whose lipps the Truth did breathe and knew no other Oracle Coelestium vires dum in se existunt à Datore Luminum per sanctas Intelligentias Coelos influuntur quousque ad Lunam pervenerint earum Influentia bona est tanquam in primo gradu deinde autem quando in Subjecto viliori suscipitur ipsa etiam vilescit That is The Heavenly powers or spirituall Essences whiles they are in themselves or before they are united to the Matter and are shower'd down from the Father of Lights thorough the holy Intelligences and the Heavens untill they come to the Moone Their Influence is good as in the first degree But when it is received in a corrupt Subject the Influence also is corrupted Thus He. Now the A stronomers pretend to a strange familiaritie with the starrs the Natural Philosophers talk as much and truly an Ignorant man might well think they had been in heaven and conversed like Lucians Menippus with Jove himself But in good Earnest these Men are no more Eagles than Sancho their fansies are like his flights in the Blanket and every way as short of the Skies Ask them but where the Influences are received and how bid them by faire Experience prove they are present in the Elements and you have undone them if you will trust the foure Corners of a Figure or the three Legs of a Syllogism you may this is all their Evidence Well fare the Magicians then whose Art can demonstrate these Things and put the very Influences in our hands Let it be thy studie to know their Region of Light and to enter into the Treasures thereof for then thou mayst converse with Spirits and understand the Nature of invisible Things Then will appear unto thee the Universal Subject and the two minerall Spermes White and Red of which I must speak somewhat before I make an end In the Pythagoricall Synod which consisted of Threescore and Ten Philosophers all Masters of the Art it is thus written I gnis Spissum in Aera cadit Aeris vero Spissum quod ex igne Spisso congregatur in Aquam incidit Aquae quoque Spissum quod ex I gnis Aeris Spisso coadunatur in Terrâ quiescit Ita istorum Trium spissuudo in Terrâ guiescit inque eâ conjuncta sunt Ipsa ergo Terra omnibus caeteris Elementis spissior est uti Palam apparet videre est That is The Thicknesse or Sperm of the Fire falls into the Ayre The Thickness or Spermatic part of the Ayre and in it the Sperm of the Fire falls into the Water The Thickness or spermatic Substance of the Water and in it the two Spermes of Fire and Ayre fall into the Earth and there they rest and are conjoyned Therefore the Earth it self is thicker than the other Elements as it openly appears and to the eye is manifest Remember now what I have told thee formerly concerning the Earth what a generall Hospitall it is how it receives all things not onely Beasts and Vegetables but proud and glorious Man when Death hath ruin'd him his courser parts stay here and know no other Home This Earth to Earth is just the Doctrine of the Magi Metalls say they and all things may bee reduc'd into that whereof they were made They speak the very Truth it is God's own Principle and he first taught it Ad. m. Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return But lest any man should be Deceived by us I think it just to informe you there are two reductions One is Violent and Destructive reducing Bodies to their Extremes and properly it is Death or the Calcination of the common Chimist The other is Vital and Generative resolving Bodies into their Sperm or middle Substance out of which Nature made them for Nature makes not Bodies immediatly of the Elements but of a Sperm which shee drawes out of the Elements I shall explain my self to you by Example An Egg is the Sperm or middle Substance out of which a Chick is ingendred and the moysture of it is viscous and slimie a water and no water for such a Sperme ought to bee Suppose Dr. Coale I mean some Broyler had a minde to generat something out of this Egg Questionlesse he would first distill it and that with a fire able to roast the Hen that layd it then would hee calcine the Caput mortuum and finally produce his Nothing Here you are to observe that Bodies are nothing els but Sperm coagulated and he that Destroyes the Body by consequence destroyes the Sperm Now to reduce Bodies into Elements of earth and water as wee have instanc'd in the Egg is to reduce them into Extremes beyond their Sperm for Elements are not the Sperm but the Sperm is a Compound made of the Elements and containing in it self all that is requisit to the frame of the Body Wherefore be well advis'd before you distill and Quarter any particular Bodies for having once separated their Elements you may never generat unless you can make a Sperm of those Elements but that is impossible for man to doe it is the Power of God and Nature Labour then you that would be accounted wise to find out our Mercurie so shall you reduce things to their mean spermaticall Chaos but avoyd the broyling Destruction This Doctrine will spare you the vain Task of Distillations if you will but remember this Truth That Spâ—rmes are not made by Separation but by Composition of Elements and to bring a Body into Sperm is not to distill it but to reduce the whole into one thick water keeping all the parts thereof in their first naturall union But that I may return at last to my former Citation of the Synod All those Influences of the Elements being united in one Mass make our Sperm or our Earth which is Earth and no Earth Take it if thou doest know it and divide the Essences thereof not by violence but by naturall putrefaction such as may occasion a genuine Dissolution of the Compound Here thou shalt find a miraculous white Water an Influence of the Moone which is the Mother of our Chaos It rules in two Elements Earth and Water After this appears the Sperm or influx of the Sun which is the father of it It is a quick Coelestiall fire incorporated in a thin oleous Aereall Moysture It is incombustible for it is fire it self and feeds upon fire and the longer it stayes in the fire the more glorious it growes These are the two mineral Spermes Masculine and Foeminine if thou doest place them both on their Chrystalline Basis thou hast the Philosopher's flying Fire-drake which at the first sight of the Sun breathes such a poyson that nothing can stand before him I know not what to tell thee more unlesse in the Vogue of some Authors I should give thee a flegmatic Description of the whole process and that I can dispatch in two words It is nothing els but
