEHOVA bowed down the heavens or aire and collected them at his pleasure neither the coldnesse of the middle region did accumulate them into a dark mass or heap by condensation But JEHOVA collected and gathered together by his privative and condensing property that dark chaos or confused abysse neither was it any Angelicall efficient but JEHOVA mounting upon the Cherubin did animate it to move according to his pleasure Nor was it the winds that moved of themselves but the spirituall Cherubin being first animated by JEHOVA did excite the winds to move neither was that exceeding darknesse made for a secret Tabernacle unto JEHOVA meerly by the act of the Angelicall wind But JEHOVA moving on the Cherubin incited the Cherubin to cause the winds to collect and gather together the clowds neither was it the resolutive faculty of the Sun that melted the clowds into rain but JEHOVA that did sift or cribrate forth water or rain out of them neither was it the collision or dashing together of the clowds or antiperistasis which was between the hot exhalation and the coldness of the place which caused the actuall Lightnings or inflammation of the clowds but the brightnesse and inexplicable light of his presence did set the clowds on fire neither was it the contentious strivings which was made between the fire and water in the cleaving of the clowd which maketh the fearfull sound from heaven but it was JEHOVA that did thunder from heaven it was the most high I say that did utter his voice from heaven and sent forth his Lightning as arrows to destroy the wicked Which being so what have we Christians to do to look after any naturall efficient cause with the acute eies of Aristotle which forsooth must act and operate per se of themselves without any consideration when by the precedent Text it appeareth that St. Paul was no liar when he said that God operateth all in all And as for that Peripateticall distinction of causa principalis and secundaria or subalterna you see here that it is utterly disannulled by the Text before mentioned For the onely efficient cause as well in the first second third and fourth Organ or Instrument was God For it was he that inspired the Cherubin it was he in and upon the Cherubin which did animate the winds it was he in and upon the Cherubin by the winds that gathered the clowds together it was he that in and upon the Cherubin by the winds did sift out water and rain out of the clowds and did set them on fire by sending forth Lightnings from his Throne And in conclusion though he use many Organs yet the essentiall act which operateth in and by them all doth issue forth from one simple and sincere identity which comprehendeth no otherwise all things in himself then unity in Arithmetick is assuredly reckoned for the father of multitude Thus we see that the foresaid young-man was lost by his too too much presuming on the vain and prestigious doctrine of his Peripateticall Master For whereas he taught unto the honest Christians which were his Companions the false doctrine of his Ethnick Master in their greatest need namely when the angry hand of the Almighty was in the heavens ready to menace them if they called not out for grace from him who spake out of the clowds in time and did wish them to abolish all feare making them believe that the Lightnings were contingent things in nature and made as it were by hap-hazard and not indued with sense or reason as being framed and shaped out yea and informed by externall and superficiall Principles he with his companions should have remembred that saying so often repeated by the Wiseman Timor Domini est principium Sapientiae The feare of the
greater and of more force by how much the nearer the spirits of the things either present or dispersed are in nature and consanguinity to one another As for example If that both be of one minier or thing in number also like specifick individualls though they differ in number as the Uznea fat or blood of one man do sympathise with another ad distans the Load-stone of one Mine may affect harmonically the Iron of another ad distans And I told you before the true reason thereof as well radicall as immediate namely because both the natures belong unto one divine influence or proceed from angelicall beams or an emanation sent forth from one and the same star as well fixed namely of the firmament or eighth sphear as erratick and planetary For I told you that there is not one animal or vegetable or mineral upon the earth or in the seas which hath not a peculiar star that poureth out upon him his proper influence as well to produce and generate its like and to continue it in succession as to preserve and maintain it in essence Now each angelicall nature hath his appropriated beams from the radicall emanation of some divine Attribute which conveyeth it to his destinated or starry store-house and from the Olympick spirits of that star it is sent down unto such spirits in the elements as are their inferiour ministers which operate according unto the self-same nature in each specifick and every individuall there As for example The stars in the Ram or Aries of the Zodiack have chiefest influence over such like cattle on the earth and the Scorpion over the like creeping things thereof the Crab over such like creatures of the sea for we finde by experience that if the Crab be taken when the Sun and Moon do joyne together according unto the Longitude or degree of the Aequinoctiall in which the great star of the celestiall Crab's claw is found it is of mighty vertue and power against poyson and if it be collected or taken at another time it will have but small effect Again we must note that each fixt star or constellation of the Zodiack hath his proper Planet whose peculiar House he is which concurreth in the fortification and alteration of that influence For the diversity of application of other Planets unto it doth cause a variety of operation even in the same animals sperm or plants seed and mettles secret spirit And yet howsoever they do more or less agree and sympathize in nature as the beams of each Planet so applying unto one another will give them leave for if the concurrence be between friendly Planets and of one and the same triplicity namely where their Houses are of friendly elements then the sympathy will be the stronger And thus much Agrippa doth seem to intimate in these words In rebus proprietates occultas non ab elementali natura sed caelitus in sitas sensibus nostris occultas rationi vix denique notas quae quidem à vita spirituque mundi per ipsos stellarum radios proficiscuntur quae à nobis non aliter quam experientia conjecturis indagarâ— possunâ— Scire ergo debes quod unaquaeqâ—e res movet ad suum simile incâ—inat aa seipsum secundum totum posse suum The occult properties in things which are not grafted in them by an Elementary nature but descend from heaven are hidden from our sâ—nses and scarcely known unto our reason Forasmuch as they are derived from the life and spirit of the world by the beams of â—he starrs the which cannot be otherwise scanned and found out by us than by experience and that conjecturally or by ghesse You must therefore know that every thing doth move unto his like and by all the means possible dâ—th incâ—ine unto it self c. Whereby he argueth that the catholick Angelicall spirit which vivifieth the world in whose Diviner part cosisteth the Sephiroticall power or Virtue of all the Divine Attributes in which also as Ezekiel testifieth is contained the virtues of the four wind is the main actor who by his severall subdivided emissions of diversly conditioned beams doth operate in and by his starry Organs all these occult and hidden effects below which cannot fall into the Sphere or capacity of a common man's understanding though by effect we find it to be thus and thus So that there is not a particular beam that is emitted from it which hath not a secret disposed act no otherwise varying from one another than by ocular experience we find the effects of them to differ For whatsoever was originally decreed in the secret Counsell of the Archetype is effected from a generality unto many Specialities and from each Speciality unto an infinit number of individuall particularities So that the aeviall or Angelicall effect is the image of the eternall Idea and the temporall world is the similitude of the aeviall and again in the temporall or typicall world every stellar shape is the likenesse or paterne of the Angelicall Idea and again the Elementary things are the shadows of the spirituall shapes or Images in heaven Wherefore as God sendeth out his Emanation which is his Image unto the Angelicall world in a diversity of fashions and multiplicity of respects So the Angelicall spirits do send out their severall different Lights unto each other namely every order unto his inferior and every upper Sphere unto the Spheres which are below them and so from the starrs whiâ—h also apply their lights unto one another by severall aspects infusing them in and upon the creatures by degrees downward even unto the very Center of the earth which creatures after the manner of their pattern do also shine forth unto one another by beams which are either Sympathetical and harmonious or Antipathetical and discordant to each other neither ought we to doubt that there are such agreeing and disagreeing beams here below seeing that in the fountain of Unity from whence all things do flow we observe an opposition of properties namely a privative Nolunty and a positive Volunty Nor yet ought we to deem otherwise then that the passive spirituall matter of the world's soul is the substject by which the Divine Virtue worketh and in which it stirreth up as well loving and positive or good and Sympatheticall passions by pouring out plentifully his positive and vivifying beams of life adding delight and joyes with a completion of the spirituall created matter 's appetite So that it forgetteth the rooted nature which its dark Parents or Mother Chaos and the Divine Puissance did in her nativity bestow upon it and is converted into a child of Light by adoption and therefore in this case it doth Sympathize with those golden showers of charitable and vivifying Light which are sent down from the benigne attributes of God and begins to hate and dread and lothe or eschew all such privative influences as are poured down from the severe insalutary and destructive attributes no otherwise then
after an Astrologicall manner seemeth to aver so much in these words Si alâ—cu datum esset totam conditionem coelestis harmoniae comprehendere mundum elementorum cum suis singulis contentis in quocunque loco quocunque tempore plene cognosceret tanquam causatum per causas si etâ—am aliquam rem hujus mundi in tota sua conditione cognosceret coelestis harmoniae conditio ipsum non lateret sed etiam causam tanquam per effectum suum comprehenderet omnis enâ—mâ—res quanâ—umcunque modica in mundo elementorum agens totius coelestis harmoniae est effectus Whosoever doth comprehend the whole condition of the celestiall harmony he may fully know the whole elementary world with every content of the same in every place and at all times as the effect by the cause Also if he understand any thing of this world in his totall nature and condition the celestiall disposition and condition will not be hidden from him but will be discovered unto him as the cause is by the effect For every thing in this world how little soever it be that acteth is the effect of the whole harmony of the heaven By which words Alkindus being deeply seen in the mystery of nature seemeth to aver that as there is a descent from unity unto multitude so all that multitude is in that unity as also that unity filleth all the multitude so is 1 in 2 and 2 in 3 and 3 in 4 and 4 in 5 c. and yet that unity which is the beginning is the end and all in all So light enforms the angelicall creature the angelicall the starry creature the starry creature the elements and the elements the compound creature Wherefore open the compound creature and look upon the elements divide the Elements and you shall find the starry and quintessentiall nature open these and you shall conceive the subtill alterity of the Angelicall spirit in which is the Divine act or immediate beam from God In this work therefore there concurreth in the separation of the first a sensible aspect in the other we must behold with intellectuall eies So that you may observe how all is in every thing and every thing in all Hereupon it was also that Hermes said speaking mystically and not after the common sense Qui fornacem cum vase nostro construit novum mundum conflat He which maketh our furnace with the glass to it he maketh a new world But what needs more words when we find all this confirmed by demonstration For we know that the Load-stone is but a part of the Earth and yet it hath all his Circles and both his Poles yea and that very nature in all respects between each Pole and Circle that the whole Earth hath and thereupon it is termed Terrella or a little Earth and so may the whole earth be tearmed parvus mundus being it containeth the Poles circles and astrall yea and Elementall natures of the great world no otherwise then the great world doth in all those respects represent the Archetype which is carved out intellectually in the all-working Spirit of Wisdom or sacred Emanation yea and we go yet deeper into our diminutives For if a piece of Iron rod which naturally aspecteth the North and South be brok off that small piece will have also as exactly his North and South Pole and consequently his circles as the whole rod and nevertheless the rod keepeth still his North and South point as before The like in the Load-stone will happen as experience shall hereafter make it appeare more plainly That we may come a little nearer to the explication of this Mystery ye must understand that this eternall catholick Emanation is the essentiall and spirituall rock out of which first the great world in generall and then all particular things therein were carved or framed by generalities first according unto the Ten generall Emanations and their properties which the Ethnicks in some sort referred unto their Ten generall Predicaments and this again had their specialities or subalternate degrees of many ranks and orders of dignities all which were at last made apparent by the infinity of individualls which they did in their kinds produce according unto those divers beams of the multiplicite Will or Volunty of God which this eternall Emanation poured out into them All which particular beams more or lesse being not divided in essence from the universall Emanation or the Spirit of Wisdome which made all things are the spirituall Corner-stone on which every creature as well particular as universall doth formally or essentially consist and this Corner-stone is that internall essence in every thing which as it giveth life so also it is all and over all the things that it inacteth with life and therefore also the soul whose Center this Corner-stone is is said to be in all and every part I will leave to speak of its action in other creatures and will onely insist on our main Subject in hand which is the earth and her off-spring or progenie amongst the which the feminine Load-stone and his ferruginous mass are chiefly reckoned Divine Philosophy teacheth us that the Globe of the Earth is sustained by this Corner-stone and consequently hath her manifold Virtues from it Ubinam eras saith JEHOVAH quando fundebam terram quis disposuit mensuras ejus aut quis extendit super eam lineam Super quo bases ejus defixae sunt Aut quis jecit lapidem ejus Angularem Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth Who disposed of the measures thereof and who did extend over it a line upon what basis or foundation was it sustained or who laid the corner-stone thereof In the Weather-glass which I have described in my precedent Philosophicall discourse you may discerne two points corresponding unto the two Poles namely the mattras head above resembling the Northern Pole and the water below compared to the Southern Pole the aire interposed betwixt them unto the spatious heaven or sublunary spirit which is betwixt these two Poles the middle of which in the figure 1. the Aequinoctiall doth â—ut as being in the mid-way betwixt the two Poles We find evermore that when the aire included in the top of the Mattras or bolts-head is cold namely when the northern blasts are sent forth it will be contracted and consequently will suck or draw up the water and thereupon we are taught the reason of the attractive nature not onely in the northern or septentrionall winds but also in the Load-stone and all other things which by contraction of the aire do draw and suck unto them namely that they have that property from the power of Gods Spirit which by his angelicall organs doth blow from the north By this also it is made evident why one Pole doth suck and attract from the other in the Load stone namely by the continuity of the spirituall axle-tree which is made and animated by one corner-stone or essentiall and centrall spirit
stones and mineralls without the help of which naturall things neither they nor their devill which revealed unto them their secret vertues could effect or accomplish their desires And for this purpose as Ovid telleth the story she searched the lofty tops of Ata to find out herbs for her purposes Many operate their feats by the vertuous property of stones which the devill doth deliver unto them though they themselves know neither the starry influence that giveth the force nor yet how they should be prepared for the operations of such strange effects As for example There was a witch in Scotland who at her arreignment did confess that by the property of a stone which was taken from her she could discover any thing namely if a thing were true it would sweat and if it were false it would not sweat and also it would reveal other things unto her by changing colours And again when they desired to see some conclusions from her she said that if they would let her have her stone she would shew them some But they fearing that she would escape by that means durst not let her have it but did burn her at the Queens Ferry in Scoâ—land Some are instructed by him to take a metal and to prepare it under his proper constellation and to grave on it the characters of the star and Angells belonging unto it at suâ—h a time as the star is most potent in heaven and well encountred by other Planets And then they find these plates to be of a strange effect in many Magical executions What And because the devill knoweth the virtue and properties of these naturall things and can instruct his minsters in the evill usage of them therefore doth it follow that Adam and Solomon and the wise Magitians of the East and many other good and godly persons do not know their virtues their times of collection and their manner of application in goodness yea and if they see a just cause in a contrary sense and that without the transgression of the bounds of naturall and lawfull Magick whose true subject is the Spirit of Wisdom which is the Basis or foundation of true Naturall Philosophy What make we of the means which Moses used when he by dispersing of ashes brought the botch over all Aegypt But some will say that this was supernaturally done Let them but look into the occult Secrets in the nature of other animals vegetables and mineralls and they shall find as great mysteries as these contained naturally in them all suspition of commerce with the devill being set apart Was the reverend Father Albertus Magnus a Cacomagician because he reciteth the abstruce occult and mysticall virtues of Animals Plants and Stones The like did Hermes Plato and many other profound Philosophers Or must these be the pupills of the devill because they know the times and houres of their collection and manner of preparation though they kept that secret unto themselves No verily for they had it from tradition namely from the mysticall and profound Philophers or naturall Wisemen such as Solomon Hermes and the wise men called Magi or naturall Magicians of the East which revealed them unto the worthy by succession from one Age unto another Was it not a wondrous propery in Gyges his ring that cold make him by the naturall property that it had to walk invisible And yet forsooth the blind buzards of our Age such I say as Mr. â—oster and his Complices are will have all these miraculous effects in the creatures to proceed from the devill and so deprive the Omnipotent Spirit of God and his Nature of their right when Solomon in plain terms confesseth that all the knowledg of the secret times of Election of the mysticall natures in the stars of the occult virtues and properties of Man Beasts Plants and Roots and all things else known or unknown proceed from the Spirit of God and therefore he concludeth in these words Omnium enim opifex me docuit Sapientia For wisdom the worker or maker of all things taught me In which words he inferreth first That the Spirit of Wisdom teacheth and discovereth unto man the abstruce mysteries of Naturall Philosophy which consisteth in the knowledg and discovery of naturall virtues as well above as beneath And secondly That it is the same Spirit that made those virtues in every specifick thing namely in the starrs above and in the animal vegetable and minerall kingdoms beneath Which being so what can the devill being but a reasonable creature as well as man do in the creating of these essentiall virtues by which he worketh his feats more then man Or why should we attribute that unto him which doth rightly belong unto the all-creating and acting Spirit in the internall creature If man please he may attribute the wickednesse of the action unto the devill which instigateth man to evill and teacheth him the means to effect his bad intent that verily doth of right belong unto the devill For he was created for a destroyer as the Prophet Isaias testifieth to us and to effect it he maketh use of God's naturall creatures for he used the fire of God from heaven to destroy Job's cattle and the corrupt aire to kill with the Plague or Pestilence the Israelites for David's sins Neither was it ever observed that he could do ought against man of himself saving onely in temptation but he operaâ—eth to destroy or make sick by such naturall antipathising means as God hath framed for a directer usage although also unto some of his veneficall schollers he is pleased to show and reveal a counter-poyson by which they may by a stronger sympatheticall operation drown or extinguish such antipatheticall effects as they have imposed upon man's externall spirit when they are moved either for fear of punishment or for gain or foâ— compassion to do it which is the reason that some witches can undo those afflicting maladies which they themselves or other witches have laid on persons but alwaies they must operate by a reall and manifest naturall Substance as are Powders Ointments Herbs and such like As for example Claudaea Fellea Joan Banno and Nicola Piscatrix with all their Society in Lorraine confessed the 9. of May 1581. that they had delivered unto them by the devill subtill powders of three natures the which were distinguished in colour For said they that of a black colour killeth being strewed on meat or rubbed on the body or sprinkled on the apparell and that of an ashen or reddish colour causeth diseases but the white Powder did cure those diseases And Odella Boncuriana being arraigned the 18. of January 1586. saith that it was the manner of the witches of his faction to strew a poysoned powder in the way where they should pass on whom they would work mischief And Francis Perine confessed the 4. of November 1588. that an herb was given her by the devill to be laid in the way that Riberianus who did beat her for stealing some
world for the good and benefit of mankind by the good Spirit of God neither are they therefore to be eschewed because that by evil men they may be converted unto evil effects and so diverted from their true usages for which God did ordain them but rather a skilfull natural Magician such as a true Physitian ought to be should first know the good uses of such hidden mysteries in nature that they might with the better effect imploy them for the good of mankind and then not be ignorant of those abuses which may be produced by them that they thereby may the better prevent and put by all such wicked effects as naughty men would produce by them unto the dammage and destruction of Gods creatures AN APOLOGY A short Apology for the usage of the Mysticall or Spirituall Mummy and to prove that as well the Antipatheticall abuses as Sympatheticall uses of it and all other naturall things are to be known and well understood by the naturall Magician or wise Physitian for preventions cause though not alwaies put in execution but onely where need requireth I Know that there will be many barking Cynicks inveighing Criticks and railing or Satyricall Momus's whose onely delight is fostred with the fire of disdaine or malice who smothered as it were with the blind and foggy smoak or fume of ignorance will say that if the Sympatheticall effects of the spirituall Mummy be allowable for a Physitian yet are the Antipathetiacall properties thereof odious and no way to be indured nay they are Cacomagicall because the divell doth instruct his ministers about the abuses of this Microcosmicall kind of corruption and therefore for this reason the very knowledg of such a thing is not to be indured c. These objections I know will these sensless and unreasonable kind of bablers make touching the knowledg of so mysticall a business But if their saying should take place amongst the wise what should become of Solomon's skil in naturall Logick Or wherefore should he who was esteemed the wisest among men be so overseen as to aspire unto the knowledg of all things whatsoever and to understand as well the enemies as friends unto man's nature For it is said of him that he knew the natures of living creatures the fierâ—ness of beasts the cogitations of Men the difference of Plants the virtues of roots and all things else that were occult and secret Nay why should he say that Wisdom the Work-Mistris of all things taught it unto him Are there not Plants and Animals and Minerals that are stark poyson and venomous unto mans nature as well as benigne and salutiferous He knew saith the Text the natures of all living creatures or animals and why so if that were true which those Scoffers mutter Why should he know or look after the property of such things which are poyson and harmfull unto mankind Are not the Aspis the Viper Adder and that putrifying or corrupting Worm termed Seps in Latin or Purâ—isur in French by reason of his rotting venom The Serpent called Dipsas which infecteth the spirit with an immensurable drouth the Amphisbena the Basilick the Dragon the Hollio Among creeping creatures the Spider the Scorpion the Toad the Lizard the Salamander the Cantharides and an infinite number of other as well earthly as watery Animals venomous and wonderfull pernicious unto mankind He knew also the differences and virtues of Plants But say these temerarious Judges What reason had Wisdom to show and discover unto him the abominable effects of the herb called Aconite which is so pernicious unto Man and Beast that the Poets fained that it grew alongst the shore of the venomous River Acheron in hell The Hemlock which was the character of death among the Athenians for with the juce thereof they poysoned the condemned persons The Jusquâ—ame or Hen-bane The Poppy of whose juce the somniferous Opium is derived The Toad-stool Scamony Euphorbium Colloquintida Bears-fooâ— Titâ—mal or Spurge Assera bacca Grunsell Flammula and an infinity of such like vegetables Also amongst the Mineralls Antimony Quick-silver Arsenick Rosalgar Verdeâ—rease Lithurge Cerusse Vitriol and an infinity of others My answer is That all these things though in themselves they are venomous yet being rightly handled and used by wise men they are made passing medicinable And I would have them know that God created all things good but it is the Divell and his instruments who by ill imploying of them do make them odious and detestable unto mans nature For as by their right use and application they may produce sympatheticall effects so by their abuse they produce nothing else but antipatheticall actions and rebellious conflicts with man's nature God I say ordained them for a good use namely for man's health but the Divell doth apply them destructively and malitiously which also the foresaid wise naturall Magician Solomon confirmeth in these words God created all things that they should exist and be and he made all the Nations of the Earth sound and durable so that there was not a destructive medicine in them Also God created Man inexterminable but it was by the malice of the Divell that death entered into the world And the wicked imitate him and are of his seed Whereby it is plain that it was the Divell and naughty men which are his instruments and indeed true Divells incarnate which do adapt that for a wicked use which indeed is good and righteous in it self What shall I say more what because that the Divell doth apply a good thing unto a bad use must that thing for ever be abhorred and eschewed of wise men And must for that reason the good use thereof be excommunicated out of man's society and be for ever after reputed for Cacomagicall damnable and diabolicall As for example Because the Divell and his adherents I mean the witches and Necromancers do by the Divel's instructions apply the Mummy of man as well corporall as spirituall about their pernicious and destructive inventions Therefore must all â—hey which use the same for a good and salutiferous intent be esteemed Cacomagicians Is it a sign that the Physitian who cureth diseases by it hath for that reason a commerce with the Divell Or must a Christian Physitian because he is acquainted with the evill which the properties of naturall things may effect by an unnaturall or antipatheticall adaptation needs put that evill in execution unto the prejudice of mans health Verily if things are rightly considered the knowledge of good and evill in the creatures do well befit the science of a Physitian for except he be acquainted with the evill as well as the good how is it possible to cure the harms which are effected by the bad being that except the cause be known the effect wil hardly or never be cured As for example If the nature of the spirituall philtre which infecteth be not discovered how should the cure be performed or the cause be extinguished or taken away The true Magitian doth
