bodies appear to be dead yet shall the naturall Magician know that in his flesh and bones there abideth admirable spirits which operate no less wonders yea and far greater then those of the Load-stone And therefore I would have each self-conceited person that are so apt to envy against the Mysteries of God in nature to learn more discretion and experience before they so vain-gloriously do judge the strange and marvellous effects of man's royall nature and pronounce so boldly without hesitation or sticking that there are no spirits in any amputated members or portion in man no nor in the dead carcass as Casman and Foster aver Nay that the Devill himself can not conferre any into them or it For I would have both them and other temerarious and bold Judges to know that as the Load-stone though appearing a dead mass is observed to suck and draw Centrally unto it with a lively appetite the beams and body of the Load-stone and that all and every member divided from the Load stone will do the like in its proportion Even so I can prove it and confirm it by an ocular demonstration that by a right application of the fleshy parts of a dead man's carcass unto a live man if the application be long it will make the live man faint and feeble the which nevertheless a while after the materiall or corporall Magneticall Mummy be removed will receive again his wonted strength Moreover lest this relation may seem to Mr. Foster and the rest of his Cabalisticall Sect a figment or Chimerious fancy forasmuch as he may alleadge that the application of the thing may work in the live man's imagination and cause him to perswade himself that he is faint and that without any true ground and that there can be no externall effect to prove it I answer That it will suck or draw forth of the live man the spirituall Mummy in a visible manner For by the coldness of the part the spirituall Mummy so extracted will condense it self on the superficies of the corporall Magnet even as aire into a cloud or a cloud into Manna so that it may be gathered and converted into a very pretious and wholsome Panacaea or generall medicine if the party out of which it is extracted be sound and of a wholsome complexion as contrariwise it may prove as corrupt and Antipatheticall a medicine where the body out of which it is drawn is infected with any venomous or contagious disease namely French Pox Plague Leprosie and such like as shall be more at large expressed in the next book Now the reason of this act and operation in the dead man's Magnetick parts is that as when the body was alive it was animated by light and enjoyed all the properties of light to wit it was hot active moveable dilative and in conclusion of an Aequinoctiall or Southern condition so that naturall fire being extinguished it indueth the properties of darkness for it is mortified by cold and is congealed potentiall fix or immobil contractive and in fine of the rigid zone's and frozen Pole's nature So that whereas before whilst it lived it did emit his beams from the Center to the Circumference and did enjoy the blessings of God's vivifying and positive Emanation now it indueth the condition of his contracting privative and mortifying Emanation And yet I would not that wisemen should think that because the lively body is turned into a dead carcass therefore it is void of all spirits of life being that Scriptures confirm that the incorruptible spirit is in all things and consequently as well in those that are dead as in those that are alive For this incorruptible spirit according unto the variety of his property in the four winds is sometime in motion from the center of the thing in which it is unto the circumference for so he vivifyeth and causeth the creature to act and live by a southern or aequinoctiall faculty so I say it operateth from the center of the celestiall sun to the animation of inferiour creatures namely by evocation of their incorruptible spirits which were repelled by the winter or Boreal cold into their center from their center unto their circumference as it appeareth by such vegetables which seem for that reason as it were dead all the winter season because the spirit of life leaves and forsakes the circumference of the plant and betaketh it self unto the center to retire from the assaults of cold which is its opposite as far as it can But when it perceiveth its fountain of light to approach and to send them forth succours they begin by little and little to spring again from their center unto their circumference and being united unto the externall beams which are come unto their aide they expel dark privation and congealing cold from out their tabernacles and do proceed to operate and act unto vegetation and multiplication as also we see in the corn which is buried in the earth Even so I say and no otherwise the Load-stone's Martiall nature being originally by a Saturnine spirit contracted into his center is exagitated and stirred up and with like joy doth suck unto it the formall beams of the Iron from whose Martiall sulphureous spirit they did originally spring And even so also the spirits of the dead body being by mortifying cold driven from the circumference unto the center and resting there at repose without any action maketh the body and every part thereof fixt and unmovable but when they are applyed unto the lively circumference of their species or kind they spring forthwith and in their watery spirits towards the circumference as if they were almost famished in the center and rejoyce to meet with their like in the live man which doth as it were dilate it self and issue forth of the pores in a streaming manner for their assistance and they being partly congealed in the center of the dead member do with a greedy appetite suck them in with the spirituall Mummy which is their vehicle towards their centrall abiding to endue it with life as it was before and to recreate it with their presence but the unctuous spirituall Mummy being full of bright spirits resting upon the superficies of the live man inspissated with the cold and mortifying contact of the dead flesh or part of the carcase is forthwith congealed and may be reserved for a private use But can we I pray you better confirm this than with the contractive restrictive or congelative vertue of the fumous excrescence issuing from the salt contained in the dead mans bones for by applying it I mean the Uznea or masse which groweth on the dead mans bones unto the irruptions of blood or haemorrhoigy in a living man the warm blood as it were moved by an antipatheticall affection returneth back again and is denyed passage by the congealing and binding operation of these northern effected excrescences But leaving these conclusions touching the dead mans magnet and its vertues for a while what will
matrix yea that out of the Magnet body the perfectest Iron or Steel is extracted it ariseth from the consideration that the Martiall and Saturnine spirit of the Load-stone sucketh and attracteth from his center the body of Iron unto it drawing forth of it his formall beams as it were his spirituall food but because the Iron-body will not forsake so easily his inward spirit it followeth and is suâ—ked unto it And again the Iron finding the like spirits in the Load-stone doth covet as fast to be possessor of them by an equall coition or desire and so a conjunction or union is made no otherwise between them than between man and wife But because the Loadstone is fuller of the Saturnine stony Mercury than the Iron which is purified from it by fire and consequently more near unto the property of the male therefore it sucketh not the Load-stone so greedily unto it as the Load-stone doth the Iron For it is an old confirmed axiom That Matter doth desire and long after Form and as eagerly doth draw and allure it as the female doth the male But that the Iron is in lieu of the male it appeareth in the strength that it addeth unto the Load-stone for if the Load-stones pole be capped with steel it doth so far animate it beyond his own proper nature that it causeth it to draw unto it a far greater proportion of Iron then otherwise it was able This therefore being rightly considered we may with the greater facility collect what that microâ—osmicall Load-stone should be that is able to extract the microcosmicall spirit without any dammage or debilitation of the body If therefore we would attempt to effect this excellent exploit we must do it by such a corporall Magnet as shall be taken out of the Microcosm or Man whose production and generation must in every respect accord and agree with that of the macrocosmical or terrene mineral Loadstone which is mentioned before the which I purpose onely by circumloâ—uâ—ion and not in plain tearms to expresse unto you that thereby so great a secret as this key to unlock the balsamick cabinet of mans Mummiall nature may be hidden from the unworthy and yet sufficiently made manifest unto the worthy and religious Philosopher by evident circumstances for if that such hidden mysteries in nature were vulgarly discovered there would be no difference had between a wise man and a fool And therefore Solomon did teaeh us Quod sit sapientis celare rem It is the part of a wise man to hide the thing And the wise Philosophers in their Writings did so considerately express the secret of nature that they might hide it from the ignorant and uncapable vulgar and yet speak plainly to such as are the children of art and sons of true learning But this is not all for I would have you to understand that the property of the magnetick microcosmicall work is so universall that it sheweth the way as well to infect the Mummiall spirits of man with a venomous and pernicious antipatheticall nature as to extract it in its wholsome and sympatheticall condition whereby it may be employed in good and salutary usages And for that reason namely because evill-minded persons as well witches and sorcerers whom the devill hath instructed in the abuse of this excellent mystery as also wicked minded-men I mean incarnate devills may do great mischief in the world by the publick revelation thereof for most men are proner unto mischief than inclined to do goodness I think it to be the wisest part not to name the internall microcosmicall Magnet openly but onely to express it in more generall tearms I would have therefore each wise man to understand that the magnetick nature as well antipatheticall as sympatheticall of all things consisteth onely in the sulphureous vertue of the vitall spirits which by reason of their incarceration are apt to attract their like unto them by contracting of it self from the circumference unto the center Even so the animal vegetable and mineral salt which is the immediate receptacle of this sulphureous spirit that by reason of its pure Saturnine Mercurial earth sucketh and draweth by the act of the included spirits their like from the circumference whereby they vegetate and