of the north and so by their mutuall action a middle nature of a westerly condition will be produced namely water which is between aire and earth as the western position is betwixt the south and north But the southern blast of its own nature is hot and moist as is the disposition of the catholick element of aire or else the word being sent from that quaâ—ter would not have melted and undone the cold and drie effects of the north as is said Again that the breath of the Lord which commeth out of the South affecteth the catholick element of aire diversly but spiritually this Text of Abakkuk doth testifie God comming from the south his glory covered the heavens and the pestilence went before his face c. whereby he argueth the invisible effects namely the corruption and infection of the aire which this divine Spirit in his displeasure breatheth forth from the southern quarter of the world But when he worketh or operateth in his windy organs of the East then they imprint upon the generall element a fiery character and dilateth his substance into the nature and disposition of the fire and then may it passe under the title of the Element of fire as we have it confirmed out of many places of the holy Text Praecepit Dominus saith Jerom vento calido urenti or as Tremellius hath it Paravit Eurum silentem ut percuteret sol caput Jonae adeò ut aestuaret petiit animae suae ut moreretur The Lord commanded a hot and burning wind or a still easterly wind to go out that the sun might strike upon Jonas his head that he might be enflamed with heat insomuch as he did desire in his heart to die And again Ventus urens seu Eurus desiccabit fructus ejus rami ejus erant marcore contracti A burning or Easterly wind shall dry up his fruits and his boughs shall be consumed and wasted And again Ventus Eurus aduret spicas And JEHOVAH saith in his anger Percussi vos in vento urenti in aurigine multitudinem hortorum vestrorum Misi in vos pestem pro ratione Aegypti I have struck you with a burning winde and have blasted the multitude of your gardens I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of that of Aegypt Again Postquam veniente Euro vento IEHOV Ae à deserto ascendente exaruerit scaturigo ejus siccatus fuerit fons ejus After that by Eurus the wind of IEHOVAH comming and arising out of the desert his spring and fountain was dryed up And Haggaj Percussi vos vento urente grandine omniae opera manuum vestrarum I have struck you with a burning winde with hail even all the works of your hands c. Whereby it appeareth that at the blast of these easterly winds the aire or catholick element becommeth burning and fiery so that it heateth and enflameth the bodies of the creatures On the other side the occidentall winds are found by experience to be opposite in nature and condition unto these for they convert the hot aire or generall element into cold and naturall visible water being that they are the procurers of cold raines So that we may see by this that the formall act in each Angell of the four corners of the earth of which the Apocalyps doth make mention hath an essentiall vertue imparted unto it from God according unto his volunty at the instant of the Angels information and therefore in that very property doth the angelicall creature act in the common element or lower waters in the which the creating Spirit properly was when he made it so that the common element is daily informed anew and altered by the formall or essentiall act of the angelicall winde which bloweth with dominion insomuch as if the easterly angelicall wind informeth it then it becommeth a fiery element for it heateth and drieth by super-excellency If a southerly it is changed into that element's nature which is called aire and if a westerly spirit hath dominion it is converted into the temper and proportion of water Lastly the Northern blast transmuteth it unto the consistence and disposition of earth By this therefore that maine doubt which hath so long troubled the Peripateticks and hammered in their brains and yet hath never been rightly resolved by them unto this day may easily be undone and taken away namely to find out the essentiall form of the Elements For by this true Philosophy we find it to be an Angelicall Spiracle or essentiall blast of wind infused by the Spirit of God diversly into the aiery or spirituall vessell to alter and change according unto his will the humid passive nature out of one condition into an other Moreover the Catholick air being diversly so animated bringeth forth and informeth a new after the condition of his variety of animations a multiplicity and multiformity of Meteors As for example the Easterly element brings forth children like it self As are the fiery and light Meteors namely Coruscations Lightnings Comets and such like according unto the nature of such Seminary influences as shall descend from heaven at that instant The Southerly Vapours Clouds Lightning with Thunders The Westerly Cold raines and as it were Snowy resolutions The Northenly Frost Snow Ice Hail But I know that this wil be objected against me What then will you make of the Earth and Seas Are not these distinct Elements which have been from the beginning I answer that if they listen unto St Peters doctrine he teacheth that the Earth was of waters and therefore the waters were before the Earth and again the heavens were made before the Earth as Moses sheweth and therefore the Earth appeareth to be the Foeces or the grosser part of the lower waters and the visible water the grosser part of the Ayre For doth not the Apostle Paul tell us in the Text before mentioned that things visible were first of things invisibâ—e The change therefore of all things visible or invisible are effected by the Condensing or contracting faculty and property in the all-acting spirit And the reducing of them againe from a visible estate unto an invisible is caused by the Rarifying or dilating act of the self same Spirit in essence but differing in property And therefore as air was changed into water and water into Earth by the degrees of Cold so also is Earth changed insensibly into water and water into Ayre by the severall degrees of heat for if this were not how is it possible that so many waters falling from the Clouds should not more and more augment the Seas and diminish the Ayre or why should so much Earthen Coals and whole mountaines of wood that are burnt not make the earth lesse in Consistence if there were not an hourly supply and transmutation of Ayre into water and from water into Earth which though this divine nature doth effect secretly and insensibly yet by effect it
vegetation multiplication and preservation and hath made his seat in the Center of the heavens that by one most perfect Consonant namely a spirituall Diapason he might illuminate the Angels above and the stars round about him and that by a more material Diapason he might penetrate into the Center of the elementary world to communicate his perfection to each creature thereof that they might be beautified by his bright presence and vivified by the penetrating beams of his essence and consequently that the imps or spirits of darkness may be debilitated by the appearance of his Glory as if one chord were extended betwixt the Fountain of Light and the abysse of darkness which being struck made an unison but being pressed down and divided directly in the middle of it each part will render being struck a double diapason unto that unison importing a double perfection proceeding from the bright catholick Emanation whereof the one respecteth the adorning of the lower waters with life and virtue and the other maketh an accord of friendship among the higher Now as the body of the Sun and substance of the Aether is of a middle or mean spirituall matter or consistence of the waters it is evident that it also is subject to be altered by passion as well Antipatheticall as Sympatheticall For else it would not be the immediate receptacle of those opposit and contrary Emanations which descend from the differing Attributes But by effect we find the contrarâ— For some starrs are friends and Sympathise in nature with some creatures below Some again do hate one another deadly and consequently send down into this lower world contrary influences which move contrary passions or impressions in the vitall spirits or souls of certain Elementary creatures Again we find that the life of the Animal doth consist of opposit actions namely of Systole and Diastole that is of contraction by the property of matter and dilatation by the Act of the formall Light So that the nature of matter is to draw by contraction from the Circumference unto the Center but the condition of the formall essence is quite contrary unto it For it doth dilate or emit his beams from the Center to â—he Circumference Also the Philosophers testify that in sleep and rest the spirits are contracted from the Circumference to the Center after the manner of the dark Chaos or cold North wind which bringeth by that contraction the agill and volatil spirit or aire of the lower world to rest and fixation by condensation But contrariwise in wachfulness or waking they conclude that there is an emission or emanation of spirits from the Center unto the Circumferentce which is an Argument of two contrary effects of the firmaments vivifying operation in the souls or spirits of the creatures below and yet by reason of the equality of each action and passion they have a compound-disposition according and agreeing in the naturall operation of life which descendeth from above Thus therefore you see that even from the starry heaven there descendeth Sympathy and Antipathy As for the Elementary world it aboundeth manifestly with the effects of these two contrarieties and therefore lest there should follow any continuall unnaturall perturbation which may deprave this great formall workman of his expectation which was to put concord and peace in the machine whiâ—h he had ordered and framed he divided each region in this lower world that there might be interposed an indifferent friend between two extream enemies which he effected by weight number and measure So that unto the weightiest portion of the lower waters is imparted the least proportion of form that by its grossnesse and weight it might fall unto the Center and remain fixt in it and it was called earth then unto another portion he bestowed a double measure of Light to make it reside in a higher region and thereby the matter which was next the earth became more thin light and movable And therefore this augmentation of Light melted the frozen waters a little and did make them fluxible and transparent So that he partly by reason of the continuity of his matter with that of the earth and partly because of its cold nature it is a temperate friend of the earth and taketh his place next unto him So that it is not so cold as the earth nor so moist as the aire For it is not enough subtiliated till the bright Agent of the world bestoweth on the dark watery abysse above the water three portions of his Light So that it converted part of the gross lower waters into a thinner and more light shape than was the watery Element and it was the aire which by reason of the triple proportion of formall light was hotter and more dilated then was the water wherefore as the water was cold but not so cold as the earth and moist but not so moist as the aire So the aire is hot but not so hot as the fire and moister then the water By reason therefore of his moisture this portion of the catholick Element is friendly to the water on the one side and on the other side unto the fire because of his heat Lastly that in-created Spirit of life did yet multiply a part of those waters by an other or higher degree of subtility and purity So that it became the most subtil and highest portion of the generall Elements and is consequently hot and dry wherefore by reason of its drouth it agreeth on the one side with the earth which in circulation is next unto him and on the other side with the aire in respect of his heat but it is hotter then the aire and not so dry as the earth Lo here you see the effect of that Sympathy which the Peace and Love of God did put among the discordant enemies of this world For thereby the water as a friend to both the aire and earth becometh a stickler and mediator of peace between them The aire as a friend unto the two enemies fire and water is made an indifferent judge betwixt them both So that the one contrary is kept from strugling and tugging with the other by the super-celestiall and golden tie of peace Thus you see that this Spirituall Christ doth as the Apostle saith bear and sustain all things by the word of his Virtue And as Hermes said the humid nature by the assistance of the world is ordered and disposed harmoniously into Elements So that by this Virtue all Sympatheticall action was effected in the Sublunary world of which the Wiseman speaketh thus In se Elementa dum convertebantur sicut in organo qualita is sonus immutatur omnia suum locum custodiunt But when this harmonicall ranck and Symphoniacall proportion is violated then the enemies come together and rage against one another unto the disturbance of the whole Sublunary fabrick For aire and earth do struggle against one another as also the water doth cruelly invade the limits of the fire and all will be
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