secret peculiar included spirit which worketh the feat and to make men to give credit to their tales they have dyed the common water in the vessell with Vardegrease or such like stuffe I must give you to understand that all their prattle is but deceit and that plain dealing is a jewell As for the accidentall part of this Machin being it is framed and composed in a diverse fashion I will not graphically delineate or draw it out unto your view being that the pictures will be chargeable and the matter being done will serve you but to little purpose CHAP. IV. Wherein are Expressed the sundry properties with the usage of this demonstrative Instrument I Divide as well the property as the use of this Instrument into two kinds whereof I call the one generall and I make the other more peculiar As for the generall property of it by the one it contracteth and condenseth namely when the included aire is animated by the externall cold and by the other it dilateth and rarifieth to wit if the included spirit be excited by any externall heat And therefore through his constrictive nature or action which is made evident by the contraction of the aire we may easily discern the universall reason of the inspissation and condensation of things that wâ—re thin And again by his dilatation we may scan or decipher the cause of rarifaction of such things as were thick For by the speculation we shall find that there is nothing in the whole Empire of Nature which can be rarified and made subtle except it be by the action of light or fire whether it be visible or invisible and the essentiall effect of that action is light And on the contrary part nothing can be condensed or inspissared where darknesse hath not dominion forasmuch as darknesse is the essentiall root of cold which is the immoderate act or in condensation The particular properties with the uses thereof are manifold for first The nature of it is to discover the temper of the externall aire or catholick element in heat and cold for the higher that the water doth climbe in the neck or pipe of the Matras it argueth that the firmer stronger is the dominion of cold in the aire so that by this means we may daily judge of the increase or decrease of cold in the aire and by consequence we may guesse at the proportion of heat in the sublunary spirit of the world by the descent of the water Ceâ—tain Experiments worthy of observaâ—ion and approved by many of this City touching this Experimentall Glasse If the water in the pipe of the glasse which before was highly mounted doth fall on the sodaine by some degrees it will be an undoubted signe that raine will immediately ensue If the water in the space of one night doth descend it is also a signe that raine will come not long after If the South or East wind do blow immediately after a North or Westerlie wind the water will fall by certaine degrees but if the North wind or cold Westerlie wind do blow after a Southerne or Easterlie wind then will the water be forth with exalted If the water doth attaine unto the figure 1. it argueth that the Ayre is in a moderation between heat and cold as when the Sunne is in the vernall Equinoctiall or as the naturall temper of the Spring useth to be But if the water mount higher then it argueth that the disposition of the Ayre is by so many degrees more of Northen or Boreall nature as the water is mounted towards the bolts head for you must conceive that the degrees from 1. unto the uppermost 7. are belonging unto the winter Hemisphere and therefore are the degrees which note the augmentation of cold So that if the water do mount up unto 2. in the Northern or higher part it is an argument that cold hath dominion over heat in the externall Ayre only by one degree If it mount unto the 3. of the same Hemisphere it doth foretell a slight frost but if it ascend unto 4. or 5. it pretendeth a hard and solid frost if it come unto 6. and 7. it argueth great ice but if it mount yet higher it sheweth that a hard Ice is likely to surprize and cover the whole river of Thames On the other side if the water descend from 1. unto 2. of the lower ranck of degrees which importeth the Summer or hot Hemisphere then it argueth heat hath gotten dominion over cold by one degree But if it descend unto 3. or 4. it importeth a greater distemper of the Ayre in heat if it descendeth unto 5. or 6. it demonstrateth the ayre to be exceeding hot but if the water be beaten downe unto the lower figure of 7. it sheweth that extreame and Sultry heat causing Coruscations and lightnings hath dominion in the Aire So that we may discerne how great a reference or relation there is between the externall ayre or universall sublunary Element and the Ayre included in the instrument But I will in better termes expresse the Consanguinity and Sympatheticall relation which is between the one and the other in this subsequent Chapter CHAP. V. Here it is proved evidently notwithstanding any objection which may be made to the contrary that not only this experimentall Organ hath a relation unto the great world but also the spirit included in this little modell doth resemble and imitate the action of that which is included in the great or macrocosmicall Machin BUt before I will proceed in any further comparison between the spirit contained in the small modell with the properties of the agents and patients in it and this of the great world I do think it to be necessary first to answer unto a certain doubt or objection that may be made the which unlesse it be resolved and taken away such a relation or comparison may appear unto the ignorant either improper or altogether impossible I know therefore that not a few will object and say that no convenient comparison can be made between this our small artificiall Machin and that naturall fabrick or organ of the world forasmuch as the spirit in our Glasse is every where inclosed and strictly included in his vessell and therefore may easily be incited by force to move according unto the regular figure or fashion of the glasse But the case is far otherwise in the spirit which is contained in the vast cavity of the world for in it the aire or spirit doth use at every impulsion to move freely this way and that way as we are instructed by daily experience in the blowing of the winds from each quarter of the world Unto this I answer That it is the self same reason of motion and relation from a thicker or denser nature unto a thinner and in like manner from a thinner or rarer unto a thicker or denser in a small subject that is in a greater so that the like respects be had and that by an equall weight
that sacred Philosophy is nothing else but the ground-work of Divinity or an expression of God and his acts in his creatures or if you will have it so in things as well supernaturall as naturall Neither can any man finde that God was ever mentioned or specified in Scriptures but as he was considered in this world which he framed and the creatures thereof So is he said to be endued with light as with a vestment To be a consuming fire To fill the heavens and to make the earth his foot-stool To put his tabernacle in the sun To make the dark clouds his dwelling or tabernacle To speak in thunder from heaven To parley with Job out of the whirle-wind To blow out of the north and south To be everywhere Also his Spirit is said to descend from heaven like a dove and in the form of cloven tongues of fire and to fill the earth and to make man his temple and to be in all things To conclude all Scriptures are full of nothing else but of his essentiall operation in all created things by his infinite organs Wherefore I may justly say that true Philosophy forasmuch as the foundation thereof is the Spirit of wisdom which descendeth from the Father of light is nothing else in effect but Theology onely we may for fashions-sake make this distinction that essentiall Philosophy passeth or maketh his enquiry after the summum bonum moving from the creatures circumference or externall unto his center or internall for the finding out or describing of that eternall essence who is onely good and is the sole actour in all things and so proceedeth as it were demonstraâ—â—â—ne a posteriori that is from the visible creature unto the invisible Creator according unto St. Pauls rules and Solomons precepts in the places above cited And the Theologian or Divine seemeth to move another way to wit from the radicall center or invisibility of God and so proceedeth quasi demonstratione a priori that is moving from the divine internall act or center unto the visible circumference or externall creature whereby we may perceive in the conclusion that both Sciences do attain unto one point in the end that is to say unto one and the self-same thing or highest goodnesse in effect And yet it so falleth out that many an Academist in this world is so extracted beyond the limits of the creature in their researches that they forsooth seek him out beyond the Moon nay beyond the margins of the vaulted world and so divide him absolutely from his creatures in which proceedings they do but attempt or presume to clamber up a ladder without steps or degrees They will I say soar up unto the highest pitch without any consideration had unto the lower degrees in that they attempt to find out God without any respect had unto his creatures when as the Scriptures warrant us that he is not far off from any of us And therefore it will be but needlesse to seek or expect him beyond the sphear of the fire or above the starry heavens when he is neerer unto us than we are aware of But it is no marvell for some of them being altogether addicted for the first seven years unto the Peripatetick philosophy are so corrupted thereby and understand by that doctrine so little newes of Gods being in his creatures that when they come unto their higher function they are flat enemies to such as shall tell them any such thing and though they find Scriptures in plain tearms to verifie that the Word and Spiâ—it is in all and over all yet by those sophisticall School-distinctions which they have learned or gathered out of their Ethnick-master's documents or his obsequious Commentators they do so involve and bewrap the plainly-meaning places of Scriptures in the equivocating clouds of obscurity that they make them ambiguous or of little or no effect As when it is said and by the whole harmony of the sacred Text affirmed that God is in all and over all and that the holy Spirit is in all things they streight-waies distinguish and say It is true that he is virtualiter or vertually but not substantialiter or essentially over all as who should say his vertue can be divided or separated from his essence And again when the Text saith that God operateth all in all Verum est say they quatenus est causa principalis as he is the prime or principall cause but there are many secondary or subalternate Agents say they which do act in Nature by themselves as the Intelligences the Starrs the Elements the Meteors the compounded creatures as well animal as vegetable and mineral and so they would by these Aristotelicall sophistications disgrace the truth of him who saith in plain tearms Deus operatur omnia in omnibus God worketh all â—n all For if we look rightly into the matter we shall find that as God filleth all by his essentiall Spirit of wisdom so that Spirit worketh all in every thing which it filleth and that without any helper For how can the created organ by any act of his own help the Creator which filleth it to operate when what it hath it receiveth from that eternall Act which bestoweth it Ego saith Jehovah sum Dominus faciens omnia solus nullus mecum I am the Lord who make and do all things alone and not any one with me Neither should it seem strange being that the Scriptures do verifie that he is all in all And again The incorruptible Spirit of God is in all things And again the Apostle as is said before In Christo omnia sunt condita per Christum in Christo omnia sunt creata omnia in ipso constant ipse est in omnibus primatum tenens In Christ all things are made by Christ and in Christ all things are created all things consist in him and he is in all things bearing in them the principality Which being so it followeth that the distinction must needs be false which is that Deus doth agere mediate and not immediate and consequently that the creature can act per se sine actu immediato Deâ— As who should say that the divine essence or vertue is divisible or that Gods essence must therefore be partible or separable because it is in divers organs I may therefore boldly conclude and say that if Christian Schollars would bestow that seven years which they employ in their Aristotelian study in the true essentiall and sacred Philosophy they would not so erre after the manner of the Gentiles but embrace without any rebellion or contradiction the precepts of the true wisdom so firmly that they would at the end of the said time be compleat in that essentiall doctrine and made fit members to proceed in the streight way of enquiry into and acquiry of the mysticall wisdom which God hath ordained to be revealed unto his Elect and so after the example of the Apostles they might as well become potent in vertue
this kind of Angelicall vertue the divine spirit doth work his privative effects and acts of Inspissation and fixation in the sublunary Element causing terrestriall and earthly effects But contrariwise we find that by and in the Southerne and Easterly Angelicall spirits the all-Creating and operating power doth cause Rarefaction and Subtiliation in the said inferiour waters through their essentiall action which is heat And for this cause the said hot winds do undoe by rarefaction all that which the cold Northern winds did effect by congelation Hence therefore it commeth that of this potent Angell who is said by the wise Cabalists to be the President and Governour of the Celestiall Sun which some terme Michael quasi Quis sicut Deus of whom we will speak hereafter also touching his Angelicall organs in the 4. Corners of the earth by which he useth to do his will it is sayed The sonne of man will send out his Angels from the four winds of heaven and moreover we shall find in the place before mentioned that this imperiall Angell did rise from the Easterly angle of the world and did command the foresaid fowr Angels which had dominion over the four winds as vassals unto his will For the Text hath it And I saw another Angell come up from the East and cryed with a loud voice unto the 4. Angels unto whom power was given c. Hurt not the earth neither the seas nor the trees till I have sealed c. Whereby it is apparent that the 4. Governours of the winds are subject unto that great Angell who is the powerfull and potent Intelligence which moveth and ruleth not only the Sun but sustaineth all things by vertue of this word and this Almighty Angell is esteemed by some to be the same mentioned in the first Chapter of the Apocal. Who said I am Alpha and Omega Now that the Sun by vertue of this omnipotent Spirit whose immediate angelicall organ or instrument the Angell Michael is doth govern the airy spirit both of the lower and upper world the wise Solomon doth seem to acknowledge where he saith Sol lustrans cuncta in circuitu pergit spiritus The sun illustrating all things the aire or spirit moveth about For this reason also the Philosophers have called the winds Titanei filii the sons of Titan or of the celestiall Sun It appeareth therefore that the increated spirit which supereminently moveth in the angelicall creature Michael and therefore El or Deus fortis is annexed unto it is that self-same Princely Spirit specified by the Prophet Ezekiel as is already proved who dwelleth in the great Angel who rising up from the East commanded the 4. governours of the winds with their legions whereby it is manifest that they have all their act and power from it and are ordained to be employed onely at his will either to effect privation or position and consequently to produce condensation or rarefaction in the world at his pleasure namely position and information by his light and heat and privation or deformation by his dark and cold property And hereupon the kingly Prophet speaketh thus Angeli Dei validissimi robore efficientes verbum ejus auscultantes voci ejus ministri ejus facientes placitum The strong Angels of God which do execute his word and hearken unto his voice are his mâ—nisters to perform his will And again Qui facis angelos tuos ventos et ministros tuos ignem urentem Who makest thy angels winds or spirits for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruach signifieth Ventus Spiritus Flatus and thy ministers flames of fire Whereby it is evident that the eternall Breath is that which animateth the Angels the Angels give life and vigour first unto the stars and then unto the winds the winds first informe the elements or rather alter the catholick sublunary element into divers natures which are tearmed Elements and then by the mixtion of divers windy forms in that one element they do produce meteorologicall compositions of divers natures according unto the diversity of the windy forms which alter it But that I may the more pertinently discourse upon these businesses and withall discusse many difficulties and scruples which have not a little troubled the Philosophers and Theosophers of our age touching the principle tabernacle of this all-acting and creating Spirit in the world Before I passe any further in this my story of Condensation and Rarefaction I will expresse mine opinion touching that point at large because the enucleation of it will be very pertinent and necessary for the opening of this main businesse forasmuch as in it not onely the world's creation but also the emperiall government of the worlds Spirit and the formall manner of production of Meteors doth consist CHAP. III. What the cavills of this our age hath been touching the seat of the all-creating and universall inacting Spirit in this world And herein also it is proved that Jerom's translation upon this Text of David Posuit tabernaculum suum in sole God put his tabernacle in the sun is according unto the true sense of Scriptures And lastly the reason of the errour in our latter Translations is herein according unto the Author's capacity expressed I Confesse there hath been a great controversie whether Jerom or Tremellius or Pagnâ—ne and some others have erred in their translation of the fore-mentioned Hebrew Text for Jerom being of greater antiquity howsoever he found the nature of the Hebrew which he translated interpreteth the first verse of the nineteenth Psalm of David Posuit Deus tabernaculum suum in sole God hath put his tabernacle in the sun Pagnine making use of the same Text but perchance corrupted and altered from the Originall copy and therefore construeth the Hebrew thus In coelis posuit Soli tabernaculum He made for the Sun a tabernacle in the heavens And Tremellius expounds it Soli disposuit tentorium in iis He made the heavens a pavillion for the Sun Verily if we consider all things rightly we must imagine that either the Text must be altered and corrupted from that Originall copy which St. Jerom had or else the reverend Jerom's worth must of necessity be called into question for so grosse a mistaking Touching the petson surely the whole Christian Church in his days would not have made election of a man of mean skill in the Hebrew language to undergo a task of such importancy being for the main good of the whole Christian Church as was the translation of the Bible out of Hebrew into Latin It would not I say have relied upon a man of small cunning either in the Hebrew language or mysteries of divinity to judge of the likelyhood or coherence of the Scripture's Harmony and therefore the ability of the person unto whose charge so great a business was committed and consequently the fruits of his labours could no way be undervalued being compared unto either Pagnine or Tremellius Again that he was held for a person
visible things and therefore the seas and the earth were first made or produced out of things not visible that is to say aeriall or heavenly For it is one universall aire that filleth the vast cavity or vault of the world which by reason of its levity tenuity or invisibility is called Heaven as contrariwise the earth and seas are so termed because of their gravity density and visibility Since therefore it is evident that the catholick sublunary aire is the main materiall ground and substance of that which the world calleth elements and that it is altered and changed from one estate into another by the Word or divine Spirit Ruach Elohim I mean by the eternall wisdom let us consider with our selves how this potent Spirit doth effect in that one and the same homogeneall invisible thin water or aire such Protean trans-mutations whereby there is an evident rotation made in it out of one nature into another which are therefore tearmed distinct elements We must therefore consider in the first place that this was that vivifying Spirit which the Prophet called from the four winds saying Veni Spiritus a quatuor ventis insuffla interfectos istos ut reviviscant And therefore this one Spirit Ruach Elohim was the royall commander of the four winds and by consequence could contract the aire by his windy organs and again dilate it at his pleasure and therefore it was he and no other that doth animate the four winds and agitate the Angels that are his under-governours of them to alter and change the invisible aire into visible shapes when and how be listeth And first touching his generall act in ordering the aire into divers shapes it is said Deus ventos depromite thesauris And again Aer subito cogetur in nubes ventus transiens fugavit eos Sapientia aptat pondus aeri appendit aquas in mensura ligat densas nubes ut non findantur facit pluviae statuta viam fulgeâ—ro tonitruum God draweth the winds out of his treasury The air is thickned into clouds and the wind that passeth-by doth drive them By wisdom he giveth weight unto the aire hangeth or ballaenceth the waters in it by proportion and measure bindeth fast the thick clouds so that they cleave not giveth lawes unto the rain and maketh a way unto the lightnings of the thunders By which words we may conceive that the invisible aire is the main subject on which the all-operating Spirit of God worketh and bringeth forth the fore-named visible effects and that onely by Condensation or Rarefaction which is insinuated by giving weight unto the aire For by Condensation he converteth the invisible aire into visible clouds and then by a profounder degree of thickening those vaporous clouds are condensed into raine and the thicker and more unctuous part of the cloud is concreted into a hard stone or earth So that out of the invisible aire we see evidently by condensation produced three degrees of visible substance namely a vaporous aire a thick visible water which is rain and a dense and ponderous earth which is the stone called Lapis cerauneus or Thunder-bolt ingendred by the Spirit of God in that fight which is made in the conflict between the liquifying nature of the fire and congealing disposition of the cold water Again on the other side by rarefaction the aire is converted into fire namely into lightning and all these receive their severall forms and changes from the catholick nature of the invisible aire into those shapes in which after the alteration they abide So that you may by this perceive that all that which the antique Philosophers have termed Elements are nothing else but a four-fold changing and mutation of one and the same catholick element or humid nature unto the which according as they in their changes do appear various have divers and sundry names namely of fire water and earth imposed upon them Now the principal organs by the which and in the which this Spiâ—it moveth and acteth by a diversity of property in turning and changing this catholick aeriall subject into a four-fold nature that is to say out of one thing into another are the angelicall winds which he hath ordained to blow from the four quatrers or angles of the earth in a diverse property For as before I told you out of Solomon's doctrine that this wise spirit was one simple thing in essence but man fold in property or operation so doth he being but one Spirit for it is said Veni spiritus à quatuor venus act after a four-fold manner by his four-fold angelicall winds in the catholick element of aire for when he bloweth or breatheth from the North he contracteth the common element into an earthly body namely into frost snow hail and ice And therefore David saith Deo emittente sermonem suum in terram quà m celerrâ—mè excurrit verbum ejus qui edit nivem sicut lanam pruinam sicut cineres dispergit dejicit gelu suum tanquam frusta coram frigore eius quis consistat Emittens verbum suum liquefacit ista simulac efflat ventum sâ—um effluunt aquae God sending forth his word upon the earth it runneth swiftly who bringeth forth the snow like wool and disperseth the frost like ashes and casteth down his ice like lumps who is able to resist against his cold Sending forth his word he liquefieth or melteth all these so soon as he bloweth forth his wind the waters do flow forth c. Out of which speech we may gather first that it is but one word or Spirit of God which both by a northern contraction doth change the sublunary element into an earthly condition and hard and visible consistence namely when he bloweth from the North and therefore saith Ab Arcturo egreditur frigus flatu suo edit Deus fortis glaciem latitudinem aquarum coarctat From the North commeth the cold the mighty God doth bring forth ice by his breath and coarcteth or straightneth the latitude of the waters and also by a southern blast doth melt and undo those terrestriall effects which by his northern spirit it did produce and cause Secondly that the subject in which and on the which it did operate was the aire which it did metamorphose and change from a soft tender light volatil transparent thin and invisible substance into a hard rough heavy fix opake thick and visible masse Thirdly that the word there is taken for the essentiall spirit of the wind in generall and therefore it is used as well to contract the aire into snow ice or frost as to dilate it Again the Psalmist saith Angeli Dei faciunt verbum c. Again when he breatheth from the south then this generall element becommeth vaporous airy humid and hot and will easily by the concourse of the northern fortitude though in never so small a measure be changed into clouds for the southern blast is ever apt to undo the effects