multiply both in their airy volatill salt which by a Saturnine or northern condition is like snow or frost condensed and in their aetheriall or celestiall fire And again the sulphureous spirit flyeth back or reflecteth his beams into its centrall salt after it did emanate unto the circumference of the body by northern accidents namely by externall cold as it appeareth by the fiery or heavenly seeds included in the aire that is retained within the Weather-glass which when the north-wind bloweth is contracted by reason that the expansed spirits of the celestiall sulphure or the heavenly fire which is in it flying from his cold opposite betaketh it self unto the center of the aire compassing as it were it self with a clowd or making it a house to resist the northern blasts inclemency For as hereafter I will shew you in my magnetick demonstration that the sulphureous Aequator is an enemy to the cold Mercurial poles Also in mans body when a northern or stupid fear possesseth it the sulphureous spirits contract themselves and leave the externall aspect pale blewish and wan and in so doing contract the internall spirits of the body unto the center but this motion is antipatheticall and caused by unnaturall passion Again those sulphureous included spirits being at liberty they dilate and expanse themselves into the open aire as having no evident magnet to attract or contract them into a narrower room To conclude therefore the microcosmicall Magnet must issue and be ingendred from the microcosmicall sulphureous spirits in his proper salt which is his form from a more strange Mercury which by his vicinity and propinquity is most familiar with it and as it were akin unto it by adoption and this is his passive matter Wherefore of these two microcosmicall portions I mean the formall and materiall our secret Magnes is framed by the which the spirituall Mummy is extracted out of the living man by means whereof admirable cures and pernicious harms may be effected as well ad distans or afar off as near at hand or by an immediate contact or administration Moreover the same internall Magnet or attractive salt in man in whose interior the sulphureous vivifying spirit doth dwell and of whose condition and root our foresaid microcosmicall Magnet is will perform the self same salutary effects and many other rare experimentall conclusions if it be conveyed into the blood by transplantation from the alive person by an effluxion or in the nails and hair separated from him to another subject There is also another microcosmicall Magnet which is taken from the dead man by the means whereof the spirituall Mummy may be drawn out of the living man and applyed for mans health as well by an immediate administration as by
transplanting of it into a vegetable plant herb or tree as in the progress of this Book shall be more amply declared But because the order of these things in our demonstration à posteriori or by progression from the effect unto the originall cause of these things will be most convenient for the common and vulgar capacity I will begin to ascend in this mine explication from grosser elements unto more subtle intricate and abstruce things as if by proportionate degrees I should mount from the earth into heaven I purpose therefore first to express and demonstrate unto you those things magnetically which are onely wrought by the corporall contact of two severall bodies of the same naturall condition But before I will begin with the Mummy which is taken out of mans dead body I think it in the first place most necessary to entreat of the dead carcase his mystery that we may proceed the more methodically in our intent CHAP. II. That there are four sorts of corporall Mummy whereof one onely is usefull and necessary for salutary purposes In this Chapter also is set down an experiment with certain ocular Demonstrations confirming the magneticall or a tractive vertue of the Basamick spirits which are in the usefull Mummy SUch as have profoundly considered and deeply respected as well the externall as internall nature of man have perceived that the microcosmicall Mummy is of two conditions namely corporall or spirituall of the first I purpose to speak in this present Chapter the second shall be handled hereafter and that at large Touching the corporall Mummy it is either naturally sympatheticall or unnaturally antipatheticall We find therefore by experience that the naturall Mummy is onely medicinable and salutiferous after his due preparation which is effected chiefly by his own magnetick property the rest are apter to breed diseases and to infect such persons as are in health than to afford them any salutary relief or consolation for as according unto the nature of the four elements there are four kinds of corporall and substantiall Mummyes so also are they distinguished according unto those elements whose natures they have endued of the which three of these are corruptible and inducers of death and sickness namely the earthly the watery and the fiery and onely that which is airy is util to mans life and amicable unto his nature Concerning those three kinds of Mummy which breed corruption the reason why they prove corruptible is this We must hold it first for a generall axiom in Philosophy Quod corruptum corrumpentis naturam in se induit That the thing corrupted doth endue the nature of the thing corrupting As for example If the dead carcase of a man be corrupted in the earth it is changed and passeth into the nature of the earth and becommeth inutil for mans health and indeed rather destructive then constructive or wholsome Again if the corruption be made in the water then the corrupted flesh or dead body will acquire or endue a waterish and masseluginous disposition which also will prove very incommodious or unprofitable for the conservation of the vitall spirits And lastly by the inordinate violence of fire the spirits in the Mummiall body will be consumed wasted or expired Now the reason why these said corporall Mummie's in those estates are inconvenient for the conservation of health is Because the foresaid three do so destroy and corrupt the body of them that they make and constrain his earth his water and his fire to return unto their first matter so that whereas the earth and the water are ordained to be the receptaâ—les of two vivifying elements namely of fire and aire which onely can be conserved in a body that is incorrupted it must of necessity follow that in the three foresaid Mummies those vivifying spirits must needs vanish and fly away for want of a naturall body which is now become corrupted and destroyed and therefore unnaturall Seeing therefore nothing is required in the true Mummy more then that which is apt and proper for the conservation of life yea for life it self which is the aire which is banished and expelled from the three forsaid Mummies therefore nothing can be extracted out of them but sickness death and destruction and consequently antipatheticall effects so that if a sound murthered oâ— strangled body do rot under the earth or in the water it is not fit or proper for the wholsome use of mans body The very self-same regard is to be had unto such bodies as die through infirmityes and diseases and although they are not visibly corrupted by the three foresaid externall elements yet nevertheless it happeneth so that a certain invisible corruptible influence and impression is made or caused from the externall elements into the internall From hence therefore proceedeth that intestine war in mans body whereby the elements do kill and corrupt one another but after a divers fashion namely otherwise in one body than in another according as one element or elementall alteration is said to have dominion or rule over the other And this is the reason that such variety of diseases do haunt mans body as for example The Dropsie commeth of the strong impression of water the Hectick or burning Feavor of fiery insultations and the Leprosie of the dominion of earth c. And therefore also where any such elementary corruption happeneth unto the body there the wholsome spirit of the corporall Mummy with his habitacle or dwelling mansion is utterly overthrown and the spirit is forced to depart and consequently contrary Mummiall spirits do dominere and are ready to operate antipathetically as shall be expressed in the second member of this Book But if the sound body that is not haveing any infirmity be killed onely by and in the Element of aire that is to say through strangling or by hanging then there will be found no impression of the foresaid Elements in the corporall Mass of mans carcass And for that reason it will remain incorrupted and will not suffer any Elementall resolution so long as it is conserved in the aire If therefore the body or tabernacle of the spirits and vital Balsom remaineth entire then that aereall vitall Balsom is not compelled to depart from his lodging so long as the body is not resolved by nature or art But if it be resolved then it will forsake the body as the soul doth as also the animal astral spirit which did reconcile the one with the other But the vitall vegetable and Balsamick spirit remaineth in the incorrupted body It followeth therefore that this airy kind of Microcosmicall Mummy is most proper for the conservation of vitall spirits in the living man being extracted prepared and rightly after preparation to be applied I will therefore come briefly unto our Magneticall Experiences touching this Mummiall Subject The Proposition If this salutary kind of airy Mummy with his vehicle or Magneticall instrument be taken or chosen or selected rightly it will indue by reason of the