and proportionate measure in cold and heat Yea verily and I averre boldly that the whole World or worldly Round is as well and compleatly stuffed or filled with spirit or aire as is this our artificiall vessell or experimentall Machin which if it should not be it would consequently follow that vacuity would be admitted into the nature of things the which would be but an absurd thing in a Philosopher to credit Wherefore we may boldly conclude that the spirit is in the like quantity weight and proportion in the concavity of this instrument considering his magnitude as it is in the great or little world But experience teacheth us that the self same nature be it hot or cold which useth to reigne and have dominion every quarter of the year in the cosmicall or worldly spirit doth produce the self same effects in rarifaction and condensation of the aire included in our artificiall vessell as it useth to procreate in the aire of the world all which is fully demonstrated before For by how much the more the state of the aire doth abound in heat or cold by so much will the water contained in the neck of the glasse be depressed by reason of the included aire 's subtilation And again by how much the more the inclemency of cold doth vegetate and abound in the air by so many degrees higher will the water be exalted And this is the reason as it is already told you that by the observation of this Weather-glasse the temper of the aire in the great world is so exactly discovered unto us And therefore by this it is evident that the foresaid doubt or scruple is abolished and taken away I would in this regard have each discreet Reader to understand that when he beholdeth this Instrument's nature he contemplateth the action as it were of a little world and that it hath after the manner of the great world his Northern and his Southern Hemisphear plainly to be discerned in it the which two are divided exactly by an Aequinoctiall line in effect which cutteth the Degree signed with the character 1. Also it hath his two Tropicks with their Poles onely we take the Southern Pole and Hemisphear to be hot in regard of us because the breath which commeth from it is from the Sun which in our respect is Southernly disposed and therefore we term that Pole the Summer-Pole or Hemisphear and the other the winter-Pole or Hemisphear And we have demonstrated that the degree in the neck of the Glasse 1. doth correspond exactly unto the place of the Aequator because that if the Northern or Winter Tropick be imagined to be the Basis of one Triangle whose Cone shall end in the centre of the Northern Tropick then it must follow that where the intersection is made by these two imaginary Triangles the Aequator must of necessity passe As for example Vide Med. Cathol 26. And we tearm the place of the Aequinoctiall the Sphear of equality because when as the Sun is in Aries or Libra which are the vernall and autumnall intersection of the Aequinoctiall the daies and nights are equall so also the temper of each Hemisphear in heat and cold is naturally observed to tend unto a mediocrity or equality Even such also will the temper of the micro-cosmicall aire or catholick spirituall element be unto the earth when the water in the Glasse is drawn up half way I have sufficiently described unto you as well the fabrick as the nature of this Instrument and therefore since I have prepared it to serve me for ocular demonstration instead of an Herculean Club in this combate which I undergoe against our insulting Peripatetick Adversary and that I am provided of sufficient naturall reasons instead of a trusty armour and that this armour is well tempered and made as it were musket-proof at the least by Authority drawn out of the whole Harmony of the sacred Bible Why should I fear the number of mine enemies when it is Tâ—uâ—h's owne cause which I undergo If God be with me I care not who is against me being that verity which conquereth all things will I am well assured fight for me and defend me though but onely one against a multitude Why should I expect any favour from them in telling the truth and condemning their errours since that they do Satyrically censure and deride my honest endeavours when I hold my peace and say nothing unto them It is an easier matter for malitious carpers and back-biters like temerarious and rash Cynicks to find fault with a thing than with moderate and judicious spirits to judge amend and correct it with equity In the first namely to condemn before the case is heard or understood it is an argument of envy cloked with wilfull ignorance In the latter namely to teach a man his errours a token of learned zeal and Christian charity The Second Book of this Treatise touching Philosophy in generall The Argument of this Second Book of the First Section THis second Book importeth That the Philosophy of the Ethnicks is false and erroneous both in regard it is founded upon the wisdom of this world which as St. Paul teacheth us is but meer foolishnesse in the eyes of God and then because it contradicteth the truth and consequently is not issuing from the Father of Light which is in Heaven but from the Prince of darknesse who reigneth beneath Wherefore this kind of wisdom or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is termed by the Apostle James Terrence animal and diabolicall And for this reason St. Paul that most excellent and sacred Philosopher or lover of wisdom doth warn us that we be not deceived by this kind of Philosophy which he tearmeth Vainfallacy built and framed out according unto the traditions of men and after the elements of this world and not having its foundation upon the true corner stone Jesus Christ in whom dwelleth all the plenitude of Divinity corporally BEfore we dive into the bottomlesse abysse of the essentiall Philosophy whose main foundation is the true wisdom the which is a thing so difficil to be put in execution that nothing but the swift and nimble-winged soul or spirit of man is able to bring to effect it will but concur with reason that we should in the first place consider and observe the Etymology of the name or word whose naked essence we hunt after that thereby we may in the second rank descend more securely and with a better understanding unto the definition or description thereof and so proceed with a surer confidence unto the division or differences of the main subject we have in hand to the intent we may directly point at the truth and distinguish it from falshood Seeing therefore that Philosophia or Philosophy is the main scope or businesse of this our Treatise it is meant commonly and understood in a generality for Sapientia or Wisdom but by a more proper and peculiar signification it is interpreted Amor or Amicus sapientiae
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
destroying of them So that this formall Champion of Light namely Heat warreth perpetually against the cold gardian of Darknesse For the one can have no dominion in the Aire untill the other by little and little be exiled And therefore as the Light principle with all his branches is said to be the Father of posiâ—ion act information plenitude motion life health and Heat So also doth Heat operate according unto the nature of his restless and ever operating Father which is Light to destroy the effects of darkness and cold as we see in the nature of the hot winds namely that of the South and East or Orient For as the Northern cold wind doth congregate contract harden thicken or condense make ponderous fix immovable and opake the aire changing it by inspissation into the nature of more ponderous Elements So contrariwise the said hot winds or spirits do dissipate dilate mollify rarify and make thin and light volatil movable and transparent what the cold winds did so change and alter and all this is effected by the Act spagerick or separative Act of God's Spirit or Word And therefore the Prophet said in the Text mentioned before Emittens verbum suum liquefacit ista simul ac efflaâ— ventum suum effluunt aquae God sending forth his Word that is causing his bright vertue to shine forth he did undo or melt the Snow Frost and Ice which God in his hidden or contractive property had caused and that under the form of an Angelicall wind And therefore it is said So soon as he bloweth forth his breath or wind the waters flow that is to say the Snow is melted and of a fix and opake substance becometh movable lively fluent and diaphan or transparent So also the heat of the Easterly wind destroyeth and dissipateth the watery effects of the Westerly wind and therefore the Prophet saith Postquam veniente Euro vento IEHOVAE è deserto exaruerit scaturigo ejus siccatus fuerit fons ejus Afterwards by the Easterly wind of the Lord coming from the desert his spring withered and his Fountain was dried up As if he had said the water was changed by the heat of that wind into Aire by rarefaction or subtiliation Thus have you understood how these two opposit Vertues namely Cold and Heat do spring from one and the same Spirit in radicall essence by which it operateth actually and essentially by a double property Forasmuch as they produce in the Catholick Element of the sublunary world opposite effects to effect the will of the Creator in the Aire and upon the Earth and Seas Now I will speak a word or two of the Procreation or Generation of such passive Natures as are brought forth by the mutuall action and opposition of the two foresaid essentiall Vertues which do spring and have their root or beginning either in the Divine Nature's Nolunty and privative existence or Volunty and positive emanation These passive qualities do essentially depend upon the former and do no otherwise belong unto them then the female or passive do unto the male or active And first I will tell you my mind touching the birth of Humidity and afterward I will come to speak of Siccity We must imagine that when there was no formall Light to inact the deformed Abysse or Chaos and consequently no Heat to act and make a division of Light from Darkness then all the dark Chaos was inclining unto drouth and wet congealed with cold For cold hath an infinite power and dominion where Heat is absent as we see about the Northen Pole all the waters are frozen into a dry and cold clod or heap by reason of the absence of the Sun's heat In like manner where the Sun or burning Easterly winde doth send forth directly their spiracles of Heat there Cold is banished and the Earth is turned into a dry thirsty and spongy masse Even so and after the like pattern are those or rather these after those patterns For the Chaos was a confused a cold and a dry heap untill the Light did appear and began to operate Also the Light of it self as it was considered without any action upon the passive masse was of a fiery condition that is to say heat and drouth did only appear in it it followeth therefore that as cold in effect is nothing else but the act of the divine puissance made potent and evident by the absence of Heat So also is drouth or dryness nothing else but an apparent passive nature evermore accompanying the two foresaid active powers in their absolute intention where moysture is totally absent Now moysture is as it were a mongrell begotten between the two opposite actives which is proved thus The North wind by his dominion turneth the Aire into Snow Hail Ice or Frost that is into a cold and dry Substance But when the Southerly or Easterly wind doth begin to have dominion then their blasts do penetrate by little and little the said dry masses or substances and undoeth them and coverteth them into a moist or humid nature according unto the tenor of those forementioned words of David So soon saith he as he bloweth forth his wind the waters flow So soon as he sendeth forth his Word they are liquefied So that moisture is nothing else but a mixtion of heat and cold in one solid Substance which is fluxible in potentia and then by little and little doth the cold and drouth depart and become faint according as the power of the wind is more or less vigorous in Heat For thus much we must observe that as cold doth make immobil and fix So it is an evident signe that the Southern or Eastern Heat hath taken possession of the Mass when by their action it beginneth to moysten to revive and move again forasmuch as nothing doth effect that function but Heat In the very same manner also the increated and all-creating Spirit of Light moving upon the face of the dark abysse did operate in it and made the congealed Mass to relent and then it was called by Moses waters and by Hermes humida natura or the humid nature And so they continue unto this day being altered from one nature unto another according unto the will of God which he effecteth by his Ministers the Angelicall winds causing the Spirituall waters to change and wheel about from one nature into another And we must observe in these changes that even the visible waters were first made and derived from the invisible waters according unto St. Paul's doctrine before mentioned For Heaven was before the Sea and Earth which were as it were the feces dregs or grosser part of the catholick Sublunary Element An ocular Demonstration confirming the Divine properties or Vertues above-mentioned Before we proceed unto our ocular demonstration which shall be made in and by our Experimentall instrument we must consider in the first place that the Catholick Aire or Sublunary Heaven is the subtiler and more spiritual portion
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
