the way in the places of the paths at the entry of the city at the coming in of the doors with plaine words of righteousnesse without frowardnesse or perversnesse unto us men the Sons of men c. Doth not Christ Jesus stand all the day long in the broad way to stop and turne men from destruction calling and crying unto them Turn yee Turn yee why will yee die yee children of Adam but they with a stiffe neck like their Fathers doe alway resist the Holy Ghost Is any part of the Creation destitute of the glorious presence and power of Christ Psal 19.6 can any thing be hid from the heat and light of this Sun of Righteousnesse Rom. 10.18 Is there any place where the Evangelicall Trump hath not sounded why then doe we close our eyes and stop our eares against the glad tydings and ministry of our salvation What care and cost and charges are many men at to purchase their own vexation at how dear a rate doe they buy their misery who accumulate to themselves Teachers after their own lusts 2 Tim. 4.3 who yet after a multitude of Academicall expences are not able to guesse aright at earthly things Wisd 9.16 or find out that which is hard at hand With what care and industry then ought we to pursue the knowledge of things above which are more noble to be had at a cheaper price and because of a better guide with more ease and safety we need not ascend or descend or send to Athens for it the things that doe not appear are present in the things that are seen T is not incredulous or rediculous that a true Chymist so much now in derision should find light in darknesse darknesse in light bitter in sweet sweet in bitter good in evill evill in good body in spirit and spirits in bodies and by a Spagyrick extraction separate each to its proper use and end distinctly drawing out the great Mysteries of Godlinesse and Iniquity In the high way and open streets the common Roade concourse condition and conversation of men doth Wisdome stand and call to them Turn yee Turn ye why will ye die Christ the great Angell of God standeth as an Adversary like the Angell in the way of Balaam Num. 22.22 to withstand men in all their wayes of iniquity excesse and vanity the madnesse of the false Prophets in us is rebuked by the voyce of Man that Son of man speaking in the dumb Asse of insensible and irrationall creatures Pet. 2.16 Thus the Wisdome of God standeth in the drunkard 's way to turn him from wine Eph. 5.18 wherein is excesse that he may be filled with the Spirit It would have the Covetous man to covet earnestly the best things 1 Cor. 12.31 it perswades the lascivious wanton to abandon his uncleanesse and entertaine the modest kisses and chast embraces of the celestiall Bridegroom Cant. 1.2.16 2.6 it bids the Thiefe steal no more Ephes 4.28 nor consent to thievery Psal 50.18 but labour with his hands the things that are honest Rev. 16.15 watching for the coming of that good thiefe it forbids the Tyrant the hypocriticall ambitious perjur'd self-seeking Tyrant to oppresse and do mischiefe Psal 52.1 but rather to take the Kingdome of Heaven by force and violence Mat. 11.12 it exhorts the treacherous undermining by-ended souldier to put no man in fear Luke 3.14 nor accuse any man falsly not to make the pretence of Religion or Civill Right a stalking horse to proud and imperious designes and ends but to fight the good fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 Jude 3. 2 Cor. 10.4 and earnestly contend for it not with carnall weapons but spirituall It stands in all the Creation to poynt out the Creator Mal. 4.2 in the Sun to shew us the true Light in the springing Fountains Psal 36.9 to tell us of the Well of Life in the Rocks to shew us our refuge in the trees of the field Psal 18.2 Isa 26.4 Ps 92.12 13. 1.3 to put us in mind of the planted of the Lord and the Tree of Paradise and of what the Crosse was made in the seasons of the year at Fall and Spring to preach the Death and Resurrection of Christ the mortification of our vile and quickning of our pure body in the Clouds and Raine to open to us the Mediatorship and Intercession of our blessed Lord who took upon him the dark nature of the earthy Adam John 1.14 Col. 1.19 2.9 which dark cloud the likenesse of sinfull flesh Rom. 8.3 was full of grace and truth the fulnesse of the Godhead when the Heavens are as iron and the earth as brasse Lev. 26.19 when wrath is over us and judgement under us when we see nothing but vengeance and indignation above or below Gen. 9.12 13. then this faederall Cloud elevated to the middle aire John 3.14 12.32 as the true Mediator between God and man 1 Tim. 2.5 doth rend the vaile of his flesh Mat. 27.51 Heb. 10.20 and showreth down the Gracious raine and heavenly dew of Divine love through the eternall Spirit upon the parched soul to cool and quench the fierce anger of the Almighty Nubes est vapor humidus crassus à Sole ad medium acrum elevatus c. Arist 1 Met. c. 9. and cause the heart to bud forth and grow in the grace faith knowledge love and obedience of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ reconciling all things in Heaven and Earth throughout the Passion of his Crosse Col. 1.20 Thus every part of the Creation doth its part to publish the great mysteries of mans Salvation Rom. 1.20 else how should the Gentiles be left without excuse Let all the Works of God praise him in all places of his Dominion Psal 103.22 145.10 O earth earth earth hear the word of the Lord. Isa 28.22 Be not mockers least your bonds be made strong blesse magnifie extoll and praise the Lord in all the works of his hands Enter into his Gates with thanksgiving Psal 100.4 into his Courts with praise be thankefull unto him blesse his Name Psal 92.13 flourish ye in the Courts of the House of our God Let your knowledge love obedience and thanksgiving spring forth and increase abundantly by these outward and visible things Rom. 1.21 Rev. 11.2 which the unbelieving Gentiles like bruite beasts tread and trample under their feet set God alway before yee preserve the faith of his Omnipresence so shall yee never be moved Psal 16.8 draw something of him out of every thing which he hath made O rare Art that can rarifie the condense and mixt bodies of earthly things into a sublimate Purity of Divine knowledge and use Heretofore when Kings Princes and Potentates studyed their neighbours Good more then their own Greatness the Hermetick Philosophy was more Venerable and he that listed himselfe a
Intellectuall Soul and earthy Body like two Extreams are knit glued and confederate together and in this third mean which partaketh of the other two they are coupled and united into one intire man Thus God and Man cannot be united but by a Mean even our Saviour who partaketh of two Natures the Caelestiall and Terrestriall the Divine Humane Paracelsus saith that the soul or breâ—tâ— of life is infused by God into the Elementary body through the Astra's as a Medium Through this Medium this middle Aetheriall little body the Intellectuall Soule by the command of God who is the Centre of the great world and by the imploying of his Intelligences or Spirits to that end is first poured and descendeth into the middle poynt of the Heart which is the Centre of the little world and from thence is spread into all the parts and members of his body as soon as it joyneth its vehicle to the naturall heat by which heat it joyneth to the Spirit begotten from the heart by the spirit it drencheth it selfe into the blood by the blood it cleaveth to all the members to all which it hath an equall nearnesse And because the said Aethereall body participateth of Heaven therefore it holds and keeps the same course with that of the Firmament whose operations it draweth to it selfe by a peculiar magnetick vertue just as the visible body doth the efficacy of the Elements and so remaineth one thing with the visible and invisible world John 10.30 as the Son with his Father as rednesse with wine as whitenesse with Snow The whole Firmament is in us with the Planets and Stars As heat pierceth an Iron Furnace and as the Sun doth glasse so doth the Stars with all their properties pierce into Man so that of the syderiall spirit of the Firmament we may learn all Naturall things The MIND Man hath an Intellectuall and immortal Soul Zach. 12.1 Gen. 2.7 Es 42.5 Wisd 2.23 or Spirit by the inbreathing of God created with the four foresaid inhabitants of the Elements which the bruit beasts have not after the Image of God and the Divine Triunity with the similitude also of Unity 1 John 2.27 Chap. 4.14 Acts 17.28 that so in all things he might be one with his Heavenly Father who is in us by his Spirit from which we learn sacred Divinity and all heavenly and earthly secrets without errour yea in him we are and live and are moved As God is One in Essence Trine or Three in persons so Man is One in Person Trine or Three in distinct Essence that is composed Triune of a Terrene Body an Aethereall Spirit of the Heavens and a living vivifying Soule which God breathed into him and is the house of God This the holy Scripture witnesseth Luke 1.47 1 Thes 5.23 Gen. 2.7 See the Amphiâ—halce of Rhunrad worthy of perpetuall memory Paul the greatest Phylosopher and Divine shewes three parts of Man Spirit Soule and Body There are two Souls or two Spirits in Man Mortall from the first matter which is the life of the body and Immortall from God The Spirit is the Life of the Soule the Spirit and Soule are the life of the body John 14. even the wonderfull Agreement between the Creator and the Creature in whom the great Creator would shew himselfe to be Unitrine or Triune One in Three or Three in One As also the unanimous consent of all that truly professed Phylosophy from the Light of Nature If happily there should be any that deny these three parts yet they must acknowledge that Man was created è Limo Terrae out of the clay or dust of the Earth by the word FIAT and that he received an eternall Spirit or breath of life from the mouth of God which is that Linum Caelorum or slime of the Heavens from the Lord. The Limus Terrae or dust of the Earth is two-fold visible and invisible He hath his Body or cottage from the Earth and Water but the life that dwells therein is from the Aire and Firmament of Fire which life is the Syderiall Spirit and is properly the Man not flesh and blood As the Syderiall Spirit is the life of the Body so the Spirit of the Lord is the life of the Intellectuall Soule And as the Sydereall Spirit dwells in the Body and works therein day and night for this invisible is himselfe the Firmament God created Man to be his Tabernacle as well in this as in the world to come and hath all things in him so the Spirit of the Lord the WORD of God the eternall man dwells in the Soule the house is the habitation of the Soule the Soule is the habitation and cottage of God Therefore when Man the most perfect compleatnèsse of all Gods works the most compleat figure of the world and expresse image of God in whom he rested from creating as having nothing before him more honorable to be created all the wisdome and power of the Creator being shut up and perfected in him as the supream artifice in that he containeth all things in himself that are in God when I say he was on the sixt day made up of all things the last of the Creatures and image not onely of the eternall God but also of the great world because with it he comprehendeth and containeth all things in himselfe it followeth that there are three worlds or Heavens in Man and that he is born about of three Worlds or rather is all the world and a most sure and undoubted Pattern of the whole Universe Exemplumque Dei quisque est in imagine parvâ Manilus That which is Naturated savoureth of the Nature of that which did Naturate it God dwelleth in the Soul as in the Heaven of Man And therefore some have called him the Fourth World in whom are found all those things that are in the other three for which cause also he may be called by the name of every Creature He hath a Spirit or Mind from God for what else is the Spirit of Man which God breathed into him but God himselfe dwelling in us The invisible Body or true Internall Man consisting of Reason and an Astrall Spirit agreeth with the Angells and is their fellow And if he be a true Magician he is not inferiour to the Angells in all Magicall operation and is Lord and Possessor of all things His mortall Phisicall Body he hath from the frame of the world and all things created therein for all Externall things are nothing else but the Body of Man So that he partaketh of a threefold world of the Archetype or God-like world in God of the Intellible or Angellicall of the sensible Elementall or corporall world and hath a symbolicall operation and conversation with them all The Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the chaâ—ret driver or Stern-man of the Soul or Rationall Spirit like the eternall God concludeth all Beings Times and Places 1. He communicateth with