minerall be divided into parts the spirituall nature of these parts do alwaies tend unto Unity although these parts be divided far from one another which is an Argument that they are no continued thing in spirits and therefore one part doth directly co-operate and send out actuall beams of sympatheticall identity unto another though the bodily divided parts be absent or distant in space from one another A Demonstration to confirm this This is sufficiently proved by the ocular Demonstrations recited for the confirmation of the first member but more especially by the second Demonstration of the eighth Chapter of this present Book where I have shewed you that if a long Load-stone be divided in the middle between the two Poles that is to say about the aequinoctial line and each of these divided parts be put to flote in his small vessell or bark on the still water The influentiall spirit which is one in essence and continued between them doth desire and covet to unite the divided minerall bodies whose limbs are by a wound or Solution of continuity separated and to reduce them into the naturall estate they were in at the first and for that cause B and C whereof the one is Meridionall namely B and the other Septentrionall to wit C which were at the first continuated parts but now divided are by that unseparable Spirit which giveth life unto both the parts reunited sucked and drawn together and reduced unto the estate of their pristine continuity that is of two stones they are made one so that the portion of spirit in C draweth and attracteth the bodily B unto it and the proportion of spirit in B sucketh and inticeth C unto it For we must note that the unity of spirit doth evermore desire and effect the unity of the body in which it dwelleth for the quintessentiall or formall spirit delighteth not in the variable disposition of the airy spirit and therefore coveteth to inhabit the close specificall house or pallace which it did possesse immediatly after his discent from his celestiall starry parents This is the reason that one specifick spirit is most easy yea and rejoyceth to communicate with his like but especially one and the same spirit must needs act with and never be absent from the other and therfore when the frozen Northern and as it were congealed nature is incited and stirred up by the aequinoctiall or Southern property if it be rightly adopted and the Southern Iron 's property is touched with the Magneticall North-pole of the other they will effect attraction the better and to this purpose speaketh this Problem Problem If Magneticall bodies be divided or any part broken off from the whole each part so broken off will have his North and South And therefore each particle of Iron or of the Load stone being divided from the whole will have a Northern property and a Southern which doth manifestly confirm unto wise men's capacities that the spirit of every Specifick yea of every individuall hath a Northern and a Southern condition and consequently an attractive and dilative property and not only the spirit of the whole but also of every particular of it if it may be spoken being that the formall spirit is in all and in every part Application Yee may therefore perceive by this how possible and fezible it is that the spirit in the dead blood or weapon being transferred and as it were transplanted at a far distance in the Ointment as having a Balsome not differing from the animall nature but especially in respect of the vegetable Salt of the Uzneas in the which altogether lurke spirits which by the present application of the Southern lively and warm spirits in the wounded man guided unto it by the spirits transported or transplanted bood doth re-vivify and co-operate with the same spirit not onely in the stanching of the flowing blood but also in the healing and consolidating of the wound as shall be shewed you more amply hereafter The third Member of the Proposition is confiâ—med by these proofs Thirdly that it is not the animal's externall blood but the internall in the externall which being separated from his fountain and transplanted on another unctuous stock doth operate Magnetically from the stock on which it is planted unto the fountain or spring from whence it floweth And it is maintained thus A Demonstration to confirm this first Problem It is not any corporeall thing which floweth from the Load-stone or which penetrateth into Iron or that is poured or extracted out of the Iron being awaked by the Load-stone's power but one Load-stone disposeth another by an originall or primary Form and the Load-stone doth revoke and disposeth the Iron which is familiar unto his nature together with it self unto a formed vigour for which reason the Iron runs unto the Load-stone and doth greedily conform it self unto it each forces or vigours symphoniacally provoking Application Therefore it is a formall spirit or subtle celestiall influence which doth operate mutually from the wounded body unto the transported or transplanted blood and not the body or the blood or the aire or the oyntment in which the transported blood or bloody spirits are contained so that the excited spirits in the oyntment do apply their regard unto the beams of the exciter the north spiracle unto the southern and so a union is made between the spirits of the oyntment with the adopted blood and those of the wounded body And as we see that by the concourse in the macrocosmicall aire of the north-wind and the south both spirits are united into one form and are magnetically with their airy vehicle contracted into a clowd which containeth in it a formall fire or lightning and a watry body So the two emanations do cause a contracted aery spirit in the place of their concourse or application which doth in his contraction attract the balsamick spirit which the oyntment doth send forth even as we see in the Weather-glass that the contracted aire sucketh up with it the masse of the water and yet the aire so contracted is not for all that visible But this is further confirmed by this Problem 2 Problem Iron is allured and drawn onely by the immateriall act of form that is to say by an incorporeall proceeding the which doth act and is conceived in the iron subject as in a continuate homogeneall body And this is the reason that Iron is moved and drawn unto the Load-stone without being impedited or hindred by the interposition of dense and well-compacted bodies between them And again Iron draweth to it the Load-stone it self and the concourse unto unity is moved by a mutuall consent and vigour the which concourse is vulgarly termed Attraction Application Here we see that reference which is between the Magnet and the Mine out of which that spirit which doth animate the Magnet is drawn As for example In the forementioned Chapter the spirit of the microcosmicall Mummy is in the excrementitious
and power as they appear now onely puissant in words being hindred from the good fruit which accompanieth true wisdom by the erroneous doctrine of their seducing Master I know that this good perswasion of mine will make the followers of worldly wisdom to storm and to say of me as the Stoicall and Epicureall Philosophers did to Paul in Athens What will this babler have or what doth he tell us of a new way of learning I answer That it is not I but the word which they follow that teacheth them if they will be pleased to mark it well and sequester themselves in the mean time from the rules or documents of their Ethnick Master But I will come unto my nearer proofs whereby I will most evidently shew that the doctrine of Aristotle is a manifest enemy and opposite or contradictory unto the truth which being so it is by the Apostle James condemned for a branch of that wisdom or philosophy which is terrene animal and diabolicall It appeareth and shall be hereafter proved out of the Book of verity that the vertue whereby God doth manifestly operate in this world is expressed either by attraction from the circumference unto the center or expulsion from the center unto the circumference namely Contraction or Dilatation For after this manner is produced Condensation and Ratification whereby the heavens and the earth and elements with compound creatures as well Meteorologicall or unperfectly mixed as such as are compleat in their composition were created and made And again by it he operateth in this world either sympathetically that is by a concupiscible attraction or antipathetically that is by an odible expulsion Since therefore that all things are effected in this world by attraction or expulsion let us see what is Aristotle's opinion touching the cause of attraction and then afterward examine whether it accordeth with the tenour of truth The Petipatericks being perswaded thereunto by their Master Aristotle do accord in this namely That the Winds the Thunder the Comets the Clouds and other such like Meteors are made and caused by the attractive heat of the Sun and other Stars which draw up vapours and exhalation out of the water and earth and elevateth them into the regions of the aire And therefore Prout saith Velcury according unto the mind of Aristotle magis minusve calidi sunt vapores ita altius aut humilius elevantur sursum à solis calore aliorumque astrorum sicut videmus in sole bâ—bente attrahente aquam As vapours are more or lesse hot so are they elevated higher or lower by the heat of the Sun and other Starrs as we see that the Sun doth drink up and attract water unto it Hence therefore hath that palpable errour been introduced into this world namely that fire and heat do suck and draw unto it vapours and fumes when it may be made most palpable and evident unto the simplest so that he have but human sense about him that the heat of the Sun and fire doth rather discusse and expell from it by dilatation than allure unto it by the way of attraction As for example if the fire did draw vapours unto it then would it not permit any smoak to go from it but the contrary is seen viz. that it discusseth by dissolution and expelleth and seperateth by rarefaction the subtill from the grosse not with a desire to draw or attract the vapours made by rarefaction unto it but to expell and disjoynt it from the whole grosse body it worketh upon for which cause we see the fumes and smoaks to fly away and to be inforced to avoid the action of the fire without any inclination of the fire to retaine them also if we apply a wet handkercher unto the fire we shall see that the watry substance in it will be subtiliated by the heat into a reaking vapour but as for the fire it is so farre from attracting of it that the reaking smoak will be seen to rise up in the house at randome without any evident attraction of the fire In like case it happeneth with the Sun 's operative faculty for it subtiliates or ratifieth the water or humid substances by his heat and consequently it draweth nothing at all unto it but discusseth rather that which was thick into thinner portions Now the reason that water or grosse humid substances being rarified do ascend upward is not any attractive faculty in the Sun or Starrs but a naturall inclination in the thing it selfe for it is a common axiome that omne leve et subâ—ile doth by a naturall sympathy or appetite tendere sursum and therefore it is of his own inclination being so subtiliated that it soareth upward toward his naturall and destinated region or place as we see in Fumes Smokes and such like Contrariwise omne grave doth in like manner tendere deorsum all that is ponderous doth descend by a naturall desire towards the Centre But that I may more exactly and assuredly display this errour of the peripateticall attraction of exhalations and vapours by the Sun Starrs and fire I pray you that you will but observe our Weather-glasse or experimentall Machine and we shall there finde by practice that all attraction from the circumference unto the center is caused of cold and not of heat for by cold the water is drawn or attracted up into the neck of the Glasse and that is effected by the inspissation of the aire and reduction of it into a straiter room when contrariwise we note that if the Sun do heat the head or boul of the Mattras or if the warmth of the hand do but touch it the included aire dilateth it self and forthwith flyeth away from the heat and is so far from being attracted by it that it precipitateth and depresseth the water downwards Which being thus as ocular experience the mother of fools hath taught us let our Christian Peripateticks but duely observe the subtle wisdom of their Master whom they have hitherto followed and let them see and consider how grosly he hath erred in the main argument pillar or prop of his Meteorology which being so what can be more expected then that the whole fabrick of the same should fall before the eyes of each wise contemplator To be brief these such like errours of his have forced divers of his discreetest disciples naturalists to dissent and start from his doctrine as well touching his opinion of the Winds and the Thunder as of the originall of Fountains being perswaded and allured unto this their relinquency by a tâ—uer spirit For Johannes Fregiâ—s a very learned Naturalist and a man who hath taken great pains in searching out the truth of naturall mysteries according unto the documents of Aristotle as it well appeareth by that his large volume entituled Quaest ones Physicae hath this Quaâ—quam tota dâ—sputatio de Ventis sicut de aliis me coris plena est admi abâ—â—â—m operum Dei quorum mille firmae sufficientes