descendeth from above even from the Father of light But to proceed unto the doubt which is Whether according unto Aristotles intention the originall matter of the wind be of the earth and his first motion from the earth into heaven A man more learned and wise by far in the mysteries of nature than Aristotle ever was answereth in this manner Venti viam saith he ignorat homo ignorat homo opus ipsius Dei qua via faciat haec omnia Man knoweth not the way or path of the winds man knoweth not the work of God namely by what means he effecteth these things But Aristotle was a man yea and an Ethnick man and therefore could so much the lesse judge rightly of such abstruse things as are these wherefore JEHOVAH seeming to deride the boldnesse of such a worldling and as it were in reprehending of him speaketh in these words Nosti nè ubinam sit via in qua dividitur exhalatio quae spargit ventum super terram Knowest thou where is the way wherein the exhalation is divided which spreadeth the wind upon the earth Arguing hereupon the impossibility for a worldly mans capacity to conceive or understand these things unlesse he be taught and instructed by the Spirit of wisdom who teacheth all things the which Spirit is bestowed by God on whom he pleaseth And yet Aristotâ—e seemeth impudently to answer God and say I know it well for the way of this exhalation is from the earth upward unto the middle region of the aire where partly by an Antiperistasis caused of cold driving it downward again and partly by other exhalations which are successivly ascending the exhalation is compelled to move laterally upon the face of the earth c. But I will shew the impossibility of this reason by that which followeth immediately hereafter To the second and third part of this clause I say that the medium by the which the winds are carried or moved is by far more vast and large then that which Aristotle assignes unto it for the winde doth not blow and act onely in the lower but also in the middle yea and in the upper region of the aire If therefore the winde do blow in the middle region of the aire then will the vigour of Aristotle's definition be taken away forasmuch as the efficacy thereof doth chiefly consist in this namely that such a hot and dry exhalation as is the cause of the wind is not permitted to penetrate the middle region of the aire but is reverberated precipitated and beaten down again by the vertue of the middle region's cold which resisteth the heat of the sublimed exhalation Now if there be any wind in the middle region of the aire this cause of the winde will be taken away forasmuch as then the exhalation will not be repelled downwards into the lower region where it should meet other ascending exhalations to make a noise and to be dispersed laterally on the earth for the exhalation which causeth a wind in the middle region will not be driven down by the cold but is observed to blow and to move the clouds and thunders in the middle of that sphear yea it is made manifest by daily experience that as well the upper or higher clouds which are white and yellow and therefore more light and subtle by reason of their fiery brightnesse as the lower which are grosser and more obscure are driven and pushed by the winds from any quarter of the world unto the opposite for except the winds were also present in that region they could never move as on the wings of the winds in that manner Do we not also observe that the south-wind bloweth from the southern horizon and another from the next which is northern so that both winds have dominion in either of the horizons at all one and the same time whereupon it often happeneth that great and dark clouds moving from each opposite quarter by four of those contrary angelicall spirits do meet in the point of each Horizon and cause one masse or huge sea of clouds serving as a Tabernacle unto the great spirit of wonders which worketh or causeth these things whereupon there followeth great lightnings and thunders by the concourse of opposite angelicall natures being the messengers ministers and voice of the Almighty which never could have been effected unless the winds by the will of the Almighty had moved impetuously the one against the other in the middle-region of the aire And this we have also confirmed out of Scripture where it is said Ascendit fumus e naribus IEHOVAE carbones accensi sunt ab eo inclinavit coelos descendit caligo sub pedibus ejus ascendit super Cherubin volavit lapsus est super pennas venti Posuit tenebras in circuitu suo latibulum cribrans aquas de nubibus coelorum prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes succensae sunt tonabat de coelo Dominus c. Smoak ascended out of the nostrils of IEHOVA coales are kindled by him He inclined or bowed down the heavens and descended and darkness was under his feet and he ascended upon the Cherubin and did flie and glide upon the wings of the wind He put the darknesse round about him to serve for to hide him sisting out waters from the clouds of heaven before his face for at his presence the clouds were set on fire and the Lord did thunder from heaven c. Out of which speech we gather that not only the Clouds and Thunder and Lightnings are moved by the windy ministers or Angels of the Lord but also that Divinity it self being compassed about with dark clowds in the middle region of the aire is carried upon the airy Cherubin and useth the wings of the winds as organs to move on Whereby each wise man may easily perceive that the worldly wisdome or Peripateticall Philosophy is plain foolishness being that it would falsly perswade the world that such essentiall Acts as are the Angelicall winds whose inward essence is the bright Spirit of the Lord are caused accidentally and are moved and stirred up by externall violence when by the doctrine of the true wisdome it is evident that they are indued with most essentiall internall Agents and therefore do move where and when they list according unto that before-mentioned of St. John For saith he Spiritus spirat ubi vult The Spirit bloweth where it lists Which being so as is apparent that the wind hath actum formam principium internum An essentiall and inward act form and Principle at the motion whereof it is moved or caused which way the invard mover pleaseth and therefore the Text saith Spirat ubi vult It bloweth where it will and consequently it is indued with a volunty or will whereby each man may see how extravagant from the Truth is the Peripateticks reason touching this point who admit no essentiall and internall form unto the Winds but make it a thing meerly
Wherefore we may conclude that this false Aristoteticall Philosophy is the chiefest organ of the Devill to distract worldly men from the true knowledg of God Forasmuch as partly by the sophisticated craft thereof and partly by other vain temptations he seeketh to withdraw the good intentions of Christian men from the true Symphony and Sympathy which ought to be between God and his creatures and to allure him unto his own false discordant and antipatheticall Harmony For it is proved that this Spurious and mundane Philosophy is opposit and contradictory in all things unto the true wisdome which descendeth from the Father of Light as St. James teacheth us and therfore it is terrene animall and diabolicall For which cause it should be eschewed rather of all wise Christians then any way followed and observed with such fervency and supeâ—stitious devotion Being it is the main cause that men even of this our Age howsoever partakers of the divine mentall beame being altogether forgetfull of his excellent and thrice noble beginning and divine race forasmuch as they are masked or guilded over with the prestigiously appearing light of privative ignorance become so rude and unskilfull not onely in the true Arts but also lame in the Rudiments of Theosophy insomuch that they neither understand God truly by and in his Works as he ought to be known nor yet can conceive rightly the mystery of his creatures whose Corner-stone is the brightnesse of the all-animating and informing Word But I will make use of my Experimentall instrument to prove a great deal of this which I have uttered by an ocular demonstration or eye-witness CHAP. IV. Here the Author doth ocularly demonstrate the reason of the Animall South wind 's beginning NOw because all this which is said may by some seeming Aristotelian Christians appear fabulous as either not believing or else imagining that things are not understood rightly which are spoken in Scriptures for some such there are and that learned appearing Christians of this Nation I thing it necessary to prove all this which is related unto you by an ocular demonstration produced from our Experimentall Instrument commonly termed the Weather or Calender-Glass Into the which practicall discourse before we enter I would wish each Reader to remember diligently what hath hitherto been said and to give an attentive eare unto this Preamble which I will set before it You ought seriously to remember and consider that the catholick informing Light by which the Spirit of the Lord that was carried upon the universall waters imparting unto them the Spirit of life did inform illuminate and animate the catholick matter of the world was by the consent of most of the antient Fathers in Theology said to be the fourth day contracted into the body of the Sun and for that reason it is said Gloriae Domini plenum est opus Solis omnia illustrantis The work of the Sun which inlightneth all things is full of the glory of the Lord. Hereupon also it may be understood quod Deus induitur lumine quasi vestimento God is cloathed with Light as with a vestiment And in another place the which interpretation we have maintained to be good in the precedent Book of this discourse Posuit Deus tabernaculum suum in sole He put his tabernacle in the sun Whereby it is evident that it was the pleasure of God the Creator of all things that this vessell should be rich and abundant in his Spirit that from it being placed in the center heart diapason or perfect point of the world it might by its vertuous harmony and life order and govern the animall course and temporall disposition of generable and corruptible things on the earth in the seas and catholick sublunary element namely the universall aire which as it is the vehicle of life in every sublunary thing so also it is necessary to consider that the aire is animated and inspired by it as the higher angelicall natures receive their light and being from the Creator before whose face they are alwaies present I do not say that the Sun giveth life but the increated vertue in the Sun which hath elected the palace of the Sun for his treasure-house or cabinet of his vertue And therefore it is said that Sol est gloriae Domini seu virtutis essentiae divinae plenus The sun is full of the glory and divine vertue of the Lord. And again it is tearmed Vas admirabile opus Exceâ—si An admirable vessell the work of the most High Now that this divine vertue in the Sun doth guide the aire and make it a generall angelicall spirit or winde that is an aire animated by divinity which is apt to move according to the motion of the mover we are taught by these words of Solomon Sol lustrans universa in ciâ—cuitu pergit Spiritus in circulos suâ—s revertitur The Sun illuminating all the world the spirit or aire wheeleth about with it and returneth his circuit Arguing thereby that the Sun by his presence doth animate make mobil and agil by subtiliation and quickening of spirits that aire which was quiet and still Now I would not that any man should mistake me and think that I mean that the whole Spirit of the Lord is included in the Sun for as I said Christ was by Scripture reported to be rich and full of the Spirit So God imparted unto the Sun abundance of his illuminating positive generative and vivifying vertue and yet neverthelesse he filleth all things but not after one manner neither in one and the same property or proportion for according unto that common course which he hath ordained for the disposition or ordering of the annuall or yearly temper where the Sun or his actuall tabernacle is more or lesse absent or far removed there is the potentia divina or the cold privative Spirit of God more or lesse in operation for there it acteth universally As for example When the Sun is absent and under the earth it causeth darknesse coldnesse dulnesse of aire and a grosse spissitude to be present As for example When the Sun is beyond the Aequinoctiall in moving toward the Tropick of Caprâ—corn cold frost snow ice short daies thick clowdy and rainy aire is present and southerly winds are most frequent for then the privative property of God hath dominion over the northern hemisphear whereupon the plants herbs and trees are naked and having their spirits and humours congealed appear as dead the earth forsaketh his viridity and like a steril and barren widow beginneth to mourn But as soon as the sunny Chariot with his Princely Lord doth approach unto our hemisphear and enter into this northern world by the fiery and iron or martiall gate of Aries which is in the Spring-time then these almost dead creatures being before as it were mortified by the cruell cold of northern privation begin to revive the nights grow short the cold diminisheth the congealed and fixâ—d spirits in the
for the words following importeth so much which are Appendit aquas seu nubes in mensura He hangeth or ballanceth the waters or clowds by measure or attenuateth it into lightnings as the words following do witnesse So that he seemeth to aver that the invisible aire is altered according to weight and measure into the bodies or substances of the visible clowds which afterwards are resolved into rain and fiery lightnings which by compression do appear Again that it is neither the earth nor waters from which the existence or substance of a clowd is made but onely the aire we plainly do gather out of these words in Deuteronomy Aperiet tibi IEHOVA the saurum suum optimum â—oelos dando pluviam terrae tuae suo tempore IEHOVA will open his best treasury the heavens giving rain unto thy earth in due season Out of which words observe first that by the heavens is meant the Aire for in the aire the clowds are procreated and again the aire is called heaven in many places of Scripture as volatilia coeli the fouls or birds of heaven And therefore this is the sacrarium divinum the divine treasury or treasure-house out of the which God at his pleasure produceth and fashioneth the clowds Secondly that the aire is called his best treasury and therefore it is out of it that not onely he doth extract his meteorologicall creatures but also that wise-men do enquire after their mysticall summum bonum and Christian Philosophers that are well grounded the character of the divine wisdom Again it is said in another place Propterea aperti sunt thesauri evolarunt nubes nebulae sicut aves Therefore his treasuries are opened and the clowds did fly out like birds But this is made yet more evident by these plain words of Job Subitò aer condensabitur in nubes ventus transiens fugabit eas The aire will suddenly be condensed or thickned into clowds and the moving winde will drive them before it By which words it is apparent that the aire is the subject out of the which the clowds are compacted and framed and that the heavens are the onely treasury out of the which they are collected and therefore neither the earth nor the water as Aristotle would have it which if it were true indeed mark what an absurd impossibility must follow For then whereas the Sun doth attenuate the aire in the summer-season it would contrary unto reason condense it by the continuall raising of vapours and then a greater absurdity would follow on the neck of this to destroy Aristotles tenent touching the generation of the clowds for then we should have more clowds and rain