needs no proof but appears sufficiently manifest from the natural and sometimes the immature end of Animals Vegetables and Minerals which we see every day by their corruption when the Body being dead the Spirit must undergo the same fortune that is the vertue that enlivened it is annihilated but because the prime Opificer would be admirable in all his works of his meer goodness and love to Mankinde who from the beginning he predestinated to be the Instrument of his Glory and to whom he subjected whatever was admirable in the Creation for his Commodity I say he gave certain expedient Remedies whereby he might not onely purifie and perfect the things created but also preserve and arm himself against the assaults of mortal corruption Knowing then that the two parts of Man were one created in another to wit the Spirit in the Body and that the Body would be continually infected by corruption and by sensuality drawn and allured to intemperance which infers the true corruption and weakning of all the members he foresaw that the Spirit inhabiting like a Guest in the Body could not be exempted from its contagious depravation and we ordinarily see That Men given to excess of intemperance and sensuality accustom themselves to ill manners and take liberty in all corruption both of Minde and Spirit neither regarding Love nor Fear to God Honor or Respect to the World nor Piety to themselves nor Charity towards their Neighbours So that it is impossible if they be thus bound to inquinations in death but their Spirits must undergo punishment as they have participated of pleasure Seeing moreover all mankinde by the fall of our first Parent obnoxious to death and thence every Man inevitably to incur total destruction and perdition he mitigated or rather redintegrated this Misery by an admirable Remedy far exceeding our capacity for knowing Man by his Spirit and his Body to participate of Heaven and of Earth the Remedy also he made to partake of Heaven and Earth which is competible solely to our onely Lord Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ who descended from Heaven into the Earth and by a mystery incomprehensible by us and common sense was miraculously made Man without the abdication of his God-head because our health could not come from Earth alone corruption reigning there but it was necessary that the Water should come from above where the Fountain of purity is he therefore came down that he might dwell in us and with us and conclude us within the terms of justice and temperance regenerating us to newness of life by the mutation of our Spirit and Body and mortifying in us our corruptions and sins and restoring us to the study of purity of vertue which could not have been effected save by him alone the extream of both Natures for he is God-Man that he might conjoyn superiour with inferiour things which were dis-joyned by the incomparable distance of life and death purity and corruption The Earth doubtlesly received this inestimable treasure far exceeding its merit by a medium that cannot be comprehended from which he again ascended into Heaven by the Water of purification and Fire of the Spirit without accidents and corporal passions though he deposed not his Body but retained it incorruptible and glorious having acquired immortality by death who shall again descend from his Fathers right-Hand into the Earth after the Universal conflagration to renew the World and make a Separation betwixt the good destined to life and the evil condemned to death See now how well the Omnipotent Father the Father of all compassions consulted for Mans good to whose Body joyned with his Soul he gave an equal Preserver whom he sent from Heaven that he might be born on Earth and whom by the light of Nature we ought to seek Seeing Man was therefore endued with Reason and Judgement that he might acknowledge and comprehend his great gifts but Man created heavenly for the indagation of this benefit as too forgetful of his birth lays out that noble and divine Light within him in searching out frivolous and transitory vanities and not in the pursuit of solid wisdom and verity Briefly he had rather follow the inclination of his Terrestrial Geniture then Divine and Celestial Wisdom which he neglects as a thing indifferent and casually sent to him from above Wherefore the Root of Mankinde is as it were extinguished before it grow out except some few who have had better Stars and more favourable Aspects in their Nativity they desiring the possession of transitory goods more then the attainment of Divine and precious Gifts which our fecund Mother Nature hath publickly and in all places fixed for the conservation of life hurt rather then helped by their abundance immerged in mortal corruption And it is apparent That those that are of a higher Spirit though they look upon the fulgour and splendor of those Mundane Riches as no way despicable yet they will not rest in this surface but seek to Divine Vertue occluded in the Centre which hath indeed been cause of great errors both in Medicine and Philosophy to such as destitute of true light groape at and in the dark pass by both Recalling then my mind to the clear light by whose guidance we may attain that salutary and best remedy which God ordained particularly for the conservation of mankinde and for the obtaining of Celestial benediction I shall endeavor with all humility and requisite sincerity not as a Divine but as a Disciple of Wisdoms followers to adumbrate my conceptions in a rude style which the lovers of verity may accept gratefully if they finde them rational and pleasing I say then that all understanding communicated to any man from man alone is uncertain and confused because man is ordinarily loaden with ignorance and slow resolutions but that which he receives from the univerial Light is clear and immoveable For to know absolutely is to understand a thing by its first causes and there is no certitude in second causes till we come to their original wherefore we cannot know the Nature of a Species unless we foreknow its Genus neither can we know the Nature of Microcosmes which are almost infinite unless we first find out the Nature of the Macrocosme that gives them being Man likewise cannot be known without the precedent cognition of the world whose effigies he is nor yet the great world unless we know whence and how it was made For how shall one know a man whose principle is nothing but a small deformed mucilage or how shall a man know him that is born unless he know those that begot him and here I mean not the second but the first Parents to wit heaven and earth and unless a man understand the first creation of these how shall he know them as an Embryo in a womb which is nothing but the congregation of a certain humour which is afterwards formed to the example of its parents and so in progress till it become perfect so
membres du monde Qui vas du tout en tout les natures changeant Pour ame universelle en tous corps te logeant Ausquels tu donne estre mourirment vie Promant par mille effects ta puissance infinit Pan strong and subtile great and general That art both Fire Air Earth Water and all That raign'st alwayes and over every thing Getting conceiving bearing and keeping What'ere beginning had or have an end That Art both Tree and Fruit both Foe and Friend The Spirit that doeth binde the worlds parts That penetrates all Natures and imparts Both life and motion power to act and will And that dost with thy vertue all things fill Saturn the Son of Heaven and Vesta which is the Earth and Husband to Ops his Sister which is that co-adjuvant and conservant power of all things represent Demogorgon and the Infants that he first devours and then vomits up again are they not Bodies to whom he gives being and at last reduces them to himself whence new ones alwayes issue that by his perpetual vicissitude the order established in the beginning may be preserved to the end He is sometimes painted with grey and sordid Hair his Head covered with a Sickle in his Hand and for his Symbole having a Serpent circularly grated and holding its Tail in its Mouth And sure he is old enough being the Grandfather of all His Beard and Hairs are white alwayes growing which are the things that always germinate He is sordid and ill disposed of himself because of the Terrestrial impurity which adheres to it by reason of its Sulphureous and Adustive Corruption His Head is covered that is the principle of perfection is closed in the cover of impurity which makes