something Intelligible which it behooves thee to understand with the flower of the Mind For if thou enclinest thy Mind thou shalt understand this also Yet understanding something of it thou shalt not understand this wholly for it is a Power Of Circumlucid Strength glittering with Intellectual Sections Raies But it behooves not to consider this Intelligible with Vehemence of Intellection But with the ample flame of the ample Mind which measureth all things Except this Intelligible but it behooves to understand this For if thou enclinest thy Mind thou shalt understand this also Not fixedly but having a pure turning Eye thou must Extend the empty Mind of thy Soul towards the Intelligible That thou mayst learn the Intelligible for it exists beyond the Mind But every Mind understands this God for the Mind is not Without the Intelligible neither is the Intelligible without the Mind To the Intellectual Presters of the Intellectual fire all things By yielding are subservient to the perswasive Counsel of the Father And to understand and alwayes to remain in a restlesse Whirling Fountains and Principles to turn and alwayes to remain in a restlesse Whirling But insinuating into Worlds the Venerable Name in a sleeplesse Whirling By reason of the terrible menace of the Father Under two Minds the Life-generating fountain of Souls is contained And the Maker who self-operating framed the World Who sprung first out of the Mind Cloathing fire with fire binding them together to mingle The fountainous Craters preserves the flower of his own fire He glittereth with Intellectual Sections and filled all things with Love Like swarms they are carried being broken About the Bodies of the World That things unfashioned may be fashioned What the Mind speaks it speaks by understanding Power is with them Mind is from Her JYNGES IDAEA'S PRINCIPLES THese being many ascend into the lucid Worlds Springing into them and in which there are three Tops Beneath them lies the chief of Immaterialls Principles which have understood the intelligible Works of the Father Disclosed them in sensible Works as in Bodies Being as it were the Ferry-men betwixt the Father and Matter And producing manifest Images of unmanifest things And inscribing unmanifest things in the manifest frame of the World The Mind of the Father made a jarring Noise understanding by Vigorous Counsel Omniform Idaea's and flying out of one fountain They sprung forth for from the Father was the Counsel and End By which they are connected to the Father by alternate Life from several Vehicles But they were divided being by intellectual fire distributed Into other Intellectuals for the King did set before the multiform World An Intellectual incorruptible Pattern this Print through the World he promoting of whose form According to which the World appeared Beautified with all kind of Idaea's of which there is one fountain Out of which come rushing forth others undistributed Being broken about the Bodies of the World which through the vast Recesses Like swarms are carried round about every Way Intellectual Notions from the paternal fountain cropping the flower of fire In the Point of sleeplesse time of this primigenious Idea The first self-budding fountain of the Father budded Intelligent Jynges do themselves also understand from the father By unspeakable Councels being moved so as to understand HECATE SYNOCHES TELETARCHS FOr out of Him spring all Implacable Thunders and the Prester-receiving cavities Of the Intirely-lucid strength of Father-begotten Hecate And He who beguirds viz. the flower of fire and the strong Spirit of the Poles fiery above He gave to his Presters that they should guard the Tops Mingling the power of his own strength in the Synoches Oh how the World hath Intellectual guides inflexible Because she is the Operatrix because she is the Dispensatrix of Life-giving fire Because also it fills the Life producing bosome of Hecate And instills in the Synoches the enliving strength Of potent fire But they are Gardians of the Works of the Father For he disguises himself possessing To be cloathed with the Print of the Images The Teletarchs are comprehended with the Synoches To these Intellectual Presters of Intellectual fire All things are subservient But as many as serve the Material Synoches Having put on the compleatly-armed Vigour of resounding Light With triple strength fortifying the Soul and the Mind To put into the Mind the Symbol of Variety And not to walk dispersedly on the Empyraeal Channels But stiffely These frame indivisibles and sensibles And Corporiformes and things destin'd to matter SOUL NATURE FOr the Soule being a bright fire by the power of the Father Remaines Immortall and is Mistris of Life And possesseth many Complections of the Cavities of the World For it is in Imitation of the Mind but that which is born hath something of the Body The Channels being intermix'd she performs the Works of incorruptible Fire