by degrees appear out explicitly namely in the sixt rank for it will be altered from humour to solidity with a certain distinction of the three principall Members in the seventh to an Embrionall shape and in the eighth which will make up a cube unto the materiall root 2. or the Square 4. which is characterized in the catholick Element by the impressions of the four winds into a perfect creature In like manner in the great world we see that the simple Element namely the generall aire appeareth externally plain simplicity and an invisible Nothing explicitly and yet it containeth complicitly a clowd water or rain Fire or Lightning and a ponderous stone with Salt and such like which by degrees do explicitly appear through the vertue of the four Winds So that a vapour possesseth the first rank the cloud the sixt the Lightning and clowd the seventh and the earthly Stone argueth an exact rotation of all the foure ventous forms into one mixtion which represents the eighth's place in Composition or Generation But when the man cometh to Corruption then his parts proceed in resolution backwards namely from 8. to 7. from 7. to 6. and from 6. to 5. untill it return unto the point of the simple Spermatick Element from whence it began and there it beginneth a new Generation in another form For the all-acting nature is never idle So also the Stone is resolved into water and water into a vaporous clowd and the clowd into aire from whenâ—e it came which is the simple catholick Element which admitteth no farther or proâ—ounder resolution by corruption Now the onely Operator in both these works is the Spirit of God for in Generation it shineth forth of the catholick Elements center or SpermS internall unto perfection and persevereth in his action till a perfect man be produced which Job confirmeth thus Nonne sicut Lac fudistime sicut caseum coagâ—â—asti me cute carne texisti me ossibusque nervis induisti me cum vita benignitatem exercuisti erga me Et visitatio tua conservavit spiritum meum Didst thou not poâ—â—e me forth like milk and like cheese didst crudle me Didst thou not cover me with skâ—n aâ—â— flesh Thou didst indue me with bones and sinews thou didest shew forth unto me thy benignity in my life and thy visitation doth preserve my spirit Contrariwise when the Spirit of God with-draweth his beames from the circumference of Generation and Composition unto the center of simplicity he leaveth to visite the Spirit of the creature and so it must fade ad decayingly return unto the principle from whence it came and from thence again if the same spirit is pleased to shine forth a new Generation beginneth where the Corruption or Resolution ended The Demonstration is such The Simple Square of the world's Composition where 2. that is to say Light and Water is the root The progression from the said Elementary Square unto the cube of Composition The root of Generation which is from the 4. Elements or the catholick Element four-foldly altered Where the four elements remain in their simplicity as they were created complicitely in one watry nature or rather catholick element called Aire which is the root from whence generation ariseth unto the period of perfect composition by four degrees or steps of alteration namely from the 4 to the 8. and whither tendeth retrogradely corruption namely from 8 to 4. CHAP. VII That God contrary unto Aristotle's assertion with the opinion of divers other Ethnick Philosophers doth not operate of necessity for the creation and continuation of his creatures but of his proper will and benigne inclination WE tearm that properly Necessary that can be no otherwise again we esteem that as well voluntary as fortuit or happening by chance which may be otherwise Now there hath risen and sprung up a great dispute among the Ethnick Philosophers whether God operateth in this world voluntarily or of necessity or as it were by compulsion the greater part therefore of them are flatly of an opinion that God acteth in this world as well in the generation and conservation of things as corruption of them by necessity and not by any voluntary motion whereby it must follow that he was enforced to do or effect what he doth from all eternity by some other nature which was either coeternall with him or pre-existent or else that he was excited or pushed forward against his will to effect this or that by some creature which he did make All which how erroneous and extravagant it is from the rules and center of truth I will in few words expresse unto you For first of all What I beseech you is of greater antiquity than God being that he was before any thing What is in Geometry before or in measure lesse then a point or which among all the numbers of Arithmetick is of so antient a standing as is the unity Wherefore it must needs follow that God is free and voluntary in his actions being that he was of himself and did exist without any respect had unto any other either precedent or coeternall principle from all beginning and therefore was sufficient in himself and of himself to work and operate by himself from all eternity But the principall reasons of the foresaid Ethnick opinion are two-fold first because God doth act and operate by his proper essence and not by any acquired vertue then forasmuch as the effects in the world seem to be necessary and hereupon they conclude that they cannot come or proceed from any contingent that is to say fortuit or voluntary occasion of another Unto the first me-thinks they seem to argue against themselves for as he acteth by his proper essence or substance it is evident that he is moved of his own accord and consequently not by any externall compulsion or internall necessity Moreover in the latitude of unity there can be no compulsion or coaction because that Unity cannot suffer Again it is not possible that he should be urged to work by any externall or alien efficient cause because that he remaining primarily fixed and stedfast in himself and of himself worketh as the originall fountain of all things by himself emitting his formall and vivifying beams of life at his pleasure and with-drawing them again when and where he pleaseth Unto the second I say that necessary effects do no way include any necessity in the first efficient cause because that secundary causes which Plato and other wise-men called Hand-maids or She-slaves do act at the command and inciting of him which is the unity of all multitude and therefore all in all or by a necessary order so that a necessity in worldly created things dependeth upon the volunty and command of him who made them the which order he accomplisheth and finisheth at his pleasure And therefore we find this written by the wise-man Ignem mitescit nè combureret modò ignem ille facit ardere inter aquas c. He
My purpose therefore in this Meteorologicall relation is to direct you into the path of true wisdom for the better scanning and decyphring-out of so great a mystery as is the meteorologicall act of the Spirit of God and to lead you by that means out of the mire and puddle of Ethnick or pagan Philosophy in which we Christians even unto our immortall shame do stick fast and like brutish swine do willingly wallow The which that I may the better effect I will compare the absurdities of the false Peripateticall Philosophy with the infallible verity of the holy Text that thereby each Christian pondering in the ballance of justice the contradiction which shall be expressed between the one and the other may open his intellectual eyes and follow sincerely that which is good and forsake the bad betaking himself unto the truth and flying from that which is prestigious and false and may by that means at the last discern with open eyes that main difference which is between the wisdom and Philosophy of this world which in verity for the Spirit of God hath pronounced it so is meer foolishnesse and that of God which is the reall and essentiall truth Thus therefore you may discern and that in few words the manner or order of my method in this Book not determining with my self to be over-tedious unto you in it but to finish briefly that Meteorologicall wisdom which in regard of its own worth deserveth to be enrolled in the everlasting monument of a far greater volume and to be polished or burnished over with the lustre of a more elegant style and refined manner of speech CHAP. II. In this Chapter the true mystery of the Winds is discovered and set down according unto the intention of the divine Spirit 's testimony and withall the false and prestigious spirit of Aristotle and his Peripateticall adherents touching that subject is unmasked and made manifest THat I may the better expresse that difference which is between the false wisdom and philosophy of this world and that which because it is of God must be true indeed nay verity and truth it self my minde and purpose is in the first place to set down the opinion of the Peripateticall faction and then afterward to compare and examine it with the touchstone of the divine Word or Scripture thereby to make a tryall whether it be right and sound or not that is whether it will bear water or shrinck in the wetting Now because as I said the four cardinall and collaterall winds of the heavens with their angelicall Presidents are the actors in the transformation of the catholick Mercuriall element or Protean sublunary waters from one shape into another I think it most necessary to begin this my story or discourse with the profound mystery of the winds in generall forasmuch as they are noted to be the principles of all the other Meteors And first I will expresse what the pagan Peripateticks and their Christian followers have and do determine concerning them The Peripateticall Philosophers are of opinion that the wind is a hot and dry exhalation being difficultly enflamed which ariseth out of the earth and soareth up unto the middle region of the aire from whence it being forthwith repelled downwards by reason of the coldnesse of that region and again it re-indeavouring upwards doth partly in regard of its levity and partly by other ascending exhalations which it meeteth in his violent and coacted descent move laterally in the lower region of the aire the which aire it doth ventilate and agitate lest that for want of motion or stirring it should putrifie This is the sum of their opinion concerning the generation of the winds I will therefore insist upon this Peripateticall or Aristotelian definition or rather description of the winds First because that the spurious Christian Philosophers as if they were incited thereunto by a kind of unbridled madnesse do not stick to defend and by their best endeavours uphold this his opinion as well in their publick Schools and private negotiations or studies as by their writings and that with such an assured obstinacy as if it had been divinely published unto worldlings or uttered and pronounced by the sacred Oracle of truth it self Secondly because the place wherein this imaginary exhalation is said to be ingendered and from whence it is derived is by it esteemed to be the earth and the seat unto which it coveteth to ascend is according unto their doctrin the middle region of the aire into the which by reason of the cold temper thereof it is not permitted to enter or penetrate but the medium or mean forsooth in the which it moveth naturally upward and by compulsion or against nature downwards and lastly by justling or strugling together of other ascending exhalations and the forcible descending fumes laterally that is to say towards the right or left hand is the lower region of the aire Thirdly for that they seem to averr as it appeareth by this definition that the agent mover or efficient causer of this exhalation as well downwards as laterally is double or two-fold namely the cold of the middle region of the aire which forceth and presseth downward towards the earth that scarce imaginable fume and the other is the troop of other ascending exhalations or subtle smoaks which successivly do rise out of the earth which in their motion upwards meeting with that fume which is forced to descend do strive and as it were wrestle with it and consequently by that means do make a noise in the aire which is called the Wind. And this is the Peripateticall Philosopher's windy fiction which in the conclusion after a due examination will prove to be but a bubble or vain puff of wind that is to say meerly words without any substance Now the finall end or cause why their nature hath ordained these windy motions in the aire is as their definition doth testifie that by this manner of ventilation the aire may be preserved cleared and purged from all putrefaction and corrupt disposition But whosoever will give credit unto this Ethnick definition especially if he be a true lover of wisdom I counsell him first to examine every particular member of it and having made a diligent enquiry therein let him see and discern whether they agree with the lawes of true reason and wisdom In the first rank and order therefore let us mark or observe whether in the former member of his description there be any probability of verity to be found By it we are told and taught that the materiall substance of the winde is a hot and dry exhalation arising and surging out of the earth But by holy Scripture which all true Christians ought to credit before all things we are taught that the winde hath his originall or beginning from the Spirit or breath of IEHOVAH A flatu narium tuorum saith Moses coacervatae sunt aquae flavisti vento tuo operuit eos mare By the breath of thy
nostrills the waters were gathered together thou dâ—dst blow with thy winde and the sea covered them And Job Glaciem edit Deus vento suo flante Deo concrescit gelu God doth bring forth the ice with his breath when he doth blow the frost and ice ice is ingendered Deus facit pondus vento God giveth proportion unto the aire or winde And the Prophet David Qui facit angelos ventos minâ—stros suos ignem urenâ—em Who maketh his angels winds and his ministers flames of fire And hereupon such learned personages and Doctors as are profoundly seen and dived into the mysteries of the true nature do averre that the externall of the Angels is aire or the subtle humid nature of the world and that their internall or formall portion is a hidden divine fire And for this cause St. Denis doth tearm the Angels Algamatha that is to say clear Mirrours or looking-Glasses which do receive the splendour or light of God and do represent his image And therefore the Prophet in the place above mentioned doth describe both the hidden and invisible winde and that which is fiery and doth manifestly appear in the form of lightning to be an angelicall spirit animated by the divine fire or bright emanation from God All which being rightly considered we must either confesse that the Spirit of the nostrills or mouth of IEHOVA is a hot and dry exhalation subject unto preternaturall passions and arising out of the earth which would appear too profanely uttered out of a Christian's mouth or that this member of the Peripateticall definition is most false and erroneous But this shall be discovered more plainly in my enquiry and laying open of the other members The second member of this definition doth intimate unto us that the place wherein that exhalation which is the materiall cause of the winde is ingendred and from the which it is derived is the earth but the place or seat unto the which it tendeth saith it is the middle region of the aire and the medium and space in which that moveth as well upward and downward as laterally is the lower region of the aire In the which assertion of this Ethnick Philosopher I will make plain and prove evidently that there will be found divers grosse errours and palpable absurdities But that we may the better effect our enquiry and hunt after the truth of the businesse that is to say for the exacter examinations cause it will be necessary for us to divide this member or clause into three parts in the first whereof we ought seriously to consider whether the matter of the winds be extracted out of the earth or no. In the second if that substance do onely soar up and make his way unto the concave superficies of the middle region of the aire onely In the third whether the place in which the wind moveth be onely the lower region of the aire To the former question or doubt we say That either the sacred Bible which is the fountain of truth is false or this particle of the second member must be most erroneous for saith St. John Spiritus ubi vult spirat vocem ejus audis sed nescis unde veniat aut quò vadat The wind or spirit bloweth where it will and thou hearest his voice but thou knowest not from whence it commeth or whither it goeth Which being rightly pondered by wise-men they must conclude that either Aristotle saw further into the mysteries of God and nature than the Evangelist who was a true and sincere Christian Philosopher and Theosopher and then St. John must be proved a lyar in his doctrine which were a great impiety in any Christian to imagine or else the assertion of Aristotle must clearly be found false and in all things contradictory unto the truth Aristotle saith that the matter of the winde doth move from the earth and ascendeth into the middle region of the aire and from thence is repelled downward But St. John saith that the winde moveth not constrainedly that is to say by coaction nor any accidentall compulsion but voluntarily and according unto its own pleasure and appetite for his words are Spiritus spirat ubi vult It bloweth where it will and that although the voice and noise of it be familiar unto the ears yet neverthelesse it is not known from whence it commeth or whither it will This doctrine of the Evangelist which so mainly differeth from that of Aristotle is maintained out of divers places of holy Writ for the royall Psalmist with the Prophet Jeremy saith Depromit ventos è the sauris suis He draweth forth the winds out of his treasuries But the Scriptures prove that the earth is not the seat or place of Gods treasure where it speaketh thus Aperiet tibi IEHOVAH thesaurum suum optimum coelos dando pluviam terrae suo tempore IEHOVA will open unto thee his best treasure the heavens giving rain unto the earth in his due time He doth not say the earth but the heavens so that between these two there is a great difference as between night and day Wherefore it is evident that the heaven or catholick element of air is the secret cabinet of these meteorologica Dei magnalia or meteorologick wonders Hereupon it is said in another place Januas coelorum aperuit pluens Manna c. He opened the gates of heaven raining down Manna Again it is so hard a thing for a mortall man that is not illuminated with the spirit of wisdom to find out or discover this arcane treasury of God that JEHOVAH himself speaketh unto Job though he were a just man and one that feated God much more he pointeth at the wise-man or Philosopher of this world who never was acquainted with the divine Word in this manner Pervenisti nè in the sauros nivis et in the sauros grandinis inspectionem habes Camest thou ever into the treasury of the snow or hast thou any insight into the treasury of the hail Arguing that without his Spirit had shewed or revealed his treasury it was impossible to know it And for this cause Solomon saith Corpus infectum corruptione aggravat animam vix conjicimus ea quae in terra sunt quae autem in coelis sunt quis investigavit nisi tu dederis sapientiam The body which is subject unto corruption doth aggravate and depress the soul and we scarcely conjecture or guesse at those things which are upon the earth Who hath found out or discovered the things which are in heaven unlesse thou give and bestow upon him wisdom Now Soâ—omon confesseth that he knew the force of the elements and power of the winds and consequently of their reall originall or beginning for Sapientia saith he omnium artifex me docuit Wisdom the worker of all things taught him Now Aristotles false Philosophy and his Ethnick and worldly wisdom sheweth that he never attained unto the wisdom which
accidentall As for example the Starrs by their heat stir or draw up a smoak out of the Earth this smoak soring on high is by the coldness of the place pushed down again then by other ascending fumes it is forced to move side-long I beseech you that are wise and unpartiall teach me which of all these externall accidents in the procreation of the winds can be esteemed for that internall or essentiall principle which can cause a volunty or voluntary motion in the winds or can produce any Angelicall act in the aire For the Text saith Spiritus spirat ubi vult If there be no such essentiall volunty or internall or centrall agent to be found or really imagined in Aristotle's fiction or fained wind then let his breath that teacheth unto Christians such falshood be as vainly esteemed as his Doctrine is prestigious in it self Was not the unlikelyhood of Aristoteticall assertion the reason that hath made some of the wisest of his Physicall disciples to start and doubt yea and plainly to avert their opinions from this vain doctrin of their Master touching the winds Among the which John Fregâ—us a man well seen in the Philosophy of Aristotle after he had made mention of the causes of the Meteors doth forthwith start from the mind of his Master touching the winds and breaketh forth into these terms Quanquam tota disputatio de ventis sicut de aliis Meteoris plena sit admirabilium operum Dei quorum nullae firmae sufficientes in naturâ— causae proferri possunt tamen prodest videre quousque humana ratio pro gredi possit Sacrâ— quidem literae dicunt Deum ventos producere de the sauris suis unde ipsius flatus audimus sed unde veniant aut quò vadant nescimus Haec Freg lib. 25. in causa Ventorum Although the whole dispute of the winds as also of the rest of the Meteors be full of the admirable works of God of the which there can be produced no firm or certain causes in nature yet it is commodious and fit to try and look into this mystery as far as mans reason is able to see or penetrate The holy Scripture doth say that God produceth the winds out of his treasury whereupon we hear their blasts but know not from whence they come or whither they will Thus far Fregius in his 25. Book upon the cause of the Winds But I will proceed a little further in this my inquiry Aristotle and his Peripateticall Disciples aver that the stormy and tempestuous wind called Ecnephia as also the Whirl-wind are certain repentine or suddain winds which are forcibly expelled out of the clowds and yet forsooth he will not admit that a hot and dry exhalation can penetrate into the middle region by reason of the coldness thereof but that we may dive a little deeper into the abysse of his absurdities he confesseth that the cause of all fiery Meteors and Comets is a hot and dry exhalation which is terrestiall crasse fat and unctuous and therefore apt to be inflamed or set on fire now he assigneth the place of Generation of comets to be the higher region of the aire and yet he denieth passage unto the exhalation which causeth the winds into the middle region which is not inflamable but thin and light Can any man be so ignorant in naturall effects as not to judge and imagine that cold will more suddainly resist and withstand that which is inflamable and of an actuall fiery nature as is the exhalation which causeth the Comets then that which is neither actually inflamable or fiery of it self namely the fumes which is said to be the Original of the winds Again it appeareth by his description of Comets that their materiall substance is heavier more terrestiall crass thick or compacted then that of the winds and therefore it must needs be less apt to ascend and penetrate for as much as all ponderous things by a naturall inclination tend downward then that of the winds which is more light subtill and thin and consequently more apt to clime upward wherefore it were impossible that the grosser fumes which cause the Comets should ascend and penetrate into the upper region as well by reason of their inflamable heat as compact and ponderous nature and yet the fumes of the winds whose heat is not actually inflamable but light and penetrative by reason of their subtility should be debarred from passing higher But I come unto the examination of the third member and although I have already spoken somewhat concerning it yet it is fit that touching this point I utter my mind a little more at large in this place because it is most pertinent unto our detection of this worldly wisdome's folly and errour He describeth therefore in this member a double act of the wind both which he but maketh accidents as if a man should say that they do not move from an internall and essentiall principle but rather by externall accidents namely by the heat of the Sun or Starrs by the cold of the middle region of the aire and the justling or encounter of other ascendent fumes whereby he concludeth that it moveth the aire allaterally and by consequence it happeneth by chance and through externall means What a glittering and golden lie is this much like one of those fabulous figments of the antient Poets a thing I say which maketh a faire shew but is in verity without substance For by this assertion he maketh the winds nothing else but quid per accidens when contrarily the mouth of Truth flatly contradicteth such a falshood affirming that the wind proceedeth primordially from the Divine Spirit or breath of God yea and it is termed by it an Angell which is dilated and sent forth every where to effect the will of him that animateth it Qui facit Angelos ventos saith David Who maketh his Angells winds that is he animateth them essentially with his breath and sendeth them forth as his messengers to do his will And therefore the same Prophet saith in another place Angeli Dei efficiunt verbum ejus The Angels of God effect his word And the Prophet Baruch Ventus facit mandatum Dei The wind accomplisheth the Commandement of God And in another Ventus procellosus efficieâ—s verbum Dei The stormy or Tempestuous wind doth effect the Word of God And the three Children in the fiery furnace O venti benedicite Domino exaltate eum super omnia in per petuum O ye winds bless the Lord and exalt him above all things everlastingly What say our Christian Peripateticks unto this What do they think that if the winds were such accidentall things as their great Master doth make them that God would employ them to effect his words or if they had no internall principle in them could they laud the Lord or move at pleasure to perform the will of him that sendeth them out Nay verily we will prove that the internall