true Chymist had faire hopes to become a great Trismegist the Royall Diadem in the hand of God being more desirable than three Crowns on the head of Man let not the Royall Race degenerate and forget the imployment of a noble mind Eccl. 24.34 Behold now that I have not laboured for my selfe onely but for all them that seek Wisdome Hitherto I have desired to prevent thy mistake now let me endeavor to rectifie my own miscariages T is not long since I resolved to be silent as to selfe-vindication or justification Postscript to Nil Novi but I can no longer refraine from selfe-accusation and condemnation two things afflict me very much and for the third I am sore grieved I am sorry that ever I yielded to any provocation and harnessed my selfe to fight in my own yet not altogether my own quarrell as I did against Parson Goffe and others In Nil Novi whose injurious and unrighteous dealings though they might justly have been aggravated by anothers pen yet was it not of so much concernment to me to recompence as to suffer wrong This fault I might extenuate to a very small guilt having taken the old Protestation to preserve and defend the liberty of the Subject and seek the Reformation of the Church which have been so much violated and obstructed by worldly-interested men For the future I trust so to demean my selfe as one committing his way to the Lord in patience and wel-doing bearing the Crosse daily and sinking down into the Death by chearfull obedience and selfe-denyall whereby I may fill up the sufferings of Christ that are behinde in my mortall body I repent also of the hasty publishing and disclosing of that blessed In a Letter before my Word of Prophesie glorious and unspeakable Discovery which once I had full of assurance and consolation I have since learned by dear Experience that I should have hid that Pearl till I had sold All Mat. 13.44 and pondred those unutterable words longer in my heart Luke 2.19 that they might come forth in more maturity fourteen years time being little enough to have ripened and prepared so deep and inward a Vision for publick participation 2 Cor 12.2 The prejudice of this rashnesse hath been most to my selfe let me alone labour not to comfort me till I have bitterly bewayled it If ever God be gracious to me againe in the like manifestation I hope to improve it with more wisdome and if ever the Lord shine and send into thy heart any rich discovery of himselfe be carefull to swaddle it up in the silent meeknesse and patience of the Crosse till it be grown old and strong enough to dispute with the Doctors and convince the Scribes of this world If hereby I shall be a land mark to prevent thy running aground or splitting against the Rock I shall rejoyce more in thy safety than blush at my own repentance it being lesse shame to confesse then to commit an error But that which hath wounded my soule and pierc'd it more deeply hath been my complyance with men of violence blood-thirsty and deceitfull whose feet have been swift to shed the blood of men more righteous than themselves but the way of Peace they have not known I have been a companion of theeves and murtherers my hands have been defiled with blood Since I professed to preach the Gospel of Peace I have walked with those of strife and contention in the spirit of this world The sence of my sin and the wrath of the Almighty force me to cry out Cleanse me from blood guiltinesse O God Psal 51.14 whereby I have rendred my selfe uncapable to build the House and finish the Temple of the Lord. So contrary have I walked to the pure Principle of the truly Godly and Christian life that it cannot be but that I have been Vnsavory to those who are enrered into that holy Rest where no unquiet spirit is before whose feet I prostrate myselfe like that humble penitent Conculcate me sal insipidum Orig to have all my pride strife lust c. trampled and trod down under foot What secret sins besides which are infinitly innumerable have lurked in the thievish corners of my nature I am to mourn for in my Closet and confesse them to him onely against whom I have sinned but wherein I have been an open transgressor I stand bound to doe pennance before all men Nor let any say that disappoyntments and disconient have thrust out a glozing and feigned Recantation but rather know that my vowes are upon me which were extorted from me in the anguish of my soule long since when the heavy wrath of God lay upon me Non egoventosae plebis suffragia venor Ad haec ego naribus uti formido T is not the praise of man I hunt after nor his dispraise that I flee from I care little for his day of Judgement I scorn to fear it but hate much more to flatter it I can expose my selfe to all the hard sayings of men let them censure and spare not I stand their Butt with a naked breast Onely from the pure minded and upright in heart I begg assistance at the Throne of Grace let me be mentioned in your prayers that I together with you may be delivered from evill and kept from the snare of the Hunter that we may goe on and grow up in all wel-pleasing to God and Man putting on and keeping our weding garment clean watching the coming of our Bridegroom and walking as those those that are redeemed from the earth even so Amen Brinkworth May 10.1656 H. PINNELL Postscript READER WHereas I have proposed and pressed the Creation of God as an object of thy admiration and motive to his adoration it is not in the least intended any way to diminish the due Reverence rightfully belonging to that more rich mercy of the Lord added to man in giving and preserving those sacred Records of heavenly mysteries contained in the most holy Scriptures my desire rather is that both those Books of God Nature and Scripture might be better studyed and more observed Doe I seek to make voyd the Word of the Lord by his Works God forbid nay I establish the one by the other Added by a Friend of the Publisher of this Piece of Crollius and Paracelsus in English CROLLIUS TWo things are seen within this Volumn small the great and the lesse Worlds Originall Here may man see as in a glasse his shape by which he may corruption quite escape The Author was divinely taught that writ so likewise was he that translated it Here may be seen what nature is and grace what God his back parts are and what his face Here is both heaven and earth in Harmony a cure to ease us of our vanity The true Elixir's here the stone that doth transmute the outward and the inward both And make all heavenly like to Chrystall fine yea like to Christ the prototype divine
a sound Doctour teacheth and instructeth men as the Holy Spirit taught the Apostles in fiery tongues It is perfected and brought to light by practice not established by Humane but by the institution of God and Nature for it is not founded upon any Humane figments but upon Nature upon which God hath written with his own sacred finger in sublunary things but especially in perfect Mettalls God therefore is the true Foundation thereof Physick is a favour given of God whereof University books are not the Foundation but the invisible mercy of God and his speciall gift so are those things also which are written that depend upon the true foundation and experience This Physicall essence in Phisick is called Gold Physick is written in the book of Nature 1 in Heaven and Earth and may there be read found out by Chyromancy and phisiognomy through the miraculous illumination of God Wherefore Physick is nothing else but the created and incarnate Mercy of our Heavenly Father bestowed upon poor afflicted Mortalls that the sick Patient might sensibly perceive and have experience of the bountifull love mercifulnesse and assistance of his Creator towards him in his afflictions that so God may be glorified in all his wonderfull works Now this Medicine as naturall Mummy and kernell of Nature is contained in the vitall Sulphur as in the treasure of Nature and is founded in the Balsam of Vegetables Mineralls and Animalls from which every action in Nature hath its beginning By its onely power all diseases are cured if as shall be shewed anon it be rightly prepared and separated from all impurity and in a due order conveniently administred by a Godly skilfull Phisitian to the poor weak decayed Nature of Man The Foundation of this Physick is according to the agreement of the lesser World Man with the greater and externall world as we are sufficiently instructed by Astronomy and Philosophy which explaine those two Globes the superiour and inferiour Philosophy teatheth the force and properties of Earth and Wate as Astronomy doth of the Firmament and Aire Phylosophy and Astronomy make up an internall and perfect Phylosopher not onely in the great World but also in the lesser And therefore it is necessary to accommodate the disposition of the great World as of a parent to the little World as to the Son and duly compare the Anotomy of the World with the Anotomy of Man The outward World is a speculative Anotomy wherein we may see as in a glasse the lesser World Man for so much of his wonderfull and excellent fabrick and creation as is necessary for a Physitian to know cannot be understood from the man himselfe For they agree not in outward form or corporall substance What the Light of Nature is but in all their powers and vertues as is the great world so is the lesser in essence and internall form they are altogether one and the same thing Without the knowledge of Light of Nature or the great world no Physitian can have an exact knowledge of diseases in Man the outward form at least differenceth the World and Man This is most evident from the Light of Nature which is nothing else but a divine Analogy of this visible world with the body of man For whatsoever lyeth hid and unseen in Man is made manifest in the visible Anotomy of the whole Universe for the Microcosmicall Nature in Man is invisible and incomprehensible The great World is a speculation and glasse of the little World Man Therefore in the visible and comprehensible Anotomy of the great World all things are manifest as in their Parent Heaven and Earth are Man's Parents out of which Man last of all was created He that knowes the parents Man is the End of Phylosophy and Astronomy and can Anotomize them hath attained the true knowledge of their child Man the most perfect creature in all his properties because all things of the whole Universe meet in him as in the Centre and the Anotomy of him in his Nature is the Anotomy of the whole world The externall world is the figure of Man and Man is an hidden world because visible things in him are invisible and when they are made visible then they are diseases not health as truly as he is the little world and not the great one And this is the true knowledge that Man may Microcosmically be known visibly and invisibly or magically The knowledge of every sound and perfect Physitian proceedeth from the true and full Anotomy both of the great and little world unto which he may safely trust as to a most sure Anchor Considering then the originall of all diseases it will appear that the Nature as well of the Macrocosme as the Microcosme is its own medicine disease and Physitian A Physitian must spring out of Nature for in him and of him and from him is nothing but all of Nature onely Nature not man maketh a Physitian And because the Matter of Man is the Extract of the four Elements it is requisite that he have in himselfe a familiarity with all the Elements and their fruits inasmuch as without them he cannot live For what man can be without Aire Earth Water or Fire or their effects God created the Elements for their fruits sake that they might sustaine and preserve Man with food and Physick The knowledge of the 4 Elements doe shew every disease in man and its cure Therefore all the externall Elements represent unto us the whole Man which being known Man also is understood for they are alike and are the very Microcosm and in the foure Elements there is but one Anatomy essence and matter all the differenc being onely in the Form The knowledge of Physick in the outward world is to be fetched from the Limbovn and depends upon the knowledg of Man Thus in all things there is Fire Aire Earthy Water Againe there is Water Caelestiall Earth Likewise Terrene Fiery Airy Water Lastly Airy Fre Airy Water Airy Earth There are also four kinds of Mercury and four sorts of Mettalls a fourfold Snow four sorts of Ametheists and precious stones There are Foure of every thing one in the Firmament or Heavenly Element Every Element perfecteth its power and operation in all the four Elements another in the Aire a third in the Water a fourth in the Earth So there is a fourfold Man For God is far more wonderfull in his invisible works then in his visible Paracelsus faith that to avoyd an Emptiness in all the four Elements he created living creatures inanimate that is to say without an Intellectuall Soule which should be the four kind of Inhabitants of the Elements who differ from Men created after the Image of God in understanding wisdome arts operations and habitations To the Water there belong Nimphs Undens Melosyns whose Monsters or bastards are the Syrens that swim upon the water To the Earth doe belong Gnoms Lemurs Sylphs Montans Zonnets whose Monsters are the