the Sun hath his seat or place in heaven Alass what child knoweth not this by an ocular direction without any such precept of the Prophet And what is this pertinent unto the Text going before The heavens declare the glory of God c. Why should he mention the Sun immediatly afterward What To tell us that the Sun was in heaven A thing known unto every man No but that the heaven's beauty was derived from that glorious Spirit of God which had chiefly his abiding or dwelling in the sunny Tabernacle that thereby blind worldly men might discern that it was God in that beauteous creature and not the creature which sent down so affluently those vertuous influences and lights which were effused out of the vessell of the Sun being that by the mistaking of that knowledg so many of Gods creatures which he framed out after his own Image have been seduced into errour and allured ignorantly to adore the Sun and other Starrs for Gods Which in verity are nothing of themselves Spiritu suo ornavit coelos saith Job He doth not say Sole but Spiritu suo which made the Sun its Tabernacle And now to our last Argument wherein I will shew you how by the assertion of certain wise Philosophers that exposition of Jerom seemeth to be confirmed Saith one unto whose opinion also St. Austin doth adhere Quaelibet res tantum sibi Dei vindicat quantum capax est luminis Every thing doth challenge unto it self so much of divinity as it is capable of Light But the Sun is the brightest creature in the world Ergo it possesseth abundantly the Spirit of divinity Many Philosophers therefore consent in this not erring from the tenent of Scriptures namely that In lumine numen in numine lumen In Light is divinity and in divinity is Light And Plato Ne loquaris de Deo sine Lumine Speak not of God without Light Doth not Scriptures confirm all this in saying that God is Light and that vestitur seu â—miâ—tuâ— est Lumine quasi vestimento He is clothed with Light as with a garment Yea verily he is said to be a consuming fire I conclude therefore that Jerom hath translated that place according unto the true sense and consequently we may gather the reason of Rarefaction and Condensation from the presence or absence of the the Sun and confess after the due examination of the case that the onely Agent of these two operations in the waters or catholick Element is the Eternall Spirit 's presence action and emanation or his absence and rest And this is easily demonstrated by our experimentall glass for the nearer the Sun is unto us and the deeper we are in Summer the more will the aire in the glass be dilated which is manifested therefore because that in summer-time the water is beaten down and precipitated lowest Again the further the Sun is from us and the deeper we are in winter the more is the aire condensed in the glass and that is made evident by the elevation or exaltation of water in the neck of the mattrass or glass Neither do we say that the whole reason of Condensation and Rarefaction doth proceed from the Spirit in the Sun onely being that the same Spirit is as well present in this Elementary region as aethereall and hath the power and life of the winds in his rule by which both in the winter and summer he exalteth or depresseth the waters in the glass and consequently causeth Condensation and Rarefaction of the aire as well included in the Instrument as excluded and by that means causeth a diuturnall change in the generall Sublunary Waters or catholick Element of aire after a four-fold nature from one condition unto another Which mutation or alteration of the inferiour humid nature out of one form into an other is commonly called Elements as shall be expressed hereafter But first we will come unto the Fabrick of the heavens and shew how they were framed out by Condensation and Rarefaction Effected by this one Eternall Ruach Elohim or Spirit of God CHAP. IV. After what manner this Eternall Spirit or Ruach Elohim did frame out the Heavens and shaped or made the Starrs thereof by his Act of Condensation and Rarefaction IT is the Apostle Peter's assertion that the Heavens and the Earth were of the Wateâ— and by the Waters by the Word of God So that the Word we see is the Agent as wâ—ll in the Condensation of the invisible waters into waters that are visible and then of these visible waters into a visible earth Thus was the world in generall distinguished into thicker and thinner regions by that divine Spirit Ruach Elohim which was carried on the waters And this is well argued by Hermes in these words Distinctis libratisque rebus quae igneo Spiritu vehebantur emicuit coelum septem in circulos Things being distinguished and ballanced the which were sustained by a fiery Spirit the heaven did shine forth into seven circles Where he signifieth that it was a fiery Spirit and a little before he calleth it Splendorem Sanctum the holy Splendor which sustained and bore up every circle or Sphere of the heavens in his due place And hereupon the Wiseman Omnia mensura numeroque pondere disposuisti seu temperâsti Thou hast disposed all things in measure and number and weight that is to say in a distinct measure and proportion in ponderosity and levity and in a due and convenient number namely into seven distinct Spheres and an infinity of condensed bodies For although all the heavens be composed of aire and fire and therfore it is called Aether quasigneus aer yet by the rule of St. Paul who teacheth us that things visible were first of things invisible we are instructed that both the visible bodies in heaven and also all visible lights were first of invisible waters and invisible formall Light which hath its root in God the bright eternall Unity of all created numbers and therefore as Aristotle saith that Stellae are densiores partes sui orbis So I say that as the Substance of the heavens is invisible by reason of its rarity in like manner are the starrs visible by reason of their density For it was Condensation that caused visibility and Rarefafaction which is the occasion of invisibility And yet for all this it is not concluded with Aristotle that the starrs are the denser parts of their orbs but rather Lights which were included in the spirit of the dark shadow of the abysse which spirit in separating of Light from Darkness sored upward by vertue of the included Light and so according unto the proportion of that eternall formall fire which it retaineth unto this day as his corner-stone it is sustained and elevated in its proper place no otherwise then we see that the artificiall squib according unto the proportion of its artificiall and fading fire with the ponderosity of its body is during the time of the
gunpowders force raised in the aire to a certain height moving neither lower nor higher then the form all vigor affordeth it vertue and there remaineth untill the force of the corruptible and wasting fire be spent and then it falleth down againe But the Light of the star carrieth and raiseth up the spirituall body according unto the proportion of the mounting Light which soreth as high as its power and the ponderosity of the body will permit and so it hangeth perpetually at a certain distance from the center because the fire is of an eternall and incorruptible nature and will not fade as that artificiall fire of the squib doth Now as all the illuminating vigors and animating forces or flames that are imparted unto the universall waters was bestowed on them by that bâ—ight catholick Spirit or emanation which was sent forth by God to be carried on the waters which as Scripture doth averre is brighter then the Sun or Starrs So there is none of all those Lights which are separated or divided in essence from that glorious and glittering Spirit whose beams were dispersed over all the waters in the abysse in giving of them life and being For this reason therefore because each Light had a diversity in proportion of formall brightness and measure of corpulency it is that one celestiall body doth vary in his manner of vertue motion and influence from another but because the extracted quintessence or purer materiall essence of all the Chaos with the purity of Light that issued from the creating Spirit were united into an Angelicall alterity both of those natures in the figure of one masse sored up out of the dark abysse into the heaven's center where they challenged the Royall Phoebaean Throne and that Sphaericall masse is to this hour termed the Sun of Heaven which as from the created Fountain of Light enflameth and formally enlightneth all the rest of the Starrs in the heavens above and the Element and elementated creatures below So that after the universall contracted Light was effected the fourth day of the Creation it was ordained to be that capitall Organ of life and vegetation in the starry world which did send and showre down his influences and fiery spiracles of life conservation vegetation and multiplication upon the sublunary earth and waters Thus therefore in few words you have the reason of that Condensation and Rarefaction whereby both the invisible heavenly Substance and visible celestiall bodies were made And it seemeth not to disagree from the opinions of the learned Theologians Basil and Damascene touching the causes of the divine Spirit 's action in Condensation and Rarefaction before the apparition of the Sun in the heavens Forasmuch as they will have the daie's Rarefaction or cleare heaven to be occasioned by an emission of Light ordained by the divine will or act of this Omnipotent Spirit But they think that the night's Condensation and the opake or condensed bodie in the heavens are effected by a contraction of Light which was