Art it self and this I shall doe in rationall termes a Forme different from the Ancients for I will not stuffe my Discourse like a Wilderness with Lions and Dragons To Common Philosophers that fault is very proper which Quintilian observed in some Orators Operum fastigia spectantur latent fundamenta The spires of their Babel are in the Clouds its Fundamentals no where they talk indeed of fine Things but tell us not upon what grounds To avoid these Flights I shall in this my Olla for I care not much what I shall call it observe this Composition First I shall speake of that One only Thing which is the Subject of this Art and the Mother of all Things Secondly I will discourse of that most admirable and more than naturall Medicine which is generated out of this one Thing Lastly though with some disorder I will discover the means how and by which this Art works upon the Subject but these being the Keyes which lead to the very Estrado of Nature where she sits in full Solemnitie and receives the Visits of the Philosophers I must scatter them in severall parts of the Discourse This is all and here thou must not consider how long or short I shall be but how full the Discoverie and truly it shall be such and so much that Thou canst not in modestie expect more Now then you that would be what the Ancient Physicians were Manus Deorum salutares not Quacks and Salvos of the Pipkin you that would performe what you publickly professe and make your Callings honest and Conscionable attend to the Truth without spleen Remember that Praejudice is no Religion and by Consequence hath no Reward If this Art were damnable you might safely studie it notwithstanding for you have a praecept to prove all Things but to hold fast that which is Good It is your Duty not to bee wanting to your selves and for my part that I may be wanting to noae thus I begin Said the Cabalist Domus Sanctuarii quae est hìc inferiùs disponitur Secundum Domum Sanctuarii quae est Superiùs The Building of the Sanctuarie which is here below is framed according to that of the Sanctuarie which is above Here wee have two worlds Visible and Invisible and two universall Natures Visible and Invisible out of which both those Worlds proceeded The Passive Universall Nature was made in the Image of the Active Universall one and the Conformitie of Both Worlds or Sanctuaries consist in the Originall Conformitie of their Principles There are many Platonics and this last Centurie hath afforded them some apish Disciples who discourse very boldly of the Similitudes of Inferiors and Superiors but if wee throughly search their Trash it is a pack of small Conspiracies namely of the Heliotrope and the Sun Iron and the Load-stone the Wound and the Weapon It is excellent sport to hear how they crow being roosted on these pittiful Particulars as if they knew the Universal Magnet which binds this great Frame and moves all the Members of it to a Mutuall Compassion This is an Humor much like that of Don Quixote who knew Dulcinea but never saw her Those students then who would be better instructed must first know There is an Universall Agent who when hee was dispos'd to Create had no other Patterne or Exemplar whereby to frame and mould his Creatures but himself but having infinite inward Idea's or Conceptions in himself as hee conceived so hee created that is to say hee created an outward forme answerable to the inward Conception or figure of his Mind In the second place they ought to know there is an Universall Patient and this Passive Nature was created by the Universall Agent This generall Patient is the immediat Catholic Character of God himself in his Unitie and Trinitie In plain Termes it is that Substance which wee commonly call the first Matter But verily it is to no purpose to know this Notion Matter unlesse we know the Thing it self to which the Notion relates wee must see it handle it and by experimentall ocular Demonstrations know the very Ceâ—tral Invisible Essences and Propriecies of it But of these things heare the most excellent Capnion who informes his Jew and his Epicure of two Catholic Natures Material and Spiritual Alteram saith he quae videri oculis attingi manu possit propè ad omne Momentum alterabilem Detur enim venia ut ait Madaurensis Novitati Verborum rerum obscuritatibus inservienti Haec ipsa cum eadem una persistere nequeat nihilominus à tali Virtute animi hospitio suscipitur pro modo rectiùs quo est quam quo non est qualis in veritate res est id est mutabilis Alteram autem substantiarum Naturam incorruptam immutabilem constantem eandemque ac sempèr Existentem The English of it speaks thus One Nature is such it may be seen with the eyes and felt with the hands and it is subject to Alteration almost in every Moment You must Pardon as Apuleius saith this strange Expression because it makes for the Obscuritie of the Thing This very Nature since shee may not continue one and the same is notwithstanding apprehended of the mind under her such Qualification more rightly as shee is than as shee