mover in the winds is the essentiall inspiration or breath proceeding immediatly from God Afflatu narium tuarum coacervatae sunt aquae flavisti vento tuo operuit eos mare The waters were gathered together in a heap by the breath of thy nostrils Thou didst blow with thy wind and the Sea did cover them And Job Flante Deo concrescit gelu When God bloweth from the North the yce is made Also that the winds are Divinely animated with a perfect life and intelligence it is made evident by the four Angels which are president over the four winds and that universall Spirit which was called from the four winds to breathe life into the dead carcasses of which we will speak forthwith And yet for all this the Ethnick Prince of our Philosophers will not blush forsooth to say that the winde is a some-thing meerly accidentall and that it hath his motion onely from externall principles and not from that centrall and internall agent which is the actor and operator of and in all things and consequently it could not blow or breathe where it listeth nor yet to hear the voice of the Lord when it was commanded to come from the four winds He according unto his fancy saith that this his figment is extracted out of the earth when Scriptures say that it is the most lively and agil creature of God which he bringeth out of the heavens that are his treasure-house for in this both the Prophets Jeremy and David do consent But in this member of his definition he concludeth that the laterall motion of the winde is caused through that resistance and impediment which is made by such exhalations as ascend O poor argument of so mighty a Philosopher as if such a ventall motion as that is from the north unto the south and so forth could be so certain and direct in his course being guided by so uncertain an agent as is an accidentall striving and contention made between ascending and descending fumes I beseech you tell me my quaint Peripateticks what manner of exhalation did rise out of the earth and shoulder or shove and resist one another in that emission of Spirit which happened when the Prophet said A quatuor ventis adveni Spiritus Come from the four winds O spirit me-thinks that I see the Christian pages or disciples of Aristotle to be clean mute and destitute of tongues to answer and if they should say that it was a miraculous winde and not a naturall I answer that I know no more efficient causes in nature or out of nature but onely one and therefore it is said in the production of Meteors namely in the common course of this world nature God bloweth from the north God produceth by his breath frost snow ice God thundereth from heaven God melteth the thick clouds into rain God sends lightning from his throne and coles of fire out of his mouth God maketh the dark clouds his hiding place God commeth from the south in thunder The voice of the Lord maketh the cedars of mount Libanus to stoop and the hinds to miscarry of their young ones God is a consuming fire Who can stand or resist the cold of God and so forth in many places more as well of the new as old Testament And to conclude that God operateth all in all and that he vivifieth all c. But our Peripateticall Philosophers come with their School-tricks and idle distinctions and say 'T is true indeed that he is causa efficiens principalls but there are many secondary and subalternate causes in nature which do act of themselves I say Plain dealing is a jewell and truth being one simple essence hateth double dealing let us imitate her in plainnesse and simplicity in understanding which we cannot attain unto unlesse we abstract our minds from the subtle multiplicity of worldly Philosophy and vain fallacy of which St. Paul biddeth us to beware for in multitude lurketh an infinity of errours but in unity consisteth that unique verity which is true wisdom Why then should we distract mens thoughts from the simple sense of Scripture by a multiplicity of distinctions which seem to wrest it like a nose of wax a hundred waies Scriptures say Of him by him and in him are all things The holy spirit of wisdom filleth the world The incorruptible Spirit is in all things Christ filleth every thing He vivifieth all things He operateth all in all He giveth life and inspiration and all things All things are from the Father by our Lord Jesus Christ. All things are in Christ and by Christ as well visible as invisible and he in all things He beareth and sustaineth all things by the word of his vertue God is the Father of all who is above all and in all And an infinite of other testimonies of Scriptures which confirm the divine essence to be all in all and to act all things universally without exception And yet our Peripateticks will perswade us that the creatures actions are divided from the act of God so that they do and can act of themselves through an active vertue given unto them by God but not now of God which assertion of theirs were it true indeed I will shew you how great an absurdity will follow namely that there must consequently be a division made in the divine essence which axiom true divinity will never admit for Athanasius his Creed doth teach us that it is sancta individua Trinitas the holy and undivided Trinity and therefore what act the creature hath received is not divided from the Giver neither is there any such need being the Giver of that formall vertue is by reason of that gift ever present and not divided from the gift and consequently acteth all in all and that immediately And for that cause it is rightly said by the divine Philosopher Hermes to be the center of all things whose circumference is every where so that it is in all but not as a part of any thing but as a composer of all parts and a container of them Wherefore let it suffice our Peripateticks that the creatures are onely organicall causes in which one onely catholick Spirit worketh and operateth according unto the variety of his property which is annexed unto his will and therefore he onely worketh in them and by them according unto his will and that immediately and absolutely and this is that which the Apostle intendeth when he saith Deus operatur omnia in omnibus God worketh all in all But to return unto my purpose How deaf and surd had this invocation of the wise Solomon been if the essence and life of the winds had been no other then that which is set forth by Aristotle Evigila saith he Aquilo veni Auster perflahortum meum Awake north-wind and come thou O south-wind and blow upon my garden To conclude if the winds had been procreated after Aristotle's invention or imagination whence cometh it that each winde is
endued with a various and divers condition or property insomuch as the one is hot and moist the other cold and dry the third hot and dry and the last cold and moist It were impossible that this difference and variety should happen if all winds were framed and fashioned onely after one fashion that is if they did move laterally by compulsion as Aristotle telleth the tale I come now unto the last clause or member of the Peripateticall definition which doth touch the finall end or reason of the production or creation of the winds His opinion is that his nature doth produce this manner of ventilation for the purging and purifying of the aire and for the preservation thereof But we are taught by experience that this is not true being that we with Galen and Hippocrates do discern that the southerly winds are contagious and pestiferous forasmuch as they render the aire thick and make it putrid and rotten by their malignant heat and lax humidity And this also we have confirmed by the sacred Text Ne timeto saith David à lue seu daemonio vast ante in meridie Fear not the pestilence oâ— corrupt daemon which commeth from the south And Habacuck Deo à meridio veniente praecessit vel ante-ivit eum pestis antrax ad pedes ipsius God comming from the south the pestilence went before him and at his feet went the boch or carbuncle Yea verily and all winds in a generality as also the other meteors of heaven are ordained by the Creator as well for a whip and scourge as to assist preserve and save the creature as by many places of Scripture we are certified and Job in expresse tearms hath taught us And therefore Aristotle hath erred in his judgment concerning the finall cause of the winds as well as in the rest We may justly hereupon conclude that this definition of our pagan Peripatetick whom we Christians do adore and follow with such devotion and reverence is altogether false and of no validity because the winds are creatures of a nature more essentially eminent and divine than either Aristotle or any of his factious sect did ever understand forasmuch as they are not things without internall lights and essences and do not consist onely of externall and adventitious motions that is to say are not made of fumes or exhalations arising by accident or chance out of the earth But as Zacharias doth teach us they are created and animated by an angelicall spirit and stand before the Lord of all the earth and are hid in the power or treasury of their Lord out of the which he calleth them at his pleasure to do and accomplish his will and pleasure upon the earth and upon the seas either ad vinâ—ictam seu punitionem to revenge and punish or else ad misericordiam benignitatem creaturis praebendam to shew unto the creatures his mercy and benignity CHAP. III. The true and essentiall definition of the wind is divers waies and that according unto the sense and assertion of the holy Scrâ—ptures expressed in this Chapter NOw me-thinks I hear some of the Peripateticall faction to murmur against me and reply If this definition of Aristotle be not good as by your proof it appeareth assigne us a better if you can Tell us therefore essentially what is the winde or how you define or describe it rightly by the warrant of holy Writ To this I answer that it may be effected many waies under one and the self-same essence And first of all we may describe it and that not impertinently after this manner The winde is an airy spirit of a mean consistence inspired and animated by the breath or inspiration of JEHOVA the which he draweth forth of his treasury to execute his will and pleasure either by the way of malediction and vengeance or of benediction and misericord Every particle of this definition is proved out of convenient places of holy Scriptures and first that his externall is aire of a mean consistence it is made manifest in that the words aire winde and spirit are expressed in many places of Scriptures by all one Hebrew word namely by Ruach Again that his internall or moving soul and centrall act is the divine Spirit or inspiration it is proved and confirmed by the places which are cited before A flatu narium tuarum saith Moses coacervatae sunt aquae flavisti vento tuo operuit eos mare By the breath of thy nostrills the waters were gathered in a heap thou didst blow with thy wind and the sea did cover them And again Glaciem Deus fortis edit flatu suo The mighty God bringeth forth ice with his breath c. as if they had said God inspired the aire with his Spirit So that there appeareth no difference between an angelicall creature and the aire so divinely inspired for the aire is said to be the externall or manifest of an Angell as well good as bad animated by God for the effecting of his will either to punish or to extend and shew forth his benigne mercy or clemency as his internall and occult portion is the immediate breath of God and therefore as I said before they are by St. Denis tearmed Algamatha that is to say clear mirrours or looking-glasses which receive the light of God Is it not in plain words expressed by David Quod angelos suos fecerit ventos that he made his angels winds where by his angels is meant the emissions from his throne and they being incorporated with the aire are tearmed angelicall natures Again JEHOVA said of the Angel that went before the Israelites to conduct them in the wildernesse Nolite exacerbare eum nam non feret defectiones vestras quoniam nomâ—n meum est in eo Do not anger him for he will not bear your errours because that my name is in him that is to say The bright impression of my word For the son of Syrach said that wisdom went before them in a pillar of cloud and was a light unto them in the night and a shadow or cloud in the day to keep them from the extream heat For this reason therefore the same Angell is called in many places of that book sometimes Jehovah in regard of his inward and increated essentiall act and sometimes Angelus in regard of his alterity or composition of two or as he was a creature and therefore as God is identity namely an absolute simple pure and increated essence so an Angell is by the wiser Rabbies tearmed Alteritas to wit as he is compacted of the uniform inspiration of God and the humid or aery nature of the world that is of a created spirit or a created aire which made the Psalmist say that which is above cited Qui facit angelos ventos ministros suos ignem urentem For in this saying he seemeth to include both the occult and manifest nature As concerning the next clause of this definition
afterward it was inclosed and saith that this light skipping and gliding out of the clowds is called the Lightning the effect of whose breaking forth is the Thunder Others will have these flashes of fire to proceed from the dry winds which being compassed about compressed or coarctated within the clowds these clowds are by them are set on fire thereupon cometh that noise which followeth that turmoile in the clowds And again many others have otherwise determined of it So that we may justly say touching this point and that rightly Quot homines tot sententiae And now concerning the Opinion of Aristotle it is in it self so contrary and contradictory unto the authority of the true Wisdome that some of his learned Christian Disciples have in the plain field of the Peripateticall Combat against the Truth turned tayl as the commâ—n phrase is and become Apostats or Renegado's or relinquishers of their Faith which they had in their Master's sincerity touching this Doctrine For we find it thus written by Margarita Philosophiae as is before said Qu dam Philosophorum considerantes mirabilem fulminis operationem ipsum non opus Naturae sed summi Dei effectum immediatum arbitrati sunt Some of the Philosophers considering the admirable operation of the Lightnings have assuredly held or thought it not to be a work of nature but the immediate effect of the most high God But to â—ome unto the particulars of his Definition He saith that the material cause of the Lightning is taken from the Earth the Agent in â—he elevation is the Astrall vertue the externall accidentall or adventitious efficient is the collision concussion or knocking together of opposit clouds by reason of the antiperistasis that is made between the heat of the Exhalation and the cold of the aire 's midle region whereby the accension or setting on fire the Exhalation is made And lastly He sheweth the reason that the Lightning moveth downwards namely because the Substance or matter thereof is terrestiall and of an earthly compaction I will therefore confute every one of these particles in order and that first by Philosophicall or naturall reasons and lastly by the Authority of the holy Scripture As concerning the materiall Substance of the Lightnings which he saith is a hot and dry exhalation and terrestially-compacted Substance which is derived from the earth First it seemeth to be but a figment because it is proved that the Starrs have no attractive vertue or force as is pâ—oved before Then for that if the windy exhalation which is light and more apt to arise and penetrate by reason of its subtility be denied passage into the middle region of the aire much more must this kind of exhalation have his passage barred or hindered into that cold place being it is as he confesseth grosser more terrestiall and apter to be inflamed But this impossibility will also be demonstrated by the authority of holy Writ Fulgura procedunt à Throno Lightning pâ—oceedeth from the Throne of God Again he is said Fulgur are lumine suo desuper cardinesque maris operire To enlighten with his light from above and to cover with it the compasse of the Sea And again ignis ab ore ejus evolavit Fire came from his mouth And again Flamma ex ore ejus prodiit A flame came fâ—om his mouth Again Illuxerunt coruscationes tuae orbi terrae Thy coruscations or Lightnings did shine over the earth Again Fumus in ira ejus ignis à facie ejus exarsit Smoak issued from him in his anger and fire did flame forth from his face What Shall we imagine that this flaming matter was as Aristotle faineth drawn or elected from the earth by the Starrs which God so familiarly sendeth forth or dare any true Christian imagine that so base and triviall an excrement of the earth would by the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles with such a boldness be ascribed unto God's essentiall power and to be derived from his presence Nay had it not been an impudency in them to say in regard of the divineness of the thing that God is a consuming fire as we finde it written both in the old and new Testament or would the Prophet testifie that he made his angels winds and his ministers flaming fires How basely might a true speculator into the divine mysteries judge of the beginning of the Angells and spirituall lights if their materiall substance were accidentall exhalation Again we are taught that the heaven or aire is the treasure-house from out whose bowells the winds the clowds the snow the hail and lightnings and rainbow is extracted and proportioned by the Spirit of God to do his will And therefore as before Deus sapientia sua aptat pondus aeri appendit nubes in mensura facit pluviae statuta viam fulgetro tonitruum God by his wisdom doth proportionate the weight of the aire and hangeth the clowds or waters in measure maketh lawes unto the rain and a way unto the lightnings of the thunders So that it is evident that the matter of all meteors be they watry or fiery is hewen by the word or wisdom of God out of the catholick aire consequently not out of the earth neither is there any such need of the starrs attraction or elevation in the business being the pure matter of the lightnings is evermore in the divine puissance and reserved in his secret treasure-house to be called or chosen out at his will who hath created all things to work how and which way he pleaseth for were it not I beseech you a wonderous thing that at an instant so great a quantity of exhalations could be drawn out of the earth and elevated by the stars as did suddainly and unlooked for rain down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah But our Aristotelians will say according unto custom that it was miraculous I answer that for all that the meteor was materiall for it was fire and brimstone Now I would fain know of them out of what magazine or store-house it came and whether the stars drew it up from the earth and whether God did not collect it immediately out of his own aiery or invisible treasury or store-house For St. Paul saith that all visible things were first of things that were not seen Secondly touching the agent he is more deceived in it then in the matter for first he maketh the agent which draweth up the exhalation the attractive vertue of the stars then he surmiseth that the efficient cause which enlighteneth it must be partly the dashing together of two clowds and partly the contrariety which is between the heat of the exhalation and coldness of the place which meeting together do cause the accension of the exhalation Good God what a Gallimofry he would make and what a confusion of externall actions or efficient causes doth he fain when there is but onely one indeed which is most internall or essentiall that moveth which way
suae God doth weary the thick clowds and disperseth abroad the light of his clowds for the watering of the earth Whereby it appeareth that God doth ordinarily gather together the clowds and maketh them his organicall instruments to utter his voice unto mortall men for the prospering of the annuall fruits upon the earth And therefore thus in another place Si consideraret homo extensiones densarum nubium fragores in tugurio illius exteâ—dâ—t super illud lucem suam cum his judicaturus est populum daturus cibum abunde Also in another place all this is more plainly expressed where it is said Vide arcum benedic eum qui fecit illum valde specio sus est in splendore suo gyravit coelum in circuiâ—u gloriae ejus manus Excelsi aptaverunt illum imperio suo accelerat nivem accelerat coruscationes emittere judicii sui Propterea aperti sunt thesauri evolarunt nebulae sicut aves in magnitudine sua posuit nubes confracti sunt lapides grandinis in conspectu ejus movebantur montes in voluntate sua spiravit Notus Vox tonitruum ejus reverberavit terram tempestas Aquilonis congregatio spiritus aspergit nivem c. Behold the rainbow and blesse him that made it it is wondrous beautifull in his brightnesse it did compasse the heaven in the circle of his glory the hands of him that is on high made it By his command he hastens the snow and maketh speed to send foâ—th the lightnings of his judgment Therefore are the treasurâ—es opened and the clowds fly forth like birds He placed the clowds in his greatnesse and the stones of the hail are broken In his sight the mountains did move and according to his will the south-winde hath blown and the voice of his thunder have reverberated the earth The tempest of the north and the congregation of spirits doth spread abroad or besprinkle the snow c. In this speech of the son of Syrach the Lord of lords is proved to be the sole essentiall and efficient cause of all meteors namely of the rainbow the snow the lightnings the clowds the hail the thunder the winds and tempests as also it sheweth that the matter of them is the aire Wherefore he saith in the conclusion The congregation of spirit doth spread abroad the snow Lastly it telleth us that the hands or Spirit of God are not idle in the effecting of such works as Aristotle termeth natural and therefore operateth not only primarily but also secundarily yea and catholically in and over all things as well in their generation as preservation and corruption To the last clause of his definition wherein he seemeth to aver that the lightnings move downward because the stuff of it is of a terrestriall compacted nature I answer that this reason is over weak considering the Gigantean author that alledged it for it may in the self-same manner be inferred that the Gun-powder which is of a far grosser stuff then is that of the lightnings must therefore strike downwards and yet we see by experience it riseth in spight of a mean resistance by its naturall inclination upward as we may perceive by places that are undermined and squibs which are violently carried upward I come therefore unto such true definitions of lightning and thunder as are maintained and allowed by the Book of Verity CHAP. XII How the lightning and the thunder oughtrightly to be described by the true Philosopher and that seriously according unto the tenour of holy Writ SInce therefore it hath been made manifest in the precedent Chapter that Aristotle hath utterly erred in his conceit touching as well the materiall as essentiall and formall cause of the lightnings let me gather as near as my weak capacity will give me leave what should be the true nature and originall essentiall cause of the lightnings according unto the harmonicall consent of holy Scriptures Lightning is a certain fiery aire or spirit animated by the brightness of JEHOVA and extracted out of his treasury which is the heavens or catholick aire to do and execute his will for the good or detriment of the creature Or else in this manner Lightning is a shining brightnesse proceeding out of the clowds being the pavilion of JEHOVA and is sent from the throne of God even down unto the earth covering the surface of the seas But if we would describe the lightning with all his accidents and consequently expresse the whole essence of the thunder which is a mixed nature we may effect it thus out of the testimony of the holy Bible Lightning is a fire burning from the face or presence of JEHOVA at the sight or contact of whose brightnesse the clowds do pass away and the Almighty doth thunder and utter his voice from heaven and sendeth forth his arrowes for the destruction of the wicked Or thus Lightning is a fire proceeding from JEHOVA being sent out of his dark tabernacle from above at the sight whereof the waters or clowds as being terrified and the abysse as it were troubled do haste away in which turmoil the voice of his thunder moveth circularly and the fiery or kindled coals are sent forth as arrowes sent out from a well bent bow to effect his will as well for benediction as for vengeance both in heaven and earth Or in this sort Lightning or coruscation is a clear and pure light in the clowds above the which the winde that passeth by doth purifie c. By the first of these descriptions the manifest materiall cause of the lightning is expressed to be a fiery aire the place out of which it is drawn is the treasure-house of God or the heavens Also the formall cause is expressed in that it is set down to be a fiery spirit or aire the efficient cause I said according unto the truths testimony to be the will or word of God on which dependeth that spirit of wisdom by which God operateth all things Lastly the finall cause is also noted forasmuch as it is said That it was created to do the will of him that ordained it either for the pain or pleasure of mortall men All which is evidently confirmed out of the places of Scripture mentioned before The second definition is confirmed out of the Revelation which saith Fulgura procedunt à throno Lightnings proceed from the throne Again he is said Fulgurare lumine suo desuper cardâ—nâ—sque maâ—is operire To lighten with his brightness from above and to cover with it the corners of the Sea And again prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt The clowds did move by reason of the Lightning and brightness which was in his sight or presence And again ignis ab ore ejus evolavit Fire flew out of his mouth And again Ab ore ejus velut taedae praeeuntes quasi halitus ejus carbones accenderent flamma â—x ore ejus prodicret From