Next the paternal Conceptions I the Soul dwell Warm heating all things for he did put The Mind in the Soul the Soul in the dull Body Of us the Father of Gods and Men imposed Abundantly animating Light Fire Aether Worlds For natural Works co-exist with the Intellectual Light of the Father for the Soul which adorn'd the great Heaven and adorning with the Father But her Horns are fixed above But about the shoulders of the Goddesse immense Nature is exalted Again indefatigable Nature commands the Worlds and Works That Heaven drawing an Eternal Course may run And the swift Sun might come about the Center as he useth Look not into the fatal Name of this Nature THE WORLD THe Maker who Operating by himself framed the World And there was another Bulk of fire By it self operating all things that the Body of the World might be perfected That the World might be manifest and not seem Membranous The whole World of Fire and Water and Earth And all-nourishing Aether The unexpressible and expressible Watch-words of the World One Life by another from the distributed Channels Passing from above to the opposite Part Through the Center of the Earth and another fifth Middle Fiery Channel where it descends to the material Channels Life-bringing fire Stirring himself up with the goad of resounding Light Another fountainous which guides the Empyraeal World The Center from which all Lines which way soever are equal For the paternal Mind sowed Symbols through the World For the Center of every one is carried betwixt the Fathers For it is in Imitation of the Mind but that which is born hath something of the Body HEAVEN FOr the Father congregated seven Firmaments of the World Circumscribing Heaven in a round figure He fixed a great Company of inerratick Stars And he constituted a Septenary of erratick Animals Placing Earth in the middle and the Water in the middle of the Earth The Air above these He fixed a great Company of inerratick Stars To be carried not by laborious and troublesome Tension But by a settlement which hath not Error He fixed a great Company of inerratick Stars
accompt of Suidas therefore falls on the 3030. that of Xanthus on the 3634. of the Julian Period The latest of these seemeth to me most Historical and agreeable to Truth Of his Birth Life and Death there is little to be found and even that uncertain whether appliable to him or to the Persian Plato styles Zoroaster the Son of Oromases but Oromases as Plutarch and others shew was a Name given to God by Zoroaster the Persian and his Followers whence I conceive that Plato is to be understood of the Persian Zoroaster who perhaps in regard of his extraordinary knowledge was either Allegorically styled or fabulously reported to be the â—on of God or of some good Genius as Pythagoras Plato and many other Excellent Persons were Pliny reports that Zoroaster not particularizing which of them laughed the same day he was Born and that his brain did beat so hard that it heaved up the hand laid upon it a presage of his future science and that he lived in the Deserts twenty years upon Cheese so tempered as that it became not old â—he Assyrian Zoroaster saith Suidas pray'd he might dye by fire from Heaven and advised the Assyrians to preserve his ashes assuring that as long as they kept them their Kingdome should never fail but Cedrenus attributes the same to the Perâ—â—an Of Writings attributed to him are mentioned Verses two millions upon which Hermippus wrote a Comment and added â—ables to them Oracles perhaps part of the foresaid Verses upon these Syrianus wrote a Comment in twelve Books Of Agriculture or Mechanicks Pliny alledgeth a rule for sowing and the Author of the Geoponicks many Experiments under his Name but this was either spurious or written by some other Zoroaster Revelations supposititious also forged as Porphyrius professeth by some Gnosticks To these adde cited by the Arabians a Treatise of Magick and another of Dreams and their Interpretation cited by Gelaldin frequently Inventions doubtlesse of latter times Some ascribe the Treatises of the Persian Zoroaster to the Chaldaean but of those hereafter CHAP. IV. Of Belus another reputed Inventor of Sciences amongst the Chaldaeans SOme there are who ascribe the Invention of Astronomy to Belus of which Name there were two Persons one a Tyrian the other an Assyrian who reigned in Babylonia next after the Arabians about the 2682. year of the World according to the accompt of Africanus for whose Inventions the Babylonians honoured him as a God There is yet standing saâ—th Pliny the Temple of Iupiter Belus he was the Inventor of the science of the Stars and Diodorus speaking of the Aegyptians They affirm that afterwards many Colonies went out of Aegypt and were dispersed over the Earth and that Belus reputed to be Son of Neptune and Lybia carried one to Babylon and making choice of the River Euphrates to settle it instituted Priests after the manner of those in Aegypt exempt