Pigmyes In the Aire or our airy world there are Umbratils Silveâ—ters Satyrs whose Monsters are the Gyants To the Fire or the Firmament doe belong the Vulcanals Pennats Salamanders Superi whose Monsters are Zundell Besides those Flagae which Theophrastus in his works affirmeth are in many thousands of severall forts incorporated to the Soul of the World Thus also there is a fourfold Medicine For example the fiery airy watry earthy Heart of the Macrocosm in all things agreeable to the Heart of the Microcosm Man For all things are of one operation in Man So also are we to understand of the rest of the members of the body for the Microcosm the child ought always to answer to the fourfold members of the Macrocosm its parent Thus we shall find that every malady and medicine is of the same Physiognomy Chyromancy and Anotomy He that knows not this Fundamentall cannot be a good Phisitian Thus also we find out of ancient Records that Astrologers and Chymiologers were very near of kin for the Caelestiall Astronomy is as it were the Parent and Mistresse of the inseriour for as much as both have their own Heaven their own Sun their own Moon their Planets and their own proper Stars yet so as that the Astrology of superiour things hath to doe with the Chymiology of things inferiour Those Chymists who by the assistance of divine Grace have attained the Mind and rightly know how to accommodate the properties of those bodies in the superiour Globe which are seen in the Astra's and bodies of the inferiour Globe these can easily and truly unfold all Phylosophicall difficulties that have been wrapt up in aenigmaticall obscurity and will confesse that henceforth they need not travell to India or America to get the knowledge of Phylosophy For by the providence and goodnesse of the Creator it is so ordered that the invisible Astra's of the other Elements should be represented by a visible appearance in the supream Element and that they should clearly discover their motions and seasons although there be nothing in the whole course of the inferiour Nature which by the inbred Astra's is not able to justifie the lawfull use of Astronomy In his Idaea of Phylosophical Phifick They that are troubled with the gout have a foresence of the sudden change of seasons their paine many times makes them Prophets and Astrologers against their will So many sick folk perceive before hand the change of weatherin the four Elements The Internall Elements of man have a foresence of the change of Externall As Reason rules the outward Astra's so Physick rules the inward The Astrum of Man and Heaven is but one Thus as P. Severinus the Dane doth learnedly observe the Sidus constellation of Summer Winter Spring Autumn are contained in the Earth Water Aire which unlesse they did conspire with the Astra's of the Firmament to which onely many of the common Phylosophers by a great mistake have ascribed all Astronomy we should blame the impressions of the Heavenly Astra's as barren in the time of dearth There is a twofold Heaven Externall as all the bodies of the Astra's in the Heaven of the Firmament and Internall which is the Astrum or invisible and insensible body in all the Stars of Heaven That invisible and insensible body of the Astra's is the Spirit of the World or Nature as Paracelsus calls it the Hylech spread abroad through all the Astra's or rather it is all the Astra's it selfe And as that Hylech in a particular manner containes all the Astra's in the great World so also the internall Heaven of Man which is the Olimpick spirit doth particularly comprehend all the Astra's And thus the invisible Man is not onely all the Astra's but is altogether one and the same thing with the Spirit of the world as whitenesse is with snow As all things spring and proceed from within from things hidden and invisible so also the visible corporall substances proceed from incorporall spirituall things out of the Astra's and are the bodies of the Astra's and remaine in the Astra's one in the other Hence it followes that not onely all living things but also all growing things even stones and mettalls The Formation of things is in the Astra'â— as iron in the imagination of the Smith Hence also Nativities are to be cast See Pâ—racel in Paramiro de eme Astroâ—um and whatever are in the Universall Nature of things are indued with a syderiall spirit which is called Heaven or the Astrum the secret Forger from which every Formation Figure and Colour of things proceedeth From this proper and internall Astrum viz. The Sun of the Microcosm which Paracelsus calls the Ens or Being of the seed and virtue or power is Man also generated produced figured formed and governed But when we say that all the form of things proceedeth from the astra's it is not meant of the visible coales of Heaven nor of the invisible body of the Astra's in the Firmament but of every things own proper Astrum so that the superior doth not power forth its vertues hidden secrets into the inferiour spectificate Firmament as the false Philosophers thinke that the stars of the Firmament do infuse virtue into herbs and trees no in no wise every growing and living thing carry its proper heaven and Astrum with it selfe and in it selfe the superiour stars in their course through the Zodiak excite and stir up the growth of inferiour things they provide for them by dew raine seasons but do not infuse the internall Astrum into things that grow neither smell nor colour nor forme but all things proceed from the inner Astrum or secret forger and not from without the externall stars do neither incline nor necessitate Man Man governeth the Stars and not the Stars him but Man rather inclines the Stars and by his Magicall imagination infecteth them and causeth those deadly impressions For we receive not our conditions properties and manners from the Ascendant nor from the Constellation of the Planets but from the hand of God through the breathing in of the breath of life Read the eight Psalme So that Mans Reason ought to rule the externall Stars For if we that are the children of Adam did not provoke our Father with our sins we should alwayes find him meek and gentle towards us Vid. Paracels see Paracels in Paramiro lib. 2. de origine morbor cap. 7. The course of the externall Firmament is free with its constellations and is governed by none So the course of the Firmament and Stars in Man is free with their Constellations and not at all governed by the outward Firmament which course is not finished materially but in the spirits of bodies For as the Aire or Sun cannot set an apple or pear upon the tree which must rather grow ouâ— of its own internall Astrum or inward Heaven from the Centre to the Circumference much lesse can the externall superiour Heaven infuse any vertue into the things that
are digged out of the Earth For the Astrum of every Element brings forth and bayes its fruits in a strange region or matrix By a singular Providence all things seem to tend to the Earth and to further its fruitfulnesse Thus the fruits of the Firmament are perfected in the Aire and from hence imparted to the lower Globe as Snow which is bred of Fire is found in the Aire and Earth The fruits of the Aire proceed from the Centre to the Circumference and there attaine to coagulation and perfection The Seeds of the Water doe bring forth in the inner part of the Earth and from thence tend to the superfices or outside For the Earth wherein we live and flourish bringeth forth its fruits into this Circumference for the corne that grows in the Earth is reaped upon the Earth in the Aire so the procreations of all the Elements doe voluntarily and earnestly bend toward Man-kind as to their desired limit and by a liberall supply of moysture doe cherish all the parts of Nature So also we see that by an imutable decree of Eternall Law it comes to passe and is so ordered that the Water doth not bring forth more then the Earth can bring up Astrers saith that the Aire was created befoâ—e any Creature All mâ—yst things â—tâ—râ—cted by the Sun from the Eâ—â—â—h are consumed in the Aire whose fruits are the likeness of the Tereâ—iâ—biâ— or far of Manna the Aire cherish and the Fire consume The Aire also is twofold for it hath its Element as an Inhabitant in it selfe It is the Balsam of all created things and the life of the other three Elements nor is there any Element that God created more subtle or thin which liveth of it selfe and giveth life to all without which neither Firmament nor Water nor Earth can bring forth their fruits the Fire cannot so much as burne without the Aire much lesse can the coales of Heaven those Crescences of Fire shine The Element of Fire according to Paracis the Firmament of Heaven The Firmament or Fire is likewise is twofold and hath its own Element as an Inhabitant in it selfe which Element hath in it all Astra's and Seeds The Element of Fire or the Corporeall Firmament sends the bodies of the Stars Sun Moon and Planets out of it selfe For as hearbs flowers trees did grow out of the Earth and yet remaine in the Earth so at the Creation did the bodies of the Stars grow out of Heaven and yet abide in the Firmament or Heaven swiming in their Orbs as birds fly in the Aire The twelve Caelestiall Signes in the Zodiak with the other Stars of Heaven are the fruits of Fire and come from the invisible Astra's of Fire By how much the Firmament is more subtle or thin then the Earth by so much the fruits thereof are more subtle and operative then the fruits of the other three Elements Thus the seven Rulers of the world are nothing else but the fruits of Fire As the flowers in earth shew the Colours of the Stars so the constellations in Heaven shew the field or meadow of the Earth which fruits are separated from the Element of Fire and by separation doe increase as flowers and hearbs in the Earth onely the flowers of the Earth abide immovable in their place but the Stars doe not so in the Firmament for they move up and down in the Firmament and those Sphaericall bodies doe by the Providence of God swim in their Orbs as fish in the water or a feather in the Aire and are nourished by the Heaven These like all other created things are twofold we see their visible body as a shining light the invisible Astrum or Sydereall Spirit in the Stars we cannot see so that not the body of the Sun but the Spirit in the body is the Sun properly the like also may be said of Man Moreover the four Astra's of the said Elements are the Seeds in the four matrices or wombs and always two are together and in one to wit the Body and Astrum the invisible and visible The Bodily growes out of the Spirituall and abideth in it and so the invisible vertues Seeds and Astra's are propagated into many Millions through the corporeall Visible body as fire increaseth in wood or in convenient and fit matter one Fire alwayes proceedeth from another Angels cannot increase themselves because they want a body but Man may because he hath a one All things that grow as hearbs trees fishes birds living creatures may augment themselves by the help of the body after this manner for the Seed or Astrum can doe nothing without the body so soon as ever the Seed or Astrum dies and rots in its matrix or womb the Astrum goes forward into a new body and multiplyeth it selfe as Christ himselfe sets it forth by a similitude and example in a graine of Wheat John 12.24 and afterward bringeth forth much fruit or many grains which in time come to have the same power or virtue that the former had out of which they grew Putrefaction consumeth and separateth the old Nature and bringeth new fruit Therefore Eternall life cannot be in any but where the body is first dead because death is the cause of the glorifying of the body in eternall Life as Corruption is the cause of the new generation of a Divine substance 'T is necessary that the first life of hearbs and medicines should die that the second life by the Chymists help may be attained through Putrefaction and Regeneration wherein the Three First discover themselves with their hidden vertues which are necessary for a Phisitian to know for without Regeneration no hid Secret of Physick can be attained to which is without all complexion of qualities When the externall World is known the Phylosophicall Physitian doth also understand the Physicall body of Man which is nourished from the Earth and Sydereall body which liveth by the Firmament he sees that the Physicall body is nothing else but Sulphur Salt and Mercury for all bodily things are contained in these Three as hath been said a little before and that the things that grow doe not spring from the four visible Bodies nor from the four humors but out of the invisible Seed as an hearb or tree groweth out of its seed The Anotomy of the diseases of the body is to be fercâ—â—c from the internall Astra's or impressions which cause the diseases and is more necessary for a Physitian them that Locall Anot of Carkasses It is not the Locall Anotomy of a man and dead corpses but the Essentiated and Elemented Anotomy of the World and man that discovereth the disease and cure The Members or parts of the great world are the Remedies of the members and parts of man by an agreement between the externall and internall Anotomy not setling one degree against another As there is but one Anotomy of a man and a woman so the Anotomy of the diseases and of the medicines