in the summer than winter being that there are made more vapours at that season by the Suns heat and emptying of ponds and rivers then in the winter which experience proveth false And lastly it is neither the heat of the Sun nor Stars but the eternall Spirit of JEHOVA whose dominion is over the angelicall winds by which he moveth and operateth all these alterations in the air and by the aire as shall be told you hereafter And therefore it was said By his wisdom he giveth weight unto the aire and hangeth the clowds in measure and assigneth rules unto the rain and proportioneth a way or passage unto the lightnings and thunders c. But I come unto the second Doubt To the resolution of the second doubt I say that there is another manner of reason for the incrassation and condensation of an invisible vapour or the aire into a cloud than that which Aristotle and his followers have assigned and set down for whereas he saith that this feat is performed by the contractive cold of the middle region of the aire it may be wondered at why this effect is not wrought as well at other times as when the winds do blow from their certain quarters of the earth for when the southerly winds have dominion then do we see clouds to multiply and the rain to poure down in the greatest abundance I would fain know of these Peripateticks why the vapours should be raised so thick just at that time when the wind bloweth from the south to make a greater abundance of clowds in the aire then at another season namely when they have no dominion Or why should the cold of the middle region of the aire be apter to coagulate or curdle vapours at that time than at other times being that the warm clouds or dense aire which is driven from the Aequinoctiall do moderate the middle region's cold through which they glide by reason of their hot temper Verily I know that they are ignorant what to answer touching this point and therefore I will presse them no further But I will tell you of an experiment of mine own whereby I was induced unto the truth concerning the generation of the mists and clouds When in my travells I went or journeyed from Venice unto Augusta or Ausburg in Germany as I travelled between the high mountains and rocks of the Alps upon a certain day when the heavens were passing clear and without any cloud to be seen in the Horizon the Sun also as in these times it must needs being passing bright I espied on the top of a steepy mountain on the which the Sun-beams did strongly beat a certain fogg or mist by little and little to arise and ever it thickned more and more untill it grew from a sleight vapour unto a mist and from a foggy mist at the last unto a thick cloud and all this while the aire was every where clear except only on that side the hill from the top unto the bottom which we beheld It made me a little to marvell and therefore alighting from our Coach I took some grasse and flung it into the aire to try which way the wind did blow and I found it to be full upon or against that eminent hlll which was advanced towards the heavens above his fellows Whereupon I did streight-way gather that the degrees of progression from a vapour unto a mist and from a mist unto a fogg and so forward unto the consistence of a clowd was by compression of the common aire which was chased before the winde by little and little against the lofty rock or mountain which hindering of it in its passage or flight was the cause that the consequent-aire was added unto the precedent and so by adding and compressing of parts of the aire unto other parts a perfect clowd onely conformable unto that part of the mountain was made which forthwith when it became ponderous and apt to endure the reflexion of the Sun did resolve it self for four miles space on this side the rock into rain all the rest of the aire remaining still clear and without any clowd Whereby I did forthwith conceive that clowds were not ingendered after the manner described by the Peripateticks that is by the vapours rising out of the earth and waters but by
perform what is commanded them So that we see these creatures are drawn out of their secret dwellings to do the will of him that created them CHAP. VII How by our experimentall Instrument the reasâ—n of the composition of clowds is ocularly demonstrated A so in this the Snow is defined falsly and truly NOw I think it most fit to demonstrate unto you how the clowds are procreated by the opposite blast of two winds of a contrary nature namely of the Southerly wind in eminency and dominion and a Northerly spirit which also bloweth but insensibly I told you in the Chapter where I did demonstrate by our experimentall Instrument the reason of the Southerly winds which happen in winter that as the aire included in the Weather-glasse did by the onely touch of a warm hand dilate it self and in dilatation fly from the hand of the toucher unto the cold region of the water which was evidently proved and maintained because the water did suddainly thereupon move downward So also the grosse winter aire in the southern hemisphear did at the approach of the Sun unto the parts beyond the Line dilate it self by vertue of that ever-acting and subtiliating spirit which put his tabernacle in the Sun so that the southern dilated aire posted apace or flew hastily away to seek a larger place but comming into the northern hemisphear which by reason of the Sun's absence became brumall or wintry the constant aire of that region being now contracted by the northern cold and the north-wind by reason of the colds dominion blowing more or lesse though insensibly it meeting with the warm southerly spirit condenseth it with the rest into clowds and this is the reason that alwaies almost and that is where no northern blasts are discerned that the southerly winds do bring abundance of clowds and rain with them for that the hot southerly vertue of the divine agent doth more and more subtiliate and rarifie the winter aire which it found there till it had by rarefaction purified it and reduced it unto the nature of a true Summer aire so that the superfluous parts of the aire after rarefaction were chased away as is said into the northern region where it is condensed again partly by the privative act of the divine puissance and partly by the spissitude of the northern aire which denyeth it free passage into the form of clowds For the cold spisse aire of the northern hemisphear agitated and animated by the northern blast or property resisteth the hot vaporous aire and so it condenseth by little and little To conclude I could here set down the Aristotelian definitions of the snow frost hail ice and such like other meteors and then check and contradict them mainly by other true descriptions of them proved by the testimony of holy writ As for example Aristotle seemeth to aver that the snow is a clowd congealed by the great cold which before it be perfectly dissolved into water by a vaporous disposition it is changed into a snowy substance In which definition because he is ignorant as hath been proved already in the fabrick of a clowd we ought in no case believe him Again he digresseth from the tenour of Scriptures according unto the mind whereof we have defined the snow thus The Snow is a meteor which God draweth forth of his hidden treasury in the form of wool to effect his will upon the earth either by way of punishment or clemency Or thus The Snow is a creature produced out of the air or heavenly treasury of God by the cold breath or blast of the divine spirit in the form of wool to perform his will on the earth Where the fountain of his originall substance is made the aire or the matter of the heavens and therefore the Text hath it Congregatio speritus aspergit nivem The gathering together or condensation of the spirit ingendereth and sprinkleth the snow upon the earth And Job Pervenistine in the sauris nivis Camest thou into the treasury of the snow Also the form and efficient cause is expressed thus Deus verbo suo nives emittit sicut lanam coram frigore ejus quis consistat God by his word sendeth out the snow like wool who is able to resist his cold So that God by his Word which doth operate in his privative property by his cold is the essentiall efficient and omnipotent actor in the production of the snow I could I say effect all this at large but because my minde is not to dwell upon on these particulars forasmuch as in the description of the clowd I have sufficiently pointed at the rest I will proceed unto my enquiry touching Aristotle's opinion concerning the beginning of fountains that we may perceive thereby whether he have erred as far in that mystery as he hath done in the rest CHAP. VIII What Aristotle's opinion is touching the generation of Fountains and Rivers and whether he in his opinion doth jump with the verity of the true wisdom SInce therefore it is apparent that Aristotles doctrine is erroneous and deceiptfull touching the generation and essence of the winds and clowds we purpose in the third place to bring his judgment and opinion concerning the beginning and originall of fountaines and rivers unto the touch-stone of truth that thereby we may perceive whether it will endure the tryall and not shrink as the proverb is in the wetting The Peripateticks as well Christians as Gentiles are as much deceived in their meteorologicall grounds concerning the generation of fountains and rivers as in the rest of which we have spoken before and therefore their Master Aristotle all things being well pondered in the ballance of justice ought to be accounted of all true Christians for a seducer and deceiver of the world and consequently his doctrine touching this point ought of right to be repudiated and rejected Aristotle with his peripateticall sect or faction are of opinion that being the belly or bowells of the earth is full of cavities and hollow passages vapours to avoid vacuity must needs ascend from the center or bottom of it the which cleaving in their ascent unto the sides of the hollow vaults and streighter passages or veines of the earth do resolve into water which distilling down by drops do ingender fountaines and rivers In the which opinion of theirs they conclude that the matter of fountains is nothing else but a vapour arising from the bottom of the earth and resolved liquefied or condensed into water through cold and heat together within the earth no otherwise then after their saying the clowd rain snow and hail do arise and are generated in the aire of a vapour first condensed and afterwards liquefied But if we shall duely examine every member of this their description we shall perceive that they require as well a double matter as formall agent in this generation of fountaines for they faign that the remote matter is a vapour and then the near and immediate
matter they imagine to be drops of water which are caused by the concretion or condensation of that vapour Also they make their two efficient causes cold and heat for say they it is the office of cold to condense and congeal the included vapour into water and that it is the heat and cold together which maketh the water fluxible and moovable Let it therefore be lawfull for me judicious Reader to answer these Peripatetick Philosophers with an over-worn axiom of their own and consequently to fight with them at their own weapons Their axiom is Erustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora That is vainly done or effected by many which may be effected by lesse Now if that this originall work in the producing of fountains may be performed most conveniently by one and the self-same subject of water without the altering of it first into vapour by subtiliation and afterward by condensing again that subtle vapour into water Then I make no doubt but you will conclude with me that this Peripatetick definition is vain imaginary and sophisticall by their own rules But I will make it apparent hereafter by an ocular demonstration that it is possible by a course in nature onely that water without any alteration of his consistence may by the secret veines and close passages or conduits of the earth be drawn or sucked up out of the huge seas unto the top or summity of the mountains after by his soaking through the sands and pory substance of the earth it hath left his salt nature behind it which appearing evidently to every mans sense the vanity of Aristotles invention will soon be discovered unto wise men Besides all this the sterility of his reason or invention which would faign that these vapours cleaving unto the sides of the caverns or hollow places and that there forsooth they must be converted into drops of water which from thence must issue forth into rivers will be palpable and manifest if we consider that these drops so made are apter to circulate and readier to fall down again into the bowells of the earth from whence they came by those self-same vaulty passages or hollow veines through which they ascended than to issue forth of the ground allaterally because that every heavy thing is more prone to descend then to move sidelong And therefore it is likely that either all the waters so made or the greater part must needs return downward by the way it came or ascended in the form of vapour But omitting these reasons for a while we must see if the Text which is conteined in the Book of Verity do consent in this Opinion with Aristotle and his faction yea or no. We find in the first place that it is not an accidentall and imaginary heat or cold that acteth in this Meteor's Generation but God who operateth by his Angelicall Spirits and solar act in the accomplishment of this business And although that in his action as well privative as positive cold and heat do expresse themselves as his Ministers For the Text saith Coram frigore ejus quis consistat Who can stand against his cold Yet it is his catholick positive act which he extendeth out of his sunny Tabernacle and hotter winds and privative vertue which he manifesteth in the longinquity and absence of his bright Tabernacle from the region pointed at and the propinquity of the polar seat of the colder winds to alter annually the created Element And therefore it is God which by his Spirituall Organs as well in Heaven above as Earth and Water beneath that operateth all things and