from all publique Charges and Duties which the Babylonians call Chaldaeans these observed the Staâ—s imitating the Aegyptian Priests Naturalists and Astrologers Thus Diodorus But that Belus was son of Neptune and Lybia is nothing but Greek Mythologie that he brought a Colony out of Aegypt into Babylon is fabulous For the Aegyptians had not any Correspondence with forreigners for a long time after But to confirm that he was skilful in those Sciences Aelian gives this Relatâ—on Xerxes son of Darius breaking up the Monument of antient Belus found an Urn of Glass in which his dead Body lay in Oyle but the Urn was not full it wanted a hand-â—readth of the Topp next the Urn there was a little Pillar on which it was written â—hat whosoever should open the Sepulcher and did not fill up the Urn should have ill fortune Which Xerxes reading grew afraid and commanded that they should powre Oyl into it with all speed notwithstanding it was not filled Then he commanded to powre into it the second time but neither did it increase at all thereby So that at last failing of success he gave over and shutting up the Monument departed very sad Nor did the Event foretold by the Pillar deceive him for he led an Army of 50 Myriads against Greece where he received a great defeat and returning home died miserably being murthered by his own Son in the Night-time a-bed To this Belus Semiramis his Daughter erected a Temple in the middle of Babylon which was exceeding high and by the help thereof the Chaldaeans who addicted themselves there to Contemplation of the Stars did exactly observe their risings and settings CHAP. V. Other Chaldaean Philosophers FRom Zoroaster were derived the Chaldaean Magi and Philosophers his Disciples amongst whom Pliny mentions one Azonaces Master of Zoroaster which doubtless must have been meant of some later Zoroaster there being many of that name as we shewed formerly By the same Author are mentioned of the antient Magi Marmaridius a Babylonian and Zarmocenidas an Assyrian of whom nothing is left but their names no monuments extant of them To these add Zoromasdres a Chaldaean Philosopher who wrote Mathematicks and Physicks and Teucer a Babylonian an ancient Author who wrote concerning the Decanates The Mathematicians also saith Strabo mention some of these as Cidenas and Naburianus and Sudinus and Seleucus of Seleucia a Chaldaean and many other eminent persons CHAP. VI. Of Berosus who first introduced the Chaldaick Learning into Greece AFter these flourished Berosus or as the Greeks call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which name some interpret the Son of Oseas for as is manifest from Elias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Chaldees is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Syraicâ— whence Bar-ptolemaeus as if the Son of Ptolemy Bar-timaeus and the like Gorionides and other Rabbins call him Bar-Hosea The Arabians Barasa so Abenephi and others Barthius saith that there are some who assert him contemporary with Moses which opinion justly he condemns as ridiculous Claudius Verderius in his Censure upon the Annian Berosus affirms he lived a litle before the reign of Alexander the Great upon what authority I know not That he lived in the time of Alexander we find in the Oration of Tatian against the Gentiles but the same Tatian adds he dedicated his History to that Antiochus who was the third from Alexander But neither is this reading unquestionable for Eusebius cites the same place of Tatian thus Berosus the Babylonian Priest of Belus at Babylon who lived in the time of Alexander and dedicated to Antiochus the third after Seuleucus a History of the Chaldaeans in three Books and relates the actions of their Kings mentions one of them named Nabuchodonosor c. Here we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in the Text of Tatian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after Alexander And indeed this reading seems most consonant to the story The next to Alexander was Seleucus Nicator the next to him Antiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third
fountain of Sense and fountainous Iudgment and the fountain of Perspectives and the fountain of Characters which walketh on unknown Marks and the fountainous Tops of Apollo Osyris Hermes they assert material fountains of Centers and Elements and a Zone of Dreams and a fountainous Soul Next the fountains saith Psellus are the Hyperarchii The Anonymus more fully Next the fountains they say are the Principalities for the fountains are more principle then the principles Both these names of Fountains and Principles are used by Dionysius Areopagita frequently even in the third Triad he puts the name of Principles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Principalities after whom the Arch-angels Of the Animal-productive Principles continues the Anonymus the top is called Hecate the middle principiative Soul the bottom princiative