the most part false because their Phylosophy and other abilities were polluted and corrupt In vaine therefore it is to seek knowledge from them who have spent all their life in looking after it and have wasted all their time and study to no purpose not finding out any truth though many of them were seduced by ignorance rather then malice the Light of Truth not yet risen to them nor the Light of Nature as yet kindled by the holy Spirit Divinity is the Fountaine of Naturall and Supernaturall knowledge All true Phylosophy should be grounded on the Scriptures and so return into God that so the Regenerate Christians might reap and receive the full increase of that seed which among the Gentiles was choaked for want of the Sun like that among the thorns No Art can be perfected without Regeneration Christians should not be ruled by Heathen Phylosophy True Phylosophy must be grounded on Christ the corner stone We ought therefore to be most wary that we suffer not the Philosophicall errours of the Heathen to beare down or dominiere over the rules of Christian Phylosophy Christians onely in whom the Truth is planted who have their seed from God by the means of Regeneration which the Heathen have not doe truly know to use or teach Phylosophy without mistake or errour and how to manage aright all other faculties Believers shall be taught of God when the Holy Spirit is powred forth To be short the knowledge of God is the Treasury of the whole world wherein all things are laid up so that without this knowledge no man can come to eternall life For Faith Hope and Love follow knowledge Adhaesion or cleaving to followeth Love Union follows Adhaesion in Union is Blessednesse and Wisdome This Regeneration that holy man Hermes and others of clean hearts and godly lives before the Word was incarnate being enlightned by the holy Spirit though they concealed it among other Secrets they knew it better then many of us who call our selves Christians and had rather seem to know God then love him O great miracle 1 John 4. Wâ—sd 1. John 17. Man whose mind by Christ is united to God possesseth the true wisdome of all things and the most absolute knowledge of all Secrets Furthermore he that knoweth himselfe doth know all things Fundamentally in himselfe and being set between Time and Eternity above him he sees God eternall his Creator The soul is the off-spring and image of God Apoc. 22. after whose image and likenesse he was with other Angells created by an unsearchable love besides or about him he knows the immortall Angells his fellows and companions from whom he differeth onely in body and the Judgement to come Under him he sees the visible World whereof he is a pattern and all the Creatures with whom he hath a likenesse even his parent of whom he was born as to the externall and mortall body Man who is a true Proteus of a fickle wavering disposition received a flexible mind from Nature Eccl. 15.14 that being set in the midst of the Paradice of this world by the assistance of Divine Grace raising himselfe upward he might be regenerated into a quiet Angell or the Forger of his fortune winding and creeping downward degenerate into a restlesse Bruite But the free Râ—asonable Creature neglecting the fatherly admonition and his due obedience Gen 2. turning from the mean to the extreame himselfe dispising his Creator He that seeks to himself that which is anothers unâ—voydably â—uâ—â— himseâ—fe into two â—nconveniences i. e. theft and robbery of himselfe and death The Fâ—â—l waâ— aâ—swering from Uâ—iâ—y to Alteâ—iâ—y learned by experience what his own proper Evill and Nothing was to his voluntary damage and perdition like a Thief and Robber And thus abusing the bounty of his most indulgent Father he made choise of death rather then of life and like Lucifer not content with his lot ambitiously desiring higher things he set himselfe in opposition against God at last by an unexpected change was cast out of the Garden of pleasures into this dolefull and darksome valley of Misery and Ignorance The first man was left in the hand of his own counsell Eccl. 15.14 and of his own accord turned from the strait path into the crooked way of Misery greedily desired the possession of good and evill to his own destruction as Herms and Moses sufficieâ—tly demonstrate God created man that the number and losse of the rebellious Angells might be made up in the kingdome of Heavâ—n Man the bond or buckle of the world the last wonderfull and honourable living creature was upon the sixt day after all other things drawn or taken è limo terrae out of the slime of the Earth or visible frame of the whole consisting of Heaven or Heavenly Sphaeres and the Earth viz. out of the most thin or pure substance of the whole frame of the world concentred into one body fashioned by the great Spacyrus into a bodily shape made to supply the place of the fallen Angells Man was formed of the most excellent Compound and purest Extract of the whole Word out of the Center of all Circles Therefore Nazianzen speaking of the workmanship of Man saith God made Man last that in him as in a short and briefe way he might set out or expresse all that before he had made at large viz. all the members or parts of the whole world As an Oration is made up of letters and sillables so the Microcosm or Limus Terrae Man is compacted of all bodies and created things The great God eternal and Creator of all things took the Quintessence out of all things created and thereof fashioned and composed Man as the Prince and End of all these and congratulated him as his Son holding or possessing the honourable place of the high Divinity on Earth In respect of the Body or corruptible Nature he bears the Image of the great sensible and temporall World In respect of his soul or immor-Nature he bears the Image of the Archetype or originall copy and patterne of the world that is of the immortall Wisdome of God himselfe So that all the properties of Animalls Vegetables and Mineralls entred into him and withalla living Soul inspired into him God is all things of himselfe Man is made all things of God and was therefore created last that by him the compleatnesse and perfection of all the Creatures might be signified Man is the tye bond knot joynt Psal 8. Thou hast put all things under his â—eer Paraceâ—s excepteth the Spirits and inhabitant of the â—â—ur Elements packet or bundle of all the Creatures All things created were disposed of to him and they respect and honour him as Gods steward set over the Orchard or Garden of this world God is the Center and Circle of all things that he brought out of himselfe for all the works of the Divine goodnesse are circular and perfect sphaerically wheeled about to him from
so hath he given to his Name to have life in it selfe and the Name also to the Letters Great things have been affected by True Magicians by whom I doe not mean Nicromancers or them of the Black Art those accurate searchers out of Nature by a Word written and Characters or Signes Such Names are the Divine Power framed at a certaine time according to the power of Heaven far from all superstition which ariseth onely from ignorance without any prophanation or scandall of the Divine Majesty or any wrong to Faith and Religion otherwise it were better for us alwayes to be sick then to be cured with the dishonour of God For Characters or constellated Names according to Agrippa have no force from the Figureors Pronunciation but by reason of the Vertue or Office which God or Nature hath ordained to such a Name or Character There is no vertue or power either in Heaven or Earth which descendeth not from God nor can it give or actually exercise any thing it hath but by his permission Medicines are visible bodies Words are invisible bodies whether the Hearb or Word healeth it is by God the Naturall Vertue thereof to wit Paracels saith that Characters are â—â—e Compounds and Syrups of Spirits by the Spirit of God made One with Nature by his Word FIAT Concerning Characteristicalll Cure which affecteth Naturall operations by words pronounced written carved and hanged about the neck by the caelestiall properties of the Stars through a marvellous Influence agreeing with our bodies if any desireth to be satisfied herein let him read Rog. Bacon of the wonderfull power of Art and Nature Physitians also have wrought great cures by the Created Word or the incarnate Mercy for all these things are done by the efficacy of the Triune and Divine Word onely which healeth and preserveth all things Luke 11.14 as we see in our Saviour miracles who when he restored the deafe and dumb to whom the Pills and Syrups of all the Shops in the world could doe no good he did it not by Nature but by himselfe he did it by One Word and he is that Word to wit the increated Mercy of God John 1.3 Not by bread alone Mat. 4.4 Grace exceedeth Nature and the thing signified excelleth the signe by which are all created things from which all simples flow which also with the Father dayly worketh all in all What vertue and operation soever there is in the Creatures as well in the great as in the little world all that for certaine is wrought of God incarnate in his explicit and manifest bond of one Spirit filling all things inseperably gathered into one which Spirit therefore is the only fulnes of the whole world Eccl. 24.8 9 10 11. and may well be called The Fulnesse Nothing is made out of God for in him all things live are moved and doe subsist This WORD of God the First begotten of every Creature is truly our Dayly Bread for which our Saviour commanded us to pray it is the supercaelestiall Mummy the supernaturall Balsome comforting poor Mortalls more then Mans own Mummy or naturall Balsom Without this benediction the staffe of bread is broken a God threatned his people by his Prophets It is of mere mercy and goodnesse not of justice that we have both the bread of nourishment and of healing The vertue in bread is the blessing of God yea God himselfe the Word in our Earthly food is the true Bread which is given to good and bad Man liveth not by bread alone but by that which is in Bread So that our Food and Life are not of the Earth but of God by his Word If the Word were not or of it selfe were not the onely Bread then the Earth would be our God but that may not be therefore is it not of the Earth but of God by his word This Word then is the true medicine that healeth all things but is not known to every one nor can every Scholler treat and write of it though plunged over head and eares in the dusty learning of School-Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our friend Theophrastus Paracelsus a Disciple of the Mosaicall and Living Phylosophy hath written of the Secrets of Nature and the Wonders of God to wit of the WORD of God INCARNATE which may be found in the Creatures John 1.10 Heb. 11.3 Psal 107.20 and is the Physick and Staffe of our Life by this Word FIAT the seed of the whole world were Heaven and Earth created and this is that which is efficacious in all the Creatures and to which the Creatures are justly in subjection as to their own soule Whatsoever therefore the Physitian doth effect Naturally or by HEARBS working successively by the space of time The explication of a common saving 1 in Hearbs Stones and Words there are great vertues that the MAGUS the Wise man or Caelestiall Physitian performeth suddenly and much sooner by Characters and Stones with a most powerfull impression to wit the Gamahaea of Influentiall Wedlock to the Terrestiall signe by matrimoniall combination of the Superiors and Inferiors ASTRALLY For such is the mutuall tye and continuity of Nature that like a stretched cord all the Superiour vertue floweth through every inferiour thing even to the utmost dispersing its beams by a long and continued order and succession on the other hand the inferiour passe through all to their Superiours because the working Vertue is one and the participation of the species is diffused through all Divine Matrimony Hence is that wonderfull tye continuity influence and simpathy between inferiour superiour Naturall things many things may be done in Magick and Cabal by the intercession of the worlds marriage And the True Cabalist whom Paracelsus calls the Naturall Divine who is equall to the Prophets and whose mind being united and coaequant to God doth whatsoever he will for he willeth onely what God doth he doth above Nature DEALLY or like God accomplish complish in a moment by firme confidence and strong faith Every Creature feareth and reverenceth his Name that made it the very GATE of miracles in that Only Divine Name ISHUH in which all things are reckoned up and contained that is he doth performe it in the WONDERFULL WORD by the Mind Faith and Prayer to wit prayers made in Spirit and in Truth The New Birth is the Field of Caelestiall Physick which healeth with a word without Externall means that one operation is in respect of God as the Artificer and in respect of Man as the Instrument every creature is at the beck and command of their faith who are men innocent and taught in the Law of the Lord Read the books of the Kings 1 Kings 3.12 Wifd 7. who are heard in all things whatsoever they pray for witnesse Elias Elisha c. By prayer in Faith we obtaine all things I mean not a lazy sluggish prayer but a constant asking seeking knocking by faithfull Prayer we ascend in