is not namely as the Thing it self is in Truth that is to say Changeable The other Nature or Principle of Substances is incorruptible immutable constant One and the same for ever and alwayes existent Thus hee Now this Changeable Nature whereof he speaks is the first Visible Tangible Substance that ever God made it is white in Appearance and ' Paracelsus gives you the Reason why Omnia saith he in Dei Manu alba sunt is ea tingit ut vult All things when they first proceed from God are white but hee colours them afterwards according to his pleasure An Example wee have in this very matter which the Philosophers call sometimes their red Magnesia sometimes their white by which Descriptions they have deceived many men for in the first praeparation the Chaos is Bloud-red because the Central Sulphur is stirr'd up and discovered by the Philosophicall Fire In the Second it is exceeding white and transparent like the Heavens It is in Truth somewhat like Common Quicksilver but of a Coelestiall transcendent brightnesse for there is nothing upon Earth like it This fine substance is the Child of the Elements and it is a most pure sweet Virgin for nothing as yet hath been generated out of her but if at any time shee breeds it is by the fire of Nature for that is her husband Shee is no Animal no Vegetable no Mineral neither is shee extracted out of Animals Vegetables or Minerals but shee is praeexistent to them all for shee is the Mother of them Yet one thing I must say shee is not much short of Life for shee is almost Animal Her Composition is miraculous and different from all other Compounds whatsoever Gold is not
know it wee will teach you something not Common The Body of the Serpent tells you it is a fierie Substance for a Serpent is full of heat and fire which made the Egyptians esteem him Divine This appears by his quick motion without feet or finns much like that of the Pulse for his impetuous hot spirit shootes him on like a Squib There is also another Analogie for the Serpent renewes his youth so strong is his natural heat and casts off his old skin Truely the Matter is a very Serpent for shee renews her self a thousand wayes and is nèver a perpetuall Tenant to the same Forme The wings tell you this Subject or Chaos is Volatile and in the outward Complexion Arrie and Waterie But to teach you the most Secret Resemblance of this Hieroglyphic The Chaos is a certain Creeping Substance for it moves like a Serpent sine pedibus and truly Moses calls it not Water but Serpitura Aquae The Creeping of Water or a water that creepes Lastly the Knott on the Tayle Tells you this matter is of a most strong Composition and that the Elements are fast bound in it all which the Philophers know to be true by Experience As for the Assinitie of Inferiors with Superiors and their private Active Love which consists in certain Secret Mixtures of Heaven with the Matter their Opinion stands thus In the Vital fire of all Things here below The Sun say they is King In their Secret Water the Moon is Queen In their pure Aire the five lesser Planets rule and in their Central Hypostaticall Earth the fixed starrs For these Inferiors according to their Doctrine are Provinces or Thrones of those Superiors where they sit Regent and Paramont To speak plainly Heaven it self was originally extracted from Inferiors yet not so intirely but some portion of the Heavenly Natures remained still below and are the very same in Essence and Substance with the separated starrs and skies Heaven here below differs not from that above but in her Captivitie and that above differs not from this below but in her Libertie The one is imprisoned in the Matter the other is freed from the grossness and impurities of it but they are both of one and theÌ„same Nature so that they easily unite and hence it is that the Superior descends to the Inferior to visit and comfort her in this sickly infâ—ctious Habitation I could speak much more but I am in haste and though I were at leisure you cannot in Reason expect I should tell you all I will therefore decline these generall Principles to tell you something that makes for the AEgyptian Practice and proves them Philosophers adepted The first Monument I reade of to this purpose is that of Synesius a very learned intelligent man Hee found in the Temple of Memphis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Bookes of stone and in those hard leaves these Difficult Instructions {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is One Nature delights in another One Nature overcomes another One Nature over-rules another These short lessons but of no small Consequence are fathered on the great Hostanes The Sâ—cond Monument is that admirable and most Magicall one mentioned by Barachias Abenesi the Arabian This also was a stone erected neere Memphis and on it this profound Scripture {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That is Heaven Above Heaven Beneath Starres Above Starres Beneath All that is Above is also Beneath Understand this and bee Happy Under this were figur'd certain apposit Hieroglyphics and for a Close to all this Dedicatorie Subscription I find it onely in the Coptic Character but our Founts wanting that Letter I must give it you in the Greeke {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Isias the High Priest erected this to the Resident Gods in AEgypt And now though I formerly suspended the Authoritie of Irismegistus I might like the Italian produce his weapons Sfodrato but I love no Velitations and Truth is so brave it needs no Feather Quod est Superiùs sayd Hermes est sicut id quod est Inferiùs quod est Inferiùs est sicut id quod est superiùs This is his Mysterie and 't is great The Benefit that attends the Purchase is no losse habebis Gloriam