amongst the rest produceth the Fountains of which the rivers are made And consequently we ought to esteem it the Act of God's Spirit which filleth the earth as Solomon saith and operateth all the naturall effects therein Which also David doth testify in these words Qui emittis fontes per valles ut inter montes ambulent potum praebeant omnibus animantibus agri frangant onagri sitim suam Qui irrig at montes è caenaculis suis faciens ut germinet foenum adjumenti herbam ad hominis usum Who sendeth forth the fountains through the valleys that they may run between the mountains and give drink unto every living creature of the field that the Asse may quench his thirst and that they may water the mountains from their cells causing the grass to grow for the use of the Oxe and the herb for the benefit of man c. So that here we have the sole catholick Agent and therefore the Operator of fountains as is proved by this Text. Again here we have the finall cause set down for the which they were created and continued in succession by God namely to water the earth for the giving drink unto all cattell and living creatures and for the multiplying of grasse herbs trees and fruit for the use as well of man as beast But will our Peripateticks say we hear no news out of Scripture for the contradicting of our matter assigned for the composition or consistence of Fountains which we say to be a vapour and not water in its naturall substance Neverthelesse to qualify this their imagination and to make them behold the Truth without Spectacles I counsell them to give eare unto this assertion of Solomon Omnia flumina saith he intrant in mare mare non redundat ad locum unde exeunt revertuntur ut iterum fluant All rivers enter into the Sea and it is never the bigger they return unto the place from whence they came that they might flow again By the which Speech of the wise-man expressing the materiall cause of Fountains the foresaid definition of Aristotle is utterly othrown for this doth evidently prove that it is one and the self-same water and that in the plain form of water without any transmutation of it out of water into vapour and then from vapour into water again as he doth erroneously alledge which moveth from the Sea unto the Mountains and from the Mountains unto the Sea again Insomuch that for this onely errour some of his earnest disciples have become Apostates or renegado's unto his doctrine For Joannes Velcurius a learned man in the worldly Philosophy and one who hath sweat and taken great pains in the Aristotelian doctrine insomuch that he wrote a Comment on his Physicks when he cometh to speak of the Generation of Fountains he seemeth to confess and publish his Master's folly in these words Non conveniunt plane Sacrae Scripturae cum Physicis de ortu fluminum fontium quae ex mari per varios alveos meatusque fluere ac ad suos fontes refluere Eccles. 1. testatur dicens Omnia flumina intrant in mare mare non redundat aâ— locum unde exeunt flumina reveâ—tuntur ut iterum fluant Caeterum Physici dicunt materiam esse vaporem resolutum in aquam liquefactum à frigore et
narrower place namely the aire then the water will immediately mount up with it and to it because it is contiguous unto the aire By this therefore it is apparent that the contracting and attracting vertue of the northern spirit or rather divine puissance which is made manifest in cold doth first attract contract and condense the dilated aire and then the aire so contracted by the northern spirit doth draw or attract the water from beneath upwards and that without altering of that water which was beneath in any thing from that which is above so that in conclusion it is but one and the self-same water Lo here therefore it is by this demonstration proved feazible and possible that water may be sucked and drawn from the caverns of the earth which is fostered and maintained by the sea even unto the top of the high mountains and that by a naturall means or operation without any necessity of altering the form of the water into vapour as Aristotle doth vainly surmize and that contrary unto his axiom Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora That is vainly done by many which may be effected by a fewer Contrariwise we see and observe in the Weather-glasse that if the dilative vertue of the present Sun or hot winds doth heat the head of the Weather-glasse or inflame the outward aire then the aire within the glasse will also dilate it self and by its dilatation will strike down or precipitate the water that the aire contracted by cold had sucked or drawn up and again the visible sinking of the water doth point at and prove the invisible dilatation of the air CHAP. X. That the actions of contraction and dilatation and consequently of attraction and expulsion of aire in the Weather-glasse with the effects of the elevation and depression of the water which are caused thereby are most conveniently applyed unto the aire and water in the world WE must consider as I have said before that the catholick air and water in the world filleth the whole vaulty cavity thereof no otherwise then the air in the Weather-glasse filleth the hollowness thereof so that the fountains of all the world issuing from one sea do seem to penetrate into the bowells of the earth and fill the generall veines thereof being sucked and drawn up unto them by that self-same reason by the which the water is exalted into the uppermost part of the neck of the glasse and by this reason there is an evident relation between the fountaines of the northern hemisphear and those of the southern forasmuch as it is expressed before that the southerly aire which is on that side the Aequinoctiall line is continued in his homogeneall nature with that on this side the line So that the flying dilated aire passeth from the south and is condensed into clowds in the north Wherefore it is apparent that the matter which feedeth the fountains in the north are more or lesse continuated unto those of the south as the waters that are raised up into the highest degree of the glasse are continued with them in the lower all which is fed and maintained with the pot of water which we compare unto the sea In which figure EFG is the northern hemisphear where the Sun is absent and therefore winter inhabiteth there and cold hath his dominion EHG is the southern hemisphear where the Sun is present and therefore summer dwelleth there and heat hath dominion EG is the Aequinoctiall line which is as it were the barr that divideth the northern region from the southern A and B is the hollow vein in the earth which continueth from the northern region to the southern that there might be a relation between or continuation in some measure of the northern and southern waters as well as of the northern and southern aire of heaven for being the wide sea D. which stretcheth from north to south is the head from whence all springs and rivers do originally arise I see no reason that it should seem strange to any man that I say the northern fountains have relation by a continuity of substance unto the southern and therefore the southern unto the northern Wherefore I conclude that when the catholick northern aire of the hemisphear EFG is cold it sucketh or contracteth unto it the aire in the vein of the earth A the which aire being contracted elevateth of the water out of the wide sea D as is evidently demonstrated by the Weather-glasse for when the cold externall aire hath contracted by congelation the aire in the head and neck of the glasse which head and neck I compare unto the veine in the earth for the vein of the earth is close and expireth no way then the water is drawn up by the contraction of the aire out of the vast water in the pot or basin which I compare unto the sea On the other side in the summer or southern hemisphear EHG where the Sun is present the catholick aire is subtiliated or rarified and dilating of the aire about the fountain and in the cavity of the vein beateth down and abaseth the water in the southern mouth of the vein in the earth B towards C so that oftimes in the summer the springs are found either dried altogether or at the least-wise much depressed Now therefore I say that by reason of the depression of the waters in the summerly south by way of subtiliation of the aire and exhausting or drawing them up in the winterly north by the cold the water is the apter to be raised in the cold north Again the elevation of the waters in the north which were the summer before depressed is effected by the empty aire 's contraction which possesseth the place in the summer time in the vein of earth where the water was as we see in the Weather-glasse and by the dilation of the aire in the south the water is easily there hid in the earth So that it appeareth that it is partly driven and pressed down in the south by heat and consequently with the greater ease drawn up at the north and partly elevated in the north by the cold winter as if a chord were put into a hole of a great piece of timber downward at one end and did ascend upward at the other thus The self-same will happen but in contrary order when the Sun and consequently summer is in the northern hemisphear EFG for then the springs will be there depressed and in the southerly parts exalted The seas draining or soaking into the bowells of the earth D being the commune medium or cistern of both extreams as well to receive the water pressed down and distributing upward of that superfluity unto the surging increasing or winter fountaines Thus therefore do you see evidently how Solomon's saying is proved true All rivers run into the sea and the sea is not the greater they return into the place from whence they came that they may run or flow again But
let us examine Aristotles opinion a little better that we may the more plainly expresse the absurdity thereof If that it were a vapour which was sent up out of the bowells of the earth it must proceed from some mighty heat which must alter that great mass of cold water which is in the bowells of the earth into that vapour but admit that this were so then mark what absurdities would follow First he confesseth that the fountaines are colder in the summer than in the winter because the externall heat doth per Ant peristasin or by a contrary act preserve and keep in and therefore multiply the inward cold of the earth which being so as it appeareth by the coldness of fountaines in the summer then by that self-same reason this fortified cold of the earth in the summer season must needs also keep in preserve and fortifie in the center of the earth that inward heat which causeth those vapours which are the originall of fountains Mark the conclusion for if that be so namely that the centrall heat in the summer should be greater then would the vapours be in greater abundance in summer for the greater the fire is the more will be the smoak And again by reason of the great cold in the caverns of the earth those vapours would be more suddenly condensed into watry drops and consequently by that means we should have higher Fountains greater Floods and more swelling Rivers in the Summer time then in the Winter all which experience teacheth us to be erroneous and to conclude Aristotle's assertion in this must needs be false But it will be I know objected that it is manifested unto the eye that standing ponds and such like humid places are dried by the Summer heat and how can that be but because the Sun doth attract the moisture and consumeth it by converting it into vapours I answer For the first that the Sun doth not draw but onely rarify and then the thing rarified doth tend upward But that the Sun should spend all those moistures of Lakes and Ponds that way namely by converting in into aire If that were possible I will tell you what absurdity would follow namely that the Sun by reducing all the waters into vapours should thicken the aire when contrariwise our Weather-glass teacheth us by that model of aire which is contained in it that it doth attenuate and rarify the aire and not thicken it Again a greater errour would fall foul on the neck of Aristotle's Doctrine concerning the Generation of clowds if this were so For whereas his Opinion is that a clowd is generated from vapours extracted out of the earth and water by the attractive force of the Sun and Starrs it would follow then that in the Summer-time we should have more clowds and more rain then in the winter But this is as false as the rest But I say rather that because the aire is more rare and thin in the Summer by reason of the presence of the divine act in the Sun which rarifieth and attenuateth the aire by his assidual action and therefore we have fewer clowds in the Sommer For as I proved before the clowds are made by the compression of aire and the aire again is by a circular course renewed by the resolution of those Meteors it produced into their first invisible matter which was but aire I must confess that some part of the waters are subtiliated and by dilatation thrust into the winter Hemisphere but the greatest part doth sink down by the insensible pores of the dry and thirsty earth which drinketh it up and keepeth it in her bowells till it be sucked out by the contraction of the aire which filleth the pores and cracks thereof which contraction happeneth by the cold of the winter following For we see that if there be but a Hogshead full of water it will indure a long time before the hot Sun will exhale it by subtiliation Moreover it is certain that what the Sun doth rarify in the day time so that it riseth in a vaporous form upon the earth in the night time it falleth commonly again in foggy mists and dew So that it is removed out of a contracted place and dilated and besprinkled in mist and dew over the wide and spacious fields Now that this is so it is made evident because we shall ever observe that the Summer mists and dew is most frequent about Lakes and Rivers I will for a conclusion of this Book and whole Section onely examine our princely Peripateticks Opinion touching the Lightnings and the Thunders that we may perceive therein also the validity of his Physicall Doctrine CHAP. XI The Lightnings and Thunders are described in this Chapter according unto Aristotle's Sentence which is aâ—terward confuted by