also caused by the sacred Spirit 's volunty Thus therefore we see out of the confession of certain of the prime Fathers of the Church what was the cause of the cold condensing Night and the hot rarifying Day before the Spirit was congregated into the Tabernacle or quintessentiall substance of the Sun which was extracted by the Spageâ—ick or separative action of the divine Spirit out of the huge deformed waters of the abysse And therefore this also must be the reason of Condensation and Rarefaction unto this day For as the Spirit in the Sun being far from us and as it were contracting his beames in regard of us unto himself or absenting himself from our Hemisphere so that the cold waters do incline unto the nature of their mother Chaos by reason whereof the night and darkness are long and the light and day but short and faint in heat So also in that season the common sublunary Element is subject to Condensation and Incrâ—ssation and therefore is constrained or contracted into the consistence of Frosts Snows Hail Ice and Cold showers c. Again when it is neare unto us it dilateth it self and by his heat and presence the cold waters become hot and the daies are augmented and fortified or made strong in heat and then the common sublunary Element is apt for dilatation and subtiliation being easy to be inflamed and set on fire with Lightnings coruscations and such like But I leave the history of the Condensation and Subtiliation of the aethereall Spirit to descend unto the like acts or conditions in the sublunary Element CHAP. V. How the lower waters or catholick sublunary element were distinguished ordered and shaped out into sundry distinct sphears which are called particular Elements and that by the foresaid all-working Spirit or dâ—vine Word SInce that it is most certainly proved already that the universall substance of the world's machin was made but of one onely thing namely of a matter that was produced out of the potentiall bowells of the dark chaos or abyss by the spagerick vertue of the divine Word the which matter Moses tearmed Waters and Hermes the humid nature of the which in generall as both Moses and St. Peter aver the heavens and the earth were made of old it must needs follow that out of this catholick masse of waters the universall sublunary element was derived which is commonly termed by the name of Aer as all that humid substance in the celestiall orbe is called Aether Now this generall element is by the breath of the divine Spirit Râ—ach Elohim altered and changed from one shape unto another for that which is the visible waters was made first of the aire which is an invisible water as again the visible water by condensation is made earth And this is proved first by the words of St. Paul who saith Per fidem agnovimus quod semper ita actum sit cum mundo per Verbum ut ex iis quae videri non poterant fierent ea quae possunt videri We know by faith that it hath been ever acted with the world by the word that those things which can be seen were effected or made of those things which could not be seen And again Solomon saith that the world was made of a matter that was not seen But besides these proofs we are taught by chymicall experience that earth is nothing else but coagulated water nor visible water any thing else but invisible air reduced by condensation to a visibility nor fire any thing else but ratified aire And in conclusion all the sublunary waters were in the beginning but an invisible humid or watry spirit which we call by a common name Aire and consequently the catholick sublunary element was in its originall nothing else but one aire being that heaven was made before the seas or the earth as Moses teacheth us And therefore by faith we must believe according unto St. Paul's doctrine that all
is proved true For when the the wood and Coal is consumed we shall find that their terrestriall Corpulency or bodily masse is almost resolved by fire and heat into watry smoke and fumish ayre But the Philosophicall axiom is that every thing is resolved into his first matter or principle therefore it is apparent that both the water and aery smoke which make up the Earthly bulk of a great Oake or mountaine of pit-Coal was first of the invisible Ayre Again if these were not so the brimstone Stones and dust which authority of the Bible and common experience teacheth to descend from heaven being that they fall in one place or another daily would increase the Earth more and more But leaving these speculative proofs I will descend unto such ocular demonstrations as I have learned out of mine Experimentall glasse The Demonstration We find that from the lower region of the Calender or Weather-glasse unto the summity or top of the head there is nothing but a portion of the common invisible element namely the Aire within it But we shall find even in this little modell of aire strange mutations or alterations effected by vertue of the four winds which blow in the open element for when the hot Easterly wind doth blow it dilateth and extendeth it self all along the neck of the Glasse and beateth down the water unto the lowest degree by reason of its extension so that it approacheth unto the nature of fire for fire is said to be nothing else but aire extreamly dilated though indeed it is the abundant presence of the bright form which dilateth it so but if the South-wind bloweth then it will not be so extreamly dilated but it will endue the mean nature of aire and therefore it will draw up the water by certain degrees But if it happen that the westerly wind have the sole domininion in the sublunary element then will the aire in the Glasse grow thicker and for that reason it draweth or attracteth the water higher For cold hath a great power in the said air whose nature is to condense and thicken Lastly if the cold northern winds do govern or dispose of this universall sublunary element then will the included aire be contracted or coarcted into a very strait room which is argued in this namely because the colder the winde is the higher will the water be elevated in the Glasse and therefore it is made manifest that by how much the more the aire is contracted by so much the more it is thickened and consequently it must be made ponderous considering the proportion of place in which it is for all the aire which weighed thus much in half a yard of Place doth weigh at the least even so much in 2 inches of Space after Contraction Thus you see that in verity there is radically but one catholick sublunary Element though by the angelicall spirit that bloweth from the four corners of the heavens it is four-foldly informed and altered which made the Antients to imagine in their phantasies four distinct elements of an equall birth and beeing from all beginnings But you see apparently by this that is said that this position of the Peripateticks and other sects is false though that it hath gotten an universall name and dominion in this world among men as well of learning as of the ignorant who ground their sayings on the doctrine of the learned of this world who are corrupted and seduced from the truth by the Ethnick discipline I will now expresse unto you in the last place of this book how all generation and corruption in this world is made and that the lowest profundity or terminus ad quem the motion of corruption tendeth is but unto the simple element of nature and then beginneth a new generation from that principle being four-foldly altered according unto the nature of the four winds and therefore when the dead carcasses should live again the Prophet said Come from the four winds O Spirit and blow on these dead bones that is inform and vivifie their Spirit with thy breath for bones were made after a hard Northern and fixt manner the humours after their proportion the Westerly and Southerly property namely flegm and blood and lastly the Spirit of life came from that all-vivifying fire which Hermes calleth Splendorem Sanctum The holy Splendor To conclude I will demonstrate the mystery of the worlds Creation by way of an Arithmeticall progression after this manner Here we have the progression in the worlds Creation where 1. signifieth the Unity which was before all things which whilst it was in it self and did not shine forth conteined its inacting property within its potential Nolunty or Darkness and therefore was esteemed as nothing in regard of mans weak capacity although that in it self it is all in all Then the rank 2. sheweth the actuall emanation of the in-created Light out of the potentiall Unity at the presence whereof the humid nature did appeare out of the dark abysse 1. 0. in the shape of waters so that the light and waters as active and passive are ranked next after Unity thus 0. Light 0. Water 2. then by the fiery Spirit of eternall love and union those two opposit natures are joyned together into the nature of heaven by a spirituall union or composition the which is termed by the Platonicks the soul of the world which the Philosophers have styled by the name of Quinta essentia the quintessence For we must understand that as the 4. Elements were made after the Heavens so also are the Heavens said to animate the Elements no otherwise then the soul doth the body So that this degree of Progression in the Creation standeth thus 0. Light 0. Aire 0. Water 3. The last scale in the Progression of the worlds Creation is thus 0. Fire 0. Aire 0. Water 0. Earth which importeth the four-fold alteration of the catholick Element by the four Winds which was and is effected by the Word the third day of the Creation and this was nothing else but the generall sublunary or lower waters This therefore was the estate of the world in the Creation and in this very state doth continue hitherto and will do till it be refined by the fiery Tryall All this the wise Hermes hath according unto the Tenor of Moses described unto us exactly in these words Erat umbra infinita in abysso aqua insuper spiritus tenuis intellectualis per divinam potentiam in chaos inerant floruit autem splendor sanctus qui sub arena humidanatur a elementa deduxit cumque indistincta fuissent levia postmodum in excelsam regionem provolarunt gravia sub arena humida resederunt distinctis libratisque rebus quae igneo Spiritu vehebantur emicuit coelum septem in circulos c. An infinite shadow or darkness was in the abysse moreover water and a subtil intellectuall spirit was by the divine puissance in the Chaos And a holy brightness or splendor did