was in his life and cost him nothing contrary to the determinate assertion of Physitians Aphorismes and shortly after he was marryed Likewise in the year 1606. at Prague a certaine Silesian to get mony did in the presence of many swallow six and forty white flints which he gathered at banck side weighing almost three Physick pounds the least of which was about the bignesse of a Pigeons egge all of them being almost four of my handfulls by this bold adventure without impairing his health he went up and down getting his living for many years together c. CHAP. V. The Duty of Natures Minister the Physitian ALL common Philosophy was not bound up in Aaistotle as P. Ramus hath soundly proved nor was the whole Light of Nature drawne into Galen and limited in him only witnesse Paracelsus No man ought to deprive another of the liberty of human ingenuity that Light of Nature the power to discern and judge as well as himselfe the Grecian Monarchy is at an end Therefore he that would be an Excellent Physitian he must be free from every kind of Sect. for no man can be said to be truly and throughly learned who is bound up to the rudiments of any one faculty only not to be tyed to the opinion of any one Author but to follow the naked Truth and subscribe to it alone alwayes remembring that of Horace Quo me cunque rapit tempestas deferor hospes-Nutlius addictus jurare in verba magistri I think and judge as cause I finde My rule is not anothers minde Not that other mens inventions are altogether to be slighted by stickling onely for one sect for all sects be they never so many may well be admitted because in every one of them there is some thing excellent which is not common to another as said that most noble and wise Picus Mirandula the Phaenix of Phylosophers the inimitable patterne of most profound ingenuity and variety of learning There is no book so base and bad but hath some good in it which the best Authors have somtimes let slip without taking notice of it This latter age saith Fabius hath endeavored to make the former more compleat and because knowledge thriveth as ingenuity is improved therefore many loathsome errours of the Heathen have been as by a second song All Secret are by divine Ordination to be discovered wip'd away by men of greater wisdome coming after them Doubtlesse there are more secrets yet concealed in the Treasures of Wisdome and Nature then we perceive which being ordained for Times and Nations by an immutable decree to the end of the world are to be sought out by wise-hearted men For Nature certainly being Circularly can hardly be wholly comprehended by any mortall man by reason of the shortnesse of his life The case so standing neither the Physick of the Ancients nor that of Theophrastus is totally to be rejected Many errours of the Ancients are discovered by dayly experience which yet hath not attained its end neither nor yet so to be imbraced but that if there be a better found out it also is to be received for one day teacheth another to morrow may be master to this day both should be compared together what is best in both let that be cetained For being but men they have their failings in some places they mistake in other they write one thing contrary to another and thwart each other sometimes they differ from themselves in many things they are deceived nor doth every man see all things The holy Spirit alone hath the plenary or full knowledge of all things who distributeth to every man according to his particular measure blowing where it listeth and reserving many things to himselfe that we might alway acknowledge him to be our only teacher A true Phisitian should be the minister not a master to Nature and a Philosopher skilfull to cure acording to the conclusion of Hippocrates Galen But since there are severall sects of Phylosophers some after the Vulgar manner will be looking below the Moon after the Elementary Nature of things others far more excellent and more truly deserving the name of Philosophers investigate the Arcana and more secret things of Nature they go into the very inner roomes and Sanctuary of Nature and have the true knowledge and Expeeience of Nature's Light which maketh a true Physitian indeed A Physitian is compleated by 3 things the Naturall innate vertue of things that grow of the Earth the Celestiall influence causing that vertue the uniting of it by Chymistry with the Constellation of the firmament the dexteriâ—y of the Phisitian mediating the same In Chirurgia magna But first as Paracelsus saith let him be the legetimate INTERPRETER of NATURE who alone searcheth out its oeconomy and the universall latitude thereof prying into all the Species and kinds of all the Creatures that may by themselves be known and then comes to consider and looke into man A true Phylosopher haâ—h the originall from the knowledge of Heaven and Earth whose Nature and quality he doth perfectly understand Phylosophy hath iâ—s Rise and Râ—â—t in Admiration Phylosophy teacheth the vertues and qualityes of the Earth and Water as Astronomy doth of the fire and Ayre Phylosophy and Astronomy make a perfect Phylosopher not onely in the great but also in the little world A Physitian should have the knowledge of Phylosophy and Astronomy Chyromancy Pyromancy and Geomancy are the Elements of Astronomy and Phylosophy Theophrasteans contemplate and admire the workmanship of Nature throughout this mighty frame of the whole Creation who give themselves to a vary examination and a wise inquisition into the qualities affections motions courses and recourses of the Heavens and fiery bodies as also into their rise fall antecessions consecutions progresses digressions stops and sudden passionate motions and lastly into the seeds principles dimensions and instincts of all sublunary bodies all which they doe with great observations and no lesse diligence by which industry and that perpetuall thirst which they have of meditation and cogitation By this meditation which is a frequent cogitation the manner cause reason of every manner of thing is found out together with their praâ—ers and earnest desires they doe at last attaine not onely to understand but also really to imitate the greatest mysteries and secrets of Nature and that which is more then all they can tell how to improve and imploy them When the Phylosopher comes to a stand in the Naturall Light of the Macrocosm then the Physitian begins to move and proceed in the Analogicall Concordance of the Naturall Light of the Microcosm with that of the great world Secondly a Physitian must be a good SPAGIRUS A Philosopher and Physitian spring one out of another are the root of each other the onely Spagyrick cook of all things Phylosophy is the mother of Physitians â—â—d the exâ—laiâ—er of 〈◊〉 â—â—â—eâ— theiâ—â—â—â—â—â—dyeâ— one that can seperate the pure
are of the Ens of God are unsearchable here the cure must be sought in Faith not in Nature as also in the cure of Deal diseases that are of the Ens of God or in the deificall or faithfull cure the predestinate Terme or period according to the Divine pleasure is to be observed CHAP. VI. Of that one onely chiefe Medicine of the most Ancient Phylosophers This occult Minerva of Phylosophy this only most precious Jewell is inestimable FUrthermore I shall here supply what yet pertaineth to that chief and universal Phylosophical Phisick than which a greater gift of wisdom we never read that divine bounty bestowed on man Not excepting so much as the very Reasonable Soul which next unto God in Heaven and Earth cannot consider or find out any thing under Heaven bestowed upon Man more admirable more sublime more noble or excellent than this most secret Secret of secret Secrets by which even wonders yea all things may be done both as to the Plannets of inferior Astronomy whose imperfection and drosse it causeth to vanish by piercing them with its most powerfull impressions for it segregateth all extraneous Sulphureity and impure Terrestreity from metallick and Humane bodies as also to the recovering covering and preserving of the languishing and lost health of the Human body by its fiery vigour besides infinite other things to say nothing now of the Magicall and super Celestial use when the Gonetick influence of the beames of the Sun and Moon and the fourth revolution is finisht upon its native Earth See the Moâ—ade of John Dee of London and Roger Bacon it is endowed absolutly with all created Influentiall power as well in the Elementall world as in the Celestiall or super celestiall it is the most wonderfull of all wonders for as God is wonderfull in all his works so doth he usually hide his wonderfull Gifts in wonderfull men All antiquity also all Verity of all Nations and Languages in the tradition of this doctrine the consent of all those most learned men who in every age have lived with the greatest admiration and prayse of many do bear witnesse that this is so Moreover besides the ocular inspectation and certification of many of our time it is easie to determine this from their writings which are woven of so many Hieroglyphicall Magicall and Mathematicall Coverings in so great and certaine a series of Phylosophicall Truth Who then would not admire and embrace so great a Gift of the greatest GOD the immortall price of his study paines and vertue which to the Pious and holy Phylosophers dignified by Nature and Education doth warrant and assure a removall of old age and renewing of youth perpetuall health and honest food and rayment without hinderance to our neighbor not by usury and fraud nor cheating wares nor by oppression of the poor as most of our rich men are now inriched but by industry of work and labour of the hands God forbid therefore that sleighting the example of the Ancients I should either deny such precious Wonders of GOD and darken the wonderfull powers of Nature for he that despiseth knowledge him the glorious and high God despiseth for rejecting this most true Art or which is worse to revile them as the most doe as if they were but the speculations of idle men or the empty dreams and fictions of a sottish and doting mind who yet among wise men doe but betray the weaknesse of their judgement and openly call witnesse of their folly Those therefore that revile and are ignorant of these divine Banquets whom the Phylosophers call fools are not to be admitted to them those also that dote in their Phantasticall dreams are utterly to be excluded Here some are listning whether trusting to my own ingenuity I dare boast also of the preparation hereof in this place or whether fot ostentation sake I ambitiously arrogate to my selfe the absolute knowledge of this Art Here I would be taken as an Index or as one standing at the door to direct others the way they should goe whom I may profit more then my self or as a whetstone to incourage them on as those covètous Mountebanks and greedy Phylosophists use to doe But because I promised the Courteous Reader a little before that I would set down at least those things which I had made tryall of I was unwilling in this place openly and most wickedly which is not the part of a wise man but of cheaters to falsifie any thing concerning the undoubted certainty of this matter For this Sacred and Divine Art and Science not of Sophisters but Phylosophers which the ignorant basely and wretchedly condemn of falshood for doubtlesse among all Arts as well Liberall as Mechanick none aboundeth with so many Imposters as this doth deserve to be reverenced for the wonderfull Secrets that are in it and to be preferred before all other earthly Sciences by those that are true Physitians who being inlightned with the Spirit of Divine Wisdome content and furnished with honest food and rayment for it cannot be that a poor or covetous man should spend his time in the study of Phylosophy doe with religious veneration pray unto God after the example of Solomon not for wealth but wisdome that he would open to them the Magazine of Divine knowledge And who measure their happinesse at least by Heaven and the Love of God the giver of every good thing Who also are moved and spurred on to search it out by the love of Secrets and of Nature according to the Divine Grace And who through a desire of getting knowledge without any foolish hope of gaine or affectation of vaine glory By Wisdome the heart is made constant doe in the fear of God refuse no honest constant and possible labor of the hands And lastly who without any malignant intention neglecting the spring of dry humane thirst doe most humbly with fear and trembling desire to use such great gifts to that End which belongs to the Master of Nature to wit the Praise and Honour of God and the good of his needy neighbor in a constant Taciturnity without pride which provoketh the envy of all men They that carry about their Treasure and use it publickly Job 22.25 By â—hese I say among the Children of the golden doctrine whose gold is the Omnipotent God that most rare Good which is to be prefer'd before all riches is justly and of right to be searched out for the health sake of men who quitting all other businesse and imployment and leaving the mettalls to those who with an impious hunger and a thirsty and insatiable desire of being rich making no difference between right and wrong do horribly vex and torment themselves night and day to the great hazard both of body and soul A Phylosopher must covet Nothing but Wisdome which is conversant about Divine things therefore a true Phylosopher never sought after nor desired riches but is rather delighted with the Mysteries of Nature