Testimony of Holy-Writ HAving thus made a generall inquiry into the Philosophy of Aristotle touching the Originall of the Winds the Clowds and Fountains I cannot now but enter into his thoughts concerning the wonderfull beginning or primary causes and admirable effects of the Lightnings and Thunders being in verity they are Meteors of so great marvell that they require the profoundest speculation to consider them justly and as they ought to be and therefore I doubt not but that if a due examination be made of Aristotle's validity concerning the research and discovery of so great a mystey it will be more faulty then all the rest Let us then observe in the first place what his mind is touching the essence of the Lightnings Aristotle's Opinion is that the materiall cause of the Lightning is a hot and dry exhalation drawn out of the earth and elevated into the middle region of the aire by the vertue of the Starrs where partly by reason of a strong collision or concussion of clowds and partly because of that antiperistasis which is had between the heat of the exhalation and coldness of the region that inflamable matter so coarcted into the belly of the clowd is set on fire and breaking out of his prison doth tend downward by reason of his terrestiall and compacted disposition and he concludeth that the violence of this eruption is that noise which men do commonly call by the name of Thunder This I say is the summary of Aristotle's mind touching the Lightning And verily Aristotle seemeth in some sort to be excused if he erre in this inquiry being that it is a doubt not easily to be resolved and therefore not only he but also all other Philosophers almost have been inâ—onstant in their resolutions touching this point Forasmuch as therein they have so staggered and varied in this research and have groped as it were by dark for the finding out of the true light thereof For Empedocles judged the Lightning to be caused by the interception or stopping of the descent of the Sun-beames But Anaxagoras would have it to be a portion of the aethereall or heavenly fire which descended from above into the concavity of the clowd within the which
And in conclusion God by his Word doth exactly and soly operate all in all as the Apostle saith which being so I would fain know where is this Physicall nature of the Peripateticks unto the which they assign an essential form of action of it self and by it self Verily it is most apparent that there is no such catholick actor as the Peripateticks do fain But it is one onely Word of God one catholick Christ which filleth all things one eternall Sapience which replenisheth the world one incorruptible Wisdom which is in all things that onely worketh and effecteth immediately all in all And therefore it is apparent that without it nothing can exist and act Forasmuch therefore as the aire is a part of the celestiall consistence it followeth that it was made by the Word and that it doth as it were swim in the Word Forasmuch as it comprehendeth all things as in many places of Scripture it is expresly set down and it is moved and guided by the Word yea verily and in the aire being it is the universall Treasury of God there are many peculiar cabinets out of the which by his Word which is effected by his strong and powerfull Angels as David telleth us he doth produce divers kinds of Meteors as is proved before which are committed unto the government and presidentship of divers Angells or Spirits the which also are created of aire and exist in the aire by the Word and therefore move and act in the Word or in and by one and the same divine Spirit which the Prophet Ezekiel called from the four winds to make the dead to live again by whose administration the Word moving them and operating in them all Meteorologick species or kinds are brought forth and procreated in the aire yea and all those wonderfull tempests which happen in the world are effected or produced And hereupon it is said that he made his Angells winds and his Ministers flames of fire Again Dei curruum duae sunt myriades multa millia Angelorum Dominus cum illis est Dominus Sinai in Sanctuario habitans There are two myradâ— even many thousands of Angells the Lord is with them the Lord of Sinai inhabiting in his Sanctuary Where he meaneth in his apparition in a tempest as he did upon the Mount Sinai These spirits therefore which in regard of their externall were made or created of aire and with the aire do exercise their office or Ministry in the aire and are by Gods Ordination conversant about the directions of Tempests Clowds Rain Snow Hail Frost Lightning Thunder Comets Chasmus Floods or Inundations Heat Cold Moysture Drowth and all other Accidents which do appear in the aire And hereupon it is insisted by the Revelatour that by the Ordination of God four Angells were appointed as Presidents over the four winds of the four corners of the earth unto whom it was assigned to hurt the earth and waters and trees and fruits But there it is said that they had not any power to execute their harmfull or tempestuous violence on the earth and waters till the imperious Angell had excited or moved them unto it But as all thâ—s was unknown unto the Ethnick Philosophers so hath it been altogether neglected or rather rejected by their Christian disciples because that in their mouths and writings the lying and false spirit of Aristotle hath taken too deep a root or possession and challenged unto it self the prime and superiour place Although therefore that this my admonition may seem unto such as are wedded unto their will and hood-winked with Aristotle's subtill documents to be but wild ridiculous and of little or no esteem yet I would have them know that it is a thing of great importance and high consequence being that it concerneth and toucheth the honour of God For by it true Christians may fundamentally know and understand the reall and essentiall causes of tempests and other acts and operations which do thereunto belong and thereby perceive that they happen not by case fortuit neither operate by any act of their own as the phantastick Ethnicks have devised or fained in their writings but are traduced out of the holy Treasuries by the Divine Providence and are sent down here below by the operation of the Word and execution of his Angelicall Ministers either to afflict and scourge the wicked for their offences or by putting them in remembrance of their sins that they may by the fear thereof be driven to repent So that when they unto their terrour shall hear the voice of the Lord in Thunder from above and behold the fiery flashes of his wrath and indignation or shall see the dreadfull inundations caused by abundance of Snow or Rain they might be induced to repentance and be humbled and incited to invoke their Creator unto their aide and to pray him heartily to avert all dangers from them and to mitigate his Tempests and to pacify the fury of his fiery or watery Ministers and to grant them them milder and more benigne weather with gentle and fertill rains and to bless and save the fruit of their lands and to preserve their cattle which feed upon them as also their houses and other such like necessary additaments from the violence of his tempestuous Angells or Spirituall instruments contrariwise who neglecteth this doctrine which is founded on the true Wisdom and wallowing as it were with the Sow in the mire betaketh himself unto the rules of that Wisdom which is but meer foolishness before God and consequently will imagine all these Meteorologicall marvels to proceed by chance and accidentally and without the act of any internall principle and for that cause will neglect them as esteeming them onely things naturall and therefore will neither dread them as indeed they ought to do nor yet acknowledg him who is the true Author of them and immediate Actor in them is justly to be numbred among those men at which the Wiseman aimeth in this speech All men saith Solomon are vain by nature in whom is the ignorance of God and who cannot understand him who is by such things as are made nor yet conceive the workman by the consideration of his works The Epilogue unto this Section THus Judicious and Christian Reader have you understood the main difference that is between the wisdom of this world which the Apostle affirmeth to be but meer foolishnesse before God and that which descendeth from above and issueth from the Father of Light which is the essentiall and true Spirit of Sapience or Discipline And consequently you may easily discern how the Ethnick Philosophy that is grounded upon the worldly wisdom forasmuch as it relyeth onely on the Traditions of men and Elements of this world is but a vain â—allacy or Prestigious Figment and therefore onely that of the Patriarcks Prophets and Apostles which is founded upon the Catholick Christ or Eternall Spirit of God in whom is the plenitude of Divinity is onely true
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
as is said though of two opposite conditions in which also it worketh after many diversities of degrees and therefore Solomon tearmeth it simplex or unicus simple or one in regard of his divine nature and multiplex in respect that it worketh and operateth after a manifold manner for as it worketh about the poles of the axle-tree by attracting and sucking unto it by cold and drought so about the Aequinoctiall and that more and more approching from the poles towards the Aequinoctiall it varieth in ten thousand proportions more or less in dilatation by reason of the manifold degrees of heat which this centrall Sun of life imparteth unto the aire And this is not onely manifested in the foresaid Weather-glass forasmuch as we find that by how much the more the heavenly Sun with his divine centrall agent approacheth unto us by so much the more the externall aire being dilated by his heat doth also dilate the aire contained in the neck of the mattras or bolts-head and driveth down the water that is it repelleth back the cold of winter which came in by showers of rain sent from the south unto his proper pole So that we see as the nature of the cold pole is to draw or suck unto it by condensation which is effected by contraction or made by a Saturnine faculty so the nature of the hot Aequinoctiall and his adjacent parts is to expell his opposite by dilatation which is effected by a subtiliating heat And this is the reason as is already demonstrated that the Aequinoctiall of the Load-stone detesteth to be joyned unto the pole as on the contrary side the pole abhorreth reciprocally the Aequinoctiall Also this is the reason that in the pole of the said stone there is so great power of attraction and that it sucketh the iron unto it ad angulos rectos that is after a perpendicular manner and then the nearer the needle or piece of steel or iron-wier approacheth unto the Aequinoctiall of the stone the more will his obliquity in coition or conjunction be with the stone So that when it commeth directly unto the Aequinoctiall it will lose all angular contact and lie flat as it were on its belly as you may see by this true observation following But because these demonstrations may seem unto the vulgar somewhat intricate as being ignorant of the centrall sun of the earth which the Philosophers call Archaeum naturae or The master-workman of nature As also it will be difficult for them to conceive what an axiltree of the earth may be and what his poles And again the right use of the Load-stone or practise in the Weather-glass is unknown unto many a man I will proceed unto a kind of proof and explication of this matter which is familiar unto each person of what degree soever It cannot be gainsaid but that Man and all other creatures as well vegetable as animal are composed of a living soul which is internall and a body being his externall The self-same also we ought to judge of the earth for it hath an inward spirit whereby it operateth diversly And again as there is no animal nor vegetable that can exist without the aire forasmuch as by it each thing liveth and existeth by inspiration for by that means they suck in the celestiall influence so also the aiery element doth feed the inward spirit of the earth and conveyeth from above all the heavenly influences into her body and maketh her the mother of all mineralls and vegetables I told you before that all inferiour things with their operations are the types or similitudes of things above and that God did animate the Angels the Angels did inform the stars and the starry demons or olympick spirits send down influences unto the winds and the winds do inform the catholick element of the aire four-foldly that is to say according unto the nature of the four winds which four-fold information doth give or assigne a name unto the four elements And although in the catholick aire there is but one onely substance in essence yet it varieth in nature after a four-fold condition according unto the will and property of that one Spirit which onely is the efficient actor or agent in this metamorphosis or Protean transmutation from one nature or form unto another although he useth as well angelicall as starry organs and is said to ride upon the cherubins and to glide upon the wings of the winds For this reason therefore the Prophet saies Come O spirit from the four winds and breathe upon these slain bodies that they may live He said not Come O spirits but Come O spirit whereby he argued that it is but one Spirit which bloweth essentially from the four winds and consequently that this one spirit in essence is but onely one thing though four-fold in regard of his property and that as in this archetypicall spirit the whole world was ideally divided into poles and portions distinguished by spirituall circles so also in all the regions of the world he observeth constantly the self-same character of position namely in the starry world as in the airy and in the airy as in the water and earth For in the heavens the northern pole is pointed at and marked out with the starry character which is found in the Tail of the great Bear in the aire it is manifested in that very point from whence Boreas or the north-wind bloweth which doth exactly correspond unto the pole-star Again that the earth observeth the very same order in the direction of her pole is confirmed by the conversion of the Load-stone and Iron unto the north-star Thus you see that it is one onely spirit in essence that worketh all in all I proceed therefore thus to my demonstration which is so familiar to each person that not any one who is in his senses can deny it for I am sure no man can be ignorant that when the north-wind bloweth the aire is of nature cold and dry and therefore is converted into the condition and consistence of earth namely from a clear transparent light subtle dissolved and dilated consistence of aire into a troubled opake or dark gross ponderous and contracted substance for experience doth teach us that it is transmuted into snow hail frost and ice that is from an aery spirit unto an earthly and solâ—d body from an invisible and mobile estate unto a visible and fixt disposition And in conclusion the whole aire is changed into a spirituall and corporall earth and this transmutation it hath from that cold dry and attractive form which it borrowed from the northern wind or septentrionall property of the divine spirit which ordereth all things and altereth them from one form unto another by the breath of his nostrills as Scriptures allegoriously speak or by those windy emissions or angelicall emanations which it sendeth from the four corners of the earth So that by his breath from the north he exerciseth that property in the lower world by the