totius Mundi All the Pomp and Splendor of the World shall bee Thine To this Language the Dialect of I sias doth so Echo these two like Euphorbus and Pythagoras might passe for Ono Coelum sursùm sayd he Coelum deorsum Astra sursùm Astra Deorsùm Omne quod sursùm omne id deorsum And then follows a reward for the Intelligent Haec cape faelicitare understand this and thou art fortunate Thou hast made thy self very happy This is enough to prove that Magic sometimes flourished in Egypt and no doubt but they received the Truth of it from the Hebrewes who lived amongst them to the terme of four hundred and thirtie years This is plain for their own Native Learning was meere Sorcerie and Witcheraft and this appears by the Testimonie of Moses who tells us their Magicians produc'd their Miracles by Inohantments And why I beseech you should this Instruction seem impossible For Joseph being married to Asenath daughter of Potipherah Priest of On some of the AEgyptian Priests and those likely of his own alliance might for that very Relation receive a better Doctrine from him But this is not all 〈…〉 d say of this Nation and their Secret 〈…〉 ing if I were dispos'd to bee their Mercurie There is not any I believe who praetend to Antiquitie or Philosophie but have seen that famous Monument which Paul the Third bestow'd on his Cardinal Petrus Bombus and was ever since called the Bembixe Table No doubt but the Hieroglyphics therein contained were they all reduced into Letters would make a Volume as ample as Mysterious But 't is not my Designe to comment on Mcmphis that were to make Brick and look out the straw withall AEgypt having no compleat Table but the World over which her Monuments are Scatter'd This place then was the Pitcher to the Fountain for they received their Mysteries immediatly from the Hebrewes but their Doctrine like their Nilus swelling above its private Chanel did at last over-run the Universe Jamblicus the Divine in that excellent Discourse of his de Mysterus tells us that Pythagoras and Plato had all their learning ex Columnis Mercurii out of the Pillars or Hieroglyphicall Monuments of Trisinegistus But the Ancient orpheus in his Poem de Verbo Sacro where hee speakes of God hath these words Nemo IlluÌ„ nisi Chaldao de Sanguine Quiddam Progenitus vidit None saith he hath ever seen God but a certaine Man descended of the Chaldaean Bloud Now this was Moses of whom it
stone which is a Body aereal and volatil cold and moyst watrie and adustive and in it is Heat and Drought Coldnesse and Moysture one virtue inwardly the other outwardly Belus the Philosopher in that famous and most Classic Synod of Arisleus inverts the order to conceale the practice but if rightly understood he speaks to the purpose Excelsum sayth hee est hoc apud Philosophos magnos Lapidem non esse lapidem apud I diotas vile Incredibile Quis enim credet Lapidem Aquam Aquam Lapidem fieri cum nihil sit diver sius Attamen revera it a est Lapis enim est haec ipsaper manens Aqua dum Aqua est lapis non est Amongst all great Philosophers it is Magisterial that our stone is no stone but amongst Ignorants it is ridiculous and incredible For who will believe that water can be made a stone and a stone water nothing being more different than these two And yet in very truth it is so For this very permanent water is the stone but whiles it is water it is no stone But in this sense the Ancient Hermes abounds and almost disvocers too much Scitote Filii Sapientum quod priscorum Philosophorum aquae est Divisio quae dividit ipsam in Alia quatuor Know saith hee you that are the Children of the wise the Separation of the ancient Philosophers was performed upon water which Separation divides the water into other foure Substances There is extant a very learned Author who hath written something to this purpose and that more openly than any whom we have formerly cited Sicuti Mundus Originem debet Aquae cui Spiritus Domini incubabat rebus tà m Coelestibus quà m Terrestribus omnibus indè prodeuntibus ita Limbus hic emergit ex Aquâ non vnlgari neque ex Rore Coelesti aut ex aere Condensato in Cavernis Terrae vel in Recipiente ipso non ex Abysso Maris fontibus puteis fluminibusvè hausto sed ex Aquâ quadam perpessâ omnibus obviâ paucissimis cognitâ Quae in se habet quaecunque ad totius operis Complementum sunt necessaria omni amoto Extrinsico As the world saith hee was generated out of that Water upon which the Spirit of God did move all things proceeding thence both Coelestiall and Terrestriall So this Chaos is generated out of a certain Water that is not common not out of Dew nor Ayre condensed in the Caverns of the Earth or Artificially in the Receiver not out of water drawn out of the Sea Fountains Pitts or Rivers but out of a certain tortured water that hath suffered some Alteration obvious it is to All but known to very few This water hath all in it that is necessarie to the perfection of the work without any Extrinsecal Addition I could produce a Thousand Authors more but that were tedious I shall conclude with one of the Rosie Brothers whose Testimonie is AEquivalent to the Best of These but his Instruction far more Excellent His Discourse of the first Matter is somewhat large and to avoyd prolixitie I shall forbeare the Latin but I will give thee his Sense in punctuall plaine English I am a Goddesse saith hee speaking in the person of Nature for Beauty and Extraction famous born out of our own proper Sea which compasseth the whole Earth and is ever restlesse Out of my Breasts I poure forth Milk and Bloud Boyle these two till they are turned into Silver and Gold O most excellent Subject out of which all things in this world are generated though at the first sight thou art Poyson adorn'd with the name of the flying