his mouth passed as it were torches and as it were his breath did kindle coales and flame came out of his mouth Also the effect of this description is verified by these words Illuxerunt coruscationes tuae orbi terrae Thy Lightning shined over the earth Again Extenâ—it nubes quasi tentorium suum ut fulguret lumine suo desuper The members of the third description out of the which also the whole nature of the Thunders is enucleated are confirmed by the page of verity For first the materiall cause of the Thunder is pointed out in these words That it is a burning fire or fiery aire also in the description of it his formall cause is selected the efficient cause is noted to be JEHOVA in his wrath the immediate effect thereof is the exagitation of the clowds and the lowd noise or voice of the thunders Lastly it concludeth that the end or finall cause is to exercise God's vengeance on the wicked The fourth and fifth description in this Jam non respiciunt homines lucem cum nitida est in superioribus nubâ—bus quas ventus transiens purgavit Now men do not respect the Light when it is pure and neat in the higher clowds the which the wind that passeth by doth depurate As for the Thunder I gather out of the Holy Scriptures that it is to be defined thus The Thunder is a noise which is made in the clowdy tent or pavillion of JEHOVA over the which extending the beams of his Light he covereth the superficies of the Sea and illuminateth the earth that thereby he may judge the people thereof and give them meat abundantly To prove this by sacred authority job saith Si consideraret homo extensiones densarum nubium fragores in tugurio illius extendit super illud lucem suam cum his judicaturus est populum daâ—urus cibum abunde If man doth consider the extention of the thick clowd the noise and Thunders in his tent or pavillion he extendeth his light upon it with these he doth judge the people and give them meat in abundance In which words it is apparent that fragor or the noise and bruit is the formall cause and the light from JEHOVA the efficient The Organs of the voice are the thick clowds which are called the cottage or dwelling place of JEHOVA and therefore in another place Posuâ—t tenebras latibulum suum in circuitu Prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt intonuit de coelo Dâ—minus He put darknesse about his secret place The clowds did pass away at the sight of his brightness and the Lord did thunder from heaven To conclude the finall cause of the Thunder and Lightning is explained in this namely that it is as well to judge the people as to give them meat in abundance And threfore it is manifest by this that God appeareth in Thunder as well to the effecting of things which are naturall and necessary both for the punishment and nourishment of his creatures as miraculously Or else it may be defined thus Thunder is the vioce of the most High which is uttered out of a clowd and accompanied with flame and Lightning being ordained by God for the affliction of the wicked In the which definition the materiall is the Organicall cloud the formall cause is the voice with Lightning the efficient is JEHOVA and the finall that it is effected for the punishment or scourge of the wicked All which is confirmed out of the precedent Texts Intonuit saith David Dominus de coelo altâ—ssimus dâ—dit vocem suam grandinem carbones ignis misit sagittas suas dispaâ—uit eos fulgura multiplicavit conturbavit eos The Lord thundred from heaven the most High did utter forth his voice hail and coales of fire and he sent his arrows and did sever or disperse them he multiplied his Lightnings and troubled them Or after this manner Thunder is a voice or sound proceeding from the Lightning which issueth from the Throne of God and is sent by the divine power out of the cavity of the clowds into the open aire to execute his will either to the creatures good or harm Where the materiall or Organicall cause of the voice is the clowd the formall is the voice and sound the efficient is the Lightning from God and the finall is either for benediction or malediction And this is confirmed out of St. John De Throno procedunt fu gura The Lightnings proceed from the Throne And Job Numquid mittis fulgura ibunt revertentia dicent Adsumus Dost thou not send forth the Lightnings and they go forth and returning again they will say We are present And the Psalmist Ascendit fumus in ira ejus ignis a facie ejus exarsit A smoak ascended in his wrath and fire did flame forth from his face Again Nubes caligo in circuitu ejus ignis ante ipsum procedit inflammabit in circuitu ejus illuxerunt fulgura ejus orbi terrae Clowds and darkness were about him fire goeth out before him and will burn round about him his Lightnings gave light unto the earth Again Vocem dederunt nubes etenim sagittae tuae transierunt The clowds made a noise for thine arrows went out c. Where by arrows is meant the Lightnings as if he had said because thy Lightnings broke out of the clowds therefore they made a noise or uttered a lowd voice And Salomon Ibunt directe emissiones fulgurum taxquam à bene curvato arcu nubium Thy emissions or sending forth of Lightnings will go directly to the mark as if they were sent out of a well bent bow Whereby he seemeth to argue that the clowds do utter their voice by reason that the Lightnings do pierce them Or in this sort Thunder is the voice of God compassed about by the waters or clowds before whom the fire goeth forth and doth inflame and set them on fire circularly round about him Hereupon Job Numquid elevabis in nube vocem tuam impetus aquarum operiet te Wilt not thou elevate thy voice in the clowd and the abysse or power of the waters will cover thee And again as before Nubes caligo ejus in circuitu ejus ignis ante ipsum procedit inflammabit in circuâ—tu ejus Clowds and darkness are about him fire goeth before him and will inflame or burn circularly round about him Or thus Thunder is the the voice of God at the noise whereof he causeth a multitude of waters in the heavens or aire and effecteth Lightnings and rain For Jeremy saith Ad vocem suam dat multitudinem aquarum in coelo elevat nebulas ab extremitate terrae fulgura in pluviam facit educit ventum e thesauris suis At his voice he causeth a multitude of waters in heaven and doth elevate clowds from the extremity of the earth and turneth his
Unities of 2. for the beginning and another for the middle then there wants an end If you put an Unity for the beginning and an other for the end then you have two extreams but no mean or middle and therefore it is this way also imperfect Or if you place one Unity for a mean and the other for an end here also you have imperfection because there wants a beginning In like manner if Unity had not emitted his actuall emanatiom as a bright Unity of life the 2. or deformed matter of the Chaos had stood in his duall confused or imperfect estate that is without the form or shape of any perfect thing I mean a plain Nihil or Aliquid in potentia non actu Something in puissance and not in act So that matter I say before it was informed by the Unity of Light which maketh the third Unity was Vacuum inane Vacuity and inanity because it wanted the presence of the informing Unity or actuall emanation to endue it with the title of goodnesse for after the bright emanation was made then vacuity was changed into plenitude puissance into act darkness into light and a deformed matter into well formed and vivified waters and in a word imperfection into perfection And thereupon it was said that God saw that it was good that is it was replenished with his virtuous Essence who was all good and onely goodnesse By this reason therefore namely by the addition of the formall Unity the manner of confusion and of imperfection which is the materiall duality that doth Symbolize with the Chaos which is the mother of matter perfection is brought into the world which by animating the purest and subtiler waters doth unite the mentall Light with the heavenly Spirit in an Angelicall essence which doth afterwards animate and inform all things And this formall Union is Symbolically expressed by the figure 3. which for this cause is termed the first number of perfection and the number of the Soul or the radicall number of form in the course of nature henceforth therefore it cometh that the Platonists and Pythagoreans do expresse matter which is imperfect in it self by eaven or imperfect numbers and according as in the Achetypicall world defigned by 1 2 3. in form of the sacred Trinity there appeareth to be three Ideall dimensions in one divine nature or eternall essence which present in their manner of progression a Root a Square and a Cube which import a supream soul a spirit and body of the world Ideally painted out in the Archetype and that these three seem to be raised out of one 1. or Unity for multiplying 1. by the root 1. doth produce 1. and its self which makes 2. or a simple Ideal square and multiplying it again by 1. there riseth but 2. and 1. which make 3. or a Cube which argueth the perfection of the Ideal world which was in God if we take the two radical compounded numbers for roots we shall produce after this pattern the created or exemplar world namely we shall find out three dimensions to wit longitude latitude and profundity of the matter by the inquiry or searching out of the Root Square and Cube of matter the root of matter therefore was 2. for though the supream unity had multiplied or dilated it self in 2. arguing its first-born issue yet because the holy Spirit of Illumination shined not forth all was dark quoad nos wherefore we must imagin that the multiplication of matter in the world is nothing but variety of penetration of formall light into the watery abysse or materiall multitude For the thicker matter is the nearer she appeareth unto her root 2. or the dark Chaos Again the thinner it is made by the opulency of the formall emanation's bright presence the nearer it appeareth unto the root of formall Unity This mystery I say being rightly understood all science even in the abstrusest Philosophy may easily be decyphered The root of matter therefore which is 2. imports the dark Chaos the root of form which is 3. imports that the root 2. or the dark waters is animated by the formall or bright emanation of Unity or 1. and so the first 2. was accomplished and the soul of the world created namely by the Angelicall emanation And thus was the Cabalists Mâ—tuâ—tron oâ— Anâ—ma mundi first produced which according unto their traditions is said to be the first creature that was created agreeing with that of Ecclesiasticus Prior omnium creata est Sap entia Dâ—us 〈…〉 Sancâ—o Wisdom was created before all things God created her in the Holy Spirit c. And in and by this Angelical creation all other Angels were also made and therefore it is said Christus est Imago Dei invisibilis Primogenitus emnis â—â—caâ—â—rae in quo edâ—ta sunt unâ—vâ— saâ— coelis in â—â—â—ra visibilia inviâ—â—bilia sive Thâ—â—ni sive Dominat ones sive Potestaâ—es omnia per ipsum in ipso â—mnia sunt ipse ante omnes omnia in ipso constant Christ is the Image of the invisible God being bâ—ough◠〈◊〉 before any creature in whom all things as well visible as invisible are maâ—e both in heaven and earth whether they be Thrones or Dominations or Potestats all are made by him and in him and he was before any thing and all consist in him Loe here is evidently described the true vivifying Spirit which not onely made all and is all that he made being that all are in him doing the will of his Father in all that he hath made whom the Hebrew Rabbies call Mitattroâ— or Donum Dei and the Prophet Magniconcilii Angelum the Angel of the great councell Et vocabitur nâ—mâ—n ejus saith the Prophet magni concilii Angeâ—us And his name shall be called The Angel of the great councel c. Thus by the multiplying of 3 in it self we have the created formall square which imports the nine Orders of the Angels which vary according to the multiplicity of properties by which the effluxion or emanation that is sent out from this infinite fountain of light doth operate diversly in the world according unto the will of the Father of lights which sent it forth And the formall square 9 being joyned with the materiall square 4 doth animate the heavens which by inspissation or multiplication are made corporall or cubicall so that all bodies are made of those thin substances by multiplying of each square in his root whereupon the cubicall form wil be 27 and that of matter 8 which argue every elementated or compound matter and as the more the matter is multiplied in it self the darker and thicker will it be so the more that light is multiplied in it the lighter thinner and more spirituall will the creature be Insomuch that the formall root and square and cube import the essence and souls of creatures as well super-celestiall as celestiall and elementall which are more or less dignified with form for
excellently-bright throne of Eternity All this in effect we may collect from the Fathers of the Church for St. Dionys. saith That an Angell is the image of God and the shining forth of his hidden light a mirrour pure and most bright without spot without wemm and withâ—ut defiling And for this cause he calleth the Angels Algamatha that is mâ—st clear Mirrâ—rs receâ—ving the light of God arguing theâ—eby that they are the images of the catholick Emanation from whence they spring For Scriptures say that the Spirit of wisdom is the brighâ—nesse of the eternall light a glasse or mâ—rroâ— of the maâ—esty of God wâ—thout â—pot and the image of his Goodnesse And Bartholâ—mâ—w saith That an Angell taketh his hidden light from God by influence and sendeth it forth unto those Angells whiâ—h are of a lower order or condition And Austin and Damascens say that Angeâ—ls are intellectuall lights receiving their light from the first light Again Baâ—tholâ—mâ—w saith that they are called Gold by reason of the beams which they send forth Also they are called Fiery Rivers by reason of the bright influences which they receive and send forth to those of a lower region Also St. Dennis saith that the higher Ordeâ—s receive most plentiously the light of God which afterward they impart by influence unto such Spirits as are lower And this Law is observed in the Oâ—der of Angels namely that some be the first and some the second and some the last For this cause therefore the SERAPHINS are Angels so called because they are said to burn and be set on fire by reason of their immediate presence befâ—re the face of God But letting all these testimonies passe we are instructed by many places of Scripture that Angels are bright â—â—ning lights that they are above in the third heaven attending on the Throne that there are seven which are Presidents in heaven as there are seven Candlesticks which import the seven Planets and that there is one great Angeâ— that is head or master over them all which held the seven stars in his hand And that there are four Angels which have dominion over the four winds who have power to hurt the earth and the seas And that they are commanded and over-ruled by one great Angel who beareth the soveraâ—gn seal of preservation And that there is a Prince of daâ—knesse who is that great opposite spirit which hath dominion in the aire And that there are as well deadly as hurtfull Principalities Potestates and Governours in this world which are adverse unto Gods creatures as good Angels or Angels of light which are friends unto them To conclude the multiplicable fruit or seeds we compare unto the stars of heaven and the leaves unto the creatures below which have their natures and mutations from those internall or spirituall organicall agents So that we may see that Eternity giveth life unto eviality and eviality unto tempâ—rality And as we see that in the eternall world the First Person addeth a beeing unto the Second and the Third proceedeth from them both so the aeviall or Emperiall Angells poure down the influences of life into the Olympicall or heavenly ones and the Olympicall or starry spirits do send them down on the Elementary In the same manner the Emperiall Spirits are the soul or life unto the Starry or Aetheriall heaven which animateth by his influences the Elementary and the earth is animated by them all Thus therefore we see that God operateth by his divine organs variously all in all which being well understood in the first place we may boldly conclude that also all the peculiar angelicall lights do proceed from one and the self-same catholick Emanation aâ—d consequently we find that the diversity and opposition of their natures proceed from the multiplicity of properties which is in that generall emanation proceeding from the throne oâ— God or Unity before all beginnings And this is the reason that this eternall creating Spirit of wisdom is tearmed by Solomon Unicus multâ—plex One and manifold One I say in regard of his essence and manifold in regard of the multiplicity of its properties by which it worketh variously and sometimes by opposition in the world But all this is excellently expressed by the learned Cabalisticall Rabbies in the description of their Numericall or Sephiroticall Tree You must therefore understand that as the mysticall Theologians did observe but ten speciall names or attributes which were ascribed unto God in the Hebrew Bible a proprietate so they did perceive that each of these did import a diverse operation to be effected so that the Hebrewes did call upon this or that Name of God mentioned in the holy Text according unto the nature of the severall necessity they had of Gods assistance And though they collected by the word of God that as the Divinity or Godhead is but one internall immutable essence and therefore hath but one onely essentiall title to be expressed by namely Tetragrammaton or Jehova which is his unseparable name forasmuch as it is appropriated unto him onely for it includeth as Rabbi Moses the Aegyptian hath it and argueth by a pure signification the substance of the Creator without any respect or participation that it hath unto the creature yet neverthelesse they found that the other names ascribed unto him in Scripture do note or signify God as he participateth with his creatures or as he hath relation unto things that are created and consequently are known by the effect of his works As touching his essentiall name it was had amongst the Hebrewes or Jewes in that high esteem and reverence that it was never uttered but in the Sanctuary and that by such Priests as were consecrated and made holy onely unto the Lord and then it was pronounced in that Benediction which the High Priest uttered in the day of fasting For this reason that name was had in that honourable regard that it was never rashly spoken or uttered because as the said Rabbi Moses saith denotat Deum esse fuisse super omnem essentiam quatenus antequam ullares esset existeret Iâ— importeth that God is and was above any essence forasmuch as he did exist before that any thing was existent in the world And this was that pretious Name of God which Moses was so desirous of him to hear and know when he received from him this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc est nomen meum in aeternum IEHOVA is my everlasting name Which name is so pure and simple that it cannot be articulated or compounded or truly expressed by mans voice As for the other denominations appropriated unto God they do not expresse him according unto his Essence but onely in respect of his works as is said namely as he appeareth all in all and existeth in all things We must understand therefore for our better instruction that seeing the Divine Nature is and operateth in all created things as also without them for he is the
of his nature is tearmed by the Hebrews Mulchut that is Regnum or Imperium And this numeration importeth severity and servility unto the creatures through Gods anger and wrath and his influxion is directly into the Elementary world By which collections and observations of the wisest Rabbies we find that in these Ten generall properties of God signified by the ten attributes unto the Divine Essence all things in the world be they esteemed good or evill or positive and primitive or concordant and aimeable or discordant or odious or in a word either occultly or manifestly opposit or else concurring in nature or quality unto an other do originally descend from this fountâ—â—â— of Unity which though it be one in essence is nevertheless manifold in property and that property is therefore divers and altering according to the multiplicity of Volunty in the Father or fountain that sent it out according unto whose mind all things as well concordant as disagreeing are ordained both in heaven and in earth and that by a multiplicity of speciall emanations of different qualities from that eternall generall catholick effluxion and every of those specifick emanations do branch themselves again into an infinity of individuals even as ten may be multiplied in infinitum So that every one of those specifick properties do shine forth from the Star in heaven as well fix as erratick which is their receptacle or store-house unto an infinity of earthly and watery creatures which are generated or do grow upon the earth and under the earth according unto the influences of those Planets and fixed Starrs over creatures be they animal vegetable or minerall And the reason why the Divinity created or sent forth one specifick eradiation so contrary unto another was as well for the preservation as destruction of the creatures For as the last effect of each of these contrary emanations or radious eâ—fluences is the Creation or generation and preservation of creatures of their own nature and condition So also are they to be applyed either for the preservation or restauration of the decaying creatures namely when we apply any venomouse simple either animal vegetable or minerall to expell a dangerous disease or to poyson a nature which is sound as in the animal kingdom is the venomouse Viver Scorpion Toad Spider or blistering Cantharides and in the vegetable Kingdom the Somniferous and stupifying Poppy or Opium the searching and inflaming or burning Flammula and Euphorbium the fretting Scamony the vomiting Groundsell Dâ—ffodâ—ll Assera Bacca Bears-foot Titimall and the venomouse Aconite In the minerall ranck the corroding Asnick the quick peircing and infecting Quick-silver and Subâ—imary the destroying Resalgar the vomiting Antimony and such like which have all as well the property to take away dangerous diseases as to bring them For in some cases they take away dolorous maladies and in other some they bring them quickly and hasten on destruction upon the creature So that all things in some cases both wound and destroy and in othersome they heal and cure yet unto him that sent them the beams and irradiations of their form from some of his particular properties they appeared all good being they were ordained not onely to heal in his benignity but also to destroy in his severity and to conclude to effect his will one way or another even as it pleaseth him who onely worketh essentially all in all And therefore Solomon saith Could any thing exist which thou wouldest not have to be So that all is good unto God although unto wicked men which suffer them they may appear bad Oper a Domini universa saith the Wiseman bona valde All the works of God are very good Bona bonis crea a sunt ab iâ—itio sic nequissimis bona mala Good things were created originally for good men but to evill men they were in effect good and evill There are Spirits created for vengeance and in their fury they execute their torments in the time appointed they poure out their virtue and effect his furie that made them namely water hail the teeth of beasts as of the Scorpion and Serpent c. All these rejoyce to execute his Commandements upon the Earth c. Even for this cause therefore namely for the secret opposition of natures in the world originally proceeding from the streams of those variable properties which radically do spring from that one incomprehensible Fountain Love and Hatred and consequently Sympathy and Antipathy were created to justle and as it were shoulder one another in this world as well generally under the titles of Light and Dark as particularly in that friendship and hatred which is observed and testified in Scriptures to be first between the very Angells themselves then amongst the Starrs which receive these opposit natures from the Angells and thirdly amongst the winds and Elements which have their spirit of contention from the Starrs and lastly amongst those compound creatures which are composed of those Elements by the active spirits of the winds But because amongst all other opposite qualities in the world this Sympathy and Antipathy are most occult and hidden For whereas we can produce the reason of contrariety of Elements from their manifest qualities namely cold heat moisture or drought in and for this occult opposition we find not distinctly any such elementary ground we will dive so farre as our steril capacity will give us leave into the bowells of this Mystery CHAP. III. Here it is demonstrated that the occult action as well of Sympathy as Antipathy in creatures proceedeth from Angelicall irradiâ—tions or shinings forth that is by the emission or ejaculation of their secret beams the one against the other out of such creatures as are created or generated under their Dominions SUch as are well seen in the Mysticall Theology affirm that Angells are all of one kind in respect of their own creation though the one is more or less illuminated according to the importance of the office whereunto they are called or the Creator's will and mind is to employ them For we must consider that the Angels are the immediate organs by which and through which the Eternity effecteth his will and pronounceth his word Fiat after that his will is decreed in himself For that very reason David saith Angeli Dei validissimi robore efficientes verbum ejus a scultantes voci ejus ministri ejus facientes pâ—acitum ejâ—s The angells of God are most strong in power and do or effect his word and lâ—sâ—en unto his voice they are his minâ—sters to perform his will aâ—d leasure So that it is evident that nothing is effected in the world be it in heaven or in earth but it is performed by one of these organicall spirits And therefore Reucâ—â—ne saith That all bodies as well celestiall as terrene have by the ordinance of God allotted them certain spirituall directors and rulers of their vertues and presidents of their operations namely as well they which