it known to few His Sickle is his Penetration Mordacity wherewith he penetrates devours all things The Serpents biting its tail is his regenerating nature wherby he repairs himself as is storied of the Phoenix by which name he is also sometimes called so that he is always conversant in a circular and indeficient encrease But methinks I hear some say That I miss of the intention of Authors in their fabulous description of Saturn for they mean by Saturn Lead which is of all Metals the Seniour which also devours all others by its crudity because it is full of Salt for Mordacity arises from Salt as the Refiners of Metals finde in their probations for it there vomits out the Gold and Silver which it deglutiated but could not consume because in its decoction they received Fixation so as to resist the weak heat of its Ventricle I do not altogether reject this sense because it is in some places conformable to the other and in that it is in all things concordant with what I have given I hope none will tell me mine is false Maia represented the Earth so called because out of her as a Mother the universal Spirit or Mercury had its origine and from the pure invisible Seed of Jupiter which is the Air for it proceeds really out of these as the learned Cosmopolita sayes in his precious Treatises Mercury is commonly painted with Wings that they may shew how she is of a volatile Nature his Head is covered with a Hat for the same Reasons that I before gave for Saturn's Head He carries a caduceous and fatal Rod encircled with Serpents both to signifie and denote his regenerative faculty as those Reasons also I gave to Saturn's Serpent By this Rod he opens Heaven and Earth and gives life and death and that Rod represents powerful Nature for by ascending into Heaven and descending to the Earth he acquires the vertues both of superiour and inferiour things By this same power he draws Souls out of Hell makes all Eyes yield to Sleep as Virgil writes of him He is by some also called Poyson and a Theriack or Life and Death according to his use and dosis for Life consists in due temperament and justice Death in excess Many other such mysteries are contained in this Heathenish Theology which have no other scope then that I aim at all which if I should here explain my Treatise would prove a Volume But I will not defatigate my Reader with frequent repetitions of one and the same thing These may suffice to shew That all Mythological Commentaries such as these with their Allegorical and Historical Sense gave no occasion to Poetical Fictions as if any Truth were in them but such things tend chiefly to shew the admirable operations of Chymistry as amongst others the Story of Jason and Medea explicated by Chrysogonus Polydorus To which Explication I will add That this Name Medea that signifies Cogitation Meditation or Investigation is derived from a word that denotes a Principle Origine or Reason for all Meditation hath doubtless some Principle or Reason for its Foundation This Medea taught Jason that is an Inquirer two things wherein all Philosophy consists first The Acquisition of the Golden that is the Art of changing Metals and Minerals And secondly The Restauration of Bodies weakned with Diseases readily and perfectly curing them and bringing them from old Age to Youth and Vigour by this sole and universal Medicine expelling all corrupt and corrumpent humours and superfluities from Bodies which would else bring them to their end Jason endeavoured and perfected these miraculous effects by the observation of Medea's counsel after long and laborious Navigation obnoxious to many perils both in sailing in killing the Dragon and taming the Bulls This Navigation is the laborious Inquisition and dubious Experience of things wherein many are exercised all their life long and cannot arrive at the Port of Nature The monstrous Bulls which he was to tame and subjugate are the Furnaces wherein the operations are made which do not ill represent a Buls Head and breath out Fire at their Mouth and Eyes as the Fable hath it for they must needs have some Transpirations else the Fire would be extinguished and the degree of its heat not regulated for unless some experienced Man regulate the Fire many things would fall out wrong in the operations and delude the Operators hopes as I have experienced for of nine Vessels which I reposed in a Furnace to give it a due degree of heat I lost eight and one I conserved by means whereof I obtained the said Experiments in curing Diseases The watchful Dragon is that universal Mercury which Cadmus had learned to kill that is fix the Campus Mortis wherein the teeth of the Martial Serpent should be sown is nothing but a vessel wherein Souldiers armed with Spears are elevated But this Vessel should not be a Glass-Alembick as Polydorus thinks but made in form of a Cooperculum or Covert narrow below and capacious above made of good Earth well cocted and not of Iron or Glass In whose bottom Mars his Field must be elevated rigid with Lances and Spears representing souldiers provoked and fighting And this is onely an ingenious Fiction of the
of Air and this raised vapour is nourished and augmented by the first vapour which never ceases to act on the matter of the Acorn till it have brought it to the period of that perfection to which Nature destined it which is to make it an Oak which when it hath acquired its perfect magnitude begins not indeed to die but to decline and gradually to return to its first form even to the Earth where the same vapour is not idle or deficient for of the putritude of this Tree certain Animals called Horse-lice with abundance of Worms are thereby generated yea when the Oak is turned into perfect Earth it causes a new vegetation But if any should say That the Acorn is augmented and multiplied to this magnitude he erres for it is manifest That in this germination the Acorn remains whole without diminution yea separates it self from the Tree when it is germinated The Oak then grows not from the augmentation and multiplication of the Acorn neither is it from addition and abstraction from the adjacent Earth for then so much of the Earth would be exhausted as the Trees magnitude is it must therefore necessarily proceed from some other way matter seeing by these wayes it cannot This Spirit then or Vapour which is ordained for no other end is that which is incorporated and produces this individual from which the creation augmentation and preservation of all things proceed and not from the Mass of the Earth which is nothing but the Excrement of the spirituous and primaeve matter as it appears by the digestion of the stomach which rejects Excrements in the same weight and quantity almost that it assumed Meat in when nevertheless it hath extracted its proper nutriment from it which is onely the Spirit included in that Mass which by its siccity makes it self a Body and by its humidity dilates and augments it self CHAP. 2. Of the conversion of this Spirit into Earth and how its vertue remans integrally in this Earth THe former Reasons seem sufficiently to evince That the Spirit of the World assumes a Body now we should declare how it is corporified and though in this search the labour will be great and effect small yet shall I endeavour to make this thing comprehensible especially for their sakes who in their nativities have had favourable Stars and are thereby rendred Admirers of these rarer Effects and Searchers of these occulter Secrets for in that many learned and curious Men have erred in the inquisition and detection of this Body arises from hence That some have believed this knowledge far to exceed Man's capacity and onely attainable by Angels or Devils Others have thought That it being called The Spirit of the World no Maâ— should feign to himself any but an Universal Body because an Universal Spiriâ— must also have an Universal Body Anâ— others have thought That it could noâ— be perceived but by conversion of morâ— perfect Bodies into their first Sperâ— and Spirit by exact and industrious subtiliation not minding nor considering That Nature admits of no regress and That Bodies by how much they arâ— more perfect by so much they are furtheâ— distant from their principles and fiâ— corporeity Some are of opinion That a Quinteâ—sence might be extracted from Bodies perswading themselves That the moâ—â— subtile and volatile part is that Spiâ—â—â— they seek so erring from the scope which they aim as if they would seâ— the East in the West for they maâ—â— Bodies