Eagle Thou art the first Matter the seed of Divine Benediction in whose Body there is Heat and Rain which notwithstanding are hidden from the wicked because of thy Habit and virgin vestures which is scatter'd over all the world Thy Parents are the Sun and Moone in Thee there is Water and Wine Gold also and Silver upon Earth that mortall man may rejoyce After this manner God sends us his Blessing and Wisdome with Raine and the Beams of the Sun to the eternall Glory of his Name But consider ô Man what Things God bestows upon thee by this means Torture the Eagle till shee weeps and the Lion bee weakened and bleed to death The Bloud of this Lion incorporated with the Teares of the Eagle is the Treasure of the Earth These Creatures use to devoure and kill one another but notwithstanding their love is mutuall and they put on the Proprietie and Nature of a Salamander which if it remains in the fire without any detriment it cures all the Diseases of Men Beasts and Metals After that the Ancient Philosophers had perfectly understood this Subject they diligently sought in this Mysterie for the Center of the Middlemost Tree in the Terrestrial Paradyse entring in by Five litigious Gates The first Gate was the Knowledge of the true Matter and here arose the first and that a most bitter Conflict The second was the Praeparation by which this matter was to bee praepared that they might obtain the Embers of the Eagle and the Bloud of the Lyon At this Gate there is a most sharp fight for it produceth water and bloud and a Spirituall bright Body The Third Gate is the Fire which conduceth to the Maturitie of the Medicine The Fourth Gate is that of Multiplication and Augmentation in which Proportions and Weights are Necessarie The fifth and last Gate is Projection But most glorious full rich and high is hee who attains to the fourth Gate for hee hath got an Universall Medicine for all Diseases This is that great Character of the Book of Nature out of which her whole Alphabet doth arise The fifth gate serves onely for Metals This Mysterie existing from the Foundation of the World and the Creation of Adam is of all others the most ancient a knowledge which God Almighty by his Word breathed into Nature a miraculous power the blessed fire of Life the Transparent Carbuncle and red Gold of the Wise men and the Divine Benediction of this life But this mysterie because of the Malice and wickednesse of men is given onely to few notwithstanding it lives and moves every day in the sight of the whole world as it appears by the following parable I am a poysonous Dragon present every where and to bee had for nothing My water and my fire dissolve and Compound out of my body thou shalt draw the Green and the Red Lyon but if thou doest not exactly know mee thou wilt with my Fire destroy thy five Senses A most pernieious quick poyson comes out of my Nostrils which hath been the Destruction of many Separate therefore the Thick from the Thin artificially unlesse thou dost delight in extreme Povertie I give thee faculties both Male and Female and the Powers both of Heaven and Earth The Mysteries of my Art are to bee performed magnanimously and with great Courage if thou
some few minutes the white and red Sulphurs will never essentially unite and coagulat On the Contrary if it takes cold but for half an hour the work being once well begun it will never sort to any good purpose I speak out of my own Experience for I have as they phrase it given my self a Box on the Eare and that twice or thrice out of a certain confident Negligence Expecting that which I knew well enough could never bee Nature moves not by the Theorie of men but by their practice and surely Wit and Reason can performe no Miracles unlesse the hands supplie them Bee sure then to know this fire in the first place and accordingly bee sure to make use of it But for thy better Securitie I will describe it to thee once more It is a drie vaporous humid fire it goes round about the Glasse and is both equall and Continuall It is restlesse and some have call'd it the white philosophicall Coale It is in it self naturall but the praeparation of it is Artificiall it is a heat of the Dead wherefore some call it their unnatural Necromantic fire It is no part of the Matter neither is it taken out of it but it is an external fire and serves onely to stirr up and strengthen the inward oppressed fire of the Chaos But let us hear Nature her self for thus shee speaks in the Serious Romance of Mehung Post putrefactionem sit ipsa Generatio idque per internum incomburibilem Calorem ad Argenti vivi frigiditatem calefaciendam quod tantum equidem patitur ut tandem cum sulphure suo uniatur Omne illud uno in Vase complexum est I gnis aer Aqua videlicet quae in Terreno suo vase accipio eademque uno in Alembico relinquo tum coquo dissolvo sublimo absque Malleo forcipe vel lima sine Carbonibus vapore Igne aut Mariae-Balneo Sophistarum Alembicis Coelestem namque meum ignem habeo qui Elementalem prout Materia idoneam decentemque formam habere desyderat excitat That is After Putrefaction succeeds Generation and that because of the inward incombustible Sulphur that heats or thickens the Coldness and Crudities of the Quicksilver which suffers so much thereby that at last it is united to the Sulphur and made one Body therewith All this namely Fire Ayre and Water is contained in one Vessell in their earthly Vessel that is in their grosse Body or Composition I take them and then I leave them in one Alembic where I concoct dissolve and sublime them without the help of Hammer Tongs or File without Coales Smoake Fire or Bath or the Alembics of the Sophisters For I have my heavenly fire which excites or stirs up the Elementall one according as the matter desires a becomming