with another And whereas the opposition which is made between the contrary Elements is apparent and manifest namely in respect of the fight or discord which is made betwixt dissonant qualities or natures as are cold and heat moisture and drouth So that in this case the Sympathy and Antipathy of Elements are well known to every one namely betwixt the water and fire and betwixt the earth and the aire We must know that there is yet a more latent and internall cause of Sympathy and Antipathy in things which by some is ascribed unto the occult natures of the Starrs but in verity it proceedeth from those Angelicall influences which do invisibly and after a most occult manner stream out of creatures that are born under a discordant Emanation which Reuchlin doth passingly well describe in these words Pholosophis Peripateticis id probatur quod câ—lum quodâ— bet Sphaericum praeter formam suam essentâ—alem habet assistenâ—em inte ligentiam orbis sui mâ—â—ricâ—m quae vocatur Angelus eò qâ—od ad hoc officium missa intelligens volens compleâ— jussa Creatoris tanquam inter Deum Naturam virtus media à qua fiunt operationes in rebus quas natura earum vel â—on faceret vel non sic faceret quas alii provenire dicunt a proprietate occulta aliâ— quia tale It is approved of the Peripatetick Philosophers that every Spherick heaven hath besides his essentiall form an assistent Intelligence which is the mover of his O be the which Intelligence is called an Angell bâ—cause iâ— being sent to peâ—fâ—rm that Office doth understandingly and willingly accomplish the Command of the Creator as a middle Virtue between God and naâ—ure by the which are effected operations in things which their nature either would not effect or would not do â—t after that faâ—hion the which are said by others to proceed from an occult property and others because it is so Whereby it appeareth that the hidden Sympathy and Antipathy in things as well celestiall as terrestiall proceed from the mysticall and arcane actions of Angelicall spirits or Intelligences who first receive that hidden property from a peculiar influence or irradiation which descendeth from some of the Divine influences which do inform and indue that Angelicall spirit with that Virtue But because it is not the Office of an Astrologian to penetrate thus pâ—ofoundly into these hidden Mysteries which belong unto the aeviall world forasmuch as his custom is to make the visible Starres the fountains of all those effects which by way of influence and irradiation do descend to operate as well by sympathy as antipathy in things below I will here after the Astrologicians manner make the well-spring of all sympathy and antipathy to arise from the manifold influence of the stars as shall more at large appear in the next Chapter CHAP. IV. The Astrologicall reason of Sympathy and Antipathy is herein expressed where also it is proved that being all inferiour spirits receive the influence of their nature from above and being that the elementall creatures are bâ—t the images of the celestiall so also it must consequently follow that as there are both Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall aspects or irradiations between two or more of the heavenly bodies and therefore there must of necessity happen that there is an emission of essentiall beams from one earthly body unto another which according unto the nature of the creature is either Sympatheticall or Antipatheticall I Will leave now a while to speak radically with the mysticall Hebrew and Cabalisticall Theologians and will open this mystery of occult radiation or streaming forth of hidden beams betwixt two creatures whether they be celestiall or terrestriall of a like and sympathising nature or un-like and antipathising condition after the manner of an Astrologian namely taking the visible organ for the invisible agent the externall creature for the internall angelicall vertue the starry influence for the hidden supercelestiall emanation which is poured out into the spirits or intelligences which inhabit and illuminate the stars and send it down again from them into the elementary world to animate the winds and by them the catholick element altered after a four-fold manner and by the element so altered to inform the meteorologick bodies diversly and by them the severall compounded creatures both in the sea and land We ought therefore to know speaking like the Astrologian that there is a manifest opposition and agreement not onely in respect of the manifest qualities of the elements which are observed to be as well in the fixt as erratick stars for the watry signes of the Zodiack are contrary unto the fiery the nocturn unto the diurn the orientall unto the occidentall the male unto the female but also in a more hidden regard For the best Astrologians have noted that as Jupiter Sol and Luna are friends unto Saturn so Mercury Mars and Venus are his enemies Againâ— all the Planets but Mars are friends unto Jupiter Moreover there is not any of the Planets that is Mars his friend but Venus onely and especially Sol and Mercury are his greatest foes Also Jupiter and Venus are friends unto the Sun as contrariwise his enemies are Mars Mercury and Luna All the Planets are said to love and favour Venus but Saturn Mercury's friends are Jupiter Venus and Saturn his enemies are Sol Luna and Mars The friends of the Moon are Venus Jupiter and Saturn her enemies are Mars and Mercury The friends unto the head of the Dragon are Jupiter and Venus the enemies are Saturn and Mars Lastly the enemies of the Tail of the Dragon are Jupiter Luna and Venus as contrariwise his friends are Saturn and Mars Besides all this we ought to note that there is another kind of friendship or enmity between the Planets namely when the one of them hath his exaltation or dignity in another's House In this case therefore the things subject unto the influence of the one will lovingly embrace the aspect of the other and contrariwise the depression or detriment of the one in the House of another maketh the spirit of the one creature who is born under that Planet which hath the detriment and is oppressed by a bad aspect of the other that is in his own house where the detriment is to aspect antipathetically a thing that is under the other by this means I say the presence of the thing born or springing forth under the Planet of that House will be ungratefull and odious unto the other person or thing whose detriment is in the said House Contrariwise we must note that two creatures will well sympathise and joyfully agree with one another where their Planets do consent together in nature quality essence and strength as are Mars and Venus for these sympathise by a naturall instinct So also Venus Jupiter Mercury and the Moon agree together and so likewise the unfortunate Planets do agree in the multiplying of misfortunes We ought also in like manner to know
unity and consequently of sympathy namely by making the catholick child of darknesse like it self and therefore to make two to compassionate each other But contrariwise that of darknesse is evermore enclined to make duality of unity and to breed discord by violating the bands of concord and so to procreate a new antipathy and hatred thereby to destroy the fruits of love So that the spirit which light hath redeemed out of the dark Chaos is the intermediate subject betwixt both the extreams that is to say between light and darkness and therefore is the passive subject ordained by the Creator to endure the impressions of each opposite extream whereupon it becommeth sometimes the subject of sympathy namely when it is obedient unto union and light and sometimes of antipathy to wit when it rebelleth against that light Thus do we see the true subject of all passion in the soul of the world and this was the onely reason why the Philosopher Heraclitus avowed with such confidence That all things were composed of strife and friendship and Empedocles That the soul was made of amity and enmity I will now therefore expresse unto you that concordant order which that eternall love who shined out from the Father of light and love hath put and placed in each region of this world to distinguish the two different natures from one another by placing between them an intermediate subject which doth agree with each extream And first I will speak of the orders in the universall spirit of the world and lastly of every particular vivified and inacted spirit as well in the intellectuall or emperiall as vitall or aetheriall and naturall or elementary heaven and that in order We must place the two opposite principles in this world in the two extreams of the semidiameter thereof and first we imagine the seat of the God of light or of the divine act to consist in the convexity of the higher and purer Orbe of the Angells or Emperiall Heaven I speak unto the vulgars understanding that is in the circumference of the vawted world and then we deem the throne of darknesse or the divine puissance to be in the center thereof as the furthest place from its opposite in nature which is light Here you may see the two principles of concord and discord of love and hatred and consequently of sympathy and antipathy of the effects whereof all the Scripture and each member of Philosophy is full The catholick matter which was originally extracted out of darkness namely the waters which was made the materiall substance of which the heavens and the earth were framed by the divine word doth occupy all that space which the world containeth was by the celestiall Alâ—himy or spagerick vertue of the divine illuminating emanation divided according unto the contrary and discordant natures of the said two principles into the upper waters and the lower waters whereof the first or higher waters were good and obedient unto the bright Divinity and were converted into a fiery nature being thereupon tearmed the Emperiall nature for their obedience unto the bright emanation were full of intellectual fire and angelicall light And therefore this portion of the waters was ordained for the seat of the good Angells The lower waters contrariwise as being fecall gross impure and therefore more rebellious unto light and obedient by participation unto darknesse were placed next unto their dark beginning namely the earth and did possess all that space between the starry heaven and the earth which is called Elementary and for this cause is subject to all changes of generation and corruption And this was ordained to be the seat of Satan and his angels which is for that cause called the Prince of this world the Prince of the aire and his prime subjects are called Principalities Potentates and Governours of this world Lo here the two extreams in the created nature from the upper whereof a generall sympathy and love or a Symphoniacall consent of things is made and effected in this world by the other namely the lower an universall Antipatheticall jar is by turns effected and intruded into the Symphoniacall accord of things in the lower world namely when the severe Attributes of God do rain down into the starry world influences of a contrary nature which afterward by their emissions unto the lower world give liberty and power unto the bad Angells to work their destructive and Antipatheticall effects on certain creatures thereof As for example the attribute ELOHIM doth send down into the starre or Planet of Saturn the fruits of his chill and frozen effects whereby the spirits of that Sphere are corroborated the which again do pour down their Boreall or Northern nature unto the spirits which are their Substitutes in the Elementary world to wit those which have power to harm by the Northern winds Hereupon Archangelus Cabalista Hoc nomen EL quod nos Deum habemus interpretatu omnia fovet omnibus succurrit summa pietate clementia id quod est illi proprium ideo illi gratia attribuitur At per ipsum nomen ELOHIM veniunt severa punitiones strages Angeli ei inservientes dicuntur BEN-ELOHIM i. e. filii ELOHIM ELOHIM ergo terrorem significat pavorem Hinc locus Aquilonaris ei assignatur à quo procedit omne malum This name or attribute EL which is by interpretation God doth foster or nourish all things and assisteth every creature by his piety and clemency which is appropriated unto him But by the name or Attribute ELOHIM come severe punishments and Straâ—agems and the Angells which are his Ministers to effect his will are called BEN-ELOHIM that is to say the sons of ELOHIM ELOHIM therefore signifieth terror and fear And for this cause the Northern quarter of the world from whence cometh all evill is assigned unto this property c. By this therefore we may discern how the spirits which are dispensatours as well of salutary as malevolent and destructive influences are in the mass of the lower Elementary waters whereby man and the other creatures of God may be either preserved or destroyed To conclude that middle spirit in the world called the Firmament which divideth both the extreamly-differing waters from one another and is that intermediate spirit of the world which doth equally participate and behold each extreme is the Centrall mansion of that eternall Spirit which emitteth his beams from his stately Solar or sunny palace even unto the Center of darkness and extendeth his emanation even unto the seat of Light which is his root for his brightness is emitted from the attribute ELOAH by the beautifull or glorious port or gate TIPHERETH which importeth grace beauty and pulchritude by the Angelicall order of the Virtues into that purified pallace of the Sun So that by his emanating presence he penetrateth every where and filleth all things by his presence and vivifieth all things by his Virtue and is the Father of life
out of order and in a destructive war with one another were it not for the presence of this Lord of misrule Thus as you see will Dyscracy and Antipathy reigne by their turnes in the neather region of the world when the tye of the elements are loose Thus will friendship be quickly changed into hatred when JEHOVA is pleased to send forth his altering winds and to corroborate and animate by his influence from above the ministers of his wrath here below against the sublunary creature Now come I to prove that all sympatheticall and antipatheticall effects do proceed from the secret and occult actions of the ministring spirits of this world That there is a mighty difference amongst the Angels no man of wisdom can deny for though all Angels were at the first united unto the divine Unity yet by reason of the rebellion and ambition of Lucifer that knot of union was broke and then the waters were divided from the waters that the good Angels might be separated and distinguished from the bad by the interposition of the firmament as a Diaphragma or middle bar between each of their habitations So that the dark Angels were enclosed in the lower or dark fecall and dreggy waters and the light Angels were lodged in the higher waters which were illuminated and dignified by a super-celestiall light and glory Thus you may see that the very Angells of heaven forasmuch as they are created of aire or the humid spirit of the world which is their externall and the bright emanation from Unity which is their internall are subject by reason of their materiall subâ—tance which participates of both extreams unto affections or passions as well sympatheticall as antipatheticall and consequently they aâ—e able by reason of their contrary pâ—operties to produce both sympatheticall and antipatheticall accidents in the spirits of the elementary creatures As for examples sake we will compare the catholick sympathy and antipathy which is in the soul of the great world unto that peculiar soul or spirit which is in man being that every particular was framed out of the universall We ought therefore to understand that the whole essenâ—e of the soul or spirit of man though it be invisible extendeth and manifesteth it self by her vertues and faculties for by her irascibility it contemneth and hateth and by her concupiscibility it doth covet and desire and by her rationability she distinguisheth and discerneth between them both And verily the whole effect of the souls essence consisteth in these three powers whereof the first is compared to the action of the lower waters which is apt to jar and disagree and is the region of Lâ—tigâ—um or the Prince of darkness The second is referred unto the nature of the firmament which is the region of life and salutary love and the last unto the angelicall and intellectuall heaven which doth discern between things that belong unto the lower heavens or regions of the world Whereupon it appeareth that from her rationall property every sense belonging unto the soul of man doth proceed as from the other two every affection motion or passion of the minde doth arise and spring Now there are known to be four affections of the soul whereof two do proceed from her concupiscible power namely Joy and Hope for at that which we love we rejoyce and are glad or we hope for and expect that which shall rejoyce us or make us glad and the two other issue from her irascible faculty or vertue namely Grief or Dolour and Fear for now we grieve at that which we hate or we fear that which would make us grieve or be dolorously affected And verily we shall after a due inquisition find that these four affections of the Microcosmicall soul are not onely the beginnings and common matter or subject of all morall vices or vertues but also the originalls of Metaphysicall or occult and Physicall or elementary and apparent sympathy and antipathy as well in the little as in the great world and every creature thereof For I would not have you ignorant that being the soul in man is derived from the vivifying emanation dwelling in the words spirituall vehicle it must follow that that soul in the great world must needs have in it the faculties which the little worlds soul hath for Quod facit tale est magis tale But these faculties in the soul of man were derived from the great world and the eternal soul that vivified it Wherefore it followeth that there is a rationability a concupiscibility and an irascibility in the soul of the great world though not made manifest unto us First because that it hath attributes of irascibility and displeasure for from his Attribute ELOHIM Gibbor he sendeth down by the port Geburah the fiery beams of his displeasure by his Archangell Samael into the globe or sphear of Mars who is for that cause President of the irascible faculty of the greater world wherefore his influences do cause wrath and angry effects in the aire and earth as thunder lightnings comets and other wrangling accidents which as Scriptures tell us are the arguments of Gods wrath and vengeance also war famine and pestilence and augmenteth the angry nature and spirit of men and beasts And again Gods Attribute IEHOVA Sabaoth poureth down the beams of concupiscibility by the Arch-angell Anael upon the globe of Venus according to Philosophers and Astronomers who for that reason being moved thereto by experience and observation have made this star the president and rectrix of the concupiscible faculty As the Attribute EL doth pour out the beams of reason justice and religion yea and naturall vegetation and life into the sphear of Jupiter But principally this naturall faculty is rained into the soul of the world by the Attribute IAH through his port Sapientia or Wisdom The second reason is because the great world hath an intellectuall or rationall heaven and a concupiscible property manifested in every creature and an irascible which is apparent also by reason of hatred and horrour which appeareth between one thing and another Also that there is an irascible quality in the elements that deadly hatred which is betwixt the fire and water and the aire and earth doth manifest That also there is a love and concupiscence between things it is evident because one nature rejoyceth in his like and therefore by a naturall inclination every thing doth move and convert it self unto his like by all possibility but especially it is most inclinable unto it self So we see that fire doth naturally affect and move unto fire water unto water and earth unto earth But above all the vivifying spirit of every living thing which is celestiall and therefore exceedeth the place of the elements doth with fervency affect and thirst after his like and is rejoyced at the presence and concurrency thereof And for this cause this passion of what creature soever will be the more truly sympatheticall and the sympathy between things will be so much the
a sense in motion but a kind of reason in its action namely its refusing that which is contrary unto it or embracing and desiring that which is agreeing and conformable unto its harmony as shall be more at large expressed as well in the second part of this present Book as in the magneticall experiences which shall be set down in the third or last Book of this Treatise To conclude how this mentall beam receiveth the behests or influxions of benignity or severity from above is expressed in my precedent discourse namely by permitting of bad spirits of darkness to reigne and have dominion or helping the good spirits to execute their offices of joy and delight Lo here is contained the sum of all mysticall and hidden sympathy or antipathy in the world which some do therefore by reason of the profundity and difficulty in the inquisition thereof justly attribute unto the secret act and operation of an angelicall power which is a middle vertue betwixt God and the creature And for this reason as is said before an Angell is defined to be Tanquam inter Deum Naturam virtus media à qua fiunt operationes in rebus quas vel natura eoram non faceret non vel sic faceret quas aliâ— provenire dicunt à proprietate occulta alii quia tale As it were a mean vertue between God and nature by the which certain operations are effected in things which their nature that is their elementary form would not produce at the leastwise would not so effect as that which is said to happen or come to passe by an occult property and as others will Quiatale Because it is so How this is demonstrated by Harmony what Sympathy and Antipathy is IT is a divers proportion or disproportion of matter or mundane spirit guided by one and the same eternall soul. Veni spiritus à quatuor ventis Demonstrated by a Pipe whose notes vary according unto proportion in spirit or aire moved by one and the self-same blast whose proportions when they disproportionably meet do jar but when they proportionably meet accord and agree All spirits in creatures are proportioned by more or lesse aire all in spirit of life moving and acting and according unto the proportions in concord or discord they agree or disagree as the weights of Pythagoras his hammer in bodies proportionate or disproportionate Also two strings being as one stretched up give concording or discording sounds according to their greatnesse or shortness As for example in this case of aire in a pipe The creatures quality doth good or evill not the devill but the devill by it Ergo Diabolicall and to be abhorred The Second Member of this Second Book Wherein the Magneticall Nature is truly anatomised and the reasons of Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall actions ripped up CHAP. I The Author maketh a preamble in this Chapter unto this his Magnetick Discourse and then proceedeth unto the Chaos of opinions touching the originall and attractive vertue of Magnetick Bodies I Did manifest unto you in the precedent Member of this Book the principles and originalls of Sympathy and Antipathy but because it is not every ones gift to soar so high at the first as to be capable of a Theory or speculation which penetrateth into Gods store-house or treasury contained in the abstruse bowells or center of his created nature I will stoop a little for your better instruction and more clear information and elucidate or make more plain the abstruse subject we have in hand by some vulgar or ocular demonstrations which may guide them and perswade them to believe that which may otherwise seem uncredible That I may therefore proceed more methodically I will onely in this member lay down the chief platform on which I purpose to build such experimentall conclusions as shall direct the misbelievers yea and such as by their ignorance do remain hitherto obstinate in their misbelieving errour being that Experienti a est etiam stultorum magistra Experience is the mother of fooâ—s into the more assured haven of faith and solid belief And because the exploits of sympathy and also those of antipathy in every thing are effected by a magneticall power which is both to expell by an irascible or odible expulsion and allure and draw unto it by a concupiscible attraction as shall be shewed you hereafter I think it most fit to search out diligently and that with the Argos eyes of my brightest senses or to penetrate deeply with the Lyncean optick of my sharpest understanding unto the dark mystery of the Load-stone's or Magnet's nature that we may with the more assurance make our ingression into the practicall demonstration of so arcane and occult a contemplation For seeing that the secret operation as well of the Weapon-salve so exclaimed on by the ignorant as the extraction of the Mummy â—both corporal and spiritual out of men or beasts as also the transplantation of the animal's vitalls infirm or wholsom nature into any vegetable or animal with the manner of the stealing of the vertue and strength from one animal and infusing of it into another the secret alligation of the plants spirit with that of man or any other animal so that what befalleth the one namely either wet or dry or cold and heat the other also shall partake of Seeing I say that these operations are tearmed magneticall because they imitate the active vertues of the magnet or Load-stone I will bend all mine endeavour to make an open passage unto the anatomising of all those mysteries by the unripping and undoing the spirituall fardell of the Load-stone thereby to pâ—y and look into the fountain of its formall interiour or centrall and essentiall actions and to espy the grounds as well of his irascible as concupiscible passions For if once we shall be able to find out by the subtillest aspect of our reason the invisible passages and lurking places thereof and can after that observe the point or punctuall root of their essences and discover the internall cause of each action we shall with ease conquer and surpasse all the rest being that what things appear alike in externall effect must needs pâ—ove homogeniall and all one in their internall and hidden natures as shall be pâ—oved more at large unto you But alas why should I being minimus Apostolorum the least of a thousand presume to make so dangerous a voyage unto that unknown Island where this occult magneâ—ick Nature doth dwell among or in the middle of such dangerous and inaccessible Rocks when so many wise Philosophers have â—ailed and wandred on the variable and tempestuous seas of opinion and have at the last returned home onely with the tidings of what others have related of her being her essence and her active vertues and so know nothing of their own but what they have attained to by hearsay or perceived by externall operation Good God how many such ships of fools are there in this world who when they have