spiritual where they shouâ— make Spirits corporeal But seeing thâ— Spirit is manifestly converted into Terrene Body and without contradiâ—â—â—on or doubt generates all bodies it mâ— therefore be extracted by them because otherwise they forsake the direct tract of Nature and seeing it is made a Terrene Body it may be perfected by Fire into something which the Quintessentials call their Heaven But corporification begins from the Earth for the first work of Mercury is to make Earth Why then do they begin with making of Fire which would proceed as if a Man should build a House and begin at the Roof But such as would reduce Bodies to their first being pretend and have more specious Reasons then those that would redact them to a Quintessence save that they go in a crooked way that leads them contrary to their meanings for besides that Nature never goes backwards they minde not that they should follow the way of completion and not of destruction or reversion to their origines and nativity for besides the impossibility of this course these wayes are so long and difficult that an ordinary term of Life cannot reach their end Moreover they can never attain the true and natural first Being this way but onely a phantastical Body far different from that wherewith Nature effects her productive operations which is solely the legitimate Sperm of all Bodies And if we consider now That all Bodies are made by Terrification we must needs grant That there is some prejacent subject most apt for the making of Earth But I said That in the beginning Fire was the first Operator in the World which elevates a spirituous Vapour then cocts dries and incorporates it for a Body cannot be made without coagulation which necessarily follows the driness of Fire And in what other place can this immassation desiccation and coagulation be made save in the Earth whence all Bodies proceed The prejacent matter then must needs be there occluded for if it be not there then all Bodies are made of nothing which is repugnant to Natures course which would have every thing to have its principle and out of nothing nothing but nothing to proceed This matter or principle then is bound to the Body of the Earth where it is nourished ingrossed and incorporated and therefore such as would extract the Quintessence out of perfect simple or imperfect Metals should do better to open the Matrix of the Mother and take the Sperm out there then to kill and destroy her Infants or adult Off-spring while they go about to reduce them to the state wherein they were in time of conception But if they should open this Matrix what would they there finde for nothing appears to sight or sense And many believing this way most profitable have been deceived whilst they thought in the bellies of Mynes to finde some seed of Gold which missing of they despair of their purpose because they never met with a middle disposition betwixt hardness and softness in Metals If therefore the eye can discern nothing here how then is it possible for them to get any thing This indeed is a work the other a labour Such Searchers surely believe not that the first matter is so subtile and loose a Spirit or Vapour as that it cannot be reached save onely by intellect and imagination However seeing it is contained in the Body of this great Parent and dwells there Reason evinces That it hath something of corporeity in it and although I have sufficiently declared to subtile
intellects of what Nature it is I shall further add That the Pores of the Earth are full of this Vapour which acquires a dry quality by its innate heat accompanied with some secret moisture by which it is condensed and coagulated into a specifical Body and as this moist Nature now dried up was first Water so it must be reduced into Waters again by Water which is the sole mean whereby to humectate dry things as fire is to siccate moist things which is a work duely observed by Nature in generating Metals for Water flowing through the Pores of the Earth findes there a dissoluble substance wherewith it unites its most simple parts to which union all the Elements concur in due proportion This substance then by its own dissolution is so conjoyned that it of it self condenses through hardness which is natural to it because of its innate siccity and by successive and long decoction acquires a metallical induration But now this substance being dissoluble of what other Nature can it participate but of Salt for nothing is so dissoluble as Salt which by how much it is more burned is by so much easier dissolved unless it be turned into Glass The first matter then is Salt or Salt is the first Body whereby this matter becomes visible or palpable of which Salt Raymundus speaks when in his Testament he saith We have before declared That in the Centre of the Earth there is a certain Virgin-Earth and true Element and that that is Natures work Nature therefore is placed in the Centre of every thing so Salt is this Virgin-Earth which hath yet produced nothing into which the Spirit of the World is converted by vitrification that is by extenuation of its moisture This is that which gives the form to all things and without which nothing could incur into the senses nothing is coagulated without Salt nothing congealed This is that that gives hardness to Gold as also to the Adamant and all Stones both precious and vulgar with a Secret vitrifying Vertue Yea what is more we manifestly see that all Bodies compounded of the four Elements return into Salt for if a Body putrefie what remains but powder and ashes covering most precious Salt and if a Body be destroyed by combustion calcination or incineration what rests in the last extraction but Salt Glass-makers do give manifest testimony hereto whence Arnoldus de villa nova in his new Chymical Light speaking of the permanent Water of Philosophers which Water is dry and wets the Tangents hand no more then common Quicksilver saith Who then can prepare this Water Well he may do it who can make Glass The same Author speaking of the excellency of this dry Water manifests it sufficiently when he saith in his Chymical Treatise which he calls his Philosophical Breviary That an Operator can no more do any thing without Salt then an Archer emit an Arrow without a cord or string And Fons Amantium saith the same Sans sel ne peux metre en effect Utile chose pour ton faict I can effect nothing in your rare Art Unless with Salt I'gin to operate All Bodies then are composed of Salt and as we said before the Principles of Composition and Resolution are equal which concurs with the Philosophers infallible Rule That the first matter of all things is one with the last where they alledge Ice and Snow for example which are by heat resolved into Water out of which they were by cold congealed And if I should here suggest the Testimony of all approved Authors to this Verity my Treatise would end in a Volume but that I may demonstrate That this Salt is pure and true Earth not such as we tread upon which I shall hereafter prove to be nothing but the Dregs and Excrements of the other I must recur to the first Creation which I shall decypher by a familiar example of an Operation made in imitation of Nature and by the same Rule and Model by which this great Universe was framed I said before That Water or the humid Nature as Hermes calls it upon which Moses saith That the Spirit of the Lord moved was the principle of all things And here the Question will be How that great and confused heap of Waters was so divided that this ample and gross Terrestrial Mass proceeded thence and by what medium so different things were procreated of the Earth I shall answer to these Questions onely what experience hath taught me It is therefore naturally probable that in the middle of these Waters by way of separation there was a certain collection of sediments or setlings wherein I follow the Text of Moses who saith That God separated the water from the water for there are two kindes of Waters to wit elevative and congelative Waters the former then elevating it self in a vapour left the other fixed in the botom as those that coct Sea or Fountain-Salt daily experience though perhaps it be be true that the one is made by the attraction of the Suns Rayes the other by the expulsion of Fire And here note That Fire and Heat onely are indued with a separative faculty which they exert either by violent or natural motion This separation then was made by one of these wayes and to what thing could Moses better compare this Fire