agreeable forme Now Nature every where is one and the same wherefore shee reades the same lesson to Madathan who thinking in his Ignorance to make the stone without dissolution receives from her this Check An tu nunc Cochleas vel Cancros cum Test is devorare niteris An non priùs à vetussissimo Planetarum Coquo maturari praeparari illos oportet Doest thou think sayes hee to eat Oysters shells and all ought they not first to bee opened and prepar'd by the most Ancient Cooke of the Planets With these agrees the excellent Flammel who speaking of the Solar and Lunar Mercurie and the Plantation of the one in the other hath these words Sumantur itaque noctu interdiuque assiduè supra ignem in Alembico foveantur Non autem ignis Carbonarius vel è ligno confectus sed clarus pellucidusque ignis sit non secus ac Sol ipse qui nunquam plus justo calidus ardensque sed omni tempore ejusdem caloris esse debet Take them therefore sayth hee and cherish them over a fire in thy Alembic But it must not be a fire of Coales nor of any wood but a bright shining fire like the Sun it self whose heat must never be excessive but alwayes of one and the same Degree This is enough and too much for the Secret in it self is not great but the Consequences of it are so which made the Philosophers hide it Thus Reader thou hast the outward Agent most fully and faithfully described It is in Truth a very simple mysterie and if I should tell it openly ridiculous Howsoever by this and not without it did the Magicians unlock the Chaos and certainly it is no newes that an Iron-key should open a Treasurie of Gold In this Universall Subject they found the Natures of all particulars and this is signified to us by that Maxim Qui Proteam non novit adeat Pana This Pan is their Chaos or Mercurie which expounds Proteus namely the Particular Creatures commonly call'd Individualls For Pan transformes himself into a Proteus that is into all varieties of Species into Animals Vegetables and Minerals for out of the Universall Nature or first matter all these are made and Pan hath their Propriâ—ties in himself Hence it is that Mercurie is call'd the Interpreter or Expositor of Inferiors and Superiors under which Notion the Ancient Orpheus invokes him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hear me ô Mercurie thou messenger of Jove and son of Maia the Expositor of all Things Now for the Birth of this Mercurie and the Place of it I find but few Philosophers that mention it Zoroaster points at it and that very obscurely where he speaks of his Jynges or the Idea's in these words Multae quidem hae scandunt lucidos Mundos Insilentes Quarum Summitates sunt Tres. Subjectum est Ipsis Principale pratum This Pratum or Meadow of the Idea's a place well known to the Philosophers Flammel calls it their Garden and the Mountain of the seven Metals see his Summarie where hee describes it most learnedly for hee was instructed by a Jew is a certain secret but Universall Region one calls it Regio Lucis the Region of Light but to the Cabalist it is Nox Corporis a Terme extremely apposit and significant It is in few words the Rendezvous of all Spirits for in this place the Idea's when they descend from the Bright world to the Dark one are incorporated For thy Better Intelligence thou must know that Spirits whiles they move in Heaven which is the Fire-world contract no impurities at all according to that of Stellatus Omne quod est supra Lunam aeternumque bonumque Esse scias nec triste aliquid Coelestia tangit All sayth hee that is above the Moon is eternall and good and there is no Corruption of Heavenly Things On the contrary when Spirits descend to the Elementall Matrix and reside in her Kingdom they are blurr'd with the Original Leprosie of the Matter for here the Curse raves and rules but in Heaven it is not Praedominant To put an end to this point let us hear the admirable Agrippa state it This is hee between
a continual Coction the Volatil Essences ascending and descending till at last they are fix'd according to that excellent Prosopopaeia of the stone Non ego continuò morior dum spiritus exit Nam redit assiduè quamvis soepe recedat Et mihi nunc magna est Animae nunc nulla fa cultas Plus ego sustinui quam Corpus debuit unum Tres Animas habui quas omnes intus habebam Discessere duae sed Tertia poenè secuta est I am not dead although my spirit 's gon For it returns and is both off and on Now I have life enough now I have non I suffer'd more than one could justly doe Three soules I had and all my own but Two Are fled the Third had almost left mee too {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I have written what I have written And now give me leave to look about mee Is there no Powder-Plott or practice What 's become of Aristotel and Galen Where is the Scribe and Pharisee the Disputers of this world If they suffer all this and believe it too I shall think the General Conversion is come about and I may sing Jam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia Regna But come what will come I have once more spoken for the Truth and shall for Conclusion speak this much Again I have elsewhere call'd this Subject Limus coelestis and the middle Nature The Philosophers call it the Venerable Nature but amongst all the Praetenders I have not yet found one that could tell me why Hear me then that whensoever thou doest attempt this work it may be with reverence not like some proud ignorant Doctor but with lesse Confidence more Care This Chaos hath in it the foure Elements which of themselves are contrarie Natures but the wisdome of God hath so placed them that their very order reconciles them For Example Ayre and Earth are Adversaries for one is hot and moyst the other cold and drie Now to reconcile these two God placed