being too wary and listning overmuch unto the Proverb Noli alium sâ—perâ— Câ—imbe not too 〈◊〉 have their regard more pronely namely upon the earth and her effects onely and of this ranck is Fracastorius who searching after the reason and beginning of this attracting faculty doth imagine that the Hyperboreall mountaines which abound with rocks of this nature do draw these Iron-natured subâ—â—cts unto them And this his figment seemeth so plausible unto divers persons of learning that they follow it as well in their Astronomicall writings as Geographicall tables or descriptions of the world and Sea-cards or maps which if it were tâ—ue they would easily draw unto them all such Ships as pass in the Northern Seas Olaus Magnus and some other that follow his traditions say that the attâ—active force cometh from some northern Islands which abound in that Magnetick subject But leaving their fancy unto the empty wind I pâ—oceed unto others Lucretius Caâ—us a poet of the Epicurean Sect dreameth that the attraction of Iron is caused of an effluxion of atoms For saith he according unto the Epicures opinions as most subtill atoms do emanate and â—â—ow out from every thing even so do atoms â—lie out of the Iron as Magneticall seeds by a certain coition of it with the Load stone into the interposed place or space that is between them and that by the union or complication of both bodies the iron is drawn c. Unto this sense also do Aphrodiseus Joannes Costâ—us Plutarch yea and Thomas Aquinas incline when indeed they ought to know that no attraction is made by emission from the Center unto the Circumference that is by dilatation but rather by sucking in and contracting from the Circumference unto the Center and therefore the emission of atomicall seeds out of the Iron can be no reason of its Union with or moving to the stone But it must be the Load-stone that must draw the beams or spirits out of the Iron For it appeareth that the Iron doth not draw it self unto the Load-stone but is drawn unto it Thales and Anaxagoras think that the Load-stone hath life in it because it attracteth a substance like it self as lively creatures do Lucâ—etiuâ— and Orpheus think there is that Sympathy between the Magnet and the Iron which is between the male and female and in this they erre not much Averroes Scaliger and the Cardinal Cusanus would have Iron to move unto the Load-stone as unto his originall Mattix Galen thinketh that it draweth by his substantiall form And now I must come unto the opinion of my renowned Fellow or Collegue D. William Gilbert for his Magnetick skill and deep search as well contemplative as experimentall touching this Subject His mind is that this attractive virtue in the Load-stone doth spring from formall actions or originall and primary Virtues or vigours For he concludeth that the Magnetick force proceedeth from a particular or singular form differing from that formall and specifick cause in mixt bodies mentioned by the Peripateticks but saith he it is a certain form which is the proper entity and existence of the starry Globes and their homogeniall incorrupted parts which he calleth the Primarie radicall and astreall Form namely such a one as is in the Sun the Moon and other celestiall Stars And he averreth that after a like manner there is one in the earth which is that true Magneticall Puissance which is called the first act or vigor And this he saith is not derived from the whole heaven affirming that it is procreated by Sympathy through influence or occult qualities neither is it from any peculiar starre For it hath its Magneticall virtue from the earth c. This is my learned quondam Fellow-Collegue his opinion whose pains and industry in the research of this Subject's practicall conclusions as I cannot but commend and extol So on the contrary side reason will not permit me to consent unto this his speculative foundation or root of the Load-stone's virtue in all For who can believe that the earth it self much less the particulars thereof can have any Virtue radically from it self when it is evident that as well the earth as the heavens came radically out of the waters And therefore as the heaven was before the earth it must needs follow that the formall Virtue of the earth did totally descend from heaven and consequently the earth had no such property from it self But of this hereafter more at large Among the Ethnick Philosophers Plato and of the Christians Scaliger and Fernelius do think that the cause of this Attraction is Divine and from above but how and after what manner they express not And therefore though in a generality they have spoken the truth yet in these common words they seem to expresse they know not what In particular I will conclude with the last opinion which is the most idle and insufficient of all the rest and therefore is worthy to be made the last and most unworthy part namely the tayl or excrement of them Franciscus Rucus maketh a great doubt concerning the wonderfull property in the Load-stone and because forsooth the pitch of his capacity can attain no higher then unto Superficiall things and such as are subject unto sense therefore he judgeth all effects beyond his reach to be Cacomagicall and consequently he maketh a doubt whether the cause of these actions in the Load-stone be not an impostury or subtill slight of the Cacodemons or evill spirits And yet this man is more to be born withall then such as do boldly averre that the act and wonderfull effects of the Weapon Salve is cacomagicall For he speaketh not absolutely as they do who without any farther doubting do seem to attribute all hidden effects unto the Divell and so deprive God of his due but onely this man maketh a doubt whether it be so or no. CHAP. II. In this Chapter the Author's Opinion touching the originall intermediate and immediate Action or Virtue of the Load-stone is enucleated and set down at large I Am sure you do remember how in my precedent discourse I have demonstrated that God in a generality doth operate all and in all and then after what manner the self-same Unity in the Divine essence is manifested in its property according unto the multiplicity of his sacred Volunty which is therefore proved to be manifold because the particular effects of his actions which are not put in execution but by his Volunty are infinite in Variety And for this cause I shewed unto you that there are attributed unto one and the same sacred essence Ten severall denominations or Attributes whereof some send out emanations of dilatation and extension by the which the waters were expansed and spread abroad by subtiliation and shaped into bright clear and transparent heavens and of such kind of influences are those which are emitted and infused into the world by HOCHMA through JAH or by the Spirit of Wisdome and those which spring forth from ELOAH
heaven and earth were made of water and by water by the Word as Sacred Philosophy teacheth us then they would have known also that the common substantiall Subject of them all was but one created watery spirit also that this spirits four-fold information was effected by one increating formall essence or Divine Word acting and informing that universall Element by a four-fold emanation so that the will of one creating Spirit effected by and working in four Angells of an opposit nature maketh disposeth or changeth every day this one spirituall watery Subject into this or that Element according unto the Will of the Creator All which is evidently demonstrated by the wether-glass For the aire therein inclosed doth by contraction or dilatation convert it self into the form of any of the Elements and is altered therein according as the nature of the Macrocosmicall blast or wind that bloweth Now whereas it may be objectively demanded From whence then came the earth and waters that are resident perpetually here beneath I answer That they are the effects which the winds by the Will of God or ELOHIM RUACH did originally produce and these were framed first out of the aire namely by thickning it by one degree into water and ingrossing it by another into solid and fixt earth as it appeared by the third daies Creation where it was said that Aridum apparuerit ex aquis Dry-land did appear out of the waters But the Divine Philosopher St. Paul doth confirm all this where he affirmeth that we ought to believe by Faith that those things which are visible were first of things invisible and unseen And again if that the two lower bodies did not resolve themselves by little and little though insensibly into aire it would not be possible that the earth or the water could hold that abundance of Water Stones Brimstone caused of Lightnings and such like which falleth from the aire and yet we see that neither the aire nor water nor earth are at any time found bigger then their naturall accustomed proportions By this therefore I have sufficiently expressed unto you the attractive and contractive property of the Northern Pole in the aire which inferreth thus much that as the Northern blasts are enemies unto life because they contract from the circumference to the Center which is contrary unto the act of man's life therefore all things that are reduced into a chill cold and Northern property be they airy watery or earthy they draw strongly unto them as it is proved by the weather-glass For the included aire being animated by the effects of a strong and obstinate Northern wind sucketh and draweth the waters on high namely from the Aequinoctiall point of the glass unto the Center of the North Pole which is assigned by the head of the mattras and also by the same reason congealed spirits in any earthly substance do suck or draw from the exteriour to the interior as we observe that Bole Armoniack sucketh moysture unto it and also all other earth when it is throughly dry and that in his own naturall condition namely because it being of the quality of the North it sucketh and draweth strongly a watery moysture but this is by reason of his drought the attraction therefore in the Load-stone is otherwise For it having the essentiall nature of its mother Earth and the virtue of the North in his Pole draweth the masculine Sulphureous spirits out of Iron greedily and that with a feminine appetite by reason of the propinquity and likeness of one nature unto another The like regard also hath the Pole star unto the Load-stone as the Load-stone hath unto the Iron which is his like For Natura Natura suá gaudet laetatur Nature is glad and rejoyceth in her like nature as Empedocles doth truly testifie But both the Iron and the Load-stone are of one myne one vein and one nature seeing that both of them are of an earthly and boreall disposition and therefore the Load-stone and his formall included spirits being more encombred with superfluities then the refined Iron doth as it were either for their assistance namely to be delivered from that incombrance draw unto them their like out of the purified Iron or Steel by a wonderfull appetite and in this action suck unto it the Iron who as unwilling to leave its formall spirit doth follow by a naturall continuity the motion of its formall beams or else for comfort and consolation yea and formal refection's cause no otherwise then the cold materiall female doth the more formall male to be refreshed by the masculine seed or sulphureous Form which they both received from that generall Agent 's ideal Northern nature that sustaineth and animateth the earth I will prove it by a similitude but in a vegetable substance We observe that the grain of wheat not participating with the nature of the earth that is so long as it is above ground and not sown attracteth not his like from heaven but when it is committed unto the earth and the earth by corruption hath unloosed his bands his spirits suck down from above the Sun-beams and celestiall influences of his fixt constellation and erratick Planet in quantity that thereby it may be delivered and rise again by the celestiall beams of his own nature that descend from heaven and principally from the Sun so that like being added to his like becommeth the stronger in ascention For experience teacheth us that the celestiall included form or vitall beam creepeth out of the earth upwards tending by all his appetite unto its ethereal native home from whence it came but because the Element of fire is contiguous unto the aethereal spirit therefore it will not permit these aethereall or sunny-beams to ascend without it and because the aire is a near-cleaving and continued neighbour unto the fire therefore it will not permit the fire to ascend without his presence and again the water challengeth the self-same priviledge namely to ascend with the aire and lastly the earth will not let the water move upwards without her company as being next of her race and therefore will have the self-same prerogative with the other three But because the earth is ponderous and cannot ascend she holdeth it fast below and will not permit the spirit to sore higher and so those beamy spirits which seemed to descend for the freedom of their brethren are by these Elementary ties or rather the four-fold disposition of one Element detained and made to hover and hang in the aire where insteed of flying upwards to heaven they do multiply into many graines And I have noted by mine own experience namely by anatomising of corn with the fiery knife of distillation that the female in corn which sucketh down the celestiall influences of the like nature is a pure volatil Salt of a refined or aereall terrestrial condition but rich in celelestiall fire and therefore made volatil and airy by the union of both extreames so that it is this female
which allureth and draweth down magnetickly beams from above and holdeth them fast to multiply its own nature even like the fowler that maketh use of a captived bird to allure others of the same kind unto his netts But as for the female mineral nature because the body of it is more compacted and not corruptible it sucketh unto it for the self-same reason namely by the attractive virtue of his stiptick and attractive salt the essentiall beams of Iron as from a star of his own nature to solace and redeem his spirits and consequently with the spirit it sucketh also the masculine body forasmuch as the one cannot be well devided from the other and when it hath them it retaineth them partly for a consolation and corroboration and partly for a multiplication of his essence And therefore those Philosophers are deceived which averre that the Load-stone doth not secretly feed upon the formall spirits of Iron because though its force was preserved by immersing or burying of it in a bag of filings or scales of Iron yet because neither the Load-stone was augmented nor the Iron diminished in waight they conclude that it doth not nourish But they ought to know that the formall beams in the aire doth adde no more waight unto it then the light of a candle doth to the glass or water in which it shineth and yet it nourisheth formally that is it multiplieth in formall essence though not in materiall substance or quantity To conclude as the externall cold causeth the formall heat in the aire to contract it self in flying and retiring it self from the circumference unto the Center to eschew the assaults of his adversary so also the externall cold doth compact it into a more solid space by an antiperistaticall reverberation and contraction caused by the Northern cold's penetration But in the Load-stone the spirit is Saturnine and doth not otherwise suck in his like by the assistance also of a Saturnine body animated by the drouth of a Martial nature which also is by some ascribed unto the North But moreover it affecteth his like in the Iron and therefore by a sympatheticall desire is the more animated unto that business of Attraction And it should appear besides all this that there is an attractive property also in the body of the Iron which sucketh unto it the spirits of the Loadstone no otherwise than the male or Mars doth in his nature covet and affect Venus but because the female by reason of her coldness doth most affect and desire the company of the male the spirituall beams of her affection doth with the most fervency desire and covet and therefore draw and alluâ—e the beams of the male which is of a hotter and for that reason of a more perfect nature unto her and this is observed in the Iron which I take for the male for though it of it self without the Load-stones assistance doth convert his poles by a naturall inclination unto the poles of the world yet we observe that it is more slowly and with the lesser appetite and therefore more formall than materiall I collect therefore upon that which is already said that two like things which are of the nature of the Aequinoctiall and temperate Zone do affect and embrace one another by a sympatheticall emission of beams from the center unto the circumference and such is the love of those creatures which live by the property of a positive emanation as are animals which are of a hot disposition be they dry or moist and therefore they do not sensibly draw one spirit unto another but work by the union which is made by a conjunction or concurrency together of lights after an emission of their formall beams And these have a reference unto the spirits property which issueth from the east and south winds whose natures are to dilate from the center and therefore not to contract from the circumference Contrariwise two like natures which embrace the property of the Poles and cold Zones do affect and hug one another by contraction namely by sucking and drawing of each nature from the circumference unto their center even as we see one Load-stone divided in the middle will draw and suck another unto it self till both parts of it be fitly joyned together in the very place or equinoctiall of their division and after this fashion also is that attractive affection made which is between the iron and the Loadstone which are creatures subject unto Saturn Vâ—rgo and the Pole-star From these Physicall and Astronomicall assertions of ours the Chimycall contemplation varieth not much for if in that kind of speculation we do observe the nature of the Load-stone we shall find it not to spring from any naturall but rather from a monstrous birth or generation forasmuch as it is noted to proceed from unequall and unlike parents as the Mule doth for if we observe well the manner of its composition we shall finde that his mother or passive corporeall masse is a common stony and earthly Mercury and that his father or active form is a metallick or sulphureous Martiall spirit And in conclusion we shall perceive that their mixtion is effected in this manner The Mercuriall liquor of a stony earthly or Saturnine nature being as yet in its first matter or shell as it were and being a near neighbour unto the Mercury of Mars for these two natures are most commonly found near and in company one of another did hereupon and for this cause acquire unto it self a light transmutation and so do appear to be joyned together by a streight contiguous and almost continued union so that the composition doth obtain a mean existence between the nature of a Martiall mettle and a Saturnine stone and may well be tearmed a Mercury metamorphosed by halves or a kind of a Hermophroditicall Saturnine Mercury into the which when the Sulphureous Martiall spirits as the metallick form do enter it receiveth those Martiall spirits and conserveth them in its womb as their proper passive and mother and by that means the mass is coagulated into a stony body Now since every spirit and consequently this of the Load-stone desireth to be nourished by that which is nearest and likest unto his own nature the which nature or spirit is onely found in Iron it happeneth for this reason that the inward martiall spirit of the Load-stone doth draw the body of Iron unto it and after an occult manner doth seem to suck his nourishment out of it I conceive therefore that the fixt salt in the Iron or Load-stone is partly of a hot and dry Martiall nature and consequently of a fiery earthly condition and partly of a cold and dry stiptick and Saturnine faculty which also it receiveth from its earth and therefore there concurreth two testimonies of strange attraction in the Load-stone And because Venus is said to be the female friend and companion unto Mars she doth add a strong concupiscible desire unto the attraction and bridleth the irascible
earth with his presence This therefore was it that made some even of our Christian Philosophers to break forth into these speeches Deus est Natura Natura Deus God is Nature and Nature is God Whereby they ment that the naturating or radicall informing nature was the eternall emanation which made and informed the humid nature of the world which for that reason was called Natura naturata or the Nature which was made naturall namely by the presence of the Naturating nature or Spirit of the Lord which moved upon the waters and imparted unto them of his fiery informing Vigor or Essence as we may find partly by Sacred Testimony and partly by the confirmation of St. Austin We must therefore after a due consideration of this which is said infer that if the influence be compleatly animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord then must it be indued with the properties of that Spirit or Divine Nature and consequently it must be the most subtill quick movable and penetrating of all spirits and in that respect will be able to pass through all solid bodies without resistance and also to ingender augment and nourish all things and being incorporated or specificated it procreateth like individualities of their like and again it hath in regard of our capacity an infinite extension and therefore cannot be limited All which I purpose by experience or ocular demonstration to demonstrate in this manner We find in practice that the Load-stone by virtue of his subtill spirit which doth internally animate it is made so potent through it in his attractive virtue that it is able without resistance to display and transmit the beams of his active virtue quite atravers the hardest stones the most solid and finest grained wood through thick plates copper tin silver or gold yea and to penetrate quite through the impenetrable glass it self and other such like compacted stuff which have no sensible porosity or spiracle which is an evident Argument that this spirit is of a far more peircing and subtill nature than the sublunary aire forasmuch as it is denied passage through the slightest paper-skin or bladder In the like manner man's inward or celestiall spirit which is the vehicle of this vivifying beam is so subtil in it self that nothing is able to resist it when the inward mentall beam doth aime at any mark how far or how inaccessible soever it may be esteemed in the fleshly mans conceit For being this celestiall or aethereall spirit in man is made after the pattern of the Divine Image which it beareth it must also resemble it in its actions Now the subtilty of the Divine act in man's spirit is expressed by Hermes in these words Quicunque hac Dei Naturà fulti sunt intelligentià suâ cunctà complectuntur quae in terra sunt in mari siquid est praeter ea supra coelum atque adeo scipsos erigunt ut ipsum quoque bonum intueantur Who soever do rely on this Divine Nature may comprehend by their understanding all thingâ— whâ—ch are upon the earth and in the seas yea and besides all this any thing that is in heaven above and also they may elevate themselves in such a manner that they may behold the face of goodnesse it self c. Whereby he signifieth the all-sufficient act of penetration which is in the mentall beam by whose unresistable action the celestiall influence doth penetrate and operate without any intermediate resistance in and through all things By which it is evident that as every inferior specifick creature is indued with this essentiall spirit and doth consist and is as it were founded and edificated on it as on an essential Corner-stone or Foundation so the emission of his beams is not to be limited by any setled Sphere of activity as the unadvised and more sensuall then intellectuall Philosophers have defined it to be being that it is Vis in rebus infinita An infinite virtue or nature in things and therefore not finite or determinable For look how far it shineth or emitteth his active spirit out of the Center of the celestiall star even so far is this Centrall terrestriall bright Spirit able to make his Semidâ—ameter of extension So that as the heavenly starr's beamy influence doth penetrate downward unto the Center of the earth even after the very like manner doth each terrestriall star peirce unto the Center of the celestiall star from whence it was derived and the more rich and exalted is the starry form in the creature the nearer it approacheth unto the nature of the most exalted star in heaven and maketh his extension the more forcible Now as we see that every Astrall influence in the creature doth by a naturall inclination and that Sympathetically aspect the star or celestiall Fountain from which it did spring and likewise that star in heaven by a paternall respect doth send down his influences to feed and nourish his like filiall fire or form in the creature here below and both of them by a mutuall relation do rejoyce together at the spirituall presence of each other whereupon it is said Naturá natura laetatur naturam continet O natura coelestis veritatis naturas Dei nutu multiplicans Nature is rejoyced in nature and containeth nature O celestiall nature which by the Will of God doth mulâ—ply natures so likewise each kind or species which is indued with all one influence doth because of his likness to another send forth by a sympatheticall consent beams of one nature making an harmonious Symphony in the concourse of their beams by which they do agree in union of love And for this reason the axiom of the Philosophers before mentioned runneth in this strain Natura ex similibus similia procreare solet Nature doth use to procreate like of like And this is the cause why each specifick Form doth rejoyce in its like and is ready to produce his kind and doth not use to passe the limits of his kind as for example A Man's nature produceth a Man a Horse a Horse a fenel-seed fenel a bean a bean wheat produceth wheat c. And also the nature of each thing so created is most amiable unto the nature of his like and sendeth forth the amiable and Sympatheticall beams of his affection to concurre with the like beams which are emitted from his like so that both of them do easily consent and rejoyce at each other and by contraction of beams they indeavour to cause a union For this reason therefore the Load-stone rejoyceth at the aspect of its like for if one Load-stone meeteth with another each will aspect the other by their Saturnine Sulphureous spirits and embrace each other For by their applications they will Centrally suck and draw the one to the other with a Sympatheticall imbracing Also because that the Iron is subject unto the self-same constellation and hath his Centrall star in all points correspondent unto the Load-stone for which essentiall consanguinity