which cannot be otherwise defined then the origine of Universal Light of Animal heat and vital motion which gives existence to all things and preserves them in their being then to the Spirit of the Lord Let us again consider Natures Salt in its Chaos diffused dissolved and suffocated in its Water under what form will it then appear or with what quality will it affect our gust but that of bitter Water and this form and quality it would retain for ever if it were not separated but as soon as this elevative Water feels the action of Fire it begins to flie from it by vaporation and so the collection is gradually diminished till onely a little heap of Salt be left in the bottom which comes together as the Earth did in the first Chaos of the Universe And thus we see the first operation of Fire which is the production of Driness that is of Earth But as this first Earth remained still coagulated with its Excrements and Dregs by Fire so this Salt which is true Earth retains its Excrements though it seem pure white and full of light for nothing is generated nourished and augmented but it abjects its Recrements of the formation and separation whereof we shall elsewhere speak Now this Salt or dry Earth thus coagulated and setled in the Water drinks up all its humidity and is by the continuation of heats action spontaneously dried preserving all this while its innate moisture by which it is never deserted and from which it hath its dissolutive vertue After the accession of this moist and dry temperament it is apt for production as the action of Fire shall impel it from potency to effect and
be by somewhat stayed But seeing it tends infallibly to the Centre and there is stopped because there is no lower place whereto it may descend there it is compelled to subsist and collect it self Hence some have said That the Centre of the Earth is most precious because in it all the influences are united which meeting there have an infinite potency not onely because they continually flow thither but because they proceed from Bodies infinite incorruptible and indeficient in vertue The ancient Poets who involved their Conceits in Fables divide the Earth into three parts assigning the Heaven to Jupiter as first-born of Saturn though some attribute the primogeniture 's right to Neptune and the election of the superiour Kingdom to Jupiter for certain Sophistical Reasons impertinent to my purpose Neptune they make the Lord of the Sea and that by lot To Pluto as the youngest Son they assign the Earth for Heritage who is yet thought the richest of the three Brethren because in his Dominion all the Treasures of the World are contained yea he seems to make his two Brothers Tributaries in those things they possess as best This Son they call The King of Hell and to him they give the Elysian Fields as a delightful place where the blessed Souls shall follow his Court after death Divines also assert That Hell and the torture of Souls is in this place adduced by this Argument That seeing the Nature of the Stars is fiery and all their influences concur there must needs be incredible burnings there Again That place is infernal because none is more inferiour But that Souls should be here tormented and that the heat of this place should be so vehement as they say is a Solaecism in Reason and a Contradiction to Philosophical Axionis for besides that Souls possesse no place according to their own confessions and that being devested of the earthy part and corporeal prison they would naturally elevate themselves and ascend by vertue of their spiritual levity which participates more of a fiery then any other quality they cannot but with violence be detained in this subterraneous place seeing they are light nor yet being simple suffer under the action of Fire which cannot act on its like Why therefore they should assert That they descend to this place to be tormented I see no reason unless that the burthen of their sins wherewith they are implicated should detrude and depress them compelling and forcing them to the Centre of the Earth or else that sin hath got them under its Dominion and hath incorporated it self therewith by some unknown kinde of composition and so make them passible and subject not to the simple and natural action of Fire but to some other violent created one destined by God to that effect and perhaps the vertue of the Fire we speak of is by divine Power doubled for this action which may be proved by Holy Writ But I will not rashly cherish any particular Opinion or separate my self from the Orthodox Faith in the defence whereof I will not onely spend my Life but Industry by God's assistance yet I say in my Transient that I may further recede from my intended Discourse That they conclude strangely that say Vehement burnings arise in this place because the influences of the Stars concur there whereunto I would yet yield if they can evince That the heaâ—of the Stars burns and consumes like ouâ— Culinary Fire and doth not enlivenâ— conserve and nourish for if it were such as they imagine not onely the Earth but the whole Universe had been long since burnt to ashes Those influence indeed in old Demogorgon's bowels calefie but not with a mortal and destructive but with a vital heat which there implants an uniform Vertue which by mediation of heat dilates it self through the whole Body of the Earth being the first moving cause of Generations But we must not here conceive That it is onely the external heat that comes from the Sun which calefies the Earth and causes Generation for in Winter-time when the Sun is furthest distant the Earth hath abundance of heat in it as experience shews in Fountains Cisterns and profound Cells so that in the coldest Winter-Season Metals are cocted and indurated yea it is credible that they are then most of all ingrossed because the heat of the Centre is kept in and retained because of the frigidity of the ambient Air. The Suns approach and more perpendicular Aspect is not the sole cause of vegetation in the Spring for if so then doubtless as its Ascent were more sublime Vegetations would augment more proportionably to the encrease of the heat of the Rayes but the contrary is observed But because every like attracts its like and the recess of the one causes the recess of the other The Sun by the magnetical Vertue of its Rayes attracts and revokes the heat of the Central Sun detruded by the rigid cold of the ambient into the interiour parts of the Earth which returning to the surface thereof affects all things with a vegetative faculty It is not therefore the external heat of the Celestial Sun but rather the innate heat of the Central Sun that calefies the profundity of the Earth for heat is twofold the one acts by reverberation which is external the other by influx and penetration which is internal whereof I now speak whose Nature is to enliven augment and conserve by the sustentation of radical moisture contained in this Fire which I made mention of in the precedent Chapter But that now we may prove this Central Fire not to be so intense as to torment and burn let us consider how the Stars do not by their influences cause heat solely but work other effects for Saturn is cold and dry Jupiter hot and moist the Sun hot and dry Mars hot and dry Venus cold and moist the Moon moist and cold and Mercury all in all participating of all qualities alike Whence we may gather That all the influences are temperate equally consisting of heat cold moisture and siccity which thus meeting in moderation cannot make the place where they meet immoderate The Vapour then or Spirit that comes from the Centre participates of these four and hence all the qualities of simples have their origine whereof some calefie because in them heat is predominant others dry because siccity superabounds others moisten or refrigerate according to the degree of their moisture or cold but on the other side Stars project many other qualities besides these into the Centre for they give Beings to those sapours colours and odours which we taste see and feel in sublunary things I say therefore That the Stars calefie the Centre of the Earth and that the Universal Spirit dwelling there participates of this heat and because it is natural to heat to separate that separative vertue which divides the pure from the impure the subtile from the gross and the light from the heavy and the sweet from the bitter descends with