lively expressed thus Ascendit fumus in ira ejus ignis à facie ejus exarsit carbones accensi sunt abeo c. Prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes transierunt grando carbones ignis intonuit de coelo Dominus altissimus dedit vocem suam A smoak did ascend in his anger and fire did flame out from his face coales of fire were kindled by him c. By the Lightning in his sight the clowds did move hail and coales of fire the Lord did thunder from heaven the most High did utter forth his voice By the which speech it appeareth evidently that it is onely God which doth essentially effect all these things and although we say in our common phrase of speech that the Lightnings do cause the Thunder or in speaking more mystically that the Angells inflame the aire by their fiery presence yet in verity it is God in his fiery Angells or flaming Ministers as also in the thick clowds and watry spirits who produceth all these things to accomplish his will and pleasure And therefore the Apostle Deus operatur omnia in omnibus God operateth all in all And elsewhere Deus omnium Pater à quo omnia God is the Father of all from whom are all things And again Ex eo per eum in eo sunt omnia Of him by him and in him are all things But all this in our Meteorologicall business is more plainly expressed in the precedent words continued thus at large in another place Ascendit fumus de naribus IEHOVAE ignis de ore ejus vâ—ravit carbones sâ—ccensi sunt ab eo inclinavit coelos descendit caligo sub pedibus ejus ascendit super Cherubin volavit seu lapsus est super alas venti posuit tenebras in ciâ—cuâ—tu suo latibulum cribrans aquas de nubibus coelorum prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes succensi sunt carbones ignis volabant tonabat de coelo Dominus excelsus dabat vocem suam misit sagittas suas disparuit eos fulgur Smoak ascended out of the nostrils of IEHOVA and fire flew out of his mouth coles of fire were kindled from him and he inclined or bowed down the heavens and did descend and darkness was under his feet and he mounted upon a Cherubin and flew or glided upon the wings of the wind made darkness round about him his hiding place sifting forth rain from the clowds of heaven The clowds were kindled at the brightness of his face coles of fire did flie the Lord did thunder from heaven and the most high did utter forth his voice he sent forth his arrows and the Lightning did disperse them By all which it is made evident that there is no essentiall efficient cause which is naturall but onely God in nature and beyond nature operateth all in all For in the precedent description it is not said that the clowds or winds sent out coruscations or that fire came from the Sun or other heavenly bodies but smoke went out of the nostrills of JEHOVA and fire out of his mouth neither that vapours and Exhalations did gather clowds in the middle region of the aire but JEHOVA bowed down the heavens or aire and collected them at his pleasure neither the coldnesse of the middle region did accumulate them into a dark mass or heap by condensation But JEHOVA collected and gathered together by his privative and condensing property that dark chaos or confused abysse neither was it any Angelicall efficient but JEHOVA mounting upon the Cherubin did animate it to move according to his pleasure Nor was it the winds that moved of themselves but the spirituall Cherubin being first animated by JEHOVA did excite the winds to move neither was that exceeding darknesse made for a secret Tabernacle unto JEHOVA meerly by the act of the Angelicall wind But JEHOVA moving on the Cherubin incited the Cherubin to cause the winds to collect and gather together the clowds neither was it the resolutive faculty of the Sun that melted the clowds into rain but JEHOVA that did sift or cribrate forth water or rain out of them neither was it the collision or dashing together of the clowds or antiperistasis which was between the hot exhalation and the coldness of the place which caused the actuall Lightnings or inflammation of the clowds but the brightnesse and inexplicable light of his presence did set the clowds on fire neither was it the contentious strivings which was made between the fire and water in the cleaving of the clowd which maketh the fearfull sound from heaven but it was JEHOVA that did thunder from heaven it was the most high I say that did utter his voice from heaven and sent forth his Lightning as arrows to destroy the wicked Which being so what have we Christians to do to look after any naturall efficient cause with the acute eies of Aristotle which forsooth must act and operate per se of themselves without any consideration when by the precedent Text it appeareth that St. Paul was no liar when he said that God operateth all in all And as for that Peripateticall distinction of causa principalis and secundaria or subalterna you see here that it is utterly disannulled by the Text before mentioned For the onely efficient cause as well in the first second third and fourth Organ or Instrument was God For it was he that inspired the Cherubin it was he in and upon the Cherubin which did animate the winds it was he in and upon the Cherubin by the winds that gathered the clowds together it was he that in and upon the Cherubin by the winds did sift out water and rain out of the clowds and did set them on fire by sending forth Lightnings from his Throne And in conclusion though he use many Organs yet the essentiall act which operateth in and by them all doth issue forth from one simple and sincere identity which comprehendeth no otherwise all things in himself then unity in Arithmetick is assuredly reckoned for the father of multitude Thus we see that the foresaid young-man was lost by his too too much presuming on the vain and prestigious doctrine of his Peripateticall Master For whereas he taught unto the honest Christians which were his Companions the false doctrine of his Ethnick Master in their greatest need namely when the angry hand of the Almighty was in the heavens ready to menace them if they called not out for grace from him who spake out of the clowds in time and did wish them to abolish all feare making them believe that the Lightnings were contingent things in nature and made as it were by hap-hazard and not indued with sense or reason as being framed and shaped out yea and informed by externall and superficiall Principles he with his companions should have remembred that saying so often repeated by the Wiseman Timor Domini est principium Sapientiae The feare of the
that soul in man extend it self far beyond the capacity of flesh and blood and therefore is onely intellectually to be understood By the fifth that each particle of mans blood or spirituall Mummy being divided from the whole hath all the parts or proportions in it ideally described that the whole hath and therefore doth operate as well with a northern as southern aspect and consequently draweth down from the heavens a like property as occasion is given For so this one Spirit is said to come from the four winds and yet it is but one spirit in essence though four-fold in property for it was by the vertue of it that the dead mentioned by the Prophet did rise again And therefore so far as the north wind or south winds extension may be so far is this spirit in man able to send forth his spirituall beam I will come now unto the proof of the second Touching the second Article which sheweth the acute penetration of this spirit and that it is effected without any impediment contrary unto some ignorant persons opinion who think that castles stones woods hills and such like may hinder the penetration of this subtle and all-penetrating spirit The proof is made by these problematicall demonstrations Demonstrations confirming this Member's second Article 1 Problem Neither fire nor water nor earth can hinder the ingressive action or piercing vertue of the Load-stone upon the Iron being it is proved by experience that it sucketh and draweth it unto him quite through them as for example If a candle or flame of fire be interposed between the Load-stone and a small piece of wyer you shall find the piece of Iron will leap quite through the flame unto the Load-stone In like manner the Needle on his turn-pin will for all the interposition of a flame turn unto the Load-stone and that with the same celerity that it would do in the open aire So that you may see by this experiment that the coition of these magneticall bodies are not hindred by fire Also if water or earth be interposed between them it will do the like There is another Problem which expresseth the unresistable penetrative vertue of this more effectually in these terms 2 Problem Iron is allured onely by an immateriall act or an incorporeall process which doth operate and is conceived in an Iron subject as in a continuated homogeniall body and therefore it hath no need of large or wide passages And for this reason the Iron is moved and drawn by the Load-stone it self and again the Iron doth draw the Load-stone it self and a concourse or a meeting together in a unity is made by their beams although that thiâ—k bodies be interposed as sticklers between them So that you see that the putting or applying of thiâ—k subâ—tances between the Iron and the Load-stone cannot hinder the coition of spirits which is a token that the influentiall or formall spirit cannot be impedited in hiâ—â—otion And therefore â—his subtle spirit whiâ—h hath his beginning from the soul of the world is said by the wisest Philosopher Omnia permeare entia â—o pass or travers all things But yet more plainly 3 Problem The Load-stone without any frication or rubbing or being exsiccated by heat or perfused with moysture in the aire in the water doth provoke and allure unto it magneticall subjects and also solid as well-compacted bodies as thick boards or tables of stone or grosse plates of mettle as silver gold or brass being put between And Ridley saith That although such substances as be not magneticall be placed between the Needle and the Load-stone yet they cannot hinder the orbe and proceeding of the magnetick vigour As for example If a Load-stone should be placed in a box of wood stone tinne silver or brass yet the Loadstone will extend his magneticall orbe Application I conclude therefore by this typicall expression that the emissions of mans vitall spirits are so subtle and so piercing that no interposed bodies are able to hinder it in its motion to his pretended mark nor yet the magneticall blood in the oyntment being excited can be hindred in his concouâ—â—e oâ— union with the same southern â—r vivifying spirit and that especially because the formall spirits of the one is continued and homogeneal unto the other I proceed now unto the sixt Member of the foresaid Proposition The sixt Member of the Proposition with the Proofs Sixtly that after a Body be it Animal Vegetable or Mineral is made by a transplantation of another bodies spirits magneticall or a magnet unto that other body it doth by attracting of its beloved's spirits unto it impart unto them of that vertue and property which appertaineth unto it self insomuâ—h that as the lover doth participate with the nature of the beloved so also the beloved doth partake and share with the lover's condition especially if they be homogeneall in kind and reciprocall in affection Certain Problematicall Demonstrations to confirm this member of