the Water between them which is a middle Nature or of a mean Complexion between both Extremes For she is cold and moyst and as shee is cold shee partakes of the Nature of the Earth which is cold and drie but as shee is moyst she partakes in the Nature of the Ayre which is hot and moyst Hence it is that Ayre and Earth which are Contraries in Themselves agree and imbrace one another in the water as in a middle Nature which is proportionate to them both and tempers their Extremities But verely this Salvo makes not up the Breach for though the water reconciles two Elements like a friendly Third yet shee her self fights with a Fourth namely with the Fire For the Tire is hot and drie but the water is cold and moyst which are clear Contraries To prevent the Distempers of these two God placed the Ayre between them which is a Substance hot and moyst and as it is hot it agrees with the fire which is hot and drie but as it is moyst it agrees with the water which is cold and moyst so that by mediation of the Ayre the other two Extremes namely fire and water are made friends and reconciled Thus you see as I told you at first that Contrarie Elements are united by that Order and Textare wherein the Wise God hath placed them You must now give me leave to tell you that this Agreement or friendship is but parâ—il a very weak love cold and skiâ—tish for whereas these Principles agree in one qualitie they differ in two as your selves may easily compute Much need therefore have they of a more strong and able Mediator to confirme and preserve their weak Unitie for upon it depends the very aternitie and Incorruption of the Creature This blessed Caement and Balsam is the Spirit of the living God which some ignorant Scriblers have call'd a Quintessence for this very Spirit is in the Chaos and to speak plainly the fire is his Thrrne for in the Fire he is Sèated as wee have sufficiently told you elsewhere This was the Reason why the Magi call'd the first Matter their Venerable Nature and their blessed stone and in good earnest what think you is it not so This blessed Spirit fortifies and perfects that weak Disposition which the Elements already have to Union and Peace for God works with Nature not against her and brings them at last to a beauteous specificall Fabric Now iÌ„f you will aske me where is the Soul or as the Schoole-men abuse hwer the Form all this while what doth shee doe To this I answer that shee is as all Instrumentals ought to be subject and obedient to the will of God expecting the persection of her Body for it is God that unites her to the Body and the body to her Soule and Body are the work of God the one as well as the other the Soul is not the Artificer of her house for that which can make a Body can also repayre it and hinder death but the Soule cannot doe this it is the Power and Wisdome of God In a word to say that the Soule form'd the Body because shee is in the Body is to say that the Jowell made the Cabinet because the Jewell is in the Cabinet or that the Sun made the world because the Sun is in the world and cherisheth every part thereof Learn therefore to distinguish between Agents and their Instruments for if you attribute that to the Creature which belongs to the Creator you bring your sleves in Danger of hell-fire for God is a jealous God and will not give his glorie to Another I advise my Doctors therefore both Divines and Physicians not to bee too rash in their Censures nor so Magisterial in their Discourse as I have known some Professors of Physic to be who would correct and undervalue the rest of their Brethren when in Truth they Themselves were most shamefully ignorant It is not ten or twelve years Experience in Druggs and Sopps can acquaint a man with the Mysteries of God's Creation Take this and make a world Take I know not what and make a Pill or Clyster are different Recepts Wee should therefore consult with our Judgements before wee venture our Tongues and never speake but when wee are sure wee understand I knew a Gentleman who meeting with a Philosopher Adept and receiving so much Courtesie as to be admitted to Discourse attended his first Instructions passing well But when this Magician quitted my friends known Roade and began to touch and drive round the great Wheele of Nature presently my Gentleman takes up the Cudgells and urging all the Authorities which in his vain judgement made for him opprest this noble Philosopher with a most clamorous insipid Ribaldrie A goodly sight it was and worthy our Imitation to see with what an admirable Patience the other received him But this Errant concluded at last That Lead or Quick-silver must be the Subject and that Nature work'd
upon one of both To this the Adeptus replied Sir it may bee so at this time but if hereafter I find Nature in those old Elements where I have sometimes seen her very Busie I shall at our next meeting confute your Opinion This was all hee said and it was something more than hee did Their next meeting was referr'd to the Greek Calends for he could never be seen afterwards notwithstanding a thousand Sollicitations Such Talkative babling people as this Gentleman was who run to every Doctor for his Opinion and follow like a Spaniell every Bird they spring are not fit to receive these Secrets they must be serious silent men faithfull to the Art and most faithfull to their Teachers Wee should alwayes remember that Dotrine of Zeno Nature said hee gave us one Tongue but two Eares that wee might heare much and speak little Let not any man therefore be ready to vomit forth his own shame and ignorance Let him first examine his knowledge and especially his practice lest upon the Experience of a few violent Knacks hee presume to judge Nature in her very Sobrieties To make an end If