these influences which purgative separation is the cause why all things naturally reject their Excrements as not being of their substantial parts which is indeed very requisite seeing there is nothing in the World but its Excrements exceed its natural substance nay all that we see and touch is onely the excremental part of things that obumbrates their occult substance as we may observe in our Aliments whose greater Mass turns not into our substance but goes away by the passages destined for such egress Nature onely extracting the invisible and spiritual succe out of them which is apt to be converted into ourflesh and substance We may likewise affirm That this Mass of Earth we tread upon is nothing but the Excrement of that first substance which was united in the Chaos Now encompassing the Centre and so including it in a Spherical Equilibrial proportion that it cannot move or fall for seeing it is in the lowest of places it can tend no wayes further unless it should ascend which is repugnant to its Nature But in the mean while I do not say That the Body of the Earth is nothing but an Excrement for though it appear wholly excrementitious yet there lies under its Excrements a pure substance which being wholly spiritual could not become sensible without the administration of some Body as we see in all things produced their Seed and first Matter is invisible but as they are carried in a corporal Mass and excrementitious substance we can see them and no Body can be made without Excrements for which cause this substance is separated from the Body of Earth in Generations by the influence of Celestial heat retaining nothing of the said Earth but as much as may be for a sustentacle for it which from the beginning had no other use but to serve for a Receptacle and Shop or rather a Vessel wherein this spiritual Matter might effect its operations as we shall largely and plainly demonstrate in the sequel Chapter where I shall treat of Separation more largely But Separation were to little purpose if the things separated should remain without action Natures scope in Separation is to enliven and abandon Death which comes from no other cause but superabundance of Excrements suffocating the pure substance but here I mean natural not violent Death but if the Seeds of things should alwayes lie buried in this excrementitious Earth nothing would be produced or receive Life but the Celestial Vertue by its vital influence extracts them and these being full of Vertue dilate and promote themselves into all and each several species as their Nature and Composition require Life then proceeds from Purification which the Stars effect by their influences with which the augmentative and restorative faculties descend for the Stars being in continual motion they are continually occupied with action and consequently with vivification giving Life to Life which cannot be without Conservation and Restauration Conservation they give by sustaining Life indeficiently Restauration by restoring what the Generations of individuals consume and spend And this we may see manifestly in the first Matter incorporated for being impregnated by Celestial Influences it is of it self nourished multiplied and augmented continually And hence it is called a Dragon or Serpent that preys upon it self always regerminating which where-ever it be it takes such root that the place shall never be quite destitute of it though it be washed or burned which is a certain token by which this first Matter may be known These then are the principal Vertues which the Spirit of the World hath and will alwayes receive from the Celestial Influences which produce great and admirable effects in all the Members of the Universe But here some may enquire How that the first matter receiving such pure and potent Influences from Heaven comes to be conspurcated with so many vitious qualities and how it retains them when it hath received them seeing it is alwayes busied in the actions of vivification augmentation conservation and restauration for if it separate not it will die and if it augment conserve and restore not it will diminish perish and debilitate which it never does Whereunto I answer That the Stars have a twofold influence one natural the other accidental the natural was communicated to them in their first Creation and it is that Government of the Universe which Hermes speaks of whereby they keep it in its Being by defending and preserving it by their influences from destruction and annihilation wherewith the Spirit of the Universe is continually enriched which applies them to and manifests them in all things whereto it gives encrease and substance but the accidental Influence of the Stars is that which falls out preternaturally by reason of their different Situations and Aspects and this is alwayes subject to mutation and never remains equal and this hath only power upon the effects of Matter not upon the Matter it self for whatever influence happen though never so malign the Centre of the Earth intermits not its actions but absolves them as before and produces Animals Vegetables and Minerals as well as ever and if mortifications sometimes fall out from the malignity of some Aspect they onely touch the surface or excrementitious mass of Bodies and not the interiour substance and such an accident is often changed so that the influence sometimes operates one thing sometimes the quite contrary which the natural and principal influx never does Whence we may conclude That the first Matter as it is simple of it self receives nothing but those Celestial Vertues which it also retains and keeps in its Terrification But we must now declare how it retains them that we may make good that saying of Hermes That its Vertue remains entire when it is converted into Earth because all the Celestial Vertues descend and meet in the Centre of the Earth which in their course aim at nothing but the information of the Matter which is as it were the Receptacle of the supream Idea's The same Matter being full of Forms is diversified not indeed actually but potentially into innumerable specifications and so it is not properly a Body but as it were a Body or Companion of a Body whereunto it hath an Appetite and by information moves to that end and this motion it hath from the action of Celestial Fire which I before called The first Mover in the Chaos which the old Poets Orpheus and Hesiod describe under the Name of Love And Ronsardus ouâ— French Homer or Pindar thus delineates Le suis amour le grand maistre des dieux Le suis Celuy qui fait mouvoir les Cieux Le suis Celuy qui governe le monde Qui le premier hors de la masse eclos Donnay lumiere feudy le Cahos Dont fut basty cette machine ronde If any Rustick know not who I am Love is my name To whom themselves both Jove and all his train Subjects proclaim I am the hand that moves the heavens and th' reins That
Stars direct All that the Earth and Universe contains My nod expect When all a Chaos was I spread my rayes Of light about And then divided that which in few dayes The world brought out Seeing then this Matter by its proper Nature and Appetite tends to incorporation who can rationally say That whilst it assumes a Body it is deprived or swerves from Nature that by its own vertue causes corporation and seeing when it takes a Body it is first turned into Earth who can deny but this Earth is indued with the same vertue for though through commixtion and concurse it partake of some elementary impurities yet in its Centre it is alwayes pure so that after its purification Fire which is otherwise the most active and potent Element hath no power to destroy it because it exceeds this Fire in perfection and subtilty And hence it so suddenly penetrates Bodies enlivening them and augmenting their vertues by restoring and preserving what is natural in them to wit their radical moisture which by its fiery subtily it purges and separates from its Excrements that suffocate it And that I may in a word absolve all this that most excellent Medicine which Siracides saith is extracted out of the Earth and which no wise Man will despise It is moreover that precious Salt whereto the Doctor of Doctors compared his Apostles as to a most exquisite Treasure produced by the Heavens for he might as well have said You are Adamants Rubies Pearls Gold or Silver of the Earth but that he knew That all these things though admirable contained nothing in them comparable to this general Salt whereunto all the rest owe the homage of their perfections This Medicine operates like Fire in consuming the impure which as heterogeneous it disgregates