continually burning and never wasting And all that is of the Virtues and pure Truth and Nature of the Elements which feare not the Fire of Heaven shall remaine like a pure cleare incorruptible and fixed Essence in a serene resplendent Chrystalin Earth and be for ever at rest with the happy saved Ones carryed upward like an Eagle or as Smoak excited by the Fire For when God shall change all things by making them new according to his will and shall make them all like Christall then the motions of the Supernaturall Nature shall abide in those things without corruption I wish the Great Ones of our time who are sufficiently enriched with Gold and Silver from the revenues of their subjects would bestow some part of their wealth upon men piously and consciensciously learned and skilfull in Chymistry and that they would set every man his task as he is fit for it and as he shall desire it to find out one out of those Three Families of Nature that out of the same things in which all Physick is founded viz. Animalls Vegetables and Mineralls they might fetch out the most choyse Physicall Mysteries All beauty corporeal and incorporeall is nothing else but the splendor of the Divine countenance and Light set in created things glittering sparkling out through faire bodies and making all that love it to be amazed at it like the Image of God For so much Light as a King hath in him so much Majesty hath he Quantum Luminis tantum Numinis separating them by Fire into their Three First things The Phylosophicall Conclave of any Prince furnished with such most precious and wholesome a Treasure might compare even with the riches of Pactolus for questionlesse it would delight and like a Loadstone attract the eyes of the spectators to contemplate the open riches of secret Nature From the beholding of whose pleasant and insatiable beauty what recreation I pray of the eyes and what admirable elevation of the mind would it cause to the Creator himselfe To behold here the most choyse and select store of the Vegetables answering to the members of our body by an Harmonicall Anatomy discovered in a wonderfull and most acceptable variety in their Three First principles with their garments put off made naked and visible There to see the like of Animalls yonder to behold the same of Mineralls and Mettalls viz. the TRIUNE naked DIANA shining with so many colours of variety and alwayes with a Triple Form in every classis or distribution a most limpid or clear MERCURIAL a most garnished SULPHUREAN or oyly and a most bright pure SALINE form who otherwise covereth her selfe from the dishonest looks of mortalls and desireth not to come into the company of men in this worldly scene with her veile A work truly becoming a great King and Prince Francis the First King of France the greatest Favorer of Phylosophers and learned men intended to go about one of the Three but was prevented by death And the sole fountaine being reserved to it selfe for its own uses but by drawing forth spare streams is it not a work of Humanity and Liberality and the duty of an Almoner in this great Hospitall of Piety most worthy of all praise and eternall memory to do good to God with this Talent in our poor neighbour and his members By the Light of God secret and hidden things are revealed and made manifest For without him no good and perfect thing can be attained Psal 145.19 Prov. 10.24 Without question the Father of Lights from onely as from the Efficient Principall and Finall Cause of all Creatures and Operations every good Gift upon amendment of Life is by asking seeking and knocking to be obtained would load this pious and laudable purpose heap upon heap with far greater and perhaps unlookt for blessings for he performeth the will of them that Fear him to them that proceed this way in the Fear of God and love of their neighbour For this onely is the Kings high-way not onely to come all the desired Secrets of Nature but that which is the chiefest thing of all it leadeth even to the very workmaster of the universe Divine confidence never left any without help to do good He that knows One knows All things he that Earneth many things learneth nothing Eccl. 34.12 13 14. Blessednesse consisteth in the apprehension of the chiefest good God is the Immutable Rest after which every Creature doth gaspe and groan with all its endeavor Levit. 25. Tob. 12.13 Eccl. 2.5 Prov 17.3 We cannot get the Victory and Crown of Patience without striving fighting Per Angusta iâ—uâ— ad Angusta by which ONE infinite OCEAN of all Divine GOODNES through Regeneration alterity being swallowed up of unity in the Sabath of Sabbaths or when the eternal Jubile is come for which we were created we do by consent of divine Clemency attaine the scope and true mark in the full fruition whereof we shall hereafter be delighted just like a miserable Exile and pilgrim tossed up and down through various hazards hardships streights and miserable sufferings restord againe to his rightful Country for he deserveth not sweet who hath not tasted of bitter things There is no recovering or returning to what we have lost but by the Crosse and Death Nor will God have mortall Man who now is wandring from him that he should come to immortall blessednesse and glory in a delicate journey but through the Fire of Temptation and Tribulation with a sad and sharpe death because the Coronation and wiping away of all teares is after the victory when we have overcome all our enemies eternall Life will recompence greater wars and wrestlings But to returne to the supream though crosse fortune hath not onely hindred me who have alway been desirous of the honest and most sincere Truth many times though in vaine aspiring and earnestly desiring to enter into the inner rooms of that supream Phylosophicall Oratory not to the end that I might make Gold and Silver for truely they are rich enough who are content with a little and make it not their businesse to get much but with an exceeding love to find out the True Physick and upright desire of the wonderfull works of God but I know not by what sinister and most unhappy destiny of mine it so fell out that with how much the more fervent endeavor of mind I have followed those most secret Studies by so much the more bitterly have I been worryed hitherto by the slanderous Envy of malevolent men and waves or fruits of of Fortune the necessity of equity enforceth that though I cannot proceed further as yet I comfort my selfe with the cogitation onely and thinking upon so great a Thing God himselfe knoweth what to whom when and how is fit whose Name be glorified and blessed for ever who many times turneth away those things which happily might do us hurt because he is good Num. 11.33 Psal 78.30 31 104. 105.
should move the Intelligence or Soule of the Artist to a true Understanding that he may open to him what is hid in the magistery of this Art Blessed will he be to whom the Lord God shall be pleased to inspire the Gifts of his Grace For it is the Lord of Heaven who knoweth the heart of those in whom he would use the form measure Notwithstanding we see men somtimes offend not onely against God by their ingratitude but also against their undeserving neighbour by strange devices not becoming an Aedpt Phylosopher with which some eminent men heretofore and two publick Phylosophers of divers Nations in our time abusing the Gifts of God against those most horrid Anathema's of Phylosophers afterward as doubtlesse every man according to his dexterity which the sydereall spirit causeth and exciteth is the forger of his own fortune they came to dolefull and lamentable end to the perpetuall reproach of their Name answerable to the unworthy publishing of this most True Phylosophicall Art miserably wasted and restrained by the Wrath of GOD the Righteous Revenger as well for their arrogant pride punishment and repentance accompanying their provoking loquacity as also for their cheating Impostures of the first Hapocraticall silence The originall of the Philosophicall Magistery Most doe otherwise now who make thir boast among others that they have the clear knowledge of it when it is only but imaginary and so hinder themselves by their credulity and perswasion so that they cannot profit or proceed to learn any more which they did by turns to cloak the matter for their safety Those more ancient and skilfull Phylosophers who were born in a happy signe the children of Hermes who first found out the science among whom nothing was more ancient than Truth nothing more filthy and abominable than falshood and deceit and who have even judged it a thing more safely worth their labor to have it indeed without the witnesse of a sottish ignorant multitude then seeme or be supposed onely to have it who also have endeavoured to leave behind them an unspotted memory to posterity not as many too credulous imagine that being deceived with their own vaine imaginations they would deceive others in like manner which is not the property of an honest man In the first age of the world God made it known by the Light of Nature I say these private not publick Secretaries of Nature who have in the Naturall Light fresh and flourishing in them followed Reason the best guide according to the ability God gave them all of them with greatest attention both of body and mind pressing chiefly to one and the same end and scope of Virtue accounting nothing more glorious than that they might peaceably rejoyce prudently and in Quiet Silence with a Mind truly Sound in a Sound Body according to the Fear of God and Love of their Neighbour This is Phylosophy Adept which Paracelsus in the Tincture of Physicks explaineth them to be Long Life and free from all infirmity even till the Naturall death and an honest support of that long life in this vale of miseries that we might serve God without poverty and prejudice of our Neighbour Though there may be many hunting after this happinesse with a kind of great and continued greedinesse of mind yet have been perswaded that they should never attaine the same either by other means or any Arts but by a wonderfull and most abstruse comprehending of all the vertues of the whole Creation flowing and running together in one certaine masse in this Rode or Kings Highway and Phylosophical Reason is to be accomplished The defect of Nature must be supplyed by the industry of Art seeing Nature with her off-spring alway tendeth unto laboureth breatheth after their perfection Prov. 3.16 All these spirituall virtues and active qualities being by great help of ingenuity and Art like the lesser world heaped up together and concentred into one masse as united force is stronger dispersed besides a kind of sweetest and admirable illustration of the Mind for the Light of Nature is glittering in the Darknesse of the world as also the knowledge of all Naturall things and Heavenly seerets and a perfect operation yea they have even miraculously use of this choycest and admirable Magisterie together with a flowing plenty and Abundance of all Things Of which the Phylosophers our predecessors that have been train'd up in Hermes school They durst not under paine of Anathema to speak of it but in a picture of Aenigmaticall words because the Master of Nature gave them not leave lest they should indanger themselves and give an occasion to others of a wicked hurtfull study or practice Prov. 10.10 It exciteth motion in our bodies and reviveth the Elements now the Elements are excited unto their acting for the Naturall life is nothing else but the actings of the Elements though they have been altogether dumb in keeping close the secret of the Art by a constant Taciturnity knowing to what dangers the searchers out of difficult Arts and the publick Secretaries of Nature are obnoxious that full of despaire concerning their safety and peace they have been compelled to deny the same yet usually give this Reason because the greatest Medicine being artificially prepared with the help of wise Nature the Mistresse of Science should be or is the Life and inlightning Light and that which quickneth or maketh alive our Balsom that is the spirit or celestiall not visible vapour of life it may be the Essence of our Life the Fift Essence compounded of the four Elements in which are all the Elements actually and all their arts with greatest agreement made equall with true equation according to all possibility of Nature and bound together with a golden chaine without any contrariety But all things are aggregated in so subtile a Matter and a Form so subtile and so near to simplicity in a respective manner in the curing of diseases and the metamorphosis of Mettalls like as in Lightning and the eye of a Basilisk as is manifest by Experience This is so in respect of the four qualities of the body as the Heaven is incorruptible in respect of the four Elements The most High created this Fift Essence as the root of life in Nature for the preservation of the four qualities of the Humane body The life of natural things is the Union of the Ideall Light as also with the Ideall of Heaven and Earth as he did the Heaven for the preservation of the universe The celestiall Fire that burneth not is the soul and life of all Creatures the subject in which besides the force and operations of the Elements even all the celestiall virtues of the Firmament as well of the Fixed Stars as of the Planets are infused and imprinted after an invisible manner for the Influences of all celestiall bodies which are communicated to the sublunary to every one in particular these are concentred in this one The Theater of