Virtue This seems to be that Hecate whom Psellus saith they held to be the fountain of Angels and of Daemons and of Souls and of Natures The same which the Oracle means saying On the left side of Hecate is the fountain of virtue for the Chaldaeans as Psellus saith esteem Hecate a Goddesse seated in the middle rank and possessing as it were the Center of all the Powers in her right parts they place the fountain of Souls in her left the fountain of goods or of Virtues Moreover they say the fountain of Souls is prompt to propagations but the fountain of Virtues continueth within the bounds of its own Essence and is as a Virgin incorrupted which setlednesse and immobility it receives from the power of the Amilicti and is guirt with a Virgin Zone What Psellus here calls the fountain of Souls and the fountain of Virtues is the same which the Anonymus styles principiative Soul and principiative Virtue CHAP. VIII Unzoned Gods and Zoned Gods NExt the Hyperarchii according to Psellus are the Azoni Unzoned Gods there are amongst them saith the Anonymus summarist unzoned Hecates as the Chaldaick the Triecdotis Comas and Ecclustick The unzoned Gods are Sarapis and Bacchus and the Chain of Osyris and of Apollo continued series of Geniusses connected in the manner of a chain they are called unzoned for that they use their power freely without restriction in the Zones and are enthroned above the conspicuous Deities These conspicuous Deities are the Heavens and the Planets perhaps of the same kind as the Intelligences which the Peripateticks asserted Movers of the Sphears and whereas he saith they live in Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the same Attribute which Dionysius gives the third of the second Hierarchy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Zoned Gods are next These are they which have confinement to particular Zones and are rouled freely about the Zones of Heaven and have the Office of governing the World for they hold there is a Zoned kind of Deity which inhabits the parts of the sensible World and guirdeth or circleth the Regions about the material Place acccording to several distributions The same Office Dionysius seems to assigne to the second and third Hierarchies These Azoni and Zonaei are mentioned also by Damascius Thiâ— saith he sendeth out of her self the fountain of all things and the fountainous chain but That sendeth out of her self the fountainous chain of particulars and passeth on to Principles and Arch-angels and Azoni and Zonaei as the Law is of the procession of the renownd particular Fountains And by Proclus The sacred names of the Gods delivered according to their mystical interpretation as those which are celebrated by the Assyrians Zonaei and Azoni and Fountains and Amilicti and Synoches by which they interpret the Orders of the Gods CHAP. IX Angels and Immaterial Daemons NExt the Zonaei are the Angels Arnobius saith of Hosthanes one of the Persian Magi who received their Learning from the Chaldaeans that he knew the Angels Ministers and Messengers of God the true God did wait on his Majesty and tremble as afraid at the Beck and Countenance of the Lord the Zoroastrian Oracles mention reductive Angels which reduce Souls to them drawing them from several things The next are Daemons Of these the Chaldaeans hold some to be good others bad The good they conceive to bâ— Light the bad Darknesse That there are good Daemons natural reason tells us Oracle Nature perswades that there are pure Daemons The bourgeons even of ill matter are beneficial and good Nature or natural reason saith Pletho perswades that the Daemons are holy and that all things proceeding from God who is good in himself are beneficial if the bloomings of ill matter viz. of last substances are good much more are the Daemons such who are in a more excellent rank as partaking of Rational nature and being mixed with Mortal nature CHAP. X. Souls NExt to Daemons Psellus in his Epitome of the Chaldaick Doctrine placeth Souls the last of eviternal beings Of Forms the Magi and from them the Pythagoreans and Platonists assert three kinds One wholly separate from matter the supercelâ—stial Intelligences An other inseparable from matter having a substance not subsisting by it self but dependent on matter together with which matter which is sometimes dissolved by reason of it's nature subject to mutation this kind of Soul is dissolved also and perisheth This they hold to be wholly Irrational Betwixt these they place a middle kind a Rational Soul differing from the Supercelestial Intelligences for that it alwayes coexists with matter and from the Irrational kind for that it is not dependent on matter but on the contrary matter is dependent on it and it hath a proper substance potentially subsistent by it self It is also indivisible as well as the Supercelestial Intelligences performing some works in some manner ally'd to theirs being it self also busied in the