from the homogeneous parts of the pure substance and seeing the Heaven generated this Virgin in the bowels of the Earth why should she not retain her Parents vertues and like an Infant that naturally participates of both Paternal and Maternal Seeds hold both Paternal and Maternal Humours for which cause the Ancients called this progeny Androgynos which is a name common to both Sexes the Poets an Hermaphrodite as being properly neither Male nor Female but both and no less properly may this Virgin be called Uranogaea or Heaven made into Earth for being Earth she hath the Celestial Vertues tied and annexed to her indissolubly whose admirable faculties she manifests in her operations whereof I have given sufficient declaration in the precedent Chapters to all such as armed with any noble spark of ingenuity will endeavor to adventure to break through the thick woods of darkness and ignorance or to such as Virgil saith to whom Heaven has granted access or ingress into the obscure Chaos of the Earth CHAP. 3. Of the Separation of Fire from Water subtile from thick and with what industry it should be effected NAture the most sagacious Agent shews us by her proper operations that in all things we must first consider the end for which we undertake any matter and then finde out means to attain the end A prudent Searcher of Natures secrets then should have perfect knowledge of the principles progress and qualities of matter both internal and external lest in his search he confound his end with his means and forsaking the high-way which Nature hath trodden from the Foundation of the World turn into by-paths and phantastical unknown and unfrequented tracts Hermes knew the right way well for he was indued with the perfect knowledge of the Worlds constitution who desirous by Art to follow the footsteps of Nature prudently imagined That the Earth was the principle of all things and the first Creature that was by Separation created in the belly of the Chaos and thence he made such ingress into the Treasury of Natures Secrets by the Terrification of this first Matter which I said before was nourished in the Matrix of the Earth But as it is not enough for a Builder to have Materials wherewithal to erect an Edifice unless he know the manner of performing and fitting his Materials to the work so Hermes was not content to finde out convenient matter but made diligent search for the manner whereby he might prosecute his work in imitation of the chief Operator in the Creation of the Universe and so form a little World wherein all the vertues of the greater World were included Considering therefore That the thing he purposed to make must be most and that he must begin with gross and inferiour things to obtain this perfection he first begun to divide the contrary Natures by separation of the superfluous and useless parts to avoid the ruine of his work where according to the Adage it may be truely said He took the Bird by its Feet and so going through the right Gate entred into the Closet of Natures Secret without turning for Separation is the beginning of all things and the first operation of the Universal Body segregating the confused Members by the division of the confused Mass or Chaos the order and form of Elements first appeared and took their places for without Separation Day and Night Sun and Moon Winter and Summer had yet been one Metals and Minerals though never so different would have been contained in one Body and all Vegetables would have been but one Seed It was therefore necessary That Nature for the attainment of that Order and Distinction wherewith we see the Universe condecorated should begin with Separation But that we may descend to particulars let us see how this sagacious Agent begins all her operations but for Separation Generation would neither have beginning nor end by separation Aliments augment and conserve every Body And if I should deduce the proof of this Argument thorow every species I should without doubt confound my self in the intricacy of this Chaos and never finde exiture for the infinity of examples I will therefore lay down this for a Foundation That Nature begins all her Actions from Separation But because the knowledge of this is not sufficient unless withal we know what things she separates and whence this separative faculty proceeds we must discuss this matter more exactly that our discourse may proceed regularly and before I meddle with any disposition I think it best to propose some definition of Separation and declare of how many kindes this Separation is Separation then in general is nothing but the division and distinction of things dissimilar from one another as of the Heaven from the Earth Sun from Moon and the like as also of the pure from the impure heat from cold dry from moist and the contrary And from this Definition we may draw two sorts of Separation The one of things differing onely simply and not of contraries as of the parts of the World which were separated at first from the Chaos or that we may descend to particulars as of the Wood from the Bark of Leaves from Fruits and Roots from Boughs and this
Bath the smoak of boyling water or by infusion in water or else by inhumation in moist places and the end of all these is one to wit the reduction of the things calcined into water that by this liquefaction the terrestrial matter may by straining settle in the bottom of the vessel but this subtile practise and all of the like kind should be reiterated for if any would by continual calcination separate the more simple parts of the compound and reduce to salt what hath the essence of salt he thereby creates much loss for the intemperate and continual violence of the fire will sublimate and evaporate a great part of that which is with such labour sought so that nothing will remain but a small quantity of the soluble matter with a great deal of dregs and besides that matter may by long abode in the fire be made into glass it is better therefore to flie to frequent reiterations then violate nature by the excess of any precinitancy I found such an inconvenience once in calcinating common Chrystal which while I desired to purge from its excrements and by long ignition to reduce to its true essence I found both it and its excrements made into glass and thence useless for my purpose for though Chrystal be clear lucid and transparent yet in Calcination it first emits black and then violaceous fumes as also stinking and sulphureous odours which sufficiently attest its excrementitious earthiness as also white fumes following after the true Homogeneity of its substance which remains clear and fluid in small quantity till it become true chrystalline Salt yea by the duration of these last reiterations its ingrateful sent is changed into a most delicate one like that of violets-powder By these reiterations of Calcinations two more conveniences do yet arise One is that the thing calcined by assuefaction to the fire brings stability and subtilty to the Medicaments as I said before The other that a body often dissolved acquires easie penetration and ready ingression as also more potent strength to change the state of the patient from sickness to sanity from weakness to vigour from declination to restauration and perfect health and these are the ordinary ways of all separations which have no other scope then the purging of pure substances from excrements and elevating of their terrestrial grossness to a fiery purity and from imperfection to perfection Which Hermes hints at when he says that earth must be separated by fire and the subtile from the gross which he says must be done with great care and animadversion For when he speaks of the preparation of the universal Spirit after its terrification and opens the way to the preparation of all individuals he would signifie that there is something in this earth which can scarce be retained and conserved and this is a light and volatile spirit which is kept by the temperament of fire But on the contrary it will easily flie away with the separable and more copious volatile part if in the operation temperate fire and a good method be not used with much patience where the Artist should observe this rule with all diligence that there are three distinct Sulphurs whereof two are separable to wit the external which perishes by Calcination and Dissolution and the internal which vanishes onely by decoction and the third is fixed which is properly the Sulphur of nature and the proper subject of its substance whereunto