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
bodies appear to be dead yet shall the naturall Magician know that in his flesh and bones there abideth admirable spirits which operate no less wonders yea and far greater then those of the Load-stone And therefore I would have each self-conceited person that are so apt to envy against the Mysteries of God in nature to learn more discretion and experience before they so vain-gloriously do judge the strange and marvellous effects of man's royall nature and pronounce so boldly without hesitation or sticking that there are no spirits in any amputated members or portion in man no nor in the dead carcass as Casman and Foster aver Nay that the Devill himself can not conferre any into them or it For I would have both them and other temerarious and bold Judges to know that as the Load-stone though appearing a dead mass is observed to suck and draw Centrally unto it with a lively appetite the beams and body of the Load-stone and that all and every member divided from the Load stone will do the like in its proportion Even so I can prove it and confirm it by an ocular demonstration that by a right application of the fleshy parts of a dead man's carcass unto a live man if the application be long it will make the live man faint and feeble the which nevertheless a while after the materiall or corporall Magneticall Mummy be removed will receive again his wonted strength Moreover lest this relation may seem to Mr. Foster and the rest of his Cabalisticall Sect a figment or Chimerious fancy forasmuch as he may alleadge that the application of the thing may work in the live man's imagination and cause him to perswade himself that he is faint and that without any true ground and that there can be no externall effect to prove it I answer That it will suck or draw forth of the live man the spirituall Mummy in a visible manner For by the coldness of the part the spirituall Mummy so extracted will condense it self on the superficies of the corporall Magnet even as aire into a cloud or a cloud into Manna so that it may be gathered and converted into a very pretious and wholsome Panacaea or generall medicine if the party out of which it is extracted be sound and of a wholsome complexion as contrariwise it may prove as corrupt and Antipatheticall a medicine where the body out of which it is drawn is infected with any venomous or contagious disease namely French Pox Plague Leprosie and such like as shall be more at large expressed in the next book Now the reason of this act and operation in the dead man's Magnetick parts is that as when the body was alive it was animated by light and enjoyed all the properties of light to wit it was hot active moveable dilative and in conclusion of an Aequinoctiall or Southern condition so that naturall fire being extinguished it indueth the properties of darkness for it is mortified by cold and is congealed potentiall fix or immobil contractive and in fine of the rigid zone's and frozen Pole's nature So that whereas before whilst it lived it did emit his beams from the Center to the Circumference and did enjoy the blessings of God's vivifying and positive Emanation now it indueth the condition of his contracting privative and mortifying Emanation And yet I would not that wisemen should think that because the lively body is turned into a dead carcass therefore it is void of all spirits of life being that Scriptures confirm that the incorruptible spirit is in all things and consequently as well in those that are dead as in those that are alive For this incorruptible spirit according unto the variety of his property in the four winds is sometime in motion from the center of the thing in which it is unto the circumference for so he vivifyeth and causeth the creature to act and live by a southern or aequinoctiall faculty so I say it operateth from the center of the celestiall sun to the animation of inferiour creatures namely by evocation of their incorruptible spirits which were repelled by the winter or Boreal cold into their center from their center unto their circumference as it appeareth by such vegetables which seem for that reason as it were dead all the winter season because the spirit of life leaves and forsakes the circumference of the plant and betaketh it self unto the center to retire from the assaults of cold which is its opposite as far as it can But when it perceiveth its fountain of light to approach and to send them forth succours they begin by little and little to spring again from their center unto their circumference and being united unto the externall beams which are come unto their aide they expel dark privation and congealing cold from out their tabernacles and do proceed to operate and act unto vegetation and multiplication as also we see in the corn which is buried in the earth Even so I say and no otherwise the Load-stone's Martiall nature being originally by a Saturnine spirit contracted into his center is exagitated and stirred up and with like joy doth suck unto it the formall beams of the Iron from whose Martiall sulphureous spirit they did originally spring And even so also the spirits of the dead body being by mortifying cold driven from the circumference unto the center and resting there at repose without any action maketh the body and every part thereof fixt and unmovable but when they are applyed unto the lively circumference of their species or kind they spring forthwith and in their watery spirits towards the circumference as if they were almost famished in the center and rejoyce to meet with their like in the live man which doth as it were dilate it self and issue forth of the pores in a streaming manner for their assistance and they being partly congealed in the center of the dead member do with a greedy appetite suck them in with the spirituall Mummy which is their vehicle towards their centrall abiding to endue it with life as it was before and to recreate it with their presence but the unctuous spirituall Mummy being full of bright spirits resting upon the superficies of the live man inspissated with the cold and mortifying contact of the dead flesh or part of the carcase is forthwith congealed and may be reserved for a private use But can we I pray you better confirm this than with the contractive restrictive or congelative vertue of the fumous excrescence issuing from the salt contained in the dead mans bones for by applying it I mean the Uznea or masse which groweth on the dead mans bones unto the irruptions of blood or haemorrhoigy in a living man the warm blood as it were moved by an antipatheticall affection returneth back again and is denyed passage by the congealing and binding operation of these northern effected excrescences But leaving these conclusions touching the dead mans magnet and its vertues for a while what will
is evident that the beams of his affection did in the absence of his Master not forsake his Master's beams which guided him unto the unknown place so directly that he found him out Is it not also a wonderfull Sympatheticall Emanation that the Pigeon called the Carrier doth make unto the place or dove-coat wherein he was bred and fostered Which for that reason it doth so dearely affect and love that though he be conveied 500 miles from his noursery in an enclosed basket yet he will fly directly back again with a letter about his neck Which is an evident Argument that it is justly and straightly guided by the emitted beam of his affection which is contiued after a spirituall manner with the place it doth most delight in What shall we say in two persons whereof the one doth love and affect without all reason and therefore prosecureth with the beam of his affection his beloved though she or he altogether either abhorring or neglecting and not corresponding with the like beams of affection doth not reciprocally embrace but rather refuse and avert the beams of his or her Love But where two do joyntly affect by a Sympatheticall Union there the action will spiritually be furthered at a far greater distance as when two starrs of heaven send out their beams semidiametrally and concur in one harmonious point of affections Nay verily as we behold being taught by experience that there will be a great Antipathy between the slain bodie 's contracted spirit and the murtherer insomuch that the lively spirit of the dead being contracted after death by cold into its Center doth through an angry Antipatheticall passion move again from the Center unto the Circumference as it were to resist the deadly enemy and doth cause the congealed blood to flow and move as if it would meet with and assault afresh the murtherer's emitted spirit So we must surely confess that where one spirit concurreth in Sympathy with another of the like nature the power must be the greater and the action performed at a larger distance as is evidently expressed in the abstruse operation which is in the Magnetick cure effected between the weapon or ointment and the wounded person of which I have spoken so much in that hot encounter which hath been between Mr. Foster and my self in the Book where I was provoked to squeeze his Sponge and farther do purpose in this present Treatise to enlarge my self a little better touching that point by way of a comparison made between the Magneticall virtue in Man and that of the Load-stone The Argument of Mr. Foster consisteth upon the impossibility of that operating virtue at so large a distance as is propounded by some to be effected by the Ointment or rather of the lively blood's Emanation and emitting forth of his exciting spirituall beames or influences unto the dead or congealed blood which impossibility if it were true indeed in the Animal kingdom which is the most dilative and less bound with bodily bonds I wonder that it should not be far more impossible and unfezible in the mineral bodies by reason of the firm and close solidity of them which are therefore apter to retain their influentiall beams then the bodies which are made lax and porous Besides all this the Animal body is hot and fiery and consequently the readier to dilate and send forth his virtue the further but the minerall is cold and therefore the less active and powerfull in sending forth his beams And yet for all this experience teacheth us that the Loadstone looketh towards the North-star sendeth forth his spirituall aspect unto it as also the star doth at the like distance send out his beams unto his Northern minerall mark at an unmeasurable distance as is said before which being so why should not I beseech you the Animall star derived from his celestiall Fountain send out also his beams unto the frozen and chill blood in his unctuous earth I mean the Weapon-salve or unto the blood 's invisible spirit sucked into the Iron by his attractive Sulphureous nature For experience teacheth us that though no corporall blood be found on the Iron yet if the place of the weapon that wounded the person be anointed it cureth by a like Sympatheticall aspect For country-Chirurgions have made tryall when they durst not search the wound with the Probe and found by experience namely by putting the weapon into the fire that the part of the sword or weapon will discover it self which wounded the party being that it will change colour from the rest whereby they perceive how deep the wound is by the observation of that part of the weapon which did penetrate And therefore this is an evident argument of the ingression of the bloody spirits into the wounding instrument and consequently it argueth that there are essentiall spirits which emanate or issue forth of the blood quite forsaking the body whereby also it is expressed against Mr. Foster that if the grosser spirits of the blood are able to pierce the close-grained steel it s finer and more subtil spirits are able to penetrate without any resistance all other things in manner of an influence But wee 'l approach a little nearer to our purpose and will remove ouâ— argument from the minerall demonstration unto the vegetable that thereby we may express like by like in our animal subject I will therefore insist upon the Grain of Wheat which being dead and putrified in the earth is suscitated by the beamy influences of the Sun For like doth draw his like by a magnetick power and like rejoyceth in his like and like is suscitated and revived and quickened or evoked from his rest or center by his evoking and alluring or embracing like and by this means the beamy spark or atom of sunny influence in the grain being idle and doing nothing in the center thereof is stirred up by his externall like to act and operate his own delivery out of the elementall mire or the slimy band of the elementary compound And therefore as it was before contracted from the externall cold into the center it is now by the presence of fresh solary irradiation from above exsuscitated as is were from death unto life and so by the assistance of those celestiall beams it passeth beyond the limits of the corrupted grain and soareth above the earth and seeketh by all means to ascend unto his native region from whence it descended but being cumbered in his ascent by the sublunary substance of the importunate elements which enclose it on every side it is beset with the volatil salt of the aire and insteed of mounting into his desired place it is contented to multiply in his kind and to have companions namely other graines procreated like it self In like manner the microcosmical Sun of life raigning as Scriptures do teach us in the blood doth emanate and send out his spirituall beams which are inseparable by continuity joyned unto and continued with the spirit of the congealed