knowledge and contemplation of Beings even unto the supreme God and for this reason is Incorruptible This Soul is an Immaterial and Incorporeal Fire exempt from all compounds and from the material body it is consequently Immortal for nothing material or dark is commixed with her neither is she compounded so as that she may be resolved into those things of which she consists This Soul hath a self-generate and self-animate essence for it is not moved by another for if according to the Oracle it is a portion of the Divine fire and a Lucid fire and Paternal notion is is an immaterial and self-subsistent form for such is every Divine Nature and the Soul is part thereof Of humane Souls they allege two fountainous causes the Paternal Mind and the Fountainous Soul the particular Soul according to them proceeds from the Fountainous by the will of the Father Now whereas there are several mansions one wholly bright another wholly dark others betwixt both partly brâ—ght partly dark the place beneath the Moon is circumnebulous daâ—k on every side the Lunary partly lucid and partly dark one half bright the other dark the place above the Moon circumlucid or
Forcing fire to fire To be carried by a Settlement which hath not Error He constituted them six casting into the midd'st The fire of the Sun Suspending their Disorder in well-ordered Lones For the Goddesse brings forth the great Sun and the bright Moon O Aether Son Spirit Guides of the Moon and of the Air And of the solar Circles and of the Monethly clashings And of the Aerial Recesses The Melody of the Aether and of the Passages of the Sun and Moon and of the Air And the wide Air and the Lunar Course and the Pole of the Sun Collecting it and receiving the Melody of the Aether And of the Sun and of the Moon and of all that are contained in the Air. Fire the Derivation of fire and the Dispenser of fire His Hair pointed is seen by his native Light Hence comes Saturn The Sun Assessor beholding the pure Pole And the Aetherial Course and the vast Motion of the Moon And the Aerial fluxions And the great Sun and the bright Moon TIME THe Mundane God Aeternal Infinite Young and Old of a Spiral form And another fountainous who guides the Empyraeal Heaven SOUL BODY MAN IT behooves thee to hasten to the light and to the beams of the Father From whence was sent to Thee a Soul cloathed with much Mind These things the Father conceived and so the mortal was animated For the paternal mind sowed Symbols in souls Replenishing the Soul with profound Love For the Father of Gods and Men placed the Mind in the Soul And in the Body he established You. For all Divine things are Incorporeal But bodies are bound in them for your sakes Incorporeals not being able to contain the bodies By reason of the Corporeal Nature in which you are concentrated And they are in God attracting strong flames Descending from the Father from which descending the Soul Crops of Empyreal fruits the soul-nourishing flower And therefore conceiving the Words of the Father They avoid the audacious wing of fatal Destiny And though you see this Soul manumitted Yet the Father sends another to make up the Number Certainly these are superlatively blessed above all Souls they are sent forth from Heaven to Earth And those rich Souls which have unexpressible fates As many of them O King as proceed from shining Thee or from Jove Himself under the strong power of his thread Let the Immortal Depth of thy Soul be predominant but all thy eyes Extend upward Stoop not down to the dark World Beneath which continually lies a faithlesse Depth and Hades Dark all over squallid delighting in Images unintelligible Praecipitious Craggy a Depth alwayes Rolling Alwayes espousing an Opacous idle breathlesse Body And the Light-hating World and the winding currents By which many things are swallowed up Seek Paradise Seek thou the way of the Soul whence or by what Order Having served the Body to the same place from which thou didst flow Thou mayst rise up again joyâ—ing Action to sacred speech Stoop not down for a precipice lies below on the Earth Drawing through the Ladder which hath seven steps beneath which Is the Throne of Necessity Enlarge not thou thy Destiny The soul of Men will in a manner clasp God to her self Having nothing mortal she is wholly inebriated from God For she boasts Harmony in which the mortal Body exists If thou extend the fiery Mind To the work of piety thou shalt preserve the fluxible body There is a room for the Image also in the Circumlucid place Every way to the unfashioned Soul stretch the rains of fire The fire-glowing Cogitation hath the first rank For the Mortal approaching to the fire shall have Light from God For to the slow Mortal the Gods are swift The Furies are stranglers of Men. The bourgeons even of ill matter are profitable and good Let hope nourish thee in the fiery Angelical Region But the paternal Mind accepts not her will Untill she go out of Oblivion and