Philosophers give the name of Agent Fixed-grain or Element of fire As to the external Sulphur it is that first volatile and adustible water for it is plainly extraneous and the first nutriment of fire but the internal is more rooted in and united to the substance and therefore yields not save to intent and continued heat and therefore it assumes all colours before it egrede beginning first with black which is the prime sign of earthiness adustion and corruption and the antecessor of putrefaction and corruption and then passes through other middle colours till at length it put on whiteness which is the airy colour and then ascends to a fiery colour or redness in which the power of art and dominion of fire is terminated and beyond which there is no progress Which thing the Poets fabulously concealed under the unconstant form of Proteus who turned himself into various monstrous forms that he might affright those that would captivate him This variety of colours proceeds from the internal Sulphur the true author and producer of all tinctures and varieties which are by Nature or Art observed in any subject These colours may be also distinctly noted in the decoction of the first universal Subject as I have above said That it produced them in my operations and first whiteness presents it self and then Natures Sulphur appears which Geber says is white without and red within for redness immediately follows this whiteness without all help save the continuation and augmentation of Fire whence one Philosopher said His Stone was a Gold-Ring covered with Silver I would briefly insert these few words about colours not that I would presume to teach the preparations and observations which I know necessary for the perfecting of that great and so much praised Philosophers Elixir but onely that I may shew the curious Disciples of learned Medea which induced by profound and ingenious inquisition seek to enter the secrets of these mysterious Physicks what Sulphurs must be rejected and what must be retained in all things I hope I shall spend that time well which I have substracted from my houshold-affairs if I restore any vigour or spark of life to that languishing part of Natural Philosophy which envious Men have buried in the Sepulchre of Calumny under the odious title of abusive Transmutation and falsifying of Metals though ignorance onely stop their eyes from discerning this true mystery which they load with opprobrious contumelies and injurious words grounding their malice onely on the malicious lies of impudent dullards who run about Cities sell smoak and obnubilate their false Sophistications under the coat of this fair Virgin deceiving the eyes of the too credulous Commonalty with their pigments and by their Syrenical and fraudulent Speeches precipitating curious Inquirers into Scylla or Charybdis CHAP. 4. Of the Spirits ascent into Heaven and descent into the Earth THe Almighty Creator of all things foreseeing from the beginning that infection and corruption growing with things compounded of Body and Spirit would move continual and intestine wars he opposed a remedy to this dissention whereby the one may be conserved and the other not destroyed and seeing the Spirit and Substance were included in a Body and the Body immerged in corruption it was impossible that corruption should act upon and prevail over the Body and yet the Spirit placed in both should be kept free and incur no danger but rather that with the Body it should yield to deaths Tyranny which alwayes intends Natures destruction and the prostitution of all individuals which thing
the Heaven Earth and all that is therein that is all this great world is like an Embryo in the Chaos whence none can have any light unless he consider the first rudiments and progress of its distinction and formation Let us therefore first go to the Fountain and Spring that we may thence trace the rivulets that flow from it and know them and by examples of forms judge of things formed I say therefore that the prime and absolute creator who is as a point whence all proceed and an inexhaustible fountain whence infinite rivulets issue hath a Nature proper and particular to himself which is to conserve as well as produce the whole world for it is the property of a good Author to produce things and when he hath procreated them to conserve and defend them This first Effect which is Creation is a secret that we are ignorant of we understand it not but by the affinity or likeness it hath to generations But the second is open and manifest to such at least as are illuminated elect and born of the Spirit but not to such as are sons of the flesh lest precious pearls should be trod upon and cast to swine Jesus Christ our Lord hath perfected the former and more excellent and taught us commanding us to imitate him in all good works whereof he hath set us an ensample For Nature walks always in the same tract and never forsakes her ways As therefore the universal Parent or Conserver consulted by his providence the common conservation of all things from the beginning of the world So Nature from the beginning had her intentions and was always occupyed in continual action about productions For as it was necessary that the safety of the Spiritual part of man should descend from above so is it likewise as necessary that the safety of the Body should come from the same Fountain because from below where the seat and habitation of corruption is neither life nor safety can proceed For what end do the Heavens the perpetual Fountain of Restauration and Perfection by the influence of their vertues flow upon the Body of the Earth which the benevolent Stars with their benign Aspects sympathizing with the afflicted society of mankinde do daily graciously prosecute and affect but to generate in her a durable and enlivening Spirit which in the Womb of this fecund mother assumes a Body and manifests and dilates its faculties through all the parts of the world distributing them to each creature according to its exigency and hereupon do the particular powers depend which we must know by their effects in Herbs Beasts Stones and other things which have drawn their proprieties from this general Spirit and do miraculously conserve us and other creatures And as it pleased God to enrich man with the perfection of his own Son according to the extension of the humane Nature and yet he would not have any one contaminated with sins and iniquities to seek remedies and health from man but from himself the true Fountain whence all perfection flows so also Nature the perfect observer of the Divine will and imitator of his works hath not setled the perfect vertue of curation and restauration in Herbs and particular Creatures but would have us seek it precisely in the Centre whence this is communicated to Creatures to wit in the Earth where this enlivening Spirit is generated for if simples are indued with the vertue of curing restoring nourishing and conserving how much more hath the abundant dispensor of it whence all these receive it but that the Earth â—s the treasury and dispensor of these vertues daily experience gives us sufâ—ient reasons for she must needs possess them else she could not give them It is therefore admirable that so many egregious men should spend their time in drawing their waters from simple rivulets far removed from their pure Fountain and running through a â—uddy current and not go to the Fountains head I do not in the mean time contemn special Medicaments but I would that Generals were more sought after and particulars not neglected for though 〈◊〉 General Medicament might salve eveâ—y Sore yet particulars merit commendation especially in external superficiary Diseases when the Centre of sanity is not afflicted That therefore I may return to my Scope I say again the Earth is the Matrix wherein the Heavens beget that Spirit that Nourisher Restorer and Conserver of Bodies which alone gives solidity and perfect cure and how this so potent and efficacious a Spirit should be found and taken all wise men should direct their cogitations to so useful an inquisition that they might observe the exemplary Steps which Nature paces in perfecting her intentions and hold this for a rule though God infinitely exceeding Nature is not bound to natural reason no more then a Monarch to the Laws himself prescribes which yet his subject observe without inquiring why he prescribed them And who hath more faithfully and successfully followed this example then Hermes Trismegistus