do concur and meet with a sympathetical embracing 4. Problem The naturall union of Magneticall Spirits is when the condition is made by contrary parts as by the pole North or South Application So the Northern blood or the spirits in the transported blood that are congealed and have assumed a Northern property will easily concur with spirits of a Southern or aequinoctial nature namely with the spirits of the lively fountain from whence they come being that like doth naturally covet his like especially when it is compassed about by the cold and crude aire and so constrained to contract it self with its airy vehicle from his cold adversary for spirits that are derived from the aequinoctial do eschew by a naturall instinct even as the airy nature doth the chill disposition of the earth and therefore being fled or contracted into the Center it draws unto it the lively beams of the Southern blood This is the reason in the Macrocosm that when the North-wind bloweth strongly and the South wind not so strongly the aire is often times condensed into a cloud by the contraction of the fiery formal and aequinoctial or astrall beams in the aire so condensed which by reason of the outward cold do fly from the air's Circumference unto the Center Insomuch that for this reason often times it is seen that it breaketh out into Lightnings and Coruscations This contraction also in the included aire when the externall aire is cold is easily discerned in effect by the Wether-glass namely when the water is drawn up and the included aire contracted or coarcted into a narrow room The ninth Member of the Proposition with his Proofs The ninth member of the Proposition is that the strong attractive faculties of every Magnet is of a Northern condition or Boreal property and consequently hath his chief attractive faculty from the pole-star And therefore after the manner of the Load-stone it draweth from the Circumference unto the Center Again all things coveted or beloved forasmuch as they are formal do participare of the aequinoctiall faculty which emitteth beams by dilatation from the Center and therefore their union by application maketh a mixtion of temper which is between the Northern-pole and the aequinoctial that is partly attractive and partly dilative as is mans vitall spirit which acteth in Systole and Diastole or contraction and dilatation even such is the Act of Magneticall coition Certain Problematical Demonstrations to confirm this Member First I will prove unto you demonstratively and that by a relation made unto the Load-stone that the most vigorous Magneticall attraction is from the North-pole and consequently that by the blood's induing of a Northern and congelative faculty it must needs become most attractive and contractive of his like as we see that the movable and thin expansed aire becometh thick Snow when the North wind doth blow or ice or frost or hail 1. Problem The North-pole is alwaies the most vigorous and strong pole to all Magneticall purposes if he have the quantiry the South hath Application Therefore the bloody spirit induing the natute of the North is most efficacious to operate upon the Southern nature Magnetically or attractively 2 Problem The Loadstone draweth the Iron more strongly from the North-pole than any point else of the said Stone Application This confirmeth the fore-said Problem To conclude the Magneticall attraction of the Northern blood is the cause of planting the light of more spirits in the unctuous Magnet whereby it is made stronger in his operation 3. Problem The Loadstone hath his points that is to say his true poles in the which do abide his greatest virtue And for this cause it doth not attract the Iron with equal force from every part and also the Magneticall Subject doth not move or flow unto every part of the Magnet 4 Problem The parts that are nearest the North-pole are the strongest in attraction and the parts that are remote are observed to be the weaker and more infirm in their drawing virtue Demonstration Now that the greatest attractive virtue is from the North I demonstrate it many waies And first If we shall hang up a long piece of Iron by a threed as is said before the Northen part of the world will attract unto it the end of it So that it will stand directly North and South Secondly if a wier of four or five inches in length be thrust through a cork and touched by the Load-stone and the cork be put into the water the Northern-Star will suck the end of the Iron unto it Thirdly if a long Iron be forged North and South and so be laid to cool in the same situation it will be animated and indued with the virtue of the Pole and move in the aire being hung up by a threed or put into a boat on the water and it will be drawn by the North and have as it were a coition with the North-star Fourthly if a long piece of clay newly burnt doth cool North and South it will then receive a Magneticall power from the earth and pole Fiftly set two Load-stones with their poles of one denomination namely the North-pole or South-pole of each at each end of a piece of clay while it cooleth and both ends will be of one nature Sixtly put a piece of clay of a long form into the fire and afterwards let it cool North and South and it will receive a polar virtue After that burn it again in the fire and let that end which cooled first North cool now South and it will be changed into the nature of the South and the other into the nature of the North. Application By the first therefore of these Problems and experiments it is apparent that the fountain of vigorous attraction is from the pole because that the property of Northern cold is to attract and therefore the bloody Spirit induing the nature of the North becommeth Magneticall as well as that of clay or Iron I will come now therefore to demonstrate the effect that this Northern spirit and the Southern do make by their mutuall concourse and union as we see that the Northern and Southern-pole by their intermediate concourse do produce an aequinoctial nature which is vernall and temperate that is to say hot and moist as is the living blood So that a Media natura or mean nature which participates of both extreams is produced between the confluence of their aspect or application which receiveth from the one and communicateth with the other My magneticall proofs are these 5 Problem Two magneticall bodies being joyned together at their poles those two poles that touch together have the nature of the Aequator or equinoctiall and will not excite or hold a needle thus touching Application The northern or contracted bloody spirit joyning by application with the southern equinoctiall or lively or dilated one will endue by this conjunction an equinoctiall nature which will have relation unto each
be applied unto them all and after that it hath sucked a sufficient proportion then ought you to reserve it for to make your Transplantation The Act of Transplantation of the Spirituall Mummy Touching the act or manner of Transplantation Paracelsus saith that the extracted spirituall Mummy doth not ooperate unto health and preservation but by mineral vegetable and animal means And therefore it is necessary that the spirituall Mummy attracted or extracted out of the body by the virtue of the Animal Magnet must be introduced into a vegetative nature whereby the said Mummy not being of it self vegetative may by adoption as it were be introduced into and be indued with a vegetative nature or condition We ought therefore to mingle a proportion of this imbibed Magnet with a certain proportion of his mother-earth and sow in this composition the seeds of such herbs as are proper for thi◠or that disease and this or that ill affected principall part of man's body or this or that infirm member which is contained in his region As for example For the Lungs in the vitall region when the disease is the Ptifick sow Line-seed or Juniper in the naturall region when it is Dropsy Pimpnel or wormwood in the bruising or contusion of parts Hypericon or Plantain in tumour or wounds Persecaria or the great or lesser Cumfry in Salt diseases as are the tooth-ach pain in the eies and flowing Menstrues Persecaria maculata and so forth The herbs must grow in this compounded earth and that in the open aire and as the herb or plant groweth it will sympathetically and Magnetically extract the imbibed Mummiall spirits out of the Magnet and will by that means cause the Mummy extracted out of every particular member according unto his condition to be fit to cure the infirmity of his proper member Of the Use and Virtue of the Transplanted Mummy Lastly as concerning the manner how to use this Transplanted Mummy now that it is changed into a vegetable nature or condition If the disease be dry and of a combust nature as is the yellow Jaunders the Ptisick c. and you would cure it or expell it out of the body then take the herb with his Magnetick earth and cast them into the running water and the disease will fade and die by little and little But if the disease be moist then you must burn the herb with the Magneticall earth Again if the disease be more temperate namely between the extremities of water and fire then hang up the herb in the aire or smoak to dry and the disease will languish by little and little as the herb doth fade If you shall give the herb or fruit unto the beast that is of a stronger nature than the sick then the beast will be infected with that disease and the sick will be free Also if the spirituall Mummy so extracted out of some peculiar member of a sound Man be conserved in his continuall vegetation if you take of his fruit and transplant it into a sound oken tree by that means the member out of which the Mummy was extracted will grow continually and continue in his naturall and robust proportion of vegetation without defect After this manner also are the Willow trees but that they increase so suddenly and by reason thereof they are not so fit for this purpose lest the member should grow too hastily for by that means many inconveniences may follow As for example If after that manner the hair of a person be shut up into a willow-tree they will grow so suddenly and so copiously that unless they be removed thence or the Willow be burned the eyes and brains will indure dammage and detriment as dolours fluxes c. namely by the suddain increase or too much humidity of the Tree And therefore according unto the proportion of the person there must be a proportionate tree found out into the which the Mummy is to be transplanted but the Oke is to be elected before all others because it increaseth and groweth but temperately and strongly and a mans life will not easily exceed the daies of an Oke By this mysticall kind of attraction the true and wise naturall Magician for so I may call the true Philosopher that operateth as Solomon did by the properties of naturall things may bring to pass such things which in wonder will excell as I said by many degrees the power or act of the weapon-salve for by it wise men have procured friendship love between such as have been utter enemies again by the use of it grace and affection may be recovered from another whose favour is desired Paracelsus speaking darkly of this Mummiall faculty doth shew how the Ape and the Snake betwixt the which a naturall antipathy or strife and hatred is ever observed to be may be made friends and familiar unto one another But to our purpose If the members out of the which the second Mummy is extracted are to be corroborated then you must make the extracted Mummy to vegetate as before by transplantation temperately and according unto the naturall proportion in the Oke or other such like sound tree But if the members be too dry then let their extracted Mummy vegetate in the Willow tree and from thence again be transplanted into some other temperate Tree So also in a humid complexion it may for a time be transplanted into a hot and slowly growing tree as is the Juniper onely observing that the fruit in which the Mummy is transplanted be preserved from all externall dammage Demonstration I need not waste the time in further demonstration of the possibility and feazibility of these acts in the spirituall transplanted Mummy when by the very self-same proofs whereby I have confirmed the manner of curing by the weapon-salve and by transplantation which is set down in one of the Chapters of this present Book I have fully demonstrated the reasons of these occult and abstruse actions in this kind of cure unto such as will not with St. Thomas believe any thing but what is confirmed by sense And therefore for the manifestation of this hidden action by a relation of natures I refer you unto that very place also where the salve is compared unto the vegetable and Magnet the bloody spirits unto the spirituall Mummy the manner of application of beams from the Mummy to the sick member unto the application of the transplanted bloody spirits to the wounded member the keeping the spiritually-growing spirit in the oyntment from cold unto the preserving the vegetable fruit in which the Mummy is planted from externall damage So that eadem est ratio utriusque and by consequence eadem est demonstrationis via in ambobus It is too tedious in this place to express the efficacious operations of this secret mysticall Mummy and I am assured that some ignorant Momus or Cynicall ignorant will either laugh or bark at what is said already touching it for Quis major scientiae inimicus quà m