the fore-said Proposition 1 Problem Quodlibet corpus cui Mummia viva in alio homine propinatur illicò fit magnes Every body to whom the lively Mummy from a man is given or administred is forthwith made a Magnet Application This Problem is animal and not mineral but it inferreth that by the transplanting of mans bloody spirits into the oyntment the oyntment is forthwith become magneticall and attractive even as before I told you that the hair and nails being planted or grafted on the Oke make it forthwith by communicating of the spirits of the one with the spirits of the other attractive and magnetick 2 Problema Magneticum The Load-stone hath nothing neither can do any thing which the Iron being excited cannot do and that not onely by contact but at a reasonable distance Application Neither can the live man's spirit perform any action that the dead blood transplanted in the Salve by the Magneticall assistance of the Salve cannot perform yea verily it goeth yet further for it inspireth into the wound a Sanative influence 3. Problem Iron being touched doth recreate another Iron and instructeth it unto Magneticall motions so that it draweth unto it a third As for example The Load-stone being applied unto A it draweth unto it the piece of wier B and also after B it draweth C and after C it draweth D. Application The Iron B is compared unto the spirits that are first animated by the lively spirits in man and that animates the Oyntment's spirits which are of a Microcosmicall nature by reason of Uzneas volatil salt which is the receptacle of such vegetating and vivifying Spirits as give life unto man save onely they are of a Northern property and as it were dead These spirits in Oyntment are referred unto C which work and operate being so excited in D which importeth the emitted spirits of the wounded man so that we see that it is but one and the same continuated Spirit which putteth into action the three severall Subjects
not intrude into the science of the Simples venomous nature to do harm thereby but to discern the counter-poyson which should prevent the mischief thereof as the Scorpion cureth the Scorpions the Viper the Vipers harms Must every man that hath a sword needs kill or do a mischief with it May he not defend another from being killed or harmed So also it followeth not that he must therefore poyson his patient because he knoweth the poyson and the manner how to correct or amend his malice which hath deprived his patient of his health Except the poyson be known the Alexipharmicon or counter poyson will hardly be had If the Hermit of Aix of whom I have spoken before had not known the especiall antidote to cure those which he had poysoned and infected with the pestilence many of those which he afterwards cured would have died with the rest If there be devills incarnate whose dâ—light is to destroy as some men that wear swords delight in quarrelling and killing and othersome that know the good use of fire employ it naughtily as he did who destroyed with it Dâ—ana's temple of the Ephesians God forbid that such natural creatures as are fire iron and such like should be abandoned and not exercised in their right usage because they do harm when they are abused There are Saints as well as there are devills on the earth who being acquainted with the impious inventions and devices of these devills with their arch-master Satan are able to challenge and combat them at their own weapons Schollars learn of Aristotle the art of sophistry and fallacy not that they should deceive but that they should prevent deceipt and the honest and most skilfull and faithfull Physitian prieth into the mystery of the most spirituall poyson not with an intent to poyson or do any evill by it but that he may with the greater assurance and vigorous efficacy attempt the cure and take away the cause after it is known for the nature of the poyson being well understood the cure will be the more certain The venomous wound of the Viper as I have said is cured by the Theriacall antidote into whose composition the flesh of Vipers doth enter the oyle of Scorpions or the Scorpion of it self being bruised doth cure the sting of the Scorpion and that by a magneticall attraction of his like All which being so why should not the wise Physitian look into the nature of spirituall venoms as well as the spirituall counter-poysons that are in man When we find that the venom that woundeth is by reason of his homogeniety in nature the perfectest Magnet to suck and draw unto it his like If by the sound Mummy in man I can cure or take away the corruption or venom which his like nature hath accidentally imbibed is it not a fit and convenient thing to know the one as well as the other I must confess that there are fleshly devills upon earth I mean abhominable ministers and children of Satan who being abandoned unto their master and head commit as I have told you before many insolencies and trecherous straragems by the blood hair bones skin and corporall Mummy of mans body but above all the rest the wickedness of certain theeves hangmen and other of that Necromanticall faction is abhominable before God and man and worthy to be whipped out with iron or wiped away with fire out of every good Common-wealth which by their diabolicall sleights do make use of mans last breath in their expiration of life to serve for their wicked employment as spirits made obedient to their wills and so do disturb the quiet rest of the dying man's spirit Of which kind of wicked persons Paracelsus speaketh thus Per triplices hasce Mummias multa passim praestita confecta sunt ab iis cumprimis qui illas ipsimet preparârunt ut sunt carnifices lictores latrones c. qui non solum vitam hominibus ademerunâ— jugulatos ipsos Mummiam fecerunt sed etiam jugulatorum spiritum quem spiritum hominis vocaverunt exceperunt illumque sibi in extremo mortis momento subjecerunt seu subjugaverunt ac variis impositis oneribus exagitârunt Hinc ars enata est Necromantiae taliter ab ipsis vocatae Vae autem huic arti ac illis universis qui tam faede illâ— abutuntur Nâ—cromantia quidem ipsa est sed diaboli seu à diabolo instillaâ—a docta tradita ac ab ipsius instrumentis seu mancipâ—is in abusum tam grandem conversa sunt enim illi homines nocentissimi quibus praestaret lapidem molarem de collo suspendi ac ita in profundum maâ—e eâ—ici By these three kinds of Mummies there are many things done and effected and that especially by such as have prepared them as are the hangmen the sâ—rgeants and thieves c. who do not onely bereave men of their lives but also they have received the spirit of those whose throats they have cut or strangled and do make them subject or do subjugate it unto them From hence springeth the art of Necromancy so termed by them Fie upon this art and upon all such as are so filthily abused by it Verily it is Necromancy but of the devill or it is instilled taught and delivered by the devill and is by his instruments or slaves converted into so great an abuse for these are wicked harmful persons about whose neck it were better that a milstone were hanged that they were with it cast into the bottom of the sea I am advertised that the hangmen of Germany are commonly artists in this devillish kind of trade and by it can do wonders the more is the pitty that they are suffered Thus therefore each man may discern a manifest difference between the true use and the abhominable abuse of a good thing and how as I said before there are devills incarnate as well as Saints or good and pious men upon the earth whereof some do use Gods creatures to the benefit of man and others unto his ruine and destruction And consequently that it is lawfull for a Physitian to be conversant in both extreams though his onely practise ought to be imployed in doing good I will now descend unto my subject CHAP. III. How Sympathy may by accident or disorder be changed into Antipathy Here also certain magnetâ—call Demonstrations convenient to prove each Proposition concerning this subject are expressed I Purpose in this Chapter which toucheth the effects of Antipathy to proceed after the self-same method which I observed in my precedâ—nt discourse of Sympathy and therefore in the first place I will propose unto you certain grounds which I for that reason call Propositions and then afterward I will demonstratively maintain them many waies 1 Proposition As by sympathy in naturall spirits each member may be corroborated and fortified so by their antipathy members may be debilitated corrupted and infected An experimentall Example or Demonstration If the spirituall Mummy extracted out
omnium As thou knowest not which is the way that the spirit moveth and how the bones are shaped and made in the mothers womb so art thou ignorant in the works of the Lord who hath made and framed all things c. Whereby it is manifest that the Spirit of God operateth in the sperm as wel before the emission of the seed into the womb as afterwards This also is plainly expressed by these words of Job Nonne sicut lac fudisti me tanquam caseum coagulasti me cuâ—e carne induâ—sti me ossibus nervis compegisti me cum vita benignitatem exercuâ—stiergame at visitatio tua praeservavit spiritum meum at ista recondisti in animo tuo Novi haec apud te esse Didst thou not poure me out like milk and didst thou not curdle me like a cheese Thou didst indue me with skin and flesh and compacted or joyned me together with bones and sinews Thou didst exercise thy benignity towards me in giving me life and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit And yet hast thou kept this secret in thy heart I know well that this is so with thee In all which this difficult point appeareth to be fully deciphered and opened as well touching the act of generation as in regard of the foresaid mystery in the preservation and continuation of the life of the Infant as well in his mothers womb as after the birth thereof For in this member Sicut lac fudisti me he seemeth to argue that the spermatick masse was well disposed and composed by the spirit of life of the which a man was afterward explicitely delineated and framed Then goeth he forwards to the second degree in generation Tanquam caseum coagulastime by which it appeareth that the divine Spirit did thicken the seed into a more solid substance like cheese according unto that other saying of Job Memento quaeso quod sicut argillam fecisti me c. Remember that thou maiest me as clay c. Then he proceedeth thus Cute carne induisti me ossibusque nervis compegisti me c. And now in this degree he commeth after the coagulation of the spermatick masse unto the complement of the particular human parts or members of the which the externall man is made in the womb as the spirituall image of the son was in the arteriall seed of the father before it was cast into the womb By all which it appeareth that the divine Spirit did operate all this outward man in his own person and then to the vivification