thou doest know the first Matter know also for certain thou hast discovered the Sanctuarie of Nature There is nothing between thee and her Treasures but the Doore that indeed must be opened Now if thy Desire leads thee on to the Practice consider well with thy self what manner of man thou art and what it is that thou would'st do for it is no small matter Thou hast resolved with thy self to be a Cooperator with the Spirit of the living God and to minister to him in his worke of generation Have a Care therefore that thou doest not hinder his work for if thy heat exceeds the Naturall Proportion thou hast stirr'd the wrath of the moyst Natures and they will stand up against the Central fire and the Central fire against them and there will be a terrible Division in the Chaos but the sweet Spirit of Peace the true eternal Quintessence will depart from the Elements leaving both them and Thee to Confusion neither will hee apply himself to that Matter as long as it is in thy violent destroying hands Take heed therefore lest thou turn Partner with the Devill for it is the Devil's designe from the Beginning of the world to set Nature at Variance with her self that he may totally corrupt and destroy her Nè tu augeas fatum doe not thou further his Designes I make no question but many men will laugh at this but on my Soule I speak nothing But what I have known by very good Experience therefore believe mee For my own part it was ever my desire to bury these Things in silence or to paint them out in shadowes but I have spoken thus clearly and openly out of the Affection I bear to some who have deserved much more at my hands True it is I intended sometimes to expose a greater work to the world which I promised in my Anthroposophia but I have been since acquainted with that World and I found it base and unworthie wherefore I shall keep in my first happy Solitudes for Noyse is Nothing to mee I seek not any man's Applause If it be the will of my God to call me forth and that it may make for the Honour of his Name in that respect I may write again for I feare not the Judgement of Man but in the interim here shall be and End FINIS ANd now my Book let it not stop thy Flight That thy just Author is not Lord or Knight I can desine my self and have the Art Still to present one face and still one Heart But for nine years some Great ones cannot see What they have been nor know they what to bee What though I have no Rattles to my name Do'st hold a simple Honestie no Fame Or art thou such a stranger to the Times Thou canst not know my Fortunes frō my Crimes Goe forth and fear not some will gladly bee Thy learned friends whom I did never see Nor shouldst thou fear thy welcom thy small Cannot undo'em though they pay Excise Price Thy Bulk's not great it will not much distresse Their emptie Pockets but their Studies lesse Th' art no Galeon as Books of Burthen bee Which can not ride but in a Librarie Th' art a fine Thing and little it may Chance Ladies will buy thee for a new Romance Oh how I 'le envy Thee when thou art spread In the bright Sun-shine of their Eyes and read With Breath of Amber Lips of Rose that lend Perfumes vnto thy Leaves shal never spend When from their white hands they shall let thee fall Into their Bosomes which I may not call Ought of Misfortune Thou do'st drop to rest In a more pleasing place ând art more blest There in some silken soft Fold thou shalt lye Hid like their Love or thy own Mysterie Nor shouldst thou grieve thy Language is not fine For it is not my Best though it be Thine I could have voye'd thee forth in such a Dresse The Spring had been a Slut to thy Expresse Such as might file the rude unpolish'd Age And fix the Readers Soule to ev'ry Page But I have us'd a course and homely strain Because it suits with Truth which should be plain Last my dear Book if any looke on Thee As on Three Suns or some great Prodigie And swear to a full point I do deride All other Sects to publish my own pride Tell such they lie and since they love not Thee Bid them goe learn some High-shoe heresie Nature is not so simple but shee can Procure a solid Reverence from man Nor is my Pen so lightly Plum'd that I Should serve Ambition with her Majestie 'T is Truth makes me come forth having writ This her short Scaene I would not stifle it For I have call'd it Childe and J had rather See 't torn by them than strangl'd by the Father Soli Deo Gloria Amen Faults escaped in Magia Adamica Page 70. line 4. for {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} read {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} p. 106. l. 23. for or r. for p. 126. l. 26. for doctrine r. dictrine Faults escaped in the Man-Mouse PAge 15. line 2. for fires read fires p. 49. l. 24. f. the r. that p. 82. l. 23. f. he r. she Eccle. 2. 3. Cap. 2. ver. 11. a That is We say not onely Science but the Principle also of Science to be something whereby we understand the Termes C. Agrip. Porta Lucis Cap. 3. v. 17. Cap. 5. v. 29. Cap. 8. v. 25. Cap. 7. V. 11 12 13. Cap. 8. v. 20. Gen. cap. 3. ver. 22. Porphyr de Sacrif. Coloss. 2. 8. Act. 17. 18 Ecclesiast 7. 29. Gen. 4. 20. De vanit Scient. Apolog. advers. Gent. Cap. 24. Exod. 31. Hebr. 4. 15. John 9. Joh. cap. 2 v. 25. Luke cap. 11. ver. 15 Math. 23. 35. Genel 20. 7. Genes 24. 11 12. Gen. 30. 37. Cap. 31. v. 10. Gen. 32. 28. Exod. 1. ver. 6. Cap. 44. ver. 15. Exod. cap. 7. vc 1. Genes cap. 3. vers. 5. John 1. 3. Exod. 7. 11. 22. Gen. Cap. 9. ver. 41. Numb. cap. 11. ver. 25. Gen. cap. 1. ver. 20. Cap. 2. ver. 19. De statu Episcop Luc. cap. 11. ver. 52 Theor. cap. 6. See Jacob Behmen in his most excellent and prosound Discourse of the Three Principles See Dyonys Ar. Th. Neg. Gen. c. 1. Anima Magica Occult phil. Gen. c. 3. ver. 19. Joh. 19. 22 Anthroposoph