the secrets of all Natur 's Light By this Art the knowledge of almost all things and in this Stone the universal Nature of things shineth forth The Tincture is the Fife Essence of the Microcosm and comes vâ—ry near to the first and most perfect Being and that Cabalisticall unary number Paracelsus calleth it the perfect perpetuall Câ—tholâ—ck Balsom of Physitians or Phylosophers the Defensive of old age the Universall medicament which like the invisible Fire consumeth all diseases the Glasse of God's Mysteries and the Miracle of universall Nature the Fift Essence of the whole frame of the world and the whole world Regenerated wherein the Treasure of all Nature lyeth Subject and Instrument of all Naturall and Transnaturall Virtues the Son of the Sun and Moon who by his ascending into Heaven and descending into the Earth hath obtained all power of superior and inferior things the Habitation of all metallick minerall and vegetable Forms which God created under the Globe of the Moon yea that it is truly the spirit of Life which pierceth through all other spirits Those Ancients who had most perfect knowledge of Things have called this Fist Essence the middle nature of Soules and is altogether one and the same with the spirit of our body the bond between the Body and Soul wherewith that super-celestiall thing is delighted and retained that it fly not from its bodily prison for that peace may be made between those enemies the Soul and Body there is need of the Balsom of life as a means to be sought from Externalls by which the internall is restored to retaine or sustaine the Fire of a long life without which fuell it goeth out of the body as a flame from the lamp-wick for want of oyle it is the most simple Matter which the Best and Greatest Lord generated out of the spirit of this world for the restauration and preservation of Humane Nature which hath been altogether unknown to the Physitians of our time For it never came into their Schools who goe not into the Temple of Apollo through the right door but break through the Roofe and sit in his seat as the Scribes and Pharisees heretofore in Moses chair And while they hold the keys of Sciences in unrighteous captivity they bring to passe nothing with their decrees and ordinances but like false Teachers they themselves enter not into the Academy of Nature and others who desire to enter in a right way they hinder in their laudable course by their pernicious dehortations so that they never come to the knowledge of the Truth and are forced to be ignorant where it may be But because the true originall of all corporall diseases in the judgement of the best Physitians is the enormity of the Naturall proportion of the Three First or as common Physitians say the disorder and ill disposition of the four Elements or Humors of which the Humane compounded body is sick or well this foresaid Medicine which is in it selfe the matter of our Creation may be congeneous and uniform to the substance consisting in equality When the purified Elements are reduced to a pure and equall simplicity then is got the Medicine that prolongeth life because thus the Elements are equall for the inequality and dominion of one over another is it that breedeth diseases the most subtile Soul separate from dregs and as it were the simple substance of the Elements the Fift Essence or Fift Virtue resulting from the purer Essence of the four Elements purified incorruptible is compared to Heaven nor doth it admit any malignant spirit but they all fly from it And because it is obnoxious as little as little may be to a Tempred corruption or putrefaction therefore it expelleth as much as is possible by Nature all accidentall corruptibility from which any sicknesse or weaknesse may arise and restoreth the inward vigour throughout all the members and by reconciliation cureth againe the diseases that hapned by the exaltation of the Three Principles Mans health consisteth in the agreement and union of the Three First Substances Health consisteth in a Temperate body but when they are exalted and set on fire by the Stars the intestine wars follow And because the Three First Substances of diseases are valitile Let it not seem strange to any that the sole act of one Thing should be variously diversified not as to it selfe but accordâ—ng to the Nature of that which receiveth it as the celestiall Sun hardneth the Clay and softneth the Wax they give place to the Essence of Fire which consumeth the disease and separateth the pure from the impure Moreover that Fift Essence of the Human Body bindeth the Elements or Humors in Peace and Harmonicall league and reduceth to the true Temperament by making equall the unequall and strengthneth the naturall heat and substantificall moysture it keepeth the oyle and spark of Life in an equality by its celestiall vigor for so long as the Radicall Humor the Vitall Balsom and most precious Nectar of our Life abideth in its quantity we are not sensible of any disease for the strengthning power of the Human body and of Animalls proceedeth from the spirit of Life and restoreth the sick to health and a good temper it holdeth its Nature in her Being and preserveth the Nectar of our Life in a good and laudable Temperament and so will keep the predisposed or fore-qualified Man safe and sound from sicknesse with the comelinesse of youth for the time of his continuance which is the age of Beauty and Human Fortitude even to his Naturall death that is to that Terme of Life which the Omnipotent God hath appointed to Man for disobedience as well that of every one as that of our first Parent I say such a man who shall use it prudently and seasonably with a devout calling upon the Name of the Lord if the constitution of the body and its complexion be not extreamly waâ—â—ed Therefore in this Fift Essence and Spirituall Medicine which hath the Nature and Heat of Heaven not of our mortall and corruptible it is possible to find out the True Fonntaine of Physick the Conservation of Life the Restitution of health the Renovation of lost youth and the desired clear health and to speak Naturally there is no Balsamick Medicine in all the world better than this true Triacle of Phylosophers which like the Elixir of life is the superlative and last consolation of Mans body preserving all activities in the Humane Nature and restoring the diminished power through the defect of Nature For in every kind there is a certaine One that holdeth the first degree in that kind therefore because this Medicine is made of the more incorruptible and efficacious Matter that can be under Heaven that is the Soule or Spirit of the world which hath in it the force of all Celestiall and Terrestriall things The Heat of the Sun and Moon is that Naturall Heat whereby every thing is digested for the
Gnomes Sylvesters and Lemâ—res Sylvestres and Lemures of which some are alotted to the mountains some to the woods some onely to the night But the Giants were parted into a third separation There are great distributed essences too as also strange miracles amongst men cattle and all things that grow which is a hard matter for any Phylosopher to find out and therefore t is thought they were made besides the order and measure of nature TEXT 16. How the complexions were brought forth After the four Elements were from the beginning separated from each other out of the onely matter as hath been said in which matter notwithstanding their complexion and essence was nâ—t the Complexions and natures issued out by that separation The hot and dry went into the heavens and firmament each cleaving apart into its own property The hot and moyst went into the aire by which the hot and moyst are invisibly separated The cold and moyst turned into the Sea and the parts adjoyning The cold and dry degenerated into the earth and all earthy things And even contraries arose from the separation of the Elements which have no likenesse at all to their Elements Of this sort is lime Lime comeeh out of the fire yet is not of a fiery nature which in respect of its own nature is not fire though it ariseth out of the fire The cause whereof is this because the dissolution went too far off from the fiery nature in the separation of the Element for the fire hath both cold and moyst in it The fire of lour sorts There is a fourfold fire Therefore the colours that are from the fire are not alwayes like unto it One fire causeth a white and azure colour The dry fire maketh a red and green The moyst fire maketh an ashie and black The moyst fire casteth a colour like saffron and red For this reason one procreation is hotter then another because one fire is more or lesse in degree than another Nor is there but one simple and onely fire and no more but there are some hundreds of fires Divers degrees of fire yet never a one of the same degree with another The procreation therefore of every of them is from its own subject as a kind of mysterie so ordained TEXT 17. Nor did the water obtaine one kind of complexion onely Various complexions of water For there were infinite waters in that Element which yet were all truly waters The Phylosopher cannot understand that the Element of water is onely cold and moyst of it selfe It is an hundred times more cold and not more moyst and yet is it not to be refer'd as well to the hotnesse as the coldnesse Nor doth the Element of water live and flourish onely in cold and moyst of one degree no neither is it fully and wholly of one degree Some waters are fountaines The differences of waters which are of many sorts Some are Seas which also are many and divers Other are streams and rivers none of which is like another Some watry Elements were disposed of into stones as the Berill Chrystall Calcedony Amethist Some into plants as Corall c. Some into juyce as the liquor of life Many into the earth as the moysture of the ground These are the Elements of water but in a manifold sort For that which groweth out of the earth from the seed that was sown that also belongs to the Element of water Nymphs So what was fleshy as the Nymphs belong also to the Element of water Though in this case we may conceive that the Element of water was changed into another complexion yet doth it never put off or passe from that very nature of the Element from which it proceeded Whatsoever is of the water turneth againe into water that which is of fire into fire that of earth into earth and that of aire into aire TEXT 18. In like manner must we think of the Element of the earth that all things that are out of the earth do retaine the nature thereof What the minerall moystures are Why brimstone burneth And though the minerall liquors may be taken for fire yet are they not fire Brimstone doth not therefore burn because it is of a fiery Element For that which is cold will burn as well as that which is hot That which burneth to ashes is not the Element of fire but the fire of the earth And that fire is not to be taken for the very Element Nor is it the Element but onely the wasting of the earth or of its substance Water may be made burn Water may burne and flame as well as any thing else and if it burn then is it watry fire Againe whereas the fire of earth will burn and blaze it is not therefore to be accounted fiery Whence a Philosopher should denominate things though it be somewhat like to fire He is but a silly and sensuall Philosopher that calleth the element according to that which he perceiveth Thus rather should he think that the Element it selfe is far another thing then such a fire as this And for what cause All that moystneth is not the Element of water Even the Element of Earth may be brought into water Earth may be reduc'd into water yet it remaineth earth still Whatsoever likewise is in the earth is of the Element of earth For it is and is known by the property of that our of which it proceeded and to which it is like A man may strike fire out of a flint and calcedony A flint and calcedony give fire That is not elementall fire but a strong expression out of great hardnesse TEXT 19. The Element of the aire hath many procreations in it all which are yet meer aire Every Philosopher should well understand this that no Element can begat another thing out of it selfe but that which it is of it selfe Like ever begetteth its like Like to like So then seeing the aire is invisible it can bring nothing visible out of it selfe And whereas it is impalpable it can produce nothing that may be touch'd Therefore as I may so say it doth melosinate And though that be from the aire yea be the very aire and nothing else What Melosinie is yet the conjunction is made in another Element which is the Earth For here may a conjunction be made from the aire to a man as it cometh to passe by Spirits in all witchcrafts and inchantments The same may be said here as was of the Nymphs who though they live in the Element of water What the Nymphs are and are nothing but water yet have they freedome to converse with things on the Earth and to generate with them The like compaction also is there from the aire which may be seen and felt yet as a procreation of the first separation but onely as a consequence For as a beetle is bred of dung so may a monster of the airy Element