who after the deluge was first as some say that opened to men the mysteries of the perfect knowledge of God and exactly explicated Natures secrets for besides that Angel-like in his Poemandrum he explains Divinity where he manifests the Doctrine of the Creation of the great and small world its beginning progress and duration he also continues his holy Philosophy with the same hand in his Asclepium declaring with a spirit and voice prophetical that the regeneration of man should be wrought by the Mediation of the Son of God indued with humane â—lesh he also industriously touches the same Scope in his Tabula Smaragdina where he saith that as all things in the world were made out of one subject by mediation of one God so his Magistery which is the chief and general Medicine may be perfected and compleated by adaptation onely which adaptation is nothing else but a Glass where we may see Divine Meditation aenigmatically represented to shew that Nature necessarily follows the steps of her Master He also attests in other Books That the Author of Regeneration should descend from Heaven and become Man and live among Men for their edification He says also in his Tabula which he left as the last Testament and Testimony of the excellency of his thoughts That this general Spirit the Conserver of Bodies shall descend from Heaven to wit from the Sun and Moon which in his Poemandrum he calls The principal Rulers in this Mundane Monarchy to assume a Body in the Earth which he calls the Spirits Nurse by the Mediation of the Air in whose Belly he shall be carried because the Celestial Influences cannot be communicated to the Earth unless the Air which is like an Intercessor carry them to it and as the Divine Restorer and Protector of our Souls in the assumption of humane Flesh deposed nothing of his Divinity so saith he the Universal Spirit shall retain and keep all its Vertue entire when it is turned into Earth
Lady Polia shut up in the rich Temple of Vesta This I can assert for in dubitable that the way he held is open to all but all have not that Ariadne's Clew that he had to extricate himself out of this labyrinth neither is every one a Theseus that he can overcome the Minotaure It is certain that Nature like a loving Mother proposes and offers this precious Treasure of life to all and that God our Universal Father keeps open the Gate of this fatall Cavern for the commodity of all men for the descent to Hell is easie but then again to ascend to Heaven hic labor hoc opus est Stay coach-man here 's a straw First then that splendent Branch Dedicated to the infernal Juno must be found out of which Virgil writes Accipe que peragenda prius latet arbore opacae Aureua foliis lento vim ine ramus Junoni inferne dictus sacer hunc tegit omnis Lucus obscuris claudunt convallibus umbrae Sed non ante datur tellures operta subire Auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore faetus Hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus Instituit primo acculso non deficit alter Aureus simili frondescit virga metallo Ergo alte vestiga oculis rite repertum Carpe manu namque ille volens facilisque sequetur Si te fata vocant aliter non viribus ullis Vincere nec duro poteris convellere ferro First see what you must do the golden tree Which to th' infernal Juno we decree Lies hid under a grove in a deep vale And now you may not pass within the pale Of th' Earths deep Cabinet until you have Snatch'd from this tree her off-spring which to grave Proserpina you must present the tree That gave this fruit will not long fruitless be For loe another golden off-spring follows Fix your eyes here and in your hand retain then What you do finde if th' fates do favour now You vanquish but if not no force will do If therefore Nature be sollicitous in hiding these things lest they should be indifferently prostrated to all or Hogs get to the honey-pots no wonder if Ancient and Modern Philosophers have invented so many aenigmatical Figures and hidden Fables to cover and cloath this Science with For they know well enough that ceremonious Nature would never have hid her self under so many different Forms and Species but have appeared naked but that her Venerable Secrets would thereby incur that contempt which alway accompanies common things For which cause I also in this Treatise use the same Solennity and Taciturnity lest I should undergo the same peril that he did who published the Mysteries of the Elysian Goddesses which should have been kept Secret and Chaste and not like common Harlots exposed to publike abuse And whether I have spoken conveniently to my own purpose or no such as have made progress in this search may better judge for experience is the best Dame In the mean time I hope none will give a hard interpretation or pass a bad sentence on me because I have compared Natural and Chymical operations with Divine and Christian Mysteries wherewith they have some conformity For by this application I have no way profaned them but rather Celebrated their Excellences and pointed at that great care and testimony of our Creatour in ratifying the safety both of Body and Soul together Which reason moved one Author so that he wrote that the true Chymistry which Paracelsus calls Spagiry follows the Gospel foot by foot because by the help of this and fire Nature exerts her most potent faculties which Antient Philosophers as Brachmannus Gymnosophisters and all the Egyptians insinuate in their Theology For all the Magick of Paganism and all the fables of Poets signifie no more then what this Book Treats of which the most Learned and subtile Bracescus diligently examined though envious Toladanus writes the contrary after he was deceived in an experiment in this Art which he thought he had wrested from him by his importunity believing that the spume of Iron was the Philosophers Mercury because he asserted that it was extracted out of a vile Matter of small price which was cast into the streets not observing that the discreet Masters of this Art cloath their Matter with strange Vestments calling them by all the names of Metals indiscriminately and yet without the least fraud for he that knows this matter knows also that it contains the seven Metals in it And I would gladly know whether they think Cosmopolita meant of the vulgar Steel when he sayes That Neptune shewed him under one Rock two Mynes the one of Gold the other of Steel The Man was too plain to harbour such frivolous conceits but he named his matter thus because of the conformity with polished Steel And Bracescus had played the part of a Fool and not a Philosopher if he had in one moment opened the whole mystery of his Secret in the acquiring whereof he had doubtlessly spent two thirds of his life But that I may add something to the explication of these Mythologies do we not plainly see That that ancient Demogorgon the Parent of all the gods or rather of all the Members of the World which they say inhabits the Centre of the Earth covered with a green and ferruginous Coat nourishing all kindes of Animals is nothing else but the universal Spirit which by God's command produced the Heaven out of the Chaos with the Elements and all things therein which it always hitherto sustains and enlivens for it truely took up its Habitation in the middle of the Earth as we have declared in the beginning of this Book where it sits as it were in its Throne and thence as from the Heart of some great Body and Seat of Life universal animates and nourishes all things and that green and ferruginous Coat is nothing but the surface of the Earth which is of a blackish and Iron-colour decked and variegated with divers coloured Herbs and Flowers Virgil perfectly skilled in all these mystical Secrets called this Spirit or Soul of the World Jupiter whom his Pastorer Damaeta invokes in his third Eclogue because as he saith all things are full of him And Pan that god of the Woods worshipped by Shepherds is taken for the same for besides that this word Pan signifies All he is also made the God of the Woods because the Greeks for the Governour thereof worshipped the Chaos which they otherwise call Hyle that is a Wood. Orpheus bespeaks Pan thus Paule sort le subtile l'entier l'universel Tout air tout eau tout terre tout feu immortel Qui sieds avec le temps dedans un throne mesme Au regne inferieur au moyen au supreme Concevant engendrant produisant gardant tout Principe en tout de tout qui de tout viens a bout Germe du feu de l'air de la terre de l'onde Grand esprit avivant tous les