pronounce a Word Inserting the remembrance of the pure paternal Symbol To these he gave the docible Character of Life to be comprehended Those that were asleep he made fruitful by his own strength Defile not the Spirit nor deepen a Superficies Leave not the Drosse of matter on a Praecipice Bring her not forth lest going forth she have something The souls of those who quit the Body violently are most pure The unguirders of the Soul which give her breathing are easie to be loosed In the side of sinister Hecate there is a fountain of Virtue Which remains entire within not omitting her Virginity O Man the machine of boldest Nature Subject not to thy Mind the vast measures of the Earth For the plant of Truth is not upon Earth Nor measure the Measures of the Sun gathering together Canons He is moved by the Eternal Will of the Father not for thy sake Let alone the swift course of the Moon she runs ever by the impulse of Necessity The Progression of the Stars was not brought forth for thy sake The aetherial wide flight of Birds is not veracious And the Dissections of Entrails and Victims all these are toyes The supports of gainfull cheats fly thou these If thou intend to open the sacred Paradise of Piety Where Virtue Wisdome and Aequity are assembled For thy Vessel the Beasts of the Earth shall inhabit These the Earth bewails even to their Children DAEMONS RITES NAture perswades that there are pure Daemons The bourgeons even of ill matter are profitable and good But these things I revolve in the recluse Temples of my mind Extending the like fire sparklingly into the spacious Air Or fire unfigured a voice issuing forth Or fire abundant whizzing and winding about the Earth But also to see a Horse more glittering than Light Or a Boy on thy shoulders riding on a Horse Fiery or adorned with Gold or devested Or shooting and standing on thy shoulders If thou speak often to me thou shalt see absolutely that which is spoken For then neither appears the Coelestial concave Bulk Nor do the Stars shine the Light of the Moon is cover'd The Earth stands not still but all things appear Thunder Invoke not the self-conspicuous Image of Nature For thou must not behold these before thy Body be initiated When soothing souls they alwayes seduce them from these Mysteries Certainly out of the cavities of the Earth spring Terrestrial Dogs Which show no true signe to mortal Man Labour about the Hecatick Strophalus Never change barbarous Names For there are Names in every Nation given from God Which have an unspeakable power in Rites When thou seest a sacred fire without form Shining flashingly through the Depths of the World Hear the voice of Fire PLETHO HIS EXPOSITION Of the more obscure passages in these Oracles Seek thou the way of the Soul whence or by what Order Having served the body to the same order from which thou didst flow Thou mayst rise up againe joyning action to sacred speech THe Magi that are followers of
replenished with the more excellent Life and Illumination and exists as it were out of herself then the Oracle saith to her boast of Harmony that is Glory in the obscure and intelligible Harmony by which thou art tied together in Arithmetical and Musical Proportions for under this intelligible Harmony even the mortal and compounded Body is composed having it's compositions derived from thence Let the immortal depth of the Soul be predominant but all thy Eyes Extend upward The depth of the Soul is her threefold powers the intellectual the intelligent the opiniative Her Eyes are the threefold cognoscitive operations of these for the Eye is the Symbol of Knowledg as Life is of Appetite Open therefore saith he the immortal Depth of the Soul and extend thy cognoscitive Powers upwards and even thy own self to use our own Expression transfer to the Lord. Defile not the Spirit nor deep not a Superficies The Chaldaeans cloath the Soul with two Garments one they call Spiritual woven for it by the sensible World the other Luciform tenuious and intangible which is here termed Superficies Defile not saith he the spiritual Garment of thy Soul with impurity neither cause it 's Superficies to grow deep by certain material Additions but preserve both in their own Natures one pure the other undipt Seek Paradise The Chaldaick Paradise is the whole Chorus of Divine powers about the Father and the fiery Beauties of the creative fountains The opening thereof by piety is the Participation of the Goods The flaming Sword is the implacable power which withsâ—ands those that approach it unworthily to such persons it is shut for they are not capable of it's felicity To the Pious it is open to this place tend all the Theurgick Vertues This Vessel the Beasts of the Earth shall inhabit The Vessel is the compounded mixture of the Soul the Beasts of the Earth are the Daemons which rove about the Earth our life therefore being ful of passions shall be inhabited by such Beaâ—s for such kinds are essentiated in