of that externall man so shaped out of the elementary seed he proceedeth thus Cum vita benignitatem exercuisti erga me shewing by this that the corporall work being effected and made fit to lodge so noble and emperial a guest as is the divine mentall beam namely of the builder of it riding in a mundane vehicle the lordly guest doth immediately possesse it and make it live and move and feel according unto that of the Apostle In him we live move and have our beeing To conclude after that Adam was by God shaped out of a lump of earth he breathed into it the spiracle of life and that masse was made a living creature agreeing with the forementioned place of Job saying The Spirit of the Lord made me and the breath of the Almighty did vivifie me that is the Spirit of God made both the externall and internall Neither was that spiracle of life destitute of understanding that is to say without the reall beam of eternity for it is said else-where In homine est spiritus sed in spiratio Omnipotentis facit eum intelligere In man is a spirit but it is the inspiration of the Almighty which maketh him to understand And for this reason also is man-rightly said in Scripture to be framed after the image of God Was not the excellent artifice of this eternal Spirit wel expressed by Ezekiel after it came from the four winds and breathed upon the slain Eccâ— saith the Lord unto the dead bones ego intromittam in vos spiritum ut vivatis dabo super vos nervos succrescere faciam supra vos carnes extendam in vos cutem dabo vobis spiritum vivetis Et dixit propheta ex manâ—aâ—o Dei A quatuor ventis veni spiritus insuffla super interfectos istos ut reviviscant ingressus est in eos spiritus revixerunt Behold I will put into you a spirit and you shall live and I will put on you sinewes and I will make slesh to grow on you and I will cover and extend on you a skin and I will give you a spirit and you shall live And the prophet said according as God commanded him Come O spirit from the four winds and breath upon these slain persons that they may live again And the spirit entred into them and hey lived again c. By the which file of speech we may gather first That it was the divine vertue which fashioned out the externall man before it had a living spirit and then afterward that the spirit of life was breathed into the externall man from the catholick spirit of life in the great world for he said Come O spirit from the four winds And again that the world hath a catholick spirit by which it liveth for the four winds had their breath and life from this one spirit by the which the universall sublunary element seemeth to live and is changed from one complexion unto another and doth most lively operate diversity of effects in the compound creatures of this lower region of the world for experience doth teach us that the common aire is of an earthly nature when the North winds bloweth and of a cholerick when the East wind hath dominion c. Now touching the manner of the shaping out of the specifick individuall it may be demanded why this catholick vivifying spirit of the world being but one doth bring forth every fruit or birth according unto his kinde and not all one I told you before that each specifick creature was radically created in his kinde distinct and different from one another according to the will of the Creator and was by the same spirit maintained and multiplyed evermore reserving the shape of the species or kinds which was allotted him in his creation and it should seem that God appointed as it were a certain secret mold to fashion out the potentiall creature before it came to act And for the better understanding hereof we must know that there are four spermatick preparing vessells namely two and two on a side whereof the one is a venall vessell and it issueth out of the vena cava and from hence commeth the bodily sperm made of the refined subject of the four elements of the body and is therefore the principle or root of the Infants externall or body and it is visible and is called Sperma And the other is an
arteriall vessell and this is the well-spring of the inward man for it is the invisible fire of life and it is called Semen which when the mixtion of both is made doth dwell no otherwise centrally in the visible sperm then mans soul doth in the body We must observe therefore that as there are two vessells on a side the one spirituall the other elementall so these two in their descent towards the resticles do make by their subtle implication of the one with the other that admirable and pleasant web or plex to behold which the Greeks do call Anaâ—tomosis the which embracing and secret weaving together of insensible parts is effected by the artifice of that great builder not onely as the Anatomists do think because that the red and bloody seed may be made white but first that it might divide the spermatick substance in the venall vessells and seminall substance in the arteriall from the bloody masse as well naturall which â—loweth from the liver as vitall which springeth from the heart And then that by this Dedalian labyrinth the seminall form being the microcosmicall heaven may aptly and according unto the specifick creatures true similitude be mingled together no otherwise then we observe the form of a thing to be by a naturall mixtion perfused and spread over all his elementary substance And without all doubt the fabrick of this Plexus or Anastomosis is such as is the impression of some notable Seal the which in a Man is Manlike in a Lion is like a Lion in an Eagle is after the shape of an Eagle and so according unto this impression which is occult and scarâ—ely discerned by imagination the sperm is formed after the manner of clay and is moistned with this seminary nature as with water and by the vertue of that divine spirit which dwelleth secretly in it is made a living creature in the womb These two natures therefore are so tempeâ—ed together according unâ—o the law of this vivifying nature and the semen or invisible spirit of the aire is so agitated and moved by the divine nature which moveth in that spirit no otherwise then the aire is with the spirit of the blower that the bodily visible sperm is shaped out after the image of his created species or kind even as we see a Mole to make and frame out it self a house or dwelling place under the earth And this is the work of the secret spirit after that this compounded and well mixed substance is cast into the womb To conclude all that we have spoken touching this animal subâ—ect may easily also be averred and that without any offence of the vegetable kingdom for the whole plant or tree did yet lie hid complicitely in the seed or kernell and by the same reason is explicitely brought to ligâ—t by the operation of the hid and secret spirit of light and life which is in it But I have ranged too far from my mark and that in a subject I fear which will prove offensive unto such as will not radically consider these things as they are indeed but after their sense and the wisdom of the world I will therefore now approach unto the main point of our Discourse since that I have thus largely expressed unto you the two principal and radicall pillars of Sympathy and Antipathy namely light and darkness or form and matter being that all love and therefore Sympathy proceedeth from light as contrariwise all hatred and consequently Antipathy must needs spring and arise from darkness whose first-born child was Litigium or Discord The Second BOOK Wherein those mysticall Irradiations which spring occultly from the two foresaid opposite Principles Light and Darknesse with their Sympatheticall and Antipatheticall effects as also the reason of each living or concupiscible Attraction of like natures and odious and irascible Expulsion in things of a contrary spirit are detected and opened The Argument of this Second Book THe Author having by diligent enquiry found out the essentiall root of Sympathy and Antipathy as is already expressed in the first Book where he proveth it to be but one catholick or universall simplicity in essence though of a two-fold property quite opposite unto one or other in nature and condition no otherwise than Volunty is unto Nolunty He thought it not sufficient to gather by circumstances and conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely that it is so And therefore in this present Book he attempteth with the tightest and highest stretched nerves of his understanding to enquire and search out the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit why wherefore and by what means this double act is disseminated in the Universe Indeed he finds this last branch so difficult to be found out by mortall capacities that he esteemeth it no small master-piece in this his research and for this reason is contented to be directed or guided into this difficult path of so profound a speculation by the light or Pole-star of such sublime and rectified both Theologicall and Cabalisticall spirits as have received the enucleation of so great a doubt from that highest spirituall emanation who is the onely revealer of deep and arcaâ—e mysteries as the Prophet Daniel and the wise Solomon doth assure us who forasmuch as 〈…〉 â—ssentiall Actor both in Sympathy and Antipathy is most able to describ◠〈…〉 â—orth this doubt which men so earnestly hunt after in her liveliest coloâ—rs By the observation therefore of the rules and axioms as well of the holy Scriptures as learned Hebrew and Aegyptian Rabbies he hath gathered That the eternall or divine and archetypicall world which hath neither beginning nor end doth radically spring from one simple and catholick fountain of Light and doth effuse a decuple emanation endued with a ten-fold property into the Aeviall or Angelicall world which hath its beginning from the eternall one but no end And the aeviall world doth in like manner pour out these divine effluxions or emanations of light by angelicall vehicles into the temporall world which hath both a beginning and an end So that the etheriall or celestiall region of the temperall world is made the store house or treasury of the divine influences from whence they are more or lesse according unto the will of him who sendeth them out distilled down into the elementary world to effect his command or pleasure either for the good or welfare or harm and dammage of the elementary creature By this degradation therefore he perceived that God sent out one essentiall emanation by his word of a multiform and sundry condition that things might vary and differ in this world from one another and that the variety of properties in the manifold emanation or flowing forth of the divine vertue establisheth an angelicall creature or spirituall organ of a differing act whereby and in the which it doth operate centrally by a diverse nature And consequently he finds it evident that being in the divine emanations there are properties of a contrary fortitude it must needs