of the salt in the ashes and saffron conquered and tamâ—â—d so that as it dieth the insulting humour and his venomous spirit decayeth and fadeth by little and little in his strength till it be finally quite extinguished Whereby it is evident that by one and the same medicine the spirit in the urin's salt and that in the sick-man's blood are both sympathetically refreshed and purified and the flame of the evill infecting spirit of the disease as well as in the urine as sick body is antipathetically quenched and annihilated In this respect therefore we compare the composition of urine ashes and saffron in this cure unto the weapon-salve in the consolidating of wounds and the urine carried from the sick unto the mass so compounded unto the blood or spirit on and in the weapon and the exsuscitating of the congealed spirit in the salt of the urine unto the revivifying and exagitating of the spirit in the dead blood or sucked up by the poâ—y substance of the weapon so that we see here all one consent For as the dead blood came from the lively fountain of blood so the urine was the whey or serous substance of the same well-spring not left destitute of the bloody spirits What shall we say unto the admirable effects in the transplantation of the bloody spirits in man into other animals or vegetables Veâ—ily it is a thing well known unto such as are well seen in the mysteries of naturall microâ—osâ—iâ—all and macroâ—osâ—icall Magick that the spirituall Mummy whose seâ—t is in the microcosmicall blood may be suâ—ked or drawn out of mans â—ody by a Magneâ— extracted out of the same subject and transplanted into a beast tree oâ— herb so that the disease also of the sick man may be conveyed from the sick person into them by means of this microcosmicall Magnes the practise whereof shall be expressed more at large in the next Book Also Johannes Râ—melius Pharamundâ—s doth profess that he hath cured divers of the Gout by cutting off the haires of the feet and thighes and paring off the nailes and thrusting of them into a hole which he bored unto the very pith of an Oke and closing or ramming up the hoâ—e again with a peg or pin made of the same tree and afterward daubing it up and covering it over with cow-dung Then saith he if the Gowte come not again within the space of three months the Oke will be sufficient to draw magnetically unto it the disease but if the Gowt come again within three months space it noteth the insufficiency of the Okes magneticall vertue Wherefore then he proceedeth after this manner He boreth a hole in another Oke as before and keepeth those pieces which in the boring came out of the Oke and bruiseth them and quilts or stitcheth them up in a bag and applyeth them to the member grieved and this he doth just three daies before the new Moon Then in the very hour of the new Moon he taketh away the bag and taketh out the bruised wood and putteth it into the hole of the tree and rammeth it in with a peg or pin of the same Oke And if for all this the Gowt shall be perceived within three three months after then he cutteth off the hair and nails of the feet and tyeth them unto the back of a Crab-fish and casteth it into the running water and the gowty person will be cured This Doctor of Physick doth professe in a certain Book of his set forth by him in the German Tongue that he hath cured many by the first experiment and many other by the first and second one after another and lastly many desperate ones by the first second and third And he saith that this manner of cure is commonly found certain in those Gowts which happen of a sulphureous cause but in those Gowts which rise from a Mercuriall and salt nature it often faileth And therefore leaving this magnetick manner of cure he betaketh himself unto a more externall kind of remedy I have also in my Squeezing of Mr. Foster's Spunge related unto you the strange sympathy which is betwixt the Vegetable called Rosa-solis and the matrix of a woman and how it being laid in Plantain water it closeth it self and if a part of that water be drunk by a woman that is in Travell and the herb in the water be removed into another house yet at that very instant that the woman is upon delivery the flower or herb will by little and little open it self even as the matrix of the woman doth An evident argument that those beams which issue from these two do sympathize with one another To conclude it is most evident that seeing the spirituall Astralicall vertues in each inferiour creature do descend from celestiall stars and are of one continued nature with them as the Sun-beams which are here below are not divided or separated from their fountain of light it followeth that they emit their beamy influences unto one another even as the two stars do in heaven from whence they are animated so that if the two stars in heaven be friends they both do sympathize in the occurrences of their emanations with one another but if they be enemies to one another in heaven they will in their applications of beams antipathize and decline from one another And as touching the distance which they observe in their mutuall action with one another we must imagine it to extend it self so far as their beams are able to apply to one another And I would have such men as are onely conversant about sensâ—ble affairs know that the action of these creatures by aspect unto one another do operate occultly though the effect doth nor alwaies manifest it self unto ouâ— sense but withall they ought to conceive that the nearer in naturall affinity the stars in heaven and consequently the things beneath which are subject unto those spirits are unto one another the more efficacious will the sympathising effects prove by reason that then their beams will meet directly that is without any swerving or declination CHAP. VI. That the devill doth make use of naturall things to operate his stratagems amongst men without the which he can effect nothing truly but onely prestigiously or by delusion And whether those Naturall things are therefore Cacomagicall and to be eschewed of Mankind because their secret effects do sometimes conform themselves unto the voluâ—ty of the devill WE read in many places in Scripture that the devill maketh use of Gods creatures to bring to pass his secret devices and stratagems against mankind as for example Satan to impoverish and ruinate the fortune of patient Job did make use of the winds and did call as the Text saith the fire of God from heaven to consume his cattle God forbid that we should esteem for this reason these creatures of God to be cacomagicall and diabolicall because God made them act to accomplish the will of the devill He made him also a Prince of the
transplanting of it into a vegetable plant herb or tree as in the progress of this Book shall be more amply declared But because the order of these things in our demonstration à posteriori or by progression from the effect unto the originall cause of these things will be most convenient for the common and vulgar capacity I will begin to ascend in this mine explication from grosser elements unto more subtle intricate and abstruce things as if by proportionate degrees I should mount from the earth into heaven I purpose therefore first to express and demonstrate unto you those things magnetically which are onely wrought by the corporall contact of two severall bodies of the same naturall condition But before I will begin with the Mummy which is taken out of mans dead body I think it in the first place most necessary to entreat of the dead carcase his mystery that we may proceed the more methodically in our intent CHAP. II. That there are four sorts of corporall Mummy whereof one onely is usefull and necessary for salutary purposes In this Chapter also is set down an experiment with certain ocular Demonstrations confirming the magneticall or a tractive vertue of the Basamick spirits which are in the usefull Mummy SUch as have profoundly considered and deeply respected as well the externall as internall nature of man have perceived that the microcosmicall Mummy is of two conditions namely corporall or spirituall of the first I purpose to speak in this present Chapter the second shall be handled hereafter and that at large Touching the corporall Mummy it is either naturally sympatheticall or unnaturally antipatheticall We find therefore by experience that the naturall Mummy is onely medicinable and salutiferous after his due preparation which is effected chiefly by his own magnetick property the rest are apter to breed diseases and to infect such persons as are in health than to afford them any salutary relief or consolation for as according unto the nature of the four elements there are four kinds of corporall and substantiall Mummyes so also are they distinguished according unto those elements whose natures they have endued of the which three of these are corruptible and inducers of death and sickness namely the earthly the watery and the fiery and onely that which is airy is util to mans life and amicable unto his nature Concerning those three kinds of Mummy which breed corruption the reason why they prove corruptible is this We must hold it first for a generall axiom in Philosophy Quod corruptum corrumpentis naturam in se induit That the thing corrupted doth endue the nature of the thing corrupting As for example If the dead carcase of a man be corrupted in the earth it is changed and passeth into the nature of the earth and becommeth inutil for mans health and indeed rather destructive then constructive or wholsome Again if the corruption be made in the water then the corrupted flesh or dead body will acquire or endue a waterish and masseluginous disposition which also will prove very incommodious or unprofitable for the conservation of the vitall spirits And lastly by the inordinate violence of fire the spirits in the Mummiall body will be consumed wasted or expired Now the reason why these said corporall Mummie's in those estates are inconvenient for the conservation of health is Because the foresaid three do so destroy and corrupt the body of them that they make and constrain his earth his water and his fire to return unto their first matter so that whereas the earth and the water are ordained to be the receptaâ—les of two vivifying elements namely of fire and aire which onely can be conserved in a body that is incorrupted it must of necessity follow that in the three foresaid Mummies those vivifying spirits must needs vanish and fly away for want of a naturall body which is now become corrupted and destroyed and therefore unnaturall Seeing therefore nothing is required in the true Mummy more then that which is apt and proper for the conservation of life yea for life it self which is the aire which is banished and expelled from the three forsaid Mummies therefore nothing can be extracted out of them but sickness death and destruction and consequently antipatheticall effects so that if a sound murthered oâ— strangled body do rot under the earth or in the water it is not fit or proper for the wholsome use of mans body The very self-same regard is to be had unto such bodies as die through infirmityes and diseases and although they are not visibly corrupted by the three foresaid externall elements yet nevertheless it happeneth so that a certain invisible corruptible influence and impression is made or caused from the externall elements into the internall From hence therefore proceedeth that intestine war in mans body whereby the elements do kill and corrupt one another but after a divers fashion namely otherwise in one body than in another according as one element or elementall alteration is said to have dominion or rule over the other And this is the reason that such variety of diseases do haunt mans body as for example The Dropsie commeth of the strong impression of water the Hectick or burning Feavor of fiery insultations and the Leprosie of the dominion of earth c. And therefore also where any such elementary corruption happeneth unto the body there the wholsome spirit of the corporall Mummy with his habitacle or dwelling mansion is utterly overthrown and the spirit is forced to depart and consequently contrary Mummiall spirits do dominere and are ready to operate antipathetically as shall be expressed in the second member of this Book But if the sound body that is not haveing any infirmity be killed onely by and in the Element of aire that is to say through strangling or by hanging then there will be found no impression of the foresaid Elements in the corporall Mass of mans carcass And for that reason it will remain incorrupted and will not suffer any Elementall resolution so long as it is conserved in the aire If therefore the body or tabernacle of the spirits and vital Balsom remaineth entire then that aereall vitall Balsom is not compelled to depart from his lodging so long as the body is not resolved by nature or art But if it be resolved then it will forsake the body as the soul doth as also the animal astral spirit which did reconcile the one with the other But the vitall vegetable and Balsamick spirit remaineth in the incorrupted body It followeth therefore that this airy kind of Microcosmicall Mummy is most proper for the conservation of vitall spirits in the living man being extracted prepared and rightly after preparation to be applied I will therefore come briefly unto our Magneticall Experiences touching this Mummiall Subject The Proposition If this salutary kind of airy Mummy with his vehicle or Magneticall instrument be taken or chosen or selected rightly it will indue by reason of the
not intrude into the science of the Simples venomous nature to do harm thereby but to discern the counter-poyson which should prevent the mischief thereof as the Scorpion cureth the Scorpions the Viper the Vipers harms Must every man that hath a sword needs kill or do a mischief with it May he not defend another from being killed or harmed So also it followeth not that he must therefore poyson his patient because he knoweth the poyson and the manner how to correct or amend his malice which hath deprived his patient of his health Except the poyson be known the Alexipharmicon or counter poyson will hardly be had If the Hermit of Aix of whom I have spoken before had not known the especiall antidote to cure those which he had poysoned and infected with the pestilence many of those which he afterwards cured would have died with the rest If there be devills incarnate whose dâ—light is to destroy as some men that wear swords delight in quarrelling and killing and othersome that know the good use of fire employ it naughtily as he did who destroyed with it Dâ—ana's temple of the Ephesians God forbid that such natural creatures as are fire iron and such like should be abandoned and not exercised in their right usage because they do harm when they are abused There are Saints as well as there are devills on the earth who being acquainted with the impious inventions and devices of these devills with their arch-master Satan are able to challenge and combat them at their own weapons Schollars learn of Aristotle the art of sophistry and fallacy not that they should deceive but that they should prevent deceipt and the honest and most skilfull and faithfull Physitian prieth into the mystery of the most spirituall poyson not with an intent to poyson or do any evill by it but that he may with the greater assurance and vigorous efficacy attempt the cure and take away the cause after it is known for the nature of the poyson being well understood the cure will be the more certain The venomous wound of the Viper as I have said is cured by the Theriacall antidote into whose composition the flesh of Vipers doth enter the oyle of Scorpions or the Scorpion of it self being bruised doth cure the sting of the Scorpion and that by a magneticall attraction of his like All which being so why should not the wise Physitian look into the nature of spirituall venoms as well as the spirituall counter-poysons that are in man When we find that the venom that woundeth is by reason of his homogeniety in nature the perfectest Magnet to suck and draw unto it his like If by the sound Mummy in man I can cure or take away the corruption or venom which his like nature hath accidentally imbibed is it not a fit and convenient thing to know the one as well as the other I must confess that there are fleshly devills upon earth I mean abhominable ministers and children of Satan who being abandoned unto their master and head commit as I have told you before many insolencies and trecherous straragems by the blood hair bones skin and corporall Mummy of mans body but above all the rest the wickedness of certain theeves hangmen and other of that Necromanticall faction is abhominable before God and man and worthy to be whipped out with iron or wiped away with fire out of every good Common-wealth which by their diabolicall sleights do make use of mans last breath in their expiration of life to serve for their wicked employment as spirits made obedient to their wills and so do disturb the quiet rest of the dying man's spirit Of which kind of wicked persons Paracelsus speaketh thus Per triplices hasce Mummias multa passim praestita confecta sunt ab iis cumprimis qui illas ipsimet preparârunt ut sunt carnifices lictores latrones c. qui non solum vitam hominibus ademerunâ— jugulatos ipsos Mummiam fecerunt sed etiam jugulatorum spiritum quem spiritum hominis vocaverunt exceperunt illumque sibi in extremo mortis momento subjecerunt seu subjugaverunt ac variis impositis oneribus exagitârunt Hinc ars enata est Necromantiae taliter ab ipsis vocatae Vae autem huic arti ac illis universis qui tam faede illâ— abutuntur Nâ—cromantia quidem ipsa est sed diaboli seu à diabolo instillaâ—a docta tradita ac ab ipsius instrumentis seu mancipâ—is in abusum tam grandem conversa sunt enim illi homines nocentissimi quibus praestaret lapidem molarem de collo suspendi ac ita in profundum maâ—e eâ—ici By these three kinds of Mummies there are many things done and effected and that especially by such as have prepared them as are the hangmen the sâ—rgeants and thieves c. who do not onely bereave men of their lives but also they have received the spirit of those whose throats they have cut or strangled and do make them subject or do subjugate it unto them From hence springeth the art of Necromancy so termed by them Fie upon this art and upon all such as are so filthily abused by it Verily it is Necromancy but of the devill or it is instilled taught and delivered by the devill and is by his instruments or slaves converted into so great an abuse for these are wicked harmful persons about whose neck it were better that a milstone were hanged that they were with it cast into the bottom of the sea I am advertised that the hangmen of Germany are commonly artists in this devillish kind of trade and by it can do wonders the more is the pitty that they are suffered Thus therefore each man may discern a manifest difference between the true use and the abhominable abuse of a good thing and how as I said before there are devills incarnate as well as Saints or good and pious men upon the earth whereof some do use Gods creatures to the benefit of man and others unto his ruine and destruction And consequently that it is lawfull for a Physitian to be conversant in both extreams though his onely practise ought to be imployed in doing good I will now descend unto my subject CHAP. III. How Sympathy may by accident or disorder be changed into Antipathy Here also certain magnetâ—call Demonstrations convenient to prove each Proposition concerning this subject are expressed I Purpose in this Chapter which toucheth the effects of Antipathy to proceed after the self-same method which I observed in my precedâ—nt discourse of Sympathy and therefore in the first place I will propose unto you certain grounds which I for that reason call Propositions and then afterward I will demonstratively maintain them many waies 1 Proposition As by sympathy in naturall spirits each member may be corroborated and fortified so by their antipathy members may be debilitated corrupted and infected An experimentall Example or Demonstration If the spirituall Mummy extracted out
of man be mingled with venomous things and so be suffered to rot or else be mingled with the Mummies of infirm or infected persons or with the poysonsome menstrues of a woman and then a herb be planted or the magnet so imbibed and be conserved in a continuall vegetation it may be a cause that the disease should be of continuance Also if one give the herb or fruit which savoureth of a sick man's Mummy unto a beast that is of a stronger nature then the sick then the beast will be infected with that disease and the sick will be free From this experiment many egregious abuses may and would be effected by wicked men if this manner of diverting the creatures vertue from good to bad were known unto them for by it they may disseminate agues and the pestilence over a whole Country for the plant will suck out the spirituall Mummy of such persons as are infected with such venomous diseases by reason of its vegetating activity Also if the spirituall Mummy be extracted by means of this microcosmicall Magnet out of a body infected with the Leprosie and be applyed or any way administred inwardly unto another that is healthfull and sound it will infect the sound person and free the infected as it hath been proved by some 2 Proposition The antipatheticall Mummy of the sick may be extracted and infected or infused into another that is sound A demonstrative Example This is confirmed by the precedent proofs and is further maintained thus If one do sow seeds or herbs pertaining unto the three principal members in the Mummy of a dead carcase or in the Mummy extracted out of a sick or infected person and the fruit of these vegetables be given or administred unto man or beast then the disease will be transplanted upon the said man or beast By this means also naughty men may infect and poyson But because these mischiefs are horrible to a religious spirit I dare not farther express the effects of antipathy in spirits which may be brought to pass by the abusing of Gods blessings I will therefore enter into another kind of antipatheticall practice which shall rather tend unto the conservation of man then the destruction of it 3 Proposition If two lively fleshes that are wounded be applied to each other they will sympathize and be united assimilated and made one continued flesh so that as the one prospereth the other will do the like also conditionally that the party from whom the added flesh is borrowed continue in his lively and vegetable disposition but if the animal tree from which the graff was taken I mean the body out of which the flesh was lent or cut do wither or die that is doth leave to vegetate and act then will that borrowed flesh also be at jarr and discord with the flesh of the borrower that liveth and vegetateth and consequently antipa hy will spring out from that union which was sympatheticall before so that except the dying flesh be amputated or taken off from the lively flesh upon the which it was grafted or transplanted it will cause the living flesh also to gangrenate and corrupt with it self An experiment to confirm this This is well proved and maintained by that experiment in Italy before mentioned for when a certain noble personage had lost his nose by a wound and had by the Physitians advice made a wound in one of his slaves armes and clapped it unto his wounded nose and so the flesh of the one was bound fast unto the flesh of the other continuing after that manner untill by a sympatheticall agglutination and union both fleshes became one flesh Then a gobbit of the slave's flesh was cut out of the arm and was framed into the shape of a nose on the Noble-man and the slave was manumitted with mony in his purse for his paines It befell thaâ— on a certain time after the slave did die and though he departed this life being far distant from his master yet the borrowed flesh on the masters nose withered and gangrenated insomuch that the antipathy between these two fleshes though united into one substance became so great that if immediately that dead flesh had not been cut off it would have corrupted and destroyed the rest A Problematicall Demonstration from the Load-stone One Load-stone doth draw another in his naturall position but being unnaturally ordered it driveth away or resisteth the other The demonstration of this Problem hath been expressed as well by a Load-stone divided in Boats as by two Irons swimming on corks 2 Problem If a plant be cut off as for example a willow-wand and if it be regularly planted or grafted on the same stick it will grow but if irregularly it will die For the proof of this Problem look the 2 Proposition of the 5 Chapter in the Application unto the Vegetable The Application So if the spirits of the two fleshes be unnaturally disposed unto one another and turned from their sympatheticall union unto an antipatheticall duality or disunion or discord in natures then will it after unequall jars follow a generall corruption for as is said before Corruptum corrumpentis naturam facillime induit 4 Probâ—em If a spiritual Mummy be corrupted by some alien or strange infectious nature yet in respect of the naturall Mummy of the sound and wholsom body which is so infected the sound and wholsom Mummy of a body not infected will magnetically attact it though not so affectionately but more slowly by reason of the union or adhering of the strange venom unto it which causeth a mixtion of antipathy with that of sympathy and the reason of that slowness in the repelling of the antipatheticall insult is because the sound and homogeniall Mummy doth partly by his concupiscible act attract unto it his sympatheticall like and partly expell his contaminating unlike by his irascible property But for that this antipatheticall unlike cleaveth so fast unto his infected like therefore it happeneth that the expulsive resistance is but slow and so the sound spirituall Mummy becommeth as well corrupted and infected as the other and by that means Sympathy is turned into Antipathy An Experiment to confirm this There are many proofs to maintain this for when a corrupted spirituall Mummy is carried in the aire from one infected with a pestilent Feavour or small Pox the Mummy so infected doth unite it self being homogeniall unto the sound man's spirit and in that regard the one embraceth the other but the sound Mummiall spirit perceiving and tasting of the heterogeniall or infected nature which adhereth unto his like doth slowly expell or resist it by reason that it doth covet his like and therefore sympathetically attracteth and again hateth his unlike and therefore antipathetically expelleth which is for that reason but slowly performed and this is the cause that the expulsive crisis is not made suddenly after the poysonsome infection is received neither will sweats or fluxes or eruption of blood out of the nose which