passions and have a material Seat and Order Wherefore such as are addicted to passions are glued to them by assimulation for they attract what is like them having a motive-faculty from the passions If thou extend the fiery mind to the work of Piety Thou shalt preserve the fluxible Body That is If thou extend thy illuminated Mind upwards and the Work of fire to the Works of Piety the Works of Piety with the Chaldaeans are the Methods of rites thou shalt not only render the Soul unvanquishable by Passions but shalt also preserve thy Body â—he more healthfull for this Ordinarily is the effect of Divine illuminations viz. to consume the matter of the Body and to esâ—ablish health that it be not seized either by passion or diseases Certainly out of the cavities of the Earth spring terrestrial Dogs Which shew no true signe to mortal Man The speech is of material Daemons These he calls Dogs for that they are Executioners of souls Terrestrial for that they fall from Heaven and are rolled about the Earth These saith he being removed far from the Beatitude of Divine Life and destitute of Intellectual Contemplation cannot praesignifie Futures whence all that they say or show is false and not solid for they know Beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their Out-sides but that which knoweth figures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particularly useth Notions indivisible and not figured For the Father perfected all things and delivered them over to the second Mind which all Nations of men call the first The first Father of the Triad having made the Universal Frame deliver'd it over to the Mind which Mind the whole Race of Mankind being Ignorant of the Paternal Excellency call the first God but our Doctrine holds the contrary viz. that the first Mind the Son of the Great Father made and perfected every Creature for the Father in the Book of Moses declareth to the Son the Idaea of the Production of Creatures but the Son himself is the Maker of the Work The furies are Stranglers of Men. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The reductive Angels reduce Souls to them drawing them from general things but the Furies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the Tormentors of the Natures which are dispersed and envious of human Souls entangle them in material Passions and as it were strangle them and not only Torture such as are full of passions but even those that are converted towards the immaterial Essence for these also coming into matter and into generation stand in need of such purification for we see many Persons even of those who live holily and purely fall into unexpected Miseries The Paternal mind hath implanted Symbols in Souls As the Mosaick Book saith that Man was formed after the Image of God so the Chaldaean saith that the Maker and Father of the World sowed Symbols of his Essence in the Souls thereof For out of the paternal Seed not only Souls but all superiour Orders sprung But in Incorporeal substances there is one kind of signs viz. Incorporeal and Individual In the World there are other signs and Symbols the unspeakable properties of God which are far more Excellent then the Vertues themselves The Souls of those who quit the Body violently are most pure Whosoever shall take this saying rightly will find that it contradicts not our Doctrine for the Crowned Martyrs who in time of persecution leave their Bodies by a violent End purifie and perfect their Souls but this is not that which the Chaldaean means He praiseth all violent Death because the Soul which leaveth the Body with trouble abhorrs this Life and hateth conversation with the Body and rejoycing flyeth up to the things above but those Souls which forsake this Life their Bodies being naturally dissolved by sicknesse do regret it's propension and inclination to the Body Because the Soul being a bright fire by the power of the Father Remains immortal and is Mistresse of Life And possesseth many Completions of the cavities of the World The Soul being an immaterial and incorporeal fire exempt from all compounds and from the material Body is immortal for nothing material or dark is commixed with her neither is she compounded â—o as that she may be resolved into those things of which she consists but she is the Mistresse of Life enlightning the Dead with Life she hath the Complements of many Recesses that is susceptive of the Government of Matter for she is enabâ—ed according to her different Vertues to dwell in different Zones of the World The Father infuseth not fear but instead of perswasion That is the Divine Nature is not stern and full of indignation but sweet and calm whence it doth not cause fear in the Natures subjected to it but attracts all things by perswasion and graciousnesse for if it were formidable and minacious every Order of Beings would have been dissolved None of them being able to endure his Power And this Doctrine is in part esteemed