bring all things to the ultimate matter The Element of earth cooleth most vehemently as water into Chrystall and * into Duelech living creatures into marble trees into gyants The fundamental of the elements that may be known is this to understand that they are of such an excellent and quick activity or efficacy that nothing besides can be found or imagined like them The things wherein those are be attracted and assum'd by them as fate that may become corporall yet hath not one whit of vertue without them TEXT 6. That we may more fully understand what an Element is we must know that an Element is nothing but a soul Not as though it were of the same essence with a soul but that it hath something like to it The difference between the soul of an Element and the eternall soul is this A comparison between fire and the soul The soul of the Elements is the life of all creatures The fire that burneth is not the Element of fire as we see What fire is but its soul which we cannot see is the Element and life of fire Now the element of fire may be no lesse in a green stick than it is in the fire But the very life is not alike there as it is in fire This then is the difference between the soul and the life If fire live it burneth But if it be in the soul that is in its Element then it cannot burn Nor doth it follow that a cold thing must needs proceed from a cold Element for oft times it is from a hot one And many cold things come from the Element of fire Whatsoever doth grow What are the properties of all the Elements is from the Element of fire but in another form Whatever is fixt is from the Element of earth That which nourisheth is from the Element of aire And that which consumeth is of the Element of water To grow is the property onely of fire When that faileth or goeth out there is no increase Were it not for the Element of earth there would be no end of growth T is that that fixeth that is it limiteth the Element of sire So were it not for the Element of aire there could be no nourishment For all things are nourished by the aire onely Also nothing could be dissolved or consumed were it not for the Element of water by which all things are mortifyed and brought to nothing TEXT 7. The true Elements are insensible But though the Elements are thus hid and do altogether exist invisible and insenfible in other things yet have they power to bring forth their mysteries Thus the Element of fire sent forth the Firmament not in respect of the bodies but in respect of the elementar essence The Sun hath another body besides what it had from the Element of fire Yet this is essentially in it with heat Nor is the heat thereof by motion and rotation but it is from it selfe The Sun warm as well as shine if it stood still and did never move at all The Sun is hot though it stood still Chrystall made the Sun of the element of fire though this hath no other body but what it had from the Element of fire Thence as I may so speak are the bodied Elements Whence the Elements had their bodies The Moon and other Stars also had their beginning from the Element of fire but onely of a red colour in which is no heat or burning but hath onely a kind of deadish lustre cleaving to it And though various signes in respect of form and shape appear in heaven of which we will not now speak yet such a form is such a form is meant as we have here on earth And not one onely but divers some whereof we know others we doe not For when the mysterie of the Element of fire was separated every thing came forth such as we now see it The Stars are the children of fire The Stars then are the daughters of the Element of fire and heaven is nothing but a chaos that is a vapour breathing out of the Firmament but so hot as cannot be exprest That fervour or burning heat is the cause of lightnings glooms and appearances In that region is the pure Element of fire of which more largely in its place TEXT 8. As the fire brought forth various shapes and essences in the same manner also did the Element of aire produce the like Elementary things differ from one another Though the four Elements differ somewhat in those things that are gendred out of themselves For every of them gendred some one thing in speciall and peculiar to it selfe The Firmament is like none of the other three Fate is from the aire yet is it not like any of the three rest Those that belong to the earth are not in the least like any of the other three So likewise is it with Sea-monsters in relation to other things Every creature begat both reasonable and unreasonable creatures in it selfe Heaven There are rationall and irrationall creatures in every Element as well as the Element of earth hath rational creatures in the Firmaments In like manner the fate of the aire is distinguished in its signature by reason and bruitishnesse The same also is true of the earth and water Now who is he that can tell us what the truth is which within the four sealed Elements who are they to whom the true faith and right way of salvation is committed and intrusted or who alone are they that shall inherit eternity which we will now passe by Men live in all the Elements It must needs be that men live in all four as if they did but in one Element to wit the earth As touching destiny we are to understand How saâ—e is generated that its generation out of the Element is manifold yet without any body and substance according to the property of the aire which is not corporeall and its habitation Some are corporeall others cannot be touched as we know TEXT 9. Most manifest it is that out of one seed the root sprouteth into many sprigs then into the stalk afterwards the boughs shoot out lastly the flower fruit and seed put forth Just so is it in the various procreations out of the four Elements The various procreations of the Elements All which procreations that are from one Element cleave close to each other as an hearb groweth from one seed Though they be not all permiscuously alike to their seed The creatures which are made of the water are partly men partly living creatures and partly the food of both One Element clearly discovereth its own signature want and sustentation as also hinteth its course and coming which may easily be known by the stars not as though the stars doe guide and govern us but they keep pace with us and imitate the inward motion of our body Whatever is made in the Element of earth is also
and it is madnesse to affirme more TEXT 17. What Predestâ—nation is When all creatures thus returne their predestinations then there will be a mystery Predestinanion is the last matter which will be without an Element and without a present essenceâ— but the things that shall then abide will be more temperate and uncorrupt This must not be understood of the spirit but of nature with this evidence that something eternall cometh in the room of that which is mortall Things mortall leave behind them that which is immortall For if insensible plant perish its place is supplyed by that which is eternal Nor is there any one frail or mortall thing in all the world which doth not substitute something that is eternall in its place Nothing is empty or vaine no corruptible thing was created without a succession of that which is eternall When all creatures come to an end then those things that are eternall shall meet and come together not only as nourishments but rather to the office or chiefe rule of nature both in the mortall and eternall Thus the eternall is a sign or token of the dissolution of nature and not the beginning or principle of things created it is in all things which no nature is destitute of And though the Fatalls also as the Melosines and Nymphs shall leave the eternall behind them yet wee shall say nothing of their corruptions at this time There is a fourfold putrefaction of the creatures As there are four worlds so we must know that there is a manifold putrefaction There is an earthy there is an airy there is a fiery and a watry putrefaction Every thing and what was created with it together with the eternall that remaineth is brought and turned to destruction Yet those four putrefactions shall bring back their eternall into one similitude with renown and glory not with its works but with its essence A solitary habitation is a kind of eternity but abounding in many seperations or distinctions TEXT 18. We are come now to speak of the EVESTRUM What the Ever is which according to its essence is either mortall or immortall The Evester is a thing like a shadow on the wall The shadow riseth and waxeth greater as the body doth and continueth with it even unto its last matter The Evestrum takes its beginging at the first generation of every Things animate and inanimate sensible and insensible and whatsoever casteth a shadow all of them have their Evester TRARAMES is the shadow of an invisible essence Trarames is the Evester of invisible things It springeth up with the reason and imagination of intelligent and bruite creatures To discourse rightly or Philosophically of the Evestrum and Trarames requireth the highest wisdome The Evester maketh to Prophesie Trarames giveth sharpnesse of wit To fore-tell what shall befall a man beast tree c. is by the shadowy Evester but the reason why it should be so is from the Trarame The difference of Evesters Some Evesters have a beginning some have not Such as have a beginning may be dissolved with the surviving eternall That which is without beginning hath power in the understanding to whet or provoke that which hath a begining towards the Traramium The mortall Evester knoweth the eternall This knowledge is the mother of a Prophet The ground of every understanding is extracted and cull'd out of the Evester as it were by the light of nature A Prophet therefore doth Evestrate that is he doth Prophesie from the Evester But if a spirit Prophesie it doth so without the light of nature And therefore may deceive us being full of guile doubtful as well as prove certain and true Thus Trarames also would be divided in the shadow of reason TEXT 19. Again when all things shall be dissolv'd then Evester and Trarames too shall come to an end yet not without some reliques of eternity The Evester is no otherwise but as it were the eternal of the firmament in the four worlds The Firmament is fourfold There is a fourfold Firmament divided into four perfect essences according to the four worlds every world perfectly respecting its own creature being just such another thing as it selfe is one creature out of the firmament in the earth one in the water aire fire The firmament that is in the Evester is dispersed those be not Stars which we see they are the firmaments of the Nymphs which are not Stars nor have any use of Stars but have their peculiar and proper firmament as the Fates they have a fiery one every one hath an heaven earth mansion habitation firmament Stars Planets and other such like which are not in the least one like anonother As water and fire substance and that which cannot be felt visible and invisible are to each other so are those things In these the Evester is divided in the fatalls and its shadow stayeth behind the essence after the dissolution and the Evester when the fire is out cleaveth to the fiery man as another to the watry A great number of Evesters and so to the earthy This Evester is that which deceiveth and maketh the world mad cunningly covering it selfe from one world to another shewing visions flashes signes forms and shapes Hence ariseth the Evester of comets the Evester of impressions the Evester of miracles The Evester Prophesieth and shadoweth But these three Evesters are Prophesying Evesters or shady Everters The high and noble mind is with the Prophetick and Umbratick Evesters TEXT 20. The Prophetick Evester is first necessary to be known For the great Turban What the great Turban is which presageth all things that are in the four worlds is of the same kind of essence Whatsoever shall fall out monstrously or happen contrary to nature or contrary to life and common expectation is known by the Prophetick Evester which overshadoweth it selfe and is taken out of the great Turban A Prophet must of necessity know the great Turban It is united to reason and hard to be found out The excellency and height of it But t is possible for man to know the great turban even to its utmost resolution From this it was that all the Prophets spake For in it are all the signes of the world Out of it are all Evesters begotten by it the comets those prodigious Stars which are besides the usuall course of heaven are shadowed All impressions have their originall from the Turban not from the Firmament or Stars When any strange and uncouth thing is at hand there are fore-runners and harbingers sent forth by whom the evill that shall befall a people is presag'd to them And those presagings are not from nature but from the Propheticall Evester All pestilences all wars all seditions have their presages from the turban He that knoweth the Evester is a Prophet and can tell things to come The most high over all doth not discourse with mortalls nor doth he